Category: random

Five things

Leisa Reichelt9 Comments

Pineapples

OK. I’ve managed to avoid the whole meme thing pretty well for the past year or so, but I can’t really ignore being tagged by David, so bear with me. I’ll keep it brief.

Five things you probably don’t know about me.

  1. I’d rather be a concert pianist: I used to be a pretty reasonably pianist back in the day. I started lessons when I was about 5yrs old and kept it up until I was almost eighteen. I used think I might one day be a famous concert pianist, but I was never really a great fan of getting up on stage and performing, so that was only ever going to be a pipe dream. I also learned the cello, but I was much more rubbish at that. I haven’t played for quite a while, but one day I’ll buy myself a piano and get back into it. It will go in my library, which will have walls lined with books.
  2. I grew up on a farm: horse, pigs, cows, the works. It was really fun and I wish that all kids could grow up that way. I was terrified of the horses when I was really small though. I had a potty calf that I named Madonna. My brother named the cat Powder Puff. (eh, Madonna is still a worse name for a cow, isn’t it).
  3. I cheated my way through second grade: every week we had a spelling test and every week, me and my friend Ange sat next to one another and cheated. (Sorry Ange!). We used to get a ‘star’ on the board when you got 100% on your test, and I can’t believe they ever figured out what was going on because Ange and I would have dozens more stars than anyone else in the class. That was the first and last time I ever cheated at school (although, we did do it most weeks of that year). Thank goodness for spell check, that’s all I can say. Kiddies. Don’t cheat on your spelling tests!
  4. I have a fruit & meat rule: they should never be together. The exception that proves the rule is pineapple on pizza. Sweet and Sour Pork should only ever be eaten once the pineapple has been removed. Anyone who cooks me Apricot Chicken has a lot of explaining to do.
  5. I’ve had a massive crush on Steve Waugh and Michael Hutchence for decades: That’s the ex-Australian Cricket Captain and the lead singer of INXS. *swoon* Michael Hutchence (RIP) should be self explanatory. I’m not even going to attempt to explain the Steve Waugh thing.

One thing I didn’t know until today.

My dad reads this blog. I have no idea why… as he said today ‘I have no idea how you have time to write all that rubbish you write’. Hrm, thanks Dad. Anyone else out there who shouldn’t* be reading this? You might as well own up now.

OK. That’s it. No more memes.
(*shouldn’t = doing it more for stalking purposes than because you’re interested in what I’m actually writing about)

image credit:DieHardCanonUser @ Flickr

angry, angry, angry…

Leisa Reichelt15 Comments

angry

A friend told me this morning that apparently anger is the difference between those who survive and those who don’t. That sounded kind of profound. The more I think about it, the more I think she might be right.

I’m not really an angry person… in fact, when I’m angry it’s more than likely I’m just frustrated… but the symptom is anger, so I’ll go with that.

So, why am I angry?

  • Networks – I’m angry at the power of networks. I know… sounds crazy, but when you’re not IN a network, networks can be very intimidating and not particularly inclusive. Networks can be hard to break into. Networks are powerful only for those who are a part of them, and part of their power can be keeping people out – although not necessarily deliberately the effect is the same.
  • Perception – I’m angry that people who are important and clever seem to look a certain way or have a certain energy about them. God knows what this look or energy might be, but there must be something that makes it so easy for people to pass others over as being obviously not important.
  • Self Promotion – I’m angry that self promotion, or the promotion/visibility that someone receives is not necessarily related to the quality or value of work that they do. It’s more often related to how shameless and loud their voice, with amplication effects via networks (see above).

OK. So the world’s not a fair place, and perhaps I should be louder and braver and more self assured… but sometimes I feel as though if these are the rules of the game, then perhaps I’d rather start a whole other game to play.

Image Credit: Maureen Fischinger @ Flickr

check out this neat trick…

Leisa Reichelt

so, I’m gradually making my way through Second Life… it’s been causing me some grief, and I’ll tell you more about that later. The freakiest thing yet though was that at one point, just when I thought I was starting to get it together, my screen when blank for a few seconds… and when the display reappeared… it was sideways!

how the hell does that happen? and how do you fix it? After restarting (didn’t help), I played around with the usual display properties (didn’t help), Googled (did help!)

Somehow I musted have done a crazy key combination. So I learned today that if you hold down Ctrl and Alt and an arrow key you can change the direction of your screen display.

Not that I can imagine ever needing to use this again… Although. It could make for a good prank :)