Strangers?

Blanche Dubois from "a streetcar named desire", famously professed that she "always depended on the kindness of strangers". I, myself have been prone to it in this blog, here and here.

But today I want to talk about sort of the opposite feeling, the comfort that comes from being with people you know, people you know very well. Strangers can be exciting and fun. Nothing is at stake with them, if they are nice, all is good, if they are not, nothing is lost really. But people you know, people you know and love can bring another dimension to your life.

With the exception of one person, I live my day to day life here surrounded by strangers. They are all nice people, I've known them now for 4 years (!) but they are not really my friends, my emotional investment to them is sort of minimal. We meet regularly, we talk about work, we moan about life, we bitch about bosses/boyfriends etc but in the end, perhaps solely due to the fact that we don't know each other for long, our relationships are shallow.

Nothing wrong with shallow, don't get me wrong. But we need more, I think. I pass my days thinking that it's ok, I can talk to my real friends on skype/phone, it's all fine. But then, when my friends come here, and I spend a couple of days of normality, with normal people that know me well, going for coffees and all, I think that, fuck this, fuck strangers, love is all that matters.

To make up for my laziness... enjoy

Ah, and happy April fool's day. Will you tell any lies today?

Growing up

March hasn't been a good month for posting so far, mostly due to me being über busy at work. Today's post is about exactly that: challenges at work when you're über busy.

Normally, what I do when I am busy is that I sit down and do things. Sure, I am master procrastinator, but I am also fairly efficient when my work also involves others. Unfortunately, when people decide to collaborate two things can happen: either people do what they need to do or the want to fuck each other over and do fuck all because they know that there are people around to clean up the mess and do their work. I have had to put up with the second possibility many times and I usually say nothing, I sit there and take it. Why? Don't know, I often reply that it is because I am "not a confrontational person", but I think that's bullshit. It's not that I am not confrontational, it's that I am a wimp. I cannot tell people what to do. Who am I to tell people what to do anyways? If people don't behave like adults why should I try to turn them into ones? People like not to respect others, unless they are specifically forced to do so. It is sad but true. And the only person that can inspire respect towards yourself is you.

So this week, I didn't do what I normally do, I didn't turn the other cheek. This week I bit back. I sent emails, I confronted people, I called a spade a spade. In the process I had a terrible headache and I cried often. But in the end, I was ok. And I felt very strong. I felt that people should not mess with me. Does this mean that life is a jungle? I guess so, but then again, this is how it is.

Note to self

: write something about 'the fighter', this year's most accomplished, best movie.

Write something about the predictability of the Oscars (not)

I hate facebook

I have been meaning to write a post on why I hate facebook for a long time, but I always postponed it. And then today i read this and i can postpone it no more.

Although I see the point of it all, I still regard facebook as a giant gossip machine, complete with narcissism and need for procrastination and all. Don't get me wrong, I, too, am a narcissist. I, too, am a procrastinator (and a huge one at that). Also, most of my friends are on facebook. But for some reason, and without trying to be holier than thou, I just cannot bring myself to join a thing where you state your relationship status for the world to see, I cannot join a thing which will send email alerts to my 'friends' if I break up and I cannot ultimately join a place where friends come in inverted commas. You can opt out of all these hideous little details, some of my friends tell me, you can only use facebook as a way to keep touch with old friends. To which I defiantly reply: I don't care, I really really don't. If I like these old friends, I am going to call them, email them, make some time for them. I don't need 150 virtual friends seeing my pictures from my last holiday- or my idiotic narcissistic self-portraits, with an angle, from above, to look thinner.

I will just continue my lonely self-imposed facebook exile and will miss out on all of these things. I have no idea if some people from primary school would like to find me and giggle hysterically at my pictures. I am sure I can live without all this.

Be Creative

For a good cause:

http://movingfaces.emptyfilm.com/

For art:



Just for yourself.

Be creative.

Do something. Beautiful.

Don't just sit there and think.

Thinking is not doing.

Sing.

Draw.

Cook.

Do something. Be creative. Just for yourself.

Cold War

Can it really be that there are mainstream people that do a good job?
Mark her name: Janelle Monaé