uninspired

This is the second day in a row that I’ve had nothing to say. Not even my drafts feel adequate (which is what you received last night).

So I’m in need of a prompt. Which will be:

Describe a perfect world. 

I generally try not to think about this too much, lest I get caught in the trap of wishing away the life I have, but I suppose there are a few key things I would include. I would erase oppression, just because I feel that even the small lessons it teaches can be taught in other forms. It’s a very naive and idealistic desire, but rising above circumstances is lesson that you learn in many ways throughout life, from other forms of suffering. And cruel as it may sound, I would keep some of the suffering. Maybe distribute it a little more equally – it seems that some of the worst things that have happened to people I know have been contained to a small few, despite their rather great number.

I would also make it so that you could eat however you wanted without gaining weight or suffering nutritional deprivation. Then you could just eat entirely according to what tastes good without having that niggling feeling of “oh, I shouldn’t” and the phrase diet would finally listen to its first three letters.

I think it might also be nice to abolish the money system of trading, and go back to bartering. It just feels like that would take a lot of pressure off people to work jobs they hate simply to earn enough money to appear successful to others. They could instead trade their passions for goods and services, such as making hats in exchange for singing lessons.

I would erase sweatshops and animal abusive practises, which exist today when they really shouldn’t.

And I’d teach people to deal with conflict better.

School wouldn’t be so grade-focused, because numbers are really not that important. Everyone’s main goal would be health, satisfaction and general happiness. I feel like most people have lost sight of these things in current society. We pursue goals of wealth, fame and adoration without realising that the real reason we seek these is to improve our lives and thus be happy, even though the goals themselves prove to be barriers to this ultimate end.

I would give people more leisure time in the week, perhaps in the form of every wednesday being a public holiday (no shops even, because retail workers need it too). Sort of similar to a Sabbath day but without religious affiliations, where basically you endeavour to use it to explore the world, bond with friends and family or just see some of the amazing scenery around you. It would be a day of discovery each week.

I’m sure there is more I would have in my utopian world, but I cannot picture it today. Maybe I’d resurrect unicorns or something like that.

But I feel I’ve exposed enough of my fantastical dreaming tonight.

impatient for my online purchases

I am not a patient person. Especially not when I buy something online that I desperately want, and then have to wait 2 weeks for it to arrive. In this case, it is a Pentax film SLR which I am dying to use. I miss the days of film photography, when every shot you took was more important because they were so expensive and you couldn’t erase them. And with this camera, I’ll really be able to learn photography techniques, since the settings are all manually adjusted.

Of course, I’m getting a digital SLR for my 21st birthday in a month and half, and that is super exciting too, it’s just a long way off. And I haven’t looked at it, pouring over every single detail and staring at its image for hours on end, imagining it around my neck and in my hands. I haven’t had the chance to own it, but not hold it. So I can remain patient.

The Pentax, however, is so close, and yet so far. According to the last tracking information, it left LA for Australia last week. Hopefully it will be here soon, and I can excuse myself from dull days of work and study, to drive somewhere beautiful and capture the sights I see. I can take myself on mini-adventures with a purpose in mind, rather than having a random desire to go somewhere, but nothing to do when I arrive.

I’m also waiting on a book on exposure, so that I have a more thorough knowledge of what I’m doing, rather than relying on the vague memories I have from the brief intro I got years ago during a multimedia course at school. We did learn useful tips during that time, but unfortunately I haven’t put them into practise much since and my recollection isn’t the sharpest. I remember the composition advice more than the technical knowledge. Probably because I lived and breathed the design elements that year, which mirrored the photography elements we employed. It paid off, I did fairly well in the subject.

I find it kind of annoying that the items I ordered later have arrived before so many that I purchased a few weeks ago. I have my Where’s Wally costume for the booze cruise of that theme that I’m attending in a couple of weeks, but where are the books and cds I ordered first?

Shopping on the internet can be so frustrating and backwards sometimes.

Oh, and on a side note, I didn’t end up trying the mulled cider last night. Just lots of regular cider.