Oh So Lazily

I’m not a baby machine

Apr 102011

The older I get the more questions I get about when I’ll get married and have kids. It surprises me that in today’s world there is still this expectation that people will get married, move into a house with a white picket fence and have 2.5 kids.

The world just doesn’t happen that way anymore. For me, I don’t intend to get married or have kids. The idea of pregnancy and kids scares me quite a lot. I don’t understand how a ‘natural’ process for a woman can have so many side effects and consequences. We’ve (as people) been around so long now, why haven’t we adapted and evolved where babies are concerned? Why are our babies so large in comparison to say, a tigers?

The more and more I hear about pregnancy the more it repulses me. Morning sickness, hot flushes, nausea, stretch marks, cracked nipples, leaking nipples, etc. etc. The older I get the more exposed I am to pregnancy the more I hear about new, disgusting side effects of it. The words mucus plug makes me shudder.

And all of that for what? 18+ years of dependency. I think I am far to selfish for it all. I don’t want to have to think of someone else every waking hour. I just want to worry about me.

I think number one thing that frustrates me most about the apparent requirement that I have kids is that people who can’t have kids don’t understand. I am meant to show sympathy towards them and yet, if I were pregnant, I would be shunned for not being happy about it rather than it being acknowledged as pretty much my biggest fear.

What is your stance on babies and marriage? How does pregnancy make you feel?

Reviewed: The Eyre Affair

Reviewed 3 Responses »

Apr 092011

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book was recommended to me by a friend. I was told that I didn’t need to have read Jane Eyre previously to understand the book but I’m really glad I read it first. As far as I’m concerned you definitely need to have read Jane Eyre first otherwise the biggest plot of the book won’t even matter to you.

This book took me quite a long time to get interested in. I think it was the complete lack of knowing what was going on. Most of the time it didn’t make any sense. I got a little giggle at some pop culture references but many I didn’t understand or care enough about.

I didn’t particularly care about Thursday either. She didn’t make me feel sympathetic to her issues and where her life had ended up. I was more interested in Landen and would love to have seen a day with her Dad. Now he seemed like a character I could get interested in.

Then here is Hades, he could have been an excellent villain but he really wasn’t fleshed out. He was just a bit crazy and mostly a sociopath, which is something I usually love in a villain but he just wasn’t well written.

Overall the book was a good read but I probably wouldn’t pick it up again and if it hadn’t been recommended to me probably would never have read it in the first place. The pace just wasn’t fast enough for me.

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Where did that month go now?

Randomly Speaking 4 Responses »

Apr 022011

Oh my, it has been an age since I’ve been able to sit in front of a computer and just relax. The only reason I’m doing it right now is that one of my tools has decided to stop working and I can’t work for the second but I’m hoping it comes back soon. I was on a roll!

March was hectic, although it was mainly just work, food, sleep and repeat.

At work we have a leaderboard system and every month the top 3 people on the leaderboard (for that month) get a bonus. This month I strived for 1000 points (each call I take is worth 1 point and each ticket I resolve is 1 point) and… I got it! My highest point was 1031 which was a record for the company. So, they arranged a little surprise for me. I got my bonus ($300, yeah!) and also received a $200 voucher for a massage place called Orchid Essence. TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS! I’ve never, ever had a professional massage before so this is going to be awesome and I might get a thing or two waxed while I’m there… probably just my eyebrows.

And that wasn’t all. I also got a little gift basket of chocolates from my team leader for my effort. So, needless to say I’m feeling pretty good about work right now. For the first time in, well, ever I actually feel appreciated at my work place. Last month 4 managers (at separate times) told me how much they love my work and and happy I’m in the company. It was all kinds of awesome. I’ve never had a CEO tell me I rock before!

I think they were building me up for next week though. One person resigned and his last day was today and another guy went MIA this week. Seriously, incommunicado! It is the strangest thing, they have tried multiple ways of contacting him (including calling his Mum) and nothing. Oh, and did I mention they made a whole team redundant and gave us their work! It is all kinds of scary.

Speaking of the guy that resigned. We had his farewell drinks yesterday afternoon and it was actually really great, I was kind of dreading it – given that most the people I work with are complete nerds – and I had a couple of drinks which is a first in I don’t know how many months. Granted, it may not have been the smartest thing considering I started work at Midnight and had a 12 hour shift but whatever, I’ll get over it.

In between all the chaos I’ve been trying to catch up on some reading but Cleopatra: A Life kind of bogged me down. One hard read. Glad I experienced it, but glad it is over.

Now, it is working again! Back to work.

Reviewed: Cleopatra: A Life

Reviewed No Responses »

Mar 262011

Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This book was all kinds of disappointing. When I saw Stacy Schiff on The Jon Stewart Show discussing the book I was really excited to read it and requested it from my library straight away.

Unfortunately, rather than getting a interesting book about the life of Cleopatra I ended up with a poorly written and editted book about Rome and Caesar and Marc Antony.

I couldn’t believe how much this book was about Rome. I understand Rome was a part of Cleopatra’s life but many of the chapters were irrelevant to her. I was so happy when Caesar finally died but then the book became all about Marc Antony instead and you know what? I think I’d love to read a book about him but that isn’t why I chose to read this book.

I found it very hard to read and stay interested. I had to re-read pararaphs to grasp what Schiff actually meant.

Overall a frustrating and dull read.

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Fire, exclamation mark.

Randomly Speaking 6 Responses »

Feb 272011

And that will only be hilarious to people that have seen the IT Crowd. Best. episode. ever.

But back to the actual point. I was cruising along at work on my last 12 hr shift (midnight to midday) and decided I’d like something to eat. It was about 3:30am which seem as good a time as any but it wasn’t to be because as I was about to do it the fire alarm went off! Fortunately, my security pass has the instructions on what to do in this case. Although, I think they were the instructions for business hours not weekends at 3am. So I sit and wonder if it will turn off or if the beep, beep, beep will continue forever. It didn’t, it became the scary wooop, wooop of “get the hell out! We’re on fire!” and then a strange english man recording came on the PA and told me to calmly evacuate and go to the designated evacuation point.

So I calmly packed my stuff and walked out but didn’t know where the evacuation point was. I was told it is actually a block away! There was no way I was walking down there at 3:30am. So I waited outside for the fire brigade to come and fortunately, our technically minded people had been working down at the data centre (about 5mins drive away from the office) and had just finished up when this all occurred. So they also turned up and kept me company as the firemen went through and pretended to inspect the building.

I say pretend because they didn’t actually have full access to the building, including the floor they believed the issue to be on! They also didn’t talk to us or tell us what was going on. The simply, turned the alarm off and left. We assumed it was safe to enter. Which, 6hrs later, it appears it was.

I will say, that I was afraid to turn the sandwich press on for fear of sparking the smoke detectors and having the issue happen again. Stupid? Sure, but you never know.