Rodney has just started this new initiative that I cannot help but highlight.

We seem to be surrounded everyday by negativity - things going wrong, people saying things they shouldn't be...

My experience yesterday also made me realise that while you may get ten positive affirmation, it only take one negative one to pull you right down into the gutter.

Besides, you really can never get too much positivity.

An excerpt of what the Thumbs Up project is about.

Do you want to be a part of the positive? You can post a thank you to someone, a list of reasons you're thankful this week, or highlight people doing something worthwhile in your community. You don't have to post every week but it'd be wonderful if you're prepared to make the effort to write a positive post most weeks.

More at his site.

My many thanks to the wonderful people who have managed to make me feel somewhat better after my previous post.

I suppose I should realise that my articles may offend people. After all, I am writing materials that will be read by people, which means I will get reactions, and not all of them will be nice.

I guess I just never seen myself as...I don't know, opinionated?

Maybe it has something to do with an occupational hazard. Working in public relations make me want to please everybody, make everybody feel good and most certainly not offend anybody. I'm meant to be a bridge-builder aren't I? So to be told that I come off as a bit too strong by somebody in my work environment really took me aback.

It made me feel that I'm just not doing my work well enough.

But I'm also just a girl with a voice. And with thoughts. And as much as I think myself rational and fair, I suppose my thoughts don't always come off as such to others.

The main affront I've had with being told that I come off as a bit too strong is the fact that I feel like I'm being seen as some radical. Like as if I need to run down the corridor and shout "jihad!!!!!!" or something like that.

I don't know, maybe I still will. If it's on a topic I'm passionate enough about, something that I believe in, I may. Well, not shout jihad, but certainly shout something relevant.

But the incident this morning has certainly got me thinking. And perhaps I may just be that much more careful with what I write in future.

I feel like I'm being confronted about my life as a writer lately.

To cut a long story short, I overheard a conversation about my writings between two people.

Person A was advised against getting me to ghost write something because it seems like I "come out a bit too strong" in my articles.

I feel like a left wing radical extremist now.

The comment would not have been a personal attack if being a writer isn't who I am.

And I feel the need to sit down and rethink the way I write, or even if I should continue writing.

This is absolutely hilarious, and a great excuse for me to write a post but not actually write a post.

Anyone remembers those ads from classmates.com (left) on the internet about this couple?

Read about one man's obsession and his determination to find the truth.

Public relations is a profession that is notoriously hard to measure.

Sales and marketing can be measured by revenue.

Production can be measured by the number of things produced.

But how do you actually measure public perception, opinions and general feel towards an organisation?

It's something that I've struggled with.

I suppose my results can be measured by doing a pre and post survey with a random group in the population, but even that's a little hit and miss. Not to mention really costly.

Traditionally, public relations is measured by the number of media clips that a practitioner manages to get published in the newspapers. But just because it's in the papers doesn't mean it does anything to the reader.

Just because you read something doesn't necessarily change your perception of an organisation.

Perhaps a good way to measure results is by the reaction you get from readers who have read an article. But how can you ever be there to properly measure reaction?

I have no idea.

But just this week, I received a really heartwarming result that enabled me to sort of measure the results of what I have done.

The Adventist Church in Toowoomba has been involved in packing "bags of love" for children who have been taken into foster care because their parents were manufacturing drugs illegally.

They rely on donations to make up bags that contain items like homemade quilts, toiletries and toys.

After a few phonecalls, I actually managed to get their story published in their local paper.

But it wasn't the published article that warmed my heart, it was an email that I received from the folks at the church:

"We have had more interest (after the article was published) with people offering to make quilts and giving donations."

People read the article! It stirred them into action! Yay!

New article published!

Ok, it was published about two months ago now, but I had to figure out a free file storage system that wasn't temperamental and actually allowed people to download the articles.

And I finally found it!

At least I hope I did. Let me know if the links are broken. Again.

Do you check the stats to your blog very often?

I do so occasionally and it's interesting to find out where my readers come from, how they found my site and where they go after.

However, I nearly passed out today when I received an email from a friend.

One of the joys of checking statistics on a blog is musing over the search terms people evidently use to find it. Lots of interesting stuff shows up. But today i saw one on mine that stood out. Someone has found my blog by searching for "melody tan" nude pictures. I can assure you that they were probably disappointed.

All I can say is that I hope they were looking for a different Melody Tan...

To celebrate our first year anniversary as well as my birthday, Daniel and I did the most romantic thing ever.

We went to a flying trapeze workshop.


It was honestly one of the most fun things I've done in a long time. Ok, it was also terrifying, but certainly fun.

When we first signed up for it, the only thing I thought of was "this is fun!" Thoughts of that soon disappeared when we actually turned up at the venue. That was when I was reminded that firstly, I had no upper body strength whatsoever, and secondly that I was absolutely insane to have agreed to go flying through the air.

We had all of one practice run on the training bar before the guy went "alright, you can go up the ladder now." I just kept thinking, "I'm going to die, I'm going to die..."

Then came the point where I had to climb the ladder which I thought would never end.


At the platform at the top, the only two things that I could think of was that I was a very long way up and how embarrassing it would be to wet my pants as I jumped off the platform clinging on to the trapeze bar.


Thankfully, that did not happen. What did happen was that I thoroughly enjoyed myself, especially the part where I was swinging in the air.

That did not happen for too long however, because we had to do all these flips and hanging from our legs and stuff and it all happened in a matter of seconds.

We were also given the opportunity to be caught by another person, but by then I was so tired, I could no longer grip on to the trapeze bar with my legs long enough to be caught before falling off on to the nets.

Daniel did much better however, and when he was caught, his yells of delight could be heard miles away and he could not stop grinning when he was on ground.

The showoff.

All photos here.

I live in an apartment block of six units. Behind our block, there is a row of garages for all six units, and in front of them are some car ports, for visitors, or for the extra person who may be living in our flats.

About two months ago, a dark Mercedes turned up in our car ports. Because we had two new people move in the block not too long ago, I simply assumed it belonged to either of them.

I've seen the driver of the Mercedes before and had no idea who he was. Talking to two ladies who lived in the apartment, they've also mentioned that they've seen him cleaning his car in our car ports on Sundays, looking quite at home. They've both thought he was new in the block.

About a week ago, a white pick-up appeared as well. By now, our car ports are getting rather full. Backing into my garage is no longer a two move manoeuvre. It's now a twenty point one because the pick-up is oh so conveniently sprawled across two parking lots right in front of my garage.

I finally got around to asking all six residents if they knew who the two cars belonged too. All had no idea and had thought it belonged to the other.

So the fact of the matter is, we have two cars parked on our property, and we have no idea who they belong to, or where they came from.

Curious and I have to admit, somewhat annoying.

I am pretty sure the journalist had a lot of fun writing the article about a certain Mr Hell whose son got, well, hell at school because of his somewhat unique last name.

The first few paragraphs were enough to set me laughing out loud.

The only question I have though is what would Mr Hell think about the article? Doesn't seem like the journalist was taking him too seriously.

Which then begets the bigger question that shouldn't journalism be objective and about the facts?

It's still a funny article though...

Went to watch As it is in Heaven yesterday and that was when I realised why this movie is still showing in the cinemas even though it was released about three years ago.

A story about the loss and gain of trust. A story about the secrets we hide. A story about how we relate to religion and God. A simple heartwarming story about people and the things that bind us together.

I was frustrated that the abused wife could do nothing to escape her husband's beatings.

I was exasperated that the villagers turned a blind eye to it all.

I was sitting at the edge of my seat when I knew a relationship was going to develop between the lead guy and his "student", a relationship most certainly to be frowned upon.

I was shocked when the pastor transformed from being God's holy man to someone with hidden secrets like any one of us.

I was touched by the bond that developed between a group of choir members and their choir master.

I wanted to cheer when they gathered together to protect the abused wife from her husband.

And I was tearing up by the end of the movie, when the lead guy resolves his childhood trauma of being bullied and experiences life as it is in heaven.

I really do like foreign films.

I was also surprised to find out that one of the actresses was actually Helen Sjoholm, a Swedish singer whose CD I had purchased years ago when I was in the country visiting a friend.

Durex is looking for condom testers and apparently applicants will need to explain why they would make an expert condom tester.

Now I'd be interested in reading the application forms....then again, maybe not.

And in other news, as someone trained in journalism, one of the first things that I was taught and now teach to others when it comes to chasing news is that it needs to be unique and out of the ordinary.

The easiest example to use is that if a dog bites man, it's not news. However, if man bites dog, that's news.

I always thought it was a rather lame example, but one that works well. I mean, I've never seen an article really about someone biting a dog. Who would? It's kind of gross. (except my brother, but that's another story to tell.)

I now stand corrected.

Two robbers held a woman at knife point in Brazil and robbed her.

They did not steal her money or valuables however. Instead, they stole her hair. You read right, they cut off her long locks and took off with it.

This is really bizarre.

But I guess anything to make a quick buck? Wonder why they didn't take off with her wallet while they were at it.

Maybe I should think about cutting my hair now before someone else does it forcibly...

The news article here.