Lattice scarf

I love mixed media creations where you make something with unexpected materials, so when I came across the lattice stitch knitting pattern, I immediately knew I just had to use it to insert some ribbons.

I bought the yarn ages ago when I first learned how to knit and could not really think of something to knit it with. However, I thought it was perfect for this use. The yarn is a thick and thin and the texture really lent itself to the scarf. I especially love just how soft, warm and light it is. And of course, being in black means it practically matches everything!

You can own this scarf!

Fear

I am convinced that the older you get, the more you start fearing things. This is not about phobias like spiders, the dark or ghosts, but things like falling over and hurting yourself.

As a child, I don't ever recall fear stopping me from running at top speed, hurtling towards a goal, trying a new sport or climbing up a high vantage point (I grew up in Singapore, we don't have that many trees to climb).

My knees were constantly scabby from falling over. I would cry from the pain, scratch the wound, pick at the scab, and then forget to learn my lesson and start running all over the place again.

Fast forward a few years and suddenly fear sets in. I bungee-jumped when I was 18, but I can assure you there was not so much courage there as a fear and general wonderment as to why I had even wanted to do something like launch myself out of a crane several hundred kilometres up in the air only secured by a giant rubber band.

I have never had a fear of heights but today, I hesitate to walk to the edge of a cliff with a sheer drop and being on a tall building sometimes makes me feel like visiting the toilet in a hurry. And when it came to my skydiving experience, that first step off the plane was probably one of the scariest thing I had ever done.

And over the last few years as I'm trying to master the art of snowboarding, the simple fear of falling over and hurting myself has prevented me from snowboarding properly.

How is it that fear sets in when we get older? Do we get "wiser"? Do our bones get more fragile? Do we become wusses?

Is it why Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it" (Mark 10:15), because as we get older, we actually "fear" the kingdom of God and what it actually means?

Of interviews and transcribing

Since starting work with Signs of the Times, I've had a lot more opportunities to do more in-depth/longer interviews, most of which are also done via the phone.

With people speaking faster than I can write/type, the easiest solution is to simply record the interview. You place it in front of the speaker, hit record and then you can relax, listen to what the person have to say and think about what question you'll ask next. No more furious scribbling and fear of missing anything.

The only problem with that is the need to transcribe your interviews afterwards. An hour-long interview takes at least two hours to transcribe because of all the pauses you have to do to make sure you've typed everything in. And really, by the end of the interview, all you want to do is write the article, not transcribe it.

But I think the worst thing about transcribing an interview is when you've done a really bad one. Then you have to relive the experience all over again...

Thank goodness I don't have too many of those!

Well, back to transcribing now.

Winning the lottery

How many times have you wished you'd win the lottery, retire from work, move into a big house and live in luxury forever?

British man Neil Chester did but is actually (sort of) regretting it. With his winnings, he bought a £1.8 million mansion on an 7.3 hectare estate in Hampshire, installing luxuries such as an indoor pool, sauna and cinema. But it's not all roses and sunshine.

His wife says, "In a small house you are always all together. Now I have to make a point of finding them – we don't even watch TV together as we are all in different rooms."

And of course, "You don't realise how expensive running it can be, and there are rooms we never use."

It really makes the cliche "money can't buy happiness" ring true.

Too often, we dream of earning or having huge amounts of money so that we don't need to worry about life and have a great lifestyle. But a lifestyle is created from our habits, from who we are. Money cannot change that. Yes, it may make life a little easier, but I believe eventually, we'd still have the same kind of troubles if we don't change our attitudes and habits.

As for a huge house with all sorts of luxuries. Just think of the little luxuries that you've bought yourself. How often have you used that blender? How often do you soak in a bath-tub? How often have you actually sat down to watch a movie?

We're always gathering stuff in the hopes of attaining some form of satisfaction and happiness, but when we actually have the means of doing so, we realise, life hasn't actually gotten any better.

As for a huge house? It looks nice and impressive and all, but I think all the cleaning it requires will drive me insane. I can't even keep my two-bedroom apartment clean!

My first book!

Ok, it's not quite my first book in the traditional sense of the word since it's a collection of short stories, but hey, it's the first time I've been published in a book!

And this was published a few months ago. Yes, it took me that long to get it scanned and to put it up online.

You can read the story here.

And if you're interested, my (almost) complete writing portfolio can be found here.

Excellence in Mediocrity

Published in Signs of the Times, August 2010 (under a pseudonym).

Article first written here.

And if you're interested, my (almost) complete writing portfolio can be found here.

Bindi Irwin: A Grown Up Little Girl

Published in Signs of the Times, August 2010.

pdf available.

And if you're interested, my (almost) complete writing portfolio can be found here.

Flip-top mittens

Being a cold frog, I'm always extremely susceptible to the cold, particularly when it comes to my hands and feet.

I'd been using fingerless gloves for a while now because I love the ease of which I can still use my fingers for stuff. My hands feel a little claustrophobic when I'm wearing gloves and needing to do stuff.

And yet, it's not perfect. My poor little fingers still get cold. Sometimes to the point where I curl my fingers in underneath where the fingerless gloves end.

Well, gone are those days thanks to this wonderfully versatile flip-top mittens! Wear them as mittens to warm your hands when you're just walking and not needing your hands for anything. And when you need to pick something up, or actually use your fingers, pop your fingers from underneath the "hood", button the flap down and viola! Fingerless gloves!

The only downside I suppose is the fact that the thumb is not as versatile and always completely covered, but hey, unless I can be bothered to do a flip-top thing for the thumb too, I think I can live with one thumb covered.

I used the dorset buttons that I made previously and the match perfectly and beautifully!

Pattern here.

The blog that was

I've just recently changed the look of Aussie Adventures and therefore feel the need to document and archive its old design.

Thanks yellow background and pink gerbera, I did enjoy looking at you.

Time

I've been thinking a lot about time lately. It might have something to do with the fact that I'd been sick for a whole week without energy to do much. It might have to do with the fact that I've recently turned the big three-o (yes, I can hear you gasping in shock).

Have you ever been asked, "Where do you find the time to [insert appropriate activity here]?" Or perhaps you've even asked someone that question before.

In my opinion, it's mostly an unnecessary question because we all find the time to do whatever we want to do the most. It's all a matter of priority (conscious or otherwise) and preference.

Where do we find the time to watch TV? Where do we find the time to read? Where do we find the time to sleep? Where do we find the time to eat? Where do we find the time to go shopping?

It's true, some activities are more necessary than others but think about all the time that you spend doing the things you enjoy doing. Where do you find the time to do it? You just find time, don't you?

Say you enjoy watching TV. You've probably given up some time reading a book to do so.

Say you enjoy going out for walks. You've probably given up some time cleaning the house to do so.

Or take my example - I love knitting. All I've simply done is use the time where I would be sitting in a car on a long road trip doing nothing to knit. Either that or I knit furiously when I'm watching TV.

These are things that you don't actually think about. You just give up something to do something else.

But we live in a society where we're made to feel guilty that we have time to do anything. If we have time for some R&R, it's most likely because we're "lazy".

Are we really?

Do I really have to feel guilty simply because I've managed to prioritise my life and do what I enjoy doing the most? Do I have to feel bad because occasionally, I am able to do two things at once?

The next time you feel tempted to ask someone where they find the time to do something, take a moment to think: that particular person does not have your life. Which means they have very different priorities to you. Which also means they have very different interests to you. Which therefore means, while they may have found the time to do something you would actually love to do, they have essentially given up the time to do something you have actually done.

Bobble scarf

I love how this scarf twists and wind around itself, making it look like as if it's braided. It's a simple cable pattern that makes the two colours stay together but twisted. It took a while to figure it out, but once I got the hang of it, it was a really quick knit.

The only problem I have with this is that the twists don't actually stay where they're meant to sometimes and so the wrong side of the scarf shows.

Lil' headband

Just a simple little headband knitted up while I was up north in Townsville with nothing to do and a limited amount of yarn. It actually fitted surprisingly well!

Pink American shrug

I can't believe how easy the pattern is to make this shrug! It literally is simply knitting a rectangular piece in 2x2 rib for long and wide enough, sew it in the right spots and viola! A knitted item of clothing! How incredibly clever is that!

And now that I've discovered how easy it is to do that, I might have to add a sleeved version.

Knitted in 100% wool, this shrug is very warm despite weighing virtually nothing at all. In this cold weather, I like wearing it under my jacket. And when I do that, I hardly have to wear many layers because it keeps my neck and shoulders really warm. The only problem are my bare arms.

Most of the shrug was knitted up while I was in America and we were road-tripping up and down the West Coast.

My friend Jeanelle took the photos and I think she did a magnificent job, considering the subject matter!

New article published

Published in Signs of the Times, June 2010.

Other published articles can be found here.

Braided scarf

Made my very first pom pom a few weeks ago. It turned out to be so easy and a really excellent way of using up scraps of yarn.

I'm going around making pom poms as and when I feel like it now. I've made four more since, and two have been attached to an elastic to be used as a hair tie. The other two...I'll decide later.

But these particular pom-poms were attached to the end of a scarf done in a cabled pattern that made it look like it was braided. Real easy pattern and you can pretty much knit it up on auto-pilot when you've memorised it (which is not hard at all)!

Pattern here.

First female PM in Oz?

 So, it seems that Australia now has its first female prime minister.

It's been a pretty exciting last couple of years - both Queensland and New South Wales now have female premiers as well.

The interesting thing though is the fact that (if I remember correctly), not one of the female leaders were actually elected per se, they were simply appointed after the man in the job quit/stepped down. This theory is now moot since I've been told that Anna Bligh was actually elected :) (And yes, I realise that when Australia votes, it's for the party, not the person. But the leader of the party when it got elected was a man, not a woman.) I'm not quite sure what that means, other than, hmm...it's interesting.

Would be curious to see what difference a female PM would have on the country!

The ridiculous price we pay for entertainment

Just read in the news today that the stars of Big Bang Theory are asking for a 285% increase in their paychecks. So if they get their way, they'd be getting about well, $250,000 per episode.

$250,000!?!?

That's about how much I'd possibly earn in several years, and that's not even including the fact that I still have to pay rent, food, petrol, tax and all!

Don't get me wrong, Big Bang Theory is one of my favourite sitcoms. I love the show and I would like to see the actors getting paid for their services. But $250,000 per 30 minute episode? Surely that's a bit much.

Yes, I can see that they probably don't just work 30 minutes to produce an episode, but surely they don't put in, oh, say five years worth of work for it!

And even if they didn't get the pay increase, their current rate of $65,000 per episode has got to be pretty darn good too.


That's per episode folks, not a year. I think they make about 13 episodes per season/year? You do the math.

It's a really strange statement it makes about the state of our world today, that we put so much value in entertainment that those in the industry are one of the most highest paid professionals in the world.

Even a doctor, who saves lives, don't get paid that much in a year. And they're actually making a difference in the world.

I have nothing against actors. In fact, I admire their talent and will not hesitate to admit that I'm an ardent consumer of the entertainment industry. But I simply cannot understand or fathom why we would place so much value on what is ultimately meaningless drivel and yet turn a blind eye to the people who contribute so much more to our survival - farmers, medical professionals, teachers and the like.

If I didn't know better, I'd say that our society has become so consumer-driven that we'd pay people big bucks simply so that we can earn even bigger bucks. Oh wait, that's exactly what the TV stations are doing with their TV stars, in the hopes of earning a fortune from companies who will place ads in the shows, in the hopes of earning a fortune from us.

Church personalities?

Seems that some British academics have discovered that church actually attracts a certain demographic of psychological types.

According to the National Church Life Survey (NCLS), "They wondered whether the strong presence of certain psychological characteristics among churchgoers could mean that those with differing psychological types may sometimes feel alienated."

Using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, they discovered that there is an extremely high percentage of church attenders whose psychological types are:

S - sensing
F - feeling
J - judging

(there is an almost equal number of E and I types).

In NCLS' media release:

They said the over-representation of preference for “sensing” characterised a community concerned with continuity, with traditions, with stability, and with a God grounded in divine changelessness. “Here is a community concerned with guarding what has been handed down by previous generations.

“A community shaped by such a pronounced preference for sensing may, however, be quite alien to individuals who view the world through the lens of intuition.”

The researchers said the over-representation of preference for judging characterised a community concerned with organisation, with discipline, with structure and with a God who welcomes a regular pattern of worship (whatever that pattern might be).

“Here is a community concerned with valuing regular commitment, advanced planning and respect for guidelines (implicit as well as explicit). Such a community may tend to reject spontaneity and flexibility. A community shaped by such a pronounced preference for judging may, however, be quite alien to individuals who view the world through the lens of perceiving.”

The over-representation of preference for feeling characterised a community concerned with human values, with interpersonal relationships and with a loving and caring God. “Here is a community concerned with peace and with harmony. Such a community may tend to project a feminine profile, given the significantly higher levels of preference for feeling reported among women than among men in many national population studies.

“A community shaped by a preference for feeling may, however, be quite alien to individuals who view the world through the lens of thinking.”

***

I'd always thought that the church attracts a certain personality type, but to have it confirmed by academics is rather interesting to me, perhaps more so because my psychological type doesn't actually match that of the majority.

Perhaps that explains why I get frustrated sometimes and why I cannot understand why people cannot see things the way I do?

And perhaps the reason why churches cannot seem to reach out to everybody in the community is because we lack the understanding on how to reach out to certain personality types that are foreign to our own?

What about Jesus? Does He appeal only to certain personality types, or is it simply a church/organised religion thing?

Enough

While editing an article for work a few days back, I came across this verse from the Bible:

"Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised" (Job 1:21).

I've been thinking a lot about shopping, owning...well, material possessions, lately, thanks largely to this book by John Naish:

It's an interesting book. I don't completely agree with what Naish has to say, largely because he believes our drive to consume more, work more, want more options, become more technologically dependent, etc., stems from our Neanderthal roots.

But despite the strong evolutionary emphasis, both the book and the verse got me wondering, "Just how attached am I to my material possessions?"

I'd like to believe that I'm not that attached, that I really can live without whatever material goods I've got in my life. After all, going on holidays have proven to me that I really can survive with only a few items of clothing and without whatever I've got at home.

But if that's true, then why do I sometimes feel an innate need to go shopping and buy more? If I am not attached to the stuff that I've got, why do I want to get more of the same (or not so same) stuff?

Because ultimately, it's all just...stuff, isn't it? Why do we fill our lives with so much stuff? So much so that we transform our garages into stuff-holding rooms and perhaps even hire storage areas just to hold more of our stuff. Stuff that we may not even know we've got, or even need to have.

Sure, some of it makes a lives better or entertains us, but do we need to have that much stuff that we don't even have time to use all the stuff?

And if we don't actually purchase all that stuff, will we feel willing and able to give the money used to obtain those stuff to the poor?

Perhaps it's time to rethink all the stuff in our lives or even our need to introduce more stuff into our lives because after all, just as we've entered naked into this world, we will depart naked, without our stuff.

How attached are you to your stuff?

New articles published

I've just returned from a two week holiday, which explains the lack of updates on this page. Am slowing catching up on the mountain of paperwork on my desk and the crazy amount of emails in my inbox, so it shouldn't be long before I start writing again.

In the meantime, if you're interested, you can catch up on some of my writings over the last couple of months, including:

An interview with Stan Walker

An article on Cate Blanchett

and most recently, a how-to piece on avoiding debt.