Twitter Trolls

I won't go into the details of the 'Charlotte Dawson v Twitter Trolls' incident that is unfolding in Australia at the moment. You can Google all that unpleasantness for yourself.

However: It is circumstances like this, the nastiness of the whole situation, that generates so much social angst and disharmony.  Worse; it encourages and justifies the negativity.

The fact that there was (reportedly) over 100 other 'trolls' posting loathsome comments on Charlotte's twitter account, regardless of what she said in the first place, is shameful.  Mass bullying in its worst form. And even more horrifying, those individuals who made fake accounts to remain anonymous.  More shameful.

Some of my previous posts commented on life expectancy, stress and social media.  Draw your own conclusions, but I believe that judgmental people, whether they are the instigator or the receiver, can't have calm, serene or happy lives. Who can be truly happy if they know their comments and actions can cause another person grief and pain.  For a brief moment of misguided triumph, they have caused the detrimental crumbling of another persons well being.

No congratulations to 'Trolls' of all types .... I hope that bad Karma doesn't follow you.  Try and do something positive and encouraging for someone beside yourself today, to offset the negativity.

Let the sunshine in: The 'Tradies in shorts' thermometer!

Yesterday, in Melbourne Australia, there was further proof that Spring is on its way (beside the pages rolling over on my desk calendar and my restless feet whispering 'holiday .... holiday').

The sun shone

Yup, by 9am the sun was shining warmly and the temperature climbed up enough to feel warm-ish. 

The best bit?  The ‘tradies’ were in shorts!

I had solar panels installed at the ‘seachange’ yesterday, and four young tradesmen came to start the job at 7am (yawn!).   

They were all wearing long pants and fluoro safety jackets to start with, but by 10am they were all in tee shirts and shorts.

Is this one of the seasonal indicators?  The ‘tradie’ thermometer: With summer will it be shorts only (on the young ones) or shorts and blue singlets (on the older ones who can’t cut the naked torso any more)? Then when winter rolls in again, the knitted 'beanies' and khaki coloured long legged work pants and yellow fluro safety jackets get shaken out.  

Either way, I basked my cold bones in the sun shining through the window and sat outside with my cup of tea when I was having a break from painting (painting window frames is probably the most awful painting job in the world;  apart from skirting boards.  Hope to show some 'before and after' pics of at least one room soon.)

C’mon Summer!

Can you feel the change in the air ..... Spring, Saturn and other things too

Every year I get restless at this time of the year.  I feel sensitive to seasonal changes, and the spring season (southern hemisphere) affects me more than anything else.  Every year I get very restless and restive and day dream more and get motivated to do everything I have put off doing.  Maybe it is the sun shining and the warmth coming through.

However, this year it is also the time that Saturn will lessen its affects on all of us. 

Wha?????  I didn’t know that Saturn was affecting me ... until I saw the article I have reproduced below**.  

Of course ... I Google ... I need to know more.

Apparently Saturn has a major effects on us every 22 years of our lives.  So every 22 years we undergo a change in our lives and circumstances, and the way we see ourselves. 

Unverified evidence suggests that this is the time of increasing divorces (every 22 years there are peaks), burgeoning health fads, taking courses, visits to exotic holiday destinations etc, etc, etc.  

Try this: However old you are now ... take off approx. 22 years and calculate how old you were and where you were 22 years ago.  Was it a time of change? 

Are you considering any changes now?

My challenge to you ... think about the last two years in your life and read below what has been influencing your star sign. 

Then look at other peoples star signs and tell me ... does your sign seem more ‘you’ than anyone else? (From www.news.com)

“There are two months until Saturn changes signs from Libra to Scorpio.

Saturn helps us grow, but learning its lessons can be tiring. Where you are experiencing trials, Saturn is affecting you, be it on your natal chart (the chart for your time, date and place of birth) or solar chart (the chart for your star sign).

Here’s a rundown of where each sign is affected (and has been for more than two years): Aries – your relationships, but in some ways, your whole life! Taurus – the daily grind. Gemini – your ability to have fun. Cancer – home and family. Leo – your ability to think positively. Virgo – financially. Libra – your whole life! Scorpio – your fears. Sagittarius – your friendships. Capricorn – your work. Aquarius – your freedom of movement. Pisces – your fears regarding money and letting someone get close.

As the cycle draws to its October close, you’ll feel Saturn’s lessons more strongly, but hang on. Life could improve once it is over.”

** Take all this with ‘a pinch of salt’ (I am a scientist and shouldn’t even consider thinking about any of this esoteric ‘guff’, but I try to be open minded...there is something more out there... I just haven’t found what it is yet).

Flu, flu, flu!

Sorry re the posts this week, been sick with the dreaded....
back next week once the head is clear.

xxxxx

Sorry to indulge.. me and Sir David!!!!!!!!

Hi All, 

Just a quick one .... I had the ultimate pleasure and excitement of meeting Sir David Attenborough yesterday at the Monash Science Centre.  

What a lovely, lovely, sincere man.  His documentary series and his book 'Life on Earth' were profound influences on me when I was in my late teens, and I am eternally grateful to him, even though he doesn't know it (although I tried to tell him). 

His legacy has continued to contribute to my life in many positive ways. 

Below - the proof, with my good friend Cilla who was as excited as me!!!!!!!!!!

What did we chat about????   For me to know ....

Many thanks to Steve Morton for taking the photo and forwarding it to me.

Social Media Angst and Blue Zone Longevity. Can Being Nice Help You Live a Long Life?

My last few posts have focused on social media.   How its misuse generates and spreads anxiety and unhappiness; both in the instigators and the recipients of the negativity. 

I have also mentioned about Dan Buettner’s Blue Zones and his philosophy on longevity.  I love one of Buettner’s ‘must do’s’ everyday .... ‘say something nice to the first person you see in morning.’   

We have probably all experienced how 'being nice' is infectious and gives you a warm feeling inside. 

Chatting with a stranger on a genuine level about things that are good in the world; or helping someone, without them asking; just because you can.  Getting a hug from someone you love, donating to a charity, etc... the good karma comes galloping in and can make the rest of the day wonderful.  How can this not be good for you?

Buettner’s importance of community and family belonging (nice-ness) rings true on so many levels. 

If you have a stressful job, when you go home to a family that is full of love and laughter, understanding and hugs, it is an escape into a healing environment. 

If you have friends to listen and laugh with you, to accept and share with; you always feel better for having caught up with them.

Doing something you love, every day, is good for the soul.  Especially if the effects of this are good for others around you too. (For example; exercise=endorphins=makes you feel good=happy with those around you).  Is this why so many people keep a pet?  

Many of the health surveys on the internet (Dr Oz etc.) have questions such as ‘Are you married?' and 'Do you have a strong family, social or friendship group?’  

The Blue Zone octogenarians, apparently, lack social anxiety, understand the importance of family and community and live in areas where the western world has only recently been introduced, or is shunned. 

Of the current generation of social media users: Those who read the hype, those who write the hype and those who believe the hype: I wonder what their level of social anxiety is. 

It will be interesting to see if the advent of the computer age coincides with a lowering of the average life expectancy in humans.  If the current younger generation living in Blue Zone areas carry on the legacy of longevity that their grandparents and great grandparents have established.  

Social Media misuse (Or how to be a bitch without really trying)

Below are two examples of quotes I found on the internet; if they were actually quoted (or misquoted) by the people credited for them.  The fact these comments made it to the WORLD is my case in point.  

Firstly, the sad, sad, sad, (and I hope misquoted) comment from fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, about the gorgeous Middleton sisters (of British Royal Family fame) ...

"Kate Middleton has a nice silhouette and she is the right girl for that boy," Lagerfeld said. "I like that kind of woman, I like romantic beauties.”

"On the other hand, her sister struggles. I don't like the sister's face. She should only show her back."

WHA’??????  

To use the acronym .... OMG!!!! Do I need to explain how awful this quote is? 

Karl, if it is true; have a good strong think man. 

The next quote is the antithesis of all the negativity. A wonderful woman, Gretel Kileen (who was the original host of the Big Brother series in Australia, and suffered from negative social media of her own) was asked to comment on the new season of Big Brother. (My additional comments are in red italics.) 

"I choose to guess it will be a great success because BB is a strong format and (new host) Sonia Kruger will be a terrific host. I choose to be positive because I'm tired of Australians (any nationality) unhealthily wishing failure on one another in vacuous displays of schadenfreude, a possible ironic consequence of 11 years of reality TV colliding with a nation suffering low self-esteem."

Go Grrl!  And good luck to Sonia (although I won’t be watching; not my type of tv).

To paraphrase Howard Zinn (possibly channelling Karl L.)

‘If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something.’

Howard may have been channelling Gretel K. when he wrote this...

‘If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.’