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Getting robbed

I got robbed once. It was overseas. We came home one night to find out someone had been inside our home and taken off with some of our possessions.

The consolation was that no one was home when it happened and therefore, no one’s safety was put at risk.

I remember my first feelings of frustrations. I felt angry and sorry for myself. “Why did something like this have to happen to me?”.

I lost my newly received laptop and a few articles of jewellery such as my only pair of cuff links and a few other similar souvenirs.

What helped me get over the incident emotionally was this.
– I accumulated those possessions in an honest manner.
– At the end of the day, they were merely possessions. Material things of only financial value (except for the info that was on my laptop).
– No one was injured or had their life put at risk during the theft because we were not at home.
– All the material things can be recovered.

So I decided that I would purchase back every single item that was stolen. Each new item would be a reminder to me that I’m an honest person and anything I have has either been passed onto me as a gift or earned through my work.

The satisfaction comes when you purchase those things. Sure, you can’t do it all at once but over time and one by one you try to buy everything back. Letting go of the anger of the event is also relieving. Many – including myself – at some stage believe revenge would be a just result. To think like this is nothing but a waste of time and (negative) energy. In all likelihood, the fact that someone has robbed you could mean that they needed those things more than you did.

I’m pretty spoiled in this world. No point crying over a laptop. These things happen. If nothing else, you can take away some simple lessons. Engage in better security measures, write down all the identifiers your laptop has in case it does show up one day. Back-up your data regularly. The cuff links I had weren’t rare or even that impressive. The jewellery I lost is easily replaceable with something nicer.

In summary, we’ve all been robbed, will get robbed or have lost things of value. We should value the important things such as our health and the way we spend our time. All the possessions we own are just objects that we are borrowing while we are alive.

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Words are deceiving,
actions are not

A movie I once saw
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What has happened to our national conscience? We used to pride ourselves on being the land of the fair go; we used to think of ourselves as decent, generous and compassionate. We worry about the victims of tsunamis overseas, and we worry about the mistreatment of Australian cattle overseas. Why are we willing to treat asylum seekers so badly? Why are we even thinking about sending them to another country so they can be mistreated out of sight?

Julian Burnside AO QC (via redrabbleroz)
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Unintended reactions

I don’t think I ever set out to be misunderstood but I find that I sometimes am. As hard as you try, people sometimes perceive you as doing wrong when you only ever intended to do good. Things you say get twisted or repeated outside of context and sometimes used against you.

Many factors come into play when people react differently to how you intended. There’s sense of humour, context, past interactions, respect, timing, content, audience.

So if you nail all of the above then the person’s reaction is predictable and in line with your expected response.

However, it’s hard to get all of these right. Lack of respect is a big trump card (and deal breaker) with all of this. If it’s not present, it’s not going to work and people will react unfairly to what you do and say.

My advice: don’t talk to people that don’t respect you. Your attempts to communicate effectively with them will always be crippled by the cynicism on their side.

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There goes another weekend

It’s Sunday, 3:30pm in Canberra. In half an hour all the stores in town close and the only sources of entertainment left are the movies and restaurants.

I need to find a way to avoid falling into the category of “oh my God it’s Monday! Thank God it’s Friday!” people.

Part of the problem is that Canberra is a city that allows for its residents to fall into an inertia of just staying at home on the weekend. On the other hand, there are a lot of outdoors things to do when the weather is nice. It requires the initiative and effort of the individual.

It doesn’t help that public transport on weekends is not frequent. A private mode of transport is almost a necessity to really enjoy this town unless of course you’re able to live in or near the city itself.

Anyway, this post is perhaps a reminder and incentive for me to not sleep in on weekends and to get up and do things. Most of all to make the most of the leisure time the weekend affords us.

We take it for granted that the fact we only work 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week was something our predecessors fought for internationally.

So, I’m looking forward to going to work early tomorrow morning. I’m going to enjoy every afternoon this week and I’ll be looking forward to Friday afternoon but not in the ‘end of the world fashion’ as the stereotype mentioned before.

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Waste money, not time

I’m stubborn in my ways, I’m also thrifty. I’m the type who will eat everything on the plate if I’m paying for it.

I watch movies at the cinema until the credits roll because no matter how bad the movie is, I’m paying and should at least wait until the end.

Well, not anymore. I’m going through a phase where I’m placing more value on time than money. So from now on if I’m not enjoying a coffee, a sandwich or a movie, I’m not going to finish it. I’m going to value my time and prioritise it.

I’ve already started doing this. Last year I stopped reading “everything is illuminated” and I don’t think I’ll pick it up again. I walked out of the movie “eat, pray, love” (I shouldn’t have walked into it in the first place). I should have walked out of “the waiting city” too!

Sometimes I may not make the best choice of movie, book or place to go and eat but I no longer have the time to tolerate a sub-standard use of my time.

I encourage others to prioritise their time too.

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Procrastination

Probably been stated elsewhere but my theory on procrastination is that things only get done when and while more important things should be getting done at that same moment.

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