Blog challenge day 3, “How has social networks/media effected you? A lot, somewhat or not at all? Which ones do you use the most?”

First of all I think that social networks are a mixed blessing, they allow people to keep in touch more efficiently and effectively then ever before but they also encourage people to spend way to long in front of the computer and conversely can cause isolation. There is a difference between posting on a Friends Wall and catching up in person.

That being said they are a great tool for cursory interactions and are revolutionary and invaluable as long as they are followed up with actual face to face social interaction.

I think back to before I had Facebook and I know that I certainly get to go out way more than ever now. I was never really aware of what was going down before social networking but now I always have a constant stream of events to potentially attend. This is my favourite feature of Facebook. I love being aware of all these events and being able to create an event myself that I can then notify my friends off instantly.

I would be lying if I said that I haven’t come to rely somewhat on Facebook, I think I would miss out on a lot of opportunities to go out and catch up with friends if I didn’t have it and I do check it daily. Who doesn’t love to log on and find they have a number of notifications? It’s just another way to know that people care and are thinking about you. Well that’s how I feel anyway :3

Which Social networks do I use most? Facebook & Plurk. I do have a Tumblr but I’ve sort of left it for dead… I might consider giving it a revamp one day but since I have this blog Tumblr seems a bit superfluous.

Blog challenge day 2. Today I’m going to blog about the best gift I’ve ever received.

This was a challenging question to address but after much contemplation I would have to say:

Piano Lessons

When I was 5 years old my school friend had an upright piano, I remember watching her play and I thought she was the luckiest girl in the world. To be able to make music, to me, then, it seemed like magic.

I wanted to learn the piano too and finally when I was 7 my parents agreed and payed for my piano lessons. To this day I still play the piano and it is one of the greatest joys of my life. I can’t express how much it means to me to be able to play, it’s like expressing a piece of my soul <3

So the Quilting Bee is having a challenge. The challenge is to “Blog about one of the most adventurous things you’ve ever done and how it changed you as a person!”
So here is my story:

It all started with my friend asking me to come to the Australian University Games, or I suppose to be more specific it started with my dad taking me along to his judo club when I was little, which sparked my interest in Martial Arts, which provided the grounds for this request. You see my friend is very much into Taekwondo (me not so much, I was more doing it because it meant a lot to her) and she goes to the Australian University Games each year to compete in Taekwondo.

I’m not a big fan of competing because I am not confident enough in my abilities, because I don’t like the pressure and because I get very stressed. I had also never travelled without my parents. But my friend is very persuasive and bam! Just like that I found myself agreeing and organising to go on a trip to Perth (as far away as you can get in Australia from my home) for a whole week to not only compete but to compete in a sport I wasn’t even that confident in.

We stayed at a motel by the lake, the area was lovely, the rooms were squished but it was like a big family. We partied and we trained and we had lots of fun. I managed to break my finger during my match and I did horribly in pomsei, I did manage to get two bronze medals though. The broken finger resulted in me having to travel around Perth on a public transport system I new very little about and walking for hours. I had to get X-Rays and go from one place to the next and then find my way back on another day. But I wouldn’t change any moment of the  whole experience for anything :3

I’ll admit it at times I was scared, at times I was stressed and home sick but it was one of the biggest experiences of my life and I think I became a much more independent and confident young adult from that trip.