Random Thought Friday: Saturday Again!

You can tell there is a problem with the "Random Thought Friday" name when there are the same number of these posts written on a Saturday as there are on a Friday. I may as well just take out the "Fri" and replace it with something else like "Sat" or "Any". Seriously though, it is becoming an issue. It just that every Friday there seems to be some reason why I am not home enough to write these. In itself, that is weird considering I can stay up later than normal as there is no school the next day. Though I do have Piano in the morning and now with the Leaders of the Future Program I generally have something on Sunday mornings as well so basically I get no sleep in and have to go to bed early to get enough sleep to get me through the week. Wow, I am really starting off this random thought post straight away. Anyway, the next few weeks are going to be a pain mainly due to exams. However, as the exams are later than usual I can sleep in and since my brother does not go to school anymore (as he is doing VCE and their exams finish next Friday) I do not have to get up early to go with him. People do say that every cloud has its silver lining. Anyway, moving on to more random thoughts. This is a really long introduction.

Source: http://blogs.qut.edu.au/library/tag/exams/

You want to know what is really annoying? Well, as well as all the other stuff I complain about on this blog. Why do I even ask these rhetorical questions when it is not as if I have two alternate posts with a link for each answer. Hey, I should totally do that. It could be a sort of "Choose-Your-Own-Adventure" post except it is not really an adventure but merely an interactive post. Anyway, back to being annoyed. What I was saying before my random thoughts got in the way is how annoying it is when you are in a rush for something and you need to park but at that one moment in time there are no car parks. Does this happen to everyone else or is it just my incredibly bad luck? Granted, I am generally not the person driving and if I am I tend to stay away from busy car parks (I do not want to make the other drivers self-conscious once they see my driving skills #seatbeltssavelives) but it does happen to me a lot. Talking about hashtags, I am so behind on some of the internet trends. For ages everyone on Facebook was changing their profile pictures to giraffes. It was not until I read a news article about it that I understood that people who did this had answered incorrectly to a riddle that was circulating. Even recently there is another craze going around where everyone posts little cartoon scenes of themselves (generally with others) with a 'funny' caption underneath. It was not until I found a Facebook page full of them that I found out they were called "Bit-Strips" or something along those lines. I am so far behind on some of the internet trends it is not funny. Seriously, you guys reading this may be amused but it is not a laughing matter. Come to think of it, my mind is in a really random mood at the moment and most of what I am saying is probably sending you all on random tangents that never really had any connection in the first place. I better stop before we get to the "bad metaphor" stage.

Now do you see why I need this weekly post so badly? See you tomorrow!

Problems

We live in a world where problems are everywhere. Such a change would require an equivalent adjustment but in our case society has just moved on and let these problems fester so that we become a generation of complainers. We have so many problems that we even have categories for them. Oh, there are so many categories. You have the ordinary relationship problems (self-explanatory) and health problems but then you have the more interesting ones which I will go into more depth later. We have had to create new categories that, just years before, could never have existed. In this way we are our own worst enemies and should tackle our problems head on instead of letting them get to us enough that we feel the need to categorise them.

Source: http://www.pinterest.com/search/?q=problems

We have people problems which come from our unstoppable need to be better than others. We have relationship problems, more commonly referred to as Taylor Swift Problems, which come in the form of boyfriends/girlfriends breaking up and, in the case of Taylor Swift, write endless songs about it. You see, we do not hold grudges. Then we come to the places where these problems are played out, our social media sites. We have Facebook problems with so much to do yet nothing that will not destroy a few brain cells. We have Twitter problems for those who read through every tweet in their feed. We have Instagram problems for people with too much photos and not enough followers. Do not even get me started on YouTube problems because that is a whole other post. Actually, come to think of it, it probably will be a whole other post (be looking out for that sometime in the distant future). Then there are all the other sites on the dark side of the internet. Yes, I am referring to CoolVid and LinkedIn, do not think I would not go there because I just did. Nothing is off limits in this post (well, many things are but). Then you have school problems for people who do not pay attention and wonder why their marks never improve. This is generally accompanied by parent problems when they find out what is going on. So, as you can see, our modern society has created so many new and 'interesting' (think of a horrible antonym) problems that we have felt the need to categorise them.

It is only through problems that we will grow but at this point, I think we are pretty much on a plateau. See you tomorrow!

Great Discoveries

We may not realise it but we are all pioneers in our own lives. Everyday we make life-changing discoveries. These can come from the discovery that things have to actually go in the bin for them to be disposed or that money does not grow on trees. Sometimes these discoveries can change the course of our lives forever or, like in my case, they can be easily forgotten. The old adage "those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it" is entirely true in my case as I discover something, then I forget and discover it again the next day or week or month or year or decade or... well you get the idea. Today I made a number of these discoveries yet I know that in a few days I will forget all about it and then rediscover it later down the track.

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/axis-experience/3187217030/sizes/m/in/photostream/

Before we continue if anyone could please tell me what the above picture has to do with discovery. I have absolutely no idea so I thought I should include it unless anyone else worked it out. Anyway, so today was a big day of discoveries for me! It began in the morning with the discovery that ABC iView, basically catch-up television for ABC online, had a lot of new and old Doctor Who episodes which were being uploaded in the lead up to the 50th Anniversary in November of this year (so many great things going on with The Hunger Games Catching Fire coming out then too). It was a great discovery to see this as I scrolled through my Facebook news feed this morning (yeah, I am on Social Media a lot). I then walked the dog after watching The Waters of Mars with David Tennant as The Doctor. I decided we would go somewhere a little different today so I took Sandy (there he is again) past an estate that went near the Werribee River. By the time we got there though it was already thirty minutes into our walk as Sandy was being distracted by everything on the way but we did do some exploring and I found a nice little private pier that was fenced off (but pedestrian accessible through a gate) which would be nice with more water and the day was nice but we continued on after a brief exploration. We discovered some wonderful plains of grass right beside the river and just hidden from homes so it seemed like you were in the middle of nowhere. It really was paradise on such a beautiful day as today and so I am determined to go back there with Sandy (hopefully we will get there a bit quicker now I know the quickest route) and do some more exploring because he loved it and by them time we got back he was tired (for once). There were also a number of minor discoveries today I will not mention in an effort not to bore you more than you already are.

Discoveries are discoveries no matter who makes them and what they are about, they are all just as important. See you tomorrow!

My News Feed

So I have said many times about how Facebook can cause me to lose some faith in the future of humanity, especially when it comes to scrolling through my news feed. I was on it just before and realised that it is not always like this and so I decided that for today's post I would go through my news feed as of 9:08 pm and talk about what I find. Of course, I am not going through everything on my news feed (are you crazy?) but I am going through it all until I find it enough. So sit back (or whatever works for you) and do not fall asleep.

Source: http://fbppc.com/news-updates/6-takeaways-from-facebooks-news-feed-update/

Let's start right from the top with a person posting about how people should realise how funny she is. This is followed by those annoying advertisements saying "(Insert Name) and (insert number) other friends like (insert page)". Next it comes to one of my friends commenting on another friend's picture of the Google game thing they had on yesterday. I never actually played it but it looks pretty fun. No idea what it is though. I think they were celebrating some milestone for something but, anyway, moving on. Then we have another friend commenting on a friend's post on the original person's wall about some Anime ending today (my friends would know exactly who I am talking about by now). Then there is a picture from Minute to Win It's Facebook page which I am seriously regretting liking. Yep, I just unliked it. Next is a post from a Pop news site about Rihanna revealing too much about her sex life. This is followed by a hilarious vine as promoted by the Facebook page Best Vines. Then we have someone changing his profile picture for about the umpteenth time this week (seriously) and it looks just like the one he had a few weeks ago. I know, I can not believe I remember either. Then there are a few posts about Hawthorne winning the AFL Grand Final today (congratulations guys) which is followed by a picture which seems to be from some Anime which one of my friends posted today (not the one I mentioned before). Then comes a post about his lack of motivation (this is another person from the anime picture) followed by a picture about how people see school by popular Facebook Page and Application; Report Card. Now there is another Pop News (same Pop News Page [PopCrush]) about Justin Bieber's new tattoo which they have a picture of apparently. Then we come back to another post about the Google game yesterday. This brings us to a post by Big Brother Australia about a meetup at Dreamworld to meet the latest evictee. Then there are some pictures from a girl who went to some kind of concert for someone called Eason Chan. Followed by a post about the upcoming season of Walking Dead and a photo from a different friend who must have gone out and about. Finally we see a post by a Doctor Who Fan page (this one called The Doctor Who Hub) which is followed by another post about the Hawks winning the AFL Grand Final today. Finally on my news feed we have a post by King Kong Live on Stage about the winner of the Grand Final which they apparently supported. There was a cool photo in the Herald Sun with Kong wearing a giant (obviously) hawks shirt with two players doing a "specky" in front of him.

That is all I have time for today, see you tomorrow!

Instagram and Lady Gaga

So big news everybody. Well, maybe not big news for you but for me it is yet another large, if not incredibly late, step into the world of modern technology. As you guys may know I have a Personal Facebook Account and a Facebook Page (link on right to page) for this Blog as well as a Twitter account which I tweet out all my posts (except the ones I do so late that I fall asleep just after posting them). Well now, as you may have already guessed if you actually read the title, I have added Instagram to my social media repertoire. The link to this I have added to the others on the right side of the page. Otherwise you can just click here or follow @dailylukey on Instagram. Here I will be posting pictures of stuff throughout my day as well as sneak peeks of blog posts, updates for this blog as well as some of the pictures I liked but could not fit in this blog. This may not seem as big a news to you as I make it out to be but trust me, for me it is huge. Do you know I actually have Tumblr? Truth is, neither did I until two days ago when I received an email about my account. I must have forgotten I made one, woopsies.

Source: http://www.businessesgrow.com/2012/10/10/why-instagram-will-be-the-next-big-social-media-platform/

In other news Lady Gaga recently released a new song from her upcoming album "ArtPop" which hits stores on the 11th of November (yep, 11/11). The new song, Applause, was released yesterday (13th of August) and you can listen to it by clicking on the video below. Gaga was forced to release this song a week earlier than anticipated due to hackers leaking a low-level quality of it the night before. After just over a day of release it has already over 5 million views on the YouTube Vevo channel it was released on. The song certainly returns to more of her electro-type songs and personally, I love it along with little monsters (what Lady Gaga calls her fans) everywhere. Don't let the video thumbnail let you off listening to the song, just enjoy the sounds of Applause. Enjoy!




Don't forget to follow @dailylukey on Instagram, see you tomorrow!

Inspiration

It can be really hard to find inspiration for these posts sometimes. You may have noticed that a lot of the time I refer to social media like Facebook or Twitter. This is because I sometimes scroll through my Twitter feed and Facebook News Feed to find something to write about. In this way, Social Media is a great resource for this blog (also helps me get it out there). So sometimes I scroll through and I might see someone say something that annoys me because everyone else says it or it is stupid. From here I think of a way I could write a post about it. If I think of something I start but if I can not I just keep scrolling. So you see finding inspiration for these posts is a little harder than you may think (especially since this is the 134th post on this blog and I do not double-up on topics (excluding Daily Updates, Random Questions, or Posts that come in parts). Scrolling through my news feed just over a month ago I found an inspirational picture of a blind guy I was always trying to insert somewhere but I just never really found a place for it, until now. So, before I continue be sure to read the picture below (yes, I said read).

Image Source: https://www.facebook.com/SeemoreSkinnerr

It is just a really inspirational interview (I think that is what is happening) that makes you reflect on human nature and the way we judge other people. Here we have a blind person who looks on the bright-side of life and sees the best in people as he can not see them for what they actually are. He can not judge a book by its cover as he can not see the book to begin with. Despite how hard it must be to have no sight in both eyes (I was just trying to stretch out the term 'Blind') he does not let this stop him from enjoying life. It is just one of the inspirational posts I wanted to write about but, until now, never had the chance. This picture is inspirational for all the right reasons for once which is a good thing and is actually pretty exciting to still be able to write posts that restore our faith in humanity rather than focusing on the negatives because, as a society, we see what is bad and rarely what is good. I do enjoy writing these posts from a positive source as it means I get to focus on the positive side of the world rather than the negative. So inspiration is hard to find but once it is found it is quite the topic to write about.

He may be blind but he sees better than most, see you tomorrow!

Study Distractions

We have all experienced distractions. We all know how annoying they can be and how destructive they are to our planned events. For someone to be always able to study without experiencing any distractions is to be very lucky. It is no easy task being able to sit down and study for an extended period of time without being distracted a few times. It is incredibly frustrating and so I have decided to compile a list of sorts that contains certain things I find distracting when I am trying to study. Chances are that you guys have experienced at least one of these and if you have not then I envy you. Oh, do I envy you...

Image Source: http://studysuccess.org/

The first, and main, distraction I come across while trying to study is people. Have you ever tried studying with your friends? It is really hard to do it well when every few seconds you start talking about something else or going out on a tangent that is in no way related to what you are trying to focus on. Sometimes you end up spending half the time studying and half the time socialising. Of course, this is not a bad thing but it can be very distracting and frustrating afterwards. Having people watching you while you are trying to study is also very distracting. Suddenly you become very self-conscious and think twice about every move you make. Suddenly a task that should have taken only forty minutes goes on for an hour. You can see why I do not like people staring over my shoulder when I am trying to just get my work done. Electronics is another major distraction. This is especially annoying when you are on your laptop researching something and  you just say to yourself that you will spend ten minutes on Facebook for a break. However, this break tends to stretch into time periods that are much longer than previously intended which is why I like just going in and getting things done. That way there is less chance of me being distracted while on breaks. Then there are the background sounds like television or radio that distracts you and all you can think about is storming down there and switching the offending article off. This happens way too often to me and as you can see, even this Blog can be distracting. The above list is but some of what distracts me and there is a lot more but I will not list them all here as it would be very long.

Don't let distractions stop you from studying and never take breaks on Facebook or technology, see you tomorrow.

Annoying Things on Facebook

Facebook is one of those Social Media sites that allows for many people to post whatever they like, when they like and do what they like within reason. When this happens there are bound to be some annoyances circulating around. Add to that the millions of pages on Facebook and it just gets worse. Some times I go through my news feed and get so annoyed I just stop and leave Facebook. The worst part is that once one page posts a picture you check back later and every other page has either shared the photo or posted it themselves. That means if one annoying thing is posted by a page you can usually count on it circulating for the next few hours on all the different Facebook.

Image Source:

http://www.technobuffalo.com/2013/06/14/facebok-rss-reader-to-replace-google-reader-rumor/

One of the most annoying things I see on Facebook are those photos that pages post that have "like for...", "Comment for...", "Share for...." and "Ignore for..." where all the good ones are where you have to do something but where you do not have to do something it means you are doing something bad like killing someone, worshiping the devil or being a criminal/racist etcetera. It just really annoys me and sometimes there are even pages that are literally "like if you are Australian, ignore if you don't deserve to be one". I mean, come on! Why not make it any more obvious you are fishing for attention and it really is very annoying. Then there are those posts that are "Tag someone who..." and then goes on to say "is hot" or "thinks they are top dog" or something else and are accompanied with a picture relating to whatever they are. At first it was alright and they had some pretty good stuff that would make a person feel good. However, this just went on for so long that they soon became things no person would wish upon any of the their friends and only their darkest enemies. Now it is just really annoying and I just can not stand them anymore. Do not think I had forgotten about the people. Some pages also post some pictures with a mathematical equation on it that requires the use of order of operations to solve correctly and people continue getting the wrong answers, even when they are given just two answers to choose from. Then when people point out the order of operations they still get it wrong. I saw one person calling everyone else idiots because order of operations clearly meant solving the equation from the left. The worst part is most of the people getting the questions wrong are those above school age which is just incredibly annoying when they call everyone else idiots. Again, I am going to have to stop this post before this blog becomes one where you have to confirm you are over 18 before you can enter.

If Facebook is getting to you just change to a different website, see you tomorrow!

Twitter

Can I just comment on how much Twitter has progressed over the years? Well, obviously since this is my blog I can write what I want within the bounds of common decency so ignore that question and this sentence. What I am trying to say is that Twitter is quickly becoming the new Facebook in terms of silly status updates, or 'tweets' as the twitter people say. No longer are people going to Facebook to write short, meaningless posts about nothing. Now they all flock to Twitter where they can hash-tag (#) and @ people as much as they want. Obviously even Facebook have noticed as they have added the new hash-tag feature. Basically, for all of you who do not know, Facebook updated with a new feature of using hash-tags like they do on Twitter. So you can see I am not just making up random opinions and events like yesterday.

Image Source:

http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/the-man-who-wants-to-get-kicked-off-twitter-spammer-or-innovator/

I mean I go on Twitter every so often on the iPad and when I share my posts on Twitter I always do a quick scroll through my feed. I generally come across a number of tweets that just make me want to ask "why?" Why would someone tweet something as ordinary as "gotta buy some milk" or "in traffic". Of course, there are the users who tweet links to charities, causes or blogs (the latter including me) among other things that I do not really care about but it is nice to know people are more than just superficial. The worst part is that we, as a society, eat into that sort of stuff. I mean a tweet I saw that literally said "need some more milk #notetoself" had more favorites and re-tweets (who would re-tweet that?) than a post about a cause/charity which was right below it. Even yesterday our Prime Minister (of Australia if your new or not local) Kevin Rudd (@KRuddMP) tweeted a picture of himself after he cut himself shaving. First of all, this somehow made every news bulletin that day (even when I was at the dentist I saw it on the Television). I know, our Prime Minister cutting himself shaving is a hard-hitting news story but did it really need that much attention? Second of all, and following on from before, my Mum since told me "Oh, you Rudd yourself. Be careful" After I cut myself shaving because Dad freaked me out (thanks a lot). At first I was a little shocked that our Prime Minister's name had already become a verb (for cutting yourself shaving no less) after one day and one tweet. Do you see what I mean now? Before Twitter this would have happened on Facebook but since Twitter is the new Facebook (in some respects) this has become a growing concern.

Be careful what you tweet or it might come back to haunt you, see you tomorrow!