Risk

If you don't risk life, then you don't have a life.

To live is to risk. To risk is to live.

Everything we do in life, every decision, every choice, every action, carries within it an inherent degree of risk. And every risk, no matter how big or how small, is a risk to our lives. Maybe not immediately, maybe not today, nor tomorrow, maybe not for months or years or decades. But every thing we do affects everything else, echoes forever into eternity, from this generation to the next, until the end of time.

So do something. Make that risk worthwhile. Get out there and live.

Fireworks

Explosions wrack the city, an unceasing echo of chemical thunder. They've been going since well before midnight last night, marking the start of the Year of the Horse. We even set off some of our own in the moments just past midnight, adding to the general cacophony.

I wish we had fireworks in Australia. For, you know, anyone to use. It'd be fun.

I don't want to go overseas anymore!

At least, not for a little while. Say, the rest of this year.

Let's number them off. January last year, two weeks in Vietnam. June/July, two weeks in the US. December, two weeks in Hawaii. Now, on the 21st of January, I'll be flying to China until the 1st of March.

Five weeks in China. God.

Originally I was supposed to be an English language teacher. Now, I'm going to travel around China and sightsee. At least, that's what I think...unless things change again.

I'm just so sick of it. Like, thinking about going overseas again makes me pissed off and lethargic and I just don't want to do it.

Sigh.

Life in jail horrible: Aussie activist

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/19564823/life-in-jail-horrible-aussie-activist/

Shouldn't have decided that it would be a good idea to protest against a Russian oil rig then, stupid woman. I do dearly hope that you get the 7 years, and that Russia goes ahead with drilling anyway. A nice hard smack of reality would do you, and those like you, some good.

I mean, the logic here is pretty much, "I break the law, and I expect to get away with it". If someone scaled the Greenpeace Sydney headquarters and unfurled a banner with "No Greenpeace" on it, I'm pretty sure the Greenpeace folk there would call the police and complain about it. And yet they expect to get away with similar actions elsewhere. Double standards, double standards everywhere.

We're all just square pegs in round holes.

It's amazing how you can think you know exactly what a person is like, can interact with them on a regular basis for years on end, only for one single event to cascade into the beautiful realisation that there's so much more to them than you originally thought.

Maybe sometimes it's just because you aren't ready for it. Maybe some things are meant to be hidden until their due time. Still, I've known Wen for something like three and a half years, or at least known of her existence, but the past month has made me realise that I really didn't know her very well at all. And there's times where I regret not noticing or realising or doing something sooner, at least just talking to her. But she's right when she says that I wasn't ready for all this before. Certainly before this year, at the very least.

She's absolutely amazing. I honestly don't know why me, of all people. But I'm very glad, and very thankful, and extremely happy that it is actually me. I'm constantly fascinated by what she does and her interests and her life. And at the same time, I'm learning things about myself that I never even knew before.

One month tomorrow. I guess it's still early days yet but...I'm really happy with how my life is right now.

Even if I haven't finished all my assessments yet.

Even if I didn't make it in to the ADF.

Actually, not getting in to the ADF means I'll be taking an Honours year next year in Politics. I'm actually pretty excited at the thought of writing 15,000-18,000 words on a topic of my choice. Still need to find a Politics staff member willing to supervise me and I need to flesh out my thesis topic with them.

PAX Australia date for next year has been announced. Keen to attend.

I am blessed with the very best of friends.

I play way too much Dota 2 for my own good.

I don't see my Melbourne Uni friends as often as I should.

Exams are coming, and that means I need to start thinking of songs to parody.

Who even reads this thing any more?