Moving to the Fourth Continent

Probably should have written this awhile ago... but I started a new blog in 2013 when I moved to Greenland! You can find me at The Fourth Continent.

See ya there!

Happy new year! 2011, I don't know what I think of you yet.

Savouring quiet moments

Mmm.. I've just been trawling through the internet like a web bot and enjoying reading anything I come across. I've been lying in bed with the laptop on my lap for three hours. My back is starting to hurt. And yet, I haven't bothered to get up.

All of a sudden, the enticing aroma of warm food wafts into my room. What is it? I have no idea, and now after doing nothing for so long but looking at this screen and pondering life in its many forms, I have to get UP. Start my day. To see what the delicious smell is.

I caught up with Zhan from high school last night for a Spanish style dinner at 10pm. We discussed how at the reunion some people appeared to have changed so much or not at all. I was in the 'unchanged' category...

Yet I have in some ways- I remember when I couldn't stay at home for two days in a row. That's changed. If I learnt anything in Denmark, it was how to do stay at home and be more content being less busy. I've come to enjoy the quiet moments.

A good book. Amazing hot chocolate. Warm bubble baths. Haha. Perhaps not that much has changed after all.

Bring back the old fashioned love letter.

Getting personal on Facebook was something which was written about in a feature article today. The author was talking about the new interpretations of monogamy. Technology has changed the way that we interact with others. It has allowed us to get back in touch with old flames. Develop artificial (yet real??) relationships online with people we have never met.

How does this affect a real life relationship?

I read somewhere last year that Facebook helped to break up relationships that were already going to break up. It wasn't Facebook per se, more the online interactions that were occurring were questionably 'morally' grey. A flirt here, an online wink there.

How far is too far?

Can old flames still talk with a wink and a tease, and reminisce about good old times?

If you are in a relationship, how much are you allowed to have even ostensibly platonic interactions with a person, if you are downplaying the fact to your partner, that you are talking to this person at all?

I have in the past talked with important people in my life about emotional cheating. That is in my opinion, much more complicated than physical cheating. There is a set rule when it comes to physicality. The boundaries of emotions however, blur between loyalty, fun, trust, anxiety for the other person, your current circumstances and who you are talking to. And why.

How much is too much, and why do people seek this high?

The sexologist quoted in the article said that it is up to each party to negotiate the boundaries of acceptability between themselves.

I've already cut myself off from Facebook where it hurts the most. I'm also tempted to restitch the connection, because really, I'm just curious to know what is happening!

Forget the naughty email.

Forget the thrills of talking with stranger Icebreaker09 in the open chatroom (does anybody still use this??)

I think it works in this case to do to others what you want done to yourself. That is easier said than done.

Bring back the yesteryears, and the weeks of no communication. As if the person was in Africa in the middle of nowhere. Where accessing the internet is difficult and expensive. No thanks!

But a good old fashioned love letter, snail mail style? Yes please.

Blogging vs FB posts

Today has been a sugar overload. Melting moments, I love them.

Recently I've been surfing the internet more than usual, and getting in touch with my old blogs and friends' blogs. I came across my cousin Sulyn's blog after having not read it for years. It is so nice that she does update sometimes. I feel like I'm closer with her, even though I never comment.

These days, I usually condemn my ridiculous thoughts to my diary using the traditional pen and paper. My urge to express my opinions or feelings online however still sporadically appears. These days it manifests in the form of a Facebook post. I haven't really gotten into the tweeting. These days, I feel old. These days. These days. Back in the days...

The thing about the FB post however, is that you even though you might have something clever to say, you still have the stress/option to consider who you want to share your witty piece of information with. I have so many contacts on my FB who are from different walks of life. Family, friends, work, school, uni. I'm not sure I want everybody to know what I think every time!

So FB has developed, chopped and changed its privacy regulations over the years. It's become much easier to regulate privacy. I wouldn't bet my life on it that these regulations aren't always working. So better to play it safe, and not slag my workmate online. Not that I would ever do that anyway.

The blog is different because you don't really need to care about your thoughts and opinions popping up on someone else's feed, every time you write something. Those who want to read your blog will read your blog, and it is open access if you choose it to be, or closed if you don't. Kinda like FB, but I think the difference is that not everyone knows you have a blog. You're not so easy to find. It's personal, but not as in your face(book)? I don't know why I'm debating between the pros and cons of a blog versus Facebook.

The thing to remember at the end of the day is that no matter what, you will be judged by who you are online.

The case of bodies as conductors of heat

I've considered this theory on and off over a few years now- At my dinner last night, somehow this topic came up again and I was arguing against my original usual position, simply because no-one else seemed convinced and I love a good battle for the 'underdog' side. Anyway, since I was first introduced to this topic a few years ago, I think I have become more n more convinced that this theory could be correct...read on.

Men have always tried to convince me that sleeping naked in bed was the better way. Sorry to say, I've had to question this in the past as one must always be a little suspicious of bias. Still, they put in good argument that there were also beneficial elements to it.

BENEFITS

1. You didn't need to invest in pajamas. This could be a costly exercise (esp. if you were a girl)

2. The less clothes you wear in bed, the warmer you will be. This is due to the heat from your body being 'captured' by your blanket, if it is a down blanket.

3. If there were more than one person in the same bed , this is even better because the body heat generated from both bodies would be even more effectively utilised to keep each other warm. Clothes would not be a barrier. Point in fact that not that many years ago, it was common for Icelandic families to share single beds in pairs, naked, to keep each other warm. 8 people in 4 beds, in a tiny tiny room.

It was the 2nd benefit that was the hypothesis in question. Although I sleep in various 'styles', I never consciously thought about the effects of clothes/no clothes/thin clothes/thick clothes and its relationship to warmth. Last night I was to try to record my experience with just the bare basics (yes, consciously, in my sleep).

Except as the control, I stuffed up. I was too hot to sleep under my quilt, so I slept on top of it with a thin bedsheet over me. During the night it became too cold but I couldn't be bothered to move under my blanket.... so I caught a bit of a cold.

Haha. Maybe it's an experiment better kept for cooler nights. It's probably a question of the naughty control also trying to be a variable. But that's why I've been feeling woozy all day.

Oh my. My blog has rather been neglected.

I think I'll work on a photodiary instead.