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Browsing category: Uncategorized

  • September 8, 2012

    Link love (Powered by dry coughs and underachievement)

    Last weekend T and I went for a morning jaunt to a local beach. Not the white sandy variety; not even the black sand, pounding surf variety. The kind that’s rocky and kind of barren; where joggers frantically chase their dog around in an attempt to get it back on its leash, yelling “Hunter! Hunter!” fruitlessly and smiling at onlookers with a mix of frazzlement, humour and that ‘what can you do?’ expression; where it smells salty and bits of broken bottles lie amongst the mossy pebbles and there are faint whiffs of sewage – in other words, the kind of beach we both grew up close to.

    He found a sole coconut and cracked it open.

    I snapped a million shots of the greened-over rocks, enthralled by the texture.

    It’s the little things, I tell ya.

    Alrighty, to the links!

    So, Michelle Obama, huh? Among my daily reads are Slate, Salon and The Atlantic, and Slate killed it with this piece analysing her stupendous speech and just why it was so powerful. And apparently it was written at a 12th grade level, which is much higher than speechwriters generally aim for. The Obamas give me chills. That is all.

    I also enjoyed this Freshly Pressed post from Bea Magazine about Patricia Heaton (Debra from Everybody Loves Raymond, and also The Middle) and its take on the meaning of feminism (something I also struggle with, although it sounds like Diane and I share identical personal views on the subject).

    This brought me to tears. Here is a beautiful ode to love and taking chances from Hannah Katy.

    I am not sure I would have survived in the pre-internet days, to be honest. Kelly Abroad explains how her iPhone makes life as a traveller easier.

    Some of us quite like working for a company. Julie Clow is one, and at Life After College, explains how to make the most of it.

    Finally, Jonathan Fields argues that success, if guaranteed, is hollow. (How does that saying go – what would you do if you knew you could not fail? But is certain success truly success?) He writes: “The only way for success to be guaranteed in advance is to do something that’s so devoid of meaning and so stripped of creativity and innovation that even though you may be 100% capable of success, it’s not really success any more. It becomes an empty victory. Nobody will care, including you.”

  • September 7, 2012

    Open letters, volume 2

    Perfectly Cursed Life does a regular series of Open Letters on Fridays letting off steam. You can see them all here, or my first installment, here.

    Dear intern,

    I am deeply, deeply mortified that I called you Rebecca, not Rachel, on your first day. To my shame, I still find myself starting to type in ‘rebecca’ in the recipient line of emails to you. And I realised I referred to you as Rebecca when talking about you to a coworker. I have no idea what is wrong with me (this is truly a first), and you were kind enough to reassure me that it’s a common mistake that you are well and truly used to (nobody should be conditioned to respond to a different name!) but I will console myself with the fact that a blogger I’ve read for years actually named her blog after this very bizarre affliction.

    Humbly yours,

    Worst supervisor ever

    ____________________________________________________________

    Dear CBM,

    I understand that I gave you permission to email spam me after I made a donation to you. But sending me an email with this subject line utilising my own name (even though no doubt it is merely a coincidence) is the HEIGHT of creepy. For the rest of you, substitute the name for your own first name, and imagine seeing that in your Gmail inbox – what would your reaction be?

     

     

    This is how the rest of the email went:

    Yours,

    Bemused of Auckland, New Zealand

    ____________________________________________________________

    Dear rabid American on Facebook

    I do not wish to engage in America-bashing. The US has plenty to brag about as the pre-eminent top dog in the first world. However, I am not sure race relations is one of them. Yes, New Zealand has its own race problems. Inequality is very real; Maori and Pacific Islands are at the bottom of every conceivable socio-economic measure. There’s an outcry everytime a Chinatown is proposed in Auckland (as a Chinese Malaysian, I don’t really care; I agree that we could simply designate THAT stretch of Dominion Rd). Yes, the colonial Brits screwed over Maori in some ways, and the Waitangi Tribunal is testament to that. But they didn’t enslave an entire race of people (or fight for the right to continue to do so) and while I don’t know much about Native American history, it’s far from all rosy (what indigenous people/white settler story is?). In a global context, I actually think Aotearoa is doing okay; there are no race riots or stealing of indigenous children in these annals.

    Chur,

    A fellow non-indigenous person blithely discussing treatment of indigenous people

    ____________________________________________________________

    Dear pyjama pants,

    Why must you always ride up to knee-height once I am under the covers and trying to fall asleep?

    Love,

    Princess without a pea

    ____________________________________________________________

    Dear ponce who invented the air kiss

    What were you thinking? This week I experienced the horror of a handshake that unexpectedly segues into a stepping-in-and-brushing-of-cheeks. Caught off guard, I leaned too far in and a practically audible bumping of heads ensued. Oh, the shame.

    Curses on your grave,

    A member of the lower class

    ____________________________________________________________

    Dear Seesmic

    I understand and respect your need to make money. Freemium is where it’s at these days (although it’s a dangerous game to start with an awesome product and then cut back on features for the non-paying customers). This does not mean I am happy about your recent changes, and I have quietly started feeling out other options for social media management of work accounts. Our time together may be drawing to a close.

    (Tweetdeckers! Can one change the colour scheme of the web version of Tweetdeck?! Help!!! I’ve never liked Tweetdeck but now feel compelled to give it another try.)

    What would you like to get off your chest today?

  • September 5, 2012

    Boyfriend in the kitchen: Lamb rack and mashed potatoes

    It’s been awhile since we had an Adventures in the Kitchen post, huh?

    I’ve been in a total food rut; it’s been weeks since I tried a new recipe, months since I last baked (a string of fails shook me badly) and the general winter doldrums took their toll. I’ve been eating too much butter, not enough greens, and finding grocery shopping a real chore.

    In the meantime, enjoy today’s very, very Kiwi dinner from the boy – lamb and mashed taters.

    lamb rack with mashed potatoes

    One lamb rack. Lots of salt. Lots of coriander. Lots of red onion. Lots of crushed garlic. Some quality time in the oven. Fluffy, creamy mashed potatoes on the side.

  • September 3, 2012

    Review: The Perfect Balance

    Today marked the start of NZ Money Week! I thought it was timely to review this book.

    book review the perfect balance hannah mcqueen

    The Perfect Balance: How to get ahead financially and still have a life
    By Hannah McQueen, Allen & Unwin,

    First things first: I like Hannah McQueen’s approach. Early in her book, the chartered accountant/financial trainer gets straight down to it: you are never doing as well as you think you are, but it’s never too late to change your ways. I’m also totally behind her argument that to be money smart is to be socially responsible – let’s face it, everything comes back to money in this world.

    But for anyone up with the basics of personal finance, there’s nothing groundbreaking here. Establish an emergency fund. Spend less than you earn. Avoid lifestyle creep. Consolidate debt at lower rates. Brownie points, however, for taking time to discuss the psychological aspect, because in reality finances are just as much rooted in emotion as they are about logic. Think money personality types and triggers for spending and saving. (You may well get a bit uppity, fellow 99 percenters, at the mention of some of her uber-earner clients who can’t seem to get ahead despite pulling down low to mid six-figure incomes.)

    When it comes to talking property, she gives negative gearing a bit of a slap. Many investment properties have a shortfall between rent and the actual mortgage (what does that say – that as ridiculous as our rents are, house prices are even more insanely high?) For every dollar you top up (covering the shortfall between rent and mortgage/other property costs) you get up to 33 percent back in tax. In what universe is this actually a good thing? Sounds about as logical as buying 5 cans of tomatoes just to get a free one, when you know you’re not actually going to use them all up (something I nearly did this week). Relying solely on the property value to go up is risky, especially as we don’t have 30-year fixed rates (the longest term is five, to this renter’s knowledge). And as McQueen writes, over a 30-year mortgage you could well be facing double-digit interest rates at some point.

    (I recall, as an intern, being tasked with compiling a piece comparing mortgage rates around the world a few years ago. It was difficult to pin down true apple-to-apple comparisons, particularly in the US, what with balloon loans and their fixed rates being higher than floating rates, the opposite of here. Nonetheless, our interest rates are always going to be higher than those in many other countries, and as a saver without a mortgage, I am grateful for this right now.)

    The most interesting part of the book comes toward the end, when McQueen finally addresses what is apparently her patented super-mortgage-paydown formula (the catalyst for her starting her own financial advisory business, EnableMe). When she got her first mortgage, she was horrified at how little principal was actually being paid down for the first two decades. So, as you do, she rung up a calculus lecturer at the University of Auckland. The outcome of that was an eight-page equation that apparently will get you out of debt ASAP based on structuring your mortgage on an optimal mix of rates and timeframes, assuming of course that you have spare cash to make extra payments. I’d be interested to know more about how that works, but I guess that’s what her clients cough up $200-plus an hour for.

  • September 2, 2012

    Link love (Powered by Subway and fantails)

    Spring has sprung (for those of us in the southern hemisphere)!

    Winter gets harder every year, I swear. With the the advent of brighter, longer days, I’ve come to realise just how damp this house is and how much mould there is to clean up. Let’s get on with this warmer homes thing, NZ.

    In other listy updates:

    • The winner of the RelayRides credit is Michael – I’ve passed your info on to the company to get that $50 credit underway.
    • Two Woody Allen films are enough to convince me to never watch another Woody Allen film again. Hateful people, dysfunctional relationships, his irritating, nasal voice.
    • I am completely mystified by the American degree system. Bachelor of Science in journalism? Bachelor of Arts in management? Where is the logic? *head explodes*
    • I feel like I’ve accomplished absolutely nothing outside of work lately. I haven’t been cooking or baking anything interesting. I haven’t been reading. I haven’t been running. I haven’t been taking pictures. I haven’t even been watching TV – New Girl, Game of Thrones, Glee and Desperate Housewives are all over, and while I enjoyed the pilot of The Newsroom as a not wholly inaccurate glimpse into a real newsroom, it wasn’t enough to convince me to keep paying for SoHo.
    • This makes me happy. Go New Zealand – champion of human rights.
    • I don’t know if LinkedIn has rolled out its new ‘endorsement’ feature to the rest of the world yet, but I’m a little sceptical about it. My feed is clogged with people endorsing one another for various skills – from web design to copywriting – and while I think it’s a nice way to get some kind of kudos from others that’s not as much effort as writing out a full recommendation, that’s also precisely why I have my doubts as to just how valuable it will be and how seriously people will take it.
    • I was briefly at Project Revolution this week and now have the business cards of Alec Ross and Emily Banks. Craziness.
    • Lately I’ve been frustrated at the lack of knowledge demonstrated by uni-level students in regard to certain techy basics. Fair enough that terms like data visualisation and micro tasking are beyond, but surely in this day and age familiarity with basic blogging platforms or major sites like Mashable and TechCrunch are de rigeur even if you’re not a tech head? Or am I expecting too much? Times have changed since my day (yes, I did just type that, and a tiny corner of my heart blackened and withered), when we still used Bebo and Twitter was an unknown – but then again, in fairness, I imagine factors like not having a smartphone and barely having enough time to do assignments, work to earn a crust and sneak in enough sleep to function haven’t.
    • Just in the nick of time, cover has been arranged for my holiday – so hopefully I won’t have to work at all while I’m away. Then again, technical hitches do have the meddlesome habit of rearing their head when least welcome.

    A short and sweet roundup of reads today:

    Be wholly, unapologetically you, always. From Amber Rae

    You should definitely read this post on life changing advice from First Gen American

    Oil and Garlic on why she stopped reading personal finance blogs

    Alexis Grant puts paid to 10 common grammar mistakes at Copyblogger

    Everyday Minimalist ponders exactly what it means to be an ethical consumer

    And 27 and Frugal has the ultimate guide to making perfect chocolate chip cookies.

  • August 29, 2012

    Four years of blogging

    There are certain types of news stories that always do well. Stories about celebs. Stories about Lotto. Stories about the truly awful things, the rarer the better: explosions, baby deaths, tourists being robbed blind. Stories about ridiculous social/scientific studies. Stories about stupid criminals. And of course, provocative op-eds.

    With blogging, it’s usually harder to tell what will take off. Often posts we expect to do well get overlooked. Sometimes posts we bash out in a minute take on a life of their own. By now, I have a feel for what gets read, but I’m never really sure – it’s never a guarantee.

    My post on authenticity was one that blew up, and while I suspected it might, I also thought it might make some people uncomfortable (the ones erring on the side of douchetastic, that is. That said, I’m pretty sure my readers are not of that ilk). That post had been boiling for a little while and was finally prompted by a blogger who (very politely) threatened to unfollow me if I didn’t start to follow back on Twitter. Said blogger also extended an offer of assistance with internet marketing services. Mate, if this is an indication of how you do business, I want no part of it now or ever. Well-meaning I’m sure, but a totally different world.

    My take on ye evergreen topic of passion and career was apparently suitably provocative (one reader said they cried while reading it, which I take as a compliment). I’m still not entirely satisfied with it, and I don’t know if I’ll ever be adequately able to articulate the full depth and breadth of my feelings on it, but for now, it’s a close enough approximation.

    One of my favourite posts of all time is this one: My first love was a practice run. I know a lot of people liked it, but didn’t comment – and this is something I find with some of the blogs I read. I often have little to say in response to a piece of great writing, so usually I resort to simply sharing the post online.

    While my thoughts on being a first generation immigrant got some traction, my riffing on class differences or cultural differences (both based off books) weren’t so big. Soul-baring is all very well, but when it comes down to it, I’ve never met anyone who remotely shares my general life experience, though plenty can identify with certain elements of it – being personal is one thing, being relatable is another.

    Meanwhile, my rant on overdone personal finance topics went off and garnered lots of inbound links. I bashed that out in a couple of minutes, not unlike this post on being an introvert, which got Stumbled. And one of my top posts remains my Friday Five confessions post, which somehow (lord only knows) brings in a lot of search traffic.

    So, it’s been a funny little journey. Four years and along the way, I’ve worked a summer job that I didn’t make the most of, been burgled many times, proposed to twice, graduated, moved many times, got engaged – (and received congratulations from most of you before many of my IRL friends knew – as well as emails from those worried about me during the Christchurch quakes, bless), bought two cars, side hustled, changed jobs, and countless other small threads that make up the fabric of human life.

    In that time I’ve seen bloggers come and go. Out themselves. Go freelance. Get engaged and married. Have babies. Buy houses.

    I’d like to take a mo to single out a few who I’ve followed more or less from the beginning, and who are regulars here too. Sense to Dollars. Well Heeled. Revanche. Fabulously Broke. Jessie. Serendipity.

    I’ve got to admit I’ve been less active in the social media sphere of late. I wonder sometimes if the amount of time I spend on this blog is excessive. I find talking tiring, so this is where I come to write things out, rather than discussing them with people, ya know, in real life. That, combined with other IRL stuff, has seen me retreat a bit. And while it may not be the best thing for my blog stats, it feels good.

    I don’t see myself dropping out of blogging anytime soon. But if you see less of me, well, you know why. It’s that B word – balance, she’s  a bitch.

    I’ll sign off with a shoutout to my top referrers for the year, Add Vodka, Debt Chronicles, and again, FBand Jessie.

    Love your work.

  • August 28, 2012

    Boyfriend in the kitchen: Butterflied pork and chili coleslaw

    In the first edition of things my boyfriend cooks, I brought you stuffed pork and butternut mash.

    This time around, I present pork butterfly, rolled up around thin prosciutto, butter, garlic and herbs.

    It’s served up with fried caramelised onions, and red cabbage coleslaw with a hint of fresh chili to give it a kick.

    Pork butterfly with fried onion and chili coleslawPork butterfly with fried onion and chili coleslaw

  • August 27, 2012

    Ever heard of RelayRides? Plus a giveaway

    First there were car sharing sites.

    Now, apparently, there’s RelayRides, where you can rent out your car to others and rake in some cash while it would otherwise be sitting idle.

    Personally, I see it as all part of the trend toward microtasking and toward self-monetisation, but you might perceive things differently.

    The point is that, according to their marketing peeps, the average member is pulling $240 a month, with top earners more than doubling that.

    Car owners are apparently protected with a $1 million insurance policy, and can review potential renters before approving a request.

    “At RelayRides, we empower owners to offset the cost of vehicle ownership, while enabling renters who chose to forgo ownership to remain mobile.” I like the idea, but sadly, I can’t test it out, being all the way down here in New Zealand. But if anyone has tried it out, or is now thinking about it, let us know how your experience was.

    RelayRides has also offered me a $50 credit to give away to a reader, which (obviously) is to be used to rent a vehicle through its marketplace. Leave a comment if you’re interested!

  • August 24, 2012

    Link love (Powered by Milo and email overload)

    I promised I’d write about the thrilling things I got up to in Queenstown, but for now you’ll have to content yourselves with my last post- I may be writing those travel pieces for publication first.

    In the meantime, enjoy this week’s link love…

    Jess Lively eloped to Paris. It was beautiful

    The Asian Pear rounds up some most excellent music video parodies. I will add to that this Call Me Maybe spoof, which plays on this week’s hot topic – legitimate rape, etc

    On that note, Confessions of a Love Addict bravely opens up about her own experience of rape

    A Practical Wedding (good god I love that site) tackles the tricky topic of inequal career success dynamics in a relationship

    My Pretty Pennies’ tips for successful dinner party hosting

    We 20-somethings may have difficulty retiring at 65, says Krystal

    At Make a Living Writing, why you need to be a sellout in order to write what you want to write. This was definitely reinforced for me last week upon chatting to a couple of long-term freelancers – economic reality is that you don’t always get to write about what you love, just as no job is 100 percent perfect

    Ever been charged a politeness tax? Via Get Rich Slowly

    Lastly, Ask A Manager asks how your parents’ level of professional achievement influences you. I found the comments on this thread fascinating. After all, we largely follow in the steps of our parents. Mine are white collar all the way, and while they are immigrants, are well versed on navigating the working world. Observing people I know from the blue collar or welfare class, it’s clear that they’ll have no easy avenue of help for things like resume writing, interview prep, and even get totally incorrect impressions about the workplace, like the fact that companies care about the rising cost of living, and that that’s a legitimate thing to bring to your boss. And yes, you can seek all that out yourself, but it’s definitely a disadvantage. Also, Limbo is a fascinating book on this topic.

    Favourite comment: When I entered the work force, I noticed a few coworkers mention a person was “rough around the edges.” What makes someone “rough around the edges”? I honestly think it has a lot to do with their environment growing up. Growing up in a professional family, I intuitively know how to behave and what is appropriate to say. I think the “rough around the edges” label is something they may have to live with for a long time, and it will hold them back. They might not even be able to overcome it, and it may be their children who do.

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