So though it isn’t September the 12th, I’m going to do this year’s entry a few months earlier, to make up for last year’s lack:

So, in the interest of allowing my readers to learn more about me as a person, rather than me as a blogger, and because I fear nothing, and show everything…ask me a question. Any question you want, no matter how crude, rude, personal, irrelevant. I’ll answer them all in the next entry (and all people who ask a question get plugged).

The same rules apply – ask me anything you want, and I’ll answer it to the best of my ability. Just make sure to read over previous answers (1, 2, 3, 4) to ensure that your question hasn’t already been asked and answered. All question askers will be plugged in the next entry. Go nuts!

As any good Australian will know, Arnotts Family Assorted is the biscuit pack of choice when it comes to large gatherings. Arnotts have been around for over a century, and they show no sign of losing popularity any time soon. As with all variety packs however, there’s a crowd favourite, and a runt of the litter. You get the following biscuits in the pack:

1. Milk Arrowroot
2. Butternut Snap
3. Chocolate Ripple
4. Milk Coffee
5. Teddy Bear
6. Scotch Finger

Based on months of observation at various workplaces, I can now tell you what works, and what doesn’t. I run workshops and meetings regularly, and always have a pack of Family Assorted for snacks. The same biscuits always go first, and the same ones are always left behind.

Chocolate Ripple always goes first, followed by Butternut Snap and Scotch Finger. The Milk Arrowroot, Milk Coffee and Teddy Bears are left to linger in the pack, untouched. The problem is of course, that the Milk Arrowroot, Milk Coffee and Teddy Bears are all essentially the same biscuit – simply created in different shapes. They’re great to dunk in a mug of hot chocolate, but otherwise taste bland and boring. Chocolate Ripple, Butternut Snap and Scotch Finger however, work well either by themselves, OR dunked in a hot beverage. How can you expect the boring three varieties to compare?

Question of the Week: If you’re an Arnotts connoisseur, which of the Family Assorted is your favourite? If you’ve not been lucky enough to have Arnotts, what’s your favourite biscuit?

When we were leaving our holiday villa, I made the effort to wash all the dishes, make the bed, wipe down the benches, etc. I didn’t go as far as to vaccuum and mop the floor, but I made the effort to make the villa look a little more presentable and a little less “rampant sex happened here”. Dylan was more inclined to do the basics – hastily make the bed, make sure there wasn’t any trash lying around, and leave it at that. His reasoning was that the owners would be cleaning the whole place any way – so why do the job twice?

I personally think it’s just a matter of courtesy – if you’re staying with a friend as a house guest for example, you don’t leave trash lying everywhere. You do your part to make sure that things stay clean and tidy. I don’t see the difference between that and staying in a hotel or other holiday accommodation. You might be paying a tariff, but you are still technically a guest of that particular establishment. You needn’t go overboard with cleaning, but there should be some bare minimum of effort. As for rock stars who trash hotel rooms…that’s just absolutely disgusting behaviour.

Question of the Week: What kind of guest are you?

Obviously, both parties in the relationship should have a part in discussing different contraceptive methods and which would work best in their individual circumstances. Morally, ethically, emotionally at least, both parties are responsible for contraception.

But what about financially? It seems to me that there’s an unspoken division in society when it comes to financial responsibility and contraception. If condoms are the choice of the couple, men are expected to be responsible for purchasing those. Women on the other hand, are expected to be financially responsible for pretty much all the other methods: the Pill, Implanon, IUDs, IUSs, the contraceptive injection, diaphragms, the ring…

It would also make sense that the further into a relationship you get, the more likely it is for a couple to stop using condoms and start using other contraceptives. So while a man might buy condoms for six months ($10 for 24 condoms – so say, about $200 over the initial six month honeymoon period where you’d be having sex five times a day), a woman could be using the Pill for thirty or forty years until she reaches menopause. Depending on whether or not she qualifies for cheaper medication through concessions or private healthcare, that could be anywhere up to and beyond $5000 worth of contraceptives over the life of their relationship.

That’s an enormous financial commitment – almost comparable to buying a second-hand car. So why then is there the division when it comes to financial responsibility for contraception? It makes sense to me for a couple to share the cost (both emotional and financial) of contraceptives, regardless of who is actually using them as they are for the benefit of both parties. Just consider it as part of the household expenses.

Question of the Week: To whom in a relationship should the responsibility of contraception fall?

The question came based on the depiction of Bella Swann’s father – Charlie Swann, chief of police in the small hick town of Forks. He’s been chief of police for years. He lives in the same small house that he’s been in for decades. He has the same routine – goes to work, doesn’t know what or how to cook for dinner, and watches football on television every weekend with a beer in his hand. That’s the extent of his life, and if his wife hadn’t left him, he’d be extremely content with it.

So the question – could I be content with that kind of life? Could I be content working the same job for years without any significant pay rises or career progression? Could I be content living in the same house with no visible improvements to lifestyle? Could I do the same thing day after day with no change in routine? Could I be happy having a weekend game of football on television being the high point of my week?

My housemate doesn’t think he could – he’s a few years older than me, but remarkably well travelled (he spent two years travelling the world), and has just bought a share of a business, so he’ll be going into business for himself. He’s a university graduate (or will be, after this semester), and plans to go on and study for Honours in history.

I don’t think I could be content with that kind of life. I’m not as motivated and driven as many people seem to believe I am, but I: 1) consistently look for opportunities to progress my career and earn more money; 2) count graduating from university to have been important for me; 3) consider continuing further postgraduate study as crucial to my personal growth; 4) am a home owner at the (relatively) tender age of twenty-three; 5) travel as widely as I can considering my other monetary commitments; 6) have definite plans for future children and family.

Yet, millions of people around the world are content with a life with no change, and don’t mind working that same job, and living in the same house, and knowing the same people, and doing the same thing for years upon years. It makes you question what’s worth more – the sense of accomplishment that people like myself and my housemate get when we achieve yet another goal, or the easy sense of mindless satisfaction from having an worry-free consistent life that others get. Is the stress and pressure that I feel worth the sense of achievement?

Question of the Week: What kind of person are you – are you a constant achiever with a number of goals, or are you happy to let life take you wherever it may?

1. Amanda is going through a good period where she can look in the mirror early in the morning with bedhead and sleep in her eyes and still be able to legitimately say “Hey, you sexy thing you!”
2. Amanda is already hot enough without the added complications of 40+ degree heat.

Second, I’m now contemplating getting a few professional photos done. I’ve never felt better about my body and my looks, and I think it would be a good idea to preserve this particular moment in time with a few really well shot photos, so I can look back in decades to come and think: “Damn, I was one hot chicky”. An old friend and I have been discussing potential shots – he’s a professional photographer and is keen to expand his portfolio of portraiture. I’m keen to be a guinea pig.

We have a few staged shots in mind already (yeah, some of them will be not-so-clothed), but I’d like to get some ideas from others – especially blog readers as I’ve been more honest with all of you for a longer time than I have with anyone else in my life. Most of you probably know me, the real me, better than most of my RL friends. I really have only a single requirement for the shots: I don’t want anything too staged or fake. I want the shots to look relatively natural, like they’ve just captured me at a random point of my day.

Question of the Week: What particular things (personality traits, objects, events, places, etc.) do you associate with me? If you think of me getting professional photos done, what kind of shot do you envision?

I’ve got an online presence. I blog here. I Tweet near-daily. I use my LiveJournal occasionally for private entries. I’m relatively active in my local Melbourne LiveJournal community. I (try to) comment on other blogs regularly. I’m part of a forum (and have been very active in other forums). I’m very active on Facebook. I chat on MSN semi-regularly with online friends. I’ve met nearly two dozen ‘online’ people IRL, all over the world.

On the other hand, Dylan doesn’t understand why I blog, why I tweet, and how I can be so close to people online. It’s not to say that he’s a Luddite though, because he is incredibly tech-savvy. His interests online though, extend to browsing innovation and technology blogs, and research on various topics. For instance, we recently bought some pot plants for his place, but he spent about a week researching different varieties and their properties online before making a decision. We’re looking at purchasing snorkelling masks, and he’s already spent days researching different brands and styles.

We spend equal amounts of time online – but whereas my Internet usage is based around interaction with others, his is very much self-contained. This is actually probably reflective of our RL persons as well though – I’m more likely to spend time chatting to a friend, whereas he’s more likely to spend a day figuring out a way to rig up a way for the garden solar lights to light up his bungalow to save on electricity bills (true story – he’s still trying to figure it out).

Question of the Week: If you’re in a relationship, what’s your respective approaches to social media, and how does that work out for you? If you’re not in a relationship, what combination (one techy one not, two techies, or two non-techies, etc.) do you think would work best?

This year however, marks the first Christmas I’ve spent away from family, with two house mates who believe firmly in the concept of gift-giving, a fancy Christmas lunch, etc. Because I knew that they’d buy me presents, I kind of felt obligated to buy them presents as well. So, in the practical and logical way that I do things, I bought:

1. For my female housemate: Organisational things. A shoe rack you can hang over a door, hanging organisers for wardrobes, etc. Her room is a pigsty (by anyone’s standards, not just my own anal standards!), and I thought it would come in handy for her to be able to organise at least some of her possessions.
2. For my male housemate: Jumpers and scarves – he’s heading to Italy for three weeks in January, and has no winter clothes. He wears Tshirts and shorts year-round in Australia, but that’s really not an option for a European winter, so I bought him some warm clothes to wear over there.

Dylan tells me that I’ve misunderstood the whole concept of Christmas gift giving. He claims that Christmas gifts needn’t have to be about practicality and whether or not the recipient will use it, but that it’s about something thoughtful and personal, something frivolous that will put a smile on the person’s face. To teach me a lesson about what a “true” Christmas is about, he’s already claimed that he’s going to wake me up at 5am to open presents, then take me out for “experiences” all day. I have no idea what these “experiences” are going to be, because he won’t even tell me what I should wear for the day to ensure that I’m appropriately dressed for the activities.

Anyway, point is, I personally think that a practical gift is more likely to give long-term happiness to the recipient. Sure, a gag gift might give you a few laughs on the day, but after that it’s probably just going to go in a drawer and be forgotten about. A practical gift like the two I got however, will give ongoing benefits to the recipients!

Question of the Week: What kind of gift giver are you? Do you aim for practicality, or do you get anything that will put a smile on the recipient’s face?

He is in a long-distance relationship with his girlfriend who lives in Hong Kong. There’s a hot female friend from Taiwan coming to Australia for a holiday – she’ll be staying at his place for a week.

He doesn’t live centrally (he pretty much lives in bushland), so it’s not as though she’s staying with him because it’s convenient to access various touristy type activities. She’ll be spending a fourth of her vacation with him specifically, in the middle of nowhere.

His girlfriend is not cool with the situation and is kicking up a fuss.

He’s convinced there was nothing wrong about the situation he’s putting himself in, and that his girlfriend was just overreacting. Asking us if we would have reacted as his girlfriend did, we replied with an adamant yes – what he’s doing is simply not cool. Now I have been labelled a controlling and possessive bitch before by someone else (I think it’s in reference to my pedantic, organisational, “have to know everything” nature), but my reaction can’t only be because of that – there’s something inherently wrong with the situation itself. Surely others feel the same way?

Question of the Week: If in his girlfriend’s place, how would you feel?

Oh, and for the record, Gibe African Restaurant is really good. When you go, opt for the main course with the description that you won’t be able to pronounce – that will give you a small sample of pretty much every other main on the menu so you can try a bit of everything. It was my first time having proper Ethiopian food, and it was absolutely delicious. I highly recommend the restaurant to all Melbournites.

Matilda

I first read Roald Dahl’s classic when I was very very young – no more than six or seven. While at the time, a lot of the ironic British humour was lost on me, the story of the girl genius who used her natural talents and intellect to take control of her own life really resonated. Her sparkling wit, her obvious intellect, her rationality, her modesty, and above all, her ingenuity in creating “punishments” for her negligent parents, shaped her as the role model I most admired. Unlike other heroines of children’s novels, Matilda was firmly in charge of her own person and was fiercely independent. I still re-read Matilda every couple of months now, and the underlying theme of making the most of what one has and taking control of one’s own destiny still rings loud and true. It acts as a guide to remind myself what I am actually capable of doing.

The Babysitter’s Club

I was a Babysitter’s Club series fiend from age six to the age of thirteen – I owned all the books from #1 to #100, a few of the super special novels, and a few of the child series centered around the character of Karen Brewer. I would have read each book at least five times each, and my obsession was well noted amongst my peers at elementary school. The characteristics of the series that most affected me was the camaraderie and friendship between the main characters (despite any arguments they may have had along the way, they would always be there for each other through thick and thin – the mark of what I define to be a true friendship), and the entrepreneurship shown by the girls. They identified a gap in the market that could be filled (a neighborhood with lots of children and need for babysitters), they created an organisation that could fill that gap, and as a result, created a steady and reliable stream of income for themselves. I like to think that my own personal brand of “thinking outside the box” when it comes to making money through alternative means is influenced by this early example of young entrepreneurs.

Peyton Place

I read Grace Metalious’s Peyton Place when I was about ten years old. At the time, it was one of the most salacious books I’d ever read – while the sex scenes weren’t explicit by any means, the sheer passion between Constance MacKenzie and Tomas Makris in their scenes together was mind-blowing for an impressionable girl of ten. It is and has always been, I would argue, the unacknowledged benchmark of what I expect in an own ideal relationship. Their disregard for social conventions in the face of their passion for each other has influenced me in a very notable way – and regular readers of this blog who are familiar with my sexual/romantic history know full well what I’m referring to!

Question of the Week: What books have shaped you as a person?