Kelly's World » Jo

Any blogs you can recommend?

Kelsbells — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 22:55:06 +0000

I love reading personal blogs; I love the insight into other people’s lives, and what’s going on. Sometimes it helps me to reflect on my own life, and ways that I can improve or what I’m doing wrong.

My most favourite blogs that I love reading (in no particular order) are:

Dooce.com – Heather Armstrong is one of the most famous bloggers in the world, partially from losing a job due to her blog. She even had a question on Jeopardy dedicated to her! I’m not one who is keen on kids, but I keep coming back to her blog because of her fantastic sense of humour.
Jenn.nu – anything and everything is covered on this blog (kinda like mine, but Jenn’s way better at it). She covers her day-to-day life (including living post gastric bypass surgery) and some uhh…”interesting”….product reviews.
Andrew Gűnsberg’s blog – more recognised as “Andrew G” of Australian radio/tv fame (former Aus. idol host) Andrew G is much more than just a host. I’m a big fan of his photography, which he posts photos regularly.
Keats18 – The blog of a friend’s friend, I’ve never met Keats before. My friend, Jamie, pointed me in the direction of this blog after she discovered I was doing Project 365, which Keats was participating in as well. I’ve really enjoyed Keat’s posts throughout the year.
Iamstrippergrrl – I love following this blog purely because it’s such an eye opener for me. Where else are you goin to find out the thoughts and feelings of a stripper, other than online? Unless you knew one in real life of course, but my chances of that are next to nil. Strippergrrl is brutally honest and analytical, and I love it.

One to watch:

A blog with a frog – my mate Jo’s blog, I had been on her back for a while about starting a blog up. She’s finally done it, so now I just have to be on her back about keeping it up to date! She plans to blog about her progress on the 52 challenge next year, where she’s required to complete 52 different things over the course of the year. However, she might find it’s fun writing a blog, and will start spamming it frequently. I sure hope so!

So that’s it. My only wish is that they’d all update a lot more, just so that I had more to read. I can’t get enough! But I’d love to hear from you all, if there’s any particular blogs that you think I should check out, some that you’re obsessed with keeping up to date with. Let me know in the comments!

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Update on my 2009 New Years Resolutions

Kelsbells — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 11:59:28 +0000

Every year I make a list of things to accomplish during the year. It’s not resolutions as such, like the usual “eat healthy, lose weight, get a new job” blah blah. It’s a list of things that I’m going to challenge myself to try, to make sure that each year I feel like I’ve actually achieved something. Given that we’re now almost at the end of the 7th month of the year I’m well overdue in an update to my 2009 resolutions.

1. Learn to Surf: I haven’t started this one yet however it’s all planned. My friend Paige and I will be participating in the 2009 Ripcurl’s Girls Learn to Surf Day, where females all over Australia are given the opportunity to attend a surf school for the day to receive free surfing lessons. One of Mat’s workmates is also a surfboard maker and his wife is an artist, so he offered to make us both totally customised boards at a very cheap price. Awesome!

2. Run 2.4km in under 15mins: In progress. I’m following the Couch to 5k running training program, designed for non-runners to gradually increase their amount of running until they can confidently run for 30mins at a time (roughly 5km). If I can do that then I should be able to achieve 2.4km in under 15mins by the end of the year.

3. Enter in the Sydney City to Surf: Completed. I’ve entered, and the race is only 2 weeks and 2 days away! I’m extremely excited; I’ve managed to convince a friend, Julie, to fly to Sydney with me and Jo will also be flying from Darwin to meet us there. Mat will be joining us for the weekend, but while we spend time slogging it out on the bitumen he will be playing the cards at Star City Casino. Hard life isn’t it?

4. Go on a holiday (must include flights): Completed. We flew to America for 2 weeks, and had one hell of a holiday. One of my fondest memories ever, and I’m honoured to have shared it with the ones I love.

5. See a live concert: Completed. This year I saw P!nk play in one of the biggest concerts of the year (I’ve lost track of how many concerts she’s doing in Australia now; at last count it was something like 8 in each state but I’m sure it’s increased). I also got to see loads of live acts at the many festivals I worked at with RaveSafe earlier in the year including Kaiser Chiefs, Nine Inch Nails, Snow Patrol…too many to name. I was so lucky to have that opportunity, and depending on whether I’m in the police service next year I’d love to do it again. I’ve also got tickets to see Green Day perform in Brisbane at the end of this year, and I’m stoked that Mat will be joining me for this one.

6. Go skydiving: Not yet completed. This will be another one for the end of the year. However one of our friends is a pilot who actually flies the plane the skydivers jump out of, so again I’ve been given the opportunity to complete this task at a reduced cost. I’m looking forward to it though, should be fun!

7. Go on a tour: Completed via the segway tour with my family in Sausolito in America (one of the highlights of the US trip for me). The video of the tour can be seen in the Day 4 video of our holiday.

8. Photograph a sunrise/sunset: Not yet completed. I haven’t really given this one much of a priority as yet, but ideally I’d like to get down to Mooloolaba beach and take some photos of the sunrise. It’s extremely early in the morning for me though, so it’s probably more realistic that I’ll be photographing a sunset. I have my ideas on what I want, just need to get out there and get the shot now!

9. Have a girls cocktail night: Technically completed, although I want to complete it again. Jo and I got together and had a cocktail night when we were watching a socceroos match, but I’d love to get together with the girls and make it a big one at a hotel one night. We’ll see what happens.

10. See a live sporting match: Done and dusted. I’ve been to a few QLD Roar games (back when they were “QLD” Roar) including seeing the women’s side win the grand final for the 2008/09 season. I also went to an NRL match in Brisbane with Paige. I’m looking forward to seeing some more A-League matches again once the season resumes.

That’s it! 6/10 isn’t bad given it’s only just over the halfway mark. I’ll have to make sure I keep the others in mind though so I’m writing about another successful year!

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The byePhone Challenge – Seven Days of Disconnection

Kelsbells — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 13:17:17 +0000

Recently I challenged my boyfriend, Mat, that he couldn’t go without poker for a week. That meant no watching any on tv, no going to any events in real life, not even a game on the computer or phone. In return, I had to give up my iPhone for a week. The loser had to cook & clean for a week (while the other barely lifted a finger). Initially, the challenge was accepted, and we chose a date to begin. When the date rolled around, he was reluctant to do so. Thus I deemed him a failure, but was too nice to insist he cook/clean for a week. While glad I didn’t have to give up my iPhone, I also felt disappointed that I hadn’t had a chance to challenge myself (especially when 99% of the people on twitter felt sure I would lose).

Then Jo stepped in.

My friend Jo has re-challenged me to give up the iPhone for a week, and in return I will get a mystery prize. She has a track record of sending me some pretty awesome stuff, so I eagerly accepted. We finetuned the rules, and set a time for the challenge to begin.

The rules:

I will be swapping phones with Mat for the duration of a week. His phone is my old Nokia 6110 Navigator.
I am in no way to use an iPhone at all. I am completely forbidden from touching it. This includes answering any of Mat’s phone calls or text messages on his behalf.
Jo has permitted me to substitute the iPhone with my iPod in cases where I used the iPhone’s iPod capability – while riding to/from work, running at the gym etc.
Whilst out and about with Mat, I am forbidden from requesting him to use iPhone features I would normally use, like google maps for example. If we need directions somewhere, it will be back to the old paper map method (even though the Nokia has GPS functionality).
If required, I will instruct Mat on how to use the iPhone (if he is struggling with how to do something) but I am not allowed to touch it as per point 2.
The challenge begins on Monday 20th July 2009 at 8pm EST, and concludes on Monday 27th July 2009 at 8pm.

Each day that I go without my iPhone I’ll post a blog on how I managed to survive. I should also keep a tally of how many times I go to get the nokia to do something with it that I would normally do with my iphone, although I expect the count to go into the thousands.

As a bonus, it will be interesting to see how Mat handles actually having an iPhone. Recently I’d suggested to him that I get the new 3gs while he has my 3g, but he insisted that he wouldn’t like owning one. To make sure he gets the full experience, I’ll completely back up my phone and restore it to factory so he can have the excitement of discovering applications he might like (though I will be sure to throw some recommendations his way before it reaches 8pm Monday night).

With the challenge starting at 8pm Monday night, I’m officially under the 24 hour mark now until I lose my iPhone for a week. This will be interesting!

**edit**

Due to technical problems the official exchange didn’t take place until just before 9pm. Therefore the challenge will continue until 9pm on Monday 27th July.

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