3 things I learnt this week:
-I have lots and lots of notebooks
- A Rubik's Cube is quite difficult to solve
-You can do some really, really, awesome things with HTML5 (and it doesn't have an annoying space like shoddy old HTML 4)
One of the notebooks is just page after page of questions that I have randomly thought of and written down to research. So, in a fit of procrastination today over yet more work I should really be doing, I decided to research the first question.
Why shouldn't you paint smoke alarms?
Yes, I know, not the most intelligent of starting questions, but nearly every one seems to have a "DO NOT PAINT" label. Anyway, off to Google.
Looking here it seems that the main problem is that it could block the vents. Now that's a little disappointing. I was expecting something much cooler. Like it would somehow interfere with the alpha radiation in the alarm. (Yes, radiation. Don't worry. It can't get through paper. It's not going to get through your plastic smoke alarm)
Apparently the solution, if one ever has need to paint a smoke alarm, is to remove the cover and paint that.
Yet another useless fact that I never needed to know. All in the name of science.
~Malia
Lyrics: Magdalena by Brandon Flowers
Saturday, 29 January 2011
Saturday, 22 January 2011
Wishing you were anywhere but here, You watch the life you're living disappear
The other day, whilst half-watching the lottery draw on TV, I suddenly had a thought. I wouldn't actually want to win the lottery.
I know, this makes no sense at first glance. Whilst I wouldn't exactly count myself as poor, I certainly don't have a trust fund waiting for me to reach 21, or even an ageing relative who will conveniently leave for me my first house deposit and a fair few mortgage payments. Winning the lottery would mean that I wouldn't have to think about these things ever again. I'd never have to decide to leave items in shops on money grounds, worry about university debt or the cost of transatlantic flights.
I'd never have to check price labels, or postage costs or talk to a bank manager about extending an overdraft.
In many ways, my life would be easy. I'd have the finances of a celebrity (well, the finances of someone who is fairly famous) without the press scrutiny or drug habit to match. I could even be totally anonymous. No-one would ever need to know that I have £4 million sitting in the bank, or in an overseas tax-haven trust fund.
I could take off on holidays, or even just leave the house with a passport and debit card in my back pocket, and not return for 6 months. I'd never have to get up at 6:30 again, never have to work with anyone I didn't like, or anyone at all.
Yes, there are definite benefits to being a millionaire. And I can see, that for a 50 year old, or possibly even a 40 year old, they would massively outweigh the disadvantages.
But not for someone my age.
Sure, if I won the lottery tonight, £3.4 million or whatever, thank-you-very-much, it'd be a comfort. For perhaps an hour.
Then the questions would start. Would I tell my family? Well, I suppose I'd have to tell some of them. But my grandparents and cousins? Would they still look at me in the same way? How many of my acquaintances would only see me as a source of money for half-baked projects or charity cases?
No, perhaps it would be better to be totally anonymous. But that would cause difficulties, too. How does one talk to others about their financial difficulties without feeling like a hypocrite? And then there's the (hypothetical) situations where £1000 would make all the difference to someone and mean absolutely nothing to you, but you're not able to give them it without raising suspicion. And could you marry someone, and buy a house with them, without telling them that you aren't that far off the rich list?
Anonymity would mean complete anonymity. I don't think it would be possible to tell anyone. And then it would be impossible to live a life other than one not of a millionaire, but with the thought constantly hanging over your shoulder.
Strangely, it's not any of this that is my personal reasoning for not entering the lottery. No, it's that I would be bored. And that sounds even more crazy.
I'm one of those people in life that is very lucky. In the main, I enjoy what I do. I love getting up in the morning, and looking at my timetable for that day and smiling. I like the subjects I study, and the depth I go into. I can't wait to study more, and then get a proper job and (hopefully) getting to spend the rest of my life doing an interesting job that is an intellectual challenge but yet massively rewarding. Sure I have bad days, but I know it's going to be worth it.
~Malia
Title Lyrics from Wasted Hours by Arcade Fire
I know, this makes no sense at first glance. Whilst I wouldn't exactly count myself as poor, I certainly don't have a trust fund waiting for me to reach 21, or even an ageing relative who will conveniently leave for me my first house deposit and a fair few mortgage payments. Winning the lottery would mean that I wouldn't have to think about these things ever again. I'd never have to decide to leave items in shops on money grounds, worry about university debt or the cost of transatlantic flights.
I'd never have to check price labels, or postage costs or talk to a bank manager about extending an overdraft.
In many ways, my life would be easy. I'd have the finances of a celebrity (well, the finances of someone who is fairly famous) without the press scrutiny or drug habit to match. I could even be totally anonymous. No-one would ever need to know that I have £4 million sitting in the bank, or in an overseas tax-haven trust fund.
I could take off on holidays, or even just leave the house with a passport and debit card in my back pocket, and not return for 6 months. I'd never have to get up at 6:30 again, never have to work with anyone I didn't like, or anyone at all.
Yes, there are definite benefits to being a millionaire. And I can see, that for a 50 year old, or possibly even a 40 year old, they would massively outweigh the disadvantages.
But not for someone my age.
Sure, if I won the lottery tonight, £3.4 million or whatever, thank-you-very-much, it'd be a comfort. For perhaps an hour.
Then the questions would start. Would I tell my family? Well, I suppose I'd have to tell some of them. But my grandparents and cousins? Would they still look at me in the same way? How many of my acquaintances would only see me as a source of money for half-baked projects or charity cases?
No, perhaps it would be better to be totally anonymous. But that would cause difficulties, too. How does one talk to others about their financial difficulties without feeling like a hypocrite? And then there's the (hypothetical) situations where £1000 would make all the difference to someone and mean absolutely nothing to you, but you're not able to give them it without raising suspicion. And could you marry someone, and buy a house with them, without telling them that you aren't that far off the rich list?
Anonymity would mean complete anonymity. I don't think it would be possible to tell anyone. And then it would be impossible to live a life other than one not of a millionaire, but with the thought constantly hanging over your shoulder.
Strangely, it's not any of this that is my personal reasoning for not entering the lottery. No, it's that I would be bored. And that sounds even more crazy.
I'm one of those people in life that is very lucky. In the main, I enjoy what I do. I love getting up in the morning, and looking at my timetable for that day and smiling. I like the subjects I study, and the depth I go into. I can't wait to study more, and then get a proper job and (hopefully) getting to spend the rest of my life doing an interesting job that is an intellectual challenge but yet massively rewarding. Sure I have bad days, but I know it's going to be worth it.
And I just don't think that would be possible with a lottery win. I don't think I could take up a job knowing full well that I was taking up the position of someone who needed that job financially, when I didn't. I wouldn't know what to do, having the money to finance the research but yet not being able to for fear of being looked upon as some omnipotent being.
That's the real reason why I wouldn't want to win the lottery.
I guess I'm just not motivated by money. Or, I suppose, it's just not that high on my scale of importance. Although I will find something to do with the £52 I save this year from not buying a lottery ticket.
~Malia
Title Lyrics from Wasted Hours by Arcade Fire
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