A mid-year assessment

Significant events that happened in the past six months:
- C's Manila visit in January
- Boracay vacay with C
- Hong Kong and Macau trip in February/March (hung out with the B's!)
- My barely two-month stint at an international development firm (March - May)
- Being sidelined by illness for a month
- Writing a substandard essay that managed to win something

New music listened to:
HEAPS. I try to listen to at least 2-3 new indie groups on a weekly basis. I am thisclose to maxing out the memory of my Music drive due to extremely active downloading. Preferred genres at the moment are shoegaze, indietronica and a good measure of rock and alternative still.

Good movies watched:
In the vicinity of 10-15. Off the top of my head the ones that really delivered/made an impact were: The Double Life of Veronique, My Blueberry Nights, Sideways, The Royal Tenenbaums, Two Lovers, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Edward Scissorhands (re-watched recently). I download movies regularly and there's still quite a few unviewed films in the queue.

Books read:
Still stuck with the same book (Eat, Pray, Love) for months now! What a massive shame. Re-read bits of Murakami's South of the Border, West of the Sun. Unsuccessfully tried to finish The Fountainhead for the 50th time. Staring at my bookshelf now and there are a multitude of titles calling out to me and I really gotta do something about it. My collection has gotten out of hand and to date I already own a heinous amount of books. My whole lifetime will probably not be enough to finish reading all of these.

Friends made:
A good handful.

Alcohol consumed:
An indeterminate amount, but considerably lower compared to alcohol consumption levels during January-June 2008.

Lessons learnt:
- Remove blinders. Not all that glitters is gold.
- Familiarity really does breed contempt.
- Money can never ever buy fulfillment.
- We reach a certain stage in life when it really isn't cool anymore to become embroiled in Melrose Place drama. I realised this at 26.
- Be thankful for what you've got, because you really do have it good.
- Emo is so last season. Always best to surround yourself with good vibes and happy people.
- Life is too short for mediocre music, books and films and so I have to be extra discerning with how I spend my time when it comes to these things (but of course we still need the occasional tacky song or very badly-made movie to have unbridled fun...ahhh...guilty pleasures).