Compare and Contrast

Before I get into the heart of this post let me say a few things about my life here in AU.

Recently, I made my RA, Christopher Radford, a man. As my brother did for me, I coached him along in his first deep frying session....

A couple nights ago me, my RA and a few of his friends, acquired Alex's (my roommate) key card--for some reason that girl never learns; she always leaves her room open and her phone on her desk. We had Ash (from next door) call her over to his room and talk for a while. While she was engaged with that, we opened her room and took her bed upstairs to the kitchen where some of the guys from the units (who had been drinking heavily) climbed in and went for a cuddle. Needless to say, when Alex discovered her bed, she screamed...a lot...and demanded (along with the security guard on duty) that we take her bed back to her room. It looked something like this...


Pictured here:  Philpot (big spoon) and C-Train (little spoon)

Remember me telling you about that AMAZING BBQ chicken pizza? Well here it is...

Here's another story. I was working on an assignment the other night and Alex came into my room. She flopped down on my bed and curled up immediately. I asked her, "Girl, why you so tired?" and she answered with a series of snores. When I woke her up to go to tea, she left my bed with a big old drool stain. It looked something like this...

This morning, I had my STE (Student Teaching Experience) for my PE class. It took a little bit of adjusting on the fly, but overall I feel like my presentation/teaching went well, although, I'm not sure I can say the same for my partner. We had to teach the skill of "vertical jump" and in-cooperate games with it. We used basketball-related games. However, my partner, Darcy, told me he's going, on scholarship, to some school in Georgia (or Alabama, or Mississippi, or Georgia...I can't remember) to play division one football and be the football team's kicker! He said their first game is against Mississippi State and will be in front of 85 thousand people! Anyway...

So what I really wanted to talk about in this post was the idea of comparing and contrasting. I started this post while I was having a conversation, online, with one of my friends, Josiah, who is currently living in Alaska and making a fantastic living for himself. We both asked the question, "Tell me about Australia/Alaska!?" We talked about a lot and had a great conversation. We talked about salary vs. education. We talked about the "New American Dream." We talked about money vs. happiness. And we talked about having relationships with our siblings.  Here are a few quotes from our chat...

"Yeah, like last night, on a work night, i slept in my hammock, under the stars, woke up to the Alaskan sun a t 3 am and breathed 98% pure air. I wake up to a cove full of seals everyday, and i get to take people 100 feet in the air and hang out. its awesome"


"Live with no regrets, and life wont treat you badly. Find a job you love and you never work a day in your life. There's no reason to ever be unhappy, and no reason to settle for a life you dont want to be in."
"For sure man. That's why I admire my brother so much. He's a tattoo artist, doing what he LOVES and making bank. That's legit. He struggled for years for that and I watched it, which makes it so much more fulfilling for him to live and me to watch."


"The "American Dream" is/has changing/changed drastically. It's no longer the 60's white picket fence. It's a new age of labor and happiness and our generation is what's defining it."
"For real it is, its getting back to the things that make you happy and finding the joy in life not money. To find life in the people around you and what you can make in memories instead of a paycheck."


"I gotta say though, i'm jealous of you and your brothers deal. Me and my brother are nothing alike."
"I love my brother, so much. I miss him and love him more than anything or anyone. I'm definitely luck to have him and to have our relationship. We're a rare breed in many ways. But we've been through a lot of hard times together (founded on some of the most difficult and painful situations) which made our relationship so close...just don't ever take him [or your relationship] for granted."

So here're are a few more things. Since the Atmosphere show, I've been listening to his new album, The Family Sign, more. Furthermore, the other album I've been listening to is John Mayer's "Born and Raised." It has a very heavy country sound to it (Dad, you might be into it), which is not something I'm usually into. However, after listening to the album a few times, I feel this way:  if his last album Battle Studies had heart, this album has soul. My favorite tacks on this album (as of now) are Something Like Olivia (simply because of its electric blues roots on this dominantly acoustic album), Shadow Days, Born and Raised, Walt Grace's Submarine Test, January 1967 (a wonderful balled), and Whiskey, Whiskey, Whiskey. Mayer has taken two years away from city life to find himself and reflect on his life and this album definitely shows it. As honest as his last album was, this album is equally honest, if not more so. So, as much as I don't like the Country genre, I AM a Mayer fan and this album is lyrically brilliant. Absolutely brilliant and incredibly raw and honest. I dig.

Anyway, check out John's new album if you feel like it. It releases Tuesday and is currently streaming on iTunes. Otherwise, I'll catch y'll later. Miss you.

XO
~Daniel