Are You Proud?

You know what, I can't say I'm proud of everything I've done in my life. However, I can say that I have very few regrets. Yes we may do some messed up things, things that in retrospect we wonder what was I thinking?! But even after the smoke clears and and ashes settle we still don't say I wish that fire had never been burned.

I don't regret a number of things because either I've learnt from what has transpired or I've enjoyed what I've done. The few things I regret are things that brought immense emotional pain to me, pain that I really did not need to feel. Yes there are circumstances that we need to go through to better understand ourselves. The circumstances I'm talking about are totally unnecessary. I hope there are no more situations like this in my future. I surely can do without them.


Do you regret things you've done in your life? Or do you have the YOLO kind of motto where you regret nothing and seize every moment. Do share.

-The Empress

Birds of a Feather...

With meaningful cliches like "Show me your friends and I will tell you who you are," out there, it only makes sense to surround yourself with people who are like-minded like you or oriented in a similar manner as you. Their energy coupled with yours is sure to get you far.

I think one of the toughest things in life is letting someone you love or care about go. Be it a family member or a friend. Be it death or just moving on with your life.

I want to touch on the latter. There are times in everyone's life when they change, they grown. When such a metamorphosis begins you want catalysts or least supporting elements with you. Dead weight isn't what you want retarding the process. Sometimes there are peple in our lives that cannot grasp the concept of this metamorphosis. They are stuck seeing the world with rose tinted glasses. How does one deal with this dead weight?

I'm the type of person who has trouble throwing things away (sometimes). I'm not a hoarder. I repear - I am not a hoarder. As far as I can remember I've never said to anyone "Never speak to me again." I prefer the "feed with a long spoon" approach where you gradually decrease the amount of time and information given to a particular person. They find other people to attach to and you continue your growth and development. I'm not saying this is the best way, I'm just saying this is what works for me. I use this method because every so often I like to check up on people, see if they've started their transformation. If they have and they want me to be a part of it, I help and support them. If they haven't, I keep my distance again.

I think with over 6 billion people in the world, there should be at least 2 billion that are not "dead weight." All 2 billion may not be oriented in your exact direction but they should be close enough for you to surround yourself with them.

Not for the "new year" but for life - surround yourself with good people.

-The Empress

Hold Back And Stop Living

I'm a young lady. 24 years old. Good looking. Intelligent. Charismatic, or at least I like to think I am hahaha. I'm also single. And have been single for the majority of my life. Some days it doesn't bother me, and others I will not even hesitate to inform you it bothers every ounce of my being. Many if not all of my closest friends are single, and quite often we sit and ponder the reason for this. I'm not sure where I'm going with this post, but then again, when am I ever?

Today is Christmas and of course I announce that it's 6 months 'til my birthday. This upcoming birthday isn't just any birthday. It's what some call your Champagne Birthday, which essentially means you're turning the age of the date you were born. Not the month, just the date. I'm really wondering where I'm going with this, but still I continue to type and hope you continue to read. I'm sitting here feeling a bit sad because I want a "friend" of mine to talk to me. I know some people will be rolling their eyes and saying well if you want to talk to him, message him or call him. The thing is I have been. I hate being ignored. It doesn't sit well with me at all. Okay, I'm not going to get into this here and right now. Moving on...

What I'm trying to get at is, I've been holding on to a dream and holding out on life because of one person. Because of one person that I know is not doing the same thing, and quite frankly I can't blame him. It's difficult knowing that my entire life can happen and when I'm 60 I reconnect with this person because we were meant to be at that time. Something about this idea scares me. I am admitting it. It scares me to not know when we will connect and connect properly. The unknown of not being able to just live and just do whatever and dive head first into situations and swim out of them easily or barely making it out of the shark's jaw and then coming out of the water into his arms bother me. But I know I can't hold on and stop living because of this fear or this unknown. I have to let go and live. So maybe this is a declaration of some sort; of me saying that I'm not waiting for you or waiting for the right time to come. I'm dancing to the music playing and when the song changes and it's the right time, you will ask to have the dance and we shall dance the night away.

I'm not sure this makes any sense at all. But I choose to live.

Let the planning begin

My exams ended on Monday December 19th and I said I would give myself one week to relax and the next week I will begin my school work to get ahead and plan for my future (as I normally do). Well today is Friday and I'm tired of "relaxing" which happens to be doing nothing or just cleaning in one way or the other.

I'm here more or less alone for the holidays and although I appreciate the time alone I feel like I have nothing to do. I'm sure I can catch up on major reading or watching shows I haven't been able to follow during the semester but it's not the same. I think I'm always under so much pressure that it doesn't feel normal to not be. Anyway, so apart from cleaning and getting ahead in my studies I'm also going to look at the "Where do I see myself in x years." I'm scheduled, correction: I am going to graduate in June 2012 and receive my Honours degree in August 2012 and hence I need to have some sort of an idea as to what I want to do and how I'm going to do it.

I do know that I honestly am not ready to do my Masters just yet. I know there are a number of people who are disappointed in this. Truth be told I'd like to work for about 10 years and then get my Masters. By then everyone I know would have had 2 Ph.D's but I honestly don't care. I can't make decisions for my life based on what other people are doing. I need to make decisions that I feel are best for me and that I can handle. In 5 years time I would like to enter my field of interest with a secure foot. And that is what I am going to do.

I often say there's method to my madness, and I truly believe it. Whether others can see it or believe it is another question, but that doesn't bother me. I know me and what I want well enough. I feel grounded and focused. Now is the time to apply these emotions and secure my dreams. I should have a back up plan, but not just yet. I believe this will work out.

This is just the begin of the my rise to achieve my goal. 2012 is the year when the slingshot will be stretched and released, and I shall be propelled in the right direction to live my dreams. Let nothing stop me, let nothing stop you. We're both going to achieve our dreams.

Don't wish me luck. Help me along my journey.

Best wishes
-The Empress

New Tab!!

Hello hello! As part of my procrastination (smh) I've added a new tab on my blog entitled BOOKS I'VE READ!! Check it out and see the books I've been reading and suggest some new ones for me to add to my repertoire! You can leave the title and author in the comments section or email me at redempressvee@gmail.com

Cheers!
-The Empress

Procrastination

I'm not even sure what's the point of this post. I'm telling you this from the start. I'm on a break from trying to complete a research paper before I begin studying for an exam. I'm trying very hard not to procrastinate, or at least do it as little as possible. Who invented the word procrastination? Maybe if there were no word there would be no action...good rationale don't you think? Procrastination is the demise of many students and even adults. We learn our lesson in the moment and once that moment has past it is lost. So maybe we never learn our lesson at all?? Procrastination...

Okay, no more procrastinating for me. I'm off to do some work. Toodles!

Mind Over Matter

I am not big on New Years celebrations. I'm one of those persons that wants to crawl into a dark hole for about two months - December and January and not think about a new year dawning and all that jazz. The primary reason for it is because twice a year it hits me, another year is dawning and another year of my life is gone, and I have nothing to show for it. I have nothing to say hey this is what I've accomplished. It weighs me down and makes me sad to know that I'm not truly happy, but happy at moments, and that I'm still not living my life, but living to please others. It bothers me that I don't feel like I'm going somewhere and I have something to do, that I'm merely floating around in this crazy world.

I usually try to hide from New Years.

But somehow, this year I don't want the stroke of midnight to catch me at home, or in my current town. No. I want to be a different place to ring in a different year. 2012 is my Champagne Year and I have dubbed it "The Year of The Empress." In 2012 it will be difficult but I will be happy. I will have a goal and I will work towards it. I will explore life and myself, and push myself to become a great woman. I will retrain myself to be mentally powerful, self motivated, hard working and fun loving. I will culture myself to not be ignorant, temperamental or short tempered. I will culture myself to be graceful, sophisticated, educated and wise. From 2012 onward I shall be responsible and build on that responsibility a kingdom of comfort for my family.

Yes, 2012 is MY year.

Can We Change?

I've realised that I cannot begin writing a post and then come back to it. I never do. Instead of deleting the post I began many months ago, I've decided to just share with you what I had written before I stopped. Maybe I will pick it up at another time, possible from a different angle? Feel free to leave a comment or two. The post has not been proof read either.

I began writing one post and realised that I rant quite often instead of writing a piece that can be a diving board for discussion on the particular topic that is making me disgruntled. Hence, I am attempting to create such said diving board. Let me know how I did lol.

Quite often I wonder, can we change? We have been hearing about climate change and loss in biodiversity; we have seen the effects of our actions not only in recent times but essentially from colonial times, if not before, of our negative relationship with the environment. Yet still, after all this time, we cannot live in harmony, or at least diminish the negative effects we have on the environment. I was on Twitter and a friend tweeted about Troy Davis. He had tweeted about this before but today I decided to check out who was Troy Davis and what his story was. I got very perturbed by what I read and decided, after I too tweeted about how stupid it was, to find something else to read about to help me calm down. My Environmental Law prof usually asks at the beginning of class what's going on in the world in terms of Environmental Law, so I decided to check out the environmental news. I came across an article in The Guardian (a British newspaper) about fossil fuel subsidies being cut and monies being given to developing nations to help combat climate change. I thought maybe I would share my two cents of thought on the matter with you.

What do I think needs to be done to combat climate change?I don't think there is any one thing that can be done, neither do I think that any one thing is more important. My opinion is that a combination of efforts need to be executed for there to be sufficient change.
For sure our attitudes need to change. The saying "Without The Earth humans will die, but without humans The Earth will live" is so true! I was born and raised a Christian, so my teachings have said God entrusted The Earth to humans. The mentality that humans have of we can do what we want, how we want with The Earth is ridiculous. Yes, matter and energy are neither made nor created but merely transformed from one form to other is true, however, one thing we clearly forget to take into account is the factor of time. Time from the perspective of a human is instantaneous, very short in comparison to time from the perspective of The Earth. Geologists and other professions in the physical Geography field will tell you that it takes millions of years for the things we see before our eyes to be formed by The Earth. How does it not make sense that the rate at which we are using it up is not sustainable?
This brings me to my next point: We need to reduce our rate of consumption. We live in a very materialistic world, where how much you posses determines you worth and your importance. Hence we crave items, we crave physical demonstrations of how much we have. We purchase and acquire items that we do not need. We obtain them in the name of technology, comfort and standard of living. We waste and get new things for the fun of it and for our own personal enjoyment. At this point I would like to pause and just point out that not once have I said you, or y'all or not included myself in this. I am a part of the problem. I admit. I am not perfect. I am not sitting on a high horse saying this is what you need to do, no. This is what we need to do. But yes, I digressed, as usual. Back to my point. I think I have spoken about this on the blog, or maybe it was the other blog I started and stopped, but did you ever wonder why Reduce was the first R in the 3 Rs? It's because it's the most important of the three! If we reduce the amount of food we eat, the amount of water we waste, the number of shoes we buy, the number of bags we use, if we reduce the amount of resources we consume the effects will be extremely beneficial. How so? you ask. It's simple really - you reduce the rate of consumption. As I said in the first point, the rate at which The Earth replenished itself is a lot slower than that at which we consume it's resources. By reducing the rate of consumption, we help to keep some resources for the future.

T'is The Season

T'is the season to spend plenty money and waste a lot of it. Whether this post will be of any benefit to you or not I have no idea...leave a comment below and let me know.

I want to share with you my thoughts on Christmas/Holiday shopping and gift giving. I just have three things that comes to my mind. If you have more ideas do share. Leave a comment below!

• Wrap gifts in recycled/reused paper. I don't mean go buy recycled gift wrapping paper. No no no. I mean wrapping gifts in news paper or printer paper that you've printed the wrong thing on, old magazines, etc. That kind of thing. There are a few YouTube videos showing how to make gift bows from tissue paper and/or newspaper. You know already, the majority of people don't save their Christmas wrapping paper. 
• Get unique gifts. Don't fall trap to fancy shamcy things. Go to those little novelty stores and get a unique gift to someone. Even if it is a small basket of handmade organic bath products, or a basket of free trade teas and a mug. Steer clear from impersonal gifts. Get something that the person would actually use or want to use. Wasted gifts is such a shame.
• Send electronic cards. Let's be honest....we throw our cards out the next year. Do we even bother to recycle them? Do we even bother to reuse them for the something else such as decoration? Nope. We don't. So save some paper, some trees and the environment. Send electronic cards.

Yup! That's my tip for Christmas.