[men aren't psychic]

This article is designed as a message to
all women, to state one simple fact, that
men are not psychic, never have been,
most likely never will be, you may think
that your subtle hints and signals are
picked up on by your partner
or friend, but believe me they’re not.

Generally you will find that if a man isn’t
told that there is a problem, he isn’t going
to assume there is one, makes sense
doesn’t it? Why pick at something that appears
to be perfect? If something he says or does
annoys you then you’ll need to tell him, preferably
when it starts to bug you, grinding your teeth at him
while he bites his toenails, will just make him think
that you have uncontrollable jaw issues
and should probably consult a doctor, he might go
as far as booking an appointment should the
problem persist.

I have seen it happen quite a few times,
where I’ll be hanging out with a female
friend of mine and she’ll be talking about
her partner. She’ll say something
along the lines of “he doesn’t listen to
me” or “why can’t men understand me”.
It is at this point I have ask what exactly
they say to their boyfriends and I have to
[nicely] point out that what they say to
their boyfriends doesn’t actually make
that much sense to the male brain.

Just because I write this article does not
mean that I am psychic. I cannot even begin
to fully understand or pick up on the signals
that have been sent my way by the fairer
sex. I have been the victim of this misconception
[as I believe most men have] a few times, it
happens mostly in either a text message or e-mail,
where the tone of what the other person is trying to
say is near impossible to know exactly, so men [like
myself] have to guess, and can get it wrong. This
caused much confusion and drama
where it really wasn’t needed.

So ladies you may be wondering, what is
it you have to do so that your partner
understands what it is you’re trying to say
to them? Say it all, begin with what you’re
actually talking about, it helps the man
understand whether he is in trouble and
should be buying you flower or whether
he should be grinning for a job well done.

[word count: 400 words]

[this was originally published on the livejournal
on the 19th Of February 2008]

[the art of conveying knowledge and experience]

It has often been said that you should listen to,
or at least consider the helpful words of advice
that have been put forward to you by friend and
family, and sometimes, even strangers that
seem to somehow be aware of your situation.

So why is it that people [and this includes me] tend
to pull a blank face whenever advice is given to them,
they usually thank the person but don’t actually do
what the person is suggesting. I draw on personal
experience for this particular one. When my good
friends Rick and Jason were helping me get over
somebody in my life.

They both had valid advice, they both knew
exactly how I felt and what i was going through,
as they had both been through it themselves,
yet in my mind, for them to know how I was feeling
was impossible. For someone else to be able to
go through what i was feeling. This makes me
sound incredibly self centred, but it was how I
felt at the time.

My friend Jason even said ‘All things have a sell by
date,especially good advice’. Or something along those
lines, still though, it’s true, the thing about advice is
that it’s one of those things that you think to yourself
you wish you did, like studying for that test you did
badly in, or practising your instrument just before
the big recital.

Even the advice that I give to people I expect
to be ignored. Its just how things are in the real
world, you will go through an ordeal in your life
[which could mainly be avoided be listening to
others] and you’ll feel the need to pass this knowledge
onto others. In an attempt to ease the frustration
of the other person, as they blankly stare back at
you.

The other thing that I figured out that time when me
and my friend Rick where discussing life, and all the
things I could do with my time to get over the
aforementioned person in my life, whilst laying on
the garden floor staring at the stars.

Is that life is all about experience, people need to
ignore the advice of others. Without making their
own mistakes there is no way for you to pass on
your advice to somebody else.

In the end it seems, life is all about mistakes.

[word count: 437 words]
[this was first placed on the livejournal
on the 22nd February 2008]

[overcoming writers block]

Imagine This…

Its Monday, you have the day off
from work and you feel that you
need to be productive.

So you get the bright idea of
Writng a peice for your
writing livejournal. This you
have had it for a while and
have unwittingly neglected it,
and although you love to write
there are only four entries at present.

You plan out what your going to
write with some ideas you thought
of at work and from the night before.
You believe these ideas will be quite
decent as they describe things that
have happened to you and also you believe
at the same time alot of people will relate to.

So as you log into livejournal
and go to post, it hits you, you
can’t do it, you try to write,
try different appoaches, even try
a few subjects you’d been tackling before
you came up with these other ideas and
had left half finished.

Thats when it hits you, and you
phrase it perfectly in the subtitile
to your MSN name,

‘Shit. I can’t write.’

I never said I was polite, so swearing and
bad language can be expected. But all joking
aside, this did actually
worry me for a few days. Ok, so
todays only Wednesday but still, I was
actually quite worried, because I love to
write even if its not that great I still
like doing it.

I discussed this with Jason on the
way from his house to the pub, he
understood what I was talking about
and said that the planning and over thinkin
of what I was gonna write killed it.
Because I unwittingly took the fun out
of it, this actually made total sense.

Ok, so fast forward to today, as in
five minutes ago, the Tuesday after.
I sat here and just got the sudden
urge to write, so I did
and I’m actually quite happpy with the result,

Because although this isn’t a great piece,
it’s not going to win any awards or
get published, I’m still happy because
I’m writing and from writing this I know I
can still write good work, and that
I may write some amazing pieces of literature
in the future.

The thing about creativity is that you
need to be inspired for it to work. You
need a muse, a feeling, a direction, an event
or a belief in order to create and
for some reason, this time, I was inspired by
lack of free inspiration and you
know what, I’ll be happy with that.

[word count: 427 words]
[this was first placed on the livejournal on
the 27th May 2008]