Here we are! Back again after a somewhat extended break for the Christmas and New Year perid. The break was definitely more extended than I had anticipated it to be, but sometimes you just gotta go with the flow. I had roughly two weeks off work starting just prior to Christmas and well, it wasn't half bad just being a lazy sloth. I do it well.
So now we find ourselves firmly planted in the year 2014. It can't be denied that the close of one year and the start of another bubbles up feelings and ideas inside of many that 'this year' will be their year. People write out their resolutions and resolve to be fitter or healthier or happier or more adventurous or...
It's of no surprise that there's an increase in the uptake of new gym memberships or that the major supermarkets will flog their reduced price nicotine replacement therapies for the first few weeks of the year. After all, new beginnings do bring a sense of hope for positive change and really, what's wrong with that?
I'm not a person who makes resolutions, well not so much New Year's Resolutions. The way I see it, any day can be the 'New Year' for you to change something you don't like, to work on yourself, to look for a new job or whatever it may be that you just want to do.
In saying that, it would be remiss of me to not acknowledge that personally this particular year holds some extra weight than usual. Reason being this is the year I bid farewell to my twenties and enter a new decade. There's something about moving from the age of twenty-nine to The Big 3-0 that is different for me to other birthdays. I feel that you can almost still consider your twenties to be part of your adolescent stage, perhaps 'senior adolescent', but once thirty comes around, well that to me is real adulthood. I feel like it kinda snuck on me and now all this talk about "oh yes, I might consider that in a couple of years when I'm older" has turned into "oh wait, that's actually now..."
It's enough to kick my butt into the next gear and really push me to focus on achieving my personal goals and to just stop hesitating. Even about little things. All last year I kept thinking about buying a bike but I never did. I don't know why I didn't, I just never did. But I'm getting a bike within the next couple of weeks and I am super excited! I can't wait to ride my deadly treadly on the mean streets of Perth. Okay, perhaps not the mean streets. I might just stick to the bike paths for now.
I am happy with my life and its direction but I am definitely ready to seek out more and to put it really simply, just get shit done. Happiness is something that is very important to me. I rate happiness pretty highly and why not, when the state of being happy is pretty awesome. A lot of where my mind currently is in regard to all that I am working toward this year is rooted in adding to this current level of happiness in my life. It was perhaps then quite coincidental (or fortuitous or other similar adjective) that a package I received this week was centered around this theme of happiness.
I have a quarterly subscription to a service known as (ta-da!) The Quarterly Co. The Quarterly Co is a subscription service that sends out packages specially curated by one of its contributors. Depending on your interests you could sign up for a subscription related to art or technology or music and so on. Their contributors vary from people such as Coco (Ice T's wife - Google her if you don't know), Jason Kottke (editor of kottke.org) and Pharrell Williams, which is the subscription I am currently signed up for. I'm actually about to sign up for my second subscription curated by Q-Tip, who is one of the members of the legendary hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest.
Pharrell has so far put together three packages, I've received his second and third as I subscribed too late for the first mail out. I was actually really disappointed with his second package which consisted of a mini version of a chair he designed and a zip pull toy. Oh, and a printed copy of lyrics to a song never released. Yep, that was it. Two little toys. The response from most to that package seemed to be generally negative, going by social media. All packages ship with a special hash tag to use on various social media outlets, and from what I saw on Instagram most people were quite unhappy and I think rightly so. I decided to stick it out for one more package and I think he, or his people, upped their game possibly in response to the feedback. I mean, really, how could you seriously think a mini chair and a zip pull toy cut it?!
So this package has the theme of the five senses and focuses very much on happiness. It even includes a vinyl copy of his single Happy and a poster of a cheerful looking fellow with the words Happiness is the Truth emblazoned along the top. Obviously, the vinyl record and poster connect to senses of sound and sight. Also included was a jar of truffle salt (the taste sense), a smiley face stress ball(the touch sense) and a yo-yo scent diffuser (the smell sense). The scent diffuser is interesting. It's not really a yo-yo but its design is shaped like one. You can twist one part of it off and inside is a sandstone onto which you drop some of the essential oils it comes with. It is described as being a portable scent diffuser.
I'm not sure if I will continue my subscription for Pharrell's packages but I am really looking forward to the one put together by Q-Tip. I think the concept is quite cool and really is not at all dissimilar to the grocery dinner boxes or surprise beauty boxes that you can also sign up for. The draw card for me with the Quarterly service is that it is something compiled by a person that I admire or am a fan of and it's interesting to discover the sort of things that they dig.
Even though I haven't had the greatest experience with my Pharrell subscription, it's definitely something I would suggest people to check out. I know that the package curated by Nina Garcia (creative director of Marie Claire and judge on Project Runway) was pretty freaking awesome. Shipping from the US is steep though, however it is only a quarterly cost and you can cancel your subscription(s) at any time.
Even though I haven't had the greatest experience with my Pharrell subscription, it's definitely something I would suggest people to check out. I know that the package curated by Nina Garcia (creative director of Marie Claire and judge on Project Runway) was pretty freaking awesome. Shipping from the US is steep though, however it is only a quarterly cost and you can cancel your subscription(s) at any time.
