More hours in the day...

I wish the day had 48 hours.

I could exercise

I could go for a swim

I could check out evening courses

I could relax

I could cook more meals

I could learn a new language

I could meet up with friends

I could find time to date

I could sleep more than 7 hours

But...

I would end up working more hours

I would end up seeing more clients

I would try to get some extra work

I would still being work home

It would just be more hours of probably doing the same

With just some exercise included

Because...I'm a workaholic!

Until next time,

Cheers!!!

Another week ends

Where does the time go? The weekend is over.

I had a list of things to do this Sunday and barely got any done. The only two things from a list of about 5 include preparing for my groups tomorrow at work and vacuuming the place.

I swear I need more hours in the day. And possibly more days in the week. 24 hours and 7 days are not enough for me. (On a side note, can you believe in only 4 more months, we will be done with 2009???)

And now, to get ready for yet another week to begin. And the routine starts all over again. This week has something different though --- a two-day training in the middle of the week. The bad news --- it's likely to be more mentally draining given the topic --- suicide.

Hope you all have a good week ahead.

Until next time,

Cheers!!!

The Name Game

I have been tagged by 2 people: Navita and Nu. And because of all the pressure, I decided I better do the tag.

Tag Rules:
Copy to your own note, erase my answers, enter yours, and tag your friends? Use the first letter of your name to answer each of the following questions. They have to be real… nothing made up. If the person before you had the same first initial, you must use different answers. You cannot use any word twice and you can’t use your name for the boy/girl name question. Have Fun!!

1. What is your name: Psych Babbler (yep, that's what I am called on blogosphere...)

2. A four Letter Word: Piss

3. A boy’s Name: Peter

4. A girl’s Name: Paula

5. An occupation: Psychologist (hehe...what else did you expect me to say?)

6. A color: Purple

7. Something you wear: Pants...

8. A food: Pav Bhaji...mmmmm...yum...

9.Something found in the bathroom: Potty (LOL!!!)

10.A place: Peakhurst...

11. A reason for being late: Packing lunch...

12. Something you shout: Piss off!!

13. A movie title: Primal Fear

14. Something you drink: Perfect red wine :)

15. A musical group: Paramore (I do like their songs!)

16. An animal: Pooh Bear

17. A Street name: Penshurst St.

18. A type of car: Porsche

19. A song title: Pushing me away by Linking Park

20. A verb: Push

Anyone who wants to take on the tag, please feel free to do so.

Until next time,

Cheers!!!

Read me pretty

This was a post I had written when I was back in India. I had watched 'Taare Zameen Par' [It's a Bollywood movie, translated to stars on earth] upon the insistence of some friends as it would appeal to the psychologist in me. The thing is, I did watch it from a psychologist's perspective. And I ended up with this:

Dear Aamir Khan,

Firstly, I must thank you for bringing to light the issue of learning difficulties in a country like India where knowledge about it is close to nothing and everyone is expected to perform at a high level. However, I have a number of issues with what has been presented in terms of the reading disorder (read: I will not get into how horrible the teachers and the father were).

1. Teachers DO NOT diagnose a learning difficulty. And for good reason. I have nothing against teachers (hell, I admire them!) but depicting that teachers can diagnose kids with dyslexia is a bit too far-fetched. They can identify that a child has problems but the rest is up to psychologists or speech pathologists to assess and diagnose (depending on the disorder)

2. You have depicted the central character as having difficulties making friends. Individuals with reading disorders are NOT socially inept. You seem to be confusing that with someone with an intellectual disability or an autism spectrum disorder.

3. You have portrayed the boy has having motor-coordination difficulties. Motor-coordination problems are NOT one of the symptoms of individuals with a reading disorder. They are not even an indicator of a reading disorder (to those that don't know the movie, the kid is shown as a baby who had difficulties when learning to walk etc).

4. You have shown the character as having difficulties with executive functioning such as being disorganised, difficulty in time management, difficulty planning etc. Executive functioning problems are actually seen in kids with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder/attention-deficit disorder.

5. Young children with reading disorders do not have difficulties in basic maths. This means maths without the word problems but rather just addition, subtraction, multiplication, division sums. They may have problems later on in maths in terms of word problems but that is because they cannot understand what they are reading. The child you have depcited could have learning difficulties in all areas or below average intelligence but is unlikely to have dyslexia in that case. And this brings me back to the point that teachers do not diagnose learning difficulties.

The reason the last point is particularly important is because this aspect of the movie probably gives the message to parents that "if you can do well in maths, you should be able to do well in other subjects"

I wish you had looked up the DSM-IV for a clearer idea on the criteria for a reading disorder and how it is distinguished from a general learning difficulty, attention-deficit disorder and autism spectrum disorders. It would have added a lot more realism to the movie.

But, then again, it is Bollywood. And I guess I cannot expect too much. I should be happy that at least you have tried to put the message out there. But as always, I question everything.

Sincerely,



Psych Babbler
A psychologist that has diagnosed children with reading disorders.

Ashes to Ashes...

I am disappointed. Very disappointed.

A loss in one of our major series. For the second time in 5 years. Yes England played well. But we were horrendous (Ponting's own words) Maybe it's time for the young guys to focus on the game rather than their partners and other off-field commitments (Clarke and Johnson...I hope you are listening!)

And the selectors...what were they thinking? They drop Phil Hughes initially when the problem lies in our bowling. They don't take a spinner on a wicket that's obviously turning. What is wrong?

So not only do we lose to the Pommies we also fall down to 4th in the rankings. 4th!!! Never in my whole decade and more of supporting the gold and green have I ever seen such a miserable ranking!

It's back to the drawing board and time to think about where they go from here and how we can regain our No. 1 status. One step I hope is to actually stop them from participating in the IPL and focus more on the country.

Until next time,

Cheers!!!

Work-weary?

I just had an epiphany yesterday. Or something like it. (Okay...so it was probably just a realisation)

I realise that by having 2 part-time jobs instead of 1 full-time job, I actually end up working a lot more. Don't understand? Well, the amount of work I try and do at each part-time job is equivalent to a full-time job each!

Don't get me wrong --- I love my jobs and for the life of me cannot decide which one I'd choose if for some reason I got offered them full-time. My pay scale at the school is higher but the work is not as challenging as the severe cases I have to refer externally due to time constraints. Pay scale at the second job is less but the work is challenging and I'm learning everyday.

Hmm...maybe two part-times is the way to go at the moment.

And then, in a year or so, who knows? Maybe something else will come up and I'll just know.

Until then, I'll just continue working like a dog --- two full-time equivalent jobs for the pay of one.

Until next time,

Cheers!!!

All in a day's drive...to and from work

To work...

• Go green, go green, go green....
• Damn this traffic...
• Ahh...I love this view. Crap...eyes on road!!!
• Am I doing 60? Good...
• School zones...shit, is it time?? Ah...no...not yet.
• What is with this traffic today??
• Ooh...Green Day! "One 21 guns...lay down you arms..."
• Shit...8 o'clock...got my client at half past...I'm so going to be late!!!
• What's the point of these people merging from one lane to the next? It's not like they're going to reach any faster!
• Look at that dickhead...sigh...
• Haha...Lexus dude...this is what you get...now you stay behind while I go on...
• School zone alert! Am I doing 40...slow down....slow down...
• Hmm...I just realised something...I haven't seen any Indian women driving here...I wonder why? Oh...apart from my acting manager. They drive in India...wonder why it's only the Indian men that drive here?
• Ah...finally...driving against the traffic...wheee....
• Shit! School zone....slowwwwww
• Geez there's a lot of school zones on this road...never noticed that before
• Five more minutes to get to work...c'mon....
• Yes!!! Here with 3 minutes to spare. All rightey!

And back...

• It's getting warmer...
• They play shit songs at this time....wonder how much it would cost to get a CD player installed. Hmm...don't know if that's such a good idea...I do get distracted when my favourite songs come on...
• I can't believe how late it is. I really wish there were more hours in a day
• Sigh...imagine that...more hours...I would be able to get sooo much done!
• Wine..mmmm...could do with a glass of red right now. Another 20 minutes and I'll be home
• Shit...did I call client X? Oh...yeah...I did...left message on voicemail.
• 2 days at this place is not long enough...
• All that paper work...
• Client Y worries me...leave work at work!!!
• Wine....mmmm
• Oh crap...forgot I had the area meeting tomorrow night. There goes my Friday night wine and dine in front of the telly...
• Wine...mmmm
• I love this section of the drive...up and down....up and down...wheee....it's so good when there's less traffic and you can do 70 on this...
• Hmm...need to call B to find out about Sat night plans. Not like me to not have things planned to the last minute.
• Oh wow...petrol for 117 cents per litre! On Thursday night! What's with this station? Note to self...keep this in mind for future...
• Wine...mmm....almost there....
• Home sweet home!!

Figure of 8

Since I'm buggered and can't really think of something serious to blog about, I decided to take on a tag done by Nu who requested anyone who wanted to take on her tag. So here goes nothing.

8 TV shows I love to watch

- Good News Week

- Thank God You're Here

- Friends (even now...)

- Law and Order: Special Victims Unit

- X - Files

- Two and a half men

- Australian Idol

- Big Bang theory

8 favourite places to eat

- Tamanas at Newtown

- Kammadhenu at Newtown

- Thai Elephant at Padstow

- Jasmine's Lebanese restaurant at Lakemba

- Oporto (at whichever branch I can find)

- Rashays at Liverpool

- Panania Hotel at Panania

- This kebab place that was near uni...cannot remember it's name but they had awesome kebab rolls!!!

8 things that happened yesterday (I'm going to include the whole weekend in this one!)

- Had dinner and drinks with J on Sat night

- Bought myself a DVD player on Sat after work

- Met up for coffee with R on Sat

- Put my furniture together with B's help on Sun morning

- Had lunch (roast chicken rolls) with C on Sun arvo

- Completed putting the furniture together with C on Sun arvo

- Watched Aussie Idol on Sun night

- Cleaned my kitchen and living room on Sun

8 things I look forward to

- Work

- Organising my stuff

- Some birthdays of friends coming up

- Sundays

- My fav TV shows

- Bedtime

- Cooking for others

- The next day...

8 things I love about winter

- It's before spring...my favourite season

- Having hot chocolate on the cold winter nights

- Being snuggled up with the doona in front of the telly

- And not much else...it's too cold and gets dark too early

8 things on my wish list

- To have a pet dog

- To write a book for kids under a pseudonym

- To travel around Australia

- To bring my family to Aus for a visit or two or more

- To become more competent in my profession

- To start some private psych work

- To build up my social network

- To

8 things I am passionate about

- My jobs

- Reading

- Blogging

- Thinking and questioning

- Chocolate

- Psychometric assessments

- CBT

- Women's issues

8 words or phrases I often use

- "Fuckin' hell"

- "What the fuck??!!"

- "Douchebag" (Thanks to my adolescent clients for that one...)

- "Dickhead" (Used esp when driving)

- "Bloody oath"

- "No worries"

- "Damn"

- "Crap"

8 things I have learnt from my past

- You think you know some people only to realise you didn't

- I have no time for backstabbers

- I am more capable than I ever give myself credit for

- People are not spending all their time judging you...they have better things to do and you are not that important!!

- Extended family is over-rated.

- Question everything

- Being cynical is not necessarily always bad

- You know who your true friends are when things are down

8 places I would love to visit

- Gold Coast

- Tasmania

- Melbourne

- Adelaide

- Perth

- Northern Territory

- Other Australian towns and cities

- Ireland

8 things I currently need or want (I don't like the idea of 'needing' something or wanting something...I'm completing this section as things I'd like to have)

- Better social skills

- More money so I could buy the psychometric tests I need to start some private work...

- A pet

- A guy that meets all my high standards :P

- A full-time job rather than two part-time ones

- More hours in the day!

- More days in the week

- Spring to come sooner ---- it's bloody cold!

So now, if anyone wishes, you can take on this tag yourself.

Until next time,

Cheers!!!

Open up your minds...

As I visited India after 4 and half years last month, one thing hit me big time. More than the pollution. More than the constant lack of rules. More than the annoying bag-checks in every store in the shopping centres. More than the filth.

It was seeing how one or two individuals I'd known for years and was close to were so narrow minded. I thought of them as having regressed. But after talking to some mates here, I realise that we probably never openly discussed issues such as the ones we did this time and therefore, I never realised just how narrow minded they were. I have always been open-minded. My college in Bombay made me a lot more and Australia has made it even better. Just as an example of this narrow-mindedness was the issue of homosexuality ("Why are they making such a big deal of this"? was what was told by this person) and another by the same person was how some suburbs in Bombay are dangerous "because they are full of Muslims" and how another suburb had so many Christians.

What the fuck???

I honestly did not know how to respond. (Shakes head, rolls eyes)

Those comments above beat another one hands down made by another friend who thought I should seriously consider "settling down" (aka get married dammit!!!) because who would look after me if I fell sick??? My answer to this friend was --- in the past 4 years, I have fallen sick and I've been okay. If there is a day I fall so sick that I can't take myself to the doctor, well, my mates are always there to help. Absolute worst case scenario: There's always a bloody cab or ambo that I can call!!!!

It just made me wonder though --- these are educated people. They have done postgraduate degrees. And if they think in this manner, what hope is there?? How stagnant can one get in life that they cannot open their minds up a teeny, tiny bit to views that are not similar? That they generalise and overgeneralise (Hmm...that is done by the Indian media too though)?

At the end though, it just made me sad.

Sad to think how individuals such as these will stick by their views rigidly and not see the world around them. And if they ever decide to go outside that little comfort zone of theirs, they are in for a big shock.

Because out in this world, there's a lot different from what's in India. In that little suburb and its surrounding areas where we grew up.

Change is good.

But you need to have an open mind to do so.

Until next time,

Cheers!!!

All's FAIR in ads

During my recent trip to India I found one thing had not changed. The fairness ads. If anything, they seem to have become worse. There is still the mother handing her daughter a fairness cream so she can get an interview. There is still the girl using the fairness cream to get the boy to propose to her. But wait. There is something different.

There are now fairness creams for men.

But...there is still a bias.

The ads with the men don't portray them as losing something due to being darker skinned. Rather, men are portrayed as using the fairness cream after a hard day's work. They are not scorned by women for being dark. They are not refused jobs for being dark. Why this blatant discrimination? (Please note, I am not for fairness creams in any way whatsoever...)

I rest my case when I say I grew up in a country where women are supposed to be slim, fair, know to cook, have babies, look after the babies/children, work if allowed and still keep house. Not too much to ask for.

Anyway, the whole fairness thing gets to me. It really riles me up. Especially because this is a country that is quick to point fingers at others about 'racism' when what is happening with ads such as these is nothing short of racism. It's worse because it's racism and sexism.

And I'm thankful I am no longer part of that society. The one that treats women as second-class citizens. And one that is run by hypocrites and encourages the same.

Until next time,

Cheers!!!

Shh...

Sounds of the cars
I hear whizzing by
Low hum of the insects
Engraved in my mind
No sound of laughter or
Chatter of happy voices
Everything is, but silent. To me.

Beware the Serial Killer. Seriously.

During my brief forced hiatus from blogosphere, I saw something in the news that cracked me up. Kevin Rudd, our PM, was labelled a serial killer for his decision to cull camels in the outback. He was labelled such not by the Aussie media. No siree.

He was branded a serial killer by an American reporter.

Seriously, an American. Calling Rudd a serial killer. For wanting to cull camels.

Is it just me or is that totally wrong at so many levels.

Someone should inform her about George W. Bush and Iraq and Afghanistan. Wake her up!!!

Until next time,

Cheers!!!



P.S. I have nothing against Americans or camels. I do have something against George W Bush though.

All Better Now

My laptop is all better now. The keyboard had to be changed and both my laptop (which is like an extension of me) and I are happy chappies. :)

So much has happened that I've wanted to blog on. Some of it, I can't even remember now. I have moved and now live on my own. I moved this weekend and it was exhausting. It's a bit weird not having a flatmate --- I kind of got used to having one around. But I think it's time for me to have that next phase of living by myself. At least for a month or two until I realise I may actually need a flatmate to share the bills! I still haven't got any furniture. I am hoping they arrive this week or latest next week. I do have a bed and a TV (most important!)

On another note, this is my 150th post. (Hurrah!!!) Time really flies. I cannot believe I have blogged so much. I guess though compared to people having 500 posts or more, it's probably nothing. But I'm still happy. This blog here is my soap box where I get to air my views and opinions on all things that I think about. And thank you all for visiting and reading and commenting.

I appreciate it.

Until next time,

Cheers!!!

And finally --- the Consequence!!!

Kyle Sandilands has been axed from Australian Idol. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what is known as facing the consequences of your actions.

To those of you not in Australia, Kyle Sandilands is a radio presenter and one of the judges on our version of Idol. Last week, during the morning radio show, Kyle and co-host Jackie O had a 14 year old girl on their 'lie detector' stunt and her mother who wanted to question her on her sexual activities and possible drug use. The young girl did not want to be there but apparently had no choice. The girl disclosed that she had been raped when she was 12 and turns out the mother knew this. Kyle's empathic response to the girl upon her disclosure was "Right...so is that the only experience you've had?" And then they were cut off.

As you might expect, there was an uproar.

My point, even if the girl had not been raped, it should not be legal to strap a minor to a lie detector and question them on their sexual activities!!!

Anyway, Kyle later responded like a martyr --- that at least due to this, her rape was now out and DoCs and the police could get involved. Fuck off, Kyle. That is not the way any person, let alone a teenager, wants to get help. It is bad enough having a traumatic episode such as rape. It is like being raped again in public through this stunt they have pulled.

I didn't think Idol would have the guts to sack Kyle. I have seen too many 'celebs' not facing the consequences. This time I was wrong. And I am glad.

It's high time people in the media realise that there is a line. And they crossed the line a bit too far this time.

And it will probably be a while before Kyle is his usual narcissistic self. And maybe, he will think twice before he acts. Just maybe.

Until next time,

Cheers!!!


P.S. My laptop goes for repairs tomorrow and I don't know if I'll have a replacement. I just had to write this.

Thank you...

I thought this would be a good way of responding to all the people that commented on my previous post in addition to later responding in the comments section.

Firstly --- a big Thank you to all of you for your concern and lovely comments. I really and truly appreciate each and every one of them.

Secondly, I am much better now thanks to medication. I must say, I am so grateful for science and the invention of antibiotics! :)

Thirdly, the reason I haven't blogged is because I haven't yet had time to get my laptop repaired and it's quite a pain to type a long post (as I have several ideas in mind!) without the letters 'n' and 'b'. I'm hoping to get it repaired this week so I will be back. And I will respond individually to all your comments once the keys are back in order!

Until next time,

Cheers!!!