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Languishing

By That's life

“There’s a Name for the Blah You’re Feeling: It’s Called Languishing. The neglected middle child of mental health can dull your motivation and focus – and it may be the dominant emotion of 2021.”

This is the opening paragraph to Adam Grant’s (organizational psychologist) recent article posted in the New York Times (well worth the read) and it gave me pause to reflect on the whirlwind ride of 2020 and now 2021.

I recall watching a news broadcast in the middle of last year, where a psychologist explained that mental illness can be a slow burn process and we will not ‘see’ the full effects of the pandemic on people’s mental well being until 6-12 months after the (initial) event. This article goes further into exploring this notion, citing a study of Italians who were languishing in the spring of 2020 were three times more likely than their peers to be diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

So what can we do about this? The article offers a few ideas, including:
• Allocating some uninterpreted time for yourself and dive into something you enjoy doing so as to give your mind a break
• Focusing on a small goal, something challenging but not so difficult it becomes overwhelming, and gives you a sense of enjoyment

And remember, think about your family, friends and work colleagues. Take the time to check in on how they are feeling as you might both be surprised to discover that they are languishing and didn’t realise it because it is easy to brush over something that you’re not aware of existing.

Workplace phishing

By Work

You’ve probably heard of phishing – it’s a cyber attack that uses a disguised email as a weapon, but have you heard of vishing and smishing? Vishing is the ‘verbal’ form phishing (for example, a voice message) and smishing is the ‘text’ version.

Hopefully you’ve never fallen victim to phishing, smishing or vishing…but have you ever been tempted to click the link or reply…just to see what would happen? Well, here is one story from a person who did exactly that. If you haven’t seen James Vietch’s famous TED talk this is what happens when you reply to spam email, then do yourself a favour and check it out.

New normal

By That's life, Work

97 days since stage 3 lockdown…

…my transition to the new normal for lockdown #2 here in Victoria.

What happened to ‘play’?

The night sky

By That's life

Back on 21 June 2020 (shortest day in the southern hemisphere) I participated in a new Guinness world record attempt for the ‘most number of people participating in an online sustainability lesson’…And guess what? We succeeded!

I can now claim to be a Guinness world record holder – I thought I might add it to my CV 🙂

The 30 minute lesson was on light pollution and ended by participants recording the number of stars to be seen in the night sky to help in the ongoing collection of light pollution data across the globe. If you want to find out more, visit the Australasian Dark Sky Alliance, the not for profit charity which ran the event and initially formed to educate the public and policymakers about night environment conservation.

Light pollution

By That's life

Light pollution – ironically it’s visible to all, but we tend to be blind to this form of pollution.

The Australasian Dark Sky Alliance (ADSA) will be running a Guinness World record attempt this Sunday 1pm AEST 21 June for Most users to take an online environmental sustainability lesson in 24 hours (and all are welcome to join – both southern and northern hemisphere – and it’s free!). As part of this activity you will become a citizen scientist and complete a 30 minute lesson, but you will also take a light pollution measurement with the globe at night app after dark (all you need is a computer, tablet or smartphone).

There are two parts to the event:

  • The lesson includes a test – it is not to show how much you know but to demonstrate to those who are making decisions that there are large numbers of people who care!
  • The globe at night web app is used for science and has very very few measurements from the southern hemisphere. Ecologists want to know if what is happening on the ground up, is what satellites are showing down. i.e. Is light pollution worse on the ground? Ecologists are particularly keen on knowing this, as whilst we have shielded lights, it isn’t stopping the surge of on the ground lighting that is impacting pollination etc.

It’s a free event and anyone can participate – Simply register here. My whole family has signed up and we’ll be out on the back garden deck – rain, hail or cloud. Let me know if you decide to join to.

Bingo

By That's life

Well, I must admit, this whole pandemic thing has been a whirl wind ride with feelings fluctuating daily, and it was in one of those moments that I needed to entertain myself.

Inspired by a news article that showed a graph plotting the use of the word ‘unprecedented’ over the last year, with the curve ending in a dramatic exponential growth, I came up with an idea – Bingo.

I created this set of bingo cards which can be used when watching the news, to try and bring an element of fun to what can sometimes be a depressing absorption of all that’s going bad in the world.

What isolation feels like

By That's life

Not sure what’s it’s been like for you,

but I must admit, after a while the whole ‘living in isolation’ gig becomes a bit of a blur. Luckily for us, here is Australia we are slowly going through a process of exiting our abodes and braving the real world.

Not everything has changed

By That's life

Of course this wouldn’t be one my my teenagers – one’s a brunette, the other a red head.

And as for the eagle eye readers, pre COVID is series 1 and during COVID is series 10 and counting.

Chinese whispers

By That's life

google translate

Google translate is a wonderful tool,

…especially when travelling or simply having a bit of cartoon fun.

I used Google translate to see what would happen if I entered a simple english sentence into Google translate and then take it through the 103 languages on offer.

I started with the cartoon whisper of, “What would happen if we were to put this whisper into Google translate?” and then translated it in alphabetical order, starting with Afrikaans and ending in Zulu. I checked the english translation each time so I could see the jump for each language and took the best ones for cartooning purposes – English, Arabic, Dutch, Lithuanian and Zulu.

If you’re feeling inspired as to what else Google translate can come up with, why not watch YouTuber Google translate sings, singing Africa by Toto. Enjoy!