Annie get your gun

Ive been reading a book on spree killings and it talks a lot about America and survivalism, and how the reason Americans are so protective of their gun laws is because they believe at any moment if another war happened or the dollar was not worth much, they could trade in guns. Guns have value in terms of currency in a war type situation and also offer protection.

Ive always found it fascinating how any time someone in the government suggests changing the laws so that Americans can no longer own, oh I don’t know, machine guns, all these crazy Americans harp up about their constitutional rights.

But really, why do you need to own automatic weapons that can kill numerous people in just a matter of seconds, if you don’t want to go killing?

After Australia had their taste of spree killing – Martin Bryant who killed 35 people in 1996 – we changed our gun laws. I don’t know the specifics but I am pretty sure it restricted gun ownership to only those who might actually need one – say if you had a property with animals you may need to put down. And that gun won't be an automatic one that will allow you to shoot of hundreds of rounds in a minute.

Fair enough, people in America want to own guns. Its their constitutional right. Their right to have a readily available weapon to kill people – if the need be. According to the quick google I did over 30,000 people are killed by guns each year in America by guns… and that was in 2003. I'm sure its gone up a heap since then. I also found this fun statistic - A gun in the home increases the risk of homicide of a household member by 3 times and the risk of suicide by 5 times compared to homes where no gun is present.

So hey, why shouldn’t we all own guns?

I just don’t understand why Americans fight SO hard to protect this “right” of theirs. In 2003 only 230 people were killed by guns in Australia.

So if any Americans want to explain why they cling to their rights of gun ownership, even though it kills so many people unnecessarily, go ahead.

kiss and make up

Last night the girls and I from work went to a “Martini, Manicure and Makeover” night. Must say, a lot of fun. For $35 you get a cocktail (thankfully we weren’t subjected to the martini, but a cocktail of our choice), makeover, manicure and a short massage. And if you consider the fact that the place it was held charges $15 for each cocktail, not a bad deal.

The group got split up in half and duly received massages, manicures (I have a mood ring type polish on – it changes from neutral to purple with gold flecks in cold – they’ve been purple all day!) and our drinks, and then went to the makeup artists. There were three of them lined up, all Napoleon students.

They were pretty good, albeit new into the course. Having studied makeup for work at the body shop and doing my few makeovers there, I always find it interesting to get my makeup done. I just told my person to go crazy because I don’t care how bright the colours are, my skin just tends to suit brightness. She did a pretty good job, and the other two girls did alright jobs – although one of them did make a comment about only learning last week from a random shopping centre about where blush should go – and it wasn’t even right! Shes like “yeah you just get them to suck their cheeks in and put the blush where their cheekbones are” I was thinking yeah… try you just see what face shape they have and if they’ve got a long face, you do circular sweeping motions across the cheek to try and correct the horseyness… or if they have a round face, do not do circular blush motions, pick a light colour, sweep across and make sure it blends in well. If they’ve got an oval face, then you just put it where the cheekbones are.

It got me thinking about how I love to do makeup and how watching one girl, who wore very little makeup, only applying very little makeup to one girl, and the girl with neutral colours, applying just neutral colours to her people. Just because something suits you, doesn’t mean it suits everyone.

I'm a big believer in trying colour out. It might not suit and you may not be comfortable with it, but how can you do others makeup if you don’t really understand how different colours work together, how an eye colour can really stand out with different shades. Sure a neutral look suits most, but I really love experimenting with colours on my friends to see how it will bring out their features.

I know myself, ive got quite blue eyes and while aqua greens and bright greens can make my skin look really smooth and an even colour, it doesn’t make my eyes sparkle. Where as pinks look great with the blue eyes, but don’t have that same cooling effect on my pink toned skin.

You’ve got to experiment. And when I say bright colours you are probably thinking clownish blues and bright red lips, but it’s a simple matter of this – heavy on the eyes, easy on the lips. Want to play up your lips, go easy on the eyes. I hardly ever wear lipsticks, just a light gloss or balm. I think that is partly because I'm too lazy to think about it.

Breaker Breaker

When I was at Uni I had visions of everything just falling in to place for me, I thought that one day fate would just magically give me a position working on a magazine as a beauty writer or features writer… something I have a big interest in.

But fast forward and I am writing for a magazine alright, only a truck mag. The funny thing is though, I don’t hate it. It is a massive challenge and it amuses me to no end the fact that this butch magazine is run by pretty young women.

Seriously, of the 8 employees in this small business, 5 are girls and the majority of staff are under 30. We cop a lot of crap for it… even our freelance Sales Rep had the nerve to tell me that women can't be in the transport game because they can't tell the clients to fuck off. I said to him, you shouldn’t be telling people to fuck off and he said sometimes you’ve got to tell them to… I'm like well, us girls have been running the magazine for the past few years, we’ve buried our competition and are extremely successful, so I guess your theory on telling people to fuck off is wrong.

Through my “journalistic” work I get to meet some interesting people. Yesterday I drove to some place 45 mins away to meet a truckie at his depot to take some photos… he gets out and he had a flannel shirt on, jacket with beer name on it, massive long beard and a beanie… so stereotypical but he was the nicest ever – put the truck into some funny positions for me and was just excited to be in the magazine – that’s what I love. You get some people who stand glumly in front of the truck pissed off about it, and you get some that purposely edge their way into the frame!

While I might not be writing about my dream content, it’s definitely a challenge to write about things like axles, hydraulics, metals… and while my writing isn’t perfect, I actually feel for almost the first time in my life that I am learning something. All throughout Uni I just kind of coasted… they didn’t teach us different styles, just said write what you want. So I did. My post grad was a little more productive – due to the forced history writing subjects, but really, until you get out into the real world where you are paid to write, you have no clue.