The Georgie Gazette #8

Just a catch-up of what has been happening this past week. Had a few early mornings and late nights, so sort of struggling to stay awake.

Mayday Parade concert

Last Friday, Nick, Brandon and I went to see Mayday Parade, Brandon’s favourite punk rock band. It had been some time since I had seen a punk rock band. I see a lot of local artists who song pop, rock, reggae and electronica, but punk rock? Not so much. So it’s really kind of refreshing and exciting to see an international band playing music like punk rock.

Mayday Parade on stage at the Metro Theatre
Mayday Parade performing

I was getting more pumped as the night went on. I don’t know all the lyrics to all of Mayday Parade’s music, and their song titles are hard to remember because they often have little to do with the content of the songs, but they put on a sweet show and they played some great hits.

The highlight was definitely when they played Miserable At Best, a heart-wrenching ballad. Everyone in the audience knew the words and it was bittersweet as we sang along until the band left the stage and left us singing for a good minute. I honestly wanted to cry. It was beautiful, the way everyone sung and there was a unity in the room. That became the end of the band’s set before they returned and performed I’d Hate To Be You When People Find Out What This Song Is About – another really powerful and emotional song – for their encore.

It was my first time seeing the band and even though I didn’t like their new album from this year, they only played two songs from it, and they played a lot of their popular, older stuff. Although I didn’t know what to expect, they did not disappoint.

I had my eyebrows threaded

In a similar light to what Liz posted recently about having her eyebrows threaded, I did the same!

I don’t wear makeup and I have never done anything with my eyebrows… except once plucking a few hairs because I thought that one side was thicker and taller than the other. I thought about having my eyebrows waxed but I asked some of my female coworkers and a few of them recommended threading. It was apparently not as painful or damaging to the skin.

One of my coworkers recommended Bombay Brow Bar, so after reading through their website I tried it out. It was a positive experience, and the lady who did my brows was very nice. It was really affordable as well. My eyebrows don’t look too much different but at least they are a heck of a lot neater! :)

How to let go of the fear of failure and make better goals

That was the title of my talk at the Girl Geek Sydney meetup on Tuesday night. It went really well and was really well received. I still get nervous when I do talks… even though I should be well used to it by now. I get the shakes at the beginning but I usually ease up pretty quickly.

Me presenting at Girl Geek Sydney
Me presenting at Girl Geek Sydney

The talk was actually inspired by an old post I wrote a while ago titled Performance Goals vs. Learning Goals. It was something I wrote when I was finishing up my Masters degree, and during the past year, it was on my mind a lot as the basis of a good talk. So I’m glad I got there, eventually!

My slides are on Dropbox but they don’t contain a lot of content. A lot of the value in the talk was in what I said. Unfortunately it was not recorded but maybe I will grab a recording in the future if I do the talk at one of our Bread Talk sessions at work.

Edit: Some of you were interested in listening to some of my talks! So I have a recording of my talk about how I became a web developer (which also has a transcript if you don’t feel like listening), and a more technical one on YouTube about commenting code. 👍

Hey Geronimo, take 32

Hey Geronimo up on stage
Hey Geronimo are at it again

Is it crazy that I have seen this band 32 times? The number seems almost surreal to me. We saw the band play on Wednesday night. They were supporting Lime Cordiale.

Which brings me to…

Waking Up Easy

Lime Cordiale have a new song called Waking Up Easy. It’s very enjoyable. It’s chilled out, relaxing to listen to, great road trip music. It’s pretty different to their other music but still catchy.

Until next time. 🤓

Comments on this post

I usually get my eyebrows threaded instead of plucked too! I don’t do it very often but the results are super nice and it feels more efficient then plucking eyebrows.

And that’s so cool that you did a speech! I would love to hear a recording of one of them some day. I totally feel you about feeling nervous before standing in front of a bunch of people to talk. I’ve never been much of a public speaker, so I always admire people who can do it!

oh my, the punk rock phase. i don’t listen to a lot of pop punk rock bands nowadays but i still have some of my staples like fall out boy and all time low though sometimes the differences between pop-punk and punk-rock are so blurry that i can’t really decode them (ha, a paramore’s song reference, if you know lol) i only know mayday parade by name so i don’t know the kind of songs they have. would you group them with bands like blink-182 and green day? i like bands but it’s a tough choice for me; some i like, others i don’t especially if they’re borderline hardcore (which is funny because old fall out boy, for instance, was quite… the punk rock emo kind, if that makes sense).

i never touched my eyebrows for anything! i did get them plucked but not by myself because i can’t do them and i’d rather leave them grow bushy rather than pluck them the wrong way so i get them plucked in the salon whenever i have my hair cut but even i don’t do that often. i don’t draw or thread them though since 1). i purposely grow out my bangs to cover them and 2). i’m not into arched eyebrows. for some reason, i prefer the natural, feathery bushy straight eyebrows as seen on japanese models hehehe but i really should try using eyebrow gel or something though so i won’t leave them looking thin and messy :P

it reminds me of how my cousin tried plucking her eyebrows alone following a youtube tutorial and she end up having really, really thin and quite bald eyebrows lmao it was embarrassing but hilarious.

WOW YOU DID A SPEECH. that’s so cool! i always think people who can give a speech as brave, admirable beings. i can never have the courage to talk in front of people. that gives me horrible anxiety and panic attacks :(

I would say Mayday Parade are more emo punk rock. But maybe more like My Chemical Romance and Yellowcard? So not really like Blink-182. It definitely reminds me of when I was 17 or around that age. Going through rough times and listening to that kind of music.

Well this was my first time! And I don’t know how other brow places are, but the one I went to is all about having your eyebrows growing neat and thicker. They actually turn away customers who are looking for very ‘fake, thin brows’. I think that’s a good sign because I do not want those kinds of eyebrows either. I want mine to look full but look really neat. :)

I have only been doing talks since last December. If you are interested, I have a recording of how I became a web developer (which also has a transcript if you don’t feel like listening). One of my very first talks was this technical one on YouTube about commenting code. Although I probably look like I’m doing a great job, I still get nerves when I get up there at first. I really think I should be used to it! It took me a lot of courage to get up there in the first place and I went through a lot of embarrassment and had technical issues one time. But the more you do it, the better you get. And my important thing is that I want to share my message with people. That is what I keep in mind when I do it, hard as it may be. :D

I never really listened to Mayday Parade, but I remember they used to be big amongst a few of friends back when I was in secondary school. They were going through a emo/scene phase, too.

I am a big fan of getting my eyebrows threaded. I was introduced to it by a friend a while back and I’ve never looked back. When you get someone who knows what they’re doing, they can make your eyebrows look hella neat. I love it :)

I’m glad your talk went well! Would love to hear one of your talks. I, personally, hate public speaking and I remember I HAD to do a module on public speaking in university. So I wrote my speech on how I hate public speaking. Went pretty well, although I did get the shakes and my voice was wavering so badly. I made it, though, and I haven’t had to do a public speech since.

Ah, I really like that song.

I definitely won’t look elsewhere now that threading my eyebrows was such a good experience. The pain of waxing does not sound worth it!

Haha that is an interesting topic to speak about. I used to really hate public speaking but as my career started to really take off, I found that I wanted to present some of the knowledge I knew. And I felt like doing it in front of an audience, so I still had the nerves and I was definitely putting myself in an uncomfortable position. But I learned to get rid of that fear, even though I still get the shakes! If you are interested in my talks, I have a recording of my talk about how I became a web developer (which also has a transcript if you don’t feel like listening), and a more technical one on YouTube about commenting code. :D

wow! you don’t need to do your eyebrows and this was your first time?
I was born with a unibrow and I liked it till a couple of years back when I started removing it, and threading is the only way of getting your eyebrows carved in most place here plus its super cheap!
I have to get them done at least once in two weeks to look decent!

It’s not really that I never needed to, I just never did anything with my eyebrows. Threading here is pretty cheap as well, I don’t know how often I need to do it exactly but I have another appointment coming up soon. :)

It’s so different seeing bands in concert than listening to the album – there’s so much energy there, it’s awesome. Your post is making me want to go see some bands – unfortunately all my favorites are based out of Europe and they only tour every once in awhile in the States, so it’s annoying to have to wait years for them to come back.

Ooh, congrats on the talk! I’m so glad it went well! I listened to your other one and it was great – I love hearing the stories from other women in tech and how they got there. It’s so important to shine light on everyone’s various experiences to normalize the idea of women in tech.

I’m glad you saw your favorite band again :D I need to see more bands but I never have money. I know…it sucks >.> but yeah, failure can be a hard thing to accept and sometimes you can do all the right things and still fail. It isn’t weakness but a part of life and we gotta accept that. I learned that from Star Trek Next Generation about that :D See? You can find wisdom in all sorts of places.

Oh, wow. Mayday Parade brings back so many memories from middle school! Miserable At Best used to be one of my favorite songs (I haven’t listened to it in forever). It was such a heartbreaking song at the time, and I’d probably think the same now. That’s cool you got to see them live! I don’t even know if they tour much in the US anymore. I haven’t really heard about them in recent years.

Congrats on another talk well-done! I hope you’re getting to be a little more comfortable with them. I know I’d be wicked nervous. :P And I’d love to see my favorite band (Bastille) 30+ times. I’m seeing them for the 2nd time in April and I can barely contain my excitement, even if it is 6 months away! Maybe in a few years I’ll be able to say it’s been 30 times. ;)

I have seen Bastille once! So even though they are your favourite band, we can say we are even. xD

Pretty neat to see Mayday Parade playing from town to town! Glad to see that you enjoyed the concert :’). I really like how you kept everything natural and avoided makeup XD. I don’t have that many hair on my eyebrow and resort to the eyebrow pencil for some confidence ;~;. Getting your hair threaded sounds like the best thing ever XD. I haven’t gotten my eyebrows threaded before. At the same time, I am usually up to date with plucking my eyebrows so I probably need to let some hair grow out to have it shaped.

Go you! I’m glad to see the talks you’re bossing in :). It’s cool how you’re talking about different things every time and inspiring people along the way! Meanwhile, I’m waiting for my first debut to talk at a student club (whenever that happens) XD.

It’s really cool that you’ve been going to concerts. I’ve never been to a punk rock concert but I think it would be fun (and loud 😬). And seeing a band a for 32 times in a row definitely shows commitment.

I don’t go to a lot of concerts but I do try go to the monthly open mic nights at a local coffee shop. The music the artists play are really chilled and laid back and kind of folksy.

I went back and listened to your talk about how you became a web developer and I loved it. It was so inspirational and it was exactly what I needed, being midway through the semester and running low on motivation.

I love the song! It’s very catchy and chill and something I would definitely add to my roadtrip playlist.

I’m glad you had a good time at the concert. It reminded of when I when I went to see Kasabian and at the end of Cutt Off when they walked off stage the audience carried on singing for a good 5 minutes before they came on for the encore.

I once got my eyebrows threaded and the result was pretty amazing. I’ve plucked them myself ever since them, but I always find that in the winter months my brows get out of control because without natural light I can’t see they stay hairs. Maybe I should bite the bullet (it hurt like hell last time) and get them threaded again. Or waxed.

Your experience with Kasabian sounds almost exactly like what I experienced! It was truly magical.

I should probably get my brows threaded more often, I feel like they get messy quick. I made another appointment but I am sure it will take some time before I really know how often I need to go. As for waxing, I have not ever done it, but I have heard it is a lot harsher and hurts more than threading. I can’t speak from my own experience, only other people’s. 😎