My accounts will all remain open, however I am allowing a close friend to change all of my passwords temporarily so that I am unable to use them. I will not be available through Facebook, Tumblr, Foursquare, or my key social network Twitter until July 1st.

My reasoning for this addresses my need to fully escape some personal and social aspects of the past year. Social media has not assisted in this goal thus far, and so I have no choice but to detatch myself from an online social circle I’ve been active in for two and a half years. This means meeting new people offline (a skill I am not particularly confident in at all) and engaging in other activities I need and desire to complete.

The Brisbane Twitter social group BTUB has been the love of my life since August 2008. I’ve only ever missed a few events due to sickness or uni assessment, and I don’t have any plans to stop going. I will be at this Friday’s May gathering, and if I don’t have an exam the day after June’s meet, I’ll be there too. If you’re in Brisbane and have a Twitter account, you are welcome to join us all for a drink at Greystone Bar in South Bank.

This plan is nothing personal against any friends I have met at BTUB. I love everyone so very much and don’t wish to lose them. I still very, very much wish to continue these friendships but cutting online contact is something I must do. I am afraid that I will be left out of many social gatherings for the duration of my scarce online presence, but humans have been speaking to each other without Internet connections for gazillions of years; surely I can handle it.

This semester at uni thus far has sucked quite tremendously. My study habits need improving, as I constantly avoid difficult and stressing tasks and the Internet is a very welcome distraction. I need to be brave for a bit in order to lift my grades (which are KILLER when I am not stressing out), and having been in financial stress for a number of years, I’m over that and will be working hard to find some cash so that I may function.

And I am wanting to focus on many other offline activities.

• I have been drumming in a band for a little while now and I want to improve my skills there. (If anyone wants to jam, hit me up!)
• I also took up ukulele a month or so ago, plus my bass guitar is still sitting in the corner after years waiting for this n00b to pick it up.
• The gym needs me to kick my own butt.
• There is one knitted glove that needs a partner.
• I want to learn Italian and continue my driving lessons.
• I have never read Catch 22, 1984, The Happiness Trap, Lolita, A Clockwork Orange or many other classics. I want to catch up on Jeffery Archer’s greats and The Dice Man again. Bukowski, Poe and The Desiderata of Happiness.
• I want to visit my sister and friends in Sydney during the mid-year break in June (but no, Monje, I won’t be moving there!)
• I also need sufficient work to make enough money to live.
• And my handwriting is appalling!

But what am I really expecting to happen? I will probably have no idea what’s happening in the news, and I bet half of the sites I am quitting will be completely new ones by July. I will get frustrated for a few weeks and maybe not be so diligent in my quest to quit smoking. Hell, I might even get my haircut at last!

So to recap, I will not be available through Facebook, Tumblr, Foursquare, or Twitter for two months. These accounts will remain open so I may easily return in July and so that my contact details will still be available on my Facebook profile. YouTube and my blogging pages, save for Tumblr, will be kept open, mainly for uni work and writing about how I’m going with the tech detox. It seems that a few people are actually interested in this plan of mine.

Today or tomorrow I will arrange with my contact to change my passwords and I will post when I know when exactly it will be. Hopefully I won’t miss any telephone numbers or emails that come through Facebook or Twitter.

But don’t be a stranger! My mobile number is on my Facebook profile (hence not closing my account) and my email address is me @ nicolejensen dot com – the contact form goes to me there. As a passionate host, I will definitely email and text around when I want to host Beatnik Party 2.0 and I’m always happy to catch up down at the pub when you’re in town.

Pip, pip.

My HUGE thanks go out to the 10thousandgirl team (specifically Tara Grimshaw, Anneli Knight, & Zoe Lamont), Jo Baker, ING Direct, Napoleon Perdis Make-Up Academy and Opportunity International Australia. I owe OIA a massive apology as I completely forgot to mention their presence at the workshop entirely.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzBcl4oFF9k

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RW3kXERrA0A

Cool things to check out:

I’m off to BTUB now. Catch you all another day!

Brisbane Twestival Local, September 2009

Oh, Christ! How this was a busy time for me. I wish I’d written about this earlier. But it pretty much went off with a bang and I’m still proud of how everyone worked well on it. My first major event as king pin and I think I did a pretty good job, despite my more natural outlook of criticising my hard work to the dickens.

March 2010 will see Twestival Global again, but due to the many activities I have planned for this year, I won’t be on board the committee other than to hand over the reigns.

Regarding BTUB and Brisbane Twitter social events, I am not likely to be organising any events or managing the calendar. 2009 was my year to volunteer and now I’m likely to not have any time for it. It’s been swell, tweeps, but I can’t do it any more.

University

In September I applied for a Bachelor of Business (Events) at Griffith University. In December I was accepted and so in March I shall start back at study after a year out of the lecture hall. Nice, nice! Rather excited actually and looking forward to it. My completed Diploma of Events Management means a year is taken off the BBusiness, so I’m only looking at a two-year outfit.

Employment!

Get this; I have a job! A job! Employment! And it is the best job I’ve ever had. (They know this already, so I’m not just talking it up here for brownie points) I’m the administration officer for Women in Technology, a winner industry organisation for women in the IT, biotech, engineering… any technology career path, actually. They do some pretty awesome things (for stacks of fantastic members who pay practically nothing for the networking opportunites), and I’m rather looking forward to organising the events and programs for this year. They even let me set up Twitter and facebook for them!

Moving house

After two years in St Lucia, I’ve now relocated to Stones Corner on Brisbane’s south-side. It means at least 50 minutes to work, uni and the boyfriend’s place; but at least it’s affordable and in a pretty cool area. Many thanks again to the miracle of my Twitter friends who spent one Saturday in December helping me move. That was EPIC and I will never forget the kindness of these people.

Internet Censorship

Here’s my political contention of recent months (even a year). The Australian Federal Government wants in your Internet on the premise of doing Australian families’ parenting for them. National mandatory Internet censorship (just think about each of those words: National. Mandatory. Censorship.) They plan to block websites which not only host illegal content but also “refused classification” content. This pretty much means content that is legal to view but is stuff that the government (or their stakeholders) don’t like. Not only is it a very scary thing for future governments and citizens to adhere to and control, but it’s going to be quite expensive, ineffective and… well, do you really want the government stopping your kids from getting useful information on how the world works?

I won’t blog all about this today, but for more information you can check out the amazing websites of Somebody Think of the Children, Electronic Frontiers Australia and the Brisbane filter opposition.

The LoveBuckles / Drumming

This is my boyfriend’s kicking band. They’ve had stacks of gigs lately, the most recent for my dear high school friend’s 21st in Coffs Harbour, NSW. It went OFF and I feel lucky that I was there to enable it. And go on road trip. And surround the sleeping drummer with a fort of milk crates. What a bunch of lads!

As for my own musical pursuits, I’m very happy to have my drums all out and shiny for practice. For someone who started in primary school, I should really be much better and I can’t wait to see improvements. You should come by for a jam one day!

And that’s it!

Phew. That’s the essentials for a NJ.com update. As for this website in 2010, it will be updated and mainly used for video blogs and reflections of events/business stuff learned at uni and WiT.