Hello

Welcome to Earth for Beginners.

For all of my childhood and the greater part of my adult life, I felt other people knew things I didn'€™t. I suspected that there was some kind of manual for life that everyone else got issued one day at school, to which they'€™ve been secretly referring ever since. No one ever talks about these manuals because, well, everyone has been sworn to secrecy for a really good reason, which, no doubt, is in the manual.

I was moved around a bit when I was young and I thought that'€™s why I missed out on the handout. I also suspect that every country has a separate manual that they don't issue to late comers. I've moved countries a few times, and I'd never got the manual for the last country before I moved to the new country, where I also didn't get the manual, which makes me even more clueless. I also believe every city has a different appendix they attach to the manual I didn't get, confusing me further.

Throughout most of my life I've felt like a complete beginner, getting through life on earth without an instruction manual. While the way I feel hasn't changed, I now realize this is pretty much how everybody feels. None of us got the manual. Nobody really knows anything about anything. Well except for a few people who know everything about everything. But nobody likes them anyway.

I still believe, deep down, that somewhere, there is a manual with a title very similar to this blog's title and in it are all the things we need to know. And one day ... but until then I'€™ll just make it up as I go along.

- Susi Rajah, August 20, 2007

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PS It seems that my blog has attracted a few people who didn't get the manual on the Internet. It makes me very happy that they've braved cyberspace to come and see me. So, this is for them: everything on here is archived by date and category. And wherever you see a bit of green type, you can click on it and something will happen. I promise.

PPS The results of the "Why are you reading this blog?" poll were as follows. 34% of you were reading because I told you to, which proves that I am very bossy. 26% of you made up your own answer which shows you are non-conformists and original thinkers, or that you don't know how to answer a multiple choice question. 24% of you were looking for answers to life's larger questions and you were looking on my blog, which probably means you will never find those answers. 10% of you were hoping to see pictures of naked people, which makes me feel oddly proud of you, for no good reason. The remaining 6% of you were bored.

PPPS August 28, 2007. Sydney Welles now has her own blog. Check it out. (For those who didn't get the manual on the Internet, just click anywhere on the blue box.

Comments

[josh]

you are brilliant! comments! bring 'em on.

[Shampa De]

Susi,

Congrats on the bouncing, baby blog! It's great to have Susi-isms to crack me up, even if it's from all the way across the country.

[Jack]

Susi,

Congratulations on your bouncing baby blog. I look forward to seeing it mature and turn into a grown up blog. More great reading and entertainment from our favourite author. Thrilled to see the postcards as well. Good luck with it all and I'll drop in regularly.

Jack

[Adam]

Hi Susi, have you worked with me at my current employer? I only ask because Brad Pitts run the show here. Dogs are pack animals, that may explain it. I am often tempted to put peanut butter on a tennis ball and drop it down the elevator shaft.

[Adam]

I know the analogy should be more towards Julie Ryans, but I could not think of anything clever about a the Ryans.