My wild, delinquent ways

Woo, mid-sem break, and I've been a party boy in recent weeks. I've been to...would you believe it... two parties in the last two weeks! I should really cut back on my party-going. At least that's what my parents say. I think that this mandate has an element of self-interest, in that they wouldn't care if I didn't get them to pick me up at night. More on driving later.

So first up, on the Saturday night before mid-sem break, it was Orrin's 18th! About time too. I thought I was young. It was held at this Korean bbq/karaoke place called 'Four Seasons' in Glen Waverley, which charged ridiculous prices. Anyway, it was kind of me-and-Meng time more than Orrin time, as he was was too busy 'entertaining' his friends. Incidentally, me and Meng got him a soccer ball, which he seemed fairly pleased about. At the place, we met a bunch of new people, who were quite nice, albeit a bit odd. Oh, and Orrin's girlfriend. No comment.

A good night though. Karaoke was...meh. It's not really singing when you have to shout over twelve-odd people. How sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.

Next up was JC's 19th birthday dinner on last Saturday at the mysterious-sounding 'The Booth'. 19th isn't highlighted because it's really a nowhere birthday. Anyway, this gig had a sense of deja vu about it.

1. It was in a Chinese/Cantonese enclave. Instead of GW, it was in Box Hill.
2. Karaoke again, except this time I skipped it, owing to the physically demanding work I had the following day.

It was nice catching up with everyone, and finding that many people had become more mature and better to talk with, and how incompatible I was with others. A ball of a night. Highlight was the waitress giving us attitude. I thought she knew people on our table. And the lack of air-conditioning made it very atmospheric. So much so that Alyssa got a blood nose. That was kind of bad. But I hear that she's recovered from the loss of blood, so no lasting damage done.

Eugene and I got JC a pen and pacer set. Much more practical than 'The Biggest Loser' book with James Cheng photos pasted all over it.

I skipped on K because I was going to work with my Dad the next day. And work I did. I was completely knackered by the end. My thighs still hurt.

About that driving. I have completed my seventh lesson, and, according to driving instructor, should be on a road near you come Christmas. Bet you're all looking forward to that. And that way, I won't get any complaints even if I go to a party before breakfast, and one after dinner, each and every day.

Word of the day: Party Animal

Changeling

What's better than a midnight snack? A midnight post, of course. Duh.

Yesterday was a strange day. Well, not really. Just very...I dunno. I'm bad at English, and I have limited vocabulary, so leave me alone.

Anyway, last night we had dinner at a friend's house to celebrate Moon Cake Day, for want of better words. Incidentally, we also caught up with some old friends at said person's house. It was fun, because we kept bombarding balloons at Whitney, who offered no resistence at all, and I absolutely dominated some self-professed table tennis professionals with my disproportionately quick reflexes.

Anyway, it got me thinking. Some people change a lot in a very short time, some people change a lot in a long time, and some people are like a rock. They never change. Take Jono, for instance. He'll always be a pyromaniac. And Zorba will always be...idiosynchratic. But...I dunno. Everyone had changed since last I saw them. I have no idea where I'm going with this, but I think I should've gone to Nigel's barbecue instead. Shame he called me when the snags were already getting cold. Anyway, continuing on, I've observed change in many people apart from those already mentioned. In some ways, it's good. I mean, you don't want a person to stay the way they are forever. That'd just be bad, not to mention boring. But some just change too much, so much so that you don't know how you could have liked (or hated, I'm not always pessimistic) that person in the first place.

Strange creatures, humans.

Word of the day: change

Joy

What an explosive three weeks it has been. Huge. Absolutely epic. Let me take you back to the start of this horror three week period.

I had a three thousand word essay due, a macro mid-sem test, and an International Studies presentation to set up, and prepare for my clarinet exam. All in the one week. So basically, I stayed up until 1 o'clock every night from Sunday through to Tuesday night piecing together what should have been a very straightforward essay for biz law. The reason why it was unneccesarily complicated was because my partner was supposed to have written half. It turns out that not only did she not contribute any opinions, she also was unable to do her half because she had a mid-sem test, which the rest of us do not have. And the strange thing is, I still cannot figure out what she's busy doing, since Victor has informed me that she doesn't do her Accounting homework either. The macro mid-sem went surprisingly well, given that I hardly did any study. I ended up getting 28/40, which I thought was alright, because it makes up 20%, so it's really 14/20. That sounds much better. International studies presentation preparation was just that, except lacking the preparation. I thought I was bad, because I'd only done the speech and not the powerpoint slides like we had agreed on. End result was I was ahead of the whole group because I had done my speech, and they hadn't done anything. Not surprisingly, I completely screwed up my clarinet exam on Saturday, seeing as I hadn't practiced for pretty much the whole week, and owing to the fact that I'm a dud.

Week 2 was a blast. Tuesday was my International Studies presentation. I think I might have dragged the whole team down, because I take my speeches too casually. However, I think I may have dominated the individual mark, because I answered about 95% of the questions directed at us with my trademark witty/cutting/sarcastic/not funny humour, mixed in with some real information and puffery. And one of my group members, Steph, informed me that someone gave me a 10 out of 10 for individual effort, so I hope that's the average mark they all give me. Which brings me to one of the good points of group assignments: making new friends, like aforementioned group member. In that same tute, I also got my last essay back with an A written on the back. Naturally, I was stoked. Until I read the name up the top of the marking sheet. It said Joanna. I almost died of disappointment, because I knew my name wasn't Joanna. I informed my tutor, who told me that I got 'approximately' the same mark as Joanna. Whoever she is. Later, she emailed me (the tutor, that is) and told me I got B++. Which is not the same as A, whatever she might say. B++, in case you're wondering, because I have no idea why they use A's and B's, is 75 - 79.

After those two action-packed weeks, I thought I was going to get some respite. But, as with most bad things in life, work never ends. I now have two assignments due next week. And to compound my misery, I found out that next week is in fact not the last week of term, and that everyone had been misleading me when they told me we had two weeks of break. The week after the essays, I have another macro test. The joys that life brings.

Word of the day: Disappoinment