I wish HD's could be delivered wirelessly

I love the wireless at Monash. Right now, I'm blogging from a tute which I'm falling asleep in, while looking like a super-conscientious student typing up notes. If only my laptop wasn't so flashy-yellow.

It has just come to my attention that we are about a month away from exams. It might be just me, but that seems really close. Like really, really close. Like I should be studying. Right now. About what we've covered this semester. Or, as the case may be, not covered.

I'll leave you with this song. Again, if you're reading this from Facebook, click on the 'view original post' link down the bottom to see it. Listen to it, be at peace, and don't cry too hard.



Word of the day: Wireless

Stats hater

I hate stats. That's why I'm doing this while listening to this lecture.

In other news, my exam timetable is rockin'. I've got an exam every week, and only three exams. And yet, I finish a week before all the exams end.

French test was given back to me. I got a really good mark, but I feel unfulfilled, because I made stupid, stupid mistakes, and they had stupid, stupid answers. It also didn't help that Irene got 100 on it. I hate smart people. In a nice way.

Word of the Day: Stats

Friday morning, rain is falling

Watch this clip, and understand:



Back to my original point! Today's dreary weather (it's not raining, but it's trying to) proves that there is something fundamentally wrong with uni on Fridays. (Remember last time I was moaning about how it was raining at uni - on a Friday?)

In other news, I found out that I have exactly 10 dollars in my wallet. I also have about 120 dollars in debt to my parents. I could withdraw money from the bank, but I have this strange - some would say irrational - aversion to withdrawing money from the bank. So I'll wait it out until tomorrow. Just got a message from Kathy asking me to work two shifts instead of my usual one, which is akin to asking "Do you want $100 instead of $50?" I don't know what you would do. But I said yes.

Word of the day: Cashless

Football fest

I spent a whole 30 minutes laughing at this clip. You'll need to turn on the sound though. It's the aural stimulation more than the visual stimulation which makes this clip exciting.

GOLAZOOOO! GOLAZOOOOO! GOLAZOGOLAZOGOLAZO! RONALDINHO GAUCHO GOLAAAAZZZZZZOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Man, those Portuguese/Spanish commentators get so worked up. It's funny as hell though.

Some actual awesome football in this morning's match: Arsenal vs Liverpool. Or more correctly, Liverpool vs Arsenal, as Liverpool were AT HOME:



Arshavin: 4. Makes me happy.

Je commence un nouveau semester avec l'examen francais

May or may not be grammatically correct, but roughly translates to "I have started a new semester with a French test." Which is not technically correct, but I don't know how to say "term" in French. Come to think of it, I don't think "semester" is the correct word for semester in French. But this is also a moot point, as today was neither the first day of a new term or a new semester. I don't know what they call it at uni. I'll settle for "first day back from mid-sem break." 

I did actually have a French test today. But it was ridiculously overhyped, like Jay Chou coming to Sydney, Windows Vista, and see-through glass toasters (so your toast can be toasted to the optimum level of browness. Alas, it can only do one piece of toast at any given moment. So really, you'd need two toasters to reach the optimal level of awesomeness. But I digress.) It was really easy. The main thing I'm worried about is whether I accidentally read "dress" as being "skirt," and accordingly stuffed up the translation to French.

Next up is the marketing midsem on Thursday. I think the most important thing to remember in marketing is that YouTube is full of weird and funny ads. You just need to know which keywords to type in.

Word of the Day: first day back from mid-sem break

Of Holidays and Never-ending Quests

For the nth time, holidays ("study break" in uni-ese) are drawing to a close. Strangely, this one seemed to be really stretched. As in, it seemed really long for a week. Possibly owing to my unusual amount of productiveness (when you start at zero, anything above that gets you to an unusual amount).

A strange thing that I've found myself doing of late is setting myself stupid and possibly unfulfillable tasks/quests. After my epic Quest for a New Scarf Under 30 Dollars, I now find myself in a Quest for New Bling and Jacket/Outer-Garment for a Total of Less than 100 Dollars (man, there's gotta be a better way to say that - QNBJOGTL100D doesn't quite work as a catchy acronym either). The theory goes that these items will help me through the next half a semester of uni, and possibly beyond. Don't ask me whose theory it is, I don't know either, and I may have possibly just made it up on the spot.

Word of the day: Questage (may or may not exist already)

What would you do?

Half of Australia is so blinded by their ignorance, xenophobia and racism that they forget that 'queue jumpers' and 'boat people' are real people who are, more often than not, in physical danger and risk persecution within their countries of origin.

So blinded are people that they fail to acknowledge that the very people that they are descended from were immigrants in every sense of the word. It is baffling that people feel such hatred to a group of people simply because they exist, and for no other reason. This hatred is even more puzzling when you take into consideration their almost-certain immigrant background.  

We hear people talk about 'floods' of illegal immigrants coming to our shores. This 'flood' consists of a few thousand every year. Surely even people who are blinded by their hatred of immigrants can do the maths and see what a tiny percentage this is of the Australian population. 

I would discuss the Universal Declaration of Human Rights here, but it is so outdated, narrow and is contravened so often that it seems pointless to refer to it. I think the use of the moral compass, which each of us is supposed to possess, is enough to determine whether people who are in danger in the country of origin should stay in this country or not.

I'm not advocating that we rip down our borders and let everyone in. All I'm saying is that we should at least give these people a 'fair go', an ideal so often quoted as something Australians can be proud of, yet so often missing in our society. Exemplifying this is one Internet 'commentator', who proposed a grand solution: "Don't let them in." I wonder how many people are this narrow minded and have this little empathy, understanding or morality.

For the racists and the xenophobes, one question I would ask you, because surely your mind is so closed that none of the above arguments will get through to you: what would you do? What would you do in the place of these people fleeing their countries out of fear and necessity?

Lucky Andrew

Sometimes, I just cannot believe how unlucky I am. It gets to the point where it borders on ridiculous and unbelievable, like someone setting you up the whole way.

Take today, as a completely random example. My mum decided to take us all to DFO in Moorabin, despite my insistence that I had grave misgivings about Moorabin and the DFO in it. 

We got there, all excited, then found out that it wasn't nearly as good as the Spencer's Street one, which I was suggesting we go to in the first place (for those of you that don't know, I've been on a scarf hunt for well over a month now). Further, there were hardly any scarves, or much clothing that was good in a general sense. My sisters, Carmen, and my mum all bought stuff. I didn't.

Come lunch, we stopped at the 'foodcourt' to dine. There, there was a dodgy Asian restaurant called 'Magic Wok,' which tasted vile and had people who couldn't speak English or Chinese, and Subway. I chose Subway. It finally turned out that there was another, much better foodcourt full of bright lights and good-looking food.

We eventually came upon a mountain of cheap denim. Problem was, there was also a mountain of people. It was crazy. There was a line to get in to the fitting room. 

To top all this misadventure off, my mum lost her $200 bracelet we bought her last Mother's Day. Sigh. Woe is me.

On a random note, basketball on Thursday! With NQT people! Should be a blast.

Word of the day: luck

Woo! Hol...study break.

When we were young, a holiday was a holiday. No work. Just play. 

"Study breaks," as they call them now, are almost worse than proper uni. Millions of assignments to do and squillions of tests to revise for. 

They should at least make it two weeks. That would aneasthisize the pain a bit.

Word of the day: study break

If only everyday was Thursday

Some days at uni are better than others. I've picked it now. Some days of the week are just better because of the way they are, and it doesn't really matter what happens on those days, they'll still be fairly good.

Mondays and Thursdays are the most excellent. The people, the classes, the breaks...the just click to form one awesome whole.

Wednesdays are...meh. Nothing much happens. Stats and International Studies. And not very many people seem to be around. 

Fridays are generally just torrid. This was epitomised by the ridiculous amount of rain yesterday. But even when it doesn't do that, Fridays are generally just annoying. The amount of people there are reduced by half, and...I dunno. It's just Friday.

Word of the day: Friday