My Bieber Brings All the Chumps to the Yard

It has come to my attention that every post this week has been about irony. This was not my intention. It's just how things panned out. Completely unintentional. Or is it fate?

...

Anyway, moving on to other other-worldly forces. For want of a better word, it can be called uncanniness. The bitter side of me calls this force a conspiracy against Andrew.

Last semester, I had a clash between two exams. It's a nightmare. They basically lock you up for the whole day, and throw one of your clashed exams to the slot where it wasn't originally, and on the same day. Can't talk to anyone, leave the place or use my phone during the whole ordeal.

It's happened again. And this time it's even worse. I have one exam on the 10th, and two clash exams on the 11th. I challenge you to find a worser timetable anywhere.

I've spoken to everybody I know. Nobody has even heard of a clash exam, apart from my case. The typical response the first time around was "What do you then?".

It's all French's fault. Both times, it's been French that's clashed it all.

Looking on the bright side of life, there are two positives from this.
1. The two clashed exams I had last semester were the ones that I exceeded my own expectations in by some way. Then again, I had a week to study for both after my first exam. And to be fair, it was Management and French. Management I wasn't expecting a HD, but a D I thought was achievable, due to my rather surprisingly high marks in my second essay, which I cobbled together in two nights, and the fact that most of the questions were given to us beforehand. With French, the exam was a lot easier than expected. I don't think I'll get such luck this time around.
2. I get about 7 weeks of holidays. But I would much rather a week less holidays, and a more reasonable and fair exam timetable.

In other news, I have observed that Justin Bieber acts as a sort of magnet for cool people. In hopped Orrin into my car at the taxi loop, so I could legitimately get into carpool spots. Off I drove, when lo and behold, Imesha and Davy jaywalked in front of us. On the other side of the road, Chen, Lily and Sam Ho were all chilling. And all the while Bieber was playing in the car. Put two and two together for yourself.

Word of the Day: Timetabling

Period

It seems as though I am, once again, stuck in one of those periods of time where not very much seems to go right. Like always, it manifests itself in frustration, a short temper, and a little bit of sadness when I'm alone. I'm not going to talk about it all here, because (a) it would take a long while, which I don't have, and (b) you most likely don't want to hear about it. Just know that it's a combination of factors. People, studies, and other miscellaneous issues.

I was going to talk about something amusing and cheery that I observed the other day, but I'm just completely not in the mood. I have work in about an hour, but I'm not really in the mood for that either. I hate how the one time I actually feel like studying, I have to do something else.

It all comes back to irony in the end. It'll probably get better in a couple of days. It usually does.

Word of the Day: Issues

Iron

I feel like doing something stupid and reckless right now. Not something harmful. Just something different.

Like dyeing my hair blond, for example. I would, but I am morally and aesthetically opposed to it. Quite frankly, orange and blond look revolting on Asians. Maybe a light orange on girls. On guys, nah, revolting. My absolute favourite would have to be dark red/burgundy on girls, and brown comes a close second. I wouldn't mind mine being dark red. Having said that, however, I think my hair looks best in black. But I may just do something to it just for kicks. Watch the hair.

One could actually argue that dyeing my hair would be reckless in a harmful way. But I'll pretend that argument isn't valid.

This week's been quite topsy-turvy. Started off kinda dodgy, ended quite nicely. Sort of. Whatever. There were good moments throughout, so I'll just be happy with that I guess. It's just sometimes I wish the irony gods would leave me alone for a day or two. That'd be pretty sweet. Would've been a great end to the week if they hadn't interfered. But then, it wouldn't really be my life if it wasn't ironic, would it?

Word of the Day: Irony

Sticks and stones

I got called so many things today.

One that stuck out was 'hyper-sensitive'.

I reckon that's just a cop-out for people who treat me like rubbish. Or a defence for people that treat me like rubbish. "Oh, you're just over-sensitive. They probably didn't mean it that way."

Even when I have irrefutable evidence that they did, in fact, mean it that way, I'm still hyper-sensitive, because I get mad about it.

Well, in case you haven't noticed, I don't enjoy lying down and taking everything that people throw at me. If I think I've been wronged, I act accordingly. Each to his own style. Some people are really apathetic, and don't care that they're being insulted, or slighted, or whatever. I'm not like that. Sorry, but that's the way I am. And I never see people complaining about it when I stick up for them.

I actually reckon I have a pretty high tolerance level of people. It's not like I go around looking for fights and arguments. I try and avoid them if I can. It's just a few key things rile me. I don't even know what they are. I just know when people act that way, it makes me mad. And they don't understand that.

One of these things is being labeled something I'm not.

Which is why I'm not mad now. Because it may be partially true. I may be hyper-sensitive by other people's standards. But the person that brought this up is the most apathetic person I know. No matter how many times he's insulted, or treated like vermin, he'll keep crawling back to the people that do that to him, and still try and belong on their group. So really, it's a subjective label that he's giving me.

Yeah, I know I'm kind of over-reacting now. But like I said, I don't like being falsely labeled. And although it may be partially true that I am hyper-sensitive, it may also be partially untrue.

I'll stop ranting now. Today was actually a very good day, apart from that episode. Skipping a lecture today was surprisingly liberating. It felt great. Guilty pleasure and all that. And an unexpected surprise during the time gained skipping that lecture. Even that episode of labellage wasn't too bad, it's just that I've had time to brood about it. Brooding is dangerous.

And just for a final piece of irony (the hammer on the back of my watch has 'Irony' emblazoned on it. No joke. How fitting.), not two days ago, I was labeled as being 'hard' and 'not seeming to be very sensitive'. Go figure.

Word of the Day: Hyper

Less like the Easter bunny

Note to self: never, never, never put your eggs in one basket. Ever. No matter how good an idea it seems at the time.

Having said that, I know I'll do it again sometime soon. Mainly because I'm stupid and naive, but I just can't help it.

I hope the proverbial basket hasn't plummeted from wherever it's hanging yet, but all the indications of its imminent fall are there.

Word of the Day: Eggs

My Hero

The original of this song is a bit sugary for my liking, and I don't like the guy's voice. This Amy girl actually makes this song better. I aspire to be like her.





This one too. I've never been much of a Katy Perry fan, but I might obtain this song now.


Word of the Day: Fireflies

Knackered

I am quite knackered at the moment. Just thought I had to get it out there. All the work that I'm supposed to have done but haven't is starting to catch up with me now. Hopefully I have enough energy left to pull off another superhuman effort, and revise well for the French test on Monday, and blow this Company Law assignment right out of the water.

Head starting to throb slightly. Going to read a bit of Max Remy, then fall asleep with my face buried in the book.

Until next time.

Bazoing.

Zzzzzzzzz.

Word of the Day: Knackered

Game on!

I'm going to start playing a little game this week. A lot of people seem to be playing this game with me, so I might as well start.

I'm not going to reply to any messages this week. Even if they say "Quick, reply in 15 minutes, or you won't get a slice of this 15 million dollar jackpot that I just won!"

I've just complained to Victor about his non-reply. Like, for crying out loud, if I care enough to ask you how your job interview went, the least you could do is tell me how it went. He completely misconstrued the issue. This is what he told me (or words to this effect): "No offence, but the world doesn't revolve around you." I love how he always tries to teach me things that I've known for the last 15 years.

Anyway, the point is that I find it weird how some people always have time for everybody else except me. I mean, it's fairly obvious that they've checked their Facebook, or phone, or whatever. They respond pretty damn quickly when you say that you're shouting them dinner on Friday night. It's just an issue of respect.

Victor's not the only one either. I know some of my friends have reasonable excuses. And they don't do this non-reply thing very often. But it's just seemed to come clumped at one time, with everyone doing it. And some of these people, I know for certain that they've just ignored me, for whatever reason. Yes, I do know. I don't think that I'm as stupid as most people seem to think I am. I'm also a psychic. Either way, I can see right through you.

Word of the Day: Reply

A selection of songs that I have been listening to in unhealthy amounts

These songs have been stuck in my head at various times during the week, all for different reasons.



Stupid official clip won't let me embed it :(.




I swear he's 12.




Yeah. Just...yeah. First heard this in the pool hall with Victor actually. Again, can't embed official clip.




Dammit. Can't embed the official clip of this either.




Love this song. Amazing vocals.



Such a sweet, sweet love song. And short. Short and sweet. Relatively easy to play too.




And of course, this one. This one is like, permanently stuck in my head. Probably because I always find myself in the state that Usher finds himself in this song. Like, always. And, believe it or not, this clip is actually less gay than the official clip. No homo.


When things start getting tough, music is an oasis of solitude.

Word of the Day: Music

Jim

I was just in the gym, when a thought occurred to me.

The gym, of all places. I have no idea why. Maybe because my brain is relatively unoccupied when I'm working out. I should start thinking about more useful things during that time. Like Accounting, for instance. Or how to resolve life problems.

Anyway. It occurred to me that I know but a handful of people that have been as kind to me as I have been to them.

That's all really. It wasn't really a random thought. I mean, it only occurred to me then, but I think I've known for a while now, and it's been eating away at me. I just couldn't really nail what was bothering me a lot. But there we go. I think it came to me not because of one single thing that happened, but a few experiences, observations and realisations coming together. I'm not exactly sure if this is the case with other people, but I sure hope not. For their sake. I guess that's why a lot of people are more cagey than I am, and less willing to treat people nicely until they get to know them really, really well. I wish I was like them. It makes it a lot harder to get burnt. Time and again. Some wise guy (with all due respect) once said something along of the lines of:

Those that we love hurt us the most.

Just something to think about.

Enough introspective stuff now. I am trying to stick to being lighthearted on this blog, so here goes.

I was walking through Glen Waverley to have lunch with my family, when I noticed how short everybody was. It was ridiculous. Even the white people were shorter than average. I swear, hardly any of them would've topped 1.70m. I thought it was only with Chinamen in China, but apparently not. I felt like a giant.

Last night. I randomly felt a craving for a dog tag. Well, not randomly. I've been seeing them around lately. Leather jacket and dog tag combo. Dream machine right there. It's not that I can't afford a dog tag. But it seems lame to buy one for myself. But then, I don't really trust anyone else to get me one. Like, I want a good one, but not too pricey, and it looks nice. Something around the 100 - 150 mark. I don't know where to start looking. And you know what that means. It means I won't start looking. But seriously, I'd be stoked if someone just randomly got me something like that. Actually, I'd be pretty stoked if someone got me anything randomly. I like it when people give me random trinkets that I can carry around with me, or wear, or something. You know the deal.

I was actually discussing with Orrin while having a look at some ridiculously priced dog tags. Dog tag from T & Co for like 400. And he's like:

But how would your dog know the difference between a T & Co dog tag and a cheap one?

I thought it was a joke, albeit not a very funny one. But a joke nonetheless. I talk about another one. And he pretty much says the same thing. And then he's like "I'm being serious here." Is it just me, or does him not knowing what a dog tag is akin to somebody not knowing what jeans are? Maybe a tad extreme, but I thought it was fairly common knowledge. Expected better from someone who idolises Tupac.

Back to the present. It was rather cold again today. So much so that I missed my sister's scarf that I left at home. That's two days of scarfage now (or required scarfage). One more day like this, and it'll be winter.

And to finish on a grim note, the work, which I should've done more of during the break, has started to pile up. And, when I'm under pressure, I start working harder. Bizarre. So I'm starting to work harder now. And trying to break the trend of positive correlation between frequency of blogging and amount of work that needs to be done. See, I sound nerdier already. Actually, I'm fairly sure I sound like that normally anyway.

Word of the Day: Jim

Huggles

So first day back at uni after the break, and boy am I over it already. This due, that due, test next week, test this week, test in a month. Only eight more weeks left Andrew. Breathe easy.

And as if to reflect what kind of day it's going to be for me, the weather at uni is overcast, gloomy, windy, and steadily getting worse.

Feeling quite down in the dumps right now. Just wagged a lecture that could potentially be useful, and for a reason which I convinced myself was plausible - that is, I needed to finish my accounting assignment. Which I could've done some other time. I think the real reason was so that I could find certain people during this illegal break.

Which brings my to the next point about why I'm feeling a bit blue. I get worried when people don't pick up their phones. I know it's unreasonable, in that they've probably left it at home or something, but still. I just get worried that (a) something's happened to them, and (b) I've somehow upset them and they're not picking up because of that.

The third thing that's getting me all down is that I'm all alone at uni. And I don't operate very well when I'm alone at uni.

There was a brief spark of brightness in all this gloom, however. Imesha bailed me out of my Accounting nightmare in a quick 40 minute debrief. Thank-you again. And I complained to Irene about our workload for a bit, which was therapeutic. After that, I ran into Meng. And after that, I ran into Tim and Felita, two people that I haven't seen for absolutely ages. Hugs all around. Love hugs. Gave me a boost. For about five minutes.

Actually, I think the picking up the phone thing aside and the current loneliness, it's been an alright day so far. If only that phone would get picked up.

Word of the Day: Telephone

French = English spoken with a French accent

Yep, almost end of the mid-sem break, and I have done zero work. Or, as they say in French, zero.

I'm kind of worried about this now. I really needed to have done some work. All my units are harder than ever. Oh well. Guess that means that I'll just have to kick into gear during uni proper.

Having said that, this has been on of the more enjoyable mid-sem breaks that I've had. Ask me about it sometime, and I might tell you about it. It's too hard to articulate in written words, which here means that it sounds a bit lame written down.

Another two months or so of uni to look forward to now. The first month seemed to take so long.

Sigh.

Word of the Day: Franglish

It was not a nightmare

Wooooo. Three days of ups and downs. One could almost say it's been hektik. If I were to sketch a graph about it, it'd be almost parabolic. Almost.

Okay, so slight exaggeration. But only slightly.

It started on Monday. Duh.

Because I apparently drive a yellow Ford Falcon, and because my name is apparently Sanjay (this is all according to Meng), I drove all the way to Clayton to pick Meng up, and then back my way to pick Vincenzo up to go to Linda's Ambassador reunion bash. I drove them down to Forest Hill for some last-minute shopping, which was a party in itself.

Arriving at Linda's street, I was all like "Why is this car stalking me?" Unbeknownst to me, it was Linda stalking us, in her stalkermobile. Mega confusion about house numbers, but we got there in the end.

And a quaint little house she has. It's of the warm and cosy variety, with a massive garden. Enormous garden. Could fit a circus tent there. And chickens.

Anyway, we finally got the oven going thanks to the genius of Vince, and other people started turning up. We ended up cooking lasagne, with Seb in charge. I learnt the well-guarded secret of how to make lemon and lime bitters. A secret which has been passed down the generations of the Gao family, and they guard with their lives. Kind of makes you wonder how I know it now.

We met Linda's massive brother, Jonath...I mean, Bill. He's in Year 7, and he's about a head taller than I am. We had some Wii fun. Well, they did. The irony is I never got to face off against Bill. He's pretty cool, by the way. We also had a bonfire and Mafia madness. I think there are some people who are still confused about the logic and object of the game, but what can you do? Run a Mafia seminar?

It was at this point where I was made to feel awkward. I made a gay reference in the presence of a gay person. Like, it wasn't that bad. It's not like I was insulting gay people. Or even laughing at them. But still, I feel kind of bad for doing it now.

We then played darts. Clearly, I'm awesome at that game. More like awesome at putting holes in the wall behind the dartboard!

Driving home was a bit scary. I ran a red light right outside the house, purely by accident, because it was an obscure red light, and there were no cars. The roads were actually empty.

Very fun night in all, apart from the no alcohol business, and the tactless gay reference. Not that I drink alcohol or anything, but a white wine wouldn't have gone amiss. Actually, I should have just had one. Stupid. Regrets. However, I did not turn a night out into a nightmare, so I did my parents, and the Government, proud.

Tuesday was more Wii fun at Banh's. Again, fewer people turned up than expected, but Linda's is the only thing I've been to that had more people turn up than expected. Like, ever. So it's really not that great a surprise. And it was still very fun. Well, I thought so.

From thereon in, it started getting bad. When I got home, my father was not a happy chappy. Some issues with relatives in that place called China. Not that that directly affected me or anything, but I just find it hard to be happy when people close to me aren't. Maybe I'm like some sort of reverse Dementor.

Then, the yesterday morning, Arsenal got thumped by a very good Barcelona team. I'm actually proud of the lads though. To get into the lead against Barca, even if for a few minutes, at the Camp Nou, takes some doing. Especially with five of their best players out, including their captain and best midfielder in the world. Playing against a team with a player like Messi. Absolutely majestic. You forget that he's only 168cm tall, or something like that. That's how scary he is. He just runs into the box at will, dragging you left, right, left, right. At pace too. And on aggregate, the Gunners scored three goals against the best team in Europe. Not many teams can pull that off.

Ok, so not much of a parabola. Told you it was a bit of an exaggeration. I should probably get some work done soon.

Word of the Day: Parabola

I used to love H.E.R.

I liked old Facebook. It encouraged the novel idea of writing on other people's walls, kind of like a free SMS service. It was fun, and made your wall all colourful.

Now people just comment. I don't think people new to Facebook even know what a wall-to-wall is. It's just old people like me. Now it's just turned into this sort of Twitter/Myspace thing. They're putting the emphasis on the stupidest things. Like joining pages, for example.

I don't know. I get annoyed by the weirdest things. This trend, for example.

I liked it better when it was just a simple, idiotic back-and-forth between Walls.

Ah, look at me. Reminiscing about old times already. And I'm not even 21. But the old times often seem to be the best times.

Word of the Day: Facebook

A bit of quoteage

Monday seriously cannot come quick enough.

I've been meaning to study, and work, and stuff, but it just hasn't been happening. Bad study habits, developed as a result for being a semi-genius in primary school and early secondary school. Or I like to think that. It's a better than just admitting that I just have issues getting started on work, and I procrastinate far too much. Like, I look for novel ways to procrastinate. Blogging, for instance. And that's unintentional procrastination. It begs the question: how often do I procrastinate intentionally.

But things should start getting good from Monday, starting with dinner at Linda Gao's, where I'll be acting as the resident taxi driver/chef/waiter. According to Meng, acting in the capacity of a taxi driver automatically makes my name Sanjay. Every time I hear that name, I think of the chubby Indian kid in the year below us at Melbourne High, who I saw at Sofia's once.

Anyway, an update on the Ultimate Man project. A description of the Ultimate Man project can be found here.

I'm making more money than I ever have. My friends are mostly cool with me. I'm getting along fine and dandy with my family. I've discarded people in my life who have been detrimental to me. I have a car. I'm tanker than I have been in living memory. I got into the interview stage of KPMG, who incidentally still haven't contacted me yet. So the only things that are missing from this picture, at this point in time, is a girl, and getting tanker. Weird how the first is probably the most important, and hardest to attain, section of the project, and the latter takes consistent, frequent dedication and time commitment. As someone once said:

Nothing worth having comes easy.

It's great. It's almost on par with this quote, which is also very relevant:

It's weird that whatever else is on your mind, whether it's the downfall of global economics or terrible environmental troubles, the thing that always gets you most is when you fancy someone.

Thank-you, Chris Martin. I love that quote. I think I actually came up with it before hearing about it, but he's more famous, so he gets it out there first. Damn thief.

So I'm still working on the project. Fun times in prospect.

Word of the Day: Project

Ho hum

The much-anticipated break has arrived, and I feel distinctly underwhelmed.

Breaks from uni are actually fairly boring. Should heat up next week, but today has been fairly humdrum.

Also, girls can be quite moody. That's all I really wanted to say today. Just an observation.

Also also, yesterday I bought a Michael Jordan poster. It's pretty maddogz. It's the 'Wings' poster, which has the quote from William Blake: 'No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings'. Love that poster. The weird thing is I was looking at buying it the other day, and, lo-and-behold, there it was, on sale at uni. Now there's just the small matter of getting it framed. It's huge.

Yesterday, I also made a killing on the stock market. LGL jumped a dollar, from 3 bucks to 4, because of an attempted acquisition. That's on top of the 30c I'd already made on it. It's awesome when something you're learning applies in real life i.e. accounting for business combinations, and this acquisition. Be buying you all new computers soon.

My goal this break is to finish all my assignments. Yes, it's impossible. So what.

Word of the Day: Humdrum