New Years Eve 2011

New Years Eve, in case you hadn't noticed, and, I guess a recap of the year is in order.

I can't even be bothered going through everything that's happened this year, both on a personal level and more widely. All the disasters, the economy, job hunting, uni, exams, friends, jettisoning of friends, the passing of Steve Jobs, more music released from my favourite artists for me to enjoy, the departure of Fabregas, Sarah's outrageous ATAR score, and many, many, many other things besides, all added up to a year that had its moments, and had its bad moments. And, of course, it wouldn't be a normal year without Arsenal going another season trophyless.

It just occurred to me that this year, my girl problems seemed to have reduced drastically. I think it's mainly to do with the fact that the problems seem to resolve themselves, in that the girls I get interested in are usually taken, and the case is closed quicker than you can say 'sup', and the other ones are just me being gutless. The problems still exist, but I had other things that annoyed me more.

It's been a pretty good year. I mean, I don't think there's ever been a year for me which has been truly horrible. Obviously, it could have been a lot better, but isn't that always the case, to varying degrees?

A big part of this year has been photography. Thanks to my lovely friends gifting me a DSLR for my birthday, I've been able to go on photo rampages of fairly high quality. It's something that I'd missed, because photography with the old SLR was positively correlated to the price of developing photos. In human speak, film and developing photos got really expensive and inconvenient, and, as a result, I stopped using the camera that used film. I need to spend some money on some photography equipment, but that's another story for another time.

It's been a good release at times when I needed a break, or just to get away from things that were bugging me. Just a good opportunity to go and explore a little bit, look at things a bit differently, and it reminds me, whenever I hop behind the lens, that despite all the insignificant trials and tribulations that I have, and all the sadness and madness in the world, that there is so much beauty and happiness in the world, if only I stop to observe. And sometimes actively seek.

Finally, a shout out to my friends and family. My friends, for helping me with so many different things throughout the year. I've jettisoned a number of now ex-friends who were just terrible human beings, and some not so much jettisoned as distanced because they annoy me. Whatever. The thing that I am really thankful for is that I've gotten to be much better friends with friends that actually enjoy my company, and vice versa. Some (actually, most) of you, I've spent less time with than I would have liked to, but that's kind of how the cookie crumbles. You're all wonderful people. You know who you are. And if you don't, or you're uncertain, you're probably not one of them. Or you can just ask me to make sure.

Finally finally, my family. They've been there through my failures, and my semi-successes, and are always there, even when nobody else is. When I've expected them to be disappointed, they've been nothing but supportive. Of course, like with my friends, there are moments when we clash, but they're few and far between, and often quickly forgotten. I'm pretty glad that Sarah got the 99.85. Made everyone really happy, mostly because it was so unexpected, but also because it was so outrageously good, and kind of balances out my academic mediocrity. More on that in another post, I think.

So, friends, and family, I hope you have an even more fun, fabulous, fantastic, and fruitful year than the one that's just passed, and I hope to share many more happy moments, and be able to help you through times of trouble (hope there's not too many of those) in 2012.

See you soon.

Word of the Day: 2011    

Christmas 2011

Not much to say really, other than to wish you all a Merry Christmas.

So here it is.

Merry Christmas! Hope everyone's had a great day/night, full of joy, frivolity, and happiness. The weather's not been too good, but hopefully that hasn't dampened (boom boom) your plans too much.

Word of the Day: Frivolity

The Poltergeist

There's a couple of irrational peeves that I want to talk about today (in chronological observation order).

1. A Southern Cross graphic. It's just not cool. Anywhere. Unless you're a flag. I thought tattoos of them were pretty bad. Then, while shovelling mulch today, I heard/observed a male 'person' driving a fully sick Commodore with a frigging massive Southern Cross on the back.

Yeah, we get it. You're proud that you're white, and you want to let the entire world know that you only ever associate with white people. Well done.

This isn't quite an irrational annoyance. There's quite a sound reason behind it, really. It goes something like: people who have Southern Cross motifs somewhere on their person (or, in this particular case, vehicle) are generally the same people who run around whining 'We grew here, you flew here' to anyone who isn't white (meaning, of course, that they're not born here), as if this gave them some inviolable right to treat you as a sub-standard human being.

Anyway, I generalise. So I guess I'm as bad as these people. I'm sure some of them are lovely people. Or maybe even most of them.  

2. People that try to be funny, but get it hopelessly wrong, because what they're saying is factually incorrect. As in, they think what they're saying is true, and not intentionally saying untruths.

For example, someone on Facebook today was being all witty and stuff, going on to state that a song sounded like 'Empire State of Mind' by Alicia Keyes.

There's just so many things wrong with that statement, I'm not even going to spend time on it. Mostly because I don't want to spend the next hour writing this up.

I don't know why it riles me. I mean, we all make mistakes. Me more so than others. But yeah, there you go. Irrational.

3. Dodgily-designed websites. You know, government websites, school intranets. Those types. The ones that make you bang your head against the table. It just makes you think, don't you guys get paid to design these websites? Did you try using the website before making it available to all and sundry? Why are they so bad?

So, ok, you kind of expect these to be bad, because they have a virtual monopoly in their respective fields.

But Comsec? Seriously? You make a bazillion dollars. Per minute. Surely you could have trialled the website beforehand.

I'm sure there are more. But I think that'll do for now.

Word of the Day: Peeve

People make mistake

Of course, people make mistake.

It's just not often that people make three mistakes of epic proportions, one after the other. 

First mistake

On Sunday, I told Banh that we'd be in the city by quarter to 1, when in fact, I meant quarter to 2. To make matters worse, he even confirmed it with me, and asked me why it was so early. And I thought nothing of it. Felt pretty bad afterwards. 

Second mistake

Drove to Irene's house today, thinking that Zara, her, and I were going for coffee at 2. Waited for half an hour, called and texted several times. Zara finally put me out of my misery by telling me that we had actually scheduled it for tomorrow. Went home and banged my head against the wall for a bit. 

I guess it was karma for my first mistake. 

Third mistake

The typo at the start and in the title. Gotcha! (Not giving Meng a wake-up call didn't count. He's 22. He can't seriously expect me to give him a wake up call at 12 noon. Most people grow out of that by the time they start primary school.)


I blame all of these things on the fact that it's holidays. And everybody knows that during holidays, you lose all sense of time and day. Yeah. That must be it. 

*******

Anyway, on to some decidedly error-free stuff.

Kylie's party on Sunday was quite fun. Even if you take away everything else, it was on a boat. I mean, how many twenty-firsts have you had on a boat?

Time to relive a classic

My only disappointment was the fact that she didn't think to invite T-Pain. Don't know how that slipped her mind.

Also, going to Gold Coast in February with my homedawgs. Yeeeeeeeeaaaahh!

Word of the Day: Mistake

Like a graph

I think happiness is cyclical for me. Kind of like a sine graph or something.

I was troughing a bit until about a few days ago. After that, I was very much peaking. Now I'm definitely, definitely, troughed.

Once again, I'll have to do things the hard way. If it can be done at all.

Word of the Day: Trough

My eyes have always, followed you, around the room

It's fascinating, and a little bit strange, that when I learn to play and/or sing a song, I seem to connect to it so much better than when I just passively listen to it.

I think it may have something to do with me actually actively feeling the lyrics and the music. It just all seems to mean so much more. I kind of start understanding the lyrics, and seeing all the little nuances and subtleties in the music.

This bout of reflection was brought about by me learning how to play 'If I Had A Gun' by Noel Gallagher earlier today.

The structure of the song, in tandem with the arrangement of the lyrics, is actually quite different and clever. Very subtle stuff going on.

I've heard the song quite a few times. I just never really actively absorbed.



On that note, some of my favourite lyricists:

• Noel Gallagher
• Chris Martin
• John Mayer
• Jay-Z

Coincidentally, they also write nice melodies (except, obviously, Jay). 

Their lyrics are very clever, subtle, and take a few listens to understand what's going on. I'd like to contrast them to, say, Eminem, Lil Wayne, Green Day, and Bruno Mars. While their songs may be ok (some more ok than others), their lyrics are somewhat plain and blunt. James Blunt. 

Back to real life. 

So yesterday, I went to see Victory play Gold Coast at the AAMI.

The stadium was quite impressive, but practical at the same time. Quite modern, but not ugly modern like Fed Square. The seats were much, much closer to the action than at the Etihad. Made for a much better viewing experience. 

The game itself was a thriller, but a bit disappointing from Victory's perspective. Any way you look at it, conceding two while being two up against the team that's propping up the bottom of the ladder is poor, even if you only have 10 men. Anyway, they got there in the end, which I guess is a positive. 

They also played a lot better than I expected they would. Very little hoofball, and they actually passed it along the ground. 

All in all, a pretty enjoyable afternoon out. 

Also, Arsenal drew with Fulham, and van Persie didn't score. Coincidence? Maybe. However, the winning streak and the scoring streak had to end sometime. I just wish it wasn't at the same time.

Word of the Day: Nuances

Sometimes...

...I wish I didn't suck so much at life.

Despite that, I'm not actually feeling all that down about anything really.

It's been a pretty good week, all in all. Been having good times, spending too much money, moving firewood, so on and so forth.

But yeah, it's just always something at the back of my mind, which I think I've canvassed enough here. It's just really annoying. So much so, that sometimes I lose concentration at inopportune moments, such as when I'm driving, and end up doing something stupid like going over a roundabout instead of around. At least it wasn't a cat or something. That'd be really bad.

Then, after I do that something stupid, I berate myself, and tell myself to concentrate. Don't know why I've started doing that. It's just plain weird.

It always gets kind of like this during holidays for me. I think it's mostly to do with having lots of free time to think about random things that make me somewhat unhappy.

To finish on a random note, I need more business shirts. Actually, just shirts in general. But I am too poor/frugal to pay a lot for them.

In sum, woe is me.

Word of the Day: Frugal

I can shuffle cards pretty well...

Irene's 21st on Friday night really compounded my hatred for this 'song':



I already had pre-conceived hatred towards it, mostly because it's stupid, inane, repetitive, ear-hurting, and stupid.

Friday night took it to a whole new level, because it was only then that I grasped the full import of the song's power.

It makes it mandatory for everyone to shuffle. Everyone. At the same time.

Of course, poor little me can't shuffle. Well, I can't do many things. Including dancing. Except maybe a moonwalk, and Usher twirling. And then, only in socks.

So yeah, I can't shuffle.

And, of couse, I just happen to be friends with super talented people like Zara, who, of course, can shuffle, and everything else, and whatnot. While I flail around like some kind of Official-Pokemon-League-cap-wearing fish on dry land. Ironically, kind of like a certain type of Pokemon.

Me: I flail at dancing. And many other things besides.

Yeah. 

Good times though. Oddly enough, one of the better twenty-firsts that I've been to, despite the fact that I pretty much didn't know anybody that I talked to there apart from Zara (and sort of John Razos, who came dressed as a 90s auditor. Good old John Razos). It may have been the 90s-style costumes, it may have been the company (such that it was), or the ambience of the place. The hallowed complex where I also had my 21st, albeit in the inferior room. Or maybe it's because one high-quality companion is equivalent to many mediocre ones. 

Also, Pikachu plushie is a good wingman. Or, at least, conversation starter. 

"So, I heard you like the Pokemons?"

"Evidently."

"How good was [insert appropriate colour of choice] version? Ah, those were the days. Wait, I still play."

Alright, that'll do. Off to learn how to shuffle. 

Word of the Day: Shuffle 

A little bit lost, a tad regretful, quite a bit annoyed, and slightly lonely.

I need to get me a girlfriend.

Word of the Day: Need

Awesome late-night musings

An interesting thought just occurred to me while I lay here flinging a variety of virtual avian fowls at a miasma of assorted objects.

Well, more accurately, I just recalled an interesting thought that I've been harbouring in my brain for a while.

We all know girls (or maybe even guys) that always set really strict criteria for what they perceive to be absolutely essential in a member of the opposite sex in order for them to be attracted to said person.

What I find most interesting about this is how often these criteria are fulfilled, even to a mild extent.

Take, for example, one of my friends. Either implied, or through explicit statement, a guy she would consider going out with would have to be:
1. Awesome at life i.e. working in a Big 4 accounting firm or a law firm of similar standing (her words, not mine)
2. Hot
3. Not from the west side
4. Pretty much just be awesome.

The guy she's now dating, and has been for a while, fulfils maybe Number 2. Probably the most subjective criterion there.

There is no meaning to what I'm writing right now. They're just submerged random thoughts emerging to the fore during some midnight thinking.

But I do find it interesting how people often persist with these 'criteria', despite the evident uselessness of them.

They're pretty fun to come up with, but not really the most productive use of time. They're more of an idealistic representation of what we would like that special person to be. Someone that we will probably never meet.

And that's probably for the better. It seems to me that people can learn a lot through learning to cope with other people's faults, which might then help them identify and rectify their own.

Through this inane discussion of nothing much, it has also become apparent to me how love transcends all barriers. Even though we often attempt to construct materialistic, vain, arbitrary barriers in an attempt to stagnate its progress, it almost always manages to surpass these constricting ties.

In the words of my t-shirt, "True love will find you in the end."

Awwwwww.

Word of the Day: Stagnate

Occupy Your Face!

Sorry for taking so long constructing this post. I was busy trying to study for exams.

Which is massively ironic, in light of everything that I'm going to discuss.

Anyway. Let's do a fun little exercise that The Age did. It's called 'stereotyping'.

People love it. Makes things a lot easier, when you can categorise people based on race.

Disregarding the fact that *shockhorror* not every person in each race is the same as each other, let's do a bit of stereotyping and generalisation.

White people love footy and beer, and not going to uni is ok. In fact, it might even be encouraged.

Asian people, not so much. There's a pressure to actually go to uni and complete your degree.

For white people, not having a high paying job or a successful career is ok.

For Asians, not so much.

Let me reiterate, I know that this isn't the case for every single person in every single race. But let's just play The Age at their own game. 

So if we go with the assumption that people can be stereotyped as above, then why would it be surprising that Asians 'dominate' selective-entry schools? If Asians, as The Age so eloquently state, have pressure from their parents to achieve at school, while white people don't, then why would it be absurd that there are more Asians at an elite school?

What worries me more is that the contention is not so much that it's absurd. What worries me is that the contention that The Age is making is that there is something wrong with this. That white people have some divine right to be the dominant race at a selective entry school.

Simply put, nobody was complaining when it was mostly white people at Melbourne High and Mac Rob a few decades ago.

There's no rules forbidding anyone from taking the exam, doing well enough, and getting in. In fact, I would argue that it would, or should, be easier for home-grown Aussies to get in, for reasons that I don't think I need to go into.

Let's just assume that there is something wrong with having too many Asians at selective entry high schools (whatever that even means. I mean, for the purposes of this argument, am I Asian? Certainly genetically. But, for all intents and purposes, I am an Australian.) What is the proposed solution? Prevent Asians from caring about their education and their future, and hence, stop them from studying as hard?

Andrew Bolt, for once, quite nicely summed it up.

There's no distinction for students at those schools. We don't go around not talking to white people because they're white. We just have fewer white friends mostly because it's a cultural thing. We tend to do different things in our spare time. Have different family values. In sum, not so much to talk about. We still have white friends though. Just less of them.

I mean, the whole thing is stupid. Most people never think about these things in terms of race. I, for one, don't look at someone and go, hey, they're white, must act differently towards them.

Anyway, whatever. Work hard, or be born smart and work a little bit, and you'll probably end up at a selective entry school (if you're even aware of their existence - I know most people aren't), regardless of your race.

The topic of working hard to get further in life is a nice segue into my next little topic.

Some of you may have noticed this thing taking place. It's called Occupy Melbourne (or insert any other city in the developed world).

If this were happening in any other city, I could understand.

But this is Melbourne.

The same Melbourne that has a real unemployment rate that economists consider to be zero.

The same Melbourne where you get free education, and get paid by the Government if you're out of work.

The same Melbourne that my father came to, twenty years ago, with no money, no relatives, no friends, and no understanding of the language or culture, and managed to make a living, and eventually afford a house, a car, and schooling for his children.

He's not the only one. Probably 99% of my friends are the children of immigrants. And they're doing alright.

If someone like my father, and countless other immigrants, who have nothing when they come here, can more than make ends meet, I think there's rarely an excuse for people that grow up here not to.

Granted, my dad is a man of incredible drive and dedication. He worked, and still does work, 9, 10, 11 hours a day, often seven days a week. With maybe a 15 minute lunch break. Sometimes with no lunch break.

He is also smart. The work he's doing now is experiencing a shortage of people that will probably not reverse any time soon.

But that didn't happen straight away. He also experienced many setbacks, times when he didn't know whether it would all work out. There were times when he worried whether he'd make enough money to put food on the table for dinner that night.

Just as an aside, I don't think I'm anywhere near as good as he is. For one, I think I'd find it very hard to leave a place that I'd called home for 30-odd years, to go to a place that I knew nothing about, in search of a better future.

While I know that not everyone is as determined, driven, smart, or brave as him, a lot of it is down to hard work. So, I guess, mainly determination.

Yes, I know that some people experience bad luck. I also know that not everyone comes from an ideal background that's conducive to being educated, or getting good jobs.

I know that, because my father came from a similar background. So did my mother.

But, conversely, many people at this Occupy Melbourne thing have a much better foundation than he does. 99% of it comes from the fact that they grew up here. They're native speakers of the language. They were educated until at least Year 10. They have a safety net to fall back on.

Let me make it clear what it was like when my parents came here, just after I was born. They had nobody to rely on. Nothing. If they starved, they starved. The Government offered no assistance. When they arrived, it was during the worst recession since the Great Depression. And they managed to get through all that.

Yes, corporate greed is excessive sometimes. Was, is, probably always will be. It's human nature. Put yourself in their position. Would you take more?

I'm not saying it's right, but what it seems to me is that all these people ranting against 'capitalism' in favour of 'socialism' (as an aside, I doubt many of them know what either of these words actually mean) are only against it not because there's anything intrinsically wrong with capitalism, but because capitalism isn't handing a job to them. Or whatever they want capitalism to hand to them. I'm a little confused about that point, but whatever. Put another way, they'd be perfectly happy if capitalism were to give them a house, a car, and no mortgage to pay.

The most profound moment, for me, in this whole saga, was one of my Facebook 'friends' harping on about how he'd spent the day at the protests.

He'd just come back from a trip around Europe. Last time I checked, airfares alone were around $4000.

How hypocritical is that? There's nothing wrong with going to Europe. Australia's a liberal democracy. Do whatever you want with your money, as long as it's not harming anyone. But please, don't then turn around two weeks after you come back from your sojourn around Europe, and complain about your lack of money/job. Money needs to be saved. Nobody owes you anything. If you decide to spend it on a trip around wherever, don't go and protest about how corporate leaders are taking your money. They're not. You're spending it all away.

I know this doesn't apply to everyone there, but it seems to be a common theme. Not just at these protests, but just around the place. People spending all their money, having good times, getting wasted, whatnot, then complaining that they don't have enough money to do it all again.

It's clear that most people protesting don't see the apparent contradiction in their actions. Otherwise, they wouldn't be protesting. The whole thing is just one, big confused mess. What it seems to me is that people are using this as a way to vent their frustrations. Any frustrations. Not necessarily anything to do with anything.

Again, I acknowledge the fact that there are genuinely unfortunate people out there. They deserve our help. In many cases, we do try to help them. What's distressing, at least in my mind, is when people go and blow probably close to at least $10 000 on a jolly holiday, and then complain about their lack of money.

Of all places, Melbourne is the last place you'd expect something like this to happen. The very fact that you have time and energy to camp in the city for a week, and not starve to death, or have to worry about actually getting that food that you're lacking, is testament to this.

Further, the corporate 'fat cats' didn't just become fat cats overnight. Whether you like to acknowledge it or not, many of them worked hard for it.

Lindsay Fox dropped out of school because he was no good at it. He started driving trucks. He eventually saved up, and bought one. Then several. Eventually, he built a company out of it.

Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Jay-Z, similar stories. Often coming from less-than-ideal backgrounds.

Yes, there is an element of fortune to becoming a bazillionaire. Probably a large part of it.

But do you think they just sat there, and it just happened for them, with no work on their part?

Very rarely do fat cats become fat cats for no reason. While what they get paid, and what they take, seems, and probably is, excessive, it didn't just happen either.

Also, fat cats employ people. Topple big corporations, and you'll lose more jobs.



I'll give you this awesome slogan from the movement.

GREED IS OVER. REAL DEMOCRACY NOW.

What. The. Hell.

The two things aren't mutually exclusive. There are greedy people in democracies. Actually, I would contend that greedy people make up the vast majority of any society, not just democracies.

To summarise, I find it genuinely amazing how people are so self-entitled, and think that they deserve to have money handed out to them, especially in a place like Melbourne, where money is often handed out to them. While I know not everybody there is like that, many of them are.

I think I'll just leave it there. I feel a bout of compulsive head-banging on the table coming on.

Word of the Day: Occupy

Fruit Ninja Memories

It has just occurred to me that I neglected to mention a very important, and very enjoyable, part of my time so far at uni.

Roadtrips!

We had so much fun on them. So much so that we ended up discussing how awesome it would be if we could do them when we're 50, with various responsibilities and stuff. I hope we can.

You may ask why it randomly came to me just now.

Well, thanks for asking. It came to me because I was playing Fruit Ninja, jogging my memory of last summer's roadtrip, where four or five of us sat around playing Fruit Ninja at any one time. Oh, the things we do when we're young and foolish.

Also, it's remarkable how silly little things like that can take you back in time.

Word of the Day: Ninja

Last day of Undergrad (hopefully) Part III - The end of the trilogy - Momentous moments

So, the final part of this poorly-constructed and ill-thought-out saga.

Momentous moments at uni.

To be honest, most of the momentous stuff that happened at uni probably shouldn't be canvassed again, as they've probably been discussed to death already.

Here's a few to sate your appetite (in roughly chronological order).

Getting lost on the first day of uni and running into a fellow lostie. That person would later become known to me as 'Stef Lim'. She was officially the first person that I talked to at uni that I didn't know previously. Important for several reasons. Firstly, it made me realise that these mythical 'girls' that people kept talking about weren't all that scary.

I kid. I live in a house full of girls. But I guess it did show me that people in general weren't really all that scary.

Secondly, it showed me how big the uni was.

Gigantic. Enormous. To this day, I've probably only traversed about a third of the place. I thought Melbourne High was big. This was next-level big.

Becoming friends with Irene. She was pretty much the first friend that I made in Arts. Actually, close to the first friend I made at uni. I had a relative heap of friends brought over from high school in Commerce, and a few in Arts, but none in French. She was the first, and pretty much only, until I became friends with Zara. Kinda sad, now that I think about it. This was a year since I'd started uni. In between, I made friends with a couple of Arts kids.

Ambassador Camp. This was off the hook. Firstly (not necessarily most importantly), I busted my knee. It's still giving me problems. More so recently, but you don't want to hear about that.

More importantly, I met, and became friends with, many fantastic individuals, many of whom I count among my closest friends. I think it was here that I sourced most of my uni friends that I actually talk to.

Also during this time, James Cheng and Meng had to put up with me being a cripple. They helped me get places, and were just generally there. I don't really know where I'm going by bringing this up, but as I don't think I've mentioned it anywhere else, I'd just like to say that I was very touched by their help, and I appreciated it greatly, even though it didn't seem like a big deal. But let me tell you, it's a big deal when someone helps carry your luggage for you when you're struggling on one leg, like some kind of...one legged man.

Getting my car. Man, was that liberating. Still is. Cannot believe that I put up with catching the bus for two years. I felt like I had finally properly become a uni student.

Failing a unit. It sucked, mostly because I had to do it again, and overload the next semester, and went through the next exam period thinking I'd failed it again.

Passing said unit. Was pretty elated. Celebrated by going to a pre-booked U2 gig.

Passing the next semester's units in relative flying colours. Yeah!

I'm sorry if I've left any momentous people/events out. I kind of wrote this up in about 20 minutes. Forgive me. I'm sure I have left something/s out, but it can't really be helped, unless you want to remind me. Please do.

All in all, I find it interesting how, like high school, it's not the academic stuff you remember so much, but the other stuff that goes on. All the fun times, the bad times, the sad times, the good times. And the friends that you make and break going through all that.

To close this saga, I'd just like to say that it's been good. Apart from the unpleasant exams business, uni's been pretty fun and enriching. It's had it's bad moments, but I think they were more to do with life, and less to do with uni.

Anyway, I'll probably be back for more next year. So it's not really goodbye. But I just felt like getting something down for now.

So, next up, Occupy Melbourne. I'll talk about the Melbourne High School Asian Invasion a bit after that, because the former is of more pressing concern.

Until next time.

Word of the Day: Momentous  

Last day of Undergrad (hopefully) Part II - Bad Stuff (Part 2 of a trilogy).

Yes, I've decided to make this a trilogy. For no particular reason, but also because I don't feel like writing that much in one go.

Anyway, the bad stuff that happened, and still does happen, at, or because of, uni.

While uni had many wonderful people, there were many, many bad eggs. Just people that generally grate on my nerves. There weren't so many at high school. Maybe because there were less people. But I'm just more inclined to think that people weren't so nerve-gratey.

Friends are generally quite hard to locate during breaks and stuff.

The workload is massive. I thought VCE was bad. It was easy in comparison to this stuff.

It's always windy. Always. Without fail.

Student politics. I don't want to vote for you. Or anyone else. Go away.

Parking prices. I'd rather not say how much exactly for a blue permit. It seems to make the pain more real.

Many first-year law students. Private school kids that love letting people know that they're doing law, and that they're rich. Not all of them. Most of my closest friends do Law, and they're pretty alright.

That's about all I can think of right now. I'm sure there are many more, but those are the things that stand out/come to mind right now.

So, next up, the final part of the trilogy: Momentous Moments. Until next time.

Word of the Day: Grate

Last day of undergrad (hopefully)

So today, I had what should be my last proper day of undergrad uni.

And what a glorious day it was. So sunny, and full of vibrance and stuff.

I should be going back next year for post grad, but I'd just like to take this moment to reflect, think, ponder, and ruminate, amongst other things, as this kind of feels like the end of uni. We'll see where my fancy takes me.

First and foremost, I've found that uni has been an extremely rewarding and amazing experience. On many levels. I'll get to that in a second.

People often ask me, 'Did you enjoy high school more, or do you like uni more?' And I've always said that they're different. And they are. They both have pros and cons. The first example I can come up with off the top of my head is friendships. At high school, friends just happened. There wasn't really any special effort required. You usually just clicked.

This got a lot harder at uni. Especially with girls. Many of them seem to have a sort of barrier, whether conscious or subconscious, which gives off the vibe that they don't want to talk to you. It's not just girls, but happens more with girls. I guess it's a consequence of growing up into a young adult. Many just think they're too cool for other people.

In conclusion, friends are a lot harder to make at uni. But as a consequence, many of the ones that you do make there are truly fantastic people.

Which brings me nicely to the point that I said I'd discuss - why uni was so amazing.

I made great friends. Truly fantastic human beings. However, as importantly, or perhaps more so, my friendships with a lot of my good friends from high school grew stronger. While these two groups of friends are different, they're both very important to me, and lay deep within my heart. Or something like that.

Awwww.

Anyway. Next point. It's opened my eyes. I've seen a lot of people. Good people. But mostly, I've learned about really weird and downright just nasty, unpleasant people. Unreasonable people. If you've been following this blog over the years, you'll probably have an inkling of what I'm on about here.

The education side of uni was a bit meh. I just find it a little bit ridiculous how units so diverse and different can all follow the same format of a lecture and a tutorial. Sometimes, I don't think that's the best way to teach. I think it's probably the easiest, but easy isn't always good. At least not for the recipients.

I also enjoyed the opportunities to improve myself at Monash. Leaders Program, Ambassadors Program, were great. Met so many good friends through the Ambassador's Program.

Things that I enjoyed the most. Random collection of memories can come at a later date. Right now, you can have a random selection of things that I enjoyed.

I enjoyed having coffee with friends during random breaks. A token uni experience.

Random wanderings with friends.

Bumping into friends, and stopping to chat for 15 minutes, despite already being late for class.

Hanging in the Law Library for the first couple of years.

Sitting on the grass on a sunny day (such as today) with friends. Or even by myself.

Making great friends in the most random of circumstances e.g. Zara and I. Don't know how we became friends. But there you go.

Having a social life. I didn't really have one in high school. Yes, Melbourne High. We kicked out all the white people, and now the entire school lacks a social life. Or something along those lines. Look for a post about that whole kerfuffle soonish.

Three-hour long breaks. Another quintessential uni experience.

Not having to wear school uniform. I miss it occasionally, but then those thoughts get crushed after I remember how bad it was wearing that stupid blazer, or having to carry it in my bag, when it was mildly warm, and I was carrying my sax and clarinet.

I think I'll do things that I found bad in the next one. So, next up will be: bad things, random collection of momentous memories, and The Age Melbourne High School article.

Toodles for now.

Word of the Day: Undergrad

I will never win this game, without you

Suddenly started listening to this song obsessively, for no apparent reason. Maybe it's some kind of subconscious...something. Whatever.

This assignment is giving me the irrates. I don't know how to do it. There's nobody I can really go to for help. And I have other stuff to deal with as well.

Stuff that requires hard work, hours upon hours of work, I can deal with, as long as I have a little bit of a clue what's going on. I just hate trying to do something without any modicum of certainty. Or, at least, something that matters.

Whatever. I'll consult with group members and see if they know a bit more than I. I can't see how they could possibly know less than me. Knowing less than me would take them into negative knowledge territory. Which is slightly silly.

Word of the Day: Modicum

RIP Steve Jobs

I think it's fitting that I started writing this post on my iPhone, and that I'm now completing it on my MacBook Air.

Because this is the legacy that Steve Jobs has left behind.

He made extraordinary technology accessible to, and useable, by commoners like me.

How he was an amazing person and all that has been canvassed by better writers elsewhere. Suffice to say that I found him to be a charismatic, intelligent business leader. A bit of an egomaniac, but so are most great men. I actually talked about him as a business leader I admired during my last interview, which was on the date that he stepped down as CEO, funnily enough.

So I'll just talk about why his death has affected me somewhat more strongly than I would have imagined.

I got my first iPod waaaaay back in Year 9. It looked a lot like this:

In fact, you could argue that it looked exactly like that. 

The first generation iPod mini.

It was wonderful. The build quality, the ability of it to store a bazillion songs on it, the click wheel, the colour, the cool factor, the headphones. Keep in mind that this was off the back of having owned a Sony Walkman. Which, as things go, wasn't too bad. But this was a whole new level. 

I remember that it also cost a gazillion dollars. Now that I look back on it, it was really expensive. And I got it a week before the second gen came out for a hundred dollars cheaper. 

But I didn't care. I still think this is the best-looking iPod, apart from the one that I got next, after this was no longer fit for my needs. 

 This, too, was awesome. It let me listen to music in colour.

But seriously, it was great. 

The best thing about these things was that they bring back such memories. They went places with me. They made my otherwise interminable train trips in the mornings that much more bearable. They blocked out the noises of squealing babies, squawking schoolgirls, squabbling adults and general noisiness. 

Sadly, the black fella didn't last as long as the blue fella. It died one day after leaving it in a car that was a bit too hot. The blue fella still works though, which I think is quite an achievement. 

Anyway, I'm now on to an iPhone and a MacBook Air, and I love them both. The iPhone because it's so easy to use, and allows me to do everything I need it to. Yeah, Android, blah blah blah. I'd rather have a good-looking, operational phone and user interface. I don't need my phone to be able to fly jet planes. 

Funniest thing is, even those that berate Apple and their products, use Apple products to do it. I read some Tweet by some person today, screaming that Steve Jobs was evil and such like. I'll let the picture do the talking.

My MacBook Air, I love because it weighs practically nothing, looks beautiful, boots up in 10 seconds flat, has almost zero lag, has a full size keyboard, and a five-hour battery life. Pretty amazing if you think about it. 

Steve Jobs, with his creativity and superb market and financial intuition, made all of these devices possible. I loved using every single one of them, and I don't think it would be too hard to see that those devices, along with others that you might have heard of (this little thing called the iPad), have changed entire industries. Music, movies, computers, phones. 

Further, I think almost everyone I know has had an iPod at some stage. It's not every day somebody creates something that pervasive, that iconic, and that awesome. 

Oh yes, and Pixar. Absolutely love Pixar films. Every single one, except maybe Cars, is a masterpiece. Seriously.

I can't speak for everyone, but the products that you created have  left a lasting, and, I hope, positive impression on me. A life cut far too short. At 56, he probably should have been in his prime.

Well done on a successful life, Mr. Jobs. Rest in peace.   

Word of the Day: Jobs

I'm so happy, cos today, I found my friends. Or something like that.

Sigh. Uni resumes, and with it, all the fun and frivolity that normally comes with education.

So let us do another awesome rewind thing back to the start of the mid-sem break.

Friday
Went to see Nirvana with Zara and her friends. Quite a friendly bunch. Her friends, not Nirvana. Although I'm sure they're alright too. Or were alright. Whatever. Quite an enjoyable night out. Should do it again some time.

Nirvana was also good. Their gigs were...interesting. And loud. But mostly interesting.



Favourite song off the album.

Just got Nevermind today. Came included with the price of the ticket. Hence the extortionate prices.

Allow me to have a little rant about parcel delivery.

For some reason, despite there being people in my house 99.78% of the day, nobody ever seems to be able to receive the parcel.

I don't know what advantage they get from having me drive to the post office to pick it up, but it must be something, otherwise they wouldn't do it. I'll figure it out one day.

Also, Allmusic, or whoever it was that shipped it to me, is ridiculous. I ordered it on Saturday, they sent me an email on the following Friday to tell me that they had shipped it. It takes them a week to ship a CD. And then I have to go and get it on the following Tuesday. Almost a week-and-a-half to get a CD out to me. And then, it isn't even to me. I have to go get it. Which, if you think about it, is beyond stupid, because it's almost as inconvenient as driving out to buy it. It's slower too. And they wonder why people download music.

Saturday
Journeyed to the West Side with my loyal lackey, Banh, to attend Orrin's 21st. Was quite an enjoyable night. Orrin's girlfriend, Cathy, kept attacking me and imploring me to spin Simon Dinh's music, and not mine. She also found calling me Amy Huang hilariously funny. This is why you don't get drunk, children. Or, at least, if you're going to get drunk, make sure it's after a decent amount of alcohol, and not after 0.45 of a beer or whatever it was.

Also, don't be an annoying drunk.

Anyway, Simmo switched his music on, and, funnily enough, it was the same music that I had on. The min of a drunk person works in funny ways.

I also found out that taking photos at parties is great. It lets you slip away from people that you don't necessarily want to talk to, or if you just want a break, and to observe what other people are getting up to from a distance. Amazing.



Speaking of two-bob, Arsenal lost again. I'm getting pretty sick of us losing. I wish we'd win against someone decent once in a while.

Word of the Day: Frivolity

I bet she doesn't know my name. Hypocrite.

The irony is, of course, squillions of people know her name. And know it very well. Due in no little part to this song.

One of the greatest songs of all time. Or something like that. And of course, Kanye West production.

I like the video as well. It's very dreamy and sweet, I think. And a little bit old school, which always gets me.

I was going to scrawl a bit about the weekend and all that, but I'm not going to do it now, because it's still officially the weekend, and I'm feeling a tad sleepy and not on the ball. The second reason's probably more applicable. I do like to be on the ball when I'm writing.

Have a good one.

Word of the Day: Scrawl

Midsem brake

At long last, we're here. Midsem break. A chance to take it slightly slower for a day or two.

And listen to good music!

Watching Nirvana at the cinemas tonight. Still don't know what time it is, but I'm sure we'll get there.

Word of the Day: Brake

I wonder if lemons conduct electricity

When life gives me lemons...I play semi-nonsensical Oasis songs.

Today wasn't actually all that bad. Actually, it would've been positively good but for a few things that kind of tainted its goodness. That's the nature of things I guess. Only takes a little bit of badness to do a lot of damage to the goodness. 

Lots of people today just seemed to be in Annoy Andrew mode. Some people couldn't help it, I guess. You could say it's their default setting. In chronological order:

1. The student group politics/propaganda/whatever they are. Technically not just today, but whatever. They are absolutely the worst. Everywhere I go, I just get mobbed. Finally voted for them today. Irene had a genuinely brilliant idea to go vote and get 'I voted' stickers. It gave me an unprecedented amount of immunity. Some idiots still pestered me, but I showed them a thing or two. These guys are intrinsically annoying as anything.
2. The guys in my International Studies tute that kept saying nukular. As in nuclear. It was so bad, it even sort of infected my tutor. For these people, default setting. 
3. I think that's about it really.

And I realise how complainy my posts have been lately, so just to show you I'm not such a complainy person, good things did happen today. 

1. Irene bought me a mocha for about the 535083920th time. Made me unreasonably happy. I gotta get her a coffee or something one of these days. 
2. Got ambushed by James Cheng. Was pretty funny. Mainly because it was the worst ambush ever.
3. Sort-of-accidentally ran into Banh at the Campus Centre flogging tickets and got free Skittles. Most of the joy was from accidentally-sort-of running into him, but Skittles are good too. 

That's about it really. So most of the badness was really all in one of the annoying events. The other two were quite trivial, and one of them was actually semi-amusing. I'll let you sort out which. Until next time, go find your very own electric girlfriend. 

Word of the Day: Badness 

Masterdream

I had the strangest dream just then. Let's go through it.

So I was in Metung. For some reason, Banh turned up. He was waiting for his family to turn up. I was with my family. We were talking about fish or something. I think he was there to give me something, or something like that. He was going to leave, being all like "I can wait by myself if you want, I'll leave you guys along," being all mopey and suchlike.

So my dad, being the nice guy he is, says, "Nah, you can stay with us for a couple of hours." Naturally, Banh is delighted at this.

Fast forward a couple of hours.

We're on Masterchef. I don't know how that happened. Somehow, we got transported to Masterchef Metung.

I was stuck on a team with an Asian girl and some other dude that I can't remember now. I don't think I ever knew who they were. My other friends were there competing against me. James Cheng and Banh were definitely there.

So anyway, we kept losing, but none of the people there actually cooked anything at all. I just know that after every round (each round involved us sitting there for 10 seconds), the judges would give us ridiculously low scores. Like, 52% for me, and a few 40s for me other team mates. I knew that they were biased and out to get me. I mean, how is it even possible to get that low in cooking-but-not-actually? In the end, my whole team got put up for elimination. Then the girl in our team was punished with watching me and the other guy having to have a cook-off.

I was incensed. I had outscored both of them, but the girl got immunity (somehow I knew that that was immunity).

We went outside, and shook hands to say bye to everybody. Meng had suddenly appeared as a contestant, so I was shaking hands with him. Zara had just turned up as well, so we chatted for a bit. I think she wished me luck as well. I think she was the only one that knew I was up for the elimination challenge, such that it was. None of my friends who were actually there knew, but Zara did. Typical. I knew they didn't know, because they were all surprised when I told them, or my mystery friend behind me told them the reason for why I kept telling people I was nervous. "He's in the elimination challenge!!!" So, well done Zara.

I can't remember whether I kept saying I was nervous to just one person, or everyone. Whatever. Point is, I was nervous. "I don't know how to cook anything," I kept saying. Which, now that I think about it, is not true. But since when have dreams made sense? I just know that I kept thinking of what I was going to make for entree, and thinking that all I knew how to cook was tofu. Nice tofu, but tofu will only get you so far in Masterchef Metung.

It was at this point I woke up. I think it's because it just became way too unrealistic. I mean, me, not being able to cook? That probably created a hole in the space-time continuum of the dream. The other parts were zany, but that last part was just the proverbial straw the broke the proverbial camel's back.

Actually, it might just've been the alarm waking me up. I hate it when it does that. I was looking forward to the cook-off too, pitting my skills against an unknown foe, and ultimately overcoming biased judges. Maybe next time I'm in Metung.

Word of the Day: Continuum

But it's provocative!

Been playing this with alarming frequency in my car for the past two weeks or so. Very catchy beat and pseudo-hookline. Oh, and Jay-Z and Kanye. On the same track. And random guy in the middle of the song.

I'm liable to go Michael, take your pick, Jackson, Tyson, Jordan

Awesome line.

In other news, my Week from Hell is going pretty badly. Stuff is turning out to be harder than I anticipated. The midsem test for Corp Fi was ok. Pretty sure I screwed up the last question hard, but did alright overall hopefully.

Time to soldier on. Or perhaps sleep. Sleep seems quite appealing right about now.

Word of the Day: Pseudo

It's been a while

A little bit less than 10 years ago, I stood in my backyard, with a newspaper in my hands. I stared at the front page for probably a full three minutes before taking inside and showing my parents.

Looking back, I'm actually quite astounded at how I knew, or at least felt, that the bombing of the World Trade Centre, what was to become known as the September 11 attacks, was going to have a massive effect.

It has. In so many ways. Economically. Culturally. Politically. Spiritually, even.

I can't say I felt sad right then. That would be a lie. Probably because I'm not American, and those weren't my people. I do feel really sorry for those that died, as well as their families. Having said that, I also feel sorry for people that die in war, and their families.

I can only imagine what I would be like if something like that happened in Melbourne (touchwood that it never does). I would be angry. Even if nobody I knew was affected, I'd still be angry beyond belief.

That's what sucks about terrorist attacks. And, I guess, any kind of attack. I'd be angry because I, and 99.99% of the people in Australia, have no beef with any country, or any race. We're just trying to mind our own business, and do things. The same goes for the guys living in Iraq, or in Afghanistan. Most of them are just trying to take care of their families.

They want enough rice. They don’t want to be shot at. They want one day to be much the same as another. They don’t want our white skins around telling them what they want. 

- Graham Greene, The Quiet American

While the novel is about the American invasion of Vietnam, I find it interesting, and poignant, that the same could be said for the people on the other side of the proverbial fence. Except maybe substitute 'rice' with just 'food'.  

So, in summary, I think war just sucks. In so many ways. No matter which side you're on.

On a slight tangent, this also made me realise how much times have changed. I would've been in about Year 7 then, and I don't think I'd even contemplated the existence of online news. Probably not disimilar to most of the citizens of the world at the time. Now that's my primary source of news. Truly amazing, when you think about it. The leaps and bounds that we can make in 10 years. 

Rest in peace, victims of war. 

Word of the Day: September

Adam Le Awesome

Ah, the sweet strains of Adam Levine's voice. Makes any song good.

I should really not be on here. I just found out that my week from hell is a lot worse than I first thought it was.

Why do things almost always work out that way? I'd like for something, just once in a while, to be easier than I originally thought it would be.

Word of the Day: Strains

Freaky coincidence again?

Ok, I swear I had no idea it was Freddie Mercury's birthday today until I Youtubed 'Don't Stop Me Now' last night, and then only after I looked at it again after chucking it on my blog. Weird thing is, it wasn't even a random compulsion that drove me to Youtube the song. On my laptop, my screensaver pops up with all the album covers of the music that I have in iTunes.

Really cool.

Anyway, they made it stupid with the new operating system, so that when you move your mouse, the screensaver doesn't go away. No. It does much more than that.

It lets you click the album, and it plays!

Pretty cool, except for the fact that you can't get rid of the screensaver by moving your mouse.

But I digress. What happened was that I accidentally clicked on the album, 'Jazz', by Queen. And the only song I have from that album is, of course, 'Don't Stop Me Now'. And at the time, I thought, huh, crazy coincidence, good motivating song for the upcoming week from hell.

But this, this is some next-level crazy coincidence. Lots of weird coincidences happened back in my high school days - we'd talk about something random and obscure in class, and the next day it'd be in the mX - but this just takes the cake.

Anyway, I guess all that's left is to wish Freddie Mercury happy birthday. Happy birthday, Freddie Mercury.

Word of the Day: Mercury

PS: Check out the Google banner. It's fantastic.

I'm having a ball

Another week from hell coming right up. Bring it on, I say. Bring it!



Word of the Day: Queen

Feel like Chris Browning someone right about now

So I had a semi-bad day that doesn't have much prospect of getting better.

I was going to take it out of Chris Brown, he of the gold-Rolex-throwing fame, but decided against it, because that's already been done and dusted. The fact that he attempted to throw a Rolex that costs as much as my car 'to safety' because it was starting to come loose speaks volumes about him anyway.

Isn't he just the coolest guy evarrrr?!

Back to the topic at hand.

Today was semi-bad mostly because the seminar that I, and, to a certain extent, Danny, had been planning for the better part of the last three months ended up with three people attending. Three. Out of 21 people that had said they were attending on Facebook.

Yeah, I know it's Facebook. I understand that you should probably expect half the people listed as 'Attending' to actually attend. I just don't understand the people that had class, and said they were attending. I mean, clearly they had no intention to do so. Why they felt compelled to put themselves down as attending I'll never know. Many lessons learnt, and all that.

What sucked the most was that it was actually quite a good gig. Like, I was actually interested. It was a lot better than I originally expected it to be.

Oh well. It matters little now. I just would've liked for something that I put a bit of effort to come off.

On a (very) bright note, Arsenal signed a bazillion people last night! Almost literally. Probably most excited about Arteta, and most satisfied with Mertesacker. Hasn't quite sunk in yet. Not that I'm THAT happy about it, it's just hard to envision them in the jersey. Something to look forward to I guess.

Also, I finally got my copy of the deluxe edition of Watch the Throne. Incidentally, the first CD I've bought in almost a decade. Amazing record, just for the fact that Jay-Z and Kanye are up on it. More on that later.

Word of the Day: Rolex 

When it rains, it pours. But only when it rains. Otherwise, it doesn't really pour.

So I did another job interview today, and, upon getting home, got a call half an hour later telling me that I'd gotten the job.

Which would be great. Except I'm in a bit of a pickle as to which company to choose.

Moot point really, since I've already signed with one, but now I'm beginning to doubt my choice.

See, this is what happens when you get to choose. Life is often so much easier when you don't have a choice.

Anyway, I think I'm happy with my choice. They're all pretty similar anyway. I'm going to see if I can negotiate vac work for both. If not, well, I guess that's that sorted out.

And Arsenal won!!!

Happy days.

Word of the Day: Pickle

Superfluous linguistic funness!

Props to my good friend Meng for this engrossing and interesting video. I have no idea why he posted it on my wall (I think he may have been taking a dig at me). But it's good stuff. I highly recommend that you watch/listen.

I did a bit of research to find out the background of this speech/video. This website explains it quite well. Essentially, it's a well-constructed rant on language change and overly-pedantic people.

This, along with my Linguistics lecturer this semester (goes by the name of Howie), have re-affirmed my belief that language should be fun, and that we shouldn't be all that pedantic about languagy things. I still do think, however (and I think this is where I disagree with Fry...I think), that there's wrong, and then there's wrong. I still think that well-written prose, or, at least, readable prose, has its place in society. Yes, often we can infer from context what something means. Yes, we all get things wrong, and we think they're right.

But surely I'm not the only person who cringes when people write 'your' instead of 'you're'. To me, it just looks stupid. And yes, I do think it is a marker of education. And it is a very important indication of whether someone cares about something or not.

I have never read something beautiful, or moving, or has any sort of impact on me, written in text speak. Well, maybe that time I got rejected by that girl. But you know what I mean. And that wasn't even in text speak.

So, I guess, to clarify, there's wrong, and then there's really, really, hurt-your-eyes kind of wrong. There's no point getting into a fluster about the fine points of grammar that nobody knows about, but I think the basics, like there, their and they're, shouldn't even need to be thought about.

I am aware that language change occurs. All the time. The English that we speak now is very different to English spoken a hundred years ago. Which is fine. I just don't think that that should be used as an excuse for screwing up 'you're' and 'your'.

Finally, I would like to agree with Stephen Fry about his point regarding how nobody has fun with language anymore. I would know. I get shot down for using 'big' words. Most of the time, they're not even big. They're just slightly obscure. Often they're not even that obscure. But sometimes, I just find it difficult to convey ideas without using them. And other times, I may think that it's a really suitable word to use in the circumstances. But I'll get shot down because of it, because people think I'm being pretentious, or whatever.

It's this horrible social pressure of dumbing yourself down to fit in, I think. It kind of relates to this thing that Sarah and I were discussing the other day. People worship pop stars, or whatever. But when a guy is in high school, any high school (probably bar Melbourne High), he will get ridiculed. It's odd how people think that pop stars just appear out of thin air. So the guy in high school stops singing.

It's the same with language. It's the reason why black people, if you've ever read Freakonomics, speak the way they do. Because they get picked on for speaking 'white'.

I'm thankful that most of the people I know aren't like that, but I know there are people that think, and act in this way.

Anyway, that's my little (big) rant for the day (or possibly the week. Or month). Watch the video, and have some fun.

Word of the Day: Engrossing

First world problem #483435329872

So I got Vac Work at Deloitte.

Woooooo!!!

Gotta organise dinners, drinks, etc.

While I was ecstatic immediately after being told, for some reason, I'm a bit in the dumps right now.

I think it's all the worrying about things that shouldn't be worried about.

Like, for example, my Leaders Program seminar thing that I'm running. I'm worried that it will be lame, that no-one will turn up, that we won't get another guest speaker, etc. But then, I reason with myself. How bad can it possibly be? At worst, it will just end up with me cringing in a corner.

It also doesn't help that the person running this program appears to be a bit disorganised. She sends us sporadic emails, doesn't tell us when we need to tell her things by, etc. Whatever.

My workload is also immense. Like, a towering tower of immenseness. If there were a comparative metaphor representing how immense my workload in first-year is compared to now, it would be as a mouse compared to an elephant. The biggest elephant on Earth. With a rhino perched on top. And a finch. I like finches.

In amongst uni work and part-time work, I've also got to get Rui's present, Father's Day present, Michelle's birthday present, and I have two job interviews this week. I'm seriously thinking about bailing on the one on Thursday. It's a really long one, and I'm pretty sure I won't be available to do the job anyway even if they wanted me to.

To cap it all off, I'm slightly worried about Arsenal and the rut they're in right now. I have no idea what's going on with that team. It seems like a conspiracy theory when I say it, but there's something fishy going on there. Why do they never spend any real money? It's been squillions of years since any established players have been bought. We let one of the best players in the world go (for probably about 60% of his actual market price, I might add), a half-decent left-back, and about to lose one of our best performers of last season. And yet, we haven't actually done nearly enough to replace them.

It can't just purely be because of Wenger's philosophy. Surely he, being in the know, is able to see the deficiencies that anybody who knows anything about football can see. Why does he not seem to have the money to fix it, despite always saying otherwise? Strikes me as being a bit bizarre.

Anyway, we're almost half way through the semester! That means about 8 weeks away from summer holidays! Yes, I am conveniently ignoring the existence of exams!

Word of the Day: Squillions

It will go down in the pages of history

So it's been a pretty big weekend. Maybe not so big as to ensure it's own place in history, but big enough.

What's more surprising is the fact that it happened during the semester. And I'm also sort of on top of uni work.

Actually, it's not even really worth writing about. Well, it is to me. But you, dear reader, probably couldn't care less. But since everything I write here is about me anyway, and you (presumably) read it anyway, I'm going to go ahead and write it.

First half of Friday
Had a job interview, went ok, probably won't get to the next round due a combination of mediocre performance and not very many available spots. Blah, blah, blah, boring stuff, you're approaching Care Factor 0, moving on.

Called up JB Hi-Fi. They didn't have the deluxe edition of Watch the Throne in stock yet. Boo-hoo, go have a cry, who buys CDs anyway, move on.

Second half of Friday
This was where the real fun began.

So I got Zara on the way to Safeway on the way to Irene's trivia night gig. We basically bought everything that could be bought at Safeway, and went to Clayton Hall, and managed to not get mugged. Was probably due to our red attire. Red is the colour of winners. Or something like that.

Needless to say, fun(ny) times ensued. Basically had high hopes of a win, and came closer to losing than winning again. On a less heartbreaking note, I won a raffle prize (!). I was pretty stoked. It's always nice to win something. So for the second successive year, I went home from trivia night with a Maxwell Williams Breast Cancer mug. So manly.


For some reason, upon reflecting on the night's frivolities, a similar image came up in my mind.

Fun times, and all that. A lot more fun than I've probably conveyed above. Excitement doesn't come across too well when typed. Should do it again some time soon.

Saturday
Did Auditing work. Did Corp Fi work. Downloaded Chrome 14. Felt like a bit of a Fandroid.

Sunday
Felt upset that Arsenal didn't win. Cursed Joey Barton. Consoled myself that the Arsenal are still unbeaten for the season. Read Auditing book. Will read Corp Fi book.

...

Ok, so basically, my big weekend was trivia night. And it wasn't strictly a weekend. I'm sorry if I've deceived you. If you feel aggrieved and misled, well...deal with it. Anyway, I'm liking this balancing of work, uni, and fun times. It's a new sensation for me. One that I quite enjoy. I'm pretty much going out every week, unlike the back in the olden days (I know, what a loser right?). I think it may be a combination of me actually doing work, actually reading the relevant readings before lectures, and having two days off uni.

That's another thing. There's seems to be a massive emphasis on reading before lectures this semester. I swear they never used to tell us to do that. Now EVERY SINGLE LECTURER is encouraging us to do it. I blame it on the erasure of Week 13.

Busy period coming up in a few weeks, so I should probably lay some proverbial groundwork, and cut back on the fun times. Maybe just a little bit though.

Word of the Day: Erasure

London burns

People, families, and communities have their possessions, their jobs, and their loved ones destroyed and ripped apart by natural disasters. Most of the time, we can't avoid this. We do the best we can to prevent this from happening, but more often than not, we end up directing all of our efforts to recovering from it.

The London riots are similar in their result, but not in their origins. The carnage is completely man-made. I am astounded by the sheer stupidity and thoughtlessness of the people rioting.



Photo from The Australian

I understand that some of them feel oppressed, or hard done by by the government. How is burning down the neighbourhood grocery, or the barber next door, or bakery, or the school, going to improve their plight? They'll wake up from this madness, and realise that they have destroyed the house of their neighbour, the shops that their friends owned, schools that their siblings attended.

Looting shops is not fighting oppression. Burning property is not fighting oppression. Throwing petrol bombs at families, with parents who have come home from a long day of trying to do what's right by their families, that isn't fighting oppression.

There are also idiots that run around setting fire to things, looting shops and assaulting people because they think it's fun. Or something. I have no idea what's going through their minds, to be honest. That's all they are. Idiots, and probably cowards as well, who wouldn't even think of doing something like this if they didn't have a mob behind them.

The saddest part about all this is that it's caused by people. Not a cyclone. Not a tsunami. Not an earthquake. All this carnage is caused by individuals who think they have the right to destroy the livelihood of people who are actually trying to do the right thing, and barely getting by as it is.

I'm not going to tell them to stop in this post, because I know they won't see it. I know that even if they do, they most likely wouldn't care about it anyway. If they did, they wouldn't be doing what they are now. I guess what I'm trying to say is, before doing something destructive, think of the lives that you're destroying. Because life for many people is hard enough as it is, and destroying them isn't going to make it any easier.

Word of the Day: London

Deja vu again

So, first day back at uni today. Hopefully this will be my last first day of the semester back at uni.

I'd just like to remark that I'm knackered. The last week of holidays was not restful in the slightest, for one reason or another. There's also a lot of stuff going on right now that's making me anxious again. A lot of seemingly little, solvable, petty things that, when combined together, just seem like one big indistinguishable lump of mess.

Apparently I'm already behind in Auditing. Because we were supposed to miraculously know that we had stuff to read before the first lecture.

Applying for jobs is a bit of a pain. Actually, not a bit. A lot. It's just so draining, in more ways than one. But not in that way.

Those are two of the problems, one of which just cropped up today.

Anyway, ending on a happy note, I'm not really that sad.

There's your happy note.

Word of the Day: Petty

Mish-mashimuss maximus

Random thought just occurred.

You know your timetable for uni's good when you try to change classes around, but you find that there's really nothing that needs changing. Oh, and when you have two days off. And no early starts. Or late finishes. Ka-ching, and all that.

So yeah. What's new, I hear you ask.

Not much. Applying for jobs all over again, etc. Just came back from Rye, where I found out that I'd passed everything with (relative) flying colours. Relative to what I'd expected. That is, more than one fail.

Much of the good feeling from that, and the roadtrip, has since evaporated, leaving me with little else but this black, empty void of job applications and firewood moving.

Oh, and Hayley called me up for dinner with Meng and Ling. That was also good stuff.

Harry Potter was good too. Sort of. I'll talk about that another time maybe.

But yeah, it's all been pretty dreary. I've even run out of candles.

I think I'm just quite irritated at the fact that I've spent most of my holidays looking for something to do, and all of a sudden I'm running out of time to do things. Not things like, "Oh, let's go build a sandcastle on a beach in the rain because I'm that bored," actual things that need doing.

Back to Rye (metaphorically, anyway). Yeah, good stuff. As we reflected a while ago, it'd be one of the greatest things ever if we could all still be doing this when we're 30. Makes me kind of sad thinking about it, but there you go. Now you can think about it as well.

Oh, and maybe we'll pick somewhere else next time. Just to freshen things up a little.

Finally, I think I'm going to start a music blog soon*. It'll be a music blog with a bit of a twist though. Stay tuned if you like what you're reading here. Or even if you don't like what you're reading here, and just like music. Or even if you don't like music, or don't like what you're reading here (in which case, I would question why you're here at all. Maybe you just want something to read, but all your books mysteriously Disapparated).

Hmm

For some reason, I'm feeling a bit unsettled again.

Not unsettled as in I want to randomly uproot myself and relocate somewhere, just more not very happy with many things.

I don't know what it is exactly. I think it's a combination of things. All of which are too trivial to mention separately, but each of which kind of make me a little bit upset/melancholy/unhappy/blue, and all add up to one little pile of bleurgh. Friends, family, girls (or lack thereof), uni (even though it's not uni season), etc. Same old, same old. And yet, isn't it funny how it's always the same old problems that bug us? Or, at least it is with me.

There have, of course, been bright spots. It's just when I'm not within one of these bright spots, I sort of feel a bit blueish. Kind of like a pale blue. Or a bluey purple.

I also just realised that a month and a bit of holidays is not really all that much. It just sort of goes. Like a Ferrari. Or a G6.

Word of the Day: Melancholy

Overstanding

Sometimes (often at the most inappropriate times), I understand things so well, that I could be said to be overstanding them.

For example, I now understand why people get so peeved when their boyfriend (or girlfriend, depending on what floats your boat, etc) doesn't call them at a predetermined time.

It's just dumb. It's like, if you call them, then it's like you're being annoying. But if you don't, then they're unlikely to ever call you. Or anything similar. Ever.

This isn't about a girlfriend (or boyfriend, for that matter). It's just a friend. I just don't know what I have to do for her to remember my existence. It's a bit weird. The only way to describe it is phase-y. Like, we'll be all cool for a while, then for the next while, it's like I'm invisible man. Or something even worse. Like Poisonous Man. Or something.

Anyway, I was going to talk about that Jessie J song, but it seems to pale into a bit of insignificance right about now. I guess we'll leave it for next time. Or the time after. Or whenever.

To finish on a bright note (which I like doing), it hasn't been all doom and gloom. Seems like I have friends (or miscellaneous activities) to occupy me most days.

For example, Banh's epic cookfest night thing that happened at some point in the last few days. Good stuff.

Or the impromptu hours-long supper at Max Brenner and some other random trendy cafe in Glen Waverley with James Cheng, Meng, Hayley and Lily. That was awesome. Massive talkfest about everything and anything, and a lot of nothing as well.

And a roadtrip to look forward to soonish. And Harry Potter movie and all. Would be an excellent holiday, if not for the fact that a) I'm quite worried about failing one or more units, and b) I don't have employment secured for next year, and people around me are talking about how awesome their jobs are/how awesome they want their jobs to be. But que sera, sera, and all that. I'll just give it my best shot, and if it's not enough, I guess I'll just have to give it my best shot again. I just hate letting my parents down, that's all.

But ending on a bright note, and all, good stuff to look forward to this holiday season.

Word of the Day: Phase

Bads

You know, as in bad ads? Bads? Forget it.

I love unintentionally funny ads.

Actually, I just love listening to the radio.

This ad comes on just now for Vista Eye Clinic. The best reason they can cite for getting laser eye surgery?

They have this girl going "I hate waking up in the morning, and the first thing I have to do before anything else is grab my glasses before I see anything."

Seriously? That's the most persuasive reason you can think of to make me laser my eyes?

Just for the record, I'm not persuaded.

Also, that price tag song just came on. All I can say for now is, shut up. More about that later.

Word of the Day: Bads

Worst

Just before, I was discussing with my sister Sarah, about why nobody in the exam timetabling department (if that even exists) can give me a break.

I mean, come on. 13th 14th 15th.

Yes, I have known my timetable for a while now. I only just realised how bad it it.

Yeah, it could be worse. Like that time I had three exams in the first two days of the exam period. AND there was a bonus clash thrown in.

Or that other time I had a clash.

Which is my point exactly. It seems to happen frequently to me. I haven't even spoken to anyone who's had a clash before. And it's happened to me twice.

Every time I go, Oh, I had a clash, or something like that, they'll be like, "...What? What is that word? Let me look that up...Oh. So, like, what happens with these, um, clashes?"

I have three exams in a row. All on mornings. Yes, I know, it could be worse. Like the second one being in the afternoon. But still. Couldn't they have at least given me the morning of the last exam to prep?

Or, God forbid, give me one whole day off between ANY of those exams.

No, that would be asking for too much. They've already given me a week extra by not making me start on the first day, so I guess it would be too much to ask for more grace.

What makes it worse is when I happen to tell people. Seeing/hearing their reactions makes it worse.

I am seriously angry though. I don't know at who or what, but I'm pretty bitter about the whole thing. I mean, as if they don't know that they're courting disaster by grouping so many Commerce exams together.

Oh well. That's life. Guess I'll just have to deal with it and not break down too frequently.

Word of the Day: Grace

Boring, boring City

Football - cup football in particular - is truly amazing.

Not just in the sporting sense either. I'll explain what I mean.

Last night, at the conclusion of the FA Cup final, fans from both the winning and losing side were crying. One side was crying because they hadn't won anything for around half a century, and they'd finally done it. The other side were probably crying because they haven't won anything for a similar amount of time, and this will probably be their best chance of doing so in the next half a century.

What was amazing was that people actually care so much about these teams that they shed tears for them. They have no financial stake in the clubs, presumably don't put money on them winning, don't have any sort of tangible vested interest in them. And yet, they cry. Spectacular, what football can do.

Even the guy who is is king of not caring about anything, Liam Gallagher, was jumping up and down last night because his team won.



I supposed it's only cup football that induces these kinds of emotions as well. Or at least, with this kind of force.

Anyway, season's over again for the Arsenal, and it's yet another one without a trophy. Wouldn't have minded a Carling Cup, or something, anything, just so people can stop talking about how Arsenal haven't won a trophy for X number of years. Like their team have won loads in the last year or something.

Back to work!

Word of the day: Induces

She thinks she's Kate Soprano or something

There's something that I've been meaning to get off my chest for a very long time.

You might ask, "Well, why haven't you done it before then?"

That's a good question. And one that I don't have a good answer to. Or any answer to, in fact.

Moving on.

This is what I've been meaning to get off my chest.

Kate Ceberano annoys me.

Annoys me in a way that few other people, celebrities or otherwise, do.



I don't really have a firm fix on why. I think it may be to do with the fact that she's EVERYWHERE. And yet, I have no idea why she is.

I think she was a singer once upon a time. And she may or may not have had a number 1. I could Google it, but yeah. Ceebs.

Whatever. Regardless of all that, her face is just one of those faces that annoy me. That's also another reason why she annoys me.

Thirdly, to be honest, I don't find her attractive in the slightest. If she was hot or something, maybe I wouldn't mind her as much. However, I just realised that that constitutes a circular argument, because if she were hot, I'd probably not find her that annoying. Which brings me back to my original 'point'.

So that's it. The big thing that I've wanted to get off my chest. That's what they say in the hood.

Word of the Day: Chest

The proverbial rollercoaster

I'm constantly fluctuating between nonchalance and extreme worry. Definitely not beneficial for my emotional wellbeing.

Right now, I'm a bit nonchalant about everything.

Got a test this afternoon? Whatever.

Still unemployed for next year? Whatever.

Raining outside? Bit of a worry, but mostly whatever.

This is in contrast to last night, when I was just full-on beating myself up about how much I sucked at life.

And now I'm in this tute, where two groups present on exactly the same question. I don't understand the logic of it, but who am I to question the powers above?

Word of the Day: Nonchalant