Surprise Song Sunday: I Knew You Were Trouble - Taylor Swift

Some new dubstep from Taylor Swift.

Word of the Day: Trouble

Surprise Song Sunday: 22 - Taylor Swift

Because I'm 22, and because I've finished my thesis.

Word of the Day: Finished

The Huanger Games

Saw The Huanger Hunger Games last night. Was quite a good film. Solid acting, good plot, scarily believable.

It also made me a little bit sad afterwards. I don't know why.

Actually, I might have an inkling of an idea why. I think it was the random love story in the middle. Seemed so simple, straightforward and beautiful. Guy says something stupid, girl ends up liking him for making a goose of himself. End of story, and they both lived happily ever after.

I think it's the same kind of sad that I get when I listen to Taylor Swift. Who incidentally has a song that coincides with the film:



I now have a phobia of seeing films with love stories in them. Which, I figure, is pretty much every film. Urgh. Guess I'm never watching another movie ever again. Except maybe Avengers. That better not have a love sideplot to it. I don't think I'd be able to handle it. Tony Stark and Captain America or something. What the hell.

Word of the Day: Hunger

Procrastinating already

By the way, that crush I had a while ago, apart from being non-existent now, was foolish in the extreme.

Why, you may ask. Since when has Andrew done/thought anything dumb?

(By the way, just in case you thought I was the epitome of perfection, I do stupid stuff occasionally. Only occasionally.)

(Actually, who am I kidding? Most of the stuff I do is stupid. Full stop.)

Well, it turns out she has a fiance.

What's a 20-year-old (that's about how old she is) doing with a fiance?

To that question, I have no answer. Or, at least, no sensible answer. As in, no answer that doesn't consist of conspiracy theories involving giant alien palm trees and miniature balloon animals (in various shapes and colours). Told you so.

Anyway, I'm supposed to be smashing out these job applications. So far, I've completed KPMG, but it seems cursed to me. Firstly, the application was a struggle, because I couldn't upload my academic transcript for about 2 hours. After that's all done, they send me an email with a dodgy link to a test I'm supposed to do. I couldn't use the link, so I tried to do it the manual way - that is, through the website. The website was down for maintenance until this morning.

This afternoon, I tried to do it. I ended up doing the first test about five times, because it kept screwing up. I'm pretty sure I still haven't submitted it properly, and I can't go on to the next ones.

Oh, and I'm supposed to do it 48 hours after receiving the email. It's now been about 50 hours, by my reckoning.

Write it off as a lost cause? Probably a good idea.

So that debacle has absolutely disenchanted me with job applications for now. So, instead, I'm busy becoming a beast at guitar. Building my repertoire, so that I don't always end up playing either 'Songbird', 'The Scientist', 'Wonderwall', 'I'm Yours', 'She Will Be Loved' or 'Mine'.



Good little song, that one. I quite enjoy the video myself.

Looking at it now, that's actually not too bad a collection. But there's always room to expand. Quite what I'm going to do with these songs, I have no idea. Probably serenade someone one day. Hopefully.

Word of the Day: Debacle

Sad music is played when one is lonely

So I haven't done anything with my home dawgs since like...Sunday, and it seems like it's been ages already. The feeling of awesomeness that I had a few days ago feels like it's starting to dissolve a bit. I have stuff that I'm supposed to be doing, but I'd rather be hanging with my buddies.

I was just saying to a friend the other day (it might have been yesterday. As you probably might have noticed by now, when I say the other, it's because I don't actually remember the day precisely.), I wish I had a girlfriend that I could just sit around talking with for hours about nothing and everything. That'd be really, really cool. Also, unless I am very much mistaken, that's what a lot of people are looking for. Unless they're not of the talkative persuasion. Or they're girls.

Back to room cleaning. I feel like a bit of a house elf. Except it's my own room I'm cleaning. And I'm a teensy bit bigger than your average house elf.

Currently listening to: Forever and Always - Taylor Swift

Word of the Day: Elf

Teardrops on My Qatar

For some reason, Qatar has always sounded like 'guitar' to me. I'm sure it's not just me. It's just no-one else is brave enough to admit to thinking such stupid thoughts.

So yeah. About that Qatar.

Ridiculous. I wouldn't have been that peeved if some other more worthy nation got it. USA or something. Even Japan or Korea.

Apart from revenue and more convenient broadcasting times, I fail to see how Qatar has any advantage over Australia whatsoever. This is assuming that they will actually be able to successfully host the World Cup at all.

Which brings me to my next point. All the other nations, or at least the ones that I'm aware of, have hosted major sporting events. They already have facilities. They also don't have scorching heat, or lack of people and space. For revenue and broadcasting times to have an iota of relevance, the World Cup actually needs to function as an event.

To be honest, this whole voting process stinks. Who are these people, and who are they to decide where it's going to go? The votes are made blatantly without the interests of football as a whole. Even Australia, a nation who commentators have said are unable to be as dirty as other nations, bought pearl necklaces and other such things for officials' partners.

You've got a guy like Beckenbauer who, while he is a great guy, I believe is not exactly qualified to vote on things like these. It's not just him, but he's the most prominent voting member, apart from Sepp "female football players should wear more revealing kits" Blatter.

The problem is the whole process is open to corruption. You've got essentially random voting delegates, who are clearly not voting for the best interests of football, and a nation with almost limitless amounts of money and no defining advantage over the other nations, winning the right to host a World Cup. A little bit suspect, if you ask me.

Also, in English, the word 'Qatar' actually shouldn't exist. Lack of a 'u' and all that. I think that's reason enough to give it to someone else. It's still not too late.

More footballing stuff, to cap off what has been an unbelievable few days. To recap, I passed all my exams, went to the U2/Jay-Z gig, and my grandfather brought me back a brand new Arsenal jersey from Hong Kong. Arsenal being top of the league just seals it. What an amazing turnaround. Who would've predicted it, when we were millions of points behind Chelsea at one stage? Marvelous stuff, football. And Nasri is truly amazing. He reminds me of a ballet dancer. Except more masculine. Watch him here:

I love how he's making a habit of scoring goals from ridiculous angles. Or trying to score from ridiculous angles. I think it was against Sp*rs, where he tried it, but it got cleared off the line. But yes. He's becoming great.

The only downer is a slightly scratched my car yesterday while parking to have lunch with Victor and Meng in Glen Waverley. I still have no idea how it happened. I thought there was acres of space between the pole and my car, but apparently there wasn't, and I heard a sickening 'scraaaaaaaape'. But otherwise, the past few days have been some of the happiest few days in a row I have ever had. Thank-you to all who have been there, not only during these past few days, but the days before that, and before them as well, when I was struggling big time. Cheers.

Word of the Day: Qatar

Cry Now

So last night I was listening to Taylor Swift's new album, Speak Now. Looks something like this:

Except I 'got' the deluxe version. So it looks something like this:

Anyway. I was listening to it at half-past-twelve this morning, and almost cried myself to sleep. No joke.

A thoroughly depressing album. Beautiful, but very, very sad. Her voice naturally sounds yearningful (like Oasis songs), and then you couple that with songs in minor keys, and love-lorn lyrics, and it's a killer.

Where shall we start? From the start of course! (This is just a summary of the most notable songs).

'Mine' is laden with yearning. A very nice song, and instead of filling me with hope, it makes me wish what she describes could happen to me.

'Back to December' is about screwing up. Something that I can totally relate to, except not about losing a guy.

'Speak Now' is probably the most upbeat, catchy song on the entire record. Catchy, catchy. Did I mention catchy? I've played it about ten times already.

'Never Grow Up' is probably the saddest. I think that was the tear-jerker for me. It's beautifully crafted, and she's sort of singing about her experiences, but through the role of talking to a little girl, and saying how she's going to protect her from all the bad things that she had to go through. Reminds me of that time I suddenly got all wistful about my high school days, playing football with the lads at lunchtime, massed singing, and catching the train home. Makes me wistful all over again.

'Last Kiss' has good lyrics.

Wearing your clothes,

All that I know is,

I don't know how to be something you miss.

'Back to December' live:

'Never Grow Up' (don't be ashamed if you cry):

I just realised everything that I had is someday gonna be gone,

So here I am in my new apartment

In a big city, they just dropped me off

It's so much colder than I thought it would be

So I tuck myself in and turn my nightlight on.

Yeah. Pretty much 90% of the album is along those lines. Get it anyway. Solid album. Just keep a box of tissues handy, that's all. Don't say that I didn't warn you.

Word of the Day: Wistful

Overly-hyped French test number 2

Wooo. I'm on that semi-high you get when you finish a test, and it's a lot easier than you expected it to be.

That's right, French test again. What a doozy. The oral actually went quite well, I thought. It flowed, had structure, used a bit of complex grammar, and was relevant to the topic.

The test was full of grammar exercises. Grammar which I'd been cramming at 1 o'clock this morning. For some reason, I find French quite crammable, despite the fact that it really shouldn't be.

All in all, I think I may have passed. Which is a fairly good result at this stage.

And with that, I leave you with this awesome new song.

Actually, a few comments about the song before I go. It reminds me of 'You Belong With Me'. Oddly, and heart-wrenchingly, sad. For some reason, it kind of sounds like a song of yearning, instead of song of love. Odd. It might just be me. Let me know if you feel like it sounds a bit yearningful too, so that I know I'm not that odd.

Her voice has also gotten a lot more powerful. It's developing into something quite amazing. Much like...yeah. I don't know. Good song though. Enjoy.

Word of the Day: Grammar

Yo Steve!

So yeah, the interview with Pitcher Partners, was, to put it mildly, almost an unmitigated disaster.

I should've expected it. It was raining.

Like Taylor Swift, I forgot to say half the things I wanted to. Although the odds do seem to be relatively good, I still wouldn't put a bet on me.

I also haven't been to the gym in a week. I feel like my muscles are atrophying already.

Here's the song, in case you didn't understand the Taylor reference. Listen carefully, or you might miss it. Not that you wouldn't know the song off by heart now, you Taylor Swift fanatics.

Word of the Day: Disaster

Oh no! The milk has been spilt!!!

There are a few types of exams/tests.

There are those where you sit down, give it a flick through, and go: "Yep, it's just as hard as I expected. And I'm screwed because I haven't studied for it." Accounting last semester was like that. Thankfully, it doesn't happen very often.

Then there are those, where you sit down, give it a flick through, and go ""What the hell. Why have I never seen any of this before?". Thankfully, again, I have never come across one of these.

Alternatively, there are those where you go: "Wow. They made it sound a lot harder than it actually is," and you subsequently ace it. Stats exam would be a good example of this.

Even better than this, there are those which you know are going to be easy, and they turn out being easy, and then you ace them even harder.

Then there are those which you know are hard, but you don't find them all that difficult, because for whatever reason (studied hard, latent natural ability), you're good at that subject, and you subsequently ace it.

French test on Friday was a little bit like that. Well, not the oral bit. I don't think I'll ever be good at those under pressure unless I live in France for a few weeks or something. But the essay I found surprisingly good. Like, it probably won't be as good as Irene's, or even as good as I think it is, because I don't know how they're marking it, and I'm not that great, but I don't think it was a fail. This is probably mostly owing to the fact that learning languages is a cumulative process, and that it's all linked together, so you can't really do all that badly if your basics are alright. Which, I like to think, is kind of like me. I lament that I didn't start doing French in first year. I really do. It would've been awesome. Well, I would never have met Irene. And Taylor Swift. But ignoring that, it would've been a masterstroke.

I think "spilt milk" and "crying" would be appropriate words to use right about now. Not necessarily in that order. And perhaps a few other words thrown in would be useful too.

Word of the Day: Latent

On the improve

Hard to believe, but this day was even better than yesterday.

It was particularly hard to believe this morning. The rain was pouring down, and I'd had a good day yesterday.

However, it turned out to be fully maddogz.

So the first lecture was boring enough. During French culture, talked to Monique a bit. Next lecture, sat next to my homedawg, Kanji, who I haven't seen in quite some time. Boring lecture, but at least Kanji was there. Then, during my European studies tute, I won an EU keyring for what effectively amounted to being awesome.

See, my other group members were harping on about something crazy that I had no idea about, so I just assumed that they were operating on a higher plane than me. So they'd all thought they'd found the thing which the tutor was after, and I just kept it quietly to myself, because I thought I was wrong. Turns out I was right, and I won my first something for a very long time. Yes, it's a silly little keyring, but I like silly little things. Also, one of my group members asked my name while I was leaving, which made me feel pretty close to spectacular. That hasn't happened to me in a long, long, long time.

If that all seems a bit confusing, it's because it is.

Then, in French culture (again), I managed to talk properly to Taylor Swift. Finally. Much less awkward than I had anticipated, owing to the fact that she wanted to talk to me, and that she was quite a nice person. Oh, and Irene of course. I like to think it was mostly me. Jaykay. It probably wasn't.

Or was it?!

And just to top it all off, the sun came out at the end of it. And my iPod played only happy songs on the way home.

Word of the Day: Improve

Sohdoowhy

So, like, OMG. I found an English version of the ad. Not only that, it's extended for added awesomeness! Love it.

"Isillerating playcez. And other playcez. But ah pripare for itall."

I've got this nifty auto-replay extension for Chrome, which, as the name suggests, automatically replays videos on YouTube. Yes, I've got it on repeat.

The first week of uni has come to a farcical end. After waiting around for half an hour for our French tutor to turn up to our tute, we ended up trying to look for her, to no avail. So we went home. Two-and-a-bit hours after the tute was supposed to have started, she sends us e-mails, telling us that we were in the wrong room. Thanks.

Yeah, the week has been pretty...meh. Nothing much going on, owing mostly to the fact that I have pretty much zero breaks. There have been a few awkward situations involving a girl in my French classes that looks like Taylor Swift. Sort of. Well, not really. She just kind of gives off that vibe. I should probably ask what her name is. Not that I don't know it. But it just kind of alleviates awkwardness a little bit. Whatever.

Still waiting on the iPhone 4 pricing plans to come out. Hopefully not out of my tolerance threshold. Until next time.

Word of the Day: Places (playcez)

More like Taylor Lag

Weird. 'You Belong With Me' makes me really sad. There are a few Taylor Swift songs that make me sad actually. I think she's got the whole yearning thing down pat really well. However, once you start looking at some of the lyrical depth, it really makes you cringe. But props to her for being a musical prodigy.



I think like, two of her songs touch something in me because a) the person who's singing could be me, except more masculine and b) I wish someone felt the way that the person singing the song feels about the guy she's singing about. Yes, I know how weird that whole statement was. That's just the way it is. I'm not even sure if what I'm saying is accurate. I'm a sucker for sweet romance, which is exactly what those two songs are. I know it hardly ever happens, but I have been described as a hopeless romantic before, and I believe that's a big problem of mine. I also noticed in that song how much make-up can change a girl. The Evil One and the Good One are both the same person, in case you didn't notice. But the way they're made up makes them completely different. The next one is also one which I was hung up on for quite a while. Not so applicable now, but could be relevant in the future. Hopefully not, but very well could be. I try and keep my teardrops to a minimum, if I can help it.




"I laugh cos it's just so funny." As I said, lyrical dexterity sometimes drops off the pace somewhat, but I cut her a lot of slack, because she's like, 12. Or 19. I don't really know which one. I just know she's quite young. Respect.

On to life now! Contrary to popular belief, I do know that I have been neglecting the boyz. I'm sorry guys. It's just really hard to find time for y'all at uni, and my phone bill is also getting run up again this month. I have really bad breaks, and I don't want to ditch Irene in between our classes, because apart from her being my friend, she also never ditches me. I'm trying to get you guys in, but I hope you understand. I mean, if she wasn't my friend, then no worries. But she's a good friend, and you don't ditch good friends. Which is ironic, seeing as I'm doing this to you guys. But it's less direct. And I am trying to make amends. Having said that, I'm quite content with life right now. Apart from not seeing some people as much as I would like, and seeing one particular person far too often than I would like, it's not been a bad start to uni.

Word of the Day: Swift