Let down

So I think it's safe to say I've been a bit of a let-down again.

It's one thing to not get interviews and get rejected.

I got four interviews with the five biggest accounting firms. And they all rejected me. With one of them, I got to the partner interview, and I still managed to bollix it. Truly amazing.

Part of it may be due to my inability to play the interview game. But the partner feedback, reading between the lines, was basically 'You have good communication skills, but I don't like you.'

It's frustrating more than anything. I know that if they give me a job, I'll work hard, and most probably do well. I think I make that pretty much clear. I don't know what else they're looking for. Seriously. Like, with the partner interview, what more does she want from me? I don't understand. It's actually eating at me a bit, to the point of making me a little bit sad at my failure, once again, to do something mildly impressive.

I guess this comes back to my life in general. I would like, just once, to be able to achieve something that might actually surprise people. In a pleasant way. And this was probably one of the best chances that I had of doing it.

And also repay some of the faith, often unfounded, that my parents place in me. And the support that I get from my friends.

Oh well. I guess the job hunt continues. It's just hard to take, because it's mostly down to me having problems with interviews.

Also, uni work is starting to pile up. For the first time in my life since I've had MSN, I've not been online for more or less two consecutive days. Yes, that's how bad it's getting.

Word of the Day: Surprise

Like a G6

I'm so stoked right now. It has been an amazing day. Australia winning the World Cup bid tonight/tomorrow morning would just absolutely make it.

I'm so stoked that I'm hoping this isn't a dream. We'll list things according to importance.

First up, I passed everything. I'm so unbelievably happy, mostly due to the fact that I thought I failed Accounting again for sure. But anyway, I passed, and I think I'm back on track. And I didn't have to disappoint my parents yet again. A big shout out to Eugene, who was there for me when the going got tough, more than happy to help me even though he must've been snowed under in study himself. A friend in need is a friend indeed. And Andrew does not forgot acts of kindness directed to him. He also speaks about himself in third person frequently.

Second. I had lunch with Irene, who I haven't seen in absolutely AGES. well, for like, a month. Which is a long time. Oh, and two friends-of a friend-of a friend Parisians were at the lunch too. Good times all around.

Best part was the train trip back. I miss train trips with friends. That was the best part of my day back in high school. Train trips after school with friends.

Anyway, we get off the train, head towards my car, and it starts absolutely bucketing down. This, while fun for a while, became not very fun quite quickly.

A quick recap of the weather. Rainy in the morning, eased up when I left the house, was scorchingly sunny when we got to the city and had lunch, became cloudy on the way back home, and started bucketing down while we were walking to the car. Which is where my story was.

I was absolutely drenched. I think the last time I was that drenched from rain was about two years ago, walking home from the tram stop for 20 minutes. I looked like I had swum to my car in my clothes. Irene, having good fortune as always, had to foresight to be wearing a big jacket.. The rain made her hair look amazing, whereas it made me look like a floundering...something. And she had the nerve to complain that she was soaked.

Anyway, the rain went nuts on the way to her house. Thankfully, it eased up when we got there, so I didn't have to take up space in her house and cause a disturbance sheltering from the rain. Would've been an interesting experience though. I've never been in there before.

I got home, dried myself off, and the sun came out about an hour later.

Third thing, Sarah finally called home from Paris. I got frowned upon (verbally) by the French dude on the other end of the line earlier in the day when I tried my French on him, so much so he decided to speak English to me, just so that I'd know that he'd identified me as phony phoreigner. Well done, Frenchman. But yeah, kind of thankful that I didn't have to go through that who rigmarole again.

And hopefully, a fourth thing, in a few hours, Australia getting the World Cup. That would be awesome on so many levels. As if give it to Qatar. Surely it's time Australia got a lucky break. And Arsenal won twice this week. Surely that's a sign of double the level of good luck.

Oh, and U2/Jay-Z concert tomorrow. Life is so good right now.

A song to sort of capture my mood at the moment (I've used Supersonic by Oasis too many times).

Word of the Day: Stoke

I swear they just get more and more annoying

For the life of me I cannot understand the mentality of people that go out looking for fights. Then again, as my parents always say, if I understood, I'd be one of them.

There I am, having lunch with my family at Knox, when this jerk, who looks no older than 10, shines a laser in my eye. I stare him down, he thinks it's funny, so I stare him down some more. He decides that it's not really that funny after all, and decides to stop being a jerk. It really makes my blood boil, people who randomly pick fights. If I wasn't worried that a tap on the shoulder from me would probably end up with him hospitalised, I would've been at him straight away. I was staring at him as he left. The pansy wouldn't even meet my eye. Lesson for today: guys (and I use that term loosely in this case) who wear purple hoodies, with the hood on inside, are most likely annoying Justin Bieber-wannabes.

In hindsight, he probably thought that all Asians were shy and easily bullied. Not in my part of town, idiot child.

Anyway, enough about annoying, irritating, cocky, ego-tripping pre-teens. On to some happier stuff.

Which I don't have much of right now. Just started at the accounting practice, am reasonably adept at what I've learnt to do so far (well, at least I think so), and have only managed to get lost on the way there twice. Oh. Wait. I've only been there twice. Hmm.

Oh, Arsenal won last night. Top of the league!!! For about five minutes. But still. Any good news is welcome right about now. Or any time really. Watching it made me pretty nervous, but it wouldn't be watching Arsenal if it were any other way.

I'm finding it quite difficult to organise stuff to do with people, mostly owing to the fact that nobody really seems to have a desire to do anything other than Banh. I understand that some are busy. Others are just...meh. I dunno. Whatever. I don't really mind anymore. I have plenty of stuff that I can spend time doing in the absence of people, friends or otherwise. Cleaning my room, for instance. Or reading my Leaders readings. Or...yeah. Okay. Guess I'll just have to drag out the room-cleaning process a bit longer.

Word of the Day: Pre-teen

Nine out of ten

Wow. I just had a pretty good day today. Amazing, right?

It is when you're me.

Anyway. I scored a job at a family friend's accounting practice. Although she'll be paying me practically peanuts, I don't really care. I could pay her to give me the job and I'd still take it.

That happened at the start of the day.

In the afternoon, I found out that I got into the Leader's Program. Although I'm still not too sure what that entails, the fact that it was (apparently) hard to get into makes me somewhat happy.

Also this morning, Arsenal thrashed whoever they were playing in the Champions League AND Eduardo scored against his old club. Can't ask for much more of a perfect game than that.

Here's to more good happenings tomorrow.

Word of the Day: Peanuts

Ah. Midsem tomorrow. Joy of joys.

Maybe if I stopped squandering my time, I'd actually be on top of my work. I vow to change my habits now.

On the other hand, I really need to see Inception. Like, need. Not want. It's like the proverbial thorn in my side. It's a weight on my mind. I don't want to pull another Iron Man 2, and end up regretting not seeing it.

Speaking of joy, enjoy this one, and catch y'all next time.

Word of the Day: Squander

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

Omenzzzzzzzzzzz

A solid win from the Gunners last night hopefully heralds a good week to follow. This trend is usually followed, and let's hope it continues.

However, nobody knows better than I that trends can be broken (well, I'm sure there are people that know better than I. But this sounds better than saying "hardly anybody knows better than I"). But Arsenal win hopefully equals Andrew win. At least for this week.

In other news, I still haven't bought the other half of James' present yet. And I'm quite reticent to go out again to get it. Sighface. Let that be a lesson to you all. Think long and hard before you fail anything.

Word of the Day: Herald

Seven times three times a million

Hmm. That downing (it's like a combination between turning and down) point seems to be creeping up on me again. All the good stuff that's happened at the start of this week seems to be slowly evaporating. Like the last of the winter snow disappearing on the first day of spring sunshine. Except not in that kind of positive way. How apt that winter is ending soon.

Anyhow. My expected two interviews has now turned into a definite one. Which is a bit of a downer, as I thought that my 82% on the aptitude test was pretty good. Meng got 88, and he got a call, but I didn't. 82%. That means that, statistically, I am better than 82% of the people working in accounting and finance at analysing stuff and whatnot. And it still does not seem to be good enough. Still, I'm holding out hope that they'll give me a call on Monday.

Also, I have a lot of work due, I want to buy stuff but I've been forbidden from spending too much money, and I have a lot of twenty-firsts that I want to go to, but I can't because I'm a failure, so I'm going to have to pick a few. So here's the list:

1. James. Fo sho. It's been on my radar for a while, and he's in my top five friends. And I'm making a speech. Look out for it. (Also, the dinner should be really nice. Not that that influences my decision or anything).

2. Eugene's. Probably just going to go for an hour or so, due to my massive workload.

3. Rui's. This one, I actually want to go to (not that I don't want to go to the others), but it's quite a bit of money, and I have a vendetta against China Bar. But it's not so much those two reasons as me having a mountain of work to do.

4. Timothy's. Probably not. I don't really know him that well, and yeah. Work.

5. Ben Niles. Most likely, but still in the process of working out the logistics.

6. Linda's. Probably not. I'm fairly sure she doesn't want to talk to me anymore, and she's inviting me just to humour me. We haven't talked for about...I don't even know how long now. It's kind of sad. You know, you're getting along with someone, and, for some reason or another, it just dies.

And I think that's just about all of the one's on my list right now. I'm expecting at least about five more in the near future. I love how August/September/October always try and bankrupt me. Well, it won't work this time. I'm making money from different revenue streams. Except I still have to get a Father's Day present. And birthday presents for my parents. And presents for my imaginary girlfriend.

I seriously don't know how people with more friends than me (and I think that's just about everybody, especially with respect to Facebook friends) would cope in my situation. Probably just not go to any.

My birthday's awesome. It's during the holidays. See, that's how good a friend I am.

Word of the Day: Twenty-firsts

They call me Holmes. Sherlock Holmes.

It is as I suspected. I did quite well on my French essay. So well, in fact, that I matched the mark that I got for the one I did for homework, AND Irene's mark. It's more Irene's mark that makes me think that it wasn't too shabby. If I even get close to what she gets, I'll know I'm doing alright.

What is quite frustrating though is that there was this massive potential to do so much better. Something that could have led me to getting higher than her for only the third time in my life. First time was listening, second time was culture. All I needed to do was to agree the stupid adjectives with the stupid nouns. Stupid French.

Anyway, I'm not competing against her or anything. I think it's just fun, and a little bit motivating, to have a benchmark. Human being, especially human beings like me, thrive on competition. Adds a certain thrill to doing something.

Must have been a day for miracles, because something else that was amazing happened. Imesha and I were last night talking about whether we would ever go out with fobs. And, like a premonition, this really nice-looking, confident girl in my Accounting tute presented this morning. However, she had the most bizarre accent I've heard for a while. It was like a mix between five different accents. No joke.

Also, that Jess girl in Cost Info. I hate it when people seem like they want to talk to you, but don't. Like, they keep looking at you, but they never talk, even when you try to. Go figure.

I have also spent the last week shouting at various people from Optus, both verbally and written-ly. I don't like the way they're being really dodgy about things. And I actually need a phone. Worst company ever. Or close to it.

Word of the Day: Miracles

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

sdrawkcaB

It's been a while. A long, long while. Almost a month, I believe.

This shall be another long one. I'll try and keep it short, but I don't think I can. Too much material to cover. It will also be in reverse order. Just because it's easier to do.

So yeah, as anticipated, I just failed Financial Accounting. On the upside, I did surprisingly well in everything else. So really, I did better than expected. Still doesn't ease the hurt though. I think it'll truly hurt when I tell my parents and see their disappointment all over again.

Prior to that, I was exulted to watch Spain beat The Netherlands. My two favourite teams (Netherlands, ex-favourite) duking it out for the cup. And Fabregas with the assist for the winning goal as well. Fairly average final, for a fairly average World Cup. Good stuff though. Only comes once every four years, enjoy it. Just hope they don't bring vuvuzelas next time. Seriously the most annoying things ever.

Prior to that, I went on a roadtrip to Torquay with eight other buds. Apparently I'm not supposed to talk about drunken exploits, so I'll just stick with the clean stuff.

Getting there was most definitely not half the fun. It was a nightmare. Ray was swearing at everybody, I was trying to make sure the car in front didn't get too far ahead, and the car behind didn't get too far behind. The car in front loved speeding, the car behind refused to go faster than 60 km/h. Life is hard in the middle.

Yeah, anyway. Good times mostly. Unhappy about some things, but nothing too sinister. Thoroughly enjoyed watching football not by myself for once.

And I think that's about it. I'm now going to cry in a corner. Good night.

Word of the Day: Backwards

An expensive party

Davy's 21st on Friday night was the most expensive party I've attended to date. Mostly owing to the $70 parking fine that I incurred. Stupid double signs. 9am - 6pm: 2P. Above that, it says '6pm - midnight: permit parking'. James didn't read the sign at the top, and I didn't look at all. So pretty much all my fault.

Anyway, the party was quite good. Got to hang with friends who I hadn't seen for quiet a while. About half the people took a plus one with them, which made me feel sort of lonely, but it wasn't too bad, because most of the fellas I was hanging with didn't have one either. Maybe that's why they were hanging with me.

But yeah, once things got underway it was alright. We all had a few glasses of the hard stuff (lemon lime bitters...yeeeeaaah man), and, hey presto, everybody was talking. Vu and I, on the same team, lost twice, once because I sunk the black ball and 8 ball at the same time, and once because he did the same. What are the chances?

Bieber came on a bit later, thanks to the machinations of Imesha, but because of my prompting. I don't know why I do these things. I don't even like the guy in the slightest. Davy made me do the Bieber Dance, and I had to, because a Sicilian can't refuse a request on the day of his daughter's wedding. Or because it was his 21st. Either one.

This occurred during our highly intense game of Mafia. Yes, we played Mafia at a 21st birthday party. I think we should make it the official sport of NQT. And, just in case it's not sad enough, we'll make a team and participate in tournaments. We'll see who's laughing when we bring in the glory and the cash.

Speeches were up next. Although I royally screwed up Yvonne's part by interjecting at completely the wrong time, I saved it so well that it sounded like it was planned. Or it did to me anyway. I was treated like a bit of a celebrity afterwards, so it must've been alright. Hopefully videos up soon.

A good gig. A tad expensive, but not because of the person hosting. Hope you enjoy your present/s, Davy. And Happy 21st again.

Almost directly as a result of this, my good friend started having relationship/parent problems. I'm not going to go into it, because it's too complicated, and I don't want to publicise it everywhere. I just spent two hours with her by the lake on Monday. Half of it involved crying, and another friend being there, and the other half of it involved just me being there, and no crying. Funny how those two things positively correlate. Jeopardised my planned accounting midsem cram session, but hey, it's only 10%, and I probably wouldn't have gotten much done anyway. And my friends are more important than 10%. At least in times of crisis. I've already told her, but I'll reiterate it here again, and for everybody that feels that they are a close friend of mine: you can call me whenever if you just need to talk. I'm more than happy to do it. Talking is therapeutic.

Ironic how I spent two hours trying to alleviate somebody's relationship problems, but I have no clue what I'm doing with my own. Or lack thereof. Irony again. Hate it.

Yeah. Accounting midsem. Unmitigated disaster. Didn't expect to do that well, but that test was highly passable. If I'd actually studied. Procrastinated too much. Will start working now.

Word of the Day: Expensive

My Bieber Brings All the Chumps to the Yard

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

...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Word of the Day: Timetabling

Jim

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

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

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

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

Those that we love hurt us the most.

Just something to think about.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Word of the Day: Jim

Huggles

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Word of the Day: Telephone

A bit of quoteage

Monday seriously cannot come quick enough.

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

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

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

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

Nothing worth having comes easy.

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

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

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

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

Word of the Day: Project

Ho hum

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

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

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

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

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

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

Word of the Day: Humdrum

Oh snap

It feels so good when someone thinks you're wrong, and they're really convinced of your wrongness, and then you unequivocally prove them wrong, and that you are, in fact, right.

This happened in our accounting presentation today. I thought we'd screwed something up because this guy at the back of the room seemed certain that we had. Turns out he was very, very wrong, and very, very confused. What a reversal. From him thinking that he'd got us, and could laugh at us, to us getting him, like a rabbit caught in the headlights, and almost laughing at him.

It did, however, turn out that we had in fact done two things wrong, which were later picked up by the tutor. But the fact remains that nobody else picked up that we were wrong.

How petty of me. I'm usually not as vindictive as this, but I feel that way today. Just thinking about past events, and the vengeance associated with it. I'm trying not to seek revenge for anything at all, because I've found that it provides a kind of satisfaction for a millisecond, and then you feel worse than ever because you've done it. That's why Batman is a vigilante, not a...revenge-seeker. That reminds me of a conversation I had with a few homeboys last year.

Me: "What're we going to do for extra-curricular next semester?"
Meng or Banh (I can't remember): "Become vigilantes."
Me: "Oh yeah. The BatMeng."

Ok, so not much of a conversation. Still, it satisfies the criteria for a conversation. Not that I know what those criteria are, or whether they exist at all. I think they do. I'm fairly sure I learnt about that in linguistics. And it was funny.

ANYWAY. I don't know what prompted that rant. But I am now in 90% holiday mode. That's my last assessment for this...half semester. I'm trying to think of a better word for it, if you can call that a word at all. Term? Too junior. I'll think of something clever soon enough. Looking forward to tomorrow for various reasons. We'll see what happens.

Word of the Day: Vengeance

I was always liked jazz more anyway

Woo. Most people seem to have gotten over the start-of-another-uni-year blues, which has coincided (or had a direct effect?) on less of my friends hating on me. Everyone seems a lot less tetchy and stressed, including myself. I think it's because we're finally into the swing of things again, and found our rhythm. All very wishy-washy stuff, but quite true.

I am also handing out cupcakes made by my mother. Yes, it is a bit weird. Deal with it. I feel like being kind. If that's a crime, you can either a) sue me and put me in jail, or b) don't have one.

Also, fairly looking forward to the mid-semester break. Mainly because of the stuff planned by my friends for me to go to, but also because I need it. Just for a general loosening of the body, soul, and mind, and for catching up on work and assignments. Guess there goes the loosening part.

KPMG still haven't called me, even though they said they'd probably do it today. Not too worried though. Whatever's happened has happened. I'm also trying not to get my hopes up too much. As they (and I) say, the higher the expectations, the harder the fall. It's hard though. I hate being a closet optimist.

Ok. So the main thing on the horizon right now is the Accounting presentation tomorrow. Seems like it should be a breeze, but these things hardly ever turn out that way. Whatever. Looking forward to finishing the first half of the semester on a high note, and hopefully that happens tomorrow afternoon.

Word of the Day: Blues

KPMGizzle

So yeah, I had Summer Vacation job interviews at KPMG today. Very enlightening experience. Surprisingly, turned out to be one of the best days I've had in a long, long time.

The day did not get off to a fantastic start, actually. Got up an hour later than I would've liked. I wanted to get up at 6, ended up getting up at 7, which was a miracle in itself, because I somehow innately realised that I was late. So I hurriedly got suited up, and dashed to the train station. In my car. If you can dash in a car.

On the train, I listened to Wonderwall, as is customary where I come from. Well, not really. But I like to think it is, and that it's not just some weird superstitious ritual that I go through before doing anything of even the most mild importance. But somehow, I doubt that people in Footscray listen to Wonderwall on their iPods before job interviews and exams.

This next part is just what happened at KPMG. You can skip it. Where you can start reading from again will be bolded too. It's fairly tedious, but I thought that I'd include it anyway.

Got there without too much fuss. Hung around and made awkward conversation with other candidates. The building was very nice. After that, went upstairs, chilled with employees of KPMG. There were drinks, which I didn't drink. In hindsight, this turned out to be a wise decision, due to what was to follow.

So first up, 45 minute presentation about themselves. After that, had an interview with a manager. It could've done better, and talked about more, but that's always the case. After that, break. Nothing to do, so drank a Coke Zero.

After that, another interview. This one was a bit more critical, but I think I went alright. I hope. After that, another break, another drink. This time a San Pelligrino.

After the drink, off I went to the written exercise. This was the one I was most disappointed with. I'm usually good at writing stuff. And I feel that the time given to me was ample. I just spent a bit too much time thinking every little thing through. Oh well. It was supposed to be fairly hard, and not very many people finished.

After that, another break, another drink. I think I had a Coke proper this time. Wandered over to yet another ability test. This was actually a fair bit easier than the online one. Just like the first interview, I finished way earlier than everyone else, which makes me worry that I missed something. Then we had a mini-lunch. It was a mini-lunch because I made it so. Didn't seem proper to eat a lot in those circumstances. And I drank another Coke.

You can start reading from now.

As soon as the opportunity arose, I scrammed from the building. Right on cue, Linda dawgz messages me for lunchez. Man, was I glad to get that message. I so needed a pick-me-up after that gig with quite a few obnoxious and in-your-face people. So, like the cool cat I am, I waited for her under the clock at MC. For about fifteen minutes. Couldn't contact her because she was shopping in the underground, and because her reception with Virgin is so awesome, she couldn't receive my calls. So I went to the toilet. I actually went to the toilet five times more than I usually do in a day today, mostly owing to the drinks that I had. If you think that's too much detail, too bad. Deal with it. Don't read it.

After I finally found her (she's a really hard person to find, and an even harder person to sneak up on. Amazing peripheral vision), we went to Vic Market for lunchez. I was amazed that she could talk, as she had just had her wisdom teeth removed. Amazing. Got lost on the way there, which seems to be a habit of ours. No wonder we got lost in Sydney. We can't even find our way around Melbourne. So we got to Vic Market eventually, and had barak (barack? barac? mince in pastry? arabic? dunno) and yet another drink. Went to a few stores, including a pet store (?). Kipped on home after that. Was a great, great afternoon. Laughed a lot more than I have in a while. I've had many good conversation days this week, this one inclusive.

After I got home, went straight to Knox with family. That was great. Had a Macca's dinner, and yet another drink. Also, we bought a new camera which actually takes photos with very minimal lag time. Amazing.

A big shout out to Imesha and Davy for messaging me before and after the gig. Good effort waking up that early, and an even greater effort to remember me. And thanks goes out to all my other friends who wished me luck. James Cheng, Orrin, Banh, Yvonne, Meng. If I've left out anybody, my excuse is that I only remember people that have said it within the last two days. If I have left you out even then, sincere apologies. Anyway, thanks guys. I probably place too much emphasis on people wishing me luck, but to me, it means a lot. It shows that people care.

Wonderwall may or may not have gotten me the job. But it did give me quite an unexpectedly fantastic day. I'm going to have another drink now.

Word of the Day: Drink