Just because you have money, doesn't mean you can buy our shoes

It's really hard to buy good shoes these days. Not that it was really easy back in the day either. Maybe I'm just too finicky. I mean, I see people in brown and pink shoes, and they seem to think they look fine, but I just can't stand them. So everybody else thinks that some other garish colour scheme, like purple and green, sit well together on a shoe, so they'll keep making shoes like that because of the high demand, and I'll never ever see a pair of shoes I like.

This angst against shoemakers surprisingly started when I was looking for a new pair of shoes. I was chasing a pair of Nike AF-1's with red rims at Footlocker. They didn't have my size. I looked in about five different Footlockers. Gone. Sold out. Everyone else bought a pair before you. We only have what's out there. Or, as the Knox guy put it, "Christmas totally annihilated us, man. We won't have new stock until the middle of Jan."

I finally settled on some adidas Superstar (I think that's what they're called), and they were only about 60. However, they were a few sizes too big, so I kept trying the Nikes.

I finally went back to Knox, where they had them in my size, to find out that they weren't really my type of shoe. That's Murphy's Law for you. So I'm still looking for some shoes, and some ideas for what to do for my birthday as well, which I'm sure you could all help me with if you put your mind to it. And don't tell me to have my birthday at Footlocker. And don't buy me shoes for my birthday. They either won't fit, or they'll look terrible.

Music...more like terrible background noise

Listening to the radio at work everyday has led me to believe that good music has gone down the drain. Every day, I hear the same monotonous, repetitive, unoriginal, annoying, and terribly vocalised electropop/techno, or whatever you want to call it. You know...Pink, Nat Bassingthwaite (I never was any good at spelling), Mauboy, Britney, the Veronicas.

When was the last time somebody made something close to Wonderwall, or Tears in Heaven, or Imagine? Or even The Scientist, Cry Me a River, or something that will still be remembered in ten years time?

If a classic is too much to ask for in this day and age, decent songs should still be able to surface.

If have no idea where I'm going with this. I guess I just wanted to vent my bitterness and annoyance at dodgy pop music I hear at work everyday. Peace.

Word of the day: Trash

Apathy

There are many reasons why I haven't blogged for a while, the most obvious being apathy and slackness. The others lose the limelight due to insignificance and to the fact that I can't be bothered listing them.

For those of you who are still interested, I've been working a lot, and doing not much else. I've been informed by people that this habit isn't good for my welfare, but I'll take my chances. I think I'll make this post a recount of my "holidays".

Kris Kringle before Christmas with friends was a good idea. Ingenious really. Very much like something I would come up with. Only I didn't come up with it, so I don't know where that leaves me. Madagascar (number 2! gasp) after that wasn't such a great brainwave. I blame a certain person's inability to beat a certain girl at paperscissorsrock.

Christmas was a blast. Family friends + James Cheng's family came over for a barbecue. Then Zhangary popped over from across the road, which was amusing.

Rosebud trip was gloomy. We actually left early because it was raining and cold, and no sane person wants to go to a beach town in that kind of weather.

That pretty much sums up my holidays so far.

Today, I failed my P-plates test because I forgot to put the handbrake down after reverse parking. Good one, Andrew. And I was doing so well too. I'm pretty cut about it actually.

I need some ideas for what to do for my birthday party. If anyone's reading this, hit me with suggestions.

One rainy day

Maybe it's 007. Maybe it's the rain. It may even be because it's Thursday, or because it's just me. I think it's just me. Because, quite frankly, I cannot believe that out of the fifteen people I asked, no-one wanted to, or could, go and see Bond. And now I'm really put out and bored. And annoyed. I have no idea why I'm so annoyed. Probably because I'm in shock at my own sheer unluckiness/me-ness.

Post-exams number 5, 798, 012

Yes. Post-exams again. Coincidence? Or something more.

Anyway, all this free time has allowed me to think of random things. I was thinking the other day. There are all these inventions - some trivial, some not so trivial - that are pretty awesome, that people don't know the inventor of. Take, for example, the sticky ads on the side of buses (three guesses where I was when I saw this invention). From the outside, they're an almost perfect image of whatever they happen to be spruiking. On the inside, not only do they allow you to see outside, they also act as a massive pair of sunglasses. The only resemblence being the light-filterage that it provides.

The pencil in itself is a great invention. Even greater, however, is the pencil sharpener. Presumably, people would have had to use a knife to sharpen their pencils. This would have been fine, albeit a little cumbersome. Therefore, it takes no small amount of resourcefullness, initiative and creativity to stick a blade on a solid piece of something and poke a pencil sized hole in for pencil sharpening purposes. Since the creation of the pencil sharpener, knife sales have irreversibly spiralled downwards, limited only to kitchens and ghettos, while sharpener sales have soared. A further inovation, the two-holed sharpener, widened the gap between the redundant knife and the chic new sharpening implement.

A not-so-great, but world-changing, anonymous invention, is the examination. Evidently, somebody, presumably a teacher, somewhere along the line in history, decided that there had to a be a morale-sapping, anxiety-inducing, insomnia-causing method to seperate the best from the rest. Clearly a very sadistic, disturbed person. Now, you can see its effects everywhere. From is traditional acedemic sanctuary, to driving, music, entry into an obscure clique. Everywhere. Anywhere. Thanks Mr. Exam.

Whoopie cushions. Someone clearly thought that people sitting down and making farting noises was funny. It is not.

Swimming pools. Although not a great leap of creativity ('hey, instead of us going to the water, why don't we bring the water to us'), it nevertheless took brains to turn it into a business venture. And we still have to go to the water.

Anyway, there'll be more posts like this in the coming weeks and months, due to excessive boredom. If it floats your boat, stick around.

Word of the Day: Inventions

My wild, delinquent ways

Woo, mid-sem break, and I've been a party boy in recent weeks. I've been to...would you believe it... two parties in the last two weeks! I should really cut back on my party-going. At least that's what my parents say. I think that this mandate has an element of self-interest, in that they wouldn't care if I didn't get them to pick me up at night. More on driving later.

So first up, on the Saturday night before mid-sem break, it was Orrin's 18th! About time too. I thought I was young. It was held at this Korean bbq/karaoke place called 'Four Seasons' in Glen Waverley, which charged ridiculous prices. Anyway, it was kind of me-and-Meng time more than Orrin time, as he was was too busy 'entertaining' his friends. Incidentally, me and Meng got him a soccer ball, which he seemed fairly pleased about. At the place, we met a bunch of new people, who were quite nice, albeit a bit odd. Oh, and Orrin's girlfriend. No comment.

A good night though. Karaoke was...meh. It's not really singing when you have to shout over twelve-odd people. How sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.

Next up was JC's 19th birthday dinner on last Saturday at the mysterious-sounding 'The Booth'. 19th isn't highlighted because it's really a nowhere birthday. Anyway, this gig had a sense of deja vu about it.

1. It was in a Chinese/Cantonese enclave. Instead of GW, it was in Box Hill.
2. Karaoke again, except this time I skipped it, owing to the physically demanding work I had the following day.

It was nice catching up with everyone, and finding that many people had become more mature and better to talk with, and how incompatible I was with others. A ball of a night. Highlight was the waitress giving us attitude. I thought she knew people on our table. And the lack of air-conditioning made it very atmospheric. So much so that Alyssa got a blood nose. That was kind of bad. But I hear that she's recovered from the loss of blood, so no lasting damage done.

Eugene and I got JC a pen and pacer set. Much more practical than 'The Biggest Loser' book with James Cheng photos pasted all over it.

I skipped on K because I was going to work with my Dad the next day. And work I did. I was completely knackered by the end. My thighs still hurt.

About that driving. I have completed my seventh lesson, and, according to driving instructor, should be on a road near you come Christmas. Bet you're all looking forward to that. And that way, I won't get any complaints even if I go to a party before breakfast, and one after dinner, each and every day.

Word of the day: Party Animal

Changeling

What's better than a midnight snack? A midnight post, of course. Duh.

Yesterday was a strange day. Well, not really. Just very...I dunno. I'm bad at English, and I have limited vocabulary, so leave me alone.

Anyway, last night we had dinner at a friend's house to celebrate Moon Cake Day, for want of better words. Incidentally, we also caught up with some old friends at said person's house. It was fun, because we kept bombarding balloons at Whitney, who offered no resistence at all, and I absolutely dominated some self-professed table tennis professionals with my disproportionately quick reflexes.

Anyway, it got me thinking. Some people change a lot in a very short time, some people change a lot in a long time, and some people are like a rock. They never change. Take Jono, for instance. He'll always be a pyromaniac. And Zorba will always be...idiosynchratic. But...I dunno. Everyone had changed since last I saw them. I have no idea where I'm going with this, but I think I should've gone to Nigel's barbecue instead. Shame he called me when the snags were already getting cold. Anyway, continuing on, I've observed change in many people apart from those already mentioned. In some ways, it's good. I mean, you don't want a person to stay the way they are forever. That'd just be bad, not to mention boring. But some just change too much, so much so that you don't know how you could have liked (or hated, I'm not always pessimistic) that person in the first place.

Strange creatures, humans.

Word of the day: change