random stuffu

2008-03-04T21:36:00.002+11:00

My last two runs were in...

t-shirt and shorts!

Now, we can deduce from this that either:

(a) It's actually becoming warmer; or

(b) I've convinced myself that warmer weather is so due that there is some crazy mind-over-matter action going on here.

(I'm still using the heater at night.)

2008-02-26T00:51:00.006+11:00

Spent the weekend in Ashizuri with some people from work. There's an annual long distance relay held there and our town had a team participating, so I went along to support them (or something) and also got to do some sightseeing while I was there. It's a really beautiful spot, and the southernmost part of Shikoku. We had great weather so I have lots of blue and green photos :) Definitely going to take Mum and Dad there when they visit.

But now it's back to work. I just finished a Japanese writing task as part of an exam that I'll post off tomorrow. Glad that it's done, but next time I should start it sooner. (Reminiscent of uni days, that phrase is.)

This Wednesday I'll be going bowling with a couple of year 9 classes. Should be interesting... (I think I've been bowling twice in my life.)

2008-01-20T17:05:00.001+11:00

The winter adventure with Bry, Sal & Dave was loads of fun.

Highlights were...

Seeing my super great Aussie buds!
The weirdest NYE ever (in Himeji)
Freezing cold Himeji Castle (which featured in 'You Only Live Twice' as a ninjas training base)
Meiji Mura (open air museum) near Nagoya
Snow monkeys of Nagano - especially everyone's favourite pipe monkey!
Being allowed to play a Steinway in a Tokyo piano shop - We think the lady thought we were actually contemplating buying. Not sure how she got that impression
Meeting up with Steph in Kyoto - hisashiburi!

Lowlights were...

"Mt Fuji" - terrible weather meant invisimountain
The end of the holiday

Last Wednesday to Friday we had a prefectural JET conference. Compared to classes, it was an OK way to ease back into work. However, I'm definitely experiencing post-holiday blues in combo with an extreme longing for Oz and all its wonders (including wholegrain bread, real cheese, my family, friends and cat - not all of which I consider food).

Hoping that the routine of teaching (which, for me, starts up again this week) helps me settle down. (The post-holiday blues are reminiscent of early post-arrival feelings, which seemed to decline when routine kicked in...)

Something nice happened yesterday. I'd headed out for a run, and about 1.5kms into it, two primary school boys called out so I turned and waved. Soon they were riding alongside me on their bikes. They chatted to me and each other as we ran/rode along. "Where will you run till?" "Probably those islands." I reached Futanajima and said, "OK. I'm tired. I'm turning around." They kept riding alongside, and then stopped at a vending machine. I kept running, and then they caught up on their bikes and gave me a Coke. Of course, it's not the ideal beverage when you're exhausted from exercise, but I thanked them for their kindness and had to drink some. From there on I walked so as not to spill the Coke. They kept riding along with me until I was home. Very cute.

Cake!

2007-09-01T07:43:00.000+10:00

Thanks to Saru for this photo! I had to post it here. It's not every day that you see your face on a cake :D

Hooray for the Internet! (Hup-hup... Huzzah!)

2007-08-30T08:35:00.000+10:00

Dear friends and family,

I've had internet access at my house here in Nakatosa since Monday 20th - AND IT HAS CHANGED MY LIFE :D It's been super excellent to be able to Skype Out to home, and to chat to people online and catch up through emails and newsletters which people have sent. Time has definitely passed more quickly since I've been connected. Being able to communicate freely with people back home makes this house feel much less lonely.

I have been keeping a diary in MacJournal, and I'll make a blog post with 'content' ;) some time soon. Until then, if you are interested in seeing some photos, I have posted a bunch through my facebook account. I believe you need to have a facebook account to view them, so my apologies to Saru.

I'll post a couple of photos here too, but not albums & albums' worth.

Catch you soon!

Bye to Shinjuku

2007-08-01T08:36:00.000+10:00

Last night the Aussies went to our Embassy here in Tokyo. There were some informative and encouraging short speeches, followed by some food and drink. It was nice to feel Australian ;) When one lady showed a 30-second video snippet (from a website) about Australia, I even felt a bit emotional about it all.

Today the Group A JETs are being scattered across the country. In just a little while I'll be meeting with the rest of the Kochi Prefecture JETs, and we'll fly from Haneda Airport down to Kochi.

I'm glad to be going to the town where I'll spend my time this year. We've only been in Shinjuku for three full days, but it feels like longer - a week or something. There have been so many seminars, and there are over 5000 people at the hotel now. I feel peopled-out and drained. I look forward to being able to dump my stuff in a place I can call 'home', and make it a nice place (esp. for friends and family to visit!)

I don't yet know what I'll be doing once I get to Nakatosa today. Maybe they'll say, "Here's your house. Go and sleep." Or maybe they'll make me do work. Or maybe they'll show me around a little bit...

I hope to have internet access at 'home' in the near future, but I can't be certain about how long it will take.

2007-07-30T10:07:00.000+10:00

We arrived in Japan at about 6:15am yesterday. With little sleep, and 5:30am breakfast, the day drags on and on. In the late morning it felt like it was mid afternoon.

We had to wait until the afternoon to check in, so after our bags were brought inside (this place is fancy ;) we sat down for a while here at the hotel before heading out to explore a bit of Shinjuku. It was very humid yesterday; we could feel it even walking through the tunnel from the plane to the airport. Sweat droplets were falling down my back while we were waiting at customs.

The attention to aesthetics in Japan has been immediately apparent again. The shops, stalls and food places make sure everything's perfect. The Japanese ladies around the place look classy and elegant.

There are people whose job is to operate a department store lift. They ask which floor you want, press the buttons, politely announce each floor at which the doors open, thank you for using the lift...

In the Keio food court near Shinjuku station, I saw a customer drop a coin while putting change away, and the cashier lady rushed out from behind her counter to pick it up for them.

There are thousands of JETs here at the hotel. There are signs at the lifts apologising for the delays at certain times of the day. I pity the other hotel guests :(

Because we're in a hotel at the moment (until Wednesday) I feel like I'm on a short holiday and as though I'll be home in a little while. My brain thinks things like, "What should I bring home to show people?" But I have a year to think about that...

Only 30 minutes till our 'Opening Ceremony' begins. There could be a delay on the lifts, so I'll make my way over soon...

2007-05-30T16:01:00.000+10:00

My wisdom teeth are gone. I asked the nurse in the pre-op room if there'd be any chance of keeping what they were going to take out, but she said that they usually cut the teeth up in order to get them out. So I don't have anything to show for it. Except some holes at the back of my mouth.

Some nice friends have made & brought me soup over the last few days. How kind. I have also discovered the joys of Sanitarium Up & Go. My liquid diet means I get hungry more often. It's also caused me to lose 3kg since just before I hopped onto my wheely bed in hospital. I lament my inability to chow down on buttered bread, one of the simple blessings in life.

Yesterday I met up with Kuswati, Betsy, Chihiro and Akiko (whom I met that day) for lunch. At the end of it my mouth ached from stretching it with laughter, which was good and bad.

2007-05-22T23:32:00.001+10:00

Speaking of sweet foods, this Thursday I'll have four teeth taken out (because I've apparently become too wise for my own good.) My face will, supposedly, swell up like a melon, and then I'll eat puréed goo for a day or two.

Theory #1

2007-05-22T23:28:00.000+10:00

Jacinta and I have decided that:
It is good to eat dessert with a teaspoon, rather than with a larger (e.g. dessert) spoon. With one half - or even one quarter - the amount of sweet food in one's mouth, there is only a small relative change to the sweet-food-eating sensation. However, in exchange for this arguably small loss, one gains the benefit of a significant time extension in the dessert-eating experience.

2007-05-08T16:57:00.000+10:00

Today I finished making my doll.

It started like this:

And it ended like this:

2007-05-08T09:46:00.000+10:00

My home town in Japan will be Nakatosa, Kochi, in southern Shikoku. Shikoku is roughly the same shape as Australia, and I'm pretty much moving to 'Adelaide'. Dave showed me my town on Google Earth. It's kinda little - population of 8500 or so. There's a market where they sell fish, fruit and veges. I hope I live close to that! XD

In the meantime I've made this funny 'Geomobile' thing. I found the kit in the Smith Family Store for $1. Later I found it online, where a bunch of people had reviewed it. Strange to read reviews of something I found in the op-shop for a buck. "If you'd like to learn more about spherical geometry, visit your local library!"

My Room is a Mess

2007-04-17T08:51:00.000+10:00

Today I'll post my acceptance forms to the JET people. Dave thinks it's funny that my first move out of home will be to live overseas. I'm glad it's to a country I've visited a couple of times. But the non-English-speaking part is a little unnerving. I guess the battle might be fun in a tedious kind of way :-/

I told Pakman that I think Fasten the Deed should take this opportunity to recruit a trained singer! Then they could dominate the Wollongong music scene and, eventually, take over the world.

JET News!

2007-04-04T14:48:00.000+10:00

Yesterday arvo I went op-shopping with Jacinta and found 2 cool jackets for the total price of $15.50. She found a wonderfully pretty skirt! XD

And when I arrived home, there was a letter from the Japan Consulate saying that I've been offered a job teaching English to high school kids in Japan for a year. I'd been waiting so long just to find out, and I was getting weary from waiting. But when I read the letter, I just felt strange. It's going to be an exciting adventure, methinks. But I will certainly miss many things about being here.

Emotionally confused,
J

2007-03-01T02:04:00.000+11:00

Harro brog. Apparently it's been a while... again.

Some things that are the same as when I last posted:

God
My favourite number
My cat's perpetual appetite

Some things that are different:

My $6 sunnies have been replaced, since they were broken at Saturday arvo sport
I own a Postal Service album
I can legitimately put some fun letters after my name when I sign off

These days I sometimes feel like I'm floating.
I'll read a stack of job ads, apply for any that seem half appropriate, and sometimes try to trample those monkeys that are the unemployment blues by making sure there's a samurai sudoku in front of my face.

I'm waiting to hear back from the JET people about whether they want me to go and teach English to Japanese high school kids. Another month or so until I find out. It would be great...

I've also been busying myself with projects o' randomness. There now exists a 9" doll of Janet. She wears a black gothic dress and her wig is in the making. (The real Janet doesn't wear a wig, if that's what it sounded like.) It seems to bother some that her wig is made from my hair, but I don't believe in any kind of voodoo foo, so it's fine. If anyone goes shoving sharp objects into her, I'm convinced she's the only one who'll suffer. Maybe I'll throw a photo up here when it's all done.

I'm not a writer, so this is a bit of a battle. Maybe that's why my blog dies all the time.

Janet
B.A./B.E. (Because that's so relevant to this post...)

Ben Folds & SSO

2006-09-12T00:10:00.000+10:00

I know that it's impossible for me to review a Ben Folds concert in any kind of "proper" way. When I was a young'n (coz I'm so old now... :) I would get home from BF(5) shows and, in the concert high, write every detail I could possibly remember about the show and the lead-up to it. Maybe now I've realised that it's too difficult to try to word the fun and joy that is Ben Folds Live.

Ben Folds with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra (September 7th) was one of those concerts you wish you could live inside. Philosophy was a nice surprise, but the highlight for me was possibly Narcolepsy. The massive fat sound towards the end of that song swallowed up my head.

There was fun improv stuff (including The Secret Life of Morgan Davis, One Down, and Rock this Bitch for Steve Irwin) as well as a good deal of 'tween-song banter.

(Some nice people put up some phone vids from the night at YouTube.)

The days following the show have been filled with much digging up of BF(5) books and much bashing of piano keys. Hooray for music :D

2006-04-29T10:17:00.000+10:00

On Wednesday April 26 I sat down to start reading about Ludwig Wittgenstein, and found out that it was his birthday. And today, the anniversary of his passing.

I had a particularly strange dream two nights ago.
Standing in my room, I saw someone near the shelves that my CDs are on. I knew that it was my reflection. But unlike your everyday in-a-window-or-a-mirror reflection, she didn't mimic my moves. She did what she wanted to do, and even said what she wanted to say. I stood there having a conversation with her, little of which I can remember. But I do recall saying something like, "Yeah, you're pretty small. No wonder people always say I'm small." And she agreed. (Maybe I have deep-down shortness/littleness issues!) In my dream I started wondering what split personality disorder was, and whether it would feel anything like all of this. We went upstairs, and mum and dad were in the loungeroom. I wondered whether they would be able to see/hear my 'reflection'. When I told them about her, they thought I was talking nonsense. For some reason, the 'reflection' now had blonde hair, and then later on, was about a foot taller than me too.

Anyway, I'm going to do my philosophy homework and bake some cookies...
じゃぁね!

Milo Shirt Tally = 3

2006-01-12T14:25:00.001+11:00

"The fallen leaves are rotting. The whole of nature stinks of disintegration and decay. The earth is dirty. The sea is dirty. The heavens rain slush. We are already in hell."

Strindberg is one interesting dude. Beilz pointed me to this, and then I found out that Strindberg isn't a fictional character. Kwazy. You should check out his poems.

The Milo Shirt Tally Begins

"Hokay, so, (here's the earth - it's chillin'...)" on Tuesday January 10th, my dad kindly purchased for me a green Nestlé Milo t-shirt from The Land of Chocolate (AKA the confectionary/chips wholesaler in Unanderra). I think it is already in my top 5 shirts; possibly in my top 3. The side-seam factor prevents it from overcoming the awesomeness of shirts such as "Opeth" and "Crazy Line Drawing Man Drawing Himself" (AKA "Interpretive Dancer").

After wearing the Milo shirt yesterday evening and this morning I've had 3 significant comment experiences. I thought I would start a Milo Shirt Tally and see how crazy it gets. (This could be a complete flop, but I think that 3 comments in less than 2 days may indicate the beginning of something...)

1. Random 4(ish) year old boy in Woolies
2. Neil
3. Random chick working in Byrne Surf 'n' Ski*

If it keeps happening, I'll keep posting about it.

* As someone who has resolved to purchase clothes primarily from op-shops, I feel a need to explain why I was in Byrne. Op-shops are great. You can find good stuff if you bother to look. It's cheap. Your money is going to a charity (if you shop at the charity ones and not the Newtown style in-it-for-profit ones). And best of all, your money ISN'T going to the retailer or the brand company who probably exploit people for cheap labour. That retailer/company has already received its money for the sale of that thing, and it's nice knowing that it wasn't your money. I understand that I'm not totally consistent with stuff like this, but for the benefit of my own conscience, op-shopping it (primarily) is. There are, however, a few things that I'll still go to the freaking brand-selling retailers for. Board shorts fall into this category. I've had too many bad experiences with cheap boardies. They last a summer and then go yuk. Maybe the zipper/Velcro carks it, or maybe they just lose shape, or maybe they were no good to start with but were attractive because of the $10 price tag. So that's why I was in Byrne - to find some good shorts. I found'm, and hopefully they'll last a fair while.

Paralysed By Cosmological Issues

2005-10-30T22:39:00.000+11:00

At the moment I'm distanced enough from reality to be able to write something down about all of this junk. Maybe it's because my stomach's full of a roast beef sandwich that's taken all the blood away from my brain. However, I still remember the thoughts, so I can recount them even though I'm not currently experiencing them.

Found myself standing in the middle of my room at about 2am. Completely paralysed. Not sure how long it lasted. Quite a while. The true meaning of any potential action completely eluded me. So why should I even move? Even something like the idea of writing down my thoughts seemed purely pointless and meaningless. A mere distraction. Action was far less important than thought. But where should I direct my thought? Why should I direct my thought? I don't know - but I can't stop thinking, so surely I'm supposed to direct it somewhere. What is the goal of sending my thoughts one way or the other? How can I reach a conclusion? It has to be a satisfying conclusion that allows me to live. Faking my way out of this state seems wrong; maybe even morally wrong - a denial of the truth. Somehow I eventually managed to move. I sat on my bed. I read some more. Sometimes, all of this is so powerful that even the act of reading in search of answers seems like a distraction from reality, masquerading as something true and worthwhile. Presently my great fear is that I will not find the true way out of this state. This fear is exacerbated by the fact that the world doesn't care whether or not people find the true way out. The world is more concerned with being comfortable. And a world that is concerned with being comfortable wants other people to be comfortable with it. Not necessarily 'comfort rather than truth', which implies the two are mutually exclusive, but perhaps 'comfort via a truth-bypass: the simplest way is good enough'. But it is not good enough.

I don't know. I am freaking confused.

2005-10-27T07:37:00.000+10:00

Not much sleep. Woke up after a nightmare. It was really about 6:15, but in my dream it had been 3am. Apparently that's the best o'clock to carry out murders. That's what I believed in nightmare land. Less people are awake at 3am. I think this is a similar deal to the "It's 4 in the morning; Mother don't know that I'm going far away..." of Alice Childress. At midnight, people are still awake. At 1am people are still awake. And at 5am people are getting up. That's why 3am is the best time for murder. Something or someone had convinced me that there were three people I had to kill. I don't even know what it was that was so convincing. In my awake state, it's pretty hard to think of a real reason I would kill anyone. The nightmare was me killing the three people. It was terrible. When I was doing it, I managed to distance myself from what I was actually doing. Even when I was "cleaning up", I tried to not think about what I had done. One of the three was someone close. I tried to distance myself from the idea that I had actually caused the grief I knew I'd have to endure later. But for some reason, it was a thing that the grief wouldn't kick in until others had woken up to find the mess. And I made a conscious decision to let someone else deal with the body here. As I was thinking about that, I suddenly felt terrible about what had happened. I regretted it and wished I could undo it all. That's when real thoughts started melding with the nightmare. I managed to convince myself that I wouldn't really murder anyone, and forced myself to wake up. Took me a while to realise the difference between nightmare and reality. Couldn't risk going back to sleep, so went for a walk. The flies were prolific. Other morning walkers were carrying fly-ridding pieces of leafy twig stuff. It was already really warm at 6:30. Mostly separated from the feelings of the nightmare now. But when I thought I'd recovered, close to home I saw a dead pigeon on the footpath and it made death seem real again. Argh.

Whoa. I later realised that this is my 57th post. (For everyone who knows what that means...)

2005-10-21T16:13:00.000+10:00

Howl's Moving Castle is purchase-worthy.

2005-09-28T08:21:00.000+10:00

This morning I felt like Amelie did after she helped the blind man to "see" stuff all over the town. All light and free like. After dropping mum & dad at the train station I came here to uni. It's nice & cool outside and even the bugs crawling on the ground looked shiny & nice :p I met a friendly black & white cat in someone's front lawn on the way here, and then there were birds swooping down & flying in front of me, cartoon stylin's.

I need more sleep. But I think there was a big weight lifted off me yesterday when I stayed back in the lab to finish some work. Things went well & I got some good solid results for my report. Before the decent results happened, I'd been tempted to leave when some more issues came up - but now I'm glad I just stayed until it was sorted.

A cool verse from the Bible:
"A man's steps are of the LORD; how then can a man understand his own way?" - Proverbs 20:24

This one's for Newton.

2005-08-15T21:35:00.000+10:00

Today I will post some trivial things. I don't know whether anyone will read them, but I hope that if one person does, that that person is Newton.

This is from the menu at 'Roppongi', a Japanese restaurant in my lovely home town. It is given here with the same spelling as in the menu.
"Fully enjoy both cold noodles. 1. Put the shallots think in the sauce than stir it well. 2. Put noodle in the sauce than eat noodle with sauce is well."

The following is a previously underappreciated call from Back to the Future 2, which I had playing tonight while I did my Japanese homework for tomorrow (...which I have yet to complete, but am finally understanding, now that Momoko is giving me online help via MSN! Thanks Momoko!).
"Let's land on him - We'll cripple his car." - Marty McFly

I am finding it hard to get used to doing things again, after spending the last five days in bed with an ultra frustrating throat infection plus flu and all the joy that goes along with that kind of thing. But hooray for health! Love health while you have it! It's TEH AWE-SUM!

じゃあ、宿題を続ける前に、お茶を飲みたい。Till next time...!

MYC teh Awe-Sum!

2005-07-20T10:28:00.000+10:00

I still kind of miss being there. Really ultra mega super challenging talks about serving (convincing even the ultra-apathy-regarding-the-future j that it might actually be important to think about the future), helpful discussions in Bible study groups, mega fun adventures in the arvos and general awesomeness getting to hang out with hundreds of God's kids for a week. Gold.

2005-07-06T23:55:00.000+10:00

If you watch some Witch Hunter Robin, you'll come across a character named Harry, who owns a restaurant that Robin (and others) frequent. At first I thought Harry was a little bit creepy with his "Mata kite kudasai" (said to Robin with a certain tone) and such. But later I changed my mind. He's a pretty good guy.

About a year ago I was in a little Italian restaurant in quiet part of Yokohama. It was just a short walk away from my host family's house, and my host mum (Sachiyo) took me out for dinner there because my host dad (Toru), who was apparently not too keen on Italian food, was out with some of his friends that night. The restaurant was pretty quiet that night - only two or three others came in while we were there. Sachiyo knew the man who owned the place and who cooked for us (after making suggestions from the menu for us), and we all chatted as he cooked. (I seem to recall that his daughter had briefly dropped by at our place a couple of days beforehand, to drop something off or to pass on a message.)

I think the fact that it was an Italian restaurant in Japan is a large part of the reason why these memories were brought back after seeing Harry's western-style café/bar. The restaurant seemed fairly classy (like Harry's) but there was nothing pretentious about it. The man who owned it was genuine and friendly, like Harry. Now that I think about it, it feels like I met this anime character in Japan before I'd even seen the anime. It feels really strange.

In Need of a Name

2005-06-27T12:39:00.000+10:00

Hokay so, our lil a cappella group is still nameless. We had our first paid gig on Saturday night :p (not that we requested payment...) but we didn't have a name to introduce ourselves under. So if you have any helpful suggestions for a name, please lemme know. Thanks kids.

(Ideas so far include such things as "Bunch o' Girls" and some musical terms like "Melisma".)

Shoelaces

2005-06-26T11:15:00.000+10:00

I've changed the way I tie up my shoelaces. It feels different to how I used to tie'm. And I can't remember how I used to do it.

Breathing Out

2005-06-04T16:16:00.000+10:00

Sydney adwenchOr with Sal yesterday. Driving to Sutho station was a good idea of Sal's. Good for the two O's battery (she only ever does uber short uni runs... poor two O), saved time, made for fun only-JUST-making-it-onto-the-train-even-after-running foo.

Apparently we both needed exercise, so we decided to take a stroll from central out to HUM in Newtown so I could pick up my Songs for Silverman - FINALLY! :) (I am a very happy girl. Listening as I type now. Mmm...)

After admiring such things as a Jesus action figure, some nice (yet uber expensive) drawing stuff, and a whole bunch of CD's there isn't enough fundage for, we stopped for some Thai chow. As we was chowin' down, Sally said hi to someone who walked in the door and I was thinking, "Ah, she's seen another friend of her's who I don't know...". But I turned around to see that Richard Chin, of all people, had just walked into the same restaurant. Bizzare.

Walked back to the city where Sal went to visit a friend at The Games Workshop (nyeeeiiirrr!!), I found that Kinokuniya didn't have the paper I wanted, and a donut later we were on our way home. Sore feet.

A number of us enjoyed a nice chilled out barbecue thang at the Pakula's for dinnOr. Had a good time despite the kickin's in of a dumb headache.

Late at night I read about the new official Ben Folds fan club and got a bit excited. So of couse I emailed to find out what the story was. This morning I signed up when I heard back from them. (So PHEW - any fear of me not being a proper fan, after taking so very long to pick up my SFS, has been put away :p Teehee. Nah, I'm being stoopid.)

Went to visit my Grandma this arvo, with Mum & Dad. All's cool, and Chloe (the usually relatively feisty feline) was being uncharacteristically friendly. Maybe she knew that we'd brought her a whole buncha cat food.

Might watch the SFS DVD tonight. Not sure. Seeing's it's the making of SFS, I have a sorta fear that if I watch it too soon - only having listened to SFS < 10 times - I might get those association issues where I can't listen to a song without thinking about something that was said about it on some doco.

Voices

2005-05-26T21:54:00.000+10:00

I'm not trying to sound like a nut, but I wanna know if it's kinda common for people to hear voices in their head. I've talked to one friend who does... And that was kinda cool to know someone else gets similar deals. I'm talking about when things are kinda quiet, maybe like when you're trying to fall asleep (that is if there isn't music on...) and distinct voices say distinct phrases in your head. I never know who owns the voices. And the phrases are always really random and weird, so I don't know where they come from. Once I tried letting my brain do its drifty hearing voices thing and 'waking up' to write them down each time and ended up with a page of stuff that I couldn't explain. I've thought before that it could be a cool way of getting song lyrics without having to think about them.

2005-05-23T22:58:00.000+10:00

Thanks to tha 'Ru, I can now count my assessments left this session on the hand of a Simpson (i.e. there remain 4). W007n355!

Urge to go on outdoor adventures... rising... !!

「クラフト使い」

2005-05-23T16:04:00.000+10:00

Oooh... The sooner this uni foo is over, the sooner I can watch more Witch Hunter Robin! How exciting! :) Saturday night Sal, Doug, Sim and I went for nutritious kebabs (eaten in a dangerously dark carpark...) & Coles adventures, before sitting down to the first few episodes of WHR. So good. And I've had the phrase "kurafuto tsukai" stuck in my head since! :p (True story.) The boys both fell asleep. Weak. Sal will back me up on this call. I don't know how they fell asleep. Good anime.

If it doesn't already exist, I think Canon should make a backlit version of my electronic Japanese dictionary. And it should have rechargable batteries. People underrate the importance of backlighting. O, hear me cry - this be my tale o' woe.

2005-05-22T16:08:00.000+10:00

Alright!!

You Are 13 Years Old

13

Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe.

13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world.

20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences.

30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more!

40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What Age Do You Act?

Yay :)

2005-05-20T15:18:00.000+10:00

I like today.

Handed in my thesis poster and did a bit of extra work my supervisor asked me to do. Pretty easy morning. Went and gave blood when I was reminded by an ee-eeeemail about the need. (Slowest... donation... EVER - 8'58". I think it was because I didn't drink enough water beforehand... maybe.) Got some music in the mail from an uber uber UBER organised mother of a bride whose wedding isn't until October. And it looks pretty easy, which is always handy. Hooray for their good organisation.

It's always better on holiday.

2005-05-18T11:13:00.000+10:00

I think I want to learn how to dominate a Rubic's Cube. Mum & Dad brought one home for me a while ago, & it seems there aren't all that many moves you need to memorise to solve'm.

Uni... The countdown continues with 14 days still to go. Even though that ridiculously fun and exciting time of thesis report writing is over for this session, there's still stuffu to do, but my brain thinks it's all over. Think I managed to convince myself it'd be alright after thesis foo.

(I'm supposed to say something about a certain burger I ate on Sunday, so...)
I don't know if you can call something a "burger" if it isn't on a burger bun. What defines a burger? Is it the actual patty thing? I mean, if you just put a bunch of salad on a proper burger bun, it's not a burger, yeah? In any case, these "burgers" - made by none other than the infamous Xhef Xim - earned at least 10 points from me. Patties with, I think, 65% ground cow, cheese, bacon, egg, lettuce & TWO layers of barbecue sauce (one next to the cheese and one next to the egg - I think). One of the best things I've ever eaten. (Note: I was ultra hungry after wandering around at the puter fair for maybe too long...)

That burger could also have been tasting extra good because of the relief that came with finally finishing - with the help of the magnificent sarooo who proof read some really BORING stuff - that too-long and too-dry report.

Renewed my licence this morning. Fun times at the RTA as usual. It has long been one of my least favourite places. For some reason it's depressing. Maybe it's the whole pitying the old dudes who are having a hard time getting their licence renewed. Maybe it's bad memories of not passing my P's test the first *ahemorsecondbutforstupidreasonsahem* time. Oh well. Hopefully I won't need to be seeing that place for another three years.

Jaaaaa, mata ne!

2005-05-10T17:42:00.000+10:00

Still counting my days away like my grandma, I think, told me not to. But I'll only be doing it for another 21 days (for now). From tomorrow, 5 days till thesis report's due. I can't wait to breathe and sleep again! And go on adventures. And play piano. And watch stupid movies. And watch awesome concert dvds. Aaaw yeeeah :) In this kinda stressful time though, God is cool to know (like always) and my fam & friends have been pretty rockin' too. People who understand. Aah. Such a blessing.

The Bad End of Aural Learning

2005-05-03T18:09:00.000+10:00

The irritating sound of my own voice saying random lines from the speech I had to memorise for my Japanese class will probably go on for a few days. Argh.

"And remember, never, ever do your homework without... wearing... headphones."

Countdown (or if you will, "downcount") to the thesis report due date is scary. I foresee many a sleepless night of anguish.

But in four weeks there'll be much adventuring! Or maybe just lazing around and watching all my music DVDs. Oh boy. I can't wait.

Hooray for the thought that one day work won't be a burden.

2005-04-30T21:06:00.000+10:00

Oh man. Music brings joy to my heart.
I've been doing work most of today. I had Opeth's Damnation on in the background for a while earlier. But just now I've switched from thesis to Japanese, and put headphones on. A whole bunch of random stuff in a playlist is going into my brain and it's goooood. Straight to my ears with no other random noises getting in the way. It was Bjork's There's More to Life Than This that made me start groovin' around here, and made me need to tell everyone how good music is. But I'm sure you already knew.

2005-04-29T18:39:00.000+10:00

There it is! The day of J's first thesis-induced tears.
Oh man.
Tried to run away from it when I got home. Feeling a little better I guess. But there's only so much that exercise endorphins can do I reckon. I think I'll feel better after dinner. I hope.

2005-04-28T17:00:00.000+10:00

I have decided that 4.5 years studying engineering actually does change the way you think. After my last class today I had to swing by the lab to do some stuffu, so by the time I got to walking back to my car, the gates to the gardens were shut and I had to walk around the block. There was a truck parked just a little bit up from the gates and when I saw 2 ladders just sitting on the back of it, the first thing I thought of was how the time & energy required would differ between me walking all the way around the block, or getting a ladder off the back of the truck, using it to get over the too-high-for-a-shorty-like-me-to-jump-it fence and short cutting it through the garden.

In other news, I now know vaguely how those uni-ball fusion pens work :D If you want to know I'll send you an explanation!

Good stuff today:
- I can FTP to my robot again! Hooray! Annoying issue finally sorted out. (Though it'll still be a lil while before I can sit down and properly run the tests I wanna do...)
- My Japanese teacher was nice enough to take my draft speech to check it over & give me feedback even though I left it uber late to hand it in!
- My shoes didn't eat my socks! All day! When I left the house in the morning I thought it would happen, because I've had bad experiences before with these socks.

I won't write the annoying stuff of the day because that will cause me to unnecessarily dwell on it.

WOOHOO!

2005-04-27T01:17:00.000+10:00

I just realised that one of the presentations that I thought I had to give next monday is actually the monday AFTER!! Aw yeeeah!! Relief factor 2000.

More Blood

2005-04-26T17:52:00.000+10:00

Today I added to my so-called "boy-level" of injuries. When I was opening a sushi container I managed to end up with a staple rammed underneath my thumbnail :) When I held out my thumb and said in a probably-too-loud and uncharacteristically girlish way "Argh, someone pull it out coz I can't do it myself!" Mark got it out but it took a few tries. As a result of this stupidity of mine though, I can now tell you all that "First Aider's Choice - Premium Fabric Strips" are the cushiest band-aids I've ever experienced, in all of my band-aid experiences.

Now I'm stressing about uni things because I have 3 presentations within 2 days, next monday & tuesday. Oh the pain.

Long Ramble

2005-04-25T00:29:00.000+10:00

Yay for Monday off.

Today was pretty cool. Was woken up by fam noise as usual. (I'm generally the last one to go to sleep, so I generally get up because of other people's morning noise.)

Finished off the homework for Yuki Sensei that I was whinging about earlier.

My grandma came down to chill with us for a good chunk of the day. That was cool because I hadn't seen her for a few weeks I think. She's doin' well :)

Went on an adventure to Bunnings. Picked up a pack of 10 dust masks (the packet says "Pack of 10 Nuisance Dust Masks" or something) for $2.61 (and didn't end up paying the $2.61 myself anyway). For some reason they struck me, at the time, as something that would be amusing to adventure around in, with a novelty factor not dissimilar to that of 3-D glasses (Back to the Future 1 Biff buds? Ne? Ne?). I don't know. They'll probably come out on some 'stoopid' occasion or dress-up thing.

Stuck my head in at Nathan's 22nd. It was cool to see some of the now working kids who I hadn't seen for a while. Crazy working kids. Nathan had purchased a nice little Roland electric drum kit, so had some fun mucking around for a while, while he cranked out some bad-because-he'd-had-a-few-too-many-cold-ones nooskoo punk goo on the guitar. I was hoping the kit'd be kinda like the one Pak used to have, with all the crazy junkyard kits and uber fun sfx, but it pretty much just had straight kits. I think you could create your own, but there was a bit of a limit to the sounds available. Anyway.

Church was cool. Some more solid practical stuff from Galatians. Some cool chillin' wid da kids. Some runnin' the two o on six bucks o' fuel. Supper at Kylie & Jeremy's. Very cool.

Right now I'm starting to make the template for my mid-year thesis report. Kinda weird. It wasn't long ago when 'thesis' was this kinda weird distant concept of something I might one day maybe possibly have to kind of 'do'. Ugh : / Still daunting, considering progress. Or lack. Meh.

In a week I have to give a 5-6 minute speech for my Japanese class. It can be about whatever. I'm thinking about writing about the whole way-too-many-people-live-for-their-careers idea. It's something that kinda makes me sad. And it's a situation I want to try to make sure I don't end up in. Heard stuff from Jonnie about some of his Sydney buds who are working crazyzah hours every day. Sure they're paid well, but what're you living for if you're willing to spend every moment working some job where expectations of you are too extreme and you keep getting pushed. I know I'd crack. Which is maybe why I feel as though other people shouldn't drive themselves into the ground for work either. Dunno. There's also the whole experience of what my friend Steph refers to as the "Forum of Death", where 4 of us, on our Kawasaki trip last year, and 4 Japanese uni students were put up in front of a whole bunch of company reps to answer questions (in Japanese - a key reason for the title of the occasion) about our reasons for choosing our field of study, what we wanted to do after graduating, whether we had a "kyaria puran" (career plan), etc... The Japanese students all seemed to have it all planned out. They knew who they wanted to work for, and why, and seemed as though they'd decided pretty early on in school. We must've sounded like such a bunch of Aussies with our "I'll decide when I get there" take. I can't diss the Nippon kids too much if i mention them though, coz we might end up giving these speeches at the annual speech comp thingo in September :p
Meh. Just some stuffu I'm thinking I might be able to blab about for 5-6 minutes... : /

Jaa. Too much rambling. Back to said thesis template.

The Return of the BFG

2005-04-24T00:24:00.000+10:00

Argh! It's not fair. I just got an email from my Japanese Economics & Media teacher saying that I need to redo one of the parts of that big freaking giant newspaper assignment!!

I cheered when that assignment was bound and "finished", and I walked out of Officeworks with a kinda it's-finally-over feeling. But ALAS. 'Twas not the case.

As Ben Folds would say, (and don't forget to insert stoopid mocking tone) "FEEL MY PAAAIN!!!" :p (Because obviously there can't be any point to me actually posting this, except that I want you to "FEEL MY PAIN!!"...)

Ooh, yay :) Now my mind's ear is ringing with sweet sweet Roland AX-1 tones and fuzzy bass lines. Thanks Ben!

2005-04-23T20:45:00.000+10:00

Two nights ago I woke up at some unknown dark hour of the night with this really weird feeling. For one I was completely melting. (Someone had fallen asleep in the "yeah, I'll turn this electric blanket off just before I fall asleep" phase.) I don't know if that was what woke me up. Probably. I kinda had a sore throat too. It's still kicking around. But the weirdest was I felt really scared. It sounds weird written down, but it felt like God wasn't there. Like, what hell is. Don't know why that kind of sudden fear kicked in, but when I got up in the morning I could still remember what it felt like. Really scary and horrible. It all reminded me that hell is real.

2005-04-23T01:14:00.000+10:00

Hmm. About ten minutes ago, I felt like posting.
Now that the page has finally loaded and I'm thinking about other stuff, I can't really be bothered writing stuff.

Looking for plain comfy cheap T-shirts.

2005-04-18T17:42:00.000+10:00

To add to the T-shirt slogans that Sal listed, here's one of Sim's suggestions that I know I'll be printing on a shirt in the near future:

TOKEN

So appropriate at
so many times and in
so many circles for
so many reasons.

2005-04-17T17:30:00.000+10:00

Yesterday I went for a walk in the arvo when I was feeling all sleepy like. It was cool. The sun was just sitting at the top edge of the mountains, and the lady who owns that big flock of homing pigeons had let them out so they were circling around the block where I was walking. They fly low, so with that many of them all flapping their wings it sounds really cool when they fly over you. I picked up a few frangipanis from my usual pick-up-a-few-frangipanis place. Outside was so awesome after way too much desk & book action.

Getting BettOr :)

2005-04-09T12:37:00.000+10:00

Hoorah. I am now swallowing something like pins as opposed the double-edged razor blades of the other night. Mine pappa brought home some cough syrup this morning :) Aww.

Wedding to play at this arvo at 3:00... I'm kind of hoping they have some CDs for the processional/recessional, just to make it easier for me. Don't know what the chances of that are, but here's hoping. I'll give their guests some quiet Folds as they're waiting anyhow. Everyone loves it. Even if they don't think they do.

Freaking Throat

2005-04-06T23:05:00.000+10:00

I feel terrible. My throat is feeling about a hundred times worse than it did a few hours ago. It kills to swallow stuff. I wish I'd studied for tomorrow's mid-session earlier so I wouldn't have to feel like I should be studying now.

Whine whine,
Whinge whinge,
Blah blah blah...

Friday Pics

2005-04-05T21:48:00.000+10:00

I was told by a few people how NOT Not The Same so many of my concert photos were... So I'm only linking to a few.

A few of the kids on Friday night before the show. (Some of us were particularly excited about the idea of seeing Ben live... *ahem*)

Ben looking kinda contemplative...

Proof that we got to see those crazy ben solos close-up...

二番目のコンサート

2005-04-03T15:31:00.000+10:00

Yay! Finally! Access to blogger! It's been hating me since last night (= early this morning). So now I can write more trivial concert babble that will interest very few people!

Drove up to the Enmore with Stu. He went to his folks' place while I kicked around near the theatre, & joined the queue of one (plus me) at about 2:30. Phil (= the rest of the queue at that point) was the guy with the alphabetised buttons from the Friday show. He brought good news of great joy. Ben would be doing post-concert signings at HUM records down the road, for the kids who pre-ordered Songs for Silverman from their store. (I don't really like the idea of that. Bit of a scam. Makes me anti-HUM. But how could I pass it up?) So I went down the street & got my ticket to the signing (= a receipt for the album from stinkin' HUM).

Mmm. There was the usual Enmore arvo line-up scorching sun factor as we waited. There's a bit of a tale of woe about when we got inside. Door 2 had been opened a bit before Door 7 (us) so despite waiting for a good 5 or more hours, we were in the second row again. The people in front of us were the same kids who were in front of us the night before, which was kinda weird. One lad was nice enough to let me have front row for one song, so i chose Not The Same.

The setlist was changed up a bit from the night before. New stuff to Saturday's show included:
Losing Lisa
Where's Summer B.?
Evaporated
(Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy - if that counts!! :p )
... maybe some other stuff that's slipping my mind

Some of the newens that he played on Friday & Saturday that I couldn't remember before:
Bastard
Trusted
Jesusland

There was a lot more chatting with the crowd that went on, which is always nice. A girl behind me bootlegged so if all goes well I'll have a copy of it soon :) If any of you kids reading this are interested, I can burninate you copies too.

Ooh. Fun times. When Ben said that they changed up the set a bit for the sake of us who were there the night before, i gave him a big "Arigato!", which was answered with "Domo! Ben chan desu!" ala the '97 Tokyo show. Ahh, drivel Japanese exchanges. Highly entertaining.

After grabbing my cloaked stuffu, Lewis, Phil and I ran to HUM where there was a mini queue happening already, and got a nice spot in the line. They were playing the new album. (The version of Give Judy My Notice with more than the piano sounds bizarre!) At this point, my camera was screwed. (It happened as I was trying to load my last roll of film during the show. Ah, primitive film-requiring cameras...) Anyway, we got our "limited" album cover prints signed ('limited' in that there was a massive stack of them on the shop counter that were one-each for the pre-paid kids) and had a few words with the Ben man.

"Great times, noodle salad." (Minus the noodle salad.)

I was pretty gone by the end of it all. Not much sleep over the last few days (for some reason...). This morning I kinda felt like I did when I was a tiny kid and it was Boxing Day. That "Oh man, I can't believe it's over" feeling, where your gut gets all tied up.

The benergy's kinda subsiding as I realise I have mid-session pain this week.

Awesome weekend. It was really good to have something force me to take a proper weekend off any work.

Actual Saturday. Not Friday-night-roll-over Saturday.

2005-04-02T09:51:00.000+10:00

Argh. Weird in-between concerts feelings.
Went for a long run this morning to release some of my built-up benergy and try to sweat out this fluey thing that seems to have caught up with me...
(I think it worked. Hoorah for diminished snot factor!)
Caught up with mum & dad after their week of adventuring around Tasmania...
Waiting on word from Stu about transport for today...
Hmm, BF5 self-titled just finished...
Ate a banana...
Should probably shove some vitamin C into me...
Deciding which 'yeah-I'm-a-Ben-Folds-nerd' shirt to wear today...
Attempting to ignore that 'remember that pile of uni work you have?' voice that's in the background...
Looking forward to getting my ol' skoo analog film with last night's pics developed...

Is my neighbourhood grumpy?
Why is it that in my travels this morning I initiated 6 out of 6 morning greetings with various passers by? It's not like there were many people out. And if you pass right by someone on the same chunk of footpath, a greeting's warranted, yah? The northern 'burbs need a genki-boost. Or summin'... 元気アップ！！(For anyone who bothers to Babel Fish that - the translation it gives you is stupid. Don't listen to them. They produce much Engrish.)

Aaah, the sky is blue and pretty! I can hear cool birds, but the whipper snipper across the creek is louder than them :(

...

Yay! Leaving for Sydney at 12:30. Can't wait for the show! XD

Benny at the Metro - April 1

2005-04-02T01:46:00.000+10:00

That concert was exactly what I needed. One of the few things that can make me completely forget about everything else and just enjoy the moment.

After a day spent kicking around the city with Sal, a bit of a headache was kicking in. (Not blaming Sal directly for the headache!) Caught up with Joe, Karen (who I met for the first time), Jonnie, Lewis & da kidz. Thankfully Karen came to the rescue with some headache-ridding goodness :) Yay.

Spent a while in the line getting paid out for being too excited - or maybe for not attempting to contain any signs of excitement. (It's been a couple of years since I last saw Mr. Folds live, so ultra mega supersonic death monkey excitedness was 100% warranted.) Talked to a guy who ALPHABETISED the 50 or so buttons on his bag (nyeeeeiiirrrrr!!). Stole chips off Joe. Blah blah blah. I wanted to be inside.

Ended up 2nd row back, just to the left of the pyana. Pretty good for viewing piano solo hands.

Gelbison were a great support act. I really enjoyed their set. (So they did pretty well - It's generally hard to get my attention if you're a pre-BF(5) act :p !!) Might need to dig up some of their stuff. It did well calming me down out of my possibly too hyped up state.

Benny opened with his Cure cover In Between Days - interesting (and FUN) opener! There was a lot of new stuff (some of which I'd managed to hear bad sampling rate mp3s of before the show), crowd faves, classics, and a lot of general Ben crazies goodness. (He even showed us his ankle... w00t!!)

(For my own benefit, here's a list of songs I can remember him playing, in no particular order. Well, if you're a fan you'll probaby be able to see a certain kind of order in here. But they're in nothing like concert order.)

In Between Days
There's Always Someone Cooler Than You
You To Thank
Gracie
Late
Landed
Bitches Ain't Got $#!+
(other new stuff I don't know the names of)
Philosophy
Underground
Brick
One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces
Army
Not The Same
Gone
The Luckiest
Rockin' The Suburbs
Still Fighting It
(...other stuff I can't remember right now in my concert high)

Stuff that was particularly cool:
The usual Am-->Cmaj audience choir action in Not The Same, which is always magical no matter how many times you're in the crowd for it
The crowd being the brass section for Army (same deal - always gold)
Ben's bad southern accent explanation of the Not The Same story, followed by Joe's "Yeah, tell me about it!", followed by Ben's "I just told you about it, *insert muffled cuss word*"
The fact that we were treated to Underground
Continual insanely high release of endorphins going on in my head
Seeing both people I dragged along ending up with nice new Ben Folds shirts! :) (Conversion?!?!)
Ben switching to the bass to do the groovy pentatonic riff at the end of Suburbs
General r&b payout goodness
The willingness of those nice people in the front row to take photos on my camera for me

When I can, I'll link to some photos. I kinda hope some kid out there did some bootlegging. I could deal with hearing that concert again. MORE TOMORROW!! (Well, today...)

(Sorry if this is just a mess. My brain's a bit of a mess. A great big happy mess! :)
Thanks all the kids who kicked around before/at/after the show, and put up with my obsessive antics. Friends make it FUN!! (Aaaaww! Shed a tear. Like Gracie makes ya.)

Virus Continues to Spread

2005-03-31T12:10:00.000+10:00

Okay. So Joe sent me this virus. I caught it. So here's some stuff you probably already knew, or could have guessed.

You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451. Which album are you going to be?
Hmm. Probably The Unauthorised Biography of Reinhold Messner. It has its fun. It has its cries. Nostalgic moments. Narcoleptic moments? And always seems to leave a feeling of "What is just is," (to quote another group entirely).

Have you ever had a crush on a musician/pop star?
Nah not that i can think of!

The last album you bought was...
Tonight's Decision by Katatonia

The last album you listened to was...
"Album?" Franz Ferdinand... It's still playing upstairs. But right now through my headphones I'm listening to a crackly MP3 of Gracie by Ben Folds.

What are you currently listening to?
NOW now - I've already answered. "Currently" in general - A stack of new Ben Folds MP3s in prep for the concert TOMORROW! There's always some Damnation spinning now and then. Try Whistling This, Dummy, Tonight's Decision, From a Basement on the Hill. And stuff...

Five albums you would take to a desert island...
Ooh. How long am I going to be there for? I think that should be specified in the question. Still Life, Scarlet's Walk, Reinhold Messner... Far out this is a ridiculous question. I can't even limit myself to 20 CDs when I run away somewhere for a week.

What is the next album you would procure, had you the choice?
Songs for Silverman will apparently be released on April 11 in Australia... That's not too far away :)

Which musician/singer would you most like to spend the day with and why?
Pff. Everyone knows the answer. I'd ask for some longer-than-5-minute piano lessons this time, and then we would do some duo stylin's kickin' out of tha jams on my 2 pianos. (I wish i had 2 pianos... I guess he'll have to bring his own custom Baldwin over...) Yes, that would be fun.

Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 persons) and why?
Saru - because I want to find out about some more cool soundtrack music. This Dune stuff is cool. Thanks Sal.
Jonnie - because I'm sure he'd love to answer these questions (or not). Maybe he'll have to make a blog just so that he can post his answers :)
Rowan - because I don't think he'll be able to choose 5 albums for that ridiculous question either. Thus making it more warranted that I couldn't choose 5 albums. Or something like that.

カラオケ　タイム！！

2005-03-27T16:40:00.000+10:00

Had a great night kickin' around Sydney with the kids from my Japanese class last night. Kinokuniya - so much good stuffu. Utopia adventures - always a cause for much drooling. Dinner was yum and fun - with possibly too many endorphins getting released. Karaoke - awesomu, with an interesting :p mix of Japanese & English songs! Yeah, Japanese pop karaoke had to be done, despite the occasional mystery kanji here & there. Then, after some monkeying around the streets and some feeding of money to the arcade machines, everyone was pretty gone. A quality evening. 皆、またカラオケをしたい！! :)

The craziest thing. A girl came up to me in Utopia and asked if my name was Janet. Turned out it was Elise Ho - another student of my former violin teacher. At that time she'd just thought of something to do with Ben Folds, since he's playing Sydney next week, then thought something about me (remembering I was a fan back in orchestra days), then looked up & saw me there. "WEIRDED OUT!", as whats-her-face would say.

Time

2005-03-13T08:49:00.000+11:00

I'm tired. Life's giving me a bigger version of that feeling when you just want to get out of school even though you haven't graduated yet.

Argh. Long time no blog.

2005-03-03T17:32:00.000+11:00

Maybe it's because uni's on again and there's this weird "routine" thing happening...

Things aren't too killer at the moment. (Perhaps that's just because I have a 3-day weekend ahead of me :p) My mind's still going through lots of annoying ups and downs, which can throw me around a bit, but it's okay.

At our faculty Bible study group at uni we had three new people turn up this week which was cool! The group's been encouraging so far, and I think when we settle down & everyone feels a bit more comfy it'll be even better. Yay.

Our house nearly has ADSL! Nearly. I won't need to use this puter half as much thanks to Thomkins (my iBook - THANKS DAVE!!) and sweet sweet wireless network action. Whoa yeah.

The thesis situ is looking okay at the moment. I can now see more clearly the direction I'm heading in, and on Monday I'll start mucking around with my big orange friend-to-be in the lab. (Giant safety-orange IRB4400 bot :p !!)

In need of a crazy adventure! Some kind of crazy adventure is in the works for tomorrow night. Hopefully it will involve monkeys and lightsabers.

My piano needs tuning.

2005-02-23T23:51:00.000+11:00

A bit overwhelmed by the feeling of always having work I'm supposed to be doing. I grew very used to doing not too much at all in the break... Hopefully thesis won't take over my life, even though my supervisor made a call suggesting I should make the lab my 'home'. Eugh.

Bible study on Chillin' Tuesday has been awesome. Both super encouraging and ultra challenging. Yesterday we looked at Jesus making the call that he's the resurrection and the life. Cool. The promise of life cannot be topped.

This arvo when Sal finished work and I'd become bored with studying, we went via Bob (to get Simonious and Doug) and headed to K-Mart to pick up some schweet light sabers (minus the light). So awesome. A different colour for each kid. These are the way cool ones that retract all the way into the handle. Everyone wishes there were LEDs inside, or maybe a bulb. But they've manufactured them cheap & nasty - with glue & without screws - so dismantling comes with much fear of wrecking'm :(

UniMovies brought us The Incredibles!! 10 points to this movie. Recommended viewing. Wasn't up for a second movie so Saru and I left for ultra fun Making Our Laptops Talk To Each Other, Ordering ADSL And Modem For The J's (+G), Drinking Chai Tea With Too Much Sugar, and general nothingness.

Time to crash...

Disturbing Dreams

2005-02-18T21:20:00.000+11:00

In the first one Sal and I were driving down a foresty mountain road. Maybe like Macquarie Pass or the top of Mt Keira Road. I was driving, and we were following one other car. It felt weird because I was watching both cars from above. An aerial view. I was driving way too fast, and was only just making the turns. Like in Daytona, except that I was scared. Then the car in front of us had an accident. We were standing around the girl who'd been driving. She was lying there dead. We couldn't do anything.

The other dream that I remember involved some kind of huge creature that was going through the town destroying everything, killing people and eating people. Everyone was fleeing, and a lot of people were finding places to hide. But this was really something that you couldn't hide from. I was with a group who just kept trying to get further away, in the hope that by the time the creature reached the place we were, it wouldn't have the strength to kill us. I had my red backpack with me, but I don't know what was in it. We came across some friends of ours who'd decided to hide in some kind of garage, but we convinced them they should keep going because that shelter wasn't strong enough to protect them. I found out that one of my friends from school had died (probably in one of the attacks, I guess) and I lost it. It felt disturbingly real. I was worried for all her friends and family, and felt terrible.

I was so exhausted when i woke up, and had to lie there recovering for a while.

Pwetty Patterns

2005-02-15T18:47:00.000+11:00

I nuked my first CD today. I think it took just over a second - then BANG! Now it looks really cool. The disc had only one track on it, entitled "Chillin' Tuesday", also known as "Suze, Janet & Wen's second-greatest hit". WOOT!

One... Two... Three - BURRRRP

2005-02-11T01:45:00.000+11:00

Well, Thursday night (Friday morning - whatever) and my throat, in the style of a true champion, has totally recovered. I also feel like I'm alive again, which is always nice. Junk like the last week or so makes feeling 'normal' feel awesome.

- UniMovies last night - Blade Trinity was somehow even better the second time. Probably had a lot to do with the UniMovies factor, and the bunch o' kids with, and Sal's stoopid comments throughout. I didn't know Kester was there until I heard his ultra loud and lone laugh at one point. Good work Kester :D

The Grudge, unfortunately, failed to get me into a detox-requiring state. (Unlike after The Ring at UniMovies... Kester to the Maccas drive-thru chick: "I've got a thing for cookie time" - followed by Mystery Science Theatre 3000 the movie!) Anyway, I'm not saying that The Grudge isn't potentially a scary movie. It's just that my frame of mind was already set. It was going to be a comedy. And when the G.I. Joe extendo burp factor made its first appearance, it was ALL OVER! As Sim would say - "Fowget abou' it!"

After the movie, Joe & Yymmee needed to be introduced to the world of overdubbed G.I. Joe safety message goodness. Everyone loves that stuff. It was weird and cool to see these lads who'd stealthed it down to the 'gong.

- Thursday - The pirate flag had its first Evil Faction adventure today! Slurpies at 7 Eleven. After sorting through a bunch of random clothes and junk from the cupboard at Bob, somehow we ended up at Woolies buying too much chicken, and flying the Evil Flag high all the while. Then Simon took over in the kitchen at my place while Sal and I did assistant-esque jobs (e.g. making nachos for cooking-time snacks). Eltham helped out in his own way by making plans for the next day's midday TV viewing. *Ahem*. Mum and Dad loved having dinner cooked for'm. Aaaawww.

Singing was fun tonight. We met up at the girls' place, which I realised doesn't have a name yet. (I only realised when I put their number in my phone. I had to call it "girls girls", which works as long as you say it with Strong Bad's voice.) We're gonna start learnin' some noo toons next week so that'll be fun.

Watched the last 10 minutes or so of Lost when I got home. So I didn't catch much of what was going on. But I've been told it's worth watching...

2005-02-09T11:06:00.000+11:00

- Monday - Unistarters in the morning, where we try to help the first years feel a bit more comfy and meet some Christians in their faculty. After that we made banana smoothies at Bob. But all day I felt pretty terrible inside. Felt like dying and all I could do was sleep. Left Planet Bob for a meeting at 7, which was productive but tiring, and returned to Bob after. Sally, Simon, Eltham, Chug & I ended up walking up the top part of Mt Keira, from the gates to the lookout. Before we decided to do that, I'd absolutely cracked. Felt horribly depressed - insanely painful. Talked to Sal a bit when we were all up there looking over the lights of the 'gong. Seems she's been here too & wants to drag me out. Dragging is necessary. Can't get out alone. It comes in phases. I'll feel like there is no purpose. All I'll want to do is nothing. All I'll be able to do is sleep. My muscles will start to ache. My head will hurt. My stomach won't keep food. And I'll wonder how I've ever, in the past, found reason, motivation or strength to do anything at all. A mystery.

- Tuesday - Spent the day alone except for Sal dropping in to see if I wanted to come for a swim. A day at home was needed. After dinner out with Mum & Dad, went to Bible study where we looked at John 10. It was a pretty awesome study. It was crazy noticing that Jesus is the Shepherd, and later the slain lamb. We thought it was cool how that sort of showed him being greater than us & watching over us, but also being one of us. The whole fully God, fully man thing.

- Today - Woke up with a swollen throat feeling. Pretty gross. Hopefully it'll go away. I've already paid my three bucks for unimovies :p

"I paid my money, and I'm gonna see *all* the movie!"

Reading... The Great Divorce - C.S. Lewis

Listening to... Since I Left You - The Avalanches, Damnation - Opeth, Subject to Change - Vanessa Mae

Cold Garlic Butter

2005-02-04T20:51:00.000+11:00

Even the guy at the restaurant who brought the undercooked garlic bread to my side of the table is in on it - I taste cold garlic butter inside warm bread, and it's disgusting. If i was at home I would have spat it out. The girl on the other side of the room with the long dark hair, black headband, pink top and dainty mannerisms is so pretty I want to punch her. All discussion is useless, pointless, trivial babble. So I choose not to add to it. There is enough pollution already.

"Son, look at all the people in this restaurant -
What do you think they weigh?
And out the window to the parking lot -
At their SUV’s taking all of the space."

Burnt but sorta alive

2005-01-31T02:50:00.000+11:00

Friday was picking-up-Sal-from-the-airport day. Seeing as E-man and I have miniature mobiles, Amber was the vehicle of choice. (Sal goes to the airport in the buttless 205, and leaves the airport in the biggest butted thing we could hope to take up there.)

Adventure home involved some uber fun second hand book buyin', kebabs, some talk about people walking over Sally's grave, Sally being reminded of how much she loves being jabbed under the ribs, a dehydration headache and... the purchase of the Ambo's very own guard cat (black of course, and still nameless, I think) for only 50 cents.

Friday night our night church ministry team and Bible study leaders headed down to Minnamurra for what used to be called the planning weekend, but what then became the vision weekend : / Whatever you call it, it was pretty cool. Thanks to God it was (I reckon) pretty productive and encouraging. People had some really cool ideas about things we can do in the coming year to help our church move forward.

The place was awesomu too. Right next to the water. Aaw yeeeeah. In our break on Saturday arvo, Stu, Eltham & I went to swim in the river. The current was ultra strong so when swimming against it became too much, we ended up repeatedly running up the bank and floating back down with the current... Mmm, lazy.

Thanks to the Saturday night plaiting efforts of a few of tha kidz, I had frizzy hair on Sunday morning. Well, sorta frizzy. Not much plaits can do for thooper thtraight hair. For some reason I felt the need to run when I arrived home and the intended 3 or 4 km somehow became about 7, which I'd usually be pretty sore after. I think that was some kind of proof that we're not 'supposed' to sit around thinking too hard for a day and a half straight or our bodies go crazy.

Anyhoo. Too many lollies tonight. Teeth feel like they're needing some cleaning.

Ten Points to Australia

2005-01-27T22:16:00.000+11:00

I thought Blade Trinity was good. After seeing the first one, I didn't bother with the second one. But tuesday night saw me BORED, so with some of the Bob kids, sit in front of the cinema screen I did. There might've been a bit too much 'tude for me, but all round good deaths and fun fights.

Then Simon, Eltham, Chug & I proceeded to watch what I think was one of the WORST movies I've EVER seen... Hell Asylum. Oh, there was NO JOY and MUCH PAIN involved. I'm not recommending it to anyone. In seven words... Like something WE would make, only worse.

Hooray for Australia! Even if we celebrate our country's day on the date that the Brits invaded the place, I reckon this is a pretty top spot to live, and so I happily waved a made-in-China 99 cent Australian flag out the window of the car as Li, Ro & I drove down to Macquarie Pass for a bit of a bushwalk and swim. It was my first time there & it's an awesome spot. The swimming was most excellent after a morning hanging out at Rhododendron Park with a whole buncha da kids from church. It was hot!

This morning, kicked out the jams with Simon & Steve for a while, which was orrite, even if Sim does write country... :p

After mum's birthday dinner at Roppongi, it was back to singing with our fun fun gals barbershop group. (Our first sing as a group for the year.) The group is still without a name, though I'm still an advocate of "Bunch o' Girls", even though Eltham would probably prefer the name "Eltham's Girls". The sing was fun, and after... I got to check out some Ultra Mega Supersonic Ninja Death Monkey sounds running Paul's Clav through his puter. I think I could sit there all day playing with that gear, but thought I should leave it for another time :D

Bye Kati :(

2005-01-23T23:45:00.000+11:00

Yesterday arvo a bunch of people from around here met up at the botanic gardens to hang out & chat about the different beach missions that have been happening. It was really cool & encouraging to hear about stuff that's going on at some other beach missions, especially some that are happening really close to home. It feels kinda funny hearing what's been happening here, when we trek it all the way up to Byron for mission :)

Last night we said our goodbyes to Kati, as she's about to jet off to France/Belgium for a year (and I'm sure she'll be doing some trekking around Europe). It was a fun party at her folks' place - a really nice night even though it was raining a bit. 'Twas probably warmer in the pool... as Jance & I found out the hard way...
While we stood at the pool edge plotting to throw Kati in, Jance was pushed in by Dave. And while I was laughing heartily at her misfortune, I fell subject to Kati's "making it even" and ended up wet too. Aah, all very stupid and fun.
Hopefully the mechatronics kids will keep meeting up through the year, even though now most of them have graduated. Kati usually did most of the organising... : /

Too Many Spiders

2005-01-22T00:05:00.000+11:00

Yesterday I spent way longer than I thought I would going through all my clothes, working out what to get rid of. In the end I had 2 massive bags full of stuff for the Salvos, and enough cupboard space for all the junk I own. Yay.

Today was pretty cruisy. A good slow morning spent drawing and stuff. Then Kester, Cath, Eltham, Sally D. & I went to the beach in Cath's lunch hour. It was cool to see Sal after her year of Euro trippin'. It wasn't the best down at the beach, so we ended up at the rock pool.

The arvo saw an adventure to The Warehouse, where many a quality product was purchased - ahem - including a $5 copy of Heavy Metal the game. The rest of the arvo was spent laughing at the main character Julie's bootie-shakin' as Kester tried to figure out all the tricks.

To celebrate Eltham & Justin's getting into uni, kinda, we got some tasty stuffu from Roppongi & drank Kester's Christmas sake. Mmm. Then back to the rock pool for a nacht swim. The water was uber salty today. A bit extreme. I'm still feeling all salted out and thirsty...

There have been too many spiders in my room lately. All kinds. Crazy kinds. Kinds that I can't recognise.

200 minutes

2005-01-19T23:58:00.000+11:00

Aaaaah. Long time no unimovies. Good to get back. Team America was on first. I found most of it entertaining, and heaps of it funny. But I think that 99 minutes of South Park esque humour gets a bit much... for me anyway. I was afraid that Shaun of the Dead might have been too talked-up for me. (Alice & Shaggy were both giving it a big thumbs up.) So I really tried to go in not expecting too much -- difficult, when I could remember Alice's huge grin when the name of the movie came up. Anyway... I thought it was awesome, once it got going. Abundant death, fun modes of death, plenty of blood, not too much schlock in the relationships part of the plot, cool characters. Yeah.

I'm starting to get this weird feeling in my head (and sometimes in my gut) that I think stems from leaving thesis thoughts on the shelf... Eugh :O The weather's been nice. The to-read books are numerous. There are musical instruments to attempt to get good at... Meh. Some time in the next few weeks I'm going to have to take a few full days out to learn how to program the bot I'll be using this year for the whole thesis thang. Someone hold me to it. Discipline eludes.

Flying Monkey

2005-01-19T17:41:00.000+11:00

Saru flies for the first time!

We adventured up to the airport in everyone's favourite buttless wonder - the little 205. Hooray for buttlessness... makes for easy parking. And hooray for aircon. Whoa yeah. After half a chicken melt and some awesomu white chocolate cake at the airport, it was time to bid saru farewell. Portishead's Dummy kept me company on the way home. It was kinda making me sleepy though... :) I wonder whether listening to certain albums when you're going to sleep can have the effect of making you sleepy whenever you hear them - whatever o'clock it is.

I found a cool dress that was uber cheap but the wrong colour. I don't think it's a thing to make/sell black summer dresses, so I'm going to try to find some black dye for it :)

Just now I've been attempting to clean all the poop off my desk so that i can use it again. That got boring pretty quickly. Even when i was listening to cool nerdy game soundtrack music that i ended up with as a result of this morning's drive.

Maybe some eats now, before unimovies...

I love ebay.

2005-01-18T20:41:00.000+11:00

Hooray! Janet Lopez wins an awesome black dress for only six doru!

After borrowing clothes from Lilac Ook (she loves that XD) for weddings and stuff, I thought I really should invest in some fancier-than-pants-&-a-shirt kinda clothes. So invest i did!

Ebaying is one of the very few things that brings up cause for lamenting over living in Australia and not the US. Ebay Australia doesn't have enough of the less-than-popular music I'm looking for... A true tale of woe.

Everyone loves to be jabbed under the ribs.

2005-01-18T14:31:00.000+11:00

Especially Lila, Kester and Saru (who barks like a dog when jabbed).

Yesterday was uber fun primary skoo esque let's-decorate-our-diaries day, which involved drooling over awesome pens in officeworks for way too long before getting anything done. I could live in the pen aisle.

Felix the cat is everywhere.

2005-01-16T01:12:00.000+11:00

Saw Elektra the movie & really liked. I got super excited when the ninjas showed up - Oh yeah! (Even though they got dominated... but we'll ignore that.) It got a bit schlocky at the end, but there was enough killing and trippy ESP & split-second flashback action to make up for it.

...Followed by a trip to trendy town at the Tea Emporium with Sal & Elthumbo. They have nice shelves where the packaged tea is kept. Really nice stain colour on the wood.

The Thexy Three then went to ye olde Bob & proceeded to make one of the bestest birthday cards ever, with the additional bonus of super fun potato stamped wrapping paper. Oh yeah - somebody is going to feel loved.

In other news...

Thanks to the LAN mistress, the online quote book has finally been realised! WOOT!

http://wordliness.blogspot.com

Arigato, Saru-san

2005-01-14T16:56:00.000+11:00

Argh. It's hot. This is when then downstairs bedroom factor is good.

Been listening to Dream Theater's Train of Thought... thankee Sal! Bit of a change up from what I've had in my ears lately. Some pretty cool stuff on there.

The Beatson Park Fig - No Longer a Stranger

2005-01-13T14:35:00.000+11:00

Eltham said I'd never do it. Then in E'bo irony he was there to witness it...

Yesterday Sal, Sim, Eltham and I went to climb that fig I've wanted to climb for years! (The fact that this climb had been on my to-do list for years is what makes the event blog-worthy.) The bottom branches were way higher than they'd appeared in my hundreds of drive-bys, and the whole tree was even bigger than I'd thought. Simon was the most monkey of us, climbing from the ultra fat base of an ultra long branch to the very end where it got thin enough to bend under his weight & lower him to the ground. Very entertaining.

http://hayseed.black-panther.us/evilfaction/stillmonkey.jpg

http://hayseed.black-panther.us/evilfaction/jne.jpg

This morning as I was waiting to see the doctor, there was a whole bunch of other people standing there playing the waiting game too. About enough people to play the roles of the various characters in a Cube-esque movie. And all sorts too - which is probably why I started getting Cube-esque scenarios in my head. You know - you're all standing there saying nothing, doing next to nothing... so you start thinking about which character is really going to get on your nerves in this Cube-esque life-threatening situation. There are a few candidates. And then there's the frail old lady who'll need a boost every time the group enters a different room - especially if it's one of those weird anti-gravitational ones. Stoopid anti-gravitational rooms. There's the guy with his baby in a pram. That's always gonna be a worry. I think the baby would cause more problems than it would solve in this whole let's-solve-the-mystery-of-the-Cube team effort thing.

Anyway... Just read John Dickson's If I Were God, I'd End All the Pain again. I'd remembered it being a good lil book & thought it might be cool to read again before lending, since some people here are having some issues with the idea of a good God, given all the poop in the world. It really is a helpful lil book for a quick read.

'Tis all for now. Too much junk in brain.

Ultra Lazy Day

2005-01-11T19:10:00.000+11:00

Went down to the lagoon late in the morning and sat around reading. Just finished Peter Carey's Wrong About Japan - a Christmas present from mum. I thought it was a pretty good read, but I'm not sure that i would have found it ultra mega interesting if i didn't already have a fascination with Japan... which, I guess, is why mum gave it to me :)

Jonnie and Speed watched TRON, but I just wasn't in movie mood. Took another opportunity to escape from reality and gave in to the sleepiness caused by sleeping too much. Freaking endless cycle.

Been listening to From a Basement on the Hill - Elliott Smith's last album - that Jonnie so kindly gave me. Not best buds with the album yet - not enough listens. I love the chord prog at the end of the verses in Pretty (Ugly Before) that i'm sure the rest of the world loves too. I'm afraid of finding out what the prog is because I'll probably do my usual trick of overusing it, and then wrecking the sound in my head of Elliott's version of it.

Getting kinda hungry. Probably gonna head to Planet Bob for a movie after dinner.

Simon wants chocolate.

2005-01-11T16:32:00.000+11:00

It's true. It's true of all of us. Maybe not at this moment in time, but definitely at some point in our lives. For some, the want is daily. For others, perhaps, weekly. For Simon, it's now.

Why is it that when i walked down the street today and saw eggs cracked and splattered on the road, i immediately assumed them to have been thrown, rather than accidentally dropped? Does this say anything about me and/or the world?