the last two months of stuff

Diversity Week
Mostly helped out with the Rotaract stall (we were sharing with the Dance Academy) and sold gerberas to raise money for the Mexican orphanage La Casa... and to promote the Latin Festival we were going to host later. Hung out with the Singaporean Student Association a bit and the Brewster.

Inception
A pretty good film. Not as mind-blowing or hard to understand as everyone made it out to be. The action scenes didn't exactly require insane mental powers to understand. Clever beginning and ending. Newfound admiration for Joseph Gordon Levitt and Ellen Page :3

Australian Election
My first proper election I guess. Voted for the local Labor member, and in the Senate voted for the Greens, Sex Party, Independents etc etc. I am probably partially responsible for the 9 seats the Greens now hold in the Senate hehehe. The Labor candidate for my area lost, but the Liberal member has experience I guess.

We still have a female, ranga prime minister, who is probably hanging on precariously because the votes were so close.

Latin Fest
We'd been trying to organise this stupid thing for a year now, and it finally culminated in an explosion of fantastic musical and dance performances, made even better with some spicy choripan, filling empanadas and slighty-too-crunchy churros.

Damn it, I still promote it instinctively. But it really was fun. I even got to let loose and dance a couple of times. Watching the Brazilian dancers, Mel and Nestor perform was really exciting and mindblowing too.

Scott Pilgrim v The World
Very funny film. Lots of great lines and nerdy references. Knives was so cute, I wanted to adopt her haha. The final battle was pretty epic.

Law + Psych Assignments
Two assignments due the same time on Monday morning made for a hell of last minute assignment cramming.

The plus side is I've handed in everything this semester on time (unlike last semester). I plan to keep doing that.

Bumblebee's Birthday Week
Bought a bag, discovered our favourite section of the library, bought a box full of useless stuff, made an awesome birthday card made of cardboard. Didn't actuall see Bee on his actual birthday though =/

Science Revue
Went to see Sherlock Ohms and Dr. Wattson and the Light Brigade at Sydney Uni. Very clever at times, funny at times, and constantly entertaining.

Actually went to lunch with Pichu and a bunch of highschool friends before hand, then going to karaoke for a few hours (glorious, extra, free minutes at the end hahaha). Actually sang a few Korean songs... despite not speaking or understanding more than a handful of phrases ^^

The bus home at night was a nightmare though. V and grog cans strewn everywhere, the entire bus stinking of BO, chunder and cigarette smoke. Got home pretty late too xS

Relay for life
Hiked all the way to the sports field, set up a blanket and dozed in the sun for a bit. Set up Bee's tent and put up his awesome Samurai Blue flag on the side of the tent. Had some delicious, healthy lunch provided by Bee then went Cookies hunting. Found her malnutritioned and exhausted from long hours of working. Mooched around some more and got some snacks to eat.

Eventually the actual relay kicked off and we had some fun dancing around the field for the first lap. Left early to get home and took an awesome short cut which I am totally using next time.

Sydney FC
Today! Went to see the footbal, Sydney FC v Gold Coast United. Met up in the city with Bee and had some Hungry Jacks for lunch. Waited for Bee's friend to turn up so we could take the bus to the stadium. When we got there it seemed like there were heaps of people there. The stadium seemed so full, it was pretty amazing. Actual attendance was something short of 10 000 =O

The Cove (organised bunch of really vocal Sydney FC supporters) sat in a particular bay and led the chants and songs throughout the entire game. Sydney scored first, then the Gold Coast potted one just before hlaf time (GUUUUUH).

Then some juniors came on the field at half time to play mini soccer, which was really fun to watch and cheer for.

The game ended in a draw, which was pretty disappointing. But yeah, definitely something I'd go watch again.

Quick recap of holidays

7th: LADY. FUCKING. GAGA. And Semi-Precious Weapons. We (Pendragon + uni buddy, Morgan + GF) we definitely wet and excited for the amazing Miss Gaga. She is a being of pure energy on stage, drawing strength from the audience the amplifying it at least tenfold back to the audience. She gives everything into her performance, singing, dancing and just generally being awesome. Yeah. YEAH. IT WAS FUCKING AWESOME.

We also went to some jap restaurant for dinner. Morgan's GF eats a shitload. Even more than Pendragon. And that's saying something.

8th: First day back at work for me for this holiday, and coincidentally first day back for work guy. Since we hadn't spoken for about 6 weeks we were a leeeeeeeetle too friendly. And consequently our boss told us off x.x oops.

Apparently work guy is a casual dating slut because when he sees someone (regardless of gender) he hasn't talked to in a while, he goes with them for coffee/lunch/dinner/a movie or something similar that you would do on a casual date. I find this amusing. While we were having lunch, an older (fat) lady made suggesting eyebrow wiggles at him. BWAHAHAHA Even the memory of this amuses me. It did not amuse him.

I, on the other hand, am a people slut... according to Doormat. I can't go (so he says) for 5 minutes with saying hi to someone I know. I can't help it! I just like waving to people. And getting barred is just lip-smackingly delicious.

9th: Morgan's b'day at Bicentennial park. We got lost on the way there (because I was navigating D=), and we got lost on the way back (Because Pendragon was supposed to be navigating... but Cyan and I navigated instead)... then we got back on the right track after an emergency call to mum. Fun times

Fun quotes:
Jellybean: So around Homebush is DFO, the park, where they're having the Easter show and a cemetery right?
Me: *not quite paying attention* BOW CHIKA WOW WOW.
Jellybean + Cyan: WORST TIME TO SAY THAT EVER!!!!!!!!!11

*Pendragon straddling the back of a bench*
Us: Doesn't that hurt?
Pendragon: No it's ok! *points to crotch area* It's hollow!

So we chilled at the park... and climbed on the epic rope structure thing... while disapproving parents looked on ^^"

Then we went to Morgan's house. Awesome dude's twin did an EPIC HARDCORE shuffle to a techno song, and Morgan (like Jellybean a long long time ago) experienced a split second moment of pure regret in midair during a jump into his backyard pool sometime at night. People kept stealing Cookies' Strongbow (or rather awesome dude's twin's Strongbow).

12th: work + stuffed up with time management

13th: work + pwned a student

14th: work + stuffed up again + getting advice/being told off.

Well I got advice about how to teach better.

And then my boss somehow segued into telling me in a really round-about way not to be too friendly with people at work. Well she told me flat out that if a co-worker wants to touch me I should say no. HAHAHAHA out of context that sounds so wrong. She made a hugging gesture at that point, not a grabbing bum kind of gesture.

Anyway, that's my recap. I've been making money yes, but I haven't studied. I am in trouble. I shall start today. Promise.

Influential Halfies of my Life

Ange, Sass, and Fil: My bestie from year 2, and onwards and her older and younger sibling. They influenced a lot of the music I listen to now, and general behaviour patterns... like treating friends like literal family. We slept at each other's houses, and they also slept over at my cousin's houses too. Then they disappeared.

Sass says they moved. Whatever. But dance truly unites and reunites people... because she is at uni, and in the dance society with me... as a krumper.

Deewhy: A major primary school obsession/academic+dramatic+dance rival. I say obsession because I was both fascinated by the interest he was receiving from all the girls in the grade, and rival because I wanted to beat his ass at everything.

Cookies: Current bestie, from highschool. Understands my unintelligle mutterings. *sappy emotional stuff*

Bus guy: first cute *and* interesting guy at uni.

Anyway, tl;dr version: OMG childhood friends who I thought had disappeared forever and ever make a sudden, unexpected reappearance in my life. I am having a weird day and thinking weird thoughts.

Supanova

On Sunday Cookies, Twiggy, Gandhi and I went to Supanova. Woo!!! check Cookies' blog for most of the photos =]

We got there at about 9:30 to find an already fast growing line! But luckily, the line was for people who had pre-registered, and the line for people who wanted to buy tickets at the door was a lot shorter... when we got there. Then it grew to epic proportions after =O

We spent most of the day taking photos of all the crazy costumes that people had made/bought, looking at the various merchandise stalls, playing COD 4 (well my bro did), and then towards the end of the day sitting tiredly on the second level of The Dome.

Eventually, Rachelle Lefevre stopped talking, and the Cosplay comp/skits started. Some of the skits were pretty good... some were not so good. There'll probably be vids up on youtube eventually. From where we were sitting, we couldn't see very much of it.

Lastly, we went for the Karaoke comp. I hadn't practiced at all, and just joined on a whim. I sang Aozora no Namida by Hitomi Takahashi, a song that is way out of my range. Cookies hadn't practiced since Animania, and sung Sousei no Aquarion. Gandhi had practiced a lot, and sung Hana by Orange Range. there were like... 7 singers.

Cookies came first (yay!) and Gandhi came second. Pretty awesome, guys ^^

For the trip home, it's a rather complicated process of getting from Sydney Olympic Park to the Western suburbs =/ By public transport, it's train, train (or bus if track work is happening), then bus to get home. Gah.

Anyway, travelling home in costume is rather fun, because it attracts a lot of stares from other passengers. Heh. And it also attracts crazy looking dudes who want to tell you their life story.

Well not quite. I dropped a safety pin on the ground, and me, cookies and gandhi spent a good minute looking for it. Then one of the train drivers/station guards came up and found it. Which led us to a convo about his good eyesight, which led to how his eye was crook from working as a welder, then a hand injury then to him working in the public transport industry.

We waited for Cookies' parents to come pick us up from Parra. While we waited we got hungry, so we ended up a Hungry Jack's. Their cheeseburgers have a rubbery texture. Yuck.

Fun day. Yeeeeewwwwww.

Finish the sentence meme

Cheers to all us thieves!

Sunday Stealing: The Finish The Sentence Meme: http://sundaystealing.blogspot.com/2009/06/finish-sentence-meme.html

1. I've come to realize that my last kiss... gave me the strength to focus on my education, and not on my next relationship.

2. I am listening to... Iron Maiden.

3. I talk... a lot.

4. I love... my family.

5. My best friend/s... is awesome.

6. My first real kiss... was not that great. Actually it was pretty gross. Actually, it put me off of kissing for a month.

7. Love is... a lot of things. A blog's worth of things. It can't be defined in a sentence.

8. Marriage is... great for some people, but probably not for me.

9. Somewhere, someone is thinking... of themselves, probably.

10. I'll always... be really short.

11. The last time I really cried was because... a stupid, stupid mistake was made.

12. My cell phone... is a brick that has lasted quite some time. =]

13. When I wake up in the morning... I usually stay in bed for another few minutes.

14. Before I go to bed... I brush my teeth. Or check Facebook =/

15. Right now I am thinking about... John Mayer. Well a particular song anyway.

16. Babies are... cute I guess.

17. I get on Myspace... NEVER. MySpace is the cesspool of the internet.

18. Today I... drove to Cabramatta =S

19. Tomorrow I will be... working! Then crossing off some things from my 100 things to do before I die list.

20. I really want to be... an agent of global change. Someday.

Hey, it's ok to lie to avoid hurting someone's feelings right?

I'm not going to see 1.5 spot, because I can't be bothered. Sure I feel guilty about declining one of the parts, and sure I feel guilty that I'm not more involved in the club. That doesn't make me anymore inclined to make plans to go see it. So I'm going to lie and say that I was busy. It's not so bad, because I don't know the people in the drama club that well.

And also, one of my new psych buddies at uni is having relationship problems. It wasn't my place to ask, but I did. And there's so many problems I don't even know where to begin to help her out.

I figure she's a girl, so she'll be needed some kind of emotional reassurance. She wants someone to tell her it'll all be ok, and that it will all work out. So I did.

I lied. Most highschool relationships don't survive the transition to uni. This also includes friendships. Most long-distance relationships don't work out. Most people realise that they don't actually know their partner that well after the initial flood of hormones goes away.

Statistically, her relationship is destined to fail. I could work out the probability of it happening.

Friendships don't really last into uni either. It's either a success (π) or fail (1-π). The success rate is approximately 2/15. The Bernoulli distribution indicates that in general, there's a right skew, i.e. you lose most of your friends. I actually punched this into Excel, and that's what I got.

It's kind of sad really.

We tell each other lies everyday. It gives us hope and happiness. Without happiness we are depressed. Without either happiness nor hope, we are suicidal. Hence we tell each other lies to keep each other alive.

But hey, that's ok. Because in the long run, surviving is all that matters.

My dysfunctional family (and why I love them)

My family can be pretty screwed up sometimes.

Take for example my father. One of my earliest memories involving my father is being taught that "if someone makes you angry, stick your middle finger up at them." (Funny story actually, apparently I did that to an adult at my kingergarten place and got smacked over the head for it. Not that I remember xD) He swears a lot, although recently, I've noticed that this has been curbed a little. He has two addictions (again, trying to cut back), one addiction which I've learned to live with, and gambling. Gambling is not cool. He's short tempered (literally. He'll blow his lid, and then be back to normal in the space of half an hour), and thinks he's good at everything.

My mother can be a little naive sometimes, and doesn't understand half of the things I say to her (not her fault, I speak quite quickly and incoherently that the only people who've learned to understand me are Cookies, Spud and Lief.) She is a bit over-protective and old fashioned (which is why when we have 'discussions' about morals, ethics, money or whatever, we usually end up fighting =/). She is extraordinarily conscious about MY weight. And boy can she hold a grudge.

Combined, my parents are racist and disrespectful of privacy. By that I mean they're quite judgemental when it comes to people of different races. They even have issues against the various categories of Chinese, such as people from Hong Kong and Shanghai. The privacy thing is they don't keep secrets. Ie when I tell one parent something, they tell the other one even though they've been told not to. They berate me when I show any kind of emotion aside from happiness or tiredness (ie sadness and anger).

My brothers are gamers, and one of their major vices is Warcraft. I hate Warcraft, mainly because it turns whoever is playing the blasted game into an unresponsive zombie. I also dislike people who discuss Warcraft as if it were a team sport. Warcraft is not cool.

So those are the bad points I think my family has.

When I say my dad thinks he's good at everything, that's because he is. He is literally a Jack of all trades and Master of several. He tells stories well, and is a good communicator. He's also good at analysing his mistakes, and frequently passes on (sometimes useless) advice to other people. He's funny (it's hereditary xD), kind, generous, righteous, strong and practical. He is good with kids (seriously. If you see him with a baby, he literally turns to mush). He's pretty intelligent, and can speak 3 dialects of Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese as well as your bog standard English.

My mother, although she doesn't understand my pseudo-philosophical blatherings (then again, who does?), is still quite intelligent. She didn't go to school due to a certain evil despot (I'm talking about Pol Pot here. He was a bastard.), so she has issues with spelling and vocabulary (and still thinks in Chinese). But she has pulled herself through an Accounting course at TAFE, a First Aid Certificate course, and is currently training to become an aged care worker. She is also kind, generous and righteous.

My brothers are awesome (when they're not playing warcraft). We got each other's backs. They can play guitar (better than me, though it irks me to say so). Makes for some fun jamming time. They are funny (told you it was hereditary), and smart. The elder is more emotionally understanding, while the younger is more philosophically astute.

It's easier to find good stuff about your family when you love and trust them, and they love and trust you back. So yeah, my family is pretty awesome. I feel sad whenever I hear about people who either don't have families, or feel alienated by their families (like Lief and Son of Aeson.) Then again, I'm in a good mood and I'm usually optimistic when I'm content, so it's easy to spot the good points. =]

Family, friends and f***ing deadlines.

Right. So all the yearbook stuff is due this Tuesday or Wednesday, according to Charizard, who I incidentally met at the Macquarie shopping centre today, looking for a dress. One of the editors, let's just call her Crackers, asked me to do a group page for our biology class. I said yes, knowing full well that I had to go buy my dress for the formal, take my visiting family out on Sunday AND Monday. I don't know why I said yes. God damnit why didn't she ask me LAST week when I wasn't so busy that I had to cancel an event I've planned since ages ago. I HATE cancelling events.

Yes. I is angry.

Stupid Crackers.

Although, the animosity I'm directing towards her really is unjustified. And possibly hypocrital. I distinctly remember telling my mother that she should hold grudges against people because being angry at someone for a long time is like holding a hot coal with the intention to hurt someone else for a long time, but you just end up hurting yourself. I think the Buddha said something along those lines.

So I should probably stop hating her for no reason. Considering I don't like Wothisface anymore, and she's gotten back together with her boyfriend. I guess I wasn't strong enough to think about Wothisface's well-being instead of being pointlessly jealous. Hopefully I'll learn. Considering I keep saying that I think monogamy is horrible and pointless, I shouldn't really feel jealous about this kind of thing. Parental and societal conditioning is rather difficult to break. -_-

Wow, this blogging stuff really works.

There was supposed to be a coherent thread to this blog, but I've kind of lost it =/

My cousin (The perfect one. because she's tall, skinny and intelligent. and also because she does chores without being asked, and doesn't talk back to her mother. LIKE A GOOD DAUGHTER SHOULD! I love her, seriously, but I feel rather inferior when I'm around her. And that's something, considering my inflated ego =/), her boyfriend Scooby, and her brother The Dancer all arrived in Sydney on Sunday. My father and I took them out to the city today to sightsee. We drove to Milsons Point to take photos of the Harbour Bridge, the Opera House from across the Harbour, and Luna Park. Scooby and the Dancer had some fun playing with forced perspectives =D

Then we drove around to Chinatown to have lunch. According to The Dancer, the standard for testing a new bubble tea place is to try their Taro milk tea. If it's smooth, creamy and is just sweet enough, the rest of their teas must be good as well. I should test this out. It gives me an excuse to have bubble tea xD

We went to Tumbalong Park after lunch. It's been ages since I've been there. I'm surprised at how much I've grown since in four years, because everything is so much smaller than I remember =S I used to love going there to play in the park with my brothers. Now all that they're interested in is Warcraft. =( I really hate that game sometimes.

We did a lot of walking, mostly around the shopping mall at the Harbour, and around Market City. We didn't actually buy anything Oo Except for food. Which I'm trying not to eat, because I've realized when I put on my formal dress, you can see my stomach.

Don't get me wrong. I usually love the way I look. I know that as a young woman, I'm probably as perfect and as beautiful as I will ever be. And that as I grow older, it can only go downhill from there. It's just recently, I've been panicking because I'm adhering to other people's standards of beauty. Namely my mother's.

Which somehow leads me to the topics of eating disorders. I think I used to have bulimia. I remember that at some stage I used to overeat, and then run off to the bathroom to regurgitate. I used to feel a lot better afterwards, because I didn't have that horrible bloated feeling. My brother did it too. So I checked with the doctor, and it was acid reflux. But I do remember running off to the loo to regurgitate even when I hadn't eaten much.

I know some people throw up their food because it gives them a sense of control over something in their life. I actually find that eating normal meals in smaller portions several times throughout the day helps me to keep my food down. And in that way, it gives me more control than if I wantonly overeat, and puke it all up again.

That's a disturbing topic. =/ Let's move on.

Instead of going to Cookies' "Fighting Dreamers" photoshoot at school today, I went out with my cousins. Yay. =/ Oh well, I'll see everyone on Thursday, and we'll all be dressed up nicely, and we'll take a stack of photos then. And we won't sleep, we'll just dance and talk all night. I'm looking forward to that.

I'm also looking forward to turning eighteen, because my cousins are going to take me out clubbing for the first time. This is why I love my cousins, they provide for me like siblings would. And they're a good moderating force for my parents. (they went to the Chris Brown and Rihanna concert in New Zealand. Apparently, Rihanna was like "Hello Auckland! *crickets chirp* Auckland sucks! LOL epic phail, Anyway, maybe they'll be able to convince my parents that concerts AREN'T a waste of money, or dangerous.) So yay! Clubbing, and insane doses of Berocca (not so much the alcohol, I don't want to embarass myself... the last time I drank, I almost immediately regurgitated it back out again @.@ I don't handle drugs well, unlike The Dancer... because he's a pharmacist xD get it? Oh I'm a funny one... not)

Photoshoot and work

After the Chem exam, Spud, M and I went over to Cookies' house for a Victorian/Gothic/Creepy Doll photoshoot. We dressed up in frilly, lacy dresses, put up a ton of black make up and posed in our best inanimate object poses. Cookies got to play with her new camera filters =] We had a Alice in Wonderland themed tea party ^^ It was a lot of fun =D

I actually enjoy work, which is great. I sit for 3-4 hours working through a maths exercise book and check the answers to make sure the answers are right. And I get paid for it! Unfortunately I only get paid $12/hour, so it's not as much money as I would receve if I were to privately tutor students. Hopefully I'll be able to take Cookies' mother's younger students, and get some experience tutoring.

My cousins are coming over tomorrow. I'm so busy next week that I'll only be able to spend 2 days with them =( I guess I'll have to cancel something. I hate cancelling events.

I better clean my room.