Time to Make a Speech

It's very nearly the end of the year, which is kind of exciting because I will be spending most of the first 2 months of 2011 in Europe in the snow, very far away from home. It also means that is coming up to the last few weeks of teenage-dom for me as I'll be 20 in January. Everything is happening at the beginning of next year. I'm not sure what I should really do with all this information. Should I make a "Year That Was"- style sentimental account of the last year? Should I instead do an optimistic "Year That Will Be", outlining all the goals I have for next year and how I hope to achieve them? I don't think so, I'm not really a fan of either of those things, although I do feel that having goals and learning from your past decisions is important I don't think you should necessarily need to talk about these at length. So instead I'll just give a quick review of a movie a saw yesterday called The King's Speech.


I thought this film was probably one of the best I've seen in awhile. It was an inspiring true story that was executed perfectly through film, nothing included seemed superfluous or repeated, every shot was just as vital as the last. Often when I see films even the good ones have parts which I feel are unnecessary because they bring up plots points or ideas which have already been sufficiently explained or are just plain useless in the way of story telling (Where the Wild Things Are, I thought, was a repeat offender of this). Sometimes films just have parts which makes them lag and as a viewer (albeit one with a short attention span) just distance you from the story through sheer boredom.

The performances of the main two actors especially, Colin Firth who played King George VI and Jeffery Rush who played his speech therapist Lionel Logue were fantastic. Both performers commanded the audiences complete attention whilst on screen without stepping on each other toes, their performances were completely equal never having one outshine the other despite the opposite polarity of their characters. The story brought to light just how very important the ability to speak with confidence and clarity is in power relationships and how we are perceived by others. In a day and age when 'text speak' is infiltrating our spoken language this message is especially prevalent.  

I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas and best wishes for the New Year.

ARGH.

So apparently perfume is really corrosive went spilt on varnished wooden floors. I mean I probably already knew this in the back of my mind but with these things you only really realise how problematic these chemical reactions are when say your perfume bottle falls on the floor without you noticing and spills a whole heap of perfume on the floor and you don't even notice this because it's under you desk chair and you can't see it until you move the desk chair so now you've made a permanent mark on the floorboards and your room  also smells of a perfume that you don't even wear anymore because the bottle is broken and you couldn't get anymore out (or so you thought).

Sometimes I hate my life.  

Free Time

Free time is something that I've had a lot of lately because of finishing work. However, today I think is the first day since then and before that I've just stayed at home all day doing not much. Yesterday I went to the Mountain designs to buy my clothes for my Europe trip which basically turned out to be me buying a whole winter wardrobe. None of the stuff is particularly stylish but I guess it's sort of hard to be stylish in sub zero temperatures. Hopefully, when I get to London I can get some more attractive and interesting clothing that is appropriate to wear in such climates. Honestly I don't know how you people in Canada and Europe can stand it wearing all those layers of clothes all the time and then having to take them off when you go inside. I feel this is something that I'm going to need to adjust to when I'm staying in Germany.

The days are going by so quickly and I'm honestly not sure how I'm going to cope in such a strange climate being away from everything familiar. I mean I suppose it'll be a good experience and everything being thrust out of my comfort zone but I must admit that I'm happy being comfortable and thinking about travelling and all that I need to do before I go stresses me out so much. But I guess I'm like that with everything. I wish I was like those people that got unbelievably enthusiastic about EVERYTHING despite numerous obstacles in the way of the exciting thing.

EDIT: I just got a christmas post card from my host parents in Stuttgart. I'm scared that I'm going to disappoint them somehow. They seem like such nice people.

Planning

Yesterday I finished my last day of employment in the cafe in which I have worked for the last 18 months or so. I was lucky enough to be given a gift voucher and cafe tea pot on my leaving which was very generous of my co workers. It is weird to think that I never have to plan my week around my work schedule or worry about getting a call from work asking to come in at the last minute. It's freeing of course, but it also kind of scary because it means I  no longer have an excuse to not prepare for my upcoming trip to Europe.

 At the moment I am just looking at things we can do whilst we are in London and I must admit I can't help but get incredibly excited about it. It seems that the hostel we will be staying in is quite close to the West End and if I can convince my friend whom I'm travelling with to go see a show every night then I'm fairly sure I'll make it happen if I can.  Living in Perth we get the occasional big show coming across for a week or so from Melbourne or Sydney but we don't even have a proper venue for them, the have to be played in a multi-purpose venue, which I'm told, is not that great. For this reason we never bother to see them when they come here we always just see them in Melbourne, when we go there. By happy coincidence, when I went to Sydney in year 12 for a drama tour we went to see most of the big musicals that are still running today. And when I went to London in 2004 I saw the Lion King in the same theatre that it is still currently playing in. I had forgotten that shows on the West End often run for years, it's not a luxury we have here in Perth. We don't have enough people or theatres to enjoy that type of entertainment on such a regular basis.

I'm also really excited about shopping in London. I currently have a wardrobe that is not even appropriate for an Australian winter, this being the case most of my clothes for this trip will probably be purchased from Mountain designs. But hopefully, when I'm in London and in Germany I shall be able to accrue some decent winter clothes which I can also wear at home. I'm hoping I shall not have to worry that I don't have an appropriate jacket to go out in ever again. And that I won't have to wear a cardigan that is missing buttons simply because I have nothing else to wear.

I'm glad that I'm getting more excited for this trip before I was a little apprehensive what with all the organising and stuff to be done but now I'm hoping that it will be worth it.

Summer Time Does not Last

I hope all you avid readers like the background change. I finally got to personalise the background a bit, it's a picture that I took around Easter down south when I was staying with a few friends. I think it's pretty awesome but I may decide to change it again a little down the track.

It's December which means it's Summer in the southern hemisphere and the last few weeks we have experienced so reallly hot days but also, like today some really mild, windy "Oh my God, I almost should have worn stockings/jeans/jacket today, it's that cool!" It's a little strange, but then that's weather for you.

I finished exams about 3 weeks ago and since then I've been hella busy, trying to book flights (all done), reserved accommodation (some done), got in contact with my host family (in progress), collecting scholarship money (done), and finishing up at work (only a few more shifts to go). If you're not sure what I'm talking about; I'm going to Europe in January specifically Germany with a little bit of London thrown in for good measure. Whilst in Germany I'll be studying at the University of Stuttgart for 6 weeks for a language/culture course. This means of course I'll also be experiencing the European winter for the first time and snow for only the second time. I am a little concerned as to how well I shall function in such conditions but I'm sure I'll survive.

For now though, I've just been trying to catch up with all my friends before everyone goes away (everyone is always travelling in the summer holidays). One friend is in Melbourne and going to Singapore and many other places, another is going to Morocco for an internship to teach English, another is travelling with me to Germany. I guess travelling is what you do when you are young.

I think that is all I have to report for now.

I hope you all have a great weekend <3  

T-minus 2 exams to go

Ladies and Gentlemen I am literally a week away from totally finishing exams/uni for the year. Huzzah! Another good thing is that I've also quite miraculously got the wi-fi at uni to work (nicknamed Uni-fi SEE WHAT THEY DID THERE). I mean, I'm quite glad that it's working because it means that I can now blog from anywhere on campus and not just from at home but here's the thing, I have been trying to make it work ALL SEMESTER and it just HAS NOT worked but suddenly one day when I happen to be studying in the library it asks me for my password so I obligingly type it in and BAM! internet connection. Awesome yet confusing.

Studying in the library is pretty good with an internet connection, especially when you're sitting next to a window and can see the baby ducks down on the lawn outside the library. But the sad fact is that I have been studying Philosophy of all things since about 9-ish this morning and it is now almost 1. I am so sick of philosophy. Luckily I have been able to keep myself sane by procrastinating by going on facebook and playing tetris and so on.

Despite this healthy dose of procrastination I have also been able to get quite a lot of philosophy work done, a total of 6 pages and 2,333 words to be exact. I might even do some more after I've finished this blog post.

I can't wait until exams have finished so I can go about organising my summer. I have so much organising to do. Sigh. It should be worth it though. =D

Work work work

It's study week and I am so tired of studying. I am also actually just really really tired. Although at least I am (sort of) studying at an acceptable pace but I still have a looonng way to go. I don't finish until the 19th so it's going to be a long weeks. I also have so much other stuff to do.

I was officially accepted into the Winter Programme at Stuttgart University so now I have to organise all that which involves a lot business with banks and bookings and fees and buying (lots) of things I need to survive in the European winter for 6 weeks and etc. etc. It's all pretty exciting but it does feel like I just have SO MUCH work to do with exams coming up as well and as soon as I finish I have to prepare to go study again. I know, my life is tough. It'll be a lot better once I've finished up with exams so I can mix in a bit of social life with my preparations.

Studying at home by yourself certainly makes you go a little stir crazy. I'm often worried that if I stay at home for a long period of days I'll become slightly agoraphobic or something similar.

It should be a fun summer (winter?) but I will miss being in the Australian sun.

I Love Lists

That's right everyone I will once again be summing up the events in my recent life by making a list!

THINGS  I HAVE DONE

• Sent off the application to spend the summer in Stuttgart, Germany studying German. Promptly received more forms to fill out
• Bought running shoes to wear for indoor soccer
• Went to soccer training (!) 
• Caught up on linguistics lectures and realised that even though the content gets a lot harder next year I should probably continue it and possibly major in it
• Drank some really nice cocktails

THINGS I STILL NEED TO DO (this week)

• Finish Philosophy essay (due tomorrow!)
• Study for German Aural exam (also tomorrow!)
• Vacuum the floors
• Go to the beach
• Do final linguistic assignment 
• Fill out aforementioned exchange forms

I think that all there is to list for today. Uni finishes up in 2 weeks before study break and exams. Ergh too much work to do, so little time. I feel my GPA is going to suffer this semester from lack of prior study, but oh well I still have another 4 semesters to make up for it.

Margo Roth Spielgelman

I would imagine that their are very few people that would actually enjoy being lonely. I mean, I know there are many people who enjoy being alone from time to time but being alone is not the same as being lonely. Being alone means to be by yourself, that is without others around, at any particular period of time. Being lonely on the other hand doesn't necessarily mean there aren't others around, it means that you don't feel like you have anyone who you really can connect with or talk to or be friends with. If you are lonely, you don't feel like you're a part of anything even though you might be in writing.  For example, my friend was recently telling me how lonely he was feeling because his family had recently moved overseas but he had stayed behind by himself. He said he had plenty of friends and obviously went to work and uni and saw people there but he still missed the closeness and belonging of his family.

Loneliness is possibly the worst part of the human condition it is probably (in my opinion) the number one precursor to, and element of depression. If people feel that they are lonely when they are depressed then it doesn't matter how many people try and tell them otherwise, they will still be convinced of their loneliness.

I also think that a lot of the time people feel lonely when they ought not to. Or at least not take their loneliness so seriously and realise it will probably pass all things considered. It seems to me, that sometimes, people feel the need to quell their loneliness with extreme measures, it is like they are looking for some perfect solution, the perfect best friend, the perfect boyfriend/girlfriend, the perfect mother/father (figure), and so on. Generally, however such perfect people don't exist and whilst someone is searching for someone to create a perfect solution to their all encompassing problem, they tend to overlook the other obvious and more accessible solutions. Like, if you do have people around you why don't you just try to enjoy their company instead of worrying that you don't have a close group of friends or a boyfriend or a girlfriend? You'll become more engaging and seem nicer which might make you feel less lonely because, let's face it, most people are exactly in the same situation as you are. Everyone wants to be liked, have friends and know people who they can trust.

Normally, I'm pretty cynical about most things, especially people, but I've learnt there's no point in getting all upset and indignant when people disappoint you because they probably will at some point, just like you will probably disappoint them sometimes. The point is to stop trying to get caught up in people's mistakes and worrying what they think of you, don't categorise your friends or yourself. Someone is always going to try and tell you what you are and they might be right on some things. But who cares?  What good comes from being able to define yourself? You will never stop being yourself doesn't matter who you 'try' to be.

So be grateful if you have people who like to see you whether they be the people at school, work, at home and if you don't think you have these people take another look or failing that go talk to the weird old lady on the bus. You'll feel less lonely. Trust me.

Exam time again.

Well, almost. Exams are in a few weeks and it feels like they are looming all too quickly, I guess it's that time of year where everything starts to get more and more hectic as we get closer to the holiday season. I have so much uni work to do I'm not sure how it's going to turn out although I'm sure it's probably going to turn out ok, I mean 2nd semester of first year isn't exactly a make or break kind of deal.

But, it also means that I have officially (almost) knocked off almost a whole year of my degree! Only two more to go. Not that I'm counting down the days or anything I really hope that the next two years are just as good as this one. I think that this year has probably been the best year for me since probably the first year of high school, if not even before then.

I have to do an essay that's due on monday, it's for Politics. I really hope that I have a good enough answer to this question. Who knew international politics could be so complicated? =P I really hope that I get a good mark for this essay, my average from last semester was pretty healthy so I would like to keep it that way.

Unfortunately, I can't say the same for my Philosophy essay which was waaay down on my usual average (although they said my writing was very good, win!). Lame. Only because I'll have to actually study hard for the exam/ the next essay if I don't wish to jeopardise my very nice looking GPA. Shoot me if I ever consider taking another Philosophy unit ever again, I very much dislike Philosophy even though I do like my tutor and going to tutorials is interesting. I still find it very hard to understand how anyone could do a PhD in it.

I guess I'd better get back to work.

It's another saturday morning

Hallo, weary travellers! I hope you are all enjoying which ever transitional season you happen to find yourself in. I find myself to be enjoying the Spring weather at the moment, except for one incident last thursday where I was psyched to go the beach only to wake up to rain. Sad pandas. I also woke up way too early this morning thinking it was later because it was nice and bright outside,  I had forgotten that the days get longer in Spring! *headdesk*

I guess there's not to much to report except that the week almost gone was our mid-semester break and it's almost over and I'm seriously wishing that I got a lot more work done. I did get work done but still, I always want to get more done.

I went to a party last night which turned out to be really enjoyable, I thought I was going to be really rushed and tired because I had work just before but luckily I finished early and it wasn't a busy shift so I wasn't too tired.

I think I had a better plan for this blog but I'm pretty sure I forgot what it was. Oops.

Short sentences with pudding.

My current mood is such that only a chocolate pudding with cream may fix. Or perhaps some answers.
It's "mid"-semester break next week. We had a fire drill at uni on Tuesday. Our exam timetables are out. This semester has gone by even quicker than the last.

I'm going to get some chocolate pudding and cream now.

Cucumbers clean your face

It's hard to think of a better invention than the 'facial cleansing wipe', you know those already moist towelettes removes make up from ones face (even mascara!) in a timely and efficient manner. These towelettes are generally packed with beneficial natural ingredients such as aloe vera and vitamin E that supposedly cleanse and revitalise (what does that even mean?) our skin.

Curiously, though these wipes are now seem to have 'flavours'. The ones I have with me right now are cucumber 'flavoured', I call them flavours because I can't find a better word to describe it. I know that however awesome these facial wipes are they are probably going to end up tasting more like soap than an edible fruit/vegetable. The last packet I had were green tea 'flavoured', again I'm not sure what this was trying to add to the overall effect of the facial wipe as they worked just as well as the cucumber ones I have now and the plain ones I had before them. The only really difference was the fragrance but I don't think that there's a huge difference between them all they just smell like a cross between soap and perfume just like any other face-cleaning product available.

I just thought you'd like to know my thoughts on facial cleansing wipes. If you don't care well, that's a few minutes of your life you won't get back.

Anxiety

You know those days where you feel unduly stressed out/tired? You know the ones where you're stressed because you need to get stuff done but you can't because you're too stressed to be constructive? You're too busy being anxious about all the stuff you need to do and what you need have accomplished by such and such time, that you can't actually start anything because the thought of what will happen if you don't get to the goals you hope to achieve is making you too anxious to do anything.

Shoelaces

If you read this blog you regularly you may have noticed that I have changed the the title and web address. I've been wanting to change the web address for ages but I only recently figured out a decent name for it.

Often, my shoes come undone and because this does happen often I sometimes just leave them undone until I have a chance to tie them. Basically, just because I notice my shoes are untied I am not necessarily going to stop and tie them up straight away unless a) it is convenient to so or b) it is a life or death situation where my shoes must be re-tied. (For the record situation b has never happened so far).

Another funny story shoelace related story happened yesterday when one of my friends decided that it would be immensely amusing to pull my shoe off my foot whilst I was lying on the couch at uni. Some how this progressed into a discussion of how people tie their shoelaces and how some people use the rabbit ears method; you know, two loops that you cross over and tie together. Other people use the pulling the loop through the hole method (or whatever you call them). I have never been able to do the second method so my aforementioned friend, whose name is Dan btw, decided to try and show me. Dan happens to be roughly 6 foot 5 whereas I am about 5"3. And there he was tying  up my shoelaces. Don't anyone try and tell me my life isn't exciting. =P

On the downside I still don't think I have mastered the art of shoelace tying. Oh well. I guess whenever I'm on here my shoelaces need never be tied.

Callum Eats an Onion

You know those days where some good things happen and some bad things happen and you're not really sure whether or not you should say that that day was a good day or a bad day?

Well, I had one of those days yesterday. It's mainly because I was rushing to finish off an essay and then the printer wasn't working off my computer so I had to go buy a new USB (because Gerarda has mine) just so I could print off 1000 words of philosophy drivel. (Drivel it was, it's probably one of the worst essays I've written. I am decidedly not keen on getting it back). Moral of the story here, kids, is that you should start an essay before the day before it's due and not still be writing on the day it's due.

On the upside however, I received a letter from my university congratulating me because they had awarded me a scholarship to help with my short-term exchange trip that I am planning to go on during the Australian summer! This is quite exciting news because the amount is enough to pretty much cover the travel costs of going to Germany (which is where the course is taking place). I mean, I still have to actually apply and be accepted to the university where the course is being held but I assume that I will get in.

On a completely separate note: Do you think you could eat an onion whole? I mean a brown onion. Not a red one. Brown ones are more potent than red ones. I have challenged my friend Callum to eat a whole onion because he claimed he could. It shall be interesting to see if this ever eventuates.

Biro Chic

I originally had another idea for this blog post but halfway through writing it, it didn't seem particularly interesting or at least when I wrote it down it seemed lame. So instead I will show you some more pretty things. Like these:

Did anyone else chew their pen lid/pen at school? I did, I was a chronic chewer I eventually switched to using click top pens because they had no lid and were harder to chew. I'm pretty sure it's the only reason I stopped chewing my pen. I think these necklaces are amazing, they're made of sterling silver and if I had $250 to spend on jewellery I'd buy one immediately. They are seriously some of the most creative jewellery I've seen in awhile (they can be found here. It's so hard to find nice accessories these days. I don't buy cheap stuff anymore because it's all just such bad quality that it's liable to break before you even get a chance to wear it. Unfortunately, this means I don't wear a lot of jewellery/accessories because I can't afford to buy the ones I like.

Let's Go Ride a Bicycle.

Hey! How goes you all? I'm not really sure if anyone still reads this blog but I hope they do I also hope that after they have finished reading they'll post a comment! (hint, hint). For some reason this blog is in a different font than it normally is. I'm not sure why that is and I'm not even sure whether it will show up as different on my actual blog page. But, nevermind that, look what I came across whilst I was trawling the interwebs...

Aren't they pretty? I certainly think so. I was (and am still, supposedly) getting a bike for my previous birthday which was in January and I still haven't got one yet. I'd really like one of these but they are a bit pricey so I'm not sure my mother would be willing to pay for one for me, not to mention you have to buy them online and I'm assuming delivering will also be expensive. They can be found here btw.

That's really all I have to show you guys today, I hope you are all having a lovely week. =)

Hmmm...

I have a habit of being a bit weird. For example, I sometimes talk to myself whilst around others which is generally a bit strange but mostly I don't particularly care what people think because I know they don't particularly care about what I'm saying. I generally don't have a problem with other people so I don't see why they should have a problem with me. Therefore, I should be able to do whatever the hell I like.

I guess I learned from a young age that often (not all the time) people don't care about what you have to say so they don't bother to listen but instead carry on their own conversations. So you're kind of left their having a conversation with yourself only vaguely aware that the others have stopped listening and are talking about something else.

Once, one of my friends pointed out that I do sometimes do this and continue telling an anecdote or whatever even if no ones listening. I thought it was interesting that he actually pointed it out, maybe because it's strange that he even noticed and maybe because it's a little impolite actually verbalise it. Even since then my wonderfully annoying friends keep pointed out when I'm "telling stories to myself". Yes it's a bit lame but as I remarked earlier, Why the Hell Shouldn't I?

Being Busy Often Sucks

Weirdly, this semester I find myself to be incredibly busy, for the first time in quite some time. I guess it's because I'm doing my first properly full time semester with somewhere between 13-15 contact hours. Yes I know that's not really that much, so please, Engineering students (read: Gerarda) put down your pitchforks and pack away your self-righteousness. What I'm getting at here is that although I don't have a lot of contact hours I do have a lot of homework/assignments/reading/slash/studying. In my opinion, an Arts degree is less about learning facts and figures and more about researching and reading and ideas.

All these things do require some effort outside of class and are usually not stipulated in any unit outline or marking grid. So what? I hear you asking, you're still not going to get a *good* job when you finish. This is generally fairly true after you've finished an Arts degree you're still basically going to have work from the bottom up even though you have a fancy piece of paper saying that you've spent three years at a tertiary institution. And for those who do PhD's in Arts it's just a little depressing. Most of my tutors are examples of these and opened my first tutorial with versions of "I'm never going to get a real job" - Philosopher tutor and "It's a little depressing" - Politics tutor. Which are both very encouraging sentiments for the average first year Arts student. Not.

However, I don't imagine anyone who does a PhD in an Arts discipline would do it if they didn't enjoy it. No one's making them do it. That's one of the reasons why I continue to do Arts, because I enjoy it.

Anyway, I'm also busy because of work, it tends to eat up my weekends showing no mercy. Today is my only day off without uni or work and I have to spend most of it studying/doing chores. Fun. Although I am going to see Scott Pilgram vs. the world today which should be fun.

I think I'll finish this post here because I might just start to ramble.

Dot points, elections and tax

Hey look! It's a blog, I haven't blogged since June the 6th which was exactly 2 months ago so I feel that it is necessary to update by blog readers (if any) on what has been happening over the last 2 months, in point form, of course!

• I got my drivers license. Finally.
• Exams have been and gone and I did rather well in all my units which I am quite pleased about
• I went to Melbourne and bought a lot of clothes and had fun times. I really wish I could go live in Melbourne for awhile. I'm kind of thinking that after I have finished my Bachelors degree I will do a post-graduate degree in Melbourne possibly at Melbourne University. But then, I won't finish my Bachelors for another 2 and a half years so a lot can happen between now and then but it's definitely something I'll look into if I get the opportunity.
• Semester break has been and gone and I just finished the second week of the second semester of uni. It's been pretty good so far I'm doing 4 units instead of 3 this semester plus I aim to actually attend more of my classes this semester so I can try and fulfil my dream of getting all HD's this time round (unlikely XD)

I think that that's all that needs to be covered in dot points. The last few months I've been pretty happy about the things that have been going on in my life except for a few minor hiccups which I guess will be fully resolved in the fullness of time.

One thing is starting to annoy me though, and that is the election. Australia is due to have a federal election on the 21st of August so at the moment all the political parties/candidates are campaigning. Seeing all the election hype and (relatively poor and frivolous) media coverage makes me really dislike having to vote because honestly, it seems as if neither of the major political parties have any major differences and I'm not really sure that either of the parties leaders would make a decent Prime Minister. I am quite glad that we do not vote directly for the PM.

Now after that rant I have to go finish doing my tax! Yay! =P

That's not weird, right?

Last year, I went through a phase when I used to save IM conversations that I had with people or parts of them at least. I guess this was because I had not much else to do plus some of the conversation I had were quite hilarious. The other day I was looking through them and it's interesting to see how much things have changed since then. In that past year so much has happened and changed the way I view life (mostly for the better). It's also interesting to see how much I used to talk to people online I think really the only explanation for that is that I used hardly ever see my friends so when I had a chance to talk to someone online I would basically just not shut up.

It's also interesting to see the responses from the people I was talking to and how my relationships have changed with them. It evened seemed that the conversations even foreshadowed some of the events in my life, things I could not have predicted at the time. Weird. I guess it's something to think about.

In terms of updating, the semester is nearly over with only exams to go (my first one is tomorrow, yes I am using blogging as a means of procrastination). I can't wait until the break. I can finally go and get my drivers license after all this time. I'm also going into Melbourne in July and hopefully buying a new laptop (probably a macbook!).

How has everyone else been? No one's updating!!!

The Worst Week

This week has not been great. It just hasn't. Which is why I haven't written a blog about it yet. It was too hard to try and articulate the not great happenings of this week in a coherent and polite way. Weeks like this one remind me also of how very little of my life I actually share with the blog readers, mainly because a lot of the things that happen in my life aren't particularly interesting or publishable. And of course some things just aren't appropriate to talk about in a forum where anyone, anywhere can access the information.

Because of these reasons I have decided condense my week into a summary/list of what happened on each day.

MONDAY

• Missed out on Politics tutorial to study for German test that I neglected to study for on the weekend because I was called into work at last minute
• Took German test, found it more difficult than I probably should have
• Went to A's* house after finishing uni. Confusion ensued. Lots of confusion.

TUESDAY

• Went into uni for a lecture.
• Fell down the stairs in the lecture theatre where both my pride and back were hurt
• Still confused about the A situation

WEDNESDAY

• Missed out on prosh (UWA's annual charity/dress up thing) because of injury
• Didn't go to uni at all because of painful back and general grumpiness and therefore missed out on a 2hr German class

THURSDAY

• Went to uni, caught up with a friend I hadn't talked to properly in ages. Felt slightly better.
• Went to Politics lecture, didn't fall down the steps. Although my back's still sore

FRIDAY

• Had to call in sick to work because of sore back
• Made a doctor's appointment for Saturday
• Studied for German test on Monday

There you have it my week in a nutshell. I hope that's ok. I need a book to read, suggestions?

* I haven't referred to A as A before in my blog, but if you're extra good at sleuthing go back to my blog entries from about 6-ish months ago and you should be able to figure who it is. If you can't already guess.

Well this will not do...

It's seems that I am quite far away from my target for this month BMFA, this being so I shall try and catch up over the next few days. I think I have to post about another 12 or so more to beat last April's blog count.

This weekend was hectic. Friday, not so much but Saturday and Sunday definitely. On Friday all I did was be bored at home, do some study and then I went to collect the CD of a single that my friend's band Screaming Life released recently. This retrieval took awhile because I had to go to my friend's house to get it and even though I knew where it was I have never gotten myself there before, I had to take the train because I STILL haven't got my license yet (only 4 more hours!). As I was walking to his I took a complete wrong turn and went the long way round but I finally got there which was good.

On Saturday I was woken up by a call from work asking me to come and work until two. Which I did. It was a bit stressful because I wasn't expecting to go into work and I wanted to study which I didn't end up doing at all. On Sunday I worked from 8.00-4.30 and once I was done all my muscles in my body ached. I haven't done a shift that long in ages.

Now it's Monday morning and I'm supposed to have a Politics tutorial at 10 which I won't get to because I'll be studying for the German test I have today because I didn't get a chance to on Saturday.

Must blog...

Blog More Frequently in April went on a short hiatus but now it's back! Excited? Perhaps not.

Anyway, I'm back at uni for the latter half of the semester which is um, fun, I guess? One thing I've found since transferring from Curtin last semester is that I find it easier to procrastinate doing study while I'm at uni. This is because of one very simple reason and that is because I know many more people who attend UWA and it's so easy to just go hang out and do nothing with them all day instead going to the library to study (which I do do occasionally just not as often as I plan to).

The thing is my group of friends is quite large, in that it extends across many small circles of friends who went to the same high school or do the same uni course who all conglomerate in their breaks from class in one particular spot. This means that if you go there at any time during the day it is likely you'll will find someone you know there to sit with and talk about nothing in particular. This is not conducive to studying. When I was at Curtin I had no such group of friends so any time I had free time I would just go to the library and read or do assignments.

Yesterday was a perfect example, I arrived a couple of hours early to uni for the purpose of going to library to find and photocopy some readings that I needed for my politics unit. Before doing this I decided to drop into Hackett (the place where my friend conglomerate) for a bit. Bad idea. In those two hours before my lecture approximately no photocopying or reading got done.

So yes, having friends is detrimental to your study habits. One other thing that I'd like to mention, Reid Library (the main library at UWA) scares me a little compared to Curtin's Library it's so much more quiet and claustrophobic. I like Curtin's library a lot better, I guess cos it's more modern with more space and also easier to navigate.

That's it for today. I have to go into uni soon. The weathers awful. Bah.

Review!!!

As promised this is my book review (or at least an attempt at) of You Shall Know our Velocity by Dave Eggers.

You Shall Know Our Velocity - Dave Eggers

The novel is essentially about two friends, Hand and Will, who are left $38,000 after their friend Jack dies when he is (in the most literal sense possible) run over by a truck whilst in his car. Hand and Will set out to travel to as many places in the world as possible in seven days on a mission to give out this money to the needy. This leads to a variety of hilarious and awkward senarios as the characters try and give out the money to people they know nothing about. Within this journey there is a bunch of literary metaphors all about loss and finding oneself, everything that you would probably expect from a literary novel from an author as reknowned as Dave Eggers.

Before I talk about what I thought of the book, I must confess that when I decided to write this review I soon realised that I actually wasn't sure exactly what I thought of it. The reason I had bought and read it in the first place was that I had read numerous short stories by Dave Eggers and found them to be nothing short of brilliant, all slightly off-centre stories yet edging into post-modern territory containing brilliantly clear and insightful (for want of a better word) ideas about the world. You Shall Know Our Velocity not so much. Afer I had finished reading it I thought it (or perhaps I) was missing something, so before I wrote this review I google searched some other reviews on the book and found this review which managed to articulate what I had been previously wondering. Eggers book is very good, but it doesn't seem to be up to his normal standard. The clarity and ounce of brilliance just doesn't seem to be there. Now I guess I COULD be missing something, it is a possibility but I couldn't help but be slightly disappointed with this novel after readng Eggers short stories.

That being said, I still recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading literary-type books or road-trip themed books or books about silly American males. After all I did finish the whole book. Something that doesn't occur often for me as I'm a picky reader, if I'm not interested, I won't finish it. I also highly reccomend Eggers short stories the most famous of which can be found in How We are Hungry, a collection of his short stories published by Penguin.

I hope that makes some sense but I have to stop here as I have to be at work in half an hour.

Down in the Dale

I think I enjoy this whole blogging in the morning thing, it gives me a chance to sit down and concerntrate on one thing and not get distracted. Most of you wouldn't know that my attention span is fairly lacking and I often get distracted and find it hard to concerntrate a lot of the time. This is one of the reasons why I am terrible at and don't do well in exams. It's also one of the reasons I started blogging. I needed a medium where I would have to sit down and write something coherent so it could be published. It's sort of worked. I think.

But enough of that. My original plan for this blog post is to talk about my trip down south (douth) last weekend. Let's start off with a pretty picture:

This is the view from the house that we stayed in plus some chairs we put out on the large verandah. Arty huh? The property was a generous 200 acres, it belongs to one of my friend's family who built the house just recently. It's a pretty awesome place. The thing I love most about going to the country is being able to see all the stars at night. I live so close to the city that you can't see that many of them and I always forget how many stars they're actually are and how pretty they are.

I went down with my sister and four of our friends. I've never really been on a roadtrip with only people my own age before, it was definitely more fun than any of the family roadtrips I've been on in the past years (as you would expect). When we arrived there we didn't do a hell of a lot really, just consumed some (and by some I mean a lot) intoxicating beverages, went on bush walks, played numerous games of cards with some scrabble and PS 3 thrown in, we even managed to have a weird, late night experience with SBS.

I'm really glad I ended up going on this trip. I haven't had a proper holiday away from home in almost a year, so it was definitely a nice break.

Anyway, I think I'll stop there before I start rambling. Next blog post I'm going to (hopefully) post my semi-review on You Shall Know Our Velocity.

See you guys then!

Zwei

This is fairly good, two blogs for two days. Some people would say I'm on a roll, some would just say "that's not particularly impressive, Catherine". And they may be right, but when you consider my previous blog count of recent days I think it's worth the accolades.

But enough of that indulgence, I figure I'll start off BMFA with a little summary/update on what is going on in my life. Mid-semester break has just started so we now have a "study-break" for a week in which we try and cram as much fun-stuff as possible while trying to catch-up on all the work we're behind on from the first 6-ish weeks of uni. I know there's a lot off stuff I have to catch up on especially in German, which I was kinda neglecting a bit because I had so many other assignments. The bad news about neglecting a subject that has weekly tests is that the neglect shows up fairly quickly, luckily the tests are only worth 4% and they ignore your worst one when averaging your semester mark, sooo I have a little breathing space to make it better.

In other uni news I am now only doing 3 units this semester because I withdrew from my Calculus unit because it just didn't really fit in with all my other units. I wasn't really prepared to do enough work on it to even justify doing the unit. It just means I'll have to enrol in a fourth unit next semester instead of doing just 3. I already have credit for one unit from my study last year and I could probably get more credit, but I don't really want to because it'll limit the type of 2nd year units I can do next year.

In non-uni news before Easter I went down south with a few friends for three days. It was awesome. It was just so nice to get away and not worry about uni-work, normal-work and not seeing a computer screen for three days was also fantastic. I'll write more about this trip in a later blog (and possibly include pictures!).

I also finally finished reading a book that I have been trying to finish for ages (thanks again to the trip for that too). I think I'll write another blog about that book too, it was really awesome it many ways I really like the author's style of writing. He comes up with some amazing observations and ideas. The book's called You Shall Know Our Velocity by Dave Eggers. Dave Eggers is a fairly well-reknowned author especially famous for his short stories which are nothing short of amazing, if I do say so myself.

I think that's enough for today.
See you all soon! (well not really)

Blog More Frequently in April

It's April and instead of doing Blog Everyday in April I will attempt to blog "more frequently" meaning that I hopefully will blog more this April than in last April where I attempted BEDA and quite clearly failed with only 17 blog posts. This monlth I shall at least aim to get 18 blogs out, however crappy in content they may be.

Today's blog post is going to be particularly short mainly because it's Easter Sunday and we're going to have family come over for dinner soon. So basically all I have to say today is

HAPPY EASTER!!!

Lots of chocolate and bunnies to you all
xx

Hail!

Last Monday Perth experienced the worst storm since 1994 (or in a century...I dunno, the date changes depending on what new program you watch). Needless to say, it was a pretty intense storm, we had heaps of rain and hail stones the size of tennis balls. There was pretty widespread property damage around the city including a mini-mud slide on Mt Eliza which caused a couple of apartments to fill up with sand. At uni the glass in heaps of windows were broken, with lots of damage to trees (there are leaves EVERYWHERE) and parts of the ceiling collasped in a couple of buildings. Plus the 80-year-old glass in Winthrop Hall, one of the university's heritage listed buildings, looks like someone has gone and thrown rocks throw the windows. Although the architecture and education library takes the cake, it filled up with a couple of feet of mud and storm water when the windows smashed from the force of all the strom water flooding in from the road (the library is built a bit below ground). Finally it's estimated that 25, 000 cars were signifcantly damaged in the hail storm.

Luckily, my area didn't seem to get any hail and the only damage we really had was some minor flooding and a possibly broken gutter, we were lucky we didn't loose power some people were still waiting to have their power reconnected yesterday. It was quite bizarre really, it was warm and sunny for most of the day then in about 2 hours it became black and the storm hit and was over.

That was fairly exciting, I found it amusing that on news reports they decided to mention the massive amount of storm related groups/fan pages etc. on social networking sites. Clearly people are still getting used to the internet age and still find it fascinating, even though in a lot of ways we rely on it to function most days.

Other than that life is ok at the moment, handing in first uni assignments with break coming up soon. Work has been annoying, getting in the way of stuff like social interaction but whatever. I guess that's what happens.

I could gripe about a couple of other things that are happening but I know they'd read stupidly when typed up. So that's enough for now. Bye!

On Reflection...

On reflection I realise I am a terrible blogger. My posts never seem to have any greater purpose than to describe what happens my life and perhaps a vaguely meaningful statement about the significance of those events. I wish I could be like Hayley Hoover and write about things in my life that people can consider relating to their own experience. It's not that I don't think about writing about these things, I just find it difficult to relate feelings into coherent sentences in a way that interesting and appropriate for a public domain. I think Hayley is also lucky in a way as her ideas and values always seem so strong and idealistic, whereas I'll have to admit that a lot of my values and ideas aren't as clear and optimistic as hers. Perhaps it's an American thing.

That being said the rest of this blog is just going to be a bog standard recount of what I have been doing lately. =P It's still the holidays and I have been pretty busy with work and other stuff. A couple of Sundays ago I went to the Big Day Out which is a music festival, I went mainly to see Muse (who were headlining) who I waited for over four hours in a crowded moshpit to see. But it was worth it despite fearing for my safety at a couple of points because I got to see Matt Bellamy up close! Which of course is worth a great deal of pain and a lost hat. Muse were spectacular live and I will definitely be willing to brave another crazy moshpit to see them again.

Other stuff of note that has happened since the Big Day Out is that I got seriously sunburnt at the beach and am now peeling (not fun!). We also got a new little kitten, who is absolutely gorgeous but scratches us a lot. I've been out a lot too and spending too much money on lunch and movies and drinks! On Monday I went to lunch and a movie with my ex boyfriend which wasn't nearly as awkward as I had expected. In fact, in was pretty much not akward at all. Which I guess is good. I really don't know what to think about it actually.

The last thing I want to mention is the book that I am reading it's called You Shall Know Our Velocity by Dave Eggers. It's about two friends who have been left $38,000 from their friend who was crushed in his car by a truck. They seek to travel the world in seven days to give away the money to people who need it. So far it's a pretty good book, I mean I'm 166 pages in and I haven't stopped reading it yet, always a good sign as far as I'm concerned. =P Dave Eggers is one of my favourite authors, he writes with a fresheness and measured sensitivity without the use of pretentious metaphors or themes (Tim Winton? anyone?). He writes some really excellent short stories. Including some really excellent short short stories. I think you should check them out. =)

Anyway, that's all I have to say for today. Comment. Please. =)

Happy (Belated) Birthday

I know that you get older every day, but at what point do you actually start to feel old? I guess it could be any day. I'll have to admit that when I realised at 12am on the 19th of January that I was now 19 I felt a bit old. This is probably because the novelty of being legally an adult had worn off and because I couldn't help wondering when I'd actually start to feel like a mature adult as most of the time I'm still pretty convinced that I'm still 14 trying to understand the concept of being a teenager, which I'll never understand, I don't think.

Anyway, enough of the pondering and self-doubt because despite all this I can tentatively declare that this has probably one of the best summers (so far) I have had in a long time. So far it has passed with a few very minor and debatable hiccups, most of which are in the form of young, male humanoids and non-exsistent trips to Melbourne.

My birthday turned out pretty well too. My sister and I ended up going out for coffee with a few friends which, of course turned into a huge gossip/ catch up session and ended with them staying for ages and having a pizza dinner.

Another good thing about yesterday was that I was informed that I have recieved an offer for
Arts at UWA. Yay! Here's hoping that it was worth the pain.

How have you all been lately? None of you are blogging!

She's So...

It would be futile to attempt to explain why I haven't posted a blog is so long because I have no real reason for the absence of blog posting. Nor can I pretend that I can somehow go back and ammend that error. This being the case, my dear readers, I am sure that we shall have to blaze on forward and simply dimiss all and any (if any) distress that was caused by my lack of updating.

That being said... Welcome to 2010 dear readers! We can only hope that it'll be more awesome than last year.

I hope everyone had a good New Years. I know I did. In fact, so far 2010 had gone quite swimmingly for me. It's included a lot of hanging out with the awesome people I call my friends even meeting a couple of new people. Even working on New Years day was ok because I got paid holidays rates (for once).

Now for a more specific anecdote and some shameless plugging! YAY! So on Saturday I went to see my friend's band Screaming Life launch they're new EP. It was an excellent show they're quite a good band, listen to their music at www.myspace.com/screaminglife (why haven't you clicked on the link yet? CLICK IT NOW). It was a fun night despite the fact that I left too early to go "party with the band" afterwards *grumble*.

It's my birthday soon! Well, in ten days. We're having an epic party for it which will hopefully be wicked.

I have nothing further too report. I'm sorry for the sporadic blog post!

As the cool kids say,

PEACE