Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!!

I've been so neglectful of you, dearest blog readers and fellow Elftowners lately... I just haven't been on Elftown at all. Now, I know the fault isn't entirely mine... well, actually the fault isn't at all mine. It's shared between work (I'm working five days a week now) and Nook (stupid Nook, being so addictive!). So the ET valentine's poem and art contests haven't been entered yet, nor have any banners been made or messages replied to. But I'm working on it!

In other news, Australia Day did, in fact, kick ass... [MisterScurvy], [Man With Stick] and [damn_deleted] came over, and so did my auntie Woo. Of course, [Nebsy] and the parents were there too! We ate lamingtons, Anzac biscuits, vegemite and cheese pita pieces (Woo made them), meat pies and salad, and we drank Rumba ($9) and Butterscotch schnapps ($13). You gotta love the cheap grog.
We played celebrity heads and uno, and watched Lady in the Water, which, might I add was better than I'd expected. So, a good night was had by all! (... Either that, or they're all very good actors.)

Something else awesome is coming up too... on the 18th of Feb, me, Nebs and the boys are going away on holiday to Nepean Country Club (somewhere near Rosebud or "The Penninsula", wherever that is), and staying till the 23rd. It'll be our first parent-free holiday!! The resort looks awesome too... not too far from the beach, indoor and outdoor pool, tennis courts, golf course, ducks and geese to feed... oh, it's going to be BRILL!!! Now all I have to do is not break any bones or get sick until then. *Sits very still and twiddles thumbs*.

My previously mentioned flash animation for Writer's Block (the poem) is coming along well... the photo-taking part is more than half finished... leaving only about 30 more photos to get. *Sigh*... I didn't realise it was such a big project. Oh well, next stop, the meat shop, to buy a lamb's heart. Oh yes, there will be a lamb's heart in it. (But don't worry kiddies; it's meant to be a human heart!)

Gettin' Some Nookie

When a man and a woman love each other very, very much, they get married! And on their wedding night they go to bed together and close the curtains and have an extra special cuddle, involving many rusty trombones, angry pirates, frozen freight trains, vulcan shockers and strawberry shortcakes.*

Well, that's probably what you thought when you read the title of today's blog entry... and I hate to disappoint you, but that wasn't the Nookie I was referring to, oh no. I was referring instead to Nook (www.nook.com.au). Basically, it's this awesome website for Melburnians / Victorians, where you can post (e.g. a blog entry or whatever), review a business, or ask a question. All posts, reviews and questions go up on a big communal noticeboard, where other Nooksters can answer or comment on them. It's surprisingly addictive, being able to help total strangers with their problems, especially when one knows that there's an iPod Nano competition where the more you post and comment, the more likely you are to win. So, yeah, I've been getting quite a bit of Nookie lately.

In other news...

Ahhhh, finally, [Nebsy] and I got our much-awaited visit to The Queen Vic Market. And oh, it was fantastic. We spent the day on pretty much a diet of ice cream and donuts, which fuelled the hours of non-stop walking, shopping, and staring open-mouthed at the weird and wonderful things that one only sees at a market in the city (they have a stall that stocks Alchemy jewellery!). The price range of everything was towards the lower end of what you'd find at a mall (fewer big brand shops) but on the down side there were less discount racks, so in the end most of the stuff I liked fell outside my price range anyway. *Sigh*. Nonetheless, Nebsy did do an awesome job of haggling for a handbag she wanted there, and got it for $15 instead of $20. After that, we kept shopping, and went to Melbourne Central (this seemingly underground, windowless shopping centre with big, bright advertisements anywhere you want to look). After getting some free samples of delicious, different liqueurs, we did find a good jewellery shop, and got 2 pairs of earrings for Nebs and a silver (or at least metal) necklace for me for $3.30 each. Bargain!!

In other (actual) news...

Well, wrap yourself up in an Aussie flag, because they're the new badass attire these days... they were thinking of banning Aussie flags from the Big Day Out (a music festival) in Sydney! Wow! That puts our seemingly boring flag, (complete with its union jack and non-green-and-gold colour scheme) right up there with drugs, alcohol and weapons! Because it's just THAT cool!!
Speaking of patriotism, it's Australia Day on Friday... ahhh, any excuse to celebrate... Nebs and I are planning what we should do... [MisterScurvy], prepare to be contacted!

*Confused? www.urbandictionary.com will help you out on the terminology.

But We Don't Drop

Despite cruel fate's best efforts to conspire against our shopping trip to the Queen Vic market, not all was lost! Granted, our intended Market Day was 36 degrees, but clever Nebsy worked out how we could still go shopping... Go to Chadstone! (It's this really big shopping mall, known as the "fashion capital"). So, thanks to Nebsy's bus timetable arranging skills, we hauled ass to Chaddy today, to escape the heat and shop 'til we drop in air-conditioned comfort. And oh, what a wonderful day. Not that Chaddy's a particularly better shopping centre than Eastland (where we usually go), mainly due to the fact that it is cruelly expensive, but it was just nice to shop outside of our natural habitat. Needles to say, we didn't buy much there (well, Nebs got a pair of thongs), but spent hours just mall-ratting around looking at stuff, including a delightful visit to Toys 'R' Us and several delightful visits to the food court. Once we'd "done" Chadstone, we hopped back on the bus home, but instead went to The Glen (another shopping centre, near where I go to uni) for more shopping! And, through some joyous bloodclot-to-the-brain (stroke) of good luck, I managed to get a fairly decent haircut for $18 from a student hairdresser. Yeaaah!! So now my hair is significantly shorter and a bit layered looking, but cleverly sidestepping any emoness... think of a curlier, girlier version of Android #17 from Dragonball Z. And while we were at The Glen, I got some new black and purple socks and a matching purple ribbon. What an awesome day.

Hmmm... I feel so guilty for having blathered on about myself and how happy I am for the last 260-odd words that I feel almost obligated to put in something miserable just to balance out the sickly sweetness that no one, and I mean no one, expects or wants to find in a blog.

*Thinks*

"Sometimes dogs get so hungry that they eat their own tails! Isn't that great?"
- Saddy Dumpington, "A Folky Tale", Homestar Runner.

Heh... you wish that was all the news I have!
I suppose I should tell everyone now... for the last week or two I've been slowly working on a flash animation... It's going to be me reading one of my poems (Writer's Block, see below) aloud, with background music (thanks to Justin R. Durban of www.edgen.com/music), and appropriate photos flashing up on the screen. Right now I'm just amassing photos, which is proving to be great fun... so far I've got many photos of my hands, a cemetery and a disgusting bleeding eye that I created with fake blood). Don't worry, less-creepy ones will follow... eventually.


Well, I guess this counts for a second dose of "misery" in this blog entry... enjoy!

Writer's Block and Thinker's Block

Writer's block and thinker's block
So the good can start, the great must stop
I scream all the words I've always said
I press all the buttons but they're dead
All the things I'm all about...
I'm locked down but still locked out
And despite all my futile hoping
I turn the handle, but the door won't open

So I can breathe, I must not eat
So I can live, I must not sleep
So I can walk, I must not stand
So I can reach, I cut off my hands

Choose the sun, and get no rain
Choose to be numb and feel no pain
Choose to be blind and hear no sound
Choose to be wise, and turn around

Cold stone body and warm stone heart
So the worse can stop, the bad must start
I have the wings, but still can't fly
I have the shell, but no insides
All the things I'm all about...
That never fell to fire, flood or doubt
Are gone so I can keep on dreaming
Dreams with no words, and much less meaning.


... And, hopefully Nebsy's day off next week can be Market Day! :D

Everybody In The House Gettin' Tipsy

Gin + Tonic + Parents = Finding out how cool your parents were when they were your age.

In other news... the Week of Work is almost over... only one more day... hopefully soon Nebsy and I can go shopping at Vic Market in the city (I mentioned we were going before; sadly we didn't go because Worky McWorkwork (Nebsy) got called in to work.) YEEAAAAH!!!

Rapping Up The Year

[Nebsy] got us the new Swollen Members album "Black Magic"... and oh boy, what a great album... if anyone out there reading this appreciates rap, then you gotta listen to this. They rap to the music of "Pressure" by Billy Joel! They have songs called Prisoner of Doom, Torture, Dark Clouds, Sinister and Massacre! So different to how most rappers will just talk about money, sex, drugs or guns (not that I have a problem with that formula either!) But oh boy, whether or not they up on top (which they are), Swollen Members rock. And apparently they'll have a new album out in the summer of '07! Yeeaaah!!

Something I forgot to mention in my last blog entry was, *drumroll*, Nebsy's hair... I did tell you that she was going to go blonde, right? Well, my mum and I worked on blondening the Nebs, but despite our best efforts, her hair somehow still managed to go bright yellow. Fortunately, Nebs was able to go to the hairdressers and get them to fix it, which was a little unnerving at the time considering the hairdresser who did it had pink tufts sticking out from under a hat that she wore indoors... but all turned out well, so now Nebbers has slightly lighter and redder hair that her usual colour, and it looks jolly awesome. After all, redheads look great! *Winks at [Man With Stick]*.

Anyway, so it appears that 2006 is almost over, which, combined with the fact that I don't have work today, means that you'll be reading my obligatory wrap-up of the year... I'll try and make it different to last year's, I promise...

Ahhh, 2006, the year of MySpace rip-off websites, celebrity babies and that awful blue colour of clothing; a year without any Bali Bombings, another year under Howard/Blair/Bush and the year in which, despite all the wars going on at the moment, the entire world was united in the universal opinion that Justin Timberlake was not, in fact, bringing sexy "back"...

All in all this year has been "weird" in terms of whether or not it was a good year. I'm tempted to say it was all happy smiling daisies growing in the land of talking animals and rainbows because that just so happens to be where I am now, but in all honesty, the first half of the year - with the exception of the many joyous hours I spent RPing in Decay - was pretty crapful. "The Man With The Blowtorch And The Man With The Pliers" (depression) came knocking on my door after Prince Charming went crazy and I swore off online dating... but "The Man With The Stick and The Man With The Brilliant Mind, Beautiful Smile And Red Hair" (Andrew) came knocking on my door after I swore ("Frack it!") and went back on online dating. So the good balanced out the bad in the end.

Some of the other smaller but still awesome things that happened this year were...
- I made my first Flash animation, "I'm A Rapper".
- I was employed all year! I didn't even get a little bit fired!
- Nebs and I enjoyed the wonders of role playing in [lacklustre]'s post-apocalyptic RP Decay.
- My poetry folder expanded by more than 140 poems.
- I developed a wonderful addiction to Wikipedia... I use it almost at least once a day now...
- My wardrobe continued its descent into an abyss of total blackness (and occasional greyness), and so did my hair! (...Fortunately not the greyness, not yet anyway). I was unsure at first, but dyeing my hair was one of the best decisions I made this year.
- My marks at uni continued their descent into an abyss of total blackness too... before being rescued by the motivation to do homework known as Andrew, and returning to normal!
- [hannes] went to America to meet [pelv13]... I know it's not something that happened to me, but it is amazing to see these two good friends of mine finally meet up. Good luck guys!
- I started being more active on Elftown and acquring badges from entering the competitions.
- I gained an appreciation for what I had previously written off as "boy music", that is, metal, by listening to popular groups like Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir.
- My stomach problems were almost entirely fixed thanks to a wonderful little friend called Gastro Stop.
- [Nebsy] happened. In fact, Nebsy never stops happening.

Some of the other less awesome things that happened this year were...
- I got 54% on a test at uni.
- I watched someone lose their mind ("Prince Charming").
- I had to break up with a poor guy because I realised he wasn't right for me ("Mr Nice Guy").
- I found out the hard way that neither Luvox or Lexapro do diddly squat.
- Nebsy somehow lost weight.
- The camera batteries started to crack up.
- Ummm.... that's about it really... oh wait...
- One day at work I found an open packet of chicken fillets with one partially pulled out of the plastic and a bite missing from it.

And so yeah, that's pretty much the year... But what do I hope for 2007?
- Easier uni subjects and less homework!!
- Another year with Andrew!
- Another year employed at the meat shop.
- To perhaps sometime see some sort of live music or go to a nightclub.
- To never have to wear anything but black unless I actually want to.
- To not be so horribly lonely at uni.
- More time to be able to help my mum.
- For Nebs to put her weight back on and be able to keep warm again.
- And many, many more and better poems and pictures.

Well, thanks for your patience with my ego-ravings... and may your 2007 also be fantasteriffic! Happy New Year! (Don't get too drunk!*)

*Just kidding. Get too drunk. I know I will be! (Many thanks to my parents for the Melon Liqueur from Aldi... Go out and buy, people! It's one third the price of Midori for the same stuff!!)

Very Merry Indeed

That's right folks, I've been stumbling around in a stupor of constant irrepressible delight for the last few days which culminated in the wonderful celebration that we know as Christmas, and shows no signs of abating. Christmas was awesome! We had 7 people there, including [Man With Stick]! The food was wonderful, and so were the presents! This year's line up includes a mobile phone (from the parents), a black case for said mobile phone (from [Nebsy]), a gorgeous necklace and matching earrings AND a box of chocolates (from [Man With Stick]), a DVD of our holiday to Kyneton earlier this year (from [damn_deleted]), a gift voucher (from my auntie Woo), a keyring and MORE chocolates (from Andrew's parents), and various food-related presents to share with my stick-bearing man from his family. So, needles (yes, needles) to say, I was very happy with this year's "haul". Anyway, after having Christmas Dinner (lunch, really, but we call it Christmas dinner) and opening presents, Andrew and I went to his family's Christmas dinner, which was also delicious, especially the desserts! Oh, so much food. So all in all, a wonderful, wonderful day, and I continue to love Christmas for another year! :D

And, speaking of my love for Christmas, I won the Christmas Poetry Competition!! Won it! (Well, okay, I was one of five winners). Despite the fact that the theme was snow, which I have no clue about what with the whole living-in-the-best-country-in-the-world thing, I still managed to write something halfway decent. And by "halfway decent", I mean sappier and cornier than a corn cob covered in sap, tightly clutched in the twig-hand of a cheerful talking snowman with a chorus of woodland animals gathered around it singing Christmas carols. *Shudders at own sellout-ness*... Anyway, enjoy:


No Snow

There's no blanket of white powder, no snowmen or snowball fights
There's no catching snowflakes on our tongues or chilly Christmas nights
But there's also no stopping Christmas, nor Santa and his sleigh
For the scorching heat of Down Under won't scare Kris Kringle away

There might not be crisp and frosty flakes, not a mitten on a single hand
And snow might be a distant concept that we don't really understand
We might not be drinking eggnog, instead replacing it with beer
But it doesn't stop the Christmas spirit, the carols or the cheer

There's no ice-skating children, for our lakes don't ever freeze
And no icicles are hanging from our eucalyptus trees
But the sound of reindeer hooves on the tin roof let us know
That Christmas doesn't stop simply because there's no snow.


Ahh, good to have you back from your diabetic comas after all those empty calories of sickly sweetness! In other news, I've made "first contact"... that is, got my first pair of contact lenses. They're quite comfortable, and I seem to have gotten the hang of putting them in and out, but wearing them has made me realise two things... 1. My terrible eyesight really isn't all that bad... or at least not bad enough to force my mum to fork out over $200 every six months for contact lenses, and 2. Oh boy, I really do wear too much eyeliner and it looks a lot worse than I thought. I just didn't know it looked so bad, because one metre away from the mirror, the half a centimetre of stark, black cracked-looking eyeliner appears to just blend into the skin. Curse my shoddy eyes for tricking me for so long!

Anyway, now that I've purchased a new and much better eyeliner pen, Nebsy and I are heading cityward tomorrow for our much-awaited shopping trip into the Queen Vic Market. Yeeeeaaaah!!!

I'm A Big Phoney After All...

Alright, alright, I must eat humble pie on this occasion; Alexander Graham Bell, I am truly sorry for all the cruel things I said about your invention, the telephone... I'm very sorry for the numerous occasions on which I complained about the phone, cursed the phone, or put my head in my hands, wailed and rolled my eyes back in my head with sheer abiding woe upon hearing the ringing of the phone for the millionth unwelcome time that day... because now, after doing battle with said phone for so long, I feel it is time to make peace. But why, you ask? Ahhh, here is the best part... My parents bought me a brand spankin' new mobile phone!!! Yeaaaah!! (And, of course, they bought [Nebsy] one too!) Oh, it takes pictures! It plays mp3s! It can connect to the computer! Oh, it's an absolute marvel of a creature, so much bigger and better than my old phone (which, might I add, has served me well these last two years). The only downside to it is that it's white, but I made a black phone jewellery thing for it - complete with rubber spider - so that it looks better. Anyway, I had best not continue blathering on about how fantastic my new phone is in case I cause the readers to turn up their toes and die from pure envy. Hehe. Boy it's a good phone.

Anyway, in other news! Christmas is approaching, bearing down on us like an avalanche of food, presents and holiday cheer... I have to get Nebs a present, but other than that all my shopping's done. Hopefully I'll get a sleighload of extra work in the days leading up to Christmas.

Another random piece of news... that rifle toting, rapping clone of mine (Nebs) is going BLONDE this week. Blonde!! She's done the test strand and all... so, hopefully sometime on Wednesday, myself and my mum will help Nebs take 50 points off her IQ by giving her hair euthanasia (helping it to dye). Also, today Nebs dyed my hair back to black... the world is now a better place without my contribution of two and a half centimetres of mouse-brown regrowth. <:3 )~~~

My ever-enchanting [Man With Stick] took me to see Eragon recently... and, all you Elftowners, if you haven't already seen it, go see it! That movie was awesome. And I'm sure I'm not the only one who noticed that Durza (the evil magic guy) just happened to look like a redheaded version of Dani Filth (from Cradle of Filth), complete with eerie pale blue eyes, (though with less makeup)... judge for yourself...

Durza
http://www.starpulse.com/Movies/Eragon/gallery/ERAGONMOVIE008/
http://www.starpulse.com/Movies/Eragon/gallery/ERAGONMOVIE016/

Dani
http://www.angelfire.com/in2/Vampyres/danigallery6.html

Anywhoa, I've prattled enough... whoever you are who has been so patient as to read through this entire blog entry (especially the inane comparisons of the appearance of movie characters with music people), then you thoroughly deserve...

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Party People
_{WARNING: If you really don't care about Australian Politics, you might want to not read this blog entry, despite the witticisms that you will be missing out on.}

Woohooo!!! Another four years of advancement, progress and prosperity under a Bracks Labor state government. And I can proudly say that I did my bit! The kind and ever-patient-with-other-people's-lame-political-causes [Man With Stick] and I handed out how-to-vote (Labor, of course) cards at the election, and I tell you what, it was FUN! I didn't think I would enjoy it so much, but it was really good - smiling at all the annoyed voters trying to make their way to the polling booth without armfuls of propaganda, talking and just generally basking in Andrew's glow... and, of course, giving everyone who attended our polling booth between three-thirty and six The Chance To Vote Labor.

After that, we went inside and scrutineered, that is, watched the voties being counted. It was interesting, not too time-consuming, and had a much more friendly atmosphere than I'd thought it would have. And after that, we went to Anne Eckstein (MP for Ferntree Gully)'s office to sit around, eating and drinking and watching the election coverage on telly.

Well, I guess the bad news has to happen sometime - although Labor won the election, Peter Lockwood, the current Labor MP ruling my electorate (Bayswater) lost... so now we are stuck with (prepare for the name) "Heidi Victoria". No joke, that's her name. I ask you, why not just go the whole hog and name yourself "Wonderwoman Australia" or "Cleopatra Melbourne"... sheesh. Also, Anne Eckstein, the awesome MP who comes along to the Boronia ALP branch meetings is probably still in "electoral purgatory"... as you can see from the Victorian Electoral Commission website (http://www.vec.vic.gov.au/closestseats.html), she is locked in the absolute closest possible battle to the death with her Liberal arch-nemesis, Nick Wakeling. Carn Anne!! Yeaah! You can win!! (At the time of writing this, she is ahead by 0.1%).

Also, at a federal level, we have a new Labor Party leader... Kevin Rudd! (With his cool deputy Julia Gillard). Much as Kim Beazley is a clever guy, a good politician and a formidable leader of the party, he just isn't as cool as the Rudd-Gillard team... on the The Age newspaper online poll that I just did, of the 6643 people who voted on the poll, 76% say that Kevin Rudd can defeat Little Johnny Howard at the next election! Boo-yah!!

In other, non-boring-and-confusing-Australian-political-nonsense-related news, did I mention that [Man With Stick] was great? The wonderful heaven-sent blessing that we call "summer holidays" means that I've been able to see my stick-bearing man more than once a week! Last week we went to the beach... THE BEACH!! I can't even remember the last time I went swimming at the beach... (> 4 years I think)... until last Tuesday when Andrew got the day off work and we went! It was such a wonderful day. Also we saw Saw 3, which was very scary and cool. But I know there's nothing worse than a bragging blog entry, so I won't go on... but oh man, my Andrew, he is awesome.

Living in Gumdrop House on Lollypop Lane

Yes, I am beset by happy happenings lately... the wonderful (and gorgeous!) [Man With Stick] (that's Andrew... YES, he joined Elftown!!) gave me a present to celebrate uni finishing for the year - The Sims 2 University! Now I know for sure I won't miss going to uni because I'll still sort of be at uni! ... And you think that's good? Multiply it by about 75, because that's the number of CDs of games that the aforementioned [Man With Stick] has lent me and [Nebsy]!! Games! Games out the wazoo! Including Unreal Tournament 2004, System Shock II, Age of Empires II, Baldur's Gate (original!), Icewind Dale, Half Life, and millions more. Oh boy, am I ever a happy Yoss lately.

In other fantasteriffic news, I have been doing all the things I said I'd do in my last blog entry... baking hundreds of shortbreads, writing poems, chatting (not enough! Sorry!), doing a bit of extra work, and, of course, shopping. And oh, how good it was to go shopping. I at last got a belt that I'd been wanting for a few months and needing for even longer. So it looks like Her Majesty Queen Perpetual Ass Crack's reign has come to an end! ( Y ) Also, Nebs and I have been able to go to church on Wednesday now that uni's out... we are usually the youngest ones there, by about 30 years. o.0 Also I've been entering a few Elftown competitions... the portrait contest and the mood icon contest! Boy, I hope I win SOMETHING at last. Also, I've helped to make Elftown a better place! No, I haven't ridded this sweet town of the cruel and undemocratic wiki-ratings, but I have made comments on diary entries more see-able by making a suggestions in the *gasp* suggestions forum! Aaaah! A forum! So next time you leave a comment on someone's diary entry in their guestbook, there'll be a little button that says "show comments" under the diary entry. Aren't I just the best? *batts eyelashes*

The Victorian State Election is on this Saturday... Andrew will also be handing out how-to-vote cards and watching the vote count. Boy, I hope we win. How can Labor not win? Look at all the wonderful things they've done for our state.

And remember, my good tlhIngan Hol-speaking (Klingon-speaking) friends residing in Victoria...

nepmey Dujatlh Ted'a' Davoqbe'
woQ bInobbe' ghom Liberal
pISaH ghom Labor

(Big Ted speaks lies to you, don't trust him, don't give the Liberal Party political power, the Labor Party cares about you.)

_{I just had to use those somewhere...}

YEAH!!

Putting the 'Dying' back in 'Studying'!
_{Today we'll be learning about paragraph linkage in a bid to make my blog more educational!}

Yep, I've been reading lector notes and writing deathinitions... aaaand that's all I've got in terms of both-horror-and-study themed words. But yeah, my guzams are on the 8th and 9th of November, so it's really cram-time for Chaos considering I missed a few lectures and didn't do any of the reading. *Sigh*. Fortunately, the study is going well, albeit punctuated by dates with Andrew, Neopets flash games, occasional poems and downloading stacks of music.

Which, demonstrating paragraph linkage brings me to my next point... my absence from MSN. Yes, I know I've been very bad... "How can she have time for ET and blog, dates, Neopets flash games, poems and music, and yet not have time to chat to me?" I hear you ask. Well, the answer is quite simple. For one thing, the "breaks" I have from study (which I use for the above mentioned pursuits, except dates of course) are rarely longer than 20 minutes. Thus it would be one of those "hello-goodbye" chats, in which the other person treads on the Nail of Offense no matter how I have tried to hammer it safely into the Plank of Genuine Excuses. Also (I hypothesise here) due to what seems like the entire works of every band ever to exist taking up residence on my computer, my internet is doing what it and drug-addicted uni students do best - dropping out. Which makes MSN chats hard, as every time it does this, it signs me out of MSN. And now with guzams poised to strike (and my aforementioned laziness in keeping up to date with lectures and reading) I have to spend every spare minute studying. Sorry! Unless the evil forces known as Work commandeer me after guzams, I should be on MSN more often then.

And now, demonstrating no paragraph linkage whatsoever, I should take this moment to brag about the fact that me, Andrew, [Nebsy] and [damn_deleted] went to see The Dudesons ("Who?" you ask? Put simply: Finnish Jackass) movie yesterday in the city, and it was great. There were 2 actual Dudesons there too! I gave the movie 4 stars out of 5... Good, but not as good as Jackass... the movie had a more retrospective feel to it ("we did this stunt" instead of "we're doing this stunt"), and although it was nice they introduced all four Dudesons, I couldn't for the life of me tell them apart. It also didn't help they all have names starting with J. Still, great movie, cool stunts, very funny. See clips of them doing stunts from the movie at www.dudesons.com.

Well, speaking of painful and extreme stunts (and thus demonstrating paragraph linkage) I must get back to the study and continue reading psych lectures. I'm learning about knowledge representation... oh, why do I keep procrastinating? Must study. Must study… must study is an interesting phrase that connotes urgency in it’s two-word structure. The repetition of it in this context… *hits self over head with keyboard*.

Feelin' Patriotic

Nebs and I have just made over sixty Anzac biscuits! :D For all those unfamiliar with the deliciousness that is Anzac biscuits, Anzac stands for Australia and New Zealand Army Corps, and by biscuits we mean cookies. Basically these big, flat, deliciously sweet biscuits made with oats and golden syrup. (Wikipedia it if you want the recipe!) And of course, as one usually feels after making one of the three Australian sweet recipes (pavlova, lamingtons or Anzacs) I'm feeling just a little patriotic.

It is nice to take a moment to reflect on just how awesome Australia actually is... (something I sadly didn't realise until I became online friends with Americans. Oooh, sorry!). We have free doctors, interest free student loans, kick-ass cool animals and brill scenery. Summer is long and good, winter isn't that wintery and no matter where you live here, there's always some sort of a beach (unless you live in, like, the outback). We have cool accents. We have multiculturalism. We have national identity. We have thongs. We have Nick Cave. We have footy, Vegemite, shark-teeth necklaces and almost constant barbecues. Granted we might also have a John Howard here and there, an Amanda Vanstone or two and the occasional Shane Warne, but at the end of the day, Australia rocks. Now I'm not saying that there aren't other countries out there that rock too... America has a half decent movie industry, the Netherlands has pot, Japan has anime, Canada has gay marriage and Finland has free university... but I'm just saying that to me, no other country could ever be as cool as Australia.

And on that note, I must go and eat more Anzac biscuits... oh, I feel more like I'm in the trenches with every bite!

Woe Is Not Me

Nebs dyed my hair black! Black as the ace of spades! Permanent, too! But woe is most definitely not me, oh no. Unless by woe you mean indescribable happiness! :D

Where to start, where to start... Well, Kyneton was rockingly awesometacular. The three days Andrew and Pezza were on holiday with us were great - we walked, went swimming and spa-ing (especially spa-ing), went to Bendigo, played Uno and Scrabble together (with our good friend Mister Al Cohol), went canoeing, chased ducks, and lots of other stuff! And then when The Boys™ went home, Nebs and I totally overdosed on the exercise. We swam 30 laps twice, went bike riding, walked into town from the resort (which is a few km's), built another cubby, played minigolf and went shopping. Here's a photygraph of me and me hearties sailin' the high seas of the lake at the resort. Arrr!


(Left to right: Pezza, Nebsy, Andrew, me.)

And then on the day we came home from Kyneton, Andrew and I went to his friend's birthday party, and then the day after that we went to the Show (for all you non-Melburnians, that is the Royal Melbourne Show, where "the country comes to the city", and they have rides, food, showbags, stalls, animals on display, farm-related stuff and music and events). We went on some great rides and saw heaps of cute, cute, cute animals. I bought a Cadbury Chockettes showbag to share with Nebs. It was all in all just an awesome, wonderful day... although it seems like every day with Andrew is a wonderful day.

And since then? Well, as you can probably tell from my absence from Elftown / absence from MSN / the absence of replies to any emails you've sent me, I've been busy catching up on all the homework I couldn't do while I was on holiday. Today I finished a lab report worth 30% of my Psychology mark, and Nebs and I had a nice day wandering around Monash Uni since I went in on my day off to hand it in.

Also, dearest readers, I hate to brag (well, okay, I love to brag), but I recently finished the official best picture I've ever actually drawn in photoshop... it's a picture of my ET house, that is, if it were really a building, for the ET house art competition, and it took absolutely freaking ages. Fortunately the result was worth it, but the problem with ET contests is that no matter how good you are, there's always going to be someone either better at art than you, or with a big fat expensive graphics tablet and thousands of dollars worth of imaging software. *Sighs* Woe is me after all. But still, wrap your eyes around this!


(Click to enlarge)

So what's on the agenda for the next few weeks? Finishing the last few classes of the year at uni, finishing an essay, and then studying harder than a concrete soccer ball for my exams. But, more importantly, lots more Andrew Time! *Joy!*

SPRING BREAK!!!

Yes, I'm well aware that we don't actually call it "spring break" in Australia... it's the "mid-semester holidays", but I thought "SPRING BREAK!!!" more accurately describes how cool these holidays are going to be.
Tomorrow [Nebsy], I and our mum are going away on holiday, for a whole wonderful week, to Kyneton Bushland Resort. Oh, it's a glorious heaven of a place... we go there every year, and I never get sick of it. For those who haven't already been bombarded with plugs to this page, you can see the "bushland" part of the resort at Cubby Building. But this isn't just any ordinary holiday... [damn_deleted] is coming up with us tomorrow, and tomorrow night, my wonderful Andrew will be joining us! The Boys™ as they shall henceforth be known, will be with us from Friday night to sometime on Monday! :D Ohhh, it's going to be awesome. And to compound the coolness, my mum has somehow got a hold of a digital video camera, so as soon as one of us grows the nouse to actually read how to make it work, we'll have video footage of our brilltastical holiday.

The down side to this joyous getaway amongst kangaroos, possums, trees and free pool and spa, is that I lose the whole one-week break from uni, the week that most people spend solidly doing their homework. So this kind of explains why I haven't been on Elftown or MSN much lately, it's because I've been trying to cram a week's worth of homework into the few spare minutes I can scrounge between uni, work, dates, TV, food and constant phone calls. So, *looks around accusingly, finger raised in condemnation* if you're somehow still offended by my absence, and stupid enough to let me know, then you'll get yours in the form of a semi-cryptic, hilarious poem uploaded onto ET that takes the mickey out of all your bad points. *Nods conclusively*.
(And I should probably mention that the fact that I'm going on holiday for a week means that I'm actually not going to be on ET or MSN for a week. So if you send me a message tomorrow, it's not going to get replied to for at least a week. Just in case anyone was unclear on that point.)

Aside from doing everything in my power to get ready for the wondrous holiday, Nebs and I went shopping... oh it was good, I got some new clothes and makeup at last. And might I take this moment to complain about the clothing colours that are currently "in" for girls... that awful blue colour, paired with red and white... gross. You'd want to run the clothes up a flagpole, not wear them. Needless to say everything I bought was black! :D Also, I've been enjoying some wonderful dates with Andrew... he really is amazing. Last weekend we went to Geelong, and it was great... I haven't been there for about a year, and it was really nice. I made a panorama out of photos I took! Have a look-see...



Anyway, cheerio for now, I'll be back with great stories of the immense fun that happened on the holiday! :D

Good News Everyone!

Grrr, damn me for writing such a witty blog entry last time! How can I match up to that many metaphors?
Anyway, in keeping with the title, I have a long list of good news, longer than the wait on a junior burger at McDonalds! So we'll start with the least-cool news...

My Grandpa died. Now, while that's not usually good news, to be fair, he was 85, had lived a long, full life, died a quick and painless death (much better than months of suffering in hospital) and was a widower. But wait, I'm getting to the good bit. He was an absolute chocoholic and junk food junkie. And one can't have all that chocolate and various other wonderful foods just going to waste, now can one? So, needless to say, our family has "inherited" a rather large quantity of various sweet food... two packets of chocolate-coated icecreams, two tubs of gourmet icecream (one chocolate, one caramel fudge), two bags of Maltesers, a packet of shortbread, a bottle of maple syrup (and not the crummy stuff either, the good stuff, made in actual Canada), some hot chocolate drink making stuff and a jar of mint jelly. And a few bottles of grog. But who knows, maybe there is more? As [Nebsy] so tactfully put it, "I don't usually like to compare someone's death to Christmas... but MERRY CHRISTMAS!!"

In other good news...

Futurama's on telly... five days a week! Ohh, it's glorious... so much TV! Also my "artism" has kicked in, and I've been writing a few poems, and working on my entry for the Elftown Desktop Design Contest (theme: forest). Also, the other day while I was wandering randomly down a corridor in the Biology and Psychology building at uni, I discovered tank upon tank of pretty, tropical fish and little green frogs. Oh yes, they have a date with my camera on Thursday, yes they do. Speaking of uni, it's been chugging along as normal... today I did a talk on online dating for Sociology, and, if I may say so myself, I rather pwned it good. It was a group talk, and all my group were super good too, and well prepared! Possibly the nicest group I've ever worked with. And boy, it was fun to talk about something I know heaps of stuff about. Good ol' online dating... which brings me to my next point...

ANDREW!! The wonderful, wonderful man I mentioned in my last blog entry (quite immaturely using a KFC chicken metaphor to describe his coolness, sorry about that!) and I are now officially a couple... we've had some awesome dates with lots of fun activities, including a picnic in the hills, seeing Kenny (a brill movie if you like toilet humour, which I do), having dinner at each other's places, going to Scienceworks with [Nebsy] and [damn_deleted] and the thing I liked best, going for a walk to the national park near his house at night. It was absolutely magical. Andrew really is awesome, good looking, patient, so sweet and romantic, but at the same time funny and clever. Basically everything I could ever hope for, with no drawbacks. I haven't cried in weeks, no fooling, weeks.

At Last, A Blog Entry

Ohh, my poor neglected readers, I'm sorry for such a long wait... if you were hanging on my every word, then you'd have starved to death right beside the gallows by now!
Hehe... that's pretty good...

Anyway, yes, at last I have time to write a bit of blog... albeit at the expense of writing emails and messages I should have done a week ago, but I have a few legitimate excuses, such as those crap-lousy dunderheads at Telstra fracking up our internet for a few days when they went messing around with the wires in the street outside. Many thanks to Brilliantness Incarnate ([Nebsy]) for spending the hour or more on the phone that actually got those morons to rock up and fix the fruits of their own idiocy! Blah, no wonder Telstra shares aren't worth their weight in rotten orange peel. Ohh, it feels good to have a nice little rant not related to the works of the ET council.

Speaking of not being mad at the ET council, they actually approved my contributions to ET graphics! :D I'm an ET graphics artist!! And I swear, totally honest, I didn't just do it for the badge. I've fixed the welcome mats they didn't approve ready to be resubmitted when next I can be bothered, and I made a few new graphics. Once I've got enough, I'mma submit 'em good!

Sooo... what've I been up to lately? Well, enjoying my single status as much as one enjoys scabies... no, scratch that (bad pun), as much as one enjoys terminal cancer. Although it looks like the radiotherapy (RSVP.com.au) has sent the cancer into remission, if I may be a little optimistic here. I have been on a date with a very nice guy, and I don't want to count my chickens before they hatch, but it looks like I have a full bucket of drumsticks complete with eleven secret herbs and spices! (For those having trouble with the stretched metaphors, I mean he is super nice, great looking and seems to like me!)

I've also been doing homework, and, might I add, doing a pretty darn good job of it too. But for the sake of not having a Hubris, I should probably add something about how badly I get pwned by each and every genetics lab class. Which reminds me I have a week's worth of lecture notes to finally download and print (thanks a lot, Telstra).
Aside from homework and radiotherapy for the Single Cancer, I've been playing quite a bit of Sims 2, mainly because the internet's been down. My sim (a family sim, of course) had a kid called Tabitha who was a real ho-bag (a romance sim), and she begat Tarquin, this totally gay popularity sim. He must be the happiest sim of all time, I swear, his aspiration meter hasn't left Gold or Platinum mood since he became a teenager. He has about 4 boyfriends and 2 girlfriends!
Anyway, what am I thinking, you don't want to know about my boring sims! I'd better get back to writing emails... right after I've downloaded those lecture notes... but first a quick game on The Sims...

Salad Fingers!

Here is the pic of me, with black hair, as promised...



Cool, huh? Of course, the colour has already started to wash out... but hopefully sometime I can dye it permanently black.

Anyway, I'll bet you're wondering what's with the title of today's diary entry! Well, I'll tell you... Salad Fingers is the name of a fantastically awesome flash cartoon. It is post-apocalyptic, just like Decay, and it's main character is a ghoul (well, I am guessing so) just like Skirath! Except he's kind of... different... oh, but you'll just love him! Enough from me, make up your own mind! Watch all seven episodes of the wonderful Salad Fingers here:
http://www.fat-pie.com/flash.htm

Go, now!!

Black is the new light brown

So much news, so little time. Where to begin... aha, at the start.

Well, I broke up with Mr Nice Guy... almost a week ago. Poor guy was real upset... but I was super nice about it. I even gave back the stuff he gave me, and insisted he take it, and I gave him the present I had for him... so I've been extra good. It is a weight off my conscience. Then, afterwards to cheer myself up, me and [Nebsy] and [damn_deleted] went and saw Pirates 2! It was awesome... you gotta see it, it's got absolutely everything... not as good as the first one though (it tries very hard), but still great. Very much a "to be continued" thing though.

Since then only one really exciting thing has happened, but more on that later. Some non-exciting stuff that's happening is my artistic mania has continued... many pictures, the occasional poem. Nebs seems to be affected too... her page I'm An Artist is going through somewhat exponential expansion... it has more watchers than The Chaos Collection. Boy my page must suck. My "artism" has spilt over into actually contributing to ET graphics and entering contests. And with not-half-bad entries either. I mean, I ain't gonna win... but my pics aren't the worst.

I got my marks back for last semester at uni... 2 Distinctions and a credit... officially the worst marks I've ever got. Well, at least my marks must have had a lot of fun. Anyone would enjoy such a long slide! The black dog ate my homework, ha ha ha.

Now that you've endured the boring part, I must tell you the exciting news... I now have black hair! Based on a poll (<poll:70558>), I decided to colour my hair black... not permanent, of course (what if it were to look awful?). Nebsy did it, and it looks great... Well, I think so. Most people agree, except Pezza, of course... but that was to be expected. So far the funniest comment I've had was someone who my mum talked to warning her I may start biting the heads off chickens. Charming. Anyway I've took some crappy photos, but my face is the colour of the roses / that grew down the river all bloody and wild (that's red, dummy). And yes in every photo. So I'll wait til I've got makeup and a bit of non-face-reddenning light to take a photo in... hopefully tomorrow!

Speaking of tomorrow, it's my first day back at uni... yippee! My subjects are better this time... human and population genetics, families labour and intimacy and cognitive and social psych. Yay! Well, I'd better go... It's like, a quarter past one in the morning. So I guess it's today that's my first day back. How disheartening.

Oooh, oooh, and one other thing. If you have a chance to try it, go to McDonalds and get a Crunchie sundae. The are just... to die for! Mwa ha ha ha ha! *bites head off chicken*.

Apology for Pissed Off Angry Rant

To all those I offended with my rant, I'm sorry. While, yes, I was pissed off for what I believe is a good reason, and I'm not sorry for stating my opinion, perhaps I shouldn't have named names of people or pages, or bagged the council.

Sorry to those of Playgans - yes, your page is good! While I don't believe it to have the same artistic value as an art page, that's not really up to me. And perhaps "hate" wiki was not a great way to say it... maybe it is a page dedicated to "warranted dislike and re-education of those said dislike is directed towards"? Either way, while I myself am not into pages like that, I understand others are and a lot of work has gone into it. So sorry if I offended you, I was pissed off, I should have put it differently. Sorry!

And sorry to those of the council who I offended with the whole "shove it" thing... I was royally pissed off with a few, and not the majority. Heck, I don't know the majority. I'm sure most of the council are great people. Granted most of them have never visited my house until I pull something like this, but sorry if I offended you.

I have made a page with suggestions on how to improve the wiki-ratings here:
Suggestions for wiki-ratings

Peace, and once again, I'm sorry.

Pissed Off Angry Rant

Boy, am I ever pissed off right now. With all good intentions of getting a little more attention for my page, I suggested that my art wiki The Chaos Collection get rated by the wiki ratings... Now, I am the first to admit that my art isn't exactly top quality. I don't have a scanner or a graphics tablet, and I'm not as good as a lot of people on here. But I do like to think my skills with photoshop are higher than the average person, or at least not bad, and the sheer number of pictures in The Chaos Collection (over 70, mainly photo manips) ensures that there'll be something to most people's tastes in there somewhere. But apparently, and not naming names here, but [Sunrose] said it's not worth rating. And I thought, well, fair enough... it's not to her tastes, that's okay. Everyone's entitled to their opinion, and I'm glad just to have someone look at my page. Good on her for being honest. But my opinion changed when I had a look at the wikis that were on the list of "most artistic wiki pages", and found Playgans. Ahh, playgans. Simple concept: "real" pagans judge other people who are "fake" pagans. Basically an "anti" wiki, a "hate" wiki, yet another forum for people to call other people posers and be intolerant. And while it's not exactly my kinda wiki, it has a catchy name, some good banners and makes a pretty convincing argument if you can be bothered reading the text. But seriously, that it even registered in the "most artistic" list ?!! WTF?!?! It might be good, but the very notion that anyone would say it is more artistic than someones well-maintained frickin' ART page, whatever the quality the art therein may be, is ridiculous. [iippo] chimed in with "written art counts as well", and hell, I agree... but there is NO poetry or stories on "Playgans"... it might be well written and interesting text, but seriously MORE artistic than an ART page? Gaaah???

And so henceforth I say - the whole ET council can shove it, except for [Lerune] (who is cool and nice) and [Sunny Silverunicorn] (who I actually got to vote The Chaos Collection onto the "most artistic" list). But all the others? All I can say right now is no wonder ET is turning into MySpace, with these freakazoids in charge, it's hardly worth saving.

Alive and Well-Fed

Who'd a thunk it, the wisdom teeth operation on Friday went fine! The doctor actually gave us enough painkillers (thanks to the advice from [MisterScurvy] to ask for more, which we did!).The recovery went well... the first few days we were walking around like swollen-faced zombies, eating, sleeping and taking painkillers... but by Monday we had left the house to stock up on movies, and by Wednesday our mum took us for a wonderful drive through the countryside to the beach at Tooradin! It was great. We fed and then chased seagulls.

Other than that, [Nebsy] and I have been watching a lot of DVDs. We watched Big Momma's House 2 (2 stars), Wedding Crashers (2.5 stars), King Arthur (3 stars), Alien: Resurrection (4 stars) and Full Metal Jacket (3 stars). Also, we've been posting on Decay... at last, Skirath's met some fellow ghouls! A bunch of raiders are helping her and the rest of the party finish their quest... oh boy, I hope Skirath can get some action at last *rubs hands together in lustful glee*. And strangely enough lately, I've been in somewhat of an artistic mania... I've made so many pictures! All of them are safely stored on The Chaos Collection. No finished poems yet, but I've started one... oh, and it's going to be hilarious. Also I've made 2 really long bracelet/necklaces. They've got black, silver and gun metal beads in random order and look totally great. I used stretchy thread as well to try something different.

Something I absolutely have to mention about this whole wisdom teeth deal - The FOOD!!! It is amazing... much as no one likes to have a hurty mouth, it is almost worth it with the amount of deliciousness Nebs and I have been chowing down on lately. So much wonderful, wonderful custard! Normal custard, egg custard, bread and butter custard, pouring custard... oh, it's fantastic. And that's without mentioning the Yogo, fruit drink, lemon delicious, jellies and stewed fruit. And of course the golden syrup out of the jar, but no one needs to know about that.

And as for Mr Nice Guy? Well, I've made up my mind I'd better break up with him... much as he's a great person, he just isn't on my level, and I don't want to string him along and end up hurting him more later on... unfortunately it means I'll have to give back all the stuff he gave me, but like my parents explained repeatedly, I'm "not" a gold digger. Heh heh heh... naw, just kidding, I'm really not. I have more jewellery than I can wear anyway. I hope Mr Nice Guy will accept the present I got for him though... because otherwise I'm damned if I know what to do with a guy necklace, and plus, he deserves it for being so good to me. So think happy thoughts for Mr Nice Guy on Monday, that's when The Breakenuppening happens. Oh man, I hope I don't chicken out.