A girl meets world

A series of unfortunate events

2007-01-21T21:05:00.000+13:00

Seeing other people update their blogs inspires me to write in mine. Feedreader is a wonderful software and everyone who reads blogs should have it installed - saves me checking if anyone has updated, the new gossip is conviniently delivered as soon as it's updated.

Everyone lately has been writing about the wow expansion. Well there was the good, the bad, and the ugly. The good - I pre-ordered a collector's edition, and the shop where I ordered only got allocated one copy, and they decided to give it to the person who ordered first, and, well, that was me. So I kind of felt like I'd won lotto for a while, and it was fantastic when it arrived - so big, so many extra bits and pieces, so worth it.

The bad - I installed it, it had issues with the patch, I rebooted and my hard drive has packed a sad. Wasn't being recognised by Windows, the chkdsk was freezing, and I wasn't able to use Windows even though the operating system is on a different drive, because having this bung drive obviously confuses it to hell and back and it takes five minutes per click.

So I rang my friend and he had the software that you can boot with and it analyses your drive and fixes bad sectors by re-allocating data and what not.

Here comes the ugly - the software estimates that it will take a year to finish the scan. It's not kidding either, it's been running so far for 74 hours, and has got through 59% - kinda sad because it went from 20% to 59% in the space of a night, and has been on that 59% for the last two days.

And tomorrow is my birthday and I want to play the expansion, damit :(

I've read JTHM book, it's tres funny. Kinda reminds me of that TV show Dexter. And Zim of course, since it's the same author.

Work has extended my contract until the 16th of March, so now I'm not sure whether they're prolonging the inevitable or just need to consult their finances before offering me a full time position. It's a sweet little job - lots of Excel which I'm good at, and very friendly team. Even managers are nice, which I'm not used to.

Poker hasn't been going too well, but I'm yet to deposit real money on it, so I suppose it's ok. Although someone transferred me some money and I lost it, so that's not too nice.

Not much else has been happening, my flatmates got a kitten from SPCA, and it doesn't really mix well with my bird. Might have to move house.

Poker

2007-01-01T22:48:00.000+13:00

So I've discovered the joys of online poker. There is more to the game than just sheer luck, and I'm really enjoying reading all the strats, probabilities, bluff strategies, and various secrets associated with the game. Especially fun is the poker slang that seems to have infiltrated the English language and I didn't even notice.

I play on pokerstars and poker.com. Pokerstars is where all the pros play and it has about 10000 people on at any given time. But I don't like the interface, it's a bit clunky and somewhat old school. Poker one is much prettier and it has freerolls every three hours (you pay nothing, but if you place or win, you get real cash prizes), so yeah I've pretty much been playing poker non stop for the last three days or so. I came 6th in one of the freerolls, and so I now even have $2.50 in my account. I'm still to scared to play with real money, so just keep plucking away at the fake money they give you to try in "play money" games. And, well, freerolls cost nothing.

So yeah, give me a holla sometime if you also think the game is fun and if you might want to play, there is a link on the left there for the download.

In other news, Wii is awesome!

Somewhat Odd

2006-11-28T20:03:00.001+13:00

What was I thinking?

2006-11-28T18:02:00.000+13:00

I didn't get that job I talked about earlier. It was a dream come true job. At Park Road Post which is the post production facility that was set up by Peter Jackson. It's one of a kind all-in-one business - they have studios, stages, sound production, film developing, telecine, weta digital next door, in-house cinema with pre-release showings to the staff, staff discount cafe on site, gym, three furnished apartments for visiting directors or if you are working late.

It was a very fast hire. An ad came through, I applied at 6pm, they rang me 9am the next day, two days later I had an interview, three days after that I had a second interview. I was so certain I was going to get it. I needed to get it. It was the career start with capital letters.

Sure, there were going to be sacrifices - I live in Karori, it's in Miramar, they wanted 7.30am starts. I was going to be getting up 5.30am every day to get there by the start time, and was already looking at trademe rentals to move to Miramar with my first paycheck. I was ready to do all that.

Oh, suppose I should say what the job is. Chemist. Making sure all those bleach, fixer, developer solutions were of correct concentrations, consistent throughout the shooting of the film, troubleshooting problems that film operators might encounter. Quite a large lab and sole charge. All standardised with Kodak ImageCare.

Really, it was fantastic dream job, no matter the sacrifices. I don't even know what the pay was going to be, it doesn't even matter.

The HR lady said it came so very very close between me and one other applicant. But apparently he pulled out an unexpected surprise of having had film experience. That sealed the deal I guess. She said she'd like to keep my CV on file and to call me in a few months when something else comes up.

Sure, that sounds hopeful, but who's going to pay my bills next month, and how am I going to afford Christmas? I had so many people cheering, well-wishing, praying for me. Many people driving me, lending me clothes for the interview, offering interview tips and answering my questions. I feel like I've let them all down somehow. Not just because of this job, but just overall - three years of a degree, so much support all around, and I have nothing to show for it. My flatmates are working as a house painter, check out operator and shoe salesperson. I want to be able to utilise my degree.

Maybe it was all a silly idea from 2004, maybe I should have stayed in IT. I've run out of science jobs now, applied for everything there was, and the ads have dried up. I'm applying for IT jobs, and they want to know how I explain the last three years. Not here nor there now. Will probably be working in a supermarket next month. What was I thinking?

Degree

2006-11-26T18:38:00.000+13:00

I have managed to pass all my papers this year, woohoo! I now qualify for letters after my name - BBMedSc (MPMC). Of course I don't get those letters or the piece of paper until about May 2007. I'm still undecided whether to go to the ceremony or just get it by courier. In the three years of this degree, I have got one C and two C+, I think that's quite a good run.

Tomorrow I find out if I've got the fancy pants job I applied for (I've had two interviews already and have half the country rooting and praying for me, so it'll be a great big disappointment if I don't get it). Will say more about it later.

Have watched some promotional videos about Wii (already out in the States, coming here 7th of December) and it's so new and revolutionary that I have decided to get it. I of course need money first (see previous paragraph), but I will still have it on my wishlist until it arrives. The fact that you can play a tennis game as if you were really playin tennis is fantastic.

Played some NWN2, it's not bad at all, I'm enjoying it. A few bugs here and there and it gets somewhat chuggy if you play it for a few hours in a row, but there are upcoming patches that should resolve it.

Dinner tonight - mashed potatoes. Those instant ones that make half a metric tonne which you can then eat for the next week and a half. It's great.

What Tarot Card are you?

2006-11-21T12:20:00.001+13:00

You are The High Priestess

Science, Wisdom, Knowledge, Education.

The High Priestess is the card of knowledge, instinctual, supernatural, secret knowledge. She holds scrolls of arcane information that she might, or might not reveal to you. The moon crown on her head as well as the crescent by her foot indicates her willingness to illuminate what you otherwise might not see, reveal the secrets you need to know. The High Priestess is also associated with the moon however and can also indicate change or fluxuation, particularily when it comes to your moods.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Final Financial Frustration

2006-11-14T15:17:00.000+13:00

So you think they just give money away at the Dole Bludger's office? BZZZ WRONG!
You want to apply for an unemployment benefit? Something to cover your bills while you wait for jobs to close applications, shortlist people, interview potential employees, and fill the job? Some money to make sure you don't bounce your rent payments?

Nope, no money for j00, come back one year!
Here are two possible scenarios if you want to get some financial assistance having just finished your Uni exams:
1. Student Unemployment Hardship from Studylink.
2. Unemployment Benefit from WINZ.

Both pay exactly the same amount. For both offices, you have exactly the same client ID number. Can they talk to each other? NO! That's against the Privacy Act. WHAT?!
It's like saying Telecom and Xtra can't talk to each other even though your bill arrives in the same envelope.

Ok ok, that aside, let's investigate your options further:
1. Studylink - so so easy to apply for, fill out the form, show last couple of payslips if you had any, and your ID, done! The catch: you have to hand in your form in person in town, which they then send off to their processing centre, then it takes them about four days to process it, THEN your one week stand down begins, and only then do you get paid, no back payments.

2. WINZ - you have to attend a seminar called WRK4U (txt speak is the new black, ask any NCEA student), I didn't make it up, that's what was written on the overhead they presented. The seminars are only held at 8.30 in the morning, and the examples of points being discussed are Why is working better than the dole? and How to make an appointment with a case manager. So you think, I've attended a seminar, give me the dole, right? Wrong. You have to go home, ring the call centre, and make an appointment to see a case manager. Can you make an appointment right there at the office? No, go home, ring the call centre. When you come for the meeting, make sure to bring with you nine pieces of documentation, ranging from easy ones like your ID, to mind boggling ones like proof of 52 weeks of income. Sure, you'll say, Just ring IRD and get a statement, or Get your landlord to mail you a copy of the tenancy agreement. Of course that means waiting for a week or so to get all those documents together, then you make the appointment, then you see the case manager, then you get paid. Bonus: the one week stand down period is counted from the day you called them to get scheduled for WRK4U seminar, and you'll get backpay. Another bonus: if you get a job, they'll give you "bridging support", i.e. money to tie you over while you wait for the phat pay checks to start rolling in. The catch: no matter what option I take, I still won't get paid next week.

Executive Summary: I can't afford rent and bills for the rest of the month. This includes the monthly bills for November I still haven't paid. Whoever said dole was the easy way out obviously hasn't tried applying for one. On the job front: declined for MAF, declined for Aotea Pathology, didn't quite make it for Fujitsu (job was gone after my interview with the recruitment agency), still waiting to hear from Impac, ACC, Wakefield GE Research, and ESR.

Blegh

2006-11-09T19:21:00.000+13:00

Had a job interview yesterday with Aotea Pathology. Didn't get it. More frustrating is the fact they told me I was one out of three. So my CV must be looking really good to get me that far, but either I smell funny or my interview technique blows goats.

One of the flatmates moved out (the smelly one), the other three have all got jobs lined up already. Although, admittedly, they're not working in their graduation field, but just in shops. One does have a 'real' job, but it won't start till January.

I've attempted the IT path today - sent my CV off to someone at Manpower. I just don't want to work on a helpdesk, that'd be worse than Woolworths.

So yeah, pretty depressing, haven't really moved from the bed today. Been fiddling with my Wacom tablet, but not sure what's up with it - the nib end isn't working anymore, only the eraser side. Been trying to install latest drivers and whatnot, but the internet is fubared, took me 15 minutes just to get a driver downloaded.

Must go raid now. Oh, if you feel like getting me a Christmas present and don't know what to get - WoW TCG boosters and starters are all the rage at the moment.

Oh you Danish Folk, you're so crazy!

2006-11-08T17:16:00.000+13:00

A Graduate in Progress

2006-11-03T01:25:00.000+13:00

With all the God's might and various other fortunate placements of time and space, I might have passed my exams. Psych on Tuesday, Cellular Regulation on Wednesday. It was only last night, but already it feels like a week has passed. Must be some sort of defense mechanism to deter me from going more insane.

I did get flowers though, was very nice and a total surprise. Usually I anticipate such things, but this time I didn't even think of it, so it was fantastic.

Won't know the exam results for about two weeks, but I'm sure the internet will be the first to know if I fail. Or pass. Whichever now really. Hoping hoping hoping.

How amazing would it feel to be a graduate. Oh it's probably nothing, people get degrees every year. I don't know, I just never thought I'd have stuck to it. Feels great. Don't feel like I know much more than I did three years ago though, so finding it a bit hard to 'shine' at the job interviews.

Still have an Open Poly assignment due on Monday, and its exam on the 16th, but they don't really matter - easy paper (VB.NET) and even if I fail that one, it won't change anything. You think it's a defeatist point of view, I call it umm something. Laziness is probably the right word. But I'll get it done, I always do. I procrastinate forever, and then BAM, stuff gets done. Like a charging up the combo points... maybe not.

Piggy hasn't progressed past taking food from my hand. Tomorrow I shall try turning his cage a bit to see if we can spice things up.

Sleep now I must.

Title

2006-10-29T19:24:00.000+13:00

I have trouble coming up with titles to my posts - something that is catchy yet relevant to what I'm writing. It's especially hard when I'm writing about nothing in particular.

I installed the Dark Messiah game. It disappointed. It seems like a great game, however they changed from the old school Might and Magic feel and adopted the much too common now Oblivion/Morrowind feel. While it's a "yay!" for all the guys out there, it's a big "boo" from me because I get motion sickness from first person mouselook games. So I only got so far as the end of the tutorial before I had to lie down and hold onto the floor while it was spinning out from under me. Sure, your game looks great, and you can incorporate many interactive controls into it this way (Parry! Attack! Kick! Pick up that crate and throw it!), but you forgot about the poor un-co geeks out there (i.e. me) who can't coordinate three button presses at the same time, and get queezy even just looking at the new and improved graphics. After the rigmarole of copying nine gigabytes of .rar files, and extracting them into a giant ISO, and then installing the game, and then running it, and sorting out the optimal settings for it to work, this is rather disappointing. But my boyfriend loved Oblivion, and still plays it when WoW servers are down, so I'm sure he'll enjoy the newest Might and Magic.

I found a website that gives detailed instructions on how to train a bird, so I've been trying to apply the techniques to Piggy the Budgie. I knew all these tricks all along of course (thank you Psyc 122), but somehow seeing it written down by someone else makes it a more viable resource and thus I find the patience to stick with it. So far, I've got him eating out of my hand. But he still gets vicious when he gets sick of me, or when I try to pat him. Angry angry little bird. Suppose takes after the owner :P

Saturday

2006-10-29T00:19:00.000+13:00

Nice day today. Went to post yet another job application. This one could be good - it's right in the middle of the city. Bought a copy of The Office - the American version - turns out it's just as crap as the British one. Boohoo $30 down the drain. The awkward silences are just a bit too much, although the actors are mildly more attractive.
Watched the latest episodes of Boston Legal and Heroes. Both fantastic shows. And next week House is back from the three week break. Yay more TV goodness. Love binge-watching TV shows, I do.
Played the beta of Supreme Commander, really hoggy and not very easy to play because of it, but was fun for a little while. Installing the Dark Messiah Might and Magic at the moment, looking forward to playing that.

Heroes the TV show is actually so good that it even has its own blog, written by one of the characters. Great integration of fiction and reality. When orcs of Orgrimmar start having blogs, I'll surrender my life to the fiction of fiction. Viva la Internet!

Friends with Money

2006-10-27T22:50:00.000+13:00

Went to see Friends with Money tonight. Real cool movie. The type of movie that leaves you feeling nothing. Not excited, not motivated, not sad, not happy, just numb and just relaxed I guess. It's really a movie about nothing. It's sort of like panning in to someone's life, watching for a bit, and then panning out again. It reminded me of Closer - another movie that I really enjoyed, but most people around me said "what on earth was that about?!". Don't know why I like them, just feel so serene afterwards. Perhaps because they sap all the worries out of you, like watching the ocean - just waves rushing in and breaking, and rushing in again. Or realising that other people have the same crazy every day things happen in their lives too. The dialogue really makes the movie. Both movies, actually. It could, of course, be to the fact that they both have a lot of famous actors in them. Who knows...

Gosh, I really wish I had more money though. The "more" is redundant there actually, because technically I have none. L-O-L

By the way, the new Firefox 2 is awesome because it has integrated spell check with custom inbuilt dictionary, so just like Word but everywhere.

Two exams next week

2006-10-24T17:07:00.000+13:00

So instead of studying I turn to Blogger. Naturally.

This weekend has been more of a yo-yo than my little mind can handle. The Saturday morning saw perfect blue skies, and since then it has been "Gusty winds" and "heavy rain warnings". Been to the WF LAN, got really tired, met a lot of people, played a lot of WoW.

The interpersonal relationships have been down, down, and really low down. Then a period of recovery proved that not all is lost. I shall try to be good from now on, consciously so. I'm lucky to have the second chance really. Is that cryptic enough? To people that know me, I bet it's as clear as every other time the same kind of thing happened. But I'll make sure everything is good this time. I really will try.

I found the blog of Scott Adams, the guy who is the maker of Dilbert. I've put a link on the left there. Because it's awesome. In fact, I'm going to try affirmations he mentions as soon as I convince myself to get out of this warm cosy bed.

Also The Cute Overload blog. Photos, no mental substance, but great funnies to look at.

I made a perch for my bird out of a big carrot. He seems to enjoy it. He can sit on it and eat it too.

I have links to cafepress at the bottom of the page, but I really want to be making my own designs for people to buy. Any suggestions? I'm usually good on implementation, but short on arty ideas. Nut and Bee, however, now that's some talent (linked on the left too).

Gosh, this post is just full of plugs. Perhaps karma will repay me with some more visits to the site!

First day of Summer Holidays

2006-10-17T14:38:00.000+13:00

Do I still get to call it Summer Holidays if I'm not planning to going back to study next year? I guess I'm undecided on that part.

Yesterday I had a lab report due, so couldn't really relax. Today the plan was to blob and have a first day of break (before starting to study for exams). But instead I ended up fiddling with Blogger and various other websites to make my blog look better. Maybe if I posted a bit more, it'd make itself look better.

I've now put a few links to websites I frequently visit, and I also have a "I'm currently Reading this book" link on the left there - just in case you want something to read and/or maybe discuss.

I haven't heard from the MAF job still, nor any of the other jobs, but at the same time I haven't been declined from any either, so still hoping.

There is a LAN for my WoW Guild this weekend, so that should be good I hope, barring any e-drama and e-wrist-slashing.

The game

2006-10-12T19:46:00.000+13:00

So I received the game I'd won on the radio - MediEvil Resurrection. It's a PSP game, I don't have a PSP. What do I do with it now?

Technology and Laziness

2006-10-08T18:25:00.000+13:00

So instead of programming this silly VB.NET assignment, I'm browsing podcasts and contributing to blowing our monthly traffic cap.

Let's talk comedians - it's damn hard to find good comedy on the podcasts selection. Most of the stuff is video now. I want just something funny in the background while I do my assignments, not something to look at - I have plenty of TV episodes to watch later.

Sunday Star Times has the best comedy I could ever ask for. Raybon Kan. Somehow, every Sunday he writes something I was thinking about that very week. Even the "Why do we have cemeteries?" this week. How odd. Today I found out he has a myspace account. Oh Shame. Everyone knows that Blogspot or your own domain blog is how it's meant to be done. Myspace is for emo kids, along with livejournal. Also, Raybon Kan's myspace account doesn't actually have any entries - just a description and a bunch of friend links. Well at least from there I found out that Bic Runga has a blog too. Even though it says on her MySpace account that it's maintained by her marketing team, it's still nice to pretend that she writes some of the entries herself.

So yeah, I wish Raybon Kan was more "accessible". I'm a really big fan, but sometimes you realise that the celebrities only care for the pay and ratings, not the actual fans. Them's the breaks I suppose. They get tired of all the attention I'm sure.

But then again, there's Opinionistas and Dooce that have reached a celebrity status and are still accessible to the general public - they reply to emails and meet people. I guess it's really because they were bloggers first, famous second.

So far on my podcasts selection I've got Penny Arcade Downloadable Content, Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing, Hope is Emo, Jamie Oliver, Penn Radio, and USA TODAY's Pop Candy, and Futures in Biotech. I had Comedy Central: Stand-Up (Video) - too short for a video, Happy Tree Friends - too much to download, and I think I had some other cartoons but couldn't be bothered.

Now, did you know you can download current TV shows on iTunes now? Stupid iTunes store and its "Not available in your Country" message. At two dollars per episode, I'd be so keen to download them. It just seems so much easier than torrenting.

Only a week to go!

2006-10-07T15:31:00.000+13:00

Monday begins the last week of my University study. The last week of lectures, ever. Amazing isn't it. Kinda sad too - hard to leave something so interesting and fun behind. But I'll feel all much better about it all when I can finally go a week without worrying how I'll pay my bills.

I've applied for a job at MAF Biosecurity in Wallaceville. I got shortlisted and had an interview. Apparently I'm up against five other people. Nervous. It's a four months contract to cover someone's pregnancy leave, and in that respect, the job is perfect - good experience over summer, while still giving me the option to go back to University to do Honours. And if I stick with working, it's yet another entry on my CV.

The interview was quite scary - 17 pre-printed questions, the panel members went in circles asking them, three at a time. Very strange, but I guess it is a government department. Seems like a very nice team too - everyone is young, and they all seem quite chirpy.

Would be good if I get it. If not, I guess I can stick it out with the old folks for a bit longer. I suppose I never posted that I am a care provider for the elderly now. Just a part time job - useful because I can work around my lecture times. Frustrating at time and the pay is awful, but at the same time it feels good to be needed by someone. I have three clients - one I just vaccuum her house, another I take shopping and to the hairdresser, and the third, hmm not really sure what I do with him - we clean the house and he brings in more stuff the next day.

The pay is so bad that in the two months that I've been working there I earned less money than my boyfriend earns in one week. I suppose doesn't help that my hours are sporadic - 13 one week, two the next.

My exams are on the 31st, 1st, and an Open Polytechnic one on the 16th. But no lectures as of 16th of October, so plenty of time to work and study. If I get the Wallaceville job, I can study on the train/bus - one hour trip each way every day.

In fact I should writing a project for the Open Poly assignment right this minute as it's due on Monday, but I saw that Blogger now has a new fandangly interface and just had to check it out.

Oh oh, I won a PSP game on the radio today. Woot!

Hiatus

2006-06-30T11:33:00.000+12:00

After quite a long break, I thought I'd update my blog. It's not so much that I have something to write about, but I've been fiddling with various Google account settings and they provide numerous nifty things that I wanted to try out.

Today is my last day at ERMA NZ. Been working here since Easter. It was a project, so they're not extending my contract. Looking for jobs elsewhere now, applied at so many places I don't even remember what they were. I will take next week off (as it's also Uni holidays) and just blob, but once Uni starts up again, I will go full swing into search mode. All my lectures next semester finish at 10 and 12, so I will have a heap of spare time in which I should try and earn some cash. Constantly living in the negatives is becoming rather grating.

Funny to look down the page and see writing about Physiology exams last year, because I've just sat the exam for the follow up paper last week. I got a B. Not bad considering I thought I was going to fail and even applied for an aegrotat.

Been fiddling with databases at work, got me thinking I should do some sort of DBA qualification to cover my employment options after I graduate with the Biomed degree. I could do a Diploma from Open Polytechnic which is mostly online, so that could be cool.

Back

2006-02-26T14:52:00.000+13:00

After a three month stint in Auckland, I'm finally back in Wellington, where it's windy, mosquito free, and you can wear a jersey any day of the year (at least in my room), gotta love them winter clothes.

Working at HortResearch was an interesting learning experience. I picked up a few new lab skills that I'm hoping to put to good use in the future, but also learned a few things about people and stuff (TM).

Good to be back, all in all. Uni is starting tomorrow. Final year, scary. Picked up a law paper this year, will see how it goes - haven't done a humanity paper before (well, except German, but that hardly counts).

Still playing WoW - great to have an addiction to fall back on if anything goes haywire in RL, tbh.

Still living in Karori, but might have to look for a smaller place at some point - Telecom isn't promising any bigger internet caps, and it's hard to have 10Gb between five people, especially when one uses up 8Gb a month (grr @ flatmates).

Piggy is still alive and rather well. I've got him eating vegetables now, he's especially fond of basil and broccoli, not so keen on any fruit though. I'll probably be getting him a friend fairly shortly so he doesn't get so bored hanging out by himself.

Went out to Strawberry Fare last night, the service is shit is usual, but the desserts haven't disappointed. Thinking of going to Il Casino at some point, it's always looked flash from the outside, and what else is student loan good for.

I think I'm melting.

2005-11-10T18:40:00.000+13:00

I live in Auckland now. Auckland totally blows goats. It's hot, it's humid, it's noisy, cars everywhere, no one follows the road code, people everywhere, they don't walk on the left side of the sidewalk, did I mention it's stinking hot? /cry

We drove up on Saturday instead of the originally planned Sunday due to some unexpected circumstances. Overnighted in Taupo. I must say, Taupo is a very nice place. And the drive from Wellington to Taupo is very pleasant. Lots of pretty views, not so much traffic, it was fun.

Taupo to Auckland was a little less friendly. Although Taihape was great. We've discovered that the coffee from BP Ultimate is actually really decent. Wild Bean Cafe - it's the one with the ads where the guy doesn't want to come in for a coffee. Still lolling at that one.

Arrived to Auckland at about 2pm on Sunday. Piggy made it ok, I think he even enjoyed the ride, pigging out on the millet the entire trip. I got a sore back from checking up on him every five minutes. I wouldn't make a good mother.

A bit of drama with mother, a few adjusting strangenesses, a few growing pains. Not so pleasant. Visited some people a few times, caught up with a few friends. Those things were really nice. The internet was up on Tuesday, by the end of Tuesday night, I had it all set up and going - went to bed at 2am Wednesday hehe.

On Wednesday I attempted to catch a bus to my new place of employment, HortResearch. Hopefully I will be on time to start work on Monday morning. Got my monthly bus pass today, 108 dollars, sheeesh. Bloody Auckland. It's still hot. Need to get a fan or something, there is like no airflow in this city, just heat and cars. Ugh. Left window open overnight, now I'm covered in mosquito bites. I lived in Wellington for three years, never got one. Ugh.

It's been a pretty good day today though - went to Mission Bay, got some Movenpick ice cream, watched the world go by. The hard stuff will start tomorrow - I'll be alone...

Destroyer of hard-shelled seeds

2005-11-02T00:16:00.000+13:00

Went to see The Nutcracker on Saturday night. What an amazing performance. So emotionally charged and so beautiful. Those ballet dancers must train several times a day to keep in shape. The females were a bit scary even - no chest, no stomach, protruding ribcage. The story was cool. I remember when I was little and my grandma would take me to the ballet and I'd always be saying: "What's happening now? Who is that?". But now it's all easy to understand. Funny to hear kids in the audience asking the questions I used to ask.

Went to Zibibbo beforehand, they have a very cheap (compared to their other meals) pre-theatre menu. Three course dinner for $29.50. That's cheaper than some of their mains! Was pretty cool. The portions were a bit small though, so had to fill up on the water. That didn't go all too well with the theatre lockout until intermission, heheh. Also, the A Reserve next to us was empty so we got a free upgrade, yay. We started some sort of mass migration though as cheaper seats moved to ours, and some even cheaper ones moved to theirs, was pretty lol.

Have had two exams so far: Pharmacology and Organic Chemistry. One more to go this Saturday - Physiology. Then on Sunday, I'm leaving for Auckland. Curry and optometrist tomorrow, friend's birthday on Friday, not sure when I'll get to study or pack. I'm the biggest procrastinator in the world. I think I've got a cold too. Ugh.

Had chicken cordon bleu for dinner tonight, was alright. Sleep now. Zzzzzzzzzzz

Need a revolver

2005-10-21T00:17:00.000+13:00

I'm a Resolver

Aggravation and loop holes.

2005-10-04T16:45:00.000+13:00

Argh so annoyed - replied to a text and it tells me i don't have enough funds.. ring *333, it says I've only sent 40 texts since I topped up. Ring customer services they say that i've used up my 10 dollars on texts to 021 and only the first ten texts to 027 activate the 500 texts deal.

Look up the Telecom site, nowhere there does it discriminate between 021 and 027 for the text deal. Annoyed. Again.

Ring back customer services. Again.

Now things are making sense - I topped up and then made a phone call and browsed the WAP. So I had ten dollars, sent 40 txts at 20c each and ran out of credit. So because I hadn't sent the 50 texts yet, the 500 txt deal hadn't activated.. so if I top up with 2 dollars, I can send the extra 10 messages and activate it for the rest of the month... of course the clever catch is I can't top up with just two dollars because minimum is $10. But the $8 will carry over for the next month. *sigh*

Lesson of the day: Don't make calls or browse WAP after topping up. And someone should fire the first customer rep.

Don't sway, don't ever go away.

2005-10-03T15:11:00.000+13:00

Has the week been and gone already? Time is sure flying. The last week of Uni now. I blew today off because it was cold and rainy outside and I couldn't be really bothered going outside (naughty). Stayed at home and worked on my pharmacology assignment, so at least something got done.

Another great weekend went past. Friday night saw a lot of drinking: Hoegaarden at Leuwen, Hoeegarden at Monkey Bar, Long Island Ice Tea at Vespa, Appletini at Jet Bar, shots at Shack. Yummy yummy alcohol. The Friday night movie was '40 year old virgin', it was so hysterically funny I think I still have a sore stomach from all the laughing.

Saturday afternoon was spent in the forest with dogs.. Oh my, how I love animals. It was just such a great day, I can't stop thinking about it. All the trees, and grass, and doggies. Mmm.

Then I got to attend a birthday party at which I knew pretty much no one, but I managed to get friendly with a couple of people or three, so in the end it was an awesome evening. The food and wine were fantastic too. The daylight savings time didn't help though - get home at 2am, next thing it's 4am. Oops!

For Sunday, I organised a birthday dinner for one of the guys. Back to Ichiban Teppanyaki we went. This time it was even more fun - the chefs pulled out all the stops with throwing and twirling and fire lighting. The food was great, and sake even better.

CSI and NCIS to finish it up and once again a great weekend.

I just can't seem to get enough of it all. <3.

So you want to be a rockstar?

2005-09-27T20:14:00.000+12:00

Been an awesome weekend. Of course, all awesomeness comes with a price - the last two weeks of uni, assessment upon assessment and I did a total of zero studying. Test tomorrow, but instead I'm typing this.

But back to the coolness of the weekend.
One of my coworkers asked to swap shifts, and so instead of the usual 7am start on Saturday, I had the day free with the later 3pm start.

Friday night was a bit of a meh. Went to see the Dukes of Hazzard which had the propensity to be highly amusing, but I dropped my ice cream on the floor at the very start of the movie and so spent the first half of it in a bad mood. Then I realised that I didn't really understand most of the hillbilly jokes, so it went a bit over my head. Or under my chin, come to think of it. Towards the end the movie was great fun, cool car chases, good guys win, etc. "Why is divorce so expensive? Because it's worth it".

Then there was a bit of a shindig at the Monkey Bar which was utterly boring and three guys got rather smashed, and that was that. I took off for a while to Nandos to recollect the tender taste of chicken breast. Gave me a chance to restore glucose levels I was desperately craving since the ice cream fiasco and cool off a bit.

I went back and after everyone decided to go home, we popped into Molly Mollone's to the Piano Man. He was pretty good, tinkling away on the baby grand. Unfortunately he played a bunch of songs I didn't really know, so it was not all that entertaining. I gave him some cash, he said thank you, it was grand. Pun intended.

We headed up the Courtanay Place to grab a taxi and during this adventure, we came upon the new greatest invention created by Chow - The Cabaret. We absolutely had to go and see what's inside. Well I did, my accomplice followed! While the act that night was kinda beatniky, the atmosphere there is absolutely amazing - red stage curtains, bright rugs, nice couches, and, of course, the tastiest Chow finger-food and cocktails. I must go back at some stage when there's a better act on.

Eventually we got around to getting a taxi home, and that was all good. Love taxi rides - so smooth and full of lullaby.

Then came the bed, and sleep. Sleep is good. Morning came and no time would be wasted, for ahead of us we had a trip to the Zoo! And everyone knows how much I love the Zoo!

So off we went, like Dorothy and Tin Man and whoever else was in that story. My analogy fails here.

Zoo was AWESOME! Animals and animals and trees and animals, and the food at Eva Dixon's was ok and the coffee was fantastic, and did I mention there was lots of animals? yes well, I got a bit giddy. There was lots of happiness in this little girl. Ok, maybe not so little.

Then we went home, and I had work at 3pm.

The next day, the usual Sunday brunch was cancelled due to lack of participants - most of the O-Bot crew took off to the ski slopes (although I doubt there was much skiing), and the rest of people left here couldn't be bothered.

So once again, it was the case of "and then there were two". We went to Plum for lunch. The plumster and VLAT disappointed quite a bit, but them's the breaks. The crossword wasn't much better.

So then we went for a ride. Mmmm car ride. Did I mention I made a mix CD? I'm such a dork. Surprisingly all the songs that came on were approved by the driver, so I will live to see yet another day! We went to Wainuiomata Beach. It's the longest most amazing drive ever, with lots of views and sheep and cows and crazy Minis driving three times the speed limit in the opposite direction and skidding all over the road. The beach was cool too - you can see the vastness of the ocean and the colours change from blue to aqua to almost green where they meet the sky and change back to different shades of blue. There were lots of interesting rocks and we even found a stick that looks like it could be sold as an expensive P.I.M.P. cane! There were three kids on the beach that played with the waves crashing on the rocks and for a moment there the ocean made us join in. Overall it was absolutely fantastic.

The noise of the ocean and all the wind gave me a hell of a headache by the time I got back to the car though, but nothing some caffeine overdose couldn't fix.

Then we headed out to Lower Hutt where there is a Japanese restaurant - Ichiban Teppanyaki. You sit around a hot plate and the chef comes out and cooks the food for you. It's a pretty awesome place and everyone is very friendly. Strikes as the kind of place you'd want to bring out all your friends to celebrate someone's birthday or as a going away party. There was heaps of food and it was all very filling, all for the set menu price of $18. Not bad at all!

Actually we were a bit early in Lower Hutt for dinner, so we went and got a coffee first and then went to Riverbank carpark (which was empty!) and I made attempts at driving. As usual that affair ended in tears, so let's not talk about that. I am just not good at doing things I suck at, ie. I don't cope well with failing. And I don't think "practice makes perfect" will apply in my case. Perhaps I am just doomed to never be a driver. Or a pianist for that matter, but that's an entirely different story with much similar ending.

So the food was great, and before we knew it Saturday and Sunday passed us by. Of course CSI and NCIS to finish it all off, and that's the recipe for a perfect weekend.

P.S. I'm getting to be really good at procrastination. I wonder if they award degrees in that.

Logan Brown FTW.

2005-09-22T23:03:00.000+12:00

Went to dinner at Logan Brown last night. Fairly certain I experienced what diabetics world wide feel every day. Hyperglycaemia - it's a bittersweet friend, pain and suffering yet utter happiness.

The food was awesome, the service wasn't exceptional but above par, the company was fantastic.

Overall a great night.

Pro tip: Do not have the sticky dessert wine with the bittersweet chocolate torte unless you want to consume your entire life's glucose quota in one sitting.

/spludge

Two days

2005-09-15T17:25:00.000+12:00

Another pamphlet drop last night. Three hour beat, I'm very sore today.

On the upside, whatever happens or doesn't happen, I won't have to be part of any electioneering activities for three years to come. Phew. The ocean is nice to look at, but as soon as you head out for a swim, you realise how dangerous it is and how easy it is to drown.

Annoyed

2005-09-13T21:14:00.000+12:00

Annoyance: Foraging in the fridge for the three month old container of ice cream you left there before going on a stupid fad diet and finding it 97% empty.

Rampant Hypocrisy

2005-09-10T12:39:00.000+12:00

Vegetarian for three years - start eating meat.
Swear off all men - go on a date.
Proclaim WoW is the best game ever - cancel my account.

*sigh* what's the world coming to?

Only four weeks of Uni left. Then exams. Then what? Hopefully I'll get a summer studentship somewhere, I've applied for a job at HortResearch, ESR, and two at Uni.

I've finished reading The Religion War by Scott Adams. Despite a fairly slow start, it turned out to be a very good book. Also finished the Jeremy Clarkson book - a lol a minute.

Got a hold of season three of Gilmore Girls, now my witticism education may continue!

Fresh New World

2005-08-29T00:11:00.000+12:00

End of holidays. Back to Uni tomorrow. It's amazing how long two weeks can feel. I couldn't even remember my timetable for tomorrow or anything. It appears that two weeks in education industry are somewhat longer than two weeks for anyone else in the world. Bizarre. Or perhaps I'm going mad.

Then only six weeks from now I will have finished two years of university. This is huge. I have never done anything for two years in a row before. Should be interesting. I sure hope I don't cave in at the last week and actually give up the game (as I normally tend to do).

You'll be all pleased to hear that the dreadful EQ2 issue has been resolved. Thanks to a couple of faithful listeners that brought me RAM. Turns out my motherboard doesn't like all its three RAM slots filled. And CPU doesn't like having two slots of RAM filled with different amounts of RAM. The only solution was to sourced two sticks of 512. Works like a charm. I threw many a tantrum and I'm glad that the people that were there to witness them are still my friends. Go team!

Of course just as the vast horizons of questing and MMOing have opened up, I feel myself drawn back to WoW - I am suddenly finding that giving it to farming is fun, and have discovered a somewhat interesting new social aspect to the game. But I guess I can chalk that down to my crazy brain also. Never mind, the account expires on the 9th, no chance to obsess over non-existant things then.

I have bought the latest Jeremy Clarkson book - not the type where he rambles on about cars all the time, but I think it's the collection of his columns from Sunday Times. It's mighty hilarious. People on the bus were giving me square looks as I was giggling over his view on the world. Or more importantly his wording of his view.

I watched Top Gear on Prime tonight, it was comedy gold - he got these soldiers to chase in him in a tank while he tried to get away in the Range Rover Sport. It was fantastic. The man can get even non-car people giggling. Maybe it's the accent. Mmm.

Well, for the first time in 14 days, I will not be able to ignore my alarm in seven hours, so I'd better head to bed.

Good night!

Nerd

2005-08-25T23:46:00.000+12:00

Pure Nerd
52 % Nerd, 30% Geek, 30% Dork

For The Record: A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia. A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one. A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions. You scored better than half in all Nerd, earning you the title of: Pure Nerd. The times, they are a-changing. It used to be that being exceptionally smart led to being unpopular, which would ultimately lead to picking up all of the traits and tendences associated with the "dork." No-longer. Being smart isn't as socially crippling as it once was, and even more so as you get older: eventually being a Pure Nerd will likely be replaced with the following label: Purely Successful. Congratulations!

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 42% on nerdiness

You scored higher than 33% on geekosity

You scored higher than 52% on dork points

Link: The Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test written by donathos on OkCupid Free Online Dating

Dirty Commies

2005-08-22T14:52:00.000+12:00

Seeing how it's election year, and someone sent me a link to their blog, I tested myself on the political compass. Turns out I'm almost dead centre, and slightly leftie. Hmm, perhaps I'm voting for the wrong party? We agree on one thing though - government should stay out of people's business.

In the end of it all: Politics schmolitics I say.

Oh woe is me.

2005-08-21T18:38:00.000+12:00

So EQ2 is a major hog. It blue screens on my 5200, it blue screens on 4600 I borrowed. It crashes on older release drivers, it crashes on beta drivers. DAMN YOU COMPUTER INDUSTRY. I just can't keep up. The card that could solve all my problems costs about 300 bucks. Great.

I picked up extra hours next week so I could cover all my loan and bills, now I'll have to spend it on a video card. Waaaat.

Anyways, I'm bored of being poor. If each person donates me 10 bucks, I'd probably have enough money to buy a whole new PC. According to Statcounter anyway.

Of course I could quit Uni and get a full time job except I already have a job that I work 40 hours a week and it'd be a waste of 12 thousand dollars.. Hmmm. The quitter syndrome might strike again!

Damn you computers. You buy a game to keep you from spending money in real world, and then you end up needing to spend money to run the game.

argh.

Paypal button on the left. Because I'm pathetic.

Affinity Constant

2005-08-18T20:59:00.000+12:00

I admire those people that have the dedication to post insightful blogs on almost daily basis. It's either their dedication or just plain ability to word boring happenings into interesting write ups. Whichever it is, /cheer.

I am on Uni holidays now. Turns out I'm broke, so trying to work as many hours as I can grab during these two weeks.

Have switched over to EQ2 from WoW. For about three weeks now, whenever I'd log on to WoW, all I did was chat and faction grind and browse the AH. It just wasn't really fun anymore. I think the server moves are in part to blame - lots of horde left, so not much in the way of AV anymore. Our guild is fairly small as far as 60s go, and some people have been stopping playing too, some moved servers, some got girlfriends, some just got plain bored. Whatever it is, EQ2 is holding my interest a bit more at the moment. Even though I don't have a guild and only know two people on the server, but all the stuff is new, the world is huge and levelling takes longer - so more chances to enjoy the game before it goes stale. Plus there is an expansion coming out already. Either way, nothing lost with WoW - they don't delete your characters when you stop paying: Want to log on? Just give us 15 bucks. That easy. My PC hates EQ2 though, it's a giant hog of a game. Hopefully it'll keep going the way it is with minimum settings, I can't really afford shelling out for a video card and a CPU just this minute. The atmosphere in the game is awesome - all NPCs actually have voice overs, there are even Heather Graham and Christopher Lee. The crafting is really immersive. The ambience sounds like bird chirping and dogs barking really get Piggy going so it's pretty amusing.

I have two assignments to complete by the end of holidays (otherwise I'll be really rushing), both of pharmacokinetics. I don't even know why they put the pharmaco bit in there, because it's all just maths, and not the fun kind. I've been getting so frustrated with them over the past two days, I'm sure I'll give myself an ulcer.

Jenny Craig has finally started working - doing well. Hopefully soon I'll be on half own food and will be able to save myself some money. Still, it's probably cheaper than shopping at the supermarket while eating the same amount.

Mum finally reregistered the car, so now I can have my license plate back. Not sure whether to put it on the scooter or keep it for later. Not sure whether to take a learn to ride course and start riding the scooter or sell it and just put the plate in my room. The course isn't cheap, I almost was going to do it this Saturday, but they said someone had uncancelled their booking and my spot got filled. Now I'm not so sure.

Stargate SG1 is getting better, but still very slow on development. They should have done it like previous seasons - individual stories for half a season, then one big bad guy story. Here they've got bad guys from episode two. Hmm.

Well back to work.

Follow the leader

2005-08-02T18:58:00.000+12:00

Sometimes I wish I had a PDA so I can blog on the fly as stuff happens, much like Rodney Hide - because it seems I often think about writing something in a blog, but by the time I get home and around it, it's already been hanging in my head for so long, it's all moulded (intentional spelling rearrangement) into something new and not so exciting. Or I just get bored with writing the stuff I've already written out in my head.

Uni has been tickey boo as per usual. The chemistry lab course seems to be swings and roundabouts - I have the labs three times a week and look forward to them, and I enjoy it when I get the product I expect. But sometimes, like today for example, I get the scientific equivalent of SFA work done and all my product is washed out and I get 0.002% yield and, well, it's very frustrating and makes me want to give up. I am not one of the most patient people (understatemnt!)

Have been getting lots more into WoW lately - working on an alt, as well as getting faction up on the main. It's enjoyable to know that I enjoy it. Not sure how to explain that one. Kinda like this: When I go to a party and no one talks to me and I feel all alone and wallflower-ish Vs When I choose not to go to a party and am actually physically alone but I don't feel like I'm missing out. Making a conscious choice to do something I enjoy however antisocial it may be seems more painless than trying to do stuff I'm not good at and miserably failing.

Jenny Craig diet isn't going anywhere - apparently I don't drink enough water to move stuff around in my system. I'm not gaining weight, I am not losing weight, atomic clocks could be calibrated by my weight actually. I promised the lady I'd drink more water this week, but I keep forgetting. When I drink water, I feel like it just fills me up all the way to the throat and sits there. Yuck. But I've been trying, will see what's changed on Friday.

A few weeks ago I volunteered to help ACT with their election campaign, so yesterday they've delivered two boxes of pamphlets that I can distribute around my suburb. Will get me walking at least!

I have another test on Monday - not looking forward to this one. Four weeks of physiology lectures are even daunting to think about. But I stressed about the last one and it was over in the end, so should be ok I guess - still don't know the mark yet!

Had a strange conversation with someone the other day - them wondering why the hell I don't have a partner or not looking for one. And I suppose it's kind of odd - me, the epitome of relationship girl, always on the lookout for one, always searching, and then, suddenly, completely opposed to the concept all together. Go figure. I guess I reached my saturation threshold. Enough is enough. Ha!

Just every time I think about a boyfriend I think of someone who will tell me what to wear, what to eat, when to go out, who to go out with, what to say, to exercise, to not choose certain hair colour, to wear skirts. Someone I'll have to spend time with and try to impress - it's not like you can just slide into marriage part of the relationship, you have to flirt and date first. Between uni and work, I have four evenings and one day free. Two of those evenings are good TV nights! And then there's WoW. Ha ha! I don't know, maybe just getting close to someone seems like a waste of time since they'll most likely dump me after eight months anyway - it seems to be the trend, even with friends and jobs.

Anyways, been writing too much - PDA would have increased post count, reduced amount of bologne, but them's the breaks.

Ciao

Days of our lives

2005-07-26T23:19:00.000+12:00

Not much on the news front - same old, same old.

So very much not studying for my test on Friday either, ah well.

Went out to Lindale for ice cream on Sunday afternoon - was a fun drive, love the trip to Lindale, the ice cream was good too.

The strangest thing happened tonight - I was watching Gilmore Girls (as you do) and the scene had a clock in it, and it read 9:12pm. At this point, I glanced over to my laptop and saw that the time was 9:12pm. Eerie, no?

I remember another strange TV related thing - one of the Cold Case episodes has my exact date of birth as one of its case dates at the intro scene.

And on Sunday, in NCIS, the character's last name was only two letters longer than mine and otherwise the same. My surname at that.

Well, so much for spooky, back to WoW.

Repetition and Patience

2005-07-23T09:42:00.000+12:00

I'm finding it somewhat amusing that I don't even remember what I write in my blog - I go to tell someone an original piece of news, only to be greeted with "I already know, I read your blog". This blogging business really eliminates any need for interpersonal relations.

I went to see The Island last night. A bit of a mind fuck of a movie, not too dissimilar from The Matrix. Nice overall, exciting action scenes, good actors, about 40 minutes too long for my attention span. As I do, I spent about 3 hours afterwards thinking about the message in the movie. It didn't feel too good. Just another organ plantation, my body. Maybe that's why I'm not a donor on my driving license. My body is for me, thanks very much. Maybe that's why I don't have life insurance - eliminates the possibility of someone killing me for money. Ooh paranoia, how I love you so.

But yeah, the movie was good. I especially liked the scenes where they showed how product lived day to day. I think I would enjoy such an existance - meals planned, clothes ready, nothing to worry about, everything provided. It's great and ignorance is still bliss.

Only three weeks till the next set of holidays. I have a test next Friday and an assignment due the day before that. I suppose I should make some sort of attempt at getting ready for those two events. Mmmm laziness.

Here's a dilemma: if you had two people whom you'd considered friends, and one told you something in confidence, and then the other one told you the direct opposite (also, in confidence), obviously you couldn't call either of them on it. Thus, how would you find out which one lied and therefore wasn't your friend?

P.S. I've decided there's more to life than belonging to someone. Uh oh, if I keep saying things like that, I might be the one sent to the Island! Danger, danger, Will Robinson!

It's not funny if I have to explain it.

2005-07-18T23:49:00.000+12:00

It's been a bit of a stressful weekend - lots of things happening, lots of thoughts flying through, lots of fights and realisation.

A couple of books I bought off amazon.com have arrived in the mail today - just as well too - The Greatest Gift is almost impossible to read. It must have taken me 3 months now and I'm only half way through. Amanda said she'd be finished with the new Harry Potter by Tuesday, so then I can dig into that. Exciting! Although I already know all the spoilers off the internet - blast.

I became a class rep for my chemistry lab paper today. Apparently it looks good on the tertiary transcript. I guess it would anyways, if we ever received them - the Uni Staff Union have decided to withhold our results - we still know what we got, we just don't have any official proof of what it is. Also, they're striking on Wednesday which just happens to be the day for my four hour lab. So I guess I'll be nice and behind. On the upside, I don't work on Wednesday nights, so I'll have plenty of time during the day/evening to do the things I might enjoy.

I am still in the overdraft this week - seem to always come up with something new to spend money on. Thinking it might be a good idea to get someone else to pay next time! Will try and not go out much.

Watched Taking Lives the other night - Ethan Hawke and Angelina Jolie. It was a director's cut, very gory, very graphic, not a very clear plot line, but Angelina does get naked and puffed up with Ethan.

I've ripped all my CDs now - even the Russian ones. Now what do I do with them? Seems like a waste having them just lie there. Might sell or give them away I guess. Just sold the Dilbert DVDs today. CSI and Angel still to go.

Funny - the day I sell Dilbert DVDs, the Dilbert books arrive in the mail! "It's not funny if I have to explain it" and "The Religion War".

Time for bed.

P.S. He looks so adorable sleeping.

Entertainment Tonight

2005-07-14T11:58:00.000+12:00

Went out to Syn with the usual crowd last night for someone's birthday. Being that it was the usual crowd, a few alcoholic drinks later, most were kissing and some were bearing their skin. Don't know how it always comes down to it. I guess geeks are horny this time of year. It seems to involve more and more people each time. Friday night is promising to be good - someone's apparently hot girlfriend is coming down, and the night will undoubtedly end at Santa Fe. Amusing++

I somehow spent all my money this week, not looking good for entertainment for Lana. I don't like being in the negatives.

Today is a bit of a write off - can't sleep in because work is busy, and time to get up soon to go to Uni, then come back and work some more. Good for the bank balance I suppose. I really want to have a long hot shower, but no time to have it. Will see if I can squeeze it in between coming home from lecture and starting work again.

Also going to see Ghost in the Shell 2 at the Embassy on Friday night, hopefully it's not too boring. A co-worker asked to swap Saturdays this week (so I'll be working 3-11pm), so at least I'll get to sleep in and go to brunch if there is one.

Got Wildheart Vest in a raid last night - four pieces of set armour now. Woot. Was worth staying up for! Even though I was drunk, hungry, followed by hungover and sleepy - it took a few hours you see...

P.S. People have soft hands.

Diels Alder - chasing the arrow

2005-07-11T23:30:00.000+12:00

I have thirty minutes before I finish work, and some people are clammering for an update (got knows why, it's not like I'm a literary genius!), so I thought I'd oblige.

This is the second week of Uni now. The chemistry labs are quite fun - fully autonomic, do what you want, follow the lab notebook, just ask for help if you need to. Feel like I've been chucked into a giant pool and I haven't learned my backstroke!

So, now I'm having yet another ICQ argument (or fun-filled discussion if you may), I seem to have them fairly often now, so the next few paragraphs are probably just me venting.

Recently I've been learning a lot of new interesting definitions: new meaning of what friends are, and new meaning of fun is, and new meaning of what kissing actually entails. It's all very amusing. Feels like I've been living under a rock while they've updated the dictionary. Turns out you don't tell your friend everything, turns out you can kiss people you don't want to go out with just for fun, and turns out if a guy doesn't speak to you for a day he might just be shy or busy and not uninterested.

I always thought a friend was someone you could tell anything, someone who would come to your rescue at a drop of a hat, someone who would confide in you any time any place. And everyone else is just mates. But hey newsflash, turns out you don't have to tell friends everything. *Shrug* I'd rather not have any friends if I have to put restrictions on my friendship output. Seems safer that way.

Safer and cuddly and warm and soft at home, fire, or blanky, a nice hug, warm hands to hold, wouldn't that be nice. Danger, Will Robinson, Danger, thought derailment! Damn, can't even be depressed properly. Was all cheery this morning, skipping down the road to the bus stop with my iPod. What can really be happier than iPod Walking? It's a gadget of divinity! Like strawberries and cream, like salmon from Zibbibo, like mashed potato on a stormy night; is it wrong that most nice things I can think of are food? Damn you, Jenny Craig!

I think I've watched far too many romantic movies in my time. I need to see Closer until my eyes bleed and I get this stupid notion of Prince Charming out of my head. Gah, I just want flowers and cuddles. Damn you, Hollywood!

Woot, home time! (oh wait... I am home). Still.

P.S. Tiny acts of romance from people you're actually interested in are much more fun than receiving three bouquets on Valentine's Day and none of them from the people you want.

Rollercoaster vs Train

2005-07-06T00:17:00.000+12:00

I am sitting in the Number 18 bus at 8.30 on a Tuesday morning. Chemistry lecture isn't too far away now.

As we come to the roundabout where the fate is decided between Number 18 and Number 12 routes, our driver takes the wrong turn. Instead of going through the roundabout again, he carries on the Number 12 route until he comes to a blind corner on the main road. It's at this opportune moment that he decides to make a U-turn in the peak hour traffic. He turns, he backs, we stop.

Rush hour traffic. Main road. Bus blocks the entire passage way by virtue of being stuck half way into a hill. The battery is dead. The bus is firmly embedded in the foliage. People start laughing. It's at this moment that we decide that this is the most amusing thing that has happened in weeks, and are quite stimulated by its happening. The bus driver can't be feeling too good about now. Half of the bus's population departs.

Luckily for us, a truck pulls over with some ropes, and they manage to get the bus out of its comfy picnic area. Poor bus, it really liked the frolicking in the bush.

Surprisingly I still get to the lecture on time. Fun. Aromaticity and Diels Alder cannot be missed.

Five of my friends have recently entered into relationships. I passed all my first trimester papers. I got the work hours I wanted. I've been really enjoying Gilmore Girls. Been at Uni only two days and already it feels like three weeks. Amanda claims to not hate me afterall. I've got a beautiful bunch of tulips in the lounge. The flu seems to be getting better.

So, overall, I guess, everything is on the up and up. It's a rollercoaster. Trains are so much more peaceful.

P.S. girls are soft.

Enough bullshit for one day?

2005-05-03T19:26:00.000+12:00

0730: Alarm goes off, I turn it off.
0830: Wake up realising I just missed the bus to my nine o'clock lecture.
0920: Go in with Amanda to 10am lecture.
1100: Have 2 hours break before my lab. Realise I should have skipped the 10am class.
1215: Order a toasted bagel with cream cheese and salmon from a local cafe.
1245: Inquire as to what happened to the above mentioned bagel. The order was lost.
1500: Realise that I am pouring the wrong chemical into my sample, ruin the lab results for me and my partner.
1540: The lab instructor visibly cringes as I approach him to ask a question.
1615: Finish early, catch a bus to Karori.
1646: At the Karori bus stop. The bus up the hill should be here at 1648.
1651: Ok, the next bus up the hill should be here at 1728, I'll go buy some food.
1720: Pretty cold, raining, getting dark.
1730: Ok, next bus up the hill should be at 1741.
1748: Flatmate arrives on one of the buses from town and goes shopping for food.
1802: Flatmate returns.
1810: The bus up the hill arrives.
1815: The bus gets eggs thrown at it. The driver won't shut up.
1835: Spend 20 minutes in the shower, trying to boil off my skin in disgust at the day.

Bought the new chilli tim tams today. They're shit.

Whether weather withers.

2005-04-25T00:35:00.000+12:00

Saturday evening I saw a massive rainbow. It was mesmerising, going all the way from ground to ground, stretching across the sky, in some places doubling with pieces of another rainbow. I ran upstairs to show Amanda, then stared at it some more. I made a wish. I think for the first time in my life I made a wish that had nothing to do with love or money.

I ran downstairs to get the camera but rainbows are a fleeting phenomenon I guess because the pictures didn't come out all that great.

At three in the morning I woke up from the house acting the role of a battlefield. The hail hit the worst in Christchurch and Karori, it said on the news.

It's been raining all day. Around dinner time I was a whimpering mess because of all the lightning and thunder. Amanda was no comfort - she says she loves thunder and electric storms.

I've been like the weather all weekend. On second thought, I should not have strayed from my wish making traditions.

New Look

2005-04-22T22:22:00.000+12:00

Who needs smarts anyways

2005-04-16T23:44:00.000+12:00

I keep getting nose bleeds. Especially after interesting things happen. First raid in WoW - nose bleed, seeing a band live at the Carter Observatory - nose bleed, a friend comes to visit and brings flowers - nose bleed.

In the last week and a bit I've been doing all sorts of retarded things. Not necessarily the things others would notice, but I notice and it's annoying. Things you realise you're screwing up only a few seconds after the fact.

Normally if I screw up something or don't know how to do something, I know that.
Somehow now I've lost that knowing capacity - my brain and body have gone through a merger and made me a silent partner in this venture. No one tells me anything anymore!

I almost missed my bus stop the other day because I was floating off somewhere into an aerie faerie world. I spelled the word 'from' with an 'e' at the end and was absolutely certain that it was the correct spelling for about a minute. I was presented with a list of two items and I knew I wanted to do the things in the order they were presented, yet, somehow, I replied "Let's do that in reverse order". When asked to confirm, I was like "No! We do the first one first and the latter one last, don't you understand?!" I was pouring water from a larger bottle into a smaller one and then spent a couple minutes afterwards trying to cap the bigger bottle with the smaller lid.

Brain damage, it's a gift that keeps on giving. Order yours today!

Pointless advice

2005-04-11T15:53:00.000+12:00

I was listening to my iPod on Shuffle mode as Aaliyah's song came on.

If at first you don’t succeed
You can dust it off and try again
Dust yourself off and try again, try again
Cause if at first you don’t succeed
You can dust it off and try again
You can dust it off and try again, try
again (and again)

And I was all like "Yeah, I can get my bike fixed and I'll be on the road again, and yeah, I'll meet some cute spunk that won't be dumb and boring and I'll be really happy, fuck yeah!"

And then I realised that I was listening to a song written by a woman who died in her 20s. Yeah.

here's a cute kitten.

Sticks and Stones

2005-04-08T23:07:00.000+12:00

Second hand 18 year old scooter on Trademe: $650
Brand new HJC helmet from Wellington Motorcycles: $150
Paving the road with your skin as you go for a ride first time in your life: Priceless

Yes, I bought a scooter. Yes, I crashed it the first time I took it outside.
Fantastic really.

I was fine for the 10 or so minutes along all the dodgy roads coming up to the main road, indicating, turning, accelerating, braking. All the things one does when on the road. At the final intersection (after which I had planned to park and get a coffee), for some reason, the scooter didn't turn when I turned, and it didn't slow down even though I wasn't throttling. It sped up. I freaked. I put my foot down and bailed. Just as well though, because I am told that hitting a parked car head on would have been much worse than scraping my face along the road at 30 km/h.

Plus, I don't have insurance yet, so I would be even more out of pocket. ACC only cost me 23 dollars. And all the doctors and nurses were lovely. The scooter didn't seem to get damaged, but I think it was fucked to start with. Now looking at it, the front wheel points in a different direction from the handle bars. Would have paid to notice that sooner.

I got sent home after about an hour of cleaning up at Karori Medical Centre. A good friend came over to pick me up and stayed with me all day and most of the evening, until my flatmate came home from work and took over. Apparently, with head injuries, the first 24 hours are kinda dodgy. So the flatmate had to come in through the night to wake me up and make sure I'm not in a coma. But nope, still alive.

The giant bump on my forehead has come down in the last two days. Yesterday I woke up aching all over as if I'd been working out at the gym. Today I woke up with a black eye. The internet sneaks into my room at night and bashes me up.

I could get cast into a Once Were Warriors movie. "She comes with her own make up!".

I had quite a nose bleed at the time of the accident. I'm like "All this blood, damn". Just when I thought I was feeling better today, I got two more nose bleeds. Blood pouring everywhere. The sink will never feel the same. Luckily, a friend was over to mop up my pathetic. (I hereby dub the word pathetic a noun)

I went out to the movies tonight. I couldn't take the scooter because I have to avoid head injury for at least 3 weeks. I took the bus and then walked a bit. It's funny seeing people glance up and then quickly look away. "Move along people, hideous beast coming through!".

Uni starts on Monday. That should be interesting. Not just because of Battered Wife symptoms I'll be exhibiting but because thinking is an effort. The nurse said "Don't think too hard". I can't concentrate on stuff, and playing WoW I have to take a rest every few minutes. Just as well I sit on my bed. Good luck for the tests, dear Lana. Just as well you dropped that paper that has the test on Monday.

I do wonder why this always happens to me though. First, Chris and the Germany fiasco, then lack of finances and the brink of bankruptcy, then ploughing the road with my face. I live to serve others as a warning. A friend said the other day "You know I just realised that if I buy this new engine for my car, I'll probably kill myself with it". Well, I'm glad you realised that, dear friend, now let me get back to moping.

Still, I got flowers and lots of Lucosade, jelly beans and chocolate, so can't complain too much. Plus, it appears that I won't be needing collagen or botox injections for a while now.

blogger hates me

2005-04-08T22:58:00.000+12:00

yep sure does.

Strange dreams

2005-04-06T00:28:00.000+12:00

So, two guys walk into a bar.

The first one says: "Hey do you want to have sex with me?"
and the second replies: "Yeah man! That would really teach her!"

G1: "Do you want to be the giver or the receiver?"
G2: "Let's book that motel room across the road!"

And the next day they were both wearing pink flanelette t-shirts that said "Haha we fucked!"

...

I've got nuthin.

It's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife

2005-04-04T00:47:00.000+12:00

Funny that this post comes straight after the big rant about how depression is all in your head. Well, it still is. The big hole that is starting to suck in small objects in my immediate vicinity is all in my head. Snap snap snap out of it, you stupid ho.

Oh holy night...

2005-04-01T16:20:00.000+12:00

*gah*, I wrote a whole new entry and the old one came back.. The world is laughing at me.
and I dont' know why the fonts all go funny when I use block quotes, so I'm sorry if you got 7 copies of all the articles now. No more blogging today! bzzzz head buzzing out from frustration.

Love, Hate and the Balance between the two

2005-04-01T13:54:00.000+12:00

Woah, Woman, oh woman, don't treat me so mean
You're the meanest old woman that I've ever seen
I guess if you said so
I'd have to pack my things and go (That's right)

(Hit the road, Jack and don't you come back no more, no more, no more, no more)
(Hit the road, Jack and don't you come back no more)
What you say?
(Hit the road, Jack and don't you come back no more, no more, no more, no more)
(Hit the road, Jack and don't you come back no more)

Don't know why that song creeped up into my head today for some reason. Probably due to the latest email from Ticketek offering a discount on The Brother Ray The Concert.

But it's a good song, is it not. So catchy, yet so topical.

You know I spent all night agonizing about this blog I was going to write. I wake up I think of what I'll write, I brush my teeth I think what I'll write, I watch Dr Phil I think what I'll write.

Isn't Dr Phil the most dreadful show in existence?! I can see how someone can slip into a permanent vegatative state just from watching this one day time programme. I can totally see how one would get depression from this TV gem.

Depression is so bullshit though. I was going to write this big blog about how I'm depressed and nobody loves me and the people I hit on don't like me and the people I don't like hit on me and how it's all so cruel and full of unhappy vibes. *big breath* And how I was looking forward to Friday because it's my day off and I was going to dress up all pretty and go out to town and have some drinks and enjoy the company of good friends but now that I think of it my good friends are not all that great and I kinda had a fight with all of them and I might as well stay in bed and drink Tequila all day. *big breath* (note the deliberate absence of commas).
But then I thought: "Geez, woman, harden up!"

You know what I love? My iPod. I haven't listened to it (ie any music) for about four days and I slipped into this caustic, trouble causing, self deprecating, trouble maker. And the minute that Ray Charles song popped into my head and I googled for it, the .wav made me all chirpy again. Psychiatrists shouldn't prescribe Prozac or Aropac, they should prescribe a dose of Get the fuck out of the house and a dash of Listen to some happy tunes. There, aren't you all better now.

You know what I hate? That boys and girls can't really be friends. It is my expert opinion that unless one of the friends to be is in a relationship or gay, no simple fun friendship can come of it. Why? well I think it's because if you enjoy spending time with someone and have conversations with them, then the first thing you're going to think about is that you're attracted to them. Or they will think it towards you. Now there are two options - both of you think that, resulting in a bf/gf situation. Or only one of you thinks that and the other is the rejector (I can just see Thor saying Replicators here for some reason) then instantly the friendship isn't simple nor fun. If you were the rejectee, and the other person still wants to "hang", then you always think about how one day they might change their mind. If you were the reject0r, then you're always thinking "are they hanging out with me because they're hoping I will change my mind one day". Strain! Torsional Strain! Angular Strain! 1,3-Diaxial Interactions! (that's me missing my chemistry, don't mind me)

I don't really know where I was going with that. I'd like to have a friend with whom I can talk for hours, drink coffee during the week, get pissed on Fridays, rollerblade on Saturdays, and eat eggs on Sundays. I want a friend that will give me hugs and won't freak out if I give him presents. The amount of output I want from a friend is equivalent to that of a boyfriend. But I don't want a boyfriend. I want to be able to do what I like to do and not be told the things I need to change all the time. And I don't want the emotional commitment and drama that the gf/bf relationships seem to entail. Maybe I need a gay friend. Holy crap, maybe I've caught the Gay myself!

Right, anyhu, I keep thinking I should get out and meet new people but I think fuck, what an effort.
That reminds me of something else. The word effort, someone wrote about it in their blog today and I remembered. I must have missed some English lesson because my definition of the word effort seems to be different to everyone else. There was a German class I was at, and in that class no words were allowed to be translated into English. Every new word had to be explained in German. So we come across this word for effort. And the teacher starts explaining it with "it's a good thing that you do when you want to achieve something". And I'm like "Woman, are you on crack? Effort is something you want to avoid. If something requires effort, then it's not worth doing". There we have it then, the definition of the word effort with Lana filter placed on it.

If you enjoy doing it, it can't possibly be effort. Even if it's hard, it's not effort. One of my mottos is "If the effort exceeds the reward, then it's not worth doing". And it's nothing to do with being lazy, I don't think. Take school for example, I fucking love doing the assignments and various tasks they set for us. I get nothing for it but the mark they give me afterwards. But in that instance the reward exceeds effort. Effort = bad. If it's fun, it's not effort. Remember that kids next time you moan about how something was effortless. Challenging is not the same as effort.

Why am I still going on about this? I don't even know.
Oh wait, I remember, my point was I want new friends but it's too much effort to go out and find them. Someone said you've gotta kiss a lot of frogs before you find the prince, and I said "But what if prince doesn't spawn in this area?" and I like my pond, I'm not moving from it yet. Think I'll just chuck all the frogs outside and enjoy the calm waters all by myself for a while.

Bums0red

2005-04-01T07:47:00.000+12:00

Cured!

2005-03-30T08:01:00.000+12:00

You know how when you have a cold, and one day you wake up and you can breathe through your nose again? Damn, it feels good to be a criminal. All it required was some caustic soda and I'm back on track of sanity. I'm free!

Oh, mother dear, we sadly fear our mittens we have lost. What! Lost your mittens, You naughty kittens! Then you shall have no pie.

Ah euphemisms and metaphors, my dear friends, how you confuse all around me.

The weather suits my mood today, it's nice and cosy in my bed. The only problem with typing a blog from the bed is that you actually have to sit up otherwise you keep writing things like "banana" instead of "apple". Well, not really, but you know what I mean.

I got another package from Germany last night. More clothes I'll never wear, some CDs I forgot I had, my drawing books, and even a soft cuddly toy I got given. I was surprised at the latter, but come to think of it, he probably forgot the sentimental value it had and just threw it in with the rest of junk while cleaning out the apartment.

Now I'm just waiting on stuff from Amazon.com and some stuff I bought on TV. Waiting is so OCD. I should really get some more bricks.

I had a really nice curry at Daawat last night. Not one I've had before. Something sabzi. It was very disgustingly green. Vegetables (capsicum, broccoli, tomato) in a spinach creamy sauce. It was very delicious. I felt like a rightful piggie. Oink oink.

Did I mention how pretty Norah Jones was? She was quite funny too, telling us stories of her Sesame St performance, but I can't really repeat it - you had to be there.

Think I'm gonna go back to bed now and watch the rain fall.

Norah Jones concert was good.

2005-03-29T22:58:00.000+12:00

Oh my, is she ever so pretty. And so humble. She speaks softly, sings strongly, and I am smitten. Gotta say, live concerts are full of awesome experiences.

Come away with me in the night
Come away with me
And I will write you a song

Come away with me on a bus
Come away with me where they can't tempt us
With their lies

I want to walk with you
On a cloudy day
In fields where the yellow grass grows
knee kigh
So won't you try to come

Come away with me and we'll kiss
On a mountain top
Come away with me
And I'll never stop loving you

And I want to wake up with the rain
Falling on a tin roof
While I'm safe there in your arms
So all I ask is for you
To come away with me in the night
Come away with me

Insane in the brain

2005-03-29T15:26:00.000+12:00

My name is Lana, I am 25, I enjoy reading, and I suffer from chronic crush syndrome.

That is, I get little crushes on just everyone I meet. "Oh he looked at me with a smile, I must get him to fall in love with me", "Oh my, she really looks hot in that top, I wonder if I could kiss her", "oh dear, that man offered me a lift, I must seduce him".
And it's not like I would follow through with it or anything, most of the time I show no outward symptoms even, just it dominates my thinking space for about two days and then I'm over it.

It's very much like a case of common cold, thrush, or mondayitis. It's there, it's annoying, then it's gone, and you don't even remember having had it.

Ridicilous, I know. I urgently require a frontal lobotomy. I hear an ice pick above the eye ball can do the job.

I finally have forced myself to finish off the lab report that is due on April Fools. One more responsibility removed from the shadow hanging over my holidays. Now I can lie in bed and do nothing all day and not feel guilty.

My god! Do you know how painful it is to do nothing all day? I have no idea how people manage it day in, day out. But then again, it's half past three in the afternoon and I still haven't got out of bed. So I guess I am not doing too badly.

I am going to the Norah Jones concert tonight. Geoff gave me a ticket for my birthday, remember?

I have only been to one other music performance before and it was Faithless in Auckland.

Of course, I've been to plenty of ballets and philarmonic orchestra concerts in my time (thanks Grandma!), but that's not exactly the same. A live singing performance has the possibility to disappoint. I hope it's good though.

Still trying to buy a scooter on trademe, and to sell my angel dvds. No luck so far, but who knows, the universe undulates in strange patterns. Time will tell. Unless I do get this frontal lobotomy, in which case time will stop being a significant concept.

Mmmmm Braaaaainnnnsssss...

This post had no title (How naughty!)

2005-03-24T15:10:00.000+12:00

Stereomatic

2005-03-20T16:03:00.000+12:00

It took me four hours to fix id3 tags on my meagre mp3 collection. This was compounded by the facts that my laptop had been taken away and I had to do this on my PC which only has the slow USB port, not to mention I couldn't figure out how to transfer the mp3s to the iPod for the first hour or so, and finally, I realised I had set the wrong id3 tags on half of them and I had to start it all again.

That is one very long sentense, and trust me, I have no desire to go back and fix the grammar!
To cut the long sentence short, I got all my mp3s onto the iPod and am listening to them as I blog.

Have you ever noticed that when you listen to sounds with the headphones, it feels like the voice is coming from inside your head?? Gives the phrase "hearing voices" a whole new meaning.
I like the Kill Bill soundtracks. The mix of Japanese songs, classical composers and oldies but goodies is astounishing.

Finally finished watching Stargate SG-1 season 8. Pretty awesome show really - Space McGyver gets funnier and funnier with every episode.

The four final episodes of the season were my postprandial entertainment after I made a semi-large effort to cook the Sunday Brunch. Scrambled eggs, avocado, port cheddar, spinach, salmon spread on bread, a cup of coffee, Sunday Star Times. It's become a sort of tradition with me - Sunday is the day of rest. And I don't need any dogma to tell me that. Just the other day on Breakfast, they had some guest speakers proclaiming that our world has been speeding up too much, that people ought to slow down and take in the life. Sundays are just for that. Later on tonight I plan to cook pasta with a flavour of sauce I haven't tried before, and sip on white wine.

In Maori, when people want to say "How's the weather today?", they say "How does the earth feel today?". The word beautiful has many more meanings that at first perceived. In the Vampire the Masquerade rules, there are Toreador. It's a clan of vampires (bear with me here) that "get off" on all things aesthetic. They love things that look good, taste good, feel good. To the point that they can enter a torpor if filled with too much beauty.
"Toreador are alternately elegant and flamboyant, brilliant and ludicrous, visionary and dissipated. Perhaps the only truism that can be applied to the clan is its members' aesthetic zeal. Whatever a Toreador does, she does with passion. Whatever a Toreador is, she is with passion."

By the way, that Maori tidbit I learned from Emilie Le Strange article in Salient. She's a brilliant writer - funny, articulate, eloquent. Pity I can't link to any of her latest work because Salient haven't updated their web publications this year.

Air is a good background soundtrack to writing.
That stat counter I installed on my blog was a bad idea - the attention whore within me was devastated: only four people read my blog.

On the upside, I can rant on about whatever the hell I want and not have to suffer the repercussions of QuadLaser. I like writing. I like it for two reasons and two reasons only - firstly, I like the movement of my fingers on the keyboard - the constant fluid motion that translates into something legible; secondly, I enjoy words - words that are big, words that are descriptive, words that can paint a picture, a thought. Spot my Dictionary Word of the Day in this blog and win a minute of satisfaction.

On the other hand, the attention that a blog may bring is nice too, although, obviously in my case is non-existant.

I am trying to learn how to play Fur Elise on the piano. So far I can play the right hand part fairly ok, but cannot quite combine it with the left hand part. I figure if I can type 60 words a minute, I should be able to manage the piano. Just gotta practice. The problem here is that when you practice the piano, the whole surrounding area of Timbaktu can hear your failures.

Something else to work on.

Delicious apples

2005-03-18T17:52:00.000+13:00

In all my infinite wisdom, I went and bought an iPod today. Really, it's all our lecturer's fault - he didn't show up, leaving me with a three hour break till my lab. The only reasonable resolution was to go shopping!

Amanda and I went down to town, oggled over the cheap iPods at Dick Smiths, made the shop assistant run around a little, and decided to leave. Then we went to Glassons and I bought this jacket/top that would just absolutely look awesome with white headphone wires, so.... I went back and got the iPod! Then I went and bought another warm top at Portmans, so overall not a bad day.

The spectrometry lab was extra fun - with IR spectra to analyze, I feel like a real lab technician now, I could even work at CSI NY. (That's the plan anyhu: A job at New York, mini cooper, and a summer villa on the beach of Naples). I shoot for the stars, so if I miss, I can still land on the Moon.

Mum's birthday is next Tuesday, and then Amanda's birthday dinner is on Wednesday (her birthday is actually on Easter Monday but she's going back to Taupo for that). So I have to think of a couple of presents! Thought of a couple of things for Amanda, but whenever I point anything out, she either doesn't like it or doesn't like the price, tough lady, I'll have to think harder.

The 209 test is on Wednesday, I'd better study! And the assignment for the same paper is the day after that! Ouch. All this work. But then I get two weeks break over easter and into April, so that's pretty sweet. Thinking of heading to Christchurch since Qantas are having a sale on - 49 dollars one way, pretty cheap if you ask me.

Didn't go to the movies tonight - first time I get to be home on a Friday this year. I am looking forward to just chilling out, cooking a nice dinner, and taking some time to relax. Work again tomorrow, so I don't get much of a weekend anyways.

Can't wait to unpack my iPod and give it a whirl :D

Selling ice to eskimos

2005-03-17T16:47:00.000+13:00

In an effort to get some extra cash, I signed up for the Avon Reseller programme. This is a process where I show you booklets of wonderful make-up and jewellery and gifts and various other womanly niceties, and you, my dear customer, say: "Ooh ooh, yes please, I'd like 2 of these and some of those!". Then I get enough customers to warrant 75 dollars worth of goods and send off the order to Avon, they send the stuff, I collect the money, pay Avon, keep the margin. Rinse and repeat. Sounds easy. They sent me all sorts of great brochures and samples and ideas, and I'm very keen, but the concept breaks down when one realises the following things:

1. 95% of the people I am acquainted with are male.
2. 98% of those men wouldn't even use a deodorant when asked nicely.
3. The 5% that are women are either full time studends and poor or don't use such products.

Yes, my business will be taking off in no time! NOT.

So yes, if you know anyone who would be interested in some Avon stuff, send them my way, STAT.

In other news, I won $100 at www.18tracker.com
I was pretty stoked, now just to wait for the cheque in the mail!

Still on the topic of money and selling things, I am trying to offload my collection of Angel, so that I can, barring a free gift from a mysterious stranger, acquire my very own iPod. The Angel DVDs are up on TradeMe.

I have a Proteins and Enzymes test on Wednesday. I am somewhat nervous because it appears I don't know much on the topic. In fact, I should be studying this very momeny, but, as is customary with such things, I am procrastinating.

I read a fair few blogs around the place and I find that not everyone can take the most meaningless boring day and still turn it into an interesting to read blog. I often wonder how that can be accomplished, but unfortunately successfull writers are usually too busy to answer my innane questions. I suppose all I can do is keep writing, or stop writing. I've installed a counter on my blog, so at least I can keep track of my virtual stalkers. Should be interesting to see what pans out - for all I know I am talking into an empty ether, in which case I might be able to write about things more personal, mwuahaha!

Meh, there's nothing to write about really now - I had all these bright ideas, but because I've already thought about them, I can't be bothered writing them out again. I have a phobia of repetition.

Obsession

2005-03-13T13:06:00.000+13:00

The weather is beautiful today in the capital of New Zealand. So beautiful even that I cannot bring myself to doing anything. I opened a beer (Monteiths Pilsner if you must know) and sat on the deck, taking in the smells and sounds of breeze, sunshine, and twenty odd degrees.

Butterflies hanging around flowers, a flock of birds camping our TV aerial, the air so clear that I can see to the other side of the harbour. Ahhh if only I had something to do that involved outside. Playing WoW on such a day seems a herecy. So instead I'll blog.

I made a really delicious breakfast this morning. I mashed up a can of salmon, avocado, hard boiled eggs, mayonnaise, and some salt and lemmon pepper. Stuffed that concoction into pita pockets and added some fancy lettuce (the stuff that comes loose in bags). It was delicious with a cup of coffee and some music videos on TV.

Read the Sunday Star Times. Raybon Kan hasn't been funny since he got back from Thailand, or maybe it's because of his laser eye surgery - the world just isn't all that funny unless you have astigmatism? The first page of the Focus section told me that everyone has an iPod and how people should stop their own soundtracks to life and tune in to the sounds of the real going-ons.

Well, to me it just seemed like an ironic ad for the iPod. You see, for the past two weeks or so, every waking moment of my day I spent day dreaming about an iPod. It's an obsession. All I want is a little mp3 player with white headphones and a turny wheel and a piece of software that will magically move my mega mp3 collection onto this device. I think of you, my iPod, every day. I dream of you. My unrequited love growing stronger with every hour.

*ahem* Yes, my name is Lana, and I have a crush on a hardware device. If anyone is so rich and famous that they can gift me one, my address is 25 Alanbrooke Pl, Karori, Wellington, New Zealand, Planet Earth. That's right - Earth, where dreams may come true. Insert a Tui ad here.

*sigh* In other news, I have dropped the second major in my degree. One of the required papers for it is Cell and Developmental Biology, and in the first two weeks they taught me about genes named Bad, Wingless, and Sonic Hedgehog. I shit you not. This was followed up by such concepts as Programmed Cell Death, Destined to Differentiate, and Knows where it'll end up. No one told me that this paper had a prerequisite of Philosophy or Theology. Needless to say it didn't compute and I could do with less time at Uni anyhow. So, now you're looking at the proud one of 15 will-be graduates of Molecular Pharmacology and Medicinal Chemistry major.

That reminds me of another snag in my evil plan - in the paper today I noticed a short blurb about P making. The government (or its Medical Ministry of some sort) is about to approve the change from pseudoephedrine cold&flu medicines to the ones that don't contain it. Specifically so that there is a reduction in the methamphetamine manufacturing. There goes my idea of a mobile P lab as a summer job!

I got myself a little bit of a jobby, 32 hours a week, paying 10 dollars an hour. It's not much, but together with the student loan living expenses, I think I might be able to afford to pay my huge Credit card and Personal loan bills and avoid bankruptcy! Hooray for me. Also applied for a job at the Wellington MedLab, it's only on Sundays, but a great foot in the door of the industry I'm heading for. Let's all cross our toes and hope I get it.

I think that's about it as far as recent events go. Oh yes, I went to see Closer. Fantastic movie, albeit lots of people don't like it. In fact, most people I went to see it with said "so what's it really about?" I guess that's the beauty of it - the movie is just a look in the mirror. There is no plot as such, no great big message, no moral. Just a bunch of people that get together. Funnily, one of the scenes in the movie was almost identical to one of the scenes I lived in Germany. It was amusing for its similarity, but sad for its deja vu. Bad relationships are what people do best. At the end you realise that everyone is just like you anyways - human mind tends towards the dramatic.

The best line in the movie: Lying is the most fun a girl can have without taking her clothes off.

Memes

2005-02-28T07:37:00.000+13:00

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123
3. Find the fifth full sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
5. Don't search around for the coolest book you can find. Do what's actually nearest to you.

"And the director had nominated an art teacher to help them find a mythical fraternity of Satanists"- Angels and Demons by Dan Brown

University Life

2005-02-27T11:51:00.000+13:00

So the University year has begun and, as promised, I bring you a blog update. The problem with irregular blog updates is that you never know what to write. One could write the highlights of the day, the musings of the mind, or just plain old "I did nothing excited the whole week" speel.

It's sort of like when you have a friend or a relative you haven't seen in years, and then you realise you have nothing to talk about anymore; and not because you are no longer interested in the same things, but because you two have no longer similar points of discussions. You don't know their friends, they don't know. Your lives are worlds apart, and, well, literally, they are. That sentence has far too many commas, but I think they're grammatically well placed.

Aaaanyways, perhaps if I just start with whatever comes to mind, I will eventually have something to blog about.

Uni has been pretty hectic. My timetable is full - start at 9am, finish at 6pm, five days a week. There are such annoying things as 4 hour breaks on Monday and Wednesday, and you may notice me blogging at those hours from the Uni computers, when I'm supposed to be doing some homework I bet. I tried bringing my laptop into uni (they've just installed a wireless network), but the hassle of carrying two bags on a full bus, followed by complete lack of information on how to get wireless going or who's responsible for its support proved to be an exercise in futility. And besides, the internet usage on wireless gets charged to the uni computer account anyways, so I'm just as well off using the PCs already provided.

The first day was stressfull because I was there for hours and hours and learned nothing. First day is administrative really - they tell us when the labs/tutorials/exams are and how much we need to apply ourselves to pass. Of course that usually takes only half a lecture and then the professors start on the first topic, so it's a good idea to actually go. Still, half of the class don't, and then the lecturer has to repeat the same stuff on the next day. Good god, how I hate repitition. I don't even watch movies more than once.

The lecturers I have this trimester are really an international cast - we have german, british, australian, canadian; one wonders if this brain drain is for real. But I guess while our teachers are running off for greener overseas pastures, their international counterparts are coming here. So it's not so much of a drain as a swirling of knowledge in the great cup that is Earth.

I managed to get my books for free from my flatmate. He did a similar degree a few years ago and kept the books - so now he's let me borrow them. Although I don't know how much reading I will be doing. Just like last year, the lecture notes are provided and one should only really consult the books if one fails to understand the topic. I do have a lab report due on Tuesday though, I should really do something about that.

Oh that's right - the lab! I got to do IVF on sea urchins. Lovely creatures, I was rather upset that they let them die afterwards, but such is science I suppose. My sea urchin eggs were fertilised by the sperm from the male sea urchins. They progressed well for a couple of days, but unfortunately they all died on Friday. Other people's ones are still swimming around. Luckily I don't get marked on the vitality of my sample. I have to write all about it by Tuesday and draw lots of pictures. I did some work already and I guess I'll finish it off in the four hour gap on Monday. Hopefully I don't start the year off with failing everything. This is the first time I am doing something for longer than a year - usually I bail out at about 8 to 10 months of being in a relationship, on a job, in a flat, etc. Time will tell I guess.

The guys are organising some sort of brunch thing because the WoW servers are down, so I'd better get dressed and get going.

Ciao (I so want to learn Italian)

Feedreader

2005-02-27T11:19:00.000+13:00

The other day I was lead to a discovery of Feedreader - the RSS reader of feeds. Instead of vising various websites every day, checking, hoping that they have posted something new, you run this program in your systray and if it spots some update, it lets you know just like an email program.

Of course, at that point I needed various feeds to test out the new fandangly holdy bendy technology stuff, so I trawled the 2005 Bloggies for suitable candidates.

The following is a list of feeds that rose up to the challenge:

Defective Yeti
Dooce
Penny Arcade
Real E Fun
RodneyHide.com
Geese Aplenty
Dictionary.com Word of the Day

there are a few others but they won't be as interesting for someone who doesn't know the authors personally.

So you see, it's pretty easy for me now to keep up with the sites I like to visit but don't have the attention span to visit every day. They now visit me! hooray...

The three people (by my calculations) that read my blog should definitely go and read those others.

#define PICTURES 1000words

2005-02-16T12:36:00.000+13:00

I just realised that having got my camera cable back, I can actually use the camera. I have no idea why I didn't consider this in the last three weeks!

As you may or may not know, 14th of February was Valentine's Day. I got flowers! here's proof:

In other news, I blew up my PC monitor. I don't actually know how it happened, I must have looked at it funny and then there was a bit of a buzz, a bit of a smell, and no more picture...

I tried to recycle it with the aid of my cunning disguise:

but the outcome was somewhat disappointing:

I'm So Ronery
I'm so ronery
So ronery
So ronery and sadry arone

There's no one
Just me onry
Sitting on my rittle throne
I work very hard and make up great prans
But nobody ristens, no one understands
Seems that no one takes me serirousry

And so I'm ronery
A little ronery
Poor rittre me

Quartercentarian

2005-02-02T00:20:00.000+13:00

so no updates for a long time, huh?
that's because nothing's been happening worthy of my typing prowess.

I did have a birthday and I got old and I had a birthday party and got lots of presents and affection from friends. It was three thumbs up.

I did quit my soul destroying supermarket job. It was fantastic.

I did lose five kilos, and god knows how that happened, but it must be a good thing.

I did realise I need no man to complete me - no one to whinge about my choice of music or TV channel, no one to nag me to go to the gym, no one to tell me what to wear, no one to tell me what to eat. I can watch stargate for 8 hours a day, or play WoW two night in a row, and no one can say anything to me that will make me feel inferior. It's supercalifragilisticexpealidocius.

Of course the minute I say that, I'll get 5 cards for Valentine's Day in the mail just to irritate me. I guess I'll start practicing the art of rejection I never learnt.

There will probably be more updates as Uni starts, but for now it's pretty much just laxing out in the sun and enjoying things. I have Angels and Demons to read as well, it sounds more interesting than Da Vinci Code was.

Here's a funny link for those with no heart.

Witches Abroad

2005-01-16T15:34:00.000+13:00

Work last night was kinda amusing. In that stressfull, far too busy, shop full of retards way.

I got there at five pm, and the queue was non stop till 7.30 when I got to go on my break. There were so many people that we had all the check outs open and the queues reached the bread isle.

But of course everyone would come shopping at once. Probably the warmest sunniest day in the last 5 months and everyone goes shopping. Yep, sure makes sense.

Some customers deserve a special note. The rabbit lady was back. She owns 13 rabbits, and lives by herself. She comes into to shop and also gets free leftover leaves from produce. I fear this is going to be my romantic fate in not too many years.

Then there was the gittery man knob that can never make up his mind, talks too much and swears like a sailor. His card wouldn't swipe in the next checkout over. He swore and swore and tried and tried. I gave up paying attention. Then he comes over to my checkout, buys a paper, and the card swipes fine. So I ask him if he wants to get some cash out to pay for the groceries he couldn't pay for at the adjacent checkout. At which point he starts swearing and tells to get a life because he paid with cash. He pulls out a giant wad of 50s. Then he decides he doesn't want to pay for the paper but is going to take it anyway... He finally left after I wrestled the Dominion Post from him.

At about 10 to 10, we started announcing on the PA system that the store is about to close and would everyone please bugger off. But noooo, people wander up and down the isles like a badly nourished herd of sheep. Wasn't until quarter past that we finally shut the doors.

One of these ever so bright customers told me that I look like Willow off Buffy (with my new hair and all). Hooray, I thought to myself, now I just need to become a lesbian and perhaps my witchy powers will surface.

The End.

Flat on my back

2005-01-15T15:57:00.000+13:00

I have spent most of today lying in bed. Must say I am enjoying it. You see the wow server didn't crash at 2am last night like it had been for the last month, so I didn't notice how late it was and ended up playing till 3am. By this time my mental capacity had completely detiriorated, I screwed up all my quests, and got my group member killed. Needless to say he pulled an aggro and logged off in a huff. (He did come back on icq to say he's not angry and it's just a silly game and he's tired, but that is moot now). I know I was screwing up. At that point I must have been pretty tired because I ended up doing what a 5 year old would do in this situation and cried myself to sleep.

I think all the day's disappointments stemmed directly from me dying my hair. You see, I somehow expected to get guys queuing after me but when no one even seemed to notice, the day went downhill. Rejection doesn't have to be outward to result in dejection it seems.

It was basically one of those "all dressed up and no where to go" days. I did go to the movies though. We saw Ocean's 12. Great movie, similar to Ocean's 11. George Clooney and Brad Pitt are still hot. Matt Damon is funny to look at after watching Team America. Lots of inside jokes it seems, and heaps more general humour than the first movie. I hate to admit my apparent stupidity but I got lost somewhere in the end of the plot line and still don't quite know what happened in that movie. But still, it gets rating of Worth Seeing from me.

Amanda is still in Taupo. I got a postcard from her today that she sent from Dubai. Very sweet.

Met up with Chris Chapman for a coffee yesterday afternoon. He and I did German at Goethe together. He gave me an early birthday present because he won't be able to make the party. It's the world's smallest cheese grater. It would be too small for Mini-Me. But it's totally adorable! He's going to Europe at the end of the month, so I am looking forward to more postcards :)

Geoff my flatmate is going to a wedding today. Seems like everyone is getting married this year. It's a conspiracy I tells ya. He gave me a maglite so I don't fall down the cliff again coming from work. Fingers crossed I make it home safe.

Watched the latest Cold Case today, it's still a good show. Watched NYPD 24/7 on TV the other night. Also an interesting show. Made more weird by the fact that it's not fictious. Real life stories seem far more brutal than any writers can make up. Odd.

Looking forward to getting my Sunday Star Times in the mail tomorrow. Now that I live in the wop wops, it seems easier to subscribe to it than going out for Sunday brunch in town every week. Hopefully Raybon Kan is back from holidays and will have an article in there somewhere. It's the only reason I read the paper.

Over and out.

Bloggy Bloggy Bloggy, Bork Bork Bork

2005-01-14T11:32:00.000+13:00

So this new year resolution that I should blog only about events and not silly feelings is working out in favour of my laziness. As you can see no updates for a while. Lucky for someone the WoW servers are down for an extended period today and so I might as well write an entry before my brain fills up with events and starts purging.

So let's see what's been happening. Last Friday the movie night choice was The Incredibles. Still not as good as Ice Age, but pretty funny. The animation of hair was amazing. And I really liked the mini movie at the start Boundin'. The story of The Icredibles was a bit flatter than I'd expected, but still a few random quirks in between saved it. Thumbs up.

I got my christmas present in the mail from mum - a home baked fruit loaf. That lasted me through to the 7th. Pretty tasty.
Speaking of NZ Post, they successfully managed to lose a present I sent in the mail and now don't want to hear about it. It's all very frustrating. I filled out a compensation form and mailed it but I'm not liking my chances.

Work has been same old, same old. I've resolved to stop trying calling in sick because it just doesn't work. I might as well hang in there until Uni starts. Then I can reduce to just weekends, and after I've been there 6 months I will get a 5% lifetime Discount card and can quit justified.

The other day they got me to clean out the meat cabinet. Apparently it hasn't been done in a very long time because I discovered bits of meat at the bottom that were green in colour. Except as one dead insect. It was exciting. Especially considering that one cannot clean out the cabinet without shoving half of your body into it and twisting in amusing ways. So now body aches in all sorts of places.

Speaking of aches, I fell down the cliff the other night. The bush walk is really slippery and 10 pm there is absolutely no light. So here I was walking merrily along, planning my birthday party, as KAPOW, I'm sliding down the cliff side. It was really odd because I remember thinking - so is this what love is like, comes when you lease expect it, who would want it when they least expect it, how stupid...

Anyhow, I tried to get back out but the dirt was all slippery and I kept sliding back down. At this stage I'm thinking this only happens in the movies, in real life people don't get quick sand effect in the middle of Karori. Just as all hope was lost, this guy shows up. And I mean that is so very random. No one usually walks anywhere near the bush track, let alone on it, as it only leads to like three houses. More random however, is that he's carrying a vacuum cleaner. So this random guy at 10 pm, in a bush track, with a vacuum cleaner, pulled me out from the cliff side. He walked behind me all the way up the track. And then he says: "You're pretty brave to be walking here in this hour". And I think: "Oh crap, please don't kill me, Mr Vacuum Cleaner Man". Needless to say I walked up that track faster than my heart would allow it. When I got home, I discovered that I was covered in a cake of mud. Mmmm mud.

What else, what else. WoW has been pretty good. I somehow inadvertently managed to subvert all the people I know into playing it. So now I have no friends.
I'm going to dye my hair today, it's due for a colour boost. Hopefully it doesn't come out with polka dots.

Somewhere in the midst of all the events above, I've been having some really bizarre dreams - that I had septocemia, AIDS, fungal outbreak, and today it was topped by muppets on stage singing in Italian. You'd think sleep is brain's way of dealing with every day problems, but no obviously my brain signed up to the plan where it just adds to them. Stupid brain.

And that's all folks.

Hum-dee-dum-days

2005-01-03T10:40:00.000+13:00

Today's title is brought to you by a musical box filled with biscuits I saw for sale at Woolies. It's a Winnie the Pooh item.

I went to see Blade Trinity on Saturday, excellent movie. Non stop action, plenty of beautiful muscle tone and kick ass moves. Jessica Biel is hot, and I've loved Ryan Reynolds ever since Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place. Dominic Purcell is also charmingly engaging even for a bad disgusting monster dude. He looked so familiar and only just now I've looked up IMDB and turns out he was John Doe from the tragically cancelled series.

Went and played some Xbox games afterwards - Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events is an awesome game. It's so goth and dark, I love it. It starts off by saying that if you are looking to save the world, or cast spells, you should change the games now, if you are waiting for a happy ending, walk away. "There is no happy ending in this game, in fact there is no happy beginning, nor any happy things in between". There are two kids and one baby. The baby can chew through lead piping and doors, the girl is a McGyver, and the boy knows words like tetraphenol sodium hydroxide and acoustic resonance. I haven't seen the movie, but playing the game enticed me. Of course there is no way I can convince anyone I normally go to movies with to come and see an apparently kids entertainment. I might have to wait for Amanda to get back or get the film through nefarious means.

Went and had coffee with Alan yesterday. Good cake at Cafe 162, with a cherry on top.
Finally got the mouse power supply from Geoff, so I can use this fandangly MX700 and feel like a real man. Or something.

We installed Teamspeak, so now, when playing WoW, we can just talk instead of all the typing. Brilliantly social concept actually. I got so wired last night I couldn't sleep.

Of course work rang me this morning. They have rung me every single day I am not rostered since the day I started. I don't want to even work the days I am rostered, let alone the ones I am not. I used to try and make up excuses, saying terribly sorry but I am busy with more important matters, please forgive me. Now I just say no and hang up. Goes well with some of my NY Resolutions I am sure.

So I am a bit sleepy but the day doesn't wait, must get out there and kill some Yetis.

Hooroo.

Two thousand and four

2004-12-31T10:40:00.000+13:00

So, 24 years and 343 days behind me. New Year's Eve December 2004.

I gaze upon the life that has become me. The successes and failures that have passed.
I had all the whiteware once you know - fridge, washing machine, dryer, 29" screen tv, dvd player, stereo.
I had a job that paid 29 dollars an hour. Much less that some I know. Much more than most.
I had a boyfriend that loved me, brought me flowers, called on New Year's no matter where he was, and snuggled up to me at night.
I had so many DVDs and Books and Clothes that one would think shopping is an addiction. Where else do you spend your money when you don't need it to pay bills?

Now, I am a student, working part time in Woolworths, getting student allowance from the government. I own a handful of DVDs I never watch, 3 Music CDs, a hand me down bed (it is a very nice soft bed though!) and 3 fluffy toys. I do have the entire Patricia Cornwell book collection, this dick smiths laptop and a four hundred dollar computer to play World of Warcraft on. The PC has a $500 network card in it and a gig of ram, both of which I got for free (thanks boys!)

So see, no matter how you look on life, there is always good and the bad. Mum says but think of the people in Africa, bet they have it even worse than you. Of course they do, but what effect does that have on my universe? When people say "the world revolves around you", if you throw away the narcissistic connotation, it's pretty much true. A person is the focal point of their universe. Cheers to you, Mr Einstein!

And as I enter this New Year with nothing to my name but a kind heart and good intentions, I think to myself, is that really worth it?

Perhaps Angel's curse has it right: he's evil - he's happy; he's nice - he's brooding. Maybe being nice isn't all it's cracked up to be. Perhaps selfishness is the new black.

Nasty has never been me, and I'm not blowing my own trumpet here, I speak of it as a personal flaw. Kindness and giving gets you in the manure. You get kicked by the very horse you're riding with. Insert some other mixed metaphor here.

The last 25 years have become Groundhog Life. I have a job, I lose a job, I have a job, I lose a job. I have a man, I lose a man, I have a man, I lose a man. I have lived in New Zealand 10 years in June, I have moved house 10 times. I have never celebrated an anniversary of anything besides being alive. I've never been with a man for a year (on and off kinda resets the anniversary counter unfortunately), I've never held a job for longer than a year, I've never lived in the same place for long... Dido's song comes to mind.

And it's not like I've been doing it on purpose, but I do feel that perhaps I somehow sabotage my success when the year approaches. I do things to get me fired, dumped, or evicted. Probably just so I can mope about it on an internet diary afterwards.

The point of this entry? - I hear you cry plaintively.
No point, just a milestone to a fresh start. Put a steak in the ground.
I was going to write how perhaps I should duck out of this race since I'm coming last in several events anyways, but how can one quit the race of life?

There are a lot of question marks in this entry for some reason. Like religion - all questions, no answers.

New Year, all bare, alone and free, I embrace thee.

New Year's resolutions for 2005

2004-12-28T00:12:00.000+13:00

stop wearing heart on a sleeve

care less about people and more about things

show not emotions when they surface

depend not on opinions of others

pass all the uni papers even when disullusion and laziness eventually kick in

brush teeth day and night even when laziness and drunkeness interfere

initiate not contact with people - if they want to communicate, they will get in touch

concentrate on enjoyment of life and not its meaning - spread shallow and thin, not deep and meaningful

jump not into things with full abandon

Boxing Day

2004-12-26T15:30:00.000+13:00

Surprisingly not hungover today. Ended up going to bed around 20:30, read till about 10pm. Just when I had given up on xmas, my mum rang. Funny actually, because I thought she didn't really do xmas, but turns out she had been out all day at Long Bay beach with friends, drinking and celebrating and had just got home. Well well.

It was good to talk to her. We did have the obligatory arguments and screaming, but she did have some good advice and stories to go with it. All in all, the two hour phone call turned out to be good.

Kitty cuddled up to me most of the night and that was choice.

This morning I cooked myself scrambled eggs and salmon (being my Sunday tradition), drank some more red wine, followed by coffee and shortbread biscuits that Andrea baked. Very tasty. Watched some City of Angels, but it was lame, so switched to Nancy Drew on TV2. Maybe I should become a reporter for some Uni publication like her. I wonder how one goes about that. Couldn't find any answers on google.

Fed the cat, fed the dog, cleaned up the poos off the deck. Lovely day really, having spent christmas alone, nothing seems to matter anymore. Not in a depressing way, woe is me way, no no, I just don't mind anymore, it should be a good thing.

Ocean's Twelve and The Incredibles are out in the movies today. I forgot to bring cash with me, so if I want to catch the train into town, I'd have to walk to the dairy first, and I'm not sure if it's open. Might just wait till tomorrow.

God I can't wait till Uni starts. I have all this worked out, big goal of finishing Uni, moving to New York or Virginia or Tennessee to get a career, visiting Italy for summer holidays. I am a dreamer you could say. Not even two months ago, I had a goal of moving to Germany, becoming the best housewife in the northern hemisphere, and an excellent cook. What separates a dreamer from a loser?

A few days ago I got told that I have the kindest heart and bluest eyes. What more could a person ask for really.

Christmas Day

2004-12-25T15:02:00.000+13:00

The day has come. The day one is supposed to spend with people that love them.

Andrea's presents were most delightful - they were exactly what I had planned to get myself, and now I don't have to :)

She got me an Angel Calendar, three lovely candles that smell delicious and fit perfectly into my empty candle holder, two nice smelling pouches of lavender, and a bird feeder.

Geoff got me a big eyed soft cuddly floppy puppy (a soft toy). So very sweet of him.

I am drinking a nice Pinot Noir as I am writing this, the dog is asleep, the cat has gone somewhere awandering. Black Adder is on TV. I've had a hot shower.

I watched When Harry met Sally just before. I'd never seen the movie. It was probably quite a silly thing to do watching it on xmas day while being alone. Yes, the festivities pretty much were over after I opened the presents and a few minutes later found out that the friends I was hoping would visit me today are either too busy, lazy or tired.

On the upside, I have about 6 channels of TV to watch movies about love and christmas cheer on, and two and a half bottles of wine to get through. Also, Andrea made me a nice quiche to eat. And there is christmas cake in the pantry. I brought over my book, my laptop, Psycho and Alice on DVD. And hey, I get to spend the weekend with the two people that love me unconditionally as long as I feed them - Martini the cat and Aslan the dog.

I will probably go and make the molted wine sometime soon, and warm up the quiche to eat - haven't had breakfast today.

I miss the idea of having someone. Not necessarily the person I was with last, just someone to care for.

Ah well, the point is to enjoy life. I am glad I am not playing World of Warcraft this weekend, that'd be the bottom of the barrel. Black Adder is much funnier when you're cynical and bitter. It's strange that a lot of jokes are about Germany.

I hope the people I care about are having a good one.

Over and out.

Christmas Eve

2004-12-24T00:56:00.000+13:00

"So this is Christmas And what have we done. Another year over. And a new one just begun."

Here's a friendly message from your supermarket staff: Buy your shopping in advance, don't bloody leave it till the last minute. Geez people, think of the little elves!

Anyhow, no interesting updates today, same old same old.

Here's a poem I found in the staff cafeteria today:

CHRISTMAS IS CANCELLED !!

T'was the night before Christmas - Old Santa was pissed.
He cussed out the elves and threw down his list.
Miserable little brats, ungrateful little jerks.
I have a good mind to scrap the whole works!

I've busted my ass for damn near a year.
Instead of "Thanks Santa" - what do I hear?
The old lady bitches cause I work late at night...
The elves want more money - The reindeer all fight.

Rudolph got drunk and goosed all the maids.
Donner is pregnant and Vixen has AIDS.
And just when I thought that things would get better,
Those assholes from IRS sent me a letter.

They say I owe taxes - if that ain't damn funny.
Who the hell ever sent Santa Claus any money?!
And the kids these days, they all are the pits.
They want the impossible ...Those mean little shits.

I spent a whole year making wagons and sleds,
Assembling dolls...their arms, legs and heads,
I made a ton of yoyo's - No requests for them...
They want computers and robots..they think I'm IBM.

Flying through the air...dodging the trees,
Falling down chimneys and skinning my knees.
I'm quitting this job...there's just no enjoyment.
I'll sit on my fat ass and draw unemployment.

There's no Christmas this year...now you know the reason...
I found me a blonde. I'm going SOUTH for the season!

Sunrise, Sunset

2004-12-22T14:33:00.000+13:00

Guess what, I don't have to work on Christmas Day and they have to pay me because I would normally work on a Saturday. Score!

Work at the Deli last night was most amusing. There were four of us for some reason. Me and Amy (I'm replacing Amy as it was her last shift), Leonie the 50 year old lady, and Toria the 16 year old girl. Needless to say, Amy and I had to play the babysitter and the peacekeeper to keep the other two at bay.

Questions one asks when they're 16: How long do you have to go out with your boyfriend before you can call him your partner?

Problems one has when they're 16: I died my hair black last night and I'm really worried my mum will come in the shop and see it. (she lives with her dad, you see).

Questions one asks when they're 50: Have you done the chickens Lana? Have you done them? Should I do them? Did you do the chickens?

Problems one has when they're 50: Toria, you didn't wrap the cheese properly, can you please do it again! No that's not good enough!

Speaking of cheese - we had to cut giant blocks of it into smaller portions, gladwrap it and price it. There were many a joke about cutting cheese last night. I will probably never look the same at cheese again. Toria and I gave a cheese block a wedgie - using a cheese slicer without taking the plastic off, it rammed the plastic right into the middle of the cheese block. There was much amusement and laughter. Oh, to be sixteen again!

I love the gladwrapping machine, I'd wrap everything in it if I could. We also get gloves, last week they were your stock standard latex ones, but this week we got boxes of vinyl blue gloves! They're amazing! I might have to take some home.

We have to wear gloves for everything (and one would be a fool not to). I had to tray chickens last night - putting raw chickens in a tray for the next day to go into the oven.

Blue gloves, squishy cold bloody raw chickens, cheese cutters, fish heads, and a lot of glad wrap. There is a horror movie script right there, I tell you! Speaking of horrors, I heard a rumour the other day that some men can last in bed longer than 40 seconds. Note to self: must investigate further.

I bought a packet of mulled wine spices and a bottle of red wine. Nothing can stop me from having the Christmas I anticipated in Germany - mulled wine will save the day.

Had a lovely visitor yesterday morning, tim tams for breakfast - nothing wrong with that :)
Got DVDs from Nick as Christmas prezzie - how sweet! The Scream collection and Psycho, is he trying to tell me something?! :)
Met up with Andrea today for lunch. So nice to see her - she always brings so much joy and lots of smiles. She gave me xmas presents but I'm not allowed to open them till Christmas day.

Bought a Nora Jones CD. Wonder if it's any good. Off to listen to it. Ta ta.

Comics

2004-12-19T23:42:00.000+13:00

Flatlining

2004-12-19T01:56:00.000+13:00

Yesterday went to Uni to enrol properly. Had to drop German because I have so many other papers to do. One of the biomed papers clashed with chemistry paper, and the professor let me take the next 3rd year paper instead. I feel "thpethial".
Went to the movies with the boys. Watched Saw. Pretty good.

Today is a month since I've come back from Germany. Been feeling a bit flat and uninspired.

Annoys me to write about feelings. When I browse random blogs, there are so many whiney writers that go on about their hurt feelings and nobody loves them and woe is them. I mean, really! - so shit happens, get over it.

Easier said than done I suppose - your biggest enemy is your own mind. I could convince myself of any crazy odd thing in the matter of minutes. Unconvincing is harder.

Not caring is the hardest. I can do hating, I can do loving, I can even sometimes manage both at the same time with polka dots on the side. But not caring is a bitch. I am very good at showing the not caring now. But when the darkness comes and all the entertainment options have exhausted themselves for the night, all I want is that person to hold.

I've perfected the not talking, not emailing, not icqing, not sobbing. I show perfect nothing. I have a constant metallic taste in my mouth. The taste of lying to myself.

But what can you do. You can't make someone else change their mind. I was never good at sales. Especially outbound.

Meh, I've become the whiney writer I so dispise. I want to be funny and sarcastic, a bit cynical and comical. Instead I sound bitter and empty.

Got my copy of WoW today, the fun won't stop now.

In the 14th episode of Angel season 5, Angel gets turned into a puppet. Who am I to complain about anything? Incidentally, he also gets a date in the same episode. Go figure.

Monopoly - The game of life.

2004-12-16T20:53:00.000+13:00

I had real shifts on the check out the last couple of days. Serving customers, scanning products, packing bags, the works.

Did I mention that check out is EXACTLY like monopoly? Everyone has their own cash drawer. At the start of the week you get 200 dollars, broken down nicely into twenties, tens, fivers and coins. Whatever money you get during the week you get to keep (except you don't want to keep too much so you send off excess float at the end of every shift back to the vault), and at the end of the week you cash in all the money in your drawer. First shift next week, you pass go and get two hundred dollars. Fantastic! Nothing like manhandling thousands of dollars to discredit the value of cash.

Worked in the morning today, and night yesterday. Mornings are better - you get lots of grandmas shopping and they're nice and slow and chatty and no one is in a hurry or stressed out. Except you also get adults with kids and kids are sneaky little buggars, they try to sneak in sweets onto the conveyor belt while their parents aren't watching. Like a good checkout chick, I scan everything that comes my way, only to be greeted with screams of the angered parents that want "THAT CANCELLED RIGHT THIS MINUTE, YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED SWEETS, SON!"

If I void something more than once or the void exceeds five dollars, I have to get the manager to put in their magic key. It's great.

I had a screaming match with one of the flatmates tonight. My topic ranged from things like "do your fucking dishes" and "you smell" to "don't make toll calls if you don't have the money to pay your last bill" and "stop stealing my bread". His retorts varied from "I've let you play WoW" and "Internet is your only friend" to "you are a bludger off the government and I have to work for a living". It was better than Viviana's arguments on Next Action Star. I do so love that show.

I made a pizza again tonight. This one wasn't much of a success. I used Havarti instead of Camembert, and let me tell you - it's not a pizza type of cheese.

WoW is down tonight, and he's right - Internet is my only friend. I had to look up everyone's addresses on whitepages.co.nz to send them christmas cards. What's worse is I didn't even know half the peoples' real names.

Chris' latest blog cut a bit. Well, no, it cut like an AIDS infected knife plunged into the left ventricle.
On the upside I received a letter from the School of Physical and Chemical Sciences congratulating me on my excellent chemistry grades and suggesting I do more chemistry because I showed flair for it.

Universe is an ever constant balancing act. The scales of life seem to always even out. What a bitch, eh.

My knees are sore ...

2004-12-15T00:16:00.000+13:00

... and it's not from working on an adult movie set.

It's amazing how painful standing up for 7 hours can be. Guess I've gotta work those popliteus muscles! Walking up the stupid hill afterwards is not much fun either. I come up with these crazy motivational ideas such as if I stop on the hill stairs, I will get cancer of the little toe, and so I keep walking up the stairs :)

Worked in the Deli today. Managed to stab my thumb with the meat slicer, set off the alarm on the outside door, and drop the chiller door into the salads. It was great! They tell me I will be sole charge the Tuesday after next.

Training on the check out tomorrow. Apparently I'll even get to handle the money. Mmm money, mmm handle...

I baked muffins on Sunday. Banana and mandarin (was just using up what crusty fruit we had around the house). Surprisingly they turned out very tasty, and the boys chowed them down within the day.

On Sunday night I made a pizza. Tomato puree, pine nuts, camembert and basil flakes. I call it less is more pizza. It was actually very tasty and Geoff agreed. It even doubled as my lunch the next day. I love cold next day pizza. Yum yum!

With all the warcraft playing and cooking on the weekend, I actually felt like I was levelling up. The other night I was coughing in my sleep and I dreamt that I levelled my cough. Who said I am playing too much? I am on a 10 day trial and the game is still out of stock in stores, and so I feel I should really be using my 10 days to the fullest just in case it doesn't arrive.

Not much else to say today, been pretty worn out with all the supermarket work. They want me to do training shifts in between my rostered shifts, and even though it's not 40 hours a week, going there every day is a bit annoying. Mostly because of Mr. Steep Hill and his merry band of bush trees.

Having not worked in many months, it's a bit of a shock to the system. Although, I must say, the hard physical stand on your feet all day work is much better than the mind numbing brain oozing out of your ears office work. It just feels more satisfying.

Comics

2004-12-12T09:50:00.000+13:00

Photos

2004-12-09T23:00:00.000+13:00

Friends, Romans, countrymen, I include the link to my gallery of photos. Some of it is a test of photography skills, some are just snapshots. In theme with the blog, you might find interesting directory titled Paris.

New additions of Frankfurt am Main, and Karori Flat will have to wait as it appears I left my camera USB cable in Frankfurt.

Also, while we're on the subject of everyday monotony, do check out the google links on the left. Apparently I might get paid if someone clicks on them.

I've put more info into my profile and added a wishlist. Just in case someone's money is burning a hole in their pocket.

Ta ta for now.

What a Common Cold is

2004-12-09T21:42:00.000+13:00

Well well well, no world of warcraft for me today, so I might as well write a little blog, do a little dance, make a little love, get down tonight... ahem.. got carried away there.

Right. I couldn't sleep last night and thought up this little piece of philosophical fiction. It sounded better in my head at four in the morning. Proceed at your own risk.

Romantic Love. Yes, the touchy heartfelt subject of the moment. What's with it?!
It irritates me that love is so dramatic yet it's the most trivial thing about. You never expect love, it just happens; once it happens, you think it will never go away and it does.

Common Cold. It's so dramatic, it knocks you out for a few days, you think you'll never walk again, then a few days later it's gone as if it's never been.

Both have been around for centuries. Everyone's had both at some time or another. Often at the same time.

People have written books above love. The heartwrenching literary works of prose and poetry. Romeo and Juliet. Desdemona and Othello. Dharma and Greg. People putting themselves through happiness and desire, misery and heartbreak, often not realising the motions they're going through. Flirt a little, get to know the person, go out, make out, get closer, get comfortable, make a commitment, get tired, break up, take time off, chill, feel the longing, get back together, cheat, lie, cry, the list goes on, doesn't it? We all dance this waltz of love, knowing the pas off by heart and following the rhythm with perfect precision.

A common cold. Centuries of medical advancement, we can beat small pox and bubonic plague, implant silicone and collagen into various human parts without leaving a scar, make semi-cyborgs of people, and we still cannot get rid of the stupid cold!
Goddam, get off your whitie ass and invent a cure!

But the most tragic thing of all is how trivial these both things are.

You get inflicted with a cold, you're out of action, you feel like crap, you stay awake all night coughing up a lung or two (actually that's exactly what brought on this lyrical waxing), you don't want to leave the bed, but it's better during the day when you've got something to do or someone to chat with.
A few days later you realise you're feeling fine and it's like the cold has never visited you at all, you forget how much of a pain it was, and act all surprised when, in a few months time, you catch a new one.

You get a healthy doze of a heartbreak, you're out of action, you feel like crap, you stay awake all night thinking up all the various possibilities and could have beens, you don't want to leave the bed, but it's easier during the day when you've got something to do or someone to chat with.
After some period of time, you realise you're feeling fine and it's like you were not ever in pain to start with, you meet someone new, get swept off your feet, and forget all the misery you went through not that long ago.

Hang on, stop right there, I'm repeating myself! You don't say.

You'd think all the clever people of the world would invent something more useful than electricity and eradicate these two evils of civilisation. The world would be a newly invented ray of sunshine. Ok, maybe not.

But you know, apparently sometimes people do break out of the waltz and dance a jig instead. I hear it's good.

This simile was brought to you by the words Dimetapp and Rhinovirus.

Irony: Fe3+ + e --> Fe2+

2004-12-09T01:36:00.000+13:00

So I got a job. Nothing flash. Understatement of the year. It's a job at the supermarket. Practically 25 years old, working in a supermarket. Yep, it's great.

Speaking of irony, I am working at Deli. I am vegetarian. Don't laugh yet, there is more.

The government pays me poor student summer benefit. If I earn 80 dollars before tax, they reduce this benefit by 70 cents for every dollar over.

I did some Maths 101, and with the hours that I have, payrate and the reduced-if-you-earn benefit that I am getting, for 15 hours of work I will get 7 dollars a week more than for 8 hours of work. That's right, my faithful readers, I will get 1 dollar an hour overall. Send no money now! Well, actually, do send money.

You can laugh now if you want.

Had my first day at work today. Got the uniform, oh how lovely it is! The hat and apron, the works!

It was Christmas Club night tonight at the supermarket. It was insanely busy, so I learned rather quick. We had a lot of giveaways in the store. So much, that we got heaps of free stuff to take home. I don't mind!

Standing on your feet for 5 hours is hard work when you haven't done that sort of thing in 6 years, that's for sure.

I bought a computer desk from the Salvation Army the other day. For ten bucks, it's a steal! (probably literally) They're delivering it this Friday.

I'm hoping World of Warcraft is in stores on Friday. It'd better be, or else. What? nah just messing with ya. Will probably end up going out to a pub to test out the new no smoking law. Can't wait!

Anyhoo, the bed calls. Well, hang on, I am in bed.

Cheerio (that's a sausage)

Blank

2004-12-04T23:32:00.000+13:00

blogs are funny things. Well, not haha funny, but sort of reflect on life funny. Odd.

You'd be sitting there, enjoying the most beautiful sunrise, looking over the hills of wellington from your floor to ceiling windows, having your scrambled eggs and salmon, or viewing the sunset while sipping a glass of desert wine; and you'd think to yourself - "I could write a really good blog entry right now". And you don't, seeing how you're busy enjoying whatever it is you're doing.

A few hours or days pass and you think, I really should write that down, but then you realise the moment has passed and the lyrical wax has crusted over and is no longer waxing.

a pity really, my dear viewers, because there were a lot of beautiful things to say.

A bit broke this week - paying bond, rent in advance, stocking up the pantry. Back into negatives. Hopefully the much awaited money should be transferred soon and I will be back to normal.

Hey, at least I got the internet back. And if all goes well, I might even see some of you on World of Warcraft soon.

Sunny Wellington, an oxymoron?

2004-11-24T01:05:00.000+13:00

So Monday came. I knew I should go out and sort out some things. Phone, money, job.
First time I set a foot outside in four days.

Andrea and Paul went to Martinborough on Sunday, came back early Monday morning, sunburned to hell. They dropped me off in town as they went to work.

First things first, I was feeling quite quesy so headed to Sardines to get some breakfast. Little did I know that my stomach wouldn't accept even delicious hot way too expensive scrambled eggs on toast. Ah well, I tried.

Onto Vodafone shop, enquired about getting my phone unlocked. No such luck they say. Buggar.

Went to another Vodafone shop in Manners Mall, the asian guy there suggested I try the phone place at the top of James Smiths. Headed there, they don't open till midday.

Walked up to Studylink, asked to be signed up for Unemployment Benefit Student Hardship. You have to be registered with Student Job Search. I was, but over summer everyone has to re-register.

Walked back down Willis St to Manners. Just as I turn around the corner, my bus is at the lights. I knock on the door in hopes to still catch it. The lady opened. I thought it was a mighty nice gesture.

For some reason, the trip on the bus was like a tour. Everyone chatted as if they knew each other. Then at Lambton Quay, this guy gets in. At first I thought he was retarded but now I think he was just mangled a bit. He sits down opposite me and starts a conversation. Turns out 5 years and 9 days ago (!!), he got too drunk in 7th form and fell down from a second story of a building, landed on his right hand side, now he's lucky to walk.

This old lady across the aisle kept looking at us, obviously concerned at his chatty manner. Then she goes to him "Do you know where you are going? Do you know where you have to get off?". He says "Of course I do". Then turns to me and starts telling me how some people in Wellington are just looney.

On the Terrace, this Pacific Islander woman gets off, sits next to me. I didn't really look at her. Then I glanced over and her arms were shaved, some stubble showing. I was like, fair enough, lots of people shave for the summer, might be easier than waxing or whatever. Then I look up to her neck and it's got a stubble too. Five o'clock shadow you might say. Yeah, it was a dude.

My newly found friend, Anthony, also tried chatting to her. She got all freaked out and moved up to another seat.

At this point the old lady is chatting some indian woman with a child.

It was so surreal, all these people coming together for one bus trip, all so weird and strange, all becoming friendly for that fleeting moment.

New Zealand, Wellington, the land of happiness and sunshine. Felt like I was watching a TV program, not there.

Anyways I went and registered with SJS, got some job referral that never answered my calls, never mind. Headed down to Hunter building and gave my details to Studylink. Hopefully the dosh will be good. They can't tell you how much it'll be, not like Student Allowance, here they decide individually. One would hope it covers my rent.

So then I caught a bus back to James Smiths. How gutted was I when I looked at the opening hours of that shop once again and realised it's not even open on Mondays!

Walked down to Dymocks, couldn't resist and bought Trace by Patricia Cornwell. Damn, hardbacks are expensive.

Walked some more, grabbed a potato gratin from Wishbone, got a train home.

The gratin managed to last me two meals as I almost threw up the first time. Tasty.

Came home, went to sleep. I've completely screwed up my bodyclock this time around. I stay up all night, reading, watching tv, talking to Chris. Sleep all day. Sleep just seems so much sweeter in daylight. No idea why.

I've gotta get back to normal hours today though - Amanda is coming back tomorrow. She'll be ringing me, and I'd better answer.

The wonderful sun didn't last long. Today it's full on torrential rains. Suits me just fine though - still have about 8 episodes of various stuff to watch and 2 books to read. Probably should find a job though, hmm.

Are they mistakes or are they experiences?

2004-11-20T07:15:00.000+13:00

When something goes wrong in your life, do you think it's something you've done or something has been done to you? Did you make a mistake or did you fail completely? Is it karma or is it destiny?

Destiny seems so fatalistic. Why do anything if everything is already predestined? But then again Karma would mean something really went wrong in the previous life. Or maybe it's saving up for the next one?

I find it a bit sad that so many times in my life I could only come up with the right answers after the voting booths had closed, so to speak. I realised I shouldn't have got shitty with the manager only after he fired me. I realised I should have punched back after the kids at school beat me up. I realised I should have brought up an issue and discussed it in detail and without fear only after the issue had reached its flash point and exploded in my face.

Ah, the beauty of hindsight.

So do I really learn from my mistakes though? Or do I vow to never repeat them only to repeat them again once things get comfortable. You've practiced the model answers so many times, you've revised for the exam hour after hour. Only to come to the exam and get all the answers wrong. Not because you don't know something, but because you're scared. Because you think someone else will take the fall for you, because you rely on everyone else in life.

So easy it is to know what to say when no one is listening. So hard it is to make someone else hear you.

It's so hard to make someone else happy. It is so hard to be happy yourself without having someone. So hard to give your heart away, your life away, all your belongings, only to be stomped on and thrown out with the garbage.

I cry now the same tears I've cried so many times before. Do I really learn?

At Uni, if you fail the same paper more than twice, or if you fail more than half of your course in a year, you're not allowed to study anymore. Guess I should take a leaf out of that book of "harsh/true". I will be 25 soon. One can no longer call this a growing up experience. I'd say it's pretty much a screwed up life.

Wellington, NZ

2004-11-20T07:04:00.000+13:00

The flight back was quite good. Didn't feel as long, and I am sure Qantas in flight entertainment has a lot to answer for that. For my lack of sleep also, I imagine.
The planes are fitted with personal screens and handsets for all passengers. There is a choice of about 5 movies and 5 other video channels, 13 radio channels and 10 games. One can also call and send SMS from their seat if one is so inclined.

Needless to say, I played a lot of tetris. I also watched in full Dodgeball, Envy, and I, Robot. I must say dodgeball exceeded my expectations. When I watched the previews a while back, I thought it was going to be a shitty retard-o movie, but it was actually quite funny and sweet. Envy wasn't too bad either. I, Robot's ending sucked and I wasn't overly impressed with the cheesy CGI.

There was this amazing Australian comedy (a TV series) that was just like The Castle. I have no idea what it was called, but it was brilliant. So bloody funny. Just like The Castle, it had a narrative voice over. And the same over the top accent. I must find out what it was and get it on dvix or dvd.

Food and in flight speef were impressive also. I didn't order a vegetarian meal but still managed to get away with it as for dinner there was a salmon lasagna, and for breakfast scrambled eggs.

I also got given socks and a toothbrush. And during the "night", we got given a snack pack in case someone got hungry or thirsty until breakfast.

In fact, I was so impressed with Qantas over all the other airlines I've flown with this month, that I have joined their frequent flyer programme and am hoping to clock up more points soon. Hell, maybe I should become a flight attendant :)

Oh, on the plane from Auckland to Wellington, I got to sit next to Raybon Kan, my hero. I guess the trip wasn't a complete waste of time and money now :D

The day I arrived, I was completely wasted. Fell asleep on the train, dreamt of flight attendants bringing me coffee. Tragic really. I came home about 8 pm and slept till 6 pm the next day. Everyone needs a good sleep I say.

Finally I get to use my own computer. Seemed just like an extra use of space taking to europe and not ever needing it really.

New Entry

2004-11-13T02:07:00.000+13:00

so, now that I am staying in the same city for a while, how should I title my entries? Will have to think about it. Any suggestions? I really like Chris' ones - he comes up with all sorts of smart comments. Wenn du willst.

Today is the second day of the german course. Four hours of German a day. I don't think my head is designed for more than one language at a time. I think in German on the way from the course and have difficulty saying anything in English for about an hour afterwards. Last night I fell asleep waiting for Chris, and when he got home and woke me up I couldn't understand what he was saying. He got annoyed because he thought I was being moody. Oops.

The pronounciation of Turkish girls in the class is quite undecipherable, and the asian girls have trouble with sch sounds, but the one from Bosnia is really good, also the girls from Iran, Poland, and Russia.

Every class begins with a new topic which I really like. Yesterday we did everything to do with cars and driving licenses, today everything to do with planes and trains. Learned about Orient Express, I didn't even realise there is one in Australia.

A lot of English leaks through when talking about travel and transport which I find quite amusing.

Other language speaking is not allowed in the class. Verboten!
So even in the breaks I speak german with the russian girl. It's quite strange, but I think my german is a bit better than my russian at the moment. In fact, when one learns the language, it's quite hard to think in another language at the same time. I don't know how interpreters do it.

While buying the internet credit just then, I had yet another encounter with my arabic "friend". He speaks English as badly as he does German.

"Hello, you forget me?"
"Nope"
"where is your girlfriend?"
"pardon?"
"oh you speak french?!"
"no, that is english. I mean what did you say?"
"where is your girlfriend?"
"I don't have a girlfriend here"
"You are here alone?!"
"Nope, my friend is here"
"Where is your friend? Is he your boyfriend?"
"He's at work"
"Ah but I am here, I can help you out"
"No thanks"
"ciao"
"ciao"
"bye bye"
"bye"

Chris finds it all amusing.. Ah well, I haven't come to any harm yet, so all is well that ends well.

Today we have secured an apartment. Chris texted me that he's got it sorted and DSL connected. Can't wait to have my own internet in a non-smoking room. All the smoking is really getting to me. Smoking is allowed absolutely anywhere. I am not sure how their smoke detectors work, they must only detect when something is completely burning down.

I think today we're getting the keys and tomorrow can move in. The apartment is in the most desirable part of Frankfurt - Bornheim. All the maps are quite misleading, especially the subway stations map. One would think it's miles away, but yesterday we walked from Bornheim to Hauptbahnhof in just under half an hour. Yet there are like 2 trains and 7 stations between these two parts. Bornheim is also close to the Zoo, so looking forward to that.

The tour I was planning to go on yesterday was cancelled due to lack of interest. I'll try again today.

I really like the way bikes work here... I New Zealand a bike is a method of fitness and whatnot. Here it's just a simple means of transportation. People in Cashmere coats ride bikes to work. No helmets, no spandex, no fancy mountainbikes. Just simple bikes and simple people. Bikes can go on the footpath, which is also good as I was normally scared to ride on the roads.

Not much else to say today, simple day. Chris and I had a bit of a fight last night, I guess it's a bit hard getting used to each other after a couple of months apart. Hopefully, we understand each other better soon.

Might go see if this tour is still on. Bis später.

Frankfurt am Main, Germany

2004-11-11T05:35:00.000+13:00

Staying at Learn and Stay Hostel on Kairsetstrasse, right next to the main train station. There are only two hostels in Frankfurt and this one is the only one in the centre. Little did I know that Kaiserstrasse is the red-light district that can be rivalled only by Amsterdam itself. There are no prosties on the street or anything, but there are sex shops bigger than The Warehouse. Three floors of dirty shopping, every second door along the street. Really something.

The room is quite nice and big, although instead of a double bed, we got two single ones. Everything in the room squeaks - the beds, the floor, the doors. Quite amusing really. The shower is really nice and I am happy with that. Although, for the last two mornings some neighbouring flats must have insisted on extra showering and we ended up with cold water.

I am not planning to do any sight seeing until we've settled in and I have become a real Hausfrau. Every single night we go looking at flats. Some really nice ones, but we want to make sure we get something close to a U-Bahn, S-Bahn or whatever station.

Today I signed up for a german course at Inlingua, yet another international language school. The New Zealand branch is in Tauranga. It's not cheap, €490 a month, but it's full time and would give me something to do during the day. It goes from 9.10 to 13.25, Monday to Friday. Had my first class today, was quite impressed. It's not too easy which is always a good thing, I like a challenge. In the class, there are 9 women (no men for some reason). One from Poland, one from Russia, two from Turkey, a couple of asians and some other ones I didn't find out.

There is a walking tour leaving here at 3pm, so might go do that today. Tomorrow, I was thinking of maybe checking out the University and whatnot.

Yesterday, I went to a doctor. Needed to get my Depo Provera injection and was quite scared how it would go in Germany. But they much obliged, and it was quite painless. They said that in Germany, women must get pap smear twice a year. And I thought NZ was bad! I really like how doctors are set up here - like a small hospital - cubicles, nurses, own lab, everyone is wearing white, the doctor looked like a ship captain :)

I have also discovered the shopping area. Three buildings with 10 floors of shopping each. No kidding. I've bought a cellphone, and a different luggage bag because the one I brought from New Zealand isn't very manouverable.

If anyone wants to txt me, my phone is 0163-3558612. This is in Germany, so I think you'd have to add +49 and drop the leading zero.

I've tried Gluehwein which turns out to be just really warm red wine they sell on the street. No idea what made me think it'd be like eggnog or hot chocolate. The wine is really strong and I got pissed from one cup. When you try to sip it as it's hot, you inhale the fumes and cough.. Yeah amusing.

What else has happened in Frankfurt? Not much. Very many turkish/arabish/whatever people here. The men of that sort are very strange and come on really strong even when saying hello. They all stare at me and say odd things. Maybe there are no women in their countries?

Food here is delicious. All meals in restaurants are large and filling. Coffee is amazing. I don't know if it's because of the coffee itself or the milk they use, but I haven't had a bad coffee experience since San Francisco airport. All those people that warned me against the lack of lattes can remove their feet from their mouths now because they make the most amazing lattes here, they just call them Latte Macchiato.

Nothing is cheap. Everything costs exactly the same but in Euro, so double NZ dollars!

All ATMs accept our Eftpos cards. I can get euros out with my ASB Card as well as my ASB Visa. Unfortunately, I get charged $5 for every withdrawal.

They're not big on Visa here, in fact, it's not accepted anywhere. Either cash or EC card which I think is their equivalent of Eftpos. So it's been cash for me.

There is some deal here with their post office. Some dude said they've been closing down most post offices as they're no longer needed. So I haven't found anywhere to send post cards from. Big sorry.

TV here is quite amusing. Apparently it costs 28 euro a month to have TV. Much like the broadcasting fee we used to pay in NZ a few years ago I imagine.
I am a big fan of their KinderKanal - KiKa. Watch sesame street daily and various other shows. The best way to learn the language I reckon. In fact, that's how I originally practiced English way back when.

Also, there is this crazy evening program where people ring up to win money. A guy sits on the screen and waits for people to call up. A question is displayed on the screen and it's usually something complicated yet stupidly simple. Often, it's one of those logic puzzles, etc. So if someone rings up and gets it right, they win money. If not, the guy sits and waits and waits and waits. Fun to watch. I tried ringing but the lines are always engaged - they service germany, austria and switzerland. Last month this channel paid out just over 800 thousand euro.

I think I've just about caught up with the getting here, and will be able to describe daily adventures from now on.

Bis zum Nächsten Mal,
Alles Gute,
Auf Wiedersehen.

Paris, France

2004-11-11T04:55:00.000+13:00

Two days in Paris. Who would've thought I wouldn't get impressed. I expected Paris to be the world of marvel and high culture. Of course, it didn't help that I was tired as hell, having not slept properly for about 3 days. Did I mention I had two Fridays that week? It still amuses me.

Stays at some hostel in the Monmartre area, metres away from Sacre Coeur.
Settled in at the room and walked up the steps to see the highest point of Paris. It was a Friday afternoon, and by golly, there are a lot of people in Paris. When I had expected Courtney Place on Saturday night, I hadn't even come close. That many people is really quite irritating, scary and mind boggling.

A lot of black people too. African, black as night, but speak French. Funny, and totally unexpected. Chris said it's something to do with some war or revolution in the past, when France lost a lot of its population and had to open its borders to lots of immigrants to boost the economy. French language is the most impossible to understand (maybe after chinese and arabic). One cannot tell when one word/sentence finishes and another begins.

We got some crepes and tea at the touristy area near the Sacre Coeur, then went in search of an internet place as I had promised everyone an email when I arrived and wireless wasn't happening.

Apparently Montmartre is an arty place where residents don't really care about the rest of Paris or France. Probably all BA students :P
There was not a single ATM in sight, no Internet cafes, no Banks, not much in the way of shops. Just little kiosks and a whole pile of Creperies. French keyboards are a nightmare to use if you don't switch to English locale.

Croissants in France are amazing. I never liked them in New Zealand because they're flaky and kind of chewy/hard. In Paris, they were divine, and I'd eat five in one go given the chance.

Finally, made it to bed and was happy as to stretch out on a bed and get a real night's sleep. That didn't last long, as at 7 am, I was awake and rearing to go again.

The Sunday was quite full on. We got some breakfast at the hostel - cereal, bread, croissants, jam, coffee, etc, and set off on our foot voyage around Paris. The only things I really wanted to see were the Catacombs and the Eiffel Tower. When one has only one day to spend, one must get choosy.

Set off in the direction of the catacombs, but kept getting stopped by various other touristy sights. The Opera building was mighty impressive. The Louvre wasn't too pretty from outside, but the glass pyramid is really cool. Lots of people everywhere as expected. Got a coffee outside Louvre. Lots of little bridges across the Seine, and a million of artists trying to sell their wares. I am starting to think they all paint by numbers or from a stencil as a lot of painting are exactly the same.

Checked out the Pantheon, and le Pendule de Foucault was quite interesting, although the area around it was all blocked off - apparently the building is falling apart. Went down to the crypts, but it was just a bunch of caskets and I left.

Had a look at the Luxembourg Garden, but didn't go in. Took some photos outside the Notre Dame. Then grabbed some food at a cafe. At this point, we realised that the Catacombs would be closing in 20 minutes and we were still quite far away. So no skeletons for me. Another time!

Walked along some more, saw the Invalides Hospital, The Military school, and even wanted to visit the Rodin Museum/residence but it was also closed when we got there. Sundays aren't big on long opening hours.

Finally made it to the Eiffel tower and stood in the queue for just about ever. It was all worth it though as the view is amazing. Still, way too many people. I took some photos, will see how they've turned out once I am using my own computer.

Then we walked back to the hostel and got our bags. As I completely screwed up my packing, the bags were massive and heavy, I'm sure Chris got a hernea. We finally made it to the Gare Est and sat around for about an hour waiting for the train to Frankfurt. The trip took 8 hours and it was all sitting down. That didn't fare well with my already sleep starved body, but I guess I made it! Frankfurt was freezing when we arrived at 7am on Monday morning.

The train went through Paris - Reims - Nancy - Strassbourg - Kehl - Karlsruhe - Heidelberg - Darmstadt - Frankfurt.

High Flyer

2004-11-10T21:08:00.000+13:00

So, the trip took 36 hours. Twenty six hours on the plane, and about 10 in various airports.

I took off from Wellington. Amanda was very nice to take care of me on Friday, she organised me, pacified me, reassured me, drove me to the airport and made sure I got on the right plane. Really, I was quite a mess.
The airport dude was really helpful, explained to me how all the check ins work and checked my bags right through to Paris. I had some hot chocolate and a bagel with salmon and cream cheese before I boarded the plane.

The 40 minute flight from WLG to AKL was non-eventful. Got two cups of water as people suggested I don't drink too much coffee while flying. Apparently it doesn't help with the jet lag and what not.

My mum met me at AKL. Alex gave me a rose from their garden. Mum made some pancakes and brought them in a thermos, as well as jam, butter, and forks. So we had an impromptu picknick at the Auckland airport. It was quite amusing.

Of course, as expected, mum shed a tear or two about her daughter flying off to the other hemisphere. I find it quite coincidental that when she was 25, she was in Europe too.

I spent about half an hour in the queue through customs and bag check before I made it to the boarding lounge for my flight. I was amazed at the number of people there, but that soon made sense when I actually saw the plane. My god, it was huge!

The flight to San Francisco was 11 hours 45 minutes or something like that. First they board all the people in wheel chairs, followed by people with small children, then first and business class, and then the cattle class which I was in. Turns out the cattle class was far from full so the couple that sat next to me moved to another row and I managed to have all three seats to myself for the duration of the flight.

The in-flight entertainment was piss poor. First we had I, Robot, followed by The Terminal, then some Agatha Christi drama, an hour of american comedy, The Merchurian Candidate and Mean Girls. Mean Girls is actually quite a good movie but I've seen it before. Everything else didn't grab my interest and I couldn't get past 20 minutes of each movie. Ended up lying down a lot and reading my book.

Even though I was hell tired, the sleep wasn't really happening. I think I managed to get a couple of hours somewhere though. The blanket they give you on Air New Zealand flight is extremely staticky, and I kept zapping myself every time I tried to turn or move or get up.

The food was quite good. Coffee, tea, wine, even spirits (the guy in front of me downed three whiskys in a quick succession). I had half a glass of red wine and felt like I'd had a bottle. I think for dinner, I had some pasta with roast vegetables and for breakfast they decided that I don't eat eggs and gave me a tomato pasta while everyone else had scrambled eggs. Never mind.

I don't know what people say about deep vein thrombosis or any other high mile afflictions, but I certainly think that one would die from boredom sooner than any physical disease. It's really quite painful to realise you're up in the air and you're not going anywhere for the next twelve hours.

Landed in SFO without an incident. Those big jets certainly land and take off without a hitch. If you're not looking at the window, it's hard to know whether you're on land or not.

Took about 20 minutes to disembark the plane, and then the real fun began. I stood in the queue for passport control for a good hour and a half. It sure is fun. Not. Then it was a quick smile to the passport officer, fingerprinting of right index finger, followed by the left, and a photo for their records. The fingerprinting is digital so no ink on the hands, which is good. Then they put a stamp in my passport and attached a green little piece of paper that gets removed when I leave the country.

So suddenly my 4 hour stop over in SFO has become a mere two hours. Walking out of the customs area, I realised that I had to pick up my bags. Never mind that I was checked through all the way to Paris. They're paranoid enough to take all the bags off, make you drive them through a check area, and upload them back to the plane again. Ridiculous and unnecessary in my opinion. When I walked up to the check area with my bags, they saw that I was travelling to France and let me through without another glance. Waste of time. I had to declare the jar of marmite though, so that was amusing. "Is it like Vegemite?" - the officer said. Grr, don't make me hurt you!

Walking through SFO was like being on an empty movie set. It's quite a big airport but there was hardly anyone there, almost no shops or cafes or anything. So I headed straight for the international departures. This was a nightmare. Another massive queue, but moving at the speed of lightning. In this rush, one has to remove their jacket, shoes, belt. Take out laptop of the laptop bag and place it in another tray. I don't know why they do that because the laptop and the bag both still go through the same xray machine. At the other end, you have to try and catch all your belongings and quickly make room for people behind you. It was quite an exercise.
After that, I got a cup of coffee - the most disgusting thing I've ever tasted. Discovered that the sales tax is added onto after you've seen the price (tricky dicky!). And tried to access a wifi hotspot to no avail.

So then I sat at the boarding lounge for a while until they called my name - they needed to scan my passport and remove that green card thingy. Then we boarded.

I was quite excited to be on a Lufthansa plane. First time hearing people speak German in a non-class situation. The flight was chocka full. Felt like sardines in a can.
They had in-flight shopping. How could I resist! I bought a little chess computer which is basically a PDA with a stylus and you can play chess on it. It has various levels, openings, and even a Hint button. Awesome.

The blanket on the Lufthansa was not zappy and the pillow much softer. With that I was pleased. The food was absolute crap though and I didn't finish my breakfast. It's like instead of sending the request for vegetarian food, it got muddled up with hippy crazy food. I got deep fried tofu and mushrooms. Ugh. The guy next to me, also vegetarian, said they always mix up his order and deliver vegan stuff instead of vegetarian. He didn't even get milk for his coffee.

The flight from SFO to FRA was 10 hours 25 minutes. By that time I was so tired, any coffee was greatly welcomed. Unfortunately, I was sitting by the window and the idea of waking up everyone in my row every time I needed to go the bathroom was unbearable.

The in-flight entertainment was even worse than the ANZ flight - First it was Spider Man 2 but something went wrong and it was only in German. Some people complained and it got switched off. Then came The Bourne Supremacy, followed by the same fiasco. Then they put on The Anchorman - The Legend of Ron Burgundy, and while it worked in both languages, it was absolute shit of a movie. Then they had The Two Brothers, which is a great movie about tigers (real ones, not CGI or anything) but I was too tired to watch it properly. For the tiger lovers, I highly recommend it.

Arrived at Frankfurt airport, and it was also pretty quiet. It's such a bit airport though, apparently the busiest in Europe after Heathrow. Got a stamp in my passport that is just a box, with nothing in it. I am guessing their stamp ran out of ink.

Sat around for a couple of hours at the boarding lounge and then got on a small plane to go to Paris. Well not too small, the size of domestic New Zealand ones, but after the 747 anything is small.

Lots of frenchies on that flight, all the announcements in three languages. I was so over flying by this point, I didn't know whether I was awake or asleep or where I was.

The lunch was a nice piece of bread with cheese and lettuce, and I had 2 cups of tomato juice.
The flight from FRA to CDG is only 50 minutes. It was practically empty and the flight attendant suggested I could move to another row where I'd sit alone, but really at this point I stopped caring.

There was no one at the Paris Airport to even glance at my passport, no one to check my expensive French Visa, no one to acknowledge my arrival into their fair country. I was quite dismayed. Got my luggage and trundled up to the exit, where Chris met me and gave me a great big hug. Can't believe it'd been 2 months since we saw each other last.

He helped me with the bags and we caught a bus to the train stations, then 2 or three subway trains to the hotel in Monmartre Area near Sacre Coeur.