There's something living in my roof.

Before I start, I'd just like to explain my absence from blogging as much as I used to.  For some reason, my computer hates the Blogger website.  It just DOES NOT WORK.  And just as I type this, I notice my stats page is working again, for the first time in 3 months.  Weird.  It's like it knows I'm trying to complain about it, so it makes me look like an idiot.  I'm also pretty sure I said I was going to change my layout.  I tried, but it wouldn't let me.  I'll try again today.

Here's an update on my life:

1.  I no longer have a job.  Really, I'm still employed there, but I haven't been given any hours since Boxing Day.  I'm down to about $300 in my bank account, and I'm trying to keep that for phone bills only.  If I don't get another job in the next 3 months, I'm fucked beyond belief.  I've resorted to scavenging coins from my drawers/closet etc.  I took everything I found to the bank, and dumped it in their coin counting machine.  I had $40 worth of silver coins (silver coins are below a dollar in value, so I had a shitload of coins).  I've been applying for jobs, and the one I'm hoping to get had it's applications close yesterday.  So hopefully, I hear something next week.

While searching for a job, I've been considering "alternative" careers, such as a Hungry Jacks (The Australian Burger King) Bandit, Wet T-Shirt Competition Queen, and selling out-of-date Ritalin tablets to addicts.  All of these could net me at least $1000 within a month, but there's the whole illegal and/or "come back and bite me in the ass" factors to juggle.  So, I'm going to stick with the normal job application process, and suffer out being broke for a while.

It may be bad for my mental health though, because the pressure to find a job is unbelievable.  The Cleaning Nazi has been pushing me about having money to pay the phone bill, and getting a job so I'm not so fat and lazy at home.  My friends have organized this big trip, and I agreed to be in on it about a day before I had been officially told I was no longer going to get shifts.  So, if they can't find anyone else to take my ticket, I'm going to be selling it on eBay, along with most of my other possessions.  I have a list of stuff I'm going to sell if I'm desperate.  And no, my body is not on there.  I also have some debts to collect.  About $75 from the Cleaning Nazi, because of those "If I buy it can you pay me back" deals I'm always making.  And roughly $30 from the BF, but since he only gets paid once in a blue moon due to being new at his job, I doubt I'll see it any time soon.

Unfortunately, when I'm under pressure about certain things, I stress about it.  Then I become obsessed.  Then I cry in the shower.  Then I have a public meltdown.  Then, the next step is psychotic break, I presume.  Just a warning, if I lose touch with reality, it's just because of money.  I'm only temporarily crazy.

2.  I can't remember if I've blogged about this before, but I've been having phone trouble.  It was turning off, deleting my stuff, not reading my memory card etc etc.  Basically being a piece of shit.  I've been trying to get the plan cancelled, but Telstra keeps saying they need to SEE the problem before they can cancel it.  Now that they've SEEN the problem, they have to email everyone under the sun before they can cancel it.  Now that they've run out of people to email, they've decided they're just going to string me along for 6 months until my contract runs out.  I suppose it's OK, because even if I did cancel the plan, I couldn't sign up for a new one due to my financial circumstances.  I really do want a new phone though, but I just can't do it right now.

3.  I still have a month of nothingness until uni starts.  I've been obsessively checking the bookshop website to see when textbook lists were updated.  They weren't, so I just went in there anyway, and got the parental units to buy my books for me.  Now I've done the first week's worth of study for all my subjects, and I don't want to be too far ahead, so I've stopped.  This semester, I'm doing Statistics, Brain and Behaviour, Learning and Behaviour, and Health Psychology.  I'm excited, but I think it's only because it means I have something to do with my life.

4.  Since I'm about a month ahead on uni, I've been doing my usual "I'm going crazy with boredom" routine I do every year.  It's strange.  It starts with Christmas, where I'm stressed out beyond belief due to work.  Then it's New Years Eve, where a lot of alcohol is consumed.  Then nothing.  Everyone's broke, and no one wants to do anything due to a lack of money.  Then I do all my uni work early.  Then when I finish, I start playing Pokemon games on my Gameboy Advance (it's about 10 years old now).  I want to buy a DS so I can play the new Pokemon games, but considering my lack of money, spending $300 on a DS is taking the Pokemon thing A LITTLE BIT TOO FAR.  So I'll be content with my GBA and Pokemon Crystal.  Then, when the Pokemon thing get's old, I start watching TV shows, several seasons within about 2 weeks.

One year, it was Seinfeld.  Another year it was Supernatural.  Another year it was My So-Called Life (90s teen drama).  This year, it's Community.  And luckily for me, I started watching at the right time.  I watched the first season, and half of the second season.  Right as I finished that, I found out the show was on an 8 week holiday break, and it started back on the 20th of January.  So, I didn't have to tolerate the 8 weeks of nothingness like other Community fans had to.  But now that I've caught up, I have to wait a week for every new episode like the rest of the world does.  And that sucks.  I saw a group on facebook that fits my situation.  I can't find the exact title, but it's something like "Finishing an entire TV series, then wondering what to do with your life".

Then, while the Pokemon/TV thing is happening, a friend of mine announces suddenly that they're moving away, and not coming back any time soon.  Then we all frantically arrange to do something, and it all falls through until there's some last minute plan that saves the day.  My friend Alice has decided to move to Brisbane for uni, and she leaves on Monday.  Today is Saturday, and we haven't got a solid plan yet.  Right now, it's looking like a dinner and movies night tonight at another friend's house.  I hope this happens, because it means I have something to do with my life for a small period of time, even if it's to celebrate one of my best friends leaving.

5.  I need to go to a doctor.  This might get a bit too TMI if I go into detail, but it's digestion related.  And it fucking hurts.  I've booked into a doctor, and hopefully there's something that can be done about it.

6.  There's something living in the roof.  It's a rat or a possum or something.  Or, as I like to think, my evil twin begging to be let out.  But  after my restless sleep due to being sick, I woke up this morning very tired, and very pissed off.  There was this weird scratching noise.  I checked if it was my blinds grating against the wall. Nope.  The dog scratching at his bed outside my window? Nope.  I even went into the next room to see if the Cleaning Nazi was doing something to the other side of the wall.  Not that either.  I went back to my room, and concentrated.  It was definitely coming from the corner of my room, where the wall meets the roof.  I decided it was time to get a second opinion.  I went into Dad's room, and he was fast asleep.  The Cleaning Nazi saw me walking around, and asked what was wrong.  We both went into my room, and sat on the bed.  When we turned the ceiling fan off, the noise stopped for a minute, and I began to fear it was the onset of a psychotic break where I was hallucinating.  But no, it started again, and it was definitely coming from the roof.     We opened the manhole thing that leads to the roof. and checked it out with a torch.  Nothing was sighted, but all our ducted aircon and insulation has been chewed on.  Then I realised how horrific it would be if there was a rat in the aircon.  It would mean that if it chewed through the pipes, it could drop into any room of the house without warning.  So I refused to go back to bed in case a rat fell on me.  I tried to watch a movie with my sister, but I felt too shitty, and just went back to bed.  I haven't heard any scratching again, but I heard a screeching noise earlier.  It may have been something else though, so I don't know.  I just know that I don't want it anywhere near me.


Well, that's about everything that's been happening in my life right now.  I'll try and keep you updated on my visit to the doctors, as well as this thing in the roof that's terrorizing me.  Also, I finally updated the layout.  I hope it's not too hard to read.

8th of November: Things I'm going to do when uni is finished.

Good news everyone!  I got my psychology lab report back today, about 20 minutes before I walked into today's exam.  It was about the Stroop Effect, where you have to read words, colours, then the colour of words.  It was pretty boring.  I got 92% though, and combined with my 77% on the last quiz, I didn't even need to turn up to the exam and I would still pass.  That meant that I went into the exam feeling pretty good.

Anyway, the list of things I'm going to do when uni is finished.
1.  Work, and save up for a car.

2.  Work on getting my driving hours up.  Even if I forge my remaining 40 hours, I still can't drive a manual.  I   need to fix that.

3.  Go shopping with the friends, and actually have fun, and not feel guilty about wasting study-time.

4.  Join a gym of some sort.  I know I have all these walking tracks (with lovely named areas such as the "Rape Tunnel") that mean I should be walking my ass off, literally, but I'd rather not walk, then get tired, then find myself several kilometres from home.  If I get on a treadmill or exercise bike, I don't actually travel any distance at all, and I stay in a safe environment.

5.  Spend time with the BF.  Like, real time.  Even though I've spent a bit of time with him lately, it doesn't feel like we're as close now, because we never get time to be together in privacy.  I don't even mean that in a sexual way.  We don't have the privacy to sit and talk without being interrupted by someone.  After uni finishes, I won't really have time constraints, and the issues on his end will be close to resolved, so we won't have all this unnecessary stress.

6.  Go into town and actually get drunk.  I don't remember the last time I was properly drunk.  I know people act all disapproving about people drinking, but clearly these people have never been drunk.  I didn't think it was particularly appealing, until I tried it.  I didn't realise until then how many social restrictions I placed upon myself.  I'm not saying I go out and drink until I pass out.  I've never done that.  And if you don't remember the next morning, you've obviously had too much.  But yeah, getting drunk made me realise that I didn't need to be all uptight.  I could have fun, and talk to strangers, and make friends with people I wouldn't normally look twice at.  It's about life experiences.  How can you say you know yourself until you've experienced yourself in every state of mind available to you?  After I began drinking (note:  I am now legally an adult who can legally consume and purchase alcohol), I learned a lot about myself.  I knew when enough was enough, I knew how much I could handle before I started doing potentially regrettable things,  and I knew that I still had the ability to say no to anything and anyone.  Now, if people want to still go on about how silly drinking is, maybe they should try it first (with an open mind and a positive attitude, of course).

7.  Continue on with NaNoWriMo, until the end of November.  Hopefully, I won't just go completely lazy and sleep all day and ignore my personal goals.

8.  Read some more of my psychology text book.  It's not just a temporary thing, where I learn it for exams and forget it instantly.  It's full of the knowledge I want and need if I have chosen psychology as my profession.  Everything in it is beneficial to me, and I find it very interesting when I don't have anything in particular pressing on me.  The minute I have to read it for study, I want to burn it.

9.  Chip away at my "Sci-Fi Movies to Watch" list.

10.  Try and meet some new people.  I'm running out of friends.

11.  Try and patch up some old friendships that have been dwindling because of uni.

12.  Get the Sims 3 off the bf, and keep playing it.  I"ll also start playing Spore again.

13.  Play my poor little PS3 again.  It's practically brand new, and I've barely played it.  I need to finish FF13, and properly START to play MGS4.

14.  Do my Christmas shopping.

15.  Do something with my hair.  Keep it maintained instead of letting it go wild.

16.  Buy some nice pairs of shoes.

Well.  It's nearly midnight and I have an exam tomorrow.  I'll continue this another day.

Current word count = 15, 264

2nd of November, part 2: Oh dear God, we have maple syrup!

That's pretty much what I said as I went through the cupboard looking for breakfast.  There's a reason for this.

I'm allergic to honey.  Or I'm allergic to something that's in honey, and honey-like substances.  As soon as it hits my mouth, I'm reaching for the nearest sharp object to scratch the inside of my throat with.  It makes it so itchy, and it feels like my skin is crawling with bugs.  However, maple syrup doesn't do this to me.  Actually, when I had a mouthful of straight maple syrup, I wanted to claw my throat out, but in small doses, its fine.

So of course, I guard the maple syrup jealously.  My sister is allergic to cow's milk, so she has soy milk.  No one touches that other than her, so I should be able to have my fuckin' maple syrup.  Especially since we have honey and golden syrup and all this other crap I can't have.  But no, maple syrup has to be the hot commodity in my house.

So that's why I was surprised to see that we had it.  Awesome, we have maple syrup, now I'll find some pancakes and have breakfast.  Guess what?  No fucking pancakes.

Nevermind, I'll make some.  So I'm cooking, and its not working.  I've discovered that our non-stick pan is no longer non-stick.  Every pancake I try to make ends up looking like a scrambled egg, so I give up.  The dog had a pretty good breakfast this morning, and I settle for a glass of milk (and a whole lot of crap to clean up).

So that's been the last hour or so of my life.  Now, I'll continue on from where I left part 1 of today's post.

Now, I was talking about the Sims.  When the first one came out, all my friends played ti all the time, and I didn't really care.  After everyone was over it, and it was in the clearance bin. I got it, and played it. And loved it, I think.

Same deal for the second one.  I couldn't afford it until it was on sale, which was like 2 years after everyone else got it.

The third one, however.  By this point, I was working at a toy store (I won't name it, just in case. Bad things happen when you say where you work). So I got to pre-order it, getting a staff discount on it.  It was supposed to come out in like February 09 or something, and it got delayed about 3 times.  But when it eventually DID come out, I got my copy.  Since I pre-ordered, I got a special edition, that came with a plumbob USB.  The plumbob is the little green diamond thing over the sim's head, in case you don't play the game.

That's the whole package.  It came with the game, USB, and other free shit that I pretty much ignored.

And that's the USB.  The crystal part is like the lid of the USB, and the actual bit you stick in the computer is the pointy bottom part.  It's so cool, that people are amazed by it, even before I show them it's a USB.  The bf was talking with Dani-Q about a movie once, and I put it on this USB to put on her computer.  When she saw it, I thought she was happy that I was giving her the movie... No, she was amazed by the USB itself.  She didn't even know it was from the Sims 3, she was just amazed at how cool it was.  I get that reaction a lot with this USB.

Anyway, the post today wasn't about the USB, it was about the Sims in general.

For those of you who don't know, the Sims is basically a life simulation.  You make a family of Sims (people) and build them a house.  They get jobs, fall in love, have kids, die. All the usual things people do in real life.  They gain skills, which make them better at their jobs, they get more friends, and all sorts of stuff happens.

The games have made a huge jump in quality from the first game to the third. The third one has added in personality traits, such as kleptomania (where your sim steal stuff from other sims), charismatic (where all their social interactions are better recieved by other sims), and all this other crap I can't think of.  But it's always fun to put really strange combinations of sims together in a house.  You can get evil kleptomaniacs, who walk around talking to themselves, stealing, and scaring people.  You can make fitness freaks, who constantly work out.  Any combination of traits, you can make it. 

I can understand why people don't like the games.  They probably think that rather than sitting at home, making little virtual people exercise, why not go out and exercise, and socialise, and live yourself?

It's all about CONTROL.  I play because I can't go out and do this myself.  I can't build the perfect house, force my perfectly crafted family to do everything according to my plan, I can't even just go out and get a job like they do.

I like the fact that I have complete control over these virtual people.  They do whatever I want.  They only live as long as I want.  When I'm sick of them, I just put them in a room with no door, and they starve to death... Ok, I haven't done that yet, but I've been tempted.

Honestly, the actual game isn't the best part for me. The reason why I keep coming back to the game is the house-creating aspect.  You build the house.  You choose the floor coverings, the wallpaper, where the lights go, where the doors and windows are. You put in all the furniture, you decorate it with paintings, ornaments, or even art that your sims did themselves. You can put in pools, gardens, playgrounds, balconies, all sorts of stuff.  You can even put in stairs and build multiple levels.  I love it.  I build houses, then save and quit the game even before my sims live in it.

I was the same with Rollercoaster Tycoon, another game I was addicted to.  I didn't like the actual playing part,of getting my guests to ride on the rides I built.  I just liked designing the park itself, and doing the pathways, and creating perfectly symmetrical garden mazes and making food courts and stuff.  Then, I would just demolish it and start building again.

I'm a bit of a perfectionist like that.  I don't know why, since I don't have any interest in designing houses or theme parks or anything like that in real life.  I just do it in computer games.  That's why I should never get my hands on Sim City.  I'd spend the rest of my life trying to create the symmetrical, most efficient city possible. I saw a video about a guy who did that.  He called his attempts at the perfect city by different Latin names, and his video has  weird chanting music.  It's pretty creepy.  I think if I was given the chance to do something like that, I totally would, and no one would ever see me again. I'd barricade myself in my room, and my parents would have to create a flap door they could slide a food tray through, otherwise I'd die and my room would smell bad.  I don't think that would be good.

I just did a word count of today's posts.  I'm currently at about 2700, counting both part 1 and 2.  And it's only 11am.  Sweet.   I'll go for 3000 for today, then give it a rest.

I was just made aware of the fact that it's Tuesday.  I don't know about anywhere else in the world, but in Townsville, Tuesday = Cheap Tuesday.  Or for some people, it's Cheuesday.  Che-Uesday, in case you couldn't work that out.  Cheap Tuesday means that all the young ones go into town and get smashed on $9 jugs of Fruit Tingle (Blue Curacao liqueur, vodka, lemonade, raspberry cordial and ice cubes, according to google), then they party on down to the places with $2.50 cocktails.  Considering the fact that drinks are normally $5 or more, this is a pretty good deal.  It's also the reason why Uni lectures are mostly empty on Wednesdays.

So, yeah.  I just realised it was Tuesday/Cheuesday.  I'd love to go out, but I think my friends are pretty intent on pretending to study.  They don't actually study, they just say they do, and end up watching Glee and coming with my friend and I on Maccas runs (yeah, you know I'm talking about you).

Well, I'm approaching 3000 words right about now.  So far, November has been easier than I thought.  Maybe it's the fact that I'm in competition with one of the most competitive people I know, Dani-Q.  Especially since I'm challenging her in a domain that up until now has been exclusively hers; blogging.

This brings my November total so far to 5130.