I think it's been like a month or so since I've last updated. I'm not sure what made me think to come back, but there's been a lot of stuff I haven't said anything about on here. Here's what's new.
Last time I posted, I'm pretty sure I was still looking for a job. Well, I got a job as a waitress at a truckstop, worked enough in the last month to earn myself $1000, and now I'm quitting. I know I made such a huge drama about not having a job before, but honestly, I'd rather go back to that than keep working at this place. It pays $10 an hour (as opposed to my last job paying between $15 and $21 depending on the day), I'm required to do a lot more hours, and during those hours I've been working a crapload more than I think I should considering the pay. It also helps that they weren't too flexible about me working and going to uni. So I've quit and my last shift is on Tuesday.
I'm back at uni for my second year, and holy crap it's getting hard. For example, my Tuesdays and Thursdays for the last month have consisted of being at uni from 9 to 6, the work from 6:30 to midnight. Then back at uni the next day. As a result of my tiredness, and the recent terrible weather conditions, I kind of ruined my bike. The cars in my area kind of speed around corners, so when there was a speeding car approaching, he swerved his car, I swerved my bike. I hit a gutter, destroyed the chain, tore off the basket at the back and twisted the handle bar to a 90 degree angle. As for the damage to me, I got a face full of mud and slime (brilliant idea to break my fall with my face) and my clothes had to be thrown out. Since then, I've had to walk to uni, which is 5 km a day (or about 3 miles for the Americans). It's good exercise, but it just makes me so freaking tired that I don't want to go to classes.
When I do turn up to my classes, at least they're somewhat enjoyable. Statistics (the teacher makes it interesting), Brain and behaviour, health psychology, and learning and behaviour. It's going to be tough thins semester though. They actually have fairly high expectations this year. I may actually have to put some effort in. Good thing I'm unemployed again.
What else? Everything else is pretty much the same, I think. I might try to keep up with posting a bit more, and actually have a topic to talk about.
Showing posts with label University. Show all posts
Showing posts with label University. Show all posts
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Saturday, November 13, 2010
13th of November: UNI IS OVER
As you can tell from the title, uni is over for the year. Thank god! I'm so happy, but it hasn't sunk in yet. I can't get used to the feeling of being able to do what I want without feeling guilty about not studying. Earlier, I was thinking "Man, I wish I could play the ps3", and then I realised there's absolutely nothing stopping me, and I move on without playing the PS3 anyway.
I don't really have a planned topic for today, since I'm running out of creativity and privacy to think about stuff. So, to get my word count up, I googled "random questions to ask people", and I'll answer them. Hopefull it will inspire me .
Do you remember your favorite teacher? - I didn't really have one. The ones that liked me were quite tough, and I never did my homework, so I didn't like them that much. They saw straight through me. At uni though, I had a lecturer last semester that was awesome. He taught sociology, and he was a total hippy. He wore tie-dye shirts all the time, and did all this other hippy stuff I can't be bothered explaining. He's like the local news station's go-to guy for an "expert authority" so he's on the news pretty much every night. It was funny seeing him the first few times, but now my parents even recognise him.
Which is your favourite cereal and why? - Not a big fan of cereal. Actually, I am, I fucking love cereal. But I'm too lazy to eat a real breakfast most days, cereal takes a lot of prior planning and time management, and I kind of suck at that. My favourite at the moment is Fruity Bites. It's like pillow shaped lumps of whatever cereal usually is, and it's filled with a gelatinous substance, kind of like jam. Sounds a bit gross, but its not. Eating it makes me thirsty.
As a side note, the question originally asked "what are your favourite 2 careers and why?" and I read it wrong and went on about cereal. So I changed the question, so I don't look like a complete retard.
Which is the hardest thing you ever had to do? - Hmm, I really don't know. Stand up to some shitty friends I guess?
When was the last time you lied and to whom and why? - I don't really remember. I don't lie that much anymore. It's more like "temporarily withholding the truth about my performance in anatomy to my parents".
Tell me about something you really regret? - Taking anatomy. I'm sure I go on about it enough, so I'll spare you. There's not that much else I regret. That's good I suppose.
Tell me about a mistake you made? - When I used to work at Hungry Jacks (Burger King for you Americans) years ago, an Indian family walked in and ordered. They wanted 4 burgers, and 4 large drinks. Because they were Indian, and I was an idiot, I thought they said "rings", not "drinks". Rings, as in onion rings. So they waited patiently for like 15 minutes, while I got them their onion rings, which take ages to cook. And then they told me I got it wrong. They could have told me 15 minutes earlier, but they didn't. Oh well.
Tell me about someone in your family? - I'll tell you about someone in my family I haven't mentioned yet. My older sister Alyce. She's 23, or 24, I don't remember. She was born as a perfectly normal baby, but when getting her triple antigen injections (which were compulsory at the time I believe), she had a terrible reaction, and since then, she's been special needs. There's no real term for it, since doctors refused to accept that it was their fault. So she's classified as "intellectually disabled". That means she can't talk too well, usually she can get her point across, but sometimes not, and it's annoying as hell. When you ask her how old she is, she tells you whatever number comes into her head. Usually 4. So that's why I don't remember her age. She can be taught to do somethings, like using the key to unlock the house, but other not things, like checking for cars before crossing the road. She also doesn't get the concept of personal space, and she walks wherever she wants. At 7pm on the dot, she's stripped off in the bathroom, screaming for mum to shower her. She does this regardless of who else is in the house. Many a time, visitors (including my boyfriend, several times) have walked into our living room, and were treated with the sight of my overweight, special needs sister naked with a shower cap on her head.
She's finished school now, and she goes to this place with carers and other disabled people, and I really don't like her going there. They steal her money, and teach her bad habits. She's learned to call me "a shit" when I piss her off. As in, "Megan, you're a shit!". And when I call her Oscar, and ask her if she's a boy or a girl, she usually hits me, pretty damn hard.
Tell me about someone you envy? - I envy anyone who can fit into the average costume at a costume shop. Those things are tiny. And my ass is not. And I have a lot of friends with costume party fetishes.
Tell me about something you've achieved? - I finished my first year of uni today :)
Tell me about the worst punishment you had when you were a child? - Public humiliation at the hands of a teacher? I don't even remember what I did, but the relief teacher wouldn't let me go to the toilet (I had my period, and it was getting rather unpleasant). I told her I'd explain it to her at lunch time, as long as she let me go. She didn't, and by the time I did leave, it was too late. Red all over my pants, all over the chair I was sitting on, and I just ran to the office crying, and I went home that day. Apparently, my friend had a massive fight with her about it after I left. The teacher wouldn't believe my friend either (what the hell, the evidence was freaking everywhere), and made her clean it up as punishment. After that day, I only had her once, and she recognised me well enough to swap classes with another teacher that day. I hope she learned something from that day.
Tell me about someone you really admire? - I admire people who can stick to diets.
Tell me about the last movie you've watched? - I don't even remember last time I watched a movie. I've been too busy. I think it may have been 17 Again, with Zac Efron in it. It was on the external hard drive of movies my BF left at my place, and I went through, looking at random movies. It wasn't that bad. I expected it to be worse.
Tell me about a country you would like to visit most and why? - America. Because it seems awesome. Anywhere in Europe. Anywhere, actually.
Tell me about your favourite music / song / band? - I can't be bothered talking about my favourite band, but look up the song "Hey Leonardo" by Blessid Union of Souls. It's an awesome song.
Tell me about something you would happily do again? - I'm tempted to say "go on another cruise ship". I like the cruise ship, and I like going to different places, but I don't like the "stuck in the middle of the ocean" bit. I can look past that though, if I'm on a cruise ship.
Name your 5 favorite foods? - 1= Avocado. 2= Chicken. 3= Prawns (if they're done properly) 4= Chocolate. 5= Spaghetti?
Do you like to shop? - YESSSSSSS
How often do you go online? - Whenever I'm not sleeping, working, or doing something important. Kind of sad.
Something or someone you miss the most from childhood? - Not having to worry.
Are you usually late, early or right on time? - Usually early, unless it's work, and then I'm late because mum insists that everyone come to drop me off. Especially if they don't want to go. She fights with them until they do, even if it makes me 10 minutes late.
Are you happy with your life for the most part right now? - I guess so.
You can have one of the following two things: trust/love? - I guess I choose love. Right now, I lack trust in others, which prevents me from loving them. If I had love, I wouldn't need trust, because I would love them enough to forgive them for anything.
Are you the kind of friend that you would want to have as a friend? - Considering the fact that I'm the most reliable person I know, HELL YES.
Your best friend dies, what would you do? - Wonder who my best friend is. I don't really have one.
When and how was the last time you told someone HONESTLY how you felt? - About what? I'm usually honest about how I feel, but it's never really a deep and meaningful conversation.
What would be harder for you, to tell someone you love them or that you do not love them back? - I'm not sure, since I've never really been in either situation. Probably to tell them I don't love them back. I've had to turn down a few guys in the past, and I still feel bad when I see them and talk to them. It wasn't like hardcore love or anything though.
What do you think would be the hardest thing for you to give up on? - Junk food.
Would you give a homeless person CPR if they were dying? - Since I don't really know CPR well enough to do it on anyone, no.
Are you old fashioned? - In some ways, I guess.
Which would you choose, true love with a guarantee of a heart break or have never loved before? - All true love ends in heart break, because one of you has to die sometime. And if I never love, does that mean I can't give/recieve affection, or just the true love/lifetime/soulmates kind of love?
If you could do anything OR wish for anything that would come true, what would you wish? - I wish I could have a loophole-free time machine that creates no paradoxes, and does not cause any problems for me.
Whats your middle name? - Peta.
How big is your bed? - I think it's a king/queen single. I don't know, or care. I'm not fat enough for a double yet.
What music are you listening to right now? - It's not music, but my ceiling fan.
What are the last 4 digits in your cellphone number? - 7930
What was the last thing you ate? - Dinner. Which was KFC.
Who was the last person you hugged? - Probably the BF. I'm not into hugging.
How is the weather right now? - Pretty damn good. I'm inside though, so who cares?
I don't really have a planned topic for today, since I'm running out of creativity and privacy to think about stuff. So, to get my word count up, I googled "random questions to ask people", and I'll answer them. Hopefull it will inspire me .
Do you remember your favorite teacher? - I didn't really have one. The ones that liked me were quite tough, and I never did my homework, so I didn't like them that much. They saw straight through me. At uni though, I had a lecturer last semester that was awesome. He taught sociology, and he was a total hippy. He wore tie-dye shirts all the time, and did all this other hippy stuff I can't be bothered explaining. He's like the local news station's go-to guy for an "expert authority" so he's on the news pretty much every night. It was funny seeing him the first few times, but now my parents even recognise him.
Which is your favourite cereal and why? - Not a big fan of cereal. Actually, I am, I fucking love cereal. But I'm too lazy to eat a real breakfast most days, cereal takes a lot of prior planning and time management, and I kind of suck at that. My favourite at the moment is Fruity Bites. It's like pillow shaped lumps of whatever cereal usually is, and it's filled with a gelatinous substance, kind of like jam. Sounds a bit gross, but its not. Eating it makes me thirsty.
As a side note, the question originally asked "what are your favourite 2 careers and why?" and I read it wrong and went on about cereal. So I changed the question, so I don't look like a complete retard.
Which is the hardest thing you ever had to do? - Hmm, I really don't know. Stand up to some shitty friends I guess?
When was the last time you lied and to whom and why? - I don't really remember. I don't lie that much anymore. It's more like "temporarily withholding the truth about my performance in anatomy to my parents".
Tell me about something you really regret? - Taking anatomy. I'm sure I go on about it enough, so I'll spare you. There's not that much else I regret. That's good I suppose.
Tell me about a mistake you made? - When I used to work at Hungry Jacks (Burger King for you Americans) years ago, an Indian family walked in and ordered. They wanted 4 burgers, and 4 large drinks. Because they were Indian, and I was an idiot, I thought they said "rings", not "drinks". Rings, as in onion rings. So they waited patiently for like 15 minutes, while I got them their onion rings, which take ages to cook. And then they told me I got it wrong. They could have told me 15 minutes earlier, but they didn't. Oh well.
Tell me about someone in your family? - I'll tell you about someone in my family I haven't mentioned yet. My older sister Alyce. She's 23, or 24, I don't remember. She was born as a perfectly normal baby, but when getting her triple antigen injections (which were compulsory at the time I believe), she had a terrible reaction, and since then, she's been special needs. There's no real term for it, since doctors refused to accept that it was their fault. So she's classified as "intellectually disabled". That means she can't talk too well, usually she can get her point across, but sometimes not, and it's annoying as hell. When you ask her how old she is, she tells you whatever number comes into her head. Usually 4. So that's why I don't remember her age. She can be taught to do somethings, like using the key to unlock the house, but other not things, like checking for cars before crossing the road. She also doesn't get the concept of personal space, and she walks wherever she wants. At 7pm on the dot, she's stripped off in the bathroom, screaming for mum to shower her. She does this regardless of who else is in the house. Many a time, visitors (including my boyfriend, several times) have walked into our living room, and were treated with the sight of my overweight, special needs sister naked with a shower cap on her head.
She's finished school now, and she goes to this place with carers and other disabled people, and I really don't like her going there. They steal her money, and teach her bad habits. She's learned to call me "a shit" when I piss her off. As in, "Megan, you're a shit!". And when I call her Oscar, and ask her if she's a boy or a girl, she usually hits me, pretty damn hard.
Tell me about someone you envy? - I envy anyone who can fit into the average costume at a costume shop. Those things are tiny. And my ass is not. And I have a lot of friends with costume party fetishes.
Tell me about something you've achieved? - I finished my first year of uni today :)
Tell me about the worst punishment you had when you were a child? - Public humiliation at the hands of a teacher? I don't even remember what I did, but the relief teacher wouldn't let me go to the toilet (I had my period, and it was getting rather unpleasant). I told her I'd explain it to her at lunch time, as long as she let me go. She didn't, and by the time I did leave, it was too late. Red all over my pants, all over the chair I was sitting on, and I just ran to the office crying, and I went home that day. Apparently, my friend had a massive fight with her about it after I left. The teacher wouldn't believe my friend either (what the hell, the evidence was freaking everywhere), and made her clean it up as punishment. After that day, I only had her once, and she recognised me well enough to swap classes with another teacher that day. I hope she learned something from that day.
Tell me about someone you really admire? - I admire people who can stick to diets.
Tell me about the last movie you've watched? - I don't even remember last time I watched a movie. I've been too busy. I think it may have been 17 Again, with Zac Efron in it. It was on the external hard drive of movies my BF left at my place, and I went through, looking at random movies. It wasn't that bad. I expected it to be worse.
Tell me about a country you would like to visit most and why? - America. Because it seems awesome. Anywhere in Europe. Anywhere, actually.
Tell me about your favourite music / song / band? - I can't be bothered talking about my favourite band, but look up the song "Hey Leonardo" by Blessid Union of Souls. It's an awesome song.
Tell me about something you would happily do again? - I'm tempted to say "go on another cruise ship". I like the cruise ship, and I like going to different places, but I don't like the "stuck in the middle of the ocean" bit. I can look past that though, if I'm on a cruise ship.
Name your 5 favorite foods? - 1= Avocado. 2= Chicken. 3= Prawns (if they're done properly) 4= Chocolate. 5= Spaghetti?
Do you like to shop? - YESSSSSSS
How often do you go online? - Whenever I'm not sleeping, working, or doing something important. Kind of sad.
Something or someone you miss the most from childhood? - Not having to worry.
Are you usually late, early or right on time? - Usually early, unless it's work, and then I'm late because mum insists that everyone come to drop me off. Especially if they don't want to go. She fights with them until they do, even if it makes me 10 minutes late.
Are you happy with your life for the most part right now? - I guess so.
You can have one of the following two things: trust/love? - I guess I choose love. Right now, I lack trust in others, which prevents me from loving them. If I had love, I wouldn't need trust, because I would love them enough to forgive them for anything.
Are you the kind of friend that you would want to have as a friend? - Considering the fact that I'm the most reliable person I know, HELL YES.
Your best friend dies, what would you do? - Wonder who my best friend is. I don't really have one.
When and how was the last time you told someone HONESTLY how you felt? - About what? I'm usually honest about how I feel, but it's never really a deep and meaningful conversation.
What would be harder for you, to tell someone you love them or that you do not love them back? - I'm not sure, since I've never really been in either situation. Probably to tell them I don't love them back. I've had to turn down a few guys in the past, and I still feel bad when I see them and talk to them. It wasn't like hardcore love or anything though.
What do you think would be the hardest thing for you to give up on? - Junk food.
Would you give a homeless person CPR if they were dying? - Since I don't really know CPR well enough to do it on anyone, no.
Are you old fashioned? - In some ways, I guess.
Which would you choose, true love with a guarantee of a heart break or have never loved before? - All true love ends in heart break, because one of you has to die sometime. And if I never love, does that mean I can't give/recieve affection, or just the true love/lifetime/soulmates kind of love?
If you could do anything OR wish for anything that would come true, what would you wish? - I wish I could have a loophole-free time machine that creates no paradoxes, and does not cause any problems for me.
Whats your middle name? - Peta.
How big is your bed? - I think it's a king/queen single. I don't know, or care. I'm not fat enough for a double yet.
What music are you listening to right now? - It's not music, but my ceiling fan.
What are the last 4 digits in your cellphone number? - 7930
What was the last thing you ate? - Dinner. Which was KFC.
Who was the last person you hugged? - Probably the BF. I'm not into hugging.
How is the weather right now? - Pretty damn good. I'm inside though, so who cares?
Word count for this post = 1888
November total = 23, 574
12th of November: My adventures on StumbleUpon
Before I start today's topic, I'll give you a bit of an update on my life. As you may or may not know, I'm currently at the tail-end of my final uni exams for the year. I have my last one tomorrow. Psychology and Criminology went well, but I wasn't worried about them anyway. I had anatomy today. All through this semester, I have struggled with anatomy, mainly because it's completely unrelated from the rest of my subjects. The teachers keep saying stuff like "Don't worry learning about that, you'll do it in your physiology class tomorrow". Guess what? I don't do physiology, so you better not fucking ask me physiology questions in the exam. In other words, most other people in that class had anatomy supported by their other classes. I had one core subject, then I had to choose 3 elective, none related to psych. Naturally, it didn't end well. I could handle psych, crim and anthropology, because they taught you what you needed to know. I couldn't do anatomy, because the 3 lectures and 1 practical a week were clearly not enough to teach me about EVERYTHING in the human body. Cellular level, upwards. Of course I can't do it.
For anatomy, I passed the first exam by 2.6 points, failed the second by 2.6 points, so I was exactly on 50% of assessment so far. I did the practical, and I passed by 0.6 of a mark. So, before today's exam, I was on 30.6/60. Today's exam makes up the other 40%, and I don't think I did fantastically. I'll be surprised if I pass. The first thing I did was go to the student enquiry desk and ask what happens when you fail. Long story short, it's not the end of the world.
Anyway, on to today's topic.
There's a toolbar you can download if you go here. It's called StumbleUpon, and I love it. You select your interests out of a massive variety of categories. Anything you can think of, there's relevant pages on it. It's awesome.
Anyway. After you do your interests, you can start Stumbling. You hit a button, and it sends you to a web page relevant to your interests. You can select "All" and be sent to a page from any of your interests, or you can chose a specific one.
I'll show you a few pages I've Stumbled onto.
http://www.kennethparker.com/100_park_temples.html - There's quite a few pages like this, where it's just a picture, but usually they're awesome, like this one by Kenneth Parker. Just looking at his photos, I'm pretty sure most of them would make for beautiful desktop backgrounds.
- There's quite a lot of simple, yet thought provoking stuff on there.
http://www.coolpicturegallery.net/2010/10/10-most-reckless-doctors.html - Then there's creepy shit like this. It's about doctors who do terrible (or terribly stupid) things to their patients. I would pursue my dream of being a cosmetic surgeon, but I get the feeling that I would do stupid shit, like the doctor that left a sponge in their patient's spine. Not intentionally of course...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doIcr8Jw4gY - Have you ever seen that 3d pavement chalk art? This video is a time lapse video of how it's done.
http://www.notreallybutseriously.com/index/NRBS_043.html - A short comic-style picture of how different superheroes would handle a situation. It's pretty awesome.
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/71127 - The story behind Abraham Lincoln's beard. I don't know if it's true though. Never heard of it.
http://www.funzug.com/index.php/nature/amazing-sight-in-the-south-pacific.html - Awesome pictures, but WTF. Another reason to be afraid of the ocean. There's all sorts of weird shit in there.
http://www.rockstartutu.com/adult-teen/adult-teen-tutus.html - An online tutu shop. What's up with that? Who buys tutus online?
http://io9.com/5443825/sci-fi-foods-we-wish-actually-existed - Oh man, this totally brings out the nerd in me. The Milliways Dish of the Day creeps me out a bit. I don't think I could handle a conversation with my dinner of choice.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/melismashable/the-best-of-face-replace - This is so funny! Basically, if there's someone making a stupid face in a photo, everyone else has that face photo shopped over their real one. I don't know if that made any sense, but just look at it and you'll get it. 21 is so gross though.
http://www.spreeder.com/app.php - If you want to try and train yourself to read faster, this would probably be really helpful. Unfortunately, I'm already a fast reader, so I don't get too much benefit from it.
http://www.direman.com/direman/comic.php?comicID=515 - I think you have to be fairly nerdy to get this one. "Camping" is an online gaming term for sitting in one stop, waiting for the enemies to come to you. And people hate campers. And abuse the crap out of them. Online gaming is serious business.
http://www.viruscomix.com/page528.html - Very true.
http://www.inewidea.com/2009/12/28/16155.html - HOLY CRAP I WANT IT
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/06/11/how-to-permanently-delete-your-account-on-popular-websites/ - A handy guide to deleting accounts. I know that Facebook is notoriously hard to delete. It may come in handy to someone.
http://fakescience.tumblr.com/ - Fake Science, for when real science is too hard.
http://www.sexcigarsbooze.com/2010/07/old-rockers-then-now/ - Rock stars, then and now. For some of them, the only difference is the amount of make up the men wear. Side note: Check out Bon Jovi's chest hair!
http://www.zornog.net/etc/martainrandom/martainrandom.htm - It starts off as a somewhat believable story about the room mate from hell. By the end of it, you know it's not possible, but you want to keep reading anyway. It's also quite long.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/10/fascinating-new-species-found-in-papua-new-guinea.php - Some newly discovered animals in PNG.
http://www.fludit.com/design/dudes-made-from-lego-cubes.html - Some easily recognisable people/characters, all made from Lego!
Well. I think it's nearly time for me to go to bed. Or at least stop blogging. I have my anthro exam tomorrow at a stupidly early time, and I've only revised over the first 4 weeks of notes, which was a pretty solid effort of 19 pages. I'll print off the rest, shower, then take it to bed with me.
Night, readers.
For anatomy, I passed the first exam by 2.6 points, failed the second by 2.6 points, so I was exactly on 50% of assessment so far. I did the practical, and I passed by 0.6 of a mark. So, before today's exam, I was on 30.6/60. Today's exam makes up the other 40%, and I don't think I did fantastically. I'll be surprised if I pass. The first thing I did was go to the student enquiry desk and ask what happens when you fail. Long story short, it's not the end of the world.
Anyway, on to today's topic.
There's a toolbar you can download if you go here. It's called StumbleUpon, and I love it. You select your interests out of a massive variety of categories. Anything you can think of, there's relevant pages on it. It's awesome.
Anyway. After you do your interests, you can start Stumbling. You hit a button, and it sends you to a web page relevant to your interests. You can select "All" and be sent to a page from any of your interests, or you can chose a specific one.
I'll show you a few pages I've Stumbled onto.
http://www.kennethparker.com/100_park_temples.html - There's quite a few pages like this, where it's just a picture, but usually they're awesome, like this one by Kenneth Parker. Just looking at his photos, I'm pretty sure most of them would make for beautiful desktop backgrounds.
- There's quite a lot of simple, yet thought provoking stuff on there.http://www.coolpicturegallery.net/2010/10/10-most-reckless-doctors.html - Then there's creepy shit like this. It's about doctors who do terrible (or terribly stupid) things to their patients. I would pursue my dream of being a cosmetic surgeon, but I get the feeling that I would do stupid shit, like the doctor that left a sponge in their patient's spine. Not intentionally of course...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doIcr8Jw4gY - Have you ever seen that 3d pavement chalk art? This video is a time lapse video of how it's done.
http://www.notreallybutseriously.com/index/NRBS_043.html - A short comic-style picture of how different superheroes would handle a situation. It's pretty awesome.
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/71127 - The story behind Abraham Lincoln's beard. I don't know if it's true though. Never heard of it.
http://www.funzug.com/index.php/nature/amazing-sight-in-the-south-pacific.html - Awesome pictures, but WTF. Another reason to be afraid of the ocean. There's all sorts of weird shit in there.
http://www.rockstartutu.com/adult-teen/adult-teen-tutus.html - An online tutu shop. What's up with that? Who buys tutus online?
http://io9.com/5443825/sci-fi-foods-we-wish-actually-existed - Oh man, this totally brings out the nerd in me. The Milliways Dish of the Day creeps me out a bit. I don't think I could handle a conversation with my dinner of choice.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/melismashable/the-best-of-face-replace - This is so funny! Basically, if there's someone making a stupid face in a photo, everyone else has that face photo shopped over their real one. I don't know if that made any sense, but just look at it and you'll get it. 21 is so gross though.
http://www.spreeder.com/app.php - If you want to try and train yourself to read faster, this would probably be really helpful. Unfortunately, I'm already a fast reader, so I don't get too much benefit from it.
http://www.direman.com/direman/comic.php?comicID=515 - I think you have to be fairly nerdy to get this one. "Camping" is an online gaming term for sitting in one stop, waiting for the enemies to come to you. And people hate campers. And abuse the crap out of them. Online gaming is serious business.
http://www.viruscomix.com/page528.html - Very true.
http://www.inewidea.com/2009/12/28/16155.html - HOLY CRAP I WANT IT
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/06/11/how-to-permanently-delete-your-account-on-popular-websites/ - A handy guide to deleting accounts. I know that Facebook is notoriously hard to delete. It may come in handy to someone.
http://fakescience.tumblr.com/ - Fake Science, for when real science is too hard.
http://www.sexcigarsbooze.com/2010/07/old-rockers-then-now/ - Rock stars, then and now. For some of them, the only difference is the amount of make up the men wear. Side note: Check out Bon Jovi's chest hair!
http://www.zornog.net/etc/martainrandom/martainrandom.htm - It starts off as a somewhat believable story about the room mate from hell. By the end of it, you know it's not possible, but you want to keep reading anyway. It's also quite long.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/10/fascinating-new-species-found-in-papua-new-guinea.php - Some newly discovered animals in PNG.
http://www.fludit.com/design/dudes-made-from-lego-cubes.html - Some easily recognisable people/characters, all made from Lego!
Well. I think it's nearly time for me to go to bed. Or at least stop blogging. I have my anthro exam tomorrow at a stupidly early time, and I've only revised over the first 4 weeks of notes, which was a pretty solid effort of 19 pages. I'll print off the rest, shower, then take it to bed with me.
Night, readers.
Current word count is 20, 706 + 980 = 21, 686.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
10th of November: Just some thoughts.
Last night, after I was done with the part 2 blog post, inspiration hit me like a kick in the face.
I was laying in bed frantically typing away on my little Hiptop about all these story ideas I had. Well, they weren't ideas for a new story, but old ideas that have come back into my mind. Everyone's been talking to me about writing books and doing NaNoWriMo and stuff, and I've been thinking about my own story. I used to have a very clear idea of the plot, and where it was going, but now it's just small disjointed bits and pieces. In my mind, I'm still cutting out characters that don't belong. I'm even considering cutting out the main character and switching it to another one. It's a weird situation. Like, you know when there's a group of characters, and the main character is usually the leader of the group? In this story of mine, there's the main character, who is separate to the rest of the group and their leader. It's weird. GAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. Just thinking about it is making me want to write.
Since I'm in the mood, I might as well check out this program called yWriter5. I downloaded it, but I haven't really tried to use it yet, since I haven't written anything fictional in about a year from what I remember. Just from looking at it, it would be good if you were into the "highly organised, keep tabs on all characters at all times" kind of writing. As much as I'd like to be organised, I'd prefer to just write. It's good to do something like that later on, maybe like half way in, just so you know that you haven't forgotten any characters, and they haven't mysteriously disappeared due to your laziness. Personally, I'd just rather write my little bits and pieces, string them together, then be in awe of the terrible mess I left behind.
Enough about that.
I thought I had my anatomy exam today. I was all ready to get in and study this morning, then fail in the afternoon, then go to work afterwards. I looked at the calendar bit on my phone, and wondered why I put my exam on the wrong day. Then I realised it wasn't the calendar that was wrong, but my brain. I checked the exam timetable, then texted a girl I know who is also doing anatomy, and the exam is on FRIDAY. THANK GODDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD.
That gives me like a whole 2 days to pretend to study. Cool.
I was kind of annoyed about how I was supposed to reach 20,000 words today but I couldn't because of the exam. Now that it's out of the way for the moment, 20 000 here I come!
First, watch this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXlzci1rKNM
A radio program held a sort of talent show for homeless people, and they found this guy - Daniel Mustard. Now, despite being homeless, hairy, and wearing strange hats, he has talent. If the amount of raw passion in this video doesn't get to you, then have a look at him now, nearly a year later. He went to rehab, is no longer homeless, and he doesn't abuse drugs or alcohol. This video is him clean, sober, and doing a preview of his new EP coming out soon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPBTaX7fn2M
Before anyone says "How can he be homeless if he has a guitar/access to a computer etc etc", he was given the guitar by the radio station, who is now funding him to do his EP. He gets on the computer, and has a facebook page because he uses public library computers.
Moving on, the Cleaning Nazi is hooked on the tv show True Blood. I first heard about it years ago when Dani-Q was telling me about this show she was watching, about a mind-reading chick called Sookie and a vampire called Bill. Now, just from that description, it sounds pretty bad.
Anyway, I continued on with my life, until I decided to watch the first episode. I ended up watching the whole first season. I wouldn't say I was addicted, just interested enough to want to see where it was going. I got halfway through the second season, then lost interest and stopped watching.
When the Cleaning Nazi found out about it, she asked my cousin what it was about. She told her it was soft-core porn (which it kind of is, but they made it seem like I was a porn addict). Of course, she didn't want her daughter watching that rubbish, even though I had already decided it was too crappy to keep watching.
To set her straight, I made her watch it. And now she can't stop. She keeps saying "oh, I don't like it, but I want to see what happens". You may call me a hypocrite, because I said the same thing, but the difference is that I stopped about 2 episodes into season 2. She watches about 3 episodes a night, and gets angry with me because the 4th season hasn't been filmed yet. Yes, apparently that's MY fault.
It's a bit ridiculous though. In the town where this is set, everyone is either a mythological creature or a drug addict. Or sometimes both, in the case of the in-bred meth-panthers. Yes, meth-panthers. Panther people who are on meth. It must have taken a genius to come up with that. I couldn't come up with something stranger if I tried.
Also, look at the main character's teeth.
I know that she can't help it, and she was born that way, blah, blah, blah. But you'd think that if she wanted to be an actress, she would fix any physical oddities that she could? Its not like she can't afford it. I can't decide whether I think she's pretty or not. It really depends on the episode, and the angle, and whether her mouth is closed or not. Like this photo above, Anna Paquin can look pretty scary. But as you can see below, she looks pretty good sometimes too.
But the point of bringing True Blood up is the hilarious accents, particularly in relation to the character's names. Bill is pronounced Beel, Sookie is Sookeh, Sam is Saym, and Tara is Terra. I seriously thought her name was Terra until I saw the credits halfway in season 2 and my mind exploded all over the place.
I know that I probably have a weird accent to most, since a South African friend's mother told me that she expected every Australian to sound like me. So, I guess I shouldn't be one to judge the accents of other people. I think it's just because none of the actors on the show actually have a real southern accent, so it seems a lot worse than what it could be.
That's pretty much all I wanted to say about True Blood.
Is that space large enough that you know I'm going to start a new topic?
I've noticed a trend with blogs. They're usually female writers. They have an aspiration to eventually become a published author, and they put excepts of their stories on their blogs. They are generally students of some kind. Quite a lot of them have children, or autistic people in their families. Or autistic children. Either way, from what I've seen by continually hitting the Next blog button, is that there's a lot of people with autism in their families. And they all blog about it. I find that odd. Their blog descriptions generally include the words "neurotic", "rant", "insanity", all that sort of stuff. In real life, these sorts of things are bad, and get you in a lot of trouble. In a blog however, weirdness, mental instability, and various other psychological conditions make you cute and quirky, just like every one else. I'm not taking a shot at anyone personally, but these words are majorly over-used. They are also serial daters. I'm beginning to wonder if blog writers just go on ridiculous dates just so they can blog about it. Where do they even find these people? They meet people, go on a date, meet a new person, go on a date etc etc. It just keeps going. How many people do you meet on an average day? How many of these people do you date? How many of these people do you NOT date? I don't understand how its done. I think a wizard did it.
Speaking of wizards, there's a group on facebook, its called "Harry Potter is a bit unrealistic. I mean a ginger kid with 2 friends". I laughed pretty hard at that, despite my natural red hair. But that's not what I wanted to talk about.
Look at them! How come they've grown and changed so much, and I still feel exactly the same as my 2001 self? It's not fair! Why do they get to grow up? And why did no one kill Emma Watson for those god-awful outfits? Look at that jumper!
They're all so different now. Emma Watson has all these photoshopped nudes of her, Rupert Grint is doing sex scenes in movies, and Daniel Radcliffe is a total skirt chaser. Despite his short stature, he seems to be proud of his ability to get his co-workers into bed. Good for him. I'd be more impressed if he could do it WITHOUT being the richest child star ever.
So, I don't think I'm going to hit 2000 words for my daily word count, so I'll settle for the 1667 word count for normal people who have stuff to do with their lives. As for the 20,000 total, I'm not sure if I've hit it. Haven't done the maths yet. I've noticed that Dani-Q is falling behind a bit becauseshe's lazy she has to study. She also has an anonymous hater who just kind of says stuff, and doesn't really put in too much effort. I have my suspicions about who it is, and if I'm right, they just want a reaction from her.
Word count for this post = 1676
Total November word count = 19, 814
I was laying in bed frantically typing away on my little Hiptop about all these story ideas I had. Well, they weren't ideas for a new story, but old ideas that have come back into my mind. Everyone's been talking to me about writing books and doing NaNoWriMo and stuff, and I've been thinking about my own story. I used to have a very clear idea of the plot, and where it was going, but now it's just small disjointed bits and pieces. In my mind, I'm still cutting out characters that don't belong. I'm even considering cutting out the main character and switching it to another one. It's a weird situation. Like, you know when there's a group of characters, and the main character is usually the leader of the group? In this story of mine, there's the main character, who is separate to the rest of the group and their leader. It's weird. GAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. Just thinking about it is making me want to write.
 |
| This is what I had to use to write down my ideas. |
Since I'm in the mood, I might as well check out this program called yWriter5. I downloaded it, but I haven't really tried to use it yet, since I haven't written anything fictional in about a year from what I remember. Just from looking at it, it would be good if you were into the "highly organised, keep tabs on all characters at all times" kind of writing. As much as I'd like to be organised, I'd prefer to just write. It's good to do something like that later on, maybe like half way in, just so you know that you haven't forgotten any characters, and they haven't mysteriously disappeared due to your laziness. Personally, I'd just rather write my little bits and pieces, string them together, then be in awe of the terrible mess I left behind.
Enough about that.
I thought I had my anatomy exam today. I was all ready to get in and study this morning, then fail in the afternoon, then go to work afterwards. I looked at the calendar bit on my phone, and wondered why I put my exam on the wrong day. Then I realised it wasn't the calendar that was wrong, but my brain. I checked the exam timetable, then texted a girl I know who is also doing anatomy, and the exam is on FRIDAY. THANK GODDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD.
That gives me like a whole 2 days to pretend to study. Cool.
I was kind of annoyed about how I was supposed to reach 20,000 words today but I couldn't because of the exam. Now that it's out of the way for the moment, 20 000 here I come!
First, watch this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXlzci1rKNM
A radio program held a sort of talent show for homeless people, and they found this guy - Daniel Mustard. Now, despite being homeless, hairy, and wearing strange hats, he has talent. If the amount of raw passion in this video doesn't get to you, then have a look at him now, nearly a year later. He went to rehab, is no longer homeless, and he doesn't abuse drugs or alcohol. This video is him clean, sober, and doing a preview of his new EP coming out soon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPBTaX7fn2M
Before anyone says "How can he be homeless if he has a guitar/access to a computer etc etc", he was given the guitar by the radio station, who is now funding him to do his EP. He gets on the computer, and has a facebook page because he uses public library computers.
Moving on, the Cleaning Nazi is hooked on the tv show True Blood. I first heard about it years ago when Dani-Q was telling me about this show she was watching, about a mind-reading chick called Sookie and a vampire called Bill. Now, just from that description, it sounds pretty bad.
Anyway, I continued on with my life, until I decided to watch the first episode. I ended up watching the whole first season. I wouldn't say I was addicted, just interested enough to want to see where it was going. I got halfway through the second season, then lost interest and stopped watching.
When the Cleaning Nazi found out about it, she asked my cousin what it was about. She told her it was soft-core porn (which it kind of is, but they made it seem like I was a porn addict). Of course, she didn't want her daughter watching that rubbish, even though I had already decided it was too crappy to keep watching.
To set her straight, I made her watch it. And now she can't stop. She keeps saying "oh, I don't like it, but I want to see what happens". You may call me a hypocrite, because I said the same thing, but the difference is that I stopped about 2 episodes into season 2. She watches about 3 episodes a night, and gets angry with me because the 4th season hasn't been filmed yet. Yes, apparently that's MY fault.
It's a bit ridiculous though. In the town where this is set, everyone is either a mythological creature or a drug addict. Or sometimes both, in the case of the in-bred meth-panthers. Yes, meth-panthers. Panther people who are on meth. It must have taken a genius to come up with that. I couldn't come up with something stranger if I tried.
Also, look at the main character's teeth.
 |
| I can't stop staring. |
I know that she can't help it, and she was born that way, blah, blah, blah. But you'd think that if she wanted to be an actress, she would fix any physical oddities that she could? Its not like she can't afford it. I can't decide whether I think she's pretty or not. It really depends on the episode, and the angle, and whether her mouth is closed or not. Like this photo above, Anna Paquin can look pretty scary. But as you can see below, she looks pretty good sometimes too.
But the point of bringing True Blood up is the hilarious accents, particularly in relation to the character's names. Bill is pronounced Beel, Sookie is Sookeh, Sam is Saym, and Tara is Terra. I seriously thought her name was Terra until I saw the credits halfway in season 2 and my mind exploded all over the place.
I know that I probably have a weird accent to most, since a South African friend's mother told me that she expected every Australian to sound like me. So, I guess I shouldn't be one to judge the accents of other people. I think it's just because none of the actors on the show actually have a real southern accent, so it seems a lot worse than what it could be.
That's pretty much all I wanted to say about True Blood.
Is that space large enough that you know I'm going to start a new topic?
I've noticed a trend with blogs. They're usually female writers. They have an aspiration to eventually become a published author, and they put excepts of their stories on their blogs. They are generally students of some kind. Quite a lot of them have children, or autistic people in their families. Or autistic children. Either way, from what I've seen by continually hitting the Next blog button, is that there's a lot of people with autism in their families. And they all blog about it. I find that odd. Their blog descriptions generally include the words "neurotic", "rant", "insanity", all that sort of stuff. In real life, these sorts of things are bad, and get you in a lot of trouble. In a blog however, weirdness, mental instability, and various other psychological conditions make you cute and quirky, just like every one else. I'm not taking a shot at anyone personally, but these words are majorly over-used. They are also serial daters. I'm beginning to wonder if blog writers just go on ridiculous dates just so they can blog about it. Where do they even find these people? They meet people, go on a date, meet a new person, go on a date etc etc. It just keeps going. How many people do you meet on an average day? How many of these people do you date? How many of these people do you NOT date? I don't understand how its done. I think a wizard did it.
Speaking of wizards, there's a group on facebook, its called "Harry Potter is a bit unrealistic. I mean a ginger kid with 2 friends". I laughed pretty hard at that, despite my natural red hair. But that's not what I wanted to talk about.
Look at them! How come they've grown and changed so much, and I still feel exactly the same as my 2001 self? It's not fair! Why do they get to grow up? And why did no one kill Emma Watson for those god-awful outfits? Look at that jumper!
They're all so different now. Emma Watson has all these photoshopped nudes of her, Rupert Grint is doing sex scenes in movies, and Daniel Radcliffe is a total skirt chaser. Despite his short stature, he seems to be proud of his ability to get his co-workers into bed. Good for him. I'd be more impressed if he could do it WITHOUT being the richest child star ever.
So, I don't think I'm going to hit 2000 words for my daily word count, so I'll settle for the 1667 word count for normal people who have stuff to do with their lives. As for the 20,000 total, I'm not sure if I've hit it. Haven't done the maths yet. I've noticed that Dani-Q is falling behind a bit because
Word count for this post = 1676
Total November word count = 19, 814
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
9th of November part 2: I think an update is in order.
I had my criminology exam today. Or tonight really, because it was at a pretty stupid time. All day, I was pretty stressed out about it, thinking about the pitiful effort I put into doing the readings, and gaining the "in depth" knowledge that my lecturer wanted from us.
The exam itself was 100 multiple choice questions. The questions were all taken straight from the text book. Literally. We just had to insert the missing word. To make it even easier, we were told what pages in our text book to study, and the exam questions were grouped together, chapter by chapter.
My uni has a policy of allowing students to leave the exam after one hour, or they can stay for the entire two hours if they choose. The majority of the class left at the one hour mark, all incredibly pleased with themselves. I was pretty worried that I was going to fail that class, but I have no doubt in my mind that I'll be fine now.
I only have two more exams left for 2010. Anatomy, which is tomorrow, and anthropology on Saturday. Then nothing until January. Thank God. I just need to suffer through the next few days. I can do it.
I felt like a change, so I played with the settings for the blog. Changed the background from a cook top to tomatoes. With a title like Dynamic Bicycle, I want vibrant, loud but not too loud that your eyes die, colour. And I think the new red tomato-y goodness brings that. I spent a lot of time on changing the text colours and stuff. Once again, I don't want to be responsible for the death of anyone's eyes.
Morgan, one of my challengers for our little NaNoWriMo competiton, has done a few parts of a story on her blog. Then Dani-Q was telling me about how she wants her novel to be done by Christmas. She wouldn't tell me what it was about or anything, so I can't pass judgement. But since it's coming from her, I think I have a pretty good idea. Hearing about all these other people, and their ideas for stories and novels really made me think about how different people really were. For example, I couldn't write a story about Hawaii, like Morgan. My writing falls more under the genre of sci-fi/action with elements of steam punk. So Hawaii isn't really my cup of tea. I can tell Danique's writing will have plenty of romantic tension and love triangles, and other various things that get her juices flowing (ew). While some of that can be incorporated into my writing (after all, lust is quite a realistic motivation for characters), I'd rather stay away from the sappy stuff. It's just cool how people can have such drastically different ideas in their head, yet they can still get along in a discussion about their daily lives.
This is only going to be a fairly short post I think. Not much to say, I just wanted to get a couple hundred words out before I call it a night.
Total November word count = 18, 138
The exam itself was 100 multiple choice questions. The questions were all taken straight from the text book. Literally. We just had to insert the missing word. To make it even easier, we were told what pages in our text book to study, and the exam questions were grouped together, chapter by chapter.
My uni has a policy of allowing students to leave the exam after one hour, or they can stay for the entire two hours if they choose. The majority of the class left at the one hour mark, all incredibly pleased with themselves. I was pretty worried that I was going to fail that class, but I have no doubt in my mind that I'll be fine now.
I only have two more exams left for 2010. Anatomy, which is tomorrow, and anthropology on Saturday. Then nothing until January. Thank God. I just need to suffer through the next few days. I can do it.
I felt like a change, so I played with the settings for the blog. Changed the background from a cook top to tomatoes. With a title like Dynamic Bicycle, I want vibrant, loud but not too loud that your eyes die, colour. And I think the new red tomato-y goodness brings that. I spent a lot of time on changing the text colours and stuff. Once again, I don't want to be responsible for the death of anyone's eyes.
Morgan, one of my challengers for our little NaNoWriMo competiton, has done a few parts of a story on her blog. Then Dani-Q was telling me about how she wants her novel to be done by Christmas. She wouldn't tell me what it was about or anything, so I can't pass judgement. But since it's coming from her, I think I have a pretty good idea. Hearing about all these other people, and their ideas for stories and novels really made me think about how different people really were. For example, I couldn't write a story about Hawaii, like Morgan. My writing falls more under the genre of sci-fi/action with elements of steam punk. So Hawaii isn't really my cup of tea. I can tell Danique's writing will have plenty of romantic tension and love triangles, and other various things that get her juices flowing (ew). While some of that can be incorporated into my writing (after all, lust is quite a realistic motivation for characters), I'd rather stay away from the sappy stuff. It's just cool how people can have such drastically different ideas in their head, yet they can still get along in a discussion about their daily lives.
This is only going to be a fairly short post I think. Not much to say, I just wanted to get a couple hundred words out before I call it a night.
Total November word count = 18, 138
Monday, November 8, 2010
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
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
Thursday, November 4, 2010
4th of November: It's nearly Christmas!
Now, as most of you know, I work at a toy store. Ordinarily, people go "OMG cool" or "it must be so fun to work there". No. Think about it. There's fun stuff freakin' everywhere, and you can't play with it, you have to get as much of it out of the store as possible. That being said, it's still more fun than wherever you work.
Since it's approaching Christmas, we put out our 45 page catalogue yesterday. It's not even the Christmas one. It's like the pre-Christmas one, and its 45 pages. It ends on November 16th. What a waste of paper. If it lasted to DECEMBER 16th, then yeah, that could work. It probably takes until December to go through the whole bloody thing. Anyway. The topic of today's post is "Stupid shit that parents buy for their children".
I started thinking about this last night, when I was doing night fill. Night fill is when a pallet of boxes, stacked higher than your head, is dumped in an aisle, and its your job to get them on the shelves. If they don't go ON the shelves, you stick them on top. In stacks that, once again, go much higher than your head even if you're on the top of a 12ft ladder. Yeah, I was doing night fill last night, in our Fisher Price/ Bruin aisle.
It's all items made for kids from the ages of 6 months, to maybe about 3 or 4 years. Playmats, rattles, activity walkers, that sort of thing. It's not a bad aisle. The boxes aren't too heavy, not too small that millions of things can fit in one box and you unleash hell when you open it. The boxes are still quite big, and mostly square/rectangle. They go on the shelf easily (yes, this is how toy store employees judge whether or not they like a toy).
Anyway, this aisle occasionally has some really stupid shit on sale.
Like a plane.
Technically, it's a Bruin Light and Sound Jet Ride On. Who the fuck buys their kid a ride-on plane? If your kids runs up to you saying "Mummy! I want a plane for Christmas!" You tell them to piss off and ask for something more realistic, like a job in a sweat shop.
The plane is pretty cool though. You can't see it in the picture, since it's in motion, but the rotor thingo at the front lights up and spins and makes noises and shit. And it plays music and stuff. Pretty cool. I'd buy it, if it weren't made for people 50kg lighter than me. And if I made more money. And if it wasn't such a stupid thing to give a child. I mean, if you give them a ride on jet one Christmas, what will they ask for next? How do you top that? Give them omnipotency?
See, if I had a kid, and they wanted a plane for Christmas, I'd tell them that all their hopes and dreams are stupid, but I'll get them the next best thing. A letter box.
It talks! And it sings, and it counts to ten. At that point, I lost interest in what it did, because its a freaking letter box. I really doubt that it can do anything cool. Now really, toy manufacturers, a letter box? What sort of messed up child do you think is going to WANT a letter box for Christmas? Oh, that's right. Toy manufacturers don't make toys for KIDS, they make it for the lazy-ass parents who can't be fucked finding what their kid wants.
I almost see where Fisher Price is coming from with the letter box. Its bright, it has heaps of shit to pull on. It sings, it counts, it has plenty of detatchable parts to choke on. But I think the main part of its appeal is that fact that children go through a certain stage in psychological development (can't remember when, or what it's called. What? Don't ask me, I'm a psych student) where they find that putting stuff inside other stuff is really interesting. They think that if they can't see it, its not there. That's why they lose their shit in a game of peek-a-boo. Just when they thought they got rid of you, you're fucking back again. But I think that the letter box is aiming for that age group where boxes and closing doors and stuff are a novelty. Who knows? I may be wrong. If I am, then it's just a letter box, being sold for the hell of it.
Now, another toy I don't get is Zhu Zhu Pets. They're guinea pigs, which buttons on their noses, and wheels or some shit where their feet should be.
There's about a million varieties, even green ones. I don't know why there's green ones. But they sell for like $20 each. An actual living guinea pig is about $10. And if it were a real guinea pig, your child would not want more and more and more. They would be content with the one they have. Or, if you buy them a second one, they can be content with the millions of baby guinea pigs they will soon have. But buying them a toy guinea pig is strange. I think you're supposed to buy them a track and a play set so they can roll around the track or something. I don't know, I've never seen it in action. I have seen a note saying "do not place near head or hair" attached to a box. I found that interesting. I'd like to think that out there somewhere, a poor little kid had to cut a toy guinea pig out of their hair.
These Zhu Zhu Pets are a nightmare though. They have a fairly small designated area on the shelf, and you can fit millions on there because the boxes are so small. But even with millions on the shelves, there's still millions more that need to go somewhere. So they go on top of the shelves. They spread lie a disease, even spilling across to overstocks in other aisles. It's ridiculous. Also, they have now made a version for boys. Kung Zhu Ninjas, and Special Forces Hamsters. WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
I'm running out of the will to type, so I'll talk about one more toy before I either move on to something else, or I give up entirely.
These are Sing-a-ma-jigs.
I don't really know what they're supposed to do, but I think they're supposed to be very popular this Christmas. We have heaps of them in the warehouse. I played with one. They sound pretty weird. I can't even explain them, but you can change the tone and pitch of their voices and god knows what else they do. Their mouths consist of those really low quality hair bands I used to use when I was little.
I just looked on youtube for them.
This is what I found.
I think the creepiest part is that they have teeth. Quite sharp, pain-causing teeth. You can't see it, but behind the mouth are two little white plastic teeth that you don't notice until it closes around your finger. And it hurts like a bitch.
Now, on to some less freaky topics to fill my word count, and update you on my daily life.
-Just as I stopped typing to give myself a bit of a break, I noticed that the palm leaf with the bird nest in it has fallen into the pool. When you have a look, thespawn of satan baby bird isn't in there. Strange. Mum thinks the dog ate it. I don't think he would, but who knows? It had to go somewhere.
-Last night after I got home from work, the BF came over to pick up his wallet, and to discuss a plan I had come up with while I was putting ride-on Jets on shelves all night. I was thinking that in January, if we're still together, it will be our 1 year anniversary (holy shit that year went fast). I suggested we plan to do somethingromantic awesome. Like hire out a hotel room and chill out for a day or two. By January, he should have a steady job and some money, and I'll be drowning in cash because of Christmas. And it's not even that expensive, like I expected it to be, if you take into consideration how nice the place is. We would have to have a balcony overlooking the Strand, obviously. That view alone is worth the price. Look at it!
Nothing's set in stone, since I only came up with it last night. But now I really want to do it. I mean, even if we break up, I'll get a few friends to take his place, and we have a wild weekend in town. Sounds good to me (the BF, on the other hand, suspects that I want to steal his kidneys).
Partly, I want to do it because it's an awesome idea, and I'll need a break after Christmas. But the main reason is because I'm 18, and I want to use my 18-ness to do things I couldn't do before, like buy alcohol, and book hotel rooms without parental permission. I've been 18 for like 3 months now, and I still feel like I shouldn't be in 18+ places, doing 18+ things. The novelty probably won't wear off for a while.
-Today is the second day of almost constant rain. It's supposed to be Summer here, or at least approaching Summer, yet it's freezing cold because of the rain and overcast weather. I'm actually considering putting on a jumper (sweater for you Americans)! The downside to rainy Summer weather in this part of Australia is the fact that we get cyclones. It's really hot and humid (sticky and damp like a sauna), and the cyclone develops, and it destroys everything. Fucking sucks man. This Summer is supposed to be a really busy cyclone season, unfortunately for us humans. Cyclones only come into contact with towns pretty rarely, but when they do, they fuck shit up. A few years back, cyclone Larry hit a town near where I live, and all of Australia had a banana drought. That sounds weird, but we had no bananas. That's weirder than the term "banana drought".
Right. I've made the minimum word count for today. Now I just have to make up for yesterday's failure. To do this, I shall talk about how screwed up the NaNoWriMo word count statistics are. They're very discouraging. Last year, when I attempted it (and failed about 2 days in, after 2000 words) they had a very basic statistics screen. It said your goal, how many words you did today, and your total word count. Now it's all about how many "successful" days you've had, how many days in a row, all that sort of stuff. Even if you do a massive word count one day, then a slightly smaller than average one the next day, you're still ahead, but the website counts that as unsuccessful. It was doing it to me yesterday. I did about 3000 words one day, then 1240 the next, and even though I was below my daily goal, I was still good for the total goal, yet I was "unsuccessful", apparently. It really sucks for the people who have school and stuff, who do the 10,000k weekends. Because the website says they have 5 day "unsuccessful streaks". That's really very discouraging for people, especially if they're actually ahead of their goal.
I just had a look at yesterday’s word count, and realised I have to do another 700 words or so to make up for yesterday, if I want to hit my total goal of 9000 words by today. How about I do some study, and I'll type a small-ish blog later this afternoon/tonight.
My total so far is 8415.
Since it's approaching Christmas, we put out our 45 page catalogue yesterday. It's not even the Christmas one. It's like the pre-Christmas one, and its 45 pages. It ends on November 16th. What a waste of paper. If it lasted to DECEMBER 16th, then yeah, that could work. It probably takes until December to go through the whole bloody thing. Anyway. The topic of today's post is "Stupid shit that parents buy for their children".
I started thinking about this last night, when I was doing night fill. Night fill is when a pallet of boxes, stacked higher than your head, is dumped in an aisle, and its your job to get them on the shelves. If they don't go ON the shelves, you stick them on top. In stacks that, once again, go much higher than your head even if you're on the top of a 12ft ladder. Yeah, I was doing night fill last night, in our Fisher Price/ Bruin aisle.
 |
| One of the items you typically find in the Bruin/Fisher Price aisle |
Anyway, this aisle occasionally has some really stupid shit on sale.
Like a plane.
Technically, it's a Bruin Light and Sound Jet Ride On. Who the fuck buys their kid a ride-on plane? If your kids runs up to you saying "Mummy! I want a plane for Christmas!" You tell them to piss off and ask for something more realistic, like a job in a sweat shop.
 |
| I see no problem with my 3 year old being here |
See, if I had a kid, and they wanted a plane for Christmas, I'd tell them that all their hopes and dreams are stupid, but I'll get them the next best thing. A letter box.
I almost see where Fisher Price is coming from with the letter box. Its bright, it has heaps of shit to pull on. It sings, it counts, it has plenty of detatchable parts to choke on. But I think the main part of its appeal is that fact that children go through a certain stage in psychological development (can't remember when, or what it's called. What? Don't ask me, I'm a psych student) where they find that putting stuff inside other stuff is really interesting. They think that if they can't see it, its not there. That's why they lose their shit in a game of peek-a-boo. Just when they thought they got rid of you, you're fucking back again. But I think that the letter box is aiming for that age group where boxes and closing doors and stuff are a novelty. Who knows? I may be wrong. If I am, then it's just a letter box, being sold for the hell of it.
Now, another toy I don't get is Zhu Zhu Pets. They're guinea pigs, which buttons on their noses, and wheels or some shit where their feet should be.
There's about a million varieties, even green ones. I don't know why there's green ones. But they sell for like $20 each. An actual living guinea pig is about $10. And if it were a real guinea pig, your child would not want more and more and more. They would be content with the one they have. Or, if you buy them a second one, they can be content with the millions of baby guinea pigs they will soon have. But buying them a toy guinea pig is strange. I think you're supposed to buy them a track and a play set so they can roll around the track or something. I don't know, I've never seen it in action. I have seen a note saying "do not place near head or hair" attached to a box. I found that interesting. I'd like to think that out there somewhere, a poor little kid had to cut a toy guinea pig out of their hair.
These Zhu Zhu Pets are a nightmare though. They have a fairly small designated area on the shelf, and you can fit millions on there because the boxes are so small. But even with millions on the shelves, there's still millions more that need to go somewhere. So they go on top of the shelves. They spread lie a disease, even spilling across to overstocks in other aisles. It's ridiculous. Also, they have now made a version for boys. Kung Zhu Ninjas, and Special Forces Hamsters. WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
I'm running out of the will to type, so I'll talk about one more toy before I either move on to something else, or I give up entirely.
I don't really know what they're supposed to do, but I think they're supposed to be very popular this Christmas. We have heaps of them in the warehouse. I played with one. They sound pretty weird. I can't even explain them, but you can change the tone and pitch of their voices and god knows what else they do. Their mouths consist of those really low quality hair bands I used to use when I was little.
I just looked on youtube for them.
This is what I found.
I think the creepiest part is that they have teeth. Quite sharp, pain-causing teeth. You can't see it, but behind the mouth are two little white plastic teeth that you don't notice until it closes around your finger. And it hurts like a bitch.
Now, on to some less freaky topics to fill my word count, and update you on my daily life.
-Just as I stopped typing to give myself a bit of a break, I noticed that the palm leaf with the bird nest in it has fallen into the pool. When you have a look, the
-Last night after I got home from work, the BF came over to pick up his wallet, and to discuss a plan I had come up with while I was putting ride-on Jets on shelves all night. I was thinking that in January, if we're still together, it will be our 1 year anniversary (holy shit that year went fast). I suggested we plan to do something
 |
| I'll make sure I bring my white dress, so I can look in amazement in the opposite direction of the beach like this chick. |
Nothing's set in stone, since I only came up with it last night. But now I really want to do it. I mean, even if we break up, I'll get a few friends to take his place, and we have a wild weekend in town. Sounds good to me (the BF, on the other hand, suspects that I want to steal his kidneys).
Partly, I want to do it because it's an awesome idea, and I'll need a break after Christmas. But the main reason is because I'm 18, and I want to use my 18-ness to do things I couldn't do before, like buy alcohol, and book hotel rooms without parental permission. I've been 18 for like 3 months now, and I still feel like I shouldn't be in 18+ places, doing 18+ things. The novelty probably won't wear off for a while.
-Today is the second day of almost constant rain. It's supposed to be Summer here, or at least approaching Summer, yet it's freezing cold because of the rain and overcast weather. I'm actually considering putting on a jumper (sweater for you Americans)! The downside to rainy Summer weather in this part of Australia is the fact that we get cyclones. It's really hot and humid (sticky and damp like a sauna), and the cyclone develops, and it destroys everything. Fucking sucks man. This Summer is supposed to be a really busy cyclone season, unfortunately for us humans. Cyclones only come into contact with towns pretty rarely, but when they do, they fuck shit up. A few years back, cyclone Larry hit a town near where I live, and all of Australia had a banana drought. That sounds weird, but we had no bananas. That's weirder than the term "banana drought".
Right. I've made the minimum word count for today. Now I just have to make up for yesterday's failure. To do this, I shall talk about how screwed up the NaNoWriMo word count statistics are. They're very discouraging. Last year, when I attempted it (and failed about 2 days in, after 2000 words) they had a very basic statistics screen. It said your goal, how many words you did today, and your total word count. Now it's all about how many "successful" days you've had, how many days in a row, all that sort of stuff. Even if you do a massive word count one day, then a slightly smaller than average one the next day, you're still ahead, but the website counts that as unsuccessful. It was doing it to me yesterday. I did about 3000 words one day, then 1240 the next, and even though I was below my daily goal, I was still good for the total goal, yet I was "unsuccessful", apparently. It really sucks for the people who have school and stuff, who do the 10,000k weekends. Because the website says they have 5 day "unsuccessful streaks". That's really very discouraging for people, especially if they're actually ahead of their goal.
I just had a look at yesterday’s word count, and realised I have to do another 700 words or so to make up for yesterday, if I want to hit my total goal of 9000 words by today. How about I do some study, and I'll type a small-ish blog later this afternoon/tonight.
My total so far is 8415.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
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.
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.
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.
Friday, October 29, 2010
Just some word salad for you
I can't be bothered doing a proper blog, so I'll type out a preview of what's to come.
1. Did my anatomy exam. Unfortunately, I was not the one examining hot men. Examiners were examining me examining a severed corpse's arm. Didn't go as badly as I previously thought.
2. I'm shopping around for a new hairdresser, since the one I always go to hired a new chick, who told me to go away for a week and think about my choice.
3. I'm also shopping for a new doctor. The old one is refusing to give me a script for the pill until I do a pap smear. That's pretty fucked up. Spreading my legs for birth control.
4. I've realised Dani-Q makes most of my life decisions for me. I was in the shopping centre she works at, and every time I'm presented with a problem, I kind of run to her shop for guidance and pretend I'm buying stuff.
5. I'm gradually dying my hair lighter, so I can dye it blue. If I do it while it's red, funky shit may happen. And I'm not going to risk my hair like that.
6. The ex-bf texted me about my exam. God knows how he knows about it, so I'll take it as a romantic gesture. He has a job now, paid back some debts (nothing serious). It took him like a week to "sort his life out". Fickle boy.
7. The Halloween Zombie Walk is on Saturday night, and the there's the afterparty in the local nightclub strip. I don't think I'll dress up or anything, I just want to watch and possibly go into town afterwards. I need people to go with me.
8. November is only like a week away. Shit shit shit. I completely forgot about NaNoWriMo. Still doing it though.
9. Umm. Too tired for rational thought. Finish my sentences tomorrow.
Goodnight.
1. Did my anatomy exam. Unfortunately, I was not the one examining hot men. Examiners were examining me examining a severed corpse's arm. Didn't go as badly as I previously thought.
2. I'm shopping around for a new hairdresser, since the one I always go to hired a new chick, who told me to go away for a week and think about my choice.
3. I'm also shopping for a new doctor. The old one is refusing to give me a script for the pill until I do a pap smear. That's pretty fucked up. Spreading my legs for birth control.
4. I've realised Dani-Q makes most of my life decisions for me. I was in the shopping centre she works at, and every time I'm presented with a problem, I kind of run to her shop for guidance and pretend I'm buying stuff.
5. I'm gradually dying my hair lighter, so I can dye it blue. If I do it while it's red, funky shit may happen. And I'm not going to risk my hair like that.
6. The ex-bf texted me about my exam. God knows how he knows about it, so I'll take it as a romantic gesture. He has a job now, paid back some debts (nothing serious). It took him like a week to "sort his life out". Fickle boy.
7. The Halloween Zombie Walk is on Saturday night, and the there's the afterparty in the local nightclub strip. I don't think I'll dress up or anything, I just want to watch and possibly go into town afterwards. I need people to go with me.
8. November is only like a week away. Shit shit shit. I completely forgot about NaNoWriMo. Still doing it though.
9. Umm. Too tired for rational thought. Finish my sentences tomorrow.
Goodnight.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Survived another day
Did my anatomy exam today. Not sure how it went. I think I at least passed, hopefully. It always sucks when you think "well, I understand enough to get me through the exam" and then the exam doesn't ask you the important stuff, it asks you the bullshit questions that you were told not to worry about studying. Last anatomy exam, we were told not to worry about the details of each of the layers of the skin. Guess what 25 of the 40 questions were about?
I passed that one, somehow. I also vowed to never get that far behind in my study ever again. I kind of did, but I definitely felt like I learned stuff in this second half of the semester. That's a plus, I guess.
I did the exam, went home, and tried to start my anthropology essay. I didn't touch it, because I wasn't really in an African Witchcraft kind of mood. Went to work, 4 hours of shelf stacking boredom, and I'm home again, still not in the mood for African Witchcraft. To be honest, I don't think I've ever been in the mood for African Witchcraft.
I discovered that my lipstick (L'oreal Colour Riche, good stuff) has made its way into my bag, without a lid. Not cool, lipstick. Not cool. Last time I had a makeup disaster, it was a bottle of nail polish on the carpet, and the cleaning product made more of a stain than the original accident did.
Speaking of accidents, something weird happened outside my house last night. The dog started barking, and since his bed is outside my window (and I consider him my son), it is my duty to tell him to shut the hell up and go to bed. Ususally he does, and he stays quiet. Last night, he wouldn't be quiet. Then mum heard the noise of our gates opening and closing. A minute later, the sliding noise of a van door. She freaked out and assumed people were in our backyard and woke up my dad. I assumed the dog was being a retard and barking at our weird Indian neighbours (they aren't weird because they're Indian, they are weird and Indian separately). So I ignored it all.
My parents are walking around the house, checking out the shed to see if people were in the yard. Then they heard voices out the front, and saw an ambulance driving away. Bit weird, but fair enough. We're surrounded by old people, someone probably hurt themselves. Doesn't explain the dog barking, or the gates opening, or the BLOOD SMEARED ON OUR DRIVEWAY! It seriously looks like something dragged itself from the neighbour's front yard, across the front of our house where the gate(and the dog) is, across our lawn and onto the road, where it just stops in the middle. But why did the gate open and close? Why was there an ambulance further down the road, away from the end of the blood trail? I'd like to think that my vicious guard dog attacked someone, severely wounding him. But I don't think he's capable of hurting anyone when he looks like that (see below)
Or is he?
I passed that one, somehow. I also vowed to never get that far behind in my study ever again. I kind of did, but I definitely felt like I learned stuff in this second half of the semester. That's a plus, I guess.
I did the exam, went home, and tried to start my anthropology essay. I didn't touch it, because I wasn't really in an African Witchcraft kind of mood. Went to work, 4 hours of shelf stacking boredom, and I'm home again, still not in the mood for African Witchcraft. To be honest, I don't think I've ever been in the mood for African Witchcraft.
I discovered that my lipstick (L'oreal Colour Riche, good stuff) has made its way into my bag, without a lid. Not cool, lipstick. Not cool. Last time I had a makeup disaster, it was a bottle of nail polish on the carpet, and the cleaning product made more of a stain than the original accident did.
Speaking of accidents, something weird happened outside my house last night. The dog started barking, and since his bed is outside my window (and I consider him my son), it is my duty to tell him to shut the hell up and go to bed. Ususally he does, and he stays quiet. Last night, he wouldn't be quiet. Then mum heard the noise of our gates opening and closing. A minute later, the sliding noise of a van door. She freaked out and assumed people were in our backyard and woke up my dad. I assumed the dog was being a retard and barking at our weird Indian neighbours (they aren't weird because they're Indian, they are weird and Indian separately). So I ignored it all.
My parents are walking around the house, checking out the shed to see if people were in the yard. Then they heard voices out the front, and saw an ambulance driving away. Bit weird, but fair enough. We're surrounded by old people, someone probably hurt themselves. Doesn't explain the dog barking, or the gates opening, or the BLOOD SMEARED ON OUR DRIVEWAY! It seriously looks like something dragged itself from the neighbour's front yard, across the front of our house where the gate(and the dog) is, across our lawn and onto the road, where it just stops in the middle. But why did the gate open and close? Why was there an ambulance further down the road, away from the end of the blood trail? I'd like to think that my vicious guard dog attacked someone, severely wounding him. But I don't think he's capable of hurting anyone when he looks like that (see below)
Or is he?
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Shake that healthy butt!
I honestly regret getting on this site today.
I went to anatomy. I saw cadavers. I poked a few, as I usually do on Thursday mornings. I came home, got out my books and began to study. I thought, "oh, I'll do a quick check of all the social networking sites and get into study". Did that happen? Well, sort of.
I looked at Morgan's blog (here) and she was talking about the song "Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix A Lot, among other things. I watched the video, laughed at it's ridiculousness, and was reminded of something from high school. Then the song was stuck in my head while I was doing my anatomy study.
I went shopping to get away from all the anatomy and music. Didn't stop me from thinking. I sat there, eating dinner, wondering why men like Sir Mix A Lot are so attracted to women with a thick layer of adipose tissue over their gluteus maximus. Then one of the anatomy lab assistants walked past, and I lost it. Ran for the hills (or rather, to the nearest shoe store) to take my mind off people's asses.
I went to anatomy. I saw cadavers. I poked a few, as I usually do on Thursday mornings. I came home, got out my books and began to study. I thought, "oh, I'll do a quick check of all the social networking sites and get into study". Did that happen? Well, sort of.
I looked at Morgan's blog (here) and she was talking about the song "Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix A Lot, among other things. I watched the video, laughed at it's ridiculousness, and was reminded of something from high school. Then the song was stuck in my head while I was doing my anatomy study.
I went shopping to get away from all the anatomy and music. Didn't stop me from thinking. I sat there, eating dinner, wondering why men like Sir Mix A Lot are so attracted to women with a thick layer of adipose tissue over their gluteus maximus. Then one of the anatomy lab assistants walked past, and I lost it. Ran for the hills (or rather, to the nearest shoe store) to take my mind off people's asses.
Anatomy exam tomorrow/ " I'll study YOUR anatomy..."
Every time I try to think of something to blog about, my brain goes "NO! STUDY FOR ANATOMY TOMORROW!" So, I shall compromise, and blog about anatomy. I'm like 10 weeks in, and I still associate "studying anatomy" with staring at males. Cue giggling like an idiot. I can't help it.
For most of the 10 weeks, we had a female lecturer with a New Zealand accent. Then, for about 3 weeks, we had a hot male lecturer, Dr. Nathan (He's a doctor!) with an Irish accent. Now, don't get me wrong, having a hottie with an accent is good, because I was constantly studying his anatomy (that counts as learning, right?). However, I'm starting to wonder if we (the students) are pronouncing things properly. All our anatomical terms are taught to us with Kiwi or Irish accents, so do we sound like idiots to Aussie people? For example, Crypts of Lieberkuhn. Its somewhere in the digestive system. I feel like I gain an Irish accent everytime I say "Leeber-coon". But that's how the lecturer said it.
I'll finish this off later. I should study.
For most of the 10 weeks, we had a female lecturer with a New Zealand accent. Then, for about 3 weeks, we had a hot male lecturer, Dr. Nathan (He's a doctor!) with an Irish accent. Now, don't get me wrong, having a hottie with an accent is good, because I was constantly studying his anatomy (that counts as learning, right?). However, I'm starting to wonder if we (the students) are pronouncing things properly. All our anatomical terms are taught to us with Kiwi or Irish accents, so do we sound like idiots to Aussie people? For example, Crypts of Lieberkuhn. Its somewhere in the digestive system. I feel like I gain an Irish accent everytime I say "Leeber-coon". But that's how the lecturer said it.
I'll finish this off later. I should study.
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