Yea i'm Procrastinating... so what?

Ohmygoodnessidon'twanttoreadanymore.

25 days to go

Everyday i'm more and more struck by the fact that in less than a month i will be flying home.
Yes, it means i'm back to the good food and the family.
But it means the end of 301 as I know it.
It means a different double bed (haha.. yes lah.. double bed at home too) with a different feeling.
It means different walls with different pictures.
It means the end of apartment-sharing, at least for a year.
I don't know if it'll be weird living alone.
I guess company's just a door away.
But still, it'll be lonely without the crosswords, the card games, the shared noodles and the idol obsessions.
Most of all it'll be different between us - and i won't pretend that i don't know it.

Jeannie Pigs!

*Haroe?*

Today I went to visit Jo's guinea pig. I never knew little rat-like creatures were that cute. Hamsters are okay, but i still remember that time a cute dwarf panda hamster bit me when i picked it up in the shopping mall. (*#@%^!!*&#) Anyway, she just got little Asterix for her birthday (Sat 28th) from the Kalou gang. Ironically the guinea pig cost a fraction of all the maintenance bits (cage, food, pellets, water dispenser, play stuff...)

Fluffy fluffy - oh so fluffy! Like a... feather duster?

Anyway, i didn't realise that guinea pigs were so small and came in so many different types. However, they all seem to have that same Huh? Me? kind of look to them. Kewt!Maybe i should try to take on that persona during the coming Zoo O-week. Seeing as I am supposed to coordinate everyone and know what I am doing. It would be funny if Jeannie Pig kept going Huh? Me? (well, maybe not that funny when everything falls apart)
A day of feeling hungover and waking up early for O week. I'm sorry to say this but i never realised how white Australia was 'til I stepped out of iH.

Essay Marking Gripe

I finished my last class of my second year in uni today. As usual, there's only essays and exams to do now. And then holiday!
Anyway, with great anticipation, I collected my 60% 4000 word essay previously complained about in my blog. With equally great surprise, and joy it must be added, I flipped to the marking sheet to reveal the glorious number - H ... 2 ... A! Haha.. A year ago i would've been disappointed, but this is now and this is second year and this is rare.
So i was happily strolling home thinking that my grades are going up even though I wrote that essay in 4 days right after an uber relaxing stint at the houseboat. =) Then I get home and actually read the comments on my essay.
My sentence: The era of unhindered reproduction (it's about overpopulation) is fast fading as we confront the reality of a planet ...
Anything wrong with the sentence? Actually yes, a big red circle around the we and the comment Don't use the personal. Oh, i'm really sorry i bundled all of humanity together and referred to us as we. I mean, geez, forgetting all the aliens in the universe, and the plants and animals, how insensitive of me. Bringing things to a personal level definitely.
Other comments were really a matter of personal style, i felt. The use of questions in my essay, explaining how I would tackle it with an 'I' rather than 'This essay will'. The use of the Cambridge system of referencing rather than the Harvard system. (especially distressing as they did not SPECIFY that you had to use a certain system!)
Sometimes Arts is frustrating in its subjectivity. And it sucks worse when they mark you down for small things that detract from the important things - i.e. the argument! Really believe that either the reasons for marking down were stupid or my shortcomings weren't discussed at all.
*snort*
But other than that i can't complain if i have a good mark. It's still something to be happy about! Okay, justifies drinking tonight. =) (gosh, i make myself sound like an alcoholic. it's a celebration, okay?)

Better days...

Actually a good day. i haven't quite deciphered how or what i answered my test with, but i guess it's over. Then had good chats with a few people i hardly chat with. And i feel like there's a bit more spring in my step.
Either the weather's changing, the semester is over, the tests are over, the problems have been sorted out, or dressing nicely just makes you feel good.
A blue day - but in a good way.
And to top it off?Nice cold Corona - with lemon of course.

i know the picture has a lime in it but it's close enough, ok?

The World and its Problems

Figure out what's wrong with the world and tell me how you can fix it.
That, in a nutshell, is my test question for tomorrow. Joy! Kinda broad huh?
Anyway, i've realised after more than half my politics at uni stint that you get quite good at brainstorming the basic ideas, just 'cos they seem to be repeated at EVERY SINGLE SUBJECT.
I've been looking a lot into how we can reform the UN for this, just because i think that's the way the world should go - global governance and cooperation. Yes, Mr. Bush, it's that really long word with the 2 O's that looks kind of funny. But it's ok, you'll learn it in time. Hey, it's just as long as the word caterpillar. Yeah! That one from your favourite childhood book, The Very Hungy Caterpillar, written a year after you were out of college. Hhhmmm...
Anyway, here's some shocking things that my (provoked) brain thinks that you should know.
The UN Security Council Permanent 5 - that makes BIG decisions that affect the world (like whether we should have a war or not) has NO WOMEN on it. Naturally representative of the other 50% of the world without penises.
The G8, which has the capacity to decide if they want to address poverty or not (remember those white ID tags that were all the craze?) has ONLY ONE woman on it. And she's German. Go European countries!
What? What about a woman Secretary General? Hasn't happened as yet. Then again, it's a big role to fill - what with all this willy-jousting* to get anything done at all.
*term i borrowed from Sheila Jeffreys, uber-feminist lecturer in Melbourne Uni who is a lesbian BY CHOICE because in her view, any form of penetration is rape. (so, we'll just stop the raping that's going on to keep the human race alive huh?)
Bleah. Politics is BIG. But we should be more aware too.
So everyone, lift your arms up, embrace the love, and welcome in the NEW Secretary General of the UN - Ban Ki-moon from South Korea. Good luck trying to bring peace to the world while your closest neighbour is trying to blow half of it up.

No really. No cynicism. The world is a beautiful place. (it's just the people that are f*cked up)

Photo courtesy of NASA's Terra Earth-Obserbing Spaceship

John May(er)nia

I'm gonna go watch him live in 2 weeks!! *squeal of excitement!*
Thanks for getting me through my exam, John.. Oh, and all that other stuff too. *groan*

Nearing the end of a busy week. Hectic, just hectic. oh well...

Sun + Rain = My rainbow's coming!!

What...

The barrage of things to complicate my life doesn't seem to want to end.
There's hitches in O week
There's stuff to handle in AC
There's tests waiting for attention
There's friendships that feel like they aren't as tight as they were
I feel like i'm stuck in this cage made of bars of responsibility and personal commitment.
And everyone else is prancing around rubbing their freedom in my face.
How does it get worse?
My mum hung up on me 'cos she had to rush off for dinner.
The cage just became solitary confinement.

Waxing Lyrical about Lyrics

You know when you hear songs on the radio, you tend to just sing along, regardless of whether you know the words- and apart from the title, really don't have any idea what the song is about. Not you? Maybe just me then.
Anyway, after watching the World on Fire video, i wondered if the song had any of those connotations at all, so i decided to google the lyrics. I never realised they were so deep. Honestly, if i hadn't seen the video, i wouldn't have thought about it at all.
This is my favourite verse in the whole song:

We part the veil on our killer sun
Stray from the straight line on this short run
The more we take, the less we become
A fortune of one that means less for some

Holy cow. She summed up most of my Politics course in 4 lines. And so poetically too. I had to explain this to a friend, so maybe i'll explain it again. We part the veil on our killer sun - a much nicer way of saying the ozone layer is depleting. Stray from the straight line on this short run - our short lives are going in the wrong directions. The more we take, the less we become - the more we take material things, the less we are in touch with humanity and, scientifically actually, over consumption leads to detrimental health (cancer, diabetes, high cholestrol....) and a fortune of one that means less for some - the rich-poor disparity... one rich guy is holding the money that could feed a few families.
Maybe it's an artsy thing. Maybe noone else cares about it. But really, i wish essays were this straightforward. Screw politics, i should've gone into music. So much more straightforward. And none of these big words that don't really mean much.
Anyhow, am getting quite tuned into the actualy lyrics of songs now. Sarah Mclachlan and John Mayer - lyrical geniuses. clear and simple.

Thanks John Mayer - The Heart of Life

I hate to see you cry
Lying there in that position
There's things you need to hear
So turn off your tears and listen

Pain throws your heart to the ground
Love turns the whole thing around
No, it won't all go the way, it should
But I know the heart of life is good

You know it's nothing new
Bad news never had good timing
But then the circle of your friends
Will defend the silver lining

Pain throws your heart to the ground
Love turns the whole thing around
No, it won't all go the way, it should
But I know the heart of life is good

Pain throws your heart to the ground
Love turns the whole thing around
Fear is a friend who's misunderstood
But I know the heart of life is good

I know it's good

Kids say MoRe darndest things....

Okay okay, after reading that silly little excerpt, i continued procrastinating by searching up some of the darndest things kids say.. This site has some pretty funny ones which i took the liberty of "borrowing":

It was the end of the day when I parked my police van in front of the
station. As I gathered my equipment, my K-9 partner, Jake, was barking,
and I saw a little boy staring in at me. "Is that a dog you got back
there?" he asked. "It sure is," I replied. Puzzled, the boy looked at me
and then towards the back of the van. Finally he said, "What'd he do?"

While walking along the sidewalk in front of his chruch, our minister heard the intoning of a prayer that nearly made his collar wilt. Apparently,his five-year-old son and his playmates had found a dead robin. Feeling that proper burial should be performed, they had secured a small box and cotton batting, then dug a hole and made ready for the disposal of the deceased. The minister's son was chosen to say the appropriate prayers and with sonorous dignity intoned his version of what he thought his father always said: "Glory be unto the Faaaather. .and unto the Sonnn. ...... and into the hole he gooooes."

A little girl had just finished her first week of school. "I'm just
wasting my time," she said to her mother. "I can't read, I can't write -
and they won't let me talk!"

A little boy opened the big family bible. He was fascinated as he fingered
through the old pages. Suddenly, something fell out of the Bible. He
picked up the object and looked at it. What he saw was an old leaf that
had been pressed in between the pages. "Mama, look what I found", the
boy called out. "What have you got there, dear"? With astonishment in
the young boy's voice, he answered, "I think it's Adam's underwear!"

Oops!

this other site has pretty funny short ones, namely:

The inhabitants of Moscow are called Mosqitoes.

The general direction of the Alps is straight up.

We do not raise silk worms in the United States, because we get our silk from rayon. He is a larger worm and gives more silk.

The head sits on the top and you sit on the bottom.

The four seasons are salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar.

Syntax is all the money collected at the church from sinners.

In the middle of the 18th century, all the morons moved to Utah.
(I think they meant Mormons...)

Gosh.. So cute!
Heehee... see lah, with my brother now contemplating engagement, may not be too long before I have nieces and nephews to play with. (haha. and be the cool aunty who gives presents all the time, or at least hugs them all the time)

Kids say the darndest things...

I was bored so i decided to randomly click on a blog. Found this at the top and i think it's awesome.
I don't claim to understand the Bible, but some people who do don't understand it either.

Stingrays Strike Back!

Something's going on with the stingrays. This article talks about an 81-year-old man who got stung by a stingray that jumped out of the water and stung him. Let me repeat that, a stingray JUMPED out of the water. Strangely enough, people called it a freak accident. Fortunately, the man didn't die but he IS in critical condition after surgery to remove bits of the ray's barb.
What the heck?
Stingrays are out to conquer the world! First Steve Irwin, then EVERYONE ELSE!
The stingray in the latest article died on the boat.
Gosh. Suicide terrorism has reached a new level.On a different note, stingrays have been getting really bad press. They're actually quite pretty and are threatened in the wild. Previously, their venom was used by dentists as anaesthetic, haha, although i hope they didn't use the barb to administer it. They can be as long as 2 metres (that's about a 6 and a half foot man's height... dream guy!) and live from 15 to 25 years old. And, when cooked in the style of panggang, they taste yummy! No no... seriously, it's not their fault the terrorists have learned how to control their minds, leading them to suicide sting for the terrorist cause....
Random stungray facts from National Geographic. Thanks!

Music, Guns and Booze...

Sounds like a recipe for drugged out psycho-kids to go kill some shit. really, that was my night though.
Music night went a blast with loads of awesome singing.. Goosebumps from Liz, Tahireh, Steph and Dharen...bet i missed ppl out, but hey.
Anyway, after music night was a phone convo with parents basically telling them they'll be paying a lot for my next year's accommodation. Oh well, i'll be pretty gutted if i don't get the avenue apartment. I guess it's hard to picture myself living somewhere other than 301. How aptly named Troy is - it shall be conquested and its citizens abandon it at the end of the year.
So anyway, i haven't got to the booze and guns part of the story. After the phone convo, went over to celebrate Little Buddha's birthday (as sweet as shaving cream and mayo?!?!?) and then to Fang's 'cos it was his birthday too. Came a bit too late though cos most of the booze was gone and i'd miss Chris Hales' stunning (or not so actually, according to observers) performance around the JCR. Got to talking with Stacey and her Texan friend and somehow it drifted to pepper spray (naturally), which drifted to taser guns (Stacey has one!) and then to guns themselves... Apparently, at least where they live, it's quite common to have guns and they actually go to the gunnery (omg... you'd think a nunnery would be more common) and can fire handguns and rifles.. And apparently Stacey's a really good marksman.
What the Heck. Guns are normal? That's not really something i understand.
I guess Malaysia's kind of unsafe too, but pepper spray is where i draw the line - and maybe a good kick in the balls.
In the US, some families have guns in every room, just for safety. One logic behind it is that if there is a gun lying around, at least you have the knowledge of how to make it safe. Which sort of works - don't be a hypocrite, right? At least if you bitch about it, you know what you're talking about. But it really made me think a lot about Bowling for Columbine.
Yes, some people still hate him, but his documentaries are eye-openers, despite the criticism.
So anyway, the US culture, at the moment beyond me. But i'm really happy i sat there and had that long talk, because i haven't connected with people for a long time. I wanna collect a large number of addresses and numbers during my time in ih, and one day the world will never feel unwelcoming. =)

it must be love...

You know, i never realised that this place gets readership. [thinks aloud] maybe if there was some noise to indicate some activity. *hint* *hint*
no but seriously, i guess this works as an emotional vent.
In hindsight, things look a lot better. The worst came and went, the people have been kind. Mostly. It was a tough lesson to learn, but the best medicine is bitter (yeah, the kind mum boils for the whole day and looks thick and black and smells like bile... you know what i'm talking about)
I guess i have to say that now it seems petty. But at the time, i wasn't in the right frame of mind. It really was a blow 'cos stuff was just feeling bad. And i guess, like many things, timing's never perfect.

When will you know when the timing's perfect? Emotions are fragile - we hope the timing's always perfect. But, like i said, timing's never perfect.Salvador Dali's The Persistence of Memory

The man is a genius.

Inspiring...

It's funny how sometimes you feel like you've been led somewhere.
I came home and the song 'World on Fire' by Sarah McLachlan was stuck in my head. I could swear i had it in my playlist so commence searching but it's nowhere to be found! (guess i didn't upload EVERYTHING from my cds). Anyway, i google it just to check the title of the song and I came across this site which is basically the whole music video. (At first i didn't realise and was really excited that i could hear the song. You know how it is when you think of something and you HAVE to hear it to be satisfied). So Sarah McLachlan's been nice enough to let her video go on the internet for free. But the message in the video is really inspirational. It makes you remember that not all rich people are mean and selfish and that there are still those who care out there.
In case you're too lazy to get on the site, the gist of it is that there's a home video style recording of her and her guitar, with the song playing of course. But words flash on the screen saying it cost $150 000 to make. Then it asks, what's wrong with this? Because the video only cost $15. And then it lists all the normal video costs - directors, makeup, film crew, catering, editing, etc... and their respective fees. And instead, this money has been sent to India, Africa, South East Asia, everywhere around the world where it is more desperately needed and how much more it has touched the lives of people there.
It's really something that you don't see enough of in the world, and i would urge EVERYONE to watch that video. As if Sarah McLachlan wasn't already high up in my awesomeness list, she's just jumped a few points more. =)
ooooohhh... YouTube lets you upload the whole video HERE! for your convenience!

Consolation in Consideration

The best way to cure yourself of worries is to remember that everyone else has problems too.
And if you're too embroiled in your own, how are you gonna help them see the light in theirs?
Eventually it'll seem like the world has enough troubles, don't fill it with more grievances.
More depression is created from self-imagined issues than stuff that really matters.
i.e.: religious wars. All religion is the same - it gives people something to believe in. Trying to force that on someone else is not religion, it's coercion.
Trying to show them the way is a sign you care, but people make up their own minds.
Oops... i've drifted off.
The point is - my therapy is being someone elses. or at least just lending an ear.
Maybe i should've been a counsellor...

moroseness would be mild

i thought things would feel better today.
i thought it would get better since the worst was over.
i thought people would still be sensitive to me as their friend, and not just to my position.
i guess friendship and work are separate enitities.
But why does it still feel like they're going behind my back?
don't dwell on it.
stop thinking about it.
but i can't.
and i really don't need this now.

the first step is the hardest...

Is it possible to go, in 2 hours, from sad to completely depressed and exasperated?
Yes.
A 2-hour phone conversation in the wee hours of the morning - what should have been i guess liberating; consoling at the least, actually made me feel like the whole of the last year has been just dreadful. Like i had slipped from some golden era into a dark age that i made myself.
Choices... life is a series of choices? Well, i sympathise with those who have made the wrong ones.
I'm really sure that my life is quite a bed a roses. I'm sure i just have to flick to the back pages of this blog to find testament to that. Or can i?
In tryng to find myself through everything else, did i miss what really matters?
Why do something if it only makes you cry?
Why say something if it only hurts?
Why live in something if its only a sham?
Broad questions... but i phrased them that way.
Maybe there's only so much you can blame on time. Or situations. Or moods.
Maybe there's something inherently wrong with me.
I wish the choices we made were always informed.
I wish there was always someone to show you the way.
But sometimes you just put yourself there. And sometimes you just have to get yourself out. Now it's just a question of how you choose to do it.
Thinking of it's a start.
For the people i've ignored. I miss you and i'm sorry.
For myself. I'm sorry i made you chase things and forget others.
For iH, i thought i had a problem with you. Could it be the other way?
For realism and pessimism - thanks, but we can't see each other that much anymore.

1984

Last night i went to watch a play in the Arts Centre. Personally one that is close to my heart, considering I had to read and analyse it for my English Lit in Taylors college. George Orwell's 1984. If you haven't read it and you want an insight into the world of politics (or at least the academic world of politics) then it might just be your gateway. Noone claims that it is painless of course. Most dystopic novels are pretty gruelling on the brain, but the concepts raised are relevant and thought-provoking nonetheless.

I personally like this interpretation of the concepts of the book. Constant surveillance and propoganda shape society.

The play was minimalist to say the least. It involved only 6 actors (alright, 5 actors and 1 actress) and only 1 backdrop. So i'm quite glad i paid concession price instead of the full $36. The novel actually jumps a lot and there are a lot of different scenarios, but the way they did it in the play was really brilliant. The guy was being interrogated and as he related what he did (based on entries in his diary) the other actors (who are also interrogators) have to act it out. And despite them jumping characters here and there, they did it REALLY well because you could tell when they were one character from the next.
It would take a while to give you a summary of the whole story, so i won't. But it was good remembering bits and pieces from reading it a few years ago. And it actually made the concepts a lot clearer than I remember. So, to the man who brought our attention to the system. And gave birth to that phenomenon of Big Brother. There are only three things to impart from a Big Brother world:
War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength

Bleah...

So Valedicts is over. Last formal dinner in IH for so many people. But i didn't cry. Teared a bit (thanks kimy) but other than that.... was less sentimental. Maybe cos this time i wasn't on antibiotics so could actually drink.
Anyway, it made me realise that i think my time in ih isn't up yet.
i wanna valedict. i wanna make the touchy speech. i wanna meet another great bunch of friends to make me teary on the night. and i wanna still be able to go out to puggs in a big group without feeling left out.
Tas reckons i've found my excuse to stay.
Oh well, I've got to be making it for some good reason....
With the golden couple- Pat & Kimy... I really can't imagine ih without either of them . I think they welcomed me in my first year. Only hope i can be like that for the newbies...With Sarah Tulloch! One of the loveliest persons in the world... The Kalou gang.. i think only the 2 girls are staying behind...And of course, my dear izy valedicted too...
i think i drank his share of wine and champagne too...
Big *HuGz* to the valedicts of 2006... and all the dear people who will be leaving ih.
Miss you all already...

Blue...

Don't know why.... Just feel that way.

Questions...

yesterday's lunch conversation was about room allocations.
'Where are you gonna stay next year?"
My answer: "I'm not gonna think about until I get the form"
Well, that very day after coming home from lectures, the dreaded form is on my bed.
Guess you can only put things off for so long.
Scratch the initial worry of who to stay with (although that's a terrible conundrum in itself. All my current housemates are going their own way and none of my close friends are staying or have already got housemates and I'm not keen on the other options), iH has made life with them rather difficult. As if the annual rise of $20 per week was not already a big burn to the pocket, this year they take it a little bit further to $34 per week. Doesn't seem like that much? Think about a weekly rate of $454 and x that by 38 weeks. They're trying to charge us out of house and home. Literally.
I had no doubts about staying before, but really, this price hike is ridiculous. It'd probably be a hassle to move out, but just to prove a point. Inflation can't count for that much.
I'm just going to leave aside that dilemma. It's really depressing, and something that i need to mull over.

I've been thinking what to do over the holidays. I think my parents want me to get a job. But they also want me to travel with them. In fact they've already booked tickets for a december trip. Now who the hell would employ a temp for 1 month and a break and another month? So unreasonable.
In any case, i've been looking at openings in event management, apparently my latest career direction. Did you know they look for a degree in event management? What the heck? And you'd think the job was somewhat of a no-brainer. I really feel like i have a useless degree now.
Here's some consolation. The Uni of British Columbia's Faculty of Arts says:

Myth #1: A Bachelor of Arts degree is not enough to find a well-paying, interesting job. I need to go to graduate school, Law School, the Faculty of Education, or a technical training institute to be competitive for professional employment.

Fact #1:

Arts students should not feel they need to pursue further education simply because they do not know what else to do or feel they cannot secure a well-paying job without it. According to a survey conducted in 2001 by the University Presidents' Council of BC, BC Arts graduates are employed with an average salary of $46,000 annually within 5 years of graduating, without having any further college or university study.

...most professional careers fall outside of the mainstream or traditional jobs of 'Lawyer', 'Teacher', 'Doctor', or 'Professor'. Many are within Arts students' reach upon graduation, particularly if they have already identified their unique interests and abilities, researched occupations, networked with industry professionals, volunteered or worked in related fields, and rounded out their academic education with other activities. The following are examples of job titles held by Arts graduates, ranging from non-profit, to private business, to government:

Analyst Events Planner Advertising Executive Marketing Professional

International Developer Corporate Trainer Technical Writer Graphics/ Web Designer

Entrepreneur Program Coordinator Vocational Counselor Advisor

Facilitator Manager Director Supervisor

Although many of you may find that you desire more formal academic or specific education as you advance in your career, it is not necessary or even advisable to pursue further education immediately after graduation unless your career exploration activities have pointed you in a direction that requires further specialized education. Participating in career exploration and research activities guided by UBC Career Services and/or Arts Co-op will provide the direction, information and opportunities needed to gain experience in fields that spark your interests.

Oh joy! Thank you Uni of British Columbia! A shining beacon of light has just entered my life and i owe it all to you!

The future still looks bleak... or at least hazy.

Revelations of Laundry Folding....

1) I have an unnatural amount of.... underwear.
2) People who always lose socks should invest in a net bag.
3) If laundry fresh from the dryer is wrinkle-free, how come it doesn't stay that way the more it dries?
4) The chlorine smell never quite washes off your bikini.
5) Do people iron their underwear? What's the point?
6) Do people iron their pyjamas? What's the point?!
7) If you fold stuff inside out, how does the outside (which is now inside) get clean?
8) There are quite funny cartoons around about laundry....



*sniffle* Jon Jon will get scared of the last one... but it's all right... he's surface wash only =)

Essay Madness...

Jeannie before completing her 3000 word, 60% essay...

Jeannie after completing her 3000 word, 60% essay...okay, maybe minus the lesbo partner, and the beach, and the boob exposure, but you get the idea.

Thanks, Picasso for the visuals...
Thanks, Canvas Replicas for the images...
FYI: the top painting is called the Weeping Woman and the bottom is called Women Running on Beach. Nope, he wasn't big on creative naming. Picasso exhibition is still on at the National Gallery... go check it out!