Real Life Heinous Crimes

I don't know if this story's been widely published but i sure as heck know it's too CSI to not be creepy. I am hardly believing it myself.
In Perugia in Italy, a student at the University of Foreigners had her throat slit in the apartment that she shared with 3 other foreign girls. Apparently, this was done because she refused to take part in a violent orgy. The police initially detained a bar owner (whom she worked for) who was said to have raped and killed her. He had been fingered by the dead girl's flatmate, who changed her alibi a couple of times (highly suspicious!) initially saying she had not been in and then saying she had for a little while and had heard things. In any case, she and her boyfriend are suspects in the murder as the boyfriend is an avid knife collector and the dead girl's DNA was found on one of the knives he possesses (despite him bleaching it).
Although a break in had been staged and a window was broken, the couple are still highly suspect.
A fourth suspect has also been detained in Germany where he fled and his fingerprints and DNA have been found at the crime scene. They found him through his Facebook and Skype activities, when a friend he was chatting with on Skype collaborated with the police and tried to trap him into returning into Italy.
Now, almost a month later, the bar owner's been released with nothing on him (although they are questioning WHY he deleted a message from her on that night and why his phone signal was coming from the cottage then), the housemate's boyfrend refuses to see her again ("If i'm here it's all her fault"), the fourth suspect is being extradited from Germany (after being traced with technology) and the housemate is detained and, personally, a bit of a psycho case if u ask me.


I'm overwhelmed by:

• how much like CSI this sounds
• how appalling it is that this happens in real life
  
• how much the police can find out by tracking online movements
• how police can retrieve deleted phone messages
• how our mobile phones are like tracking devices that we don't even think about.

Technology - creepy and useful at the same time.
It's privacy over security (as demonstrated by this case)
So, even after graduation, the Arts degree never leaves you.

On a completely unrelated note,
packing is going well. :S

BEFORE

AFTER

haha... seems like there's no difference... (but there is, really!)
(p.s: i really need to learn to pixellate on Photoshop)

Back to work....

The Week Before...

I just feel a little overwhelmed knowing I will only be in IH for another week.
Yes, it's a college. But it's also home.
In the past 5 years, this has been the place I've spent the longest in (and where i've grown up the most).
Did i mention i love it?

I'm very grateful that there are people telling me that I should stay.
I'm very grateful they wish I got offered a pHd.
I'm very grateful there are Australians willing to marry me so I can stay in the country.
I'm very grateful there are some people who think I should just fail a subject (???)
I'm very grateful there are people who are willing to offer me free food and accommodation to be their cook.

I suppose if I really value my existence by the number of lives I can touch, then I better get used to it.

'Tis better to leave loved, than to love to leave.

~Jeannie Foo~

Uni. Fin.

So that's it.
I stayed up all night to finish it, got it checked by the awesome Parkes, and nearly overslept and missed handing it in. But i didn't.
Calmly walked to John Medley.
Slid that pink coverslip in the chute.
And that was it.
No fireworks.
No melodrama.
Just it.
I'm done with uni.
And I've never felt so purposeless before.

Where to from here?

Paolo Nutini - Yummy Italian Scottish Goodness

Listening to various artists on Last.fm, I can't believe that most of them are my age...

And making such excellent music.


Paolo Nutini - These Streets


Paolo Nutini - New Shoes

(check the rhythm! it's a bass pedal on a guitar case and drumming on a box and a tambourine..)
Paolo Nutini is only 20!! [hello Scottish-Italian mix!]
Man, i'd date him. (but it'll take a while to decipher the accent)
Alright, finally i'm starting my essay (due tomorrow)
One more of Paolo for the road. This one's slow and piano-ridden... but i like!


Paolo Nutini - Autumn

Continuing the Recap - Biohazard Saturday

This is quite weird.
I'm looking back a week and recounting the stories.
Anyway, perhaps by now you would have heard about the biohazard hoo ha.
Thanks to the GP boys. But i won't recount it. If you want to know, ask me personally.
The moral of the story is, we can't go around pretending that we planted biohazards anywhere. As unlikely a target as the ping pong room can be.
It made me question a lot of things though.

• what a society we live in. a prank can spiral so out of control. everyone is so paranoid. procedure is the bible.
• the people you read about in the papers can't all be hardcore. it's so easy for you to be implicated, even with the tiniest or silliest of intentions. you can't stereotype people. maybe they just happen to sound like they fit the mold.
  
• the world has such vastly different realities. although we all live in the same point in history, the conditions in 1 place are so different from another. so while some people in australia are getting paranoid over a bag filled with washing powder and olive oil left in the ping pong room, someone else in Sri Lanka is getting blasted with debris from a bomb in the civil war. Can you say fear is justified in either? I leave that to your judgement.
  
• i can be a good friend in need. and i can be fairly biased in opinion when it comes to people i know.
  

Anyway, it was my weekend's excitement. And quite a lot of concern too. Well, until one of my 2007 freshers decided to walk into a glass door and I got to play nurse for a little while. A few stitches after a 6 hour wait and he's all better.
So it has a moderate (if not happy) ending.
But perceptions, definitely questioned. Never trust everything you read in the news, 'cos facts can be twisted every way possible.
Imagine if it was someone you knew. Maybe you wouldn't jump to conclusions too quickly.

For Coffee is the Bean of the Gods...

This is one of my hidden gems in Melbourne.
I love Pellegrini's on Bourke Street.
And I love coffee because of this city.
Ah well, all loves must start somewhere.
Good coffee... Mmmm.....

MFB conference - recap

Oh my, I have succumbed to the end-of-year assignment bug (not the icky sicky kind), taking me down and neglecting my blog! One report down (for the MFB nonetheless), a dying down of the IH biohazard fiasco (but maybe for another day) and fully sobered up from a day at the Melbourne Cup, i will try and give enough attention to all these events that tired me out in the last week.
So here's instalment one - the Metropolitan Fire Brigade Diversity in Emergency Services Conference!
If you haven't figured out, i've been working at the MFB for the past 3 months and Jo and I got to attend!
It was held in the MCG at the members only area which was very very cool.
Man, i wish i could watch a match there. that would've been AWESOME. look what prime seats they are! And it's also just cool being able to walk around an empty stadium. (Melbourne - sports capital of the world!)

Jo and I pretending we know what we're doing

The view from the member's room. too awesome!

Outside when we went to get coffee

Kathy! The nicest person to work with (will order stationery for you)

Cam whoring at the 'G'

Just a nice shot

On the boat! (dinner cruise) I think i made it look nicer than it is

Jo, Dalal (our supervisor) and me.
2 of the fire fighters- Peter and Frank. Such nice people! The acoustic set in the boat.. they're pretty good!

View from the boat. nice!

Them singers again...

One more shot of the bridge. Things so pretty lit up!

Righty-o. It was nice! Lots of people attended the conference who actually cared about whether there was diversity in the workforce. It's like other conferences i've attended, you're so hyped up about that for a day and you think hell yeah i can do something. But so easy to forget that and just go back to normal right after.
Ah well. It was nice feeling a part of the MFB. with my tag and cert of participation and everything!
*phew* just for the pictures this post. back to work (and dinner!)

Back in the day, when songs had good lyrics.... (not!)

i decided that i'd been listening to the same songs for too long so i put my iTunes playlist on shuffle. And don't judge my music taste, but Neil Sedaka's Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen started playing.

Tonight's the night I've waited for
Because you're not a baby anymore
You've turned into the prettiest girl I've ever seen
Happy birthday sweet sixteen

What happened to that funny face
My little tomboy now wears satin and lace
I can't believe my eyes you're just a teenage dream
Happy birthday sweet sixteen

When you were only six I was your big brother
Then when you were ten We didn't like each other
When you were thirteen You were my funny valentine
But since you've grown up Your future is sewn up
From now on you're gonna be mine

Oh my goodness.
How much like a paedophile does he sound?

"Tonight's the night I've waited for"

Seriously!
Okay, so she's not a minor on her sixteenth birthday. But he's like every parents' greatest nightmare. You know how they're paranoid once you're 18 you're going to drink and take drugs 'cos you can. Well, he's the guy who waits 'til midnight so she's legal then bangs her in the back cupboard.
Dodge.

Oh yeah, baby. Happy Birthday
(this is Neil Sedaka btw)

Update: Oh dear, i think this music thing could keep me occupied. I just heard the Beatles song 'I Got a Feeling'. Perfectly normal and then I heard this verse.

Yeah, I've got a feeling!
Ev'rybody had a hard year
Ev'rybody had a good time
Ev'rybody had a wet dream,
Ev'rybody saw the sunshine

WHAT!?!? Wet dream?!?!

You could really get away with a lot of lyrics back in the day huh? And my parents worry about MY music. (-_-")