Today was a very tiring and eventful and rewarding day. I'll try to tackle it categorically but obviously the ideas will bleed into one another and the whole post will get contaminated.

But you'll forgive me.

==THE BAND==

It was pretty good. Warwick covered for David who had an ear infection and we did pretty well, I thought. The crowd seemed to like us. Of course, I disappointly dropped my sticks (AGAIN, the last time which it happened was during the "Rockfest" that the school held as practice for the Rockquest, a long long time ago in a galaxy far far away)...so I went and bought another pair to keep on top of the bass drum in the likely eventuality that I ever drop them during a performance again.

Cons: Half of the stick is purple. They are slightly heavier and therefore will probably end up tiring me faster. Or something. $17.95

Pros: The purple half is some crazy rubberish coating which improves my grip, so therefore the odds that I'll drop the sticks are slightly lower. They're longer...and they're thicker. I assume that means they'll be louder, too. They were actually $19.95 but I got a discount because of the Rockquest HURRAY

Maybe instead of keeping them on top of the bass drum I'll keep them in a backpack that I'll wear and if I drop sticks, I'll act all ninja like and whip out a new pair from my bag. How cool would that be....(not much, but better than looking like a tard while the drumming stops for a decent amount of time and you grab your sticks off the floor)

Actually, talking to people after the performance I was surprised at the number of people who didn't notice I dropped my sticks (I also pulled the fingers at the drums out of habit which really wasn't a smart idea with the principal watching but that's...another matter) Maybe they were too caught up in the music. Maybe I played the drums with my mind while I was picking my sticks up. Maybe those people were deaf.

Yeah, but it was fun. I had fun, playing. Yeah...I felt like a huge tard afterwards though, because I'd dropped my sticks. But when I talked to people and found that at least one person didn't notice it didn't feel so silly any more.

(sidenote: The electronic drum kit I'm trying to save up for isn't $2000 like I thought, but $2999...at least I have a job now, as low paying as it is. Maybe me and Tomo should go busking)

==LICENSE==

Today I went to reclaim my learner's license. If you remember, I had lost my entire wallet at KLIA a long time ago and ever since then I'd been slowly replacing everything I had in it. Yeah, I'd lost my learners there which meant I had a very good excuse for not learning to drive yet.

I lost that reason today. I went and paid the $31.50 it cost for a replacement, saw Gareth there booking his full license test and felt a twinge of...guilt? Whatever, it was just that he was in Sixth Form...and booking his full...and there I was getting back my learners. o_O

Then my mum drove me to the Temple Carpark and told me to drive around. It was quite embarassing because:

1. It was totally illegal - we didn't put up L plates yet.
2. All of my mums friends were there and looking at me strangely.
3. I drive incredibly shittily.

More on point number three: I can drive a mean bumper car, but a full sized proper fuck-off car is a bit much for me to handle. The main problem is just that I can't see anything...I have no idea where the left side of the car ends, and where the back ends, and reversing is incredibly hard and I always seem to cut too much into the right side of the road (simply because I don't know where the left side is)...the pedals were way too sensitive for my tastes (especially the brake, I never knew a car could brake so hard.)

Anyway, I've made up my mind. I hate driving. I mean, sure, it's great and convenient and it's great that you can drive around and be cool and pick up friends and stuff...but I guess I'm a bit selfish.

I'd rather ride a motorbike for the following reasons:

1. I can actually see where I am with no problem.
2. It's probably a fuckload easier to control.
3. I can only take one passenger at a time (no, I'm never getting a sidecar) - that means no group of stragglers trying to get a ride off me.

I mean, it's kind of stink for me to say all of this and keep accepting rides from Thomas which I'm really quite grateful for...I've always liked motorbikes. Sure, they're a lot more dangerous but it's probably a lot more fun too. It'd probably be a lot easier to get from place to place as well if I was in a big hurry as they're easier to weave in and out of traffic. So yes. I'd like to learn to ride a motorbike. My mum, however, won't let me. I guess it will have to wait until I move out or something.

==OTHER==

I gave those whiteboard pens that Mr. Barrett gives out on occassion to my Physics Tutor. It makes sense, really. Mr. Barrett is the Head of Maths at Macleans, he can pretty much do whatever the hell he wants with stationery. His handwriting is shocking and partly because of how he holds his pens - at an angle, so that all the whiteboard fluidwriting stuff flows to the back of the pen and he thinks it's out of ink. He then gives them out, but they're perfectly fine.

Of course, on the other hand, my Physics tutor's whiteboard pens are refilled and it's semi-depressing, that they're kinda dull and make it hard to read. So by giving him the whiteboard pens I got from Mr. Barrett:

1. The pens don't end up in the "refilling bin" in the Staff Room which I hear is overflowing and nobody ever refills those pens.
2. The pens don't end up in the rubbish bin when they're still perfectly useable.
3. Mr. Barrett feels good. (I may be making this one up.)
4. My Physics tutor saves money.
5. I get better quality tutoring as I can read what has been written the whiteboard much easier.

It all makes sense!

Also, while I was getting my new pair of sticks, me and my mum went to New World (the place where I lost my "watch people pack your groceries like ACTUAL grocery packers that do nothing but pack your grocery, just like in America, land of the stupid ideas, virginity") and we bought a lot of juice. By a lot, I mean in excess of 40 litres of the stuff. That meant putting all this stuff in a trolley and rolling it through most of Botany Town Centre to where our car was parked.

I felt like an idiot for a while, but I soon got over it. I then noticed that the Town Centre was a strange place indeed. Where else can you get idiotic preteens, poser-like skanks and losers who have pants ten sizes too big and geriatric couples shopping together in (relative) harmony? It's crazy.

Anyway, that's that. I can't wait for tomorrow night because Tomo's having a party. Kind of. Actually, no, not really. Here's hoping.

Song: Say it ain't so by Weezer

Here are some random quotes.

We are what we pretend to be,
so we must be careful what we pretend to be.  -Kurt Vonnegut
 
:
 
The first few steps: the first few words: the first moment when a line crosses a line and suddenly you can never stop seeing. This changes - seeing more, seeing less, seeing better, seeing worse; but seeing is the first stone in the pond, and as the ripples pread they alter everything they touch, fundamentally. Everything takes on meaning - a look, a touch, a motion, a sign, all seeds growing, seeds that never stop growing because you just never can stop them.

How can it be explained? Think of the one thing that you've always wanted - then think of it existing within you, as a part of every day, like breathing. Then think of the breathing as a living thing that begins to change, obeying only those elemental forces which we sense but can never see - and then it disappears. And then what? Once you get it, what then? You just go on and on until you become what you always were - something simple and human. Remember - it's not what you do, but the way that you do it.

So why all the worry? Why the need to possess, the need to claim, the need to feel like the one and only, the need to be "I", the need to decide one thing against another, the need to sit on the top of the heap, the need to prove? The fact of our individuality resides in us like the facts of our biology, and yet the hardest thing is to move on, to put this to one side and to be there for others, understanding and, finally, communicating. This is what makes us human, but we still want to be islands.

This would be the next step: to refuse to give in to those impulses of acceptance that trigger the mind and send us running after the rabbit around the track - to listen to the heart when we know, but we can't explain. That this set of circumstances is wrong, that we could be doing this better, that we could be moving forward instead of standing still. It's all a question of approach.

But how can an approach really be described? Can it be described? The accumulation of experience lasts a lifetime, and encompasses both thinking and doing (and all the things in-between). These things do not exist in isolation.

Closed strucutres: do we always need to force square pegs into round holes? So you go to school, and you always know what you want to do, and you know it can be done - and then you're told it can't. Not even maybe, or yes if you work towards, but not, unequivocally, no. It can't be done. How would you know until you tried? There are some shapes that can grow into others, some shapes that can change the shape of their container and some that grow out of it. It's what happens. Simple.

The simple things: like echoes of an afterthought, these little moments, little shifts, they grow into one another, and in growing they change each other, and as they change they become something new again - always having taken on and taken forward each other's characterstics, like a shadow of a memory, and adding and learning and contributing, binding with consistency the loose possibilities that will contribute to our evolution.

It's about moving, seeking out, involving, becoming. Not a journey along a line to a fixed point when it will all happen, when it will all be clear, but a journey within a circle that explores and maps the possibilities that arise along the way. We are here. We are not yet there, or there: this is what it is. Where are we going? From this moment to the next: from the centre to the perimeter and around, and back to where we came from, and then out again - finding, bringing back, showing, finding...

The process stays alive. it makes us human. Thinking, acting, thinking again, accepting or refusing. We know it already. We have always known it, but we needed to apply our thoughts to our methods. We are all people. The thought is the process. The act is the process. We are people, not definitions, or even things. This is us, and we are in this world, and we are in this world together.  - from Process; A Tomato Project

:

What is thought? Thought is travelling without motion.
What are words? Words are sound as form.  - from Process; A Tomato Project

:

Memory is a fluid that encases an event. We do not recall the event itself, only the shape that the fluid describes.  - from Process; A Tomato Project

 
---

Anyway, I'm worried. Photography, fun as it is, is very time consuming and annoying at times. Same for music although I find it a lot easier to get into. I'm worried about next year, but it'll pass. I'll forget/get over it.

There's plenty enough for everybody to worry about. I'm not going to make up some bullshit statistic about the comparison between worries and what actually happens, but I'm convinced that most of the time the fears are unfounded.

Still, it's weird, this year. It's like a limbo, almost. I don't really want to leave Macleans but at the same time I yearn for change and new experiences. Some days I find it unbearably boring, other days I wish it'd never end. It's like this huge vortex filled with doubt of the future, doubt of the present and uncertainty of tomorrow that spins and just like a roulette wheel, you don't know what happens until that wheel stops spinning.

What's today? Sad? Happy? Relaxed? Probably all three, at different times and varying degrees.

Bleh.

Thanks Jenny by the way for lending me those CDs and letting me have a badge. You rock! If I ever get a lot of badges and CDs you'll be sure that you'll have the right to take them off me.

And Ellen, you be careful. One day, that Frog will pay for the list. It will pay.

Woke up really early this morning. But I still was late to Production Orchestra practice which was at 7.30... I don't plan on being late to tomorrow morning's band practice though. I'd better not be. I'm excited. I hope we win.

I want to win.

Since not the Rockquest at least the Talent Quest. >.>

But actually it's just fun no matter what.

Who am I kidding of course I want to win.

I think we're (by we I mean FFOF/ Fist Full of Fives, which people just can't seem to get right, with everything from First Full of Fives to A Fistful Of Fives popping up...) playing for some people on Saturday as well, I can't be too sure though. I'm pretty sure...but not TOO sure.

I've had a long day. Woke up to the sound of domestic issues (which hopefully have solved themselves now, it's not exactly a pleasant awakening, yelling...) and basically from 8:00 to 8:00 I've been out of the house.

But it's all good. Only 10 more hours of schoolwork left until the weekend.

"Work" was good today. I say "work" because I didn't get paid today but hopefully from next week on I will. At the Rec Centre in Howick, pretty much what I used to do in the holidays except on a smaller scale now, and after school. It's such perfect timing that my study periods are last on Wednesdays, I can't get over how incredibly coincidental that is.

Hurrah, I have a job now. I don't feel so redundant any more.

More on meningitis.

That baby which is bleeding from between the legs is really scaring me. Damn you shock imaging pamphlets. Same to you woman at School Assembly. We get the point that it's a killer you don't need to keep repeating "DIE DEAD DEAD DEATH DIE".

Also, my brother (William) I found out was already vaccinated (by my dad) before the vaccine was available here. I feel special now, tee hee.

I also got a job recommendation from Sonny (cheers) - Rec Centre, after school care, Wednesdays. It'll be good, it will be. Or I hope so. I like money, and I don't use my time on Wednesdays very well anyway so I might as well work.

Today was mildly interesting. Points to ponder:

Band practice at lunchtime (or about half of it to be exact, Alex of 44th Calibre fame and some other people he was practicing with for some NCEA Assessment took the first half)...I can "kind of" play the drum part to The Vines - "Get Free" but as for John singing it, that's a different question. We also kind of tried "Somewhere Over The Rainbow", the Me First and the Gimme Gimmes version (they are a very wicked band by the way, if anyone is stuck on what to get me for a birthday present, there's a great hint for you)

[Consequential tangent: Birthdays are just really an excuse to have a party and get presents. I don't seriously believe that I can wake up one day and suddenly learn and grow a year's worth of learning and growing. Of course, corporate giants love to cash in on birthdays. Especially Hallmark and all those other greeting card bastards. Same with Halloween. Same with Valentines.]

I also listened in to J.A.C.K.'s practice after school. They're getting along pretty well for being together in such a short time and the fact that half of the people don't actually play the/any instruments. If I had to pick a weak link it would be Kate though (sorry, I can't tell this to you in person I'd be the crappest person to break it to you), who's probably alright on guitar but isn't really in time with the rest of the band. But meh.

Listening in to J.A.C.K. made me late coming home and I found my mum making dinner (which was dumpling thingies which she was making, thanks mum) [Talking about food, I made my own lunch today again. I feel like such a grown up now. HAH! And Tomo it turns out I don't have as many of those pineapple cakes as I originally thought I did.]

Got meningitis today. Or rather, a form which my mum has to sign if she wants me to get the meningitis vaccine. Supposedly it's a really poo vaccine and makes you feel really rotten but that probably means a day off. Something that would be nice but not something I can probably afford, what with exams coming up (yet again) and my photography board due.

Rikky passed me these CDs he bought at The Warehouse. I'm busy ripping them like a nice little pirate. I have to pay him some amount though to share the cost, or something. I'll be listening to them later to pick out a song or something.

Also, just then (well actually about half an hour ago) Taryn from the Howick Recreation Centre called and offered me a working spot for Wednesday's After School care. I'm excited. I had originally wanted to do this before but Sonny had taken two slots. Now that he's dropped one though he recommended me (thanks bro) and hopefully I can do a good job in his place.

It's pretty convenient that he dropped the Wednesday one as well because that's the only day I can reasonably make it to the Centre in time as I have study last period which means I'll be walking from school to the centre at around 2pm. I'm sure the teachers will understand that earning some dosh for myself is more important than sitting around, unsupervised trying to "study".

...wow, I wrote a lot. o_O

Finished Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Jeremy Soule (of Neverwinter Nights, Morrowind and Dungeon Siege fame) did a fantastic job with scoring original music and rearranging John William's epic film score. I'm busy "stealing" the music from the install folder right now.

I hate production practices. I mean I know it's probably going to be almost worth it in the end, but I've basically lost my weekend to production. Today (and yesterday) were the two nicest days we've had in a long time, and I spent them inside in a dark auditorium trying to play music with minimal light, and that nosyface Shredder who can't keep to herself.

Who is this Shredder, you may ask? Long story.

Yes...so I mean it's understandable that the last thing I want is for my brother to sneer at me and ask why I'm watching the credits to a game I just finish (and spent a good 30 hours on...). I'd just wasted all that time at production so I wasn't very refreshed or anything.

Meh, it's all past. Water under the proverbial bridge. You know the one.

The entire universe is one very big, delicate balance. The government taxes - the people lose money, but earn services. The government loses debt, but earns contempt.

Today was a balanced day (although I personally felt it tipped nicely to the positive side)

=Positive=

The biggest would probably be the Talent Quest singing heats. J-Bo aka John Boden, the amazing singing machine, got through in all three categories but me, Rikky and Sonny made it through to the group singing finals (which I suppose was fair enough we did spend a lot of time practicing - the curry and Seinfeld was a very good bonus of that though....no soup for you!) It was very fun performing to a pretty large crowd, and it was nice to see that people started clapping of their own accord in time to the music (or at least I had no hand in it - pun intended)  and although Rikky forgot a few words and I wasn't perfect either, it was great. (THANKS FOR THE SIGN ELLEN I SAW IT AND I WAS LIKE YUS THANKS)

Also, in the morning before all of the Talent Questing, there was the Year 13 photo. I'm probably going to purchase a copy sheerly for the novelty that I can say "it rained while that photo was been taken". How many students can say that? Not many, if any.

And even more coincidentally, the other photo I had at 9.25 for the Musical Production was rained on as well. It didn't stop raining so the photo was taken in the rain. That's even more novel...but I suppose I'd relate better to the whole of Year 13 than the Musical Production.

Maybe.

Another thought just came up. I hate the whole duality of Year/Form...it's hard enough for me to remember that Year 9 is the equivalent of Form 3, let alone take into account that Australians are back one Form or something silly like that.

=Negative=

Home family issues, same as usual. I didn't "make" my lunch this morning although I did pour my own juice into a drink bottle which served as a practice microphone for the performance (in which I wasn't accustomed to using a microphone...but it's all over and done now......oh wait, we have to pick a song now. Damn.) It rained while I was walking home with Janko and the red tie I was wearing got quite wet.

Also, I forgot to bring my brother's guitar back home. Come to think about it I forgot to ask him whether Sonny could borrow it. But I suppose he really wouldn't care considering he wasn't very supportive of me entering the Talent Quest anyway (ie "uh, what are you singing, you're not a singer, you're going to lose"...I may be paraphrasing slightly though) There's also another negative that relates to the guitar but...only Sonny and Rikky know what I'm talking about.

---

I've finished reading Tiger in the Well by Philip Pullman. I found it a lot longer but just as rewarding as its predecessor, Shadow in the North (needless to say I was very pleased when I found that Shadow in the North was the second part of a series...) I've still got one or two books left in that batch I've got. Once I finish I've got books requested at the library however, so I'll be able to keep going. I wonder when I'll get sick of reading. Probably never.

I've been really sleepy lately, mainly because of the practices that last until 11.30 at Rikky's house for Talent Quest thing. It's all worth it now though and I might catch an early night's sleep tonight, although I did say I would yesterday and it didn't happen....and the day before....

Yes...anyway thanks Rikky and Sonny, especially Sonny for putting up with my crap. In fact, thank you to everyone who puts up with my crap. I know I deal a lot of crap, sometimes they call me El Crapo...but thanks for not being fazed. Thanks to all the random people who congratulated our procession to the finals.

No thanks to the rotten cunts who said we sucked without basing that on anything.

And lastly, thanks to Australia for Golden Circle's Golden Pash. Though the name may sound kind of dodgy, the sweet nectar that filled my drink bottle was very refreshing.

Thanks to Ming I am introduced to Urban Dictionary.

*be warned the following links are probably mildly to extremely offensive depending on your ideologies, background etc*

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=henry&r=f

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=rikky&r=f

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=owen&r=f

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=mayonnaise&r=f

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=kuraden&r=f

That be enough for now o_O

I'm kind of hungry but I'm holding out to later tonight when I'm over at Rikkys because I don't want to be uncourteous and not eat food he said his mum would make.

I can't wait to go to sleep now. I've been getting tireder (is that a word?)  and tireder ever since the start of school. It's like a downhill slope. It's like a negative gradient.

It's like...-_-

The worst thing about the first day of the term was that after thirty minutes, it felt like I had never left, never had a holiday, never had a break from the day in, day out - ring of the bell, sullen march to next class, and so forth.
It really sucks, five years in the system. If only they'd keep things fresh once in a while, like announcing sudden classroom changes or something. But no, they have to be all regular and stuff.
BAND PRACTICE TOMORROW I CAN'T WAIT EVEN THOUGH I CAN'T PLAY FOR PEANUTS AND OTHER ASSORTED FOODSTUFFS.
Talent Quest singing thingy I got told today that I was singing tomorrow. Which was kind of nice.
And then after school Rikky tells me he wants to do a duet.
And then I'm all like, okay.
But that leaves me stressed and stresseder.
His mum should be coming to pick me up now. For the second practice in like, two hours. -_-

So that's it. Today was the last day and it was all a bit anti-climatic really.
 
I've sort of figured out my university pathway. Although I'm not too keen on the conjoint, its the only way my mum will let me take it. I'm doing BMus/BSc, although I'm not sure what I'll be majoring in for the Science part of the degree.
 
Maybe I'll look it up later.
 
I've just realised how much I miss reading books. Books don't talk back to you, they don't require you to subtly read other people's expressions to figure out what they are truly saying. So I went to the library again this morning, swapped out the books for a fresh lot.
 
Yeah.
 
I guess I'll see most of you reader people in school, then.

According to my mum, The Wizard of Oz is pronounced "The Wuz of Ozee".
 
Don't even ask...o_O
 
Anyway, went to a NZSO concert in Auckland Town Hall just then. Heard some famous (supposedly) cellist guy play Dvorak's Cello Concerto. Extremely hard, extremely impressive. Yes, yes.
 
But at the end of the day it's a sad realisation that the day after tomorrow (don't watch the movie) it's back to school again, where I have to work. I still have no idea how I'm gonna get the masters degree that I want.
 
And also looking back at that list I made a couple of days ago, it's nice to see that I accomplished nothing on that list.
 
Figures.

Reminder to self: http://www.brendakelly.com/wall-paper/1024x768/cello.jpg

(Interesting wallpaper, when it works...)

I went to the library and got my library card back yesterday. Honed in the fact that I hadn't gone to the library for ages (since the last time I went was when I still had my card sometime at the start of this year)...but at least I have my card back now. I borrowed four books too. I've read three, in no particular order the books I got out were:

+ The Cello, by James Riordan
+ The Broken Bridge, by Philip Pullman
+ The Shadow In The North, by Philp Pullman
+ The Rag and Bone Shop, by Robert Cormier

I got The Cello out because it was just sitting there on the shelf and it said "the cello". And obviously, being a cellist I was immediately drawn to the book. I got the Philip Pullman ones out because I enjoyed his "His Dark Materials" trilogy...and I got the Robert Cormier one because I saw "Beyond the Chocolate War" on the shelf and decided to try another of Cormier's books.

Hmm, I suddenly had this flashback, one of me being a crappy junior (as opposed to a crappy senior) in the school library and Ms. Wordsworth (I must have been Third Form) trying to pick a book for me to read since I didn't know of any good ones I wanted to read.

Random. Anyway, yeah, I've read The Cello, The Broken Bridge and The Rag and Bone Shop, and all three were very good.


--==The Cello==-

I thought this book was written quite well. It has a lot of parallels to Billy Elliot which was kinda nice considering I just saw the movie. The back of the book says: "Tom gets a lot of grief on the estate where he lives. He's not the same as the others. He's a bit different. Because he plays the cello he's a magnet for the bullies." So instead of ballet/tap dancing, the talent is playing the cello. Instead of a mining strike, it's a riot against paedophiles...and so forth, except Billy isn't gay. Yeah, its the typical "struggle and truimph" fare but still I thought a worthy read.

[This is who I am - whatever they say...]

--==The Rag And Bone Shop==--

This one was quite good. I found it a bit hard to get into but towards the end it was really good...tension was built well with the writing etc.

I'm getting quite lazy with these. Let's just say that they were good books and they served their purpose well, that is to stop me from being bored to death.

Although I do think the books would probably make a good movie...this is the same with most books I read though.

Hmm.

I wish I could play the cello better now, damn you book.

Damn you holidays being too short. There aren't many days left. To be honest I haven't really done much, watched a few movies, wasted most of my time on some crappy video game...

Watched Billy Elliot. I hate watching movies sometimes because I'm way too impressionable...but that's another story for another time.

For now, I will create a list of things to do before the holidays are over:

+ Spend half a day at the beach.
+ Write out the cello part for Wizard of Oz
+ Learn to play Moonlight Sonata

I'll probably end up not doing any of them but at least I've taken the first step, so says Dr. John Edwards, identifying the problem or somesuch.

I had another photo, really. But I don't like it cause I look more poo than normal so that will stay buried somewhere within the recesses of my hard drive, amongst the millions of other unused bytes of data.

PICTURES HERE (sorry for the poo resolution Rayho took it with his styly spy camera)

That Weetbix Crunch stuff with Honey is really quite nice. PICTURES COMING

I ate my first ever chilli dog today. Very very nice.

It's okay! Don't worry! I managed to find the sneaky hole which the pen fell through into my pants and I retrieved it. Phew.

Today was the last day of work for me these holidays at the HRC - we went ten pin bowling which I'd never done...I got a really poo score of 82 but I got a strike once so I don't care :P

My mum's at the hospital sending off someone...and I haven't had dinner and I'm hungry.

Believe it or not, somehow or rather I've gotten a black pen stuck in the interior layer of my pants and I can't figure out how it got in there and how to get it out...I can't find the hole which it probably slipped in (and therefore the hole to retrieve it from)

So I'm sitting here, and this black pen is just happily sitting here too.

It annoys me. I don't like things that annoy me...

Went to Burger King for lunch today! Got driven there by some random restricted driver person volunteer person. BK makes awesome chicken burgers...but Subway and Wendys is still better. (Wendys never ceases to amaze me at the speed they whip out those burgers especially since they claim that they are made when I order them...)

Was served by a mint looking server person. Mmm Mint... Can't remember the name I did get a glance at the tag but oh well. It's nice when you get served by someone who smiles too, that always makes your day just that little bit better. Especially when you know that you're already running late and have made plenty of mistakes at work.

Okay I just came back from watching Spiderman 2.

I really really liked it. I wasn't really expecting much but it was waaay better than the last movie I watched (The Day After Tomorrow, please do not watch that for the sake of your children) - even though it did still suffer from the same problem of American Patriotism as said movie suffered from, what with all these American Flags that just kept popping up all over the place. But this is forgivable simply because I thought the movie was just so good and also it was based in America (whereas, unfortunately for the rest of the world, global warming/ice ages are NOT confined to America)

Anyway where was I. Yes. I thought this was a great one (SPOILERS) although I'm a bit worried about Spiderman 3 if it ever comes out because Green Goblin again would be really poo. Doctor Octopus though he was so awesome, I wish I had those awesome arms and terrorized the shit out of everything in sight...they'd be mean. Hmm, hmm hmmh mhmh...the depiction of fusion was semi-accurate, I'm not 100% on the details but I'd presume they're not using the right stuff (tritium instead of deutrinium) and I'm not sure about that magnetic field thing.

Spiderman running out of web was funny. Spiderman falling around (and Peter Parker falling around) was funny. That asian violinist busker was funny. The train Spiderman rape scene was funny, where everybody just couldn't keep their hands to themselves. Mary Jane looks nice as usual.

Yes...it was a good movie. I hope the next one is just as good.

Before I go to sleep I must mention the angry usher woman (yeah, yeha yeah YEAH) who was standing there as we watched the credits because I (or actually Thomas but I have to pay him back) paid a good $14.00 to watch the movie and I was gonna squeeze everything I could out of it. So there I was, and the movie was over and nobody was siting in front of me so I figured what the hell, I'd stretch my feet and I propped my legs onto the chair.

Along runs this angry Polynesian woman with the angriest face and an angry demeanour, waving and flashing her usher lightstick thing and hitting it against the chair yelling something that we couldn't quite understand, due to her bad accent and general angriness. We finally figured out that she wanted us to put our feet down but a "put your feet down please" would have done it a lot easier than a random black angry usher woman in a neon green vest thinking she's all high and mighty with that torch of hers. WELL IF IT WASNT FOR US CUSTOMERS LITTLE MISS USHERBITCH YOU WOULD BE LIVING IN A DUMPSTER SO YOU COULD AT LEAST ASK NICELY FOR ME TO PUT MY FEET DOWN. EVEN IF YOU WERE TO SAY IT INCONVENIENCED OTHER PEOPLE IN THE CINEMA, YOU WOULD HAVE TO DEAL WITH THE FACT THAT EVERYBODY ELSE HAD LEFT, AND IF YOU SAID THAT THE BACK OF THE SEATS GOT DIRTY THEN YOU FORGET THAT PEOPLE ARE PAID TO CLEAN, AND THE LAST TIME I SAW SOMEONE ELSE USE THE BACK OF A CHAIR IN A CINEMA WAS TO, SURPRISE SURPRISE, PROP THEIR FEET UP AND NOBODY ELSE TOUCHES THE BACK OF A CINEMA CHAIR FOR ANY OTHER REASON.

...

Sorry. Damn I want those four limbs.

Came back from work just then: Big Rich, the team co-ordinator for my age group has moved on to a different pasture, and the new leader (Tanya) is nice and all but it just feels slightly disorganised. It was still good though, and I'm earning money AND having fun at the same time which is great. There's this one volunteer which really confused the heck out of me though...I don't think she was very good but that may just be because she keeps giving me misleading information, acts really stand-offish and told me to say "bottom" instead of "bum" when I haven't ever been told to ever before. (I wasn't aware that bum was rude o_O)

Maybe it's just me. But meh.

I might volunteer next week too solely on the premise that there's movies and laserstrike.

My mum thinks my hair is long and that I wasted the $10 on the haircut.

o_O

Then again this is my mum. I watched her attempt to chat with my dad with MSN today, quite funny it was, yes. My mum also didn't believe me when I told her Lake Taupo was the largest lake in NZ...

I have work tomorrow which means for me that I have to wake up at 6.00 tomorrow morning to prepare for my 7.30 shift.

Yes...

Who wants Gmail? (1000mb web-based email.)

Let me know I've got an invite.

From left to right, the people in this photo are: Lili, Raymond, Me, Rikky, Chris.

You know what's poo?

Having to go to school on the weekends...in the holidays...for a production practice which lasts 5 1/2 hours. It's very poo...

The good side of it though is that I've now got a really cool rocked up version of Somewhere Over The Rainbow...maybe I'll get us (FFOF) to play it. I think John would like.

I remember now!

It was a physics lesson. I have a wavelength. I could get diffracted or something but I'd have to be travelling incredibly slowly so it'd never happen.

...wow that wasn't as interesting as I thought but no matter:

HOLIDAYS

Thought of the moment:

Petrol stations are the most unorganised crazy places ever. Watch all the cars go in all different directions and wander aimlessly to get in and out of the place.

I went to the Warehouse. Bought a DVD for someone's birthday. Hurray.

Yes. I swear I had a lot more to write before I sat down. Oh well.

Me at the ball. That's Steph, looking fine as usual. The freaky eyes belong to Thomas.

...I forgot the preball.

==pre-ball==

Tomo's family gave me and sonny a ride there. Me and sonny waited outside my house since 5.00 to be picked up at around 5.45 but it's all good. While we waited I sang really loudly, songs like "Mexican Wine" and "New York, New York" and "Come Fly With Me". Must have been weird for people driving past to see a person in an orange suit singing really loudly.

The preball itself was kinda nice. I only ate one item of food, some random won-ton thing. The photo shoot was silly though. 20+ parents. 15+ cameras. Me being hidden behind Andrew because I'm short and Asian and he's white and studly. Flashes in all directions disorientating you and not knowing which camera to look at and blinking at inopportune moments.

But all is forgiven. :)

The RIDE TO THE BALL I CANT BELIEVE I DIDNT MENTION IN THE PREVIOUS POST

EASILY WORTH THE $30 going in the limo...

Rode in a Daimler DS420 (I think)...such a styly classic limo. Our driver was really cool and British like and polite and stuff. There was a centre window! It went up and down and scared Tomo because his head was in the way! The seats were leather and really luxurious...and very soft and springy. Tomo yelling "JAHOOO" and other assorted things to passersby (peasants as our driver called them) was entertaining. It just felt so classy...getting there in the limo. It was great...it was so great.

Huge thanks to Tomo for organizing that. And his mum too for fronting the money.

Oh man I am exhausted. I didn't get home after the after-after ball until 7.30 in the morning...and I slept until 5.00 in the evening. -_-

But it was a great time I thought. Much much better than last year anyway.

==The actual Ball itself==

So much better than last year! Even though the venue did seem a lot more crowded than last year (having a lot more people doesn't help) it was a great time. Things I remember:

+ Fake monopoly money used in the table centrepieces. (yes, fake monopoly money. Join me in saying "BWAHAHAH")
+ There were tables! More than two! People had room to sit down! The tables were nice, with a red felt throw over them.
+ Walking into the ball venue, red carpet! That cool music that they play at the Oscars when people arrive!
+ The cool bar place for drinks!
+ The music wasn't very good this year though...mostly techno/electronic drivel mixed with a few more pieces of shit like Britney Spears and Geri Halliwell.
+ But everyone loved my orange suit!
+ Seeing my photography teacher was kinda scary.
+ The food was great! Carved ham....cheesecake (which I ate upside down for no apparent reason), brandy snaps (which I don't really like anyway), banana cake with chocolate icing, lamingtons...mmm...and then there were the chips, samosas, chicken satays, sushi...a lot better than last year.
+ Sitting around in a table destroying the table piece and throwing cards around and the dice they hotglued to kebab sticks.
+ Watching Sonny go crazy.
+ Watching Brad go crazy.
+ BAND PHOTO!

Was it worth $80? Verdict: Yes, I suppose. Even though I didn't really do much for the night because I'm a loser and such, yes.

==The afterball!==

Didn't like the bus. Standing in buses when you're sleepy is poo. Especially when you're standing next to people who smell chronically like weed...or people who keep hassling your friends camera while singing Ben Lummis (you know who you are, you cunt) According to reports from my friends the set was exactly the same as last year, except in a different location (I'm not exactly sure but one of the parents said Onehunga and Tomo's cell said "Dresssmart") The alcoholic punch stuff was kinda diluted...which was strange. I don't think I had much at all, really. Five of those cranberry thingies. Only the slightest hint of alcohol. Still, was fun.

The portaloos at the place are funny. Those waterless hand sanitisers are really creepy...urghghg. And people who kick portaloos when people are still in there are just damn rude (not that I did it or had it done to me but I witnessed it happen enough to get a little annoyed) The lights were funky, and epileptic fit inducing.

And the burgers were nice! I hadn't had actual food in a while so I had to have two burgers. I could have gone for a lot more but I was too lazy to try and push through the huge conglomeration of people getting burgers.

I didn't really dance, no...I did for a bit but not enough to be justified or anything. I did sing a lot though. Well, relatively a lot. Anything is infinitely more than zero I suppose.

Yeah...and then I remember this story from Dion (the guy Kirsten took) about how his friend was killed by a machete over weed which is why he doesn't smoke it anymore. Yeah.

What else...oh the sand was nice. Though very bizzare, it was nice. It was probably covered in puke though.

And that was pretty much the afterball...like the ball itself except more partylike and less food and me getting progressively more tired.

The bus back to the Highland Park carpark was just as bad as getting to the afterball...

But Raymond's dad driving out a no-exit path was pretty kewl.

==after-afterball==

Here is where I am confused. I'm not sure whether this was great or not. It was nice being very tired in a room full of 50 odd people...I suppose. I remember playing with Ellens "MY FIRST PIANO" book (THANKS ELLEN)...yeah...and also Ryan sleeping in the doorway you silly Ryan you. And...I remember undoing my tie and helping Steven undo his (I actually tied my own tie this year, which was quite nice I suppose although it was a bit munted - no where near as gimpy looking as Willie's tie though, no offence) I remember John pulling the fingers at me because I woke him up. And then he kept scaring me with eyebrows.

I slept for four minutes at Ellen's after-afterball. Nodded off at 6.56, woke up at 7.00 when Ellen turned the light on and woke everyone up..tee hee

Ellen's mum nicely cooked everyone breakfast, I wish my parents were that cool. She liked me and Raymond's suits too which makes her EXTRA cool. Tee hee. I didn't have any food which I'm kind of regretting right now because it looked good and I was kinda hungry and I'm still kind of hungry now and I don't think I'll be seeing food that great until my mum gets back.

Yes. Then Raymond's mum gave me a lift home...and on the way back I saw the most incredible sunrise I'd seen in a very long time (I don't wake up early enough to see it usually) - it was a golden wash of brilliance. A great end to a great night.

And then I fell asleep when I got home and woke up at 5.00 in the afternoon. Come on give me a break I was up for almost 22 hours.

Now I'm hungry.

Damn I wish I had decent food right now...

If you want a really bizarre experience let me recommend getting your hair cut in a hair salon which caters for customers who speak a different language to you. For example, English speaking in a Korean hair salon.

Okay okay I admit yes I went and got my hair cut at a Korean hair salon just then, and Sonny and his mum nicely dropped me off there and Sonny stayed to translate. It was just so bizarre, three people talking away in Korean and you standing there just going "uh...". Yeah..

But anyways I'm really happy with my new hair, although I'm still having to get used to my head being about half the weight it normally is. The hair is, kinda long, yet not really. It's a lot thinner. And comfy, yes. All for $10 which is cheaper than wherever Thomas was gonna take me so nyah nyah take that.

The ball is almost here. I'm kinda pseudo excited, it's just fun dressing up formally and seeing all your mates in dresses and suits. The list of things I've done in preparation so far are:

+ Get a ball ticket (duh)
+ Get an afterball ticket (duh)
+ Get invited to an after-afterball (hmm...)
+ Get transportation to the pre-ball.
+ Get transportation from the pre-ball to the ball.
+ Get transportation from the ball to the afterball.
+ Get transportation from the afterball to the after-afterball.
(here is where the transportation train stops - I don't know how I'm getting home from the after-afterball but I'm sure I'll figure that one out..)
+ Take a shower this morning (hurrah)
+ Shave (wasn't much but just to look extra extra clean shaven)
+ Get my hair cut
+ Get my suit altered

And the list could go on but I'm bored and more pressing matters are at hand.

To those going to the ball I'll see you there!

I'm sitting here typing this blog feeling really poor and ghetto like.

For dinner I'm having cereal...more specifically a blend of tasteless Kellogg's Wheat Biscuits, which is basically their throwback to Weetbix (har har) mixed with some Corn Flakes (the one and only) which expired August 2003.

Tastes bland.

I'm not having a good day today, I just feel really agitated and annoyed. Officially I can't milk any more money out of our home pantry, it's all run out. I managed to scrounge up enough money for one more week of tuition ($50) and $15 for a haircut tomorrow but after that, our financial status is a big nice ZERO.

The haircut better not cost more than fifteen dollars...

I mean, technically we haven't run out of money - I've still got my own eftpos card and all. It's just I really really don't like touching that money because it's so hard for me to earn money that each time a dollar leaves the account a little baby dies somewhere. A cold and gruesome death, may I add.

Oh yes. Haircut. I've decided I could at least look decent for the ball, not that it really matters or anything but if the ladies are gonna spend hours (literally) doing their hair in all sorts of manners I could at least go and get mine cut properly. People playing with the back of my head kinda got really annoying today as well.

Hmm, hmm hmm....

My internet right now is pooey. Sites can take anywhere from INSTANTANEOUSLY FAST to ridiculously s l o w to load, and it's really annoying me. My computer in the pre-virus era at least was kinda predictable...

Tomorrow 7th Formers doing NCEA (most of them) get the day off. It's going to be a very crappy day tomorrow....

116.

Me and Mr. T just went on a giant quest to obtain the ever elusive "AFTERBALL TICKETS"...yes. They cost so damn much though but I don't have a choice since there's really no other way that I can get back home from the ball.

The tickets are really funky (although they must have cost so much to make...) - they're blue...they're plastic and have a magnetic strip. Talk about technology.

The afterball had better be good.

Apparently some people don't like my hair now (ie Thomas' mum :P ) but some people like it.

But I don't see my own head often, and even less so the back of my head so I don't really care too much. I might get it done properly or something though before the ball...but I'm probably just saying that.

Okay. Woke up today. Kinda felt really poo and tired because of yesterday's grueling boredom of sitting down in the same seat for hours listening to (mostly) the same old drivel brand of music...but meh, what can you do.

After I came back from tuition, I was going to go and get my hair professionally cut.

But then I realised that I didn't give a shit (and also we didn't actually know where this place to get your hair cut was anyway)

So I got home, got my brother to just snip off hair at the back of my head so it doesn't touch my collar (I had promised Mr. Campbell that I'd have my hair cut by Monday which coincidentally is tomorrow)

It's a great feeling because:

1) I won't be getting in trouble with the school yay (the cunts gave me a 4 for appearance..out of 1 - 6 where 1 is the highest)
2) I saved ten dollars, yay!

Indeed. I was originally planning to lobby this year and try and get the rule changed and all but then I realised I really didn't care. If the school wants my hair cut, whatever. It's just hair. I mean, it probably looks like shit now after my brother haphazardly cut it but I can't see the back of my head anyway so it matters very little to me.

Although I still disprove of the rule, I really cannot be bothered going through all the effort to deliberately break it and all.

This morning, woke up, got ready, took a shower, had muesli (Hubbards Cereal is the best...)... got in the FIST FULL OF FIVES VAN (tm) and I recieved my official "BAND MEMBER T-SHIRT", complete with logo and my nickname on the back. Apparently, I'm cursed, because my shirt screwed up so they re-did it. Or so says John.

Back from the Rockquest. We didn't make it through...which I didn't mind. It was a great experience, with all the gear and the rest of the guys were awesome (except that I couldn't really hear them because my kit was shitty and the foldback speaker next to me wasnt working) It's just that some of the "bands" that got through I don't think deserved it as much as some other people there. Like, there was this one band with some crappy high-nuts 10 year old kid...who I assume only got through because their guitarist was decent and the singer was like...10...but everything else, the drumming, the vocals, were shite. Sitting down from 11.30 to 6.00 just to find out that you've wasted six and a half hours of your life is kinda stink though.

At least 44th Calibre got through.

Hmm. Yes. We then went to "drown our sorrows" at a party. Actually I didn't drink much at all, just had one Flame so it didn't really do anything. I did have fun acting like a shit though, what with all the random singing and yelling comments at the stupid TV (ah, that stupid cunt on Who wants to be a Millionarie, or more like Who wants to waste all three of their lifeline thingies on a fucking Fifth Form Chemistry question)

I'll be here wondering how we got beaten by a band from an intermediate school and four black people. -_-

I HATE COMPUTER VIRUSES SO MUCH I HATE THEM I HATE THEM

I hope the rotten bastard who sits in front of a computer with malicious intent gets his fingers ripped into little tiny pieces and fed to Ethiopians (killin two birds with one stone...or finger)

I also thought my brother's laptop died but it was a false alarm, I noticed that there was a floppy disk inserted, took it out and then it worked. Dang boot disks.

My computer at home is now dead. I got struck with the Sasser Worm (which is a fucking virus made by some dirty cunt in Germany I'm sorry I'm just really angry)...so I'm making this post at school during my study period.

So basically, the worm deleted my Windows. So now I can't run it without the Boot CD. In a panic when I got windows back up and running temporarily I backed up all my music and files and so on.

Hmmmmmm it sucks.

If you use Windows 2000/XP make sure you get your computer patched:

http://www.microsoft
.com/security/incident/sasser.mspx

Yes...

Fix it before the worm deletes your windows -_-

There was a meeeaaaan sunset on the way home from school...the sky was literally orange and magenta for about ten minutes of blazing glory.

Yes.

I had a very intriguing and thought provoking blog post in my head somewhere but that has disappeared...other than I've started workin on a website for Fist Full of Fives, nothing's really changed.

My thoughts on: "six degrees of separation".

I know that's a phrase. I know it's well known. I just...don't know enough to make a good statement on it. Sorry Rikky.

I'm sorry, I'm listening to Blink 182 again. "lalalal did you hear he fucked her"

Went to the Rockshop today with Tomo. He bought a new guitar strap with flames (yus) and strap locks so that his strap doesn't keep falling off...and I was gonna buy brushes but they cost waaay too much. ($45ish)

But at least we have that discount card thing. I'm sitting here and thinking about Saturday and I'm already nervous. It's crazy.

I haven't had a "philosophical thought-provoking" blog post in a while. I thought I'd give you, dear reader, a refreshing change to my boring pointless drivel on things happening in my mundane life.

I'm now accessing my innermost thoughts.

I was browsing through my links...and realised just how many darn blogs you can link to. It's crazy, it's like a spreading virus. What manner of beast have I unleashed? (Or rather, what manner of beast has my brother unleashed? And so on.) It's like the internet, everything's connected.

That brings me to my belief of "interconnectedness". Like, how everything is related. Let's take the example already cited.

cause ---> my brother creates blog ---> I create blog ---> Rikky creates blog ---> a fucking shitload explosion of people create blogs

Would any of this possibly have happened if my brother had not create a blog? Probably not - but then by the realms and rules of possibility who knows what the true answer to that question is (other than nobody knows?)

It's a lot like life. Kinda like that stupid French guy in the matrix who says "causality blah blah other French shit etc... cause and effect". Life is one big cause and effect. Your mum and dad had a fun night, effect = you. Like the internet! Click on a link, go to somewhere. Which has a link. To somewhere. Just how damn far does the rabbithole go? Maybe the rabbithole never ends, you just end before the rabbithole does.

Hmm.

Life is like the internet, a giant mass of events that occur sequentially.

Hmm.

Yes.

Someone ask me an intriguing question in the tag-board, I'll answer it to the best of my ability.

Came back from a very nice lunch with Sonny (black bean noodles, delicious).

Performed in the DeCroy Chamber Music Competition this morning which was at Dilworth College...it was a lot of fun, strangely...even though I almost walked onto the stage before the people were ready -_-

But it was fun.

All boys schools are strange indeed, and for rich people....damn you rich people! (I'm just jealous) But imagine spending your entire school day never seeing a mint lass. That would be a sad sad time indeed.

Of course it also means you can prance around naked if you're into that kind of thing.

While in Physics tuition I had the Blink 182 song Dammit stuck in my head. Couldn't realy concentrate but I managed to work out why I wasn't getting Kirchoff's Loop Law to work properly for me and my school work on capacitance saved my bum.

I think I'm addicted to drumming. I think I'm addicted to the band.

Screw video games, music's where the fun is really at.

I want a kit. I want to practice. I want to be as good as the drummer for 44th Caliber and Gladdis. I want our band to win the Coke Smokefree Rockquest. I want it. So incredibly badly.

The first step is the heats. I'm kinda worried. Even just thinking about it now makes me kinda nervous...but I really really really wanna go through the heats. I really do. I think I'll have to work on creating more interesting and kick-ass drumming patterns if I wanna enhance our original, cause Dave does brilliant bass work, Thomas thrashes out these mean guitar solos, John's got the mean vocal melody...but I pretty much play boring staple drumming (which is at the moment all I can do)

I wonder if I can pull out something fantastic by Tuesday.

I need to practice to be good. I wonder why I didn't work this one out before ;_;

This morning, even though I didn't get to sleep until about 12:00 (although I physically went to bed at 10.15) I managed to haul my butt out of bed at 6:00 in the morning, feeling incredibly, incredibly tired and took a shower and chowed down breakfast and ran off to school for a band practice at 7.00 in the morning...;_;

To try and boost our spirits/energy, John (the singer) brough along these carboshot things, which is basically this extremely extremely high-inducing gel substance that tastes slightly better than glue...after eating about half a tube I felt like throwing up because it was just so...blerghg. But it did give me a crazy kick.

The rest of the day was pretty boring as usual, but after school there was the school "Rockfest", in which our band (Fist Full of Fives) was opening for...it was really really great, except that:

1. The smoke machine was a bit overused...I couldn't see the rest of the band at times.
2. I dropped my sticks while playing in a song....o_O I really hope that doesn't happen. Ever. Again.

But it was fun, even though again I have this crazy feeling that I've let the entire band down. Hmmmmm...

Yeah, the other two bands that were playing (44th Caliber, Gladdis) had wicked awesome drummers and I would give a lot of money to have even a little bit of the talent and drumming wickedness they had. I just feel like I'm letting my entire band down for some strange alien reason...maybe I am, maybe I'm not - who knows?

But Gladdis had a hard time since they were last (most of the crowd actually left after we stopped because those were the people who just hung around after school to see it for a bit and go home) and it was their first time playing publicly (I think) - and it really didn't help that they had technical difficulties. They dealt with it really well though, not panicking or anything.

We had a great crowd response. We got crowdsurfing (YEAH) and the most moshing (YEAH)...44th Calibre played a decent (but very dragged out and tedious set) I thought, but their drummer makes up for it all. \o/ It's so not fair, I swear there's a group of drummers hiding somewhere going "tee hee look how crap the drummer for Fist Full of Fives is compared to the other two bands te hee"

;_;

I hope this feeling passes. Maybe it's just because I dropped my sticks. I hope John can get the performance in house assembly organized so I can try and redeem myself from that horrible, horrible mistake.

Tomorrow I have to wake up early again -_- because of the DeCroy competition. But I'm not really worried/looking forward/caring about that...it's more the rockquest I'm psyched for. I REALLY REALLY WANT TO WIN IT IR REALLY RELAYRLEYALRY DO.

If I get through the heats I swear I will actually start taking lessons and find some time to practice. I just don't think it's fair for John, Tomo and Dave to be stuck with me at the current standard I am. ;_;

Yeah. That was depressing I'm sorry. Or maybe you're laughing at me, that's all good. Meh.

Wahoo, we got the original nailed now I think. It's a lot better I think because:

1. It's tighter and sounds more like an actual song (since originally the verse and chorus was pretty much exactly the same thing)
2. New and improved vocal melody/lyrics - I kinda gave John a few ideas but he deserves all the credit.

Yes.

Tomorrow morning I have to be up at like 6.00 because we want a practice at 7.00 since....we're playing tomorrow after school.

Hmm.

Yes.

Hmm came back from a "band meeting". Kinda fixed up the original to make it more "fresh and new and youth of NZ music" (which is coincidentally what we wrote on our entry form to the Rockquest.

It appears that our band is most likely entered down under the Auckland heats. Yes.

I want a drum kit. I miss my red nice one in Malaysia...I really want to get it shipped out to New Zealand...but hey...hmm.

Yes. The sunsets are now a lot earlier in the morning and in the evening now...it's strange, we've had such brilliant ones recently...and the air's been a bit cold.

After the Chem exam earlier this morning I went to see "The Day After Tomorrow" which is extremely good and bad at the same time. (SPOILER WARNING, I WILL RUIN THE MOVIE FOR YOU IF YOU READ ON.) Good first:

+ Nice touchy feely family movie designed for an American audience

+ Fantastic touch of irony where the people are saved by books. Har har har.

The rest was pretty bad. It's just that it seemed so damn unreasonable...maybe it is feasible but if it was I doubt you'd be able to run away from freezing cold like the people in the movie did. Okay, I'll list all my complaints.

+ The damn painfully obvious American Patriotism. Look at the Statue of Liberty, and see how it stands after being hit by a fucking massive tidal wave! Look at the American flag waving so valiantly in the wind! It's so fantastic! (puke puke)

+ The entire movie is all that one guy's fault. The guy running the drill...I swear he actually did do something very stupid...and cause that huge chunk of ice cap to break off and melt, and disrupt the balance between fresh and salt water in the oceans and cause all this shit to happen all over the world!

+ That silly girl in the "main romantic interest" of the story. She was incredibly, INCREDIBLY stupid. If you cut your leg open trying to save a French lady, fair enough, but at least have the sense to get it looked into. I mean, how could she not have noticed how damn shitty it looked or felt? To ignore a cut for three days that severe was pretty stupid...if she had gotten it cleaned up she wouldn't have forced those three people to go into a ship and find some medicine for her - and as a result hurt some OTHER guy's leg.

+ You can't run away from "APPROACHING SUB ZERO TEMPERATURES!!!" (well, common sense dictates otherwise)...watching the people run away from the cold was just really funny for me to watch.

+ To be saved by some piddly fire created by burning books was kinda stupid...but not as bad as being saved by a shitty as gas burner in some Wendy's. The fire was so small and crap, it wouldn't have done anything other than waste fuel. Wouldn't the gas have frozen at that ridiculous temperature anyway? Hmm.

+ Fucking retard astronauts. What the hell do they not have, windows? (oh wait, they do) They actually need to be ASKED whether the sky's cleared up...you'd think sometime one of them would just happen to glance out the window and go "Hey look it looks clearer, let's do our job and tell the people down there it looks like it's clearing up" instead of floating around like dipshits and playing with each other or whatever they do to pass time in space...until they get asked to do something.

---

Sorry if I sound angry. I believe it was almost worth my $9 that I paid for it...almost. It was fun to laugh at and I suppose it was very touching in a very "I'm not American but if I was narrow minded like most of them were" way.

Finished the last Chemistry exam.

It was kinda fun in a "spiritual release" kind of way. I used up the rest of the ink in my nice black inky pen but that's okay...

There is absolutely no chance at all that I will pass this time, what with my fantastic answers to the questions.

Example: Inert organic compounds that involve elements from the halogen group are important. Name three compounds and their uses.

Answer: HCl. It is used in swimming pools, because of its inertness. If it was not inert it would eat little children.

Example: State the reagents and conditions which are required in the hydrolosis of an ester.

Answer: Agent Smith: "Have you ever had that feeling, where you're not sure if you're awake, or still dreaming?"
Yes, my chances bode well for me...-_-

I had a lot of fun though. I drew many many things, such as Shrek the Sheep, a box, James Bond, moles (in reference to a question which asked how many moles there were of a substance...hahah get it moles hahah) and leaf alcohol.

Eating Media Lunch is the best TV program..ever.

What with (what I hope) is the fake screening of the death of Shrek the sheep, Jeremy Wells nicely saying "Cuntstable" (on national TV HAHAHA) and footage of the dumbarse Paul Holmes going "DONT WAVE CHILDREN NO DONT WAVE THE VIEWERS AT HOME DON'T LIKE IT" (which I think is a load of horseshit, if kids want to wave let them, don't get all uptight just cause it may set off your prostate Mr Holmes)...Eating Media Lunch = best TV show ever.

My thoughts on:

Cheese.

Some cheeses have holes. Now I think that was a devious marketing ploy by the Swiss to make having less cheese more desirable. Holes don't taste like anything. Are they even required in the cheesemaking process? Perhaps I'm wrong but...I don't know. The taste of holes is not good for me. Some may argue on the same premise of donuts but to be honest donuts are just overhyped fried pieces of dough anyway. Speaking of devious marketing ploys, what's with associating cute cartoony mice with cheese? I think they want little kids to go "hey that's cool the mice which are the protagonists who escape from the evil things like bad cats and fangs and consumption of self eat cheese - MUMMY I WANT CHEESE" and watch the little kids proceed to bawl their eyes out in some stuffy Supermarket Aisle. Kids like that are stupid, spoilt and should be kicked very hard in the butt for being stupid, on the account that:

1. Mice are not real.
2. Mice like all food, not just cheese.
3. Your mum pays for your food. Stop complaining.

Hmm. I think I'm getting quite angry. I don't mean to be, I think it's just my sickness and headache showing through.

Today, I went to school only for the first early bit because:

1. I wanted to hand out all the CDs I made for the band (which I did)
2. I had to hand in my Ball entry form and pay for the tickets.
3. I had a performance in House Assembly.
4. I had to pay Pei Yun to get on the PARTAY BUS which will take me to the ball.
5. I didn't really want to miss anything in class even though I'm on study leave.

I woke up feeling moderately crap, but by the time Maths was over I was very, very sick so I had to go home, getting Jason to write down nice notes for me in Physics...yes...I then went home and slept from 11.00 to 2.45 - which figures. I feel a little bit better though, even though I have an exam tomorrow and I am completely screwed over for it.

I'm still very happy about Sunday night. I can't wait to watch the video which I hope is good.

And if anyone has any ideas on where to rent a very cool flash car, let me know - I may not go to the ball in the party bus but I might get my brother to chaffeur me there. Maybe.

Maybe.

Random interesting things I remember from last night:

- The people literally brought the house down while we were playing. Like, for a while near the end of our set there were people trying to put back the support beam in Kim's garage.

- The moment when the crowd chanted "Fist Full of Fives". It was at that moment I was like, "hey, I could get used to this."

- Tim. 100% respect to you. 99% because you kick major booty on the drums, 1% because I believe you were wearing the same pair of underwear as I was. o_O

- Ellen as the dirty maid, singing really loudly along with "All The Small Things". Classic.

---

Anyway the recordings have been transferred onto my computer in which it will springboard into the rest of the world. Unfortunately while transferring from Sonny's MD to my computer the sound went from Stereo to Mono, and since there really wasn't another way I could think of to get the music off the MD for now Sonny still has the ultimate recording of it. He'd better not lose it.

I also made six CDs just then, a personalized copy for each band member and Sonny, and a distribution copy in case people actually want to listen to it. I think I'll let John handle that.

If anyone can think of an awesome place to put the recordings (on the internet) please let me know. I'm workin on that.

My stupid internet is also randomly disconnecting on me, which doesn't make my uploading job any easier.

Okay, I just came back from a party. I am soooo psyched. It just hit me now (not while I was there...like sudden onset AIDS.)

Well basically our band did our first ever live performance, complete with a darkish room, video recording, sound recording, people (lots of them, about 100) and music! AND IT ROCKED IT WAS SO INCREDIBLE. Just to watch a crowd jump up and down to music you play, man, that's an awesome feeling. I can't wait to see the video and get the recording (which is pretty high quality) on my hands!

I'm excited for the Rockquest, I really am.

There was this drummer though, Jen's boyfriend and he was really good. I kinda felt a bit stink for a bit cause he was so much better than me :P But he was really really great. It was nice getting his approval too.

It was great. Really, really great.

AH IT WAS SO GReATTETEAEATEAEAT

When I get the recordings back I'll link to them.

I had a strange dream where I had a hair cut.

I can't decide if it was scary or not.

Thomas tell your mum she is kool. With a "k".

Hmm. I wrote something for the College Herald. I want $250. I WANT IT WE WANTS IT


---


Yesterday, I heard from one of my friends that a student somewhere in New Zealand was suspended from the school he attended. Why? Because he fashioned his hair after our New Zealand Idol and his famous shaved haircut.

Of course, he only said this to me because of my own hair, which passes the top of my shirt collar – an offence of my school’s uniform rules or so teachers tell me every day. As much as I love being a rebel, disobeying the school is not something I or most students enjoy doing. So “what gives”, you ask?

Common sense tells us that school rules are created to protect students and encourage a positive environment for learning and education. Keeping that in mind, how does having hair past the collar on your shirt stop you from solving a mathematical equation or writing an essay? The weight of my hair is not enough to force my head backwards or slow me down, and does not house head lice (or at least I hope not).

Although it may not seem like it, I think that most of my school’s rules are reasonable. No smoking and alcohol? I support that – usage is illegal for most of the student population anyway. No makeup? I would not be using makeup anyway, as much fun as it would be to attend school with lipstick and eyeliner. It is when a school forbids its male students to have their hair past their collar that I object.

All I really want is to have my hair long – today’s society is all about freedom of choice and having rights, after all. Most normal people would give in to the pressure and spend ten dollars or more to get their hair cut. But I am not a normal person so I stand up for my rights.

The next step for me if I was to try to keep my current hairstyle meant finding out what would happen if I refused to get my hair cut and ignored the teachers. Apart from the typical school fare of detentions and essays, a quick internet search showed me that according to the YouthLaw website (www.youthlaw.co.nz), a student can be stood down or suspended on the grounds of continual disobedience where he or she is “deliberately and regularly failing to do what [they] are told”.

My heart sinks. I do not want to be stood down, and as strange as it may sound I really do enjoy school and the people I meet there. But I read on. “As well as being...’continual disobedience’, [the] behaviour must set a harmful or dangerous example to other students. The behaviour must be likely to cause serious harm, not just to be harmful.”

Having my hair past my collar has definitely not been harmful and has not set a dangerous example to other students. Nobody seems to have suddenly started growing their hair just because I have. Although it would have been very flattering, I am glad nobody has since it is part of what defines me and my individuality. In the same way, a Ben Lummis hairstyle does no harm to anyone, but as it got a student suspended it must be harmful in a way. Maybe the school I heard about got it all wrong. Perhaps the suspension was unjustified.

To take away the right of education of a student because their hair looks different to everyone else’s seems unfair. Suspension on the basis of looks sounds a lot like discrimination. YouthLaw states that “students have the legal right not only to attend school but to be educated.” What a student’s choice about their hairstyle has to do their right to schooling bewilders me.

School rules are like society – most of them work well for the good of us all, but a few of them are unhelpful and negative. A school rule should be for the good of all students, and all other reasons are secondary. I hope that in the future, schools will look past shallow appearances and focus on the important things. However, until they do, I will probably remain a rule-breaker.

---

Critique as much as you want, I want that $250.

Also I have to hand in my money for the ball...man I'm so poor it's not fair. Stupid fucking corporate world we live in.

I was gonna say something about Asian musicians doing crappy Asian covers of songs such as "Murder on the Dance Floor" and "All Right"...but then I realised I just did.

Tomorrow I will attempt to only turn right.

Exam results back (and to be honest I had nothing to worry about):

Maths: A
Physics: A
Music: Achieved, Excellence

I won't give exact percentages cause that's pointless.

OK! "What is this, a centre for ants? How can we teach the kids if they can't even fit inside the building?! It has to be at least...three times bigger!"

I just watched Zoolander. Now I won't be able to look at any advertisement without falling over laughing....fantastic fantastic movie. I can't believe they banned it in Malaysia...

I am incredibly angry. Our family pays a good 25 dollars a month for internet access and the fucking shitty ISP keeps disconnecting me. GARRRRR MOTHERFUCKER GARRRR

Not helping at all. -_-

The following rant is sponsored by Purger/Ju (purger.blogspot.com)

::WHY I HATE AVRIL LAVIGNE::

It's not because she's Canadian (I think.)

It's not because Simon Zhou thinks she's hot.

It's because:

1. I haven't heard her recognise her band.
2. She doesn't write her own songs.
3. She butchered Chop Suey.

=Point one=

I hate artists who don't recognise the backup they've had. Maybe I've just never seen her do it but I don't think Avril's ever thanked her backing band publicly before. And she's not Avril Lavigne and The Matrix (the band backin her up) so...yeah.

=Point two=

It's even worse if they don't acknowledge it. Like FRED DURST THAT FUCKING CUNT (excuse my swearing) he stole Behind Blue Eyes from The Who and makes money from it. -_- I haven't seem him thank The Who for feeding his fat wallet...and Shannon Noll stole "What About Me". It's a really sad day indeed and a sad world when musicians don't write their own things any more. Maybe we should call them puppets. Or homonculi. -_-

=Point three=

I would tell you to go find it but I will spare your ears. Don't listen to it.

-

There you go. That's why I hate Avril Lavigne. I mean, she can sing, that's nice and all. But the bad outweighs the good for me.

I am not having a good day at all. Ask Sonny he can vouch for me.

-_-

Well first up this morning started alright, I woke up nice and early at 7.00, got ready for school and then I walked to school cause I initially thought I had an exam in the morning. I walked to school, didn't see anyone I knew, decided that it must have been a mistake, quickly glanced at my exam times and went home.

Fast forward to 10.30. Ming calls me and tells me "OI I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU, YOU'VE MISSED THE EXAM!!!" And then, I immediately think "damn" and "cool" at the same time. On one hand, I missed an exam. Well that was stupid. But on the other I think hurrah, I'm special I missed an exam! And also I won't get a record of how screwed I was for the exam anyway. So after talkin for a bit and feelin really stupid, Ming hangs up. (He said that people saw me at school and told the supervisor that and they got all worried cause in their eyes I had suddenly disappeared...and they probably thought I was raped or something...) Also, the times I glanced on my sheet I later find were for Chemistry, not Physics. So my exam WAS in the morning. -_-

Fast forward to 12.30 (Sonny is at my house at this stage, he came over unannounced but that's just like him) - Ming calls me again. And he says "apparently you may be able to sit the exam if it's on the same day". And then AGAIN I'm like "damn" and "cool" at the same time - on one hand, I get a chance to sit it, yay - but on the other hand, I don't really want to, and I'm pretty screwed anyway. After much deliberation I decide not to give it a shot mainly bcause I didn't want to...but I don't know what I'm gonna tell my mum cause we paid a lot of money to sit those exams. -_- (Also I read on the sheet that I won't normally be allowed to take an exam once it's over...and also read that if I miss an exam without a good reason I won't be given a grade in the subject...but that's all speculation)

So Ming gave me a choice so now I feel really stink. -_- Well at least this exam I missed was a resit and I passed it last year (barely) - but I still feel kinda stink. Garrr. Not feeling good.

And I know my brother's gonna blame me playin on the computer all the time but honestly that's not it - I was just really stupid this morning - I should have properly checked exactly what time it was, not just glance at it and assume that the exam was in the afternoon. I suppose subconsciously I probably didn't want to do it but still...

GARRRRRRRR

Learn from my lesson everybody. CHECK YOUR EXAM TIMES 5 TIMES. Then DOUBLE CHECK, THREE TIMES. Don't miss an exam. It's not good.

Came back from a band practice...my ears are still ringing - I knew I shouldn't have hit the ride and the crash at the same time as hard as I could...

But now our total number of originals is TWO. Hurrah! This calls for celebration, which means I get a cup of juice. Hurray!

Third to last exam was today - AS Chemistry Practical, which was an amazing amount of fun. There's no way I'm going to beat my last year's mark (of 40 something percent -_-) cause I had six months to study...but I left it to the last day. And then I didn't do it.

But, after the practical which was fun for me because I took it as a fun experiment and playing around with chemical thingies, I bring you:

::Fun Things To Do While Having A Chemistry Exam::

1. Stop and listen to everyone doing the exam (except for yourself) make tinkley noises with their glass stirrers hitting on their beakers. The whole class will exponentially erupt into a frenzy of stirring in the least efficient manner as so to prolong the "tink tink tink" of glass against glass. Proceed to wisely crush your powder that you were meant to dissolve, thus not making any crazy tinkley noises. Laugh at the fools. HAHAHAHAH

2. Create a fireball when it's your turn to use the bunsen burner. Make sure you've never used matches before, and it's been six months since you've touched a bunsen burner. Watch the resulting flame glory!

3. Combine all the chemicals you're given into one big smelly pile of liquid.

4. When the instructions say "gently warm" your chemical, open the air hole for your bunsen and burn the motherfucker till it pops like crazy and gives off this pungent gas.

Yes. And I was sitting right up the front, right in front of the examiner. And it just so happened that they got to observe the person who wasn't going to truly bother...heh heh heh. I think Dr. Thomas found it rather amusing though.

Anyway. Yes, two more exams. I'm sick of them already, so so so sick of them.

My brother bought Singstar. It arrived today (this Courier guy knocked on the door and woke me up at 9.00 in the morning...) and when he got home he broke into my mum's closet (OOOH NAUGHTY - but I'm the pioneer of the breakings in...but that's another story) and ripped out the PS2 and we tried Singstar, just to make sure he didn't waste $90. It's kinda funny. I'm really bad at it. I think the microphone hates me.

Yes.

Thoughts for now:

1. If you run in a walking race, are you disqualified? (I think there's a good reason that walking isn't an Olympic sport.)

2. It's way more fun to sneeze on people than you'd imagine. I mean, I spent the two hours in my exam today snivelling and generally feeling very disgusting having to yet again wipe my runny excretions all over myself...but on the way home I sneezed on a junior. The look on their face was priceless...though I probably gave them my EVIL ASIAN VIRUS.

Viruses are smart. They'd never take over the world by pure force, I mean they can't even lift a small rock. So they use us people to spread them like spreadable butter..all over the world, in all people. And then they kill us. Bastards!

One thing I hate is people who degrade themselves and very directly (but not always intentionally though I always notice) insult you.

Example:

Last year. Khay Shern. I walk up to him, Cambridge Exam results were coming out. I initiate conversation, ask about his marks. He says "oh they're not very good".

I later find out he got a 98% in Maths.

I got a B.

So if 98% isn't very good, what the hell is a B? Horrenous?

Just, a thought.

Uh, I don't know why but one of my posts just changed to "u suxors". I deleted it. THE BASTARD WHO IS HAXXING MY ACCOUNT STOP IT.

Sonny is here at my house. He spent the night cause we were studying for the Maths exam...which is today.

Sonny says: "I have studied for maths at Henry's house :)"

Yes. He slept in my mum's bed.

And also, uh, yes. It's cold, my house sucks it's all old and cold-like.

Me and William planted a few bulbs. Three each. Bought them ourselves. Hopefully they grow or we wasted about ten dollars...

Also, a question about bulbs, do they grow back again every year or are they one shot bastards?

Exam again today. 1 hour. Physics. Structured questions. Wish me luck!

Well, today I went over to Thomas' house and me him and Steph (his sister) wrote a NEW SONG FOR THE BAND!! HURRAH! Yeah. I'll post the lyrics when he emails them to me but basically...it was fun, yes. Thomas' mum likes it too which is always a plus. :)

My mummy left New Zealand again this morning. She's always travelling and stuff cause she can. Um yeah so me and my brothers woke up really early this morning (7.30! UNPRECEDENTED) and sent her off.

That's all, I think. Yeah.

Just came back from the Physics A Level practice exam. And I must say I am surprised at the effectiveness of my last minute study which I did yesterday - I pretty much understood most of the stuff (since I covered most of the stuff, except for this pressure difference stuff which I'm not sure I got correctly or not

So my hopes for 100% are as usual destroyed, but an A would be nice. (The thing is though, whenever I feel that I did well in something more often than not I screwed up badly, so we'll see)

That's not what I wanted to say...oh yes. Exam supervisors are always really unnerving...when they slowly pace past you and watch you suffer as you wipe your nose with your hand and leave your nose excretions all over your hand and pants where you wipe your hand. And do they offer you a tissue, oh poor exam candidate? No. Their "supervising" is waaay too important - you know, any minute now, one of those bastards are gonna cheat and the supervisor's gonna fucking take them down JUST LIKE THAT. In case you can't tell, I laced the last sentence with sarcasm. It would have been nice if the supervisor had offered me tissues. (I know, I could have put my hand up and asked but dammit the supervisor walked past like 200 times, and I was really busy doing a physics exam)...

It's like they don't trust me. Why don't you trust me?! I'd never cheat in an exam!

*slowly shuffles cheat sheet away*

Bicentennial Man has a very nice soundtrack. There is a reason why James Horner is wicked. This be one of them. That other guy, Danny Elfman though, nobody has a thing on him. Spiderman soundtrack? Gold. Batman soundtracks? Gold.

That's all I wanted to say before I go to sleep WISHMELUCKFOREXAM

Exam tomorrow. Warning to everybody, please, do not study at the last minute. It's never as good. I'm trying to right now. It isn't working. I am almost in panic.

F= GmM/r^2

Yes. Indeed. And since F = mv^2/r, mv^2/r = GmM/r^2
v^2 = GmM/r
v = sqrt(GmM/r)

AAAAAAAH

The practical was...fun yet crappy at the same time.

Crappy part first, there goes my aim of 100% (which was a ridiculous aim anyway but it was fun to aim at that) - I lost at least two marks because I DIDNT MAKE THE GRADIENT NEGATIVE AND STUFF. Also, it was really really crappy having to try and set up a whole experiment, boss clamps and all in the morning when it's quite cold and your hands and joints are under the effect of synovial fluid dysfunction. Dexterity is not a trait associated with numbness.

The fun part however was actually doing the experiment and getting a nice straight graph. Through the experiment and the bobbing springs in beakers of water I was really skeptical that I was doing things correctly. But the graph at the end made up for all of it.

VGmix is weird, it bans me, on and off, intermittently. It's like a schitzo. Actually I'd love to have a multiple personality - and to some extent I probably do, and I think everyone else does too. They had a name for it I think...uh...m - something....something...ah that's it, moods. No exams for two days but...I don't know what I'm gonna do I'm...I'm...my head it hurts too many things going on at once. I think I'll go sit and watch the backyard now.

Hmm. The proxy server that I've been using on and off has decided it doesn't like my blog. This message, (and some stuff in Arabic which I assume is the same thing) appears:

ISU BLOCKED URL
Access to the requested URL is not allowed!

Please, fill out the form below if you believe the requested page should not be blocked:

Form for URL unblocking request

Please, send other sites you feel should be blocked using the following form:

Blocking Request Form
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This page was generated by cache10.ruh.isu.net.sa on Mon, 17 May 2004 22:49:47 GMT

Who are the ISU? Hmm.

o_O Somehow I typed "America drives on the left side of the road."

That obviously is wrong. They drive on the right.

Practical this morning. WISH ME LUCK

Damn Americans make things so much harder for the rest of the world.

I mean, I'm not trying to be countryist, but with a country with a leader who think's he's the prodigal second coming to "cleanse the world of the horrible horrible axis of evilness which for some miraculous reason excludes America and its weapons of mass destruction", it's really hard for me not to have an instant bias. But (I'm not sure if I've already posted this rant before, but oh well) my hatred for America comes from a long long observation. Pre-war. Pre 911 (and again, I don't mean to be a shit but boo hoo you lost big towers, who gives. Many people in Africa lose their lives every day I don't see anyone else moaning about it. Very hypocritical to only feel the suffering when it directly affects you.)

Um, where was I...oh yes. Why I hate America.

1. They (majority that I've met and base my opinion on) are stubborn like cocks. Examples are:

-Imperial/metric system. There is a very good reason why THE REST OF THE WORLD uses the metric system. It's because our whole fucking number system is in base 10, and so is the metric system. Of course, being American and all they're such a big and important country that it doesn't matter what the rest of the world thinks, America is always right. This leads to retarded tourists who ask questions like "1.5 litres of L&P? How many gallons is that?!"

-Driving. Why oh why is America driving on the left? Is it just to spite Europe? I am quite disappointed Taiwan and Japan joined America in this (and probably some other countries too - but all of them probably got bribed) - but..you know, you'd save a lot of people who travel internationally who die in car accidents which come about from frequent changes in road side. Maybe.

-Light switches. ..Why up? Why fight gravity? Why?!

-Dating method (no, not the romantic interpersonal kind) - Most of the rest of the world uses the convention Day - Month - Year. Why aren't you?

-Spelling/English. There is a very good reason why English is called English. It's because it comes from England. Now, why America has the authority to completely fuck it up I have no idea. A lift? Is it because people couldn't remember how to spell elevator? And what's with this lazy dropping of double letters and letters, like in colour and kidnapped?

America comes off to me as the "voraciously independent and rebellious pimply-faced angst teen who wants to make a stand against the violent oppression upon their "creativity" and "freedoms". I mean, goddammit kid, we put food on your family, leave us alone. -_-

2. You stick your nose in other people's shit. I bet 911 really woke you guys up, huh? I mean, I'm very sorry that you lost people and all that but is that what it really takes to get you to start thinking about terrorism? Like Maddox's opinion on Christopher Reeve I think you are being a shit. I believe, and this is probably mostly wrong but it wouldn't surprise me either if I was correct, that America's only going after terrorists for it's own sake and not on anyone elses. "Look, our little trade corrupted building got bombed! Let's make sure we can keep all the money in America and kill all the other terrorists! Who gives a fuck if we're going against the UN, we'll do it anyway!" Without 911 would America have suddenly gone "OH MY GOD THERE IS TERRORISM LETS GO KILL IT?" I bet not. Oh wait, that wasn't my original point.

Like, Israel and Palestine peace talks. Why is it suddenly very special when an American President goes over there to try and talk with them two? Is it any of your business that they are fighting? I mean, hell, you probably make a killing selling both sides weapons or something. And Vietnam. May I ask, what the hell? And most recently, Iraq. Why did you all of a sudden decide to go after Iraq? Weapons of mass destruction? You should be bombing the crap out of yourselves first. Because Saddam was being an "evil dicator and being righteous and just America" you go and usuper him and then place your own political shit there? I bet you were after the oil. Or maybe you enjoy bombing civilians, who knows.

Yeah, it's a lot of pent-up Anti-American anger. Don't get me wrong, I think America has it's merits too. I mean, they basically pioneered fast food. Where would we be today without the modern miracles of fast food? (Well, we'd be off our lazy ass and into the kitchen for a start but that's a different story). America after all is home of Jazz. I am eternally grateful for that. A few bad (or maybe a bit over a few) events just make you come off as a country that as my Physics teacher nicely puts, "can't see beyond its own borders".

The multichoice exams were shitty. I know you're thinking OMG MULTICHOICE ARE YOU SERIOUS and yes I'm serious, yes, but it's still hard for me. (I hate all the people who come out after exams and like look around and smirk and go OMG THAT WAS SO EASY and then you're just like...fuck. Anyway.) Yeah - the multichoice, all four answers seem correct sometimes...and other times none of them. It's really confusing...

In the morning I walked past the school to Sonny's house to study (and it really really did help...showed me I was making fucking ridiculous mistakes) and past all these people in school uniform...and I was in school uniform. Ah, I felt like such a rebel. Every time someone goes against the grain, against the tide, against the mass of students swarming in the general direction of a conglomeration of structures and facilitators that combine together to form a school, everyone looks and notices, if only for a little while.

Americal Idol is funny. All those over-emotional people who can't accept the reality that is their shitty singing. And then they get all indignant and you can't help wanting to ruin their shit, cut them up and leave them in pieces. I hope I'm here for NZ Idol. I want to be silly on TV. I hope the producers (NOTE THAT I SAY PRODUCERS NOT JUDGES, THAT BE A STORY FOR ANOTHER DAY) pick me to be silly on TV. And then I'd be like, yeah, I'm on TV.

EXAM TODAY WISH ME LUCK

Man, the world is so lucky I don't have the power to instantly mutilate those people whom I hate. Though it would be fun for me, probably not for the person on the receiving end.

Just had Wendy's for dinner. No other Huge Conglomerate Fast Food Company has a thing on Wendy's. Wendy's burgers are the fucking best (even though they do come to me looking a bit squashed but damn they taste grand) - and they offer awesome side dishes like Baked Potatoes!

Also, something I thought of when in the car on the way home - people assume locks mean safety. Lock your car door and theives can't get in. But what if you accidentally lock yourself in the car and burn and die? Hmm.

Breathe in.....breathe out....
Dammit I haven't started studying for the exams yet.
But I WILL I WILL...

Anyway, got banned at VGmix.com - fucking administrator. I guess I'll have to remove that link in the sidebar then.

I wish exams didn't exist.

Today the weather sucked.

Interesting things to note:

1. I smelt quite horrible today (no, I am not a smelly person on a day-to-day basis and I have good hygiene habits...) - it was because this morning it was kinda raining and I was kinda late-ish to school so I was walking really fast...through mud and grass and crap to try and cut in front of people who obviously hadn't realised or didn't care they were late to school. It's either the mud was starting to smell really really bad or I stepped in some dogshit because while sitting in assembly I could smell it. It sucked. The smell followed me for the whole day, I couldn't seem to wash it all away. I also left mudprints on the new music room floor carpet which made me feel really bad since it was new and clean and all before I trodged onto the carpet forgetting I just walked through tons of mud...and even more worse when I found out Miss Hall had to clean it up for me...:( (I would have cleaned it up instead of her had I not had an assembly) - On an unrelated sidenote Miss Hall was in a very very nice mood today, for some reason. Must be because it's Friday, because she didn't really get very angry at me at all for leaving mudprints on the carpet, and after-school when I was kinda helping out Jo on the drums (cause she and Cas and Kate entered in the Bands section of the Talent Quest), Miss Hall came in and gave us all gingerbread cookies and muffins and cake! Yeah.

2. Had a Physics practical today. The practical was very fun, it involved balancing a weight with a magnetic force on opposite ends of a rule...and it required very very agile fingers because the voltage dials had to be adjusted so very carefully since the equipment was so sensitive. I definitely lost at least three points though, because my graph looks like poo since I got told not to do a scale break on the x axis, but I think I was supposed to. I hate conflicting teaching.

3. I've got Rahzel - "If Your Mother Only Knew" stuck in my head. *hums* I wish I could beatbox. But I'm very glad that I can:

- Play the drums!
- Sing!
- Utilise De Mouivre's Theorem to solve complex equations involving powers!

So I can live without being able to beatbox.

4. The theme to the ball is LAS VEGAS. I think what I've got this year will be fine, now I just need to go and find an Orange Hat. Someone, take me op-shopping!

5. Exams are so goddamn soon. Crunch time I believe. CRUNCH TIME. It's too late now for any kind of sane study habit so I'm just going to try (and probably fail) to cram study. Hope it all works...especially since I have other stuff to concentrate on too, such as my first Art Photography board. Damn, that means I need to take a film. o_O Good luck to everyone who's doing exams cause I won't see anyone on Monday since I have the morning off for study leave and an exam in the afternoon.