banhy.blogspot.com

Victory v GCU

2011-11-28T11:26:00.001+11:00

Following last week's post/rage against Melbourne Victory's performance, it was with slight apprehension I went to yesterday's game against Gold Coast. It was a classic case of hoping for the best but expecting the worst.

To begin with, there was the youth team playing in the curtain raiser before the game. I really wanted to go, to see if the youth team were able to play to any decent standard. My reasoning was they didn't have Thompson to bomb it up to, thus forcing them to play with a bit of patience. However no one else wanted to go so I guess we'll never find out.

You can't see it, but the banner on the far side says "No More Excuses".

The big attraction for yesterday's game was that it was the first of the season at AAMI Park. It is a much better ground than Etihad for experiencing the match as you are so much closer to the action. The only downside is that for members, we are unable to sit on the side so the actual viewing is made a bit more difficult.

In the end, it was a good showing from Victory, a massive improvement from last week. More balls were played to feet and there seemed to be a bit more sense in the ball movement. Harry Kewell definitely helped this. Allsopp may have had his good years, but he is nowhere near Harry in terms of build up play. To date though, Harry's biggest contributions in the game still appears to be his flick ons from goal kicks. I counted five yesterday. It's kind of amazing how he continually wins the headers with such consistency.

It was a big disappointment when Vargas was sent off for a silly tackle. Down to ten men, it was only natural Victory would revert to the norm. But the surprising thing was they didn't. The ball still stayed on the ground for the most part, with the odd long ball at a well timed moment. It was a very encouraging performance from the boys, fingers crossed they can continue on.

Now the match itself. Victory went 2-0 quickly from two spot kicks (how else can we score?), however last week was enough to keep all of us on edge. And true to form, Gold Coast came back to level the scores, both coming after Rodrigo was given his marching orders. Substituions were made and just about everyone on the ground was amazed how Rojas was taken off while Carlos "Can't Run" Hernandez stayed on. He proved us all wrong though, netting the winner after a good break. He should have made it 4-2 in the dying stages but he held the ball when he clearly should have released Thompson.

Has coach Mehmet saved his job? It wasn't an easy match for him. They started off very well, but losing Vargas and then Fabio meant he had a very makeshift defence. Keeping Hernandez on seemed like a ridiculous move, but it paid off in the end. The only concern, and a massive concern it is, is we gave up a 2-0 lead against the bottom ranked side. But how much blame can you put on Mehmet for that?

Every Victory Fan's Current Mindset

2011-11-21T19:42:00.003+11:00

I'm the first to admit I don't know a great deal about soccer. I have only been watching it for a couple of years, and only started seriously following the English Premier League this season. Playing it has given my a tiny amount of insight and from what I read on the internet, I feel I know just about enough to properly write of my disappointment and borderline disgust at the current state of Melbourne Victory.

To begin with, Melbourne Victory have the best history in the A-League so far. I don't know the exact numbers but we've won a couple of titles, runners up in another, and some minor premierships. Our supporter base is by far the biggest in Australia, something "Melbourne's sporting capital" is quite proud of. I have been to a number of matches in the past without really watching the team play, because I watched soccer so rarely I didn't really know what to look for.

This year, or more accurately in the past 3 months, I have been watching quite a bit of soccer. If it's not going to Victory games, it's streaming EPL online late at night. It is this which has opened my eyes to the poor quality of play Victory currently employ. It really is pitiful. In the beginning, the A-League was derided for it's apparent lack of quality in comparison to other leagues around the world, which was completely correct and entirely understandable. However this season, the teams seemed to have improved a great deal. There is a passing game developing, teams are holding the ball, and building their play. So far I have watched Sydney, Melbourne Heart, Brisbane Roar (or ROAARRRRCELOOONA!), and now Perth Glory all play decent games. They have structures moving forward, pressure releases and suitable people to build their play around. Melbourne Victory, on the otherhand, have nothing of the sort.

In previous years, Archie Thompson's amazing ability at the business end of the pitch has been our biggest strength. His pace, technique, and general goal scoring-ness is unique in the league. However Victory's biggest weapon is also what is now holding us back from developing. There is no patience when we are on the ball, the only plan is to bomb it long for Thompson to chase and then either for him to score himself (because in his eyes, it goes 1. Score, 2. Dive, 3. Castration, 4. Pass), or to win a set piece. The over dependence on Thompson has resulted in the absence of a real midfield.

Last night, the midfield consisted of Broxham (DM), Pondeljak, Celeski (LM/RM), and Hernandez (AM). As far as midfields go, these guys are pretty crap. Broxham did his best and I thought he played the role of the hard-in defensive midfielder well. However at the same time, he is definitely no ball player. The same applies for Pondeljak and Celeski, their commitment and desire is unquestionable, it is their technique and style which comes under fire. To cap it all off, we have Hernandez, the very definition of a dead-ball specialist. We can no longer keep carrying him in the team. His running, his pace, and most importantly his fitness are nowhere near where they need to be to be playing in a professional league (let alone in the A-League), and it cost us our second goal last night. The first goal was a result of a misdirected pass from our Brazillian left back Fabio, who does well off the ball but is a bit of a liability on it.

The most disappointing thing about last night was even when Perth went down to 10 men, we were still hell bent on bombing the ball up for Thompson. It would be cruel to say the players didn't even try to adapt and play the passing game. However if this wasn't the case, then it suggests the players (or the coach) recognised that they were unable to string passes together and just kept on playing long balls, which is equally sad.

So what can be done? There's no quick fix. It's a deep rooted problem which will take a number of seasons to overcome. In leagues around the world, the first option would be to look externally, bring in players who can do the required job. However with Australia's strict salary capping, the better option would be to take who we have now and drill them hard. I'm absolutely sure they do passing drills in training, but it is now a matter of giving them the confidence and patience to use those drills in a match situation. It goes without saying the passing game is not easy. Technically, it requires first touches and accurate passes. Beyond that though, you also need vision, anticipation, smart runs and buckets of communication.

Can Victory get there? They're professional soccer players, so yes. Until they do though, I will not be renewing my membership.

Self-Esteem

2011-11-15T21:47:00.001+11:00

I want to talk about self-esteem. The reason for this is I didn't have a great start to the day today, but then it did get better so I'm not complaining too much. But what happened at the beginning was enough to make me realise some hard truths.

Previously, I had only thought of self-esteem as how confident you are in yourself. Things like how you carry yourself in public, how comfortable you are with yourself and particularly how much you like being you. I generally thought I was ok in terms of this, I didn't have low self-esteem, nor was mine over the top. I was in a good place.

However the events of today made me think of this self-esteem business in a different light. I began thinking about the other "self-"'s, namely self-worth and self-respect. They are all the same thing, however to me they now provide a better picture of what's really happening. Self-worth and self-respect, to me, mean how much you value your own time and efforts. Some people spend all their time doing things for others, while some only ever think about themselves and are surprised to find out the universe is not centred about them. Of course these are the polar extremes. I had genuinely never thought about how important my time is when it comes to other people, I was just a generally easy going person and would "go with the flow".

I keep harping on about today's life changing events without actually saying what happened. In a nutshell, I was supposed to meet some people (demoted from "friends" to "people" for the time being) for lunch in the city, however when I got there, I found out they had left the city to go eat elsewhere. In the interest of full disclosure and presenting both sides of the coin, I had told one party I was going, and a bit later I told the other party I wasn't, which may have confused them; and I rocked up about 20 minutes later than I was meant to. However these problems could have been easily solved with a simple phone call or text message. Anyway, point of the story was I was pissed they had left me, and it turns out another friend, behind. So what I did was have lunch with that other friend and it turned out to be very ok in the end.

So I get home and I begin thinking. They didn't value my company enough to check whether or not I was coming, and as a result I was left standing there not a happy camper. They assumed I wasn't coming (which may have been right or wrong depending on where you stand) and took off. So the question is, do I want to be friends with people who show such little regard for me? Previously I'd brush it off, passing it off as an honest mistake. But now I'm not as forgiving. My time is better spent with people who actually want to be there with me. Frenz4Lyf.

I feel I have to say what happened today is a highly isolated incident and has never happened to me before (actually it has happened to me once before and that was equally soul crushing). My friends are good people. They sometimes to bad things, but I forgive them because our friendship is bigger than whatever dumb thing they (or I) may do, typically without realising it. Perhaps the reason I'm making such a big deal out of today is because I'm looking for a reason to not like these people, as one of them is the girl I liked (told her and more or less got shut down) who is going away forever, and the other is someone I'm kind of forced to be friends with through VSA.

On an unrelated note, I am now twittered up: banhyboy, get onto it.

YAYSOS!

2011-10-12T21:02:00.002+11:00

I am a man of many vices. Online shopping is one of the more expensive ones.

I'm not a big spender by any definition. But in my family, taking into consideration the frugalness of my parents, I'm a shopaholic. The truth lies somewhere in the middle. I buy when I need to, as well as when I don't need to but I do try to keep it to a minimum. I use my indecisiveness as a defense mechanism. If I still can't decide whether I want it or not after a couple of days, chances are I don't want it.

That's not exactly what I wanted to gab about today though. I have been blessed by whoever's in charge in terms of body shape. I'm very much in the "average" section of the population. Around 6 ft. and 80kg-ish. It just about means that whatever I buy, I can get a medium and feel safe (or at least in Australia I can).

This brings me back to online shopping. The biggest hurdle for online shoppers is whether or not it fits (after whether or not it's real). I'm lucky in that more often than not it will fit. The only problem is when it doesn't.

I just received an order from ASOS with a whole bunch of tees and most of them are ok. There's just one shirt which is, how to say it... overly snug. This is the same with a CK tee I bought a while back. Both said medium, both were very small mediums. But rather than going through the trouble of returning it and getting a size up, which is also super demoralising, I instead make a pledge to fit the shirt by the end of the summer! It's not like I can't get into it, it's just when I do it looks like I have a spare type around my waist.

Poorly constructed post, I know. Now to think I have to write my thesis in this sort of mood. Lucky assessor.

Epicly Pt. 2 (alternate ending)

2011-09-17T21:56:00.001+10:00

Part 2 of a draft of a post I wrote way back in '08 when I was struggling getting over being given the "let's just be friends" line by Felita. I think it's pretty damn funny reading back on this.

Ok, time for the second installation. We left off at the point where I had just finished cramming as much into a couple of minutes as I could to Jin, and that is where we shall recommence.

I don't remember whether I had finished or not when Anna came over to say hi, because by then the group had seen me talking to Jin. Sam had already sauntered over in his sexy-walk, so I think he would have caught the back-end of the story. Anyway, Anna came and the rest of the group followed. Had to say goodbye to Jin and Victor and then we went to eat! Also, I put my plan into motion, Operation Ignore.

I don't know how much of a plan it was, because it was pretty generic and vague. However I needed some way to handle it. So on the walk to the restaurant, I said hi to everyone, well to Willius at least. I talked and laughed with Anna about goodness knows what. When we were trying to work out our seats at the restaurant, there was a funny little interplay between Sam and me. The table was set up so that it was just this one long thing with people seated opposite each other. As there were 9 people, it was designated that Felita sit at the head of the table. All the girls settled to her right and the boys to her left. However there was a vacant seat directly next to her, Willius was in the vicinity whereas I was way down at the other end of the table. Sam says to me "Banh, that's yours", or something along those lines, while gesturing to that seat. I don't remember whether I just mouthed it or if I actually said it out loud, but I replied one of either "Get f***ed", "Go f*** yourself" or "F*** off". I think I did get my message across to him though, so Willius sat there. I was had Tim on my left, Wilfred opposite me and Anna diagonally to my left.

Dinner was pretty fun. I don't actually like eating in large groups, I'm a shy eater. So I nibbled and spent most of my time talking and stuffs. Luckily Tim ate bucketloads, so he ate my share without realising. It was really good fun just having fun with all these people, however I was starting to come down off the redbull I slammed down before meeting everyone. I was buggered from cricket and it was really starting to show. At one stage, I had zoned out of the conversation and was just focusing on ripping up my napkin. It started off innocently enough, I ripped off the over hanging pieces so that I could have a perfect triangle, but then I just started ripping through the really thick bits to see if I could. Whilst deep in concentration, Felita tried to engage me by mentioning my activities. However I was still in ignoring mode so I just smiled and continued. I think the worst bit was then Judy said something about it and I laughed at that.

We eventually left the restaurant, it was still early so we went in search of something to do. We ended up at Melbourne Central under the clocks again, the group split up momentarily. Some people went to the toilet, some talked to other people. I took the opportunity to reply to a message I received from Jackie. Anna saw me texting and I asked her if she had anything to say to Jackie, she just said hi and I conveyed her message. The group... regrouped and we went to the crepe shop to get some. I took one look and I knew I could afford to skip all those extra calories. Anna and Judy complained of the cold so we waited outside while people bought crepes. I got a reply from Jackie saying she missed Anna, I showed Anna this and got the best "awwwwwww" I've heard in ages. Being the good middle-man, I relayed the message to Jackie. Unfortunately though, Jackie had to go straight home from work so she couldn't swing by.

Eventually we decided to go to King Pin to play pool or something. King Pin was fun. I played a game, massive rust. I struggled hard. The annoying thing was that no one else did, it was just me. So I gave up after that. Time to step up Operation Ignore with phase 2. I had decided long ago that I'd buy a beer, for no other reason than to spite her. However one cannot drink alone because that's sad and desperate. Sam couldn't because he had to drive and no one else really wanted to, so I roped in Anna. It took some convincing, and for some reason Sam wanted her to drink more than she or I did, so much so that he even bought it for her. You hear that, Anthony? He bought her a drink! I expect beatdowns. Anyway, back on topic. Not much happened. I watched some people play Daytona, play pool, play air hockey. Everyone was dying at 10pm, just when I was at my highest. It happened again, just when everyone is about to sleep I'm at my awakest. So people departed, all the Glenny line people were the first to go. So it was Judy, Sam, Anna, Wilfred and me left behind. We all walked Anna to her mum's car because we're so nice, we also missed the train because of it.

Waiting for half an hour for the train late at night is made easier by friends. Train ride was fine. I noticed Sam's eyes were bloodshot as all heck. Judy's were too, but it came in periods of bloodshot and then slightly less bloodshot, before really bloodshot. I think mine would have been too, but I couldn't see. Wilfred's weren't. Freak. Train ride got a little weird after Wilfred got off. I'll just leave it at that.

On the walk home, I replayed the night over in my mind. It was only then did I realise that by ignoring her all night, what a jerk that made me. Luckily for me, she was on MSN that night and things were discussed. Many things were discussed. I think that because of those discussions, I may have gone backwards a bit. I thought I was doing swell, but that night I took a few too many backward steps, yardage I don't think I have regained yet. Eventually my laptop battery was dying so we said our farewells, not knowing when we'd talk next. I tell myself not to care.

Thursday was the quick debriefing I gave to Jackie. I told her about my ignoring and although she agreed it wasn't the nicest thing to do, it certainly does feel good. She said that it gives you the power, and it really did feel like that. I may have been kidding myself but I saw her look over a couple times at me. Looks that further encouraged me to continue with the plan. However the debriefing was over all too soon as she had to go and I was using the home phone because my mobile has no credit left. I still have many more things to talk to her about though. So remind me to do it next time.

And the end was on Friday. While we were warming up for futsal, Jono La asks me how I am. I reply with the customary "I'm fine". But he probes deeper, knowing I'm not. Unfortunately for him, before we start playing futsal is not the time to discuss it so I insist I'm fine. I appreciate the thought though. And that's why we love Jono La. That and the fact he gave me keeping gloves! I'm very bad at accepting presents. Love that Jono La kid.

I apologise for these two essays I have written, for their grammar (or lack thereof) and general rubbishness. I know I have been surprisingly candid, and it will most likely bite me on the ass. Every fibre in my body tells me I shouldn't have said so much. However... If it's not said here, then it'll eat away at me over the next couple of months. This blog is my main method of release. The fact that some of my friends read it (Hi Jono, Nigel, Marcus and possibly Tim) means they know more than I'll ever tell them. I also use that to my advantage, so it balances out.

Epicly Pt. 1

2011-09-17T21:56:00.000+10:00

Part 1 of a draft of a post I wrote way back in '08 when I was struggling getting over being given the "let's just be friends" line by Felita. I think it's pretty damn funny reading back on this.

Last post on Wednesday night. I promise. And I think to really, fully explain it, we need to go back to the start. Back to Tuesday night.

So on Tuesday night. There I was watching Eli Stone (I love the show but I may not have been paying a great deal of attention that night), when my phone rings. It's Judy and she's telling me there's a dinner on the next night to say goodbye to Felita before she buggers off to the homeland for a couple of months. To be honest, I was looking forward to it. Not the dinner, to her buggering off. So Judy asked me, I said I should be able to go, blah blah blah. Even though I said that, whether I wanted to go was still in question. I mean, irony to the max.

I think about it for a bit longer, ignoring the fact that Felita even couldn't call me herself but got Judy to do it, before I thought I needed to talk to someone. And at a time like that, it needed to be Jackie. So onto MSN we went and we discussed it in depth(ish). She has been an absolute wonder the past couple of weeks. I would definitely have lost a lot more of my mind if it were not for her. Especially since Tallon fled the country, I needed someone to talk to, and there she is. Anyway! Because I was so unsure of whether I should attend, if she went then I would. But she had work, stupid stupid work. We decided on a suitable story I could give if I wasn't going to go. Actually she suggested I could say I had a trial at a restaurant but failed epicly (if it's not a word, it definitely should be), hence I would not be able to attend. Not very plausible. I like to have some truth to my lies, so I would say that I had to go have dinner with my mum and her friend from the US that night. Although this is true, it is definitely something I could have gotten out of without trying hard.

By that stage, I was about 70% in favour of not attending. Main reason was... I didn't think I could do it. I didn't know how to face her. There may have also been a hint of revenge involved.

I actually talked to Felita that night on MSN. She asked me if I was going, only not in those exact words. I said I didn't know yet, she didn't take it too well. I'm glad she didn't.

Come Wednesday morning, I was still undecided. I texted Anna asking if she was going, she said yes and sounded pretty excited. I told her I didn't know yet, citing no reason. Also noting the good weather, I asked Nigel to play cricket and he said yes and sounded pretty excited. I also told Sam I wasn't sure yet. It made me feel nice that both Anna and Sam told me to go. I need that reinforcement sometimes. Cricket was ok. I had absolutely no rhythm when I was bowling, even if I did hit Nigel in the head with a bouncer. Then at the end I was trying to work on my sweep shot, but I couldn't get it right. I failed to hit down on it, it was more of a slog than anything.

After we finished playing cricket, I told Nigel about everything and it was like releasing a pressure valve. And when I talk about myself for any period of time, my voice raises in pitch and I flail my arms about a lot more. Not relevant but something I find kind of cool. He didn't tell me whether I should go or not, he just agreed with me. However on the walk home, I decided to not go. I texted Jackie telling her of my decision.

Then for the first time, she told me to go. At first I stuck by my decision, because I really need to do that once in a while. I got home, texted Judy that I wouldn't be able to go, citing mum dinner as a reason. By then, it was about 4.30ish. At 5 my mum got home and I asked her when we'd be leaving, turned out dinner was on Thursday night. Retard. I still didn't want to go though. It was only at about 5.40 did I change my mind one last time. I texted Judy saying I could go, jumped in the shower and got out of the house, quick smart. I was going to be hugely late, but I really didn't care that much.

On the train, I texted Jackie alerting her of my decision, because I like to give her commentary on my life every once in a while. I told her that she was the one who finally convinced me. Her and the fact that no good TV was on that night, which was also true.

I got to Melbourne Central a fashionable 40 minutes late, but I wasn't the last to arrive. Of all people, Felita is the last one. But before I join up with the group who were sitting under the clocks on the Swanston Street side of the circle thing, I see Jin and Victor sitting around on the escaltor side. I plan to talk to them for a few seconds before saying hi to everyone, but before I realise I am telling Jin everything. Only unlike for Nigel, I had to start from the very start, and it's a bit of a complicated story to tell in the short minute or two I was talking to him. She arrived when I was half way through, I thought I could stop there but he insisted on hearing it all. I don't think I even explained it fully, but it was nice to unload it onto one more soul.

And so it concludes part 1 of my massive recap of Wednesday night. Part 2 will come tomorrow because it's so important to me, I don't want to do it when I'm tired as I'll leave out many details out of laziness. Also, just like it started on Tuesday night, it doesn't end till Friday afternoon.

Also I love Jono LaaaaaaaaaaAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. But more on that tomorrow.

That's Life

2011-09-17T21:40:00.002+10:00

Had my Banh Mi barbecue today and yet again I am disappointed. For once, the food was everything I planned for it to be, things went to plan but it was attendance that made me sad. I know facebook attendances count for as much as the Zimbabwean dollar (see, I can make up-to-date economics based remarks) but running through the list I was expecting about 30 people to rock up. Over the entire day, I think I had about 20, with the max at any one time something like 15.

When I got home, I was pretty damn sad. I thought that maybe if I just packed up all the things and did a bit of work, perhaps it'd cheer me up. However seeing how much bread was left over really tipped me over the edge. At that point, all I wanted to do was dig a hole and crawl into it, so I went to bed, streamed the cricket and tried to fall asleep.

I woke up with Frank Sinatra's voice in my head singing That's Life (hence the above video, but I much prefer this video). His final line "I'm gonna roll myself up in a big ball and die" echoed in my mind, as that was all I wanted to do. Then as I began to sing the rest of the song to myself, I remembered that the song is not one about pitying yourself, or resigning to the fact that you were put on the Earth to get kicked around. It's about knowing this, but still getting up in the morning and doing your very best.

So rather than curse those who didn't come, I choose to be grateful for those who did. Not looking at the food left over, instead at the food that was eaten. Forget the time I spent there by myself waiting for guests, remember the great time I had joking with my friends or running around playing soccer. In the end, it was a good day and I'm really happy with how it went.

Staring into one's eyes

2011-09-14T21:35:00.001+10:00

I had a conversation with a friend the other day, and by conversation I mean she did the lion's share of the work (and before you ask, yes), and it got to the point where I became conscious of me just staring at her.

I understand that as it was a one-on-one conversation, there isn't many other places to stare apart from directly at your partner. But the conversation went on for so long I began to notice things. The first thing I noticed, which tickled me greatly, was when she would make a movement I would mimic her. Once I noticed I had to consciously tell myself not to because it might seem weird. I even tried to make some movements to see if she would copy me, sadly she did not. She would shift positions and I'd force myself to stay still. She'd brush her hair and I tried my hardest to keep my hands as they were.

The next thing I noticed was after staring at her for a couple hours, she started to look different. The light was changing and I swear at one point she looked nothing like the image I had in my mind. About 5 minutes later her face became more familiar and then all of the sudden it was like looking at a stranger. I even began noticing her make up, the different shades of skin tone from her cheek to the bridge of her nose. It was all really fascinating for me.

You're probably thinking I must have been bored out of my mind to have been noticing these things. But I wasn't. She was talking about her life back home and university and high school systems and all these other amazing things. Talking to her has really underlined what a boring and uneventful life I have lived so far.

Also absolutely no surprises there have been blog posts when I have girl issues (not exactly problems). Fear not though, next post will be about how royally boned I am for my honours thesis.

Cooking Barn

2011-09-12T21:59:00.002+10:00

I just wanted to super plug my other blog where I talk about food and cooking and stuff.

Cooking Barn

Now that that's over, let's get to the real guts. Is it "let's" or "lets"? Something I've been wondering for a long time. No doubt a quick google search will tell me but I want to keep the mystery, at least for now.

Some deeper stuff might follow soon. Going on past experiences though, not in the next couple of months, or at least till I feel comfortable enough talking about it.

Facebook bitch

2011-04-30T22:11:00.001+10:00

I want to have a quick rant about Facebook and its Check-in feature. To me, it caters for the bored and antisocial.

To actually check in, it means that you're on your phone and on Facebook, which generally implies you're bored. Never have I ever been in a conversation where I say "Just hang on a tic, let me update my Facebook".

So it brings me to ask myself "What is the point of it all?". It's a brag. Facebook is one big, fat brag. Photos? Bragging about the good times you've had. Liking things? Bragging about your tastes or ability to find funny jokes. Status updates? Bragging about how important your life is that you must share it with us.

Alright I'll stop there, it was starting to get a bit angry.

That being said, I do that. I'm not getting all high and mighty about Facebook. Just the check-in feature. You'll never see me use it at a party. In my eyes, that's just a slap in the face to the organiser as well as the people around you. I solemnly vow to use it only when I'm extremely bored and/or in some really awesome place I want to brag about.

Remember when my posts were coherent and well structured? Me neither.

2011-01-17T20:41:00.002+11:00

As I'm a bit lazy and uninspired right now, I've just got a few one liners that may possible one day be turned into a proper post.

1. Don't you ever wish you were better friends with the hot people you know? I do.
2. I think it'd be fun to be a dumpling chef for a day.
3. Why do all the best costume ideas involve crossdressing?
4. The sooner the selection panel gets changed the better for Australian cricket.

That is all for now, there may be more to come. However given the post before this was two months ago, I highly doubt it.

Sad Face

2010-11-14T11:37:00.000+11:00

Good thing I have thick skin, otherwise yesterday would have made me sad.

In reality though, it was a nice mellow way to spend my birthday. The previous year I was preparing the house and food for my friends to have dinner. The year before that was studying I'm pretty sure. So this year was just spent at home in front of the TV. Also went down to Blackburn to watch the boys win some charity futsal. All in all, a solid day.

Zombies

2010-10-27T00:22:00.003+11:00

I was some where close to being asleep before. Then I had a dream that started as a Mortal Kombat Finish Him type moment but quickly turned into a Dawn of the Dead zombie thing.

Now to try to get back to sleep and possibly head off to university tomorrow to churn out some more study.

Project Talk

2010-10-22T22:24:00.001+11:00

Exam time! Which means procrastination time! Which means blog time!

I just want to have a quick recount of the amount of trouble I went through to pick out what I was going to wear yesterday to uni. To occasion was that I had my project talk to do which was worth 10% of my final mark and I needed to wear something presentable. However at the same time, it was going to be a fairly warm day and more than anything I wanted to wear shorts.

So I needed to find something to wear, and it was either down to jeans and a business shirt or jeans and a dress shirt. I wanted to wear the business shirt because it was a little more formal however I had to tuck it into the jeans and that made me look like a farmer. I couldn't wear dress pants because then I'd be too formal. So I had to go the dress shirt even though it looked like I was about to go out for the night (as that was what I had worn the last time I had a night out). In the end, I went against looking like a farmer and went for the looking a little too casual.

When I got to the room for my talk, I realised that none of this had mattered as the other three people doing their talks didn't look like they put any extra effort into their appearance.

Two short points

2010-08-07T21:33:00.001+10:00

It's been a long time since my last post. That was written before uni started up again. We are now entering week 4.

There have been a million and one things I've been meaning to write about but time and effort has alluded me. For now, I'll just keep it to these two things:

1. Dinner last Tuesday
I had spent a bit too much looking for a suitable restaurant and in the end it wasn't even that great of a place. I had the usual restrictions in price and location. Originally I had picked Samsara Restaurant, a Lebanese place in Pinewood. I was quite excited about this choice because I had never had Lebanese food before and was looking forward to trying something new. Unfortunately I then had a look at the menu and found out it was a very pricey restaurant, the kind of place where mains start at $25 and don't seem to rising.

So after a couple more hours of searching, while I should have been doing very important work, I finally decided on PJ Malaysian in Glen Waverley. It seemed like a nice enough restaurant. None of my friends had eaten there but all the online reviews suggested it was a good enough place if a little pricey, and it has some of the best jazz music in Glenny (although that bar might be set fairly low).

At the end of the night, I was disappointed but not completely put off. In short, the food is nice enough but the servings were ridiculously small. Mains which were all at least $17 were served on oval plates about 15cm wide at the widest diameter. But I won't waffle on about it too much here, I might put up a full review on Cooking Barn.

What I did get from the night though was a fantastic idea. The whole point of the dinner was to try and get all of us science buddies together to try and have a catch up. Unfortunately half the people bailed at the last minute. Rather than be disappointed, I see this as an opportunity to try and gather everyone again. Except this time I'll revert back to the norm and get everyone over to my house for dinner. And what will we eat? Here's the best bit. I'll cook the five dishes we had on that night. None of the dishes will be exactly the same, they will all be recreated to a different degree. I don't want to say I'm going to try and improve on a restaurant dish, but I will give them my own twist and what I imagine when I hear the name.

2. University Workload
Now I'm not saying my workload is getting ridiculous or out of hand, but three weeks in and I'm feeling somewhat snowed under. It's gotten to the point where I can't even waste time writing about how little time I've got to waste.

Blood oath success

2010-07-15T16:34:00.000+10:00

So Tuesday was the big day of the blood oath fulfillment and it was a mixed bag in the end. The food I was quite happy with and that's a big positive, however it was other side which let me down, the hosting side.

This is how I planned the day to go:
- I get up early and make a bread dough and let it rest
- I duck out to Coles and buy the last couple of bibs and bobs I needed
- I get home and knead the dough again, shape it and give it its second rest
- Meanwhile I prep the house
- Bread goes into the oven and I begin prepping all the other dishes I plan to cook
- Bread comes out, all the other food just needs to be cooked or plated at which time the clock ticks over to 12.30
- People start to arrive and we sit around chatting and eating some bread with the dips in the living room
- After a while when everyone has arrived, I let them chat amongst themselves while I go and cook all the other food
- I come in guns blazing and dishes on each arm and we all sit down for a delicious feast
- Smiles times all round.

And then this is how the day actually went:
- I woke up late and got the dough on the go
- I go out and buy the last bits then get home and get the dough on its second rest
- I prep the house and then get started on the other dishes
- Anna and Anthony arrive 12.30 on the dot and the bread goes into the oven
- I try to talk to them while frantically trying to cook 3 dishes simultaneously
- More people arrive as I'm still trying to get it all organised
- Almost everyone is here and the bread just comes out of the oven and people are allowed to start munching away, except in we are all in the kitchen
- As they are eating, I start cooking and delegate people to help me keep an eye on the bbq outside
- Through destiny or sheer luck, all bar one of the dishes come together and are cooked perfectly. We all sit down for a delicious feast.
- Smiles times all round.

Somehow I never realised how poor my organisation skills are. I really need to write down what I need to do, what order and by what time they need to be completed.

Like I said, I was really happy with how the food came out, especially the paella. I had seen them cooked on tv countless times but had never even thought of giving it a tilt myself. I am without a doubt the result on Tuesday was a massive fluke. Rice is one of the harder things to get right and somehow it was cooked to perfection. The octopus was a bit under the first time but then I gave it another couple of minutes on the bbq and it came out very good also. The meatballs were really juicy and tender and not at all dry. I quite liked the onion salad but that's because I'm one of the rare idiots who like to eat raw onion.

Not all was perfect though. I forgot to add tomatoes to the paella and to the roasted vegetable salad, and the food was probably a wee bit underseasoned. The only real flop was the tortilla, which I was unable to flip because it was too big and just turned into a scrambled egg with onion, chorizo and some raw potatoes through it and I opted not to serve it which was a great decision.

In comparison to my last kitchen nightmare, this was a winner. Now imagine if I do a dinner where I cook food that I've actually cooked before!

Getting on Uruguay!

2010-07-04T22:17:00.000+10:00

As the weeks drag on, the World Cup is drawing to a close. With only four teams left, tension is building the countdown to the final is beginning.

Now I have always been one for fun stats or quirky facts. One of my favourites is the only team outside of the big 4 to win the EPL is Blackburn Rovers. So when these get threatened in any way, I do kind of begin to worry. That is why this World Cup has suddenly taken on a new significance.

One of the most commonly touted facts about the World Cup is that no European team has won the competition when it is held outside of Europe (I'm 90% sure this is true, if it is not my whole post fails). So now that we are down to Spain, Germany, the Netherlands and Uruguay, the monkey is almost certain to be off Europe's proverbial back. Which is why I am rooting for Uruguay to pull off the underdog story and create a bit of history. Also what makes it even better is that Australia were the team who kept them out of the previous edition.

If it has to be anyone other than Uruguay, I'm rooting for Spain. Not because I like the team, the players or any other reason relating to soccer, but because of my blood oath. If Uruguay win, I get to cook an Asado-style barbecue with big hunks of meat and other South American sides. If the Spanish win, a paella is on the way along with maybe a gazpacho or some tapas. If Germany win, then... I'm not quite sure, but I know I want to make a Black Forest Cake. And if the Dutch win? I'm boned.

Happy 21 Lily!

2010-07-02T22:01:00.000+10:00

Slowly but surely, my reputation is spreading. First 2G, next the world!

Had Lily's 21st last night, boy that was a good night. Had some tapas (pronounced tap-ASS), a few drinks and plenty of laughs. What could be better?

There a couple of things I want to talk about regarding the night: a) my present and 2) the speeches.

Finding presents has always presented itself as a fun challenge to me (pardon the pun). A present reflects a number of things about your relationship with the person: how well you know them and how much you care about them. These can be shown in how personal the present is, how much time/effort is put into it or its cost. My gift for Lily ticked the first two boxes and at least half of the third.

You should always play to your strengths and that's exactly what I did and aim to do in the future. I decided long ago to get her a number of cooking utensils that any amateur baker should have. I started with a Twisk (fairly useless but kind of novel) and rolling pin from Joseph Joseph and then spent the next month or so looking for some friends for them. I looked but never found a price I was happy enough with, until desperation saw me put money aside and just get what I needed. To complete the set I bought a cake spatula/palette knife, rubber spatula, candy thermometer, baking tray and silicone mat. All in all, I'm well pleased with the set and even more pleased that she didn't have any of those things.

Onto the second bit, the speeches. It was without a doubt my favourite bit. Or more specifically, the bit I got a mention. I don't care if it came at the end of the hastily blurted out sentence before the waterworks started, a mention nonetheless. What actually made it better was that it was from Chloe, someone who I had met only that night but who has been touched by my reputation.

Actually that moves me onto a very important point. I don't know if it's the same for other bloggers, but for me the scariest five words I can ever hear is "Oh, I've seen your blog". Petrifying.

Stalking

2010-06-24T00:46:00.001+10:00

There's nothing quite like the awkwardness after a thorough stalk. And not at all in the good way.

Back to unpalatable

2010-06-12T22:25:00.000+10:00

Fah rack. Frack! I think I caught a cold today at soccer. Actually it's amazingly bittersweet. Although it sucks to have a cold at any time, it couldn't have come at a better time.

Generally all of my colds last for three days. Day one is onset, day two is pure death and day three is thanking the powers above for getting me through it. So fingers crossed by the time I sit down for my first exam everything will be hunky dory. And then on top of that, if my limited knowledge of the immune system is to go by anything my B or T cells will be in plentiful numbers for long enough so that I won't get sick again before the end of the exam period (and hopefully even end of semester). It's nice how things work out sometimes.

Speaking of things working out, it seems Jamie's sweepstakes did not. Which is good in the end, because I get to keep my money. I like my money. There is so little of it. So we go back not having anyone realistic to support. That's a shame. Good for study I guess.

To further aid study I might trundle down to the university on Tuesday. I only just found out blue parking is free (bloody Tim as if not tell me earlier) so I can go without stealing carpool parking and having a guilty conscience. It's also important because I need to finish my shopping for Lily's birthday present and I can do that on the way home! Smiles all round.

Making the WC palatable

2010-06-11T22:22:00.000+10:00

This is my second post in two days! Somewhat ridiculous but I'm going to do my best to maintain this blog and generate semi-regular posts. Also need a new design, but that shall come later with time and effort.

I want to talk about the World Cup again. Not out of my own interest for it or anything, moreso because I have nothing else to talk about at the present time. So Jamie is running his own little sweepstakes. At first I didn't want to join because I like to keep my money and I'm not that interested in the World Cup. The only reason I'll watch a match is to look at some players and admire some mad skills.

However true to form, I caved and picked those crazy Germans and Argentines. It's difficult to explain my reasoning but whatever it was, it will make the Australia Germany match slightly awkward viewing. On the upside, I now have someone to root for which makes it all that more watchable.

Let's hope I win, otherwise I'm going to be disappointed and much poorer.

World Cup prologue

2010-06-10T23:03:00.001+10:00

I acknowledge it has been a while since my last update. So much has happened since then, and at the same time so little. So very much to catch up on. Let's do it quickly!

For a short period of time, I had one goal in life, and that was to woo a girl without the use of MSN. Sadly that didn't pan out. There was one high which amazingly turned into a low like 40 seconds after. That was actually a really weird day. The kind of day where the less said the better.

Exams are coming up in the next couple of weeks and I am slowly getting to a stage where I can call myself prepared. Thankfully my exam timetable allows me study slowly and be completely ready for them.

World Cup coming up too! I am so unbelievably apathetic towards it! SO NOT PSYCHED!! Even though two days of my week is devoted to soccer, I still wouldn't call it one of my great interests (or even one of the middle ones). I will wake up early to watch the occasional match, or most likely just Tivo the French and Spanish ones. Hopefully I'll just go over to people's houses to watch matches. It's much more fun as a social outing.

Let's do this!

My Kitchen Nightmare

2010-04-06T20:52:00.000+10:00

I know it's no surprise that I love to cook. I don't know whether my love for food matches my passion to cook, but it is definitely there or thereabouts.

Right now, I am trying to build a reputation as a cook amongst my friends. I may already have one as someone who likes to cook, but I want to take it further. I want to be the person who can offer high quality food at a fraction of the cost. Be it picnics, barbecues, dinner parties or birthday cakes. I want to be the person they think of first whenever they need to cook something. And in my mind, the only way to do that is to show them I can churn out good, tasty food on a regular basis.

I can acknowledge that I'm not the only person in my circle of friends who can cook. That's a given, cooking is quickly becoming a popular passtime. However I want to be known as the best. It's not an ego thing, or even a trying-to-win-a-girl thing. It's an I-want-to-be-known thing. I want my friends to know, and then for them to spread the word. Eventually I'll introduce myself and they'll go "oh you're the really good cook!". That is my dream, and I am working towards it each and every day.

So to do that I have my little dinner party type things. So far, they have been ordinary at best. I know I can produce each individual dish to a high standard, but it's the combination of cooking a number of different dishes for a group of people which makes it difficult. Time management is something that gets mentioned time and time again on the cooking reality shows but you really can't feel the pressure until you've gone through it yourself. I'm not saying I have been under the same magnitude of pressure as they have, but even having people waiting for food can get me in a spin. As a result, most of the food I've served up hasn't been as good as I would have wanted. Be it the presentation or the taste itself. I am yet to serve up something I am truely happy with.

The best way I can describe how I feel right now is Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. The restaurants he goes to are losing bucket loads of money because they aren't getting the customers through the doors. The main reason for this is the food is crap. I can ask myself all day long why I only had eight people show up today but the short answer is the last time I did a barbecue, the food was crap. This time I hope I have rectified that to a small degree and I firmly believe if I am given another opportunity I will further improve.

Being able to throw a good get together comes down to one thing and one thing only. Planning. If I can be organised, I can spend less time in the kitchen forgetting important things and more time relaxing with my friends. More and more I'm straying away from the Jamie Oliver school of cooking and slipping into Nigella Lawson's convenient cookery.

I know I need to do a Gordon Ramsay on myself. I need to drastically improve the quality of my food to get the people coming in. I know what I'm capable of, it's just a matter of making other people realise it too.

Birthdays are fun in general

2010-03-28T00:53:00.000+11:00

Last night capped one of the longest weeks in recent memory. It's not like I've had masses of work to hand in, there hasn't been much more than usual. I've attended about the same number of classes. But as each day passes, the yearning to go to bed and not get out till December increased exponentially.

All of that doesn't matter though, because Friday night was one of the best nights I've had in a long long time.

There are a number of things in this world that scare the crap out of me, and one of them is hanging out with large groups of people I don't know. So it I went to Amy's party with great apprehension.

Before Friday, I had not been great friends with Amy. It's not like we didn't hit it off or click or anything, and it's not like she had done anything I didn't approve of. We just weren't ever close enough to be any more than friends of friends. For the couple of weeks leading up to her birthday I was debating whether I should go or not. Then on the Monday before, I see her and in a way, get roped into going to her party. I was leaning towards not attending but I'm very bad at saying no to people's faces. So I got put down as an attending and sometimes you just have to make lemonade.

I only knew about four people tops going to the party and there are few things worse than going to a party and not knowing anyone. I had forgotten it by then, but I should have taken heart from Orrin's BBQ earlier in the year where I went in not knowing anyone and still had a great time. Long story short, same thing happened.

Alcohol would have made the whole process much smoother and quicker, but it was that kind of party (also had to drive) so had to do it the old fashioned way: over the footy. It was a nice way to make one-night friends. Truth is I'll never see most of them ever again, let alone hold down any sort of conversation. Doesn't really bother me though, we shared a whole lot of laughs, they dressed me up in a garbage bag, usual party stuff.

I'm sure I don't need to repeat myself but it really was a fantastic night. A great way to end a killer of a week. Now all I have to do is use this weekend to recharge and drag myself through these final four days. It's going to be a hard slog but the light of the mid-sem break at the end of the tunnel makes it worth it.

Sssssssssmoking!

2010-03-14T22:06:00.000+11:00

Ok, let's get real for a second. I want to talk about a subject that everyone seems to have an opinion on (stuff proper grammar). I want to chat about the 'S' word. We've all seen it. We all know someone who does it. Heck, some of us do it ourselves. That's right. Smoking.

Our family seems to be unique amongst our larger family in that we are the only ones with smokers. My grandma and the father being the smokers in the family. So with this kind of family background, you'd think I'd have some sort of immunity against smokers. Think again.

The smell bothers me just as much as it does anyone else. Second hand smoke is one of the most annoying things in the world I can think of. However having smoking family has taught me that these people are exactly that, people. I never say anything like "I hope you get cancer and die" or "Whatever comes their way they totally deserve", because those are plain horrible things to say. It's like saying to someone who just got in a car accident "You kinda had that coming". Once you boil it all down, someone's life isn't suddenly devalued because they choose to suck on a fag every now and then.

So with this in mind, my curiousity begins. I have always wondered what it's actually like. What do you feel when you draw in the smoke? Is it an instant effect or do you need a couple puffs before it makes itself felt? Doesn't carrying around the bulky box get annoying? I realise it is these kinds of questions that prompt one to experiment and then perhaps get hooked. I know I won't though. I've been educated too well in the negative effects of smoking, and that is not just relating to your health.

There is only one reason I'd ever pick up smoking, and it is possibly the stupidest reason you could think of. Our lives are littered with awkward situations. Hundreds of thousands of them over a lifetime. Hundreds in any given year. As many as four or five in a day. So to be able to just stand up and say you're popping out for a ciggie break is like the ultimate way to end that awkardness (unless you're already outdoors).

This almost ties in with smoking to look cool, but I don't think that's a legitimate reason anymore. It's actually kind of hard to look cool whilst smoking. In the good old days, all the movie stars were doing it so it was just accepted that smoking meant awesome. But now, not so much. More than this though, all you have to do is look at the kind of people who smoke in public. Trashy bogans, skanky teens and dodgy looking asians are the people that immediately come to mind. It's a far cry from Humphrey Bogart or Marilyn Monroe.

It is also expensive as all ass, so until I find some sort of income smoking is absolutely no go for me.

The Golden Rule pt.2

2010-03-06T16:29:00.000+11:00

Reading over my last post, I realised that I completely missed my original point. I must have gotten side tracked and then forgotten about what I really wanted to write about. Also unfortunately I no longer feel that strongly about it so I'm not motivated enough to end it properly. Instead we'll do it in dot point form.

- The relationship between guys, or "Bros", is an important bond that is as complex as it is simple
- The foundation on which this relationship is built is the golden rule Bros before hos
- I learnt this from TV
- Life in TV is quite often different from life in... life.

Solid!

The Golden Rule

2010-03-01T22:12:00.000+11:00

Growing up watching a lot of TV, it has without a doubt left a lasting impression on my expectations of life, especially regarding relationships.

A lot of shows during my childhood and stretching into my adolescence depicted the lovey dovey relationships in the same way. The woman was always the one in charge and the guy was at her beck and call. In a way, that's how I see girls now, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Trying not to put a girl up on a pedestal takes some effort, and a great deal of perspective. At the end of the day, you have to realise that she is a normal person, just like you albeit wired slightly differently.

That's not what prompted me to write this though. I have been thinking about a relationship of a different kind. This type of relationship has always been about unspoken conventions, however recently through the powers of How I Met Your Mother, it has come to the light. Yes, I am talking about the unique bond between Bros.

The golden rule that is common across all Bro cultures seems to be Bros before hoes. It is the foundation on which all Bro-lationships are built, however it is also the one that is broken the most. Admittedly, there is a small amount of leeway. Concessions can be given from time to time, but it is expected to prevail in the majority of occasions. And really, it's a brilliant rule.

So with this in mind, let us never forget this golden rule. It doesn't take a great deal of effort to live by it, but the consequences of breaking such a rule can be dire. Namely whipping noises.

Cindy Trip!

2010-02-27T19:29:00.001+11:00

So I went to Sydney during the week with some friends. To be more specific: a good friend, someone I've met once and a complete stranger. Not the worst combination in the world, but it was found wanting.

When I tell people that I've just come back from Sydney, I always get asked what we did. This turns out to be an amazingly difficult question to answer, because we didn't actually do all that much. We had just about 24 hours in Sydney, eight of which were taken up by sleep.

We touched down at about 4 and got to the hotel at 5. The original plan was get to Sydney about 2, unfortunately we may have missed our flight. So instead it was an extra $70 to get on the next flight. At the time, it didn't seem too bad but it came back to haunt us badly. Those $70 could have really come in handy.

So what did we do? Walk to the Bridge and the House, wander around there looking for the perfect photo spot and then we went on a ghost tour. A what? Yes, a ghost tour. Of all the let downs on this trip, this was the biggest. Actually maybe second biggest. Wherever it ranks, I was expecting lots of scary stories, walks through jails and people dressed up in costumes. Instead it was just a history lesson. A big, fat and sometimes chronologically confusing history lesson. What followed the major disappointment was a highlight of the trip, DRINKS VOUCHERS! Two for one deals at the local, is there anything better? Sadly we were a very goody-two-shoe party, so no one wanted to drink.

The next day was much better though. In an amazing display of chivalry, we let the girls go to Sydney Uni and look at an art gallery while Andrew and I hit up STAR CITY! Walking through Darling Harbour to get to it was well worth it. Unfortunately as we went in the morning, there were very few tables open. We were only looking to play blackjack, because we know nothing else, and the only tables open were $20, $50 and $100. He played at the $20 for a bit, lost some, won some, lost a lot more whereas I just put money behind people.

Then came what for me was the highlight of the trip. The Sydney Fish Market. I've seen it a couple times on the television and although it had never been a purpose of mine to go there, I couldn't turn down the opportunity. It was a bit of a foodie heaven. Being able to see not only so much fresh produce, but then also so many people who cared about their food. And then being able to eat some fish as well was a fantastic pro.

Following some unimportant sightseeing and garden walking, we finally hit Bondi Beach. I was looking forward to Bondi since touching down in Sydney. Just being able to lie there, not move and have it count as sightseeing is fantastic.

It was a good trip, more for the fact that it was good to go on a trip with friends. Looking forward to the next trip.

Denial

2010-02-11T21:55:00.001+11:00

I've been single for as long as I can remember, so what I'm about to say is purely from the mind of a single dude. Do guys in long-term relationships think differently? Perhaps they do. In fact, I hope they do. There's no doubt that being in a relationship changes you. Not just your priorities, but your motivations. And then perhaps the longer your relationship goes, the more a guy's mind reverts back to normalcy.

Anyway, I digress. What I want to yabber on about now is the difference between talking a single girl and a less-than single girl. I'm not saying one is better than the other, but they do without a doubt provide a different challenge. I know which one I prefer though.

Most of my lady friends are girls with male attachments... Wait... That sounds wrong. They are in long term relationships. Conversations are easy. I can just chillax and be a doofus. The need to be charming and laying groundwork for the future is unnecessary. That is unless you want them to pass on a message to a third party, but I'm not concerned with that right now.

And then there are those single ladies. All the single ladies. I remember a while ago at a friend's party I was talking to a girl. I wasn't really interested or anything, we just met and were talking. And then someone else asks "So how are things with you and your boyfriend?", or something along those lines. Effective immediately, 90% of the interest is lost. The remaining 10%? She was the only half decent looking girl there. Incidentally, that was our last conversation of the night. I'm not saying I'm extremely shallow. 'Very' perhaps. Even 'very very'. But no way in hell extremely.

All I can say now is that I'm happy not being attached. Girls change guys, intentionally and unintentionally. Right now, I can focus on screwing up less at work, not hitting stuff on the road and generally thinking about food for about 20 hours a day. I'm in a good space. No longer bitter about what has happened in the past, not desperately looking forward to what may come in the future. Just enjoying where I am. Although things can change quickly, I acknowledge that. It won't be long before the loneliness sets in.

Shopping period wrap up

2010-01-12T23:22:00.000+11:00

I think I promised something serious a while ago but I never got around to it. If you were holding your breath for it, hang on for a bit longer please. Today's post will be completely materialistic. It will be an in-depth round up of all my spoils from this holiday shopping period.

I'll be honest, I can't remember most of the things I have bought. But I'll give it my best shot. Trying my best to remember, I think I spent something just on $500. To me, this is huge. I had never spent so much before. It used to be $200 was already a huge spending spree, but this is kind of ridiculous.

Most of the crap I bought were homewares. The booty I collected includes 12 medium sized dinner plates, a serving platter, a casserole dish plus lid (Harris Scarfe), a large serving bowl, a set of six martini glasses, a baking dish (Matchbox which is a new fav), a two tiered cake stand (Myer), a set of four tart tins (David Jones), an icing gun and a pizza stone (General Trader). It seems like quite a bit, and it kind of is. It's hard to say what made me go so nuts on homewares this year. It may be because for the first time ever, I kind of had a license to just buy all kinds of crap. However deep down, I think I'm slowly prepping myself for the day I come to move out. In fact, I was repeating that to myself. I knew that although I already may have something similar at home, to have something of my own would be extremely useful in the future.

What I didn't mention in the list above is perhaps the biggest buy of the summer though, and the fact that my brother bought it for me as a gift makes it all the more special. From House, we bought a 20cm Global chef's knife. It is so unbelievably sharp, sleek and all round sexy. It is something that I'll take care of for the rest of my life, and most likely guard it like a child.

Ok, clothing. I didn't get as many clothes as I'd have liked, but that's because I spent so much money on the homewares and clothes are so much more expensive. But what I did get was a pair of grey suit pants, a casual dress shirt (Roger David), pair of shorts (Ben Sherman) and a pair of blue/grey jeans (Tarocash). Looking back, not much at all. However it should be able to satisfy me for a month or two before I start itching again. I also bought a Fred Perry shoulder bag from BrandsExclusive. It looked nice in the photo, but as with most online purchases, I was fairly let down when I had the product in hand. Regardless though, I'm sure I can make it work.

Onto the rest of the crap I've bought. Also from BrandsExclusive, I've ordered a pair of compression shorts to match the compression top I bought back in October. I figure the shorts will actually be a lot more useful because soccer doesn't require a great deal of upper body movement and I rarely play cricket now. I also bought some swimming trunks from Rebel, for when I finally get off my ass and go swimming to try and get that six-pack. From JB Hi-Fi, bought a pair of expensive ass Sennheiser earbuds and a pack of blank CDs (not suss).

All in all, I count that as a successful shop. And although I've spent over a third of what I've earnt in the month leading up to Christmas, it doesn't sting so much. For once in my life, I'm spending money that I earnt, not what was just given to me by my parents. With that in mind, I still need to buy some things. Namely a pair of white soccer shorts, maybe some knee high socks and a couple of shirts would not go unappreciated. We'll save those for the mid-year sales, I guess.

Oh ten = potential

2010-01-08T09:23:00.001+11:00

It's a new year! And with a new year comes new years resolutions, my favourite part of the year.

Let us begin with the vain ones. I'm big on vanity. For some people, the motivation behind losing weight is for their health. Overly fat people who can't really go anywhere rarely live fulfilled lives. I aim to lose some weight over this year. To be more specific, I aim to break the 70kg barrier. If I can finish the year in the 60s, it will be a minor miricle. However my motivation for this weight loss isn't for health purposes, pure vanity. Succeeding in this will allow me to answer a question that has bothered me for years, "Is life easier with a tight six-pack?" I believe it could be. And if it's not, I'll be sure to let you know.

Ok we've gotten that out of the way, onto some more meaningful resolutions. Of those that I might keep... There's a reason why new years resolutions don't stick, people often make wildly hopeful ones which cannot be measured and hence are not followed up. I could say I'll try to be more nice to people, be less of an douche or be friendlier to strangers. That is all well and good but come December next year, how will I decided if it was a success or a failure.

I'm not going to use that as a cop out though. The second of my new years resolutions will be to be more decisive. I have suffered in the past as a result of indecision, and I'm sure others have too. Before last year (2009), I wasn't actually aware of this flaw. It was only after things went belly up with a girl was I made aware of it.

Call it aiming low but I think two is enough. Including all the token ones, I think I'm well set for the upcoming year.

Oh nine = win

2010-01-06T23:25:00.000+11:00

Another year has ended, a big year too. One of the biggest in recent memory. Quite a lot has happened and I don't really remember most of it.

First and foremost is uni. Second year we begin to specialise so while everyone went to do their biology subjects, I stuck with my maths and chem. At the beginning of the year, I was still desperately trying to stay connected with everyone (unsuccessfully) and that consumed most of my energy. As a result, I wasn't getting into uni work as much, wasn't enjoying it or really succeeding either. It was a bit of a dark period, I was feeling a little bit mopey because I felt cut off from all of them.

Eventually I wised up though and just settled into the law library. It is only now that I believe I am slowly penetrating into the circle in the law lib. I already had a solid base in all the MHS kids but slowly but surely I'm befriending the others. It's also kind of fun not doing any subjects in common with any of them so I have no idea what they are talking about when they yap on about assignments and tests. It actually makes it really easy for me to concentrate on what I have to do, because I can zone out of their conversations since I don't feel I need to correct them if someone says something wrong. I'm quite proud of that discovery.

As a result, I had never been more on top of my work in the first semester. Seriously, I was so on top of things I had nothing to study in the days leading up to my exams. It was partly because I found them a little challenging, so I had to work harder to keep up. And then because I was keeping up, I didn't need a massive catch up at the end of the year. First semester results were pleasing. There weren't any real surprises, I did as good as I expected. I felt more rewarded than anything. A really good semester's work became a very satisfying set of results.

Second semester was slightly different. I reconnected with my science peeps a bit more which meant I wasn't able to be as on top of things as I was in first semester. My attendance in this semester might have been better than in all the previous semesters, but that definitely did not mean I knew what was happening. In fact, I might have even been the most behind ever in spite of my kickass attendance. Exams results this time were slightly more surprising. I had managed to actually do better than the last semester, even though I was sure I'd do much much worse. So all in all, a successful year study wise.

How about other things apart from study? Well life has come to teach me a couple of things. Everything is so much easier without having to worry about girls. The second half of my year, I didn't have to worry if anyone liked me, if I liked anyone or any of that relationship crap. It let me enjoy my time a lot more and just try to get the most out of it.

What also helped me not worry about this crap is playing soccer every Saturday. I think the best way to describe how much this meant to me is by recounting a conversation I had with Jack Yao before the season began. He was giving me a lift home and we were talking about soccer. It came up that it was really good having something regular that you can look forward to. It's almost like building your life around something, everything else that happens is in relation to it. For me, soccer was this anchor.

Being able to see some of my best friends every week is already good enough. But then to be able to compete against strangers in sport gave me this primal pleasure that can't be obtained any other way. No matter how crappy of a week I might have been having, knowing that Saturday was coming seem to make it go down smoother. And even if we lost, going out for food afterwards was always a great laugh. It was all made better by the fact that I began the season as an emergency and ended up playing most of the games, and even starting in a handful. I transformed from a crap left back to a... apprentice centre back.

So 2009. Great year. So much good happened. Uni was highly successful. Soccer was unbelievable fun and so rewarding. I learnt important life lessons, namely worrying about girls is a serious buzz kill. I also learnt to drive, logged 120 hours and got my Ps. It is a year I'll look back on and give myself a big great pat on the back.

Well done, Banhy boy.

Tenuous link

2010-01-04T11:06:00.000+11:00

Tonight we went ten-pin bowling. I did a down-right awful job of it. Let's look at why.

Watching my ball travel down the lane and miss the pins time and time again, I noticed that most of the time (as a left hand bowler) the ball would start at the right and then drift across to the left and into the gutter. Being the astute anaylist, I have found a bit of causality to this effect.

I beleive I can blame it on cricket. When I'm asked to bowl a ball down a long strip, I instinctively try to get it to drift across from right to left. When I was at my bowling peak, after I stopped trying to swing the ball into the batter every bowl, I was bowling cross seam and relying on angle and the occasional bit of seam to get my wickets. Most of my deliveries would be pitching on middle and off and going further across. Every now and then I'd try to swing one back, but that was very rare. I like the type of bowling, it's high percentage.

And that is why I create such an angle when I ten-pin bowl. Now here is an interesting twist. For a laugh (and desperation), I decided to chuck one down with the right hand. By some divine intervention or Hollywood script, I managed to knock all ten pins down with one ball. Explanation? My right arm isn't wired to create the angle, so the natural delivery will be straight and unhampered by previous muscle memory. Brilliant, eh?

Some more serious posts to follow. Sad and serious, the most fun kind.

Boxing Day Planning

2009-12-25T23:23:00.001+11:00

Tomorrow is Boxing Day, quite possibly the most anticipated day of my calendar. Call me shallow and materalistic, and you'd be pretty spot on. No arguments here.

Shopping is one of the great pleasures in life. Maybe not shopping, perhaps just having new crap. I love new stuff. And there is no better week for easy shopping than the Boxing Day sales. Sure, there might be bigger sales across the year, but this week they all come at once. The excitement gets the blood pumping, the adrenaline running and you end up buying stuff you wouldn't normally buy, but you do just because it's about 5% off.

Ok, so list of crap I need to get. This is more of a reminder for myself, so I have some sort of idea. Homewares first up, of course. It's a mixture of things I want and things I need, mostly the former. Top of the list if a flan pan or a tart tin, and then some tart rings. I might invest in a pizza stone too, just because I've been meaning to buy one for a while. Also on the list are some big serving platters and plates, just for when I entertain. If I am really to splurge though, I'd buy a new chef's knife. In the past couple of months, I've used awesome knives twice. Really awesome ones. Like the ones they plug on shopping channels. They're so lightweight, but they are strong too and sharp as heck. To slice through something, you don't need to put much force behind the knife, it just glides through. And good knives make the difference. I think I've done well so far with what I've got, but to get a really good quality one would cap off a brilliant year.

Moving onto clothes. I don't have a great need for new clothes, but they never go unappreciated. A couple of business shirts is high on the list. And I'd get some trousers too but I'm much too lazy to try them on. On the casual side, I could always do with a couple of tees. Some new shorts definitely need to be bought. Shoes are a question mark. I think I should buy some, but whether they are dress shoes or just casual ones remains to be seen. Also a hoodie would be good, especially if they're going real cheap.

And then the most important part of going shopping, the actually going shopping bit. Originally I didn't plan to go until the weekend was over because I'm a naturally lazy person. However listening to all the friends talk about working ridiculous hours and going real early, I figured why not. But I'll make a compromise by only going to Eastland tomorrow morning. The idea of going in the morning is important in three aspects. For one: getting in early means larger crowds so I'm more inclined to buying stuff. Number b: Theoretically it will be when the most stuff is available, and finally letter 3: I can make it home in time for the cricket. Actually the last reason is about 90% of my motivation.

Merry Christmas-o

2009-12-25T01:00:00.001+11:00

It's tired, I've had a long and fun day and all I want to do right now is sleep. I like to believe it is these exact conditions that lead to the most revealing posts, so let's see what we can stitch together.

People like to talk about girl problems. I am one of those people. It's kind of like welcoming pity onto yourself. These types of problems generally have a pretty simple solution, but it is the execution that trips people up. Anything can look reasonable on paper, but taking the appropriate action is the most difficult step of the whole problem solving process.

I am in the grips of what can only be described as a female related conundrum. I haven't really made much of it because there's not much to make. There is also a better than even chance that I'm deluding myself, which would be super bad. In a nutshell, I get the sneaking suspicion there are two girls who may or may not be vying for my attention. I know, right there it sounds like I'm dreaming. Perhaps I am, but let's look at some facts.

Ok with the facts considered, I don't see any other conclusion. Or perhaps I just choose not to, for self esteem purposes. Anyway, that is not the heart of the problem. It goes slightly deeper. These two females, I am... I don't know if I would say interested, maybe thinking about being interested in them, yes both. So at some stage, I need to decide which. But worse than that, if I do decide then what becomes of the non-chosen one? Having one as a back up plan seems like a terrible, terrible thing to do.

However before anymore of this decision talk needs to be mentioned, I need to lay down a bit more ground work. This is my first road block really. I want to, but at the same time I'm talking myself out of it. I believe I have been overcome with the condition scientifically known as "chicken shit". Can I bring myself out of it? I hope so. I really do.

But like I said, this hasn't been something totally consuming me. More like entertaining me on the side. So much has been happening of late that I haven't really had the time or effort to worry about girls and the problems they bring. It is in times like these that we need to remember the words of the great Jay-Z.

"If you're having girl problems,
I feel bad for you son.
I got 99 problems
and a bitch ain't one."

So true, so wise.

Dwinking

2009-12-20T22:08:00.001+11:00

Last night was one clearly the most fun night I've in almost a month. Although as good as it was, that really isn't saying much because I've done nothing since Huang's poker night, almost a month ago. However I did kind of spoil the night by probably drinking a little bit more than I can reasonably handle.

I don't get the opportunity to drink a lot so when I do, I try to keep a control of it so nothing gets out of hand. Last night was something different though. A bit more than half the people there weren't able to drink because they had to drive, so I decided to take it upon myself to do their part.

In truth, I probably didn't drink that much. But it definitely was the most I've drank in one night and I really felt it. It wasn't completely my fault though. Anthony kept feeding me beers and this Ray fella kept on wanting to do shots. That being said though, I willingly accepted. In all, I think I had maybe five or six bottles of beer and two shots of whiskey. By the end of the night, I sure as hell couldn't stand without teetering and my head was spinning.

It did make me realise something very important though. I never want to drink that much again. Drinking itself is fun. Beer has a specific charm about it and the burn of spirits is awesome. However I think the feeling of being drunk is so crap I'm going to really have to keep a lid on it. When Anthony dropped me at home and I went straight to bed, I was still feeling like crap. Even after drifting between in and out of sleep for the next couple of hours, crap I felt. Even in the morning, I was still feeling a little sluggish.

Even without the after effects, I'm sure I become a less favourable person when I drink. Losing inhibition leads to me firing off my mouth and saying sometimes pretty mean things to perfectly nice people. Being loud and obnoxious doesn't really appeal to others, and myself.

So from here on out, I am making a promise to myself that I will not let myself get blind drunk. Some people like to drink because it's a way to relieve responsibility and not have to worry about important things. That is exactly why I don't like it. I'm a massive control freak and drinking means losing control.

Perhaps I'll feel a little differently about it when I really get off my face. But for now, this is my stance.

WC2010 Blood oath

2009-12-18T22:03:00.000+11:00

Before I forget, I've decided to make a promise to myself and to this blog. It's not anything serious like girl or money problems, it's more light hearted and fun.

As we may or may not know, there is a World Cup this coming June in South Africa. Now I have never been one to get overly excited about soccer World Cups and this time I don't forsee any change (cricket World Cups, some would say the real ones, are a different story). So to make things a bit more interesting, kind of like what gambling does, I have decided to throw a dinner party at the end of it cooking the cuisine of the winning nation.

With this in mind, I now have a number of teams to support. Mostly the European ones. Who I'd really like to win is Italy, Spain or France, just because those are the ones I'm more familiar with at this point in time. However I wouldn't be too disappointed if Greece, Japan, Korea or Mexico won (even though we know they won't). Of the teams with an actual chance of winning, I'd really like the winning team to not be African. Without a doubt, that will be the hardest. The combination of spices and flavours coupled with foreign ingredients will be a killer. Exciting? Yes. But scaring the crap out of me? Very much so.

One One Five

2009-12-13T20:17:00.001+11:00

One of the cooler things I have learnt about in psychology in the past two years is a phenomenon called latent learning. In a nutshell, it's where you spend so much time watching someone perform a task, it gets burned into your brain. Then when your turn rolls around, you are able to do whatever it is even though you have never actually done it before. The example most commonly used is driving. You spend the better part of 15 years watching others drive so that by the time you begin learning, you already know what you have to do. You are hilariously bad at it, but at least you know what you're meant to be doing. Most of it anyway.

By applying that theory, I should be a half decent cook. And I like to think that I am. Cooking is one of two things I am really passionate about in this world. If I were to combine them, I'd be something in the Matthew Hayden and Glenn McGrath vein. Before I get sidetracked further, my point is that over the last eight or nine years, I have watched a lot of cooking shows. Like a lot. Especially recently, what with 7Two showing 90 minutes of cooking shows each day, it's awesome.

With that in mind, I have set myself a bit of a cooking challenge this week. For lack of a shorter name, I shall call it "One week. One chicken. Five lunches", or One One Five. Basically I endeavour to make lunch for an entire week from only a single chicken (plus veg). There's not much purpose in this, except to show myself how much I have actually learnt from all those hours spent watching people like Jamie Oliver, Rick Stein, Ainsley Harriot and Huey cook dish after dish after dish.

Follow my progess at Cooking Barn.

Things that shit me up the wall

2009-12-09T22:03:00.001+11:00

There are so many things that piss me off. So, so many. Too many, perhaps. To help me get over some of them, I'll try to list as many as I can think of. I will begin a couple things that have been bugging me for a long time but I've just never got around to posting about it.

Thing that shits me up the wall #1
Online giggling. Seriously. People unnecessarily going "hahaha" or "hehehe" annoys me to no end, especially the "hehehe". That's not to say I hate people who do it, in fact they happen to be some of my closest friends. It's something that I'm going to have to learn to get over, but I don't think I really want to. It's more like me versus all of them.

Thing that shits me up the wall #2
People trying to be subtle in whinging about personal problems in public forums. I know a lot of people who do this, including myself. This is mostly done via MSN personal messages or facebook status updates. It's through these seemingly harmless phrases which are loaded with meaning. I can't think of any concrete examples right now, but you just know what they are trying to do. It isn't something that actually gets me angry, it just makes me tut tut whenever I see it. With that being said, I sitll do like to do it sometimes because it is a little fun. A quick throw-away line like "James Banh is trying to decide" says nothing but so much at the same time. Tremendous fun, especially when you think of a really good one.

Dumps like a truck (truck truck)

2009-11-12T08:18:00.001+11:00

Thong Song

Recently I saw an ad for Glee and it was the main teacher man singing Sisqo's 1999 opus, Thong Song. And although the man's voice on the ad shat me to no end, I was once again reminded of the greatness of this song.

So what is it that makes this so great?

It could be the video. First of all, Sisqo looks ridiculous in his white pants, white vest and dyed white hair. Or it could be the gaggle of very attractive women all in bikinis on the beach. In fact, a great deal of the song's power comes from this. There is just something so attractive about hot girls, it's hard to explain.

The song itself is pretty damn good too. It's very catchy, the lyrics are easy to learn because there's only one verse and the chorus, and the meaning of the song is universal. Let me see that thong. Not much more needs to be added. However my favourite thing about this song is that although it sounds like any other R&B/Hip Hop/whatever genre song, the actual subject matter about which Sisqo is singing is just plain ridiculous. It's a bit of a satirical song, and that is why I love it.

Also. Hot women.

Damn lull

2009-11-02T21:55:00.000+11:00

There are two ways people can find out things about you: by spending a great amount of time together and by you telling them directly. For one reason or another, I generally don't like to tell people things about myself.

I know, ironic. Here I spill my guts to the blog but won't say a thing to a person, but it's different. I'm not expecting a reply from the blog. I just need to listen, I don't want any input.

And then there are those times when I have some fairly awesome news but I can't be assed telling anyone. Like the summer job. I've told some people and neglected to tell most others. It's not that I want to keep it a secret, I just like to wait till either it comes up in conversation naturally, or there's a lull. The lull is a very dangerous thing, I often find myself revealing quite a lot during these lulls.

Secrets are another thing altogether. Generally I've been bad at keeping secrets. I'm not a gossip, I don't go around telling everyone. But if I can tell one or two people (once again because of that damn lull) I find it's much easier to keep it to myself afterwards. Maybe it's because I find out how uninteresting the secret is from the person's reaction, or maybe I just like to be the centre of attention every once in a while. Either way, I can be trusted real good with secrets. Like the one about that one time with the thing. I'm taking that one with me to the grave.

So yes, I do have a bit of an exciting secret. Exciting for me, and mostly me alone. I've only told a couple people about it (damn lull), them being Jimmy and Zac. I kind of want to keep it to myself and then pretty much surprise everyone at once, but at the same time I want to scream it from the roof tops. Whatever option I choose, I'm sure it'll all work itself out.

On a totally and completely unrelated matter, I was a little taken aback to find out a Sunday or two ago that Melbourne's most eligible bachelor is now off the market. And no, I am not talking about myself. He's been a real good friend for forever and I hope she realises how lucky she is. Because if she don't, then vengeance will be sought.

Wish List!

2009-10-28T21:32:00.000+11:00

Let's play a game called Things I'd Like. But before we begin, let's clarify a few things: a) we are talking material objects here, none of this fancy pancy "I want to find a love" crap, b) I'll try to stay with stuff I can actually afford and c) yes, this is a blatant wish list for birthday/Christmas presents.

Recently, I've been doing with the idea of buying an iPod. It's not that buying one would go against everything I believe in, it's just that I don't like to follow the crowd. And really who does? However you cannot deny how good they are. I'm looking at the new nano, 8gb with video for about $180 seems a really good price to me. When you compare it to my first (and only) mp3 player which was 128mb and $195, it's a wonder I haven't already bought the damn thing.

The next thing on the list of crap I'd like but don't actually need is a compression top. This one I'm actually on my way to buying myself, however for it to happen I need paypal and brandsexclusive to smile kindly upon me. I need first for the transfer from my bank account to paypal to clear and then I need for the tops not to be sold out. This is most likely my only opportunity to get one so cheap, about 60% off this is.

Continuing the sports theme, there are a number of tops I'd like to have. In the best order I could think of from most wanted to still really wanted but not as much as those at the top of the list:
- Kings Punjab XI shirt with either Shaun Marsh's, Brett Lee's or Yuvi Singh's name and number
- Victorian Bushrangers shirt with name and number of either Bravo, Nannes, White, Hodge or Hussey
- Kolkata Knight Riders shirt with Hodge or Hussey on it
- Blackburn Rovers shirt with Samba, Savage, Grella or Dunn
- Bayern shirt with Ribery
That about sums up all of the sporting tops I'd like. I think the one I'd like most is Marsh's Punjab shirt, followed by Bravo's Bushrangers top. However I don't even think those are available.

Moving onto the less manly things: homeware! In some magical world, I'd get a real proper KitchenAid or Kenwood stand-mixer. Oh my goodness that would be unbelieveable. But other things would be like muffin tins, a big tart or flan tin, and even individual ones, a grill pan and a fry pan which can go into the oven. Nothing else comes to mind right now, but I know that if I ever do go shopping I'll be thinking nothing except "Oooh it'd be cool to have that".

And all of this is being made possible by finally having a source of income of the summer. Although it's not great dosh when you look at the amount of work I'll be doing, it is something and beggars can't be chosers. I don't want to spend all this money but I for once in my life I'll have money to spend and I'm not one to hold back.

I'm looking forward to Boxing Day shopping this year, I might go a little nuts.

Hail Mary

2009-10-18T21:38:00.001+11:00

I love sports. I really do. I have since I was about 10, and I hope I will till the day I die. There's just so much to love about it. First there's the actual running around bit, I love being able to go out there and bust a gut for some greater purpose. Then there's so many different types of sports you can play, and they all tend to use the same skills.

I generally believe that you don't really get to know me until you play a sport with me. It's just something about running around in some sort of competitive environment that loosens and opens me up. Apart from that though, it is almost primal competing physically with each other. Even with all this technology and gadgetry, nothing is comparible with trying to determine who is the fastest or strongest. But at the most basic level, it is just plain fun. Take away the competitive nature and I'll still be out there having a ball. I like to think that once you get good at a sport, you have levels of performance. You look at what's on the line, who you're against and why you're playing and your level of effort is adjusted accordingly. For instance, I love playing cricket and have been doing it for many years. However nowadays, all the action I get is in a friendly hit and giggle scenario, so mostly I stuff around as much as possible. When it's my turn at the bat, I often bring out the reverse sweep first ball, and follow it up with the dink over the keeper's head. Of course those shots never come off, so the next thing I do is swing myself off my feet with my head in the clouds trying to clout the ball into orbit. After that it's just hitting the ball into gaps and trying the occassional textbook cover drive. But in a competitive match, I bat nothing like that. It's all straight bat, safety first and guard my wicket with my life. Suddenly I'm not playing for me, it's for the team. Yes, fun is still part of it but winning is more important than fun.

However when I play soccer, I kind of only have one level I operate at. But that's also the beauty of sport, different sports require different skills but at the same time are reliant on the same basics. Coordination and speed/strength, if you have those then you can perform well in pretty much any sport, even those you've never played before. Yesterday I played American Football for the first time in my life. I had no idea of the rules (kind of still don't), all I knew is that you want to get the ball in their area to score a touch down. We were playing 5 a side on the beach so it was impossible to run quickly or anything, that didn't stop us though. I spent most of the time as quarter back because I like to be the star, also I didn't want to be one of the wide receivers. I actually did really crap and I put that down to not knowing how to play, definitely not my poor decision making. In truth, I tried to go for the glory throw each time. I eventually learnt and only on the last turn at possession did I finally start hitting some targets. I learnt that even though someone was always coming to close me down, I still had a lot of time to look for a target and hopefully hit it. The feeling of waiting till the very last second, letting go of the ball just as you get sacked and then watching it fall into the hands of a team mate is amazing. And I was that close to having a pass result in a touchdown. I sent a long pass in front of Jin and he had worked himself into a perfect position. He tried to take it on his chest but at the last second fumbled and dropped it. It was heartbreaking to see the ball hit the sand.

Is it enough to make me watch a grid iron game? It may be. However I also get the feeling only a very small percentage of the game is actually the exciting miracle passes and massive plays type thing.

Do planets or stars align?

2009-10-09T19:19:00.000+11:00

I have come to decide life is a game of minutes. This isn't something that I've just come up with overnight after a random event. It comes from years and years of running to the station from home trying to make the train.

It was like that almost everyday. I knew I needed 15 minutes to get to the station and I'd always cut it fine in leaving the house. Needing to catch a 7:33 train, I really have learnt to appreciate the difference between leaving the house at 7:18 and 7:19.

I know it seems one minute, 60 measely seconds, cannot make that great of a difference. But it can. Being that one minute behind can mean missing the gap to cross the road, and instead having to wait an extra minute. Or just missing the traffic light and essentially killing all chances of making the train. Or even something as stupid as leaving the house under very gloomy clouds and pouring rain.

So it is with this importance of timing that I reflect on a couple of events in the past couple of days. The first was on Thursday. The day itself began pretty badly because although I knew chemistry lab was just a meeting to discuss the upcoming mock court trial with my group, I failed to read the part of the email which said class began at 10 instead of 9. So there I was an hour early cursing my laziness. Irrelevant to the rest of this post but still a fun story (for me anyway).

It was after lab and I had just called Janne Tan and was walking to the library to find her. I naturally walk fast, mostly not because I'm in a hurry, but instead so I don't have to walk behind [slow] people. I climb the stairs and find her in the reserve section. We meet, we chat, I try to explain whatever question she has about the maths report. Just as I'm about to leave, she asks one more question. Yap yap yap, goodbye see you later and away we go.

As I'm walking through the foyer of the library, not two metres away from the exit, I bump into Felita walking the opposite way, after having been on the computers I'm guessing. Now it's not that I would rather hang myself than hold a brief, two minute conversation with her, it's just that sometimes you can't be assed having to talk to someone else. And all throughout our brief, little, awkward encounter I was thinking of all the tiny things that could have stopped me from having this. Like talking a bit longer with Janne Tan, or a bit less. Maybe borrowing a book. And my personal favourite, not walking a giant arc around some girl who was just standing in the middle, instead making a bee-line to the exit. It just seemed like the planets aligned and I was destined to bump into her.

The other story is much more cheery. Today during my psych lecture, I was completely not concentrating and disgusted at the poor quality of my new lecturer. So much so that I felt compelled to walk out. I was toying with the idea for about five minutes, questioning whether I could sit through it till the hour break and then walk out then. But I couldn't, it was too painful. So quickly and quietly I packed up and made my way out. It was in the South Theatre so very bus loop adjacent. As I get to the stop, the bus immediately pulls in and the bus driver says "Quick quick! No time to eat" (the guy behind in front of me was eating), so clearly he was late and in a massive hurry. This suited me because it meant I'd get to Blackburn quicker. And a fun bus drive it was. By Syndal he wasn't even behind anymore, but he was still driving like a maniac. We get to Blackburn and there is one minute before my train comes. My walk soon breaks into a run as I see it pull up from the bus stop and am able to jump on just as the doors start beeping.

I don't know if the planets got a little scrambled overnight and then re-aligned themselves or if they just stayed aligned, either way I made it home in super lightning quick time today. I'm a little sad the conclusion isn't so meaningful.

BBQ - Wrap up

2009-10-01T19:23:00.001+10:00

The barbecue was a couple days ago and it was fantastic. The weather turned out absolutely marvelous, the food was delicious and cooked to perfection. There were two disappointing things though, one was the turn out was slightly disappointing and the second was the wetness underfoot.

For a more in-depth report on the food, go have a look at Cooking Barn.

The day was fun from start to finish. Lily and I got there first, obviously, and were slightly disappointed to see a couple of families and a whole bunch of kids already there. Luckily no one was using the barbecues (but it took us a while to realise). That was also the first time I managed to hurt myself on the hot plate.

Andrew was the first guest to rock up, super early. Lily then had to go shopping to buy the last minute essentials while Andrew and I stayed at the park. We decided to have a little kick around and that's when drama struck. I had already seen that the grass was still pretty wet and some areas were proper muddy. So Andrew kicked one towards me that stopped a couple metres short, I decided to try and see what kind of lift and curl I could get with my right foot. Then tragedy. As I went to kick the ball, my left foot slipped and flat on my ass I fell in the mud. Brown ass indeed. It was still real early so I decided I'd run home to change, and this was perfect because I was wearing jeans at the time but really wanted to be wearing shorts.

After I got back, people slowly started to arrive. Kylie was the first looking stylish as ever. When Chen arrived in his baby pink shirt, we decided to fire up the hot plate and get some food cooking. I wanted to lay down foil to ease with the cleaning up, however that just got tedius and after a lot complaining by the girls, the foil was removed. It did make cooking much easier, however it was much more messy. Then in the nick of time before the first batch of food was cooked, Victor came with the bread Lily forgot to buy.

Then came the best arrival of the day. The one I really wanted but forgot to actually ask for. Oh yes. The footy came, along with Tommy and Jimmy. I love kicking the footy, by then I had pretty much stopped caring about cooking the food and all I wanted to do was have a kick.

Sooner or later more people came and everyone returned to the hot plate for the second round of cooking, and then the third. Although I didn't eat much (the footy received most of my attention), all the sausages and burgers that got cooked did get eaten and that basically all that I hoped for.

There was one particular moment that I seriously regret. We were cooking the fruit kebabs when the soccer ball (that the AS Penalties idiots decided to try and juggle not 3 metres away) fell on the hot plate and I basically lost it. I swore the ball came from behind me so I turned around and grabbed Sam by the shirt and got in his face. After that, he retreated to reading his book which I felt totally responsible for. Hopefully it wasn't me that did it, but I can't help but feel shitty.

Apart from that though, it was a brilliantly fun day and I want to have another BBQ. Although next time I won't cook anything I cooked this time, so that means sausages, burgers, chicken, potato salad and coleslaw are off the menu. Challenge? More like fun.

I hate SCI

2009-09-20T21:05:00.001+10:00

I am doing almost everything in my powers to procrastinate. It's not that I don't need to get this literature review written, I do, I really really do, it's just that I can't be assed doing it. It's hard and requires a certain level of knowledge and critical thinking that I am not in the possession of right now. So let's further our putting off of writing this dumb thing (due Wednesday) and have a little rant.

This time last year I was head over heels for Felita. It's interesteing how much things can change in 12 months. I look back now and I kind of question what exactly I would have wanted out of that. If things had gone slightly differently, would we be together right now? I highly doubt it, there didn't seem to be a great sense of longevity between us. Truth be told, she was already beginning to drive me nuts at this stage, and not in the good way.

So why haven't I found a new girl in the past however many months? Hmmm a variety of reasons, some more obvious than others. The thing I tell myself is that I don't quite have the effort to go chasing a girl. With Felita it clearly took its toll on my studies and my sleeping patterns. So this year it has been more about me and me. I still think it's good to sacrifice for someone else, but you have to look after number 1.

However I do look at friends in long-term relationships and they seem like they're having fun. I think I'll be better at that. Just being there for someone, and them being the first person I can annoy each and every time something stupid pops into my head. That's all I'm looking for. I'd like to be someone's constant in a world of changing variables.

[I am so very proud I managed to slip in a maths reference, it is quite possibly the highpoint of my year]

It has also got me thinking how nice it'd be for someone to chase me. I hope I get that opportunity one day. The problem is though, I'm the kind of person who reicprocates pretty much everything, so I'll most likely turn it around in a flash, so that once again I'm the chaser rather than the chasee. However I think that if I do sit around waiting for someone else to start the chase, I'll be very bored for a very long time.

BBQ - Phase 1

2009-09-17T17:29:00.000+10:00

So here it is. I am now planning for what I'm hoping is to become the biggest thing I've ever done. From the little experience I've had, catering for people is not easy because it is actually kind of difficult to cook large portions of food. So far ten is the most people I have cooked for, and even that went pretty pear shaped. This time, I'm expecting at least mid-twenties. I'm hoping for something in excess of 30 and pushing up to 40.

Why do I want so many people? It's a challenge. What would life be if we didn't continually challenge ourselves to see exactly what we are capable of? To prepare food for so many people will take hours of planning, preparation and then cooking. I'm expecting that by the end of the day, I will be a wreck of a man with not enough energy to even drag myself home.

And it will be exciting too. It'll be go-go-go all day. Two weeks out and I already know four or five days before, I'll have to put in an order for all the meat I need because I don't think butchers will stock 60-70 sausages (depending on how many people), kilos and kilos of mince and anywhere up to 12 chickens. Then two days before, I need to go and pick up all this meat and buy other supplies like vegetables, plates, cutlery, napkins, cups and drinks. The day before I'll be prepping all the food, which includes simmering all the sausages to cook them, making a billion burgers and marinating the chooks. The morning of the day will see me roast off all the chooks so that when it is time for the barbeque, they just need a quick colour up. And then at the park I'll be trying to squeeze in moments of fun in between slaving over the hot plate. Just thinking about it now is getting me pumped up.

So what do I aim to get out of the whole experience? First and foremost, not to give anyone food poisoning or an allergic reaction. Also to have no one crash their car on the way home. Apart from that, I just want to see if I can do this. I won't be at it alone though, I'm hoping people will crowd around the barbeque so I can just hand over the tongs and slip away for some fun.

Stay tuned for updates on how things are progressing!

Family time

2009-09-14T22:15:00.001+10:00

I was walking home today and I was thinking back to the easier, more fun days as a kid. And the thing that stood out the most was the importance of family.

Some of the funnest times I had as a kid was at my cousin's house, when my brothers and I would stay over for 3-4 days every opportunity, and all we'd do is play Nintendo64. Twenty hours a day sitting in front of the TV playing multi-player whatever. It wasn't the healthiest, but it was so much fun. Goldeneye, Mario Party, Super Smash Bros and all other fun games. Would not trade it for anything.

Another family thing, this time with the other side of the family, was every month or so we'd go to my mum's parents house to eat dinner. The whole family would go, with my late uncle bringing the suckling pig and cake. The house smelt of asian, the TV reception was fuzzy at best and there was nothing else to do, but that pig was delicious. Also it was nice to not be the youngest kid there, as all my cousins on mum's side are younger than me which is kind of cool.

So two things that'll never happen again, and it is sad. Soon it'll be my brother's, cousin's and my turn to create those kinds of memories for our hypothetical children. I may not look forward to growing up, but this is definitely one thing I cannot wait for. I'm just curious as to whether the baby of the family (on my dad's side at least) will end up having the youngest kids. I wouldn't mind it actually, the youngest do get preferential treatment and it is really really nice.

I miss childhood

2009-09-03T21:57:00.001+10:00

I'm the kind of person that gets a little scared by change. I acknowledge that change is good, it's just that I like how things are. After twenty years of life, I can't help but look back at some of the things that exist only in my memory.

I remember watching North Melbourne play as a ten year old, seeing the likes of Glen Archer, Adam Simpson, Wayne Carey, David King and Mick Martyn do their stuff. I sort of understood that one day, they'd all be gone but the thought of it would almost move me to tears and I'd refuse to give it any further thought. They're all gone now and the club is in limbo, too good for the priority picks but not good enough to challenge for the top eight.

There are many other things, but one of the most moving occurred to me today. For years, this oldish, short, fat woman would be the lollypop lady that looked over one of the crossings. She was there without fail everyday and had sort of become a fixture in my life. Although I probably only crossed there once a month, she'd see me and I'd like to feel she remembered who I was. Even if she didn't, she was still super nice and always struck up a nice conversation. So it was a really sad moment when I saw she was no longer there, instead replaced by a younger woman [with terrible posture, might I add]. Although she was nice and friendly as well, it's just not the same. Seeing someone that young doesn't offer the same sense of security.

It kind of scares me to think that in a few short months, I'll be 20 years old. The first big leap was getting into double figures, now I'm leaving my teens. It is scary. Although it's only a day the difference, losing that title of a teenager feels like it added a good number of years onto my age. If I'm like this turning 20, imagine how I'd be when I turn 30, 40 or even Ricky Ponting forbit... 50.

I had always maintained that I don't want to grow old. There's a Robbie Williams song where he goes "I hope I'm old, before I die", but I just don't share that sentiment. I don't want to have to lose my independence and my dignity. I don't want to drag it out. I'm more of a believer in the Who's line "I hope I die before I get old".

If I could have things my way, I'd die in a tragic chemistry explosion while working in a lab on some sort of revolutionary cure for whatever. However I don't think I could do that to my family. Although a quick and tragic death would be good for me, it wouldn't quite work out for those that are stuck with my legacy. Instead I'll find some middle ground, like the six months to live scenario. I quite like that because you get given a time frame, although I'd feel pressured to do as much as I could possibly do in that time and perhaps fall in love with living again. That'd be a problem.

Are we hot? We are not.

2009-08-21T17:46:00.000+10:00

I have come to realise recently that I am quite a shallow person.

This surprises me because I know that it's not good to be shallow. No one wants to knowingly be shallow. We all want to be able to see past what people look like and appreciate who they are as unique individuals. But to be absolutely honest, appearances matter. And I absolutely believe among my friends, I am not alone.

I remember a couple weeks ago we were in the law library and Marcus asked me "If someone asked you for change for a note or something, would you give it to them?", and almost instinctively I replied "Depends how good looking they were". There might have been a short pause of shock but that ended quickly when everyone realised I wasn't alone in that thinking. Looks are important. Good looking people get treated better than non-good looking people (note not ugly). They receive more attention, have more friends and are generally more sociable. That's why the hot but socially inept girl is like the dream.

I don't think I'm friends with any ugly people, and if I was I certainly wouldn't say who because that's just hurtful. But as a rule, my friends are good looking [which kind of makes me feel like a troll sometimes so I must look to improve myself in other areas]. Now that I've said that, I really am racking my brains looking for someone who could be called "classicly ugly", and the search is comung up dry. However that may be due to bias on my part, because although their looks might not cut it I know they are good people. If we expand the search to strangers then yes, there are many. Good people they may be, but attractive they are not.

This then leads me to think about myself. I'm the kind of person who is so insecure, I'm constantly seeking the approval of others [hence the baked goods]. I would like to know exactly where I sit on the scale of attractiveness. I wish I was one of the people who could be sure and can walk out the door in the morning and be able to confidently say "You know what, I'm hot". That really is the dream.

And finally, I hope I don't have ugly babies. But if they are ugly, I hope they are able to compensate for their looks in some other area of life.

Vroom vroom

2009-08-14T23:59:00.000+10:00

I've been learning to drive since the start of holidays, so thats about seven or eight weeks now. In that time, I've amassed just under 15 hours. At this point in time, I feel I know how to drive pretty well. I'm relaxed behind the wheel, able to look out for dangerous crap as well as focus on staying on the road and I'm even beginning to chat a little to my instructor. The only thing stopping me from getting my Ps is the stupid 120 hours. I genuinely believe that if I were to attempt the old Ps test right now, I'd be able to pass. And that is what I find really interesting.

In years gone by, someone in my exact same position, with the same amount of driving completed and probably about the same level of competency, would be going for their Ps within a month and get them easily. So although they technically can drive, they are still pretty rubbish but are allowed to roam the roads by themselves, most likely to go and get into some prangs. Basically, they'd still be learning with no one there to teach them. However with the new laws, I won't be able to even think about booking my test for another five or six months. What this shows is that the new law works not only by ensuring I am a better driver when I do get my Ps, but also by keeping me off the roads until then. I hate it when the government is right.

This is a good opportunity to talk about my friends' driving. People have been driving for a couple of years now and it's clear to me the cars I'm comfortable sitting in, and those that make me shit myself each time.

The best drivers I know are Jin, Tallon and Tom Wu. Although Jin is ridiculously speedy, he does it so much I know he's not out of his depth. Also I feel very safe in his lovely RAV4, except when I'm in the boot. Tommy just oozes class. He's not the quickest, his car doesn't really allow for that, but you feel at ease when he's driving. He makes it look easy and of all my friends, I probably emulate him the most. Tallon stands head and shoulders above them all though. His car is also head and shoulders above others, in that it is the oldest piece of rusty metal I have ever been in, except for Nigel's car maybe. The other good drivers that come to mind are Jase Lu, Marcus, Anothony and Leo.

In the "I'll get in your car gladly but please keep me alive" group is Jack Yao, Timmy, Lily and Jackie. The reason Jackie and Jack are in this area is because I've only been in their cars once and I haven't developed a fully informed opinion of them yet. Timmy is interesting though. I think it's more his personality than his actual driving skills. He seems like the type who could be easily frazzled and maybe almost run off the road once or twice. But in all the times I've been in his car, my life has only been seriously threatened once. I've been in Lily's car the most number of times and I still get a wee bit nervous each time. She doesn't speed or drive recklessly or anything. The thing about her driving which keeps me on the edge is how close she gets to other cars. If it weren't for that, she'd be in the good group. And then the last resort. Sam Ho is one. He claims to constantly speed, and that worries me. I'm not totally against pushing the limit (I think I'm one of the people who believe it should be more of a suggestion than a limit), it's just that getting to the destination ASAP is not the most important thing. One of the good things going for Sam is that he does have a safe car though.

Time to leaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarn

2009-08-08T22:00:00.001+10:00

My timetable this semester is very different from last's. For one thing, I have to start early four out of five days this semester, as opposed to only once last semester. And unsurprisingly, I have more early finishes, three, compared to only one. However one of the most significant changes is in terms of the amount of breaks I have, and it has had an effect I would not have expected.

Last semester, I'd have big three or four hour breaks on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Sure, having that much time between class is just like death because by the time the break is over, you're so tired from keeping yourself entertained you can barely concentrate, but I found it worked pretty nicely for me. I'm not a big studying person so having that much free time between class gave me an opportunity to catch up, or God forbid get ahead, in work. As a result, I had never been so up to date in my life, and it was reflected in my exam results.

However this semester, I don't have any breaks like that. The biggest I have is a three hour break every second Monday. Apart from that, it's all one hour breaks, and even a half hour break. And I didn't realise this till only last Thursday, but it has meant I haven't had the opportunity to do all the work I need to. I find I'm falling slightly behind and struggling to meet deadlines. This is compounded by me, for the first time since first semester last year, trying to attend all my classes. When I actually go to lectures, it means I have less free time to study. It creates an interesting dilemma, go to class but lose study time or miss class to have more study. There are no win-wins.

What I found I have to do is stay back on the days I finish early to get some work done. Wednesdays are slightly difficult because I keep on scheduling driving lessons early in the afternoon, but on Thursdays and Fridays I have to try harder to stay till at least three o'clock to get what I need to get done.

Of course this is extremely nerdy of me, but I don't mind because if it means tutes, labs and exams are easier because of it, then I'm all for it.

Hiatus!

2009-08-04T21:09:00.001+10:00

I think its best for all if we take a break from girls for a while. Admittedly, this is not purely my own decision, my hand may have been forced by... how shall we put it... lack of opportunity.

So instead we'll focus on going to each and every class, learning as much as possible and making friends will the people doing my course. It probably is time I stop snobbing them even though I see them at least three or four times a week.

In other news, macaroons fail. A good story it is, just poorly told.

Cooking Barn: Soft opening

2009-08-02T20:29:00.002+10:00

I was a bit down last Tuesday. It's hard to say why exactly. At first it was a personal problem, but then when I didn't have anyone to talk about it with, that just made me a little more down. The last time I was this down, I baked. So we baked again. This time to really cheer myself up, and to burn some ingredients in the fridge, I made some Impromptu Apple Pies.

I find cooking is one of my favourite things in the world to do and regardless of how shitty I may be feeling, I can depend on it to bring myself back up. I hope I never reach the stage where cooking becomes a chore and I lose the enjoyment.

Also you may have noticed that yes, I have made a new blog. It's called Mirepois, a French term which basically means frying off onions, carrots and celery as a flavour base for almost anything. I like to think that it is significant because I am just starting out as an amatuer cook and I want to get good at the basics before I extend myself and attempt some ridiculously difficult dishes. However seeing as that is definitely not me, the real truth behind picking that title was I wanted a cool French word. And in my books, that is definitely one of the coolest, cooking related French words I know. Other options were Banh's Cooking Adventures, ala Huey's, or Cooking Barn, which still isn't that bad of an idea. Actually... I have decided to just change it to that because it is so much more apt.

I'll plug it on facebook soon, I just wanted to have a design for it first so that it looks pretty should people choose to visit it.

Non-attention seeking hissy fit

2009-07-17T01:10:00.001+10:00

I've said it many times that I don't necessarily express my feelings very well, especially to others. So it shall come to no surprise, or maybe as a great surprise, that I had been pretty upset with a friend of mine over the past month.

It was nothing they did, it was all me. I was just sick of being ignored even though I've been trying to hang out. Time and time again I'd get no response so eventually I just gave up in a bit of a huff. Of course, they had no idea about this because it was all about me. They might have noticed we hadn't hung out in a while, but it clearly didn't bother them as much as it did me.

So why was I making such a big deal out of it (privately at least)? I don't know. Perhaps I wanted some attention. Perhaps I just needed to have a hissy fit. Either way, it only ended up hurting myself and now I feel a right fool for doing it. I have decided to just give up on this little tantrum and keep trying. I don't like to harbour ill feelings towards anyone, it just eats you up inside. Let it go and you're a better person for it.

Damn lunch cutter

2009-07-08T13:40:00.000+10:00

There's been something I've been meaining to tell you for a while, my dear blog. It has been playing on my mind but I just never got around to putting it in words.

You see, it's about a girl.

[Digression: Wouldn't that be a cool name for a blog? I would do it but then I'd feel obligated to write mostly about girl problems, and it'd be slightly awkward documenting all my girl problems]

I don't know if I liked her or not. I wished there was a more clear-cut, definitive way of finding out but I haven't come across one yet. But whether or not I like her is irrelevant because she is currently attached to another person. This is the main problem. I have promised myself not to fall for girls with boyfriends because I know that there is no worse feeling than to have someone betray you like that, althought not first hand, it was just kind of a realisation.

And that's about it really. I mean, she's a great person. She's funny, sassy, sweet but still has a bit of a bite. But I think it's just time to start looking for more available girls, otherwise I shall forever be known as the guy who likes to cut lunches. I guess one of the positive things I can fall back on is that I'm not really that close friends with her, so maybe it's just a passing crush.

Oh and bee to the tee double u, different girl. That was just silly.

Not so guilty pleasure

2009-06-29T17:07:00.000+10:00

I'm not embarrassed to say I listen to girly, pop music. Why? Because I like it, and I'm not the only one. Right now, it's all about Lady GaGa, Katy Perry and Lily Allen.

Going on past evidence, I really shouldn't like Lady GaGa. However I'm very susceptible to repitition and I have listened to her so many times I can't help but like her. I like her beats... No but seriously, her music is good for a pick-me-up. It's hard not to bop along to her. And let it be said that her music is not good because of her lyrics.

Katy Perry is my favourite among the three. Hot N Cold, I Kissed a Girl and Waking Up In Vegas are all fun songs. However my favourite is Thinking Of You. It's such a heart wrenching song, but it's also a morally suspect one. Basically, it's her wailing (in the nicest possible way) about some fantastic guy that she let go or drove away, and now she's stuck with a dud. What makes it great is that it is what everyone in the world wants to hear, that whoever has wronged them made the wrong choice. Her album is also composed nicely because it starts off fun, goes into the slow ballads but picks up again to finish on a slightly angry note.

Lyrically, Lily Allen's album is the best. Her songs aren't tragic stories from her own life or anything of that ilk, they are more pop-py with a good amount of humour. It took me a couple listenings to really get into her music because it all could be described as sounding a bit the same, but once you slow down and listen to what she's saying, it can be very enjoyable.

Will this be a passing phase? Hopefully. I only listen to these albums in full at home. On my phone is still mostly Arctic Monkeys and their lovely accents. Seriously, I love those guys. And if I had the effort, I'd get into The Clash too. But for now, the Monkeys will do me just fine.

Bad exam day

2009-06-12T23:35:00.001+10:00

I really try not to decide a day is good or bad before its over, because there is always time to be wrong. Sometimes you think one thing, but then whoever/whatever controls the universe decides to slap you in the face.

Today wasn't one of those days. Today was fairly crappy from the get go and it did not necessarily get a whole lot better. First of all it was like 5 degrees this morning. Then it continued to be 5 degrees for the rest of the morning. Also I had my chemistry exam today, but I don't quite count that as a bad thing.

So I get ready and leave the house. The next crap thing to happen was that it was still about 9 degrees outside the house. I needed to pop into Coles to buy some water and an eraser so I did that. Going into Coles was nice, because it was relatively warm in there. However when I was waiting in the line, I saw the clock read 1.10. Now my train was it 1.14, however my watch read 1.00. I looked back and forth between the two, and used my phone as the decider. Unfortunately for me, the clock at Coles was correct. For some stupid reason my watch was 10 minutes late.

So we'll count that as 3 bad things, it being cold, it being cold and my watch being slow. Next thing was when I left Coles, it was still freezing. So that's four things. I did manage to make the train, after some (graceful) running/galloping.

Nothing really bad happened until I got to the Caufield Racecourse. It was still absolutely freezing but that's not the worst of it. I don't know whether it was just really windy or it was the design of the buildings, but the wind while standing outside the room was ferocious. Ferociously icy. In all seriousness, without even a iota of doubt, I had never been colder in my life. And to cap it all off, when I was eating my museli bar, half of it fell on the ground and I didn't get to finish it.

The exam itself wasn't that bad, it just took me a while to realise that. I thought it went really bad because I couldn't finish the darn thing because I didn't remember how to do a few questions. I was really beating myself up about it and was fairly down, in my own way, until I realised that if we ignore the ones I couldn't do, I should still be able to get at least 70% on that exam. Which hopefully can push me into the HD territory for the final mark. And really, that's all I want.

However when I was still upset, all I could think about was getting home and cooking something. When I get down, I like to cook. So I did. I made some shortbread. It's becoming an easy thing to make now, I just have to fine-tune the flavour and texture.

Full back to CENTRE BACK OF BEAST!!!

2009-06-08T19:28:00.001+10:00

I think I have finally found my niche over at AS Penalties.

Back in April, I wrote a post talking about becoming a more traditional full back. Since then, so many things have changed.

It was quickly realised by Jin that I would not have the stamina, pace or confidence to play as left back. Even though he didn't exactly tell me any of those things, he pushed me into playing the centre back role and I have not looked back since.

The first time I played centre back was against Western in the friendly. At first I was shitting myself but I didn't really have a good enough run to get a feel of it. The next time was coming off the bench against Alpha Q29 in our sole victory for the season. I came on for a cramping Phan and I thought it was to be a straight switch, however Jin told me to go to centre back and that he'd do the running up and down the wing. I didn't argue because... well... I have no authority in the team. It went ok, I did find it slightly more to my liking.

The next time, and my first real crack, was against DC United when I got my first start for the season. I might as well have been playing rugby, I was that lost, but I think I was able to hold my own. Since then, I have started against Western and now Asset 1, both as centre back, and both because Peng didn't rock up on time.

Each time I play, Nelson has always been my senior partner, so I just tried my best to stay with him. However his problem is that he tends to sit much too deep. For some odd reason, I prefer playing a high back line so that we might be able to lend a hand to the midfield if absolutely necessary. So when Nelson was out last week and I was paired with Ming Gao... ooohhh it was a party. I made sure we stayed at the half way line and it was a ball. The ball was passed back to us and we were able to re-distribute. I had never felt more in the game (except when we were getting bombarded by DC). What we didn't realise was during this period, they only had nine players on the field.

So there it is. I now have a well defined role in the team, as the third string centre back. Perhaps one day, I might be able to challenge Jin for his spot. One day...

Social beast

2009-06-03T19:41:00.000+10:00

As much as I love the work side of uni, the social side has taken a noticeable down turn this year, and it is very disappointing.

One of the best things about uni was wasting hours with friends doing nothing. But with some ridiculously bad timetabling, I was deprived of a lot of that this year. And that really sucks, because that is the best way to spend time.

Instead I've been studying a lot more, and... well just studying. That doesn't mean I'm up to date in all my subjects though, however I am more prepared than I ever have been in previous semesters at the same point in time. I still would rather have spent more time just hanging out though.

I do take some of the blame for it. There have been occasions where I haven't exactly tried to be the social beast that I was last year. However at the same time, I have been burnt just as many times, if not more, than I have done the burning.

So hopefully next semester everything will get back to normal again. And if it doesn't, then something drastic must be done.

Uni love

2009-05-15T18:32:00.001+10:00

For the first time in my life, all the subjects that I'm studying I truly enjoy.

It occurred to me when going home from chemistry lab the other day. As much as I say chem is a drag and four hour labs suck, I would not rather be doing any other subject. There are times when I seriously doubt whether I should continue with it, but then I remember how much joy it gives me when I understand a new concept.

When I'm not enjoying chem, it's maths. I only realised I really liked maths last year. Up until then, it had always been the chem and bio, but then I realised I never actually liked bio, and I was always better at maths than anything else. One of the things which gives me the most pleasure is just being able to be right and absolutely right. Doing two maths subjects is one of the best decisions I've ever made. Linear algebra is more of the traditional maths I've done, number crunching and lots of formulae. However real analysis is something totally new. It relies more on intuition and extending your knowledge beyond what you are taught. It is also hard as heck. Absolutely no coincidence that the most difficult maths subject I've ever done contains the most English.

And my other subject Psych stats, which is a combination of maths and easiness, rounds off my four units perfectly. It's not overly difficult but at the same time it is interesting. Well, I find it interesting. Hypothesis testing, parametric and non-parametric data, all that jazz.

Next semester won't be as good. Maths may get slightly better because instead of matrices non-stop in linear, it's differential equations so calculus makes a comeback. However the downsides are that chem will get harder, and compulsory four hour labs instead of just leaving whenever you finish, and the SCI2020 unit, which is scientific research and crap.

The good thing though is I might be able to get a day off on Thursday. However to do this, I'd have Mondays 9-5 with two hours of break, Tuesdays 9-4 with one hour and Wednesdays 8-6 with four hours break. But Fridays will just be the two hour psych lecture at 12, which is completely wag-able. So potentially, two days off, which translates into four day weekend!!!

Keeping quiet

2009-05-14T20:32:00.001+10:00

You know what I love about bus rides? Epiphanies. Nothing like a good epiphany.

Today I've realised that I'm not a very emotional person. There's no great reason for it. I don't believe showing emotion is a sign of weakness, or I should be some sort of blank statue. It's more due to not feeling comfortable enough to really let go. Some people will always let you know how they feel. I won't. I'll also do my best not to let others know.

I remember there was once a time I thought it was perfectly acceptable to talk about other people. I had known about the act of talking about people behind their back but I never realised that I was doing it. Ever since about year 8, I've done my best to follow the golden rule of "if you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all". It has served me well for the most part.

Also I've noticed my blogging has been taking quite a heavy hit of late. There's no easy way to fix it. I'm still in my head as much as ever, it's just I'm much too lazy to transcribe it into blogular form. And whenever I try, I write one sentence and then decide it's not worthy. I shall try harder to write whatever the crap I feel like so I'll have something to read when I'm bored. Wish me luck!

Spartacus!

2009-05-01T12:18:00.001+10:00

I just thought of a fanastic game to play, and it was inspired by this:

Or if you'd prefer, this:

It shall be called Operation Spartacus! And this is how it works:

It's a MSN thing, so if you don't use MSN that much it might now work as well. But what you do is, you and a friend change your nicknames to "Spartacus". It works best if you pick a friend with whom you have many mutal friends.

So you both have "Spartacus" as your nickname and hopefully, just hopefully, the more curious people will ask you or your friend about it and then you can tell them about the game. Then if they are the curious AND fun type, they'll change their nickname to "Spartacus" too. This shall continue until maybe one day, your entire list is filled with "Spartacus".

There aren't many rules of the game, just one. You can't go and actively recruit people, you must wait till they come and ask you. I think I'll also allow people to pretty up their nicknames if they want, as long as Spartacus is involved.

Obviously there'll be an issue of how long the game will go for. It's a personal thing. Some people will get bored quickly and bail, others [like me] will just let it stay there for eternity maybe.

Facebook boycott

2009-04-24T20:08:00.000+10:00

I deleted my facebook a number of Thursdays ago, on the 9th of April if I remember correctly. I had a week without the damn thing before I got roped into organising the get together for the holidays. Then as soon as it was gone and done, I ditched the facebook again.

That was 10 days ago. I have come to realise life without facebook isn't as bad as it seems. It is actually quite doable if I can keep busy.

Right now, I don't know when I'll re-activate the stupid thing. I can't deny it feels like something is missing from my everyday life. It has left a hole, it's just that I'm slowly filling that hole with other things, namely study. It's hard to say whether being facebook free has resulted in more work being completed, but there is definitely one fewer thing I need to do when I get home or jump on a computer. And in the end, that's all I can aim to do. Studying has always been a last resort for filling time, so the more activities or distractions I remove, theoretically the more work I shall get done.

And no, I will not re-activate it as soon as I post this... Or I'll try not to anyway.

Straight for once

2009-04-16T22:56:00.000+10:00

I'll admit that I don't necessarily make the best decisions regarding girls. But really, who does?

I'm not going to pretend to be some wise idiot and unleash some truth bombs, I'll just say what I'm thinking right now, however correct or incorrect it is.

People say you can't pick who you fall for. I partially agree with this. It shouldn't be a conscious decision, you shouldn't be able to point at someone and say "That's the one!". At the same time, I also like to think you should be able to point to someone and say "That's not the one!".

There's also something about how it happens. I absolutely detest the idea of seeing someone and then just "knowing". However I do believe there is a moment of realisation, an epiphany. And depending on how things are, that can be a happy realisation or a not-so-happy one.

Just as a change from what I usually do (piss fart around with my words not saying anything but at the same time say all I need to), I think I'd like to be straight for once. Long story short, I think I may like a girl I don't really want to like. What's worse is the reason I don't want to like her is something so stupid and childish it's too embarrassing to say, yet still valid.

Picnic fail

2009-04-14T22:39:00.000+10:00

I'd like to say how I really feel, because there aren't many places where I can say it and this is my outlet.

I am disappointed in today. Disappointed in myself and disappointed in others. What could have been a very pleasant evening was properly ruined, but at least it was salvaged.

First of all I spent way too much time getting the food ready. I prepared for 20 people, when 20 people was going to be the max. I should have known that expecting the best and preparing for the worst only works when you have an idea of what the best actually is. I should have made much less food, and just accepted it if we didn't have enough.

At the city, most of the people arrived late. In the end, it was only Felita, Anna, Jackie, Jenny, Jena, Jasmine, Tallon and I who ate. Those that weren't there were Tim, Sam, Judy, Wilfred, Wilius, Monica and Amy. The rest of the 20 would have been rounded out by Kawai, Gloria (who were supposedly meant to be brought by Monica), Eugene, Dickson, Chen and Lily (who were meant to be invited by Judy but weren't).

Just another fail mark going next to my name.

That was as bad as it got though. Amy, Sam, Judy and Monica eventually came and we all got hot/iced chocolate at the new place in Melbourne Central next to the crepe shop. It's a pretty good place that, fantastic location and very cosy atmosphere. If it has wireless internet, then it is a golden spot.

Bad, Taylor Swift!

2009-04-13T22:28:00.001+10:00

A fun Talyor Swift joke you can make with your friends, provided they feed you the correct line!

You: Man, I can't get fucking Taylor Swift out of my head.
Friend: Yeah, the song is pretty annoying.
You: What song?

I'm pondering whether there should be a pause between the second and third lines. I'll leave it up to you to decide.

The bad joke idea came from listening to the song each time a radio was turned on. The first time I had heard the song was in Tallon's car last week, the second was also in his car and so was the third. The fourth, and final hopefully, was the other day when watching one of the many music shows on TV.

Transformation from left back to full back!

2009-04-08T21:36:00.000+10:00

So the ASP had our first game on Satday. The game was drawn, in every sense of the word. It was hard to decide whether we should be happy or disappointed with it, it was just a draw.

Our first full match as a unit, not to mention the first match with that starting XI, and we got a nil-all draw against last year's second placed team. Just with that, it's a fantastic result. The back four held out brilliantly, with Joe the star at right back. Our midfield was solid, if unspectacular. Unlike last week's friendly against Western Rangers, there was a lot more focus on defence and the tracking back by the middies was gut wrenchingly commendable.

From a defender's point of view, it was as good as a win.

However on the otherhand, we had two or three very solid chances to win the game. One was a fantastic through ball to Jamie however the keeper shut him down very quickly and Jamie was unable to do much more but shoot into him. The second was a mess in the box. There were lay-offs, shots and follow ups, none of which resulted in that elusive goal. This was all after Lobes had found himself in some fantastic positions in the first half for a left footer, but his one-footedness let him down dearly.

So chances were squandered by both teams, Twang made some unbelievable saves, and it finished as it began. The highlight for me was the ability of the team to run out the match with only one substitution used. The plan was to bring me on but by the time I was meant to come on, the other team were pushing everything forward and our defence was defiantly holding out. My introduction would have more likely than not resulted in us conceding. It's tough to see when I'll get a run. Jin, Phan and Joe are all much better defenders than I am, and also much fitter.

Which leads me to my next question, what exactly am I?

For years I've been labelled as a defender because I usually defend. But truth be told, I'm not that good at it. Well considering I'm not that good of a soccer player, my defending skills is the best of what I've got. I don't really enjoy defending though. Well I enjoy it, a strong tackle still gets the spine tingly, but it doesn't contain the fun that say... attacking has. I'd like to play a more attacking role in the future, however Twang both doesn't see me as this kind of player and doesn't trust me as one. The only way to change his mind is to begin to take more attacking roles at training and whatever other soccer we play.

So here I shall announce it, I am stating my claim for a new position. Not necessarily a left mid-field, or even up front striking, but instead a new kind of left-back. Not even a new kind, more like the traditional full back, however fitness rears its ugly head once again. I nominate Albert Riera as the player I aim for now, with others like Gael Clichy and Wayne Rooney not far behind. Rooney just because we love that face of his only a mother could love, and me too apparently.

Hermit time!

2009-04-07T21:15:00.000+10:00

I love and detest Wednesdays and Thursdays, and it's for the same reason.

Unlike last semester (I was really tempted to say season for some reason), I don't have breaks with everyone everyday. This is sad because I really enjoyed the time spent with all those friends of mine. We talk, we laugh, we don't cry, it was great.

However that being said, I also really enjoy not doing that everyday. Beneath all the fun we had, it was also a tremendously bad use of time. I am able to come to uni with a set amount of work and complete it. This is especially important since I do little to none work at home, so every minute of study I do get is vital.

Truth be told, I would rather what I have now compared to last year. Mondays and Tuesdays can be spent with everyone while the other days are for learning and that kind of stuff.

So here's to me slowly becoming less and less social! Cheers!

Also this the the Brian Lara of all posts, #500! Maybe something sentimental will come in the next couple of days.

Toilet troubles

2009-04-06T19:37:00.000+10:00

The absolutely worst thing happened to me today. And I mean, the worst. Also yes, that is a phrase that I have started to use since watching 30 Rock.

Last Friday whilst hanging out with Jenny, we got to talking about the cleanliness of our gender's respective toilets. She argued that the girl's toilets were worse, with some people peeing on the floor instead of in the toilet bowl. I argued the odour alone from the men's toilets is enough to break anyone. Powerful stuff.

So today at uni, my sub-conscious decided to have a look.

I had just gotten to upstairs CC where everyone was sitting, but I had decided long before I got there I needed a whizz. So I dumped my stuff down and proceeded down the hallway. When I walked into the toilets, I thought to myself "Oh, they've changed the layouts of the toilets"...

...

A quick check of the sign on the door, well it was a bit longer than quick. I had to stare at it for a bit to confirm my worst fears. I ducked out with maximal stealth, however I think the cleaning lady at the end of the corridor noticed my error.

What did I get out of this? Nothing really, except a fun story to tell.

Cricket dream

2009-03-31T22:22:00.000+11:00

After two weeks of friendlies, the season will finally kick off on Saturday morning. I must admit, it's as scary as it is exciting. I haven't played in any sort of competitive sport against strangers for... years.

What makes it even more scary that it is soccer, not exactly my forte. Right now I can relax in the thought that I'm not starting and chances are I won't get any game time for a while. With a back-four consisting of Jin, Phan, Nelson and Ming, I'll almost definitely come on after Joe does.

However the time will come when I'll have to suit up and make an appearance. Until that day comes, I shall be shitting myself sitting on the bench, during each and every match.

During my maths lecture today, I was thinking about how cool it'd be to start up a cricket team [which of course minimal attention was given to lecturer]. If it were just us soccer idiots, the team would be pretty bare, as in even worse than if we were a soccer team, but I believe we could be slightly competitive.

I would clearly be captain, because I'd love to finally captain a side. And as my first act, I'd open the batting. At the other end I need someone tough, someone who won't back away. Opening bowlers are generally pretty scary, but I think Tom Wang will be up to it. I don't know how good of a bat he is, or whether he can bat at all, but we would look an imposing pair. Twang will also double up as keeper. First drop without a doubt would be Jase Yang. I believe he could be the best bat in the team. To follow him, we're going to have to branch out a bit and look elsewhere for members. I think Nige could bat at four, at least for the first couple of matches to see how he goes. Behind him would be Gary Zhang, depending on availability. Lobes would then be at six and Joe at seven. The final four spots will be between Tom Wu, Phan, Jamie, Duc and Victor.

Opening the bowling, without a doubt, would be Lobes and Phan. We know Lobes can bowl, Phan is a bit more of a wildcard. Jase and I will both contribute substantially to the bowling as well. The spin will be left in the hands of Joe and Victor, both specialist spinners. Duc and Jamie could also provide a couple of overs as a change up.

The fielding is where it gets fun though. It was already decided Wang would keep. First slip will be Jase, effectively making him our Jaques Kallis. The other key catchers will be Joe and Tom Wu. Our gun close in fielders will be Lobes and Phan. Speed will be required for the boundary riders, so Jamie has earnt himself that role. The rest will be spread around, with me parked at mid-off.

This team could do well, depending on the league we're in. With a strong opening bowler in Lobes and canny spinners, our bowling should be able to hold its own. The only problem is with the batting, we will be prone to epic collapses. We'll pretty much be New Zealand.

Centrelink excursion!

2009-03-26T23:36:00.001+11:00

I'm finding it hard to describe the day I had today.

It started off crappily, then got better, ultimately crappy again and then finally good. What is clear is that it has been a long day.

It started off crap because I had to go to Centrelink to put in my claim for a healthcare card. If there everyone associates with Centrelink, it's lining up. Last time I was in line for almost an hour. When I walked in this morning, I saw the line was only half as long as the other day and this pleased me to no end. Of course it was still a 20 minute wait, but still much shorter than it could have been.

However it got better when I did finally hit the head of the line. I was told to sit down to wait for someone to call my name to complete my claim. Why did this make me happy? Because I got to sit down and get stuck into my maths problems. For an hour I sat there and ploughed my way through question after question and I did not mind in the least. It was fantastic.

Even after I finished up at Centrelink and finally got to uni, I was able to sit down in the Hargraves (somewhere I haven't really been this year, it's surprisingly a good place for private study because no one goes there) and do a couple more hours of maths. I was having the time of my life up to that point.

But then when I go to class, I get the message from Lily saying she wasn't going to give me a lift home because she finished early. I'll be honest, it stung like hell. Usually I don't like to get angry or upset, I found it hard to this time. I was really disappointed, even though it was over such a small thing like a lift home. I got over it though, I mean, afterall it is just a lift. There are worse things a person could do.

To cheer myself up I tried to do some maths but I was all math-ed out from the day's work, so I bailed on my tute. To really cheer myself up I nicked a drink from the common room, just a can of orange soft drink. I was a little nervous drinking it because it was the last one left and I didn't know if it had been there for a long time or it was the last one because it was slightly dodgy. My fear led me to have feelings of wanting to throw up, but it settled eventually.

The last rise came when watching the footy. Footy cures all. I love watching the footy. It's beautiful and brutal at the same time. But more on that another day.

I'm yooouuupunch

2009-03-22T11:33:00.000+11:00

We all know it but it's still a bit of a shock sometimes, however it really does suck to remember the entire world doesn't revolve around you.

As is my wont, I decided to do a complete back-flip regarding my last post. Or perhaps not a complete back-flip. It's more like a hand-stand, half a back-flip, if you catch my drift.

I feel good about it but I know I shouldn't be patting myself on the back. The line "too little too late" keeps ringing in my head. And we all know it, I'm not the only one. My perfect way to put it is like this: There was a bridge that needed mending. All the materials were provided, all I needed to do was get off my ass.

There actually is a very clear reason as to why I decided to finally get started. It's a reason so petty and childish that it shall never be revealed to another soul. But it did strike such a chord that I knew it was time to do something. So we did.

On a completely unrelated note! I have reached the point where I deem anyone, and I mean anyone, singing Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours" deserves to get a big punch in the face. And yes, this does include Mr Mraz himself.

Poor Victor

2009-03-19T20:26:00.000+11:00

Goodness life can never just be all plain sailing can it.

All these adult feelings are telling me to grow up and stop being such an idiot.

Before the year started, I really wanted to do what (allegedly, or maybe it really did) happen to Victor Yui. Some girl who he somehow pissed off managed to ignore him for the entire year. Upon hearing this, Nigel and I were supremely impressed by this feat, as opposed to feeling any sort of pity towards Victor.

I really wanted to do that, but it's just flat out impossible. She was able to do it because she didn't like/know Victor's friends. But because I'm so entwined in the whole deal, it just cannot be done. I'm not ready to give up, but I know it's futile and pointless.

Or we could go extreme and find all new friends [read: be a loner]. I should find people doing my subjects. People I can talk to class about. And most importantly, people I can scab answers off. The only problem is maths is about 85% man. And not in the good way.

So we must re-visit the initial problem. For now, I'll continue with this plan of attack. I had always hoped I would just eventually stop caring and then everything would be fine again. That doesn't seem like it'll happen. I'll have to grow up and man up. The only thing is, there's no real need to right now. Life would probably be smoother if I did, but it's still liveable now. So until it gets to the point where it's so unbearable that I cannot stand to breathe, I'll get off my ass.

Circle of doom

2009-03-17T21:56:00.001+11:00

A few of my readers will know that I'm part of a soccer team. It's the Tom Wang organised one with the most brilliant and apt of names, AS Penalties.

My original role had just been as a supporter, however I do train with them just to have a bit of a run around once a week. I intended to go to most of the matches and just help any way I could. Unfortunately that seems likely to change as we may be short on numbers.

Tom recently asked me to fill out a rego form to become a player. This scared me because... well I don't believe I'm a soccer player.

I never believed I was a soccer player. I have very little confidence in my ability. I can be good and decent, contribute to the team and do my bit. However my touch, or lack thereof, often lets me down and can be frustrating. On top of that, I have very clear ideas of what I want to do, the kind of balls I want to put through and how I want the ball to travel, it's just I can't turn what's in my mind into reality. And that is obviously a problem.

The worst thing though, is my soccer sense. Soccer played little to no role in my life when I was small, so there was never a great passion for it. As a result, I'm not overly interested in the game itself, meaning I don't know how to play it. There's an easier way to explain it, I'll do it by comparing myself to Michael.

Michael, although erratic in his touch and techniqe, can still be a good player. That is because more often than not, he finds himself in the right place at the right time. He could be a goal scoring machine amongst us if only he were a bit better with his feet. On the otherhand, I don't know where to be and when to be there. I'm always a couple paces behind the game and am missing wherever I'm needed most.

How do I try to overcome this? I aim to be the play maker. Instead of having to work out where I'm meant to be, I find it's much easier to be at the head and direct traffic. However this then links back to my earlier point of lacking in technique.

And that is what we call the circle of doom. I'd make a flow chart of it if I were bored enough.

Karma fail

2009-03-16T21:50:00.000+11:00

I am here to announce karma is not only a load of crap, but it's also a load of crap!

This morning when I got off the train at Blackburn, this woman was running up the ramp to try and catch it. Unfortunately she tripped as she reached the top and missed the darned train. She dropped all her stuff and it was quite an embarrassing moment for her. I did the only thing you could do, I helped her pick her stuff up. Actually the main reason I did this, apart from all this altruism gobble-di-gook, was because you can't walk past someone in that situation.

Immediately after helping her, I began to wonder whether such a good deed, ok maybe not that good of a deed, so early in the morning would hold me in good stead for the rest of the day. It didn't. There was no tremendous moment of good fortune or some magical happening. Clearly I'm disappointed, but it does vindicate my choice to not believe in any sort of higher force having a bearing on my life.

And now that I'm no longer expecting it, the good thing shall happen right... now. Or now. Ok, we'll wait a bit longer.

Telemarketers

2009-03-15T22:03:00.000+11:00

I figure that if a telemarketer calls you, then it's ok to be rude to them. Generally being rude to people is unacceptable but in this case, they are disturbing you and whatever they're trying to plug, they have absolutely no intention of helping you. They're in it for the money, the commission they get from each sale.

Now clearly not true in all cases, but for the sake of this post, it's much easier to clump whoever calls you into one big group. Whoever you call is a bit of a different story.

As a rule, I try to be polite. Even if something pisses me off, it's very rare that I'd do anything about it. I'd just smile and get on with the task at hand. So if for whatever reason I need to call some big company and ask for help, I figure it's much better to be polite because people generally like to deal with polite people.

Anyway, all that is just silly background info. What this post is really about is my underlying, mild xenophobia.

I propose that if you are in Australia, and ring a company based in Australia, it is reasonable to expect to have the phone answered by someone else (or at least a machine) who is also in Australia. This is why the news that Telstra, I think it's them, are outsourcing some telephone serivce (one more to the pile, I'm sure) to the Philipines, it made me somewhat angry. Angry enough to decide it is now ok to be rude to those workers outside of Australia. The added bonus is you can really have some fun if English isn't their strong suit. You can unleash some lines loaded with spite and hate and they might not even notice, which in my opinion, is the most fun way to get back at someone.

Also I will make it a point to try and update more often. The reason for being absent the past few weeks is I'm still trying to find the right pace and rhythm for uni life. It's not as easy as you think it may be.

Very short Honk recount

2009-03-04T20:58:00.001+11:00

Yes, I had gone to Hong Kong. Yes, I am back and settled now. There is so much to tell from the Honk, but I genuinely cannot be stuffed putting it all here. Ask me about it and you will regret it because I struggle to shut up about the topic.

But what you're really interested in. Photos. I won't put them all up on Facebook, seeing as there's almost 1000 of them, I'll just put a few of them up, my favourite ones. I will put them all on Flickr though, even the crap photos not actually capturing anything because I'm too lazy to sort them out.

All I will tell you now is that it was the best experience of my life and I am considering an exchange to the Honk. I'll wait for a month or so before I talk to my parents about it, of course after finding out more about it [i.e. how much it costs].

Until next time, goodbyes!

Snags should just be sausages

2009-02-09T13:02:00.001+11:00

There's a word for someone that derives pleasure from other's misfortune. It doesn't come to mind, and I don't think it ever will, but I know such a word exists. It might not actually be English either, but it is out there.

I am that kind of person sometimes. I don't apologise for it, however awful it may make me. That isn't to say I don't ever feel empathy or sympathy or whatever which one. It just means sometimes I'm a tool, and I am ok with that. I'd much rather be a tool than always the nice guy.

I used to try to be the nice guy. Or the SNAG, the sensitive, new age guy. Someone who is understanding, tolerant, caring and all that mambo. I realised I'm very much not that person. I am slowly morphing into more of an ass, bit by bit. I used to never interupt people, but then I realised I could never say anything if I didn't. So now I butt in whenever I feel like it! Well, not to that extent, but I do assert myself more.

One more thing, something that is close to my heart. One thing that shits me up the wall is people using their Facebook status' to send people messages. Oh my goodness, it annoys me to no end. If you have something to say to someone, say it to them! Don't tell the world and rely on the world to tell them. That's not to say I hate the people doing it, I just hate the act itself. Kind of like if I knew a thief or a murderer, I wouldn't hate them for their actions, instead just hate the actual actions.

End of bitch! Time to go pack!

Massive giant lunch

2009-02-08T21:57:00.000+11:00

As promised, the blow by blow recount of yesterday. And trust me, it's going to be long.

For weeks I had been planning this lunch with Jackie. I may have been doing the majority of the work but that's only because I work badly in a partnership. With that being said though, most of the dishes were her ideas. So the planning involved thinking of what kind of food, finding suitable recipes and determining whether they were possible or not. Initially I was planning on doing three courses, with an entree, a main and then dessert. However I decided on just mains and desserts to save on time, money and effort. I had settled on six dishes, three mains and three sides. The mains were lemon and herbed lamb cutlets, lemon chicken wings and chilli chicken skewers. The sides would be foccacia, potato salad, pesto pasta salad and scalloped potatoes.

There was a minor concern that half the dishes contained considerable amounts of potato, but I didn't let it faze me as it was at least potatoes cooked three different ways.

The night before I did the scalloped potatoes because they'd take heaps of time. It was a fun experience. Very sleepy too because I did it pretty late at night, but at least it wasn't an obvious fail.

Come the big day, and aren't we excited. I slept pretty well the night before because we played futsal on Thursday and as there were only two teams, Twang and I had to play the entire duration. So I planned to wake up at 7 or 8 to start getting the house ready and get really well prepared. I only woke up at 9 when Jackie called me, so I kind of had no choice but to wake up.

She eventually came to my house at 11ish, an hour later than she should have. That immediately made us behind and we never really recovered. Shopping was a bit of a mess. We started off in Coles, went to the butcher, to the florist, back to the butcher and then back to Coles. In the end, we did buy most of the things we needed, forgot drinks but that was ok.

When we got back, it was time to get cracking. First thing was getting the scalloped potatoes back into the oven to finish it off and do the lemon chicken quickly to get that in there too.

With that in the oven, I wanted to get onto the marinated items. While I was doing the lemon chicken, Jackie was working on the lamb. In fact, she did it all. Then I did the chicken skewers too, that was fairly simple and very pretty.

Making the foccacia was next. That was, to put it simply, epic fail. The dough was too wet, it stuck too my hands too much, then we added too much flour and it ended up being too dry. After baking it was much too hard, either from too much flour or from over-baking, but it was done. I look forward to next time I make it, I know it'll be better.

And this was when people started arriving. Anthony was first, then Sam came. Chen and Lily arrived some time around then, followed by Tim, Judy, Anna and Huang. Tallon was the last to arrive, after we actually finished eating.

That was about half the work done. Time to move onto the salads. Pretty simple really. Big pot of potatoes, wait till they were done then mixed them with sour cream, mayo and assorted herbage. After that, some beans and the sugar snaps into the water, followed by the pasta. Allow to cool then mix in with the pesto. Done, easy as anything.

It was finally down to the fun, smelly bit. The cooking of the food. First up was the lamb. The thing I was looking forward to was after cooking it, deglazing the pan. It was just like I thought it'd be. Lots of smoke and plenty of fun.

Also while all this was happening, Jackie was making the dessert, berry parfaits. I may have given her some suspect instructions so it ended up being much too sweet and too orangey. And the berries were also very sour, such was our luck.

When all the food was finally completed, we sat down and ate. If I wasn't overly pleased with how all the food turned out. The lemon chicken was underdone, the pasta salad was boring, the scalloped potatoes were also a little boring and the lamb was borderline cooked. The potato salad turned out fine as did the chicken skewers. The dessert was very sweet and sour at the same time. I don't think using the vanilla yoghurt is such a good idea, or maybe I'll just never do that recipe again.

After that we sat around and talked. By then I was falling asleep because I had been going flat out all day and was not used to it. I started moving to just clean some things up, which was really just an excuse to watch the cricket, but everyone got involved. Damn them.

We got into the Scrabble after Chen raided my stash of old board games. I love word games. They're just so fantastic. When it got late enough, everyone left in one big group, except for Huang so I did some one-on-one Scrabble with him. So much more intense, kind of like heads-up poker.

Right after he left, I turned on the cricket and made to start cleaning up. But I was so tired I almost fell asleep, but I didn't really have a choice. I did nothing for an hour, but then I realised my dad would be home soon so I started working really hard to get as much done as I could before he did. I did a pretty good job, I re-arranged the living room, plugged back in the computer and did most of the washing.

It was a fantastic day, and also a very good first run. I know the next one, in winter, will be much better. The food will be of greater quality and I'll be much more organised too. It'll also be a very different format too, so look out for it.

Deadsies

2009-02-07T00:53:00.001+11:00

I am, in each and every sense of the word, buggered. I've been going from morning till night and am looking forward to just... melting into bed. I'll give a full, blow-by-blow account of today tomorrow. Until then, adios.

Cheapskates

2009-01-27T20:57:00.000+11:00

As I was standing at the big, red pole at the soon-to-be Etihad Stadium, I was watching something quite interesting. There were a number of people shaking tins collecting money for the Salvation Army, and as usual, they were having little success. Well, little relative to the sheer number of people walking right past them.

Watching their lack of success made me think of what we had learnt in psychology regarding helping behaviour. So I waited until someone finally donated, to see if that'd trigger a cascade of donations. It didn't. And I knew why, there were too many people for it to work. But it just felt so good being able to apply what we had learnt in the lectures and labs to real life. That is why we go to school or university to study and learn. As the Roman proverb goes: "We learn not to school, but for life".

Which begs the question, what good will doing a maths major do me?

Please Don't Leave Me

2009-01-25T09:46:00.002+11:00

That's Pink's new song, Please Don't Leave Me. The music video is... phenomenal. It does everything a good music video should, it not only reflects the meaning of the song, but it also maintains your attention for the full duration. Granted, I may have watched most of it with mouth agape in shock, but still. Gworks.

It also highlights how screwed up phrases like "Please don't leave me" and "I'm nothing without you" are. I was first alerted to this by a xkcd comic, but this Pink song compelled me to write about it. I believe that if you get to the stage where you have to beg for one party to stay, it's best to call it a day. Well I've never been in the situation, but I feel if it did happen and the party did stay, there'd just be this sense of "... what now?". Yeah?

Boned...

2009-01-22T18:10:00.000+11:00

I did not realise how much crap I'd have to do...

Grizzles

2009-01-21T22:07:00.001+11:00

It arrived today. I started working on it tonight. However I don't have a screwdriver small enough. Do you know how annoying that is? Especially when you found a set of super small ones exactly for this kind of thing. Hopefully I'll find the other set and the gods will smile on me.

Tom Wu appreciation post

2009-01-20T12:52:00.000+11:00

I realised today that I'm not very good with rejection. Not even that, I am very terrible with it. The problem is I tend to follow the "If you don't need me, I don't need you" line of thinking. Fun as it may be, it's not very mature.

I like to think of myself as a mature person. However as mature as I try to be, I still love to watch Pizza. Underneath this hard exterior of mine lies an absolute idiot.

It's hard to explain why I don't let people to know the real "me". I want to. Sometimes. There aren't many people in this world that I can say know me well enough to "know" me. I can think of a few. And there may be a few that I didn't realise.

Which makes me wonder, how much does Tom Wu know me? Quite a lot I'm guessing. Either way, I love him. He's my once off eBay middleman.

Planning planning

2009-01-17T00:54:00.000+11:00

Trying to organise a dinner party is hell. And I say trying because so far, I have completed absolute squat. All we've gotten down is a list of people invited (the guest list if you will) and the type of dessert I want to do. Everything else, including the rest of the food, what drinks, whether alcohol should be involved, how my house will be set up and even whatever decorations, is yet to be decided. Not even that, it is yet to be thought up of. I still have 3 weeks till the big day. The plan is to have all the recipes decided on within the next 7 days, which allows for 7 days of experimentation. And then the final 7 will be left to refinement and perfection. What could go wrong? Except for everything, I mean...

I have a habit of trying to go overboard on a lot of things. It's just something I like to do. If I'm given a task which I can enjoy, why not enjoy it to the fullest and have some fun. Today's lunch was a prime example. I was told to make a bit of a salad, however there was still some time before lunch was ready. So I took my time and had some fun plating it up, doing it in a fancy, platter-type display. The kind you see in 70s and 80s cookbooks.

Slowly ticking towards Hong Kong. Very, very slowly. Very incredibly slowly. Each day is like an eternity. However the weeks have flown by a bit quicker than I've realised. Not only are we three weeks away from the big day, but also three weeks away from flying away, or fleeing the country as I like to put it.

It's kind of funny the cards life deals us sometimes. Six weeks ago, the date I was flying out was one of the cruelest things imaginable. It was the day before she gets back, hence wouldn't been in the same country for two or three months.

However now, it is the best thing to have happened to me in such a long time. Generally, I try not to run away from problems. I may not be the front up kind of guy, but at least I try to do something about it. But this time, there's nothing more I could have asked for. I really do thank whoever is in charge for giving me this lucky break.

Dodgier than Symonds' knee

2009-01-11T23:10:00.001+11:00

I like to see what position I've gotten into myself sometimes. And by that I mean how I'm sitting. I'm very particular about how I sit, I find it too boring just sitting normally with both feet placed on the ground. I like to always have my feet up, usually at any cost. Just before I was watching the cricket in the kitchen because all the other televisions were being used. So there I was, lying across two chairs with my feet up on the table. It was fairly comfortable, but it was a massive bitch getting up. That's usually the problem I find myself in, where getting up is a danger to my health.

And my knee hurts! It really hurt on Wednesday and Thursday. To the point where I was limping all the time. I think I may have aggravated it at the beach on Satday with all that running around. Also with the way I've been sitting cross legged on the ground, it just makes it worse. So imagine me on Thursday at futsal. Thank goodness I had Joe on my team to deputise me, I think he played more than I did even though I was supposed captain. Then afterwards when we were stealing outdoor futsal, I slipped and fell down on my knee badly. But it was one of those where you hurt it so bad, it just stops hurting. And now it doesn't hurt anymore. I grazed myself, but no more deep seeded pain. Amazing.

We played ass penalties again. My goodness that is a fantastic game. We even had a small audience at different times. First was some guy walking his dog, he unashamedly just stood there and watched as we took shots at people bending over in the goals. And then a couple kids going home stopped and watched for a bit. I'm convinced the people on the courts next to us kept an eye on us too, just to see how stupid we were.

The sad thing is, as I had commented to Darryn about, is that we were all turning 20 within the next 12 months. We are the leaders of tomorrow. And we take turns shooting the ball at each other's asses. Melbourne High cream of the crop.

More Kate Pez!

2009-01-08T22:53:00.002+11:00

That has to be one of the best things I had seen on TV all year. A fantastic spectacle. It was enhanced because initially, I didn't realise it was Katy Perry's Kissed A Girl, until he hit the chorus. And then during the bridge, oh my goodness. I could not stop laughing.

There's something magical about Paul McDermott. He divides opinion, like most good public figures. I am on the pro-McDermott side. I just think he is a funny bloke. I loved him in The Sideshow, he's such a brilliant entertainer and natural host. Maybe not natural, he has had a lot of practice. And now in the second coming of GNW, he still makes me laugh endlessly. His singing I can tolerate. It can be funny, but sometimes he sings too much.

As much as I love him, there are many who don't. It seems to me that the more mature minded comedy followers don't like him. Which suggests his jokes can be somewhat childish and immature, however that is kind of why I like him so much.

Victory Victory Victory!

2009-01-07T22:54:00.003+11:00

I am very crap at sitting down. I'm just flat out, not good at it. It's because instead of sitting on the fleshy parts, I spend most of my time on the tail bone, or my ass bone as I like to call it. I'm sitting on it right now and it isn't very comfortable. When I was still going to uni, each time I'd get off the bus my ass bone would hurt, but I'd just grit my teeth and take it like a man. There may be a way I can stop it, simply by sitting up. However I don't know if I can apply myself like that. Seems awfully bothersome, doesn't it?

I'm thinking back to year 10 Life Skills. My goodness that was a great subject to pick. Absolutely loved it. Apart from being a bludge, it actually did teach me some important life lessons, as nerdy as it sounds. Of late, these may be slipping by mind and it definitely does make a difference.

One of the things we were taught was to go outside of your ordinary world, and into your extra-ordinary world. In other words, do something you're not used to. Stick your neck out every once in a while. I've heard it many times before but regardless of the outcome when you take a risk, you'll always be glad you took it. I want to be a bit more like that. Hanging back, covering all angles and worrying about consequences may be useful in some situations, but most of the time you just have to throw caution to the wind and go nuts.

Another thing we learnt was that people love talking about themselves. Anyone and everyone fits into this. It doesn't matter if they seem humble and meek or whatever, get them talking about themself and they become a happy camper. And how do you get someone to talk about themself? You ask questions. Lots and lots of questions. Questions not only show you're listening to them, but also that you're interested in what they're saying. And that is the whole point of conversation. Conversation isn't fighting to spend the most time talking, it's about trading stories and bonding! It is a shame a lot of people don't realise this point. They only get the talking about themself bit, and forget about the other party. That's not their fault though, I blame it on society. And on climate change. And the credit crunch.

On a somewhat unrelated note, went to see Melbourne Victory last night! First match since... Isaac took us about two or three years ago. The Victory got past Adelaide thanks to a Nicky Ward goal in the 58th minute. Funny sidenote, all night I had been calling himself Tony Ward (to myself only of course), after the MCG's curator. The goal also reminded me of the great fun in watching sporting events. The elation we all shared in when the ball hit the back of the net cannot be described. It's a shame we could only do it once, but I'd rather see a 1-0 victory than us losing.

Futsal tomorrow! Looking forward to it. First time since before Christmas. They played yesterday but I decided not to, just so I know I wouldn't be late for Victory. I stand by my decision.

Birthday Chen!

2009-01-06T00:32:00.000+11:00

We were playing Mafia at Chen's the other night and it was the first time I had ever played. About half way through the game I realised that when I got apathetic, it did nothing but serve to help the mafia. In fact, a lot of the things I did helped the mafia. I figure that's why I was so rarely killed, and instead voted out a lot.

Fun game though. So much arguing. Not at the start, when we were all still happy and pretty up-beat. It was only towards the end when fatigue started setting in and tempers were fraying. There was one argument in particular when Judy and the twins or Chen were pretty much going at each other's throats. I am convinced we were another 10 minutes or one wrong word from tears. I found it funny, to the point where I was cracking up with laughter. I hope it alleviated the tension, at least tears were avoided.

It was such a fantastically fun day though. I love going to the beach. I get the feeling I only love it because I never go, I still love it though. I caught the bus there with Huang and saw Chen, Lily, Hong and Kylie were there first. Eventually everyone turned up, everyone being the twins, Eugene, Alyssa, the lovely new couple, Amy, James Cheng and Tat. There wasn't much food which was a bit of a bummer. I was wondering whether I should make anything for the day, just for fun. In the end I decided not to because... there might be cake already. There wasn't at the beach, so I was left to rue my decision. Doesn't matter though, next time!

Hmmm any particular fun moments... Trying to dunk Chen in the water. That boy is heavy. We struggled. And then we took pity on him and let him change his clothes. Ah epic fail. Freezing in the water? It was a very cold day, doesn't mean we shouldn't go in the water though. It just meant we'd be very cold for a while. There was a moment when I went for a swim with Kylie. It taught me that it's very hard to hold a conversation in the water. Why? Because of waves. They hit you in the head mid-sentence and suddenly you're gasping for air. Last funny moment was watching Tat be a donkey and Chen be a pig. I decided to sit out of that game because I thought it might be a good idea to be away from humiliation.

Afterwards we went back to Glenny for dinner. I actually ate quite a lot. A lot more than I usually ate. I have my theories for this. One is that I was sitting next to Kylie, because she ate so little I felt I had to eat more. Make sense? Two is that I was also sitting next to Tat, who ate so much so I thought I had to keep up with him. Yeah? At the end of the day, I think it was because it was at the end of the day and I had eaten much too little for all the activity I did. Yummy cake too.

Back at Chen's house we played Mafia before all leaving at 11ish. On the way out, his mum said to me "Oh I know you, you're the guy with the noodles". I had absolutel no idea what she was talking about. None at all. It was only when I was going through the door I was "Oooooh the pho!". Hey, not my fault. She needs to be more specific.

Got a lift home with Lily in her very warm car. I had asked Sam earlier in the day but... In a car with him, Judy and Amy? Also he had to drop them off, I'd get home at like never. And my house is very out of the way. AND we love Lily for giving me so many lifts. We had a nice chance to chat, hadn't really spoken to her since my birthday.

Speaking of my birthday... I have sunburn damn it. Ok unrelated, it's still annoying though. No, skin cancer. Be gone for now! I'll let you in when you prove to me you are worthy of my temple.

Now off to fill said temple with late night food. Yay!

The people of 2008

2009-01-01T23:34:00.002+11:00

There's no easy way to go about this, so I'll just list whoever I can think of off the top of my head. They may or may not come in any particular order.

Jackie!

I had known Jackie since the formal but we still hadn't talked a whole lot. I was surprised to hear she was doing science at Monash too and we were doing pretty much all the same subjects. I didn't see her at all for the first third of the year but then slowly we started seeing more of each other. She's the one that got me started into the baking business and I haven't looked back. It's hard to describe what she is to me. Sometimes I think it's like an older sister since I have a tendency to do almost anything she says. But then at the same time, I have helped her with studying so many times. Whatever it is, she has made the year very enjoyable, especially when she comes to uni. The one moment that stands out to me is during the first semester exam period when we were in the Matthesons library helping her learn stats. It was the latest I had stayed at uni, even though I only left at 7:30. Good fun it was, and I think it helped her to a pass.

Timmy!

We love Timmy. I distinctly remember the first time we had a conversation. It was a Friday 8am psych lecture and it was only us two. I saw him sitting outside the lecture theatre so I started talking with him I think, either that or we caught the bus together. Anyway, since no one else was there, I wasn't really in the mood for psych so I bailed leaving him there alone. Good friend eh? That was also the morning I got his number, or he got mine. Start of a good friendship.

Huang!

Pretty much the only person I can keep talking and talking to. I cannot shut up around him, it's quite amazing. Had a great routine of catching the bus home with him and Lily on Wednesday afternoons in semester one. Ah great funs.

Marcus, Anthony and Kylie!

I group these three together because I get the impression they hang out so much as a trio. I've known Marcus and Anthony since year 9 but only met Kylie pretty much just before semester one ended. I loved in second semester every Tuesday, I'd go hang out with them when all the science kids were in class and then go to the science kids when those three were in class. It was a great routine and I looked forward to each and every Tuesday. Also the pleasure I get from watching Kylie eat my brownies cannot be put into words, and I hope that doesn't sound wrong on any level at all.

Anna!

There's just something about Anna. Everyone loves her. And she lives in Sunshine. I remember Anthony introduced her to us at CC upstairs. And then the next time we had a psych lecture, I spotted her sitting a couple of rows in front of us so I told her to sit with us. After the lecture, we went to the library to do some sort of study. Since then, she's been a great person to talk and laugh with. The one moment that still makes me laugh was at the end of a day, I was on the bus and I saw her waiting for her bus. I send her one of those messages that you send someone to let them know you can see them, without directly saying it. The look on her face was absolutely priceless.

Chen and Lily!

I only really became friends with Andrew this year. He is such an amazing person it really is scary. He is what we'd call "The Complete Package", I might even start calling him that on this blog. And then Lily too! I caught the bus with her to and from uni so many times this year it became routine. She even ended up giving me lifts to the station in the morning during second semester, although it only saved 10 minutes.

Sam and Tallon!

These two I could not have lived without. At the start of the year, they were my go-to friends. Bored at any time? Call them and meet up. We even caught the bus home together. Of course that all ended in second semester when we stopped trying. As far as I can recall, I only caught the bus home with those two once or twice in the second half of the year. Surprising, really. I miss those Bubblecup days at Box Hill. Oh how I could go a toffee coffee right now.

Felita

As much as I'd like to, I guess I can't ignore her. Pretty much all of second semester was based around her. We had many a good time. Also many a dollar wasted at pool. The less said the better I reckon.

J-Anne Tan and Kelvin!

My maths buddies! I didn't really meet J-Anne Tan [that's what I call her now] until two or three months in, but that doesn't matter. Had so much fun in lectures with them, and by fun I mean learning. First it was with the brilliant Leo and then the mildly senile Prentice. Also got a lot of help from them with chemistry. Kelvin's power is immense. There's no other way to describe it.

E-wong!

I stuck to him like glue for the first week or so. Then he got fob friends, and I got science friends. Still enjoy a laugh with him, whenever it comes.

Judy, Jenny and Monica!

The Vermont girls! Good fun they always are. It was odd but I never thought I'd be friends with Judy, but I guess if you spend enough time hanging around the same group it's bound to happen. Jenny and Monica are also great people. I don't know why but the psych lab I did with Jenny on the day of Timmy's birthday party just stands out among the memories of the past year. It was memorable, even though I was a blink which lasted too long away from sleep. I ended up going to quite a few psych lectures with Jenny, and Aya too, on Thursdays, after which we'd trudge up to CC upstairs hoping others would come. The one memory I have of Monica is the day I randomly saw her outside Hargraves and then ended up walking her to her bio lab. Ah to be that carefree again.

The rest!

Also met a whole bunch of other people like Andrew and Dickson. Andrew and I get into the stupidest conversations, endless fun. Amy too, although I didn't really talk to her until the end of the year. And then there's also Wilson and Ryan who are great fun to be around. Alan, Tempany, Haran and Ambu included, although they have their med crew. Saw Duc and Phan at various times during the year, and Rob too but he just disappeared. Also the rest of the Com/Law kids like Jack Liang, Charlie, Simon, Meng and James Cheng. I saw Shervin about twice this year, and once was on orientation.

And that should end the mammoth post. It was a fantastic year and it was nothing like what I'd expected from uni. Let's just hope I keep meeting new people. However if that does happen, I'll have to decide who I shall hang out with: the science kids, the old MHS crew or whoever is new? Oh what a splendid problem to have.

So here's hoping to a brilliant '09. And to an Australian Ashes victory!

The posts of 2008

2009-01-01T01:15:00.001+11:00

So here's a collection of my favourite posts from the past 12 months.

S2 Clarke long time
The first of many posts on Sydneygate. Ah a fun couple of weeks that was, which culminated in the confirmation that India is the cricket world's most influential nation.

CNY 2008
The very brief wrap up of Chinese New Year. More importantly was my brilliant rating system, one I forgot about very quickly.

Uni whinge
A post detailing how much I hated uni. Goodness how that opinion changed.

Friendsies
A big rant on all the cool people I've met. And the second one.

All about Easter
Man love.

Dusty rain
I remember going home that day quite vividly. I was with Sam and Tallon and we decided to catch the Blackburn home instead of the Box Hill. On the bus we saw Huang and Lily. By then we had heard there were no trains and were hoping like heck it didn't affect the Beldale line. We were wrong. I ended up getting a lift home with Lily, at the time someone I still really hadn't known very well or talked with a lot. Long story short, it's those kinds of situations where you make new friends. Glad for it.

Not based on a true story
A story inspire by finding out I live so close to Lily. I think it's the one and only piece of fiction I wrote on this blog all year, goodness I would have wanted a bit more than that.

Pho Party! End.
Wrap up of the first pho party, yes sadly there was a second.

I tell the truth
It was the start of something fun. Something fun with a terrible ending. And yes, an ending. Not a twist or anything, a blunt end.

Mystical Curry munch
I just love the title.

STOP THE PRESS!!!!!
Definitely one of my more favourite posts of the year.

Like in the movies
Coincidence of epic proportions. I really do love this story. She actually sent me a message a month or so later telling me that she remembered too. You could not have wiped the smile off my face that day.

Shannon!
This post was done when I felt that things were just a wee bit unfair. In fact, a lot more than a wee bit unfair.

Bye bye, teef
My very first time under the knife. Fun it was too.

Isaac!!!!
Perhaps my favourite day of the year. Part 2 as well.

Birrrffffddddaaaayyy!!!
My birthday, and a good'un too. I didn't go out to celebrate or anything, all I did was do what I enjoy with one of my favourite people in the world. Or in other words, I stayed at home to bake with Jackie. I didn't actually want to spend my birthday any other way. And I'm glad I didn't.

Love For Sale
Oooooh... An ending? Perhaps. I prefer a liberation.

Spiga!
Marcus' birthday again! I think anyone that can have two birthday parties within a single calendar year is pretty impressive. And Kylie's too, but unfortunately I didn't get many opportunities to talk to Kylie.

And that conludes part 1 of my 2008 wrap up. Next will be a detailed, revealing and somewhat embarrassing run down of all my favourite people this year. Looking forward to it!

Operation Six Pack: Mission Aborted!

2008-12-30T01:16:00.000+11:00

They say the fastest way to a girl's heart is through her stomach. This may be the first piece of girl advice from TV I heard. That may be why I want a girl like that.

They say opposites attract, however that is more intense and short lived. I think I'd like someone who share similar interests and hobbies with me. Something to talk about, you know? So if anyone knows any asian girls how like cooking and cricket, please send them my way.

Just on that, how cool would that be?! However I'd probably screw that up by getting overexcited and jumping the gun anyway.

Slowly moving towards Chen's birthday. Very, very slowly. First we have to get through Tuesday and then New Years. However the Friday will be the hardest. It's the epitome of the in-between day. Day after New Year, day before Chen's and start of the third Test. Perhaps I'll go shopping. Apart from that, I don't think I can be assed doing anything more.

I shaved today! It was the first time in a while. It's not that I was trying to grow anything, I was just seeing if anything would. I had grown attached to whatever was there. I'd spend a lot of time just stroking it. Wondering if I kept stroking it, it'd get bigger (I couldn't resist). Now it's gone. Nothing to stroke. Just... baldness. At least I can call myself "clean shaven" now. I've missed that.

And what has become of Operation Six Pack? Aborted. I know that I could have one. All the muscles are there, no doubt about that. It's just that they're hiding, and only hard work and smart dieting can reveal them. Both of which I'm not sure I'm willing to put in. Shame really. It would have been nice. Perhaps I just need to set myself a more realistic goal. Such as... by start of uni. That could work.

Speaking of uni, I cannot wait for it. I miss it. I really do. The thing I most look forward to is just killing time with friends. I look forward to countless hours spent in the CC upstairs, in the law library... Mostly in the law library hopefully this year. A lot more study needs to be done next year than what was done this year. More effective use of time. A laptop will help with that too.

Operation Six Pack: Day One

2008-12-28T01:36:00.000+11:00

I went for a run this morning. It was hard. I remember once upon a time, when I was training for House Cross Country. I would go for runs and be able to knock off 4km easy peasy. That was the fittest I had ever been. In the mornings I'd go to the gym for some treadmill action, and then after school once or twice a week we'd go again for the weights action. Hopefully I can get back to somewhere near that, however not actually having access to a gym doesn't make it easy. If push comes to shove next year, I might start swimming like I planned to earlier this year.

Onto other things, I'm still kind of disappointed I didn't get a job this summer. I'm so freaking lazy. I can't even hide behind other friends that don't have jobs, they all do! Lame, to the max!

Don't you love it when you're watching some old movie, you see a scene and you think "Hey, that was on The Simpsons!". I do! I'm watching All The President's Men right now and now I know where The Simpsons pinched the scene where Smithers is giving information to Bart and Lisa about Burns in the car park. Life would be a lot more boring without The Simpsons, we'd also be a lot stupider. Perhaps skinnier, but definitely stupider.

Operation Six Pack: Day Zero

2008-12-27T00:20:00.001+11:00

Ok, here is the low down! There are six days before Big Chen's (that nickname carries no weight until I meet someone else called Chen) beach party. Which means I have six days to reach my peak, physical state. I acknowledge this challenge and I choose to accept it.

So for the next six days, I shall be not eating crap like chips, not snacking eleventy nine times a day, sit upping, push upping and running. I actually checked the scales the other day and I found I had gained a kilo or two since the start of holidays. I am pretty disappointed with that, so I'll have to atone for that mishap.

The real question is whether I can continue this harsh regimen past next Satday. I can tell myself it's to get into shape for Hong Kong, as physical demanding as that may be. However if I were to do that, the real reason would be to surprise relative who knew me as the fat kid, and show them I have blossommed into the lovingly handsome man butterfly that I am now.

Just on the topic of butterflies, I got awoken by the moth on Christmas Day. It was an odd experience. I was quietly snoozing when I heard this flapping noise. A bit like as if you were flipping through the pages of a book really quickly. I had to open my eyes to see what it was, and then I saw a giant moth flying into my ceiling repeatedly, I guess looking for a way out. I chose to ignore how the moth got in, only accepting the fact it would find a way out. I tried to go back to sleep but I was up by then, so I jumped on the laptop whilst still in bed. I was on that for about half an hour before the moth appeared next to my head, I took that as a cue to get the heck out of there.

Fire = Good!

2008-12-26T00:03:00.000+11:00

Do you know why I love cooking so much? It's because it is so amazingly simple. At the most basic level, all you need is common sense and a bit of experience. Sure, it can be complicated into this complex mess, but there is no reason why it cannot be easy, quick and just plain obvious.

First step to cooking is understanding the role of fire and heat. Generally these are used to warm things up to an extent that they become either more palatable or safe to ingest, sometimes both. There are a number of ways to cook and through learning and practice, anyone can become more than competent.

After that it's deciding what flavours you like. There are many cliched pairings like tomato and basil, lamb and rosemary, pork and apple, etc. These go on and on, and the only way to get some sort of idea is to experiment with anything and everything. Eventually you'll get to the point where you're doing a completely unrelated task and the thought pops into your head: "Hmmm I wonder to *blank* goes with *blank*". When it does, I want you to drop whatever you're doing and do some victory laps, because it means you've grown the balls needed to be able to make your own food.

Like I said, it can be a lot more complicated than that, but you don't have to worry about that till you're either really bored or have an ass load of time on your hands. I don't want people to overestimate their cooking abilities. If children from five onwards can be taught how to cook, then anyone my age can learn.

And that is my Christmas rant! Merry Christmas to all my lovely readers and I look forward to another 12 months of me putting up useless and sometimes insulting crap up here. Coming soon will be a nice little look back on the year, or perhaps just a collection of my favourite posts from the past 12 months.

Last fut of '08

2008-12-24T22:55:00.002+11:00

Whooo I'm a lot sorer than I should be right now. Futsal yesterday was alright. Monday night Tommy and I (mostly him) were working hard to make sure we had the numbers. Luckily it all worked out fine and there were plenty there.

Played ok. About three or four goals that I should have stopped but I was caught out of position. One was directly a consequence of my shoes having absolutely no grip left. I slipped and slid my way through the couple of hours. Good fun though. The one memorable save Matty had just lost the ball in defence to Luke, just on our side of the halfway line. I was moving the away and suddenly I had to change directions. Unfortunately I had to grip, which means changing directions quickly isn't my forte. So I hit the ground, but Luke still had the ball. I stuck a hand out in pure desperation and by some strange turn of luck, he hit it straight to my hand, and there was the flukiest of saves I've made in a long while.

I also realise I no longer slide people when I charge them down. I use to be able to, but now I've lost it. It may be because I wear shorts now, so no protection on the knees for sliding. However I don't even hit the ground anymore on 1-on-1s. I run up and just do my best to cover the angles. It works sometimes, if I move quickly enough my feet block the ball. I like keeping my feet a lot more, however I sacrifice a chance of holding onto the ball.

Diving has also been eliminated from my game. This may be due to having no grip with my shoes, hence no power to dive with. Instead I use my feet to save a lot more balls. Once again, sacrifice the chance of holding the ball, but I can recover a lot quicker and it definitely doesn't kill my hip and elbows as much.

Keeping with gloves has been great fun. I can catch! The confidence it gives me is unbelievable. It's more of a mental hurdle. However catching is still a problem with me. I still think like a cricketer and a footy player. When I go to catch, I always go with the hands. And by that, I mean I never let it come to me and take it on the chest. This causes me problems because it means I'll drop a few I could catch, but it stops me from getting winded and having a sore chest afterwards.

And that's why I love sports so much! Playing is fun, but what gives me more fun is how to play. Technique! Mentality! Pleases me to no end.

EDIT: I just had one of my more retarded moments whilst brushing my teeth. So there I was scrubbing away, and I was pretty pumped up for this late at night. When it came time to spit, I spat a little to vigorously, and as a result, I got a little tooth paste in my eye. Yep. Just tihnk about it for a bit. Next time you brush your teeth, remember! Danger is just around the corner.

Kate Pez!

2008-12-23T00:39:00.002+11:00

Why? Because a girl was singing it at Marcus' the other night while we were waiting for the tram. Admittedly, she wasn't actually singing the song, instead making up her own lyrics, however it is still a very catchy melody.

I'm not very good at opening up to people. It's just not in my nature to directly let people know how I'm feeling. I remember a couple of times I've done it on the past 6 months, and I got completely and absolutely shat on. It's only human to continue not doing it after that.

That's why I need this blog so much. It's where I can vent without expecting a reply. And sometimes that's exactly what I want. Generally, I'm not looking for advice, approval or anything else. I just need an outlet, an ear.

It's interesting, really. During the time I needed to unleash most, I wasn't able to. And I'm not talking about now, I'm talking about two, three, four, five and six months ago. I'm not going to hold back now though, because this is my little haven. I refuse to let anyone or anything stop me saying something I really want to. Only I have that power. And possibly my internet provider.

This will definitely be the last post on all this fuss though. I'm sick of pretending I'm ok about it all, and I'm sick of pretending I'm not ok. It comes and goes. Only it comes less often now. And instead of whatever feelings were once there, there's just this sense of apathy. Nothing.

Problem is, I'm having a wee bit of trouble letting go. I can tell myself it's not there all I want, doesn't make it true. However I can take a bit of solace from two, very similar stories from friends. Both guys had long time crushes on the girl, and both made their feelings known when there was practically no other option. Both boys were given the "friends" line, and both took it badly. In a strange twist of fortune though, both stories had happy endings. The girls turned around and decided to give them a crack.

Upon hearing these stories, all I can think of is how I'd do in the same situation. And to be honest, I would have taken the other path. Recently all I've wanted is not to be the chump. Ironically in doing that, I have become the chump many a time. I'm still learning though. One day I'll get it right. Actually, I don't really want that day to come.

Ok, to reiterate, no more posts on this crap. It has taken up enough of my time and I refuse to give it any more. I need a win.

And looking forward to February! Perhaps I need to start a count-down.

Spiga!

2008-12-21T00:13:00.000+11:00

"Where we're going, we won't need eyes to see."

I got to watch Event Horizon tonight on the television! I love that movie, it is definitely one of my favourites. Apart from being such a brilliant movie, it has provided us with one of the best, creepiest movie quotes ever.

I think I've been going about this the wrong way. I thought that moving on involved completely ignoring, and then forgetting her existence. However that's just like slapping yourself in the thigh to take your mind off the gunshot wound to your arm. Eventually I got tired of slapping myself, and figured I should do something about the bullet wound.

Marcus' and Kylie's yesterday was great fun! Actually yesterday in general was great fun! We played futsal in the afternoon. I managed to pick myself an awesome team yet again. It was (in order of picked) Matt, Luke, Leo and Nick. Good form, good form. I decided to play with gloves and it felt alright. I was a lot more confident in trying to catch shots. However I did let a Tom Wu long ball go straight into my net, a bad error in judgement. We were playing pretty ok until Matt kicked the ball on the roof and the game ended. Epic fail.

As we ended early, we had a bit of time to kill before we needed to be in the city. We sat around at Box Hill before catching the train up, we being Twu, Twang, Jono and Will. Twu and I continued onto Melbourne Central whereas the others went to Twang's house.

We waited at MC for a bit for Duc to arrive, and then we went up to the clocks to meet up with the big crew! And in the big crew, I only knew about four people. Luckily it was a great four people. We all had dinner at some place at MC. I picked the risotto. First time I've had risotto. It was a cheesy and salty affair. However I did finish the dish, instead of leaving half behind on the plate like I usually do.

The rest of the night was just talking to all my Melbourne High idiots and Anna. I ended up leaving at a bit past 11 because I was truly buggered. Got home at 12.30ish and don't remember what till sleep!