Along The Streets In The Rain

[Fantasy – My American Heart]

Glenny fest was on today, and man my feet are sore. This will result in a very short blog about it.

Woke up today to mom yelling that she’s not going to drive out so “late” (it was 10 am), so I pretty much got pissed off, dressed, and ran out of the house.

Got to the fest, and made Lois (Hallelujah, she lives close by) meet me. We walked around and started eating – which was more than we could do at the Jap fest yesterday. It started the game “Will Jenny Be Sick Eating This?”

Saw a trailer with those fun color balls in it. It made me really wish I was smaller (or there were more balls) so I could take a picture of me inside, and caption it “Bazinga”.

Lois had to go to church at some point, so I walked back, and met up with Evon (wow, I haven’t seen her in so long. She’s so tanned now), and her friend Coco (his name, by the way, isn’t Coco. But because he didn’t want to be called Coco, it made sense to call him that).  Walked around a bit more (the amount of walking I did was shocking. I think I did maybe a dozen odd rounds of the festival), and ate more food. I had an ice kacang, which, for 4 dollars, I thought would have been a ripoff EXCEPT they gave it to me in a HUGE ASS SOUP BOWL and I found it hard to finish it after Andrew and I noticed that the melted ice kacang looked a lot like…

Lois re-joined us, and we tried to find places to sit down. Lois realized that the eggs she’d loved to eat prior to church were all sold out. It was a heart shattering moment.

Went into the Glen to chill. We sat at the food court and talked about the previous day, and then we talked about skiing. The plan is this winter, hopefully over my birthday weekend, we’d go up to Buller to ski.

Hopefully.

There was more walking. We came across these 2 kids holding hands, and we reckoned they were probably 12 or 13. It started a 10 minute long conversation about what we did when we were that young.

So I got home at around 6, feet exhausted. I’m still pretty full from the day of eating (at some point I’d called Jenny to explain the food I ate, and it made her feel sick again. Honestly. Oh dear). OH and I nearly forgot, I bumped into Emily as well. It was nice of her to grace us East-siders, now that she’s living on campus.

Alex.

P.S. Josh asked me to clarify: He did not appreciate my calling him “his highness” and making it sound like he complained “more than he actually did” because the others were “too quiet to complain anyway”. I wasn’t being sarcastic; I was quoting him. Okay. Conscience lifted.

P.P.S. Speaking of conscience: Jenny, I’m sorry.

P.P.P.S. I just tagged all the food I ate today. So if you want to read it, go ahead.

Can You Hear The Sound Of Hysteria?

[American Idiot – Greenday]

Alright! I’m writing this on time. Today, I went to the Jap festival thing that Jenny dragged me to. Yes, I will say dragged.

Now, beforehand she told me that she might be ditching me for a bit because she has a birthday dinner with some friends. So I didn’t want to be alone, so I texted Josh to come meet up. He was home, but he said okay and came out anyway.

There seemed to be problems in his interpretation of my perfectly worded text, he arrived at Southern Cross at 3, when I said PAST 4! So I made him wait at Southern Cross for a good hour, before telling him we’re going to be at Flinders Street.

Took the train up with Wilson, Kevvy and Jenny. Met Josh at Flinders (that boy complained) and then waited til Andrew (from now on, if I refer to Andrew, it’s Andrew from Brentwood. If I say Hamwu, that’s Dani’s Andrew) arrived. Then took the tram down to Waterfront City. (As we went past Southern Cross station, Josh gave me a greasy look.)

Okay, so I think I will take the blame here, and I got off about 2 stops early. We followed 2 people who were in costumes, who we assumed were Cosplayers, about halfway down the docks, until we thought, no. No that’s not right.

We looked across the body of water, and saw the festival in the distant bank. EVERYONE RAGED AT ME! (Sort of. Ok I raged at myself.) Turned out the “Cosplayers” were actually just in cossies for a costume party. We knew this because 2 minutes later a guy in a full body purple superhero costume walked past.

Finally made it to the festival (see, if I had seen April’s old place a bit earlier, I’d’ve had some point of reference. But as things were, the building was behind me, and I got my directions mixed up). We walked in, found Lois, realized the line for food stretched way into the water (jokes, but not really), and literally sort of turned a few times, watched women wrestling on screen, and then walked out and went to Harbor Town Shopping Center and bought KFC.

Got the Ninja Assassin, Year One and American Virgin DVDs off Lois! Very excited to watch. After KFC, we went to Melbourne Central (I was pretty sure Josh wanted to kill me because I took him back to where he was before), and then to Chinatown. There, Jenny ditched the rest of us (Andrew, Kevvy, Wilson, Josh and myself) for dinner with her group. So yes. We went to play pool at Strike. Josh gave Kevvy the nickname of Cloud, because he looked like him (Final Fantasy). Kevvy pulled off a few insane ninja shots, like jump shots, crazy blind pottings, etc, it was awesome.

Andrew potted the black, thus losing his game.

Finally, Jenny said she’s nearly done. We trekked back to Chinatown, IN THE DRIZZLE NO DOUBT, and picked her up from the restaurant. She said she wasn’t feeling well.

After that, we walked back to QV (Because it would be nearer to Josh’s bus stop, and like hell I’d make his highness walk anymore than he should). Andrew got more KFC (but mind, it has been about 3 hours since we ate prior), and then Jenny and Lois disappeared.

To cut a long story short, Jenny was sick again.

Said bye to Josh, and took Jenny back very gingerly. I may have teased you a lot on the train, dear, but I really was very worried.

At least the staff at KFC were helpful. I said my friend was sick, and we needed bags, and they gave us about 5.

Uni starts in 2 days. I am officially getting those twists in my stomach.

Alex.

P.S. Thanks Josh for shouting me that creamy cookie puff thing at QV. I recommend them, but actually I think they’re better cold.

Honey, Why You Callin’ Me So Late?

[Lips Of An Angel – Hinder]

It was on shuffle, okay?! This won’t be too long, but yesterday I went to Pommy’s place.

I went up to Glen early to buy my monthly (I’m still Team Metcards, sorry. Myki has yet to prove itself to me.) and recharge docket.

Bummed at the Glen for ages. My legs were sore from the day prior, having to bend over to pick up juggling balls (YES I KNOW I’M UNFIT OKAY?!) so I was sort of limping. Walked around David Jones to kill time. Saw some interesting clothes but I’m not a shopper.

Then I went to Happy Cup, and waited and waited for everyone to arrive. Took the bus up to Rowville, and then walked to Pom’s house.

We watched Marley and Me, and by the end I was playing “does Marley die when…?” with Andrew (not Dani’s Andrew). Picked up Jenny.

Had a huge lunch – I think Pom’s mom thought there would be 30 of us or something. So we ate and ate.

Then we started watching Disaster Movie because they all refused to watch Ninja Assassin (by they, I meant Jenny) and I don’t think everyone liked it very much but I did!

After that we started playing Blackjack dares. If those pictures ever make it on FB I think I’m going to crawl into a hole.

There were lots of laughs – at first I was pretty much not caring, so I was busting pretty high. Not as high as Pom did once at 30 – and some awkward dares.

Lois and Andrew made this drink that was basically half a beer bottle of vinegar, water, with some of those hot chillis soaked in for a few good days, and some beer powder. Nashi drank it and nearly choked. I took a swig, and it certainly had a kick to it. Like. A soccer ball in the face sort of kick.

Had pizza in 10 minutes because the last bus was going to leave soon – okay, seriously, Rowville: 8:51 is the last bus?! WHAT?! – and hugged everyone goodbye.

Actually managed to get home on time to watch White Collar.

I’m so tired.

Alex.

I’ve Been The Needle And The Thread

[Must Get Out – Maroon 5]

Sorry, but I haven’t been so diligent in writing up everything that happened.

On Thursday I went up to Melb U again. Took the train up with Jenny (who, by the way, made me wait at Mt Wav for ages and then made me sit in the sun. Jenny, I thought I told you! I hate waiting, and I hate the sun), and then went up to Melb U by myself. Found the Sydney Asia Myer Center easily, and surprise surprise bumped into Annie going to the theater. I swear. That chick is everywhere.

The lecture was pretty boring as well, but at least the lecture theater looked pretty awesome. Afterwards, Annie went up to the place where she had interviews for Chinese (yelled at Josh over SMS for being late), and then we decided to find Union House by “wandering along in a straight line until we hit something”.

After that, it really was just a blur of clubs, freebies etc. Went back and forth from Bookshop back to Union House etc, met up with Josh who’d by that time decided to grace us with his presence. Met Pris’ friends Sarah and Vits. I joined Aa, which I don’t remember the full name but it has to do with Asians. Then we stumbled across the juggling club, and after severe failure, Jen and I thought, “yes, we should join this club.”

Watched Flare perform, and Annie and I played “what percentage is that overly enthusiastic guy gay?” I started at 90%, but by the time he’d finished with some booty shaking, and shimmy-shimmying, we shot up to 190%.

Picked up Anna along the way, and then we walked around trying to find the rumored “free beer”. We came across the pub crawl, and followed it. On the way, we all thought, “Oh no, this will be okay. Jackie will be able to get in; they can’t possibly check all our IDs.” Well they did, and Jackie, being 4 months shy of drinking age, couldn’t go in. So I stayed outside with her, watching the others drink through the window (they weren’t easing up on the showing off either). Then Jackie and I went to a nearby park place, and sat down on the grass. The others joined us soon, and we sat around listening to – sigh – Korean music.

After that, we all took the tram back to Melb Central. Said bye to everyone, and I found Jenny again, who’d just been to her own RMIT orientation deal, and was full to the brim of stories of RMIT students. I tried to listen but I was tired and hungry.

Jenny bumped into her friends from PLC at Melb Central, and I went to greet them too. Then, we finally went to the Original Lolly Store, and bought the Pop Rocks I’d wanted since the TAYG filming.

And that was Thursday. My feet hurt. Oh and that night I was talking to Josh on MSN and he offered to teach me to dance (so did Dom, but Dom didn’t do anything about it. I don’t know if Josh would. Let’s see.)

Alex.

Everybody’s Screaming

[Untitled – Simple Plan]

You know, the whingey one. Now, I haven’t written about yesterday, and since I have some time to kill before I gotta go shower, so I’ll write about both days.

Yesterday was my first O-day thing at Melbourne. I took the train up with Elmo (…Did I call her Jackie or Elmo? Who cares. It’s Jackie now.) and met up with Jen at Melbourne Central. She texted me saying “see you UCMC.” I replied, “Wtf is UCMC?” Now, who here remembers that blog post where I wrote “I invented a new acronym for ‘under the clock at Melb Central’ so it’s easier and faster to type”? Yes, I failed at remembering my own code.

Took the tram up to Melb U, and went to get my ID and concession cards done. I managed to look like a gimp in mine. Yes. I’m now stuck with it for 3 years.

Made it to my Host group just on time, despite getting lost and having to call my Host. Didn’t really know anyone there, quite a few of the other students in my group are doing Art as breadth or something, as a 2nd year transfer, or something like that, so I felt pretty small.

Oh, but there was this Norwegian guy in my group who closely resembled Cory Monteith from Glee. I may or may not have been walking close to him for the rest of the tour, just to hear his accent.

After the Host tour, I caught back up with Jen, Jackie, and then met up with Nay. We went around trying to get free stuff. We went to the Nando’s stall, thinking they’d hand out free Peri Peri sauce packets. We did get a packet. On the front it said “Not for soft cocks”. It took a good 20 seconds for us to realize we were each given a condom.

Got more free stuff walking around; lined up for 20 minutes for pancakes that came with really good strawberries, and then lined up for 20 minutes for the free BBQ. While we were eating we bumped into an old face from back old VET days with Nay. To cut a long story short, that was a very bad meeting.

Then lined up for snow cones. I wanted a massage too but you had to show that you were in the Student Union, not just lying and saying “yes I am” to get a free snow cone…

Caught up with more MacRob girls, then went home with Jackie. Hung out at the Glen for a bit before taking the bus back, just ‘cos there was nothing else to do.

Anyway, that was Tuesday. Now onto today.

Took the train up with Jackie again, and dropped her off at her building, which was pretty far away from the rest of the buildings. Went to my building which took a good 5 minutes to find, with many rotating bodies and maps.

Caught up with Spanna, who I hope doesn’t mind but from now I’m going to call Annie, her actual name. Then the Asian friends she made the previous day arrived, so I introduced myself. Thus I met Kristie (Christy? Christie? You know what I mean) and Josh. Josh, who was from Scotch, turned out to actually have many mutual friends with me. Also saw Pris, who looked really tanned, still.

Fast forward through a rather boring lecture, and we were lined up for the free BBQ (I love Uni having free BBQs all the time. Apparently later on they’ll have more, but with alcohol instead of soft drinks). Jen and Mai appeared, and smoothly we let them cut in line with us. Introduced Jen and Mai to Josh.

There’s a Facebook event called “Make things sexually awkward” so I decided to bring that up. It resulted in Annie asking Mai to hug Josh, because Mai has…rather…well…endowed assets. And Josh’s response was bloody funny (Let me clarify now that it was all in good humored fun, good humored and platonic fun, there was nothing there and it was all a joke):

“Wait, why are you hu-…WOAH!”

It was fantastic. And. Very awkward. So, mission accomplished.

As we were eating our lunch later, Dom and D.P. came along. Dom ditched us to hang off his MHS buddies (literally), so Josh was the only guy sitting with us. Had a pretty good lunch (I also remember an instance where Mai was holding my sunnies, and Josh pointed at them saying “Woah they’re HUGE!” But Mai was holding my sunnies around her chest area), and thank God we sat in the shade.

Went to another lecture thing later on, and it was so boring and patronizing. After that, Jen and I went to a final lecture, and I nearly fell asleep, or I did fall asleep, I can’t remember. Afterwards caught up with Annie and Josh who’d ditched us for something else. Jackie found us again, and then we took the tram back down to Melbourne Central.

At Melb Central, I managed to bump into Catherine and all, and it was fantastic to see them again! They were coming back from their Swimming Carnival (haha high school carnivals). Got home with a blister on my foot, from having to walk so much. Yes I am complaining.

So that’s my first 2 days of O week – two more days after this. There’s something happening with the Arts camp I think but I don’t know what. It’s rather confusing. Maybe I should rephrase: Arts “camp”. Yes, that does sound more suss. Good.

Will keep you posted.

Alex.

I Love That Thing You Do

[That Thing You Do – Busted]

Might have used the song already. Anyway, I’m writing this on the eve of my first University orientation day. Am I excited? You bet. Am I slightly nervous? Actually, no. I’m not nervous about the Orientation stuff, I’m more nervous about actually starting Uni. I suppose going to those Orientation lectures about how to deal with lectures…will help, hopefully.

There is a blog for first year Melb Uni students to write their adventures. I tried logging in but um, apparently, you have to register properly. I got a bit annoyed that I might have to go with 2 WordPress accounts. Still. Wouldn’t hurt to keep a track on both blogs right? It’s just THAT one won’t contain stories of my personal life.

Whenever I mention that I’m about to head off into Uni, whoever I talk to, granted they’re older, all say “Oh Uni was a crock.” But I’m pretty set on doing well in Uni so I can get a good head start into the career path I want. Is Uni really that much of a bull?

I wonder how I’m going to fare, making new friends tomorrow. From what I can gather, all the people in my host group are strangers – and looking around on AAD I would guess that all of them will be strangers of the white ethnicity. I might be the only little tiny Asian girl walking around with them. I hope they’re all strangers to each other, otherwise I’d have no friends! Oh come on, cheer up Alex, you’ll make friends.

Who said that?

I suppose I’ll have to get to making that new category called “Uni” and start blogging more frequently now. My holiday of slobbing out in front of the computer is pretty much over. Time to kick my brain into gear again (although something tells me that this might take a while).

Alex.

P.S. I somehow managed to edit my subject timetables early. So. Because of some stupid full classes I have to go in 4 days a week, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and on Friday only for 2 hours in the morning.

Oh hello Med students.

It’s A Thrill I Can’t Shake

[Roses and Butterflies – Making April]

I think I’ll try to explain how to play Minesweeper today.

I know you can just google it, but I always thought it would be fun to try to explain something.

Minesweeper isn’t a game of luck (for most parts). It’s a game of simple logic and having a good eye.

It also relies heavily on you being able to count. Can you count? If you can’t count, then don’t try to play this game.

Alright, so what are the numbers and etc for?

Alright, I pretty much set up a custom made field that is very very very easily solved. (I’m using Windows 7, so it looks different.) You see how in the middle there’s a block of 1s surrounding an untouched block?

The numbers indicate how many mines are next to it. IMMEDIATELY next to it. As in top, bottom, left right, or diagonally.

So in this block of 1s, there is only 1 mine in the center.

But look at the bottom of the screen, there is a long block, and amongst the numbers there is a 2.

Now, you’d think that the mines would be…

Right? No. Look at the top cross, it has two 1s, immediately to its right and left.

Because those 1s already have a mine recorded next to it, it can’t have another mine in any of the other 8 directions (top, bottom, left, right, and diagonally etc). Therefore, the bottom cross which would be diagonally down from the 1s on other side of the top cross should NOT be a mine.

So what is it really?

The crosses are where the mines are, the blocks are the safe ones.

That’s a pretty basic and easy way of solving minesweeper. Once you get to bigger numbers, it’s a lot trickier.

That’s intermediate level, and I couldn’t be bothered doing any more.

But as you can see (hopefully) it’s just a matter of counting how many mines are already discovered for a certain number. If there is already 2 mines for a 2, then all the other spaces immediately adjacent to that 2 would be safe.

Start off with easy levels – or make your own custom easy levels – and you’ll get used to counting and looking out for mines.

To answer: no I have yet to finish an expert completely, my best streak ended at 17 mines to go.

Happy mine hunting!

Also, and this is just a funny thing: On Windows 7 there is an option to change it from mines to flowers. Hey, world peace starts with one small game, right?

Alex.

/edit.

P.S., while the concept is the same, the way to win in Minesweeper on MSN games is very different, because it is a turn-based game. So today when I thought I could beat Katherine, I was soundly defeated in the first round, and only managed to scrape by the 2nd round as the victor through sheer luck. I take my hat off to Katherine.

She Laughs At My Dreams But I Dream About Her Laughter

[Just The Girl – The Click Five]

Today was Tiff’s farewell get-together thing.

I just missed a connecting bus at Glen Waverley in the morning, because some old stupid hag (yes, call me ageist, call me whatever, I’m pissed off) took 5 minutes to explain that she’s too senile and stupid to bring money with her for a Metcard, and the connecting bus was only there for an extra 3 minutes after when my first bus was meant to arrive.

I watched my connection bus drive by me as I pulled into the bus station.

So I sat down at the foodcourt and started sending lyrics to Jenny’s Facebook. I got to as many as nearly 10 songs before I went for the next bus.

Arrived at Tiff’s in time to see everyone much Hana Kimi. Then we moved to the living room and started watching Kill B ill after long debates about what to watch, and actually watching the winter Olympics and Dr Phil (I made everyone notice how funny he blinks).

It seemed not many people enjoyed the violent hilarity of Quentin Taratino. I was just pleased to watch Lucy Liu own the screen.

After Kill Bill finished we started watching Austin Powers. I felt a killer headache coming on so I hugged Tiff goodbye (for the last time?!) and left.

On the way home, I felt like I was going to faint. So something went wrong there.

I feel slightly better now, but the headache is still pounding. But I will last for White Collar tonight!

Goodbye Tiff. You damned better keep in touch with us!

Alex.

P.S. Jenny got a blog. I’ll put it on my blogroll now. She’s just starting out so not much to read yet. A lot people seem to have slowed/stopped blogging. For example, this time last year, Bianca had her blog “A Beautiful Dream Come True” which she has now taken off public viewing. Carmaine’s blog is gone. Dom hasn’t updated in ages. April is in Japan and Dani occasionally updates. A small part of me is glad that I kept going. On the other hand, my ratings show that I don’t get that many readers anymore.

Perhaps I should specialize more. Mr Gadget, a friend of mine through Eunice, blogs mostly about techy stuff, as he should. I don’t think I’m at a point in life when I can specialize into anything yet. I hope someone will find the fact that I’m venturing into university interesting.

My head hurts.

Another Ghost That’s Been In Your Bed

[Bubble Wrap – McFly]

Today I said goodbye to one of my best friends Cathy. She went to QLD. She’ll be back in 7 weeks for a bit but that’s not the point!

Woke up at 6:30 (I swear, I fucking swear the birds were still sleeping) and quickly had breakfast. Took a 7:40 something train up to Southern Cross, and bought a Skybus ticket. Took the bus to the airport feeling severely under-luggaged – everyone else was carrying at least one respectably sized suitcase, and I was carrying an obviously empty Country Road bag.

Caught up with Cathy and chatted for a bit, and had a good hug (I was suppressing tears, for her sake, I swear). Then took the bus back. On the way back I overheard a couple asking the lady next to me if she knew how to get to Lt Bourke St. Since I was going to Melb Central to meet with Jenny after, I offered to walk them there. Had a chat about the weather differences between Melbourne and Toronto, about why they’re here in Melbourne when there’s a Winter Olympics going on over there, and all that stuff. I was glad I decided to be the nice local for them to start a good holiday here.

Met up with Jenny, and got tickets to Daybreakers which I knew proved to be interesting as 1) it’s about vampires and 2) Jenny hates thrillers. Had lunch at Nando’s (where I discovered she couldn’t handle chilli at all) where Jenny had her first experience of Peri Peri chips. Then we went to Southbank, where I discovered that Jenny hates bridges and heights and deep water (which is pretty much how to cross Southbank). Then we went back to Melb Central, and met up with Catherine (major yay, DESPITE her WAGGING). After that, we sat in the arcade for a bit, then went to see the movie.

To her credit, Jenny wasn’t as bad as April in Disturbia. April in Disturbia was embarrassing. Jenny managed to not be embarrassing. Then again, to her, most of the movie was her hand covering her eyes.

Daybreakers was pretty interesting. I mean, story wise, it wasn’t anything deep and meaningful, pretty basic stuff. But their spin on vampirism, and how vampires deal to survive, and the brutality of beasts, were very refreshing. Also, there was a lot of gore. The movie relied heavily on loud sounds and sudden moves, as well as a LOT of blood flying everywhere to get the bone chilling factor, but oh well, what else can they do? At least these vampires fucking sizzled and burned in the sun, unlike another unmentionable.

In all, a pretty good day. I got a text when we were at Southbank from Cathy saying that my plane letter made her cry for an hour. Ah win! She made the point that we might see each other more when she comes down to visit than we did in 09. Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone? True.

I miss you, “Bi Bo Boop”.

Alex.

A Footnote In Someone Else’s Happiness

[Does Your Husband Know – Fall Out Boy]

Happy Chinese New Year, and happy Valentines for 2010!

This is YEEEEEEEEEEAR…of the TIIIIGER! (Sing that to Eye Of The Tiger).

I didn’t write about Thursday, so this will be fast, since it’s quite late.

On Thursday I went to Monash Uni to play badminton with Jenny, Lois and He-. It was a very hot day, and so I sweated a LOT. But it was a good feeling to finally do something active again – even though I knew at the time, and surely enough it did happen, my body would pay for it afterwards.

After badminton (in which He- soundly beat me) we went to Maccas (yes the irony isn’t lost on me) for lunch. Just managed to catch the 12 – 2 lunch specials, so got a six-dollar Quarter Pounder meal.

Said bye to Lois and He- after lunch, and went with Jenny to Cold Rock. It started raining by then (just started. Little did we know how bad it would get) so we went into the Glen and hid out in the food court. I left with Mom came to pick me up, and when we were about 2 minutes away from the front door it really broke loose. The 10 second dash from car to door actually soaked me.

And my area had it easy. South Melbourne and Flinders, as reported on the news, were at times knee deep in water.

Jenny told me afterwards that after I left the power went out at the Glen and she was left stranded there in the dark.

I laughed.

Friday was uneventful; took Mom to the doctors for her routine checkup, and bought pizza home because Dad wasn’t going to be home for dinner and obviously she doesn’t trust my cooking.

Today I woke up after having slept 10 hours without realizing it again – seriously, I thought I’d broken the habit! – and went out to finally buy the coleslaw I’ve been craving the entire day prior. I ate coleslaw while watching the Vancouver opening ceremony, but went downstairs to watch Conan movies halfway through.

Got my computer back – as you can see – and now I’m running on Windows 7. The interface is still something I should get used to.

That’s a quick catch up for now. Originally was going to go to St Kilda fest and/or movies with Jenny tomorrow/today (technically today, by now) but she has to stay home to take care of her brother. So postponage!

Alex.