Moonlight Would Provide The Spark

[Three Cheers For Five Years – Mayday Parade]

Serena brought it to my attention that I never finished this post.

As this was two years ago and I’m not bothered enough to check back, I’ll do them all now. I actually have a post in draft for the last few days that I didn’t write, but since I have to sleep within the hour, this might be faster.

Day 01: Your views on death, how you cope, etc. – If I answered this already, forgive me. I guess my answer will be different now. Since then, I’ve come across two deaths, one close but not extremely close to me, and another in my own family. Both were very sad but not in the shock tragic way. The former is definitely very upsetting, since it was my friend who battled cancer for eight years, and who ultimately lost to it. The thing is, the whole family knew it was coming, so they had time to prepare, to spend time and to smile and laugh. Her last days were spent in the company of her friends and family, so all things considered, it was pretty beautiful. The second death was my own grandfather, and it was a bit of a shock, but he was old, he lived a full, happy life, and there were no prolonged pain and suffering. He left my grandmother with a place to live, money to spend, and they had a lifetime of memories together. So my views? Death sucks, obviously, since it’s the ending of an existence, but I’d prefer to think about them when they lived, and how good they lived, and in that way they can continue existing in a sense, and positively so.

Day 02: How you introduce yourself to new people. – I try to be myself, but for the most part I gauge the situation. It’s easy to create a public persona, a funny, slightly inappropriate jokey, kind of persona, and just let that take care of the social conventions. But let’s be honest, we all do that. It’s how society is made for us to survive in, and instead of condemning it, think about the kind of people in your life around whom you could drop your public persona easily. It makes times with them even more special.

Day 03: What you think about love. – Judging by the time stamp, this was initially written just before I met Amelia. June 2011, I was pretty into someone else, and it wasn’t requited. I would have been a bit naive, hopeful but ultimately cynical about it. Now, I think it’s probably at the stage where I think love is definitely something which can fix someone, but also an elusive something which you may never know you’ve had, because who knows what love is? How can you tell you’re in love, and not just deep infatuation? And more importantly: does it matter? If you’re happy, and they’re happy, and your sex drive is VERY happy, then does it matter if it’s not really “love”?

Day 04: Write about someone you love. – Please see previous posts about Amelia. SORRY I just have to sleep very soon.

Day 05: A list of things you fancy doing. – Lately, I’ve been working more, so I do appreciate down times when I can read a good comic or book, or watch some shows while playing Jetpack Joyride, or reading about cool new techie things. I also really, really enjoy cuddling Amelia’s dog Meg.

MEG3

Day 06: Recommend some books to read. – This might just show my immaturity and taste in literature, but a few books I’ve been recently reading that I really enjoyed:

Perfume – the Story of A Murderer by Patrick Suskind (yes, I saw the movie first)

A Song of Ice and Fire (the series Game of Thrones is based off of) by G. R. R. Martin

Repotting Harry Potter – A Professor’s Book-by-Book Guide for the Serious Re-Reader by James W. Thomas (a wonderful way to also read through the series itself as you go along)

The Casual Vacancy (Where Rowling shows she really, really understands how people work) by J. K. Rowling

White Fang (literally one of the first adult English books I ever read, and I fell in love with it) by Jack London.

I’m also going to recommend some comics which I like.

Saga – Image Comics. The illustration is astonishingly beautiful, and Fiona Staples conveys emotions so artfully that some panels are laugh out loud funny, because of the way she’d draw the characters. The story is also compelling, but now that I’m waiting monthly for them instead of consuming them in one go, I feel like it’s so slow!

Chew – Image Comics. I have a thing for Image. Chew is funny and then punch-you-in-the-guts heartbreaking without notice. It takes quite a lighthearted approach at a really, really morbid theme, and it’s so fun to see where everything is headed.

Rising Stars – Image Comics. This series ended a while back, and I blew through it in one day. I’d wanted to savor it slowly, but before I knew it, it was pitch black and I had a sore butt, but I was just sobbing at how things turned out. It’s like Heroes, but better (which isn’t saying much, I guess).

American Vampire – Vertigo. Ever since reading Preacher (which is also good, but I won’t put it on my list), I thought Vertigo would come out with weird-ass things (just like Hellblazer too), but American Vampire’s story really SUCKED me in, even considering the fact that it had time jumps and deviations in protagonist focus. The world which Snyder created is so engrossing I wish they could make a bigger thing of it.

Fables – Vertigo. Also a surprisingly not weird series. It’s like Once Upon A Time but not so whiney. The reason I got into it was because I read a review for Wolf Among Us, which is the Telltale Game’s prequel to Fables. The game sounded fun, and the comics did too, so I gave it a go. Great decision, cannot wait for the game now.

Numbercruncher – Titan Comics. This was one of those random new comics recommended by Comixology, and I gave it a go. It was strange to start with but then the premise really grabbed me, then it continued being extremely awesome, and it’s something I’d totally re-read slowly while contemplating the idea behind it.

The Bunker – Hoarse and Buggy Productions. Yet another random digital-only recommendation, which turned out to be very time-travelly mind-bendy stuff. It’s slow in picking up and just started, so it’s not built up to much yet, but the creators are promising something huge, and I hope they deliver!

Day 07: Write about the arts (music, art, dancing). – Obviously, these things are all around us and we don’t realize it. It feels like these institutions have been built to such an elitist state that, if you’re not AMAZING AND TOTALLY ACE at it, then you’re relegated to “sucking” and “keep it as your hobby”. I mean, for most people, it probably is a hobby anyway, but they don’t need you to tell them that. I wish I was good at all three, because musicians/artists/dancers are sexy, but I think I’m okay with just writing and storytelling.

Day 08: Write a poem. – I once took a creative writing class where one of the assessments was to write a poem. I think poems are also built to be something more than it needs to be. Poems are meant to be a gathering of words in a way which draws beauty and instills thought and emotions into the reader. Just because you didn’t write it in a bloody sonnet format doesn’t make it any less special. A limerick isn’t any lesser than a haiku. A kid who wrote an acrostic poem using the word “MOMMY” and writing about how much they love their mother means a lot more to that mother than anything Hemingway could have come up with, because poetry isn’t about how poncy you are, it’s about the emotion behind it. In other words, I can’t really be bothered writing one right now.
Day 09: Photo of your favorite pillow. – I only have one pillow, and it’s light blue. Unless you want a photo of Meg again?

Day 10: How you wake up in the morning. – I tend to wake up more often to alarm clocks than not, then I take 10 minutes to scroll through my overnight Twitter feed, especially for interesting news, then I get up and do my stuff.
Day 11: Write about your sibling(s) or what it’s like to be an only child. – Being an only child can be lonely sometimes, and also your parents pressure you a lot, since they only have you to make them proud. But, you get lots of stuff, so whatevs, right? It’s getting late and these questions ask too much of me!
Day 12: Your relationship with your parents. – I think this is a bunch of worms which need to remain in the can for tonight.
Day 13: Write about what you believe in, be it God, yourself, etc. – I believe in finding happiness, and one’s innate right to be happy, no matter how. Of course, if being happy means you absolutely need to go on a killing rampage, then maybe you shouldn’t be happy, or even alive. I’m not really one for all-life-is-sacred, because in the end we have about 6 billion on this planet, (I’m the only one with the uncanny ability to be awesome,) about half of them is in a constant state of poverty and probably dying, and the other half cares that a deranged gunman not get a death sentence? Again, let’s keep those worms for another day. My point is, being happy is all you should aim for, because once you die, who knows what else comes after?
Day 14: What you do for Valentine’s Day. – I’m not allowed to celebrate this day because Amelia hates it.
Day 15: Write about the best gift you’ve ever received. – It’s hard for me to pinpoint the best gift, since I constantly want and get tired of new things. I think that a photo album that a friend gave me when I left my old school was probably the most heartfelt and sweet thing, though.
Day 16: Write another poem, about the weather. – Roses are red, the sky is blue, the rain is gray, brown is poo.
Day 17: Post your favorite gif.

Cry3I used this reacting to when Amelia said that we were no longer in the honeymoon period.
Day 18: Your plans for tomorrow. – I work 8 hours.
Day 19: Write about something you fear. – I’m scared that Amelia will find being with me too tiresome as times goes on, because we either have to hide it from our families forever, or come out and face the consequences. We’re both bi, so I’m worried she’ll end up finding it easier just to be with a guy who she can be public with. But that’s silly, because she loves me, and her dog has basically imprinted on me so it will take too long for it to love someone else.
Day 20: What did you eat for dinner last night? – Dad fried up some Spam and we ate it with burger buns and he also made soup.
Day 21: Your favorite thing to drink. – SO I HAD MY FIRST WET PUSSY (well…”second”) TONIGHT AND IT WAS DELICIOUS AND I LOVE IT.
Day 22: How you take your coffee or tea. – I usually have a latte with one sugar, but I used to do double shots with one sugar as well. I take tea black with one sugar, unless it’s green, then no sugar.
Day 23: Your favorite thing to wear. – I like wearing hoodies because they feel like mobile blankets.
Day 24: Another poem, about the shoes you wear most often. – Roses are red, my shoes are purple, some bits are black, so black and purple.
Day 25: Write about where you live. – I live on a street predominantly white, and we used to have a problem with some kids down the road, who would ding-dong ditch us, and they escalated to kicking our trash over, harassing my mom when she’s working in the front yard, and once egged our house. They’ve stopped recently, though.
Day 26: Your favorite smell. – Amelia! Also bacon. OH IMAGINE IF AMELIA COOKED BACON!
Day 27: Your thoughts on the internet. – I don’t see a problem with the internet itself, I see a problem with people. It’s like guns. Yes, guns are bad things and they kill people, but honestly, a gun sitting there by itself wouldn’t be that scary, but you put a pair of hands on it and WOAH it’s a problem. It’s the same thing with the internet. It’s a great way to connect things that are otherwise unable to be connected, but once you put a human behind the mouse and….
Day 28: Write about how you feel today. – I’m a bit annoyed that I spent all day watching TV and not doing some writing, but it is my rest day after all, so I should just be happy I got to rest. Next week is a tough working week, but I’ve got Pokemon Y to look forward to on Saturday!

I’ve Broken My Heart So Many Times I’ve Stopped Keeping Track

[Haven’t Met You Yet – Michael Buble]

Day 07: Write about the arts (music, art, dancing).

Well, the very idea of writing about something is the arts, isn’t it?

And seeing as how I am studying the Arts, you’d think I’d have a lot of things to write about.

Look, I don’t like it when Arts make themselves more pompous and contrived than everyone else. I don’t like it when, to be considered High Class, you have to go see an opera, understand the hell they’re singing, get the deeper message, and come out of it complaining that the soprano was actually better suited as an alto.

To me, music, art, dancing, whatever, it’s just something that should be enjoyed. And if you happen to enjoy slightly ‘trashy’ music, or you would rather pump your fists to a steady beat than to draw out some complicated rhythm with your damn shoulder-blade, or your idea of art is to draw a funny stick figure comic rather than sweeping swatches of emotions, then that’s great for you, and if it gives you good feelings, then that’s all I care about.

And if you happen to like shoulder-blade dancing and fancy paintings, and that makes you happy too, then go for it!

The one thing I do not like about studying Arts is the expectation of what kind of person I should be. I am an Arts student, therefore I must understand and have an opinion on Marxism, and smoke a pack before lunch, and slowly but surely grow a terrible haircut.

But if that’s what makes you happy. I can’t care less.

Alex.

You’re So Square, Yo Momma Was A Box!

2010 MacRob Chorals was amazing.

Because of a collapsed school hall, they’d hired the Town Hall on Collins St. Because of this, the Madrigals sounded freaking BEAUTIFUL! Dryads (the green house) won the Madrigals with a student-arranged version of Big Yellow Taxi. Props to Oreads (red) coming in 2nd, and to Ange’s pro conducting.

The performances were really amazing as well; touching stories about shadows, bravery, treasuring the one you love and the true badness of fairytale villains. The Oreads did an amazing rendition of Thriller by Michael Jackson, and had some of the best quotes of the night (see title). The Nereids (white) had a wonderful concept of “shadows”, having another actress literally shadow every move the main actress makes. The Naiads (blue) had amazing choreography (oh but for one tiny slightly hilarious mishap) but it was the Dryads who took out 1st place, having attempted to and succeeded in hitting an emotional note that would no have been easy, with an amazing duet rendition of You’ve Got The Love, original by Florence + The Machine. AMAZING singing.

We also got treated to a preview of the Musical this year – Little Shop of Horrors – which got everyone wanting to go.

This was also why I was 1 day behind on my Project 365, but I’ve made up for it!

Congratulations to everyone who participated in the Chorals this year; it was really really was special treat!

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.

I can be your hero, baby… OOOH OOOH OOOH

I’ve left myself a very small amount of time to write about a huge day/night. I’m really sorry!

So, last night was Chorals. Chorals is a sort of house-competition musical thing that MacRob does annually. It’s a big deal, house-wise.

This was the first, and last, Chorals I have been/will be in. It was hectic, especially in the last few days. People yelled at people, and it was all okay because it was all for Chorals.

On Tuesday, I spent Period 4, lunch and the start of Period 5 in the hall rehearsing with the orchestra. I’ve never been in an orchestra before, so this is massively awesome being in a huge musical performing group (I was doing guitar for Hero, by Enrique. I think I’ve mentioned this).

Alright, so Wednesday morning was all good and all for the ones not that in charge of anything. But then 1:30 came and there was a massive problem with who gets the hall when. We hung around wringing our hands for about an hour before it was decided that 3:45 was our hall time, 3:00 was our prior-to-hall-rehearsal. Jen and I went on a Maccas run (unfortunately, that won’t be my last. I had a whole day of Maccas on Wednesday. Say it with me: FAT). She told me a rather amusing story on the way which I won’t repeat for her sake. On the way home we ran across SonJ and Diep, and soon realized we’d gotten on the No 1 Tram to Sth Melbourne, which turned off St Kilda Rd. SonJ was freaking out until I told her that I knew the way to school on the No 1 tram.

Got to rehearsal, had a quick run through in a music room, and then we went into the hall for our final dress rehearsal. Gen’d forgotten to plug in the electric guitar which I would also be using so I was freaking out because my classic does not have a pick-up and is NOT loud enough. Gen came running in 2 minutes befores I needed to be playing, and again, s’all good. Turned out she was late because someone had sat on a piece of costume and broke it, she was remaking one.

Rehearsal ended, and Eunice and I stayed behind to watch Nereids’ dress rehearsal. It. Was. Fucking. AWESOME! Eunice and I were sitting near the front, and were the only 2 active audience members in the hall watching their performance. We laughed loudly at all the jokes, woo’d and woah’d when Pras- took her coat off to reveal a femme-fatale dress underneath, and we swayed with the cast at the end.

Sorry, dinner is happening right now and I have to be there. There are more fun stuff to read about soon. I will try to blog the rest of this tonight or, failing that, tomorrow during my frees.

Alex.

Can’t Fight The Moonlight

Alright, so last night was probably one of the craziest and most fun nights I’ve had in a long time.

Fel turns 18 in May, but in the interest of mid-years and whatnot, Fel had her party yesterday, a month early.

It was a pink-themed party, so Bianca promised to bring me a scarf. (I did end up taking it off 20 mins into the party but hey I wore it) They’d booked the entire cafe section of Romanza, and when I arrived Fel and Bee were stringing up balloons and all that decoration. Gis- came a few moments later. So we went around blowing up heaps and heaps of balloons.

Fel had invited maybe 60 people last night so soon it got really busy as her church friends started showing up. And we had a few MacRob people too – including the Jewish ones – and everything started mingling a bit (but not too much). I met a few of Fel’s church friends who were very cool and fun – especially the 2 in the hot pink stockings who I don’t think stopped dancing.

Speaking of not stopping to dance, Bianca in her shimmering dress ground and swayed her way through most of the night, along to bad music (TAYLOR SWIFT GOT PUT ON! WTF?!). Everyone were having a blast, just dancing and laughing at Bekchie and Sha- at Singstar, being total douches. Actually they screamed so loudly that some of Fel’s asian friends kind of started swarming AWAY from them.

Anyway, at some point during the night the “dancefloor” (we moved chairs and tables aside) when Low by Flo Rida came on, and they – most of the MacRob girls and some Church ones – started having this “mosh circle” but they weren’t moshing the whole time. And then when the lyrics came “shorty got low low low” they of course went as low as they could on their heels. I told Carmaine to try but well we figured no one would notice the difference even if she did get low. The lyrics ARE, after all, “SHORTY got low”.

I made good friends with a girl called Claire from PLC (I may have spelt her name wrong) and also I got to talk to Priscilla again (again, I might have spelt it wrong).  We watched the dancers a lot because joining them would be succumbing to the insanity.

Fel’s birthday cake was HUGE! 12 pounds, and 18 candles (I would assume). Took her…what, 5 blows to take them out, and that was after we all belted Happy Birthday at the top out lungs and made Fel make a speech (in which she was “speechless”).

Are You Gonna Be My Girl was probably the most awesome moment cos everyone was dancing and screaming to that one, even me! (Okay, maybe it was only awesome to me because I partook in it but hey hey hey I was having buckets of fun).

Everyone looked stunning yesterday too (except I have to mention Shaz saying “Oh I’m not too worried about being under dressed because I figure I’d be more formal than Ruyi anyway). Fel was in pink…well duh. But I can’t describe except it was hot pink as was Eunice, and they matched.

I ended up going home rather late, and parents weren’t happy. But no amount of yelling could get my spirits down! One of the best nights for a long long long time (have I said that before?). Now I’m glad I still have my voice, and my neck hurts but I cracked it so s’all good.

18’s are fun. I look forward to more.

Alex.