Christmas/New Years Week

Has kind of been quietly busy, which is always good. I thought that seeing as I haven't blogged for a week or so, I should get around to doing something, but apart from Christmas eve and day, not a whole lot has happened to be honest, just all the nice little Christmassy type of stuff.

But I must say, last Thursday I went to the beach with a few things and it was amazing :D I had so much fun at Manly beach, especially because I haven't been to the beach in over 2 years or so, and I didn't get nearly as badly burnt as I thought I could have been, after spending a whole year where I hid all my skin under jackets to keep warm.

Anyway, I'm going to leave all my NYE plans up in the air, I don't really know what to do at the moment, but I think that I might go to Andrea's place, sounds like it should be pretty sweet.

Short and sweet today folks
x peace

Crazy Week So Far

It's been a kind of confusing week thus far to be honest. On Monday I got an email asking me to help out with promoting an event for a club here in Sydney, and I must say it did have me intrigued, although I was really confused because I don't really have any proper experience in event management.

So all night I was kind of considering what the hell they could have asked me to do to help out, and I was kind of getting a little bit excited. I kind of like to let my mind fantasise a little bit and go on tangents when I see things that I've never done before. I think a lot of people do that though, they hear about something, or they're asked to help out with something and they start with a real gusto, and then kind of fizzle out. Except I tend not to fizzle out (at least not as quickly as others).

Either way, the story goes that this guy was looking to send the email to another guy with the same name as me. However, I can't really complain, I'm having a closer look into event management as we speak.

Therein lies another problem. I also have a tendency to see people doing something, and then want to do the same thing. I figure, heck, if they are having so much fun doing what they are doing, why shouldn't I give it a crack. And then the internal conflict comes up, sort of a 'you don't want to look like you're copying them' sort of thing. And in essence, it's kind of true. I would have never looked into a few things that I now do if I didn't know other people who were doing the same thing and said that they loved doing it. But yeah, maybe it is a sign of something I could look into doing.

So a few plans for the week. Tomorrow I'm not really doing anything much, I'll just see where life takes me for the day, but I think that I have a couple of speaking things for my summer Spanish course that I could be doing tomorrow.
Then on Thursday, I'm going to the BEACH, finally, after more than two years, my feet will come into contact with Australian sand. I'm so pumped for it.

And then I need to do a bit of frantic Christmas shopping. I thought I had a lot more than I actually do, on inspection of the presents I have in my secret present spot.

Hope to get a tonne of photos on Thursday too, it should be a great day.

peace x

SJUK.

Bah, så jag är sjuk igen efter ett par månader, som är helt konstigt. Men hursomhelst.
Vad är en lite konstigare är att jag alltid blir sjuk på semester. ALLTID. Det är så förargligt. Jag har faktiskt så mycket tid just nu att göra vad som helst, men nej. Ödet har bestämt att jag skulle bli sjuk.

Naturligtvis, det betyder inte att jag ska bara sova hela dagen och äter kycklingssoppa och dricka varmt vatter med honig. Jag är bara inte en sån person, men jag antar att det finns många.

Nu att jag har så mycket fritid, jag spelar gitarr och piano igen! Sån har jag inte gjort för 2 år sedan, så det är jätte cool. Också, på torsdag går jag och alla mina vänner till STRANDEN! Antligen är vädret lagom fint, det har regnat här i Sydney för 3 veckor sedan, det har varit helt dystert.

Och jag har hittat några nya sånger, jag glömt att jag hade ännu 23 dollar i Itunes, så köpte jag ett par Slagsmålsklubben sånger, och jag älsker dom!

Men nu är det sent, så jag ska till sängen!

&&
tar det lugnt

Awkward Scent Situation

OK, so a few days ago I was looking for some deodorant, as per usual, and being the impulsive kind of guy that I am, I just picked up a Rexona that looked good and decided to just live with the consequences of buying it without checking how it smells first.

But that really isn't the problem here, I do love it and I'm happy I got the stuff, and it does make for a nice change once in a while. The problem I have with this deodorant is that this is the exact same stuff that one of my friends wears.

I don't really know if it's all that bad, but in my mind it's kind of like going to a party in the same outfit as someone, after you've seen them in that outfit a billion times before.


Either way, another awkward, but unfortunately not scent-related, situation presented itself yesterday as well. I was driving back home from giving out some resumes to stores in order to get a job, and when I pulled up to the lights, what was next to me but a 60 year old lady in a bright hot blue convertible. I didn't even know what to do with my eyes, it just seemed so awkward. What was worse was that at the lights she was flicking through a jewellery store magazine pamphlet :O

It was just another crazy day lol.

peace folks x

Det Första på Svenska!

Så det här är en lite överraskningsbloggpost, min första post på svenska!

Jag tänker alltid göra någonting på svenska eller finska, och jag har beslutat att det är faktiskt ledigare för mig att skriva på svenska, som är intressant, för jag var säker att jag kunde prata bättre finska.

Hur som helst :D

Jag har börjat alla min julmatlagning! Jag har inget jobb just nu, så någonting liksom matlagning är bra för att roa mig. Idag har jag lagat några hundra pepparkakor, receptet var så stolligt! Det finns i köket circa 500 pepparkakor, och jag vet inte vad jag skulle göra med alla de. De ska ätas, förstås, men tycker jag att jag kan ge de till mina grannar :D

Och här är någonting jag har hittat på Youtube, det är Far och Sons "Ciggdansen". Det är en lite ironiskt, men eh. :D Jag tycker om det

HAIR CUT

I got my hair cut today, and I'm liking it at the moment.

After a whole long while of pondering whether or not i should do it, I finally had something pretty drastic done to it, I got most of it shaved off, which is really unlike me, but I am so glad I did it.
It means I can wear hats again! And although I know that hats eventually are a contributor to baldness, it is one luxury that I'm willing to take the risk for.

(And just fyi, I have no idea where that hat comment came from, but it came out so I'll leave it there)

Anyway.

I'm kind of a bit disjointed at the moment, it feels like I have so many thoughts going round in my head at the same time, but when I try and pull one out, it just goes away. But I know that I am hella keen to get back into some music again. But this time, I'm going to start off with just me and an acoustic guitar and get some solid work done over the holidays and see what happens, because I miss playing music, not just listening to it.

Either way, I think a little bit of a surprise in the next post would be pretty apt. Although I don't think everyones gonna like, but eh.  :D One can hope?

peace x

Film Noir

At the moment, I've had a huge hankering for movies with a sense of film noir to them. What kind of got me into this in the first place was that I saw a clip of an old detective film on the classic movies channel, and I got a little bit of research. Just for a bit of info, here is a quick trailer for 'The Postman Always Rings Twice' with Lana Turner and John Garfield.

I don't really know what it is about that type of mood or 'genre', if you will. but at the moment there is just something so provocative in the lighting and plots of most of them.

Here is a list of a few film noir titles I would be stoked to check out sooner or later, over the summer break.

1. The Maltese Falcon

2. Murder, My Sweet

3. Double Indemnity

4. The Woman in the Window

5. The Letter

6. Fear in the Night

7. Kiss Me Deadly

8. The Long Goodbye

9. You Only Live Once

10. The Postman Always Rings Twice

Christmas Lights!

So. It's been a pretty good day today, had a family day (except for my sister, who was working hard for the money all day).
Didn't really accomplish a whole lot, there was a fair bit of leftover Christmas shopping that I was able to get done, and I got my headphones with the microphone for my online Spanish class. >< It's kind of annoying that I wasn't able to find the ones that I had earlier in the year, I must have thrown them out or something like that.

Either way, the real highlight of the night would have had to have been when we went to go have a look at the Christmas lights around Greystanes. I don't really know if a lot of other people do it on a regular or even a yearly basis, but looking at the Christmas lights is one of my favourite parts of this time of year. I even was able to get a happy snap of one of the best ones, but I think that the light might be a little bit dodgy in the photo, I only had my phone on me at the time.

I think it's kind of a shame that with the global financial crisis and everything that not more people are able to do up their houses all nice and Christmas-like. It's something that we've never really done in my family, but it is always something that we go and have a look at. Back about five or maybe ten years ago, there were whole streets in which every house used to be decorated, but now there was only three or four houses next to or in the vicinity of each other that were all decorated.

But it is still definitely nice to have a look at them and fill yourself with the Christmas spirit. Now I have to start all the other Christmassy things, get into the mood as early as I can, because I tend to have a lot of fun just going around the house doing little things here and there. Plus it's time to get out the baking recipes!

peace x

What to do with a four month holiday?

A very good question indeed.

Except I am technically still doing a course at uni over the summer, but it is only one and its all online, so the amount of effort that I need to put in is essentially pretty negligible.

Either way, I still have a lot of free time, and no job at the moment, which is a little bit annoying, so it would be cool to plan out a few things to do over the summer. For the time being, I've kind of vowed to try and do a little bit more exercise each day, and at the moment it is working pretty well for me. Although I can't really go outside to do anything at the moment, the weather in Sydney has been atrocious lately.

So anyway, this past week has been pretty good, nothing too special happened if i can remember rightly. It's kind of nice to be in December already, but it's kind of left me thinking where the whole year has gone ! It's absolutely crazy :O

The good thing about it being a bit cooler in Summer though is that I can get all my Christmas baking on the way, and I have a whole lot of Finnish Christmas recipes that I want to try out and taste for myself, before I actually make them in earnest.

Plus, i will be able to blog a whole lot more at the moment, which is always a lot of fun !

Peace for now folks x
matty

HAPPY ONE HUNDREDTH POST CELEBRATIONS

WOOOHOOOO.
I've made it to 100! Im pretty amazed, to be honest.

Either way, I thought I may have to do something to let you all know that I'm still alive, so I'll leave you with a little celebration video.


i hope you like tassles

Due to a technical glitch

This technically is not my 100th post, although blogger seems to think that it is :D

Either way, I thought that i should do a little blogging, seeing as I probably won't get the 100th blogpost spectacular before I finish my two exams this week.

And to be honest, there really hasnt been a whole lot going on at the moment, apart from studying and hanging out with friends. I got to see Andrea, Joel and Micheal over the weekend, which is always fun.
But now that the weather has finally taken a turn for the better, i really hope that I will be able to get to the beach sometime soon.



ANYWAY.
I'm thinking of being a complete blog idea thief, and do one of those 30 question things, where you're supposed to answer one question per blog. I just don't really have a lot going through my head at the moment apart from revolutionary political theory and japanese verb conjugations. So after my official 100th post, i think that that is what I shall do, just to give me a little bit of direction and at least have something interesting to talk about.

although, i really have to share this with you all.

Also, I've been dabbling in a little bit of Bulgarian at the moment, and I can read a little bit already, although Im not really expecting to see any amazing results. But it is the one slavic language that I can seem to pick up with relative ease, and I don't really know why. Either way, it's pretty cool and left of centre.

Either way, I thought that I would just post a little something just to let you know that I haven't abandoned the blog :D

peace folks x

ALMOST THERE

I'm pretty pumped, because in just two days I will have almost finished my first year at university, which went so abnormally quickly. While I am super glad that I have made it through all of the first year rigmarole, I'm a little bit nostalgic. But it is all good. I have enjoyed my first year immensely, and I find that I am uber inspired to study a lot more than what I've done already.

On other news, I'm going to start trying to write a novel that I have had the ideas for floating around in my head for a fair while, so I am looking forward to doing that as well. I just only hope that I will be able to keep on blogging while I'm (hopefully) churning out a fair bit of writing each day.
Either way, I think that I will be able to keep both of the projects up during the summer, mainly because I won't really have too much else that I will need to do.

Some good news is that the songs that I asked Itunes to get and put on their e-store are FINALLY UP, in the Australian one at least. It does seem to take a while to get some songs out here, and I really can't figure out why it should take so long. I know there are copyright laws and everything, but yeah.

AND just to wrap up, I think that I may have an idea about what I want to do for my next post, which is my 100th post. I'm going to go back to doing something that seemed to be fairly popular, and although I am not going to tell you what it is that I have got planned, i think that this may or may not give you a little clue.

Till then
peace folks x

I think that my voice may be breaking again

Which is kind of annoying, i wasn't really anticipating it going too much deeper that what I had already, but it's alright. As long as I'm able to talk, I'll be happy.

I think it is almost too much to expect that a little growth spurt is thrown in, but I can always hold my breath and keep marking off my height on the wall like a good little six year old.

ANYWAY. on to the topic of the day.
Seeing as I am coming up to the one hundredth post for this blog, and that I have a little bit of a following, which is SO cool by the way. I am amazed that people all around the world are reading about this, and I'd like to give you all a big shout out and say thanks.
But something else I wanted to do was to throw a bit of a celeberatory post, do something that everyone would like to see me blog about or do on the blog. And here is were I need your help!
For those of you who have read my ramblings for a while, incoherent as they are, is there anything that you would like to see on the blog, maybe something I touched on before and you really liked? I was thinking of getting all that Hawaiian stuff ready, but lately there has been a LOT of South American travel chatter, so I may just end up doing something on that.
I might be able to do another one of those nifty playlists that I did a while back, which seemed to be pretty popular.
Either way, to thank whoever reads this blog, I wanted to do something that you would enjoy, so please leave your comments and suggestions. All i know is that I want to do something pretty awesome for it, I never thought that I would actually make it to one hundred posts.

Anyway, comments and suggestions would be massively appreciated :D
peace folks x

pretty awesome weekend so far

So we all went out for Michael's birthday yesterday, spending his last little bit as a teenager together, and it was a pretty spiffy do, it is absolutely too much fun to be hanging with those crazy kids again, finally.

I have a few pictures, but at the moment I haven't really figured out how I can get my blackberry to cooperate with my blog, but I'm sure that they will try and strike up some sort of amicable relationship ><

But yeah, I had such a great time, even though we really didn't do a whole lot, but i think that that is probably the best thing about it, being able to have a great time even if we're not doing anything special ^^ Plus it's really nice just to be able to see everyone again after what feels like an eternity.

Anyway, I think this is something like my 97th post, it could in fact be my 98th, which is pretty exciting. I didnt think that I would ever be able to keep it up for as long as I have, and after the hundredth, I'll just have to keep aiming for the year, which would be pretty amazing. I'm just really surprised that I still have a whole lot to write about all the time, and I think that it is probably a really good habit to get into anyway. I still haven't really done a whole lot of posts in Swedish yet, but I am definitely going to start doing that blog during the summertime, when it seems as though I won't have a whole lot to be doing at the moment anyway. Which reminds me, I have to get another job pretty soon, because I can feel it in my bones, I don't think that my contract is going to last for too much longer at work now, we are pretty much done all the work and stuff like that.

Today was kind of a layabout day. It's kind of the only sad thing about summer, is that it is so hot that I find it far to uncomfortable to be knitting, but I really want to get the sweater I have been working on well on the way to being done for next winter. So I'm trying to do at least a little bit a day, even fifteen minutes or so would be helpful.
But on the upside, I did finish reading 'The Picture of Dorian Gray', thank god for that. I did actually quite like the story, I just think that having to read it for university can kind of turn you off it a little bit. But I am glad that I have read it, it's another one that I can just add to the list of the cool books that I have read, and the stuff that I think I should have read by now.

But for now, I think I am gonna take it easy, get a good nights sleep and see what Sunday has got in store for us.

peace folks x

Dorian Gray

Shall now consume my reading life for the next week or so.

This is probably the one book that I am most keen about reading now for my English course at uni, maybe because I have read all of them except for two at the moment.
I think that I have finally decided that I'll keep what I've got for the moment at uni. I always have an inkling that I might like to do law, or combine my degree with something else, but I think that what I'm doing now works, although this attitude seems to be changing daily.

Either way, I think that I am just going to try and breeze through these final few weeks of uni, do my last exam, and hopefully just beach it a whole lot with my friends. I went to my friend Sarah's 21st on Saturday, got to see everyone (or mostly everyone. Ill have to visit Andrea sometime soon :D) and it was nice just hanging out with everyone, which is such a change from what I have normally been doing as of late.

So yeah, I'm hoping that I'm going to see my friends a whole lot more, and I aim to just have a lot of fun and take as many pictures as I can possibly take. It's not all the time that you have a four month summer holiday, so I may as well take advantage of it.

But before that I do have a few things to wrap up with Uni, of course, but I kind of love that rush of enthusiasm I get when I realise that I only have such a short time left to be studying. I always seem to pick up a whole lot more at the end of terms, it's just the way I work, I suppose.

peace folks x

95th post

With this being my 95th post, I'm thinking of doing something pretty darn special for number 100, but I haven't really decided on what I want to do yet. I'm sure something will come to me and it'll be pretty splendiferous.

Today was a pretty nifty day, I think someone has finally declared that it is shorts and thongs weather, which is kind of great. Thongs are entirely much more preferable to closed in shoes in the summertime, it can just be a bit of a bitch when it rains all of a sudden and the pattern on the thongs start rubbing off onto your feet. yuck.

And what's even better is that there is only three and a half weeks left of uni until the semester is over for the year, which makes me really excited :D I just hope that I have enough to do with people over the holidays, for some reason, (and I don't really know why, seeing as most of the people I know drive these days,) social gatherings have kind of been a bit sparce this year, a far cry from last year. But as I've been told, it's just different.

But I definitely think I can convince a few people to head off to the beach or something like that. :D

I think for the next post, I might put up another of my work music playlists, it seems like that was pretty popular, so stay posted folks.

peace x

Sigh of Relief

Last week was a particularly stress filled week, I had two essays amounting to about 4000 words, both due on Friday, and I thought  that I had left enough time to get them well and truly finished in time for the deadline, but unfortunately that wasn't the case.

Needless to say, my Thursday and Friday were pretty hectic, but I am glad to say that I have effectively finished the two essays, and I have entered another unusual period where I don't really have to do a whole lot of stuff for university, and the stuff that I do have to do I'm pretty keen to get done, seeing as there is only about 4 weeks of studying left for the rest of the year!

Which is definitely exciting, however I just was not able to get to the blogosphere during last week, although I have been trying really hard to keep up with it as much as I can.


Either way, I've been able to take the time to read anothe Kathy Reichs novel which has really gripped me for the past couple of days, and my only gripe with her novels is that they are SO GOOD that I am not really able to stop reading them, which really compacts the enjoyment time I get from reading them. But nevermind, that is something that I choose to do when I read the books.

For the rest of the weekend, all has been pretty normal, I got a fair bit of sweater knitted this afternoon, and I should be able to get a photo on here soon, it is getting to a fairly decent size. I wrote a new blogpost in Swedish, just trying to get a few of them up. If anyone is able to help me out, rather than starting up a whole new blog, would I be able to make a page off my original blog page here, and post to that one seperately, rather than having alternating English and Swedish blog posts and just confusing everybody. If i can't, I'll just suck it up and make a new Swedish blogg.


PEACEx matt

I've reached a whole new low

By typing the words 'Dungeons and Dragons' into my google search bar, and then quickly quickly regretted it.
I just typed it in to see if I could find a world competition, or something like that. You know how there is the grand masters in Chess (or so I am guessing), i just would have figured there would have been an equivalent for Dungeons and Dragons.

But as soon as I typed in the words, my computer screen was filled with images of trolls, wizards, nifty magic spells you can use and stuff like that. A WHOLE lot of forums on the subject, and just generally a bit too overwhelming for my liking.

To bo honest, people kind of think that I am a pretty hardcore gamer, or for some reason or another they just think that I would seem to know about trolls and dark wizards and all the other connotated mystical creatures that come with RolePlayer Games, but to be honest, I would be the last person on earth to talk to if you wanted me to join in on one of your quests (or whatever them kids are calling it these days). It just never enticed me, I mean, I do like the Tony Hawks games on the playstation, as much as any other person would, but all of this WoW stuff, where you see kids glued to their computer screens for ridiculous periods of time, it never really got to me. And I'm kind of happy about it, the last thing that I need is for some more nerd factor to come out, I've got enough of that already.

Either way, if you might be interested in entering the world of Dungeons and Dragons, you can visit the official website here. But don't say that I haven't warned you.

Peace folks x

The Start of Another Week

And I feel oddly calm with the week coming up, having two essays due on the same day. I'm unusually well prepared, which I'm extremely happy about, normally I wouldn't start an essay till about 2 days before it's due or so, but actually giving myself a whole week is simply astounding.

And actually, it has been kind of interesting researching for this English essay, the only difficult thing is picking which one I am actually going to write about, because so much of the information could overlap for so many of the questions.

Either way, things are looking pretty good at the moment, I only have about 5 weeks of university left, I'm getting more work for the time being, and there is not a whole lot left to do with university and I'll finally be finished for the year.

In the meantime, I've begun working on a better body for summer, which hopefully will work out, because it would be good to lose a bit of weight, especially with everyone at uni seeming to be in such good condition. I don't know if my perceptions are actually true, but in general it seems to be a very healthy, fit, and also really TALL student body at uni. I cannot get over the fact of how short I am in comparison to most of the other guys there which is kind of offputting. I kind of find getting to know and making friends with really tall people is just quite intimidating to be honest, simply because of the height difference. But that is just another one of my little quirks. I dunno.

Just thought I should do another little post, just to keep up the impetus :D

peace x

music blogging pudding

That's the way it should be, always.

Check out this.
If there was one thing that I was going to see this year, it would be Hot Water Music with the Bouncing Souls♥

Meanwhile, it's been a pretty miserable day, weatherwise, but excellent for working on my sweater, which is making slow but steady progress. I'll do a little bit of essay research tonight, get some main points written down, and then it really starts on monday. But hopefully I get to finish my essays on the thursday, because there is nothing that I hate more than having to drive all the way to university on Friday just in order to hand in my essay, and then just go back home again.

But I do like having essays and stuff to do at the moment, it kind of gives me a little bit of a sense of direction, just to do things, and it puts some sort of routine into life, which is always good, because without my routine I was getting a little bit lazy in the holidays.

Either way, I'm pretty spiffed that I have finally broken the 90 barrier, in terms of blog posts, I can't believe that I have written so many and kept up so well, and although there have been a few times where I have neglected my blog a little bit, I'm really happy with the way that I'm keeping up with it these days, I just seem to have a lot more time for blogging, and it's something that I actually want to do now, not just something that I feel that I have to do after I started it.

Eitherway, I'm baking a bread and butter pudding tonight, which hopefully will turn out to be a great success, I've kind of conglomorated a few recipes and have come up with one of my own. In all honesty, I don't think that there are too many points in the baking process where you can go wrong, so it should be a pretty awesome dessert for tonight.

peace x

COMMONWEALTH GAMES

I don't really know if anyone else is keenly watching the games, but it's pretty cool. I kind of get the idea that not everyone is as keen on watching olympic type meets as I thought, but that doesn't stop me watching any sport that comes on the TV.

It is kind of nice to see that there haven't been a whole lot of major upsets in Delhi, seeing as everyone thought that they would never be fully prepared enough to host the games, and although there have been a lot of stomach related and food poisoning issues in general, I think that it has gone pretty smoothly, which is always good.

What's even better is that Australia is doing really well, we've done amazing well in the pool and also in the velodrome, which was quite a sneaky success, I didn't really hear anything about that too much until this morning.

So here is a few sites that might interest you if you're following the games at all -

The Official Commonwealth Games Website

Incredible India

Delhi Tourism

Nations of The Commonwealth

Peace x 

New Jumper and Knitting News

I know that it is kind of a bit out of season, getting into summer and everything, but I have started a spiffy new cable type jumper to wear for next winter.
And hopefully I'll have enough push in me to get in finished in a reasonable amount of time, because there is one more cardigan that I want to have made by next winter as well, but that is a top secret project, saved for absolute wow factor.

Unfortunately the jumper hasn't made a whole lot of progress at the moment, mainly because there is just SO many stitches in every round that I am doing, but it'll be well worth it once I've got my groove going. So taking a photo of it would probably be more confusing than anything else, but after some knitting tonight I might just take a few happy snaps and put them up.


But while I was flicking through the new patterns I got last week, there are just a few things that I just could not believe that anyone would ever knit. There was a pattern for a knitted skirt and a dress! It might be just me, but I don't think that I could ever fathom anyone putting good use to a knitted skirt, but that might just be because I live in Australia, and also because I live in the 21st century. Who knows? I'm sure there are people out there who would just be livid with the fact that I have just denounced all knitted skirts and dresses, but I certainly would never make one. I'll just stick to the jumpers, I think.

Either way, it's nice to have a cool new project, and something that will take me over into summer a little bit, which won't really deter me from making more things, in case you were worried.

peace x

Back at Uni

And it was alright, I got my essay back for English and I got a 69, which I am pretty happy about to be honest, and I've finally got a few comments that actually tell me what to work on for the next essay coming up soon. And I know that I can do better, so I should get an even better mark for the next essay, being the optimist that I am.

So yeah, not a whole lot happened today, Tuesday is normally a sit down and listen day at uni rather than anything else, I dutifully take down all sorts of notes, and I think that what I'll do for the rest of the term is just keep everything in the one book, I have so many problems with losing all my notes because I never really know which book they are in.

It's been a week of reading, to be honest though. In the last few days I've gotten through about 3 books or so, some of them very unwillingly, but the others were all really interesting, and I'm glad that I am reading a fair bit these days, it was something that I wasn't taking a lot of pleasure in during my first semester, with all the heavy readings from History and Linguistics. :O

I did a trip to the library, as per usual, just to check out if anything has changed there, and unsurprisingly, it's pretty much still all the same. I must say that it's not necessarily a place that I could spend a whole day in, I'm much more of an outside studier, being able to watch the world go by, so I normally just borrow the books or photocopy the hell out of everything and just sit outside.

Now I'm going to check out what the questions are for the next essay and get a little bit of a start, and actually do a little bit (or a big bit) of solid research. And then, hopefully, I'll break the 70 barrier and beyond.

peace folks x

Old Books

In aide of trying to avoid reading my English test by tomorrow, I have decided to write a blog post, which I am quite happy about, I have been blogging at quite an acceptable level as of late. But anyway, to the matter at hand.

16th and 17th century novels just seem to bore the hell out of me. I'm not sure why, maybe because I'm so used to such a fast pace sort of book, like the stuff that Matthew Reilly writes, but there just doesn't seem to be a lot to grab my interest. I mean, I know that they are now considered more 'works of art' than anything else, offering you a chance to delve into the psyche of that era in particular, but I just find that the language they use gets all up in my actually understanding what's going on.

I suppose the problem is that I tend to read very quickly and get into a rhythm or something along those lines, I'm generally a pretty fast reader, I did a test here, and as unreliable as the internet can be at times it said that I read just over 500 words per minute which is definitely not extremely fast, but fast enough for me. But with all the impressive words and language that the writers used back in those times, it just throws me out of sync, which is why I suppose I have so many problems with reading older books.


ANYWAY
So now that it is coming up to summer, which means a good few months of not having to do very much at all, I have really been considering starting up a blog in Swedish, mainly because I can more than anything else. It would probably give me a bit of a chance to do more writing, which, to be honest, I don't really do a whole lot of these days. I speak it just about every day, but I still need to keep up a little bit of finesse in my writing skills.
And to help with all of my blogging in general, I carry around this cool little notebook, and I write EVERY thought or idea that comes through my mind in the little book, in English/Finnish/Swedish/French/whatever. And I already have a whole lot of things written down in Swedish, and I rarely use a lot of them on here, I mainly just use all the English stuff. And I've got some pretty bombastic sketches I'll see if I can scan in sooner or later.

Ugh. I should probably ditch the net and go read some more of my short book, the sad thing is that there isn't that much to read in the first place, I just keep putting it off all the time, which I should stop doing. But I don't really think that I'm alone there.

Plus the Commonwealth games are now here to distract me for the next few weeks. I suppose the good thing is that by the time they are over there will only be three weeks or so till university is actually finnished for the year! :D

anyway, peace for now folks
x

Why I love British Comedy

Some people may just not get it, but I love it. Dawn French is definitely one of my favourite comedians of all time, and The Vicar of Dibley is just awesome.

road rage

I don't normally suffer from road rage, but something's been irking me for a hell of a long time. Actually, a couple of things, but they both tie in to the same kind of thing.

I'm not exactly sure what the RTA has told all the other red p platers out there when they first get their license, but I seem to recall there being a limit of 90kms an hour for those with them. And I don't know if this is something that I should be pissy about, but when I'm going on the freeway and I'm going my limit of 90, it's SO ANNOYING to see all the red p platers pass me with the rest of the traffic. I just don't know, do the cops not care about it? It just seems like I'm the only one who sticks to the limits. But, for those who do speed, be prepared for me to slow down and laugh quite loudly when you get pulled over by the cops.

The other thing that really gets on my nerves is all the regular license drivers who get narky with me, and love to yell obscenities and beep their horns and everything, because I can't go over 90kms an hour. To be honest, I don't really care, but I do keep to the left lane. OVERTAKE ME YOU FOOLS, and stop riding on my tail. The biggest culprits in this groups would actually be the truck drivers. I don't care if you're going to be a few minutes later for your delivery, I'm not going to speed if you're on my hammer. PFAH. This happens so much of the time too, which is kind of lame. After all that, people should really chill out when they're driving. And then they can get home and complain about it as much as they want.

peace folks x

Work Music Playlist

This is what I've got lined up for tonight, thanks in part to Itunes genius, but I also flicked in a few more that I thought would go pretty well to keep me working at a good pace.

Music is My Hot Hot Sex - Cansei De Ser Sexy (CSS)
(I ALWAYS have this song on at work, one of the all time favourites)

Gold Lion - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Hang Me Up to Dry - Cold War Kids

Walking With A Ghost - Tegan and Sarah

Weekend Wars - MGMT

Little Secrets - Passion Pit

Golden Skans - Klaxons

Phantom Limb - The Shins

Over & Over - Hot Chip

The Sound of Settling - Death Cab for Cutie

Off The Hook - Cansei De Ser Sexy

Dashboard - Modest Mouse

Oh, It Is Love - Hellogoodbye ♥

The Youth - MGMT

Monster Hospital - Metric

Cheated Hearts - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Let's Dance To Joy Division - The Wombats

Fruit Machine - The Ting Tings

Australia - The Shins

Move - Cansei De Ser Sexy

Where Is My Mind? - Pixies

Shimmy Shimmy Quarter Turn - Hellogoodbye ♥

Always Where I Need To Be - The Kooks

as if you didnt think that the first movie was enough

So guess what? They've decided to make a Wolf Creek II.

Now I kind of get what you're thinking, they did leave it hanging at the end there a bit. I mean, not really for the audience, because you got to see what actually happened in vivid, vivid detail, but it just kind of left you with the boyfriend and his court case at the end, the full suspicion.

But apparently, from what I can gather, none of that is of much interest in the second movie. It's going to delve into the history of Mick Taylor, the ever-resilient serial killer. I mean, getting shot really doesn't seem to phase this guy, he really does seem like the energiser bunny. But apart from him, the cast will be entirely new.

And what makes me wonder, is how can they possibly come up with something more shocking that what everyone's already seen already? With all the horror movies, and just plain gore movies (I'm thinking of all the Saw movies, in particular), people just seem to try and create more bizarre and sadistic ways of torturing people and stuff like that. I don't know. It just seems to me that there would have to be some pretty whacked stuff coming to the movies whenever this comes out.

But I sure do know that I have no idea what to expect from this movie. You would have to think that it would be pretty good, as they were pretty adamant about not making a sequel. Either way, it's probably something, unfortunately, that I won't see till the DVD comes out. Although I may make an exception, I don't normally see the point in paying a tonne of money to go see a movie that I'm not really, in all honesty, going to enjoy sitting through. I'm not normally the type to laugh at the horror movies, as others can seem to do quite easily.

I'm much more of a magical unicorn adventure comedy movie kind of guy.

peace folks x

Direction!

Is kind of what I feel that I am lacking with my blog as a whole. But it's all good. I'll just keep posting random stuff till I can find something that sticks.

Although I always can talk about music, without which I don't think that I would be able to get through the work evening.
My music tastes have really surprised the hell out of me at the moment. I thought that I was pretty much on an indie trip for god knows how long, which is all well and fine, but I've been listening to a heck of a lot of Dropkick Murphys (who, as it happens have a new CD out which I'm uber excited for, and you can find more info about it here if you want) and Flogging Molly at the moment, all that Celtic Punk stuff which I used to listen to a whole lot. I always find that it's really exciting to revisit music that you've kind of forgotten for a little while, it's kind of like meeting up with an old friend.
And to find that that friend has also just released a new album is an added bonus.

I've also been listening to a TONNE of Hebrew music at the moment, mainly hip-hop stuff, and I'd have to say Hadag Nachash would probably be my favourite. Here is the link to the English version of their site.
I like their style more than anything else, they like to get their fans really involved in what they're doing, you can even join up to the Fish Team and they'll send you stickers and flyers to post everywhere. Although I don't think that they would be as popular in Australia as in Israel, it's a nice thought, and I don't really see why other bands could do the same. I don't really know, just to me, it seems like an awesome thing to do, give your fans a little something in return for their support, it's cool.

Oh, and also, I have been looking for this song for ages. It's by Maskinen, my all time favourite Swedish band, and also with Marina from Bonde Do Role (I'm not a hundo percent sure if that blog is authentic, but i'd like to think it is. If it's not, just pretend that it is). Unfortunately Itunes Australia isn't as accessible as I thought it was, there are some things that are just too hard to find. But I'll keep checking every now and again, hopefully they might have updated next time I check.

To stop myself from eating an entire packet of shapes

I thought that i would try a little bit of blogging. It's always so easy to forgect that I actually have a blog that I should keep on updating, but at least I'm here now, which is all that matters.
Not that I have been doing anything that is remotely blogworthy at the moment, it's the normal holidays lull, and I'm just kind of frantically trying to meet up with all those people I haven't seen since the last uni break, because I know that if I don't, I probably won't see them until the end of term. GAH.
I've been brushing up on all the languages I haven't used for ages, which is normally what I tend to do every now and again, just so I can kind of keep up with all the new slang and stuff like that. It's kind of cool, and it doesn't take very long to do.

But I am really excited that it is finally starting to get a little warmer, although unfortunately in Australia Spring lasts for such a short time, and then we're into the scorching heat of summer.
Either way, right about now is probably the best time to start going to the beach again. I'm so looking forward to it, and I hope that I can hustle up a few other people to join me, because there really isn't a whole lot which is sadder than going for a day trip by yourself. It's kind of one of those places that you don't normally go to by yourself, probably because of the whole self image thing we've got going these days. People need their support bases to pull of bikinis and such, or so my experience has been.

OH. BUT I ALMOST FORGOT!
On Friday I had a picnic with Joel and Kurt, which was pretty awesome. I don't get to see them nearly as much as I would like to, which is kind of a shame, but it would definitely be good to do that more often. I was just a little pissy that I had work, and that I didn't have the time to go and visit Andrea as well. Which is probably something I should do soon as well. After a half term of nice courteous conversation with people I know at uni, it's kind of nice to not have to worry what I talk about with people for a change, which is something that I miss a fair bit, because I've always been able to do that with school, and then all of last year was just awesome in that respect. Just not having to worry about freaking people out with too much emotion and stuff like that is always something I'm really weary of at university, because I don't really want to scare people off by being exactly how I am in real life.
And now that I've written that down, I feel bad for doing that. But I think everyone does it though. I think that there is only a certain group of people, all my Canadians and Tom, that I know the best. And Adam, too, he's so easy to just pick things up with :D

And thus ends my very unexpectedly reminiscent blog post. I feel kind of bad, it was more for me than sharing with the public, but who reads this stuff anyway?

Anyway
x peace

UNDERACHIEVING

I don't really know if that is a correct English term or not, but it's kind of a phenomena I've noticed in myself over the last couple of weeks at university.
Those of you that know me will know that I am pretty good with languages, I have no problems in learning a new language rather quickly and effortlessly, and most of the learning and studying i just do by myself. AND you'll also know that i take Spanish and Japanese in university.
Now the issue of the post is not the fact that I know that I could be doing better in the subjects, and am not trying, but more rather that I so totally get everything that they are talking about, without really having to put pen to paper and even begin studying, that I find myself having to hold my learning off a whole lot not to overtake the class by too much.
Like for instance, in Spanish I've just finished reading Harry Potter, and I had virtually no problems with it, but a lot of people in the class were kind of shocked when I was reading it.
I don't really know if people have a lot of this type of thing going on, and it's not that I want to dumb myself down, but rather so all the other kids in the class don't despise me for being a Hermione Granger by the end of term.
The symptoms of this kind of disease include purposely not answering questions that you know the answers to, only chiming in periodically, even though noone else will answer the tutor, not reading ahead in the coursebooks so that you don't get too far in front of the class and just start getting bored.
I must stress that this isn't supposed to be condescending in any way, for example I kind of struggle in reading everything that I need to read for politics, and having to remember all those nitty gritty little facts that other peolpe can seem to recall with such ease. It's just that with languages, I'm particularly experienced and don't seem to have any problems with them and all that stuff. It all kind of balances out and it's good in a way.

peace x

It's SUCH a beautiful day today

I can officially be quoted as being very thankful that it is finally springtime. OMG. It is about time that I am out of some kind of winter for a fair amount of time.
Winter always used to be my favourite season, but as of late it is kind of nice not to have to wear like 20 layers of clothing and stuff like, it's a little bit reassuring in the mornings when all I have to pick out to wear are shirts and a pair of pants, because having to pick out anything more than that would just be a bit of a task.
However you kind of have to admit that summer, which in all honesty is not too far away for us here in Australia, it likes to strike quickly and strike hard, is the season of the fit people. I can't believe it already, how many people have gotten their 'summer body hair removal treatmants' done, both girls and guys, and there are already guys at university walking around in singlets and stuff like that, and with less body hair than a new born baby. So the big question is whether or not we should all succumb to the trends and styles that do so plague the thousands with painful ingrown hairs and other self-care issues.
And then there isthe latest fashion trends at uni. University is one of those funny instituation, where the first impressions of people really do kind of count, mostly because youll probably never have anything to do with most of the people you see here. So, if you want to make a statement nad grab people's attention, you really do have to go out there and make a statement. And seeing as a lot of the statements around here are quite bold to begin with, just by looking around you can see the efforts peopple go to to look cool. As per usual, there are guys trying to pull of the girls jeans, which CAN work on some people, but in general it just looks pretty uncomfortable. I think taht there is definitely something to be said when your legs look like they might break in two if someone sneezes near them.
On the whole though,actually, people are generally concerned with learning, and you can often gauge the year and tell the specific time when people tend to lose interest in trying to dress up and fit into those extra skinny pair of jeans. Like there are people who look like they havent purchased another item of clothing since the seventies or early eighties. Which is totally respectable, but you can definitely tell.
Either way, today is one of those nice days where it is just great to sit outside here in the courtyard and kind of just watch the world go by, which is one of my favourite passtimes on a monday, seeing as I am here for SO LONG>Although I should be preparing for sitting in a japanese lecture for two hours, trying not to overachieve.

peace x

totally uninspired

As of late, I have had such an urge of enthusiasm to go out an do stuff with people, but kind of a lack of people to do stuff with to be honest. See, I've been so caught up with work and uni life at the moment that I just haven't had the time to hang out with a lot of people, and I've kind of forgotten what hanging out is all about. Normally I've got too much studying to do on the weekends, and I'm just generally busy that I haven't really had a lot of time to stuff that I wouldn't normally do.

I dunno, this is probably more of a rant post, I just haven't really spent a lot of time with any of my friends since I got back from overseas that it kind of feels weird asking in the first place, I guess it was just so easy to meet up with people when I was overseas because we didn't really have anything to do anyway. I don't really have a lot of friends at uni, not a lot that i know really well and am able to spend most of the time with, a lot of people there seem to know each other from school and stuff anyway so they tend to stick with those groups, so I dunno. I don't think I've had a good conversation where I haven't had to worry about what I say for months and months, and it's kind of frustrating, I thought I would have been over this by now, but I still feel kind of like a loner at uni, despite the fact that I do have people i can talk with, it's not the same as being able to kind of let loose and all that stuff.

I dunno, I spose I just need to ask people to hang out a bit more, it seems to be harder than I would have thought to reinsert myself back into life here, and I don't think that I'll ever be able to, it's just kind of an inkling, but it was kind of foolish of me to think that people would go out of their way for me. It's probably all in my head though, I just look at all the photos of all the other exchange students who are back and they seem to be out with all their friends, doing all sorts of things, and I don't think I've been out with my friends since my birthday two months ago. And I won't even get started on trying to look for a girlfriend till im past 20, everyone at uni has one already and I just sort of have to face it that the outlook is never going to be great in that scheme of things, I'm just not really what people would call 'girl material', so I don't even bother trying to talk to girls in that way.

Sorrrrrrrry for the pity party folks, had to come eventually

The Price of Looking Good

Ok, so in an effort to improve the image, fashion wise per se, I have been looking through a lot of the men's magazines, and pretty much everything to do with male style and stuff like that. And I think that the things that I have found in here during my readings will apply just as much to the feminine side of things as much as it does the male.

I unequivocally refuse to believe that the average person, the you and me of this day, can warrant spending more than $1000 on one single outfit. To me it seems bizarre to spend that much on a shirt, jacket and pants, and what to me seems even more bizarre is that guys who probably wouldn't be making a lot more than I am would spend nigh on all of their paypackets on stuff like this. I just can't believe it, I won't believe it. But it's not even that. I cringe when I look at jeans in places like Glue or General Pants and they're like $200 or so, and cringe even more when I see people actually wearing them. I dunno, I suppose it's their choice, but do brand names really matter all that much to be honest? If I got the outfit of a Lacoste Polo, Levi Jeans, Hilfiger Sunnies, the shoes with a price to kill, and just all the items for general upkeep, it would literally take me months to pay off, and that is investing the entirety of my pay into it. And then there was this article about your 'style essentials', what you should take on to your cabin bag if that is the only thing that you are allowed on the plane, and it totalled to $3284.95! And these are just the essentials. No wonder why it seems like I'll never have any style, if that is what it costs. I think I'll stick with my Bonds cardigan for a little while longer.

The other thing that I will refuse to believe is that people go to the gym daily and are there for hours on end, again this might just show the extent to which I am enthused about exercising at the gym. To me it's kind of like the bane of my existence, in the few times I've been there there hasn't been one person that doesn't seem to be in peak physical condition, so this might be a litle bit of a paradox, but the gym to me doesn't seem like the best place to start off exercising. I know that in essence it is, but it's kind of disheartening to see the people working out make it look effortless. Either way, I know that some people do it, but I just can't believe the average guy would spend that amount of time and money at the gym. :| In a way this is kind of a green jealousy, as it would be great if i had the time and/or indignation to actually commit to such acts of cruel kindness to my body, but it still seems beyond me that people can actually do it.

And then the last thing that I can't believe is how all these magazines tell you that you have to work out for X amount of hours a day, buy clothing and accessories in excess of $5-10,000, and then they still tell you what gadgets you should buy, what clubs and stuff you should go to in order to pick up girls, trying to impress them with the cool clothes you're wearing and your awesome guns. This is the one that I just cannot fathom, how can people who follow all the things that you are supposed to do have time or money to have an actual life?

However, there are some good things in there, you can always buy very similar things on the cheap, and so in a way there are a lot of good ideas, but the general idea that you should own this brand of watch, and get that particular pair of headphones, and never get caught dead wearing these types of shoes is getting a little irritating, and it would be great to get a poll or something like that just to see how many people who would actually spend the money getting everything that is recommended to them.

Simply for efficient blog posting

Nothing of great import has really happened in the last couple of days, since I last blogged, which is good in a way. At the moment I've been getting out the old laptop and I've just tried to start writing a whole lot of stuff again.
Really, I have just been noting down anything and everything, because I'm kind of in the novel writing mood again. Or perhaps the novella writing mood, depending on how good a story I can come up with.

There is something which can be said about writing a novel which in one way, can make it really enticing as a prospective occupation, but in another just strikes fear into your heart. I'm not sure if I can be fully committed to writing for a set number of hours per day, heck, I sometimes find it hard to keep up the blog at times. Although, trying not to give myself any excuses for failure, I could well just take around a notepad or something like that and write things down as they come to me.
And I think that that is where a lot of people just generally stuff up, for a lot of things, myself included. Normally I'm just far less prepared to note down anything and everything, whenever a thought comes along. But now that I have sort of identified that flaw, and with the help of a few creative writing exercises, I shall be on the path to actually writing something substantial. And I encourage everyone to do the same, as the saying goes everyone has at least one good novel in them, so why not try?

Post-movie desires

I don't really know if it is just me, but everytime I watch a movie I'm always inspired by whatever the movie is, to go out and try something new and different. For example, I just finished watching the Lord of the Rings and I can't help but thinking of how great it would be to be able to ride a horse really well, and perhaps even be able to fence, or something like that.

In all honesty, I know that in my heart of hearts, I probably shall never take up horseriding, nor fencing, as a matter of fact, but during the few days which follow watching movies like that, there isn't anything in my mind that would seem cooler than giving it a go.

But yeah, I may just be one of those types that are just easily got by good movies. I'd be that one idiot eskimo who would buy the ice from the salesman with all the bells and whistles. But that would make me a little bit of ice up on all of the rest of the eskimos. Plus it would be doubly impressive if I were an eskimo with ice and who had the ability to ride a horse and fence.

Also, archery would come into the category of the things which I would love to try at this very moment. Just fyi.

Meanwhile, it's Monday tomorrow, which means that it is my long long long day of university tomorrow. It really is annoying that there were no other options for the class that was scheduled from 4 till 6. I hate learning in the evenings, I'm just never as engaged because I just want to go home at last. Either way, it doesnt really seem like I have a choice in the matter, so I should probably get a fairy long night of shuteye.

peace folks x

so here goes

I've kinda decided to put the Hawaii thing on the backburner for a little while. I've discovered that I am actually far less prepared than I would have liked to have been, and as a result of that, I've kind of shunned blogging for a little bit. What with work and university and all the other tidbits of my life, blogging just hadn't been on the highest list of priorities at the time.

BUT NOW! without the threat of actually having to do something, I'm able to go back and ramble a fair bit. Which I like doing, because I don't often have the chance to just ramble on to people about stuff these days, everybody (including myself) is just so hectically busy that I haven't had a chance to catch up with a whole bunch of folks since a couple of months ago. Hopefully when I get into more of a routine with university, I should be able to just pop out and do things here and there, see people whenever I can.

Anyway. Things have been pretty good though at the moment. I am absolutely loving all my courses at uni at the moment, we'll see how long that lasts for, but I think that this term is actually going to be a whole lot easier than last term. I suppose now that I am already settled a little bit, have my friends there and just am a little bit more open in meeting a bunch of new people, it is a lot easier in that respect. And I know when to push myself a little bit more when I'm not studying as much as I should be. Which is often. I have a really awful habit of studying things that have nothing to do with anything I'm studying at university. But I spose it can never really hurt having a large general knowledge :D

I hope to blog a tad more frequently than I have been doing lately. I kind of feel bad for not blogging a whole lot in the past couple of weeks, but really, I have just not had the time, and whenever I get home from work, the last thing I want to do after typing on a computer for the last 5 hours is to get on the computer again and type some more. Either way, hang around for a while, there should be a few more blog posts in the not so distant future.

peace x

I'm still alive

So don't fret none.

But at the moment I'm finding it a slight bit difficult trying to fit blogging around work and university, I think after a little while I should be able to get into some sort of routine, but at the moment it is really hectic. I hardly stop for breath on my normal blogging day of Monday, which is kind of a bummer, but I'm pretty sure that I can fit in a bit here and there.
And work is kind of just exhausting, in computer terms. After staring at a computer screen for 5 hours a night or so, the last thing I really want to be doing is coming back and staring at a computer screen for another couple of hours.

But I do kind of keep a little bit of a journal of blog post ideas and stuff like that, now that I haven't done a bit of free blogging for a while. After I'm finished writing the Hawaii series, I'll have so much stuff to write about I won't know what's gotten into the blog :D

peace x

HAWAII 1 : LUAU's

If you know me, like most of you do, I'm quite passionate about the food I cook and the food I eat. So to me, it seems only logical that I start off with a lovely FOOD section.

The thing that I love about Hawaiian food is that it is the role model for fusion cooking. With strong influences from western and asian cooking, which both add a little something to an already well established culinary tradition. But the thing that I love most about it is that it still IS able to keep their culinary traditions, there are things like the Luau, which is a celebration of culture and food.

Now I know when a lot of you think about Luau's, there is a very specific image of what you would expect to find there, and for a lot of those counts, there is some depth of truth. You would expect suckling pig, and an over-abundance of gorgeously presented dishes, and some traditional cultural events. And you can find all of this in almost all the professionally run luau's.

While for most people, going to a professionally organised cultural event can be rather tacky, but that's something that I really love, for sheer entertainment than any cultural activity. I think a lot of the main points in things like this is that you think that you're getting your dose of culture. Which is exactly what they do.

Here are a few good places to check out, they seem to look really good on my part. A lot of luau's are run by the big hotels, but that doesn't mean that you're going to have any less fun. I've found that a lot of the activities that you'll want to end up doing are run by large companies, and with hotels ever-present in Hawaii, it just makes sense. Anyway, there is the Island Breeze Luau, which seems to be rated one of the best in Hawaii. It's on the Big Island, and I think that I would definitely make a trip to the big island and not just stay on Oahu, even though it may be very tempting. But if you don't get off Oahu, there is always the Paradise Cove Luau. But really, have a look for yourself, because there are hundreds of luaus that you can frequent.

And believe me, this is definitely something that I would do, maybe as a nice first night, or maybe even second night wind down. Go check it out.

aloha x

sorry for the blog neglect

Things have been a little hectic these past few days, I've been working everyday and I just haven't found the perfect space of time to do all the blogging that I have planned to do. I will, however, try and write up anything in any form I can possibly manage, even if I'm writing my blog posts on a notepad in the train on the way to the work this afternoon.

Believe me, I haven't forgotten about the blog, and I will endeavour to rise a little earlier tomorrow morning and give you the wonderous part for Eating in my Hawaiian series.

Thanks for the patience :D
peace x

HAWAII SPECIAL

Ok.

So here is the kind of thing that I wanted to do here, I'm not exactly sure how successful it's going to be, but I'll give it a go at least. It's my blog anyway, I can do what I want. Not that I'm so dictatorial, but yeah.
I wanted to give what I think would be my ideal itinerary for a trip to Hawaii.

Ive done a whole lot of research, and while this isn't necessarily a travel blog post, I'd like to think that it is. I've never been to Hawaii, so a lot of what I'll be going off for the next little while is travel brochures and books, photos, websites, videos, pretty much basically all your media.

I've kind of tried to include a little bit on everything that you could think of doing, including things like dining out, hotels, shows to see, places to visit, beaches to check out, and all that type of stuff. I'm really looking forward to these next 10 posts or so, I'm really pleased to have a concept out there.

I'll leave you hanging for the moment, but watch this space for a nifty 10 day holiday itinerary by yours truly. I hope you enjoy all the hard hitting research I've been doing for it, I've got literally tens of pages of ideas and suggestions :D

peace x

New Years Resolutions

So I thought, along with a birthday, I should make a good new life years' resolution, or something to that extent at least.

Something that I think will kind of be a little bit more attainable now that I've come across a good program for it is to run a mile in half an hour, and then just build on anything more from there. Ideally, it would be great it I could get into good shape by the time I turn twenty. Wishfull thinking, but I am going to try and work my guts out and see how it goes.

Anyway, the program that I've been looking at is called Couch to 5K, and you can find all the information you need here. It looks pretty good, building up your running repetoire slowly and it just keeps getting better and better. And I've heard of a lot of good stories about this program just by looking around a little bit, so I think that it is something that might give me a little bit more structure to exercise.

I think one of the best things about this is that it's free. Being unemployed and just being a student means that you often don't have a lot of money to spend on gym classes and stuff like that, so you just have to fend for yourself in terms of exercise structure, which is an ultimate deterrent. So having this kind of formality, and just setting it straight out, what you need to do and stuff like that, seems like a very promising kind of thing, you know?

And I probably won't post tomorrow, because it is my BIRTHDAY, hence all this rumination about resolutions and stuff.

Oh, on a little sidenote, i got the deluxe edition of Nigella Lawson's cooking series. I am so happy.
That actually may be my downfall to getting fit. Or maybe if I exercise a lot, I can eat more of the food I make. I think that I'll look at the glass half full here :D

Peace x

FINALLY DONE!!!

With much joy, I now protest that I have finally completed the sweater I have been working on, the pattern of which can be found here.
I must say that I am really pleased with the final result of the jumper as a whole, and I think that it really is one of the best things that I've made as well, because I've sucked it up and finished it up to as high a standard as I'm possibly able to do.

So pretty much all of my time has been going into this for the past couple of weeks, so I think that I'll have a little break, and then I'm going onto continue with my other work in progress, which I very eagerly started yesterday. It should be pretty simple, and will give me plenty of time to work on my upcoming blog post series, which I am quite excited about. At least I have some focus for my blog at the moment, but I do hope that everything turns out well for what I have in mind.

But for now, I think that that is me spent for the day, so I'll leave it at that.

xPeace folks.

It's Nice to Be Involved in Another Kathy Reichs Novel Again

I guess it's just the type of writing that she employs, a lot of the language is very technical, but that doesn't really impact on the overall aesthetic of her books.
Whenever I read any of her books, I always feel like I'm right there, and that the protagonist is just bouncing ideas off of the reader, because they are about as good as anyone else, right? I suppose it does help that it is written in the first person, which helps with connectivity, but there just seems to be that little something else, that I can't really put my finger on, which makes Reichs' novels stand a head above anything that I have read before.

But I must say, I could well be biased. My favourite TV series, Bones, is based on the stories of Kathy Reichs, but even between the two of them there are a fair amount of differences, namely how much you get to know 'Temperance Brennan' in a certain amount of time. I don't think that that will phase me, to be honest, I can hardly put her stuff down. It's really gripping and I definitely recommend anything that she's written.

So anyway, I went to the library today, and there were little kids screaming everywhere, which really doesn't go with the entire idea of a library, but I'm not really one to complain. My problem with libraries is actually finding something that I think that I would like. A lot of the time i just think to myself, I really should just start at A and work through the list, and sometimes I'll do that. I find that I'm really fickle with what I read, so sometimes I'll come out with a whole lot of books and travel journalism, and then the next time I'll come out with a stack of books whose authors' last names all begin with the letter 't', or a pile of red books. I'm really not good with making literary decisions, I generally enjoy reading everything, so it stands to reason that everything I pick up in the library I would more than love to take home and read.

The same thing happens when I go to the video rental store as well, although when I go there I tend to come out with something from each section, or a couple from the western section. I must say that my life has been fully deprived of western movies, and I always love to try and keep that balance right if I can.

Other methods to help me decide what movies to watch or what books to read are websites like I Check Movies or Good Reads, which list the top ten books or movies from this certain genre, and there are literally thousands of lists out there that I can work on.

As I've said before too, it's nice to be able to read for pleasure again for a little while, when uni is back up and running there's no doubt that I'll have a magnitude of set texts to get through with English this term, so I should enjoy leisure reading as much as I can.

Oh, and on a final note, I'm planning at 10 blog post special coming up, covering my seventieth to eightieth posts. It's great that I finally have some type of focus to work to with this blog. For a little spoiler, it's travel blogging with a bit of a twist!

x Peace for now folks

I never remember it being this fun :|

But it sure does seem to be a whole lot of fun, to be honest.

It kind of makes me laugh, I love watching all the advertisements from the earlier and simpler times. They always seem to be outside, which might be indicative of something or other. :D
Plus I've never played twister on the beach. I must make sure to write that one down on the list, so I can check it off come summertime, all I'll have to do is find three other willing participants.

Maybe that is the key to solving childhood obesity, if we just start to play twister outside again.

:D
cool post still in progress,
peace

SICK

Sorry that I haven't been on for a little while, I was so so sick on Friday, and it's taken a couple of days to get over it, I just couldn't really be bothered to do a whole lot.

But I am still working on the surprise new blog post, so there is stuff coming, it's just going to take a little longer than i thought it was going to, I just have to make sure I have recuperated and have enough energy to do things.

So for the meantime, all I have to show for the past few days is this little blog post, so I hope you all hold tight.

Peace

Thinks that make you chuckle

And kind of roll your eyes as well.

My first little bit I got from an American hot dog eating contest. God they take those things so seriously, but it could be just about one of the most disgusting things I've witnessed in a long time.
But that's not really the good part.
I just love how much people take this stuff so intensely seriously. I mean, getting sent to jail for a hot dog eating contest-related crime has got to be one of the weirdest things that I've heard for a while.
Apparently for some reason the japanese guy was banned from participating, and then he got up on stage anyway, so the cops put him in jail for a day or so. And his biggest complaint was that there was not enough to eat.
I suppose if you can down about 50 or so hotdogs in 10 minutes, a sandwich and milk would kind of make you go looking for some more food around the house.

Then I have no idea where to start with my next topic. I think I'll just have to leave it to you to check it our for yourselves, it's Dumb Criminals. I think that the name pretty much just says it all.

Finally, guess how long the worlds longest scarf is?
According to this website, a group of 200 knitters were successful in knitting a scarf that was 33.74 miles long. Thats MILES! The thing with that though, is when do you actually make the decision to stop knitting, or just leave to to be knitted on for the rest of eternity, eventually providing a cover blanket for the entire world. That could be another innovative plan as well.

And finally, just the ridiculous types of shows that are on the Food channel these days on foxtel. I especially love the cake making reality tv shows.

Peace x

GERMS

I don't know if it is just me, but has anyone else kind of noticed how our homes are now supposedly become 100% germ free these days?

Last night when I was watching TV, no fewer than 4 ads in a row came up trying to sell us products that will get rid of 99.99 percent of the germs, leaving your house pest free, etc. etc.

But what happens when you go outside? That's right. The germs find the little germ-free surface that they can and will go to town. No wonder why people are getting so sick nowadays just from a cold or basic things like that. I think if you over-sanitise your house, ridding it of all types of germs, you're also going to rid yourself of the ability to create an immunity to them.

Not that it's good to have an overly messy house, or dirty for that matter, but I don't really see the need for a residential house to be hospital grade sterile. ><

Something we all should remember

                                                              Via We♥It
I'm sure that people keep forgetting this vital piece of information. But it's nice to have a great image like this to help remind us.
To be honest though, I'm finding it kind of difficult to come up with a lot of great blog topics at the moment. Things are obviously waiting in the wings, like the fact that I start work on MONDAY!, but apart from that, not a whole lot is happening which is remotely comment-worthy. I am doing what everyone should be doing during holidays, just relaxing and taking it easy, but I must say that I am looking forward to getting some money, and being able to start saving up again.
I might post a few blog posts on what I've been listening to and watching at the moment though, it's cool, I've been listening to a far more eclectic range of music, and as you know, I've been watching movies from around the world, so I might pick out a few and just go over them, you might be able to find something that you like.
In the meantime, I'm just going to go trawling out throughout the blog world and see if I can find some cool sites to check out. Either way, I'll leave it at this for now

Peace x

Handing out Resumes and a Great Lunch

But it is still damn cold.

So I met up with Adam today to go handing out resumes and stuff like that. Unsurprisingly though we found out that most of the applications have to be done on the internet. Which is kind of good in some ways, you don't have to get all nervous and go up to the shop assistant and ask "are you hiring at the moment", and then you go into a whole conversation, where they don't really know if they're hiring at the moment, but they might be hiring in a month or so if they aren't hiring at the moment, and that you should come back there then. And then when you come back in a month's time, you'll come back and have the very same conversation.

Another thing that I notice, and have been noticing for quite sometime, is that most of my friends and I are at that awkward kind of stage. If you don't have a job between the ages of 18-21 or so, it's getting harder and harder to find a job. Mainly because we're older than the young teenagers, who can be employed for a whole lot less than what they would have to pay us. Which is basically a lot of your everyday jobs, menial stuff like working in a store, packing shelves and counting stock. And you're also too young and inexperienced by most standards to get employment in a 'proper job' kind of environment, which is just as frustrating. So, to me, it kind of looks like there is a large demographic that people just don't want to employ, which is a shame.

Either way, we kind of just did a brute force assault on the stores, Adam handed out resumes at every store he wanted to. :D It was nice to catch up too, and I had a pretty surprisingly good lunch, the Brasilian place in Parramatta Westfields is actually really good and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes a really good and decent feed.

Peace for now x

A Sunny but Really Cold Day

I think that the title of this blog post can really sum up how the day has gone. I love this kind of weather though, it's really nice to sit in the sun, but as soon as you step inside the house it is absolutely freezing.

But to be honest, I even love it when it is really cold, it gives me a great excuse to do all the things that I like to do inside. Plus you can rug up and stuff like that, I have some really nice sweaters which have just been waiting for weather like this for ages. Plus, everyone seems to be less busy during winter. I suppose that people make less plans to go out during winter, so I find that being able to meet up with people a little bit easier.

^^

Anyway, I really havent been up to much at the moment, I'm supposed to start work about this time next week, so I'm pretty excited about that, I will finally be able to get a little bit of income coming in. So I think this week shoud be the ultimate relax week, I'm going to go out with a friend or two and just enjoy my holidays properly. And make sure that I get out when it is sunny, like today. Get some much needed vitamin D. But I thought that I should at least do a quick little blog post, just for the sake of keeping up with it as regularly as I possibly can.

And on another plus note, I'm getting closer to finishing the jumper I've been making for the past little while, with a one year hiatus or so. So as soon as I've finished that, I will make sure that I get a couple of pictures up, because it is a pretty cool sweater. I've found that my productivity increases tenfold when I'm watching foreign movies a lot, so I have been watching ALOT of those in the evenings and I love them, on SBS2 they have some good ones every night, and there are quite a few from countries where I didn't even think that they would have a large enough film industry, like a lot of the central asian countries and stuff like that. But they always seem to be interesting in a way that a lot of western movies can't pull off, in a sense. But this is the way I have been spending my holidays so far, and I'm enjoying it at least ^^

Peace

Shibuya Square

I SO want to go to Shibuya square. Actually it would be great to get around and see all of Japan, but I think that there is just something awe-inspiring, it's always so busy and just full of people, and there are always so many lights and advertisements all around. I just think that it would be a really cool place to go to and take a photo :D

Via We♥It

I really love these types of city photos, it would be great to be able to learn how to take them properly so I could take a couple of my own. I just love the effect and I think that they always turn out really well.

Of course, you'd need to find a great vantage point to take the photos, but I think it'd be worth the effort to be honest.

For now, I might go for a walk and see if I can find some new things to photograph, I always love finding new things where I live, and there are atually quite a good few things which are quite photogenic.

Peace

90's Style

So we've finally hooked the playstation back up to a working TV, and I forgot just how much I enjoy playing it. Maybe even a little too much.

It's always, for me at least, been a good way to do a lot of the things that I'm just too chicken to try out in the first place, like learning how to skateboard properly and stuff like that. PS, I am a complete Tony Hawks Skater game fan, I have almost all of them and would gladly play them all again. I just haven't really gotten into all the war games and stuff like that. I'm sure that they are very good, I just never have bothered to play them.

I definitely think that it is a great thing that we hooked it all up after my final exam for uni, otherwise I would have gotten so much less studying done :|  But for today, it's kind of rainy so at least there is a bit of an excuse to play it. I feel so reclusive just sitting here playing computer games, reading and watching movies though, so I tend to go out for a walk whenever I can. Just to get some fresh air and see other humankind.

And I've been making a hell of a lot of those little stuffed animals, they are SO cute, I absolutely love them to bits, I'll post some photos of them up tomorrow. So for now, I'll leave it at that and get back to my bludging.

Peace

Watching Different Kinds of Things

So lately I have been watching a whole lot of foreign movies, and I must say that in general they have all been really excellent, but sometimes they just need a bit of getting used to, to be honest.

I find that the Farsi movies I've seen so far kind of have funny and really abrupt endings, almost like they are stopping midway through the entire movie, and I don't know if this is some kind of cinematic technique that they like to use, but it can get a bit frustrating.  What I do like about those movies though is the insight you get into the different lifestyle, especially the couple of Afghan movies I watched during the past couple of days. I think that it has such a striking landscape, and it's such a shame that more movies can't be made there, both of those I saw were really good.

Then there are the Spanish movies I've watched, and what I love about all movies which are in Spanish is that they are full of drama, there is never really a dull moment at all in what can sometimes be a fairly lengthy movie. I really loved Pan's Labyrinth, the Motorcyclist's Diaries and Y Tu Mama Tambien, and I'm really glad that there is a fairly sizeable Spanish section in my video rental store :D

The ones that I find hardest to follow sometimes are the Japanese movies. Sometimes I can get a word here or there, but for the most part I have to rely on the subtitles, but that is not really surprising, Some of the themes they cover, and details that they pay attention to can sometimes be a bit distracting, drawing you away from the main focus and push of the movie, but in the end I think that I enjoyed the movies just as much as all the others I have watched.

All in all, I really love watching movies that are not in English, they have a completely different feel to them. Especially in the lesser spoken languages, there is less push for it to be mass produced, so the effort which would have been put into that aspect often shows in other areas like cinematography, a more ecclectic storyline (which may not have been suitable or sellable to a large audience), and a more authentic movie.
So I encourage you all to check out a few foreign movies, they're all subtitled, so you don't have to worry about that, and I think that it is just a really enjoyable and interesting experience.

Peace