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

NO MORE HISTORY

I'd just like to let you know that I have finally finished my archaeology course with my last exam today for uni. I'm uber happy about this, and I would be so happy to just scrape through with a pass.

Either way, it was a pretty good day, apart from actually having to do the exam itself. I found that I can actually drive up to university in less than half an hour if there is no traffic, which was pretty much the highlight of my day, but still kind of great in a way. I know that I can do it if at all possible.

Anyway, now comes the difficult task of doing not a whole lot for the next six weks, not during the day anyway. Hopefully I'll be able to catch up with a few friends who I haven't seen for a long time,  maybe even take up a course or something like that. It would be pretty cool to learn sign language, maybe I could learn a bit over the holidays.

But yeah, either way it is time to relax and prepare for my second term at uni, which hopefully will be even better than the first now that i'm keen to all the happenings and stuff like that.

Peace x

Thursdays Happenings.

I love it when I have one of those very productive days, which is probably why I'm quite happy with the way today turned out.

At first i was a little bit chuffed because I had to get up early, and I was going to meet up with Adam, who I haven't seen for a while, but that kind of fell through, I couldn't really get in touch with him early in the morning so I just kind of started studying for my exam on Saturday instead.

I've kind of figured out a method that might work for me when I'm studying ancient history. I'm kind of pretty rubbish with remember such vast amounts of detail like one would encounter when studying history. I have no problems at all learning languages very quickly, because you only really have to figure out a word at a time, and once you know a word you'll know it forever. Or at least for a very long time. But learning that the main fabric that the Egyptians used was linen, or remembering all the different periods and dynasties of Egyptian history is a task that seems almost beyond possible. The good thing is though is that I think I know enough information about everything to get me through the exam, and if in doubt, keep writing and put in everything I can think of.

Either way, it will all be over come Saturday ^^

So I did that for the whole day almost, not a very interesting day, but a productive one to be honest. I have, much to my amazement, retained quite a bit of information that I didn't previously know. My other method for remembering is just sheer rote. I just write paragraphs out like 5 times, until I can repeat it parrot fashion. And for me, that works. I also try out all the tricks, I find the only album of classical music I have on my ipod, and listen to that, because apparently you are supposed to retain more when you listen to classical music. And I get all of the heavy reading done in the morning, and then just practice and revise the things again when it gets later.

ANYWAY. So tonight I went to LoudTribe to see if I could help out, and see what the dealio was with it, and I must say I'm kind of really enthusiastic about it. Basically the focus is planning events for young people in the area, because I think everyone will admit that it is something that we need. Stuff like concerts, dance parties, those things are all great stuff for young people to get involved with, and it's completely drug and alcohol free.
I think that everyone who is my kind of age can admit that there aren't a lot of things for the youth to do, which is why there are so many 'gangs' and kids just mucking about and being stupid all the time, just for sheer boredom. Normally, most of the good concerts are 18+, all of the dance parties are 18+, and there just isn't a large focus on having a great community come up with events and stuff like that. Either way, I think that this is one of the best incentives I've seen for a long time and I intend to get well involved.

Peace for now♥

Egyptian Archaeology

I can't begin to describe to you how happy I am going to be once I have finally finished this subject, in only three days time or so.

Normally I love all things history-related, but I have to say that there was just something that just didn't click with me for my Egyptian Archaeology course, I found it constantly boring and dull, and I'm not exactly sure why. I think that it's just so different to any history that I did at high school that it was kind of a bit of a shock to the system.

Anyway, the good thing is that I have finally been able to motivate myself enough so that I can get some solid studying  done. I've got some pretty nifty classical music, which I've heard makes you relax and study a whole lot better, and hopefully I will retain something in the old noggin.

Another reason why i didn't particularly like it was that it was just far too much information to go through, we went through so many eras and so many different styles, forms, architecture, etc, way too quickly that I found it really hard to get my head around. I like there to be a clear cut idea of what exactly it is that I have to study. And this is a new course, so there aren't even any good, reliable past papers which I can practice with. So I'm just going over everything and hoping that some key points of information will stick.
Check out the state of my Egyptian study zone at the moment. :O

I suppose that it would be better if I got a little bit more organised, I'm kind of just summarising all over the place for most of it. But to be honest I think that that is all that I can really do, I might be able to make up my own essay questions and just write an essay or two, but we'll just see how that goes. It's not really the essay writing that I have the issue with, it's the retention of all the little details and stuff like that.

But anyway, the positive out of all this is that it's only three more days to go until it will all be over and done with, and then the holidays can officially begin! Which is incredibly exciting, seeing as I now have a job and everything. Anyway, I'll cut this one here for the moment, I should get back to studying while I have got the time and motivation.

Peace

I Made a Whale Today

Mainly on a whim today, I made a whale. And I am very happy with the outcome, although I do have to work on a few little things for the next one I make.
It took me about an hour to do, on and off, mainly because I am so terribly bad at sewing things together. Maybe if I make 1000 of these guys, I might be able to improve those skills a little bit.

I thought that he was pretty cute, anyway. He's even got water coming out of his blowhole. Awesome.

Behind that cuteness though is a dastardly figure called procrastination. It is kind of sad that I would rather make a whale than study for my ancient history exam, but I think that I've got a good result. I might even be able to use him as a study partner, bounce a few ideas off him. I am quietly confident though that my motivation will soon come, maybe even tomorrow. I will vow to not do anything else than study for a little while. We'll see how long that lasts anyway.

So tomorrow, I'll either have studied a lot, or expect to see a whole lot more whales around.

xPeace

Something to make you smile

                                                      (Image via We♥It)

I just love photos like these. I know nothing about photography per se, but if  was able to take photos that were this amazing, I would hope that they looked exactly like this.
With so much brutality and moroseness in the world today, everyone needs something to smile at, which is why im going to try spread the smiles myself, through this blog. Appreciating the little things, if you will.
I dont think that there is anything a lot more picturesque and playful than watching balloons float up into the sky, especially in this photo.
Blue sky, green grass and colourful balloons really make me happy, i don't really know why in particular, but it's just a very common feeling, i think most people would appreciate the simplicity of it.

So my tip for all bloggers out their today, post something that will make your readers smile, spread the love and write a positive little message, make the world a little happier :D.

Peace

Weeds

I know that I might be behind the eight ball here, but I watched the first four episodes of Weeds yesterday and I am really hooked!

The last thing that I really need at the moment is to have another TV show to catch up with and then watch religiously every week once I've actually caught up, but I can't help it. I just instantly enjoyed watching it, and one of the things that I think helps there is that i was really excited and enthusiastic about getting to watch it for the first time, so I think that I instantly made that connection with the show.

Anyway, I really do love it to bits already. There's just enough drama to be interesting, but it is definitely a comedy through and through.

I must say, though, it really wasn't at all what I thought it was going to be like, I wasn't really expecting the 'normal mother' figure to start up a weed dealing business in the suburbs, but I think that it's far better than anything that I was expecting. I really love how I was able to connect with the characters really quickly, and I think that it's just a great TV series so far. I'm going to go watch some more now ^^
Peace

Hotel Rwanda

Possibly one of the most inspiring, gut-wrenching, soul-destroying-but at the same time in a sort of way-life-affirming movies I have ever seen.

The first thing about this movie is that it is so confronting, at the beginning of the movie a lot of the surroundings look similar to what I would know, the houses look very modern, the hotel featured in the hotel is really top notch.
And then it all goes very ugly.

I personally knew about the genocide that happened in Rwanda, to a very little extent. I didn't know that roughly eight hundred thousand to a million people were killed brutally in such a short time span. And the weirdest thing is that it happened during my lifetime.

The acting was magnificent, I don't really think that there was a fault there at all. I think that the real success of this movie, unfortunately, was based on that fact that this IS a true story, that all those people died, countries that could have helped more just didn't do enough, and that in the end the world was left with this stark picture of destruction, desolation and despair.

The only problem with this movie, and it is a positive problem in a way, is that as soon as you've finished watching it, the only thing you'll want to do is to do something, help in someway, find out as much as you can.

In some ways one can take solace in the fact that Rwanda was able to build past it, and build themselves a better country. I remember about 10 years ago it was declared one of the worlds most, if not THE most, dangerous country in the world, and now it is one of the safer countries in Central East Africa. And it is also the only country to be declared mine free in the region. But we should never forget what happened there.

Learning about Life from Digg

So I spent most of my day trawling through the pages of Digg, and I am really surprised at how much great content there is out on the internet, that I would just have no idea to look up, or even have the chance to come across during my normal, everyday internet surfing.

There are a lot of amazing articles out there, for instance there was one thing talking about how some archaeologists think that they have found the remains of Emilia Earhart on the South Pacific island of Nikumaroro, or comparing the size of this universe with galaxies far away, and just a lot of random new's articles and blog-style bits, which just generally make for a really entertaining read. And it also has been a big help with looking for new topics to blog about, because there really are times when topics are hard to come by, and I end up repeating myself.

A lot of the stuff on there is just humourous little banter, if you click the "random" button in the browser, you're likely to come across a lot of funny pictures. A lot of the don't have a real purpose other than to make you laugh a little bit, which in a way is a lot more refreshing way to use the internet sometimes.

That's really something that I've been thinking about the last couple of days, I've really just been doing a lot of things that make me feel good, rather than trying to study a lot, cram a lot of information in my head. It wasn't really for any reason, but just the little things make a day a whole lot brighter. Going out for walks, getting out in whatever sunshine there is, talking with some friends you haven't talked with for a long time, listening to a favourite song, singing in the car, dancing real crazy, dressing up really crazy too.

Sometimes I think people just forget about enjoying themselves these days, everyone gets so frantic about studying, work, and I suppose it's not just a passing phase, but more like society these days has just forgotten to have fun. People get overworked, over-stressed and I think that the best thing in the world would to let off a little steam every now and again.

My favourite place to be would be by the beach, and I've realised that I actually haven't been to the beach for far too long. So I am going to make a deal, even though it is winter time, I'll head over to Manly and have a nice day, bring some friends, have a bit of a picnic. I can't really think of anything really more relaxing than that, especially since you have to get the ferry to get to Manly from this side of Sydney, and on a lovely sunny day it's so nice to watch the city go by.

So thanks Digg, for letting me enjoy the little things, and letting me take out some time for the things I enjoy.
I think the point for this article is to just get you thinking about what things make you happy, things that you could easily do, and share them with us here. If everyone was able to have their picnic every now and again, we would be a much more relaxed and happy people. :D

Capped!

Like hardcore capped. but it's alright i spose. Actually kind of convenient in a way, so I can get all my homework and stuff like that done. Only problem is is that it might take forever to get all my readings downloaded and stuff like that. BLARGH.
i only have one that i have to do, which is due by monday, and than i can essentially kiss that course goodbye, which is really exciting. But don't be fooled by this mini news-break.

The big news today is that, as of the fifth of July, I shall be a working man :D
AHHHHH!
I am sooo so very much excited. I will finally have some form of income!!!

So yeah, that really was the highlight of the week and month so far, my dream of getting employed, all be it on a temporary contract, is awesome. :D I can finally start accruing some life savings and stuff like that.

I also got my Mickey Mouse watch fixed today, which is almost equally exciting. It's been over ten years since Mickey's hands have been moving round that watch's dial, weaving their time magic skills, so it's nice to see the mouse back in action.

So all in all today has been a pretty good day, it's much better weather than what it was yesterday, this time in two weeks i'll have finished my second and final exam,  my watch is fixed, my internet is capped which means I'm going to get more stuff done outside of the internet world, so it's all great.

The End Is Nigh

For the uni semester, anyway.
I'm soooo glad that it is the end of the semester, but I absolutely have no idea what I am going to do to occupy myself for a whole 2 months holidays. Hopefully that mystical job will come along soon enough.

There really isnt a whole lot to report on today, so I thought that I would dive into a topic of some sort. Get back to the swing of things, so to speak.

I've volunteered to help out Andrea with brainstorming ideas for her script, and I've been tossing around a couple all day, but I've been trying to think of things that would be particularly radio worthy, in some way. It's kind of difficult, a lot of the points that I think would be pretty good probably wouldn't come under the list of things that they could talk about.

Anyway, it is absolutely pouring down today, I don't think that I have seen so much rain for a very long time. There was just so much water everywhere at uni today, it has a really speacial knack of pooling together across whole footpaths, so you'll just have to make astounding leaps and bounds just to try and not get your socks wet. And then you kind of fail and jump in the deepest part of the puddle, and your socks are wet for the rest of the day.
Plus we could almost sail little boats in the back yard. I don't really know how much more water that grass will be able to take.

So today I finished my classes for theterm, and I dunno, it kind of feels a little bit weird, I don't really know how I am going to keep myself busy for several months. I've already gotten a start on a couple of my texts for English next term that I have to read, there are a a fair few of those to be honest, and I thihnk that I will get the lecture notes for my English course as well, just so that I can be extra prepared. Apart from that I don't really have a lot planned to be honest, hopefully I'll be able to see some friends and stuff like that, but we'll see how it goes.

I think that over the holidays, I'll see if I can pin down what I would like to get out of my uni degree. I've really been thinking about looking into going into journalism, and seeing how that would go. I really want to do a couple of media courses, but they are absolutely chock-full, all the time. I've got the course that I want to do constantly up on the MQ website, just so I can swoop if the spot opens up. Hopefully I can get into the Radio broadcasting and production course next year, that would be really ideal, I would love to work in radio for a little bit.
But then I've also really been thinking about going the whole nine yards with spanish and japanese, I would be able to do a couple of postgraduate courses for Spanish  and Japanese translation and interpreting, which I think would be pretty great to do, seeing as that is something that I know I would have the capability of doing eventually.
Either way, I'm kind of glad that I have got it narrowed down to these couple of things that interest me, it's kind of broad enough so that I can study them all, in essence, and by the end of it I just have to choose what I would like to get out of it, and which parth I would like to take. :D

Hope you all have a great day, even though it's so wet.
Matty

5 Annoying Little Freakouts

Ok, so here are a couple more things that freak me out, fyi.

1. People with toes that look like little fingers. >< I don't really know why, but they freak me the hell out. If one of your toes is as long as your pinky finger, i will do my very best to disregard your feet if you are wearing thongs or something like that.

2. Really tall people. I think it's mainly because I'm quite short, and I just find them too intimidating to take seriously. And I don't just mean like, a nice average height, I'm talking uber tall guys and gals. It may also be some kind of jealousy, but regardless, tallies freak me out.

3. People who wear a LOT of make up. I spoke this would go just as much for the girls as the guys. They're kind of like mystical creatures bearing tidings of doom, normally they have some weirdo of a guy with them that will talk loudly on the bus or some other annoying thing like that. Which is an excellent segue into number 4.

4. People who talk loudly on the bus. I always thing that they are planning a distraction or something like that so they can put their dastardly plans into action. Plus they're just plain annoying.

5. Grumpy bus drivers scare me. I kind of say that, because I think that if they're grumpy, they might drive a bit more recklessly around town, and its just scary. The amount of traffic rules buses break in the first place is somewhat frightening, but yeah. Add that with an angry driver, and I don't know what could happen.