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.