Shhhh, the Perthians are talking...

Now I have one of these!

It is amazing!

OH - I should say that I'm madly in love with Wilson and it's all good and rosy and we're going home for the 4th time in 2 months WOW because I feel at home with him and Mum and Dad like him and he's fun to be with for everyone around and it's awesome.
Rob convinced Mariel, Wils and I to go to the Engineers Ball last night at his birthday dinner. So now we're all going to the ball together. Should be good. Suits, dresses, drinkies and then some more drinkies! I want to look HOT of course, which is hard in winter for me but we'll see how I go. Maybe just some decent underwear. I would go buy that black slinky number Mara and I saw the other day but I don't think winter was that kind to my body shape! So - Mara's red awesome dress it might be - I'll bring up Nana's old fake jewellery to go with it...and can you see I'm a tad excited?
So right now I'm sitting in Wilson's apartment, with his sister, listening to Cat Power and waiting for my darling to get home from Curtin so we can go buy me headphones and maybe go see his friends at the Scarbs play a gig. But I doubt it. Just the shopping (because I NEED headphones!).
So - I'm tired, have a sore neck, a twitchy eye, am only just getting better (still) but everything is fricken awesome and I'm happy and I want more time in every day to see friends and walk along the river (which is so cool, if you haven't walked around the Swan DO IT) and be happy.
Work is going well, loads of work though and I may have a twitch from stress though I think it's from my neck/back being out. Wilson isn't that great with massages.
I feel fat today, I think I just drank a lot of coffee - I should probably wash and feel better but I'm finding that writing is very therapeutic for me right now. I don't think I've been allowing my thoughts to get out recently. It's good to do.
So bloody James - I worry if I'm meant to do something about him. But then, what? Meh.
It also scares me a little that Wilson and I have so many long term plans together. It's good, but scary. We're happy and know it and want it t endure and know it will. Oh man I hope I'm not eating my words in a month or two! But then just the fact that I'm making this public is a big thing, right? Heh.
Right now, we're still listening to Cat Power, Jessie is eating the strawberries I bought today and I'm looking out across the Swan (man Wilson is lucky) and I think Wilson should be about to walk through the door. :) Which means it's time to relax a bit more than I am....and I'm really concentrating on doing just that currently, because I don't think I'm doing myself any favours by being uptight and bus all the time. It's just hard when you want to do so much!

Is it really Thursday already? Is it really Thursday of week 3 already? Dear Lord, time has gone quickly.

Family will be in Perth tomorrow. Yay! I have work on Saturday, but I am not staying for long, so hopefully will hang out with family in the afternoon. Huzzah!

I rode to uni today. It was a good ride; really warmed me up from this slightly chilly day and also possibly counter-acted all the sour worms I ate yesterday. So tasty, but so bad for me!

Big prayers to alyssea who was recently in a serious car crash. I pray you heal quickly and without stress or too much depression while you're laid under.

I've had water in my ear for close to 4 hours. I can't hear very well and I'm starting to lose my temper. I'm going to go smash some cunt. 

I hate it when people ring up and complain about their meal and I'm like, "well, do you want to come down and get another one for free?" and they go "nah, it's too late now. I'm at home" and won't accept any form of compensation.

why bother calling??? stop wasting my time.

My happy little hometown of Hedland has just been showcased on the ABC on their Four Corners program. My friend, who was watching the program, messaged me to tell me that it made Hedland seem SCARY.

I missed the telecast. Luckily, ABC is quite progressive, so here is a transcript of the show: http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2008/s2339402.htm

I think the program did well in capturing the general malaise that hangs over the town like so much iron ore dust. Hedland people love nothing more than moaning about the terrible state of the town, while they roll in their piles of dirty, mining money. I thought it was good of the ABC to identify that even though there is a lot of money going around, it doesn't actually go toward the town to any great extent. And money doesn't buy happiness!

I was very happy growing up in Hedland. It seemed a good town to grow up in. I think what really killed it was the introduction of Fly-In-Fly-Out workers as industry standard. When the workforce is based in the community, they're forced to invest in the community, financially and emotionally. But when the workforce has come from down south, or over east, and lives here two-weeks-on-and-one-week-off, they spend the two weeks existing in their camp/caravan/rental house and then go back on that one-week-off and spend their money elsewhere. Even though the average earning wage is through the roof, it doesn't actually circulate through the community.

Except maybe through the liquor stores.
Edit: Having looked through some preliminary stats today, the liquor stores in the Port/South Hedland area pulled in 14 MILLION DOLLARS in liquor sales some years ago. That's SALES, not PROFIT, but oh my fucking god.

But the fact is that the money doesn't stay there and that has a knock-on effect. ABC does a fairly good job of addressing the plight of local businesses, local workers. I thought that it really spent too much time on the caravan park residents, and not enough time on long-term residents. People just like me. And I really wish it had talked more about the other government agencies. Good work on showing how difficult it is to police the area. But government agencies (like health!) are really, REALLY hurting. The cop interviewed spoke about the alcohol issue (using stats that WE gave him!) so I would have liked to see a holla from the Pilbara Community Drug Service Team.

BHP are still very vocal about the fact that they hire local people and are providing homes for these. But they're silent about the contractors they hire. Contractors can hire whoever they damn well please. And it IS easier to hire someone on a FIFO basis than to convince them to come up to shithole Hedland.

But the town I am nostalgic for isn't a shithole like ABC painted it at all :p

Anyway, I loved this line:
MATTHEW CARNEY: In town they call them the Ditchies but the people who live out here call it Two-mile Camp.

They so should not have gone there. :O

Today I was out and about. I went and had my legs waxed FINALLY! They were man legs, now they're women's legs again. Hurrah! Then I bought a new car stereo for cheaps (and later tried to install it by myself for free. FAILS!). I went into the city, to Target to see about getting my mp3 replaced because it broke and it's under warranty. I read the first two chapters of New Moon at Borders, but didn't buy it. Then I visited Lisey at hospital and that was nice. I ate too many sour worms and felt a little ill. DAMN WORMS! so tasty though...

Although the car stereo installing didn't work out so great, I was pleased by how far I got. I managed to take off the front panel (which was hard work!!) and take out the old one, but the cables and cords for the new one were rather different and I think needs a look at by an experience mechanic/electrician. I put in the new one anyway, I just didn't hook it up at the back. Then I put everything back in its place. I hope I didn't forget any screws. That would be SCREWY! HAH!

Capslock ftw.

Last night I went to Dawn's house because I thought something was on, but it was cancelled last minute and my phone was dead so I didn't know. However, she felt so bad about it (I was rather embarrassed too) that she gave me free dinner and afterwards we went out for half price waffles at Gelare. YUM!

Didn't get the job with AWC. I think my qualifications in the field made them wary - dammit.

Anyways, I now bring you one of the truest songs ever written.

Well Hi there. Thank you for downloading another fine quality comedy product from Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie and your friends at MP3.com - good for you. Of course, if you've downloaded this from Napster - Screw You! You know what - free isn't good enough for ya? You've gotta rip us off? That's okay! I will find you, and I will kill you, ha ha ha.

You see, I come from a time in the nineteen-hundred-and-seventies when computers were used for two things - to either go to the moon, or play Pong... nothing in between. Y'see, you didn't need a fancy operating system to play Pong, and the men who went to the moon--God Bless 'em--did it with no mouse, and a plain text-only black-and-white screen, and 32 kilobytes of RAM.

But then 'round 'bout the late 70's, home computers started to do a little more than play Pong... very little more. Like computers started to play games, and balance checkbooks, and why you could play Zaxxon on your Apple II, or... write a book! All with a computer that had 32 kilobytes of RAM! It was good enough to go to the moon, it was good enough for you.

It was a golden time. A time before Windows, a time before mouses, a time before the internet and bloatware, and a time... before every OS sucked.

*sigh*

Well, way back in the olden times,
my computer worked for me.
I'd laugh and play, all night and day,
on Zork I, II and III.

The Amiga, VIC-20 and the Sinclair II,
The TRS 80 and the Apple II,
they did what they were supposed to do,
it wasn't much... but it was enough.

But then Xerox made a prototype,
Steve Jobs came on the scene,
read "Of Mice and Menus," Windows, Icons
a trash, and a bitmap screen.

Well Stevie said to Xerox,
"Boys, turn your heads and cough."
And when no-one was looking,
he ripped their interfaces off.

Stole every feature that he had seen,
put it in a cute box with a tiny little screen,
Mac OS 1 ran that machine,
only cost five thousand bucks.

But it was slow, it was buggy,
so they wrote it again,
And now they're up to OS 10,
they'll charge you for the Beta, then charge you again,
but the Mac OS still sucks.

Every OS wastes your time,
from the desktop to the lap,
Everything since Apple Dos,
Just a bunch of crap.

From Microsoft, to Macintosh,
to Lin-line-lin-linux,
Every computer crashes,
'cause every OS sucks.

Well then Microsoft jumped in the game,
copied Apple's interface, with an OS named,
"Windows 3.1" - it was twice as lame,
but the stock price rose and rose.

Then Windows 95, then 98,
man solitaire never ran so great,
and every single version came out late,
but I guess that's the way it goes.

But that bloatware'll crash and delete your work,
NT, ME, man, none of 'em work.
Bill Gates may be richer than Captain Kirk,
but the Windows OS blows!
And sucks!
At the same time!

I'd trade it in, yeah right... for what?
It's top of the line from the Compuhut.
The fridge, stove and toaster, never crash on me,
I should be able to get online, without a PHD.

My phone doesn't take a week to boot it,
my TV doesn't crash when I mute it,
I miss ASCII text, and my floppy drive,
I wish VIC-20 was still alive...

But it ain't the hardware, man.

It's just that every OS sucks... and blows.

Now there's li-nux or lie-nux,
I don't know how you say it,
or how you install it, or use it, or play it,
or where you download it, or what programs run,
but li-nux, or lie-nux, don't look like much fun.

However you say it, it's getting great press,
though how it survives is anyone's guess,
If you ask me, it's a great big mess,
for elitist, nerdy shmucks.

"It's free!" they say, if you can get it to run,
the Geeks say, "Hey, that's half the fun!"
Yeah, but I got a girlfriend, and things to get done,
the Linux OS SUCKS.
(I'm sorry to say it, but it does.)

Every OS wastes your time,
from the desktop to the lap,
Everything since the abacus,
Just a bunch of crap.

From Microsoft, to Macintosh,
to Lin-line-lin-linux.
Every computer crashes,
'cause every OS sucks.

Every computer crashes... 'cause every OS sucks!

My flight is a little over 3 hours away.
If you would like to stalk me while I am in the air, my flight numbers are:
SQ 226 (Perth to Singapore)
SQ 602 (Singapore to Incheon)

I need a wingman for Southbound!

( Apply within )

Unless, of course, people are interested in some sort of group deal thing again? I dunno. Last time we did that it was crap. But... The Hives... so Ill take what I can get.

Outta here in less than 24hrs and I'm SO disorganised, as usual.

Quick notes on the movies I saw in the past two days:
Tropic Thunder - Unexpectedly hilarious satire with laughs that just keep coming. 7.5/10
Taken - Liam Neeson kicking arse for 90mins. Possibly the best movie I've seen this year. 9/10

Now for 3hrs sleep. Come to Belgian Beer Cafe at 6:30-10pm tomorrow if you're free.

HALLO THAR FRENZ!

So I've had an odd few days. Nothing too exciting, just odd. So we had a few days free with no check-ins or check-outs in the flats, and Paul's friend Y felt like a bit of a jaunt. As the only person with a driving license (...err. or the ability to drive - I have the first, but not the second) Y hired the car and set the itinerary. It was Paul's birthday. We were going to Vienna. At this point my body decided to play a HILARIOUS joke on me, and tapped me on the shoulder saying, ' HAY GUESS WUT? SURPRISE YEAST INFECTION, LOLOLOLOL.' Gosh, the female body and its wacky hijinks. As you can imagine, I was positively filled with mirth at the prospect of a seven hour drive with an itchy vagina. Oh yay!

So! We got eighty kilometres out of Berlin and stopped at a service station for burgers and red bulls, then pulled back onto the motorway. Got two more kilometres away before Y starts wondering out loud about how long it's going to take to reach Vienna since the roads are wet, how he doesn't feel like a long drive, how there's a storm over Austria that day. And then...he turns the car around.

We end up at an expensive hotel right in the centre of Berlin, and Y pays for two huge suites, to say 'sorry I'm crap and happy birthday Paul.' They were on special that weekend, and jesus christ were they luxe. We had planned to go out for a nice birthday dinner, but then we spied the room service menu, and that was that. Cue 24 hours of absolute sloth and gluttony. I only left to buy a six pack of beer and a big mac, and spent a good portion of the time naked. Yeh, it was that slothful and gluttonous. I'd almost be ashamed, if I hadn't enjoyed it so freaking much. I even had breakfast delivered to the room! Paul got room service to buy him cigarettes and deliver them! Photos:

( yeah, they're under here. )

i got my tax return a week ago. i got about $1000, which was awesome.

michael is teaching me to play the drums! it's really fun hey. it feels good to be learning again. since i don't study anymore, it's left a big hole in my life.

on the weekend michael and i went and got lots of carpet offcuts (for the floor) and old mattresses (to stick up against the walls) to soundproof our garage. i've been collecting big egg cartons from work as well. it looks really cool in the garage now, because it's become really colourful.

work is okay. DO YOU KNOW that after this week i only have 4 weeks of work left! then i am taking a 4 week holiday, 2 weeks of which i will be spending in the grand old US of A. pretty exciting stuff. i am more excited about taking time off from work than i am about going overseas. :P

i think michael and i are going to have a welcome home party and take lots of drugs and distort our perceptions of reality and all that, which will be fucking sweet 'cause i haven't got high in almost a year. unless you count smoking pot, which i don't.

my life is mundane in so many ways hey, i think i'm actually going insane. i have nothing better to do than play stupid games in my mind and think about other peoples' business. i feel like a middle aged, white-bread-and-red-cordial housewife.

at least i have michael to hang about with, he's been really cute lately. hehe. i love it when he's in his clingy lovey-dovey phases.

he's playing a gig with gigantic this weekend, ya can come if ya want. here, let me show off the poster i made;

Hmm, tired and a bit meh, but can't seem to stop tooling around online. Small domestic dillemma about potential housemates which is sorted now, I feel like a bad and selfish person but still reckon it was the right choice.
Domestic dillemma sounds like arcanthus and I have been brawling in the kitchen doesn't it? I promise it's nothing like that. When we brawl in the kitchen it involves me shouting at Arcy for filling the fridge with those filthy unnatural espressos in tins, and then Arcy shouting at me for being short, and then the wolf skittering in to whimper like a traumatised child until we stop and Arcy goes off to fix my computer instead. It's tough.

Tiddles the cat is staying with me while her person convinces rent inspectors that there is no Tiddles the cat. I've missed her! I've even missed the way she always wants to snuggle at 4 am and bats at me til I damn well wake up and snuggle back.

No bugger this. Sleep. Proper entry tomorrow. My friendspage is huge! You people do so much! It'll take me forever!

*waves, yawns, exits*

Epic weekend. Strawberry wine, getting rejected from Eurobar, stumbling around Northbridge before settling on the Brass Monkey... next year I'm actually going to PLAN my birthday properly and FORCE (by way of guilt) people to go where I want. I was lenient this year because a lot of my bffs were broke and I didn't want to make them fork out for $9 beer at Belgian.

I'm waiting for my friends to upload photos, I had a sneak peek at Shak's camera and I think I turned out pretty decent for my 20th. I scoured the city on Friday for just the right shade of gold heels to go with my dress (YELLOW gold, not silver-gold or pink-gold, or stripper shoes), the pair that I ended up buying were happily on sale but it ended unhappily for my feet. Now I remember why I despise strappy sandal high heel shoe things. They looked nice, but does anyone fancy a pair of size 7 gold shoes? I'm not going to wear them again, I think my little toe might fall off if I attempt another wearing. I have wide feet, and there was only the 7s left, and I was tired of looking... they are actually quite pretty little shoes.

And just after that guilty admission, I've been good lately! I haven't been buying clothes. I have had a couple of packages come in the mail which may have contained dresses, but I bought those before I decided to quit clothes shopping. I bought underwear too, but that... doesn't count. The only "essential" that I think I'm going to buy in the next couple of weeks is a decent black bra. My last couple from Target have crapped out on me prematurely, ugh.

Birthday haul:

Guitar Hero On Tour, Professor Layton and the Curious Village, Alessi "Cico" Eggcup (yes), BIG BAG OF CANDY, stuffed toys and a "gift certificate" entitling me to a dinner date at a restaurant of my choice ♥, ruffly undies (!), cake decorating materials (heh), Pigeonhole gift voucher, and movie tickets. And Dougless's friend Cheyne got me a 1991 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records. Not quite sure why.

Anyway, after we got up on Sunday afternoon, Bug and I went to Cottesloe for a greasy fish and chip breakfast/lunch. It was such a nice day, I'm starting to think I should buy two of everything and leave one set at Dougless's house... my bathers would have been awesome, argh. We had a barbecue at his house in the afternoon and then I went home around 9pm, absolutely exhausted. Good weekend.

I'm getting a little bit sick of Uni.

Today I went on a coffee date with my Bug, it's going to become a Tuesday ritual. We're trying to plot a ritual "beer date" as well, but I suspect that will happen far less frequently than the coffee. He left to go to work around 2:00 and I spent an hour rummaging for books in Subi. I added to my Anne of Green Gables collection, found Rilla of Ingleside in a cute little hardback for $1. It annoys me to have books in a series in different covers, but at this point I'm grateful to find any of the Anne series in bookshops. I was also accidentally an asshole to the guy at Elizabeth's, someone asked him who wrote "Infidel" and he didn't know, so I opened my trap. I don't think he was particularly offended but he didn't seem too friendly when I was buying my books, soooo... next time, keep work geekery to self.

I've just remembered that there's a picture that I (drunkenly) allowed to be taken of my ass in the aforementioned ruffly undies. I'm scared it's going to show up on Facebook.

Deathcab tomorrow night!

You know what pisses me off? Nearly getting run over. Yeah.

Crossing a t-junction, I see a car coming but he's going rather fast and he's not indicating so I decide to cross the road. It's not like he could be TURNING THE CORNER OR ANYTHING, EY?

Oh wait, he's a dumb fuck and he IS turning the corner! Oh! He nearly hits me! Then he starts shouting at me! I told him he wasn't indicating, but he still didn't shut up so I started walking away, and he leaves with a resounding "FUCK YOU CUNT", and some obscene gesture with his arm.

Fun.

So if its true, how do I come to terms with the fact that the reality I thought I was living for the past almost three years wasn't reality at all...but an altered state of mind?

That will be the hardest part.

( what movies have I seen? )
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________

( The Omnivore's Hundred Meme )

Two enough for now methinks. :)

I've been a busy bee.

University is packed to the rafters with homework and assignments. I really love doing my design unit at the moment - my creativity is slowly coming back! Amongst the usual work and living stuffs I've had a few design jobs to tuck into my time as well. Feel like my brain is going to explode with all this stuff to do in my head. Hopefully, it won't get to that messy stage.
I have also begun a love affair with making muffins. So far, both of the recipes I have tried out have been successful. At the moment I am just trying to motivate myself to take more time to cook, because its fun and rewarding to have a recipe work out! People these days aren't making the time to make their own dinner or lunch anymore, and I think that is kind of sad. Especially with the amount of preservatives and artifical additives that are put into fast and quick food. At least I know what's in the food I am cooking.

Trying to figure out what to do next year with my last semester. Whether to finish it off and include the possibility of a TAFE course at the second half of the year, or be a mindless drone at Target. <--- I think not.

Been sitting on this degree gettin' train, and it'll be time to hop off very soon. Which means I need to make decisions. And I am bad at making decisions. On account of being indecisive. Eh.

Just got this damn travel bug scratchin'.