Leah's TARDIS

I haven't been here for a while, so... 15 things!

2009-02-20T20:50:00.000-08:00

This is taken from Alan's blog. And I've been REALLY bored recently, so I thought "why not?"

1. List one book you think everyone should read this year. (if you mention my book for brownie points, please list a second book as well) Alan, sadly I have not read your book, I am poor and the exchange rate doesn't favour the Australian dollar. And I realised then that I haven't answered the question. I just finished "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (in your pants)" by Jonathan Safran Foer, and though it was published in 2005, it's one of the best books I've read.

2. What is your favourite thing about your hometown? I say Melbourne's the best city in the world. I've never thought about why. It's certainly not Connex, our failing train system. I think it's the atmosphere. The people are nice, and there's culture, which is more than you can say for Sydney. We have an Arts Festival, a Comedy Festival, a Writers Festival, a Food and Wine Festival and probably many more I can't think of off the top of my head. There's always a play or a musical showing and probably a free concert or comedy gig that you can get into. I don't know if that answers the question at all either :S

3. Incorrectly complete these Fall Out Boy lyrics: "This ain't a scene, it's a dog wearing a lampshade riding a bicycle through a river" (more ridiculous than creative, but that is definitely not my dog)

4. What would you title your autobiography and how many pages would it be? I definitely know that the front cover would be me making a silly face. I just answered a question that wasn't asked, I could be a politician. It would probably be unnecessarily long as I went off on some tangent. Maybe I could title it "The Life and Ramblings of a Neurotic Teenager".

5. What was the best Christmas gift you've received? A sticker machine. It stopped working though.

6. What's one new thing you learned this week? (they say you learn something new every day, so you should have a few things to choose from) My friend Anna has a surfboard. Which doesn't seem like that much (or maybe not even what you wanted to know), but she's not the sort of person who would own a surfboard. Also who the founders of YouTube are, thanks to a website mentioned below.

7. Open Skype/G-Chat/AIM and type "how's my favourite friend who I haven't chatted with today?" to someone you haven't chatted with at all today. This item isn't a question, just a polite demand to let someone know you were thinking of them.

8. Tell me one really proud moment from your life. When I got my final results for school. When we take our exams in the last year of high school we do the same exam as everyone else in the state doing that subject. Because I'd had some illness issues, I was stressing a lot about what my results would be and I ended up in the top 6% of the state overall, the top 3% for English and the top 8% for geography.

9. Tell me one really embarrassing moment from your life. I still hate telling this story and it's been a year and a half since the incident. In year 11 we had a school formal and at a girls school there is so much fuss and everything about dress, shoes, hair makeup etc. that it drives me insane. Anyway, mum and I decided that I could get my legs waxed, even though I'm not the biggest ran of pain. The next morning I woke up and my legs were swollen, red and extremely itchy because I'd had an allergic reaction to the leg wax. The best part was that my formal was in 5 days, so I spent a lot of the next week at the doctors trying to find a way to get rid of the reaction, as it was causing me difficulties in everyday tasks such as sleeping and walking.

10. Have you owned something for way too long... something you know you should get rid of or replace, but can't? If so, what and why?

11. Fill in the blank: Other than this one, John Green's is the last blog I commented on.

12. Do you have any scars? I have a scar on my left hand near my middle finger. I remember that I got it when I was on a 33 day camping trip with school in year 9, but I can't remember how I got it. I could have been collecting firewood, or maybe I fell off a bike.

13. I say "this is not tom", you say:
A. Who the eff is Tom?
B. Thank god, Tom sucks!
C. Oh, I love staring at page source code all day and solving riddles!! <3
D. And this is not me, not clicking the back button and not not reading the rest of this stupid meme.

14. What do you get complimented on the most? (your looks, your creativity, your impressive collection of black santa figurines) From those, probably my looks. I wish I was more creative (my answers to questions 3 and 4 may or may not prove this. But they probably will), and I would love a collection of Black Santa figurines, but sadly I do not even own one.

15. Paste a link here to your favorite picture online: We were at my friend's house and she'd baked a cake and she dropped it and then it exploded. So here's my friend cleaning it up. Probably as not as riveting as you'd hoped. Sadly we missed the photography of the dropping of the cake and the explosion.

[09/01/09] The ARIA charts.

2009-01-08T17:15:00.000-08:00

Since Twitter is down, I decided to blog, but not to give an update on my life at the moment. I thought I'd have a look at the top 10 songs on the ARIA charts and give my thoughts. This could be interesting.

1. Poker Face - Lady GaGa
This song is okay. That's all I have to say. I think it's suffered from being played several times. I do like what people hear as Mondegreens though. Like "Booger Face" and "Poke her face"

2. Use Somebody - Kings of Leon
I have expressed my dislike of Kings of Leon, which was intensified by the time I had to listen to them for 5 hours straight at work due to the fact that Shane and Nick were baking. I'm surprised we weren't listening to them Christmas Day, actually. But this song is okay considering who sings it.

3. Live Your Life - T.I. feat. Rihanna
Rihanna should not have been allowed to use any part of Numa Numa. Ever. The first time you hear it on the radio you think "OMG, it's Numa Numa!" and then there's the disappointment when you say "Is that Rihanna? What the fuck has she done to this song?" My sister and I decided that it would be much more awesome if Rick Astley sang Numa Numa.

4. Get Shaky - The Ian Carey Project
I was not aware of this song, so I am listening to it now. So far it's just some drum beats, and fairly repetitive. Okay, I listened for about a minute and it's pretty crap. I can't listen to any more, and I'm kind of glad that it isn't played on the radio too much.

5. Single Ladies (Put a Ring on it) - Beyonce
Um, the "oh oh oh" bit is kind of catchy. I've never really listened to this song properly, nor do I want to. (I don't have that much of an opinion, clearly)

6. Circus - Britney Spears
Nina Jankowicz, aka ninjapiano on youtube did a good cover of Womanizer. That's all I have to say about Britney. Though she seems to be making a 'comeback' every second week.

7. Sex on Fire - Kings of Leon
Can someone please explain to me why the fuck people like this song? Kthxbai.

8. You - Wes Carr
The best winner's single of any Idol competition ever. I didn't watch Idol, but I heard this song on the radio and I love it.

9. Hot n Cold - Katy Perry
This song is catchy, and when in a fitting room it is kind of funny to hear the words "you change your mind like a girl changes clothes". Does that mean often? I change my clothes twice a day generally. More often if I have work. I have learned to change quickly because of several years of dancing concerts. Overall, having heard some of Katy's songs and one interview, she doesn't actually seem like a nice person. She makes vast generalisations about genders, and in "I Kissed a Girl" there is the verse "I don't even know your name, it doesn't matter. You're my experimental game, just human nature". It doesn't promote human nature very well, or the way we should treat other people.

10. Burn - Jessica Mauboy
I don't really know this song. And I don't want to.

I might keep going for a bit.

11. Sober - P!nk
None of her songs will ever be as good as So What.

12. Alive - Natalie Bassingthwaite
This woman is so annoying. How does she manage to sell singles? I'm thinking of the song now and it's not a great one. Or even a good one. Oh, and her live performances are pretty bad too.

13. So What - P!nk
I like this song because it's fun and there's something about being able to realise that after a bad breakup/divorce/whatever that you can just go on with your life and get over it.

14. Let it Rock - Kevin Rudolf Feat. Lil Wayne
I can't remember any of the song except the part where "Let it Rock" is repeated over and over again. It's quite annoying.

15. Just Dance - Lady GaGa feat. Coby O'Donis
I like this song, not as much as I used to, once again because it's been played too much. Is it true that Lady GaGa used to be a man?

16. Womanizer - Britney Spears
The only good thing that can be said about this song is that it is perfect for getting other songs out of your head. And it's still funny that "Britney Spears" anagrams to "Presbyterians"

17. I'm Yours - Jason Mraz
Why did this song only get to number 3 on the charts? It's ridiculous. I hate how society influences what sort of music that's 'cool' to like because that's what gets played on the radio. I bought "We sing, we dance, we steal things" yesterday. I think that says a lot about how I feel about this song.

18. If I Were a Boy - Beyonce
If she were a boy she wouldn't release songs like this one, which would be a good thing.

19. I Hate this Part - The Pussycat Dolls
I haven't heard this song in a while, so I'm going to have to listen to it. Oh yes. "I can't take it any longer, thought that we were stronger, blah blah blah". I remember making a Twitter update months ago saying "I can't take it any longer - I can't take this song being in my head any longer" or something like that. In the good old days when the wireless was working. Seriously, I get my laptop back and literally two weeks later the wireless breaks

20. Running Back - Jessica Mauboy feat. Flo Rida
This song is horrible and it grates my ears. Enough said.

So there are the top 20 songs in Australia, people. It's things like Youtube that make me believe in good music. There are 3 songs there that I can safely say I like and a couple of others I sort of like.

[New Year's Eve Eve] Worky work work work. It's a song.

2008-12-30T02:21:00.000-08:00

My boss is quite paranoid about people stealing money. Fair enough, it's happened. Though it's also quite hard to get away with it. There are cameras over both the cash registers and the safe. So she doesn't teach people how to close very often and then something happens like tonight: the only people who were available to close were people who worked earlier in the day. My boss actually called and apologised that I hadn't been trained yet. She never trains anyone until a situation like that pops up.

So I was taught how to close tonight. It's not really that hard now that we don't have to count the money at the end of the day. Though I don't know how it's done after it's been put in the safe. You just put together the float for the next day and put the rest of the money in the safe.

Mopping however, created more difficulty. You wouldn't think mopping is too hard, and it's not. Except the blueberry stains are a bitch to get out of the floor. Despite the blueberry and white chocolate scones being delicious. And that's not even the worst part. Basically I think that more water ended up on the floor than in the bucket. Because I spilled it - twice. The back room, which was the first part of the shop that I mopped was still wet at 7:30 when we left. It should be dry by the time the bakers get in though.

[Christmas Day] Peter Costello has a lot to answer for with the baby bonus

2008-12-25T00:48:00.000-08:00

Church was absolutely chaotic last night because there were several small children who would not sit still. The children at carols by candlelight were better behaved. Hmm. I don't know what to say about Christmas.

Carols: I love Melbourne. So much. The city that held the first Carols. Anyway, Hi-5 performed and sang the Santa song. I know all the actions, I think I should join Hi-5. Except for the fact that I don't like them at all. Wiggles FTW!

Work: My boss called at 7:40 am to ask if my sister and I could come in earlier. Because I have never worked a shift quite as insane as that one. Funnily enough, the customers were very organised and queued efficiently in a single file. That's not normally how it works at Bakers. You know it's busy when you bake nearly 2000 dinner rolls and 420 bread sticks and you sell out of both. Sandra bought us all drinks, which was not what I expected and Emily and I had a laugh at the expense of Deakin. Hmm, I want chocolate.

Christmas: We went to the park which was fun. My grandma said "Who are ACDC? Are they a music group?" which made us all laugh very hard. What else happened? My cousin somehow drew a perfect circle on her knee. Still haven't worked that one out. How she managed it, I mean.

I laughed very hard when I opened my present from Kat, because it's a tardis book. I have no idea what it's for, something to do with tasks, or something. Like Kat wrote in the card. I'll write something more thoughtful on stuff soon, I am currently watching Allo Allo, which is hilarious. Therefore it is hard to concentrate on the blogalog. But Happy Christmas.

[Results 2008] I don't have to go to Deakin!

2008-12-14T20:54:00.000-08:00

I've been awake for over 10 hours. That is not something you should ever be saying at 4 pm. But results are a frightening prospect, so you sometimes wake up at 5:30 am against your will and the small amount of sanity you have left. In the end it turned out that I had nothing to worry about. English was my top subject, which wasn't surprising, followed by Geography. And I got second in the class for geography, which was surprising. Even though there are only five people in the class.

So I can get into Arts at Melbourne easily. I can also get into lots of other things, but I don't want to. Like biomedicine. Or Commerce. Or engineering, but they don't really interest me. I could also get into Arts/Law at Deakin, but that would involve going to Deakin. I don't think I've ever been to a presentation where it's been so bad that it's actually put me off something except for the Deakin Open Day. The solar power man at assembly that time would have if I wasn't firmly in favour of renewable energy.

I'm so happy at the moment. Life is good people, enjoy it. Also, I received something in the mail from Kat today, and I'm wondering whether I should wait to open it. Then again, I just bought myself Let it Snow as a congratulations gift (it would have been a commiserations gift if I hadn't done as well as I would have liked). And Jingle Spells 2 should be arriving soon. Speaking of which, here's another song from last year's Jingle Spells which I love. And this one features Lauren Fairweather, Sam Friedman and Melissa Anelli. I hope this works.

;sldkfjsldkfjlskjblkdjflsdkjf <--- Leah stresses out.

2008-12-14T02:31:00.000-08:00

Basically because I am a nervous wreck. OHMYGOSHRESULTSTOMORROWFUCKFUCKFUCK. Apparently that isn't a word. I don't know why, I think that is probably what 50,000 people are thinking. There was an article in the Herald Sun today, which I read on my break that told me that there's some Western Bulldogs recruit who's trying to get into boimed at Melbourne. Well it's nice for some. Wouldn't it be great if he got into premed and become a professional athlete. At least Katrina was at work today so I had someone to fret about it with. Nellie at work has already been offered three uni places because she had folio interviews and such and they don't look at ENTER.

In other news, work was hardly busy and there were two people across the road playing Christmas carols on the trombone and clarinet. Very badly. And there were only two different carols! We Wish You a Merry Christmas and Jingle Bell Rock. I was quite the fan of Jingle Bell Rock, but I wonder if that has changed. My favourite carol at the moment is actually "An Epic Christmas Tale, Chapter One: How the Thestrals Saved Christmas" which is on the first Jingle Spells CD. Chapter Two: Murder at the Top of the World, is on Jingle Spells 2. That is one the way. In the mail by now hopefully. I wonder if Frak shipped mine, because if he did, I might have gotten a Frankie Franco original drawing. Speaking of Frak, I wonder if I can find his awesome video from the other week with the owl drawing.

Umm... not much else to report on. My mum is going to bed, I probably will soon, though I doubt I'll get much sleep. Ooo, I can stay up until 11. Not that that will do much.

[21/10/08] And now, the moment we've been waiting for...

2008-10-20T21:57:00.000-07:00

... is here.

I'm about to go and get ready for work, but I wanted to begin writing this when I was wearing my year 12 rugby top. I'll tell you what, the school knows how to make a day exhausting. And even so, I'm working tonight, and I'll be pretty bleh. Oh well. I will write more soon. Or in about 4 hours.

Make that 5. Today started with the Korovian Club breakfast. The food was good, and we were presented (seriously, they present us as many times as they possibly can) to the president of the Korovian club and this time we got keyrings. We had to catch the tram back to school, and I love that my school is so small that we can fit an entire year level on a tram. Sure, some people had to stand, but it's not like we were squished in like sardines. It was a double length tram though, I'll give them that.

Oh, the funniest part of breakfast happened after breakfast, which is when Kim and I needed to find the toilets. We decided to ask Mrs Jewell (actually, the funniest part of yesterday was when Kim asked Mrs Jewell how to get a detention because she'd never had one) for the toilets, and to get her attention, I poked her. You know you're getting too comfortable with your teachers when you start poking them. Anyway, Kim said "Mrs Jewell, do you know...? Oh wait, there's a sign over there." It was hilarious. Then afterwards we saw Mrs Pappas and she was reading a card that Cat A had given to her and it said "good luck with Brad", Brad of course being Brad Pitt.

Period 2 was the Revue, and having seen it three times before, I didn't find many of the jokes as funny. We did it in a traditional assembly style, and I loved the way it started, with Sally as the Principal rising from the lecturn with the Darth Vader music playing. One of the best lines was "I hope you keep studying hard, so the school can look better and we get more and more money". Alex was absolutely fantastic as the tour guide lady. I also loved Shannon doing the reading from the Gospel of John Bon Jovi "wo-oah, we're halfway there. Wo-oah, living. On a prayer" - the way she said it was great. We don't even know her name, but it was the best. For once we didn't make fun of Ms Barnes. I think the only teacher that took offense at anything was the psychology teacher, but from what I heard, none of that was exaggerated. Oh, and then Mark didn't know that the "China pictures" were actually the facebook powerpoint. Let's just say that the only reason we weren't merciless is because we would have gotten in trouble. Actually, that last photo was cut out, but I liked it. The video was great too. I'm glad we got the fishbowl thing in. That was weird, but fun. At the end, there was just footage of us, and the group photo from the formal and that's when it started to get sad. So they made it worse with the baby photos.

A short interruption: I had (very) short bursts where I was crying, but my overwhelming emotion was not sadness. I have finished 13 years of schooling, and I was lucky enough to share the last 6 years with a wonderful group of girls, all of whom I am extremely proud. The international students have gone through more than we can possibly understand, being in a country where English is not their first language and fitting in with the rest of us. Alyson and Carol both spoke beautifully yesterday. Citizenship awards at the formal assembly (yes, I did get one, but considering what else has happened in the past couple of days, it's not the most important thing that's happened to me in that time) were plentiful, and all of the captains made the best speeches I have heard in my life. But most of all, we didn't have an accompanist for the opening hymn of the assembly, which was years 6 to 12. And we sang it without accompaniment, and it was beautiful, and it is moments like that I will miss the most. Those moments where everyone does what they know they have to do, whether they're sure of themselves or not, and there is a 'feeling of togetherness', which is more amazing than you can possibly imagine. I'm going to have to learn that German word.

So I have moved onto the part where we have the formal assembly. Oh, back to the Revue, we did a thing with the school chaplain where her stuffed wombat was dead. She brought the actual stuffed wombat (a toy, not a dead wombat that has been stuffed) to the formal assembly. Then there were the captains' speeches. I already said they were some of the best I've heard in my life. And I'm talking speeches in general. Forget Barack Obama. Dani, the Arts captain spoke of how she hated the phrase "think outside the square", because what is this square that everyone speaks of? Grace made a great speech as debating captain, and I really wish I remembered more of it. She used lots of poetry, which I liked, there was definitely Robert Frost there. Oh yes, she spoke of Dead Poets Society (watch it if you haven't, it's an amazing movie), and used what I think was the closing lines of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and then closed with a Mao quote, which made all of the history students laugh. Oh yes, the thing I liked was that she encouraged everyone to have opinions and to make them known. Grace is an opinionated person, but sometimes it feels like opinions aren't valued, so I really like that she encouraged that.

Cal also used some English references in her speech, saying that she was like Big Brother, only the face of what goes on behind the scenes. I really like that she said being a captain doesn't mean that you're more powerful, it means that you have a responsibility to the students to make them happy. I think she was a great international captain, and that she really deserved it; she wanted to lessen the segregation that we have between the international and local students. Kim was next, and she's always been able to speak, but she lives in that music department, I don't think anyone realises how much she'll miss it next year. Ms Barnes got her a gorgeous bracelet. And she finished by saying the start of the chorus to "Thank You for the Music", and by the end we were singing it. It was cliche, but I loved it. I really like that the Palm Leaf Editors got to say something, because the Palm Leaf is something we'll keep for the rest of our lives, and considering they hadn't made many speeches, the ones they made were good.

Meagan made a great speech as Social Service captain, and she spoke really well about being a community that is outwardly focussed. Next was Keely's Sport captain's speech which was also great. They were just all fantastic speeches this year, and I don't think I could be happier with who we chose as captains. I love the way Keely said that she was waiting for her interview with Doctor Otzen and she decided that when she was looking at the trophy cabinet that she was going to be Sports Captain. I love hearing those stories.

Freya and Georgi began their speech in German by saying "we have mixed feelings about leaving Korowa, as the community has a great feeling of togetherness" or something like that. So the German girls laughed, because that German word for 'feeling of togetherness' is really really long. They said some thank yous together and then separately. Georgi said something about us as a year group supporting them, and how for the environmental quiz, when they were worried no one would show up. She also thanked Freya, which was gorgeous. And of all the speeches, I think Freya's was the best. She spoke about how the school has shaped her, and how being school captain has helped her grow.

Then we were all called up to sing the year 12 song. I love it so much, and I've had it in my head since then. The one time during that whole assembly when I cried was just before singing the line "and is this the last time you'll see us standing here with you?", which was originally the line that a few of us (including me) wanted to cut out of the song, but it was very appropriate. Then (0f course) there was the school hymn, and we did have someone to accompany that. I think it may have been Kim, I can't remember. We sang the descant (fancy word for harmony part) beautifully, and then the year elevens made a guard of honour for us as we left the hall.

Here is possibly the most bizarre part of the day. We did the Hokey Pokey at the back of the hall while we waited for the younger students to leave. It was fun, but bizarre, so I'll definitely remember it. Since at this stage it may have been midday, we all went to the park and had fish and chips for lunch, and it was just a nice way to end everything. Oh yes, and we were signing each others' school uniforms. I'm taking mine to the speech night rehearsal tomorrow. Oh, at one point I went to the toilet and when I came out, I just saw all the navy blue rugby jumpers (I bet everyone wears their rugby jumpers and jeans tomorrow for the rehearsal) and that's when I felt the most pride and love for all those girls.

[20/10/08] And as we journey beyond these walls...

2008-10-20T01:05:00.000-07:00

... to face the world out there...

Today was my last day of high school classes, and there's a bunch of stuff going through my head right now. Though tomorrow I will be a wreck. I got there at normal time even though I didn't have class until after recess; we had to rehearse the year 12 song, which we'll be singing for real tomorrow. And I did sort of cry at one point, it sounds amazing with the cello, I love Sarah. We had our very last roll call, which was kind of bleh. It wasn't particularly emotional, since we have a house system from year 9 to 12 and had our last house meeting on Friday, that kind of did it.

Then I finally gave Laura her birthday present, which was Pretty Odd. Oh yeah, her birthday was June 3rd. I am awesome with birthday presents. It was only 4 months and 17 days late. My double spare in the library was highly unproductive, I wrote half an introduction to a language analysis essay. Also, the librarians were being loud (pretty much exactly the way we'd written them for the Revue) and there was a spider in the library at some point, so they called maintenance to take it away. This was probably a good thing, since Grace was in the library at the time. Cath also showed me this amazing book of sea creatures, and there's a double page of photos dedicated to this octopus which imitates other sea creatures and it's epic. I want to visit this octopus.

For recess we went up to French, because we had singing practice on Friday, which is when we were supposed to have our last class. Madame gave us these delicious chocolate things and we all got our environmental posters back. And she cried, which was the most adorable thing ever. She's singing at the Spiegeltent for the Melbourne International Arts Festival (it's a big deal), but it's the day before the English exam; we really wanted to go. Madame has also helped me deal with things that are affected by but somewhat disconnected to schoolwork, so I'll miss her. I had no idea that telling her what was going on initially would work out the way it did. For those of you reading who think that's cryptic, it's supposed to be.

Shelby got us flowers and made us cards, which I think is the sweetest thing in the world. There are so many people I'll miss this year who aren't in my year level, and she's one of them. The flower she gave me is in the same vase as the rose I got at house meetings on Friday. I should be getting them things, not the other way around. Though I don't think that Ariane should be allowed near another toy sonic screwdriver. Then Meagan and I went down to the uniform shop to get our Rugby jumpers!!!!!!! which are awesome and thank goodness they stuck to the navy rather than making them grey.

Mrs Lynch was awesome in geography. We had non-alcoholic champagne, strawberries and chocolate. I like the sparkling grape juice better than real champagne actually. So we took a lot of photos (we took photos for every class actually - I need to remember to take my camera to school tomorrow). I had chemistry afterwards, and nothing particularly exciting happened, unless you count the four practice exams that DJ thought we would enjoy doing.

Lunch time was a rehearsal for the Revue in the Hall, which we locked. Top secret stuff. Some year nines came in at one point to collect sheet music off the piano, which we didn't know at the time, so we pretty much abused them and told them to leave. Then they came back with a teacher and explained the situation. And then the Rev came in and told us that Rachel was there to say goodbye, which was just inconvenient. So when we got back to the hall, a very nice person just said "where the hell were you?"

We had our last ever high school class after lunch. Mrs Jewell baked for us and gave us more stuff for practice essays. We didn't do any work though. We took photos. And did... nothing else, I don't think. After that was another singing practice, and CJ announced the awards for Speech Night on Wednesday. Emma was so cute. She got the Korovian Club award, which is what the Amy Paterson award has been renamed to. First she was in denial that it was her name, then she decided that it was some sort of consolation prize. Then we found out that it was the Amy Paterson award.

Next we had to run to St James because apparently the Rev wanted us to practice our prayers for the Leavers' Service, but we didn't. I really liked the service. Sarah cried at the end of her speech, but it was beautiful. I really liked all the speeches actually. Fi's was good, and Alyson's made me cry. Mum was saying afterwards that Alyson and Carol (international students) spoke better than some of her year 12 English students. And we got to sing Parts of the Vine (though we did choose that). The readings were good, one of them was 1 Corinthians 13. If you don't know it, it is the Bible passage that is most often read at weddings (I nearly typed weedings), and is about love, and it doesn't mention God at all. We were then presented with Bibles, we said our prayers - there were no mishaps, clearly a rehearsal wasn't required. Then we had a lighting of candles where we all stood in a circle. That was nice. We sang the school hymn and it was actually quite moving. Though we will be singing the school hymn at least another three times in the next 2 days. That's all from me for the moment, until next time, DFTBA

[18/10/08] Rich got pwned by the ice cream lady.

2008-10-17T22:59:00.000-07:00

Last night I went out with Meagan, Kim and Rich for ice cream on Glenferrie Road. Since we convinced Rich that Coles was a terrible place to go get ice cream, we went to Cold Rock. But we did park at Coles. My mum wasn't aware that Rich could drive until today when we went back to Glenferrie (more on that later) that there was a car involved in this outing. Rich said that he's organising another one after exams, and my first reaction was "not Coles". He promised no supermarkets, thank goodness.

We didn't know quite what to get, so we got a large family sized pack. Don't do this unless you have a freezer handy, it melts and then the flavour at the bottom is all slop. We just got the four sorbets, which were lemon, orange, raspberry and mango. And we did the whole thing with fillings. Meagan, Kim and I decided it would be fun to get marshmallows with the mango. Yes, an unusual combination. Rich was not happy about this decision, so he tried to get passionfruit, as per the lady's suggestion. But then she asked who was paying, and Rich said "me", so she decided to put in marshmallows. I laughed so hard.

Then after we finished our sorbet, marshmallows, sour worms, skittles and gummi bears, we went to Steve Madden because they had nothing over $30 and Kim bought some yellow flats, which match her awesome yellow hat. The next thing we did was take Kim home. She said we didn't need to, but Rich and I were like "road trip!" because you know, she lives so far away. It was fun. Then Rich decided to brake really hard, which wasn't that funny. He swears the light was red, but I don't believe him. Oh yes, and "So What" came on the radio, so we of course had an argument about it, but it's a good song. Then I came home and watched Heroes. Sylar still freaks me out. And I don't like Mrs Petrelli, but I never did. Oh well.

EDIT: Rich just told me he and Meagan are going out. That is the least shocking news I've heard in my life. It's about bloody time.

[16/10/08] Quick post

2008-10-15T22:23:00.000-07:00

I think. It's just that I'm so close to finishing school and I haven't done a proper job of recording this week in any sort of form. I think I might do that tomorrow night when I get home from going out for ice cream (note to self: take wallet to school). Oh and the other thing is that my copy of Paper Towns has shipped. I hope I get the yellow one, I like that one better. I also hope it arrives on October 31, because that way the interruption to my studying will be minimal, as I have a week between my English exam (31st) and my first methods exam (7th November). After the 7th it's all pretty hectic.

Today we all had to be at school early to practice the year 12 song, which I think is coming along nicely. I could be completely wrong. Also, we practiced it with the cello, which was beautiful and I may have been crying. As many complaints as I have about my school (which I put as comments in the survey), I will miss the people and the community feel of it. We then had PD in which we got an exam briefing (speaking of exams, I should be studying, I need to write an essay which my mum will help me with, as well as do some chemistry and maths - we did a chem practice exam yesterday and I got 51% - the one I did before was 68%. I'm doing equilibrium questions at the moment) before being handed out forms about the school releasing our results for various things. We have to give our permission. The one thing that I wanted to say no to, which was using my results in some sort of study, there was only the option to say yes. I'm pretty pissed off about that.

Then we had our last proper assembly, and true to form, they presented a shitload of awards. We actually groaned. It was ridiculous. Then CJ and Paicey wanted to speak to us about something, I can't remember what. I think it may have had something about being respectful to other students and such. Oh! If we want to go into school during exam period when we don't have exams, we have to wear uniform, which is bullshit. That pisses me off, after Tuesday we're not actually students at the school anymore. We don't have to sit our exams.

I don't know if there's anything else... oh yes. The slideshow for the Revue. The photos of people on facebook are amusing to say the least. That's all I'll have to say about that. Except that we have a censored one that we're showing to the rest of the school and there's the other one for us to laugh at. And then we presented the actual play part of the Revue, and Sally is great as CJ. That was fun. I think that's all, I should go and study.

[08/10/08] Epic jokes ftw

2008-10-08T05:16:00.000-07:00

So I was (am) talking to Rich on MSN and I was like "I need to change my facebook status, what's something crazy I can say?" First he wanted me to say we were in a relationship, but seriously, neither of us could do that to Meagan. So he said "ate a sexual tension jellyfish". This is what I have so far.
Anyway, we were soon having this conversation:
[23:05] Rich: this chick keeps messaging me
[23:05] Leah: who?
[23:05] Rich: a girl from uni
[23:05] Leah: okay
[23:06] Rich: i'm getting quite uncorfortable
[23:06] Leah: sorry, I don't know what to do
[23:07] Rich: have you got a spare tazer or something?
[23:07] Leah: no
[23:08] Rich: she's msging every 3-5 minutes
[23:08] Leah: are you replying?
[23:08] Rich: to some
[23:09] Leah: wow
[23:09] Rich: not replied for the last 10 mintues
[23:09] Rich: and recieved 2 msgs
[23:09] Rich: WTF
[23:09] Leah: I don't know
[23:09] Rich: lol
[23:09] Rich: i call it stalking
[23:10] Leah: good call

At this point I decided it would be fun if I sent him a message. What did it say? "The sexual tension jellyfish is coming to get you!"

Rich's reaction:
[23:10] Rich: shit there it goes again
[23:10] Leah: *hugs*
[23:10] Leah: lol
[23:11] Leah: :P
[23:11] Rich: oMG LOSER
[23:11] Leah: I love you too
[23:11] Rich: *hugs*
[23:11] Rich: i'll pay that
[23:11] Rich: that is funny
[23:11] Leah: win
[23:11] Rich: you're gorgeous
[23:11] Leah: LMAO
[23:11] Rich: legend leah

So there is the epic joke. I had fun. Rich would like to add that he needs nail polish, which amuses me to no end. I swear Rich, we'd be awesome twins. Or triplets. Kimmy can come too.

[03/10/08] Madcar

2008-10-03T03:26:00.000-07:00

My friend Maddy is hilarious. But she doesn't show that side of her personality very often. Meaning the cheeky side - I'm going to miss her next year. I'll miss everyone, but this post is for Maddy.

[28/09/08] In which their is horribleness, epicness and I may have possibly been drunk

2008-09-27T21:20:00.000-07:00

Horribleness was work yesterday - my sister owes me one big time. It was boiling in the shop, and there were so many customers that it was a work out. And I would have easily sold at least $500 worth of bread. Customers just come in and ask for 34 long rolls. 34! We made many many long rolls yesterday. We also ran out of white blocks at one stage. And omgwtf, Luke's back. He's just baking though. Back when I started, Luke trained me. I had to be retrained. I thought maybe he was just back for Grand Final day or something, like how Benita was back for Easter, but it seems as if Ben's left and he has returninated. I was really confused when I saw him yesterday. And then today Katrina said "who's that?" and I said "Luke". She was as confused as me. Today couldn't have been more different from yesterday. Sadly I wasn't given the day off. But I saw the Amy child! She has returninated from China.

Epicness was the Grand Final itself - if you don't like football, skip this paragraph. Wow. I can't normally sit down and watch football, but I think that a rugby fan would have enjoyed that match. There was more tackling than anything else, so it pretty much was a rugby game. There may have been more rushed behinds (low point) and free kicks against Chance Bateman though. For a large portion of the match I was trying to make football players the Marauders from Harry Potter. You see, there's a Mooney, a Pettigrew, at least one Black (one that I know of) and I'm trying to find a Potter. Only one of these players was actually in the grand final, but oh well. Oh yeah, Hawthorn won, which proves that you can't take things for granted. Geelong should have - they won last year and only lost one match this year, and they were too relaxed. Yeah, enough about football.

I was late to Heather's 18th because mum wanted to watch the end of the match, and then I drove there. I really need more driving practise. I don't know how I'm going to get 120 fucking hours. John Brumby ftl. I stalled twice. Once at the fucking High st/Warrigal rd intersection. That is one bitch of an intersection. There was so much alcohol considering that not everyone had some. I hope that Kim's okay this morning. I don't think Cath had any last night. She and I (and Em I guess) are sometimes drinkers. That still doesn't change the fact that I had three drinks. I've never had more than one because I usually have work the next day. I still had work today. So we did some stuff - ie talking and teasing Meagan for a bit. Then some people migrated outside for dinner and Cath was singing "Everybody look at the moon".

Then we roasted marshmallows, which was awesome. By this stage people had migrated to Heather's room. Oh, I forgot! Heather's mum put Michael Bublé, so Em and I performed Sway with choreograpy. Yes, you read that right. Kim said the first of many funny things, which was "what if I marry someone who isn't as awesome as me?" Sadly I don't remember many of the funny things, and won't repeat the other I heard, which will be a blog title. The more hyper people at this stage were in Heather's room and the others were outside. The living room had been abandonned. I went outside for a bit again because Em wanted to toast more marshmallows and they were having a discussion about baby names. Apparently Harmony is quite popular.

Then there was the ultimate part of the party (hee hee, part of the party): Dancing crazily to 90s music. Em didn't know how I knew all the words to 'Two in a million' by S Club 7. I love S Club 7, even though it's not cool. Sadly there was no Backstreet Boys. There was Destiny's Child though. And then, the most upsetting thing happened, which was that the CD was scratched around the area of 'All the small things' by Blink 182. So it jumped, which was horrible, I was on Heather's bed at that stage. Cat wanted me to strip. I did not.

The question: was I drunk? The answer: 42. I probably wasn't - tipsy at the most - I can remember most of what happened. I think it's that so often I want to act insane but don't. I'm an extrovert in hiding. Or something like that. Also, Kim was drunk enough (I don't quite know how much) for a few people. What was funny was when I left, and Heather's mum told her to see me out. I just looked at her, because we both knew that she probably shouldn't have been standing up. So it was a good day. Yes, that one.

Also... DOCTOR WHO TONIGHT!!!!!!!!

[23/09/08] Daleks, Davros and the Shadow Proclamation

2008-09-22T17:14:00.000-07:00

I have watched this episode of Doctor Who twice now. Yeah, yesterday morning I watched all the TARDIStacular reaction videos for the episode (Rosi made three) and then decided to watch it again. Then I watched two episodes of Torchwood. Anyway, needless to say, I loved it. How could you not? It had Rose, Martha, Jack, Gwen, Ianto (unfortunately something has happened to Tosh and Owen - even though I didn't like Owen, it's still sad), Sarah Jane and her kind of cute son - as I'm a fair few years older than him I wouldn't go for him, and HARRIET JONES, former Prime Minister. Yes, we know who she is. Oh, not to mention Daleks, Davros and the Shadow Proclamation, which I decided would be an awesome title. I didn't include the Doctor and Donna because it's kind of a given that they're in it

So it started with the Doctor and Donna landing on Earth, going back to the Tardis and then the Earth disappears! That's completely normal. I liked how they had different shots of the different companions and how they reacted. I have to say that I love Wilf, Donna's grandpa. He's the best. I want Jackie Tyler to come back, she is by far the best of the mothers of the companions. Rose was awesome with "Do you like my gun?" I do not like the use of guns, but that was an awesome moment.

I love Martha. I don't care if you don't, I think she's great. Also, another awesome moment was Wilf with the paint gun. It really sucks that it didn't work, because it was such an ingenious idea. I also loved seeing everyone's reactions to the Daleks. I mean, of course you'd be worried. But particularly Jack (I love Jack, in one of the episodes of Torchwood there was this great Jack moment), and how he kissed Gwen and Ianto like they were his children (though there was that episode of Torchwood - same one - where Jack and Ianto have this "there are many things you can do with a stopwatch" conversation. Hmm). I love this show.

THE SHADOW PROCLAMATION!!!!!!! That was amazing. It was all white and kind of scary. And there were Jidoon! I was wondering too about the Tardis not translating things properly, because the Doctor was speaking Jidoonese. It was also really exciting with the Doctor saying things like "Who'd want Klom?" and "The lost moon of Poosh!" mainly because I just like the phrase "lost moon of Poosh". And then the bees disappearing. "What, bees are aliens?" "Don't be so daft, not all of them". I love Donna too. Actually, the only companion I didn't like was that American one from the old series. And classic Doctor, when he is told "you will lead us into battle", he just leaves anyway.

Oh, that whole thing with Rose not being able to get into the network was heartbreaking. And I love Wilf saying that he couldn't get a webcam because "she says they're naughty". And then Harriet died, which was horrible.

Daleks are awesome. My favourite ever Dalek moment is from series 2, with the cybermen. I'm glad that Dalek Kahn made a reappearance, and there was Davros! I want to see this time war, I just want to know exactly what happened. Oh, and the Earth was referred to as "The Crucible". I don't know if what they're doing is anything like the way the events of the play occur. The Daleks are physically attacking, rather than the whole spread of fear and hysteria so that the population collapses and turns on each other. That's more like what happened in Midnight.

Finally (though I may have forgotten something), there was the Doctor/Rose reunion, which was so sad. I quite like Rosi's re-enactment of it with her action figures. And regenerating? What? NO! I do however know that David Tennant is still working on Doctor Who next year, so I wonder as to how it will be figured out. That's all from me, I might go and play around on the BBC website or something.

[22/09/08] Backstreet Boys and a rant about work.

2008-09-21T23:50:00.000-07:00

I have to tell this story about me singing the Backstreet Boys as it's so hilarious. At my sister's 21st, which was about a month ago, "I Want it That Way" was on the playlist, and came on. So my friend Emma, who I love dearly, and I decided to start singing it. Children of the nineties, we are. We did realise to an extent that we were embarrassing ourselves, but so what? I'm still a rock star, I've got my rock moves, and I don't need you tonight. Uh, yeah. Anyway, my sister at this point was speaking to her Political Interest Society friends and was talking about the possibility of me going to Melbourne next year (I really want to), and they wanted to meet me. Luckily my sister decided that maybe it wasn't the best time to introduce me then.

A rant about work. I do not like being awoken to the sound of my mobile at 8:30 in the morning to see whether I can work for someone from 10-4:30. The person who asked me to work had a specialist appointment. We have some adults at BD, and this was one of the said adult staff members. Here's the thing. My boss has had a really hard time filling the Monday shifts as it is. Specialist appointments are booked months in advance, and sure, maybe she couldn't get another time. So two things - (1) if this was a specialist appointment and she knew it would be happening for a while, she should have found someone else to work for her ages ago, because (2) it's the school freaking holidays and I wonder if it was booked then specifically. And I just got a message (though it may have been sent ages ago, I don't check my phone often) to ask if I could work that shift tomorrow. I can't, as I am working another shift tomorrow. Oh how I hate school holidays in regards to work. I've been there two years now, which I think means that I get another loyalty bonus. What they do is add up all the hours you've worked for an entire year and then divide it by 52 so you get a week's pay.

So that wasn't as ranty as I expected. I might post a blog about the most recent episode of Doctor Who. I've watched it twice now :P

[20/09/08] Captains

2008-09-19T18:44:00.000-07:00

I'm currently in My Pants talking to Malina, and I remembered that next year's captains were announced yesterday. Oh, and I got house colours and music colours again, but that's not really particularly exciting, though apparently I would've gotten full music colours if I had been in Senior Choir and Koristers, event though I only got half colours for being in Senior Choir and Swing Choir. Koristers is supposed to be more prestigious, but whatever. Swing Choir works damn hard, and apparently we were the standout at the jazz soiree. I don't particularly care, but Em and Fleur were pissed off.

I'm just thinking about the portfolio captains... oh, one of the international students got International captain, and everyone was really happy about that. Apparently she acts more like one of the Aussies though, which is pretty awesome. I'm only going to comment on certain positions, as I feel that it would be unfair to make particular judgements on people I don't know. Bhairavi got music captain which was perfect. She's amazing, and I don't think Kim could be happier with that choice, especially since Anne got school captain (which was apparently all that mattered to most of the year elevens anyway) with Georgie. When Georgie didn't get house captain for her particular house (most of my friends in that house were confused with that decision) everyone knew that she would get school captain with Anne.

And as for the new captains of my house, I thought that the decision could have been better. One of the people who did get it always seems to be condescending. It's really a pity that Katie, Jenny or Tessa were chosen, because all three of them would have been great. The truth is that this year it came down to a popularity contest, though the unfortunate events of February kind of ruined Katie's chances. Last year our captains proved themselves to be truly dedicated to the house during House Swimming, when they proved to be so dedicated to the house that we broke the rules and we had three people in each relay team. Both of them swam the first and last laps. They wanted to disqualify us, but whatever.

[18/09/08] Trivia, fishbowls and jelly

2008-09-18T04:59:00.000-07:00

Today was a pretty epic day considering that I had school. We've started filming things for the Review video. Just in case you were wondering, the review is a parody of the school year. So when the year twelves finish, we have a play type thing, a video which is of pre recordedness and the baby photo slideshow. I must email Rachel my photos now that I think of it. We started filming the video today, which was of us all acting like fish in this one room in the VCE Centre that we call the fishbowl because it's made of glass and everyone can see you. I don't think that really needed an explanation. The name 'fish bowl' is fairly self explanatory.

Anyway, we put techno music on, and danced around being fish on the tables, and then there was another thing filmed where there were people running from an inflatable shark. So far the other things we have planned are singing the Hallelujah chorus in the library and singing 'Stick to the Status Quo' from HSM in the tuckshop. That one will take more organisation. But seriously, at least this way the tables from the tuckshop will actually be used for something. I wonder if the younger year levels still have tuckie duty. Lol.

The other interesting things that happened today were the trivia quiz and JELLY! They were both special efforts for the Clean Ocean Foundation. Yes, I don't know what to say about that except that there was a Mohammed Ali question which meant that Anna and I were laughing hysterically and we wish Katie had been there just so that she could be embarrassed. Wow, we make fun of her a lot. And it's not because she's in year 11, it's just because sometimes she says these things that are so funny that we can never let her forget them.

Yeah, that was pointless. I'm going to go back to doing my assignment on the internet as a global phenomenon which I won't finish before tomorrow so it will eat into my study time, as I will have to finish it over my 'noninstructional study period'. First day back next term we have practise exams (well first four days) as well as my proper VCAA assessed French oral. Good times. And I'm going to Lisa's tomorrow for an end of term party. That should be fun. Maybe I should pack my bag before we go to bed.

Oh, one last thing that makes the whole end of school thing seem real (other than that I only have five periods of maths left) is that they're announcing next year's captains tomorrow.

[15/09/08] I hate the phrase 'emotional rollercoaster'

2008-09-15T02:31:00.000-07:00

Not that today has been any sort of emotional rollercoaster. Wait, yes it has. I had my French SAC, which I hope went okay. I can't tell with French. Barnesy called choir for lunch time again. I seriously think she wants to practise every day this week. No one's allowed to do anything else at all. Ever. I just want a Swing Choir rehearsal, they're more fun. But we're singing You Can't Stop the Beat for speech night, which doesn't even fit. And we'll have to do the choreography in our winter uniforms. Ugh. It'll be just like the concert. Why can't we sing Defying Gravity? I suspect it has something to do with You Can't Stop the Beat being the only song that Ms McKenzie doesn't accompany.

Haha, we had chemistry and I've been telling various people who do chemistry that my mum's car battery went flat over the weekend. Yeah, okay that sounds weird. But it makes sense to special people who have read Chapter 27. Or maybe it's 26, I don't know. No wait, it's 27. Because you all care about that. Amanda and I walked home in the rain and the wind, and that was horrible. Walking over the freeway on a windy day is no fun. And the rain was trying to kill us, I swear.

Got home, neither the internet nor the foxtel were working, so I continued to read Inkheart, which I just finished. When mum got home there was a parcel for me, which I knew was An Abundance of Katherines. I've borrowed it from the school library twice. I bought the paperback though, which proved to be a wise decision. The prologue and first chapter of Paper Towns are included in the back, and on the back page opposite the inside cover there is an ad for Nerdfighters. No joke, I love it. The only thing that annoys me is there's that red triangle that says "Special Price $3.99" on the top right corner. I've been reading it slowly, I've read it about 4 times already.

And I finished Inkheart, which was a really good book. I don't care that the librarians at school think I'm too old for it. They're lovely people, Justine and Bronwyn, but they have a certain snobbishness sometimes towards certain books. Some Children's and Young Adult literature specifically. They didn't like the Uglies trilogy! This clearly shows that they have some sort of problem. I don't know if they're particularly fans of John Green either, even though they ordered his books in for me last year. Not that it matters now, I have both of them.

Oh yeah, and MSN isn't working, so I have to use meebo and I don't like it at all. Something to do with IE not being able to connect to the internet. I have no idea what this means. I want my shitty laptop made by an air conditioning company back.

[11/09/08] I never could get the hang of Thursdays

2008-09-11T00:40:00.000-07:00

Seriously, it's like they're becoming a weekly breakdown day. Particularly period 5. Well it started when I blew up at my dad this morning. Sometimes I just can't be ready for school by 7:40, I think that's reasonable enough. Also this past week I've been fairly sick again. It's all well and good for my friends to make morning sickness/pregnancy jokes, but when I'm actually throwing up pretty much every morning, it's not so fun.

The jazz soiree is tonight and I have to be at school in 45 minutes. And my mum just got home, which is a good thing, I've been having a crisis with black tops. Meaning the one I have doesn't suit me at ALL. So that's been solved. It is now 6:02 pm, and I'm sort of ready. I should take a drink bottle and my phone with me. Maybe some money so I can buy a can of coke from the drink machine.

So yes, Thursday period 5. Today ended up being ridiculously stressful even though I had a grand total of one class. And I still managed to burst into tears in that class. My French teacher is so sweet though. Even though I haven't done much work this term, she said that she's proud of me and all the effort I've put in, but seriously. The VCAA oral exam is in three weeks and four days. I can't see how I'll be ready in time. My detailed study is all over the place, so I'm thinking that those questions that I lost will be done on Friday night (when it comes down to getting homework done on a Friday night, things get serious) and I'll email them to her for corrections on Friday and hopefully get them back on Saturday to prepare for Monday. And I haven't even chosen my third source! Fuck. I have an appointment with her tomorrow though, so we'll see how that goes. Not to mention that on Monday we're only talking for 3-4 minutes, which is practically nothing. I really hope this works out.

Wednesday night I'll probably have to pull an all-nighter, as geography is due on Thursday and I have two assessments on Wednesday. I need a break from life. I asked my friend if we could just stop time, and she said that it seemed like a good idea. Hmm, I'll see if we can do that.

[07/09/08] Fuck, it's September already!

2008-09-06T23:34:00.000-07:00

I was in the middle of writing a rant about my school on Thursday because I was so distressed about many things. But it wasn't really all that exciting. Just me bitching about my school. Let's just say that if someone asked me if they should send their daughter there right now, I would probably say no, because as far as the administration is concerned, it's about the reputation of the school rather than the benefit of the student. My teachers are great though. It must be luck that I have such wonderful teachers this year.

Also, Friday was actually the best day of my week, despite that I'm convinced that I failed my French SAC. I don't think I've written anything so bad in my entire life. In any language. I now have The IT Crowd Version 1.0 and we finished the maths course. I never have to learn any maths again in my life :D Though I do have to do about 5 chapters in the next 10 days. And write some English essays, some French general conversation (maybe?), do some more stuff on my sources for my detailed study, lots of chemistry and finish my geography. Ugh. This is why the fact that it's September is bad.

Though yesterday was September 6th, which was a year since Meagan and I went to see Switchfoot. So we walked to the milk bar, ate ice cream, sat on the swings and then listened to all the songs that they played. It was a really nice day too. I think it must have been at least 19 degrees (well it's warm for this time of year!). That was the beginning of the day which meant that I spent 40 hours offline. If I'd planned it, I could have done the 40 hour famine and money could have gone towards stopping child sex slavery in India. I think that's what the focus is this year. I should tell my friends that I managed it. I don't know if they'll believe me.

I had an adventure at Chadstone, which gives a whole new meaning to the song "Shopping and Parking" by the Scared Weird Little Guys. Well, they probably wrote that song with Chadstone in mind. Except all the renovations (I swear that shopping centre will never be complete) means that it's even worse. You have to take 5 detours just to get to the car park you want to go to. Also, mum couldn't find the bra bag on Friday, so she gave me money to get a new one from Bras n Things. Then I remembered that Bras n Things was in the wing that is now closed because of renovations and mum said something along the lines of 'good luck'. Luckily I went in via the Hoyts car park and decided I'd just go to the ATM and get some money before looking when lo and behold, it was opposite Trampoline! Or maybe that mini Krispy Kreme stall which I've never seen before. They probably put it there because no one can be bothered going to wherever the shop actually is. Some random entrance. It's near Coles or something.

Anyway, Bras n Things have really nice bikinis, and I have to buy one, so I'll try there first. That's where I got my last one. How random. Then I went to BORDERS!!!!! but I forgot that lovely voucher that they send me in the email. I could have gotten 30% off a full priced book. They didn't have 'Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging', just later books. Oh and the version that's been published in conjunction with the release of the movie, but I don't want that one. So I must travel to other far away lands to find it. And I need to talk to Jasmine about Beedle the Bard release. I'm going to check the release date now. So I bought Inkheart by Cornelia Funke, which is fantastic. Oh I also bought New Way to be Human by Switchfoot at Borders, and it's a really good album. I like it better than Learning to Breathe. Company Car I think is one of their best songs because they're so cynical about the corporate world. Though when are they not?

I also saw my cousin's musical and I went driving (I don't know if there's a funny story this time), but no time to write, I'm a girl on a mission. Though it is a very simple mission that can be solved by Google, it is a mission nonetheless. What a nice word.

[28/08/08] It's been nearly two months since Central left

2008-08-28T04:39:00.000-07:00

Two months tomorrow, it's strange. Everyone should also be glad to know that I just switched my calendar over to August. On the 28th. I never ended up changing my calendar over to April, I just went straight to May.

This week has been a bit strange. Some of us want to revolt against one line in the year 12 song, which is "And is this the last time you'll see us standing here with you?" We think it's too sad, like something you'd sing at a funeral. And I've had enough of funerals, even though it's been two weeks since the last one. Last Wednesday was the year anniversary of my grandma's death, the day of the formal was the eight year anniversary of my grandfather's. The guy who played Dan on All Saints (which I never watched) died today. So let's leave that topic there, this isn't supposed to be depressing.

Amy just IMed me. She's going on exchange to China over the holidays. Does she learn Chinese? No. I find this concept strange, which is why she fits it perfectly. She just said that she misses her puppets. I worry about that girl. Or maybe I've just spent too much time talking to Tom. Oh, apparently "They just caused me enough stress to mimic a maternal response". Suuure.

No news on the laptop front still. Today in French we were doing a practise exam. This was however, the one that Meagan and I did in New Caledonia (I miss that a lot too, probably because of the exam, and writing about chips at Sydney airport <3 Lacey, Alicia, Amy, Jacqueline, Liv and Julie. Oh, and I miss all the hilarity caused by the 4 boys, all known as Alex), so I kind of knew it. And when we did it, we were warned by Tasha, Phillipe and Alice that one of the reading comprehensions was really weird. So today, the people who are really good at French were getting all narky about it. Which I found funny, because I'm weird like that.

I'm planning on doing a topic centric blog post for Nerdy Strangers next week, but I don't know what to do. Ideas? I'll put it up on the ning. I already have a few. You know what's useful? A shout box.

The History Boys: a review.

2008-08-23T23:49:00.000-07:00

It is the year 1983, and there are a bunch of boys (one of them very good looking) in their final year of school in Yorkshire. They're the smart ones, so the school is trying to get them into Oxford and Cambridge. So they're called the "Oxbridge" boys. This movie has both Richard Griffiths and Frances de la Tour in it. They're fantastic. Also the boy who was in the Christmas special of Doctor Who - in the cockpit of the Titanic named Allonso. Hence the whole Allons-y Allonso thing.

These teachers are very determined to get this group into either Oxford or Cambridge - or the headmaster is. I don't think any of them went to either of those schools though. Now in 'general studies' they're playing music. And now they're speaking French. Someone said something about the conditional tense. Lol, "quelle belle jambe" - beautiful legs. And the headmaster walked in on them, so they're in trouble.

And I can't hear the movie because my uncle is over and he's talking to my mum. Also our kettle is ridiculously loud. And somehow they're mucking around again. I have no idea what's going on. Oh, the kettle's finished boiling. And it's started again.

That's a pretty awesome teacher, offering them rides on his motorbike. Though there are rules against getting a lift home from staff members at school. And I don't think any of my teachers have motorbikes. If they do, the school probably won't let them use them to travel to and form school to maintain its reputation.

"Did Jesus say can I be refused the crucifiction?" Best line. Though I like to get out of sport myself. Not that I've had to do sport since year 10. Trust that guy to have a mirror in his locker. And he just looked in it too. Despite not liking that teacher, he's obviously had an impact.

"What's truth got to do with it? What's truth got to do with anything?"

"Durham's good for history. It's where I had my first pizza. Other things too, but it's the pizza that stands out". This movie is full of good lines.

I swear that shot is from Australia. "A question is about what you know, it's not about what you don't know". Interesting. I don't think I could teach a group of boys so smart that they're as cocky as all hell. They are pretty funny though. Not that that'll get them into Oxford.

!!!! I worked out where the hot guy is from. It's Sky from Mamma Mia!!!! Dominic Cooper. As I said on Twitter, they should have him sing and take off his shirt again. Or more specifically the two of us can sing a duet of Lay All Your Love On Me.

I've just had to rewind (this is a nifty remote control, you can rewind with a device that is quite like an iPod wheel) because there's something I missed. Ah, he was caught with one of the boys on his motorbike. So it isn't legal. Or maybe it's something worse. "If you want to learn about Stalin, study Henry VIII". Ah, so they want to fire him for it. "So I assume your wife doesn't know." I'm trying to make sense of this. Okay, it was never properly explained.

"History is a varying and continuing commentary on the ineptitude of men!" So I <3 style="font-style: italic;">beautiful. Okay, I'm going to England. NOW. I wonder how the whole waiting scene will pan out. I'll have that for a month. And then another month. I need to pay more attention to this, I don't pay attention for a minute and then have no idea what's going on. Maybe some of them were applying to Oxford, others to Cambridge, I don't know.

LETTER TIME! Here's the mail it never fails, it makes me want to wag my tail, when it comes I want to wail MAIL!!!! And that's where this review will end, because the ending will not be spoiled.

EDIT: The film/dramatic techniques at the end were brilliant. See it for that, if nothing else.

[24/08/08] In which the most exciting thing is JOHN GREEN'S BIRTHDAY!!!!

2008-08-23T23:02:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN GREEN and EMMA BLAND!!!

So that's exciting. My sister's 21st was last night, which was fun. I hung out with Em, Amy, Michaela, Robyn and Brendan. And I went home early because I had work this morning. Oh! Exciting stuff! Australia's most recent (and probably last, I don't know) Gold medal was in the men's 10m platform diving, which I saw the semi finals of yesterday. The man who won, Mitcham looks like a cross between a young David Wenham and Ian Thorpe. But he's amazing. I don't know whether I'm more in love with him or Fabian. Wow, I'm a lunatic. When does the closing ceremony start? It had better be afte Doctor Who finishes.

I'm checking the channel 7 website. There's an article about how the 14 year old diver from Britain just wants to be a kid. Hell, I would at that age. He has his whole freaking life ahead of him at that age. And in four years time he'll be brilliant. Closing ceremony is 10pm to 1am. Is this 1am like the 1am that the Opening Ceremony finished? Because that was 2:10am. And I know I could sleep in, I don't start school until 11 tomorrow. I wonder if I'll be at school on Thursday. I haven't been to school on a Day 9 since last term. Which was the end of June.

Today I went to the Deakin Open Day. The careers counsellor at school always seems to be pushing us to go to Deakin. I think they pay her. Anyway, I went to the presentations for the literature and writing courses. There is no way I am going there for writing. The talk was badly presented, and that woman is likely to be my first year lecturer or tutor. Also, if I were to do literature, I'd rather go to Melbourne or Monash. Basically what I think I want to do is do is get a BA in English (despite that song in Avenue Q), do some internships with publishing companies, as well honours in English and a Masters in Communication. Or Communcation if you prefer. Or maybe not. Maybe I'll go to uni and do something completely different to what I planned. Who knew that my sister would enjoy politics so much that she would go on to become president of the Political Interest Society?

And now I'm going to watch the History Boys, and maybe write a review. I just need to transfer the laptop into the lounge room, which has a TV and DVD player in it.

[19/08/08] In which I discuss verbs.

2008-08-19T03:12:00.000-07:00

I know, it sounds terribly boring. But here is a twitter update I just made.

'Verb' (verb) - to turn a noun into a verb, ie Google; "you Google it"

Because at school, if one is going to the tuckie (canteen), which reminds me I need to get another form for my testimonial, we say "are you tuckieing?" and if one is catching the bus, "I'm bussing". That's all I have to say. We get lazy, so we turn things into verbs - we 'verb' things.

I'm catching up with someone from primary school who I feel really bad about not keeping in touch with on Friday, so that's exciting, and I'm fucking terrified. There's not much else that's new at the moment.

There will be an Ice Age 3, which I'm sure is a joy to Em's dad. He loves the first one, and I have heard stories about him watching it more than one time in a day.

There's an ad on the radio for the Deakin Uni open day, which is this Sunday. I don't really want to go, as it's hard enough to find time to do homework in August, as everyone has about 500 SACs a week, but I should. Oh that's a funny story. The careers counsellor at my school is a family friend, and she tries to get everyone to go to Deakin. So at the funeral on Thursday, I was telling my cousins this, and they said "hey, isn't that *insert name here*?" and I was like, "yes, that would be her."

Rocky Horror Picture Show ad on the radio! I need to talk to Megan and Byron to see if they're still doing a group booking for that, and then tell Laura. I should give Laura her birthday present. It's only 2 and a half months late.

Oh, the Hot 30 Countdown is crap mostly. Last night the top song was by the Veronicas. Urgh. And they're doing this thing where they try to break world records. Last night the guy tried to get four different countries to hang up on him in 40 seconds and tonight the girl had to break up with her boyfriend in 20 seconds. This is a horrible show. I don't want to go into radio. Or at least host a show like the Hot 30 Countdown. Or Kyle and Jackie O. I would be fine working with Hamish and Andy.

[16/08/08] What is there to say?

2008-08-15T21:24:00.000-07:00

My life has been pretty hectic recently - which I did not expect. Um, funerals are funerals. The singing was fine, and my cousin sang For Good from Wicked for the reflection which was great. And I'm seeing her musical in a couple of weeks. They're doing HSM and she's Gabriella, which is hilarious. And then on Thursday night, the worst possible thing happened. My laptop didn't recognise my profile.

So I went back to school and got the security updates, but that didn't do anything, so I took it to the technicians. Let me tell you all, Fujitsu doesn't make good laptops. They're also more expensive than the standard laptop. For instance, two and a half years ago when we bought it, we got it for double the price of the Toshiba that my dad just ordered because his laptop died on Monday. The Toshiba is probably better.

The technicians said they could restore my profile, but the casing was damaged and then I was told to come back after lunch, which I did. The hard drive is damaged and the casing needs to be repaired. Here's the thing though: despite the insurance and stuff, which makes everything much cheaper than a new laptop, I'd much rather a new one, made by a different brand, so long as the hard drive can be recovered. That's what I'm hoping - that my music and my photos will be okay. Things like this really ruin your day.

And I just had to stop Pappy being an ass. Even though that won't happen. Yes, Australia is getting beaten by the USA in the swimming, but we are smaller - our population is 6.78% of theirs. They have a Phelps and we have no Thorpe this year. What happened to Pieter van den Hoogenband from the Netherlands? He was awesome.

Why so serious? I saw the Dark Knight last night, which was thoroughly enjoyable. Heath Ledger was fantastic, so was Christian Bale. And hot. Not much else to say about that. I have read Suite Scarlett, which I loved. As a reader of Maureen Johnson's blog, I have to say that I laughed very hard reading the dedication and acknowledgements. Though reading the name Kate Schafer, I was all "Who? Oh, that's right, Daphne Unfeasible." Though Oscar Gingersnort is mentioned by that name. Also all her author friends including John Green and Scott Westerfeld were mentioned among others.

I went with Amy, and we were in cinema 7. I also bought Juno and she told me that I was a platypus, which I love to be told all the time. That was the first time that that has ever happened to me though.

Switchfoot is on the Max Countdown - 2383, Dare You To Move. I must go and sing and dance. I wonder which version this is - there are about four. They're much younger in the clip. Four versions: the original, which is on Learning to Breathe, the one on A Walk to Remember, the one on The Beautiful Letdown and the radio version. Didn't say on the clip. It wasn't the one on Learning to Breathe, because I have that album. There's some useless blabber.

Now it's Too Lost in You by the Sugababes. I might go back to listening while I do some more probability homework.

[12/08/08] Librarians are made of awesome

2008-08-12T00:08:00.000-07:00

Except that someone else has borrowed Specials by Scott Westerfeld and it's not due back until the 25th. I just looked at my calendar to see which day of the week that was, and I'm fairly sure it's a Monday, not a Friday. My calendar is still on July. Maybe that's why I subconsciously told Kat that I'd turn up for her 21st six months late. But anyway, they have SUITE SCARLETT and I was all OMGZ about it, and they told me that if I'd gotten it from Scholastic Book Club it would have been $10. They don't distribute Book Club to year 12. If they did, I would have bought it. But I'm ordering it online regardless. The librarians said that when it had been processed and catalogued that I could read it first. They also did this when I asked them to order John Green's books last year.

Nerds to the Grave. And beyond. I already have that T-Shirt designed in my head. Speaking of which, I managed to fit both references to Doctor Who and Harry Potter into an English class. We were reading 'A Man for All Seasons', which is a fantastic play. I love philosophy discussions. Black and Gold is an awesome song.

I forgot to take my phone to school which is actually the most inconvenient thing that's happened for a while. Because the photo lady from the formal came in today, and I didn't have any money with me. (Blow Up the Pokies by The Whitlams is also amazing) So I ended up using my own Visa debit card (yay online purchases - Amazon here I come! Books!) to buy them and mum might pay me back. She was also going to buy me an outfit for the funeral on Thursday. Which I am singing in. I definitely know one of the hymns, apparently know the second and will have to learn the third. And I wanted to Tweet about the awesome librarians.

7 things is an interesting song. The seven things she likes about him are kind of superficial. Although there's that 7th one. Let's count the nerd references in this blog shall we? Or not, I'm too lazy. Em and I also told Ms Barnes that we ate all the soprano ones today. That was hilarious. Particularly her response "oh, you ate them, okay". Now I'm singing sop one for Cantique de Jean Racine which I guess is okay. I've worked out what I'm getting Em for her birthday.

Uhm... something happened in regards to French today. Oh yes, we had a reading SAC (I got so distracted, I hope I do okay) and I was looking up (I shouldn't have driven. You shouldn't have driven, but we got there) some word in the wrong section of the dictionary, and the first word I saw was 'boobs', which was hilarious. There were also some stupid questions, and my 'study', not that you can study for reading, was to attempt reading some of Harry Potter and the Chamber (Bedroom) of Secrets in French. I got sidetracked by the fact that toast in French is toast. Only I would find that funny. Well it's just that the sentence is "Harry recommença à manger son toast" and there's all this nice French language and then TOAST. I can imagine someone saying toast with a really bogan accent too. Anyway, there's some more rimbly rambly scarecrow with a flippy floppy hat (aren't you glad I don't write Nursery Rhymes. Au revoir!

[10/08/08] Driving with Leah is fun!

2008-08-10T00:45:00.000-07:00

So mum and I went up to Monash uni, which is where we always go, and we were doing the usual Blackburn road thing and I got distracted by an overtaking truck. Now I want to find that clip from Thank God You're Here in Season One where they're Big Brother housemates and I think it's Frank Woodley says "I nominate Hamish (or some other person, I forget who) because in the middle of the night, he gets up and shines his torch in my face and yells TRUCK!!!!!!" Now I've managed to distract myself from the actual blog post... oh yeah. So there was a truck and it was turning right, and I was all "ooers, he's going the same place we are", and mum said "no, he's going to the freeway". And I missed my turnoff, which I found the most hilarious thing in the world. Because I thought our turn off was after the freeway, but it was before. Lol. So I sort of drove home. Well I got up to Chadstone and mum was all "let's go to the residential streets because it's this certain time on a Sunday night", even though I'd gotten home from there at that time on a weeknight, which is crazier, because it's peak hour. Oh, and then I missed another turnoff.

What else? Work was fucking cold. That's an understatement. Compared to today, 15 degrees is practically summer. Yes, I work in a bakery, but on a day like today, when it's supposedly 5 degrees outside (as it was 5 degrees in the city, it was cooler here), it makes no difference. The ovens have no effect out the front. The shop is open to the street and when it's windy and raining, it's not fun. And there's this corner of the shop that's always colder. Anyway, I was talking to my boss, as I always do, and I told her that we had a heaters off day for global warming and such and she said "Why would you do that? You should do it in summer!" I don't think I've laughed that hard for a while. Oh, and the news said that this has been one of Melbourne's coldest days in a while. I just don't know how long. Probably a couple of years, at least. Which proves my point

I am helping Amy with organising her 18th, and there's a "How well do you know Amy?" quiz. I get to write the questions for the MSN category. One of them concerns the treasure map, which I'll put here, and the other one concerns the time Lizy said something along the lines of "AMY! What do you mean you had sex on the couch?" Also, I find it very amusing that Amy calls Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novac Djokovic "Roughy, Roger and Slinky"

I just got so distracted by YouTube. I was looking for that clip of Thank God You're Here, got distracted by Hamish Blake and then found a hilarious Summer Heights High clip of Mr G's class playing Thank God You're Here. The other significant thing that's happened is that I've been writing my yearbook page, as well as my novel. Yes, I'm writing a novel, it's pretty fun. And I was going to write a lot more about it here, but I won't.

And "Bras, the musical" will happen.

So I will put a clip of Thank God You're Here in this post. The one with Josh Lawson as the fireman. He's awesome at it. Why can't that show come back this year? Also, is the Chaser taking a year off as well? That would suck. And I want Gruen back. Or more IT Crowd, though they need to film season 3. Or Torchwood.

[09/08/08] This was going to be about the Opening Ceremony

2008-08-08T19:52:00.000-07:00

Which was amazing by the way. I loved the whole concept, particularly the drawing thing, that was amazing. And it was fun laughing about the Chinese Nikki Webster with Kat. And Tom came on MSN every once in a while. And I spoke to the Amy child briefly. I loved most of it, but the parading on of all the countries takes too long. As does them walking around with the flag. Oh, being the nerd that I am, I calculated the percentage of China's population that is in their Olympic team. It's something like 0.000045%. But the end of the torch relay was, and I quote "epic fucking win". They lifted him up in the air and then the big torch and there was the gunpowder thing that they do in the movies and it was a spiral and epically awesome.

So what else happened on 888? At 11:30 pm my great grandmother died. And it was more of a shock than anything else. She was a sprightly 99 year old, and the healthiest person in her nursing home, with the exception of the nun who is 100. Of all the relatives that have died in my life, she is the only one who wasn't sick. She always said that that's the way she wanted to go, and if only it was that way for all of us. There are several thoughts going through my head about this, and I haven't sorted them out entirely yet. The main problem when she died of course was getting in contact with my mum's cousin (she's mum's grandmother - yes, I'm using present tense) who is a priest and currently overseas, because it's only right that he conducts the service. So there will probably be more thoughts about this on nerdy strangers on Wednesday.

[08/08/08] Heaters OFF!

2008-08-08T02:55:00.000-07:00

And it was cold. I took my blanket to school. I wonder if I'm just blogging because I want to write something on 08/08/08. 08... the year I finish school. Woo! This week started off with a sore throat, which has now progressed to a full on head cold. Glarphalknvarghsh. And I had three SACs. I really hope they went okay, because I didn't do as much study for any of them as I'd hoped to. For English it was because I had no idea what to write, for Chemistry it was because Anna linked me to an amazing story on fictionpress, and I did geography study. Why? Because the work that I did last night actually contributes to my mark.

Dum de dum de dum de reading a book. I finished Pretties by Scott Westerfeld approximately an hour ago. Twas awesome. I still have to read Specials and Extras. What else do I want to read? Definitely 1984 again. And So Yesterday. I swear there were others. Well I've started Catcher in the Rye. I was telling my mum about it and such (she hasn't read it since she was at school), and she said "maybe I should have chosen that for our year 12s for Identity and Belonging". I don't know, I'm only two chapters in, which is equal to 20 pages. Identity and Belonging has better texts than Encountering Conflict. Well, I like three of the four texts, not knowing what the fourth was, but I can bet it's easily better than The Secret River, which was for some reason voted as the best book of 2007 by viewers of the First Tuesday Book Club on the ABC.

Wow, I'm blogging about year 12 texts. Insanity has struck me down and called my brother Nelly. Which doesn't make any sense. I miss Em. And she was all hostile towards me today because I'm sick. This is completely unfair, as she is often sick and I never avoid her, and the one time I feel pretty bad, she's like this. In geography, we had our SAC, and it was heaters off day and casual clothes, I was wrapped up in my blanket. I took it to English as well, and put A Man for All Seasons on my head for a bit. It made me feel better for a bit. And I was Meg today, briefly. It's a really interesting play. Anyway, as I was saying, or going to say, Em and I are going bra shopping sometime soon, hopefully. Sometime when I feel better and it doesn't interfere with her plans for seeing James.

Oh and the Olympics' Opening Ceremony is on tonight. That will be fun. I'll probably watch for a bit then take a night time cold and flu tablet and hope for the best so I can get a nice amount of homework done tomorrow. Doesn't that sound fun?

[07/08/08] In which I write a bit (a lot?) about China

2008-08-07T04:32:00.000-07:00

So there's all this Beijing/Olympics hype. Personally, I would feel claustrophobic in Beijing, as their population is about 767 people per square kilometre. Kind of glad I'm not going there. That basically means that each person in Beijing has about 1.2 square metres of breathing space. Yay population questions! I really should be doing them right now. I do find demography quite interesting. Though there are some things that aren't particularly impressive about China's population.

The fertility rate in the mid 1960s was high - about 7.5 children per woman. This is because in the 1950s (not sure about this date, but I'm too lazy to look it up) there was the Communist revolution (though China's political history is quite unstable) and their population policy was basically "go forth and multiply", so the population rose quite significantly to the point that the Once Child Policy, or Chinese Population Policy was implemented in 1979. Duh duh DUUUUUUH! Good idea at first, but there's always a loophole.

The aim of the policy is to bring the population back down to a manageable rate, and they hand out free condoms in work factories and such. There is a problem to this though, and it has to do with China's cultural values, which is that they would prefer to have sons. So what happens? Daugters are 'stillborn', and a Chinese couple can easily discover the sex of their unborn child while having an ultrasound screening. If the baby is a girl it can be aborted. This happens a lot. Basically what happens in Chinese culture is that when a couple marry, the wife joins the husband and they look after the husband's parents in their old age. So many couples are having sons, which means that the male to female ratio is pretty screwed up. In a way it kind of means that it's working, but smaller numbers of men will be able to find wives, and the reason you can say it's working is because a smaller percentage of the population is able to breed. Um... that's all for now, I need to go back to getting this work done for tomorrow.

[04/08/08] I should be studying...

2008-08-03T22:44:00.000-07:00

...because I have 3 assessments this week, one of which is tomorrow! Okay, ideas about Encountering Conflict. Fuuuuuuuuck. This is going to be a relatively short post, as there isn't much to talk about. You may call me Australia Face. Where's the thing that connects my camera to my laptop, I need it. I'll post the photo later. The main thing of significance is that I got my chemistry result today. Oops, I need to give DJ my semester 1 SACs back (as Giles said, SACs should be shot in the face). So basically we got a result for either the exam or the semester. I'll try and discern some information from the little piece of paper. Hmm, it says "Grade 1 result". Not sure what this means. Does it work differently for subjects that have a midyear exam?

Either way, I'll tell a little story. I was sitting with Meagan in French and waiting for it to be over so I could relax at lunchtime. And then she said "one hour until we get our results". Which of course had me freaking out for the rest of the lesson. So she wrote "A+" on my hand, which I took a photo of and want to put here. Either way, I said something along the lines of "if only that were true". And then there was lots of anticipation as Sue (my house co-ordinator) was the last one to come up with the results. I wasn't going to open them until I got home, but I managed to find an area with few people so I could open it by myself. Seriously, if someone hears the opening of an envelope, they run over. Anyway, it was an A+ o_O. For 18 months I have tried and tried and tried to get an A+ in chemistry to no avail... until now.

Also, if you read my post on nerdy strangers the day before that exam, I was kind of freaking out. I sort of had a breakdown the Sunday before the exam when a book tried to tell me why potatoes turn brown. Not particularly interesting and the last thing I care about. Then we had the exam which I thought had too many questions (seriously, 8 short answer questions? 8??? Though I guess 8 is a lucky number - I got 8 in the footy tipping for the third time this season), but I didn't think it was too bad. We went out for lunch afterwards and I worked out that I'd already lost 5 marks. And then afterwards I talked to my mum who said that the students at her school came out in tears and some friends at work didn't finish it. The joys of external examinations. So basically because of that I was really worried that I hadn't done well. I keep looking at that darn piece of paper because it's hard to believe. But I need to keep working, as there is still a semester to go. And I have 5 exams in October/November, not 1.

[02/08/08] I am in a state of perpetual tiredness

2008-08-02T00:37:00.000-07:00

And I have been all day. I got about 6 hours sleep this morning and I had about a 2 hour nap this afternoon and then I went driving. I should ask my mum if we can open the bottle of Coke. I need something. Actually, I probably need some food, too. I've only eaten two burritos today. And some Savoys. All of this is really exciting stuff. I know you want to know about it, or possibly the reason that I'm so tired, as well as the reason that I woke up with panda eyes this morning.

I did have fun at the formal, and not because I was ordered to by Mike. Mum was kind of stressed, which is understandable, as dad was in Canberra for the whole week and will be going there again for at least some of next week. So that stressed me out. The hair and make-up appointment was fine, though I preferred the way my make-up was done last year. God, there was so much of it this time. And they used eyeliner. There was none of that wretched stuff last year.

Rachel's was okay. Nothing exciting really. I don't understand how predrinks can be exciting, but whatever. Well, we took a group photo of our parents because they always make a big deal of taking a group photo of us before we leave. Payback! Oh, there are no photos in this post because I don't have many and I'm waiting for everyone else to upload them onto facebook. I particularly want the "Myspace photo" that Richard and I took. He is a funny guy, I'm glad Meagan brought him.

Formal tables weren't really a drama, except I never ever get put with Emma. Ever. It annoys me. I liked the way it was done this year, 9 Darling Street is a better venue (the best venue even) than the Kooyong Tennis Club or whatever it's called. Anyway, I hate that part where you get there and everyone's trying to pack together in not much space and it's all claustrophobic. Laura's boyfriend Scott knew someone who worked there; I swear that he could go to Antarctica and know someone there, it's ridiculous.

Anyway, we had a course and then everyone got up to dance for a bit and photos were taken, etc. We had a Central photo with the Priscilla signs (always a must) and then called Slim from the bathroom (which was gorgeous) but he didn't answer, so we sang (or screamed) "Come to Australia" by the Scared Weird Little Guys to him. And then Caz said in this nice calm voice "Hi Slim, we really miss you". It was hilarious. There were also the house tutor group photos. I might get all group photos this year. There was one that we got with Mrs Jewell as well. She wanted an English class photo, but we never got around to organising it.

There were awards, as there always are. I'm glad Kim got the "most innovative" award, as she and her mum modified her mum's wedding dress, which was gorgeous. I loved it. The food was fantastic, and maybe it's because I had a three course meal that I haven't eaten much today. Let's say it was that. And we had food at Heather's afterwards. Anyway, for dessert I had this chocolate tasting plate with chocolate ice cream, an eclair and jaffa mousse. The jaffa mousse was in a bowl that was made of chocolate. I wasn't sure that it was chocolate at first, but then I smashed it with my spoon.

Dancing was fun. Tom (Anna's date, who I call my twin) is a terrible dancer, but at least he enjoys himself. James isn't that good either. Though I think Lisa and Fleur's dates were enjoying themselves a bit and danced with every girl they could. And there was another one as well. Though the highlight of the night was when Billy Jean was played and Jess's boyfriend Tim did his awesome dancing. Some sort of smooth foot thing that is not out of place when Michael Jackson is playing.

Then afterwards we went to Heather's where we listened to Queen, Freya and I started to lose our voices (mine is nearly back) and Meagan and Richard did their nerd camp thing and tried to solve a Rubik's Cube. Em made us all listen to Lucky by Britney, which is really an ironic song considering how her life's turned out. Then at the end of the song, Em walked off and said "I'm just going to go and shave my head now". We were going to put on the Beatles, but that got overruled and Michael Bubbly was put on. Which was great, because Em and I slow danced to Moondance, and James tried to split us up. Then just before Em and James left I ended up dancing with James to some other song. I love my friends. There aren't any particularly funny stories to tell, it was just a good night.

[01/08/08] It isn't an orchestra without sex.

2008-07-31T20:44:00.000-07:00

I have the formal tonight, so I should be doing some things so I can get ready - we don't have afternoon classes. But my hair and makeup appointment isn't for another 2 hours and 45 minutes. So I basically need to have a shower and all that jazz, maybe paint my nails before then. Mum suggested that I sleep, because of the concert last night, but I don't want to sleep. I'll probably be at Heather's until about 1:30 in the morning, but whatever. I actually need to eat some lunch. We're having a three course sit down dinner tonight at the formal, so maybe it can wait.

So, the concert. We have an all day rehearsal at Robert Blackwood Hall, which is at Monash university. That's always a hoot. Well, sort of. Instead of having a massed singing item for the finale, we had it for the opening, and from what people have told me, it was fantastic. I asked my dad about it and he said "Didn't you see it?" and I didn't see it because I was in it. What was after that? I think it was the junior school choir. I didn't get a program. I wonder if someone in my family received one. That would be useful rather than trying to remember everything.

Mr Hall has been great for music in the junior school. All the students were enthusiastic and the preps were adorable. So junior choir, which is years 3 to 5 (I think, so much has changed) sang something, and then some song about a princess and a dragon. This was great, because there were adults dressed as a princess and a dragon running around on stage. (It is quite windy outside. That is completely irrelevant, but oh well.) Then the junior school choir and the mini singers, which is prep to year 2 did a Sound of Music medley. I swear, this was the best concert ever. The preps were so cute that I was actually almost in tears, and Mr Hall got us all joining in with singing Eidelweiss.

After that, Kimmy made the music captain's speech as she is music captain (no duh, I'm very good at stating the obvious), and I'm glad she kept in the bit (we went through it with her) where she called the senior choir old and wrinkled. Then there was the Donald Redding orchestra (junior school) who played the Muppets' Theme which was fun, but it should've been faster. Then I think was the Cripps choir (year 6-8, our school's weird) who were good. Actually, they sang Eleanor Rigby, which was a bit high, but it was awesome because Amadeus Strings played with them. Then Amadeus played some piece that I can't remember the name of, or never knew because I don't have the program.

The last two ensembles onstage for the first half were Melodic Minors who sang the Teddy Bear Picnic. <3 that song still. My mum thought that it was a bit much to have 13 and 14 year old girls singing that song, but psh. It's a good song, who cares how old you are? I love that cartoon they used to have on the ABC to that song. There was also another really awesome one for "we all know frogs go La de da de da". Oh yeah, and there was Wind Symphony, who have always been good, but for some reason weren't as good this year. Maybe it's because of the new conductor (who is great for Stage Band), who chose an uninteresting piece.

After interval it was all about the senior school. Stage band was first up, but I honestly have no idea how they went because I was backstage with Swing Choir and we couldn't hear them. Being on stage is really different to being in a small room (once again, I state the obvious quite well) because the sound travels more, so what we were singing didn't sound as good to me as it did in rehearsal. Either way, both You Can't Stop the Beat and Defying Gravity got good responses from the audience, so I think they liked it. Senior Choir ran smoothly (I think, once again, it's hard to tell when you're performing). Koristers sounded amazing, as always. All their songs were A Capella actually.

Then there was Menuhin Orchestra, sans Sarah, because she's been sick. We don't think she can come to the formal tonight either. That was when I said "It isn't an orchestra without Sarah", and Emma thought I said sex. Hence the title. Anyway, the orchestra played one of Rachmaninoff's piano concertos for the finale, with Kim being the piano (or the person who plays it). She is honestly amazing. I am in awe of her. You know how you buy one of those classical CDs and the piano just sounds flawless? She plays like that. And when you look at her play, she does all the arm stuff that concert pianists do.

It was a good night, and we had fun at the rehearsal too. Let's just say that I was pushed off a couch, Em was then pushed off the same couch and fell on top of me, Ariane was on a sugar high and we sang 500 miles very insanely. I must be off now. I might have some lunch and then think about starting to get ready.

[31/07/08] In which I ramble a bit about universities

2008-07-30T05:49:00.000-07:00

Wow, I was just reading the part of the msn conversation last night that I missed because my mum was yelling at me, and it was seriously the best part >_> All because I asked if Byron was staying over. He did. Anyway, there was a town at Kat's house, Noosa at Lizy's house and I had Rocky over as well. I don't know why I'm saying any of this, as Kat is the only person who reads this blog and she was there, therefore she knows all of this.

Yesterday we got our VTAC guides on what subjects/scores we need for different university courses, and a little book that tells us the ENTER for what I think is every university course offered in the country. They should've done New Zealand too. Maybe they did, I didn't pay that much attention.

Anyway, there are some interesting things I found out. Because of the Melbourne Model, which is basically that if you want to do medicine, engineering or law you have to do an undergraduate degree first, like in the USA, a Bachelor of Arts at Monash has a predicted ENTER of 99.00 WTF? And Melbourne's has gone down to about an 85. Why are people so scared of change? If you really want to go to Melbourne (whose BA is ranked 7th in the WORLD) you go to Melbourne. Which is what I'm looking at at the moment - I'm interested in their courses and it's in the city. Also, Melbourne University is the oldest university in Australia and some of the buildings are beautiful. There's even this courtyard that I swear the WB ripped off for the Harry Potter movies (I know it's probably some English university, but I'd like it to be Melbourne).

I think VCAA needs to look at changing the way VCE works. I wonder if they're trying to fit so much information into our heads that they explode. Because Unit 3 is twice as long as Unit 4, but we still have the same number of SACs. So we pretty much have this term to do a shitload of study before exams, and half our weekend is going to be taken up by uni open days.

And that's all I'll say for today, as I have to get ready to go to the concert rehearsal which is at Monash uni. Huh. I think I may be back there on Sunday for an open day! I can't afford to, I have three SACs next week.

[29/07/08] I hate the last choir rehearsal before the concert

2008-07-28T22:37:00.000-07:00

This time of the year (2 days before the concert) is generally when the head of music is so stressed that you'd rather not deal with her, but she's the choir conductor and there's choir rehearsal so you kind of have to. I hope she didn't find out that Kim hadn't written her music captain's opening speech thingy. Though that's because we were in a spare and we told her not to write it. We had Swing rehearsal at recess and Anna brought her 2 year old son in who is sooooooooooooooo cute. She also told us that for his second birthday party they hired a ball pit and were considering having a whole room with a ball pit. I think that this is an excellent idea. So far the rooms in my future house (the ones I'd like to have) are one with a ball pit and a library.

Oh I did an exam today. Well, not the listening. It was the Alliance Francaise written exam. I wonder if we're doing the oral. It'd be nice to know if we are. But is there time? We don't even have French for the rest of the week due to the rehearsal on Thursday and finishing early because of the formal on Friday. Why must everything be on at once? Because Monash uni's open day is on Sunday - they're currently my second preference university, and one of the top 8 in the country. Along with Melbourne, ANU and some others. Interesting. There's a site that lists Australia's Top universities and where they're ranked in the world. The thing is about ANU is that they're really good and it's much easier to get into their courses because they're in Canberra. I don't think I could go to uni in Canberra though. That would suck.

What else did I want to say? Omg, epic win happened today. Every second Wednesday afternoon we have this PD double period in which year 11 and 12s are talked at, and for the first time in the history of my school, we have been given the afternoon off. To study. We were all in shock.

Year 12: o_O O_o

This of course means that I finish early every day this week. Epic win!

And this is something that only Kat needs to read, as it is in regards to the strangely nerdy strangers. If there are people who owe a punishment should we just set one for them all to do? If so, what should it be?

Anyway, au revoir, I must go and do a maths test before tomorrow.

[28/07/08] Girl most likely to "blog about it"

2008-07-27T23:36:00.000-07:00

I think that's what I'll put down as my 'Girl Most Likely To' tomorrow. The sheets are up in the study area. I think they were put up today. Some of my friends want me to put something else, which I won't put here. If my parents read my yearbook and saw that, I don't know how they would react. And also because blogging is fun. I still haven't finished writing my Central diary, and no one is surprised about that, which is strange. By day... whatever it was when we had the dance party in Priscilla (wow, that could be interpreted the wrong way). Though there were a couple of dance parties, so I don't know what that day was. Anyway, when we were having the dance party, Wendy asked if I was writing about it in my diary. Either way, I'd better finish it soon, because otherwise I'll forget what happened.

I am SO SICK of choir rehearsals. I think I worked out that I have something like 9 days out of 10 in rehearsal. I get a break on Wednesday unless Barnesy decides that we need to have another rehearsal. And then I'm at Monash University all day Thursday. My sister's got something that night, so she can't come to the concert, and my dad may still be in Canberra. His company's working on that nationwide broadband plan that the government is trying to set up. Not that he owns the company. I'm fairly sure he doesn't and that the people who started it are still working there.

The formal is on Friday and I'm still kind of 'meh' about it. I'm not looking forward to it, but whatever. I'm sure it will be a blast. Predrinks are at 6, and my hair and makeup is booked for 4:30, so that should be interesting. Also, I have no idea what's happening afterwards. Yay for disorganisation! Which reminds me that I must be doing my French homework now. You wouldn't think that I got home 2 hours ago.

[27/07/08] I swear I had a title for this post.

2008-07-26T22:18:00.000-07:00

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to "Leah blogs about nothing in particular!" Today's topic is flutes.

I was thinking about what to blog about yesterday, and I was just looking around the room in the music school, and there was a poster titled "The Selmer Pictorial History of Flutes". I am not even joking. I didn't realise that one could have a pictorial history of flutes. Though it was really just pictures of about 11 different flutes/recorders, and then something about each of them. I want a piccolo. That would be fun. Though piccolos are so deafening that maybe all I need is a whistle. I imagine that they would sound exactly the same.

That was in the 'brass room', where all the lessons for people playing brass instruments are supposedly held. Though when I learned French Horn (shut up), those lessons weren't held there. French Horn lessons actually made me depressed. I have never dreaded going to anything so much in my life. And that teacher was weirder than my year 9 art teacher. Because we had to skip class to go to music lessons, and the French Horn teacher was only there on Mondays, I almost always missed out on French. Then I tried to stop going to music lessons, which was okay, because . Then my mum worked out that it was clearly making me miserable, as I spent most of the week in tears because of it, so I got to stop.

What other interesting things have happened there? I'm talking as if Room 10 in the music school is this interesting place. It's not, so far as I know. I do know that Mr Musk left, which was unfortunate, due to the giant crushes that Em and Priya had on him in year 9. I think that he moved to the same school that Priya did. Oh well, there was a blog post that clearly was about nothing! And I moved on from flutes. Mainly because I don't know anything about flutes

[26/07/08] SUGAR HIGH!!!!!!!

2008-07-26T02:40:00.000-07:00

Hell, I've already blogged today for Jane on Nerdy Strangers. But because I am a blog addict and on such a massive sugar high, this needs to be documented. WOOP WOOP WOOP. Jane will be thinking "God this chick is fucking crazy, she should be locked up". Or that's what any sane person should think about me right now. I'm in a strange mook* I have never been drunk, and in my current state, I worry about what I would be like drunk. As we all should. You should see my wide eyes. And now it's time for dinnerz. Pizza-izza-izza!!! That's what I do to words when I'm excited. Must be off! *whooshes*

***

I don't know if I still have a sugar high, though I will admit that I had quite a lot of fun when I was. I was literally running between my room and the kitchen/living room. If you look at the twitters I made... wow. I can only say that I have not had one of those moments for a while. Though the last day of Central before breakfast was a bit like that. Randomly doing the nerdfighter sign when no one knows what it means is fun, though I wish I knew some nerdfighters IRL.

You know something about Hairspray? I can never get sick of it. It's more the opposite. We spent the better part of two hours in rehearsal for choir today learning choreography to "You Can't Stop the Beat", so when I got home and was horrified at the state of the football, I put on Hairspray. I've only watched it four times, but I listen to the soundtrack a lot. When my familamilamily (I've decided that that's better than the word family. Some words just sound better when you repeat the middle part) came home from the football and I was quoting it and singing along they asked how many times I'd seen it. They should be worried about watching Rent with me though. I haven't seen that in ages.

Sometimes I wish I lived in musical land, so long as I don't drift over to Fleet Street to see Sweeney Todd. Also, the Chaser's segment "If Life Were a Musical" is one of their best, so I'm putting a clip here.

I hate it when you do that thing where you were going to write something but then you get distracted so you can't remember what you were planning to write. Oh yes. We realised that our choir song is about Doctor Who. I wonder if I can find a clip of it on YouTube. Actually, it was composed fairly recently, so I'll be surprised if I can find it. No, I can't. And it's a choral piece; not what you normally find on YouTube. Woop woop woop! I will be off now in my Tardiiiiiiiiis! *clicks fingers and the Tardis door opens*

*Enters Tardis, which disappears making Tardis sounds*

So maybe my sugar high hasn't worn off. All I know is that the earrings are sparklarklarkling.

[25/07/08] Thank goodness the internet is working

2008-07-25T02:10:00.000-07:00

It’s really a bugger when you want to blog but you’re at school where blogger is blocked. I would twitter now, but I can’t log in. And my phone has no credit and the company that did the phone credit machine went ‘kaput’ as my mum said. But on the bright side, all my twitter followers are back. I just checked my page. I’m in the school library and there is a bunch of annoying year 11s using the other computers for psychology. Why am I blogging? Because I feel like it. (the real reason: I'm an addict).

***

I don’t like these school keyboards; the backspace button is too small. Or maybe it’s just because I’m used to my laptop. I need a new laptop. I came to the library because I thought there would be free computers, which there are. And then I talked to Justine. Am I the only student in the school who calls the librarians by their first names? (The year 11s are talking about their formal and CLC which isn’t for another month. Then again, we’re talking about the formal, but that’s not for another week. Though I guess we were the same last year. I’m still not looking forward to the formal.) Anyway, the librarians. Justine is Em’s aunt, but she still calls her by her teaching name. Justine and I were talking about the Premier’s Reading Challenge and censorship. Good stuff. (Alex just came in. If I knew her better, I would probably get along with her. The link is to her books. Yes, she’s an author, and I’m incredibly jealous.)

Geography was fun this morning. We’re doing all this work on population, and Katie made the comment about Kenya’s fertility rate in 1975, which was 7.9 children per woman. I told her that I was happy with my 6 children, and she actually believed that I had 6 children so that was hilarious. That girl has her moments. Like the Muhammad Ali thing. It’s always the Friday morning double that she’s like that.

Will I write more when I get home? Maybe, but now I have to get through four hours of choir rehearsals. Let’s hope that it’s fun…

There's only so much choir rehearsal that one can endure without going insane. Four hours straight is pushing it. Actually, even one hour is pushing it, as we went crazy. But I'm getting ahead of myself. At the start of lunch, as many Central people as possible were gathered together so that we could "push Priscilla", meaning "take a photo of us pretending to push Pearco's car with Priscilla's signs on it at lunch time and make sure that the teachers don't see us leave school, especially without our blazers". Freya actually went back to get her blazer, the good school captain that she is.

So then there was slightly less than four straight hours of choir rehearsal. Swing was fun, and there are some issues over the pronunciation of "can't" - we do it American for one song and English for another. Then in choir, Barnesy was having to reteach the choir Come and Sing, and the soloists (me included) went a bit crazy, and Ariane was being the "voice of reason". She told us that Barnesy would crack it at us, and she did, but we were having too much fun for that to be an issue. And then Mr Hall came in! He's a bit like Mr G from Summer Heights High, but much more awesome. He's nice and not selfish.

And then the middle and junior school choirs came in so that we could practise the opening. The junior girls are adorable, and when we were mucking around with our uniforms (meaning buttoning our blouses up completely - yes, we're rebels. Though no one does up their top button or the one on the collar, which I swear was designed for suffocation), they started copying us! When I say 'us', it sounds like I was involved in this. Unfortunately, I wasn't, merely an observer. Also, the junior girls get to wave flags in the song, and when we file off, we take the flags from them because they have to stay on stage and sing their Sound of Music medley (yes, I will be singing along). You think little kids are bad with flags? Try year twelves. And it's only the first week back.

This time next week I will be at the formal. I'm still not entirely looking forward to it, but as I'm going to be spending the next 7 days with people from school, I may get excited. It had better be warmer than this, because otherwise we will all freeze. It won't be warmer. Why do schools decide to hold formals in winter? Kat, you should have a good answer to this. I told people your marathon runner joke and they loved it.

[24/07/08] Teach Me to Dance to the Beat of Your Heart

2008-07-23T22:56:00.000-07:00

Should never be used as the hymn in assembly ever again. I hope Em is telling the Rev. It can be interpreted as wrong, and most students do. I, however, had to be a good girl in assembly, because I was sitting next to Maddy, who was in turn sitting next to Madame Cameron (who is at the school a lot for someone who retired last year).

Three days back at school and it feels like I haven't been away for three weeks at all. My maths test was cancelled yesterday, which was an awesome birthday present for Emma. I'm writing her a 'Goodbye 17 year old Em', and I have no idea what to write, so that sucks. I have also started to stalk my sister, who turned 21 yesterday, in the form of reading her LJ. Not that she knows this.

In regards to stalking, Jas found HPA on facebook, which won't make sense to anyone who reads this. We have decided (we being Giles, or maybe it was Caz... either way, someone who came on Central) that she will be "Girl Most Likely To stalk you on facebook". I still think I should be Girl most likely to "blog about it", though my friends are leaning towards "marry an internet stalker" at the moment.

Okay, so I'm talking to Amy, and yesterday she felt notsome, so I emailed her a song by Relient K called "Getting Into You", which Heather-Lynn told me was one of their more religious songs. Before that, I thought it was about sex. Anyway, I just told Amy that story, and she said: lol, hahahaha! proud of you. yar, when i saw the name i though "leah is cheering me up by making a song hit on me??? " (That would have been the title, but I had such a good one that leads into the post already).

There are 8 days until the formal, and I have no idea what to do with my hair. I wish I could be like Emma who says she's just going to brush it and then she'll be done. Anyway, my hair and makeup appointment is for 4:30, and we have to be at Rachel's at 6. I hope she's not having other people over this year, that was badly done. Though only four of us are taking partners. Then we're going to Heather's afterwards. And maybe trying on each other's dresses. I think it would be hilarious if I tried on Emma's, because it's floorlength and she is much much taller than me. Someone I talked to today said that they were wearing green too (I totally nearly wrote Gruen). I think that was Cadams. Oh, and either at the formal or at Rachel's house, I am definitely getting a photo with Tom (I have no idea why Anna is taking him if he likes her and she doesn't like him. Lol at that giant photo of them at the his formal on his mantelpiece) because he is my twin brother from another mother. And I want to meet Richard too.

The other thing happening in my life at the moment other than school, but is still related to school is the music concert. LJ and Annabelle are singing the solo for Defying Gravity, which is actually okay. I don't mind really. Anyway, I have four straight hours of singing tomorrow, I'm at school for 6 hours on Saturday, and the concert is a week away. Not fun. At least the only class I have tomorrow is geography.

And after the concert we'll be starting rehearsal for the year 12 song, which is exciting. We still need to work out the "Sail on strong (ooing scatting)" part. I really want us to have scatting, but I don't think that it will fit with the rest of it. Now there's some more rambling from moi, I shall be typing on Saturday. I was thinking that I could take my laptop to the nearby church and use their wireless, but I just remembered that Barnesy doesn't want us leaving in between rehearsals. Damn it.

[22/07/08] Your hair's short! What happened?!

2008-07-22T03:41:00.000-07:00

That was actually me who said that. I had work today, and I was working with someone I hadn't seen since the Christmas party last year. Turns out she got her hair cut. This is going to be a relatively short post, because I have French homework to do. And a maths test tomorrow. Yes, my teacher is cruel enough to give us a test on Trigonometry the first lesson back for the term.

First day back at school was awesome, because it's Day 2 of the timetable, which means double English, triple spare, geography. During one of my spares, I was updating Twitter about the status of my homework (not done), and I got a text message (even though we're not allowed phones in the library, the librarians and I are good friends - except they didn't see me using the phone). I thought to myself "I bet Kat has sent me a direct message from Twitter, and it'll say something about me being back at school". I was half right. It was from Kat, and it said "FAIL :P" which I thought was hilarious, so I'm keeping it.

Mike (I'm going to make sure that you read this now): I may have time to speak to you on weekends, but not much. Certainly not this weekend, I have music camp.

That's something exciting that is happening. Yesterday (Monday) was the only day this week that I did not have rehearsal for some sort of choir. The music concert is in nine days, no wonder I'm freaking out. Anyway, I am at school for half of the weekend singing songs. At least I'm in Swing, and we get to sing fun stuff like Hairspray and Wicked. (And the Mandy Moore/A Walk to Remember version of Only Hope, which isn't as good as the Switchfoot one. But I'm biased.)

9 days until the concert means 10 days until the formal, which I'm really not looking forward to that much, because I hated last year's. That is because I had a nice dress, a massive allergic reaction on my legs, a hairstyle I didn't like and a date who didn't know anyone. I have solved most of the problems. I have another gorgeous dress, no date (which is overall a better idea when not many of your friends are taking dates. If David Tennant offered to take me to my formal, I would of course say yes.), I'm not waxing my legs this year, and I'm not going to leave it up to the hairdresser to decide how my hair is done.

Also, tomorrow is the birthday of both my sister Megan, who is turning 21, and Emma who is one of my bestest friends in the entire world, who is turning 18! So happy birthday to both of you if you are reading this, and I'm not saying anything about presents in case you happen to be reading this when it's still Tuesday.

There's not much else going on! Oh wait, yesterday, as well as being the anniversary of Deathly Hallows was Maddy's birthday party. Which is quite ironic, because Maddy is opposed to Harry Potter due to her religious beliefs, which is fair enough. And we get along quite well. She decided to have a kids' 18th party, so we had fun things like a pinata and played games such as Pass the Parcel, Balderdash and Twister (yes, I may have just nearly typed Twitter). We also played the peg game, in which you started with 5 pegs, and if you said Maddy, Madeleine, MadCar, or any other variation of her name, you lost a peg. So Em and I were the first ones there, and I asked if we could call her Travis. (Em and I spent an hour and a half on public transport to get there). Guess what? I started a trend! By the end of the party, everyone was calling Maddy "Travis", and she even started answering to it.

Schoolies is still not organised, and Meagan and Heather want to go camping at the Cathedral Ranges. Sorry, if I'm going away for schoolies, I don't want to go camping, even if it's luxury camping. Camping's fun and all, but not for schoolies. I can understand if they don't want to get drunk and get raped for schoolies, but couldn't we do something other than go camping? Here's the thing about schoolies: you don't actually have to get drunk. I think that's all for today, I blog on nerdy strangers tomorrow.

[20/07/08] Four msn conversations and a text message conversation...

2008-07-20T00:39:00.000-07:00

Are a lot to keep up with! Though I let Em go back to school work, and Mike's gone to bed. He wasn't too emo today, which was nice. What sucks is that so far I only have three right in the footy tipping. And I don't think I can see what my closest rival has tipped. This has been an atrocious round. At least most of the time you can assume that Geelong will win. Which they did. And wtf was wrong with Hawthorn? They shouldn't have lost to St Kilda. Please understand that my interest in AFL is completely shallow, as I have been number one in the tipping competition every week except Round 11.

So onwards from sport, which is not so much fun. Except netball. I miss netball (though not when we only have 6 players and I have to try and play Centre and Wing Defence). And dancing.

On Friday night I went out with Laura, Cath, Kim and Scotttrick Wolfsonson. Laura said "I have to take you to this really awesome pub!", so we went to ELSTERNWICK, which is of course where Scott lives, and went to this place and got hot chocolates that had the consistency of custard. If I liked custard, this would've been more enjoyable. Then we drove past Daily Planet, and I made some sort of stupid remark about how we should go in, before going to the tattoo place. In the words of Cath, it "smelled like something illegal", though I don't know what. The pub wasn't that exciting, and Kim was the only person who got something to drink.

The most exciting part of the night was christening Laura's new car by taking it through its first drive through at Macca's. Actually, speaking of Laura's car, I don't know if I want to get in a car with her for a while. The starts are a bit weird. My mum was pretty worried about it too. She was going through all this stuff about ordering at bars and keeping her updated on my status (alive or dead - now I realise I should've sent her a message saying that I was dead). Anyway, Scott got out of the car because he saw people he knew, and we drove up to the drive through now knowing what we wanted to order. Cath then ordered a McFlurry because she felt like she needed to order something, and then just before we drove off said "I hate McDonald's", which was hilarious. I have no idea why it was so entertaining.

Heather-Lynn and I also had an epic MSN conversation, of which I can't reveal the details, but it was one of the best ever. Because of this, I am planning on reading several books that are analyses of social structure, governments, and corporations. Wow, my sister's rubbed off on me. Most of the books are hers. Damn the politics student in her. I want to go to Melbourne Uni partly because of the PIS. Mostly because of their courses. Either way, that conversation was up there as one of the best I've had with her. The other being the one time it was us, Ella and Mike, and Mike and I took it as our responsibility to give her the Talk.

Yesterday was the party in My Pants. That joke literally never gets old. Ever. Anyway, we celebrated the year anniversary of Accio Deathly Hallows, and when we saw Hank's video, I think we were Happy Dancing, because he's fixed the banning problem, and they're encouraging people to come back, which is exciting. My Pants will live again! I would hold a competition to see who can come up with the most exciting phrases using My Pants, but I'm not sure if anyone actually reads this. And Kat would probably win. So the party was rad, and I got to talk to some people who I don't normally talk to, some I'd never talked to and some I've talked to a lot.

Oh, for some reason I wanted to talk about going shopping with my mum. It was for birthday presents, because there are July birthdays. Maddy's party is tomorrow, and Megan and Emma have their birthdays on Wednesday. Seriously, I think everyone I know is either turning 18 or 21. I don't know why I'm talking about this, as I have nothing to say. Actually, the ABC shop has some awesome Doctor Who merchandise. There was this sonic screwdriver/psychic paper set, as well as a DALEK HELMET which has a voice thinger winger like Michael Buckley's so when you speak you sound like a Dalek. But we didn't get those. Seriously, if you need to buy me a Christmas present, the ABC shop is a good place to start. Also, the lady at Borders is a Doctor Who fan, which made my day.

There was a very uninteresting blog post, and I have an hour and a half on public transport tomorrow to get to Maddy's, which should be fun. Me and Em on trains and buses for an hour. Watch out world! We haven't seen each other in over three weeks.

[18/07/08] No one mourns the Wicked

2008-07-17T17:51:00.000-07:00

As Wicked is going to be in Melbourne for 12 months (that's how long Maggie Kirkpatrick has been signed for), I am definitely going to be seeing it again. Especially because I didn't get any merchandise. I want all the T-Shirts that aren't pink. I'm an Elphaba fan, not so much G(a)linda. Not that I don't like her, but Elphaba is a nerdfighter.

I know that everyone wants to know how the Australian Idol reunion concert was. Rob Mills is a better singer than he was 5 years ago, but his voice couldn't match Amanda Harrison's or Lucy Durack's. If he could sing as well as Amanda, As Long As You're Mine would've had the audience in tears. Also, if I had been closer (dress circle row T - for those of you who don't know, the dress circle is ABOVE the balcony), I may have felt more emotion, as I was unable to see any sort of facial expression. Anthony Callea's height was perfect for a munchkin, but his character is so morally... I don't even know. It's a pity he didn't have a role with more singing.

So Amanda and Lucy (I'm too lazy to type their full names, even though I don't know them personally) were amazing. Popular was as hilarious as it should've been, and Defying Gravity was easily the highlight of the show. And For Good came in second. Oh!!!! There were these awesome granita type drinks which I didn't get called Ozmopolitans, and and and they came in these plastic martini glasses whose necks have green lights in them. That's one of the reasons I'm going again, so I can get one. It's $10 and then $5 for a refill. Also, the Regent theatre is the only theatre I can ever remember letting you take food and drinks into the show.

So, reasons I need to see Wicked again: Ozmopolitans, merchandise and I want to see it with Kimmy, and maybe some other people. Also, it has the most amazing set and costumes, so I can see why it's on the Theatre Studies list of shows to see. I will have to run this by some people, as it will be expensive, but I think it would be awesome if for schoolies, we just went around and saw various productions in Melbourne for a week. Rocky Horror's going to be on at that time, so we can see those two shows, and maybe some plays that won't be as expensive.

Today is another special date in the world of Harry Potter, and especially nerdfighting, because it's a year since Accio Deathly Hallows, which brought me to the nerdfighting community, which is always there when I need it, just like a good book. That was a strange analogy.

Something I was going to write about on Wednesday but didn't, was that I read the Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. It was fantastic (I wish Christopher Eccleston would say that for me). Perfect for a book nerd, as it's about a detective in an alternate universe who works for Special Operations as a LiteraTec, who makes sure everything is okay in the world of books.

I think that's all today, no wait! Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Watch it. Sing along once you've seen it a few times and know all the words. And now I'm following it on Twitter. It's the 42nd person I'm following! Yay!

[16/07/08] A kamikaze scone tried to attack me

2008-07-16T04:35:00.000-07:00

I put that title in just for kicks. I don't know if I can think of enough quotes to put them all in as post titles on a regular basis. Once a week is enough. Though I am a quote collector. I actually ran out of space in my school diary in May.

I remember what I was doing this time three years ago actually. I was at Amy's house watching TV while she was reading Half-Blood Prince (I had already finished it). The thing is, I really wanted to talk about it with someone, but had lack of a person to talk about it with. So when I got home the next day, my sister was ready to talk. That's the thing about having siblings. Unless you want to buy multiple copies of the book, you have to wait. So should I start a reread of Half-Blood Prince tonight and have it done by Monday, which is the year anniversary of the Deathly Hallows release? Probably not, as I have English first thing on Tuesday and I should finish The Secret River, as well as annotate it.

One other thing I have noticed about July is that there are a lot of birthdays. And actually, most of the people I know who have birthdays in July share them with someone else I know. That was some pointless blabber right there. I need to get three presents by Monday, because that's when Maddy's party is. Which reminds me that I need to RSVP. It's not like I haven't had the invitation for a week. Why is everyone turning 18 or 21? And why is it so hard to think of presents for someone that I've known for most of my life?

You know what else is exciting? (Not that anything I've already written or am about to say is exciting at all) There are 97 days until I finish school, which terrifies me. And 107 days until exams. Or if you're American, you can be happy that there are only 107 days until Halloween. Speaking of school, why the hell wasn't I born in Queensland? First of all, I would have finished school already, as they don't do Prep. Though Prep was fun. And holiday homework? No such thing. Or maybe I should move to Canberra. The ACT is so small that they don't have external examinations. The downside of this is that I would have to move to Canberra.

Dum de dum de dum de... this is a first. Me not knowing what to write about on a blog. I'm going to see Wicked tomorrow night! That's exciting. Like really really exciting. Actually, my mum and I have kind of crap seats and then the very next day they released new tickets for about another month. Then Kim laughed at me. I might go and see it with her anyway, as it's going to be in Melbourne for 12 months. Maybe we could see it about 4 times. We could have a Swing Choir excursion and all buy pencils. Which no one who reads this will understand, because they don't go to my school. And the funniest review of Wicked that I heard is that "Anthony Callea was born to play a munchkin"

Then I was lamenting that we don't have an Australian equivalent to Broadway or the West End. Though if we did, I would probably go broke and spend all my money on shows, because it would be in Melbourne. And Rocky Horror's coming to Melbourne later this year! I think I may be going with Megan and Byron, which would be different. Since I have not seen the movie for a while, they'll probably tie me up in a chair and make me watch it three times straight but let me get up to do the Time Warp. Which Caz didn't know how to do. I wonder if the Time Warp or the Macarena was more difficult to do in the aisle of a moving bus. I don't know, I only did the Macarena. But we filmed both of them.

Something that I wish would hurry up and get to Melbourne is Avenue Q, which scanalously picked up the Tony Award for Best Musical in 2003, when Wicked was the favourite to win it. At least Idina Menzel got Best Actress in a Musical. As Robyn's boyfriend said, it is probably the musical with the largest cult following of people who have never seen it. Good stuff. And Rent should be performed in Australia again, so I can see the stage show. It's leaving Broadway in September! That actually really saddens me. That musical got me through the second half of year 10, and I haven't really watched it much since.

What else is new? Nothing. Laura is getting a tattoo on Friday night. Yes, this is the Laura who came to the casino with me. Or I went to the casino with her. But yes. Not much else to say, unless I quote La Vie Boheme, which no one would believe, because I could just google the lyrics and paste them here.

Actually, one thing I would love to do if I had time and equipment to make YouTube videos would be to mock child popstars and trying to cover their first singles. You know, Nikki Webster, Britney, Christina, Robin Sparkles (even though that was a parody, it was so good).

[14/07/08] This will be the shortest post I ever write

2008-07-14T05:51:00.000-07:00

Most likely, as my mum wants me in bed by 11, and it is now 10:52. The threat to take away my laptop is sadly not empty. I have 7 days left before I go back to school! AAAHHH!!! What to tell, what to tell. How often will I post here? Hopefully often enough that my nerdy strangers posts aren't too long. I'm writing one now, and I'm editing it for length even though I'm not finished yet. And Happy Bastille Day to all you French readers (of which there are currently none). Happy Birthday to Kirsten, which I have said a thousand times. Almost as many as I have said to Darryl.

Um, the first things I post on here will be a story and the retelling of a dream that I had last week which was epic. It involved Nerdfighters, travelling to another galaxy, coloured chalk and killer pigs that lived next door.

And here's a photo of my formal dress, because not everyone has seen it yet (though people keep asking to):

Now to organise the look of my blog in one minute! Yay!