Time for an Update, perhaps?

I get the feeling that I should write a new blog post. This may be one of the last days where I'm actually bored and have nothing to do, lol!

We went on a family holiday down south and it was great. Visited the beach with the whitest sand in the whole world! Amazing. Got sunburnt, except for the bikini line around my neck. xD No-one else really got sunburnt and mum says it's because I spent so much time indoors at the end of last year studying for the HSC. So it was like I was a potato ZAPPED in the microwave or something. On Australia Day we went on a bushwalk, up this huge-ass hill. But it was all worth it in the end to see the amazing waterfalls. Maybe someday I'll be bothered to upload the pix on Facebook...

So, we're looking for a car. One for mum and one for me. I need one to get to work and TAFE, both of which are starting in early Feb. Enrolments for TAFE close Monday, and of course, I haven't yet enrolled. I need to meet with the Apprenticeships Association. My prospective employee has been unreachable today...

Back to the cars. I need something that's under $2000, automatic, small, to get me from A to B. We looked at 2 cars yesterday, both in the city. I liked the purple 1996 Hyundai Excel but my parents preferred the 1986 Mitsubishi Cordia because it apparently seemed "more solid". Neither of these cars had done over 100,000 km's and they're both in pretty good nick. Anyway, I've contacted another 3 car owners, so I suppose we'll be car-hunting on the weekend too.

Next week I'll be trialling with my prospective employer (P.E.), so that should be exciting. I will eventually get my own desk and probably be the only one in the office, as my P.E. is usually out on the road. But it will vary, as sometimes I can hop in the car and go with her places. :D I'm very excited, also to start TAFE (once I actually enrol!)

I hope you're all well, happy and busy.

- K.

1/1/11

Happy New Year to the people I like. To the people I don't, screwyouloljk maybe if you stop your small-mindedness I might respect you once again. But it is okay, I forgive you. You are, after all, human. And I don't like humans in general.

Welcomed in the new year with my best friend and our awesome vegan and wheat-free cooking. Exceptforthechips,toblerone,pinkalcohol,springrollsanddimsims. But they don't count! Today and tomorrow it is strictly raw fruit and veg to make up for it. :) Watched the fireworks on our brand spankin' new TV which was not nearly as good as being there. BUT AT LEAST WE DIDN'T HAVE TO FIGHT FOR A TRAIN HOME. Gosh. The Make Your Mark theme this year was okay, but the cross made some of us think "Ah, terrorism!?" A little creepy. 2011 doesn't sound as good as 2010. I'm glad I'm a 2010 graduate. :D

BUT WHAT A GREAT YEAR IT WAS. I finished high school. Don't have to see those people again unless I really want to, I can now DO what I want, BE who I want to be and ASPIRE for the success I've always wanted... 2011 will be FANTASTIC. I just know it.

I hate New Years Resolutions, but I love lists. So I'll make a N.Y.R. List anyway;

1. Follow my program carefully til March.
2. Finish up the educating books that I'm currently reading including "What I Didn't Learn At School But Wish I Had" and "Secrets Of Stock Market Traders Exposed" and "How To Talk To Anyone". Also - borrow Robert Kiyosaki's "Rich Dad Poor Dad" book.
3. Quit the Chinese Restaurant.
4. Work out whether I'll get that job as a PA and if so, what education I need. If not, keep working for parents but consider full-time.
5. Be nicer to people, attempt to make friends, or at least conversation.
6. Attempt to do interesting things everyday, live life fully.
7. Start on the path to financial success, put things in motion.
8. Stay in contact with those who mean something to me, attempt to disengage from those who don't.
9. Do more for other people, be more selfless.
10. AND HAVE FUN.

Well, I like that list. It actually covers everything I already knew I wanted to do. 2011 will be great.

Enjoy!

- A. S.

Youtub

 *** UPDATE *** click this link for a better view of my epic comment: TaDa! (keep reading this post as it explains all. heh.)




Before you complain, I KNOW it's spelt YouTube but I've always typed it as a Youtub. Like a fail nickname or something. Idk. I'm weird like that.

ANYWAY. I use youtub and I am subscribed to a few cool peoples. I don't actually have any real life friends as my friends on it because I don't really use it as a social networking place. I just like watching vidyas when in the mood (yeah, another cutesy-yet-fail version of a word there).

In addition, I don't actually check the mailbox on that site. Like, most of the time it's just people wanting me to watch their channel and sub. I'm in no way a Youtub-addict. I just don't have enough hours in the day to always be watching videos. I'd rather just have a few subscriptions and enjoy a few videos once or twice a week.

Recently, I made a home video of my puppy Patches, when she was smaller (I swear she grows about an inch every day) climbing over this little fence we made. It was quite cute. But I'll probably never get 'round to uploading it. I've never been interested in uploading videos either on YT or FB. (Btw, I've deactivated my Facebook account for a few months. I've been banned from all online communication bar blogs and emails for 6 months but hopefully that will be shortened. Legal Studies students - what's the word? Probation or whatever?).

I have digressed terribly. Really the only thing I wanted to tell you - in fact I shall bold it up to emphasise it's significance - is that I commented on a Tobuscus video (one of my few subscriptions, he's awesome) and I got 173 thumbs up. Click here for the video and click here for my comment and its thumbs ups. (ctrl+f "seaturtle" to find it). I just feel proud. I don't know why. Haha. Yeah my Youtub name is seaturtle69 btw (I made it when I was young, forgive me). Many videos have "highest rated comments" thing but this one doesn't. The one that I actually had the highest rated comment for! :( Ah well.

PS: That's by no means his best video. It's probably one of the most boring, as I'm not a gamer or anything. Check out his other videos. One of my favourites is his literal Harry Potter 7 trailer. I'm just a HP geek like that. 8D

Ads By Google? And Christmas time.

MY BLOG HAS AN AD. BY GOOGLE. Um, excuse me? Aren't I meant to be paid for that? Anyone else been experiencing this? How do we rid ourselves of such commercialisation? My anti-consumerismness is also on the brink because of Christmas. Hate these over-commercialised holidays. Ugh.

Irony: Today when picking up my little brother from primary school, my mum noticed a dumpster loaded up with perfectly nice, covered, primary school books. She asked my brother's teacher why they were being chucked out; something to do with the Department of Education being stingey and wasteful and not even wanting to give them to charity. So what does Mum do? Jumps into the dumpster and with mine and Tas' help, we load the back of the station wagon up with about 300 books. Yeah, they were in class sets and everything. She rang up this charity place after some Googling and she's going to take it to them where they can send them in Christmas packages for poor kids. If there's too many for that, they can send it to rural Aboriginal communities for the kids there. SEE. That's the real spirit of Christmas people.

Damnwastefulsocietywhodoesn'tgiveashitandjustthrowsoutstuffandthenbuyssomuchunwantedcrapforChristmas.

Yeah. -end rant-

LoL - "poopsi" (Tidbits)

I have a bunch of ideas to write into a blog post but none of them are substantial enough to make a blog post each. Hence, I have a bunch of saved ideas that are not yet published.

IDEA!

I write a blog post that incorporates a lot of mini-thoughts to make it into one decent sized post. :)

1. The Blog Title
As you all know, usually when we write a comment on each other's blogs, or sign in to places there is a word filter to get rid of bots. Usually it's a bunch of random letters but sometimes it makes something quite funny. Like when I commented on erinny's blog post just before and had to type in "poopsi". Teehee. :D Comment if you've ever had a weird combination of letters.

2. ASL
Age Sex Location? How about THE MOST BORING INTERNET CONVERSATION STARTER EVER. I use Omegle occasionally to talk to randoms on the internet (Click Here) and at least 90% start their conversation with "asl?". I can see their point of view, they want to know if they'll have something in common with the other. It's rare for a 12 year old female to have a good conversation with a 40 year old man. *cough* dodgy *cough* But the thing that really bugs me, is being an 18 year old female opens the option for the other (usually male, as Omegle is full of desperate male pathetic weirdos after text sex) to start "hitting" on me. ALL I WANT IS A CONVERSATION. YOU CANNOT FALL IN LOVE OVER OMEGLE. Or have sex for that matter. Dude, it's the internet. Type "boobs" in Google for Christ's sake. I have never ever ever had a good conversation that started with "asl?" before. Except once. If the other person does happen to be male and in the same age range, and doesn't want cyber (yes they're hard to come across), it still makes it awkward. What else do you talk about now that you know (or think you know) the basics of your not-so-mysterious Stranger? I much prefer the random conversations about nothing, where you can slowly ascertain the asl of your Stranger through talking about things (if you want). As for conversational starters, if you asl me, I'm just gonna click that big shiny "DISCONNECT" button. (:

3. Cleaners
I'm referring here to cleaners of public spaces. Like at schools or public toilets inside shopping centres. I really appreciate their work. It's free for me (because I'm not yet a tax payer) and I enjoy the fact that I can have clean hallways/toilets (reasonably) and that I don't have to do it myself. But the thing is, how do I thank them? At school I tried to give them smiles but they bowed their heads like submissive puppies. I don't think I'm above them at all, and I hope other people agree, they're just people doing their job. I feel bad though if I just ignore them or pretend they're not there. Would it be weird for me to wish them a good day? People are so cold and ignorant of each other these days that it's even difficult to say "hello" while walking along the street (except my suburb which is relatively friendly). Add to that my incurable shyness of strangers.

I hope you enjoyed those rants. Feel free to comment. I feel very accomplished to have actually written a decent-sized post. You all know how infrequent I write blog posts, but now I've done 2 in just a week! Yay!

Over and out.
- AwesomeSauce.

Belonging Story - Chinese Restaurant

The woks rattled noisily as the harsh light beat down on Anna’s sweaty neck. She reached up to swat away a fly, and then shoved her hand back into the creamy bubbles of the washing up. Plate after oily plate, she washed, trying not to think of all the unknown objects in the water beneath her hands. An itch was starting to creep its way up her neck but she did her best to ignore it. It was getting worse so eventually she used her teeth to pull off the sticky washing up glove and relieved the scratch. Through the continuous clang of the pots and pans she heard the shrill call of the phone.

“Anna! Phone!” screamed her boss. Although Anna was treated like dirt, she knew the restaurant needed her. Her boss was like a domineering Aunt – she pushed her around, but was still “family”.

Sighing, she yanked off the other glove and half-ran, half-dodged her way through the messy kitchen to the little front desk.

After her chirruped greeting, the customer gave their order which she promised would be ready soon. Just before she could turn back to the kitchen, a gust of wind came in as another customer opened the door. She took his name and money and told him his order would be ready soon. He moved away from the counter, a lonely figure – with his No. 27 order to go – the order of someone with no one to go home to.    

Anna went back to the mundane work of the washing up, periodically returning to answer the phone. Another rush of wind heralded the next customer through open the door. Glancing up distractedly, Anna took the ladies’ name. As she was about to write down something, the sound of an indrawn breath made her look up. The two customers were staring at each other, stunned – their mouths trying to form words and yet failing. Abruptly, the woman pointed her finger accusingly and muttered something, something that sounded like “What!? You? What are you doing here!?”

The little room vibrated with tension as these 2 strangers continued to gulp and gasp like confused fish. Anna looked between the two, seeing the likenesses. The same shape nose and the same green eyes. The woman looked at the man who was slightly shorter, almost accusingly. The man looked back one hand extended, beseechingly. Although Anna needed to get back to the dishes, she couldn’t drag herself away from this fascinating scene.

What was happening? Instinctively she knew it was something big. Something like a reunion? Two lovers finding each other after years apart? Anna could only guess, as she moved around the kitchen and into the restaurant, catching only snatches of their conversation.

“Where have you been all this time?”

“Where have I been? I was told…”

Even when both of the orders were ready, they ignored the steaming Chinese food. Anna impatiently motioned for them to leave - they were blocking the door. But they were in a little world of their own, everything else around them forgotten.

Then an idea came to Anna. Picking up their food, she took it to a vacant table, then coming back; she gently led them to Table 6. Sitting them down, she promised to bring them something to drink.

Barely noticing her, they continued their fraught whispers, caught up in each other.

Anna went back to the kitchen and retrieved a bottle of red and two glasses. Mentally, she reminded herself to take the cost of the bottle off of her own pay. Desperate times called for desperate measures. She returned to the table with the wine and glasses; the customers were bent closely towards each other, deep in conversation.

She heard only fragments:

 “You never contacted… I felt so alone.”

“I’m so sorry; I just couldn’t work up the courage…”

“I only wanted to understand…”

Anna went back to work, with a warm feeling inside her.

An hour later, it was getting close to the end of Anna’s shift. The man and the woman were still huddled together at Table 6, their take-aways open, and being devoured ravenously. The wine seemed to have brought a happy sparkle to the woman’s eye and a warm glow to the man’s cheek.

 Just as Anna was packing up to leave, she heard a drawn-out sob. Startled, she turned to see them as tears streamed down their faces. Anna stood there, for a moment then they noticed her.

Embarrassed she tried to back away, as the woman muttered her thanks explaining that they were brother and sister and had not seen each other for years. A silly argument had escalated and neither would call to apologise. Both parents and another sibling had died, and each had felt so alone, so isolated…

The woman said all this very quickly, then stopped just as abruptly, embarrassed to be revealing such a personal story to a complete stranger.

Anna just smiled at the two of them and quoted something she’d heard somewhere:

"That's something I've noticed about food: it brings people together.”

The estranged brother and sister laughed and hugged some more.

They left, leaving Anna with the bill for the wine but also a nice tip.

Emailing Teachers!

Now I know we're all super stressed and worried about the upcoming HSC. Our teachers know it too, that's why they haven't complained about my continual filling of their inboxes. Mr. O'C. call them "HSC Panic Questions." But they're so nice about it, they reply within the following 12 hours usually (Mr. O'C. literally replies within 5 minutes). It's not the answering of my questions that make me happy, it's the little personal note each of them adds.

For instance, Mr. O'C. replies on his iPhone, and one night before the Trials, he told me he was cooking. Of course that led me to imagining him standing there with the iPhone in one hand, stirring his meal with the other. It was a sweet imagination.

I'm a little embarrassed about the stress email that I sent my economics teacher, Ms. McG. There isn't even a proper question in it, it's just a ramble about possible essay questions that we might get. But she still sent me a calming email in return. And it made me super jealous too!

You could do either Kirra as they do always word it in that way. I guess you would go with the answer you feel more comfortable with, depending on the actual qu. If you have more stats on China, do that. It all depends on the wording.

Good luck, I'm sure you will do well.
We are in Paris and going to head off to the Eiffel Tower. We have worn our daughter out!

Cheers

Ms M

Ughh. She's a lucky duck.

Anyways, I'm just sitting in bed currently listening to the rain. I woke up over an hour ago but I haven't felt like getting up yet. :p That's 'cause it's Saturday which means another 4 hours of study + chores. =( I'll be so so glad when this is all over, as I'm sure all of you will be too.