Philosophia

On a scale of 1 to 10, how close is 7 to 10?

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Guesses welcome. Answer will be provided next week.

I am in a state of cuteness-overload. Ever since I got into blythes, I convinced myself that was going to be my ONLY toy excess for the rest of my life. Somehow, I stumbled across Pipos this afternoon….

They still strike me as a little creepy, I’ve never been into anthro or anything - but there is something so unique and pretty about them!

Anyway, seeing that the prize tag is about 300, I’m pretty certain this will become one of those things I admire from a distance. (I forgot, did I say that about blythes too?)

Hm. I’m going to have fun tonight on Flickr + Pipos tag.

I should upload some more journal-y entries in the future, yes? I feel like a walking billboard. Actually, about two weeks ago, fairly interesting things happened to me (amongst them, making frontpage news here in Canberra, paying 200% for a cabfare, etc) but now that two weeks have passed, I can hardly write about them, can I?

Tomorrow, I’ll make sure something happens, even if I have to cause controversy and commit crime- just for the sake of preserving readers.

Running out of things to say about my own life, here are two spiffy Lego links:

• Miniature Artworks made of Lego : I especially like Hirst’s shark, and Warhol’s money
• The Brick Testament: Tales of the bible, told in Lego

Aside from that, here are some cool people on Flickr:

• Fantastic Toys : Someone who makes cute plushies and other goodies
• Love and Sandwich: Probably most awesome person in existence
• Jam Fancy: Multi-talent extraordinare
• My Imaginary Boyfriend: More craftage and niftiness
• CUPCO!: This guy sent me a letter, he lives two suburbs down from me

I’m hoping this will distract you, and make you procrastinate as much as I have for the last week.

It’s anti-climactic, showing these pictures now. But I have many excuses why I’ve put it off for so long:

1) I opened the packages at night, and night-time photos suck

2) The next two days were rainy

3) The following one was overcast

4) I got lazy on the 5th day.

But anyway, without further ado, here are my two new blythes!

This is my gorgeous Gentle River, named Emilie (a French-y name for a Germanic girl? Oh well!).

And Aurelia, my Hello Harvest.

I’m going to take more photos later, but for now there are some at my Flickr account!

This blog entry is dedicated to Nathania, eternal companion through Mediterranean waters and faraway lands, valiant and handsome, fighter of evil and protector of purity. May you be happy with this dedication and revel in self-worth.

(PS. Blythe photos coming soon! After the day clears and there is nice natural lighting)

I love mail tracking.

On the 5th of April, less than 2 hours after they were paid for, items no. RA869031432HK & RA869031429HK were processed for delivery to their destination, Australia. I’ve been checking the status of the two parcels compulsively for the last two days, and last time I checked both items have left Hong Kong for their destination on the 7th of April

Eventually, after crossing the sea, I will be able to stop stalking my girls through Hongkong Post, and instead shift my attentions to Australia Post.

Once again, I love mail tracking.

Stars are cold, very cold. Or rather, stargazing at the top of a mountain without jackets is cold. However there is a warmer side to stargazing- looking at stars (and planets and galaxies and nebulas).

Some things we saw:

• A fuzzy red dot = Mars
• A Saturn that looks like Saturn - complete with coloured rings, and shadows, and perfection!
• Two fuzzy stars together = binary star (or bad eyesight and bad focus)
• Alpha Centauri
• The Milky Way
• Another galaxy
• A triangle star constellation
• A dog star constellation (I still argue it’s three lines)
• Free tea
• Airplane star (moving quickly and blinking)
• Shooting star x 2
• Single star constellation
• Dot shaped constellation
• Single point shaped constellation
• The lone star

All in all, it was a fun night out. Yay!!

(I promise the next entry will not have dot points. We are just so unimaginative, us science people)

I realised I should update this space more often, before everyone forgets about me and stops checking this altogether. It’s not that nothing interesting has happened, it’s rather that too many interesting things have happened. Here is a sample:

• I had yum-cha on a dirty table
• I couldn’t find where the books were in a library
• I got into netball by dancing
• I ate ham and cheese croissants
• I bought burger erasers
• I have allies in Uno
• I have learnt Uno is all about alliances
• I realised that Uno without morals is like water without hydrogen
• I’m still bloated from Wednesday
• I smell nice
• I got a hair cut
• I feel like a boy from the back
• I may have made a new friend
• I nearly finished a crossword
• I’m not in my room
• I broke my nose
• I have to make a formal complaint against Kinder (or german children in general)
• I need to go shopping for kinder surprises
• I’m in a band called College Room Bondage - we’ve released four albums
• I actually had the beef for dinner
• I rewrote history
• I haven’t had a Golden Gaytime for 173 hours
• I rolled up the Sun
• I’m wearing boy pants
• I’m waiting in anticipation for something that is happening in six days
• I have a vicious streak
• I have white teeth under yellow light
• I have a smaller room than everyone else
• I adore Gregor
• I give joy in a tupperwear container
• I can’t spell words
• I fixed my nose, and made it Grecan
• I have a green ring, it’s not black
• I found a nice hot water bottle that likes science and dancing
• I got hit by a door, a bookshelf and Erin
• I got money from the government for being a good citizen
• I’m using that money to buy a blythe doll
• I stole things from the National Art Gallery
• I researched the wrong alternate universe
• I’m really cool
• I had a nice time in Sydney
• I had a better time in Glasgow
• I set fire to butter
• I have posters that hate me
• I couldn’t find the maths room, so I went home
• I cleaned my room for four hours
• I can’t dance
• I got crushed by an asian girl with pink glasses and boy hair
• I had no art history this week, which made me sad
• I got a message I need to send
• I never got to Oregon
• I have 6 new voicemail messages, which I still can’t access
• I had the breakfast of scholars
• I forgot to commit a crime
• I won a competition
• I started drinking a coffee
• I became a cheat
• I helped a man cross the road
• I found the Ring of Gyges
• I married Dionysos, and he turned me into a dolphin
• I can’t ride a bike
• I keep hanging on
• I forgot to stalk the Tropfest film director
• I forgot to stalk Adrian Deutsch’s family
• I fought a bear, and won

And this is only a sample.

I’ve come to realise that I started this blog on a very ambitious note. If you look to the right, you will see all the categories that I intended to write in, but haven’t actually. Amongst them, there is music, which is the category I will be tackling today.

I did actually see Explosions in the Sky last week at Manning Bar, and I’m pretty sure that constitutes as a solid post about “music”, but since I didn’t have an opportunity to write about it, I’ve practically forgotten every detail (as young minds do after one week) . However, thanks to Kaka, here is a photo from the night:

Okay, back to the real post.

I’ve always had a nudging feeling that not all was perfect in the land of the Red Riders. I make a habit of stalking bands that I like from various angles and degrees, and amongst them is Adrian Deutsch’s (lead guitar, singer) myspace, or in particular, this.

Adrian Deutsch, for those of you who have been lucky enough to escape my fangirl rants, is the “guy from the bookstore” who famously said once “why do drugs, when you can read books?” He is in one word, pretty-awesome.

The problem with the Red Riders are that there are two singers, or rather, the main problem is that people aren’t aware there are two singers. Without going into detail, I’ll just invite everyone to think of the Beatles, and what happened there.

Anyway, somehow I was still under the impression that all was alright in the land of the Red Riders, especially when they reassuringly stated that they had “not split up” on their official website.

Oh, the treachery of words.

I realised something was up when:

• I looked at the setlist, which was directly in front of me (I squeezed into the front row, right in front of where Adrian would be) and saw that there were no songs on it which are typically sung by him.
• A strange man came onto the stage with pedals, and a guitar
• The strange man continued to stay there, and gasp horror, started playing along.

Now, you might imagine that I was utterly disappointed and heart-broken the entire night… that would actually make this blog entry easier. I was, in fact, quite the opposite eventually.

They played a set list of 12, with 6 new songs. The new songs were amazing, but I guess the fact that we were the first live audience to listen to them made them sound even better. The great thing about 18+ gigs is that you don’t get the young boppy teenagers, who think being at the front make them cool and hardcore. No no, adults are much more cooler and “mature”, they stand back and sip their smirnoff, and nod their head along. The only people who dance are drunken groupies. This gave me the best view in the house the entire night, as you can probably see for yourself from the following photos:

In fact, if you allow me to delve into fangirlism for moment… “OMFG AL MADE EYE CONTACT WITH ME AND SMILED AT ME!!!!!!!!”. In fact, I only smiled in response, a technicality I will be sure to bring up in all future conversations.

In addition, I was able to pick up the guitarist’s pick, and narrowly missed out on the setlist (there was a girl more eager than me!)

Steve or Steven (the new guy) also started to grow on me. He had the whole Russel Lissack thing going on, what with the floppy haircut, the shortness and thinness, and the awkwardness of never looking at an audience. I figured that this would have been a nerve-wrecking night for him, and that made me go “awwwww”. (I’m such a sucker!)

So now I’m in a dilemma, I can’t equally like the new Red Riders without letting go of the old one!

Ah. Things would have been so much easier if I was never a fan girl to start with, and liked them for what I’m supposed to like them for- their music (which I have been told, is pretty good).

And yes, that was sarcastic/ironic. You might wonder why it is necessary that I say this, but I’ve had a lot of issues lately with people picking it up, or rather, not picking it up, so I might resolve the issue before it becomes an issue.

I leave you with my favourite picture of the night, apologies for those with dial up who have waited one hour for the photos to load. IT IS NOW TIME TO GET BROADBAND!

If I told you the truth behind the photo, it wouldn’t look as spectacular. So I’ll leave you to your imagination! Once again, I have plenty more photos on my Flickr account, which is feeling seriously neglected.

Starting university is like starting high school all over again, with more hormones and more booze. I take great pleasure in going through the same 3 questions with everyone I meet on campus, which go as follows:

1. Hi what is your name?
2. So what are you studying?
3. And where are you from?

Apparently those three questions are enough to make acquaintances (I dare not use the word “friends” just yet) and can also ensure that you are able to determine what sort of person they are.

This leaves me with a number of insecurities.

Firstly, what should I say, as first impressions can soon solidify to life-long friendship? Secondly, if I make the wrong impression will I be stuck with the wrong people (boozehounds, misogynists, bad poets) for the rest of my life?

After numerous mishaps, and more than a dozen occasions of having to explain that just because I’m doing a Bachelor of Philosophy it doesn’t mean I HAVE to actually study philosophy, and confusing practically everyone, I have settled with just saying I’m doing Arts.

This way people will presume I am lazy, lack a direction in life, and am full of my own wit and importance. That is the best I can do for now.