Let's try again, huh?

So let's try this blogging thing again, yeah? I've installed a new app on my iPad. The idea is that hopefully I'm going to start using my iPad for thing other than Plants Vs Zombies (ie for uni if I can get past my fear of looking like a complete wanker using it in class) and so this neat little app will be right there for me to use, too.

Life has thrown me a few second chances, of late. Mark and I are back together. It kind of came out of nowhere but everyone knows I never really managed to get over the guy. So when he tells me he's made a massive mistake... I didn't really have much choice, right? We had a year apart. Both of us experienced what life is like with other people and it turns out we both know we work best together. So it might not be the best decision I've ever made if you look at it from certain angles - which plenty of people have chosen to. Fact is, I'm in love with the guy. Yeah, he's plenty floored and has fucked me around in the past. But there is a lot of good in him too. Noone but me need to see that in order to justify my decision, though. I see who he really is and I love that guy, arsehole or not.

That all came out a little harsher than intended, but the it is.

I'm off to Melbourne for the second time this weekend to. Look out for blogging involving the insanity of a 15-hour cartrip with my fellow Parkhillians o.O

Now to focus all this second-chanceness on my university work. I'm already falling behind and losing motivation. I have to fix this shit. No more failing for Beau.

Location:The Glitter Factory

Strip Hangman

Man, I just had the most random Internet encounter of my life and it was fucking brilliant.

I just met some random, hilarious, fun, 20-year-old Cali kid in an innocent chatroom with no intentions whatsoever.

Half hour later, I'm playing Strip Hangman.

If I never see him again, I'm kind of okay with it - he was that awesome, I can just encapsulate that memory and fall a little bit in love with it whenever I think of it.

Bahaha. I feel so weird.

Musings on Japan...

I'm sitting in my bright orange fisherman pants with my eyes held only half-open. The emptiness of my day has formed itself into a struggle to stay awake.

I hate uni holidays.

Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad if I had more uni friends. Or, uni friends who didn't disappear overseas, to their families or to their jobs. I've been off a few weeks now and it hasn't been so bad. But then, Muck had been sharing the holidays with me.

In more interesting news, I've applied for exchange in Japan. I find out whether I was accepted in 3 weeks time or so. It's a scary thought, about how much much life will change. Sure, I've moved around plenty in my short life. But never more than a couple of hours from the safety of everything I know, of everything I can rely to be familiar. A whole new culture, a whole new language... with any luck, Muck will be in the same city as my (or at the very least, the same country) so I won't have to do it completely on my own. As much of a valuable growing experience that may be, I'd like to do it with the opportunity to do plenty of making out with my pretty boyfriend.

Cleaning the house, things keep popping into my head, like "how much of these clothes will I actually take to Japan?", "what the hell am I going to eat over there?" and, "I finally got a friggin' Wii and now I want to leave it on a different continent?!". Hmm. I know it'll be well worth it and a year really isn't that long... but what will I miss in the meantime? My nieces birthdays, Christmas, my awesome friends, beaches, Neighbours (who knows what crazy adventures Paul Robinson will be up to while I'm gone?!)... not to mention the massively lame pressure I'll be putting on my relationship even if we do end up in the same country...

*sigh*

I suppose I'm also gaining Bento boxes, koi, a fresh new language that may get me a better job on graduation, awesome technology, new friends, karaoke, vending-machine beer and - most importantly - ninjas. Probably. I guess that helps balance it all out somewhat.

I'm trepidatious. Yes, that word will suit just fine. Is it even a word? But if I don't give it a go, I know it'll be one of those buzz-kills I regret for the rest of my forever. All fingers crossed that I pass the first hurdle: being accepted to Nagoya.

And even if everyone in Australia does forget me and I come back to nothing... at least I'll always have ninjas.

Newcastle's Version of the Crazy-Ass Duststorm.

For future reference and for overseas friends, here is a recap.

This morning, I wake up to this:

A post-Apocalyptic glow outside my windows. The entire house smells and tastes like DUST. And the insane winds are threatening to send a cow flying through my third-story window.

The morning moves on and Mark leaves for work. The moment he steps outside, this falls a few meters from him:

So of course, my own trip to uni has me shitting myself every time I heard a tree creak. I was very amused, however, to see the stupid magpie that swoops me struggling to stay upright. If only you hadn't been such a bastard, I may have let you shelter in my house. Too bad.

Other various shots from around town, including Civic Park, the general look of all the cars on the streets and what the surfaces in my house look like now.

And my favourite shot:

More list stuff!

So even though plenty of intersting things have happened of late (including one visit to Indonesia =D!) I will not be blogging about that just yet. Because I'm lazy.

This is just concerning The List. I just remembered it and remembered that I have a bunch of ew stuff to cross off!

25. Play on a sports team.
I've been subbing for a netball team for a couple of months now and played... four or five games? And last night, the proof of my radically hidden sport skills was revealed: it was suggested that I should be kept on as a permanent sixth in the next season. Fuck yes.

32. Paint a picture on a canvas for my wall.
My house looks like an amateur art gallery now between Marcus and I, but I have now contributed TWO pictures to the walls! The latest was a blue and red Indian-esque style tree... I like it even if noone else does (looking at you now Mike, you bastard).

42. Punch a monkey in the face.
Okay so technically I didn't quite achieve this one. I was sooooo goddamn sick when I visited Bali's monkey temple that I mostly wanted to throw up on the monkeys. Luckily, a baby monkey jumped on my head. By the time I got rid of him, he tried to repeat offend so i kicked him a little bit. There's a video on youtube if you want proof.

45. Visit a foreign country.
One week in Bali. Suck that, List.

89. Buy a couch.
Okay so this one isn't as exciting as playing sports and hurting animals... but I did this a while ago, halving the costs with Mr Macus... okay, technically I'm still paying my half off, but the couch is in the house! It totally counts!

So there you go! I've now done... 18?! That can't be right. Shit, I'd better get a move on.

For anyone who's still reading, I got two Cs and a P last semester, results came through this morning. I need to kick some major arse this semester in order to bring everything up to a Credit average for exchange.

Another day wasted.

Friday's are supposed to be the day I use to catch up on the week's uni stuff. I don't think I've actually done that all semester, bar the times assignments are due that day and I've left them until the last minute.

To be fair, I do still have a week to complete this one. But being timely involves making sure I have room to study for my first exam (which is in 11 days! Eeek!). I'm sure I'll manage. I'll just do it in the worst possible way.

In other news, I'm going to a rodeo tonight. Yup, not at all sure how that managed to happen but here we are. It's actually going to be an alright night, I reckon. I'm getting picked up from work and chauffeured to dinner and then onto the rodeo. Followed by coffee on the beach, yupyup. That's my plan anyway. Here's hoping we don't get rained out or I'm going to be pissed.

Newfound patriotism.

I've always been somewhat ashamed of being an Australian. Now I know that's a harsh thing to say and many senior citizens would want to chase me down on their motorised scooters and beat me sensless with walking canes for making such a statement but thems the facts. As far as I was concerned, I had no reason to be proud to be Australian -- wars were senseless to me, I always saw our colonisation as more of an invasion and I thought our country was packed to the rafters with bogans.

Now, while I still think a lot of these things, my perceptions have somewhat... shifted.

The last six months have taught me a lot. Like how logistically our country could not have been a simple dumping ground for convicts. Like how there's no evidence that the Darwin bombing were never an intended invasion as everybody seems to think. All of this has come from studying history and it's actually made me realise how important our nations history is and why I should be at least a little proud. A little understanding goes a long way, huh?