http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHSU1zL2Jic

For an awesome and really cute lego soccer video - Germany vs. World All Stars - there are several plot discrepancies but overall it makes for a great insight into the real workings of the world cup ;) and it's really cute ;)

and it's definitely time for bed but dad and joel are on computers in the living room at the moment (which is where i'm sleeping)... ridiculously enough we're all on laptops, despite the 2 desktops that are looking lonely in the corner... (but you can't sit in front of the heater with a desktop on your lap :P) - i give up it's time to plug myself into crouching tiger hidden dragon until they decide to pack up and go to bed....

did i mention that this hols i've been doing a lot of cooking? :P (when bored, play cello. when sore, plug laptop into internet. when sick of that, cook! when done with that - EAT :D) - the laptop usage and cooking can be simultaneous if i'm trying to decide what to cook and using the laptop to help to do that ;) the "recipe book" is now outdated, as i tried to explain to mum the other day :P

so far, it's been pork in plum sauce, crackling, standard chicken stirfry, pastry "boats" stuffed with .. stuff.. and a really really really yummy lemon sponge pudding thing with icecream and custard - next time i think i might put a layer of condensed milk in and maybe some coconut on top... mmm.... (i reckon the thing that made it so good was forgetting to soften the butter before trying to mix it with the sugar and lemon zest then going 'aaagh this isn't mixing!!' then sticking the bowl in the microwave (oops melties!) then going oh stuff it i'll just keep going - kate you'd be proud of me :P) i'm thinking tomorrow i'll try this brocollini and tofu salad thing that looks pretty good.... it involves frying so it can't be tooo healthy... lol look at me i'm going on about cooking!!! (only because joel's fixing computers with dad so we can't play skibi :( and mum and my cousin from adelaide who just arrived today are talking (and talking and talking and talking, as females tend to ;P) so we can't start watching crouching tiger hidden dragon....)

time for more reading on couch with warm comfy doona and snow patrol's new cd playing in the background, tummy is contentedly full (and it's no fun cooking when you're not hungry...)

-- Now playing - Set The Fire To The Third Bar - Snow Patrol

I find the map and draw a straight line
Over rivers, farms, and state lines
The distance from here to where you'd be
It's only finger-lengths that I see
I touch the place where I'd find your face
My finger in creases of distant dark places

Wow it's thursday morning already!

The last few days have been filled with cello playing, cold tamworth weather and shopping with mum and watching chinese movies and playing the ultimate 2player LAN game with Joel - Skibi's Tower Defense (on Warcraft 3 - Frozen Throne)!!

tonight/last night/whatever you want to call it - i shall hereby name it tonight - anyway - tonight's NYSF (national youth science forum - science camp 2 weeks on campus at uni of canberra in y11-12 hols) training thingo with Tamworth Rotary club provided an interesting sense of.. "recall?" - 3 years ago i was the nervous little NYSF hopeful trying to get ready for a set of nasty interviews for the biggest camp of my life... (NYSF is an apparently prestigous thing to have on your resume - not that i've ever encountered any prestige from it :P the selection trials were rather stringent tho - first you have to get selected by the rotary club you apply to, then you have to be selected for the rotary area through a set of 4 interviews...) - 3 years later, i've been on the camp, been asked back to be on the interview panel, and given tips to 2 sets of people on how to get into this thing that in hindsight, was probably overrated... 2 weeks away from home was good, doing the entire sciency careers thing was.. interesting, meeting loads of people was fun, and a couple of months after the majority of us had got over the whole thing and moved on with life. so there you go - random topic for the night - that's NYSF and what i think about it (anyone in year 11 thinking about going for it - i'd head overseas for 2 weeks with the spare time and money :P)

hmmm 12 hours until haircut and i still haven't decided what to do with it yet - i'm sure some form of inspiration will hit me tonight, otherwise it'll just another case of "yeah whatever you want to do with it" (though my hair has a bad habit of either halving length or volume or both every time i say that...)

*yawns* yep i guess it's time to give the fingers a rest and stop typing and go to sleep or something since there's no soccer tonight - cello+cold = ouchies joints - lol i'm getting old! (or at least my fingers are!)

-- Now playing - Dance, Dance, Christina Päffgen - Anberlin

Don't need no drugs, you're my chemical
Now I'm dependent, no not cynical
Addicted to those glances, taking chances tonight
I need a fix in those heroin eyes

National day of mourning (or as some would have it: "weeping and anger")...

Here's to our valiant Socceroos who had every right to that game :'( Oh the injustice of it all.... well at least Australia has shown the world that they are indeed a force to be reckoned with in the game of football - thanks to GUUUUUS..... *collapses into more crying* *plugs into "Anberlin therapy"*

--

in other news: my old phone's broken so new mobile number please!

--

-- Now playing: Into the Airwaves - Jack's Mannequin

So hang on
It's gonna be a hard day
So hang on
Don't panic
Don't panic there simply is no need
It's gonna be a hard day
Don't panic
Don't panic we are hanging here
We are hanging here

I'm back in Tamworth!

Last night was absolutely fantastic - went to see Urinetown, a production by the Sydney Theatre Company (musical) with Lisa McCune in the lead female role and David Campbell in lead male (he is SOOOOOO AWESOME - it's incredible how one guy could be blessed with a great voice and good looks and be naturally funny at the same time! actually great voice doesn't really capture it - his voice is something many would probably kill for :P) - other names in the cast included Rhonda Burchmore, Shane Bourne, Gary Down, Gerry Conolly - it's so strange how TV/film actors turn into musical theatre singers... the music was incredible, choreography was great, the set was fantastic and best of all, we got in on student rush tickets that were only 10 rows back, right in the middle - AWESOME! (thanks Andy for organising everything!)

Sydney, incidentally, is a large scary city - i've never been on such a packed bus before, let alone at 11pm ;) staying at the St Barnabas terraces with the girls was great - it's like having 4 IH townhouses right next to each other in the middle of town (or, in their case on glebe point road) though they're each 3 storeys high - living on top floor would make you so fit... - the girls let me sleep in the living room with the tv too! (so i didn't sleep much just watched the soccer/napped) - i've also found that the universal game of addiction on the xbox is proevolution soccer 4 - not just a phenomenon seen only in novocastrian males, the game arrived in andy's house yesterday, and for the entire afternoon/evening (and i suspect night) the guys were up playing it :P

and now that i'm back home - time to satisfy chinese movie craving and start off with a night of Hero!!!!!! (then i'll have to get crouching tiger hidden dragon tomorrow night i think :) YAY!)

I'm FREEEEEE!!!!!!! it's such a beautiful day - socceroos get through to the next stage and no more exams!!!! WHEEEEEEEEEEE :D heading down to sydney tonight :D YAY! *blissful expression*

In 18 hours from now Joyce will be very very happy... and in 20 hours she'll be well on the way to sydney... and in 48 hours from now back in Tamworth!! countdown isn't so scary any more - not too much longer to go!!!

*chomps through incredibly yummy tandoori lamb wrap* - my "this isn't just meat" tastebuds are yelling at me because there's obviously vegetable matter strewn through the psuedo-meat, but it's still incredibly good (first tandoori thing that's tasted like tandoori all year!) mmm

one last night of study! YAY

midnight snacking is bad for your weight and can be habit forming - i highly advise against it... but sooooo goood....

After another relatively unproductive and food-filled day, i'm actually feeling motivated to knucke down and start studying again! skelly is being gradually covered in yellow post-it notes in a last-ditch effort to study for hubs...

I've cleaned up the computer desktop and removed all those icons cluttering the surface... (*heartbreak!* then again, i never used most of them anymore anyway) and now it's time to clean up the physical desktop the computer's on!

I'd just like to point out the incredibly cool dock that has replaced the windows taskbar at the bottom of the screen:





in a mac-inspired procrastination effort, i decided to mac the desktop - it's actually a lot more functional (i'm finding that at the moment anyway) than the windows taskbar, and a lot better looking anyway ;) all with a bit of help from Turn your PC into Mac and a free version of object dock (couldn't be bothered to completely maccify it - i'm not that bored just yet!)

time to study again...

I know one day, all our scars will disappear, like the stars at dawn,
And all of our pain, will fade away when morning comes.
And on that day when we look backwards we will see, that everything is changed
And all of our trials, will be as milestones on the way.
And as long as we live, every scar is a bridge to someone’s broken heart
And there’s no greater love, than that one shed his blood for his friends

Have I mentioned yet that I really love Thrice? ;o)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARY!!!

Lord grant that Marshal Wade
May by thy mighty aid
Victory bring.
May he sedition hush,
And like a torrent rush,
Rebellious Scots to crush.
God save the King!

hemmed in by emptiness, a million ways that everything could be undone
this hollow in my chest is filled with reasons not to sing but I found one, I know
we are not alone, we feel an unseen love
we are sons and heirs of grace
we are children of a light that never dims
a love that never dies,
keep your chin up child
and wipe the tears from your eyes

(mmm nothing like thrice's music box to get you through yet another night of study :D)

Oh, that I had the wings of a dove! I would fly away and be at rest... - Psalm 55:6

the ppl u luv the most hav the power to hurt u the most but not doing so is wat makes u luv them so much..

There is no life - life without its hunger
Each restless heart beats so imperfectly
But when you come and I am filled with wonder
Sometimes I think I glimpse eternity...

6 days to go...

After another increasingly unproductive day, it strikes me that I have started to whinge incessantly, which is becoming incredibly irritating to myself and must be irritating everyone else around me... thanks for the encouragement and putting up with me pples - only a week to go ;)

It's come to the point where I've gone over all the med sci targets a few times now, and i need to revise to the point where i can regurgitate enough information in the exam to sound like i know what i'm going on about (or maybe even actually know what i'm going on about!) - it's like when you can sightread perfectly through a piece, but you need to memorise it.. or where you've mostly memorised a piece but need to perfect it - that's the hardest kind of practice, and i think this is probably the hardest kind of study...

So letting anatomy slide until monday night, and aiming to survive the next few days of med sci first... and trusting God when he says: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." (2 Cor 12:9) and "Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." (Matt 6:34) and taking him seriously when he says "Do everything without complaining or arguing" (Phil 2:14)

And so with study, exams and life in general: "Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us" (Heb 12:1) and take heart that "neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!" (Romans 8:38-39)

The Idea of North obsession has been resurrected! (as has the now playing section! i knew it wouldn't stay dead for too long...)

Now playing - The Idea of North - Just a Closer Walk

Just a closer walk with Thee
Grant it, Jesus, if you please
Daily walking close to Thee
Let it be, dear Lord, let it be

(dum dum dum dum doo bee doo bee doo doo doo... )

Here we go.. a catch up post about the Northwest Bible Conference (aka June Long Weekend conference aka *the* conference) looking through the photos i took, this is the clay and evie show. :P

Friday night, arrive and unpack at youth camp then go to bed then wake up and watch Germany beat Costa Rica ;) - Joyce feels really really old (last of the 2004 y12 girls to still be camping!).

Evie gives us her most responsible expression as we head down for a wake-up game of soccer... (or a wake-up game of freeze butts off and hope that the sessions start soon). Incidentally it was another really really rainy conference - it just about never rains in Tamworth these days, and we got about 40mm on the first day!! (Thank God for the much needed rain tho)

The theme of the conference this year was "See him coming" - we had John Woodhouse and Stephen Turner speaking from 1&2 Thessalonians, etc. on the second coming over a series of 7 talks - both encouraging (to look forward to when our Saviour and Judge will return) and challenging (we so often lose sight or forget in our comfortable 21st century existence!) - John left us with the challenge that Paul left to the Philippians: Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ!


It was great to see everyone again :) though Clay didn't last long after Evie tried to extract his brain - (that long blonde hair is just covering brain-removing implement) - therefore I get his Emery hoodie!!! yay!!!




Monday morning: wake up to an absolutely freeeeezing morning - fog everywhere and ice on the cars, but the sun through the trees was pretty (oh btw this is my old school for anyone who hasn't seen it before)

and blogger isn't letting me post any more pics :( there has to be this black hole somewhere where they all disappear to every time i click "post picture"... hmmm - time to study then!

-- Now playing - I'm sick of the now playing segment. Coming up with a new one :P

I made a mistake, says ref
June 13, 2006 - 9:43AM

A dreadful refereeing blunder cost Australia a goal against Japan - and that's official.
Egyptian whistleman Essam Abd El Fatah apologised to both Socceroo goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer and captain Mark Viduka for getting it horribly wrong, and thanked God his howler did not decide the match.
The episode had a happy ending, with Australia winning its opening World Cup match 3-1 after a rousing finish in Kaiserslautern, and the Aussies praising the referee's honesty.
But the error could so easily have torpedoed Australia's 2006 campaign, and certainly looked like doing so with just minutes left on the clock and Australia trailing 1-0.
The referee's booboo came midway through the first half when Japanese playmaker Shunsuke Nakamura floated over a cross from the right wing.
As Schwarzer rose to collect it, he was barrelled by not one but two attackers - Atsushi Yanagisawa and Naohiro Takahara - and the ball lobbed into the net untouched.
Schwarzer looked dumbfounded as he sat on the turf and the referee signalled a goal.
Australian players remonstrated with the Egyptian, but to no avail, and when the incident was replayed on the Fritz Walter stadium's giant screen, Australian fans burst into a cacophony of boos and catcalls.
Schwarzer said he deliberately refrained from protesting to the referee because the official was not going to change his mind and any protest might look like poor sportsmanship.
But he revealed that he did ask the referee about the incident during an injury break shortly afterwards.
"I went up to him and I basically said to him, 'Referee, what's the story?'
"And he just said to me, 'I'm sorry, I made a mistake'."
"It was a clear foul, it should never have been a goal," Schwarzer said.
"Everyone makes mistakes; he made a mistake and I think it's big of him to admit it.
"He said to Dukes (Viduka) after the game, 'God was on my side', in the sense that the result went our way and it (his decision) didn't affect the result in the end."
Viduka confirmed later: "He said was God was with him today."
The Socceroo captain was also in a forgiving mood, saying: "It was obvious he made a mistake, but everyone makes mistakes."
It might have been a different story, however, if the Socceroos had not turned on such a barnstorming finish to the match.
"That goal kept them (Japan) going," Viduka said, "but as soon as we equalised it was a different story."

AAP

Ahhhh time to chillllll....

Prof prac exam was good :D time to chill until dinner then time to study again :)

*soaking feet in yummy smelling bubbles* *plugs into Missy Higgins*

AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE!!!!!!!

the end of that game was absolutely FANTASTIC!!!!!!!

Just got back from the Northwest Bible Conference (@ trinity church, tamworth) - which was AWESOME (more on that later)

time for bed!

-- Now playing - for a change nothing is playing. I am going to stop listening to music and go to bed :P (pity i don't have anything appropriately celebratory on my computer... like.. waltzing matilda or something....) teehee

If anyone has the Feghmaha CD by Tripod, Joyce wants to listen to it again... since she pulled out the lyrics again today ;) e.g.:

the anatomically "correct" "Ugly men with beautiful women" (appropriate after anatomy lab sessions ;P):

Gatesy and Scod: Ugly men with beautiful women,
Yon: You see it...
Gatesy and Scod: ... all the time in the world today.
Yon: Why is it...
Gatesy and Scod: ... ugly men are so attractive?
Women must look...
Yon: ... deep inside.

Scod: They know we're...
Tripod: ... all ugly inside.
Scod: 'Cause we're all guts and stuff.
Gatesy: And bile ducts.
Yon: And pancreatic juice.

another song great for the anatomy lab is "Let's take a walk":

Yon: Let's take a walk, my love,
Down by the river, my baby.
Down where we used to go,
Until the day when we found that body.

Let's not forget, my love,
It was our favourite spot once.
Please don't let one bloated corpse,
Ruin all our memories.

and best of all, "on behalf of all the geeks":

Scod: On behalf of all the geeks,
I'd just like to say,
I've been telling you all along,
That Lord of the Rings was cool.

Yon and Gatesy: He told you so many times...
Scod: I told you...
Yon and Gatesy: He told you so many ways...
Scod: I told you...

I wore a cloak to school every day,
But who's laughing now? Ha ha...

Yon and Gatesy: (Maniacally) Ha ha ha ha ha!
Scod: Yes indeed!
Gatesy: Yes indeed!
Scod: I gotcha!

Tripod: Now you'll all do as I did,
You'll name your first child "Bilbo".
But don't try to catch up now,
It's too late to make amends.
You were far too busy with girls and cars and sport...

Scod: ... and friends...

... now i really want to listen to this CD again.... teehee.... or maybe just get back to studying and packing!! :D

A million awful things get done to trees, but worst of all.... TREES GET CHAINED TO HIPPIES!!!

-- Now playing - Diana Krall - Dancing in the dark

Dancing in the dark 'til the tune ends
We're dancing in the dark and it soon ends
We're waltzing in the wonder of why we're here
Time hurries by, we're here and we're gone

Don't you hate it when the computer dies just after you've written a long post? *sighs*

In summare:

-> Finally sorted out hospital for semester 1, saw tutor for the last time today :D all good, all over yay yay yay yay!
-> Sorted out lift to get back to Tamworth for the conference on Friday :D Going back to Trinity for NWBC (north west bible conference) !!!! YAY!!!! YAY!!!! YAY!!!!
-> Joyce needs to get a lot of work done by Friday morning but it's worth it because it means she can go to the conference!!! YAY!!! YAY!!! YAY!!!
-> Joyce decided to eat 7 iced mini donuts with half a cup of hot chocolate tonight and is feeling sick. (all in the name of competition, and pretending to be from IH - thank God for nexium and imodium!!!)
-> Joyce wants to go to bed. Joyce is going to bed to sleep off all the sugar and milk.

Song for tonight: La Cucaracha

Chorus: La cucaracha, la cucaracha,
Ya no puede caminar;
Porque no tiene, porque le falta
Marijuana que fumar.

Ya murio la cucaracha,
Ya la llevan a enterrar,
Entre cuatro zopilotes
Y un raton de sacristan.

Con las barbas de Carranza,
Voy a hacer una toquilla,
Pa' ponersela al sombrero
De su padre Pancho Villa.

Un panadero fue a misa,
No encontrando que rezar,
Le pidio a la Virgen pura,
Marijuana pa' fumar.

Una cosa me da risa:
Pancho Villa sin camisa;
Ya se van los carrancistas
Porque vienen los villistas.

Para sarapes, Saltillo;
Chihuahua para soldados;
Para mujeres, Jalisco;
Para amar, toditos lados.

Translation of the chorus:

The cockroach, the cockroach
He can't walk anymore
Because he doesn't have, because he lacks
Marijuana to smoke

Not that there would be any political or historical motivation behind this song of course, it's all about poor cockroach who's run out of marijuana... (and yes, you would have heard this song before)

however, -- Now Playing (is) - Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars

Let's waste time
Chasing cars
Around our heads
I need your grace
To remind me
To find my own

having a "middle aged" moment.... eating cheese and crackers and listening to diana krall - oh what has the world come to? :P in love with "The look of love" (diana krall) - been looking for it for ages then it was half price at Sanity!!! *blissful expression*

found this cute mug today:

if this is a :











then it stands to reason that this is a:











teehee ;) ok back to study for Joyce!


-- Now playing - Diana Krall - 'S Wonderful

'S wonderful! 'S marvelous!
That you should care for me!
'S awful nice! 'S paradise!
'S what I love to see!

Ten things to do before 9am (in no particular order :P)

1. Wake up (this is preferable, but probably not necessary to do the other 9 things)
2. Have a long hot shower
3. Go for a walk in the rain
4. Do three hours of solid study
5. Clean room
6. Have a decent breakfast (i.e. not instant noodles!)
7. Grab a cup of jasmine green tea
8. Brush teeth at least twice
9. Get burnt at least twice
10. Listen to the same Chili Pepper's song at least 4 times
(11. Post on blog!)

I put an "at least" in there for people who aspire to be, but just aren't as hardcore as me :P For the record, I've brushed my teeth 3 and a half times now (the half was when i thought "WHY am i brushing my teeth again" and stopped.), burnt myself repeatedly on the heater in my room (that i've been sitting with my back against all morning) and got hot jasmine green tea on myself (fortunately my hand was too cold/numb to notice too much or the rest of the tea would have gone), and listened to "She Looks to Me" 6 times now (and counting) - the reason for this bizarre and possibly insane behaviour follows:

In a twisted kind of reverse nocturnalism, my plan to study until 4 (am) and wake up at 2 (pm) backfired... with me going to bed at 10:30 and waking up (not intentionally and definitely against my will) at 4:30am!!!!!!!! - actually, that's not even reverse nocturnalism, that's just not sleeping. Conceding that further attempts at sleep were probably not going to work (after several nights of not sleeping properly), I decided to make the most of the unexpected consciousness and do some work, taking breaks to brush my teeth and listen to the same chili pepper's song over and over again (abnormal behaviour is a direct consequence of not enough sleep/being up at imaginary hours!) - hence i've had the most productive 3 hours of study since... a long time ago...

So now I'm sitting here watching the rain and drinking this evil but yummy mug of tea thinking i'd rather be in the rain again but the washing and more study needs to be done :( I love the way it rains in Newcastle - it's that nice drizzly rain that you can stand outside in all day and the sky even managed sun and blue patches at the same time as rain yesterday! Definitely looking forward to a morning/afternoon nap hopefully i'll start getting sleepy soon... *sighs*

-- Now playing - Anberlin - Time and Confusion

live for today we'll dream tomorrow we've got big plans in sight
we'll take this city and by nightfall...
the bright lights are calling

sooooooo hungry........... in my desperation for food, i've broken into the instant noodle stash........ silly upmarket instant noodles that taste really bad when they're raw.... i need to get myself more of those cheap noodle cake thingoes that taste really good raw... and are filling and also very addictive.... i can tell that these noodles are going to taste really really bad or make me sick or both but i'm sooooooo hungry!!!!!!

yep, as i thought - lack of flavour disguised by excess spicy stuff and oh good i've burnt my tongue on boiling water - now i don't have to worry about what it tastes like!! yummmmmm ;)

i think some form of plot is going on... whenever i try to study this weekend, some old friend has to pop up on msn and say hi or someone else will call or something like that - the sure solution is, of course, to quit msn and leave the phones on silent.... but that would make me antisocial and wouldn't let me procrastinate... it would, however, mean that i would have done more study than i ended up doing....

must be a symptom of hunger - the return of the ellipse!

epilogue to that most interesting (i'm sure) story : those noodles were indeed terrible. and made me feel sick, hence i am not hungry any more or using ellipses. The moral of the story is to not eat sub-standard quality instant noodles, particularly not at 12:20am, and not to study at all because it makes you hungry. and hurts your head. oh i'm in such a weird mood tonight... (aah an ellipse!)

AAAGH the score is 1:1 with 2 minutes to go!!!! *mental screams of AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE!!!!!* Thanks for the MSN commentary mike :P - oh draw :) well done Australia i'm going to bed and sleeping off the disgusting noodles - never trust noodles with 'singaporean noodle flavour' written on them! i'm laughing at the word "hmpf" - just look at it!!! "hmpf". *teehee* "hmpf* oh dear i'm madly giggling at the screen i'm far too tired to be awake...

New Red Hot Chili Peppers CD is definitely happy music - Snow (Hey oh) is just boppy and happy, Hard to Concentrate has to be one of the sweetest songs ever written... by anyone ;) and appropriate for studying med - "Cells about to separate, Now I find it hard to concentrate" (teehee) and then there's what's playing now:

-- Now playing - Red Hot Chili Peppers - She Looks to Me

She shows the world up with her smile
And then she throws the fight
She looks to me, she looks to me
All right

and on that happy note i'm going to bed :D

Here's a post in memoriam of Group J - the most awesome PBL group in Semester 1 Year 1 (no bias or anything... i know the other groups were disadvantaged in that they didn't have me :P) - I think we deservedly earned the titles of "most lazy group", "the group that scared off their PBL tutor", "the group with the "horrendous" hospital tutor", and finally the "group J clique" - and we probably had the most food at our last PBL which alone would qualify us for best group ;) Looking forward to spreading the "Group J influence" next semester!! (mwahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaa)

I've been converted into a sofa!! On tuesday, a couple of people from my public health group decided that i was more useful as a pillow/beanbag/something to sit on...

It feels so weird that semester 1 is essentially over... and we've been at uni for almost 4 months... feels like forever but at the same time it's going so quickly! ;)

In other news... my new monitor came in yesterday!! But it didn't come with the picture of the birdies :( hehe - it's so good to be able to use the computer for more than 20 minutes every 2 hours!

Over the year, there's been a few songs I've discovered I can listen to over and over and over again without getting sick of that always make me grin when they start playing - for example, what's playing now...

-- Now playing - Straylight Run - Existentialism on Prom Night

Sing me something soft
Sad and delicate or
Loud and out of key
Sing me anything

Welcome to a multicoloured post just for something different

I finally got Missy Higgin's Sound of White and I'm loving it :D And for interest (and because it was part of a deal at Sanity and because it was cheap) I got the Demon Days CD... which I'm going to reserve judgement on until I've listened through a few times and given each song a decent chance.... but at the moment to be honest the prognosis is not looking good - so far I'm at a "I would listen to this because I like this song" level of 1/15... hmm El Mañana just started playing.. ok maybe make that 2/15 *at this point, the monitor dies. again* - should I wait until 1:30 in the morning to finish the rest of this post? I think not. But will I leave the computer running all night so that I can finih this post tomorrow morning? indeed I shall - now where was i in that sentence? maybe i should leave all this blindly typed gabble up on this post to reflect the "journal" style/function/whatever of the blog... or maybe i should just delete it and stop boring people with the random workings of my mind and the irritating (well it must be getting irritating) and continuous whinging about the monitor and there you go my brain's lost its train of though again - the question is, however, if i leave all this stuff here, should i go through and edit out all the spelling mistakes i'm bound to be making as i'm typing blind or should i leave them up there to create a more realistic reflection of my current situation? or maybe i should just go to bed now and stop babbling. that sounds like a good idea. i want missy higgins back.... *hits the back button on the keyboard heaps of times* wow i did end up waiting for the screen to come back - turns out that i can't count and it came back at 12:15pm... since it dropped out at 10:30ish... how did i manage to kill that much time?? definite bedtime ;)

And the story of how 4 fictional characters sold heaps of albums (thanks, wikipedia! - warning: this story is very very very long.) :

The story of Gorillaz begins in 1997. Stu-Pot was a mentally deficient keyboard enthusiast and star employee at Uncle Norm's Organ Emporium. Satanist hoodlum Murdoc Niccals decided to ramraid Uncle Norm's Organ Emporium to procure synthesizer equipment in order to establish a "chart topping" musical group. However, Murdoc ended up driving his Vauxhall Astra through the building and directly into Stu-Pot, permanently damaging ("fracturing") Stu-Pot's left eye and putting him into a catatonic state. Murdoc was sentenced to "30,000 hours of community service, plus 10 hours every week of caring for the vegetabilised Stu-Pot". Not long after, Murdoc again injured Stu-Pot in a car accident in Nottingham's Tesco parking lot when attempting a 360°, which permanently damaged Stu-Pot's right eye, but revived him from his coma. Murdoc then recruited the newly recovered (albeit still mentally defective) Stu-Pot as the keyboardist and vocalist for his group, re-dubbing him 2D for the matching pair of dents in his head from the accidents.

Murdoc then found a drummer for the group in a SoHo rap record store: African-American expatriate Russel Hobbs. Russel was a middle-class New York native and was deeply troubled as a youth. He was expelled from an expensive private school for suffering from demonic possession. The trauma of said possession resulted in a four year coma from which Russel was roused only by an elaborately executed exorcism. After his recovery, Russel began attending Brooklyn High School, where he quickly cultivated friendships with a group of rappers, DJs, and street musicians. He has said that "hip-hop saved [his] soul."

This was a short-lived respite, however, as all of Russel's newfound friends were suddenly gunned-down one night in a drive-by shooting. Russel, the sole survivor, became the unwilling receptacle for the spirits of all of his slain compatriots, most notable of whom was the rhyme dropping blue phantom, Del. With their latent possession of his body, Russel gained incredible musical prowess in percussion, rap, and hip-hop as well as a disturbing side-effect: his eyes glowed an eerie white. With this new and violent turn of events, Russel's family shipped him off to England in hopes of helping him recover from his traumas quietly -- not realizing they'd put him directly into the path of Murdoc's aspirations to superstardom, and the excesses that came along with it.

At that point, all the fledgling group needed was a guitarist. Like so many British bands before them, the trio placed an advertisement in NME. The very day the ad ran, a FedEx freight container from Japan was delivered to their doorstep and out jumped a mysterious amnesiac 10-year-old wielding a Gibson Les Paul. The tiny girl made an incomprehensible introduction in Japanese and tore into a "riff to end all riffs" which ended with an impressive karate kick to the air. She then spoke a single word in English to the stunned boys, which became her moniker: "Noodle". In the later part of 1998, the Gorillaz played their first show at the Camden Brownhouse which ended prematurely due to a riot during their song "Punk". EMI A&R man Whiffy Smiffy discharged several rounds from shotgun to disperse the crowd enough to make his way to the stage and quickly signed them to the label. Ten months later they had recorded their self-titled debut LP.

In the winter of 1999 Murdoc acquired the property of Kong Studios, a sprawling haunted studio with a rather shady history, situated atop a hill in the midst of a run-down cemetery and landfill in Districtshire, Essex. The Gorillaz lived and recorded in Kong Studios up until their 2002 11-month tour of North America. At the end of July of that year, the Gorillaz took a six month break in L.A.. There they attempted to get a movie project off the ground. Meanwhile, that Halloween, Kong Studios had been shut down tight in its owner's absence by local law enforcement after an unknown man was seen running, naked and in hysterics, in the marshes near the studio. The police proceeded to keep the area secured while they investigated the strange paranormal events surrounding Kong. The Gorillaz spent the interim period working on their movie, while living in a large rented home in the Hollywood Hills.

Alas, the film was not meant to be, due in part to extensive over-partying, in-fighting, and disagreements with producers, directors, and a notable incident of Murdoc getting himself banned from the Playboy Mansion for stealing ashtrays. Understandably, at this point the Gorillaz went on a year and half hiatus, each of the members going their separate ways to find themselves. Murdoc headed to Mexico to booze it up in Tijuana brothels, getting himself arrested for passing bad cheques in the process. He enjoyed little company in his Mexican jail cell aside from his raven, Cortez, and two Mexican mobsters who would later help break him out. 2D went back home to work for his father at his carnival, re-establish his grip on reality, and come to terms with his newfound pop icon status with the ladies.

Russel disappeared into the States to literally and figuratively exorcise his personal demons, regrettably including the ghost of Del, leaving Russel a mentally and spiritually exhausted wandering shadow of the man he once was. After shambling around Los Angeles for some time, Russel was taken in by Ike Turner and helped to recover, and while living in Turner's basement Russel recorded his own solo album which was shelved due to strange supernatural activity inherent in the music itself, which Russel described as something of a "cosmic disruption".

Noodle travelled to Japan, in a fruitful attempt to uncover the secrets of her own past which included not only the revelation that she was a test subject in a secret government super soldier project, but that she also speaks fluent English. Armed with her newfound knowledge and iron resolve, Noodle was the first to return to Kong Studios. There she went to task battling the zombie and monster-infested darkness of the building, set up the "Search For A Star" contest, and began the process of pulling the band back together to record their new album, Demon Days.

hmm maybe i can cope with the gorillaz cd... likeability is up to maybe 3 or 4/15? *gives it time...*

-- Now playing - Jack's Mannequin - Bruised

Sometimes perfection can be
It can be perfect hell
Perfect

Hours pass
And she still counts the minutes that I am not there
I swear I didn't mean for it to feel like this
Like every inch of me is bruised...