Blogging it, I

Got rid of the culinary-wise lazy fog that has been enveloping me since the black-out… so now I’m feeling on-track and even mustered up enough patience to make dinner from scratch ^^ Meaning we had curry chicken for dinner tonight, since that’s the only dish that I can really be bothered doing (curry chicken is soooooo good…)

Since my lethargy is over and I’ve had a good dinner, I finally managed to spare brain-time to check up on MCAC stuff again ^^ due to my late reply regarding the 1st lunch session though, I’m wary that few will turn up for this Wednesday’s pre-screening meeting >.< Oh noooooooooooooooo…..

On a more exciting note, I’m going for Clash with the Titans tomorrow!! Jasmine recommended it at our last meeting and we’re getting reserved seats =D Sounds poised to be fun!!!

Well toodles!! Need my sleep… was up until 5+am doing accounting tutework + watching Shinobuden on the side + chatting to Darren. Bleah… bad habits >.<

Protected: Confused Whimpers, I

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Protected: Thunder and Lightning, II

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First month of illness, done ^^

Wow just noticed the date ^^ The last day of TBC was April the 1st, so… since today is the 30th of April… I’ve officially been down with the cough for one whole month!!

Yay?

(it’s also been one month without ice cream and fried chicken. Wth?)

MidSems and Assignments, and some other possibly relevant stuff.

Aight.

I’ve had 2 midsems and 2 assignments back so far, and I’m wavering between being relieved and being disappointed about the results.

For the midsems, both were Ds. =.=

Should I be relieved that I didn’t get Cs, or really disappointed that I didn’t get the extra few points into HDs?

For the assignments, one was a low HD (I know because I didn’t get a plus mark beside it), and one was a mid P.

Should I be relieved that I didn’t fail, or should I be disappointed that that’s what I got?

Hmm.

It’s strange. A few years back, like in Form 3 and before that, I would have been really concerned about exams, results, and excelling. I remember swotting for the PMR and JUEC like there was no tomorrow, and feeling guilty over every half-mark that I missed. Competing with the other top scorers and becoming depressed over every result that was lower than the previous term’s.

A few years later, after going through senior high school and becoming truly integrated with class spirit, somehow my priorities changed, and I found that I just don’t care that much anymore. SPM went by in a considerably better atmosphere despite its relative toughness as compared to JUEC, as did the VCEs. I remember being Agony Aunt for quite a few people while studying for the finals, and that can’t possibly be conductive to paying attention to words.

There are two ways of categorising this: One, I’ve opened my field of vision and have broken free of the mental block of ‘Azn-ness’. (Well, I still brood whenever I don’t get an A for English, but then again the language is my passion and I can be forgiven for that >.<) Two, I’ve decided to go down the delinquent walkway in an attempt to beg for more attention from my family.

Ouch. Somehow both sound really bad o.o

Was my early enthusiasm because I thought that I had a wide range of options open for me to pursue and immerse myself in? Was it because I was constantly grouped in with the academic-focused S/A-classers whose primary concerns were their GPAs? 

Did the eventual stressing-down occur because I finally got to choose some semblance of a determinant for my future? Was it because my new crowd showed me more about life and relationships than tunnel visions on the academia?

Is the current lackluster-ness because I’m no longer doing what I really want to do? Is it because my interest and my reasons for excelling are no longer existant?

I’m in Arts/Commerce because that’s what they want me to do. I’m walking on the asphalt road that they want me to, because I know what they’re worried about and realise their hopes and aspirations, and thus am obliged to do so. I’m focusing on what I can do within the restraints that they have placed about my future, and trying to ignore the fact that I originally wanted to tread on the lesser known path.

I always meant to re-evaluate my choices as soon as I could get a measure of how satisfied I could get with any one course… however that was also on the basis that I’d tried during the process of doing so to achieve what I saw to be their goal. When I look at the subject selection list still and slump down at night, I can’t help thinking though… should I just drop commerce and campaign against the elders to enter the pure Arts stream?

…..

…..

…..

Nah, just joking =.= I would never back out from this choice, false though it is. Other than the memory of my elder sis having deliberately failed her business course so that she could take Arts as she wanted to bugging me (hey I don’t want to be a copycat and hence set the example for my remaining younger sibling), I unfortunately have too much pride to tell them that I want to study Advertising and Design at this late stage =.=

Still, it’s hard to muster up determination to get good grades when your parents are telling you that they don’t care anymore what results you get >.< Whenever I think of what they said and measure it against what they used to say, mannn I just can’t help wanting to just FAIL for once and tell them, “well you said I could”.

Especially when cheche is winking at me and I can practically hear her say, “that’s what I did, Raine, and thank god I did that”.

Psssh… screw it… I need to get back to accounting tutework =P

(Random: my MSN is down again. Fark. Whaddahell’s wrong with the key ports??!)

WTH am I doing?? I

Ok. For my first ‘WTH am I doing??’ post, this is what I’ve been doing for most of the past 1 hour and 30 minutes:

I’ve been looking up strip clubs in Melbourne. And OMG one of the world’s top 10 is in Melbourne o.O

wait, did I just try to do more research on that particular club??!

WTH AM I DOING??!!

…I’ve lost it. This is evidence that I’m going nutters.

Somebody just beat the sense back into my head, please??

The fuss is on Virginia Tech — but why?

Recently the hype has been on regarding the VTech killings in America. There have been loads of articles, outpourings of sympathy, fingers pointed everywhere, and yadda yadda yadda.

But the only first decent editorial that I’ve read on the Virginia Tech massacre so far is from 19ActionNews.com : http://www.woio.com/Global/story.asp?S=6387732. Why do I like it, you ask? Because it tells us to just grieve and stop blaming. Because it doesn’t try to analyse, place more importance on this event, or express dramatic horror at the figures. Because it just sympathises, then moves on.

….

To be honest, I’m sick of all the fuss that’s going up because of what I see as being caused by the nature of the victims’ nationality.

Don’t flame me for this. I mean, when you’re reading so many other statistics and you know that so many avoidable deaths are happening all over the world that are NOT being reported on, you just get jaded and disillusioned, and you get tired.

The page Informed Comment (Thoughts on the Middle East, History and Religion) posted even larger death numbers on the top of its page the last time I looked at it. Yesterday, Kerbala, ‘one of Iraq’s best protected cities because of its holy status’, had 170 deaths. One hundred and seventy? That’s way more than the 33 that were killed in VTech. Yet how much will this episode be discussed? How much sympathy will be shown towards the Iraqians?

A professor from UMich stated the following on Think Progress: Remember that we’re all concerned, as we should be, about these events at Virginia Tech today. In Iraq this is a daily event. Imagine how horrible it would be if this kind of massacre were occurring every single day. And the people of Iraq feel that either the Americans are not stopping it or they’re actually causing it.

Yes, Iraqians are being killed en mass, and not only the civilians but the teachers are being targeted. But is there any big news-coverings of that on our papers? Are editorials being put up, and letters being written in the bulk, and outflowings of pity and words of condolences to the survivors or urges for better security for Iraqian educators?

No.

Let’s not forget to progress on to thinking about Africa. So many millions dying every year due to avoidable reasons and human apathy.

…Where are the articles on that??

A fellow, Nic, gives all a pretty good piece of his mind on the subject in his blogpost, One Day of Silence for the USA, How Many for Africa?, and I have to say that I agree with him.

There are so many others suffering NOW in the PRESENT, even as we look BACK at the PAST. Why can’t we just try to save those that we CAN save, and stop pointing the fingers at those who caused the horrors of the past? We can’t undo what has happened and stop the milk from being spilt, but we can reach out a hand and drag the flailing swimmer to safety, or give a hand to the weak.

Are some people somehow more important than others, that their deaths have to be acknowledged and others’ don’t? Are some people’s misfortunes somehow easier to overlook, because they are in a country where misfortune seems more widespread?

I think not.

Australia fights a lot for human rights. Why can’t those rights apply to all?

Anime Recoms, I

2×2 Shinobuden is about a kunoichi (female ninja)-in-training, Shinobu, and the ‘training’ as well as ‘tasks’ that her Master sets her =P with a funny plotline, clueless ‘heroine’, astute Kaede-san, weird ‘Master’, etc, this hilarious, nonsensical anime comedy seems set to start you off laughing and shaking your head ^_~ on the same level as Galaxy Angels, perhaps? Don’t miss it!!!

Jack Thompson and the Post Hoc Fallacy: Violent CGs cause Aggressive Behaviour?!

I was flipping through a couple of old assignments and essays just now (due to MSN not working… again!!), and in randomness I stumbled upon the following Issues title: The relationship between Violent Computer/Video Games (VCGs) and the Rising Trend of Aggresive Behaviour among Gamers. It had been part of my coursework research for the English as a Second Language component of my VCE exams, and I remember being pissed off by the presumptiousness of the statement as well as having a lot of fun disproving those words.

Something about this then triggered the not-as-distant-as-I-would-prefer-it-to-be memory of the Economics Mid-Sem test, and of studying about the Post Hoc Fallacy, ie the assumption that J causes K just because it occurs before K. Like how Xmas shopping brings about Christmas ^^ (if only, huh?)

It also reminded me of this dumb sentence that I saw while researching information for my EIL Group Presentation:

“This is not rocket science. When a kid who has never killed anyone in his life goes on a rampage and looks like the Terminator, he’s a video gamer,” Jack Thompson told MSNBC.com.

What the HELL?? Hey, don’t blame everything on gamers, dude. I don’t know what vendetta you have against us, but why are you blaming every bad egg that turns up as being a product of this hencoop instead of the next?

So… do Violent Computer Games really cause Aggressive behaviouristics just because there was a correlational rise in aggressive behaviour amongst youngsters following the increase in the distributional amount of violent computer games? Does aggressive behaviour increase just because more violent computer games are manufactured? Do people turn into mass murderers just because they are gamers? Or is this just another example of the Post-Hoc Fallacy?

The researchers that I quoted for my SAC obviously thought not (for the first one and second, lol).

One such researcher was Professor Jeffery Goldstein, Ph.D. from the University of Utrecht in The Netherlands. In his article, “Does Playing Violent Video Games Cause Aggressive Behaviour?“, he firmly stated that ‘correlational studies can tell us nothing about whether violent video games cause aggression; even if we accept that there is a correlation between amount of time spent playing (violent) video games and aggressive behavior, there is no reason to think that games are the cause of aggression (Anderson & Dill, 2000; Colwell & Payne, 2000; Roe & Muijs, 1998)’.

True, yes? Hmmm…. So what if there seems to be a correlation between violent gaming and aggressive behaviour? Hell, video games have been around for a lvery ong time. Street Fighters. Guilty Gear. Two-on-two combats, multiple-enemy combats, RPGs, MMORPGs, etc…. These are not a new occurance. Why blame crime on them? At the same time, I would prefer to point out that aggressive behaviour has existed forever. It was there when the first arguments between men broke out. It was there when a contender was first pushed in anger/annoyance. It was there when the first alpha tried to establish its dominance over the others.

For those who insist on saying that correlational studies are there to prove a point, however, here too is a little gift: ‘…there are also some correlational studies which find no significant relationship [between violent computer games] with aggression (e.g., Sacher, 1993; van Schie & Wiegman, 1997)’.

That should shut them up. Will it shut Jack Thompson up though? Hmmm. Perhaps he should be sent the following paragraph as well:

For those who would try to argue that the second set of correlational studies differed from the “aggression due to VCGs” studies because the studied participants were mostly passive and non-aggressive beings to start with, I present a rebuttal from Goldstein, (1999): ‘What is called “video game violence” is simulated aggression, different from the real thing in countless ways–they cannot “reinforce” aggressive behavior since players do not engage in any aggressive behavior in the first place.’

Wow… is it just me or does Goldstein have a really good point there? For example, I can kill half a thousand soldiers in 45 minutes when I’m tapping away at XTreme Warriors, but if you asked me to kill 500 ants in the same amount of time, I’d balk. Not because ants are icky or anything, but because I’m aware that each and every one of them is a living being with a right of survival (whereas the animated characters in VGs are not). I don’t get more aggressive just because I play violent VGs–all I do when I kill legions within VGs is release stress and tension, which could build up into something much more nasty as the Virginia Tech story illustrates. And I don’t think other gamers are that dumb, either.

In fact, Sorensen & Jessen (2000) in their article “It isn’t real: Children, computer games, violence and reality” agree that ‘the fact that the player himself must conduct violent deeds… actually makes children aware that their actions take place in a fictitious universe; computer games are in fact “games” with their own rules…they are aware that these rules do not apply outside the realm of the game, with the exception that children can include elements and rules from the games in their play (p. 121)’.

See?

It’s not that when playing a violent computer game, all we can think of is that “Oh YESSSSSS we now have the power to create and destroy, and destroy and destroy and destroy”. We are actually AWARE that this is not real. All I think, for instance, is how to get to the final objective in the most effective way–which usually involves mass homicide since having a few thousand people hot on your back and blocking your escape routes is not my idea of being efficient.

Sorensen & Jessen (2000) further state in page 120 of their article that ‘The violent elements in computer games are attractive as spectacular effects, but also because they prompt excitement and thrill… these effects contain an element of exaggeration, which is fully recognized by children… children’s fascination with violent computer games should not be mistaken for a fascination with violence in the real world” as they are “a parallel to the violent and ‘rough’ play traditionally found among boys”.

Oh yeah… true!!! Why not just say that aggressiveness has a correlation with gender, huh?? Hasn’t anyone noticed that the instigators of violence are –oh my what a revelation!– MALE???! Just look at Rugby. Notice any aggressive behaviour there, folks? Compare that with the worst that girls can think up. Merely catfights and word-slinging, and some marginalising bullying, I think. Certainly very few cases of aggression are linked to the female species!!

In line with that, I would like to include an observation that Gerard Jones made in his book, “Killing Monsters“: ‘Young girls often build upon… representations of strong women warriors as a means of building up their self confidence in confronting challenges in their everyday lives as female game characters are often portrayed as powerful and independent.’

That should explain why there are female gamers too, and not only guy gamers. But note the description/explanation for this phenomena — to build self-confidence. What does that have to do with violence or aggressiveness, hmm?

I should probably mention that Cooper & Mackie (1986) in a study that measures both aggressive play and aggressive behavior found that ‘violent video games affect the former and not the latter’.

Soooo…. aggressive play, do I hear anyone asking? What is the difference between aggressive play and aggressive behaviour? Well, perhaps by reading the words of Schutte et al., (1988) and Silvern & Williamson (1987) you will understand the difference: ‘observations of children…may confuse mock aggression (pretending to engage in martial arts) with real aggression (attempting to hurt someone)”, leading to “faulty conclusions” where “what appears to an observer to be aggressive behavior may instead be aggressive play, where there is no intent to injure anyone’.

Clear on that now? Play=no intent to injure; Behaviour=with intent to injure.

But we’re spiralling off the topic now.

So… back to the list of questions that I posed near the beginning of this blogpost.

1. Do Violent Computer Games really cause Aggressive behaviouristics just because there was a correlational rise in aggressive behaviour amongst youngsters following the increase in the distributional amount of violent computer games?

POV: I think we pretty much established that correlations mean nada, so this one is invalid.

2. Does aggressive behaviour increase just because more violent computer games are manufactured?

POV: If I’m not mistaken I also noted that aggressive behaviour existed way before violent CGs, and that people know the difference between games and reality, so that’s another blank fired at this theory.

3. Do people turn into mass murderers just because they are gamers?

POV: Considering that we have zillions of gamers in the world and only a handful of mass murderers, I think that this is safe to disprove.

4. Or is this just another example of the Post-Hoc Fallacy?

POV: Yes? No? Do people think that aggressive behaviour happens because there are violent computer games? …I don’t, but Mr Thompson sure does. Does anyone else think so? Only a 0.000001% of the world, maybe.

So yeah. Rambling (or whatever this is called) over.

Hope you had fun reading this 1555-word bitch of a blogpost ^^

Just for Kicks, IV

“Be ye angels?”
“Nay! We are but men!!”

The song here is Tribute by Tenacious D. There’s no real reason for this post. I just thought that the clip was interesting!!

If you really go through it though, it’s quite interesting how several themes were incorporated into the MV that might not have been so evident in the lyrics themselves.

Let’s start from the beginning, where Mr Guitar Guy doesn’t want to go into the ‘room’ because it’s not ‘a real recording studio’. That sorta reminds me of what people tend to do; not bother to try or to do things because it doesn’t seem like it’d do any use. Yup, that’s you and me alright. Why do something that doesn’t seem worth the effort to do, even if it might help you gain something in terms of maturity?

Mr Optimistic Singer sees the ‘karaoke box’ as a place which ‘has everything’ though, and promptly proceeds to break down all barriers in his path (note the scissors, amigo =D). Kinda similar to how we damn the consequences to hell sometimes and just live for the moment, eh? Like wag classes without thinking about what you’re missing by skipping this lecture or not doing that homework.

The demon in the path and his crazy command, and their enthusiastic or rather, ‘cool’ reply? Reminiscent of perhaps how we put obstacles in our path (omg that demon wasn’t real, riiiight?) and then proceed to barge forward to trample over it with no concept of failure. Like setting a high goal for yourself and thinking that ’sure’, that’d be easy to do.

The outside/inside difference? Rather like how other people don’t always have the same perception on issues as you do. Like how something might seem incredible to those involved in it, but incredibly idiotic to those not ‘in the room’. Perception of things and placement of importance as well as self-image, I suppose. Like how those ‘You Think You Can Dance?’ failures regarded their talents as dancing that the judges were too dumb to appreciate.

The comment by Mr Singing Optimist that ‘what was sang that night didn’t sound anything like this song’ echoes my feelings on how something can feel really good/bad as it happens, then make you think: was it like that? in later reflections. Everyone must have had an experience like that before, where they thought one thing when caught up in the moment, and then thought differently of that experience when their heads were cooler. Or maybe it just shows how things can mutate over time? Hmmmmm.

And the last part? LOL. Just goes to show how things are not what they seem… ^_~

Ooooh, 100 hits. Thanks o.o

As the title says o.o Thanks o.o

Great. Now my Internet line hates me, too!

I mentioned some time ago that MSN hates me.

Now I’m equally convinced that the Internet landline itself is against me.

Why? Because it’s been disconnecting me from the WWW for two consecutive days!! Both times the symptoms were the same: First, a loss of MSN connection; next, failure to effectively post posts in forums; third, total loss of internet connectivity as well as the immediate freezing of all WWW panels.

To a heavy internet user like myself, who keeps more than 30 tabs and windows open at the same time just so she can get from one site to another in under 3 seconds, this is more than bad. It is a catastrophe!!!

Imagine this. You’re typing up your answer to a question on the, say, MUISS forum. It takes you perhaps 8, 10 minutes to write down all your deep thoughts and recommendations on that question. Finally, after lots of thinking and endless typing, you’re done. You hit the ’send’ button and wait expectantly for the window to renew itself so that you can go on to the next newest unread topic.

But what is this? You stare blankly at the screen, and then feel an upsurge of horror and medium outrage (born of ‘becoming used to being hated by MSN’.) The whole window has frozen!! You rotate your mouse over the page frantically, trying to save your work from being destroyed. You try to highlight your text and Ctrl+C it so that you can save it to wordpad or Microsoft Word.

Nothing co-operates with you, though.

Instead, the system reports an Error message and arbitrarily shuts your Internet Explorer down. *poof!* Your hard work has vanished down the drain. It won’t return with the next opening of a window like how errored Word drafts are handed up by your trusty Microsoft.

It.Just.Dies.

Heartbreaking, isn’t it?

Worse of all is that you can’t get online on anything after that, no matter what you do.

That means that you have to restart the computer.

So you save up all the other documents, ignore the fact that you were touching up a picture and doing some graphic designing on Photostudio, shut down remaining programs with a heavy heart, and then proceed to press on the ‘Turn Off Computer’ tab.

Only, nothing happens after that.

You have to manually shut your computer down–ie, do it the barbaric way and hold down the Power button for 3 seconds so that the system is forcefully shut down.

….

It’s sad, it’s painful, and I’m wounded.

Why am I being ganged up upon!!!

All I wanted to do is send out a post and chat with some friends!!!

Is that so hard for you to let me do??!

(note: this was supposed to have been sent out maybe 20 minutes ago; something didn’t allow me to. Guess what it was? ^-^ I had to retype the majority of this message since all that was saved by the autosave component of wordpress, was the introduction up to the word, ‘third’.)

Pool Nite (Before, During, and After)

Pool Nite was tonight (27th April 2007), and… it’s a long story.

The Before, During, and After, are all LONG stories.

The ‘Before’ stretched from probably 2:45pm to 5:45pm and included a lot of clatter. (Also some illegal business, sneaking around places, and ‘bullying’ a ‘poor, innocent’ friend.)

The ‘During’ went from 5:45pm to around 9:40pm and had a lot of ‘duty’ involved. (Also a rare stroke of good pool for me, and interesting displays to goggle at.)

The After (still ongoing from the time that this blogpost is supposed to be) proceeded from 9:40pm to first 3:26am, then to approximately 5am, and was all about laughter, mixing, jokes and fun. (Also having Mackers, not getting drunk, having tours of SEF’s Pavillion and my room, and pic-snapping.)

Conclusion: It will be (or actually, has been) a very long night. It is an even longer story. Thus I shall not bother to regale all and sundry with details on it all, because it is impossible to list out every single happening of those beautiful long hours. Read and wonder, and suffer, and regret that you didn’t stay back =D

Yes, you people who went home directly after Pool Nite ended, read what I have written, feel confused, and cry because you weren’t there to share the fun with us ^^

And those who came and are reading this, smile please as you remember those hours spent lazily chatting and watching them play pool. It was wonderful and I love you all ^^

Note to anyone who thought otherwise: Obviously, this wasn’t written on the 27th. I’ve just timestamped it to make it seem like it was posted then. So there’s nothing wrong with my tenses. Or, rather, there.should.not.be.anything.wrong. =.=

SAM Barbie on the Menzies Lawn

Before beginning my first post for the day, I would like to say something: Shame to anyone who thought that I’d seen a barbie doll named SAM on the Lawn.

Today the Singapore Association of Monash (I hope that I got that name right >.>”) had a BBQ for its members on the Menzies Lawn, from 11-1pm.

I only found out at 12 something, ‘coz I hadn’t gone online all night on Thursday (due to reasons readable on my last blogpost). My reaction upon reading the informing email? Raine: ‘OHHHH so that’s why Daryl (SAM VP) was up here getting the BBQ set. Ah.’ omg so blurrrrrr…

Do I hear someone asking why I am in SAM when I’m Malaysian and should be in MUMSU?? Well, the answer is ‘no idea’.

So. I found out. Went outside to have a look–mmm nice scents wafting up, not too many people downstairs around the BBQ pit, but the wind was too cold for me to go down. Couldn’t be bothered (again). Went back inside to stay warm.

Alas, Noriko (also in SAM) came by and asked me whether I wanted to have a look downstairs. Relenting, I went down… and shivered. Brrrr… the wind sure is crazy here. Went back into the lounge to hide from the elements.

Eventually went down to have a sausage roll. Listened to some *ahem* words of wisdom from Renold and Danny, which included things like ‘lectures are good to sleep in’ and ‘I never went to a lecture in my life’ among others. Oh, and lame/witty jokes were peppered around the conversations too. Eg, ‘Does your mom know that you’re stupid?’. Miao.

Actually saw someone that I know from Jap classes o.o Cheryl!!!! What a surprise. Lol. Now I know what to chat to her about during breaks on Wednesdays.

Left at 12:56pm after being reassured by Renold, Danny and Noriko that lectures are worth going to. Brought my laptop along though, and that could have been my biggest mistake ‘coz I ended up cozying up to ‘him’ most of the hour instead of listening to my lecturer. All’s fine with that though, since it was an Accounting lecture and all I have to do to know the content of those slides is the 2R’s and 2D’s: Download the slides, Read the textbook, Refer on my past learnings on Acc, Do the tute questions. Simple. Also explains why I regularly skiv off my Thursday 2-3pm Accounting lectures.

That’s it for the SAM barbie though. More to come on my next blogpost about Friday… stay tuned!!

Rejoinder to ‘Thursdays are my worst days’!!!

Hey peeps ^^

Remember how I said that today was going to be death-ness? Well here’s a run-down on why I’m still alive =D (umm yeah, I tinkered with the timestamp on this so that it would be logged under Thursday. Why didn’t I blog on Thursday itself? Read on.)

Aiiiiite. Before saying anything else, I should comment that I slept at 5+am since I was up most of the night studying for Economics, updating my Econ’s Tute Book, finalising MCAC Lunch Arrangements, designing a ‘MCAC-ers, OVER HERE!!’ kind of placard/banner thingy (see next post for it), sending all finalised documents (and pics) to an alternative account so that I could print them off in the morning, and burning a Hillsong CD for Serene.

As such, I woke up slightly off-schedule, meaning I got up at 7:25 instead of 7:15am. Managed to get the rice cooked on time, so my packed dinner of fried rice was successfully created. Donned my blue MONASH cap, picked up my gray hoodie, and set off.

After 10am, I dashed off to the ITS corner in Campus Centre–only to find out that the printer was out of order??! WHAT THE HELL??!!! Desperate, I had to run all the way to the Matheson Library to print out my attendence sheet for MCAC and the ‘placard’ thingy that I’d designed. I could have chosen not to, but doing so would have rendered my whole night’s efforts to have been for naught. Not exactly good.

Thankfully I managed to get things done in record time and returned to the MUISS lounge at around 10:20am. Bought a Pool Nite ticket, then grabbed my stuff and went off to Grain Express to ‘book’ my MCAC Lunch Table.

Nice empty place, the dining room. I found a long table to the left and sat myself down along with my economics tute book and related information, then started to revise frantically while darting looks at the wall clock to check what time it was. This was at 10:40am, so I was officially the first person there ^^

At approximately 10:56am, a near-disaster struck. A girl approached my table. I looked over at her calculatingly, wondering if she was a MCAC-er who had noticed my cap. (That was the agreed-upon ‘identifying factor’.) She just put her things down and merrily went off to get some lunch. I checked the time, determined that she wasn’t a MCAC-er, and was prepared to ask her politely to switch tables (ie, FOff) so that my club could do our stuff. Fortunately for her, I noticed that the premium meeting spot (meaning the table directly at the entrance of the dining hall) was being vacated. So I up and relocated, probably leaving the girl wondering whether she had the cooties. LOL.

At maybe ten minutes past the hour, Tam arrived. Ummm this is spiralling into a blow-by-blow account of my MCAC meeting, so I’ll just post up a link to the happenings (my version) in a later edit of this post.

Onto the after-lunch part of the day.

Tute test at 1pm. Got Question 8.1–and noticed that every tute test I’ve had have placed me with the first question on the page. Hmm–luck?? I should look into this before the next tute test. Or maybe not, so as to not jinx it o.o

So… yeah. Had the tute test. At 2pm, I had to rush to my Accounting lecture. BUT… I wagged it. My brain was too fried from the discussion we had post-test, and I anticipated the most boring set of double lectures ever in the impending 3-5pm ECC session. Hence, I skivved off class, went back via the Grain Express way, didn’t see anyone left (to my disappointment), went on to the MUISS lounge, FOUND Chris’s ‘Loli’ banner (wow!!!) and promptly kept it in my bag, talked a bit with the others, and just laid myself down on a sofa to rest. Lack of sleep started to remind me that I needed a nap. Unfortunately I couldn’t afford one just yet.

From 3-5pm, I went to my Economics lectures. OMG that lecturer was soooooo…. ACK. All the new things that we covered in that one session were a fraction of what Kathy could cover in one hour. Even Mr. Boring could do better than that. SHEESH. Two hours, wasted.

5-6pm was supposed to be my first long break. Reheated my prepacked dinner and sat down to enjoy it. Had another Edu Meeting from 5:30pm onwards though, so my brain got even more fried. Shite.

The MUISS meeting was from 6:15pm to 7:13pm. Gave up on my 7-9pm MURP session simply because I cbf’d to plan another few days of Marianne Webster’s life. Hung around the lounge for another hour or so instead talking about random stuff and just generally chilling out.

SEF Royale was in full swing by the time I got back. Went into the Pavillion on the off-chance that there really would be liqueur there… and hit the jackpot o.o White wine!!! (and lots of Carlton Draughts which I didn’t touch) Drank a glass or two, did some chatting with the other SEF-ers, and then went on up because sleep+class+long day+alcohol were making me very sleepy.

Tried to get on the internet (and by relation, the MSN). My internet was acting up though, so after trying for half an hour to unfreeze my panels and get MSN or the web to work, I gave up. Just wasn’t worth the gray matter to do so… especially when bed looked so tempting.

On a side-note, I was supposed to go to Notts with Eddie, Han, Sharon etc at around 11pm, but I begged off since I was tired and since I’d had my alcohol intake for the day.

So in conclusion, while I was not (as imagined) knocked out the instant I get into my bedroom, and didn’t get a migraine, the night pretty much passed into oblivion for me in an instant.

Hmmm will continue more in my next post. Ja ne~~~~

Anybody wants to Pool the Night away with me?

As the title says… well, does anybody want to Pool the Night away with me on Friday?? …

…I would apologise for spamming, but then this IS my blog XD

Just for Kicks, III

Not sure how many people know this, but I really like this clip:

Damned interesting, isn’t it? And the music is way infectious. Not to mention the visuals are already quite ingrained in my mind’s eye by now. Hence every time I hear the song ‘Put Your Hands Up For Detroit’ I start seeing nurses/techs in white strippable coats walking stiltedly around and pole-dancing their way around robot guys XD

If I wanted to I could probably wax on awhile about how technology is changing the world so much, and how something like the visuals for this MV might come to pass in a hundred or so years’ time.

My point is further proved/backed up by this article: Robots Could Demand Legal Rights.

But I won’t bore you with all that just yet, since still studying for tomorrow’s Economics Tute Test.

Thank god though that the test is the only thing I’m really worried about at the moment… my wonderful, beautiful, beloved MCAC’s luncheon arrangements seem to be going on just fine ^^ I’ll be bringing peanuts and a slab of chocolate to share around then tomorrow!! Up to 11 people are expected and more might come *^-^* I’m so happy~~!!!

Now, if only someone would provide me with some liqueur for after the tute… >.< I need it so that I don’t fall asleep during my lectures after that!!! *sigh*….

…Am I Evil?

As the title says ^^

Some people think that I’m a nice, innocent girl who sees the world as being full of sunlight, flowers and love.

Some people think that I’m an evil, plotting maniac who wants to take over the world.

Does anyone care to comment?? <3<3<3

Thursdays are my worst days. Someone, kill me now!!

^^ Heya there ^^

I’m smiling a lot ’coz today is Wednesday ^^ meaning that it’s not Thursday yet ^^ meaning that I’m still alive and kickin’ ^^

Tomorrow… you won’t be seeing me. Tomorrow… there probably won’t be any blogs. Tomorrow… omg tomorrow I am SO screwed.

Let’s see why ^^

I have class at 9am. That’s all fine and good, but that means that I have to get up at 7:15am despite living on campus–you’ll understand why in a bit.

I finish my first class at 10am. That’s all fine and good, but I can only rest for a maximum of one hour.

At 11am, I have to go to Grain Express. MCAC is having its first lunch gathering–which I oh-so-smartly organised to be on Thursday ^^ which I am aware is my craziest day ever ^^ I’m soooooooooooooooooo smart lol…

From 11am to 12:45noon, therefore, I will be at Grain Express with the MCAC gang, chatting and laughing and just generally socialising.

I then have an economics tute test at 1pm.

At 2pm, I need to rush to my Accounting lecture.

From 3-5pm, I’ll be at Economics lectures.

5-6pm is my first long break. I don’t think I’d want another go at Grain Express by then, though, so I’d have to fall back on some other food–which is where waking up at 7:15am comes in. I’ll have to prepare dinner for myself before class.

Then I have a MUISS meeting from 6-7pm. If all goes well, I won’t be still eating my dinner by then.

And a MURP session from 7-9pm.

When I get back to my flats, they’ll be having Movie Night, 9-10:30pm maybe. Otherwise it’ll be SEF Royale, the once-a-year gambling session. I’ll skip this.

…With this list of things-to-do tomorrow, I’ll be lucky to still be alive at say, 10pm.

As it is, I’ll probably be knocked out the instant I get into my bedroom. That’s all good and well–assuming I don’t get a migraine first.

Life. Is. Wonderful ^^

It’s ANZAC. So… Coffee, Anyone?

So. Today is the 25th of April, ie ANZAC Day.

It’s the Xth commemoration day for Australians killed in any and all military operations in which Australia has been involved, starting from the First World War.

It’s a solemn day of rememberance, and I’m sure that I’m compelled to respect that it is a day of grave memories for many Australians as well as a reminder to them of what war can destroy and take away.

But I’m not Australian, and I don’t know its customs.

Thus when I went out with some MUISS guys for ‘coffee’ last night around midnight… only to find out that liqueur isn’t sold on ANZAC day!!… I was really surprised. (umm yes, there IS a connection between ‘coffee’ at midnight and liqueur. You just have to think longer on it to find out ‘what’ =D) And not just a little disappointed.

**the guys were the three friendly neighbourhood Publications peeps and our dear Treasurer ^^

I’m not complaining or anything but… what the heck?? I shouldn’t be saying this but… I’ve been craving for alcohol for a while now >.<

And I was especially hoping to get some today so that I can look forward to tomorrow with a better frame of mind. See my next blog for information on ‘why’ ^^

While on the topic though… since it’s ANZAC Day… I didn’t dare to tick anyone off by puchasing wine when I was down shopping for groceries in Clayton this morning. I suppose that I could have gotten away with it, but… nah. Better not offend the sensibilities of anyone who might get iffed.

I still need an alcohol fix though. But not at midnight today!!!

…maybe I should just drop by the Pavilion tomorrow to see if they’ll be serving anything ‘extra’ in the drinks section. It’d be after all the stress and havoc’s gone by, but hey, better late than never o.o A little something to aid my sleep is always… better ^^