Badminton!!!

Just win.
So much win was had while playing Badminton over the weekend. I'd say good, clean fun out in the sunshine but 90% of the conversation during the playing of badminton revolved around the word cock so "clean" is probably not all that accurate.

A thousand, billion, million thank yous to Hannah for providing us with the Badminton set and therefore the whole experience, including the abundance of cock jokes that followed.

The photos can't do it justice (but I'll upload them anyway).






First we had to untangle the damn thing which took Han and I for ages and probably used up a sizeable chunk of our minimal daylight on Saturday evening (yep, that's right, me and my friends played Badminton in the backyard on Saturday night, beat that y'all).

However, once we'd untangled the earphones-esque knot and got the net up and the shuttle cock flying (along with the jokes), we had an absolute ball.
We, admittedly, weren't very good, but we did improve and we had fun anyway. I think there'll be much more badminton in our future. 

P.S. HAPPY 200th POST!!

I thought it'd be quite fitting that blog #200 was centred around a group sporting activity just like our first ever post was #symmetry. 

Extrovert, Ambivert, Introvert

I was listening to the radio the other day, and they were talking about introverts and extroverts, and how an introvert deals with living in an environment that is more focused on an extrovert lifestyle. It gets you wondering whether your more introverted or extroverted. An introvert isn't just a shy loner with a lack of social skills, but someone who works well alone and values solitude. Thinking about it, there are times when i can be very introverted. I love my time alone. I love reading or playing piano for hours without interruption. I could probably watch movies all day while making art or playing solitaire. When I do art I hate to be rushed, or watched or interrupted. I can sit in front of the TV and watch movies all day and whip out a couple of drawings. I hate group assignments. I can work in a group fine, but I always feel i could have done a better job by myself. I work faster by myself, I find it difficult to study with others in the room, as I can be easily distracted. Most people know me as really loud and outgoing however. I enjoy the group activities and look forward to them, as long as they don't involve clubbing. I prefer a bar with a live band to a DJ and heaps of sweat bodies and too much noise. I like talking with people and hear what they say. I like spending time one on one with a friend. I like talking probably a little more than listening, but I don't like talking about close and personal issues, and I avoid saying things that will cause conflict, I hate confrontation. Being on the go all the time can wear me out however and at times I find myself just wanting to be alone.
The world seems to be for extroverts these days however. At uni there are many group assignments, you can't put "prefer to work alone" on a resume and everything is open plan these days.
But we would not have the world we have today without the introverts who sit alone, writing songs we listen to, writing the books we read. Extroverts can seem like the centre of the universe, the driving force in society, but how about those great thinkers?

Delta

Wish You Were Here - Delta Goodrem.

They told me who was in trouble 

I couldn't breathe on the other side of the world 

And there was nothing I could do to help you 

And it's true today it'd be your birthday 

It would've been your 27th year 

And I miss you in the earth's atmosphere 

I wish you were here 

The first time I heard this song, it came along with the interview with the Aussie Golden Girl herself, Delta Goodrem and before it even started I knew I'd like it. Not just because I'd had a pretty good history with Delta's music but because of what it's about. A close friend of hers died in a motorcycle in accident. 

She didn't write it alone but you can tell the feelings came from her. Even though I, personally, don't think it's her best musical/vocal achievement I do think that, lyrically, it is an amazing song. It's moving and touching and all the kind of things you want something to be when it's about such a personal thing as the death of a friend. 

Lyrically...I think it's exquisite. From the first line "I've been knock, knock, knocking at the thought of your door" to my favourite lines of the whole song (in bold above), right down to the very end when she whispers "I wish you were here" the words to this song are beautiful. 

It's an incredibly touching song and I'm honestly quite thankful to Delta for sharing something so personal.

And really, I think Delta is just a beautiful person. I think she deserves the title of Aussie Golden Girl, she's done a lot in a very short life and I just think she's lovely.

WHY/HOW DOES EVERYONE ON YOUTUBE KNOW EACH OTHER?

So I've recently gotten into the whole YouTuber thing, I mean I'm not YouTubing and making squillions off it yet, nor do I plan to, but I've been getting my YouTube watch on and what has come to my attention is thus:
EVERYONE ON YOUTUBE (who lives in the UK) KNOWS EACH OTHER!

Seriously, this is my link-by-link YouTube adventure.

The guy I lost my YouTubing virginity to (for want of a better phrase [not really, what better phrase could there be?]) was Alex Day, introduced to me by a friend of mine with his Alex Reads Twilight videos (which I uber recommend because who doesn't love taking the piss out of Twilight?). From perusing all of Alex's videos I came across Charlie McDonnel who, despite all of my new YouTube people, remains my YouTube crush 'cause he's just gorgeous. Anyway Alex and Charlie  bought a house and live together in London 'cause they know each other THAT well (platonically by the way).
Then came Dan whose videos subsequently lead me to my newest and third (second comes in later) YouTube crush but first ever twin-crush (identical by the way) Jack and Finn Harries (Finn doesn't do YouTube he just features on his brother's channel often).
Back to Alex and he brought me to Carrie Hope Fletcher who is my first, and so far, only chick YouTube subscription and I don't know how anyone could ever compare to her.
Carrie is lovely. She's just beautiful, all of them are or else I wouldn't like them so much obviously but Carrie is the one I can relate to most. She's my age, loves disney, still lives with her parents and does normal stuff. Her world hasn't exploded because of the YouTube thing, or she hasn't let it.
From Carrie I discovered the duo Jack Howard and Dean Dobbs and from there Jack's solo channel. Jack Howard (Jack the First as I call him - as a contrast to Jack Harries = Jack II) is stunning. He looks like Jonathan Rhys Meyers and he's quite witty too.

The point is, Alex knows Charlie, knows Carrie, knows Dan, Carrie knows Jack I and Dean and Dan then knows Finn and Jack I.
HOW DOES EVERYONE ON YOUTUBE KNOW EACH OTHER?
I get that like they go to YouTube conventions and VidCon and stuff and also watch each others videos   and tweet each other and stuff but it just BLOWS MY MIND that they just feature in each others videos randomly. In a cool way though. I mean, if they hadn't I'd still just be watching Alex Day.

These Wings Are Made to Fly

"Mamma told me not to waste my life

She said spread your wings my little butterfly

Don’t let what they say keep you up at night

And if they give you shh… 

Then they can walk on by."

I tried really hard not to like Little Mix. I don't even know why exactly, I guess because I think they look fake, seriously Perrie Edwards looks like a doll (yet at the same time she reminds me of Blair Waldorf/Leighton Meester who I adore) and probably it also has something to do with the fact she's dating one of the 1D boys. But, I still don't get why because it's not like she's dating any of my favourites, or she's been a bitch, she seems lovely and he's happy so whatever.

I don't know, I just didn't want to like Little Mix but then I heard "Wings," the above lyrics I just fell in love with. I love the start of the song, it peters off a little and gets kind of dance-pop esque as it goes on but the principle is nice and I love the chorus. 

Awkward moments

The awkward moment when I learn someone other than Han reads this and I have to flick back and make sure I never wrote anything horrible about them...
Don't worry, I'm good. Turns out I like my friends. Who knew?

When You Wish Upon a Star

Damn, I wish I could speak Italian like I speak French.
It'd make writing this second year oral SO much easier.

In time, a little voice whispers, all things come in time. Patience.

You can celebrate a Yes. You can deal with a No.
A Maybe will fill you with a hope that can be crushed at any second

Dear World,

Facebook is not your diary. Stop treating it like it is.

Sincerely
Sick of seeing status comments saying "I don't want to talk about it on Facebook, inbox me."

The Lion King

I don't like to swear much so please excuse me but the Lion King is the best fucking movie ever made in the history of the world.

This song is why:

This movie is...my life. It is my absolute favourite movie and nothing has been able to or ever will be able to supplant it.

Birdy

So I have been hearing Birdy this and Birdy that. Tv adverts for her CD, tracks used on TV, Aunt on facebook in favour, another girl i went to school with hating on her. This girl I went to school with wasn't a friend. To be she seemed like a stuck up bitch who just liked to bitch about people. I think half on it was making up for her short stature or that she was't the prettiest flower in the bunch but in her mind she needed to talk people down to make herself more popular. She hung out with the snobs and always has photos with her friends dressed up about to hit the clubs or whatever. I saw her as self centred and she probably saw me as the girl with thick unstyled hair with more acne than her, and therefor unimportant. It's people like her I keep on facebook, just to remind myself not to let my head get too far up my own ass....Anyway I'm drifting here, she was calling her Birdy a bitch saying she had ripped off Bon Ivers Skinny love. I don't know if she actualy listens to that kind of music because she strikes me as a mainsteam listener. So I listened to Birdy's version and I have to say I like it. As much as the original? Just as much. It is a beautiful song, and some of the others on the album are nice as well. 1901 isn't as great as the original, People help the People I like more than the original. I have nothing against this album. All but one are covers and she has made the best move in her career so far. It is really hard to crack into the music industry with originals, and even harder to get into the mainstream. So what better to release an album of covers that are far from the original to begin with? Playing in a band you learn things. One is that people take to covers much more readily than originals. They know them and will sing along. Now she is known all she needs to do is get a hit of her own. This girl from school is getting all worked up about people thinking Skinny Love is Birdy's song, when it is the audience that is getting mixed up. She should be calling all her friends wanks and skanks for not turning the radio over and listen to triple j. It's not Birdy's fault that people don't know who Bon Iver is....and while we are on the topic triple J has been playing her covers too....If anything I think Birdy's new album will get other artist recognised because people might seek out the originals after hearing Birdy. And on another note I just think this snob is jealous of someone who is more talented, famous and younger than her. If there is anything I would change is her stage name....I almost got confused with Little Birdy (look up their song brother)

To Elvis, With Love

Over the past 12 months I've written down every single book I've read, books for school and books for pleasure, everything. The total is 48. That works out to 4 books a month. I'm not entirely sure if I'm impressed with that (which in all honesty is 1 book a weekish) or disappointed. I think, when I break it down, I'm impressed that even with everything else going on, I still managed to read 48 books in 12 months. I guess writing down each and every book I've read reminded me how much I love reading.
I won't post the list but I will mention a few that I enjoyed.
The Mortal Instruments, Infernal Devices, Vampire Academy and Harry Potter were a number of my favourites even if half of them I'd read a number of times before. I also really enjoyed Letters from the Inside which Hannah leant me, mostly because it was written in such a different format to anything else I'd ever read (not that I'd expect anything else from the man who gave us 10 books of Ellie's point of view) as it's written entirely in letters between two girls. Like everything John Marsden writes, it really hits you hard.

Probably my favourite book was To Elvis With Love by Lena Canada. I heard of it while on one of my procrasta-Googling sprees reading about Elvis. It's a true story about a girl with cerebral plasy and all she wants is to be friends with Elvis who is her idol and, essential, her reason for living.

They made it into a movie too but I haven't seen it and I don't want to. Some things, some stories, only books can tell just as some stories only movies can tell.
I learnt the first as a reader and the second as a writer. I will always infinitely prefer books to movies because of the depth of the stories they can tell even though on occasions Movies do a fantastic job also.

To Elvis With Love, is an old book, not only in print but the copy I have is old. It was published in 1978 and I think it's gone out of print because I struggled to find it and ended up with a worn and battered second hand copy off eBay. I wondered, as I read through its yellowed pages, was it worn with love or with neglect? Had there been a teenage girl who'd read this book over and over like I've read Harry Potter? Or perhaps an elderly lady who remembers Elvis' death but also his life when she read this book annually? Or maybe even a young man, enthralled by Elvis like my Dad has always been, who read it more than once?
Or perhaps this book wasn't loved at all, maybe it was lost, hidden and discarded at the bottom of a box, shoved carelessly at the bottom of a shelf before it finally ended up in a second hand bookstore and came to me.
All I know is I'm glad it did because it's quite a beautiful story, not just because it shows the King of Rock and Roll as a human being but because it shows the power of love and hope. Read it.

Lena Canada manages to express things in such a perfect way that I only strive for. My favourite quote is: A mother is supposed to be so many things that she does not always have the power or ability to be.
How true. How many things is a mother each day? Hundreds. Cook, cleaner, maid, seamstress, teacher, chauffeur, coach, the list is infinite and a mother's job never ends, we all know this but I doubt I ever could have articulated it as well as Lena Canada did.

Maybe the reason why I love this book so much is because it's written the way I want to write. The same thing happened when I read Regeneration in year 12, I love that book because Pat Barker's narrative voice is like mine, or at least how I'd like mine to be.
I admire other authors as well, J.K. Rowling, J.R.R. Tolkein, C.S. Lewis, but more for their creativity than how they write. I'm in awe of how they can weave words together to create a world so different to ours but the words they use, the way they put sentences together, on occasion it strikes me but for the most part it's just a means to an end.

This book didn't make me cry like I expected it to. I knew Karen was going to die and I thought for sure it would make me tear up, then she died and...I was sad, of course, but no tears. Then the writer started talking about how she was writing down Karen's story and she finally wanted Elvis (and the rest of the world) to get the whole thing. Just when she had it all written down and sent to a publisher she got a phone call.
"Did you hear about Elvis?"
"What?"
"He died."
"What? No! He can't have died! I haven't told him about Karen yet!"

Then came probably the most heartbreaking line of the book: "Perhaps now, at last, Karen will get to meet him."

And end scene.

Such. Is. Life.

You turn 18, you get your license. With the exception of extenuating circumstances, thats the way it is. I don't understand how it can work any other way.

You are an adult. Adults go places. Adults drive to said places. You are an adult, you should have, at the very least the ability, if not the machinery to do so.

I completely and utterly understand not being able to afford a car, they're expensive not only to buy but to run but at least if you have your license you can borrow your mums car to get to work to earn money to buy and run your own.

Yes, it's scary. It's terrifying to start but it's a part of life and life is scary.
Suck it up and get on with it, it's well worth it.

Living While We're Young???

Sometimes it just feels nice to act like a "real" P-Plater, drive too fast, play the music too loud and act a little reckless.
It's also potentially dangerous, highly obnoxious and very annoying to everyone else but sometimes it helps clear your head.

I don't know, #UniStudent/FirstWorldProblems - school work and work-work is getting me down and I just want to buy stuff and watch things and play with my friends!!

Just one of those days, which are occurring more often than I'd like honestly, but all I need is some good music, summer and sleep and I'll be right as rain.

Speaking of good music, Best Friend got me onto a super amazing Irish radio station - Beat 102-103 -that I've been streaming pretty much non-stop for the last few days. With the awkwardness of time difference the music/quality of presenter isn't too crash hot but the morning show (from roughly 4pm here) is amazing.
I'll admit, 40% of my admiration is the fact that they're Irish and have sexy hot accents, 30% is the local music they play, I've already fallen in love with half a dozen tracks that havent reached mainstream Australia (yet), 25% is learning about the different culture in Ireland andddddd 5% is the fact that one of the presenters is called Niall (the same name as the Irish guy from 1D so...).

Christmas

I know christmas is ages away still. But i had a dream about christmas last night and i've been thinking about it.
Every year i always felt bad because there were so many people i wanted to give gifts to and just didnt have the money. Now i have been working and have a lil more so spend but I'm not going to to buy gifts for all my friends just coz i can. This year I am going to give a little something to people that have meant a lot to me and have done a lot for me, and not because they had to, but because they wanted to.
There are a few people in my life that are the definition of selfless. When i started working at my current job, one of the ladies gave me her spare uniform, and then later on she paid for everyones drinks and staff night, which was over $600 worth. Our band manager puts in so much time and effort without expecting anything in return. He does everything for free because he enjoys it. Matt's mother is always finding excuses to give me gifts, and considering that they have been on 2 trips this year and my birthday was 2 months ago I feel spoilt. I have a small group of friends that i talk to and catch up with frequently, and not because I see them at group gatherings.
I'm sad to say, but it seems that my best friend for years has a new best friend on top of the boyfriend who takes up the rest of her time. I've tried making an effort. I haven't cracked the shits with her, partly because that isn't who I am, but also because I shouldn't have to. That doesn't mean I'm not going to stop trying. But I'm not going to let myself get upset about it anymore.
As friendships wean, others form. I don't know how Zoe feels, but I think that by writing this blog together, we have grown a little closer, and know each other a little more. I know some of our friends follow the blog from time to time, but whenever I write I never think anyone would be reading it but Zoe. We share interests in some areas, and in others we don't, but we don't feel the need to be like twins or call each other Biffles all the time. Zoe already has one of those (ironically it is the new best friend mentioned above). We were friends in high school, but never close friends. I don't think we ever shared a class together, at least in the later years. But now we have left school, we have somehow grown closer. I can't imagine what our relationship would be like if we hadn't gone to archery with some of the guys and decided to start a blog together. I remember standing around outside in the shade watching Gavin play with his bow and set up our blog using Zoe's phone. I stand by what I've said before. It's always good to try new things.
So I am sending a big thankyou out to all the people special in my life, and they know who they are, or at least they will at christmas time.

Not Secret-Keepers

My group of friends, we don't keep secrets. We just don't. And I love it. I love that our group is tight knit enough that we trust each other with our secrets. Or maybe it's because we don't have good enough secrets that require keeping. I'm gonna stick with the first one though, that makes me feel better.
It makes me laugh sometimes too, that our boys are just as much gossips as our girls but I wouldn't have it any other way. I love that everyone tells everyone everything and that no matter what, it all gets out eventually.
I know that it pisses some people off but to them I say: simple solution, if you don't want anyone to know, don't tell anyone.
It's pretty much common knowledge that, if you tell me something I'm going to tell my best friends and considering that there's 6 or 7 of the people in our group I consider to be my "best friends" that's a lot of people, not to mention they will then tell their best friend etc. That's not to say I can't keep a serious secret, if I need to because I can. If it's something important I keep it to myself.

At first I thought it was just the girls that noticed and were amused by it. The other night though, I was having a chat with one of my guy friends and a "secret" came up and I was going to tell him but he's like "I already know."
Me: *shocked* "how do you know?"
And he just looked at me, "come on, we don't keep secrets."
It made me laugh, it always does, that we all tell each other everything. I love it. Partly because I'm a gossip and partly because it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy that I have such an amazing group of friends who I trust completely.

Dean-O

So in 2008 I went to North America with my mum and my cousin. We went to L.A. (Disneyland!), San Francisco (the home of Charmed) and Hawaii (Pearl Harbour). We were there in December which was fine in L.A. and Hawaii where it was still hot and amazing in San Fran where I saw snow! Slushy, two day old crappy snow but still actual snow in the city.
Anyway, because we were there in December in the streets they pipe out Christmas carols so when I came home I went nuts downloading all the Christmas carols I heard and this one, this VERSION, is my absolute favourite.

From the little chat he has at the start to just how amazingly deep his voice gets, I love it.

But really, what more do you expect from a member of the Rat Pack?

Respect

You don't have to prove that you're right. Admit that you are wrong and accept the consequences gracefully. That is where respect is gained.

Warning: whinging present.

Can I pay someone to do my physiology test tomorrow? I love physiology, but I'm just not prepared for  the test on respiratory and renal physiology.....I've lost my voice twice this week, worked, lost sleep, and I just can't be bothered studying for the 2 tests and oral presentation I have over the next 3 days.