wafblog v3.0

I’ve been pretty happy lately, which is a nice change. I don’t think I’m one of those people that can stay happy for long periods of time. Not sure if that’s because I’m overly critical or it’s just some odd personality defect. Anyways, I find that I’m pretty content at the moment. Most aspects of my life have resolved themselves or are at a stage where I can’t do anything at the moment.

Mike and I are doing well. It’s still all a bit new, I guess. Obviously there’s familiarity there – considering how long we dated before. But it’s also very different. I can see we’re both putting more effort in, and we’ve both matured a bit during the time we spent apart which makes it much easier to communicate and put things into perspective.

We went to see ‘Children of Men’ on the weekend (I LOVE Clive Owen… he’s not like uber-hot, but there’s something about his gruff voice and the accent). It was a pretty good movie. Different from most futuristic movies. I think because of the way it was shot, it felt very gritty and realistic. In one of the fighting scenes, some blood splatters on the camera lens and they keep it there whilst Clive Owen is trying to not to get killed in crossfire. I thought that was a nice touch. It was kind of obvious what was going to happen at the end, but I did think it was a different take on the future. Usually there’s some sort of view that all babies will be genetically engineered a-la ‘Gattaca’ where as this explores a world where no babies are born. Scary. I like Alfonso Cuaron, although I have seen that movie that made him famous (I will…), he is the one that directed HP: POA so I think he’s brilliant.

Work’s pretty ok at the moment too. I’m still worried that I will become disenchanted with the rat race and after 5 years of slogging it out I’ll just quit and move to the country. Except I can’t move to the country because everywhere is drought affected. Anyways, work is alright. Nothing to complain about as such and I am looking forward to next year as much as I dread it being too challenging.

Parents have been pretty good lately too. It’s been good since I finished uni. I think they’re just relieved that I’ve finished and I’m now on my way to having a career and all that sort of thing. They can sort of sit back and relax. Which they are, as they’re planning for retirement now. (Gosh, retirement seems like a lifetime away from here…) I think they’ll start berating me to clean my room, play violin, go for more driving lessons.. etc etc soon but I kind of accept now that they’re just like that and there’s nothing I can do about it.

Met up with Manda for a coffee on Monday. Felt like a yuppie, but neither of us really felt like drinking. Or maybe that was just me. It was definitely great to see her though, catch up, check out her short hair :o and see how well she survived Animania. I was a bit worried things would change, but they haven’t and we easily just slipped back into our usual chat-chat-chat. Going for drinks tonight at the Arthouse so that should be fun too.

I thought I would really miss LJ, e-mail, ICQ and the like while I was away. Which I did, but I’ve found that since coming back I haven’t really felt the urge to go online much. It’s kind of odd. Like, I’ll go online to check my mail but I don’t read any of the groups that I’ve joined and I skim alot of the community posts on my friends page. I don’t think that I’m losing interest in them or anything, I’m still as avid a fan of x, y and z as before just that reading fanfic for hours on end isn’t very appealing at the moment. Maybe I just need a break from all the fanbitching and fanboying. In any case, once I get back into VM, GA and OTH we’ll see if I go scouring for stuff. I also have to make time to watch the ORIGINAL SW trilogy, cos the DVDs arrived while I was away. I have already recruited Mike to watch them with me, but maybe I’ll see if I can convince people to come and watch a marathon of all six.

I’ve decided that Tekken: Dark Resurrection is the best game on PSP. I haven’t played it since I got back but I was playing it religiously in HK. Unlocked a few bonus games like Tekken Bowl (ten-pin bowling with your Tekken character) which is rather hilarious. Trying to only work on one or two characters, and become proficient in them, before trying others. It’s too hard to remember all the combinations otherwise. Also finding it hard to use the directional keypad in fighting, but I don’t like the analog stick on the PSP, it’s too small and in an awkward position for my thumb. Plus my thumb muscles hurt a lot if I use it for too long. Current fave character is Steve Fox. He’s a boxer, so he can’t kick, but he’s amazingly fast at repetitive punching. It’s cool that you can buy different clothes and things for him with the points you accumulate.

Went to the gym yesterday. I’m not particularly unhealthy after my trip, although my legs seem to have lost some strength. That or they’re not used to being stretch the way my trainer stretched them. I was doing some lunges (2nd set) when my right leg caved in. It was a bit scary trying to walk down the stairs at Central station, cos I kept feeling like my knee would buckle and I’d fall down but I managed to get home in one piece so that’s ok.

The categories on here are very easy to use, so in the next few weeks I might be adding a few more just to make it easier to tag my entries. We’ll see. I don’t want to add too many though as it might become unmanageable.

It’s been a while since I last updated. But I’ve been pretty busy so haven’t really had the time. Met up with Shree last Saturday week (hrm, not sure if that’s the right way to say it) to go shopping for Vinci’s 21st present. It was heaps good to meet up with her, cos I haven’t really seen her since last December and we don’t really get a chance to talk much considering uni and all that sort of thing. It’s interesting because I think sometimes you end up just always speaking to the same people all the time. Like, you see them fairly often and they know what you’re up to on a daily basis so it’s much easier to arrange to meet up and do things. And even if you’re good friends with someone you might not see them very often cos you’re off doing different things and time just sort of runs away from you. Anyway, we found a cool present and now I just need to wrap that up, find a mask for the masquerade and find a top to match my skirt. Simple really.

On the Sunday, I went to see the charity screening of ‘Hoodwinked’, which I enjoyed immensely. The movie is hilariously funny (especially Twitchy the squirrel – “I don’t drink coffee”) and quite well animated I reckon. I love the style it used with telling the four different stories to give you the full picture of how the scene happened and the jokes were funny without being crude. Ben Folds did a great song for the soundtrack as well, which Manda and I found thoroughly amusing. This was probably one of the best movies I’ve seen all year, considering the number of flops/disappointments this year I guess I’m not too surprised. There’s nothing coming out soon that I really want to see. Although I’ll likely end up seeing ‘Snakes On A Plane’ just for the hell of it.

Had another session with my personal trainer… and he’s started me on these squatting exercises (“The King Of All Exercises”) which left my legs totally killing afterwards. I spent most of the Wednesday hobbling around the office because I couldn’t walk properly without my thighs hurting LOL. Hopefully tomorrow’s session won’t be as bad. I guess it’s good to know that I’m getting some exercise though and that I should be getting fitter. I have noticed that my breathing seems more regular when I run, and I’m not feeling as short of breath now either which is definitely an improvement. I should try to go swimming some time but I don’t like the chlorine or having to shower afterwards and there’s no pool near me either.

The weekend just past was pretty good too. Went bushwalking (bushbashing) in the Royal National Park with Alan on Saturday. It had been raining a couple of days beforehand so everywhere was rather muddy and it did sprinkle a bit while we were out in the bush. The river was flowing nicely though so I think it was good to go after the rain. I haven’t been bushwalking in YONKS and I thoroughly enjoyed being out in nature lol. Sure, the gym is great for training but you can’t really beat seeing real trees and hearing birds and things like that. I did however complain about the mud every 5 minutes or so, and Alan said I should’ve just been happy that I conquered the mountain which was really a hill… :P I’ve got some photos which I’ll have to post up later when I’ve resized them down from the 3MB files that they are now. We were going to go tenpin bowling afterwards because that’s what I wanted to do but the bowling centre was totally packed when we went (damn kiddy parties) so ended up just going home.

I ended up going to a show with my dad on Saturday night because my mum was sick and dad didn’t want to waste the ticket. I’m really glad I went. I don’t know what the show was called, but it featured accordian players who did versions of well known classical and pop songs. It was really awesome, some of the songs they played. It was quite interesting for me cos I can play some of the songs and hearing them on a different instrument is quite amazing. Some of the songs they had a singer as well and she sang really well! All in all, I kinda left wishing I could play the accordian even though it looks really heavy and I don’t think it has the same finesse as a violin. It does however, look like lots of fun and would certainly allow you to play a wide range of songs. I wonder how much one of them costs?

Didn’t really get up to anything yesterday. I got up late and had to cook breakfast because mum was sick. It turned out better than I expected although the bacon was a little dry and I forgot to put the olive oil on the tomatoes. Guess I’ll know for next time. I was supposed to clean up my room, but I kind of got distracted listening to music LOL. Pulled out all these classical CDs that I have and was listening to some songs I haven’t heard in ages. Also had The Clash’s ‘London Calling’ on a few times which is a totally awesome classic album. Might have to get their other album as well and have a listen to that, I did like “Rock the Casbah” which I’d heard but didn’t actually click that it was a Clash song LOL.

It’s been a while since I last blogged although I haven’t been up to much. In fact, I didn’t really do much last week at all. I went to uni a couple of times to study, but it was fairly unproductive. Also got my lab report back and got 70 for it… which was fairly shocking considering the lack of work that went into it and the comments on our timing diagrams that said “what is this meant to show?”. What indeed. So my lab partner and I were pretty stoked about that. As long as we pass the final, we’ll pass the course.

Oh yeah, also was the last time I went to Dtecht. I met up with my supervisor to return some of his texts and he took me out to coffee. It was pretty nice, and it was good to speak about things not related to the project. He asked a lot about choosing courses and stuff, apparently IT is not popular this year, and there’s only like 30 students or something. Not sure if that’s strictly IT or BCST, but compared to when I was doing COMP1001, that’s a big change. It’s not too surprising though, I was doing those courses when IT was at its peak. I guess it’s a cycle and in a couple of years IT will re-invent itself and become necessary again.

Kind of went on a movie spree too. On Friday, I saw The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift because I had four hours to kill before Su’s goodbye dinner. Honestly, I never walk into a movie like that with any sort of expectations. I know it’s going to be shit. I don’t expect a plot, good acting or anything. I do however, know that the cars are going to be awesome and the racing scenes will be impressive. So I guess that’s why I can walk out of a movie like that and say it was good. Maybe this is why I can say quite a few movies are good LOL.

Su’s goodbye dinner was alright. Bit pricey cos we went to tapas restaurant. But I got to have meatballs and sausages and fried potatoes so you know, as if I’m going to complain. Went to French Riviera ice-cream place afterwards and got this mountain of ice-cream to share. I really should have taken a picture as I’ll never be getting that by myself. It was kind of sad, cos I know Su’s gone for at least three months, and by the time she’s coming back I’ll probably be going overseas myself. That’s if she comes back. But you know, everyone has to move on with their lives and go out and do what they want or need to. I never pegged her as being one of those people to go overseas to work. Oh wells, there’s always the phone and internet so it’s not like we’ll lose touch I guess.

On Saturday I ended up going to see Da Vinci code by myself. I’d heard mainly bad things about it, and for once they were warranted. I’ll admit right now that I have not read the book and I’m kind of glad I haven’t. I’ve read two other books by Dan Brown (Angels & Demons and Deception Point), and I found them both enjoyable but I think there’s only so much Dan Brown you can take at one time. So yeah, Tom Hanks’ Robert Langdon is not the Langdon I imagined from Angels & Demons, and I doubt the character changed that much in Da Vinci Code. Mostly I was just disappointed that the whole Sophie story arc was blatantly obvious about one-third of the way through the movie. It was a surprisingly L-O-N-G movie. Paul Bettany was pretty amazing as Silas, and Ian McKellen was brilliant as ever, but it just wasn’t enough to carry the movie. So yes, it was fairly bad.

Also saw ‘The Break Up’ right after that. Definitely not what I was expecting. I was sort of expecting some romantic-comedy or something, but definitely not. I’m not entirely sure what the point of the movie was. It didn’t leave me feeling anything, and I half believe the moral is “some relationships just don’t work out”. Well… that’s great. The acting wasn’t bad, and some of the stuff was rather funny but yeah.. I think the ending was just flat.

I finally found ‘The Boondock Saints’, took me a little while to find it as it’s a fairly old movie. But damn it was awesome. It’s gritty, it’s kind of funny and it’s rather gory. It’s a bit like Lock Stock, although not as fun. Billy Connolly at the end was magnificent, and the prayers that the boys say are thought-provoking. The entire movie was thought-provoking even though it’s based around a bunch of vigilantes.

After my exam I’m going to find the time to re-watch 12 Monkeys (my favourite time-travel movie) and Primal Fear, both of which I bought on DVD last weekend. I love 12 Monkeys because it’s probably the only movie where time-travel actually makes sense and doesn’t screw the story line. It also shows Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt in some of their best roles I reckon. I also love Primal Fear. The movie’s a bit of a mindfuck, because you never really know who the bad guy is or what’s going on… Ed Norton was awesome in this movie and the ending is so chilling. Definitely have to re-watch this.

Other than that, I’ve been spending all my time finishing One Tree Hill season 3, Gilmore Girls season 2 and then I started Grey’s Anatomy and I’ve finished season 1 and half of season 2. So much for study huh.

So yes, no more watching stuff until I’ve done some proper study. I’m working two days next week as well, so I really should do as much study as I can now.

This is one of the funniest online games I’ve played in ages. The idea is to mix the right cocktail (a classic Cosmopolitan, actually) and then have it graded. Well, I found it more fun to throw weird combinations and see what the bartender did. Enjoy!

Read two movie reviews, am tempted to make sure I get to see them when (if) they are released here. The first one is Hard Candy. It sounds extremely depressing in some ways, and yet should be thought-provoking, although the subject matter may be squeamish? The second one is Love + Hate. I like British films, generally. They’re usually not as showy as Hollywood films and tend to have a different narrative style. Looks like I’ll be spending some time in Dendy eh?

King Kong arrived by mail today! Well, the DVDs at least. I took advantage of their pre-order deal and got the one with the free copy of the production diaries. Pretty good! I don’t really like these ‘tins’ EzyDVD has, they kind of look ugly actually. Which is kind of annoying, because I pre-ordered the Final Fantasy VII – Advent Children tin edition as well. My main gripe is that the tins don’t stack nicely with the other DVDs cos they’re bigger.

I have a mid-semester tomorrow which I really should be studying for. And damn, isn’t it dinner time yet?

Why so? Because I bought something off them on eBay and I never received my package nor did I hear from them! Even after I’d sent the Paypal dispute. Doesn’t matter, PayPal has ruled in my favour (w00t!) and I got my money back. So there you go. This is the first time such a thing has happened to me. And I’ve bought quite a few items off eBay. I think one time an item didn’t come, and they resent it. And another time they sent the wrong item, so sent the right one and let me keep the wrong one. So I’ve never had a problem with it. Just this time. Least I got my money back. And, I checked their feedback. Looks like they suddenly got really bad, a lot negative feedback has been left in the last month or two. Hrmphf.

“Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices”.

Saw ‘V For Vendetta’ yesterday. Must say I was pretty impressed. It was a pretty good movie, considering the hype and its content. I don’t want to say too much, because I know some people haven’t seen it. But I will say, I was really impressed with Natalie Portman’s performance and Hugo Weaving was pretty good too. He has this really distinctive voice. Manda was telling me some Americans were like “Who’s Hugo Weaving?” and I was thinking.. obviously they’ve not seen “The Matrix” or “Lord of the Rings”? and “What rock do these people live under?” :P Anyways, I’d really like to see it again, just for the part at the beginning with all that alliteration. I’m going to understand it all next time I see it.