wafblog v3.0

I went to the doctor on Sunday, and was meant to get a blood test as previously mentioned. I took my mum with me, as she knows a lot more about these things than I do so she could ask some questions about the test and also to request the specimen be sent a specific lab. Anyways, when we got in, she asked the doctor what sort of tests were being done and it took a few times before he replied “allergy tests” rather rudely. Then when she asked about sending it to a specific lab, he got rather aggressive and was all “Do you want treatment or not?! This is how we do things here.”. Well, as far as I know, a patient has the right to choose where they get their health care from as well as where their specimens and other tests are done. Moreover, I’ve never been to a doctor that has been so vague about the sort of treatment they are giving. Normally (and so it should be), they’ll tell you exactly what the test will (and won’t) tell you. Otherwise, what’s the point? Most people will want to know exactly what is wrong with their body – and what they need to do to as a result. I think I’m just more annoyed that he was so rude and wouldn’t answer our questions. Obviously, we left without the test being done – which is somewhat of a conundrum as well because now I’m not going to know what the test could have told me. Although, I maybe go back to my normal GP and talk to him about it. I think it will be a long time before I set foot inside a medical centre again – the treatment and level of care you receive when you visit one of those places is just not acceptable.

Other than that, weekend was rather boring. I cleaned up my room a little bit although I have a fair way to go. Big Day Out tickets arrived, so I’m quite excited. Also installed some RAM into my dad’s computer so hopefully that will shut him up for a bit. Oh, and bought a few suits before I start my new job. Guess it was still a pretty relaxing weekend, and was productive enough. I still have to do quit a few things before I go on houseboat and want to make sure they’re done so parents get off my back about it.

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This has not been a very good start to the year. I was coming home yesterday after the gym, and I don’t know what I did, but I snapped the frames of my glasses. So now the whole right arm has detached and obviously, I can’t wear them. This is rather annoying as I am quite attached to my glasses. Luckily, I had bought a new pair before I went to Europe, so I’m wearing them now. They weren’t meant for day-to-day wear though – I only intended to use them when dressing up. The lenses are thicker because they’re rimless frames, so the light refracts into the lens differently. Plus, the light reflects on the edges making them much more obvious to me. This pretty much means that my glasses are giving me a headache from wearing them for too long. I’ll be going to the optometrist tomorrow to see if they can be fixed (soldered) back together, but I kind of doubt it which means I’ll have to fork out like $300 for a new pair.

So, during my 10 days off I went to see the doctor because my eczema was unmanageable and I was having lots of trouble sleeping. He gave me prednisone, which I’d expected, and since taking it my skin seems to have calmed down a lot. I’m hoping that it’s broken the cycle and if I keep putting cream on it it’ll be ok. I’m going for a blood test on Sunday so hopefully that will shed some light onto what I’m allergic to so I can avoid it like crazy in the future. I’ve also cut a bunch of foods from my diet now, ones that are well-known allergens and I could have an intolerance too. It kind of sucks, but I suppose I don’t have much choice.

I’ve become somewhat addicted to this lemon-scented tea from Twinings. I drink it at work, and originally I was drinking like one a day. Then it became two a day… now it’s like three a day. It’s rather nice by itself, no need for sugar or milk so that’s cool. I’ve also taken to drinking camomile tea at night before bed. It is rather soothing and helps me to sleep so I’m quite impressed. Admittedly, it doesn’t taste that great, but tolerable enough.

Oh yes! In other news, I got tickets to the Big Day Out. Which is totally AWESOME. There’s no other word for it but AWESOME!!! After Homebake, I’m quite excited about seeing Eskimo Joe and The Butterfly Effect again. But the band I’m most stoked about seeing has got to be The Killers. Wooo. I’ve even listened to some of My Chemical Romance, but I don’t really like them on first listen. This time I’m going to remember a camera, and will definitely post up good photos afterwards :D

Started playing Tekken again, hoping I don’t get RSI this time. I’m getting better with Jin now, although he has this 10 hit combo which I don’t think anyone can pull off. It is kind of fun to customise your characters to play against the CPU. I did also try out Lemmings, but I think Mike enjoyed it more than I did. They are very very cute and hopefully I’ll get enough time to sit down and have a proper go at some of the more challenging levels. Must try to finish a game.

I was also looking on some of the PSP sites – seems they’ve released a custom firmware (3.02 OE-B) which allows you to loads PSX ISOs from the memory stick and play them on the PSP. So I can d/l the ISOs or buy some off the Sony site. I’m quite interested in investigating it, and M1ke e-mailed saying that he had got it working and it was pretty cool. To be honest, I’m not really sure what PSX games I’d want to play on the PSP considering the number of games I have at the moment that I haven’t played, but the possibility of having that entire library available to play – awesome.

We’ve also started playing Guild Wars again. Prophecies, not the expansion. Seems silly, but we never finished the game, and well – it did kind of get boring playing by myself all the time. The NPCs are complete idiots and never heal you properly so unless you’re heaps buff you’ll usually die. So yeah, playing about an hour a day is slow progress, but still fun. Not sure I could play for hours everyday anyways, but I do enjoy completing quests and getting items and things like that. Not sure what specialty I’ll make my necro yet. Most likely I’ll level the attributes for raising bone horrors and that sort of thing – I don’t like the curses much but maybe I haven’t got the good ones yet. I’ll be adding elementalist as my second profession so hopefully that’s a good combination. At the moment just waiting to get out of this ‘n00b’ part of the game.

Whoops. I had a draft sitting in WordPress since Thursday that I’d forgotten about. I’ve published it ‘as is’ cos I don’t even remember what else I was going to say. Plus, lots of other things have happened since then.

I graduated on Friday :D I shall be posting photos up soon. Turned out to be a rather hectic day – mainly because I slept in a bit (yeay!) and then mum made us late. But, I still made it to uni in time to get my gown, take a few photos and make it into the hall with time to spare. So that was pretty good. I also didn’t fall down the stairs after collecting my degree, which was a relief. It rained a little bit before the ceremony so we were quite worried that we wouldn’t be able to take any good photos, but afterwards the sun was out in full force. Quite lucky I must say. Also glad the ceremony only went for an hour so didn’t have to try to stay awake. The quote the guy used at the end was pretty amusing too – “Remember to always be yourself, after all, everyone else is taken”.

Manda, Mike and I headed off to the Arthouse to meet up with M1ke who also graduated on Friday in an earlier session. He was only here for a few days and I wanted to meet up with him before he went back to Japan forever. Didn’t end up staying there for long and not that many people turned up, but it was nice anyways. I’d organised dinner with my uni group and this had caused major heartache just planning it. I don’t really wish to rant about it again as I’ve ranted about it more than once now to several people and it’s out of my system. I am still a little disappointed but it’s ok, I’ve learnt my lesson. I enjoyed the meal at Macchiato and it was great to catch up with everyone. It’s difficult to organise those sorts of group outings now as everyone’s working and very busy in general so definitely nice that they made effort to come. After dinner, a couple of us went up to Danny and Cherryl’s office. Played foosball for a bit (lots of fun, but I’m so crap) and then ended up going to Pancakes with the others. I doubt I’ll be going back to Pancakes for a while. I should also note that of late, I’ve found service in the restaurants to be absolutely appalling. In Tony Romas they totally jipped us, in Macchiato it was just slow (and wrong) and in Pancakes it was also slow. For restaurants that are generally considered to be good this was rather frustrating.

Met up with Manda and M1ke for Thai on Saturday. I survived, so I’m happy. Of course, eating fried rice every time I go to a Thai restaurant could become boring very quickly. Plus, to me anyways, Thai food seems like Chinese food with chili and more oil. Neither of which I actually like. Didn’t do much else until the arvo, when Manda finished class. We decided we’d ‘wing it’ for once, and not plan out our entire day. So we made little paper thingies to choose our activities for us. This turned out to be ‘Zoo/Manly’ and then dinner at Kansai (all you can eat sushi for $25!). All you can eat sushi was awesome :D Although the sake was not so awesome and I am now all sushi’d out LOL. We ate quick enough to have time for a ferry trip to Manly and back, which was heaps nice. I think growing up in Sydney, or even Australia for that matter, you’re surrounded by water and beaches so there’s a great appreciation for those sorts of activities. I haven’t been on the harbour since the Anime Christmas Cruise about a year ago…

I keep on thinking of things to write about and then forgetting about them when I get to a computer to blog. Annoying.

First things, got a package in the mail from uni. I will be graduating on November 24th, 2:00pm ceremony. W00t. So 5.5 years of study, procrastination, stress, not going to class and late night assignment work have paid off. I think I’m just glad that it’s over. It seems like uni’s been over for a long time, considering I was only in one day a week last semester and had my final exam back in June. Still, I do miss it and maybe when I look back in 20 years time they will be the best years of my life. Who knows?

I got a call on my mobile from a telemarketer yesterday. Totally screwed my chi for the day. I was like “No thanks, I’m not interested”, and she was like “What if I said we’ll give you a Telstra 850 3G phone for free?”, “I’m still not interested.”, “But you won’t have to pay anymore than you currently are?”, “Look, nothing you say is going to change my mind”. To which she said, “I hear what you’re saying, but we’ll give you a free phone”. By this time I was really really pissed, because I was at work and I had been nice and polite in trying to get her off the phone. I just got so fed up, I told her if she kept talking I was going to hang up. So of course, she said (again), “I hear what you’re saying..” so I said goodbye and promptly hung up. Hearing is not the same as listening, idiot. At least it seems to answer the question of who all those bloody “Withheld” calls I was getting were from.

So I’ve been listening to the Angels and Airwaves album recently. I guess it is punk, although not the sort of punk that I normally like (The Offspring, Blink 182, early Green Day, some other band I’ve forgotten – maybe it was Unwritten Law but I think they were ska). It’s more… melodic and less chugging. There’s also some actual singing. It feels a bit pop, but the tunes are catchy and the lyrics have much more substance. Let’s face it, some of the Blink 182 lyrics were really stupid. I’ve kind of realised that posting up lyrics is in no way a reflection of how good a song is, but it’s not like I can post up an mp3. So how to convey what I really like about a song?

When all is said and done
Will we still feel pain inside?
Will the scars go away with night?
Try to smile for the morning light
It’s like the best dream to have
Where every thing is not so bad
Every tear is so alone
Like God himself is coming home to say

I, I can do anything
If you want me here
And I can fix any thing
If you let me near
Where are those secrets now
That you’re too scared to tell
I’d whisper them all aloud
So you can hear yourself

Green trees were the first sign
The deepest blue, the clearest sky
The silence came with the brightest eyes
And turned water into wine
The children ran to see
The parents stood in disbelief
And those who knew braced for the ride
The earth itself then came alive to say

I, I can do anything
If you want me here
And I can fix anything
If you let me near
Where are those secrets now
That you’re too scared to tell
I whisper them all aloud
So you can hear yourself

I’m sorry I have to say it but you look like you’re sad Your smile is gone; I’ve noticed it bad
The cure is if you let in just a little more love
I promise you this, a little’s enough

(Just a little…)
Angels and Airwaves – A Little’s Enough

So I spent the weekend cleaning up room. This caused much tension between my mother and myself. I’d agreed to clean up my wardrobe before I left because my aunt had sent down a bunch of corporate-type wear that she can no longer fit into. This kinda meant that my wardrobe expanded four times straight-away (even after ditching the less desireable items). In fact, I had to send my dad out to buy me an extra hanger thing. Which was fine. I ironed the 50 shirts that I’d left in the basket since summer whilst watching “Underworld: Evolution” and then “Walking with Beasts”. “Walking with Beasts” was pretty awesome actually. I wish I’d gotten “Walking with Dinosaurs” as well.

Anyways, my mum went on a rampage about the state of my room. I should admit that my room is fairly messy and has been deemed a health hazard on numerous occasions before (re: four year old Coke bottle) but this time, it’s just piles of notes and books from uni that I haven’t gotten around to sorting out. So yeah, everytime I sat down for like 5 minutes my mum would come and yell at me and be all “why aren’t you cleaning your room?”. Drove me up the wall. I should be able to clean up most of it fairly quickly. Mostly it’s just determining what stuff to keep and what to recycle. But really, I think I would have been more productive if she’d just shut the fuck up and let me get on with it. Plus I got the ‘ungrateful child’ speech, which usually just makes me want to gag. I think I should take back previous comments about things at home being good. I’m wondering if she’s just being like that because she’s losing control over me. These days, I don’t tend to ask if I can go out – I just tell her that I am. I have no real financial dependence on my parents and I don’t really consult them on things. We’ll see how it goes. I would like to move out sometime next year, but I’m not sure if it’s financially feasible and I’m enough of a control freak to want to make sure that everything is going smoothly first.

Other exciting news includes the shooting that was happened in my work building on Friday morning. There’s a nightclub at the bottom of the building, and apparently at 1am three men in balaclavas drove up and shot some 30+ bullets into the front glass doors of the building. Near the actual entrance to the nightclub but didn’t damage it. It was a little scary to walk to work on Friday morning and find the usual entrance blocked off with police tape and media cameras standing around outside (especially as I didn’t know what had happened). I was sorely tempted to whip out my phone and take pictures with my camera of the bullet holes and the shattered glass. I actually wondered if someone hated RailCorp enough to come shoot at our building. The most annoying thing though, was not being able to use the normal liftwell. I had to use the other one, go to Level 9, walk across the level, go up to 16, change again, and then go to level 26. It was a real deterrent to going downstairs for a coffee. Not that it stopped us. I’ve since read in the paper that they suspect the shooting may be in connection with the owners not paying protection money or something.

Went to Equilibrium for drinks after work on Friday for one of guy’s birthday and also cos someone else retired. We got there just before 5, which was cool cos it wasn’t packed. But two of the people got there late and were refused entry to the bar citing that there was a RailCorp function and they weren’t on the guest list o_O This seemed rather dodgy considering that we had gotten in, and we were in the public area of the bar, not a function room. Anyways, they left, and we all walked out in protest. Apparently one of the guys stayed to give the bouncer a piece of his mind using four letter words. Heh. My boss was telling me yesterday that Equilibrium was also the scene of a shooting later that evening. So maybe it was good that we left. Maybe they should train their staff in customer relations to avoid this sort of thing happening in the future. All in all, a very exciting day LOL.

Went to Hurricane’s for dinner last night with Mike, Manda and Travis. Was lots of fun, and I always enjoy their company. The good thing about Hurricane’s is that there’s heaps of meat and you fill right up. I can’t believe I forgot to order extra Monkey Gland sauce, but I did take a picture (monkey!). Bondi is totally dead on a Monday night, I was quite surprised. But I’m guessing that’s because it’s winter and people don’t want to dine outside when there’s gusty wind. I wish I was able to afford dining out more often, as I’d really like to be able to spend more time with friends and try new foods. Maybe when I come back.

Hrm, I think I overreacted to something Mike said/did last night. I mean, he was being insensitive, but I really should have handled the situation better rather than I did. I’m not sure why I’m so insecure or why I reacted in that way. Normally I would have been able to laugh that sort of thing off and it would have been fine. But this time I just didn’t see it that way and reacted rather adversely. Maybe I’ve changed more than I thought I had. And not really for the better either. Or maybe I just find it harder to hold in my emotions anymore.

What else? New seasons of TV shows will be starting soon. Pity I won’t be at home when they come out. I’ve been trying to find new things to watch as both “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives” lost their appeal to me early in the second seasons. There’s a whole bunch of shows that have been on in the U.S. that we never hear about here. I guess it’s same for the U.K and stuff. It’s a pity Australia doesn’t make many shows beyond crappy soaps like Neighbours and reality TV that makes me want to cry or hurl things at the television set.

I’m so happy for you
I could cry
Yeah, I’m so elated
Cross my heart and hope to die

I don’t normally remember my dreams. Most of the time I wake up and I don’t remember dreaming at all. Other times, I’ll wake up and have a few lingering images in my head. About a week ago, I had the most bizarre dream. Someone I know (and I won’t name who), was trying to kill me. And it was in this weird stalkerish way. I was walking down the street with a friend and this person would come and taunt me. It wasn’t violent or gory, and I woke up before anything particularly unpleasant happened. I just feel really weirded out for like, the next three days. I think I’m *still* weirded out about it, because the person I dreamed was trying to kill me is someone I actually know and would consider a friend. I just found it really unnerving because usually I won’t remember what I’ve dreamed, and honestly, I don’t really remember ever having a nightmare like most people do. I’ve never dreamed that I was falling into a bottomless pit. This is the first time I’ve ever (remembered) dreaming about being chased like that.

But right now
Everything you want is wrong,
And right now
All your dreams are waking up,
And right now
I wish I could follow you
To the shores of freedom,
Where no one lives.

Onto more pleasant things, I had my first session with my personal trainer yesterday. My body is punishing me today. My arms/shoulders hurt from doing push ups (I only managed 8 proper ones \:) and my thighs hurt from the run. But, I did rightly guess that I could only make it 5 minutes running. The personal trainer seems pretty nice, and good at motivating people. However, his favourite phrase is “challenge your body”, closely followed by “overcome the challenge”. That is somewhat aggravating, but I get what he’s saying and what he’s trying to do. And honestly, I’ll achieve much more if I have some goals than if I keep going the way I normally do and don’t push myself. I just have to remember not to take the stairs the next day.

But right now
Everything is turning blue,
And right now
The sun is trying to kill the moon,
And right now
I wish I could follow you
To the shores of freedom,
Where no one lives

I’m sweating it out at the moment, waiting for my uni results to come out. The MyUni thing says that official results will be mailed out mid July. Well it’s mid July dammit, so why aren’t they at least online? So I am a little worried about my marks, but really I just want them back so I can move onto other things and know that uni is finished. I guess I just want to have one less thing to worry over. I must be one of the most impatient people around, so I hope they realise this and send my results SOON.

I wanna be the first to call and tell you
Yesterday I heard the news
I hear you oughtta be congratulated
So I guess that’s what I’ll do

I’m a bit confused at the moment. I’m not entirely sure I know what it is I want anymore. Or it’s like that work/love/house triumvirate thing is not all it could be. (If you don’t get the reference – watch ‘Secret Life Of Us’). I’ve got the work part, and it’s going well. Job’s good, a bit boring, but most days there’s something new and I’m not looking at exactly the same spreadsheet. The house thing is ok too. Parents are a little more relaxed than they were before, and I’ve got more freedom to go out and do what I want. It’s a really good feeling although I keep having this feeling that my parents are going to turn around and find some reason to stop me from going out and doing what I want. So that leaves the last part. I guess I just want concrete answers. I want to know where I should be heading, and what I should be preparing myself for. Everyone reacts differently, and everyone deals differently. That’s cool. I react by shutting down. Or annoying my closest friends with the incessant need to dissect everything into little pieces. I guess that’s just how it works. I don’t like uncertainty. It’s much much easier to make decisions if you know all the facts. Which comes back to Rosi’s current philosophy that you make your decisions based on what you know at the time and you have to be satisfied you made the right decision. That whole no regrets thing didn’t work out so well.

I don’t think about you every night
Before I close my eyes
I’m so happy for you baby,
I could cry.