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 |   Nothing official here; just come chill! |
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Welcome! ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Welcome to my little Den! Here you'll find all sorts of things- mostly blog challenges, but mixed in, you'll notice:  I'm a bit of a fangirl  My life is very busy I enjoy using emoticons  I don't tend to swear, but stuff happens. |
Wow, that title just fit within the 60-character limit! 59.  Anyyyways, most of you know I was out scavenger hunting this morning (and if you didn't, now you do!) for WINGS. Delta Goodrem posted on her Twitter, clues about where to find the wings, and whoever finds them first gets a pair of front-row tickets. I've been waiting on this for days now (though it feels much longer), and this morning, I set a bunch of alarms to make sure I was up, breakfasted, and out of the apartment in time to find the wings.  I'd had a hunch previously that she would hide them at the Regent Theatre because she's been posting stuff about it recently as well, so I lurked in the Melbourne Central Station until it was time.. then she posted the first hint, when I was sitting on the corner of Swanston and Collins Street, and I went "OH MY GOSH YES." To the passerbys from this morning who saw me jump up and run off, I'm sorry for acting like a crazy girl.  I'm not usually like this.  I could go on and on about the hunt and what happened, but I guess I'll just give a synopsis- with the half hour I have left before leaving for the concert, I'm not sure if I have enough time to gush it all out. Long story short: I went running to the front of the theatre and couldn't find it after searching all the way around the front, and one guy I had asked at the front said there was nothing going on with Delta Goodrem, though, yes, they had performed there once upon a time. I kept searching, figuring it had to be there, and I looked through the tunnel/arch next to the theatre, then went "  The back! There has to be a back! Where do all the cast members go in? There has to be a stage door!" I semi-ran on the little curb to avoid the taxis and other cars, and by the time I got there, someone else was already holding the wings.  The camera guy was filming her and I'm pretty sure I went " Nooooo!" and he filmed that too.  I mentioned I was an exchange student from the US, and how much begging it took for Mom to say yes and let uncle buy me the ticket once it looked like he was done filming... and then he asked her who she would bring- and she said she was undecided, but she supposed she would bring me.  I'm pretty sure I was a babbling mess of "Oh my gosh, thank you so much!"s, and I briefly remember him filming us, asking "so what just happened?" "She just invited me to go to the concert with her!" I think is what I said.... ...So yeah. My positive thing for day 19: wonderful people of the world. Or Wonderful People of Melbourne. Thank you, Delta Goodrem, for this amazing opportunity, and thank you, Kate, for letting me be your +1!  And if there are some new readers on my blog, hello! I promise I'm not usually this ranty/gushy. My brain has almost turned to mush from the excitement of tonight. |
| With Christmas right around the corner (there are only eight more Fridays 'til then!)...do you pick up gifts here and there throughout the year, do you try to get as much as you can in as few trips as possible, or are you a last-minute shopper? And if you don't celebrate Christmas, tell us about your favorite gift-giving occasion. Found the prompt on someone else's blog and since I'm pretty much doing everything but studying right now, figured I'd add another blog post to the mix. I don't regret dropping NaNo, honestly, but I can't not write for a whole month. That's crazy! Hmm about gift-buying, I'm actually a "here and there" type of person because I'll see something in the store and go "ooh! X would like that." or I'll go someplace new and pick up souvenirs for everyone (mom and sis). Depending on the time of year, I may give it right away, or if something is coming up, I'll try to hide it and wait. Note, the operative word is "try".  As for Christmas: Mom is firmly stuck in the belief that we don't celebrate Christmas, seeing that we're Buddhist, and Christmas, well, it's a Christian holiday. I learned that lesson along with "if someone's name starts with Christ- or Chris-, they're typically Christian." Mindblown 3rd grader. No joke. Anyways, I say "belief" because every year our Buddhist community has a huuge celebration either right before or right after Christmas, depending on what day the 25th is- because there's usually Tuesday and Saturday meditation classes where the local community members can stop by to learn a bit about Buddhism and meditating. So it all depends if Tuesday or Saturday is closer to Christmas, and it doesn't matter if Christmas has passed, because then we can celebrate the New Year, as well. The emcee (usually The Dentist, as we call him in our family) loves to talk. Not loves, but LOOOOOOVES. *nods emphatically* Yeah so he can keep the "party" going until 2-3 am, even when we started around 7:30 or 8. Toldja he likes to talk.Anyways, before I start on that, let's continue with the Christmas gathering. We invite the meditation class members to the celebration and some of the elder gurus dress up as Santa, tying pillows to themselves for the round-belly-effect. then us teens/pre-teens/no-longer-teens help out the Santas by running back and forth from the tree to Santa so they can deliver the gifts efficiently.My junior year of high school, I became good-ish friends with a girl named Sara(h) in the community but she has since left and I don't think Mom thought too highly of her, besides her ability to help me pass my first semester of physics. Anyways, she got me a Bobbie lavender bear after the term was over, and a visor and notebook for Christmas. I think I remember that year the most because there were some pretty thoughtful gifts in the mix of re-gifts and outdated re-gifts, like the notebook and visor. I use the visor occasionally for Chinese Summer School, and I don't know where the notebook went. I have a bunch of journal-notebooks back in Australia though, some are kinda started, and some are brand-new, and some have disappeared to wherever journals go when they're misplaced.  Yeah, so that's our way of not "not celebrating" Christmas- and like I said earlier, my family and I kinda just give each other gifts at random. So besides New Year's, Chinese New Year's, and birthdays, we don't really do "gifts" because we just gift whenever there's something to gift. |
| Hmm 31st was 16 so today must be the 18th. I went back to Bouncefit today and I saw my mom. (two completely unrelated occasions- Mom was NOT at bouncefit. )Anyways, Mom's flight in the states was delayed (not enough baggage people to load the baggage ) and so she missed her connection flight in Sydney. They re-routed her through to here, and then off to her final destination. And since I had mistakenly taken her gray dharma robe for the art festival last weekend, I returned that to her, plus gave her an apple tea and a *rather heavy* book on cakes. Which probably made her backpack go way over the carry-on allowance, but they didn't check, sooo all's good. Also, they let me in to the QANTAS Club without a boarding pass. I just flashed my QC card and they're like "okay, you can go in." So I had my usual grilled cheese and tomato sandwich there, and then we discussed school, me changing majors (again)- I didn't tell her what, exactly, but she didn't seem to object too much- and my aunt.As for Bouncefit, I'm feeling a little sore already in the abs section, but I'm making progress on the slack line (blue and pink picture)- and I think I've realized controlling your jump takes a good amount of core muscle too. We didn't do the X-Park today, though, which means no real upper-body soreness. We played dodgeball at the beginning, which was fun. And I won. The best strategy (for me) is to lay low, and then strike only when you're almost guaranteed a hit. How it worked was everyone gets 3 lives to start, and once you're hit, you lose a life. I was hit once, and then I used a ball I was holding to hit away a ball coming at me. and then a ball hit my face, but face shots don't count. So it ended up being between me and one other girl (there were 4 of us, including the trainer), and then she tried throwing a ball at me, but since they're squishy balls I actually caught it, which meant she lost a life. so I was armed with 3 balls, to her one, which was lying very close to the border between us. So she reached down to grab the ball and then I got her on the shoulder. |
So I'm just gonna go ahead and do my entry for the 31st now because I just received a package from Kit  I've been waiting for, for about a week and half-ish now and when I got an email saying it had arrived, I just ran down to reception to get it. , like, literally, ran. I didn't bother to get changed since my PJs are acceptable street clothes- my Anthology T-shirt and a pair of jean shorts. I got to reception and was the lady she was like "oh, hi..." "Hi, I have a package waiting? *bounces*" And I just couldn't wait for her to return with it. Took her maybe a minute to locate it, and I was like "Hurry up already!" Not that I said that....  And when she came back out, it looked too small to be the pillow I ordered from Ebay, so I was like oooh, it HAS to be the package, right? I snapchatted it and saved it to my memories as well, but that picture is my bed strewn with the goodies I received. Jupiter (the plushie dragon), who arrived today, is hanging out with Nellie (the plushie bear), and Nellie is acting rather protective of her new plushie friend. Sis ended up calling me and we talked for an hour (it's been too long since we last talked) but she had to go since it was ridiculously early/later for her to be up and she had an interview in the morning- and she's gonna be working for Associated Press on Election Night. yeah, so back to the parcel.... What else can I say besides that I love the whole thing? I messaged shadowfanglerz afterwards too to enthuse about the package, and her response is in the picture. not really appropriate for my post, buuuuuuuut. Maybe I'll have to raise my blog's content, just for this post.  |
| Well Day 12 would've been Thursday, and Day 13 Friday, so I just changed that. And Day 12 wasn't really a great day. Actually, it was a rather terrible, ranty day.  But I'm here to be positive, so how's this: out of the terrible day came some really awesome friends. We Facebook called and I ranted, and then we talked for about 2 1/2 hours. And had it not been an unreasonably odd time to still be up on the other side of the world, we probably would've went on for even longer. And this is considering I don't talk much in person- when sis and I do calls, usually it's her talking about her newest journalism assignment or something. Come to think of it, I've barely talked to sis since the last time I saw her in person- so over a month ago. Should call her or something. Haven't talked to Owlz in forever too. I should message her, though I know she's busy studenting, like I am. Maybe the Yearbook EIC from last year too, just say hi or something and mention the Scavenger Hunt contest. I think she's a semi-Delta fan now because I've showed her Wings and Dear Life. Oh my, she deactivated her FB. Back to the topic.... Yeah I ranted, verbally, because typing out the words just wasn't cutting it. And when I was done ranting, we talked about so much other stuff that I forgot I had called to rant. And then I actually got to over 1000 words on the essay that night, after talking. So yeah, looks like it was a good idea to call, rant, and chat for the afternoon. We hung up right before Neighbours started, actually, so I hung up, watched TV, took a shower, had my meds, then essayed. So the day wasn't great, but the night wasn't terrible. WdC has some really cool people, by the way. |
| Okay I'm getting all fan-girly again. already and I haven't even really written anything substantial. Anyways, so the CD arrived at our Tassie address, and uncle brought it when they came for the weekend. And so now it's in my possession and I opened it today. And it's not just a slip of paper for the CD cover- it's a booklet- with all the lyrics and everything, and pictures and little scribbles and just OMG. I took pictures of that too so we'll see if those load?Like, "Heavy" has a little sad face next to it. And the whole booklet has "scratch" marks throughout it. Because it's mostly cat-themed. I mean, her first song is titled "Feline", so I guess it's a powerful thing? the song is definitely about being strong and powerful- which I admire in her. And the album is called "Wings of the Wild", with her and a cheetah, which is really neat because her back leg is covered in a cheetah print-y skirt which makes it look like she has a feline leg.Anyways, so I was stalking/looking through her social media today and turns out she's doing scavenger hunts on the day of her concert in each city. And if you win you get front row tickets (2) to the show that night.  and she gives good hints! Like I was following the Sydney one today, and the first hint looked like a park, the second hint was a bunch of flower emoties so I thought hey, botanical garden! and I was right. So maybe I have a good chance at winning next Thursday? I hope? Knocking on wood, because I don't want to jinx my chances, but at the same time, it would be so epically awesome to see Delta Goodrem live and be in the front row. I think my favorite new Delta Goodrem song from this album would be "Just Call"- the ending is really sweet. Actually, it's just the whole song. But my favorite stanza: You can spend your days living like you have lost Or you can change, rewrite the page We could set the world on fire for the day I'll be your flame, I will be your flame http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/deltagoodrem/justcall.html for the full lyrics. I think, for me, this is the ultimate feel-good song. And then the other one I really, really like is "Hold On"- it's also a sweet song, but more so in a "thank you for all you've done for me" sort of manner. Wrap me in everything that glows Light it up, light it up, light it up I found my skin underneath my clothes Light it up, light it up, light it up When everyone said that I lost my mind You're the one that got me through those times Everyone said that I lost my mind Wrap me in everything that glows Light it up, light it up, light it up Yeah, reminds me of high school a bit when Mom and I would fight almost every day about school and dance and why I couldn't go take more dance classes (2) when sis was obviously taking more tennis classes (2). She had three coaches for Pete's sake. Granted, one of them was a very old man who taught tennis more as a hobby than anything, and his strategies were anything but competitive. But considering I still lost against him, I must've been pretty bad. Oh and dance competitions, too. i wanted to compete with the tap team but mom would have none of it. Even when I pointed out sis was allowed to do all those USTA tournaments, so I didn't see why I wasn't allowed to do a dance team competition.I digress. Again. Anyways, the song is really uplifting, I think. It starts out with the string instruments and such, but it's more an inspiring sort of melody than a "bring out the violins for the sad music" sort of thing. And then the chorus of this song brings out the romantic in me and makes me go "aww I hope I find someone like that" You wrap me up in stars when I'm feeling the darkness You keep me on the ground when I light up the sky You kiss me on my scars when you know I've been broken When I was letting go you taught me how to fight http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/deltagoodrem/holdon.html for the full lyrics. Yeah and so ends my, umm, non-ranty, fan-girly rant about Delta Goodrem. |
| Yes, bouncefit! I think I'm gonna go again next week actually. Erm, this week. So I can get the buy three get one promo- I've gotten one already so it'd be a shame to waste it. And then the Delta Concert is on Thursday night so I'd do the 6:30 class, not stay afterwards to work on aerials more, book it back to my room to sleep, because then Thursday morning I need to be up early for the scavenger hunt. Okay, that got off-topic fast. Bouncefit- it was suuuper fun. I jumped higher than I imagined I would, and I can tell that because that light feeling you get at the top before you start falling down again? I was like "whoa, I'm pretty high up " and I got to do those straddle jumps which is fun because I like to work on my flexibility with those- the ones where you're doing a jump with the middle splits. It was my first time there, which means I was also the worst, but all of us were pretty bad, so it was a mutual thing of everyone cheering each other on, and going "hey, yeah, you can do it! good job! Woohoo!" We also got to go in the X-Park: so there was parkour, wall climbing, and much more. It's like American Ninja Warrior! They had the warp wall too but we didn't go on that. I took pictures and will probably post them with the blog if they ever get uploaded to my onedrive first. There's still quite a few photos and videos to be uploaded before they even get to the pictures of Bounce. Oh, and I am unable to do those cool jumps where you go backwards and then rebound back up. My neck has no muscles to keep my head in place (who woulda thought that your neck had those kinds of muscles in them as well?!) and so my head always snaps back and hits the trampoline. But I can do the knee bounce! Butt-bounce, not so much. I think I'm afraid of landing on that spot I hurt ice-skating and heely-ing and injuring it even more. And I learned a new way to try aerialing- instead of throwing your arms back, scoop them front. It's interesting because of the momentum difference, but at the same time, it makes me feel like I want to put my hands down more- not that I don't already, but I need to find a way to not put them down. I might try the holding something in your hands trick- hold the grip socks or something. Maybe I won't wanna put my fists down when I'm holding something. Who knows? |
| Mostly because I'm stressed, behind, and in desperate need of decent sleep. Anyways, read on if you want, but no guarantees you'll like what I say. I didn't have a terrible day, but the meeting didn't go very well- the Luo guy just talked and talked and TALKED. Like, OH, MY GOSH, can you not? Can you let me talk for a bit, please? I'd say about 3/4 of the time I spent in there was him talking about stuff not related to what I went to see him about.  A brief-ish summary of what happened- I was standing outside the door, and heard someone say "qi si le": 气死了, which ironically, is how I feel right now. "qi" the first word, technically means air, but in this case, I guess it means hot air, or the general aura. "si le", the other two words, mean "to death". "si" literally means death. So in this case it's like the Chinese version of "are you kidding me?" I'd add in some swear words but I don't want to raise the blog rating. Anyways:I was all like "okay.... let's proceed carefully here." *knocks on closed door very hesitantly and announces self after a few seconds* The door opens and a lady walks out. She seemed not too upset, I kinda figured it would be him. But he wasn't upset at me, thank goodness. Just told me to take a seat. It started pretty normal, with pleasantries, and then I showed him my hands, which are still peeling, and so he comments on the weather here, saying it's nothing like the weather in the US, is it? It's cold one day here, and hot the next. I agree, making it even more extreme- cold one hour and hot the next. Hey, it's a conversation, and it's true, so why not?So he asked me what I'm there for. I told him I want a retest for the oral. He asks my grade. I say 75%. And he pretty much dismisses it, saying 75% isn't bad and I can easily make it up in the final. And how these scores are raw scores, so depending how I do on the final, it can change. Ohhh-kaaaaayyyy..... THEN he goes on to talk about how some people do really well on the final but struggled to find their footing at the beginning of the year. Then they do fine in the class because they review the scores on the other written tests and see where they can help the student. But there are some other students, not to say they're lazy or anything, but those students start out doing really well in the class, then towards the end, they don't necessarily slack off, but they start to relax more, because they think they've got some native Chinese background, and they can get away with not studying so much. Okay, both of those describe me. I definitely struggled to find my footing but once I found it I slacked a bit, and now I'm still trying to refind my footing. Actually, I don't know if I ever did find my footing in the class because there was no real set schedule for it. And then he says they look for competence, performance, attitude, and confidence. He asked me if my parents speak Chinese, or if I have friends who speak Chinese. I told him Mom speaks Cantonese, and Grandfather and Uncle speak Mandarin. He asked if Grandfather is still alive. Yes, I tell him. He lives in Tasmania. I wouldn't have mentioned a person who speaks a language if they're not alive, because I'd be speaking to a dead person, now, wouldn't I? He asks how much Cantonese I know. I say I can understand more than I can speak. He jumps to the conclusion that I'm shy and can't speak in public. His solution: just get out there and talk to people more. Oh my gosh, seriously, just, no.  I gave a SPEECH on behalf of my grandfather when I was in middle school, okay? When push comes to shove, I'm NOT afraid of public speaking. I might not be able to hold a conversation in a group, but if it's just a one-sided thing where I'm talking and you're listening, I'll keep on talking until I've said all that I have to say.He also asks at some point, where I'm from and what I'm studying- and then he goes into how he was a primary school teacher in the rural countryside before he entered college, and he taught the grade 1s, and how it was all so nice, and the kids looked up to him, and all that lovely jazz. And how it's so unfortunate that the kids don't do that anymore- don't come up to him and share their lunch, their snack, etc. He was just young, and a big kid himself, he says. He also goes into the geography of where I'm from- oh, is your school close to this other one? See, I don't usually go to that state, but I have friends who ended up in this school, so whenever I fly and have a stopover at this city, I'll stay at their place. And I'm like, Oh no, it's actually closer to this school than the one you mentioned, and he says something about not knowing the geography of the place very well. So what does this have to do with my request, again?At the end he concludes its better for me to not retest and just focus my efforts on the final instead. Although I can apply for special consideration, seeing that I'm still suffering the effects of the Hand Foot and Mouth Disease. I can postpone it or see if they'll let me have a break in the middle to rest or eat something. I ask him how long the postponing will be and he says "oh early next year." Wait, what? "So you can't just delay it by a few days or something?" Then he goes into another long-winded thing about how the admin (not the academic faculty!) can get, well, not really lazy, but they're gonna be on holiday come December and you'll hardly find anyone around the school. Probably because they worked so hard from the beginning of the year and so now they just want to relax and such. So there's that. Now, on to the second rant. Because I'm ranty tonight. err this morning. And I've actually had this conversation with someone before so I know it's not just me who thinks this. What is it with people and using copyrighted pictures? If you're gonna use something that's not yours, at least hide their name! Firstly, the watermark is unattractive. Secondly, it tells the whole world that you took someone else's picture and decided to use it. Thirdly, it kinda sucks to be making your own images and selling them while others are using stuff they get from elsewhere and then sell it all around. And adding someone's name to an image that's obviously copyrighted doesn't make your image brand-new. Trust me, I checked on Pinterest and that's what they said in terms of downloading/editing other people's work- your new stuff has got to be significantly altered enough for it to be considered original. Adding an exclamation here, a few words there, isn't gonna do much for you. Yes, I know all the cute pictures are typically copyrighted. That's why I draw my own version of the cute picture. Yeah I copied it, but my drawing skills aren't that great, that it looks like a carbon-copy of what I was aiming for anyways. Plus, isn't it a great feeling to sit back and see the handiwork you did? And it's so much easier to make your own so you can control what goes where, and you don't have to say "oh I wish this part were like this," or "that part were this color, and combined with this picture here...." I'm not saying I've never taken people's pictures before, but I don't try to sell it, because it's not my work to sell. I've made sigs and such out of other people's stuff for my own use or photoshop practice, but that's about it. Are my expectations too high? Is this just an elitist thing I picked up from Yearbook in high school, that everything I do has to be original? I dunno. But I can only imagine how it'd feel to find out someone's been taking my stuff and selling it without my permission. That's like robbery, no? Just, online, so it's harder to catch. |
| So we got back from the arts festival thingy tonight and uncle felt like going on a power trip. First, he lamented that we didn't close the windows, then complained that I was wasteful for letting my OJ spoil (as if I planned that!) and then questioned my dinner choice. There was leftover pizza from the lion dancers' lunch so I took a piece and started munching.... And then uncle saw and went , as in " You're having pizza for dinner?!" and I actually said "there's absolutely nothing wrong with pizza for dinner." like, seriously, dude, just mind your own beeswax and all will be fine and dandy in your world and mine. Though I ended up having a kebab, two pineapple chunks, and a few bites of fish as well. And a mint Drumstick ice cream cone. Aaaand there may or may not be a cute guy in the organization I have a minor crush on, who stayed in the same apartment as us. Sis really doesn't like him because he's rather manipulative at times- he's actually on her "avoid at all costs" lists- but just from her retelling the stories of what happened, since I wasn't there, *shrugs* I can't judge, can I? Plus, I mean, he's kinda cute. And a lion dancer. |
You may've seen my newsfeed post- I met the President of the Victorian Legislative Council tonight. And I have a group picture with him, too.  Waiting on the photographer to finish editing it, but it's late here and he's also a lion dancer which means he needs his sleep so I told him just whenever he can get it to me is fine. So the short summary is in a xomment over at "Note: I met the President of the Victorian Legislative C..."- and now we're back at the apartment hotel. Actually I'm still in the same city where I usually live anyways, just living in an apartment hotel for the next two nights instead of my apartment. Anyways, I remember someone posted a note about some other family member actually being nice to them and it being an extremely rare occasion, and I mentioned the "Angry Dude", as my mom, sister, and I have nicknamed him, actually saying thank you to me as he was about to board the plane, the last time they came. (that's another story), but I think, on the whole, he might not be the best human being, but he knows how to be a decent person. Like, he offered me a pillow and blanket as we were just figuring out our sleeping arrangements tonight (6 people- 1 queen bed, 2 singles, and an L-couch) and he thought I was gonna be on the couch so he offered me the pillow and blanket. It's a nice gesture! And whether or not he actually meant it from his heart, well, just asking was good enough for me. Maybe I'm just choosing to see the good in him, I don't know, but hey, better than seeing all the bad and being like, 'Ugh I can't believe he used the kitchen sink to brush his teeth just now. I'm not gonna use that sink anymore. " (true story )But yeah, try seeing the good in someone you don't like very much, and maybe you'll actually get along!  Even if it's just a short period of time. |
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