I've missed the bitter taste of defeat. It reminds me of my childhood in Korea. Gooood times.

In other news, I've come to the realization that if I pass all my subjects this semester, I'll have to do an internship at some horrible firm this summer. SUMMER. As in, you know, those three months I've grown accustomed to spending asleep. As such, I've been forced to devise a dastardly plan to avoid such a travesty. It's all very simple, you see. In fact, it's hardly dastardly at all... It's actually so far from dastardly that I feel sick just thinking about it. Where, oh where did I lose my way? But ahem. The plan is as follows: I just have to fail Investment Analysis. And let's not kid ourselves; it was going to happen anyway.

So now I ask unto you these questions three:

1. Should I even buy the textbook?

2. Wasn't there supposed to be a third question?

Furthermore, I finally won that damn seal from one of the two-armed claw machines at Capitol. The boys wasted a lot of money at the arcade for my birthday, so I also won three gloomy bears and the hoop-shooting challenge. But you know what bugs me? DO YOU, VIRTUAL SPACE? It's that damn 'I <3 NPV' shirt. You don't tell someone you've got an amazing gift idea for their next birthday that's ten freaking months away and swear you won't fail to deliver, then when the time finally comes give them a shirt and write in their card that it isn't the amazing idea you talked about a while back but that it's pretty awesome anyway. No. What the hell is that? Despicable.

Where'd all this unjustified malice come from, you ask? It is, of course, because I'm supposed to be writing things. LJ's always been there for me whenever I desperately needed to procrastinate, and somehow that inevitably tends to produce meaningless ramblings - the likes of which the world has never seen! But fear not, world. It's not you I'm after. No... I've got much bigger fish to fry. Dory, for example. Heck, even SALMON. Cower before me, denizens of the sea - your days are numbered. I've numbered them myself! I may not be able to analyze investments, but I can - nay, I MUST - account.


Have at thee, citizens. And keep ridin' the walrus.

After finally returning to civilization university and all the awkwardness that entails, I've been avoiding doing anything remotely productive like the plague. So in effect I suppose all that means is that nothing has changed in the past four months aside from me now having to drag my lazy butt to class four days a week ie. having to sleep in a lecture theater instead of at home. But I should really be making use of that time, so I'm thinking of getting an Alienware laptop so I can sit at the back and GAME through chlorophyllmacroeconomics-guy talking about godknowswhat. Unfortunately, if I want to play CS I'll really need my arcade stick...which would probably take up too much space and end up being too noisy considering the rooms are a whole lot smaller for the subjects I'm taking this semester.

In other news, my fingers are getting blistered from playing the autoharp...which makes playing the keyboard unnecessarily painful - not that being unable to read music properly doesn't make it painful enough.

But yes. Can't bring myself to do any work. Maybe it's the weather, but I think the fact they've classified me as 'at risk' for not having a particularly strong maths background is just making me want say 'pffft I'll ace your lousy subject without doing even the minimum amount of work - so put that in your pipe and smoke it! >:(' but that's really just hollow fantasizing. My ego's saying 'no it's not!' after making that dream a reality with a couple of subjects last year, but my luck has run out, as evidenced by my shameful performance at the arcade last night just as I was almost getting Sharms off the Ragna bandwagon.

So I think I've just convinced myself to take the Quantitative Business Analysis textbook out of its plastic.

Farewell, sanity.
You will be missed.

Most recent holiday highlights include:
Going on a slurpee/pet shop visiting adventure featuring $10000 Macaws sitting around and $8900 baby African Greys, getting to see Mickey again, going to an alternative music concert at which performances included the playing of the top half of a clarinet and the airy/papery sounds of opening and folding an accordion...which went on for half an hour and was quiet enough for my phone vibrating while on silent to cause a disruption, finally winning a game of pool, thoughtlessly vowing to get a pink unicorn phone cover, reading choose your own adventure stories at 3am, relating the extensive storyline of Blazblue to a bunch of people, seeing their perplexed expressions, going to the markets and getting a wooden build-it-yourself sort of carousel set, successfully assembling the carousel, rummaging through more JayJays sales piles, vowing to buy furniture, going to look at furniture stores, not actually buying any furniture, baking and perfecting an improvised recipe for cookies, buying peppermint magnums and hiding them at the back of the freezer so they wouldn't be stolen, joining strange online communities, making another attempt to draw things with the graphics tablet, going to the arcade to play BB: Continuum Shift and miraculously getting up to the last boss and beating some guy who challenged me until he gave up and left, playing more impossible skill testers for gloomy bears, going to the Chinatown night markets again and the 70% off renovation sale at that already enormous morning glory, finding that the Aquarium was still expensive at 9pm and then descending the stairs leading into the ocean instead, catching the monorail and staring out the back windows of the last car, going to the 2010 natsu matsuri in the pouring rain, getting 'snow corns' there, seeing an awesome taiko performance, terrible jrock bands with Caucasian lead singers pulling bad Japanese accents, a cosplay parade most notably featuring pacman and the ghosts, a yukata contest, eating barbecued squid tentacles, sitting next to the taiko drummers at lunch, playing Blazblue at the arcade again but this time getting my ass handed to me by Tager who was only the fifth opponent *sobs* and getting Mint Chocolate Fudge at Darling Harbour, attempting to learn Waltz of the Flowers on the keyboard, making half-baked plans to play the violin, spending hours playing taipei, reading and trying to translate a bunch of hilarious Blazblue comics, making that avatar, discussing Pokemon toys from the late nineties, re-watching the Aliens movies, hating David Jobst, and making more plans for the few short weeks I have left.

More highlights include: finding out that the mystery box actually retails for $17.95, getting pessimistic-message sticky tape from Burwood, reading excerpts from angsty YA fiction, waiting for a ghost bus that doesn't exist, seeing more Christmas lights, playing in a muddy park near one of the fancier decorated houses, washing the mud off my shoes in a bathtub, playing the broken violin, returning to Mannie's Munchies, going to Officeworks solely to kill time, searching for halogen light bulbs at Woolworths, getting wrong directions to Parramatta Park, playing hot potato/pass the parcel, getting a mood ring with such explanations as 'sin resolver', going to an all-you-can-eat buffet and wasting almost everything, poking at the fish eye and ruining perfectly good food with too much salt, pepper, gravy, butter and coffee, earning my second free drink at easyway, complaining about everything while playing pool, only being able to make great shots when no one was watching, spending Christmas eve in hiding, spending Christmas in hiding...and watching Bad Santa, getting a half-hour-long phone call from Shelley explaining why she didn't send me a 'Merry Chrsitmas' txt, reading Penguin classics, watching the anime version of Hana Yori Dango, winning a set of mini playing cards from a New Year's Eve party cracker, guessing the answers in Pictionary from insanely minimal clues, realising that raspberry Cruisers taste like water, staying up until eight in the morning primarily by singing, spending New Year's Day annoying emus and making friends with the swearing cockatoo at Central Gardens and then getting KFC and then getting McDonalds and finally getting a new lamp, cleaning my room and inhaling a dangerous amount of dust over a seven day period, getting exhausted hunting for sales but ending up with some awesome shorts, rediscovering how bad the Merrylands shopping mall is, reading a few more novels, watching My Boss My Hero, going to Luna Park, putting my unremovable day-pass/wrist band on the wrong wrist, actually going on heaps of rides, nearly falling out of heaps of rides, missing out on most of Coney Island for not wearing enclosed shoes, NOT injuring myself on the big slide, going on the Pirate's Revenge three times, hiding from the automatic camera all three times, having a screaming match with the small children on the tug boat ride, having a giant scotty dog toy won for me after heaps of tries, repeatedly being told that the dogs weren't allowed on the rides, facing the scariest ride of all: the carousel, getting out of there in one piece with minimal bruising, joining a crowd of people to watch the machete and medieval weapon juggling man, seeing Avatar at imax, finding that some people can't even show up to their own house as per arrangements, digging through sales piles at the Winston Hills JayJays, gawking at a guy with a Cyndaquil tattoo on his arm, learning that among the other dolls with normal names at a toy shop, the golliwog's name was Christmas Boy, watching Pokemon 2000 in a whole new light, eating Jive bars, insulting The Grosen One, wearing unwearable heels to dinner, and being one of the only three under 30's within a sizable radius. Stay tuned for more adventures!

Hollydays
Highlights include: claiming my first free drink from easyway, learning kanji at good old UTS library and procuring a mystery box, uncovering the truth behind the mystery box, seeing New Moon and sharing the love seat with Sujee, being refused the kid's meal, seeing the China Town night markets, getting ice cream at Circular Quay, going to Cold Rock near Riverside, Formal dress shopping, getting sticker photos, seeing Happy Family Plan from so far back that people's heads were completely covering the subtitles, taking a suit for drycleaning along a strange and mysterious bus route, going to Guildford League's, going to P.J.Gallagher's, playing the pokies there, waiting for Sujee to close up at Woolworths, playing pool, doing online L's tests, not being bothered to take the real test, naming the cockatiels in pet stores, eating sickeningly overpriced treats at Nut'n'Fancy, buying 12m of embroidery lace from closing down $2 stores, buying supplies to screw the rules (ie. green hair), playing the drum game and skilltesters, looking for another mystery box, getting inferior icy treats from market city, picking out office furniture and lugging a bonsai around, buying a fabulous kokeshi bag, eating numerous fillets boxes, a picnic with fabulous brownies and chocolate strawberries, a nature hike, a midnight screening of Bobobo bo Bo-bobo, Guitar Hero World Tour, a viking extravanganza in honour of Lief Eriksson day with papier mache helmets, gold coins galore, an advent calendar and a glorious roast, burning a cake (and almost a table), watching Marine Boy (and everything else on GO!), discussing plans of action with 7 different people and not going through with any of them, catching the Loop and the Free CBD bus more times than I can count, finishing at least 10 novels, beating my Rubik's cube best time, playing Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland, frolicking about Toys R Us, getting lost in JB-HiFi, shoe-shopping, looking for an ocarina at the music store, re-watching almost every episode of The Office, going mad waiting for Blazblue Continuum Shift (follow-up to THE perfect fighting game), driving around looking at Christmas lights, getting exploited by those ice-cream trucks that park near the most extravagantly done-up houses, singing along to Disney classics in the car so loudly that other drivers stare when stopped at the red lights, working on my 2nd novel, watching sped up episodes of Spongebob on youtube, debating whether the touch lamp's erratic behaviour is due to ghosts or just poor cicuitry, and the rest probably don't count as highlights - that, or I don't remember them...I should've started this list earlier- it all feels like ancient history already! =D

"Now where's that cider?"

"I don't know - you're the only one who can see it."

"For the last time, Smitty, the cider is not imaginary."

Things had been rough for the past few days.

Jill had been promoted and fired in the same week. Smitty had just secured the patronage of the corporation's most influential client before finding himself criminally liable for insolvent trading. These unfortunate events had them thinking, and whenever they thought, they arrived at the conclusion that they were only fooling themselves.


"How did it come to this, Jill?" Smitty asked, swirling his Bordeaux drunkenly.

Jill abandoned her quarry and took a seat beside him. "I don't know," she said, taking off her glasses. "I just don't know."

"I didn't know you wore glasses," said Smitty, raising an eyebrow suspiciously.

"And I didn't know you could raise just one eyebrow at once," Jill admitted.

Smitty turned away from her. "There are a lot of things you don't know about me - like my name, for example!"

"I know your name! I called you Xavier because I'd prefer your name to be Xavier! " Jill cried. "All I've ever wanted was a husband with a cool name - is that too much to ask?"

"It is when that's my brother's name!" Smitty roared, crushing and shattering the glass in his hand.

Jill frowned. "But it's not - your brother's name is Gomez!"

"What would you know about my brother!? You don't know him the way I do..." he looked up at her with enough venom to develop antidotes for eight undiagnosable illnesses - possibly venom-related.

"If this is about that time he glued your television remote to your television so you could never again control it from afar-"

"It's not just that!" Smitty began pacing. Was this so difficult for her to understand? Couldn't she just trust him on this? Was that paint on his shirt? Were rhetorical questions too pretentious? Not pretentious enough?

He didn't have the answers.

"I don't have the answers," said Smitty. "All I know is that I don't want to lose you again."

"That was just one time, Smitty," said Jill reassuringly. "We were at a huge shopping centre and what with all those sales and people-"

"No! I mean I don't want to lose your heart!"

"Don't be silly Smitty - it's not going anywhere! They don't call that thing a rib-cage for nothing. I'm not sure why they call it that, but there's just gotta be some logical explanation...but I digress - the point is that my organs aren't getting out of me without a fight!"

"...You'd fight your own organs, Jill? For me?"

Jill nodded. "That's right, Smitty."

"That's the nicest thing anyone has ever vaguely claimed that they'd do for me..." Smitty muttered, forgetting about his severely bleeding hand. I think we'd all forgotten about that hand.

"Then you're going to love it when I vaguely claim that I'll rent Labyrinth for us to watch this weekend," said Jill, grinning.

"You know what I'd love more, Jill?"

"What's that, Smitty?"

"Yu-Gi-Oh trading cards."

"Oh Smitty, anything for you!" And with that she plunged a dagger deep into the back of his neck.

He could barely mouth the word "why" before realising that she knew his secret - she knew he was anaemic.

"I'm sorry, Smitty, but I just can't allow your kind to live. Things will be better for everyone this way...okay maybe not so much for you, but better for me." She draped a sheet over his helpless form as he struggled for one last breath with eyes bulging in horror and fists clenched in fury.

Later, upon prising them open, they would find something within those fists: the palm lines of a potential major league baseball player.

If only Jill had known...

I remember seeing this ages ago and loving it. Just found it again XD

It's been weeks and the world still smells like sunshine-dust =D

I've just been reading like crazy (how could it have taken me so long to *fully* discover the magical cheapness and variety of the Basement Book store?) and watching anime (after an extended hiatus) and playing Taiko Drum Master (with the actual taiko controller) and solving the Rubik's cube (at phenomenal speeds) and dreaming of skipping tutes while napping through lectures and then, of course, actually skipping tutes and talking about napping through lectures.

Ching's blonde again, by the way.

And Diana tells me that Sankey still has the photos of our class contacted to her desk, bless her T_T

Can't sleep - need to waste more time frivolously before I have to actually start doing homework! Or rather start catching up on the homework I've been avoiding all semester n__n

EVERYBODY DANCE NOW!

I don't ever want this semester to end! Next year I'll be split up from everyone and locked into a major after not having put enough thought into choosing it etc. etc. but I'm not going to think about that now - sorry LJ - I'll listen to an emo song to keep you satisfied ^.^

I love UTS. Have I mentioned that? It may help to explain why I joined the I HEART UTS club. That and the fact that they were giving free mini Rubik's cubes to everyone who signed up.

Anyway I really do. Sometimes I think to myself 'What if I had stuck it out at USYD?' and soon find myself curled up in the foetal position, shivering.

I'm doing mathematical subjects and still enjoying them, I'm learning how to get away with white-collar crime and how to assess share prospects so as to fulfill my dream of ruling the world - one fax machine at a time. I'm also securing myself a future in which I can retire early and host a needlessly elaborate game show in order to choose the heir to my evil anti-facebook corporation - assuming that we don't succeed in eliminating it at a much earlier date. I can then drift peacefully into senility surrounded by skill-testers and over-priced resin dolls.
It's not just the course. I love the people too - we skip most of our tutorials and a fair few lectures too but sit around and cram together and help each other come exam time. I go skill-testing and karaoke-ing with the Girraweeners from the grade below, I catch monorails, play arcade games, go shopping with and have cupcakes baked for me by the fantastic new people that I've met, and today I made friends with this cool girl who told me that she didn't go to SMASH solely because she was freaked out by the idea of the maid cafe. It's all so relaxed and light-hearted...I know it's still only the first year of the course and that things are going to get a whole lot tougher, but I can tell you now that nothing I've done so far has even come close to rivaling the horrors of my first semester at USYD, despite the fact that I was actually good at those subjects.

And we're having a dance-off with UNSW! How awesome is that? If it was against USYD I'd break-dance the pants off them. But as is, I'll be lucky to even get to watch (since it's in the middle of my Finance lecture and the tute immediately following it...which I really should attend since there's 3-unit maths involved @_@)

I'm in such a happy place! Except that I'm so lazy that I can't do any homework but I feel too guilty about it to just sleep (as I'd like to) so I end up distracting myself with youtube and old PS2 games...and more recently, awesome heavily-discounted books from the Basement Books store (I was going to buy Dark Alchemy from Dymocks for about $20 but got it today from Basement for $7.95 n_n).

So much fun to be had and not enough time! I must be headed for a massive low because the high has just been going and going~oh just wait til the midsems at which point I will realise that I can't maintain this crazy lifestyle because it will ensure my epic failure. But until then, let the good times roll.