beyond the edge

Nearly had a heart attack yesterday when I thought I spent $300 in the last 2 weeks. Fortunately I then uncovered a very crumpled transaction record that showed I had in fact withdrawn only $200, not $300.

Still...that's $200 in 2 weeks. Even though about half of it was "inevitable spending" (e.g. club registration fees ==;)

I'm spending too much on food ToT Damn expensive North Sydney food. I am so glad I don't work in Wynyard ==;;;


YAY!!!! I finally found it!!! After searching the net for ages for his blog...

The best Chinese GS/GSD parodies ever, now bringing youG00 parodies XDD


Okay, Vampire Knight anime will be starting in April.

Here is the official site. (Official manga site here)

*Cough cough cough*

...Interesting character design. The angst-o-meter already reads about 500%

BUT!!!!! Miyano Mamoru as Zero!!!!!!! Woohoo~~~~!!!!!!

I bet he's feeling so ripped off with his lack of lines as Setsuna that he's busy trying to grab other roles ==;;;

Although G00 will be finishing in time for VK to start...still. I bet his bored.

The sound director is the voice actor for Leorio in Hunter x Hunter ==;; The what?

Okay, an update on SA anime.

These character designs extracted a nonplussed "hrrm" from yours sincerely. While the original manga illustrations had its unpredictable woes, at least it had an ethereal sparkle (whatever that is). And the legs were less jellified...........

Getting more uncertain about seeing anime version of Vampire Knight by the minute.

For those who want to download pweeeeeety wallpapers of Hakusensha publications (including Vampire Knight and Otomen), here's the link. But you'll have to do a survey in order to access the pictures (and yes, the survey is in Japanese XD)

Apparently this month is the last issue of Penguin Kakumei. Say what? =__=;;;; I knew I couldn't trust her to give a satisfying ending....baah.

I made curry recently? It tasted just like the restaurant curry...I think they use the same curry mix >__>;;;;;;;;;; It also cost a great deal less, considering it consisted mainly of potatoes, carrot, a tiny piece of chicken and water.

Back to work tomorrow. I'm beginning to understand why Sussan was complaining =___= I can't imagine doing this office job 9 to 5, Monday to Friday, January to December, from graduation to retirement.

The procession of mundane, identical days stretching endlessly into the foreseeable horizon.

Kind of like central Australia, really. Complete with the dreadful drought.

Am currently trying to finish a piece of drawing for an art swap I got talked into. ...That was an awkward sentence.

Anyway, the requirement was "a haaaaaaaawt guy with looooooong hair and it has to be full bodied and A4-sized".

....GAH.

(Has never been one who found guys with Kenshin-length hair hot. Kenshin. Ew.)


First meme of 2008, weehee~

93 words

Learn Touch Typing

...The one word I got wrong was America. Stupid America. LOL.

Spent the last few days wrapping and wrapping and wrapping.

Most of the people were very nice, although a few got a bit impatient today with the wait, I think.

Started today off wrapping 18 keyrings. 18!!!!!! Well, I gave 4 to Jenny, but 18!!!!!!!

Also spent the last 3 days wrapping about 20 Elizabeth Arden perfumes from the same lady. Elizabeth Arden probably sends her best wishes for the holiday season and a thank you for supporting the brand. Though that's kind of creepy considering she's dead.

People kept talking to me in Mandarin >__>;;

There's also this wonderful Boost Guy, whose real name is Alex, but he gave us free Boost drinks, so we called him the Free Boost Boost Guy! And as a result Jenny will now have 2 sons named Alex, or one son named Alex and the other named Boost Guy.

I let Jenny wrap a Wii today! LOL

I also wrapped a DVD boardgame of Northern Lights?

There's an earlier episode involving Jenny screaming embarrassing things in front of an ATM, leading to guy waiting behind me giving us prolonged weird looks >_>;;;;;;;;;;;

In other news, I got allocated to Concord Hospital for clinical placement!

To all of you chortling through your nose, it's the closest hospital after Royal Prince Alfred, damn it! Stupid Sydney Uni doesn't have any clinical schools down south, and the rest are in Westmead, north shore (St Leonards/Hornsby/Manly) and Penrith. Penrith! That's not even Sydney!

So yeah, I didn't expect to get RPA, so I'm pretty happy with Concord =)

Shall need to get a functional driver's license before year 3 =/

Also have to work out whether I'll be in first year or fifth year next year.....Orz

SA getting anime adaption

Okay, I think a lot of people will enjoy this, because it has some really unique characters, is shoujo but not romance overboard, the girl is sufficiently cool and capable but thick-skulled (romance-related), and the art is pretty nice.

I admit I have a closet love for this manga.

But the thing that really irks me about it is that it pretends to be different to all the other manga with ditzy heroines and smart cool heroes by creating a heroine who is also an extremely high achiever......

It REALLY pisses me off because no matter how hard the girl works at what she does, she can never surpass the guy who doesn't even lift a thumb to do any work. Not academically, not in sports, not emotionally and not socially. W.T.H.

ARGH. Rather than softening the gender prejudices, it unintentionally intensifies the perceptions. It's like saying no matter how hard a girl tries, she'll never beat a guy who doesn't even give a damn. UGH. (And I might have liked Kei more if he wasn't so damn SMUG about doing nothing.)

At least Kare Kano however boring that was (can't believe I read all 21 volumes of this shoujo "classic". Then again, I can't believe I read all 23 volumes of Fruits Basket and all 18 volumes of Peach Girl...), had both main characters as very smart because they worked their guts out at it. Even Raito did his homework!

There's a range of interesting personalities amongst the other characters in SA though. I just don't like what the main characters say about gender dynamics.

------------ I divide, I say, so I do ------------

If there's anything Fukuda (GS/GSD director) does better than Mizushima (FMA/G00 director), it's scripting for "destined" meetings. Nothing beats "destiny" played out in the way Athrun and Kira reunited in the first episode of Seed, particularly not the lame attempt at introducing Setsuna to Princess what's-her-face.

If anything, it's more like a meeting contrived through the mutual stupidity of both parties. As if you'd waive diplomatic indemnity for a random terrorist look-alike stranger who looked sort of like your national (and turns out not to be)! And AS IF, when you got slapped only a few days ago for "exposing your identity" by climbing out of the cockpit, masked and everything, you would face a stranger and say "I am Setsuna F. Seiei, Gundam pilot for Celestial Beings". Tieria! You're gonna so regret not blowing out Setsuna's brains!

------------ Divide, this does, also --------------

Damn Liberal voters (baseless assumption) and their backwater racist values. We were resting at fly-infested Goulburn today (on our way to sunbaked and fly-infested Young) and a trio of old white people came in, saw the bunch of Chinese faces waiting at the counter and exlaimed, "We're getting invaded!"

Then they scampered near us and sneered, "Do any of you speak English? Why did you come to Australia?"

When the person standing nearest to them had trouble answering, instead of being like any other politely curious and friendly Caucasian, they sniffed and ignored her asking them to repeat their question.

And since I was standing close, I said, in perfect English (of course =P) "We're going to Young for a band performance."

At which point they got this horrid "oops we picked on the wrong people" look on their faces and edged away and did not talk to us again. Which is almost a pity.

Okaaay maaaaaaaate. The only difference between me and you where "Aussie" is concerned is that your family got here earlier =P I bet you weren't here 40000 years ago when the first Aborigines got here!

It's getting so weary to be treated like a foreigner just because I'm not blonde and blue-eyed. Just a few days ago I got asked at the aquarium, despite asking in perfect English about the tickets, what COUNTRY I was from. Sincerely stunned, I gave her a look and said, "Uhhhh, HERE??"

It annoyed me because a Lebanese friend (who, incidentally, looked more Italian than Lebanese) didn't get that "what country are you from" question....just because she's white-skinned and green-eyed and brown-haired? *Rolls eyes*

And occasionally I get the "are you an international student" question, which would have been so much better asked the other way around "are you a local student", because at least an "oh, but you speak such good English" would have sounded better than "oh, you don't look like a local student".

Look.

Damn Liberals.

(Yeah, I do realise that going rural means I'll meet more of these backwater racist white people who still thinks that "Aussie" is anyone who is white and isn't American. Ze joy! A tiny voice at the back of my mind will probably be sniggering "Well, I bet I have a bigger vocab! I can spell haemoglobulinaemia! The British way!" LOL)

I have a prac book due tomorrow, but I'm currently experiencing the effects of inertia, which according to the laws of Physics, is the natural way to be.

You know that lovely feeling you get when you walk out of an exam, realise you've only been able to answer about 10% confidently (the other 90% was pure ingenious creativity), and at the same time, realise that everyone else would have fared little better?

That's right, the 4 Unit Maths Effect.

Well, that was the feeling walking out of the prac exam today. We've never learned the protein codes =___= Can't believe he asked as about all those digests.


Quote du jour (paraphrased, due to bad memory):
A: Under the Coalition government, Australia has seen a period of great economic growth, of which Labour governments are incapable.
B: Rainfall was at much higher rates during the Labour government, an area in which the Coalition clearly has not been able to match!
A: ..............WTH??

Well, assuming they haven't made a mistake with naming/candidate number/emails/ranking/whatever, I've been offered a rural bonded place for medicine =__=;; The revised scheme means that for every year I study, I must work one year at a rural location.

In other words, that's going to be 4 years stuck at Wagga Wagga, or some other outback waterhole.

My friend (who's still waiting for her results from ANU) has been very encouraging, pointing out that city placements can be much more difficult to find, and the government doesn't subsidise such placements, even in areas of shortage like the outer suburbs.

I'm getting a case of wedding blues (hahaha). I'm not sure I really want to do med... Don't get me wrong, I find med a very interesting subject, the sort of thing that'll keep my short interest span occupied enough for the rest of my life, I bet. But boiled down, it's only the thing I would like to do more than any other job short of choosing one that will never support me, like writing or whatever.

Good thing I won't have to think about that for a week or so. The logistics of trying to get all the paperwork and first aid recertification and VACCINATIONS done all before February next year is just frightening.

I don't remember a single thing about vaccinations. Vaguely I seem to remember something involving needles in year 8 for MMR (measles/mumps/rubella). Argh.

Anyway, will think about that later. First must finish that stupid 30 minute presentation due tomorrow.


As an aside, if anyone wants to hear the English voices in Gundam Seed, here's episode 28. The only one missing is Lacus. God. Athrun's voice sounds like a weasel. WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO HIM T___T I don't mind Kira's voice too much...though it reminds me a lot of someone, but not Kira =__= here's episode 42 with Lacus and Andrew. Lacus' voice doesn't grate, but it doesn't have the extreme girliness but cool authority that she managed to command in Japanese.

Never, ever watch the damn thing with a pair of binoculars.

Not only because one and a half hours later, your biceps have gone on strike and your fingers are starting to gangrenise (not a word) from lack of circulation (due to being stuck up in the air for so long).

Not only because you look like some perve, standing in your backyard with binoculars in the direction of your neighbour's toilet window.

Not only because that "bloody red" hue due to diffraction of light by Earth's atmosphere was totally nullified due to Sydney's light pollution and the awesome magnification of your binoculars, which somehow cancels out the diffraction effect (no, I'm serious, the moon looks redder without the binoculars!)

But because you're struck by the underwhelming sensation that...

Damn, it's like, just, a sad little lump of rock.

It's all grey and pimply and depressingly spherical and never would have had so many serenades sung in its name if it weren't, like, the biggest lump of light in the night sky.

And the fact that said lump of light changes to a boring routine that only bored physicists can be bothered working out.

Some things look better from a distance. LOL.