Funny uni things.

Amongst other things about uni that you don't see anywhere else is nerds kissing, pashing and generally making out.

In other, less funny happenings, a bottle of juice leaked in my bag. Now my physics assignment is drenched. I'm not happy.


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Health.

I think there's something wrong with me. I'm not eating well - still. I'm not quite sure what the problem is but half way through a normal sized meal, I'd suddenly feel full. Instinctively, I know I'm not full. I'm just know that I'm not eating enough, but I can't seem to fit any more in. All my other bodily functions are operating as normal, so I don't know what it is.

Anyway, I can really feel it taking its toll. It's getting really hard to get up in the morning and all I want to do when I'm up is sit down. I've lost a couple of kilos on the last week or so. That isn't good either.


Listening to:
Title: Creep
Artist: Radiohead
Album/station: Pablo Honey (1992)
Length: 3.58

Epidemiological study.

Hypothesis: Girls carry and transmit cooties.

Case study: Mattymoo. Close, possibly sexual, contact with girl.

Results: Mattymoo gets sick.

Conclusion: Girls do indeed carry and transmit cooties.


Listening to:
Title: Boulevard of Broken Songs
Artist: Party Ben: Greenday vs. Oasis vs. Travis
Album/station: Party Ben: The Indie Jive Bunn (2004?)
Length: 4.34

Simon: injured again.

So, much like first semester last year, Simon is injured - majorly. Apparently he broke his hand on Saturday at soccer and he's having an operation for it tomorrow. He probably won't be back for a while.

Last year, he missed more than half of first semester with a bad infection in his knee. I hope he's alright.


Listening to:
Title: Never Wanted This
Artist: Armin Van Buuren Feat. Justine Suissa
Album/station: MOS Chillout Sessions: Summer Collection 2004 (2003)
Length: 4.43

Consummatum est.

It is finished. One thousand, nine hundred and eighty-one words of crap that I don't have to worry about anymore.


Listening to:
Title: Hotel California
Artist: The Eagles
Album/station: Eagles Live (1980)
Length: 7.14

Procrastination.

Hopes of getting more of my essay done last night were dashed. I did try, believe you me. But Mattymoo - best queer mate and some time snuggle buddy - turned up on my doorstep. "Let's see a movie", he said. So what was the alternative? A slow descent into the depths of murderous insanity? Plus, I hadn't had the pleasure of his company for a looooooong time either, and frankly, I missed him.

See, Matt's recently joined the other nine-out-of-ten people on this planet that shag people of the opposite sex. When he told me this some time ago it upset me. But of course I care about him, as mates do, and I wouldn't let that get between us.

So seeing as this was the first time that I'd seen Mattymoo since all the vagina sex started, I'd expected this to be an outing that would be much like going out with the blokes, with conversation strictly revolving around sport, beer, 'wimmin' and grunting. But it wasn't at all like that.

In fact, it's as if he hadn't changed. He still likes to cuddle up to me in the cinema, which is cute.


Listening to:
Title: The Rainbow Connection
Artist: Kermit The Frog
Album/station: The Muppet Movie OST (1979)
Length: 3.16

Ha!

Surprise, surprise. I'm procrastinating.


Listening to:
Title: Sweet Harmony
Artist: The Beloved
Album/station: Ministry of Sound: Chillout Session, Vol. 2 (2002)
Length: 3.23

Anxious.

Stupid ed psych essay. Now it seems like I'll be spending the long weekend (Lest We Forget) with pleasant company of achievement anxiety. Oh yay. I'll tell you what, it's giving me anxiety of my own. In fact, I blame this for my sickness this week. This and linear maths, too. Maybe they're in kahootz.

The notion of referencing shits me. I've noticed that all the papers, journal articles and book chapters seem to reference each other in a never ending loop. Does anyone come up with original thoughts anymore? Or do they just appropriate an idea that someone else copied from some obscure publication that used key points from such and such...? It's as if its a giant chinese whispers game, except that no one knows who started it off and it keeps going round and round and round... et cetera.

And I'm paranoid that someone will accuse me of academic dishonesty so I'm pulling references out of my arse and smearing them all over this stinking essay. Bah!


Listening to:
Title: You Are Not My Friend
Artist: Frenzal Rhomb
Album/station: A Man's Not A Camel (1999)
Length: 3.26

Spotted.

On the train: gorgeous skaterboy singing Jesse McCartney's Beautiful Soul, seemingly to himself. Drools.

Okay, so it's not my type of music. But it's not quite your regular straight skater's kind of music either, right? Hmm.


Listening to:
Title: Young Pilgrim
Artist: The Shins
Album/station: Chutes Too Narrow (2003)
Length: 2.49

Erm... yes.

• So despite my recent bout of sickness, I still turned up to uni today. I had a linear mathematics quiz that I couldn't miss and it was less trouble turning up sick than going through the special consideration process (which isn't guaranteed anyway). And plus, hopped up on codeine so it was all good. Anyhoo, I realised how bored I am with my name when I wrote it down on my test paper. So in my drug induced stupor, I decided that I'd like to adopt the name Jack. Not officially of course - it's too much bother with the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages and I don't really think I can commit to a new name just yet.



• First, there was ESL (English as a Second Language). Then there was NESB (Non English Speaking Background). Now, according to Triple J's Hack Program, there a new acronym to describe those who-- well-- come from a non English speaking background: CALD, or Culturally And Linguistically Diverse. Crazy. I thought NESB was simple and straight to the point, and it is. What is all this CALD bulltwang?



• At Theatresports today, I learnt a new word: schadenfreude, which means 'pleasure derived at the misfortune of others'. Theatresports compere Jordan provided this example of schadenfreude: "...when you tell a college boy what he just stuck his dick in". Ha! I miss Ed, though. Ed the spunky regular host of Manning Bar Theatresports. Apparently he'll be back next week. So yay!



• Dumbshit. That's all I've got to say. Some woman on the NSW Central Coast bought a Nazi flag at a market stall and has flew it from her flagpole, not knowing that it would cause upset in the community (link: Neighbours lower Nazi flag - ewww, News Limited *spew*).
  
  To quote the article:

  Ms Duncombe had told the Daily Terrorgraph she did not know what the flag signified until the controversy erupted, but would not remove it because her four-month-old daughter liked its bright colours.

  Caz on The Spin Starts Here says: "Isn’t it great to see people that ignorant and stupid are breeding? Or am I just expecting too much from people? I mean, they called their daughter 'Breeana' after all". Heh, too right.

Listening to:
Title: Burning Girl
Artist: Frente
Album/station: Shape (1996)
Length: 2.35

No, it's not flu at all.

So I went and saw Doctor Graham today. Apparently it's not the flu at all, which should've been obvious to me, seeing as some of the prime symptoms, i.e. runny or blocked nose, were absent.

It turns out that I've got viral pharyngitis - a viral infection of the pharynx. I can't do anything about it except to let it run its course so it looks like at least a week of being doped up on codeine (it's not bacterial, so antibiotics won't help).


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Flu.

Horrible day. The symptoms just crept up on me and smacked me in the face. I felt all cold when I was playing pool with Simon at the Wentworth Cubby. The tiredness and headache came during my chem tute. And then overall body ache hit me after that. I decided to stay for my physics prac to finish off the experiment but I felt like shit.

It was so bad, I thought that I would die. Maybe my fears had been fed by the deadly influenza strains going around at the moment. Anyway, I don't think I would've minded if is carked it on the bus or on the train - the discomfort was excrutiating. The throbbing headache, the thumping heart, sore throat, feeling simultaneously hot and cold. Gah!

Anyway, I've had some codeine put into me and I'm feeling okay now. The only problem is that my tongue feels like it belongs to someone else.


Listening to:
Title: Video Killed The Radio Star
Artist: The Presidents of the United States of America
Album/station: Pure Frosting (1998)
Length: 3.23

Another rant about my father.

Dad's just left for work, swearing, carrying on and such. He's late of course. And he blames it all on mum. Mum's staying with us tonight (yeah I know, my family is beyond dysfunctional) and she often wonders how dad ever makes it work on time when she's not here.

Usually he'll get to work on time but for some reason, whenever mum's over at our place he assigns all blame to her for his sudden lack of punctuality. I don't see how she would affect things in anyway - she stays out of his way while he's getting ready for work, much like she does when she's not here.

So mum's doing her own thing and as predicted, dad's running late. He's swearing and carrying on and says she's lazy and doesn't help him out. The thing is, she's not usually around to 'help' him out and I know for a fact that he can manage without her. So what, suddenly she's here and now dad's tardiness is her problem? What a cop out.

See, I've noticed my dad often likes to absolve himself of responsibility. And it shits Mum and I to no end. It's always her or I that cop it.

In related news, I still want to move out or live with mum.


Listening to:
Title: For Your Pleasure
Artist: Fred Everything Feat. Karl the Voice
Album/station: Ministry of Sound: Chillout Sessions, Vol. 6 (2004)
Length: 4.36

Ed psych.

In the lecture today, the lecturer, in all seriousness, used the word guesstimate. I hate that word.

Anyway, so I've done a little more reading for my essay on anxiety and I've got to admit, it's actually getting interesting. I didn't set out thinking it would be, but the more I read, the more I realise that it reflects how I am personally. It's freaky. To directly quote one of my sources, I learn "less to begin with due to a massive skill deficit rendered more deadly by defensive posturing. Then what little [I do] learn [is] recalled later only imperfectly (retrieval deficit) because of intrusive worry during testing" (Covington, 1992).

Yeah I thought I'd stick the reference in there - wouldn't want to be done in for plagarism/academic misconduct, would we?

Listening to:
Title: Where I End And You Begin
Artist: Radiohead
Album/station: Hail To The Thief (2003)
Length: 4.29

The written word: essays and jmag.

So I've bitten the bullet and I've finally started on my anxiety essay for ed psych. I've had over a month and a half to do it but in classic style, I've left myself a week to write it. And now after weeks of procrastination, I've put it aside again, just to make this little entry.

"To what extent does relevant cognitive theory and research support the view that anxiety has a debilitating impact upon academic achievement? What psychological factors and processes have been shown by research to contribute to this negative impact?"

Shoot me. Please. Firstly, I hate essays. Secondly, I hate researching for essays. I've got in front of me six or seven journal articles which are incredibly verbose and they all boil down to the exact same thing. Sure, thats good for the case I'm trying to push but as far as essay writing is concerned, what am I supposed to do? Repeat myself over and over, citing a different author each time?

But honestly, psychologisists should and probably do know how much anxiety these journal articles they publish cause. Hah, see theory in action. Do they do it on purpose? Is it some sort of ego thing? Is there a running competition to see who can squeeze the thickest, most long winded chunk of text?


Anyway, I bought a copy of the inaugural issue of jmag yesterday. It's a good read but my only issue with it is the advertising that's inside. There are only a couple of ads, but still. I guess that it's exempt from the ABC Charter since it's an auxiliary publication as opposed to being a broadcast. But really, Citröen and Triple J just don't go together in my mind.


Listening to:
Title: Drown
Artist: The Smashing Pumpkins
Album/station: Rotten Apples (2001)
Length: 4.30

Hello, I'm Mr Bean.

I stayed over at the Boyff's house last night and I discovered another endearing feature about him (in addition to the others that he's already got, of course). So there I was lying on rug, resting my head on his lap while we were watching Rage. He looked down at me and said in the best Bean voice that I'd ever heard: "Hello, I'm Mister Bean".

It was totally unexpected. It was so weird hearing the voice of an unfortunate middle-aged British man coming out of a nineteen year old gay boy. But so cute.

Him: fucking adorable. Me: putty in his hands.


Listening to:
Title: Hand In Glove
Artist: The Smiths
Album/station: The Very Best Of The Smiths (2001)
Length: 3.25

Dad's a prick... still.

I woke up this morning, hearing dad talking to mum in some other room of the house. At first they were just murmurings but I listened and the murmurs became faintly intelligible. He was talking to her about the Big Bang. And laughing a ferret sort of laugh. It shat me, the way he trivialised the whole idea. I don't go around shitting all over the Resurrection.

It never ceases to amaze me about how he thinks he's always right and everyone else is always wrong. When he's driving for example, he's always in the right. He's not defensive on the roads; if there's an accident, it's okay apparently because someone else will be at fault. Someone else will have to face the penalties, even if any damage could have easily been avoided. But I digress.

It's all about what happened yesterday. Dad has this habit of provoking me. I'm not sure if he does it on purpose or not. I'm thinking it's the latter, it's just that he inadvertently sets me off - all the time. Yesterday, he mentioned to me something about how some astronomer discovered a new star or planet or something that was a billion light years away. People are finding new stars and planets all the time now so I wasn't really fazed. So as I turned to go back to my inner sanctum, he asked me, "Where did it come from?"

"The Big Bang", I told him.

He looks at me. "How?"

"There was a huge explosion and then matter appeared"

"It just appeared? But where did that come from?"

"No where, it just happened", I told him.

"But something can't come from nothing", he said. And then with this big shit eating grin on his face, he said to me, "See, that's God!"

Sorry dad, I'm still not convinced. It seems like everytime I exchange words with my dad, it'll inevitably end up at religion. For Christ's sake, dad: fuck off.

At that point, I put my head phones back on, shook my head and barricaded myself in my room. I didn't want to go any further into it, he never understands anyway. And I'm not just being esoteric about it. Whenever I try to explain this, which is often in my household, he throws his hands up in the air and says in his trademark broken english, "I don' know". And I always end up shaking my head and leaving the room out of frustration.

As I understand it, space and time began at the Big Bang. Existence needs time and space to-- well-- exist so nothing could conceivably be before it. Dad can't get his head around that.

There's another theory where the Big Bang was caused by the collision between a parallel universe and ours in five dimensional space and this collision released an enormous amount of energy which was converted into energy and matter (E = mc²) of our universe as we know it.

Anyway, I won't bother trying to get my head around that at this stage. I'll just stick to guessing what quantum theory is all about first.


Listening to:
Title: Dreamworld
Artist: Something For Kate
Album/station: The Power And The Passion (2001)
Length: 3.47

Education.

During my classroom technology class in the iMac labs, the university security came down to the dungeons in the Education Building. Apparently a bum with big red ear muffs was wandering about and fiddling with door locks. He was around yesterday and security chased him off, but obviously he had some unfinished business.

In other things education related, a values education expert from the UK says the values that Australian kids are going to learn from this year onwards are wanky at best (Core values said to skirt real world, Linda Doherty. Sydney Morning Herald, April 15 2005). He says that Government's proposals "lack almost any rigour ... the content beneath it is remarkably empty". And I see what he means. The values themselves - care and compassion, doing your best, fair go, freedom, honesty and trustworthiness, integrity, respect, responsibility and understanding, knowledge and inclusion - while not disagreeable, are really quite pissweak.

Notice that none of the values relate in any way to critical thought - thats the big important thing that's notably absent. An important part to effective citizenry is to question society's and one's own beliefs, opinions, paradigms and, amongst other things, values. Without it then the population at large becomes a flock of mindless sheep. One starts to think that this is some sort of Orwellian strategy to create a more aquiescent electorate (ha, as if this isn't the first time). A professor from WA said the current list of values "smacks of a desire to domesticate growing learners rather than to liberate them". Sing it again, mate.


Listening to:
Title: No One Takes Your Freedom
Artist: DJ Earworm - Scissor Sisters vs The Beatles vs George Michael vs Aretha Franklin
Album/station: DJ Earworm (2005?)
Length: 8.08

The unending rollercoaster.

Today was a good deal better than yesterday. Maybe because it's hump day. Maybe because today isn't as busy as the rest. Maybe because the day ended with experimental physics and-- well-- I like that. Nerd alert.

I actually had breakfast today. It was more than a slice of toast. There was bacon, eggs and hashbrowns too. Of course, I'm too lazy to get all of that together - it was all union food from Wentworth. One of the arguments that the pro-VSU tribe use is that Union staff are surly and unmotivated but I found that not to be the case. In fact, they wanted to give me more food at no extra cost. I wasn't aware that hot drinks come with hot breakfasts so that was a welcome surprise. Mmm.

Hmm. Such an inane paragraph.

Simon was being a clown today, just for me. It was cute. He knows I've been down these last couple of days and it was nice of him to care. I've always asked him if he can do that fancy bottle-tossing that those special bartenders can, seeing as he's a barman himself. And to see him today, steal my water bottle from under my nose and start tossing it with pseudo-ninja sound effects-- it just made my day.


Listening to:
Title: Wild World
Artist: Beth Orton
Album/station: How To Deal OST (2004)
Length: 4.26

Anxiety, linear mathematics, boyffs, et cetera.

Maybe anxiety is the ill that I've been suffering lately. I can think of several contributing factors: all things uni, boy and family related. I chose an essay question about anxiety for educational psychology and it made sense.

I'm starting to feel all out of my depth with uni. I have a linear maths assignment due in a couple of days and I'm totally clueless. If they assessed me based on attendance, I'd get a HD mark for sure. But if they quizzed me on course content, I doubt I'd pass. I don't know what it is; I turn up to every lecture, practice session and tutorial but leave feeling none the wiser.

In today's lecture, all I heard from the lecturers mouth was gibberish. Sure, he spoke words that individually I understood (as opposed to random sounds, noises or grunts) but there didn't seem to be anything meaningful coalescing in my mind.

On the boy front, well, I guess I'm feeling the need for a little affection. You know, just a little tenderness. I haven't seen The Boyff in a while and the last time that I did see him, hardly any-- erm-- tenderness occurred. The circumstances weren't really inducive to that sort of thing. Not that I'm saying that everytime one sees that special person, tenderness needs to happen, oh no.

Amongst other boy related things, I think there are some underlying issues with the immediate ex-boyff Daz, maybe stemming from the fact that the last time I saw him in person those weeks and months ago I was still kissing and cuddling him. And then from that, it went to nothing. There was definitely some sort of emotional whip lash action there. I've been speaking to him recently and it's as if nothing ever happened. At all. And I don't exactly know how or what I'm meant to feel about it.


Listening to:
Title: I Want Your Girlfriend To Be My Girlfriend Too
Artist: Reel Big Fish
Album/station: Why Do They Rock So Hard? (2002)
Length: 2.53

How things are.

I haven't been sleeping much, nor have I been eating well recently. It can't be healthy. Today at uni I found it hard to really pay attention. Or stay awake.

I haven't been feeling the best either, healthwise or emotionwise. I thought I felt the onset of the flu the other day but it seems to have subsided. Maybe it was just a mild cold.

Dad has been driving me up the wall, too. Why can't he leave me alone? I like to keep to myself at home. I suppose I crawl into my shell when I'm within my room's familiar walls. My mum knows this. My dad, however, doesn't. He's always knocking on my door with some trivial issue or comment. Or worse yet, it'll be a rant about something mum's done. I just want him to go away. I've closed my door. I've turned my music up. I've even positioned open text books around my room in the vain attempt to look busy. But nothing seems to work.

I wish I had the means to move out.


Listening to:
Title: Local Boy In The Photograph
Artist: Stereophonics
Album/station: Word Gets Around (1997)
Length: 3.25

That gorgeous boy from my English class.

Back at school, there was this insanely sexy boy in my English class. He was a bit of a dickhead but he was gorgeous (although to his credit, he did grow up towards the end of year twelve).

So anyway, I'm trawling the web the other day, following various trails on what's new on the music scene when I come upon this website: http://www.jonrei.com/.

It's that insanely sexy boy from year twelve English, Jon Reichardt. I'd always heard about gigs he'd played at The Eastwood Hotel or The Sando in Newtown but for some reason or another, I couldn't ever seem to get around and see him play. So I downloaded a couple of songs and well, wow. My judgment may or may not be clouded here but I'm nonetheless impressed.



On a slightly related matter, I'd heard some news that after googling his name, the aforementioned Jonno stumbled upon my scrawlings and read about about my-- erm-- crush on him. Oh the embarrassment. How can one ever face him again?


Listening to:
Title: Girl From Mars
Artist: Ash
Album/station: 1977 (1996)
Length: 3.33

Bundanoon... is Brigadoon.

So I went down to the Southern Highlands of New South Wales this weekend for the 28th annual Scottish Highland Gathering at Bundanoon. My best mate's pipeband was playing down there so a mate and I tagged along. We stayed at an unoccupied house owned by Adam's family friends in Moss Vale.

It was a pretty hot and dusty day which really really sucked nuts but it was made all the better by all the 'ot and sehk-seh boys in wee skurrrts! The surprising thing is that there weren't only just the older generations at this gathering; there was quite a good youth turnout. Before I make this next comment, I remind you all that I'm not a dirty old man - I am, after all, 18 years old so I'm classified as a dirty young man. But phwoar, them Scot's College boys-- me go gah gah.

And now for Southern Highlands related, but non-Scottish festival related photographs.

Listening to:
Title: Days Like These
Artist: Jon Reichardt
Album/station: Bitter Sweet Song Therapy (2005)
Length: 4.20

Uni, the boy, the weekend.

I'm really starting to feel uni coming down upon me now. Four weeks into the semester and there's nine left. Stupid chemistry. We're delving into quantum theory now, and even though we covered it in physics last semester, it's still won't gel in my head. I suppose having a second pass through the topic from a different perspective isn't hurting, it might even help. It's stressing me out.

Anyway the Boy, N!xau, took me to an Arts Faculty Mentor shindig at the Old Teacher's College yesterday afternoon. Charles Firth and Andrew Hansen of The Chaser were there and spoke, which was pretty cool. Other than that, I was paranoid that someone would find out I was a science student and not an arts kid and they'd all turn on me.

Actually, I think I heard Charles Firth make some joke about us science students. Yeah, well you can stick your BA in your pipe and smoke it, buddy. Ha. Nah, I still love him. No one can beat the Firth Factor.

The incestuousness of the Sydney's gay universe was evident again. One of my queer mates happened to be at that shindig, too. And apparently the Boy knew my mate through the Boy's ex-boyfriend, and well-- let's just say that they aren't exactly best buddies.

Went over to the boy's mate's place in Surry Hills after that. And, so they tell me, I'm one degree of separation from two of the hottest boys on the planet - Chris Hemsworth and Matty Johnston. Drools.


So, to the weekend. I'm going down to Bundanoon in the Southern Highlands, which will be good seeing as I haven't seen much of my best mates in a long long time. But that means I'll miss out on Shoreshocked tomorrow. Le sigh.


Listening to:
Title: It's 5
Artist: Architecture In Helsinki
Album/station: Triple J 105.7FM
Length: -.--

Trawling the letters page again.

You know, I never thought about it this way before:

Sara Conde, you almost had me until you described the expenditure by parents on private school fees as a "huge sacrificial cost" ("The learned, too, have far to go", Herald, April 5). I had always thought it was merely a choice by parents (including me, if you are also referring to the local Catholic primary school) to redirect expenditure into their child's education rather than paying off the mortgage more quickly or acquiring another income-producing asset or, as an extreme example, flying business- instead of first-class on the next overseas holiday. No element of sacrifice is involved in this process; it is simply a cost-benefit analysis - that is, what will it cost me and what benefits (be they real or illusory) will accrue as a result to my child? And that is a choice most of the parents of your students are unable to exercise. To confuse such choices with the notion that it involves some sacrifice is misleading.

Julia Lines Ashfield

Letters, Sydney Morning Herald, April 6 2005. (Emphasis added by me)

Choice: the neo-liberalist sacred cow. Howard, Nelson et al claim that the mass public funding of private institutions is all about giving parents choice. Fuck off. I'm not saying that choice is a bad thing. Yes, people should and do have the prerogative to choose. But what good is choice when it puts people at a disadvantage?

And Ms Lines makes a valid point. Is flying Business class instead of First really a sacrifice? If indeed one is finding it hard to put food on the table while one is also pouring thousands of dollars into an education, then how silly must that 'choice' be, considering how free and secular public education is of equivalent, or even superior value and quality (see below).


In other things public/private education related, apparently yet another study - this time from Monash University - shows that independent and private schools artificially inflate the true capabilities of their students. Again, a study has shown that although kids from the better resourced and much exalted private schools get higher university entrance rankings, students from the down trodden public schools generally do better at uni (Uni easier if the old school tie is public, Linda Doherty. Sydney Morning Herald, April 6 2005).

Seriously people, what good does a fancy blazer and tie do? Nothing, evidently. So what if your kid gets a slightly bigger number on his or her certificate when he or she leaves school. But in the end those numbers mean nothing at all.

Parents could do better to save their money, send their kids to the great institution that is public education and demand better resourcing for it. They can even use the cash they've saved and spend it on whatever fad the aspirational class seems to be going through at that moment if they so please.


Listening to:
Title: Tainted Love [live]
Artist: The Living End
Album/station: ?
Length: 4.00

Other things worth mentioning.

The ex-boyfriend Darren and I are on friendly terms again. Not that we were ever on bad terms. Just recently, there just were no terms at all whatsoever. Today he tells me that he hates his business statistics class and that he found the factorial button on his calculator. And as much as I like physics, today's lecture was pretty boring, so hearing from Darren - a couple of blocks away and in a different university altogether - lit up my hour. Hmm, technology these days, connecting people and such.

And one other thing: no more chemistry lab sessions for the next couple of weeks! So that's four hours that I don't have to slave over volumetric flasks and pipettes every week.


Listening to:
Title: Read About It
Artist: Area 7
Album/station: The Power and the Passion (2001)
Length: 3.27

Observations.

Number one. I've realised why there are so many attractive people in my course. I'd always thought to myself that there can't possibly this many pretty boys doing B.Ed.,B.A or B.Ed.,B.Sc. courses. I don't mean to cause offence or anything but boys of a specific kind (and I'm talking about the boys, mainly because I don't notice the girls that much - for obvious reasons) just don't seem artsy- or sciency-type people. You all know the ones I'm talking about: the ones with the physique, the ones that always wear polo tops with their collars up, the ones that seem to always wear serious-looking runners, the ones with the drop-dead gorgeous calf muscles.

I know for a fact that there are exceptions - pink Lonsdale T-Shirt boy from chem lab last year, for example.

It hit me today in the lecture. They're sports sciences and human movement kids - potential P.E. teachers. (That's not to say us folk who aren't sport teachers in-the-making aren't good looking, 'cause there are plenty of those too - don't get me started on those.)

I also just realised how shallow all that makes me sound.


Number two. Westie and Hills bus commuters are so much more civilised than us State Transit folk, it seems. I've noticed that when a blue and white Sydney Buses bus stops, all those waiting crowd around the doors like cattle and the clump slowly moves inside the bus.

But as my bus passed the QVB, I saw the peeps waiting for the express HillsBus line up along the kerb in single file. How odd, I thought.


Listening to:
Title: Panic
Artist: The Smiths
Album/station: The Very Best of The Smiths (2001)
Length: 2.20

Shortsightedness? Underfunding? General wankery?

Here you have it, folks: the occasional entry when Mikey gets a little serious.

So says a letter in today's Herald:

Reading the predictions about oil makes building yet another new motorway for Sydney seem even more shortsighted. Surely the Government should start addressing the problem of transporting people rather than the symptom of congested roads?

Neville Brown Croydon

Letters, Sydney Morning Herald, April 4 2005

What I think is shortsighted is not building motorways. What so many people forget is that motorways and the land corridors that they occupy can also accomodate various modes of public transport: bus transitways and in some cases, rail. But whether or not that's on this Governments agenda is another question.

Regardless of problem traffic congestion - which can and should be solved by better traffic management and mass transit solutions - radial and orbital motorway standard roads will be needed sooner or later to allow better access to and from all areas of the metropolitan area. Just imagine without high-grade roads, snaking one's way through narrow suburban streets. It's totally impractical.

And building a motorway won't automatically mean more cars if one plays one's cards right. Slap a toll on the road and you're effectively setting a supply-and-demand control on the road's use. Give mass transit operators toll-exemptions and you're killing two birds with one stone.


And another letter:

Linda Doherty's article ("Schools scandal: no cash, no hope", Herald, April 2-3) provides a gloomy picture of NSW public schools. She should have emphasised that despite funding cuts, the majority of our well-adjusted, well-educated citizens still graduate from the "shabby" surroundings of public schools.

Assets do not equate with pastoral care or educational excellence. Tailored uniforms and beautiful buildings may assuage the anxiety of parents, but do little for the educational or emotional wellbeing of students.

Mike Fullerton Croydon

Letters, Sydney Morning Herald, April 4 2005

Thumbs up, buddy. It's true that despite all the shit public schools are putting up with, they still manage to churn out top-quality kids. Buggered if I know how they do it (but I'm learning!). Public education: it's time to give it more.


And finally, this:

The National Union of Students believed it was a good cause to spend more than a quarter of a million dollars of compulsory student union fees promoting the idea that Australia would be better off in the hands of Mark Latham, Andrew Bartlett and Bob Brown ("Nelson berates union for spending students' fees on Labor campaign", Herald, April 2-3).

Case closed for voluntary student union membership.

Ian Farrow Hampton (Vic)

Letters, Sydney Morning Herald, April 4 2005

The Federal Government claims that, by being democratically elected by the people of this country, that they have a mandate to spend taxpayer dollars in any way they see fit. And no one seems to have a problem with that line of reasoning.

But student unions and guilds are also democratically elected from and by the student body, from whom they receive their funds. If we follow the former's logic, then don't the democratically elected board members of the student unions and guilds have a 'mandate' to spend their member's money appropriately?


Listening to:
Title: Retarded
Artist: The Dandy Warhols
Album/station: Come On Feel The Dandy Warhols (2004)
Length: 2.46

Dumb. Arse.

Simon and I found this gem on a bench in Chemistry Lecture Theatre 3. (In case yu can't read it, it says: "Anne was here 23th March 05". And someone has pencilled in: "23rd, you retard".)



Listening to:
Title: Tracy In My Room
Artist: EBTG vs Soul Division
Album/station: MOS: Chillout Sessions Vol.2 (2002)
Length: 3.26

Bunnings hardware.

Mum dragged me down to our local Bunnings Hardwarehouse. Aparently, when one goes to a harware shop, one needs to be or in the presence of a big, strong, manly man. There were none around so she took me instead. Heh.

I followed her around pushing one of those oversized, manly shopping trolleys while she loaded it with various hardware bits and pieces. Bits of PVC piping, planks of wood, tins of paint. But everytime an item found its way into the trolley, I knew I'd be in for another couple of hours of manual labour. "Mikey, change the sparkplugs in the mower". "Mikey, replace that broken roof tile". "Mikey, fix that leaky downpipe".

I think I should be paid for all of that. There are definite Occupational Heath & Safety issues all over the place, too. Is there a trade union for sons who carry out dangerous and labour intensive tasks around their mother's houses? No? Well there should be.

Anyway, so we're in one of the bare-concrete floored aisles at Bunnings and mum has a problem that I obviously can't help with. She needs something or another that doesn't seem to be in stock. And the most gorgeous shop boy I've ever seen just happens to be walking past. Definite boy-next-door material.

So mum calls him over and she asks for the odds and/or ends that she's after and he stops. He does this cute turn on the balls of his feet and well, he was just so nice. He glanced at me, the poor hardware-illiterate fag-boy while he tried to address my mother's little issue and I blushed. I went beet red. He grinned, and I'm not sure if it's because he's just a smiley type of guy or because I looked so absolutely silly.

Of course, he wasn't the only crumpet in the store. The place was crawling with them. At the cash register an equally adorable boy was there scanning stuff through. He was wearing the same get-up that aisle-boy was in - the Bunnings polo top, the Stubbies shorts, the apron, the Blundstone boots. But this one looked decidedly-- well, for want of a better term, faggier. In a straight boy kind of way. Spikey black-dyed hair, piercied eye brow, cleanshaven. He may have even had a limp-wrist. But that all means bugger-all.

So the Bunnings boys have made it onto the shop-perve list, right after SDS boy in Pitt Street and just ahead of McSpunk at Centrepoint.


Listening to:
Title: Today
Artist: The Smashing Pumpkins
Album/station: Rotten Apples (2001)
Length: 3.22

Let's play catch up.

I met some more of the boy's friends the other night (the boy, codename: N!xau). One of them, the queer one, struck me as being somehow familiar to me. He actually reminded me quite a lot of Andrew. And the freaky thing is that the two of them have probably met: Andrew used to work at the Greater Union cinema's that N!xau's friend does.

We saw The Life Aquatic at said cinema. I'm going to warn you now: I shall use a word that I absolutely hate because of the way it's been misused, misinterpreted and misapporpriated by the youth of today. The Life Aquatic was totally random. Quite nonsensical. What drugs were these people on? That said, it was pretty good. I loved it.

Anyway, I won't see the boy for a while, he's busy with all his political/community commitments. It's a wonder if he'll ever have any time for me. Incidentally, he referred to me as his boyfriend recently, while he was on the phone to a friend of his. My heart fluttered for a second there. No one has ever openly referred to me as their boyfriend before. Definitely a wow moment.


Listening to:
Title: Yakety Yak
Artist: The Coasters
Album/station: Stand By Me OST (1986)
Length: 1.51

Just a couple of pics.

I opened the Herald this morning to find Ms Julia Gillard MP on the cover of this Saturday's Good Weekend magazine. I love her. In fact, I want to have her babies. Jules for PM!

The posters which take pride of place on the wall beside the door and my white board. I also love Matty Johnston.

The other day, this State Transit Mercedes-Benz O305 Mk IV bus (ex Ryde Depot) parked on the street behind mum's house. I'm guessing it had just delivered a busload of school kids to Quaker's Hill Park for sport, but it was strange to see it so far from home.


Listening to:
Title: Yo Mama
Artist: Butterfingers
Album/station: Breakfast at Fatboys (2004)
Length: 3.20