Rain and other novelties.

Just when I have some washing to do, the sky opens up. And my wardrobe is starting to feel the pinch. Oh well. Anyway, my clothing problems pale into insignificance, considering the water crisis and all.

It's been that long since we've had a decent downpour that I've forgotten some of the little things. There's a downpipe just outside my room and I can hear the water trickle down through it, even if it's only a light shower. Waking up all warm and toasty, inside my room and all wrapped up in a doona - it's all good, really.

Also I have a new culinary obsession: bacon deluxe double cheeseburger at Hungry Jacks. I'm so glad I don't get fat. I love my blissful youth. I want to stay eighteen forever.


Listening to:
Title: Poor Leno
Artist: Röyksopp
Album/station: Melody A.M. (2001)
Length: 3.57

I've been sucked in.

Up until yesterday I hadn't gotten into the whole Desperate Housewives thing. But that was before a bunch of pirated DH DVDs landed in my aunt's lap - DVDs which go beyond what has already aired on the Seven Network. And as much as I hate to admit it, it sucked me right in. Fuck. See, now I'm getting the watercooler itch. I need to discuss this with someone but there's a massive problem: nobody wants a spoiler so I'm going to have to deal with this all on my own. Gah!

Amongst other things I'm also a little bit embarrassed to admit, I've recently bought an S Club 7 album. The only concession I'm giving myself on this one is that S Club's time has long gone and the hype has all but evaporated so really, I'm not succumbing to the evil record label machine. And I didn't even pay full price for it. But their songs are so bloody catchy. I mean, with such classics as Bring It All Back and Never Had A Dream Come True, its just-- ergh! I dunno. I hate myself.

The only member of the seven I ever really took notice of was a girl, oddly enough: Hannah. She's as cute as a button. I can't say that I ever really found any of the guys of S Club 7 very attractive. And speaking of which, it reminds me about a little bit of a story. See, there's this one boy at uni that whose face seemed really familiar to me. At the time, I'd sworn that I must've seen him at Stonewall or something similar once before - that was the association I'd made for some reason. Of course, I'd mentioned this to Dave who probably went and told this boy, who kept giving me funny looks afterward. It turned out that he belonged to USyd's resident Christian Fundamentalists, the Evangelical Union - so no, he's definitely NOT gay. Ergo it's doubtful that he was ever at Stonewall. I was intrigued by this boy. Severely. I'd always notice him entering the lecture theatre and I'd follow him with my eyes, wracking my brain, until he sat down. Where had I seen him before?

Well, I realised not too long ago that he's the spitting image of Jon Lee, the poncey blond one of the S Club 7. The association came from all the S Club 7 music videos played on Stonewall's TV screens where I may or may not have sung along to Bring It All Back while being slightly toasted on beer and Vodka & Red Bulls. I would've liked to remind you all of who or what this Jon Lee person is/was and link to a webpage - any webpage at all - but it appears that there is no trace of him left on the interweb. Well how about that.

It's all good however. I'm making up for my minor viewing and listening indescretions. Nothing but ABC, Triple J and Radiohead. That'll give me some cred.


Listening to:
Title: Karma Police
Artist: Radiohead
Album/station: OK Computer (1997)
Length: 4.21

It is finished... for a few weeks.

With Vector Calculus this afternoon came the true end of my third semester. I'm exhausted. And a couple of kilos lighter than I was in February. Hmm, not healthy. Whinge, fucking whinge.

Out of all my subjects this sem, educational psychology might actually turn out to be useful. Well, in the short-to medium term at least, as opposed to the teaching career that hopefully lies before me. All this business to do with motivation, attribution of success and failure, anxiety and the like doesn't just apply to the poor sods in a physics classroom who may be subjected to my wrath in the distant future. Evidently, it applies directly to me too! Of all people!

So will I put any of it to use? Chances are, I won't.


Also today, I saw World Press Photo 2005 at the NSW State Library. The Mitchell Wing galleries were full of powerful images but a few in particular stuck with me. And they're all Iraq related, oddly enough. The first was a photo of an American private, taken through the bulletholed windscreen of his Humvee in which eight of the nine soldiers it was carrying were killed during an ambush. The caption went on to say that the particular private captured in the image was killed three days later at the same intersection. Another set of photographs depicted returned service men from Iraq, all with various war-incurred injuries. Coincidently, a set of photos from the Republican campaign during the 2004 U.S. presidential elections was hung right next to it. How about that.

Anyway, it's on until 17 July.


Listening to:
Title: What's Up [Zander Remix]
Artist: Zander
Album/station: Remix Heaven, Vol. 2 (2003)
Length: 3.53

One left.

Saturday exams should be illegal. Waking up early on a Saturday morning is not conducive to performing well in any examination. And it totally fucked up my perception of space and time, too. For some reason I thought it was Wednesday. I timed everything as if it were a weekday, including catching a train that only runs on weekdays. End result: I got to Carslaw just as reading time began.

Physics this morning wasn't as bad as the others. Which is nice. Last but not least: vector calculus, Monday.


Listening to:
Title: Bring It All Back
Artist: S Club 7
Album/station: Best: The Greatest Hits (2003)
Length: 3.28

I absolutely hate educational psychology.

So my ed psych exam is on tomorrow. It's the one I'm most anxious about. I just hate it. And I hate being all locked up in my room trying to study for it. Although it's probably the most useful way to spend my time at the moment, I feel like I'm wasting my life sitting here. There are so many places I'd rather be and there are a few people whose company I'd love to have at the moment.

I could go a hug right about now, too.


Listening to:
Title: Smoke
Artist: Eskimo Joe
Album/station: A Song Is A City (2004)
Length: 3.38

Crush.

I think I have a crush on Simon. Just what I need, a crush on another straight boy. But he's just so cute. He does this thing where he snatches my bottle of water or Coke or whatever and twirls around making ninja noises. And on Mondays, he shows me all the bruises he gets from soccer on the weekend. And his smile! Ergh.

It's all his fault.


Listening to:
Title: Girl Inform Me
Artist: The Shins
Album/station: Oh, Inverted World (2001)
Length: 2.20

Adolescents: seen and unfortunately heard.

In the Herald's Radar section:

Schoolgirl: "What time are you getting there, roughly?"
Schoolboy: "About f--en eight-o-f--en-clock."
Schoolgirl: "God, you're a dick."
Kirribilli station, Friday, June 17, 4pm (L. Kerasin, Waitara)

Maybe he/she means Milsons Point station. Nonetheless, suck on that, schoolboy. Ha! I hope his ego took a bit of a battering. Gosh, expand your vocabulary, boy.

Speaking of school children, I think the collective noun for a group of adolescent girls should be a clattering of schoolgirls. Seriously. They make such an ear splittingly irritating noise and the enclosed space of a train carriage only makes it worse. Gah, I think I'm turning into an old man. No, scratch that. There was an old man sitting near me and he was creepily watching the schoolgirls and their shenanigans. That's so not me.


Listening to:
Title: Lovefool
Artist: The Cardigans
Album/station: Romeo + Juliet Vol.1 (1996)
Length: 3.18

Chocolate cake.

The crowning achievement of this winter solstice was the chocolate cake that I baked. Behold its choctastic majesty!

So the chemistry exam yesterday went alright. Now that it's over though, I'm getting this weird feeling that maybe I like chemistry after all. If only I'd had that feeling about halfway through the semester. At least then I might've done better, being intrinsically motivated and all. (Ho! A reference to educational psychology! How lame. Incidently, the exam for that subject is on Friday. Yipee ki yay.)

Next cab off the rank: Linear Mathematics, tomorrow.


Listening to:
Title: Private Universe
Artist: Crowded House
Album/station: Afterglow (1999)
Length: 4.08

Pre-exam viewing.

As I sit here eating my breakfast and preparing for the chemistry exam this afternoon, I've got Jerry Springer on the TV. It's entitled "I Cut Off My Manhood". Deary me. Apparently he sliced his peter to ward off who he claims was a gay stalker. Hilariously ridiculous.


Listening to:
Title: ---
Artist: ---
Album/station: --- (----)
Length: -.--

Mattymoo update.

So he's not fu-- I mean, seeing his female friend any more, mainly because she wants a relationship. Could this be our opportunity to reclaim he who is rightly queer?


Listening to:
Title: Feel Good Inc.
Artist: Gorillaz
Album/station: It's Not A Phase Mum - SYN 90.7FM Melbourne
Length: -.--

Procrastination: with a vengeance.

I don't know why, but I find elections fascinating. Instead of getting down and dirty with linear mathematics, I'm watching Kerry O'Brien and Antony Green with the ABC coverage of the Northern Territory elections via Sky News. Big swings to the ALP everywhere.

Nice.


Listening to:
Title: Boys
Artist: Jonny Moirée
Album/station: Dirrrty Electro (2004)
Length: 4.18

Ergh.

Gosh, I sound like a right royal whinger. But a few blocks of chocolate later, the anxiousness has subsided. A little. And I'm probably a lot closer to diabetes, too. Ah well, can't be helped.

Hmm. Need more chocolate.

This is obviously going to be a running theme over the next week and a bit: study, followed by anxiety and finally consumption of large amounts of chocolate and chocolate derived snacks.


Listening to:
Title: ---
Artist: ---
Album/station: --- (----)
Length: -.--

I have no idea. At all. About anything.

If you've wasted the last four months, raise your hand. I know I have. So instead of going out and enjoying myself this weekend, I've locked myself away to make up for the the semester that was. And the anxiety is building.


Listening to:
Title: Sweet Transvestite
Artist: Tim Curry
Album/station: Rocky Horror Picture Show: 25 Years of Absolute Pleasure (1998)
Length: 4.06

And so it begins.

Lo! The procrastination ends! I touched my first book this afternoon. And fuck, it sucks. There's something about studying for exams that turns my room from a sanctuary away from my family into a gaol cell that I've voluntarily imprisoned myself - and I'm hating it. There are better things than organic chemistry that I'd love to be locked away with.

Bah, enough of my whinging. The upshot is that now I'm rather toey. And no, there is no link between acetoacetic ester synthesis and the sudden feeling of horniness that has come over me. I'm not that much of a nerd.


Listening to:
Title: Let's Go To Bed
Artist: The Cure
Album/station: Greatest Hits (2003)
Length: 3.34

No rubba, no hubba hubba.

New Zealand's Ministry of Health has produced a series of TV and radio commercials, aimed at young adults and teenagers, promoting safe sex and the use of condoms.

Good on them. Yeah, so the slogan is really lame. But one of the ads shows BOYS KISSING!!!

Low Res 256k: http://hubba.co.nz/content/HubbaHubba02_256k.wmv
High Res 512k: http://hubba.co.nz/content/HubbaHubba02_512k.wmv

And to think, this makes it to air in Kiwi Land? When can I move?


Listening to:
Title: You're Free [Synth Mix Radio Edit]
Artist: Yomanda
Album/station: Remix Heaven, Vol. 2 (2003)
Length: 3.08

Film.

This is ridiculous. Nothing is getting done, not one book opened. No, seriously. So far today, I've watched Gus Van Sant's film, Elephant. And despite what I'd heard, I thought it was actually quite good. But then again, I'm just a mere science student - what would I know about the arts?

The boys are cute, the cinematography is great and the soundtrack is beautiful.


Listening to:
Title: Sparks
Artist: Royksopp
Album/station: MoS Chillout Sessions: Summer Collection 2004 (2003)
Length: 3.01

Reflections.

Okay so now I'm in a bit of a reflective mood. It's stuvac and I'm meant to be studying for the upcoming exams but as is characteristic of me in times like these, I'm procrastinating. And, in times like these, I'm also looking forward to mornings. Now that I don't have to turn up at uni at 9am I actually have time to cook and eat breakfast. For tomorrow, I've decided on bacon and eggs. Mmm, artery-blocking. I think I'll cook outside too, on the barbecue stove. It'll be good, what with the warm sunshine, the cool winter morning air, the smell of frying bacon and such.

So coming back from that little tangent, I see that my whiteboard still has Darren's phone number on it. I haven't gotten around to rubbing it off - well, not since I stopped seeing him at least. I could clean it off, now that I'm sitting here and looking at it but I don't think that'll happen. Hmm. I've been a bit mean to Darren recently. We still talk - or at least we used to. That was before I decided to go on some stupid mission to alienate a few exs. Bah, I suck. I don't understand why I do things, to be honest. Like the others, he doesn't deserve any of it.

Come to think of it, he deserved better than me, and I'm not just being hard on myself. I'll admit it here and now: I'm not the most faithful person on the planet. The terrible thing is that I can't remember the last relationship that was entirely exclusive on my part. I'm definitely not proud of that.

In my defence (if my position is at all defensible), the third party has never been some random nobody. Maybe I'm taking friendship too far with some of my mates. It's a zero-sum game after all, especially when straight boys are involved. Incidentally, Mattymoo once said to me: "it doesn't count [as cheating] because we're mates...". Not that I'd need any persuasion from him.

So the warning is out there I guess. I'm unboyfriendable two-fold.


Listening to:
Title: Safe From You
Artist: Frente
Album/station: Shape (1996)
Length: 4.22

Triple J at Manning Bar, USyd.

Chris Taylor and Craig Reucassel returned to their alma mater yesterday and broadcast Triple J's afternoon drive show Today Today from Manning Bar.


I mentioned something to Chris and Craig about the stylised TV that is Wil Anderson's autograph, so Craig turned his into a radio and Chris drew a box that said "flat screen". And Scott "Dools" Dooley. He's charming. I still want to bear his children. "Michael", he wrote, "hope you get off the charges. Oh wait, your last name's not Jackson!". It's a bit lame I know, but he's dreamy. Le sigh.

A highlight of the show was when Chris and Craig sent Dools off on a quest, Amazing Race-style, to Brendan Nelson's house. And to avenge Nelson's cuts to university services, they cut off the services, i.e. water, power and gas, to Nelson's house. Jack the Love Nerd scored a date with Annalise Braakensiek, to the whooping and cheering of all the predominately straight boys in the bar.

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

Red tail lights, waving goodbye.

So the semester draws to a close. I said I'd knuckle down, but I didn't. I said I'd stay single, but I didn't. I suppose there haven't been too many dramas, so that's a plus. I'm not in a reflective mood just yet, so I'll leave that part at that.

This week so far has been great! If only every other week at uni was like this. Lectures, tutes and labs only ran for two of my subjects, so I spent a lot of the week just bumming around. Which was great! I'm not used to all this free time. I imagine that this is what it's like for bludgey arts students.

I've been playing pool with Simon up in the Cubby a fair bit these last few days. We made up for the last couple of weeks while his crippled right hand healed from a soccer accident. I'd like to take this opportunity to announce that I WON A GAME!!! Finally.

While we've been up in the Cubby, we've bumped into Sexy Roland a couple of times. You know, if there's anyone that can return Mattymoo to the manloving fold again, it'd be Roland. I think I've seen more of him this week than I have in the last twelve months. And the odd thing is that he's almost always shows up in the vicinity of a current or exboyfriend, even when I bumped into him at Club Macq's Conception Day last year. So anyway, he took a cue and joined in a game of pool with us. He was wearing his boyfriend's tight T-shirt and everytime he took a shot, it'd ride up a little. MmMmMm.


Listening to:
Title: Girl
Artist: The Beatles
Album/station: Rubber Soul (1965)
Length: 2.33

Lazy bloggery.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

"Kim Beazley is down in the polls because Howard cut taxes. This is all people care about. That's why the ALP stands for nothing any more. It is impossible to win an election unless you suck up to the greedy egotists who call themselves "battlers". Battlers, my backside!

"Those tax cuts the battlers are going to spend on their toys and status symbols would be better spent elsewhere - like aged care, hospitals, public transport, public education, etc. It's just another sign of the tyranny of the self-centred majority."

Warren Heggarty Yagoona

Letters, The Sydney Morning Herald. June 9, 2005.

Listening to:
Title: Das Glockenspiel [Schill Out Mix]
Artist: Schiller
Album/station: Ministry of Sound: Chillout Session, Vol. 2 (2002)
Length: 3.32

Tuesday inanities.

So a few of us want to start a club and/or society, such was the discussion at Manning House earlier today. Simon felt that left-handed people were an under represented minority and proposed some sort of LeftSoc. Incidentally, he's a bit of a lefty himself (politically, that is) but he says that he wouldn't want his club to be about politics. It'd be all about celebrating left-handedness. Good on him, I say. Fight the good fight!

I think we spend too much time at Manning House, not that it's a bad thing. The ladies behind the counter instinctively know what we're about to order before we've even uttered a word. When one of our merry band of boys rocks up and asks for our usual communal fare, i.e. two plates of hot chips, without fail we're asked in return, "one with gravy, one without?". It might have something to do with Pat and all his flirting. It's a little concerning, but cute at the same time.

On an unrelated matter, they run the clock in the second-year organic chemistry lab about five or ten minutes ahead of the actual Sydney local time. I just noticed that today. It all makes sense though, they always seem to want to get everyone out and close the laboratory early. Diabolical.


Listening to:
Title: Classical Gas
Artist: Mason Williams
Album/station: Classical Gas (1987)
Length: 3.05

Blast from the past.

I went to see a game in the local rugby union comp this weekend. And on the field was a familiar face, albeit under a shaggy mop of hair. My best mate Adam took me down to an oval in Concord to see an old mate of ours, Alex. I hadn't seen nor heard from Alex for over a year. Oddly, the last time I bumped into him was at school, when I had to go back and interview one of my teachers for a first-year education subject.

Alex's team lost, which was a shame, but the three of us caught up and reminisced after the game. Those were good times, our school years. Well, mostly. See, a long time ago, Alex and I used to be close buddies. And then we weren't.

It's a time honoured tradition amongst gay boys everywhere to fall in love with one of your close mates, and that's what happened. Of course, that mate is almost never gay and the possibility of those feelings being reciprocated is close to nil. In my case, that mate also happened to belong to a religion that condemned homosexuality. I should've realised that the risk of losing him as a mate far outweighed any sort of short term "fun". But no, that's not how things panned out. A few days later, he stopped talking to me.

But we all seem to be over it now. We aren't close anymore and I don't think we will be. It's a shame, that.


Listening to:
Title: Keep Fishin'
Artist: Weezer
Album/station: Maladroit (2002)
Length: 2.52

The Mikey Mixtapes: Winter 2005.

It being the first entry for June, I thought I'd put up my winter mix-CD.



Listening to:
Title: You're The Cream In My Coffee
Artist: Ruth Etting
Album/station: Love Me Or Leave Me (1996)
Length: 3.07