Stay young at heart.. and your sanity will thank you :)
The enrolling process is driving me crazy!!!
Last night I went on to enrol, only to have the system drop out for maintenance right after i figured out which courses i wanted to do. When i finally got back on, i ended up with clashes on my timetable o.O i've signed onto 4 courses totalling the required 24 uoc per semester but i really want to squeeze chem in. It's a sister subject to bio and i think marine biology would benefit immensely from it. sigH.. my courses are looking so ridiculously mismatched atm, that a careers adviser might have a brain haemorrhage trying to work out the career objective :D
Today, at a church conference, i had about 20 ppl asking me the exact same questions in the exact same order:
Ohh, so you finished your hsc? *smiles* What course are you going to do? uhuh.. which uni? humanity is certainly starved of imaginative questions :D I'd much rather talk to children..they're so marvelous at asking things.. i talked to 2 little girls today after 4 years of going to church with them and never really talking to them & boy! - the conversation spilled
everywhere! It's refreshing how unrestrictive it was.. we talked about cubby houses to komodo dragons to Steve Irwin to their desexed rabbit to their rock collection to pitcher plants to juggling tree cones, and i was just grinning like crazy the whole time.. one of the girls -Anna- was squealing about how exciting it was to be older at school using a gorgeous example:
"Last year i was allowed to bring 2 highlighters to school because i was in year 2! Well.. this year - i get to bring 3!!!" - how beautiful!!! I'm def. adopting once i have the means :D
Church conferences are certainly wholesome. Not only by the spirit that unites everyone; but also the
mix that come together like a giant biological jigsaw puzzle. For everyone is known as 'brethren' or 'brother' in such a community and it's lovely to witness. Right now, we have 2 old couples from Queensland staying over and both have travelled the world preaching.. Being strategically placed in a position to observe the quantum leap btw children and adult behaviour, my imagination reaped most of the benefits:) Like tonight at dinner; sitting with my own aged version of the Aussie Brady Bunch, I was contemplating the odds of them switching from talking lifelessly about housing price inflations to maybe food fighting? :D No doubt if i'd sat with Anna and co., a food fight would've broken out in about 3 minutes. Sadly, the dinner went where it was suppose to and i was left to imagine the would-be food fight while doing the washing up :P Still.. the ppl flavour is fabulous.
I've met many today with Irish roots; many who live in the sunshine coast; the young; the old; the puberties and quite a few lecturers -mostly in stats, maths or finance *shudders*. Every person has their own unique air about them characterised by a signature greeting. I've long stopped loathing the standardised
'how are you?' because there are just so many different ways of saying it! which of course, produces rippling variations of the response 'good' -it can be really funny watching the process of such an exchange; it's almost like a game of probability, where you guess the asker's way of greeting and the reciprocated response. My preferred way, however is
'so how've you been lately?' - to the point, more relaxed and non-intrusive but still warm:) Do i sound like a pyschology student yet? thought so :P
Happy Australia Day Australia!!
We live in an awesome country; and the point of today is mostly to impress that point. Of course I don't mind the double pay that comes with this sorta occasion:D and people are so much funnier to observe that if i could pick my roster, the bulk of it would land on public holidays:)
Today's observations; my first customers were 3 men with kiddies and a handful of groceries. I actually asked "where are the mums?" To which they replied: "mums?!" I stumbled on: "well the men that usually pass through these checkouts are either forced to, backpackers, married or -" "-gay?" they finished off. That was NOT the word i had in mind. But it made me wonder whether this was the kinda perception that tagged most shops a guy-repellant. I always just thought they couldn't be bothered.
In good spirits, I stood there laughing to myself & wondering what I was missing at Olympic Stadium. The mood evaporated as soon as the store next door started blaring Ricky Martin>_> Wondering how best to ignore it, but given no time as the next customer came along, i was startled by her question -
"- um i was just wondering if there was anyone else that worked in the store??"
"Of course there is!"
"well where are they?"
"you mean
noone is in the aisles??"
"you can set a canon off in there and noone would hear it!"
O_O
I always find myself in this kinda situation. It's quite funny when i look back on it but at the time, it's as if the answers are chasing the questions. It's -to put simply- nuts. Another useful thing i picked up was knowing how to spot smokers before they ask for a pack. It's useful coz i can strategise how best to break it to them, the legal implications of selling cigs underage :P Strategy is the key to avoiding eruptions. Looks like rain soon ``
oh ``RIGHT ON!!!!!!!
I got the offer! i got it! i got it! i got it!!!! UNSW here I come :D wOoot! ok let's see .. who's shouting me lunch? :P
Tried and testing..
I'm feeling good:) Not because of anything flash that have been suddenly bequethed to me, or any particular food that has restored my lacklustre youth of late -tho i will get back to this in a minute- but because i got a new bookshelf.
That must sound really lame ey.. well so be it :D This one not only costed me zip, but i was the one that spent a painstaking 40 odd minutes erecting the thing so it feels like my baby :P Its warm beechwood colour complements the cozy feel of my bedroom perfectly and gives it an allusion of more space.
Another factor to my wave of euphoria is going for the first time, to a Chinese church yesterday with mother, brothers & sisters. It felt like another world. Songs were sung in Chinese, there were children and they even had an english translator -something they implemented just yesterday- which equated to some rather amusing moments such as, due to the automated nature of the talk-translate rhythm, when he translated English to English :P Also seeing my bros is always great, but they seem to have matured in very strange ways -if u can call it maturing-boy, it's going to be a challenge playing role model to 2 young heads wrapped around the stuff they're presently wrapped around :: calling on God's strength in this case is a must ::
Back to the food thing. Ever since the HSC, my health seems to have ridden an exponential downhill which manifested in different ways.. weird sleep & eat patterns, dark dreams, pendulous moods, oscillating self-confidence, and something close to chronic fatigue whereby now waking at 2pm daily is almost the norm o.O .. This hasn't been helped by my moving back and forth btw houses every week, or being in health-fiendish environments so often.
Well, i've been given nutritional dietary supplements that i think i should try with an open mind. I have a month to validate the "gauranteed" effects of its potency [the time frame when results supposedly start showing regarding all its products] and see if its reputation by its sponsor is really as sound as it seems .. No I'm not taking any random mystery drug:) My body is not something i take for granted, which is part of the reason i'm trying these, even if it is for something that sounds quite small, well compared to stuff like cancer and diabetes -which they have products for as well o_O. I've checked up as much as possible on the company behind the products and its agreed by many independent scientific institutions as the best of its kind. As i'm naturally skeptical tho, i still need to find out more ..
An awesome impromptu day out :D
`` as the title epitomizes, i shouldn't have to do the hard work of explaining anything; but for the detail-hungry, here's the longer gist of it :)
moments are remembered, rather than the day itself ... it began thermometer straining hot. I planned going to Parra but the heat switched off decision-central a.k.a brain and my body, having decided on giving up trying to de-zombify itself; stayed in lala land. This would've continued past 10.30 am had my line manager not rung at that point, asking for my availability to work some casual hours later in the day.. not feeling too hot (figuratively speaking) i generously declined.
Once awokened, i springcleaned a bit (as you would) and came across the scholarship offer from UNSW. I scanned it once, admiring that piece of preciousness in my hand for a few seconds. Re-scanned it, coz it just wasn't your typical mail and by chance, one particular sentence leapt out at me:
Please complete the enclosed form and return it to [name & place] within seven days. I auto looked for the date of release and my heart nearly malfunctioned: 4 January- I was 3 days -make that 5 coz Post Offices don't work weekends- late. Immediately i hopped my way to our local PO and dispatched the acceptance *praying it'd still be accepted*. I sent off an apology email by way of explanation and hoped for the best ``
Meanwhile, i received an sms from waz still up for a day out, despite the outside inferno & extreme lack of planning other than .. [me] 'u free friday?' [waz] 'yeh' [me] 'wanna go out?' [waz] 'ok why not?' .. a week ago on msn :D We watched The Polar Express in 3D @ Imax and wore those funny spock glasses that took up half ur face, or 3/4 of kiddies. We then did a huge loop around the city, passing the Quay, the Gardens, the QVB and Maccas - well we had to eat somewhere. We ate dinner @ Market City -a first for waz :O Bubble tea was also a first, but he disliked the bubbles or 'pearls' and went for a sprite instead :P I came back home at round 9.30 and checked my email in a similar frame of mind as i did to my UAI release ~ tense & thinking: oh quit being such a baby. So i got on with it and discovered i was given the a ok :D *so relieved* It really makes you think twice about the forces at work doesn't it? Had i gone to Parra, i wouldn't have springcleaned .. and probably forgotten all about mailing that acceptance letter meaning my scholarship would've gone down the drain.. and upon accepting those hours? - well, my day wouldn't have been as rich :)
So right now, i'm basking in joy; rearing to have a shower; and doing a very human thing- mentally planning for a tomorow. But now that i've noted it, i think i'll stay in the present in its last 28 minutes, quietly appreciating the gift God has given me: a thankful spirit.
THE symbol
At some point or rather, people have 'their' symbol or image or phrase that they like to identify with or are identified with whether or not they ask for it. Such examples include Hitler's swastika to Az's <>< :D Well it just so happened i stumbled upon my very own O---" (after many stages of evolution) mind you. Like me it's subject to change but that can wait. For now i will document its growth and how various ppl interpreted its grand simplicity :P
Stage 1: []---" >> many didn't have a clue what this was. I didn't either, until inevitable questions arose and i was forced to give an answer. Jona thought it was the mallet judges used when screaming "silence!" in the courtroom & the end things were fingers. But the closest thing it resembled to me was a key, and thus, the key was born..
Stage 2: ()---" >> ..it evolved into this. Due simply to the fact that, i came to accept stage 1 prototype as not looking
enough like a key. I was quite happy with this one until mands told me she thought it was a monged face sliding into a black hole; to which she generously exaggerated with a clearer example O-------" A change was dispatched immediately.
Stage 3: O---" >> yay!! and what a graceful evolution :D ok so it was basically snabbed off the monged face design but at least now it can be taken a bit more seriously. On a totally different note; we're going swimming tonight ~ woot!
The Cultural Divide
As a native Chinese with an Aussie demeanour, it's hitting home now more than ever, how lonely it is standing at the borderline of 2 totally different cultures.
Living half the time with an aussie family of 5, and the other half with my chinese family of 5 -o.O- is an enlightening, funny, surreal, sometimes uplifting, sometimes overwhelming journey that's almost ying-yang :] tho lately, like ocean tides that come & go, so too do my dispositions which reflect a tired spirit, paralysed all of a sudden by
tour de force past, present & future that has suddenly risen like a giant panoramic screen, projecting images all too familiar alongside blanks yet to be recorded.
Instead of getting younger by the year, i feel 60 already; pushed here and there by emotions i can't account for, thoughts that isolate and expectations that cage me in. It's often said that "a trouble shared is a trouble halved". But halving it forever won't erase it. So forget a lifetime; I would just like to forget once and for all, a past that's refusing to let go. I have learned, i have healed and the final stage is letting go..but the 2 way process seems to be arrested in a coma. ..
.. On a happier note, yesterday we went to Shellharbour with its breathtaking rocks. I stood right at the edge of a cliff with waves pounding below, at times, sending a foamy spray of water washing over our heads. Ok, that part was a tad scary so i retreated to higher grounds out of reach from the mini tsunamis, which commanded such a view i could've camped there.. admiring God's creation in a world of my own:) ..the BEST remedy..
Feeling `` electric ``/V
Omg! omg!! My head's back on earth now and i can finally start making some sense.
I just SPOKE on the phone WITH MY BROS for 20 min!! Right that sounds abismally normal doesn't it? well it's not:D:D I recall Andy saying
'man i haven't seen ur face for ages' and Stan calling him a dick most of the time *grins* .. but everything else was just lost in the torrent of everythings they were trying to tell me;) i can't wait to see my boys..
How to celebrate Stan's 13th b'day nxt month? what long overdue presents to give them?? what to do for my b'day?? these very relevant questions are giving me a pleasant headache.. ..after what feels like a millenia, i will 'catch up' with them starting something like next week>> :D How odd; how special, how rare every relationship is; the emotions it unlocks; the chain reaction from their newfound home in someone's heart; their renewal or departure.. well the special feature of my profoundly unique relationship with my brothers is its enduring nature.
I see them at pockets of time..sometimes months or years apart..but everytime i see them they greet me with their usual idiosyncratic mark- Stan screams my name; charges at me with the turbopower of 40 epileptic horses; then flings his arms around me as he tells the latest 'goss' in his life before asking me to find him a job T_T Andy is a lot more professional despite being the younger of the 2 at only 11 years of age:D He quietly lets me go up to him; greet him with a kiss, a hug and then a brief convo initiation rite e.g.
how r u? before proceeding onto something more intrinsic such as whether or not i have any presents for him T_T"" What's not to love? Now for a whole lot of grinning and dreaming about the next time we meet [all being well].. thank you God, thank you:)
on a natural high ^_^
So the Open day wasn't too bad. The transport timed itself close to perfection even- though i woke up 2 hours later than scheduled=_= and my woeful navigation skills were rescued by helpful strangers. I found more info about the course that's the apple of my eye [science comm] and also discovered i was offered a scholarship!! hurray!! It really made my day, like who wouldn't want to be paid to learn?!
Now i must wait til the 16th for the uni offers.. and that process is like sitting on a really bad wedgy. I polished up my preferences list last night, narrowing it down to 6. Once my position is confirmed, i can start breathing again:D and celebrate with my bros [who i haven't seen for an unnatural 10 mths] Boy i miss them.. sometimes i forget them, and when that happens u know it's been too long.. i made it thru high school deprived of their presence, i'm not letting that repeat thru uni. Some things are worth inviting the trouble it'll no doubt bring. This is one of them o_O
So it begins..
I am loving this new blog interface.. home-y and simple. Just the way i want my new year to be :D So here's to 2005 - to simplicity; humility and sympathy for those left in the tsunami wake and whatever else God has planned for us.
Tomorrow is UNSW open day. And i just spent the last
hour browsing 3 diff sites on how to get there: the transport infoline, their site and all these links with maps and timetables -_-" Now that i am equipped with knowledge -and thus, power- i can rest peacefully, knowing tomorow shall be well. Well that's dependent on a few factors really.
It
would be well
if 1) it didn't rain- as my umbrella had chosen to take a vacation during my end-of-year room springclean 2) the transports were on time, and looking at their predecessors + usual Open Day mayhem, it most def. won't be 3) I can get in and out of the uni with all q answered in under 3 1/2 hours - efficiency is my thing :)
All in all, i'm looking forward to this year, not because of anything spectacular. Just that, this is the year i'm known as 'independent' to Ctrlink which is sig. coz I'm still not quite yet, an adult:P It's also the first year i have a stable job, the first year that officially farewells 12 years of 'spoon-feed' schooling and the first year i enter Uni. 2004 has been unique because of the HSC & if there was anything i'd learnt from it, this was it: At the end, you either see it as a ripper or a ripoff. How u want it, u determine from the start.
