xmas 'o9

[ dedication: surprisingly, this post isnt dedicated to santa - BUT - zhennnchhu for gettin me back into the swing of blogspotting ]

xmas "o9

this years xmas kicked off with a bucketful of energy, with me & mel making xmas gingerbread THREE WHOLE DAYS *BEFORE* xmas!!!! hehee, we made xmas pigs & xmas circles - the logic being; there's ALWAYS pigs & circles at christmas time ..... (ooh yuuup and they're even iced with a lemon lime bitter frosting)

and then came the christmas eve late night shopping - yuppps 12midnight at marion "desperately" looking for daddy's xmas present ... we got him a tweed river polo (see right!) and a SUPERDAD! pair of boxers ;) u cant go wrong with boxers

come xmas dayyy - we chilled @ home mostly, eating leftover pho for lunch before going to xmas dinner with the cousins & grandparents. and WOW, OMGOSH! there was my very first xmas aussie tv type HAM!! hhehheheeee .... but yah, LOOKS AWESOME .. tastes .. like ham.

ooh yuuups as for xmas pressies - well i bought myself a present (haha! so laaaaaame, i know - BUT WHAT IF santa didnt come? just covering all bases, u knowww) - greeen adidas jacket *yewwwwww* and mel got me a pair of AWEEESOME sunnnies *luuurrrrvveeee em!*

oh yuuups. and TEN CHRISTMAS TEXTS!! wooohoo MERRRY CHISTMAS EVERRRYYONEEEE ~!!!! and enjoy boxing day saaalessss!!

my *octSOBER ♥

*octSOBER ♥ '09

hallo peoples!

yes, it is october - the month of (supposed) sobriety...

haha, which ironically enough has been my least alcohol filled month =.-*

that being said;

there was uni hols

+ bdays wif alcohol

+ bdays wifout alcohol

+ my upcoming bday ...

all reasonable excuses of course ;)

♥ ♥ ♥

uni stuff first... how's it been?

yeah average. lectures, tutes, pracs. yuuuck.

(stats lecture : extrapolation)

phone pic was faster than writing it down =.=

(stats ass: stayed up late... doing the stufpd number crunching... )

(chem pracs: chromatography, titration, extractions...)

♥ ♥ ♥

exams:

nov 12th: biology, 14th: chemistry, 16th: statistical practice, 19th: psychology.

gaAAH!

havent begun exam prep yet (still a bit early, even by my standards) tho,

i HAVE begun THINKING abt it...

and , its the thought that counts riiite?

this uni week seems suspiciously light...

nothing major due ... nothing stressing ... no pracs ... hrrm; this doesnt sound right eh!

♥ ♥ ♥

next one along... work. yeah.. also not bad. working for two schools during the term4... immanuel college and unley high.... coaching badminton, - what else - but wow dude~ sometimes there's jobs that u would do whether u got paid or not.. and others, u just gotta think abt the bucks u earning for being there... maybe im losing my touch? maybe ive been doing this badminton thing for too long? ... *sighs* @ least im getting better @ it tho.... my immanuel mxd kiddies came runners-ups (to norwood morialta), beating seaview (r1), loxton & adelaide along the wayyy - yeeAAAHHH!!! *so proud*

♥ ♥ ♥

gah, which brings me to badminton. GAH! is all i can say. what used to be a hobby.. a recreational, social sport... man- has changed. im the editor for the FEATHER - badmintonSA's newsletter ... WHYYYY DO I DO THIS TO MYSELF?! ... am on the jnr tournament committee ... APPARENTLY SO ... ran paul's sat nite training sessions when he wasnt around and become a FEEDER on sat night. WOW. "sif this can be called a hobby...

tired. its all tiring. getting old. dont quite have the passion for it .... dont think i ever did... but sure dont now

*sighs*

hah, so my latest source for venting?

scchweeeet.

- some post got deleted here. haha-

♥ ♥ ♥

anwyay: upcoming bday.

dont kno wat to do.

dinner? karaoke?

neehhh, badminton ppl and my-age-ppl ....

2 groups - roughly, no mix. fri and sat nites. s

un night - family dinner. suggestions?

♥ ♥ ♥

all for now, more later ... hahaha ~ nah, i wouldnt do that to ya^^

miiish.♥

CORK + GOOSE = SHUTTLECOCK

A BADMINTON SHUTTLECOCK IS MADE OUT OF GOOSE FEATHER NOT DUCK!!!!

DOES THIS LOOK LIKE DUCK TO YOU?!?

quote:

"A Shuttlecock shall have 16 feathers fixed in a cork base covered in kid leather. Interestingly, the best Badminton Shuttlecocks are made from feathers from the left wing of a goose."

from left to right:   DUCK .... GOOSE.

CLEARLY; A DUCK AND GOOSE DO NOT LOOK ALIKE!!... DUH BRAINS - HERE'S A HINT FOR U - LOOK @ THE COLOUR OF THE SHUTTLECOCKS - THEN @ THE COLOUR OF THE BIRDS ABOVE!!!

hmph - so next time;

q: "Which bird's feather is used to make shuttlecocks in the sport badminton?"

a: GOOSE!!!

AND VERY MUCH SO, NOT DUCK!!!!

not to point fingers, BUT

yes, geology quiz night - you know you are wrong.

disclaimer ; to deny all info just presented & waste time & effort.

Ok, so a pretty ordinary day and a pretty stressful week ^^ anyway - I was just thinking about the blogs I've already written. Now, I dont want to give the wrong impression with the things I've talked about because;

a) im not "mad" @ the badminton community, just had a crappy game or two

b) im not A SAD LONELY BASKETCASE OK!!

c) i didnt enjoy the geology trip - but didn't wreck it for the geologists who enjoyed it there.

>> and so, with that - i dont mean to waste one's time with "disproving" the impression my blog gave - but yeahHH... this got me thinking about disclaimers.

Last year - there was a case where a group presented a one sided, articulated and somewhat aggressive opinion regarding a particular country which shouldn't hold the 2008 olympic games ...

[haha... see if u can figure that one out!]

Anyway , their presentation went on for about 15 or so minutes with strong points in good (non- asian) english. AND that my friend is where they stuffed up - their *proper* english was lost in translation to the (actual) asians in the crowd and so the informaation they were gathering was based on powerpoint slides and pictures, basic english and body language. HENCE - a massive upset and walk outs. BUT @ the end of this presentation, the presenting group used a DISCLAIMER. ... "oh, but even tho we don't think the country should hold the o-games , it doesn't mean we dont like the people that come from there"... well DUH! ... hello! ... the people make up the country (*sarcastic* nahh... u don't think the country's geological features are capable enough of holding the games) .. and so thereforth - in ur one-lined effort to make those people feel "better" ... ur one line has pretty much COUNTER-ACTED THE LAST FIFTEEN MINUTES OF YOUR PRESENTATION!! ... 

HENCE the following reasons:

a)  all ur well presented argument is just washed down the drain by u claiming u don't actually believe/side with it anyway.

b) the people who have walked out - and are the people who need to hear it most - didn't hear it cos they HAD ALREADY WALKED OUT!

c) the audience that u had convinced on ur point of view - are back to their state of no-man's-land when u deny the points just raised

d)  IN ONE SENTENCE - ALL INFO PRESENTED IS REBUTTED!

e)  if u actually do mean all the info u present then a disclaimer is only stuck in to "cover ur ass"

literally - only to cover their asses.

NOW, do u see what i mean? ... What's the point of having a disclaimer when everything you have just spent 15min claiming is going to be disputed in one single line at the end?!?!?!

signing off - as ur claiming-disclaimer friend, xx.

***

the "ah man, i really had to get that off my chest" rating:  3 (out of 5)

A Geo Adventure.

Ahh ok people's.. I'm back from one (forced) whirlwind of a weekend @ first year geology field camp along the fleurieu peninsula..... and my my my WHAT an excursion... 

*TAKES A MOMENT TO RECAP*

 "WHAT??!?!" is definitely the first thought that springs to mind. Massive insurance scandals, the extinction bus, children-adults-mature age students, ROCKS, cliff faces, steeeeep slopes, stairs that go on forever....... and dot dot dot.

For me, who wasn't actually oh-so-keen to go in the first place, the best parts of the trip were the numerous bus rides... ahhh, rest. HAHA... but in all seriousness, it is true! I  do believe - sleeping knocks off any fear of nausea/motion sickness - keep that one in mind peoples, next time your on a rollercoaster? ... Anyway - our bus, labelled EXTINCTION   (as opposed to ALBEDO and GREENHOUSE) .... actually did die along the way.... just 100m from the campsite!... And sooo... *lug lug, grumble, grumble* ... walking the last 100m to the campsite meant less bed selection. (and yes, the joke can be thrown in here; "the extinction bus finally got extinct")

Ok... so then aside from my favourite being the bus ride - the geological favourite - which actually turned out to be my biggest "WHAT!?!" (2nd biggest was to the HALF A CHICKEN EACH they served us for dinner) was the massive insurance looophole the uni managed to pull off! ... Ok, so to check out the quarry @ Carrikalinga Beach... of course, the rocks are @ the bottom of beach cliff and we are parked at the top. so, in all true nature (there is no such thing as flat ground in geology) the herd of 140 geo students hiked down to the beach - BUT this beach (and hence the reason why we're there) is filled with massive boulder sized rocks along the seashore.... and in order to get to "those rocks" @ the bottom - we SHUFFLED along cliff faces, JUMPED from one rock crevasse to another sloped rock below, CLIMBED LIKE SPIDERMAN up and down the thousands of massive rocks, SCALED almost vertical mounds of dirt? (haha, where the fella in front of me was climbing and u could actually SEE the rocks eroding and crumbling off as he stepped) and PRETENDED it didnt hurt when we landed funny. and some how - in a crazy miracle - there were no injuries  *disappointment jk*.... but ... HOW ON EARTH WAS THE TRIP INSURANCE OK WITH 140STUDENTS JUMPING UP AND OFF ROCKS, SHUFFLING CLIFF FACES AND SINKING IN WET SAND!?!  ( i guess insurance people never did geology?)

Stop 1: Torrens Park Quarry - see how far down we are = how far we have to get back up.

Ok so then aside from the rock jump and cliff shuffling - there was also the stair climbing (and mind u, geologists also dont seem to understand a normal staircase like the rest of us do) .... when there was a structure that did resemble stairs - they were STEEEP as, and WENT ON FOREVER... ahhhh... the StairMaster has NOTHING on the "stairs" on Petrel Cove !!

Stop 3: One mother of an epic hike up.... INCLINE much?

Oh yeah and lastly - WEIRD MUCH.... but mature age students - DONT U FEEL KINDA AWKWARD WHEN THE DEMONSTRATOR IS YOUNGER THAN U?!.... our demonstrator was like 24ish.... and then like the older fellas in our group have PASSED PUBERTY A LONG TIME AGO... reaching balding and like in their 30's to 40's....  ... errr....  AWKWARD no?

Stop 5: Rocks and walking mush-mush thru the sand.

okies - enough for now from your non-geologist friend.

loneliness - huh?

aha... and since the first one felt decently good (the venting side i mean) ... lets keep this ball rolling ...ok, so today i was @ uni as per usual - for only three lectures. ahh, but the thing about these three lectures - there are at least 250 (bio and chem) or 50(astronomy) other people in the lecture theatre - but none of which i "talk talk" to.... so, does this make me lonely? is it possible to be lonely amongst a throng of people tho?

which brings me to the first point - how do we actually define loneliness? is there an actual physical criteria thy shall fall into - or is it simple a mental/emotion state of mind? I reckon there are two aspects to being lonely. Like for instance, someone eating their lunch alone could be considered lonely upon first glances - but if they're sitting alone bcos they want to enjoy lunch by themselves - who are we to call them lonely? ... So then does this mean loneliness is a state of mind and not simply "people alone" ?

Well, (to those popular people) believe it or not, but you can actually be lonely amongst a gather of people, whether it be a lecture theatre, a group movie night or pubcrawl. Nevertheless, you wouldn't APPEAR lonely but if we could read into your thoughts for just a moment, they would be emotionally and mentally lonely. Basically what I'm trying to say (badly) is that tho people appear to hang in large groups - doesn't necessarily mean they want to be there nor are they not lonely. Being (subtly) excluded from the group is one of the most painful types of loneliness... and hence, those people are lonely.

In the end, this has been a very going-round-in-circles blog.. and really not a very good one....

but.... thats all for now martians!

Your old-and-alone bloggger!

the first of many

howdy n welcome 2 my first - of many - blogs:

actually, my first blog site @ all.. so u kno give it a hoot... and see how it all pans out. this blog shall be topic-less... and  probs somewhat less interesting...

basically - im sick, with wat i believe is the common cold and well reealllly does not help anything at all..... also played badminton tonite - not very well - but played all the same. 

ok lets talk abt badminton:

to be honest - i think im consistent. not very flash @ doubles, mixed or singles.. and hence, consistency. in a way - im a well rounded player... bcos no single event actually sticks out... nor does any particular event suck extra badly.

nehhh anyway - 2 all em badminton players out there .... u hate it when they dont hit it to u .... but then u hate it just as much when they always hittin 2 u... there really is no win situation here....

in situation a) what are u spose to do? jump in front of ur partner and steal their shot - and likely sink it in the net @ that... or just "patiently" wait for ur single shot of the rally and in the end not get ur money's worth of badminton...

hah... so then there is situation b) ... what are u meant to do there wen ur the one being "bullied" ... its not like u could just quit - cos well, it couldnt really get much worse from there... but then again, you may be saving yourself the embaressment. but really.. there is no simple answer... just run in the opposite direction of the shuttle? and face the blame from ur partner? ... another lose-lose situation here...

siiiigning off - badminton-ly grumpy 

miiish.