Yeouch!

Ick. Is it just me, or has this week been particularly painful?

It's all my own doing, of course. I endure this pain completely voluntarily.

On Mondy (what am I, Irish? Lol) Monday my friend Kat and I gave blood together. I remember the first time we went, and I was really scared. I don't often walk into these unknown situations. But they were really nice to me, and it was (relatively) easy and painless. I've done it three times now.

It isn't as bad as I thought it would be. Having said that, they do stick a freakin' huge needle in your arm. In Kat's case, twice. (I'm apparently lucky to have very prominent veins. The nurses comment on it every time I go, in the same manner as "Wow, I really like your shirt".)

I did almost faint once. It was amazing how quickly the nurses reacted. Before I knew it, I was lying back in the chair with a glass of water and a fan blowing straight on me.

Anyway, I got this pretty cool sticker that says "Be nice to me... I gave blood Today". I wanted to take a picture of it for you but my camera has gone *POOF*... so you get a real blood blood drop instead. :)

However, not all my voluntary pain has been so selfless. Today I (dun dun dun...) had my legs waxed.

I mean, seriously, who the hell decided, "Oh wait, I know how to remove hair from legs! Cover it in hot wax and rip it out!"?

It probably hurt so much because I haven't done it in so long. I got sick of forking out $40 just to writhe in pain, so I reverted to shaving. It so happens, though, that my Year 12 Formal is on Monday night and I wanted to be properly defuzzed for my pretty purple dress, hence the forking and writhing. So now, my legs are covered in these horrific red spots, this sticky lotion stuff, little patches of wax (which is, annoyingly, clear, meaning I can't see it unless the light is right), and these stray hairs that, despite the torture, somehow survived.

And you know which one hurt more? Not the selfless act which can save lives, oh no. The was just a couple of needle pricks. It was the beauty torture.

Grrr.


Quote of the Day:
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

-Albert Einstein


P.S. If you haven't seen it, the wonderful Team StarKid of A Very Potter Musical fame has a new project on YouTube: Me and My Dick, surprisingly endearing and funny as hell. Check it out!

English!

One down, two to go! How exciting.

Just a quick update to say that I'm pretty sure I didn't fail my English exam - and I'm very excited that I'll never have to write another English essay again! The questions were pretty good, including one that fitted my text absolutely perfectly (yay!).

Apparently Mr. English Teacher has been going around saying, "How banal, the questions were so banal." If you haven't guessed, intimidation through vocabulary is his thing. He even got an award on our last day to that affect, called the Pomposity award. He said, "WHAT!!? I'm not pompous!" and we were like, well actually, yes you are. Extremely pompous. Case in point, right now.

Anyway, enough about him. I never have to see him in his very scary footy shorts ever again... unless I accidentally run into him at Woolies, which I did once. I never want to again though. He's a BIG man, and the shorts are extremely disturbing, especially if you're not expecting to see them.

And oookay, I'm going to shut up now, before I accidentally declare undying love for my English teacher or something...



Quote of the day:
It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument.
- William G. McAdoo

Study study study

Number of hours until my English exam: 32

Number of quotes I need to know for my English exam: 44

Number of times I have stopped studying to check my emails/blog/play minesweeper: Too many.

I have a secret ... I'm not very good at studying. People assume I must be, because I get good marks, but I think it's more to do with the way I think, and my memory, than studying hard. I tend to get distracted (like right now!)

I'm currently surrounded by pieces of paper with things like "The horror! The horror!" (Conrad's Heart of Darkness) and "A shudder in the loins engenders there" (Yeats' "Leda and the Swan"). My room looks like a cyclone hit it - schoolbooks, pens, university prospectuses, eraser shavings and previous exams are everywhere, and I can't remember the last time I put any clothes away (although I have a theory that it is easier to find clothes on the floor than in my even-messier chest of drawers).

I know that this probably isn't the best environment to be studying in. I actually had plans to get a bit of a filing system going - Chemistry crap goes in this draw, Maths crap goes in here... it seems a bit late to do it now. So I'm soldiering on.

I've been told by every single one of my teachers that I should be studying for AT LEAST five hours a day. I know people who do eight hours a day. Me? I think I managed three yesterday.

I think that, at this point, I just can't let this get to me. There's no use cramming, for one. Also, I know that everyone learns in a different way, so it's possible I don't need to study that much (I've been getting good marks all year like this). It's also possible that that's just wishful thinking, but I'm sticking with it. And hey, it's too late to worry about it now.

Here's hoping this tactic doesn't fail me when it matters.

*

A shout-out to my new readers! It's great so see some people I don't actually know on here. Keep up the wonderful comments! I promise I'll try to reply to them all.


Quote of the day:
Hermione - This year I plan to study a lot--
Ron - Well, that would be cool if you were actually hot!
"Goin' Back", A Very Potter Musical

The End: Part II

An update on my end-of-schoolness: I've handed in my last piece of work EVER (my Composing and Arranging folio and major work). That just leaves three exams and my final Music Solo Performance moderation.

I've had so many "last"s recently. My last test (matrices, five weeks ago), my last assignment for an examinable subject (a chemistry prac), my last day of classes (on which we actually did quizzes and went out for lunch), my last actual classes (a few days earlier), my last day of school... it's exciting, frightening, a huge relief and sad all at the same time.

A huge relief, since this year has been tough at best (and torturous at worst), and I really need it to be over for the sake of my mental health.

Exciting, because a new phase in my life is about to start - adulthood.

Frightening, because I don't know where that will lead me.

Sad, because there are lots of people that I probably will never talk to again... plus I'm a big softie and will actually miss school once it's over, even the hard bits, and the teachers.

As a celebration of my wonderful life at school, I'll leave you with a quote from my hysterical chemisty class of '09, the day we were learning about cleaning agents.


Quote of the day:
Random kid #1 - What's hard water?
Random kid #2 (with a totally straight face and without missing a beat) - Ice.


EDIT: Whoops, forgot to wish a VERY HAPPY 18TH BIRTHDAY to CC!!

Stress!

I have had the most stressful week in my entire life. Due to unfortunate timing, I was involved in three concerts (two of which required multiple rehearsals) and had two tests, plus a two-day dance workshop. The stress and exhaustion actually made me feel physically ill.

It made me wonder if any of this was worth it. Year 12 is built up as the most important year of your life, but in about two years I won't even care what my results were. I've had all this work piled onto me for one bit of paper which, in the grand scheme of things, doesn't matter a whole lot.

Also, most of the things I've learned this year I'll probably never use again, since I'll probably end up studying music. When would I ever use matrices, calculus or integration? Why would I ever need to know about redox reactions? Why do I need to be able to write analytical essays about depressing novels?

So I've asked myself, why have a put myself through this torture?

Okay, so if I dropped out of school, or I fail Year 12, I won't get into the university course I want... unless I wait a few years and enter as a mature-aged student. So that's not the reason.

I think there are lots of reasons I'm still here. One of them is that all my friends are here, and I didn't want to miss out on our last year together. Next year I won't see them nearly as often.

When it comes down to it, though, the main reason is that I didn't want to quit. I'm an over-achiever. I needed to prove that I could tough it out, and get good marks like other people.

I guess it doesn't make much sense. I'm in this for the moment of satisfaction I'll get when I open the results envelope in December? For the certificate I'll get? When you put it like that, I don't really understand it.

I think it's mostly about the fact that Year 12 is a challenge, and I could never, ever have turned that challenge down.


Quote of the day:
"Today, I figured out why my computer works better than me. It gets more sleep. MLIA."


Also, a very happy eighteenth birthday to my friend Kat!

Rozzy Rozzy Rozzy...

So I thought I should introduce myself properly...

I'm a 17-year-old Year 12 student from Darwin, Australia. (For those of you who don't know, Darwin is up in the tropics, right under Indonesia. Right now it is really really humid and I wish it would rain already. Lembab sekali!) I enjoy music, Irish dancing, spending time with my gorgeous friends and crazy internet fads. I am a Christian, but I don't think that will come into this blog too much - maybe just the occasional quasi-philosophical brain fart. Also I did Indonesian at school until last year, so if I randomly break out into Indo, just ignore me.

If you're wondering about my name: no, it is not my real name (duh), it's a nickname given to me by a couple of friends. In fact, the name of this blog came from another nickname, Stork (I'm 5'10").

If you'd like to find a blog from someone who's crazier than I am, check out my friend M's.

A few random questions that I stole from M's blog:


What is your occupation? Student and Irish dancing teacher (I'm not qualified or anything, I just help out and do choreography and stuff).

What colour are your socks right now? Are you crazy? It's the Build-Up in Darwin! Having said that, the socks I wore to school today were white and purple.

What are you listening to right now? Granger Danger from A Very Potter Musical (yes, I am obsessed, but hey it's good stuff!)

Can you drive a shift stick? If that means a manual, yes I can, but not very well (I've been very lazy and, even though I got my L's 18 months ago, I've driven a grand total of four times).

Last person you spoke to on the phone? Probably M... it usually is :)

How old are you today? What, is it my birthday or something? Lol. I'm 17.

What is your favourite drink? Lemon lime and bitters.

Have you ever dyed your hair? No, but I'm thinking that might be one of my "OMG I'm at uni" freakout things.

Favourite food? Pavlova (yumyumyum)

What is the last movie that you watched? Apollo 13... I don't really know why, we just randomly watched it. The one before that was Peter Pan (awesome).

How do you vent anger? I don't really know... I like M's idea of killing off Sims based on people that annoy me. I need to try that.

What is your favourite season? The wet season is awesome! For all of you who have been deprived of living in the tropics, I choose winter (rugging up is novel for me).

Eye colour? Grey (very boring).

Hair colour? Brown

Height? Too tall haha... about 5'10". I really should know what that is in cm, seeing as we don't use imperial here in Australia, but I don't.

Finally, the eternal question that I added for the hell of it:
Harry Potter or Twilight? I actually really like both of them (I know, sacreligious much?) but Harry Potter always wins.

Sudah!
...That means finished :)



Quote of the day:
"Today in my dorm room the doorbell rang. Sitting outside the door was a box labeled 'A present from your friends in room 201'. I opened it and a guy popped out, gave me a high five and ran off down the hallway. MLIA."