(Source)

Yep. That is so true. 

 

This one caught my attention. Not sure why. Maybe it was the harmonies - I am such a sucker for good harmonies, y'know. (That probably explains my unhealthy, soul-consuming obsession for The Civil Wars...)

 

I love Taylor Swift but sometimes her songs do get a bit repetitive. I feel like she did try to do something different with the new album though so I'll cut her some slack and try not to roll my eyes at her lyrics. (I have a sneaking suspicion that whenever she feels lazy, she grabs bits and pieces from her journal/diary and uses those excerpts as lyrics for her songs). If she wants to write about relationships - fine. It's obviously worked before so no point changing something that doesn't need fixing. But, as someone mentioned on youtube, instead of writing about how sucky all her past boyfriends were, she might want to try writing songs about how sucky she is at choosing guys to date. Now there's something to ponder.

 

P.S. Emily, I totally understand your confusion over the Janoskians! My sister loves them but I just find them mildly annoying and vulgar-ish. (No hate to anyone out there who does love them though. Just putting in my two cents.)

 

 

This song used to be da shitz. It is still da shitz.

 

Might decide to do a focus on "old" music videos 'cause I'm feeling nostalgic. Might include some of, "ROMEO TAKE ME SOMEWHERE WE CAN BE ALONE" or "I KEEP BLEEDING, I KEEP KEEP BLEEDING LUUURRVVEEE" or "CRY ME A RIVERRR... CRY ME A RIVERRRR" or "BIG GIRLS DON'T CRYYY" or "IF I COULD ESCAPE & RECREATE A PLACE THAT'S MY OWN WORLD" or "NEVER HAD A DREAM COME TRUE / TILL THE DAY THAT I FOUND YOUUUU!!"

.....

.....

..... so what if I liked S Club 7? DEAL WITH IT BITCHES.

 

Flashback to '09.... although now that I think about it, I don't actually remember hearing this song in 2009...

 

There'll probably be a cut-back on the number of posts for the next 4 - 5 weeks. It's not that I have no time to blog, but mainly because I'd rather do something else when I have free time... like read books or youtube. It's a funny thing, this "studying". I have no idea whether I'm doing enough of it but at the same time can't be bothered amping up the hours. During those rare times that I feel like I have done enough, I would then go do something fun to reward myself. And then afterwards, I'd feel guilty as hell. Yeah, it's a weird cycle.

 

Anyway, hope everyone's having a great week (lol). Here, have a lolthatsme thingy:

 

 

It's probably not "Song of the Week" time yet but I really really can't resist. I LOVE THE NEW BEIRUT ALBUM. I LOVE it so freakin' much. If it were human, we would already be married and procreating by now...

I was feeling a little bit bored so... I drew squiggles and stuff:

Most of the patterns you can find at www.tanglepatterns.com. Pretty great exercise for stress relief actually - not that I'm stressed. To be honest, I don't think I'm studying as much as I should be. How many hours are you guys putting in per day? Am I doing less because I only have 8 units or is it because I'm just a lazy ho?

The study that I do do seems greatly unproductive. I was trying to write a practice essay for A Doll's House the other day and at the end of it, I realised I'd essentially just recreated my trial essay. It was the same points, the same techniques, the same bloody phrasing. WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN? I always go back to talk about the same things in every essay. There's no variety LOL.

Second half of the video is gorgeous. If you like the song, you should also check out Beirut's older single, "Nantes", (if you haven't already).

 

Here, have a picture of the band:

 

(Source)

 

So anyhoo, all the excitement's kind of died down now. I s'pose it's back to studying and slaving over belonging essays... not that I do any. I tend to leave the essays till the very last minute LOL. My mentality is: the closer to the exam date I do it, the easier it is to stick in my mind.

 

I cooked an egg this morning with Stephanie's frying pan and this is what happened:

 





It's not that new - it was featured on The Hunger Games soundtrack. You might have heard it already. So.... Australia's currently going crazy for Birdy. I think it was that X-factor girl. She revived the Birdy love.

Well, today was... unproductive. I was planning on doing my legal notes and reading up on more EBB but good ol' Mr Procrastination kicked in. I started playing guitar. And then I did a cover. And then I thought, I should try to record harmonies. So I did that. And then 4 hours later, I realised the clock said 7pm. Fail. I really need to get my act together.

Totally live, guys. Have I mentioned that I love this band/duet? I want to have babies with their melodies. Seriously, I do. Looking up the word "harmony" in the dictionary would bring up the definition: The Civil Wars.

 

Speaking of dictionaries, did you know the words "lolz", "douche", "photobomb" and - get this - even "vajazzled", have recently been added to the Oxford dictionary. (Full article here). I heard about it on the radio last week and had a bit of a LOL moment.

 

And while we're on the topic of interesting facts, I was looking through the UTS site for any possible scholarships I might be able to apply for and although this one doesn't apply to me, I came across the "Pinnacle Foundation Scholarship". Eligibility criteria? Homosexuality. Yup. At first glance it does sound like a rather odd requirement but then I read a bit more and apparently, it's supposed to help people who have been marginalized due to sexual orientation, gender identity, etc. Selection process involves wanting to make a difference in the world and being proud to stand up for LBGT rights. Can read more about that here.

 

Okay, so that's my quota of random, useless facts done for the day. Good night.

It's called White Winter Hymnal and it's by the Fleet Foxes. I've been playing the song on repeat because - 1) it's catchy, 2) it's so short (only 2 minutes 30 seconds) and 3) because it's so darned catchy. It's got one of those tunes that just stick in your head. Below is the Birdy version which is also worth listening to. 

I was talking to Elyn in maths on Friday and we were discussing our dream jobs - jobs that we would have pursued if it wasn't for real life and its responsibilities. I have got so many of these. It seems like every few years, I change my mind about what I want to do (which is normal I suppose). I'll list a few of them out here. These are in chronological order.

1)  A VET

To a 5-7 year old, becoming a vet seemed like a perfectly achievable life goal. All you had to do was like animals (or so I thought). It helped that I thought vets only took care of animals (as opposed to performing operations, giving injections, etc.). In hindsight, I was probably thinking more along the lines of animal-shelter caretaker.

Why is it not achievable now? My total lack of interest in science, probably. To be fair though, if I had to choose a science, I would have chosen biology anyway. Sometimes I wonder if my animosity towards science stemmed from the subject itself or the teacher(s). I know for a fact if my legal studies teacher was different, I would've already dropped that subject like a hot potato back in March.

2) AN AUTHOR

Thank you J.K. Rowling, for letting me think for a while that there was no reason why I couldn't write a few books and become a famous, multibillionaire, award-winning author in the span of a few years. It was a nice thought while it lasted. I blame it on that documentary - the one that shows her frequenting coffee shops with her laptop and writing whenever inspiration strikes. Such a glorious, simple and satisfying career. Too bad I have neither the talent, bravery nor patience to attempt a career as an author. Knowing me, the first rejection letter would've sent me scurrying back to my hole. Then I would have had to spend the rest of my life as a failed-author trying to make ends meet whilst leeching off friends and family.

3) A LIBRARIAN

"If you can't be an author, be a librarian" was the reason for this career choice. I like books. I could gladly spend all day being surrounded by them (although nowadays, libraries don't even need librarians - eveything is self-service). Tian and I made up this glorious plan where she would design a library for me and I would run it. We imaged ornately-decorated, spiral staircases, giant fireplaces and comfy couches where people could just curl up and read. But then people kept telling me that librarians don't earn much (is that true? I haven't checked) and that it was a job of wasted potential. That last past probably isn't true. Being a librarian is hard work (according to the career booklet LOL and requires a five-level educational rating).

5) SOMETHING TO DO WITH TRAVELLING

I didn't mind what it was, as long as I could travel. Working on Getaway would've been a dream job. Highly unattainable of course, but still a dream job. My boss would've been like, "We're sending you to France for two weeks. You're to experience everything and record it on a blog/write an article/etc." and I would've been like, "Oh sure, no probs. I got this," and all the while, I would be doing a screaming, happy dance inside. Then I could add to my collection of hotel shampoos and conditioners. All those little bottles and soaps... eek! HOW AWESOME WOULD THAT BE?!?

5)  A JOURNALIST

...Didn't seem like such a bad job.... until I started Year 12 and realised that HSC year had quashed any last lingering amount of love I might have had for English. Literally quashed. Imagine a cockaroach. Now imagine a giant, booted foot descending on said cockaroach like in one of those ads on TV. My love for english resembles the amount of viewers for Gossip Girl over a set amount of time - it is exponentially decreasing. I hate the stupid subject. I hate it with a passion. Also, print-media journalism is a dying career so you have to be ultra-competitive to get a job. I'm still thinking of some kind of communications degree though. Doesn't have to be journalism.

**************

Everything was so much simpler when I was little. You think you can do anything when you're small - be an astronaut, a super athlete, a world-famous writer. In comparison, real life sucks shit.

Oh and look what I found in the corner of my backyard. It's been gathering dust and braving the elements for nearly six years now.


Compare the pair, LOL. 2007 (or was it 2008?) vs 2012.

In which Gotye/"Wally" posts a remixed version of covers of "Somebody That I Used to Know". Wait - what?

Okay, so basically, Gotye used the parodies of his song that he found on Youtube and created his own remix, using these parodies/covers. Kind of like Inception I guess, in that he is covering what people covered... of his own song. Am I confusing you? Okay, I'll stop talking now.

Can I just say though, I find it really sweet that he recognised these people's contributions and even spent the time to create his own remix. It's so awesome.

This song was featured on the Game of Thrones Season 2 trailer which by the way is like the freakin' most awesomest trailer you've ever seen. It was also featured on a trailer for Revenge but I don't watch that show so....

Anyhoo, sitting on my desk all day studying Legal Studies is driving me crazy. I feel like my head's going to explode. I can literally feel all the fat going to my thighs from lack of exercise - not that I usually do exercise but studying always makes me feel bloated for some reason.

But enough about me - here's that trailer I talked about. Don't worry, you can watch it, even if you haven't seen Season 1. It doesn't have any spoilers. I checked. I checked about 10 times for you. Aren't you grateful? Just watch it, you'll probably just be confused by the amount of fighting that's going on anyway and won't have time to register any plot points.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbY2r0Ps81M

Who doesn't like the Cimorelli sisters?

I would like to form my own acapella group one day. But so far, I've only recruited one other person... Tian. Can you have an acapella group with just 2 people? Hmm... So far, when we've tried to serenade people, they usually just turn to give us a "wtf look". That's not supposed to happen, is it? I would also like to learn to beatbox. It seems like an awesome skill to have. But my lungs are pathetic so I don't know how well that would go.  

On to other news - how do I manage to get myself into these situations? Farrrrrr. Do I have a sign tattooed onto my forehead that says, "Expert at Getting into Awkward Situations" or something? Srsly. It's okay if you don't know what I'm talking about. You're not supposed to know.

What else? Oh right, I think I should stop reading light novels - wait, I've said this before haven't I? Dammit. I keep making a resolution of reading profound, intellectual books but I'm starting to get the feeling that will never happen. Is this what addiction feels like?? Oh god, I need to go to book rehab.

Oh and um guys, you don't need to get me anything for my birthday (which is coming up in like, 4 months). Just make me a cake. Preferably like this one:

I realise that I blog the most during assessment periods. Go figure. I really need to stop doing this procrastination thingy - it's bad for my education.

 

I was going to post the Italian version but for the sake of people who read this blog, it made more sense to post the half-English version. Nina Zilli entered Eurovision this year. She didn't win because, obviously, the good songs rarely ever do.  It really is a great song though. And it doesn't hurt that she has Italian guys wearing colourful shirts dancing in the background. Haha. (Yes I know she looks like Amy Winehouse. You're only the 784,599th person to point that out).

Anyway, I want to start posting songs from other countries from now on. I have been doing that lately (with the whole Celtic Woman and Korean pop) thing but it's not enough. It should be fun to see what I can find though. BRING ON THE EUROPOP!! 

I have to admit - I know nothing about Tablo; only that he once collaborated on a song with Taeyang. And that's about the extent of my knowledge. Same goes for Jinsil. Her voice is amazing - it reminds me of another caucasion female artist but I can't for the life of me, figure out who. I don't know much about her either - only that she comes from a band called "Mad Soul Child" or something like that. Either way, the song is catchy. You should listen to it.

This week was an O.K. week. I could've done with a few less assessments but well... you know how it is. Snoop A found out that we passed the auditions for E-day so that was awesome. They must have liked our stomping - or maybe they just felt lenient towards the Year 12's. Even if we hadn't made it in, we would've started a flash mob in the middle of the quad. Everyone would have been subjected to our "dance" - willingly or unwillingly.

What else happened? Oh right, I finally finished reading "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold.

Well now, if only the book was half as interesting as these screenshots made it out to be...

This book took me forever to read - mostly because it was my "roll call" book (meaning I only got through about 7 pages every day). I thought it was okay... not great, but okay, and then I went on goodreads, read a few reviews and my evaluation of it plummeted even further.

I didn't have many issues with the writing - until reviewers pointed out that a few of the sentences in the book made no sense. E.g:

That's right peeps; FEROCIOUS olives (as opposed to the mellow ones y'know).

I also felt like there was no plot throughout the whole novel. I understand that there is a rape and Ms Sebold spends a lot of time going through the ramifications of that but at the end of the day, nothing really much happens in terms of story development. The killer doesn't get caught, Susie's bones aren't found and Ruth doesn't get to reveal what she knows about ghosts. Sure, the bad guy gets killed by an icicle in the last few pages (lol) but like, too little too late man. Overall, the book made me feel like I was sitting next to a window watching rain run down the glass. It's pretty when it lasts - but ultimately very unproductive.

Oh, and I kept visualizing Caesar Flickerman every time she wrote "Mr. Harvey".

 

 

So is it worth reading? That depends... Maybe I would've enjoyed it more if I'd read it in a shorter period (as opposed to the half-term it took me). This happens to me all the time; I lose interest if I put it off. But then again, I felt like I was flicking through a whole collection of instagram photos rather than reading an actual book - so insubstantial was the plot. Perhaps there wasn't supposed to be a plot. Perhaps this is one of those deeply introspective/reflective novels that aren't supposed to make that much sense. Make what you will of it. I give it 2.8/5.

Jason Clare, the Federal Minister for Home Affairs came to our school yesterday to speak to the legal studies classes. I was expecting it to be one of those boring lectures where the speaker drones on and on about legislation and other who-gives-a-fuck topics but it was actually really really interesting.

He spoke about his memories at Canley Vale High School - how in his seniors years, he wanted to be a Doctor so he did chemistry and physics until one day, the science head teacher came into the classroom and told the class that half of them would fail the exam. So then he thought, "Well, I might as well do Ancient and Modern History since I'm interested in those subjects and they aren't that hard to get marks in." After he changed subjects, the science head came to find him and said, "You didn't actually have to drop science... I was talking to the OTHER half of the class when I said that - not you." It was so funny. He also said that Mr G was his history teacher - and he ended up coming 4th in the state for modern or something. He said just because he isn't a Doctor doesn't mean he isn't helping people - he's just going about it in a different way.

It was a very inspiring talk... and really brought home the point that regardless of what school you attend, you can still succeed in life. I was inspired to do law for about half the day. And then I remembered what type of ATAR you needed to do that and my hopes deflated just as suddenly. It's probably just as well. I would make a shitty lawyer. I mean, I can't even tell people off for pushing in canteen line - not even when they're in the year below me.

Lastly, I just wanted to say that my group collected $268 for the Salvos thingy - not bad, considering we didn't even finish the whole course. Funny story actually: there was this one house that looked like a total train wreck - ciggies in the front yard and plants growing all over the place. Even worse, they had a crazy-as dog that kept trying to meld through the flyscreen and bite my face. At first, I thought, "Hell no am I asking them" but then I figured that I shouldn't judge by appearances. I rang the bell and the people in that house ended up donating 25 bucks. Noiiice....

Original link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlTo9YkGS7I

Yup, it really is One Direction. So sue me. I like my pretty boys.

And Zayn is ten types of pretty all rolled into one.

Justin Beanber, he's like so cute and funny and beautiful and handsome....

One Direction are probably in Melbourne right now. They're performing at the Logies or something tonight aren't they? I'm not going to be able to watch though, cause of tutor. And that also means I can't watch The Voice. Why is it that every mildly watchable show that goes on TV, I can never watch because of tutor. Do the stations do this on purpose? Put all the good stuff on Sunday nights or something? TV, Y U NO LYK ME?!

And speaking of 1D, did anyone else laugh at all the crazy girls that appeared on the news over the past few days. The ones that they show crying and screaming while they stalk the band. I did. It was so funny - especially that one over-emotional girl at the airport who was like, "THEY'RE SO BEAUTIFUL!! AND WHEN THEY SING, THEIR VOICES ARE LIKE ANGELS'!!" *commences bursting into tears on live national television*

So, I went to the city yesterday. I ate nice food and bought nice clothes. Okay, probably not the last part. I bought clothes but considering I have about as much fashion sense as a blind hobo, they're probably not that nice. My mum kept dragging me into the Korean fashion stores in Market City and near the Chinatown area and I kept trying to escape because dude, the things in those stores are expensive and I'm not exactly loaded. We didn't stay very late - only until 7:30. I had to come home and write my legal essay. Le sigh.

Oh and I finally figured out how to move on from The Fever Series. I just had to give it a few days. It wasn't a matter of "getting over it" as it was "letting it run its course and get out of my system". Next time, I shouldn't try to read anything straight after. I have to leave a few days in between for me to mourn the series.

P.S. Othilia, you should google image stuff like fever/mac/barrons to get that weird image of Barrons out of your head. A lot of people seem to think David Gandy makes a good Barrons... but I'll let you decide that yourself LOL. If you don't do that, you'll ruin the reading experience by picturing some old, ugly dude when you read "Barrons". That would kind of suck.