Last night I had a nightmare, I had a huge hole in my tooth and had to get a root canal. - The Alarmist
I think I look good in the mirror without glasses. - The other sister (upon taking off her glasses and inspecting her reflection without glasses or contact lenses, she has quite a severe case of astigmatism)
I'm sick of making my opinion known. - Me, answering the question of when I will be posting more atheistic rants.
If it's real then it's photoshopped, if it's a fake then it's real. - The Alarmist on the subject of how Anne Geddes took pictures of babiesonflowers.
Oh my god, bad teeth! - The Alarmist's comment after seeing Radiohead's video for No Surprises below.
I was gonna post something last week. 2 things actually they were quite funny in my head but after typing half of them out they weren't very funny anymore. They were just sad. So no posts, I thought that no one would actually care that there's no update whatsoever on this blog, I thought I should stop blogging altogether. I also thought that I should get a tattoo or a piercing. Apparently I've been thinking a lot lately and it's not always about serious things. That's what you do when you get an abundance of time and very little money. And by "you" I meant "me".
So naturally, with all the "thinking" I've been doing lately, I got bored of pretty much everything. So bored that I read my Pharmacology textbook to have a break from boredom. The "official version" of this action in my diary is "stop insulting my own intelligence by doing dumb things". Which version is better? I personally like the blog version, the diary version is too honest it hurts. Don't look at me like I'm a nerd (which I am), that book just happened to be there when I was bored and the chapter on antibiotics got me hooked. Really interesting stuff.
When I wasn't busy being bored I did other things too which I will tell all of you about since you're here and you're bored and you'd probably read rubbish that I churn out. So here goes
8 THINGS I'VE DONE THIS PAST MONTH
1. I decided to stop watching the news. My newspaper subscription ran out at the beginning of December and I was too cheap to pay for summer subscription and too uninterested to read the newspaper everyday. I watched the news on TV when I happened to be having dinner or breakfast at the same time as the news. I just decided to stop watching it yesterday because I genuinely believe that they should change the program name to the "Bad News" instead. Let me see, day after Boxing day and what have we got on the news? First thing in the morning, breaking news is a whole family in the US got massacre by 2 people. Awesome. What's in the afternoon news? A newly-arrived-in-Australia woman got killed when a car ran into the rubbish bin that she was doing the right thing and throwing rubbish into said bin. The kicker? She was out celebrating her birthday. And there's more, a man died when he was deadlocked in his own house and the house burnt down. All those commercial channels only want viewers and what better way to attract viewers by shocking them with this kind of news on a day right after Christmas right? From now on I'm gonna watch SBS world news, at least they don't put this kind of news as breaking news, plus they're not usually on when I have dinner.
UPDATE: I forgot to mention a teenager got mauled (and later died) by a tiger, a baby got mauled (and later died) by the family's dog and the greatest tragedy of this month, as claimed by tabloids, Britney Spears' sixteen-year-old sister got knocked up. Great journalism is displayed by all these "breaking news" stories.
2. I went to a concert, my first concert ever. Yeah, me the person who hates crowded places. I seriously despise crowded places especially Melbourne Central and Myer on Boxing day, more on that later. I loved that concert probably because of: It was one of my favourite bands if not the favourite at the moment: Tegan and Sara. The audience was very polite. The opening act (Kaki King) was freaking great. She was hailed as a guitar goddess by some magazine so you know that she must be awesome (which I reckon that she is, but this is only the opinion of someone who doesn't play any instruments) or at least good. T&S has quite a large gay following and mostly women so the audience was probably 80% female. It's not that I'm saying men are impolite, I'm just saying that women are generally more considerate and generally less likely to do crazy shit. I said "generally" because some slightly crazy shit did happen but it was fine in the end, no one got hurt. One thing I have to say about this concert besides T&S was awesome is that I have never seen so many lesbians in one place ever. It felt strange but they were polite and I like polite people.
3. I changed my first name. It's not that I don't like my first name (I actually don't now but I used to like it quite a lot before the move to Australia rendered my name too freaking confusing), I just got tired of having this kind of conversation on the phone all the time. Me: Hello. The other end: Hello, I'm looking for "blah blah blah". Me: I'm sorry? The other end(in a slightly raised voice): I'm looking for "blah blah blah" Me: I'm sorry, who are you looking for? The other end(in a very raised voice and extremely slowly): BLAH BLAH BLAH Me: I don't know who you're looking for, can you spell the name? The other end: (spells out "blah blah blah") Me: Oh, that's me. And no, the people on the other ends aren't my friends, at least my friends know how to pronounce my name, they're usually some Indian operators calling about signing me up to some life insurance policy or getting me a home loan. So I changed it to some thing else entirely different and it's kinda weird now that people actually call me by the new name. I went to the bank to change the account name last week (which took a whole hour because I, unfortunately enough, got an operator that's still in training and didn't know what to do, and the supervisors for that trainee were bitches who wouldn't come help out at first and when they did come they had this really annoyed look on their faces and didn't really help with anything at all) and they were talking my account and it took a while for me to register that they were talking about my account. Anyway, if this name doesn't work out, I can always change it to something else. It better works out because changing name is one mofo.
4. I signed up for a Facebook account. I wasn't gonna give into the hype about Facebook just like I haven't given into the whole Myspace thing. But then I got curious and The Alarmist wouldn't stop talking about Facebook and wouldn't stop being on Facebook almost all the time (I think she's addicted to Facebook, very alarming). One of these days my curiosity would be my undoing. The last time I got curious, I watched the 2 Chicks 1 cup thing and it was hilariously disgusting. Like you would never imagine anyone would do that. But they did do it and it was caught all on camera and now it's all over the internet. OK, I'm just trying to spur up your curiosity so that you would go watch the thing. Maybe I should put a link up hey? Anyway, I signed up, had a look around, went to some pages from people that I know, and got terribly bored. Maybe it's because I'm not really into instant messaging and I don't add a lot of friends to my page. I just don't like Facebook. The other day I got a friend request from someone I have never in real life come into contact with let alone speaking. She was in the Alarmist's year 10 class one year and then they just randomly ran into each other one day and randomly the topic of Facebook popped up in their 2 minute conversation and then she added the Alarmist to her friends list and then requested to add me. I think Facebook is kinda well designed, there's an option for this kind of "friends" something like "I don't even know this person". Facebook is the new Myspace now, I'm pretty sure there's this competition for who's got more friends going on. Count me out on Facebook, I've already wasted enough time without getting addicted to Facebook, imagine what I would be if I am.
5. I went to Geelong with a few friends (wow, real friends, they are a lot better than their Facebook pages) on a 30-degree-Celsius day and it was hot. Like extremely hot and all I can say about Geelong is that it was hot and full of flies. I think they have a fly infestation in Geelong. Insect repellent didn't help so if you're planning to go to Geelong don't try to use it.
6. I watched a bunch of movies. Actually I downloaded a bunch of movies and went to see one. I saw Enchanted and it was alright. I think I would have loved it if I saw this when I was 13. Now that I'm my current age the movie just felt like a fairy tale, everything is too perfect. The some of the movies I downloaded were excellent. The rest was slightly better than average. Here's a rundown. Once. For me, the title of this movie says it all. Once is how many times I need to watch this movie. It's not that it's a bad movie. It's just not the type of movie that I enjoy watching. The Alarmist got some high praises for this movie after she saw it earlier this year so I thought I might like it. I didn't. Death Proof. Now this is my type of movie. This is hilarious. The first half of the movie was really boring but the second half makes up for it. Download it, rent it, do whatever you want just as long as you watch it. It's good Planet Terror. This movie is not as good as Death Proof but it's a fun horror movie. Plus you get to see Quentin Tarantino working as an actor. Half Nelson. I like Ryan Gosling in Fracture so I watched this. He's great in the movie. The thing with indie flicks for me is that I usually don't get the movie as a whole. I don't get this movie, I think I need to rewatch it. Point Break. I actually didn't download this movie. Someone lent it to me. Anyway, all I can say about this movie is that Keanu Reeves couldn't act to save his life. I watched a few more movies which I can't remember the titles now. That probably means that they're not good enough to be remembered and not bad enough to burn a hole in my brain which means that I shouldn't try to find out and/or write about them.
7. I read a bunch of books. The best being Choke by Chuck Pahlaniuk. That book has quite a lot to say on modern life in bizarre fashion. If you enjoy Fight Club the novel or the movie, then read it. Hilarious is not the right word but it's the first word that comes to mind.
8. I found a bunch of new artists to listen to. I would have written about them here but this post is probably long enough and you would have been bored of this enough by now so I'm gonna stop. Truthfully, I got bored of writing this so you're gonna have to wait for another post.
1 THING I'M GONNA DO IN THE NEXT WEEK
I'm gonna go to the New Years Eve celebration in the city. I'm pretty sure I will not like it. I don't like crowded places. I despise Boxing Day shopping because everywhere you turn there are people. People who don't necessarily observe the escalator unspoken protocol and stand on the right side of the escalator and block my way. People who do annoying things like physically pushing you aside so that they can get their hands on some marked-down overpriced clothing items that even though are marked down are still freaking overpriced. I did enjoy the very crowded concert because it was a band I like and I was only there for 2-3 hours and then I would be on a deserted train home. New Years' Eve is gonna be packed. Apparently it's gonna be a very warm night. That's just great. Just the right icing on the cake I guess. Here's hoping for an old train without aircon on the night. Just some extra icing. Wouldn't it be nice if there's a storm on the night?
That's it folks, hope that you're a little less bored. I'm still bored but that would be remedied soon, I'm gonna read some interesting stuff on Beta-lactam antibiotics, the information antibiotics that work on the synthesis and action of folate was very informative.
To make this post even longer, here's a playlist of songs that I uploaded a while ago but haven't found a post to put them on and a music video. Happy New Year you all if I don't update before then.
It's the end of the year and what's better way to waste time/reflect on the year than making lists of favourite things? This year I went on this obsessive compulsive music discovery phase after I signed up with last.fm. That's my favourite website at the moment, if you wanna find some new bands/artists to listen to get on that website. The list started out with about 50 albums and that was rather ridiculous. I'm just one person not an 50 opinionated music critics, posting a list of 50 "favourite" albums is an overkill. In the end what made it to the "top 20" was played more often than the rest of the list (which I've also included). Check them out, I was going to post about 20 songs up but I don't want to get into trouble for posting copyright stuff so just go to the bands' myspace.
Really good albums that haven't been played quite enough to be on the favourite list
A place to bury strangers - self-titled
Eisley - Combinations
Motion City Soundtracks - Even if it kills me
Beirut - The flying club cup
Holy fuck - LP
Les Savy Fav - Let's stay friends
Menomena - friend and foe
Hot hot heat - happiness ltd.
Cloud cult - the meaning of 8
Aqualung - memory man
Klaxons - myths of the near future
The Arctic Monkeys - favourite worst nightmare
This will destroy you - self-titled
Mother mother - touch up
Do make say think - you, you're a history in rust
The great northern - trading twilight for daylight
Gogol Bordello - Super taranta!
Rilo Kiley - Under the blacklight
Operator please - yes yes vindictive
the shins - wincing the night away
bloc party - a weekend in the city
Angus and Julia Stone - a book like this
The wombats - a guide to love, loss & desperations
Bright Eyes - Cassadaga
Caspian - the four tree
The Birthday Massacre - Walking with strangers
Okkervil river - The stage name
Voxtrot - self-titled
Minipop - A new hope
Bella - no one will know
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals - This is somewhere
Sunset Rubdown - Random spirit lover
Assemblage 23 - Meta
Elias & the Wizz kids - a little mess
Honourable mentions (albums that would have made it to the above lists had they been consistent) Paramore - riot! Kate-Miller Heidke - Little Eve Kaiser chiefs - Yours truly, angry mob Serj Tankian - elect the dead Bellarus - communicate Kisschasy - Hymns for the non-believer The veronicas - Hook me up Grand Ole Party - humanimals Fields - everything last winter figurines - when the deer wore blue siberian - with me Hellogoodbye - Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs! Destroyalldreamers - wish I was all flames
My grandmother lives with my family. She has almost always lived with us since for as long as I can remember and that is not necessarily a good thing. It's actually on the borderline of being really bad right now. There is a reason or several reasons why she doesn't live with the families of my five uncles and aunts. The number one reason being they can't stand her for a long period of time. The other reason being my family is so easily bullied into letting her get away with anything.
You might say "Meh, what can an old, cute looking lady in her nineties do? I'm sure it's not that hard to put up with her". Wrong. My grandmother is the first drama queen I knew of. Everything has to be her way or no way. The latest shenanigan she's gotten into is rather amusing from my perspective. It started with her being her usual unreasonable self and ended with us giving up and letting her do whatever she wants.
My grandmother had a stroke a few months ago which left her at a loss for words. OK, she can't completely use her speech faculty anymore but on a good day when I wake up with lots of patience I can make out half of what she says. One of those "good" day happened to be the day before I had my microbiology exam and was cramming at my desk when she came in with her tale of deceit and unfaithfulness. So basically she told me (more like she talked for a while then I guessed for a while out loud and she would nod or shake her head) that my dad is cheating on my mum with 3 women who come to our house on a regular basis and that they call my dad constantly and he them. It took a long time for what I put down in one sentence to come out of her. Of course I didn't believe her. It just so happened that there are a nurse, a physiotherapist and a speech therapist, all of whom happened to be female, who come to our house at least once a week to help my grandmother rehabilitate into our house after her stroke. There, 3 unknown women all accounted for. Mysteries phone calls were from the hospital telling my dad my grandmother's warfarin levels. Of course I couldn't believe her.
She told my mum the same tale which my mum didn't believe of course. Since nobody believes her my grandmother had nothing else to do but throwing a huge tantrum which involved not talking to anyone, refusing to acknowledge that anyone besides her lived in the same house and staging a hunger strike. Rather infantile behaviours if you ask me but hey it's the cycle of life, you get hellishly childish when you get over 90. My mum gave in before day 1 of the hunger strike even finished. She had to apologise to my grandmother for not believing her and that satisfied my grandmother. Note my mum didn't say that my grandmother was right but it seemed that having someone apologising is enough for her.
That is not the end of that. Since then every time my dad gets a call or calls anyone she would tell me that my dad is talking to his "mistress" and smile a smile that says "you didn't heed my warnings and now that bastard is cheating right under your nose". She's been rather hostile, to put it lightly, towards my dad for a few months now. My dad is the nicest person on Earth, he puts up with her for almost 30 years and she's not even his mother. If it was up to me I would have given up on being nice already.
