Update

The finger is twitching... Good news. In another 18 years I might actually gain full movement! :)

Somewhat Confused

I'm somewhat confused. You see, I was under the distinct impression that I was a hard-working, dedicated and motivated student. I worked because I knew that the rewards at the end of the tunnel would be worth it. But now, the rewards are sweeter than ever before and yet I can't bring myself to lift a finger.

I have two assignments due this coming Monday (26th March) and another two due on the Monday after that (2nd April). I haven't even started the RESEARCH on any of them. And listen to what I have hanging on the results: studying in Europe for a semester early next year, and a 6 week university-sponsored trip around the world to go and meet with marketing executives from the biggest companies on our planet. Don't believe me? Here is a preview of some of the companies they take us to: Nike, L'Oreal, Coca Cola, Louis Vuitton, Manchester United Football Club, Sony Corporation and Mercedes Benz. That is about a quarter of the companies they take us to... but you get the idea. It's a HUGE deal. But I can't bring myself to lift a finger.

I could have finished every single one of them by now. Without a doubt. They are challenging, but not impossible. I have an almost annoying amount of spare time on my hands which I am throwing out the window. I wish that somebody would just come up to me and start slapping me... hard. I have been given such a chance. To go on that 6 week trip and to study in Europe will look absolutely incredible on my resume, not to mention the personal satisfaction, experience and memories that I would suck up like a sponge given the opportunity. But I can't bring myself to lift a finger.

I'm somewhat confused.

Help... anyone?

"The Future" Has Never Been So Sweet

Oh... my... g-d... The insanity, the humanity, the red bull!!!! If that day had been any better I might have mistaken it for heaven. Future Music Festival comes to Melbourne. The best DJ line-up that Australia has ever seen. 30,000 tickets are sold. We have 22 of them. $100 per ticket. 12pm - 10pm on March 11th, 2007. The day arrives...

We awake at 9am. The alarm bell is ringing in my right ear. I swear, "*uck". This is an ungodly hour. No human should have to be awake at such a time. Anyway, moving right along... Me and my cousin slowly bring ourselves downstairs for breakfast. Showers. Teeth-brushing. Hair-styling. Cologne-applying. Dressing rituals. And then to pick up the women... We drive over and they are still straightening their hair. Typical.

Once they are prepared, we head over to another friend's house. A few drinks to start ourselves off. It is now 11am, and already there is a bottle of vodka open on the table. We start walking to the Meyer Music Bowl at around 12pm. We arrive at 12.20pm. The queue is approximately 1km long. We cut in at the very front and wait 10 minutes before being put through a ticket and security check. Thousands of people in the never-ending line behind us curse our very being.

Perfect weather. 25 degrees Celsius. Clear blue sky. House and techno music plays from 5 different stages, surrounding us in a cocoon of vibration. We begin to explore. Mischief Stage... Famous Stage... Underground Stage... Air Stage... and Main Stage. Everybody is grooving (if not physically then at least mentally). We settle in near the front of Main Stage and start going nuts. Drinks keep pouring, feet keep moving, people keep coming. DJ's keep changing, but the mood doesn't. Smiles from ear-to-ear on all 30,000 people.

Phoebe and I

Skip forward to about 8.30pm. The sun has almost set, and the migration begins. People from all the other stages slowly start making their way to Main Stage. The lights came on. Green, red, blue, white. A sea of faces stepping to the beat and light patterns. Then the lasers came on to add to the ambiance. Words fail me. Everybody simply lost control. The encore ran for an extra 25 minutes. Nobody wanted to leave. But all goods things come to an end. Or do they?

At 10.30pm, we headed off to the after-party. This is not a joke. There was an after-party at a club called "Famous". It holds just over 2,000 people. We were some of the first ones there and got in easily... and then kept dancing. More lasers. More lights. More drinks. More people. More fun. Time flew. Suddenly it was 6.30am. There were 50 people left in the entire nightclub. It was below empty. The DJ at Famous finally stopped playing, and we were told to get out. NOW all good things come to an end. We had been on our feet dancing non-stop since 12.30pm. 18 straight hours. Final drink tally: 5 red bulls, 10 smirnoff ice, 4 pulse, 2 UDL's, 2 Corona's, 3 shots of vodka.

Laurence (my cousin) had a brilliant quote that helped summarize our 18 hour dancing-spree. The photo that he is referring to is just below.

"This photo totally summarizes everything I thought of Future Music Festival. That smile has pretty much wrapped itself around her face 5 times over. Fucking spectacular!"

The time of our life. Never to be forgotten. Thank you to everybody who made it such a great time:

Laurence, Rowan, Phoebe, Liora, Blaise, Zak, Dylan, Kyle, Dan, Lindy, Max, Joanne, Ingrid, Holly, Ari, Hannah, Tarryn, Huw, Wes, Greg

Rock on!!!

Lego... G-d's Creation

Just felt like writing. No special reason. No special topic. No special ideas as such, yet. My fingers just longed to touch the keyboard and do something productive. I am currently lying down in my bed. It's 5.41 pm. Robin Williams stand-up is playing in the background... genius. He is currently calling g-d a stoner. Brave man, he could regret that in 30-40 years. Unless the Almighty has a sense of humor.

My eyes are slowly wandering around the room, looking for something to spark my fingers back into action.

Empty vodka bottles.
Stereo.
Television... blessed, blessed television.
Lava lamp.
German flag (I can't explain it to myself, so you have NO chance).
Stolen road sign. It says "Keep Left". Good advice if you're driving in the wrong lane.
Beer poster. No explanation required there.
A small fort made of Lego - now THERE'S a story.

Let me start by saying that Lego is one of the world's greatest inventions. I also recently discovered that it is for ages 4 - 40, as opposed to 4-8 which is what it says on the box. Me and one of my friends were bored and found a big, dusty cardboard box on the highest shelf in my room. Partially hidden out of view, it called to us. As we opened it, the excitement generated by what we saw was so intense that if an adult was in the room, he would think that I was just an over-sized preschooler.

Yes, we were bored beforehand to the point that we actually were excited by the prospect of Lego. But once we started building, there was nowhere else that I'd rather be (but exceptions might include relaxing with P. Diddy on his yacht in Monte Carlo, having dinner with Heidi Klum, or discussing the true meaning of life with Monty Python). But back to Lego... So while we were mucking around, it turned out that Lego was a good conversation starter. Whilst fidgeting and laughing we hear the door knock. 3 more of my friends just turned up... and decided to join us. So Lego is now a good conversation starter AND a fantastic bonding item. Is there anything it can't do?

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANYWAY, the moral of the story is that maybe being childish once in a while can be good for the mind and the heart. We told old jokes, laughed at each other's crappy creations and became that much closer to each other.

And on top of everything else... I now have a wicked-cool, heavily guarded fort made of Lego.

Ebb And Flow

The feeling of permanent confusion has settled in. It started like the tide; came and went as it pleased, not really having an impact on the details of my life. But like in the real world, ocean levels are rising and suddenly the reliable coming and going of the tide is more threatening. Now it affects everything, especially since it refuses to go back out...

This feeling like something - or someone - is missing grows all the time. And it hurts. Not only does it hurt, but it's depressing. It creates a weight that shouldn't be there - like an ant carrying... well, anything. I don't know what to do. I sit in front of the TV, flicking through the channels, hoping and praying that something will be said that will inspire me or guide me to what it is I'm supposed to be doing. The feeling that everything I do and say is meaningless, and that my existence is only fulfilling a fraction of its potential is unnerving.

Writing has become my release. But eventually it too will lose it's power of distraction. I feel like I have very little time to do so much, to experience so much, to see so much, to say so much...

I don't know... maybe I need to get out of here. Maybe I need to leave everything behind for a while. Friends, family, acquaintances and even the random strangers that I seem to keep running into without ever saying a word. Something out there is pulling me. But what is it? WHERE is it? Why me?

I have been given too much. I haven't earned what I have been given. I didn't ask for what I have been given, and while it gives me the opportunity to excel it also acts as a counter-weight by building social barriers and mental barriers. So many things in my life I want to change, and so many I can't. It just adds to the futility and the feeling of emptiness.

Somebody will come and save me. Something will come and save me. It's human nature. It's the ebb and flow of mankind. Helplessness... Discovery... Happiness...

Boredimus Maximus

Who does she think she is? A funny version of Kathy Griffin? Let me attempt to explain something to this monstrosity and embarrassment of a lecturer. You are NOT funny. You are NOT a good lecturer. And you DEFINITELY do NOT speak good English.

Allow me to paint a portrait for whoever is lucky enough to be reading this incredibly angry rant. You walk into your two hour marketing lecture which has been moved to 4pm on a Friday (your original day off) and find that instead of last year's brilliant, genius, charismatic and g-d like lecturer has been replaced by a chinese, monotone, 4'5", bad english-speaking and news agency-owning midget. Tears welled up in my eyes as I mentally snapped every pencil in the lecture theater.

THEN, just to smooth things over she decides that she wants to be a comedian for the first five minutes. Opening joke: "Hi, I'm your lecturer for this semester". More pencil snapping occurs...

I sat there for two hours, wishing for the projector to break down, a small zoo's-worth of animals to come stampeding in and for it to start raining beer all simultaneously. This would achieve a number of things. Firstly, the lecture would have to be stopped because the projector would stop working. Secondly, I would get drunk. Thirdly, the animals running around would provide fantastic entertainment and a classic moment to add to the memory bank.

This was the first lecture for this subject and I had already mentally snapped 36 pencils, 108 pens and 14 highlighters. Now I have set a precedent and need to beat this record next Friday, assuming I actually show up for that freak show.

Definition:
Boredimus Maximus
adj.
1. The condition of being so fucking bored that you actually start wishing to get totally drunk and watch a small zoo's-worth of animals start running around in the same room.
2. Having a monotone lecturer that you have troubles understanding and can't see because she is shorter than the podium she stands behind teaching you a potentially fun and entertaining subject that she has turned into bad cheese.

Blast From The Past

Weirdest thing... strangest thing... most out-of-the-blue thing. I'm a proud member of Facebook, and about a week ago 4 people from my old school suddenly added me as friends. This doesn't sound like anything special, right? HOWEVER, I went to school in Vienna, Austria for 6 years. We left and moved to Australia over 10 years ago. Now does it seem more impressive?

Then, to finalize the feeling of surreality, they added me to a group called AIS Vienna Class '06. It's specially designed for members of our year level who would have graduated in 2006, but because they left the school early or moved overseas weren't able to graduate there. There are currently 89 members. Thats 89 people I grew up with, and I remember them all. We laughed, cried and played soccer in knee-high snow. I had my first kiss in that school, behind the shed next to the bus-park. I joined my first basketball and soccer team. Had my first snow fight. Ah the memories...

It's incredible that I'm reunited with these people. They helped create who I am today, they shaped my future. I loved every moment I spent with them, and it's mind-boggling that we have found each other again. I wish I could see them again...

Adorable Nutcase

In this strange, twisted world of ours exists an even more strange, twisted man by the name of Isaac. A personal trainer by profession and a psychopath that you want to hug and hang out with by nature. Women want to be with him, and men want to be with the women that want to be with him. Very few men actually WANT to be him.

But here is where it gets strange... if he is such a spastic around men, then what is he like around women? To borrow a poker term, I'd go "all-in" and bet my reputation (worth approximately $38.90) that he's not the same. I want to meet this alter-ego of his. That is the only way to describe it... a seperate, living, breathing being that only comes out at that cheeky glimpse of cleavage at a popular bar or nudist colony.

This man has been training me for over 2 years now. This man who created the sentence "You know what affecteded", "Better to be one-eyed than bung-eyed" and a dance move called "The Seizure" is without a doubt the coolest, friendliest, most psychotic person on the face of the worth. He is the adorable nutcase. We could use more of them in this world... no bullshit.