I can't stop sneezing. It's very annoying. I am slightly (very slightly) allergic to cats and to dust. My cat isn't inside so i'm guessing it's dust. Yuck.
Tomorrow night is movie quiz night again. My team came third equal with Ingrid's team at the last quiz. We're hoping to kick her teams arse tomorrow night. Other than that, not a lot going on this week - just lots more work placement with some assignment work scattered throughout. The joys of being a student.
Aaron pointed out that I made a grave oversight yesterday - it was Michael Jackson's 50th birthday and I didn't blog about him. So, here it is, s special blog about the King of Pop - Michael Jackson.
Funnily enough, I watched my The Jacksons: An American Dream dvd recently. Years ago (I must have only been about ten) it was on tv, I was totally obsessed with Michael Jackson at the time and so recorded it. I must have watched that tape 100 times over the following couple of years. I bought it on dvd a couple of years ago because I remembered how much I loved it, turns out I still do. Well, I love the first 2 hours more than the last 3. (Yeah, it's very long.)
Aaron also commented that he went and saw Michael Jackson's concert in Auckland a few years ago. I am here to state publicly that I don't think i've ever been as jealous of anyone in my life as I am of him for getting to see that. I absolutely begged my parents to let me go, but they wouldn't. They were sure he would tour again when I was older and said I could go then. He hasn't and I'm sad. I'd pay a LOT of money to see a Michael Jackson concert.
I remember the night of the concert. I was babysitting and me and the kids listened to Michael Jackson CDs (or maybe tapes) all night. They had one of his concerts on tv that night which I watched - wishing that I was actually at the concert instead of watching an older one on tv. The kids made me promise to get them out of bed in time for Billie Jean - which I did and we all tried to moonwalk around the lounge. (Very unsuccessfully)
Generally you can't talk about Michael Jackson these days without those damn child molestation charges coming up. I hate that. In such a fantastic career, spanning decades - it's those charges that people remember. If they were true then I could understand it, but personally I've never believed that any of the accusations against him were true. He's just an exceptionally weird guy who is also exceptionally talented and used to be exceptionally rich. A prime target for people who want to take advantage of him. Yes, he obviously made some very serious errors in judgement by letting children sleep in his bed, but I don't for a moment believe that he did anything anywhere near the realm of sexual molestation.
Okay I don't like talking about that anymore. Time for a subject change. Haha here's an embarrassing story... Me and my cousin Melissa used to sing the Michael Jackson/Paul McCartney duet, The Girl is Mine. I think I probably forced her to do it. From memory I did the McCartney part and she did the Jackson part. It involved us each standing on a couch in the lounge and i'm pretty sure also involved some kind of dance we'd made up. Thank God no-one has any video of that. (We also used to do The Bartman.)
Here are a couple of videos to celebrate the amazingness that is Michael Jackson.
First up we have a Jackson 5 video - singing ABC.
Next is Micahel moonwalking. There is nothing cooler in this world than Michael Jackson moonwalking. Someone has taken heaps of different clips of him doing the moonwalk and edited it together with Billie Jean as the soundtrack.
And, Aaron, you'll remember this well you lucky bastard.
Here is Michael Jackson performing one of my all-time favourite Michael Jackson songs - Billie Jean - in Auckland in 1996. And, of course, it includes a moonwalk.
I'm sure most people who read this blog regularly and who know me, expect me to blog about Winston Peters today. But I'm not going to.
Instead I'm going to talk about a funny that I discovered at work today.
I was going through the dictionary at work, checking up on the correct spelling of a word. (I can't even remember what word right now.) Anyway, as I was flicking through I was looking at the words in the top right hand corner - the ones that say which word is at the beginning and end of each page. Some words I noticed:
blow job condom felatio fornication handjob sex
All of those words were written in the top right hand corner of the page! The dictionary was a fairly big one - with, on average, 30 entries per page. And yet, those words all happened to fall onto the beginning or end of the page. I think the dictionary is trying to tell someone something.
Okay, just got home from Raybon Kan. He was awesome. And something occured to me while I was watching - being a stand-up comic for a living must be HARD!
Eww... quick aside... my cat just vomited and I wasn't fast enough to get him outside. So now there is cat vomit on my carpet that I have to clean up. gross.
And now, back to your regular scheduled blogging.
When you thinking about it, standing up and telling people jokes would be a lot harder than standing up and singing. (And I mean no disrespect to musicians. I couldn't do what they do.) When you are performing musically, the audience reaction is less obvious. Your music will generally be drowning out most audience reaction, so you just assume the are enjoying it.
With comedy, audience reaction is everything. You can hear ever laugh. Or every silence, as the case may be. It'd be awful standing up there on stage telling a joke that you thought was hilarious - and no-one laughs. God, just the thought of it gives me shivers.
Of course, I guess there's less worry about mucking up as a comedian. You can turn your screwed up punch-line into a joke all of it's own and people aren't really going to remember later that you screwed it up. When you are a musician people are definitely going to remember if you screw something up.
Everything has its challenges. (Ha! How's that for wisdom?!?)
Anyway, Raybon was great. Jerome opened for him and was good. Which is nice since the last time I saw him (was going to link to the blog where I talked about him, but I'm too lazy to find it.) he was crap. I'm glad he was good this time around.
Right. Now it is bedtime since I am still having to get up early for my slave labour.
I'm going to watch Raybon Kan tomorrow night at the Blue Note bar. I'm really looking forward to it. I enjoy comedy shows, and Raybon is guaranteed to provide lots of entertainment. Mum has loved him for years, so when I saw he was performing I invited her along. Dad is coming with us too. It should be a really good night. It's not often I get to hang out with my parents.
Okay. I need an early night so I don't fall asleep at my desk tomorrow! (It was a close call today. I had to pretend I needed to go to the bathroom just so I could stand up and wake myself up properly.
I realised something today... I have no clue when to use the word effect and when to use the word affect. I thought I did, but it turns it out I don't. Not good for someone studying publishing!
Ingrid and I started watching 30 Rock tonight. It's pretty damn funny! And now I'm going to go back to watching.
Work placement was weird today. The work itself wasn't that bad. It was fairly good actually. But, extremely boring - I'm not cut out to be an editor. Knowing that I'm not getting paid for it really sucks too. Seriously sucks.
Starting my second lot of work experience tomorrow. I'll be working full-time for 2 weeks and not getting paid. Gutted.
As for the end of the year - my plans are beginning to take shape. I'm keeping them quiet for the moment because I always announce my big plans and then don't follow them through. So you'll all just have to be patient. That way if I change my mind it doesn't matter :)
A friend of mine just broke up with her boyfriend. (And yes, I did check with her if she minded me blogging about it. She doesn't.) Her boyfriend cheated on her, and yet he doesn't consider what he did cheating. Talking about it made us start discussing what cheating is.
One persons cheating can be another persons innocent nothing. It all comes down to personal opinion, but it's probably important your partner knows what you consider cheating to be so that they make an informed decision.
Cheating, to me, is anything that you know your partner would consider a betrayal. I myself would consider any sexual contact with another person cheating. I would consider it cheating if my boyfriend/husband was sending dirty text messages to another person. I would consider it a small betrayal, though not outright cheating and not cause for breaking up, if my boyfriend/husband was having sexual fantasies about someone real. Celebrities, no. Friends, yes. I don't count dreams, obviously, because you can't control your subconscious. I'm talking conscious fantasies.
So, I guess I have a fairly strict view of monogomy. I also think it's a fairly common view though.
A guy I was friends with at university had a very different view of cheating. He and his wife had an open marriage. To them, having sex with someone else wasn't cheating - it was perfectly acceptable. They did have rules though - it would have been cheating if their partner didn't get to meet the other person first. If my friend wanted to sleep with another girl he had to first introduce her to his wife. His wife then had the right to veto it and say he wasn't allowed to sleep with her. The same went if his wife wanted to sleep with another guy. I didn't personally understand it, but it worked for them. They were, and still are from what I hear, happily married.
My friend, the one who has just dumped her boyfriend, has the same definition I do for cheating - any sexual contact. She found out that her boyfriend had been talking with a girl online. It was a girl he'd never met - but he was having cyber-sex with her and sending her all kinds of dirty messages. My friend considered it cheating, her (now ex) boyfriend didn't. I don't know whether the guy knew his girlfriend would be upset by it or not. But she was, and their relationship ended because of it.
It's interesting really, how technology has even had an affect on cheating. From what I hear, 'cheating' (I put it in speech marks because for some people it isn't cheating) with someone you've never met - often someone on the other side of the world - using the internet has become kind of common. I'm not sure how many of those become actual relationships. Not many i'd guess. My suspicion is that for most of the 'cheaters' it's just an escape from reality - hardly different from porn. It'd be interesting to see some research on it. But let's cure cancer first aye... I think that's a little more pressing in the research stakes.
Me and Ingrid think some of our dvds have gone missing. Well, I know for sure that In My Fathers Den is not there and there are some other big gaps on our shelves.
Either we are just forgetting that we've lent them out. Or someone we know, and trust, has stolen from us. That thought SUCKS. We're going with the lent them out and forgotten about it theory at the moment. I hope we remember soon though, cos it is not cool
For both me and Ingrid, our dvd collections are very important. To have missing dvds is not a pleasant feeling.
I had such a good thing to write about today. But I'm still working on my assignment. I'd been putting off this blog all night hoping I'd get my assignment done in time to still write my awesome blog. Alas, it's late and I'm not quite done.
So, hopefully tomorrow I'll still remember my cool topic. If so I'll write about it then and everyone can rejoice.
I have to recite a Shakespearean sonnet tomorrow in class. I've been practicing it for ages, but still only get it right about 50% of the time. There's a reason I didn't decide to be an actor!!
Here is the sonnet (I'm going to write it out from memory, I figure it'll be good practice. And Shakespeare has been dead long enough that I'm not even breaching copyright.)
No longer mourn for me when I am dead Then you shall hear the surly sullen bell Give warning to the world that I am fled From this vile world, with vilest worms to dwell Nay, if you read this line remember not The hand that writ it; for I love you so That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot If thinking on me then you then should make me woe O, if I say, you look upon this verse When I perhaps compounded am with clay Do not so much as my poor name rehearse But let your love even with my life decay Lest this wise world should look into your moan And mock you with me after I am gone
Hmmm I think I need to go practice some more. I made lots of mistakes while I was typing and had to keep going back and correcting it.
I'm working on a cycling book for class. Editing and typesetting it has meant I have read it probably about 30 times. I now know an awful lot about cycling. It's making the Olympics even more exciting - the cycling is really holding my attention. It's cool that we're actually doing so well.
Today, for the book, my group was working on designing an index. This involves reading the entire text (again!) and pulling out words that you think people would be interested in looking up. There is no way to do it automatically - it has to be done manually. It's pretty boring. But it's also the last step of our book and that's bloody exciting.
Okay. The mens cycling madison is about to start so I'm going to pay attention to the tv now.
Kat and I are talking about Labour at the moment. (We seem to talk about politics a lot. She's a avid Greens supporter and I'm Labour all the way. It's good cos it leaves some room for debate without turning into a full-on brawl. The right-wing supporters are the brawlers.)
Anyway, Kat and I are talking about Labour. Kat is currently doing the next Edulection post. It's really hard doing the research for these posts sometimes because Labour don't have any of their current policies up on their website. It's all out-dated. So, unless they are using the exact same policy from 2005 - in which case they should at least update the dates, then it's hard to tell what their policies are going to be this time around.
Then Kat found that they don't have a youtube video up - well, they do, but it's old as well. Most of the other major parties do have youtube videos. Most of the other major parties do have current policy on their websites. Labour don't. Is anyone else seeing the problem here?
How is it that no-one in Labour knows how to market them? It's an election year! An election that they are going to have to work harder than ever to win! They need to start putting themselves out there.
If they're looking for a marketing advisor i'd be happy to help! I'd clearly do a better job than their current marketing people are!
I'm a dreamer. I always have been. I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing. In fact, I think it's a very good thing. I can't imagine a life without dreams.
I think I get the dreamer thing from my dad. My mum is a lot more realistic about life. It's a good partnership my parents have really - dad dreams and mum keeps him grounded so that his dreams don't get too out of control. The dreamer thing is probably why I, like my dad, am not content to just do one thing forever. Dad has moved around a lot - he's accepted promotions to Napier, Palmerston North, back to Wellington, back to Napier, back to Palmerston North because he likes change and likes to move around. I also like change and can't imagine doing the same thing, or living in the same place, for the rest of my life. I have big dreams and they don't all involve staying in Wellington forever.
It upsets me that so many people don't even try and follow their dreams. They are instead willing to accept some mediocre life rather than taking a risk and trying to realise their dreams. I've talked about taking risks recently on this blog. It's something I consider to be very important - especially when it comes to realising your dreams. I hate seeing my friends languishing in mediocrity when I know they could be so much more. You don't have to be rich or famous to be great - you just have to be doing what you love. Someone who is doing, or trying to do, what they love - what they've always dreamed of doing - could never be considered mediocre. Never.
One of my friends is helping me to potentially realise two of my biggest dreams next year. One is a total long-shot, but I have to try it. The pay-off is too great to not take the risk.
So, how about everyone who reads this blog makes the next 12 months the year to attempt to fulfil a dream. I'm going to do it and you all should too. Consider it a favour to me.
Yes, yes I know that calling it Super Saturday is a headline some journalist somewhere came up with. But I don't care, it's a good name. I'm loving that we have so many medal chances in one day. And I'm loving even more that it's on a night I can actually be at home.
So far I've watched Mahe Drysdale be amazing. He's been sick all week and straight after he faded a bit to only get bronze (I say only, but it was freaking amazing) he collapsed on the dock. He would have been sure to get the gold if he hadn't been sick. To even get 3rd when he was so sick is bloody amazing.
After that I saw George Bridgewater and Nathan Twaddle get bronze as well. Good on them.
Then the Evers-Swindell twins got gold! Woo!!!! It was an amazing race to watch. It came down to a photo finish and even on the replay I couldn't tell if we'd won it or not. But we had and it was great.
There are still a couple more rowing events, our shot-putter and our cyclist to go tonight. Hopefully there'll be another gold or two for us tonight.
So, I have a decision to make. And it isn't an easy one.
I was offered my old job back today. Not my Auckland job, my Wellington one. I find it quite tempting. They are willing to make a lot of concessions to get me. It's nice to be so wanted. And the deal they offered me is not half bad.
It looks like I have a lot to think about this weekend.
Also, if you would like to contribute then let me know. We're looking for people who want to write about various policies. We're also looking for people who are staunch supporters of each party and want to write about why they vote for that party.
Looking back on the past can be a dangerous game. I keep a lot of records - obviously I have this blog, I also keep a private diary and keep most old emails etc. I don't look back at any of that stuff often, but when I do I never know how it's going to make me feel.
A lot of how I end up feeling has to do with what I happen to look at. I usually just randomly sift through and see what I find. My mood in what I have written is usually the mood that then gets reflected in the current me. Sometimes I read about things that used to make me happy and now make me sad.
I like re-reading things though. I like to remember the important things in my life. And I like even more that often I've written about the mundane - stuff i'd never remember in a million years if I didn't have it documented in print.
I've been lucky in my life, even if I don't always feel like I am. I need to make sure I always remember that.
I am overwhelmed with assignments this week. This week I have to do:
- a marketing assignments - a design scrapbook - learn a Shakespearean sonnet ready to perform for the class - help my group with the index of one of my books - help my group edit poems for my website project - come up with some new designs for my website project - decide which parts of a manuscript are acceptable and which are not for one of my other books
Yuck, yuck, yuck.
I also have to go to class and go to work. It's pretty damn scary.
I think I'm probably the only one of my friends that actually likes Helen Clark. But I really do. I think she's extremely intelligent and a very good leader. I like her as Prime Minister and, in my opinion, she's done a really good job.
I saw this photo of her recently in a book by Sally Tag. The book was full of photographs of New Zealanders. It's called On Top Down Under. If you ever get a chance to find a copy then I'd recommend taking a look. It's awesome. Anyway, here is the photo of our Prime Minister. On first look I thought it must have been taken when she in her early 20s, but it was actually in 1997. I think a lot of people will find this photo surprising.
Aaron said I should have blogged about Scott Dixon yesterday. Since I enjoy fulfilling people's blog requests I thought I'd attempt to make up for my oversight of not blogging about him yesterday by doing it today instead.
Scott Dixon won yesterday. That makes it his 6th IndyCar win of the season! He is now tied for the record of the most wins of an IndyCar season. It was a close one - he caught the leader on the final corner. Impressive for the Kiwi boy.
With our Olympians being so uninspiring right now, it's nice to see at least one Kiwi doing great things on the sporting scene. (Ok that's a little harsh. Our Olympians have plenty of time. I'm just bitter that we haven't won a single medal yet. I'm very competitive.)
I took a Captain Planet quiz on facebook a couple of weeks ago. It turned out that I am Wheeler. I was very excited about this, Wheeler was my favourite. In fact, I was so excited I didn't read the little blurb underneath. Turns out that was a silly move because it was HILARIOUS!
Here it is:
"You are the most impulsive of the group, always ready with a flip remark. You love to provide comic relief to your fellow friends and enjoy provoke your enemies for a laugh.
Although you may not be the most knowledgeable of the planeteers when it comes to ecology and fail to to understand the issues at hand, your heart is in the right place and you follow it accordingly. You fancy yourself a bit of a flirt, and enjoy the company of europeans (Linka)"
My favourite bit was that Wheeler (or me according to this quiz) enjoys the company of europeans. Ummmm....... That's weird. I don't remember him being racist. Funny.
Last night (early this morning) I was driving home from Wellington. It was about 12.30am so there weren't many cars on the road. Suddenly the guy in front of me started throwing rubbish out his window.
I couldn't believe it! He threw his KFC box, drink cup and some other stuff right out the window onto the motorway! Why? Why would he do this? Why would anyone do this? How hard is it to just wait until you get home and throw it in the bin?
The big question at the moment is, when will the election be? As I've mentioned, we have a sweepstake going. Derek's picked November 1st, Ingrid's picked November 8th and I've picked November 15th. None of the 3 dates are perfect though.
November 1st is the same weekend as the Bledisloe Cup final. Having election night on the same night as the rugby isn't great. But it is a definite possibility.
November 8th is only 4 days after the American election. Labour will be very aware that National will be able to put a good spin for themselves on whichever American candidate wins. If McCain wins National will be talk about the fact that America is sticking with right-wing and that means New Zealand should go right-wing. If Obama wins they will spin the same 'change' message that America have gone for. So, for Labour, a date before the American election is probably preferable.
November 15th is the last possible Saturday Labour can choose. If they choose it then it looks like they are desperately trying to hold onto power as long as possible.
It's a tough call for Helen Clark. I'm glad I don't have to make the decision!
I love Friday nights. It's nice knowing I have the entire weekend before me - even if I will have to spend most of it doing assignments.
The Olympics start tonight. I always intend to watch plenty of events, and usually only end up watching a couple. The equestrian is on in the morning, I'm planning on watching that. The only thing I hate about equestrian is when the horses fall over. I don't give a damn about the riders, it's the horses I feel sad for. I've been known to cry over a horse falling down at the Olympics.
Everyone should visit the Edulection website because so far more people have visted from Kat's blog than they have from here. I'm very competitive people! I have to win! (Even though it's not actually a competition)
I got told yesterday that the reason I'm single is because I'm too picky. I don't understand this at all. Did that person think I should just settle for the next person to come along, whether I liked them or not, just so I could have a boyfriend? That makes no sense. I'm not going to settle for someone just for the status symbol of being in a relationship. I want to be with someone because I love them, not because I love what they represent.
That said, I don't think I'm all that picky anyway. I just want a guy who:
1. Is intelligent 2. Knows his own mind 3. Isn't afraid to state his opinion and defend it 4. Knows that i'm actually still the boss though :P 5. Enjoys and is good at cooking 6. Wants to travel, but also wants to eventually settle in NZ 7. Can actually afford to travel :P 8. Has an interest in politics (I can't stand people who vote without being informed) 9. Is left-wing (I wish that didn't matter to me, but it does) 10. Loves cricket and rugby 11. Likes to read 12. Enjoys both going out with friends AND staying home dvds 13. Likes to play video games 14. Understands how important jeans are to a wardrobe 15. Has a wonderful sense of humour
I'm off to a movie quiz night tonight. Most of my friends know that, although I love movies, I am useless at movie trivia. I can never remember any actors' names, lines of dialogue, directors - none of that stuff. Luckily I'm in a team with people who are VERY good at that stuff, so they'll make up for my crappiness.
As I said yesterday - visit Edulection. If you want to help me and Kat out by researching and writing up information about any policies then let me know.
National announced their election pledges today. They made me REALLY angry. Bloody National!
There are of course the tax cuts. National have said that they don't need to borrow for the tax cuts. They've also said that they will need to borrow for some of the other things they want to do.... In other words - the tax cuts do mean that the country will be in debt.
Funnily enough they have pledged to take a more disciplined approach to Government spending... Hmmmm how do the tax cuts fit in with that Johnny boy? They also want to open up some government services to the public sector - it's this pledge that makes me the most angry I think. I don't want that to happen. I really, really don't.
There is actually one pledge I do like - they are going to set literacy and numeracy standards in primary schools. I think this is brilliant. I think the standards now are shocking and need to be improved. I'm glad people are finally starting to recognise this.
Anyway. Kat and I are setting up a blog to let people know what each party is pledging and what their policies are. So, if you want to educate yourself then visit the Edulection website from October 1st and you'll find all the information you need.
Anyone want to have a guess as to what date Labour will pick for the election? Derek and I are having a sweepstake. Derek's picked November 1st. When I picked my date I thought the latest date it could be was the end of November. So I picked November 15th. Then I found out that the 15th is actually the last possible moment. I know I should switch to November 8. But I'm going to be risky and stick with the 15th. Somehow it feels like bad luck to switch when my date is still valid.
There's been a lot of discussion in my flat about who we're going to vote for. I'm a Labour supporter through and through, but I'm no longer 100% certain I'm going to vote for them this time around. Derek and I like to discuss strategy a lot.
There are a few strategies that have been bandied about. (Yes, we are aware that we are only 2 people.)
One is to vote National so that we have a strong government. Winston Peters holding the government, and the country, to ransom is getting pretty damn old. I'm not keen on this strategy at all. I'm entirely morally opposed to voting National. Also, I don't want National to be allowed to govern alone.
The second is to vote for the Greens. I don't love the Greens, but I do like them. I can handle a government made up of them and National if I have to. It'd be weird to have a left-wing minor party in coalition with a right-wing major party. But that's what MMPs all about - making sure the major parties are kept honest (as honest as politicians can be anyway) by the smaller ones.
The third is to vote for Labour and hope that we are wrong about Labour not having a hope in hell of winning.
Ah decisions, decisions. The beauty of election year!
Grrrrrr! That is all I can say. I can't really write about what I am grrrrr-ing about because it would be unprofessional on the off-chance someone found it and could deduce what I am talking about.
Instead I will just say GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR and I hate a certain someone who I am liasing with on a certain something. This person is stupid and really needs to grow a brain. If you can't follow simple instructions and can't talk to me about the problems without insulting me then you shouldn't be in the position you are.
A year ago I decided to copy my flatmate Kat and I began blogging every single day. It is now a competition - if I forget then I will be punished. So, rest assured, there will be a new post here every single day.
