You may notice the change in blog template. That is because my old template's (the really cool one that all of you like) has its image bandwidth exceeded and I'm getting all these ugly words plastered everywhere saying "Bandwidth exceeded!" - not very pretty.

So this is how this blog will look until the bandwidth has been fixed. Nice change eh?

So... I have 2 hrs remaining of being a 21 year old. Yay, it's my birthday in 2 hrs! And what did I just spend the last 3 hours working on? My Environment Fluids Field Trip report!

Might write a longer post about being a 21 year old... but I can't be arsed right now! I'm just not in the mood to be self contemplative. I'm much too excited about this week for my birthday - drinks tomorrow night and a 'secret' do on Friday night. Will be fun!

I thought turning 22 would be a bit more of a downer. It is an age you don't really look forward to because of all the hype of its predecessor, 21. It's like 22 never ever crossed your mind cos you just wanted to turn 21 and what happens after didn't really matter. But now that the hype of being a 21 year old has died down, its time to move on past its gleaming aura. And I thought that was gonna be a downer. But I'm gonna do awesome things for my birthday this year because I CAN... and it's so exciting!

Birthday birthday birthday!

xx

I'm studying multiple decrement tables at the moment for Actuarial Stats. And I'm looking at this nuptialty table of women of all races in the USA in the 1960s.

According to this table, as soon as you hit 20 years old, the chances of you dying before marrying increases! W00t!

Also, according to life tables... it's good to be 10 years old. It is the optimal age where the chances of dying is at the absolute lowest. Chances of dying only increases from then on.

How depressing!

I've beefed up my iPod with some new music today, adding songs to artists I already have songs of:

Peaches.
Futureheads.
Matisyahu.
The Black Keys.
Camille.
The Sleepy Jackson.
Razorlight.
The Kooks.

Sweeeeeet. I love having a fresh burst of music in my iPod. I love the Peaches song "Downtown", so ahhhsum! Hence the title of this ahhhsum blog. I'm also crazy about The Black Key's song "Your Touch"... it FARRKIN ROCKS. When I listen to it I just wanna get up on my desk and swing my head around in big circles til my hair gets all boofy. Arms also going around in big circles playing my air guitar - the only instrument I ever accomplished to perfection.

Tonight my parents 'took me downtown' for dinner on Lygon Street to celebrate my coming birthday. Family dinner, yo. We were meant to do it on Monday night but I finish Uni late (6pm - I have a midsemester exam for Actuarial Stats). And so we did it on a Saturday night. It was awesome and we went to Koko Black afterwards. I had this Mocha Martini and later swapped with my brother's iced chocolate. I Lurrrve it. It was so good but so rich - kept drinking it till the very end cos it was sooooo nice with all those little chunks of shaved chocolate... and the moment I finished and got my mouth out of the straw... I wanted to spew. Bad.

Like I never really wanted to spew. But for some reason I was on the verge of spewing. Ohhh it was sickening.... aarrghhghagaghgdfa;aleskja;wefsd.

But it was a fab night out with das family.

Got an interview with RMIT in a few weeks re: DEUTSCHLAND DEUTSCHLAND. Hopefully I'll get something. I wanna go to DEUTSCHLAAAND. Ja. Ich musst.

xoxoxo

This is like, totally one of the best things the Government has done. As of August 13th, the Australian Government will be giving out grants to people wanting to change their cars to LPG.

$2000 for people changing their cars to LPG.
$1000 for people when they buy a car that uses LPG.

This is so awesome! Application forms will be available in September.

Why this is so awesome? Because a lot of people want to convert to LPG because its good for the environment and it is so much cheaper (running costs). However, it costs a lot (around $2000) to convert and it'll take atleast 3 years of driving on LPG for that to pay back. Now we don't have to wait out those 3 years! This is such a great incentive.

I just recently read Stupid White Men (Steve, I've been wanting to return it since last week but you didn't come to squash so it'll have to be another time!). And reading about the lack of concern for the environment in the United States (even though George Bush's house is like the most ecofriendly physical human dwelling possible) and the fact that fuel efficiency is never really a concern... and thinking that Australia is not so far behind (Kyoto Protocol, peoples)... this move to provide grants for people to convert to and use LPG is such great news.

Will I be changing to LPG? Probably. Depends what's happening with the car issue at home. My brother will be taking over my fuel guzzling 6-cylinder Magna very soon when he gets his Ps in October. I, on the other hand, will be taking over my mum's Mercedes (buahahahahahahaha). It's a C class and it is very fuel efficient. Whether or not that will change to LPG is my mum's decision because it is her car, but I will definitely be encouraging Justin to convert the Magna. Not only is it awesome for the environment, it saves so much on $$$. A quick calculation means that it'll save about $27 a week or $1400 a year in fuel costs on a six-cylinder vehicle travelling 15,000km a year - which is where I'm sitting at. Not having a job lately, fuel is all I spend on now.

This grant will hopefully see a push towards alternative fuels. LPG is great because it gives a similar performance to petrol engines (in terms of torque), the cars can be easily converted, safer than petrol in a crash (no your car won't just explode while driving). You may have a sudden reduction in boot size and payload but hey... for someone like me who just uses a car to get me places and not having to tow, carry lots of stuff, or illegally race my car... I think it will be just perfect.

Would you convert your car now with this grant??

Okay, I'm sitting in the Hargrave Library right now and I don't know whether to point and laugh at this guy or go up to him and slap him.

He is sitting approximately less than 2m away from me and eating two piece of fried chicken with his mouth open and critcising his group members on an assignment they are working on.

"Environmental like features. What is a "like feature"? This sentence does not make any sense. What do you mean by features? Is this what it means? *points at word* Because if that is what it means you have to explain it to me what that is."

*Loud random smick smack smuck coming from his mouth and fried chicken*

"Oi you can you go print out the assignment cover sheet"

"What the hell does THIS mean???"

"What do you mean 'was'. It is still in the present, change it to 'is'!"

"Ok, like seriously... I re-typed this whole assignment. You guys are useless. And wherever it is marked in red, I have NO IDEA what you guys are talking about. Oi! Why did you delete the red bit? If I could delete it, I would have deleted it! Wherever there is a red mark you have to tell me exactly what it means cos it makes NO SENSE to me."

*Smick smack smuck*

"This reference got to come from SOMEWHERE! And its the only reference in this whole assignment. I can't believe you guys. You HAVE to explain where things come from."

"You can't even write a sentence. You're SOOOO gonna lose marks like that"

*Licks finger*

What can I say, I'm glad that in my 5 years at Uni and working in groups, I never had to encounter such losers!

The ads have been up all around uni this week advertising the last poster sale for the year. Sadly, it is also my last poster sale! Please remind me to go visit the sale this week before it ends.

The poster sale has been much frequented over my last 5 years at uni. In fact, the majority of the posters which used to line my walls were from these poster sales.

I remember back in first year. The poster sale was the best thing to have happened to me. Fresh faced out of high school (= lack of exposure to cool posters except for those that they give you to cut out from music magazines) and in love with bands such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Bob Marley & The Wailers, Rage Against the Machine, and every other god damn poster band, I found posters for everything that I had loved.

I was a happy trooper armed with all my band propaganda. My walls have changed dramatically over the years from hippy grunge rock to glitzy glam to post-modern art rock. If it weren't for the poster sales, my walls wouldn't have seen such good days.

Much love to the poster sales.

OK, it's PHOTO TIME, y'all! So here is a small collection of photos taken over the last couple of weeks underneath their respective headings.

MySpace secret gig: Jet

"Did I just read right?" you ask yourself. Yes, you read right. George went to a MySpace Event. The first, infact, of their Secret Gigs concept where they get big bands to play small intimate venues - all for free and limited to the first x number of people to get through the door.

Considering it was an 18+ event (it was at the Prince Of Wales) which means the bulk of Jet fanage (schoolgirls aged around 13-16) would not be able to attend - that translates to 'no screaming and crazy arm flailing teeny boppers' - which would be the no. 1 putter offer for me not to go. Secondly, it was on a Monday night, which is my uni day off. Thirdly, cool people such as Robyn and Ben were willing to come... so the night was set! Jet's just one of those bands who I'd love to see live but wouldn't pay much for the opportunity. So this was perfect.



Sitting smug with my Heiney before the gig.



Where's YOUR super cool and incredibly hip MySpace WRISTBAND?!



Robyn & I



Ben & I



Let's click our heels together!



Jet!



Jet in widescreen!


Random City Snaps

There are a whole lot of random piccies that I have taken in the city. And here they are!


Blue trees are HOT. I feel like I'm on some other strange biologically enhanced planet. But no, I'm just outside the Sofitel on Collins Street.



There's been a lot of random public art in alleyways lately (as in full on installments as opposed to just stencil art). This is one of them just off Flinders Lane. Robyn and I posin' our booties off. Only in Melbourne will you find random shit like this. I *heart* Melbourne.



And only in Melbourne will you find a fucking huge light box alphabets spelling out Picasso!



On Tuesday night we went to Loop (so awesome) and Ben bought us all fancy cocktails! We owe you a huge drink, Ben!



With Cocktail Man himself, Ben at Double Happiness.

That's all the piccies!

But before you go...

I went to see The Boy From Oz tonight! It was spectacular! Such an inspiring musical on the life of Peter Allen... the man who brought us "I Still Call Australia Home", "I Go To Rio", "Tenterfield Saddler" and a whole lot of other great songs... played by none other than heart throb HUGH JACKMAN. There couldn't possibly be anyone better for the role. Awesome acting, singing, piano playing and... soooo CAMP!

With that aside, it was also incredibly appropriate that Hugh Jackman played Peter Allen because like Allen, he's an Australian who has made it big in Tinsel Town and has come back home to put on a show. So as much as the show was about Allen, you could draw parallels with Jackman throughout. Songs like "I still call Australia home" totally worked both ways!

It wasn't just a musical, however. There was a large element of stand-up from Jackman, as Allen of course. His banter included subjects like Keith Urban, Nicole Kidman, Lleyton Hewitt, Eddie McGuire, and other random Aussie celebs. He walked through the audience and chatted to people and got this cool old guy up on stage to show him how to line dance! This guy, Lance, an audience member, sat far far off in the stalls section and Hugh loved him and during the intermission, he requested the arena staff to find two seats right up near the stage for Lance and his wife! How cool was that!

The actress who played Liza Minelli has a scary striking resemblance to Liza... it was as if it was really Liza on stage. The Judy Garland character was awesome too. In fact, everyone was awesome. I couldn't help but get all teary eyed during "I Still Call Australia Home". It's SUCH a patriotic song that truly touches the heart. I don't know why this isn't our national anthem. 'Advance Australia Fair' means nothing to me. I don't even feel patriotic singing it. What's the good in that?!

The show was so inspiring. This man born to sing, write music and dance, he never confined himself to his home, a small small town out in the sticks in New South Wales - he made it to New York City and played sold out shows in Radio City! I felt this huge power in me after to want to make the most of my life... focus on the talents that I was blessed with... make the most of it... and most of all, stop worrying about what my future will be and let life roll off my back!

Ok shit, it's almost 2am. Bed time!

I was never ever too enthusiastic about Robbie Buck's little 'Great day/Crap day' segment on his drive time show on triple j but taking this title in the context of other things, don't you ever wonder to yourself how things can turn from sweet to sour or down right horrible to pure bliss in less than a day? How in one day you would, emotionally, visit both opposite ends of a yard stick? Crazy eh.

Well today was one of those kinda days. I wasn't feeling too terrible this morning but it certainly wasn't blissful. But now things have settled and I'm gaining back my composure and all is pretty sweet. Nothing particularly bad happened this morning... I was just not feeling the coolest. Sorta sick yucky feeling that something isn't right but you can't really put your finger on. Yeah, that. Then I gotten over it and now things are, like I said, pretty sweet.

A splash of AWESOME news yesterday. The Grates will be touring with FAKER! Ahhh! What an awesome support band! The Grates are playing at The Forum on Oct 13th. That's FRIDAY! Whoo, spooky! You bet I'll be there!

Trying to make the most out of my project now. I only have like just over 5 weeks til my big oral presentation for my thesis work and I haven't really done anything. It's not entirely my fault because the wave generator isn't working so I haven't yet done my experiments. Meanwhile I'm trying to bulk up my work by doing computational fluid dynamics modelling. Been working on my 'mesh' (such a cool word!) to simulate flow through rows of buildings. I'm such an amateur when it comes to these things.

Anywho, went out to a mini bar crawl last night. We went to: Double Happiness and Loop (we stepped into Aura but it was soooooo not happening). Double Happiness always has really great and personal service (we had a tab and bar ninjas came and took our empty glasses away without us even noticing). Loop was awesome, as usual. I've been trying hard to look for an alternative venue to host my 22nd Birthday party but it always ends up that Loop is just the coolest place. I always end up organising things at Loop! George for Loop!

Alrighteys, it's time for me to shut up and go to class. There's a pigeon circling my feet and it's starting to freak me out. Shoo pigeon!

Hmmm... Okay so not much news to report... but I must say this: Tis the season for couples breaking up. Had three couples breaking up from very stable relationships over the last month and today, my best friend (who was also in a pretty stable relationship) broke up with her boyfriend. That's four couples - one week after another.

I might take this investigation further see if it could be just the month of mid-July to mid-August. Is one partner from all those four couples part of a star sign that says "You will break up with your partner THIS MONTH"?

It's a really strange feeling because when you go out with these couples its like as if they will be together for the rest of their lives. Well, atleast for the rest of your social life spent with them. They integrate themselves so well into the friendship circle that when they do break up it's like as if we're somehow involved too. Brendan explained it perfectly on his blog.

That's the thing with being in the 20-25 year old bracket. You aren't never really sure whether a couple will go the long haul and end up marrying one another, or break up eventually. I mean, couples where the partners are 16 yrs old or whatever, you don't really expect the relationship to last forever. You're still really young and there's all kinds of things that could possibly happen. But when you're in the 20-25 year old bracket, some people do decide they want to start settling in with a partner if the relationship does go well. The whole 'let's get serious' shebang.

And I guess that's why it's a bit of a shocker to hear people breaking up at that age. Not that it's a bad thing... and of course it happens all the time... but the thought did once cross your mind that 'yeah, these peeps are here for the long run', especially when you can see they are really close with one another... and that they are in your friendship group!

So moving on, I'm really excited about this Enviromental Fluids Field Trip of which I'll be going on mid-September. I'm glad I did the subject because it'll be such an awesome addition to my whole uni experience. Going out to the Snowy River Estuary for four days with your mates and doing random engineering work and having fun at the same time. Perfect way to spend my final semester... rather than being confined solely to the university campus.

Today we worked out what we'll be doing on the trip (individual tasks) and I'm gonna be on a boat for most of the day and checking our tide gauges at all these different locations around the estuary. My group is investigating tide heights and river flow rates. I'm in a pretty cool group too - great bunch of guys (and very funny too) so I don't think I will be strapped for entertainment!!

OH... and this is pretty exciting for a Monash student's point of view. Well, a Monash student who has frequent classes in the Menzies building, anyway. Last week I went all the way up to the 8th floor without encountering a broken down escalator. It was a miracle. That has never EVER, in my last 5 years at uni, happened. There is usually one or two escalators that don't work, forcing you to detour and take the stairs. Ahh, Menzies, thanks for giving me that once off beautiful experience... :P

Okay, so I'm back from my brief weekend away at Ben's boat at Lake Eildon with an ace group of uni mates and its now time to FOCUS. I like having a random weekend of just going away and not worry or think about uni or the troubles 'back in the city' for a while. It was so much fun and, I guess, well fed. Brendan brought up a good selection of food that leant slightly to the gourmet side - which I loved him for. Bruschetta, fetta cheese, spinach leaves, fritatta (though we never got around to that), mexican salsa... very pleasing.

Got a bunch of photos until my camera died some time last night before mess actually began (truth or dare anyone?). Will post some piccies up later when I find the time. Probably tonite perhaps if I'm not feeling lazy.

AHHH I'm now landsick! I'm sitting at the computer and rocking backwards and forth. Hiliarous.

Cheerio.

Nothing better than a hot, sticky, fast and loud rock concert to turn your frown upside down. It's been ages since I've been to a gig where people are passing out left, right and center; getting bashed in the head from the crowd surfers; bruised ribs against the barrier; and gross sweaty flailing limbs, smelly bodies and crotches rubbing up against you. Le ambience.

Tonight I was given the best birthday/thank you present ever from none other than my special special buddy, Robyn. A ticket to the The Grates/The Arctic Monkeys gig! For a good solid four hours my woes for the day were subsided letting me immerse myself in fucking awesome and LOUD music. How I screamed and jumped and danced like some crazy freak!

The Grates -
The Most Fucking Awesome band ever. I first got into the band when triple j started playing Sukkafish (around late 2004). I was hooked straight away and immediately I listened out for them and tried to get my hands on their music. When their debut album finally came out this year I was just lovin' it. And tonight, I finally saw them live for the first time (I don't count Big Day Out cos I saw them from real far away) and OMG I AM TOTALLY A GRATES DEVOTEE.

I can't describe how fantastic they were on stage. Patience, the lead singer, is everything I want to be! Creative, fun loving, gorgeous and cute... but in a completely Indie Rock n Roll way. I've been looking out for a rock n roll chick to be my creative role model and I have found her.

We weren't allowed to take photos but this is what she is like on stage, CONSTANTLY. There is no ground below this gal's feet!


Tonight she wore a cute white dress with fine pink flower detail, a thin hot pink high waisted belt, hot pink tights with diamantes in a swirly pattern, baby pink ballet type shoes, and a cropped silver sequined cardi. It was such a mad outfit! She jumped and danced around like there was no chance of ever depleting her energy levels. Her voice was amazing, her stage presence was huge.

During 'Rock boys', she had a pink twirling ribbon (like the one they use for the artistic gymnastics thing) and was such a cool stage prop. It went perfectly with the song and created the most awesome effect. Listen to the song and you will understand!

They played all the songs I wanted them to play and after their gig I asked for the setlist and I got it :) Robyn and I decided to tear it in half and keep a halve each and stick it on our wall. We decided to take it as a friendship thing and a souvenir to mark our first proper gig together. It is our version of splitting the 'Friends Forever' necklaces and each wearing a halve. Aren't we so rock n roll ;)

The Arctic Monkeys -
So what if I only knew one of their songs! I think I deserve credit for being one of the very first people in Australia to know/hear about them (apart from the staff at triple j). I was browsing the triple j website sometime end of last year and I was downloading all the songs they offerred as 'free mp3s'. And The Arctic Monkey's big song "I bet that you look good on the dancefloor" was one of them. To be a free download, it meant that the band would be fucking small and unknown at the time.

Then, two months later, they were like the biggest band in the world! I never really got around to listening to their entire album, but these kids were good rockers and I knew I had to see them live and not pass up the opportunity!

I had some dickhead behind me who leaned into me (I was up front against the barrier) and half the time I couldn't breathe (squashed lungs) kept shouting lame ass remarks such as "Skull it Alex! Heinies SUCK. Drink Stellas. Heinies is SHIT, you HEAR ME??". During The Grates he kept going on like "Oh this girl is SO RANDOM! Where the fuck she come from? SO fucking RANDOM!", whatever dude. Get a life. And stop wrapping your gross sticky and sweaty arms around me. Geez, the whole time he was like spooning me from behind. The crowd was so strong I couldn't even turn around and glare at him... but y'know, we WERE in a mosh pit. Give and take y'know.

The Arctic Monkeys played an awesome gig though Alex (the front man) was getting incredibly annoyed at the guy behind me's remarks. "Skull it! Aw, you're a PUSSY, Alex! Show us yer TITS! Where's yer G-String!?!" Fucking twat.

What's with Alexes as frontmen of awesome rock bands and being incredibly HOT? I have no idea what these guys looked like til tonight and frankly, I wasn't expecting much to avoid disappointment. And man, he was Soooooooo rock n roll. The hair, the facial expression... ahhhh... AND HE'S YOUNGER THAN ME. AND A BETTER GUITAR PLAYER THAN ME (well, that part wasn't very difficult).

Okay, you know you are OLD when you're going to gigs where the band members are younger than you. I feel like I'm like in my mid 30s latching on to the 'hot bands' of today like The Killers and Franz Ferdinand. Seriously. Weirded out feeling. First time I've ever gone to see a band play that's younger than me. I mean, I didn't think I'd think too much of it, but when you realise it watching these talented young boys making so much awesome noise and music... you kinda think "Man, did I miss the bandwagon or what? How come I'm not doing something cool in my life when these guys ARE. And are YOUNGER than me!"

So I got bashed around by crowd surfers and rammed hard against the barrier, so what! I ignored all that and rocked out hard and its the best way to get over the whole mosh pit violence that's happening around you.

Georgina's instructions to get over mosh pit violence:
1. Stare right ahead
2. Watch band members do their stuff
3. Enjoy the music
4. ROCK OUT!

And before you know it, you're just as violent as the rest of the crowd! Easy!

Okay I'm going to bed. It's almost 2am and I have to be up at 7am. I'm BUGGERED. 9-5 day tomorrow at uni. Le Sigh. Awesome night though, thanks so much Robyn!

Peace Out!

I'm so fragile right now.

The littlest things upset me and I just can't help feeling sorry for myself.

Uni today was probably the worst day ever. My eyes were welling up and supressing tears 80% of the day and I kept going into toilet cubicles to have myself little cries. Not huge cries and letting it all out because I would look like a wreck. But small individual sessions to let the tension all out bit by bit.

I'm not exactly sure why I'm feeling this way but I think when you have spent a lot of your time putting up with something of which you don't have any control over eventually it adds up and now the cracks are starting to surface... and I'm just about reaching breaking point... if not already there.

The worst thing is that I don't know what to do. What do you do when the only thing you can't do is to lay it on the table and talk about it to parties involved? I can't bring myself to do this because as much as I feel I am always getting the raw end of the deal... I just can't not be involved at the same time. I'm still holding on and not ready to let go.

Right now I just feel that there's nothing I can do except feel like a beaten up old ragdoll of which no one cares for anymore... with a fragile glass vial imbedded deep in my chest filled to the brim with thoughts and feelings I can't share.