I never really spent much time on YouTube. But here's a selection of vids tonight that I have come to lurrrve. For some strange reason... I've completely managed to hook them all up - they are all related somehow. And thus, I present to you, "George's YouTube Six Degrees of Separation". It's not really 6 degrees per se... but hey, there's LINKAGE! Enjoy!

First up, Edie Sedgwick. An Andy Warhol "superstar", absolutely gorgeous, extremely wealthy... but oh so emotionally troubled. Edie died when she was only 28 due to drug related problems. I watch this video and think that if there was ever a girl like this hanging around my studios, she'd be the perfect muse. To top things off, the music playing in the background is none other than The Velvet Underground's "After Hours". Oh this is soooo Andy Warhol.



Next up is my dear Andy discussing his Brillo boxes (yes, the ones that are featured on my desktop). I just love how he portrays himself in the public. Catch him and the guy standing next to him having a little chuckle to themselves mid-interview. I love you Andy Warhol!



David Bowie has countless associations with Andy Warhol. Firstly, he wrote a song about him back in the early 70s and then later played Warhol in the film Basquiat. A brilliant job at that but this is a live performance of the song "Andy Warhol" at a gig in Germany. Watch how he stands at the mic just like Andy and how he dances... just like Andy!



Now moving away from the Andy Warhol associations and fully into 'David Bowie mode', this next one is David Bowie's cameo in Extras. This is absolutely hilarious. Poor Ricky Gervais... but Bowie kix so much ass!!!



This next video should really be on Ricky Gervais (I have this awesome video of him when he was really young and was in a band...) but it's going to disrupt the flow that I had in mind, so it'll have to be another day! So still sorta on David Bowie, this is him speaking in Japanese with Ryuichi Sakamoto - over satellite! Bowie speaks to Sakamoto in Jap, and Sakamoto speaks to Bowie in English. This is so awesome - cos they are two awesome people!



And here is Ryuichi Sakamoto playing the beautiful "Forbidden Colours" song live. My absolute fave Sakamoto composition.



Okay so this is slightly, umm... amusing. I managed to find this same reknowned concert pianist and composer cross dressing. Cross dressing! This was unbelievable!



And on the topic of cross dressing... remember two posts earlier I was talking about this "Hard Gay" character... well... here we go :P Full on thrusting in a kids face... OMG. Ohhh man. This guy is so random.



Ok, so that's as far as I'm going to go tonite. Who knows what "Hard Gay" will eventually lead to. This was fun! Might do a series like this more often!

XO

Today I had my induction for my job as a Xmas casual at a clothing store. There were 120 of us in the room on six tables. Yes, its a big company with lots of stores hence the gazillion Xmas casuals they need. And I can tell you, I was just about the oldest person there bar the regional managers! I don't know how on earth I was hired considering how expensive it is to have me on the team (for non-Aussies, the older you are, they more they have to pay you) amidst all these under 16 year olds. I'm thinking my 2 years experience at an upmarket clothing store is starting to pay off :P

During the induction they were telling us how much we will get paid according to the Victorian Award Scheme or something or rather. And there was this sheet of paper stuck a wall indicating your pay rate according to your age. So I went up there just to nose around even though I know the ballpark figure of my pay but I've turned a year older since I last got paid so I just wanted to feel satisfied and this is a really long sentence. ANYWHO, so get this. The piece of paper had "16 and Under", "17", "18", "19" and "20". George thinking: *Blink blink* So... so... so 22... 22... where's 22?? Hmm... *looks around* Where's 21??! Hmm... *Looks around and notices how no one would even be interested in the 18 year old pay rate. George goes and sits on her table with slumped shoulders*

So that was my afternoon. Atleast I got a job there though which is so awesome :) As much as I feel I'm older than everyone else, it just means that I'm the coolest :P. I'm very excited to start... well, to be more accurate, I'm very excited to start buying clothes for my uniform. We have to wear their clothing and we were given a voucher today to "start us off in building our new wardrobe". New wardrobe! That's what they said! And every girl's dream is to build a new wardrobe! So I'm going to be living that dream tomorrow when I go to Chadstone with my wife, Robyn, to shop. And AND, unlike my previous clothing store employer, I am allowed to give out discount vouchers of up to 25%. I only have 5 right now. So you guys better start queuing up. I expect to see a lot of rowdiness, bitch fights, uncouth name calling and (turkey?) slapping. Trust me, it will be worth it.

I'm so totally excited about my shopping trip tomorrow with my 'wife'. I'm going uniform shopping, wallet shopping (I need a new one, this one is giving me bad luck! :P), and surf clothes shopping. Yeah man I said SURF. I have denounced surf wear since I was in like... Year 10. Just because I was so over it. I have not walked into Jetty Surf or Surf Dive & Ski for so so long. But... I'm going to look for a pair of boardies for myself and get some cool summer gear :D Don't know what came over me but I was soooooo excited when I walked into Jetty Surf in the city the other day.

I think my excitement comes partly from the fact that I have not spent a dollar on anything for myself for a friggin' long time. No income means that the only things I spend on are 1. Petrol, 2. Lunch at uni, 3. The occasional dinner, 4. Presents for other people. That's it! I seriously need a buying-things-for-myself fix no matter how poor I am right now. Having no job sucks. But now I have this new job... I can relax a little on my super tight budget and buy something for myself... kick start the summer... and then start saving ;)

Hmmm... what else. So I had my first exam on Friday for Heat Transfer. I think I did okay despite the fact that I didn't get to finish on time! Was such a long exam! But I"m pretty confident with the rest of the paper so it was okay I guess. My next exam is not til the 6th of Nov (which also is a special person's B'DAY!!).

So the Household is starting to get back to normal with my parents back. The house just feels so much more filled with activity compared to when they were away. Things felt ... somewhat stagnant. Now with mum back, the engine's turned on again and we're chugging away nicely.

I shall now leave and end on this inspirational quote: I WANT TO GO TRAVELLING NOW! GIVE ME TRAVEL!

Cryptic title for a post but I didn't want to offend. My brother and his mate Dan have been watching this Japanese character played out by some Japanese guy on some Japanese TV show on YouTube. The character's name is "Hard Gay" - which at the start struck me as something pretty porno. But apparently it is not and apparently it is really funny (offensive, I don't know). I haven't checked it out yet but for the last week, my brother and Dan have been imitating this character by thrusting their hips and shouting "Haaaarrrdd Gaaaayyy!" and I can't help but have those words running around my head lately.

Today is the 28th October. It's just almost the end of the month of which I've been looking forward to because I'm due to hear back from RMIT whether or not I have been successful in getting a job in Germany. This has been the LONGEST month ever. I can't sit still right now... I'm like freaking out about this so much. So many decisions revolve around this outcome. I feel like everything in life right now is at a halt because I'm waiting to know whether or not I'm going to Germany. I really can't make any solid decisions right now until I know. So many things that I will be doing this summer revolves around this outcome.

Well, I've already gotten a Xmas casual job at a clothing store so there's not much turning back from that... but man, I'm gonna have to be looking for a real job if I don't get this. I won't get to work overseas, I won't get to travel around Europe... I'll have to find something else productive to do with myself next year. And I guess, in a way, this is something I am trying to avoid. As much as it is great to have a professional job, earning a steady (and fairly decent) income, being able to start saving for real things like your own place, a better car, whatever... there is something in me that is not satisfied to settle with this yet. I feel that there is something else I need to do first... and this Germany thing is just that.

But... fingers crossed... hopefully I'll find out next week.

In the mean time I'm been feeling pretty pleased with myself concerning my thesis. It's only starting to dawn on me now that I have a conference publication to my name :) I was walking from Desmond's apartment to the city the other day and y'know when the wind blows on your sun-kissed face, you've got your earphones on with some positive music... you feel all so inspired and self-contemplative? Yeah, that happened to me and suddenly a lightbulb turned on in my head and I said to myself "My life as a purpose! A legit purpose!" Basically, if I die now, atleast I've done something remotely useful with myself that may possibly benefit mankind.

So my parents came home from China today and brought back a few goodies e.g.: a new digital camera :D It's one sexy thang. It's a Sony Cybershot T10 and its white! No, not silver... white! Very sexual and its oh so thin. Went through the manual and it's got so many cool features for its size. Takes really good pics too. The flash balance is brilliant and the auto functions are excellent... no more over exposed or under exposed pics! It's got a wholesome 2GB memory stick in it so I never really have to worry about space... which is what I had major issues with with the old camera.

So I set my alarm at 8.30 this morning so I could go to the airport to pick the parentals up. I went out last nite and didn't go to bed til like 2.30 am. I haven't set my alarm for ages because I didn't have to for the last two weeks. Been having afternoon exams and no early classes - why have an annoying alarm clock waking me up from my otherwise peaceful slumber of which I much prefer to wake up naturally????? :P Anyways, so this morning when my alarm sounded, I woke up all confused. It didn't occur to me that the sound was my alarm. It was just some annoying sound and I'm there trying to figure out where it is coming from. Then I see my phone and I'm like "alarm?? why??" and I'm still lying there in a daze and then it dawned on me that I had to go to the airport. Turned off the alarm, lay back in bed and let reality sink in.

Don't you just find those 5 minutes or so in the morning allowing reality to sink in.... remembering where in life you left off and where/how to start the day... a strange feeling? Have you ever thought that during your sleep... if someone tweaked your brain i.e.: erased all your memory and put in someone elses. You'd wake up... let that reality sink in and think "WHERE THE FUCK AM I?!" It's such a fine line... our reality is what our brain tells us... and our whole friggin life is what our brain tells us. If our brain dies or stops functioning, our whole life and everything we know dies with it. Man, I don't want to mess with my brain!

OKAY so that was some massive weird digressing going on.

I'm going to stop and go to bed.

Nite!

I'm at Desmond's apartment today studying for Heat. Pokemon is on TV and it's one strange cartoon.

I feel so awesome being at Desmond's apartment because it makes me feel posh :P. It is one fancy apartment with shiny lifts, polished quartz pebble filled still ponds, marble floors, awesome paintings. It's on St. Kilda Road and I'm sitting on his desk... and in front of me right now I can see the Arts Center, no more than 200m away. Then right behind it is the Melbourne CBD. It takes my breath away. It's just past 5pm right now and the sun is on the perfect angle to cast gorgeous shadows behind the buildings and add a serene warm glow to their faces. All looks so still and peaceful from the outside... but I can just imagine all the hard work, all the stocks traded, all the money gained and lost, all hardcore deals, important decisions being made today inside the buildings! Crazy. Thank God I don't have to know anything about what goes on in there. For now.

Last night I went over to Mike's place in Caulfield for some catching up with my uni friends. Robyn & Brendan were having a very quiet celebration for their birthdays. We drank beer/bourbon&coke, watched ski movies, and I sat listening to a range of stories of how the guys hurt themselves during random freak accidents. Ben drank himself silly so I drove him home (which was like 3 houses away). It was a fun and simple night out and it was great to just get out of the house from all that studying. Studying is just so boring now. I'm so so over it. It didn't feel so bad when I was in Year 12. But now, it just gets me so down! I'm glad there won't be much studying left now... that's one big part of uni that I will never miss!

NEWAYS, think its time for me to get home.
Spk later :)

Things have been a bit of a downer. Firstly, getting back to study again really sucks. Just when I thought everything is all over after handing in my thesis I have to really study hard again. The one and a half days that I took off to rest my little head really shifted my gears and it's taking me forever to get back up to speed. I feel friggin demotivated.

So my parents are away for two weeks. In China for a holiday. My brother and I are holding the fort at home and so far we've been doing a pretty good job. We're outta milk and a few other healthy essentials and haven't got around to buying these yet.... but. there's. a. box. of. Krispy. Kremes. in. the. fridge.! Like, who needs anything else really?

My cousin & grand-aunt invited us over to their joint for dinner last nite which was great. Asian's are just so up for looking out for one another, let me tell you. Like, Justin & I are totally fine with looking after ourselves (read: no milk, but we have krispy kreme) and we're old enough to clean up, lock doors, yadayada. But yesterday my grand-aunt was giving us sooo much food to bring home so we can microwave for meal times and keeps calling everyday to ask whether we're ok, do we need anything, etc. It's really unneccessary but sweet at the same time. It's always good to know that there's other people out there looking out for you and thinking about you.

It's good to know when you have something as solid as 'family' whilst things around you are so temporary and crude. I'm going through a lot of 'temporary' things right now that sometimes I wish so much I could change but there's just some things you can't.

And I just so happen to have all the things that I have no power to change. It gets me down. Especially when things are going so well... but then you realise that there was nothing there all along. That there can never be anything there. And I ask myself why and question the very existence of the situation. But I always struggle to find myself an answer.

Still struggling,
*G

Okay, so I've gotten over my "OMG I NEED TO BLOCK MY BLOG" business. I'm sorry I haven't had the time to send you all invites. I've been getting so many emails saying "Omg why am I locked from your blog??" (ooh, so many rhyming words: Block, blog, lock. I'm a poet and I didn't even know it). So instead of making life difficult for you, I'm just gonna get rid of this stupid blocking thing. It is a long story, trust me. But in the mean time, there'll be no links to friends' blogs. So if you find urself unlinked, don't think cos you're no longer my friend! :P :P I lovvvee youuu all..

Okay, so yesterday I handed in my 17,000 word, 50 page thesis. PHEW. I worked my arse off the last two weeks on this mother. It wasn't just about writing it up... right until about Wednesday I was still trying to work out an equation. And yes, I found an equation that worked so so brilliantly. And yes, GEORGE HAS AN EQUATION. THE 'GEORGE NUMBER'. Actually, no, I've just called it the "Transmission Number" because I'm oh-so-modest and if it actually doesn't work, no one can find me :P. What it does is that it'll predict the tsunami run-up height on your particular coastal area provided you know the height of the tsunami wave, its wavelength and your building dimensions. How sweet is that? Yeah, man. The George Number. Worked my arse off.

Y'know what the irony of all this is?? Is that in my whole entire schooling/universitying life, I have never ever pulled an all-nighter. It just wasn't me and I always organised my time very well. BUT, the night before my last day of uni ever, I pulled one, just to get my thesis and research paper done. I went to bed at around 7.30am after having printed my thesis, my research paper and filled in some student profile for the yearbook. "Highlights at Monash: Random university shenanigans", yeah man. Wow, bed never felt so good before.

So I slept for like about 3 hours, got up and finished off my acturial stats assignment - realised I totally fucked it up and had to re-do some sections. God, that was a bitch. So I'm half dead, totally tired... have to still go bind my thesis. So I rushed through it and went to spend the last day at uni sitting with friends, drinking beer at a bar at uni after handing in my thesis.

It was a very strange feeling as I passed over my thesis and my research paper to the lady at the Mechanical Engineering Office, "Okay, that's all your stuff Georgina?", "Erm, yeah I think so... umm.. wait... erm... yeah", "Great, thanks!". All that work that I have put in during the year was over in that split second. There was no getting it back... I felt like as if I could get it back and look at it again and make some changes or fix some things up. But no, that was it. The culmination of my degree was right there and I have finally, handed it in. Bit of a anti climax really. For the amount of effort I have put into it, I deserved a red carpet and a flute of champers or two. But that was it. University and my final year was over.

So then I spent the rest of the day sitting at Coco Red with a beer. I was so tired and I was driving so any more would have really knocked me out and rendered me silly. It was such a relief to chill out after such a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

So now I have 3 exams left before I'm done with Uni for food. I mean, good. I guess I could say uni will give me food, in a weird and round about sense.

I'm taking the day off before I get back into study mode for the very last time. Worked hard enough the last few months so I need a break!

So what else is new? Bullet points below, thanks.

• I saw The Grates at the Forum. Omg. It was the best gig ever. They are SUCH a good band. I took so many piccies. And a few vids. I'll upload it up to YouTube sometime and post it up here for you peeps to see.



• Saw a stage play of 1984 by The Actor's Gang from LA, directed by Tim Robbins. Very well done... I loved it. Bit too much shouting for my liking. I felt the book was somewhat sublime in a sense. But there was lots of uneccessary shouting.



• I saw Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto perform insen live. It was stunning. The LCD screens with visualisations that pulsated and danced to the music just enhanced the experience even more. The music was as if it was almost not even there... almost meditative. It was truly amazing. I managed to get the album and I've been listening to it while I wrote my thesis. Best study music, srsli. I'm slowly rediscovering Sakamoto's work - I only had a few soundtracks of his i.e.: Merry Xmas Mr Lawrence and Little Buddha. I got another album that he collaborated with Noto - "Vrioon". Haven't got to listen to it yet. Oh, and HE LOOKS LIKE DAVID BOWIE! Aged gracefully that man. It's weird cos the only time I've seen him was in the film Merry Xmas Mr Lawrence - and he wouldn't even have been 30 there, or maybe he was. Asian people always look so young.

So I'm going to go now and do something else. Will blog more often from now on, hopefully!

Muchos Luvos.
George

Okay, so I'm listening to The Preset's album Beams right now. Have been for ages but listened to it again tonight and it's hot. In fact, tonight I've just been listening to hot Aussie artists: The Grates, Faker, The Sleepy Jackson, Sarah Blasko, Midnight Juggernauts. Australian music, let me stress, has been so fucking awesome lately. I think we're coming up with the freshest sounds in the world. Get in tune with Aussie music if you're a music lover, yo. We're paving the way.

The Sleepy Jackson, may I stress even further, is the most fucking awesome band. Check out their single "The Devil Is In My Yard" - it is a fusion of the best of the Beach Boys and David Bowie - Symph pop 60s garage edge - ahhhh... what creativity and fresh sounds coming out from down under. Saw them in 2004 and they BLEW me away. Let them BLOW you away this time with their new album. :P :P Gelbison is also another small band that is hot to trot. As well as The Panda Band, The Vasco Era & theredsunband. Get 'em or get... erm... hmm... square? Oh I don't know. Me not an accomplished writer.

So I haven't been blogging much, again. Have been really busy with uni since I got back from the Field Trip. Had to write up the formal report for the field trip (60 pages, yo) and I had my Oral Presentation for my Final Year Project. So everyone presenting suited themselves up for it and we were all looking very flash. I presented to a room of about 20 or so people plus my academic supervisor and my second marker. It's a decent crowd for a final year project presentation. I knew about 95% of the people in the room so it was just like presenting to my friends. That really helped calmed the nerves! I spoke too fast anyways... but who really cares! I was a girl on a mission - had to cover LOTS of things.

So my academic supervisor wants my work published in a journal and wants me to present at the Australian Port & Coastal Engineering Conference @ the Grand Hyatt, together with my fellow 4 Tsunami students. Do you know how HUGE that is for an undergraduate?? Conferences are only usually ever presented by academics much higher up on the scale. And to be published in a journal! Again, that's huge for an undergraduate.

The reason why he is so keen with getting us up there in the coastal engineering 'scene' is because the studies we're doing this year is beyond what anyone has done before. It is covering really new ground and he thinks its a great opportunity to get that exposure while its all still fresh in our heads.

My main problem is that I might be in Germany when this all happens. The conference is not until March and by which I'll be in Germany if I am successful. If Monash is willing to fly me back to Melbourne for the event, I'm more than happy to! Haha. Afterall, they are already dishing out $700 for each of us to attend this conference.

OK so moving ON. Not knowing what my near future will be like is slightly concerning but so exciting. I'm really hoping Germany works out because there's nothing I want to do more. Get some real valuable engineering work experience at a huge firm like BMW, Daimler Chrysler or Siemens, and get some even more valuable travelling experiences under my belt at the same time.

So things have been pretty peachy down my end lately now with my Actuarial Statistics assignment out of the way. All I have to do now is concentrate on completing my thesis and research paper... and then start studying for exams once that has been handed in.

OMG SO GUESS WHAT. NEXT WEEK I'M SEEING FAKER, THE GRATES AND RYUICHI SAKAMOTO! Fuck yeah! AND I'M ALSO SEEING ELTON FUCKING JOHN IN DECEMBER! Boo yeah! Also, the stage play of my fave book 1984 next week too. Excite-ment!

Life's good.