I was tagged with the Versatile Blogger Award by Gail – thanks Gail! Here are the rules, as per usual.
1. Thank and link back to the blogger who gave you the award
2. Share 7 things about yourself
3. Pass it along to at least 15 fabulous bloggers
4. Contact the bloggers you awarded to let them know about the award
Anyway, to spice it up, I’m not going to be boring with seven facts but tell seven little stories about me, that relate to things that have happened recently. So hopefully they won’t be boring and dull.
1. My friend Fern(ando). This isn’t really about me. But yesterday my friend Fern gave me a photo that he printed himself. It was hard to tell what was in the photograph as it was in black and white, but he had encountered a deep, black river/lake that looked and smelled like blood. He had tossed a stone in the water and taken a photograph of the action, resulting in this amazing photograph that looked like stars in the night sky. The sunlight had reflected the splash, and the water was just so black it looked like sky.
Fern is studying overseas for the whole of 2012, and it just occurred to me that I’ll miss him. I miss people ever so easily. I have an attachment to my friends that is really strong especially if I don’t see much of them. I don’t even see my boyfriend James much. And I don’t see Lilian often. I suppose you could say I’m used to not seeing them much, but every now and then I remember some good times we had, and miss them dearly. I met Seb early last year, and we became friends pretty quickly and I found that by the end of semester I missed him a lot too.
2. Georgie. It’s my nickname, and it’s the name my parents have called me ever since birth. I know my mother has often called me by my full name when she’s mad, an action that seems to be common for some people’s parents. Regarding this nickname, it is the only name I would ever change my name, Georgina, to. When I was younger I wanted to be named Crystal, Jewel, Esmeralda, or Demetra, or other “pretty” names. Now I have learned to love the nickname Georgie, even though I’ve hated it.
I was talking to Johnny about nicknames the other day when he gave me a ride home, and he said that for the longest time, as a child, he thought his full name was Johnny and not Jonathan. He said that no one really called him Jonathan anymore, but he wouldn’t change his name because his parents gave it to him. The reason I like Georgie is because I feel like it suits me better, and I just prefer to go by that name. I wouldn’t change my name unless I had to though… [edit] Also, I’m going to start introducing myself as Georgie from now on. [/edit]
3. Pants. I dislike them. Jeans included. I just can’t find myself comfortable in them. Because I have really muscly calves (which is no problem, mind you), most jeans that are comfortable for my legs end up being so loose at the waist. Even with a belt, it’s uncomfortable. All jeans I have ever bought also have to be cut at the foot (thanks to my wonderful mother) because they are too long. If I find something that fits nicely, my legs are practically choking. James also had this problem shopping for pants, and said, “Australian people must have ridiculously skinny thighs”.
So, put simply, I don’t like pants much. Every morning you’ll probably find me standing at my clothes stand looking at my jeans and muttering, “I hate jeans…” I like skirts and dresses a lot. I have one skirt I wear so often; it’s my signature skirt.
4. My phone ringtone is Bittersweet Bundle of Misery by Graham Coxon. I invite you to listen to the first ten seconds. It’s very catchy. The reason I refuse to change it is because it’s hilarious when I’m around my friends, my phone rings, and they remember my ringtone so well that they start tut-tutting the beat. In particular my brother Brandon enjoys doing this.
5. My hair currently has a straight fringe (or bangs, if you like to say). I haven’t had such a fringe since I was three years old. I am happy with it, as it’s a change from the usual side fringe I’ve had. Recently I have been sweeping it and pinning it to the side as it’s getting longer. My mum did cut it short recently but it’s growing out fast!
6. I generally dislike makeup. I have been watching makeup tutorials for a year though, because they’re fun to watch. However, recently I’ve been trying some eyeliner and I find that it’s not so bad. My mum works for YSL and she’s sort of gotten me into the products.
7. I love James very much. I hope we get married. I think we’ll get married. Since I have so many male friends, and just one girlfriend Lilian, I will have some male bridesmaids. Just kidding, not putting them through that torture.
And I don’t want to pass this along, but anyone who has ever commented on my blog and has a blog, you deserve the Versatile Blogger award, so have at it.
Yesterday I went to my primary school’s spring fair. I used to visit nearly every year after I graduated but it became less of a “thing”. I used to bump into old schoolmates there, but only for the first couple of years. I think I found that it was dull, because it was my school.
I love attending fetes and fairs, but for some reason, when it’s my old school, it seems really boring.
My brother wanted to visit again this year, hoping that he’d bump into someone he knew. Well. It’s been nine years since I graduated from there, and that was half of my life ago. Not surprisingly, I remember a lot of the names and faces I encountered when I was still in my preteen years.
It was a very hot day and I didn’t enjoy walking around in the sun very much, so I tried to find shade where possible. My brother and I recognised a lot of the teachers and some students we might have seen a while back. My brother even recalled knowing the siblings of some of the students who were at the fair. There were rides, as per usual, but it didn’t seem like a very interesting fair. There were some food stalls, but not as many craft and bag stalls as there were in previous years. Normally, the entire school would be filled with stalls, but only half of the school was filled.
Of course it came as a surprise when I saw my fifth grade teacher at a stall.
She had difficulty remembering me, even though she asked for a clue and I mentioned that my name started with “G”. I don’t blame her; it has been a while and I don’t think she’d remember all the students she’s taught.
I remember that she left that same year she taught me, and moved interstate after getting married. She introduced me to her two sons. I remembered that one of them was Rory, a character from Doctor Who; I obviously failed at remembering the other son’s name because it probably had nothing to do with Doctor Who.
It was lovely catching up, though. Now her sons go to that very school. She asked if I kept in touch with anyone and I told her that to be honest I didn’t, but several students did end up going to the same high school as me as well. She seemed to remember them when I mentioned their names. I suppose I’m the one that’s forgotten because I never left a mark… she said she remembered one of my classmates because he was such a clown, had such a personality. Well, I could have told her that that all remained the same even in high school.
I wasn’t offended, at all, but when I bothered to ponder the conversation we had, I was probably too quiet back then to make an impression or be remembered easily.
In other news, yesterday night I found out I had won tickets to see Jebediah in concert. Jebediah is an Australian band and they have been around for a while, but aren’t really well known internationally. I wasn’t expecting to win, but wahoo. I am not sure yet when I’ll be picking up the tickets but the show’s in about two weeks. James couldn’t come along since he has many exams in the days after the show so I’m dragging Seb along.
I’ve also been watching a lot of Futurama since I haven’t had a lot of work to do. I just have one week of my Bachelor degree to go. I’ve completed my assignments and just have to prepare them for submission and presentation. I started watching Futurama almost two weeks ago and I’ve already watched three seasons. I don’t think I could get sick of the show itself, but I believe I’m starting to rot to a pulp with the amount of watching I’m doing. Waoooo.
Sometimes I wish that more Australians celebrated Halloween. You don’t get much more than the one kid out of nine hundred students in a high school wearing a black cape and a ghost mask, or about one kid every five years knocking on your door asking for candy, or the odd Halloween party – if people can be bothered. It’s not celebrated nationally, and I haven’t minded that the rest of the world celebrates it without us, but today, I felt a bit bored and thought it would be pretty exciting if one of my friends decided to have a Halloween party.
I don’t know what I’d dress up as – for dressing in revealing clothing seems to be common for girls, but I’d rather get more creative with my costume. The closest I’ve come to dressing up as anything is on muck-up day in the last year of high school. We had people dress up as Powerpuff girls, Tetris pieces, that guy from Saw, some cavemen, and numerous other things I don’t really remember. I dressed up as a ragdoll. I’ll admit I could have been more creative with that, because I was planning to create a dress covered entirely in random buttons, but I didn’t have time. The school gave us short notice.
If we celebrated Halloween I’d be thinking about my costume a couple of months in advance. Now that I think about it, I can’t really think of anything I’d want to be – at least, not anything scary. I could try dress up as a Doctor Who character, which would then verge on cosplaying. Otherwise, I’d hire a costume of a character I like or just something hilarious. But because I wouldn’t bothered with any of those, Halloween would just be an excuse for me to go to work in my pyjamas. It’s weird not celebrating Halloween, because many people showcase their wonderful costumes on the internet – on YouTube, on blogs, on Twitter, and so on – and I just can’t imagine what it would be like if it was more of a tradition here.
In other news, my dad is polishing our corkboard floor. Our house is really rather old. Not so old that it’s falling apart, but it’s nothing majestic. It’s what I call home. It’s comfortable, it’s lovely, it’s got enough room. My dad’s been using this lacquer-like polish so he’s basically had to sand the floor and paint this glossy fun stick stuff on it. We’ve had to move a lot of the furniture, and empty some bookshelves, but the fun part – wait for it – is that he’s doing sections at a time and marking boundaries with masking tape so sometimes we have to jump over certain sections of floor. A few people mentioned to me on Twitter that it reminded them of the game The Floor is Lava. I remember playing this with my brother as we climbed on the furniture and desperately tried to search for patches of rug that were safe to stand on as we were avoiding the floor.
My corkboard floor used to scare me because of the design; it’s got black spots on it basically, obviously like cork – and some of the black spots were bigger than others, or weirdly shaped, and I used to think they were insects from a distance.
I remember doing really idiotic things with my brother when we were a lot younger. We named one of our antics “Po Blood and Bone”. I had a Teletubby toy, Po specifically, and we got really sick of the Teletubbies so we buried Po in the dirt outside, in one of the holes our mum used to plant trees in.
Many other times we made “forts” out of chairs and blankets and turned out the lights and pretended we were camping out. I liked this the most.
My brother made up this game where we stood on the carpet while standing on old supermarket catalogues or flyers, one under each foot, and we had to wiggle around from side to side and move around like we were skating on the carpet. Because of the paper, it made the movements very slippery. The first person to fall obviously lost.
One of my absolute favourite games was “Roly Poly Pudding”, based on a Beatrix Potter story. A cat was rolled up by rats in a sheet of dough (to be cooked and eaten), and struggled to get out. This prompted us to make up a game where one person rolled the other person in a large quilt/doona/blanket (arms inside!) and tied up the blanket with string or another blanket, to basically make sure that it was impossible to escape. The person inside the roll would have to attempt to escape the blanket, whether by wriggling out, or standing up and wriggling the blanket off. That is, if you could stand up in the first place.
If I had a Halloween party, I swear to cow I’d make everyone play that game.
Today I walked all the way to Camperdown again. It’s about three towns away from university, and I needed to get some photo paper. It was $160 for 50 sheets. Which amounts to about $3 per sheet. Thinking about this… it is black/white chemistry paper after all, so it’s “special”. I still think it’s funny how my mum keeps asking me if I can use the photo paper we have at home. I have to keep reminding her that that paper is for inkjet printing and not chemistry… ah, the joys of photography.
I did a lot of walking today; I’m surprised I’m not sore. I had to go to work to sign something, then go to the photo printing centre to pick up prints, then go to the photo store to buy the paper. I’m going so broke it isn’t funny – and I want to buy some shirts. I’m starting to imagine how much money I have spent on photography already.
In class today I struggled trying to print of my film photographs that looked a little like this digital photograph I took. It was hard getting the contrast and timing just right, and some parts were very white so I had to give just those sections more time under the light – it was a challenge. After giving it one try at first, I thought it looked great. My teacher didn’t think it had enough contrast. It’s times like these I really hate the fact that art is so subjective. My teacher got his red marker and drew on my print – yes, he drew on my huge, perfectly fine (in my opinion) print, indicating where I had to fix it up. It doesn’t matter what he was indicating, but I died a little inside. He could have made a note elsewhere… I still wanted to put that on my wall even if I wasn’t going to hand it in, waaaah.
Either way I did end up getting another slightly flawed print, which I’ve decided I’ll give to James because he adores that photograph.
I suppose I’m getting a bit irritated with photography because in the end what I’m getting is not really my work, but someone else’s. It’s nice to have a teacher’s guidance, but when you follow everything they tell you to do, how they tell you to print, it doesn’t make me feel so proud of my work anymore.
There is this one boy in my class who thinks that he’ll get higher marks if he follows every piece of advice the teachers give him. I dislike that mindset. He had five magnificent photographs – all in focus, interesting subjects or subject matter, and terrific printing quality – and many classmates liked them (were even jealous of them), but he didn’t like them and went by the word of the teachers. It irritated me. He couldn’t find another photograph to make a set of six, and I told him to use his instinct and what he thought would be good, then ask the teacher’s advice. He just wanted to take the teacher’s advice to shoot another roll of film. And he already has about ten rolls. It’s ridiculous that he’s just being babied along. Bloody hell, you have to be daring sometimes.
Johnny gave me a lift home this evening, and he bought me and Fern some Kinder Surprise. The toys in those chocolate eggs suck now. They’re so… boring. They used to be fun and have more pieces. I got a cute panda though, haha. We were chatting in the car before I got out and thought my mum couldn’t hear us over the music. When I went inside my mum said she could hear us talking really loudly. We realised we live pretty close to each other too. Umm… freaky.
Got a few questions – Vicky asked If you could take a year off and go travelling, where would it be?
Well, a year is a long time. I would probably take James with me and go many places. I’d want to visit you, Vicky, and Georgia Kate, and of course travel the whole of the United Kingdom; I would also want to go to America to visit Rachel and Tiffany… I know many people in many parts of America. I’d love to go to Japan as well. I would probably most like to visit New Zealand because of the nature and scenery and beautiful landscapes.
Vanessa asked Where do you see yourself and James in 10-15 yrs?Bea also asked where I see myself in ten years.
Hahaha married. No, I’m serious. I mean, we’ll be 30 years old. Hopefully in a nice house with heaps of sushi cushions and amazing furniture and my artwork on the walls. And with a dog. With a child? I don’t know, I’m not ready to think about that yet! I also hope to have a steady full-time job by then, one that I enjoy, most likely working with computers. I hope to have travelled to many places too.
Bea also asked if I was granted three wishes, what would they be?
Firstly, to have a good relationship with my mother. It’s just been on the rocks most of the time. Secondly, for everyone to truly be happy. Third – well, I wish there wasn’t any discrimination of any kind. Anywhere.
Othelie asked about my plans after studying and Trish asked about the career I’d like to pursue… I would like to find a full time job that really suits me. I’m kind of excited to work and do something I love, which as I mentioned – will be something with computers, design – not totally sure yet. I love web design a lot right now.
Stephanie asked how long I think I’ll maintain The Princess Pondicus Network – basically all of my domains! Well, I think it’ll be a while. I see myself renaming the network once I think of something better (but that’s probably not any time soon). But I still definitely see myself keeping this blog, my photoblog, and fanlistings, for a while to come. I have been cutting down on fanlistings but I believe I’ll still keep my favourites for many more years.
I was tagged… a lot… haha. First by Gail. What better time to do this tag! Just when I was willing to answer people’s questions as well. Click the link below to open up the section.
Do you like reading novels, if so, who is your favorite author?
Yes, I do. I love Bryce Courtenay and Cecelia Ahern, even though I haven’t read every single one of their books. I love their narrative style, and all their books are different even though they follow similar themes. You’d think it’s predictable, but it’s not.
Why did you come up with your latest theme?
For my annual (est. 2010!) Heartdrops.org birthday project. Last year I did “Love is…” and this year it’s “I Love”. I had to make a theme to go with it, as Heartdrops’ birthday is in October.
Do you like your name? If given a chance, will you change it?
I do. I used to hate it a lot, because of the nickname Georgie, and the association with the nursery rhyme “Georgie Porgie”. My parents have called me Georgie ever since I was born, though, and rarely call me Georgina. It really fits with the notion that your parents call you by your full name if they’re mad at you. My mum has. On occasion. And it pisses me off when any of my relatives call me it – because they should be accustomed to calling me Georgie instead of Georgina. But I wouldn’t change my name. I’m happy with it.
What is your number one favorite color and why?
Oh gosh, this is soooooo hard. It has changed so much over the years from blue, to black, to purple, to red. I guess red is where it’s at now. It is such a vibrant colour that screams “me”, and whenever I buy accessories I tend to get red. I got excited picking a red bag, a red scarf, a red phone charm…
Are you girly or boyish?
In between… I’m not girly to the point where I wear makeup (really not my thing), and I’m not boyish to the point where I don’t like skirts.
Would you choose career over love?
No, that’s selfish. If I really loved someone I would sacrifice my career for them. I know my mum sacrificed hers because she wanted to bring me and my brother up. Not many parents would do that. And if choosing your career means losing the one you love, no matter how – then I would never do it.
Ever gotten your heart broken? What did you do to recover?
Yes, once, it was really broken and not just being rejected by someone I had a crush on. It was hard, but I had to bite the bullet and move on. I had to give it time. I made the mistake of trying to coerce the relationship into existing again, because it had been rather rocky in the first place. But over time I realised it wasn’t going to work. Other things came into play, distracted me from those feelings, and I eventually forgot.
What do you think of giving second chances?
Everyone deserves them. Everyone makes mistakes.
Are you a fighter or a healer?
I’m a bloody fighter. No matter what happens, even if I get emotional, I still keep trying.
Why did you decide to blog?
I used to keep a diary and I shared that with my friends because I didn’t really mind them knowing about my life. I kept a website for some time just for pixel graphics and from that I went on to blogging and eventually opening up to everyone.
What do you think of me?
Very pretty, determined, dedicated, friendly. A wonderful combination!
I was also tagged by Jen, who asked a different set of questions.
What’s the last really nice thing you’ve done for someone?
I sort of proofread Seb’s story for him.
Do you remember the first time you met your friends?
Yeah… well most of them I met at school or at university. I have a funny story about meeting my boyfriend James – basically we were lost and he pretended to know the way back to school with a fake map. :’)
List down the things that pisses you off.
If I listed them, the list wouldn’t end. I try not to think about things that annoy me, but I do dislike bad grammar, attention seekers, people who are too dramatic, or look down on you, arrogant people, people who look for a fight.
When was the last fight or argument you had? With whom?
James and I had an argument because I took something bad for my health. Ugh James, you’d better not mention this to anyone. We argue all the time though, fix it up a few minutes later most of the time.
List down two good things that happened recently.
Oh! Too many good things happened recently – but I pretty much got recommended for the Graduate Diploma of Interactive Multimedia at my university, and I received a good grade on one of my photography assignments.
What do you feel guilty for doing?
Hurting my family. I don’t recall many things I feel very guilty about, but I feel guilty for being horrid to my mum and dad, and when I was much younger, fighting with my brother all the time.
What is your favorite quote and why?
It changes from time to time, and I could go on about quotes that mean a lot to me, but one of the ones that means the most to me is “One of the greatest illusions in life is that things will get better”. It reflects what I’ve been through in the past six or so years struggling with depression, and it helps me get through the hard times.
What was the best thing to happen to you this week?
Probably knowing that I’ll be doing the Graduate Diploma program, given I finish these last few weeks of my Bachelor degree!
What kind of person attracts you?
I don’t think I really have a type or anything, but I tend to like the dorky, quirky, quiet kind of guy.
What’s the last gift you gave to someone?
I don’t remember really! Oops.
What did you dream of last?
I don’t dream very much – if I do, they’re weird. I don’t remember now.
1. You must post these rules.
2. Each person must post 11 things about themselves in their journal.
3. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, and create eleven new questions for the people you tag to answer.
4. You have to choose 11 people to tag and link them on the post
5. Go to their page and tell them you have tagged him/her.
6. No tag backs.
7. No stuff in the tagging section about “you are tagged if you are reading this.” You legitimately have to tag 11 people.
1. Worst thing you’ve ever eaten?
2. Name your first crush/girlfriend/boyfriend.
3. What was your worst experience with a teacher?
4. Name one thing that annoys you about the Internet.
5. Have you ever half-assed a piece of homework or assignment and done really well?
6. What is your earliest memory?
7. What is something (anything) that you like that you are embarrassed to tell people about?
8. What is your favourite sport?
9. Who is your idol and why?
10. If you had to lose one of your senses (taste, touch, hearing, seeing, smelling), which would it be?
11. Have you ever had a nosebleed?
Well hello. I always do this, do the layout in a rush and have it looking like… I don’t know. But anyway, I got sick of the fluid layout and I wanted something fixed, so I’m sorry if you have a resolution that’s a bit small. Just zoom out and you should be fine. I was telling James how hot this layout looked on his exceptionally large monitor.
As promised this is the layout for the I Love Project. You can visit The “I Love” Project to see all the quotes that are on rotation above the sidebar. I am pretty proud of this layout, and I really do like the grey. Most of the layouts for my other websites were grey and I liked them very much. After the pink on my previous layout looked really gross after a while, I decided to play it safe.
Thank you to everyone who submitted a quote to go in the sidebar. You guys are awesome. Please visit The “I Love” Project page because I am introducing another part to this project and I would like people to participate again. You basically write a blog post about what you love, or a poem, or some piece of writing, and link back to Heartdrops so I can share everyone’s stories.
I was away for a day or so, because my cousin (the bride) got married yesterday and we were all preparing for the wedding. All our relatives who have been visiting us also attended. For a few days they were at my aunt’s place instead of ours, so our house was a bit quiet for some time. I tried to make the most of it, of course. The night before the wedding we had to make sure we had everything because the next morning we were going to my aunt’s so that we could all get ready and attend the wedding ceremony together.
It was really beautiful. My other cousin – the brother of the bride – said, “I nearly cried… nah, joking.” My cousin seemed teary as she was saying her vows though. It was very sweet. On the other hand it got me thinking about the church setting and how I personally find it a bit dull and too serious. The priest had a friendly demeanour and a mild sense of humour, though. Everyone was taking photos throughout the ceremony and afterwards we all posed in front of the church for photos with the bridal party. Some people just scurried off for the refreshments.
When I went for the refreshments they were all gone. My cousin said that they went pretty quick. I managed to get some strawberry banana guava drink or something like that… some very exotic flavour. It was really awesome.
I went with my cousin (the brother) to McDonald’s as we went to buy 25 cheeseburgers for everyone. He went to his old workplace as he was able to get a discount. (I was very naughty and ate two of those this morning.)
The reception was really enjoyable. It was a ten-course meal, which was really delicious, and included trout, prawns, vegetables, lobster, shark fin soup, red bean soup, and much more. The servings were small but all the same, really filled me up. I was very full by the end of the night. Of course there was a bit of dancing and conversing and some people drinking, and there was a band who did some pretty good covers of recent and classic songs.
I remember my brother and I being very hungry before the food arrived and while some of the speeches were going. We were eating the small jellybeans and chocolate pieces that were given to each guest as a gift. We ended up eating all the contents of our individual boxes.
I stayed the night at my aunt’s place, so that’s why I wasn’t around to blog. Anyway, I have posted some photos on my photoblog so feel free to have a look… and let me know what you think of the layout as well.
She asked if I kept in touch with anyone and I told her that to be honest I didn’t, but several students did end up going to the same high school as me as well. She seemed to remember them when I mentioned their names. I suppose I’m the one that’s forgotten because I never left a mark… she said she remembered one of my classmates because he was such a clown, had such a personality. Well, I could have told her that that all remained the same even in high school. 
I could try dress up as a Doctor Who character, which would then verge on cosplaying. Otherwise, I’d hire a costume of a character I like or just something hilarious. But because I wouldn’t bothered with any of those, Halloween would just be an excuse for me to go to work in my pyjamas. It’s weird not celebrating Halloween, because many people showcase their wonderful costumes on the internet – on YouTube, on blogs, on Twitter, and so on – and I just can’t imagine what it would be like if it was more of a tradition here. 
He could have made a note elsewhere… I still wanted to put that on my wall even if I wasn’t going to hand it in, waaaah.
Click the link below to open up the section.
On occasion. And it pisses me off when any of my relatives call me it – because they should be accustomed to calling me Georgie instead of Georgina. 
But I wouldn’t change my name. I’m happy with it.
A wonderful combination!