My toe hurts. I also bit the inside of my lip three times the day before yesterday, so now it’s starting to hurt. I can put some herbal medicine on it but I’d rather not. I haven’t worn my retainer at night so it doesn’t rub and bruise my lips even more. My toe hurts because… I’m not sure why it hurts but I think it’s been a few months that I notice, after I have a shower, it feels inflamed and swollen. That can’t be good. There are no open wounds and I can still move that toe as much as it normally would. It’s probably a bit bruised… or something.
Yesterday was Ryan’s birthday. Happy birthday honey! I was going to go to his birthday dinner tonight but some stuff came up at home and I couldn’t. I hope he had a good time anyway. I wouldn’t have liked to be home late or anything either. The place was a bit far from home. Unfortunately he had to work on his birthday. I think I’ll be doing assignments tomorrow, on my birthday, so…
James, Michael (Mike ), Shirley and I went to eat pho (Vietnamese rice noodles) yesterday. I hadn’t had it in a few months. I’d also been working on my fanlisting for pho a few days ago so I was craving it. We went to a really good pho restaurant in the city, though the last time James and I went there, we had a less than satisfactory experience. The plump old man there with big eyes was quite nasty, and seemed to be having mood swings. He was really grumpy whilst telling us where to sit and when asking for our order.
Yesterday was no different. James ordered from the man but he just stormed off in some… kind… of… weird… rage. Someone else took our order. The difference between large and small bowls wasn’t even much. It was still nice having lunch with everyone though. James and I decided to have a “mixed nuts” drink. It was just one of those health drinks with lychee and longan and jelly. Quite nice though.
We went to the markets after waving Shirley off (she had an exam). I was after a red scarf and James was looking for some sesame bars. I eventually found a nice red scarf for $10. I wanted a long one, so I ended up getting one that was a bit thin but the length I wanted. I wanted a red scarf to match my red gloves that my boss gave me on Thursday. She’s so nice; she gave us all gloves. I chose red over black since I already have a black pair. Red seems to be trendy this winter in Australia… I’ve seen quite a few girls in red coats. I don’t have a red coat – but how lovely it would be to have one.
We were talking about Minecraft in the markets. James said, “You’re talking about Minecraft in the middle of Paddy’s markets…” He kind of scoffed. I know, I know…
On the way to Mike’s car at the station, we took the stairwell. Everyone knows stairwells and fire escapes smell like shit or piss (if you don’t, let me tell you, they usually smell disgusting). This one was no exception. My dad phoned me as we were walking down. Mike and James were dying from the smell as we escaped the stairwell. James looked like he was going to retch. I got off the phone and I was wondering why they looked like they were going to die, when I thought the smell was tolerable. James said I had a distraction when my dad called.
Next time I’ll go down there without a distraction and prove I’m superwoman, maybe. Hahahaha.
Anyway, that scarf was probably my birthday present to myself. I don’t have any plans for my birthday, and I think I’m too lazy to want to do anything but stay at home. I’m going to watch Doctor Who in the morning, surf the internet, watch some subscriptions on YouTube (I haven’t been there in a week), do my media report, play some guitar, clean up more of my websites (!!)… and yes, hug my poor little toe.
I’ll wake up and I won’t be a teenager. This should be fun.
My stomach hurts when I sneeze. I think I did too many plank exercises… then again, it does feel good and I suppose I can expect some more prominent abdominal muscles now. You can tell you’ve had a good workout when you’re sore. Hah! Time to run up some stairs.
So I read that if you’re heavier, you burn more calories than someone skinnier if you’re doing the same thing. Well, I’m thin, so I guess I don’t burn many calories and perhaps that’s why I don’t gain much weight if I don’t exercise… and if I do, there isn’t really a difference. I think it’s just good to exercise to keep in shape. You have to move some time. I don’t exercise a lot but it’s certainly not good to be sitting at the computer all the time.
I had my presentation on Tuesday. It went pretty shit, to be honest. I thought I’d be an idiot (again) and try to talk spontaneously. I had no speech prepared, I had my Powerpoint slides and some notes on paper (which I didn’t even use) and I just got up there and talked. I figured that if I was interested in my topic I would be fine and I wouldn’t have a care in the world – I’d just fly through.
Everyone else made me feel shit, because they were obviously more prepared. Ryan said mine was good. I don’t think so. My presentation was on Twitter and the imagined audience, as I mentioned in one of my earlier posts. I guess I had good ground, something really unique, but to be honest, the presentation itself sucked, and I said “um” about twenty times. Which, as you can tell, is bad.
My tutor for that subject is also rather by-the-book, and old-fashioned. Last year I had tutors who were keen on asking questions and making the presentations more interactive, and getting to know more about students’ projects. I felt so cramped during this presentation, intimidated, like I was going to be judged. Of course I’m going to be judged and marked on it, but ugh. Very uncomfortable. I’m just glad that it’s all over.
Four assignments to go.
Since I didn’t get to see James that day as he had other things to do, I had the pleasure of going home early. I sat on the train on a seat that was meant for two people. Quite naturally, I hogged it up… pretended to sleep when people walked past… because I didn’t want anyone to sit next to me. I admit it. I don’t like sitting so close to strangers on public transport.
I felt bad because before I pretended to sleep, I saw an elderly man walking up the stairs.
I opened my eyes a little later on, after Graham Coxon’s Bittersweet Bundle of Misery stopped playing in my ears from my phone. Another ten minutes of the train ride, and I just spent it staring out the window.
I saw the elderly man shuffle past, going back down the stairs. He must not have found a comfortable seat.
When the train nearly arrived at my stop, I was about to exit my seat when I saw the man again. I stopped, and let him through, but he refused to go past first. I only thought it was polite.
He was smiling with crooked teeth and insisted I go through first. I didn’t quite hear what he said over Graham Coxon but I said a quiet “thank you” and walked out. I often see old people as weak, a bit mean, and to be given respect without earning it.
I really appreciate all the comments you guys left me on my last post. Life has still been exceptionally hectic which is why this post is three days after the previous (not like the usual two days). I still love writing and I still love blogging, but every time I want to have some downtime and relax after a big day, I just want to sleep on the train, or go for a run (yes, that’s new), or work on cleaning out my websites.
I’ve started with my fanlistings. I’ve closed about 11 in the past few weeks. And I’m already thinking of some domains to get rid of and some things to organise. I’ll also just be commenting on blog posts for the time being. I love chatting with you guys but I can’t keep up and when I can’t keep up, the best way I can keep up is to read your posts to see how you’re doing. I had a rather stressful weekend trying to finish a group assignment. I had a wonderful group, but I had some disruptions at home that made me stay up to finish it. I’ve been trying to sleep early as well. I’ve got a major assignment due in a few days and I’m trying to stay positive and finish it. I have one due the day after, and after that I swear I’ll have Sunday to just chill and relax, though not long later I’ll have to pick myself up again for more assignments.
I haven’t felt too happy lately but as I said I’ve been trying to stay positive.
I want to share a funny story that happened today. To be honest, I probably wouldn’t have bothered blogging if it weren’t for this.
Ryan and I have been friends for nearly three years now. Back in 2009 we exchanged numbers – as you do – but since we saw each other in nearly every class every day and chatted online a lot, we didn’t call or text each other much.
When I got my (now-lost) iPhone early last year, he was bothered by me putting my phone on ‘airplane mode’ all the time. The reason I did that was because I didn’t want to accidentally open applications and have it use up my credit because it would be using internet data. I used to yell at people not to open the internet so I wouldn’t get charged. Being on prepaid sucks. I would use airplane mode from time to time to make sure that those problems didn’t happen. That wasn’t such a great idea since people would try to call me and calls wouldn’t get through.
Ryan seemed to tell me off a lot about having my phone on airplane mode because he tried to call me many times and couldn’t reach me. Since iOS4 came out, I was able to stop using airplane mode and could turn cell data off. I think Ryan made the comment once or twice but I just assumed the reception was bad wherever I was. I have a Samsung Galaxy Ace, and I have also turned cell data off on it, so there’s no need to use ‘flight mode’.
Today Ryan and Dahlia wished me a good week and said that if I needed to talk to anyone I know where to find them. Ryan asked for my new phone number, but I reminded him that I didn’t get a new number even when I lost my iPhone; I was able to keep the same one. I’ve had the same number for seven-odd years.
Ryan said, “Well did you get my text message this morning?”
I was confused; I didn’t receive a text message from him. He showed me his iPhone and a bunch of text messages he’d tried to send me in the past, none of which I remembered getting. We found this odd. I said, “We’re sorting this out right now. Now call my phone while we’re both here.”
He called my phone but held his phone to my ear and I heard the automatic recorded message about the phone being off or not available. It was most peculiar, so I tried calling him instead, and it worked.
After he looked in his call records, Dahlia peering over, we realised that my number wasn’t saved in his phonebook and he saved the wrong number under my name; one digit was incorrect.
Dahlia was laughing her head off. “Blaming Georgina for airplane mode when it was user error!”
I used to receive a lot of calls from this person asking for “Woody”. When I first got my phone number in 2002, I kept getting calls asking for that person. All the time I would say that they had the wrong number. After a few months they stopped and I was glad. Unfortunately, several years later I got a call from a woman asking for Woody.
Lately I’ve been receiving stupid text messages from some car service saying that my car is ready to be picked up. 1) I have no car and 2) I don’t have a non-existent car in service. Someone kept calling back about it, asking me to pick up my car. I had to keep telling them they had the wrong person until I finally retorted, “Look, you’ve got the wrong number. I’ve been getting a lot of calls like this and no, I don’t own a blue car…”
A while ago, last year, I went through a rough time and Sebastian told me that people will always fall down but you just have to pick yourself up again. I remember the time I was feeling like crap and I just cried and he sat there comforting me. It was weird.
I didn’t have a good day, and this evening as I played Minesweeper with James I remembered that a few months ago he’s asked me “why am I always red? :3″. It was the cutest thing ever; it stuck in my mind and it put a smile on my face.
I remember the times I laughed with my friends. The time Ryan and I argued over the word “that”, or the time Lilian and I made up a sexual joke that was probably only funny to us. The time Vicky accidentally pulled the cord in the computer room and every single computer in the building crashed. The time Ryan said, “Because I eat out with you guys so much, I now know how to use chopsticks!”
I remember having lunch with Mike last week and he told me, “I saw that”. I had no idea what he was talking about until he said he saw me pout… oh, it’s a nasty habit. But I wanted to cry because it was so funny. We only pout as children, don’t we? Or maybe we pout when we’re older when we don’t get what we want.
The truth is that we don’t always get what we want, and I think that there is some beauty in that. There are always the little things that keep us going. I know we all want world peace and happiness and to get good grades and to have happy families and have huge cars or what have you. But… but life isn’t that easy. But life is grand. It is made up of more than one experience.
I read an article in a magazine about bullying, and an Australian actress had said that she was bullied in high school. She said she was called ‘fatty’ and ‘pudge’ and continually teased because of her weight. When asked for her advice she said that all parents can really tell their children is that high school is just one experience in a whole lifetime of experiences.
It’s true. And if my whole life was dependant on one horrible incident of me tripping on concrete and falling down, back when I was ten years old, blood trickling down my knee and me crying as I tried to help myself up… then what is that? We might fall, but we get back up again.
That moment ten years ago, I looked up and was just about to stand when I saw the meanest, strictest teacher in the whole school standing in front of me. I was scared. I didn’t want to get up.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
His eyes weren’t friendly, but he stood bent over me, and I could see he was concerned. Sure, he didn’t hold out his hand to help me. But sometimes we don’t need help getting up again, and that time I didn’t.
“Yeah,” I responded.
I picked up my pink lunchbox and bag and walked to class, where I smiled and forgot about my injured knee.
It’s also just one memory in a lifetime of memories.
Seventeen years ago, Kurt Cobain died. Heck, I wish I’d been into his music then, but I wasn’t. My dad had heard of Nirvana. I’m sure he listened to them on occasion, even though, unlike many enthusiasts these days, he wouldn’t have looked up much about them. Kurt Cobain was the lead singer and the songwriter of Nirvana. Though I found out about him much later, his music still inspires me. He wrote fantastic songs, unique songs that bled out the emotions he was feeling inside.
Every time I think about the fact that he’s dead, I want to cry. It’s just sad listening to his music, seeing photos of him smiling, knowing that he inspired many other people as well. May he rest in peace.
My laptop battery came in the mail yesterday! My dad told me when he picked me up from work. I was excited to try it. But I wasn’t going to kill it like my old battery. With my old battery, I kept it in the laptop and overcharged it and used it so much that it eventually died. I kind of cooked my laptop when I accidentally left it in my bag and it didn’t turn off. So I’m going to be really careful now and only use the battery when necessary. I’m using just the power cord at home, and I’ll only use the battery if I need to move around the house (which is rarely!) or when I’m at university. I’m really happy now, I can go back to using my laptop on the train… huzzah. Well, I can’t always use it on the train since it’s squishy with the people around me. Ugh. But I did have a lot of problems doing anything without the battery so I’m glad it’s finally arrived.
I wanted to skip class today because I hate today’s class. I did my readings and listened and took notes through the lecture. The stuff we were going through is actually relevant to my research for this semester, but I’m so sick of going through all this research crap again. If you’ve been keeping an eye on my blog for the past year you’ll know I did other research projects… and this is just really tedious to do it again. Thankfully this is the last subject I’ll have to do it for. I’m going to look into Twitter communities but I think this time I will save myself the pressure and not conduct surveys or interviews, but do some observations and literature reviews. Boring as heck, but that’s the better way out.
I didn’t skip class, though… I told Ryan and Dahlia I would go to class and stay for as long as possible until I got pissed off. I mean, I didn’t see the point in attending especially since we’ve gone through this research crap in subjects we did before. I actually started being really active in the class discussion… which is unlike me. And naturally, there was discussion about Facebook (as we focus on social networking a lot), and even though I disliked it, I could offer a point of view of someone who doesn’t have Facebook. Seeing as a lot of research is about Facebook.
I went to the bank this afternoon, but it was closed. I was really annoyed because I ran all the way there.
I bought bubble tea. I haven’t had it in at least a month, and I haven’t spent a lot of money so I figured I’d do with a treat.
Happy birthday honey! I was going to go to his birthday dinner tonight but some stuff came up at home and I couldn’t. I hope he had a good time anyway. I wouldn’t have liked to be home late or anything either. The place was a bit far from home. 
Unfortunately he had to work on his birthday. I think I’ll be doing assignments tomorrow, on my birthday, so… 
), Shirley and I went to eat pho (Vietnamese rice noodles) yesterday. I hadn’t had it in a few months. I’d also been working on my fanlisting for pho a few days ago so I was craving it. We went to a really good pho restaurant in the city, though the last time James and I went there, we had a less than satisfactory experience. The plump old man there with big eyes was quite nasty, and seemed to be having mood swings. He was really grumpy whilst telling us where to sit and when asking for our order.
The difference between large and small bowls wasn’t even much. It was still nice having lunch with everyone though. James and I decided to have a “mixed nuts” drink. It was just one of those health drinks with lychee and longan and jelly. Quite nice though. 
I know, I know… 
Last year I had tutors who were keen on asking questions and making the presentations more interactive, and getting to know more about students’ projects. I felt so cramped during this presentation, intimidated, like I was going to be judged. Of course I’m going to be judged and marked on it, but ugh. Very uncomfortable. I’m just glad that it’s all over. 
