62 posts tagged “life”

So many things are finishing, and so many new things beginning, I'm really feeling like I'm reaching 30 a year early (after all, isn't that when all the good stuff is supposed to start?)

I finished the swedish massage course last weekend. It was a ridiculously hot day in Sydney (apparently it peaked at about 45C) and the aircon in the classroom was struggling. Everyone was sweaty, tired, and over it. BUT we did it, I passed, and decided I probably won't go on to do the entire certificate. Doing the odd massage for friends and family is one thing, but after being paired up with a huge, hairy, stinky guy in class, I realised I really couldn't do it in a professional capacity. Plus, the entire certificate costs over $6k. I may as well just hide that money away in a high interest account.

Last night saw the end of my European History unit, which was also the last official unit in my degree. I started the degree in mid-2006 and have not had more than a week off since then. It's been hard working full time and studying full time, but it's over and I'm so much closer to my final goal, teaching. Feeling a bit lost - not sure how I'm going to cope with NOT having the stress!

I still have the exam for American Literature to go, but if I don't pass that unit, I'll just need to pick up another third year literature unit somewhere non-award. It falls outside the degree, so it doesn't matter TOO much if I don't pass it (well, that's what I keep telling myself. I haven't failed anything yet so I don't want to fail, but I also haven't read any of the three novels that the exam is on next Tuesday soooo....) Frustrating that the uni I want to do my DipEd at requires 3 level 3 literature subjects to be an English teacher, whereas the Education Department only require 2. *sigh*

Pole dancing started up again last night after a week off, and I was actually a bit bored in my level 3 class last night. I'm not a huge fan of my Wednesday night teacher, she doesn't push us at ALL, but it's a great class of girls and only a 4 week term, so it won't be too bad. Really looking forward to my Saturday class. It's still a level 3, but with the teacher I love who caters to all our individual skill levels and gives us extra stuff rather than having us bored and gossiping in a corner. I saw her last night and we're going to work on a right leg hang on Saturday (which is apparently much harder than a left leg hang... not sure why it would be much different, but I'm looking forward to finding out!) On the upside, I've pretty much nailed the inverted v now.

There's been a little bit of stitching, my latest from Subversive Cross Stitch is below. It took about 4 hours, and was done to keep myself from abusing the hell out of my housemate's girlfriend. She managed to lock my cat in his room for an entire day (without any food, water or litter. I wish he'd taken a dump in there) when she left our place on Tuesday morning. I hate her staying over and leaving after we're all at work and not locking the place up properly when she goes, but this had me absolutely livid. We don't shut the doors in the house during the day because of the cats - she KNOWS this, I've HEARD my housemate tell her this a couple of times, I've told her this a few times, but still, she did it, and my little boy was locked in a room for 9 hours. She's lucky it wasn't as hot as the weekend, or I really would have let her have it. So, the stitching kept me away from her and stopped me saying something I'd probably (not really) regret later.

Once American Lit is over I'm going to play with creating some of my own designs. Because I'm lame like that. And I'm going to need some projects now that I'm done studying! 

So... I had decided to take next year off. Do a massage course, prepare for a full on year doing my Dip Ed.

But, the more I've thought about it (and the more weekends I've spent doing the massage course) the more I've been thinking I'm just wasting another year. THEN when I found out the massage course was going to take longer than expected, I decided to re-look at my uni options.

So I've applied for post grad. I'll do it part time, in the first year of it I'll just have to negotiate a half day off during the week, maybe one full day. If my company won't do that, then it's probably time to find a new job anyway. The second year will be cutting back even more, but I'll worry about that if/when it happens.

So far I've only applied to one uni, may apply to another one as well, but not looking likely. Cut off is Friday, and I've got a massive essay to write in that time, so I think I'll just leave it at the one and see where it takes me. I feel kinda sick!!!!

I'm still kind of AWOL, not much in the mood for writing, just reading, reading reading.

Just wanted to stop by and share this   **grrr stupid vox won't let me embed, go look here***

I was TRYING to insert a great little widget about Internet Censorship. I know this has been going on for ages and ages, but the more I read about the government censorship plan, it's potential to expand, and it's ineffectiveness in actually having an impact with shutting down the child porn industry (Can't remember where I read it, but apparently the stuff gets shared by P2P networks and FTP rather than websites - making this censorship plan completely redundant) There's the potential for 1 in 12 legitimate sites to be blocked, and Conroy's talking about expanding the censorship into games. Not only that, it will make Australia's internet one of the most censored in the world.

So do your own research, and if you think Conroy's got it wrong, head over to the GetUp! campaign and sign up.

Normal procrastinating should resume soon.

• I am DONE with Shakespeare. My last essay was submitted last night.
• I am also finished with the Fall of the Roman Republic in the West.
  
• Pancakes for breakfast with mum.
• After breakfast, mum decided we both needed to go have massages. Sweet!
• Movie watching and an afternoon nap
• Peperoni pizza for dinner

Tomorrow back into the Latin, so very happy I got to have a day of nothing today.

Sorry boys, this is probably going to be in the TMI-gross-girly-stuff section :)

There's an interesting debate going on in the comments section of this Jezebel story about bra washing. Personally, I'm a one-wear kind of girl, maybe 2 wears if it was only worn for a short amount of time. I use those lovely mesh bags to wash with the rest of the laundry and hang to dry. From reading the comments on Jezebel, this makes me some kind of OCD clean freak! Seriously, do people really wear their bras for months on end without washing? Or is this an American thing? Or is washing them lots an Aussie thing because it's warmer here (ahem, I do think that last statement is debatable after going through a couple of Jersey summers!!)? Or maybe I am OC.

I'm flat out and exhausted at the moment. But I would like to point you all in the direction of Mr Wheaton's latest blog. Kinda puts everything in perspective.

The Nine Inch Nails concert last night reminded me how much I love seeing good live music. It's the first time in a long time I've truly enjoyed seeing a band perform, not giving a shit how late I was going to get home / having to get up early for work tomorrow / how crappy getting out of the parking area would be. Even the 40 minute stop in the middle of the show because the power at the Hordern was completely cut off didn't destroy the night for me, but made the second half of the show more enjoyable.

Anyway, at one point, the lighters came out, as they do. There were two young girls (probably around 16ish) fully decked out in goth-wear behind me.

Girl One "Oh wow! The lighters look so cool!"

Girl Two "How don't they burn their fingers off?"

Girl One "Why don't they just use their phones?"

That exchange had me laughing all night. I must be getting old.

I wrote a big long post last night about how great it is being in my new place and how I've been able to start reading again. I then went on to talk about all the books I've read since the beginning of the year, and did little reviews, blabbing about what I did and didn't like about each.

Then my computer shat itself, and I just didn't have the heart to write it all again.

So, in brief, I've read lots of trashy novels since the start of the year, and it's eating into my internet time, which probably isn't a bad thing. Or maybe it is - trashy novels aren't really good for much except relaxing...

Anyway, reading 20 non-uni novels was part of my 101 things list, and there's been 14 in the last month. As you'll see below, none of them are particularly difficult or intellectual reads, but it's gotten the imagination going again.

I went from Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire series, onto her Harper Connolleys, then onto some adult Judy Blume's.
Loved some, hated others, and could take or leave the rest.

After my January of trash, I'm starting February with something a bit more 'intellectual' - a novel that I have been meaning to read for months, has been sitting on my bookshelf for even longer, something that I probably should have read years ago, Anna Karenina. I have every intention of sticking with classics for the entire month, but considering March will be bringing with it a class on Shakespeare, I'm sure the trash will return if I manage to get through the current one. Considering I have 4 essays due by the end of the month, I don't think there's going to be a lot of down time for pleasure reading this month. Poo.

Yes, I know we're 8 days into the New Year, but I finally thought of a worthwhile resolution.

I'm going to review and update my 101 in 1001 list.

I know it kind of defeats the purpose changing it, and I'm even going to substitute some things for things I've already done that achieved the same thing (eg team sport every year - dance class every year. I discovered I actually loathe team sports, but really enjoy dance classes. I tried it once, I don't see the point in continuing on something I hate.) Additionally, I appear to be *gasp* growing up and things that a year ago I wasn't interested in giving a go I now do... like crafty stuff.

I also want to wipe out a lot of the 'do such and such once a month' items - they're just too hard to track. So, over the next week or so there's going to be some changes. And I am going to get better at actually achieving some of them this year.

Looking back, last year was a year of changes for me. I did a lot of things that I had always wanted to do like play soccer and formally learn more about web design, I discovered a new love in pole dancing, and I made more of an effort with some acquaintances who have now become very good friends. Yes 2008 had some shitty bits, as all years do, but overall it really was a year of positive growth for me (wow, how puke inducing!) Maybe it's just I'm getting closer to 30... a lot of people say that your 30s are much better than your 20s, and if that's the case, I'm inching closer and closer :) I didn't have any panic attacks or bouts of depression that I wasn't able to recognise for what they were and fight off, but at the same time, I feel a bit guilty for having such a good year. My boy had an absolute shit of a year last year, and I really hope this year is better for him. Then again, 2007, although it had some highlights, was an absolutely horrible year for me but the boy coasted through happily... let's just hope that the universe isn't playing some sick joke on us and we don't get stuck in a good year / bad year cycle that never syncs.

Whatever.... my habit of putting off uni work hasn't changed. Another 500 words to go tonight. *sigh* What I really want to do is catch up on all the neighbourhood blogs that I haven't had a chance to read yet.

I finally sat down and sorted out my subject selection for this year. It's the last year of my B. Arts (hooray) and I only have 5 subjects to go (thanks to loading myself up last year). So the year is looking a little ancient, too modern for my liking, with a sprinkling of religion and the bard. First up is Shakespeare (and $300 worth of textbooks... ouch, why is our dollar still so crap!?!?!) and The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, followed by Australian History Since 1901 with Islam: Past & Present, and finally ending with Twentieth Century Europe.

This looked pretty light on, considering how much I've crammed into this year, and I'll be finishing quite early... so I've applied to do a Certificate of Ancient Languages. It's a part time load for 12 - 18 months, basically two Latin subjects and one of something else (leaning towards Coptic at the moment, but may end up doing Biblical Hebrew, Greek or Egyptian Hieroglyphs instead). I won't find out until the 21st if I've been accepted or not, so fingers crossed.

I've always wanted to learn different languages, and figured Latin was probably a good starting point - most of my ancient subjects have Latin readings which I've been substituting with translations, and I would love to be able to read the real thing. Also, apparently once you've learnt Latin it's easier to pick up other languages soo.... hopefully I get accepted :)

In other news, it's ridiculously freezing today. What happened to our hot summer! *cries* At least it won't be too hot sitting in my study tonight finishing off my text analysis.