Happy Birthday!!!

I turned eighteen today! At noon if you want to be more precise, so I'm eighteen and six hours at the time of writing. Don't really know what to say other than that except "Yay for me!"

I've been writing eighteen a lot more than 18 (cept for when I'm in a rush) because it has a special feel to it... I donno, maybe I'm just crazy...

List of presents? Sure!
From Dad: Indiana Jones box set (It's not a laptop though, still annoyed about that)
From Grandma and Grandpa (Mum's side): One of those outdoor chairs that folds up with a stubby holder in it.
From Michelle (Sister): Shirt and shorts, plus a nifty looking Tiki necklace :P
Other relatives from the US: Phone calls and cards to make sure that I know that they haven't forgotten about me.
From Mum and Michael: Bledisloe Cup tickets in really good seats, a BBQ (cos I was about to throw the pan out the window), Poster, Advanced driving course (so I become a 'safer' driver) and some workspace hazard tools (witches hats and 'DO NOT CROSS' tape for the desk).
From Hawley: Roger Waters tickets, even if it was a couple of months ago, still awesome!
And from Izzy: Well, a CD a guess, but she keeps forgetting :P (anytime is fine by me) (or maybe I just haven't looked under my pillow yet :P) and also her love (soppy... :P)

If you haven't got me anything yet, don't feel bad, I haven't actually had a party yet to warrant the need to presents. But I have had heaps of Birthday messages on my phone, thanks to all!

The reason for no party? Everyone is flat out with study for exams and SAC's and such, including me! So it makes more sense to have one when things have calmed down... like perhaps at the start or end of the holidays (I'll try to avoid the middle, most people go away).

Should this party have some sort of theme or something? That's your decision, I'm happy to do whatever so if you guys want a pirate party or something suggest it to me and I'll see what others think.

Going for my license on the 31st May. It was the closest date they had to my b'day in February when i booked it. Suggestion to those who haven't booked it yet: book now if you want it close to the day!

Finally, leaving you with something I thought of today: Eighteen, same as Seventeen, only legal!

Busy seems to be a running theme...

It's Friday afternoon, during my one and only spare during the day.

Homework to do, SAC's to study for and people to please.

I'm doing the latter, pleasing a bunch of you by doing numerous things:

• For those that have continually bitching and whining to me about the bus videos, they're removed, not even set to private. Reason: This weeks front page of the newsletter. They really seem like they're starting to get serious and I'd rather not get caught if I could avoid it. However they are not erased from memory and sit, encrypted, on a flash drive. I'm still considering allowing a few of you to have a copy. End of the year though (25th October) they'll all be up again, for the glory of us all!
• I've touched up a few of the photo's from Melbourne Girls Grammar Formal and plan to have them up very very soon (like tomorrow, when my upload limit for flickr gets reset). Assuming I get the time of course, I'm sure I'll manage.
• I've moved my computer outside on a permanent basis, so now can't be distracted by watching TV when I should actually be participating in the conversation we were having.
• I'm actually writing a post. Yup, I haven't done one for a while (I kept saying I'd do it tomorrow) so I figured I might as well keep you up to date.

And so what is keeping you up to date?

Well, since my last post I have been working hard to catch up with the school work I missed (still have an English SAC to catch up on, but that's tomorrow). Also, I have been to all the rehearsals for the school play, Inheritance (which has been fully discussed on Luke's, Matt's and Steve's blogs). I am the person that lifts the suicidal, depressed, farmers into the roof when they decide that life is just no longer worth living. Quite fun actually, who would have thought that killing people could be so much fun.

But I have only actually been at three of the four nights of the play so far, because I went to Izzy's formal on Friday 29th. My replacement, Martin Kinsey, did an excellent job of my work (the whole two cues) even if his feet were dragging on the ground. They did after all change the way it was going to be done (which is the reason why it didn't work that well).

Izzy's formal started with pre-drinks at somebodies place (You expect me to remember names! If it wasn't for my license I'd forget mine). Too many people there and it made it hard to talk to anyone (Not that I knew that many people to talk to, total of six). Izzy got a little tipsy after a few drinks, such is the price of not eating for most of the day (Actually, the same happened to me). The formal was fun, plenty of prizes (Compared to the three at ours), and music was good too (but the DJ had a Dale streak and played old music that no one wanted to hear). Food was fine, but I just didn't feel that hungry; but dessert was fun: chocolate ice-cream with chocolate moose and a choclate éclair. Ran though the rain to get changed (We could have walked, but the rain was evil, it also allowed us to get round the corners before the rest of our group). Taxi to afterparty, plenty of Pizza (Wasn't that right Christiaan? That's right, give Ian shit :P ). More dancing, but this time people had more alcohol in them. Didn't see Nick or Christiaan pulling off any smooth moves... disappointing... Went home, Izzy stayed the night (You know the story I think, if you don't then you need to ask me for it).

Pictures for the formal and after party are up HERE!

Also, last night of the play tonight, should be good, but we're all dog tired. This also means the after party for the play is on tonight. Late night perhaps? After my previous two? I'll be so tired tomorrow. Don't call me...

First day back...

Today was the first day back of school after the holidays, though I had already attended school for the previous five days, which really means that today was the first day back that I was actually expected to learn.

Nothing really to say about today except that I'm exceptionally tired because it's harder to get around now with a hole in me. I remember the walk to the science department being alot easier. It only hurts a little though.

Never knew how far I was really behind until today... Who would have thought the week and a half before holidays were important?

And to any teachers reading this: the worst way to start the term is double math, and it's even worse if it is differentiability of transcendent functions...

Ask me how my month was...

March has been a busy month, with lots of changes to my lifestyle...

On the first of March I moved house, leaving Dad back in Sandringham. The new house is much smaller and is nice and cosy.

However at the start of the month there was no gas, hence no hot water. The reason for having no gas was due to a major gas leak under the new house because the shower was not connected to any drainage, and the water would run over the gas pipe, which over time has rusted out.

And up to a couple of days ago, no phone line because Telstra was considerate enough to connect the wrong phone line to the house. Similarly there has been no Internet, so I wasn't able to update my blog, but now I have cable Internet (and a fancy new router) that keeps me sane for when there's nothing to do. I didn't have a computer anyway, cos something was seriously wrong with it; all it would do was to spin fans and that's it... no system ok beep... then it stopped even doing that... it just sat there... It now has a new power supply and runs fine, apart from only loading Windows every second time and being incredibly unstable. I only have to live with it till May though, when I get a new notebook!

In the middle of all this I'm involved with the year 10 play, Hating Alison Ashley, so my spare time created from my inability to be able to do anything at home has been used up there... Very very busy...

Oh and the Honours Society's Games of the World night was heaps of fun too. I have pictures of our School Captain dressed for the weekend!

Then I went to Sophie's 18th a couple of weeks ago (March 17th to be exact) and found myself a nice girl named Izzy (or did she find me?) and we invited each other to our formals (and mine was only two weeks away.. lucky I'm just so organised :p).

Wednesday the next week I got what felt like a stitch on my right side just under my chest, but it got worse and worse throughout the day. The pain spread up my body and into my right shoulder as well and it would hurt to breathe or move. Lucky the guys found it funny as I rolled on the ground in pain cos I didn't find it humorous at all (though I was laughing... which hurt). Panadol did nothing to ease the pain. 9 or 10pm that night (I wasn't really watching the time) I was taken to hospital. They prodded and poked me and at about 1am they decided I was in pain so issued me some Morphine (about bloody time). Couple of conclusion jumping moments later I was being taken into the operating theatre to remove my appendix.

Woke up the next day (about 4am) without any pain... feeling much better... and I didn't even have any Morphine in me yet! I was told that my appendix hadn't ruptured like they had suspected and it was completely normal, yet they removed it anyway. They asked if the pain from yesterday was still there and were confused with the outcome. Clinically, they had done nothing that would have an affect on the pain and its cure yet I was all better (apart from having a 10cm hole that never needed to be created). They told me I would most likely be in hospital for more than a week and I'd miss out on going to my formal, I was pretty sad about missing it. They ended up holding me in hospital for two days til Friday afternoon and I got a good experience of what boredom feels like, as I was unable to do anything in the hospital bed... Soooooo BORING!!! Had some visitors though which made my days really interesting, you have no idea how much more interesting my day would become when there was someone to talk to. No idea at all. Thanks to Martin, Alastair, Nick and Amelia for visits. A double thanks to Izzy for two visits. And another thanks to Simon for an attempted visit and a big bar of chocolate.

After a quick chat with the doctor I was allowed to go home. Dr Dyer told me I would be allowed to go to the formal, but I had to take it easy and no dancing. She suggested not too much drinking because throwing up would put me back in hospital. Also, not allowed to be sitting down for any great periods of time which eliminated me from heading over to South Australia these holidays (I'd be leaving now otherwise). Finally, I had to take it easy for the next three months and I wasn't allowed to do any heavy lifting for one to three months, which means I won't be able to help much for the next school play, Inheritance, and I'd miss out on the first half of the hockey season. I'm annoyed but thankful it ain't worse (like if they had went looking for what the problem was). Missed out on a week and a half of school, now have heaps of homework to catch up on.

Izzy helped me pick out a shirt and tie for the formal (Thanks for that, it turned out perfect). I was late to the before party at Amelia's but it was still fun, mostly photo's and talking which was a comfortable way to start the night. The formal itself was a good night, with lower than average food and quality music that started to head the wrong direction towards the end. Plenty of photos taken, I'll post a link when I finish uploading them to Flickr (There's another email address I've acquired in my travels, starting to get frustrating all these addresses). After party at Alastair's was excellent too; poker night worked well until Jess turned up and got distracting. Heaps of fun being dressed up playing poker and I had a very sexy partner helping me play.

The formal itself wasn't worth $140 but the whole night from start to finish definitely was, I had heaps of fun with everybody, especially Izzy.

Yesterday (Sunday 1st) I went to the Flower and Garden show with Izzy and that was a nice relaxing day out. Oh and flowers don't need water to live... nah...

Thanks all for keeping me alive (almost) during March, just hope next March ain't like it.

EDIT: Formal photo's uploaded - higher resolution pics available, send me a message. Anything with a _1 at the end has been edited and is at a lower quality. Again, just ask for the original if you want it.

Proposal

I just finished my Electrotechnology Proposal and if you're curious, I've posted the final circuit diagram here - If you don't know how it works, ask and I'll do my best to explain it (its easy when you know the theory).


Total Cost: $151.61, assuming I don't blow something up!

Life's a little hectic at the moment... some of you might know why; but consequently some things are moving a little faster, and I might be picking up some benefits along the way (no promises). Though it generally doesn't mean things are any easier...

This week will be a busy one... I've got something written for every day except Thursday, which means that Thursday will be really busy, it always is.

And finally, my favorite video from YouTube: Kiwi!

Time for an Update

Yup, it's that time again... it's time for an update:

By reading Matt's and Luke's blog you'd already know that everybody who does English Texts and English Journeys (I do Journeys, but I'm told that they are essentially the same) had a SAC (School Assessed Coursework for those of you too far away from Victoria to know) this week. I did fine; I wrote on a Part 2 topic which everybody seems to think is a huge massive crime against nature cos we haven't done them before. My middle finger salutes those who tell me off. I'll print my mark in the next few weeks when it gets back from being corrected by two, maybe three teachers, then we'll see who did better...

Also, those who do Chemistry got to complete (or not complete, depending on your speed) a SAC this week based on the gravimetric analysis of fertilizer... boring... I'd rather be practising to mix Hydrogen Sulfide, for when the end of year comes around; and that's not for the exam! Nevertheless, our results were delivered the next day unlike the English (Lazy humanities teachers... always thought they were evil with their messy desks) and the marks were varied. Out of thirty, some of the lower marks were in the single figure range; from what I can gather the average was about 17; the majority of the 'smart' people scored between 23 and 28; the top mark was 30 and was by Chris Loh, but there might be others. I scored a 28.5, which was far better than what I could have hoped, but being that close I would have preferred a 30. Next SAC for Chemistry is probably in two to three weeks, and this time on Volumetric Analysis (of Fertilizer).

So yeah... busy... and I still need to start my Electrotech proposal. I'm going to be building an 'Asian Wonder' like the ones we used in the Tattoo only it won't be DMX controlled unless I get the time and enough money... I'd rather build a second one then upgrade the first... more light. So I need to write up my proposal with a budget, timeline and a detailed description of the product. I have ideas, but I'm still not 100% sure how I want to power it... Whether I have a transformer that plugs into the wall or have one built into the light (which raises I whole new level of safety because I'm not qualified). Meh... I'll work something out...

I feel like I'm missing a subject? Ah.. Math... boring...

Write something again next week perhaps.

Kafka Rules! (and so does Roger Waters!)

Luke was kind enough invite me to see Roger Waters live last night... it was awesome... The tickets were supposed to be a restricted view, but are seats were some of the better ones there; we were really close to the stage. It took quite a while for everyone to arrive; at 8pm (the supposed starting time) the place was only about three quarters full, but the show didn't start til 8:15 anyway.

The show included Pyrotechnics, Excellent lighting, Awesome sound (they're still ringing), A spaceman and a Flying Pig! The Pig was obviously a fan of Kafka's English lessons and displayed this prominently with the words: Kafka Rules!

I've never really listened to that sort of music, but I was still able to enjoy the show because it was just so fantastic... My download list now has quite a few Pink Floyd tracks.

Don't have a lot else to say at the moment; I'm very busy with homework because I received a lot more than I thought I would get for my first week... must be because of that term 4B thing and the teachers wanting to get back into it... or perhaps the start of the school year is always like this and I just never noticed.