fun times

As you've probably noticed, my blog had a make over. The other template was just a fill in until I got around to individualising my blog. This will probably will be just one of the many skins it shall wear over the duration of its life:)

I've swam in chlorine for about 4 hours today and got a bit more sun than I needed, so currently I'm feeling slightly...drained. I've also been baby sitting all day and the girls are great-many thanks owed to Jacspi for getting me the job! I've decided I love random conversations on buses with complete strangers. I love getting that brief bit of insight into the life of one of the many peoples around us- people we would normally just look over and forget.

So cool!!!!the Ewock family just came and carolled to us and gave us shortbread and presents...mum's calling for dinner so signing out.

hsc: the results: part 1+ a nibble of Twilight the movie

wow oh wow. This morning I awoke to the sound of my phone buzzing. Groggily I reached over, discovering a txt from Key inquiring 'How'd you go?'. That's right. Today is that day when we get to see the entire past year's work summed up into a couple of marks and bands. Some will laugh, some will cry, some will be indifferent...I actually had not given any thought to getting my results-the whole schoolies and now work and Christmas thing having numbed my mind into a comfortable safe zone protected from the past. But today I was both nervous and excited. It was a bit like waking up on Christmas as a child-that kind of curious excitement-but it also had that edge, the nervous edge that something important pinges upon the quality of those presents, that within those wrapped gifts, a power existed. A power that could bring me elation or devastation.

ok, ok, I know. enough with the metaphor. To say the least I was shaking as I typed my pin into hscresults.com over an hour after they were available (for an early riser I rose late), and....when the page loaded my mouth dropped. Dropped in amazement for I could not believe my eyes. I don't know how I pulled it off but...somehow I managed to get all band 6s. Don't ask me how, I don't know. To me it does not make sense, at least for 2 of my subjects. But my jaw is still hanging open. I actually was preparing myself for disappointment. My little brothers were the first to know, and it was so funny watching their half awake facial expressions of part comprehension/amazement as for the first time I vocalised my results. DC is the next to know if she checks her email. And I would reply to the texts from my friends but right now I'm trying to live off $1.29 of phone credit until my next pay(which is after Christmas), so I guess it's up to the landline.

Saw Twilight yesterday with Tea, Indigo, Key, Bea, Sea and respective mothers/sisters. I walked into the theatre prepared to watch the movie and to judge it without comparison to the book. I just wanted to sit down and watch a good movie. I was entertained, but not in the way I think was intended. I found the movie hilarious. Maybe I'm not used to the serious romantic teen genre, but all those dramatic closeups, the well timed guitar score reminiscent of the 80's, the dodgy special effects and Edward Cullen as a social misfit left me in fits of laughter. The bits I did not laugh at I cringed at, and the parts I neither laughed nor cringed, I was bored. ok, now that I've just pulled down the best loved movie by teen girls of the year 2008, I will admit that it did have some good parts. I absolutely loved Jasper, Eric, Billy and Charlie-I think they were the best characters. James, Laurent and Victoria were pretty good too. On a more serious critical level, truth is, it was a poorly produced movie. It really needed the 'coolness' of x-men. I mean you leave x-men with an encompassing feeling of awe and desire to be a mutant. The Cullens just did not have that supernatural quality. I certaintly did not leave Twilight wanting to be a vampire or even Bella. It also needed the sweeping/skillful cinematography and score of LOTR, Harry Potter, Narnia, so at least if the plot was flawed we could've basked in the total awesomeness of the camera work and powerful music. But hey, I'll stop being so harsh, it wasn't such a bad movie, just not one I could take seriously. It probabley needs a second watching now that I know what to expect. But now I am definitely up for High School Musical 3!

The return of the schoolie

I'm back!!!!!

a pinch and a punch for the first day of the month!

In 1 hour and 6 minutes I shall be off to Port for an entire week of friends, beach, unicycling, op-shopping, uno, Jamie Oliver cooking, fun, fun, fun and more fun!!!!!!!!!!! And in my spare time I shall give Twilight another go. I am so excited-this is the first time I have been away from my family for an entire week...my poor sister is devastated that I am leaving her behind with 'them'.

Yesterday we put up to Christmas tree (minus the decorations). Normally we put it up on the first of December but because I'm going away we did it yesterday whilst listening to Christmas music (one of my favourite parts of Christmas time). Also 6 unlikely heroes were born yesterday. Presenting:

-The Weird Washer
-Miss Ellaneous
-The Bowler
-Madame Glass
-Captain Cutlery
and...
-Twig

well here I am about to take another step into that wide world of Independence.....

A change of heart, mind and opinion

You know the saying 'Absence makes the heart grow fonder'? I think it's true, especially when you link it to 'moderation in all good things'. The first three days of reading the Twilight series was a huge disappointment because I dived in with preconceived ideas and totally immersed myself within the books. But then I had to stop reading because

1) I didn't have the fourth book and

2) I was sleeping over a friend's place Wednesday+Thursday.

I was forced to take a break, let my mind mull over the past 3 days and 3 books. I finally got my hands on Breaking Dawn (after reading tid bits in Borders+at my friend's house) today and have officially finished the series. Before today I had decided not to buy the rest of the series, now I my desire is the complete opposite. I had judged the books before I'd even read them, expecting the best story in the world, a story I had created myself during the 4-5 months of anticipation. A story which did not mirror Stephanie Meyer's.

My original motive in reading the series all those months ago was actually to gain some substance to my internal mocking of Twilight fans. I wanted to read it before I tore it to shreds. But then others like me (in mindset) read it and liked it. I began to think that maybe the crowd of teenage girls backing the series may of had some credibility to their claims, credibility which reached beyond Edward Cullen.

The lure of the unknown is what attracts me most to a book. I like surprises and experiencing new adventures. I like the build of suspense and mystery. Normally when I read a book it is in snippets as I normally would have school and people to deal with. I would be forced to take breaks and my mind would be able to weave its own theories. I did not allow that time with Twilight (what with the HSC over and no job). I read the books in close to one sitting (food, toilet, sleep and family breaks being the exceptions). What I'm trying to say is that I did not really give the books a chance. I expected one thing and was determined to gain that one thing all in one go. To all out there, that is not how a book should be treated. They're a bit like people. You shouldn't judge them before you've gotten to know them, neither would you try to find out everything about them all in one shot- for it is over time that you better learn the true nature of a person.

Over all the whole point of this post is to say that I'm going to read the series over, the way it should be read. Over time and with moderation.

confessions, revelations and mysteries

ok, I do like Alice, Carlisle, Esme, Angela, Charlie, and I was rooting for Jacob Black until he started going a bit jerky in book 3. Jasper and Emmet are pretty cool too. Even Rosalie in her own way. Now I see...I like the supporting characters better than the main protagonists. Who would've guessed?

Question: what is love? True love?

Catch up on my current state of nothingness

New Moon was definitely interesting and it nearly killed me when I was called for dinner and Family Home Evening, just as Bella notices Laurent's red irises. I was not impressed and I swear my darling family drew everything out that much longer just to see my pain and suffering. (ironically enough, we actually got to play a fun game in FHE for once. But it still did not ease the suspense my mind was going through). Eclipse was average. I went to Borders today to read Breaking dawn. But I could not. 48 mins, pg 178, I had to return it to its shelf. And no it was not because a member of the staff asked me to. I just could not stand it. This wasn't the direction I wanted the series to go in at all. The more I read of the series the more I realise that maybe my favourite book was the very first one-when everything was innocent and uncomplicated. It's also very hard to like a series when you do not like main character. This rips and tears at my soul. I so very much want to say it's the best series in the world, but I can not even add it to my list of favourites. Instead of it filling a hole, it left one bigger. I shall finish the fourth book, but not now. not now.....I guess spending the last 2 days of my life immersed within a world of vampires and werewolfs leaves one totally drained. Maybe I should return to the real world for a while.

On an up note. I learnt how to make paper today from the inside of the dust jacket of the new Oliver Jeffers book, The Great Paper Caper. I also used up a lot of yellow post-it notes in the attempt to fill my hole. But the best bit...I bought Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food cookbook (valued at $71.50) for a mere $2.50. That's right. It's amazing what a 50% special and two book vouchers courtesy of my late high school can do to slash a price down. It is seriously the best cook book in the world. It is also the first cookbook I have ever bought. I am going to learn to cook. cook really really well. I shall be putting it to the test in Port next week. Can't wait to try it out for everyone in our crew.We may even have to pop in and say hi to Stan when we buy the ingredients.

Well after 5 months, I've read Twilight....

I just finished reading Twilight. and for me it is a paradox. It is not what I expected yet exactly how I thought it would be. I now know one thing. I can not align nor call myself a fan. For me, the books which I love and cannot put down are multi-layered-plural storylines all intertwined for some greater purpose. My mind going crazy over the possibilities for each character. I like it when love grows from the story and not the story from the love. I like it when the main protagonists have purposes in the greater scheme of life-not wholely absorbed in their own little worlds. I could happily go about having only read one Twilight book, as I simply cannot see how Stephanie Meyer can continue the story-but that is also the reason why I want to read the next 3 books. I want to see what she can do with the minimal threads and characters crafted and set in place in book one. I like books which change my way of thinking/outlook on the world-making me a better more three dimensional person. I was not surprised by the story, somehow already knowing how it would turn out. I was disappointed that James' character was not developed and ended very quickly-for I found him the most interesting of all the characters. I do not think Twilight is a bad book, merely 2D and not the cliff-hanger I longed for after all these months of waiting. I enjoyed resisting the temptation to read it during the HSC more than the book itself. I feel apathetic-unchanged. I also like books where female protagonists are empowered and get to wear the pants at least for a little while. But saying all this I am about the read the second book and cannot wait to see the movie. As I said...it is a paradox in which I am swimming.

bruises

I have always looked down upon guns as mindless, skill-less mass killing machines. Today I had my first taste of paintball and discovered I like shooting people, running, hiding, being shot at....It was AMAZING!!!! and I scored some sweet bruises-the best being on my thigh and shaped like a love heart.

post formal blues

well here I am creating my first blog because I actually arrived early for touch and had time to spare.