• Mood: blah
• Music: “Au Port” - Camille

Yeah, I guess you know what that makes, huh? Seriously, yesterday’s exam was awful. In hindsight it wasn’t a particularly difficult test, but I got so unbelievably stressed that my mind ended up going completely blank (well, more blank than usual, lol!) and as a result I’m sure I stuffed the whole thing. Not a happy Aly! I’d planned on going straight home afterwards, but I was so bummed out about the exam that I decided to go shopping instead. Cheered me up immensely, but I think it made my wallet very depressed.

Though it shouldn’t really be complaining, because I bought a new one yesterday so that it could retire (see picture to right). It’s just one of those mock croc vinyl things from one of the handbag stores in town, but I love the pattern and it was only $30, so I figured I couldn’t go wrong. Plus it has enough compartments and card slots for all the junk I carry around, so it’s functional too. Yay!

I also called into the Diva Outlet store in town and picked up some of the most delightfully strange and trashy jewellery I’ve ever seen. After buying a Lego necklace and earrings a while back, I completed my collection with a Lego block charm bracelet, and since I was there and money was burning a hole in my pocket (as my mother would say!), I also got a set of guitar pick earrings (two pairs, each with a “rock” pick and a “roll” pick, hehe), a necklace with an old microcassette at the end, a set of donut and cupcake earrings (from the kiddy section, haha!), some bowling pin earrings, and a ring and pair of earrings designed like dice. I’m insane, I know, hehe. Oh, and rounding out the picture you see to the left are some little button badges from Smiggle (my favourite stationary store) that I bought the other day. One had a voodoo doll on it, the green one says “grumpy bum” and the last one says “I’m taking a mental health day”. Hehe. I also bought a few other things, like a bunch of books from QBD (yet more joke books, plus a cocktail recipe book and a puzzle book), some greeting cards to put away for future birthdays and a Hello Kitty cell phone screen cleaner. Not a bad effort considering I was only out for an hour and a half and a third of that time was spent in the supermarket.

On a less happy note, I found out yesterday that my best friend who’s been living/travelling in the UK and Europe for the past year has delayed her return to Brisbane for another two and a half months. Booo. Not that I blame her…if I was spending every few weeks jetting off to France or Ireland or Morocco or any of the other places she’s been, I wouldn’t want to come home either! Hahaha. But still, I have to admit I’m a little disappointed - it’s been far too long since someone’s told me that a bit more chocolate won’t hurt!

Anyway, I don’t really have much else to say today. I’m going to have some lunch now and maybe watch a DVD. Adios amigos. Be excellent to each other!

My lovely commentors: Vanessa, Simply Precious, Caity, Lucy, Julie, SarahC & Melody. <3

• Mood: a bit stressed
• Music: “Breakeven” - The Script

Thanks to the Google translator, that’s supposedly Swedish for “I really love IKEA!”. And I do, seriously. After coming across a catalogue on the weekend I decided I wanted to check some of the stuff out for myself and ended up dragging my dad along to the absolutely humongous IKEA store just across the Brisbane/Logan City border. I actually ended up going there 3 times in the span of about 24 hours because the armchair I bought on the first visit was damaged when I unpacked it, then when I went the second time to return it they didn’t have any left, so I returned the next day (because they told me they would have more by then) for the third time and finally got the damn chair. Lol. It wasn’t so bad having to keep going back, because each time I found a few more little things I wanted (hehe), but the downside is that the layout of the store is completely insane. I wouldn’t call it confusing, since you basically just follow the blue dot arrows on the floor, but it’s like a maze and you honestly have to walk past every single product to get from the entrance to the check out area. Clever marketing idea, but a pain in the butt for customers who only planned to spend half an hour there! Mind you, after seeing the store, I know now that it’s probably not even possible to spend half an hour or less at IKEA since it takes almost that long to just walk through the store. I did find some cool stuff though - I got a nice cream armchair (for my room) called the SOLSTA OLARP, which was super-cheap at only $79, a BENNO CD/DVD shelf, a single dining chair (whose name I forget) that I plan to use for my desk because those swivel chairs on wheels make me nervous (seriously! lol), two lamps (a red KVART desk lamp and some other small round glass lamp for one of my bedside tables), and a bunch of other small things like storage boxes and tins, some printed cards featuring rubber ducks (yay, love rubber ducks!), a plush mouse (hehe), door mat, plastic kitchen tidy and various kitchen utensils. I haven’t got everything set up yet (since everything sold at IKEA seems to require home assembly), so no photos right now, but hopefully in a few days.

My shopping adventures haven’t just been limited to IKEA though - I also hit up my local mall for “home improvements” yesterday and came home with a new CD thinger (it’s one of those vertical loading systems that has speakers that clip on to the sides), a rice cooker (because I realized the other day that I don’t know how to cook rice…hopefully this will simplify things a little!), an el cheapo TV stand and a spare doggy bed for Harry (since he’s been sleeping in my room a lot lately!). I’m totally dreading my next credit card bill… *buries face in hands*

In non-shopping news, the exam period at uni started this week and I have my first exam on Thursday. *freaks out* Everyone keeps telling me “don’t panic!”, but I think that advice is more helpful when trying to hitchhike through the galaxy, since not panicking is just not possible (at least for me) when exams are so close! Obviously I’ve been trying to study (which is why I haven’t been blogging or commenting much these past few days), but the more I study the more I seem to forget! It’s like every time I learn something new, something old gets pushed out…kind of like Homer Simpson learning about wine and then forgetting how to drive. Hahaha. Anyway, there’s not much I can do besides study though, so that’s pretty much what my next 36 hours will be spent doing. I lost more than 3 hours of valuable study time yesterday morning while I had to supervise the upgrade of our cable TV service, but on the plus side I finally have a working cable connection in my room. Sean wanted to get a connection in his new room (which used to be the music room, before my parents realized I was musically retarded, lol), so I asked the cable guys to set up a connection in my room too while they were at it. Hehehe. Of course this doesn’t really help my motivation to study, but I’ve been very good so far and just limited myself to music videos in the background while I slave away. I’m such a saint.

On another note, I’ve got a new poll on the sidebar. The current question asks what you’re most likely to hide in the butt compartment of a Mr Potato Head. Very random question I know, lol, but go and vote anyway! The results for the previous poll (”which man/woman in uniform are you most attracted to”) can be seen in the pie chart below, with military winning hands-down with 36% of the total votes, and firefighters following with 18%. Police and doctors/nurses each got 14% of votes, and sailors and cowboys tied for the final place with 9% each.

Well that’s about it for now…I have to get back to studying (blech!) and at some stage in the next day and a half I’d also like to get a few hours sleep. Adios amigos. Be excellent to each other!

My lovely commentors: Simply Precious, Caity, Julie, Christine, Joana & Melody. <3

• Mood: pooped
• Music: “Seaside bar song” - Bruce Springsteen

I’ve had a pretty hectic week. Appointments, shopping, housework, attempting to study…it’s all a lot more than I usually have to do in a normal lazy week. Which when you think about it is quite pathetic, but I’m happy with my sedentary lifestyle. “Doing stuff” just isn’t my style.

Among this week’s appointments was a last-minute cross-town trip to see my shrink because I ran out of accidentally threw away my prescriptions, so I had to get them to squeeze me in for a short appointment on Thursday so I could top up my happy pills and anti-crazy pills and so forth. Actually, that’s basically all I do when I have appointments with the doc anyway - because I only see him once a month, by the time I’ve told him what’s changed in my life since my last appointment, there’s just enough time for him to write out some prescriptions and send me on my way. Not that I really mind - I don’t usually feel like talking much anyway. The only thing that irks me about this shrink is that he refuses to blame everything on my mother. I mean, come on, it’s basic Freudian psychology! Everything that’s wrong with me is my mother’s fault…at least according to me and my dad. Hahahaha. Poor Mummy.

At least Mum occasionally tries to redeem herself for ruining my life, for instance, by taking me to lunch yesterday at the cafe at uni. I often used to go to Cafe Enternet with Mum before I even started uni, but our schedules the past couple of semesters have been rather conflicting, so even though I’ve been going to uni at the same campus where she spends the majority of her life, we didn’t really see each other. But I do like Cafe Enternet - they have good food and stacks of weird free postcards promoting everything from art gallery exhibits to career fairs to STD treatments…pretty interesting. However, the birds are sometimes problematic, as the cafe is almost entirely outdoors and the birds tend to hang around trying to scavenge/steal food. They even have a warning sign on the wall outside to warn customers about the avian nuisances…

Anyway, it’s now been a whole week since my “darling baby brother” (as Mum refers to him as…blech!) moved in and touch wood we are all still alive and no crazier than before. Of course it helps that Sean works almost every day during the week so I don’t have to put up with him during the day, but getting him up in the mornings is a horrendous chore! It takes anywhere between 3 and 6 attempts to get him up and going in the mornings and he’s definitely not a morning person (if by some chance you didn’t pick that up!), so he’s always in a foul mood then too. X-( It was funny the other day though when he realized that he couldn’t get Mum to do his laundry anymore…bwahaha. He doesn’t even know how to use the washing machine though and would probably only break it, so now he’s paying me to do it for him. Yeah…washing my 20 year old brother’s stinking clothes is not exactly my idea of a good time, but the alternative is probably him wearing dirty smelly clothes until they disintegrate, and besides, I could do with the extra cash. Hehehe. Oh the things I’ll do for money… (get your minds out of the gutter!).

Well this has been an unbelievably boring blog, very sorry about that. Unfortunately that’s my life right now (boring, that is) so bar another kitchen fire or winning the lottery or something, it’s not likely to be particularly fascinating any time in the future either. Might have to do some themed blogs or something to compensate, since I’m sure no one wants to read about me doing laundry or grocery shopping or anything (believe me, I get bored just doing those things!). Adios amigos. Be excellent to each other!

My lovely commentors: Caity, Melody, Simply Precious, Clairessa, Vanessa, Eunice & Julie. <3

• Mood: still a little crazy
• Music: “There she goes” - The LA’s

Oh, that wasn’t meant to be plural? My mistake.

So today was a public holiday for the Queen’s Birthday (which I discovered a few years back isn’t actually the current Queen’s birthday, just that of some other old dead queen), but thanks to the stupid structure of the academic calendar, I wasn’t able to take full advantage of it. Right now we’re on a study vacation and there aren’t any classes anyway, so I was really only getting a day off that I would have gotten off anyway, if that makes sense. What a waste! At least workaholic Dad and opportunist Sean both worked today anyway so I had the house to myself to lounge around in my PJs and watch the last day of the Will & Grace marathon (”three days straight of three days queer”, according to 111 Hits…particularly fitting considering the reason for the long weekend, hehehe). I had a good day though, nice and relaxing. I really do need to get the rest of the Will & Grace DVDs - I love that show!

Anyway, as an Australian, which you probably know is a commonwealth country and indirectly ruled by HRM, I decided to send a birthday e-card to the Queen (yeah, I’m that crazy!), after reading in a newspaper article that she now uses e-mail and even owns an iPod. The tracking tool at 123Greetings is still telling me though that my card to liz_2@buckingham.gov.uk hasn’t yet been viewed…I wonder what the hold-up is? I guess her inbox is pretty full today…I’m sure one of her servants will get around to it soon.

And so continues her descent into madness…

Ahem. Anyway, the Queen’s Birthday holiday is considered a sort of “Pommy thing” here, so I thought I’d make a little list of some of Britain’s greatest exports.

Aly’s “Best of British”

1. Monty Python. 2. The Beatles. 3. Union Jack underpants. 4. Harrod’s department store. 5. Absolutely Fabulous. 6. Crumpets. 7. Nestles Lion bars. 8. Those funny looking guards outside Buckingham Palace. 9. British slang. 10. Wallace and Gromit.

In news closer to home (like really really close to home…sleeping in the living room close to home), my brother Sean (the aforementioned opportunist mentioned in paragraph 1) is the most recent evictee from my mum’s house and has now moved in with me and my dad. So far so good though, we’re all still alive and uninjured and the house is only slightly messier than it was 24 hours ago, so hopefully we won’t have too many problems. I really hope not, to be honest, because this is going to be a rather permanent arrangement, apparently until Sean gets married or turns 40, whichever comes first (my money’s on the latter, but I’ve still got 20 years yet to be proved wrong). I don’t know what my mother’s problem is though (besides Sean). Every time she gets into a serious relationship one of us seems to get booted out (starting with me back in 2000 - and I was only fifteen). It’s like she’s running a Big Brother house…just with crappier food and slightly less promiscuity. Same drama and lack of privacy though. Hahaha.

But in less whiny news, I discovered today that I have lost weight. Woot! I usually avoid scales like shopping mall food courts during school holidays, but today I was curious to see if there was any difference since I last weighed myself nearly six months ago. Amazingly, I’ve lost 10kg (approximately 22lb) and I haven’t even been on a diet once in that time. I also haven’t done any real exercise…well, since about 1998, so I’m not quite sure how I managed to lose any weight at all. Maybe there is a God and He/She has finally decided to take mercy on me after cursing me with Napoleon, the SOD and His Assholiness the Dope (aka Mum, Dad and Sean).

Anyway, that’s all folks. *cue Looney Tunes theme* I’m going to bed early tonight because I’m tired as hell after getting an average of 2 hours sleep per night for the past three weeks. I suffer from insomnia from the best of times, but with all the madness going on around me lately I’ve barely been nodding off at all. So adios amigos. Be excellent to each other!

My lovely commentors: Caity, Simply Precious, Clare, Julie, Kerri & Angelica. <3 Will return comments in the morning…sleep is #1 priority right now, lol.

• Mood: crazy doesn’t even begin to cover it
• Music: “I’m on fire” - Bruce Springsteen (can’t help myself…you’ll see why in a moment!)

This just in…

Unfortunately this is pretty much what really happened. I was talking on the phone while heating up a pan to brown the mince for spaghetti (which obviously contained a bit of oil) and just lost concentration somehow…next thing I knew I was about to toss the mince in when the pot burst into flames (and I’m talking big scary flames, not the little spark you get occasionally when you stick a wet pan on the hot plate!). Naturally I panicked and screamed like I was about to die, then snapped into action and ran to the sink with the literally flaming pot. Except that pouring water on it (since was the oil that had caught alight) just made the flames jump even higher, which led to more panicking and screaming, until eventually it just burned out while I stood there chanting “what do I do?! what do I do?!”. Needless to say the pot is a little worse for wear, as is part of the sink and kitchen bench, but thankfully I am okay. I survived! Rawr. Seriously though, I am such an imbecile…but at least now I’ve got something interesting to blog about on an otherwise very uneventful night. When my brother found out about what I’d done he said I should have taken a photo for my blog, which in hindsight would have been cool, but at the time my primal instinct to just survive was kind-of clouding my vision. (Either that or it was the smoke).

So besides setting the kitchen on fire, what have I been up to today? Well I still haven’t been able to play my new Sims 3 game because of the disk space issue, so it looks like I’m going to have to try to get an external HDD next week when I get paid to store all my less often used files on. Like I can even afford that right now! But I do love Sims, so I guess I’ll just have to go without something else (like maybe food…it’s not like I can successfully cook it anyway, lol). After all, when there’s a Will Wright there’s a way… (Oh wow, that takes the cake for my worst joke yet…sorry guys!)

And while we’re on the topic of bad jokes, let’s me tell you about the Australian Labour government the latest additions to this site. First up we have Numerology for Dummies, a new feature of the Asstrology section here (and no, that’s not a spelling mistake!) where I have devised a new highly accurate system for calculating your “true numerological number”, which of course in true asstrology style, will tell you some random rubbish about your personality. Try it, you never know what you’ll discover about yourself. Secondly, I have made three (yep, count ‘em…THREE) new letter generators in the style of the uni student letter generator I made a couple of months ago. New additions include a job application letter generator, a boyfriend rejection letter generator and a letter to Mum and Dad generator. Mess around with them and see what you come up with!

And now, for something completely different… *cue Monty Python theme*

Einstein’s Theory of Relativity
(Note: Stop reading here if you are an Australian uni student or for some other reason object to actually learning something).

I mentioned last entry that I recently bought a book of 3,000 theorems, facts and formulae, which as you would expect contains a section on Einstein’s theory of relativity. Of course most people are familiar with the equation (E=mc², to refresh your memory), but despite knowing the formula (and even what the letters represented), I really didn’t know what any of it meant. So I put on my thinking cap (it’s really cool, it has a propellor! Just kidding…) and started to read. It talked a bit about energy and mass at the speed of light and time relative to observer’s frame of reference, but what really drew me in was the idea of mass-energy equivalence, which basically states that mass and energy are essentially the same thing and can therefore be converted to one another. Please Einstein, tell me how! Imagine if I could convert my body mass to energy…with so much of it I would be bouncing off the walls…running marathons…I could probably even give up coffee! Okay, well maybe nothing quite that drastic, but you get the drift, hehe. Of course I’m fairly certain that isn’t how it really works, but it sure would be nice if it did.

Anyway, I’m getting all tired and confused now and starting to lose my thought of train, so I might end this here. In case you haven’t noticed (and I really don’t know how you couldn’t have) I’m in a rather silly mood tonight. But on the bright side, at least I’m not depressed. Adios amigos. Be excellent to each other!

My lovely commentors: Nnie, Julie, Jim, Lucy, Bre, Sue, Michael, Caity, Vanessa & Catherine. <3