Well here I am at the bus interchange... Waiting. So I decided that I would update. Internal Assessment for IB is now over and it is probably about time that a little break was taken. Nearly decided to go to the movies today with people but after looking it some reviews of that Water Lady movie decided that it wasn't worth seeing. So... Shopping... Yay. Except I some how manage to walk directly into everyone's way and I kept going to the cashier with more clothes than I actually could afford. Went to nerdy computer market and bought an IDE adaptor for my brother because his new motherboard doesn't have a connector. We went out for dinner to celebrate his birthday lastnight. Not much else to say really. 'til next time...

4000 words! Now I just need to make it all make some sort of sense.

Explain the name you've chosen for your LJ. When finished, tag the same number of people as there are letters in your name, so that they will have to explain themselves as well.

oblemboy: Like Donal, this name also has its origins in that period of High School around about year ninerish. Some kinda skanky girls in SOSE were all "Do you have an *in low manly voice*OBLEM*\in low manly voice*" to eachother, then I repeated it to them in my oh so manlier voice and they were giggling for the rest of the lesson. From there other phrases were developed, such as "*kcshk* Houston, I think we have an *kschk* *in low manly voice*OBLEM*\in low manly voice*" and I ended up being known as Oblemboy to one of those skanky but very friendly girls.

Tagging, even though I know some of them to already be tagged by the D meister.
o: frankie_fan4
b: halogencycle
l: madam_redrum
e: grim_sparticus
m: zacharias_fan
b: jim_solomos
o: hippopie
y: charcoal_angel

Hmmm, I haven't updated in ages! The mad rush of assessment does that to ya. Things just seem to be going along as per usual, which I suppose isn't necessarily a bad thing. It is extremely reassuring to know that things will probably continue as they always do but at the same time, life seems to only be getting more boring. I really hope I can get all my work done this holidays but I need to be careful not to overwork myself so much. I am way too tired lately.
Last week we saw The World's Fastest Indian at the cinemas in Manuka. I've never been to Manuka much before, it's a nice place despite coming across as a bit snobbish. Afterwards, we had hot chocolate. At the moment, I feel like I live for hot chocolate. The guy who served us was hella cute and the hot chocolates came with nougat! I ran into an old teacher, he asked what I was up to and I only needed to say that I go to Copland with that tired look on my face for him to work out "You do IB don't you?" Apparently his son did IB at Narrabundah and survived. Comforting. Tom generously gave us all lifts home, stopping on the way for me to roll down the hill at Regatta Point while everyone else just stood by and admired the Captain Cook monument. Dispersing study with outings like these make tests easily bearable.
On Saturday I ended up back at school to do a whole day First Aid course, which I passed. HUZZAH! Well I hope I passed: the booklets still remain to be marked. I ended up just walking around the school with random people who I never talk to today. I think it was just my way of recovering from the humiliation of trying to play futsal. Vinh talked me into joining the team. Why do I listen to him? I guess I just don't see much point in disagreeing with someone who suggests something, humiliating though it is, as interesting as a lunch hour of doing something active.
Oh and I got a Last.fm account recently. It's at http://www.last.fm/user/oblemboy/ for anybody who cares. Based on its recommendations I've been listening to a lot of alternative electronic music lately. Also, I've updated my LJ layout. I reckon it looks pretty sexy but the colour blue does that to me.
Last day of school tomorrow. Thankfully it has finally come. I'm going to be playing my trombone at the folk festival! I loved it last year. Mum has finally decided it is time for my trombone to be serviced too, which is excellent because rubber-bands just do not cut it when it comes to spit-valves. I'm sure I'll find the time to update in the holidays, but until then, the best of luck to everyone.

Well today was nice. It started with a big fat Japanese listening test in the morning. Thankfully, the beginners were first up, so I had a chance to do the study I didn't do the night before. Erika seemed to get it more than me but I was pretty lucky that Tomoko accidentaly handed me the sheet with the questions AND the written dialogue for the first five questions.
Then we had Chem. Most of that flew over my head. Lewis Dot Diagrams are not my forte but hey, Aidan made a giant crown and sceptor out of POLYMOD. Jenny is going to be taking a picture of her in her complete Chemistry Queen outfit for the yearbook! I should be the king though. I did, after all, create the kinky molecular theory.
Lunch involved finding out about the First Aid course I will be doing soon for CAS. I am now sitting in front of my computer completing the silly work booklet we have to do for it.
After lunch I had TOK. We were meant to be researching for our seminars but I didn't get much done. I've chosen to discuss a quote by Karl Popper, which is basically a criticism of the Scientific Method.
Then I went to coffee club. I made about two or three coffees but drank none. Robert, however, made two or three hot chocolates for me and I drank them. I reasoned it to Pete as "I need sleep!" I helped Nat find Margaret, which was good because she wants to do the 3D Animation course at AIE.
Tomorrow is a Joelly party! YAY! :-D Until then I am stuck doing homework. *le sigh*

http://ideas.live.com/whatis.aspx
Will they ever learn? Replacing 'My' with 'Your' isn't the sure-fire way to fix usability overnight that it pretends to be guys. *Hints that 'My' should be replaced with ''*
“…And on the 4th day, Microsoft created MSN Messenger. And it was good.” from http://spaces.msn.com/MessengerSays/
Just... no. When I have the time, I think I'll do a proper rant on how MS has managed to make Messenger so much worse than it could be.

Anyway, in other news, I'll be walking around the lake today.

Today was that lazy, happy day called RED day. For those of you who are so not with the hip Copland jargon, RED stands for Recreational Educational Day. RED day was pretty cool, even though some people were wetted that didn't want to be so. Educational is RED day's middle name, so in the true spirit of RED-ness, here is what I learnt today:

• I am quite sadistic when it comes to accidentally knackering some poor guy with a soccer ball. (I nearly burst out in laughter)
• Don't trust Janine's cooking. I realise some of you enjoyed her brownies but they so weren't proper brownies!
• Teachers put aside their differences rather easily when there is a competition against students involved. They grouped together and started conspiring against us!
• When there is a really steep path, it is probably because there is a stair case right next to it. Note to self: next time, look for one.
• Water bombs run out too quick.
• Some teachers *cough*Gaelle*cough* are unaware of their powers that their authority bestows upon them. Note to self: exploit them.
• There are a few hotties at our school ;-)

More holiday photos. This time they are from the disposable camera I had. I'll try to refrain from any further New Zealand posts. ( Read more... )

Oh, and Lisa, have a super party! my phones also telling of that the 4th is Vihn's birthday, make sure he gets his birthday bash lol jokes...

With a trip to the Dunedin Museum and Cadbury World (both of them were pretty cool) my stay in Dunedin came to an end. Despite a lack of vintage cars, our trip along the highway to our destination, Akaroa, was still interesting. Just by luck we stopped at the best café that I have ever been to (I realize that doesn't say much) in Orari. We also passed by a recent rail-road crash. On to Akaroa aka "Fake France". There are tri-colour flags here and all the street names are French. The shops are called things like "la folie jolie" and "ça bouge" or something. The house we are staying in goes by "la bonne vie" and has an odd open plan layout that doesn't go well with snorers. Anyway, as much ar this place is pretty and all, I really miss you guys. I'm leaving the "land of the long white cloud" (as Joel would say) for the land of the big red rock.

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Admittedly, I am out of the loop a bit... So I was a little shocked when I heard that there are some pretty bad bushfires in Australia. I hope everyone and their family and friends are ok and that the fires keep there distance. A few days ago we went to Doubtful Sound and we are now in Dunedin and the accommodation here is wickety whack but cool. We had a one-night stop over at Invercargill - a city which is best described with a single word - Fyshwick. On the way to Dunedin we passed at least 40 vintage cars due to the Vero rally being held in New Zealand this year. This afternoon I walked along the beach and discovered a seal. I am so not used to seeing them lazing on the beach and I thought this one was dead coz it was covered with flies and not moving. But as I got closer it bared its teeth at me, so it was definitely alive but probably didn't like me interrupting its sleep.

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I'm now in Te Anau in Fiordland, after passing through Northern Southland. Those Kiwis need to learn how to spell "fjörd". We also passed about 15 vintage cars on the way here because there's some car festival on somewhere. I spent nearly all of yesterday writing that stupid English essay and all I ended up with was in incomprehensible mess. I ended up skipping stones on the creek though, which was relaxing. As we made our way to Milford Sound, we were stopped at a "film crew" crossing. They must have more film crews here than wildlife! I have no idea what they were filming though. Milford Sound was teh pretty. There was this tunnel we went through and it was so long that I couldn't even hold my breath the whole way!

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Our two night's stay in Queenstown has been nice. It's a bit like Thredbo or Noosa and has a really nice park. We went up another gondola and at the top of the mountain rode a luge but I prefer the Corin Forest sleds. There are also lots of Germans here. The other day I saw some woman wearing a shirt that said "F is for Foshizer". I don't know what the "fo" means but yeah. Before coming to Queenstown, we visited Puzzling World, which mess yo' head up. On display was a holograph of a trombone! You can tell what I took most photos of. We also passed the most spectacular lakes on the way here but now we are leaving. Next stop: Te Anau. By the sound of things there won't be mobile reception there, so don't expect another post for a while.

Having travelled past Franz Josef (the glacier), we are now staying at a caravan park next to Fox Glacier. Today we hiked up Fox Glacier. The valley surrounding it is HUGE. It was actually easier walking on the ice than the mossy hillside track because of these wicked cool cramp-ons that we got to wear on our shoes. We were handed out pokey sticks too! Fox Glacier is one of the few glaciers in the world that are growing. Currently it is growing at a rate of about 50cm per day. The water that runs from Fox is opaque and grey, turning really vibrant shades of blue and turquoise further down stream. Our guide had a Trotsky-killer. ;-)

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We have left Christchurch and are now in Hokatika, on the windy West coast. The journey was pretty uneventful. Most places in New Zealand are called by their Maori names and Maori words, just by coincidence, use nearly the same phonemes as Japanese words. Me and Phoebe were cautious as we travelled through the Kowai valley. Hokatika is possibly the most bumpkinly town that I have ever been to. Jade jewellery, the tourism cashcow here, is milked for all it is worth and more. It is nearly the only thing that can be bought in this town. The only beauty in the scenery surrounding the town is its unique ugliness. The days here are really long and the sun does not set til 9:15, rising before 6.

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Today we caught a bus to the Antarctic Centre. The displays there were rather informative, though they shied away from mentioning Australia's involvement in the Antarctic while yapping on about other countries. There was also this room that simulated a blizzard and I fell down a slide made of ice, buggering my leg. The bus stops here are cool, they have these little signs that tell you how long it is til the next bus arrives. While we were waiting at Hertz for Dad, the staff there started calling eachother "urses". Me and Phoebe thought it was some weird Kiwi slang but it turned out that it was just a very strong accent. After we were handed the keys to the car (a Ford Territory), we drove to Christchurch Gondola (the Katoomba kind, not the Venice kind). The views from the top were magnificent.

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Christchurch is a delightful city. The motel that we are staying at is right next to the botanical gardens and there's also a billboard outside that says "One day NZ could be part of Australia. Oh yay." I think Kiwi humour is lost on me. Christchurch is chock full of clothes shop but not many other types of shops. Today we went to Cathedral Square at the centre of the city. It's the kind of square that is inhabited by buskers all the hours of the day. One of the buskers was quite the comedian and started doing kinky poses. He joked about the priceless photo opportunities he was giving his audience but I don't think he was expecting someone like me to take him up on the offer. After watching the other buskers, I now know where Vinh gets "it" from. Canterbury Cathedral is adorned with swastikas, which is a little creepy but apparently traditionally they symbolise good luck.

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