GOODBYE

I mean, HELLO:
http://verittably.blogspot.com/

a day late but whatever

Oh yes, hello, world of living.
Hi.

:D

...yeah in case you didn't guess, I finished all my HSC exams yesterday. Don[n]e and dusted. Insert large amount of English/ModHist puns here.

They're two of my favourite authors.

I was checking my email and got a notice from Dymocks announcing 40% off the latest Skulduggery Pleasant book. Also, that Matthew Reilly's Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves was coming out on 12 October. This is what happened:

Me: "NNNGH!!"
Father, from next door: "...Something wrong?"

The Skulduggery offer lasts 11-17 October. Right. I know what I'm doing post-HSC :D
(And yes, I have extremely refined taste in books. Shut up. Those are good writers. I can give you a list of reasons why.)

calm before the storm

I HEAR THUNDERSTORM APPROACHING AND DO NOT WANT TO DO WORK. ...It's not actually raining. But there is a persistent rumble of thunder (or, I don't know, a hungry giant in the sky or something) and it makes me so pumped for notstudying. Cries.

Hey look, we're down to single-digits in the pre-paper-1 countdown WOOOO. In roughly three weeks it'll be over. For me. Heh. Woooooo.

dot dot dot LOL

This video is actually cracking me up //TEEHEE -shot-



Also, in other news I allnightered. And vlogged. The vid's sitting on my comp atm bc, I am delaying posting it because it is the epitome of mundane egocentrism ... not really. Will post it later today probably. But yes. More on that ... later!

Also, now it feels like evening to me. Yes I'm 12 hours either ... back/forward. Because I've now been awake for over 24 hours. Fun fun fun funnnnn looking forward to the HAY CHESS SEA ... yes I say it like haytch not 'aitch' ... yes. Okay so many ellipses here. Self control. Anyway.

Comicrastination: visual proof

this is what I'm doing with my time now, whhyyyyyyy--

sooooo studious...

Essay scaffoldy things I should/need to do:
1. causes of Détente
2. causes of Great Depression
3. something on US foreign policy
4. assessment of New Deal
5. ...multiple disgusting Gorby Part B questions...
6. origins of Cold War
7. reasons for end of Cold War

so glad Mod is on 1 November.

-
13:40 I am finding it difficult to write the Great Depression scaffold. Am doing causes of détente scaffold instead.
1:45 started drawing a comic this morning. it's fun. ...best timing ever, right? it's... experimental. i haven't got a plot outline or character profiles or anything written out, i don't know where the story's going ... only vague ideas in my head. but it's fun! ...and will hopefully trigger an improvement in drawing skills / diversification in subject matter, e.g. backgrounds/architecture
1:47 it's 1:47 now and ... eurgh scaffold. eurgh work.
1:50 -yawn- i have an intro. like, a longhand intro.
1:51 it's amazing/expected/awesome how much better songs sound when sung in their original languages ahhh ~
2:02 two out of five dotpoints scaffolded
2:55 Treaty of Moscow was between West Germany and USSR... essentially a non-aggression pact which recognised the Oder-Neisse Line as the border between Germany and Poland
3:01 buhhhhh tired.

hey 3-4 outta 5 ain't all bad...

So my last post had that to-do list which I was meant to do in the 5 remaining days of September or something. LET US EXAMINE HOW SUCCESSFUL I HAVE BEEN because I really have such an exciting life that I blog about revision goals.

1. CW: Détente notes
I did ... most of this. Didn't do reasons for failure / consequences for Cold War. What WERE the consequences of détente for the Cold War? ...a bunch of arms control agreements? Supposedly allowed Soviets to keep arms parity with US? .'. engendered upsurge of bitterness/conservatism in the US which led to start of 'Second Cold War'? ...oh yeah END OF BIPOLARITY for good ... or something. Bc a feature of détente was the US/China rapprochement ... or something.

2. CW: Renewal/End notes
SUCCESS! ...reading about the end of the Cold War and all those agreements between Gorby and Reagan/Bush actually makes me happy. Yes, disarmament agreements make me happy. The Treaty of Paris and START I makes me happy.

3. Bio: complete all syllabus notes
SUCCESSSSS WOOOOO. ...I only had to do like 8 dotpoint notes in order to achieve this. Because I had most of my notes already. ...However there are maybe 2 dotpoints or so that require elaboration ... and/or completion I think. Something about ... linked genes ... I hate linked genes.

4. read TJG Afterword [+notes?]
Read the afterword, didn't make notes on it. Heh.

5. Gorby: Historical Context
Didn't really do this at all but I suppose by making détente and renewal/end notes I kiiiinda did this already. Sorta. Maybe. Heh.

-
I will now write an essay scaffold for causes of the Great Depression and I will have it completed by 2PM. Yes. Totally.

Wake me up when September ends (:

Not wake up. But whatever.
A'RIGHT here's a list of things which I would ideally like to complete before September ends and there is a high chance I won't be able to do it all but there is also the chance that the imminence of this self-set deadline will result in a mad burst of productivity. So here goes ...

1. CW: Détente notes
2. CW: Renewal/End notes
3. Bio: complete all syllabus notes
4. read TJG Afterword [+notes?]
5. Gorby: Historical Context

Okay that's it for definite things that can easily be put into clear-cut to-do-list dotpoints... but there is other important stuff! ...that will probably/definitely not all get done this September. But anyway..

English Advanced
- find another Mod C related text
- detailed notes on 3 TJG chapters, sparse stuff on others
- a couple really really good supplementary texts ... GAHHHH still do not have any rocksolid ones what IS THIS
- reread The Namesake + notes
- reread Hamlet + notes
- reread Donne + notes
- reread W;t + notes

English Extension 1
- rewatch Lost in Translation + notes
- refamiliarise self with The Shipping News / notes
- lolololol figure out how to connect Heaney with NavGlob? HAHAHA
- ...creatives, CRAPPPP


THINGS THAT I MUST DO
- at least 2 ModHist past papers in exam conditions
- ditto Modules
- ditto Extension German!!
- and Continuers German.

...okay gonna stop writing this before it gets way too overly-ambitious hahahha

When our high school days are o'er

And we face the heights before
ONWARDS, UPWARDS, SING ONCE MORE
AD ALTIORA ♥

who would win a glorious name...

1. Boys uniform day was funnnnn and really tiring for some reason. Also I fully agree with my fellow ad-altiorans who claim that we are so much sexier in guy clothes than actual guys.
2. Junior uniform day was for some reason not tiring. And it was awesome with lots and lots of photographhhs.
3. Year 12 luncheon - the year 11s did a freaking fantastic job, it looked amazing.
4. I don't even know what to say now that graduation is looming SO CLOSE. Just that, you know, NSG really is amazing and I completely mean that.
5. WILL MISS OUR SCHOOL OMG
6. I'm not even numbering these logically/in some sort of neat structured way, just on a whim now.
7. NSG ♥

It gets vaguely less egocentric in the second half

I've realised I put hardly any effort into blogging in such a way that sounds/looks as if ... effort was involved. Oh that was convoluted. Felt like those times when I speak in German and use a heaps complicated sentence and kind of forget what I said at the start and ... drown in the confusion of subordinating clauses and modals and stuff, or something.

Basically I don't type in full sentences/paragraphs properly and there is an abundance of ellipses and the overall tone is just ... thought-vomit. ...A bit more sophisticated than that, maybe. I don't even know what other words to use ... well, more I can't be bothered thinking of them.

I haven't written anything in English requiring some degree of sophistication in aaages ... ever since 4U English ended, I think. No essays or anything since then - OH WAIT hahah I just completely forgot about all those practice response we did for 3U. Heh. Not to mention the ones for Advanced.

... Okay.



I learnt how to tie a tie yesterday. So accomplished. (Y)

Also I'm finally replying to an email from a German penpal and I be teh happeh because I can actually answer the whole thing in German, don't have to resort to English like I used to have to WOOOOO.

Today I was folding laundry and I was hit by the realisation that in a few days I'll never have to wear my school uniform ever again. Cue nostalgia/bittersweetness.

- explosion of ad altiora love -

my exciting life part x

Cannot work.
*plugs in Intuos3*

thoughts on prose fiction

Eight ExtGerman practice monologues in a row.
Result: stoned-ness. I think my usual capacity for oh-so-dazzling witty and insulting repartee is BROKEN ARGH. I am now just in a bad mood. W;t lost. Yes. W;t.

I do not believe that a novel/short story/etc. loses literary merit just because it is written in fairly simple language as opposed to extremely sophisticated/descriptive/pretty/verbose prose.

I believe Matthew Reilly books do have literary merit. It takes skill to come up with and maintain such action-packed convoluted storylines, it takes skill to write action, there is a crapload of research/factual detail in the books ... no, there aren't huge deep thought-provoking concepts behind the books but that brings me to my next point which is

Books do not necessarily have to have thought-provoking conceptual foundations in order for them to have literary merit. Insert raging debate revolving around semantics of 'literary'/'literature'.

Yes, a book can just be for pure entertainment purposes and still be called a good book. Is what I think.

Also, it's fairly irritating when books are good but have pretty, er, prejudice-attracting covers.

Okay this is now going to be a rant about Rose Wilkins' books So Super Starry and So Super Stylish.
YES I am perfectly aware of how incredibly jaw-crackingly vapid they sound. HEAR ME OUT. ...Or go away, your choice.

Basically the books are about a teenage girl who's the daughter of a star sitcom actress and an acclaimed film director, about celebrity life and stuff. ...shitttt that sounds even more vapid DOES IT NOT.

But these books really are good, in that they're well-written and pretty funny. And there is actual substance in the content! It's not just some slipshod trash that's descriptions of outfits/parties strung together with the very vague semblance of a plot.

Lol I remember getting Elaine to read the first page or something. First sentence was quite "uhh yeah this is vapid-sounding" but then it got BETTER. TOLD YOU.

...That was such a masterpiece of persuasive writing, those above four paragraphs. Eurgh.

It's occurred to me that I've never actually ranted about anything other than school stuff on this blog ... not that I can remember, anyway.

Oh yeah speaking of school, I have a PowerPoint for Mod to make.

Also I'm considering writing a bunch of shit to memorise onto post-it notes and sticking them on my desk/etc. By 'shit to memorise' I mean things like historical dates/acts, Bio crap that's hard to remember, quotes from English texts, etc.

...I wonder if I'll ever do that.

...I think those monologues actually broke my mind.

sticking plastic onto my eyeballs

PUTTING IN CONTACT LENSES MOST ANNOYING THING EVER

i think i mixed up left/right
so i'm swapping them around now
and blogging about it, yes

i wore them to my exam today, then took them out because they felt weird, i suspected i'd gotten them swapped around ... so, hence attempting swap now.

right eye done.
left one to go.

holy mother of batman that was suspiciously simple.
i got both contacts in in about what two minutes ... one minute ...

i'm used to it taking aaaaaaaages.


...okay i think this is the right way around. things feel better / non-blurry/messed-up.
hmm.

yes, i'm documenting  my epic battle against my body's natural reaction to blink whenever something comes perilously close to touching my eyeball. << don't I have such a way with words?

practicing putting in contacts, yes. this is what i'm doing on a saturday night.

... okay i think i'm mastering this
my eyes are hurting from when i take them out though. should cut my nails before i stab myself in the iris ... yes, i had to say that. ...i'd attempt to put a more gruesome description here, except i forgot what the white part's called. cornea? ...that's the clear shell over the eye right. lol idk //yearnineortenscience

"eye jokes don't get much cornea than this"
//shot


OKAY I'VE MASTERED THIS.
three times or so i've managed to get the contacts to stick to my eyeballs on the first attempt.
the key is to use your index finger to stick the lens in and to stare straight ahead and not blink ... yes, fun.

...WOOOOO contact lens mastery okay bye

War es beeindruckend genug?

Goodbye conversation, hello monologue
But first, drawing!

Der Anfang des Endes ist nah

New Blogger layout is blink-making.
Why is the post text input box so small? ... I'm sure there's some more articulate way of saying that but I also think all my ability to artiuclate has gone down the drain. ... Not all. But ... okay I think I'm just ceebs/tired to articulate properly and I am ... sitting here talking about not being able to talk properly.

Hi stalkers, if you be reading. //shot


OH HEY so the post editing box expands. Nice. I approve.

Ich soll etwas auf Deutsch schreiben. Am Samstag habe ich meine mündliche Prüfung für German Continuers, WOOOOO. Ich bin so aufgeregt :p

Freaking energy/bravado drain.

OKAY TIME TO PREPARE FOR GERMAN SPEAKING

look, it's... highschooler career-related naivete or something

Oh my god to be able to work as a full-time illustrator for a gaming group or something, ahhhh
//sounds like awesome not sure if actually is

freeeeaking hell soon as the HSC is over I am going to draw/paint like crazy aaaargh

Cue intensity stare! ...and nervous laughter?

Hahahahha you went through so much crap to get to where you are now, please don't... let it all collapse... and try not to recklessly destroy it.

(:

Prokrastination durch Sprachenstreberei :p

HAHAHAHHAHA
I just did the Transparent Language proficiency tests for German and English. I got 97% - 'intermediate' - for BOTH OF THEM.

...

Got two questions wrong in German, and one of them was a silly mistake which I may have picked up if I'd bothered to re-check my answers. Got one wrong in English, and that one ... not sure if I would've changed my answer. Maybe. Heh.

...OH HEYYY the Chinese proficiency test is in pinyin! I'm going to do that now
...shit. Problem = I don't know the intonation marks. I'm going to be guessing these so bad...
And omg I am so slow with this ;_;

Also, the questions for each test appear to be pretty similar and I think I may be using my knowledge of the subject matter of the German/English ones to help with the Chinese one ahahahha.

...so slowwww. I challenge any fellow Mando peeps to do the Chinese one :p

Also, I'm like saying each question/answer out loud and making weird hand motions to try and understand/answer these. Yes, I'm blogging a running commentary of my attempt at doing a Chinese language proficiency test. You shouldn't be surprised :p

Okay I think I just learned the intonation marks, just from attempting to decipher them in the quiz.

This is the most difficult/brain-power-expending thing I've done today, I think.

OMG Part III Chinese syntax = love ... okay maybe not love but it's a little less painful. I think.

WOOOOOO I could understand the first reading comprehension section relatively painlessly yayyy. ... And the second reading comp passage is terrible ... I ragequitted that and scrolled down to do another question and HOLY SHIZ the last few questions are in actual Chinese characters HAHAHAH DEATH.

...The difference between first reading comp passage and the rest, eurghhh.




FINALLY DONE
81%, Advanced Beginner level, wooo. And haha I blindly guessed one of the Chinese-character ones correctly. ...That was so strenuous.

And willpower would be good. Willpower/happyhigh.

Glasnost and perestroika go together. Like Romeo and Juliet.
Hi.


Hiding in a smart-matter house that can't be hacked, reading YA lit (Westerfeld Reilly Landy Wasserman Horowitz Nix etc etc). Highspeed internet connection with superfast computer loaded with Paint Tool SAI, Photoshop CS4/5, my tablet. Neverending supply of Tim Tams, cookies+cream ice cream, chicken+mushroom risotto, etc. Inspiration. An indoor rock climbing wall. A Cutter hoverboard with a power source that will never run out. A bungee jacket just in case?

Eargasm-inducing music.


-


Fucking vertigo-inducing ATAR.

this wasn't a waste of time at aaaaaaaall :p

I'm bored. I don't know what to blog about. So here's a long stalkery probably pointless quiz ripped off Tumblr, LET'S GO.

Height? between 5 and 6 foot (:
Shoe Size? um...39? going by that standard...the European one? not sure
Sexual Orientation? KINSEY-6-GAY ... I mean, hetero. Probably.
Do you Smoke? noooope
Do you Drink? dihydrogen monoxide, yes (:
Do you Take Drugs? define drugs ;D ...I mean, no
Age you get mistaken for? lololol idk
Have Tattoos? nope
Want any tattoos? no
Got any Piercings? yes
Want any piercings? miiiight get extra ear piercings, probably not though
Best friend? you should know if you are ... or not (:
Relationship status? beneficially antagonistic ;D
Biggest turn ons? ABS. ...kidding. er. good sense of humour (by my definition), good company ... etc. etc. i don't know
Biggest turn offs? ideological incompatibility :p
Favorite Movie? Mulan, Easy A... lololol idk... The Mask of Zorro perhaps? I feel obliged to mention something action-y to break up the comedy/Disney ... oh yeah, The Day After Tomorrow ... Mean Girls!
Favorite music? Silbermond, Taylor Swift, Linkin Park, Tokio Hotel...? and lots of random songs
I’ll love you if? ...I feel like it? :D
Someone you miss? guess :p
Most traumatic experience? Modern History trial paper, Gorbachev Part B :p
A fact about your personality? Apparently I'm straightforward. Hi.
What I hate most about myself? I can overthink stupid things...
What I love most about myself? Lol. I'm pretty happy with how I am overall. So... personality? And being able to remember loads of random shit :p
What I would change about myself? I'd make myself suddenly like exercising and hate junkfood :p ...ok no not really
What I want to be when I get older? tetralingual
My relationship with my sibling(s)? fascinatingly metaphysical...
My relationship with my parents? mostly good?
My idea of a perfect date? hmm, i don't know. but it would involve good food hahahahha... or not. it would involve nice weather, most probably... or not. ...see where this is going?
My biggest pet peeves? er. taking 'pet peeves' to mean like, relatively insignificant things... let's see... I don't now. Annoyingly-designed layouts? Mosquitoes... really loud juniors :p ...and there are heaps more
A description of the girl/boy I like? perplexingly attractive :p ...I was going to write trolololol actually.
A description of the person I dislike the most? i don't think i really dislike anyone heaps now, actually o.0
A reason I’ve lied to a friend? define lie 8DD
What I hate the most about school? I don't really hate anything about school per se... idk, waking up early? but no i really love my school actually (:
What words upset me the most?"Time's up, pens down." ...KIDDING
What words make me the best about myself? what.
A wish that I’ve wished for repeatedly on 11:11? to get into my desired uni course LOL ... but not any more
What I find attractive in boys/girls? awesome sense of humour, good conversationalist, intelligent, reads good books ...
Where I would like to live? in Europe, one day, for some period of time...
One of my insecurities? is appearance-based
My childhood career choice? artist! vet! novelist!
My favorite ice cream? COOKIES AND CREAM OMGGGG
Who I wish I could be? no-one but myself :p
Where I want to be right now? sitting in an Italian ice cream place in Berlin with a massive bowl of stracciatella gelato? 
The last thing I ate? some kind of berry strudel
Sexiest person that comes to my mind immediately? ...myself, obviously.
A random fact about anything? Mikhail Gorbachev went to high school in Krasnogvardeiskoye.

you saw this cominggg... well, you should've

WOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
-spins around in circles-
-crashes into something-
-falls, cursing violently-
-gets back up-

WOOOOOOOO FOUR UNIT IS OVER HAHAHAHHAAAAAA

-

Funnily enough though that's not my dominant/only emotion about the thing. I kinda feel like I've let my baby out into the big bad world ... of some BoS marking centre. Yes I have actually grown attached to my 4U Eng major work in these past few days, despite going through massive periods of hate/etc.

HEHEEE

-

Okay okay focus, do work, etc. Also, gotten 3 out of my 9 trial exams back.

lol hi

FOUR UNIT
ENGLISH

:D

So focussed ... just not on the HSC

I'm really really good at spending time/effort on productive tasks that would be awesome [e.g. drawing] if I didn't have FAR MORE PRESSING TASKS that I had to do [e.g. FREAKING FOUR UNIT ENGLISH]. And yes, post-trials bludge time officially over. The nail in the coffin of détente fun bludgery that I could undertake without feeling too guilty ... the nail being the ... four-unit lesson yesterday. Not that that's a bad thing. Just that, like, now I need to start doing work again and it's ...


not as fun as vegetating? Actually, I don't think the immediate post-trials vegetating was actually that good because I was still in a slump from trials-induced-exhaustion/lethargy or something. But yeah.

Thirsty.

Goodbye trialsssss

The biggest dilemma I am currently facing is whether I can be bothered to convert a sketch of mine into a full-out painting/time-consuming CG, or just be lazy and make it a neater/more-dressed-up sketch. WOOOOO. Annnnd okay shutting up now about the fact that I ... have no more exams until the actual HSC (:

And today I found out that cookies and cream chiller from Gloria Jeans tastes awesome. I thinkkk that is now going to replace my previous default order of Tim Tam chiller.

...MANNNN what an interesting life I lead.

US foreign policy woooooot

D:
OKAY LET US BEGIN

isolationist thingers
- refusal to ratify Treaty of Versailles; refusal to join League of Nations (Congress pwns Wilson)
- refusal to join World Court throughout 20s and 30s (despite having lots of support from Coolidge/FDR/mostofthepress/unions - blocked by Senate Foreign Relations Committee; influence of strongly isolationist Senators such as Huey Long, as well as Hearst-owned press)
- 1921 Emergency Tariff Act (resp to domestic pressures from ailing ag industry)
- 1922 Fordney-McCumber Tariff Act (ditto above)
- 1930 Hawley-Smoot Tariff which was part of ...
- retreat from world during Great Depression (screw off, we have our own domestic problems to deal with)
- 1933 World Economic Conference: FDR 'no we're not cooperating with you we're doing our own thing'
- 1935 Neutrality Act banned sale of munitions to belligerent nations
- 1936 Neutrality Act banned loans to belligerents
- 1937 Neutrality Act expanded previous acts' provisions to include civil war (thanks to Spanish Civil War, which started in 1936??); banned US citizens from travelling on belligerent ships; cash and carry
- 1937 Gallup poll shows that 97% of USians think foreing policy should be geared toward staying out of wars instead of helping them break out in first place
- 1938 Ludlow Amendment ALMOST PASSED in Congress (decision to participate in war decided by popular referendem instead of by president)

not isolationist! ish
- 1921-22 Washington Disarmament Conferences ... OMFG
---four power treaty (us/uk/brit/jap); maintain status quo in pacific, confer with other nations in event of one nation being aggressive in that area
---five power treaty (us/uk/brit/jap/ita); limit tonnage of navies
---nine power treaty; established open door policies RE China as international law; USA worried about China being colonised; but recognised Japan's particular interest in Manchuria
------ BUT these treaties were all toothless with no power of sanctions against defaulting signatories, so ner. evidence of vaguely isolationist thing still? and this goes also for:
- 1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact: renounced war as method of settling international disputes, tis for self-defence only - toothless, shown by US lack of action when Japan invaded Manchuria 1931
- 1924 Dawes Plan and 1929 Young Plan; reparations repayment plans for Germany offering scaled down reps and a $250m loan??? in Dawes; Young got killed by Great Crash/Depression
- 1934 Import-Export Bank providing loans to foreigners wishing to buy US products
- 1934 Reciprocal Trade Agreements whereby tariffs are reduced 50% for 'most favoured nations'
---above two: Cordell Hull recognising crappiness of tariffs, thinks trade = good
- 1937 Cash and Carry Act designed to help Britain
- 1937 FDR's quarantine speech; trying to push people toward accepting involvement in upcoming war; he was highly aware of isolationist sentiment, vaguely distanced himself from contents of speech when asked about it the next day
- 1939 renewal of '37 CC Act
- repeal of 1935 and 1937 Neutrality Acts
- 1940 ARSENAL OF DEMOCRACY fireside chat
- 1941 Lend Lease Act; allows lending of war materials to Britain
- 1941 Atlantic Charter; joint declaration with Churchill after meeting with Britain and other Allies about vision for post-war world (international peace, self-determination etc.); essentially statement of US war plans; had to ease concerns of Americans anxious of fighting a war with USSR as ally, so be like 'post-war won't involve trading away democracy/freedom', justified helping USSR
---HOWEVER FDR refuses to declare war, but says he'll look for an 'incident' to allow him to do so or something aaaaaaand he extends Lend Lease to USSR ... and is reluctant to commit to international organisation to promote peace in post-war world
- 1941 undeclared naval war with Germany in Atlantic; escorting British ships to midpoint of Atlantic, patrolling for U-boats, occupying Greenland and Iceland bases to stop them becoming German U-boat harbours
- 1941 attempts to limit Japanese expansion; Hull meets with Ambassador Kichisaburo and tries to get Japan to withdraw from China and leave European colonies in SE Asia alone; later Congress limits supplies of oil, scrap iron and machine tools to Japan, eventually issuing an oil embargo and freezing Japanese assets in USA
- Japan dependent on US oil so... problem. decides to knock USA out of war in Pacific so it can't stop Japan from taking SE Asia and its oil supplies
- 7 January 1941 - PEARL HARBOUR ATTACK; USA declares war on Japan the following day



FRIGGING HELL
oh yeah and like by 1933 all the Allies but Finland had stopped paying their war debts due to the Great Depression; USA angry, passed 1934 Johnson Act which forbade the granting of govt loans to foreign govts who were in default for their debts

gorby gorby gorby, part A spam and sort of a tiny bit of part-B-relevant stuff

MIKHAIL SERGEYEVICH GORBACHEV
- born 1931 in North Caucasian village of Privolnoye in the Krasnogvardeysk region of Stavropol Krai to a Russian-Ukrainian farming family
- like many other Russian viallages, Privolnoye experienced the hardships/costs of Stalin's collectivisation regime; by Gorby's own estimate, half his extended family died in the artificially created famine of 1931-32
- personally affected by purges; paternal grandfather Andrei sent to Irkutsk, Siberia to chop wood; maternal grandfather Pantelei Gopkolo arrested, imprisoned and interrogated for 14 months; when he returned, Gorby's house was a 'plague house' avoided by others in the village as a house of an 'enemy of the people'
- worked in the fields with his mother; villagers ascribe Gorby's confident/outspoken manner to influence of mother's personality
- attended high school in town of Krasnogvardeiskoye, 10 miles walk away; high achiever, would correct teachers in Russian history classes; grades were all 5 (equiv of A) except for 4 in German
- worked in the fields with combines during his teenage years
- 1949 he and comrades at the tractor-machine station awarded Order of the Red Banner of Labour for their part in that year's awesome harvest
- during high school he joined the Komsomol (Communist youth league for 14-28yo)
- after high school, won a place at Moscow State University studying law

- 1950 became candidate member of CPSU
- 1955 graduated with law degree; returned to Stavropol with wife Raisa, whom he'd met and married during uni; short stint at state prosecutor's office before returning to politics, quickly becoming leader of the Stavropol City Komsomol
- 1961 becomes leader of Stavropol Krai Komsomol
- 1962 becomes organiser for Stavropol Agricultural Unit; around this time forms a mentoring relationship under the wing of Fyodor Kulakov (friend in high place); is a delegate to 22nd Communist Party Congress
- 1962-68 earns agricultural economics degree
- 1970 becomes First Secretary of the Stavropol Regional Committee; head of entire Stavropol Krai; with help of Kulakov, at this time the national head of agriculture
- 1971 elected to Central Committee
- 1975 we see Gorby's influence growing; leads delegation to West Germany at the invitation of a local communist group
- 1978 Kulakov dies, Gorby replaces him as Central Committee Secretary for Agriculture?
- 1980 becomes member of Politburo
- 1982 Andropov becomes General Secretary of CPSU, makes Gorby his personal assistant (Gorby had rep for incorruptibility), grooms him to be his successor
- 1984 Andropov dies, is replaced by Chernenko; Gorby personally recommends Chernenko instead of trying to take power himself, looks good in eyes of Old Guard
- 1985 Chernenko dies, Gorbachev chosen as General Secretary of CPSU



FFFFFFFFF
- 1985 summit in Geneva with Ronald Reagan; the start of their wonderful friendship nice relatively peaceful-ish and cooperative relationship (which is full like <3333 compared with previous superpower leader relations... sort of...); not much is achieved though, mainly talked about nonmilitary matters... BUT good sign of talking!
- 1986 Reykjavik, Iceland; another Reagan/Gorby summit; humanises the leaders in each others' eyes
- 1988 Reagan visits Moscow, when asked by journalist if he still considers USSR to be an 'evil empire' he says no, that was 'another time'; when asked who deserved credit for perestroika/glasnost/changesinUSSR, he replied that Gorby did (Matlock says this contributed to Gorby's popularity more than any other single event)

blahhhhhh.
Gorby was apparently idolised in the West, especially in USA, media called it 'Gorbymania'
1987 TIME Man of the Year
compared with previous Soviet leaders, Gorby appears friendly/trustworthy/cooperative; the average American citizen saw him as dismantling communism, ending Cold War, and as ultimate proof that US democracy and capitalism wins over communism ... OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT

Andrey Grachev: 'the end of the Cold War is justly associated with the name of Mikhail Gorbachev'

Glasnost/opennness: reduced censorship, encourage open discussion that would hopefully lead to reform that would improve/perfect Soviet system - originally intended to be an economic policy?????? Gorby thought that the open discussion would allow Soviet economy to be fixed, or something??? BUT the people interpreted it as freedom of speech/discussion, as a social policy. People criticised Stalin's regime, talked openly of purges/gulags/collectivisation. Once-banned literature was circulated.

Perestroika: 'restrucuturing' of economy; attempt to introduce some market features ... but this didn't work. Opposition from above: nomenklatura (ruling class) didn't like it ... specific reason why: [I can't remember] ... so they just didn't implement his reforms and carried on with old command system???? Opposition from below: people had gotten used to the old system, didn't want to have to deal with price rises (improved services, sure... but market prices! nooo!) or something ... generally believed that perestroika failed because it 'didn't go far enough' so you got this awkward part-market part-command economy that flailed. And to deal with this flailing/inefficiency, people turned to old methods like ... barter/black market ... and people were unhappy ... which probably led to the whole 'GORBY SUCKS' thing ...


Eastern Europe: repudiation of Brezhnev Doctrine, let them do their own thing; largely contributed to collapse of USSR/end of Cold War? - Gorby didn't intervene due to economic reasons (USSR's own problems so great he wasn't able to do much??? idk) and foreign policy reasons (he wouldn't be able to maintain the :D relationship with the West if he went all Brezhnev and used force to keep communist regimes in Eastern Europe in power)

Nice relations w/US also contributed to end of Cold War

Glasnost and perestroika also contributed to collapse of USSR, but unlike the nice relations with USA/West ... this wasn't deliberate. He didn't meant to kill USSR, he wanted to perfect it, was a true believer in socialism, etc. ... attempted to be a reformer, became an accidental revolutionary. Or something.

Glasnost/perestroika = example of the events running away from him, sweeping him along... he had no control over... glasnost, at least. Unleashed a democratic flood! A flood of criticism from the people of the USSR/Gorby himself...


Relations with USA: apparently they were good because he acquiesced/cooperated/agreed with Reagan a lot of the time, so it's arguable if Gorby did anything. Or something. The awesomeness was that he allowed himself to be acted upon, the fact that he cooperated, rather than him actually actively doing stuff in their dealings... ish. Idk.

Bad for USSR, good for world? xD
Deserves credit for allowing USSR to collapse in a peaceful way / overseeing Cold War's end in a peaceful way

Huge polarised opinions about him show that significance of individuals in history / their being remembered depends not on judging how good their deeds were, just how big the impact they had was ... or something??? Couuld be 'bad' impact, could be 'good' ... ?

Eeeeeeeeee part B.




//disclaimer: don't take any of this as accurate, it's panicked revision spam (:

Trials are ideologically painful. i.e. don't procrastinate

Lolololololol Cold War dev to 1968 syllabus area completed in two hours? Sure I can do that. Sure. Sure. Or attempt to, anyway. Lol trials.

badger time!

About a year ago I did this amazingly long / scientific-seeming Sorting Hat quiz: [link]
On like a 0-100 thing, I got 70 for Gryffindor and 66 for everything else.
I just did the quiz again, and my new results aaaaaaaare...

HUFFLEPUFF: 72
Gryffindor: 69
Ravenclaw: 67
Slytherin: 51

I TURNED INTO A HUFFLEPUFF
HAHAHAHAHAHHA
Though of course...unsure about accuracy, some of the questions I was unsure how to answer. And I didn't want to spend more time thinking about them because the quiz took like an eon. Oh and yes, I do have trials starting tomorrow. No, you really don't want to stab me now (:

-runs and hides-

oh yeah and trials begin in three days HAHAHAH

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWPobcJ19Og&feature=related
^ aka the song from the watermelon stairs vid
it, among other things, makes me so freaking happyyyy <3

You know what makes me happy? When I watch vids of singers performing live and seeing/hearing that they're decent live, as well as on record. Also, musicians performing to playback is annoying... to me.

The penultimate day of the holidays before trials begin

...is when I actually start studying properly and being productive for most of the day as opposed to spending it procrastinating, or sitting around trying to do work and just complaining instead...yep. I did sleep in for a bit, however the rest of the day was spent reading roughly half of the USA textbook which is actually pretty awesome, just as a certain Xerxes promised.

^ That's such an interesting paragraph, ffff.

Anyone heard Avril's song "Smile"?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqCj9a_DSBc

Lyrics-wise, I only like the chorus. Everything else pisses me off because it sounds bratty and spoilt in a non-good way (man I'm such an excellent critic, look at that shining example of eloquence right there). When I first heard the song, I was just like '...' at the first verse.

HOWEVER. The chorus is nice. I like it. Not amazing words, but they're cute/nice.

Sound-wise ... I pretty much like the whole song, hahahahhaa. IT SOUNDS GOOD! ...To me. And that is why I on the whole really like this song and have been somewhat addicted to it for the past couple of days, despite the kinda brainless "rargh i'm a crazy bitch whatever" lyrics.

And despite the fact that the bridge is just a recycling of the first verse. Which... I don't know. Not a bad thing per se but I just don't like the first verse. The second verse is a bit more bearable, and it's kind of funny. ...It just wouldn't be funny if it actually happened, waking up with a random tattoo...

QC love

As my regular readers may or may not know, I have somewhat recently become OBSESSED with Jeph Jacques' webcomic: QUESTIONABLE CONTENT.

It is awesome and you should read it because
- it is funny (:
- the plot is fairly engaging/interesting... not heaps complex/deep, but that means this is good stress relief reading (:
- most of the characters have distinctive personalities that are nicely developed (i.e. the cast isn't a complete congregation of 2D cutouts)
- watching the art progression is pretty cool
- I'm recommending it and we all know I am the ultimate connoisseur of everything amazing cough

It's continuous/sequential, so you might want to start from the beginning.

It updates daily Monday to Friday. And ever since catching up on all the previous comics... well, now I have to wait for Jacques to actually draw/post them and there is a HOLE IN MY SOUL every time the weekends roll around and I DO NOT GET MY QC FIX AARGH.

But okay I just read a few articles on QC wiki and I need to NEVER GO ON THAT SITE AGAIN, it sucks up all this time but I don't even enjoy reading it wth ... it's like tvtropes but kinda worse. And incredibly useless. Also I should go find some German podcasts or something.

you-ess-ay legislation from 1920s RE $$$

Okay okay holy crap quarter-way through holidays, though essentially half I guess because no way I'm going to be studying properly EVERY SINGLE DAY soooooo sdlkffjfffffffffff

US's agriculture problem, something like... during WWI, govt guaranteed high prices for farmers and gave them loans for them to produce more and modernise their methods...? Then the price guarantees ended with the end of the war and the farmers had ... surplus produce ... and needed to pay off their loans? ... once upon a time I knew this properly.

1921 Emergency Tariff Act
Farm Bloc lobbied govt to impose tariffs to help US farmers, this was the result - tariffs on what 28 agricultural products? Yes 28 wooo historical detail.

1930 Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act
Hoover! ...attempting to deal with Great Depression. Implemented high tariffs on foreign imports in attempt to protect US economy from ze Great Depression... I think what happened was ... this choked off foreign economies, who then retaliated with tariffs of their own, thus further spreading Depression around the world??

1921 Revenue Act
Reduced income tax, especially for the wealthy. Highest tax = 65% down to 50% ... example of Republican belief in Hamiltonian trickle-down principles? Wealth in hands of those at the top - the rich - will be spent and thus stimulate economy and further the wellbeing of everyone else or something like that. But the rich used the money to invest, instead of spending so...

1926 Revenue Act
Reduced in heritance tax and lowered max rate of income tax to 20%

1921 Budget and Accounting Act
essentially forced Treasury Dept to balance budget; trad Republican economic ideal of balanced budget???

1922 Fordney-McCumber Tariff Act
...more tariffs. Highest tariffs in history on manufactured goods + preserved the tariffs of the 1921 Emergency Tariff Act ... choked European markets! tariffs had an adverse effect because ... it robbed the farmers of a market with which they could get rid of their surplus produce, it caused other countries to retaliate with tariffs of their own and thus spread effects of Depression and ... something ...

So. Not checking notes...
1921 Emergency Tariff Act
1930 Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act (Hoover trying to deal with Depression)
1921 Revenue Act - lowered income tax, esp for rich, 65% down to 50%
1926 Revenue Act - lowered in heritance tax and income tax, max rate was 20%
1922 Fordney-McCumber Tariff Act - historically amazingly  high tariffs on manufactured goods and kept tariff levels of the 1921 Emergency Tariff Act ...
YEAH OKAY I CAN REMEMBER THAT.[/memoryspew]

Oh right yeah 1921... Budget and Accounting Act. Budget and Accounting Act of 1921 made Treas Dept balance budget. Okaaaaay...


oh yeah also these are talking-to-self study blogposts from someone who ... just ... okay you can tell how reliable these notes are by the sheer number of ellipses that appear here so yes //disclaimer

circumflex x2

The post-assessment days before the hols start and I gotta get my shit together and hit the books for trials.
<3

English

This is the part of the stupid stamina run where I slow to an almost-halt, lungs burning, and keep stumbling along at a zombie-walk ... oh it is so tempting to just collapse on the track right here. The finish line is RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME and yet ...

//brainshuttingdowninprotest

supersizemeeee thoughts

I just finished watching Morgan Spurlock's 2003 documentary Super Size Me. Various thoughts of mine during/after film, numbered for your convenience notreally... gives this a semblance of order, but really these are just random.

1. Damn I want McDonalds now ... no. Not any more.

2. Mmm chicken nuggets ... ewwwwww chicken nuggets, I am now going to attempt to avoid chicken nuggets (and sausages) now

3. WHY DOES FAST FOOD TASTE SO GOOD EURGH

4. I'm glad I don't actually like soft drinks much.

5. If I ever become some kind of illustrator/cool graphicsy person, I am not going to do advertising/marketing work for fast foods. Or just non-healthy foods. Or maybe I will, if I happen to be REALLY REALLY BROKE or if my life depended on it but I really don't want to use any skills/etc I have to promote something that's actually shit for your health. ...This is now spiralling into a general pseudo-manifesto thing regarding advertising/etc. - I do not want to do work for anything I personally find sufficiently reprehensible. Also, if I ever ever ever happen to get amazingly famous and asked to do product endorsements, I will not do them unless I actually like/approve of the product and it's not something health-harming.

6. Lol fast food, shit, I think I'm going to attempt to not eat at KFC/McDonalds so much when I go out now hahahhaha

7. Vegetarianism. Maybe I will seriously take a crack at it one day ... more seriously.

8. I need exercise. After HSC I will get some kind of regular exercise thing going. And now I should stop eating so much junk food ... yeah ...


...lol crap I'm not used to posting blog posts that have this much thought in them, which of course just shows how much thoughts most of my entries normally have.

x_X

Frigging ... stupid ... extended stamina run for English ...

Do not say anything

ENGLISH ENGLISH ENGLISH ENGLISH I LOVE YOU SO MUCH ENGLISH, TILL DEATH DO US PART, EITHER YOUR DETERMINED DEATH ON HALLOWEEN OR MY DEATH AT YOUR LOVING HANDS BEFORE THAT DATE OMG ENGLISH /stake

Vivo per lei // german half

Ich leb' für sie, genau wie du
Leben wir ohne sie kein Leben
Sie ist in mir, was ich auch tu'
Sie gibt mir Halt und lässt mich schweben
Sie hilft mir, alles zu verzeihen
Würde mich nicht [...] befreien
[...]
Ich lebe für sie

[...] finde ich nicht wieder

Ich leb' für sie, in Glück und Schmerz
Werd' sie zu mein ... ?
Manchmal erschüttert sie mein Herz

Ich...lerne...ja.

Bald habe ich eine Deutschprüfung! Wunderbar! Es ist nicht Schreiben, Lesen oder Hören, sondern ... SPRECHEN! Und außerdem ist es LEISTUNGSKURSDEUTSCH! Fantastisch! Ich bin so aufgeregt! :D

... Ich prokrastiniere. Also. Es gibt viele Worte, die ich lernen/wissen muss.

die Diskriminierung = discrimination
etw. als selbstverständlich betrachten = to take sth. for granted
vollkommen = completely, utterly, etc.
überfordert = overwhelmed
zu etw. führen = to lead to sth.

Das nerviges Problem mit Sprechenprüfungen ist, dass es irgendwie schwer zu üben ist, wenn man allein ist. UND JETZT BIN ICH ALLEIN, SO ALLEIN ... ich will zugehören! Im Moment habe ich niemand, mit dem ich Deutsch sprechen kann und es ist ziemlich lästig. Ich fühle mich ein kleines bisschen albern, wenn ich Selbstsgepräche führe ... interessante Ausdruck, "Selbstgespräche führen"...

Motivation.

verbessern = to improve
verschärfen = to exacerbate

Heute stehen viele junge Leute unter Stress auf Grund solche Sachen wie Gruppenzwang, etc. etc... Die Menge von Hausarbeit und das furchtbare Ding namens "HSC" können diese Situation nur verschärfen!!

...Don't take that seriously, it was just random bullshit XD

Wir mussen den Vorschriften entsprechen. Ich muss mich nach dem Gesellschaftssystem richten.
etw. entsprechen - to conform to sth
sich nach etw. richten - ditto above

in mancher Hinsicht = in some respects
in jeder Hinsicht = in all respects

verschärfen, verschärfen...
verschlimmern

zu einem Anstieg führen = to lead to an increase
Stress abbauen = to reduce/alleviate Stress
erleiden = to suffer

aufrechterhalten = to maintain
Es ist wichtig, gute Beziehungen mit anderen Menschen aufrechtzuhalten.
aufrechthalten aufrechthalten aufrechthalten

beneficial: vorteilhaft, günstig
gut fürs Geschäft - good for business
gut für die Gesundheit - beneficial to health

schädliche Auswirkungen - damaging impacts
verursachen - to cause
Es ist wissenschaftlich bewiesen worden, dass Rauchen schädliche Auswirkungen auf die Gesundheit hat. Es verursacht viele Krankheiten, zum Beispiel Lungenkrebs.

erhöhern, vergrößern - to increase
abnehmen - to decrease

umso - all the more

Je mehr man lernt, desto deutlicher wird es, wie viel man nicht weißt...?


...I can feel the confidence draining away with every word I speak...

Backup career:

I've decided if I'm short of money any time in my life or something, I'm going to take a shot at writing hack novels. You know, those generic brainless purely-for-entertainment paperbacks that have not an iota of depth. Or even just to make some extra dollarzzzzz.

:D HAHAHA I AM SO COOL
//aftermath of ext2eng sprint-marathon

Mindblowing moment of today:

I found out that "renege" is apparently pronounced "ren-egg" or "ren-ig". Can I just say, WHY IS THERE AN 'E' THERE ON THE END THEN? I know, I'm implying that English spelling has some kind of logic, but whatever. Seriously that looks like a French derivative or something, I've actually been saying "renezh" (or things similar) all my life. Which I personally think sounds so much better... yeah okay back to 4u now. Stop laughing/staring at me.

Guys...

I have a plot for 4u I have a plot for 4u I have a plot for 4u
I have a plot for 4u I have a plot for 4u I have a plot for 4u
I have a plot for 4u I have a plot for 4u I have a plot for 4u 
I have a plot for 4u I have a plot for 4u I have a plot for 4u
I have a plot for 4u I have a plot for 4u I have a plot for 4u 
I have a plot for 4u I have a plot for 4u I have a plot for 4u
I have a plot for 4u I have a plot for 4u I have a plot for 4u 
I have a plot for 4u I have a plot for 4u I have a plot for 4u 
I have a plot for 4u I have a plot for 4u I have a plot for 4u
I have a plot for 4u I have a plot for 4u I have a plot for 4u 
I have a plot for 4u I have a plot for 4u I have a plot for 4u
I have a plot for 4u I have a plot for 4u I have a plot for 4u 

!!!!!!!!


in other news, http://youknowyouareaustralianwhen.tumblr.com
now, it's not weird at all that things like this make me feel all Aussie-pride-y, is it? i'm getting this feeling of belonging/vaguenostalgia when reading this blog. because i'm just so cool like that.

Ich finde alte Geschichtsbücher interessant.

The name Adenauer sounds kind of badass to me. Also I have a cold. Damnit. And one of the only reasons I'm writing this post now is to kick off the inane mundanity of the last post from top position on this blog.

I find old history books oddly interesting, especially ones from the latter half of last century I guess - recent enough for them not to be like 'omg ancient' but... old enough for you to find them kind of quirky. E.g. I found this book published in, what, the fifties? saying that the USSR started the Cold War. Also, I've a book on my desk from the 70s and when it's talking in present tense about events in the 70s... it's... strangely fascinating/notable? Yeah. And I think to myself things like "hey, when this was written, Germany was still divided into two, the Cold War was still going on..." and it's funny when you're searching for a particular historical event in the index and then you realise that, at the book's time of publication, that hadn't even happened yet.

DINNERRRRRR and I want to have a somewhat-at-least-partway-decent scaffold/plan for Mod before I fall asleep today. Challenge time yay.

Gastronomic details of my exciting life part 1

I just ate a bowl of mung beans. Literally. I can totally see my 8-year-old self cringing in disgust... also, I think I tipped enough sugar into the khaki-green amalgamation of supposedly awesome health benefits to negate all said health benefits. Oops.

In other news, I have a foetal thesis. As in, a thesis in its early stages of development, not a thesis concerning foetuses. In case you thought otherwise.

Raptus regaliter

Modern History. I feel so screwed. Insert academic wangst here. Stupid... stupid... etc.

Being productive is nice hahahaha

I just had an "OMGHAPPY" squee moment when I saw that the CSU HSC Online site has material on the Cold War option for ISPC. THIS IS HOW I AM DERIVING MY HAPPINESS THESE DAYS?
...and I just typed 'these' and thought of 'theses'/'thesis'.

I love CSU HSC Online <3

The words "simple" and "polypeptide synthesis" do not ever go together in a sentence. Such an insinuation would be blasphemous to the massive headaches/confusion induced by that horrible process involving mRNA transcription and then translation via ribosomes/tRNA... ribosomes bring tRNA, which on one end have anticodons that match up to the codons on the mRNA strand, and on the other end they have an amino acid? And as the amino acids line up, an enzyme or something comes and stitches them together to form a polypeptide strand?? //donottakethisascorrect

I've decided that I kinda like 'tetra-' more than 'quad-' as a prefix. Sounds cooler. To me. Cough.

...I just typed '11' instead of '12' when writing my class at the top of a document. Gah/denialsymbolism.

You know what's a really nice song? Ich Bereue Nichts by Silbermond. Also the Italian/German Vivo Per Lei by Andrea Bocelli and Judy Weiss, and also Glee's Pretending.

Okay I thinkkk I've reviewed all the first hand investigations found in the syllabus for the topics we'll be tested on for the upcoming Bio prac test. ...That sounded convoluted. But yes.

Now I feel like... 'omg I need to do Modern now, there's no avoiding it' hahaha. Or I could practice German speaking. But no, I think I'd better keep meandering down the path toward a thesis for Modern...heh.

This blog post was not written in one sitting. It's more of a sporadic collection of thoughts so hence the abundant non sequiturs yayyyy.

Maths, or: yeah yeah go on and laugh at me (:

Never underestimate how badly your mathematical ability can degrade if you
i. dropped maths two years ago
ii. never liked the subject much
iii. never had much mathematical ability in the first place
iv. the only maths you do is when you go shopping / try to make 10/24 from train carriage numbers

...this is soooo bad. Whenever I see anything maths-related in Bio my brain just grinds to a halt. I think my maths knowledge/capacity has dropped to like year-3 level or something, which is... fairly embarrassing.

In other news, I've reviewed almost all the FH investigations in the syllabus for the sections that are going to be in the prac exam or something like that, so yay.

Obnoxious!

Monday's exams were... how shall we put it... horrific in the context of our sheltered little high school bubble. Yeah. I want to visit Berlin someday. Also I've decided I like German Extension empathy tasks now and I kind of don't like the analysis section. Or the monologue. Or the essay. Yep, all I like are the empathy tasks, which are RP-rants. It's nice. Andandandandand... I wish I had a fluent-German-speaking clone of myself that I could summon into existence at will to practice my speaking with. And I've done nothing tonight except read a few pages from books I borrowed for my Mod speech... [insert whining rant here]

Sawcy pedantique wretch signing off. Kudos to you if you get the reference and I suppose that statement still stands if you don't get the ref... for pedantic at least. Cough.

P.S. I am only blogging now due to procrastination and because people have told me to blog more so you guys should feel so so so honoured. If it weren't for you I'd probably have already backspaced/deleted this entry because of how pointless it sounds to me. And now I sound obnoxious so I will shut up (:

Less than 48 hours to go, and...

I'm happy because for the past couple of days Blogger hasn't been showing up/working properly for me when I use Firefox but just now IT WORKS AGAIN YAY. Yes I'm a stubborn git who doesn't want to change to Chrome/anyotherbrowser for the moment.

In other news, Hamlet. Still haven't finished rereading the play - I mean, reading. Because I never properly read it the first time sooo yes. I think I'm vaguely enjoying myself. NEVER MIND that I do not have a sufficiently coherent/awesome thesis/opinion of what I think the play is about yet and never mind I haven't properly done my studying for Bio which is ALSO ON MONDAY HAHAHAH.

...and yes holy crap wow I blogged two days in a row, these days this is something of a cause for celebration! Champagne Chocolate, please.

blaaaaaaaaaaaag

Today I tried making some maths pun out of lines from Hamlet and failed. One day I will learn maths just so I can make/understand maths puns.

...HAHAH NO JUST KIDDING

Feel obliged to type some long deep interesting thing here but not really. I've got vague not-really-jokes about having a weekend rendezvous with the Prince of Denmark spinning around my head, but now I just thought of the actual current prince of Denmark and that's just weird instead of funny in the HSC-related funny. I want/need to find more German music. Massive block of assessments beginning very soon. Biology, huzzah. Ew. Genetics. You know reading worksheets becomes suddenly funny if in your mind you substitute 'genes' with 'jeans'? Try it haha. Ermmmm yep my mind is empty of anything interesting to say now. Let's see. 

Yep okay totally out of interesting things I want to say, not that the rest of this entry was very interesting at all. 

I think I have a feeling that something important happened in 1968 but I can't remember what it is. Weren't a crapload of important things going on then? Wait... um... revolutions or revolts in places or... some Arab/Israeli conflict? 

Cuban Missile Crisis 1962, thirteen days, ended with Khrushchev taking missiles away from Cuba and Kennedy also took missiles out of Turkey.

Did you know Nebraska's like known for producing beef/corn? I knew the corn thing, do you know how I knew that, it was from this book called Chasing the Falconers by Gordon Korman who is by the way awesome at writing adventure stories. It is the only book I remember that mentioned Nebraska in it and I remember a lot of corn fields or something...

Yes that is an example of how I know all this random crap.

I think I'm lacking in actual in-depth knowledge of stuff though yep.

I can't believe I just wrote this and if you read all of this, congrats.

three letters, what three letters?

To begin with a ten-minute conversation and to end with short responses plus three essay-ish monsters.
And preluded by eight kays of crippling creativity and fifteen hundred words of something-like-declamation.

(:


p.s. no there is no meaning to the caplsocked madness talking-to-self in my shoutbox, i just felt like kicking the old messages out of sight a bit :D ...Hamlet!

I will blink at you

Pretend there is this insanely happy and optimistic and interesting post here (:

Okay I've done nothing in the past 25 minutes. Nothing. Nothinggggggg. On the other hand, I've 400 words of my 4U report *fistpump*

...What, did you think I wouldn't talk about school for once? And now I'm going to type in a block because excessive spacing is annoying me. What's it called, line breaks? Yeah. Now I'm thinking kerning/leading! Visual design class and typography. And why yes this is turning into a stream of consciousness thing I suppose. And now that stream has just ground to a halt. Er. I'm sitting here with my hands on the keyboard listening to Juli's "Immer Wenn Es Dunkel Wird" which is a nice song but can be incredibly depressing. Now I'm thinking of songs which can be taken in a depressing way lyricswise but sound really nice/happy. Sometimes I lie in bed at night when I'm meant to be going to sleep and listen to songs and imagine music videos for them in my head. It's kinda fun. I might draw them one day, just a series of frames or something. That reminds me, I spent last night making a lyric video. It was kind of fun actually.

Okayyyy make that 42 minutes in which I haven't done anything I am remotely proud of at all. Wow. This is bad. Time to do work, or at least bludge in a more awesome way.

Agent Regen reporting in yeahhh

Today I ate an incredibly traumatisingly sour plum.

I can now say I have completed Bio notes for 9.2 Maintaining a Balance and 9.3 Blueprint of Life. Also, the first section of Mod core topic, WWI. Doesn't that sound like heaps of productivity? Actually it's not, because I'd already made most of my notes for Bio previously, and all the Mod note-taking consisted of copying stuff from the study guide which I'd written for an assessment in Term 4 '10.

But hey, it's something. (A really small something.)

I also spent over an hour or so playing many rounds of isketch, some in English and some in German (vaguely educational procrastination! very very vaguely).

And look, April is half over already. Feel free to watch as I fall to my knees and supplicate to the heavens with all the raw energy and melodrama which I fail to exhibit in real life.

prompt 32

The blindfold is too tight, wrapped around your skull like a headache, knotted with a vicious tug, pressing against your eyes. Hands grab you by the arms and make you walk, stumble, tripping over ancient floorboards plastered with dust and the occasional rusty, loosened nail that threatens to rip open the already-scarred and scabbed-over skin of your bare feet. An abrupt halt, and somewhere in front of you a door is kicked open. You've barely registered the sudden light when the hands violently pitch you forwards without warning. Ejected like a defective product of the machine.

There's still the instinct to stick out your arms to break the fall. But there's also still the straitjacket that locks your arms to your body, that's been constricting your breathing and your movement for the past hell-knows-how-many days.

So you just fall, making sure to twist and curl so you land on your side, relatively unscathed.

The ground is hard, cold, cracked tiles that are now as familiar as the dull ache in your shoulders and the numbness in your arms. You can tell now that the light isn't from outside, isn't from that thing hanging in the sky whose name was once spoken outside of fairy tales and urban legends steeped in black humour and disbelief. This is the same harsh, heat-less light from fluorescent bars that has lit your world for as long as you can remember.

The voices, though, are different.




---
http://www.creativewritingprompts.com/#
The prompt was "You're in a room full of people and you're the only blind person there. Describe the room and the people in your mind." (...yes yes major mutation of prompt)

i've survived another year now congratulate meeee

First of all, thanks guys for the birthday wishes/gifts/awesomeness (:
Second of all, you know something's up when you resort to Plinky for things to blog about.

If you had your own television show, what would it be about?
I never want my own TV show. The closest I would ever want would be my own YT channel and what would be on it would probably be exciting things like sped-up drawing vids and egocentric vlogs... if I ever got over how much I hate listening to my own voice in recordings.

What's the oldest thing you own?
I'd say my body, but actually that's not true. I kind of own a watch that used to belong to my dad. EXCITING, I KNOW! Now if this were a YA fiction story then the watch would turn out to be some awesome heirloom or... something related to a secret family past or... whatever. But no, I'm pretty sure it's just a watch. Old enough that you wind it up. I happen to have broken it accidentally, by the way. Because I'm so pro.

Name three things that are worth waiting in long lines for.
1. BOOOKS OMG BOOKS
2. Linkin Park concerts. Not that I ever lined up for one. But you know.
3. Free cash giveaways

When was the last time you received a handwritten letter via snail mail?
Four years ago? Hahaha.

Describe your most recent shopping splurge.
It was my birthday and I gorged myself on food and cold beverages, i.e. KFC and EasyWay

If you could have dinner anywhere in the world tonight, where would you go?
BERLIN and I'd drag a friend with me

Describe a time when you performed a random act of kindness.
I overheard a girl talking to someone about a historical person whose name she could spell but couldn't pronounce and midway through her spelling it I whipped round like the stalker I am and proffered 'CHE GUEVARA?', thus gallantly helping her out of that... phonological abyss! Such a helpful soul I am. I know. Give me a trophy.

Did you pull any pranks on April Fool's Day? Did you fall for any?
No and yes


Urghhh okay I'm never doing that again... for the next... few weeks/months... soooo brainlesssss.
//cue sound of air whistling around profoundly empty cranium

I would totally be like "I can't believe people read this stuff I write" except for the fact that I happen to enjoy reading random crap like this written by others. So I'm assuming at least someone will derive amusement from reading this entry of mine. Hopefully more than I got from writing it?




Oh look time to write a study timetable. I'm having trouble figuring out which subjects are my worst... "everything except German"! ...yeah faith. No seriously the recent round of assessments [and results] have messed up my faith in my academic ability and whining about it in a blog entry is tooootally going to remedy that (:

mit ein paar worten

*takes leaf from Lia's book*
Who reads this blog?

I don't want to prepare my monologue for ExtGerman
Did I mention ExtGerman freaking freaks me out
When I look at the past HSC papers = aaagh
Yeah I know go ahead and punch me

Okay jetzt ist es Zeit, meine Rede über Werbung fertig zu machen und dann muss ich üben. Ja, ich weiß, fantastisch, oder?

Ich habe den Verdacht, dass...

Well clearly I'm feeling very wise at the moment.

Do not attempt to crush an aluminium drink can by stamping on it and then lose your nerve partway through, because then not only have you done something loud and conspicuous, you will have failed in your goal of reducing the can to a nice thin disc.

Do not ever ever ever ever ever ignore the parameters of an essay/exam question.

Do not leave yourself less than a week to write an English Extension 1 creative. Or any English thing, for that matter.

Always check if you've left your USB behind at a computer.

Never drop your trainsport passes into a crack between train seat and wall.

Don't listen to an mp3 player while buying stuff because there is a chance you will mishear what the cashier said and make a fool of yourself.

Always proofread everything you type/write/etc. Multiple times.

Save your work obsessively.

Back up your work. Email it to yourself. Stick it on Dropbox, etc.

Do not zone out in class. Or if you do, review the work when you get home.

Do not make all your notes for science in the few days right before an exam. Make them as you learn them. Or before you learn them. And then memorise.

TRUST YOUR GUT INSTINCT.

When writing clues for yourself about your many different passwords... being cryptic is good. Being so cryptic that you are later unable to figure out what the hell you meant is... kind of annoying.

When taking a shower, always make sure that the door is fully closed in order to avoid accidentally flooding the bathroom.

Do not jaywalk.

Be careful when walking and do not trip over sticks!

Do not ever, ever, ever get complacent about your academic performance. Never. It can lead to soul-destroying screw-ups.

Never leave your locker keys inside your locker.

If using a combination lock, never change the combination by accident. If you do, and have the fortune to figure it out again, WRITE IT DOWN IMMEDIATELY. Do not trust that you will remember it, just in case you happen to forget it two seconds later.

If you finish an exam suspiciously early, ALWAYS CHECK to see if you've accidentally skipped a question/page/booklet. Make sure you have in fact COMPLETED EVERYTHING.

-
All of those were based on personal experience... except one. Haha.

ccomplex

Lol rain wtf happened

[restore!]

ENGLISH

Hello English. I love you. So so much.
Yeah. This weekend with you is going to be so much fun ♥

I'd rather study more Bio now than study FDR/Great Depression/USA

Just coloured in a sketch and submitted it to dA. I think I've lost almost all of my watchers (i.e. people who follow my work). How irritating... but eh. Also, my super-long-and-unwieldy dA name is pissing me off. Yeah, zefiraelRain, I'm talking to youuuuu.

.
.
.
Go study for Modern History.
You know you want tooooooooo--

Hello I talk to myself

AHAHAHAHAHHHAHAH
I FINISHED A COLOSSAL PIECE OF HOMEWORK WHICH I SHOULD HAVE FINISHED TWO DAYS AGO, ARE YOU NOT SO FRIGGING PROUD OF ME

Note to self:
STUDY FOR BIO
STUDY FOR BIO
STUDY FOR BIO
I DON'T CARE IF YOU HAVE A HEADACHE
or are feeling dead or some crap
I DON'T CARE
get that syllabus, crack open your textbook and GET TO WORK, THE EXAM IS IN FRIGGING LIKE 72 HOURS AS OF RIGHT NOW. LESS, ACTUALLY.


Yeah. C'mon. You revised the Year 11 course in 4 days. This is just two topics.
DO IT
DO IT
FRIGGING HELL


...stop reading your own post, you egocentric procrastinator, GO STUDY BIOLOGYYYYY

:D // :O // D< // etc.

I'm procrasting by drawing multiple facial expressions on the same character. Thought you'd like to know that.

...und so verging die Zeit!! /paniklyrik

Ich habe entschieden, dass ich nie mehr als zwei Minuten oder so auf Facebook verbringen werde (außer wenn ich Fotos sehen will oder so was). Es ist viel zu viel einfach, Zeit zu verschwenden! Aaaaagh! Es fühlt schrecklich.

...War das grammatikalisch korrekt? Bin nicht sicher...

Jetzt muss ich dreizehn Fragen für 3U Englisch antworten. So nervig. Zwei über Neufundland und elf über Kapitel 5 des Romans "The Shipping News".

...

Also, jetzt muss ich Hausaufgaben für Englisch machen - jene dreizehn Fragen und auch etwas für 4U schreiben. Jetzt weiß ich genau, was ich für meine Kurzgeschichte schreiben werde, aber irgendwie habe ich nur 1700 Wörte oder so geschrieben (wie Schade).

BIS SPÄTER, meine liebe Leser/Leserinnen :D

Wollt' nur wissen, wie's dir geht, bist du allein?

I am currently procrastinating by learning the lyrics to Panik songs. In other news, I believe that the days of the summer hols spent gorging myself on Bravo.de and Maedchen.de have helped yayyy. Also, I do believe I'm doing that thing you shouldn't be doing, i.e. spending all your time on your fave/best subject and neglecting your worst subject. Lulz. Wonderfuls.

A piece of actual useful advice from a Year 12: if you want to do well in a language, IMMERSE THYSELF IN THAT LANGUAGE. Songs, magazines, books, newspaper articles, random websites, write to penpals, movies, TV, etc. << all in the language that you're studying. Also, grow an obsessive enthusiasm for that language, or at least, something in that language. Might help. See, I think my German improved heaps from the moment I tripped into a massive Tokio Hotel obsession YAYYYY...

Hmm what a somewhat-incoherent piece of advice.

In which I egocentrically bloviate about school and languages... sort of

I like learning smatterings of skills that are vaguely obscure/apparentlyuseless.
I've also lately developed a thing for certain fonts in 10.5pt.
Also, at the moment, for all intents and purposes, I do no subjects other than 3U and 4U English. As in, I do, obviously, but at the moment, work for those two subjects is dominating my life.

I think I am now actually constantly thinking of / aware of school. Like aaaall the time, thinking things like "I should do work" and "I could be doing work right now" and "it's my own fault I wasted so much time earlier" and "oh look, I'm doing the procrastinating thing agian..."

Okay, those last three were just particularly prevalent today because I tend to be extra-procrastinatey on Saturdays. And whiny.

Also, I've added German and Russian keyboard layouts to my language bar thingy. I've more-or-less mastered the former, and I can roughly remember the locations of about four keys in the latter. Because I'm just so cool/pro like that. German keyboard's actually quite easy, seeing as it's just Z and Y swapping places and some shifting around of symbols and handy additions of the umlauted letters and ß. I added Russian when I was procrastinating working on my Belonging speech last week, and I added German a couple days ago when I was working on a mini-essay piece of homework for Extension German, a 300-word thing that took me an extremely long time to write... and I used a dictionary heeeeaps because the topics/etc. in ExtGerman are rather different/moreserious than what you get in Continuers. At this moment in time I could write a fairly decent typical writing task for Continuers without using a dictionary at all, but if you chucked me into a typical EXTENSION writing task without a dictionary ==> EEEEEEEEEEK

...Which is why I really really need to do more practice for Extension.

Oh, Extension subjects. Why are you so annoying? /obviousquestion
But seriously, 3U+4U Eng and ExtGerman are my most challenging subjects atm... I think. Actually, I'm fairly lost in Mod, too, atm, due to my very poor grasp of economics which is basically what the majority of our current topic is composed of.

ACTUALLY, I think I'm okay for 4U right now but...

Yeah, you know what, I'll just stop talking and go do work now.

Confession #1

Guys, today I would like to share with you a fatal flaw in my character. What is this flaw, you ask? Why, none other than the fact that I have a feverishly ardent hatred of doing housework. I hate it. It's time-consuming and boring and, after a couple years, I apparently still cannot sweep floors properly. My hatred of housework even rivals -- nay, surpasses -- that which I harbour for bio pracs, which should give you some indication of how much I do not like mopping/sweeping floors and cleaning bathrooms and wiping dust from furniture. And not only is housework something I really do not like, it is also something which puts me in a reasonably bad mood, with the result that I get easily annoyed at everything and act like a bitchy whiny spoilt brat, e.g. now

Which is why I've decided that anyone I may end up living with must be proficient at housework. Also, talkative, so as to fend off boredom while dusting furniture or whatever.



...In other news, I do believe I have put more effort into this post than anything I've written here in quite a while.

:D

Self-loathing gone, after a fluctuating-in-strength reign of what... 36 hours or something? ROUGHLY.
But yeah, it got chased away by Belonging :D
So now I'm happy :D

Now: to rewrite a letter for my ExtGerman homework, write up a couple Bio pracs, and then... upload some art, maybe make a Tumblr for my (drawing)art again. Yeah, I used to have one but then I killed it. But I want to restart one. Yeah.

Also, I have a new deviantART account for photography (:

[ dustpigeons! ]


-
This weekend:
Must must must work on English Ext1&2 creatives.

Self-loathing.

Yeah, that's all for now
/wangst

fear/four vor/für vier

Dear creativity,
Please siphon some of your focus away from art/talking/doingstupidthings/dreams and focus it on 4 UNIT ENGLISH. Also, on 3 UNIT ENGLISH too. Thank you :D

Dear lethargy,
You just can't stay away from me, can you?

Dear procrastination,
Our abusive relationship appears to be characterised by sadism on your part and masochism on mine.

Dear inspiration,
My deadline is less than 24 hours away. I hope that's close enough for you (:

Did I mention I like Tokio Hotel

You know those lists of nice/simple/awesome things like "snuggling up with a book and hot chocolate on a cold winter's day" and "winning arguments" and stuff like that (they seem to turn up on Tumblr a bit), I'd like to add my own contribution to that, a realisation I've re-realised a minute or two ago while watching YT lyric vids of Tokio Hotel songs:

When you get obsessed with songs in your non-native language that you can't understand much of at all and then some time later when you  have gained more language proficiency and suddenly it's like OMG HEY I CAN UNDERSTAND THIS NOW FAHAHAHAHHAHA

tl;dr - understanding songs that aren't in your native language / a language in which you're fluent

PAWD

Post-Assessment Withdrawal Disorder.

That's right, I just diagnosed myself and made up a disease OH SNAP.
Meaning, I've noticed that in the immediate 24 hours or so after a major-ish assessment that has caused me distress, I go into this... assessment withdrawal. Symptoms -

- do not want to do any work
- dazed. what is this, no urgent work to do?!
- sitting in front of computer doing nothing productive
- in need of eargasm-inducing music and unable to find any

...Or maybe that's just what it's like today. Yeah.
This only applies to assessments that have made me angry for longer than a day or so. Also, they have to be HSC-counting assessments. I think.

But sometimes HSC-counting assessments don't cause me to stress/procrastinatehorribly beforehand, and those are okay.


WHAT A FRIGGING DISJOINTED/RANDOM POST. Okay maybe not that bad compared to others, but for some reason I feel like my ability to articulate has been... forced to run a four-minute mile, briefly experienced a spasm of victory/relief, collapsed into a state of restful quiescence, then extremely suddenly roused from its catatonic pseudo-hibernation and IMMEDIATELY DEFENESTRATED (from a vertigo-inducing height)

And yeah I do occasionally like using unnecessarily sesquipedalian words. Not otiose at all. This is kind of fun, acting like a vocab-tard. Maybe I should play FreeRice now. GETTING PAST LEVEL 50 = SO FRIGGING HARD --


-
Oh, look, I have homework to do.

skirmish won! now for the battle. and, in 9 months or so, the chunk of horribly decisive battles that will 50% determine the outcome of the war (:

I am of the opinion that getting a sore throat from practicing a speech is ALIENATING.

One reason to look forward to winter:

MANDARINS!

Hallo, Panik (:

1. My Tokio Hotel obsession has waned somewhat
2. I'm developed a dodgy penchant for songs in non-German/English, e.g. Italian, i.e. subjects I don't study, and this is proving a bit distracting/procrastination-fuelling
3. I do 3 units of German!

And so I've decided it's time for me to get obsessed with another German band/musician. Likely contender atm seems to be PANIK, a German rock/nu metal band which... sounds kiiiiiiinda like Linkin Park used to sound. Haha. I've fallen for a few of their songs so far, one of them being one that is called "Lass Mich Fallen" hahah. You know, I never really thought of reading that German word as English "fallen", funnily enough. Realised that just then. Yeah okay I'm shutting up now.

I'M NOT. LIES.


[ ich lass mich einfach fallen :D ]

mi chiamo pioggia e sono molto fastidiosa :)

I complain a lot and I think my mood is currently depending on things like air-conditioning and talking.
Time to try using music as a happy-making influence yayyyyy (:

Oh and yeah, school started. It's pretty cool. Apart from the whole 30/40degreescelsius thing.

Death be not proud <= cool stuff
USA prohibition era <= I'm a bit 'meh' about that
Biology <= I hate pracs. Other than that it's okay.
German continuers <= ♥
German extension <= not bad, not bad... I think...
NavGlobal <= I'm not saying anything until I get my assessment back urghhhh

Oh and 4U? I didn't die. That's all I'm saying.


I find myself looking forward to such things as being able to cook 2minute noodles in the common room when it's winter. And... oh god. Belonging speech due in like a week. This is the part where I cry.

Yeah, okay, see what I said about complaining a lot?

Though atm I happen to be richer/safer than the vast majority of the human population so I should shut up.
Omg this is so unproductive. *goes back to drawing*

...which, you know, has nothing to do with school work but is more productive than wangsting :D

This is actually really really really really bad

This is worse than my ExtEng poco thing. This is worse than viva voce thing. This is just worse. Bad. Baaaaad.

UND JEDES MAL WIRD'S SCHLIMMER
/random lyric which in context has nothing to do with what i'm ranting about

Oh and I have Pocahontas' Colors of the Wind in my head. In two languages.
And I'm gripped by the feeling that what I'm blogging about is colossally irrelevant/mundane, but whatever.
I've somehow... destroyed all my progress. Major remodelling that... destroyed what I have and... I'm now waiting for some awesomer-than-previous plot to rise, phoenixwise, from the ashes.

Mein Gott, sprich nicht mit mir über 4UUUUUUU

KABOOOOOM

Holy crap school.
-
FINISHED my 3u english.
FINISHED my belonging essay.

Now let's just leave it at that and not go into all the things I haven't completed. Haha. Haha. Ha... [trails off into deranged nervous laughter]

I just thought it looked funny, and, come to think, kind of like some weird fictional Elvish-esque language...

This is why you should actually look up at the screen once in a while when you're typing up stuff from paper:

" ... enriching his sense of belonging and by providing relationships in which he feels vomgotysblr snf sy homr ehilr dim"

Or, you know, realise that your index fingers aren't in fact on the home keys when they should be.

BUNCH OF TWEETS sort of

This post is going to be disjointed/etc. like a bunch of tweets. Except instead of tweeting these posts, I'll be writing them here, because more people read my blog than my Twitter... at least, more people I know, I think. Not to say that you care about this, but if you don't like reading my egocentric arbitrary rambles/rants/ruminations WHY ARE YOU HERE? [/somekindofweirdintroslashdisclaimer]

* 4U English is a weird subject.

* http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htmhttp://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm <= This is interesting. It has also made me decide that I probably won't switch to Linux any time soon because I have no interest in hacking software x) ...Because I don't do very much with computers. In fact, the uses I put my laptop to are pretty much confined to... Firefox, iTunes, MS Word, Photoshop, Paint Tool SAI, and Notepad. Not to mention windows explorer / photo gallery / etc. for flipping through stuff and scanning things. (Basically: I use my computer for really simple things, Windows already does everything I want it to, and I'm lazy. Put that together = me unlikely to change OSs anytime soon)

* And here's another link, to what is one of my favourite articles online ever: 7 Reasons the 21st Century is Making You Miserable

* I think I'm getting hungry to the point of it being distracting. I had a couple slices of pizza for breakfast, then skipped lunch for reasons I will only bother elaborating on if you ask me. No, no eating disorders. And be prepared for a very boring story if you do ask me.

* OMG DINNER BBL

* I've returned. And I now cbb adding more to this entry.

on multiple foxtrotting or something

I need to stop swearing.

Or at least, I need to cut down on swearing out loud because I might just accidentally let something slip while my parents are within earshot...

lalalalalala typicalteen+music=this

I kind of love finding songs that have lyrics that you really really relate to
As in "hahahah yep just fall right into my psychocardiac convolutions and make yourself at home, you know everyone and everything here"

PSYCHOCARDIAC
When I first used that word (consciously), I made it up, but I think that actually is a real medical term.

Matthew-Reilly-centric post that probably none of my regular readership will be interested in but whatever

Hello I'm in a bad mood
Imagine a stupid rant here

-
Okay I feel like I should actually have something of maybe slightly more substance so... here goes.

Hahah okay there is nothing I feel strongly about now that I can be bothered blogging. Nothing intelligent. Nothing more-than-iotically-interesting.

OH WAIT A MINUTE:
The fourth Scarecrow novel by Matthew Reilly is going to be called Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves.
This is what I saw on Reilly's official site: clickclickclick

The first draft is finished, done, dusted. And I can confidently say that this is easily the fastest Scarecrow book yet. It is also considerably more violent than any of my previous books.

I'm slightly intrigued/amused. Fastest Scarecrow book yet? Hmm... coolies. I wonder how fast. You know, after reading Matthew Reilly, nothing else seems fast-paced anymore... hm.

Also, of slightly more interest is the "considerably more violent" part. I'm kind of interested as to what this will be... seeing as the previous Scarecrow books are pretty darn violent. Area 7 with Lucifer Leary, anyone? Killian's freakshow in the third book... etc.

Sometimes I think to myself that if there was a Matt Reilly movie, I might not want to see it because it's sure to be reeeeally gory. And then I think, who the hell am I kidding, it's a Reilly movie, obviously I'm going to go see it.

Even though there's a part of me that kind of hopes no MReilly movies will ever be made... in case the movies end up being craptastic instead of fantastic adaptations that do no justice at all to the books. <== that's also the reason why part of me doesn't ever want Scott Westerfeld's books adapted into movies.

Or any of the books of my favourite authors, as a matter of fact.

Hahahhahaha yeah.


-
I FREAKING WANT THIS BOOK
There's a list of books I want actually
I should make a wishlist, haha
(:

FÜR EINE UNSAGBAR STÖRENDE PERSON. And be glad that German doesn't flip word genders depending on the person... much... I think...

GUTEN TAG, ALICE.

Wie schade, das dein Name kein wörtliche Übersetzung hat. Oder vielleicht könnte ich dich "Fröschlein" nennen... weil dein WLM-Avatar ein Frosch ist (:

Naja, was soll ich schreiben? Ich habe dein Blog auf Italienisch vor langer Zeit gelesen, aber für irgendeine Grund habe ich das dir nicht erzählt... ACH JA, du hast nichts dagegen, oder?

NUN, ich muss euch warnen... benutzt nicht Google Translate! Stattdessen, benutzt dict.cc! Viel besser, danke (:

Also, ich habe für ein paar Gründe beschlossen, diesen Eintrag zu schreiben...

1. Ich will nicht meinen Hausaufgaben machen. Dieser Eintrag ist Aufschub! Verzögerung! Welches Wort ist besser für "procrastination"? Ich weiß nicht, werde meine Lehrerin fragen, wenn ich zurück zur Schule bin.

2. Ich habe Alices "TOCCA A TE" gelesen und dann habe ich gedacht, "hmm ich könnte eine Antwort schreiben... warum nicht?"

Nun, vielleicht hast du (Alice) erwartet, dass ich AUF ITALIENISCH schreiben würde? NEINNNN. Ich habe alles vergessen! ...Fast alles. Wie schade.


-
ICH  BIN GELANGWEILT
ICH WILL NICHT HAUSAUFGABEN MACHEN
JA, ICH BESCHWERE MICH SEHR VIEL. Zu viel? MIR IST EGALLL~~~
//Gequake

-
Jetzt stehle ich Alices Idee, für etwas zu schreiben. Hmm, ist das korrekt auf Deutsch? "für etwas zu schreiben..."

Heute habe ich am... 8. Uhr aufgestanden... (ACHHHH mein Deutsch verschlechtert!!! Ich habe "aufgestehen" geschrieben. Eigentlich habe ich viele Wörter mit dict.cc gesucht... und jetzt will ich nicht mehr, ein Wörterbuch benutzten. Ich bin zu faul. Fehler, ich komme!)

Ich habe am 8. Uhr aufgestanden. Zum Frühstück habe ich etwas gegessen, das ich nicht auf Deutsch schreiben kann. Englisch: MILO CEREAL LOLOLOLOLOL

Bis zum 2. Uhr oder so hatte ich furchtbar schlechte Laune. Ich habe nichts getan, außer im Internet zu surfen und zufällige Sites zu besuchen... Ich habe keine Hausaufgaben gemacht, keine gezeichnet, sogar keine gute Bücher gelesen... Wie zwecklos/deprimierend.


-
Ich habe mich so oft gefragt: WARUM HABE ICH LEISTUNGSKURS-ZWEI-ENGLISCH ALS EIN FACH? WARUM?

Ich weiß warum:
I. Ich bin gut in Englisch. Offenbar.
II. Ich kann gut schreiben. Ich schreibe gern Geschichte... irgendwie.
III. Meine Fächer am Ende der 11. Klasse waren Englisch, Leistungskurs-Eins-Englisch, Deutsch, Biologie, Moderne Geschichte und Kunst. Ich wollte bestimmt mit Kunst aufhören und Leistungskursdeutsch lernen... dann hatte ich nur 10 "units". Ich wollte nicht nur 10 haben und so habe ich einen(ein?) anderer(anderes??) Fach gewählt. Ein Leistungskurs-Fach, weil ich nicht 12 "units" haben wollte. Die einzigen Wahlen waren Leistungskurs-Zwei-Englisch oder Leistungskursgeschichte.

WARUM HABE ICH LEISTUNGSKURS-ZWEI-ENGLISCH GEWÄHLT UND NICHT STATTDESSEN LEISTUNGSKURSGESCHICHTE ?!

Ich weiß: denn ich lerne nicht gern über Sachen wie "Was ist Geschichte?" und so.

ABER MIT LEISTUNGSKURSGESCHICHTE MUSS ICH NICHT KREATIV SEIN
AAAAAAAAAGGGHHHHHH



-
Okay crap it's 9:21 somehow I've WASTED MY EVENING writing this semi-butchered-German blog entry and... MSN... AND NOTHING ELSE FRRRRRR

And yeah I count "evening" as "when I turned on my computer this evening", for some reason.

 
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHHHHH

Wow I think this might be the longest blog entry I've written in a while.
What a boring note to end on, so I'll stick something else here... hmm... I don't know...

I want a high-nineties ATAR, as in ridiculously-high-nineties. I'm going about my preparations to achieve that in a REALLY GOOD WAY, aren't I? Frigging hell. The ONLY subject I've been working on for most days is GERMAN and that's because I can use it to procrastinate, i.e. reading comics on Bravo.de and doing quizzes on Maedchen.de ...

I really should be trying my hand at Spiegel.de articles instead, lol.

OHHHH and I've watched the German news a few times, actually, that's kind of nice because the third time I watched it, I felt like I UNDERSTOOD MOAR! YAYYYYY

But still freakishly fast/fluent.

HAHAHAHHA I sound like one of those obnoxious passive/aggressive nerds who are like "OMG I'M SO BAD, I'M FAILING EVERYTHING, I ONLY GOT 78/79 FOR MY EXAM, THAT'S SO BAD BAAAAAW, and you know what I've done nothing at all these holidays except write syllabus notes for every single one of my subjects and finish all my assignments and do some extra reading for this year's topics and print out five years' worth of past papers, which by the way I have completed all of..."

//exaggerated lampshading

Actually you know what, I bet if anyone from my German class read this blog entry they'd want to stake me or something. Because I'm such a German nerd... comparatively. AHAHAHAHHA. I wonder if I'll be able to keep my crown...

Don't you dare link this to people in my German class or I'll stake you (:



-
Lol it'll be so funny if everyone from my class had turned into swots far nerdier than I.


-
Yeah okay long nerdy post is endinggggggggggggggg


NAO


P.S. I think this is one of the most obnoxious things I've ever posted here.

VERDAMMTE ELLIPSE

Fucking hate this mood when I don't feel like doing anything

Hmmmmm might go watch a movie or something.

say something funny

You know when you're in a bad mood you don't feel like doing work
And now I'm like "fuck this I'm in a bad mood, I'm not going to do work, I'm going to do fun/happymaking stuff"
Self-granted license-to-slack-off

pshhhhhhhh

Did write abt 500 words of German yesterday though :D

AAAALSLDFJKLJFFFFFF~~~~

Sudden urge to swear for no really good reason
I'M GOING TO REGRET THIS SOON, THIS WHOLE DOING-NO-WORK THING
FUCK IT'S THE 17TH TODAY
MEANING
31ST CREEPING EVER NEARER
OMG



Come on, deadline, work your magic...

Scheiße////
Accidenti, d'arvit, etc. etc.

FRACKING SUNBURN

Last week I went to the beach and it was awesome except for the fact that I got a relatively (by my standards) horrific sunburn due to a combination of radiant Australian sunshine and my lack of sunscreen application on the day, which had resulted from an unhealthy paranoia that had been stoked up by learning of the sunscreen controversy.

FUCK I HATE IT WHEN SUNBURNS PEEL OFF
It's annoying and disgusting and
/spasm

It's worse than the tingly pain that made me inwardly flinch when my dad grabbed my shoulders as a joke and when my mum tried rousing me by shaking me by the shoulder. It's worse than having to take lukewarm/cool showers for a few days because hot water makes sunburned skin cry. I'd actually rather have a couple more days of tingly pain than this repulsive peeling.

It isn't, however, worse than the skin cancer which could result from getting sunburnt.


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Yeah in the [approximate] wording of Alice, "screw controversy, i'm using sunscreen next time"

FAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAA /froth

FINISHED FIRST-COLUMN DOTPOINTS FOR HSC BIO 9.3
WOOOOOOOOOOOO

I understood/can remember... everything except some dotpoints in the immune response section. The antibody/lymphocyte blah... yeah...

BUT HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAAAAA

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Oh man I'm going to end up doing everything in the next two weeks. The Belonging essay, the ExtEng related text thing, figuring out a 4U plot and writing a few thousand words...

You know, it's a question I ask myself disturbingly often:
WHY AM I DOING 4UNIT ENGLISH

I know the answer though. But still. /froths at mouth

Change of plan

Had to go out today for a bit, and I feel like being more lenient to myself (read: I am lazy and procrastinatey and all this stuff about antibodies/etc. is too chem-like for my tastes and thus I am being really slow), so I'm altering my self-promise from "finish 9.4 first-column dotpoint notes by 4pm today" to simply "finish 9.4 first-column dotpoint notes today"

YEP

Yelling works. Also, thoughts on languages...

It appears that I only accomplish wonderful feats of nerd* when I actually say that I will do something. Preferably yelling it in capitals somewhere public, such as in this blog. As opposed to saying something like "let's see if I can do this..." <- That didn't work today! Instead, it has to be something like this:

TOMORROW I AM GOING TO FINISH THE REST OF THE FIRST-COLUMN NOTES FOR 9.4
I WILL DO THAT BY 4PM GAHHHHHH


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Also, I will get up earlier. Might watch the 7AM German news on SBS1... been watching the 1:10PM news on SBS2 since Tuesday. It was/is horrifying in its fluency. Though funny, maybe I'm imagining it but today I seemed to understand more / find it easier to understand HAHAHAH YAY.

On a somewhat related note, I've decided that for foreign languages, this is the [descending] order of difficulty of.. doing stuff. Yeah, that was coherent. But yes:

1. Speaking: You have to nail your pronounciation and grammar while maintaining a normal talking speed (which becomes horrifically speedy when you're not yet fluent), which involves THINKING FAST. On top of that, if you're going to be reeeeally good at speaking, you have to sound natural/native with your diction/etc.

2. Writing: Your grammar/etc. has to be awesome. You can't hide any grammar mistakes in writing.

3. Listening: You don't need to have perfect grammar/etc to understand what people are saying... the difficulty here is understanding the language as it's spoken... right, that was coherent. And I cbb to elaborate...

4. Reading: You don't need to have perfect grammar/etc to understand something that's written - also, when you're reading, you can work at more of your own pace than with listening, and seeing the word written out makes it easier to guess the meaning than if it were spoken... sometimes, at least. E.g. "utile" is Italian for "useful" ... I'm pretty sure it's not impossible to guess the meaning from seeing that written out (link to ''utilise'', anyone?) but if you heard it spoken, it wouldn't be as easy to guess. I think.

...That's how I find it, at least, haha.


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*by my standards of how effective I usually am in the holidays when I don't have anything urgently due...