Blah Blah THESIS! BEACH! SHOPPING! Blah

I am still writing the never-ending thesis. It has still not come to an end. But we're getting there, and I actually suggested to someone today that "If I get my thesis done early..." HAHAHA and then we all died laughing, but at least it seems like it might maybe end, someday in the future.

Also never-ending? My list of things to do in November. Man, I am going to be busy, but seriously, November is going to ROCK THE FUCKING HOUSE. I'm thinking of adding the list to the sidebar, just so I can remember what I wanted to do, because I keep thinking of new things, and The List is as yet not written down anywhere, and you just know I will get distracted by the first thing on it (Beach!) and forget about the rest. If you think of anything I should be doing once I'm free (Freeeee!) let me know, k? Thanks.

I do need to go shopping before November, because we're going to the Living End concert on Tuesday, and I really have no idea what to wear. SUGGESTIONS, PLEASE.

Oh yeah, Reason #1 why November is going to kick arse:



THIRTY DEGREES TODAY, HELL YEAH. (86°F) Did I mention the beach already?

I'm Going to Graduation, parentheses, The Graduation Song

Graduation is held in April, for students who finish at the end of the year. There is a second one held for people who finish at the end of semester one. I decided to skip the April one, since I was going to be doing Honours and would get another one (assuming I pass) in April 09.

However, the graduation people just sent me an email which said (slight paraphrase), "It's almost summer! Your thesis will be over (for better or worse) in less than a month! There are some really pretty dresses out now! How bout you graduate in December of this year?"

So I've decided to go to graduation. With a cap and a gown and all of that.

There are three things standing in my way:
~ Thesis: Due October 15th.
~ Editing Project: Due 24th of October.
~ Special Project: Due 7th of November.

And then I'll be FREEEEEEEE!

How To Lower Your Power Bill ...

... And Other Important Lessons.

How to lower your power bill: Get sick with a fever high enough that you don't even have to use your heater.

***

Why would a room in a rehab hospital not have a remote control for the tv?
When patients can climb up on the bed and stretch up to the power button on the tv itself, they are all better.

***

Lesson One on How To Give Confusing Directions And Make Me Lose Faith In Google Maps: Tell me the wrong name of the building, the wrong number, and make the street one that Google changes to something else every time I search for it.

***

Friend#1: Coming out tonight?
Me: I'll come out in November.
Friend#2: Let's go shopping!
Me: I'll go shopping in November.
My Crazy Side: We should go for a run.
Me: I'll go for a run in November Hahahaha no.

Lesson? (Almost) Everything in the world will be happening in November.

***

Lecturers: How's that assignment coming along?
Honour students: THEEESIIIIIIIISSSSSSS!

Lesson: Sucks to be an Honours lecturer in Semester Two.

More things no-one told me about Adelaide

Darwin doesn't have a winter. Okay, it has a Dry Season, where it - gasp! - sometimes gets below 20°C (68°F), but nothing compared to what I have suffered for the past eternity several months here in Adelaide.

Luckily, before it got too bad, I bought my favourite thing in the world right now: a heater.

Last night I was told very nicely, if a bit too subtly at first, that our electricity bill was likely to be a more than usual this ... month? quarter? whatever. I was all, 'I'm sure we can all put in a bit more rent this week, it'll be a small price to pay for being warm.'

Except: it's going to be an extra couple of hundred dollars. And also, I am the only one in the house with a heater. (Which, how the HELL did they SURVIVE?! I wasn't even here for the worst of it.) Who knew heat (HEAT!) was worth that much!

I am still on board with sharing the cost. After all, I am going to be SO MUCH BETTER than them at coping in summer. I bet I won't even to have my fan above 3. I am just that good.

Better To Give

When I think back to my high-school group and our present-giving habits, were we fricking insane? Like, we would spend $75 on a bracelet for someone's 17th birthday. Which was totally lovely of us, I'll admit, and it was always reciprocated, so that wasn't an issue, but really? A group of high-school students, two-thirds (or later, three-fifths) of which was unemployed, and we're dropping that kind of cash?

I think we need to have some rules about presents.

If someone "throws" a party, like in primary school, when you go to someone's house and there's fairy bread and pass-the-parcel, you definitely bring a present. Chances are great that the accompanying card will be the same as someone else's.

If someone invites forty people from the Hall to Hog's Breath (think Outback) and twenty people show up, I don't think you usually have to bring a present, when everyone is paying for themselves. (If the birthday girl/boy is paying, hell yes you bring a present.)

BUT, if the person having the dinner is a good friend, you should bring a present, even if it's just a token gift to mark the occasion. But then where is the line? How do you decide, 'oh you're good enough for a card but not a gift.' Or 'oh, I'm just here for the food and didn't even know it was your birthday, so no present for you.' Or do you always take a gift, no matter what? Always bring a card?

Maybe decide on the basis of 'I totally forgot until another girl from work messaged me, didn't have time to get a card, but happen to have a Body Shop gift pack lying around'? Works for me. This time.

TOGA08

Hi guys! It's 10:25 and according to my schedule, my next uni work time block starts at 10:30, and I haven't showered or had breakfast at this point, so you don't get any exciting stories, and also because there aren't any. Instead, you get Toga pics!

I'd have to pay attention to this if I wanted to be elected

I mentioned that the US election got brought up in class the other day, and I was not planning to say anything else, because good lord, there is enough being written about it as it is, but then you guys seemed interested, so here we go.

First of all, I am not really interested in politics. It's boring, as far as I'm concerned, and even acknowledging that elections ARE going to affect me, I can't muster up too much enthusiasm. (I did politics and law at uni before I came to Adelaide, so I know about the process of things, just not so much the current events.)

So I wouldn't be likely to speak up in any discussion regarding specific political things, although I do have lots of opinions on ISSUES. I do think it would be cool for a non-white male to be president.

We spent most of the time on Sarah Palin (and also, how the hell do you pronounce her surname?) and the internet gave me the impression she was going to be a liability, was not representing women (or not necessarily getting the female vote, y'know?), and that she needed to decide on a better work/family balance. I also got this impression (that she is scary) from someone in Australia who knows about politics, so my class isn't totally representative. They were all like 'yay young hot woman' and how she could bring youth or whatever to the campaign.

And then someone mentioned that this was really a race of the VPs because - and this I did NOT hear from the internet! - Obama was likely to be assassinated. And also the old guy (McCain? yeah, I'm very educated on this topic) was going to cark it. And here's where I wanted to say 'yes but that's why people won't vote for HIM, because they don't want HER,' but I didn't, because the internet hadn't told my class that it doesn't like Sarah Palin. And maybe it didn't even tell me that, I really have no idea.

That was all it was really, not a huge thing actually, but that class was annoying me anyway so I seized the opportunity to bitch about it.

If I was going to be President, I would do something about health care, ginormous college debts, and huuuge cars that use way too much petrol. And I'd stop fighting in stupid wars.

I would like to invite anyone in Australia/not the US who actually knows about this shit to leave a comment so that we can present an accurate view of our political take on all this. Cheers. And for those of you in the US, I'd be interested to see if I am actually picking up what the internet is putting down.

Mail Time Mission Accomplished

Remember when I was all, "I want to send you stuff!" And then you all were like, "Meh, ok." Well check it out...



...parcels and postcards!

I wrapped up the parcels, and promptly forgot what was in each of them, so if the explanatory note on the outside makes no sense, just send it to someone else and they'll send you yours.

Also, I was trying to write explanatory notes without giving away what was actually in the parcels. So if your note says something like "The mmhmm was from this shop that specialises in mmhmms" it was just me trying to be circumspect.

Which of course was all for nothing because you have to fill in extremely detailed customs forms, so if you could all not read those, that'd be great. Not that they will probably give much away because there is little to no chance that (a) I remembered what was in them, and (b) the forms ended up on the right parcels. Also, your gifts all equal $10, a totally made up number. Come on, Australia Post, don't you think if I've ticked "Gift" I should be able to skip the value part?

I also think it's highly unlikely that most of these will get to anyone at all. You guys have some freaking long-arse addresses. My house numbers have been 8 and 13. Yours are like 937582Aiix. And your postcodes are five numbers long! I can't handle that many numbers! Maybe you should check with your neighbours (by which I mean people in neighbouring zip codes) to see if they get your parcels.

And finally, I was shocked that they still sell stamps you have to LICK. EW. And my tongue TASTES LIKE STAMPS. And also, AUSTRALIA POST PROVIDES STAMP LICKER THINGS, DUMBARSE:



Whoo! Mail time!

Aaand ... Stop The Clock

It only took thatlong for the US election to come up as a topic in a class which has nothing whatsoever to do with it.

The class's opinion seemed to be different to my understanding of the situation, but I couldn't really say anything, because "I read it on a blog the other day" doesn't count as an adequate argument. Plus, I'd already used "On Blue Heelers last night" and "On Grey's Anatomy that one time" and thought that was quite enough off-topic pop culture referencing for one day.

Add to that the fact that the lecturer managed to insult blogs, bloggers, and dismiss my argument regarding "fuck's safe" versus "Christ's sake" all in the space of five minutes and I think it's clear I should just keep my mouth shut.

Due Date

I've finally started to freak out about my thesis. (My supervisor, if she reads this which I hope she doesn't: "It's about fricking time!")

I go back and forth between my hands literally shaking because there's no way this is going to be acceptable, typing, clicking Word Count obsessively, and watching later episodes of House which there is no way I am writing about but I can justify it to myself and that nagging feeling which says I should be working on my thesis that it's actually research.

Turns out a thesis isn't just an extended essay. It's like a real, grown-up, academic paper, which they are going to keep in the library. That is so embarrassing. I don't want to do this anymore. I could work in childcare forever. Totally. That'll work.

And then I eat half a can of Pringles and four not-crossed buns, feel like throwing up, write a post about it, and then I suck it up. Because that's what I do. Create a situation, and then act like I just walked in, evaluate what has to be done, and suck it up and do it. It might be done HD-well anymore, but it gets done. I hope.

Mail Time Part Two

Part One is here.

When I was away, I bought a bunch of souvenir-type stuff, and when I got back divided it up to send/give to various people. Whoever I was planning to give the Disney chocolate to, I'm sorry, it's still sitting on my bookshelf. I don't know why I haven't eaten it yet.

I sent Carla - um, what did I send you? - something San Francisco-ish, I'm sure, plus a bunch of BlogHer swag items I'd collected. In the accompanying note I said something about needing to explain some of the things I'd sent her, because they were just random things, not souvenirs or anything. And then she got it and was all, "YES, I think you DO need to explain why you sent me THIS," and I was all, "Really?" and she was all, "YES, and also, don't you even know what you sent me?"

And then I was like, "Clearly not, but I am totally intrigued."



And THEN I was like, "Actually, I can't really explain that. But I sure am glad the other USB got sent to my little brother."

I realise not everyone loves getting mail as much as I do, but if you think that postcards and surprise packages are pretty cool, you can still let me know and you never know what might turn up.

Mail Time Part One

I want to be my grandma. Not actually, but in one specific way: the present-giving way. She always always has presents posted on time. (She also writes - by hand - letters to her daughters in another state every week. I wish I could write letters.)

When we were young, Laura-My-Cousin and I always got the same thing as each other from her, identical apart from the fact that she'd get the pink version and I'd get the blue. Every time, except the year we got jewellery boxes. You know the ones with the little ballerina inside that plays some tinkly music when you wind it up and open it? We got those. I got the pink and she got the blue.

And? The one year she got blue, it was a totally ugly shade of blue. Meanwhile, I got the pretty pink one.

Also, I don't think we still get the same thing. If we do, LMC, you're getting earrings for your birthday. Oops, spoiler!

Now that I'm living in a different state to my boys, I have to be all on the ball with dates of things like birthdays and Fathers Day. Not only do I have to remember to buy a present, I have to buy it in time to mail it to Darwin. The pressure!

I am totally proud of the fact that I have managed to buy awesome tshirts and get them in the right size for the past couple of years. Only now, I'm afraid to buy any more in case I ruin my rep. Sorry guys, I'm sticking with my perfect record.

I am happy to say that my Fathers Day present was bought and posted and is currently in Darwin, waiting to be opened tomorrow morning. God, I'm good.

I realise not everyone loves getting mail as much as I do, but if you think that postcards and surprise packages are pretty cool, you can still let me know and you never know what might turn up.

600 / Delurk / Presents!

This is my 600th post! Woohoo!

I want to give you stuff! Yay you! (I annoyingly keep not winning Pay It Forward contests!)

But you have to delurk first! I have no more exclamation marks!

If you are one of my amazing readers (and I don't have any other kind), leave me a comment saying hi. Or something. Because it's my first post's 600th birthday.

If you also want some kind of present (which may be a postcard, or it may be a book or CD, or it may be an iPhone (it won't be an iPhone), or something else I haven't thought of yet), you need to email me meanwhilemissy AT gmail DOT com with an address. And I promise I won't stalk you with it, mostly because you live too far away. Everyone will get something, because I love you, and it will as awesome as I can make it.



So talk to me. Pretty please?

My Uni Is Haunted

Last week, we had the great Contrary Scooter Incident of 2008. At uni.

Today, the lecturer was going around the room writing everyone's names down because he still can't remember everyone's names even though there's only eight of us in the class and if he hasn't by now maybe it's not worth the effort.

When he finished, he realised that everyone was sitting in alphabetical order.

AND THEN, there was a spare seat because one girl was late. And it was in the right spot in the alphabet.

Fricking spooky, dude.

Upside Down

Sometimes I wonder if I should make this blog a little more Australian. You know, spread a few more mates and strewths about the place. And then I kick myself in the head, because dude, you are not the only Australian blogger in the whole world, no-one cares that you're Australian, you need to get over yourself.

On the other hand, there's no denying the fact that I am indeed Australian, and while there's no need to shout it from the rooftops all the damn time because that's just obnoxious, one post isn't going to hurt anybody. Plus, I am not averse to pimping out Australia as a holiday destination. Come visit! Bring ice-cream.*

*I don't want to get into the you have/we have thing here, because we already know where I stand on most of that, except to say: you guys (in America, that is, not the whole Northern Hemisphere) don't get proper Cadbury. It's very sad.

Let's just clear something up right away: the toilet flushes the other way. Yes, it's true. Also? I just discovered this myself, but your light switches are upside-down. Like up is on and down is off, but backwards. Weird.

And then, I wonder about fashion trends. Like right now it's winter here and summer there. But are the same kinds of things in fashion? (Answer: no. I didn't see any checks when I was there.) Or do our summer fashions follow your summer fashions, so we are consistently behind? Or do we all have different trends so that your Summer 08 clothes and our Summer 08 clothes will be different?

On a similar train of thought, day is night and night is day. This is totally confusing. Not to mention difficult when trying to organise IM planning sessions. It's nice that I go to sleep and wake up with 132 unread blog posts. It's not so nice that I have nothing to read in the (my) evenings. Plus, what if I text you and wake you up? Oops.

Oh! And then? I get so caught up in your lives, that I forget what's going on on this side of the planet. Like, the other day, we had a sudden rush on blue trackies, and I was like, "Oh, must be getting in some last-minute school shopping," which ... sure, except that kids here went back to school WEEKS AGO. Idiot. You all are confusing me.

Also confusing? We grew up thinking that if we dug through the middle of the earth, we'd get to China. Pfft, no. We'd get to like the middle of the ocean.

And also? I WANT A LONG WEEKEND.

Uni Quandry

The assessment for my Post-War American Literature is pretty basic: a 1000 word tut paper, and a 2000 word "major" essay. Easy.

Except that we also have to present to the class on one of the books.

Given that
(a) class goes for two hours,
(b) the presentation is not graded, so essentially I'll be planning a two-hour presentation for no marks,
(c) there are only five people in the class, so it'll pretty obvious if I just happen to not show up the week it's my turn to present,
(d) the lecturer already thinks I'm an idiot, and I wouldn't put it past her to let this affect my essay grades
I should just suck it up and do the presentation, right? Or not?

Incidentally, if anyone has a two-hour prepared speech on On The Road and would like to email it to me, that would be awesome.

Arte Y Pico Award

Last weekend at work, we served these two gay guys. After seeing/talking to them several times that day, they sent us an email right before close. It was the sweetest email ever! They outlined every occasion they'd had to deal with us throughout the day, and pointed out how awesomely we'd treated them. Basically, we were only doing our jobs, but that was SO NICE of them to go to so much effort to let us know that we'd done them well.

And now, thanks to the lovely ladies at 3 Giraffes, I can pass that on to some of you. I am awarding the Arte Y Pico award to "5 blogs that I consider deserving of this award based on creativity, design, interesting material, and overall contribution to the blogger community."



In Holly's own words: "OMG! She's so talented she can run three blogs AND work a full time job AND take care of her family. Niiiice." I am very much in awe of her, because clearly she's fabulous. And did I mention three (awesome) blogs? For "interesting material," see any of her Freakin MM posts, and for "community," I give you the fact that I would feel bad if I won one of her contests when she has such an awesome group of readers on her book blog.

My second recipient is Suzanne Broughton, of Emphasis Mine. If all she posted was this video about driving on LA freeways, over and over again, I would probably still read her. And just as I was writing this, this post came up, which is another video, also awesome, but she does write words as well, so go over and check her out.

Marilyn has the prettiest blog I've ever seen, and she has interesting/funny/touching posts all the time, and she's educating everyone about Wordpress, so that covers all the criteria for receiving this award. Plus I got to meet her at BlogHer and she was completely lovely to me.

After I got the letter at work, I was thinking about sending out a few emails to people I read, just to let them know that they are awesome. Because they should know it. At the top of my list was Chris Cactus. He is an awesome dad (or so I've been led to believe) AND an amazing blogger. I have this theory that comment sections reflect the blogger, and his are always hilarious and thoughtful.

And finally, for a blog that definitely demonstrates creativity and design and all that good stuff, and also since it's Father's Day pretty soon, my final awardee is my dad, over at Zithers Lutes and Lyres. He is making some very cool wood things at the moment, so go over and check them out.

This is clearly not an exhaustive list of all the awesome blogs in the world. (For that, you need to click over to my blogroll. Love you all!) So help me out - which blogs are you loving at the moment?

Cos I Really Need More Distractions

Last night I made a little to-do list for myself. It included a lot of "read ..." and "write ..." which is unsurprising. (It also said "Buy Vegemite," which is also unsurprising.) Turns out I have a little bit of work to do for uni this semester.

As an aside, my uni lecturer-and-supervisor thinks I am a total idiot. Yesterday, she wanted to make an appointment to discuss my thesis. Which, sure, go ahead, discuss away. It's not written yet, end of discussion. Anyway, she's all like, "How does Monday at 10 suit you?" And I was all, "Ten in the morning?" And THEN she was all, "The real world is going to be a bit of a shock to you, isn't it?" Which, WHATEVER, I have lived in the real world, and in fact live in it several days a week, at least.

At the end of class, she started talking about the book we're supposed to read for next week, which I only bought after class yesterday, so how in the hell was I supposed to answer a question about it. No, actually, take out that 'only.' A week is PLENTY of time to read a book, thank you very much, and you can stop judging now, mkay?

I am totally off-topic by now. My point was - or was going to be - that I totally need more things to distract me from all this reading and writing, because who wants to write a thesis anyway?

So. Holly is having a contest, which, at first, she was all, "Only if you live in the US or Canada, MISSY," like, nice try, but I can't move in with you right now, sorry. And then, she was like, well, I'll just have to move to Australia, and then I wouldn't be able to enter my own contest, so I better change the rules so I can. And since Holly-in-Australia can, then I can, so yay! I'm going to win me some books!

Which I will then totally give to you all, because hello? I have a thesis to write.

Thanks a lot, Random Girl

Scene: I've had class, finished typing and printing my Sherlock Holmes and House notes, and bought the book to read for next week. I approach my scooter.

Random Girl Ready To Ride Away On Her Scooter, Which Is The Same As Mine, Except For Its Colour*: Hey.
Me: Hey.
[We exchange the super-secret scooter-riders' handshake.]
Random Girl: Have you ever had any trouble with yours?
Me: Well, I rode it to Noarlunga in 40 degree heat last summer.
Her: And it cut out?
Me: Yeah. I wouldn't recommend it. She's been good apart from that.
Her: Mine's been smoking. A lot. [Demonstrates.]
Me: Wow. Well, MINE'S never done ANYTHING like THAT. [She said, EVER SO SMUGLY.]

She: Rides away on her cute little scooter (in a cloud of smoke, but hey, she's riding).
Me: Tries to start my scooter. Fails. Repeatedly.

NOW what the hell am I supposed to do? The automatic non-starter button is in its startable position. She was not in the snow, hail, or even rain. She was in the sun for crying out loud, and she always starts better when it's warmer. She has petrol AND oil.

Actually, maybe it was the shock of her being warm, dry, and not being beyond empty that did it to her. Fuck.

*And the fact that it works. Oops! Spoiler!

You will need the things you learn in pre-school

Guess what we did at uni today (in Honours no less)? We cut out pieces of paper and stuck them on other pieces of paper. It's taken about twenty years, but those mad craft skillz from pre-school are finally proving their worth.

Oh, and then I assigned myself some 'homework' just so I wouldn't lose all that whole cutting and pasting technique we'd been practicing. My wall is no longer bare.