worms and avocado

creepy worms from choux choux on Vimeo.

My dad keeps these giant buckets in the back yard and they've accumulated water and worms from the rain. They were so gross and interesting so I filmed some of it. Here's the video. If anyone knows what kind of insect these are, please let me know.
 

Also, say hello to our little avocado. Dad's a whiz in the garden and we've got some avocados growing in our backyard. It's really cool. I can't wait for them to grow bigger.

Day 1: Your Favourite Song

No one has ONE favourite song. How can anyone choose? What defines "favourite"? Is it something that you can listen to on repeat for ages, or a song that makes you want to sing at the top of your lungs every time you hear it anywhere? There are some songs that fit into one category, but not the other. Then there are songs that fit in both, but you're just not quite ready to call it your "favourite". I've had a good think about this, and I believe this is probably my favourite song (ever):



I first heard this beautiful song when I was 17. I was in literature class and we were doing film studies, comparing The Purple Rose of Cairo (Must watch if you haven't seen it) and Pleasantville. The Purple Rose of Cairo opened with Fred Astaire's dainty vocals and cheerful violins, making me feel nostalgic for the 20s, even though I didn't live it. It was wonderful, and while I also love Frank Sinatra's version of this song, it doesn't compare to Fred Astaire's original. The original is delicate, subtle, charming and a bit flirtatious. It's like being wooed (but in a classy way) by Alan Rickman in a 1920s New York setting, whatever that feels like. Or just being asked to dance. Frank Sinatra's version, while enjoyable, feels a bit too Las Vegas to me. What do you think?



What is your favourite song?

30 Day Song Challenge

My zumba instructor has been posting status updates about songs and stuff and I had no idea what was going on. Then another facebook friend "liked" this 30 day song challenge group, my mind started to join the dots together. It's totally something I would participate in (gives me a different reason to indulge in music), but I don't want to do it on facebook. Or do it for 30 days in a row.

So I'm going to blog about it and post up reasons why I've chosen these songs, and maybe find a youtube link so that those who don't know what I'm talking about can sample and hopefully comment on it.

I'd suggest y'all do the same if you can be bothered, and if you do, link me! I'd like to broaden my musical horizons fo shizzle. I think I'm gonna start this on Tuesday. I'm way too exhausted to do it now. I've spent 8-9 hours at work, then 30 minutes waiting for my bus to take me home, then spent ages cooking, eating and cleaning. I am feeling beyond knackered, but not so knackered to deter me from posting things here.

In the meantime, have a good week!

Miso

I'm at uni digitising tapes for a documentary. I've logged all of them and now they are capturing. I have to say, doing this today, I really do feel like tape is becoming )or perhaps it already is) obsolete. For the past couple of months, the majority of projects I've been involved in have recorded straight onto a hard drive or memory stick. It's just so fast. When I log and capture, everything is in real time. That's always frustrating, especially when you have 7 tapes that go for 35 minutes each. That's my whole day gone! But, whatever. It's good to know how to do it. Even transferring clips from a hard drive, it's good to appreciate good and clear labeling.

I used to do some transcribing for this documentary as well but the producer wants to do it herself so she can familiarize herself with the footage. That's fair enough. I'm not really a huge fan of transcribing. It's just so tedious sometimes. One 20 minute clip can take ages to transcribe, especially when the camera is following the subject as he or she is talking with people and whatnot. It gets pretty difficult, but someone's gotta do it. I don't mind it too much though because it means I can work from home.

Anyway, enough of this talk about editing and digitising. I wanted to look into something I discovered last night. I have twitter and one of the many people I follow has been using this site called Miso. And no, it is not something food related. I wish.

Miso seems to be this new kind of social networking platform that combines the best in facebook and twitter with film and television. I don't have an account yet (and I'll explain why later) but from what I browsed on the website and from what I watched on their videos, it seems to be a place for people to share what it is they are watching. For example, if I was watching How I Met Your Mother right now, I could go into my Miso account and "check-in" to watch a film. You pretty much post that you are watching a particular film. I suppose people who are your friends on the website can comment on it and you even write reviews for whatever it is you are watching. You can link your Miso account to your twitter and your facebook and that way, people know what you are watching.



The reason why I don't have an account (yet)is probably because I feel the purpose of Miso is really to tell your core group of friends what you are watching and within your little "tribe, you can have little discussions about films. I love all of that, however, I don't know if I can convince my friends to join and check-in every time they watch a film. I mean, it's really no different to posting a status update about what film you are watching. I mean, I would get an account just to test it out. I'm game to try new internet things. I mean, this is my guess from what I can observe on the website. I might trial it for a week and see what my thoughts are after.

Do you use Miso? What are your thoughts?

Awkward Stories

You know what is awkward?



- Being at a party where your high school acquaintances are at, and realising that you have nothing in common with them so you just stare at each other with nothing to say. When you do start to talk to one of them and after you've gone through the "what are you studying?" ritual, trying to get out of that conversation as painlessly as possible feels impossible. You stand at the food table, piling up your plate with deep fried goods not caring that people are going to judge as the fat lard you are and mumble, "is the punch nice?" then proceed to stock up your plastic cup with some sweet, sweet juice.

- When you are 14 and catching the bus home, a 17-year old couple hop on the bus and start making out right against the buzzer you need to press to get off at the next stop. Asking them to dislodge themselves from each others' lips is met with angry looks from the couple.

- When you accidentally ask out a boy in your school. And he looks at you like you're a cockroach even though he looks like an actual turn.

- Pretending you're fashion savvy and telling everyone that Givenchy is part of Gucci.

- Watching a film during dinner and having to watch the sex scene in front of your parents.

- Sending an email to your teacher only to realise you've sent it to the whole year level and while that's embarrassing, you feel relieved that you didn't write anything embarrassing in the actual email, and when you think about it even more, there is nothing you could say to your teacher that could possibly be embarrassing for others to read, other than calling your teacher something lame like "R Dawg".

- Accidentally touching a stranger's penis. Or accidentally having your boob punched. Or accidentally punching a stranger's boob. None of this has happened to me but I'm sure it must be awkward.

- Eating so much that you have to unbutton not one, but two buttons on your high-waisted skirt.

- Making the mistake of wearing a high-waisted skirt to a big dinner.

- Crying over Clay Aiken.

- Pretending that your lesbian dogs aren't having sex in the kitchen.

- Having someone burst into your change room when you're trying on a bra at a department store.

- Thinking you can do a British accent.

- Taking a gross photo and it's ALL OVER FACEBOOK.

- Being so taken by a man's looks that you say the shittest things. Cue Drew Barrymore in 'Never Been Kissed'.

- Attending your friend's uni cocktail night, getting really drunk, singing Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory songs, revealing your deepest inner "issues" to complete strangers, telling the bouncers you want to kill yourself, then having the bouncer carry you out because you're too drunk to walk down the stairs properly, waking up the next morning with no memory of this but a huge headache and some concerned text message. When you attend the next cocktail night, everyone remembers you but you don't remember any of them.

So what's your awkward story?

I realise that a lot of these scenarios are more embarrassing than awkward. It doesn't matter. Feel free to share your stories.

Click, click, click

"Hey how do you type in a question mark? When I press the question mark button it just gives me a stroke!"



That's my mum trying to learn how to use Microsoft Word. She's just quit her job and after spending the day going to job interviews and hanging out with her friend, she's decided she doesn't want to be a barista any more (apparently the pay isn't high enough). She has decided she wants to work at a Chinese travel agency. My brother and I have decided that if she's going to embark on such a drastic career change, she'll need to learn how to use a keyboard. She said that the girls at the travel agencies just use a mouse, but we told her they won't hire someone who can't use a keyboard. So now, in order to help our mother achieve her new life goal of working at a travel agency, we've been roped in to teach my mother how to use Word.

This is incredibly frustrating.

My mum doesn't speak much English, let alone write much English. Things like punctuation errors ("the curly green lines") are really difficult to explain to her in Chinese. This was the sentence she typed:

If you want to purchase an item ,click here .

She was wondering why there was a squiggly green line under it. Aside from explaining to her why you don't have a space before a comma and full stop, trying to teach her how to correct it was such a chore. She would hover the cursor over the word she wanted to correct and would proceed to hit 'backspace' without clicking first.

Sometimes when you leave her alone for a few minutes, she calls you in because she can't type anything any more. When you look at Word, she's managed to centre her text and somehow change the font and size. She calls me in, asking me why Word won't let her type anymore. I click on the word document and start typing. She starts to get huffy and tells me the computer is picking on her. She also doesn't understand why there is a squiggly green line under "Note:the price is fixed".

After a few more minutes, she's finished. She doesn't want to save her work but wants to improver her speed so I'm making her type out Brave New World. I hope that helps.

Meme, baby!

I found this little questionnaire on Susie and Stacey's blog. Since my foot has rendered me temporarily immobile, I'm going to fill this little baby out.

1. What is your staple meal? (i.e. what meal do you cook most often, when you can’t be bothered to think of anything adventurous)
Well, I eat rice the most. But I make myself instant noodles if I need a quick fix of awesome without the effort. I recommend the Korean kind.

2. What do you want to be when you grow up?
Awesome.

3. What book are you reading at the moment (if any)?
I do not read books. I should change that. I've borrowed a friend's 1984 for like... three years now. I should probably read it, since I love Brave New World.

4. How do you relax?
Masterchef, and playing How I Met Your Mother while facebooking. Wow. I'm really lame. I also like knitting. It's nice, but I keep missing my stitches.

5. What colour are the interior walls of your home?
Fuck, what colour isn't on the walls? Dad went a bit nuts. There's some yellow, green, metallic pink (yes, metallic pink). My room is white with a turquoise (similar to the Tiffany & Co. turquoise).

6. What is your guiltiest pleasure?
Food. My god I love food.

7. What time is bed time and getting up time?
I try to wake up before ten. I feel like if I wake up at or after ten, it's like a wasted day. And I sleep around 12 am - 2am.

8. How long do you spend reading blogs (per day or per week)?
I don't know. I haven't been reading many lately because I'm really concerned that I internet more than I ... do stuff.

9. What never fails to cheer you up?
Food. And my dogs. And pugs. I fucking love pugs.

10. If you could live one day of your life over again, what would it be?
Umm... I don't know. No day is actually worthy of reliving over and over.

11. What do you like best about yourself?
Um... my ears?

12. What would you change about yourself?
I would like to be more focused and driven.

13. What have you enjoyed best about blogging?
Reading and sharing awesomeness, either sartorial, pictorial, or written. Did that make sense?

14. Who/what is your ultimate source of inspiration?
Anything and anyone that makes me want to do something. I also like Daisy Lowe.

15. If you could be anywhere in the world now, where would you be?
Oh man I want to go to Singapore and Malaysia and eat all the food I didn't get to eat.

16. What do you daydream about the most?
Standing up to authority figures who are utter penis heads.

17. What was your biggest fear when you were a child?
The dark. I was so scared!

18. Describe your dream dinner party (guests, location, food; bear in mind that in the question world you have access to a time machine).
I'd like to have dinner with my friends and we can all chillax with Tegan and Sara, Daniel Radcliffe (cos I reckon we'd be ace friends. And I'll beg him to hook me up with Rupert Grint. Or Alan Rickman), Alan Rickman, F. Scott Fitzgerald, George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, Luce Irigaray, my partner (cos he might wanna talk to George Orwell and Aldous Huxley). Oh and Marshall Eriksen FO SHO. We will go to Madame Sou Sou's because it looks cool.

19. If you could live at any point in history, when would you choose and why?
I kinda like where I am right now. Otherwise, I'd like to be Mulan or something. But like, the cartoon version. I don't think I'd want to live at any point of history, but I'd certainly like to be there for a few hours or something.

20. Favourite time of the day?
7:30pm. MASTERCHEF FTW!

21. Favourite mode of transport?
I like being driven.

22. What would message would you put inside a fortune cookie or on one of those small planes that drags messages behind them?
I love pugs.

Over you, over you...

My pals over at vehementoolbox are awesome people and would like all of you to join in and write a blog post about a song you can't stop listening to.

Nothing easier and more fun than writing about a song you love right now. For me, I am absolutely loving a few Tegan and Sara songs. I love a lot of their songs, if not all of their songs. But the ones that have been on repeat are definitely "On Directing", "Alligator", "The Con", "Nineteen" and the surprisingly awesome "Feel it in my bones". That one has been played 221 times, almost surpassing the 272 times I've listened to Sean Lennon's "Tomorrow". Win.



So why is this the one I can't stop listening to, almost trouncing Sean lennon's simple little song? Well because it's so amazingly good. It's so unlike what Tegan and Sara normally do. It's just hot, to say the least. And the video is just stunning. It makes me want to cut my hair short and wear high collared shirts. Ah, wait, I've already done that.

I also met Tegan and Sara, and it wasn't a simple I saw them on the street sort of thing, either. I actually was asked to film them and they were just so cool. And yes I have photos, but I'm not publicly displaying my nerdy fan girl grin on the internet. Actually, I've already done that on facebook. Tee hee. Ah, I'm so lame.

Anyway, here's the video I filmed. They were talking about same sex marriage, and it was great. I love them.



They said they loved the video too. I'm so acknowledged right now.

The Slutty Pumpkin

Christmas shopping list:

Family:
For Mum: earrings from Mocha
For Dad: Bunnings gift voucher
For Brother: EB Games gift voucher

Friends:
A 'Slumdog Millionaire' DVD
A 'Kung Pow' DVD and a head band
A pearl necklace and a head band
A pair of earrings from Mocha or 'A Walk to Remember' DVD

That's all I've got so far. I think when I go shopping I'll figure out what to get others. Anyway, I don't have a clue what to get my partner. I was going to get him a Jean Paul Gaultier perfume shaped like a man's torso but I just can't afford it, which is lame.

Here are some photos of last night's trivia battle. We came third. Which is lame.


Fishtail attempt #696


Bros+photos = BROTO


Yeah. Nothing happened. Just posing.

I love peanut butter

Man, American TV shows about teenagers in high school create really wrong expectations for people who are ... not American. I don't know about you, but it was never a big deal if we had dates for formals and socials or not. I don't even think we had that anxiety of asking people out to these things.

But maybe that's just me. I mean, I am no beauty, but I'm sure people in the "popular" crowd probably had that problem, although I personally don't think so. I remember those people brought their partners and they came from other schools. No one really stresses about this. I mean, there are better things to stress about, like how are you getting home and what dress you are wearing.

Although I have to admit, when I went to my formal, I totally wanted the guy I liked to at least ask me to dance. It never happened. In Year 12, I liked this guy who was... well, a "cool" guy, in the "popular" crowd. He was someone I judged to be an ass and he turned out being really deep and nice. Anyway, he turned out to have a girlfriend.

But he's single now, according to facebook. Hehe. Nah. I did write an essay about him once for school. Got an A+.

Hehe.

I'm bored.

Did you know Brad Pitt was in Dallas?

You gotta let me do the kind of work I want to do

Watching 'Freaks and Geeks' for the first time, only because I adore Jason Segel. So far it's all right, although I do find the colour grading to be on the green-brown side, but I guess that just adds to the aesthetic. I mean, if things were really vivid and colourful, that would throw me off for sure.





I love you, Jason Segel.

What would Charlotte wear?

I bought a new skirt and new shorts from Dangerfield. I love that store so much. If I had a $1000 I'd buy so many things from there! My only qualm with them is that their sizes are rather small and some clothes are cut weirdly.

I'm trying to decide what to wear to trivia night tonight. I want to look the part so I've decided that my nerd glasses from Dangerfield is a MUST WEAR. So here are some of my options:



Oh I forgot to mention that I am at present testing out high-waisted shorts. I've never done them before so I'm a bit nervous about it. However, I feel like I look all right in these shorts. These shorts are from Dangerfield: $78, I got the T-shirt from my best friend for my birthday, and the shoes are from Myer. They're the only shoes I have in my room and I don't like wearing shoes on carpet so I don't bring shoes up there to try on in front of a mirror.



I like this better, because it's like... I'm wearing a jumpsuit. The singlet is from Cotton On and the vest is Princess Highway, also from Dangerfield. It's so beautiful. It's like a sequined vest. I love it but it's hard to wear. At the moment, I've been able to find things to go with the vest, so that's exciting.



New skirt, from Dangerfield: $48. I love this skirt because it's not too short and it's a breezy sort of fabric, which will be awesome for when I go to Singapore. Unfortunately, I can't wear it because the store forgot to take the security tag off it so I'm going to have to go back to the store to get them to take it off.

I think I'm gonna go for option number two and wear a really statement-y necklace and bracelets. I'm so pumped!

There are six types of bridges

I'M GOING TO TRIVIA TONIGHT AND I AM SO EXCITED!!

I just had three pieces of toast this morning. I completely forgot how good peanut butter is! I've been eating vegemite every morning and while I love vegemite, I have to say peanut butter is going to be the new toast condiment phase I am going through.

That is all.

For now.

I'm bored.

I want to go play trivia now.

So... you want a cheese burger?

Throughout high school, people have always been stunned by the amount of cuss words that escape my mouth. I'd talk about how fucking pissed I am to people, calling other people fuckers and there is always someone who will have a stunned face and say, "I find it so weird that you swear!" Well, I do and I think a lot of people do. It's just... somehow, I don't look like a cuss-er.

So because I apparently don't swear, people assume I can't handle heavy discussions about sex and all its bits. I was at a party on the weekend and two ladies I go to uni with were talking about oral sex and when I came over, one of them said to me, "I don't think you should listen to this". I asked why and she said that I looked too innocent to partake in this discussion.

She didn't mean it in a mean way at all. It was more like, "guys, let's stop talking about this because my 14 year-old sister is listening". I think it has something to do with me still living at home with limited freedom to sleep over anywhere. Plus I look about... 10. No, I look closer to 14 than 10, but you get my drift. I don't dress in the most cutting-edge of ways because my body type is not compatible with those trendier looks. Plus I have straight hair that more or less is the same every day, plus I wear glasses and get drunk easily.

I mean, I look like a fucking nerd.

Whatever. It's all good.

and wishing I could wake up every morning next to you

November: month of the NERD

First three photos: playing trivia, winning a slab of beer, then playing truth or dare - epic fun

Fourth and fifth photos: Me testing out my nerd glasses at a club for my friends' 20th joint party

Sixth and seventh photos: My friend's 21st birthday at the park, picnic-ing it up, nerd style