Panic!

Not at the disco, though.

Hey guys, what’s up?  Bleh sorry for being lame and not posting much.  Though the blog is doing better than ever in terms of stats; February saw an average of 60+ visitors per day, and March was the first time we cracked 2000 hits in a month (2,001 hits! hahaha) since March 2010, averaging 65 hits a day.  In fact, the daily average this year is 62, compared to 42 last year…and I’ve posted, what, half a dozen times or less this year?  Hahaha.

Stuff on my end’s been good and bad.  Hmmmm, where to start?

The Hunger Games movie was absolutely stunning.  Loved it from start to finish, and I loved how it stayed so true to the books.  Sure, there were a few tiny inconsistencies, but overall wow was it good.  I especially loved Effie (THAT IS MAHOGANY!) and the Seneca-locked-in-the-room-with-Nightlock scene; that was definitely really clever and well done.  It was intense and funny and Jennifer Lawrence was spectacular.  Okay, confession time; I dressed as Effie to see the film.

How did that happen, you ask?

Well, at school that day was the Library Trivia Challenge and well my friend and I were hosting the Hunger Games portion.  She dressed as Haymitch, complete with a beard, and I Effie.  So I wore my Effie costume (pink blazer, big flower pinned to it, pink wig. I wore jeans though hahaha, I wasn’t prepared to walk around in a skirt ) to the movie.  Believe it or not, one girl who can’t have been younger than 14 asked me if my hair was real, and what was more alarming is that she was actually serious.  o.O

Taylor, please marry me?

So Taylor Swift was amazingly amazing like seriously I don’t know how to describe it.  I guess you can say I was left wonderstruck, but that’s putting it lightly.  Like wow she was wow wow wow PERFECTION.  Not only is she even more beautiful in person, but boy can she sing live.  And oh my gosh I was in the mosh and she was so close and wow amazing view of her, got some great photos, it was perfect.

And what’s even better, is that Taylor Swift held my hand.

She held my hand.

She walked through the audience, my friends and I were standing next to the fence thing that she was going to walk around and when she appeared I just reached out and flailed my left arm about and I couldn’t really see but I saw my hand touch hers and I couldn’t pull back and about half a second later I realised she was still holding my hand, like actually squeezing my hand.

OH MY GOSH MOMENT OF MY LIFE THERE.

It still hasn’t sunk in to be honest.  <3

But unfortunately I didn’t have time to propose to Taylor so we’re not engaged.  Yet.

Hmmm, what else?  It was the Boys Formal the day before Good Friday.  Basically, we’re a cool posh school so we have two Year 12 formals, the Boys Formal and the Girls Formal.  For the Boys Formal, guys ask girls, and vice versa for the Girls Formal, so girls can’t go to the Boys Formal unless they’ve been asked, and vice versa.  So I took this really nice and pretty girl and we had a great night.  It was heaps of fun and she looked stunning and the photos came out really well as well, hooray!  (:

We didn’t go to an after party, but we chilled on the beach with about eight others until about 2am and then we went to a friend’s place to stay the night, except my date couldn’t come because she was flying to South Africa on Good Friday and needed to leave for the airport at 5am hahaha.  <3  So the night was great!

But I’m not too sure what’s going on with us now, though.  This is going to sound terrible of me but on the beach another friend of mine, well she was cold, I was cold, so we cuddled for warmth and I don’t know how to say this but it felt nice.  So um I don’t know.  I’m not making any sense here but that’s okay.

And now for the panic part.

Oral commentary on Tuesday.

It’s pretty much one of the hardest parts of the course.  We get twenty minutes to annotate a forty-line passage from one of the texts we’ve been looking at – Othello, Fly Away Peter or some John Donne poetry.  We then get taken to a room with just the teacher and a tape recorder and have to speak for twelve minutes on the passage, on things such as literary techniques (tone, diction, imagery, symbolism, characterisation, etc) and also why this passage is important in the text (or in the case of poetry, how it fits into Donne’s catalog of poems).  It sounds okay on paper but wow is it difficult.  I’m really hoping I get an Othello passage as I adore Othello (mainly because Iago is such a deliciously manipulative person) but in the end as long as I don’t get poetry I’ll be happy.

So I’ve been feeling really panicky about that because it’s pretty difficult, scary and it counts for 15% of my English mark.  But I should do fine, hopefully.

Also, leadership.  So I think I told you that I went for prefect last year, and that I was shattered that I didn’t get anything.  Well after that, I’ve been snubbed of Library Captain (okay it sounds lame but hey, Library Club is pretty intense.  And the Library Captain, well he quite clearly hasn’t touched a book in his life) as well as getting House Colours (basically you get a cool different tie saying that you’ve contributed massively to the house) but those will still be handed out throughout the year.

However, I’m now the Editor of, well, Editorial for the school, handling the Yearbook and stuff, which is pretty cool.  (:  So, woohoo for being Editor!  Not only do I get a really cool badge, but it will surely look impressive later on.  Basically, I’m thinking of going into journalism in the future; sure, I’ll always want to get published one day, but I can’t rely on that as a primary source of income, at least not until I’m established and have a massive following hahaha.

On the last day of term, second-round prefects were announced, and one of my best friends was told he would be becoming a prefect and he really deserves it – he’s practically a fundraising machine.  He’s started two charities, and I’m not even exaggerating there.  But I didn’t receive prefect-hood.  And to be honest, I wasn’t shattered.  I just shrugged, said, “Oh well,” and moved on, vastly different to how sad I felt last year about not getting it.  I guess it’s showed me that leadership positions and many things in general are difficult to attain, and I shouldn’t let defeat consume my soul.  (:

Also, one last thing.  Community is an amazing TV Show.  I’m now up-to-date and oh wow I absolutely adore the show.  I’d heard about it heaps (mostly because quite a few people likened me to Abed hahaha) and decided to start watching it in January I think, and yeah.

(:

 

 

Taylor Swift, Why Can’t You Just Marry Me?

Oh my gosh Taylor Swift, I love you <3

I’m going to Taylor’s concert this Tuesday and I’m pretty pumped.  I mean, this is really seven months in the making; I bought mosh tickets during the pre-sales in early August, and now it’s March, so it’s been a while, but it’s always felt so far away.  I can’t believe in a few days it will all be over.

So my two friends and I are going to wear these cool hand-made t-shirts which I will show you next time, and we’re going to go all out decking ourselves in glow sticks.  I’m hoping to really enjoy the night, which shouldn’t be hard given the fact that Taylor is amazing live, and fingers crossed the odds will be in my favour* and I’ll get to meet Taylor at her T-Party.  Now that would be the most amazing thing that I can imagine happening in the history of ever.  The second most amazing thing would be touching Taylor’s shoulder/neck/hand/arm/etc as she walks through the crowd.  Fingers crossed.

So today was a bittersweet day.  My grandma arrived in Melbourne in mid-December for three months after her Visa was originally denied last March for my great-grandma’s funeral (which was a year ago to the day, at the time of posting).  And boy have those three months flown.  Like, wow.  It was the first time I’ve seen her since 2003, and I’m not going to lie, the tears that sprung in my eyes as we said goodbye to her and she headed through those big departure gates were not caused by dust in the airport, if you know what I’m saying.  I really miss her already, but we’re hopefully going to be going back to Sri Lanka around Christmas time so yay!

*Ah, I see you caught my Hunger Games reference!  Less than two weeks to go!  My friends and I are planning on dressing up – Friday the 23rd is a free-dress day at school, and we’ve got tickets to see the film after school that day – and there’s a chance I may be dressing up as Effie, which would be interesting to say the least.

Josh

WELL

I quite clearly suck at blogging regularly.

I’m hugely excited for Taylor Swift and The Hunger Games in March though!  *confetti*

Pfffft no this is not just a post so I can say I’ve posted in February pffffft.

Beginning

Tomorrow’s the first day of school, and given I’ve spent the whole holidays destroying my sleep pattern, I should be getting to sleep soon if I want to have any hope of waking up early at all tomorrow.

But it’s not just an ordinary first day of school.

It’s the last first day of school.

No, not because I’m one of those people who think the world will end in a fiery destruction on December the 21st, 2012, but because this is it – this is my last year of school.

The last Summer holidays in which I will spend leaving holiday homework to the last week – despite telling myself that I’ll get it down as soon as possible – are over.

The last time I’ll have to go stationery shopping for school.

The last time I won’t be able to watch the men’s Australian Open final without staying up until an unsightly hour.

I’m a Year 12 now; I’m a big kid now.  But I don’t feel like one.  It doesn’t seem right; there’s meant to be some people older than us, there always has!  How can we suddenly be the oldest in the school?  The leaders?  The ones people look up to and laugh at for having to sit important exams?  How has this happened?

What happened to the days when homework on the weekend didn’t exist?  That was only, what, four years ago?  It surely doesn’t feel like it.

I don’t feel ready for this year.  In just over eleven months, I’ll be finding out my IB score.  In less than ten months I’ll have completed my final IB exam.

That’s less than 300 days.

It can’t be right.

Surely we’ve accidentally skipped over a few years in the calendar?  It’s not 2012, it can’t be.

But if it is, I guess this is the beginning of the end of the beginning.

The beginning of the end of my schooling life, which is just the beginning of my life as a whole.

Josh

How to Celebrate Australia Day The Right Way

The 26th of January is one of the most important days for Australians – it’s Australia Day, of course.  It marks the anniversary of the First Fleet arriving in Australia all those years ago, and celebrations are not only encouraged but strictly enforced.  However, there’s nothing worst than celebrating Australia Day in a terrible manner, so I’ve compiled a list of tips to help you celebrate Australia Day the right way.

• Fire up the barbie and have a good old fashioned feast in the backyard.  Don’t forget the shrimps, or the lamb for that matter.
• Erect a statue of your favourite Australian in your front yard.  If you don’t have the necessary materials, just move your Hills Hoist clothesline to the front instead.  Image source.

Move your Hills Hoist out to the front yard.

• Win the Australian of the Year award.
• Unlucky enough to be working on Australia Day?  Arrive at work in style – ride your kangaroo to work.  Or, for the richer Australians, ride your emu.
• Travel to Adelaide to watch Day Three of the Australia Day Test Match against India.  Who knows, maybe Tendulkar will finally score that elusive century?  After all, if you don’t visit Adelaide today, chances are you won’t visit it ever, in your whole life.
• Make the better choice and travel to Melbourne to watch the semi-final action of the Australian Open.  Image source.

The defending champion of the Australian Open, Novak Djokovic.

•  Master the Aussie vernacular.  Call your wife your missus, greet everyone with a hearty “G’Day mate!” and use the word ‘bugger’ in every sentence you speak today.
• Dress for the occasion.  For the girls, wearing the Aussie flag in place of a dress is (still) all the rage, and for the guys, well, there are heaps of options.
• Spend the afternoon at the beach or the pool.  It’s the perfect way to cool down.
• Embrace Australia’s convict history and rob a bank.  Please note, I am in no way, shape or form responsible for any jail sentences you may receive as a result of robbing said bank.
• Eat nothing but Vegemite for the whole day.  Straight out of the jar, if you don’t mind.  Image source.

She's got the right idea.

• Master the fine art of throwing a boomerang, and actually having it come back to you without slicing off someone’s head.
• Spread the Australia Day love throughout the world!

I hope you have a great Australia Day!

Josh