ideal "transitional season outfit" for school

girl meets boy - by fstopriffs on Polyvore.com

I *heart* Polyvore. It's like playing virtual dress ups and you can have any item of clothing you want.

鸡

(in reference to the development of agriculture in ancient China)

"Animals were also important - the pig was domesticated by 5500 BCE (independently of south-west Asia) and the chicken (for the first time anywhere in the world) by about 5000 BCE."          - Clive Ponting, A New Green History of the World

I'm not sure why this brings such a sense of pride in me, more so than any other Chinese achievement. I suppose it pleases me that I can now feel patriotic every time I eat chicken.

margo ovcharenko

I'm not easily impressed by flickr photographers - many seem to lack a certain lucidity when you look too closely and for too long. Margo Ovcharenko, however, is impervious to my scrutiny. All of her photos make me want to move to Russia, befriend their beautiful people, and then take intimate portraits of them on slide film.

'







Impressive, non?

making an effort

There should be more occasion for red lipstick and hats. 

The one drawback is having hat hair, and then looking like a tool and a half when trying to spruce it up. 

suckle

Today I had two large glasses of milk and I feel great. 

going solo

I went to see the Swedish vampire movie "Let the Right One In" yesterday by myself. Not have I done this since "Princess Diaries", which came out when I was 11 (a loner child, through and through). As I left the cinema both haunted and perplexed, I asked myself why I don't do this more often. Going to see a movie with somebody is only logical if it's a comedy, if it's particularly boring or if it's for canoodling in the dark. Any other occasion a companion is only a nuisance; you have to set a date when both have at least 2 hours spare, decide on a movie agreeable to both, find four consecutive empty seats so that neither have to sit next to a stranger, and when you do finally sit down, you have to shut up for the next 120 minutes so that you're abiding by common cinema etiquette. At least when you're alone, the urge to make a comment is greatly reduced (although at times small words may peep out accidentally if the movie is good or exceptionally bad). 

After some thinking, I've made a pact to see a movie by myself every Monday whenever I can. The tickets are half price before 4pm, and I finish class at noon - so why not? Oh, and as for the actual movie I saw, "Let the Right One In", I highly recommend it. Dark like a classic vampire story should be, but intermingled with contemporary themes - possibly an antidote to "Twilight" if you are so cursed? Final verdict: definitely worth skipping the second half of my Ecological History of Humanity lecture for.   

chastity

Resisting the urge to cut my hair is near impossible. It's such a mop top right now, I would very much like to ravage it with a pair of sharp scissors. 

armageddon

There was just another short earthquake here in Melbourne. Surely this is against plate tectonics.

d'oh

Saturday night, I finally mustered up the motivation to take my camera out with me. But what happened? The CF card I used was busted. The only remnants of Alana and Maddy's birthday party are a few dozen corrupted files. The worst part is, I could've just borrowed Eric's card. BUT WHY DID THE PICTURES SHOW UP FINE AT THE TIME? I feel stupid and used.

On a side note, I have a new hobby. I joined the Magician's Society at my university, and after 3 club meetings, I am still feeling enthusiastic. Good sign.

i'm bringing skinhead back

I remember a few weeks ago, over breakfast, Gabby and I were discussing the appeal of boys with very short hair (think JT on cover of Future Sex / Love Sounds). Although I am sometimes a sucker for hair that is long and unkempt, it is never quite as sexy when in close proximity. Short hair on the other hand is no fuss, clean(er) and can be attained by any idiot with a pair of hair clippers. Another perk is that short hair would actually be much nicer to run fingers through. Long hair tangles, and gets greasy - short hair is neat and exfoliating. 

In recent weeks, it seems that boys with JT hair have been popping up everywhere. This is both good and bad. Good because I find them appealing, bad because I am worried that any day now I will subconsciously stroke one of their heads. It is most tempting when I am standing over one of them on an overcrowded train - if I am quick and surreptitious, I could almost get away with it.....

i saw these in a shop today

Dangly earrings in the form of bobble headed, part neon Power Ranger, part professional motorcyclist plastic figurines.

I HAD TO HAVE 'EM.

FYI: I don't even have my ears pierced yet, but these will be motivation. 

my week

I have been wearing my spoon pendant. It is not quite as interesting as wearing a rusty coin dug up from the grave of my great great grandfather, but I am considering buying knife and fork pendants so I can have a complete set. I also really need to take some nicer photos, but at the moment, it seems as though my creativity stretches only as far as taking spooky photos of myself in the dark on webcam. 

University is time consuming. Especially since I'm doing biomedicine and haven't done biology since year 10. After a week of lectures, the only thing that's stuck with me is that my cheek cells look like tiny fried eggs under the microscope. 

money matters

I have three options:

a) Eat what I want and when I want it, for however much it costs.
b) Control eating habits, ration money spent on food and create funds for developing photos.
c) Get a job

Option c) is really just there so no smart arses will suggest it. 

moss and day

I like this portrait of Kate Moss by Corinne Day. I've loved all of their collaborations since I first saw this portrait at the National Portrait Museum in London. It's rare for me to find Kate appealing, but I think she has looked amazing in every photo taken by Corinne Day.

coins

I used to always do this with coins when I was bored. One day when I was about 12, I was waiting at the tram stop with my friend and showed her this habit of mine. She was 22, and thus very wise and critical of my peculiarities. She told me with great austerity that in China, they used to bury the dead with two coins on their eyes for luck and fortune in the after life. I've never tried to confirm this ritual, but some how it spooked me out immensely, and an end was put to that habit. 

A few days ago I saw a Chinese friend of mine wearing a very old coin around her neck as a pendant. I held the rusty old coin between my fingers and asked her about where she got it. 

Oh...actually, it was dug out from my great great grandfather's grave.

I didn't know what to say. I didn't know if it would be appropriate to ask if the coin had been placed on his eyes when he was buried, so instead I asked Have you washed it? There was a moment of facepalm experienced by both of us. Then an awkwardly long pause, in which time expressions of horror subtly emerged onto our faces as she couldn't come up with a definite answer. We concluded that someone must have cleaned it in one way or another before it was passed down to her. Must've.

But for a long time all I could think about was the coin slowly sinking into the decomposing flesh of the eye sockets until it dropped into the hollow of the skull. And now it hung on a string around my friend's neck, and I had touched it with my bare fingers. 

I think when I was eight, I wrote a story about a coin's life for English class. Consider this a revised edition with extra panache.

PS: While I was writing this post, there was an earthquake in my city! 

double-sided printing

Hypothesis: Double-sided printing; a true test of logic and spatial visualisation, but highly rewarding when performed correctly. 

Method: A new printer is bought. Said printer prints double-sides by first printing all odd numbered pages of the chosen file. These pages are then fed back into the printer. A button is pressed, and the even numbered pages are subsequently printed onto the blank side. Using this method, 3 sets of lecture notes are printed - without any over-lapped pages nor upside down pages.

Results: Print job was successful, high concentrations of endorphins and satisfaction were yielded. 

Conclusion: I am a winner.

revelation

Last birthday I turned 18 and my mum decided it was time I started looking like a girl. She took me to a department store and bought me a make-up set (prior to this I made do with drugstore eye-liner and Lucas Pawpaw Ointment). Since then, a great number of her middle aged girlfriends have commented on how pretty I looked with make-up on (except one lady who admitted that she had thought I had dark circles around my eyes due to lack of sleep). Mum has been very pleased with herself, and I admit, it's nice to be complimented once in a while. 

However, as I wiped off my cosmetic mask this evening, a strange thought occurred to me: if I was a boy, this is the face which I'd have to live with. Unfortunately for unattractive boys, make-up is not an option, unless they were brave enough to compromise their manliness. So then, which sex is in the less favourable position? As a mediocre-looking girl, I'm expected to wear make-up so that I am more pleasant to look at, but had I been born a hideous boy, society dictates that there is nothing I can do about it. Yet, I don't feel as though there is a significant unbalance between attractive girls and attractive boys - is this because boys are generally better looking, or because we lower our standards when surveying their level of aesthetic perfection?

Or should I just turn gay?