Lost In Translation

It was hot, sticky, crowded, rowdy, loud and bright, and I have no idea what possessed me or a few other friends to walk down to Federation Square last night to watch the fireworks and the celebration ushering in the new year. Public transportation like trams and trains were free yesterday from 3:00p.m to 3:00a.m, so there was heaps of people heading for the bridges across the Yarra River to watch the fireworks that night.

The place, in a radius of 2 kilometres (I presume), was a total mosh pit. With people coming and going in all different directions, we were literally rubbing more than just shoulders with just about any Tom, Dick and Harry that was around (not to forget Sandra, Fiona and Lisa too. :P ). The night wasn't too hot, but it was stuffy from all the carbon dioxide emitted by the thousands of randoms across the Square, making it harder to breathe upon pushing and shoving ourselves just to get to the tip of the bridge. Yes. It was a mess. Almost a riot if one's not observant enough. But that was probably saved by the funky music played by the Cat Empire who were there performing live.

Damn. All that jazz!
A bunch of us left Arrow for the Square at about 11:20p.m, and for those of you who don't know, the Square is only a 10 minute walk from Arrow, and the bridge is just next to the Square.
By midnight, we didn't even get to the tip of the bridge.
Pushing ourselves through the crowd was harder than we thought. Despite chaining ourselves like a choo-choo, we still managed to break off from each other a couple of times, and by the end of the night, the bunch of us were separated in two.
Oh well. The clock struck 12 anyway. It wasn't a time to worry about such minor things. It was time to celebrate.

Fireworks crackled in the sky, sounding booms that echoed throughout the city and sparks across the bright night-sky. The crowd screamed, hollered, shouted, danced, jumped and injured their neighbours. It was the year 2005.

Turning back, I realised just how many people were crowded behind us; those who were even further away from the bridge than we were. Some climbed up road signs while others on traffic lights, just so they could get a decent view of what's going on ahead of them.

Shortly after the fireworks display, we headed back home. We were lucky enough, on our push back, to stumble across a crossing firetruck, so we followed behind it all the way to Russell St. where the roads were clearer and the air was fresher. The world was once again in balance and harmony.

Got home at about 1:00a.m, dead tired from more than an hour of being part of a wrestling orgy. Certainly a night of horror/fun to remember. Certainly a year of new beginnings and multiplications to anticipate.

..................

To all ye readers,
Happy New Year. May this brand new year bring forth more blessings, love and joy into your lives. God bless y'all.

*all photos courtesy of Aaron & Isaac Su

As of this coming Tuesday, 11th January 2005, my beloved Celica of 2 years shall part from my garage once and for all. Yep. My baby's now sold off to a 16 year-old girl from Healesville, a small town in the middle of nowhere.
May her new owner treat her well from then on...

My dad put up an ad in the Tradingpost just recently on Wednesday and we had calls to see it already on the next day. So on Thursday, we travelled to Eastland where we were appointed to meet a family who was interested in the car. We got there at almost 5:00p.m, met the family, and within 15 minutes, the deal was done. They didn't even want to test-drive it. That's just how irresistable my car was.

The girl had just got her L-plates and is looking for a car to practice with, and my, my, she got a REAL good first car, I must say. The 2.2L automatic 1995 Celica - as white as snow, compact and fast, with easy access to the radio controls that is located just next to the steering wheel (below the wiper controls), a 10-stack CD player which is placed behind in the boot of the car and the most comfortable seats and interior I've ever experienced in my life.
(Okay, so the last part I may have exaggerated a little bit. But it really is comfy!)

And my baby's going away now. To a girl who hasn't even really got a license to drive it yet. Sigh. I don't know what to feel about this. But I know I will miss my baby for sure. It's been a good 2 years with her, filled with ups and downs.

I will miss my Celica.

Drowning in the pit of circumstances, I've degraded into a full-time bum, surviving each minute with as many strings I can pull just so I can keep myself occupied for the moment. The car's gone, driven off by the girl herself bright on Tuesday morning. The only way I'm getting around now is by public transportation, driving the other car when it's available, or getting chauffeured, which honestly, none of them I'm comfortable with. But maybe that's the whole problem. I'm trying too much to keep myself comfy. I'm becoming too spoilt. Not directly from my parents, but from the resources I can pull. Friends and favours mostly. Anything other than what I expect would be a drag. And right now, I'm still expecting to have my own car which I can use anytime I want to get anywhere I want.

Sigh. I guess I have to deal with it till I finally move in to a new place, which by the way, the hunt will begin coming Monday. This is because I'll be receiving my university offers that day. That's right, folks. I'm finally gonna find out which uni I'll be able to get into. With fingers crossed and constant prayers under my whispers, I'm hoping to be able to get into Melb U. I really don't want to go to Monash because it's too far away from anything else.

The city. Friends. My Baby.

Upon finding out which university I'll be accepted into, I'll start looking for a new place to live; somewhere near the uni to make things simpler. The contract for the current home is expiring soon, so time's not on our side. With God's grace and hopeful feedbacks from a (hopefully) new housemate, I pray it will be settled soon and well. Then it's another goodbye, but this time to a suburb that I've settled in for 2 years with the school and friends I've come by with it.

Until then, I'll have to settle with what I've been doing for the past few weeks when I'm at home and not with friends in the city: rent more movies to watch and play more games. The bum's life: a couch-potato and a geek. Upon reading two books (which among them, The Da Vinci Code. Awesome stuff!!), so far I've downed close to 2 dozen movies since my holidays started ranging from Band of Brothers, the ridiculous Blade: Trinity, to the incredible Incredibles. I've also recently bought a coupla stuff for myself to collect and enjoy as well for the holidays. Among them is the Shrek 2 DVD (with the bonus ending, Far, Far Away Idol!) and these two games.

A bit late to be playing these games, I know. But they were on sale. Max Payne was on a 50% off discount, reduced to a mere $20 and NOLF2 for $10. Both came in original packaging and I must say, the packaging for Max Payne's swwweeeettttt (*geekmodeon). But above all, they're both awesome games. Great fun, amazing time-killers.

Oh. And how could I forget about the tunes. I've been turning up the volume on my jukebox lately too, sadly discovering very belatedly, the smooth tunes of Maroon 5 (I've only heard the WHOLE album recently. Have only been listening to the singles so far), the blasting Yellowcard, and the beautiful rhymes of this young lady.

I highly recommend her. The simplicity of the tunes is a charm to anyone and if that's not enough, leave the words to speak to your soul. I'd say she's like a female answer to John Mayer except on the piano with the touch of Sarah Mclachlan. Mmmmm... If it isn't perfect already, it's only her debut album. Much is to be anticipated out of this Melbournian precious.

And that's about all. The bum's portfolio thoroughly summarised in a deceivingly long 7 paragraphs. Currently in from Video Ezy're the Donnie Darko and Relic DVDs. I'm feeling a lil horror-ish this week. Till I finally start getting busy finding a new apartment and preparing for uni, this bum'll just sign off here for now. But I'll be back soon. The camera's working again after another series of my dad's hair-dryer treatment. More stuff to keep me busy with. ;)

Here I come...

Well, here's the case.

I got offers for two universities. Thank you. One being the University of Melbourne on a full-fee entrance, and Monash Clayton with HECS, or more recently called CSP. Okay, for those who do not understand what HECS is, it is some sort of a scholarship which the government has helped me subsidised. This is a huge deal because my fee would then be cut down to a third of the full-fee only.
Well, to paint a clearer picture of the true horrific nature of the situation here, let me put it this way. Imagine this: What I pay for one year in the University of Melbourne would only be a few grands short of what I would pay for my entire course of Commerce in Monash. Get it?

So, let's say that money is not a problem at all la. There is STILL the dilemma. Monash, although I somewhat feel that this is too much of a generalisation, is a more balanced university in terms of allocating priority in the Commerce course. Okay, that didn't come out well. What I meant to say is that Monash is said to be more practical. Hands-on, they call it. For the year, they would allocate (an assumed figure of) about 40% on assignments and 60% on exams. This is good if true, in my opinion, because it provides more experience in what I actually have to do, having more assignments and practice with the actual work. Melbourne, on the other hand, would be known to be more theoretical. They have among the top lecturers and researchers in Australia, and probably South East Asia to come in to lecture for us, but they don't pay much emphasis on assignments and the practical side of things, really. About only 20% on assignments and a whooping 80% on exams. Unless there is some real good that I'm not aware of in loads of theory in doing work, I don't see how much it would help in the actual workplace with lesser practice in comparison with Monash.

Another thing, although I won't put much weight on this anyway. Monash is in whoop-whoop land. Clayton is in the middle of nowhere and is seriously in the dark (sorry, uncle Joe). It's about half an hour away from the city, which is where I intend to move to this year, and driving there daily would be a hassle. Still, how much I spend on transportation per-year can't be compared with how much I would save in terms of fees. It's ridiculous. But Melbourne has all along, as I can see, been the more comfortable spot. I have friends there. Friends whom I've been doing accounting with for the previous two years. Friends I can count on; good friends, and plus, there's Lee Yen. Fellow Kluangite whom I can look up anytime as she's gonna be my senior by one year in Commerce there. Melbourne would be convenient.

But honestly, all in all, it comes down to the money, I guess. How much am I willing to spend for a name? The University of Melbourne, without a doubt, has a prestige that can carry me as far as the wind can blow, being the top university in South East Asia and well recognised globally. Monash, in terms of prestige, would not be much of a contrast either, though, without a doubt again, Melbourne will shadow it in any interview showdown. In one rank, Monash shyed from Melbourne by 5 spots, with Melbourne being at no.1 and Monash at 6. Which seriously, isn't that much of a difference in a rank with 1000s of universities in South East Asia. But Melbourne WILL carry me far. Quite a fair distance further than Monash can, I imagine. But then again, it all comes down to how well I perform, I guess. Competition in Melbourne can be pretty tight, seeing how the best are there. Plus, I'll be competing against those who're in with HECS there.

Sigh. I hate it when the ball's in my park.
I need light. Not just from God, but from friends with experience and insight.

Care to share?

So I was on my way to Ashley's house last night to discuss some matters about which uni I should get into, when I decided to drop by at Video Ezy along the way to return and maybe rent a couple more DVDs there. And guess who I happened to stumble upon browsing for some DVDs with her bunch of friends as well?

Know her? Her name's Emily Browning. 16 years old this year, just entering Year 11 in Eltham High which is located just 5 minutes from my current house, and she lives here in Eltham itself. If her face still doesn't register in your head, well maybe this picture may help.

Unless you've been lurking in the deep jungles of the Amazon for the better part of the decade without any form of connection to the outside world beyond the trees, you'd recognise that the man in the middle is Jim Carrey. And if you're observant enough as well, you'd know that the girl he's holding on his right is the same girl in the 1st picture.
The picture is from the recent movie, Lemony Snicket's a Series of Unfortunate Events.

Yep. That's right. I just met a celebrity. Not just any. One who's acted alongside Jim Carrey in the screen adaptation of the classic fable. And she just happens to live around my neighborhood and rent DVDs from the same store as I do. Upon looking up her profile, I realise she's been around for quite awhile too, just unnoticed until mentioned. Remember the dead, ghost-girl in Ghost Ship? Her. The little girl in Ned Kelly? Her. The little girl in Darkness Falls? Her. And there she was, picking a coupla DVDs on the aisle next to mine.

Nervous and afraid to approach her, fearing that she may not be the person I thought her to be, I walked out and called Esther immediately to tell her about it. I had told her before that I'd heard this girl was from around here, but I never thought I'd meet her in any way. So Esther dared me to get her autograph, with a plan to make sure that I've gotten the DVDs that I wanted before asking her so that if it wasn't her, I could get out of there quick without getting too embarrassed. So I did.

"Hey. Er... I was just wondering, cuz you look really familiar. Are you who I think you are?"

Her friends snickered and she looked down at the floor smiling, tugging with one hand onto a guy who looked like her boyfriend.
"Well that depends. Who do you think I am?"

"Heh... Well, you look a lot like this girl in the movie.."
My heart was pounding.

"Yea.. that's me."

"Wow. So you're from around, huh? Eltham?"

A guy with her with a pin under his lip answered with a snigger, "Yea. Ain't that awesome."
She looked embarrassed, still tugging onto the guy's arm.

"It is", I said. "Well, cool. Listen, do you mind if I get an autograph off you?"

"Yea, sure", she replied. "Do you have anything I can write on?"

I hurried to the car only to find the church directory which was my reference to get to Ashley's place later. Flipping to the back of the book to find the empty autograph section, I knew it was meant to be. So I went back in.

"What's your name?" she asked.

"Dave. Oh, but you know what. Put it out to Esther. That's E-S-T-H-E-R. Thanks."

"No worries," she smiled, as she handed it back and went on about her business again.

And she still couldn't spell it right...

The old man was probably in his late 60's, hinted by the clean sweep of white on his head, genuine to his moustache and yet he seemed strong by posture and speech. He was the head of the Finance Department of the faculty, and he was about to brief to almost 200 young people in the hall about majoring in Finance.

"Finance deals with a lot of aspects in the Commerce course. It deals with those such as accounting," he started.
*Yawn*... Oh, I'm sorry. That just seem to happen everytime I say that."

The crowd chuckled.

I had been there since 9:00a.m in the morning and it was close to 4:00p.m already. I was extremely tired, trying to keep myself as awake as possible, especially since I only got about 5 hours of sleep the night before.
I couldn't sleep.
I was about to enrol into a university - the next big phase in life. The last, probably, in my life in education. I was very excited.

For the entire morning and the better part of the afternoon, I had been moving about from one lecture hall to another, checking out the various subjects I can choose to fit in the remaining two electives yet to be confirmed on my list. A couple of my friends headed over to find out more about Criminology. I just went for the one on Psychology only, outside of the Commerce subjects. I was struggling so hard to stay awake. The cozy cushioned chairs in the lecture hall, coupled with dim lights and cool air-conditioning were just too tempting. But before I knew it, the session was over and I had to head over to another hall for the one on Accounting, then finally, the last one of the day, Finance.

"We'd also deal with items such as Capital Structures," the old man continued, "Capital Structure is basically how much you should borrow. Now that's a good term to pick up. If you were to advise someone about Capital Structure, he'd pay you pretty good money for it. But if you were to advise him on how much he should borrow, well, he'll still pay you but not as much. Not many people realise what Capital Structure really means, you see."

The slides were coloured on the screen. But the photocopied sheets we got of them weren't.
"They cost money," he explained later on.
The categories of the subjects in the diagram we were given were divided in colour groups. Colours which we now couldn't differentiate. But the basic gist of it all was comprehensible, I guess.

Accounting & Finance.

Sounds pretty good to me. Well, it sounds like money too, don't you think? :P

As the clock ticked closer to 4:00p.m, the old man started to round things up.
"Well, I hope that this session has helped you in your deciding which subjects to choose. I thank you all for staying so long for this session, but if you'd like to ask anymore questions, I'd be happy to answer them now," he said.

"Oh, and welcome to the University of Melbourne."

I hate my new haircut. I don't know if I should blame the barber for doing such a lousy job, or myself for not directing him the right way. But I clearly stated that I what I wanted in the beginning. I guess I just didn't correct him when I noticed he was going wrong. I don't know why. But I'm not happy with my new haircut now. I look like a geek. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I just do.

And just put on a pair of glasses, let's say a thick-framed one; a little coolness maybe from an emo-ian perspective. And add a little freckles if I were caucasian or pimples, seeing that I'm Asian, and there you have it. The Joe you just bumped into outside the CC talking about how he savaged an entire team of terrorists by himself while his other counter-terrorist teammates were down already.

Gaaah! What resemblance!
It's uncanny, I tell you!! Right about now I feel like downloading my new Windows service pack already or do something else like figure out a new strategy to massacre the vicious Zerglings who have been paralysing my Terran forces.

What am I talking about?!?!

So.
Noticed anything different lately?
I'll give you a hint. I'm not talking about my hairstyle.
Got it? Have you guessed it?
That's right!
I'm moving to the city soon!!

No I'm just kidding.
I'm actually talking about my new blog layout. Like it? I think I do. And it wouldn't have been accomplished if it weren't for the help of the whiz, Isaac himself, as usual. Where my eyes and knowledge in html-manipulation fails, he rises to guide me along the right path again. So huge props to him for this.

Compared to the previous layout as shown below, I decided to make something cooler. To be honest, based on my favourite colours for a house, actually. Rich brown wood on grey, modern concrete walls, with a little bit of white, courtesy of Ikea furnitures, maybe. Anybody know what I'm talking about? Hmm... Nevermind.

So what do you think?
Like the change? No? The old one was better? The new one is cooler but more can be done? Please do comment on the change. Your feedbacks mean a lot to me and will be much appreciated.

As for now, I think I like it.
I think I'm happy.
:)

P/s: Just for the record, I DID change my hairstyle and had it recut. I'm much more satisfied with it now, too!