My scooter is a BIG NO-NO....apparently

Although I have well and truly finished the first semester of 2009 in my BA of Anthropology, I am actually (surprisingly) rearing and ready to rip into the next study period. Just think, I keep (perhaps naively) saying to myself, only just over two years until Japan! But this isn't really true, because "drumrolllllll" I'M GOING TO JAPAN THIS NOVEMBER!!!!! Just for a little while, like 10 days, but still enough for my panties to twist into a severely mangled heap of shredded fabric (hmmmmm, wrong thing to say here?). Leonie and I and a couple we're mates with have stamped down the dates of travel (although we have to come back earlier than them due to Leonie's Masters in Business ^_^), and we head there on the 23rd of November. Although, just one thing, I HAVEN'T BOUGHT ANY TICKETS YET!!!!! Slack, I know, but I keep hoping that a super-awesome special airflight deal will appear before too long to save me from becoming quickly broke...fat chance, methinks. I'll update that matter when I come to it I suppose :S.

Meanwhile, I have only yesterday returned from Leonie and my anniversary (2 years) holiday. We had an awesome time, mostly spent in lush tropical rainforests (Mission Beach, Paluma National Park) and coastal paradisaical coastal escapes (The actual beach of Mission Beach and Dunk Island). I'll write a blog specifically about this trip soon hopefully, but I'll just say now that it was uber relaxing, but at the same time we managed to pack in alot of fun stuff. Just a preview would include mentioning waking up in a cosy hut in the rainforest, sand-crabs and Mudskippers, getting stranded on a deserted tiny island, visiting historical landmarks, eating out at some very nice restaurants, enjoying a 1,000metres-above-sealevel view of Pastoral North Queensland, and camping next to and boating in a serene and magical lake. Heapsa stuff for just a four-day trip right? ^_^

On a more dreary note, I start work again this Tuesday (tomorrow). This will be interesting; I haven't worked since the beginning of last Semester, and even more interesting because my first shift back will be an 8hour stocktake :'(. Ah well, roll with the punches m'lad, that's the ticket.

I was only worried about one exam's result this time around, but have confirmed that I passed it and then some, woot-woot. I'm going to wait until the official overall subject results are released before I enroll in next semester's lot. Unlike the subjects I just completed (and hopefully passed) i.e Japanese, an Indigenous anthropological subject, Archaeology, and Anthropology of Violence, the next subjects will most like ALL be anthropology-specific, which I suppose makes sense due to that being my major. But I don't think I get many (if any) electives from here-on-out, because of the credit-point-transfers I have from my last (failed) degree. But no looking back, this time I'm actually studying with a goal in mind; JET!!! I know, I know, I rant on about Japan alot, but I am especially full of pepp right now, having just watched about three hours worth of J-Vlogs on youtube. I have just tonight subscribed to a new JET Vlogger, NonstoptoTokyo, who has some very informational videos so far on the application process. Who better to take advice from than someone who has been accepted this year? I am looking forward to more of her vlogs, especially when she gets to Jap :-).

So yepppppp, not much else on the Om-Front, just lazing around as befits the holidays. Oh wait actually, trying to lose weight, so I'm swimming daily, and with the recent banning of my battery-powered bike on all roads except for back-roads (well, apparently it has always been illegal, but I only found out about it today from a very blunt and uninformative copper), I am back on my road-bike (bicycle in case you were wondering, not motorbike). Yay for exercise!!! I have had to neglect my fitness, what with exams and not being able to run. This is very unlike me. Time to rectify that and get rid of this useless extra 6kg. No worries mate.

Tune in next time for more boredom (yay, just like daytime tv)

Om

Yay, exams are.....just beginning :S

"Hey welcome back Om ,we missed you!"
"Aw shucks, thanks everyone, you're too much".
Bit sad that I'm welcoming myself back but meh...
So it's been a whiiiiiiiiiile.
I'm into exams now for the first semester of my BA in Anthropology. I had my first ballbuster today and now I get 9 days off until my next, and in that week I have 3. Woo for exams. Only woo because I have actually done pretty well this semester and been to every single lecture and tutorial (good boyyyyyy Ommmmmmmmm, 'ooz-a-'ood-boyyyyyyyy). I haven't really let myself down on assignments either (as far as I know, I've done three but only received marks for 1 of them, it went well). Anyway, yeah good semester, lots of fun, lots of required reading, and lots of late nights. I know it's a bit early to celebrate, but it feels good to get started and get that little step closer to Japan ^_^.

Getting back into running has been a bit of a shambles, I've been back and then injured myself again, my damn feet just won't stop pronating. I seem to have mangled one of my orthotics and had to buy a new pair (EXPENSIVE), but my leg still hasn't healed yet from it's recent bout of tendonitis, and so I'm still on the bench. All study and no running makes Om an educated-but-extremely-dull boy....oh yeah, and it makes him get a small pot-belly too. Seriously, I weigh the most now that I ever have in my life!!! Car-azyyy. Hmm anyways it's ok, the fat drops off once the running starts :-D. In the meantime, Leonie likes to poke me in my newly acquired Winter-warmth and remind me of it's presence haha...hmmm.

Anyways, lots of study starting tomorrow, today's my lazy-day, I reckon I've deserved it. Lots of anime to watch, too much for one night (it's 5.30pm now), but I'll sure give it a shot haha.

Right, off to a mate's place to do just that. I'll write more soon hopefully,

Ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...*take breath*...mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...*faint from too many mmm's*

Fatblueman, Cyclone Ellie and heat-waves!

Hi there and welcome to all, including those people who think that it may just be possible that Hogwarts may have misplaced your mature-age student entry acceptance letter, just like they misplaced mine......*ahem* I'm uber-cool right now.

First on the agenda is to tell you about some people who actually are cool. They are a band called Fatblueman (band members are John, Hiroko, Hiro, Tom, and Eishi) and they can rock some socks for sure :)!



I read about them on another guys blog, www.tofugu.com, and so went to check them out. I was actually really pleasantly surprised to find such likeable music so easily accessible. Their entire album 'Back to Winnipeg' is available for FREE (that's right, free, y'all know how much you like that word) download.













All you have to do is go to their Youtube channel page and find the link to download it....that easy! I highly recommend it if you have some time to chill out and just soak the music and lyrics up, very enjoyable ^_^.

I spent a whole three and a half hours traveling and shooting episode 2 of The Little Silver Box the other day, which is quite a long time to be sitting on a battery-powered bicycle in the wind and rain, with no jacket on!
I decided to show the Ross Dam spillway and the three weirs here in Townsville, seeing as how right now they are all past maximum capacity, and as a result are majorly overflowing!



Aplins Weir, one of the weirs I visited, at dusk. The low-light setting on the camera made these photos turn out quite interesting methinks


Anyways, they might be spilling over even more soon, because there is a cyclone headed in our direction, Cyclone Ellie. It is only a category 1, and is expected to reduce to a Low (which is not even classified as a cyclone) by tomorrow afternoon. But always yay for rain right?

The southern half of Australia, however, isn't doing so well weather-wise right now. They are experiencing the hottest heat-wave since Australian records began in 1855. In Melbourne last week, on the 28th, 29th and 30th, temperatures consecutively reached above 43 degrees celcius! That's 109 farenheit for those who are still in the dark ages using the imperial system lol.
But seriously, it's not good. People are actually dying from "heat stress", and that is bloody drastic. Also, unprecedented high usage of airconditioning in Melbourne eventually proved too much strain, and their power grid broke down on the night of the 30th. How crazy is this???
So my heart goes out to those who have lost anyone, and to those who are having to struggle through the heat. Of course, I'm sure that other places on Earth are constantly experiencing temperatures like these, but it's definitely a shock to see it right in our backyard.

I hate to leave blogs on unhappy notes, so I'll throw in a jollier tidbit. Yesterday I went for a hike up the Uni hills with my big bro, Fred. It was really nice, an unexpected treat was to see the long-grass covering the hillsides nearly blown flat by strong gusts which drowned out all sound and forced us to lean into it to avoid being swayed off the path. Great fun! ^_^

Oh yeah, and congratulations Leonie on your latest Distinction for Uni!!!!! ^_^ Smart cookie she is.

Oki dokeys, just waiting on that acceptance letter, man that Dumbledore is forgetful, hmmmmmmm...

Wel, look at me, all old an' stuff, La-Dee-Dah!

So yeah, I'm 21 now....well, as of yesterday the 29th of January anyways. Yay woop-woop and all the rest, now go back to y'newspapers. 21 ain't such a big deal, just another year, nothing really happens, although the traditional (at least here in Australia) hype of turning 21 is considered the norm. Trust me, apart from the moment when I woke up yesterday and said to myself "hey, wow, I'm old now" (which makes no sense at all, I mean, I was only 8 hours older than when I'd gone to sleep), there was not much excitement, no party lights in my head, no great, ecstatic feeling. Just another birthday, kinda fun to have some extra attention, but otherwise....nup.

I went for a run late in the morning, although it felt early because of all the rain. I ran up into the hills behind uni, which was cool, I haven't run up there since before my last injury, about one and a half years ago. I decided as I was running that I'm going to have to do a video of going up there, it's very scenic to say the least.

Oh yeah, and I worked five hours today, so that was fun. I tried to get away with no-one at work knowing it was my b'day until one particular workmate (who knew, oh yeah, they knew) came in and not only spilt the beans to the others, but also to the customers via the P.A system haha, and I only had an hour to go too, so close!

From there, Leonie took me straight to my 'surprise' party (three people attending had already told me about it), which was really nice. I had a great time, family and some friends, and some awesome presents. One thing which bothered me was that I kept calling everyone 'dude', which is kinda unlike me.....who says dude anyway?! But anyway, I digress. Nick, my mate, got me some excellent books, one on the subject of life and linguistics in the Amazonian jungle, one on international Couch-Surfing (a cheap and very interesting way to travel as a tourist), and, of course, "Learning Japanese for Dummies", a 3 cd set with booklet supplement. I found these three presents extremely relevant to me, so Kudos Nick! ^_^ Thanks....dude! (argh, see? see? annoying!).
Mike, my big sis's fiancee, got me a golf simulation green (a long strip of artificial green with hole, slope and hazards included), and a really flash putter :) Thanks Mike!

Me demonstrating how NOT to hold a putter

Flo, my big sister, made me (upon request) a HUGE chocolate multi-layered cake, full of chocolate mousse, cream, chocolate icing, and topped with cherries :D:D:D Thanks Floooooooooo!

Flo's cake, YUMMMMMMM

Mum, Annie and Greg put on this massive, fabulous dinner which I just couldn't do justice (sorry guys), and gave me an egg-cooker-thingy, which is cool cos the hens are now laying 3-4 eggs each day, yummmmmmm fresh eggs! Mum also made me a cake, and it had my name on the top, written in whole almonds, yum almonds! Thanks Mum :):):):):)!

Mum's cake, SWEEEEET

Campo gave me a fishing magazine and an issue of the "Gold Mining Journal", which is good, because, um, fishing and mining gold are my favourite pastimes? Haha, but yeah I can appreciate the effort :) and every party has to have that guy who will inevitably, at some point, come up to you and say through giggles "hey, pull my finger" and guess what, I always pull it (that's what he said), just to see if something different happens this time :S. Ta muchly Campo!

both cakes, AWESOOOME

Dad couldn't make the dinner, but he gave me an electric-powered frypan and mini-electric frypan, which is cool because I have been wanting one of them for ages (our stovetop doesn't work except for one ring, and the oven doesn't work either lol). He is also going to give me something that he promised me about12 years ago. Not gonna tell you what it is, but when he gives it to me, I'll take a pic and post it on here k? ^_^
Oh yeah, and Mike, Flo, Greg and Mum, and maybe Fred too, I'm not sure because it was a surprise, made me a '21st' slideshow. ^_^ Feels nice to be treated specially to something like that, even though some of the pics were embarrassing shots of me hahahahahahahaha. Thanks so much everyone :)!
And of course Leonie was there too, looking pretty as a picture and all made up. She got me a novelty-sized card in the sahpe of a key which everyone at the dinner signed, which was uber-cool and nice of them (and of course nice of Leonie for getting it!). She also got me a groceries voucher WOOOOOOO FREE GROCERIES!!! I love practical gifts! Alot haha! :) thanks for making my day extra cool-tastic Leonie! ^_^

In other, I suppose less momentous news, today I found ANOTHER double-yolker in the egg batch. A double yolker, as it's name suggests, is ONE egg with TWO yolks in it. Fred took a video of me cracking it open, but I'm not gonna put a vid of that on youtube, unless it's part of a bigger vlog about something else as well haha.

Also in todays headlines, I enrolled in my fourth subject for this coming semester, after much umming and ahhhhing over which one to choose. I have now chosen Foundation Japanese 1, and introductory Archeology subject, an indiginous Australian anthropological subject, and then one I enrolled in today is called Anthropology of Violence. All sound at least passable, and some sound great fun :) so hurry up uni, get here quick, I'm a-wastin time here! What's the name of my Blog? That gives you some idea of what I mean.

So ja, that was my 21st birthday, boring to some it may sound, but just how I wanted it to be ^_^. Thanks to all those involved in the planning of the dinner, and thanks to anyone who wished me a happy birthday.

My next Youtube vid will be about the hills behind the uni, as I have until Tuesday off work and will be bored stiff haha.

Until next time, remember to keep an eye on your towel ok? :)

world's longest absence?

Been about a squillion years since I blogged. I've been bu.....sy.........ok fine! I'm just lazy of late...happy?!?! But here's a catchup as long as there are many filler episodes of Naruto (lol, lmao, rofl-copters :P OM YOU NERD).

Work hours slumped after Christmas and over new years for most of the crew at work. The higher-ups in the company decided to dole out enough money in the budget to cover the managers and a couple of ten year olds on $2/hour, so mostly everyone else got kicked out of the loop. But things have definitely started picking up again, Today I finished my fourth 8hour shift in a row, and so completing my maximum 30hours for the week(7.5hours times four=30hours, because we have a half hour unpaid break each shift that is longer than five hours)(it sucks that we casuals are only allowed a maximum of 30hours a week, else I'd be begging for a 50-60 hour week....I like minimum wage holiday money lol). All of this week myself and a little CCcrew ("CC" standing for Crazy Clarkes...just trying to make my job sound more street-wise and hip) have been moving shelf frames and assorted fittings from the back of the store to the front of the store, i.e. taking all the shite off the shelves in the gardening aisle and taking the shelves down to the front, and then loading all the personal care/beauty aisle stuff onto those shelves (make sense? yeah, me neither :S). This is tedious and made even more unenjoyable by our boss's boss, who makes an appearance once a day to tell us what we have done wrong, and what to do next. Then he comes again the next day and tells us to change the layout all over again (which was what he'd wanted the day before), and also what to do next. This has happened every single day for the last four days, which means we are pretty much still at square one, whilst he refuses to stay in the store and oversee the work.
But I haven't openly complained, and I mean, it's not anyone's fault in particular except maybe the really higher up management's for not spreading regional managers on thickly enough. Ours is in charge of not only his own store, but also about six others, which are not just in Townsville, but in several others as well (one is even out of Queensland, in Northern Territory (different to a state for those who didn't know, but I honestly don't know the difference)). So it's not his fault that he has little/no time to oversee our work on re-laying our store when he has to take care of many others as well. And it's not our direct managers' fault, because they are giving us orders the best they can with what the regional manager has told them (very little, and very open to varied interpretation). And it's not our fault, because our job description is not to show ingenuity or provide management input, and is really just to carry out simple orders given to us in black and white (although sometimes there are many shades of grey in there lol), such as "move shelf from here to there".....simple ey?
In other words, Everyone just tries to do their job, and everyone gets no actual work done in an efficient manner. But hey, I'm not complaaaaiiiining :P hehe.

On the home front, my chickens have, yes that's right, STARTED LAYING EGGS! o_o.....well, two of them have anyways. But that's still 14 eggs a week, and when they all start laying, that'll be 35 eggs a week, most of which I will be selling to a couple of people who've already expressed interest (my dad and my gf's parents lol). This probably won't make me any profit, but will pay for their feed, which is great, cos it ain't cheap :(.

It has been raining frogs and locusts here for the last week, as we have been catching the outer edges of a former cyclone (now just a Low), which was situated up in far northern Queensland. This has forced me onto the bus to get to work, which makes me feel lazy :'(. But it's drying up now, so all good.

All good, except that the rain has ruined our camping plans for this weekend. We booked our campsite up at Lake Paluma ( which is also Townsville's backup water source) about a month and a half ago, and I have been looking forward to it as it is my only REAL holiday planned these couple of months which is away from everything like uni and work and home lol. But to get to the lake, you must go first go about 40minutes north on the Townsville-Cairns highway, then proceed inland up an 18km mountain range (the exotic and wonderfully beautiful Paluma rainforest), then along an 11km dirt/gravel road. Seeing as it has been raining up in Paluma even harder than it has been here, and seeing as the dirt road only needs a moderate rainshower to transform it into a complete mud-mash, it is now closed until further notice. Damn bugger shit!!!!!! I am close to being minorly depressed about this turn of events. The last four days of being told to do, re-do, and then re-re-do the same task at work has really emphasized how much I need to get away right now, and Paluma was it. And now Paluma, well, isn't it.
Leonie has organised a backup camping place near Mission Beach (a holiday area up north on the coast near Tully), which is cool, but just not the same. I hate being fussy about this, but it just sucks is all.

My last blog entry was about building the Little Silver Box, a wooden box that I've covered with tinfoil and strapped to my bike handlebars. It is my idea for a mini-series on Youtube about my favourite rides around town, and some info on where I live. Since then, I've posted one and a half episodes of "the adventures of the Little Silver Box", one being an intro to the box, and the half episode is of a ride up Castle Hill, a local landmark which is extremely popular to climb for people interested in fitness/social walking/cycling/running/sight-seeing. I don't really like how the first episode is turning out, as the box shakes too much regardless of padding to hear my voice properly, and makes the screen jitter about constantly. But if anyone's interested in seeing the vids, here they are:







If you can't see the vids above, then just go to www.youtube.com, then search for "little silver box" for the episodes, or "ensortion" for my channel :).

I have also made a vlog entry :O shock horror! It is really just a response to another youtuber's video, agreeing with him that the movie 'Amadeus' is AWESOME (it's my alltime favourite movie :D).

I watched 'Hotrod' tonight. It made me laugh soooooooooooooo hard, man I love that movie ^_^

Anyways, I'll try to write more regularly from now on, so my posts aren't ridiculously long, just like my appendages....what! I'm talking about my long arms and legs ;)

^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^

Woo! for too much time on one's hands :-D

Well, it cost me fifty bucks of material, plus about, ohhh, let's say 7 hours of work (keeping in mind I am quite a slow person at, well, most things lol), but I have succeeded in making a case to put my camera in for rides. It attaches to my handlebars :) I had no real idea what it would turn out like, and it's definitely not a pro job, but.....it's MY not-pro job YAYYYYYYY! (I'm gonna read this tomorrow and wonder where I pulled it all from, but let's remember that I have just spent 7 hours not eating or drinking, just thinking about a little box) (that's what he said ;) ).

I'll post pics of it asap k?

I really want to test it out, but it's raining outside :( plus, you know, it's 2.30 in the morning and I'd get some weird looks from my creepy neighbours who stay awake all hours lol (seriously, they really do seem to be awake at ALL hours).

Aside from that little project, today Leonie and I made sushi for Flo's birthday present. I got Flo about a kilo and a half of chocolate for christmas, so I thought something healthy would be a nice change......ok OK who am I kidding, it was all Leonie's idea.
The cucumber we used in the sushi tasted like acid would taste if it was really bad acid, so I had to rush down to the shops to get some more, because we were on a deadline (what with Leonie needing to get to work, and me needing to fulfill my nerdy pursuit of a camera-box strapped to a bike).

Anyhoo, work tomorrow, 1-6pm. Should be a dazzler, like all the others :P...

Om, I tube YOU!

I've managed to put another youtube vid up. This one is special; my first youtube appearance where I consciously talk to the camera. I did a short intro to the vid (which is of Leonie teaching me how to make sushi), and kinda screwed it up. I went off on tangents about Naruto and Harry Potter, and kept saying "really great". It felt exactly like speaking in front of a crowd does.....daunting lol. Hopefully I'll get used to it :).

One of the coolest things about making sushi was being able to understand the hiragana on the front of the packet of dried seaweed :) it feels like I've accomplished something at least a little productive in this largely wasted university holidays lol.



1: su 2: shi 3: no 4: ri
I have no idea what the thing above 'su' is though, perhaps someone could enlighten me?

When editing it in Moviemaker in Windows Vista (on Leonie's new laptop) the video wouldn't encode properly to start with. It kept encoding it so that a green bar filled the bottom half of the screen. I was confused as all heck, so googled "Windows Vista movie maker green bar" and found that it is a very common problem on Vista. Having found instructions on how to change a setting in the start menu, I finally encoded the movie and uploaded it (which took ages also, not sure why hmmmmm). But anyways.....woo! Haha.

Other than doing video stuff, I have been, well, just bumming around really. The chickens still haven't layed yet :( but I'll wait for another couple of weeks before I really start worrying about that.

Something interesting happened yesterday. I was in the middle of a bicycle ride with Tony (best mate), and we were heading down Laverack Barracks Road (as the name suggests, there is an army base that runs right along the length of it, about a 2-3km stretch of straight, smooth road, great for cycling). In the distance I could see a police car on the side of the road, and as I got closer I could see two policemen standing next to it pointing spped-guns at us lol. As I approached them I shouted "how fast am I going?", to which one of them shouted back "50km/h"...
Now this was all cool, except that my speedo said that I was only traveling 46km/h.... :S
This either means that my speedo is calibrated incorrectly (which I don't mind so much about) or the policemen's guns were wrong (I highly doubt this), which entertains the idea of false speeding tickets lol.

That same day I worked a five hour shift, followed by two hours of squash (I won two of the three matches I played against Fred and Campo), a small run, and then a barbecue at Leonies house. Man I love their FOOD! lol It's so good. There were these spicy prawn kebabs, yummmmm!!!!! steaks cooked three different ways, tandoori chicken, a weird but cool salad (the ingredients included feta cheese, pine nuts, and WATERMELON chunks) were just some of the things on the menu. And awesome desserts that I can't spell the names of (Indian lol). Yep, definitely an excellent dinner :-D.

Tony and I were supposed to have a run this afternoon, but he is sick with a flu-type thing, so I will go it alone I suppose. Oh yeah, followed by a walk up Castle Hill.
Speaking of Castle Hill, it is one of the foremost projects for filming as soon as I can work out how to strap the camera to my bike :) maybe a tailor-made job is required hmmmm...