New year’s. It’s time for some changes.
So the new year has rung in, finally. As per the title of this blog post, it’s time for some changes.
And so, my new year’s resolutions:
1. Become a better person generally.
- Finish the Five Rules of Personality (there are currently three)
- Don’t cause grief as often as I have in 2008
- Keep my promises.
2. Get a girlfriend.
- That’s pretty self-explanatory. I’m still unsure as of the steps I’m going to need to take in order to achieve this resolution – but hopefully, 2009 will bring all my hopes and dreams.
3. Lose >15 kilograms.
- Have at least 30 minutes of extended exercise (not toning) or at least 1 hour of walking per day
- Eat healthier – fast food reduced to three times per month
- Believe in my own power to lose weight.
4. Finally, blog more.
- Again, self-explanatory. At least 2 or 3 times a week – I’ll have more to talk about this year, I can feel it.
www.nocleanfeed.com
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RU-486
So last night I went out to a friend’s 21st.
It’s actually the first I’ve ever been to, so it was a good experience I guess. I saw a lot of people I hadn’t seen in quite some time.
But of course being a 21st there was free grog. So I got drunk, I guess. Although I’m not really sure what defines “drunk” – I mean, sure I had motion problems, but no problems talking to people (at least not that I can remember anyway :p) so was I really drunk, or only tipsy?
Anyway, that’s not the point. It’s now the morning after and I’m not really hungover – but I reckon as long as I don’t make any sudden moves I won’t get a headache or anything. I took a couple of Disprin just in case anyway, but I think that the heartburn is not really going to be helped by that; maybe that’s what happens in my hangover.
*sighs*
Well, I won’t be wandering for today, at least. Haha.
“Nash”-ville… Not Tennessee but rather Canberra.
Yep, I’m at the library for the second time this week. I’ll be here all holidays studying in fact.
I’d just like to tell everyone…
The library really isn’t the best place to meet people. :p
I guess if you want to meet someone you have to organise it beforehand. I should probably get around to organising coffee or something with that friend I’ve been meaning to.. ^^;
Keep wandering, guys. Sorry for the short one.
Viva la Vida!
Okay, another long-winded one. Two sections.
Viva La Vida: Blaxland House Rags Week Final Night
- Self-Styled “Best Rags Night Ever” -
So what we thought we’d do was…
There’s a school bell in the stairwell of the boarding house. And it hasn’t been used in over 10 years.
We spent half an hour trying various ways to open a box from which the power seemed to be entering and exiting:
- Firstly we assumed that the lock on the box was a latch lock and not a bolt lock.
- Next, we used a coathanger to try and pry the latch open… but the gap in between the door and the side of the box was too thin.
- So we tried a ruler. But that didn’t work either.
- We then noticed a small crack in the side of the box, underneath the lock’s position, so we used a hammer to give ourselves some leeway for the prying.
- But in the end it was the fact that the box was not made of strong wood that enabled us to use a knife to cut the broken lock out of the front, and pry the lock out of the side of the box.
So having got the box open, we noted a timer system (which was promptly stolen) and the plan was formed. On Wednesday night, the prank was to be pulled.
What did we do?
Well, the answer was simple. The time was 1:12 a.m. when the bell was turned on; and everyone filed out of the house due to the “fire drill” in order to get marked off. However, when they left the house, the door had locked behind them.
What they didn’t know was that buckets full of waterbombs had been placed in strategic positions.
So, the bell was turned off, and immediately the call of “Viva La Vida!” rang out instead. And we started pelting, and they started belting off to all corners of the school.
Suffice to say, anyone who attempted to get back into the house through the front door (as the back door was locked, and the bottom floor windows all closed after letting in two perpetrators) was completely PWNT by water, including buckets poured from a top floor window.
I finally wandered into bed around 3:15.
Viva La Vida: Valediction of the Class of 2008
- The Most Emotional Event in the History of Our Schooling -
So on the Thursday night… we started off with pre-Chapel service music, which was greatly entertaining, according to many people who came up to me and congratulated me on my performance of Debussy’s La cathédrale engloutie.
That was at 5:30. At 6:00 pm, we started off with Marko on organ playing an introit, as the Chapel Choir followed the procession into the Chapel and up around the crowd (and boy was the Chapel crowded) into the loft.
The service was truly something. We sang the Gloria from Josef Rheinberger’s Messe für Männerchor, which was really successful, and after a stunning message from the Bishop, we proceeded downwards during the final hymn (Guide Me O, Thou Great Jehovah; the first hymn was I Vow To Thee, My Country) to sing the Irish Blessing (May the road rise up to meet you… etc.). I was almost in tears as I made my way immediately back up to the loft to play Charles-Marie Widor’s Toccata from Symphony no. 5, which I played the best I have ever done.
So then we were off to dinner.
It was probably the most interesting awards night I’ve ever attended. I found out a lot about my fellow classmates from that night. I won’t go into particular detail, but the toasts made me a bit teary-eyed.
My awards, though:
- The Colonel C.Y. Liu Prize for Chinese
- A CGS Medal for Outstanding Contribution
- An Oxford Concise Dictionary for Being a Boarder for All Six Years of Secondary School
The dictionary effectively cost me $200,000 or thereabouts. XD
Then what?
Well, a few of us boarders headed up Red Hill to the carpark outside Mitzi’s restaurant. With the primary goal of getting totally trashed, so we had bought a few cases of Carlton Draught for that exact reason.
Within about an hour, though (and the time was now around 1:15 a.m.), a few more cars turned up, and we took the couch and mattress off a friend’s ute; which freed up space for some music to get happening.
Shortly afterwards, however, I had to move off the “mag”-tress (from maggot, drunk) for someone who was completely off his face, and puking everywhere. We ended up taking him home, which went alright, to return to a guy sitting on a wall, head between his legs.
But apart from those, we had a good time, or rather, we went buckwild. We danced until dawn, excepting the two times Constables Tanner and Sugar-Mate turned up and chatted to us. They were legends, and I shouldn’t go into detail. :p
Over the course of the night, we sang The Gambler, Grammar Jingle Bells and Guide Me O, Thou Great Jehovah multiple times, so come Friday morning my voice was completely screwed. Yep, I had a dub or two but surely that wasn’t it. X3
So, come dawn, we built a bonfire to watch the sun rise to. Just before the sun came up (5:43 a.m.) someone had the great idea of throwing the mag-tress on the fire. Someone had to run over it, three times, and by this time the flames were big enough to burn his hair… and so someone saw the fire.
We left the fire smouldering to go across the hill to change a message written in bedsheets (“CGS 08″) to a penis, being Grammar lads and obsessed by all things phallic, and by the time we got back, a fire engine pulled up. That someone obviously called the FD and thought it was a bushfire. So we barneyed.
And so then, it was 6:30 a.m. when we got back to school, and the objective was then to reset the Hall in time for:
Viva La Vida: The Mock Assembly, Final Speeches and Walk Out of the Quad
- 150 Or So Young Men Crying… In Broad Daylight -
The Mock Assembly. All of the jokes were in-jokes for various people around the school, for example our Head of Senior School is Alan Ball (A. Ball) and was represented by A Ball (the ball in question being an exercise ball.)
So that was good, I guess. Students@CGS will know what I mean.
And then we had the final assembly ever.
We said hello to the incoming School and Vice Captains, and said goodbye from the outgoing School and Vice Captains…
And then a lot of the Class of 2008 were crying. And we were still crying when we locked our arms around the shoulders of those next to us and sang Guide Me O, Thou Great Jehovah one last time.
And then we walked around the quadrangle, shaking hands and hugging the people we knew, running past the Junior School with outstretched high-five hands, and finally exiting through the Breezeway.
Which is where everyone broke down. Even the guy who said he was never going to cry leaving this place. It’s an indescribable feeling… and then it was over.
School’s out.
Yeah dog.
I’ll be wandering off somewhere else now, studying hard for HSC exams next term.
And then uni.
So, as always, keep yourselves wandering.
when a flower blooms [Poetry]
when a flower blooms, what is it but madness?
for these things may seem heaven-sent;
they may seem to hold beauty.
but for you, I keep a wilted rose in a glass by my table.
it reminds me of happier times because I know they will never be seen again,
as the blackened petals of this once-blue flower.
and still while I sit and write by candle-light,
morning frost clouds up the outside world, and I am trapped in white.
white was your colour. white like purity.
white like the room you live in.
but you hated white.
you hated it almost as much as you hate me now.
this music I play, it was for you;
but no longer. I play to ferment myself;
to acquiesce myself to the spheres.
for it is there that I will make my presence known
in but a few days’ time.
you cared for me, and I you, but no longer.
we must go our separate ways, you high, I low,
for we have nothing left to say.
(other than “goodbye” but that never counts, does it?)
and September brings cold, the springtime is all but cold
for I have sinned, and must return to you the things you gave.
for my wisdom; I thank you.
for my insight; I thank you.
for friendship; I thank you.
and for being there; I thank you.
I appreciate it all.
don’t thank you for my stupidity, though.
this is goodbye forever, I guess.
Hisashiburi desu ne….
So yes. It has been a veeeeeeeery long time. I apologise to the select few who regularly read my blog. A lot has happened, in fact.
I’ll go back to the last post, shall I?
So after I posted those videos on Youtube…
Combined Grammar Schools’ Spring Concert
Friday/Saturday, 23-24 August. CGGS Hall.
So there’s this giant show… (Well it’s not that big, only an hour or so.) But all of the CGS/CGGS musical ensembles got together and put on another… wait for it…
MUSIC FROM THE MOVIES~~~~
of course there were things like Harry Potter and Pirates of the Caribbean… but my good friend Spiderman made an entrance and improvved on the saxophone like it was nothing 
But the best performance by far was Duel of the Fates from Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. I sang in it, of course, and the lyrics go something like… “Korah mata korah ratama, korah syadho dannyah korah, nyohah keelah korah ratama, syadho keelah dannyah ratama” etc. Great piece, so fun to sing.
So that was a good day.
Evening of Fine Music
Saturday, 30 August. CGS Dining Hall.
Well, firstly I have to say it was a fine night of music. So much good music, and fine dining etc. etc.
I guess it was really CGS at its finest. The EOFM is the pinnacle of school functions… and it didn’t even get a mention in school assembly. Oh well. Hard times everyone else.
Binding Day
Wednesday, 3 September. CGS Music Room.
Of course I had plenty of classes but I managed to get out of them in order to finish HSC core composition – it’s actually not a bad piece from popular review. But yeah, that day was amazingly hectic, working from 8:45 straight through until 3:25, AND of course recording someone else’s piece at LUNCHTIME that day… O_o;
But yeah, got the piece finished in the end, photocopied and all of that stuff, and it went into a box to be sent off to the 33333bil BOS.
Plasmapheresis donation
Wednesday, 3 September. Red Cross House, Canberra Hospital.
Okay, so can someone say major screw-up? I poured a 2L bottle of water straight down my throat for these people, went through the whole interview process and sat down in the chair…
And then the needle went in wrong.
As a result I now have a quite-large bruise around the inside of my elbow… The blood being returned from the PA machine got pumped outside the vein in what we call a “blow-out” so I’m back there next Wednesday for round 2.
ADF Liason Officer Introduction
Thursday, 4 September. CGS Gallery.
Another gig for Hartley and the Hotseats. Still haven’t been paid though. :3
The Grand Question
Sunday, 7 September. Facebook.
In retrospect, it probably wasn’t the best idea to ask someone to my formal on facebook but at least it worked, hahah. Thank God I had my closest friend helping me to smooth out my insecurities and stuff. But yep. No names here, anyway.
And of course, no possession here anyway. She’s not “my” date or whatever. I don’t think of it that way, as you know, equal opportunity and stuff. Don’t ask me what I do call it though… I don’t have a clue.
And so that brings me to today.
CGS Choral Concert
Monday, 8 September. CGGS Hall.
… can’t speak, Rachmaninoff was too amazing.
…
keep wandering.
Music. Nothing but music.
So I’ve been playing some pieces on piano lately…
F. Poulenc; Toccata (no. 3 from Trois Pièces, 1939)
C. Debussy; La cathédrale engloutie (no. 10 from Préludes, Book I, 1910)
C. Vine; Rash (1997)
http://www.youtube.com/user/fanofmessiaen if you want to look at them.
I’ll have a two-piano piece up a bit later when I can be bothered uploading it :p
Keep wandering as usual.
08/08/08, 10:00 pm
So, last night was the Opening Ceremony for the Games of the XIX Olympiad, and if you missed it, then that’s too bad. I’ll include the UK Telegraph’s account here, because I can’t really be bothered describing all of the amazing events.
For the past year, 14,000 performers have relentlessly chased perfection in their rehearsals, and last night they achieved it, from the first beat of the 2008 perfectly-synchronised drummers to the moment the giant Olympic flame exploded into life four hours later.
It was an emphatic display of China’s long traditions of showmanship, and a worldwide audience of up to four billion surely looked on in awed admiration.
The drummers and the footprints of fire
A countdown was beaten out on thousands of bronze ‘fou’ drums lit from within to form the number of seconds remaining. Then the first battery of fireworks exploded from the stadium, in the shape of a red flower, prompting raucous cheers.
A second volley of fireworks burst into the sky from Tiananmen Square to the south, forming the shape of a giant footprint. Precisely-timed rockets formed one “footprint” every second, marching to the Bird’s Nest, with 29 footprints in all, one for each modern Olympiad.
As the fireworks died down, acrobats dressed as Apsarases, or sylphs, flew above the arena, and thousands of tiny lights came together to form the Olympic rings, which magically lifted into the air to gasps from the crowd.
The giant scroll
After 56 children, one from each of China’s ethnic groups, brought the Chinese flag into the stadium, a 25m x 100m scroll unfurled to form a giant screen onto which images of China’s 5,000-year history were projected. Dancers spread themselves across the bare scroll, making giant paintings as they went. Thousands of years of art, including cave paintings and one of China’s most celebrated early paintings, the 12th century Song dynasty master work, A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains, were projected onto the scroll.
Confucius and the Printing Press
A choir of 3,000 dressed as disciples of Confucius and waving bamboo slips – an early form of book – chanted lines from his greatest work of philosophy, the Analects. Meanwhile, an extraordinary performance of rising and falling blocks, each containing a person, represented a giant, living printing press, invented by the Chinese in 1041, eventually forming the character “He”, meaning peace or harmony.
Terracotta Warriors and Sinbad the Sailor
Peace was followed by war in the shape a triumphal army dressed as the terracotta warriors. As the scroll showed a map of the ancient Silk Road, hundreds of women, dressed in blue silk to represent the sea, held up huge oars showing the seven voyages of the Chinese sailor Zheng He – said to be the original Sinbad the Sailor – who sailed the world 87 years before Christopher Columbus. At the centre of the tableau, a performer held an ancient compass, also invented by China.
Liu Huan and Sarah Brightman
As the performance moved into the modern age, dancers dressed in green body suits arranged themselves in the form of a dove and then of the Bird’s Nest itself. After a mass performance of tai-qi – Chinese shadowboxing – and kung fu, the performance moved towards its climax. An enormous globe, its colours changing to show first the planet earth and then traditional Chinese symbols in red and yellow, rose out of the ground, with performers on wires running around it, and above them astronauts representing China’s space programme to bring the performance right up to the present day.
Sarah Brightman and the Chinese singer Liu Huan then sang the Beijing Games anthem, “You and Me”, in English and Chinese.
Entrance of the Athletes
Instead of arriving in alphabetical order, the athletes entered the stadium in the order of how many brush strokes it took to write the first letter of their country’s name in Chinese. Greece came first, in accordance with tradition, with China at the rear with 639 athletes, its largest ever squad. The Chinese flag was carried by 7ft 6in basketball star Yao Ming, accompanied by Lin Hao, a nine-year-old survivor of the earthquake in Sichuan province, who bravely led his classmates in singing songs to keep their spirits up until they were rescued from their collapsed school.
As the athletes paraded around the arena, they walked over a giant canvas, infused with ink, so that their footprints made a giant landscape picture which was then raised to form the podium on which the official speeches were made.
But that’s not really what I wanted to talk about today.
What I want to talk about is the level of cultural insensitivity in Australia. Well, in my school at least.
All through the telecast people were pointing and laughing, saying things like:
“Oh, how easy would that be? They’re just using puppets!”
“Man their eyes are small.”
“Are dragons real?” (a Chinese guy) “Yeah, of course.” (them) *laughs*
etc.
I was enraged, to say the least.
Their country is built on thousands of years of heritage; and I was pretty much sitting in the corner chanting “Oh, wow” to myself… and all they could think of to do was pay out the Chinese. I mean, I was just thinking the whole time… you culturally insensitive fucks.
Anyway, rant over.
澳大利亚，加油！
北京的朋友们，我支持你们… 加油！
Keep wandering. (继续徘徊。)
