august 31, 2003
things and stuff
I had a lovely walk with Lady E earlier today. She came bearing baked goods from her place of employment which I hadn't been able to find on her front porch. And then we went walking and talking for a good long while.
For some strange reason The Big Plan which I haven't heard about is a general move of the greater friendship group to Perth.
Perth?
That was my reaction too. Apparently Helene is planning on going to WAPAA in a couple of years and in order to keep Hello Minnesota and the general fan base / friend base together, we'll all move to WA to keep Helene company.
I think that it's a swell idea. Though I see myself as more of a Fremantle kinda girl.
:::...
I don't know when I'll get a chance to even scratch myself this week. A whole bunch of little niggling assignments are due and potentially the Big Group Project for the semester is going to have to be executed by Wednesday.
Whoops. It was my responsibility to organise the presentation date (which could be the 3rd, I don't yet know) but I figure that as a group we might have kick started into some kinda activity earlier. And actually written presentation content, or made the project website or something!
So I used my guilt and semi-motivation to make up a project website. I still have to write about the history of email and how to send and receive messages.
That bit of work is not very difficult. I'll be able to use notes for the majority of the presentation.
I still have to write up an ethical case study on email monitoring by employers, write up a tutorial assignment for Intelligent Systems Technology and complete (and start) the first assignment for Database Systems.
Not too much. As always, the problem is motivation and distraction.
:::...
I watched Speed and Chainreaction (not as bad as I thought it would be) last night. One of the benefits of being sickish is that going out is dangerous for one's health, so watching action films is excusable. I did tape Two Hands, but felt that watching Heath Ledger whilst unwell wouldn't be very safe. I might have heart palpitations or something and die.
I improved my filmic consumption today and watched Best In Show. It reminded me of how cool Parker Posey is. I think I'll be going off to see A Mighty Wind (Christopher Guest et al again) some time in the next couple of weeks.
:::...
It could be the Official Arrival Of Spring in less than half an hour, the assignments due or the Sudafed I had the other day, but DECLUTTERING is at the forefront of my mind.
It's going to be a little hard to institute a phenomenal cleanup as my grandma would kill me if I moved anything from it's 50 year old position, but I'm going to declutter my possessions.
Micallef may have been axed, but the refrain "Into the Bin" is going to be heard loud and clear.
The broken microwave, mini freezer, radiator and sewing machine will all be taken to the dump.
I will throw away cute nicknacks which have been kept in boxes. I will cull magazines and try and institute some kind of bookshelf order. I will destroy clothes which aren't suitable for either me or the goodwill bin. Free postcards will either be stored in the box designated for their storage, put on display in the kitchen or recycled. Empty jars in the pantry will have food stored in them or they will put in the recycling bin.
:::...
I'm going to act like a stylist for a magazine and work with themes...
The paper fans on the mantlepiece? Into the bin! (or the box of stuff too good to throw out)
For the next couple of weeks the mantlepiece will be decorated with vases of flowers from the garden and postcards with flowers.
blossom like pink snow, wallflowers, freesias, jasmine and daffodils. pretty.
pipstar @ 11:30 PM | link | Comments: *
august 28, 2003
coke bottle
I'm taking my relatively insignificant but very irritating illness (headache, stiff muscles, crankiness) as a sign from the gods.
I'm meant to stay put in Adelaide while I've still got uni work to do.
If I went over to Melbourne this weekend, while sick, I would not recover very quickly and because I'd be tired and lurgeed up, I wouldn't finish the three assignments due by Thursday and Friday next week.
So I've turned down a trip to Melbourne (for me turning down Melbourne is a big thing to do), and I've also turned down an offer of beer at the Exeter.
I'm going to head off for dinner supplies, dvds and to return stuff to the library. And I'm actually going to make a start on the work due next week.
Hopefully I'll be recovered in time for a visit to the Royal Adelaide Show.
pipstar @ 04:35 PM | link | Comments: ***
august 27, 2003
painkillers! please!
my head feels like someone is torturing me.
when i move my eyes my head hurts even more. and bright lights are painful.
so far i've only got a little cough and my neck is stiff.
it's lucky that i bargained with my body and specified that i wasn't to get sick until after the job interview. but why didn't i specify that i wasn't to get sick at all!
nyeh. i have to drive up to uni for a tute and hopefully recover / not get any sicker by friday morning.
as much as i'd love a trip to the city of grey skies, there's no way that i'm going to drive over while sick. and i wouldn't want the car load of people getting sick either.
pipstar @ 12:02 PM | link | Comments: **
august 26, 2003
luck dragon
i'm trying to not jinx the graduate position i'm applying for.
but i want you all to cross your fingers and wish me luck.
considering that i've been lucky to get to the second round of interviews and it's my first graduate application i'm worried that i've already used up my luck.
so i need some more.
:::...
whatever job i end up with next year, i'm going to make a point of not posting about work.
hopefully it will keep battlecat as a fun distracting from work thing and allow me to develop a more specific focus for the website. (yoga? cooking? a pet? home decoration? books and films? gardening? photography?). i'm also considering heather's experience of a few years ago.
pipstar @ 12:29 PM | link | Comments: ***
august 25, 2003
crash
i'm waiting for another ceramic / glass object to break. last night when i was showering, the jar i keep my baking soda in fell and smashed.*
and then while i was doing the washing up just then, the strainer from my cat mug fell out of my hands and broke.
luckily i didn't get injured either time.
though i managed to give myself a significant singing when i was using heated curlers on my fringe on saturday. the pain and the mark on my forehead are worth it, as i got compliments for my curled hair by both girls and boys!
baking soda?
uh hu. you mix a little into a paste with your face wash (even plain water) and you rub it over your face and then rinse off. it's lovely and gentle, super cheap and environmentally friendly.
i have to admit that it isn't my idea, as it's taken from not martha
pipstar @ 04:16 PM | link | Comments: *
august 24, 2003
girls on film
#1 so yesterday at orange lane (which was meant to be the last day for the markets and the definite last stall day for candlesque) some people from channel seven news came up to my stall and wanted to interview me. i'm sure they were quite excited to find a young hippieish looking girl with crazy bright red hair who was apparently selling candles that she had made with her own hands!
they asked me questions about the imminent closure of the orange lane markets and i thought back to the one semester of public relations that i did, and i thought about the stakeholders and i said something that was apparently "newsworthy" and relevant to the issues of orange lane (showcase for local crafts / art, public space, youth). so when i turned up at orange lane this morning the other stallholders all commented about the success of my statements.
i didn't even think that they'd show my interview!
#2 i just got back a couple of hours ago from middleton where (along with aliese) i was filmed as part of the new brillig video.
what fun! we dressed up in a pseudo comic book style and hopefully looked terrified at the thought of being attacked by pterodactyls. i put on heaps of eye makeup in a david bowie style and mimed blood curdling screams.
i'm exhausted from the long drives there and back. and from the late, late night spent watching hello minnesota, brassy and the new pollutants. and exhausted thinking about the rest of the semester.
so much work to do.
and the next two weeks are scary busy, largely because i'll be heading off to melbourne for a very brief weekend of fun with jaye, oliver and chinna (we're leaving about 1pm on friday and returning from melbourne on sunday night. that's going to be only one full night of going out!) at least i'll get to visit ikea!
pipstar @ 11:54 PM | link | Comments: **
august 18, 2003
boys on film
the orange lane markets, where i'm working selling candles, closes its doors next sunday (24.18.03). while the closure does herald a return to unemployment for me, it will free up two more days a week for study, shenanigans or sleep.
come along and visit me, buy a candle or some incense (the prices will be cheaper on the sunday) and farewell the chilled place that is orange lane.
:::
i don't think that i need to apply for youth allowance, so i'm currently looking for work of the retail / bar / data entry variety. obviously i'd love to hear of any suitable employment. i'm also pretty good at sitting and talking and listening. anyone in need of a reality tv contestant, life model or amateur therapist should also get in touch with me.
:::
driven by the bizarre antilogic that rules my life i spent $400 dollars on a combined dvd/vcr last week. it also plays mp3 cds.
life is grand.
especially when john cusack is on screen.
pipstar @ 02:07 AM | link | Comments: ***
august 15, 2003
i could have done a better job...
on the university's redesigned webpage because:
i would have made it look stylish and i would have included useful links for the university's actual customers...
the students!
ask me how pissed off i was at 23:57 when i had to submit an assignment file by 23:59 and i couldn't find any link to the submission application within the first 5 pages.
ask me how pissed off i was when the search engine didn't find any references to assignit, AssignIT, assign it, Assign It, AssignIt.
ask me how furious i was when i had to email the file (late!) because when i did find Assign It the database wasn't working.
very, very pissed off. very, very angry.
pipstar @ 11:49 PM | link | Comments: *
august 13, 2003
that's pretty nifty
sorry, my blog wasn't broken, it's just that i haven't posted anything for the last couple of days.
i've been writing up a super dooper c.v., celebrating my grandma's 96th birthday and writing a report on international computer security.
on sunday i almost died from the cold at the orange lane markets, however, i sold many candles which was good. i also bought a nicely framed mirror and some moss agate and paua shell to turn into earrings. i was saved from the near death experience by aliese and brian who turned up and lent me a lovely beanie to keep my head warm.
and a warm head helps keep brains in working order, and working brains combine with other working brains to make super duper websites for ladies hellbent on the path to world domination.
the pretty nifty adelaiderockladies.net.
pipstar @ 12:28 AM | link | Comments:
august 08, 2003
yesterday
we made biscuits
josh played around with my scarf
pete is not afraid of rabbits
josh likes tea
who wants to be my friend?
pipstar @ 11:58 PM | link | Comments: **
august 08, 2003
war of the worlds
I have to admit that I was a little scared by [spooks] tonight.
I knew that I was watching a television show. The stressful thing was how the characters intially acted upon information that the Red Alert was a test. And then they found out that it was real (which it wasn't, but for 8 hours of their lives it was reality).
Fire alarms at uni? I log out of the computer, pack up my bag and then leave the room, the risk of getting burnt in a real fire (low) has to be weighed against the risk of my bag being stolen or my network access being appropriated.
What if the fire alarm was real?
What we initially consider to be fiction can sometimes be real. I remember returning home on September 11 (I'd been working in the computer lab at uni when I heard about the attacks) and talking to Chris. His immediate response to what he saw on television was that it was some type of constructed media event.
I may be paranoid or just plain pessimistic, but I like to consider what I'd do in certain circumstances.
bush fire | home invasion | Y2K disasters? I have so little faith in old skool programming that I took a candle and matches to the 1999/2000 NYE celebration I attended.
pipstar @ 11:39 PM | link | Comments: **
august 07, 2003
tinker, tailor, air hostess, spy
While it feels like I've hardly been at home for the last three weeks, I do seem to have developed some serious tv addictions: there's my continuing interest in The West Wing (Tuesday, 10:30, Nine), the new love of my life Spooks (Friday, 9:30, ABC), and the very funny Mile High (Wednesday, 9:30, Seven).
I don't have a VCR at the moment, so balancing important TV viewing with my oh so busy social life is reaching crisis point. For example, I gave up eating fondue with Pete and his old housemate Nicky to stay home and watch tv tonight.
I know that suddenly I'm not going to have any time to myself. Next Monday I have to hand up a 1500 word report on International Computer Crime.
Yay. That means that all day Friday, Saturday evening, Sunday evening and Monday afternoon will be taken up with actual university work!
However, tomorrow will be a fun day. Pete and Josh are going to come over and we'll make assorted baked goodies such as gingerbread men and teapots and flourless chocolate cake. I'll be able to practice for my secret "other" career option of flight attendant as I offer them cups of tea and inflight magazines.
pipstar @ 12:04 AM | link | Comments: *
august 05, 2003
excuse me, but are you from syria?
forgive me peace loving friends, but i'm going to have to apply for defence based IT employment.
pipstar @ 03:29 PM | link | Comments:
august 04, 2003
mr breezy
it's taken me almost four years to get to the point where i can say that the seven year old crush i had on seamus is gone.
not because i suddenly realise that he's ugly (i can now [relatively] objectively say that's he seems to be even more attractive than before) or untalented (his singing is still excellent... though i missed the rickenbacker bass and the other symbiotic sounds of reckoning).
i just don't need that crush anymore. in fact, i don't need a crush on anyone at the moment.
but i am so glad that i had seamus (and the rest of reckoning) to think about, particularly through high school, particularly when i let a much older man manipulate me.
for every negative thing, i had this bright shiney goodness to think about (and listen to).
now i'm grown up, and i actually speak to seamus and matt and pete on occassion, and i fight back my 16 year old self and attempt an almost 24 year old self conversation.
but i'm still quite happy to sing about laundromats and dancing elephants, and to think back to being 16 and getting ready for a show with alison, and how we coordinated our nail polish and hair ribbons, and bought watermelon flavoured chupa chups. and so thankful to think that going to reckoning shows meant that i immersed myself in local and australian music, which meant that i volunteered with off the couch and took up photography, which in turn directed me to new jobs and new people and made me the pippa i am today.
i have gone from being a little pipsqueak to being a fully fledged pipstar.
thankyou seamus [and matt and pete]. you've kept me happy.
================mark writes about crushes in substance zine || the archived crush.nu website
pipstar @ 02:17 PM | link | Comments: ***
august 01, 2003
these things happen in threes you know
1]
last night on the way home from dinner with karah, and beverage imbibing with pete i saw the most amazing bit of space junk fall from the sky.
not a pathetic tiny shooting star, but a bright white, burning up from the atmosphere meteorite / asteroid reentry.
the girl in the car next to mine turned to look at me, to express her excitement. we both did a little dance.
2]
i found a little doll in the gutter behind my car.
some little girl's horribly upset. and the little girl's mother has probably said to her "i'm sure that someone else has found it and they'll look after it and be really grateful".
so i'm going to take it upon myself to look after the doll.
3]
while i walked through Big W looking at bonds underwear, a case of coca cola fell over and cans of coke started exploding and fizzing.
i helped pick up the coke cans.
=
these are the cool little things which i'll remember about the last 24 hours.
pipstar @ 02:29 PM | link | Comments: *
august 01, 2003
green stripey bag #1
a couple of weeks ago i bought a whole bunch of beautiful cheap material from spotlight. there's a very fine red stripey cotton which i want to make a sundress from and an interestingly woven, green striped fabric which was labelled cotton, but which my mum and i think is actually rayon.
rather than buying these fabrics with specific projects in mind i bought them because they were so beautiful and so so cheap ($2.99 p/m). though i did plan to use the green to make bags with, specifically a yoga mat bag for ellie.
i'd also bought some bamboo handles for a smaller bag, so yesterday i figured i'd use my free time to make up the first of the bags.
i didn't have a pattern or another bag to base the design on, so the opening is a little small, and i may unpick the edges to open it up a little more.
pipstar @ 01:52 PM | link | Comments:
august 01, 2003
uncommon knowledge about oatmeal
Does it move? I say Probably.
Is it usually visible? I say No.
Does it have good vision? I say Probably.
Does it have a sense of smell? I say Probably.
Does it provide protection? I say Probably.
Is it a type of fish? I say Probably.
Is it a pure bred animal? I say Probably.
Would you eat its fruit? I say Probably.
Is it furry? I say Probably.
Does it lay eggs? I say Probably.
Does it live near water? I say Probably.
Does it have physical substance? I say Doubtful.
Does it live in water? I say Probably.
Does it live in grass-lands? I say Probably.
Is it lumpy? I say Yes.
Does it smell good? I say Doubtful.
Help the computer learn that porridge / oatmeal does not lay eggs and is not furry.
© 2002 - 2007 Pippa Buchanan