Sometimes things happen.

I brought a BUNCH of new Fish on Monday:

8 x Bosemani Rainbows (juvies)

4 x Blue Rams (Not German Blue Rams, just fantastic quality Blue Rams - German Blues are a particuarly good Man-Made Colour morph, mine are truer to Wild-Type)

4 x Corydoras julii

Yay!

Also I'm going under GA and the knife for the first time ever in 19 days, to get all four of my Wisdom teeth surgically extracted. I'm excited!

So I'm using Dreamwidth again. I should really journal more often in general, I did so well on our trip last year - a journal entry every single day! And I think I should try to achieve some semblance of that day to day. 

Deep breaths. I'm going to try to make this entry less angry and despairing than my last one. It was some pretty full on anger and despair. Still, I am reasonably concerned about folio. But I have to keep going, there's nothing to be gained from giving up<suP>1</sUp>, and a lot to lose. The first thing would be my self-respect: it's one thing to fail, knowing that you at least tried your best, but to fail because I gave up, just couldn't hack it? No, that's not something that I want to have to live with having done. So, painful as it is, I guess at least I know that it's better than how I would feel if I threw in the towel.

I'm going to go to bed at 1:30, though. I don't know what time to get up. I suppose I should get up at like 7:30 or something. Hurr. Tomorrow, I'm going to try to get my 1:500 model done. I'll  have to go to the workshop at uni to do it. It should be ok - it's just going to be a massing model. Made of wood. 

Anyway, today I put all of my plans into Revit, so now I have a model, sections, elevations and some perspective views ready to go. The only problem with the sections and elevations is that I need to trace them in CAD first, and that is tedious beyond explanation. Also I know alarmingly little about the structure of this building - since we never once discussed it all semester until last thursday when Emiliano told us that we needed to do a 1:50 section showing structure - which is... alarming. I could go to the Architect's Office to beg help for that part, but I am running dangerously low on time. 

<sup>1</suP> Nothing to be gained but literally hours and hours of sleep, that is. But I will have literally four months to catch up on my sleep debt.

Ok, so, got distracted, now I'm crashing. I will check things later and stuff.

I have this theory that the reason I've lost my design Mojo is that I haven't been updating my livejournal. Yeah, flimsy at best, I know, but it's 1:20 am and I'm SO DEEP into procrastinating that I'm procrastinating against going to sleep on a Friday, when I don't have anything overly unpleasant to do tomorrow.

I know, crazy, right?

I'm not really sure what my original intention was in opening livejournal today. But, I came across a metaquote related to Australia and it made me simultaneously re-remember how great our wildlife is here, rekindle my desperate desire to go camping up North again, or down South, or over East, I really don't care where, honestly, AND feel deeeeep nostalgia for this time last year. Experiencing other countries is the bomb on levels, and shit.
(I never said this was going to be a particularly enlightening entry)

Mainly though, I want to go and do the drive up to Exmouth again and then just stay there for a month, snorkelling every day. There is almost nothing else to do up there, but the reef is so amazing that I don't really care. Swimming after reef sharks is a good adrenaline rush. As long as there are no bigger kinds of sharks around - that would be less fun. Actually, last time I was in Coral Bay (close-ish to Exmouth, a fair few hours south, but the same Coral Reef), we were coming back in from a fishing charter and saw a 3m long Tiger shark literally just gliding through the water around some coral bombies that we were looking at the day before. I can't imagine coming across one of those things in the water. It would be... it would be bad.

Hm. Uni. Uni this semester has been about as pleasant as a cheese grater to the face. Now there's just over a month to go and I'll be honest, I am freaking out, now. I still don't have - well, that's not true, I have a design, a form, but I don't have floor plans. Or, I did, but I showed Emiliano and he didn't like them. The trouble is, that I know what his problem with them is - they are plans, but they don't have "it" - that thing that makes what architects produce better than what some other building designer produces. That quality of space, or whatever. They're just places where things are. And I don't care. That is probably the biggest problem. I have 0 passion this semester. I have no design mojo. Things aren't falling into place, I have no vision. And worse, I have no idea how to fix it, and I'm running out of time. I think I can do enough to pass, but just passing would be very disappointing indeed. I was hoping that I could get a 70% average over studio for the next 3 studios so that I can do the dissertation studio unit in 5th year (so that I can have an MArch: Hons), but I really can't see that happening at this point. Which is sad. But I don't know how to change it!

( Cut for more whinging about uni that nobody wants to read - I guess writing it is cathartic or whatever )

Hm. Now I feel a little better, actually. Maybe one day, when I actually have anything to show, I will put up some pictures.
Now, I should really look up pictures of hair so that I can tell the hair dresser what I actually want done tomorrow. I may have done a silly thing. I booked some kind of assessment/consult thing at the Maurice Meade in Garden City. I don't know if I care enough to pay their prices, but the consultancy is free. When I was looking at one of their brochures the other day, it looked like they were only about $60 more expensive than my current hair dresser, who I don't like, so I thought it might be worth the extra money to get something nicer. But when I spoke to the lady on the phone today it sounded like it was going to be a lot more.
Eh!
We'll see.

Ohhh also I am going to order an earring for my helix piercing made from Mammoth Ivory. Seriously! It is only $20. Apparently they have more mammoth carcasses than you can shake a stick at up in Finland, or somewhere, so the ivory isn't that expensive, or something.
IDK. I am somewhat skeptical, but Exotic is a pretty reputable business, to my experience, and surely, you can't say something is certifiedly Mammoth Ivory and issue a certificate and everything if it's not?


Does anyone care about the Grand Final this year? Ever since the Eagles have started... well, you know... I have completely lost interest. I watched Freo's last final game, and obviously jinxed them because that was just embarassing. But I actively dislike Collingwood and couldn't care less about the Saints, so... boooooring! Footy is pretty boring when nobody that you care about is playing.

RIGHT!
LESS PROCRASTINATE, more.. .things

Hello internets! Uni really does bring out the Livejournal update in me.
So I have a 100% first world problem. I coudn't get to a store on Friday, and because I probably wouldn't have gotten approved with a contract at midnight by myself I didn't queue for hours the night before.
(yes, I am talking about the iPhone 4 now. It's this thing that I want.)

So now I am thinking, since nobody in the universe seems to want to take pre-orders for the next batch of iphone 4s (just like the first round, wtf guys), I figure I should buy one/a contract online.

Has anyone done this? I am very apprehensive about getting a contract online. The main reason for this is, if it takes 3-4 weeks for the iphone to arrive, am I without a phone/sim for that 3/4 weeks? And am I paying for it? Or does the contract start the day I get the phone, or something like that? If I sign or whatever courier tings. I can't see how that would work, but that's what I would hope.

Anyway, because I have some freakish modern strain of the black death, I'm going to bed!
Any opinions or advice would be much arrpreciated. Arr. Like a Pirate. Pirates are very appreciative of things, y'see. Or you could make fun of me for being such a consumer-goods-driven sucker.

Why am I still awake? I'm not doing anything. I don't want to be awake. I'm even tired. Why am I staying up? It's not that I can't sleep.
Ok, so maybe I was playing Pac Man and Tetris. But that's done now. Re-reading my old Livejournal entries isn't that interesting.

I am so weird.
(I guess I'll go to bed now... If you were wondering)

"My God. What have you done. You have entered the code incorrectly. Look what your careless hands have wrought. Without bones, these ten gnarled hooves cannot support its weight. Each moment this unnatural beast lives is like a thousand years of misery. Look in its brown eyes. It longs for death."

Funnily enough, this is pretty close to any time I use CAD ever. Or make a model.
(Quote from a Penny Arcade comic btw)

Ah, the Pointy End of Semester.
It comes around so quickly every time.
So on Wednesday I have two major things due:

Tech 4
Site Visit Diary (40%)

Professional Practice
Professional Practice Portfolio (20%)
Group Presentation (15%)
Individual Short Report - Hames Sharley Architects (20%)

And then next Friday I have due:

Tech
BCA Compliance Drawings + Report (60%)

AND THEN
on the 28th of May

Folio (100%)

God.

So yeah, just saying that I probably won't be attending anything in May, or at least it doesn't look like I will be able to from here. From here, it doesn't look like I have time to sleep.
Maybe this will change after next week! I know I hope so.

I'm kind of freaking out. All I want to do is chill out and relax but... I can't do that for very long, because if I do it for too long, it really isn't relaxing.

Also our internet is shaped. This makes my procrastination take up even more time!
HURR.
But.
Now I have to go.
Got drawings to do, reports to write. Ahh ahh ahh.

It's kind of amazing.
I'm listening to the four songs that didn't make it onto Diorama, but did make it as B-sides: Pins in My Needles, Asylum, Hollywood, and Ramble. They're all pretty good. Some of my favourites. Pins in My Needles might be my favourite Silverchair song? Maybe? It's still hard to pick, even After All These Years (capitalised for pun highlighting! Wait, it's not a pun, is it? Er, for that thing which I just did.)

Anyway.
I don't have much to talk about these days. I am pretty boring. Oh wait!
On Saturday I got my ear cartilage pierced again (Helix piercing, two of 'em), AND I brought those shoes from Redstripe that I posted a few days ago, maybe? I can't remember if I posted that. Anyway they're rad.

So now I have to do 10 minute saline bath things twice a day (at least!) for the next four to six weeks. Phew! I think that if it's nice on the weekend I should go swimming in the beach, since I can literally see it right now as I am typing even though the sun is down. Because the moon is shining! Pretty. Wait, no, that's the reflection of the ceiling light on the glass doors. I knew that. I can see lights shining on the horizon though, and their reflections. So I still don't lie. I think I'm at the wrong angle for it to be Garden Island. It must be a big boat.

My fish tank is full of algae. not the good kind, if there is a good kind - it looks kind of like muddy brown cobwebs in my tank. Next week I'm going to buy some Cherry Shrimp to eat the Algae, but I'll have to relocate my Peppermint Bristlenoses while I do this so that they don't commit shrimpocide. Oh, the trial that is hobbyist fishkeeping! I wish I still had that nano tank I lent¹ to Jas a million years ago, and never got back :(,² because it had a filter and it would be perfect for propagating shrimp in. This is apparently very very easy. And cherry shrimp are PRETTY!

Geeez, I really feel like I'm not on top of things this semester. I feel pretty behind in Tech. Studio is kind of ok, and I suppose that's the main one. Prof Prac seems to be going well, but! I always feel uneasy with subjects I think I'm doing well in, unless they're history subjects. Odd. Anyway, I think that getting a Mac was probably a mistake. Oh well, it's done now. I'm downloading, among other things, VM Ware Fusion tonight during Off Peak Tiem, so hopefully it will get a bit less painful to use architecture software. I feel like I've forgotten how to use CAD. I'm trying to learn Revit but the goddamn tutorials aren't working... I'm re-downloading/installing them tonight, too. God.

I cooked Chicken & Almonds today. It was pretty good. A recipe I used to cook a lot in Bunbury. It's pretty simple but it makes sooo many dishes. Worst thing. Ever. Almonds are expensive too. Bah!
On the other hand, fresh Celery! I need something to eat it with, I always used to have it with cheese when I was a kid, and now I can't. Or peanut butter, but I don't have any peanut butter and frankly it still hasn't been long enough since Europe for me to want to go there. (Peanut butter is great and all, BUT, every lunch almost for nearly 7 months, and sometimes breakfast, and sometimes dinner, and you wouldn't be super-keen either.³)
Or is it Peanut Paste, and Peanut Butter is American? Butter is probably American. Damn! Curse you, Sesame Street childhood! You make me say "Z" and "Zebra... oh wait, no. I say "Z" "Zee", but I say "Zebra" "Zeh-bra", not "Zee-bra." What a weirdo. But either way, I'm sure Sesame Street taught me lots of crazy things. For example, I remember calling rectangles OBLONGS in Pre-Primary and the teacher putting a stop to that malarky. If malarky is even a word - if it's not, I think it's onomatopoeic enough to be self-explanatory.
I mean, OBLONG: what the hell kind of word is that? It certainly wouldn't go down too well in an architectural dialogue: "Well, in an attempt to be more like Ando, who uses primarially OBLONGULAR forms and crisp, uniform shapes, I have eliminated all non-OBLOTILINEAR shapes."
Ok, that sentence wouldn't be great even if I was using sensible, rectilinear words, rather than oblongular ones. But god, actually oblongular and oblotilinear are pretty fucking fantastic sounding words.
Still, it's smacks dangerously of the Imperial System.

Whe-he-heeeelll, I think I've bored you all for long enough!
ADIEU!

---

¹Is that really how you spell it? It's not a word I use much and to me it looks like what you do leading up to Chocolate HolidayEaster.

²It's my fault too, because I never asked for it back. I guess! :( I could just buy another, better (?) one with my Fish Credz. But I don't want to own ANOTHER tank. Yet.

My Pokemans, let me show you them.

Does anyone have a Growlithe? If you have a Growlithe, I will capture a Vulpix and trade you for it!

This is a nerdy post about my team. I THINK I CAN ALMOST CATCH ME A LUGIA I AM EXCITED.

QUILAVA (Selket) lvl.29 (male, sigh) <--- :( in Silver my Typhlosion was female!
FLAAFY (Holly) lvl.27 (female! whoo!) <-- In Silver I had an Ampharos called Holly
MURKROW (Harpy) lvl.25 (female)
TOGETIC (Eastra) lvl.23 (female!) <--- actually half decent
POLIWAG (Tlaloc) lvl.21 (male)

I had an Onix but it was shit so I ditched it. Now I have Shuckie in my team but I have never used it ever and I never will.

Selket is not a god of fire, nor is she a boy. But I like the name. So there. Selket is a Scorpion goddessof poison and stings and such. She was a protective goddess.
I called my Cyndaquill Selket to make myself feel better about not being able to get a girl one.

Tlaloc is an Aztec god of rain, fertility and water.

Eastra is a version of the name of a germanic goddess of fertility and eggs and hares and shit. Togepi is an egg. Also it's amusing. I might change the spelling of the name to Eastre or Ostara, but probably not.

I want a Totodile so I can call it Sobek. But Typhlosion is WAYHEAPS cooler than Feraligatr.

***PROCRASTINATION COMPLETE***

(This entry is from a few days ago. I wrote it in Mac Journal and it didn't work - I still haven't mastered the program.)

So on Easter Sunday (Happy Easter everyone! I didn’t send SMSes this year because my phone is literally the shittest piece of technology that I have ever had the displeasure of owning. Turns out though, Apple is announcing iPhone v.4 tomorrow, so hopefully I won’t have to languish on the outskirts of the cool kids crowd for too much longer), I took some of my fish that were no longer working for me to Midland Pet and Aquarium centre. (best fish shop evar, though their website isn’t really that great) The only fish that I had in my 2ft tank which I kept were my beloved Yoyos (Botia almorhae).

For two Black Pearl Calvus ( Altolamprologus calvus), one female Kribensis (Pelvicachromis pulcher), two Pictus catfish (Pimelodus pictus) and 4 or five of my grown up bristlenose babies (Ancistrus sp.), I got $90.00 of fish credit. Woo!

(If you want some money for the pictus, tattered_pinion , just let me know!)

So with that we (‘we’ being Gavin and I) picked up 6 Glowlight Chilli Barbs for his 6’ tank (I don’t know their scientific name so here’s a picture... pretty)... expensive little things at $10 each... Well. Expensive for shoaling fish.
Later on I’m going to use the rest of my fish monies to buy a school of Neon Tetras (Paracheirodon innesi)(6-10 I guess, my tank isn’t that big), and this fancy food that Midland was using to bring out the colours in their fish. Exciting!
I don’t know when I will next be bothered to drive all the way to Midland though. Eesh!

Then we went to Aquotix, my second most favourite fish shop in Perth, where Gavin found himself one of the elusive Dragon’s Blood Cichlids (Aulonocara Dragon Blood - it’s a line-bred colour morph, not a distinct species) that he’d been looking for for ages.

Aaand I brought a fantastic Half Moon Siamese Fighting fish. Just today I’ve decided to name him Anasterian Sunstrider. My last fighter was Kael’thas Sunstrider, you see. Kael’thas is a better name, but Anasterian will do for now. I was toying with calling him Kael’thas Sunstrider II, but that just seemed a bit lazy to me. So!
( “Pictures )

( “Pictures )