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Since this received some feedback, I figure I could give it another go.
Question of the Week #2
Four astronauts decide to play a game of Settlers of Catan. How should they determine turn order?
Also, it seems as though I was not invited to read Ngiammy's blog, which is now apparently restricted to invitees. Devo.
Till next time, may you agglomerate all your unpremeditated contemplations.
Welcome to the Agglomeration
New segment. Yeah, I know you've heard this before, folks. Hopefully this isn't another one of those ideas that just dies after one or two occurrences. The idea is there's a weekly question, which you my readers can respond to so as to make this whole bloggy thing more interactive. So it's up to you, if you want this to continue, reply in messages or the cbox. Otherwise, let it die!
Question of the Week #1
There are three beans trapped in a jar. What do you do?
Till next time, may you agglomerate all your unpremeditated contemplations.
Welcome to the Agglomeration
As promised, I've completed the travel guide Ngiam tagged me. Well no I haven't. Not as I'm typing this anyway. But it will have been when you're reading this. Planning ahead. Me cool, no?
Part 1 - FLYING / Travel Guide
Quick note before we start: I don't know if there are more parts to this "Travel Guide". It's been a while and only one part has surfaced on the blog of Ngiam. Not sure if that's because he hasn't been bothered or if there's only one part. All those who fall for the implication that there are more parts to come because there's a "1" in the title please be aware this eventuality may not arise. Best not to get your hopes up like I did. Now onto the actual travel guide itself.
a) Planes
Favourite Part about Flying
Sleeping. On long flights, nothing beats good ol' shuteye. It literally makes time pass by and it saves you the trauma of turbulence bouts, the smell of the "food" and headaches induced by the entertainment systems. Of course it's an unfortunate fact that the very traumatic things you escape in sleep can also grab you from its depths. But hey, the best things often have to be fought for, right?
Worst Part about Flying
The "Food" - specifically the cooked stuff that they store onboard for who knows how many hours then reheat before serving. It's all got the same nausea-inducing smell and has caused many a bout of stomachache (which makes it harder to sleep, thus making this particularly harmful to one's health). I'm fine with the rolls and the yoghurt and the chocolates though, somewhat surprisingly.
How to Overcome Boredom on Long Flights
A tried and tested method I use on several occasions is to listen to calm and soothing music (My tones of choice are my beloved soundtracks but use whatever works best in your individual circumstance). Closing your eyes while focusing on the melodies and the sounds allows one to be taken out of the confronting environment of the plane-food-congested cabin and into a more relaxing frame of mind which will facilliate one getting to sleep. When one's asleep, one can't be bored. Boredom overcome.
One Tip on Flying
Well if it hasn't become painfully obvious by now, get to sleep as soon as possible. The longer one is asleep, the less one has to endure the monotony of being in the journey itself. Therefore, my tip isn't about the flying itself but how one prepares for the flight. Keep yourself up the entire day before a night flight or pull an all-nighter for an early morning flight. Simply put, make sure you're as tired as possible when you actually get on the plane. If you're travelling with a companion, tell them to refuse the food and inflight service for you so you're not interrupted during your slumber. If you're travelling alone, just look convincing when you're asleep. Turn the other way from the aisle and adopt a stance that makes it obvious you don't want to be disturbed. That way, you can sleep for as much of the flight as possible.
b) Same Country
Cities You Have Been To
Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane, Cairns
Cities You Would Like To Go To
Hobart
Favourite City Besides Your Own
Brisbane
Suggestions of Places to Visit
Uluru, Snowfields and Asian Grocery Stores
c) Another World
Countries You Have Been To
Hong Kong, China, Japan, Thailand, USA, Greece, Italy, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, England
Country You Want to Travel To Most
Russia
Favourite Country Travelled To
No favourite. They've all been enlightening experiences for different reasons.
Suggestions of Where To Visit
Wherever your heart takes you.
d) The Dodge
Worst Food/Restaurant
I can't remember too far back to the places I went when I was say 6, so I'll just use the worst food experience in my most recent trip. An Austrian restaurant in Salzburg our tour took us too which served us typically NON-Austrian cuisine: oversalted Seafood Risotto, hard and dry chicken breast fillet and profiteroles that were about as fresh as the dying flower on our table.
Worst First Impression
One of the owners of the hotel in London (only met him on the 2nd day) - thought he was a comedian:
Me: "Hi, can I have my key?"
Him: "Yeah, but it'll cost you. Five pounds every time you take it."
Me: "We paid for the room..."
Him: "Too bad, you're being annoying. Leaving and giving me the key, then taking it. I don't run a hotel you know..."
Me: "Ok..." *takes key without handing over money and begins to leave*
Him: "Hey! I was joking"
Me: *opens door*
Him: "Hey, we cool, right? WE COOL?"
Me: *leaves*
Yeah funny guy.
Worst Hotel Experience
You'd think it'd be that one. But for the sake of variety, I'll say this Chinese one back in 2007. Nothing wrong with the hotel itself. Bad experience though because I spent the entire day by myself (my fam and friends went sightseeing) watching BBC News for 9 hours (you know how there is never any variety in their news stories because shit doesnt hit the fan that ****ing fast in real life) between bouts of headaches, vomiting and extreme nausea on New Year's Day.
Worst Bathroom Experience
Probably isn't the worst but it was certainly scarring. We were in a sauna in a thermal pool complex in Germany. To get out we had to traverse the terrain of the men's bathroom. As we made our way to the entrance, we saw an elderly man in his 80's showering and pleasuring himself naked in public. Cool beans.
e) The Best
Best Food/Restaurant
On this trip...possibly a giant pork knuckle at a Bavarian restaurant in Prague which was gigantic and very tasty.
Best Hotel Experience
Again, this probably wasn't the best ever, but it's the relativity that counts. A 4 star in Thailand where we stayed for four hours for free because we were delayed 8 hours in Sydney Airport, and the Sydney to Bangkok flight we did get on made us miss our connecting flight to Rome. Had a massively nice bathtub, awesome room and a cool TV showing...erm...BBC News.
One of the best buffet breakfasts I've had too. Pity we only stayed from 5am to 9am.
Best Television Experience
I don't see the relevance between this and travel. So imma skipping it. Well not really, because this is a response. Just providing a redundant placefiller is all.
Best City/Country
Sydney. I've lived here my whole life, so it takes the Number 1 Spot. England was lots of fun though too.
And that's it. End of Part 1 of the "Travel Guide", and possibly the end of the entire Travel Guide. Don't forget the disclaimer. THERE MAY BE NO PART 2! It's up to Ngiam, really. We'll see if he updates it or not.
And as for the matter of tagging. Well the people I'd want to tag don't write blogs (I don't think). This means I get to simultaneously fulfil my obligations to this chain mail aspect of the activity and terminate it. How exciting. So Duncan and Claire it is.
Till next time, may you agglomerate all your unpremeditated contemplations.
Welcome to the Agglomeration
Merry Christmas everyone!
As you all know, I've been on hiatus again and I've realised that since hiati are more common than my actual posts, the blogging is actually the hiatus from not blogging. It may seem counter-intuitive to focus upon the absence and make the material seem like the exception to the rule but facts don't lie. So the point I want to make here is to refute my first premise and simply say:
I'M ON HIATUS!
And now that I am on hiatus, some material for your reading pleasure. (Ha, nice joke. I thought so.)
What I'm sure you also know is that I've been to Europe for the past 3 weeks, incidentally also the primary reason for my absence from the blogosphere. Consequently, I was unable to attend a blogger gathering of which I have heard much about. From these reports, I hear much fun was had, which can only be a good thing.
I've also been supposedly tagged by William to do a Travel Guide thing. Which will eventually get done, I promise. Whether this will occur before this hiatus ends, I can only speculate.
(Nevertheless, I'm sure you can identify the Seussical song that would be most apt in describing whether that will happen or not)
So, back on track, I managed to avoid the snowstorms that have been crippling Europe with a relatively minor flesh wound. Spending 16 hours in Munich Airport in order to get home may have been slightly irritating at the time, but when there are those who have had to spend days sleeping in Heathrow, I'm just really happy to be home. Which may explain the stream-of-conscious, tardy structureless prose you're reading right now (that or the need to remain structured died with the completion of the IB, I don't know.)
As Ngiammy also alluded to, I went to Cambridge and London for a week, and then had a really fun sightseeing tour of Central Europe. There are photos, but again I'll save that for the Travel Guide, shall we.
Apart from that, I really don't know what to blog about nowadays. I used to enjoy writing movie reviews but lack of response means the time and effort spent isn't really justifable. Ditto stories and poems.
Better get onto work on that Travel Guide then. Or maybe end the hiatus.
Merry Christmas.
Till next time, may you agglomerate all your unpremeditated contemplations.
Welcome to the Agglomeration
Since the IB finished, it doesn't seem like there's that much more time for blogging, which is unfortunate given that goldfish have 3 second memories. Regardless, to appease the Candyman, I figured I needed to post something and for those reasons, I've eaten a chocolate egg.
So a description of four random events of the week then, let's get on with it, shall we.
1. Stupid Photo Op
I has my L's gotten. Many would claim this is long overdue. I would claim Belgium. Actually no, this has bad connotations. I would claim baggage. Yes let's stick with baggage. Anyway, so after passing the test I got my learner's license with a particularly despicable photo of myself on it. They nowadays make spectacled peoples take photos without glasses so that's a reason for the Korean unrest that's been going on.
2. Formal
The Newington Year 12 Formal was on Monday night. Had a really fun evening catching up with some of my HSC and IB friends I hadn't talked to for quite a while due to those annoying IB exams and a spillage of raspberry jam. After a few bouts of spasmodic seizuresque movements which nobody would call dancing, we retired to an outside couch and chilled until security came to kick us out. Back to Duncan's house for afters where more chilling ensued albeit at a lower volume. Hilarity involving beanbags, ice cubes and chocolate throwing led to a goat.
3. Part 1 of How to Make Lots and Lots of Money Beating a Dead Horse and Wheat Soporifics
I watched Harry Potter 7. Rather disappointing.
4/10
4. NSW State Lightning Championships
First adult tournament of my life! But it was a unrated lightning comp so I don't think it really counts. Ended up on 7/11 which allowed me to pick up $65! That will go partially to funding my planned campaign in the Australian Open Minor Division next year. More on that if I actually decide to go through with it.
Going to Europe soon so this blog may or may not be attacked by a squid-propelled Godzilla.
Till next time, may you agglomerate all your unpremeditated contemplations.
Welcome to the Agglomeration
The IB is over. Expect this blog to have a new post soon.
Till next time, may you agglomerate all your unpremeditated contemplations.
Welcome to the Agglomeration
Honey
Perchance if it does end there,
then we won't have to stop,
and those fleeting eyes can linger
just two moments more. He is
dead and buried,
after all.
What if something lies behind that tinted pane,
and stares into a void every time we
see ourselves and wonder
how much hair we've lost since last
we flossed.
And if this is the next movement in
an eternal partita, perhaps our
chances are stacked on mellow ground.
The pendulum does swing in two
directions.
By some divine inspiration, that ending must
imply some beginning - lost to those who seek it,
yet naked to the blind. To know sweetness is to
believe fruit tastes funny.
Till next time, may you agglomerate all your unpremeditated contemplations.
Welcome to the Agglomeration
Week 2 Exam Recap:
Maths Paper 2 - Better than Paper 1 but upon getting result back, probably could've been better
Latin Paper 1 - Did a pretty dodgy translation and upon getting result back, yep pretty dodgy
German Oral - Pretty not great, but at least it wasn't a complete fail considering I only memorised the thing the night before
Chemistry Paper 1 - Showed why I'm an idiot in science by doing terribly
Chemistry Paper 2 - Slightly better, although picked the wrong long response question to attempt
Chemistry Paper 3 - Absolutely dreadful
German Paper 1 - Better than expected
German Paper 2 - Absolutely don't know how to call these writing tasks with the absurd criteria and what not
Maths Paper 3 - Left 15 minutes early because I was bored
Latin Paper 2 - Dead easy - left 30 minutes early - kudos to Ngiam for leaving 45 minutes early, now that's awesomeness
Cool Recap. I thought so.
Also went to see the Middle School Production Julius Caesar yesterday - twas good
Fencing Comp today - we came 2nd again - I dropped one bout in sudden death because I was getting tired T_T
Nothing much else of interest to be honest. Although I shall advertise the Senior Farewell Concert on 20th September 2010. It'll be great, since the highlight will be a performance of Mozart's Requiem. Therefore you should all come watch. End of advertisement. End of blog post.
Till next time, may you agglomerate all your unpremeditated contemplations.
Welcome to the Agglomeration
Week 1 Exam Recap:
English Paper 1 - You've already read about it
English Paper 2 - Got a cool question on symbolism
History Paper 1 - Easy paper which I should do alright in even though I only did 15-20 minutes of study for it
History Paper 2 - Was the good paperTHIS PART OF THE POST FORCIBLY CENSORED AT NGIAMMY'S REQUEST - APOLOGIES FOR NOT BEING ABLE TO SHOW WHAT WOULD'VE FOLLOWED - APPLICATION TO RESCIND RESTRAINING ORDER DUE TO FREEDOM OF SPEECH IS CURRENTLY BEING PROCESSED BY NGIAMMY'S LAWYERS erm sorry about that. Anyway, not too flash on this.
History Paper 3 - Yeah pretty good followup - probably dealt out 3 decent essays so shouldn't be overly bad
Maths Paper 1 - Absolutely terrible. Already dropped 25 marks so that's my future of doing well gone.
And that's it - the Week 1 Summary of my Exams which absolutely none of you wanted to read. But hey, good to appeal to popular opinion, right?
Now to embark on Week 2. Tomorrow: Maths Paper 2 and Latin Paper 1. Is gonna be greatTHIS PART OF THE POST FORCIBLY CENSORED AT NGIAMMY'S REQUEST - APOLOGIES FOR NOT BEING ABLE TO SHOW WHAT WOULD'VE FOLLOWED - APPLICATION TO RESCIND RESTRAINING ORDER DUE TO FREEDOM OF SPEECH IS CURRENTLY BEING PROCESSED BY NGIAMMY'S LAWYERS.
Also, went to a combined 18th last night for Blake and Ben. Twas good fun.
Till next time, may you agglomerate all your unpremeditated contemplations.
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So today we had English Paper 1. Went with the prose, wrote a pretty sweet commentary on the artistic method on a passage about a painter comparing two paintings - one of the Thames in winter and one of the Arctic. All in all, not a bad start but as I said, it's the Eye before the Storm, which officially hits tomorrow.
Tomorrow - The Day of Death:
English Paper 2
History Paper 1
History Paper 2
If my hand ain't dead by the end of it...
That reminds me, after our exam today, most of the IB guys well (6/10) went over to the Thai place on the other side of Stanmore Station for a late lunch. All sorts of lunacy ensued, ranging from projecting future final IB marks from the time it took for our meals to arrive (apparently I'll get around a 27) and then a nostalgic nerdy convo on past TV show fads, such as Zoids, Dragonball Z, Yugioh, and Cardcaptors!
Twas an interesting lunch.
Now I must retire to cram for tomorrow's trifecta of torture.
1/16
Till next time, may you agglomerate all your unpremeditated contemplations.
Welcome to the Agglomeration
Yeah, haven't been posting much because honestly there's nothing happening in my life worth posting about. But since everyone usually talks about trials, and well - just to prove to you that i'm still alive, our fun IB mocks do in fact begin tomorrow.
I have 15 papers + an oral, so that's 16 all up.
Tomorrow: English Paper 1 - The Written Commentary *ominous music plays*.
Let the games begin.
Till next time, may you agglomerate all your unpremediated contemplations.
Welcome to the Agglomeration
So last time I shared a song on the blog I got a few surprised comments that there were no lyrics in said song. That's what this post shall aim to fix.
Welcome to the Agglomeration
Hello everyone.
As many of you may realise, blogging frequency has decreased due to Term 3 being busy and all. I will try to update as often as possible, but thanks for understanding the reasons behind substantial periods of time where no new post has been made. Your patience is very much appreciated.
Three things of note, I suppose.
1. Studying for German Oral. It's my worst subject and I never seem to be able to get the marks I need to get a 7 here. Just not good enough and speaking and writing so will have to work a lot harder. But yeah, pretty demoralised that I need a 44 to get into Law at Usyd now. As if the IB wasn't hard enough, yeah let's all go and make life harder for them to appease the HSC kids. I was never really one for the whole HSC vs. IB debate, except in jest or mockery of course, but now...
2. Everyone come watch the Newington 2nds take on Kings tomorrow in Debating. 8pm in the W Block. It's Round 3, and we're on 1/2 so your support will be appreciated. Yeah right, this is totally gonna increase our audience. Although if you do come, you will increase our non-parents, non-coach, non-adjudicator and non-opposition audience by 100% since you know, we get 1 person coming to watch us every Friday night.
3. Finally, Song of the Week (or until I'm no longer obsessed with it) :
Have a great Friday and weekend.
Till next time, may you agglomerate all your unpremeditated contemplations.
Welcome to the Agglomeration
Imagine the sweetest birdsong in the world, imagine a bird that can make a sound that captures all the beauty of the universe and existence.
Now imagine that you're alone in a serene forest, calm in solitude. Then suddenly you're not alone. Imagine that very bird perched on the branch on the tree nearest to you. It opens its beak and out comes this sweet perfection of everything there is to desire, to cherish, to want.
It's right there in front of you. You can see the music flow out of this one little, but perfect bird. You can feel it. Everything you've ever wanted to hear. But there is no sound.
Just silence.
It's that simple.
Till next time, may you agglomerate all your unpremeditated contemplations.
Welcome to the Agglomeration
Yeah look, peer pressured into doing this 30 Letters thing (well anonymous stranger pressured into posting). So here goes.
1. A
2. B
3. C
4. D
5. E
6. F
7. G
8. H
9. I
10. J
11. K
12. L
13. M
14. N
15. O
16. P
17. Q
18. R
19. S
20. T
21. U
22. V
23. W
24. X
25. Y
26. Z
Why the expletive does Blogger not support Greek letters? Racism right there, peoples. But whatever, guess I'll have to make do with
27. phi
28. pi
29. psi
30. OMEGA
And done.
Well that was fun.
Till next time, may you agglomerate all your unpremeditated contemplations.
Welcome to the Agglomeration
You may be wondering why there's been a sudden thematic change in my blog posts lately.
2 reasons: one funny, one not.
Funny - I haven't been in the best mood lately, and I had no intention of sharing sad emo depressing things at those particular points in time even though that's the dream of most self-respecting bloggers. Guess I'm not one of them then.
Not - I'm fulfilling a Quote-a.
Anyway, today's gem of genius:
"My friend thinks the Stig is May, Hammond and Clarkson mainly because Stig is an anagram of gits"
Ah how I wile away the times. Hey look, this is my 120th post. This means my total amount of posts is 40% what Ngiam's blog was a few days ago. Yes, I've been waiting to do that. I'm so cool. But not really. Or did I? Good question. Imma go now. And oh yeah, school starts tomorrow. Fun. Or is it? But not really? Nothing to look forward to? Another good question. Another good statement. Yeah.
Till next time, may you agglomerate all your unpremeditated contemplations.
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Pessimistic Quote:
"The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up"
Paul Valery
Inspirational Quote:
"It's easy to cry when you realise that everyone you love will either reject you or die."
Chuck Palahniuk
Till next time, may you agglomerate all your unpremeditated contemplations.
Welcome to the Agglomeration
"I feel like I'm in a therapy session run by my own rapist"
I'm catching onto this short post thing. Good for lazy people.
Till next time, may you agglomerate all your unpremeditated contemplations.
Welcome to the Agglomeration
Others have broken the tag rule. Thus I am no longer bound by its effects. Instead,
Thanks go to Elena for introducing me to this fun little applet. I plugged in one of my earliest blog posts on Philosophical Skepticism. And apparently,
I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!
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Retagged by Jess
10 Things I Don't Like
1. The IB (some days)
2. Not remembering something you know that you know in an exam which is quite important
3. Finishing a speech/exam then remembering afterwards all the things you forgot to say/write
4. Unreliable people who renege on arrangements/promises
5. Wanting to talk to people who don't want to talk to you (This you is me, not 'you' - Refer to Post 115 if you've forgotten the distinction)
6. Forgetting where you're up to in the middle of a music performance (Competition/Eisteddfod) and then failing even further while trying to get back on track.
7. Not remembering the difference between a readerly and a writerly text despite Googling 50 times.
8. That gut feeling when you realise that you've screwed something up
9. That part of an adjudication in a debate where you know you've lost but you still have to listen to another 5 minutes of pointless rationalisation
10. Not living up to expectations (both mine and that of people I care about)
Vamoose.
Reretag (Let's see how long this can get) - William, Jess, Elena
Make something up. I dunno.
Till next time, may you agglomerate all your unpremeditated contemplations.