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Sunday, March 20, 2011 STOP. DROP. KABOOM. baby rub on yo nipples… Today I contracted the Black Plague. I put Holidae Inn on repeat just because I like shouting the above verse while stuffed up because I think it makes it sound funny… But I stayed in bed most of the day, but took a little bit of time off from doing nothing to make a demotivational poster. I was feeling a tad bitter, you know with the sickness and being busted and given my ‘second warning’ by The Zohan last night… (My first was given to me when I once unsuspectingly answered the door [for Zohan] and a toilet paper roll that had been stuck in the door to prevent it from locking dropped to the floor. Apparently this is a big violation, and I am a terrific actress who wouldn’t get off easy for feigning surprise when I saw it). And of course after I was shouted at for being a delinquent, I entered my flat to see a traffic cone and a couple of street signs piled up against one of my flat mate’s doors… obviously I truly am the bad seed of the room (I can’t even pretend to be bitter about that though; I thought it was awesome!) But yeah, I haven’t really shown this creation of mine to anybody yet. This would put me on the fast track to getting shot, shanked, or boomeranged. I’m just saying, my nose has feelings too. And the fact that all of the offenders that this poster was made for like to pile on and overcrowd all of the Translink buses that I have to ride too just makes it worse. C’mon, y’all. With just one stick of this roll-on magic, you can help make this world a better place :)
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Sunday, March 20, 2011

STOP. DROP. KABOOM.

baby rub on yo nipples…

Today I contracted the Black Plague. I put Holidae Inn on repeat just because I like shouting the above verse while stuffed up because I think it makes it sound funny…

But I stayed in bed most of the day, but took a little bit of time off from doing nothing to make a demotivational poster. I was feeling a tad bitter, you know with the sickness and being busted and given my ‘second warning’ by The Zohan last night… (My first was given to me when I once unsuspectingly answered the door [for Zohan] and a toilet paper roll that had been stuck in the door to prevent it from locking dropped to the floor. Apparently this is a big violation, and I am a terrific actress who wouldn’t get off easy for feigning surprise when I saw it). And of course after I was shouted at for being a delinquent, I entered my flat to see a traffic cone and a couple of street signs piled up against one of my flat mate’s doors… obviously I truly am the bad seed of the room (I can’t even pretend to be bitter about that though; I thought it was awesome!)

But yeah, I haven’t really shown this creation of mine to anybody yet. This would put me on the fast track to getting shot, shanked, or boomeranged. I’m just saying, my nose has feelings too. And the fact that all of the offenders that this poster was made for like to pile on and overcrowd all of the Translink buses that I have to ride too just makes it worse. C’mon, y’all. With just one stick of this roll-on magic, you can help make this world a better place :)

Thursday, March 17, 2011 Soo…. maybe it wasn’t the best idea in the world to go St. Patty’s bar hopping the night before I would have to wake up early for a field trip in my terrestrial Australia class. As we all waited for the buses to pick us up from one of the school bus stops, everyone else talked and mulled about in a chipper fashion… while I sat on the curb, leaned forward with my head resting on my knees, thinking of mistakes from last night. I blame the oversized Asian man… When the buses finally showed, we all piled on and headed for Brisbane Forest Park. The bus I went on headed to a sort of nature center first with a few animal exhibits. Of the animals we saw, one special one was the quoll, an endangered carnivorous marsupial. The quoll’s story was kind of interesting, but stuck with me particularly because I’ve been hearing similar stories over and over again since I’ve been in Australia.  A good part of the reason why the quoll is endangered is because of the cane toad. The cane toad is a big, common, and pretty ugly toad that is NOT native to Australia. Awhile back, there were problems with beetles messing with the sugar cane fields in Australia and Cane toads were introduced from South America to Aussie land as a form of biological control (meant to eat the sugar cane beetles and stop the damage to the sugar cane crop). However, shit went downhill pretty fast because it turned out that the cane toads weren’t that interested in destroying the beetles. They were, however, quite interested in going at it like bunnies and reproducing as if it was nobodies business. They adapted to all types of living conditions and spread across most of the country. And due to the two big poison sacs on its back, any predator (such as the quoll) who could help control the species outbreak would die soon after eating one of the toads… It really is a sad story and it makes you want to kick any cane toad you may come across (which most people must do because around 5-6 am the streets and sidewalks are littered with dead toad carcasses). But I hear that there is hope! Some animals, like the ibis, have learned to flip the toads over on their backs and eat them belly first, avoiding the poison sacs on their backs. However, it seems like there’s just too little too late, or maybe just too few, when it comes to the animals using this attack method. But after the nature center, we went to an amazing lookout and talked about different types of rock formations and soil types. After the lookout we then headed into one of the rainforests in Brisbane Forest Park. I learned about vines, the different types of eucalyptus trees, strangler figs, lungfish, koalas, chlamydia, survival of the fittest, turkeys… I just learned a whole lot on this trip. I know more about Australia’s terrain and vegetation than I do of the state in the US where I’ve been attending school for 3 years now. Seriously. I can identify a handful of eucalyptus tree by scientific name now. It’s actually pretty bad ass.  But overall, today was pretty epic because I got to hike through a rainforest, see and walk amongst some interesting animals, and play with dirt while learning at the same time! [Ask me any question about Australia’s terrain or fauna. I dare you. Come at me with any intellectual query you’ve got. I double dog dare you to make a fool of yourself by trying to step to my my knowledge of the hills, forests, and planes. Yeah, that’s what I thought…]
Zoom Info
Camera
Fujifilm FinePix F70EXR
ISO
1600 		Aperture
f/4
Exposure
1/50th 		Focal Length
6mm

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Soo…. maybe it wasn’t the best idea in the world to go St. Patty’s bar hopping the night before I would have to wake up early for a field trip in my terrestrial Australia class. As we all waited for the buses to pick us up from one of the school bus stops, everyone else talked and mulled about in a chipper fashion… while I sat on the curb, leaned forward with my head resting on my knees, thinking of mistakes from last night. I blame the oversized Asian man…

When the buses finally showed, we all piled on and headed for Brisbane Forest Park. The bus I went on headed to a sort of nature center first with a few animal exhibits. Of the animals we saw, one special one was the quoll, an endangered carnivorous marsupial. The quoll’s story was kind of interesting, but stuck with me particularly because I’ve been hearing similar stories over and over again since I’ve been in Australia. 

A good part of the reason why the quoll is endangered is because of the cane toad. The cane toad is a big, common, and pretty ugly toad that is NOT native to Australia. Awhile back, there were problems with beetles messing with the sugar cane fields in Australia and Cane toads were introduced from South America to Aussie land as a form of biological control (meant to eat the sugar cane beetles and stop the damage to the sugar cane crop). However, shit went downhill pretty fast because it turned out that the cane toads weren’t that interested in destroying the beetles. They were, however, quite interested in going at it like bunnies and reproducing as if it was nobodies business. They adapted to all types of living conditions and spread across most of the country. And due to the two big poison sacs on its back, any predator (such as the quoll) who could help control the species outbreak would die soon after eating one of the toads…

It really is a sad story and it makes you want to kick any cane toad you may come across (which most people must do because around 5-6 am the streets and sidewalks are littered with dead toad carcasses). But I hear that there is hope! Some animals, like the ibis, have learned to flip the toads over on their backs and eat them belly first, avoiding the poison sacs on their backs. However, it seems like there’s just too little too late, or maybe just too few, when it comes to the animals using this attack method.

But after the nature center, we went to an amazing lookout and talked about different types of rock formations and soil types.

After the lookout we then headed into one of the rainforests in Brisbane Forest Park. I learned about vines, the different types of eucalyptus trees, strangler figs, lungfish, koalas, chlamydia, survival of the fittest, turkeys… I just learned a whole lot on this trip. I know more about Australia’s terrain and vegetation than I do of the state in the US where I’ve been attending school for 3 years now. Seriously. I can identify a handful of eucalyptus tree by scientific name now. It’s actually pretty bad ass. 

But overall, today was pretty epic because I got to hike through a rainforest, see and walk amongst some interesting animals, and play with dirt while learning at the same time! [Ask me any question about Australia’s terrain or fauna. I dare you. Come at me with any intellectual query you’ve got. I double dog dare you to make a fool of yourself by trying to step to my my knowledge of the hills, forests, and planes. Yeah, that’s what I thought…]

Sunday, March 13, 2011 Surprisingly, of all the many things (or 92.6% of the things) that are more expensive in Australia than in the states, the movies is not one of them! Or at least the big cinema in Southbank isn’t one of them. The price for a movie ticket is $6 and popcorn is $2. And since it kind of felt like we were stealing by paying such a low price for watching movies at the theatre, we decided to at least watch a nice, high-quality, more-than-our-money’s worth movie: Just Go With It. Do you miss the days back when Adam Sandler was good? Don’t worry. We do too. I joke, I joke… It was a cute movie. The little girl who put on the British accent and the cousin who put on the uh, other (?) accent stole the show though. Adam Sandler was just kind of there. Not really being funny, but just being there. Jennifer Aniston was pretty funny though, in the select scenes with the girl and other accent guy. Otherwise she was just standing around being there with Adam Sandler. There was a lot of just thereness in the movie. After the movies, we continued to deal chase though. Apparently The Fox has $2 steaks every Sunday if you buy a drink there, and for $2 the steaks were delicious! (Keep in mind the only meat I’ve been eating for awhile has been in powder form over Migoreng noodles. My judgement may or may not be clouded. That may not have actually been steak. Or meat. I liked it though.) One of the highlights of the night though was catching the bus back with some of the other abroad students in our program who we hadn’t seen since Straddie who also indulged at the Fox (more so the beverages than the steaks) and hearing a wonderful stories about what they’ve been up to since then. One of these stories though had me a little messed up in my terrestrial Australia class, which is based on Australian plants and animals. After hearing one of the girl’s stories, I was pretty sure that there were no such things as bearded dragons when in fact there are these huge common lizards in Australia called bearded dragons. My mind was kind of blown when we started talking about them in class afterwards, and I felt a little bad like I should apologize to this girl for off the bat just considering her story to be a bunch of hootenanny… although the jury is still out on whether the part where she claimed she saw the bearded dragon fly around blowing fire and pillaging is true or not. I’ll ask my professor about it first just in case. I don’t want to be the noob who looks stupid because I didn’t know about the Puff the Bearded Dragon.
Zoom Info
Camera
iPhone 4
ISO
100 		Aperture
f/2.8
Exposure
1/30th 		Focal Length
3mm

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Surprisingly, of all the many things (or 92.6% of the things) that are more expensive in Australia than in the states, the movies is not one of them! Or at least the big cinema in Southbank isn’t one of them.

The price for a movie ticket is $6 and popcorn is $2.

And since it kind of felt like we were stealing by paying such a low price for watching movies at the theatre, we decided to at least watch a nice, high-quality, more-than-our-money’s worth movie: Just Go With It.

Do you miss the days back when Adam Sandler was good?

Don’t worry. We do too.

I joke, I joke… It was a cute movie. The little girl who put on the British accent and the cousin who put on the uh, other (?) accent stole the show though. Adam Sandler was just kind of there. Not really being funny, but just being there. Jennifer Aniston was pretty funny though, in the select scenes with the girl and other accent guy. Otherwise she was just standing around being there with Adam Sandler. There was a lot of just thereness in the movie.

After the movies, we continued to deal chase though. Apparently The Fox has $2 steaks every Sunday if you buy a drink there, and for $2 the steaks were delicious! (Keep in mind the only meat I’ve been eating for awhile has been in powder form over Migoreng noodles. My judgement may or may not be clouded. That may not have actually been steak. Or meat. I liked it though.)

One of the highlights of the night though was catching the bus back with some of the other abroad students in our program who we hadn’t seen since Straddie who also indulged at the Fox (more so the beverages than the steaks) and hearing a wonderful stories about what they’ve been up to since then. One of these stories though had me a little messed up in my terrestrial Australia class, which is based on Australian plants and animals. After hearing one of the girl’s stories, I was pretty sure that there were no such things as bearded dragons when in fact there are these huge common lizards in Australia called bearded dragons. My mind was kind of blown when we started talking about them in class afterwards, and I felt a little bad like I should apologize to this girl for off the bat just considering her story to be a bunch of hootenanny… although the jury is still out on whether the part where she claimed she saw the bearded dragon fly around blowing fire and pillaging is true or not. I’ll ask my professor about it first just in case. I don’t want to be the noob who looks stupid because I didn’t know about the Puff the Bearded Dragon.

Saturday, March 12, 2011 Woke up this morning… legs burning… feet aching… head throbbing… and no voice. Will I blame it on the alcohol? Nope. Instead, I’ll blame it on the mi-mi-mi-mi-mi-microphone!!! hehehe… But moving on, a few of our friends from the Gold Coast came to visit so we all hopped on a few buses and traveled to the one and only Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary.  Lone Pine is of course famous for the many different koala habitats on its premises and more than anything for the pictures they take of visitors cuddling and canoodling with their koalas. Of course there are more things to do at Lone Pine including hopping with the kangaroos, seeing the birds of prey, visiting many exhibits with other indigenous Australian fauna, and also holding a bird and reptile. We came for the koalas. I was intimidated at first when we walked in because the first thing we passed was a cage filled with huge, sleeping bats. And we all know I have a dark, hot, sticky, running down my arm type relationship with bats… But afterwards we went right to the good stuff… koala heaven. There were koalas everywhere! They were sectioned off into different open habitats. There was a kindergarten section for young koalas, a retirement section for old koalas, a bachelor pad for this one manly koala… there were koalas galore! We took a short break from the koalas to go into the snake room to get a look at the animals we were told could kill us at any moment in the night. It’d be quite embarrassing to go to the hospital saying you have less than a minute to live because you got bitten by the terrible Brown Snake only to find out you got sniffed by an earthworm… Yeah, that made no sense. The point I just want to make is ‘know your enemies!’ But the time had finally come. We all stood in line, ready to take our professional pictures of hugging a koala like there was no tomorrow. As I neared the front of the line, I could see the innocent, cute, cuddly ball of fuzz that I just knew I would be snuggling with. I would be like the Pillsbury Doughboy and he would be like the Downy Bear, our meeting would be magical filled with love, rainbows, and giggles… But just as I stepped up, arms outreached to hold him, his caretaker walked away with him and another woman appeared with a much bigger, brawnier koala bear with patches of hair missing on his bum as if he had just been in a bar fight. Oh well, I thought to myself. More to love! Yay! I was instructed to hold my hands a certain way to receive the bear, and just as the woman reached the bear towards me, I felt two pads hit me square in the chest accompanied by the stinging sensation of claws, before I was forcefully pushed backwards by the koala’s hind legs. “Ryan! No…” the woman holding him scolded as I tried to let it register that I had practically been drop kicked by a koala bear. The woman made a few croaking noises to calm Ryan down, then tried again. And so we tried again… This time Ryan had no problems with latching on to me. Not at all. Especially when he flipped out and went all Freddy Kreuger on my right arm. The woman once again took Ryan back and croaked those little Koala wooo-sahh’s with him a bit more. The photographer walked away and said she’d come back to us when we were ready. So once again, a minute later, when Ryan… oh dear, sweet, Ryan, was ready, I tried holding him. At this point I wasn’t even in the mood for cuddling. I kind of wanted to drop Ryan than kick him like a fuzzy little football, but that would be mean. And hey, I guess it’s a rough life when all you want to do is get high on eucalyptus and lounge and you’ve got all these strange people wanting to hug and touch you. Ryan is basically getting pimped by the system… but I was instructed to turn to the opposite side because my right arms looked kind of nasty and wasn’t picture worthy, forced a smile, and then handed Ryan back. Before noticing the thick, brown line of crap he left on the front of my shirt. What is with Australian mammals feeling the need to defecate on me?!?! When I walked back to my friends, everyone immediately pulled out their cameras to take photos of my arm. It didn’t matter. They were battle scars. No, not only were they battle scars. They were scars of understanding the struggle! They were scars of a koala at unrest! they were scars of the resistan-wait, what the hell? Is Ryan cuddling and nuzzling up to the girl who went up right behind me??? Ryan… you f***ing suck. We went inside to where our pictures were being developed, and the walls were lined with photos of celebrity’s holding koalas. Mine was soon placed out there and I grabbed it with pride. The professional photo, unlike the one my friend took that I posted above, is much more brighter and clearer. Bright enough to make my smile shine and eyes sparkle. Clear enough to see the look of intense loathing and annoyance on Ryan’s face. But I’m kind of glad that my picture has a story behind it! That photo is truly worth a thousand words! And about four band aids… Next we went to see the kangaroos. The kangaroos… were so chillaxed. I hopped with them, fed them, watched the clouds pass overhead with them, and even spooned with one for a little bit. The kangaroos definitely know the secret to life, man… We also walked around to see some dingos, a wombat, a platypus, and other amazing creatures… but the one animal who will forever be on my mind from Lone Pine is Ryan, the crazy as hell koala. “Well, Kat, at least you got to spend a lot of time with your koala.” -_-
Zoom Info
Camera
Nikon COOLPIX S630
ISO
400 		Aperture
f/5.1
Exposure
1/274th 		Focal Length
21mm

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Woke up this morning… legs burning… feet aching… head throbbing… and no voice. Will I blame it on the alcohol? Nope. Instead, I’ll blame it on the mi-mi-mi-mi-mi-microphone!!! hehehe…

But moving on, a few of our friends from the Gold Coast came to visit so we all hopped on a few buses and traveled to the one and only Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. 

Lone Pine is of course famous for the many different koala habitats on its premises and more than anything for the pictures they take of visitors cuddling and canoodling with their koalas. Of course there are more things to do at Lone Pine including hopping with the kangaroos, seeing the birds of prey, visiting many exhibits with other indigenous Australian fauna, and also holding a bird and reptile.

We came for the koalas.

I was intimidated at first when we walked in because the first thing we passed was a cage filled with huge, sleeping bats. And we all know I have a dark, hot, sticky, running down my arm type relationship with bats… But afterwards we went right to the good stuff… koala heaven.

There were koalas everywhere! They were sectioned off into different open habitats. There was a kindergarten section for young koalas, a retirement section for old koalas, a bachelor pad for this one manly koala… there were koalas galore! We took a short break from the koalas to go into the snake room to get a look at the animals we were told could kill us at any moment in the night. It’d be quite embarrassing to go to the hospital saying you have less than a minute to live because you got bitten by the terrible Brown Snake only to find out you got sniffed by an earthworm… Yeah, that made no sense. The point I just want to make is ‘know your enemies!’

But the time had finally come. We all stood in line, ready to take our professional pictures of hugging a koala like there was no tomorrow. As I neared the front of the line, I could see the innocent, cute, cuddly ball of fuzz that I just knew I would be snuggling with. I would be like the Pillsbury Doughboy and he would be like the Downy Bear, our meeting would be magical filled with love, rainbows, and giggles…

But just as I stepped up, arms outreached to hold him, his caretaker walked away with him and another woman appeared with a much bigger, brawnier koala bear with patches of hair missing on his bum as if he had just been in a bar fight. Oh well, I thought to myself. More to love! Yay!

I was instructed to hold my hands a certain way to receive the bear, and just as the woman reached the bear towards me, I felt two pads hit me square in the chest accompanied by the stinging sensation of claws, before I was forcefully pushed backwards by the koala’s hind legs.

“Ryan! No…” the woman holding him scolded as I tried to let it register that I had practically been drop kicked by a koala bear. The woman made a few croaking noises to calm Ryan down, then tried again.

And so we tried again… This time Ryan had no problems with latching on to me. Not at all. Especially when he flipped out and went all Freddy Kreuger on my right arm. The woman once again took Ryan back and croaked those little Koala wooo-sahh’s with him a bit more. The photographer walked away and said she’d come back to us when we were ready.

So once again, a minute later, when Ryan… oh dear, sweet, Ryan, was ready, I tried holding him. At this point I wasn’t even in the mood for cuddling. I kind of wanted to drop Ryan than kick him like a fuzzy little football, but that would be mean. And hey, I guess it’s a rough life when all you want to do is get high on eucalyptus and lounge and you’ve got all these strange people wanting to hug and touch you. Ryan is basically getting pimped by the system… but I was instructed to turn to the opposite side because my right arms looked kind of nasty and wasn’t picture worthy, forced a smile, and then handed Ryan back. Before noticing the thick, brown line of crap he left on the front of my shirt. What is with Australian mammals feeling the need to defecate on me?!?!

When I walked back to my friends, everyone immediately pulled out their cameras to take photos of my arm. It didn’t matter. They were battle scars. No, not only were they battle scars. They were scars of understanding the struggle! They were scars of a koala at unrest! they were scars of the resistan-wait, what the hell? Is Ryan cuddling and nuzzling up to the girl who went up right behind me??? Ryan… you f***ing suck.

We went inside to where our pictures were being developed, and the walls were lined with photos of celebrity’s holding koalas. Mine was soon placed out there and I grabbed it with pride. The professional photo, unlike the one my friend took that I posted above, is much more brighter and clearer. Bright enough to make my smile shine and eyes sparkle. Clear enough to see the look of intense loathing and annoyance on Ryan’s face. But I’m kind of glad that my picture has a story behind it! That photo is truly worth a thousand words! And about four band aids…

Next we went to see the kangaroos. The kangaroos… were so chillaxed. I hopped with them, fed them, watched the clouds pass overhead with them, and even spooned with one for a little bit. The kangaroos definitely know the secret to life, man…

We also walked around to see some dingos, a wombat, a platypus, and other amazing creatures… but the one animal who will forever be on my mind from Lone Pine is Ryan, the crazy as hell koala.

“Well, Kat, at least you got to spend a lot of time with your koala.”

-_-

Friday, March 11, 2011 Today… is Friday. And you just got to get down on Friday. Cuz everybody’s ready for the weekend (weekend). But anywhoo, my village once again proved it’s superiority in awesomeness above most by signing up for Pure Fridays at The Normanby. I believe everyone gets 3 free drinks and for every 10 people that show, you are also given this gargantuan free food platter. Dude. What more can I say? I enjoyed myself and used this as a time to get well versed on some Australian basic drinks like Vodka Lemon Lime Bitters, Toohey’s Extra Dry, and I was able to get away with getting a Smirnoff Double black with rasberry (which didn’t count as an eligible free drink) by using my womanly ways (aka spotting out the new, weak, inexperienced bartender from the herd and pouncing!).  Afterwards, I went in the city to The Victory and had another go at karaoke night. This time… I dominated. What did I dominate? Valerie performed by Amy Winehouse. I was all over the place. Literally. From memory, I remember jumping off the stage in mid-song to dance with some guy in the crowd while singing. I’m glad to see that my buddy in our self-made buddy system always has an eye out for me to stop me when I’m on the verge of doing something belligerent.  The Lord was on The Victory’s side last night, though. Things could’ve been much worse. I could’ve picked… a Michael Jackson song. (DUH DUH DUH!!!! ……HEEEEEE-HEEEEE!!!!!)
Zoom Info
Camera
iPhone 4
ISO
125 		Aperture
f/2.8
Exposure
1/15th 		Focal Length
3mm

Friday, March 11, 2011

Today… is Friday. And you just got to get down on Friday. Cuz everybody’s ready for the weekend (weekend).

But anywhoo, my village once again proved it’s superiority in awesomeness above most by signing up for Pure Fridays at The Normanby. I believe everyone gets 3 free drinks and for every 10 people that show, you are also given this gargantuan free food platter. Dude. What more can I say?

I enjoyed myself and used this as a time to get well versed on some Australian basic drinks like Vodka Lemon Lime Bitters, Toohey’s Extra Dry, and I was able to get away with getting a Smirnoff Double black with rasberry (which didn’t count as an eligible free drink) by using my womanly ways (aka spotting out the new, weak, inexperienced bartender from the herd and pouncing!). 

Afterwards, I went in the city to The Victory and had another go at karaoke night. This time… I dominated. What did I dominate? Valerie performed by Amy Winehouse. I was all over the place. Literally. From memory, I remember jumping off the stage in mid-song to dance with some guy in the crowd while singing. I’m glad to see that my buddy in our self-made buddy system always has an eye out for me to stop me when I’m on the verge of doing something belligerent. 

The Lord was on The Victory’s side last night, though. Things could’ve been much worse. I could’ve picked… a Michael Jackson song. (DUH DUH DUH!!!! ……HEEEEEE-HEEEEE!!!!!)

Thursday, March 10, 2011 Today after class, I went with the crew to the Queen St. Mall! I actually venture to the Queen St. Mall quite often, often enough that it never really seems like anything too special for me to write about, but it’s just the smallest things that we take for granted that actually make a big impact on our lives. For instance, Queen St. Mall was where our coordinator kindly dropped us off on our first day in Brisbane, implying (not actually implying… just disappearing.) tat we needed to find our own way home. I walk through Queen St. Mall every night that I go to one of the city clubs. I often find myself in Queen St. Mall getting sushi on the way back from school because I consider it splurging to buy a $2.20 roll instead of eating Mi Goreng for dinner. See. Queen St. Mall has a major impact on my Australian life, and thus deserves a shout out. We were in the mall today, though, because one of my friends has her 21st birthday coming up. Even though it’s not that big of a deal in Australia, being from the states we were determined to make a big deal out of it anyway. So she was on the prowl for a cheap freakum dress.  I pretty much wandered around, like I usually do, hoping to find something new. What I found instead was the cold, hard stares of crowds of goth/emo looking kids that tend to hog all the benches in the mall area during after school hours. Yeah, guys, you’re being such mysterious, teenage outsiders by hanging at the mall all day… What is the deal with that anyways? Did corners and dark alleys become too mainstream? And I thought that Australian school dress codes required all the kids to wear cute little hats (to protect from the sun and help lower the skin cancer rate) along with uniforms to school. I better not find out that one of Dracula’s brides who gave me the unflinching stank eye was actually dressed like Madeleine only a few minutes before. If I somehow recognize you, I will be pleasurably forced to point and laugh at you. Hysterically. Goodness, I felt so much more at ease when the street lights came on and they scattered. I don’t know if it’s because they had curfew or if they were off being children of the night… I’ll just leave that as a mystery that I may never find out. But yeah… I enjoy my visits to the Queen St. Mall. There will probably be more mall stories in future posts.
Zoom Info
Camera
iPhone 4
ISO
400 		Aperture
f/2.8
Exposure
1/17th 		Focal Length
3mm

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Today after class, I went with the crew to the Queen St. Mall!

I actually venture to the Queen St. Mall quite often, often enough that it never really seems like anything too special for me to write about, but it’s just the smallest things that we take for granted that actually make a big impact on our lives.

For instance, Queen St. Mall was where our coordinator kindly dropped us off on our first day in Brisbane, implying (not actually implying… just disappearing.) tat we needed to find our own way home.

I walk through Queen St. Mall every night that I go to one of the city clubs.

I often find myself in Queen St. Mall getting sushi on the way back from school because I consider it splurging to buy a $2.20 roll instead of eating Mi Goreng for dinner.

See. Queen St. Mall has a major impact on my Australian life, and thus deserves a shout out.

We were in the mall today, though, because one of my friends has her 21st birthday coming up. Even though it’s not that big of a deal in Australia, being from the states we were determined to make a big deal out of it anyway. So she was on the prowl for a cheap freakum dress. 

I pretty much wandered around, like I usually do, hoping to find something new. What I found instead was the cold, hard stares of crowds of goth/emo looking kids that tend to hog all the benches in the mall area during after school hours. Yeah, guys, you’re being such mysterious, teenage outsiders by hanging at the mall all day… What is the deal with that anyways? Did corners and dark alleys become too mainstream? And I thought that Australian school dress codes required all the kids to wear cute little hats (to protect from the sun and help lower the skin cancer rate) along with uniforms to school. I better not find out that one of Dracula’s brides who gave me the unflinching stank eye was actually dressed like Madeleine only a few minutes before. If I somehow recognize you, I will be pleasurably forced to point and laugh at you. Hysterically. Goodness, I felt so much more at ease when the street lights came on and they scattered. I don’t know if it’s because they had curfew or if they were off being children of the night… I’ll just leave that as a mystery that I may never find out.

But yeah… I enjoy my visits to the Queen St. Mall. There will probably be more mall stories in future posts.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011 One of my mates in the village, Damoooo, plays bass in this band and they had a gig tonight at this place called Hot Gossip located in The Valley. I had yet to go to The Valley and was kind of amped up for it. I’ve mainly been wanting to go to the Mana Bar down there just because I’m a video game nut and it would give me the ultimate pleasure to get a Life Potion. Or if they sell Magnum bars, I guess that would also do the trick. But a few of us grabbed a taxi and headed over to the place. In my back pocket, I stored a pair of hot pink panties that I would strategically throw on stage after the band’s performance while simultaneously screaming in my high pitched voice, “Oohhhmmyyygawwwdddd!!! [whatever their band’s name was], I lovvveee youuu!!!!!” I was later heavily reprimanded by Brytes because I should’ve been peeling the clothing off myself to throw on the stage instead of storing extras… And that bras were the best route to go. (I tried to argue that my bras were not as cheap or dispensable as Wal-Mart underwear, but she wasn’t having it. She then questioned my experience at rock concerts… to which I replied I had none. I’ve been to a few R&B ones. Some rap ones too. I’ve just been way too far back to try and throw underwear at the stage. I could attempt… but it’s always a downfall when you don’t have that much upper body strength so whoever the panties lands on has a good chance of walking back a few feet to whoop your ass afterwards.) However, the place was practically empty, so I ultimately decided against throwing my panties on the stage. I’m bold, but it would’ve been a little too awkward being the lone person standing on the dance floor at the ending of the song screaming, “Whooooo!” then throwing my undergarments on the stage… while the other 20 people in the room stared at me from their seats. Although it would be a bit more convenient because then the band could just hand them back to me then and there. I thought the performance was pretty good though. Their music had a chillaxed kind of vibe. I compared them to Coldplay, but I’m no rock/indie/whatever in the hell genre that is connoisseur, so I almost got stabbed in the neck by someone standing next to me for even considering the comparison.  After the performance, we all felt a little bit like rock stars. What can I say? Music just moves me… As do $4 basics. We all then caught a cab over to Casablanca for karaoke night. There was a huge karaoke crowd over there though, and I must admit I was a bit intimidated. I’ve never been to a legit karaoke night at a pub or anything, but I was under the impression that everyone would basically, well… suck. I was highly mistaken. Everyone who hit the stage sounded like they were trying to make it to the final round of American Idol. Really, guys? Is that how you get your kicks around here? Feel good about yourselves? Effin’ talented, angelic sounding jerks… Needless to say, my crew got on stage and wrecked things. I really mean it. It sounded like a train wreck. With few survivors. Who were screaming out in non-melodious pain. It took forever for my song to get called, but it’s okay. Some old guy who wanted to be my sugar daddy started keeping me company and buying all kinds of drinks (I actually protested but I can only say no oh so many times, in oh so many languages, using oh so many accents…) for me. It started getting a little too creepy though when I turned around and saw him putting his number in my phone. The phone that I swore was in my back pocket just a moment ago…  o_O I miss my ass bruise. And after waiting through all of this, I ended up missing my song being called because I took a 2 minute run to the bathroom. I was invited to sing Afro Man’s ‘Because I Got High’ with two of my friends afterwards though, so all went right with the world. 
Zoom Info
Camera
iPhone 4
ISO
1000 		Aperture
f/2.8
Exposure
1/15th 		Focal Length
3mm

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

One of my mates in the village, Damoooo, plays bass in this band and they had a gig tonight at this place called Hot Gossip located in The Valley. I had yet to go to The Valley and was kind of amped up for it. I’ve mainly been wanting to go to the Mana Bar down there just because I’m a video game nut and it would give me the ultimate pleasure to get a Life Potion. Or if they sell Magnum bars, I guess that would also do the trick.

But a few of us grabbed a taxi and headed over to the place. In my back pocket, I stored a pair of hot pink panties that I would strategically throw on stage after the band’s performance while simultaneously screaming in my high pitched voice, “Oohhhmmyyygawwwdddd!!! [whatever their band’s name was], I lovvveee youuu!!!!!”

I was later heavily reprimanded by Brytes because I should’ve been peeling the clothing off myself to throw on the stage instead of storing extras… And that bras were the best route to go. (I tried to argue that my bras were not as cheap or dispensable as Wal-Mart underwear, but she wasn’t having it. She then questioned my experience at rock concerts… to which I replied I had none. I’ve been to a few R&B ones. Some rap ones too. I’ve just been way too far back to try and throw underwear at the stage. I could attempt… but it’s always a downfall when you don’t have that much upper body strength so whoever the panties lands on has a good chance of walking back a few feet to whoop your ass afterwards.)

However, the place was practically empty, so I ultimately decided against throwing my panties on the stage. I’m bold, but it would’ve been a little too awkward being the lone person standing on the dance floor at the ending of the song screaming, “Whooooo!” then throwing my undergarments on the stage… while the other 20 people in the room stared at me from their seats. Although it would be a bit more convenient because then the band could just hand them back to me then and there.

I thought the performance was pretty good though. Their music had a chillaxed kind of vibe. I compared them to Coldplay, but I’m no rock/indie/whatever in the hell genre that is connoisseur, so I almost got stabbed in the neck by someone standing next to me for even considering the comparison. 

After the performance, we all felt a little bit like rock stars. What can I say? Music just moves me… As do $4 basics. We all then caught a cab over to Casablanca for karaoke night. There was a huge karaoke crowd over there though, and I must admit I was a bit intimidated. I’ve never been to a legit karaoke night at a pub or anything, but I was under the impression that everyone would basically, well… suck. I was highly mistaken. Everyone who hit the stage sounded like they were trying to make it to the final round of American Idol. Really, guys? Is that how you get your kicks around here? Feel good about yourselves? Effin’ talented, angelic sounding jerks…

Needless to say, my crew got on stage and wrecked things. I really mean it. It sounded like a train wreck. With few survivors. Who were screaming out in non-melodious pain. It took forever for my song to get called, but it’s okay. Some old guy who wanted to be my sugar daddy started keeping me company and buying all kinds of drinks (I actually protested but I can only say no oh so many times, in oh so many languages, using oh so many accents…) for me. It started getting a little too creepy though when I turned around and saw him putting his number in my phone. The phone that I swore was in my back pocket just a moment ago… 

o_O

I miss my ass bruise.

And after waiting through all of this, I ended up missing my song being called because I took a 2 minute run to the bathroom. I was invited to sing Afro Man’s ‘Because I Got High’ with two of my friends afterwards though, so all went right with the world. 

Tuesday, March 8, 2011 Today was another day of work. More so of actual school work than anything else though. I’m usually done before noon most of the week, but on Tuesdays and Wednesdays I stay later, making these my long lecture days. I caught the bus to uni with one of my friends from the village who also has a long lecture day that he wasn’t particularly looking forward to, so we vowed that if the classes got too unbearable and we felt as if we just could no longer go on… we would facebook stalk each other. I pretty much slipped up on my word. Instead of logging on Facebook, I played the Impossible Quiz during one of my first classes (and got pretty damn far too) and couldn’t get internet during my final stretch… forcing me to pay attention (for about the first 15 minutes of) my classes before zoning and having an epic, outback themed daydream. The minute I left class, though, my iPhone, which is now solely used as a wifi catcher, immediately started vibrating with Facebook updates. Thus, my picture of the day. These comments posts cracked me up, and were definitely a big highlight. (Don’t mind the weird time stamps. I’m not sure what the time settings on my computer are put on at the moment.)
Zoom

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Today was another day of work. More so of actual school work than anything else though. I’m usually done before noon most of the week, but on Tuesdays and Wednesdays I stay later, making these my long lecture days. I caught the bus to uni with one of my friends from the village who also has a long lecture day that he wasn’t particularly looking forward to, so we vowed that if the classes got too unbearable and we felt as if we just could no longer go on… we would facebook stalk each other.

I pretty much slipped up on my word. Instead of logging on Facebook, I played the Impossible Quiz during one of my first classes (and got pretty damn far too) and couldn’t get internet during my final stretch… forcing me to pay attention (for about the first 15 minutes of) my classes before zoning and having an epic, outback themed daydream.

The minute I left class, though, my iPhone, which is now solely used as a wifi catcher, immediately started vibrating with Facebook updates. Thus, my picture of the day. These comments posts cracked me up, and were definitely a big highlight. (Don’t mind the weird time stamps. I’m not sure what the time settings on my computer are put on at the moment.)

Monday, March 7, 2011 Today was a day of work. I hadn’t really been paying too much attention in school and Australians were living up to their reputation as being closet studiers because I’ve yet to see any of them do it. I’m pretty sure that no one wants to see pictures of my math homework, so instead my picture (yeah, I’m going back to posting just one) of the day will be of a great Australian treat. Magnums! It’s so uncanny how alike the American and Australian cultures are! Everyone finds ultimate (optimistically…) pleasure whenever they pull out a magnum! [The USA magnum]: http://cdn3.iofferphoto.com/img/item/156/185/314/wnep.jpg
Zoom

Monday, March 7, 2011

Today was a day of work. I hadn’t really been paying too much attention in school and Australians were living up to their reputation as being closet studiers because I’ve yet to see any of them do it. I’m pretty sure that no one wants to see pictures of my math homework, so instead my picture (yeah, I’m going back to posting just one) of the day will be of a great Australian treat. Magnums!

It’s so uncanny how alike the American and Australian cultures are! Everyone finds ultimate (optimistically…) pleasure whenever they pull out a magnum!

[The USA magnum]: http://cdn3.iofferphoto.com/img/item/156/185/314/wnep.jpg

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