Banned Books Week

I was aware of quite a few books Florida was attempting to ban early on this week, as I follow John Green on Twitter and he seems to be at the brunt of the attack. From what I can gather, this is just a low blow at semi successful authors/books, with any mention of the world sex or mildly erotic scene sending of warning bells in the heads of overprotective and conservative parents. I find this just ridiculous

I'm seventeen years old, and I love to read. I am not American, and although these potential bans don't impact me directly, I am simply appalled at the amount of control parents want over what their children can read. When I'm reading, I go into a whole other world entirely, imagining along with the character and following them on their adventure. I know from personal experience that it just isn't as much fun to read books that you're told to read. Half the fun of reading is seeing a book on the shelf for the first time and exclaiming "I want to read that!"

With the constant rise in modern technology, our generation is being overloaded with iPods, phones and all sorts of things, that reading may slowly begin to fall to the wayside. It's becoming more important to update your Facebook status or send a tweet than it is to curl up with a good book. I love reading, and censorship of books is taking the magic out of it.

Banning, and attempts to ban books is effectively turning a positive into a negative. The magic of good literature, many of which are on the chopping block, is a positive influence on kids and young adults, and therefore the small-minded people who are most likely yapping away on the phone rather than curling up with a good book should rethink the damage they're potentially inflicting on their child's future.

Online Bitch

I have come to the conclusion that I can be real bitch online. With so many thousands of kilometres separating me from people, I say things without thinking which are kind of harsh and then regret it later. I'm no judge of myself in person. I'm probably a real bitch IRL too, but I'm destined to be ostracized on the internet because i don't think and can't keep my mouth shut, or my fingers from flitting across the keyboard. that is all.

The Gate

Two of the world's most powerful forces of evil, Kurai and Itami, are working to reach the mythical land Limbo, the point between life and death, to close the gate to Heaven and doom all souls to an eternity in Hell. Unable to reach Limbo, they delve into the real world, followed by Megami, bearer of the elements, whose job it is to stop them. But in the real world they're faced with real challenges, and must battle them as well as each other to reach their ultimate goal.

Japanese:
Megami- goddess
Kurai- dark
Itami- pain

Surreality

As I'm writing this right now I'm sitting on my floor. My cold, hard, wooden floor. But it's cool. My bed us cluttered with junk. Andy's Tim Tams are staring at me. My suitcase is over by my bookshelf. So I'm fine just sitting here, running on two hours sleep and blogging because as usual, I get inspired at the randomest of times. Sit down in your comfy chair and have your cursor poised over the scrolling bar coz you got a whole lot coming your way.

Azkatraz. In less than four days I will be on a plane to Sydney, then to San Francisco. Oh my fucking god. It's not like I haven't been on a plane before. I'm born in New Zealand, and I flew to Auckland and Queenstown and other places there. I've been to Fiji. I flew to Sydney in 2002 for my auntie's wedding. But this is different. This time I'm flying halfway across the world. By myself. To a place I've never been before. To a different time zone. A new culture. A place I've been fascinated with ever since I first picked up a book. This doesn't frighten me at all, no matter how many times I get asked. I am excited yes, but more-so I am curious. I'm interested to see the world outside my register at McDonalds. I want to do something other than walk to work every day and walk home again. I want to meet the people I've talked to for so long who at the moment are no more than a chat window or a Facebook comment. I want to do something for me, and to show my mum that she can't always stop me doing what I want to do.

The only thing that frightens me about Azkatraz is leaving. I have this feeling that I'm going to sink into a depression when I go home and go back to work and everything will just be as shit as always. I want to treasure each moment and make sure it doesn't fly by too quickly. There's so many people I want to meet and share the wonders of the Harry Potter fandom with. It'll be like a huge family having the most awesome time ever, together. Instead of listening to my mum's orders, my sister's bitching and Pete's "attempt" at bossing me and Brooke around, I can have fun. I can smile. I can laugh. I can talk. I can live.

I want the people I meet there not to see me as a sarcastic, aggressive bitch like the people do here. And I really hope my weirdness doesn't freak people out too much because I can be pretty strange at times. But somehow, a part of me doesn't think any of it will matter at all. I can just be me, and watch as the world works a different way, the toilets flush in the opposite direction, where it's Summer and not Winter and people talk in a different accent with new things to say. America, here I come.

Word to your bookshelf,

Kassi

Lost in the Void

Sometimes I hate my mum, I really do. There are times (very few) when we get along but like with my sister, we mostly fight and yell. I’m such a Daddy’s girl and even though my parents are divorced, it hasn’t improved my relationship with my mother. In fact, it’s probably made it worse since I have to put up with her 24/7.

With my mum, it’s all about her and whoever she’s currently with. Her current boyfriend is clearly for the long term though. If I try to say anything otherwise my mum will go on and on with the usual “The world doesn’t revolve around you” when I’m thinking I know. It revolves around you. My sister and I are a small blip on the radar of her view of life.

We knew before we moved to Melbourne that we were buying a house here. But it was decided that we would rent first while looking for a house to buy as we needed somewhere to live straight away. I’ve known for months that we would be moving out of our current house eventually and to get settled in is pointless but I can’t help it. I’ve moved countries; I’ve lived in eleven different houses, been to five different schools and watched both my parents go through countless relationships.

The house we’re in at the moment is in the perfect place for me to go to work because I can work. My work and the fact that I have a job doesn’t factor into my mum and Pete’s decision on a house. The only thing factored in is it being on a bus route. I don’t want to rely on public transport to get me to work on time. I already have to walk half an hour as it is to get to work, and then public transport costs money.

I’m not paying board at the moment because I’m going to America but I can’t afford to pay bus money every day. I’ve told my mum that if I have to catch the bus she’s paying for it and she pulls out the usual threats of me going and living somewhere else or shipping me off to my father’s. I don’t go to school anymore and gone is the safety net.

In many senses I’m treated more like an adult than an irresponsible teenager. I don’t go to school, I work. I have to do things for myself. I have more responsibility. I freak out endlessly about having to do year twelve at TAFE next year. I worry about having enough money for America. In some ways I prefer to be treated more like an adult because in many ways I am more independent now and I’m almost seventeen. But there are some parts of me that wish for that innocence back and not to have everything thrown upon me.

The things that I define my life by are laughable to others. I’m worried about doing year twelve when there are people in Melbourne whose parents are drug dealers and go home to their mum being bashed and their father off their face, lucky not to cop a beating themselves. Talk about bad influence. I don’t know what my mum’s definition of a “better lifestyle” is but I’ll tell you one thing, it definitely varies from mine.

In other news, Sonia, my manager at work, is leaving. Now, Sonia can be REALLY annoying sometimes but coz she is full time I’ve really gotten to know her and we have lots of fun and are always cracking each other up. I see her almost every day so we have our inside jokes and our things and stuff so it’s going to be sad to see her ago. She’s not just moving to another store either, she’s leaving McDonalds for good after six and a half years.

The drawback to having Sonia leave is not just losing a good manager but replacing one. There are two things that can happen. A manager from somewhere else will come in and take her place. If this happens I really hope to dear lord that they aren’t a total bitch or really mean/scary/strict. We full times are the ones who are going to have to put up with them all the time and I really don’t need something else to stress me out in my life.

The other thing that could happen is one of our crew trainers get promoted to manager. Of our crew trainers, the most likely to be made manager are Ashton, Fi or Stacy. I was talking to Tiff about it and I immediately ruled out Ashton because she’s still in school (year twelve) and she isn’t full time. I’m not sure if Rhi (one of our trainee manager’s) is still in school but I know she’s only eighteen.

Then there’s Fi and Stacy, who are practically best friends. They’re both full timers and practically live at McDonalds. They’re favourites of Anna (our store manager) and know pretty much everything there is to know. The two are moving in together soon and I keep joking (I think I’m joking but I wouldn’t be surprised if they seriously did this) that they’re going to get a pole and a cage for their new house.

Fi’s been at McDonalds for three and a half years whereas Stacy has only been there two. You’d think Fi would be made manager because she’s been there longer but I’m not too sure. I wouldn’t mind either way. I reckon Fi should become a manager, natural order and all, but I can see Stace as the manager type. She just looks more like she should be a manager. She left school at like, fourteen, and has been from Hungry Jacks (Burger King, for Americans) to here so she definitely has the experience.

Word to your bookshelf,

Kassi

Days I've Worked Full Time: 64
Books I've Read in 2009: 51
Days Till I Leave for Azkatraz: 27

Life's a Bitch

So, I haven't blogged in a while. I don't know how long but I do know the last two weeks have been pretty hectic. My nanna came down from the Gold Coast for my mum and my sister's birthday weekend, I was sick and off work for a few days then I went back to work and we were short staffed. And to top it all of Friday we had an inspection with Kelly from Head Office basically x-raying (not literally) EVERYTHING about the store.

I love books. I really do. The lady at the salon where I got my legs waxed the other day was like "Don't you prefer watching movies?" and I was just thinking no no no no no! I have this thing with Jodi Picoult's books, even though I've only read two so far. I've read My Sister's Keeper (which I didn't know had been adaptated into a movie! squee!) and Handle With Care, both of which made me cry. I was bawling my eyes out during the movie trailer.

Part of me doing this whole "Reading 150 books in a year thing" was that I wanted to read books that I've never read before, and not just the type of books I usually read but all different kinds of books. Different people have different taste in books which is why I took recommendations from tons of people and have had an... interesting time to say the least.

One of my recent reads (well, I'm still reading it as it's a series) is the House of Night series by P.C. and Kristin Cast. It's another vampire (well, technically 'vampyre') series so I was a little hesitant but I trust the judgement of my friends. Becca recommended it to me first, then Fi (my friend from work) and I found out recently that my really good friend (I don't use the term 'best' friend quite easily) from the Gold Coast is reading them too. I'll put it simply: I'm hooked. I don't know, this is just what books do to me. I was jumping down the hallway, eager to get to my room so I could continue reading. If my family didn't already think I was strange (which I'm sure they did) then they definitely do now.

In other news, only thirty one days till I leave for America to go to Azkatraz! I'm beyond excited, not just for Half-Blood Prince which we are finally getting but to meet a lot of the made-of-awesome people I've been talking to and sometimes fangirling (and I'll admit, stalking) for months. I especially want to meet Casey (Aussie pride, yeah!) and the Hogwarts Radio crew, particularly Becca, Terrance and Andy coz I've actually spoken to them online.. wait I might have talked to Jackie on Facebook once but I don't think that counts :P

I think that's all I've got to say for the moment. I'll try to blog more regularly from now on. I haven't blogged lately because I didn't think I had that much of anything interesting to say so yeah. I'll leave you with this poem thing I wrote last night:

Your voice is like a whisper in the wind but I strain to hear
My hair flails wildly as I'm consumed by fear
But your call is like a Siren's lure
As I chase it blindly I'm still unsure
Your laugh is like fire burning inside me
Your smile is like a beacon when I can't see
I know when I'm with you it will be okay
The ties between us will never fray
Your kiss is like a beat of my heart
And even when we are forced apart
One look reminds me that I'm head over heels
I know this is how love really feels
One day it won't matter if people stare
We're too lost in our own world to care
But for now I'll smile and hope you'll see
As you stand in the dark watching me

Word to your bookshelf,
Kassi

Days I've Worked Full Time: 60
Books I've Read in 2009: 49
Days Till I Leave for Azkatraz: 31

First Encounter

This story reminds me of the movie Riding in Cars with Boys which is probably one of my favourite movies.

First Encounter

Ebony was lying on her bed reading a book when her sister came barging in. She never knocked and usually didn’t have a good reason for coming in unannounced. Ebony liked politeness so this irked her about her sister.

‘Ebs, come on. We’re going out,’ Katie said eagerly. She was always in an excitable mood over some thing or another. Usually she tried to get Ebony involved in her adventures, and they usually involved them risking some kind of trouble which made her resistant to partaking.

‘No thanks, I’m reading,’ said Ebony, turning a page in her book. Katie stomped her foot and crossed her arms. Although she was nineteen, her behaviour sometimes reminded Ebony of a ten year old child. When she didn’t get her way she pouted and moaned.

‘You can read any old day Ebs. Come on, I’m going to take you to your first party,’ Katie said excitedly. Another thing about Katie was that she was really eager for Ebony to experience grownup things because she felt she’d been deprived in that department.

‘I’ve been to parties before,’ Ebony said slowly, already anticipating Katie’s next words. She knew what kind of party Katie was talking about and she was steering clear. In no way was she drinking alcohol or coughing from cigarette fumes.
‘Not that kind of party Ebs, you haven’t partied till you come to one of these,’ Katie nagged, pulling on Ebony’s arm.

‘I’m not going to go to a party to watch you get drunk,’ Ebony said blatantly.
‘I’m not getting drunk. I just want you to experience things Ebs. You’re never going to learn if you don’t get out there and do stuff. How else can you get a boyfriend?’ Katie reminded. She’d hit it home with that one. The thing Ebony wanted most of all was a boyfriend and Katie knew it. She was seventeen and she’d never even kissed a boy which in social standing was considered very sad.

Katie managed to yank some nicer clothes on Ebony and drag her downstairs. Their mother was on the phone and took no notice of them leaving. One of Katie’s many boy toys was waiting outside in a junk box of a car and they crawled in the back. Ebony held her hand over her mouth to block the smoke. The guy driving the car was obviously a chain smoker. Katie had dodgy friends.

They pulled up to a drab house with shutters falling and peeling paint. The drive was littered with empty beer cans and cigarette butts. Ebony kicked one with the toe of her Keds as she blindly followed Katie up to the house. The thumping music was already giving her a headache but Katie pulled her in and through the thong of people.

‘Hey Dina, this is my sister Ebony,’ Katie introduced earnestly, taking a drink from a random guy and downing half of it straight away. She handed one to Ebony who held it in her hand but didn’t take a sip. She wasn’t going to get drunk. There was no way she was going to get drunk.

It didn’t take her long to lose Katie in the crowd because her sister was so popular and everyone seemed to know her and want to talk to her. Ebony watched her from across the room talking to this drop dead gorgeous guy who she wished was her boyfriend. Katie looked at her and waved and the guy glanced over interestedly.
Soon Katie disappeared and the gorgeous guy walked towards her. She turned around, thinking there must be someone behind her who he was going to talk to instead. But nobody was facing in this direction. He was walking over to her.

‘You’re Ebony, right? My name’s Will,’ he introduced. She shook his hand even though no sound would come out of her mouth. He was even more gorgeous up close. She could see the intense green of his eyes and the way his hair flopped over one eye.

‘Listen, do you want to come with me to get some more soda?’ Will asked. Ebony found herself saying yes, even though there was plenty of soda on the table across the room. She wasn’t sure why Will wanted to get more but she followed him wordlessly.

When they were sitting in his car only the dim light from a street lamp allowed her to see. She could vaguely see Will’s face and he was looking at her. She didn’t quite know what the look on his face meant but she’d never seen that look on the face of a boy who was looking at her. He moved closer to her and she realised about a second too late that he was going to kiss her.

Inside Ebony was freaking out. She’d never kissed a boy before and she wasn’t sure at all what to do. She wanted to kiss Will but what if she did something wrong? What if her lips were in the wrong place or her teeth got in the way? Will seemed to know what he was doing though. His lips were soft as he pressed them to hers and he guided her into a kiss. It didn’t seem that difficult with Will. He knew what he was doing.

Ebony didn’t know what they were supposed to do next. She thought Will would kiss her and that would be it, maybe he’d talk to her or something. But he kept kissing her, pressing her up against the car door. The glass of the window felt cold against her neck. She felt his hand creep up the back of her shirt and his finger moved under the elastic of her bra.

Ebony froze when he guided her hand to the bulge in his shorts. Her mind flashed back to a conversation she’d had with Katie the previous summer after an incident with a boy at the pool after Lucy Daniels’ bikini top had come off during her jump from the high board.

‘When a boy is excited or turned on his, you know, gets hard. But do not, under any circumstances, put it in your mouth,’ Katie had said. Ebony had been unsure of what her sister had been talking about at the time but now she had a pretty clear idea. Will wanted her to touch it, didn’t he? Or he wouldn’t have put her hand there.

She was more concerned with his tongue, which he was trying to put in her mouth. She thought that was a little strange. What was it supposed to do in her mouth? Before she could do anything though, a light shone in her eyes and the door was yanked open.
‘Ebony, come on. We have to go,’ Katie was saying and she was dragging her backwards out of the car. All she remembered was seeing that look on Will’s face before her sister pulled her headlong down the street.

‘Did you do it? Did he kiss you?’ Katie asked eagerly. She was talking as if she’d known what was going to happen. Could she have really known what was going to happen? She’d been talking to Will and oh! What if she’d asked him to kiss her?
‘Did you ask him to do that to me?’ Ebony cried, outraged. Katie raised her eyebrows, her drink still in her hand.

‘You have to learn how to kiss somehow Ebs. You’re lucky, Will’s one of the hottest seniors I know,’ Katie said matter-of-factly. She took a swig of her drink and threw the empty bottle in the gutter. She tugged on Ebony’s hand but her sister pulled away.

‘His, you know, was hard Katie. He tried to undo my bra and he almost put his tongue in my mouth!’ Ebony cried. Katie giggled which Ebony did not find amusing. Her first kiss was over with and she was still just as clueless about boys.

‘You could have had Will. He actually thought you were pretty,’ Katie added as she walked up the drive to their house. Ebony rushed ahead and entered the house first. She could not believe Katie sometimes. She hadn’t wanted her first kiss to be in the back of a car. It had been uncomfortable and Ebony had had no idea what she was doing.

‘Ebs, wait,’ Katie called but Ebony ignored her. She jogged up the stairs and only relaxed when she was in her room. She collapsed on her bed where the book she’d been reading still lay. Nothing seemed real anymore. This wasn’t how she’d expected her first encounter with a boy to be and she wasn’t sure she liked it.

I'm on John Green's iPhone!

OH MY GOD. That is literally the only way to describe the day I had today. It started with me skipping down the street singing “I’m going to meet John Green!” and ended with me almost pinching myself to make sure the experience I’d just had wasn’t a dream. John Green is the most awesome person... ever.

The session started with talks by the other three authors, Bernard Beckett, Mo Johnson and M.T. Anderson who are all amazing. I’m definitely adding their books to my list. After that there was a short break were I went to the table and John Green signed all my books!

He asked me how to spell my name and asked if I was a nerdfighter and while he signed my books I talked to him about how the Black Santa thing is on page 24 of Paper Towns. Afterwards I went to sit on a table against the wall and I was still in his view. I pulled out The Key to the Golden Firebird by Maureen Johnson which is the book I’m currently reading and he saw me.

He said “Don’t move. Keep reading.” I was wondering what was going on but I did as he said and he pulled out his iPhone and took a picture. I was like “Can I ask what that was for?” and he was like “I’m going to send it to Maureen. She’s like, my best friend.” And inside I was just going “OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD!” There is a picture of me on John Green’s iPhone! OH MY GOD!

John Green talked next and I loved his rant about Twilight and how everyone is going to die. I hope he didn’t notice me sneakily take a picture of him at the very beginning of the session. I know, I’m a stalker. Get over it. I filmed his entire talk and will be watching the footage over and over.

Before my session I literally ran into Nat, Anita and Jess on the street and their friend Mary. I had almost given up hope of meeting them when there they were. We went to Hungry Jacks and ate our food on a bench and I really hope Nat sends me that picture her mum took. It was epic.

Anyway, I had one of the most awesome days of my life and CANNOT wait until the nerdfighter gathering on Sunday. I’m jizzing in my pants here, seriously. Speaking of which, did you know there is actually a song called Jizz in My Pants? I didn’t until quite recently.

Word to your bookshelf,

Kassi

Days I’ve Worked Full Time: 52
Books I’ve Read in 2009: 44
Days Till I Leave for Azkatraz: 48

Nightmarish

I hate nightmares, I really do. Nightmares are basically like horror movies, except you can’t get away! If it’s a horror movie, you can always just turn off the television but with nightmares the only way you can get away is if you wake up and I suck at waking myself up when I’m asleep.

I had a really bad nightmare last night that this serial killer stabbed my mum and then I, my nanna and my sister were on the run. For some reason my mum’s boyfriend fled the country. Anyway, the serial killer had been caught and put in prison but had somehow escaped to go to the supermarket. That’s another thing about dreams/nightmares, the things that happen are really bizarre and unexplainable. I doubt any serial killer would break out just to go to the supermarket.

So we were on the run but everyone else was fleeing town as well to escape from the serial killer because he was on the loose and nobody knew where he was. We were driving through some swimming pool complex and we got out at the pool. I don’t know why we got out of the car. If it was me, I would have my foot down on the gas and speed away as fast as possible! We were walking around the pool when another crazy psycho person started chasing us so we jumped in the pool and swam across.

When we got back out to our car the doors were open and the original serial killer was coming towards us. We jumped in the car and sped away back home. We started packing, planning to drive to the airport this time. I went outside for some strange reason and the serial killer was there. My hair got caught on the railing of the fence and I woke up just before he stabbed me. It was so freaky. The worst part of these dreams is I always wake up with my heart racing and so freaked out that someone is actually going to break into the house.

In other news, I’m going to see John Green on Thursday AND Sunday! I’m so excited! It will also be the first time I meet Nat, Anita and Jess so it’s gonna be awesome! Next week I am going to get my money converted to American dollars so that should be interesting. I need to make sure I know which notes are which because I don’t want to go over there and be a total tourist trying to buy stuff.

Anyway, that’s all from me for today.

Word to your bookshelf,

Kassi

Days I’ve Worked Full Time: 50
Books I’ve Read in 2009: 43
Days Till I Leave for Azkatraz: 51
Days Till I Meet John Green: 3

Whatever Comes to Mind

You know, I never really felt like I missed out socially in life. Sure, I've never had the most trustworthy of friends or stable schooling life. I never had a boyfriend until the beginning of this year. That went so well. *sigh* I epically fail at life.

I don't know where I'm supposed to meet guys. "Hi, welcome to McDonalds. What can I get for you? By the way, you're hot.." Yeah, I don't think so. Whoever said Australian boys are hot was lying coz they are no different from any other boys. Me, I prefer guys with accents to be honest. Azkatraz... mmm it's gonna be awesome. Nick Myers, anyone?

But in all seriousness, now I've left school I feel like my life is not on the path it's supposed to be on. Your life is pretty much all mapped out for you. Go to school. Go to uni. Get a job. Find love. Get married. Have kids. But now it feels like my life has gone from school to work at McDonalds, go to Harry Potter conventions, do Year 12 at TAFE, save like a spaz to go to college in America... *unknown*

Unknown is scary. I don't like not knowing where my life is going, not knowing if I'll be able to do what I want to do, not knowing where I'll end up. The unknown is daunting and I don't like it. Right now my life is like I'm on one of those little running things that guinea pigs have and there is no way off!

Do you have things you want to do in life, just to know what it feels like, to experience it? I want to faint, just to know what it's like. I want to go to America because the country fascinates me. I want to inspire people with my words. But most importantly, I want to fall in love, to have that unexplainable, indescribable feeling. When I do eventually fall in love I'm going to have a notebook with me 24/7 because I think then, and only then will I be inspired to write some beautiful things.

I think that's all I have to say here for now.

Word to your bookshelf,

Kassi

Days I've Worked Full Time: 49
Books I've Read in 2009: 43
Days Till I Leave for Azkatraz: 54
Days Till I Meet John Green: 6

LOL Moment of the Day:

sorry - I started reading Midnight Sun after you left. SO HOOKED.
[9:19:49 PM] Kassi says: ew
[9:19:52 PM] Kassi says: so i had a brilliant idea
[9:20:00 PM] Nat Speechley says: sooo much better than Twilight.
[9:20:02 PM] Kassi says: even more brilliant than our mocking-twilight fanfiction
[9:20:11 PM] Nat Speechley says: Ahaha
[9:20:25 PM] Nat Speechley says: WELL. It's wayy better than the whingy emo Bella.
[9:20:35 PM] Kassi says: that's not emo. we can write emo
[9:20:59 PM] Kassi says: "Oh em gee. Edward was like, totally flirting with Jessica today. I'm am like, so totally depressed now!"

My Friends are Pretty Awesome

Firstly, I’m sorry I haven’t blogged in a couple of days. I honestly had nothing of interest to say and I didn’t want to subject you guys to a boring in-depth analysis of my day at work because there was nothing else for me to talk about. Secondly, it has come to my attention that two of my favourite Aussie girls have been recently stalking my blog. I don’t know why you’d consider my blog to be interesting but thank you for taking the time to read my psychotic ramblings.

As I think I’ve mentioned previously on my blog, I am not the best person at making friends. It took me around six years to make the sort of friends I could actually call my friends on the Gold Coast and then another two years to find two people who I actually felt close to and who I know actually care about what happens to me. This is the majority of the reason why I was so devastated to be moving to Melbourne.

Now, I had a few months prior knowledge of my uprooting to Melbourne. Early January of this year I discovered this little social networking site called MuggleSpace that had blown up big with Harry Potter fans worldwide. I quickly became addicted to chatting to fellow Harry Potter fans and being dubbed the ‘Quiz Queen’ because of my fast response at trivia in the chat. An idea quickly began to blossom though. Wouldn’t it be cool if I found Harry Potter fans in Melbourne BEFORE I moved there?

I think the first person I made contact with was Shan. My mum’s boyfriend is originally from Melbourne so he was able to tell me that this girl was around twenty minutes away from where we would be moving to. Instant friendship! I also met Nat through MuggleSpace, who is now my fellow vlogger through Five Aussie Girls and an excellent Tuesday. I didn’t know where she was at the time but it turns out she’s around forty minutes away from me.

Nat introduced me to Anita and Jess through Five Aussie Girls and the awesome people I have met on the internet are the reason why these last few months torturing myself at McDonalds have been bearable. You girls are what keep me from strangling myself with the cord of the Eftpos machine. I work all day then come home and jump on my computer and you guys are there with something to say that makes me smile and makes it all worth it.

Nat, although you’re younger than even my sister I can relate to you in so many ways. Your response of ‘Hey you!’ in the chat makes me smile and you have a way of adding that bit of awesomeness into everything you do that makes you a true Nerdfighter. I could spend hours talking to you because for as much as we are different being Ravenclaw and Slytherin, we have that much in common with our obsessions with Smart Mouths, Harry Potter and John Green.

Anita, my fellow chocolate lover. I’d like to take a moment here to state that I actually love chocolate more than you but I suppose we’ll find out just who loves it that little bit more in our chocolate-off next week. I don’t know you as well as I’d like to but I’m very grateful that we’ve been introduced through our project. Just the fact that you’ll wave at random strangers for the purpose of a video is what makes you awesome. The randomness of your tweets makes me laugh and for a twelve year old you have an amazing voice which is going to take you places.

Shan! What can I say about how awesome you are that you don’t already know? You’re the only person who could force me to watch TWO McFly videos on MySpace and not have me hate you for it. We agree to disagree over our various obsessions and although it is very difficult for us to arrange that Harry Potter movie marathon sleepover, we will do it eventually! When it comes to Screw Marry Kill we’ll probably always kill Micah and we’re both very dedicated Matt Britton fangirls in saying that Matt is our ‘Edward.’ Only a true fangirl would leave her phone in the book shop to run over to the Harry Potter box set and just you wait, I will turn you into a Nerdfighter yet!

I would also like to thank Nat for pointing out what a pathetically dramatic sixteen year old I was being in stating in my blog that I wasn’t going to be writing anymore. I love writing. I always have loved writing and at some point I turned my writing into an “I HAVE TO WRITE A NOVEL” pressure box that has been hovering over my head. I am sixteen years old! I have my whole life to write a novel, but for now I’m going to write and enjoy it as a hobby without worrying about how I almost failed Year 11 English and that my language isn’t as perfect as it could be. It is meant to be fun!

Although it’s only May I’m already gearing up for NanoWrimo in November. If you don’t know what NanoWrimo is, it is National Novel Writing Month where you write fifty thousand words in thirty days. The point is not to write a perfect story, but to try and write as many words as possible in the month. I attempted to do this last year but devastatingly lost my USB and 20,000 words and have never forgiven myself for it since. I had a brilliant idea for my NanoWrimo story today and now I’ll probably spend the five month until then trying to stop myself from using it early. It is so not fair! It is much more interesting and sparking more creative ideas than my current story! Humph!

Now, I made a very dangerous decision in attempting to undertake what seems to be a near impossible feat in watching EVERY fiveawesomegirls video. I love 5AG and while they are all made-of-awesome, my favourites are Kristina and Hayley so I’ve watched significantly more Monday and Thursday videos than I have of any of the others. This is slowly changing. This task will become easier when I have my new laptop and can sit in the Food Court stinging Wi-Fi all day and will then be able to watch all Brotherhood 2.0 videos as well.

I’m going to post the “blurb” for my NanoWrimo idea here and you can tell me whether you think I should write this one now and use the story I posted a preview of in an earlier blog for NanoWrimo, or if I should save this one until November:

With the world feeling the strain of the economic crisis, a failing mega corporation is out to get their own back. Over the years many authors have hit gold with their classic tales. J.K. Rowling, Roald Dahl, Emily Rodda and R.L. Stine, just to name a few. Campbell Anderson has the brilliant idea to infiltrate the literature market by grabbing hold of ideas before they hit jackpot. All across America talented children are receiving letters asking them to attend a just-opened Academy of Creative Arts. Campbell’s plan is to nurture the talent of the next generation and store it for their own gain. But the one thing they didn’t anticipate: by targeting intelligent kids they’re creating their own worst enemy with the smarts to overthrow and expose their money-making plans.

Let me know what you guys think in the comments!

Word to your bookshelf,

Kassi

Days I’ve Worked Full Time: 48
Books I’ve Read in 2009: 43
Days Till I Leave for Azkatraz: 55
Days Till I Meet John Green: 7

Unable to Get Uninspired

I knew I was going to run out of things to blog about eventually. Today I had an awesome start to the day. I rang work yesterday to find out what time I started, and Cory told me I had to start at eight to which I replied “Ew.” And it was just that. I set my alarm for six, stopped it when it went off and got back into bed. I ended up getting up at seven and had to rush to get ready because I had to work to work as usual. Tiff was back from being sick which can be taken as a good thing, or a bad thing. It’s good because it means we’re no longer short staffed but it’s bad because Tiff can be a real bitch sometimes.

Today was also the day of days, when Scott and Kelly came to visit the store. Scott and Kelly are from the McDonalds Head Office and they come in every so often to meet with Anna (our store manager) and check up on the place and basically tell Anna what she’s doing right and wrong, and what they want her to do to improve stuff.

They were coming at ten so they could watch trans (transition from breakfast to lunch menu) so we only had two hours to make sure the place was spotless, everything was stocked up and have the store looking perfect. Unfortunately, by the time Scott and Kelly arrived it meant we had nothing left to do because we’d done everything, so when we weren’t serving we had to inspect every inch of front counter to see if there was anything left to do so we weren’t standing around.

Fortunately Tiff was in an alright mood today so she didn’t frustrate me to no end like she usually does. Stacy, Fi, Tiff and I are the full timers. Tiff and I are out front on counter, and Fi and Stacy are out back. I like the fact that our store is female dominated, and that both our people out back are girls. Stacy is so funny sometimes too. She came out front today because she had nothing to do, and was acting like a total weirdo by trying to call people over to serve who were walking past, as we’re in a food court. I could not stop laughing, it was hilarious.

Now that I’ve decided to stop writing, I seem to be getting inspired which is annoying. I don’t need the inspiration anymore! Is there any way to get uninspired? Or at least channel the inspiration into something else? Coz there is no future in writing. It is such a difficult industry and too indefinite.

I think my Nintendo DS was purely an impulse buy to be honest. I mean, I’ve wanted one since about year nine which is about three years ago, but I never really have time to play it. I only have one game too so that gets boring after a while. After I get back from America I might buy some more games for it, after I get my MacBook of course. I seriously want a MacBook just for iMovie alone, let alone the other stuff on it.

I’m going to get a baby laptop (one of those little $600 Acer ones) before Azkatraz because I need a computer while I’m away. The battery power on my current one sucks and its really old and yeah. I can’t afford to get a MacBook before Azkatraz and the Acer ones are really small and will be convenient for travelling. Plus, I’ve never used a Mac before and I don’t have time to learn before Azkatraz.

I’m starting to get even more excited for Azkatraz (if that’s possible) with it being less than two months away. Finally seeing Half-Blood Prince is going to be amazing, and then there’s all the other stuff at Azkatraz like the Ball, the Leaky Mug, shopping and of course, the HR live show. I’m probably looking forward to that second most.

I think that’s all from me today. My sister is still reading Deathly Hallows and thought it was boring for a while until she got up to the bit where they’re breaking into Gringotts. What an amateur. I also cannot find my Gossip Girl DVD! I paid fifty bucks for it so it better turn up somewhere! I looked all over my room last night and annoyed the heck out of everyone because I couldn’t find it and I still don’t know where it is.

I had a pretty good weekend. I was talking to Tatiana on Facebook and it was funny because Terrance was there too and she was telling him what I said. She told him (as I joke) that I’d said he’d been flirting with Becca on Skype. He got kinda angry at that. Terrance and Becca are never online when I’m on Skype, but anyway. I’m planning on writing a Terrance/Becca fanfic and a Terrance/mixer one. He he. I’m evil.

Word to your bookshelf,

Kassi

Days I’ve Worked Full Time: 45
Books I’ve Read in 2009: 42
Days Till I Leave for Azkatraz: 58
Days Till I Meet John Green: 10

Nothing to Say

Hey there! I think this is the first time I've actually written my blog on the website instead of copying and pasting something I've written earlier for my blog. I honestly have nothing interesting or unusual or anything to say today so I'm just going to start typing and see what happens.

I started reading So Yesterday by Scott Westerfeld last night. It's pretty interesting so far.. and I kinda put it on my list after seeing it in a 5AG video.. okay, I'm a bit of a dork but I don't care! 13 Little Blue Envelopes was good and I got that from 5AG, so this should be good too!

I'm recording my podcast in about an hour and a half. At least I know people will probably be on this time to record with me. I didn't release that episode with just Nick and me coz it was sooooooooo boring. I swear this podcast is going to be about 90% Australian but I don't really care. It didn't work out with me and Americans (lol) so I'm kicking it Down Under. I might have some American guest hosts coz Shannon is made-of-awesome and couldn't imagine not having her on at least one episode and there are a few other exceptions.

Since I'm not going to be a writer anymore, I'm basically holing up in my room to complete my book challenge. I'm on number 43! If I'm not doing writing I'd probably pursue a career in IT or something.. I don't know yet. But I know there's no point in doing writing if my writing sucks.

Kay, that's all from me for now. Hopefully I'll have more interesting stuff to talk about tomorrow. Though, probably not as I do have to go to work *sigh*

Word to your bookshelf,

Kassi

Days I've Worked Full Time: 44
Books I've Read in 2009: 42
Days Till I Leave for Azkatraz: 59
Days Till I Meet John Green: 11

Meh

I’ve decided that I’m completely boring and uninteresting. I honestly don’t know why I bother trying to be funny or sarcastic because nobody laughs at what I find funny. Nobody can tell when I’m not being serious. No one trusts my judgement so I don’t... oh I don’t know.

I’ve never been good at making friends with people. I’m the nerd who reads books at school. Wait, read* I remember sitting on the path in Year 10, re-reading Order of the Phoenix while we waited to get needles. I was reading furiously, trying to finish before the movie came out. It didn’t really help much. The movie was crap anyway.

Somehow it is spreading around my work that I’m going to a Harry Potter convention in July. I know I’ve told a few people (Esther: That’s so cute! Me: *cringe*) but I think Fi might have been mentioning it to some people. I was on my break Thursday and Tyson was as well. I was reading as usual and not eating because I hadn’t brought any food and I wasn’t going to buy any coz I’m saving.

Me: Ty-sonnnn. Wanna buy me food?
[He is sitting there with Subway and Pepsi]
Me: Pleaseeeeee.
Tyson: You’re a full timer. You have more money than me.
Me: I can’t spend it. I’m saving for America
Tyson: Oh yeah, you’re going to that conference thing.
Me: What? How did you know?
Tyson: I was talking to Fi yesterday and it sort of came up in conversation.
Me: Oh great, just what I wanted. Like I really want that spreading around work.

I am such a shitty friend. The few friends I have in Melbourne I’m keeping in contact with via TWEETS. The only person I want to keep in contact with on the Gold Coast is Danita and the last time I called her was to question her about how many people from my old school had found my vlog on YouTube.

Only people who are as obsessed with Harry Potter as I am are worth being friends with at the moment because no one else gets me. I don’t go to uni although I wish I could do the Creative Writing class Zoe is taking. I don’t go to school. I’m not eighteen so I can’t go clubbing and I don’t look old enough to sneak in anywhere. My idea of a fun Friday night is reading a book and apparently, writing this blog.

I didn’t want this blog to be a place where I whinge like a pathetic teenager but that is all I feel like doing at the moment. Oh yeah, and I’m putting my novel project on hold for the moment. I rarely have time to work on it and when I do, I never feel like it. I’ll probably never become an author anyway. I knew once I left school I wouldn’t be able to go back, let alone uni. I’ll probably just work in a book shop the rest of my life.

My writing isn’t even that good anyway. I don’t know crap about all those literary techniques and shit and my language isn’t good enough. There are so many words that I don’t know the meaning of which I probably should.
My Dad gave me some advice which I completely rejected at the time but now I think about it, it might be alright. He said I should write children’s picture books. That’d be alright.

This conversation basically sums it all up:

Brooke: God, I thought you were good at English.
[Storms out of my room and slams the door]
Me: I thought I was too.

I’m beginning to think finding my poetry folder wasn’t such a good idea after all. A lot of the poems belong in a children’s book and the rest of them are really emo and depressing. Who knew I was such a tormented child? Wait, did I actually just ask that question? I probably won’t post any of them here... at the moment.

Oh my god. I just put a floppy disk in my laptop! How old school is that? It did contain proof that I did write stuff about Kelly though... too bad I can’t open the file because it’s in some stupid format. But still, there’s proof! There are also some photos of leopards. They’re pretty. The floppy disk can only hold 1.38MB! I couldn’t even get ONE podcast on there! I’m glad things have evolved since then.

My sister came into my room the other day and my screensaver was on my laptop. My screensaver is ‘DFTBA’ spinning around. She of course asked what it meant and I made her watch the DFTBA song video Hank did. Today (Friday) she wrote DFTBA on her hand in permanent marker and went to school with it and she told me that tons of people were wondering what it meant. My sister isn’t really a nerdfighter though but it’s funny watching her come up with DFTBA acronyms:

Dumbledore forms ten bloody armies.
Dinosaurs forever to be alive.
Delicious fudge tastes beautiful always.
Deadly fever to be acknowledged.
Dancing fairies to be actors.

I like my one: Dreamers fade till becoming anonymous.

She’s reading Half-Blood Prince at the moment and thinks it’s boring. I told her she wouldn’t get it unless she’d read the first five but why would she listen to me? The thing I hate about my sister reading is that she’ll keep asking me questions and trying to get me to tell her what happens before she reads it. In other words, spoil it. She did this with Twilight and keeps getting pissed at me because blatantly refuse to tell her anything. She knows that Dumbledore dies because I’ve said that once before but her most recent question is about whether you find out what happens to Dumbledore’s hand. I just said “Dumbledore did something stupid.”

I actually have a funny story about my sister and Harry Potter. My sister has this obsession with Snape. Well, Snape from the movies because she’s only reading the book now. When I told her that Snape died she refused to believe me. I read her the page from Deathly Hallows and everything but she still wouldn’t believe me. I found it hilarious. She even took a picture of Snape on my phone and set it to the background.

My sister said that I can’t call myself a writer because I’m not published. According to her, writing is something I do as a hobby. I guess that’s technically true... and she tried to argue that she can call herself a singer because she does singing as a hobby. This is totally not true. She does not do singing but oh well. My sister won’t let anyone tell her otherwise.

I'm still reading My Sister's Keeper and it has made me cry twice so far. I'm recording my podcast tomorrow and my online friend Adri wants me to be part of this harry potter fansite she's doing for our region. I'm now a Senior Staffer.. god. Like I don't have enough going on at the moment.

Word to your bookshelf,

Kassi

Days I've Worked Full Time: 44
Books I've Read in 2009: 41
Days Till I Leave For Azkatraz: 60
Days Till I Meet John Green: 12

Angel Shadow

As a kid a lot of us probably had imaginary friends. An imaginary friend is often a coping mechanism for a child, a way of resolving conflict or just for companionship. Only children are probably more likely to have imaginary friends because without anyone else to play with, they have to make their own fun.

When I was little I didn’t have an imaginary friend, but I had Kelly. For all intensive purposes, she was an imaginary friend. She was, and is in fact, my shadow. I’m not quite sure where the name Kelly came from but it starts with K like my name so I guess that factored into it. Her birthday was on the 12th of August, the day before mine.

Kelly lived in Kellyville, a land among the clouds where houses were soft and bouncy. She was the Mayor (or Mayoress, I suppose) of Kellyville and her life was perfect, unlike mine. I gave Kelly qualities I guess I wanted at that age. She had blonde hair and blue eyes. She could fly, and when on car trips I used to imagine her floating along beside us.

Before I say any more, I just want to explain a few things. I moved to Australia in 2000, when I was seven turning eight. I’d left behind my two best friends in New Zealand and haven’t found anyone like that since, no matter how hard I’ve tried. There are a few people who’ve come close but not the type of friend you can tell anyone to without fearing they’ll judge you and who you trust with even your darkest of secrets.

This year was also the year my parents divorced. I remember certain things about it. I know it was on Halloween because I remember that we weren’t allowed to Trick-or-Treat. My Dad was late home from work and basically they sat me and my sister down and told us. I don’t remember being that upset about it, but I suppose at eight you don’t quite understand the concept of divorce.

I know, and my mother has told me, that I wanted to go with my Dad and live with him. I was never a mummy’s girl. I inherited my mum’s brown eyes, stick-thinness, fair skin and love of reading. I was a true daddy’s girl at heart though. We both have small ears, hayfever and, what I frequently like to point out to my Dad, stubbornness.

I’m not going to go into my life after my parents divorce because that’d practically be a novel. It isn’t until years later that you find out just how screwed up your family are and then there’s nothing you can do about it. Anyway, I’ve never really had stability in Australia when it comes to friends, relationships (my parents’) and locations. I’ve lived in eleven different houses, nine of them in Australia.

As I’ve mentioned in an earlier blog, I’ve been writing from a young age. When I created this whole word for Kelly and me it became sort of a secret project that only I knew about. I was, essentially, a social outcast in primary school. Sure, I had friends but not the type you’d really call friends. They were just people I hung around with because being a loner wasn’t socially acceptable.

I’d imagine Kelly and I were walking around the school, bathing in the sunlight and not caring what anyone else thought. Kelly had a dog called Wishbone who started off as a sausage dog but changed to a Dalmatian as I changed my mind. I’ve never really had a proper pet so I was again, giving Kelly the things that I wanted.

I swear Kelly is also in a story of mine somewhere. I wouldn’t for the life of me know which box my old writing stuff is in but I know for a fact I wrote about her. She was magic, of course, and as I read books like The Magic Faraway Tree and The Wishing Chair Kelly adopted some of the qualities characters from the books had.

I’ve been obsessed with the computer for... a while. At first it was Neopets. I used to love Neopets and I’d trade stuff between multiple accounts and play games, etc. I got into web design and graphic design through here somehow, and joined Home and Away (Australian soap opera) and Charmed forums. I actually had a Harry Potter site at one point, though admittedly a terrible one.

Then there was Habbo Hotel. When I first played the game I didn’t have any of the money on there but when I went back to playing it for a brief spell in Year 10 I had a job so I could buy money to use on this site and I was pretty popular online. I had my group of online “friends” who I didn’t know that much about but it made me feel included. I used the name Melaina or Mel for short online. This is taken from the author of a series of novels I read in Year 9 English. The author is Melaina Faranda and being the book-obsessed person that I am, I finished the book before the rest of the class (it was the third in a series) and went back and read the rest of the series.

I got a C on that assessment for knowing TOO much. Anyway, Lauren (the lovely girl from year eight I’ve mentioned here previously) made it a hobby of hers to make fun of me. I took the names of these people from my online world and used them as my “friends” names, in attempt to brag and show off how “popular” I was. A part of me knew they didn’t really believe me, but I lived in my own little world where I imagined things in my head rather than doing what other Year 10’s did like... get smashed every Friday night.

I’m not going to go until my whole RuneScape obsession here because I’d be here all night. The point I’m trying to make is I’ve always created other worlds to escape from this one. Where I didn’t have actual friends I had Kelly... and I had my sister who kept me younger until eventually she matured past me and left me stuck behind.

In a way I have one of those worlds now. I have my real life world where I go to work every day, rarely clean my room, annoy my family and laugh at things that no one else finds funny. Then I have my online world with Harry Potter and various other social networking sites I frequent. These two worlds merge a little with my family giving me allowances on the computer to be on a podcast, Azkatraz of course and meeting people from MuggleSpace. My family just accepts that I’m obsessed with Harry Potter the way they’re obsessed with AFL.

They’ll never truly get it though. I don’t really want them to either. I have my own separate world for a reason because the one I’m already in is far from perfect. I walk half an hour to work in the morning and half an hour home, my iPod blaring as Kelly darts along beside me on the path. That is, when the sun is shining.

I don’t think there’s any hurt in holding onto Kelly. I only have her every once in a while and she’s not harmful to my life in any way but it’s comforting to know that no matter how many things we lose and forget as we grow up, there are some things that’ll always stay with us.

Word to your bookshelf,

Kassi

P.S. I got my mum to find my poetry folder and I found this poem:


Angel Shadow

I sit and I watch her
When I’ve got nothing to do
She likes to amuse me
When I’m not with you
In a car or on a bus
Wherever we go she comes with us
Hidden to others but visible to me
She would whisper and tell me what she wants to be
On her fluffy cloud or in the cool air
Angel Shadow never has a care
She may be hidden to your eyes
But to mine, she’s nothing but a great surprise

[Written approx. 2005-2006]

Days I’ve Worked Full Time: 44
Books I’ve Read in 2009: 41
Days Till I Leave for Azkatraz: 61
Days Till I Meet John Green: 13

LOL Moment of the Day:

Sonia: Kassi’s milkshake brings all the boys to the court. Her service is better than yours. Her service is better than yours. Got a special, you want some more?
Me: [laughing]
Rhiannon: [to Sonia] I want what you’re on
Zoe: Me too

Faceless Names and Nameless Faces

I only slept three and a half hours last night... well, technically this morning. I’ll give you one guess as to why... My Sister’s Keeper is such a good book. It made me cry, which is rarity. I didn’t even cry reading Deathly Hallows.

“Once upon a time in a land far, far away there lived a girl with hair that was blue and fluffy, the colour of the sky when it was sunny out. She’d never leave the house without wearing her pink jacket with yellow stars that were edged in sequins. The girl didn’t have a name and she didn’t need one. No one spoke to her and she never spoke back. She was a faceless name or a nameless face, searching for more beyond the stars.”

That is quite possibly the most random thing I’ve ever written. I was slightly delirious and it was around 1AM... I took my notebook and looked at random things around my room and just wrote. I really like it though, especially the “nameless face” part. I see plenty of nameless faces every day at work. There’s the lady in the motorized scooter who always gets a bacon and egg muffin and a senior’s white coffee. I take the tray out to her table for her and take the lid off her coffee. One day she gave me a bracelet that she’d made. I can’t wear it often but it’s blue and pretty. I could go on all day listing but that would be boring.

A customer came to my register today holding Eclipse and I told her how my favourite page was number 443 and that Breaking Dawn sucks. Her favourite is New Moon. What a loser. I also informed a lady, after seeing her Twilight bag that the movie is crap and when Edward first says “hello” he sounds Chinese. She just laughed and said she’d have to watch it again when she got home. I’m just a little ray of sunshine...

I’ve recently noticed (like, today) that NOBODY at my work can say ‘tartare’ properly. As in, tartare sauce. I think it’s another Melbourne thing. They say ‘tar tar’, and I’m like ‘its tar-tare!’ I also renamed Hot Cakes ‘Mint Cakes.’ People in Melbourne say ‘mint’ instead of ‘hot.’ I can’t bring myself to say it though.

My brain is like mush at the moment. I am finding it difficult to concentrate on anything. I don’t know how you insomniacs do it *cough* When I’m majorly sleep deprived I get really whiny and whinge about everything. My whole body just ached but I had to stand up straight and smile with cracked lips.

I honestly don’t have anything else interesting to say today. I don’t mind that I’m tired though. Fi and I had a conversation the other day and both agreed that you know a book is really good when you stay up half the night reading it and cannot put it down. For some reason I have the large print edition of My Sister’s Keeper which I suppose is good because the words are bigger and easier to read for my poor, weary eyes.

I think I’ll just cut this off here before I start rambling about something unimportant and uninteresting. I’m so glad tomorrow’s Friday. The weekend always arrives too slowly for my liking.

Word to your bookshelf,

Kassi

Days I’ve Worked Full Time: 43
Books I’ve Read in 2009: 41
Days Till I Leave for Azkatraz: 62
Days Till I Meet John Green: 14

LOL Moments of the Day:

Me: I really want to faint.
Brent: What?
Me: I really want to faint, just to know what it’s like. Have you ever fainted?
Brent: No.
Me: Sonia, if I faint will I get to go home early?
Sonia: On any other day, yes. But today, if you faint I’ll wake you up and say ‘Kassi, you’ve got a customer.’

Han: You’re a pie.
Sonia: Your mum’s a pie. You don’t see me complaining.

Stacy: Why is it [coffee machine] always flushing its spout?
Me: Because it can’t sing ‘I’m a Little Teapot.’

Me: We have an iceberg in the thing. That’s the iceberg that sunk the Titanic.
Sam: Okay...
Me: [thinking] Jack! Come back! Come back!

Stupid question of the day: Do you sell Happy Meals?

Word of the day: delirious

Quote: “The moon is captivating because it is always changing, but it’s always there.”

Everybody Makes Mistakes... with Telescopes

“Fascinating men are always fascinated by telescopes.”

This is a line from the book I’m currently reading, The Secret Language of Girls.

I’m currently writing this with my jumbo Hannah Montana pen which is taller in height than my book... and I’m leaning against a HSM notebook with Gabriella’s face on it... man I’m cool.

What’s even more depressing is that I found a pair of Hannah Montana boxers in the drawer while in search of a pyjama top. They still have the tag on! I’d like to point out that the only one of those three things actually bought by me was the pen.

If Andy is reading this, I completely relate to your latest blog (or the latest blog I’ve read). My life is like running circles around a tree. This is completely unrelated but it reminded me of a song called “Only Nineteen” which is about the war + stuff that they play here on ANZAC day.

I’m writing this Tuesday night (morning, in America) because my blog today was just stuff I did at work and I’m anticipating that will get incredibly boring after a while.

I am probably the laziest, messiest and disorganised person I know. Coupled with the habit of procrastination and it is not a good mix. I have to get up and get ready for work straight away in the morning so I keep everything I need in certain spots around my room. My jacket is on the top bunk, my bag is on the bean bag, etc. This is as about as organised as I get.

I always tend to leave things until my whole family has gone to bed and one of these things is cleaning my teeth. I hate it because the walk down the hallway is horrific. I have WOODEN floors and it is next to impossible to step without making a sound. I also seem incapable of shutting doors quietly. And I randomly squealed “Scale!” while I was in the bathroom.

I haven’t really been getting into the whole Twitter trends thing but today I tried it for the first time! That “What’s your porn star name?” thing from when I was in grade... six (2003) is a top trend at the moment. They just plonked Twitter in front and ta da! New game.

Mine is Tori Lockwood. That’s kind of cool, now that I think about it... as long as I don’t mention that Tori was pronounced ‘Toh-ree.’ Oh shoot...
Tori was my bird that died. I actually wrote into HR about this an it was on Episode 12, which I’ve only listened to twice because it was so embarrassing. Tori is the Japanese word for bird, just to clarify. ‘Tori no namae wa Tori desu.’ = My bird’s name is bird.

I think I can say the street name because it’s not even in Australia. ‘Lockwood Crescent.’ I remember little about this house except that my sister crawled inside the cupboard.

I’m not sure what that thing you said in your blog was Andy but I’m pretty sure it’s French. It reminds me of my old manager Michael’s tattoo that said ‘Ah, that’s life,’ in French. I’d laugh if that was what yours actually said.

My pyjama top has ducks and bubbles on it. What frightens me the most about my life right now is the responsibility. What happened to when you were younger and you didn’t have to think or worry, and you could roll in the grass without stressing about the fact that you’ll have to put the clothes you’re wearing through the wash?

“A friend is someone whose face you can see in the dark.” This is another line from my book. I’m going to kick it back with my own line. “A friend is someone whose presence will leave a mark.”

On that note,

Word to your bookshelf,

Kassi

Days I’ve Worked Full Time: 42
Books I’ve Read in 2009: 40
Days Till I Leave for Azkatraz: 63
Days Till I Meet John Green: 15

Moment of the Day:

Me: [to Sam] Why does it feel like I live here [McDonalds]?

Rutabaga, Team Draco and Angelic Kittens

The codeword is rutabaga.

Today we were on gappy alert. This means we have a gapbuster (myster/secret shopper) coming in soon and we have to be extra smiley and pleasant and most importantly, fast. The only way you can tell if a gapbuster MIGHT have come is because they have to ask for a receipt. So, I came up with the codeword “rutabaga” to let Cory (my manager) know if someone had asked for a receipt.

Rutabaga is a reference to one of my all-time favourite shows, Charmed. In Season Three Piper and Leo are trying to get married without the Elders finding out so they replace the word wedding with “rutabaga” in case the Elders happen to be listening in. I thought this was quite awesome but my fellow crew thought I was a bit strange...

There was a Mother’s Day balloon on the ceiling of the Food Court today. Just saying.
So, I was serving a customer today, she looked to be late teens, early twenties and she caught me scowl at a person walking past wearing an ‘I Love Jacob’ shirt. She works at Supre (girls’ clothes store) and was telling me how mainstream and commercial Twilight is becoming. I told her how I loved Harry Potter and explained how the fandoms had been put against each other and basically, revealed my hatred for Twilight.

She completely agreed with me that there is no way J.K. Rowling and Stephenie Meyer can be compared and that Twilight is just a love story whereas Harry Potter is more creative. She was about to leave when she said “Edward is hot though. Harry and Ron aren’t hot.” And I said “Draco. Team Draco!” And she replied “Oh yeah, he’s gorgeous!” She even high-fived me before she left. I think that was the most awesome conversation... ever.

I also started a conversation with “Are you the ‘Oh My God!’ girl?” I recognised a customer who’d been there a few weeks ago who’d looked directly at me and cried “Oh my god!” I’d been wondering what she’d been going on about so it was cool to clear that up that she thought of something and happened to be looking at me.

In between booking for John Green’s event (SQUEE) and trying to convince Cory to name his cat Fluffy (he’s going to name it Halo, but not after the video game like I assumed...) I laughed a whole heck of a lot. Some things at McDonalds that are completely random make me laugh so hard. I love it.

I was tired because I stayed up late listening to my iPod and got really over tired... again. But who cares? I’m always tired so it’s nothing new. When I was leaving the shopping centre today I saw a man standing on a carpet, facing the wall with his shoes off and praying. Each to their own...

I’m adding ‘Fiddy Cent Cone’ and ‘Frozen custard’ to the list of names for ice cream cones, which currently also includes: soft serve, soft scoop, ice cone, soft cone and biscuit sundae.

I’m reading a really boring pre-teen fiction book which I mistakenly picked up at the library and then it is So Yesterday by Scott Westerfeld. I’m paying the library fines tomorrow so I can pick up The Host, My Sister’s Keeper and the first one in that Ink series. I have no idea if it’s Inkheart or Inkspell but it’s the one with the movie out at the moment.

Word to your bookshelf,

Kassi

Days I’ve Worked Full Time: 41
Books I’ve Read in 2009: 40
Days Till I Leave for Azkatraz: 64
Days Till I Meet John Green: 16

LOL Moment of the Day:

Me: Hey Brent, don’t you think Cory looks snazzy in his new shirt?
Brent: Yeah...
Me: You would totally go gay for Cory, aye?
Brent: What?

I've Been Missin' Your Strawberry Kisses

So, the recording of my podcast today was an epic win. I had a total of one person host with me. ONE! Screw Mother’s Day, someone should have come and hosted with me! Nah, I’m just kidding. I love my mum and she understands why I can’t get her a present this year because I’m saving for Azkatraz. Her birthday is also in June... I don’t know what I’m going to do about that yet.

Recent additions to Songs for the Memories include:

Follow Me Uncle Kracker
Voodoo Child Rogue Traders
Strawberry Kisses Nikki Webster
Do Wah Diddy Diddy Manfred Man
My Band D12

Now I’ve downloaded Strawberry Kisses by Nikki Webster and my sister and I made a music video to it. I have our other music video to Shake It by Metro Station on the fiveaussiegirls channel but my sister and I decided to create a new channel just for our music videos. We’re calling it Illoura Productions (I can’t say why) and we have plans to do tons more videos to Hot n Cold by Katy Perry, Flaunt it and Fuck You Right Back and many more. Check it out here: www.youtube.com/illouraproductions

For the uneducated, Nikki Webster is the little thirteen year old girl who sang at the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Afterwards she had mild success with her debut single Strawberry Kisses and album Follow Your Heart. And what was not to love? She’s a little thirteen year old girl singing poppy, dance tracks wearing hot pink leather.

There hasn’t been much heard from her since then. She played Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz theatre show thing and was a contestant on the Australian Dancing With the Stars and apparently had a fling with her dance partner. She did a cover of ‘Dancing in the Street’ which the music video for was recorded at Movie World (a theme park/amusement park) the day I was there on my birthday! I actually have a picture of that somewhere...

Anyways, I hate Sundays. Even though it’s the weekend and I have a break from work the day always goes by too quickly and them I’m in a bad mood because I know I have to go to work tomorrow. I finished Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist and Beyond the Horizon this weekend so I’m happy about that. My mum is also going to withdraw $25 from my savings account so I can pay for the library fines and get the books that are on order. Yay Mum!

Now, onto the things I wanted to talk about. Do you have a period in your day/week where you’ll just think about things like what’s going on in your life or what you’re doing in the future or where you’re life’s headed/stuff like that? I think about things like this at night, right before I go to bed. I’ll daydream about Azkatraz at various points in my day but at night I think about life.

Before I left school, assignments and exams were mostly consuming this thought time. Now I’m thinking about Azkatraz, meeting John Green, reading, my novel and my plans for finishing school in the future. I like thinking about things.

I love laughing. I like things that are funny like comedy films and shows. But I hate horror/thriller movies/shows or violent supernatural shows. Some examples of shows I’m unable or find it very difficult to watch: Ghost Whisperer, Dexter, Underbelly, Law and Order and most recently Harper’s Island. It is playing on the television right next to me at the moment and I don’t know how I haven’t turned it off yet.

Oh my god! I’m turning it off! Okay, now the television is off I can blog without fear of waking my whole house up. I’m fairly certain I won’t be spoiling anyone here because this is an American show and the people I know of reading my blog are American. The show started with a whole group of people on a boat at a dock in Seattle, Washington.

Basically the “line” for the show was that one person would die every episode. This put me off straight away but as the show was on after Rove and an MA15+ rating popped up I wanted to see what was on because I knew it wasn’t Dexter. The show centres around Harper’s Island where seven years ago a serial killer named John Wakefield viciously murdered six people.

Two of the main characters are engaged and now seven years later they are taking their bridal party out to this island for the week. The groom’s best friend, Abby, was on the island when the murders took place and her mother was one of the victim’s. Now, I don’t know how I was able to keep watching after a PERSON (Cousin Ben) was ATTACHED TO THE PROPELLER THINGY ON THE BOTTOM OF THE BOAT.

I don’t know if his head came off when the boat started! I was covering my face and also I have really bad reception on my television so the part I did catch I couldn’t make it out. I just know there was like an explosion of blood in the water! The reason I just turned off the television before was because the captain of the boat thought something was underneath the boat and called some others over to investigate. I didn’t need to watch anymore. I already knew it’d be horrific.

Now, despite my “fear” of stuff like this I have seen several horror films, all of which I’ve been forced into watching by my sister who loves them. I’ve seen Gothika (which isn’t really that much of a horror), When a Stranger Calls (again, really mild), a bit of Wolf Creek, Deep Blue Sea, Anacondas, American Werewolf in London, Hide and Seek (got forced into seeing this at the cinema with a couple of friends), a bit of Kill Bill (all I saw is the chick in yellow get stabbed in the stomach?) and The Hills Have Eyes 2. (I didn’t even see the first one, but the second one was bad enough for me).

I have the same problem with hospital shows. Any shows that have operations and things of the sort I’m unable to watch properly. I used to watch House because I liked the bits that didn’t have operations because it’s funny. I would sit there on a Wednesday night at 8:30, armed with a pillow to cover my face. On an unrelated note, Cashmere Mafia was on after this and I don’t know what happened to it. I think it might have been axed which is too bad coz I really liked that show even though it was a bit Sex and the City-ish. I don’t know how I’m able to make this comparison having never watched Sex and the City, but I’ve heard enough about it I think.

My family knows about this issue of mine. My mum sometimes watches hospital shows too so it can be really bad. If I see the television on a channel that has some operation going on I’ll have to quickly turn away and scream “Change the channel! Change the channel!” It has happened by accident too sometimes and it aint pretty. I’m a romantic comedy and sketch show girl all the way. I much prefer laughing to screaming, thank you very much.

I think that’s enough out of me for tonight. It is ten thirty and I’m going to go get a drink, clean my teeth and curl up in bed with my iPod on MuggleCast #174: It’s All Coming Back. Cross your fingers that I don’t fall asleep before the episode ends like I did with Smart Mouths last night... though I had already listened to that episode of SM before...

I will also be praying to the God of McDonalds that Hogwarts Radio will come out this week.

UPDATE: I wrote this last night and episode 30 is out now! Thank you, God of McDonalds!

Word to your bookshelf,

Kassi

Days I’ve Worked Full Time: 40
Books I’ve Read in 2009: 40
Days Till I Leave for Azkatraz: 65
Days Till I Meet John Green: 17

LOL Moment of the Day:

Kassi: Can you film me on the swing?

Brooke: No, I’d rather not feel you on the swing.

[both cracking up laughing].

Pieces of My Puzzle

“We fit together like two pieces of a puzzle that illustrates the story of our love.”

Howdy blogosphere! Before I go into anything I thought I’d update you on some recent additions to my playlist, which I am now calling ‘Songs for the Memories.’

My Humps Black Eyed Peas
Paper Airplanes M.I.A.
Fuck You Right Back Frankee
Don’t Cha Pussycat Dolls
Drop It Like It’s Hot Snoop Dogg
Revolution The Veronicas
Into the Dark Ben Lee
Blue Eiffel 65
Father and Daughter Paul Simon
Counting the Beat The Swingers
Wish You Were Here Pink Floyd
1, 2 Step Ciara
Pony Kasey Chambers

Now, making this playlist has really made me think about a lot of the memories they’re connected to. Some of them are just one hit wonders or songs I heard on the radio that I liked for no apparent reason, or off music DVDs watched over and over again in fits of boredom. But some of them I connect with deeply because of the meaning behind them and the memory attached.

The song I’d probably connect to most from my playlist is She Will Be Loved by Maroon 5. I remember the first time I ever heard this song. I was at my Dad’s house at Pepperhill and he played it for me, intending to put it on a CD for his girlfriend at the time, Roz.

This song became our song during that period of time, the few months he dated Roz. Me, my sister, my Dad and Roz. We had plenty of inside jokes and silly things we’d made up but we all connected the most over this song. I remember hearing it for the first time after Dad and Roz broke up and just sighing. I still don’t really know why he broke up with her but the song is still beautiful.

The other song I really like is Forever Young by Youth Group. I know what you’re thinking. Kassi’s a loser who was obsessed with the O.C. and that’s the only reason she likes this song! Yes, I did first here this song on The O.C. but that is not why I like it! I love the lyrics. I could just analyse the lyrics of this song over and over again all day. I had an obsession with this song. I don’t know why.

Kids by MGMT is my sister and I’s “song.” I don’t know why. Don’t ask me why coz I couldn’t tell you. It’s just our song. I first heard this song at school last year when Kelly, Monica, Bec, Renee and Ciann did their dance assessment piece using it, which got adapted into the class performance piece for Dance Night. I always really liked it.

The last song I want to mention is Into the Dark by Ben Lee. My Mum bought his album Awake is the New Sleep and, much like with Dad and Roz, this became our song with her boyfriend Mark. I listened to this album (this was back in 2005 and I still had a Discman :O) during a period in my life when I was going through a lot of stuff. I’ve mentioned stuff that happened to me when I was in year eight in this blog before but I barely skimmed the surface on how it affected me. I don’t really want to go into that here because it will make me seem even more strange and psychotic than I already am.

What else did I do today besides re-awaking old memories from songs from the past? Not a lot. It doesn’t hurt to think about past memories every so often. But don’t get stuck in the past or you’ll never move on to the future.

“It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.” –Albus Dumbledore

And I’m so excited for the future! Other than John Green, the closest thing in my future, so close I can almost reach out and swipe at it is AzkaFUCKINGtraz! I’m shaking just typing this, that’s how excited I am for July. America. That’s all.

Oh, I almost forgot! I was going to include a snippet from my new novel writing story project thing. And, before you ask, yes I did start a new one... AGAIN. I think I mentioned in a previous blog that I was reverting back to teen fiction. This is a complete and utter lie! I’m writing something meaningful and young adulty but I’ll let you be the judge:

As I sat with her in the empty building the envelope in her hand held no interest to me. I already knew what it would say. I didn’t want to read it because then it would really be true. She really wouldn’t be coming back. I didn’t want to realise this. I hoped in those few seconds or maybe even minutes that there could be some tiny speck of a chance that she hadn’t gone away. She hadn’t left me here alone. But that hope came and gone because she’d chosen to leave me.
I gently pried the envelope from her fingertips, flinching as a nail grazed my skin. In her haste she hadn’t even sealed it. As I pulled the piece of notebook paper out of the envelope I could already feel her scent begin to sting my nostrils. I unfolded the letter and allowed myself to finally cry, a tear dropping onto the page.

To Anthony

Goodbye.

Love, Esther

***

ESTHER

I could feel the sun burning my skin as I skipped down the sidewalk. The people in my neighbourhood knew me well enough not to peer around their curtains as I careened like an idiotic teenager down the street. There would be murmurs of “Oh, it’s just Esther again,” and “That girl is an odd one.” But none of the speculation about me was ever correct and I didn’t mind sparking intrigue.

The only person in the world who knew everything there was to know about me was Anthony. My best friend since second grade and now as graduating seniors we were closer than ever. He was the one I knew would always be there.

He was the one I could confide in when worried. He’d hold me close when I was scared and laugh with me when neither of us knew what was so funny. If anyone was in a room with us they’d lose track of the conversation almost instantly because we’d jump from topic to story to long ago memories so quick it was like watching a tennis match.

Despite how close I was to Anthony, there had never been anything romantic between us and there never will. We know it isn’t like that although we’ve never brought it up. We’re best friends and we don’t need to be anything else.

He was waiting just where he always was. I closed the space between us and sank to a cross-legged position across from him under the tree in his yard. Our tree. I didn’t know what kind of tree it was and I’d never bothered to find out. That wasn’t important. It was just me and him and the grass and the sky and the clouds that moved by too quickly.

‘Esther,’ he said quietly. Oh, he was in one of his moods again. Anthony was the kindest, most pleasant person I knew but lately he’d been having moods directly related to the inevitable end of summer.

He saw it as the end of our life together but I saw it as the beginning. He didn’t hesitate to point out to me that we were going to be separated for the four years it took for us to complete college on opposite sides of the country.

My parents weren’t strict about many things but their one request was that I attend UC Berkeley where they’d met and fallen in love. I thought this was kind of hokey and corny but that was the one thing they wanted and I wasn’t going to fight that.

Up until senior year Anthony was going to go with me. We had our entire future planned out right down to the furnishings on our house. We were strange like that. But Anthony’s parents had flat out said no. They didn’t want their son to go so far away and had strong particulars in mind when it came to his further education. They wanted him to go to college in New York and he had no say in it.

Anthony was not happy with this, to say the least. Being the kind, pleasant person that he was, he didn’t fight with them over it. He knew he stood no chance in the matter. His parents had always chosen everything for him and he’d just accepted it and gone along with life. This was one of the many reasons I disliked his parents.

‘Please don’t be like this again. We only have a few hours left and I don’t want them to be filled with negativity,’ I said sternly.

‘What do you expect me to be like Es? In a few hours we’ll both be gone and I don’t know when we’ll see each other again. We’ve been together practically our whole lives. I don’t know how I’m supposed to deal with this but I’m gonna miss you so bad.’ His voice cracked on the last word and I yearned to reach out and touch his hand, stroke his cheek. But I didn’t.

‘Promise me you’ll write. I’ll write one week and you write the next. It’ll be like a trade-off,’ I said firmly. He looked up from Holes and that one instance where our eyes met felt infinite. Brown and green, never straying; never parting... until now.

***

UPDATE: I just found out that they’ve confirmed the first person in Australia with swine flu! In Brisbane Airport too! (Brisbane is an hour from where I used to live). She’s apparently in isolation now and I just have one thing to say: DON’T FUCKING LET HER OUT!

Word to your bookshelf,

Kassi

Days I’ve Worked Full Time: 39
Books I’ve Read in 2009: 40
Days Till I Leave for Azkatraz: 66
Days Till I Meet John Green: 18

LOL Moment of the Day:

Me: Are you reading Harry Potter?

Brooke: [my sister] Yes

Me: Ooh! Can I take a picture?

Brooke: Why?

Me: You’re reading it for the first time! You’ll never feel how you’re feeling right now ever again!

Brooke: You mean pissed off? Because I’ll feel that plenty more, living with you.

Songs for the Memories

I know you’re taught as a kid never to talk to strangers, but there’s this site where that is all you do. It’s called Omegle and basically you chat to a random stranger and when you get bored you can disconnect from the chat and talk to a new person.

After talking to people from Finland, the Netherlands, Turkey, China, India and some American perv, I finally found someone worth talking to. She was from New Zealand which I instantly related to as that is where I am born. Although she was sixteen and smoked pot, she actually had some interesting things to say.

Stranger: well there we go. When you’re in love everything changes. you can never stop thinking about this person, you want to be with them all the time, you feel like they will protect you in ever single way and you feel like nothing can go wrong. He is the main thing you care about

Now, I’d never met this person before in my life but I felt like I could relate to what she said. There is one thing I noticed wrong about this statement straight away. Plenty of things can go wrong when you’re in love, but I guess when you’re in love you feel as if nothing can go wrong.

Considering love isn’t really definable and I didn’t want to attempt to define it here, I thought this was pretty accurate. I may only be sixteen and I’m not looking for love but one day I want to find someone that I can never stop thinking about.

Today my co worker Fi and I were attempting to educate our manager Sonia on the merits of Harry Potter. She told us she has this problem where she’ll read the first page of a book and by the end of the page she’s already forgotten what the page she just read was about.

Fi was telling her that there are people out there who’ve never been into reading before reading Harry Potter and now love reading. I thought this was quite interesting. Imagine being JKR and knowing that because of you hundreds of thousands of people out there now love reading and probably would have never realised if they hadn’t picked up her book.

I can’t speak for these people because I loved reading long before reading Harry Potter and still love it long after. Somehow I don’t think we’ll be able to get Sonia to pick up Philosopher’s Stone but it won’t be for a lack of trying. I’m taking Harry, a History in for Fi on Monday.

She actually recommended quite a lot of good books to me like the House of Night series which Becca recommended in the last HR and Tomorrow When the War Began which I last read in year seven. Who knows, maybe I’ll like it now that I don’t have to do a diorama on it.

I’m currently STILL reading Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist and I’m quite eager to finish it because next on the list is the Key to Rondo by Emily Rodda. I LOVED Deltora Quest so hopefully this book is just as good. I also have to pick up The Host from the library which Andy basically summed up in one word (ew) but I’m only reading it for perspective. That’s why I read Twilight, so I’d have read it and be able to share my opinions on it accurately. (In this case, negative ones).

I think I might hole up in my room tomorrow and read because I’ve been really lazy with the book challenge lately. I know working full time makes it a bit difficult but still, I need to catch up. It is really sad when I think that two years ago I’d read up to five books in a day.

I’m yawning. This is not a good sign. I wanted to read my book tonight too because I didn’t last night... great. I probably shouldn’t have spent so long procrastinating on Omegle.

***

Okay, I think I needed that rest. I’ve been feverishly reading Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist so I can get to the next book which I’ve recently decided is not going to be the Key to Rondo but a book about horses called Beyond the Horizon. I love reading books about horses. I don’t know why. I used to do horse riding.

On to more important things, like memories. Do you have songs that remind you of certain things or memories in your life? Like, songs you can’t hear without thinking of something that happened in relation to the song, or some place you were when you first heard it or the person you were with? Reading Nick and Norah’s made me think of this idea which is pretty freaking cool.

I created my own playlist of songs I could think of with memories attached to them. You can do it too if you want coz it is pretty fun. I can’t remember the names of all the people who sing them so I’ll just write them where I remember them:

Suga Suga Baby Bash
Nasty Girl
Hit ‘Em Up Style
Smooth Criminal
Forever Young Youth Group
Strawberry Kisses Nikki Webster
Murder on the Dancefloor Sophie Ellis Bextor
Uptown Girl Westlife
Toxic Britney Spears
She Will Be Loved Maroon 5
Khe San Cold Chisel
Kids MGMT
The Ketchup Song
Everything I’m Not The Veronicas
All Seats Taken Bec Cartwright
Mistake Stephanie McIntosh
Complicated Avril Lavigne
Roses OutKast
Don’t Phunk With My Heart Black Eyed Peas
Let’s Get Retarded Black Eyed Peas
My Humps Black Eyed Peas
London Bridge Fergie
Push Up
Leave (Get Out) JoJo
Fuck You Right Back
You Can’t Always Get What You Want
Slice of Heaven
Lonely No More Rob Thomas

I’ll be adding more to this list when I think of them but for now I’ll leave you with a quote from Nick and Norah’s that I liked.

“But I guess you don’t see the planets when you’re staring at the sun. You just get blinded.”

Word to your bookshelf,

Kassi

Days I’ve Worked Full Time: 39
Books I’ve Read in 2009: 40
Days Till I Leave for Azkatraz: 67
Days Till I Meet John Green: 19
Word of the day: reminisce

Thinking About You

So, I had this line stuck in my head all day. It wasn’t the line of Lady Gaga’s new song [this beat is sick. Wanna take a ride on my disco stick?] Or one of the many movie quotes I get stuck in my head but the line of Gossip Girl, read by Kristen Bell.

‘Asher Hornsby overhead bragging that Little J swiped her V Card at his register. Didn’t anyone teach you, J? You shouldn’t give away the ending if you want him to pick up the book again.’

I have no idea why this was stuck in my head all day! Could it be because I was procrastinating on my novel by re-watching Season One of Gossip Girl? Or could it be because thinking about a television show is better than thinking about how lame it is to be working all day at McDonalds?

Speaking of which, I had a girl come in this morning and she was like “Why are you here every day?” I almost laughed. “It’s called working full time.” The same girl came back in the afternoon and said “Why are you still here?”

I think Andy and I are starting this new thing called Blog Every Day Forever because, like he said, blogging is lovely. I’m ecstatic to think that I might come back to this page in five years and wonder why my life was so crap. Chances are my life won’t have changed much in five years except I’ll be more in debt.

There are several things I want to discuss in my blog today. But before I get to that, I want to write my own list of things I want to do in San Francisco because it looks like so much fun!

-Ride in a taxi
-Eat at American McDonalds
-Go to Wal-Mart and put something on my head
-See the house from Charmed
-Get my copy of Harry, a History signed
-Stalk hosts of certain podcasts, Matt Britton and *cough* Terrance *cough* in particular
-Take as many pictures/video as possible
-Vlog in an airport
-Meet Andy :P
-Put Nick Myers in my vlog
-TO BE CONTINUED

Ok, on to more... serious issues. Like, SWINE FLU! Yay, now it’s time for everyone to freak out and obsess! In other words, has anyone stopped to think that the media is just hyping it up to create more drama and instil fear and panic? The more they keep overdramatising the whole situation, the more people are going to turn on their televisions to figure out what’s going on.

I understand if you’re worried about getting swine flu and I respect that. But seriously, you think that if you stop eating pork it’s going to help? Here’s a tip for you: WASH YOUR FUCKING HANDS. I’d be terrified of oink barf too if I lived in, say, Mexico.

Next topic, school! So, I know I have to finish year twelve. I obviously don’t plan on doing that this year... or next year. Hooray for 2011! Hopefully I’ll be able to save enough money for LeakyCon WHILE doing year twelve at TAFE on the Gold Coast. I’m still working on that because there a few teeny issues like WHERE THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO LIVE? But I’m sure I’ll have all that worked out in two years time.

So I have this crazy idea in my head about going to college in America. Now, I don’t know about you but if you’d been reading books about America for ten years you’d find it pretty fascinating too. I want to live there so bad! No offense Australia, but you suck. So I was thinking if I save enough money after LeakyCon I might be able to afford to go to college in America... eventually. Fingers crossed.

Lastly, obsessions. Did you ever have something that you were obsessed with when you were younger but now you’d think about it and cringe? Whether it be Barbie, Bratz, Neopets, Pokémon (although, some people are still obsessed with that) or Tamagotchi, we’ve all been there. I confess to have, at one point in my life, been obsessed with all of the above... except for Pokémon.

But when you skip past obsession there’s those little things you liked for some strange unknown reason or those little moments you had when you were younger that made no sense but made you laugh so hard you cried. I was rummaging through my drawer, in search of a silly story I wrote in grade eight when I found the CD ‘Schnappi. Das Kleine Krokodil.’ Do you guys remember that vogue with Crazy Frog and more recently, the Gummy Bear song? Well, Schnappi was kind of like that only in GERMAN.

Basically it’s a little German crocodile that hatched from an egg but the song is freaking adorable while also being freaking hilarious. My friend and I heard it on the radio one day while we were at her house (this is the same friend I mentioned in one of my previous blogs, Lauren) and could not stop laughing. We danced around her house like freaks to this song with no idea what about it made it so funny to us.

This is why I have this CD. It sits in my drawer, a constant reminder of a long ago moment that I never quite figured out why was so funny. Seriously, just watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe3FG4EOgyU

Thinking about my year eight self makes me think about all the people I knew back then that I’ll probably never see nor talk to ever again. You have to wonder if the people we think about, the ones we hold in our memories and analysed and agonised over for days on end ever thought about us as intensely as we thought about them. I’ve thought about Lauren a lot in passing since the last time I actually spoke to her in year ten Hospitality before her mum made her switch schools. But I’ll never know if she ever thought about me or if I was worth the second it took for our eight grade escapades to cross her mind.

I’d have to say that for the last four months 90% of my thoughts have centred around Azkatraz with the other ten percent related to work and/or internet/Harry Potter stuff. I really do have a one track mind.
You know you love me. Xoxo
NAH JUST KIDDING... but seriously, I’d recommend reading Gossip Girl. Go, Google Cecily Von Ziegesar. The show alone will leave you wanting more.

Word to your bookshelf,

Kassi

Days I’ve Worked Full Time: 39
Books I’ve Read in 2009: 39
Days Till I Leave for Azkatraz: 68
Days Till I Meet John Green: 20
Word of the Day: acclimatised.