Leading the Way

This week saw the school captain elections for 2013 and my oh my, was it a sight for sore eyes! The heavily anticipated Monday morning arrived and not to my dismay, when I arrived at school that day, the energy was buzzing. The walls, corridors and walkways were plastered with peoples' punny posters (some very awesomely photoshopped too, no thanks to Richard and Sanjay and Raymond G or anything...) All the candidates were helping each other with sticking up posters and it was such good sportsmanship! Then came the morning of the speeches. When I got to school I saw everyone in their little corners practising their speeches and it hit me. My friends were going to be those seniors that I have been forced to watch and listen to for all those years and I'll admit that I never really cared who was captain before but this year was so weird cos I actually knew them and I'm sure everyone else felt the same way during Wednesday's assembly. Wow that was a very long and "bumpy" sentence as Ms Tishler would say.... Speaking of Ms Tishler, I should get back to the essay hey? Whatever. Typical Yvonne decided to cry whilst giving Krishna a pep talk before his speech due to her overly hormonal pms-ing habits. Why the hell did I just refer to myself in third person... Anyway.  Everyone was so well spoken... Except Sachin who forgot his speech. Anita didn't turn red like an overly ripe tomato and Alyssa actually sounded formal for once. Now I'm tired and forgot why I wanted to blog about fricken captaincy. I blame pre-prelim brain :-( It was such a happy week... For the most part. Do the other grades think we are retarded because in all the years, none of the other grades have campaigned so crazily! I only remember the iconic AT4SC (which still hangs in D block,  miraculously) but other than that, our school captain elections have been the most elaborate. In a good way. I reckon we are the best, seriously.

A Worldly Ask

I can't wait until I'm able to save enough cash to visit just a minuscule fraction of the marvelous wonders of our world. Too bad that's going to be in a really long while :( I shall leave you guys with some of the places I fantasise about visiting, just so that I can look at them some more. 

 Camp Bay, South Africa

Panorama Bavarian Alps, Germany

The Great Sand Sea, Egypt

Similan Islands, Thailand

Santorini, Greece

Positano, Campania, Italy

Peerenthood

After almost two terms of fortnightly meetings (more like bludge sessions), peer support came to an end. BOO. To be honest, I wasn't really keen in the beginning because the group was really restless but as peer support progressed, they all became really close (or so it seemed anyways). I remember the first session... It was so freaking awkward. They were all just standing around awkwardly, put off by being thrown into a random group and not sure of who to talk to and we were equally as confused, not sure if we should lay down the foot or just be chill. There were the typical extroverted community students (which I grew to enjoy the company of) and the introverted selective kids, I'm just making that generalisation because that's how it typically is. I'm so happy that the community kids, as crazy as they are, were really friendly and open with the selective students. Even the shyest ones broke out of their shells and it  felt like maybe peer support wasn't a complete waste of time afterall. They are all so different and yet they all manage to get along well... But after peer support, they will probably never even talk to each other and be as segregated as our grade, along with every other grade at Mac  Fields... Or maybe it's just us? I don't know.

Here Comes Treble

I wonder how depressing school would be if I hadn't chosen to do music. It's such an incredibly fun and relaxed class (probably because we just waste our time jamming to random songs and then stress to the max when our performances and compositions are due).There is such a diverse mix of people in the class and so many different personalities that I normally wouldn't mingle with. Everyone is so talented in their own way and everyone is so different in technique, skill and training. You have the piano players but even there, we are all different. There are the crazy classically trained people like Serena and Kishani and then you have Sylvia and Danny who are so amazingly talented at playing crazy scores from Final Fantasy and so forth. Then you have the mind-blowing guitarists like Tim and the community guys who rock and the singers who just randomly break out into song like Emily, Tony and Shana. Not to mention we have the coolest teacher ever as well! Lucky we don't have Ms Costa because she freaks the shit out of me and everybody else in our class too... No matter how shit the day is, music always makes it better. I love it. Not to mention it's expanded my musical mind as well, you will find the most surprising artists in my playlist now. My mum and I now listen to the same music. Ha. And to think that I wanted to do economics instead... Although it does have a much higher scaling. Ah well.

Enlightening My Seoul

Today, Tony, Tim, Alex, Anita, Sylvia and I went on a trip to Strathfield to eat Korean bbq among other things. I had never been to Strathfield before, only to change trains and stuff so it was all new. It's so cool! As soon as you step outside of the station it's like you step into South Korea, not that I would know because I have never been but my sister and dad are going sometime this year or next year, I'M SO JELLY (not really). It's like Cabra and Vietnamese people. Only of course this is way cooler because it's not Vietnamese. Don't get me wrong, I love being Vietnamese but it's just not fascinating. Anyway. We went to Strathfield Plaza first and we saw Mr Nguyen there. He fits in so well with Korean people. Then we went to the bbq place and it was so cool! They use lumps of coal underneath the bbq cooking thing, I think it was coal? I don't know. A few minutes into our meal, the bbq cooking thing stopped working so we had to move to another table. I think we should have gotten a discount for that but let's not get Asian here. Tony was very sad because he knows the manager of the restaurant and could have gotten a discount but she wasn't there today! Ha. Do people not like eggplant or something? Nobody would eat the eggplant side dish but I think it was delicious! After more than 2 hours at Korean bbq we went to karaoke! Woop Woop! IT WAS SO FUN! I love going into a dark room and just belting out songs at ridiculous pitches. Of course, Tony owned us all in the singing department but kudos to everyone for spirit and passion, eh? Hehehe. I feel so sorry for the worker there. Seriously. He has to endure so much terrible singing everyday. Oh, Sylvia sung a weird Jap song that just repeated 'Pon' over and over again and it sounded like she was saying porn and things just got really dirty from there. Ha! But it was very fun. Thennnnn, we went to Noggi and had to take away because our train was coming but then we didn't even get on that train because there were no seats for us to eat our yogurt so that was really pointless. ANYWAY. I don't really like frozen yogurt that much but I ate most of it because nobody liked Pom and plain flavour and I'm a fatty. Everyone got so full after today and I was like huh? But NOW I feel super duper full. Train ride was mainly just Anita and Tony taking their bajillion sky pictures and Tony spilling yogurt on his pants and stuff. Today was so random but it was fun, not to mention a very culturally-enlightening experience (or maybe I'm just a noob). A good end to the holidays!

Bored of Studies

My tutor told me that there is no point doing Extension 1 Maths and Extension 1 English because in the end, the HSC is marked in subjects of 2 units and those two would just combine to make a random, nameless subject with no scaling whatsoever. So what's the point of wasting so much effort in Extension 1 English and Extension 1 Maths? They are both a lot of work (especially English) and ultimately, you do them for the scaling, not for the fun of them. That's why I'm dropping Extension 1 English at the end of Year 11 to focus on maths and hopefully it will save me if I do crap as hell in one of my 2 unit subjects. I just thought I would share this with some of you because we are in the same boat... Not that I am encouraging you to drop it but yeah. It's just pointless. At least with the single Extension 1 Maths unit, the scaling and whatnot is still there.

Embracing Myself

Wow! It's my first post in how long? I don't even know. I got my braces off yesterday!! Man, it feels so weird. I've had them for almost two and a half years and I've become so accustomed to the extensive tongue exercises to get bits of food out of them. I kinda liked choosing from a wide array of colours to dazzle up ma teeth every month... BUT HEY! I'm not complaining now that they are off! I don't have to weave in between metal wires when I floss anymore. I won't get a million ulcers every month from the scratching of the braces against the inside of my mouth and I don't have to worry about elastics snapping in my mouth when I yawn or laugh. FREEDOM AT LAST. I went to the bathroom last night to brush my teeth and I just started laughing like an evil maniac. It felt so good to finally just brush my teeth without worrying about if I had gotten into all the nooks and cranny of the braces. I think I just blew this into a way bigger deal than what it actually is but I errrrno! I just feel like braces were a part of who I am (or was). I felt like I belonged to a group in society. Haha. Nah, everyone's gotten them (or getting) them off so I still fit in with society. A little.

Not So Objective

English teaches us about subjectivity and objectivity. How much of English is subjective? 110%. English is supposed to be an expression of our thoughts and ideas, is it not? I understand that particular responses like essays have a certain structure that needs to be followed but is the depth of analysis of one teacher the same as another? If I handed Ms Tishler and my English tutor the same essay, would I get the same critique? Would they scrutinise the same details? Would the same elements of my essay be picked at like a dead carcass? No bloody way. Different people look more specifically for certain structural or critical components and bypass others.

Teachers tell us that poetry and creative writing are way to express ourselves, with relevance to the topic being studied of course. Yet, when people hand in their poems, they receive Bs, Cs and lower. A poem is an expression of oneself, are the means of expressive techniques are not good enough? What if the teacher interpreted it wrongly? I understand that some people struggle in communicating their message in an effective manner but I don't know. I guess there is a higher standard for the A range, but who is to say what is an A?! My story is "poorly written"? What if I was doing that on purpose because of my character like friggen Suzanne Collins (or maybe she's just a bad writer)? It's so open and ambiguous. You never know if something you've produced is ever good enough. And who's to say if it is good enough? Do I sound philosophical? Or just stupid? Yeah. Stupid.

At the end of the day, it comes down to what kind of person is marking your HSC paper. If it's an English enthusiast that lives for the language, then congratulations, your work will be judged really harshly. If it's a middle-aged woman who is marking the HSC for the first time, the chances are that she will mark very easily and people that deserve band 5s will get into the band 6 range. If your marker is an old woman and your paper is in the last few hundred of the thousands then congratulations. She probably won't even be reading it properly. At least in maths, there is a wrong and right. There is an order of logic and a solid standard across the board. OR MAYBE THE STRESS OF THE ENGLISH ASSESSMENT IS JUST DOING MY HEAD IN AND I'M GOING CRAZY. Who am I kidding, I was always crazy.

Vietnasleaze

You think you're amazing because you stay up every night reading Wikipedia pages so that the next day, you can interject a random conversation with an obnoxious comment that is completely irrelevant to the topic being discussed? Moreover, you were not even originally a part of the conversation. If I wanted to talk to an asshole, I would have talked to my own. Ew... Anyway. Just because you are somewhat tall, it doesn't give you a status of superiority over the rest of us. It's quite humorous how you think you're so much smarter than everybody else when in actual fact, your low and poor assessment results are an obvious translation of your highly inflated sense of intelligence. Also, why in freak's hell are you hanging out with all these Year 7 and 8 kids? I'm not saying there's anything wrong with them (but then I would be lying for the most part) but does it make you feel accepted, like you finally belong with a bunch of 12 year olds that might as well be your younger siblings? If that's what you need to sleep at night, I respect that (not really). And what is with your walk? You think you're cool because you walk with your arms waving around like you're one of those things outside car dealerships? If you're gonna strut, you could at least strut correctly. My gawd. The fact that you cried when someone called you 'Jenny' makes me cry. Grow a pair and learn to take a joke buddy! And don't patronise me with your "metalanguage" (if you even know what that is) BECAUSE BITCH I GOT TO GRADE 8 IN PIANO TOO ALL RIGHT? Don't call my friend illiterate when he is in the top advanced class and does extension English when you're in some low ass class. ALL RIGHT? Also, you're never gonna get school captain. Just sayin'

Still not over this bull shit.

The Power of Power

Jim Jones was a charismatic man who held loyalty and sacrifice close to his heart. He created The Peoples Temple as a church to help the elderly, homeless, addicts, foster children and those of the like. He believed that a capitalist America caused an unhealthy balance in the world (rich people are too rich, a.k.a communist) and established The Peoples Temple to alleviate as much unfairness from the world as possible. The Peoples Temple seemed like an amazing feat from the outside but on the inside, it was transforming into a cult centralised around Jones himself. As the number of his followers increased, he became infatuated with power and forced everyone to call him "Father" or "Dad" and soon believed himself to be Christ and later proclaimed himself God.

He convinced his followers to move into the remote jungles of Guyana where his "temple" became a place of politics rather than religion. His control became extreme, the living conditions horrible and the people forced to work long hours. The rumours of these conditions reached home and the public rallied for the government to investigate Jones. The government body took a trip into the jungles of Guyana where Jones, heavily induced by drugs which caused paranoia, saw as his demise. He launched an attack against the government and influenced all of his followers to commit "revolutionary suicide" by drinking cyanide-laced grape juice. He died from a shot to the head, but people aren't sure if it was his own doing or a murder. But this travesty was the largest massacre in American history (not due to natural disasters) until the events of September 11 unraveled.

It really puts power into perspective, huh?

Onions make me cry

You will never know how I feel. How I've been feeling for the past few weeks. I feel like I have to put on a facade of  happiness at school just to show you up. I'm repeatedly forced to adopt a "mask" and my identity is in a constant state of flux. Obviously you in conjunction with Ms Tishler have gotten the better of me.

Perspective

A foggy Dubai taken from the top of the Burj Dubai 829.84m from the ground. It really puts things into retrospect. Individually, it may seem that humans are irrelevant and insignificant bodies of life but collectively, humans are able to build magnificent structures such as the Burj Dubai and even create man made islands. What the actual hell?!

Year 11

This post is long overdue but because I refuse to do any homework tonight due to the fact that I am completely buggered to hell, I shall blog about how the "business end" of our high school life has been for me these first few weeks.

Wow. I did not expect Year 11 to take me off guard the way it did (or has?), I don't even know how to speak English anymore. I received an insurmountable amount of lectures from my teachers and parents ever since I finished SC about how Year 11 would be super hard work, but little did I know that these lectures (for once) contained a large percentage of truth. Day one and we were exposed to the notion of identity, expressive realism and traditional criticism (still don't know what the freak Catherine Belsey was on about but that's another matter) and all this other crap. We were given homework from the get go. And it wasn't even a mere few questions from the textbook. It was "do this whole exercise from what you remember from Year 10 and if you don't remember, too bad, I'll pick on you the next day to answer the question in front of the whole class and if you can't, I'll give you detention." I don't know about everybody else but I remember jack from Year 10 after almost 8 weeks of frolicking around in freedom, NOT thinking about maths. Sorry, Ms Chand. Allocating whole exercises to be completed for the next day is a bit extreme. But that's how every single day of my life has been this school year :( And that's just maths.

Music, SAC, Earth and Env. Science are less intense but still lots of work nonetheless. People think that subjects such as these do not require "hard work" but every single subject in the HSC is equal in worth. I may not be balancing covalent compounds or some shit because I'm practically incapable of doing maths outside of maths class but that doesn't mean that my HSC will be a breeze. I just don't like the connotations that they bring to the table, that is all. But I don't really care.

Everyone's staying up into the wee hours of the night to do homework (not to skype and msn and facebook stalk like the old junior days, sadly) and coming to school, completely drained of life and energy. And it's only the end of week four. Maybe it's just my inability to cope with stress and pressure, but I don't see these years as being very enjoyable. My migraines and all the physical shit I had last year are already beginning to resurface if I don't change something. I think it's time for all of us to grow up and realise that our future is completely and entirely dependent upon our decisions of the now. You will not pass anything if you don't study and work really hard for it. I'm already fretting for the upcoming trigonometry TOPIC test. I never studied for topic tests last year, they were the last thing (if ever) on my mind at all.

The gulf between junior and senior school is incomprehensible, but my friends tend to tell me that I make everything into a melodrama.

Tribes and Traditions

Easter Island, Ahu Tongariki, Polynesia 

It's amazing to think that an ancient civilisation built these totems and hoisted them into this upright position. A group of anthropologists and other people from Japan tried to manually lift these and it took them a few months before they gave up and just used a crane instead. We are such a technologically advanced society with a lot of tools and implements and yet we still couldn't do it. How the heck did ancient tribes build things like this and Machu Piccu? Mind-boggling. Just a fragment of the super interesting things I have been learning in Society and Culture, I'm so happy I chose this course, it is so bloody interesting. I literally learn something new every lesson (maybe I'm just stupid). But to learn about ancient tribes and even current tribes and their current practises is awesome. In some tribe (forgot their name) when the girl has her periods, she is forced to wear this thick ass potato sack over her whole body and stand in the middle of the bush with whoever else has their periods until they are finished. No food or water! I don't know how they do it... 

Planet Earth

Today is swimming carnvial but most of the grade is probably at home sleeping, gaming, and doing other mindlessly, time wasting things. I woke up this morning and decided to watch a documentary series that my dad bought because it was cheap? It has around 10 or 11 episodes, each 40 minutes (give or take a few minutes) long. The series is called Planet Earth and it is absolutely amazing. It's different to other documentaries centralised around earth and it's environment because they use aerial shots for everything which means that the animals and ravishing landscapes can be seen in their natural context. The camera is attached to the bottom of the helicopter and it can zoom in from one kilometre away and it is truly amazing. It's the first time that this kind of technology has been used for a documentary. I can't even explain how mind-blowing the video capture is.

The content of the first episode is amazing. The first time that a mother polar bear has seen sun in four months in the arctic is so heart-warming (even though it is still -30 degrees). She is so happy that she just toboggans down the mountain side, absorbing the sun's rays for the first time after four months of total darkness. Following her are her two baby polar bear cubs which see the sun for the first time in their entire lives!! It's so cute and kejrhwkejhraksjra. That's just the first 5 minutes of the whole series. I'm so excited to watch the rest of it but it will probably take me ages with all the homework we have ):

It's funny also! There is a group of baboons in Africa and they have to tread through rivers and they walk like humans and they act exactly like prim, princesses that are scared of water, waving their hands around and everything. Their behaviours are almost identical to those of humans and it is super fascinating. UGH THE WHOLE EPISODE WAS AMAZING. I learnt so much!

It's funny how oceans touched by millions of animals remain so pristine and clear. They don't destroy the Earth like humans do and yet they are deemed inferior in terms of intelligence. I really don't believe so. They are much smarter than humans, they can hunt, keep themselves warm and they don't cause any damage to the physical state of the environment (not all that much anyways). But maybe they are just oblivious. Not knowing is better than knowing, right?

bye bye

not that anybody would notice. The workload of senior school is so hectic and it's only been the first week so I don't think I'll have the time to blog regularly anymore. I'm not gonna close it down because I might be super stressed out or really pissed off at a stupid bitch and might need this space on the internet to vent my feelings. But yeah, don't expect too much from me! And as for my 365 project... LULZ

Not Fare

Today I went to Liverpool Westfields with my mum and sister and we had to catch public transport because our car is still out of action. The insurance company still hasn't made a decision as to whether they will compensate us or fix up our car. Anyway, turns out that we spent $20 on our bus and train fares!! That's freaking crazy. How does a continual rise in the cost of public transport encourage people to use the services provided? The government and environmentalists are always telling us to leave our cars at home and use public transport because it reduces our carbon footprint. Yes it does reduce our collective impact on the environment but that's not the only thing that is reduced... I'm not being a cheap Asian, I'm just trying to see reason. How can they expect us to want to use public transport when buses and trains are almost always late, sometimes even delayed for several hours? In addition to the government's obvious lack of timing, the peak hour congestion on a train is seemingly on par with peak hour traffic in a car. Except that in the comfort of your car, you have a respectable boundary between you and the next Sydney commuter. Whereas on a train, that is definitely not the case. I hate getting on a train that is already beyond packed and you have no choice but to rub up against a stinky laborer coming home from the job. It's too close and tight for my liking. Does this make me claustrophobic? Wow, off topic much?! I forgot what this was even about...

Ngaw

Little cousin: You would make a good teacher.
Me: Why?
Little cousin: Because you're mean.

The 'ink' in think

I drove past the school the other day and I noticed that our school notice board had graffiti on it. What's worse is that it wasn't the usual illegible graffiti. It read "Fuck You". Clear as day. What kind of person would have such little respect for themselves and their community? First, some uneducated pyromaniacs decided to torch the school hall and history block, which resulted in more than a year of agony of not having a school hall. Whoever burnt down the school hall is quite an idiot because it just brought disadvantages to themselves and their peers. If you're going to send a message, why don't you burn down the entire school? Oh that's right. That would require planning and the use of a brain, yours of which must have been misplaced or it's just super inferior to that of a "normal" person. But let's be clear here, I'm not encouraging it. I'm just saying, why burn down the school hall? And why the hell would you  graffiti on the school's notice board? What could you possibly achieve? There's a reason as to why the area is so stigmatised and the continual acts of disrespect and complete stupidity seem to justify the negativity of the name "Macquarie Fields". It pisses me off to see such inconsiderate morons defacing school property or any property for that matter. A kid was killed by a train upon some graffiti work in a tunnel, of course there will be ramifications for this. Ugh. I hate stupid people.

It's a big, big, world

I was getting my daily dose of The Morning Show (it's the holidays all right? Leave me alone!) and they showed the most amazing video. It's made by a person named Kien Lam (Vietnamese pride,  hella yayerrrrr) who dropped his job to travel the vast vicinity of the world, take over 6000 photographs and create a time lapse video. It's so breathtaking and inspiring and made me really appreciate the true beauty of our "home". It made me a little sad too, knowing that I won't be able to explore all the wonders of the world, get into the nooks and crannies untouched by mankind in a lifetime. Life is too short, there is too much to do ):

Chúc Mừng Năm Mới!!

So Vietnamese/Chinese/Asian New Year is tomorrow and I've spent my weekend with my awesome family(s)! On Saturday, we had a small get together at our place for the small part on my mum's side but for some reason, some people from my dad's side came, which turned it into a photo bonanza. My dad's brothers love designing back drops and stuff for photos. They thrive on it. Anyways, so blah blah blah, eat, watch movies and get $$$$$! And then today, we went to my granny's for the Nguyen new year celebrations! When I arrived, I saw my uncle and cousin peeling stickers off letters and sticking them onto the most beautiful piece of blue material and I got excited! Every year we have this thing in the background with words and stuff! I like this year's the best because we didn't go with the typical red and yellow for a traditional Vietnamese New Year, what do you guys think?

 

Words of Wisdom

"Grow your hair long for university so that you can get a boyfriend that is studying to become a doctor. Then I can tell people that my son in law is a doctor."  - My mother.

What a wreck

So you may or may not have heard that I was in a car accident yesterday (and no, I was not driving). My mum, sister and I were coming back from Liverpool because I had an orthodontist appointment and it was around 10.30am when we got hit. We were approaching an intersection and the ute in front of us stopped suddenly, so my mum broke quickly and we came to a complete stop. I remember thinking "Oh thank goodness, we didn't have an accident" but what seemed like 30 seconds (when in actual fact it was only 2 or 3 seconds) later, a car from behind smashed into our car so hard that it projected our car into the ute. You know how dumb ass bitches in movies stand under a chandelier and wait for it to fall on them; paralysed by a state of "shock"? Well, I was a dumb ass bitch yesterday waiting for the chandelier to fall on me. In the moments after the crash, I didn't realise we had an accident. I just sat in the passenger seat, looking around, not processing what had just happened. All these people pulled over and got out and started making phone calls and then the man who smashed into our car came to my window and was like "Are you okay? Is everybody okay?" but I couldn't open my door and that's when I realised something bad had happened. The front of our car was so badly crumpled that our doors were jammed and we couldn't open them. So my mum and I just sat in there, while my sister got out of the car (because she was sitting in the back). The attention quickly shifted to the man in the ute in front of us. His ute was fine but the force was so strong that it had smashed his entire window. It was horrific. People were shouting "Are you okay?" but he wasn't responding and everybody started to worry. I climbed out of the car through the back and realised that there was something leaking from our engine (now I know it was just the cooling stuff, or whatever) but I was worried so I told my mum to get out. She was just sitting in the car and crying because she thought she killed the man in front of us. The old man started crying and started talking so we knew he was alive at least. By the time that I got out of the car, a lady had already called the police, ambulance and fire brigade. What an awesome lady. So blah blah blah, two ambulance vans arrived and it took them forever to get that man into a stretcher and off to hospital. Then they asked us if we had any injuries and I complained of a little neck pain (which was probably just whiplash) but they strapped a neck brace on me and put me on the bed and off to hospital I went. It was quite fun but I kept crying for some reason. The accident made me go into a state of deep thinking and it was weird. So I went to hospital and they got my pulse and blood pressure and x-ray and stuff, turns out it was only a neck sprain so after I had a chance to eat some hospital food, I was discharged.

After a such a horrible day, I decided to be positive and think of the things that I was grateful for. I was grateful for the fact that there were no fatalities. I am grateful that our car was sandwiched in the middle of the accident. Why? Because even with our car absorbing most of the force from the reckless speeder (yeah, he got a charge for speeding) the man in front was still severely injured. If our car hadn't been there, there is a great chance that he would have died. You could say that our car took the hit. Ha, why am I making punny jokes about this situation? I guess it hasn't hit me yet. HAHA. Anyway, I guess it was all "meant to be".

One Direction Infection

I thought that I had rid myself completely of the disease when they released their shocking video for 'Gotta Be You' which is just 'What Makes You Beautiful' but instead of shooting it in summer on the beach, they made it look like autumn in the woods, or forest, or fake set. But then, they had to release 'One Thing' which made me download their album Up All Night which made me realise that they don't just sing typical pop songs, which is kind of good because now I have a mechanism of defense against haters (which seems to be everyone) but it made me like them even more! This is funny because Laura just posted about how her sister is ridiculously obsessed with them and how she is disappointed with her sister's level of obsession. Well, in my case, my sister is Laura and I am Laura's sister. Ha!

If you are a judgmental hater, check out their songs 'Same Mistakes' and 'More Than This' before you accuse them of being beautiful human beings generated to milk money out of young girls (and maybe boys? and probably their mothers as well).

The Hunger (But Mainly Death) Games

Last night I finished the last of The Hunger Games trilogy (FINAFREAKINGLLY). It was amazing. I think I mentioned a long time ago that I like reading dystopian novels and watch movies with that ideology (thanks English teachers...). Throw in some amazing characters and bombs full of action (see what I did there? People that have the books?) and you've got yourself not one, but three best-sellers. I must admit that I wasn't too keen on them at first but as soon as the movie trailer came out, I had to read the books for two reasons a.) THE MOVIE LOOKED/S AMAZING and b.) Although I was blown away by the trailer, a part of me didn't really understand it. That's the thing with 2 minute trailers, sometimes they don't make sense! I strongly recommend anyone that has seen the trailer and is looking forward to the movie to read the books. It's an easy read, her word choices and sentence structure are at times so simple that I ask myself, "Why didn't I write this book?" but then again, I'm not the one that thought of the awesome idea of throwing 24 kids into an arena for them to fight to the death for the entertainment of the Capitol.

Blogger's Block

I haven't been able to think of anything interesting to blog about (not that anything I blog about is ever interesting) but I have realised that although I am the ultimate disher of sarcasm (Queen of Sarcasm, Mable? ha), I find it very hard to pick it up on. This whole week when I've been talking to the other volunteers at the Apia International, I've had to ask them "Are you being sarcastic?" several times through out the conversation!! There was one time where I didn't pick up on it at all. This guy was like "Oh my gad, I'm so cold!" and it was BOILING hot right. I was just like "ARE YOU SERIOUS? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?" and he's like "YEAH, IT'S SO COLD" and I still didn't realise until he told me he was being sarcastic. But hey, Sheldon Cooper has an IQ of like 300 and can't pick up on sarcasm so maybe I'm just really, really, really intellectually inclined (I freaking wish!). So now I understand when people don't pick up on my sarcasm because a.) I use my normal tone of speaking and b.) I don't make it clear that I'm being sarcastic. Me? Sarcastic? NEVER!

A Ballin' Time

Watching Juan Martin del Potro and Marcos Baghdatis tomorrow yeowwwwwwwww!!!!

Apia International Sydney - Day One!!

As a volunteer of the tournament, I got two ground passes which gave me access to all areas except for Ken Rosewall Area. Before I went, I was just like "oh, I might get a glimpse of a famous player" because I didn't want to get my hopes up and be uber disappointed but BOY WAS I WRONG! It seems as though as soon as I got there, famous players were left and right (not literally)! When we went to the practise courts, the first player we saw training was World No. 1 in Women's Singles, Caroline Wozniacki! She is even prettier in real life and we just stayed there and waited for her to finish training but as soon as she got off the court, everybody was yelling "Caroline, Caroline, over here, over here" and she seemed really tired so I just didn't bother. She was literally 2cm from my face though!!!! I was completely awestruck! When I was watching her train, I couldn't grasp on to the idea that it was really her! The World No. 1 in the world was breathing the same air as me. We didn't get her autograph because Precy's permanent marker didn't even work!! Stupid lil feg (we had to buy a tiny one later with no brand for $3.50. zzz)!! After Wozniacki got off, Victoria Azarenka (World No. 3) came on to that court to train and Li Na was in the court adjacent to ours! And then we decided to check out the other courts and we went to one with not much of a crowd yet and we were like "who the hell is that?" and then Precy was like "He looks like a mini-Baghdatis" and he was really close to us so he heard and then he chuckled!! That is when we realised, IT WAS MARCOS BAGHDATIS!!!!!! And then I wondered who he was versing so I looked at his shoes and they were non other than LLEYTON HEWITT'S shoes!! At this point, I was hyper-ventilating. I COULD NOT BELIEVE I WAS ONLY A FEW METRES AWAY FROM THE LEGENDARY BAGGY AND AUSSIE ICON HEWITT! So we just watched them for a bit, went back to Li Na and Azarenka and got their autographs and then went back to Baghdatis & Hewitt's training session. They trained forevzzzzzzzzzz man! We kept leaving and coming back and they still were not finished! But once we came back, Hewitt was gone and it was just Baggy training with his coach. I'm so devo I didn't get a photo or autograph from Hewitt! He is just such an Aussie legend! But we waited around for Baggy and I got a photo with him and Precy got his autograph (WHICH HAS A SMILEY FACE, HOW CUTE) and these girls asked for his towel. Why didn't I think of that? It would have been hella stinky but still, it was his towel! Baghdatis is so good looking now! He cut off his long, girl hair and he looks so much younger now. I really hope that he wins the tournament because he is such a sweet guy, fully signing everything and taking photos GAHHH! Well, I want Isner to win as well. Today wasn't the best that it could have been because I missed the person that I came to see, JOHN ISNER from the USA! This kid that I met got his autograph so that means he was around somewhere!! Oh well, I do have the rest of this week to find him and crawl under his legs (because he is a giant). Omg, then we spotted Juan Martin Del Potro!!! DEL FREAKING POTRO!!! He is a giant as welllllll, like literally 2m+, he lifted up his shirt and then he looked around and realised people were looking and he had this shy look on his face but then he started flexing his ab muscles!! LOL *droooooooooooooooooooooooool* Why are South Americans so darn attractive? WHY BITCH WHY!

This post has a bajillion errors because I am still recovering from post celebrity mode (whatever the fuck it's called) and I am dying because I still have a whole week to go!! I will not say that I died and went to heaven yet because I still have my centre court tickets for Wednesday and I still have to hunt down John Isner. Once those two are complete, I can safely say that I have died and gone to heaven. After a week of feeling like shit, I couldn't ask for a better opportunity to release my inner fangirlism that I have for tennis players. From Lidcombe and on wards, all you could hear was people talking about tennis players and I just kept thinking "YES, I AM HOME". I have never been surrounded by so many tennis fanatics in my life and it felt so freaking good!!! All of my efforts put into watching every match over the past 6 years haven't been freakish at all!! I strongly recommend for anyone that is even remotely interested in tennis to purchase a ground pass for $12.90 because you get access to all areas except for centre court and all the players are always training and doing stuff for the media, and it's such a good vibe all around. ARGH! No time to proof read this because tomorrow is Kid's Day and I have to be there by 8am tomorrow! Thanks to track work, I have to leave my house at 6!!! AND I STILL HAVEN'T STUDIED OR FINISHED MY HOMEWORK FOR TRUONG.

OH, and Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Dokic were on centre court today so we didn't get a chance to see them and where the freaking hell was Richard Gasquet?!!!

Sydney Ready? Play.

Many of you may or may not already know that I'm going to be volunteering at the Apia International Sydney this coming week and today was the orientation/training day. I'm going to be volunteering in the Kids Interactive Zone where they have all these tennis activities set up for kids (when they say kids, they mean from babies to freaking adults). They have ball machines set up for people to try and hit targets with, they have the ray guns set up to measure how fast your serves are, you can rally against a 'brick wall' (which is actually foam or something) and there are mini courts set up. It's really fun!! If you have the chance, Monday the 9th of January is the 'Kids Day' where kids 16 and under get free entry into the venue (normal entry into the venue would be $12.90 anyway), you should head to Sydney Olympic Park Tennis Centre! It is really fun, free and the Aquatic Centre is only a few metres away! Volunteers full get free food and drinks and get to have lunch in this air-con place where as other people have to suffer in the heat!!! I cannot wait until my first shift which is on Monday but I have to be at Olympic Park at 8am and there is track work which means I have to wake up super duper early!! ): FREAKING SHITTY RAIL.

Yup, there's my pro shirt (we have a short sleeve and a long sleeve one), my hat and my accreditation pass. That's right bitches. I have a VIP pass. 

365 Grafeful Project

As I was munching away at my uberly bland cornflakes this morning, I was watching Sunrise and a segment came up about how to create your own happiness. Seeing as I've been feeling a little down a lot (contradictory? lulz) lately I think I am going to undergo this project and see how it turns out. Many people that I know hate taking up 365 projects because it turns into such a hassle which causes it to lose its meaning, but I derrrno, I feel inspired to do something about my unhappiness. This project is called The 365 Grateful Project  and is self-explanatory; take a photo every day of something that you are grateful for. I think this will allow for me to realise the little things that make up this supposedly beautiful thing called 'life'. I hope that everybody follows my progress because by posting it on my blog, it makes me liable for not completing it! I tend to give up on things too easily but I will not fail this. Even if it is just for the sake of not failing. So here's to the start, duration and completion of Yvonne's 365 Grateful Project! :) And yes, there is a separate blog for it because I don't want my blog to get messy and confusing.

I guess it's the thought that counts?

I remember when I was little, I would walk into the chocolates and confectionery section and look up at the beautiful, little, chocolate balls wrapped in super shiny gold foil (girls like shiny things, actually, every young child likes shiny things). They would be encased in a plastic box that almost looked like glass to an ignorant little girl. They were "expensive" back in the day and when people gave them to you as a gift, you would go ooooooh, ahhhhhhhh. But now you can buy two giant ass boxes of the stuff from coles for $20 (give or take a few dollars). Now, when you are dumbstruck as to what to get for someone as a little gift to say something like 'thank you', the Ferrero Rochers cannot be a last resort. They no longer have the elegant lustre about them. This is upsetting because I remember when relatives and friends would give me a box of the chocolatey goodness, I would be over the moon as a little kid. If something as simple as this as already lost its worth, what's next? The new generation are practically born with iPods and iPhones in hand (is it sad that I have neither of these?) and we'll be the 80 year old grandmas texting on our lame, last century phones whilst our grandchildren and possibly great grandchildren glare at us with scrutiny as to how non-technologically inclined we are.

2012!

It is officially safe to say that this year is going to be an awesome year. You know that thing that people say about how you spend the first day of the new year is how the rest of your year will be? Well. I always thought it was a load of crap because for us oriental Asians we have Chinese New Year, so which 'first day of the year' decides our year? I guess it just depends on which year you go by. However, this year (after talking to Laurence on a dead ass NYE night) I decided that I shall test out this theory that he, along with a million other people live by. For new years day, we went to my cousin's new place for a family bbq in Alfords Point. HOMG. It is such a nice area! A few people went on a bush walk near their house but I was wearing a dress so I didn't go along *CREYZ* It was such a good night (not only because my aunty made her famous potato salad that I haven't seen in a few months), all the cousins were hanging out (I think that sparklers bring everybody of all ages together), the whole family gathered in the living room to watch the videos that my dad had put together from the Hawaiian party and the masquerade party and it was so good to look back on those nights together! Then, I played cricket with one of my cousins (I was bowling and fielding because nobody else wanted to play cricket) and I got really tired so then we started balancing gardening rakes on the palm of our hands. Have you guys ever tried that? I remember that I saw it on Play School once or twice. It turns out I'm really crap at it but my cousin is uber pro ): Then everybody started talking about going to the beach tomorrow (which was today) and everyone was buzzing even though we were all super smashed from the get together already!!

So, today we got to the beach super early and almost everybody showed up and it was just usual beach stuff. We tried playing water polo but there were two problems; the waves and the wind [which are interconnected (i think?!) so I guess they are just one problem]. Yes. I just employed the maths parenthesis thing. DON'T JUDGE ME!!

(I wrote this when I came home from the beach and then ditched the post to watch tennis and now that I have woken up, my arms and 'abs' are super sore from the excessive boogie boarding GAHHHH)