old roger draft-dodger leaving by the basement door

it's my last night in melbourne for a week and a half because i'm flying to queensland for the majority of the holidays tomorrow morning. everyone i've told is jealous, but i could care less. i like winter, and going to sunny brisbane means i miss out on a chuck of it. plus i'm missing a huge house party while i'm over there, and i have a window of three days to catch up with friends before school goes back. fml

the good news is, i went to see simon & garfunkel last night. never really listened to them an awful lot, but my dad couldn't make the concert so his ticket was passed on to me. i ended up having a great time - one of the best shows, if not the best show i've been to so far. i put them on my ipod as soon as i got up this morning.

then i was trawling pictures on the internet - art garfunkel was such a qt back in the day. lovelovelove the printed-on tuxedo jacket, he's pictured above with bowie at the grammys.

l-r: david bowie, art garfunkel, paul simon, yoko ono, john lennon. does a higher concentration of awesomeness in one photo exist ? i think not.

you'll speak when you're spoken to

today was lots of fun. since it was report-writing day, i had yet another day off so my friends and i went out. i bought a croissant and starbucks for breakfast, then took a train into the city and shopped in melbourne central until 11am when i met janet and tina under the clocks. we went up to hoyts to see i love you, man (it's kind of a tradition for us to go and watch crap movies). it ended up being hilarious, which was a pleasant surprise.

afterwards, we met up with our more studious friend tammy (she often bails on us to go and study - to be fair, she is in year 12) and went to max brennan's to try a chocolate pizza, which tina was particularly enthused about. it's basically dough with chocolate sauce, cornflakes, marshmallow and pecans. next, tammy led us to shanghai dumpling house, an extremely cheap asian restaurant in an alleyway off chinatown. she warned us that we weren't paying for the hygiene or the service, but i guess only time will tell if i have food poisoining. i didn't plan to eat anything after the pizza, but i had a few fried dumplings because they looked so appealingly greasy.

tammy ditched us after that to go and study, so janet, tina and i spent a little time in starbucks and then went our seperate ways. i was feeling a bit guilty about eating so much junk, and then i got home and remembered that friday is our family binge day, when we have fish and chips for dinner. then mum inexplicably brought home chocolate after she went to the supermarket. so, croissant, chocolate pizza, fried dumplings, fish and chips, chocolate. i'm going to regret this tomorrow. i'm still trying to fight off the three kilograms i haven't shaken since germany, and all those butterbrezels.

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2009 GAT = george clooney

today i completed the general achievement test, which is an exam that basically tests your stills in all areas and creates a generalised score that helps examiners make sure all your assessments are marked accurately. it was three hours long, so it wasn't so fun. however, an elaborate plan was cooked up not long before all of victoria's students sat it: to mention george clooney in one or both of the written exams, to mess with the examiner's heads.

unfortunately, i kind of forgot about mentioning him, but countless other people remembered, and i've been trawling the facebook groups devoted to the plan and reading some of the hilarious ways george clooney was worked into people's written tasks.
by the way, the first written task was about bees, and the second was about material possessions. here are the highlights from both:

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"george clooney is considered a busy man, statistics show that he is in fact as busy as a bee."
"george clooney is not a bee. passing thought."
"although this could be argued to not be a possession, if i was to have a boyfriend who looked like george clooney, i would want to be able to enjoy him, and not constantly feel guilty about such a pleasure."
"in ocean's 11, george clooney's character was a very materialistic man. he was also very sexy in that suit."
"george clooney is the bee's knees."
"the role of the drone bee is one consisting solely of reproduction... not dissimilar to george clooney."
"the pollination of bees is a vital role for the germination of crops. without the bees' pollen the fruits would not seed therefore we would not have the fruits we have today. without the fruits our bodies wouldn't function as they do today and george clooney's movies wouldn't be as good as they are."

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"and that is how materialism can lead to a selfish behavior, much like how george clooney robbed a casino."
"if there's one thing that george clooney can't do it's make honey. we'll leave that to the bees."
"she was just like george clooney if george clooney was female and a bee."
"while they're no george clooney, the male drone bee still manages to attract the female queen bee, and reproduce."
"george clooney strides into the room, nespresso in hand, reminding us of the obsession in our society for possessions. brilliant, george clooney endorsed possessions."
"there are some bees that look exactly like george clooney."
"people are always striving for the best, for the best home, the fastest car and the broadest dvd collection (including the 1994 batman movie, where batman was played by george clooney)."
"george clooney turned down a role in "bee movie". had he known more about bees, he just might have accepted the part."

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i could go on for hours. people who wrote george clooney into their essay, i salute you.

i'm going for the bigtime

excerpts from warhol star andrea feldman's obituary, written by geraldine smith and published in the village voice on august 17, 1972:


"i met andrea nine years ago in washington square park and we were friends ever since. we frequently visited max's kansas city, where she performed for recognition, which she immediately received, by singing "everything's coming up roses" in her unique style. eventually this lead to her role in the movie "imitation of christ", after which she made "groupie" and after this "trash". by the time she did "trash" she was a recognized superstar, an established personality.

andy identified with marilyn monroe. she had many friends and yet never believed anyone really loved her. she gave of herself so much and she will never know how much we all will miss her. she said of herself, 'this time i'm going to the top, to explode like dynamite.' she also said, 'noone takes me seriously because they think of me as a joke.' andrea was tormented constantly by her fear of not being loved, of unrecognition, of ridicule and not being understood."

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andrea summoned several ex-boyfriends to the home of her parents so that they would be witness to her 'final starring role': her suicide. feldman was holding a can of coke in one hand and a rosary in the other when she jumped from the fourteenth floor of 51 fifth avenue & 12th st, new york city. according to geraldine smith, andrea left a note addressed to everyone she knew, saying she loved them all, but 'i'm going for the bigtime, i hit the jackpot!'

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it's strange, people with problems captivate me more than anyone else ever could.

i get to play at being irresponsible

i have become a trekkie, and it's scaring the crap out of me. i mean, it was bound to happen sooner or later: what with my exposure at a young age to the original series via my dad's own shameless obsession, and my obsession with all things kitsch, and all things sixties, and all things kitsch from the sixties.

no interest in next generation/voyager/whatever spin-offs they run these days, though. the original series is the best for the same reason that the 2009 reboot was awesome: the original cast. there's a reason why so many sci-fi nerds prefer kirk over picard. and let's face it, walter koenig's chekov was the most adorable character ever, it takes a lot to make that davy jones wig look attractive.

i don't care if anybody else thinks i'm a nerd, star trek: TOS is pretty much the most entertaining tv show i've seen ever. also, ontd_startrek is the best livejournal community i've ever been in, ever.

currently listening to:
give him a great big kiss ~ the shangri-las
munich ~ editors
don't worry baby ~ the beach boys
cannonball ~ the breeders
distant dreamer ~ duffy

sixteen, clumsy and shy

out of all of the types of people who i admire in the world, the ones i most want to be like are extroverts. i honestly can't see how they do it, letting go of their inhibitions and just doing whatever or talking to whomever they please. they make it seem so easy, when for people like me, the fear of reaching out to people is paralysing and almost impossible to overcome.

when people first meet me, they think i'm a bitch, and this opinion can be backed up by almost everyone that i am friends with now. when i try desperately hard, i can come off as halfway normal, but even then it is rare. the only thing i can think of that might give the awful impression that i do is simply being cold and detached - i just can't break out of my self-consciousness, and it makes me come off, apparently, as an "ice queen".

i would do anything to be able to change it, to be like all the charismatic and charming and engaging people that i hero-worship. i've heard plenty of times about people who go out into the world and suddenly lose their fear of initially interacting with others - i hope it will happen someday.

there is a wall between me and other people, and while they are all having fun, i'm sitting on the sidelines, too scared to move close to anyone, like a huge weight is anchoring me to the spot.

i can't explain

you know when you hear part of a song that you heard years and years ago, but you don't know what it's called or who it's by ? you don't know any of the lyrics, so you are forced to wrack your brain for anywhere you might have heard it ? you search far and wide for the elusive name of the song, which you may stumble across by a stroke of luck, or never hear again ?

that totally just happened with the song baba o'riley by the who. i was listening to a friend of a friend's mixtape, and i heard a snippet of a song that sounded very familiar. i had only the synth portion at the beginning to go by while trying to find it. thankfully i managed to figure it out after searching for about fifteen minutes. turns out i first heard the song when i was 9 or 10, in the trailer for a bug's life back when vhs tapes had previews at the beginning. who knew ?

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