Joey Nation

The Last Grains of Sand

2012-02-14T13:34:00.002+13:00

Was looking for a poetic title to describe how I had little time before I ventured back to Wellington to resume a worthwhile life, and that was a good as I came up with. Plus it allows me to include a cute throwback image to a certain worldwide-childhood obsession that if you do not recognise you are a phaylure at life

My dad has arranged a bed for me in Wellington which was the biggest concern for me - but otherwise I think I'm going to cope, thank god. Just need a desk, chair and something to store my clothes or something in. All really cute things. Now all I really need to think about is packing and getting ready for my flight - which reminds me I need to print out my ticket. More adorable things could surely happen than me forgetting my ticket - but I guess airlines have your name anyway so life would go on.

I actually don't even have anything to write about - so not sure why I'm trying. I had to work Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday which probably isn't the most ideal series of shifts but as a struggling student frequently spending beyond my means - one can't complain. I use hyphen's inappropriately so often, no idea. I'm getting into a habit when I want to write a hyphen every time I should use a comma and I have no idea where I began doing this.

I bought Lana Del Rey's album 'Born To Die' a few days ago and have been enjoying it considerably thoroughly - I usually prefer upbeat/dance music, but once in a while I listen to the more soulful sounds of long-time favourites Jade Valerie and her old Sweetbox music, along with the new Jamie Pineda sung Sweetbox whose album 'Diamond Veil' has been quite appropriate for a lovey-dovey Valentines Day. Speaking of - I have a Valentine (not so shockingly) BUT have no access to be with them. A sad life indeed I live.

Oh I know what's exciting!! I have Lady Gaga tickets to 'The Born This Way Ball'! How god damn exciting is that? Maybz you're not an eternal fan lingering onto every droplet of information released regarding the angelic woman, but I am and to be able to see her live having worshipped her for three years now... it's pretty unreal. Have the beginnings of a costume worked out already - a certain 2010 masquerade ball mask made by the lovely Michaela may rise from the ashes, but that could be subject to change. We shall see.

Interactive Dog

2012-02-14T11:05:00.005+13:00

How cool is this little interactive dog I found on aBowman, a website I found the fishies (on my right-hand sidebar) quite a while ago. I wish I could make these clever interactive Flash things.

The Ultimate Catch-Up Post

2012-02-13T22:01:00.003+13:00

Since I'm officially a week behind on everything I'm going to combine two "Celebrity's of the Week" and two "Song of the Week"s into one post for last week and this week to officially get me up to speed. Song of the week first so you can play it and carry on reading because you're a devoted reader obsessed and lingering onto every word I write, naturally.

Song(s) of the Week:

Firstly Katy Perry's new single, the re-mastered version of the eternally-lingering-on-Youtube demo "Part Of Me". It's a pretty good, cute little song that Kittycats have been rooting for since it surfaced. It's not amazing, but it's recent and I love it. It's the lead single for Katy's re-release of her album 'Teenage Dream' which'll be named 'Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection' which'll probs only have 3 actual new songs so... F that. Don't get me started on the album artwork.

My Ke$ha obsession is no secret - there are days where I contemplate if I like her more than Lady Gaga, who everyone should know is my #1. How mainstream of me, I know. Anyway I love this unreleased/demo of Miss Sebert's and I think it's exemplifies everything Ke$ha is about but at the end of the day is kind of an uplifting song. If you wanted to get deep, you could talk about the song as a metaphor for making the most out of a bad situation through how she decides to down shots upon the eve of the earth's apocalypse.

Celebrity(/ies) of the Week:

Killing two birds with this stone - Rihanna and Katy Perry are my Celebrities of the Week(s) and this charming photo of the duo was taken at todays Grammy Awards which seriously shaded Gaga which I wasn't overly impressed with. Adele is however gracious and lovely and I'm glad she won and not either of the two I'm writing this post about. I mean, I really do like Rihanna and Katy but they're not as sincere or I find Gaga to be - but to their own, obviously. I love the connection between these two - both competing against each-other throughout the entirety of their careers but somehow they seem like the greatest of friends. Numerous times they've been snapped together and I remember when Katy performed in Wellington (where I saw and loved her) and Rihanna tweeted her something like "When will our ships pass?" and it made me feel like they were these friends that were being like torn apart by their competing careers - but alas here they are all smiles! I love 'em. And that concludes this mighty blog.

Song of the Week: Joseph Arthur - Honey & the Moon

2012-02-07T21:43:00.002+13:00

So maybe I don't really have a clue who Joseph Arthur is but I have loved this song since first hearing it on 'The O.C.' and it was always a sweet, summery song and I just love it. From what little I know of Joseph I know he's a pretty talented musician and he does funky things like make all of his live concerts available for download instantly after finishing his performances as they are recorded live throughout, and he's painted/designed the cover for all of his single/album art so he's obviously pretty hands on.

Anyway not gonna lie - I was going to do a song by Ayumi Hamasaki, but after having trouble tracking down a video on Youtube to post alongside with my blog post I gave up. Her stupid label (Avex I think) is ridiculously annoying banning her music from Youtube, the bastards. Guess I could always use Vimeo, but not sure if it's easy to embed or not. Anyway - sit back, relax and enjoy this song.

Celebrity of the Week: Lana Del Rey

2012-02-07T20:59:00.002+13:00

Lana Del Rey has obviously been the source of much controversy lately having recently released what may have been one of the more highly-anticipated debut albums in quite a while. What with her critically-butchered SNL performance of her songs 'Video Games' and 'Blue Jeans' and negatively reviewed album, somehow Lana's still become an extremely popular and successful artist and I've grown to be really fond of her music, and she's far from my usual style. While not that far, but her voice is far from the auto-tuned Ke$ha sex noises I usually listen to.

I have yet to buy her album but I have every intention of purchasing a physical copy, as I like what I've heard from her so far and as a debut artist I think she's definitely worthy of support and from what I've read on fan websites and Twitter fan reaction is pretty positive and the only complaint is that the songs sound fairly similar - which I guess is a good and bad thing but regardless, I'mma give her a go.

~this counts as last week's celebrity of the week since I forgot, ahhh~

~le tumbleweed~

2012-02-06T22:06:00.001+13:00

My promises of active blogging didn't exactly ring true last week as we can all see - but living a life of doing the same thing for months on end never brings in much inspiration. The problem is when I will be doing something, aka. heading back to Wellington on the 22nd Feb, it'll be madness and the last thing I'll feel like doing is sitting and typing out some little never-to-be-read sermon about my repetitive life. I've been working lately and just generally being cute. Went to Marahau for a night last week as my parents spent a week there, which was pretty cute. Shame the weather was gloomy - but I powered through a novel, have picked up where I was reading in John Marsden's 'The Tomorrow Series' - my fave series ever, which has been nice. Funnily enough it was last summer that I was reading the previous book, but fortunately due to having read the series before it wasn't too tricky to remember what I'd forgotten.

Currently listening to Lana Del Rey, my latest music obsession. I kept seeing her name and face on Tumblr (and rarely on Twitter) and kept thinking "Ugh another basic bitch, but with a cute retro look" but then I FINALLY decided to check out her music after The Prophet Blog (which I die for) reviewed her music positively, so figured giving her a listen was great. Am only an entry-level fan currently, her songs "Video Games", "Blue Jeans" and the album title song "Born to Die" are pretty flawless. Her voice is pretty alty, and different from the ultra perfected vocals so popular in pop music today and criticism towards her is usually revolved around this, but I don't care and I love her and her look and I intend to legally purchase her album as I'd love her to do well and release more music in the future.

New manager at work today was cute - an older woman but she was sweet and beat out the over-80 applicants who tried for the job, pretty crazy really, and even though it's a full-time job I'm pretty sure the job is on wages, not a salary so... it really can't be paying that much. Maybe like $16? Possibly even less? But it just painted a sad tale of the rough times - easy to forget that people are really struggling to find work. Though at the same time it's a pretty cute little store I've been working in lately, and a nice environment and not too much fuss so fair enough it was popular. But 80+ applicants! Sheesh. Count my lucky stars that I can afford university, to live away from home and to live in a (very overpriced, FFFFUUUU Wellington CBD prices) $170-a-week apartment. God it's gonna be tiny.

Dying to get back to Wellington but also a bit nervous because I need to job hunt and you know what the most shameful thing ever is? Well, one of them? JOB HUNTING. Waltzing into stores with your flimsy CV drifting over to some doe-eyed bimbo who miraculously landed a job at the very place you'd like to work asking "Can I speak to the manager?" and then having to wait awkwardly while some gum-chewing, intimidating senior staff member saunters in your direction with a smug "Yes?" look on their face. It really is just a little bit too much. Unfortunately these are the lengths one most go to, and in the city of Wellington the competition's tough and I'd assume few jobs would already exist. Fortunately I do have three flawless years of service to three stores under one company and a manager who I hope would spare some charming thoughts about my work ethic so I might be in with a chance! So wish me luck - having some experience under my belt sure will help. Yay for 16-year-old-me sacrificing my Saturdays purely to have enough money to buy wax strips and fake tan (literally what I bought with my first pay check, $83 I think it was. I thought I was rich! Sure beat my $25 a fortnight from my parents).

Time to head back to the lounge and read my book, 'Milkweed' by Jerry Spinelli, which I'm reading since I don't have the next book in 'The Tomorrow Series' (which everyone needs to read, 'Harry Potter' and 'Twilight' can suck it). Must say the book I dandily picked off the book shelf at the public library (which again reminded me of how lucky I was - middle of a week day and HOARDES of dopey teens lolling around on the computers and reading magazines, apparently jobs aren't a happening thing in this small town). ANYWAY - the book has wound up being a depressing story about a young gypsy orphan in Warsaw during the holocaust in WWII. So miserable! But so addictive. It'd be selfish of me to not fully understand the suffering of those who endured those times and to not learn a lesson from them. The thing I love about those raw tales is that, even for a short while, you snap out of your vain, self-obsessed life and can just take in the picture of what life is about. If I had a poetic bone in my body I'd write something touching right now, but sadly, unlike this rambling rant, it's something I can only think about - my writing skills have a long way to go before they're anywhere near resembling something that could be called "refined". What a long-winded way to say that. Time to peace out I'm thinking. Bye babez. x0x0

Song of the Week: Ke$ha - Crazy Beautiful Life

2012-01-29T22:59:00.002+13:00

I know Ke$ha isn't for everyone and she does usually just get thrown in the "talentless pop trash" category, which is fair enough considering her hit singles aren't exactly acoustic or lyrical genius (eg. "TiK ToK" or "Blow") but she does have some considerably impressive writing credits to her name and while her voice is not the shining beacon of the 21st century voices, it is unique and can sound pretty good - though perhaps not "conventionally" good, but for her style. Which now sounds like I'm defending that she has a bad voice. Whatever, she does have a good voice and just go check out her Bob Dylan cover if you want proof. It's quite impressive I thought.

Anyway here I am late Sunday night (with work in the morning) remembering that I'd forgotten to blog all week and hadn't even stuck out one week in my blogging commitment. Well this week's 'Song of the Week' is Ke$ha's "Crazy Beautiful Life", what I would consider an uplifting, positive song about making the most out of your life and to be grateful for what you have. I like the lyrics "Every single night we fight, to get a little high on life. To get a little something right, something real, at least we try." Call me scraping at the bottom of the barrel for a positive lyric - as she does a bit of bragging in the song about her own success, but I guess the moral of that is that you can go from (practically) nothing and come out with something, but be happy either way.

It's what I've been doing lately, and considerably successfully too I must say. I've tried to stop fretting so much about appearance, money, jobs and university etc. Getting this year up and running what with uni, Studylink, renting and flatmates has been a bit tricky but this summer's work situation has wound out rather nicely - turns out being a long-term employee pays out when managers can rely on you to work in other stores and I've been enjoying work at a different store in the company lately, it's been great. So here's to being thankful and enjoying what I have, not everything I want (but don't need!).

Celebrity of the Week: Heidi Klum

2012-01-23T21:30:00.001+13:00

Through sad news this week Heidi has been bought to the centre of attention having announced, and confirmed, her split with singer Seal after 7 years of marriage 4 kids. (those numbers are from memory - correct me if I'm wrong!) They, like Katy and Russel, seemed like a sweet, cute kooky couple that would defy the odds and stick it out - but I guess the average Joe can't really comprehend the pressures of maintaining their individual businesses, brands, jobs and of course their bloody kids - they must be ridiculously frantic, and all while looking flawless - I can't manage a single one of those things listed above.

Heidi's obviously completely flawless, hence why she's a Victoria's Secret model and recognised worldwide as a verified supermodel, I mean look at her. I always thought 'Project Runway' was one of the better, more inventive reality shows that showed more than just trashy talentless people and instead gave those with an utter passion and true talent in their field a shot at making it big. Not that Heidi brainstormed and came up with the whole show, but she was a great host for it and was good at being a cold bitch eliminating people. Loved it.

Old Habits Die Hard

2012-01-23T21:08:00.001+13:00

After a stint of hyperactivity on this blog I was already dry, unmotivated and not wanting to write this blog. It's just really hard to write about an average day when literally nothing has happened particularly out of the ordinary, and try to make it something worth reading - but here's my best effort.

After staying up foolishly late last night (well not really, but I did go out on Saturday night and wasn't in bed until like 3.30am) to 12.30am, I was called at 9am to go to work this morning as someone was sick. So off to work I begrudgingly went, not that I didn't appreciate the money and all that - but it's a bit of a shock going from "Yay I have the day off tomorrow - sleep in, laziness, DVD's and the gym!" to "FML my hair looks like shit and I have no lunch!" But whatever - I made like $70 which'll pay off a few bills in Wellington I'm sure. Ugh the most expensive year ever ahead! Why does me writing "E-mail eatyouup@live.com, my literal e-mail, and offer me a fun job and pay me something decent for the best employee ever!" never elicit any response?

Apart from one infuriatingly impatient, snappy and rude woman and one of the more cringe worthy jokes I've ever heard told ("Are you from Australia?" "No" "Joey's are from Australia though") nothing of special interest really happened, hard to believe I'm sure. Am doing stock take for the next three nights in a row which'll be really adorable, though what actually IS adorable (sort of) is that my aunty is getting me to give her sleep-out a clean, and will pay me $25, for what is usually only an hour's week which I always like to as I can do it in my own pace and prove that I can be quite an efficient worker. The joy of being allowed headphones while working should never be overlooked.

Song of the Week: sweetbox - Read My Mind

2012-01-19T11:56:00.000+13:00

Adding a new series of posts to my blog to ensure I keep it more active, which was on the down-low a New Year's resolution I decided to make. I was pretty lousy with it throughout 2011 and not that it really matters whether I update it frequently or not - but I have decided I'd like to keep it up to speed.

Anyway, so here we are: the first "Song of the Week", the 2nd weekly post I'll be writing along with "Celebrity of the Week" so I'll have to be up to speed. This week's song is by one of my all-time favourite singers, Jade Valerie, but from when she was in Sweetbox (from 2000-2007) in one of unfortunately few songs of hers that got a music video. This PV is simple, but Jade looks pretty and I'm just glad "Read My Mind" from the 2002 album 'Jade' actually got a video because I love this song a lot. I think I relate it to if I'm feeling misunderstood or ignored or whatever - to me the songs message is that of self-worth and admitting your faults and doing the best with what you have. Soppy, but that's just the way I was born. ;) Feel free to leave a comment with what you think of the song..

Celebrity of the Week: Michelle Williams

2012-01-17T17:52:00.000+13:00

Michelle Williams first was drawn to my attention paying the crushingly tragic Elma in Ang Lee's 'Brokeback Mountain' which regardless of it's gay couple storyline, I'll forever protest it as simply a gay movie and if you've refrained from watching it for that reason you're missing out on what I swear is one of the most beautiful movies, cinematically, I've ever seen. Michelle has always somehow managed to remain out of the limelight despite being a certified A-List actress, confirmed after winning a 2012 Golden Globe for her performance in 'Take This Waltz' which I regrettably have yet to see.

A film project of hers I am truly excited to see is 'Oz: The Great and Powerful', a pre-quel to the flawless 'The Wizard of Oz' Judy Garland great. I mean Michelle, Mila Kunis and Rachel Weisz in one movie? Yes please!! They are all playing witches and I mean - Rachel as a glamourous evil witch? I can't even wait.

The next big movie to bring recognition to Michelle's obvious great talent will be 'My Week With Marilyn' for which she's been nominated for a million different awards shows. Pretty keen to see that one too but I do think the whole Marilyn Monroe fetishism has gone quite far enough - yes she was a glamorous woman and epitomized beauty and style but she really wasn't that perfect and had plenty of problems and I'd like to think there were more actresses worthy of her iconic state, Michelle being one of them in the future I hope. Though her remarkable resemblance to the already infamous Twiggy will probably forever hinder the possibility of Michelle's adorable, pixie-like look becoming iconic in her own right.

The picture used above is the cover photo from her 2011 spread in 'Elle' magazine.

2012 Goals

2012-01-17T16:27:00.004+13:00

Decided to write a more positive blog after Brandon noted I have a trend to write with a considerably obvious negative slant. I guess that's just my unfortunately gloomy outlook on life, but in the spirit of making a change and all that jazz here's a blog devoted to all the good I want to achieve this year.

First of all, the same old goal everyone has every year, including myself, which I think I've done alright with for the last two years and that is for me to continue along the health and fitness pathway to achieving a great body and being my personal best. Cristiano Ronaldo (the male in the picture above) is pretty much the dream looks-wise and body-wise, and so he should be - he's an Armani model now! If I was to ever have a body of my choice, his would be it! Though let's be honest that is like 4-hours a day training, full-time sportsman type stuff so is never going to realistically happen with my budget, time constraints and motivation. However it's not bad to have some inspiration on my bad days and he's certainly someone to motivate you to getting to the gym. I included the picture of Megan Fox for female readers looking for some inspiration, which I know can often just make yourself feel more insecure but in the spirit of this blog look at her as aspirational. No one "just has" that body, she works for it (even if she's rich etc, she still works for it) and likewise with the body you want. If it wasn't a struggle it wouldn't be worth having.

Other goals are obviously study, which I guess is the most important path in my life right now. Heading back to Wellington to attend Victoria University for my 2nd year of studies, potentially only one more to go afterwards but it does seem likely I'll do an extra year. We'll see how things go. It's exorbitantly expensive and I'd be willing to bet the cost would outweigh the benefit, and it certainly outweighs it's utility. (god I wanted to throw an economic term in there - Brandon will tell me if its usage was correct or not) Studying media, film and Japanese this year - decided to drop theatre, so hopefully that goes well. I'm going to not be so slack and work harder and just generally stay on top of things. I struggle terribly with procrastination, so I'd really like to buckle down and pick up a better study-ethic as it's never been my fine-point.

Social life and relationships are also, obviously, an important part of the circle of life, and family obvz but that's pretty much spoken for, no huge dramas there. Will do my best to keep everyone happy in those fields by just generally making the effort, keeping up communication and trying to achieve a sense of balance by keeping myself organised. I will need to make sure things are planned and organised, especially flatting this year for the first time - so will have to liase with flatmates re: groceries, cooking, cleaning etc. God knows the costs and realities of this year but won't know until I get there 'til I'm honest. Not going to lie - I'm terribly excited. 2011 was a flawless year at Weir House that I would never have given up for anything, but 2012 is also showing a lot of promise. Bring it all on.

Broke as a Joke (and no one's laughing)

2012-01-16T22:04:00.000+13:00

Even though I haven't worked that much over the holidays, the fact that the days have been so spread out makes it feel like I've never actually had a decent broke because it's always 2-3 days max until I work again, which I should be grateful for, and I am, but it's beginning to feel suspiciously like last year when I went off to uni feeling like I never really had a break since studying for exams. Anyway after working Friday, Sunday and Monday (today) I don't have to work until next Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (I think) because I'll be doing stock take. Never done it before but I've been assured it's not terribly fun and that a load of on-the-doll no-hopers (if we're being hon) come along and help out, and still manage to muck things up. I guess it's not the most straight-forward thing in the world to just count but I mean, if they ask "do I count an empty box?" or something, obviously you don't. Ok, maybe not that straight forward - but still.

The annoying thing about work is that, regardless of having worked an f-tonne I still haven't made any truly substantial profits - and I've probably only spent about $100 max these holidays, honest! OK maybe more like $200 - but for like 2 months that's extremely little of me. Oh actually there was Christmas... fine, maybe $300. But that's it! Anyway the moral of the story that even though I'm young and a student and all that good "that's the way life goes" stuff - would it kill for someone to pay me a half-decent wage around here? I mean I know times are tough but sheesh - does anyone anywhere pay more than minimum wage? I know this is what everyone on minimum wage says about their job, and it's probably true, and maybe my job is a job anyone could do - but can "anyone" do it well? No, they can't, and I can tell you that after having worked with them. Working retail properly actually involves a true knowledge of people skills, product knowledge (and pretty varied and levels of specificity are usually required - customers think your stupid if you don't know every minute details of something) and it's embarrassing when you don't know but realistically - without having literally bought, tried and testing - how would you know?

Anyway that's my little groan for now but trying to have a bit of pride about your job when it's not exactly top-notch gets pretty tedious when there's no one putting a heck of a lot of pride in you. Then again, having said that my manager did tell me I've been doing well in the other store I work in (part of the same branch/company) so that was pretty much the first time anyone's ever said I've done a good job anywhere ever, well maybe not, but from what I can remember. I'm basically employee of the month.

The Wellington Job Dilemma

2012-01-15T22:46:00.001+13:00

Out of my own interests, and to potentially benefit my luck in acquiring a cute job in Wellington this year, I did a barista course on Thursday. It was only like two and a half hours but I, and three others, were taught by two pros at the Pomeroy's factory about where coffee originates, the different types and most importantly how to make them. We made expresso (short black), latte's and cappuccino's which were pretty cute and learnt how to froth the milk nicely and which machines to use etc. Obviously I'm not a pro but it was a fun course to do and I can probably make coffee better than a lot of people now so that's always cute. The downside of the course was that it was at like 4pm and I drank like 6 cups of coffee and slept barely a wink that night, so that was great.

I have to get a job in Wellington and although there's some cute cafe's and shops I'd ideally like to work at, I thin first-things-first is to enquire into a transfer to the Wellington Lambton Quay Living and Giving store. I mean I'm obviously perfect for the job, have been with the company for three years and I'd pretty much sell the shit out of that store. But seriously, it would be a very good and convenient job and if I could work Friday and/or Saturday's my life would pretty much be what some would refer to as "the dream".

Anyway - why I'm writing a blog at 10.45pm at night when I have to be up at 7.30am to go to work is a mystery beyond mysteries but lots on my mind re: Wellington this year. Thank god it's not as scary as this time last year when I was moving to Weir. I was dying, as you can obviously see/read by viewing my posts from around 19th Feb, 2011. I died.

Celebrity of the Week: Rihanna

2012-01-14T17:22:00.003+13:00

I'm not usually a very big Rihanna fan but I think her latest album 'Talk That Talk' may have officially turned me once and for all. No one can deny her unstoppable song "We Found Love" which she, alongside with Calvin Harris, pretty much dominated all other summer anthems in New Zealand. I can't say I loved the video for the song, but many others apparently though it was pretty top-notch and then the 2nd single's video, "You Da One", wasn't that great either. Still - LOVE that song and surprised it's not been more of a hit. Guess it was released too soon after "We Found Love" while it was still going strong. Considering it's not that great of a song, it's success has pretty been crazy.

The next single "Talk That Talk" is a pretty good decision I reckon because it's a quality song, and I wouldn't be surprised if the album's still leaking songs off it a few months from now because there's plenty of good single-material songs stashed away. Highly recommended!

Organisation

2012-01-14T11:50:00.003+13:00

Getting ready to move back to Wellington into the apartment me and three others have signed a lease for is proving to be quite a logistical nightmare. The worst part is I don't really know anything about the building or the actual flat, apart from that it's the top floor in the middle at the front - so we probably got the dream flat, but who knows. I keep calling it a flat, it's not, it's an "apartment", so I'm basically living in New York.

I need to somehow buy/find/get a bed, a desk and a chair and god knows what else into some 5th floor building which has one of the more dodgy looking alleyways ever as an entryway which is a tad awkward - but hopefully drug dealers won't be lingering around hawking off their goods on too many late-night occasions. The best thing about this new apartment is that it's new! It was an office building (for Studylink or something I think actually) but has/is being converted into apartments, and they sure managed to squeeze an f-load of them in, six apartments to a floor - and it's not a very big building so I'm not really expecting the Taj Mahal - but it'll be somewhere to live, and it's central, so whatever. Paying $170 a week is exhorbitant - I can't imagine wanting to continue paying that in 2013 - that's crazy money. A WEEK!!! I won't even buy a pair of shorts if they're over $30, but paying that much just to live? Well, I'd almost rather not.

Spending summer in Nelson has been encouraging to get back to Wellington, suck it up and pay the price and here's why: it's boring here. And that's literally it. Having a job has been cute as it helps the weeks pass by and I'm making some money and I shouldn't really be in poverty this year, though I haven't actually done the maths and worked out how much I can spend a week. Basically I'll just spend little and I should be ok, I have savings and emergency loans and things I can get so I won't actually endure poverty, though not being able to go out for coffees and lunch every day might just as well qualify as being in poverty anyway.

My parent's have just abandoned me for yet another weekend, they are obsessed with getting away from Nelson - they may as well just move. (well obviously they shouldn't, but they sure like their holidays) I guess I can't blame them for being active and doing stuff, not like I'd really be spending much time with them if they were here anyway. What are we going together? Sit around all day talking to each-other? Not very likely.

Working tomorrow and Monday so today's my only day off this weekend as I worked yesterday too, so going to hit "Publish" on this blog, go to the gym and then do god knows what.

My Fitness Enemy

2012-01-07T16:33:00.004+13:00

Yesterday I talked about this website, My Fitness Pal, which although cute is driving me crazy! Yes I know I'm not fat, blah blah but I have some toning to do and part of toning is to shed excess fat and no matter what you say I have some and it's not "skin" or "muscle" so everybody that's ever lied to me can suck it and realize the truth because I realize it and then we can realize it together. Capice?

What this website has made me realize is that everything I eat is ridiculously calorie-ridden and even more alarmingly the fact that I am a hopeless glutton! Thing is, maybe it's just my weird 2008 anorexia (not really, well kinda maybe I don't really know) kicking back in but it does feel kind of right to eat less.

The screenshot I posted above I took at the commencement of writing this, showing how much I've eaten, how many calories I've burned (it only registers cardio's calories though - I did weights and things today so... obviously that would've burnt a lot too) and how many I have left to eat. The day goes very slowly when you're hungry, but... I'M HUNGRY. And it's annoying. I've decided I'll have two eggs on two bits of toast and that should do me for dinner which, having calculated, leaves me with 200 calories which I'll probably use to eat some more crackers and hummus which I literally crave. I might give this diet another day to see how I go but then give it a miss because it's so time consuming and I can see myself getting very obsessed.

Edit: I gave up on this diet/website. Too obsessive and not enough food! Was hungry and weak-feeling all day, every day.

Oh Look It's 2012

2012-01-06T17:01:00.000+13:00

Welcome to the first 2012 blog of Joey Nation which has taken me a week to write, obviously because I just had such a wild New Years that I'm only just sobering up. And by "wild New Years" I mean I played Magic: The Gathering with two friends, Brandon and Nathan while forcing them all to watch Lady Gaga's "The Monster Ball" on Vibe channel. I was pretty satisfied and I had a few drinks but it was pretty low-key and I wasn't in much of a party mood. The fact there were no parties to actually attend was a contributing factor. (writing "contributing factor" reminds me so much of history class at Garin - every god damn thing as a "contributing factor")

I've been working pretty regularly and have been making a nice amount of money. After a certain alcohol-soaked laptop incident towards the end of 2011 that infuriated me and caused me grief you wouldn't believe, I splashed out $900 and got a MacBook which yes, is very fanboy and consumerist of me, but I needed a new laptop and these 2nd hand refurbished MacBooks were going on a one-day-deal site so... here I am tapping away on that. Brandon shook his head at me cause he knows (and so do I) that I could've gotten a better one for the same amount of money, or just a little more - but having something fairly simple means I won't waste time playing games. Plus it syncs nicely with my new iPhone 3, another 2nd hand Apple product I inherited (winning!) as a result of a (another history flashback!) dearly beloved's compulsive need to upgrade to the latest and greatest 4S. Not complaining here!

I spend January 1st lazing, drinking a little more (because I'm off the rails) and watching Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin hosting the CNN New Years Eve Live celebratory show which was, as usual, the most hilarious thing ever to existed and those two should literally win an Emmy for "Best New Years Eve Show EVER", although whatever network was broadcasting Gaga's performance at the same time would be a close 2nd. (it wasn't her best performance though - but cute Times Square New Years Ball thing themed outfit)

Not a lot going on in my life really except for work and catching up with friends. Had Ashleigh, Brandon and Nick over on Wednesday night for drinks and movie watching, and we had dinner at Chokdee which was, as usual, amazing. Then we got drunk and danced and stayed up late and were awoken annoyingly early because Nick had to go mountain biking with his sister. Please.

I joined a website called My Fitness Pal which is a calorie counting website but seems to literally have every food on the planet to log and I'm not doing this because I'm being ridiculous about my weight, but it's more for nutritional purposes and to make sure I'm eating healthily. It's a little pedantic and obsessive, but it does seem beneficial to log what you eat and see if there's an unhealthy trend in what you eat and don't really need like my first discovery: toast and cereal for breakfast is a little OTT. One or the other is sufficient for breakfast, although there are days where I'm particularly hungry but I'm going to pretend my hunger is just my inner greed confusing me.

Edit: As a side-note I know I should take more care with my grammar, punctuation and spelling but these blogs are literally word vomit. This means they should be taken with a grain of salt and you should realize I rarely proof read, spell-check or look anything up when stating facts so if you have a problem you're just going to have to get over it.

Christmas (aka. a day off work)

2011-12-25T21:52:00.001+13:00

I think I can proudly boast that, considering the circumstances, I gave Christmas 2011 a pretty decent effort! I worked pretty much the entire week leading up to the big day in what I'm going to say may have been the 2nd or 3rd busiest store in the region, excluding supermarkets. To say I had a downer of a week would be an understatement, but I made some money and will be able to pay off a month's rest which is the upside.

The highlight of the day was definitely when a customer decided to get really riled up and blame the company's "typical useless staff" and of course "[my] generation" solely on me while getting to a point where each and every thing, including an 'eyebrow raise' was perceived as snide and rude. In my defense, eyebrows are often raised when someone is shocked, aghast and bewildered and on an extremely busy day when a store is literally twice busier than it was expected to be (literally meaning literally, we doubled our expected earnings), it seemed extremely appropriate.

To say I wanted to cut a bitch would be the understatement of the ~~year~~ world.

The reality is I'm actually a saint and this was demonstrated by my attendance to Christmas mass purely to support my mum who's been practicing to sing in the church choir for the last 2/3 months and I must admit, the choir was definitely impressive and she was really wrapped when the congregation stood and clapped for them at the end of the service. The whole service killed me but that moment made it worth it, she was so happy! So that was 10pm Christmas eve, then I went home and went to bed pretty much.

I awoke Christmas morning in a sweat immediately sitting up, thinking "OH MY GOD I'VE SLEPT THROUGH MY ALARM I HAVE WORK!!!" but then I realised it was actually Christmas day and I could actually take one of what many would refer to as a chill pill. A definitely brilliant moment I reckon. After a life time of dithering around mum, dad, the dog and I sat around the Christmas tree and did the present opening. It's a pretty sorry affair when it's just you, your parents and your dog but that's our family in Nelson and since we have such lovely close relationships with all of our relatives that was as good as it's going to get.

For our Christmas meal we went to our aunty's house and were joined by... just her. So there was the four of us (and the dog, who obvz comes everywhere) and that was really adorable (...) and we had turkey which was good and my aunty put a lot of effort into the presentation and food prep, so that was all great. However she can be just a TOUCH difficult to talk about, carefree is NOT one of the words you'd use around her. She reminds me of Emily off 'Gilmore Girls' if we're being honest (Lorelai's mum, the grandmother) if you're familiar.

I ran home from my aunty's while my parent's drove, she lives by the intersection in the Enner Glynn area that, if you're driving towards Nelson, you choose to go left to Tahunanui or right to the CBD. So I was planning to run up to and along Rocks Road and then over Day's Track but then I got to the track and the damn track was closed due to the slips caused by the intense rainfall and flooding last week. Brutal. My other run (up the Grampians) is also closed off and annoying for the same reason - grr! Well at least after the next two days work I'll be able to resume a more preferred gym schedule. Haven't done any weights at all all week and my arms are crying for it.

Anyway, the best part of Christmas is still to come - a visitor to Nelson is arriving tomorrow who I am very excited to see and, although a stupid day of work will be cruelly stealing the better part of a day from the person in question, life will somehow go on I'm sure.

Hope everyone had a really cute Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa and... yeah.

P.S. The picture used for this post is a homage to the game Portal. I just stole it off the web illegally cause I'm a bad kid.

Nelson Floods

2011-12-16T00:20:00.001+13:00

The second freak weather occurrence I've been caught up in this year after Wellington's snow, Nelson's floods and severely heavy rain over the last few days. Pretty ridiculous. It's pretty much rained since Monday night, it was raining in the night, rained all of Tuesday and then Wednesday all day, really heavily which got the landslides and flooding happening really badly. Water mains had overflowed, river banks had bursted and everything was just saturated. I had the worst headache from the sound of the rain, constantly, for like 3 days - it's finally subsided this evening and am fortunate our house, which is on a fairly precarious hill one would've thought, has been alright. Bring out the sunshine ASAP and dry everything out!

Purring Like a Machine

2011-12-11T16:13:00.001+13:00

Working, exercising and watching 'Gilmore Girls'. That's all you need to read to know how I've been the last month. Nelson's not a really happening place and working awkward hours (5pm-midnight, please) and other useless shifts (5-9pm) tend to strip me of my day without really offering any type of money-making opportunity. The weather's been considerably pleasant, though lots of cloudy days which although are always a joy, I'm over.

It's the weirdest feeling to have been away having this busy, stressful and super-social year to have gone back to working a meaningless job, having barely any friends and practically nothing to do. I can't say it's been the summer "of my dreams" but it's ticking along alright, really I'm just waiting for next year to get going. I need to start organising things for my flat, and I haven't even applied for 2nd year so I'd better get onto that. Oh and the biggest of beasts, Studylink. The insanity involved in applying for my loan and allowance and living costs (all separate, massive forms of course) and the thought of having to do it all again literally is on the verge of tear-inducing.

The biggest thing I need to do, and a job I decided to take on myself, was to compile a list of all the things we will need (communally) for our flat. I think I'll get onto that now.

Lady Gaga for Mugler - Director's Cut

2011-11-26T00:38:00.001+13:00

Nothing to blog about really, life's ticking along in Nelson with minimal work so desperately trying not to spend anything which has meant I've had to try be a little anti-social in order to save. Desperate times. :/ I love this simple little video, just another cool thing Gaga's done to add to her resume.

No Work, No Play

2011-11-22T00:22:00.001+13:00

Oh life, you really have been the biggest of beasts lately. So for the last two years I've happily had a job over the summer holidays and have sacrificed time and energy to work for beans to make the parents happy and to have a little, albeit probably unnecessary, spending money. I also managed to save a considerably substantial amount that allowed me to sufficiently make it through my first year of university, and enough for a few months rent through the second, working only a few days in each of the university holidays. However, now when I most require work as to save for the most expensive year of my life incoming in 2012, not a shift can be found.

It's very frustrating and to live in a small town is especially grueling as little much else to be had around here to do that's social aside from hanging out with friends and buying food and drinks. It's as simple as that. That's what you do to be social around here, and it's not particularly economical. Sure the beach and the outdoors were all well and good when we were younger, but the awkward times from when you're 18+ truly render all of that overdone, uninteresting and ultimately completely boring. For me anyway. Basically I'm just depressed cause it's not like I want to work, I need to, but I can't even manage that so I've spent the last three days going to the gym, running, watching TV and playing computer games because I have so few friends in Nelson, those who I am close with live here and have routines of study and work I can't easily fit into, and so I have very little to do.

Tomorrow I'll wake up and probably do the exact same, I could go and look for another job but at this time of the year, late summer when both university and highschool is out in a small town, I think I'd be pushing my luck seriously. Fingers crossed the managers at work will dish me out some more hours - need I remind everyone I worked the last two New Year's Days?? Not so fun!

Living the Working Man's Life (Well, Trying To)

2011-11-20T15:08:00.001+13:00

So I'm back in Nelson for summer, aka. where I grew up and spent the year pretending it wasn't the tiniest most rural city in existence. In all honesty I never really quite realized just how small and unimportant the town is, not that it makes it any less pleasant, it just really doesn't have a lot going on. Realized that in the plane flying into Nelson from Wellington, which itself is a very small city, but regardless it dwarfs Nelson. As a result of this revelation and I've subsequently finally understood that I am in fact a small town boy which helps me to understand the bizarre cravings I often get where I just want to be out in the country or in the wilderness or something. The best thing about being home so far has been able to go for wee runs and walks up the hills around the region where not a soul's in sight and I can sing along to my iPod as I run, which I always makes a run go faster. (though I have been caught out by people around blind corners and stuff which is never embarrassing at all).

I was under the impression my work would dish up some decent hours after being an employee for almost three years and having worked all of the worst public holiday hours, sacrificing family time and have made myself available for whenever I'd have been needed, but alas it has gone unrecognized and now when I really need work ($170 a week rent next year anyone?!) I can't get it which is truly unhelpful. Hopefully the tides will turn and I'll be able to scoop up some soon, but it's currently looking as if I'll have to go on a job hunt which in a small town like this with highschool having mostly finished and university having finished over a month ago for many, things aren't looking too hopeful. Will just have to cling in there!

The End's Not Near, It's Here

2011-11-08T15:09:00.001+13:00

So Weir was amazing and the best year of my life, just as everyone always told me it will be, but it is now most unfortunately over and pretty much all my friends have left and here I am left along to weep quietly in my room. Well, not quite, but basically since we're being honest. All the time. Pictured above is my future apartment ─ we've actually secured a room on the 5th floor (at the top) in the middle, facing this way, so... there's my apartment! So whenever anyone asks if we've got a flat I'll roll my eyes and say in a snobby tone "Uhh, flat? It's called a central city apartment, love." Obvz it'll be smaller than christ, but one can't fuss too much when it comes to these things, especially when you're on limited means. (This is the part where you millionaires take pity and deposit large cash sums into my Paypal account, eatyouup@live.com)

Everyone from my pod has moved out today, 'cept for the Residential Advisor who I'm pretty sure spends like 5 minutes a day here, so I can officially play my music as loud as I want and come and go as I please, not that I couldn't anyway, but it is a little lonely I guess. All of my best friends have left already which is pretty weep-worthy in my opinion. Ella and Emma left on Saturday which was very upsetting, leaving Bonnie and I for Sunday and Monday and then late on Monday evening me and a very good friend took Bonnie to the airport and it was very, very sad. Anyway ─ it's not like I'll be alone, have got a few out-of-Weir friends I can potentially hang out with so all'll be well.

The only preparation for moving that has been accomplished is me buying a huge overpriced box from the store Storage Box which is way across town (well not that far, but far enough to complain when you're carrying a big awkward box) and had to haul it across town and to the cable car because it kept banging into my legs and hips and was just overall annoying. Need a car. ;-; Reason for it is that I managed to score a spot to store it over the holidays, and because the person in question is aesthetically interested, I got a pretty (well, coloured) box which he'll love more than the fibres of life itself. Now off to the gym I go for a MUCH needed workout, even though I've had no energy since Jesus' first coming.

Life Without Lady Gaga?!

2011-10-26T06:53:00.002+13:00

OK, this isn't even funny really ─ I am becoming LITERALLY obsessed with Lady Gaga and it's almost embarrassing, but not really because I think she's awesome and someone worth paying attention to. I dreamt last night that Lady Gaga didn't exist, but I thought she did and whenever I would talk about her people would always raise their eyebrows and be like "Who?" Meat dress? WTF?" and I was always trying to convince them she was real. All my posters, calenders, music and magazine covers with her on them had disappeared and I couldn't find any proof of her existence! It was pretty traumatic.

The benefit of that dream being true is that I could have rewritten all her big hits and found some lowly music producer and singer who'd have put them together and I would have got the writing credit. Or maybe I could have just gotten some lowly producer to edit the life out of my own vocals and have tried to release it myself. I wonder if that would have worked, I'm pretty sure 'Poker Face,' 'Just Dance,' and 'Bad Romance' were destined to be iconic, amazing songs regardless. I'd also say the entire album of 'Born This Way' but there are sceptics out there. I guess the other songs have done well, but I was surprised at how quickly 'Judas' passed everyone by. I'm pretty sure that song is AMAZING and everyone underrated it. Oh well, your problem.

I think the fact that this blog has, and has had for a fairly long time, a Lady Gaga layout pretty much just says more than I could ever write. Plus there's like pictures of her in the side-bar and things. I love it.

Edit: As it turns out, today is 'Bad Romance's 2nd birthday ─ check out the music video here and it get it back on top of the most watched clips on YouTube where it belongs.

Miss You Already Rugby World Cup

2011-10-25T13:46:00.002+13:00

If someone last year had told me that, while watching the Rugby World Cup final, that I'd be a tense, nervous wreck feeling waves of nausea - I'd have eyerolled, made some extraordinarily witty remark and resumed Twittering on my phone about Lady Gaga. However! In a shocking turn of events, that's exactly how I found myself. Well, along with being a little drunk - but I was drinking (mostly) the official RWC sponsor's beer, Heineken. Not that I'm some super anti-sport person, I'm not, but surely even the most intense of rugby lovers must be able to, at some point in their lives, step back and think "What a ruthless, barbaric game of pain and tolerance" opposed to precision and agility which I'm sure would be their usual argument. I still think it's a pretty stupid game idolizing masculinity and oppressing anything effeminate in the usual homophobic New Zealand fashion, but like it or not I got caught up in the Rugby World Cup.

I don't suppose I'd have cared so much if I was still living in Nelson, but living in Wellington, the good ol' capital, I kinda got swept away by it all. I was the epitome of the rugby cynic that everybody hates "Ugh, rugby's so stupid" and probably would have argued what I already argued just before, which remains true, but for dumb reasons that were really just "I don't like rugby". (Grammatical question - does the full stop go after or before the speech mark? I'd always thought after, but a tutor of mine tried to tell me it was the other way around.) Anyway - now that I understand the game (more then before anyway) I think I'll be able to watch games in future without scoffing at them so whole-heartedly, even if it is a a pretty primal game.

Why I'm Absurd

2011-10-20T18:24:00.002+13:00

I was going to write quite a dramatic post, but I've decided that my days of being melodramatic and writing huge emotional sob-stories (not that it's really a "sob-story) on the Internet are numbered. But the other day I pretty much went swimming for the first time in like 3 years, and it was quite a big deal! The sob-story is why I haven't been swimming, but we'll skim over that (as in, not talk about it) and be excited that I a) can still swim and b) have rediscovered a passion I had for it when I was little!

I'm not saying I want to get into competitive swimming, but I forgot how it is such good exercise. I always had it in my mind it was a lazy form of exercise, naive I know, but it wore me out like I couldn't believe ─ it really does seem to work out literally every muscle. Anyway, so I know what I'll be doing on my summer days off in Nelson. I'll be heading down to Hampden Street pool, paying whatever obscene price it probably is these days, on top of the child-to-adult increase I'll now have to pay as an 18+. Oh life's trials. Whatever, I'll be fit and naturally tan which believe me, neither have happened in a very long time.

Yesterday the weather was looking good so Ella, Bonnie and I set off for Oriental Beach in hope of a swim and some sunbathing. Sadly and typically for us, by the time we got there the wind had picked up, the sun had clouded over and the water was less than half a degree. I died. Still, Bonnie and Ella in their desperation to flaunt their taunt bikini bodies still got in for a quick dip. Obviously I wasn't foolish enough to do so, and fortunately, as they complained about the cold the whole way home. Fools.

Summer After All, Nearly

2011-10-17T15:03:00.005+13:00

Seems like 5 minutes ago I was blogging my despair over how horrifying my initial experiences were regarding life in Wellington, and here I am in the last 3 weeks of my year at Weir House and about time to move out. Crayzay days! It's definitely been one of the most eventful and obviously the most expensive year of my life, but I wouldn't have changed it for anything! It's not over yet ─ I still have a Film essay to begin, FML, and two exams (Media and English/Theatre) but otherwise I'm done with classes and annoying tutorials, which I detest, so that's all well and good isn't it. Should be studying in some shape or form for my exams or getting that essay to be quite honest, but giving myself one more day off until I get stuck in. Besides, weather's supposed to be shit tomorrow which is kinda motivating to do work. Sort of.

I watched the 2011 Rugby World Cup semi-final, regarded by most as the unofficial final considering it was the All Blacks against the Wallabies and no one seems to think France has a hope in hell, regardless of having made it to the final. Their win against Wales was quite the shocker, and everyone uses the whole "bad luck" and "bad game for Wales" to explain it but at the end of the day, it's a god damn sports game and anyone can win it with the right amount of flukes and tricks. But if we're being honest, which we always are, the All Blacks were phenomenal last night and France doesn't have a hope. Do you like how I say "we" as if there's some lucrative team input behind the creation of this blog post? You just never know. (even though you obvz do)

Not a lot else to report on ─ underwent a series of savy shopping expedition which landed me with a jacket, new shorts (that I could wear casually and get away with at work, which reminds me to e-mail my boss and beg for work) and a sweater for the somewhat bargain price of $80. Alright, so it's not so cheap because the shorts were $40 from overpriced Hallensteins, but whatever - somedays I get fed up with my own excessive stinginess. As my friend Oscar would tell me, "Loosen the purse strings."

A nice picture of the summer I hope to enjoy (although, in all honesty, be a little bored from) at Marahau, Abel Tasman is the picture I posted at the beginning of this post. I think it's on the Northern side of the beach so basically if you do a 180° from the angle the photo is taken you should be able to see our bach. I stole the image from some site called BugBog which is horrible of me as I didn't ask permission or do anything very ethical, but at least I acknowledged my own treachery.

Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga - The Lady Is A Tramp

2011-10-06T11:57:00.002+13:00

I love this duet off of Tony Bennett's latest album featuring Lady Gaga singing "The Lady is a Tramp" which is a pretty famous song. I don't know why or where I know it from, but it's a familiar song and I knows lots of the words. Amy Winehouse singing "Body And Soul" is also featured on the album which is super good.

Ambitions

2011-10-04T19:30:00.003+13:00

I'm not entirely sure what's wrong with me as of late, but my sweet-tooth's been on overdrive and every living second of the day I just want some cake, biscuits, muffin, slices or, as featured above: VANILLA CAKE WITH STRAWBERRY CREAM AND ICING! How f-ing good does it look? My Tumblr, which was a celebrity (well, Gaga) shrine has begun to morph into a food blog and I'm having serious cravings. I've been exercising more than usual, as well as eating less fatty foods, so my body's screaming out for more - which it's not getting, well, considering if I can control myself.

Moving on from my inner resident of the city of O-bee (aka. Obesity - get it?), shit's getting a bit serious in these parts. Lots going on ─ the most annoying of which is currently my essay, due Friday, for MDIA102 which may have yet to have taken physical shape but I assure you the ideas are swirling... *fingers crossed* I need to do a fookload more reading up on it, which I intend to do after I post this blog, but figured it'd be a nice little segway from lectures and dinner into studying.

So what's going on with me? Assuming you care (which I do), things have been going pretty well, surprisingly smoothly in fact and no huge dramas. Well I'm not talking to a certain someone, but that's not surprising or ground-breaking and no one who went to high school would die of surprise. Trust me, the person in question deserves it - the c**t. Had a breakfast date this morning which was cute and got to introduce two of my besties to a special someone, and I believe (or am choosing to think) everyone loved every second of it. I know I did. We went to Wholly Bagels and made use of their coffee and bagel for $6 deal (before 11am) which no one's complaining about. It's just a bagel with your choice of cream cheese, but it was delicious and filling enough - although it does make me question the days when two slices of toast would do me for breakfast? Guess that was my weird ano/anxiety stage in like year 10/11 when I could never eat anything in the morning or overeat ever or else I'd get extreme nausea and, often, actually throw up. I always thought it was anxiety, but my friend's mum told me it was because I had grown very quickly (and have stretch marks to show for it, FML) and my stomach had not grown at the same rate, meaning my body was craving more nutrients and vitamins (often referred to as: food) which my stomach didn't have the capacity to facilitate. Buuuuutttt we can go for the bulimia story if you'd like because it's scandalous. (not to make light of a serious disease)

I hate to say this but I'm dreading summer, because it means four months of ultimate boredom in Nelson and I don't have many friends there and there really is nothing to do, and I'd love to spend summer in Wellington if we're being quite honest. Good reasons for being here, but at the same time being stuck in a city in summer maybe wouldn't be so ideal and at least Nelson has beaches/rivers etc. closer that I'll be able to make the most of. I'm going to try really hard to stop worrying about my stupid body and just ENJOY summer and go swimming, sunbathing and shit. I haven't really been to the beach since I was like 13, and swimming was like one of few passions, and I wish I'd have kept up with it, but not too late to get back into it. Jeez, this post is getting a heavy - argh, fark it. Nothing I haven't talked about before on this blog.

I would enjoy writing on this blog a thousand times more if I got a layout/design makeover for it, can't stand it right now - had this Gaga/Paparazzi theme for a million years and it's cute but I'm over it. Since obvz no one's going to help me I'll get stuck into it over summer one rainy day and get it sussed. I'm quite into food lately so perhaps a food theme of some sort? Who knows. I want to do a fuckload of baking over the holidays to get some serious recipes sussed - the day of useless, skill-less Joey is now on. Especially on this blog, it's my nation and I'll be doing what I want.

Dear Blogger

2011-09-29T10:46:00.002+13:00

Dear Blogger,

How've you been lately? I've been out of action, I know, and I can explain myself. Although you've faithfully hosted my blogs all these many years - something's come up. Well, you know how images are really pretty and can be flogged off the internet with ease... well, I've come to the conclusion that, that's a bit easier than writing a blog. You see, Tumblr allowed me to blog and reblog images, quotes, videos, audio and chats to an extent superior to what you allow me to do.

Now Blogger, this definitely isn't the end. Joey Nation, the blog, will never be abandoned or forgotten, but if you're wondering why you haven't heard from me. Just head over to Joey Nation, the Tumblr, if you want to find me more frequently. Or obviously, my Twitter is in frequent use by me, more-so than Facebook. Be in touch soon!

Lots of love,

Joey Sauer.

P.S. You'll always be my real favourite.

P.S.S. You look gorgeous with your new sheek design.

Celebrity of the Week: Kelly Clarkson

2011-09-17T13:09:00.002+12:00

Kelly Clarkson, one of the only Idol winners of any country's versions of the show to actually continue and sustain a career after the show, seems to be the type of singer that has to really work hard to remain relevant. I haven't heard any of her music since the 'All I Ever Wanted' album, but I know it's been leak-city and a tonne of her demos were leaked/hacked or something that she wasn't very pleased about.

One of my favourite Kelly songs is "Already Gone" which had that big scandal because it was so similar to Beyonce's "Halo", but in my opinion it wasn't really that similar, and anyway the issue was that, even though Beyonce had released "Halo" earlier - Kelly (or whoever) had actually written and recorded her song before Beyonce did, so... who really knows what's up. Who cares though, I love the song and I wish Kelly continued success. I think she recently dropped a new single, but I have yet to check it out. Will do so ASAP.

On the Horizon

2011-09-16T16:34:00.000+12:00

Feels like a day ago I was melting down about moving to Wellington, to Weir, and crazily enough it's already time for me to commence my next emotional crisis - finding a flat! I swear I'm still like 12 sometimes and feel it ridiculous someone'd be willing to trust me with a flat, and that I can pay for it with a loan that one day I'll have to pay back in some horrific drawn-out process. This whole being-in-debt thing is no fun, ugh, student life - dear god please make my degree pay off.

I never blog any more, I'm so uninspired to sit at this computer and type away things. I'm not even a very good writer so it's like I'm trying to say I am, just because I write this dumb blog. The fact I've been doing it for ages is more of an incentive to keep it going than anything else. Still, it can be nice! Haven't got much to do this afternoon, everyone seems to be out or have work to do but I don't have anything looming too close, however I do have exams and do not understand the entire subject that is Media 102 so a few readings wouldn't kill, let's be honest.

I made cookies this morning - vanilla cookies with M&M's on top? They're a little bit exciting, except I didn't use enough grease so they stuck to the tray a little bit. They actually taste pretty much exactly like Subway's cookies, which are delicious(ly fatty), so yay. I'm going to go to a gym class at 5.30pm, called power, which is a mix of weights and pilates/step kind of thing. My body is ever so slowly beginning to look somewhat summer ready, and this'd be the first summer of my 19 years of life of it being ready, if it is, so that'd be exciting to be able to go to a beach/pool and not look 100% dreadful.

Who should I do for Celebrity of the Week? Leave a comment and alert me to your existence.

I Love Cows

2011-09-07T11:29:00.003+12:00

I wish I knew why, but I am secretly really obsessed with dairy cows/cattle? God knows why, it's not like I've ever had anything to do with them in my life. But I love them. Look at the cute wee things! Even though they're not so 'wee', they are cute with their peering eyes and long eyelashes. I love them!

The Anti-Blogger

2011-08-19T19:39:00.001+12:00

There's no good reason I've blogged only like, once a week for the last two months almost. To be honest, and try to believe it, I've been wanting to keep things to myself a little bit lately rather than post 'em all over the internet! Life's not so bad right now, uni's been going alright, friends have been pretty good and all other areas of life have been going rather successfully also! I'm fitter than I've been in my entire life, right now, which is a pretty worthy accomplishment! Not quite abs and pecs just yet, but in well due time! Hard to really get committed to the gym when the day after a good workout I feel hopelessly exhausted, which is me today. Lots of cardio lately which is good for overall well-being, and shall hopefully endeavour to go on plenty more runs in Nelson.

I've decided I'm quite a fan of treadmills because they force you to stick at a good speed, and if I crank it up to 12.5km an hour (I think that's what 12.5 means on the treadmill, what I usually run at) and put a decent incline on it, it means I'm getting some serious cardio! I can never last beyond 15 minutes without needing a break, but I'm impressed with myself even if you're not. I get bored on the cardio machines though, and they're tiring cause I always try and go so hardout, so I usually do three different cardio's (like rowing, exercycle, treadmill, stepper, cross-trainer etc.) for 15mins each on a good cardio day, and then do some serious sit-ups, stretches and occasionally push-ups (which I hate!).

I'm heading out tonight for the first time in three weeks! It's gonna be frozen, so better hurry up and start drinking, but not too much. We're having some kind of weird mid-winter Christmas supper thing at our hall which is cute, but wouldn't be so if I was wasted so perhaps a few drinks before I go out.

Heading home on Monday! Going back to an empty house, well with my dog so not alone, but will be a little lonely. Can't help but think a little alone time will be quite self-realigning because, at the risk of sounding dramatic, I've been pretty swamped with all the comings-and-goings of uni life that I haven't really stepped back and just done the usual things I like to do like reading, videogames, outdoor runs etc. Plus I miss my Nelson friends, Ashleigh and Brandon especially - the good ol' reliable's, so to see them is always a bonus of being home! Hopefully getting some work also, have e-mailed and texted my boss so he'd better be in the know that I'm coming home. Haven't actually heard if I'm getting any work, but I think after two years in a row of Easter Monday's, Christmas Eve's, Boxing Day's and the ultimately awful New Year day's (TWO YEARS IN A ROW, 8 HOUR DAYS - STARTING EARLY!) that they could hook me up with a little work. The sad thing is I just know I'll end up working the same days again... oh well, time-and-a-half pay is always enough to lure me in.

Celebrity of the Week: Sarah Brightman

2011-08-16T11:49:00.001+12:00

I have a funny feeling I've already done Sarah Brightman as one of my wee Celebrity of the Week's, but whatever - I continue to love her (even though I haven't bothered to get any of her new music, assuming she has some, in over a year I think) and came across the image used above while scouring through all the photos of my computer and I remember how much I loved the style of the photo shoot. The photo is from her album 'Symphony's promotional photos and I thought they were great, and the album was also great!

For those that don't know Sarah, and not that many do, she's an extremely successful UK singer and to pinpoint her exactly, I had to pay Wikipedia a little visit to see just what exactly she is, and according to it she is a "classical crossover soprano, actress, songwriter and dancer." Sounds about right to me!

The moment I really fell in love with Sarah was in the 2008 Beijing Olympics opening ceremony when she popped out of the enormous globe that came out of the ground and on top of it, along with the Chinese singer Liu Huan, sung the theme song ("You and Me") to, according to Wikipedia, an estimated four billion people. It was a pretty moving moment I humbly thought!

Oh, just realised Sarah hasn't actually released a studio album since 'Winter Symphony', a Christmas album which came out shortly after 'Symphony' - it had some good covers of famous songs. I just reckon she has the perfect voice and is beautiful to go with it, always a winning combo.

Getting On With Things, Kinda

2011-08-10T20:04:00.000+12:00

This week's been uneventful, and unexerciseful (NOT GOOD) due to my current tonsillitis which is slowly getting better. I can see why I have to have a ten day course of antibiotics as it's not clearing up in a hurry. Bugger I had to start the course on a Saturday which means two ENTIRE weekend drinking plans have been thwarted, though I'm still miserable about being so sober at the god damn ball. I want my $60 back! Although in saying that I spent $25 on food alone this morning (yeah, I had a breakfast date and you didn't, suck it) so... can't really act like the money is THAT valuable. But in my defence this morning was a one-off and I am now onto a gruelling regime of frugality which must not be broken.

The things I must resist spending on the most is those annoying little purchases of snacks and drinks in town that I do not need, and are unhealthy, and the cost adds up. The food at Weir is officially something I for one am over, but considering it's already paid for I kinda need to STFU, gobble it all up and then starve. Next year, if I can't afford the gym, I will simple run, do sit-ups and press-ups and eat little so I will be thin and toned. Though I'm only feeling that way because I haven't been to the gym in over a week now which is depressing (tonsillitis! Not just being laze) but since it's been out of my routine for so many days (feels like an age) I'm really dreading the thought of lifting those god awful weights and all that huffing and puffing, sweating and the annoying walk to and from the gym. Actually I'll probably live a million miles from the gym next year which'd be a large contributing factor into whether I'd sign up at uni or not. Maybe I'll beg my parents to pay for me to go to a proper gym, because I would, but I doubt I could afford it myself.

Today I started work on my film assignment, which is a group presentation of a 12-shot storyboard sequence of any sequence of whatever we want really. We made up a detective film noir movie introduction that we decided to take photographs of for our storyboard. The group members I'm with are randoms from my film tutorial, but they're all pretty cool and we didn't struggle too much on deciding a genre and a basic plot outline. Basically it's a story of a damsel in distress who comes to a detective for help (we're not entirely sure with what) and he refuses because he's cynical and sullen, which is the detective stock character from the genre. He gives her his business card regardless and takes off, but is found dead later on with his card in her hand. That's what our intro sequence depicts anyway and I play the detective, and the damsel's killed in a graveyard so I spent about an hour hanging out in a graveyard looking stoic and butch, in skinny jeans and ridiculously shiny black "leather" (aka. plastic) shoes. It really worked*, but it doesn't matter because the shots are there for a visual example, we just have to explain our ideas well (as it's a ten minute presentation) and talk about what we would do if we had the props, resources, lighting etc. It's pretty cool! Tomorrow we're just going to shoot some of the office shots and then we're done! :)

Can't say there's much else going on, might get stuck into my media assignment which is due on Monday but probably not because I have Friday / Saturday and Sunday to work on it. Film's a piece of piss regarding the write-up and I have an Theatre essay due Friday which is also not very worrying, so it's only the Media I need to worry about and I'll have three solid days (well, including tomorrow afternoon) to get stuck in. Gotta love it.

Why You Can't Complain About Your Life

2011-08-08T11:01:00.000+12:00

To say last week was pretty shit would be un poco of an understatement and here's why. First of all, I was sick as a dog with what I thought was a cold so suffered through the week wondering why it was getting worse, well until I found out rigorous exercise and binge eating doesn't help either, so I eventually was persuaded into going to the doctor. So anyway I hadn't been to the uni doctor before and I had to fill out all these forms that some bored, eye-rolling (well, basically) woman gave me. First I had to see a nurse to see if I could go to a doctor, and this was at like 3pm. So I saw the nurse after like 15mins and she was like "Yep, you should see a doctor" and I was thinking 'Fook!' cause it might be serious.

So I waited, and I waited, and I waited. And all of a sudden it was 5pm, two hours later, and the hopeless staff look over as they're obvz about to close and one of the receptionists yells out "Excuse me! Is your name Joey?" and I'm like "Yeah" and then she realised that she or the nurse or some shiz forgot to put me on the doctor's list which I would just like to say is BEYOND typical of my useless life. These sorts of things always happen to me and I was really not surprised, just in disbelief over my bad luck. The one bonus is that I had trawled through every f-ing article on the Guardian, Celebitchy and Gawker on my mobile which is all I can really get (well, and Twitter/Facebook of course) on my phone cause it's a tad prehistoric. So the doctor finally saw me and I felt kind of bad but not really cause if I had to wait 2 hours, she could stay 10 minutes over time. Whatever, she was nice and then she diagnosed me with f-ing tonsillitis which is really hot the night before the Weir House ball. But then I had to go on ANTIBIOTICS which meant, if I wanted to have a hope in getting well, that I couldn't drink.

The next, but unfortunately (and typically) not the last miserable thing to happen to me last week was that, at my hall, we played this (childish) secret admirers game where everyone filled out a little sheet saying our fave food, colours, bands, songs etc. and handed them all in and we all got given someone else's and then had to do nice things for them throughout the week and ideally you'd reveal yourself at the ball. Well I got a guy who lives in A.B. house which is this annoying building separate to the main building of my hall so it's pretty difficult to be 'unnoticed' when you can be blatantly be seen by the world heading across the courtyard into A.B. (it's actually got a proper name, I just forgot what A.B. stands for.) Anyway, although my week was already pleasant thanks to illness, I had to endure everyone getting cool gifts, signs on their door and cute notes around the house. Wanna know what I got? NOTHING. I gave my guy a few signs and a cheesecake thing (cause he said that was his fave food) but I probs didn't go as OTT as I probably could/should have, but shockingly I was uninspired. I swear everybody got something except for me, and it was just typical and stupid. Emma, my friend, even made me a sign and put it on my door out of sympathy but I had a feeling it was her due to the writing and she 'fessed up.

The last, but not final, misery I'll complain about in this blog is the Weir Ball situation which I'll resist complaining about, but will just ask for anyone who was attending... was it really a 'ball' and was it really worth $60? God no is the correct answer. Anyway, thanks to my antibiotics and tonsillitis I couldn't drink and had to attend sober, while looking shit with a fat neck cause I have huge swollen glands which are pretty sexy. So the ball sucked for me, and it probably serves me right for being pessimistic about it beforehand, but it was still pretty gross (the venue), expensive and we were supposed to get two drinks that we'd pre-paid for but because I couldn't drink I only got two lame Cokes, and you'd think they could throw in a third considering it was 99% ice cubes and way cheaper than alcohol, but no. Overall being sober ruined it, which is pretty sad, but it was also a very long ball, from 8pm-12am (midnight) so I was a bit over it and felt sick. And the music sucked.

If my blog title was still 'Being Joey' like it was when originally founded, I'd make some charming comment about how it basically sucks.

Pick Up Lines

2011-08-02T11:41:00.001+12:00

This cracked me up! I was even more impressed when I realised it was made by a New Zealand artist, check out his work at http://www.loadingartist.com. I see his work around Tumblr a LOT so yay for being a Kiwi.

A Walk Down Memory Lane

2011-07-29T01:34:00.000+12:00

Not much in the mood to write a proper blog, though I'd sure have the content to fill it if I was that desperate to detail my private life on the internet, but think I'll give it a miss! Instead I'mma revisit the formation of this blog actually.

I remember I decided to make this blog after watching 'The View' (I'm pretty sure) and two women were talking and one casually dropped into conversation something about her blog and the other responded saying "Oh my god! You blog?" and the other excitedly shreaking "Yes! I'm obsessed!" and the other also getting exciting proclaiming how much she blogged too. It was because of those two woman, god bless 'em whoever they were (I think they were guests, not hosts), that I went and created my first blog which was actually called 'Being Joey' cause I wasn't very inventive. Though you'll also learn 'Joey Nation' isn't very inventive either. I suck at titles.

So I created 'Being Joey' and it was a super boring blog and I remember I would theme my blog just by changing the banner to something weird I liked, like Final Fantasy, Paris Hilton or some depressing image of the moon. Anyway, eventually I decided to change it (mostly cause everyone at school had found it and were making fun of it) and I wasn't quite ready to divulge my blog to the world at that stage so the url change caused the fools to lose it, for a while anyway... the problem is when you type my name, this is often the first hit on Google. Impossible to hide on the internet if you share your name!

The name 'Joey Nation' was literally just stolen from a website I used to vacate, well I still do fairly often, which was at the time called 'Sweetbox-Nation' but has since been renamed 'Jade-Nation'. I never gave Nem, the site's founder, credit for that so... sorry about that Nem! I guess I didn't think I'd have the same blog 2/3 years down the track so I guess every user on that site must eyeroll at me whenever they see my blog. I actually even forgot about that until the other day when I thought of it and was embarrassed at how lame I was blatantly stealing their idea. But who knows, I might change the name again! I'm not very impressed with the title 'Joey Nation' but I've yet to find another way to incorporate my name into something yes. Surely there's something I can do with my last name, Sauer, as it is pronounced the exact same as "sour".

This current theme was inspired my, of all places, a Neopet guild. I remember in year 12 (don't ask, like two years ago) I decided to revisit my old Neopet account and wound up pretty into it for about a fortnight and joined this Lady Gaga guild (ie. fan page type thing) and they incorporated that image of Gaga from the 'Paparazzi' video (which is at around 2.21 in the video) and made it into the limit. The background is supposed to resemble studs and they were originally black but I inverted the colour as it didn't suit the header banner. The toughest thing in my entire blog was the f-ing transparency! If you can't tell, the background is actually visible underneath the blog and images (which wasn't supposed to happen re imaged, but you win some, you lose some) and I really liked that effect as I could do it on photo editing software but I had to find a way to do it through HTML/CSS. Took me FOREVER researching the coding and finding where to insert it onto the fortunately editable HTML blog template but I managed, and here you have the finished product before you! Not much, but not shabby considering I don't really know anything about photoshopping and/or coding. So that's the story of my blog.

The Highs and Lows of University

2011-07-23T18:37:00.000+12:00

A rather lengthy space of time in between this and my lost post, isn't there? Been quite uninspired as of late, resuming another semester, well 'trimester' as Vic Uni calls it, hasn't really tingled my creative streak quite yet. My new timetable's pretty lame compared to last semester's because I have longer days, harder work and overall, more boring work. My Theatre paper is actually an English paper also so we've been looking at poetry which reminds me of when we studied poetry and prose at highschool last year, which sucked. Also, my media paper is actually philosophy in disguise and there's a million boring readings each week and I've only done week 1's and considering it's week 3 this coming week, I'd better power through them! Film's been quite good, some interesting movies have been watched but some lame ones also. Not entirely sure what the significance of the film's we watch has been but I guess we'll get an assignment based on them loosely or something.

Tonight our floor's going out for a BYO dinner, which means we'll all be getting comfortable drunken with a bottle of wine each, I imagine, and 'hitting town' afterwards. The downside of this fun-sounding plan is the fact that the weather today has been horrendously windy, rainy and freezing. Still, we shall persist onwards and have a splendid dinner and I shall eat more than medically recommended.

Jesus is the new black.

Celebrity of the Week: Nicole Scherzinger

2011-07-07T15:42:00.001+12:00

Since getting Nicole's latest album 'Killer Love', my faith in her potential as a solo artist has dramatically risen! It's a pretty decent pop album with plenty of R&B roots and I was quite impressed with it, have been listening to it non-stop for the last few days. When I think about it, it's a surprise she's not more of a celebrity because she's beautiful, a great singer and has been involved in a tonne of things. I mean there's the Pussycat Dolls who of course were massive a couple of years back, and then she released some considerably good songs from herself off the album 'Her Name Is Nicole' (which was never actually released), won last years Dancing with the Stars tenth season and is a judge on the American version of 'The X Factor' which is a pretty massive show. Not sure if it's airing yet or not, but either way that'll mean a lot of exposure. Hopefully her career will flourish as a result of the exposure, much like what happened to Jennifer Lopez whose awful song 'On The Floor' is everywhere.

Nicole does have a tendency to look a lot like Kim Kardashian, and she has a very mix-and-match style but regardless I think 'The X Factor' is going to be a pretty massive show, especially considering Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul are going to be on it too. Quite exciting! I always felt bad for Paual, I quite like her (mainly cause she's tweeted me a few times) and her leaving/firing/whatever from American Idol was kind of sad. All about getting way less pay than the other judges I think? Oh well. Big things ahead for Nicole I think!

Why I Need To Crawl in a Hole and Die [Updated]

2011-07-05T17:39:00.001+12:00

Decided, after 3 weeks of blissfully gym-free Nelson, that it was time to get my a into g and get back to the gym since I'm in Wellington. So off I went and did my usual half-assed routine, which seems to have whittled me down over the years so it can't be too bad. Then, I spied the bench press, an old friend of mine I haven't bothered with since the gym in Nelson 6 months ago.

Alright, here is where the embarrassment really kicks in. So, stupidly I didn't realize the fact that the bar was MASSIVE probably meant it was also very heavy. Plus having 20kg weights on either side, it was probably a 70kg weight in total. I am 70kgs FFS. Anyway, I went to see if I could give it a little heave ─ it didn't budge. So like a fool I downgraded it to only 15kg weights on either side, and got underneath. Gave it a budge, got it off the rail and then HOLYSHITFUCKCHRIST I WAS STUCK. And JUST as I was about to drop it on my ribs, break 'em and die a miserable, gorey death, a big jock I was previously sneering at for making a big huff-and-puff racket doing sets, swooped over to the rescue and saved me.

I said thank you and he explained to me something about how my "chest could've lifted it" but my "arms couldn't manage" and it was "uneven" but all I knew was that I need to avoid bench presses for a very long time. So thank god for him, but I'm pretty sure I caused a scene and I must've looked like the biggest fool and I want to die. That is all. I'm not entirely sure why I assumed I would be able to lift a heavier weight now, after 6 months of avoiding proper bench presses, then when I was actually doing them somewhat regularly. The 2011 Fool award goes to me.

UPDATE:
So today I went to the gym, and annoyingly enough the exact same guy who saved me yesterday was in front of me. Well, it's not 'annoying' but kinda embarrassing after he came to my rescue. So I was doing little bicep exercises with handweights standing quite far back from the mirror, and he came in front of me and started doing the same exercise but a slightly more pro version and I'm pretty sure he was just showing me the correct way of doing it. Then afterwards he came over and talked to me and demonstrated why I got stuck in that horrible position yesterday and said he's seen it 'lots before' and was being really nice about it. For a super muscly good-looking jock, he was really cool about it! He told me I should be resting my arms that day and working on my back and showed me some exercises & every so often came over and told me if I was doing good or whatever. He was dithering around the door when I left so I thanked him and was like "See you around." and... yeah. So we're basically best friends now and I don't feel so embarrassed about yesterday. Loves it!

Things Are Looking Up

2011-07-02T19:25:00.003+12:00

I wrote this blog a day or two ago, but it was refusing to post so... here you go now.

Time for a cheerful blog, which probably won't seem all that cheerful as I find optimism and over-the-top happiness sickening. I belief in how Kathy Griffin feels, she's just so maxed-out on positive energy and a little negativity and sniping wouldn't hurt. Well not really, but it's a nice way of looking at it. Still, Joey is a happy chap as of late and those who matter know why! So my holiday at home in Nelson doesn't have a lot of time left in it. Today's Thursday, I'll probably hang out with my friends on Friday, working my probable last day for a while at Rebel Sport on Saturday, will go out that night with Ashleigh too most likely, Sunday I'll be tired, hungover and will pack, and Monday I'm off! It's a little bittersweet because home is so relaxing and I can watch television, play Playstation, turn my music up real loud and sing along when my parents are out and dance wildly. Still, I do miss everybody at Weir and it will be good to see people again, not that it's really been that long.

I don't have a heck of a lot else to report really. Well I do, but staying true of keeping personal life 'personal', I will shut the christ up. Yesterday Ashleigh and I had planned to see 'Bad Teacher' with Cameron Diaz in it, which I should do a review on since I haven't done one for a while. Anyway, we met up at Brandon's (name drop cause I know he scans through just to see his name) house at 12pm cause the movie wasn't until 2.50pm and Nick, Nathan, Josef and his uni friend Michael (I think that's his name...) were there too. It was pretty xxx-citing stuff. Ash and I were starved so we went off to get lunch, after announcing a thousand times that, that was what we were doing, and we went on got Subway (a salad) and a sushi ball. I was still starving after that just FYI. Anyway, when we came back, Nick was all mad cause he didn't realise we were only going for lunch which was dumb, but whatever. I wasn't up for their lunch of chips and sour snake lollies. Which reminds me they mocked me for always saying "I'm on a diet" to make myself sound superior, which I probably do cause I haven't really committed to a diet for more than a day for a long time. I have many valiant plans all the time though, which I think counts.

Ashleigh and I barely made the movie, but we arrived JUST as it started which was perfect timing. It was a really good movie! I loved it. Dirty humour, slutty lead character - highly recommended. Best movie I've seen in a while I must say, quite funny, but a little corny in parts and very predictable. Oh well. Then afterwards we went and got a drink, quite a big drink in fact, an almost-two litre jug of cider which is my latest drink of choice, well, for casual drinking anyway. Not 'getting drunk' drinking obviously as you'd have to drink like 10l to get properly in a good state for town. Which some might seem a poor state, their loss.

Celebrity of the Week: January Jones

2011-06-26T13:31:00.001+12:00

This is a bit overdue, but I don't care. January Jones was amazing as Emma Frost in 'X-Men: First Class' and she was stunning and managed the role flawlessly. Frost is supposed to be an ice cold bitch, and January played it out very well. Guess she's not a hit-and-miss actress after all! Though she got some negative reviews for her acting, but I think she was great. However there are stories that she's a super stuck-up bitch in real life, so I hope those are untrue. Though honestly, I doubt they are.

Another thing I liked January for was because she became a spokesperson for Oceana which is an organisation which works to save endangered sharks which is so random but I love it. Hopefully she did it out of charity, rather than money, but who's buying that?

Werking It Out

2011-06-18T21:09:00.000+12:00

Got back from Wellington at an unusually ungodly hour, kindly booked my by dad of course. I've said it once and I'll say it another 23 times, I need to learn how to book plane tickets. I'm not a technophobe but I can just see myself booking the most expensive flight or booking it the wrong way somehow. Anyway, I met up with Ashleigh and Brandon early that afternoon and decided to stroll into Briscoes and just let them know I was in town and that, if they had any work for me, they should call me. The manager recommended me onto Rebel Sport, which is owned by the same company obviously.

I went to Rebel and managed to hunt down the manager in the new store. Since Briscoes' lease has run out where it is now, it has decided to move into the Rebel Sport store and Rebel is moving into a new, purpose built building next door. Makes sense considering they're the same company, right? So Rebel just so happens to be moving into that store now which means they're basically running two stores and they're short staffed and so they needed me! However, they needed me quite badly. I ended up getting work all day Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday and today I was offered Monday and Tuesday also. The money would be amazeballs, but at the end of the boring, drawn-out day, I asked for Monday off and the manager was all good with that. So basically I am a retail master mind and... the Briscoes company is welcome. ;) Na, it's definitely good to get in with a chainstore like that ─ offers up possibilities of work ANYWHERE! If you want a job at university, my best advice would be to get a job in highschool and get some experience. Getting a uni job is rough as guts and every employer wants to see some experience so go get a job! I had one for two years, every Saturday (and Sunday on occasion) for two years and it could be kinda brutal, but worth it.

However, do not work Sunday cause then you can not get drunk on Saturday night. Well you can, but it sucks. As I will find out tomorrow. Still, working Sunday's better than working no days, I wouldn't recommend after school work cause... school sucks enough without work straight afterwards. I worked mostly 9 hour Saturdays, 8.45am to often 6.15pm, cause we shut at 6pm and it always took forever to count the tills and get out of the goddamn building.

P.S. I would just like to clarify the irony of me working in sports store. Lolz.

The Spading Scale

2011-06-17T23:13:00.003+12:00

You know the awkward period when you're getting to know someone you like but are not in a relationship? This is called "spading" and is both a noun and a verb. The person you like is a "spade" and what you are doing with them is "spading". Get with it, gurl. So myself, and Bonnie Pyper, have developed this intricate spading system so you can accurately assess how far you are progressing on the scale. Number 11 would of course be, "being asked out". The pre-spading scale and post-spading scale is still in development. As you can see, the "spade" is an upside down heart growing on a trunk ─ not quite a heart (love) but nearly!

The Spading Scale

1. Occasional and/or awkward conversations

2. Facebook and/or Text friends

3. Not 100% sure if you’re spading

4. Knowing you’re spading

5. More casual communication

6. Making plans with each other

7. Physical barrier has been broken

8. Comfortable kissing/cuddles

9. Regular hangouts

10. Discussing relationship

Free As My Hair

2011-06-11T19:40:00.000+12:00

Gonna be kinda boring heading back to Nelson for three weeks on Wednesday, not gonna lie. Getting my old job at Briscoes back is weirdly exciting though ─ DESPERATE to get a job at the Wellington branch which will be top priority when I get back. Will most definitely be popping in to make sure the manager there doesn't forget me, I have a good reference from Nelson so shouldn't go down too bad.

Ashleigh's been here the last few days but has been a bit more interested in hanging with a certain somebody else rather than me, but I guess it's her holiday so whatever. Needless to say it has been an interesting few days, and I've spent an absurd amount of money and need to calm the christ down & realize just because I've been getting some student allowance doesn't mean I should be spending like the world's ending tomorrow.

Seeing how much people have been studying the last few days has made me realise how fortunate I am in that I have no exams. I was so incredibly burnt out (as I have said a million times) from my hideous last week of university that I would have probably have had collapsed from exhaustion. Definitely need to get my time schedule worked out a little more efficiently for next semester. Heading out into town tonight for the last time in Wellington for a month so looking forward to it! Hope it's a goodnight, regardless of a few set backs.

Afterlife

2011-06-07T00:07:00.001+12:00

Getting through last week was a tough, brutal miracle that many would've deemed impossible. The ridiculous thing about university is that there is literally no one that can help you with anything, and that's annoying. In fact, no one can really help you with anything ever, but especially not with school work, and especially when it's essay writing. Let alone 5 essays in 4 days, but I got it done. I was majorly burnt out by it and went out drinking both Friday and Saturday like a crazed person, but it was pretty good.

My life's been a bit blergh lately as you can I'm sure imagine, so I will instead recite a genius story I have been avidly following through the joys of living at Weir. So this guy on the same floor as me, Zanian, had his wallet stolen at the uni rec centre (gym) and the ass that took it had gone on a spending spree using Zan's debit card. When I found this out I officially am not leaving my wallet and hoodie etc. in the locker things which I had done, as I'd always done it at my old gym in Nelson, but I guess you can't trust any open place like that can you. Anyway, Zanian is the literal worst person to have crossed as he, through contacting the bank, stores (seeing as he could see on his bank statement where things were bought) and courier companies, found out where the guy lives and from there, using the phone book and such, he managed to find out the guy's name and address. So Mr Yves Madriaga who works at Manners Street's Burger King and studies Graphic Design at Natcoll Design Technology (the downfall of having a public Facebook profile), maybe you shouldn't steal wallets, money and be a complete and all around c**t? Fortunately Zan met up with the guy, after contacting the guy's mother & telling her, and he's going to pay Zan back in installments. The guy spent like $300-400 I think, so... it wasn't too awful but still, who would do that?

So there, hope you enjoyed that wee story - I found it quite riveting. And I feel vaguely bad for posting the guy's name and details, but whatever. I'm not the filthy thief.

Like a Machine

2011-05-31T23:18:00.000+12:00

I really should be working instead of typing this blog but felt like a wee break and blogging's a fairly fun thing for me to do. So this week has basically been one of the worst on record, I've had three assignments to do which ultimately consists of around 5000 words, as the total amount of work I'm doing is five essays. I think I rambled on about this previously - but I really didn't realise how much work it was going to be! I am well and truly, thoroughly depressed. In fact I was going to stay up late and work on another essay but I am actually stuffed. Quite pleased with myself for realizing this because I honest to god would wake up a tired wreck, I'm already burnt out and I'm feeling sickness come on. Better not be some bloody cold or god forbid the flu, cause I did get a horrific (not really, but the built up to getting it was) flu shot so here's hoping that holds up.

What I have left to do is write a 500 word essay tomorrow and make a good start on my Theatre assignment which is 2000 words, and I will have hopefully most of tomorrow (as the 500 shouldn't take long) and Thursday and Friday morning if I need it. I have lectures from 10pm until 1pm tomorrow so I should be working by 2pm solidly for the rest of the evening. Though my version of "solidly" is pretty disgraceful, but I'm making efforts - I have never claimed to be very academic or skilled at study, but I did get an A yesterday for a horrible, hard and boring 1500 word essay on remediation so I am very pleased about that. I could've sworn that was the worst piece of work I have ever produced! Though I've been writing so many essays lately I don't care what their quality is. I just strain my mind for some kind of inventive thought and stretch it out to fill up the pages, guess that's one talent I have, the gift of the gab.

Celebrity of the Week: Pippa Middleton

2011-05-29T17:43:00.001+12:00

In typical bitter fashion, I sat and watched the Royal Wedding and all I could think about was "Oh my god, how much would it suck to be the underdog sibling?" what with 2,000,000,000+ people tuning in for the wedding. However I've been pleasantly surprised at the attention Pippa Middleton has been receiving since the wedding! Largely attributed to her derrière which is pretty hilarious, and I'll admit ─ she looked hot a bridesmaid.

I enjoyed her small but overrated scandal when bra shots of her surfaced a few days after the wedding which in my mind I'm going to believe was all part of her sneaky plan to get some of the attention. She was graceful and not attention-seeking at the wedding and for that she deserves some of the payoff, I read the other day on a blog (Celebitchy I think) that since the wedding, there have been more news stories about Pippa than Kate which is pretty crazy considering Kate was just the star of the largest television broadcast event ever.

Get $leazy

2011-05-29T13:10:00.002+12:00

That's a picture taken last night just before I went down to the dining hall for the "Mexico's Toughest Prison" themed dinner, which wasn't even remotely as good as our floor's "Star Wars" themed dinner. The food was gross, but whatever, so let's move on. As you can see my 'costuming' consisted of me wondering to my neighbours room to whinge for her to draw me a fake moustache so I could look sleazy(er) as I presume a stereotypical Latino bad boy would but she fortunately had a stick-on fake moustache instead. And that was that, I was pretty pleased with myself but Bonnie and Juliet (in the picture) weren't overly impressed. Whatever.

So thanks to my procrastination love affair, my study's haven't exactly been going on target and someone may have fallen a little behind. In fact I have 5 essays to write before Friday, which is five days away. Which means I'll be having a real riot this week I'm sure. I think I can hack it, and I will, but it'll be miserable and I'll be an exhausted wreck by the time Friday 2pm arrives this coming week, the final due date of my last assignment.

On Wednesday I had a essay due on digital culture which did not flow onto paper, but eventually I managed to come up with some drivel about how Flickr's a social network opposed to being purely a photo sharing website. Well, that was my argument. I don't really think that at all, but it's harder to oppose things than accept them (as we all know) so I just went with the easy road. Hope that's not a metaphor for my life. That's something I always do as part of having a few OCD symptoms, I ALWAYS see the dumbest things and assume they're metaphors for my life. Like yesterday I was running and I made myself run in the sun cause I didn't want to be in the shadows even though it meant I had to slip through heaps of people. Speaking of OCD, I have so many stupid things I do also, like when I go to the gym I always carry my water bottle in my right hand or I swear I'm going to die coming home in some freak accident. I'm insane! Fortunately I'm rational enough to ignore my instincts and do what I please, but I am paranoid. I'm a ridiculous person and I'm not entirely sure why I think anyone would want to read this. Well, it's only written out of study procrastination really but getting onto my essay now so... yay for fun* times ahead.

Born This Day

2011-05-25T18:56:00.001+12:00

I know I can be prone to going on a bit when it comes to Lady Gaga, but after what I'm sure is like two years of waiting, the new album Born This Way is here! Too exciting for words. Hence why this blog'll be pretty short. I have only allowed myself to listen to a third of the album so far cause when I've listened to it, I know I'll be sad cause I probably won't hear another new song for a long time as I doubt she's had too much time for song writing, although she often says it's her hobbie and I'm sure she already has tonnes of other songs written so... who knows! Anyway, for now Born This Way is incredibly exciting. I remember watching the 2010 VMA's when she first announced the album title, like an insane person (aka. a little monster) I was almost teary-eyed with happiness and excitement. Whatever Gaga's selling, I'm buying.

It's crazy cause I've spent the last 12 weeks studying popular media culture and have looked at music and celebrity and how it's all manufactured but at the end of the day... I don't give a christ, I LOVE Gaga and that is that. It's pretty sweet loving the biggest celebrity/singer alive cause it means LOTS of exposure and amazing quality music. Unlike the poor past and present Sweetbox singers (Jade Valerie & Jamie Pineda) who get almost no exposure since they haven't quite cracked the American market, but at the same time their albums are never promoted anywhere but Asia so... it's not really the artist's fault. Speaking of Sweetbox, Jamie Pineda's latest Sweetbox album, Diamond Veil, is extremely impressive! Far better than her previous album The Next Generation which was incredible too, but she's definitely topped herself.

As for me, well, not much going on really apart from assignments and university. My friend Bonnie's 18th today so going out for some "quiet drinks" which in my eyes equals overpriced, unhealthy consumption of alcohol. I'm going to go the gym pretty much as soon as I've written this, even though I really don't feel like it and it means I have to shower and do all that shit again but there are some times in life where you've just got to man up and do what you gotta do. And trust me, I've gotta do it. (go to the gym)

If I don't spend the entirety of tomorrow working assignments, I will officially be behind in everything and doomed to failure so wish me luck.

I Love This

2011-05-20T20:05:00.000+12:00

From http://skittlesboy.tumblr.com.

1/2 Blogger, 1/2 Gaga Fanatic

2011-05-17T12:17:00.002+12:00

The title of this post refers to the official description of this blog, which is what it has always been, and it pretty much sums up what this blog is. If I had an interesting life and was shameless I could probably bulk out this blog and make it an exhilarating read, but since I am a university student studying away from home, there's only so much that goes down and only so much I'm prepared to post here for the world to see. The thought of nosey family members reading this sends a shiver down my spine, but considering if you google 'Joey Sauer' you get this, my Twitter, my Facebook, Formspring etc... I guess not much is private.

Anyway, the point of me saying that is just use it as leverage for my sometimes obscene amout of Gaga and/or celebrity themed posts. Basically, I'm a big celebrity junkie, and Gaga is my #1, so that is why you're seeing a lot more of her. Not sure about you, but I would rather see pretty pretty pictures of her than read about my mundane assignments. Which actually, are mounting. I'm going to go have lunch, take a nana nap and get stuck into my media 'pop culture' assignment which is all about digital culture in the photo-sharing site Flickr. I've never used the website, but I think I will sign up just so I can get a better impression of what it's all about. It's gotta be one of Yahoo's biggest successes, yes?

Anyway, to throw in a little Gaga to the post as usual, here's her latest song 'Hair' which was released this morning. I have mixed feelings about it, as a friend brought up it's basically the same message as 'Born This Way' but with a different metaphor. Give it a listen, and comment if you have any interesting thoughts. This is the first song off the Born This Way album which I didn't pretty much love straight away, although the title track took a listen or two. It was just so unexpected. Here's 'Hair':

The Edge of Glory

2011-05-16T21:34:00.000+12:00

I'm on the edge of glory,

and I'm hanging on a moment of truth.

I'm on the edge of glory,

and I'm hanging on a moment with you.

♥

Celebrity of the Week: Megan Fox

2011-05-16T17:39:00.001+12:00

I used to do 'Celebrity of the Week', weekly (shocking!) and then I got sick of it but here it is back again. It was always my highest rated post, so... for attention-seeking purposes, here it is. I'm going to change the theme of 'Celebrity of the Week' from being celebrities I love, to just celebrities that I feel like writing about. Hence, Megan Fox - I don't hate her, but I don't love her.

I used the above picture because I have that 'Rolling Stone' cover as a poster in my room for some reason and it always sparks up a conversation. It's just a weird poster - but her look always stirs up a debate. Is she sexy? Is she ugly? Is she too edited? Is she too thin? I could go on for hours (not really) going over the discussion points for this poster. I should have analysed it for my media project actually when we analysed a popular media text, and a poster would have most definitely qualified. However it is just a blown up magazine cover so I probably would need to know a bit more about the magazine.

So I first knew of Megan Fox through the Lindsay Lohan movie 'Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen' which wasn't her claim to fame I wouldn't think, but definitely got her noticed. Obviously 'Transformers' is the reason she became a big star, and was most definitely her breakout role. Kinda funny she got kicked out of the third movie because she did some interview and called out Michael Bay, the director, by comparing him to Hitler and a bunch of other less-than-appropriate terms for someone that pretty much made her a star.

I think she's stunning, but I reckon she's had a bit (or a lot) of work done. She looks just so insanely different these days from how she did a few years ago, but maybe it's natural - who knows. All I do know is that the movie she did with Amanda Seyfried, 'Jennifer's Body' is HIGHlariously awful, yet super quotable, and when my friends and I watched it we laughed all the way through. Mainly because it was so bad, but it did have some actually funny moments in it.

The Voice of the Nation

2011-05-15T15:08:00.003+12:00

Not entirely sure why but I just got totally blogged out and wrote nothing for over a week, which is unusual cause I normally want to write something every one or two days. Alas, I had a wee break but here I am to write something vaguely exciting. But not really.

So basically all of ~~last~~ this week (cause it's Sunday) I have been working like a psycho crazy person cause I had an essay and a test, and I was struggling with the essay so bad. It was all about how remediation was evident and what purpose it had in this boring fashion photoblog called 'Jak & Jil'. Too boring to deal with. I hated that essay and struggled a LOT with it, and don't expect the greatest mark, but it was dumb. Than I had a Theatre test on Thursday which I bombed at, but even the severe hard outs didn't appear to do too well either, especially some people who had spent ages studying so... makes me feel kinda better. I totally just got interrupted when I was writing this and forgot what I was about to write! Argh. Oh well.

Still, regardless of the horrific week, things have been pretty sweet lately! Not quite about to write all about it, cause it's just lame to get all personal on the internet, but basically I am a happy chap. Read into that what you will! Went out Friday night AND Saturday night which was a bit wild of me, all alcohol-ed out, so think a quiet weekend next weekend may be in order. Plus, from now onwards the workload is just going to pile up relentlessly and there's not really time for drunken nights and waste of time Sunday's. Still - it's been an enjoyable weekend! Back to gruelling reality tomorrow, assignment central is heading my way. Hates it.

Movie Review: Thor

2011-05-05T10:17:00.000+12:00

Gave up on these movie review posts after only doing two, but they are back! Plus I really liked 'Thor' so wanted to endorse it and recommend it. I got really side-tracked writing this and ended up checking out the Wikipedia page for the movie and got seriously distracted reading about Marvel.

So 'Thor' is a movie based on the Marvel comic character Thor, who is based upon the character of the same name from Norse mythology. Chris Hemsworth plays the lead role, who's brother Liam is (or was) dating Miley Cyrus, and does a mighty fine role as Thor. The movie character is ultimately a bit of an asshole, but I still think Chris did a good job and the fact that he is soooooo ridiculously, and impossibly ripped is a bonus in convincing audiences he is the heir to the throne of God-like Kingdom.

Although the movie suffered from some clunky CGI, most of it was extremely impressive! Thor's hometown, Asgard, is stunning and there's a really pretty lit-up glass, rainbow road that I was obsessed with. Natalie Portman is in the film too and she has a pretty stupid, unnecessary role really. In fact, the entire story of the earthbound characters could probably have been skipped without too much damage to the overall storyline.

I love Marvel movies and this movie certainly didn't let my expectations town. The tonne of special effects was very 'Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer' (a poorly executed film in my opinion) but improved and more impressive, definitely nothing to scoff at. Good for any action buff.

★★★★

Time To Spit Something Out

2011-05-04T17:42:00.003+12:00

So I'm back at university in full study-misery mode, although it's not that bad, I am in a pretty shocking state right now! Somehow I managed to get the enthusiasm to go to the gym twice extremely hardout, after not properly working out in like three weeks, and my body is in agony. Plus I managed to get a huge blister on the inner-knuckle of my pinky finger on the palm on my left hand and it was so sore it kept me up all night. Plus it was a million degrees last night, pretty sure there's something wrong with the heating or something but I barely slept a wink. Plus something so awful happened and I feel bad about, I slept through my media 'pop culture' lecture! Not very good, but it won't actually matter that much because it was 'sports culture' and I don't ever have to be tested or write about sports culture so apart from the general knowledge I didn't get to learn.

So yeah, after not sleeping all night my body finally decided to go sleep at like 6am and I slept through my alarm at 8am and woke-up at 10.30pm. Wasn't impressed, but made an appearance for my noon theatre lecture which was boring as usual. The lectures are so awfully structured for theatre, I never really understand what the lecturer is talking about. I feel like I've missed out on a LOT of prior learning, cause the lecturer's love to just skim everything. It's annoying.

Well isn't this a positive blog. Off to the 'California Dreams Tour' next week, that's pretty exciting and off to a comedy thing thanks to good ol' Kieran who won tickets on Twitter. Pro! I'm still pretty excited about Kathy Hilton, Paris & Nicky's mum, tweeting me the other day/week. I love her! And now you finally know why she was the picture of this post, haha.

Edit: Going to try to remember to align my posts with 'Justify' from now on. Looks better.

And So, The Dream Ends

2011-04-29T00:16:00.000+12:00

It's been a great two weeks back at home, but guess who has to go back to university to resume my life of assignments, stress and lectures? Not to mention meals alongside a 100+ others EVERY DAY. Just good ol' me. Apparently the weather's been torturous too so... another thing to get excited about. I'll never know if moving to Wellington was the right move for me, but what I do know is that I would have died if I have had stayed in Nelson. It sucks that I have to leave already, but not too long until I go back. Plus, in a week and a half I'll be seeing Katy Perry LIVE in her California Dreams Tour which I am pretty excited about!

Not sure what to expect cause I've never seen any live concert footage from this tour, well I don't think I have, and I've resisted searching for it so it's all a big, and hopefully good, surprise. Anyway -- just wanted to write a wee blog before I go to bed, and now off I go. Toodles!

Stages of Procrastination

2011-04-26T16:46:00.000+12:00

Just saw this image that a Facebook friend, Keegan from Weir, posted and it made me LOL. This is literally my life with assignments and study.

Stolen from Chibird. She (I assume) has some wicked drawings.

Diamond Veil

2011-04-22T00:59:00.003+12:00

Apart from Lady Gaga's 'Born This Way', Sweetbox's 'Diamond Veil' is my most hotly-anticipated album of 2011. I'm not sure if Ke$ha's or Jade Valerie intend to release anything, but if not, this is unlikely to change. I have always loved Sweetbox and when Jade ditched in 2006/2007 I was very curious to see what would happen with the project. I was greatly surprised when Jamie Pineda replaced her, but even more so when I realised she was not simply a 'replacement', she was en entirely different singer and personality with a mighty voice!

Jamie's first album 'The Next Generation', that she co-wrote many (if not all?) of the songs for, was a remarkable album! I'd describe her voice as a mix of Rihanna and Beyoncé but with the vocal range of someone along the lines of Mariah Carey or Christina Aguilera. Ultimately she doesn't just 'sound like other artists' though, she definitely has her own voice. She may be deemed a pop singer but her vocal range transcends anything Britney or dare I say Gaga could pump out. My favourite song off of TNG is "Coming Home To You" which doesn't exactly show-off her vocal abilities to their extreme, but still shows how pure and beautiful her voice is.

I'm super excited about 'Diamond Veil' after hearing snippets off the newly released website at http://wmg.jp/sweetbox. You can hear the snippet for the album's first single, 'Remember This Dance', as well. Annoyingly the site's largely in Japanese but what I have been able to decipher is that the song 'I Know You’re Not Alone' is going to feature in a upcoming Japanese movie called 'Paradise Kiss' which'll be great promotion for Sweetbox! (Well, I actually discovered that from Sweetbox-Haven) So go check it out -- and I'mma figure out the cheapest place to pre-order the album, HMV.jp is always expensive but likely my go-to option. I want a physical copy of this baby, I iTunes'd 'The Next Generation' but this one I want to hold in my hands. Go check Sweetbox & Jamie out, and follow her on twitter here.

Reunited at Last

2011-04-19T00:47:00.000+12:00

After two months of separation from one of my best friends (if not the best), Ashleigh and I are finally reunited! I have missed her so much being at Weir - and we had an interesting catch-up day beginning with a wee trip to the police station. Haha - I'll blog about that tomorrow, but here we are in my room after ~~a good bang~~ an uneventful day in town, the curtains are closed just because the light was glaring in and ruining our photos just for the record.

There's No Place Like Home

2011-04-18T12:56:00.000+12:00

I can't tell a lie (...), but being home is pretty fucking awesome. Especially on really nice days like this! Obviously this picture is just one I stole from some photographer's site, and although I didn't ask for permission, here's the link to buy the original photo in-case anyone wants it. Normally I wouldn't care, but since it's a photo of Nelson I thought it'd be nice and Christian of me to return a good favour. It is holy week after all, as my mum reminded me the other day. I'm still waiting for her to realise that church is a big hypocritical sham but whatever ~~gives her something to do~~ makes her happy...

That picture is pretty much exactly how that bit of town would look right now, perfectly sunny and that's with the tide out. I believe it's in right now so would be looking even better, but not sure. That photo's taken on Rocks Road around the port and the building over the water is the Boatshed Café, expensive as fuck but apparently pretty good. I've only been there for coffee, it's more of a tourist place then a local's place but it's been there my whole life so it must be pretty popular. I ran around Rocks Road yesterday too, it was like the longest run I've ever done, an hour and a quarter. I stopped only once really to do some stretches.

One thing I do not like about Nelson is the lack of runners! I ran around what you'd think would be Nelson's busiest running route and I passed only three runners, no wonder everyone's so unfit and gross in this bogan town. GO FOR A RUN. It's the best thing for you. I'm aching all over today though, perhaps I got a wee bit carried away. Obviously I'm not quite in divine shape yet but en route to doing so. I've been eating like a mother-trucker since I've been home, all these snacks and things that I don't have to walk 15 minutes to the supermarket to buy with my own money! It's like heaven.

I might start up my old 'Celebrity of the Week' posts that I used to do one of these days, so if anyone cares... get excited. They were always my highest rated posts on YouSayToo.com, a blogging site mine is affliated with, so... that'd be hott. Time for me to go get a life and do something, I sit here talking about the nice day outside yet I remain inside in my pyjamas. Golly gosh.

Evil Spider

2011-04-18T00:46:00.000+12:00

Just saw this picture and it made me laugh, I do feel bad for spiders but they really are terrifying lookings things and the fact most of them are venomous doesn't help 'em. I'll try to write an actual post sometime soon, cause this blog resembles some boring & vain person's Tumblr "blog" right now.

Truth Behind Judas

2011-04-17T01:26:00.000+12:00

I have a theory that this album art is part of a big promotion for the 'Judas' single focusing on her tweet "Even After Three Times He Betrays Me." I think she's going to 'betray' her fans three times, the first perhaps being the early release of 'Judas' and then the album artwork. (which is too ridiculous for me to ever take seriously) The third betrayal is yet to come... The 2nd 'Born This Way' video perhaps? Mightn't even exist? Maybe that's a 'betrayal' that's already taken place, I don't know. Take me as a super fan - but it'd fit in well with the single! (wishful thinking anyway)

Government Hooker

2011-04-16T09:39:00.000+12:00

I can be cold.

I can be anything.

I'll be your everything.

Just touch me baby.

Home Sweet Home

2011-04-15T23:45:00.000+12:00

Arriving home today was literally one of the weirdest feelings! I haven't been home, or seen my parents or dog, for two god damn months! Well, just three days short of two months anyway. As Gaga once sung, "It's been a long time since you came around, it's been a long time but I'm back in town, and this time I'm not leaving without you." Read into that what you will! I bought a massive suitcase which was 100% packed with stuff, which I now realize wasn't the wisest idea cause I want to bring quite a bit of stuff back home, but the important point is that I have all my clothes, toiletries and books so I can live in normality for the next two weeks! I want to achieve a lot of study, but as long as at least do a bunch of readings I'll be pretty happy with myself.

It's gonna be full on the minute I get back with assignments due and an intense theatre test which means I need to read all the theatre plays and readings which is a LOT of work so that'll be "fun" for me. Hanging with Ashleigh and Brandon tomorrow, they're coming to pick me up at 11am and I'm ridiculously exciting - I mean, who doesn't get to see their best friends for two months? Not normal, happy people - that's fershure. Still, missing some people in Wellington already and have begun to get quite close to some people so it's sad to ditch! Wish I was having some holiday at Weir, cause everyone's always stressing with work to do - but it is good to be home nonetheless. Goodnight readers! (ie. no one)

Judas

2011-04-15T23:37:00.001+12:00

I'm just a Holy Fool, oh baby he's so cruel,

but I'm still in love with Judas, Baby. ✟

The Sacrifices

2011-04-13T20:55:00.001+12:00

I'm in a complaining sort of a mood, shockingly, and have only just realised how much I miss some very basic things from home. Obviously I don't have the hardest life in the world, but it has it's own restrictions and although small, they're beginning to drive me a tad insane.

First and foremost, I really miss TV. I used to watch it every day. I love it, and I know it's bad for you, unproductive and whatever but... I loved it. Loved my shows, 'Desperate Housewives', 'Keeping up with the Kardashian', 'E! News', 'Chelsea Lately' - ugh, so good. I also really miss couches, I haven't sat comfortable on a good couch for almost two months and my back's feeling it. Haven't managed to have a good day of relaxation in too long. I always remember this one news headline from a year or two ago and the presenter said with a really disgusted manner that a "shocking study has revealed children spent on average three to four hours a day watching television", well I watched about 6-8, so suck it. Alright, well maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but I definitely did the 3-4, not all one go but I loved me some TV. The internet's cute, but I'm way too over-connected with a ridiculous amount of social networks and so-called 'obligations' (e-mails, forum posts, tweets -- can't have people unfollowing!

I miss regular food (muesli bars, cereal, milk etc.) that I don't have to think about and pay my own hard-earnt dimes on. Going to be so good to go home, gorge on whatever I want and just... chill. I'm so pulling out the old Playstation 2, really wanna play some Final Fantasy VIII & X, heck, maybe even X-2 just for the LOLs. I never did actually manage to get the good or perfect ending of X-2, only ever saw it on Youtube. God those games' stories need be made into movies, I think people would be in disbelief of how much depth a game can get into! So emotional! Then again I guess you spend a lot more time in a game getting to know and understanding characters, it's kinda like reading a book but with visuals and dialogue. Either way, FFX (and X-2 to a slightly nostalgic degree) is an emotional game, but I still like FFVIII just that slightest bit more. I must sound like the biggest geek, but whatever - I love gaming, but in all truth I hardly ever do it these days. Apart from the occasional Plants vs. Zombies, which I barely even play now, I don't really do any gaming. Played some internet checkers the other day, I kept losing so I got pissed and quit half way through a game with a guy who obviously had some good strategies. I seriously don't have any talents, and I'd love to spruce up the standard of this blog but I really can't be bothered and my vocab's a joke, so that's not about to happen. Pretty sure this paragraph breaks some sort of grammatical rule about the length of paragraphs. Oh dear, how sad, nevermind.

Rinoa and Squall, FFVIII's main characters.

I miss my dog, leaving her was a big sacrifice of coming to Wellington. I miss Ashleigh and Brandon cause they rock and I miss... alright I don't miss my old job at Briscoes, but it was a handy, reliable job for me and I held it for two years and it was just convenient. I'd kill for a job at the Wellington store but they said they didn't need any more employees, even though I did ring like 6 months in advance to tell them I'd be coming... *sigh* Well, if any Wellington central retail needs a kick-ass weekend worker - lemme know!

Well, time to go finish watching the second 'Matrix' film - god they're ingenious, and have never sat down and watched the trilogy properly - analysed the first one in Media in year 12 so pretty sure I've got that one knuckled down in my understanding. Have a nice evening/day/whatever everyone. I was going to go out tonight but no one else is going out and this ridiculously boring place has quiet hours from 9pm this week, basically meaning we're kicked out at 9pm if we're drinking and making a racket. Well, even if you're not making a racket, which I never am cause I don't usually get rowdy when I drink, but I can get excited I guess on the odd-occasion. aka. the occasion that never comes.

P.S. Anyone that takes offence when I call them a "dumb bitch" needs to a) get over themselves and b) realise that's just a staple in my vocab. Deal.

Maybe I'm a Lion

2011-04-12T18:06:00.000+12:00

Got my first mark back for anything at university yesterday and I was super pleased to discover that I got a B. A great start! However the more I think about it, the more I realise how much better I could have done. As a girl told me yesterday, "B's get degrees", to which I said "A's get pay" which although not clever, is true. I don't wanna end up graduating but unable to get a job -- but I guess that's the actual issue of everybody's life. Getting jobs is such a weird dynamic, no one wants to work (well, except for those extremely select few who love their job to pieces) but everyone has to work, and it's so much trouble and effort to get a job that you only really get because you have to. It's just the way the cookie crumbles, shame there's no alternative - if anyone on a high income fancied flicking some dosh my way, I'd cheerfully accept without any of that "Oh no no, I couldn't possibly" B.S.

Went for a run today along Oriental Parade which is Wellington's harbour and waterfront walk which was nice, was cool to have lots of other runners about but one thing I did not think about was how busy it'd be at lunch time! Jeez louise every single worker in the god damn city was having their lunch either at the weird grass thing in the middle of Lambton Quay OR Oriental Parade. I felt like the most ridiculous tool jogging along amongst a zillion suited-men and women -- but can't say I'd fancy a waterfront lunch quite as much knowing the fellow proportion of people with the same idea. I was really keen to run really far today but was a lacking energy, guess my diet hasn't been up to scratch and I forgot to drink a truckload of water, which I usually do, before I left.

Speaking of water, I have been drinking an obscene amount - to the point where I'm just always thirsty, I'll see how I feel when I get back to Nelson but I'm starting to wonder if I have a health issue or something. It's not like I'm desperately thirsty but usually have a slight tang for a glass of water, well, a water bottle cause that's all I've been drinking out of for the last two months except for when I have dinner. Otherwise I have to wash/rinse and dry my cup which I CBF doing.

This whole three meals a day shit here is officially driving me up the wall, I'm going to gorge 24/7 when I get home THIS Friday. Which I just realised is two days ago at this very moment. Holy F! I'd better sort out my bus and pack some shit - what do I need for the next two weeks apart from everything? I'm going to be bringing a lot of stuff back to Wellington on the plane so remind me not to pack too much junk or else I'll have no space to bring more B.S. back to Weir. Alright, dinner time. FINALLY A MEAL. I slept until 10.30am today so missed breakfast, had lunch at 12pm and because I have no snacks I have not eaten since then, 'cept some noodles which I wanted to save but I just got SO HUNGRY so I had those at like 4pm. Starved again now - so off I go to over-eat, then feel sick, then get hungry again by 7/8pm. Story of my life... but not for the next two weeks, in two days! Can't wait to see my family, friends and most of all - Mia! My beloved fox terrier, I love her.

The Comings and Goings of Weir

2011-04-09T22:34:00.001+12:00

Who'd have thought I, Joey Sauer, "the life of the party" (not really) would forgo a drunken night in town to sit in Weir House's dining room attempting to pump out a Media essay? Not me, that's for sure. Yet, here I am. In all seriousness though, who would have thought a subject called 'popular media culture' could be sooooooo boring. The readings in the course reader and textbook are excruciatingly boring! The lectures are a lot more interesting, but the point of the lecture is basically just to prepare you for your reading. I actually really enjoy the lectures, there's always clips to write, usually nice and easy bullet-point styled notes to take down and there's usually a theme, last week was regarding Lord of the Rings as we looked at cultural industries. I'm a huge LOTR fanboy but it's just phenomenal how much work went into those movies! I was blissfully young and unaware of the movie being made when it was, and I can't believe it's been out for so many years already! I'd definitely say it was among the most well-made movies of all time, the scale is just... ugh, talk about a tangent.

So I'm sitting here with Grace who was like the literal only other person not to have gone out to have had an exciting night. Bastard work to be done! Still, I realised that I could go out this Wednesday cause all I have after that is a 12pm, one-hour theatre lecture and Wednesday is student night! Meaning cheap drinks and lots of people, so to sum that up... HUGE. Alright, time to get to work. And by 'get to work' I mean procrastinate further and go and get my cup from upstairs and make a cup of tea. Sexy.

The University Regime

2011-04-06T18:39:00.001+12:00

I had the greatest plans of getting up this morning at 7.30am to shower, dress, eat breakfast and be ready to study for an hour from 8.30-9.30am but what actually happened was that my alarm came on, I turned it off, then abruptly went back to sleep and woke up at 8.45am in a panic, initially thinking it said 9.45am but fortunately it did not, cause that would have been pure disaster.

So my great plans didn't go to plan, well, I'll give 'em another go tomorrow. I have only a one hour theatre lecture at noon on Thursdays, and then I am done with university for the week and can do study. I never seem to do much, but I pledge (and kinda have) to do a little more work than I'd prefer this weekend. I'm not going out this Saturday but if all my work is done and I'm happy with the amount of study accomplished, I could be convinced otherwise - I mean, it is the last weekend I'm going to be at this hall for like three weeks cause I'm leaving for Nelson next Friday and will then be away for two weeks, not coming back until Sunday, the day before university starts up again. Leaving in the morning which is annoying, hate travelling in the mornings, but never mind - I just need to be grateful I'm not ferrying like I did when I first moved to Wellington. Now that was a trial, and drew out the sadness to just boredom and frustration. Wasn't time for a teary farewell, which I secretly wanted - my life needs to be more fiction-like.

Media 103 (aka. Popular Culture) was about 'cultural industries' today, and we focused on Lord of the Rings which I loved cause I am a big LOTR fanboy and went slightly deranged with obsession over the summer break, but fortunately seem to have gathered some senses, despite the TradeMe searches for 'the one ring' which we need not go into.

In theatre, I sat with the writer of THIS blog, aka. Kieran, who I weirdly met after sitting behind him one day when he was twittering and I saw his username and remembered it later that afternoon. As for the actual lesson, YAWN. It was all about Elizabethan theatre (which is sooooo year 12) and religious plays which felt an awful lot like last year's R.E. classes, and I wasn't having it.

My tutorial was similarly a big waste of time cause all we did was got shown how to submit assignments, even though we were shown in the lecture, and then watched an entire episode of 'The Simpsons' (the one with 'N Sync's cameo and the whole 'Join the Navy' subliminal message plot story) and spent like less-than-a-minute talking about how it related cultural industries. It was unusually pointless, but whatever - and that was basically my day. The End. Dinner time.

Album Review: Britney Spears - Femme Fatale

2011-04-06T16:08:00.004+12:00

I decided about five minutes ago that I am now a musical expert and know all matters regarding the production of music thanks to this morning's 'cultural industries' topic in my 'Media: Popular Culture' lecture. On a more serious (is it ever on this blog?) note, I have decided I will do review/critique/rambles on albums I think are good or bad or... I'll just do whatever I want actually, ignore my attempts at justification.

So Femme Fatale is Britney Spears' seventh album and funnily enough, the first single off of the album was actually officially released on New Zealand iTunes before anywhere else in the world! I got the song at about 5-10 minutes past midnight, so it's not unlikely I was among the first of her fans to hear it. Pretty cool stuff! Anyway, the single 'Hold It Against Me' was a pretty sweet introduction to the album cause I found it to be a pretty good introduction to the entire album. It has dub-step elements, which seemed to have been a trend-setter in my opinion cause ever since that song came out ALL I have been hearing is dub-step. Not sure if it's just a New Zealand thing or what, but as my friend Brandon would say, "It's just like BWAAAH WAHWAHWAHWAH...". He's right. Still, that's pop music for you - creative, but repetitive.

The dub-step element is recycled onto other tracks on the album, 'Trouble For Me', and possibly others that quite haven't come to my attention. My favourite tracks would be 'Till The World Ends' (the second single, written by Ke$ha! Woot!), 'I Wanna Go' and 'Trouble For Me'. The only track I would say I don't like is 'Big Fat Bass' because it has a horrible rapping bit from The Black Eyed Peas' Will.I.Am, who I find annoying. I'm sick of having black-rappers on white girl tracks too, it's over done and annoying. The fact one is used in Rebecca Black's 'Friday' really just shows that is has become a stereotypical thing to do.

I'm not going to give the album an overall rating, but I will give it a conclusion. If you like dance music and if you listen to music like Ke$ha, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry - you will love this album and it's not to be missed! The (likely) production value is insane, Britney's vocals have been fine-tuned to perfection and, regardless of Will.I.Am's interruption, there are no tracks I think I'll be skipping over for a wee-while yet!

Plants vs. Zombies

2011-04-05T15:30:00.000+12:00

'Plants vs. Zombies™' is a ridiculously addictive game by PopCap that it available on a bunch of different uhh... things, like there's iPad, iTouch, Mac, PC, DS and etc. versions. Anyway, I have a ridiculous obsession with the game and, although I have clocked it, it has heaps of mini-games, puzzles and IDK, it's just a really addictive game that's a relatively small download and it's a real good time-killer.

You can play it online and download it for free by clicking here cause if you're bored, this is a good way to fill in the time!

Repetitive, Mindless, Boredom

2011-04-04T23:14:00.000+12:00

Had a theatre essay due at 12pm, Friday that I feel pretty good about, far more so than the media one I handed in on Wednesday. I had to work on it on Thursday but had a devil of a time mustering up the enthusiasm to get on with it and I, with great regret, admit I only really got stuck into it at around 9pm - after having almost the entire day off. Disgraceful, I know. Well it is almost 11pm, but I will be going to bed shortly and my alarm will be set for 8am, ensuring I am up for breakfast and do not sleep until about 11am-12pm, which I will do if I allow myself the undeserved luxury of a sleep-in.

As it happened, I ended up walking up to the theatre essay drop-in box, which is about a 10-15 minute walk (power walking, mind you) from Weir House, where I live. I set off at around 11.40am so I would arrive in with a few minutes to spare, so I got there and handed it in - but as I was leaving some ~~idiot~~ unfortunate girl, also from Weir, for some reason was in a panic because she did not have the last page of her essay. I, and a girl I was with called Nina, asked why and she said she'd leant it to a girl to borrow to see how to do the referencing. (even though we've been over it in every tutorial and every lecture, along with having plenty of help on Blackboard, which is the university's own online server thing)

Anyway, I said I would run back to Weir to get it off the girl, Emma, who supposedly had it. Looking like a fool, I ran all the way down the main road of the university, Kelburn Parade, looking fucked up and came across the girl who was supposed to be bringing it. She left it in the computer room cause she didn't know she was supposed to bring it for the girl, so I ran all the way back, managed to find the missing page, ran all the way back to the drop-box and got it juusssstt in time so in time so the girl didn't lose marks for having it late. Apart from being a hero, I really just wanted to be the voice of logic - why the fuck would you leave WITHOUT the last page of your essay and your references? I mean, reeaaaallllyyyy. Some people...

My weekend was 50% good, watched some movies with a friend and got dinner on Saturday which was pleasant but I didn't go out cause I wanted to do work on Sunday (didn't happen) but overall I've been out every Saturday since I got here, and I'm just a bit over drinking and I know how bad it is for my body, liver especially, and since I'm trying to be fit and healthy, alcohol's not much of a further aid. Anyway, the weekend from Saturday night onwards was basically just pretty shitty and today was brutal too.

I'm sure I've already ~~whinged~~ ~~complained~~ stated this, but my Monday's suck. Sure, people have worse, but I don't really care. I have a two hour Media lecture, followed by a one hour Theatre lecture straight after so that's three hours in a row. I get an hour lunch break, but by the time I've wandered back to Weir and eaten, I usually have only about 15 minutes to myself before I need to walk to my two, one-hour lectures in a row.

The one good, or perhaps bad, part of my day was the two hour gym class my friend Kate and I went to. It was a special 2-hour class cause all the instructors were there and we went through all the classes and it was great to get a good feel for things. What I learnt was that I will not be doing the dance or fight classes cause the dance one is all Latin/Spanish type (like what Zumba is supposed to be, which BTW I think is a terribly craze. Good ol' fashion aerobics is so much better - why don't they do that any more??) and I can't do the whole hip, arm and leg thing at the same time. The fighting one is a bad joke, and I'm not laughing, cause I cannot for the life of me punch or take it seriously and I was laughing like a loon on loon tablets the whole time.

I had the longest, most tiring and I'm depressed from my molto infelice (aka. very miserable, I think) weekend still so.. it's been shitty. I'll make a start on my Media 103 assignment, due this Friday, tomorrow cause I have only a one-hour theatre study group but I hate it and everyone hates me and it's just hate hate hate. OK, not really -- but I feel like spreading an infectious shroud of misery right now. BLERGH.

Time for some ZZZZzzz....

P.S. When I wake up, Gaga should have posted the release date for the 'Judas' song and video, which I suspect may be released simultaneously as she's already tweeted about working on it the last few days. Excited! This is literally the only thing I am looking forward to in my life right now, well, that and going home in the holidays. Two weeks! I need it. This picture of Gaga is on the outside of my door, I think everyone thinks I'm a bit nuts cause it's the only thing, but they can suck it.

Inexcusable Neglection

2011-03-31T01:02:00.000+13:00

I feel sorry for good ol' Joey Nation, haven't been writing regular blogs for quite a while! Thought it was time I checked in to give a low down on what I'm up to, and instead of making some silly comment like 'assuming you care', I'm going to genuinely assume you do care, or else it's weird you're on my blog. Surely there's something better to do. (Like studying, right Bonnie??). I've had an interesting few weeks since I've been in Wellington at Weir, and that's putting it delicately. It's honestly been full-on, and every day I've been here would have some ridiculous story.

Today's was that I handed in my first ever university (aka. college) assignment today for my Media: Texts and Images class, it was a critical analysis of an advertisement. This is the ad I chose:

It's a laundry detergent advertisement but nowhere does it specifically state that it is a laundry detergent, and is marketed as luxurious, so that is basically what I rambled on about in a hopefully pass-able way. So stressful, and wasn't entirely sure what I was doing -- so next time I definitely need to get it finished earlier so I can show others my work. Speaking of which, I have a 'dramaturgical critique' due on Friday which is 1,500 words and I've probably got 1,000 to go so will power through that tomorrow. Shouldn't be too hard, just time consuming but, excluding a midday one hour lecture, I have nothing on tomorrow or for the rest of the week.

Excluding not wasting my year and failing, it's time for me to start hitting the gym hard. Staying up as late as this (aka. 1am) is ridiculously stupid and is going to ruin all health & beauty regimes which everyone who knows me, can agree has not been too good. Yes I've done the occasional run, but not frequent enough and today, excluding a 40 minute run this morning, I've done absolutely nothing. I feel like I need to run, do a gym class and a workout each day, every day to actually improve my fitness and muscle growth. Been relapsing a tad into my old diet (snacking on unhealthy B.S) and exercise (not daily) routines, so need to get stuck in.

A mental-health advisor did a wee spiel at my Media (pop culture) lecture this morning about how, devoting youself to a regular activity, wards off stress-levels and depression, so with that in mind, I have no reason to get flakey about it. I need to establish a regular bed time, I'm going to bed now and sleeping in tomorrow, but from then onwards, I need to get to bed around 10-10.30am-ish and be up by 7-8am, otherwise I'll stay up (stupidly) to like, goddamn 2am and not get up 'til noon, not a productive lifestyle.

F**k Him He's a DJ

2011-03-27T11:27:00.000+13:00

I just really wanted to give a blog post of mine that title, it's Ke$ha's latest song off of her new remix album 'I Am the Dance Commander + I Command You to Dance: The Remix Album' which I just totally copy & pasted from iTunes cause there's no way in christ I could be bothered writing that one. I would also just like to add just how much I love Ke$ha's music, this remix album has the best remixes ever! Normally remix albums suck and I'm going to say that Lady Gaga's 'The Remix' was a very poor remix album if you ask me.

I really want to write about something going at my hall but I'll literally get in trouble if I do so... obviously I can't. Seriously, the one thing I could write about to get a tonne of traffic... Oh well. So I went out last night and, as usual, it was a waste of time cause all I ever do is end up walking around between bars/clubs without ever really dancing or drinking. I almost left my phone in one yesterday and then the most annoying thing ever happened. Well not 'ever', but it was pretty up there on the scale of annoying-ness. I sat on a curb/ledge thing and burnt my thumb on someone's cigarette butt! I was furious and had to keep stealing ice from people's drinks to keep it cool, I wasn't a happy chap.

Alright, I just realised this blog is lame and going nowhere. I kinda don't have a lot to blog about, even though life's insane being a university student and living at Weir is pretty crazy, life is pretty much considerably routine now. I have a big day tomorrow and I have a big assignment due on Wednesday that may not be started yet so off to have a wee nap now, and then I'll get onto it tomorrow.

I wish I had more to blog about but I really have nothing to say but I really feel like writing, what's that called? Just "writer's block", right? I don't know, whatevz. I'm going home for the mid-trimester break in three weeks and I can't wait to see my family, my friends and my dog Mia! I miss her like crazy, I hope she hasn't like, forgotten me. It's going to be really weird not seeing anyone from the hall for like two weeks but considering I've seen everyone I'm friends with, every day for the last two months plus (by the time the holidays are here) it's going to be crazy not to see any of 'em for two weeks.

Lots To Do, So Little Time

2011-03-26T18:39:00.000+13:00

Well the university workload is certainly intense, it's like studying for exams, except non-stop. Huge readings to do every week plus assignments plus attending lectures, tutorials and study groups and reviewing all of the notes - it takes the wind out of your sails! I'm going to go out tonight, even though I probably shouldn't but I really feel like dancing and letting some steam out. Weir, the hall I'm in incase you haven't caught on, has this annoying 10pm kick-out rule. All of the other halls have 11.30pm, but our 10pm means, if we're gonna drink, we have to start at like 8.30pm-9pm ish, drink enough to get a wee bit drunk (who wants to party sober?) and then be gone by 10pm. Since the clubs don't really 'happen' until midnight, you like, sober up, and then don't enjoy it, unless you spend a fortune on alcohol which isn't terribly ideal for a struggling student.

Right now it is pouring with rain which pisses me off, it's always raining on Saturday nights! Wellington's weather's so annoying. There's a lot I'd like to blog about, cause it's been a pretty insane week, but I'll save it for another time. It's pretty scandalous, but... you'll just have to live in the dark sorry readers! It's related to national news anyway, but I couldn't even be bothered writing about it anyway.

We had a 'Star Wars' themed dinner this evening and I am sitting here wearing black clothes adorned with silver star stickers (to represent a galaxy) and my face is painted green in true Yoda/alien fashion. I'm off to shower and get this gunk off of me, than do a little work on my theatre assignment, and then I'll probably get ready for town. I'll try blog something more exciting ASAP!

An Unnecessary Ramble + Christchurch Earthquake Memorial Tribute

2011-03-19T01:17:00.003+13:00

For some reason I really wanted to write something before I go to bed, I'd write about my rather disasteriffic Saint Patrick's Day night-out but that'd probably cast me in a bad light. Plus I want to disassociate myself from typical New Zealand binge-drinking teen culture, which mightn't be going quite as well as one would have hoped. Well the plus side of the story that I'm sticking to is that I didn't have a drop of alcohol (well, not really) until I was seventeen. Considering a lot of people I knew were drinking from like, the age of 14 (not sure how they got their alcohol!), I'm pretty much an international role model. I think I crack that joke too often, oh well, I assume my blog readers are all just irregular readers that stumble across my blog from the regularly automated links spammed on my Twitter to the tens of bots that happen upon them.

This really is just a dumb ramble so... ~~here's a picture of what I was drinking last night and probably tomorrow~~ I don't have a picture because I can't find one, so an image-less post this will be, but as I was saying, I mean, it is university after all. (yes, this is a disjointed post, because I came back to edit it and CBF re-writing stuff to make sense). On a more serious note, if I don't spend at least three hours on study tomorrow I'mma be seriously pissed at myself. Was such a tired wreck today I didn't spend a second on study, which isn't ideal with assignments mounting and due dates approaching. God university is scary.

Prince William, centre, with John Key (NZ's Prime Minister) on the right.

Also, I would like to recognise and pay tribute to the city of Christchurch in the South Island of New Zealand as a result of the earthquake memorial service that was held today. Until the last month when I moved to Wellington, Christchurch was my second best-known city, as I have lived in Nelson which is a 5-hour drive away, but I have been there fairly often as a result of having family there. It's crazy to have a connection with a city so devastated by a natural disaster, and especially so cause it's just such a normal city, not massive, fairly comfortable for a city and it's just a really normal place. Makes me realize just how devastated if my own home town, Nelson, was ever seriously damaged by a disaster of whatever form. It's awful, so I'll post this video of internationally (but mostly nationally, as far as I know) acclaimed singer Hayley Westenra performing 'Amazing Grace' at the memorial service. Prince William was there along with John Key, so that's a pretty big deal, sobering in a way that such a huge international public figure would show up for the disaster. Good to see the English allegiance is still evident regardless of the general chit-chat of New Zealand disassociating itself from the monarchy. (I barely know what I'm talking about.)

I like the quote Prince William used at the ceremony too:

"My grandma once said that grief is the price we pay for love. Here today we love and grieve."

Can I have my life back? Thanks.

2011-03-16T16:36:00.000+13:00

Every day when I wake up I'm always slightly surprised that I'm at university and living in Weir House. It seems like only a day ago, except less, that I was applying for university and my halls of residence. I will probably never understand why both were such terribly difficult and stressful processes, and I still can't really believe it all came together. I remember this one time just after I'd finished my NCEA level 3 exams that I miscounted my credits and came to a horrific conclusion that me achieving university entrance was impossible and I had the hugest meltdown and couldn't sleep for a night as all my hopes and dreams had been stolen from me. (Fortunately I realised in the morning how dramatic I was being and was ridiculously annoyed at myself. I was getting ready to work part-time retail for the rest of my life, but seems like that's not going to be the case. Thank the good lord Vishnu, the only deity I have deemed worth giving appraisal to. (only because Vishnu's believers have never crossed my path I'm sure)

So basically it's all on now, no more ice-breaker games and time-wasting, I officially have assignments for all of my classes and I'm not happy about it -- but what are you gonna do about it? Well I've already whinged for about a fortnight, so might be time to actually get onto things. There's one assignment especially that I have made some fantastic procrastination-themed excuses for not getting onto. The assignment (well, the initial stages) are to go and photograph an advertisement out on the streets somewhere and make sure the photo portrays the location of the advertisement as well as displaying what the advertisement actually is clearly. Today's reason for not doing this were that it's cloudy and not good weather, therefore not ideal for photographic purposes. Besides, all I have is my cellphone's camera which isn't ideal quality so I could do with any benefits (aka. a sunny day) that can be offered.

Lemme think what else I can to add to my ramble... well there was a fire drill at university today which was a good laugh. Yeah right. So boring. Standing around by myself for 15 minutes in the cold wind, in other words a normal Wellington day, with a t-shirt, fabric than Nicole Richie circa 2006, and some ludicrously heavy shoes I insist on wearing for no good reasons, was not what one would call "a laugh". I use that expression too much, and I'm not even sure my last sentence made sense or was grammatically correct but... whatever.

Japan Earthquake and Tsunami

2011-03-14T09:23:00.001+13:00

I probably look a bit stupid trying to blog about this because, to be honest, I'm a bit cut off from the news. I've pretty much been relying on Twitter and Stuff.co.nz for all my updates cause what I normally do is tune into SKY (NZ's cable television) for all the good news channels, but since I'm away from home at university I'm a bit cut off from good news.

Here's what I do know, the nuclear plant situation is really scary. Three power plants in Japan have been declared a state of emergency after Japan's earthquake and here's a quote from Stuff.

"A grim-faced Prime Minister Naoto Kan described the crisis at Japan's worst since 1945.
"The earthquake, tsunami and the nuclear incident have been the biggest crisis Japan has encountered in the 65 years since the end of World War II," Kan told a news conference."

It's easy to underrate the catastrophe of this earthquake, especially after New Zealand has just had a bunch of it's own crises in the last six months, such as the Pike River mine disaster and Christchurch earthquake, but this latest Japanese quake and tsunami completely owns it in a destructive sense.

Japan most likely would have had the safest of all nuclear power systems in the world, but I think at the end of the day, it is an incredibly risky and dangerous business and I don't think any energy source that efficent comes without it's own flaws and dangers. I think if there are any alternatives, which there are (eg. solar, wind, hydro), these should always be considered initially before nuclear. Sure Japan's monstrously populated, but is nuclear really the answer? I'm a fairly rampant Greenpeace supporter so obviously I say no.

Still, it's a bit late for that sort of discussion where the worst-case scenario of a disaster is almost imminent. I hope the situation can be contained but the fact the first two nuclear plants facing problems have turned to the last resort of using sea-water to cool the reactor is not good at all.

Needless to say, I'll be tweeting the '#prayforjapan' hashtag and I guess raising a little awareness for this blog, also I intend to donate but... yeah, god knows how it'll all go down. Seeing stories headlined with "millions without water" and "Overwhelming scenes of destruction after Japan earthquake and tsunami" aren't comforting at all.

Student Life

2011-03-13T17:58:00.000+13:00

Well life's beginning to resemble something normal as of late, it's my three week anniversary of living at Weir and to be completely honest, it's turning out to be kinda exciting! Obviously the workload sucks but that's university for you. I get set readings that are like only 6 pages long and I always think 'Oh that's not that bad' but then you actually look at it and the writing is TINY and so comprehensive and difficult to understanding that it takes numerous read-through's to actually be satisfied you've taken anything in. Which normally, let's face it, I don't.

On Friday, Bonnie (who lives a read down the hall and checks out this blog from time-to-time, hey Bonbon!) and I went to the library cause she needed some books and was afraid to go along. And she had good reason to do so. One of the best things about the Victoria University library is the view you get! I swear it's one of the best views I've seen in Wellington, obviously, I took a photo for all you charming people to see.

That photo doesn't do it any justice, but you get the idea. I forgot about the view from the look out on that hill in the distance, that's a lot better actually. Looking at the city from over there, especially at night, is a lot more pleasant. I just checked the Weir House menu (which is published handily on Facebook each week) and today's menu is beef nachos! Sounds good to me, unlike the usual carbohydrate overload that is offered. Does one really need rice, potatoes and pasta (with cheese) in one serving? Unless you intend to compete in an Iron Man competition tomorrow, which I basically am cause I have to be up at 6am for a 6.15am running group, then you probably don't need it. In fact, I might ask for a smaller serving and fill-up on salad. Which always feels unhealthy too, probbaly cause I always get mayonnaise too which I hardly ever do. Hey, I do get the "light" mayonnaise so only Allah will judge me.

I feel like sharing all my links so you can follow, friend or whatever-me on a bunch of different websites. Here's the list:

There, what more could you want? Uhh, you're welcome. :)

I Totally Saw Peter Jackson & Know Where He Lives

2011-03-11T12:20:00.000+13:00

Yesterday morning I was woken up by my aunty Jenni's friend Sue calling me, who invited me around to her place for dinner. I've always known her for two things: being very loud, and cooking a LOT of food. Needless to say, I was not let down.

Before that though, all I really had to do on Thursday was go to my theatre lecture and we were talking about the play I read called 'The Cape' and discussed which of Aristotle's 6 elements of tragedy were most crucial in the play. Usually plot is essential, but 'The Cape' was so episodic it was pretty obvious the characters and their development/revelations were more important. Plus music, since the script had a lot of specific points at which it wanted a type of music of a particular song playing.

After that I had a few hours to kill which I don't believe were particularly productive (aka. playing 'Plants vs Zombies') and then I met up with my campus coach at 3.30pm. Campus coaches are a university programme when an older mature student meets up with a group of students (there's like 10 of us) who're studying similar things. She talks to us about any problems we have and also takes us to cool places around Wellington, she took us to a café/restaurant/bar called 'Sweet Mother's Kitchen' which was an interesting, very Wellington, type of place. They had the most delicious curly fries which I could get eternally obese from because they were so good. Anyway, then we went to Te Papa for a little while, an enourmous multi-level interactive museum, world renowned I believe.

From Te Papa I went to Taranaki Street where I knew I was to catch the number eleven bus to Seatoun, where Sue (my aunt's friend) lives. Those buses are ruthless, but efficent, and was only $2.50 with my student ID for like, a twenty minute journey so pretty good considering in Nelson it'd have been like $3.90 and ridiculously slow and uncomfortable.

Basically I met a lot of people, ate a lot of food and enjoyed watching everyone drink a lot. I felt lame not drinking, but I don't do wine and beer and I don't socially drink. I only drink if I'm going to town, or if it's a one-off at like a restaurant or bar or whatever. Hate alcohol really. It was a very pleasant evening, and guess who I saw... PETER JACKSON!! Since Sue lives in Seatoun (aka. where the picture at the top of this is), that's where a lot of 'The Hobbit' people are staying and she also met Sir Ian McKellen the other day on the beach! I like Seatoun, it reminds me of Nelson cause no big high-rises and nothing building too ominous.

Anyway we were driving past his house and she told me that was where he lived, and god forbid, there he was sitting in his lounge! Couldn't really believe it, and on we drove a little and then we were at hers. Ugh, he needs to give me a leading role in one of his movies - I could be an orc without even dressing up for chryeste sakes. (as Kathy Griffin's mother, Maggie, would say)

Anyway, then some guy who was having dinner with us (he was Canadian, I know that much) gave me a ride home and it was quite out of his way so that was very nice, and... yeah. Then I stayed up late talking with Emma and Bonnie from my floor and then... that was that. Off to shower now, it's 12.17pm and I've done perhaps absolutely nothing.

The Life Plan

2011-03-09T21:44:00.003+13:00

Moving to Wellington, keeping up and improving my fitness was going to be one of my main focuses of the year, along with my studies of course, cause they're not cheap. However, I've found due to time constraint, other activities and a lack of control over my food (it's catered, so not too many options and no time for requests) my exercise/diet and overall health routine's been a bit out of whack. I joined a running group which has yet to get started, but I am looking forward to it. Up until now, my entire exercise history which spans about 3-4 years has been solitary. I joined the gym initially only because my friend Robert was joining, but he never came with me, like he literally came twice I think over like 6/7 months, but I found I quite enjoyed the gym and so was hasty to sign up to the one at Victoria University.

This photo was taken on a really shitty angle (not by me, I stole it off the internet) but this class area of the gym has the most amazing view of Wellington!

I paid about 50% extra to attend classes along with the gym facility so I'll need to start attending those, refuse to see money gone to waste and plus it's probably a lot more fun doing things in classes. I've done zumba before but that's about it, would like to get into yoga, pilates, kick-boxing and pump classes. Need to broaden my fitness horizons! Being fit is an amazing and it's pretty sweet to be able to run long-distances and the satisfaction of breaking a self-record is like no other.

Anyway, I forgot the point of this post. Besides from health, diet and fitness, I did just join university after all so my main focus ~~has to be~~ is study. I hate studying and will never understand why I went to university, but I understand that to have decent chances of success in later life, I have to put the work in now and I want iPhones, designer clothes and really expensive sunglasses, so to get all of that shizz, I must study, work, study work. Speaking of work, a certain Wellington store hasn't called me even though they said they would... Time to make a little trip down Taranaki Street way I think.

Off to read a play called 'The Cape' by Vivienne Plumb for Theatre tomorrow. The lecturer said it was about four boys driving on a road-trip and they go through self-revelations through talking to each-other and they're all wasted on drugs and there's allusions to Nirvana and Courtney Love's ex uhh... Kurt Cobain. (I'm sure some people would cringe at that's how I think of him, "Courtney Love's ex...". That's probably like referring to Lady Gaga as "Luc Carl's ex".) Anyway, not that I care about Nirvana or Kurt, but someone reading this might so... there you go.

The Wellington Life

2011-03-08T00:29:00.000+13:00

University and Weir House are finally beginning to seem a little normal now, not really, but sort of. The lectures and fast, succinct note-taking skills are something I'll need to work with but the deadlines, assignments and stuff don't seem like anything too horrific - it's definitely a step-up, and takes a lot of time to properly study everything the way you should, but I don't feel swamped yet even though I have two assignments.

Have made a few friends now, no one mega close but there's definitely a growing variety of people I feel pretty comfortable talking to. Currently the entire hall is playing a game called assassins. It's hard to explain but I'll give it a go. Basically everyone in the hall was given a playing card with a person's name on it, and to 'assassinate' them, for our version of the game, we have to manage to tag them behind the knee and say "You have just been assassinated", then you get their card with a person on it. It was carefully planned so that you would never end up with your own card unless you manage to assassinate everyone in the hall, which isn't gonna happen. There are various safe zones, like the bedrooms, bathrooms and dining hall. But the hallways, TV rooms, computer labs etc. are all open for assassination!

Woah I wrote this blog an hour ago and then abandoned it. Well I have no lectures tomorrow/today, huge, so... will just be a study day, and will be turning down offers to do things from people because I NEED to do a christload of work. Major.

Celebrity Quote: Joan Rivers

2011-03-05T19:27:00.000+13:00

"I blame my mother for my poor sex life. All she told me was 'the man goes on top and the woman underneath.' For three years my husband and I slept in bunk beds."

— Joan Rivers

Productivity At Its Finest

2011-03-05T18:01:00.000+13:00

I am quite disappointed in myself since I moved to university to be honest. I had great plans of working hard and feeling totally different about my tertiary education than I did at highschool but honestly, I am not a good studier and I am the reigning king of procrastination. I know everybody thinks they are, but I hold the title and that's the way it is. I have done nothing all day and it is almost 6pm Saturday today. I have decided that from 7pm-9pm at least I will do some quality reading and note-taking on the play I went to see yesterday, 'Our Man In Havana'. It was a clever play and the use of four actors playing over 40 characters was impressive but at the same time the plot & story didn't really catch my interest, the accents were a bit off and hard to understand and the set and scenery was plain and I just didn't like it much.

I have to write a humongous essay (that makes up 25% of... I don't know what, my final mark for the course I think) so it's quite important I do well but I couldn't think of that many words to write if I tired. I wouldn't have even wrote a blog post that long in my entire blogging life! I can't believe how long I've been doing this blog - if I had devoted all of the time I spend writing this B.S. to studying I'd have gained scholarships and probably have been offered a place in America's Ivy League. Well, maybe not -- that'd be a tad of a stretch, but you get the point.

Anyway, time for me to head down to dinner now - the usual charming walking into the huge room, joining an annoying line for dinner and then sitting with some randoms because the seats next to people you know are all gone or you can't find them. Either's crap. Or even more annoyingly, everyone you know has just finished and is about to leave so you can't join them or else they feel obliged to stay and watch you eat which is not good. This is really disgusting, but I always forget to close my mouth! I have kind of a sensitive mouth and hot/cold foods always make me eat weird. Sexy huh. Plus when I drink from a glass I always suck on the surface on the water and slurp, ugh, I'll get smoker's lips soon - no idea why I do this, I'm a different sort. So unique. ;)

Till The World Ends

2011-03-04T13:47:00.000+13:00

After moaning about Britney last night, I thought I'd better rectify my opinion of her after hearing her latest track 'Till The World Ends' which I love. Listen to it on PerezHilton.com by clicking here. I'd be very surprised if it doesn't go mainstream and get a lot of radio play, it's good and possibly even a club hit? Never know though, clubs play so un-clubby songs that have been remixed so any song has potential I guess. Still have yet to hear 'Born This Way' in a club so, until I do...

Today I need to do some serious study and no thanks to Oscar, this blog has been leaked to residents of Weir so... that's embarrassing. There was another little earthquake last night which was weird, not sure why I was awake (probably cause of the ferocious wind) but I felt it and I just sort of rattled in my bed and I was like WTF? but didn't really do much about it cause it was like 2.20am after all. I'm worried that there'll be an earthquake when I'm drunk in town or something, that'd be awkward. Oh well, if I die, I die. Not the best mantra to live by, but if you die it's not like it really affects you. Still, it would be nice to enjoy a little more life. I want to see my parents and dog again too, and Ashleigh and Brandon.

Ok it's officially 1.44pm and I have done nothing today, and I still need to get a damn costume for this evening's 'colourful cuba' dress-up thing for the play 'Our Man In Havana' so... better get organised. Least the weather's cleared up, was outrageously windy when I woke up. My stupid window doesn't stay open in the wind so I woke up in the world's stuffiest room with the blocked nose to end all blocked noses, not a good start. Alright, STFU Joey, GTFO and do some christ-forsaken work. Bye!

Lady Gaga Update

2011-03-04T00:13:00.002+13:00

I can think of no good reason why anyone would NOT have watched Lady Gaga's 'Born This Way' video, it's a spectacle and her career will I doubt ever be boring. I love the Sci-Fi aspects of the video and the simplistic choregraphed dance routines which I just think should be in every dance video, but are so often not! I like to see an artist show us what their made of without a billion cuts, Gaga has a fair few but Britney Spears' latest 'Hold It Against Me' had a horrific amount of cuts and you KNOW it was because she couldn't learn the dance routine, or couldn't do it well enough to show it in it's full glory. Unfortunately Britney is now purely manufactured, and I don't know why I only just realised this, but I have. I doubt severely that she has really any control over her career, she's just a money making machine and as long as she sells, which she does, I suspect this'll be the way it will remain until she finally gets sick of it. I can imagine Britney just up and quitting one day and eventually fading away, not so sure she'll ever really be able to fade, but she could definitely give it ago if she wanted to.

Anyway, that tangeant went on, without further ado - Born This Way!!

Homesick Crybaby

2011-03-03T22:47:00.000+13:00

It is late Thursday night and I have come to the conclusion that I am hopelessly homesick. This entire experience of moving away from home has been completely unlike what I had expected and to be blatant, a let down. Not sure what I was expecting, but I've never had such a hard time making friends - I've been hanging with Robert and Oscar from Garin a fair bit cause, to be honest, I haven't found "my people" yet.

Let me just clarify that before I sound awful, I have met lots of really cool people in the last fortnight and I'm sure I will enjoy strengthened friendships with them as the year goes on. However, right now, I don't think I have "clicked" with anyone because everyone's still rather in 'be nice to everyone' stage but... it just sucks. It especially sucks because so many people seem to have found their 'bestie' and I literally feel alone, or like a third wheel to all others.

Anyway, I know it's still early stages but two weeks without a good friend is quite annoying. Fortunately I've had Oscar and Robert, and Ashleigh has called a few times and I have had a bit of contact with Brandon on Twitter/MSN which has all been good. Parents and Grandma have called/e-mailed so that's been good also - just sucks being away from home for the first time. Let me just repeat myself, until two weeks ago, I had never lived in another home in my entire 18 years of life.

My new room, the sink is the literal highlight. Even though the water pressure sucks it.

I feel bad for my parents also, because it's a big change to their lives also. Since my older brother lived with my Grandma since he was like 12/13 (when I was 8/9, we'll go into this story another time...) and then moved away when he was like 16, mum, dad and I pretty much lived alone together for the last 9/10 years! To be completely honest, I feel like I lived most of my life with just us three - so it's changed the dynamics. I miss my dog, Mia, terribly. I cuddled and held her daily, and it's sad to not have her around, on my bed when I get home, not rushing to the door to greet me after a long, torturous day of highschool. I miss her.

The scar/shaved patch is from being attacked by another dog, she had just had stitches put in.

University's been a bit of a shock workload-wise, never have I been given like, 3 hours worth of reading material for like one or two days. It's insane! I guess I better hurry up and adopt the mantra of "studying is a full-time job" quickly before I fall behind! Considering I did homework usually like, once a week last year, I'd better get into the flow of things quickly. I really am a shocking studier, and I hope it's something I can overcome for the sake of passing this year! I must say I'm overwhelmed by the thought of three years of study, but plenty of people have hacked it and I'm pretty sure I'm not completely stupid, just a little, so... let's see how I get on.

Here's a picture of my Theatre 101 lecture that I had from 12pm-1pm today just before it started, it was really exciting. ;)

Not gonna pretend I'm enjoying it so far - the education level has really been upped and I feel like I've missed out on a HUGE chunk of prior learning - is it just because I missed level 3 NCEA drama? It's not my fault a Hitler-wannabe was Garin College's only drama teacher who managed to put every single person in my year off of drama, so I'd have been the only one, with the year 11 and year 12's. Fuck that. Basically it's hard and annoying and there's a lot of reading, and I'm over it.

The Party Animal

2011-03-01T22:37:00.001+13:00

The title of the post is supposed to be ironic, in case that wasn't immediately obvious. Well, ish. I've never been so uninspired to pump out a blog post in all my long years, especially the last week, but I've been inactive enough lately so, god forbid a reader was looking for a new post, your wish has been granted!

So I went out three nights last week - which is unheard of in my life. I normally do the whole once every fortnight thing, and even then I'm a little reluctant. However, university's orientation week is a whole other story and apparently Wednesday is student night and then there's the obvious Saturday night so... I feel kind of obligated to go! I'm going to try to stick to once maximum a week, alcohol's expensive and without a source of income, I really need to STOP spending for the sake of it.

On Friday we had a 'zombie themed party' so here's a photo of the party.

It was pretty sweet, but dressing up was a pain and it was just overall a bit annoying. Pessimistic, I know. Also I went out the following night so was officially exhausted after that. Here's a photo of me and my friend Bonnie. I look fat, but whatever. It was an unusually tight top, but it got ruined and thrown out so... who cares.

Just experienced a small earthquake in Wellington, it was 4.5 on the Richter scale apparently and only lasted a second or two, but enough to scare me and I'm not feeling pretty paranoid about every gust of wind. Being on the fifth story, it felt like a giant had kicked the building because it kind of swayed. So scary!

Anyway, my first lectures on Monday were alright - nothing to rave on about. For theatre I had to book tickets to see a play called 'Our Man In Havana' which is like a spy spoof or something. All I know is that it's been selling out, and adults have being paying $48 for tickets where students get $12 tickets - and thank god! I think it should have been in our fees really, but never mind. I think a lot of money is wasted at university and I reckon it goes a bit over the top to provide support and services to students, I mean, really. Save money, cut down costs - but I guess there are a LOT of jobs supplied by the university, so that's also a bonus. It is over the top though, and that's official. First Media 103 tomorrow and another theatre tomorrow, lucky me. Night.

Hall of Residence Escapades

2011-02-26T15:58:00.000+13:00

This week's been pretty intense, but fortunately has gotten somewhat easier to deal with. Currently sitting in a room, on a beanbag, with 5 others. No one's up to much, guess everyone had a pretty big Friday night. I know I did. There was a zombie themed disco which was pretty much a dubstep concert and it was super loud but kind of annoying. I brought a white t-shirt which I stained with fake blood and slashed my black shirt which I wore over top. I also put some fake blood on my face but decided to skip the whole face painted look, largely attributed to the fact that I had no make-up or face paint.

The zombie disco was alright -- nicely themed but terrible music, expensive drinks and when I first arrived I had to fill out a questionnaire which was not what I wanted to do, I was drunk for god sake! I also lost my friends because of this but managed to track down Oscar and she had a chick that came with us, Sophie, I think her name was. We went into town and met up with Rob and his 'friend' Braden bought me a drink and a shot, so basically I owe him a lot of money. I felt bad, but I didn't argue. It was a pretty good night - but Wellington was pretty insane, although I must looked a bit strange dressed all zombified. Next time, with hope, I'll attempt to look halfway decent.

Anyway, I didn't get home until like... 2am and then didn't get to sleep until 3am so it wasn't the best of nights. Still adjusting to this whole hall situation, and I have lectures on Monday! The first lectures of my life. Basically, I'm horrified and everyone in this hall is ridiculously intelligent. I miss my spoon-feeding highschool teachers already.

The Weird, Anti-Social Guy

2011-02-23T22:41:00.000+13:00

Another day in paradise for me! It's getting a little easier, but not much and I still haven't quite adjusted to the fact that everything I have ever known (and loved) is now gone. I ended up going out last night, the lord knows why. Everyone wanted to "chill" and I'm really not a social drinker. I don't like alcohol, it's expensive as fuck and I am a dancer! Not a sitter. So... was over that pretty quick, still, good to see what bars are out there. Lots are a bit posh for me though, scored a free coke from a bar called Public which I was pretty rapped about.

Today I woke up at like 9am, dithered around until 11am and then found out that Oscar was going to town, who I recently made friends with again after a ridiculously immature fight towards the end of 2010 so I went to met him. We both ended up talking to nobody from our halls until like 4pm so we were rather anti-social, but holy god it was too good to hang out with someone I actually knew. Would've invited Rob but he was busy at lectures and getting tours etc. all day, I probably will be yesterday. Better go write down my time table, which is only really accessible from a noticeboard down the corridor a bit.

Went on a ferry ride this evening which was a bit boring but all of these activities we do are pretty much purely just to meet people and I can't say I've made any life-long friends just yet, but it is hard to click when you're meeting like 20 new people every hour and trying to remember their names and the things they tell you. The view of Wellington was quite nice and it was good for orientating myself, Wellington really isn't that big afterall, just really condensed, tall and a completely different landscape to good old Nelson. I definitely wouldn't want to live in Wellington, but for now it's a nice change. Well, nice-ish. Not gonna lie, this move has been brutal!

Anyway, been hanging with some randoms and... yah.

How My Life Changed Forever

2011-02-22T22:06:00.002+13:00

To describe my experiences of moving to Wellington to attend Victoria University as 'traumatic' would be an understatement. I guess I'll just describe the chronological story of my move-in, I have yet to truly let anyone know just how much of an internet fiend I am but I won't deny I have been desperate, four days without proper internet access has been torture. Mobile internet, that is incredibly temperamental, is not ideal. At all.

So on Saturday morning I was woken up early after furiously last-minute packing the night before. I slept terribly and was sick with nerves, I regret not really even bothering to take a good last-minute look or anything. It's hard to really fathom (why do I always write that?) leaving after living in one house ALL my life. My aunty Jen was driving mum, dad and I to Picton to catch the ferry and, fortunately, she had a big car which could fit my rather exorbitant amount of luggage in it. We stopped in the town of Havelock which was annoying cause we'd only been driving for an hour and I was a nervous wreck and didn't want to "stop and have coffee". Whatever.

We got to the Picton Ferry Terminal and had to wait for about an age (aka. an hour) until the bus shuttle took us down to the ferry. It was a long, boring ride and I didn't really know what to do with myself. It was pretty packed with university students and I was having an internal (and probably external) meltdown regarding everything. Believe me, I still am. My head has been pounding ever since I got here - having NO ONE I know or can properly relate to is driving me a bit batshit crazy. Thank God I got internet today cause, until then, texting and mobile-tweeting had been my only communication with the outside world.

I arrived in Wellington about 3pm on Saturday and fortunately we had pre-booked a shuttle who was waiting for us so on we hopped after loading our (aka. my) bags onto it and off we went. We were staying with my parent's friends for the night as I wasn't to move in until Sunday. However, when we got back and I was all packed I got the most horrific call from the ferry terminal saying I had left a bag behind. Took me a minute to realize what one it was, it was my smaller case and it had my most important possession inside of it! Thank god my dad was able to call the guy (whose house it was, I've forgotten his name, oh wait, it's David) and he was in town so was able to pick it up on the way back from work which was pretty hott. No idea how I was stupid enough to manage that but in all fairness my parents (and the taxi driver) were being incredibly impatient and hurrying me and I was frazzled, stressed and, honestly, scared. Not to mention sad, I'm incredibly sad! I miss my old life already.

Alright, moving on from being a sad sack... So Sandy and David, the people's whose place we were at, had their two grandchildren around, 11 and 13 year old brothers, who were admist a massive fight but after giving in to play tennis with them, they started getting along. God they reminded me of myself, the older one was incredibly sporty and competitive, just like my brother, and the younger one didn't care much for tennis and wasn't very good. I liked the younger one more because he reminded me of myself, a lot. Anyway, I beat them both at tennis (thanks to tennis lessons for the entire year of 2010!) obviously, and went back home and, once again, slept like hell.

Sunday, move in day. I was woken up annoyingly early, 9.30am, to be rushed awoken, force-fed breakfast because everyone had already eaten. Not sure what everyone's rush was, but apparently it was major. By 10.30am we left to Weir and I was dying, and basically, I still am. There were people and parks everywhere and I didn't know where the F I was and I was pretty much dying, especially with both of my parents with me who were equally stressed I think. Anyway, we managed to get ourselves to the office where I got my key and the residential advisor, there's one for each floor (an older student who lives here) showed me to my room and gave me a quick lowdown of what's to happen on the day and then me and my parents were basically left to ourselves. Mum, dad and I made up my room and made the bed, put my posters up etc. I need to a lot more decorating though, things are pretty barren right now still. Need to get things, but I'm afraid to spend, and probably will remain so until I get a job. Which I have now began to understand is going to be the most challenging thing possibly ever, Wellington is crazy and there's a LOT of students about to descend upon the town so I better work on my CV tomorrow, can't tonight - exhausted and this blog is really taking it out of me!

Also I just popped across the hall and realised two others gave the quiz night a miss, haha, we were all hiding out in our rooms. There's one girl across the hall, whose name I've forgotten right now, who is quite a good laugh and doesn't seem to mind me wondering into her room for a chat so that's good. Anyway, so the rest of Sunday. Honestly, I can't even remember. The last few days feel like a week, it has barely been two days! God I literally can't remember WTF we did on Friday. Well each floor (how the place is separated, but it's pretty disjointed so the floors are all pretty random and unevenly numbered) sort of has been doing their own thing and I haven't really left my floor, let alone my own pod. Our floor has foor pods which is basically a corridor with everyone's rooms, and there's there's a door to the stairwell, another door, another corridor with rooms, another door, stairwell, door, corridor etc. I'm on F Floor, which is at the bloody top and there is an elevator but it takes an age. I worry about exercise, but on Monday I assure you we had enough.

Monday literally seemed to go on FOREVER. I can barely even remember, first and foremost we went on a bus tour around Wellington. I think the point of it was to help orientate ourselves by taking us up the top of Mt Victoria (at least I think that's what it's called) and you can see a view of the whole of central Wellington, and here's a picture I took on my cell.

Not the best shot but you're welcome regardless. From there we went to some random beach and a van of food was brought to us which was nice, although it was our 'lunch' for the day but all we got was a sausage roll, a biscuit and an apple. Not exactly what you'd call nutrition. Thank the lord, at the start of the day I was having a nervy-b about whether I should bring my water bottle or not, fortunately I decided to bring it and my god was it a life-saver. We didn't go near the opportunity to get a drink for too long.

The big 'kick-off' to Orientation Week for all Victoria University students was held in Civic Square, or whatever's it called, which is near the central area of Wellington's waterfront. There was thousands of people and all us Weir kids had green shirts to wear and we chanted stuff and clapped and listened and most of all, burned. It must have been the sunniest day in Wellington ever and my arms, face and legs got crazy sunburn and have a bad-ass watch tan which is pretty sick. Gawd, thankfully I have a good stockpile of fake tan to even it out. Assuming it doesn't peel, which it probably will. I don't wanna get melanoma and die. It was stupid of me, but it didn't even cross my mind. Better buy more sunscreen actually just incase for future reference.

So after all of this tiresome activity, believe me it was, barely got a wink of sleep the previous night, we went to Kelburn Campus, the central area for Victoria University and I signed up for 'campus coaches' which was basically a mature student took on a group of people studying similar things and off we went and she told us lots of little tidbits, took us on a pretty cool tour and we're all going to meet up a few times over the next few weeks to make sure we adjust and know what's happening and stuff.

After that, which went on for about three hours, we came back, had dinner. Oh, let me stop here, forgot if I mentioned earlier but EVERY meal time is horror. Picture this, you walk into a hall with about 200 people seemingly all adjusted and know each other, they probably don't, but it looks like it. You sit down with them and try to make small-talk amidst an enormous racket and it's just awkward, scary, nightmarish, the food is different and... ugh, it's just crazy.

Anyway, I am just going to gloss over what we did in the evening cause I will never be able to justify just how torturous it was. It was called 'operation relocation' and basically the residential advisors were dotted all over Wellington, and I mean ALL over, we walked/ran for fucking hours, carrying goddamn soaking-wet mattresses with teams of people and we had to go to locations that no one really knew and answer riddles and do all sorts of other ridiculous challenges. It was insane, and was about 3 hours of complaining, lifting, carrying etc. I was very proud to be the perhaps fittest one of the lot though.

So today I woke up distressed, exhausted and beyond sunburnt and we had quite a bit of free-time. All we really had to do was go to a big talk about how much study we were going to have to do (8 hours a day apparently, christ!) and then a really funny lecture which I could go into, but can't be bothered. But basically we were all fooled by this guy who was all dressed up and he was just a really good sort and he pretty much described how I was feeling and it was the only time over the last few days that I felt like someone cared about just how hard all of this was, because I have been having a meltdown!

Alright, this blog's been going on for a painfully long amount of time and... yeah. I must say though, everything seems like nothing compared to the latest Christchurch earthquake that has happened today. I can't be bothered going into it, selfish I know, but I have tweeted a lot about it and basically it is devastating and... I don't really know what to say. I'm thinking of you Christchurch, all the best! Makes my struggles seem miniscule when your city is destroyed and your families are lost, injured or dead. The high-rate of fatality is so crazy for New Zealand! The city is literally in ruins, what can people do in such times? That town will never be the same, fortunately my family are all safe but I have yet to hear from my friends. God knows how this'll affect their start to university and stuff, hopefully nothing too major.

Last Post For A Wee While, Maybe

2011-02-18T21:31:00.000+13:00

So not sure when I'll be getting internet access again but what I do know is that I'm about to pack up my laptop and it probably won't be used until Sunday at the earliest, but that's the move-in day for Weir House and not sure if I'll be able to get internet access on the very day I move in. Hope so though, but I'll be on Twitter and Facebook via my phone at least so... there'll be no serious shortage of me.

So tomorrow is the day I leave the nest, maybe not 100% cause I'll be back for holidays and this will still be my 'home', but I won't be here much and... it's crazy. My mum dropped the dog off at our friend's place for the weekend because they're coming with us, so I have had to say goodbye to my dog, Mia, already and that was so sad! I keep wanting to go cuddle her now but I can't, won't see her for like 2 months. Sucks. I love her, she's the sweetest wee fox terrier.

I'm basically shaking in my boots but I've realised that I'm actually more sad than nervous or excited! How lame is that? My poor wee parents will be all alone and I'll be slaving away over god knows what work, I honestly have the least bit of an idea of what type of work I have in-store for me, and I keep trying to forget I'm doing theatre cause I know I'm going to end up doing something horrifically nerve-racking, stressful and nerve-racking in no time and I'm already a nervous wreck thinking about it. Still, time to get life properly started and no more time-wasted at any B.S. highschools. I hated Garin, and that's the story I'm sticking to.

Tomorrow my aunty's picking us up at like 9am, than taking us to Picton where we'll catch the ferry. It's like a 3 hour something (boring) ride, but the weather's supposed to be great so that's a bonus, and we'll get off in Wellington, catch a shuttle (with my truckload of stuff, gawd! Still haven't finished packing my shoes, books etc.) to my dad's friends place. Stay there the night with Mum and Dad, and at some point on Sunday haul my stuff over to Weir, find my room and... it's ALL a mystery from there. I have NO idea what's happening, but I am laying three ground rules. I still don't know if I've got a single or shared room, can you imagine if I get there on the day and I get a SHARED ROOM? I will die a thousand deaths. And then some. But who knows, maybe it'd be good. Probably not though. I have a LOT of Gaga listening and computing to do, and my roommate will get pissed that I never leave the room so they'll have some privacy so... it'll be there prob.

Sucked saying goodbye to my friends today too, byebye Ashleigh, Brandon and Nick! See you sometime soon, you're all hott.

Wish me luck for my big move!

7 Days...

2011-02-12T21:05:00.000+13:00

So guess who had their last day at work today? After two years of charming retail, it has finally come to a close (for now) and I'm off to Wellington next Saturday and moving in to Weir. A week later, I will start my courses. Am I insane? I still can't believe I am doing theatre, university level theatre. I'm scared. I haven't done any acting in forever and the last few years I have developed a bit of a speech problem, I always trip over my walks and ALWAYS talk so fucking fast and no one has a god damn clue what I'm saying. My problem is that I'm far too smart and think too fast, and when I go to talk it, as my friend Brandon told me, just explodes out of my mouth. Hopefully that problem will be improved by doing theatre.

So this is my last Saturday night in Nelson and so I am off to town with my friends, going to have a crowded house with Ashleigh (who has already arrived and is watching me write this, how lame am I?), Dani, Dani's sister Stef, Brandon (his first time going to town! He better drink lots), Nathan and Tony aka. Antonio. Random, but whatever - I'm excited. But seriously, this is the most fucking random bunch. Still, at least there's a turn out for what I am claiming "my night", since it is my last night.

Alright, I need to stop listening to Lady Gaga's latest single 'Born This Way', it's too fucking good. Buy it on iTunes and support mother monster.

Lady Gaga Update

2011-02-11T13:52:00.000+13:00

I honestly can't go on enough about Lady Gaga right now, she has domianted my Twitter and the anticipation of her new single, 'Born This Way', which us coming out tonight is killing me. I worship this woman (unhealthily probably) like a God and I cannot wait for the new single! In the mean time, the fantastic new interview/article done by Vogue Magazine on Lady Gaga makes for a fucking fantastic read so go check it out now. (This image is from the Vogue photoshoot which I thought was extremely beautiful and very high fashion! It's a perfect Gaga/Vogue collaboration, good to see that stuck-up bitch Anna Wintour finally making some worthwhile decisions aka. putting Gaga on the cover of March's Vogue.)

Check out the interview and more pictures by going to Gaganatic.