A Lot Can Happen in an Hour

I was on campus for maybe a little over an hour today and was witness to not one, not two, but THREE strange occurrences. Gotta love that magic number, huh?

First, I went about 15 minutes early to class in order to grab a quick lunch and I stopped at a place in the center of campus called Slices. I went through the line, saw a nice yummy veggie pasta dish and got me some for about tree fitty (that's $3.50 for those of you who don't watch South Park). I figured some fruit would be good to go along with that, so as I made my way through the line I stopped by the fruit stand. Above the fruit stand is a sign hanging that says: $1. And that's the only price there was. Not too surprising, as you'd expect your normal array of fruit to go for about $1/each . . . but they also had fruit salad there. I picked it up, looked all over it for another price and found none. I figured it wouldn't sell for $1, but I figured the two items combined would likely sell for less than the $7 I had on me. As it turned out... nope; came to like, $7.80. So I told the lady, who was chatting over the lines of people to her friend on the other register and not really paying attention to me, that I had to put the fruit back cuz it wasn't enough. She just sort of threw it on top of her register and then barked "$3.50." I handed her two $2 coins. She took them, put them in her register, and then proceeded to help the next person in line. I politely stood there awaiting my change. After a moment or two she notices me still standing there, stops chatting with her friend for a second, and regurgitates: "$3.50." I said "Yes, I know - I gave you $4." Going right back into the convo with her friend without skipping a beat, she plops a 50 cent piece in my hand and sends me off.

Next, came Statistics. To my surprise, there was a new person teaching there. To my further surprise, he got through the entire chapter 7, well explained and everything, in about 45 minutes. To my even further surprise, he told us that, concerning the final exam in June, we only needed to bring calculators. The lecture notes in their entirety (that's 150+ pages folks) would be provided for us. Is it me, or is that tantamount to an admittance of guilt? "We're sorry. We realize we didn't actually teach you anything. Here, take this, just be gentle on the unit review." My only question is . . . will this make the test easier, or harder?

The final strange thing I saw is worthy of today's Aussie Doozy of the Day:
As I was leaving my statistics class, I saw a pamphlet for STA Travel sitting on the bench outside the classroom. Since me and some friends are planning a trip to the Gold Coast this winter, and perhaps even a trip to New Zealand after 2nd semester, I picked it up to see what it had to say. Unfortunately, it was advertising a trip to the USA, hardly very exciting for me. But as I looked it over, I noticed it has some "fun facts" about the USA:

• Americans spend $500 million a year on ketchup
• Americans will eat about 150 million hotdogs and 18 acres of pizza every day
• The average American drinks about 600 sodas a year
• Fortune Cookies were actually invented in the USA, in 1918 by Charles Jung

Isn't it kind of sad that's how the world sees us?

Music and White Noise

It's a good thing I love irony, because I tend to experience a hell of a lot of it. For instance, Saturday night I went to see the Story of the Year/Flogging Molly/Emery concert. In truth, I only bought the ticket to see Emery. And since Flogging Molly was as annoying as I expected them to be, I left shortly after Emery finished (which makes that ticket probably the most money I've ever spent for the privilege of seeing one band).

The irony is that Emery is also from Seattle. So, a band that is based in Seattle, and has been for some time, I see for the first time when we both happen to be in Melbourne for the first time ever. Funnily enough, they're playing in Melbourne again next Saturday, and I shall go to see them again. Why again? They fucking rocked. It was fortunate that they rocked, as I spent the whole time unfortunately squished up against a fortunately very good looking girl who I later realized (in better lighting) was unfortunately not a day over 17. Thank goodness I'm gentlemanly enough to know to keep my hands to myself, or as much to myself is possible when the entire crowd is moving around like sardines when a little kid shakes the tin.

You could tell they were really excited to be there, and it's the first time I've ever seen a crowd react so well to an opening act. When they played "Walls" (last, of course) about half the crowd fell right the hell over at the end of the song, which shows you how much people were bouncing around. I happened to be in that half the crowd, and had the misfortune of being only able to use one hand to try and get back up. I was stupid enough to purchase CD's before the show (Emery's latest "The Question" and the new Chili Peppers) so I had those to hold on to.

In another bout of irony, I showed up at the JB Hi-Fi downtown to pick up the CD's at 5 pm. Emery had an in-store performance and signing at 4 pm. Gah!!

Although, a friend that I've made on campus is involved in a music news/reviews website with some other college friends (www.somethingfm.com). I've offered to join to add news articles and reviews and stuff - and I have used the opportunity of working for the 'press', as it were, to attempt to gain an audience with Emery for a short meet-and-greet and interview. MySpace is a delicious little tool for contacting artists directly. In the event they happen to read my proposal before next Saturday, I offered them incentive in the form of a beer a-piece. Shameless? Probably.

I also used MySpace to contact another band I know and love: Mad at Gravity. They put out an album in 2002 and we've heard nothing but cricket chirps from their camp since, mostly because their singer left and they haven't found a new one. I dunno whether they've broken up or not, but both their website and MySpace pages are up and running. In the off chance they're still looking for a singer . . . I requested a chance to audition. Who knows? I might get lucky. We'd definitely be a good fit musically . . . we'll see what happens. Most probably my message will get ignored and buried under throngs of other ignored and buried messages, but it's worth a shot.

After the concert I came back home and hung out with Ashy and (her now ex-boyfriend) Rowie and her friend Damo. I got dragged to the supermarket with them so we could get stuff to make nachos with and then we sat around and talked for a little while.

We didn't stay up too late. Bedtime followed shortly after, because I wanted to get up at a reasonable time the next morning to study for my Networking lab test. I had hoped by then I'd get a response back from the lab tutor regarding just what the hell this test was going to be on. It's about an hour before the test right now and I JUST got an email from him. Apparently I studied the right stuff, which is thankful. I don't want to do poorly on yet another test.

Because I didn't have a lot of studying that I could do, I ended up spending a lot of the day doing stuff with Lana, Andrej, and Catlin. Catlin and Lana were going to a nearby mall and I tagged along to do grocery shopping. Then later we all watched a few episodes of House and Family Guy and went and had dinner at McDonald's. Surprisingly, I managed to get a fairly healthy meal of a salad and juice. With a side of delicious, gut-busting fries, of course. Andrej ate two full 6-piece chicken nugget meals plus a burger.

Andrej is a guy that freakin' bewilders me. He ate two full 6-piece chicken nugget meals plus a burger. He's ALWAYS hungry, he ALWAYS overeats, and he ALWAYS eats like crap . . . but he's freakin' lean and built. He must have the metabolism of the furnace on the Titanic. Granted he goes to the gym and works out 4-5 times/week, but, in juxtaposition, I eat almost exclusively healthy food (I let myself cheat once a weekend for sanity) and do sit-ups and push ups every night and I don't seem to lose any weight at all. *sigh* I really need to get serious about getting a bike. That'll help.

Annnnd, to end with a random funny story about mishaps around the college: Friday afternoon, I was taking a shower. During this shower, some guy opens the bathroom door and says something like: "Hi, we're recoding your door lock - we need your key so we can recode it, too." I obviously responded skeptically: "Dude - I don't even know who the fuck you are." He replied: "Well, ok. After we recode your lock, we have to shut your door. Just go to the office." Great. So my choices are: Give my key to some guy I don't know and can't see behind the locked shower door, or get locked out of my room and be forced to go get my key recoded in only a towel. I gave him my key. See, she like this would be SOOO avoidable if they would JUST POST NOTICES!!!!

Aussie Doozy of the Day:
Even with all the traveling in cars I did this weekend, riding around on the left side of the road just does not lose its novelty.

Eureka!

I've done it. I've figured it out. I always felt that this La Trobe University made the classroom seem even more impersonal than the classroom at the UW despite being a distinctly smaller school. Today, I finally figured out the reason why it feels that way.

I got my Computer Organization lab test back today and it's the second test in a row that I've done poorly on. I don't do poorly on tests. I even studied for these. Still did piss poor. I now realize the main reason is that there is a glaring lack in personal feedback. At just about every class I've taken at the UW - even the huge, 500+ person lectures, you get back what you turned in with some sort of personal feedback about what you did wrong. You can then use this feedback to correct your mistakes before the test. About all these people do is post solutions on the web, if your lucky. And of course, the one class that DOES do this doesn't bother to tell you that they do it, so they might as well not do it.

It's just bizarre. It's a smaller school, smaller student-to-teacher ratio, a private school with private funding . . . and the quality of the education is still miles below the education of a very large, very public, very research-oriented university. I can't wait until I get to leave feedback at the end of these classes.

Aussie Doozy of the Day:
Strangely . . . I can't find a can of just-plain-ol' black beans or pinto beans anywhere. I mean, I know we're far away from the influence of Mexican cooking . . . but I'd think black and pinto beans would be pretty standard items to shelve in a supermarket. Apparently, I'm wrong.

This Is About Nothing

Seriously. This time it's not just sensationalism driving the headline - this post really is about nothing. It's mid-term and major assignment time here at good ol' La Trobe , so I've basically been cooped up in my room doing next to nothing besides alternately studying and procrastinating.

This past weekend it turns out I could've gone out and had a little fun (other than the concert, I mean), but the whole teachers-not-communicating-with-students problem reared its ugly head again. They have on the syllabus that the mid-term lab test for my stats class will be between week 10 and week 13. But nowhere on their website did they say *exactly* when. Given that it's week 10 this week, I had to study my little ass off that weekend just in case. However, the tutor emailed me back (3 days after I emailed him) and told me it isn't until the 22nd.

So this week, all I have to do is pass my kanji quiz tomorrow and do well in my presentation on Thursday. About the most interesting thing I've done since my last post is get Death Cab for Cutie tickets. :D They're coming here on the 14th of July. That should be awesome. This weekend I have the Emery concert - that should be awesome, too. I'll keep you up to date on that.

Anyway, here's some cool websites to check out, since I have nothing else to talk about: :)

Pandora - The ultimate place to find new music. It's seriously the coolest website ever made.

My Heritage - This is the 2nd coolest site ever made. Sign up (for free, of course) and you can upload your picture and it'll tell you what celebrities you look like.

Rejected Cartoons - A classic. One of the best Internet cartoons ever.

Stephen Colbert White House Video - If you haven't seen this, you NEED to. Aired on April 30th, this is Stephen Colbert's now-infamous White House broadcast of the Colbert Report. It's on par with this ...

Jon Stewart Crossfire Video - Jon Stewart's equally ballsy stint on Crossfire.

Aussie Doozy of the Day:
Australian students, I have noticed, are very rude. At least that's the case at this university. Students have no qualms about coming into class 30 or even 40 minutes late, nor leaving 30 or even 40 minutes early. And when they do, they make absolutely no effort to be discrete about it. They'll slam doors, slam desks, sit in the middle of the row even if they know they'll be leaving. And cell phones go off just about every class. Sometimes multiple times. The weird part is the professors don't even seem to care. Of course, we've also had a professor's cell phone go off several times in a single class . . .

Lost My Virginity Again

Man, I'm as bad as the 'liberal media' when it comes to sensationalized headlines, huh?

Well, what I really mean is that I went to my first concert of all Aussie bands with my buddy James last night, who said I was "losing my Australian-music virginity." After a slight entanglement trying to find another 4th member as Ashy dropped out at the last minute, we all got into James's girlfriend's car and were on our way.

The billing was:
Bodyjar
Blueline Medic
Away From Now
Tirany

At a venue know as the Arthouse in downtown Melbourne. Apparently, they're celebrating their 15th birthday this year with a long string of rock shows, so it's likely I'll be returning to the Arthouse for more shows in the future. I especially liked that, while it was still fairly smoky, it was an entire degree more breathable than the last few bars/clubs I'd been in.

We managed to arrive there in time to see the first band play, which is cool, cuz that means we got all of our $15 worth from the show. We stood about half-way back from the stage for an all-girl group (with a very attractive lead guitarist) that played fairly well, but their rhythm section seemed to need a little revamping. It was also mostly very generic post-punk material. Good enough to enjoy and dance around to a little, but unfortunately for them nothing terribly memorable. But they did their job as an opening band. They played with passion and got the crowd warmed up for the rest of the night. I've definitely seen worse opening bands.

In between bands we managed to move a little farther up toward the stage and the next band, Away From Now, were actually pretty good. There was one guitarist in particular who played a lot of really interesting and complex riffs without breaking a sweat, and their very-talented rhythm section was going strong throughout the set. I didn't really like their singer, and overall they were a bit too emo for my taste, but they played well and it was enjoyable. Apparently they're performing their last show at that same venue in about week, but I don't think I'll go to it.

Once again, we managed to sneak a little farther up to the front of the stage before the next act began. None of the bands that played that night really lit my fire, but Blueline Medic probably came the closest out of any of them. All very competent musicians that seemed like they were having a ton of fun, and that always adds to the enjoyment of the show. If the guys on stage are comfortable and are having obviously having a good time and joking around, chances are those feelings are going to flow off the stage in waves and infect members of the audience with the same feelings. These guys were a little more experimental then the other bands, so I enjoyed seeing where they took their songs.

The four of us managed to make it pretty much right up to the stage for Bodyjar and, despite the fact that they played well, it was the least enjoyable part of the evening. I'd never heard of them before the show, but it seems Bodyjar's stock-in-trade is upbeat, pop-punk rock; definite punk roots, but pretty heavy on pop sensibilities. Why then, oh WHY, were there riotous mosh pits?!? I didn't get it. There was a small, random drunk people rioting around in the middle and crowd surfing and generally lessening the experience for anyone else. James's girlfriend ended up getting kicked in the head. Thankfully she'll be fine save a small lump in the middle of her forehead. Surprisingly, I was able to keep most of 'em at bay. Everytime someone came my way, I just shoved 'em right back. Some adrenaline must have been flowing because several times I managed to throw them hard enough to bowl some of the other guys over. This one guy was stupid enough to crowd surf with a beer, and when his head came near me it took all I had not to just knock him out right there.

The lead singer of Bodyjar didn't appreciate the antics either. Often, the people crowd surfing would end up on the stage and then dive off. Several times they managed to knock over his mic stand. One time the knocked it right into his mouth and you could almost hear it click against his teeth. The next guy that got on stage after that he kicked right in the ass and sent him off into the crowd.

Afterwards we walked to Swanston for some food and so I could catch the night rider bus back to campus. James and his girlfriend Emma opted to go to their friend Zac's place (he was the 4th guy) for the night, since it was closer and they were really tired.

Other than that, I just came home and went to bed at about 4 am. Fighting off the crowd evidently took a lot out of me because I slept until about 4 pm today, and I don't feel like I'm going to be staying up super late tonight.

That's really all the news I got, kiddies.

Aussie Doozy of the Day:
Concerts go about VERY differently here. Even at small venues, if their a band that's successful enough to put out a CD (nevermind 5-6 like Bodyjar has), roadies/stagehands will come out, set up the equipment, tune the instruments, do the sound checks, and then only after all that is done do the musicians come out, usually from the wings. Also, no matter how small the club, there are usually always bouncers of some kind to keep the crowd from getting too out of control.

At the concert last night, the first two bands mostly did the loading and unloading themselves (while roadies helped, of course). They got on stage via walking through the crowd and left that way. The two mainline acts had more help setting up, but their enter-exit strategy was the same. They all seemed to love mingling with the fans, and the fans - despite being in the presence of their music heroes - didn't seem to bother them more than was necessary.

I Get Knocked Down, But I Get Up Again

Today I feel much better. It's incredible what stress will do to your body and your point of view on the things going on around you. Stress and frustration are probably the leading causes of homesickness - I don't have any proof to back that up, but it sounds good right from the gut just like it is. I've gotten two assignments off my back and nothing due for a good week. I've successfully achieved a state of clear. Don't get me wrong, I still wanna rip this university's head off and shit down its neck, but now I'm far less likely to actually attempt it. Besides, I'm a lover, not a fighter.

Wednesdays, however, are always grueling. 5 hours of class in a row from 9am to 2 pm, made worse by the fact that the first 3 of those are Japanese, made worse by the fact that I don't study my Japanese enough (still doing well in the class, though), made worse by the fact that I'm always fucking stupid about sleeping. Despite the fact that I read a whole article about sleeping and why the polyphasic sleeping stunt I attempted a few years ago isn't a great idea, I still think it's a good idea to fight sleep for the sake of entertainment. For instance, last night I almost went to be at a decent hour of about 1 o'clock. That gives me a good 7½ hrs plus a nap after my last class if I need it. Instead, I happen to check to see when the new House episode is coming out and find a link to a site where a doctor does reviews of all the House episodes from a medical standpoint, basically seeing how well the psuedo-realistic medical side of the show holds up when compared with the real stuff. I stayed up about another 2-2½ hours reading up on the stuff. That tells us two things: it was a very good website with very interesting reading, and that I'll do most anything to feed my House addiction. Oh, well. I'm forced to download the episodes here cuz I never seem to grab a TV here to watch 'em. :(

Japanese went well for the most part, regardless of my lack of sleep. The thing I'm having the most trouble with is Japanese grammar. They freakin' allow double negatives! Here, lemme explain what I mean. Take the Japanese word for to see , look, or watch (apologizing to all the Japanese out there for the bastardized Romanization version): miru, present negative mimasen. The word for never is zenzen. With these words you can form this sentence: Zenzen terebio mimasen, which translates "I never watch TV." So you've got never, which is a negative, with a negative version of a verb . . . and it's correct grammar. That kind of shit trips me out, man. Another source of my love-hate relationship of this language is that learning the alphabet NEVER STOPS. I've finally got the hiragana and the katakana down pat. Now all of the sudden we get kanji. All told, there's better than 1,000 of these suckers, not that we have to learn 'em all right away. Best part is, they all have different sounds and meanings depending on where they're used. Ugh, this is gonna be fun. lol

After struggling so hard to keep my eyes open through the final two hours of classes that I actually gave myself a headache, Trevor and I decided to head to the shops to restock our supply of groceries. The bad part is this always involves a lot of walking and carrying and one or both of us always manage to get more than is comfortable to take back home. It's always funny, though, cuz while we're at the store we always argue about the correct pronunciations and names of things (some of which I'll mention in today's Aussie Doozy of the Day). People walking by must think we're nuts.

Oh, and I've had the new Tool album for . . . 4½ days and I'm currently on my 9th listen through. It definitely just grabs you and sucks you right the hell in. Listening to it is akin to being on another plane of existence. *happy sigh*

Aussie Doozy of the Day: Different names of things are pretty weak things to name as differences, so I'll give you two today. Their word for granola is "muesli". I don't even know where they get that. lol It must be an aboriginal name for it or something. Also, they call the trunk of a car the boot. That one makes sense to me, kinda. Boots are at the end of your body, a trunk is at the end of a car . . . I'll buy it.

It Seems Like I've Been Gone 10,000 Days . . .

Today . . . was not a good day. You know, I like Australia. I really do. Great culture, beautiful cities and greenspaces, fun people; but more and more, this university sucks like a vacuum cleaner.

Last night there was a power outage - the entire university was pitch black. As a result, the university's servers and computer systems were a little wonky this morning. Normally that wouldn't bother me much, but it just so happens that a digital version of the submission was due at 9:30 am. Nothing on the students domain of latrobe.edu.au was working, including email or the class webpages. So, I did the only thing I could think of and used an alternative email address to email the file to my TA and hope that would seal the deal.

I got a message back from him later saying that it was ok, and a lot of people were having a problem, so as long as I turned it in today it'd all be ok. So I went to the class webpage. I searched every corner of it - no link to the submit page. I poured over the instructions for the assignment, looking for a clue; there was none. Basically, they just assumed everyone knew. After another email exchange with a TA, I got the link and submitted it, but for the love of God, how hard would it have been to just put the link on the webpage?

For another example, I got a test back today that I was surprised to learn I did poorly on. The kicker was that, other than the grade, there wasn't a single other mark on the test I didn't put there. No correction marks, no notes, no underlines, no doodles, no nothing. Nothing to tell me what I did wrong. And all the TA would say was they'll post the answers soon. This is all to say nothing of *why* I did poorly on the test. Despite the fact that I attend lecture regularly, I learned about the test about an hour before it started. Honestly, the only reason I was able to study for it at all was because, miraculously, as I was lying in bed that morning, I dreamt of showing up for the lab and there being a surprise test. I quickly got up to check the schedule . . . and sure enough, there was a test. Don't ask me how I did it. I don't know.

The professor or the TA of the labs (where the test was held) never said a word about it or what would be on it. Sure there's the syllabus that everyone reads, I dunno, once? Would a little heads-up be a too much to ask? I understand needing to be proactive, but we're fucking paying them for crying out loud! Don't they have some responsibility to care about whether we do well and to offer guidance?

This is how it is all the time, across the board. The communication between teachers and their students isn't just bad or lacking, it's none-existent, and that is not an exaggeration. About the only thing they'll do once and awhile is post a notice on the class website, none of which are updated enough to warrant checking on a regular basis. Is sending a class email so much harder than posting an entry on a website? I don't think so, and it would be a *lot* more helpful. *sigh* I actually miss the UW. Despite being a bigger school, I felt a lot less like a number there. I felt like most of the time people there actually gave a damn about whether I learned something.

Anyway, the good part of my week is that Tool's new album is fucking stellar. When it comes out there tomorrow morning, anyone who even thought about liking Tool should get it. The 17+ minute duo track "Wings for Marie"/"10,000 Days" is pure genius, and about as well-done as truly prog rock gets. They've also added a new trick to their already impressive bag: they've learned to truly groove, as evidenced at about the 4:00 mark on "Jambi". Truly an instant classic, especially amongst Tool fans.

Aussie-Doozy of the Day:















'Nuff Said.