Tian

11:40 pm: I would like a ticket please...
Tonight was pretty much a full house.

Congratulations to the cast and crew of Hair. When you go see it, it might be an idea to book...

11:14 am: Go go Gadget crunch time...
So if I have seemed rather distracted over the last two months, here is my reason. The Fiend starts tonight.

I am rather excited truth be told. Don't think that I really knew what I was getting myself into when I got roped in to beef up the bass section but the experience has been thoroughly enjoyable. We have worked away at it for the last couple of months now (in fact straight after The Tempest finished) and well, wow. So much work has been put into it. This is the first time I have been involved with some of the more behiond the scenes type issues such as set building but I am exceptionally glad that I was. Now, when people see our fantastic set (which quite frankly, it is) I can know that I was part of that. Now we have our lights, costumes and make-up dealt with which makes it even more visually stunning. And the orchestra. The sweet, sweet, orchestra...

Anyway, opening night tonight and I can't wait. Before then though there is our wee promotional work at uni. If you are on campus today and see swordfighters or fire performers, come say hey. While you are there, buy a ticket for The Fiend.

05:22 pm: I'm not sure if I am pleased or not. I went looking for at least two (though eight would be better) articles with opposing views of Keith Thomas and Alan McFarlanes 'charity refused' model of witchcraft. I didn't find a single one, but instead found about two dozen for my 'psychology and witchcraft' thesis.

Long run = good
This next essay = not so hot

11:34 am: Opening night for The Tempest last night. What a rush. I came to realise before the show that I was too excited to even care if anyone was there, or how our performance went. That being said, we got wonderful feedback from people afterwards. It is such a wonderful atmosphere within the cast now. A sense of solidarity in our nervousness before the show transforming to this unrestrained exaltation and relief afterwards, coloured in no small part by the entire cast singing along to Moulin Rouge as loud as we could.

Good after show drinkies too. Once again my ability to figure out 'I should go now' was lacking and interesting conversations and pleasant company meant that time flew quite quickly.

Moral of the story, go see The Tempest.

12:03 pm: hNgh!? How insanely in love am I with FSc?! Well, with her art at least...

Right up there with Jhonen Vasquez...

11:43 pm: Hey if anyone wants to buy fire poi/staffs/diablo/what-have-you, feel free to click on the link to go to The Home of Poi. It is a kiwi company based in our own Christchurch and for each purchase you make using this link or the referral code sdebsorsorbormor, I get 5% of the value of your purchase taken off my next purchase. If doing it out of the kindness of your heart isn't enough, do it out of the kindness on your pockets. I am pretty sure that you get a 10% discount on any purchase you make using the link or code. Thanks all :P

Home of Poi Comprehensive information about poi, staff and twirling, including animated lessons, discussion forums, building instructions, articles and a shop.

11:53 pm: GAH?! Why are you people here and not out listening to Helena by My Chemical Romance!? Go! Go listen to it! For your own sake!

12:02 am: I was asked at work today 'how is life treating you?' Do you know what I realised? It's treating me pretty freakin' fantastic. I almost feel guilty about it. My current list of woes consists largely of 'which of my interesting subjects should I study right now (yes, even New Zealand history is interesting at the moment. Yay for investigating the secularization of New Zealand history!)', 'time to learn my lines for this wonderful production that I am fortunate enough to be involved with (and a cast who are growing on me quickly)', and 'I got drunk and bought fire poi (which should be here any day now)'. I really can't call these 'problems'. Ok, my time is stretched thin and so is my cash, but they are stretched thin over exceeding wonderful things that I am really excited about! Oh, and I am sitting here after work (which was so dead we closed early) drinking a glass of feijoa wine (delicious!).

Like Jamie Foxx (kinda) said, I wish they could collect up this feeling (happiness) and put it in the water so that everyone could feel it.

Wow, just look at all those brackets and speech marks...

12:15 am: I never fail to be impressed by the bass player from Mudvayne. I know the band is not everybodies (or many people's) cup of tea, but by gosh, their bass player is just so talented.

09:23 pm: Once in a while I sit and think about the planet
But most of the time I trip on it
To sit back and think about how massive it all is
Or how many others are on it.

I miss Tony Kanal when he used to really go for it...

09:08 pm: Updating the journal, updating the journal...
Can't remember the last time that I updated this thingy so it makes it a tad dangerous when waffling on about what I have done recently. To memory the last post was about Grease. Lets run with that...
I have an essay that still needs to get done. Perhaps I've mentioned it before. But yeah, it's still here, not doing itself, the punk. It spangs me so... On the whole though, life is good. I think that that is the general direction that my life takes, though I often feel that I am getting a free ride that others are paying for. I really should sort that out. I have a bunch of hours at work that I don't want but once again, as much as I don't really want to do them, they come out being useful in that they give me cash. Mmmmmm, mucho dinero... GAH! Speaking of spanish, damn that chingar of a communist! If people don't know about this then the story is this (chingar) communist called Sam sent Claire a txt message ending in "yo amor tu siempre" which translates literally to "i love you forever." Yes I used a lower case I, I don't feel that he deserves one at the moment. More than that he has asked Claire out to coffee or something sometime soon. Mein Gott man! ?Hola? I'm her boyfriend! I got so flustered that I mixed up my languages! I trust Claire so that isnt a problem but it still is not cool to have people quite blatantly hitting on her.
Right, to do list:
Vent - check
Essay - errr, I vented...
I'm sure that other things, lovely things, have happened that were out of the ordinary. I went to "Wing it" yesterday with Claire and Jo and enjoyed myself thoroughly. I was also glad to hear that they are holding some impromptu workshops which I can actually attend despite my hours at work. I do miss my old theatre sports days with Brendan, Wrati, and Chuck. Sooooo much fuun. PPOOOOOO I know that funn only has one u, and I was planninng on putting some kind of code in this post, but all these random typoes are actually due to the fact that Claire is co-writing this post with me. poooog She has taken over the right side of the keyboard and as such I have to say this post out loud for it to be written, kajihubb, and as there are two brains typing this rather than one, spelling mistakes are to be expected.plmokijnuh r my letters ha ha ha ha mkoplijnuhbgy.-claire

03:51 am: So I wanted to write this post as soon as I got home today but my internet is being a little punkass. Where did I get home from you may ask? Well oddly enough I went to "Grease- the musical" today, though I think that I put that in my last post. It was supposed to be Claire, Luke Di Somma and myself but with Claires unexpected departure to Culverdon, I was faced with the prospects of taking one for the team and going alone wiht Di Somma. I say take one for the team because I wasnt really interested in going. If I was to be asked, "hey, what do you want to do on Thursday night," Grease the musical with Luke wouldnt have been my first response. Not that I have anything against Luke, I jsut dont care that much for Grease. Anyway, we managed to convince chippy Luke to come too (I felt kind of the odd one out) which is cool cos he is going to pay for the ticket even though I wasnt too fussed about it. Well, pay for half the ticket. Still, that pays for coffee. So there I was in the lovely Theatre Royal with the two Lukes, to watch a show that I never really bothered with anyway. But the suprise was on me, it was actually pretty enjoyable. I recognised most of the songs, including one that I had heard sung by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes but never realised was from the show. The cast seemed to know their stuff and had good voices, if not for a couple of the last songs which I thought were kinda lack-lustre. Came home after the show to put up a post for Claire to read but as it turns out the internet didnt want ot work. I just got a wireless and unlike Claires, its quite niggly. So to distract myself I played a little Mafia on the old pc. As it turns out, I played a lot of Mafia. But now after some tweeking and rebooting, the internet is working and I can post this rather large post of my rambling. But then, rambling is what I do. I once was talking to Claire and Lisa and agreed that I do tend to waffle except that instead of just saying waffle, I had this big spiel which Lisa eventually had to translate down to simply "waffling."

02:07 pm: GAH?!?!?! I have three Distillers cds to listen to (thanks to mi amigo Skrispy) but I also have an essay to write about blah blah blah. Ok, by blah blah blah I mean "explain federalists #10 and #35 in regards to the Constitution." This is an American History thing like clairedotcoms essay on republicanism. So yeah, the problem is that I have this wondeful new resolve to do this essay but I REALLY want to listen to the cds. Which in theory I could do both, but then again I dont really take as much out of texts when I havce music playing in the background. Its alright if I only want to get some general concepts down but I kind of already have some general concepts down. Now its time to get down to some meaty information. sigh. I ahve to go back to work at 6pm but before that clairedotcom is going home for a little bit. so no clairedotcom either. and GAH GAH! I have to go to the musical version of Grease tomorrow with this guy that used to work with me. I was only going because Claire was going but now she isnt. Oh well, like I said before, c'est la vie. In other news, I think that Im getting too caught up in the new mystery/conspiracy genre of life that Claire and Lis live in...

12:39 am: Ah, 4Man Bob and Foamy Ed were brilliant. I really do love punk and ska. I felt so inspired to write something after seeing the show but only just got around to picking up a guitar and really having a go about 20 minutes ago. Nothing really there, shame really, but it felt really good to just mess about on the old guitar anyway.
I dont quite know what mood Im in but its interesting. Its not really excited or happy or sad or anything that I can really put my finger on but Im enjoying it. I feel ready for something but Im not sure what it is. Maybe its the funky drum beat in this song, though that wouldnt explain why Ive been feeling this for a while now. It almost feels like I should yawn and stretch and just keep stretching until I reach, I dont know what it is Im reaching for actually. So maybe I should just reach out and feel that wonderful tingle that rolls up my back whenever I have a really good stretch and yawn. All the stress comes out of your shoulders and you test your muscles and bones to see their ranges.
I take yawning/stretching perhaps far too seriously. I should have been a cat.

02:58 pm: New Zealand has such lovely punk bands. Im so proud. Heres hoping that I can get away from work early tonight and scamper off to 4Man Bob and Foamy Ed at the Dux. Sweet sweet punk...

12:16 am: I talked to the old whanau last night which was coolies. I havent spoken to them in ages (not like in a "Im never talking to you again!" type thing, just busy).

Glorofilia is possessed and talking like the devil. I think we need an old priest and a new priest, but dear lord not my friend Matty. I still remember him telling me about some youth-church-thing that he had to help with. We were at the irish bar in New Plymouth, Peggy Gordons. If anyone is in New Plymouth, Im sorry. But besides that, go to Peggys, its just good. They often have live bands that are actually entertaining and not just noisy. ANYWAY, back to the story. He had to work at this camp thing and the youths kept annoying him so he ended up making one cry and telling a couple of the other ones to f#ck off. This man is going to go for training for the priesthood. But no, hes a great guy and I realise that he has had a great influence on my life. The other day I came across the idea of doing a Masters in History and thats because I really want to research into New Zealands involvement in the two major world wars. His influence is that we have been friends since I was 5 and he has, since I met him, been able to recount almost any fact or concept from the world wars and indeed war in general.
But yes, talking to my family. My sister is going to come visit some time in May which will be super coolies, especially if Pyrotanky can make it down too. That way we can have a bit of a 'naki reunion.
I have two cds that I have to listen to.I borrowed them off a friend at work. One is the RSI cd and the other is Taking Back Sunday. Im uber excited about the Taking Back Sunday cd as Ive been quite obsessed with their song "Cute without the E" and have been listening to it for days now whenever possible.
Now I think that it is time ot sleep. The cds can wait. I dread to think how cold bed will be, even though I know it will warm up quite quickly. Dang it! The BBC news just singled Christchurch out for being cold and wet. *sigh* oh well, 33 degrees in Kingstown, time to start saving up.
Just as a final note, yesterday was Clairedotcoms and I's 13 month anniversary. Im pleased. She must honestly be the most patient person in the world...

02:23 am: So here I am on a Saturday night, all tucked up in bed. Claire has gone out with the girls to go see our flatmate be really drunk in town. He is actually quite an entertaining drunk whihc from me I would classify as a quite the compliment. But heres the thing, when did I get so grandpa? I would say that it is the drunks in town that I dont know and act like idiots but then even if I do know the person they can still annoy the hell out of me. Im not trying to come across as "holier than thou" or anything like that. In fact, if people want to go out and get really drunk then thats their choice and I try and respect it in the same way I hope they would respect my choice not to. Perhaps its just I fell in with the wrong group of drunks once and it left me disillusioned by the whole drinking culture thing. To each their own though neh? It just so happens that mine has lead to being home on my own at 2.30am on a Sunday morning. Oddly enough though, I dont mind. To thine own self be true yadda yadda, and in that respects, at least I'm not kidding myself by going back into town.
Truth - I dont want to be bothered by drunks
Beauty - She is in town but she will come home later
Freedom - Im not raining on the drunks parade and they arent raining on mine
Love - (see beauty)

12:09 pm: Well, here I am, back in New Zealand, and more fun than that, Im still in bed. Mmmmm, lazy-'ho'-dom... but no, I've been very good and since about 9am this morning I have been researching for an essay I have due on Friday (40%) and helping Claire find various cases she needs for her essay due on Thursday. Not to mention, now that I think about it, I also got the required Federalist Papers for American History. Ah productive productive... but yeah, this week looks to be a ugly one as far as uni goes. By Wednesday, the Federalist Papers need to be understood, Thursday Claires essay is due and I promised I would help read over it etc, and Friday my essay is due. That and there is always the old Spags thing. Im the manager on Tuesdays which means Im there from 3.30pm till we close at 11pm, and I do a split shift on Wednesdays so Im at work before and after my tutorial. Im a tad apprehensive but not really worried. Things have a way of working themselves out.
It would have been nice to have had some deep intellectual post here on accounts of it being my first post in over a month but it looks like it will just be a rant about uni. C'est la vie...

05:53 pm: Right, off to the airport now. My flight leaves at 8.25pm Singapore time (which is about 1.25am NZ time), but there is always a large milling around of family when someone goes somewhere. Not getting back to Christchurch till Tuesday though so please do excuse me if I fail to update until then. And Claire, love love, told you that I would come back to you.

10:36 pm: Its a little bit funny, but while sitting in the living room this evening someone decided to change to Channel 5 (which, in Singapores well ordered way, is Channel 2 on remotes, and the first channel on the decoder as a Channel 1 is absent). So, through complete chance I came upon a movie I haven't watched in a while, Moulin Rouge. Anyone catch the reference earlier in my post? I thought I was sneaky ;P Anyway, watching this movie I loved so much (Im off to buy the dvd tomorrow I decided) I thought it funny about how a movie can slap you back to what matters.
Truth.
Beauty.
Freedom.
And above all else, Love.