Grace Notes @ Snarkattack

The week has been pretty surreal. Sad, and surreal.

I just found out a couple of hours ago that my grandmother has been admitted to the hospital for a few days due to a really bad cough she has.

I also got into trouble at work for my cancelling shifts at the last minute and lateness. I wasn’t late often (perhaps twice in a fortnight) but combined with missing work it was enough for me to be on some sort of probation. I’m worried. Yesterday I was up till 3am to make sure I made it to my shift that started at 10.30am.

But there have been highlights. Last night DH took me to one of my favourite local pubs and both of us had very hearty servings of roast pork and pints…mmm. I rang my father while I was waiting for DH who’d gone to order and he said I sounded better (him knowing I was not doing so well) and said it must be the alcohol. I laughed and said, actually, no, you’ve got it all wrong, it’s the good company.

We then retired back to mine and had some Bavarian lager made by the awesome Rob, and listened to Explosions in the Sky (my eternal thanks to CL for introducing me to their grandness!), chatting all the while.

On Friday, I’m invited to JM’s 30th, and the theme of the party is to dress up like you’re from the 1930s. I’m pretty excited, and will be dolling up (well, as best as I can…). Should be fun. Oh if only I could cut my hair, I’d get one of those sleek bobs that were fashionable at the time!

Oh! My future housemate was in the newspaper for an article about bicycle polo! It was pretty cool! I honestly don’t know how he does it, I struggle enough as it is on a bike (I fell again on the weekend on the way to see The Dark Knight because my trouser cuff got caught in the pedal as I dismounted even though the bloody thing was rolled up. Epic fail!). Want to see a picture? Click here!

Let me count the ways…

A transcript from a conversation between myself and FD.

(9:18:09 PM) Gem: dude i’m too depressed for beer. what’s that about?
(9:18:52 PM) Felicidade: You have good self-control - I’d be straight on the piss
(9:19:02 PM) Gem: hahahaha usually i am!
(9:19:13 PM) Gem: this last month i’ve drunk SO much
(9:19:22 PM) Gem: even at the pub i was…well-behaved, haha
(9:20:02 PM) Felicidade: Didn’t notice. Feeling worse than usual are you?
(9:20:15 PM) Gem: i don’t think so. it’s just no one’s home
****
(9:21:56 PM) Felicidade: Sorry, gotta go and eat Tim’s excellent cooking.
(9:22:03 PM) Felicidade: Be back soon
(9:22:07 PM) Gem: ooh lucky. kk
****
(10:27:35 PM) Felicidade: Gemma! I’m back again.
(10:27:41 PM) Gem: yea! felicidade!
(10:27:44 PM) Gem: welcome back
(10:28:17 PM) Felicidade: You too!
(10:28:27 PM) Gem: *giggle*
(10:28:30 PM) Gem: what was din-dins?
(10:29:29 PM) Felicidade: Beef and rice noodles
(10:29:44 PM) Gem: ooh nice
(10:31:18 PM) Felicidade: you?
(10:31:51 PM) Gem: leftovers from lunch. it was some pastry spinach and cheese thing, very nice
(10:32:39 PM) Felicidade: cool. What’s on the agenda now?
(10:32:51 PM) Gem: not much, listening to radiohead
(10:32:59 PM) Gem: chatting to a friend online
(10:33:02 PM) Felicidade: Huh. Cool
***
(11:14:05 PM) Gem: night Felix! thanks for chatting! xxx
(11:14:47 PM) Felicidade: No prob - a good way of honing my Dvorak skills
(11:14:54 PM) Gem: HAHAHAHAHAHAA
(11:15:06 PM) Felicidade: Good night!
(11:15:09 PM) Gem: night!

In case you’re wondering, Dvorak is an alternative keyboard setup. No, seriously, this really cracked me up. God I love my nerd friends, they are just so awesome in so many ways.

Pinched off Facebook, from some annoying application you have to add. Well, not meeee!

The Basics
Hair Color: brown (no, really!)

Eye Color: brown

Height: 150-5 cms/5′0” or so

Profession: um…well, I work at a call centre, but it’s not my profession as such…

Relationship Status: single

Religious Views: atheist

My Favorites
Favorite Color: black probably?

Favorite Movie: Don’t know but Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead would score pretty highly

Favorite Hobby: don’t make me choose between music and anything literature-related

Favorite School Subject: uh…literature

Favorite Vacation Destination: Portsmouth, UK

Favorite Food: Indian & Japanese

This or That
Chocolate or Vanilla: chocolate

Big Mac or Whopper: Whopper

Coke or Pepsi : Pepsi

Beer or Wine: this is like asking me which one of my children do I love more

Coffee or Tea: tea

Apple Juice or O.J.: depends, are either freshly squeezed? probably orange juice

Facebook or MySpace: Facebook

Summer or Winter: winter

Windows or Mac: I’ve never had a Mac but Windows teh suxx0r

Cats or Dogs: CATS

Boxers or Briefs: briefs

Movie or Play: they are both different. I refuse to choose

Do You?
Have Any Pets: Yes, Puss!!!

Have Any Children: no

Smoke: no

Drink: yes

Exercise: not really but working on that

Spend Your Life On Facebook: no

Play On A Sports Team: no

Belong To Any Organizations: will soon! I used to for a while but haven’t renewed my memberships…oops

Love Your Job: no, though it could be worse

Play An Instrument: ya, rather quite a few…(two, properly)

Sing: I could when I had to at music school!

Have You Ever
Stolen Anything: yes (I’m sorry, I was little, honest!)

Been Drunk Before Noon: yes

Had Sex In A Public Place: yes

Got Caught Telling A Lie: no

Got A Speeding Ticket: yes

Been Arrested: no

Cheated In A Relationship: no

Cried During A Movie: almost! but no

Had A One Night Stand: yes

Well, I do for several reasons, but this is for a very specific reason, and I am sorely glad that Thoughtfix alerted me to this very important day…

System Administration Appreciation Day

http://www.sysadminday.com/ (sadly, this day has passed in Australia, but better late than never, eh?)

You can also read Cory Doctorow’s story about sysadmins…ruling the world, hehe.

Love your sysadmin! They deserve it!

Thanks Rob for all your awesome geekery and genius, u11 loves your work!

Thanks to my housemate Frosty, I’m in possession of a ticket to go and see Ladytron in concert. Woo hoo! Thanks love! Even though he doesn’t read my blog.

A fair while back, I sent M two poems of mine and he sent me back some comments on them. I’m a bit stuck when it comes to what to do with the punctuation of both of them, but these are minor issues. He also seems to think the one on Agamemnon’s death is publishable (very nice of him to say so, personally and professionally his opinion means a lot to me). Initially, I didn’t like it so much when I wrote it, but returned to it a few months after and am warming to it a bit more.

It was actually the product of a writing exercise in Writing Poetry by Julia Casterton - she discussed the death of Agamemnon and then directed us, the reader, to write a poem about how he felt about his death (practically everything about the Ancient Greeks is tragic…).

The other poem is about four lines long. I recently read it to a newer friend of mine, JW, who remarked when I went to get my notebook “How come you don’t know your own poetry off by heart?” You know, I’ve no idea. Why don’t I? I created it, surely you’d think I should…maybe it’s because people never ask me about my stuff so I think it’s not worth memorising (I don’t, actually. Though I should, I’d probably recite it better). I did read it out to him, but was pretty nervous, and read it out quite badly.

I’ll need to work on that. I don’t want to be all Tim Burton and sound dumb when I talk (he interviews really badly - not because he’s stupid, I mean, it’s pretty freaking obvious the man is supernaturally talented. He’s just not confident) or recite my own work. Because then people won’t think it’s worth hearing, if I recite it in a manner that suggests I’m apologising for soiling your ears.

I wish I could be like Fat Cow Poet. She was plenty up herself for the both of us, maybe even a few more people.

Did this ages ago, but can’t remember what I got the first time. Anyway, here is my results now.

I only wish I thought I were better than other people. Life would be a good deal easier…

Last night I went over to DH’s place and was treated to a fabulous spaghetti carbonara yet again. I didn’t go to work because I was still not…well. I did, however, make it to the first dress fitting for my brother’s wedding, which miraculously took no time at all. I think we spent more time travelling to and fro, and trying to get out of my brother’s future-in-laws’ house.

I was a good deal relieved when I finally made it to DH’s place. I told him about my week of epic fail last week, and then we got all excited over Mozart piano concertos (yes, I realise these two things are not related). He expressed some shock at the fact that I’ve not read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I know, I know, dreadful of me.

While we sipped our port, JM, DH’s housemate came home and we talked about psychoanalytic readings of Lord of the Rings (this is becoming something of a personal joke) and The Chronicles of Narnia - more so about Narnia because JM is studying theology and is very interested in C. S. Lewis. He asked me if I were coming to his 30th in a couple of weeks, for which the theme is the 1930s. I said yes, and that I even plan to come in costume. It then came up in conversation that I hadn’t yet read The Great Gatsby (well, I’ve read a graphic novel adaptation, but that’s hardly the same, I know, I know…).

I was looking quite the bad lit nerd.

Was a fantastic night, DH remarked that I looked like I’d lost more weight. What girl doesn’t want to hear those words?!?! I get a great dinner, sparkling dinner conversation, great grog, and that as an observation! Sweetness.

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I’ve been a bit neglectful of the whole olfactory pleasures of late…

And naturally, I’m up after having slept some weird hours, so thought I would test my ‘I Smell Good’ decants. I don’t really know much about this company, but thought I’d give the decants a shot because someone was running a circle for them.
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A successful poem is, as Williams said, a machine made out of words; if it is properly constructed it cannot fail to perform its function, which is to control its reader, by its selective and stylized processional means, that the reader ‘cannot choose to hear.’

— Helen Vendler, Contemporary American Poetry (9th ed.), p. 9.

Haha, I feel smart. I already knew this.

Nah, I don’t feel that smart.

It might make a bit more sense if you’ve heard the original…(click here if you want to hear it, it was featured on an Apple iPod advert a while back)

I like the Sesame Street version better, it kind of made my day. She’s such a good sport, ne?

Woke up very early this morning with a slight hangover from the red wine at my parents’ place. Despite this week’s two crappy incidents, I was feeling pretty damn good. It might have had something to do with the fact that I was having breakfast out with neighbour-friend (okay, so he’s my friend and was my friend before we became neighbours).

Went to a place in North Melbourne called Fandango. Service is…interesting.

Breakfast was…

…ace.

I had French toast (or le pain perdu for the Frenchies, giggle) which was ginormous. Yes, I realise this is not a word a budding word-smith should be using, but it was. Dangerous Dave, or should I say ‘good-looking Dave’ (actually, I call him neighbour Dave. These things help when you and your friends know many Daves, and know many of the same) had beetroot eggs.

We were deceived by the ’squeezed daily’ orange juice…(I shall not reproduce the nerdy debate that we went into, surely one can imagine). We had yet another discussion about Joy Division and the film Control. I then guessed at the reasons as to why one would not tell someone how they got a particular injury rather resembling something one might get when one punches an inanimate object.

Today is my friend CM’s birthday. She’s going to be down in Melbourne town for the day to celebrate, which includes dinner, and seeing a show. I originally wasn’t going to the show but someone pulled out, and she gave me a free (squee!) ticket to go and see Stephen Sondheim’s Follies.

I think she had a good time, which is of the utmost importance! Follies was ace, but it made me a little sad…it was about love, and I’d been thinking about that very topic on the way into the city to see CM.

The worst was the trip home, very late at night. It seemed lonely enough for me to wish I had enough money to buy a ticket to somewhere out of Australia. Been a long time since I felt like that. Um, I’m still going to be the same stupid mess abroad that I am here, now. Same stupid slutty mess.

Yesterday was pretty depressing, depressing enough that I wasn’t able to go to work today - that hasn’t happened for ages.

But all was not lost! I got to have dinner with my mate OM who I had not seen for absolutely ages. We went down to a formerly-old-man pub that seemed to be mysteriously closed up early, so we headed back to one of my fave haunts the Town Hall Hotel. OM had kangaroo, I had roast pork - complete with crackling. Christ, it’s been ages!

Somehow pints of Coopers Pale Ale didn’t seem quite enough so we headed down to a local bar Rrose…where OM pretty much soothed my bruised heart by buying us cocktails. Yum. I can’t remember fully what OM’s one had, but mine was made of vanilla-infused vodka and rosewater, with an icing sugar rimmed edge. So it basically tasted like very alcoholic Turkish delight. Wow. It was called the ‘Persian Princess’. After that, we had very nice hot chocolates and semi-staggered back to my place.

I spent most of today in bed but again went out for dinner - this time with my fiancee, as it’s her birthday. Went to a local Thai place, had deep-fried tofu with chilli sauce (upon OM’s recommendation, actually) and a pork mince salad. Tried out one of the Asian beers they offered and then headed back to fiancee’s (real) partner’s place for generous servings of choc-mint ice cream and watched the film St Trinian’s before collectively drooling over Jessica Alba and walking home.

As I walked home, a little unfamiliar though in my own neighbourhood, I saw something scamper across the road. It was smaller than a cat. Eventually it stopped alongside a tree, I assume to contemplate climbing up. As I approached it didn’t run away - it was a possum, its tail to the ground, set in meerkat-like posture. I said hello to it and kept walking.

…mentioned that I’m apparently not tall enough. It doesn’t really matter, he has…disposed of me for other many, varied reasons which are only really known to him. Doormats are after all supposed to accept this fate!

But trust xkcd to crack me up about it…hehe.

*giggle*

Lookee here!

He’s not the first boy I’ve met that’s made some slight on my lack of height. Curse those pesky genetics! *shakes fist*

Yeah well, if he’s complaining I wasn’t happy the last time I saw him, I’m definitely unhappy now, and he’s the cause. I’m lame, I know. But I’m sure boy-related lameness will soon pass.