i'm not bagging on australia again, i promise. but just what is going on here?

a few nights ago, the ARIAs are on: the Australian Record Industry Awards. a band called silverchair were the belles of the ball: they took single of the year, album of the year, highest-selling single of the year, best band and best rock album. this was their flagship single.

"straight lines"

Breathing from a hole in my lung
I had no one
With faces in front of me
Racing through the void in my head
To find traces
Of a good luck academy

Ooh Ooh Ooh

Sparks ignite and trade them for thought
About no one
And nothing in particular
Washed the sickened socket and drove
Resent nothing
There's good will inside of me

Ooh Ooh Ooh

Wake me up lower the fever
Walking in a straight line
Set me on fire in the evening
Everything will be fine
Wake me up strong in the morning
Walking in a straight line
Lately I'm a desperate believer
But walking in a straight line

Something I will never forget
I felt desperate
And stuck to the marrow
Invisible to everyone else
I'm a sex-change
And a damsel with no heroine

Ooh Ooh Ooh

Wake me up lower the fever
Walking in a straight line
Set me on fire in the evening
Everything will be fine
Wake me up strong in the morning
Walking in a straight line
Lately I'm a desperate believer
But walking in a straight line

I don't need no time to say
There's no changing yesterday
If we keep talking and
I keep walking in straight lines

Wake me up lower the fever
Walking in a straight line
Set me on fire in the evening
Everything will be fine
Wake me up strong in the morning
Walking in a straight line
Lately I'm a desperate believer
But walking in a straight line


okay. the song is catchy as all get out, but seriously, can anyone tell me what it's about? no, really. i'm dying for someone to tell me.

i'm not saying pop songs need to have depth to be good. we all know we've bobbed along to enough diddies about puppy love or whatever. but to garner this many awards with this kind of following, can't you give me something to go on? so, if anyone wants to break this down for me, i'd be more than happy to listen contently.

i took this viewo a few weeks ago and have just now gotten around to posting it. i haven't re-watched it since i took it and am pretty sure the lighting is awful. and there's three of them. yeah, it got out of hand. but! i post them all not in expectation that they must all be watched, but that they're there for watching if desired.









love you guys, and miss you. also! be prepared. a massive "who wants a postcard?" proposal is to come.

wow.

this friday, october 19, marked the third month of our stay in australia. can i tell you how odd this is?

we have approximately two more weeks of school, then a week of student vacation--stuvac i'm not kidding when i say everything is shortened--which is like a calm before the storm for aussie students' last week before finals, but for us, it's a last hurrah. after that week, we clear out of here and spend a week in auckland, new zealand (3 hours ahead of sydney time). we've been told this final week is stressful. we expressed considerable dissatisfaction. then we make the big flight home to LA, i'll bounce back into arkansas around 7:00 pm US time, which is 4:00 am australia time and 1 am new zealand time. confused yet? me too. this site helps me somewhat.

someone asked me my favorite part of sydney today. the only answer i could come up with was that we have three weeks left here. it was also my least favorite part.

it stinks to be missing everything at once sometimes.

a word on cell phones! okay, all you prospective students. here's what i've learned about cell phones.

cell phone plans here are not great. at all. at home, you can walk into a wal-mart and pick up a prepaid cell phone for twenty bucks. not so here. many of us have paid $60-80 AUD for the hardware, and varying amounts for recharging our accounts. personally, i am using a phone a previous ASC student left. i had to purchase a SIM card, which was only $15-20 and came with a bit of phone credit on it. since then, i have purchased two $30 account charging cards, which will probably last me through the end of my time here. however, i don't use it much and only for emergencies or courteous moments-- i don't call up people just to chat normally. $30 is the lowest increment the charge comes in. cell phones are not necessary by any means--i know some people who love not being tied to their technology and get by fine and happy without one, but if you're prone to getting lost or love meeting up with people (who also have cell phones, which our group does), than it's probably a good call (pun intended!).

some sites to check out for research are telstra, vodaphone, and yes optus. mine is a telstra, and i'll leave the actual phone here with the interns so someone else can use it, but you've got to get your own SIM card. buy that here. i don't know how those things work internationally. happy hunting!

all right, australia. that's it. i've had it with your weird as fashion. let me clarify.

first things though: happy belated birthday lindsay! i'm sorry i'm doing such a bad job at this birthday thing, but baby steps. i hope you had a great one!

now.
there is no such thing as a trendy mullet. a mullet is a mullet is a mullet. if your hair is significantly longer in the back than it is in the front, it's a mullet. if your hair is one style the whole way around except for three square inches at the back of your neck which is at least five inches longer, it is a mullet. if your hair is one length all the way around except for one square inch at the back of your neck, that is a rat tail. you think it's attractive because one of these pieces of hair flows when you walk. hate to be the one to tell you, but these are not attractive hairstyles. you may not think they're bogan because you're wearing skinny jeans four sizes too small, vans slip ons and a band t-shirt, but i assure you: they are bogan. they are bogan and unattractive. they are bogan and unattractive and i should carry scissors in my back pocket to do you the favor of cutting it off.
also, dying your dark hair bleach blond down the middle on top of your mullet is adding insult to injury. take my word on this. if the look your going for is metro skunk, by all means. go for it. all the little girl skunks will flock to you.
let me go on. apparently, some boys are of the mindset that it's okay to take an emo-slanty haircut, sleep in it, and decide upon waking, "no, this isn't messy enough." they then go forward to apply and entire beehive worth of styling wax in order to get it at it's tangly best. again, stop it. rolling out of bed is really all you need. if that. in fact, wash the poor creature attached to your skull, and let it just go. see what happens.my philosophy is that if it leaves you and doesn't come back it wasn't meant to be.

i mentioned those pants. they need to be clarified as well. i am not interested in your underwear. no, really. i'm not. it is one thing to have extra baggy pants that do not stay on your body. it is another to have girl's skinny jeans that do not fit your body reach only halfway up your butt. it is wrong--not different, not interesting, not hardcore OR trendy, but wrong--to have your upper thighs showing when you bend over. i don't care if your shirt covers it when you stand up. it does not cover it when you sit down. again, if i were interested in your undies, i'd ask. i did not ask. so take care of it.

all australian men. all men. everywhere. leave the scoop necks to the ladies or to outdoor work. it is not a style.

and ladies, you are far from exempt. despite what you may think, it is possible to overwear the dress over black leggings and black long-sleeved shirt. that style has jumped the shark. officially. really. move forward.
on a related note, if your dress or top or dresstop--as the line is blurred nowadays--has a gather under the bust and your abdomen is not built like a model, check and double check that you do not appear to be wearing maternity clothes. in fact, check and double check that it is actually flattering you and not making a problem area worse.
also on a related note, consider pants. ooh, consider those pants. there is such a thing as too short and when what you think is a dresstop is actually just a top. remember: leggings and tights are not pants. they cover your legs, sure, but they are not pants. on a related note: this is not 1983. leggings plus oversized t-shirt that may or may not read "global warming is not cool" with a belt is not an outfit. please, please, please. would you just consider the pants?

and this, this is the end-all be-all of fashion related rants i will ever have and i wouldn't make it if it hadn't been sitting near me for the last half hour. in fact, if i were reading that this actually happened, i would not believe you. i will try to get a photo if i can.

but, my dear lady, you may not, repeat, MAY NOT wear an oversized flannel shirt as a dress. i don't care that you've got a belt cinching it in at your waist. it is not relevant that it is actually big enough to cover all the important things. no. not relevant. the principle of the thing is important here: you may not wear a shirt on its own as a dress. it would actually be really cute for putzing around the house in, and heck, at some point in time i hope i get the opportunity to do so. but do not, by any means, think it's okay to put on a pair of ballet flats and walk out the door.

i'm sorry. i haven't had enough sleep and flannel-shirtdress girl put me over the edge.

welcome to october: and your days are numbered

hello, true blue! i'm sorry i've not been good about writing like i said i would. needless to say, it's been a busy couple of weeks.

the bush trip was amazing. we went about 1.5 hours north of sydney to kincumber, where we all stayed at a youth camp on the harbor. you could still hear cars, but it was still great to get out of the city. the terrain was the most like that of home in arkansas, which i love and miss. it was like getting a little taste of the ozarks in the middle of gum trees and eucalyptus.
during our time there, we learned some basics about aboriginal culture through short hikes to different locations, small group experiences (split into "totems" which is probably an idea not too dissimilar from a "tribe"), watching rabbit proof fence, making traditional crafts like bark baskets and fishing spears (fish were actually caught by our boys!), and learning to throw a boomerang and play didgeridoo.

which i learned...so i made the investment in one.

i fully intend to teach people how to play, so ask.

our trip was followed by the first long weekend break (four days). spent it sleeping, out and about, and even to a coogee beach!

however, this week has been full of things needing to get done that didn't really pan out over those few days, so there's been a lot of rushing around and getting things together. this weekend and next week will look like that as well. here's to obligations!

when the calendar quit fiddling around with september and broke into october, i'll admit that i was a little shocked. oh man. it's october! the presence of october throws the entire experience into a very finite sort of temporariness. we've been done settling in for some time, and we've planted some roots here. the next five weeks are the time to start to shake them loose, prepare for the going home.
who am i kidding? there's another month here!

i'm doing great. not sleeping enough, but who can sleep when sydney calls? i have been missing home a bit though. i was walking through a kmart the other day when i looked up and was surrounded by Christmas paraphanalia and Christmas music of some kind. the australian summer is starting, and songs of dashing through snow and which Christmas serve to make me miss home again.

we leave in the second week of november for new zealand. our days here are very numbered.

keep praying for my sanity!

leaving for the bush

first, my oldest brother celebrated his 24th birthday this past week and i completely bungled the whole operation. i'm sorry, matt! happy birthday! hip, hip, hooray! (here, they cheer that more often than the little "and many mooore..." diddy.)

in a few hours, we'll pack up into smaller buses--a small group will go by train--and make our way an hour and a half north, near gosford. it's not far, but it'll be likely far enough away to be right in the middle of nowhere. we'll be there for five days, mostly hiking and learning from oomera, our teacher.

this trip connects directly to the second half of our asc course: indigenous cultures and history. our prof is a very smart aboriginal woman named oomera, who has a very self-controlled way about her and also has that sort of inner calm and wisdom that me feel like she can see straight through me. she's really cool. we took a field trip with her on friday to a park in one of the suburbs. it was awesome. if the area of the park is any sort of indication of what we'll find in "the bush," it's most like the wilderness at home i've seen yet. i'm from the ozarks, and used to hills and trees and water and rocks. that is my nature. the place we visited had all that: hills, trees, birds, rocks, PLUS a particular seed that would lather when water was added and a plant one can "drink" moisture from. party time.
i mean, the outback was cool, don't get me wrong, but all that flatness and red earth isn't really my bag, no matter how pretty the stars are.

so we'll be learning from oomera about aboriginal peoples and how they interacted with the land. they never really subdued it in any sort of way a western culture would. as we're doing all this homework and reading about human's connection with land, i'm thinking about my home, the "my kind of nature" as described above and wondering if i find myself loving it there because of the more comfortable things about it (knowing where everything is, usually i'm not under huge amounts of stress while there) or because there is something comforting about the land itself.

no laptops or internet out there, so i'll be off for a little while. in the meantime, enjoy this video of me singing backup vocals for my friend joel. i'm on the far right, jeans and black jacket looking incredibly awkward. i don't think you can even hear me! this was probably over a month ago, and i'll get to explaining it all soon.



happy week, everyone. see you thursday.

silver lining

today has altogether not been good.

i fell asleep at my computer last night working on a paper. when i awoke, my screen was black.
my computer has been acting strangely for the last week or two. it doesn't appear to be a hard drive thing, but more an electrical thing. sometimes the screen will just shut itself off and take the rest of the computer back with it, sometimes the battery reader will jump from 45% full to 0%. last night, i assume, the battery just kicked the bucket. sleepy and defeated, i crawled into bed with my paper not done and plugged in the computer, hoping for the best.

i woke up this morning as my class was starting--hollaback if you know what oversleeping for class again feels like--and my computer still would not awake. no way this paper was getting done.

i make it to class an hour late, only to discover that older versions of indesign i'd been working with were incompatible with those at school. yippee. at least i got some paperwork taken care of during that time. also talked to my prof for whom the paper was due and explained about my computer. she was understanding but firm. i figured okay.

straight from class i head out to the western suburbs to run some errands that i had planned and couldn't change. i jumped on a train and pulled out a copy of mere Christianity, which i had checked out of wesley's library a week or so ago by chance. (it has been a good call, by the way). a couple pages in, the fellow behind me popped over my shoulder and started to ask me questions with a bit lip and concerned look on his face. this entire interchange was probably the brightest spot in my day.
it was like every hypothetical scenario i've ever been given about a non-Christian seeking God fell into my lap. he wanted to know about Jesus and the forgiveness of sins. He wanted to know about Passover and the sacrifice. he wanted to know about the teachings of Jesus and if we have to do anything more than accept Him to gain Eternal Life. we touched on Communion, Grace, the Holy Spirit, repentance, free will, prophecy, Islam. it was amazing. i ended up missing my stop to ride with him as he got off the train, and left with his contact information. be praying for him, he looked totally on the brink of something big. it was so cool. his name is sam.

so i ran my errand, but missed my opportunity to go by a "we close so early in the day" apple store. the good news, and the entire reason i can post right now, is that my roommate had a spare ibook (my computer) battery on her. she suggested it as a solution, i jumped at the idea. she handed it over, i popped it on. i pushed the power button and heard my little lappy whir to life. all i need now is to get to a mac store and tell them what's what.

three statements to cap off: God is amazing. i have lots of work to do. music (jack's mannequin) has a way of lifting me.