Sometimes things happen.

I have this theory that the reason I've lost my design Mojo is that I haven't been updating my livejournal. Yeah, flimsy at best, I know, but it's 1:20 am and I'm SO DEEP into procrastinating that I'm procrastinating against going to sleep on a Friday, when I don't have anything overly unpleasant to do tomorrow.

I know, crazy, right?

I'm not really sure what my original intention was in opening livejournal today. But, I came across a metaquote related to Australia and it made me simultaneously re-remember how great our wildlife is here, rekindle my desperate desire to go camping up North again, or down South, or over East, I really don't care where, honestly, AND feel deeeeep nostalgia for this time last year. Experiencing other countries is the bomb on levels, and shit.
(I never said this was going to be a particularly enlightening entry)

Mainly though, I want to go and do the drive up to Exmouth again and then just stay there for a month, snorkelling every day. There is almost nothing else to do up there, but the reef is so amazing that I don't really care. Swimming after reef sharks is a good adrenaline rush. As long as there are no bigger kinds of sharks around - that would be less fun. Actually, last time I was in Coral Bay (close-ish to Exmouth, a fair few hours south, but the same Coral Reef), we were coming back in from a fishing charter and saw a 3m long Tiger shark literally just gliding through the water around some coral bombies that we were looking at the day before. I can't imagine coming across one of those things in the water. It would be... it would be bad.

Hm. Uni. Uni this semester has been about as pleasant as a cheese grater to the face. Now there's just over a month to go and I'll be honest, I am freaking out, now. I still don't have - well, that's not true, I have a design, a form, but I don't have floor plans. Or, I did, but I showed Emiliano and he didn't like them. The trouble is, that I know what his problem with them is - they are plans, but they don't have "it" - that thing that makes what architects produce better than what some other building designer produces. That quality of space, or whatever. They're just places where things are. And I don't care. That is probably the biggest problem. I have 0 passion this semester. I have no design mojo. Things aren't falling into place, I have no vision. And worse, I have no idea how to fix it, and I'm running out of time. I think I can do enough to pass, but just passing would be very disappointing indeed. I was hoping that I could get a 70% average over studio for the next 3 studios so that I can do the dissertation studio unit in 5th year (so that I can have an MArch: Hons), but I really can't see that happening at this point. Which is sad. But I don't know how to change it!

( Cut for more whinging about uni that nobody wants to read - I guess writing it is cathartic or whatever )

Hm. Now I feel a little better, actually. Maybe one day, when I actually have anything to show, I will put up some pictures.
Now, I should really look up pictures of hair so that I can tell the hair dresser what I actually want done tomorrow. I may have done a silly thing. I booked some kind of assessment/consult thing at the Maurice Meade in Garden City. I don't know if I care enough to pay their prices, but the consultancy is free. When I was looking at one of their brochures the other day, it looked like they were only about $60 more expensive than my current hair dresser, who I don't like, so I thought it might be worth the extra money to get something nicer. But when I spoke to the lady on the phone today it sounded like it was going to be a lot more.
Eh!
We'll see.

Ohhh also I am going to order an earring for my helix piercing made from Mammoth Ivory. Seriously! It is only $20. Apparently they have more mammoth carcasses than you can shake a stick at up in Finland, or somewhere, so the ivory isn't that expensive, or something.
IDK. I am somewhat skeptical, but Exotic is a pretty reputable business, to my experience, and surely, you can't say something is certifiedly Mammoth Ivory and issue a certificate and everything if it's not?


Does anyone care about the Grand Final this year? Ever since the Eagles have started... well, you know... I have completely lost interest. I watched Freo's last final game, and obviously jinxed them because that was just embarassing. But I actively dislike Collingwood and couldn't care less about the Saints, so... boooooring! Footy is pretty boring when nobody that you care about is playing.

RIGHT!
LESS PROCRASTINATE, more.. .things

You know, I really love Australia.
By saying this, I'm not really saying that Australia is better than anywhere else - if I had actually been to any other countries perhaps I would - (Guys, guys, everyone knows Tasmania doesn't count) although Australia is my favourite country, out of that blind kind of childish loyalty. Like when you're six years old and your friend is saying "My Mum/Dad is the greatest mum/dad in the whole world" and even though you've never met your friends parent, you feel compelled to say "No, my mum/dad is the greatest mum/dad in the whole world", because you know you're right. It's the same sort of thing, I think, saying that the country you're from is the best, or your favourite. It's interesting. Of all the countries' histories that I know anything about, I can categorically say that Australia's would be among my least favourite. Collonialism has so been done, you know, and not to sound racist but I really don't find the culture of Indigenous Australia all that compelling - purely because Nomadic culture doesn't captivate me in the way that empirical culture does. But I wouldn't actually say that, because obviously I have to love my country's history the best. That said though, I'm very fond of our recent history - although you could say that ALL of Australia's history (as "Australia", that is) is recent. I mean, 200 years of Federation makes it very recent, and I think the first recorded/confirmed European landing was in something like 1650ish. Which really, is totally not that long ago. That's after 4,000 years of Egypt, One Thousand five hundred ish years of Rome, Two thousand years of Greece, One thousand years of Catholicism, after Feudalism, after the Crusades (ha!) after *scans brain for architectural knowledge* Gothic, after Byzantine, after the Renaissance. It was during Baroque, but that's the latest architectural movement that I have studied/cared about. I suppose you could say that we started off on a good footing - we already had all this culture and european history established. Meh! Civil wars and movements make things interesting. I mean, the closest we came to a civil war is the Eureka Stockade - and that lasted for a day, between about 40 men, with 9 casualties and about 13 injuries. I suppose I should say that this is the best kind of war - minimal death and all that, but interesting history it does not make.
But I was just thinking, as I sat in my room and stared out my window, summer breeze wafting though (because all summer breeze does is waft), seeing the roses underneath my window reaching up, then in the distance our little blackboy (I refuse to call them grass trees, there's already something else called a grass tree anyway and blackboy is a much better name), it's spear all covered in it's flower reaching high up, and the broad reach of the old gum tree on the other side of the road, and in the background a clear blue sky. I mean, its just so damn picturesque, and I live in suburbia!

Does anyone know how blackboys actually grow? Am I right in thinking that in order for them to get taller, they have to actually be burnt? I'm just curious. Because we've had ours for about 6 years, we've never burnt it, and it's still 100% on the ground. Of course, I realise that these plants are around 300years old rather than 6 before they start to get nice and tall, but still... I wonder.

But anyway, this entry is just my little bout of patriotism. I'm very proud to be Australian. And while I'm angry that we didn't sign the Kiyoto (sp?) agreement, that's about all I'm unhappy about. Because that ridiculous "trench of magik watah from Perth to the Kimberlies" plan was never gone through with. And apparently we're friendly! Apparently everone loves Aussies. But yes. I think everyone should be proud of the country they're from/were raised in.

On that note, what determines whether you say you're an "whereyoulive-ian" or a "whereyourancestorscomefrom-ian"? Because if I were to introduce myself, I would say that I'm Australian, if it were to come up. However, most of my family comes from Ireland. Sometimes I would tell people "I'm Irish", most of the time if I'm making a joke about getting sunburnt, but I would 99% of the time say I'm Australian. Is this because I'm not really in touch with my Irish side culturally? For example, most Italian people I know say that they're Italian, or Italian-Australian. Why is that? Is that because Italian people seem to have very strong Italian cultural ties? Or is it because all the Italian people I know have come from Italy much more recently? (My family have been in Australia for... a long time) I'm just curious, it's something that hasn't occurred to me before.

Also! If dogs could talk, I can't see them without Australian accents. Except for Schnauzers (sp?) and Poodles.

And that is all!!