Blogging, Veeerrry Slloooowwlllly

So. I ate up all the fast internet. And then found that I really had quite a bit of uni stuff that I actually had to do, today, on the net. So I've been downloading one thing and going away and reading a story out of The Best of Will Eisner's The Spirit, and coming back and doing some uni stuff. It's working quite well.
Happily we should cycle back on to fast internet tonight sometime when the new month begins.
Other than that, our tickets to my cousins' school production of Les Miserables were dropped around. Which sounds like fun. I'm trying to read the book, but it's a pain. I'm stuck in the bit about Waterloo at the moment, so I'm not even very far in. But having finished it will be a triumph.
I bought Easter eggs for my Sunday School class yesterday. Far out. Easter eggs are expensive. I got most of them at the cheap shop, though, so it wasn't too bad. I don't know how my parents coped all these years.

Prac, TV, etc.

So. Preps are EXHAUSTING. Don't they ever stop? They yell and run and run and yell... They're adorable, every one, but lots of work. And I'm only doing obs these Thursdays. No teaching yet.
There's a bunch of cute little year-behind-me uni students there as well, doing the same prac I did last year. Nostalgia trip.

My sister can't wait for Rove. I'm a little bit sad, because where I live, Sunday night belongs to Miss Marple and her compatriots at the ABC. I really miss there being ANY decent TV on Tuesday nights, too. Oh well. I get a double episode of Bones tonight, because Lost is taking a break over Easter. I like Lost, but I like Bones too. So shininess.

Before I Breathe

So today is the day spent waiting before prac. My folders are organised, my clothes are clean, my call to the school is made. And I'm just... waiting.



Yesterday I handed in the assignment I was working on over the weekend, the environmental art one. I had a shadowy memory of a related Calvin and Hobbes in the back of my head, so I went to the searchable database and found it.

Also, here's a legible version.

wish i was here

Well, I posted my card today that I made yesterday.
I'm not happy with what I wrote in it though. I really suck at the insides of greeting cards (interesting image there...) I never know what to say. How do you cram all your excitement and goodwill and hugs into a little rectangle of paper 10cmx14cm? Can anyone do it?
Sometimes I feel like just affixing a postscript, 'dear such-and-such, please take to heart hours of careful work and put the stilted motto on the shelf, not the other way around.'

In similar news, I love this verse from Psalm 71. I know exactly what the Psalmist means.
"My mouth will tell of your righteousness,
of your salvation all day long,
though I know not its measure." Psalm 71:15 (NIV)

Yesterday, at uni, there was a door. Today there is a wall.
I knew they were remodelling the bookshop, but still, it's disconcerting when doors go disappearing on you.

In Which There Is Much Rejoicing

My dear friends in South Australia are having a baby. So I made them a 'Hooray - You're Pregant!' Card. (Even if I didn't use those exact words.) Everyone back home is all excited. And so am I, even if I have done my best to surmount the hyperness by spending six hours painstakingly fitting together the little greeting card: carefully tracing the image out of my uni notebook (it began life as a doodle), even more carefully accidentally wrecking three when I went over the tracing in gold, cutting all the bits out, dabbing ti-i-iny dots of PVA glue on with a matchstick, tying little knots in the string so the beads stay in the right place... (they don't read the blog, so I can safely complain about it all here.) And yet, am still hyperventilating...

It's all just sooo shiny.

Screams, Runs Around, and Then Explodes

It's here! This is it! I can't believe it! I can't wait! It's soooooo cool! Breathe! Breathe! Just Breathe! Its.................. the Stardust trailer!!!!!

Bits and Pieces

So. Today.
Hooray! My room is clean! It was getting gross, and not the kind of picturesque gross you can photograph and blog about. Grandma needs to have guests more often so I have to clean it. (I know, Ms. Responsible aren't I.) Am gradually becoming reconciled to prep - at least it's a really good school. And I'm looking forward to learning what to do with a teacher-aide. At the moment I'm not really sure... all the prep classes in QLD have to have part-time teacher aides.
This morning my cousin gave me a chocolate frog. His Sunday School teacher belongs to the 'bribery and corruption' school of behaviour management, so he makes out like a bandit. My Sunday School students aren't that lucky... I wouldn't even let them have a sticker today. I keep saying, if you're good, you get a sticker. They weren't good, and they knew it, but they still expected their sticker. I'm so nasty, I know.

I am not bad

I miss ONE DAY posting because I'm flat out finishing assignments and I get called a bad girl. Little sisters, I tell you. Anyway, have got it done on the wiki and in powerpoint format, and would upload it but i'm terrified of free file hosting sites. It's pretty cool if I do say so myself.
Saw The Prestige yesterday, and as my dad and I were saying, it's a bit of a downer, but it's a downer with style and good actors. And also saw Breakfast on Pluto. Cillian Murphy is excellent. Still, I don't know, I walked out of Batman Begins thinking, 'wow, I never knew the Scarecrow was so... pretty...'

Hats On

This is my new hat for doing playground duty at prac. It's not really a 'playground duty' hat, but I figure if I have to wear a hat it might as well have a little more style than some floppy canvas thing with a sunflower on it. And besides, I've wanted a trilby for ages. Spent ages looking in all the shops at girls' hats, which are all expensive and badly made, except the really expensive ones that are decent quality, and all too small for my head. I have a big head apparently. So I had a look in the men's department at David Jones, and found this, which is nice quality, fits me, and best of all, cost twenty dollars. So I was happy - all the womens' trilbies in DJs were at least triple that.
Called the prac office this morning and found out where I'm going. I have a prep class. Prep this year in the good old QL of D is a bit of a proposition, being the very beginning year and all. So it should be interesting, even if it is full of impossibly tiny little kiddies who will all need shoes tied and noses wiped. Huh. I wanted year sevens. But I'll live.
Last Extras ever last night. Sadness.

AAARGH I hate Uni

Prac placements are up but for some reason I'm not on the list. So I get to make a polite call to the prac office in the morning and hope they just didn't put me in the spreadsheet, and have actually placed me in a school. Yuk.

I like this verse from my devo today:

"Praise be to the Lord, to God our Saviour,
who daily bears our burdens."
Psalm 68:19 TNIV

The Ladies have arrived

Hooray! My book has come from America (via home.) It's lovely, and I've read most of it. I especially love the story about Mr. Simonelli, and Charles Vess' beautiful illustrations. Big hooray.
Am still waiting for prac placements. This is not fun. On the other hand, am not waiting for Science assignment results - got them this afternoon. 13/15, which is not bad.

nother day

Well. I didn't make it to the early lecture this morning. Didn't set my alarm, like an idiot. But the lecture I did get to was good, because it was about prac, and I heart prac. Best thing about uni ever. Placements aren't out yet, so I'm on tenterhooks - I want a year six or seven, but there's no way of knowing where I'll end up.
Other than that, boringness day. Walked 10km.

In the Air Tonight

You must check out this post at the Fabulist right now. Just go. Do it now. Quickly.

Metacognition

Metacognition - thinking about thinking - It's a curse as well as a blessing. The latest form it's taken in my head is that when I think, my brain takes my thoughts and composes them as blog posts. This occurred to me this morning in it's entirety, and then I went "Ghaa! It's happening right now!" because I was composing a blog post in my head about composing a blog post in my head...

Huzzah!!!

Alleliua's Current Obsession is two whole weeks old. Let us celebrate with interpretive dance.

(Pause for interpretive dance.)

It's been a reasonable two weeks, on the whole. I knocked over an assignment, got a cool new book and sunnies, saw some family, did some sleeping (but not enough), and I made curry. I'm sure more happened than that. And it has been good, even if I've been eating out of vending machines too much (just because it's a time-honoured uni tradition doesn't mean it's good; actually, how many time-honoured uni traditions are good? Whining, complaining, getting drunk and leaving everything to the last minute are the uni traditions that spring to mind, and they are even worse than excessive ex-vending machine eats.) Hmm. And I really don't have a life, but I knew that already.

Plus, I read a bunch of Psalms, which is also good.

Cookingness

Today I made hommus, and also curry. Both were very good. The hommus recipe comes, as far as I know, from my Dad (he forgot where it came from.) The curry is Nigella Lawson's sweet potato and chickpea curry, which came from The Age newspaper a few months ago. I found the recipe on the web, here: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/03/recipe_of_the_w_9.php

Mmm. Curry.

"Mr. Holliday has other serious problems, but this is not one of them"

I know I posted about two seconds ago, but then I saw this (from a link in the Neil Gaiman blog) and had to share. I just love that line in the title. The article is about a man who supposedly claimed a unicorn was driving when he crashed. The link:
http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2007/03/14/news/local/33-unicorn.txt

Tea for the Tillerman

I'm obsessed with Extras. It's one of the best things about Wednesday nights, and I heap scorn on those who watch House or Heroes instead. I never watched The Office, strangely enough, but I love Extras. Took me a couple of episodes to warm up to it, but then I started laughing my little socks off, and missing an episode of the new season is almost physically painful. (Okay, hyperbole.) Last night it had Ian McKellen. He was awesome. Never expected to be a huge fan of 'painful pause' comedy, but here I am. (BTW, Weird Al on Spicks and Specks just before was also very shiny.)
And, proving that some of my obsessions look ridiculous in juxtaposition, I read Psalm 63 today and (as Kat would say, as Steve would say, as Kat would say) it rocks my socks. Here are the first eight verses, TNIV of course.

You, God, are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,
My whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land
where there is no water.
I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.
I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
On my bed I remember you;
I think of you through the watches of the night.
Because you are my help,
I sing in the shadow of your wings.
I cling to you;
your right hand upholds me.

Sleepy Day

I spent most of today asleep, recovering from a busy weekend/beginning of week, and handing in my assignment. I think I did okay with that, by the way. Our display was killer, anyway.
Did fit in a trip to the library - I'm about a chapter from the end of Surprised by Joy and Les Miserables won't really go anywhere until I can give it my undivided attention, which pretty much means June, except then I'm supposed to write a VBS. But anyway, needed some books to read. So I picked up a couple of Tamora Pierce's books to re-read (am obsessed with young adult fiction, its so much better than most adult fiction) and one random novel, and put thirteen Terry Pratchetts on hold. I want to have read all the Discworlds.

'Pyromania is so often the handmaiden of innovation.'
So Yesterday, Scott Westerfield

Which is from the random novel, which was a perfectly good way to waste an afternoon.

Something for Tuesday

Aargh. Computers. I sit here writing this in trepidation, praying the uni wireless network doesn't freeze up my laptop -- again-- as I already lost this post once, and would rather not lose it again.
Today I'm obsessed with worrying about science. Our presentation is on at 2 and thankfully everything is done, but I wouldn't let a thing like that stop me from fretting. And at the same time I'm painfully aware that, for a Christian, I do a LOT of worrying and complaining. Yuk.
I'm also obsessed with a Sims 2 hack. It's the one by Squinge that allows sims to wear custom maternity clothes.
I got it here: http://www.insimenator.net/showthread.php?t=7238 You have to join the site, but it's free.
It's heaps of fun, so my two newest sims, Katina and Danae, are both pregnant fashion plates at the moment. (This being an adult version of the Katina from a few posts ago BTW.) I only have screenshots of Danae; Katina may follow.

Sorry. It just hasn't been a very interesting day.

Psalm 59:16-17

I will sing of your strength,
in the morning I will sing of your love,
for you are my fortress,
my refuge in times of trouble.
You are my strength, I sing praise to you;
you, God, are my fortress,
my God on whom I can rely.

Psalm 59:16-17 (TNIV)

'WAR'

I swear, this is the most bizarre sweet I have ever eaten. Speaks for itself, though, really.

I love singing The Church's One Foundation. I would like to think that it's because it has a great meaning, but it's more likely to be that it's in my vocal range and provides the opportunity to sing the word 'schisms.'

Ahgr. So Sleepy.

This is what my room looks like at the moment. I need to clean it up -- we're having family to lunch tomorrow and the kiddies will want to rabbit around in here -- but I also have to make a large green poster for Tuesday, that I said I would have finished for Monday morning, and because of the aforesaid lunch I won't get it done tomorrow. Plus I haven't done my Sunday School prep yet. So I probably shouldn't be wasting my time blogging, but oh well.
Also, am very sleepy.
I'm obsessed with conversation lollies. The heart-shaped hard candy ones, that should say things like 'BE MINE' and tend to actually say things like 'DORE OU' or the amusingly antiquated 'FAX ME', often off-kilter and invariably upside down. If you can work out what they say at all; according to conversation lollies, the most romantic phrase in the English language is something along the lines of 'MMF SMURBLE'.
But this only adds to their charms. Every time I walk past the lolly shop I have to pick some up. I definitely mmf smurble them.

let them eat cake

I made this cake and thought it looked so nice I should record it for posterity. It's chocolate, with chocolate icing and M&Ms mix-ups on top.




In other news, my science experiments are growing... These ones are cress.

I am consistently fascinated by this graffiti, at a train station in Brisbane. 'Water'... there's not much around at all, really. Then it gets me thinking about the train from Spirited Away, where the tracks are underwater... (I love that movie. It's my second favourite Ghibli film.)Not all graffiti is evil.

I'm reading C.S. Lewis' Surprised by Joy. It's not quite what I expected, but very good. And, my head nearly exploded with happiness yesterday when I realised what that Jars of Clay song I'm in the Way means. That one that goes

I'm in the way of fallin' down

I won't let you go that far now

Is talking about the fact that God literally stands between us and failure; that we can't be a Christian under our own power, but with Him, we can. At least, that's what I think it means. You never quite know with Jars.

Meaningful, Trivial, and Hyperventilating

In the spirit of this blog which is fast becoming apparent, today I bring you lots of pictures again. And the obsessions are:

Meaningful: Nehemiah. Isn't it shiny? I suspect it's because it's written in the first person, and because it's not a book of the Bible I've concentrated on a lot before. I found it much more dynamic than Esther, which I've read a few times. Very cool. Take a look. (And Ezra too.)

Trivial: My luvverly new Sim I made, Katina. She's a teen, and the only sim I've made in weeks that I'm happy with. I love her nose; it has character : )

here she is without makeup, and with makeup.

here she is, looking glam.

here she is, two different casual looks.

And, hyperventilating: my new book! (Mmm, hardback-a-licious...)

Basically, even I'm not touching it until I can get it covered: The slipcover is almost immaculate, which is a minor miracle in a book with a white cover. And now, the story of why I'm hyperventilating:

In Australia, sometimes we get bad editions of good books. Sometimes we don't, like the Ladies of Grace Adeiu, and sometimes we do, like Neil Gaiman's Fragile Things, which only came out in a (rather expensive) paperback, without the cool transparent slipcover and the broken butterfly wings. With Good Omens, so far as I can tell, until recently everyone had to put up with a paperback. And then the new edition came out, with sexy variant covers that have the same ISBN. Which basically means that, if you order the book over the net or through a bookshop, it's lucky dip as to which cover you get. Borders Books here had the black cover; I wanted the white one. Plus, their copies were a bit dilapidated and yuk.

Luckily, I got a helpful staff member who pointed me to Pulp Fiction in Brisbane, who happened to have a copy with the white slipcover sitting on the shelf. So I bought it. It cost a bit more, but it's worth it to have the book with the cover I want, in decent condition. *squee* : )

Turns out I'm a lucky duck. Of the roughly 12 copies Pulp Fiction ordered in, only 2 were the white cover.

(Edited to add: So now I can give my held-together-with-contact-and-love paperback copy to my cousins, who I lent it to and then had to steal it back from.)

a sciency kind of day

The long-dreaded science pictures are in.

These are from my science journal.

These, from comparing soaked and unsoaked lima beans.

And last but not least, these are from an experiment examining the effects of light deprivation on the growth of cress.

Whooooo.... (Hyper)

I drank coffee and now I'm hyper. And also celebrating my first comment! Excitement! I think my word for Pan's Labyrinth at the moment is haunting; I can't remember if that was in the comment or not, so if it is, it's your idea, and if it's not, it's mine. I'm loving it more and more as I think about it over the days.

I found another verse about the Lord sustaining me:
" Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you;
he will never let the righteous be shaken."
Psalm 55: 22 TNIV (for those who might guess, yes, I am reading through Psalms.)

And I was wrong, yesterday. (This is not about the fishie.) I need God for more than eight o'clock lectures: I need him to sustain me in my worship of him; not just singing words without even thinking about them, but in daily meditation on his Word, in giving time and money (if I ever manage to tithe faithfully, we'll all know that's God, because I suck at it) and sharing the Gospel. Not trying to preach; just sharing what I'm rejoicing in. Because I can't do it alone. Because I don't have to.

Praise the Lord.

(No science piccies yet.)

1 Chronicles 29:10b-13

"Praise be to you, Lord,
the God of our father Israel
from everlasting to everlasting.
11Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power
and the glory and the majesty and the splendour
for everything in heaven and on earth is yours.
Yours, Lord, is the kingdom;
you are exalted as head over all.
12Wealth and honour come from you;
you are the ruler of all things.
In your hands are strength and power
to exalt and give strength to all.
13Now, our God, we give you thanks,
and praise your glorious name."

That's from my TNIV Bible. I especially love verse 11 right now.

But then, I have a big face, too...

As it says in the blurb up there, really big sunnies. Bad photo, taken with my pre-decent-camera-phones phone. But there are my new sunnies. They are actually teal, if you can't tell. They're Sportsgirl 'Phoebe', the only pair I could find that were a nice shape and wider than my face. They also happened to be teal, which is nice, although they look bluer in the photo.

Beginnings

So. I've not had huge amounts of success with blogging before (I'm too lazy) but let's see how I go.

Anyway, what to expect: a catalogue of madnesses, things I fall passionately in love with in the short term and the long term, and possibly some not-madnesses.

Basically so my family can experience my self-obsession, even over long distances. Tee-hee-hee.

Today's new obsessions:

• Pan's Labyrinth (that movie in Spanish): very shiny if a little brutal in parts. Reminds me very much of MirrorMask in that they're both really Alice stories. Which is a good thing; I love Alice, especially Through the Looking Glass.
  
• Environmental art: not just for hippies. This is for a uni thing. Imagine, a uni thing that's actually fun! I think my head exploded from joy during the first tute. I especially love:

Christo and Jeanne-Claude: The Gates, Central Park, New York City, 1979-2005

Carlotta Brunetti: Floating Clouds

• Louie Giglio's The Air I Breathe: I read it on the train today, and it is a wonderful book for if you are feeling, through busyness or fatigue or whatever, a bit 'meh' about God. I've been smiling all day, and it made me want to go and read Psalms.