thomnz

So I should probably mention that I've been fairly busy since my last last post in september 2008 (wow! more than a year ago). Firstly I was working all summer at this conservation park/private zoo that deals with New Zealand birdlife. It was a weird job that involved fetishy parrots but it paid well so I put up with it. Subsequently I've been skiing and generally mucking around in alpine areas throughout winter when not vigourously pumping out essay after essay at university. So overall I'd say its been quite a good year.

And speaking of university there's only FIVE weeks left until my major deadlines... and I have approximately 29,000 words to write and 10 interviews to transcribe.

Admittedly I'm lacking a bit of focus. All my attention is concentrated on NEXT year, which promises to be fantastically exciting and involves more skiing, and canada....


... but that's a story for another post.

While we're on the topic of velociraptors...



I should mention at this point that i am deathly afraid of velociraptors (and zombies) and thus have been seriously considering compiling all avaliable knowledge on the subject into a Velociraptor survival guide.

Update soon

I could survive for 1 minute, 3 seconds chained to a bunk bed with a velociraptor

Created by Bunk Beds Pedia

'nuff said

So I spent this past weekend up at Temple skifield helping out with a bit of maintenance on the goods lift and the rope tows, and I've realised how woefully inadequate my stock of outdoor equipment is. Sure, I have enough gear to spend a day or two up in the lodge skiing or in inclement weather, but I only have one pair of hiking shoes (no boots...yet) and only one set of layering gear (which admittedly lasts for ages, but that's not the point). Thus tomorrow I shall set out to find a good deal on a set of tramping boots, mum has offered to pay - which is neat - but i doubt she'd be impressed if i managed to spend $700 on boots -_-

At least i need not worry about skiing equipment just yet.

Oh, I need another pair of waterproof pants.... you can never have too many pairs of pants.

I was guna do a meme from microcutts but its too long **so can't be bothered right now**

Assignments blahblah exams blah class presentations blahblahblah horrible deadlines blah i'm a student blah fucked blah life blahblah undersexed blahblah well actually *whinge* ..doing an essay right now blah

*ten minutes of gibbering*

Actually i've been getting halfway decent grades

B+ Mid-course exam: Economic history of Western Europe
A- Essay#1: If subsidiarity is the answer, what was the question? Discuss
B+Literature review
A Interview
A- Essay#2: Economic history of Finland since WWII

I had an exam on Monday, and i've still got to get my marks back for Essay#3: Evaluate the effectiveness of the EU as an international actor after the post-'89 changes in Eastern Europe, and for my presentation. Essay#4 i'm writing now and my next presentation and Essay#5 will get written next week.

So i have a lot to look forward too...

fuck its cold

yeah... k i have been a complete slacker with keeping LJ up to date, but hey, I'm a student and *occasionally* i have to bust my ass to meet deadlines....

so now that we've gotten that unpleasantness out of the way I'm fishing around for ideas on how to make this page more interesting and less focused on moi.

Brilliant example: microcutts

I did this for her, so i suppose i should post it here

Comment and I'll...

1. Tell you why I friended you.
2. Associate you with something - fandom, a song, a colour, a photo, etc.
3. Tell you something I like about you.
4. Tell you a memory I have of you.
5. Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.
6. Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.
7. In return, you must post this in your LJ.

I want to go to Bavaria
and eat sausages
and imbibe vast quantities of beer
and laugh at people in their little leather shorts
and funny hats

Who's with me!?!?!

Bah! To hell with essays, lit reviews and economist magazine bring on the music!

*parties in imagination*

Now watch what you say
Or they´ll be calling you a radical
A liberal, oh fanatical, criminal!
Oh won´t you sign up your name
We´d like to feel you´re
Acceptable, respectable, oh presentable, a vegetable!

suckers

MUSE!! ON TELEVISION!! NEXT WEEK!!!! *MUST WaTcH*

*dies with delight*

I have an exam in, oh, thirteen hours... but am I ready?

Sort of... well kinda, it all depends on how you would define "ready". You see the thing is I have no clue how much detail the questions are going to go into. My lecturer isn't big on in-depth analysis in class but the textbook was written for masochists, and i'm not sure just how much S&M I'm required to endure to get a halfway decent grade (which by my reckoning is a B or higher).

So goddamned frustrating.

Anyway continuing on with procrastinatey distractions today i got sidetracked by bunnies on youtube..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_TndvU1WOk

that video represents an entire afternoon of not doing my course readings *sobs*

Two Essays.
Two Independent Research Assignments
One Literary Review
One Exam next week.

Well i've started one of my essays so far....

I keep getting distracted by things such as this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mthNNJX6YE

You probably have to log in to see that, but it's pretty fucking hilarious.
And at least they're wearing pants.
I want their HAARP dvd so badly! But thirty bucks! aaaarghrgrrrghr

I'm too poor for entertainment. Its the worst thing about being a student.... ya know, apart from being buried in essays.

I still want to go to Munich.
I'm thinking next year.
hmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Just reading through my old entries instead of doing my research project, or my literary review, or my several essays... as a matter of fact. Procrastination is is terrible habit yet not one that can be easily broken. I generally rest on the knowledge that I will finally settle down and do some work once things start getting tight - which is shocking on my part, but hey I've almost completed a batchelors degree. GO-GO Tom with your awesome Procrastinatey powers!

Speaking of dis tractability today I was sidetracked by the prospect of the NCRE semester exchange program with Ludwig-Maximillians University in Munich. I've decided that I am going - assuming that I can get my hands on the scholarship/financial assistance they offer. Fingers crossed eh. I got talking to this German dude Philip in one of my lectures who's on an exchange from... somewhere in Germany... and he seemed fairly pleased with the experience of studying overseas. So yay!

Also I'm going to start tutoring my brother and generally help him out with his yr13 English class - for a modest fee - which should work out alright so long as there isn't too much literature interpretation(honestly I'll bet writers never ever think of half the crap that English teachers do). All English teachers need to be lined up and shot - with the exception of Mrs. Butler, that woman is The goddess of English.

The flat is fairly harmonious so I've nothing to bitch about there.

Just as a side note: BOOBIES!

I don't know about you, but my title seems fairly self-explanatory to me. If not then I'm sure all you twisted fucks will think of SOmething not too far off the mark. Anyway during this weekend I trekked up a mountain in Arthur's Pass with a bunch of people from the uni snowsports club.... and no it was not as pointless as all that.... since the club owns its own lodge/skiifield at Temple Basin. Like OMG!! I hear you say. YES! OMFG!!!

There's no snow anywhere at the moment of course and the mountains all look pretty bleak and uninteresting unless you love rocks.... lots and lots of rocks, oh and moss too. So after a bit of lunch and maintenance work everybody got stuck into their booze and relaxed.
Funny thing though... just about everybody there (thirty-five or so people) were first years, which i hadn't realized at first. I was walking with them thinking "damn these people look young" and "wait what? How the hell can this person be so naiive about uni?!".

First year students + Freedom from school/parents etc + vast quantities of alcohol = Hilarity

Awhile back now I saw a play/production thingamajigg about international coffee trade and how hideously poor coffee farmers in South America are and whatnot. Of course the whole show was presented in a way to make some light of the situation and make it entertaining - and personally having a stunningly attractive South American (or spanish?) woman in the show was entertaining enough for me. But after seeing the show and doing a wee bit of research i find myself a supporter of the whole Fair Trade coffee scheme; good news considering all UCSA cafes at university are now supplied by a Fair Trade company and are thus now all slightly more expensive.

Speaking of university I've spent much of the past few days wandering around campus looking for classes which had been rescheduled and/or relocated. It appears that the coordinators in my department have a predilection for changing class details without notifying anyone, even the lecturer herself in one case. Myself I find it odd that my EURO lectures are scattered around campus in a seemingly random (if not sadistic and cruel) fashion, I would have thought that they would be located mostly in one building or section of campus for easy and relaxed transition between classes but noooo no no no no that would be FAR too easy. It's nuts.

I signed myself up for CUTC (tramping) and Canterbury Snowsports at clubs day Tuesday in anticipation of getting more involved with things and generally having a good time. Skiing especially because its impossible to get better at it unless I go up fairly regularly which I've not had the opportunity to do before b/coz of school/work/family blah blah blah. So hopefully this year will be different coz I've got myself a suitable car AND like-minded people to go with.

Um, so yeah. I managed to more or less miss everything that happened during orientation. Not that i didn't WANT to go, more because of moniessss, my lack of. But no worries, there's plenty of free entertainment that can be found.... somewhere.

I forgot to mention that I bought a car a while back. Also we've moved into our flat and have been here for about a month now. So hurrah. I'll post something a little more detailed sometime when i'm not falling asleep where i'm sitting.

Here she is

I've never been much into new year resolutions, despite that fact that i seem to make a few every January. This year I'm determined to work harder at uni. I've gotta maintain a B average to get into the honour program. It shouldn't be too difficult but my gpa this year took a nose dive after i failed two of my courses. That's laziness for you.

I'm catching a bus at a quarter past seven tomorrow morning to Twizel, mostly because I'm getting fairly sick of being home alone - despite the convenience for having people over - but partially to get out of being called into work this week. Also venturing down to Wanaka later in the week to meet up with my parents and brothers (with any luck ill be able to drive the Beamer ;) ), hopefully the weather will remain cooperative because I wanna catch up on my lack of biscuiting and waterskiing this year.

The only catch is that I hafto get from my parents house (in Halswell, i can SEE farmland from the window) to church corner. At the moment it looks like I'm just gonna hafto leave my car outside of zebs, and hopefully it won't be on cinderblocks when i get back.

My guitar learningness is happening.... slowly. BUt i can now play the James Bond theme so its all good. I can now die happy.

I can honestly think of many more exciting things to do than sit in a bus for 4 hours. sigh

I steal chocolate chips out of the pantry and deny all knowledge of their disappearance. I just thought i should share that, certainly i could do WORSE things :P

thanks genie... i needed entertainment :D

Ah god enough questions already!

Last Sunday the Christchurch Muse concert kicked off - and for everybody who did not or could not go - it was as catastrophically, mind-pulverizingly awesome as I had expected it to be.

I got to the stadium fairly early meaning I had to sit around on the floor outside the hall with Chris, a group of his friends, and the American flatmate of aforementioned friends. It seemed to me that there was a shitload of waiting around just for the opening act who didn't appear until around 8:30 or so, which can be a bit of a pain in the arse when you're crammed into an unenthusiastic crowd (unenthusiastic til the music started anyways)

Anyways The Checks were amazing live. I don't actually know any of their songs but i'm gonna hafto start paying them more attention since what they pump out isn't shit =P. PLUS can actually play their instruments AND they dance around on stage. After the Checks had finished up their part of the show the technicians uncovered the drum kit just to wind up the crowd a little bit.




The whole set-up they had up on the stage was impressive, the drum-kit the perspex grand piano, the LIGHTS! I've seen them all in shots from other concerts but they're nothing compared to what they're actually like in real-life. My photos aren't brilliant coz i took them with my phone camera which is mediocre at its best, but here they are...


Muse - brilliant


The Checks (opening act)

I was perhaps three quarters of the way to the front of the stage, but the movement of the crowd separated me from the group I was with and pushed me forwards a bit so i could see ALL of Matt in all his god-like magnificence. And damn they can sing too!


More lights


MATT BELLAMY!!! !! !!! !!!!!

So after a mere two days sitting around doing nothing I am massively looking forward to my summer course starting tomorrow. I never thought it would happen. I. Want. To. Learn.

*breaks down*



Coz i'm having a good time, yes i'm havin' a good time.
I don't want to stop at all.