Vegan Nutella

Couldn't have come at a better time. Tried it on regular and toasted bread and both are delicious depending on your mood/level of hunger. Tonight's (second) dessert was by far the winner though: take one multi-grain tortilla and place on a plate, spread vegan nutella on one half of the exposed side and raspberry jam on the other half of the exposed side, fold the two exposed sides onto each other and enjoy a delicious chocolate-raspberry treat.

Q: Narcissistic Much?

A: APPARENTLY. [JAQUES!]

So, today I had every intention of being super super studious and starting my homework-packed/work-ahead-to-prevent-future-stress weekend in an admirable fashion. I even skipped my morning walk to increase possible studying hours. I should have known my plan was busted when I was considering seeing what was on TV while I ate my breakfast and my complete hostility towards my backpack...yes, an inanimate object...new low. But I managed to avoid the TV and washed the dishes before showering and cleaning my room. Since Maddy is such a great host she provided me with five pillows of varying sizes when I arrived and those with the addition of my favorite pillow from back home have greatly assisted in my nest-building-attempts. I put a small cream pillow behind the large, brown striped pillow and have been leaning against those while attempting to cross off the items from the following 'WEEKEND HW' list (to be done in order):

Email Psych tut leader re. midterm/final format, final cumulative?
Psych pretest sample q's for week 2 & 3
Psych reading for week 2 & 3
Plato reading for week 3 & 4
Psych notes for week 2
Plato notes for week 3 & tut q's
Pop Fic reading for week 3
Pop Fic notes for week 3
Psych notes for week 3
Plato notes for week 4 and tut q's
Psych notecards for week 1 & 2
Pop Fic reading for week 4
Pop Fic notes for week 4
Psych notecards for week 3
Psych posttest sample q's for week 2 & 3

Well, I managed to email my tut leader and complete half of the Psych pre-test sample q's before Maddy got home, Jonah and Milly's fighting required me to get up and discipline, reading blogs, playing with PhotoBooth, and general boredom have distracted me greatly. I've had maybe four cups of coffee and even a study buddy (umm...wrangled Milly into sitting next to me while I read for Psych...) and less than three hours into working I'm writing my own blog and am completly apathetic towards getting through this weekend's list. Maybe I just needed this break...fingers crossed. :)

Another list:
"THINGS I NEED TO FIND ASAP"
Concentration
Academic Enthusiasm
The Plot
My Tail
Tina's # to give to Kyle
All the bobby pins I've left scattered around the unit
A backup hairband
Black Bandana
Wii Fit Inspiration

Uploading 'While I Was Distracted And Playing With Photo Booth' pics and then back to work.

"SPOT" THE CHAR

POP ART WARINESS

VEGAN PIRATE

VEGAN PIRATE REMINISCENT OF PIRATES 1...PERHAPS?

SILLY [LAME TITLE]

BIC & SHARPIE

THE SECRETS OF SEPIA

PLOT?

COLORS AND PEACE (LUH BOULDA)

PREPARING FOR PLATO

When It Rains

it f**kin' pours here! Just went on my walk and got absolutely drenched. Not really the way I wanted to start my day but I had a feeling it might happen given the fact the cyclone is heading our way and we've been forecasted rain all week. I didn't go for as long as usual given my shorts were sticking to me and my jacket was soaked. Funny though and took some pics, I am redefining wet rat:

WET JACKET IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT

NOTICE THE FABULOUS STICKING ACTION MY SHORTS HAVE GOING ON

Also, having my hood up the whole hour resulted in the most wonderful ponytail. The peacock hair combined with my beaky nose is quite spectacular don't you think?

TOTALLY GOT THE BIRD LOOK DOWN SOLID

WELL, I'M AMUSED AT LEAST

Now, time for class. Boo. Wish I could just stay in bed all day and listen to the rain.

Coldplay

The concert last night up in Brisbane was amazing! I have a totally new/increased respect and like for Coldplay. The first opening band was really good too, an electronic band that was STS9-esque with some songs being more mellow and some songs being a little more rock but I'm gunna try and figure out who they were and then buy their CD this week I was that impressed. The second opener were crap. And the lead singer had way too much of an ego and really strange dance moves. They were trying to sound like Coldplay at times but just couldn't do it, I don't think they really know what their "sound" is and so try and mimic about three other bands.

But Coldplay was so impressive. Their opening involved a white drape in front of the stage but because we were sitting to the side of the stage we could see them properly rocking out and getting pumped up to perform for the evening. They all perform so well and with Chris running and dancing all over the place the entire time it was a great show. During 'Yellow' they brought out these huge balls that the crowd bumped around and after a while the balls popped and all this yellow confetti was inside and showered the crowd. Their use of strobes and the projector screen was great and not over done at all. Towards the end of their set all these neon butterflies fell from the ceiling and it was pretty spectacular. Then, when you think they're leaving the stage because it's the end they actually ended up amongst the crowd in the back part of the arena in the stands. So cool that they acknowledge some people are super far away and they played two songs up there. During the second song they had everyone get out their cell phones and all these little lights were swaying back and forth throughout the arena. Sounds corny and ok, maybe it was a little, but it looked cool. The pics and videos [even if the sound is crap, compared to hollywood-style equipment, given the teeny microphone on our cameras] are better descriptors than my ramblings so here you go:

MADDY OUTSIDE

CHAR OUTSIDE

ANNA OUTSIDE

ME AND ANNA IN OUR SEATS

AWESOME OPENING BAND

THE OTHER OPENING BAND ISN'T EVEN WORTH MENTIONING SO HERE'S ANOTHER PIC OF THE FIRST. (THEIR NAME IS 'DECODER RING', CHECK 'EM OUT)

YAY TECHIES

MADDY AND ANNA BEFORE COLDPLAY CAME ON

VENUE ALMOST ALL FILLED UP

MADDY IN FRONT OF THE HUGE CROWD


COLDPLAY'S OPENING

COLDPLAY

'YELLOW'

NEON BUTTERFLIES FALLING FROM THE CEILING

CELL PHONE LIGHTING SCHEME

CHRIS ROCKIN' OUT

'VIVA LA VIDA'

I'll slave til the end

Just so you know. Even during conversations involving my periodically inarticulate/nonreciprocal manner.

[i commented on 'March 4th']

Initializing De-Sludge

So this week classes started, bleh. I haven't been in a classroom since December 15th and by the end of the day I definitely noticed how I've let my brain go to sludge. My first class was the lecture for 'Love, Sex, and Truth'. I think it'll be a really interesting class, we'll be reading Plato, Freud, and Foucault and analyzing the three topics through those three perspectives. We're starting by reading Plato's Symposium. The lecturer has a pretty monotonous tone to his voice and he is also a great fan of synonyms. Through this class "we're going to become a community, a group, a family of friends, of comrades". It was like that for two hours, ha ha. An upside to LST is that about six of my friends are in it so we can all get super eager on the material but use each other's shoulders as pillows during class. :) We have a tutorial (aka recitation) for that class and we are all in it together as well. It's two hours after the lecture and the convenience of a bar on campus kind of easily predicts what we're going to be doing during that break. I can see a lot of fun/interesting discussions happening in the tutorial. Hooray! After LST tutorial I had another hour break until my 'Lifespan Development' class. It's a psych class and it made me really happy to be learning and feeling worthwhile and color-coding. Today I just had one class, 'Youth and Society', but I went up to campus early to get some homework done (look at me go). I don't think I'm going to stay in 'Youth and Society' though because it's a freshman sociology class and I've come across a lot of the material before. Also, I have a tutorial for 'Youth and Society' on Friday mornings and if I could find a class where I don't have school on Fridays that would be great. Tomorrow I have 'Popular Fiction and Mass Culture'.

While getting ready for class yesterday I became distracted and took 'First Day of School' pics which I will now share with you.

ALL SMILES

MY OUTFIT

FLASH

A LIL NERVOUS

A LOT EXCITED

ALL SET TO HEAD TO THE BUS

Also, some fun 'First Day of School' vids I found on YouTube. Had totally forgotten about the Teeny Guy who's on the cup. Yay, Sesame Street!

The Quiki Pro, Day 1

THE TENTS AT THE QUIKI PRO

JOEL PARKINSON (GOLD COAST LOCAL)

Saturday was the first day of the Quiki Pro (Quicksilver Pro Surf Comp) so Maddy, Val, and I went to check out the action as it was only about a 10 minute drive away. The comp uses any points in the area depending on the conditions that day from about 10 minutes south of us to 10 minutes north (I think) so we are lucky enough to be right in the middle of the action. It's a two week long competition and the Roxy Pro is also going on at the same time here (girl's comp) so I'll be able to watch a lot of awesome surfing in the next couple weeks.

A PRETTY SPOT ON THE WALK TO THE QUIKI PRO

THE COMMENTATORS' BOX

DBAR, WHERE THE QUIKI PRO WAS HELD ON SATURDAY

Only the guys were competing on Saturday but they were super impressive so no complaints. The speed at which they go is incredible and even though the water was pretty flat they still amazing. For some reason Jay Thompson is now my favorite surfer, although, Kelly Slater knows how to perform for the crowd with all his big aerials and such. But I took a liking to Jay from his very first wave. Jay was in a heat with Joel Parkinson who is from the Gold Coast and had a lot of locals rooting for him. Joel was good too but by the end of the heat he had fallen to third (out of three).

JAY THOMPSON

JAY OR JOEL, I'M NOT QUITE SURE WHICH

MADDY AND ME IN BETWEEN HEATS

Kelly Slater's heat was up next and right from the start Kelly had this awesome aerial. He actually snuck out into the water somehow, Maddy and I saw some random person carrying his boards and I reckon he didn't wear his jersey across the beach to avoid being mobbed.

CLOSE UP OF KELLY SLATER

KELLY SLATER AGAIN

When all the guys get out of the water they are immediately swarmed but with Kelly Slater it's insane. By the time he was back on the beach we had already started climbing the hill back to the car but looking back down on the beach it was like every single person there ran to try and get a pic or signature. Kelly booked it back to the tent and the commentators actually had to tell people to leave him alone and give him some space. The comp was really cool and I'm sure when the semis and stuff start the atmosphere will be incredible. The only thing I didn't like about it was how the commentators constantly had to mention the sponsors of the comp (Red Bull and LG)...stupid corporate/consumer ____. Ah well, guess it's necessary these days even if it does seem very hypocritical for surfing of all things to be dependent on finances and advertising.

THE SWARM AROUND KELLY

Yesterday it was 34 degrees (celcius) and almost unbearable. Maddy and I escaped to Pac Fair (air conditioned shopping mall) where we did not actually buy anything, just escaped the heat. Was a very girly time seeing as on top of going to a mall we were both in dresses and listened to The Hills soundtrack on the way there. I know I know, go ahead and giggle/gasp.

BOO HEAT...

...YAY SISTERS

MY LENSES EVEN MATCH MY DRESS, LA-DI-DA

After the mall we came back home for a bit to eat but the temp was still high so we went for a swim at the estuary. So many people were there! It was kind of weird and I felt slightly territorial of my newfound hang out spot. The heat remained all night that I considered taking some kind of sleeping pill just to avoid it even if that meant I'd miss the rest of the movie we were watching. Well, I didn't take the pill (did manage to eat half a gallon of chocolate soy ice cream) but I also didn't get to sleep until late either. But I'm just enjoying my last day of freedom today before classes start tomorrow so I was able to sleep in this morning and have yet to open my blind in hopes of keeping the heat out. Haven't been on my walk lately due to laziness mostly but the heat doesn't really entice me to climb a hill and subject myself to direct sunlight for over an hour.