Just a thought, or more like just a shot

It always feels that each time i come across something i really want to try take a photo of something, i..
a) don't have the time
b) a decent or any camera to do so
c) to embarrassed to do so

Like today, just walking to the station, there was an amazing daisy. Pretty sure it's a daisy, but it's a flower for sure. And it was perfect. Just by itself, without a cluttered fore-ground, perfect natural lighting and the centre of the flower had great contrast, a solid yellow with lines in the centre of black, dark brown, red and orange. Seriously would have been an amazing shot if i had my camera on me. ARGH! And so it's times like this where i have a thought, about the shot! Is it worth having a camera if i wouldn't have it on me for most of the time as it's too bulky and i wouldn't have the courage to take my camera out and take photos? That's why i've been trying of late to store the image in my mind, and try work out how i would compose the photo and the settings. My uncle had a gem that he shared last time we went camping, instead of having to rely on a machine to make my memories, i trust my brain, my mind to capture the moment, scenery, landscape. I don't know if it's the same for you or not, but taking myself out of the moment to stop and take it all in is quite hard. Taking a photo kinda makes you take a step back and observe, but not to the extent of not using a camera at all. I find all the time that i can take a photo and look back on it and not remember the context or the reason for the shot, other than it looked cool to photograph.

Hopefully once school finishes ..forever.. not really just high school, then maybe i'd have more time to take my camera out more and work on stabilising my photo-taking confidence. And since the weather now is simply fantastic, there ought to be lots of nice nature and life moments to capture. There's a nice large park near my place and it has everything. From like open fields, to bike paths, waterways, playground, hills, a lake and further in a wetland! So depending if i can still muster up the motivation to get up before dawn and watch the sunrise at these different locations, there should be some nice photos coming!

I've got to give these thoughts more of a shot on blogs!
way too much rhyme, but it sure has been a long time,
night!
pam : )

Your/my other self

Okay so i've got a slightly embarrassing confession. I watch Offspring and i actually really really like it. Maybe it's in support of Australian made sitcoms or simply because i like seeing places in Melbourne as settings. Or maybe because i can see myself in Nina and it has got me thinking as to how i would react in the awkward situations she constantly finds herself in. Though Nina has panic attacks and talks to herself, she also happens to have blond hair and deliver people's babies, not to mention that she is at least ten years older than i am, i can see my other self in her. Wow that's great, i can see myself portrayed through a fictional character on tv, no it's not great, it's sad. But i wonder then, do i really have a 'twin' somewhere on this planet, or a polar opposite who looks like me? There's no way we can be completely unique, with several billion people on the planet, even all the genetic variation in the world (haha) wouldn't result in every individual being an 'individual'. But i'm happy to live with the knowledge that to the best of my ability, i am the only me who looks like me and is me. Take that similar-me-twin-living-in-a-parallel-universe!  

What am i?

I am of a pleasing blue, though not transparent-ish like the oceans, seas or pools.
Pleasant or not i serve my purpose, and i stay in place until i'm through.
Blu-tac i am not, as i don't stick to surfaces.
However i could be eaten, though it would do no one any good.
I'm sure there are lots of things out there just like me,
but use your imagination and find out just what you can see!

Chubby Bunny

What comes to our mind when one says Chubby Bunny? A picture of a bunny rabbit with the puffiest cheeks? A well-rounded fluffy white thing with cute red eyes? Or a person whose cheeks are stuffed full of marshmallows? Well for me, what comes to mind is me. Just having had my wisdom teeth removed has presented difficult on me and my family. I normally eat lots, so having my mouth so swollen i can't even close it properly is making eating difficult. To make matters worse, i can't even brush my teeth by myself! I feel like such a pain, mum has to especially cook things for me to eat, the bar max has become my best friend, she even woke me up during the night so that i could take my painkillers and not die of pain when i woke up in the morning. THANKS MUM! AND WILSON! =D And i thought things couldn't get worse, my unit 3 exam results for biology come out tomorrow, and you have to collect them in person, but since i barely have the energy to move around the house, i couldn't possibly catch the train to and from the city just to pick up an envelope!! But at least it puts the pain in perspective.

The friday before i had the surgery, two of my youth leaders prayed that the whole process would work out smoothly and if things didn't they reminded me that it was God's will. So i suppose this whole experience is God's way of teaching me patience and consolidating my faith. Praise be to God for he loves us and wants the best for us. When i think about it, i haven't really ever experienced this degree of discomfort, i had a pretty injury-free life, apart from crashing a rented bike with no brakes and running head first into the corner of the washing line, i've never even had a blood nose or broken/fracture/torn anything. As you may or may not know, i'm doing the 40 hour famine this year, for the first time ever. And my prayer going into this challenge was that i wouldn't concentrate on the money that i could and would raise, but on raising awareness and being thankful of the things that i have, how much i have to be thankful for. My father in heaven is a father who listens to my prayers and i'm so glad that he doesn't answer in the way that i expected, what could one gain from that!

My diet for the past 60 or so hours has been water, potato, sweet potato, congee, jelly, Yakult, egg and pear. I have had so much butter and evaporated milk in my mashed tubers that i won't be surprised if i gained weight even though i haven't been able to eat much. In case you are ever fortunate enough to have any teeth removed, i suggest orange juice jelly (orange juice with gelatin, not the coloured packet stuff) with vanilla yoghurt, apple juice jelly with evaporated milk, steamed egg custard (like the one that Adam made on Masterchef, just for the record, i'm pretty sure all asian mums could make the same dish, i've certainly had it since almost forever) and Yakult. That is if you like Yakult. Some people don't, which really rocked my world upside down in grade 3 when my class visited a Yakult factory. Strange huh!

The wings of prayer carry high and far.

-Anonymous

The sun can break through the darkest cloud; love can brighten the gloomiest day.

-William Arthur Ward

There can be no rainbow without a cloud and a storm first.

-Anonymous

The future is as bright as the promises of God.

-Adoniram Judson

piecing red eyes

O.O

I'm not too sure what time of the year it is that magpies and crows nest. Probably around spring, or just a bit before but it seems that this year their body clocks seem a bit off time, last i checked we were still in the chill of winter. Normally when they nest, they would build there nests in trees-nothing really ground-breaking, just thought i'd let you know in case you didn't .. and when they do they protect their nest and hence trees and if anyone approaches the tree, the magpie parents swoop. Not the normal soaring from one tree top to the power line business, but swooping just above the unfortunate person's head. Rather like the magpies just learnt they can dive-bomb people and still pull up in time and not crash..

When i walk, i like to immerse myself in my surroundings, take up as many little details as i can. How else can you find out that cantaloupe grows from plants that are very similar to pumpkin plants? Just happened that one the house i walk past grows cantaloupe, or rather grew cantaloupe as the plant has disappeared from its spot in the garden . . the owners probably did away with the plant after they ate the cantaloupe. It was actually just a couple house down from this one that i was first swooped by a magpie. Believe me, not a pleasant experience. I get scared quite easily, something my friends have taken to their advantage, and mysterious black things swooping just over your head isn't good. For that reason i am now quite wary of birds, particular black and white or just black ones.

Back to this afternoon, i was looking around as i normally do when i walk, no i am not a busy-body, and i looked into the red eyes of a magpie. Chilling experience. Strangest thing was that i was expecting brown or just black eyes, so the red eyes were just creepy. Next time you walk look out for magpies, and if you get the chance see what colour eyes the magpie you spy has. Maybe it was just me, the magpie, or the both of us.

Classical music and french poetry recitations and teeth

I'm not too sure about you, but i find discussing finer points of poems rather tedious. After a while there's only so much imagery and deep meaning that one could possibly absorb. I think i am at that stage, if not already well advanced into the 'i can see sooo much in this poem i can see my reflection' stage. Not that i don't like the poem, it's just that i can't really properly prepare for the recitation and the general conversation that follows. Mon dieu!

But classical music.. Star Wars is AMAZING! Just thought i should put it out there, but really, the main really 'stay-in-you-head' tunes are mainly composed by Holst! Sci-fi and classical music really can mix, and therefore so can any other combination in the world. The ominous music that precedes any foreboding scene is marked by Mars, The Bringer of War, part of Op.32. I'm pretty sure that the music that comes on each time Darth Vada enters is also part of Op.32, but which one i'm not sure ><.

..back to my original train of thought, at school for winter concert for the finale pieces, we are singing Anvil Chorus and Chorus of Hebrew Slaves. I'm sure that these two names would bring unspeakable joy to your heart (cough cough) but the first song is the one that was used for the first season of masterchef ads! You know the one where you have acrobats doing impossible flips holding onto plates of food..maybe not, but look it up! The best thing about classical music with vocals is that the sound is big and you even get to sound operatic!

TEETH, and WISDOM TEETH in particular. The morning after the winter concert i will be going under the knife! (inhales with aghast expression) But only to have my wisdom teeth and two other removed so that i can have braces..=I This means no food from midnight and considering the concert finishes at around elevenish, this will leave me an hour or so to eat as much hard food as i can. After the operation i have been told that one's diet would consist of ice cream and pureed soft foods. Just as i was getting over mash potato, oh well!

Just remembered, last week it was the 2010 Australian Open Grand Prix, for badminton!! It was amazing, and i only got to watch second day qualifiers and round 1 matches! Those athletes are just amazing, they are all around the court and they have just so much power, speed, endurance and agility. I sure have a lot more training before i can even dream of being at their level. I found the only womens match i watched hilarious. Each time the shuttle would go out, one of them would shout in a rather high pitched voice 'out', at least i thought it sounded like out. Each time they won a point, the same deal, didn't help that they were practically dancing across the court, it just seemed comical at the time. And in the mens, there was an smallish Australian player against in one case a big burly new zealander and in another a muscular korean. Both smaller players lost, but credit to the aussies as they did win the endurance points, and the bigger players won points by smashing the living day-lights out of the shuttle. Not that their jump smashes weren't impressive, just that i felt really sorry for the small players on the other side of the net who had to brave the missiles. I didn't get to watch my coach play, but still worth the 10 dollars i paid for the ticket.

Think that's all for tonight,

night! :)

Stream of Consciousness

Hello blog, long time no see! I see you haven't changed since i last left you, well now i'ill give you a chance to change. A brand new template, something nice and bright, something to sustain me until spring arrives.

Since exams a few weeks ago, my mind has stopped working. Never before has my mind been so willing so slip into its own holiday, though i think i shall content myself with the knowledge that this term was an extraordinarily long term and a holiday was well overdue. After so much lazing about and being parasseuse trying to muster the motivation to study is nearly impossible. My teacher at school mentioned that this holidays was the last in which we could actually relax, but since i'm going away next holidays, i need to study this holidays! STUDY!

All this mention of food is actually making me hungry, only having a quarter cup of porridge on an given morning especially a cold morning isn't a good idea unless you intend to stay near a reliable source of food. I'm sure that lunch will be ready soon, leftover stew, yummy! =) and then maybe a half yo-yo and another cup of tea . . bugger that idea, yo-yo now!

Funny how things don't always work to plan but it still seems to fit in place. God has a plan for me, but i can't possibly see where life would lead me. I attempted to make yo-yo's the other day for my brother's 12th birthday present, he's twelve!, but still shorter than i am. . . . but i accidentally left them in the oven for too long, playing piano is timeless, and they were quite golden brown on one side when i finally remembered them. Just so happened that my brother underestimated the amount of pasta we would need to eat and so mum was still hungry after dinner and she had one, then two then three! One thing led to another and my ambitions of creating yo-yo's were washed aside by my still not completely satisfied stomach. Things always go back to food, whether it's the lack or plentiful supply of food, which reminds me, the 40 hour famine!!!!

This year is actually the first year that i've been allowed to do the 40 hour famine. The word famine straight-away conjures up images of kids who are starving, who don't have enough food to eat. So at first i was determined to give up food, but then dinner with family forced me to change my hand to giving up furniture and technology. I think there is a thing with chinese people, maybe it's my family, but food is important and voluntarily giving it up and placing your body at risk is folly. But i can't complain, i'm kinda glad that i don't have to give up food, considering that i eat almost all the time i not sure that i would actually survive. Another coincidence, i was baking also to practice making goodies to sell for the 40 hour famine. According to mum, the semi-yo-yo's are good enough to sell!