Queensland!

Queensland is booked! As part of my sisters extremely late 18th and 19th birthday present, and Christmas presents that I have missed over the last few years, I have combined them all into one to form a very late but really awesome present of paying for her trip to Queensland =)

Also, believe it or not, I have silenced my critics and have managed to have it all booked and organized an entire month before we plan to go... I am on fire!  It will just be my sister and myself going for a small 5 day trip staying at Port Douglas (Cairns, Queensland, Australia) which is right by the sea and the closest point you can be to the Great Barrier Reef =D

We managed to secure a package which includes a full day trip to the reef, and another full day of a rain forest trek and crocodile spotting tour, sweet indeed.  It is booked for the 26th of this month which is one week before we go back to Uni so it will make for a perfect getaway before the working year begins.

I end this with an open suggestion, nay, a challenge, nay, a demand for you, the reader, to book yourself a holiday of any kind.  No no noooooo... stop with the excuses, I don't care that you have work and 'can't just take some days off' or 'I can't afford to right now, maybe mid year'... to that I say phooey! (I was surprised spell checker passed phooey as a word lol).

It only costs like $100 for a 3 day camping trip or a stay at a caravan by the beach... take a Monday off, set off Friday night or Saturday morning and there you have it, a few days that barely disrupts your life but can improve it in countless ways.

Work to live, don't live to work!

I expect to be reading about your awesome holidays soon =)

Bonsai Tree: The end

It has been a long journey for my budding Bonsai Tree... but in Bonsai Tree years it was just a blink of an eye.  He started off with humble beginnings, sitting in his green box with instructions that didn't make sense and was written for the northern hemisphere (I live in the southern).  I found a place for him in my office drawer and didn't expect to see any results for at least a month.  Within the week he had already shone through.

Things got a little freaky from here on... he seemed to be growing too well and I suspected bonsai drug abuse, but alas he was going well and that's all that mattered I guess =)  My spirits were high to see him going so well, wouldn't be long now I thought.  And just as I predicted he was soon ready for the big day, the transplant!  I felt like how a parent might feel when their first child starts their first day at school (or something along those lines I am sure lol).

I had such high hopes for it.

I had plans of shaping him so he would have a branch sticking out to the side, one that I could hang a miniature tire swing from and little bonsai mushrooms could grow around the base... and I could have some bonsai people who live in the base of the tree, then when their technology advanced they would figure out how to build a bonsai tree house for the bonsai tree.  Eventually they would figure out how to clone the tree and would start a bonsai tree forest to form a bonsai civilization with their own bonsai way of life, but then rival bonsai clans would war and drop bonsai nukes and before we know it the whole bonsai forest is suffering from bonsai radiation and they would all turn into bonsai zombies and it would be the bonsai zombies versus the bonsai non-zombies but there would be no where to hide because all this is happening from within my office drawer which I don't open very often and then one day I would open it expecting them by this stage to have bonsai space ships but instead they are all gone...

Instead... we didn't even get the chance to see a bonsai zombie apocalypse, I didn't even get to see a branch.

And do you want to know the reason for this injustice? Nothing!  They died completely for no reason (well 1 I killed by accident... but the others were perfectly healthy lol).  After I transplanted them I gave them some sun, ample amounts of water (some colleagues at work argue too much water, but they're just jealous of my green thumb)... I even moved them to the stairwell to grant some humidity... all in vain!

I warn you readers, the next image below may be shocking to anyone who is a bonsai lover/liker/sympathizer/distant admirer... or basically anyone who has a heart that hasn't turned to stone:

He had such promise... maybe his drug problem finally caught up to him.

Well, that's that, nothing more to say really.  The moral of the story?  Well, don't do drugs comes to mind, sure you might grow really fast, be the coolest seedling in the pot for a while, but think about it, who are you really impressing once you start to swivel and die?  No one kids, no one.

On the upside at least I don't have to worry about a burial.

Update: Fun fact!  The word 'bonsai' was (including the use of the word bonsai just then, and then another just then) gives a total of 23 times!

What the f*** Blogspot!?

Well, as many of you would of been expecting there should of been part three of the epic that was the retelling of the crazy messed up time spent at Surfmoot... with the equally crazy and messed up event of me trying to escape Surfmoot.

When I say escape, I am talking 'we sat, planned and then executed said plan of bringing all our stuff from our tent to our car, unpacking said tent and escaping late at night via car without the rest of the crew even noticing we were gone!' kind of escape.  It was one of my favourite stories ever as it really seemed too insane to be true, but I can assure you it was.

Today is actually the 19th of February, 2010... you will notice that the first 2 parts of 'Escape from Surfmoot' were actually posted the 28th of January.  I have spent the last 3 weeks writing it, I wanted to tell it in the best way possible.  While the first part of the story got great reviews from my readers, with the second getting not as good but you could tell was going to lead to a great finale, I was freakin' excited to the max to post the final part which would explain what the entire story was indeed about... escaping from Surfmoot.

Today, I finished it... it was a ridiculous length (4 pages) so I was going to cut it down a bit, and split it into 2 parts... as I was reading it then, getting ready to split it into 2 parts, I made a typo.  Ok, easy fix, a quick control + z (the shortcut for undo) will whip it right back to where it came from, booyah!  Hmm, one control + z wasn't enough, lets press it again.  But alas, it appears quite a few letters were out of place, so an onslaught of control + z's took place in rapid succession until... THE WHOLE FUCKING POST WHIPPED CLEAN!

Woah woah why did that happen!?  Oh no, quick redo redo!!!  Where the fuck is the redo button!?  OMG EYES HURRY UP AND FIND ME THE REDO BUTTON!

However my brain clicks on... I knew what was about to happen next... every few minutes blogger thinks it is being smart by AUTOMATICALLY SAVING your post at whenever the hell it feels like... my eyes flick just a fraction downwards and to the left...

'SAVING...'

'Draft is now saved at 11.45pm'

AAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!

BACK BUTTON GO GO GO!!!

YES I WANT TO LEAVE THIS PAGE!

I frantically mashed the back and forwards button on my browser... eventually it returned back to the editing page of the 'Escape from Surfmoot - The Escape - Part One'... the blank editing page.

No way on my watch am I going to loose that... I am in I.T, let's outsmart this shit!  Google, come to me, quickly, I am in need of help!  Google is basically my twin brother, we can pretty much on instinct know exactly the right thing to say to each other, especially in times of need and uncertainty.

One time at work, our internet went down for the day... I had no fucking idea what I was doing!  I didn't know how to do anything!  I kept trying to work and I'd get stuck and I'd automatically just open up Firefox to go google something and then BAM I remember that the internet is down... Hmm, I wonder why the internet is down?  What model is our router?  Let's google that model number for some troubleshooting tips... oh crap just remembered, the internet is down and I can't google... Martyn, since the internet is down, can you come over here and help me with this please?

"Yeah sure man... ok looks like you'll need to do this... but I can't quite remember what it is called, one sec" proceeds to open up the browser and attempts to google something... it takes us both a solid 10 seconds before one of us says 'oh yeah, the internet is down'.

It was like a messed up episode of the Twilight Zone... with time travel, a paradox and a catch 22 thrown into the mix.

I googled and googled to retrieve the post... but sadly to no avail.  My 3-week-in-the-making post is lost for good.

Why the hell did control + z undo the ENTIRE post?...

This is for you Blogspot, enjoy.

UPDATE: Well, after some experimentation to try and re-create control + z whipping clean my post error... it appears there is actually a redo button on the little menu bar... if only I hadn't pressed the 'back' button on my browser during my panic attack it could of all been avoided lol...

Escape from Surfmoot - A day away didn't help

This is part two of my trilogy about my experience at Surfmoot.  We pick off from me not being able to sleep until 5am but planned to sleep in until 10am at the very least... you can see the first part of this trilogy here =)

Well waking up at 10am was the plan anyway... but at 8.30am an announcement came on which woke us all up.  Not happy!  Being woken up at 8.30am on a Sunday meant I had only gotten 3.5 hours sleep... I was close to crying lol.  Already I wanted to go home but figured I could stick it out for one more night (we had paid to be here after all)... so Sabbi and I made plans to leave camp for the entire day in an effort to avoid our crew.

I got out of bed to the sounds of sticks being thrown at our tent... it was Daniel.  Hilarious stuff buddy.  I made general chit chat as I knew staying on his good side would be a much smarter idea then getting on his bad... however in my hazy state of mind from my severe lack of sleep I may have for some very stupid and regrettable reason asked him if he want to come to the beach with us...

"Hmm, yeah the beach could be fun actually, alright wait a bit I'll grab my stuff"

"Ok cool" I had yet to the realize the multitude of what I had just said... that was until I turned around and seen Sabbi giving me a 'what the fuck are you doing???' look, that's when it clicked... whoops!

"Oh, umm, well, actually we need to do some other stuff besides the beach so it probably won't be much fun for you now that I think about it"

"Oh yeah, like what?"

"Umm, have to... visit... my Aunty, she lives near by, whole family will be there"

"I could just hang out in town while you do that"

Damn, it looks like he is coming!  At this stage I am panicking, trying to think of any excuse to get rid of him but without making it too obvious, but I was far too tired... my brain was mush.

"Actually, nah, can't be bothered actually, think I will just sit here for the day"

"Oh, ok then, well umm, let us know if you change your mind"

Freedom!

We hurried off at pace to our car.

We decided though that Monday morning we were going to leave, we just couldn't bare hanging around with these people any longer so in the morning we brought a few of our bags back to the car (without anyone noticing of course), with the plan to leave only the essentials back at the tent.

The day actually turned out fantastic =)  We went into Anglesea (the near by town), had some breakfast and then went canoeing! Haha that was so much fun, we were allowed to go anywhere along the river but had a time limit of one hour.  Sabbi with her scrawny arms was terrible at... what do you call it?  Paddling?  You know, when your in a two person canoe and you use the... paddles... to row?  Whatever you get my point lol... she was terrible at rowing/paddling/dragging the stick through the water to create forward momentum... but it was a great workout for me at least.

We raced down the river in an effort to reach the end, eventually we came to a part where the river was barely a metre wide and deep and was littered with low hanging branches and logs in the water... but we pushed through!  Our canoe grinded(is that a word?) along countless logs it was hilarious... until we got to the end and got stuck trying to do a 180 degree turn lol.  Great fun.

Oh yeah I should mention, and this is to emphasize why we were not enjoying our crew's company and also to highlight why Sabbi recommended Surfmoot so highly in the first place (you will recall in the first part I mentioned that Sabbi had been the year before and loved it).  Basically, our crew was retarded, but unluckily for us however it seemed that not all crews were as retarded, in fact most of the others seemed fantastic.  While at the beach and during a walk through Anglesea we seen other crews out and about having lunch together, going canoeing, organizing a game of cricket at the beach... how cool do those crews sound!  Ours on the other hand at that very moment?  As a guess I would say half of our crew would of been drunk by midday with the other half... I dunno really, just sitting around not really doing much.

I was tempted to see if I could join their activities, is changing crews some kind of 'scouts honour' breach lol?

The rest of the day was spent at the beach, no description needed here =)

With the day coming close to an end, we very reluctantly returned back to camp at as late of a time as we possibly could.  There was hope between Sabbi and I at first when we returned back to camp.  These people weren't that bad I guess, and there is the live band playing again which could be fun... maybe it won't be so bad after all.

This illusion faded once we seen them... it all came flooding back.  We both looked at each other simultaneously and said 'I can't stay another night, lets go home'.

But we couldn't just pack up and go... they would all make a big fuss about it... it's a bit hard to take all our stuff back to the car (which was about 500metres away) and undo our tent (which was right in the middle of everyone elses tents) without anyone noticing... can we do that?  The answer is the very same words spoken by the great Obama... yes we can!

And I kid you not, we did just that.

Next post, the escape (the post didn't turn out so well lol)!

Escape from Surfmoot - Backstory of Rovers

Surfmoot was... well how can I put it?  I would like to use my most commonly used word to describe what happens at an alarming frequency in my life which is 'eventful'... but some how I don't think that word is powerful enough for how Surfmoot turned out to be.

I am a little obsessive with the way I tell my stories, and I just can't no matter how I try, cut out pieces of a story if I feel they in some way contribute to the overall story.  This will be a trilogy of a story, a story of hope, danger, lots of walking and down right strangeness.  I bring you part one, enjoy =)

To bring everyone up to speed, basically when you're a youngster you can join the Scouts, and I dunno, as you get older the name changes but it is essentially the same thing.  When you are between the ages of 20 - 26 you're now under the title of 'Rovers'.  Once a year the Rovers hold a massive camping trip where Rover crews from all over Victoria (Australia) come up basically to sit around and drink a frightening amount of alcohol for about 4 days straight.  There is also a heap of other activities like a live band at night, competitions and so on... sounds fun right?

To state I am not in scouts nor rovers, and have never officially been so, ever... I just tag along to an event here or there for the fun of it lol.  I actually tried Rovers for the first time a few months back.

It was meant to go for 4 days starting from the Saturday, and after reading about it and hearing how great it was from Sabrina (who had been the previous year) I was extremely psyched although nervous as I didn't know anyone else there besides Sabrina but I am pretty good at making friends so I was optimistic in a good way.

Anyways, we arrived about 1pm on the Saturday... and long story short we finally had our tent set up 3 hours after our arrival... we had no freakin' idea where our 'crew' was set up and everyone we found was either useless, retarded or drunk...majority was all 3.  After our tent was up and we had settled down for the most part, it was time to meet our... I dunno what they were, I would like to say 'friendly welcoming fellow crew members' but that would be a lie.  But whatever, you get the point.

We spent the day... blending in with the fellow campers.  If you read the previous time I tried rovers (as linked above) you will recall that the people weren't exactly my kind of people and I struggled to bond with any of them very well but still kept an open mind.  The same thought process applied here but with a more optimistic view then before as I figured 'I didn't really fit in with the previous Rovers I had met, and I assume most other Rovers will be similar, but this time there is a much greater amount of them therefore surely there are at least a few that will fit my taste'.

It wasn't until later that night that my answer to that philosophy was answered.

We sat around, drinking as usual, for... the entire day...  I dunno, I guess I thought people would get up and do stuff?  Nope, no one moved... except to go grab more drinks, or to pull each others pants down as a 'hilarious' prank, or to slap another individual for reasons I could not fellow due to the excessive amounts of shouting.  My spirits had wavered slightly at this stage, but apparently at nightfall the real fun began in the form of a live band, sweet.

Before nightfall though I befriended a guy by the name of Daniel.  He seemed cool enough, didn't really talk much but was friendly enough to have a chat, we bonded pretty quickly and before I knew it us 3 (him, Sabbi and myself) were exploring the camp for activities to do to pass the time for the night time entertainment.  Seemed like a great guy.

This perception changed slightly when he found this giant bug on the floor... he kept trying to catch it but it was too quick, I told him to forget about it but he carried on and eventually caught it to which he threw it out me and it got stuck on my jumper lol... I had no idea whether to laugh or be disturbed... I think I did both at the same time.

Alas nightfall inevitably came and so to did the live band that was promised.  It started off a little slow but after my nerves had calmed (which I give great credit to Daniel, the guy was awesome!) it really picked up!  I was a little tired so I resembled a bit like a stunned zombie who had just had a few energy drinks, which isn't what you should be when you had live entertainment, but he came along with a bundle of enthusiasm which really rubbed off on me.  In the end the night turned out freakin' awesome,  the band was great, they played some fantastic songs and the crowd was really into it so yeah, things were definitely looking up.

By about midnight though I was exhausted and as much as I wanted to stay I just couldn't last any longer, plus I was a little drunk... ok a lot... so Sabbi and I left Daniel to his own mischief (at the time he had his top off and was moshing at the front of the stage lol...).  We sat down in the hall as it was lit and warm (with a side purpose of it being a good hiding place from Daniel as well) and I munched on some potato cakes to sober up.  Somehow he managed to find us (he claims he checked everywhere, I got the feeling that even included the inside of our tent but I was too scared of the answer to ask).  He insisted we go back out for the final songs so reluctantly I did.  We bobbed around a little longer then snuck away again and sat back at camp.

A while later he comes back, pretty drunk, and we chat a little... this is where things got strange.  Daniel decided to tell me a 'funny' story which went a little something like this:

"Tim, this prick from work, wanted some of me smokes, so I told him to **** off and laughed in his face"

"Ha, funny... who is Tim?"

"Oh, Tim was my boss, I don't work for that **** anymore though"

"Fair enough,  I wouldn't wanna work for him either" (I didn't really have much to say lol...)

"Oh nah he was a good bloke, just the next week after I had told him to **** off, I got chased and bashed!"

"Oh serious? That's messed up..."

"Nah man, was great fun!"

He then cracks up laughing.

I kid you not people...

After some insistence we managed to head to the tent to get some sleep... to which I stayed awake due to people still partying and didn't manage to fall asleep until 5am... sigh well that gives me 5 hours of sleep at least with our plans to wake up at 10am.

The next day is to be continued...

MonsterLan 09!

 The weekend just gone was one of the most fun I have had in ages, that's because I was at one of the coolest, hip, funnest events around... MonsterLan!  I first mentioned this all the way back in October where I originally was going to miss the event due to it clashing with other commitments, but as luck would have it it got pushed back to January =)

And yes, just putting it out there (and I am in no way ashamed of it lol), I am at core a massive nerd =P  So you can see why an event like this would get my underused heart pumping.  It started off terrible at first as for some reason it was really packed even though I arrived relatively early at 3pm Saturday.  This left me sitting away from my friends (who didn't save me a spot...) next to some smelly 12 year old on one side of me and some weird guy on the other who spent about 3 hours just watching the Pirates of the Caribbean movies... why even bother coming seriously lol?...

Oh, not to mention being right across from some of the most vocal nerds you would ever meet in your lifetime.  Nerds are, stereotypically, rather quiet, often spending their time huddled amongst themselves, rarely speaking up or making a scene... however, put them in their 'natural environment'... such as a room filled with a 100 pc's, and something strange and not quite wonderful seems to happen, they gain confidence.  This seems to result in an uncontrollable urge to shout obscenities at each other, which don't get me wrong are absolutely hilarious... just does it have to be at a volume rivaling that of a jet engine?  And if you think I am exaggerating I'm not as much as you might think lol.

After a few hours of being isolated it resulted in one of the luckiest things ever... a spot opened up right next to my friends, sweet!  The day picked up considerably from here =D 

I had 6 friends there so we formed a Battlefield 2 team for the tournament (although most of us hadn't played it in years).  With some good team work we won our first round!  But lost the second... then the third lol.  But damn it was fun!  Some hilarious moments happened throughout those games but as much as I would like to describe them I highly doubt it would make for an entertaining read lol.

Update: Oh yeah I forgot to mention, I won a competition haha!  Completely randomly the organizers were like 'ok, everyone make a folder on your desktop called ML Music.  Your task is to collect one song from these 5 artists, and the first to do so wins!"

The artists were:
- Taylor Swift
- Backstreet Boys
- Neil Diamond
- Celine Dion
- And the song I'm on a boat by Lonely Island

Well, proudly I say I already had 'I'm on a boat' and some Taylor Swift songs on my laptop so that saved time... not so proudly I admit I had some Backstreet Boys songs on my laptop already lol.  My friend next to me had a Neil Diamond song, and I quickly downloaded a Celine Dion song from someone else and tada!  Done!  They offered me a computer carry case but as I have a laptop they gave me the choice of choosing a different prize to which I chose some wireless headphones, sweet =D

We powered on throughout the night, playing a bit of World at War with the Nazi Zombies mod (epic!) followed by some more Battlefield 2 rounds and finishing up with a game of Warcraft 3.  At 7.30am Sunday I decided to head home... which is extremely tough to say the least.  I ended up having a power nap at a petrol station (which I did last year to great success, ended up sleeping there for 2 hours lol)... although this time I managed a measly 25 minutes sleep as Sabrina decided 8.20am is a great time to give me a call... (in what world is 8.20am on a Sunday a good time to call...).  Well I was up so figured I'd power through the rest of the drive, eventually stumbling my way through my front door, crashing flat on my bed to which I slept till 4pm lol.

It was an absolute blast and it turned out better then I ever expected, can't wait for the next one =D

Bonsai Tree: The transplant

Well, it has only been a mere 2 weeks and already my bonsai tree is ready to be transplanted.  You can follow the up to date progress of this mutant tree here from the beginning, to the following week where I suspected it of having a drug abuse problem... which after being ready to translate in only 2 weeks I am sticking by that accusation profusely.

I was lucky enough to receive 9 seedlings in total (even though the box said I should expect to see 3 - 8... again rousing my suspicions of the tree being up to no good) to which I took to be 'they give you a lot because there is a high chance of them not making it' lol.  I had already had doubts that the over-achieving tree would rise to fame far to quickly only to have a dramatic fall once it was time for the real growing to begin, but alas I will stay hopeful nonetheless. =)

My tree's progress from last Monday to today... that kind of growth can't be natural.

Well anyways, according to the box when they reach this height it is now time to transplant them into their own containers with some special soil that is provided.  Hmm, sounds easy enough, although I was extremely hesitant as I was unconvinced that they were strong enough to be handled... but I guess the box knows what it is doing.

After an almost brain transplant like scenario I successfully transplanted my delicate seedlings to their new home (with only 1 casualty I might add lol) so I was pretty pleased with the result.  I wasn't exactly sure what was the right course of action from here, the box stopped giving instructions from here on out and much rather gave a lazy 'bonsai trees will reflect your own artistic individuality' as it's finally piece of advice... yeah ok, thanks box, you've been a great help...

As a guess I figured giving them a spot full of light would be the best idea (well, you know, plants in my mind need a watering jug once a week and access to the sun and that should be all you need to do for them lol), so they are sitting on the bookshelf next to the window.

Haha I opted to twirl two of them around each other, hoping to gain some kind of knotted tree look.  Does that work? 

Well there you have it, one of the most demanding hobbies I have ever encountered.  I really hope they survive as they have started off so well, would hate for it to all be in vein.

I will keep you updated.

Times are good

You read correct my friends!... no guys, it was not a mistake.  No I am not drunk... although if I was it would probably increase the truth of the title anyway lol.  Things are, at this very moment as I sit here on a Tuesday night in my room, watching old episodes of Californication (in preparation for the new season coming out), actually pretty good... honest =)

I didn't want to leave this blog with no images, so I googled 'good times' and this is what appeared lol.  Enjoy!

I was thinking it most prominently on the drive home from work today, which you would think the hour long drive home would be the least likely time for me to be thinking happy thoughts, but on the contrary I find the drive rather relaxing and it is great fun to let my mind wander.  I also had Paramore's latest album (Brand New Eyes) playing which I had purchased today actually, it has some pretty epic songs that really get me going.

I can't really recall exactly what I was thinking about, perhaps it was nothing in particular and was rather just positive thinking in general.  I reflected a little about last year (things I had previously forgotten somehow), good things though that shows how far I have come.  The fact that I moved out of home for 6 months which is quite a monumental step now that I think about it, also the fact that I graduated (with Distinction) from my 3 year dream university degree (yay!)... which then got me thinking the fact that I got into my dream course to begin with lol.

I loved every single day of my degree.  One of the reasons why I am doing my Honours degree this year is partly because I don't think I am ready to part ways from dear Deakin University just yet.

Once again I have gone on a tangent without noticing... but yes, as the title states and to put it simply, times are good.  I really love my job, I enjoy it so much that some days I actually can't wait to get into work (I don't know if that is terribly lame, or to consider myself lucky lol).  The work is interesting, the people I work with are simply awesome (I developed a small computer virus yesterday and put it on Martyn's pc haha!), and it is much better then when I worked at Coles.

I have so much to look forward to this year that it would be hard not to be in a good mood even if I tried.

For starters, there is MonsterLan this weekend, soooweeeet! Oh yeah!  I was originally going to miss it, as I miserably mentioned in my post 'Missing the monster lan as well...' a few months back, but as luck would have it it got postponed a whole month and is now scheduled for this weekend!  Un-freakin-believable! =D

The weekend after I am camping with Sabbi and friends as apart of Rovers, which I tried a few months back to little success, but this one apparently has like 200 people so I am sure there are at least a few people I can relate to, I hope lol.

After that I have tickets to see Taylor Swift in concert! (yes Taylor Swift, ha..ha... funny, yes keep laughing... you finished?).  Believe it or not I am quite a fan of her songs so I am actually pretty excited about it lol.  That's in February sometime.  Also during February I have tickets to see Paramore!  And after just listening to their latest album today I am now more then ever pumped to see them live! Sweet!

Sometime after that is a trip to Queensland with my sister as a present from me... (as part of her 18th birthday present + 19th birthday present + 2009 Christmas present combined... yeah I was a little slack lol).

Then I am continuing my ambition to join a Hockey team for the year, also with plans to move out of home again back to Geelong, both hopefully in time for the Uni year (starting my Honours degree which I cannot wait for) which starts early March.

Haha, what a massive turn around to how everything was like not so long ago.  Things are definitely on the rise, and for the first time in a long time, it looks like they are going to continue.

Stay tuned!

Bonsai Tree: Seedlings (already!?)

I suspect my tree has a problem, specifically, drug abuse.  As you can see when I first started the art of Bonzai tree growing ('Bonzai Tree: The Beginning')... I wasn't predicting changes any time soon... like at least a few weeks at best seeing as the box said it would be '3 to 12 weeks before seedlings may appear'.

My tree however after only one week has sprouted!  I am unsure whether to be excited, suspicious or scared... currently I am a mix of all three (leaning towards scared).  Surprise definitely comes to mind as the budding tree seems to be going too well with the possibility of it all being down hill from here lol.

 My steroid abusive Bonzai tree

I previously predicted to not have many updates about this at all, now I don't know what to think, maybe I need to start an entirely separate blog just for my bonzai tree updates at this rate lol.  It is pretty awesome to see that it is actually getting somewhere though, it is becoming even more impressive by the hour so things are moving smoothly =)

The next step is to wait for the sprouts to flower, I am going to have a full tree in no time!

Well, until next time, whenever that may be.

I'm famous!

You read correct my friends, yours truly is now moments away from sure stardom! Finally.  Martyn, one of my work colleagues, was busy... doing stuff other then work, and was on the Hamish and Andy website only to find this amazing discovery.

You'll probably have to expand the image to be able to view the full magnitude of the sheer amazement that is my sudden thrust it the spotlight of the world.  Once viewed you will no doubt notice (and I have circled it in red to speed up the amount of time for you guys to realize my glory) the grinning idiotic face which symbolizes my Facebook page =D

I am expecting the friend requests to flood in any minute now.  I won't accept them straight away of course, will leave it for a few days, keep them guessing and intrigued.

Now what are the chances that out of 564,320 fans that Hamish and Andy have, that my sorry excuse for a Facebook profile image would be showing!? (564,320 - 6) = a 1 in 564,324 chance!  And that's not even taking into account that someone I know would have noticed it, let alone the guy who is sitting mere meters away from me at the time of the discovery.

I am not good enough at maths to work out those odds, but it seems like it would be a 1 in a-big-number-with-lots-of-0's chance.

Therefore I have come to the conclusion that clearly this was not chance and was indeed a deliberate act... maybe I am a celebrity and I didn't even know it?  Well I do have 4 followers who I am sure follow my every move, one of them may even be a crazed fanatic stalking me!?  That would really make me a celebrity =D

Hmm, I might have to start wearing sunglasses at all times, don't want those paparazzi to find me too easily.   What about this blog!  They might find out about it... those news reporters are pretty resourceful... they're probably interviewing my ex-gf right now to get all the dirt.  Is it even safe to go outside anymore?  Maybe I need to hire some bodyguards?  I think I need to hurry up and actually act like a celebrity should... I need to have a secret affair with supermodels from around the world, which should lead to a domestic dispute that results in me getting hit by a golf club by my wife, crashing into a tree outside my home at 2am, with said wife then divorcing me... but I don't even have a wife yet!

Yikes, being a celebrity sounds tough... and dangerous.

Not to worry though, as if I could ever forget my loyal followers (yes, all 4 of you) as I am off jetting around the world.  Expect to see more from me (possibly from the front page of the nations newspapers), and I will see you on the other side!

Bonsai Tree: The beginning

I reckon Bonsai trees are simply awesome and I have contemplated getting one for quite a while now but knew that if taken care of at home it would quickly become neglected and therefore die (this seems to happen far too frequently so I no longer trust myself with living beings lol).  However, I have heaps of free time at work and upon walking by a store that sells them my impulsiveness got the better of me and I bought one!

Contrary to what many might think, I was not naive enough to think that these things would grow over night,  but I would be lying if I didn't say that it is just a tad disheartening when I discovered how slow these things really are lol.  Even the instructions on the box breaths the importance of patience... hmm, so... how long till mine looks like this?

I got this from Wikipedia which claims this took 112 years... are you kidding me!?...

I guess this could get passed down a generation... or two, or five.  Some day these may be worth millions when Humans have deforested the entire planet, which seems a likely scenario the rate we are going.  Anyways, I followed the instructions and this is what I ended up with... the box is obviously where it came from, I apparently have a Tasmanian Eucalyptus Tree (side note: far out 'eucalyptus' is a hard word to spell!  Seriously, without peeking, try and spell it) with that little pathetic capsule on the left my seeds, locked away in a plastic container with some holes jabbed in the bottom which will (supposedly) suck up the water from the saucer.

As you can tell, I like to live life on the wild side that's for sure.

Ok, so, what's the next step?  Wait a few days, watering periodically and watch in amazement as my seeds spring to life, sprouting a seedling in no time!?  Not quite... well far from it actually, to further enhance the virtue of patience it now requires, and I quote "Place in a dry, dark cool place (such as a cupboard) and wait 3 to 12 weeks for seedlings to appear, refilling the sauce pan with water every 3 days".

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Oh come on! 3 to 12 weeks!?  And at the very least I can't even keep it on my desk for myself and others to see?  He now lives in one of my drawers at work lol.

Well once it gets started it will be really cool to have at work.  I work 5 days a week, all year round, so there is ample time to take care of it (unlike at home) and I may take it with me from job to job... or not, we shall see lol.  I will keep a progress update every now and again to keep track of it... although I am not predicting many updates haha...

What a great start

Happy New Year everyone!  Everyone have a good night last night?  Mine was... ok lol.  Not a great way to start the year but eventful nonetheless.  I am insanely excited for 2010!  I have got so much cool stuff planned it is unreal!  The biggest year of my life I am predicting. =D

Hmm, let's make that claim official so throughout the year I can look back at this post and see if my words were right lol.  It is rather bald. 

"I, Aaron, owner of this blog, part owner of my life (I am unsure who owns the majority, but whoever it is is having a great laugh with it), declare that 2010 will be 'The best year ever!'"

The challenge has been put forth!

Although it isn't off to a great start at all going by my night out for New Year's celebrations lol... Last night I went to the city with Daniel as planned, with the idea of eventaully meeting up with Sam and company in mind.  Was a pretty good night although not great as no one seemed to be in a party mood....  I blame the ridiculous Melbourne weather... it was sunny ALL week but decides to rain between the period of 10pm New Year's Eve and 2am New Year's Day.  I was almost convinced it was an attack against me personally lol.

I am currently in a ridiculous amount of pain due to my... accident, let me explain.  As mentioned it was raining quite a lot which meant for a lot of slippery surfaces and obstacles  This got the better of me as I placed one step into Southgate on the hard tiled floor... and just like out of a comedic cartoon where the victim does an over dramatic fall backwards when they step on a banana peel for instance... (which looks like it borderlines on a backwards somersault) is exactly what I managed to do in front of a crowd of 100's lol...

I even did the dance you do like when people walk on ice where your feet slide rapidly back and forwards in a last ditched attempt to save your self from both physical harm and embarrassment.  This was immediately met with 100's of eyes immediately turning to my direction, only to see me flat on my back, followed by 'oooohh!'  Yes, a 'ooohh' was warranted, not a 'hahaha' as you would expect to gain from most falls, this was a 'wow that looked so painful I don't even have the heart to laugh' type fall.

This was the best image to describe how my fall was like.   Although I wasn't wearing a Santa suit, and there was no exercise balls around (as far as I could tell anyway), the reaction of the crowd seems similar at least haha... but yes, that is basically how it looked.

Seriously, go type in things like 'fell over', 'fell over backwards', 'slippery floor' into google images... the results are quite strange lol.

And no, it was not out of drunkenness lol (although I wish it was as the alcohol would of numbed the pain quite well).  Once I got up I was severely winded (which has never happened to me before, it is seriously the weirdest feeling ever!) and stumbled my way over to sit down near by.  Some old Japanese man thought I was just a reckless youth who was struggling to cope with the affects of binge drinking, so he gave me a bottle of water to help me 'sober up' lol.

Finally we found Sam and a few others, and huddled together closely to stand by the Yarra river in the center of Melbourne city, while it was pouring down with rain, to watch the New Year's fireworks display which was absolutely awesome.

An eventful start to the new year, but seriously, would you expect anything less from me haha?