24. Hurts So Good - John Mellencamp

My neck hurts.

And it isn't so good.

Woke up this morning with a sharp pain in my neck and the overwhelming feeling that I could just not move my head. It was a pain on the left side of my neck that was as fun or as exciting as I ever imagined it to be (i.e. it was not). It’s a frightening feeling when you wake up and can't move, and my thought-process ran something like this:

(Ouch, ouch, ouch, what the hell is this? I can't move my head, this is not good, ouch, ouch, I'm still tired, maybe I should just ignore it and go back to sleep, ouch, ouch, ouch) x repeat.

Missed a few lectures (which are taped thankfully), a very important yaa mentoring meeting (which was not taped thankfully) and a whole day's worth of productive assignment doing. On the flip side, I managed to watch 2 episodes of west wing, catch up on sleep and I was introduced to 'Ammeltz Yoko Yoko'.

Ammeltz Yoko Yoko, or 'Yoko Ono' as my mother has decided to call it, is a type of cream/lotion that is applied via a roll-on device similar to roll-on deodorant for stiff shoulders and muscular aches. Its effect is a lot like Deep Heart but this has the added benefit of being an Asian medicinal remedy, and we all know that Asian remedies are just better. Not to mention that my mother gave it to me to use. So it’s got the whole mother-knows-best thing going for it too.

Well isn't this an exciting topic of discussion.

I'm sorry, must be all methyl salicylate that has been absorbed through the skin into my blood. I'm hoping that this is a good thing.

23. Hang - Matchbox Twenty

Random song, doesn't mean anything, but it allows me to...

Went to see Demitri Martin today at the Town Hall. Very funny stuff.

And now that I mention that, it reminds me of a one of his jokes that may or may not tie in with the song title. And while I'm reluctant to simply recycle other people's jokes and claim all the credit, I might just do that now in order to maintain some logical nexus for this entry.

"If I ever saw an amputee getting hanged, I think all that I would be able to do is to shout out letters."

22. Pennyroyal Tea - Nirvana

I'll do anything to avoid assignments/study.

Even bringing back something that should be left alone.

I used too many tea leaves with this one, it really was very strong. But mistakes do happen, and its just one of those ones that I'll have to learn to deal with.

21. Clocks In Sync With Mine - Speech

I'm in a good mood.

Why?

Because Collingwood won.

I've found that my general attitude and pleasantness for any given week is directly related to the success and failures of two sporting teams, one being Collingwood, the other my weekly basketball team. If we win, I'm in a good mood, if we lose, well let's just say that it takes more effort to get me in a good mood.

But you can all rest easy folks, because the pies ran all over North Melbourne today. And more importantly, next Tuesday is the ANZAC day clash against the dons on the hallowed turf of the MCG. I got my tickets, and I can't wait.

20. Daniel - Lior

And I'm still stuck on this chillout sessions 8, this song found on the first disc. More guitar chillout rather than electronic/dancey...as you can see I'm still completely misusing and abusing the music genre labels.

But on a more important matter, I'm afraid to report that my iPod mini is dying a slow death. Well I'm pretty sure it is, considering it takes approximately 3.5 days to charge the battery long enough to last a total of 1 hour. And that kind of ratio just does not work for me.

So what to do?

This?

With my current status as a university bum/student, I believe I can get a nice 30Gb video iPod for $400. And to be honest with ya, its mighty tempting. Damn its gonna happen I think, and while my bank account says no, everything else says yes.

Let's see if I can justify this;
1) I use an iPod very regularly (this is probably why my mini broken down in the first place)
2) I like to listen to music
3) 4 Gb is just not cutting it for me
4) My current itunes has just over 10 Gb of music, so I'd have to triple that content in order to max out 30 gigs.
5) I like shiny toys
6) umm I need one or else the world as we know it will end
7) The Arcturians told me to.

Why not?
1) Money
2) Money
3) Money
4) Money
5) Money.

In other, possibly more interesting, news, I'm in my ‘one week mid-semester Easter break’. But I've taken to calling it the ‘one week, one exam, two assignments and meeting up with friends’ week. Or that could be shortened down to just 'the busy week'.

A thought just occurred to me, this week would be better with a new 30 Gb iPod.

Now that's got to be a sign.

Well its good enough for me.

19. The Funk Is Still Alive (Ryralio DJs Mix) - Rithma feat. Ryralio DJs

Well then, hopefully that won't be the most convoluted song title I'll get to use.

Thanks goes to my mother who decided to clean up my bro's room in preparation for his return. And through that process, she uncovered my chillout sessions 8 cd that I'd purchased and subsequently lost, almost to the point where I was actually questioning myself if I didn't just think that I got this cd.

I love putting a cd into my player/ibook and listening to music for the first time, hearing songs that I've never heard before. Its like I'm discovering a new world, new sensations. I'm about 5 tracks into this second disc (I've started at disc 2 for no apparent reason except that disc 2 was the first one I saw when I opened the case) and this chillout session is indeed a session and is quite chilled out. So top marks to you guys and gals at the ministry of sound.

Umm have you ever noticed how the price of petrol is linked to the number of birds that sit on the branches of the tree outside my house? No? Well that's good then, I was worried that I was onto something there.

And I didn't know that the funk had died, maybe just it was just resting up for a big easter weekend.

18. No-one But You - Queen

I’ve been working in the theatre/musical business for a number of years now, and as a result I’ve seen a fare share of productions throughout my tenure of sitting around doing nothing while getting paid. And one of these productions that, while at the time bore me a great deal of annoyance, I can now look back quite fondly is ‘We Will Rock You’.

When you have to re-watch the same show 3 or 4 times a week for say, 6 months in a row, it’s the little things that get you through it. Its that one song that even though you’ve sat through it before countless times, you can sit through it again. Or that one sequence, that still has the capacity to draw you into their world, or break into a smile, or tug at those proverbial heartstrings.

And with ‘We Will Rock You’, ‘No-one But You’ was that song.

This is a song about loss, it’s about friendship, about love. Originally it was about the death of Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of Queen, and how, simply put, death came too early. I can remember standing at the back of stalls listening to this piece and feeling the pain, the emotion coming from that song. For the life of me I can’t remember the chick who performed it, but she was good, and for the most part, the audience felt it too. And the fact that the chick was admittedly hot helped as well.

But I never thought that it would mean so much to me so soon.

It has been six months since Gene passed away.

I’d like to say that I’ve been thinking about him every single day, but the truth is I haven’t. But that’s not to say that he’s not there in my heart, coz I’m damn sure he is. It’s just that life and all the petty things that come with it, has to go on.

I had this thing in the head way back then, a vow of sorts, where I refused to write any blog entry about Gene. And when I think about it now, it wasn’t because I was hiding from my emotions but because I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to do him justice. How do you put into writing the essence of a man, a friend? It’s just something that I can’t do.

But I hope one day I’ll be able to.

“one by one, only the good die young, they’re only flying too close to the sun, and life goes on…without you”

We miss ya mate.

17. Jumper - Third Eye Blind

A few minutes ago a friend told me she was feeling 'happy happy'.

And then asked me if I was.

I said I was okay.

For me, okay is a good place to be. But maybe that's because what I classify as 'okay' is a bit higher than the average mean.

So what makes me happy?

Raindrops on roses, snowflakes and kittens.

The Arcturians doesn't me happy. The Arcturians make me laugh, and then worry about the stupidity of people.

Got a 21st birthday tonight, with a 'senior high school' theme/dress code. So being the type of guy who gets into these things, I went hunting for my high school blazer.

It's still too big.

Yeah 5 years on, and my blazer is still too big. Not just a bit big, but at least 3 sizes up from what I am. But that's gotta make you smile, it’s just another example of the eternal optimism of the mother.

16. It Ends Tonight - All American Rejects

*NOTE: I've got into the habit of partially writing blogs and not posting them for one stupid reason or another. But that all ends tonight, please enjoy a partially completed entry circa 2pm yesterday at uni:

So I'm just wasting my time.

Its a strange feeling, something akin to being stuck in a continuous commercial break with no avenues of escape. Not that has actually happened to me, thus destroying the real use of the example.

Maybe I should begin doing entries via sign language or simple grunts.

I'm stuck in the matherson library west reading room under the pretence of study/preparing for my 30% negotiation assessment tomorrow. Obviously that's not the case. In reality I've found myself spending a fair amount of time looking out of the windows at what is really really shitty weather. Its rain, its wind, its overcast, its Melbourne in April.

So I guess winter is coming.

I have no umbrella.

And that in itself lends to more ambiguous statements of fact or half-truths;

- I've become something of a nothing, and a nothing of a something.
- Such statements as above bear no resemblance to what my left foot is saying to me.
- Inherent truths about a man's life pale in significance when compared to the weight of a house's soul.

All in all, I really don't want to do anymore study right now.

I've been sick for the past few days, and I let it define my behaviour. And while it worked to some small extent, on a much larger scale, it has achieved nothing but allowed me to watch superfluous amounts of television without remorse. But I've reached a crux, and all of it ends today.

So be warned. Or more specifically, be alert but not alarmed.

I found myself visiting the graduates careers fair at university today. To be honest I had two clear objectives in mind, and neither of them were to gain information about the companies' career options, no, my objectives were;

1) get as many freebies as I could
2) to feed my internal sense of well-being by reminding myself that I already have meaningful employment next year.

Well that was the intention, but then I realised; I just could not be bothered.

14. Fast Cars - Craig David

This was purely a test exercise.

It was supposed to be deleted soon enough.

But it looks good, so it'll stay.