My uni work is slowly but surely getting done. The only assignment that is causing concern is my major story for investigative journalism. It is underformed and I fear it is going to be feeble compared to everybody elses. Sure, it might make a nice feature but I don't know if it's investigative enough.

The key to this mammoth pile is to do a little bit every night.

Tomorrow I am shopping with my sister, something I am really looking forward to because I will have just been paid, I have a discount voucher for one of my favourite clothing stores, and I haven't hung out with my sister for months.

There is a spider living in the driver's door of Lloyd. I tried to squash it today but it prevailed. Will try again tomorrow.

Am thoroughly enjoying the iTrip Caitlin got me for Lloyd - I can choose any song to listen to now! She also makes quite the perfect boyfriend after fixing a blown fuse in my car. She is my handyman.

I think I pamper tux too much, he is starting to be pushy like a spoiled brcat. Complains when I'm not in bed to cuddle him, etc.

I am tired and grumpy and it is entirely my university's fault. I am so god damn fed up with their shit. On Wednesdays, I have a 10am-1pm class, which according to our timetable is meant to change as of this week to 9am-12pm because the format of the class changes. At 9:10am this morning, Wendy, the head of not only this subject but my entire course, sent an email saying class didn't start till 10am. Who the fuck sends an email 10min after class is meant to start telling us there is a time change??? I live outside the city and it takes me over an hour commuting to get to uni. This is ridiculous. She didn't even know what room we were in when she did turn up.

I cannot comprehend how this degree came to be labelled as Australia's best Journalism degree. I really can't.

To make me even more grumpy, I still haven't received feedback on my major essay topic and I wasted my time this afternoon trying to do an assignment.

If I only had one semester left before I graduate, I would seriously drop out. I cannot take this shit anymore.

Total shite day. Looked like crap, felt like crap. Crap all around. Uni was a waste of time [when is it not?] The class was dedicated to "private consultations" about our progess. The teacher is "worried" about me, which is just a euphemism for "at the moment you are FAILING." I know this, considering I haven't submitted any work, but I hate being told it.

So tonight is a crack down on a few items. The bare minimum that will be done is:
- Final PPC posting on useless lecture
- Study for EP test tomorrow
- Start writing research plan for IJ

I finished Heroes season 1 last night. Ungh. Want. Though, watching the entire first season in five days has caused me to become over-stimulated and for the past three nights I have been screaming in my sleep about people trying to steal my powers.

Mum, as you can imagine, is not impressed.

Damn you, Sylar.

[I just discovered on Facebook that leather jacket guy from work is friends with some of my uni friends. I swear half the population of UTS and USyd went to one of two high schools in Penrith]

Wow, I've actually been legitimately productive for the past three hours. I have written several posts for my Editing and Publishing blog: analysing news stories, headlines and photographs.

This bout of productivity was brought on because a jolt of terror hit me when I remembered how behind I am in uni work. Plus, out of all the things I have to do, this was the easiest. Oh and mum was starting to harrass me over the growing pile of old newspapers I have been hoarding for this assignment.

Tomorrow I need to pull an essay topic out of my ass and write a proposal for it including references. Also, I need to write an investigative story piece that was due four weeks ago but I have neglected due to dad being ill.

Monday I must pull a major investigative story idea out of my ass and write emails for my research project.

Joy.

Every Thursday night the local pub has karaoke so as I walk from work to my car I am serenaded by the sound of drunk bogans singing AC/DC. I park on the opposite side of the train station and I can hear it all the way there.

Apparently, dad has 'turned a corner' as of today. He is off sedation and responding, off dialysis and they are considering taking him off the respirator. I, however, have not seen this for myself as the god damn staff in the ICU screwed me around this morning and resulted in me crying some very pissed off tears.

Finished The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak a few days ago. It's a brilliant book, I highly recommend it to everyone. Although it is set in Nazi Germany and is narrated by Death, it isn't as soul-crushing as I thought it would be. There is tragedy, but it is also filled with so much beauty and witty humour. Death has my sense of humour. It's very readable and combines eloquence with simplicity.

Next on my list is Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella. It's chick lit but I thought I needed some brain fluff after all the heavy things I have been reading.

I have an assignment due in five days where I have to compare two feature layouts - one I love and one I hate. I'm looking forward to it, if I can just be bothered actually doing it lol. It's a creative assignment where my opinion matters.

I have a new phone! Wooh! It's a Nokia 6121 and so far I love it. Though I struggled to find the menu and had serious issues with Optus and its Automated Messages Of Doom when I tried to activate my SIM. But... new phone!!!

Caitlin stayed over the past three nights and it was really awesome. I miss having her over all the time. We got up to no good, spending lots of money on flannel and boots and all things scrumptious. Sleeping in occured.

But yes, I own flannel! Pretty flannel!!! And I have laybyed leather boots for winter - I've always wanted leather boots.

I have a story brewing in my head and I feel the urge to write, I just don't have a plotline. Fuck it, I'll waffle anyway.

I'm starting to get that ball of angst in my stomach that indicates I return to uni in just over two weeks. Argh.

Today I had lunch with Jen at Pancakes on the Rocks and we exchanged presents. She got me the entire set of My Chemical Romance "rock action heroes". I think I am going to stick them to the top of my tv. They are so cute. Frank is hot, Gerard looks perplexed and Mikey looks like the emo Blues Brother. She spoils me so much.

She gave me Caitlin's christmas presents so Caitlin can open them Christmas Day at my house. It's going to be cool having Caitlin there. Rach isn't there the whole day and Aunty Violet is exhausting.

As fast as this year has gone, the past two weeks have taken forever. Since the Chemical Holiday time has slowed to a lethargic, feet-dragging pace.

This morning I got my results for uni. Credit for News and Current Affairs, credit for Narrative Writing and distinction for Print Features. I would have liked two distinctions but oh well. Mum didn't congratulate me, in fact the only thing she said was "weren't you expecting two distinctions?" No, I wasn't, I didn't even know for sure I would get one.

I can't wait for the new year.

I have just realised that for the first time in my life I can sing along to November Rain and actually mean it. I'll just end up walkin' in the cold November rain. According to the experts, this is the coldest and wettest beginning to November in 20 years.

It must be noted that I am now officially two-thirds the way through my university degree. This time next year I will have finished. And currently I am the only person that finds this thrilling and not even slightly worrying. How I see it is that I'll spend my first year and a half out of uni working retail to save and then travelling. So it won't be until 2010 I'll have to face the Real World. So how did I celebrate the end of another semester? By sleeping of course! The accumulative exhaustion of the past 3.5 months just built up and had me dozing on the train, the bus and finally my couch.

What is with the latest trend to use mobile phones/mp3 players as boomboxes? Boomboxes were cool, tiny little pieces of technology that emit flat, tinny noise are not. A guy on my bus this morning had his phone playing hip hop and I wanted to shove it down his throat. He also played Armsrace, but even that sounded terrible. Stop being obnoxious and buy earphones.

My muscles ache. Being a tourist disagrees with my body.

Tuesday I showed Caitlin my uni and we walked to Darling Harbour. We checked out the Chinese Gardens which are so beautiful. Caught the monorail around to Pitt St and went to Kings Comics to get Umbrella Academy 1. It's sooooo funny. *loves* Gerard is a lunatic in the most endearing way.

Speaking of, 7 weeks and 6 days until My Chemical Holiday!!! Wooh!!!

Yesterday we went into Penrith and saw the Bourne Ultimatum. Good movie. Cooked vegetarian risotto for dinner.

Today I have work but we will make muffins before I leave.

So far, Caitlin has seen emus near my house, been woken up by Kookaburras and attacked by two different spiders including a huntsman. Welcome to Australia!

Pic of us at Chinese Gardens:



I'm starting to really dread going back to uni. The only good thing I had was Jen in my classes but she's not in any this semester and now that I've had two weeks off I just really don't want to go back. Sigh. Not to mention the assignment stress that's occuring.

So I spoke to some people at the uni about changing courses, and it's much easier than I thought. I continue this semester as normal, and if I do change, I will still be able to graduate next November with Jen! It just means I have to do an extra subject for one semester.

I got a little bored this morning and took a couple of random pictures on my phone.

( oh i am such an artiste )

I am also waiting for a band called Bitchslap to email me back because that lesbian magazine that was looking for a music reviewer has asked me to do a profile on them. Coincidentally I saw this band play a few weeks ago. I am now glad I didn't tell them how good I thought they were because they might've thought I was hitting on them. Trust me to accidentally hit on a lesbian when I'm tipsy. I'm such a ladies gal =\

I'm just a teenage dirtbag baby, listen to Iron Maiden baby with me

[I always want to sing that to guys]

This has been a weekend of some glorious retail therapy. Today I got my new stereo off layby and splurged on some underwear :D

( pics under the cut )

I think I might change my uni course from Journalism to Writing and Cultural Studies. But I just don't know

Pros:
- I loathe my course
- Both are Communications degrees
- I will be able to focus on writing
- I won't have to try and get interviews

Cons:
- I will be at uni longer and won't graduate with Jen
- I am pretty sure I will have fucked up this semester and íf I withdraw now the subjects show on my record as fails
- I don't know what type of job I can get with it
- I might hate it too

Originally, I thought hey, I'm halfway through my journalism course, I should just stick it out and soon it will be over. But I am seriously struggling to find any joy in it. I was in tears earlier.

But god, the one thing I loved was that I am supposed to graduate next year. Next year! I can't fucking wait! If I change, I will be at uni at least a year longer.

I don't know.

Right at this very moment in time, Jen is watching Hellogoodbye perform their first song while I am sitting at home trying very hard to ignore the possibility I may be getting a cold.

On top of chest infection and asthma. Joy. I get to add runny nose and sneezing to my ever extending list of ailments.

I got my first semester results for uni yesterday, but my chem tickets overshadowed this.

( uni stuff under here )

Hahaha.

This is why they should not let us near computers.

The last assessment for my law class is an online simulation game, where we are put in groups and each group is given a role such as ASIO [aussie FBI/CIA sorta thing], Media Watchdog, a newspaper, a radio station, an ethnic group, etc etc. We then have to interact with one another on the UTS site, posting things kind of like how a blog works.

This was posted at the end of an "email" written by the Attorney General.



Hahaha I'm so glad we take things so seriously.

They seriously cannot give us free reign of the internet and expect us to focus on the work.

YOU CANNOT ESCAPE THE MACROS!!!!

Reminds me of last year, one of my assignments was a journalism blog on the UTS site, and in the discussion board all the journalism students had a heated debate over the use of "meh" because one of the teachers complained lol. The Simpsons were quoted frequently.

On a serious note, this assignment is complete bollocks and the only reason the class is resorting to macros is because we have no idea what we are doing.