Oh the Joys of nDeva

It seems as though nDeva, the University of Auckland course enrolment system is proving to be all too much for some students. According to this NZ Herald article,

The University of Auckland says its online enrolment scheme is working well and blames a reported "systems failure" on students misunderstanding the way it works.  

The Herald reported yesterday some students were panicked by what they considered to be "error messages" when they tried to check enrolments on Monday - Auckland Anniversary Day. 

Director of student administration Dr Wayne Clark said: "Any backlogs that have occurred over the last few days have either been dealt with [yesterday] or will be dealt with very sortly."

 

He believed some students had misunderstood "status updates" as error messages.

 

With so many students confused and feeling frustrated by using nDeva, misunderstandings were bound to happen!

Wherever You Expect to Find It

We went into the city today to get a few things sorted. I first went over to the Grafton Campus to borrow a few library books. Boy did it feel good to use the access card again!

Us three brothers then went to visit one of the church 'elders', who runs a student hostel near AUT, to pick up a reference he had written for Hamish who was to have an interview with a job search agency later in the day. While Hamish went in, Aonghas and I stayed in the car keeping an eye out for parking wardens. Just then from around the corner, a parking warden was approaching! We quickly got the car started and took the car around the corner and luckily found a free 15 minute car park! It was taking a while for Hamish to return so Aonghas and I went inside and met up with the church 'elder'.

Once it was all sorted, we went to the university's city campus so that Aonghas could get his computer science course details sorted. While he was doing that, Hamish and I had a look for a few books in the library before walking around the quad. Guess who I came across? Alice! Whenever I go to uni I always seem to come across her! It was good seeing her again anyway.

Our one hour parking was nearly up and we got there with a minute to spare. We decided to go to McDonald's by the waterfront for lunch where there was free parking. We all bought a combo each and ate it before heading back to Henderson. Hamish had his interview at 3pm so we dropped him off there before Aonghas and I went over to West City to wander around while waiting. We were sitting there thinking of where to go next when who else but Angie and Natasha came wandering by! They told us they had just seen that movie Sweeney Todd.

Once we ran out of stuff to do we went back to the place where Hamish was having his interview to wait for him to finish. He ended up taking another hour! It ended up going well ...apparently...and so they're going to help Hamish find a job!

They've Taken It All Away!

Tonight I was really bored and after sorting out my clothes drawer just went into my parents' bedroom and sat down on the bed while my dad was on his laptop. He just looked at me and then asked what I wanted! I guess they just don't expect us to hang out with them anymore unless there's an ulterior motive!

I thought I'd be able to spend my Auckland Anniversary Day watching sappy TV dramas such as 7th Heaven and Joan of Arcadia today, but to my shock Dr Phil and Oprah had come back! Dr Phil was a bit cringe-worthy as he introduced his new platform 'Dr Phil Now' where he breaks news and goes behind the news issues to tell us what we really want to know when we want to know. So that's why he was going to have a show on Britney Spears?

17 Signs You Like/Love Someone

Someone posted this on my Facebook profile. Try this out and see if it makes sense to you...

SEVENTEEN:
You look at their profile constantly.


SIXTEEN:

When you're on the phone with them late at night and they hang up, you still miss them even when it was just two minutes ago.


FIFTEEN:

You read their Texts and Ims Over and over again.



FOURTEEN:

You walk really slow when you're with them.



THIRTEEN:

You feel shy whenever they're around.



ELEVEN:

When you think about them, your heart beats faster but slower at the same time.



TEN:

You smile when you hear their voice.



NINE:

When you look at them, you can't see the other people around you, you just see him/her.



EIGHT:

You start listening to slow songs while thinking about them.



SEVEN:

They're all you think about.



SIX:

You get high just from their scent.



FIVE:

You realize you're always smiling when you're looking at them.



FOUR:

You would do anything for them, just to see them.



THREE:

While reading this, there was one person on your mind this whole time.



TWO:

You were so busy thinking about that person, you didnt notice number twelve was missing



ONE:

You just scrolled up to check & are now silently laughing at yourself.

Night of Music and Fireworks

This weekend and Monday is the Aquatica Festival 08 on the Viaduct in Auckland and there's been fireworks on Friday, Saturday and Sunday night! We missed the fireworks on Friday and Saturday but we were definitely going to see the fireworks on Sunday night, apparently New Zealand's largest!

The day started off typically with church. The guy giving the sermon was going on about the number of violent assaults and homicides already this year in New Zealand, and then when he said he wasn't going to analyse those and started talking about something else, that's when I started to drift off!

Once the service was over my mum told me Angie came to church but I only just saw her as she went out the door with her mum and sister! Oh well, Aonghas, Hamish and I went to the combined youth Sunday School. We played this game where one person wrote down six statements about themselves which could be true or false. This time it was Tim, my former Sunday School teacher. I managed to get six out of six correct and win a tube of M&M Minis! :D We finished the story about a reformed gang member before the teachers answered some questions about God and Christianity that had been submitted by people or chosen from a list of possible questions. They picked the paper with my questions! One of them was a question I picked from the list

"Why is Church boring and a drag for some people?"

I made the other one up myself, just to see how they would answer it

"Which political party would God choose?"

They just said that he would want the government of the country to rule in a fair way...or maybe not...I can't exactly remember. All I know is they didn't tell me exactly which political party!

We did a little clothes shopping and I bought some more shorts before we went home and we all just fell asleep in the extreme heat! I checked our family email an hour later to find out our dad had emailed us an hour earlier telling us he was sick and asking us to come pick him up. He couldn't get through on the phone (probably because my mum was on it!). We tried contacting his work but he had already left to catch the bus. We were wondering what to do next when he came in the door! He must've gotten food poisoning from the takeaways yesterday so he went straight to bed.

Later in the night our mum and the three of us Anderson boys went into the city to check out the Aquatica Festival. There were street performers, including this American Indian trio performing some cool pipe music. There were also all these carnival rides around the place and heaps of people walking around. We came just in time to catch the Hello Sailor performance on the main stage. The lead vocalist acted and sounded like he was drunk! I had never heard most of the songs they had performed until they performed the last two songs, one which was the Outrageous Fortune theme song and the other was Blue Lady.

As soon as they finished performing the fireworks went off over the harbour! They were pretty big and beautiful! The final fireworks were especially big with the sky filled with light! Once it was all over, everyone started heading towards the road. I was walking along with my family and saw the back of some girl thinking she looked familiar. We stopped to watch a bit more of the American Indian group performing when none other than Sarena sprung up on me! She had come with her....friend(s) (won't say anymore!) to watch the fireworks too.

The Aquatica Festival's last day is today (Monday 28 January). The highlight is probably the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra performing some sea-related music (a highlight for me anyway!) but because Aonghas is working, we'll probably miss it. If you can get there, you should!
As soon as they had finished

Fast Becoming an Essential

With fatal stabbings fast on the increase, maybe we all need to start looking at buying stab proof vests for ourselves!

On Ebay, they're selling for about USD$400...

More of It

Aonghas finally got back from his camp today and fell asleep, while the rest of us went out to West City to sort some stuff out at the bank before doing a bit of shopping. On top of our shopping list was a new can opener. Of all things, we are most careful and picky when it comes to shopping for a can opener, and yes we go shopping for one often enough! They just keep on breaking! We've gone through at least seven can openers in recent times, so I guess you could say we haven't been too successful in finding the best can opener! However, we didn't break the most recent one, we just lost it.

As well as shopping for a can opener, we also went buying shorts so I can now proudly say I am gradually replacing my drawer full of holey shorts! We also bought a whole lot of food to restock the house with, as for the past week or so we've had hardly any food to eat. I'm sure I've been losing weight! I was just noticing tonight though (and this may sound girly!) that I look a bit out of shape, so I've really got to get started working on one of my New Years resolutions - to do more exercise!

Friday night was the first proper English youth group meeting at our church. We started off with poorly done singing (come on girls!) before moving on to a bit of discussion before the highlight of the night - playing the body part game! There were two teams of five, with each team member being a body part. The person who were the eyes was the only person who could see while everyone else was blind-folded. He/She was tasked with providing instructions to the ears who listened to them and forwarded them to the mouth who would call out loud to the legs or the arms. I happened to be the mouth of my team! We were directed to move forward a few steps each time, take a step sideways, move a step forward...Eventually the arms were told to grab museli bar and feed in mouth! With both of us blind-folded, Cleo, the girl who was the arms tried finding my mouth with the museli bar to put it in, but ended up poking all around my face! She soon found it though! Hamish's team was next, and he happened to be the eyes...uh oh!! He was a little late in giving directions at times and his team ended up walking into a wall at one stage! His team did get to the food quicker though, although I bet that's because they saw what we did and copied us!

Youth group wasn't too bad and was a lot more fun than Sunday School! Our mum didn't come to pick us up till about an hour after it finished though as she forgot to, and so Hamish and I just spent the time talking to others and eating supper while waitng.

In the past week since NCEA results came out I've had a few of my friends asking me for help dealing with nDeva, understanding how degrees work and how to sort out their timetables. I have to say that it's been really fun as it's given me something to do for once instead of just sitting there watching TV or constantly refreshing websites to see if there's any new news updates (how very sad...). Boy do those first year students get off easy when it comes to sorting out their timetables! I never knew how complicated it is when it comes to arranging a Bachelor of Science degree or conjoint degree though, but maybe it's complicated to me because I've never had to understand how it works. In Health Science they basically told us what to study!

Good News for Poor Students!

There's a possibility that student allowances will increase this year!

According to this article on Stuff the average student allowance paid out was a bit more than $140 a week. I got just a bit under $100 a week, while Hamish only just got about $50 a week, although he did start off at $12 a week during his first year of uni!

This year's budget might include an increase in the student allowance, Tertiary Education Minister Pete Hodgson said today.

Students were asking for an increase in their allowance and this was what the Government would tackle next, he said.

Mr Hodgson told Radio New Zealand that the average student debt of nearly $30,000 was "too high".

"There's a lot of things at play here including the tendency for some banks to shovel loans towards students in order to have them as customers."

But the underlying issue was that the student allowance plus the accommodation allowance had not shifted for many years "and needs to".

There "might" be an increase in allowances in this year's budget, Mr Hodgson said.

"That's as far as I can go in January," he said.

"Allowances haven't shifted in many years and they need to."

This would happen over a "number of years"....

Over a number of years? I wonder how big this increase will be then, and whether it will continue to increase over the years should (Bob forbid) National get into power!

Holey Pants

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHIRLEY AND STEPHEN
(for Tuesday)

I'm not usually one to shop for clothes that often, if at all, but I think I'll need to very soon. I have three pairs of shorts that I've been wearing for at least the past 3-4 years and now two of them are starting to rip! I guess that's what you'd expect when you wear out your shorts. I know I know, not only do I sound poor but I'm several years behind in terms of fashion, but then again my clothes may not have been in fashion back then when I started wearing my clothes either! I'll have to get round to some clothes shopping before uni starts at least.

I've started to develop a daily (at least weekday) television-watching routine which goes something like

News->7th Heaven->Joan of Arcadia->Rugrats->Pepper Pig->Angry Beavers->Rocko's Modern Life->.........

I watch too much TV! I've become addicted to 7th Heaven and Joan of Arcadia, and I know that it's a little...gay/pussy/weird/girly for a guy to be watching those shows but it sure beats anything else on TV at that time!

On that subject, while not spending my spare time having fun on nDeva (oh yeah those were some good times!) I've been listening to some old music from way back in the days, such as Teenage Dirtbag by Wheatus, Mmm Bop by Hanson, and Dr Jones by Aqua. Oh yes....brings back many memories from all those years ago. I can't believe I used to listen to that!

Thanks to Esther, Joon, Julie and Angie (despite thinking my birthday was Tuesday instead of Monday but hey it's the thought that counts!) for the belated birthday wishes too.

To finish off this post, here's a video of Bill Clinton taking on Chris Wallace of Fox News regarding why he didn't do more to hunt down Osama Bin Laden.



Go Bill go!! I swear having Bill back in the White House isn't the reason why I'm supporting Hillary Clinton!

RIP Heath Ledger

I'm quite late at posting this but I'll do it nonetheless! I came home after dropping off some stuff for Aonghas who was at camp, went on the NZ Herald website as usual and was shocked to read of his death, especially someone as young as he was!

To be honest I didn't really know much about him or pay much attention to him because I kept getting mixed up with those other guys like Colin Farrell (even now I don't know that actor too well!), but it was only once I saw 10 Things I Hate About You that I started to notice him. I actually didn't know he was in Brokeback Mountain either! I did know he was in Batman: The Dark Knight and have to say that going by the trailers it looks like he plays one hell of a Joker! Shrikkanth, my friend pointed a bit from this Wikipedia article out to me though:

"To prepare for the role he lived alone in a hotel room for a month, formulating the character's posture, voice and psychology"

Originally the article went on to say that the role had affected his sleeping patterns, but it has since been deleted.

Anyway my thoughts are with his daughter, and I shall forever remember him the most for the following scene.

Death of the Appliances

It's not only our dad's car that ain't working. On Sunday our mum came to pick us up from church, and she came bearing bad news. She had blown our TV! She switched it on, the TV did it's usual 5 minute routine of getting started accompanied with flatulence-releasing sounds (which it has been doing for the past few months now, surely that's not normal!) before there was a small pop noise and a burning smell!

This TV has had a very short history with us, and when I say short I mean only just a bit over a year short. We bought it from Bond and Bond and not so long after it stopped working, fortunately within the warranty period so we got it repaired.

So now I'm trying to gently persuade our parents to move into the 21st century and get a more reliable and larger plasma or LCD TV, but they're leaning more towards having it repaired and waiting for the price of the new TV's to come down. I've been banging on about HD coming to Freeview later this year! But they don't really know what I'm talking about..I'll just try hold them off having it repaired till Aonghas gets home so he can join the chorus. At the moment we're just putting up with the 19" TV from our bedroom which is sitting on the ground.

It's not only the TV that isn't working though. A week earlier our microwave stopped working! I think it turns on but it doesn't heat anything up! We've had to make do with heating things up in the oven and on the stove, which isn't always convenient. We're definitely planning on replacing this one!

A Boring Birthday

There's not very much to say about my birthday. In summary it was wet, long and boring! I spent the whole day at home either reading the news on the Internet (I was considering playing some shoot 'em up war game to boost my manliness at one time), watching TV or practising accordion. Originally a week ago a friend had asked me if I had anything planned for my birthday and that got me thinking. After that though I put it on the back burner and forgot about it till a couple days before when it was too late! I'm sorry guys I would've invited you to a birthday get-together/party if I had remembered to organise one!

My friend Diane stayed up texting me to see in my birthday which was really nice of her, seeing as she was supposed to go to bed early so she could wake up early to get to the farm. She texted me throughout the day as well which was really cool of her. I stayed up a little later watching movies on TV. Freddy vs Jason, Possessed...a little creepy!

We spent the morning discussing what to do with our dad's old car. The warrant of fitness has expired and to get it renewed he'd have to pay for some repairs. However, the car is pretty old that it would need more and more repairs and so we started questioning whether it was worth it. He rang up a company to find out how much they would pay him to take his car to use for scrap metal. They would only offer him $50 though! Fortunately he talked to someone later in the day who was offering to buy it so he could do it up himself and sell it. We're going to hold off for a week though to wait for Aonghas to come back so he can say goodbye to the car as well ;)

My mum bought me an electric toothbrush for my birthday which has been really useful seeing as I have braces. My dad gave me some money too. I thought that would be it till my neighbour Szelin came over sometime after midday with a chocolate cake she had baked for me! I was originally thinking about trying to bake a cake myself for the fun of it today but she did it all for me! She also made it through the rain just to deliver the cake to our house which I really appreciate! Thanks so much Szelin!!!

What probably made the day most special as usual though were the birthday wishes from my friends who knew/remembered my birthday. Just that they even bothered to do something as small as texting me meant something to me and I feel a little guilty for them having wasted their time! So I will take my time to thank you all! Thanks Maxine, Gavin and Gwen for the early wishes, and to Melissa, Zahir, Alex, Shen, Sarena, Amy, Mr Hirst, Facebook, Chen, Ayesha, Janice (and the Andersons), Szepo, Richard (so surprised! I never knew he knew my birthday!), Jacqueline, Kat, The Cookie Bear, Aneesya, Alice, Estee, Rhea, Lun Shen, George and Hyun who sent me a long, thoughtful email which also made my day! Thanks so much guys! To round off my birthday I just watched the movie Must Love Dogs on TV, which funnily enough was about some desperate divorced woman who had been single for a long time and couldn't find love!

Boy being 19 really blows doesn't it. It certainly doesn't sound as young as something like...15 or 16 (for obvious reasons!), but I guess we should just be thankful we're still alive and have reached this age! Might as well make the most of the time we have too!

Chinese New Year Boilover

The Chinese New Year Festival held at the ASB Showgrounds came around once again this year, and this year we were going to try get there earlier than in past years! We had to pick Aonghas, Rose, Chen and one of their camp friends Harmony from O'Rourke Hall, where they were staying, as they wanted to come along on their 'Explore Auckland Day'. For Aonghas and Rose, well they live in Auckland so they thought they might as well come to the festival!

Our dad dropped my mum, Hamish and me off at the festival before going off to pick up the others. There were these cool Beijing Olympics mascots in the foyer! I wanted to get a photo with them but I couldn't get to the front so I just had to get one taken with their back.My mum wanted to look at some ceramic pots, so Hamish and I wandered around, checking out the stalls. The aisles left not much space for moving, and people ended up squeezing past others, or having to resort to pushing and shoving. Felt like being somewhere in Asia! We walked around, checking out stalls selling food, books, toys, advertising religion, while Aonghas and the others were stuck in traffic. I caught up with a few people like a Sunday School teacher from church and Julie, a friend of mine!

We met them in the foyer when they finally arrived, and immediately split into groups. Harmony, the other girl, hung out with us Anderson brothers and we just walked around having a look at the stalls. We came across the National stand where there were photos being taken of John Key, Pansy Wong and some other dignitaries. I tried asking some of the younger Asian people about joining the National Party, and asked them if I would get discriminated against by others for being a member ( e.g. if I was to apply for a job and the boss supported Labour...) but they guy just said to me

"Oh sorry sorry I'm just a volunteer!"


After talking to someone else who did know, that made me even more determined to join a political party on campus this year!

We were getting pretty hot and had nearly seen everything so we went outside to check out the food stalls and have something to eat. Once Harmony bought her food we sat under the shade talking for a while when we heard there was some game going on. We went over to the crowd to see that girl from the TV drama 'Ride with the Devil' picking people from the audience to come up and throw a dart at this spinning wheel, and win a prize. After a few people had a go, she decided she'd pick someone from the back, and after a bit of confusion as to whether she picked Aonghas or Harmony, Harmony eventually made her way up. She threw her dart and hit number 19. The lady in charge of the prizes went over to them, picked up a bag and wrote 19 on it and gave it to her! She ended up winning some food which was pretty cool.

By then it was about 1pm and we had to go meet up with the others so we could drop Chen off at Sky City for his job interview. We had a twenty minute walk all the way to the car park with me getting isolated from the rest of the group when I missed crossing the road at the same as them. We got to the car and got to the city slowly amongst all the traffic! We only JUST got Chen to Sky City in time, but fortunately it turns out the guy interviewing him was twenty minutes late!

We were originally going to drop the others off after buying an ice-cream from McDonalds, but after realising the McDonalds by the entrance to the Harbour Bridge was gone and that we were in the lane leading to the Harbour Bridge, it was too late and we ended up having to travel over the Harbour Bridge and back again! At least it was a good opportunity for Harmony to check out the sights, as she's from Christchurch!

We ended up finding a McDonalds and got our soft-served cones, before dropping the girls off at Sky City and making our way back to the Showgrounds. Just when I got there I discovered my friend Richard (supreme violin virtuoso!) was nearing the end of his performance! I felt so bad!!! I had planned to watch him perform! I will DEFINITELY be watching him perform at the Lantern Festival regardless! Nothing will stop me from making it this time!!!

The day grew old and the festival came to an end. This was probably one of the highlights of my holidays, or at least this week anyway.

On a completely different topic, I got accepted into BHsc/LLB (Bachelor of Health Science/Bachelor of Law), BHsc/BCom (Bachelor of Health Science/Bachelor of Commerce) and BCom/BSc (Bachelor of Commerce/Bachelor of Science in Computer Science) so a big HMMMM........

I spent half a day guiding Chen through the wonderful Ndeva (the university course enrollment system) the other day, which was a bit of fun, but just reminded me that I better get on to sorting out my own timetable soon!

I also just discovered that two of my friends are doing exactly the same conjoint - BA in Chinese and BCom! Go Chinese!!

Finally off the Ground

Last night was the first English-speaking youth group meeting at our church. After nearly a year and a bit of talk and planning, it was finally happening, and to start it off we had a little barbecue. The initial number of people wasn't too large. There were only about six of us, as a few had work and other commitments, but bear in mind it was our first meeting! There were also all the Cantonese and Mandarin groups going on in other rooms though.

I spent most of the time talking to Gabrielle, one of the group leaders who used to go to Rutherford College who's now studying architecture. The girls seemed to be hanging out together while the guys hung out with the guys!

After the barbecue we went into a room and did some singing (pitiful effort by most! I'm sure I heard more guys singing than girls!), played some ice-breaker games like trying to name the other person before the other person could name you (I know the way I've put it makes it sound a bit lame but it was a good way of remembering people's names!), and also did a bit of sharing and stuff like that.

Overall it was a good start and now we've just got to grow the youth group a bit.

---

Boy has it been hot lately? I originally thought 34 degrees Celsius was bad, today our thermometer recorded 39 degrees Celsius in the conservatory!

---

Congratulations to all those who passed NCEA, and to those who passed NCEA Level 3, yay no more NCEA EVER for you guys! Since Aonghas has been at camp, we got his results in the mail and being the open family we are, we ripped open his envelope and checked his results (we did warn him though!)! Fortunately he didn't do too badly. He passed everything and achieved NCEA Level 2 with Excellence, got NCEA Level 3 and University Entrance so that's a big PHEW. When I texted Aonghas to let him know we checked his results, he first replied

"Are they bad?"

---

Chinese New Year Festival is on at the ASB Showgrounds today from 9-3pm! One of the only times I feel sorta like an Asian, being pushed, shoved and squished around! How cool is that! I'll type up all the goings on when I get back.

---

Let's make it official - Melissa and I have a bet with 20c on the line. I won't say much right now but it's somehow related to Valentine's Day. Roll on my 20c!!

What the Fox?!!

I am ashamed. Just after 1am, when we had three international news services on offer - BBC on TV ONE, Al Jazeera on Triangle TV and Fox News on Prime, I opted for Fox over the other two! Maybe it's just because it's Friday and I need something light-hearted to make me laugh...

Lately I've been watching more of Triangle TV and Voice of America which has been providing analysis on the US presidential election campaign, something the two NZ news services haven't done enough of. There was one night when they were analysing an earlier NBC debate amongst the Democrats John Edwards, Obama (I won't bother attempting to spell his first name and getting it wrong!) and Hillary Clinton, and they were commenting on the way each presidential candidate answered the question on what they thought their strengths and weaknesses were. They liked Obama's self-confessed weakness - being bad with paper, and felt the other two candidates' weakness being that they cared TOO much was too clichéd. Now when I think back to my pharmacy interview when they asked me what I thought my strengths and weaknesses were, guess what I said was my weakness? That I cared TOO much about people! I think I need a better answer for next time...

With this year being election year though, I was thinking maybe it's about time I did join a political party, or one of those ones on campus and get started. I was thinking that by studying law it would eventually lead me into politics one day, but now that it's not looking likely that I'll be doing law, maybe joining a political party earlier will help me get to know the in's and out's of the whole system. One thing I'm mostly concerned about is whether joining a particular political party will put me at a disadvantage later on in life, if it will come back to bite me in the behind. My contingency plan should I realise I've joined the wrong political party (or one I end up realising doesn't share the same vision as mine) would be to quit and join the opposing political party for roughly the same amount of time! My friend Lindsey who's studying politics down in Otago likes to rub in my face the fact that National is way ahead in the polls, but election year has only started and things are only just warming up! I don't really know how serious I am about my supposed political aspirations, but we'll see..

TVNZ finally announced the news presenters for their new TVNZ7 factual channel. What a shame they haven't taken the opportunity to rebrand ONE News to something that would reflect the organisation as a whole, such as TVNZ News. Most news articles linking to something mentioned in a ONE News report call it TVNZ news anyway, and now that TV2 don't have their own news programme, why not have the same news brand across all channels - TVNZ News? It also has NZ in there as well for when their foreign correspondents (oh they have foreign correspondents? Yes...very few...still quite disappointed at the disbanding of the Asian Bureau!!!) report from overseas. At least people will know where they're from, instead of something insignificant like ONE News.

But what would I know anyway? Of what importance is it to me anyway? Very little probably...oh wll at least there's Triangle TV to occasionally serve my news and current affairs cravings!

Meeeeelllting!!!

Tuesday 15th January - Fudgecaking hot! We had nearly every window and door of our house open for most of the day, and for the first time this Summer we turned on the fan! It was so hot that just after watching 7th Heaven and Joan of Arcadia on TV I fell asleep on the floor.

According to our thermometers the temperature peaked at 34 degrees Celsius at one point! NB this was taken inside our house. Now I know that it's probably much hotter in other areas of the world and so I probably shouldn't complain. I'd probably get roasted overseas!

Not my Burger

Looks like McDonalds have finally chosen a name for their burger (drumroll please):

Downunder Deluxe

Congratulations to whoever came up with that. They obviously didn't like the names I entered, such as:

Calumburger
McCalumburger
Beef Burger
Burger Burger


Couldn't you just picture yourself taking a bite out of that juicy, delicious Calumburger???

UPDATE: I've just discovered one of my suggested burger names feature under the 'Other Burger Names of Note'!

Nadine's 21st Birthday

Happy 21st Birthday Nadine (for Sunday!)

The surprise was supposed to be two-sided. Firstly our cousin Nadine was expecting her birthday party to be on her birthday (for obvious reasons), but little did she know it had been planned for the day before. She was also going to get surprised at 6pm as she walked into her house. Too bad we missed that part!

Aonghas had to get dropped off in the city for his science camp sometime during that day, and typical him left all the packing till the last minute. He had originally planned to meet Rose, who was also going to the camp with him, at 1pm, but instead it ended up being 3pm!

When our parents got back at around 5pm they started cooking, I started wrapping, and we got to the party at about 6.30, half an hour later than we were supposed to! Of course Nadine was already at the party, so we obviously missed the surprise.

There were all these older people there, most likely Nadine's friends! I was hoping my cousins Janice, Korina and Greg would be there because we usually hang out together and laugh and joke about stuff with them, but Janice and Korina were down in Christchurch for softball and Greg was coming later after a softball game! We just spent the first hour walking around, eating snacks that had been placed around the place.

Just when Greg arrived it was time for dinner. Once again I filled myself full so I only just had enough space for dessert!

After dinner our Aunty Noeline gave a little speech about Nadine (her daughter) with Nadine giving a little thank-you speech before it was time to sing Happy Birthday and for her to make a wish and blow out the candles!

The cake was in the shape of a key with a kiddie photo of her. There was even a chocolate fountain there for people to dip their strawberries in! Dessert as usual was great, and by then I was completely full!

People began leaving later in the night while some of the guys were dancing around outside. Nadine opened all her presents, including ours (we bought her some really large canvases, some paintbrushes and a paua shell necklace - you can kinda work out the theme there!) which was badly wrapped by me!

Making a Connection

Yesterday morning I went with my brother Hamish and my mum to the Citizen's Advice Bureau so that Hamish could get some documents signed by the JP there. When it became clear weren't going anywhere for the next thirty minutes, I decided I'd go over to the library to find something to do when I met an old friend Andromeda! My younger brother Aonghas had only come across her last week and so this time it was my turn! We just sat around the little kids section (as she was looking after her two younger sisters) and caught up with each other. It turns out we're both in a very similar situation! She was telling me about how she had no idea where she was going in life in terms of direction and all this stuff and I just told her that I completely understood her! I think we've formed a bond there!

We ended up talking for about half an hour before I saw my mum lingering around the library somewhere, so we thought we better head towards the door. She took the massive pile of books her sisters had borrowed through those detectors when they started beeping! She took them back to get them checked when who else but Angie came in through the door! So I quickly caught up with Angie which was cool because we got talking again, back to normal! Once Andromeda was done I introduced her to Angie, as I think they used to go to the same church, but they didn't recognise each other. Hamish just had to finish right then, and so I didn't get to talk to them much longer!

The rest of the afternoon was spent at West City in search of a 21st birthday present for our cousin. Hamish and I were just staring at some watch display outside a jewellery store when Angie came by, checking out what we were staring at before going off to work.

Today Aonghas is off to some Genesis Science Forum/Camp. I remember being offered a chance to go to the camp a few years ago along with the twins and a few others but no one offered to pay for it like the school did for Aonghas and Rose! He'll be gone for two weeks so we'll be checking his NCEA results for him ;)

As for me I've got an extremely important decision to make this weekend which will probably affect the rest of my life or at least the next decade. I originally thought it would be clear, but now after talking to a friend my head is filled with doubt!

RIP Sir Edmund Hillary!

I came home this afternoon, went onto some forum only to find someone mentioning his passing away several hours ago. That's when I immediately went to the news websites and there it was already all over the place! NZ Herald, BBC (Most read article), CNN (Most read article), Sydney Morning Herald... A very sad day for this country! He will be missed.

A state funeral is a must!!!

On Trek

Happy Birthday Diane!!
and
Happy Birthday Troy (for two days ago!)

I felt awful this morning! In the morning I slept in after having a terrible night's sleep due to the heat and woke up to find a few texts from my friend Diane. She was asking where I was and if I had caught a bus. Apparently we were going to meet for lunch. The only thing is I never knew! Fortunately I texted her soon enough that she didn't end up going into the city either. What made this situation worse was that it was her birthday! The communication must've broken down somewhere along the line, but I told her I'd make it up to her and fortunately she wasn't too annoyed. She also had a few friends coming over this afternoon so that was cool. The original plan was to meet up in a couple of Saturdays just before my birthday to celebrate our birthdays together, only till I realised the Chinese New Year Festival would be on that day!

My hunt for a job has started up again after the past few days being so boring I've just been sitting slouched on a chair in front of a computer trying to think of something useful to do! So far I haven't actually applied for any on the internet just yet as most of them require previous experience or a qualification, but there's one or two I'll apply for later today.

My mum bought me an electric toothbrush, which she claims is my early birthday present. I've been begging for a little kid's toothbrush to replace my current normal-sized one as I'd be able to brush my teeth with braces a little easier, but I suppose an electric toothbrush will do! It feels really funny having this thing vibrate in your mouth but I've got to admit last night was probably the first time in a while that my mouth has felt so clean!

I had this unusual encounter last night with some really random person. I was automatically logged in to Skype when a message box just popped up and some random person said 'hi' to me. I thought it'd probably just be another one of those people trying to spam me by advertising links to porn websites, but it turned out to be another actual human being! It was this person from China who had just recently graduated from university after having studied English there! It certainly felt weird chatting to a complete unknown but it brought back memories to many years ago when I used to go into chat rooms to chat to random people..

Exciting Times Ahead!

NCEA results are coming out at the end of next week for all you high schoolers! How exciting! My brother will be away at some science camp so I guess he'll just have to wait a little while longer to find out, probably after we've already ripped open his mail and looked at his results! (can't stop the parents!)

Next week is also when I get the most likely news that I've missed out on pharmacy so I'm waiting anxiously for next week too!

Russian Beheads Friends for Trying to Eat His Dog

An odd news report I found today:

A Russian man has confessed to killing two friends with an axe after returning home to find them cutting up and preparing to eat his favourite dog, prosecutors said in a statement.

"Flying into a rage, the dog's owner picked up an axe from the floor and cut off the heads of the uninvited guests," prosecutors in the Siberian region of Chita said in a statement.

The 40-year-old man then called the police and confessed to the killing last month, prosecutors said. Police arrested him and a murder inquiry has begun.

It was unclear why his acquaintances wanted to eat the dog.

- Stuff

Swinging

On Monday Aonghas and I were invited to play tennis again with Chen, Rose, Angie and Deanna in the afternoon. When we got there, all the tennis courts with nets were occupied, and so we just sat around for a while till Aonghas and I decided we'd just smash the tennis ball across the nearby netball courts. When Angie arrived we just went on the courts with no nets to play some tennis with imaginary nets (sorta hard!).

Once again I was initially paired up with Angie to play doubles against Rose and Deanna while Chen and Aonghas played on the adjacent court. I probably let Angie down with my terrible shots and misses. I did improve slightly in that I only hit the ball over the fence once this time, and it went into the playground instead of the road! I also managed to talk a little to Angie while playing tennis too which is a slight improvement on last time, when she didn't really say much to me at all! I don't know why I've been a little lost for words lately!

After a while though, Chen and Aonghas were getting restless and asked if they could take on Angie and Rose, and so Deanna and I were sidelined. With not much to do I suggested we go over to the playground next door and play on the swings, and so for probably half an hour while the others played their tennis game, Deanna and I just talked while swinging on the swings. It was pretty cool getting to know her a little better. After I got off my swing to show her some photos on my phone, some little boy jumped on my swing and so we walked back to see how the tennis was going.

They had just finished and were taking a break, and once they got off the court it was quickly taken by someone else, so we just sat around and talked for a while before Angie's mum came to take her and Rose home. Deanna's mum took a little while longer and so once Chen's dad came to pick us up, we just waited a little while longer for Deanna's mum to come before leaving.

What's been really inspiring is the number of Polynesian people and families that come to play tennis. During the times we've been there they've definitely outnumbered the Pakeha people there. It's really good to see them out there getting some fresh air and exercise and also encouraging their children to do so too. It just makes me want to continue Health Science even more! OK maybe just a teeny weeny bit...

Different People

Rather than going to church on Sunday morning, Hamish and I found ourselves at Cornwall Park. Megan, a primary school friend had invited us to a little gathering she had organised for her friends. I was a little hesitant at first as I would be with all these strangers for 7-8 hours, but I thought I would just go with the flow and try meet some new people and take my mind off things.

We got there and caught up with Megan and just had a little chat about her new job which involves blurring faces and animating maps for the show Police Ten-7. If you watch the next season of this show, look out for Megan Wong in the credits!

Gradually a few more people arrived and we all just sat around eating and casually talking. A few of Megan's friends were 'fire dancers', who can spin these sticks and poi while lit on fire. Megan just recently got into it too.

Hamish and I didn't really talk much at first as it seemed as though everyone knew each other except for us. After a while we started playing card games like 'President' and 'B@$+@rd'. Megan also taught us all how to play Mah-Jong, which means now when I play on Yahoo I'll know what I'm doing! We also played this game where we had to pretend we were animals (yeah sounds a little childish but a whole lot of fun!).

It was soon nearing 6pm and I wanted to walk up One Tree Hill before we left, so I went on a little walk on my lonesome. I must've taken the long way as I think my walk took just under an hour! The view was amazing from the top of the hill. There were quite a few people up there looking around. There too stood the little stump. They're taking their time replacing that tree!

I returned to the group and they were just finishing off their game before we jumped in cars and drove to Mission Bay to catch up with a few more of Megan's friends. We met this guy who works occasionally for Radio Live (Megan and some of her non-fire-dancing friends studied Bachelor of Communications at AUT so they have jobs at these high profile media companies!!) and it was interesting talking to him!

We went over to a fish-n-chip shop across the road to grab a bite before going back to the park by the fountain to watch all the guys play with some fire. It amazes me how they can do it without burning themselves! You'd never want me swinging those things or juggling sticks on fire! Aonghas and our mum came to join us soon.

It was a good experience in the end and it was good getting to know and talk to people you usually wouldn't associate with who are outside your circle of friends.

Physical Day Out

My brothers and I were invited to come along with some friends to watch National Treasure 2 and then play tennis yesterday. We were told to be ready by 9am, and I had especially set my phone to wake me up at 7.30am. I woke up at that time and had a shower, but still for some reason I was still eating a pie when they came knocking! They all waited outside while us brothers rushed around the house trying to get ready. I didn't think our mum knew we were going to the movies before tennis, so we told her we were going to West City for a wander-around before going to tennis (We went to the movies only a couple weeks ago and we didn't think our mum would like us going to the movies so soon after!).

Finally when we were done we came out and joined them and walked down to West City. We got to the movies but it was too early so we wandered over to Countdown to buy some food. There was some Maori guy busking outside Countdown, singing while playing a guitar. When leaving Countdown, I decided to donate some money to him! I admit it was only 10c, but he was cool he let me take a photo together with him and he even said bye to us as we walked out of Countdown for the second time!

When it was time to watch the movie we went up there, bought our tickets (secondary school students yay!) and went in. Guess who was the person ripping the tickets? None other than Storme, my old primary school buddy! :D

National Treasure 2 wasn't too bad, and had some of those funny moments. It was just as good as National Treasure, although the plot was not as realistic. I won't say anything about it so I won't spoil it for anyone!

Afterwards, Aonghas had to go off to work and we wandered around West City for a while. We were checking out the food at the food court, when I spotted my mum coming around the corner! I quickly warned everyone not to mention anything about the movies before coming up to see her. Turns out it didn't matter in the end as Aonghas let it slip! Our mum actually turned out to be OK with it and even bought Hamish and me some fries to eat for lunch, since I told her I was running out of money!

We all sat at the foodcourt eating lunch while Chen was helping John with some calculus. Yip, John brought his calculus study guide and a calculator with him to West City! They did a few maths problems while Hamish and I ate our chips and looked on, and the girls went off checking out some shops.

We soon got together again and left West City, walking back to our house so that Hamish could go home and I could pick up the tennis gear. We continued on our way, this time to Angie's house where some of the others were to pick up their stuff. We then kept walking and walking and walking...I was just talking to John and got to know a bit more about Caragh, this girl in Aonghas's year who came along too. I was surprised at how we're in a similar situation in many aspects of our lives!

We eventually got to Te Pai Courts where we played a bit of tennis. I was paired up with Angie to play casual doubles against John and Caragh/Deanna (who came along a little later after finishing work). I was a little rusty, or just no good at all to begin with! I kept hitting the tennis ball too hard, with the tennis ball flying over the fence and landing across the road twice! Fortunately I didn't lose the tennis balls since they were Rose's.

Soon the serious games began! Chen and I vs Angie and Rose! We got off to a good start, leading 1-0, but from then on in it all went downhill (probably my fault!). We ended up losing to the girls 1-7. To be fair, Chen and I were complete beginners!

For a period of time I was supposed to be playing against Deanna and Caragh myself, but this Samoan guy came over and asked to join and so I was playing with this random guy for a while!

Chen and I next took on Caragh and Deanna, who were probably beginners at a more extreme level than us, and we ended up beating them 7-2, but they were getting better throughout! Soon after a quick break John and Chen teamed up to face Angie and Rose while the rest of the girls took a break. I just joined them and ended up talking to Caragh and Deanna, and eventually just Deanna when Caragh left, which was cool. I've never really actually talked to her before despite seeing her around the place in the past year since she's in Aonghas's class. It was the complete opposite to certain other people/a certain other person who hardly said much to me at all today, and it cheered me up a bit!

While that was a little bit of a let down I didn't let that ruin a good day out. Right now my thighs and arms are sore from all that tennis! We played right up till 8pm at night! It's probably the most strenuous exercise I've done since bowling at Alex's birthday!

Car Novice

I caught up with an old friend Gus at the car shop the other day when Aonghas and I went in to check out car seat covers. My knowledge of cars is best summed up by this:

Calum: "Nice hub caps you got there!" (Pointing at his car outside)

Gus: "Huh??"

That's where Aonghas stepped in and corrected me, telling me they were mags! After washing our house we moved onto the car, trying to make it look a little better. Aonghas bought some polish for the tyres and the bumper, but while it made it slightly shinier, it didn't cover the scratches and rust the car had, so next we'll have to paint our car!

Our car seats have been falling apart as well, with the stitching coming out, so we had to get new covers to stop them from getting any worse.

Now our car is worth...probably not much more but at least looks slightly better!

Medical Myths!

Some of you may have already read this in the news, but I thought I might just post these top medical misconceptions here because it's pretty interesting and changes a few things we tend to believe in. Some of them are a bit of a relief!

1. Reading in dim light hurts your eyes - There's no scientific backing for this claim. Reading in the dark can cause temporary strain on the eyes but rapidly goes away in bright light.
2. Using cell phones in hospitals is dangerous - There may be signs in hospital waiting rooms but studies have found little or no significant cellphone interference with medical devices
3. Fingernails and hair grow after death - growing fingernails and hair is a very complex hormonal task which cannot happen once you're dead. Once you're dead your skin begins to contract, which gives the impression of nails growing.
4. We use only 10 per cent of our brains - Numerous types of brain imaging studies show that no area of the brain is completely silent or inactive
5. You should drink at least eight glasses of water a day - We get enough water consumption through drinking juice, milk, caffeinated drinks and even food we eat. Drinking too much water can lead to water intoxication
6. Shaved hair grows back faster and coarser - No matter how you cut your hair, it won't change the texture or the speed at which it grows back. Leg hair may appear coarser right as it starts to grow back, but as it grows longer and is exposed to the sun it will begin to look like the hair you started off with

Vreeman, C. & Carroll, A. (2007) Medical Myths. British Medical Journal, 335(7633):1288-9

Also see Newsweek

A Fresh Start

Washing the house! Cool fun! It was the umpteenth time my mum had gone on about how dirty the house was and so I decided it was about time we did something about it so we could move on! We finally got started around midday and worked our way around the house, getting wet and dirty and wrinkly!

We also went to our old neighbour Mrs Simpson's house for a visit, like we usually do around this time each year. This year we visited a little later than usual though, as she had a fall and broke her jaw. She's getting better now though and is doing well for someone who's 84, but her hearing and her sight is deteriorating a little though. Sometimes my dad would have to raise his voice just to be heard!

So it's been a bit of a productive start to the year. I'm determined to make this year a lot different and better after a disastrous 2007 (for various reasons!). A chat with a friend along with my mum going on about how successful all her friends' kids are led me to change my focus. While relationships, personal stuff and all that jazz are important, I shouldn't get too bogged down by them and should be focusing on things that really matter (one of my New Years resolutions for this year!), and should rather be focusing on other things, like TRYING TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD! OK that's a little over-ambitious. I might have to take baby steps first.

So soon in the year and I've already been tested by a certain friend who I don't know what to do about! A sit outside at night to contemplate things did me some good as I realised I've got to get back to basics and start to think more positively! Positivity keeps people happy! I think I've been a bit too negative than usual in the past year which has affected the way I think about things, but this year = positive!

I've started working on a plan or direction for myself, as I desperately need one to get myself back on track. I've realised how I'm capable of doing much better than I have in past years as long as I'm motivated and actually take things seriously and leave no stone unturned! So I decided I'd have a look at the WHO website and what it takes to get a job there. Well...you need international experience and the ability to speak two (but preferably three!!!!) languages. I know English so that's one down, now I've just got to pick up either Arabic, Chinese or Spanish! OK slight obstacle but not impossible to get around, just...difficult! I will keep planning! I still don't know what I'll be studying at uni this year though which makes it a little hard.

I have been thinking about taking Korean as a general education paper at uni, since I can't take Chinese and I think Japanese is full, and so I've started trying to memorise the vowels and consonants of the alphabet. Now I can type something like 바나나 (banana)!! Yeah!! So I'm still right at the very beginning, but one day I might get there! When I told one of my friends about possibly studying Korean at uni, one of my friends did tell me

"Maybe you should focus on Chinese :P"

Anyway to keep up the productive start to 2008, I'm off to clean the car and buy some food for lunch!

Welcoming the New Year

This New Year's Eve was the first time I had gone out and done something different to celebrate New Years besides watching the Sky Tower fireworks. I went over to Sarena's to join her and several others (mostly from Rutherford) to hang out and count down to the new year.

It took a bit of a compromise with my mum to be allowed to go, as she wanted the family to watch the Sky Tower fireworks together as a family. Aonghas wanted to go to a sleepover with his friends and kept pushing my mum to allow him to go though, and she wasn't too happy with that. I thought I better stick with family so I agreed that I would go over to Sarena's till about 11.30pm and then my parents could pick me up and we'd watch the fireworks together.

I admit I waited till Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events had finished before leaving for her house though. I got lost on the way there though, but when I got there the guys were all around the TV playing Guitar Hero, which looks a lot like Singstar, only with a guitar! I managed to have a go at it after a while, trying the easiest song!

Soon everyone moved downstairs to play Singstar. Alex, Nick and Shrikkanth were the keenest singers, while the rest of us enjoyed their beautiful singing. Because we were played this at Sarena's birthday party at her house last year, some people kept thinking they were at Sarena's birthday party!

A while later Alex got out his poker set, and he and Lindsey taught Jacqueline and me how to play. Together with Larry, we had a few rounds. Larry was really confident and bet all his chips and Lindsey advised me to match it. Surprisingly I managed to win, which I still don't understand completely! The game died after that though!

Singstar continued for a little while longer but closer to midnight the fireworks was handed out and everyone grabbed incense sticks. My mum and Hamish came along and decided to just park outside on the road besides Sarena's house where they could see the Sky Tower. We lined up the fireworks on the grassy area opposite Sarena's house, ready to set them alight at midnight. I raced to my mum and Hamish just to let them know what was going on and encourage them to join us, when the disjointed countdown started. I dashed back to the fireworks, and as soon as we were given the sign, everyone lit their fireworks, except for Shrikkanth and me! We couldn't get ours going! Shrikkanth ran back and set us off, and I tried to get back, dodging the falling debris and avoiding inhaling the smoke. I tried to set my fireworks off again but to no avail! This time I enlisted the help of Alex, and got it going, but when it went going, the fireworks shot all over the place! Apparently it was a dud, and I since I was running away from it I had no idea. There was a car parked very close by where the fireworks were set off, so fortunately the fireworks didn't hit any houses or cars!

Once 2008 arrived, we all stood there on Sarena's drive hugging and shaking hands with each other, wishing a happy New Years to everyone. While people had casual chats and discussed whether they would go into town or not, Alex and David had an arm wrestling match on the grass while a few others just lay there staring up into the sky. I wasn't allowed to go into town (I'm still a clubbing virgin!!) and because my mum and Hamish were waiting I thought I better not hold them up for too long, so I decided I better wish everyone a Merry Chr..Happy New Year before leaving!

What a great way to welcome in the new year, with friends and family!

Happy New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008!!!

Another year has just started! May it be a great year for you all, and an even more prosperous and special year than 2007 ever was! I certainly will be hoping that it will be! I marked the arrival of 2008 by setting off, or rather trying to set off some fireworks outside Sarena's house, which went AWOL and fortunately didn't burn a car down! I'll type up more about my New Year's Eve in the next post, but for now just a look at how my New Year's resolutions have gone:

2007 New Years Resolutions Review:

1. To get over the girl(s) I like/have liked this year and in the past, and to start afresh in 2007! Make a new close friend with a girl or even find a girlfriend if I'm lucky! haha!

Hmmm well no girlfriend (not even close!), and I have gotten over a certain girl I've liked in the past which is good! A new close female friend...well...I guess this year I've really gotten to know Angie and Alice well..

2. Continue to keep in touch REGULARLY with my friends both at uni and also the ones fortunately still at school ;) ( At least visit those lucky souls at Rutherford once a term or something!)

I've done that!! I'm sure I've visited Rutherford as well, maybe not as often as possible but I didn't want to be seen as being too attached to that place! haha
- Term 1: went back for Scholars Assembly
- Term 2: went back for school production
- Term 3: went back for Rutherford Day and Aonghas' music assessments
- Term 4: went back for Luv Musik Concert and prize-giving, to also do some filming for the Leavers DVD

3. To pass everything at uni whether I decide to do Health Sci, Biomed or Law with nothing less than B+ (and don't lose my scholarship)

Yeah sorta...

4. Make two really good close friends!

See above! Not too sure how close I am to them yet but I've made about 5-6 really good uni friends too

5. Continue to take 5 photos a week

OK not exactly 5 photos a week but I've tried to take photos when possible and not looking like some dodgy stalker

6. Get fit by doing regular exercise

FAILED

7. Find another part-time job, buy a cellphone and text people!

- Part-time job: nearly....but FAILED
- I did buy a cellphone!!
- I have been texting people occasionally but still a little lazy!

2008 New Years Resolutions:

1. To become close with another person or even closer with an existing friend (bonus points if its a female or if I find a girlfriend...need to add that in for the third year in a row haha)
2. To resume studying, practising and speaking more Chinese (either Mandarin or Cantonese)
3. To find a part-time job - anything, as long as I can get some pay! If not, find some volunteer work to get something to add to my CV
4. Join a gym and do regular exercise, or if not, do regular exercise at home, at least 20 minutes a week
5. To get nothing less than A- in ALL my papers for whichever degree I end up doing (yep I've set standards higher, thanks for the pep-talk Alice! We shall prevail!!)
6. Take more video than photos but continue to try take 5 photos a week
7. To keep in touch with all my existing friends
8. To get the right balance between studying and socialising
9. To Get more involved with at least one club (possibly moving up the ranks or networking with the right people!) and participate more in activities of clubs I join
10. To spend LESS!

Those do sound a lot like my New Years resolutions of 2007 don't they? Oh well let's make this my second attempt at them!