failure, my middle name

52 week project.....so that didn't last long but i'm back and i'm going to give you an abridged version of where i've been in the past 7 weeks (with some photos)

6/52: finally went to the new topshop that opened up on chapel street in melbourne

7/52: went to this new burger joint called strange wolf, quite tasty

wolf burger (grilled beef, caramelised onion, pickles, mozzarella, roma tomato & iceberg lettuce), chips in some crazy bamboo paper cone and sauce in a shot glass

8/52: danvy came back from vietnam so we went to the new cold rock that opened up near us. it was also oweek at uni that week so i didn't really go anywhere too exciting (not that the places i've been have been too exciting) but that was still fun! i pretty much didn't need to buy lunch for the whole week. oh actually, i did go to the shooting range for the first time ever, quite fun. lol.

the loot i got from oweek: 3 bags, clear pocket, a4 notebook, a5 notebook, metlink notepad, a6 notebook, commonwealth notepad, a7 notepad, msa sticky notes, supreme chef instant rice, 3 uncle bens, mi goreng in a cup, karma kup, shapes pack, coke zero 200ml, 2 instant coffee, 2 ecd highlighter/pen, chupa chup, 2 bottle openers, yarra badge, mini highlighter, zip up lanyard, 2 sunnies, stubbie holder, pencilcase, wall calendar, movie ticket, cinema membership, 2 uncle bens coupons, 8 subway coupons, wholefoods coffee coupon

shooting range

9/52: i started my new job as a waiter for a catering company that week so...that takes me to somewhere new pretty much every week, cheating, i know, but whatevs. this week (my first shift) was at the royal brighton yacht club. it was hectic. mainly because they didn't really provide any training and sort of just 'threw me into the deep end' i.e. handing me a tray with like 12 drinks to walk around with

10/52: work took me to the boulevard this week in kew. it was also the first bar mitzvah i've ever been to (i work for a kosher company) it was crazy. also went to the randy dragon for some drinks with friends, nice bar, music was too loud.

11/52: st patty's day was on last saturday so that took me around to a few new places like collins street's bridie o'reilly's (2 locations down, 1 to go) and this place called dude, where's my club? good drinks, good music. also tried guinness for the first time, contrary to what people say, i like the taste, the texture and how it downs down though is another story.... my catering job also took me to armadale bowls for my first bat mitzvah (note baT and not baR from previous week)

and now we're here, at week 12. exciting. not really.

now here's one of the cutest things to (hopefully) brighten your day :)

you can't hurt spiderman!!

twice the fun

5 / 52 WEEK PROJECT: 31/01/2012

because i'm shocking at sticking to things and don't lead an extraordinary life or anything, i've decided to post about TWO places i went to in the 5th week of 2012 that i've never been to before with accompanying photos taken by google maps and the website of the listed location. hah.

1. That cafe on the corner of Degraves St and Flinders Ln
i've walked past this place so many times but never went in or bought anything from this place because....i had no reason to? for some reason i feel like if i'm going to eat somewhere along degraves street or flinders lane i should go with someone, i know i have flawless logic. anyway, my friend and i went for coffee and ended up at this place, though neither of us actually bought coffee. i actually still have no idea what the name of this place is, hence the title "that cafe on the corner of Degraves St and Flinders Ln".

they do a nice peppermint tea.

2. Donkey Wheel House
after the above activity we went to this gallery that was being held by bus projects at this place called donkey wheel house, basically this building that has rooms and spaces for people to hire for events and whatnot. bus project is "an independent contemporary arts initiative that promotes the experimental fields of performance, sound art and spatial practice" (obviously my own words there) anyway the main reason we went was because it was free, i'm broke aaaand i always see something being held at donkey wheel house and wanted to see just exactly what donkey wheel house is. the place is actually pretty cool and the gallery was held underground. the galleries itself were....interesting.

one of them was called Frame Seductions and basically what happens is someone stands in front of this screen and there's a camera attached to it. on the screen is a room and every time the person in front of the screen looks/twists their body to the left or right the screen follows along and you can see what's to the left and right of the room on the screen. don't worry, it didn't make sense when i read it either.

the second gallery was called Failed Gardiner III. the III struck us as a little bit odd and we thought maybe the first one was just 'Gardiner' and the second one was something like 'Gardiner Take 2' and then finally it just turned into 'Failed Gardiner' terrible, i know. it all had something to do with plants (surprise!) there were really nicely drawn plants with eyes placed somewhere in the plant, i'm not quite sure what it was telling me because i'm not a very cultured(?) or deep(?) person LOL there were also these cacti in glass boxes and one hung from the ceiling which made me even more confused than the drawings...i think it was because they were being sold and the glass boxes were pretty large and i was thinking about where one might place such an item in one's house....i wish i took photos so you'd have a slight understanding of what i'm talking about, but here's the room of where the cacti and drawings were (minus the wooden planks and wall on the right hand side)

the cactus that was hanging from the ceiling was in that back part of the wall that's hollowed in, yup.

it happened 2.0

4 / 52 WEEK PROJECT: 27/01/2012
BRIGHTON BEACH AND ELSTERNWICK

had a catch up with le vcess people (i know, i know, you're sick of hearing about it but this should be the last post about it.....i think) and went to beach day 2! this time at brighton beach...and without the students. later we went to elsternwick for some mexican dinner and drinks in the park playing never have i ever....i now know more than i ever needed to know about some of these people.....hah.

diggin' holes in the sand

it happened!

3 / 52 WEEK PROJECT: 17/01/2012
SOUTH MELBOURN BEACH

we're back on the topic of vcess!! every year the vcess program holds a beach day, however in the past 3 years melbourne's temperamental weather has not allowed for this beach day to happened. so this year, determined as ever and armed with the line "beach day....it's gunna happen!".......IT FINALLY HAPPENED! there was a period at the beach where it we yelled out "it's happening!!" oh yeah! we know our past, present and future tenses!

conga line through the not so clean but still nice beach of south melbourne!

burying our activities admiral!

anyway vcess has probably been the best time i've had all summer, even the part where i was shit scared because i had to teach or at least place a base foundation of maths methods to 10 or so students and not fuck up. it was like my own little world and nothing on the outside world could penetrate it. i went into it barely knowing one person and met some of the nicest and quirkiest and best people and loved hanging out with all of them. we battled through mau, summer school ruled uno, pmsing melbourne weather on scav hunt day, no frat-ting, non air con'd boiling tram rides to south melbourne beach, sweating our weights worth in onesies at trivia, silently dying on trains and trams to make those 9am classes and it was GREAT. definitely going to be there for vcess13.

ily group k!

*tear

*double tear (if you can't see it, the question on the surveys was "what was the best part of the programme?" and my group answered with "kellen".....and i didn't even tell them to write that!)

there's a first time for everything

i figured because it's still january i can still reminisce about last year so, a recap of 2011..

first time i:

• went to queensland
• went to uni camp
• got accepted into/started uni
• did an engineering subject
• did an arts subject
• genuinely thought that i was going to fail (and was scared about it)
• wrote a 2000+ word essay
• handed in an essay/assignment over a week late
• learnt how to properly reference
• drank until i threw up
• applied for 30+ jobs
• worked an office job
• got my license
• (part) bought a car
• slept in my car
• crashed my car..
• skipped my lectures due to pure laziness
• got a P, C, D and HD (OH YEAHH, got all the different marks already)
• volunteered for a music festival
• went to a uni trivia night
• went to a uni ball
• stayed at crown towers
• stayed at crown promenade
• used a towel as a blanket
• got my RSA
• sewed my own costume
• spent more than i earned
• went on tutor camp for VCESS
• found myself in a position where i knew absolutely no one (x4)
• became a committee member of a club
• helped out uni bbqs
• put a bookshelf together by myself
• made a youtube video
• lived below the line
• raised $800+ for charity
• bought a laptop
• had a real hard think about what i'm doing with my life
• realised i have no idea what i'm doing with my life
• rethought my entire uni course
• decided i actually really enjoy my uni course
• snuck out
• went to summadayze
• saw the wombats/(fck'n) pond!/MGMT/city calm down/bag raiders/miami horror/hungry kids of hungary/kate miller-heidke/little red live
• met people from a band
• met dominic, taka, quang and adrian from little red (and had a beer with them :D)
• went on a road trip
• went to venus bay
• drove at 130km/h
• drove to ballarat and back (x2)
• saw a midnight session for a movie (HP7 P2)
• dressed up for a (midnight session) movie
• turned 18! (though this really only happens once and every birthday is technically a first)
• used someone else's ID (and it worked) (x4)
• went clubbing legally
• got kicked out of a club
• got rejected from a club
• drank legally
• got stuck at a pub at 3am because they were closing and we had no way of getting home
• did aerospace engineering subjects
• bought a uni book and never used it
• sold stuff on ebay
• bought stuff off etsy
• etc

2011 was a good year, no, an extraordinary year.

to two too

2 / 52 WEEK PROJECT: 11/01/2012
ENGLISH "LIBRARY" (MELBOURNE UNI)

i've been volunteering for this program called vce summer school (vcess) run by the university of melbourne and it's been AWESOME (but more on that probably in the next post). we had a scav hunt and one of them was to take a photo of 3 libraries and one of the closest ones to where we were was the english library in the john medley building, i don't know, just go with it. this was actually a bit of a challenge because i go to an entirely different uni and the only places that i know how to get to are the union house and the pretty, green lawn. so when the other group leader told me to go to the english library by going through the side door of john medley, go up the elevator to level 2, turn left and keep going until you see it, i was like oh yeah, i can do this, sounds easy enough aaaand then she said "it looks like a closet" *cue scepticism....um okay, yeah sure i mean maybe it's just a small library, whatever, i'm sure i'll see it, it's a library, how could i miss it? i missed it. completely.

in the end i ask what seemed like the only other person in the building and luckily because, i mean, C'MON, HOW IS THIS A LIBRARY??!

this. is. not. a. library. this is just a room with shelves and books! grr.

in the beginning

after a quick 2 week hiatus, meticulous editing and customising codes, layouts and the sorts i've decided to come back!.....as well has finally finding time to be able to blog :) so....

1 / 52 WEEK PROJECT: 06/01/2012
POWERHOUSE MUSEUM (SYDNEY)

the first week of 2012 involved a lot of good times and a lot of bad feelings (sort of)*. okay so i've actually been to sydney quite a while ago, like when i was 13(?) but the places i went to this time were a bit different. my friends and i wanted to go see the harry potter exhibition at powerhouse museum in sydney and we live in melbourne....so we did. we originally planned to go for like, a day, then just one night...then we ended up going 2.5 days / 2 nights. but it was good. the harry potter exhibition was AMAZING, all the little intricate detailing that you don't get in the movie, the outfits, EVERYTHING. it was awesome. this was actually the first time i went to a museum since...i can't even remember. i mean i've been meaning to go to the melbourne museum for a while now but just "haven't found the time" <insert other typical reasons people don't do the things they say they want to do> we weren't allowed to take photos going through the exhibit so here's a photo of powerhouse museum on the outside:

anyway, because i'm lazy and i like lists here's a list of other things:
- first time i stayed at a hostel....it was um, interesting, like, we heard some guy eating cereal or something that requires a spoon and bowl at 3am in the morning
- some germans came running up to us when we were taking photos and insisted we take photos
- we met a "flaming homo" - his words, not mine - while trying to find our way back
- we tried the best(?) malaysian restaurant in sydney
- we tried chatime for the firstime (getid? i'm so witty).....to find that we actually have chatime in melbourne
- first time i went to kings cross (pretty much the red district of sydney....and some guy got stabbed there a week before we went)
- went on a buffet cruise around sydney tourist and sightseeing places
- etc.

here are some polaroids of the lovely ladies i went to sydney with:

from top left clockwise: kerny, chloe, julia, me (lol)

*why some bad feelings were involve with a seemingly awesome trip:
long story short but not quite a tl;dr size....i didn't tell my parents i was going to sydney (and here comes the) BECAUSE i'm a terrible child. LOLjk. not really. so what happened was i got back from china on the 1st of january (correct, i spent midnight on a plane which was pretty much like, what? new years? when did that happen? anyway.) and pretty much just slept, ate and showered. 2nd came and i don't know just didn't tell mum (dad was still in china at this time) and then on the 3rd i went back to work and didn't really see mum that day then on the 4th i was like "oh, should probably tell mum" but just forgot or something then the 5th came and we were leaving that afternoon and i figured it was too late, just, too late; so instead i just told her that i was staying over at my friends for her birthday down in some whoop whoop town. except....she just assumed i meant one night so mum texted me the next day asking if i was coming home for dinner, oh yeah totally mum LOLjk i was still in sydney so i just texted her back saying that it was late and i was just going to crash at my friends that night too. next day came and we had an evening flight but stuff happened and i get a text from mum saying i should be back by now and it was 8pm and we were at kfc in i don't know, somewhere in melbourne and didn't get back until almost 11pm and she was like oh cool, you're home, laters bro. (and by "laters bro" it was more of a "i'm going to go to sleep now") SO I FELT SUPER AWFUL THAT I LIED TO MY MUM LIKE THAT FOR LIKE 2-3 DAYS. I HATE LYING, ESPECIALLY TO MY PARENTS. not saying that i don't lie to them, but nothing ever like this -_________- here's the kicker though, wait for it, my friends kept checking us in on facebook everywhere we went and my friends were like "wait does you're brother know you're in sydney?" lol nope "oh won't he see all these check-in" ohhhh shi-oh wait no, i don't have him on faceboo-oh shit. i have his girlfriend on facebook. but anyway, turns out, she asked my brother how long i was going to be in sydney in and he was like "what the what?" so he eventually found and was like lolwtf? etc. i'm too lazy to type / this is a huge, HUGE chunk of writing.

anyway, back to irrelevance, we went to darling harbour during the nights and it's so pretty. ily fairy lights.

THE END.