But it makes it so shiny!

So I logged on to the Online Tutor service last night to see if anyone had asked questions that could be helpful for my Business Finance assignment. I should have known better.

Question:
Can I bind and laminate my assignment? If my assignment is bound and laminated, do I bind the Scan Sheet along with my answers to Section B as well? Or do I submit it separately?

Answer:
NEVER LAMINATE YOUR ASSIGNMENT! We are not going to hang it up on the wall for posterity, but we do need to mark it. Laminating it makes it difficult to mark. You should hand in the Pearson scan sheet seperately from part b of the assignment. There will be a seperate box to hand in the Pearson scan sheet from the other part of your assignment. Do not bind your assignment just staple all of part b together with the declaration on the front cover.

You tell him, Online Tutor!

Where do these people come from? Nevermind that there already were clear instructions on the coversheet of the assignment detailing exactly how you are to hand in your assignment. Oh Online Tutor, I feel your pain!

Before I sign off to do another assignment, I feel the need to mention again just how much I love ultimate frisbee at Melbourne Uni and everyone in it.

---

Well, laminating it does mean I can produce that cool fwop fwop wobble fwop sound...

Weekends - blink and you'll miss them.

Unfortunately for me, there appears to be a strong positive correlation between amount of work and frequency of blog updates. It's bound to be my undoing, sooner or later. I can't believe it's already week 5 of semester. Especially since general revision and study stagnated circa week 2. And the Easter break, still two long weeks away!

This fleeting weekend only served to exacerbate the work situation. Nonetheless, it was a wholly enjoyable weekend. The finicky weather ruined perfectly good plans for a birthday picnic down at King's Domain on Saturday, which had to be relocated indoors (Nicky's/Ong's housemate's/Honey captain's/birthday boy's girlfriend's apartment, as it happened). It worked out well in the end, and I spent the afternoon playing with Nicky's lizard, eating and making friends with a group of Swedish exchange students, including an Emille, who stood at a dizzying height of 206cm. Gawp.

After that, Ong and I made our way to Rob's housewarming near where I live. Oh man, what a great house. The spacious, high-ceilinged living room has a jam-space with maybe 6 guitars, 3 amps and a couple of pedals, the TV area has a sound system, projector and a Nintendo Wii and the alcohol rack in the corner was well-stocked with bottles and bottles of wine and a few liqueurs - clearly the essentials of modern-day living.

Speaking of the Wii, how cool are its wireless motion-sensor controllers? They take a bit of getting used to, but it's a whole new gaming experience. Highlights of the night include me smashing everyone and setting a record at bowling with a score of 190 on the Wii (See, people kept trying to put fancy spins on their bowl, while I just slam it straight down the lane. Guess we know what works :), Ong fashioning a makeshift handcuff on me with two glow sticks, the engineer that he is (Oh wait, it's the wrong kind of engineering. Nevermind.) and most of all, the great company and excellent atmosphere.

Sunday morning was not so good. I did however, wake up to the happy realisation of gaining an hour thanks to daylight saving. But then I had to up and get ready for a Honey v. Ishtar (grudge) match, and the sun was too hot, I forgot my cap, I was somewhat dehydrated and yeah, it wasn't a pretty match. I got home exhausted and was horrified to find my skin all dry and crinkly. The words "premature ageing of skin" immediately popped into my head following a snippet of a conversation I heard just before the match when everyone was sunscreening up.

[a heavily edited and ad-libbed transcript]

Jo: You don't put sunscreen on your legs! You should! Prevents premature ageing of skin...
Nicky: Not if I botox my whole leg!

[/transcript]

Unlike Nicky, I wasn't too keen on botoxing my limbs, and hence wasted no time in getting clean and moisturising. Tried to study after that, took a nap instead. Woke up, had dinner, studied some and here I am. Hour or so past my bedtime.

I am so going to regret this tomorrow...

She speaks of the weather and of love.

I've become such a lazy blogger, I know. And when I finally decide to up and do it, I just end up grousing about the weather. Case in point:

The weather has been uncomfortably muggy the last few days, but heck, today's was worst. According to the statistics, temperatures peaked at about 37C, which no doubt occured at the exact period when I walked home from uni. Nature has that kind of a humour.

So I eventually made it back to the apartment, feeling like I'd just trudged through a vat of warm glue. Then the wind started howling outside my window, just in time for a pick-up game of frisbee at 5pm. After much swallowing of dust, chasing and retrieving frisbees 100m away from where they started and many turnovers later, the wind very suddenly turned chill. It was wonderfully refreshing, until 2 minutes later, huge, fat drops of rain started pelting down on us. They were icy and stung a bit. By the time we made it to Rob's car, we were smelly, cold and sopping wet. This was probably the 18C low the statistics were yammering on about.

Despite such unforgiving conditions, pick-up still managed to be fun, and great dinner and company at a nearby pub after more than compensated for it.

Apart from the weather, my life in general has been just peachy. Now and then I work myself up into enough of a state to review all those lectures and tutorials I've fallen behind in, and most other times I'm playing frisbee, grumbling about FMAA work or daydreaming about that someone in my life. Let's call him Ong. :)

He's probably grinning at this most uncharacteristic blogmention, and rightly so. I've never blogged much, or anything at all, on the subject of my love life. Too personal, too transient, too non-existent - take your pick. But many good things have happened since that happy serendipity that brought us together; one cannot help but immortalise those memories, this happiness, in some medium other than our sometimes unreliable minds.

On that note, dear readers, I bid you goodnight.

Gmail's been down for over an hour now since I last tried to log in. I feel so displaced. I can't manoeuvre the internet without the reassuring presence of the Gmail window in the background! And my inbox! Gaaaaah. *refreshrefreshrefresh* It's not like Gmail to be down for more than a few minutes.

*fidgets*

So I came back to Aus a little over a week ago...

[Edit: Of course, just as I decide to blog about my misery, Gmail comes back on. Thank you. Now I can relax.]

It's been ridiculously hectic since uni started. I may be exaggerating only just a little bit. I've joined Honey, one of the women's frisbee teams, which turned out to be a fairly big commitment. Coupled with the FMAA workload, I'm starting to wonder if I can hold out till club season is over. I haven't even factored in uni work yet, but at times like these, I am thankful for the relatively slack Commerce course.

Nonetheless, it's good to be back. The first few days were deliciously languorous, spent in a little happy, silly, floaty bubble, unfettered by work and other less enjoyable things. I got a new Acer laptop, which came preloaded with Vista. Apart from some minor compatibility issues, for all my working purposes, it's very slick (and sleek).

I have nothing funny or interesting to say, so it's best that I quit while I'm ahead. Though whether I am actually ahead may be a matter of some dispute.