Melbourne day 1 continued

Melbourne is awesome. The people here are really friendly and social. Most of the people I've met today have been international backpacker's but a few have been genuine melbournians. I ran into a few dutch backpackers on the bus out of the airport who were telling me about their experiences in Australia thus far - I'll be drinking with them tomorrow night for sure. Also while having dinner in a Thai place I met an Irish / Australian bloke who had been living here for quite some time - I'll also be drinking with him tomorrow. The hostel was the most social though because I met so many different people from Europe. One guy who has the bed just below mine has an extremely american accent but is actually from Belgium. While I was drinking with him I tried very hard not to bring up the conversation of beer with him because I knew he would know more. Did you know that monks make beer in Belgium. How badass is that?

In other news I've made it a mission of mine to drink a beer in every pub I n the city. Tomorrow us going to be fun...

Melbourne day 1

I'm currently waiting at the airport for my flight to Melbourne. I've booked my accommodation for 3 nights which means I'll be home on Sunday. Matt Gates was kind enough to drop me off at the airport today which meant I didn't have to catch a super expensive train in. Sadly nothing out of the ordinary has happened worth commenting about - everybody is behaving in that expected ultra independent and successful businessman kind of way.

I plan to meet up with a friend on Friday afternoon. He's a Dutch friend of mine that I made while in Texas. He offered me a place to stay near the beach just a few hours after I booked my 14 bedroom dorm hostel. Its probably for the best that I don't stay in his house though because I kind of want to meet new people which can most easily be done at a hostel.

My excitement for Melbourne is slowly being weighed down by the boring and professional atmosphere of the passengers waiting around me. I kinda wish I was in line longer for the baggage check - but sadly airports have to be efficient. I've noticed one woman who was behind me in the baggage check who was restlessly shuffling to the front of the queue in that 'I've got things to do! Let me through' kind of way - she's now trying to fall asleep in a disturbingly awkward posture just a few seats away from me.

This type of professional impatience ego is something I never want to have. So maybe that is what this trip should be about? Being young wild and free before my soul gets crushed by the weight of a full time job.  Strip clubs here I come!

Explosive performances

Day 442

Despite our best efforts, the cockroaches are winning the war. Myself and a few others banded together to form 'the resistance', but lack of motivation and laziness runs through the ranks too fiercely. In the meanwhile, we've noticed a growing ant population competing for food in the kitchen. This insect civil war might just buy us some time. Rumor has it that a company not too far away has invented a "bug bomb" - a small scale nuclear bomb that would make Hiroshima look like a marshimello fire. If we pool our resources together, we could turn the tide.

In other news, the UNSW e Learning forum YouTube video just got released. This is the video that featured me and 3 other students panelists talk about how Online learning has a part to play in the future of UNSW education. Now before you click on this Hyperlink, I want you to know that I was nervous! There are many scenes of me fidgeting with my thumb ring and watch. There are also many scenes of me absentmindedly staring into the camera like a complete dunce. So please! For my sake, DON'T watch this video with any expectation that I will sound i) intelligent ii) rehearsed or even iii) literate

DO

NOT

WATCH

THIS

VIDEO

WITHOUT

WATCHING

A

VIDEO

OF

YOURSELF

AS

A

4 YEAR OLD

EATING

SPAGHETTI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JL_VerRhD0

Cockroaches, roommates and twins

Day 432.

Cockroaches have taken over the household. Supplies and hygene are at an all time low. We tried spraying the house with "raid", but to no effect. They've already evolved to withstand biological warfare. Also, I'm pretty sure "raid" is just carbonated flavored water. There are so many of them crawling through the kitchen that I can't get a glass of water after midnight anymore without putting shoes on first. A few other brave men and I have taken it upon ourselves to fight back the only way we know how - by using mindless violence. There's a box of tissues by the bench top in the kitchen which has only one purpose - and sadly, it's not for cleaning.

A new roommate moved in today. His name is Harry and he's from England working at the Randwick racecourse as a horse looker afterer. He's pretty cool and super chill. I originally wanted to leave the spot available for a week so that Matt Gates could move in immediately if he wanted to when he came back from China. But splitting 1 weeks rent 5 ways wasn't cool with the other guys so I took a serious stab at the gumtree advertisement. The best part about this arrangement is that Harry has already claimed that he can move out in February if Matt wants to move in.

In other news, I've found my evil genius nemesis at work today. He's pretty much exactly like me, but better in every way imaginable. His name is Gim and he is an Asian mastermind. Here are the some of the ways this guy is exactly like me, but better:
1) He and I were the only undergraduates working for Professor Prusty. Except I took 5 years to graduate and he only took 4.
2) He and I both created online tutorials. Except he created his faster and without coding bugs.
3) I tutored 1 subject last semester. He tutored 3.

It's times like these where I recall back to one of my fathers sayings: "You'll never be the best at anything. But don't worry, because you'll never be the worst either". Thanks Dad.

FuUUuUUuuck I still haven't purchased my beer making kit! Why did I choose the lead up to Christmas as a time to buy my expensive equipment? I think i'll wait till Jan.

Beer

So I went to a party yesterday with the intention of politely (arrogantly) bragging about my new drive to brew my own beer. The first person I happened to sit next to was [This comment has been censored by the Abbot Government. All hail Abbot]. I began with

"Hey man, guess what?"

"whu..?"

"I'M BREWING MY OWN BEER"

"Oh cool man. What type of hops do you plan on using? Are you going to use the standard coopers kit? Or are you going to be creative?"

"Ummm, I don't know yet. I'm still looking for good deals on eBay. I reckon I'll have a batch brewing by next month! You seem to know a little bit about brewing beer. Have you been watching YouTube videos too?"

"Nah man, I've been brewing my own beer for years now. **holds up an unlabeled beer** This is a batch 20."


Before my jaw could hit the floor, another friend of mine, [This comment has been censored by the Abbot Government. All hail Abbot], chimed into the conversation saying:

"Hey guys, d'ya brew your own beer too? The temperature fluctuation has been so bad for my latest batch, eh? I was just telling ____ that I might have to start investing an a isolation chamber"

At that moment [This comment has been censored by the Abbot Government. All hail Abbot] came up to us. He was on the lease for the house and stated talking about how his latest batch hadn't hadn't quite digested all the yeast yet. He then proceeded to walk into the next room and pull about a bunch of full bottles of his home brew.

I suddenly felt ill. I think it was due to all the commercialized unsanitary beer I'd been drinking. I made a few quick goodbyes and left. Since when did brewing your own beer become so mainstream? I wanted to be new and original and stuff. Now i'll be just another alcoholic hobo trying to save money. Fuuuu

On the bright side my new Pikachu vs Squirtle artwork is coming along nicely.

Graduation

I'm done! The last exam I might ever do was completed on the 19 of November. I'm not quite free yet though, I still work part time (only 5 hrs a week though) and I still have a few chores to do which keep me on my toes. I've created a list of things I need to do on my 1 month holiday before I start full time. The first on that list was to drink every last drop of delicious wheat beer given to me by my neighbors. After I did that, my list was pretty much complete so I wrote out a new list on the back of a napkin. Here it is:

1) Find the name of the German beer I drank.
2) Start Brewing my own beer (seriously, this is going to happen. Get excited)
3) Get fit (or fitter) ((or just be less of a fatass))
4) Get involved in beach volleyball at Coogee beach on Saturdays
5) Travel to Melbourne
6) Do an online coding course
7) Learn to cook a few decent meals (that includes at least 1 healthy meal).
8) Play BioShock
9) Make squirtle vs Pikachu bottle cap artwork
10) Use the phrase "Trust me, I'm an Engineer" as much as possible. Even in circumstances where it doesn't apply.

And that's pretty much it. I want it to be a realistic list this time. When I graduated high school I made this list of 100 things I wanted to do. I'm pretty sure I burned the list on the 23rd day or something like that because I couldn't handle other people knowing that I didn't become the; guitar playing, figure skating Olympian I had set out to be.

In the meantime I've got to juggle these self improvement goals with the chore of finding a new housemate. Anna gave us like 3 months warning that she was leaving to move in with a friend of hers. But some things which should not be forgotten were lost - History become legend, legend became myth and for two and a half thousand hours the room passed out of all knowledge, until when chance came, I was given the job of finding a new roommate. But LOTR references aside, this is actually a good opportunity for me to get Matt Gates (a friend from way back) to live with us next semester. It'll be pretty badass to have an arts student and an Engineer living under the same roof - I smell a sitcom brewing.

Speaking of Brewing, i'm buying my own brew kit. I still know pretty much nothing about brewing beer, but does it matter? I'm sure I can take a few shortcuts along the way. I mean, I'll probably end up inventing the next super beer by accident. Trust me, I'm an Engineer.

I was bored at work yesterday so I played around in excel and figured out the grades I need for this semester to get first class honors. Sadly however, I realized I need a 90+ average for each subject. This is pretty unrealistic since I don't think I did that great in my first exam. It's still possible though (TMIAE) so the grade release date is going to be a pretty suspenseful moment because it means I can either JUST make 1st class honors or JUST miss out on it by less than a single WAM point.

Halloween

So Halloween is truly over. Animal House tried to keep it alive as long as possible, but to no avail. The fake blood is dried up, the red punch bowl is empty and the little plastic spiders are now scattered under the furniture. Overall the party was good. Flip cup was a success even though I was definitely not on my A-game. Suprisingly I didn't manage to embarrass myself too much either (with the exception of that time I thought a girl had dressed up as a cave troll). Awkward.

Anywho, the weekend is over and now I'm trying to hit the books again. It's very tough. I dislike both subjects quite a lot so motivation levels are pretty low at the moment.