28 April, 2008

While I procrastinate.

"Australian-Asian" takes a long time to say, but you can't shorten it to "Australasian" because Australasia is already a thing.

And "Ausian" is too strange a word for people to pronounce universally.

15 April, 2008

100 Things About eM

On Ben Chong's orders (I seem to do a bit of blogging on his orders... Bossy) here is a blogitty blog of 100 things about me, Emily.

1. I was born on the 25th of July, 1990. I was alive (in the womb) for about three months of the eighties, so now I can claim that I was alive in the eighties!

2. My name is Emily Kate Wood. I've posted a blog before about what my name means, and how I don't really adore the meaning/s of it, but here's a refresher:
Emily:
Rival, Emulating, Striving, Industrious.
Kate
(Form of Catherine): Pure.
Wood: ...tree? Probably and ancestor of mine worked with wood.
My middle name, 'Kate', was after our convict ancestor Catherine Kearney. We went to Tasmania to celebrate the 200 year anniversary of her landing (as a convict) in Australia. Woo.

3. I am the youngest of four children. I think I've had a lot of independence to build because of this; I never had to look after a younger sibling, I always had people looking after me.

4. I am an aunty five times. To Eliza, Jesse, Zachariah, Asher, and Baby X. I love being an aunty, even though I do get tired of just 'playing' non-stop.

5. I am generally an arty sort of person. I love to draw and paint. I like to think I'm fairly good at it, but I know I'm not fantastic, because these last few years I've hardly practised at all.

6. I am a Christian. I grew up in a Christian home, which I'm sure contributed a lot to it, but I'm definitely running on my own faith now, rather than my parents'. I feel like I should write more. But there's not much more to it, really. I love God, he loves me, I try to live like Jesus did.

7. My parents split up at the end of 2005. I don't really talk about this much, and it's not something I'd generally post on the World Wide Web, but it's such a large part of my life right now that I don't think I can write a list of 100 things about me without mentioning it.

8. Anyone who knows me will be able to tell you that I'm a horrible procrastinator. It's not something I'm proud of, and I've tried to work on it pretty much all my school life, to no avail.
But I feel like I'm making some sort of progress. It's not just about making a timetable. It's about discipline, and changing your mindset.

9. I am introverted and shy. Used to be extremely so. I'm learning not to be so shy, but I'm still very introverted. I like being introverted.

10. I love music. I used to hate a lot of types of music (i.e. rap, techno, and rnb) but lately I started liking most music. There is still music I don't like, but I enjoy music a bunch more now that I like more music, savvy?
I love getting 'lost' in a song, if you'll allow me to be extremely hackneyed for a moment, but I love the atmosphere a song creates, and the story it tells. I love pretending that my life is a movie and the song playing is part of the soundtrack. Some music makes me cry.

11. I also love movies! I will watch any type of film really, as long as it's made well. I really love films that make you think about things. I love films with good cinematography. I love short films and foreign films.

12. I'm female. Just in case you hadn't picked that up yet.

13. I love grammar and language and words. I love reading about grammar and learning about where our language comes from and how to use it correctly. I love how words have meanings attached to them, and how certain combinations of words can inspire or motivate, give you shivers or fill you with horror.

14. I love graphic design. It makes me as happy as grammar. I don't love bad graphic design. It makes me cringe.

15. I don't have one favourite colour. I just can't choose one, they're all so gosh darn good. I do have favourite colours for different things though. My favourite colour for cucumber is green. My favourite colour for lipstick is not green, etc.

16. I love making other people happy. Sometimes to the point of being a people pleaser and a pushover. This is bad but I'm working on it.

17. When I first started this list, this point read 'I don't drink'. But now, that has changed and I do drink. One time I was stressed out so my mum gave me a beer? Good to see you're teaching me responsible habits, mum.

18. If I had the money and the time, I would be interested in fashion. But I would still shop at op shops a lot. As it is, I don't have the money or the time, most of my shopping is done at op shops and target. Also I think money wasted on expensive brands can be better spent elsewhere.

19. I have never kissed a boy/had a boyfriend. I feel strange writing that? Also, I have never kissed a girl, just to set the record straight. Gettit? Straight? Ahhhaha. Not having kissed anyone is a fact I'm usually proud of. But soon I won't be a teenager anymore, and my 'abstinence of everything to the extreme turned frigidity' is starting to sadden me. Sweet (and sour?) 20. Sigh.

20. I have never been outside Australia, though I have been to every state/territory except for Western Australia.

21. I have a Deviant Art page that I like to post some arty things on.

22. I am 19 years old.

23. I have sung on stage with famous German children's singer Rolf Zuckowski. (ha)

24. I am sad. Often.

25. I can't stand filing my nails

26. I also can't bite my nails. I've tried before, to no avail. They're just too darn thick.

27. Because I've never had a boyfriend, etc, I'm quite afraid of having one.

28. I am the messiest person I know.

29. I drink far too much tea and coffee.

30. I got an A+ for my VCD folio in yr 12. That means I must be awesome.

31. Contrary to number 30, I'm actually not up myself.

32. I started this list when I was 17.

33. I'm extremely indecisive. But learning to be otherwise.

34. It is much easier for me to admit my faults than my good traits.

35. I'm so disorganised. My mind is disorganised.

36. I love acting like a child again.

37. I love hugs.

38. I think love, as in romantic love, is funny. How funny that people love each other. How funny that the people you don't love, are loved by someone else? How funny that some people love you, and others don't? You'd think the odds would be tiny that you would love someone who would love you back.

39. I'm fairly awkward. Sometimes. I have awkward days. But I can laugh at it.

40. I'm a semi-scrunch-folder. I don't scrunch it up into a tight ball, it's more of a messy fold.

41. I detest sea creatures. Except for maybe the simplest of fish.

42. I'm not arachnophobic, but I don't like spiders. Actually, in referance to these last two points, if you are a creature that has less than two legs, or more than four, stay the hell away from me. I don't even want to hear about you.

43. My old church was severely corrupt. Severely. It's not something I generally talk about, though I wish sometimes that it wasn't something 'swept under the rug' like it has been. And by church I also probably mean cult.

44. My family often tells me I'm so much like my dad. Which I hate. Not because I hate my dad, but because they only pick on me for his faults, not his good qualities..

45. I actually AM a lot like my dad. Which is why it's so annoying when my family reiterates that for me.

46. I have no idea where my life is going, and that makes me feel even more scattered and lost and stressed.

47. I love rain. The smell, the sound. It's so relaxing.

47. I'm no stranger to fear. It likes to attack me.

49. I absolutely love writing. I just may study it at Uni. I'm going to write books some day.

50. This year has turned out nothing like I expected or wanted. This point applies to most years since probably I became a teenager.

51. I collect pretty notebooks and journals.

52. I write fanfiction. If you click that link, keep in mind that most of the things were written in my 15-year-old crazy fangirl stage. So. Just laugh a lot. But maybe even just don't click the link. Because, that would embarrass me.

53. I don't think Harry Potter is evil.

54. I like organising things, which clashes a bit with my disorganisation.

55. I'm allergic to animal fur.

56. I don't like olives.

57. I have a mad scar on my chin where I had stitches when I was three.

58. I aspire to one day eat an entire Brendan Burger.

59. I love taking photos.

60. Even if I wanted to do drugs (which I don't) I would have no idea where to get them.

61. I love to volunteer for things. But. Lately, I'm drained.

62. I love spending time with quality people.

63. If I spend too much time with people I don't want to be around, I become extremely drained and depressed.

64. I have an itchy finger. Scratch scratch.

65. I no longer have an itchy finger.

66. My current favourite bible verse is Isaiah 54:10:

Though the mountains be shaken
and the hills be removed,
yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken
nor my covenant of peace be removed,"
says the LORD, who has compassion on you.

67. I stand away from the microwave when I'm cooking things.

68. The beach is my favourite place to be. I'm only a little bit of a nature junkie, but when I'm at the beach or in the forest or in the middle of the desert... sigh.

69. This number still makes me giggle like a child on the inside.

70. I have undiagnosed and untreated depression.

71. I failed my Probationary Drivers License test twice. It was both better and worse when I failed the second time, because it wasn't such a shock, but damn it crushes me every time I think about it.

72. I work at Savers in Greensborough. It's like a massive op shop, or a K-Mart where everything is second hand.
I love it, I actually like going to work. Some people think that's weird, but hey, I'd rather be weird than hate my job every day. I'm so grateful for this job.

73. Some days, I freak out at how quickly my life is going. Other days, I can't bare the thought of all these years stretching on and on until I'm old.

74. Family dinners used to be a favourite thing, now I'd say that they're an un-favourite thing.

75. I live with my sister, her husband, and their three children. It doesn't feel like home. My old house has been sold. I have no home.

76. When people drink from drink bottles near me, I get very sudden and violent urges to break things and scream.

77. I love stationery.

78. My life belongs to Jesus.

79. Sometimes I think about how silly that sounds, and then I think of all the things Jesus has done for me, and all the times I've experienced him and his love, and I know that he is real.

80. I passed my third Probationary license test. It was an epic tale or storms and zero visibility and broken traffic lights and a really good-looking tester.

81. I love food almost a little too much.

82. Starting in October 2009 to the present (any hopefully beyond) is my year of zero alcohol. I think I'm doing pretty well. Granted, I didn't drink a lot before this, but I could see where my drinking path was headed and I didn't like it.

83. I don't like to choose best friends. Because friends change so much I think it just adds unnecessary stress on both ends of the relationship. It's all about expectation.

84. I like to think that I 'get it', you know? It's probably just from a life time of introspection, but you know how some people just don't 'get' things? Well, I may be vague and naive, but I 'get' things.

85. I am studying a Bachelor of Creative Arts at Deakin University. My major is Visual Art, and I am doing a minor sequence in Graphic design. Although that doesn't count for anything.

86. I don't get nearly enough sleep, ever.

87. I'm a youth leader at my church and I absolutely love it. I love being able to serve Jesus freely, and I just love the people.

88. At the time of writing this, I will regress to tweeny days and admit that I have a 'crush' on someone. Teehee! But I'll never tell you who.

89. I fall in love with people on public transport. And get really sad when they get off the bus or train before I do.

90. I have never flown in a dream. That I remember. Or had my teeth fall out. Apparently they are both common dreams.

91. I've never been to Boston in the fall.

92. I would like to go and visit some hot desert-y places. Egypt, Morocco, or just the whole Mediterranean or something in the summer.

93. I am not overweight, but I am curvy. I'm sick of all the regular sized clothes being made for one body type: The Stick. Any search for more curve-friendly clothes always lands me in the plus size section or store, which I am emphatically not. It annoys me.

94. I'm an observer. Like I said, yes, maybe I'm vague, and I don't often observe the important things, but all the little details are stored in filing cabinets in my brain.

95. I want you to know how precious you are.

96. I just want someone to hold me.

97. It's a long, self-absorbed process, writing 100 things about yourself. I have enjoyed it, and been frustrated, and run out of things to say, and then found things to say, over and over again.

98. I am really paranoid when I cook chicken. Like, really. I'm surprised I never burn it, I cook it so long, and I wash my hands a million times and wipe the bench lots throughout the whole process.

99. I have some really amazing friends in my life, and I love them, and it's taken me a long time to get to this point where I enjoy my friends and their company, not just try to be everything for them.

100. I believe I can flyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! (Like, on a jet plane or something, or I could get like 3 feet of air that time)


Donejamin. It's been almost 3 years. Maybe 2 and a half. You should write a list, too. You'll probably beat my time though.

09 April, 2008

OH- Freude! Freude! Freude!

Schließlich! Ich kann dieses bekanntgeben.

Meine Schwester wird ein Baby haben!





Wort.
Frieden heraus, yo.

07 April, 2008

A blog because.

This is a blog post mainly because I was sick of seeing the green solitaire picture... it clashes with my layout.

Anyway, now I'm stuck with finding something interesting to blog about, which is not that hard really, but all the things I want to blog about are either only interesting to me, or are more the sort of things you would write in a diary, rather than posting them on the Internet for everyone to read.

I will tell you about my iPod - because I'm ever so sure you want to hear about it. Also it was the first object to come to mind.

I bought my iPod from ebay, using my sister Holly's account. It cost me roughly $180 for a 40GB Photo iPod.
It was my most expensive Christmas present and I bought it myself. How very... sad? Not sad that I didn't get expensive presents, but sad that I didn't get anyone else expensive presents... anyway.

It was refurbished, which is sort of like used but not.

I named my iPod, during a silly mood one day, 'DJ PhatPod Chunky' due to its fat and chunky nature, and its ability to play what we generally call music.

My iPod has a battery life of about negative 3 hours, which is really inconvenient.
I do exaggerate though, but it only lasts a few hours before informing me (when the battery meter is still quite full) that my iPod has no battery power left, and I need to connect it to a power source.

I have fully reset and wiped my iPod once. Because it decided to go all spaz and not turn on properly.

Josh frequently borrows my iPod to listen to in his car. Once he took it without asking and I told him off. A little.

I do not love my iPod; it is an inanimate object. But it is nice to be able to listen to music when DJ's battery permits.

04 April, 2008

Solitary glitch.

Umm... so... this is frustrating.

Care to elaborate, Microsoft?

Tasmania and the happy-haps.

This is very overdue... but here is a post on all things Tassie and Emily!

Tasmania
I went to Tasmania on the 29th February for the weekend for a giant family reunion party type thing.
A family reunion in Tasmania... awkward, no?
Anyway, we were celebrating 200 years since our convict ancestor, Catherine Kearney, came to Aussieland from Ireland. My mum organised a fair portion of the event, so for the past several months there's been lots of family trees and books and mum getting excited about anything Irish or to do with convicts and Australian settlement.
The weekend was like this:

-Friday
Caught a plane early in the morning. I love flying. It's fantastic, especially when it's cloudy. I feel like Mario except that there are no coins to collect.

We couldn't check into the hotel until the afternoon so we walked around the CITY of Hobart. The CITY. We caught up with my Dad's friend who used to go to our church, then we went to the movies and saw The Bucket List. It was fair good. But not so good that I would add it to a list of favourite movies.

We stayed at the Old Woolstore Hotel. It was pretty good. I haven't stayed in that many hotels but it was one of the better ones I've stayed in.

Friday night was the first event, we had a cocktail party (there were NO cocktails. What? Disappointing) and the Mayor of Tassie was there. He made a speech. Woo.
After that Josh and I walked around with our cousins trying to find a bottle shop. Pretty much everything was closed. ON A FRIDAY NIGHT. IN THE CITY. AT LIKE 8:30.
They found one eventually and stocked up on alchomahol, then we went to our cousins' hotel room and played drinking games. I drank water, so to make it more interesting they made me drink a whole glass of water instead of having a sip of booze.

-Saturday
Market!
Markets are great, I love them.
There were a few buskers who were pretty good too.

Saturday afternoon I walked all around Hobart looking at the shops and stuff. It didn't take very long.

Saturday night we had a ball! In the town hall, it was pretty cool. It was a convicts and settlers ball, Craig Petty was the only one who went as a convict.
It was fun walking down the street back to the hotel. In a ball gowns and tops hats and tails.
Went to our cousins' hotel room again after that. More drinking games. I drank lots of water again.

-Sunday
Sunday morning I caught up with Matt Mason which was fun, and he showed me where he goes to Uni and stuff.

Sunday arvo was a family picnic and a tour around an old old property thing.
Then we went back to my mum's cousin's house for my mum's 50th birthday. Fun fun fun. She's old.

Plane home, end!

I swear I watched Pirates of the Caribbean about 8 times. But it was only halves of it at a time. It was showing on repeat in our hotel rooms, so whenever I wasn't doing anything - Pirates!
As much as I love to make fun of it, Tasmania is a really nice place generally. Well, Hobart is. I would move there if I didn't want to stay here.


Emily
My name is Emily!
Since beach mission, I have done: School, school, school, church, school x a million.
I was sick for five weeks after mission. Then got sick again. Then got fired. Then quit. Then got sick again. Then decided to have a panic attack the other day.

Anyway, apart from feeling scattered, and being sick and tired and exhausted for most of this year, it's been pretty good. This year is the first year I've really seen people after beach mission. I suppose because before that I was just a little team kid, there wasn't anyone my age.

I promise I'll find something more exciting to blog about later.