Winding Down

Let's catch up.

Yes, my mustache is still growing.

Exams went well. I was a little apprehensive about it all but after getting a few key grades back (which I did really well on) I felt a lot better about it all. Bottom line, I smashed out my exams and have no reason to be worried about my grades. Whoop whoop! I've been done with school for a few days but Alex, Will, and Teish are still studying and stressing about their exams.

Study station. Outdoor Ed. 

My parents flew into Tasmania a few days ago. It's been really weird getting emails from them in real time. For the first time in nearly half a year, my parents and I are in the same time zone. It's a bit weird, but it's a great feeling.

As you well know, I've been the culprit in several cases of rooms being trashed over the year. Well, it came back around to me. My room got a bit messy when I left my door open the other night and I found my clothes hanging all around the unit and my mattress upstairs in the kitchen. It's all good, though; it didn't take me long to clean it up. I'll have the last laugh, though.

Saying goodbye has been hard.

As people are finishing their exams, they're leaving to go home. I've been saying goodbye for two days now and it's only going to get worse. Last night I had to say goodbye to Georgia, although everyone calls her GK or "geek" (pronounced "jeek"). If you ask anyone, they'd tell you that GK is a "mad bird." She's a great time and one of the boys. Always keen and always had a smile on her face. She was a delight to be around.

Today I said goodbye to Dori, one of the RA's who was always hanging out in our unit. She might be back on Saturday night, though. I also said goodbye to Benny, that one's been the hardest so far. We had a lot of good times together. This is what he posted on his facebook. It got me pretty good.
"Well, thats it for semester one at uni.
A shout out to my man America who is going back to the US, hope you enjoyed Australia, your a dead set legend and won't be the same without ya next semester! All the best mate."
That was tough on me. Saying goodbye to Alex and Will is going to tear me apart.

I've been doing a rather minimal amount of cooking lately. Today I made the most amazing omelet, though. Three eggs, Parmesan cheese, mozzarella, pepper, Italian herbs, parsley, chives, garlic, shallots, and bacon. I had toast and coffee along with it. It was hefty and delicious. I'm also marinating some chicken wings in the last of my secret sailor jerry BBQ sauce that's been in the freezer. I'm looking forward to those.

I've been listening to Brief's "Bleeding Out EP" and it's sick. Can't wait to be home and see some live shows.

Parents will be here real soon and my brother soon after that.

Life is a wild life. This next transition is going to be real heavy. But I'm looking forward to the next chapter in life.

Stay fresh out there
~Daniel

Fire, Ice, and Meatballs

Life. How crazy is that?

First of all, I have to announce that my mom got her first (and only) tattoo last week. She let me know she was upset that I didn't mention her in my last post entitled "tattoo time." So there it is, my mom is gaining cool points left and right. Try and keep up. By the way, here's a picture of Will's tattoo.

So I haven't been up to much this past week. I've let my studying take a bit of a back burner and have been finding other ways of entertaining myself.

As I'm sure you've noticed, I really enjoy messing with Teish. We've done just about everything we can do to her room, short of setting it on fire, so this week, I started a new trend. First, I took her key card while she was studying and froze it in a plate of water that popped out nicely once it was set. She was upset, but took it well and laughed it off. The next thing I did, she did not take well and did not laugh off. Over the year, Ash has been stealing her stuffed-animal monkey and hiding it places. It's quite funny because Teish goes into hysterics and actually smashed a window one time in a rage while trying to get her monkey back. So, I took her monkey and froze it in a block of ice. She didn't speak to me for two days.

The other night, Alex and Teish were making tea for some of their friends and, long story short, set fire to the kitchen. Lucky for them, I was there to heroically put out the flame before it grew too much and set off the fire alarm.

After a few days of hiatus, I've started studying for my finals. My PE final is a bit of a worry simply because there's a LOT of information to remember, but it's also all multiple choice. My Outdoor Ed. final is a bit of a worry because it was only a seven week long class and I haven't had it in the past two months and now I'm expected to remember it all. Also, if you asked me how to set a bearing on a compass, I would struggle a LOT and that's the sort of thing we're going to be tested over.

Anyway, other than that, life is simply that, life. I'm having a hard time sleeping at night because all I can think about is life and my brother and getting home and getting back to "real life." I'm not cooking much because I'm not eating much because I'm not doing much. It's almost 6pm and I haven't eaten today. I made meatballs last night for the first time. I'll probably stick to just meatloaf in the future.

I stopped smoking, but now that it's finals time I'm wishing I hadn't. Funny story, it was actually finals week my first semester in college that I started smoking. I'm realizing every day that I'm a grown up and that's weird.

Nathan told me "Dude, you're mustache is really starting to look like Dad circa 1985." That's pretty much the exact look I've been going for this whole time.

I saw sunshine and a full blue sky for the first time in nearly a week today.

Will snapped this today while I was talking to my mom.

My friend MJ leaves in the morning for Greece for a month. I'm really excited for her.

19 days until I see my brother.
~D

Tattoo Time

Something I've noticed about Ballarat, if you look up, you won't see planes. Ever. There just aren't air traffic patterns over this part of the country. And why would there be? It took me almost five months to realize that.

Also, Australians don't have Twinkies, Kool-Aid, Resse's Cups, Jolly Ranchers, Pop Tarts, or Toaster Strudels. Devastating.

About a week ago, Will finally got accepted for a bunch of government money that he had been trying to get for a looooong time. He was very excited about it. So, to celebrate, he went on a whim, yesterday, and got a new tattoo. I went with him and it was really interesting to watch the artist work. She had been tattooing for four years but the way she tattooed and the quality of her work wasn't quite up to par with my brother's, who has been tattooing less years. Will got a cat in the hat tattoo on his leg, which kind of fits with the theme of things he's got going on. He was really excited about it and really happy with it, so that's good. One of the other artists in the shop started talking to me and said he'd never heard an American accent before. Then he picked out the Native American in me. I have a bit of a hard time believing he actually could tell by my looks that I had 1/32 Indian in me. I feel that it was a bit of a stab in the dark for him. But who knows.

Also, while Will was being tattooed, a few very obvious meth addicts came in and wanted to get their "back-yard" tattoos fixed. They (the people and the tattoos) looked real rough.

Not much time until my brother gets here, less time until my parents get here, and less time until finals. These next few weeks are going to fly by.

I've gotten on a sticky note kick. I'm having all sorts of random thoughts and so my room is covered in sticky notes with non-sequiter on them.

Stop me if you've heard this already...  
I made a new lamb recipe the other day. I bought a rack of lamb for less than $10 which would have cost me $25 in Springfield and made a recipe I hadn't used before. Herb encrusted rack of lamb.  I sealed the lamb in a pan, then put the pan in the oven for eight minutes. After that, I took it out, brushed it in Dijon mustard, coated it in an herb breadcrumb mixture, and returned it to the oven for four minutes. It turned out something like this...

Look at those toasty bread crumbs. 

 Perfectly rare (my plating skills leave much to be desired). 

I made it again the next night with the other half of the rack and it came out undercooked. That's what I get for not using a meat thermometer. 

I've made lamb several ways but I think this has been my favorite. Or maybe it's just because I'm finally getting good at cooking lamb. *sight* And now I'm about to go back home where nobody sells lamb and if they do, it costs an arm and a leg. 

Stay hungry, my friends

~Daniel 

What Fresh Hell Is This? I

"Australia, what fresh hell is this?" I got to use that quote in one of my final essays today. That felt good. In my grandfather's words, I found the proper way to eat an elephant, one bite at a time. I finished my two big essays today. They've been weighing on me so I'm really excited to have them done.

It's a bit lonesome on Res right now. Everyone I would normally hang out or associate with is gone, some of them, until Monday or Tuesday. But I'm making the most of it.

As you all know, I have a bit of an unhealthy obsession with Gordon Ramsay. I've started watching his British cooking show "The F Word," (and in case you're wondering what the F stands for, it's FOOD) and it's really quite brilliant. In the series, Gordon has taken over a kitchen with a hand-picked brigade (so there's no yelling) and opens once a week with a three course menu for 60 guests. The thing is, all the menu items are designed to be easily cooked at home by novice chefs and he walks you through how to make everything. Needless to say, I'm cataloging heaps of recipes in my head and coming up with all sorts of new things. I'm learning a lot and I'm excited about that.

I've started putting honey and milk in my coffee over here. Give it a try if you like. It gives the coffee a nice velvety finish. I recommend it.

Tonight, I hatched the idea for a new writing project. Well, actually, it's an old idea that I finally figured out how to write. I'll spoil the beginning of it for you right now. He consumes a lethal amount of drugs and dies in the parking lot of a hospital. I'm excited for this one.

I haven't cooked anything exciting in a while. I made chicken stock tonight from the bones of a roast chicken my RA cooked tonight. It's tasty. Tomorrow, I'm going to see if I can get my RA to go in on groceries with me. I'm betting that for every $5 increment, I can add a course to the meal. So, if he want's to throw in $15 for dinner, I'm hoping it'll look something like risotto, herb encrusted rack of lamb, and creme brulee.  But we'll see.

Take care guys.
Have a good weekend.

24

I leave this place in 24 days. That's wild.

Everyone told me my time here would fly by and I didn't believe them. But it has. As much as I miss my friends and family, I don't think I'm ready to leave. I feel like I've just gotten to the point where I've created a life for myself over here. I feel like I'm just starting to sink in my roots and now I'm so close to leaving. I was talking with Will last night and we both started getting really upset about my leaving. I'm bummed that I'm probably never going to see these people again. But that's life, I suppose.

And for all you who wondered if I would fall in love with some girl over here, well, I the woman I'm going to marry. She makes cakes for a living.

So, last night was the Black Tie Ball. It was a huge disappointment. We all got ready to go and headed out early, around 8:00. When we got there, it was a big room, PACKED with people. You had to yell to be heard and the setup was really odd. Half of the room was a dance floor and the other half had a couple round tables oddly placed around. You were constantly finding yourself having to squeeze between people and tables and lines of people waiting to use their drink cards. We just weren't feeling it. So we left. We (me, Will, Benny, and Joel) got home at 10:30 and just hung out together. We watched some TV and just enjoyed the quiet unit. One of our friends, Egypt (they call him Egypt just like they call me America), came over for a bit and we met his girlfriend. We just had a pretty chill, quiet night in. It was nice. Will and Joel left today for the weekend, Teish left after tea and Alex and Benny are leaving in the morning. It's going to be a very quiet weekend here.

Anyway, that's it for now.

Take care,
~D

2001

Still D.R.E.

Will introduced me to Spotify which, if you don't know, is an online music player with just about any and every song you could ask for. It's made finals season much more pleasant. I've started listening to a lot more Dr. Dre, Toro Y Moi, Radical Face, and Ugly Casanova.

I was pretty stressed at the beginning of the week, knowing everything I had to get done. So I sat down and drew up a weekly schedule with everything I needed to get done on it. I broke my papers up into three sections and have been working steadily. It's been much easier to approach my papers with the mindset of "I only have to write 700 words today." It's made things much more bearable. I just finished my first essay a day ahead of schedule and am about to have lunch before I get to work on my next essay. I'm in a really good place with both of them, though, which is great.

The other thing on my agenda this week is the Black Tie Ball. It's the first annual formal event by Stonecutters (remember, that "social club" I belong to) and by the look and sound of it, things are going to be really good. It's obviously formal, and it's the last chance everyone on Res has to go out before finals start. I haven't been out in a while and everyone else is all excited that I'm going out with them, so we'll see how it goes. There's no reason it shouldn't be a good time. I'm also excited because I'll be all suited up but still look like a bum because I have the worst mustache you've ever seen. Yes, it's still growing. It's almost to the point where it looks like it's on purpose, rather than me just having forgot to shave for a few days. It almost looks like real (bad) facial hair, instead of just some dirt I need to wipe off my face.

Also, the other night we raided Teish's room while she was out. We took everything out of her room except for her desk, even her fridge. She was really unhappy about it and had a good go at us about it. But we put everything back, just like we always do. It was a classic night.

Oh, also, I found an ironing board in my bed one night when I went to sleep. 

 I make my coffee a bit strong...

 Teish's room. We left her the ironing board. 

 We moved her fridge to the bathroom. 

 Will put on her footie jumper and had a tough time getting it off. 

Anyway, that's what's up.
Catchya
~D

Lucy

I just had this realization and I felt that it merited a blog post.

After writing this, I realized it sounds a bit bitter, but it's not, it's really not. The following is just a handful of observations that I have discovered for myself.

Last night I came up with a new idea for a writing project. I realized I hadn't written anything overly romantic and mushy in a while, so I wanted to do a series of love letters (like that hasn't been done before). I had a name for it and everything. I was going to call it "To:  Lucy, From:  Daniel."

But when I sat down to start working on it, nothing came out, I've forgotten how to be sickeningly romantic and overly cheesy. I've my list of clever, reworked cliches. And, in a way, I think that's wonderful. I was talking it over with Tyler today and realized this:   love letters have all been done before, from King Solomon to Shakespeare to Nicholas Sparks, they've all said it before. Maybe it's been said in different ways or under different settings, but it's all been said. I realized that love letters all start to sound the same real quick and that the trick to writing a good love letter is saying something that hasn't been said before. But where the real problem comes in is most of everything good has been said already. In order to write a good love letter, you can't be sincere because all the sincere things have been said and overworked. Everything that was ever sincere, is just a cliche now. Now, what you're left with, if you're trying to write a good love letter, is just a bunch of recycled tid-bits from a string of romantic comedies and sappy love songs on the radio. If you figure out how to write a good love letter that says something that hasn't been said before, let me know.

Now, I'm not saying that love isn't real. I definitely believe in it and there's definitely love in my life. I'm simply saying love has been overworked a bit. If you think about it, love has sort of sold itself out. Love is a sellout. It's been sold out to movies, music, prose, poetry, art, and even food (think about all those heart-shaped chocolates and pizzas and candies you see around February). Think about it, does love have any self-respect left, or is it just too sold-out to think about that. Is love just too busy making a buck and getting used in a Hallmark card to really be meaningful or honest? Let's face it, love has spread itself pretty thin over the centuries, too thin, in my opinion. Let's face it, love is old news and worn out. Yikes. Think about it, everyone is trying to figure out what went wrong in the world. Isn't it obvious? Love died.

Maybe you have a different opinion on love and maybe you have a different experience and perspective on it, and that's totally okay. But for me, I'm just going to go ahead and say it, love is dead. And to be honest, I'm pretty excited about it because realizing that I'm out of shallow cliches and overused word patterns, means that I now get to rediscover love in a new way, in a way that makes sense and is real to me, rather than a way that the world has told me it should be.

Chew on all that for a while. Have a good think on it for yourself. Argue with me. Let me know what you think.

The sun is setting so I need to start thinking about making tea soon.

Peace!
~Daniel