An Update that's Not a Whole Year in the Making

Check it out! It’s only been like... two months?
Christmas was wonderful. We stopped work at midday on the 24th which was a bit of a drag. My brother picked me up that afternoon and we went to see Star Wars Episode VII! It was actually really fantastic! I loved all the references back to the original trilogy. I freaking love BB-8; he’s so cute! As for the new characters though, I kinda don’t really feel anything for them. Except Kylo Ren. I won't say why for spoilers, but what an asshat. I do like the theory though that Rey is a clone of Luke from the hand that he lost when Darth Vader cut it off.
So yeah, Christmas was good. Nearly all the family turned up! Even Aunty Kaylene. She’s not doing well at all. Her cancer came back a few months ago and... it’s been so tough. They told her that after this round of treatment if the cancer comes back again, there’s nothing they can do for her. It’s just... Mum says it’s an awfully disheartening thing for someone to hear that kind of prognosis. So I’m glad we were all together.
Mum finally conceded to me that she has no sense of style whatsoever, so she’s been hoarding all sorts of lovely Christmas decorations over the past couple of years. It was finally our turn to host again and I went all out on the decorating. The tree and the table looked like something out of a magazine. Everyone loved it.

So sparkly...

We had a blast playing all sorts of water sports. We set up a black plastic slide in the front yard and played human ten pin bowling – you could either take a run up and attempt to knock all the pins down, or hold on a rope pulley and your family team could haul you down the plastic. Then we played a relay race where you had to line up and throw water to each other in buckets. The first family to transfer enough water to their end bucket and cause it to drop was the winner. The last game was very broken. There were little basketball hoops on peoples’ heads. Instead of having them catch the little ping-pong balls that came with the game, we switched them out for water balloons. As soon as the blindfolded people started tossing balloons the hoops broke. Eventually there were too many balloons in each net and they broke from the weight. It dissolved into a water balloon fight from there. Throughout the whole day, everyone was blatantly cheating – of course ^_^.
Another star of Christmas was the awesome pinball machine that Dad cooked up. A virtual pinball machine in a custom made cabinet. It has something like 20 virtual tables in it now and I played the hell out of it the couple of weeks I was home. I really liked the Star Troopers and Star Wars tables. Those ones were fun and I was slowly starting to learn how to actually play them rather than just hitting the flippers and hoping the ball didn’t go down the hole. Me and Dad did a great job of decorating it all the day before Christmas too! I stockpiled leftover vinyl from work and we planned out a design and used his CNC routing device with a blade attached instead of a drill bit to cut out the shapes. It was a tough time sticking them all on without application tape. But we got there, and it looks fantastic.

*furiously mashes flapper buttons*

I spent most of my holidays playing ARK. I developed a grudge match with some dude on a PvP Primitive server. I was busy building up my base and trying to tame some dinos when this idiot began accusing me of killing his raptor. He was adamant. I tried to explain that I had done no such thing, but he just wouldn’t believe me. I had to start looking over my shoulder and even keep an eye on the skies. Several times he tried to snatch me up on a pteranadon, but I had been too encumbered at the time luckily. So, the eejit gets an idea. One day while I’m logged off, he goes around and puts his own stone foundations at the four points around my base, effectively blocking me off from expanding. We had a verbal sparring match after that. After I had shouted at him in all caps and realised that wasn’t going to work, I switched tactics and began pretending like he was some little kid, a low level newbie who was sad and lonely. I told him I would collect the white supply drops for him because he was obviously so helpless. This seemed to get on his nerves. He reinforced the foundations the day after that. So, I thought “Two can play at this game...” I made a foundation of my own and put it directly outside his front door. He was pissed... Around that time, I started chatting with a bloke on an online dating site. After a few dates, I introduced him to ARK. He was online one day and was ambushed by the guy. They killed my trike and pteranadon. We were fed up with this guy, so we switched servers. I did log in one last time however and used up all of my wooden signs to write “Fuck You” in front of his base eleven times. I logged in recently too and found much to my satisfaction that someone has raided his base. Hehehe...
So we moved servers. This one has elevated taming, XP and gathering so it’s much more fun to play on. We have a small menagerie. Unfortunately it’s an unofficial server so it’s down a lot. But that has helped me in a way to break the addiction a little bit.

I went back to work in January – for only three days XD. On the Thursday of that week, I flew down to Sydney for RTXAUS! I took the train from the airport to the hotel and when I had finished settling in, I immediately got on the train again and headed out to Circular Quay. It was getting super overcast and began to rain when I got there. I found a nice walkway undercover where I was able to get some snaps of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House in the gloom. I checked the rain radar on my phone and saw that a HUGE red and yellow patch was headed directly for me. I watched as the storm rolled in, lightning flashes over the bridge. It was really kind of cool!

The train station had an excellent view

The actual even was very good I thought. Not as good as the Austin one. There were a few teething problems. I felt that the RT people were kind of isolated. I didn’t ever seen them in the VIP room. The event center we were in had all of these cool catwalks, so they were always up there. The main hall was not naturally air conditioned either. There were tons of people who found it much too hot. I thought it was warm, but not overly uncomfortable – but I could see that on the stage under the lights, all the RT folk were sweating like crazy.
I waited all day Friday for some notification of the secret thing they’d teased. They were shooting an Immersion in Sydney that day and I was hoping they’d ask for extras. Unfortunately the way they notified us was through the Rooteeth Facebook page. I was kicking myself. It would have been cool to be a space invader on the shoot... especially with Ryan as a lab rat!
The Lazer Team premiere was AWESOME. I looked fantastic (except someone else at the premiere was wearing the same dress as me) – and my super high stunning white shoes didn’t even kill me that much!

Faaaaabulous darling!

I made a friend in the lobby as I was waiting to hail a taxi and we shared it there. There was some traffic so the driver told us it would be easier to walk the rest of the way. It began to rain and I was wearing heels walking uphill. Wanted to kill the cab driver. (Later on I found that it is actually harder to walk downhill in heels. Man is that hard.) We waited in the line and chatted and became good friends. Her name was Emily and she was from Adelaide ^_^. We milled around for an hour, and then another half an hour because the RT peeps were late – there’d been an accident where Lindsay had cut open her face during the Immersion shoot and she’d had to get stitches.
The movie itself was really, really good. It wasn’t the best movie ever, but I definitely enjoyed it and the humour and hard work and just everything that Roosterteeth poured into it. The twist at the end was fantastic, although I did sort of guess it a little. And it had Michael mooning the audience, which was amazing XD. All of the cameos were brilliant too.
When the movie was done, the cast and crew came out for a Q&A and, surprise, surprise, who turns up? Well, Mr. Michael Jones of course! I was so thrilled! That was one good part about not being an extra on the Immersion shoot I guess. He was a lab rat with Ryan lol.
The after party I thought was good, but a little bit of a shambles. All they had on the tab that was EXTREMELY short-lived was cheap champagne and beer. The venue was MUCH too small and there was a cordoned off area where the special guests could escape. Not saying it was a bad thing... but the Austin VIP party was MUCH cooler. There was nowhere they could ‘escape’ too. I talked to Chris Demaris for a little bit, which was fun and then me and Emily watched in dismay as the crowd around poor Ryan just would not disperse. His audience was like three people thick for several hours – and even when the party was winding down and he was trying to leave, they cornered him outside and it happened again. The poor thing was too polite to get away...

I really enjoyed my time in Sydney. It really is a beautiful city. It also helped that there was McDonalds directly outside my hotel, so I did not have to go without breakfast each day. I explored a bit on the Friday and found my way to a Max Brenner chocolate store, and all manner of shops and markets and stuff. I could seriously consider living there if I had to.
We met up with a lot of Roo Teeth people at King Pin Bowling on Circular Quay on the Sunday night. I had a blast beating all my new friends at air hockey and a game of bowling. We were getting drinks and thinking about leaving when who got in line behind us but Freddie Wong! We had a solid hour of chats where we taught him about the Aussie and Kiwi accents, our money, our education system and the State of Origin. He’s is a super funny dude! The day after he tweeted that he’d had a good time, so I replied to him and told him that if he needed any more special fifty cent pieces (he was fascinated by their shapes and the custom detail on the special editions one) that he knew who to talk to. He actually replied to me! It was super fun.

I made a new shirt for the convention. I did up a super cool vector art piece with Ryan in his GTAV face paint holding his skull mask. It’s kind of creepy. I painted it onto a lovely white shirt and wore it the second day of the con. I didn’t get to show it to him unfortunately.

Lots of black paint...

The Wednesday I got back, we had the Lazer Team Tugg screening at the Cairn City cinemas! My brother came along too and he loved the movie. We were sitting in the dark waiting for the movie to start, munching on out KFC, when I saw a pair of people across the aisle. They were older folks and the bloke was wearing a Lazer Team shirt. I stared at them for a while and eventually tapped my bro and said “I think that those are the Dunkelmans.” The Dunkelmans being Barbara Dunkelman from Roosterteeth's parents. They love to go to everything she does and support her. Brother was like “Nah... It can’t be.” I was positive. I had actually sat in the row behind them at the Sydney premiere and said hi after I’d seen the fella hugging Barbara down on the walkway! So I worked up the courage and went over and asked them. Sure enough, it was Larry and his wife! I asked them what on Earth they were doing up in Cairns. Turns out they were sightseeing. They thought if they were going to go to Australia that they would explore a bit at least. It was just so bizarre! It was like they were stalking me lol.

This is the photo Larry took! I'm way up the back.

The first date I went on with the new boy was absolutely wonderful. We met at Grill’d on the Esplanade for lunch and totally hit it off. I didn’t really want to leave. He was so lovely. He was 25, he was taller than me, he had an excellent job (he was going to start uni very soon, but still had tons of savings) and he was ripped as hell man. So, we hung out and continued to chat. We got frozen pine lime slushies from Maccas. We hung out more on the Esplanade itself, walking up and down and sitting on a bench. Eventually, he put his arms around me. It was lovely. As the sun was setting, he kissed me. It was funny; our glasses clashed. I was having a ball. We had dinner on the esplanade too; crepes. And then a few hours later, gelato for dessert. I think we ended our lunch date at 10:30pm!

Unfortunately, due to many different things after a few more dates he told me that he was sorry, but he had to break it off. He just wasn't ready for a full on relationship. He had a lot of valid reasons and... I dunno. I just feel really kind of lonely now. It's hard to get used ot being single again. I'm not alone - I have my friends and my family, but not having that special someone is just making me a bit lonely...

I watched Life on Mars. It was really good! The music was awesome and the concept was rather gripping. I’m a bit undecided about the ending, but it did seem fitting. I’m now watching Psycho Pass. You can blame the two on the Roosterteeth Anime Sponsor-cast.

Work has been okay. I felt a bit overburdened yesterday though. My colleague quickly took a few jobs off me and made it a little better. I’ve been slacking I guess. I’m always checking my phone or I’ve got my kindle out actually. It’s kind of stupid. I should really stop doing it. But I find that I sometimes just can’t concentrate and after a few minutes of it, I can get back to what I’m doing. I hope I don’t get called out for it. I would really hate to get a warning, or even lose my job. I hate warnings. I feel so terrified when people direct that kind of disappointment and anger at me. I think I would rather be injured than disappoint like that. I’ve begun taking record of all the duff ups that I make in an effort to improve. Mum keeps telling me to ask for a pay rise, what with the INORDINATE power bills I’ve been getting and the fact that my brother is no longer living here. He moved out just before Christmas when Mum and Dad could no longer afford to pay his rent because of Dad’s job loss. But, I haven’t had the nerve to ask for a pay rise. It’s just so regularly that I get reports back that I’ve made mistakes and whatnot. I don’t feel like I deserve a pay rise yet. I need one and I think I should have one. I have a bachelor and I’m approaching two years of experience now. I should be getting paid more than what pretty much amounts to minimum wage. But I just... keep making mistakes...

So overall, January has had its ups and downs. RTXAUS was great and I am so going again next year. Alan Rickman and David Bowie both died at 69 and of cancer. That was a real downer. Monty Oum’s anniversary just passed which was a harrowing reminder. I had a beautiful few weeks, and then a sudden crashing reality check with a guy.

It feels kind of nice that I have no obligations at the moment. Nothing to plan for, nothing to look forward to. Just the weekends, curled up in bed, reading or watching stuff. It feels nice to just drift a little – coast along and enjoy the fact that I do have a solid job, I do have a lovely home and I do have enough income to splurge sometimes. I am lucky and grateful. And now I’m hungry. Gonna go eat the rest of my taco mince.
Ciao!

Feeling: I have this weirdly sore elbow. It doesn't hurt to bend it or when I massage the skin, but just resting the tip of it on something - anything, will make it hurt.

Listening to: X Gon' Give it to Ya - The song from the Deadpool trailers. Frikin' Deadpool man... I saw it today and it was BALLS TO THE WALL AMAZING.

Wearing: My Deadpool shirt of course.

(Witty Title Apologizing for Being so Horribly Lax with Posts)

So... My  last post began with me welcoming in 2014. *twiddles forefingers* Oops. I'll just go down the list then... Behold! My year thusly passed:

One of the main reasons I stopped blogging was that I actually got a job! I landed a graphic designer position at a print... place that I will not name here. I had to pack up and move to a horrible little dingy share house bedroom with ZERO internet capabilities in less than a week and began work. It was hard to adjust from doing nothing all day to a 9 to 5 work-week. I also had to learn to feed myself. That resulted in way too much microwave macaroni cheese...

There was also the comedic moment when I went outside to do my laundry and the landlord accidentlly locked me out and drove away. *cue Mission Impossible theme as I climed in through the window*

I made an Enderfriend!

I managed to discover a new talent: I could stick Freddo Frogs to my forehead. I also, at some point, managed to drop the pointy end of a knife on the web between my toes. (I'm just pulling these snippets from my FB timeline XD) I also attended my graduation ceremony! Cap and acape and scroll and all! Woo!

After a few months in the dingy hole, I moved to one of my landlord's other share houses in the area. OMFG I loved that room. It was an old clapboard house that had been raised up on stilts. The ceilings were so incredibly high and the floor was polished wood and I had  FREAKING BAY WINDOW. It was amazing... The kitchen left much to be desired though - especially because it had a hot water tap that sounded like a jet engine taking off. That was in May sometime I think.

Then, comedy of all comedies; I was locked out out of the house AGAIN.That time it was the wind's fault. I had gone out to pay the pizza delivery gal and it slammed the front door shut behind me. Luckily there was an open window. Unluckily it was on the second storey. Luckily there was a ladder. Unluckily I had to set up the ladder precariously on the stairs. Luckily I could get into the window now. Unluckily my hips were too wide to fit. Luckily I was able to grab a chair inside and use it to twist around and get the rest of me through the window. Cue me feeling like a champion and an idiot at the same time.

By this point, I had spent a couple of months at *print place that shall forever be unnamed* and... well... I made some booboos. I learned a hard lesson, that was also incredibly costly, that 'ordinance' and 'ordnance' are two VERY different words... Also, that place was kinda dodgy. My boss could only use certain courier services, because they hadn't paid the bills for others... I still got my pay all and well, but I had a majorly hard time trying to get actual hard copy payslips out of them. The printer of 20 years up and quit, and the admin girl told me too that she was thinking of leaving, so I began looking around for a new job, and low and behold, I got a position at a much nicer, much more respectable sign company right down the street! ^_^ One that did not have mushrooms growing in the carpet of the storage room...

I am still with this new sign company. They're wonderful there; a much bigger team with much nicer facilities and ethics. And they have cake!

I turned 21! Woo! Did not really have a party though. Less woo. *shrug*

At the same time I got my new job, my brother transferred from a university down south to the one in my city. He was having quite a hard time doing the course he was, so decided to change paths and move closer to home. Because I was tired of sharing a house with people I didn't know, and of the grimy, awful kitchen, I agreed to find a place to rent with him. Our new place is really quite great. It has two bedrooms on the second floor, two and a half bathrooms, and a lovely kitchen and lounge area. There was some debate as to who would get which bedroom. Because my name was going on the lease and because I graciously agreed to give up my glorious bay window in the share house, I got to have the bigger room with the two (TWO!) built in cupboards. I did however let my little brother, who is in fact a giant, have the double bed. Which left me stuck with a single. AGAIN. Not once! Not once in my whole life have I had a bed larger than a single! *simmering rage* But it's cool here - that is when the bro does his share of the housework. And I'm just a block away from work, so I don't even need a car.

We have been on quite a few fishing trips! Here are some of the more eventful moments:

Yes. That is an octopus on a hook. O.O

Olive Seasnake right up next to our boat!

FREAKING HUMPBACK POD RIGHT NEXT TO BOAT! :D

We left off with me having written 10,000 words on Flare. I have since finished that novel. It's absolutely terrible still XD I haven't even gone back to do a rough edit yet.

I have since moved on to begin working on the sequel to my first novel, Soulless. It has recently acquired a name; Dreamless. I think I have a theme going here... Any-hoo, it is currently at 22,000-ish wordy-ma-jigs. Currently at a tricky part. Characters are being stubborn and... well, I can't think of a way to get past it yet. 

Getting Soulless published has gone nowhere. I think I've applied to three more agencies now and been rejected by all of them. I have actually run out of agencies to apply to within Australia, so I am now looking at international ones. I best get my butt moving on making up a new application soon. I just have been so caught up with work and TV and writing Dreamless though.

TV! Oh my gosh TV. Jut a rundown of everything I watch now:

Supernatural - It's been going for so long now! I'm not sure why I'm not tired of it. The storylines are getting a bit twisty.

Doctor Who: Oh gods, I love Capaldi as the 12th doctor! Some of the episodes though - and the Chrismas Special just recently... I dunno. They feel so try-hard. Other bits are genius though and make me have all the feels ^_^

Grimm: IS AMAZING. Fullstop.

Once Upon a Time: I got so pissed when I saw that the latest season would be Frozen inspired. I highly disliked the movie that so many people are now obsessed with. But, the season turned out okay. ALSO CAPTAIN SWAN. *swoons*

Brooklyn Nine Nine: Good comedy. I haven't been wathcing it lately though. Not sure why. *shrug*

Castle: So great still! Caskett is official and so completely adorable!

2 Broke Girls: Another that I haven't been keeping up with. *more shrugs*

Marvel's Agents of SHIELD: Pretty great series. Been getting my Marvel hit to tide me over till the next Avengers.

The Vampire Diaries: I can't believe I ever bothered with True Blood (except for those bits where Alexander Skarsgard takes his shirt off). This is where it's at. And oh my giddy aunt, is Damon Salvatiore/Ian Somerhalder the TASTIEST thing in existence.

Sherlock: This show is the BOMB. It might only have three episodes to a season, but oh dear heaven, is it grippingly good.

Chuck: This show has been finished for a good number of years now and I have no idea why I never saw it and then resisted seeing it. It is so freaking funny and adorable and wonderful. My mother is now torn between me wanting to marry Munroe from Grimm and Chuck XD

Fairy Tail: A great anime. I am so excited now that I am getting to the dubbed seasons with the character voice by Michael Jones in it.

Gravity Falls: Dude. This is so not a kids show. AND IT'S AWESOME.

My brother bought an Xbox One. I played Destiny for about three days straight! Then he hid it away in his room and I haven't gotten to play it again... *grumble*

Art! I have been doing so much art! Mostly design at work, but it must have shaken something loose in me because I started doing a comic based on the retarded and hilarious stuff that goes down on the Minecraft server that I play on. The people on there love them and get annoyed when I don't post a new one in a while. It has certainly given me some experience and practice drawing people, which is fantastic.

The other art I have been doing is based around a fandom with which I am now completely obsessed. I am now, and extremely proud to call myself  Cockbite. I have nourished a liking for Roosterteeth for a while now, but now I am hard and fast in love with the whole kit and cockadoodle. I can't wait to get my Achievement Hunter fix each day and the Rooster Teeth Podcast is the highlight of my week. I have, since I began earning money, begun buying myself RT merch by the bucketload. These guys are my life. I am so psyched for August now, because in July last year, they had a campaign to fund thier first full-length feature film called Lazer Team. As part of that fundraiser, they sold 100 VIP tickets to thier convention RTX this year. I was one of the lucky few to grab one. I AM SO EXCITED. I haven't booked my plane tickets or asked for time off yet, but I still absolutely cannot wait to go.

These are the art pieces I have done:

The delicious Ryan Haywood in his GTAV costume

More Ryan!

Here, have some rude Geoff Ramsey too

(He retweeted this I NEARLY DIED)

And of course some lovely mingy Brit

aka: Gavin Free :P

This is a fanart of a fanfic... 

involving Ryan Haywood

Fic-ception!

More Ryan...

Not Rooster Teeth, but still video game inspired ^_^

From that same fanfiction...You may have noticed
that I am now a *tiny* bit obsesed with Ryan...

What's this? A craft project?

Painting finished!

A dog's breakfast...

But suddenly; a whole bag appears!

I call it... the Bag Shot.

It hasn't been all smiles and rainbows in the RT fandom of late though... Just last week, beloved animator and creator of the hit series RWBY, Monty Oum passed away. He was only thirty three, and slipped into a coma resulting from a server allergic reaction during a routine hospital procedure. It was a shock to everyone... I couldn't beleive what I was seeing when I woke up to the news that weekend, and then again a few days later when I started scrolling through Tumlr and saw 'RIP' posts... It was a crippling thought that someone so young and so vital could be snatched away from us... 

I saw the sweetest post on Tumblr about the whole sad situation. I can't remember what it was exactly, but, it was somehting along the lines of imagining that Monty would immediately be signed up to be a muse and instead of when you start on your next creative project and you expect your muse to be some ancient greek goddess with a robe to sit on your shoulder, you get this young asian man with tired eyes and a cheeky smile who dresses like an anime character and kicks ASS at DDR. So that is what I've been imagining lately; Monty on my shoulder, poking me in the face when I get distracted. I guess Monty will never die in that regard; he will live on through all of us, and all that we create from being inspired by him...

We'll miss you Monty; you were freaking amazing.

The only other news I can think of at the moment is my completely non-existent dating life. I have discovered that I live practically under a rock. I meet NO-ONE. I have been trying a few dating apps, but with very little results... I went on two dates with a bloke I could only really see as a mate. I seriously think that there are no men in my city. It's depressing and lonely... Ah well. I'll just have to finish writing these books, get them published, and become a rich, famous author. I should be able to go out then and meet other humans... right?

Feeling: Tired. Neck is sore from so much computer time. Also guilty that my weekend involved barely any writing.

Wearing: My Tower of Pimps tee! Also; pants are for bitches.

Listening to: The Nights by Avicii and Lovers on the Sun by David Guetta on repeat. SO GOOD.

Eating: I had KFC for dinner. That's porbably why my chest feels funny; all that cholestorol is getting to my heart :P

Slush and Satellites

Hi! Cookie?

Today I found out that I can actually make other pages for my blog, not just new blog posts. Oh and did I had fun with this. Now you have three new pages to go and visit if you so desire. The first is a little bit more about me and this blog, plus a slightly zany picture. The second and third pages are short synopses on the two novels I am currently writing/have written; Sparks and Soulless.

Speaking of Soulless, I have been doing quite a bit of writing on it today, managing again to hit the 3,000 word quota I have set for myself, bringing the total now to 64,000 words. Being able to do this gives me excited, fluttery tingles. I know that if I keep it up, I'll have the novel finished in no time at all. And then, then comes the fun part where I print out countless copies of the first few chapters of my precious baby and hope they don't end up in an agent's slush pile.

I have only ever submitted something to an agent once. This was one of the more recent versions of Sparks. It was quite a while afterwards when they sent me a very nice, polite rejection letter. My first rejection. I was actually quite thrilled. You're not a real writer until you get your first rejection, or so I've read.

If you have any tips on writing queries or getting an agent or a publisher or good links on such subjects, please don't hesitate to put them in the comments below. I'd love any help I can possibly get.

 

One such slush pile. *Cringe*

Today was interesting also for quite a few other reasons. My parents decided that it would be fun to go and cook our dinner out on a fire under the stars. And it really was. We lit the fire down the back of our property on the beach of our 'dam'. The dam is actually just a hole we dug back when we were developing the land. The tonne of red clay dirt that was removed went into building the pads for the house and my dad's giant shed. Anyway, this little hole in the ground is about eight foot or two and a bit metres at its deepest and has a water slide at the back.

So we lit the fire, waited for it to burn down to embers, then chucked some bacon and burger patties on the hotplate. When we had finished our rather delicious dinners, the fire had died down considerably, and with no moon, it was absolutely perfect star gazing weather. My family have always been avid star watchers. My father bought a powerful green laser pointer so that he could point out the satellites he saw in the sky. He also downloaded a rather ingenious application for his tablet that gives you a real time view of what objects can be seen in the sky each night. I have watched several times as the Russian International Space Station has passed overhead.

Tonight though, after spotting the normal satellites whizzing like little shooting stars across the sky, I noticed something rather odd. There  in the middle of the sky, I kept seeing something blink at me. So I sat and watched patiently - and it blinked again. My family didn't believe me until they saw it blink too. It was blinking at quite a consistent rate; about once every fifty seconds. So when we all got too cold and mosquito bitten and headed back inside, I decided to Google this strange phenomenon. The closest I can gather is that it is an old, disused communications satellite that floats up in the very outer atmosphere, moving very, very slowly. Sometimes they are sent into spins and can blink. This blink is the light from the sun reflecting of their assorted solar panels or dishes. I was actually quite proud of myself for spotting this unusual night-time occurrence.

Feeling: Happy and clean, but unusually cold for a Summer night.

Listening to: Thunderstruck by ACDC, an awesome Australian rock band.

Wearing: PJs again.

Eating: Had delicious burger as stated above, and a pine-lime flavoured popsicle for desert. It dripped into my hair while I lay on my back looking up my special little blinky piece of space-junk.

Whack-a-Mac

So, I did this today.

This is the first pinata I have ever made - and it turned out AWESOME. It's for my little-big brother's up and coming 18th birthday party.  He's a big nerd and is totally PC orientated, so I though it would be funny to bash up an old Mac. It was made over a period of about four hours, from a pizza box, cereal boxes, cardboard, pipe cleaners, paint, print-outs, tissue paper and LOTS of masking tape

No updates on Soulless yet reader minions. I have been too busy shopping for costume parts, making said costume, watching 2 Broke Girls, cleaning ibis poop off lawn chairs, and making an epic pinata.

Hopefully there will more writing done soon though. The little voice in my head keeps poking me and telling me to get a move on.

Eating: Had delicious meatlovers pizza.

Wearing: Cute little black dress. It has over sized buttons on the front.

Feeling: Tired. Who knew that making pinatas took so much out of you?

Listening to: Funky Town. An awesome cover by the Australian band Pseudo Echo.

In Remembrance of a Slobbery Dog

We got this great, galumphing, yellow eyed monster just before Christmas, five or six years ago. At the time, he was a puppy so ugly that he was cute, dressed in a tiny red vest and Santa hat. He soon grew into an enormous dog, that still thought he was small enough to sit in your lap, and knocked you flat when he did.

This is Diesel. A red, Neapolitan Mastiff-Dogue de Bordeaux. He often acted more like a lion than a dog. He lazed around in the sunshine, and played like a cat, catching your feet with his big paws as he followed you around.There was always drool akin to shoestrings hanging from his chops.

He was not an intelligent dog, on account of the medication he needed due to his epilepsy, but he was loyal, loving and always ready to play.

Rest in peace my lovely puppy...

15 Day Challenge No# 4

Challenge number four is to write about a favourite childhood memory. 

Now, I have quite a lot of good childhood memories but I've never really chosen a favourite one. I could write about going to the awesome theme parks on the Gold Coast but they're not really that unique. I can remember a lot about primary school. I had a lot of fantastic teachers and I practically used to live in the library because I liked it so much, but that's not very unique either. I think one of my favourite memories from childhood would have to be fishing for barramundi with my family.

We try to make an annual trip to Lakefield, an estuary river in central Queensland Australia. Sometimes the weather is just terrible or there aren't many fish around. This memory is the earliest trip I can remember going on. Fishing at Lakefield is usually wonderful. There are plenty of large barramundi just waiting to be caught. Our usual method is to catch yabbies (overly large shrimp) and attach them live to three pronged hooks, with a float. The bait will wander around on the river bottom just waiting for a hungry barras to suck them up. So there's me, my brother, Mum and Dad all packed into this tiny little tinny. Fishing was a little slow that day so we were going through our lunch rations. Corned beef and tomato sauce sandwiches, cans of soft drink, poppa juices and snack sized packets of chips. We had a theory about these small packets of chips. At one point someone had opened a packet of cheese Twisties, and the instant they did, one of our lines took off. So Mum picked up another packet of Twisties. She told my brother that when she opened them, his line would take off. The moment she pulled that little foil packet open, her own line whizzed through her fingers! We all laughed our guts out as Mum struggled and cursed at the fish that had taken her by surprise. We still talk about it nowadays.

Feeling: Disbelieving. When I had almost finished the flu I got at uni, I somehow caught the one my brother was carrying.

Wearing: Jeans, boots, a deliciously fluff-lined jacket and an old Mickey Mouse tee.

Listening to: From the Music - The Potbelleez

Eating: Nothing at the moment. Had some little pies and puffy cheese and spinach pastry things for breakfast. I got up rather late. Bad Raechel! :P

15 Day Challenge No# 2 & 3

So, here again for the 15 Day Challenge. Unfortunately, I missed blogging yesterday, due to my laptop's hard drive being replaced, the OS being reinstalled and then having to install absolutely everything else imaginable. And I just figured out what and how to fix the 'Uknown Device' error in my device manager list. I found that it was an accelerometer that recognises if the laptop is freefalling and stops the hard drive to prevent any damage. The Dell techie couldn't even figure it out. I feel like such a computer super sleuth now.

Anyway. Yesterday's challenge was to write a few six word memoirs in a style Hemmingway made famous. I have not much experience at memoirs, let alone six word ones, but I'll give it a crack.

Living unashamedly, amidst books and poeple

Guess how I got this scar?  Or maybe, That's not a scar; This is!

 Do you like my picture mummy?

Am I doing it right? Because I truly have no idea. Onwards! Today's challenge is to tell about an article of clothing to which I am firmly attatched. I talked last time about my zipper earrings, but they're more an item of jewellery. Are shoes considered clothing items? If not, I could talk about the beret I wore in high school, or maybe the track pants I wore when I got my appendix out. My senior shirt? No, I'll describe the story behind my Dad's Custom Van and Car Club tee.

When he was about my age now, my father loved building go-karts, tinkering in the workshop and modifying cars. He entered a few times into the Cairns Custom Van and Car Club shows. Twice he won trophies for his hard work and each year he won, he bough a t-shirt. The one I love to wear is black with white print on it. He got that one in 1984. There is also a white version with black print from 1988. The funniest thing about them, I think, is that they fit me perfectly now. Dad used to be as tiny and as skinny as I am. He's a lot different now lol.

Dad then, with his pimped out van and its trophy, and wearing the shirt.

Dad now, with a phishie