5 Things Meme

Comment to this post and I will give you 5 subjects/things I associate you with. Then post this in your LJ and elaborate on the subjects given.

Thankyou to Mef (Meg)! She gave me: sailing, high school, curly hair, friends, and toby

Sailing
I haven’t been doing any sailing lately *sigh*. Mostly because my boat is broken and my crew moved. So sad. If it weren’t for my laziness in boat fixing and crew finding however … I sail every Saturday from about August – March except for some weeks off in the Christmas holidays. My club sails a few different classes – Manly Juniors, Flying 11s, 125s and VSs in ascending order of size/speed/difficulty etc. The MJ’s, 11s and 125s are 2 person boats and the VSs are 3 person. I sail a 125. It’s pretty fun. I got into sailing from my dad’s side of the family. My grandfather sailed a bit and my dad has sailed all of his life. We also own a small yacht (an S80 in case you wanted to know J) that we keep near where we live. Quite frankly, sailing rocks and everyone should do it. Something I love about sailing is that even though I only really vaguely know what I’m doing, I generally manage to sail quite well. (Thanks for the genes dad!). Sailing iss definitely something I want to continue doing for the rest of my life. Sailing around the world is a dream of mine :D.

High School
Is finished! I kind of miss it. It’s very disconcerting going from a place where you know everyone and see your friends every day, to a place so huge there is no way you could ever know everyone, and see your friends very rarely. Only 2 of my friends go to my uni, and I don’t even see new friends who are doing my course every day. High school was also great for the teaching. In high school, the curriculum makes sure that everything is covered over an extended period of time. I just completed a terms worth of maths in two weeks o_O. I was great friends with my teachers, and they always checked up on how we were doing. Uni is so not like that. My high school was pretty green – trees and plants all over the place, and it was an all girls school. It was also very close to my home. And the library was all in one place. And they had fiction books in it. Uni isn’t like that so much. Sydney is a fairly green uni with trees and such, but the library is huge. And very confusing.

Curly Hair
Lol. I have curly hair. It’s short right now though L. Having curly hair is fun. Sometimes I wish it was more wavy, so it was easier to wear loose, but most of the time I love it. There are some definite awesome qualities to having curly hair.
1. No one can tell if it hasn’t been brushed/washed in weeks. It’s the curls. You just sort of put it up in the morning and it’s done. Total 2 second hair, but no one can tell. Awesome stuff.
2. For some reason people love curly hair. Which makes it a great conversation starter. I’ve made a couple of friends at uni because we talked about hair. Weird, but useful.
3. I can do anything with my hair. Seriously. Anything. It’s very cool.
4. When I straighten my hair, it’s at least a quarter longer than it was curly. Which is awesome, cause I have an obsession with long hair.
Of course there are some bad things about having curly hair. People like playing with it, and often people aren’t very gentle. And it doesn’t always grow longer. Generally it grows curlier, and I don’t get any extra length. And when it does grow longer the curls relax, which is fine, but my hair starts going straighter on top, which is kinda blah.

Friends
I love my friends. I have 3 very loud brothers. I’m fairly loud and crazy myself. I love that I have a whole lot of people who accept me for me. I don’t usually make friends easily. I’m both painfully shy and terribly gregarious. I either open up to much and scare people off (lol), or I shut down and people don’t bother. I love that my friends understand that. I am getting better though. I am a very friend oriented person. In saying that, I guess I really mean that I need to know I’m appreciated. Whether it’s friends, family or even loving animals, I need the love. Which is why I was seriously considering going to Macquarie, simply because I wasn’t going to have any friends at Sydney. I’m glad I didn’t, but it kind of worries me that I might grow to depend on people like that. I’ve always wanted pets, and that’s really because I’ve never felt that I have a super close friend who completely accepts me and loves me unconditionally. I love that about animals. I find it hard to open up, and whilst I know that my best friends and family do accept me and love me, I have a mindset about animals. I spent a large part of 2008 convincing my mother to let me keep my cockatiel in my room. She wanted him out in the aviary, or around the whole family, but I needed him around me, to myself. I don’t know if that makes sense. I guess it’s because I needed to know that he was mine. That he was there for me. I’m not explaining this very well. Much love and ice cream to you if you get the gist of what I mean.

Tobi
I mentioned Tobi before. My cockatiel, Tobias, is my baby. I got him 4 years ago when he was literally a baby. We got two cockatiels, a grey and a yellow. Apparently the grey (which I wanted) was a girl and the yellow (my brother’s) was a boy. So the grey became Tobi, short for Tobiana (I have an obsession with weird names and spellings), and the yellow became Monty. As they matured, Tobi gained the male colouring and became Tobias, and Monty began to lay (infertile) eggs. After a snake got into our aviary and ate Monty, Tobi was moved inside. Following which I had a long debate with my mother about where Tobi would live. I love Tobi to death. He is the most adorable little bird. He hates fingers, and you can’t get your hands anywhere near him, but he is gentle with his warning bites unless you are too persistent. He hates being left alone, and will scream, but he doesn’t like other birds either. He particularly hates it when I leave him. He’s so sweet. He nibbles me ear in the morning and sings to wake me up.

Money

Money is a wonderful thing. Really. There are a couple of things I am really in love with at the moment. Of course to acquire said things, I require money. Most specifically in the form of a Visa or Mastercard. Thankfully, my Mastercard is set to arrive within the week, with enough money for me to happily buy my current fixations. Namely artist books. But there is a problem. (With money there is always a problem.) I don’t really need these books. I’d love them, sure, and they’d probably help me improve my art, give inspiration and solidify the motive for the Quest to Art, but I don’t need them.

Intensifying the problem is that there are a lot of things that I do need right now. Textbooks, most importantly. Biology and Chemistry textbooks will cost around $130 each. Maths I’m not sure, but I’m estimating at least $60. My Ancient History textbook will be around $60+, plus the ‘Odyssey’, which is probably at leat $20 (okay, that one is just a random guess). And on top of that, there’s a Biology lab handbook, probably around $15 (Chem lab book is free. Bio might be too, but I’m not sure) and an Ancient History readings book. I don’t know if or how much that will cost. Then I need a lab coat, at around $30, and safety glasses, which are around $3. Which is around at least $450. Unfortunately there are also ongoing costs, like the train fare ($22 weekly ticket) and if I catch the bus, it’s 90c each way. And however much money my parents and I agree I’ll pay for board. I have decided that University is an extremely expensive venture. Even if you’re on HECS. Oh yeah, and I want to go to Canada. Which I will apparently need $15000 for. By the middle of next year.

I do have a job, but the idea is to be earning money to save not to spend. Plus it’s not really much of a job. $90 max a week. But that’s supposedly Canada money. And board.

What I need, therefore, to justify this spending, is a solid incentive. Bribery is everything. And totally worth it. The fact that two of these books are on special is especially tempting, but, sadly, it’s not enough. Therefore I need a task for which I can be rewarded. Not anything that I’d already be doing. Something good and hard and totally worth it so that the satisfaction I feel when my packages arrive in the mail feels intensified and I feel like the expenditure was totally worth it. Something like committing to an artwork I’ve been dying to start for ages, or writing a certain amount of words for projects I’ve had running around my head for years. Or even just fixing my boat o_O. Either way, I need a task worthy of such excellent rewards. Because otherwise, the guilt may well overpower.

So, to avoid eternal guilt – use bribery! And whatever you do, don’t even think about ordering until you’ve completed your prescribed undertaking. Because the satisfaction of reward is so much sweeter.

Uni and Artings

I only had two hours worth of lectures today, but it still feels like so much after so long doing absolutely nothing! Of course it didn't help that I had a two-hour break in the middle and transport is at least an hour each way. It was actually tiring o_O. I really need to remember to take sunglasses tomorrow as well - sun is blinding. Very, very blinding.

The upside of actually doing something with my time includes, of course, that I'm doing something! Also I'm using my brain, which is nice :) I love learning, and though I didn't really learn much today, it really feels nice to be getting back into the swing of things, you know? The strangest thing is that, after 3 months of saying I'll do more art, and write more, I actually am. Now that I have less time to do it. Go figure. I am happy though; it's always nice to climb out of a creative slump. And I’m currently working on something I’d previously gotten fed up with, or at least I knew what I wanted to do, but it just wasn’t happening. So now it’s happening and Lindsey is happy.

Amongst much exploring whilst trying to look like I knew where I was going today during my break, I also went across Parramatta Road to the Office Works there. It’s huge! Admittedly I’ve never really been to an Office Works before, so for all I know they’re all huge, but wow! Like a supermarket of stationary. I wanted more money than I had, but isn’t that often the case?

Does anyone know how long it takes to walk from Redfern station to Sydney Uni? I’ve been going from Central on the bus, but that ends up being $1.80 each day. I know it’s about a 15 minute walk from Central to the Uni. Something I need to look into anyway.

And finally … on ‘to Dream of Faerie’. I’ve been planning to (eventually) expand my art into a business. Eventually meaning that I’m behind where I thought I’d be, artwise, so I really need to get a move on with presentable art! However, when that does happen, I need a brand name of sorts. Whilst simply my name would be easier, it doesn’t really give any indication of what I’m doing. I was tossing up ‘Kingdoms of Fantasy’ for a while, but I’m not really sure. Kingdom is a bit male oriented :P. Plus kingdomsoffantasy looks weird. So I’m thinking ‘to Dream of Faerie’. What are your thoughts??

New Layout

Whoot! New layout. I had fun playing with things :D. New name too. I've been fairly lax in double posting here and at my LJ. I forgot o_O. So there were a couple of posts in there that didn't make it to 'to Dream of Faerie'. So go to my LJ to check those out if you're interested.

I have a nice easy first day at uni tomorrow. Biology lecture at 9, then a two hour break and a Chemistry lecture at 12. I love the fact that my Maths tutorial and Chemistry prac start next week instead of this one!

Random Catchup

So long without posting ... and I haven't even been doing anything useful. My debit card still hasn't arrived. I need to call the bank and complain! They probably forgot to send it. Which means I'll need to wait another week for it to arrive :( It's not fair. I don't like carrying huge amounts of money around.

My uni timetable is actually pretty good. I don't have any days off, but I go from 9-5 on Monday, 9-3 every 2nd Tuesday (1-3 every other), 9-3 Wednesdays, 10-3 Thursday, and 11-1 on Friday. Which is pretty cool. I know some people go from 9-5 every day. Thank god I don't have to do that! I do have a clash in my timetable between Maths and Ancient History lectures on a Wed afternoon, but I think I may just skip the maths lecture every Wed, instead of alternating :) O Week was fun, lots of people! And we got lost trying to find a friend's Agriculture introduction. It's so huge! I start tomorrow ... hopefully I don't get too lost! the downside of it is that it could potentially take me almost 1.5 hours travel each way. And of course the cost of travel :( I finish at 1 this Monday, which is nice, as practicals don't begin until 2nd week.

I have been amazingly lazy during my time off. I have had a ton of ideas for both artings and writings, but all I've really done is write them down. I want to draw and paint them, but I haven't. Really I'm just being lazy :( I have been reading a lot, romances at the moment. But that's still no excuse. I did however, rearrange my room. Basically I switched my bed and desk around. My desk is under the window and my bed head is against the wall opposite. It's a nice change. I am going to be making a bigger desk soon, but I don't know where I'll put Tobi. Where he currently is, the desk will cover. I could put him against the wall under the window, but I feel bad if he can't see outside. I will probably end up putting him in front of my bookcase again. Poor baby.

Tina came up for the weekend! She's now renting a cottage, so she needed to come and pick up a whole lot of furniture and stuff that she didn't need/couldn't fit in the cabin. I missed her so much. I think she'll be coming back up for the bush dance. I want her to anyway. She will if she gets an assignment done early. I will probably fly down to visit her for the weekend after anyway, but it'd be really nice if she could come up too. She was studying when I arrived o_O. Her biology textbook is REALLY nice though. I like it. The sort of book you'd keep after you're done with it. I want one like it. I am such a nerd!

My aunt and cousin are coming out from England later this year! They'll be here in July/August. I think they're staying with us for a bit, and then they're going up to Ballina to visit my grandparents. I can't wait! I haven't seen Katherine in AGES. She'll turn 16 just before she gets here, so she's a couple of years younger than me, but she is my closest girl cousin.

I should get up and have breakfast, so I shall continue any catchups I can think of later!
Happy Sunday everyone.
And Happy March.