These Are a Few of My Favourite...Links

It is just past 3am in the morning and I'm posting. How whack. Well I came online to check out the soccer scores, it seems that I'm halfway there to winning $15.75 from a $5 punt on the Newcastle-Middlesbrough double since Newcastle beat Bolton 2-1 about 30mins ago however Middlesbrough are down 1-0 to Charlton after 40 minutes.

On another note, Chelsea are down 1-0 to Liverpool in the Carling Cup final, only just after a minute! Amazing, I really hope Liverpool win because I don't like Chelsea very much.

Hmm well since my last post I've taken to this new link thing...haha loves it! Here are some of my favourite/interesting sites. I have a collection yes, I love bookmarking everything!

You can find a funny one here (you need Flash plugin 7, but it's sooo worth it! haha) and on the same site here and here.

Another interesting one is here and people, keep your kids away from this one here.

Other funny ones you'll find here, here and here.

More links that I frequently use are both here and here, as well as here.

Lastly, if you're bored you'll find a little game here and at the moment I'm intently checking in here.

Peace.

CBF

Okay, according to this there's 19 minutes before I have to be at work. I'm not going to make it and I'm not at all fussed. You know why? Because I called in sick.

I've just been the laziest mofo of late, in terms of work. I guess if I'm so averse to it, maybe I should quit. But I always convince myself not to. They say you make the best decision within the first 2 seconds...then you talk yourself out of it. I guess it's because DJs is so flexible, and I already know all the "tricks of the trade" if you will, of working there and my workmates are cool. I think I wouldn't like establishing myself all over again at a new workplace, and that's probably not the hardest part, I mean, I'm going to have to apply to all these places, go through the interview process again etc etc, and trust me, March in your penultimate year, the last thing you want are interviews for a casual job.

My plan is to hang in there until late October, just before my final exams. Being that as it may, it means I still have 8 more months of piking, slacking, bitching and putting on that winning "5-Star" smile for all those lucky David Jones customers out there.

Hmm anyway, I actually have things to do in light of recent developments ie. not having to work. Uni begins on Tuesday for me (I have Monday and Friday's off!) and it won't be long for the workload to pile and and everyone to get into the swing of things.

For anyone who's interested in my timetable you can get it here by right clicking and choosing "Save Target As". For those who have had a look, yes I only have 9 hours because I'm only doing three subjects since I did 333-309 Derivative Securities in the summer. This semester I'm doing 333-301 Investments, 306-301 Financial Accounting and 306-304 Auditing and Assurance Services. Fun fun fun...not.

Eh...happy uni days everyone.

Thoughts for the Day

- Homer Hudson icecream (both Chocolate Rock or Hoboken Crunch) hits the spot when you're taking a break from studying

- be very grateful for your friends

- when your parents go away leaving you all alone for a few days, go do whatever you like (including walking naked around the house...haha jk!!!)

- be happy for a brother studying interstate

- Dolmio Spaghetti with Red Wine and Rich Bolognese is really bloody good when you have no one to cook for you and cannot cook yourself

- be very thankful for a girlfriend with not enough time on her hands to cook

- when you are forced to wash something before every meal due to lack of eating utensils you know you're a bum

- when you are forced to wash something before having a shower due to lack of clothing (particularly underwear) you know you're a bum

- be very grateful for your parents
.

Today

7:10am - Alarm goes off.
7:15am - Get out of bed.
7:17am - Go release KJ from garage.
7:18am - Close garage door to prevent KJ from running into the house.
7:18.00001am - Realise garage door lock is primed. F**k.
7:19am - F**K!!!
7:20am - Run to side of house to see if any doors are unlocked.
7:21am - All doors are locked, check windows to see if any are open. Only very small toilet window is open.
7:30am - Stuck in toilet window, but manage to squeeze in scratched, flustered, half awake and friggen relieved.
7:32am - Run around putting dogs in correct areas.
7:35am - Have shower to clean all dust/spiderwebs off.
7:45am - Have a cup of milo/dress myself/gather Derivatives notes - simultaneously.
7:55am - Leave house.
8:50am - Arrive at exam venue, The Royal Melbourne Showgrounds, Flemington.
9:15am - Begin reading.
9:30am - Begin writing.
11:55am - Leave exam venue.
12:25pm - Arrive home.
12:30pm - Gather money/travel documents then leave house.
12:45pm - Arrive at Flight Centre, Balwyn.
1:30pm - Leave Flight Centre Balwyn.
1:40pm - Arrive home.
1:46pm - Begin writing blog.
2:02pm - Relax.

California Dreaming

Okay, I've gotta make this a quickie coz if your memory serves you correctly, I do have an exam tomorrow! Why am I posting this then? Was that a rhetorical question? Was that a rhetorical question? Was all three of...ah shuddup.

Erm okay I dunno if I'm going to be doing this all the time now, but I had some pretty interesting dreams last night as well! And I remember them! Are you guys reading this and thinking "Poor Greg, he only posts on his dreams now because his sense of reality is failing him."? Was that a rhetorical question? No, and the last one wasn't either because I answered it with no! Haha yes, I know you guys are like "What the hell is he on???" (I'm on bloody options, futures and fowards) but I'm a bit loco because for the last 4 days I've been giving my brain such a workout on friggen the black-scholes option pricing model, merton's continuous dividend pricing model, black's pseudo-american pricing model, the binomial model (which I've grown to hate the most), normal backwardation and 'contango' amongst other things and methinks I'm going crazy.

So to answer the "is Greg losing his mind" question...well I just answered it with all that mumbo jumbo derivatives crap! Really, I've come to question whether I'm the only person in the world learning this and why I'm doing it. But every now and then I get a reality check and think "okay, a lot of other ppl are doing this subject (and have done it in the past), and I'm learning this for an exam.

I really want to sit here talking about delta and gamma hedging, because I know that I'll at least be thinking about derivatives while I'm cheating myself spending time blogging instead of studying. But I shall refrain coz it will soooo turn you guys off.

Anyway, my dreams last night, the first dream I remember I was with Anna, Ann and Victor in LA and we went to this really nice part of LA that had valleys with Tuscany-looking houses. We were sitting atop a wall of one of these nice-looking houses looking into a bay just down below. Then I saw the most phenomenal thing, the water at the mouth of the bay just suddenly surged upwards, like something below it had made this massive wave. Then a few moments later, we all saw this massive wave come in and we were like "oh crap..." and I was like "omg it's gonna be a tsunami". Then the next wave was even bigger but we sat there thinking it wasn't gonna get us...which it didn't. Then the 3rd wave was a friggen MF of a wave which rose as high as us on the wall of the Tuscany-looking house, on the hill, on top of the cove that Jack built.

Anyway all four of us fell down for what felt like an eternity and I was like "man, I'm so gonna break both my legs when I land" but when we hit the bottom, we weren't injured at all because we landed in a bed of leaves.

So anyway, we walked along the wall then came to this apartment that was fully run down and all these people standing around going like "whoa man!" coz of the tsunami. Anyway the dream kinda fizzled out from there, I remember looking up Yahoo! on the communal computer the motel had to find that the tsunami had slightly affected Melbourne.

The next dream I was somewhere in Camberwell with my dad and we drove down this dodgy looking lane and I saw this derro teenager throwing up. My window was down and I told my dad "okay drive faster coz this dude looks Zoolander derelicte styles" but for some absurd reason my dad slowed down and as we drove past the dude, he sneered at me and touched my head, putting some of his vomit in my hair! I was soooo pissed off at my dad for not speeding up. Anyway, the next thing I know, I was by myself in Sydney and I was totally lost. I couldn't get back to Melbourne for some reason, I think the car broke down. But I bumped into this really nice family and they offered to pay for a train ride down there.

Anyway, I think this is really long now and kinda meaningless for everyone so I think I'm gonna tie it up here. (I know Ann will be like "okay I'm reading this next bit tomorrow" if you haven't done so already! haha) So I've noticed that all things in your dreams stem from topics you've heard/seen in the last few days. As it's very difficult to dream scenes of pricing models and arbitrage, my dreams have been meshed together from everything outside of studying.

Firstly, in the first dream I was with Anna, Ann and Victor, mainly because they've been the few ppl I have seen in the last week or so. We were in LA because I've just booked a ticket to go there in December and I haven't stopped thinking about it (oh it'll be so good the USA trip!). As for the valleys of Tuscany-looking houses, in the latest episode of "The OC" it is mentioned that two of the characters will go there for a romantic getaway. To account for the surge in the bay, the tectonic plates pushed against each other to cause the outer plate to slide upwards, causing the tsunami to happen. I don't know whether this shifting of the plates came from my knowledge that California has lots of earthquakes caused by it, and since we were in LA it was just a natual progression, or that on the news recently I saw that tsunamis were formed by them. Anyway, I think the plates along the San Andreas fault line move horizontally, whereas the tsunami-causing plates move vertically.

So the next dream came about because I was talking about the Camberwell market with Anna recently. Getting upset at my dad, well that's a frequent occurrence shamefully. The Sydney part, well I think that stems from my general flirtation with travelling recently, and I did go there in December for a few days.

Okay so that's it. I've read other ppl's blogs and they so have meaning to what they're posting. I, on the other hand, talk a lot of s**t to be honest. I've got a case of blogging diarrhoea, where I just think stuff and say it. That's why my blogs don't have direction, that's why my blogs are unstructured, and that's why my blogs are full of little pieces of crap. But yeah, I guess I'm not too fussed about it, not many other ppl do it this way (maybe that should tell me something), but on the whole I want to write this blog in my own way. Take it or leave it.

I've gotta go study now, hope you guys are making the most of your time and having fun, coz I so envy you!

Celebrity Spotting in Dreamland

Now, I really should be studying as I've got an exam on Monday and it ain't no pushover if you know what I mean. Yes, 333-309 Derivative Securities, the bane of my existence!

Anyway, I am about to embark down the proverbial "road less travelled" with this post, I really am. I've never done this before, on such a public forum anyway but here goes. "Ooo what's he going to do?" I hear you say. Well, quite simply I'm going to share last night's dreams with y'all.

So, trying to have an early night last night despite my regular 3am bedtimes, I managed to get into bed by about 2am. I remember taking a long time to drift off, as I usually do, but the next thing I remember was being at a tennis tournament.

I was watching Marat Safin v John McEnroe. Haha no comment. I can't remember the score because I don't believe I went into that much detail making one up, my dreams aren't as vivid as I'd like. Anyway, for some reason other players had to play on the centre court so they kicked Marat and John off and made them wait in the tunnel at the entrance of the court.

For some reason, I miraculously found myself down there, and they were a bit peeved at being kicked off, naturally. So there we were, and suddenly the tunnel became a car park. Furthermore, Marat and Johnny started playing, without a net and within confines of a "court" about 1/4 the size of a real one. I was the only other person down there, and when there was a disputed call, Johnny said to Marat,
"Look buddy, I really respect you so okay, I believe it was out" to which Marat replied,
"Okay" in his dopey Russian accent.

So the game went on and I became the umpire, but again, for some reason the car park turned into a dank old toilet block. Anyway, Johnny Mac and Marat had finished and ended up changing in the change rooms/toilet block and I proceeded to pee in a nearby urinal (very very personal I know, but hey this is groundbreaking stuff! Wait till you hear about the next dream with Britney Spears! Haha) Anyway, I suddenly woke up from the dream with the sudden urge to pee. I cursed in my head and looked at the clock for a solid 10 seconds before my vision came to focus. 5:54am. Mother f**ker!!! Okay so I got up and went to the loo, then came back into my warm, warm bed.

The next thing I remember, I was in a hotel room with the one and only Britney Spears. Now, let it be known that I'm not a fan of hers, and I don't think she's particularly hot hot. This isn't some deep-subconscious perverted fantasy of mine. Although, she was a lot better looking in person than the pictures. But I didn't really know, I was meant to be sleeping on the same bed as her and this other dude anyway. Hehe no no, it wasn't like that, at this stage the dream was more like an "Almost Famous" scene where ppl just fully crashed wherever, totally platonic mind you. There was another chick sleeping on the matress on the floor somewhere from my recollection. Anyway, we were rudely woken up by Erin, the cute brunette chick on "The Apprentice 3". I immediately jumped to, almost saluted her while standing upright like a soldier. It was time to get our shiznitz together to perform the next task that Donald Trump had issued to us, and boy, I certainly didn't want to get fired this week.

Anyway, it was how I imagined it to be behind cameras, the cameraman said "cut!" and all these makeup people started touching us up (as in with make up, not their hands! Haha). So instead of rushing to get all this stuff done, we chilled a bit, I talked to Erin who is an attorney about what I knew about Comm/Law degrees, which is not very much. Anyway, Britney was walking around doing her thing and after that it was a blur.

The next thing I knew, I was back in bed squeezed between Britney and Erin. Great! Haha not really, I was a bit annoyed that they both took up so much room but eh oh well. The dude (whom I made up during my dream was actually Britney's ex) was sleeping on the matress on the floor this time. It was very dark again, early hours of the morning in the same hotel and then Britney's mum walked through and woke us all up. The girls didn't respond but I apologised for them and said "Sorry Mrs. Spears" which sounded way weird.

Anyway, we had a big day and we went to this school which looked like an office block. Apparently it was one of the finest schools in America. There were about 400 people sitting on the lawn just outside the front door of the office and we had to do a small 2 minute interview to see whether we were going to be accepted. I was there being chummy with Britney, this dude that looked like Diego Forlan and other "pretty people" which was nice. I was in their group and they were waaaay cool yea, like, yea!

So we did our interviews and I thought I went well. I knew that Brit had done swimmingly because she's such a sociable girl and of course they'd love her, even if she wasn't smart.

I can't remember much after that, but the next dream I remember was sitting on a bus with Mandy Moore. It was surreal (duh, it was a dream) but I was meant to be watching us sitting on a bus on MTV because it was a video clip for Enrique Iglesias. The song was "Hero". So, the story went like this, Mandy and Enrique were together. Mandy had told Enrique that she had to go away for a while. She was sad to leave him and so was he. But I, being Mandy's friend and long time secret admirer knew that Enrique was bad! I was about to tell her but then I saw the look on her face when we drove away on the bus. Later, I saw Enrique with another blonde chick driving past us and I was like "Oh no, Mandy's gonna see it for real now". So, she was looking around talking to me, then she saw Enrique hoon past with the blonde. She was so sad, but I was there to comfort her. That's when the chorus came in with "I can be your hero baby, I can wash away the pain..." but then the song became all whack, out of tune and off beat and I realised that my radio alarm clock was going off because it was 10:10am with some song playing that washed out "Hero".

I forced myself to get up but I didn't actually get out of bed until about 10:45am. I had promised I would go for a jog early but I wanted to just lie for a bit and let it sink in that I had spent the last few days with John McEnroe, Marat Safin, Erin from The Apprentice, Britney Spears, Enrique Iglesias and last but definitely not least, Mandy Moore...all this while sleeping! Ahh...dream life is good.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words (Part I)

Okay, I'm not gonna chatter on about much in this post. To summarise, a few events have happened lately, namely my birthday dinner and karaoke. So, I'm gonna put up some pics of karaoke night, and then in Part II I'll get my hands on some pics from my bday, maybe some other random photos and post them up too. A mention to Drew for alerting me to the "Hello!" program, props!

Passed out Julz

Ronny serenading Ann

Nathan...and passed out Julz

Chris and Des belting out those tunes

.

.

Chris...and passed out Julz

Anyway, that's it folks! Oh and to all the lover-lovers out there, Happy Valentine's Day! xxxooo

mon anniversaire neuf Fevrier

One of the only things I remember from my time doing French in Year 7 is how to say "My birthday is on the 9th of February." How long ago that was.

How appropriate then that today I become suddenly a year older overnight and that today also, Wednesday, 9th February 2005 is collectively Chinese New Year and Ash Wednesday. As an asian and the birthday boy I'm to party my socks off. Yet as a Catholic I'm supposed to fast and go to mass. I guess that kinda sums me up, that I'm an amalgamation of a lot of different influences in life.

Although I'm supposedly maturing and having more control through greater responsibility, I also fear getting older and taking another step away from youth. This is probably the first year I've truly felt that way, I mean, 18 was a novelty and 21 was the big one but now it's no more "fun and games" birthdays, at least until I'm 30 which is a horrifying thought. I know for my birthday I might sound a tad glum so on a brighter note, more than anything I love about birthdays (the presents, the parties and perhaps some booze), is the amount of love shown towards you. Everyone loves to feel loved. I'll divulge you with a Seinfeld quote I really love:

"The most unfair thing about life is the way it ends. I mean, life is tough. It takes up a lot of your time. What do you get at the end of it? A death. What's that, a bonus? I think the life cycle is all backwards. You should die first, get it out of the way. Then you live in an old age home. You get kicked out when you're too young and get a gold watch when you go to work. You work forty years until you're young enough to enjoy your retirement! You do drugs, alcohol, you party. You get ready for high school! You go to grade school, you become a kid, you play, you have no responsibilities, you become a little baby, you go back into the womb, spend your last nine months floating... then you finish off as an orgasm."

Now I won't blab on about the meaning of life or anything of that BS so that's it for my little spiel. I'd also like to mention that it would be terribly negligent of me if I didn't post today otherwise it'd be like I was pretending I'm not getting older. It'd be nice though if I didn't have to age, become weaker, slower in mind, less useful. Turning 22, well, I'm on my way.

Although I guess I can't be all that bad yet. I mean, I still remember cake is gateaux.

The Chosen One

Once again I find myself compelled to blog just to ensure I don't fade into cyberspace non-existence. I'm not going to elaborate on this because it's all just old hat and I'll sound like a broken record, just refer to previous introductions of my last few blogs and you'll get the idea.

So anyway, in the last week or so I've had some interesting experiences. I'll begin where I left off last entry, the infamous KFC Wicked Wings episode. So that day I had had my mid semester and got cranky before realising I sounded like a spoilt piece of s**t. Later that night I ended up going to the airport to see Quoc, Cat, Heng, Liv, Dave, Tam and Henry off to Asia. That was somewhat sad and exciting both at the same time. I have this passion for travelling even though I haven't done it that much, and oh how I wished it was me going away. However I wasn't all disappointed as a trip to the airport excites me even if I'm not the one leaving! As Nicole Richie would say, "Loves it!" hehe.

Like Moses leading the Iraelites from Egypt, they were the chosen ones walking through the parted Red Sea. I, on the otherhand, was an Egytian, left behind. It should have been me going to the promised land, me! It was therefore a sad experience seeing them walk through those hallowed metal gates. See, in my head, the movie's meant to end there. You have your last supper, reminisce about the good times, talk about what lies ahead, then walk into the distance. When those terminal doors close, that's where it's meant to fade to black, pause for a while then the credits begin rolling. But that didn't happen. What followed was Steve, Derek, Garry and I looking at each other and for a split second thinking "What happens now?"

Okay, so that's how some shows end, the powerful ones where it's up to you to guess what happens next to the characters. I know "The OC" didn't follow that when Anna left. There was a lot of boo hooing and then later Seth and Ryan reflect on a bench next to the pier. None of that was going to happen with us haha. I think this is where I came off my "airport-high." Stark realisation that I was going back to the way things were, the boring status quo. I wasn't going on a three week, four country trek with my mates. Instead I'd have two more weeks of Uni and the highlights being much needed visits to the gym. How wrong I was.

Tuesday brought about joy when I played tennis for the first time in a long time with Sanji. I thoroughly enjoyed it as I felt remnants of what it was like to play tennis properly again come back in fleeting moments. Having said that, I was still hitting poorly, but on the whole I got my forehand back to normal so at least I made some progress. It was really hot early that day and I was happy to tough it out in the heat as it made for a tougher environment, which would aid in my physical development...and I am quite pissweak now.

That day was followed with more Uni, then a trip to the gym with Steve. I was starting to get back on track with this physical activity business. After that workout, I accompanied him to drive Derek to the airport and while it brought back more excitement, I was more controlled this time around.

Thursday I golfed it at Albert Park with Chops, Steve and Steve's family friend, Anna. That was wholesome because I hadn't had a hit in a while and Friday, well, that night is the stuff of legends. Well, not really but it was a hell of a good time had by all!

After YG in which Garry unexpectedly offered to attend, we came back to my place with Lena to watch "The OC." Recently, Garry had been given my DVD of the first season and I guess he's now converted. Watching episode 9, "The Heights" brought back memories of the good old "OC" however I was unable to finish off the episode because Sanji and Chops soon rang to tell me they were outside my place to pick me up for a night out clubbing. I was semi-reluctant to go just yet, a combination of "The OC," work at 9am the next day, general cbf-ness and the fact that I was leaving my friends without a host in my own home tugged at my willpower. In the end we got to Amber Lounge about 12am. Julz was already inside with his EY buddies and the three of us wagered that he'd be thoroughly sloshed by then haha. Sanji knew the bouncer that night so we got in with relative ease and relatively free. On the way in, we saw Thano and Will in the line and while I felt bad for skipping the queue with heaps of ppl looking at us like "How dare you just go in like that without waiting in line," Chops clearly did not feel the same and in true Chops fashion, proceeded to point and laugh at them. Haha I guess the liberal me would have done exactly the same, afterall we were the chosen ones.

I'd have to say that Amber was great fun. I hadn't been clubbing in a long time and it brought back memories, mostly the good hehe. In general though, it was a very welcome change to the current lifestyle I lead. Most of the highlights are in both Julz and Chops' blogs so to explain Julz's exploits and Chops' hair-raising antics (more like hair fondling haha) would be frivolous. They did however fail to mention that two chicks tried to pick up Steve which I thought was funny. Aww how sweet...haha.

Anyway, the moral of the story? None, they were all thrown out when we saw the chicks at Amber. Haha nah just joking! Seriously, even though I was upset at not being able to go for an overseas holiday and thinking my life will be filled with boringness, it wasn't the end of the world. It's not guaranteed that I would've had an unforgettable time overseas, even Moses didn't have a perfect experience as they were lost for a long time. In fact, he never even made it to the Promised Land, Joshua had to take over. Like the Egyptians in the book of Exodus and Seth from the OC, I had to move on. The Egyptians have the pyramids and Seth got Summer (albeit for a period of time but it looks like they'll be getting cosy again in Season 2!). I myself have friends, family, sport and yes, Amber.