Daley News Star: Paul!

I've known Paul since Year 10 when I moved to Knox, although admittedly I didn't get to know him that well until some stage during Year 12. It was the best of days; it was the blurst of days... Haha, nah I can’t remember the exact day that I realised that he was actually someone I could see myself getting along well with, but I guess that’s really not that important. Before that day I saw him as some kind of insanely (and annoyingly) good poker player. Although he was not quite so good at 8-square... Guess you can’t have the best of both worlds of recreational lunch time activities. :)

Anyway, our English class was the medium that helped a friendship develop. I found that what he lacked in spelling and grammar, he made up for in insight, and in his ability to get to the crux of an issue or theme to come up with an astonishingly meaningful and poignant response. He challenged me to think differently, and being the uber-competitive person that I am, made me strive to do even better – so I could beat him! But as the year progressed we more frequently sat next to each other, and not just because I wanted to learn from his viewpoints, but because I’d come to quite enjoy his company.

It’s no secret that I’m a shy person. In fact, anyone who says that I’m not probably doesn’t really know me at all. Anyway, every now and then I come across a person who I feel completely comfortable around, who I can just be myself with and open up a little more than I normally would. Paul is definitely one of those people. Sometimes I think I’m more myself when I’m with Paul than I am with anyone else. I’m not exactly sure why this is, but I think he just gets me. He understands that I’m not always going to be bucket-loads of fun or brimming with conversation, and I think knowing that helps me to relax and makes me feel like I don’t have to watch what I say, or worry that he might think I’m a dag for saying it. Although I’m pretty sure he already does think I’m quite a tool! He puts up with my toolishness, but I deservingly cop a fair bit of flack for it from him. One day I’ll come up with a decent comeback Paul, one day! :)

So in summary, Paul:

• Sends very long text messages.
• Is a very caring person (behind the sarcasm).
• Is very witty, especially when compared to me.
• Slaves away at Kmart for now, but is bound for much bigger & better things in his future.
• Will hopefully let me mooch off him when he’s become rich from his amazing future!
• Understands me, and makes me feel good about myself.
• Is a much better friend to me than I am to him (I’m working on it)
• Needs to show me how he cheats at poker. :P
• Will hopefully pretend to like the present I get him for his birthday – which is today!
• Has a very large... vocabulary.
• And is one of, if not, my very best friends.
  

Happy birthday Paul, you deserve to have a fantastical (wow... spellcheck agrees with fantastical, yet not with ‘spellcheck’...) day. Don’t worry, Paul will forgive me for ruining a nice sentiment with a stupid little sidenote, because that’s the kind of person he is!

*claps*

Dale.

Argh! Head down, bum up...

After getting a big, fat, doughy ‘No!’ from the people at Krispy Kreme this afternoon, I became a little despondent.

I would really like to know what’s making me so unattractive to potential employers. I’ve been trying for a while now and it’s just been rejection after rejection after rejection. It’s pissing me off, and it’s not making me feel all that good about myself either. It’s just a part-time job I’m after, yet everywhere I apply they don’t want me. They don’t want the person that I am to represent their business.

This is starting to make me think that there’s something wrong with me, and is resulting in pessimistic feelings about my future. Maybe I just need to look in different places. Maybe I need to try and work on improving myself and my shortcomings. Maybe I need to get some perspective.

Maybe I should just shut up, keep trying, and stop being a sook!

Well I did get something out of today… a free donut! :)

Survival, Daggers, Antarctica, Prose & Donuts.

We made it! My brother and I survived 3 parentless days. I think we fared reasonably well for ourselves too.

• The house isn't a mess,
  
• We don't appear dishevelled, dirty, or malnourished,
  
• The car still goes,
  
• The birds are still alive,
  
• And there are no blood or vomit stains on the carpet.

We even managed to cook for ourselves! I know, I was slightly alarmed at the idea of myself and my brother being around kitchen appliances unsupervised too, but thankfully it all turned out ok. I found it quite amusing how as soon as mum got home she carried out a quick inspection of everything trying to be surreptitious. Good on ya mum. :) They enjoyed their little getaway and ate more takeaway than we did! Now THAT is weird.

Our Saturday was actually pretty tame. We just hung around playing playstation and nintendo, and I forced him to study a little for his (year 11) exams, before driving him to basketball at about 5.30. He finished at 6.30 so I waited the hour for him in the carpark, reading one of mum's books that I hurriedly grabbed off the shelf before we ran out the door. It was one of those period books about people in the early 20th century. Wasn't the most captivating read I've ever had, but it did the job. Unfortunately his team lost (18-20) but he got over it. We swung by Video Ezy on the way home and picked up two dvds to watch after dinner. Cooking dinner was uneventful - I even left Mark to do most of it himself when I got a phone call - the end product tasted pretty damn good and didn't result in food poisoning. Score! :)

The dvds we got were The Ringer and House of Flying Daggers. Hmm... Can you guess who chose what? We watched The Ringer together and it was actually pretty decent. It was light, funny and not as distasteful as I thought it would be (since Johnny Knoxville was in it, and it's about scamming the special olympics!). When it finished we proceeded to eating a lot of ice cream and putting my new Ministry of Sound CD on. Dancing around the house was pretty fun! I was actually surprised that none of the neighbours complained (we have complainy neighbours) as it was like 12.30 and we had the music really loud. (I love the CD so much... I've listened to it almost religiously since I got it a week or so ago. Highly recommend it - it'll make dance music lovers out of you all!) Sunday was spent tidying up and stuff, and more studying by Mark.

Got to watch House of Flying Daggers on Sunday night. I'd been wanting to see it or Hero for a while. Something about the artiness of them really appealed to me. Like, the elegance and choreography and overall cinematography or something. Haha, I'm not sure if I'm allowed to use the word cinematography because I know very little about film making... Oh well! Anyway, I got all excited about the idea of watching a film with subtitles only to find out that it had been dubbed in English! As the film played out though, I was actually thankful for it, and the dubbing was almost believable. Admittedly a few things about the film were a little confusing, but it was definitely a beautiful movie to watch, and the themes of the film were universal. Love, betrayal, sacrifice, friendship, the quest for happiness were all central to the story. The fight scenes were breathtaking, and not ridiculously overdone. If you haven't seen it, maybe give it a look sometime for something different.

Last night I had to go down to the tennis club and umpire two other teams playing against each other, because we didn't make the finals. Lord was it cold! The joy of sitting up in those high umpire chairs - always wanted to do that :) - was ruined by the icy cold, unrelenting wind. And of course I was wearing my jeans with the hole in the knee, so my right leg was particularly frozen by the end of it. When we'd finished our umpirely duties (and ate the supper the teams provided) we thankfully left and I drove Luke home. But guess what? As I pulled into his driveway and he was getting out of the car, he noticed that there was a lot of steam coming out of the bonnet of the car! I took the risk and decided to drive home - I could smell something burning which was a little scary - but I made it. After poking around the engine with Dad late last night we discover that there's a massive oil leak. So this morning I risked life and limb and drove it to this mechanic with mum driving in the unproblematic car behind me. Well maybe I exaggerated the risk to me, but you never know. The engine coulda blown up or something... :P

I'm starting to get serious about attempting to write something these holidays too. I've been brainstorming ideas, and putting a lot of effort into planning everything. I'm re-reading some of John Marsden's Tomorrow series for inspiration.

Lastly, I've got a group interview at Krispy Kreme this Saturday! It seems I have no trouble impressing potential employers with the on-paper me, but I somehow fall short in person. Hopefully this time it will be different!

Dale.

(Alcohol assisted) Confidence!

Ok, so I went out last night to a club in the city. This was despite being told to stay home with my younger brother by my parents who are away in Adelaide. They're celebrating their anniversary by taking a well-deserved break from their troublesome offspring (ie. me and Mark, but mainly me!). But it's not the fact that I was rebellious and went out that this is about, it's about what happened.

If you've been out somewhere with me you'll know that I'm not that great at picking up - it's only happened once! - because I get shy and nervous when I see someone I like. Well last night a few interesting things took place:

The person I picked up (a month or so ago) was there. This wouldn't have been so awkward if that night I met them I hadn't walked off, promised to return, and then didn't come back! So I spent a decent while hiding behind my friends and trying to make my face look different by doing strange facial expressions, in the hope they wouldn't recognise me! I managed to successfully avoid them for about an hour before I accidentally made eye contact and they started to walk towards me. A few thoughts went through my head - should I pretend not to remember? Should I pretend I'm in a relationship? Should I run away in case they're angry and are contemplating attacking me? (ok, not so likely I know, but even on a good day I'm not the most rational person!). I went with the second option, and it worked. They left me alone after about a minute or two of semi-awkward conversation. Phew! No bruises/slap marks/sore genitalia for Dale!

The few people I knew who were there, knew a lot of other people, and I found myself able to talk to these other people I didn't yet know with relative ease. Didn't feel uncomfortable or anything. I was completely content with myself and the way I was interacting with them, which is pretty much a first for me. Possibly made a few new friends! I was even able to approach and talk to someone that I liked the look of! We talked for quite a while and got along pretty well. The whole situation worked out a whole lot better than how I imagined it would play out. Apparently I'm likable after all. Oh, and I have nice teeth... :) Nothing happened between me and the person I liked the look of, but in the end I didn't really mind. I was just happy that I took the first step - even if it was aided by alcohol.

Finally, Dale is gradually building in confidence! Look out world. :P

Smooth Operater.

I'm no temporary tattoo...

Although I haven't known you for very long, I can tell you've come a long way recently. To give you more of the 'big picture' - don't mistake my issues (yep, I have big ones too!) as a negative reflection on yourself. Please don't let my idiocy stop the personal growth that you've started which will be so beneficial to you and your happiness in the future!

And you must know how important your friendship is to me, I mean, come on! :)

I hope to be good friends with you for as long as possible - I meant it when I said "No matter what you decide, I want you in my life", because you made mine incredible.

So get your ass into my life and stay there! Err, I mean... it would be great if your friendship could umm, not go anywhere for a while. :)

You're an inspiration to me, Adam. And you always will be.

Dalina.
Hoping to be more like a tongue piercing than a temporary tattoo.

I can't help but wonder...

I can’t help but wonder about things that might have been. Generally these things are out of my control and too hard to envisage, but it doesn’t stop me contemplating how things might have played out if a few circumstances were different. For example, someone that you meet, fall for, and become involved with – how different would the relationship be if you didn’t meet them when you did, but a year or two later? Would anything even come of it, or is it a combination of time and place and the stage of life that you’re in that dictates the successful formation of a relationship? On the other hand, could things work out for the better – would the extra year or two put the people involved in a better position to have a successful relationship? Obviously I’m talking about something that’s on my mind, and I’m not saying that I’d trade the time I had with this other person for anything, but it still gets me thinking!

The curiousity still runs strong within me... Oh my, Star Wars jokes... Someone throw rotten tomatoes at me!

Another thing that I’ve been pondering is if I’d gotten a part time job when I was 15/16, would I have my own car right now? I think the answer would be yes! I’m kind of annoyed about this. When I think about how much more freedom having my own car would bring me, and all the opportunities that I had to get a job, I get a little frustrated with myself. I also think that having a part time job would have helped me mature a bit more, give me more responsibility, and the sense of what it’s like to work hard for some hard earned cash. I’m not saying that my boundary umpiring money wasn’t hard earned – the amount of physical exertion involved was ridiculous – but it’s just not the same.

I don’t expect to get that job at Village Cinemas, although I didn’t do half bad, I don’t think I was quite quick-thinking enough. Nevertheless I’ll keep looking and hopefully get a job soon so I can learn those valuable lessons. (Wow, I’m sounding a bit like my dad; all preachy and whatnot... That’s a bit scary!) And then I can come and pick you up in my very own car and take you for a very short drive so I don’t use up all my left over money on petrol!

Dale.

Freedom & The Agenda

Hallelujah!! My last exam was on Wednesday morning - business law, 3 and a half painstakingly long hours - and I couldn't be happier that I don't have to deal with commerce anymore. I know a lot of you will hate me right now because you still have exams coming, but I'm sorry I can't help but shout from the rooftops how relieved I am to be done with it all. It hasn't been easy knowing that I've wasted an entire year of my life doing something that won't be of much use to me in the future, and accumulating additional HECS debt too! I really feel like a boring commerce-sized weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

So now I wait... My uncertain future is a little exciting. Having no control again is.. I dunno, invigorating! I hope to god I get into my Professional & Creative Writing course at Deakin next year, or some other similar one, but if I don't I know it won't be the end of the world. Maybe I should hide my last post in case some course inspector looks at my blog for some reason - it's pretty shocking...

Anyway, what to do for 4 whole months? I've been thinking about this since pretty much the minute my exam ended. Obviously getting a job is a main priority, even just as something to fill in the time! I'm pretty sure my friends will get sick of me within a few weeks, so I need something to keep me busy/entertained. Naturally I'll have a crack at continuing that book I started to write earlier this year, and also try to work on some short stories.

** daley newsflash - I have a group interview at Village Cinemas on Friday afternoon **

I've thought up a project for myself! I'm thinking it could be the start of a few mini projects that I try to complete. This one is called Project HASB. I'll need to purchase some equipment, and get into contact with some people, which may be a challenge in itself, but I'm really looking forward to it. Will be quite fun and rewarding to carry out... *Mr Burns' "excellent" fingers*
The thing is it's designed for other peoples' benefit. Yep, you heard me. Dale is being altruistic for once and not just thinking about himself!

Other holiday plans include a possible trip back to Blairgowrie (I still need to blog about the first one!), with the Highvale peeps. In no particular order these are most of them... Glenn, Sean, Ian, Alan, Luke R, Johnny, Jamie, & Chris. I'm still not sure about some other people who might come, but that's gonna be a big trip! Possibly 12 or 13 people... sheesh! Let me guarantee you, crazy times will ensue. :P

On the agenda with the Vermont peeps is the final poker night showdown extravaganza!! The winner will be crowned, and hopefully it will be I who emerges victorious (although based on my recent poker form I'm not too optimistic!). An astoundingly awesome afternoon is also planned with them - Lukey, Dinks, LJ, Matthew Douglas, & Mahoney - in which we're gonna go-kart until we can't anymore! Something like 50 laps on this mad course... *drools with anticipation* My competitive side will be out and ugly. I mean it... watch out people, I'll leave you eating my dust! :P

As for the Knox people, looks like a bunch might be heading to Famous on Saturday night. No matter where I end up celebrating my no exams & no commerce-ness, I'll be celebrating pretty hard.

Ok, now you're updated and can stop losing sleep wondering what I'm gonna do for the next third of a year. :)

Hope to see you soon.

Dale.