Aussie Jingle Bells

For those without the privilege of experiencing a white Christmas! ^_^

Dashing through the bush, in a rusty Holden* Ute**
Kicking up the dust, esky*** in the boot
Kelpie**** by my side, singing Christmas songs
It's summer time and I am in my singlet, shorts and thongs***** (Oh!)

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way
Christmas in Australia on a scorching summers day (Hey!)
Jingle bells, jingle bells, Christmas time is beaut
Oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty Holden Ute

Engine's getting hot, we dodge the kangaroos
The swaggie****** climbs aboard, he is welcome too
All the family's there, sitting by the pool
Christmas Day the Aussie way, by the barbecue (Oh!)

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way
Christmas in Australia on a scorching summers day (Hey!)
Jingle bells, jingle bells, Christmas time is beaut
Oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty Holden Ute

Come the afternoon, Grandpa has a doze
The kids and Uncle Bruce are swimming in their clothes
The time comes 'round to go, we take the family snap
Pack the car and all shoot through, before the washing up (Oh!)

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way
Christmas in Australia on a scorching summers day (Hey!)
Jingle bells, jingle bells, Christmas time is beaut
Oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty Holden Ute

Traditional/Colin Buchanan © 1992 Rondor Music

* Holden n - An Australian car manufacturer
** Ute n - (from "utility") Pickup truck
*** Esky n - Portable cooler
**** Kelpie n - An Australian sheep dog
***** Thongs n - Sandals
****** Swaggie n - (from "Swagman") An old Australian term describing an underclass of transient temporary workers, who traveled by foot from farm to farm carrying the traditional swag (his collection of worldly possessions)

Celebrating Christmas politically-correctly...?

On the 12th day of the Eurocentrically imposed midwinter festival, my Significant Other in a consenting adult, monogamous relationship gave to me:

TWELVE males reclaiming their inner warrior through ritual drumming,

ELEVEN pipers piping (plus the 18-member pit orchestra made up of members in good standing of the Musicians Equity Union as called for in their union contract even though they will not be asked to play a note),

TEN melanin deprived testosterone-poisoned scions of the patriarchal ruling-class system leaping,

NINE persons engaged in rhythmic self-expression,

EIGHT economically disadvantaged female persons stealing milk-products from enslaved Bovine-Americans,

SEVEN endangered swans swimming on federally protected wetlands,

SIX enslaved Fowl-Americans producing stolen non-human animal products,

FIVE golden symbols of culturally sanctioned enforced domesticincarceration,

(NOTE: after members of the Animal Liberation Front threatened to throw redpaint at my computer, the calling birds, French hens and partridge have beenreintroduced to their native habitat. To avoid further Animal-Americanenslavement, the remaining gift package has been revised.)

FOUR hours of recorded whale songs,

THREE deconstructionist poets,

TWO Sierra Club calendars printed on recycled processed tree carcasses and...

ONE Spotted Owl activist chained to an old-growth pear tree.

~Author unknown

---

I think I prefer the politcally "incorrect" version. =P

For Good

Video size: 2.9 MB

The final parts of the final song for our Year 12 Presentation Night on 1 Nov 2006, presented by (left to right) Lyndsey, Beth and Kim, with piano accompanist Ben.

Farewell, CSHS Class of 2006.

Transcendence

Now that I've been labled a mungkirer of janjis (which I guess is true... *hides from Sam*), I bring you this Update* (judging by the way I'm being hounded for them, I'm sure "update" will make it as a certain somebody's Word of the Year):

I am no longer a high school student.

Slightly stale news actually, as we got ceremoniously kicked out of school on the First of November via an elaborate procedure code-named the "Year 12 Presentation Night", which is often mistakenly dubbed the "Graduation Ceremony". What I still don't fully understand is why we leave school before taking our Tertiary Entrance Exams (TEE)**, which for unfortunate blokes like me, just ended last week when others have already embarked on their Leavers*** trip. Perhaps I never will understand it... I don't quite feel like expending brainpower to ponder its significance at the moment (this feeling might be due to my brain's shutdown after a few consecutive late nights though).

Presentation Night went smoothly, although I found out first hand that sprinting around the hall in formal attire knocks the breath out of you. The Year 12 group had an abundance of money left in their school account, so we donated almost $3000 to the school to get 2 new jarrah table-benches. Also, according to Sze En and Jiye, I am now a Duck****.

Wooden.

Now that the dreaded TEEs** have passed, many are wondering what to do with the 2-month holidays which are now at hand. Some have already spent a small portion of this time at Leavers***... I headed off to Rottnest Island for a day trip and got attacked by cute little quokkas, but that is another story. Other personal plans of mine include getting a job, learning to drive (Yes, I'm almost 19 and without a licence. So sue me.), and learning to cook my mother's famous fried rice. Yum. ^_^

Vicious quokka. Approach at your own risk.

I suppose, however, one of the most significant aspects of completing TEE** is the fact that I'll never again have to write an essay, talking about how and why I respond to texts the way I do. Is celebration premature though? I've performed quite crappily in English this semester, and I felt far from satisfied with my TEE** essays. If I fail again, I'm gonna be in Deep Poo*****. =/

Thing is, I've always been the type to shun debates and argument presentation. I happen to have have this overly-complexified way of thinking that makes me want to consider every possible aspect of a topic, even if it means thinking until the cows come home but still not reaching any conclusion. I hate it when I'm forced to take sides in presenting an argument. Hate it hate it hate it. It feels worse than a kid who's being forced to eat his broccoli. All the arguments I had to present in English, then, felt like lies to me. I'm also driven to fine-tune everything to death (possibly a case of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder), which is very deadly for exams. Take this entry for example... It commenced on 1 Dec 2006, was finished on 5 Dec 2006. At least I took breaks in between. =P

Nonetheless, English class seems to have done something to me. My opinions have been changing over the past year or so... Debating/arguing skills are survival skills. People make judgements about you based on your ability to express yourself, whether you like it or not (I still don't). I also seem to have become more annoyingly opinionated, hmm... Congratulations, Curriculum Council, you have successfully created a monster.

Moving on. With all this talk about language, here's a quote regarding my blog, copied verbatim:

"why/ does every single BLOG IN EXISTENCE/ have a title/ that was derived from long names/ most likely from a thesaurus" ~ MRod to the ARod, 9 July 2006

Intelligent conversation.

I also have a vague memory of someone else being plagued by perplexity over the title, but I can't seem to find the quote. Never mind.

Yes, I did look up the thesaurus while thinking of a title a title, but there's more to it than an attempt to sound impressive. Let's see who can work out the meaning behind my title, shall we? Hints:

1. Read this blog entry again.
2. Read the top and top-right sections of my blog's front page.
3. Read the dictionary. (The relevent entries, I mean... not the whole book =P)
4. Disregard all stereotypes and generalizations about my linguistic abilities.

P.S. First person to give me the correct answer gets a postcard from me. ^_^

*Update n, v - The (act of) detailing of events which have occured in one's life, for the consumption of Samanthas and Debbies in the blogosphere.
**TEE n - A high school competition, employed to determine which students can proceed as planned to university, and which students will need to find alternative pathways.
***Leavers n - A rite of passage for many Australian students who have completed high school. It is characterised by a mass exodus to popular holiday locations, alcohol consumption, energetic dancing, loss of virginity (if it still existed at the commencement of Leavers), and increased levels of worry among parents as they watch troublemakers get led away by the police in the news. (Note that this definition is true but constructed to position readers to respond negatively.)
****Duck n - An almost-common misinterpretation of the word Dux. Also a common name for a variety of aquatic birds which have wide flat beaks and webbed feet, and emit characteristic calls which are represented in English as "quack"s.
*****Deep Poo n - A term borrowed from Mr Epanomitis' vocabulary, referring to a very very bad situation which is comparable to being submerged in a filled septic tank.

The Kingdom of Mushrooms

The members of the kingdom Fungi was once placed under the kingdom Plantae. They seemed plant-like enough, after all... They grew out of the ground/on surfaces in plant-style. They didn't move like animals. Some of them even looked pretty, like flowers! Biologists of the time made reasonable conclusions... it wasn't until the development of the microscope when the physiology of these organisms could be studied in detail, allowing scientists to see the differences between fungi and plants.

Pretty, ain't it?

Fungi are amazing, really. Their spores have the ability to lie dormant in a place for years and years, waiting for the perfect conditions to start growing. Once the dank, damp conditions arrive... POOF! Pretty fungal bits are everywhere. Not only that, some of them are really nutritious. My mom used to love cooking those flat, wrinkly black fungi for us (can't remember what they're called).

By the way, I recently found a collection of cups containing Milo which have been abandoned for 2 weeks. Pretty!

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Click to enlarge. Go on. You're a brave kid

"It's marvellous what Milo can do for you!"

This, Sam, is what you get for insisting someone to blog when he doesn't have anything good to write about, especially when he has a music exam the following day. *smile*

No hard feelings, k? I'll chia you a glass of Milo at the nearest kopitiam...

Parts of my life...

...deleted forever. Why? Cuz I forgot to log into my old Hotmail account for 1 month.

That sucks.

The moral of this story is... always build your own archives of emails that are precious to you. That, and/or stay safer with Yahoo! Mail which provides a 4-month inactivity allowance. It looks more awesome than Hotmail, anyway.

Longitudinal Waves with Increased Amplitude

Everything sounds so loud since yesterday! Aah! The congregation's singing this morning sounds so... rich!*runs around in excitement*

Syringes tickle... ^_^