FAT BIRD

Ahhhhh!!!!!! I just finished doing a super short one on one class at the Canberra Glassworks and I was able to make a little bird paper weight! (we got to choose to make either a balloon, sphere or bird) I unintentionally made it obese... But I love it. I'm super happy I got to do this!! I am definitely going to try and do a weekend class at the end of the year!

 glass colours

the tools 

our birds in the furnace

MY BABY LOVE

things YOU need to see

OK. Before I start writing about:

1. Awkward birthday celebrations
2. Canberra is not a hole
3. Dreams and late night messages
4. Friend, piano, bicycle and cat love

I wanted to make a list of things that I think are great and that I think you need to see (if anyone still reads this blog... haha. I will also write this for my future self, in case I am lost for inspiration or smiles.)


M/V:

Advice on living the creative life

Neil Gaiman is pretty rad cakes. I found his words wise, funny and awesome. So watch it now.

Indie Games

I mentioned this in one of my latest posts. I actually found this film super cool pie because it just made me realise how gaming is another form of creative expression - This is totally ignorant of me and I feel silly. But watching the moving opened my mind to how time consuming and personal the creative process of making a game is. It is an art. These people put themselves into the games they create. It was pretty beautiful and some of the characters were super cute (like Fez!!) and the stories between others were pretty adorable (super meat boy and bandage girl - so super meat boy is this boy who doesn't have any skin and who is vulnerable to the elements & he has to save his love who is this girl made out of bandages and they basically need each other not because they have affection for one another but literally because they were made for one another. Anyway the creator explains this in a much more beautiful way than I just wrote, hahaha)

8 Secrets of success - Richard St. John (TED)

The first time I watched this was in Taipei. It is inspiring an funny and also super short.

"they're not work-a-holics... they're work-a-FROLICS" hahaha, oh god every time.

My Mushroom Burial Suit - Jae Rhim Lee

I want to be buried in this. That is all.

A:


Scott C. (tumblr)
Scott C. (website)

OK. I've been following Scott. C on tumblr forever now and all his works makes me cry. His style is so freaking cute. I die. Go on archive and look at them all! This guy is seriously skilled and I can't help but adore him.

Tiffany Ford - Samson at work (tumblr)

She's an LA character animation student & she's awesome. I always look forward to seeing her Samson at work stories.

Alex Noriega - Stuff No One Told Me

His cartoons = the shiz. I stumbled upon his "Only in Taiwan" Comic strip & immediately fell in love with his style and writing. (He was totally spot on about Taiwan btw!!)


More to come...

8.5 hours

After watching Brave on Monday, I went to Abbey's house. On the way we picked up our traditional chocolate bullets to snack on while we played games.

I honestly love this girl. She radiates happiness and it consumes me and sometimes is totally overwhelming to the point where I am in pain (she is very used to this reaction from me)

We literally played games from 3:30pm - 11pm. The time went so quickly. It was hilarious though. Firstly, she showed me this game she bought on Xbox and it was some Alice in Wonderland game but totally messed up like... Alice was going around stabbing people because Wonderland had "changed". It was pretty cool but a bit too creepy for me to want to play.

We moved onto Pokemon Puzzle league... Which is our favourite game ever. IT IS ACTUALLY THE GREATEST. We get to exercise our miiiinds when we play (... cus it's a puzzle game). We crack up each time at the sounds the characters make. Sabrina's "PLAYYY WITH MEE." and Team Rocket's "I'M FEELING GIDDY!"

For some reason I always imitate the noises that either the pokemon or the characters make. It's embarrassing but hilarious. Abbey did an impersonation of a magma and I cried a bit. What is great about this game is that we both get super involved in it. Abbey was literally screaming at me, "IM GOING TO KILL YOU AHHHH." and whenever I managed to win she would crawl up into a ball and  whisper "... I am so emotionally involved with this game."

We took a break and played Pokemon Stadium, then the mini games and then we played Perfect Dark.

While we were playing the games her dog Maxie kept wanting affection and so Abbey had to use one of her legs to continuously rub Maxie's stomach. Then after like an hour he suddenly decided he loved me (this actually never happens. I normally run away because Maxie is a big dog) and he wouldn't leave me alone.

being a cutie

Abbey was super surprised about how much he seemed to like me! I spent the rest of the time rubbing his stomach. It was quite a work out because if I stopped for a second, he would put his paw on my my leg or my knee or even get up and sit on me.

I had such a great afternoon with Abbey. It was super super chill and we talked about life and "the old days" of us playing games at my house HAHAHA... and other random past times.

shorter posts!

OK. So I haven't updated properly in a little while and there is a bunch of things I want to write about. I'm going to make smaller posts so that it's easier to read! & also so that I can keep track of what I've done more easily!

Firstly, I just finished watching Indie Games. You can watch the trailer here!


I found the movie super inspiring and insightful. I loved how each of the game designers put so much of themselves into the games they created. Fez looks adorable... I really want to play it. The movie makes me want to learn some really really really basic programming... Just so I can understand just a little bit.

I've also went to the movies with Liz, Abbey, Sandra and Dee. Together we watched Brave. It was super stressful for a Disney movies and most of the girls were screaming half the time (Liz was laughing her head off at everyone else) I thought the movie was really good, probably not my favourite Disney movie, but it was pretty funny and the animation was awesome. Merida's hair was a bit awesome.

I also watched The Hunger Games. I haven't read the book yet... But I actually got super into the movie. The costumes reminded me of one episode of Casanova (the David Tennant one) I actually really love Stanley Tucci. He is so cool.

i'm happy

: )

"Beyond that cloud is a floating city that no one on earth believes exists.

I'm going to prove them wrong."

I re-watched Laputa: Castle in the Sky over the last couple of days. I honestly wish there was a place like this. I love Ghibli films so much. They make everything look magical and beautiful. The music makes me cry inside (in the best of ways) Ahhh, I want to create things forever. I wish to never lose my interest and curiosity towards the universe. 

possum friend

Every night, my cat meows and meows to be let outside. When we do let her out, she runs towards the end of the backyard and waits for her possum friend.

It was raining this evening, and still she wanted to be let out. After a couple of hours I went outside in search of her and she was sitting under a tree, her fur all damp, staring up at the telephone lines where the possum normally is. I picked her up and warmed her up in my arms and then suddenly saw something move in the distance. It was the possum! I let her down and watched her run closer to the telephone pole.

I wonder what they talk about.

ooooh ma bodayyyyyy

In so much painnn. Went to netball with my sister. I have never played that before. It was indoor and I looked like crazy fool whenever I ran for the ball. It was super fun but also very very exhausting. I woke up this morning and my body did not let me move.

The sky here is so lovely. Maybe this is why I have grown to adore the clouds and skies.

The sunset from my house

I tried climbing up on my roof in the afternoon. I was half worried I'd fall off but I managed to jump onto it and crawl half way up. I got a bit worried so I climbed back down. I will definitely go back up there after the weekend.

I was in the shopping centre car park and the ceiling was really beautiful.

It's weird and nice to be back. I'm feeling less attached to Melbourne and I think that it is good and what I need right now.

Am listening to comfortably numb with mum at the moment as I set up decorations.

we find ourselves in mysterious places

Semester came to an end on Friday. I'd say that I had a most happy time celebrating the finale. Throughout the day I felt cheerful and met up with a number of classmates and, as planned, we put together a card for the Pandas. I was so so glad everyone put in the effort to meet one last time to create something and write a few words.
I had gone to the vinyl place the week before and the man there showed me all these cool skillful people on the internet who do amazing work with their hands. I was so impressed.

Everyone was super happy about how our card turned out.

discussing the card over tea times

The week before Friday was filled with late nights and sickness. I just remember feeling terrible and my mind being quite blurry. Whenever I'm sick I feel so susceptible to my own suppressed worries or doubts. It was quite bad to see that certain things were really making my body unhappy. I drew so I didn't have to think.

I felt much better when Friday came. I was still pretty sniffly but I just wanted to celebrate and feel happy with friends. The exhibition was so crowded. I was glad there were so many people. I think I was very excited to see my friends from other classes. I spent lots of time walking about and also standing outside talking to people. I surprised Veev with my new iphone (she has been wanting me to upgrade my phone forever) I was like, "Veev... Come here. Oh my gosh... Guess what. I found something in my wallet. It's so random and unexpected. I didn't notice it before." and Veev came closer and was like "oooh. Gucci... so sneaky" and I opened my wallet and pulled out, from one of the inner pockets, my new phone and her face was like O_O and then went into a state of confusion. She thought I had taken her phone and put it in my wallet. HAHAHA.

I remember this night being particularly hilarious for many reasons. 

Afterwards, we wandered down the street to get some food. Sarah, Veev and I shared Thai, while Krisi, Michael, Chi, Jimmy, Frankie and Chien Yu ate kebabs. We then went do Night Cat and danced until the early morning. At the start of the night Veev was like, "LET'S GET DRUNK." and had two drinks and was like "NAH IZZY NAH I FEEL SICK" ahahahaha such a cutie. It was so nice to go out with everyone! Krisi, Veev and I were being a cat family together - just lots of meowing, dancing and cat kisses, haha. Krisi licked my face at one stage (she had warned me earlier that she might do so) and afterwards  remarked, "Izzy your face tastes sweet." Hahaha ok no one who has licked my face has said that before >.> (yes, people have licked my face before. I don't know why)

Veev and I took the taxi home. Fell asleep. Woke up at 1pm and sleepily went to Richmond and ate a bowl of Pho. It was delicious. We were both sooo sleepy. We wandered back to my house and on the way picked up some donuts. Veev helped me install "the apps I must have" so I have instagram now! Follow me if you have a smart phone @ _izzeh

When Veev left I fell asleep instantly. I slept for a couple of hours and woke up feeling tired and headachy. I told Shannay and Dylan that I was going to attend Michael's birthday celebrations in the city. I was not that keen at first but I forced myself out of the house and met with Dylan at Melbourne Central. I think it was around 10:30 that I got there. We waited a half hour for Shannay to arrive from Glen Waverely. Dylan and I had a good chat about everything when we waited. He is such an easy guy to get along with and I am so very glad to have had a comm class with him this semester as I have gotten to know him more!

When Shannay arrived we went to this place on Kings Street. It was a club. I was laughing so much because I literally haven't been clubbing in 2 years. I felt really really really old. HAHAHA. It was a really good happy night though. Michael had many shots and was bouncing around being happy! Alice came too and it was really good to see her because I knew that the next day she'd be leaving Australia (she is on exchange from England)

lights lights lights

When I got home I used my torch to find my way back into my room (I didn't want to turn all the lights on just in case I woke up Jing) My room was turned into a disco party when I shone it (by mistake) into the crystal goat my aunty got me for my birthday. 

goat on my wall.

I slept so well that night.

On Sunday night I went to Tracy's. Jimmy, Chi, Frankie, Tracy and Chien Yu were there. Together we watched "Sunny" - A Korean movie. Everyone needs to watch it. It is great. I was laughing uncontrollably at some points. It is one of the best movies I have seen this year - watch the trailer

Tracy has such a beautiful view of the city lights.

I left after the movie and headed to Sarah's house. She lives just up the road from me so it only takes about 10 minutes to walk there. She was keen on learning some guitar and I was super happy to teach her some! We played and chatted till 3am. She is such a fast learner, I was super impressed by her skills. 

Anyway... I am happy that the semester is over. I have been craving a break & there is much for me to do. I feel like I need to find myself again.

XO

PS. I will most likely be changing my username to izze-h at the end of the week. So if my blog disappears it is because I have changed it to that!

new song

excited

oh my

food

OK so while Darcy was visiting, I took him a few fooooood places!

 carrot cake @ Milkwood, Brunswick East

I'd never been there before, but I had walked past it a few times. Coffee was gooood and the carrot cake we shared was cute and yum.

corned beef, coriander, cheese and other goodness

For lunch (Friday) we went to Beatrix and had their sandwich of the day! Super filling. Couldn't finish it.

Darcy left early in the morning yesterday. After I said goodbye I planned to just continue with the work for Uni but I fell asleep as soon as I got home and had the best sleep ever. I've been sick (and still am) for the past week or so and I've been very very very out of it and not good with communication. Luckily Darcy understands most of my mumbles and was OK with me falling asleep in the middle of the day. I have also not really been sleeping much (at night) so the morning nap I took yesterday was the best. 

During the week, we basically ate hot and sour soup for dinner every night. We got it from the Chinese/Malaysian shop just down the road and the lady there is now quite familiar with both of us and knows our order, haha. 

It was nice to have Darcy visit. We sung lots of songs, improved on our mario kart skillz, spent too much money on food, took some nice walks, saw the full moon, saw a giant rainbow, saw the world covered in fog, i got piggy backs (YAY), i introduced him to new friends and Vic (I will write later about the gift she got me!!) and he experienced my many emotions at their extremes. HAHAHA.

So during his stay I became more and more aware of my everyday emotions. So I don't normally feel a standard "happy" or "sad" or any other emotion, I suppose I feel very neutral about things... but when I feel true happiness I really really feel it & it is like an explosion of joy. This goes for all other emotions. 

OK SO:

Vic got me this!

ahhhhhhhhh

I opened it in front of her and apparently (according to Darcy) my face was priceless. I wish I had had an out of body experience so to see my reaction. I believe I almost started crying from joy. 

I wrote in a previous post about how I had lost my 5 year old grey fingerless gloves which I had a lot of love for. I also told Vic about them. She got me these most beautiful purple fingerless gloves. THEY ARE ACTUALLY THE PERFECT PURPLE. My exact favourite colour. They are so warm and comfortable & I love them so much. I'm actually feeling immense joy just typing about that (so intense, geez)

Darcy and I had a lot of good conversations during his visit. I think after my 21st I was thinking about age/aging ect a lot and it occurred to me that - once I get to know somebody, and they become my friend, they are suddenly ageless. Age seems to act as an invisible boundary which sometimes prevents two people (of fairly different ages) to feel comfortable in communicating or just getting to know each other.

As a kid I used to feel super intimidated by people who are older than me and sometimes as a teenager I thought little kids were just too immature to communicate to. I've realised that, through meeting wonderful people in Taiwan and getting to know family friends, that I am so much less aware of people's ages once I get to know them more. In that, they become ageless.

---

Yesterday I went to Sarah X's and we made scones & did work!!

mixing 

yum yums! (looking kind of ugly but tasting great)

raspberries and cream

I had a really good afternoon and evening at Sarah's. We did portfolio work and talked about life & found embarrassing videos of each other which have somehow found themselves onto the internet. I was laughing so hard at some of them. We played some guitar, too. & she's keen to learn so I might be teaching her some basics later in the holidays!

dream space

Walks before sunrise. The world is covered in a most beautiful fog. I feel like I have not left my dreams and it is wonderful.

We walked down the deserted street and admired the way fog gently moved around us and through beams made by street lights. The world was silent.

ill

I found your little lie
Scratched in my skin


You left your nails
Under the surface


I could see them pushing
Wanting freedom


But my body loved them
And so, formed layers
To keep them in


They became deeply rooted
Stealing energy 
To survive


They became strong
And thought it was time to overtake


So they punctured skin
And sprouted out of wrists
And forearms
Transforming into fungus


And grew
And grew
Over me


Until I was no longer myself

hao xiang ni oh

wo xianzai sheng bing le. wo bu zhe dao zuo shenme dongxing.
xianzai gen hongzi shuohua. hao jiuo mei shuohua. wo hao xiang ta. wo hao xiang wo de shenjingbing de tongxue. yiqian di shihou bi xianzai de hao duo. aiyah wo de zhongwen zhen bu hao.

jintian zai xizao de shihou.... wo ku le yi dian. wo juede yinwei wo shengbing le. wo juede wo de xin bu gaoxing. wo changchang juede weishenme ta xianxai meiyou gen wo shuohua. weishenme ta turan tingzhi?

wo xiang yao zhidao... ke shi you yige xiao ren zai wo de niao gaoxu wo "ni yinggai wang le zhe ge danxin, yiwei ta dui ni jiankang bu hao!!"

super mario

playing the FUNNIEST SUPER MARIO GAME IN THE WHOLE WORLD RIGHT NOW. You can play it with four players and we all keep dying. It is so hilarious. I'm dying of laughter. Will update later with images. oh god so good

---

actually dying

cannot talk

so funny

chichi keeps screaming - "OMG MUSHROOOOMSSS GIVE ME MUSHROOMS"

this game actually requires so much team work. Ahhhh so silly and great.

 everyone lost!

 roomie put something in the toilet that made it foam blue. hahaha oh my.

midnight music

heard it through the grapevine

Today Darcy and I went to see the Napoleon exhibition. The security man from last time was there and we had a bit of a chat before going in!! When we first walked in I noticed one of their paintings was super slanted. There was so much bling. I was mainly concentrating on the jewellery and silverware and I was totally blown away by the sheer amount of diamonds, gold, silver and precious stones on certain pieces. The crown was crazy. I loved how they set it up in a cabinet so that, when people looked at it, it would reflect to look like it was sitting on top of their head (or maybe I was just at the right height) 

We both really enjoyed the exhibition, but there was a really wanky kid who was moving through the gallery at the same pace as us and he just kept making silly statements about the work.

Later, I thought to just check out ACMI to see whether the Anthony McCall exhibition had been fixed. AND IT HAD BEEN!  :D

I was super excited. It was so dark cus they had a room at the start that was curtained off before the actual exhibition and I was quite confused and then we walked into the other room and we were both like MY GOSH. THIS IS AMAZING. We lay on the floor and looked up and this beam of light and the fog moving through it and it looked like staring at a mini sky. The beam made a circle and it was crazy. I felt so involved with this light and my mind kept thinking it was a material. I kept moving my hands through it, trying to touch it. We stayed there, playing with the light, for quite a while.

darcy in the light

Afterwards we decided to walk home. We stopped by the memorial on the way home because the sun was setting and I was keen to a photo of it so I could add it to my ieatsunsets tumblr because I haven't updated in forever!!

I met this girl from Germany while I was there. She was taking photos of the sunset and I saw that she was trying to take one of herself. She started walking up to me and I just said before she opened her mouth, "I'll help youuu." I ended up taking photos of her with my camera and I sent her the photos when I got home. I hope they are ok. It was actually really nice to meet her. I haven't met somebody new and spontaneously in a while.

Darcy lookin' at a boy  ; )

On the rest of the way home we past by some houses and I saw these grape vines that were slowly dying. They had a really beautiful red contrasting with the white.

Now we're home and waiting for Chi and Maeface to come over to play guitar. Listening and singing along to 50s and 60s music.

I was definitely born too late.

I told Darcy today that a plumber came into the house in the morning to check out my bathrooms to see if there was any leaking and he said he'd be back after he checked upstairs and I was like "hey man can you check if they have wooden flooooorssss?" and he came back saying they did! That's why they're sooo loud with them heels. Darcy told me (being a crazy) - "you should write on their doors with bloooooood" and my reply was - "...  I would if I had spare blood."  *grin* HE WILL SLEEP WELL TONIGHT. heehee

elder child

Ahh been so tired latelyyyy. I am also getting sick bleh bleh. Time for lots of honey lemon waterrrr!!

OK I must write about my last couple of days!

On Tuesday we had our final presentation for Studio class. A couple days before I told myself "OK print everything cus you do not want to be freaking out" so I went to officeworks I think on the Sunday and got my stuff booked to be printed during the night so I could pick it al up in the morning. When I did go back on the Monday morning they told me their high quality printer broke and so my bigger images were just on normal paper. In hindsight, that wasn't so bad but I was stressed cus I had put so much effort into the last images that I asked him just to print them bigger. Monday night came and I started to get stressed about presenting and just a bit nervous thinking about whether or not I'd be able to explain my concept!! I told myself to go to sleep before 12 so that I could rest during the morning of my birthday, haha.

I woke up to happy birthday text messages from best friends who wished me good luck and happy times. I practiced my presentation a little bit while eating my breakfast and throwing clothes on and then I took the train to school cus I thought I would be late for the first presentation. (I avoid the train cus there are sooo many people on it, but apparently way less after 9!)

Friends helped me pin up and make sure everything was straight. & before I knew it I had presented and was getting feedback. I was super glad to have had the two external panel people that I had. They were both great with feedback, it was intense. It was also hilarious and interesting to see where the conversation lead to! Veev and I were saying afterwards how we wished recorded what they said cus it was sometimes super deep and really helpful and to the point.

I will happily say that the presentation was the complete opposite of how my history presentation went. Hahaha. I was happy to have actually gotten words out of my mouth.

Shannay came to watch my presentation and gave me a red velvet cupcake!! Ah she's so cute, hehehe.

Afterwards Brooke, Veev and I took cat naps ... on the floor.

It was really nice and odd to hear people wish me a happy birthday. I deactivated facebook last year so all my uni friends didn't know and so it's been like two years since I've had this amount of people say it to me. It was super funny, I was walking down the corridor to meet some friends and I walked past one classroom and Tab just came out and didn't say anything and gave me a hug and said, "EMBRACE THIS." and I literally dropped my stuff and was like, "Oh. My. GOD." - OK there is a short story. She's in my history class and a month or so ago I was giving Veev and Krisi hugs and I looked at Tab and she said, "I don't do hugs." and I was .... shocked. Haha. It's not an interesting story, but the hug was great.

We went (Sarah X, Veev, Brooke and Kelvis) and had lunch at Hutong *crosses off things to eat list* and it was yummmm. Sarah gave me a voucher for a back massage HAHAHAH cus the other night were were both talking about how much our backs hurt from leaning over and doing work, hahaha. Oh yesss going to enjoy this massage. I kept getting messages from friends throughout the day and sister Harris called me and asked me if I had seen what "mum had done" and I told her I hadn't but Jing had texted me this morning me telling her that my mum had dropped by and also that "she came into my room to see if I was alive" (I laughed so hard cus Jing sleeps till like 2 or 3 when she can, and when I first started living with her I also walked into her room to make sure she was alive. Hahaha.

After lunch I went to Southern Cross station to pick up Darcy. We went back to mine to drop off his stuff (and also my laptop ect) and on the way home we saw a giant rainbowwww.

When I got home I walked into my room and mum had done the cutest thing ever.

It was totally unexpected. I didn't really expect anything to happen during the day, but this was the best! She hand cut the letters and it was lovely. She put streamers around my room and put a present on my bed (which I will write about later)

I really wanted to head back to uni quickly to watch other people's presentations but when I got there I think there were only a few left to be done. I told Chi and Jimmy that Darcy was here and they got supppper excited, haha. We both went to class and sat and watched a few presentations and I explained to him what was happening and what we had to do ect.

Afterwards we went to Brooke's house to pick up her TV and Wii (so that we could bring it to mine)
One of her roomie's was yelling at her friend to come down from upstairs and look at the moon. I ran outside and saw that the moon was SO HUGE AND FULL and I got sooo excited and was jumping up and down like a crazy and was yelling at darcy, "DARCY ahhhhhhhhh." and also told everyone else to come out. & we were all there just staring at the moon for a while.  It was beautiful.

Veev, Kat, Brooke and Darcy came to mine and we ate food and played Wii (Mario Kart where I continued to suck, but Darcy also sucked SO IT WAS OK. and then Mario Party which went for so long - 20 turns was like over two hours) Darcy played us guitar while we talked about Uni and our presentations and other people's presentations. We also started looking up movie trailers and Veev told me I would love the Les Miserables one. So we looked it up on apple trailers and WHAT ANNE HATHAWAY CAN SING? Oh my lord. Hahah I do love musicals.

It was a really chill and sleepy night.

It started getting late and Veev ran into the kitchen to light the candles of the cake that mum had so so kindly bought for me. I ran after her because I like fire and wanted to light some and she said, "... you're not meant to be doing this." and I replied, "ok i just want to dooo twooo candlessss."

We forgot to put the cake on a proper plate so veev carried it in on the flimsy cardboard and I kept visualising her tripping over and the house just bursting into flames. HAHAHA. Anyway that didn't happen. It was really really nice. We turned the lights off and Veev walked in with the cake all lit up and they sung happy birthday and, while veev was still holding the cake, I blew out the candles all at once and kept my wish for later.

Everyone shared a huge piece of cake. And soon Brooke and Kat left as everyone was growing tired. I think they left at around 1am. I said goodnight to Darcy and left the heating on in the lounge room for him so he wouldnt freeezeee.

Veev stayed over and before bed we were keen to watch the new Game of Thrones. I got a hot water bottle so that bed was warm and we watched the full hour of Game of Thrones. I kept almost falling asleep. Game of Thrones made us feel sad cus some people we liked died, but it was also good cus there were dragons and also finally the white walkers. Even though we were kind of confused with how white walkers come to exist. Because we were depressed we continued on to watch Adventure time to make us feel better and THAT DIDN'T WORK cus it was weird and scary and also a bit sad. So we stayed up even longer to watch Regular show and that made us happppppppyyy.

I also opened my mum's present to me. I had no idea what to expect. I honestly thought it would be something like... a "parent present" something that isn't all that useful but it's nice that they got you something. But really it was a complete surprise what I got.

I think my face was something like:    O_O  I was quite confused and surprised.

Mum got me a Gucci wallet with my name inside! Ahh. I didn't even ask for it. I NO LONGER HAVE TO PUT MY MONEY IN A PLASTIC BAG. hahahaha. It also fits a small notebook so yayy I can write notes, hahaha.


I think we fell asleep at 4...



I woke up to the most HILARIOUS THING EVER.

(my interpretation of the morning)

(Veev's interpretation)

When i woke up I had no blanket and I was right up against the wall and I was cold and I looked at Veev and IT WAS HILARIOUS. She had somehow managed to get ON TOP of the blanket. Her arms were everywhere, her tummy was out and her legs were like sitting up. I was like laughing so much to myself, WISHING I had a one of those sticks that I could put my camera on and hold it above us so I could just capture the hilarity of it all.

Veev woke up and mumbled her meowing and looked at me and then at herself and was like "what the fuck" and continued to sleepily say, "... I'm... sorry. I'm not usually this bad in bed." and there was a pause and I looked at her like  ... >.> "what." and she was too tired to like reconstruct the sentence and said, "ugggh I meant what I said!" and fell asleep again. I grabbed the blanket off the floor and went to sleep. I vaguely remember waking up every so often and meowing and viv meowing and then sleeping again HAHA.

Best morning / funniest thing to wake up to.

I woke up and walked around the house and came back to bed and Veev was awake but found it soooo hard to leave the comfort and warmth and the toys of the bed.

Veev n her favourite toy/cushion

We watched this video on The Making of the Leica M9-P Hermes edition. It is so beautiful ahhh.

When we all had breakfast we left the house with some ballooons.

We took the balloons to the park and let them go and just watched them fly off and disappear.

We ate lunch together at Darac - A korean place opposite uni. Their food is made of deliciousness and everyone needs to go there.

Afterwards we said bye to Veev and took a walk to the NGV. It was already 4 something by then and I thought it'd be better to see the Napoleon exhibition the next day cus then we would have more time to look at things!

I remembered that I told Darcy that I would take him to the mango ice place so we headed there after taking a quick look at the NGV bookstore. I found that the Francesca Woodman book is like 70$ so I will think about it or buy it online or somethang!

Darcy really liked it. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what the exploding jelly is made of. I still don't know. I really don't.

We took a walk around the city and then headed home. I was feeling super sleepy and on the way home we bought some hot and sour soup to warm us.

Darcy and I played guitar for a couple of hours. We sung a lot of songs and tried harmonizing and I felt like we sounded really good sometimes. I think I will try and record something before he leaves!!

I said goodnight really early and went to bed. I was in a state of half-sleep for a couple of hours and I could feel that my body was unwell.


I woke up this morning to an email from Judy (the banana queen) I haven't really spoken to her in a long time. She's been travelling around Europe I think during her holiday and said she had only just gotten back from Spain last night. We became best friends towards the end of high school in Taiwan and we spent a lot of time together.

She made me a birthday video and it was literally the first thing I watched this morning. I was laughing so much because she was wearing a moustache and was miming this birthday song in the background. The song awkwardly changed to one of her "favourite from back in the day" - Blondie's "I touch myself" and she continued to make hilarious facial expressions and dance ahahaha.
After all the singing in dancing she said a few words and it made me miss her more. I don't even know when I will see her again.

It was a really lovely surprise to get her video !

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So yes. I had a really happy 5th of June and day after.

Thank you my most lovely family and friends for making it wonderful  : )


XX

it'll be ok!

a bit nervous for a few things, but I am feeling happier than before. There are lots of things happening this month which I look forward to ! : )

francesca & anthony

Yesterday, I was given the link to The Woodmans - a video about the Woodman family which included one of my most favourite photographers - Francesca Woodman. I tried not to watch it... but after a couple of hours I gave in and watched half. She is amazing. It was really interesting to hear her parent's talking about their own work and then also reflecting on hers. I still haven't finished it.. I don't really want it to finish. It's almost the same feeling I get when I know the end of a good book is approaching. They shared parts of her journal through text on the screen and it was pretty... i don't know... well, it felt special and i kind of wished i could read more of her thoughts. I suppose I felt a connection to some of the words... or maybe that's just what I want or what i'm making up in my head. Anyway I got super sad at the point where they were talking about her days before her suicide. I think I might buy her photography book I saw at the NGV bookstore after uni is finished for the sem.

Today I stumbled upon Anthony McCall's projection work and I went into a crazy state of adoration. If only I had found him sooner. Why didn't it occur to me to look up projection artists? Ugh maybe because it was so obvious to do so that I didn't until NOW. I watched a bunch of his videos on podcasts/youtube and I suppose I like him already because he speaks so calmly about the work & his work seems very tranquil, simple and beautiful. I died because I found out he has a permanent exhibition at ACMI so I went to the city feeling SUPER EXCITED and i got there and they told me that the renovators upstairs had hit a pipe and it had burst in the space where his work was. That was the worst feeling ever. I was so ready to immerse myself and this sudden flood of disappointment came over me. It's probably also just pms that's making my emotions so cray and extreme. Anyway, multi-diciplinary when it is fixed (probably in a couple of weeks) I am going to check it out. I also loved him because he talked about light being a sculpture and how people move around it and interact with it. He is a artist who works with - film, installation, sculpture, drawing and performance. & all this comes into his light projection works. It's amazing.

I can't wait till the end of semester. There are new things I want to do.

I was looking back on photos of past times in Taipei and there were so many photos of sunsets and I remembered all the effort that went into running after the sun and all the happiness that filled me. I climbed to the rooftop of the apartment and the wind was so strong and it moved around me and I breathed it all in and i felt new and happy and everything seemed beautiful at that moment. I let the colours pour into my eyes and it felt so good.

I remember, so fondly, this one time Sarah (of the crab family), Glen (Czech boy) and I took the train out of Taipei to a pottery making village about an hour or two out of Taipei. We were inside a museum when the sun started to set and, without saying anything to the others, I ran outside and into the vast pottery garden. I was filled with so much joy to see the sun setting and the birds flying in the distance. I kept taking photos for an hour or more as the sun slowly set and the moon started to rise. I remember getting a phone call from Glen who said, "Izzy! Where are you! THE SUN IS SETTING!!" and I was yelling back, "ahhhhh! I KNOW IM OUTSIDE IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL!!" I actually miss Glen a bit. We had a short friendship together (because I left to Australia) but it was really comfortable and nice because he was so supportive and happy to see me super happy about the sky. He'd grab out his camera and take lots of photos too.

BACK TO WORK!

egg > you

Yesterday I stumbled upon one of my classmate's fb pages and, to my disgust, saw that she had updated her status to a super rude ass statement about one of my best friends at uni. It was indirect, but I knew what and who she was talking about because she'd go on and on about it during class. I'm still angry. Today she updated her status to something which began with, "A message to anyone who is thinking of buying a $1000 + bag..." and went on about how people who buy expensive things are shallow, how no bag is that expensive, that the person buying the bag is only doing so to raise their "social status" and ended her mini rant with "you are an idiot."

There are just so many things that are wrong about what she did. My mind is hurting just thinking of this. This is something that just completely obliterates my appreciation for somebody and I really hoped to not waste so much of my energy on being angry at this.

Ok this is making me super angers so moving on to things like food and happiness.

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Jing and I went to dinner last night and we ate this super yummy chilli fish hotpot sort of deliciousness with bean shoots and it was great!

(for people who don't know, Jing is my roomie) It's been ages since we've actually spoken properly. I normally wake up and leave the house before she wakes up and I go to bed before she comes home. Sometimes I feel like I live alone, hahaha. It was really good though to "catch up" and talk. I'd forgotten how well we communicate with each other and how easy it is to talk about everything. I like that our conversations are quite a bit more meaningful than regular conversation.

I explained to her my studio idea and for the first time I feel like I explained it clearly. We talked about a lot of things like what the heck this drink was (left):

For a long time I thought it was bitter melon juice... but it was actually winter melon and it was nice and sweet!

It was a really filling dinner. We still have leftovers yummmmmm!

I just noticed it's the first of June. My body is freaking out that it's four days till I'm 21. I was talking to Jing during dinner about age (I think we were talking about her ex's and how old they were ect) and I told her that I already feel that I'm older than I am and she said, "Sometimes I think you're older than me..... even though you don't look it!!" She's only two years older than me though, but I was pretty surprised to hear that (not in a bad way, it was just interesting!!)

I started writing this yesterday (Thursday) but I got tired an stopped so everything I have written above this sentence was from then...

I've been going to so many electrical shops to ask about lights that have strong beams and that can create walls of light. I got so many confused faces when I told people my ideas. But I'm so lucky to have had shop helpers be... super kind and patient with me. One of the guys literally turned off half the lights in the store to see if a light would make a beam. Unfortunately it was still too bright, but I was just quite happy that he was nice.

I honestly thought that light walls would be easier to make... But, in a way, I'm happy that they aren't. Over the past week I have actually begun to really enjoy investigating my studio concept. I have even found myself making phone calls to ask places whether they have things... and people who know me know I hate calling people who I don't know. The people I've met have been really funny and happy. This one guy was super confused by my concept and I showed him my drawings and he was like, "OOOH I GET IT SOUNDS COOL." I'm like "thanks mannnnn." and then he asked me whether I knew about dry ice walls and I told him I did and he went onto telling me this story about he had some weed vodka and it "wasn't a good thing" but it was "really cool" because the bar he was at had these "walls made out of fog" and it was "really crazy" walking through them. He was funny.

I also went to the State Library to have a look at the old plans to the Queen Victoria Hospital that had been knocked down. I'd never been to the heritage reading room before and it was really quiet and kind of peaceful. The lady there was nice. She told me I had ordered a lot of papers and I had no idea that I had done so because when I ordered it there were no numbers saying how many papers came with the package.

She brought out one massive packet of plans and sections. I said, "whoa that is a lot!" and she told me I had two more.

had to wear gloves

I couldn't scan any of the documents, but I took a few photos of things that interested me. I'm not sure whether this will help me with my assignment but I think that just being able to look and touch the plans helped me connect more with the space and to me that is important enough.

I got really really excited when I opened the packet. I loved to see these markings made by people in 1954.

I know there are a lot of things out there that are older than me, but i found it so awesome to look at these papers. I was pretty energetic when looking through the first two packets and by the third one I had gotten super tired. I loved the weight of the old tracing papers, and the tape that they used to bind the tears in the paper and the feel of it. I like how it was all kind of falling apart and I also loved the little pencil marks of drawings and writing that had almost completely faded. It made me remember that one day I need to study archeology because that would be AWESOME i want to dig up stuff and find cool stuff! Ahhhh.

Hahaha I just thought of those drawings they made my class do in primary school of "what do you want to be when you grow up?" and mine had a picture of me in a shop and it said "I want to be a BUTCHER!" AHAHAHAHAH. I also remember that I wanted to be a magician (because they were really so so cool until I realised that some/most were in fact very very lame :c) and then I wanted to be an inventor. I'd make random things on my door that you had to press "before it opened up". Those were the best days. I think I still want to be an inventor and explorer!

Ah so tired. Would write more but sleep > most things