Bend It Like Tse-Tung

Bend It Like Beckham was on just then. I love that movie, and it's because of that movie that I had this thing for Indian people. I was just thinking about how my parents would react if I told them that I wanted to marry a non-Chinese person. Well, after they got over the initial shock of me wanting to get married. Considering that my cousin recently married an Aussie, and another of my cousins is going to do the same next year, I don't think it'd be that much of a problem, but let's think worst case scenario here.

They're too polite to just tell him to get lost. They'd have to think of some other way to make him think twice. So first on their list would have to be exposing him to the craziness that is my extended family. First he would be inundated with names. "Hey, this is my Uncle Tony. This is _______." They'd shake hands, and then we'd move on to the next person. After my 9 aunts and 8 uncles, we'd move on to my cousins. Last count, there were 21, but that was 7 years ago. I think we've expanded far beyond that now. We have my older cousins that are now married, or have boy/girlfriends -who seem to change every month (not the married ones!). The teenage cousins that have discovered that it's not as boring if they bring along a friend (someone who has been well briefed in how to avoid being cross-interogated by my family). Last, there are the children of my married cousins, whose numbers seem to be growing at an exponential rate. Are you confused yet? Even I don't know the names of most of the people that I'd have to introduce to him.

If he somehow survives that and doesn't run away, then he'd have to survive the family Mah Jongg games. There's smoking, shouting, and at New Year's, drinking. On a bad day, there's accusations of cheating, and they can get really heated.

Last, I think my parents will try to scare him away by pretending to be Triad members. My mum is famous for stuffing people so that they can't move. He might think that they drugged him and are going to take him to a meat freezer and kill him Romeo Must Die style. I found out the one of my cousins got a dragon tattooed on to the back of his head- it's cool, but it has really creepy eyes! He'd help keep up the pretense.

http://annatheannoying.tripod.com/dantat.htm
(Daniel: If you're reading this a year from now, remember that you let me put this up!)

So considering that I've yet to fall for a Chinese guy, I think there are going to be a few problems in the future...

[By the way, Chuang Tse-Tung is a Chinese table tennis player, I just Googled a name.]

Bonsai!

My project for Japanese 1B was on bonsai. One of the requirements was to make either a Powerpoint presentation, or as website. So look at the awesomeness that is my bonsai website! (It's not that awesome, plus, it's in Japanese, so if you don't have the text file installed, then you'll just see squares or weird symbols or both. You'll still be able to see the crappy pics that we ripped off other sites- which I'm really sorry for, by the way. I credited the pic I stole! I didn't ask for permission though, but I blame pre-deadline stress.)

http://bonsaiproject.tripod.com/index.htm


I said that I'd get those AT-AT pics up a while ago. I don't know why, but I've been playing around with Dreamweaver a lot. Actually, I do know why, because I don't want to think about the circuits exam. Anyway, the pics are on my site, as well as something my little sister wanted me to write. Sorry, but the pics are kinda big!

http://annatheannoying.tripod.com/index.htm

I found a new rival today. I met him at work. He told me that he wants to take over the world as well. He's even having meetings with chips, chocolate and drinks! I'm so behind.... AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

10 Things I Hate About Being A Check-Out Chick

Since my username is 'annatheannoying', I thought I'd put something up about annoying people; in particular, check-out people.

10 WAYS TO ANNOY A 'SERVICE CASHIER':

1. If you're paying with notes, fold them or crumple them up so that they're as little as possible. If the notes aren't nice and flat, then they tend to spring up whenever you lift that thing that holds them down.

2. Pay with as much change as possible. And make sure not to count it out in front of the person, because they can count it while you're doing it. So if you just hand them out a lot of change, they have to count it out for themselves.

3. If paying by EFTPOS and asked if you want cash out, change your mind constantly (I don't know if you can do this at other supermarkets, but you can at Safeway).

4. When getting change, ask for it in 5c coins, or whatever you think you can carry, depending on how much you're getting back. This works really well with number 2, and you can get some extra annoyance in if you go back to the same person and pay them with all the change that you just got! [Plus, in order to give you your change, they might have to order more change, so they'll have to call their supervisor to get that change.]

5. If you're buying lots of stuff, tell them that you don't need a bag, and then watch them as they run out of space to place things. Laugh a little to yourself, and then tell them that you changed you mind (or that you realised that you forgot your bags), and that you do actually want everything bagged.

6. Try and get it so that you get $88.85 change (if you're feeling rich and like carrying around $100 notes), or $38.85- basically an amount that makes them have to use as many different coins and notes possible.

7. Go through at the express lane and hold a basket (with about 10 items) saying something like, "Oh, I'm sorry, but I think I'm over the limit. Is it still OK if I come through?". If it works, they'll look at your basket and say, "Yeah, you're probably just over," [insert attempt at polite smile] "Come on through." You hand over your basket and while they're halfway through say, "Oh, and I forgot about these 5 other baskets that I had, silly me! Sorry about that." If you're at Safeway, and you've spent over $15, then the cashier will have to call their supervisor to void that sale (I don't know the value for anywhere else), so I think they'd rather just finish it off.

8. This one is a little gross, but if you're after a lot of meat, make sure that it's still dripping blood. If it drips enough, then they'll have to get a mop and bucket to clean it (Yep, I've had to do this.) because it's a safety hazard if the floor is wet- can't have too many of those lying around. Also, if they don't clean up the blood, it dries, and it's hell cleaning blood off those conveyor belt things.

9. Buy a few items, and then exclaim that you've forgotten something. Ask if you can quickly run and get it. If they're nice, which most of them are (and I know that this will make you feel a little guilty), but run off and... DON'T COME BACK! Yep, just leave through another register, or out of any other exit that you can find. After a while, they'll save the transaction and continue serving other people (waiting customers are grumpy people, and grumpy people are very persuasive). If you're feeling particularly mean, choose that time to come back, and seem angry that they didn't wait.

10. When you are being served, ask the cashier how they are. When they ask you in return, tell them your life story. This one takes a little guts, but make sure that there are people behind you, and don't make any signs of moving away. Even if you've paid for your stuff already, keep talking. If you manage it well enough, they won't be able to get a word in. [This is one of the reasons why I hate the question 'How are you?'] Eventually, someone behind you will get angry. You have to judge this right- some people start sighing, but they're not likely to say anything. Others will start reading a magazine, so they're fine. It's usually someone that's alone and/or carrying a lot of stuff that is likely to get angry. Also, try to make it seem natural, but turn around and pretend not to notice everyone (you could demonstrate a dance move or something), but check to see if anyone is looking at their watch. If they pull out a gun, that's definitely a sign that you should make haste!


I have to say though, nobody mentioned any of this stuff to me when I did cashier training. They told us about people who ae picky about which things go in which bags, and people who demand plastic bags for a piece of gum, but never any of the people who do those above listed things. If they had, I think that I would have thought twice about taking this job. I swear, it's an exercise in emotional restraint.

Anyway, I just wanted to complain about work. Please, please, don't do anything that I just listed there. You never know, you might be the cause of supermarket cashiers committing suicide.

Where Is the Love?

I think Jing's love of music is contagious. A few weeks ago I would not have known this song or even heard of Black Eyed Peas, but for some reason, I'm actually paying attention to the music I hear around me. (Except for the Safeway theme song, I hate that with a vengence. NEVER get put on hold if you're calling Safeway, the song sucks!)

Anyway, aside from everyone's favourite "platonic" couple, it seems as though everyone is breaking up these days. I spoke to a friend of mine and found out that she broke up with her boyfriend (she said it happened in June- I'm always the last to know!), Jean had her heart broken, and now I've rejoined the single world...

I'm kinda in the mood for a Bridget Jones night. Bad karaoke, smoking (I don't smoke, but Bridget does), drinking and .....blue soup! Either that or a horror movie night. I went to see Alien Versus Predator with Graham today and I didn't think of anything other than the movie the whole time! And Graham always makes me laugh, so no feeling sad at all. The problem is, I can count on the number of fingers of a person with no hands the number of people that I know like horror movies! (Was that sentence confusing enough???)

Oh, and I forgot to mention this before, but I got a Lego® AT-AT(All Terrain Armoured Transport), one of those huge things that you see in the battle of Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back. It took me about 5 hours to put it together. I was going to take a pic of it, but I'm feeling a bit lazy at the moment, so maybe another time.

Anyone up for horror? Hmmm, maybe comedy is better. Sci-fi? Anything, anyone? (Anything but soppy romances!)

Zombies at Chadstone

Last week I registered to go to a screening of Resident Evil: Apocalypse held by playstation.com at Hoyts Chadstone. So when I got the email saying that I was invited, I was excited, probably heightened by the fact that I had no clue where Chadstone was- and so I didn't know how far away it is!!! But after a few phone calls, I worked out how to get there, I even made sure that I had an extra hour, since I get lost so easily!

But hooray, I didn't get lost at all! I managed to make all the right turns, but that meant that I showed up one hour early. You'd think that being at Chadstone Shopping Centre- the so-called fashion capital- would be a girl's dream, but it wasn't. Half because clothing stores bore me (I don't know why, I have seriously tried to be interested, but I'm always reminded of my Gameboy that's in my pocket everytime I'm in one!), and half because almost everything was closed. So I walked around Borders for a while looking at books. Lynne Truss has three other books out for sale now!

So the screening started with The Making of Killzone (a new PS2 game), and some footage from the game. It looks so cool! But I'm not that into FPS, so I don't know if I'll get it or not. Resident Evil: Apocalypse was suprisingly OK, considering that it's a game movie. (Though when it comes to movies, I'm easy to impress.)

But I'd have to say the worst part was getting home. To get to Chadstone I caught a train and then walked. Since I expected the movie to finish late, around 9-ish, I thought that it'd be safer to catch the bus back to the station, but the last bus left at 6-ish! So I had to walk. And after seeing zombies roaming around, my imagination went crazy! A cat crossed my path and I nearly had a heart attack! And then this car came out of nowhere and I very nearly started screaming like a little girl- but I didn't want to have people come out of their houses wondering what was going on! [It was a neighbourhood watch neighbourhood!]

But since you're reading this now it means that I lived to blog another day (takes all the suspense out of it, doesn't it?). My advice is:

Zombies + walking alone in the dark + being in an unfamiliar place = horror! Never, EVER do it!!!!!

Conspiracy Theory

Does anyone, other than me, think it's weird that Rove makes fun of John Howard for two weeks, while trying to get him onto his show, and then his studio is burnt to the ground? Maybe Johnny finally decided to pay his studio a visit? The fire is said to have started on the roof. The prime minister flying over the city wouldn't be noticed, right? The helicopter could have just tilted to the side a bit, and oops.... what was that that fell down? Oh, nevermind, couldn't have been very important.

Well, if my house has suddenly burnt down, you all know who's responsible!

Mocktion™ No. 4!

(isn't she pretty?)
Name: Jing Wang
D.O.B.: 21/03/86
Eye colour: Brown
Hair colour: Black

Height: 155cm I think...but could be 156cm for all we know
Likes: MUSIC!!!! e.g. Jeff Buckley, Led Zeppelin, the Killers, Augie March, Pearl Jam, Maroon 5, the Smiths, Franz Ferdinand, QOTSA, Nick Drake, etc etc.
Dislikes: techno and dance music. People who fake being nice. Drizzling rain (either don't rain or just bucket down please!)
Position in the army of Anna the Supreme Ruler of the Universe: lazy...something...see I'm too lazy to come up with a position even. Ok ok more seriously...the...lazy but enthusiastic soldier who's more interested in...out of the job activities...such as music...and more music...and more music...er but don't get me wrong. I'd contribute to the cause. Just in a way that's not so obviously contributing. Am I making any sense? ok I'll move on.

A: There are three birds in a room. One is eating grain, one is dancing the 'Can-Can', and one is flying. Which is the real bird and why?
J: The one dancing the 'Can-Can' of course! It's the only REAL bird cos it appreciates good music as all good birdies ought to.

A:What is the best birthday present that you've ever received?
J: I recieved the best present ever tonight called "a sonnet to jing". VERY belated, but... great present. [EDIT: 14/10/04 1:17AM]

A: What are you most afraid of?
J: DEATH!!! No no seriously um...dying alone? Or losing a loved one suddenly.

A: If you had a pet, what would you want it to be? And what would you call it?
J: It would be a talking frog named Herbet...don't ask.

A: Is farming fun?
J: Hmmm...what sort of farming? Would it involve killing? If so...NO. If not...still no.

A: Which do you prefer: A guy who does the whole pulling-out-the-chair-and-paying-for-stuff thing, or a guy who is more into equality?
J:First one. Cos: 1. I'm seriously broke and 2. It's...nice. But I mean if I wasn't so pathetically broke or if the guy wasn't so well off himself I'm all for equality.

A:Would you serenade someone in public, or like to be serenaded?
J: Um...I'd definitely LIKE to be serenaded :). As for serendading someone else in public, it's a possibility if I could see the necessity there.

A: What is your favourite movie?
J:At the moment I'd have to say...Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Almost Famous.

A: What do you think about pancakes?
J: I'm quite impartial when it comes to pancakes. I mean they're good...but not...THAT good.

A: What type of plastic surgery would you get if you woke up and found
you looked like John Howard?
J: THE WHOLE DEAL!!!! JESUS!!! NOOOOOO!!!!

Silly me. If you want to know more about Jing, why not check out her blog: http://theadventuresofjingles.blogspot.com/ ?

Completely unrelated: it's niichan's birthday today! Happy 18th birthday, Ricky-nii!
(I know that niichan is older brother, and that I'm older than him, but he didn't want to be my otouto.)

Osaka!

This is Osaka-san from Azumanga Diaoh. I think that she has some of the best lines in the anime. She's kinda ditzy, but she is actually quite smart; mostly when it comes to word puzzles. Her name isn't actually Osaka, it's Ayumu Kasuga. She's from Osaka, so one of her classmates decided to call her Osaka and everyone agreed. It even said Osaka instead of her real name when the class list was posted!

Osaka quotes (these aren't direct, just what the subtitles said.):

*looking really scared* "Last night when I was alone in my room, from out of nowhere... I smelled a fart that wasn't mine."

"Team Sea Slug!" -announcing the name of her basketball team.

"Tomo-chan, Tomo-chan! Heee..."- she managed to break one of those chopsticks you get that are stuck together evenly and she's really proud of herself.

Osaka: "Aaaaah...? You're already awake... I messed up..."
Yukari-sensei: "..." (!) "Osaka, what are you doing with that knife?!"
Osaka: "Aaaah...? A knife? I thought it was a frying pan..."
Yukari-sensei *opens her mouth in shock*
Osaka: *wanders off to the kitchen, punctuated by Chiyo's screams*

I'm just playing around with adding pictures. I realised that I don't have any pictures other than this weird one of Duong which I drew all over anyway.

Anna = 200 metres ???

WARNING! Sorry to all the guys that are reading this post, but I'm going to make some really sexist comments! I don't mean it in a bad way, but I'm just trying to defend myself. SORRY, SORRY, SORRY, SORRY!!!

Graham, Tom and I played 40k again yesterday; but I'm not going to go into what happened in the game. Though during the game, Tom made a comment that one of Graham's models had its hand in a 'feminine' pose. I said that I have never made a gesture like that and that's when Graham decided to educate me about something that a lot of people have pointed out to me, but I don't think is true.

Graham said I was 200m, and Tom was 500m. In his [Graham's] opinion, I should stop spending so much time with the 500m people and try to hang around with more 200m people. I didn't quite understand why I was 200m and Tom was 500m. I'm not 200m tall, I don't compete in 200m races (Tom does athletics, but Stefan told me that they do 10/20km), I don't live 200m from anything that Graham would know- so what's with calling me 200m???

What I think he was getting at (and I'm sure that you've all figured it out by now) was that I spend way too much more time with guys than I do with girls- which is definitely not true! What's worrying is that, at my 18th birthday party, Tu made a similar comment; and Ting(guy) and Lucien have gone so far as to say that I'm like a guy! I don't get it.

I don't sound like a guy, I don't look like a guy (I hope), I don't smell like a guy (as far as I know), I don't taste like a guy(but I'm not going to verify that) and I don't feel like a guy. That covers all five senses, so what else is there? Not a big fan of fast cars. I'm hopeless at sports.

I can't help that I like computer/console games, wargaming, sci-fi and playing chess. I know plenty of females that like these things too. As for the hanging around guys too much thing:

1. I'm still looking for a new gay best friend.

2. Almost all of my friends from Japanese are female.

3. I AM doing engineering!

So it might just look like I hang around guys a lot, but I don't. At least, I don't think I do... now I'm getting second thoughts. One of the problems I had with auctioning niichan over MSN was that most of the people that I had online were other guys. All of my friends from my eng subjects are all guys.

On the other hand, the person that I hang around with most is Sharon, and she's not a guy!