Just call me angel of the morning baby...

Thanks for coming!

Reasons why its good to be me

1) am going to the airport in about 20 minutes to collect my favourite blogger
2) The Boy From Texas got us tickets for Bill Cosby
3) the half glass of red wine sitting on my desk next to the keyboard
4) we beat Pakistan by 51 runs
5) I'm having a party on Saturday night
6) Eighties dance night tomorrow
7) I have no more classes until Monday
8) This town doesn't suck as much as I make out it does
9) I have only 15 midterms left to grade
10) My Politics of the Developing World class today was awesome.

and really..... what more do you need?

The internet is for pr0n......

Sri Lanka are playing South Africa in Ahmedabad and the internet stream I am attempting to watch the match on keeps misbehaving and going all wobbly and gurgly and I get about 2 seconds of video per minute before the thing keeps buffering again and then the sound goes all funny and I can't make out what the announcers are saying and its very frustrating because the outcome of this match is very important to me because we loves the cricket and Sri Lanka are about to get hit by Makhaya Ntini which is always good to watch and watching cricket online sure as shit beats the hell out of grading this pile of midterms I have here......

I worry….

That I will say or do something to scare him away that I will repeat the same mistakes I’ve made before despite my efforts to the contrary that nobody takes legitimate concerns about global warming seriously that I will slip up and let my desperate insecurities show that he needs someone more like him that the worlds we come from are just too different that I am too loud too aggressive that I won’t get my students’ midterms graded by Wednesday that he just wants to be friends that he will find out I worry about this stuff at this stage that my computer will conk out before I buy an external hard drive that I’m not smart enough not pretty enough not thin enough not virtuous enough too crazy for him too needy for him too white for him too intense for him too different from him that the effect he says I have on him will be gone when he returns that my head will explode from all this angst that we will lose against Pakistan next week and be out of the Champions Trophy that he won’t call me

/ end angst /

I have a new appreciation of all things Texan

Not going to hex it or betray a confidence by blogging about it.... suffice to say my stomach has been doing many little flip-flops in the last few days... some things are best left un-blogged.

Also, bring on next Saturday, when the Halloween Party to end all Halloween parties is being hosted by yours truly (and three flatmates and the downstairs neighbours too....), and featuring a Special Guest from the West Coast.

I've said it before and I'll say it again..... booya.

I'm not procrastinating.....

Holy crap the Windies just SPANKED Australia, they won by 10 runs, and even managed to score a hat-trick. Jerome Taylor is apparently the first West Indian cricketer EVER to get a hat-trick, and hes only 22 or something.... anyway having Brett Lee go out for a duck was worth its weight in gold..... Right now I would give my first born to be in India. If only I had a first born....
Yesterday Pakistan beat Sri Lanka in Jaipur, the day before we managed to kick South Africa like the little bitches they are.... and even India managed to beat England by 4 wickets. Ah, everything is right with the world again....

Also, I have 5 hours left to finish my paper.... luckily theres no more cricket until tomorrow.....
NZ vs. Sri Lanka at Bombay. Bring it!!!

Young man, control in your hand, slam your fist in the table and make your demands

Also, possibly, likely due to my complete flabbergastedness over the whole thing, I totally forgot to mention the concert I am going to on Wednesday night.....

MATISYAHU!!!!!!

The only catch being, of course, that I have less than 24 hours to write a 12 page paper, the likes of which I have never written before because life just likes to throw interesting things at me like a negotiation methods course that turns into a full on international negotiation simulation, complete with full official-type negotiating instructions.....

But hey, MATISYAHU!!!!!
Booya.

Claire to Brain: WOULD YOU JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP I'M TRYING TO WRITE A PAPER BEFORE TOMORROW EVENING!!! STOP MAKING SHIT UP AND JUST FOCUS!!!
Brain to Claire: Mwahahahaha!!!!!!

You give me miles and miles of mountains and I'll ask for the sea

I can't be completely certain that its a real actual 'date' date, but I'm fairly sure that I just got asked out.
By a real live grown up adult male.
And no, he is not is retarded, blind, deaf or otherwise 'differently abled'.

Time will tell......

Also, we TOTALLY KICKED South Africa this morning in Bombay, which is fairly impressive, given that we were all out for 195 after 45 overs.
Ah, such is the joy of cricket.....

Look out look from over the rooftops

Saturday night, off to a party up the road, at which I will stand around and drink beer and talk to possibly interesting people, probably no nice boys though.
Last night my friend got me drunk, he paid for every single one of my drinks at the pub and it was lovely.

My hair is the colour of manuka honey.

When everything's made to be broken I just want you to know who I am

Hello today I slept for about 6 hours then I gave my students a midterm and read while they sat their exam then I went to class and learned about postcolonial disources of historicisation and circular vs linear concpets of time then I went to another class and learned about cultural factors in democratisation and the limitations of pure modernist theory in terms of economic development then I came home and talked to my favourite blogger and had a wee lie down and ate some mashed potatoes made from potatoes not from a packet cos thats the way I roll then I went to quiz night and had some beer and we would have won had the rest of my team listened to me about Lenny Bruce but we came 4th anyway and it was good and then I watched CSI and K-Fed is a loser and then I watched ER and Dr Kovac is beautiful and then I wasted all sorts of time on the internets reading shit and then I wrote a blog and went to bed the end ok bye.

And I wonder if truly you are really as beautiful as I believe

Apparently, in Southern Chile there is a dearth of food that doesn't suck. I wouldn't know, I've never been. However, word on the street is.....

The point being, I have just packaged up the Mega Package (tm) for my sister who lives there, and who happens to be having a birthday very soon, which includes
- Thai green curry paste
- two packets of chocolate biscuits
- 1 jar of peanut butter
- garam masala
- red curry powder (extra hot)
- madras spice mix
- a whole lot of bubble wrap.

And its true, doing nice things for people DOES make you happy!!!!

*Warning!!! BSG Spoiler Blog!!! Warning*

Much to my delight, the premiere episode of BSG last week turned out to be TWO episodes!!! I was so excited I did the dance of joy, right there on the couch at my friend's house!!!

But given that I have class soon, and must finish the readings for class and eat lunch before then, here we have the brief version of the ways in which BSG is still all that and a packet of chips.

Starbuck: so awesome its not funny, but possibly a bit off her rocker.
Apollo: FAT!!!!!
Admiral Adama: rocking the 'stache.
Colonel Tigh: gone completely off his rocker.
Ellen Tigh: the Town Bike.
Galactica Boomer (previously known as Caprica Boomer): married Helo.
New Caprica Boomer (previously known as Galactica Boomer before she shot Adama and got shot by Callie and downloaded into a new body): getting all sympathising with the humans
Helo: Galactica XO, even hotter than before. Quite possibly the uniform.
Chief Tyrol: hairy. Has a cute baby.
Callie: also has a baby. In fact, the same one. Is currently frolicking through the woods, and by frolicking I of course mean running for her dear life from the nasty Cylons.
Anders: has a nice new "I married Starbuck" tattoo.
Gaeta: Baltar's bitch, but also not.
Dualla: Mrs Apollo, but apparently the fat isn't contagious. Also possibly Pegasus XO.
Kat: Galactica CAG.
Number 6: still a saucy minx. Is now BFF with New Caprica Boomer.
Roslin: manages to be classy and staunch while in a Cylon prison with no shoes.
Leoben: trying to get Starbuck to fall in love with him by keeping her prisoner. Needless to say, she keeps killing him.
Cavil: Makes quotation marks in the air with his fingers whenever he talks about "God".
Aaron: Wanker.
D'Anna (now mostly known as Number 3): has great hair, still talks like the good Kiwi girl she is, likes killing people.
Baltar: President, drunk, wasted, likes hookers, is still cowardly and in love with Number 6.

Ummm.... I think thats all.
Ok bye.

Too hot for you!!!!
And soon to take on Small Town, USA.
Oh my.

Edit: I just randomly clicked on some archives, and have decided that my blog used to be more interesting than it is now.
Hang on, my life used to be a lot more interesting than it is now..... perhaps there's a connection.....*wanders off, looking thoughtful*

Better late than never

Blonde Claire
Love that flattering bathroom mirror light.....

Bang bang bang BOOM!!!!

Holy bang bang Batman, there is one hell of a fireworks display going on right now at the university. One of the doors in my house is shaking, the street lights up periodically, and there is some seriously loud noises resounding through the living room.

Note: I do not, in any way, live right next to the university where this cacophony is taking place, its about a 20 minute walk.

Perhaps it will wake the residents of the crackhouse a few blocks over from their drug induced slumber.

I know this much is true....

My girl Sarah is All That And A Packet Of Chips (tm). I was feeling a little emotionally fragile etc today so I called her and unbeknownst to either of us we were listening to the same cd at the same time, and both having similar potentially PMSing type days and feeling vulnerable etc even though we are on opposite ends of the world so we had a grand old chat and she said "love you longtime" and then everything was better.

Friday nights at home spent watching telly and playing on the intertron and cooking for your friend who stopped by briefly to borrow a computer powercord from your flatmate and ended up staying for nearly 3 hours are a lot more appealing than they used to be. I wonder if it is a sign of age or maturity that going out into town on a Friday night and consuming large amounts of booze now seems like far more like something to be endured than something to be enjoyed.

Its really only two months until I go home again which is awesome because its so soon, but also scary because I have to save up a rather large amount of money from now until then so I can get back here and there is an insane amount of work that must be done before then so I had best get moving on it.

If I were to travel almost exactly due south from here for ten thousand, six hundred and seventy kilometres, I would arrive in the city my sister lives in (I would have to travel ever so slightly east or would end up in the ocean off the west coast of Estrecho de Magallenes. And I don't fancy that).

In three weeks I will have a Special Visitor staying here for the weekend and that makes me happy. I may even do the Dance of Joy((tm) (c) Joss Whedon 2004).

I am a ginge no longer. After many hours of faffing about with hair products etc and far too much money spent on said products, I am now officially blonde. Photos will follow soon, I just have to let my hair recover from the torture it received in the blonding process.

Its been a hundred years at least, but the Manic Street Preachers track "Motorcycle Emptiness" is still fucking awesome.

Ok thats about all the truth you can handle for now.

Makes no sense at all....

I'm doing it again.
Its 12.45am, and I'm still at the computer, having finally finished all my work for the evening, admittedly some of that work was done while eating my dinner and watching Lost and CSI NY (for God's sakes Danny would you just plant one on her!!!) ...anyway.
What was my point?
Its late, I should be in bed, I have classes tomorrow for seven and a half hours straight, yet all I want to do is play on the internerds!

Have you heard of fanfiction.net? Its spooky stuff, yet oddly engrossing. People spend hours of their lives writing fiction about fictional characters they didn't create, its all a bit new for me.

Today my flatmate of last year defended her dissertation and got a full pass with distinction: ie the best mark one can get, not a single rewrite to be done, thats all she wrote, goodnight and good luck take care now bye bye.
She's very clever.
Got me thinking though, I should perhaps be spending more time building up a portfolio of work.... dissertation proposal, articles to be published etc. I have many ideas floating around in my head, and a few more scribbled on random pieces of paper all over the place. Surely I can squeeze in a few hours to turn one of them into a few thousand words of publishable quality? Maybe if I spent less time fannying about on the internet......
I have many things to say about the world and what needs fixing, and all the things people should be paying attention to. Its just the effort.....oh lord the effort.

Which is ridiculous because when I actually get up off my fat arse and make an effort and do something I am so chuffed with the results and Actually Having Achieved Something I think to myself "hey Claire, that was awesome, you should do that more" and then I get all distracted by the shiny pretty things like the telly and the books and the sleep.........
Mmmm, the sleep.

Also, its entirely possible that today, in the absence of anyone else who lives here having a say, I decided that we would be having a Halloween party, and even maybe featuring Special Guests.

Ok this post sucks, I'm going to bed. Soon.

On this day, 42 years ago......

Happy birthday Clive. Phwoar.

Because a change is apparently as good as a holiday....

Here I present to you....The Before Shot.
Updates as they come to hand.