Sports, Physical Education, etc…

I could do it all again

I don’t think anyone else in the world could possibly make the following statement that I’m about to make: “In the past 12 hours I have been to: Malibu beach, the Getty Centre for sunset and then to a Lakers vs. Bulls game”.

Spent about 3-4 hours in total driving today, especially during peak hour traffic from the Gettys Centre to the Staples Centre. Dammit, I know here in America they spell it as “center” but I just can’t do that without forcing myself to. On the way back to Malibu from the Staples Centre, a bunch of cop cars closed down a huge section of the Pacific Coast Highway, causing me and all the other confused drivers to take a huuuuge detour around the Malibu hills, down Sunset Blvd in a huuuge circuit. They did it in the most unconventional (aka inefficient, confusing and STUPID) way ever – instead of just parking and blocking the road with their lights on like the police usually do, they decided to turn their lights on and start driving in a zigzag pattern down the PCH, confusing the hell out of us all.

Anyway, I’m too tired to recount my whole day now. I took a roll and a half of black and white film as well, but here are just a handful of digital shots from my epic 12 hours today:

Went to the beach at Malibu – froze our butts off.

California number plate! The car I’ve been driving around.

Obligatory jumping photo. Wish I could fly. It was so windy it sure felt like I almost could.

At the colony in Malibu. CUPCAKES.

Red Velvet was mine, and Chocolate Snowball was Liv’s. Weird iced tea I had with my macchiato.

Fancy schmancy.

If my life’s work ever got analysed, this would be the “epitome” of “me”: monochromatic, shadows, frames, self. All it lacks is reflection.

At Getty Centre.

Sunset. Reflection. Frame. How typically-Amanda of me.

More reflections.

Post-dusk view.

Tram.

STAPLES CENTER!!! There, I spelt it the American way.

Proof!!!

Lamar played amazingly tonight. Top scorer for Lakers. Sorry Kobe.

JACK! I didn’t have my long lens with me so had to wait til he got on screen to get a better shot.

Crowd goes mad.

Final score.

Heading to the City of Angels

1 year down, 2 to go – I can’t believe I’m 1/3 of the way through my degree already. This year has been the longest yet fastest year of my life, I swear. I also cannot believe that…

…I am going to California! Namely, Los Angeles and San Francisco. I’ve always been an impulsive person, but this is probably the biggest impulse-buy that I have ever made – I managed to get $999/return flights from Auckland to LAX and I leave on the 7th November. So far I’ve got it planned so that I spend my first day (I arrive in the afternoon that Sunday) with my sister as she has no weekend classes or activities, and I’m staying at a highly rated hostel in Hollywood. Based on my phone calls to them, they do indeed have superb service so I’m not anxious about it and I’m super excited! The other great thing about the USA Hostels chain is that (amongst other places and services offered), they have a $45 shuttle from their Hollywood hostel up to the one in San Francisco. I had been considering flying out to New York and crashing at a family friend’s place, but the flights are just far, far too expensive – a flight from LA to NY would cost almost half of what I’m paying to fly from NZ to LA, which does sort of make sense, but at the same time, urgh. I’m just going to have to go to New York next time, on a more extensive trip. Although my heart aches at the prospect of missing out this time… But the good news is, it means I’m saving all my weekends with my sister, and also any half-days of school she has. I’ll also be staying with her in her dorms at Pepperdine University – which is a promise of spectacular views and apparently a very amazing machine in the cafeteria that offers all beverages imaginable!

The other major, major thing is I have a ticket to see the Lakers vs. Bulls! It took me about three bloody hours to get a ticket last night, because Ticketmaster USA is a dickhead. For some unknown and unexplained reason, their website kept failing to sell the ticket to me. Then I rang (luckily for free, thanks to Gmail) them up and spent a couple of hours wrangling up a fake US accent and shouting down the line to their automated system. I can understand why it took several attempts to recognise me saying things like “Chicago Bulls” or “November 23rd”, but when it failed to recognise me saying “yes” or “no” – that was just too far. I ended up trying to emulate the recording’s voice in an attempt to sound, uh, more understandable? I hope when I’m thirsty in a restaurant I don’t have to try and say “water” in a US accent, because that would absolutely kill me and my dignity. I know Liv had to do it once, because us NZ kids say “war-ta” instead of “waaah-terrr”. On the other hand, I’m a little curious to see as to where people will guess I’m from, based on the fact that I look asian but certainly don’t act nor speak particularly asian-like. In fact, I can’t even put on an asian accent when speaking in English – I know white people that can do it and I can’t!

Ramblings aside – does anyone have any recommendations for food/music/sights/shopping/galleries/museums/etc in LA/San Fran or any general tips on visiting the states? Mum and friends have been trying to teach me how to tip but I don’t think I’ll ever understand completely until I have to do it in person. I’ll probably look like a moron sitting there trying to work out the smallest amount I can get away with leaving though… haha. Oh yeah, I’m also tossing up whether or not to go and see Best Coast’s gig, but the problem is, I’m apparently going to Disneyland on the day of the gig that isn’t sold out, and I think people stay at Disneyland until nighttime?

Below: miscellaneous pics from Friday, after my last assessment of the year. You won’t believe how goooood it felt. Although now I’m anxious about marks, passing, etc…
Charlotte and I had a feast at Wagamama with a voucher I had. It came to under $20 each, and we both had a big serving of noodles, edamame and lemon iced tea.

The hoodie I bought for Liv upon her request… she wanted some kind of “NZ apparel” because apparently wearing things from your hometown is big thing to do in American universities:

It’s the Milgram device all over again

Photo taken by sister, as per my instructions, in Sydney.

It’s 1.30pm and I am still in bed with a cold. Cancelled musical plans for today, because I don’t want to be coughing and spluttering, blowing my nose every two seconds, and spreading it to other people.

Firstly – irony: Since the Netherlands defeat in the WC final, New Zealand is the only unbeaten team in the World Cup.

There is something about Facebook that pisses me off the most. No, it’s not something integral in Facebook itself, but moreso, something that people do on Facebook. I hardly ever sign onto Facebook – in fact usually it takes an email prompt telling me someone has sent me a message or invitation, and then I click on the link, check it out, and exit. But on the rare occasion, out of boredom or curiosity that I linger on the homepage of it, I am thoroughly reminded of why I vow to never do so again until the next spout of craaazy insomnia or whatever. I just don’t understand why some people feel the urge to sit on Facebook ALL DAY and “like” everyone’s statuses and comments, nor why they are on Facebook commenting people back and forth when I know for a fact that they are already either txting or IMing each other (or worse, both).

Some girls that I see out and about in town, at the pub, clubs, etc… what are they doing? Being annoying brats and taking photos (with such bad skill it really makes my head ache) with blinding use of flash whilst everyone else it just trying to have a good time… in semi-darkness. Don’t get me wrong, I love taking pictures, especially when I’m having a great time at something – but some people take it waaay too far, taking waaay too many pictures with the same people, in every possible pose, and it just gets ANNOYING. Especially on the odd occasion I’m going somewhere without a doorlist, requiring me to stand in queue for godknowshowlong next to snap-flashing girls. Urghhh. What’s even worse than withstanding them toppling over now and then – because, you know, trying to piggyback each other whilst in short dresses in a queue thus showing off most of your bra and cellulite is very attractive – and then flashing flahsing, FLASHING, is what happens the next morning… these pictures are then splashed aaaaaaaaaaallll over Facebook, with the people in it all tagged, who then start commenting on each picture. “Oh I remember that, I was soooo wasted”, “I don’t remember that, take that off, I look awful”, “And then this and that and this and that happened before/after this photo”, etc etc. It just gets me so bored and put off, and deters me from Facebook.

Then, there’s the type of people, who (yes, I know for a fact) are in the same room as each other, all on their separate computers, logged onto Facebok, commenting back and forth with each other – WHY?! WHYYYYYY, WHYYYYYYY?!?!!??!!!!

Whatever happened to using Facebook (and other social devices on the internet) as a means of interacting with people that you don’t really get a chance to interact with in real life? At least, that’s what I use Facebook for. If I can easily reach someone via a quick txt message or by merely turning around to face them to converse – why would I want to, oh, open Facebook, log in, find the correct person’s page, then … etc…

Now I just sound like a raging, raving looney; but I’ve wanted to have a rant about that for ages. Plus, I’m still in bed… with a rather large (and growing) pile of used tissues. Gross. Semester starts next Monday, I want to be better!

Off topic, but the title is a lyric which refers to the Milgram Experiment. That stuff (and subsequent related links) gets you thinking…

Jack Kerouac

Bradley you tick all of my boxes… Bradley come tick all of my boxes

This entry will probably turn into a stream of consciousness.

I’m currently sitting on the couch in a holey bathrobe, astounded at the fact that the Argentina – Korea game currently sits at 2-1 just after half time. Wow.

Yesterday was my sister’s 17th birthday. It’s so weird, my 18th last year seems like only yesterday, yet my 17th seems a lightyear away. I had some errands to run so didn’t end up going to the waterfalls with Liv, mum and a family friend – although I got home earlier than they did, and spent a whole hour decorating her cake. This is why I am not, and will never be domesticated.

1 hour + 3 different icings later = the following: (and the last photo is the amazing dinner mum conjured up, mmm)

Whilst mum was busy snapping away the obligatory smiley, flashy birthday-girl photos, I decided to get my lens out and do my usual moody-ness. The cake looks better in colour, but I just wanted her face and candles, not all the hair and clothes and pink and blue. This is the second pink and blue cake I’ve decorated this month. I must remember to post pics of the other one, I was rather proud of it too.

I’ve forgotten what I had wanted say with the blog title from when I was in the shower thinking about it earlier. The title is derived from a song that was stuck in my head (urghh) that I heard live last week. The originalname used was “Malcolm” but I’m reaaally not a fan of that name – it makes me think of “Malcolm in the Middle”, that awful tv show from back in the day, plus it just doesn’t make me think of an attractive man.

Actually… it’s like 1.20am, I’m watching the footy, I can’t form coherent sentences, I will write about whatever it was… later.

A beach, a tournament and music nationals

I’m not sure exactly what happened to my blog in the week/ends that I was away in Rotorua, but somehow it has nicely resurrected itself upon my return. A blow-by-blow (sorry, couldn’t resist, I copped too many hits to the hand, arms and legs with endless blood and skin loss to not use that term) account of tournament is just far beyond me right now, and to be frank, coming 14th isn’t too exciting. Although, I’m proud to say we only lost to the team who won the Marie Fry cup by 3-1.

The first set of photos are from the Friday night before I left – Angie and I went with our geeky boys to see District 9 – and I have to admit, after having seen the first 20minutes at a friends house on a pirated file, I couldn’t take the first half of the movie seriously. But then it got darker, deeper, and I was almost reduced to curling in my seat. The real fun only began when most of us parted ways, but Freddy, William, Joel and I were adamant that we weren’t going to return home without getting up so some form of shenanigans. It started off with us lying in the middle of Joel’s street. I was determined to get a photo of it, so we acquired William’s camera and ended up heading for a stroll along the beach. The huge downer was that his camera was desperately lacking in battery power, so all the shots we came up with were pretty funny since no one knew what was going to show up until the photo had been taken, nor did the shutter go off when we wanted it to.

The one on the right shows me wincing in surprise as Joel suddenly sat down when the flash went off; and the bottom left, according to Michael, looks like an album cover. I’ll salute to that.

I’ve included a couple of pics from tournament – my warpaint from our last game, luge lifts; and Concert Band National/North Island Festival – our school got 6 straight gold awards! And dammit, the far bottom right picture ended up being the wrong one… in my haste I mis-compiled it… it was meant to be a far, far funnier one. Oops.

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