The life and times of Leginag » Uncategorized

Prologue

Leginag — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 11:12:42 +0000

This is a short piece, written during one of my lectures today (19/9). It’s unedited, and potentially something that I will take further. I’ve always loved creative writing.

Shadows swirl within the depths of my memory. Flashes of laughter, delicious meals I’ve eaten and the smiles of my friends intermingle around the shadows of time and forgetfulness that plague my memories. A time of happiness and plenty. My pen falters as a sudden surge of longing and loneliness sweeps over me. Oh, what I would give to be able to live once again within that time. I recognise this morose mood, one that I have only become more familiar with as time moves on, further and further away from that peaceful, happy time.

I sigh and try to refocus my thoughts, trying to ignore the memory of soft smiles and gentle lips that lingers in my minds eye. I slowly become aware of the lecture on ‘Business-Labour Relations’ that continued around me, unmindful of my momentary lapse down memory lane. But as the monotone drone,discoursing about industrial relations washes over me, a sense of frustration, tinged with anger, builds up within me. Why am I caged here? Living within boundaries and limitations that have been placed upon me. I care not that Italy was decentralised in the 1980s, nor that it was recentralised with tripartite agreements in the 1990’s. But even as I dismiss everything that I care not about, the question arises: What do I care about? And that single thought, such a simple question, plunges me not unkindly back into my memories of a time where everything I cared about was real and with me.

Define: Filthy Hot

Leginag — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 11:55:28 +0000

Today was the epitome of ‘filthy hot’. What springs to mind when you hear that phrase roll off the tongue? Imagine that sticky feeling, that glues your clothes to your skin, giving your whole demeanour an uncomfortable ‘icky’ feeling. An unquenchable thirst drives you, as you stumble through the heat waves, discarding empty water bottles as their contents provides momentary relief to your parched throat.
Frustration wells up inside, as Telstra can’t decide if a technician needs to come on-site to connect the new telephone line. Yes, No, wait, hurry up, the tech is already there. Dragging you outside, inside and out again. But at last it gets done, and you can retreat to the coolness that is air-conditioning.
Thirty-Five degrees and counting. And it’s only the beginning of October.

We’re in for one filthy hot summer Australia.

Shiny and you know it

Leginag — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 11:38:27 +0000

So another Friday draws to a close.
My adrenal glands thank me for handing in two assignments in today. Living off adrenalin doesn’t really work, and I don’t recommend it to anyone. But then again, I’m a uni student, and it’s expected from us :p
I really would love to blog about something interesting, but my brain has departed with my assignments, and it’s telling me to take the weekend off.

Portal: Prelude is being released on October 10. So i’m excited about that. I’m also excited about my not-so-mid-sem week off I get next week. But that’s a different story.

Till my brain returns…

Part One of a Series of Fish

Leginag — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 13:39:53 +0000

I’ve already been in Beijing for more than one week, Beijing gives me the deep impression that: there are lots of people, lots of cars, and the traffic is very busy. Before, I thought China was a developing country, but there are lots of cars! After I arrived in Beijing, I found that I had thought wrong. The broad streets are full of cars close to each other, and when people are going to and from work, there are often traffic jams. At the crossroads, we often can see more than a hundred cars lined up, often reaching two to three hundred cars.

I am living outside uni, my place is only four kilometres away. On the first day of school, I took a taxi to school. I set off at seven am, but I never expected the traffic jams to be so severe, I sat inside the taxi worriedly for ten minutes. For anyone reading this, this is my text book passage, and not a necessarily a representation of what I think. The taxi drivers are playful, often telling me not to worry, don’t stress because its not worth it.

Snip snip

Leginag — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 05:08:52 +0000

I got my hair cut today. I also managed to get ripped off on the price. But at least this time I got the haircut I wanted and not a ‘Chinese styled’ hair cut, which made me look no different last time. Ah well. Photos will not be forthcoming =)

Chang Chang Ge

Leginag — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 11:08:37 +0000

Yesterday saw the semi-finals of the Beijing Normal University Foreign Student Karaoke competition. This was the second round, which saw about 20 singers come together to battle their tunes out. The first round saw about 50 students, and the quality ranged from mouthing the words to simply awesome. The semi-finals ranged from great to simply spectacular. It was hosted in a different room, and the room had SO MUCH better acoustics. Everyone sounded awesome, and I seriously don’t know how the judges chose. Nine people were selected to go to the next round which is a Beijing-wide finals. Held in one month, it is going to be an exciting time. I’ll be attending=p

That warm feeling

Leginag — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 15:10:15 +0000

We had Korean for dinner today. It was tasty. Korean is always tasty. We actually went to a restaurant in Wudaokou proper, right next to the subway, and it is REALLY nice. We went a few days ago with a bunch of friends and really liked it, hence why we came back. I hadn;t been there before, which is surprising, as it is very convienient to BLCU. It’s in the building that I call “the lion king building”, cos well, there is a poster of a lion king haha.

I want to go to korean tomorrow, but alas that is not to be. It is really quite sad how there is a lack of good Korean restaurants around BNU. A lack of the cheap uni canteens near the east gate, with them all being over on the west side. Anyway, an anime review will be coming up next, so stay tuned or tune out, as the case may be.

The Cake is a Lie

Leginag — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 12:26:18 +0000

One of the most momentous occasions in the gaming world landed with the release of the Orange Box from Steam. This gigantic release not only included the long-awaited for Team Fortress Two, but also had the next awesome Half Life chapter withHalf Life 2: Episode 2. To add the cherry on top, Portal was included to round off the three NEW games included in the box. This innovative game gets you to really think, in order to solve problems and beat the game. The Orange Box also includes Half Life 2, and Half Life 2: Episode 1 which makes the box hold a total of 5 games, all for only $49.95.

The games are simply awesome. The games aren’t that long, but they definitely are a LOT of fun. I’ve already finished Portal and Episode 2, which are both single player games. Team Fortress 2 is multiplayer, and unfortunately my connection is just too poor for me to be able to play the game properly. It’ll have to wait till I get back to Aussieland.

I’ll do a more indepth review of the games later. For now, pop over to my new forum which I’ve been putting a lot of effort into: The Baka-Forums. It’s still a work in progress, but I’m aiming to make it even better =)

Enjoy~

Baby Steps

Leginag — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 14:17:39 +0000

A big event for me today. I went shopping in Beijing for clothes. This is something I have tried, and so far had successfully managed to avoid this trip. Why? Isn’t the shopping really cheap in China? Oh yesss it’s cheap, but it’s cheap crap. The fashion here leaves much to be desired, at least imho. I am not into sparkles and chains on my jeans. Nor am I really into having Billa-abong and Qiksilva tops. Especially when they have very poor quality prints on them (they look good, but after a few washes they come apart and totally screw up your washing load.)
But adventure into a shopping centre I did, in fact one that I have not been to previously. It was opposite the Beijing Zoo, and it was rather nice. Mainly because the sales people in there weren’t trying to shout and grab your attention. In fact they mainly ignored you unless you showed interest in their products. Fie! to you Silk Market. But anyway, nothing caught my fancy, so I left empty handed, although the girls picked up a few nice things.
We are travelling mainly by bus nowadays, which is an adventure each and everytime. You see a bus pull up and you think: “Ahhh damn! It’s full. I’ll wait for the next one.” And then you watch another 10 people get on the bus. You learn very quickly in Beijing that you CAN fit on that bus, no matter how impossible it may seem (except when the ticket lady tells you to stay off=p). You experience a range of sensations while on the bus, squeezed up against at least four other people. I seriously CAN wait till it’s winter and people are coughing and spitting constantly. Taxi please!!

Thank you for supporting our industry…

Leginag — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 03:22:41 +0000

The St Bernard is one of the largest dog breeds, originally bred for rescue work and as a working dog. It is an icon of the Swiss, and is reknown worldwide. Sounds all cute and fluffy right?

We went to dinner with a group of lawyers (lawyers? yes it’s a long story), and were in the middle of eating shabu-shabu, lovely thinly sliced meat etc. Imagine our horror when we were told that St Bernard used to be on the menu. Of the dog farms in China that ‘used’ (so i hope) breed St Bernards for consumption, because they are large and have lots of, well, meat on them. Like….sooooo not cool. This has apparently been stopped after the Swiss government complained. Apparently they didn’t appreciate one of their national icons being on the menu.

Which makes you think about Australia. We have seriously got to be one of the ONLY nations that actively eats its national icons. Put up your hand if you’ve eaten Kangaroo or Emu. Now look at the Australian Emblem. Ahuh. Now I’m glad to say that I haven’t eaten skippy, but seriously, makes you wonder. Another funny thing that I heard is that apparently we picked the emu and kangaroo, not only because they are of similar height and provide balance on the emblem, but because they can only go in one direction. hahaha, means we’re a stubborn lot.

Fun times