Drawing on a Sunday night

I got an email from the construction law firm saying I didn't get the job. Strangely, I'm not upset.  I don't think I have the amount of experience required to be a good candidate. 

The woman I bought my constitutional law textbook made me realise I wasted my first year doing nothing when I should have jumped at any opportunity I found. This year, I will try to become more involved in social and extracurricular activities. Yeah, third month in and I finally come up with a new year's resolution that I bet will take me a week to give up on. Still I will hopefully follow through my resolution for as long as I can.

It has been a long time since I drew something. I packed my graphics tablet into my drawer of cables and wires because of my anguish that Paint SAI is not compatible with Mac computers. Anyway, I'm picking it up again as it's a good stress reliever and I've been practicing to do dynamic poses and perspectives. Not great but I think I have improved on perspectives thanks to the pre-52 DC comics I read.

I am so disappointed in the new 52, I just want to cry. Raven has been pushed into another teen team comic and Martian Manhunter is sitting down from the Justice League. Wally West and Cassandra Cain are two of my favourite characters and they don't even exist anymore. DC, as much as I am a fan of your publications and series, your decision of the new 52 was poorly thought out. I'm not saying it was a bad idea, I'm saying the decision should have been assessed and planned more carefully. 

On the upside (well, kind of), the Death of the Family storyline throughout the Batman and co titles is probably one of the most heart wrenching storylines I have read. Grant Morrison, you horrible man, you :( I need to keep reading but it's sad what's happening to the Batfamily, I think I'll just sob pathetically because I wouldn't be able to hold my emotions. The moment between Damien and Dick - 

Damien: So far I'd say you've been my favorite partner. We were the best, Richard. No matter what people thinks

Dick: Hey, We can't help being great.

Their new twist in the Batman and Robin dynamic is reminiscent in their exchange and that's probably why I loved that page the most. Dick and Damien's Batman and Robin was what made me chain myself to DC to start with and it was the first title that made me more interested in the DC universe prior to the new 52. 

That and Dick's famously incredible arse. 

Gap's "Love comes in every shade" Campaign

...is absolutely adorable.

I'm not a fashionista and Gap's a bit on the expensive end so I have no idea about Gap's style or trends.

I was on my way to Milson's Point to meet someone selling their textbooks and while I was waiting for the train at Wynyard, I saw this station advertisement featuring Rufus Wainwright and Jörn Weisbrodt.

You can't read it but on the bottom left, it read: "Married Love". The first thought in my head was "Awwww". The expression on their faces, the relaxed hand on shoulder and everything else about this advertisement made me melt.

When I went home, I Googled around and found this ad's part of Gap's 2012 "Love comes in every shade" Campaign which celebrates all kinds of love, from In love to Puppy love. I found some photoshoots for the campaign and I don't think my heart can take how sweet all of them are:

Married Love: Rufus Wainwright and Jorn Weisbrodt

Fatherly Love: Nas and father Olu Dara

True Love: Michael J Fox and Tracy Pollan

Puppy Love: Jack Huston and Orso

Best Friend Love: Gia Coppola and Nathalie Love

In Love: Diana Garcia and Greg Rogove

Sibling Love: The Atomics

What I love most about these photos is the expressions on everyone's faces. They all display their respective form of love and just looking at these makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. 

I would also like to take my hat off to the photographer and Gap for the amazing use of colours and adopting a green background to emphasise the clothes. Gah, these are too adorable.

My favourite is a toss up between Wainwright and Weisbrodt's Married love and Nas and Olu Dara's Fatherly love. I find Coppola and Love's best friend love playful and captures friendship beautifully

On a different note, I got my constitutional law textbooks today! 

Yep, got them second hand. Even though there's a 9th ed of Hanks' Aus Const Law, the lecturer assured that the 8th ed is fine as well so I decided to get the 8th ed because it was cheaper. I got the book and The Constitution for $50 which is a pretty good deal.

Right, now I just need my International studies textbook and my Chinese textbook and workbook. I ordered my Introduction to International and Global Studies book from BookDepository for $39.00AUD compared to Coop's inviting $57.00. I'll probably get my Chinese materials from Coop tomorrow though because I am really confused with what editions I should be getting.

First day of a new semester!

I started my Chinese 1 at 9am this morning. The tutor went through the subject outline and did a short introduction of the Chinese pinying. It was interesting to be in a class where everyone are doing different courses. I was also surprised there was a fair few who, like me, came from a Chinese background but don't know any Mandarin so yay, my people unite!

I borrowed a copy of Hanks' Australian Constitutional Law 8th Ed to my readings during my break and during the time that fat textbook was in my bag, it crushed my netbook. I knew there was something fishy about my netbook because this is what it looks like now.

Netbook sitting on the object that killed its screen

It's still alright though, I just have a smaller screen to look at, no biggie! Jokes, I can't see a thing :( 

Had my first Australian Constitutional Law (from now on, ACL) lecture. The subject coordinator/lecturer was a pretty chill guy and took us through the subject outline and clarified the confusion between the 8th or 9th ed that we should be getting. He said it's fine if we use the 8th ed so that's good. 

The online participation, that's worth 20%, does come across a bit different and weird as he explained we have to be involved in the discussion boards on the UTS Online then print our ten best posts for an assessment. It's been on the subject outline for ACL for a few years though so I don't think there had been many complaints about this part of the subject.

I'm reading the first chapter of the Hanks' textbook and, I don't know if my brain is still in a holiday mood but, I don't understand a word of it. That's all I can say since I've been reading the same paragraph about unconstitutionality four times over and over again.

Lugia, are those arms or wings...? You're still cooler looking than Ho-oh anyway. Ho-oh, how do you pronounce your damn name?!

OOH ALSO I GOT MY DS CHARGER YAAAAAAY

(Thanks to the private seller at Wiley Park. I got lost on the way back from that place, I got stuck at Villawood station for half an hour then at Cabramatta for another half an hour...)

I wanted to restart my Pokemon Soul Silver so I had to delete my old save.

Before I erased my old save, I had one last look at all my pokemon. I named all of them based on the Final Fantasy/Kingdom Hearts franchise hahahahaha. My Typhlosion was named Squall and my Ampharos was called Yuffie. The only one who wasn't named after a game produced by Square Enix was my Slowking who I named ShimuKen after the famous slapstick Japanese comedian Shimura Ken. 

I didn't go far with my new Soul Silver game because all of a sudden, I got sucked into the Ace Attorney and Zelda series. 

I already finished Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney but while I do have Justice for All (2nd game), I decided to start on Trials and Tribulations (3rd game). The storyline isn't messed up and I still know what is happening in the recap and flashback moments so it doesn't matter, does it?

(I squealed at the Waiting for Godot reference in the dialogue about Godot: 'some people spend their entire lives waiting for his appearance' haha. Love Godot by the way, awesome character).

I admit, I have never played a Zelda game for longer than three hours. I have started Phantom Hourglass and I am hoping I can finally see the appeal of this highly appraised franchise.

Clubs Day at Uni wooo

This morning, I got a call from a construction law firm for an interview. We arranged to have it at 5:30pm in the city. The lawyer on the phone had a strange request though, she asked me to bring in something that represents my hobbies or what I am passionate about. It intrigued me because in the past when I was asked questions about my hobbies, I had to list my interests as if it was on my groceries list for the weekend. By asking a visual representation of what kind of person I am, it definitely gives the impression that the employer doesn't just want to know about my qualifications and extra curricular activities, he or she wants to know me, Lily.

So I gave it some thought and decided on bringing my three sketchbooks. I would have also brought my ukulele but I decided not to because I don't have a case for the uke yet and I don't want my baby damaged when in contact with the air outside haha. 

I realised that UTS Clubs Day was on and thought 'Well my interview is at 5:30, I guess I have time to visit UTS'.

I picked up my ultrasound images as well before I left for the train.

At UTS, I joined the Drawing Circle, UTS Nerd Fighters and Student Outreach to the World (SOW). I am also thinking of joining the Catholic Asian Students' Society (CASS). CASS and SOW are religious societies. It's ironic that although I am an Atheist, I was more attracted to those two societies than the Atheist society. My mum joked that I was a wolf disguised in sheepskin but I do respect all religions. I think being in those two societies will help me understand Catholicism and Christianity from another perspective. Drawing Circle and Nerd Fighters are clubs that appeal to my interests. Nerd Fighters had a raffle and their third prize was a Tardis keychain. Ugh I wish I had won that raffle but oh well, no harm done.

I wish I had joined the UN society. 

My 5:30pm interview was pretty casual and not at all what I had expected. The lawyer who interviewed me seemed a bit worn out while she was explaining to me what the job entails. I talked about my studies and presented my sketchbooks. I was overjoyed when she liked my sketches. Of course, I wasn't applying for a graphics designer job but I was still pleased she took an interest in my hobbies.

My Fare Lady

I am appalled with Sydney's public transport.

My bus was delayed by fifteen minutes. Sure, that made me grumpy but what really made enraged was the quality of the bus vehicle. It could not accelerate. As we all know, Australia is no Italy or Japan and our land is not consistently flat. So, I find it ridiculous that this bus was unable to accelerate up a slope. When it stopped in the middle of driving uphill, it was moving backwards. I'm sure that's not the driver's choice or incompetence as I could hear the engine running at full throttle, trying to accelerate. The bus after mine was scheduled to arrive ~10min later but the later bus actually overtook the bus I was on and arrived at my destination earlier. How is this bus that I was on, given approval to be used to carry the public?

It got me thinking about the recent fare increase in the public transport and the release of Sydney's roads and transport long master plan last year.

A 2012 PWC report says Sydney is the fourth worst major city in relation to transport and infrastructure. For public transport, Sydney's train ticket fares are one of the highest.

Last year, the NSW government announced the transport fares will rise. It was inevitable, it happens every year and to every state so I cannot complain. They had risen to the following accordingly:

• Individual bus fares by ten cents
• Travel tens by 80 cents
• Single train tickets by 20 cents
• Weekly train tickets by $1

In 2011, there was a media release that Cityrail was making a large loss because of the amount of people committing ticket evasion. If this is still the current situation with Cityrail, that will probably suggest the delayed changes and awful quality. However, raising the ticket fares will only encourage more commuters to evade paying for their tickets won't it? 

On the bright side, the government delayed a further increase as suggested by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART). Transport minister Gladys Berejiklian said the newly adjusted fares are to correspond with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) (source) -

The government has always been clear that public transport fares will only increase in line with CPI until there are demonstrable improvements in customer service, and this decision reflects that commitment 

There are only two ways I can interpret this:

1. The profit the government will gain from the fare raise will support the improvement of our transport system in the distant future, or
2. The government is penalising us under the guise of being the good guys.

As cynical as I can be, I'm guessing it is the former. However, if Cityrail's mission is to develop our public transport system and enhance passengers' experience, why has nothing been done yet?

There will need to be some profit to fund for the 20 year long master plan for Sydney's infrastructure and transport, I imagine. The December release of the O'Farrell's government's master plan thas been met with many criticisms and disappointments and I can see why. The master plan carries out schemes that will be executed in the next 20 years and address problems that have been addressed plenty of times in the past. One, for example, is upgrading Princes Highway to lower traffic congestion. Upgrading a major road is fine with me, I see no harm in funding towards that. However, the plan also releases the proposal for a light metro link in CBD and central Sydney. I am puzzled with that piece of news. While I do see we need to reconstruct the transport and road links in the CBD, I do not see how investing so much money to create metro links, when we have a train line that is based around city (City Circle), an existing tram link, and several bus services does the same job but only needs to be improved.

The plan seems to concentrate the Northern and central area of Sydney (second harbour, light rail, connecting bus services, single deck trains etc) which has been pointed out by Ryan Park, Keira MP ("You'd want to see a hell of a lot more than what's in there [sic] because [the] plan virtually says zero about the Illawarra, it says zero about regional New South Wales") and chairman of NSW infrastructure, Nick Greiner ("One of the weaknesses is there are not a lot of good ideas about western Sydney", "The real question if you look out 10 to 20 years are north-south links. Western Sydney is sort of the problem, it is where the population growth is.") However, there has been an announcement that a release of plans for Illawarra will be due this year and acknowledgement for more improvements for Western Sydney, as well as profuse promises for an express train between Parramatta and the city CBD to reduce peak-hour congestion, has been mentioned more than a few times. I just hope that these promises will be met in due time (bloody hell, you guys need 20 years to do this? See if I'll wait that long, assholes). Now, that's my brief summary about the plan, let's see what signs has there been recently that suggests a step promoting those promises:

On the 18th January 2013, Sydney and the rest of Australia was hit with a 45 degree heatwave. Australia has been known for it's dry and hot weather so I thought Cityrail would have been prepared for such intense weather. As usual, we are left disappointed in our NSW train services. Reports flooded in from social media and news correspondences that almost all the trains were delayed in peak-hour and some of the trains were not air conditioned. I am a regular commuter and I was disgusted in the poor condition of the train services that evening. Crowds of commuters were left stuck at several stations waiting for bus services.

A Daily Telegraph article reported that many of the older train carriages had faulty emergency alarms. They discovered that emergency alarms on trains are checked less than three times a year. The same news article said that the government's release of the Waratah train models will reduce the amount of faulty alarms despite the 189 reported incidents on trains in the first three months of 2012, 23 of which were sexual assaults and 64 assaults. The discovery of these alarms were blamed on the previous Labor government. That is true but that is no excuse to making our lives safer, isn't it? A 2011 report by the NSW Bureau of Crime and Statistics highlights that over the last ten years until 2011, the recorded number of non-DV assault and other sexual offences has risen by 1.6% and 7.6% every year respectively. While the Waratah trains will eventually replace the older trains and therefore, be equipped with working alarms, this resolution did not clarify whether the alarms will be checked regularly. Furthermore, if the integration of the Millenium trains were anything to go by, the Waratah trains will only replace a limited number of existing older trains. In 2002, the delivery of 80 Millenium trains were used to replace 56 'Tulloch' carriages which were used back in the mid-1960s (source). I believe that the government's word that they will replace the oldest of trains with the new Waratah models are true however, I do not trust that they will check the emergency alarms regularly or replace many of the train carriages with fake alarms.

Today, a fire alarm had caused the Bankstown, Inner West, Airport & East Hills, South, North Shore, Western, Northern, Blue Mountains and Newcastle & Central Coast lines to all be delayed by twenty minutes. You know what, I don't need to say any more than "Fucking typical".

SMH Online Poll Oct 2012

There has been no suggestion that RailCorp is going to improve the train or bus system so far. We have been given countless empty promises and now with the release of a plan and the increase of fares, there does seem to be signs that there might be improvements in the future. Personally, I think RailCorp and the government need to get their crap together.

Say goodbye to Splash!

My Gyarados finally replaced Splash with Twister at level 36 haha yes! Although Twister is a pretty crap move, nothing can be more useless than Splash. Aside from Helping Hand.

Textbooks/Volunteering/My trusty Nintendo DS

Textbook Dilemma
Yes!! Finally! I have found buyers for my last semester's textbooks!

See, I have been trying to find people who are interested in buying my last semester's textbooks. As we all know, buying/selling textbooks are one of the most stressful things during uni. Mostly because textbooks cost over $100 and new editions come out every year.

But I am still having trouble finding my own textbooks. I haven't been looking to buy my international studies textbooks because the Co-op Bookshop doesn't specify the books and the handbook seems to be a tad outdated.

According to Co-op for Australian Constitutional Law though, I am required to buy Hanks' Australian Constitutional Law, 9th ed. Strangely though, the new edition was published in December last year but there is no second hand version of that edition because the students who had studied that subject, finished their exams in November and did not need the 9th ed.

Everyone is selling the 8th edition for a reasonable price but I'm not sure if it's worth getting the older edition as it is three years older than the 9th ed so the content can differ greatly in those three years.

A new 9th ed is sold for ~$160 at Co-op. It's ridiculous how pricey these textbooks are.

Of course, I can always wait until my first class and the lecturer will tell us what materials to get but the last time I did that, I had to wait for a month for the subject's textbook because the publishers ran out of stock from the amount of people racing to get their hands on a copy.

So while I'm happy I found people who want my textbooks, I'm in a bit of dilemma with my own textbooks for the coming semester.

Volunteer work
I've been thinking of doing some volunteering. I have done some volunteer work here and there so I believe volunteering will be a great opportunity for me to help people out in society and learn more about social justice. I have some free time that I'm willing to spend but I am more suitable to volunteer than work at the moment because having a second job will just add more pressure and stress onto me. I'm quite fond of Vinnies because I can relate to their mission to promote equality and compassion in society and I love their stores that help raise money for the poor and disadvantaged. I'll check them out first but I'll be on the look out for more volunteering opportunities.

First World Problems
I fixed my r4 for my DS (thanks to the paper trick)!! I can now resume playing my Soul Silver but unfortunately, I lost my charger for the damn console, ugh :( I've been looking for a NDS charger. I noticed that original DS consoles, like mine, have a different charger to the later DS versions (probably because the original DS's can play Gameboy Advance cartridges.

The GBA-SP/NDS AC chargers are harder to look for because they are old and no longer sold in many places. There are a few Hong Kong powersellers selling them for $4.50 but I'm a bit skeptical about eBay and Hong Kong/China powersellers. Luckily, there's a seller on Gumtree who has offered to sell me a charger for $10. It's more expensive than eBay but at least I know it's legitimate so woohoo!

Last night I found out I have had my DS for almost eight years. Aside from the lost charger, it's still in good condition. So proud :')

Surfer's Privacy-dise on Blogging and Pokemon update

One of my friends sent me a screenshot of her facebook wall where one of her facebook friends is pissed and alleges there are obsessed fans who follow her blog that are harassing her in real life and forcing her to delete her blog.

Hm.

Ok.

I'm not a professional blogger, hell, this is only my 3rd day in keeping a blog so I don't really have much of a say in the girl's situation but I do know something about privacy.

Firstly, I believe that the moment you sign up to anything on the internet, you are agreeing to offer a part of yourself to the world wide web. It doesn't even have to be your identity, it can just be your IP address, a picture your possessed or even a piece of writing you uploaded. Anyone can access it and use it for their personal gain. Even a number of employers use social networking sites to know more about their employees or applicants (The Age, Debra Erdley from TribLive  and Brad Cooper from Phys.org).

Blogging can leave you vulnerable to anyone from the internet. Whatever you post or talk about, people will collect and store for their personal use. It is up to you how much you're willing to expose yourself. By creating this blog, I am allowing anyone read my thoughts and opinions and slander me for it but I am willing to take the hit. For you, my friend's Facebook friend, it was you who created the blog and granted free access for everyone to know you.

That is why we now have privacy settings. We change our privacy settings and voluntarily choose the extent people can access our information. Don't want people to check out your profiles? Turn up your privacy on high. Sure, people will still find ways to access your information but at least you did what you had to do to protect yourself.

By the looks of your Facebook profile, you look my age (well done with the privacy settings by the way). Woman, you are not a teenager. If you were underaged, I can see how your lack of knowledge and experience led you to this unfortunate event but you're not.  You have enough life experience to understand the risks and consequences of your actions. I am sorry that you were a victim and felt the need to delete your blog but I hope you can walk away and learn from what had happened.

Ultimately, I have no right to say about the girl because I don't know her directly nor should I be telling off victims of the internet but there will always be creeps and nasty people on the internet. You can never get rid of those type of people so you, as an individual, have the choice to avoid them or face them.


Pokemon? 
So my Magikarp-turned-Gyarados is now a level 30 and for some reason, it still has 'Splash' as his first move.

This is extremely frustrating because when I want to hurry battles up, I tend to spam with my A button. At those moments, I don't pay attention to the screen so all my Gyarados is doing is flailing around and dying.

Oh wait.

'Flail' is actually a different move. Ok.

So my Gyarados just flops around and dies.

I'm thinking of teaching him a TM move...

Digital pass subscriptions and computer software updates

I'm thinking of purchasing a subscription to The Australian as they are currently running a discount promotion for their digital pass.

I wish I could subscribe to newspapers and have them delivered at my door but my neighbours are pretty nasty people so Mum's a bit concerned that the neighbours will see my newspaper, have the impulsive desire to understand the world that doesn't revolve around them and steal the newspaper. So I'm thinking of the digital pass. Since The Australian website itself provides free access to their articles, I'm still undecided. I'll probably look into it later.

Ugh I hate it when computers ask you to restart to install an update. And when you don't, they will pop up, saying "Oh you wanna do later? How later? In ten minutes? Ten hours? Ten -"
"Ten ho-"
"WHAT, DID YOU SAY NOW? OK I'LL RESTART NOW"
"No. Nononono I meant ten hou-"
"SHUTTING DOWN EVARAYTHANG"
"TEN HOURS. I chose ten hours!!"
"SAY GOODBYE TO YOUR 99% OF YOUR 300 HOURS LONG DOWNLOAD"
"...I hate you."
"Don't worry, there are only 17 updates to install. Don't plug me out or shut me down, 'kay? ♥"

Half a decade later,
"13 of 17 updates installed succesfully."

When they have all been installed, I get the impression that my computer has all new and updated gadgets and functions. I expect my one of my 17 updates to be giving my computer the ability to fold into a transformer. But no. They're all just miniscule "security" updates. Sorry, 'miniscule' isn't the right term for an update that takes longer than hour to install. But the description does apply to its effect on PCs as a whole (Oh I can see the IT peeps sharpening their cleavers and wrapping their fists in ethernet cables..). I think the more appropriate word is 'pesky'.

If they were the wrong keys, what were the keys on the keychain for anyway?

Today was my last day of my internship at Providence Legal.

Oh god today was a disaster.

I planned on driving to the office early so I can pick up some flowers as a small thank you gift to the people at the firm in the morning. What really happened was this:

8:20 - Left home with the car

8:23 - Realised I left my hairband (which I use for the gym) so I went back to get a hairband and drove out again

8:35 - Found parking (woohoo!)

8:45 - Arrived at the florist's

8:50 - Found the two bouquets I want to buy before realising I left my wallet at home.


CUE THREE MINUTE FREAK OUT

Because finding a good carpark in the morning is like a lottery win, I strategised that I will drive home  during my lunch break to get my wallet.

Upon arriving at the office, the solicitors informed me the receptionist called in sick so I had to replace him. That involves picking up the mail and DX. They gave me the keys and out I walked.

They were the wrong keys. The wrong keys.

So there's me, shoving every key I had in the DX door's lock, with the belief that one of the keys will take pity on me and morph itself into the DX key until luckily, a lady happened to be collecting her DX as well and opened the door for both of us.

But, damn it, I didn't have the key for the DX box. Ugh. The lady saw me struggling. "Have you tried putting your hands in the slot?" she suggested. She was kind enough to help me tip the DX box and take out the rest of the mail through her nimble fingers. I thanked her profusely, clutching my mail like it was my long lost child.

After assessing those two accounts with the wrong keys, I figured the key for the PO box was also not in my hand. Luckily, I had the post office card so I collected the mail from the counter.

Now let's fast forward to 12pm where I had my break. I sprinted to the car and drove home. When I entered the house, my grandparents were getting ready to leave for the train station. As the generous kind loving grand-daughter I am, I offered drive them there.

When I drove back around the office to park my car, there was no parking. Except for a space between two cars that looks like it can fit my car. Problem is, I am crap at reverse parallel between two cars. But I was desperate. So I figured "What the hell, I'll give it a go".

There was a man smoking outside and saw me try to reverse closer to the curb. I think he saw the sweat from my forehead running down my frustrated face. He gestured me to roll down my windows. From outside, he instructed me how to park closer to the curb. After I was done, I just wanted to hug the crap out of that guy.

So I got the flowers and boy, I was exhausted. But it brought a smile on my face when the director read my card and when the others saw the flowers.

But what made me emotional was when they presented me with a cake and card.

I was tearing up. Even though I only knew them for two months, they treated me like I was a part of their family. They taught me so much. Even though I was clueless and made several stupid mistakes, they were always patient with me and simply told me to amend my mistakes. They taught me how interesting conveyancing can be, they taught me how to correspond with clients and other solicitors and they taught me valuable lessons in life from their experiences. I wish I could have stayed longer with them but with uni creeping around the corner, I knew I had to prepare for the semester soon. But I promised them I'll definitely be back if they're happy to have me in the future.

So at the end of the day, everything went well. I will miss Providence Legal. It was my first internship so the experience I had there and the people I met and got to know, will always have a special place in my heart.

If they ever see this: I won't reveal your names but thank you guys again for the wonderful experience :)

Oh and I left my earphones at your office. TD can take it. I have a few spares lying around the house I think.

Flushing toilet.

Also, while I was at the gym today, the toilet I used wouldn't stop flushing after I pressed the flush button. When I returned to change out of my sports gear (consisting of a navy blue singlet top with fraying straps and $10 strawberry red shorts. I'm fashionable, guys, really), I could still hear the toilet flushing. Not that it's my problem but still. I felt like I was responsible for that toilet. Like I was a mother with a new born baby who wouldn't stop crying until I attend its needs.

I expect nightmares tonight about forever flushing toilets.

That's great, Lily, but have you played Pokemon today?
I had so much going on , I didn't play my GBA today.

The Headnote

A few days ago, I was browsing and prowling around the deep depths of the internet and discovered a number of blogs that focus on law and students who study law. I am inspired by the stories and interesting opinions to start a blog about my own experiences and face flushing moments during my studies in university.

I guess I should first introduce myself. My name is Lily. This year, I will be a second year student at UTS studying Law (LLB) and International Studies (Chinese). I currently work at a coaching college, helping primary school kids with their homework.

Although I have finished one year of uni, I still feel uni is a bit alien to me. So I want to share my moments of social awkwardness, freak outs and hair tugging stress to show others in my position that they are not alone behind the mountain of readings.

Why the strange name though? Why 'Magikarpoena'?

Recently, I was reunited with the Pokemon series and started playing the series again. On the Gameboy Advance anyway. My old DS is broken which breaks my heart (gold. Get it, get it??).

While testing my Old Rod, I encountered a Magikarp, a common occurrence. Now I know I’m not alone on this when I say training a Magikarp is excruciating. Sure, it can evolve into one of the most useful Pokemon to have on your team when it hits level 20 but let’s face it until then; Magikarps and their splashes are as annoying Cityrail’s incompetence and inability to provide air conditioned carriages in a 46 degree heatwave.

© Nintendo 

While leveling my Magikarp, I slowly came to the realisation that at this stage in my life, I am a Magikarp. While I am weak and useless at the moment, I have potential. On the other hand, I am also among many other Magikarps who, like me, are caught in the tangles of law school. 

The last half of Magikarpoena, "poena", is based on subpoena.

Subpoena is a writ, a written command, given to a person to attend court and present evidence. That's all we need to know haha

So that's the background done. I think I deserve a pat on the back. 

Now my only concern with this blog is whether I will stay active. I'm sure once uni starts again, I'll have plenty more to post about so I guess for now, I'll take it easy. I haven't even bought my textbooks yet!