Life Lately #1

Hey guys and girls! Can you believe I'm actually posting something less than three months from the last one? I can't either. But it's nice to be back. I don't know how long this is gonna last but let us enjoy it while it's here. Begin, we shall.

So, here's the deal. I liked the way I do my last post. The one where I just talk about things that are completely unrelated to each other. Don't get me wrong, I still like talking on and on about one specific thing but sometimes I find it difficult to find something that's worth making a whole post about. So, I really like the format of separating different topics into parts. It erases the pressure of having to write one coherent post about a single thing while keeping it interesting (at least for me). So I'm turning it kind of a "Life Lately" series where I talk about little things happening in my life. I decided to do it after seeing a post in a blog called Little Town which is run by a lovely being called Raisa. You can click here to see her latest Life Lately post. I think it's such a good idea especially if I haven't post in a long time (cough). Ahem, let's move on to the actual post.

Accidental Beach Visit

I didn't plan on going out the last Monday but with the persuasion of a friend, I did. The actual purpose of this little trip is to check out the place where a friend of hers would be having his birthday party. She didn't really know the place, I have never been there either so why not take a detour. It takes quite a while to get there by train, about an hour from our campus because Melbourne railway system is ridiculous. Anyway, we get there and we didn't know where we were going so we just kind of walked while hoping for the best.

The venue is a little bit hidden so we were not quite sure if we're at the right place or just got completely lost, but a sign directing to the place suddenly appeared when we turned a corner. We finally found it and  OMG THERE'S A BEACH AND ITS BEAUTIFUL! We didn't expect it to be close to the beach at all. I mean, my friend knows that the area was a coast but she didn't know that the party place would be that close to the beach. It was so worth the long journey.

I was really grateful we went there because instead of having a lazy day and just sleep all day, I went to a really pretty place. Also, it was quite cold that day so there weren't that many people there and it was quite calming to just stroll on the sand. I was so lucky that I decided to wear sandals that day because I will still be covered in sand now if I wore a pair of sneakers. The sand feels kind of prickly under my feet, though, not gonna lie. But the beach was pretty and the sky was clear so I could ignore the sand. IT'S SO PRETTY!

Everything's Out

Heya! Riz is back again, bringing you the news of the life that I live. This news will come to you in four parts.

Part 1: I finished my semester

So, a few weeks ago, I finished my exams and assignments load for this semester and hoo boy, am I beyond relieved. I've only got one exam for this semester and thank all the meats for that. Though it's not for the subject I'm confident of, I'm quite sure that I'm not gonna fail this one. Done all the extra credits possible, let's just hope for the best. Went through a lot of "experiments" for them extra credits. Worth it though.

The picture above is basically my whole semester. Just staring at the screen and constant snacking. How lovely. I've been quite lazy throughout this whole semester. But I think I did fewer all-nighters compared to last semester. It could mean good or bad, I don't really know. I did start a lot of assignments the day before it's due, though. I plead guilty. However, there were less stress this time around, I think. Maybe it's because there were a lot more group works for some of the units that I took, so there's less workload that I have to do myself. I'm not quite sure. I survived, though. That counts for something, right? Hopefully it won't be too horrible when I got my grades back.

There are quite a few changes this semester compared to the last one. If any of you reading this follow me on twitter, you would know the struggles, ups and downs of me trying to get an assignment done. Last semester me was terrified of high word count. She wouldn't know what else to type and would stare blankly at her laggy laptop screen trying to figure out a way to make that sentence longer than it already was. Now, 3000 words wouldn't be even remotely enough for me to vomit everything out. Funny how I've progressed with my studies. I hope this is a good thing.

Morning Person

First of all, I'm not it.

Second of all, no one in my family is it either. So I guess it runs in the family? I mean my dad wakes up early every single day and I could tell that he hates it. So much that he feels the desire to ruin his children's day, wake them up at sunrise, to not let himself be the only one who has to suffer. To not let himself be the only one feeling miserable in the morning. Love you, dad!

Thirdly, Hey guys! How's it going? Me ? Oh, I'm good.. Thank you very much. *smiley face*

Anyway, yeah, I am definitely not a morning person. I am a certified nocturnal. While I was in my home country, enjoying my winter break, I never sleep until everyone else is up. When the entire house is getting ready to sleep, I am at my most awake state. It's kind of annoying because I've only slept like three hours before my dad would wake me up. This kept on going throughout the month that I'm home. And mind you, waking me up is one of the hardest tasks that anyone in my family has ever done in their lives (I am obviously exaggerating but you know what I mean). After a week of trying to get me to get up at appropriate hours failed miserably, they just give up. Not even gonna try anymore. Sick and tired of my shit, apparently. However, they keep on commenting how I am such a bad example for my siblings. Which in all honesty, doesn't really affect me in anyway. They are capable of making their own choices. I'm not going to go around telling them what they should and should not do.

But then, comes the time when I get to arrange my schedule for the next semester. I was on my bed, still. Just woke up and immediately opened my laptop because what else would I be doing. Checked my school portal thing where I can organize my timetable. Not one, but TWO subjects. Morning class. Can't change it. No other class available for it. THE HORROR. I didn't have to deal with this last semester. WHY NOW? All kinds of curse words were yelled out. In my head. Because everyone else is asleep at the time, obviously. I am not the kind of person who would wake up at the wee hours of the morning. Why would you do this to me, Satan? I then proceed to convince myself that maybe, there will be new classes uploaded after a few days. The timetable's only been up for a couple of hours. There will be more class. There must be. There. Must. Be. Two weeks later, still no class. I can only cry at my horrible fate of not one, but TWO 8.30 classes. Bye aimless internet surfing time. I'll see you when the semester ends.

Last week, seven days before my classes commence, I volunteer (as tribute) to help with new students orientation where I was required to be at the headquarters at 8 in the morning. Can I do it? Very questionable at the time, considering the sleeping habit that I had just a week before that. I did it, though. The latest I've been is 8.15. It's not that bad, is it? Tolerable, I guess? I was surprised, too. I have very low expectation in waking up quite early to get ready. But I did it. Along with the zombie-like greetings I gave everyone every morning. I did it. It's fine.

However, comes Saturday. Finished my volunteering duties on Thursday. Can finally sleep in. Saturday, though. Oh my, Saturday. I woke up at 6.30. In the morning. Can you believe that? I mean, my earliest alarm is at 7, the remains of my volunteering activities. My alarm hasn't even woken up yet. I was so confused. I thought it was 6.30 in the evening at first but I was like nah, there's no way it's 6.30 pm already. So okay, after a short while of "What? What happened? Okay?" moment, I went to the bathroom to take care of my business then went back to my room. Then I apparently started to do my laundry in my half asleep state. I didn't realize I did it until I had my breakfast. When realization hit me, I started screaming in my head. WHAT AM I DOING? Did I just do my laundry? Unconsciously? What the hell? I was doing my laundry at 7. In the morning. On a Saturday. No college student does their laundry at 7 in the morning. 7 in the morning is the time for sleeping. Sleeping is love, sleeping is life.

So weird. So very weird. Is this my body clock now? Am I going to wake up before 8 everyday now? Am I a morning person now? What is this? This is not me. I am not a morning person. I never was. Huh. Weird.

But honestly, I'm not really mad about it. I am actually pretty grateful that I can finish doing stuff earlier in the day. It has that sort of productive feeling to it. You all know I am a pro procrastinator. It just feels bizarre that *I* am the person getting stuff done in the morning. It's not what's usual for me. But at least I get to be more productive than I was when I wake up after noon. So that's good, I guess.

Finally, one question: How many times did I say morning in this post?

I'll see you guys next time. Bye!

Riz

On Being Organized

Hey guys!

It's been almost a month since I post anything on this blog. I've been kind of busy travelling from home to my grandparents' place and back to Australia. I've been on the plane so much last month my butt hurts. Since I'm back in Australia now, I've taken care of some school matters and done some volunteer work for my campus this week which have been so much fun but also quite exhausting. I have been very productive this past couple of weeks. Everything is under control and I can relax a bit this weekend. Now that I have free time in my hands (finally!) I'm going to talk to you guys about what being organized mean to me. (What a segway)

Being organized is something that I find difficult at times and it doesn't get any easier the longer I do it. I started to have a real planner or agenda or whatever you call it, in 2013. It was sometime between the last years of my high school and moving to Australia. I thought that since I'm going to live on my own now with no one telling me what I'm supposed to do, I have to be responsible for everything. I have to take care of school things, chores, social life, and work by myself. So, of course, I need to arrange everything in one place where I can see it. Because apparently, keeping a reminder in my head wasn't enough. Planner it is, then.

About the Reading Thing...

Hello again, people!

So, Riz, you might be asking, what happened to your book obsession? Why aren't you talking about it as much anymore? Well, in short, it has changed. I mean, it's not that I'm not reading anymore or I've stopped buying books altogether. It's nothing like that. I even got loads of books for my birthday a few months ago. It's just I don't see myself being as excited about books as I was a couple years back. Maybe I'm just in a huge reading slump. I don't really know. It's saddening, really. I hate feeling like this.

It probably started during my foundation studies period when I have anxiety attacks and depression episodes almost daily. I can't really be excited about things anymore and just become this lump of emotionally non-functioning human. I'm not ready to talk about this yet so I'll just leave it at that. Point is that it was the moment when my motivation for reading (or anything, really) kind of go down the hill. I mean, I still liked watching videos about books on youtube but I kind of drift away from reading book reviews. I don't even open my goodreads account anymore. If you see the widget in the right side of this blog, you'll notice that I've only read four books this year. That's kind of sad.

I'm actually in the middle of reading Champion by Marie Lu and it's a great book. I really like how it's going. The thing is, I've been in the middle of that book for months. And I hate that it's been months that I'm standing in the same spot. As I said, the plot is going really nicely. So, obviously, it's nothing to do with the quality of the book. That only leaves me with one reason. Me. Something is wrong with me.

As you probably know from my last post, I'm home now. I reason that I've not been reading here because there are a lot of manga and I can access the internet 24/7 without needing to go to the library like I do in Australia. But even in places that I have books laid in front of my eyes, I never choose to read them. Instead, I read short stories on the internet. I am so angry at myself when I figure that out. I try everything to go back to reading again. If you remember, I tried doing the week-long read-a-thon and it was a complete fail. I felt really saddened by that. I mean, I read two (three?) whole books but I just didn't feel the kick of wanting to read more books after that. I just read for the sake of the marathon and not because I really did want to read.

It's kind of depressing how it has changed for the worse. I remember being so excited to read a book after I bought it but it's not at all like that now. When I buy a book, it feels nice to hold it in my hand but as soon as I get home, I just put it in my bookcase and never touch it again for the next few months or even years. I hate it. I don't want to not be happy about books. It is what I feel like has shaped me as a person (other than the internet) today. I don't want to walk away from it but at the same time, I don't want to feel obligated to read because I'm guilty about it.

I don't know how to feel about this, I'm sorry for the complains I have put you guys through with these posts these days. I just need to get things out my chest before it kills me. And with all the stress of my exams a few weeks ago I kind of get mood swings so unreasonably. I don't know. I'm sorry. Bye.

Riz