Canada blog now up.

Our Canadian blog is now up and running, so go check it out at:

http://Canadablog0708.blogspot.com

We'll try to keep you guys posted about our great Canadian experience.

You've changed.

A few days ago Josh mentioned a little anecdote that late Mr. Atkinson shared with us back in middle school. I couldn’t recollect it from my ever-so shrinking memory at first but now I seem to have gathered the faintest memory of it.

This anecdote is actually less of a story than it is a realisation. Mr. Atkinson had run into a student years after he had taught him (I’m guessing at like a reunion or something) and he remembered this particular student quite well, as he was apparently a bit of loose cannon who drove his teachers insane. After a brief chat, Mr. Atkinson realised that the only difference he could see in this boy was that despite being exactly the same person he used to be at school, he was now able to hide his faults.

So what the hell does this story have to do with anything? Well, with some 21sts I’ve been to so far this year resembling a high school reunion more than anything, you run into people who you haven’t seen for a couple of years. And it seems as though some people haven’t really changed much or at all, while some have actually become quite different from the way I remember them.

So I do what I do on days after a heavy night’s drinking, and ponder about this in that half-sick, half-dazed kind of state, coming up with bullshit ideas which I think are great at the time. Can people change? I mean, are we actually capable of changing?

Maybe, I really don’t know. But I did arrive to the conclusion that it’s irrelevant, to everyone but yourself. I mean whether you’ve actually changed or not, how people think of you depend on their perception of you anyway.

Here’s a diagram of the idea that I have in my mind;

If you were originally perceived being lazy, you can change your behaviour around other people so that eventually make people notice and believe that you’re a hard worker. Vice versa, your behaviour may change over time to go from a positive to negative, like from generous to selfish. And obviously if your behaviour doesn’t change much, people won’t think of you any differently. X/X’ and Y/Y’ being opposite characteristics of a personality.

I guess what really matters in the end is not only being able to recognize the faults (and the goodness!) in your own personality, but how you’re being perceived by others as well. If you’re unhappy with what people think about you, the onus is on you change that. Two ways of doing this – either you can actually change and hope for your behaviour to follow, or you can manipulate people into thinking you have qualities that you actually don’t. As for me, I’m pretty perfect so I don’t have to worry about it.

Testing out the new camera.

Sam, in a moment of generosity, decided to buy me a camera for the upcoming Canada trip. It feels kind of too early to be buying anything for the trip which is still a few months away, but I guess Sam thought it'd be good for me to have some time to get used to the new toy, so I can take good photos as soon as I'm there.

Here's one of the first shots using the new camera;

A photo of Sam taking a photo of me.

Cheers bro.

Some recent inventions Michael will be happy about.

Rejoice Golden, some of your frat bro-theren over at US have come through with the goods!

For eXtreme protection from the sun.

'cause more is better.

*Images courtesy of http://collegehumor.com/

**I was originally going to put this on moob but my image uploader was being poo.

Photos From Rye.

For me it's always better late than never, because I'm usually late. So here is the belated Rye 2007 blog, done on the last day of the holidays.

From 28/06 to 03/07, eighteen people travelled to Rye to live in a house together for the weekend. Kind of like Big brother, except everyone knew each other before entering the house, there were no cameras, and no one got evicted during the trip. So really nothing like BB. Anyway we had fun and here are a few (and by that I mean many) photos and videos from the trip.

Outside of the house -

Bloody spa that never worked.

The Tennis Court.

Some of the alcohol that people brought were used to build this Beeramid.

Someone made a funny at just the right moment and I was able to capture everyone laughing genuinely. I know, it's awful.

Josh chilling out in the hammock, strumming away.

I've forgotten the name we gave to this over-friendly dog but I do remember it loving fetch. I loved the fact that of all the things it could have brought from the forest, it chose to bring a boob with rather erect nipples. Fair enough though, being winter and all.

Ben looking ever-so appropriate with a mullet.

Every night the girls would put on their doof doof/90's music on full volume and dance away the night;

Flo with her dancing moves. They don't call her ballerina flo for nothing

Rachel and Flo would do some insane things from time to time, like snorting tang. Apparently sniffing tang isn't as good as mixing it with water and drinking it, like any other normal person would.

Don't let Kas' good looks distract you from the main focus of this photo. Towards the right of this photograph, you will see a man who is enjoying his massage wayyyyy too much.

What's the bet that Tiff was making the same face as Golden?

Well at least Heathy did.

Speaking of Golden, here's him attempting to swallow a glowstick upon command-

Ben had the time of his life when he managed to feel up Michael's tongue -

Drunken Sing-a-longs are always welcome at these kind of things and we managed to get Under the Bridge and Wonderwall done (and even on video!) before the G-string broke and the cops came. The neighbour's house was much closer than I had expected when I went outside the next day. No videos for the sing-a-longs due to their excessive sizes.

Campbell loved to go to the beach every night that did not rain. And even on some rainy ones.

Kyle, Golden and I stayed up till the wee hours in the morning drinking and chatting. Michael is looking a little tired in this photo.

Lauren wasn't in too many photos. So I'm going to flop this one on.

Josh, with his tendancy to make up things to do when there is nothing to do, came up with a game where the aim was to roll 5 dice all the same number.

Here's Josh trying very ever-so hard;

I got to roll the lucky fiver, much to Josh's anguish.

Me looking adorable. Ahem.

Fluro-night was probably the biggest Rye night. Everyone got fairly buzzed and Kyle's idea to bring 100 glowsticks turned out to be one of the greatest ideas of his life.

A tray full of jelly shots guarantees a good time.

Anna singing an Alanis Morisette song and Cam and I standing in awe.

Kas looked so appropriate in his fluro gear. I think it's the contrast that brought it about.

Alexia and Jen in Fluro.

Rachel and Flo in Flo-ro.

The three wise men in fluro.

Josh and Anna in fluro.

Sal in fluro.

Andrew and Kyle the bogan.

The dancefloor went nuts. So did Jen.

More dancing.

I turned French for the night and was held at knife-point buy a Fluro-pirate.

Some cool glowstick photos.

It was also on this night that 3-men couch-dancing was invented. The technique of couch-dancing is to convulse spastically until you run out of breath.

Some of us went half-naked this night, a few of us also got a few seconds of full-nakedness, thanks to Cam.

Stop showing off, your hairiness gives you unwarranted muscle definition.

Heathy needs tighter pants.

Michael with his magnificent areolas.

Ben also took his gear off for a while.

I was caught trying to put on my jumper backwards.

The night took a toll on Josh and he had to take a rest under the pool table.

Ryden and Blake came down for a brief visit the evening after, ensuing another night of drinking and games.

Check out the tongue action.

Beer Pong is always a good game to get things rolling.

Apparently cigarette in the nose doesn't really do it for Anna.

Boatracing. I am yet to participate in one of these.

The expression on Ryden's face is hilarious. This was during triple-sec jump I believe.

Not the proudest moment in Kyle's life...

Neither is this, funnily enough.

Blake making a good use of the spa.

Kyle and Cam half-jokingly playing chicken. I say half-jokingly because I know they really just wanted to make out, but the crowd was apparently too much for them.

Not the most efficient way to drink, but nevertheless fun.

I love how macho Cam looks in the photo. Out there in the cold, with nothing but a T-shirt and a bottle of scummy wine in his hand.

Josh and Flo fisting their own cavaties.

Just a little bit partied out, you two.

After a massive packing and cleaning up, we hung around the driveway until everything was organized and everyone was ready to leave.

Kyle going for a hard shot.

Man Getting Hit By Football-

On our way back we made a brief stop at Maccas for some lunch.

You know the thing where you blow air into the straw, roll it up at both ends and get someone to flick it and it makes that pop noise? This time did it not only make a popping noise but it also exploded into pieces. The flicking power should not be underestimated my good friends.

So that was that. A good weekend, lots of drinking, lots of eating and lots of mucking around doing nothing. I expected everyone to get sick of each other really quickly but it turned out to be otherwise. Kudos to the 17 (+2) of you for making the weekend so very much enjoyable.

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As a side note, I'm going to stop doing this kind of blog indefinitely. Picking out 60 photos from 1300 (5%) took a fair effort, and it's becoming rather time consuming. Expect blogs with actual content from now on.