This past week I have been checking Google Analytics multiple times a day hoping for it to deliver me the great news I have been waiting for…and this morning it finally came: Maikeru.cc has cracked 10,000 UNIQUE VISITORS! Now I know Facebook, Google, YouTube etc. probably get over 10,000 unique visitors per second, but I was already ecstatic when Maikeru.cc reached a thousand visitors last year, and again when it reached five thousand, and then again when it reached eight thousand more recently. When I first started the site about two years ago, I was definitely hoping that my resources would help people, but I never really thought about it in terms of numbers. Recently I received e-mails from visitors who told me that my resources had indeed helped them with their studies, so just getting this ‘confirmation’ that my work is having some degree of positive impact on people somewhere made me feel happy and excited to create and publish more content. I was surprised to discover last week that Maikeru.cc was so close to reaching what I now consider a significant milestone in its journey towards providing a wealth of useful resources to all internet users free of charge. As each night went by, the statistics inched closer and closer to 10,000…last night it had reached 9978 before I went to bed, so I was fairly certain it would tick over by the morning…and thankfully it did, to 10,001, actually!   

So how do the rest of the site’s statistics currently stand? At the milestone of 10,000 unique visitors (well, +1), there has been 12,234 visits to the site, with a total of 16,547 page views. Users have accessed Maikeru.cc from 124 different countries, with 75% of them discovering the site by searching using Google. For the search term ‘maikeru’, Maikeru.cc and this blog currently take 4th and 5th position, with the great search rankings for my analysis of The Collector by John Fowles allowing such page to continue its lead as one of the most viewed by users. Almost 20% of users are returning to the site after some period of time, and statistics are showing that the amount of visitors per year are increasing, so I may be witnessing the figure ticking over to 20,000 sooner than I would have initially thought!

Statistics aside, I would just like to say a huge THANK YOU for helping Maikeru.cc reach this milestone! It is a great feeling to know that what I have spent a great deal of time working on is indeed helping people around the world with their research/studies, free of charge. As I stated in my previous post: the web offers a platform upon which anyone can create, consume and discuss, and I am happy that by creating Maikeru.cc, I have contributed to this open platform, even if it is only in the slightest way. Thank you again, and I look forward to updating and publishing new content to Maikeru.cc soon!

- Michael/マイケル

MaikeruInJapan.cc

Michael. Student at the University of Western Australia 2010. Exchange student to Japan in 2011? Here I will blog about the ups and downs of the application process, providing some helpful tips along the way, and if I am successful, I will blog about my daily life as a student abroad. Will I enjoy it? Will I ever learn how to eat with chopsticks? Only time will tell. Feel free to join me on this journey.

This is just a quick update to let everyone know about a new project I have been working on! It really only came together and was launched last week (during my end of semester exams…), and if it wasn’t for my work on Maikeru.cc, I would never have been able to put it together so quickly. I have recently applied for student exchange to Japan for Semester One 2011, and as you can probably tell from the above excerpt, I will use my new blog ‘Maikeru In Japan”, accessible at www.maikeruinjapan.cc , to write about my experiences before, during and after my time there :).

As for Maikeru.cc, new content is coming soon! It will be a huge task though, as every page will need to be edited to include new sections, but I promise I will get it done ASAP! It has been far too long since I have made an update…but that, thankfully, hasn’t stopped the visitors coming! As for the latest statistics, I don’t want to give too much away at the moment, but Maikeru.cc is on its way towards its 10,000^th unique visitor! :O Total page views have already well exceeded 10,000, and almost 20% of visitors are returning to the site! As for search rankings, for the search term “maikeru”, Maikeru.cc has risen to #5 on Google and #1 on Yahoo! Google is still driving the most traffic to the site, and my analysis of the novel “The Collector”, by John Fowles, continues to be the most viewed page. The growth of Maikeru.cc in terms of visitors continues to amaze me, visits have increased by over 200% in a years time, and for that I need to say thanks once again! Knowing people are actually reading the content on Maikeru.cc makes producing content for the web even more exciting, and motivates me to keep going and improving when/where I can. Maikeru.cc has truly helped me realise the great potential the web offers individuals around the world; no more is knowledge and ideas locked away in dusty, old books sitting in a library somewhere. The web offers a platform upon which anyone can create, consume and discuss, and I am happy that by creating Maikeru.cc, I have contributed to this open platform, even if it is only in the slightest way.

- Michael/マイケル

So here it goes, My 25 Reasons Why You Should Use Facebook.

1. Take your place in one of the Internet’s most defining mediums, and be a part of the world’s largest social networking website along side 250 million other people who have already done so. How could the choice of over 250 million people be wrong?

2. Stay connected with your friends 24 hours, 7 days a week even when you aren’t able to be with them in person. You can even add your family members into the mix, if you wish.

3. Reconnect with long lost friends you may have lost contact with in the past, and until now thought you would never see/speak to again. Facebook is especially helpful in keeping in contact with people from High School and University.

4. Discover and connect with new contacts – that person you always knew of but never spoke to could turn out to be one of the most interesting people you’re acquainted with, or that person you met at a friend’s house one night could become your new best friend or lifelong partner – all with the help of Facebook!

5. Communicate with your friends using a medium of great efficiency – Need to get a message out to all your friends, or maybe just a few? Communicating over Facebook is fast, simple and best of all, free!

6. Let the world know what you think and how you feel – you can easily create a Group, Page or Cause to get support or discussion going about the ideas you believe in. Or maybe you just want to let your friends know what’s on your mind? For that, Status Updates are ideal.

7. Bored? Facebook provides countless ways to entertain yourself when you need a distraction from studying or simply have nothing to do at home. There are games to play against your friends or on your own, people’s profiles to explore and never-ending amounts of quizzes that will *help* you to find out a little more about yourself and your peers.

8. Easily share your photos and personal videos with friends – No more “I will show you them when I next see you”… the pictures you took on your camera could be on Facebook within minutes of accessing your computer.

9. Tell people about yourself without having to actually tell them. Your profile provides people with a snap shot of you, and best of all you have control over all the information that appears on it. Are you a fan of the anime Bleach? Let people know via your profile, so next time it’s your Birthday you will be bombarded with Bleach merchandise without having to explicitly tell them that deep down inside, that’s what you really want.

10. Want to show your support for a TV show, movie, person or maybe just an idea? Become a Fan of it on Facebook and you will be connected to Pages of information about your interest, and also to countless amounts of likeminded fans through discussion forums.

11. It will be a nice change of pace in regards to the way you consume and communicate new information and media – find out about the latest news before traditional outlets catch on via your personalized News Feed. Whether it is news of worldwide significance or a scandal within your friendship circle, Facebook will always have it first! (Ok, the latter may be pushing it a bit…)

12. Never forget a friend’s birthday again! Facebook will let you know when a friend’s birthday is coming up…so you never have to ask around and then be embarrassed when you find out such birthday was actually last week.

13. Organise, find out about and RVSP to special occasions via the Events tool. This is particularly useful if you have joined clubs at University – many announce events almost exclusively via Facebook, which is much more efficient than sending out forms to all members to then be mailed back and sorted. Also, if you are a budding musician, Facebook is a great way to invite all your friends to your first gig, so then you already have some crazy fans in the crowd.

14. Facebook can be your friend when it comes to your studies, not your enemy. Provide help and be helped with assignments, homework etc. without having to meet up with friends in an ironically noisy library. Also, it is great when you need to contact people from Uni/School who you may not have exchanged phone numbers with.

15. Facebook Chat allows you to IM (instant message) friends who may or may not use other popular clients like Windows Live Messenger. Whatever the case, you can start an IM conversation with any contact that is on the Facebook website at the time – a perfect solution for both quick and long chats with friends.

16. Facebook has a more uniform and appealing design than its social networking rivals such as MySpace, which allows users to navigate the site with ease and comfort. For example, users don’t have to battle against erratic and ridiculous profile designs where music could blast out the speakers at any moment. Facebook can be used effectively by users with little to no experience from the moment their accounts are created.

17. Privacy – you choose what you want people to see. By default, all Facebook profiles are set to private, and thus aren’t exposed to the entire world. As a matter of fact, in most cases a person cannot view anything on Facebook unless they are logged in. If you haven’t added someone as a friend, they can’t view anything on your profile besides your profile picture and options to contact you within the system. If you have connected with people by becoming their friend, then they can view everything on your profile – unless you have set otherwise, by picking and choosing what friends can see what. In addition to all this, if you don’t like a picture you have been tagged in, then you can untag yourself and the picture won’t be displayed on your profile any longer. Unlike other social networks, on Facebook you get to choose who can stalk you, and how they do it J

18. Want to get something off your chest, but need to go into more depth than a Status Update allows? Facebook allows you to write blog entries in the form of Notes for your friends to read and comment on. If you already maintain a blog outside of Facebook, then most can be connected and synced to your profile with ease.

19. Tired of creating and remembering account details for all the websites you visit? Facebook Connect allows you to log in and use many popular websites on the internet without having to create an account at all – instead, use your easy to remember Facebook details to log in quickly and do what you want to do without hassle.

20. Don’t know where the party is tonight, or have you forgotten a friend’s phone number? Many people add contact information such as addresses and phone numbers to their profiles to make it easy for friends and family to interact with them outside of Facebook. If you choose to do the same, privacy options are available to make sure only the people you want to have such information can gain access to it.

21. Sick of being bombarded by advertisements when surfing the web? Take a break from avoiding flash animated banners and closing annoying pop ups by pointing your browser to Facebook. Of course one of the most popular sites on the web has advertisements (they need to get funding somehow), however on Facebook they are implemented differently: they are consistently integrated into only a particular section of the page layout, they seamlessly blend in with the site’s theme but users are clearly made aware that they are ads, they are never annoying (I have never seen one that plays audio or pops up), most are actually useful, scams are never promoted on Facebook, and lastly, only if you give permission, advertisements on Facebook can be tailored to your interests.

22. If you are a multi-million dollar business owner, a worldwide pop star or simply a musician trying to make it in the industry, Facebook can provide the perfect platform from which you can reach out and connect with your fans/customers. You can create a Page or Group from which you can make announcements, provide exclusive offers to users or simply talk with people who are interested in you and/or what you do. Encourage and build the two-way relationship between you and your customers/fans that print and TV advertisements have been attempting to achieve for centuries.

23. Facebook makes it easy to share links to interesting websites and videos with your friends. If you wish to share a link to a website or video, Facebook automatically creates an appealing thumbnail and description of the content you wish to share and from there, you can choose to share it with all your contacts via your wall or just a few via a personal message.

24. Mobility: Facebook is probably the most mobile of social networks on the web. You can access Facebook via a variety of applications on a variety of devices. There are Facebook applications available for mobile devices such as the iPhone, Blackberry and even non-smartphones that make it extremely easy for users to update their status, upload and view photos and connect with their friends on the go. Where a native application isn’t available for your device, Facebook has a mobile version of its website that is also quick and easy to access via mobile web browsers. Wherever you go, Facebook can go with you! (and after a few weeks of use, you will want it to!)

25. So what is my last reason for you to sign up to Facebook? Well, it is quite simple: because you can! As I have mentioned, Facebook is 100% free and thus there is nothing stopping you creating an account and testing it out for a few days, weeks, months and then hopefully years J If you don’t wish to use the service anymore, Facebook makes it very easy to delete your account and terminate your relationship with the service forever (but of course, you can sign up again later…). So what are you waiting for? Point your browser to www.facebook.com and begin to experience a world of social networking that hundreds of millions of users are already enjoying via computers and devices around the world. As I said in the beginning, how can over 250 million people be wrong?

On another note, Maikeru.cc is now ranked #12 on Google for the search term “maikeru”, and #3 for the same search term on Yahoo. As for the new search engine from Microsoft, Bing, which I am quite impressed with compared to its predecessor Live Search, Maikeru.cc doesn’t seem to be indexed properly, so if it continues to remain this way I may have to try and fix this…but more positively, searching “maikeru” on Ask.com Search ranks Maikeru.cc as the 14th result But while Maikeru.cc is ranked higher on Yahoo for the search term “maikeru”, out of all the search engines, Google indexes the most pages of my site (almost all actually), and as such has driven 80% of the traffic to Maikeru.cc this month. Out of all the pages on my site, the most popular amongst visitors has been my analysis of the novel “The Collector”, by John Fowles, which can be found here. This page, at the moment, makes up 22.49% of all page views :O

Statistics aside, you are probably wondering why there is a four month gap between this and the last blog post To put it simply, attending University has taken up much more of my life than I initially expected it would. Besides spending almost every week day there, my time away from the campus has been taken up with assignments and other “necessary” study, and more recently I have had 2 weeks of examinations That’s not to say that University hasn’t been fun… in fact, it has been great and much more fun than I could have expected :> Although, kinda like High School, hanging out with both old and new friends on campus is definitely the most fun aspect of attending Uni…but that’s not to say that most of my study units haven’t been interesting… But back to the point, essentially Uni commitments have taken up much of the time I could have used to update the site/blog…but next semester I aim to be much more organised, so not only will I hopefully be able to update much more frequently, but also hopefully I wont have to stay up til 4-5am finishing assignments, either

As for NOW, I am currently on holidays until who knows when… :> … so expect some updates soon… and if things go according to plan, next week I should be able to write a post about my first time attending Supanova :O For more info on Supanova, you can visit the popular event’s website here…

Until next time, Jyaaa

Do you need a prison adventure?

Get into your hardhat, slip into your overalls, pull on your boots and charge your headlamps before locking into the ladder system and descending 20 metres into the depths below.

Trek through sections of the labyrinth of tunnels by foot, then board the replica convict punts to explore the submerged passageways accessible only by boat.

Discover original blast holes, bores, oil lamp recesses and artefacts from the days when working in the tunnels was hard labour for prisoners.

Dodge tree roots and find the plaque as you journey through this underground maze of tunnels on your extreme heritage adventure.

Believe me, they are serious about the overalls…coveralls to be more exact. Little did I know was that without even having started at UWA yet…I had already found my costume for this year’s PROSH event. (PROSH is basically where UWA students invade the City of Perth wearing weird costumes to sell a controversial magazine for charity (last year over $100,000 was raised)). The coveralls extended from head to toe, and because they only had the larger size left that day, we all ended up looking like some futuristic kind of gangsta with the baggy outfit to match. The part of the coveralls that cover your head is optional by the way, but me being the silly person I am…tried to keep it on as long as possible…before it became far too hot and I had to give in and take it off :(…and that was before we got down in the tunnel. With that being said, the entire coveralls appear to be optional for the staff that work there too… as they have no problem in going down the tunnels in only their shorts and t-shirt… which makes me wonder if the coveralls are worn for our own “protection”… or really just to brighten up the staff’s day when they see how ridiculous everyone looks in them. I lean more towards the latter, but either way putting on the coveralls does add to the fun of the whole thing…especially when you find out that you can take them home afterwards :O .

Before I speak more about this, I have to warn you that there are **SPOILERS AHEAD**. As in, you may find out things you would have liked to have been surprised about if/when you do the Tunnel Tour yourself. If you read on now, you cant say that I haven’t warned you…

Our tour guide for the day was Amy, and it was only Jesse, Rachel and I that were booked in for that time of the day. Having done it now, I would have to say that doing the tour in a smaller group seems to be better, because I cant imagine having to manoeuvre my way around those tunnels alongside many more other people…and I guess if the “body heat rule” applies, then the more people that are down there…the hotter it would be. The reason why I say it would be harder to get around the tunnels with more people is because the tunnels which you walk around are not very tall at all; in fact most people, unless you aren’t very tall, would find themselves ducking down for the majority of the walking section. The image to the right might give you more of an idea about this. Before you head down into the tunnels, there is a small example tunnel that you can use to see what it will be like for you down there. And as you can see, I cant stand fully upright…and I don’t consider myself a very tall person either. But even with the continuous ducking I had to do down there, it didn’t become very bothersome at all, especially since you find yourself sitting down for parts of the tour anyway.

After we were all suited up, we watched a short movie about the history of the prison, the convicts/prisoners, and the problems that faced WA’s water system in the past. Interestingly enough, the tunnels themselves were seen as a solution to the growing water problem in Fremantle and beyond, as in the past they were used to store and collect water for the Prison and the townspeople and thus, allowing the area to prosper. What intrigued me, though, was the fact that the Prison and the townspeople shared the same water, and that it wasn’t filtered at all. So in my mind, after watching many episodes of Prison Break, that seems like it would have given the prisoners the perfect opportunity to seek revenge against the people who locked them up in the first place…but it wasn’t long before it struck me that if they were to say, poison the water down there, they would not only be killing the townspeople, but also themselves…Building the tunnels was solely the job of the prisoners, so I guess such plan would have been very possible. And hey, if they were stupid enough break the law and get locked up, they may have been stupid enough to poison the water too Or maybe my mind is just coming up with some big conspiracy theory now… lol. Anyway, building the tunnels was seen as the worst form of punishment for those locked up inside Fremantle Prison. The prisoners who were required to do it usually committed the worst crimes, and spent several hours almost every day of the week carving out the tunnels with primitive tools, sometimes even knee deep in water. Worse, after finishing their duties in the tunnel, the prisoners could have been sent straight back to their cells with no free time in the “yard”. :O

After watching the short movie, which actually won an award, we did a really short “quiz” about it, and then it was time to head down into the tunnels. First of all, we got shown how to use the harness system when going down the 20m ladder, and then we each put on our harness and hardhat which had a cool little headlamp attached which could be set to a “disco mode” if you pushed the button a number of times…:P Although, mine refused to go into such mode Amy, our tour guide, was the first to head down the ladder, who was then followed by Jesse. The ladder was double sided, so it was then Rachel and I who went down last. I don’t really know how to explain the harness system we were using, but it was simple to use for even the most inexperienced people. To get down to the tunnels the ladder is split into three “sections”, with a platform at the end of each ladder. It was this that caused the only “difficult” part of the entire harness system. In order to move on to another ladder, you had to also slide the piece of the harness attached to the other ladder along to the new ladder with you so you could keep going down. Now at first I thought I had the whole thing down pat and everything was going smoothly, until I got to such point of changing from the first ladder to the second ladder. I slid the piece of the harness about half way across to the new ladder until it stopped…so I tried to pull it again…it wouldn’t move…it had somehow “jammed” . Suddenly things weren’t going so smoothly anymore, and it is in times of panic such as this when you force yourself to take into account all the other factors surrounding you, such as how high you are from the ground So you could probably imagine me standing on the ladder panicking, pulling constantly on the harness trying to get it to move, whilst not only fearing being stuck on the ladder, but also somehow plummeting to the floor tunnel below :O… Thankfully the panic really only lasted about 15-20 seconds as after a few more pulls it finally gave way and I was then able to move on safely . Below are some images of the ladder system, which unfortunately was the last area where you were allowed to take pictures (Click images for a larger view).

Once we got down there, we sat down inside of the entrance to the tunnel and got told about some of its history, how it was built, and its history as a method of escape for the prisoners. Unfortunately, it was never used as a way of escaping from the Prison, as the prisoners were always under the watch of guards as they built and carved it out of the limestone. It apparently took the prisoners months to carve out small sections of the tunnel, and hence would have been extremely obvious if they weren’t following the pre-designed plans of the tunnel. Amy told us about people who had told her of a story about a prisoner coming out of a hole (a well, maybe?) in someone’s backyard in Fremantle one day, telling the members of the family that he had escaped from Fremantle Prison and then running away. And apparently, a women turned up to the tunnel tour one day who claims she was related to the person who witnessed the prisoner climbing out of a hole in their backyard…and still left the tour thinking that even after the staff tried to explain how impossible it was :S . But to me, there is one significant flaw to that story anyway…if you had just escaped from a Prison, why in the world would you tell the FIRST PEOPLE YOU SEE about what you had just done??? Sure, there could be bragging rights about your achievement far later on in your life, but not as soon as you have just escaped – when, if Prison Break is anything to follow, you are supposed to make yourself seem as much like a normal citizen as possible.

After a while we got back up on our feet and explored some more of the walking section of the tunnels, where some interesting features were pointed out and we learnt some more facts. Some of the interesting things included learning about where you currently were in the area (the tunnels extend outside of the Fremantle Prison grounds) and looking up through a hole in the roof that extended all the way up to a roadside above where you could see daylight, although the daylight doesn’t actually extend itself into the tunnel because it is so far up. Another interesting thing pointed out to us was the recent “discovery” (well, at least by our tour guide) of spiders living throughout the tunnels. Although there wasn’t very many in the tunnel, it definitely looked as if they were spreading. Interestingly enough, the webs of the spiders living in the tunnels seemed quite different to the ones we see living above ground. Instead of threads of web that are usually hard to notice (well, hard enough to notice for me to have walked through countless amounts of spider webs in my life :|), in the tunnels it appears as if the threads of web are much thicker, to the extent you cant not see them with the naked eye. In fact, some of the webs actually looked like the spiders had had a tough time making them. Or maybe the spiders just don’t care how their webs look inside of a tunnel, because no one is really supposed to be able to see them anyway lol. Believe it or not, this was only one of two creatures found living in the tunnels :O

After walking further around the tunnels, we came to a point where there was a pile of limestone rocks blocking what seemed like an extension of the tunnel. This point of the tunnel had apparently been apart of many prisoner escape conspiracies as well, however we were told that these kinds of escape stories are impossible as well, and rather than an elaborate escape tunnel being built at this section, the most likely apparent scenario is that the prisoners accidentally dug the wrong way, and were forced to fill it back in with limestone and then continue digging in the opposite direction. Kind of boring, but better than an explanation where a guy climbs out of a hole in someone’s backyard and exclaims “I JUST ESCAPED FROM FREMANTLE PRISON :>” .

We walked further down the tunnel from that point where we ended up on a kind of metal grating/platform that extends into a tunnel that contains water (so we were above the water at this point). Amy tells us that it is easy for people to not even see the water when all they are using is a torch to guide their way (such as the headlamp on our helmets), and that when the Amazing Race contestants were running around in the tunnels, a women ran straight off the metal grating/platform into the next tunnel and landed straight into the water :O Come to think of it, I actually think I remember seeing that part on TV. But when Amy showed us the “illusion” with her torch, you can see that it was quite an easy mistake to make…just one that you hope someone else makes before you We all sat down on the platform/metal grating, and Amy spoke to us more about the tunnels and some funny experiences from previous tour groups. After that she asked us all to turn our headlamps off, and then radioed the staff up above and asked them to turn the tunnel lights off :O . If you remember, at the start of this entry I said that googling about the Tunnel Tours was a stupid mistake, and it was finding out this point of the tour that was why. Now I’m not scared of the dark, its just that something didn’t sit well with me about being in complete darkness, with no source of light, 20 metres below the surface, in a tunnel made by prisoners many many years ago. So, after reading about that point of the tour, I was worried about it for the rest of the night But in reality, the experience was not scary at all…in fact, it was quite surreal and unforgettable…in a good way When the lights fade out in the tunnel, your eyes have absolutely no source of light to try to adjust to…so all you are able to see…or not see :S… is black. I couldn’t help but think at the time was that maybe this experience is what a blind person has to experience their entire life. You couldn’t even see your hand in front of your face…no matter how close you put it. It was as if you had completely lost your sense of sight… and where I for once fully realised how lost I would be without it. And when a silence falls upon the group for a few moments, you know they are thinking the same thing. We actually sat there for about 5 minutes chatting before the lights were turned back on, which was a point where your eyes almost thank you for some sort of light again, and I guess also some sort of vision.

After this we got back up and made our way through the tunnels to the “dock” where we would get into boats to explore the “flooded” parts of the tunnel system. It was two people to a boat, where the front people would paddle. Amy, as the tour leader, had to go in a boat by herself, and it ended up being Rachel and me in a boat, followed by Jesse by himself. The people at the front of each boat got the job of using the oars to row, and as I was sitting at the front that job was laid upon me. Now I cant even remember the last time I had to row a boat, if ever, so my rowing skills were definitely going to be a bit rusty. But I thought that what I had seen in movies and TV shows would be enough to get me by and it would be fine…it wasn’t. Almost straight after I had began to row, our boat crashed into the side of the tunnel wall. I would row the other way to get away from the wall, and then I would crash into the other side of the tunnel. It didn’t really click into my mind until a few moments later that crashing into walls 20 metres below ground that had been there for so long could never be a good thing…but nonetheless I continued to go from wall to wall for a while until I somewhat got the hang of it and managed to stay kind of in the middle of the tunnel. Whilst we paddled through the tunnels, Amy stopped at a few points to explain things, such as a plaque placed on the wall of the tunnel to commemorate the finished project, and to acknowledge the work of the prisoners who did it. The theory goes that it would have been too embarrassing for the Prison and the Prison Officials to publically honour the efforts of the prisoners, but still wanting to, they placed the plaque somewhere where only the prisoners would have known about it and seen it; somewhere where they thought the public would never go (well they were wrong, weren’t they ). But even if they didn’t publicly honour the prisoners, the existence of the plaque shows that while the prisoners could have committed the worst crimes imaginable, they were still respected for the work that they did. And the fact that the tunnels are still standing to this day, shows that the prisoners must have had some care for the work that they did whilst in prison, too. 

Whilst I was hard at work rowing the boat throughout the tunnels, little did I know that when we had stopped at a point so Amy could speak to us, Jesse sneakily attached his boat to mine and Rachel’s… which meant that for the majority of the boat part of the tour, I was not only paddling for one boat…but two :O…So whilst I’m struggling just to keep the boat in the centre of the tunnel…I’m needlessly carrying this extra weight behind me…and I didn’t even realise until towards the end when Rachel and Jesse couldn’t help but laugh at the fact I didn’t know. Sorry guys, I guess it was wrong of me to be more focussed on not bashing into the tunnel walls so the place doesn’t topple down on top of us lol… Oh, and it was towards the end of the tour that we saw the second creature living in the tunnels :O Up on one of the rafters near the roof… was…a large… cockroach! :O Apparently the cockroach had a name too, but unfortunately I have forgotten it now According to Amy, it is always the same cockroach, and before our tour she had thought it was dead and had made the previous tour have a minutes silence on the cockroach’s behalf. It seems that cockroaches can not only survive nuclear bombs, but can survive in the Fremantle Prison Tunnels too After watching the cockroach in awe for a few moments, we paddled down the tunnel and then back to the “dock”…and yes I bashed into the walls a few more times too …and made sure Jesse wasn’t attached to my boat too *evils*. After that, the tour was pretty much over. We climbed back up the ladder, thankfully with no troubles this time, got un-harnessed, took our coveralls and boots off then headed outside where we then received our Tunnels Tour “successful completion certificate” :> . Overall, the Tunnels Tour was really good; in fact, I think it exceeded my expectations. The tour guide, Amy, was really laidback and fun, and for a bunch of water tunnels, they certainly do have a lot of interesting history behind them that you probably wouldn’t have even thought of before doing the tour. In conclusion, I highly recommend the tour to everyone, and if you know me, invite me to go with you and I will gladly go do the tour again

Now, if your thinking of attending one of these kinds of things, and your like me and don’t know too much about anime, then it is probably best you take someone with you who actually does, unless you want to be pondering all day about who that is supposed to be, what is THAT supposed to be and why you aren’t finding any of the jokes they make in the Cosplay Competition funny Now for me, that is where Lisa and Ashayla usually came in (Ashayla can draw really good anime characters, btw), but because Ashayla is currently having the time of her life in America (see her blog by clicking the link on the right), it was only going to be me and Lisa this year until we recruited Jared to come along with us. So with me, I had Lisa, who is ADDICTED to the anime Bleach, and Jared who seems to have watched a lot of episodes of the children’s anime, Doraemon. Lisa actually tried to get me watching Bleach at one point in time, however for some reason I only managed to get through the first two episodes…(I believe she is actually up to date with the almost 300 episodes of the series )

We decided to meet at the train station to catch the 8:23am train to Perth, which would hopefully get us to the Perth Convention Centre in time to buy our tickets and attend the Opening Ceremony. However, when I arrived at the station, on time, neither of them were to be found. Instead, I found a girl dressed as Link from the Zelda series, and another girl wearing all black with large feelers on her head…both of whom I would assume were attending Wai-Con too. Well, I would definitely hope so… So, after ringing both of them I found out that Lisa had missed her bus but was already on another one coming to the station, and Jared just wasn’t answering his phone. It was only when our train left and Lisa arrived that Jared finally answered his phone, and said he didn’t realise what the time was and that he had missed multiple buses . Now, if it was a one off thing I wouldn’t have been so annoyed, but only the day before he had left me standing at the station for at least 45 minutes by myself not knowing when or if he was going to be turning up…because he was asleep in bed and forgot to set his alarm (in the end I had to leave without him ). But in this case, he did actually make it to the station, at 9am, so we ended up getting the train about 5 minutes after that. Believe it or not, he actually ran for about 15 minutes straight to get to the station by 9am, which I guess was payback for him ditching me the day before, but for his efforts we did actually buy him a bottle of water But before that it was quite funny to see his reaction when the vending machine wouldn’t accept his $50 note…after he was the most exhausted he had ever been since running the 1500m event at school the year before…in which I bet him, of course

Anyway, back on topic We arrived in Perth at about 9:30am and saw Hannah (a girl I knew from High School) there too, so she hung out with us for the rest of the day, and it turns out she is really into Manga. Well, anyone could only assume from all the manga she bought at the event . When we arrived we naturally lined up in the shortest cue possible to buy our tickets, and at first all the cues looked about the same size anyway. But about 5 minutes later, a man came down our line reminding everyone that the line they were in was only for people who pre-registered, and that we had to join the other lines if we hadn’t done so. So thinking it was no big deal because the lines initially seemed to be the same size anyway, we walked to the other line only to find out that the line curved around and went the other way too (hence why we couldn’t see the length of it when we first came). So, as we walked further…and further…and further… and further down the line until we had reached what seemed nearly half way down the convention centre ,we took our place in the line and realised we wouldn’t be catching any of the opening ceremony. *Note to self: PRE-REGISTER TICKETS NEXT YEAR!!* .

The Closing Ceremony was way past over by the time we finally got our tickets, but the long wait in line did allow us to see many of the Cosplayers before we actually got in. For example, the two characters to the right. The one positioned to the right is obviously (well, obvious if you had watched the two episodes of the show like I had ) the main character from the anime Bleach, however we never managed to find out who the character to the left was supposed to be. So, me and Jared named him “LeatherMan”, who seems to have the special ability of…talking in an overly large phone? :S I wish we had actually asked him, or someone else for the matter, who he was supposed to be, as it would have averted a whole days worth of debate between me and Jared…possibly more than the debate we all had throughout the day regarding the gender of many of the Cosplayers…Ok, maybe not…never in one day have I had to ask the question “Is that a boy or a girl?” so many times…But back to the point, if anyone actually knows the lost identity of “LeatherMan”, please comment below Other peculiar characters we saw in line included a sumo man wearing a crazy bunny ears hat :S And also a few followers wearing the crazy hat too…oh, and then there was Astro Boy standing next to them…one of the few costumes that actually made sense to me the entire day, because everyone knows who Astro Boy is, right?

When we finally got inside Wai-Con, we went around looking at all the stalls/traders in order to pass time before the Cosplay Competition. If I remember correctly, there were definitely more stalls/traders this year than at the 2007 event. The stalls included those of large companies such as MadMan Entertainment, who were selling heaps of anime DVDs and manga, down to smaller companies/individuals selling things such as books, more manga, figurines, costumes and anime drawings. Whilst Hannah was going for anything Manga, Lisa was searching for everything Bleach…and me and Jared didn’t really know what to buy. I cant remember what Bleach stuff Lisa bought…but she also bought a Death Note bookmark featuring the character “L”. Death Note is a popular anime, I believe, however I have only seen the live action films (which are really good, you should check them out ). At the MadMan stall, I found one of my favourite Japanese animation films, “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time”, however because I am poor and have no job I couldn’t buy it I actually saw the film with my sister by coincidence last year; we were travelling by train from Singapore to Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur) and it was the only movie they showed throughout the entire 7 hour trip…and really them showing it didn’t really make sense at all, because the film was in Japanese yet neither people from Singapore or Malaysia actually speak Japanese. But besides that, the film itself is actually really good, and I recommend that you watch it too

Besides finding “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time” on DVD, me and Jared got our picture with this odd robot man thing that we kept seeing while we were there (yes, like LeatherMan we never found out his name either). Oh, and Lisa also fulfilled her lifelong dream by “meeting” the main character from Bleach (see pictures below). 

Now you are probably wondering why there is a picture of a vending machine in there… Well, whilst eating lunch at the Esplanade Train Station, I spotted the “Hot Fresh Fries” machine above, and simply due to curiosity I HAD to check it out. It cost $3 and it took about 2 minutes to “cook”. Whilst “cooking”, if you looked through the door thing on the front, you could see all fries falling down into what I assume was the “fryer”, which for a vending machine was pretty cool. However, what came out was not so cool at all Instead of the McDonalds fries you would have expected, what came out was this bunch of small fries DRENCHED in grease/oil/fat/whatever the hell they were cooked in I would show you a picture (we took multiple), but I want to spare everyone the grossed out feeling we all had almost instantly after we saw them…actually, what the heck, below is a nice picture of them Click it for a closer look if you dare…). I am hoping that what we got was just a bad batch… but seriously, even the healthiest of people would have feared a heart attack after eating even just one. And with that said, I made everyone I was with try at least one… But I can account for everyone since then…except Hannah :O :O I am sure she is fine though… I hope

So, after eating lunch we headed back into Wai-Con and watched the Cosplay Competition. If you don’t know what Cosplay is, it is basically when people dress up as their favourite characters from anime, video games, manga and I guess even Japanese animation movies? Like last time, the Cosplay Competition was really good. It was interesting to see/hear about the lengths that the Cosplayers went to in order to imitate their favourite character. Some said they spent months and months creating their costumes and weapons, and some said they created theirs only a number of nights beforehand. Others, I believe simply bought theirs online… but hey I guess that takes effort too . Or maybe those people were just really, really good sewers Either way, most were entertaining; many included funny skits or even dances in their performances, which I assume gave them more points in regards to judging. One of the dances performed included this one (YouTube link), which actually looked really hard to learn, especially for a group :| 
I wish I could of got more pictures of the competition, however my camera wasn’t working very well in the low light conditions, which meant the only real “ok” picture I got was the one on the right…and sorry, I don’t know what anime they were cosplaying either (something where there is a scientist with a huge bolt sticking out his head that he likes to turn?). After the Cosplay Competition, there was a short Japanese Fashion Show. Unfortunately for the models on the stage, the audio kept stopping, which left them standing…or walking…and not knowing what to do. About 5 minutes later it was fixed…but you couldn’t help but feel sorry for them at the time…however, the people on stage at the time didn’t really hide their frustration either

After that we left the auditorium, had another look around the stalls and then decided to head off back home as we had all ran out of money by that time anyway. However, that wasn’t before Batman made an appearance…which could have been awkward, because The Joker was around somewhere too… :O

Oh, if you are wondering what I bought at the convention, well, because I wasn’t into any specific anime, I just bought three of these action figure things which you had to build yourself by snapping together countless pieces of plastic and putting on stickers. Now, I thought they were going to be simple to put together, even if the instructions were in Japanese. However, in reality it took me HOURS to complete all three of them…and I didn’t even do the third, my sister did! But, in the end I am proud of my achievement (Well, I guess my sister’s too lol). Below is a picture of the final products…
Yes, they are as small as they look in the picture But I can assure you, they were indeed complicated and frustrating enough to take hours and hours to make… :P  I cant be certain, but they could be from the Gundam anime series… Jared bought one of these things too; I just hope it didn’t take him hours to build as well

For now, Jya Mata

Anyway, removing myself from the critical reviewer’s persona :P, it took nearly an hour and a half by public transport to get to Centro Galleria…a lot longer than what I thought it would take lol. Jessica Mauboy was performing at 1pm, and it was about 12:15pm when I arrived…So I took my spot standing in the crowd of people, refusing to move in fear of losing my really good view Actually, I was forced to move on one occasion, when the 92.9 Staff members announced that Mauboy would only be signing copies of her CD (and nothing else), so I had to quickly go and buy one of her $3 singles from Sanity, along with a large part of the rest of the crowd (which was good because that meant I could easily get my good spot back :P). To my surprise, I wasn’t the only male in the crowd :O Besides the fact I was surrounded by Mums standing with their little girls (and on that note, I didn’t actually figure out who was forcing who to see the show…), a significant portion of the crowd were actually guys…so it seems I’m not the only member of the Australian male population to like Jessica Mauboy

At about one o’clock the 92.9 Staff members did a pre-performance warm up game, where they invited four members of the audience to come up on stage and sing the chorus from their favourite song, after which the crowd “voted” with their screams/applause and the two winners got a free copy of Mauboy’s latest album. The two winners ended up being a guy who sang Beyonce’s “If I Were A Boy” and a girl who could actually sing…really well…with the audience clapping loudest for her after she sang…which makes me think, if the audience at a shopping mall performance can pick the best singer, then why cant the audience of Australian Idol the majority of the time? :S

At about quarter past one, Jessica Mauboy…fashionably late?…came out on stage (welcomed by the piercing screams of many of the young…and old…girls in the audience) and sang three songs from her latest album; Running Back (usually featuring Flo Rida), Been Waiting (her next single release) and finally, Burn (her current single). Though she didn’t have to prove the power of her vocal chords at all as she had already been on Australian Idol, she actually did a really good job…especially for a Shopping Centre performance.  She “worked” the stage, and really did test the power of the Centro Galleria speaker setup lol. All in all, the loud applause (and even more piercing screaming from the young and old girls) afterwards suggests the audience really liked it too.

Afterwards, if you had bought or already owned one of Mauboy’s CDs, you had the opportunity to meet her, get the CD signed and get a photo with her. Now I thought, although the line was quite long when I had joined it…it would be a half hour wait max, as in I would breeze through it, get my CD signed and be gone within half an hour. Well, I was very wrong, and realised soon after my near 3 hour wait in the line that she was being serious when she said up on stage that she “wanted to meet EVERYBODY” . When I finally got up on stage to meet her, I made some awkward conversation about how tired she must be now after signing so many people’s stuff (to which she assured me she wasn’t, even after I reminded her that she had another performance to do at another 92.9 function later :P), she signed the “Burn” single I bought earlier, and then we had our picture taken together. However, the most embarrassing moment was when she had to yell for me to come back as I had forgotten to take my camera with me after we had JUST got our picture taken with it Ah well, I’m sure I couldn’t have been the only one to do that today …I hope

So, after completing the Jessica Mauboy experience at Centro Galleria shopping centre, I went and got something to eat at Red Rooster (after suffering starvation and dehydration in the line to meet Mauboy lol…) and then made the near hour and a half journey back home again by bus and train. All in all, it was a good but very tiring day…

So for now, Oyasumi (Goodnight in Japanese).

(Below are the videos I filmed of the event…click the HQ button in the bottom right hand corner menu to watch them in High Quality… )

My friend Chloe also had her enrolment at this time, so we decided to go to the Uni together, so at about 7:15am we caught the train together…and it was only about 2 minutes into the train ride when disaster struck…she had forgotten to bring her tax file number and any kind of document to identify herself (such as a passport or birth certificate)…it seems like I wasn’t the only one still half-tired from getting up so early lol…So, Chloe got off at the next station and took the train back home to get all her stuff…meaning I had to go and enrol by myself But I wasn’t “alone” for too long though… I got off the train and on to the bus that goes to the Uni, and as soon as I sat down the girl next to me saw all my Uni documentation and started speaking to me. Thankfully, she had some kind of idea as to where to go for enrolment, so we went there together, lined up (the lines were nearly non existent at this time…it seems we had got there just before the line really started building up…), watched some old University Staff member ram his trolley full of paper work into the back of peoples legs to get them to move out the way :|, and then eventually we went our separate ways as we had to speak to different course advisers.

Speaking to course advisers was the first step of the enrolment; although I had to speak to two different ones because I am studying in two faculties. My first course adviser was a lady involved in Commerce, who checked over my chosen units and helped me with my timetable clashes. Apparently, I had 2 units too many, so they got cut off from this year which means I have to study them next year (the standard amount of units per semester is 4, and I had 5). As for my timetable, my clashes were confirmed to be unfixable, so the “solution” is to just listen to one of the clashing units online every week…instead of actually attending…yet, I still have to pay the same price as those attending lol…After getting my Commerce units signed off, I went over to the Arts course advisor, who checked over the rest of my units and signed off on them. After that, she spoke to me about being able to go and study in Japan for up to a year later on and still be credited towards my course in Australia…and that if I average over 65% for my subjects the University will pay for the air fares and other stuff :O So, I will definitely have to look more into that later on…as it is defiantly something I would consider doing Especially since I will be studying Japanese…

After that, it was simply a matter of proving my identity, getting my all important student ID card…student bus/train fares :> …, and then completing the enrolment process online in the computer lab. Oh, and then because I signed up for the $120 Guild membership, I had to go and activate that in the Guild Market…where I got my “free” student diary for becoming a member. Yes, $120 gets you a free diary lol. All in all, I had finished the entire enrolment process in just over an hour… a lot quicker than I had thought it was going to be As I didn’t want to waste the rest of the day, I called Tiarne and Jen who were in Fremantle waiting to do Jen’s enrolment at a University there, so I decided to catch the train there and do that with them. As I was leaving my University, though, I was stopped by some Socialists…yes they still exist and claim Marxism isn’t a failed concept… who spoke to me about the situation in Gaza, the economic crisis and then got me to sign their petition. They were nice people, but when I thought the whole thing was over they whipped out a magazine they published on campus, and asked if I wanted to buy it…so I scrambled for change in my wallet, bought it and walked away relatively quickly lol…They had actually placed themselves strategically at one of the busiest exits, and from the amount of signatures on their petition (about the Gaza situation), such strategy was clearly working… even Chloe got stopped by them…though, she didn’t have to resort to buying their magazine to get away lol.

So I ended up spending the rest of the day in Fremantle with Jen and Tiarne doing Jen’s enrolment, after which Chloe eventually joined us too after finishing her enrolment in Perth. Although, for the most part me and Tiarne were just sitting on the floor in the “Drill Hall” playing games on our iPods, waiting for Jen to slowly move through the long line of people to get her enrolment forms processed. But hey, it was still fun

A note about the website: Maikeru.cc is now on page 13 of Google for the search term “maikeru” One day I hope to be on page one, and as it is indeed rising in the ranks for that search term, it is clearly possible. But the only thing to do now is wait, unless someone wanted to bribe Google with a large sum of money for me?

So what do you get for becoming an Australian Citizen on Australia Day? Well, not only do you get to stand up in front of a crowd and pledge your allegiance to the Queen (of England), and also sing the national anthem for the first time as an Australian, you also get your certificate and bag full of little gifts. I would say the most notable gift is a small, native Australian tree wrapped in decorative plastic. I would assume the purpose of the small tree is to symbolize each person’s birth or life as a new Australian, however, that tree is eventually going to die…and quite quickly if someone manages to bury it with the decorative plastic still around its base :O But besides that point, I think it is actually a very thoughtful idea

Oh, and before the ceremony the organizers were actually kind enough to provide a free breakfast for everyone. I was quite surprised as quite a lot of people turned up for it…which made my mother even more nervous about the ceremony as she doesn’t like standing up in front of crowds But she didn’t really need to be worried, as everything went really smoothly. Well, besides the part where all the to-be new Australians had to get up from the crowd and sit in their designated seats on the stage… By accident, a man had sat in my mothers chair, causing her worry-levels to skyrocket for a few moments as organizers tried to find her a replacement one. But after THAT, and having to sit in a chair with a males name on it, everything was fine.

So after the Citizenship Ceremony, we went home and me and my sister lazed around watching the Border Security marathon on Foxtel (Lifestyle Channel) for about 3-4 hours…which surprisingly took a lot of energy out of me :p . The most funny thing on there was when a Border Security Officer (or whatever they are called) took about 7 apples from a lady who couldn’t speak English. The non-English-speaking lady got really upset, and eventually chucked a tantrum and grabbed an apple back from the Officer and threw it at her :O And then again attempted to shove them all back in her suitcase…lol…It turns out though that in Chinese Medicine apples are prescribed to cure a sore throat, which is why the lady got so upset, and apparently also justifies throwing an apple at an Officer, as she managed to walk away without a fine lol.

After working hard all day watching Border Security, at about 6:20pm I headed off to the train station with all my Australia Day gear (including a wearable flag, hand held flag and a “yobbo hat”) to meet some friends to go to Perth to watch the SkyWorks (fireworks). Because there was already an Australia Day party going on at my house, I had to walk in the sweltering heat to the station…OK it wasn’t sweltering…but it was hot…and at the time I was too embarrassed to even attempt to use my wearable flag to help protect me from the heat (I could just imagine all these people beeping their horns at me as they drove by, or worse shouting “AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE” ). So after fighting a losing battle against the sun, I manage to arrive at the station…and miss my train Meaning I had to wait another 15 minutes for the next train… But soon enough I met up with my friends (Chloe, Jen and Jared) to head off to Perth by train, which thankfully wasn’t as packed as I had feared it was going to be…but it did fill up quite a bit as we neared closer to Perth.

We arrived in Perth at about 7:45ish, and walked around for a while to check things things out…and within minutes were greeted to “AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE” which would be a common occurrence throughout the night, but you eventually get used to it. So after checking things out, me and Jared decide we are hungry, and Jen decides she wants a frozen coke, so we headed off to McDonalds in the inner city (we had time to kill, as fireworks didn’t start until 9pm). After walking against a crowd who were heading down to where we came from, we finally made it to a McDonalds only to find quite a long line that stretched out the door, so Jen suggests we go to another McDonalds close by (yes, there is more than one McDonalds in Perth lol…)… So we walk to the next one only to find a BIGGER line (thanks, Jen ) and more people shouting “AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE”, but not being energetic to walk back to the one with the shorter line, we simply waited in line until we got what we wanted (I had a large McNugget meal, if you were wondering :p ). After that, we walked alllll the way back down to the foreshore and found a place amongst nice, non drunk families ready to watch the SkyWorks. Whilst waiting, a little girl insisted on apologizing to Chloe for her brother *accidentally* hitting her, after which she ran and almost tackled her brother A nice thought, but I really don’t think the tackling was a necessary punishment lol. 

To the right is a picture that the father of that little girl kindly took for us

So at about 9pm, right on time I guess, the SkyWorks started. They lasted for about half an hour, and not only came from the middle of the river off of floating barges, but also from the rooftops of some of the city buildings. Because we weren’t sitting South of the river, the river was in front of us and the city behind us, so at times it became a little confusing as to where to watch, but overall they were really good (Apparently costing whoever pays for them a few million more than last year). They were so good, in fact, that Chloe, who is a dedicated English-woman (as in, loving all things England as she is from there), surprisingly said they were much better than the famous London fireworks :O Oh, and that the London Eye isn’t as good as it as made out to be… I believe this was Chloe’s inner patriotic Australian side trying to escape, but she did manage to suppress it by stating that the new multi-million dollar Perth Ferris Wheel isn’t any better :(  But hey, I can dream After the fireworks were finished, we battled the huge crowds for about half an hour to get back into the train station, and then waited inside until we could fit on to one of the packed trains. On the way back, you couldn’t really move inside the train at all…but Chloe insisted on giving up her seat for somebody else, which nobody actually took until Jared stood up too…lol To amuse themselves standing up, Chloe and Jared attempted to bluetooth files to any mobile they could on the train, which included a picture of Jared rummaging through a bin, an audio file of me singing , and even a picture of the chair that Chloe gave up to try and advertise it and get someone to sit in it… Me and Jen were still sitting down, and eventually we got in on a plan with the lady in front of us to try and get Chloe or Jared to bluetooth a file to her phone…Why, you may ask? Well, me, Jen and the lady in front of us wanted to see the look on Jared and Chloe’s faces when they found out that “HOTMUMMA”, the bluetooth name they were debating loudly about (trying to figure out who it was) actually belonged to the lady standing right next to them. Everyone got a laugh out of it when it actually worked, and Chloe and Jared were indeed shocked Sadly, we had to say goodbye to HOTMUMMA soon after, though.

When the train got less and less packed as we went past each station, we were able to meet up with our friends, Alex, Tiarne, Kate and Trent, who were also at the SkyWorks and despite lining up later than us, managed to get on the same train. So we chatted to them the rest of the way back. When it came to me getting off the train though, because it was dark I couldn’t see where the platform was and didn’t know where to exit the train, but after going between both sides of the train trying to figure out what door to use, some friendly people directed me to the correct door and thus saving me some embarrassment (if not knowing which door to exit from wasn’t embarrassing enough…).

So THAT was my Australia Day…Citizenship Ceremony-Border Security-Perth Skyworks-HOTMUMMA :> How was your Australia Day? (leave a comment :p )

Oh and a site related note: I have fixed up A LOT of the pages the past few days, and something more exciting, if you search “maikeru” on Google, you will find my website and blog on the 14th page!! *cue woo girl voice* WOOTTT!!. Of course, I hope that my ranking on Google gets better over time, but just being in the database makes me happy for now

For now, Jya Mata.

(Oh, for those of you wondering why I didn’t buy a .com address, some mean person has already purchased it and will only sell it for a little over $11,000 AUD :O So maybe when I’m rich and own Michaelsoft, I will be able to purchase that address :P)

On to more interesting matters, after attending another information session at Uni last night, today I decided to have a break from all this confusing Uni stuff and do something more constructive (well Uni stuff is constructive but still..) and interesting – handing out resumes lol. Well I have actually have had my resumes ready to hand out for a while now, but I guess today seemed like the right day to do it due to the fact I had nothing better to do and wanted to escape the house to somewhere other than Uni. So I sent Jen an SMS who previously sent me one saying we hadn’t spoken in ages, and she agreed to come and hand them out with me at the shopping centre. So I headed down to the train station where I bumped into an old friend from High School, Elysia, who thought it would be funny to scare me at the ticketing machine…  So we both caught the train and bus to the shopping centre where I met up with Jen (and she left to meet her BF). After that I didn’t really start handing out resumes until about an hour had passed as we kept bumping into people we knew. I got the usual “you have to apply online” (which I have been for months but still..), and “sorry we aren’t currently hiring” from some places, but what would have to be the most interesting response was something along the lines of “sorry if you hand your resume in now it will end up in a large pile of other resumes and never be seen again” Which makes me wonder about the fate of the rest of the resumes I handed out today :O But besides that, I don’t like my chances of actually getting employed for the time being do to the infamous “Economic Crisis” and the fact I am a 17 turning 18 year old person with no work experience… But deep down inside I am still grasping on to some kind of hope at being employed, as I do need the money

On a completely unrelated note, did you know season 5 of LOST began in the US last night? As a huge fan of the show, I went ahead and checked when Channel 7 (Australian television channel) was planning to air it, and to my astonishment (yes, this requires such a large adjective lol), Chan 7 are planning to start airing episodes in mid February and at 10:30PM – a later time slot, I believe, than last year’s season. To me it seems Chan 7 are just trying to justify axing the show all together to save themselves some money – and to provide evidence for this statement, it cant be a coincidence that Chan 7’s ratings of the show have sunk in direct correlation to them pushing back its time slot… I guess I will have to wait and see how long my patience can last until I watch it via…other means