'"Your balls, Mr. Darcy?"
He reached out and closed her hand around them, and offered,"They belong to you, Miss Bennet."
Upon this, their colour changed, and they were forced to look away from one another, lest they laugh.'
        ~ Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

NOTE: Don't worry, they're not intentionally trying to be being vulgar. They're actually talking about ammunition.

It would be a very lonely existence indeed if you allowed no one to know who you truly are inside.

So after 3-4 hours of hand stitching tiny pirate clothes (yes, that includes the tiny pirate booties), pocket pirate is born.

Thanks for the 6 wonderful years, Catchips! Pocket pirate was made especially for you. Love you!

Darkness cannot be created. It can only be manipulated and distorted in proportion to light. Where there is light, no matter how small, darkness cannot exist.

What happens when time and a little felt falls into my hands...

NINJA SPAWN!

if you're having a problem with someone, just offer them a piece of chocolate.

ARRRRRRGGGHHHHH! Why is it so hard to find a decent site on reflective essay structures? Instead of finding the sites I need, there are several hundred other sites willing to write my essay for me instead of showing me how to write them. Useful? Not really. I miss the days when the internet wasn't all about making money.

Essay deadline: Officially 5 and a half hours to go, but I'm hoping to finish before 3pm. Would rather not waste my afternoon on this ridiculous paper. Back to work!

Should really be sleeping or studying, but here I am again. Just winding down, thinking things through. I actually think that over time, writing essay after essay has killed my journaling skills. Instead of being able to use poetic language to describe fine details or convey any sort of emotion, I've been forced to use analytical, logical words that don’t seem natural to me. I can't wait until this semester is over. At least then I'll be able to immerse myself in literature again. I'll be free to stop forcing myself to find a different means of describing the human body that I haven't already tried in my last four or five papers. Maybe after sem I can try writing a short creative piece. Haven’t done that in years.

Anyway, off to bed. Trying for an early start tomorrow to finish this blasted essay. Then perhaps gym. Couldn’t finish my workout tonight on account of a headache. Ah well. I’ll try again tomorrow.

Lastly, NOTE TO SELF: Find this book when it is released in paperback. I've really come to appreciate Winterson's stuff over time. Although I don't necessarily agree with the fact that she often ruthlessly bashes men in her writing — hey, not all men are as flesh-driven and chauvinistic as she portrays them — her writing style has been one of the only ones that I've encountered which can literally make me hold my breath as I read. Her descriptive technique is nothing short of poetic.

Anyhoo, happy camping! I've probably majorly overshot my wind-down time.

Where on earth did the pirates vs ninjas debate originate? I'm curious. All I can find are arguments why one is better than the other, but no actual origin.

Any thoughts?

( ... but I needed a brief distraction, ergo, quiz time! )

On another note, I am totally addicted to Ninjatown. I can't stop thinking about ninjas!

At some point in my lifetime, I am going to track down the world's largest crayon.

I'm over the swine flu hype now. The media has completely blown the situation completely out of proportion, and for what? It seems very apparent to me that swine flu, just like any other flu, can only be fatal if you let it develop into something worse.

Let's compare the two.

Normal Flu	Swine Flu
Highly contagious. Spread by coughs and sneezes.	Highly contagious. Spread by contact with sick pigs, touching contaminated objects, and through coughs and sneezes
Symptoms include high fever, cough, chills and sweating, sore throat, weakness, headache, general muscle and joint pains (legs and back).	Symptoms include high fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, running nose, headache, chills, fatigue, diarrhoea and vomiting.
Serious complication resulting from flu: pnemonia.	Serious complication resulting from flu: pnemonia
Treatment involves: Stay in bed and rest until the temperature has been normal for 48 hours. Drink enough fluids to maintain normal urine output. Take paracetamol to control fever, aches and pains (adults can use aspirin). Early use of antiviral medication may shorten the length and severity of illness. Consult a doctor to discuss treatment. Avoid exposure to dust, alcohol, fumes and tobacco smoke as much as possible. Immunisation, if desired.	Treatment involves: Various antiviral medications such as Tamiflu and Relenza. These may help to reduce the symptoms and speed recovery. Resting and drinking plenty of fluids. Avoiding public places to reduce the risk of transmission. Staying home from school or work until you are completely recovered. Taking steps to reduce the risk of transmission to others in your household. For example, disposing of your own dirty tissues, and washing your hands regularly, particularly after coughing or sneezing. In particular, avoid contact with children or the elderly, who tend to be more vulnerable to infectious diseases.
Can be fatal.	Can be fatal.

Information found from here (normal flu) and here (swine flu).

Note the differences? Nothing really major, is there?

Now let's look at swine flu deaths. Of the 15000 swine flu cases reported worldwide, only 99 deaths have occured. Over 400 cases of swine flu have been reported in Australia alone (source here), but how many deaths have actually occured in Australia? Why is that? I'm going to attribute it to the fact that Australia has a fairly decent healthcare system. At current, Mexico is the only place with a high swine flu death toll. Have a look at the lovely WHO table here.

So really, why is everyone worried? If anything, this article is an even bigger cause for concern. Swine flu currently has a death toll of about 121, whereas the normal flu has a death toll of over 16000 since the start of this year. Worried now?

Welp, that's the end of my rant for today. By the way, for all those considering wearing face masks for protection, I have some news for you: face masks only effectively last for a period of 15-30 minutes. If you exceed that time frame, it actually puts you at greater risk because of the moisture that builds up in the mask.

Happy camping, all!

Seriously, what the?

Over time, I've learned that people are often like mirrors.
Whatever one person shows to another, the other will reflect back.
If one shows a demeanor of anger, the other will reciprocate.
If one is joyful, the other will respond in kind.

What builds a relationship and character is when one person, seeing the demeanor of another, decides to change what they reflect back.
The question is, will you make the decision to be that person? Will you choose to be the one to make a difference?

One of the most rewarding things is seeing someone you've put so much time and effort into nurturing begin to stretch themselves and grow.

Just finished holding an online case conference for one of my uni subjects. Initially I assumed it'd be chatroom style, but no. We actually had to plug in headsets to talk to each other. Was actually fun. Having interactive components in subjects definitely beats having to bury your head in a textbook for hours. It's amazing what you can do with technology these days. I wonder how long it'll be before people can no longer be bothered talking to each other face to face. Oh, wait. That's already happening.

Hehe, sometimes I feel like I'm going to be one of those people who'll age saying things like, "Back in my day, we didn't all have laptops in class!" Ah well. I'm still finding it difficult to comprehend how people used to hand in academic papers written by hand. Anyhoo, back to study. Feels like that's all I've been doing these days. Ciao!