cyberspace junkyard

Milestones
I'll be a quarter of a century old, a week from tomorrow.
Meh.

State of pensiveness
I like having time to just sit and breathe. The cogs in the ole brain turn slowly and churn out lots of nonsense and occasional flashes of stark comprehension. I've gotten back in touch with an old friend recently, and I have to say that after some years of little communication, it is a very strange thing indeed to go through the whole "what have you been up to in the past few years" catch-up. It's made me ponder old friendships, childhood bonds and past loves and whether or not proximity ever makes up for a true bond, a shared mental or emotional wavelength.

GO THE WALLABIES!
Edited 1:11am. Depression has set in. There's something not right about a game that allows the rules and tactics to change completely in the dying minutes of a match so much that it's not recognisable as rugby union any more, but AFL or soccer. Still - GO THE WALLABIES. One better in 4 years' time, eh?

It's over
Guy Sebastian has been crowned the first Australian Idol. My faith in the voting process has been restored.

On a culinary note, I seem to have created a new recipe for a chicken, leek and sundried tomato lasagne that went down a treat last night for dinner. Yay!

Weekly News
The quick and dirty round up of the last few days...

• Bought 2 disc Casablanca and 2 disc Robin Hood Prince of Thieves for $20 each. Alright!
  
• Bought 4 disc TTT-EE for $58.95. Happy. Yay! Couldn't be bothered shopping around for cheaper. Musssst have it!
  
• Watched Holes on Sunday afternoon. Surprisingly good and nothing like what I expected (mainly because I wasn't expecting anything at all and had no idea what it was about before watching it)
  
• Fell onto my left knee (which bled a little and formed a tiny scab. EEEEEEWW (I have a phobia about scabs (ooh, cool - brackets within brackets))) which is still stiff, preventing me from bending my knee quickly and therefore climbing up or down stairs efficiently
  
• Sat 2 exams - 1 on philosophy, and 1 on number theory. This is it! I'm never going back to uni again! (unless my HPS supervisor convinces me do an Arts major as well, in History and Philosophy of Science)
  
• Went to a friend's info night before he takes off for Cambodia for 10 weeks.
  
• Watched the last 30 minutes of the Wallabies finishing off the All Blacks on Saturday night. Go you good thing!
  
• Waiting patiently for one of my best friends to give birth to her 2nd child (days after celebrating the first child's 1st birthday. Yay!) and congratulating another old friend who just got engaged!
  
• Finished 90% of the post-album-launch admin. Phew!
  
• Voted spasmodically for Guy
  
• Waiting impatiently for the grand final tonight. I'm having an Idol party at my house. How sad am I?

 # posted by Vron @ 11:31 am

EEEEEEEE!
Yes!!! the TTT-EE comes out today!!!

That's The Two Towers Extended Edition for the uninitiated.

Strange times
Today, I sat a philosophy exam, wore a T-shirt and drove with the windows down. That might not sound strange until you realise that being a financial services project manager who never wears T-shirts (and doesn't own jeans) and hates the windy messing up her hair usually precludes the above three things. What is the world coming to?

Have a good weekend, y'all!

Votes
Voted for Guy again a couple of times just then. Might keep doing it periodically til next Wednesday.

Call me crazy
Oh dear. I've succumbed to temptation. Bitten the proverbial bullet. Joined the ultimate idolmania fanclub. Yes, you guessed. I've bought both the American Idol and Australian Idol (auditions uncut) DVDs.

I couldn't resist, got them cheaply at HMV together with Chicago and Breakfast at Tiffany's, all for just over $90! I just skimmed through the American Idol one (since I've seen quite a bit of "online" *cough cough*) but it's surprisingly good. Yay! Also happy to get Chicago for $22, when its RRP is $39.95. Also yay!

Now, just to finish these darn readings for my last EVER exams (I have told my supervisor very firmly today that I am NOT doing an Honours in History and Philosophy to go with the one I already have in Statistics) so I can watch my new purchases!

Okay, okay...
Hmmm, most of you are probably expecting a review of saltlight's This Way Up album launch from Saturday night, huh? It's very surreal - I've been fielding questions, phone calls and emails for the past 36 hours about it. It's funny reading reviews on blogs. Hearing people talk about the music, the album and the live show. Finding out why certain people like certain songs more than others, and being so amazed that they're touched at all.

As the executive producer, I'm ecstatic about how it all turned out. The entire team worked sooooo hard. I can't express what a great job everyone did from the ground up. The turn-out was huge - we almost hit 500, which is pretty cool given that there were 3 key weddings and 1 birthday on the same night, which took away anywhere from 100-200 people from our probable audience. Yes, they were predominantly Asian (due to the huge groups organised within certain churches), but I'm hoping and praying that now the word will spread to other churches, especially given that there were small groups from some Caucasian churches there. Also, playing at KYC next year and selling the CD in the bookshop should raise our profile. Not to mention FM103.2 and Koorong, once that all settles down. Yes, there were lessons to be learnt for next time (wow... next time), but I couldn't ask for any more from anyone there. Absolutely fabulous effort, guys!

Personally though, I'm having mixed feelings. I'm the kind of performer who is always down after a performance - I can't help it and have been like this since primary school! One minute, I'm buoyed by a comment from someone, or by thinking back to something that worked well, the next I'm just really quiet and melancholy about nothing in particular and everything in general.

Overall though - I just can't stop giving thanks and praise to God for bringing it all together and giving us a reason to live and to sing!

Hehe, might do a full review later.

Australian Idol - Eep
Worried, worried, worried. Guy wasn't as far in front of Shannon as I wanted him to be, for my own peace of mind! Shannon picked great songs for tonight, and as predicted it didn't really matter how he sang them, everyone would go wild anyway. (ugh). Yeah, yeah, yeah, Guy was sick etc etc. At the end of the day, I think they both did well tonight and I guess it makes for a more exciting ending if it is uncertain. Guy has all my votes, based purely on the fact that he has outperformed Shannon for pretty much the whole competition, and I would truly cringe if Shannon was held up as the best that Australia has to offer.

Coffee?
Had my first weak skinny Mocha in months today. Yum. That doesn't really constitute as coffee, does it?

Five days to go!
We had our 2nd last rehearsal tonight for the album launch, (well, the last one other than the full run on the day). Soooooo close. Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Turn of events
Who would have expected Cosima to withdraw? That took guts, though it should have been done yesterday, to save all those poor people's votes. It is really causing much more of a brouhaha than it should, though, as predicted, Shannon and Guy are through, with Cosima realising her time was up. I did feel upset for her, but I couldn't help thinking that if she had withdrawn last week, then Paulini would have made the final three and I suspect would have blown Shannon away in the 60's show to join Guy in the final. Oh well, Que sera, sera.

Excited that next Sunday is the actual singing show (2 songs each) and then the 19th is the grand finale concert and verdict. Nice way to draw out a result, guys.

Final Three - Australia Idol
Trying for economy of words...

What happened
What a flat show all around. I really miss Paulini. The show tried to take off but failed to soar. Shannon was okay. I was a bit bored. "One" was passable, "Hey Jude" deserved the slightly negative comments, which I think will actually help put him through. Guy's "Can't take my eyes off you" was tre cool. I liked it! One bum note, but he kept pushing for it. "Climb every mountain" was nerve wracking the first time (how on earth was he going to sing the Mother Superior's song?), brilliant the 2nd and 3rd time. It wasn't vocally very secure, but he gave a really strong emotional performance. Class of the night. Cosima - oh dear. I think she looked more bored than I felt. It was almost like she knew her voice wasn't going to hold up so she just gave up trying. I'd hoped she would come back tonight and blow us away and give Guy at least a little more competition vocally. Overall, I just didn't feel the swinging 60's at all! The best part of the whole show was the opening section with the 2 hosts and 4 go-go dancers (iuncluding Courtney Act) introducing the 60's theme. Classic!

What should happen
They should bring back Paulini and have her and Guy sing off at the Opera House. Ok, ok, just kidding. Based on tonight's performance and overall consistency, Guy should definitely get through to the final two. I would also have to say that my personal preference would be for a 100% well Cosima, though since that is doubtful, I would actually say Shannon should make the final 2, as I find him more genuine than Cosima, and I think he can learn the stagecraft.

What will happen
Cosima fans will go crazy voting for her as they are scared she will get the least votes, due to her weak performances and the judges' lashing. Shannon fans will go crazy voting for him as he wore a suit and was told he couldn't move by Dicko. Guy will win over most of the 1-vote only people, not to mention his rapidly expanding fan base. It's too close to call. My gut says Guy and Shannon, with Cosima expecting to be booted.

What could happen in Vron's worst nightmare
Cosima and Shannon get through on sympathy, underdog and tribal votes and we are forced into a second-rate grand final, with both Guy and Paulini out of the running due to complacency.

Edited 10:31pm: As expected, Cosima's fan group are going crazy voting for her, saying they are voting 2 or 3 times as much due to the judges' "unfair" comments. They obviously didn't want to be hearing what I was saying in my living room then! I think if she had kept going the way she was after the first 3 final shows, she would definitely deserve to be in the final 2 over Shannon, but she hasn't turned in a good performance in weeks, in my opinion. I'm getting worried for Guy now. Might go and vote.