Star-Struck/Serendipity

I'm so glad that i left parra library when aryan pleaded me to stay

I'm so glad that the sydney terminal was delayed by 10 minute at parra


BECAUSE.....























I BUMPED INTO NATALIE A.K.A COMMUNITYCHANNEL


and here starts the very descriptive but not obsessive recount. i'm sure many ppl have met her before, but i just felt literally weak when i met her. My knees buckled and my words were starting to slur.

so it all starts when sydney terminal is delayed at parra station. there's a loud groan among the crowd. finally the train arrives and it gets to strathfield 10 minutes later.

On the way down the ramp, to my other train i hafta change for. i was kinda in my mind thinking about what to blog about tonight. I hadn't blogged for a coupla days and just wanted to keep on motivating everyone and posting my daily routine recounts. It was about 6 so people were just finishing work and strathfield station was flooded with people. Suddenly on my way down the ramp, this girl in a grey t-shirt walks past me and we catch eyes for a moment. Suddenly it rushed my mind. oh my gosh. was that communitychannel? i quick look back and she's on the phone to someone and yep it definitely was. still i wasn't that keen to pursue her and ask for an autograph. had to catch my train on the way home. i thought oh, that'd be an interesting side story for tonight.

reach the screens at stra, and i find that next train was 13 mins. great. but then i suddenly realised. hey i got time to check out if that was really community channel. walk up the platform which i just came from, and i walk past her inconspicuously. oh my god. it was actually her. or if it wasn't. it was someone who looked exactly like her.
I'm not that big a fan myself, but i know that some people in our grade were. immediately thought to jero and belle. maybe i can get an autograph for them. but she was still on the phone calling and texting away and i was a bit submissive.

3 minutes left till her train came. i was telling myself not to be a chicken. she's just a girl on youtube. just like me. cept a hundred thousand times more people watch her videos than prefect news.
so telling myself that i'd kick myself so hard if i missed this chance. i walked to her. she originally thought i wanted a seat so she moved across

Me: Hi. Is it natalie?
Natalie: Hahah. yeah
Me: CommunityChannel right? yeah my friend really loves your videos.

In essence i was just pulling out a conversation continuer. I knew in my head that she would get that a lot.

Natalie: Oh that's nice
Me: Would it be alright if I got an autograph for them?

At that point in time there was also this other business guy sitting on the bench with a "what the hell" expression. Obviously he'd never heard of or seen her before. So she goes "yep sure thing"

2 minutes left to the train. I rummage through my bag and get out the first piece of paper i see and a pen. It's my chemistry notes. Great.

I pass her the pen and the paper. She turns the thing over to see what it is.
Natalie: Oh what is this?
Michael: Oh haha. yeah it's my chemistry notes. i've been studying for HSC
Natalie: Oh HSC, that's a sucker. Don't worry trust me. It'll be much better afterwards.
N: Oh sorry, what was your name?
M: Oh right Michael. I was really kind of star-struck and i was beginning to slur my words. and my whole body was really weak for some reason.

She begins writing away. I was really stupid and did not think to mention jero and belle's name == i really was just gleeing over the fact that I met her.

She hands the paper back over. and i go. "Mind if I get a photo too?"
She goes "yeah of course" and then i get my phone out to take the pic. all those luvos during farewells paid off. aimed perfectly.

M: Hey thanks a lot.
N: Hey no problems, you should send that photo to my email and I can post it up on my video.
For a split second i made a natural instinct to ask for her email and writing it down. but then i realised. can just get it off the net like that
M: Yeah sure. i'lll errr i'll i'll definitely do that.

i was really starting to slur my words. so i thought better get the hell out of there.

The train had arrived.
N: Well it was nice meeting you, good luck for your HSC
M: Yeah thanks

She gives me a hug and i start turning away to head to my platform with a huge grin on my face.



And so that ends my very descriptive conclusion. here's what she wrote for me.
"This is far more important that your chemistry notes" - if it's too blurry to see
Sorry jero and belle for not mentioning your name. If you want it you can have it, but after HSC of course :) i need it to study.

Edit: just remembered, she didnt write my name. cause i mentioned i was getting it for a friend. so if either of you want it. it's yours

That's it for now
Take care everyone. Make the most of your time.

study adventures

nothing better than a nerdy recount to keep you going.

following recounts include past 3 days. saturday, sunday and monday.

saturday: hit up burwood library with a friend. got there nice and early. first i really actually woke up real early to go to library when it opened.
got some hungry jacks brekkie along the way. sausage and egg mcmuffin meal with the coffee. the hungry jacks coffee was pretty good surprisingly. cause usually fast food coffee taste really really bad. especially at maccas.
get there and the entire upper floor is completely quiet. it was really quite nice to study in.

friend gave me some english notes from her school. pretty funny cause she told me that her teacher told them not to show it to anyone from any other school. crazy. they weren't that good anyway. but i took down some good hamlet notes.
we were sitting on a table of 4. and these 2 other girls come to sit down later, and one of them had really whack make-up. i'm just saying. my friend wouldn't stop going on about it how her eyes were covered with so much green make up. kinda just look like she drew an artwork on her face. i didn't really care though. was in the zone with my study.
i don't know why. but when i'm around out of school people. i feel an urge to live up to my james ruse stereotype. not the talk about maths stereotype. but the really diligent smart type. so i was being all studious is really did quite a bit of work. i was tonnes happy. 10-4 with 25 minute lunch break.

sunday: hit up state library with eddy n nathan. after the nice breakfast and coffee the day before. decided to hungry jacks again, for convenience of time too.
got lotsa good questions and material from nathan. where does that kid get all his stuff from. he could run his own tutoring centre with all the material he has. it was an okish day in terms of work done. state library was packed with other year 12s too. and people love to wear their school jerseys too. it's like a big silent corregation at the library where everyone comes and studies and reps their school.

one of my favourite things of going to state library is passing by circular quay station on the way there and on the way back. you never realise just how beautiful city of sydney is until you see that image. damn train windows are always dirty.
hyde park is very nice too. its a good city we live in. something about australia being 2nd best country to live in as well. HDI eco peoples ;) primary school friend was on the train on the way back. he goes to fort street, and he started talking to me all about scaling and subjects and stuff. was pretty degrading actually xD
friend: yeah i know cause 4u scaling is crazy, don't even try for it. i'm getting 90's in my school without trying
me: dude man, i don't talk like that == just cause i go to james ruse. i don't talk about scaling my whole life.
friend: haha yeah sure ;)
it was still nice to catch up again. end of high school kinda feels like end of primary school, except 50 times bigger. so good to see him again.

monday: i've just come back from my very productive day at parra library. picked up some earphones just for today so i could block out all the noise. pick up some hungry jacks brekkie again. but this time i try the brekkie wrap. omgsh it was soo damn good. i was asking the manager guy what was in it, and i think he might have accidentally undercharged me afterwards. cause i only paid 4-95 but on the menu it said 5-95? weird.
get to parra library 15 minutes after it opened to find jero in his spot, as he said he would be in his blog put my stuff down next to his. and sit outside to eat my breakfast. enjoying every last bite. see this baulko girl walk past who i know of, and she knows of me. give her a smile but she walks right past. meh.
head back up to start on work. and work chocablock solidly for quite a while. i see jero beside me working away on his maths

sy comes shortly afterwards. and finds a desk of her own.
jero gets to go lunch, returns. then i go to get lunch, then return. i think next time I go to parra i'll eat lunch at rishi's restaurant toscani's. it's a nice cafe/restaurant. but i feel too rude to ask for a discount.
way it works in parra library i feel. is that everyone camps on a desk. and shortly afterwards they all run out. leave all our stuff on that desk so that noone else grabs it. otherwise you'll be finding yourself vulturing around for an empty seat.
in strathfield, i see people doing laps of the library just tryna find a seat. pretty funny stuff seeing them tryna act all cool and that they know exactly what they're doing. seriously who cares. its HSC study time.
sy books a room at 3 and we go study quietly in there for 2 hours.
a really productive day. but i needa go do more now. cause a little bit more never hurt anybody. unless you're peter or ani and law of diminishing returns works on you. i'll stop with my eco terms now.

can't believe it . surreal actually. used to think before that when HSC came around, i'd be so overwhelmed cause it's the bloody-ruddy HSC . but i feel pretty good. not stressed or anything. calm and collected. that's the way to go.

oh and i think i may have stumbled across everything. i drank like 5 600ml bottles of water today while at the library. had to visit the toilet 4 times. the counter lady gave me weird looks like i was having some bladder problem. but all that water made me really focused and feel great. try that if you're having trouble concentrating. otherwise maybe placebo.

50metres to go, give that last ounce of energy. hit the books 10 hours a day like peter. might update with more study adventures later . for now that is it
take care everyone

Day in a picturayyy

my titles are getting lamer. i tried to rhyme

i'm running behind a tight study schedule but before i'm off i'd like to share my day .

headed off the state library to study. i didn't bring these books. just wanted to show off my success one stash.

detour to saint honore bread shop with eddy . which is a particular favourite of ours. detour to maccas as well where I took advantage of experience to get a 2dollar sausage and egg mcmuffin for eddy with my meal.


hoarded up state library for 6 hours. went out for a lunch break. got this. satisfying.

surrounded by business people in suits as i ate. dayum. the city business life. doesn't seem too shabby. the stuff apart from the work that is. med or commerce . either way. it's all good.

hope you are all still doing very well for yourselves and digging into that work. didn't type a long post so that'd we all benefit. i wouldn't waste as much time typing, and you wouldn't waste as much time reading, if you do read everything i type that is.

take care. study hard. seriously. study hard. less than 2 weeks to go

Study shinannagans

I don't know how to spell shinannagans. ok it's been red underlined

anyways this post is just a recount of my study progress. i rate progress as moderate, but hopefully if some of you are still sitting on your bum facebooking and msning away. maybe you'll get off it and be encouraged to do some work.
to those already doing tonnes of study. good stuff. i'll try and match it.
just decided to recount blog after reading jero's blog

what has happened:
- thursday: woke up late for the first time for a long time. extra sleep wasn't that good actually. was still in missing-everybody mode, so msned and facebooked for a while. headed off to ashfield library for about 3 hours. didn't really do much except for math papers. there's this girl from sydney girls that goes there, and its funny cause she puts all her stuff on the table. goes away somewhere for 30 minutes. comes back. has a swig of her water bottle sits down for like 1 minute, and goes away somewhere for another hour.
people who intend to study but don't end up doing it. i find that a lot . me included.

- friday: headed off to school in the aim of camping myself in quiet library room for the entire time with people, playing quiet chicken. the way that works is. once you're in the room, you cannot talk. and to make sure that happens, first person to talk shouts the other lunch. questions are asked at the end.
get there a little bit late, and discover half the grade is there. go into the quiet room to find some people there. so decide to join them and do work for a little bit. then recess bell went and decided to head off to ask st louis for eng help since steele went to france. turns out all the eng teacher were having some party of some sort during our normal double period. i think they were just preparing for end of term staff luncheon. i remember times of when we used to raid the leftovers. and lowcock recommended his dish to me, which I politely tried.
anyways devesh was at school teaching. and i hear his signature laugh, so i go out to see what the noise is about. they were playing jungle speed. rest of the afternoon was just spending half heartedly working, helped aditi (deshwal) out with eco for a bit. and then end of term.

saturday: last guan lesson ever. morning spent doing math papers. i never feel like when ive done maths, i've accomplished much. maths 3u papers are just "feel-good" papers to me. makes me feel like i've done something when i really havent. drive off to guan (with my dad in the car off course. grr cant wait until P's)
not a bad lesson. in the final minute. guan become sentimental. something we havent seen from him before. took a photo of each of us, just to compare if we meet in the future. said something about doing him proud and notifying our marks to him when HSC was over. i'm determined to make him proud. he's been a good tutor to me for 5 years and i wanna return the favour. our class used to be packed with about 40 people, and people started dropping out, and here are the people remaining.

vanessa (leung) was cut out. cause guan made her go take the photo for us xD

sunday: grand final day. pretty hyped about it because annual tradition of going to someone's place to watch it. and outcome wasn't so good. but not a bad match. if only eels scored off that slater knock-on
beforehand headed off to fairfield to study with eddy at library. that's a new library to add onto my visited list. got a bit of work done. and then we drove to kris' place for the grand final.

monday: planned to go to library originally. until mum told me it was labour day. so day was spent at home doing work, and cleaning my room and organising all these sheets. never realised how much paper we got during school. every day its a few sheets here and there. and they all build up.
did study, but keep on avoiding english. had a read over it but i didn't make much progress in english area. mainly mathing and cheming

tuesday: pooviah's class. i found it pretty helpful. just as a general overview of both phys and chem options. kinda impressed by pooviah's knowledge of chem syllabus too. rode in kris' car for the first time. pretty fun day, its nice when you spend the day studying with people, than just yourself. encourages you to all work hard. headed off the parra library afterwards to skim a bit of study in and borrow a phys book.
during short break in pooviah's class got caught in short convo with bobby and peter
bobby: you been studying michael?
me: yeah
b: how many hours a day?
m: umm, probably 7. (i was probably overestimating. maybe 7 hours including time just sitting there pondering other stuff)
b: peter does 10.
p: (nods with recognition)
10 hours ?! that's commitment. only awake for probably 15 hours. when you look at it that way. 10 hours outta the 15 awake does seem doable. eating takes about 1 and a bit. less if you're fast. and the rest of the time is studying i guess. also read somewhere arni has done 6 test papers in a day.
so that's what i've been trying to aim for each day. 10 hours or 4/5 test papers and falling a bit short each time.

wednesday: spent strathfield librarying. that place is packed seriously. people are going 'save me a seat" for the day after. in order to be able to study at the place. its majorly just filled with so-called "bludgers" who just go there to talk really. but it's not as bad as parra. studied with manbir victor and mariya for a while.
as you can probably tell. didn't get much done, well at least they didn't while i was there. their attention spans are crazy short. finally saw who eden was . not all that flashed about those stupid things. it's all about study now.

today: strathfield library take 2# i booked a room, but victor mariya and bobby didn't end up showing up. which probably was for the better. got quite a bit of work done. although i was only there for 4.5 hours before i headed back home. the problem with shared tables is that other people on it talk. but like the wise don said:
"it's only noise if you think it is. you can block it out if you want to"
which is totally true.
some girl a bit older than me was teaching little kids basic arithmetic and was taking luvos with them as well. she kinda reminded me of carol for some reason. probably the love little kids in a non-pedophilic way bit.
some guys in suits came around and asked if we wanted to do a tution-related survey. said we got a pen and a chupa-chup for it. did it in about 30 seconds. it was only about 10 questions which i quickly ticked through.
the pen is pretty awesome. or should i say pacer and pen combined into one. anyways the guys were from cambridge education centre. and i was thinking of being brave and asked if they recruited tutors. until i read their pamphlet and it said taught by professional HSC past markers.
been hoping to be recruited by intuition after HSC for maths. but apparently they are big bullies and like the exclude people from having a sense of belonging. nah they're all good. excuse the lames.
but yeah been looking to do maths tutoring as a part time job after HSC. cash is handy, and i really like helping people out and seeing them do well makes me feel happy. whether or not i'd do a good job is a different story. but lets just keep hoping.

there was also random discussion of the success one covers. and we noticed this particular girl called "amelia mckinnon" was purposely showing her name to the camera. we thought alright. add her on facebook. so aryan. she is now your friend.
oh yeah and for kicks searched her up on boardofstudies. she came first in drama.
some other girl who accidentally flashed her name too came 1st in arabic continuers
and we laughed out loud at the guy who's face was blocked by the "new 2009 edition" sign. aditi almost got blocked out too by that.

anyways like they say for the celebs just for fun. here are the following venues I will be at over the past days. feel free to come in and say hi.

friday: state library
saturday: some library undecided ashfield/burwood/state/strathfield
sunday: state library
monday: parramatta library

for now. if you're reading this. stop reading. close the window, close your facebook and msn. turn off the computer, and go do a chem paper :D . about the same thing i say to aryan every day.
study hard everybody! cause everybody is doing it. you can never get sick of study ;) it's fun learning and revising !
for the school!

take care

For the school.

It's been a great run. I've loved every minute.

Now it is time to give back to the school and your teachers.
Make them proud.
Stay safe, take care of yourselves, study hard.

Your school and teachers have given up so much for you, so return the favour back to them. let's do this as a team, as a family, as the very last thing we'll ever do together. care for each other, and work hard for each other. that's my new motto. I promise to put in 100% for each one of you because i really want everything to achieve their goals.

As strange as this may sound. i'm missing our grade already. all the farewell hugs from tonight just made me realise that it'll never be the same ever again.
My only regret is not being brave enough to know some of you guys better.

I hope to be seeing you around
This ain't gonna be the last farewell. i refuse to believe that

i love you all dearly. and god bless

My first day. and the last.

I still remember the first day of school vividly.
waking up to school real early and so excited. felt also proud for waking up so early at 6-30. primary school days consisted of waking up at 7-40 and waking cheez tv dragonball z at 8.
got on the train from ashfield to strathfield. strathfield to epping. with my parents by my side of course. with my big bulky bag my dad brought from china. had every single book that the list we got in the mail said. including a 64mb memory stick, which cost me 50 bucks back in the day. on special. we were so worried that if we didn't have it, then our marks would get affected xD ahh typical.
after about a few minutes of waiting at epping bus stop, seeing all the older grades and feeling scared. seeing all the people in my grade and most of their parents with them too.
get on the harris park school bus. sit down with my parents. so the trip seemed to go with a breeze. i particularly notice adam kelly-mill's parents sending him off and saying goodbye.
finally reach school. and i see all my peers looking around and standing lost as i was. many i recognised from tution and went over to meet and greet. and there were the ones from my old school too. before not too long. my parents said goodbye and we were to stand in that daunting thing they called the quadrangle. half the school was missing, as mr quinlan calmly explained why, which was followed up by a speech from rose - the current school captain back then. i think i might have been too busy talking to either shiva or joseph. but soon enough, they start blurting out these letters and numbers
"7A TO L1.1, 7K TO L1.2... "
i didn't pay attention, and soon the crowd disperses, leaving me confused and dazed as to where everyone was going. what were these weird letters and numbers they blurted out. where they something mathematical.
after about 5 minutes of pacing around looking for people. finally somehow manage to find my class 7K. say sorry to mrs mason all embarassed and just went to grab any seat. i saw shiva in my class, and joseph, and dan who i didn't know at the time, but he went to my old school.
first lesson. double DT. in T1.2 no idea what or where that was. but with the aid of the school diary map and directions from seniors, we got to the class, where most of the people were seated. was walking with joseph, who was the only person i knew, but as soon as we walked into class, he joined his hurstville clan, consisting of don and other people. i chose to sit next to adam kelly-mills as i recognised him from the bus trips. anyways being the enthusiastic student. i try to have a good posture and listen really intently to whatever he was saying. but after about 20 minutes, i couldnt take it no more. this mr bastian guy was just too boring. striked up a very formal douchey conversation with adam, about politics or something. the details i can't remember.


that's what i remember from my first day of school. other things i remember from when the school was old.
- no canteen where it is now, instead if was a storage house for equipment i think.
- demountables on the oval, which consisted of classrooms and the canteen
- bare dirt oval pitch. whethered by the million of students (mainly boys) playing soccer and football on it
- haribo coke bottle lollies for 30c at the canteen
- lolly vending machine, which consisted of skittles sour packets for $1.30
- coke can machines
- recycling crate behind girls' change room. had so many aluminium crushed cans in it
- richard and his apparent fame with the ladies. and his amazing 1.6 time of 6:36.
- peer support camp, and people going on dacking rampages. was trying to be gee with the LT's like leo danny and drew, but failed.
- LT's being gay
- AK ballers. michael li always calling james JA-MEZZZ
- Michael yoon being a hardcore baller, and having beef with michael li
- James (Zhang) and his awesome fan hat which he brought to swimming carnival
- That massive hill they have a ryde aquatic centre, and how we just raced each other up and down it
- Trying to join into a massive game of cricket at swimming carnival with all the curry seniors. i can remember shiva and danny also being a part of that.
- Going down to the farm at recess and lunch with my homies dan, shiva and joseph. watering our crops. my carrots were da best. until they got eaten by gay birds, and i begged joseph (my ag partner) to give me some on his row.
- Gay 7L boys accusing me of liking helena in the first few days of school because i mentioned something about her always rolling up her sleeves for her sport uniform
- Awesome peer support leaders eun-ji and gary. and joseph's peer support leader gavin, who had long hair.

Now looking back on that first day. I realise how young and stupid we were xD. not a bad thing. we've learnt since then. and all these things have come to develop us into who we are today . those gay LT's we detested once upon a time. i came to discover how wonderful and kind they all were after year 9. maybe we just hated on them, cause we didn't belong to them.

I can not really remember of any bad times. mainly good. it's been a hell of a journey, both physically and mentally. i guess it's only the start of the road. we've finally reached the start of the hiking track. now its turn for us to walk along it.
best wishes for the future.
i'll be blogging sometime soon to thank y'all
for now
take care everyone
i'll be seeing you around

100m out.

Wow. i just fully outgayed myself last night

Went on a late night homo syndrome rampage. talking to a friend on the phone about feelings and stuff until 2.
i woke up. and i felt really gay. but i meant everything i said.
and i know i should be feeling sad about everyone leaving. but it hasn't really hit that strongly yet. maybe other stuff is masking it. but maybe also because i know we'll be in touch in the future.
been trying to think about a post that'd be really moving and emotional to just thank everyone involved for what they've done for me and for the entire grade. but it's just not coming to me.

well what happened today:
i planned to go to city to study at state library, and buy some past paper textbooks so i can actually get motivated and not do stuff half heartedly anymore.
woke up at 8-30 forcefully, hopped in the shower to try and wake myself up . and got in dad's car to go off to the city.
had breakfast in qvb, in one of those side cafes. the pancakes were really nice and soft. and i was surprisingly really full afterwards.

the coffee was kind of refreshingly bitter. but i was really brain dead afterwards.probably not enough sleep

trying to do questions and papers at the library, and it just didn't come to me

library opened at 10, so i got there on the dot, so it was empty. but as usual, it gets really full afterwards. after about 2 or 3 hours of trying. i decided to go grab some lunch and go buy my textbooks.

there was some rural greens protest outside parliament house for some reason as i walked past.

so get to this asian store which is located nowhere anyone would know. unless you were told about it. its in chinatown on the third floor, behind a million hallways. they give large discounts, if you go to james ruse or something. cause the guys son used to go to james ruse. get my books and i go get lunch at coffee club

get a steak sandwich and mango frappe. it was pretty nice. but not hard to make. so might give that a go at home some day.

head back to library again to give it a second shot. and study until library closes. never feel like i'm doing much. chinatown was pretty festive with dragons and everything cause of moon festival? i'm so out of it now


and here i am typing.
i'm really proud of our grade. well most of it.
i love it how we can all just go anywhere in a big group. everyone knows each other, and it's just really nice how everyone gets along.
i love our forum and all the funny stuff that goes on in it.
and the blogging community. opening up to each other and sharing parts of our lives. that's been really nice.

i'm proud of our nerdy tag. it's nothing to be ashamed of. and we embrace it really well and make fun of it ourselves. i remember watching james ruse love letter made by the past prefects. and all the nerdy ruse raps :P so good.
just all this stuff we share with each other, and our arrogant school pride :P
other schools might hate it, but i don't really care.

i feel really proud when people tell me about people they've met in our grade, and how nice all of them are. i smile and nod with appreciation. i've never really appreciated that, but everyone is caring and loving. and i am forever in debt to them for that

and i hope that one day, if we see each other in the street in a long time. even if we didn't talk that much in high school. that we'd stop and chat and catch up. that you won't be ashamed to make the first move and walk over if you see me across the road
the lunch is on me. no matter how cash-poor i am. but don't exploit me ;)

and when all you guys are successful and have everything in your lives. we'll share it together and never forget the times we had in our high schooling lives. and how it helped us to be where we are.

it's not a time to be sad. be happy that we've been so good to each other, and that there will be many good times to come. together and apart.
may your future lives be filled with joy.
and i'm going to stop there now. before i get all gay again.

take care everyone
love y'all