The newest thing that I made - a spiral bracelet! It was tricky to get the spiral right, and even trickier to take a good photo of it.

It looks like a DNA double helix, doesn't it? Somehow, I think if Marguerite (not sure if this is the right spelling) saw this she'll say "well, she's a biologist, isn't she?" like the time when I painted squiggles and Marion said they look like intestines, except that she won't even be right, because I don't do biology at school any more. I almost want her to see this, just to know what she'll say.

OK, it seems like that all I ever write about is things that I make. It's almost like that the only thing interesting in my life are those bits and pieces that never come out right. This one's actually not that bad, at least it came out the way I expected, and it's not falling apart yet.

EDIT: Ironically, the physics teacher who also taught biology didn't notice that it looks like DNA, when just about everyone else says that it does. The maths teacher thought it looked like a Möbius strip. xD Yay for a different interpretation!

...and I thought this glaze was supposed to be pink. I wasn't expecting it to be part white and part transparent. Every time I do a sculpture of models, something goes wrong with the glaze. At least this one didn't crack. That said, this looks really weird, so I'm not sure what's worse. White patches or no glaze at all?

I guess I should just stick making to smaller pieces like this one. This was supposed to be a symbol of me finding a way around the maths vs. sculpture dilemma last term. I made it during the Thursday lesson when I was kind of invading the other class. xD How typical that I made it just because I might as well do something since I was there anyway, and then it turns out better than the big piece that I've been working on for three weeks.

They still haven't found my little mouse. The shelves will be cleaned out soon. I hope my mouse is there.

Now that I'm not in that class any more, it seems like that I just don't have anything to write about. It's only been a year... no, not even that. I joined in term 2 last year. I've only been in those classes for 3 terms, and now it seems like nothing happens when I stop? I guess I really need something else to obsess about... May be I'll take the suggestion that I can be obsessed about school now. (Guess who said that! xD)

OK, so today at school I finally saw the scatter sheet for the maths extension 1 assessment from last term. Asking about it during roll call was a good idea. I wonder if they would still have it ready if I didn't ask.

Come to think of it, the new roll call teacher isn't that bad. I wonder if everyone in the vertical group still hate him. I'll have to say that I don't.

Actually, I notice that I write a lot about my teachers. OK, I really need to find something to obsess about so I'll have something more interesting than teachers to write about.

Well, even if I'm not in that class any more, I still went back to finish off what I didn't finish last term.

I'm lucky enough that I get to glaze what I made last term and they'll fire it for me, even if I'm not in the class any more. I stayed for long enough to distract the class. xD There still aren't any other people my age, although there are many people that weren't there last term.

The pink double figure and that little thing in a ball is mine.

Everything seems to turn out good enough, except for one thing: they lost my mouse in the kiln! May be someone from a summer class took it, especially since there were lots of kids there in summer.

Oh well, may be one of these days someone will be cleaning out the shelves and then they'll find my little mouse, and it'll just sit on the outside shelves along with all the small bits and pieces.

So much for saying that I'll start something else this term. The class that I wanted to join is full.

I'M SO DISAPPOINTED!!!

Must... calm... down...

OK, may be it's a good thing. These are supposed to balance out my life, but last term I got seriously unbalanced by my outside class. I guess I should have a term off. At least I can look forward to the next term now. xD

Hmmm... It looks like I'm trying to deny the problem, just like last term when I tried to prove to myself that I wasn't worried about anything.

At least school was alright. Even the teacher who used to appear to hate seeing me in the cooking room seems friendly enough. And what could go wrong with just physics, and then a faith in society lesson without the teacher?

OH NO! SCHOOL STARTS TOMORROW! NOT FAIR WHY DO NEW ZEALANDERS GET A LONGER SUMMER HOLIDAY? (Well at least the one that I know definitely has a longer holiday than I do. xD)

Just kidding. I don't dread it that much. xD It's not as exciting as last year, my enthusiasm is disappearing after all. I have more plans for this term though, not to mention I still have to finish what I started.

That alone was a huge mess from last term. May be I shouldn't start anything this term.

As if. OF COURSE I'LL START SOMETHING ELSE THIS TERM!

Well, whatever I start will only start next week anyway. This will be a long term at school. It's 11 weeks! May be that's a good thing, since the first and last weeks won't be so busy.

Wait, that probably sounds like a sign that I really shouldn't start anything this term. xD There I go again, talking about my extracurricular activities even if the term hasn't started there. (The term over there is always 9 weeks, so it starts a week later than school and finishes a week earlier.)

I should stop talking to myself about my activities and get ready to sleep. This will make me totally unable to sleep if I keep going.

Step 1: Put your music player on random.
Step 2: Pick your favorite lines from the first 25 songs that play.
Step 3: Post and let everyone you know guess what song the lines come from.
Step 4: Cross out the songs when someone guesses correctly.

Current score
Leighann: 6

1. Now in your orange jailbird suit, I wish the best for you, you were in my heart and living room
2. This one's for you, some encouragement to remind you there's life after school
3. Got the world in my handbag, I've got my notebook too
4. But, what if that star is not to come? Will their dreams fade to nothing?
5. Now I'm the fastest mouse on the scene
6. There she goes again, she don't need a boyfriend
7. You don't talk to strangers
8. No plastic solution for your pretty face
9. For what they did they deserve to be a black spot on the ground
10. Then once again, you pretend to know that
11. Now home feels so foreign
12. I have a friend who swears she saw Jesus hovering above her lonely bed
13. So run away if you wanna stay, 'cause I ain't here to make ya, oh no it's up to you what you really wanna do
14. Nothing ever happens, and I wonder
15. Now in nanoseconds that's just the square root of 2670 billion times 10 to the 90 divided by two
16. Dealing with assholes instead of explosives
17. Anyone who doesn't want to die must not really be alive
18. She looks like she's there but she's elsewhere
19. And I hope that you're right, and I hope that I'm wrong, and I hope that those are more than words to a silly song
20. Don't talk to me I don't know what to say
21. I don't understand the funny signs on his blackboard
22. I'm so lonely, but that's okay
23. Penny sings along with them though she wears different shoes
24. And if you want to be you, be you, because there's a million things to do, you know that there are
25. Now I walk ever so smoothly, floating in the air, and I look ever so sparkly sitting alone on my cloud

Yay, a package! It must be a Christmas present from Leighann. I remember getting my present in the mail on the same day last year, only that I was hurrying off to the airport last year, and it arrived on the day, just before I left. This must be turning into another tradition: Christmas presents from Leighann always arrive on the 4th of January. Well, at least it finally arrived. Actually, it'd be still the 3rd in the USA, and that's the day we first met, so this can just be an anniversary present. There, it arrived on time.

What's so "wicked fragile"? It must be something wicked cool. Probably not candy this time. No, I know it can't be, candy isn't "wicked fragile". xD Let's hope whoever that delivered this handled it carefully... I have this weird feeling that it's probably been thrown around just one time too many.

OH NO! Poor little mice! They're falling apart. Obviously, writing "wicked fragile" on the packaging will not ensure that it is handled with care, not to mention that these mice are really so wicked fragile that they won't survive the trip no matter what they're packed in.

Well, I tried my best to save these little mice... The red one is actually alright now, but the tail of the green mouse has broken into bits and I can't fix it. The ear of the blue one has chipped into powdery stuff. I don't think they'll survive the trip home if I tried to take them back to Sydney.

Great. It's a new year again. I'll have to say, 2005 has been a great year. Just for the tradition, I'll do a list of good and bad things that happened...
Good things:

• Moving - I've been going on and on about this, but it's true. Life in Sydney has been so different. When I left Hong Kong last January, I wasn't expecting much. I wasn't expecting it to be bad or anything, but it was definitely a lot better than I expected.
• Starting to work harder at school - The work at the school in Sydney is a lot more difficult, but it's the challenge I've always wanted. I even realised my past mistakes and started working harder. I think that was the best thing that I got out of the move.
• Talking more - May be I'm actually too noisy now, but at least I can be open about what I want to say. Come to think of it, I think it was because my first impression of my physics class was that everyone called out responses to the teacher in unison and I thought that was the way to go if I wanted to settle there. Surprise, I've actually became louder than any of them now.

Bad things:

• My eyesight is getting worse - So why am I still in front of the computer? If it gets worse I won't be able to get contact lenses.
• Being unbalanced. - I chose subjects according to how well I did in them before, and outside of school I do activities for balance. It sounds good but I'll have to say that I'm becoming unbalanced the other way. I'm now obsessed with the sculpture class that I did last term, even if I don't even like it that much. I mean, I like it, but the whole sculpture VS maths extension 2 problem was a sign that I'm becoming detached from school. It's not even the time management that's the real problem. The attempt for balance seems to be splitting me to the two extremes - It's like the song Karen By Night - "We know her by day but we don't know Karen by night". I'm like that Karen in that most of my classmates and teachers don't know that me, the one who does chemistry, physics, maths extension 2 and economics is actually so focused on a sculpture class.

Hmmm... Just for a change, let's see what I saw outside today. There you go again, whoever that asked why I'm never in any photos. Here's one with me actually looking.

Hmm... Surprisingly, food isn't the only thing I have to talk about this Christmas Eve...

This is the candle I made yesterday. I think it looks like a pear, and it's a bit plain, isn't it? Of course it won't stay like this. This time I'm trying something I've never done before. I'm playing with hot stuff... Perfect for this cold weather. Well, playing with a soldering iron doesn't sound like such a good idea, but luckily, I didn't burn myself.

Here I am, carving at the candle. This might not look like the most exciting thing to do on Christmas Eve, but it cheered me up a lot... I must've been getting high on wax fumes. xD

Just kidding, melting wax with a soldering iron produces a lot of smoke, but at least I had the windows open and I'm not getting high on plastic fumes. (No prizes for guessing who I'm referring to xD)

The soldering iron might be hot, but I realised that melted wax cools down quickly and I can touch it even before it hardens. I added other colours to my green candle, and by now, it should be quite obvious what I'm trying to do...

Here you go... My Christmas tree... candle! That's all the Christmas spirit I'll have for my place, but I think that's enough... I don't even care about having Christmas decorations, I just made this because I wanted to make it. May be this is why I can never make anything nice - I make things just for the sake of making something, because I want to make something but I don't know what. This Christmas I'm totally on a Christmas tree theme even if I don't have a Christmas tree at home. There are the cards with the cellophane Christmas tree on the front, and now this candle. May be it's because it's the easiest. Even I can cut a Christmas tree shape on a card, and for the candle I just need a cone to start with. I'll move on to making other stuff with wax. It's a shame that I didn't have the wax and soldering iron with me last term. I could've tried making wax figures in sculpture class. Oh well, making this candle is probably a sign that I wish I didn't have to quit it. It would've actually been cool to bring the candle to class if I'm going back.

I said that my Christmas eve isn't all about food, but of course I keep up with the tradition of the photos that make everyone hungry... xD I realise that the majority of photos I put here are either stuff that I made or food from special occasions, hence someone asking me why I'm not in any photos.

I left my candle to burn during dinner. This is all that's left of it now. I decided to let it burn because I think the place can do with some extra Christmas spirit. I'll make a new one next year, this one isn't so good, it's only my first try at decorating candles this way. There I go again, I'm writing more about making things. I think may be it's a good thing I don't do anything like that at school, how unbalanced would I become? There, more about being balanced (or may be more about being unbalanced).