One Year Ago

So I'm sitting here, watching Prince Caspian and it made me think of a fair few things. Like how things have changed so much during this past year. In the past year I've done so much, and learn't a lot about myself. I guess this time last year I saw Prince Caspian for the first time, and seeing it again now makes me think about how so much has changed.

I've started reading a broader range of books. Classics mainly, and I got into the Percy Jackson series as well, I've gotten back into the fantasy range of books, as well as broadened my horizons with older English/Classic books. One year ago I don't think I would even dream about reading about a prime man falling in love with a thirteen year old girl and describing her in such.. vivid terms. In a way, it's helped me appreciate the English language more.

Picture above: LOLITA- Vladimir Nabokov (Penguin Books)

One year ago I spent so much of my time worrying about what other people thought of me; worrying about how they saw me, what they would think of me.. I really don't see the point in trying to please other people when you don't and can't appreciate yourself.

And I can't even stress this enough, everybody needs to be themselves theres no point in acting like mainstream people, because in the end we'll all just be clones of society's preferred character, not who we are, and we're all human, we all have different characteristics, don't be afraid to do something just because you might get hate, you just have to know that people's hate is stemmed from their jealously of your confidence in doing something, and your passion for doing it. Their hate is generated from their failures and you shouldn't be accounted for that. Haters should learn to move on from their mistakes which is causing them to hate, and learn to walk the path ahead of them in a more positive light and not projectile copious amounts of dark energy to confident people.

One year ago I was thinking of completely dropping Japanese. After choosing it I really regretted it. I was stressing so much about the work that I'd have to do and learning a new language isn't exactly easy for anybody. So, my brain exploded into 10,000 parts every time I thought of it. But, I guess I decided to stick with it, and Japanese, I've really learnt to appreciate it. So I guess not dropping it was one of the best decisions I've ever made.

I guess one year ago I was a completely different person. I never thought I'd get remotely interested in photography or even get my own domain on the internet, never did I think that I would be the first suggestion on Google when you typed in "Eugene and" and hell to the never did I ever think I'd escape the web of society's preferred citizen.

I guess, everything that's happened these past twelve months happened for the better and I've learnt so much. Life is shaping up to be better than it was twelve months ago, I'm happier, I feel more free and I'm even getting clearer skin because I'm not bothering about worrying. So readers, live your life, don't be afraid, and keep moving forward and forget all the negatives in the past.

Five Fifty

So as you may know, my new camera has arrived, hence making Nikon Yen, transform into a Canon Yen! Yay! She's a teenager now. But that must be some crazy hormonal change to make her a different brand.. any who. Sorry about my blogging habits. A lot of things have been trampling their way into my life. Like piano exams, thank god it's over. Now you can look forward to better quality photo posts in the future. Also, after vomiting out all the money I had saved for the past god knows how long just for this camera, I am now officially in debt and broke.

Yes, I have changed the laces on my D.M's to yellow.. just for summer. Black on black gets boring after 8 months.

Anyway, this week I'm going to be taking pictures for Year seven lifesaving, so I'm looking forward to that. I'm also the apprentice of the current school photographer/teacher, so I'll be taking a whole lot more photos in the future involving the school. On another unrelated note, I ordered a 50mm f/1.8 ii and a Petal hood on eBay which have yet to come, hopefully this week :-)

Mistakes - WHY DID YOU SEND ME THE WRONG CAMERA, DDP?!?!

So, the major secret/surprise was that I was getting a new camera, which arrived when I was on camp! yay! yay! yay! But they sent me the wrong one. I paid extra for the 550D body because it looks better ( yes I am shallow when it comes to these things ) but they sent me the Japanese Kiss x4. So, I rang them up, they sorted it out and they decided to organise their courier to pick up the body tomorrow, and send me the 550D on Monday! Yay! But they told me to keep their lenses because they're only sending the body. So in a way, it's win win, but lose more so for me because I'll have to wait until Friday again to get it, and that Saturday is my piano exam.. have to full focus. T_T Dangit!

Exciting News!!

So HELLO.

This post is going to be aesthetically challenged, and very boring

But just to let you readers know

*CHANGES ARE COMING TO EUGENE AND YEN!*

You can look forward to:

- Renovated new layout

- Posting is (hopefully) going to be more frequent

- New type of posting / method

AND MUCH MORE!

AND DO YOU KNOW WHY..

It's a secret. I'll tell you all soon enough.

See you all after Camp! :-)

Delinquent

SO HELLO MID TERM BREAK.

It's nearly over for the school year and the weather is heating up! Oh my dear lord. My urban outfitters Thermal shirt arrived this week and it is a beauty amongst other beautiful things. This week I read "The Picture of Dorian Gray" AGAIN, because last time I read it I couldn't absorb the copious amounts of old English text located within. So I gave it another go and Oh baby baby, classic. We threw a surprise going away party for Ayumi sensei, because she's going back to Japan :( :( :( She was the best! She taught me so many Japanese phrases.. pretty inappropriate but yeah. She's amazing. Shall ela-bo-rate more later.

SEVEN ELEVEN DAY! YAY! So we all hunted the city for Free Slurpies. The store manager took a photo of us to put on the website but hell diggity can not seem to find that damn picture anywhere.

Sleeping whilst driving a tractor is extremely safe, as demonstrated by fellow "a" above.

Anyway, onto the juicy, juicy details of the party! We had a lovely cake from the city, and everybody brought in a lot of things. Cookies, chips, drink, drink and more drink! Pocky, jelly and other Asian varieties that swarmed the Japanese class into a huge stomach ache after.

YAY! Awkward smiles. Hehe.


Sigh. Bye Ayumi, you were amazing. We'll always have Facebook. Hope all you readers out there have had a fabulous week, and I'm starting to cease with followers.. come on guys! FOLLOW!

Death

One of those things that affects so many people around the world everyday so strongly, we question how it inflicts so much emotional pain on us. This concept is death. So recently I knew of someone who died. This death caused so much emotion in the community in which I'm affiliated within and I think to clear up some of my feelings about the concept of death.

First up Death is something we shouldn't fear. Death comes naturally, and even if we know it's coming I believe, we should all stay strong and maintain an uphill approach to life and live like we're on the edge of life. Daring. We shouldn't be sad that we're leaving back some people we love, some people we care for. Friends, family, accomplices, whatever. They may never see our faces again, but we'll still be with them. Because some strong independent girl once told me, as a catholic, God doesn't put you through something he doesn't think you can't handle. And I guess that's the main theme of the post today. You just have to know that these things happen and God knows we can come out from it stronger, and of course he knows we can cope with it.

We are all born into this world with some kind of purpose. We all pursue our own lives, our own friends, our own love interests, but sometimes our lives are faced with some decisions where we question the authenticity of our being, the very core of our lives. We shouldn't question what life puts in front of us; life shows us a spectrum of imagination, a spectrum containing ubiquitous amounts of love, and equally amount of pain that in turn morphs us into stronger, more capable, independent people who walk this earth.

Don't be afraid of what life holds ahead of you, everything is of course, breakable in any form or way, but it's the way we live our lives that actually counts for something.

Rest in Peace, Fred Pham. May your story continue to live long, healthy and strong with a willpower to keep burning the tips of Cancer.

Some kind of Acquisition

So yesterday, I went over to the good old Harrison East's house. But not before doing some serious thrifting to the newly set up Vinnies in Mittagong! I bought a really nice gold buttoned blazer for $15. When I went a couple months back, you HAD to buy it with the suede pants which I didn't really fancy, and that altogether was $36. May post a picture in a future Outfit Post.

Anyway, Harrison bought the Canon EOS 500D a couple weeks back, and his mum, who was in acting school for four years, some how managed to get the camera down from The RRP $1500+ twin lens kit to just $1150! Included camera bag, and what not?! Now I really want to buy the 500D, it's so elegant and beautiful! And probably equally as amazing as the 550D. SO MANY OPTIONS. His mother took us out for a brilliant lunch in this secluded town called Exeter. Google it. It's small and has only 3 shops. Maximum. But the food there is brilliant! Oh my dear sweet god. And the Chai Latte I had was superb. I can not stress to you the immensity of the amazingness of the latte. *melts*

Just in case you're wondering (possibly not) I took all the photos without Yen. I did bring Yen, but I stuffed her in a cupboard in the kitchen at his house whilst I bathed in the glory of the 500D. I'm cheating on her. Shh.

Anyway, so we spent the afternoon making Vanilla cupcakes, and mini cupcakes as well as making the kitchen into an earthquake that erupted a giant from the very pits of the earth and caused a tsunami to clean it all up.

Before the process I was trying to find out how to "ten second timer" the camera, but only did the 2 second one. So all we did was take 7000 embarrassing shots such as the one shown above. Turns out, after 5o,678 tries, it was the "remote" option. How embarrassing.

The cupcakes turned out fairly well. Very nice.. and the icing was extremely well made. Good job instant packaging!

So whilst waiting for the cupcakes to cook, we started taking stupid pictures of me.

THE CUPCAKES ARE JIZZ.

I think it's awesomeness speaks for itself. Omg. IT WAS SO NICE. People would totally buy this stuff for $2.50 in the city!

After eating out cupcakes, we decided, as stupid teenagers do, run down to the park and eat the remainding cupcakes there, drag a three legged dog a long and get blown to bits by the freezy, frosty cold wind. Fuck you Bowral.

See, look at the poor dog. NAW FACTOR?!

And yes, more stupid photos of me. But let me re-interate. The stupid photos WERE NOT MY IDEA. They just simply occured. Like a lovechild made in the tropics of Africa. I mean hey, why would you have sex in Africa when you live in Australia!?!? Because it just happened.

More ring close ups that look shit. Just for the Lulz.

I love the zebra badge so much. It's beautiful. My baby! Kind of. When it's pinned on me it is my baby. But anyway.

Sigh. Heres some kind of "Outfit" in this "Outfit Post". I'll schedule some kinder posting to you readers of Eugene and Yen. Anyway, don't get your hopes up, so you wont get dissappointed. But There MAY be a post on Wednesday. If not, see you Friday!

Bubble Soap

This week was pretty packed, jammed and destructive. I helped photograph the Pink Afternoon Macaron Stall on Tuesday and that was a major success. All proceeds to the Cancer Council. Anyways, as promised, here are a small fraction of film photos from Japan, there are some other incredible ones I shall scan and place on the interweb, but for now, these ones of my awkward smile should suffice you more than enough.

Apparently, this is the place where all the celebrities go. I had a friend who met Meryl Streep here! Wowzors! Aaaha. Awkward smiles ftw.. hehe

Me and Lana (Anal) a brilliant prefect of my school on a Shinkansen (Bullet train) to somewhere distant away from the land of eggs. Nasu Valley. LOL. I don't know why the lighting is so weird, and you can see some of another picture on the other side.. how awkward.

And of course, my all time favourite Japan buddy, Kristen McKristopherson. Kristopher is an amazing friend, as well as someone who makes me laugh almost at least 20 times per day. Hence making me gain 80 years in facial age, and putting 10,0000000000000 microscopic wrinkles and other lines on my face.

Japan brings back good times. School sucks. Results suck. I'm just so glad I passed all my exams. Yes, I do fail at exams, life and what not. Anyway, I'm going out today to the doctor, then to thrift, then to come home, then get picked up by a friend, spend the day there doing pointless shit using his DSLR (he gots a 500D!) and me photographing it all.

So long, Children!