2003-09-29 - 10:59 a.m.
#127: No Need for The Final Week
Note to self: Well, I've located yet another netcafe to type up this entry, this time at a handy location on Queen Street itself, rather than going all the way up to the Graphic Novel Cafe (although at the time I wrote the entry before at GNC, I was going to attend a Friday evening of wonderful MAGIC, so that was all all right) and I've purchased myself a whole two hours of internet time which will undoubtedably mostly be used writing this in an open Notepad window and completely ignoring the prospect of surfing the net. Ah well. I guess it's all right if I have to pay to JUST have access to a ready computer, afterall.
I wrote the majority of this entry sitting in a comfortable leather chair/sofa-like thing in the members only lounge of the Skycity Casino: Indulging in the free food and drinks that comes with such membership. And all it took was my father to gamble away hundreds upon thousands of dollars in a variety of high risk/low return games and which he'll never get back again. I don't really don't get it, but then again I don't think my father gets why I have to spend hundreds upon thousands of hours in a variety of meaningless/frivolous activities on the internet. So it all evens out in the end, our strange obsessions with things that involve lots of effort for little return. Only it really doesn't, since he's the one paying for my special happy internet time. Looking at it that way, I'm probably the biggest gamble of his entire life, what with the amount of money poured into me with no (as of yet) return. Erk. Hopefully I can change this situation around when I go to Adelaide. And hopefully I can keep my resolve.
Well, here I am into the final week of staying in Auckland and its cast of eccentric inhabitants (you know who you are, you crazy Aucklandites). I forgot to mention this in the last entry (written on Friday), but on that day the whole family actually went back to Howick to close my bank accounts and cancel all my cash cards, and on the way to the bank we decided to conveniently take the road that ran past the front of our old house that was no longer ours. You know, just to take a quick look. No harm in that, is there? Anyway, we jst had a quick drive past and saw that it was in the process of being moved into by the new family. There was anew car in the driveway, the garage door was open, and there were a couple of cardboard boxes filled with stuff on the floor. I felt strangely betrayed. It's like seeing your wife with another man. Or woman, for that atter. Actually.... No, let's not go there. Anyway, when we passed the house, we also saw that some junk we left behind outside the day before that had not yet been taken away for paper recycling; and it looked like the garbage people had missed it entirely due to the fact it was lying against the wall instead of being closer to the street like the trash is usually meant to be. Seeing that as my mother drove past, she exclaimed, "Oh no! They haven't taken our recycled paper away!", which is kinda funny because it's technically not OUR paper for recycling any more, but the new owners, since the house wasn't ours any more. That was a weird thought. The new owners inherited our trash pile. That's.... weird.
Back on track: We went to Howick to close my bank accounts and I had to watch my cards being cut up. Like, ow. Goodbye eftpos. Goodbye credit card. Goodbye well of money that I decided I would never, ever use until recently when I went down to Wellington and broke out the moneys. Goodbye Bashtarlle, home of my youth and homeland! Oh. I'm quoting Giant Robo, again. I'll get to why I'm doing that again after I'm all done with my story of having no more moneys. So. Back to it. At the moment, I'm stuck with only the money in my wallet, which is a ratherfreaky thought, I have to admit. Last time, when I moved from Adelaide, Australia to Auckland, New Zealand, I couldn't imagine living in a paperless money society (well, plastic now. those new fangled notes are pretty tough) and I only had a bank account to store my savings. Savings that were nigh on inaccessible due to the fact that my parents officially looked after it and I had to go through them in order to access any of it. So I never bothered to do that and relied on pocket money. Still do, actually, only the "pocket money" is more like "please, please, PLEASE give me moneys so that I might LIVE!" nowadays. And now, I'm moving back to Adelaide (switch locations around. natch) and I'm biting my nails over my inability to use eftpos and credit card to bail me out in case I didn't have enough ready cash on my person. I usually try not to carry large amounts of loose paper money on me any more; so now that I have to again, it's kinda like a big sep back in time. That's kinda funny. I think. My walet feels so empty without my cards, too....
But enough of my financial difficulties and unto the reason why I'm quoting Giant Robo right now (besides the great finds of the series I found when I went to Wellington): Saturday was my day at the Auckland Anime Club, the second to last one I was going to be able to attend. I just didn't know how MUCH of my day it was going to be until the meeting started. For one thing, they had decided to show Giant Robo. That made my day in itself. But it got better, oh so much better. For one think, I thought they were going to use the GNC copies for the showing. They did not. Instead they were using the Korean DVD boxset version of GR. And when the meeting started it was revealed that it was now MY Korean DVD boxset version of GR. All 7 episodes, 3 language dub options (including English!) and 3 language sub options. All mine, and with as many signatures as possible from the people of AAC as were there. I squealed like a little piggy girl. That was just the biggest and best surprise I ever had and it only got better as the meeting progressed: For one thing, despite the option to play the series in Japanese with English subtitles, the club watched it in English dub of its own volition. And I really, really, REALLY liked it much better in dub than I did in sub. And so that it was played in such was just wonderful, considering the fact that I know the club in general doesn't really have that much appreciation of English language tracks as I might have (what with my aspiration to become a voice actor and all).
And there was more! More gifts came and showered me with happy affection! One such gift was a picture of half nekkid bikini girl waitresses comissioned by Zeb and drawn by someone whose name I conveniently can't remember right now. Err. But it was a very nicely drawn picture (all laminated too!) and I really liked it, since half nekkid bikini girl waitresses are really my sort of thing. Although I thought the unusual message, "Here's hoping you will be missed!" seemed a bit.... off. Fortunately, I found out it was a massive typo and so all was well. Unfortunately, I think this is one gift I was going to have to hide from my parents, especially my mother. There's no way in holy heck that I was ever going to show them THAT. They have something against me and sex. Odd. And the gifts kept coming! There was a photo book from Wong, complete with commentary in the margins. It was a very personal gift from the club members to me (that makes sense, don;t interrupt me) that I will treasure, most definitely. Not only did it have pictures from recent weeks (I wondered why so many group op photos were being taken.... I simply assumed it was because I was going away, but I never expect them to do something like this! Then again, I'm a dolt so they should watch out if they were to try and full a truly smart person!) but it had many from a long time ago.... Back when we conducted midnight raids on MacDonalds and reduced its patrons to gibbering wrecks of human flesh. Back when I had the last party at my place and I encouraged people to bring alcohol and get drunk. Back I still had black hair and didn't look like a Korean. Which isn't that long ago, now that I think about it. By the way, I really resent that. It seems like everybody I meet who's asked me about my hair also immediately assume I must be Korean. Bah. But in any case, it was a massive effort to put that book together (complete with amusing commentary! I frown at several of them, though. Because they scare me into not turning over the page, sometimes) and I thank Wong and everyione who contributed. Same to buying the Giant Robo boxset and same to Zeb for getting that custom picture made for me. I really appreciate it all. And I should have said this as a speech when I was asked to make one, instead of writing it up as a journal entry where hardly anybody in the AAC will see. Damn.
I kinda wish I could have stayed out of the room a bit more, though. I mean, I know it was my day and all and there was a showing of my favourite series of all time (with MY DVDS. Joy) so I had to sit in on it. And it's still definitely a great series to watch and admire, especially with friends who are just as crazy as you to stand up and exclaim "Together! Allegiance or Death! Bigfire!" in the introduction. But I wished I could have stayed out of the viewing room to talk to everyone outside. I really wanted to engage in a little idle chat and banter with people I soon wouldn't be able to idly chat and banter with no more. It didn't help that immediately afterwards we switched to Volcano High, the Korean film which pits high school students wielding super spiritual powers againts one another like some kind of live action Capcom fighting game. It was pretty good, if not god enough to be "great" and I'm glad I saw it.... But overall I think I would have been just as happy outside (and maybe make people outside happy, too!) and just plain talked. Okay, I'll be honest, I wanted to spend more time with the lovely ladies who seem to revel in my pain the most: Zeb and Alex. Yeah, I'm a bit of a masochist. Everybody has little quirks of their own! In any case, I think I'll do just that this coming Saturday, even though we're showing the last three episodes of Giant Robo (did I mention they were my DVDs? Because they are). Maybe I'll suggest a showing of a live action film after to fill in the gap that I know may be there.
Fortunately, we went to dinner afterwards, so that would have fulfill my need for being social. Unfortnately, we had to sit at a series of smaller tables, so we were all split up and hence unable to chat freely to one another. Fortunately, Fergus was on the table I was on, and we both proceeded to get a little drunk, to the horrified amusement of Fred and Terra, who were also at our table. Even more fortunately was the fact that part of my meal was paid for by the AAC pooling of resources, which was slightly wasted (unfortunately) since I decided I was going to pay for whatever Fergus and Terra bought (which wasn't much, fortunately.... Fortune was frowning and smiling at me a lot in that happy hour). Yeah, I was feeling slightlygenerous there, and that was BEFORE I started drinking. I hope I wasn't imposing too much on them though... I mean, I basically upped and bought Terra a meal (much to her dismayed protests andmuch to my dogged insistence) which was a pork katsudon. Was that too forward? I hope not. I also hope that she could actually eat pork, I remember her saying that her blood was partially middle-eastern and they have a BIT of something against eating pork. Oh dear god, I may have inadvertantly insulted her and didn't know it. Errgh.... I'll have to apologise later.
After that, we had a bit of a split up, as some members went one way and we went the other: Wong and Kunfei numbering amongst those who left. Which was too bad, because we went to Xaviers place to watch Musa a period adventure/drama with some incredible looking brutal action, also from Korea. It was a great film, and didn't even rely on special effects to the extent that Volcano High did. Definitely the better movie of the two, although I still liked the concept of high school students beating each other up with gravity defying moves. Then again, I liked the concept of League of the Extraordinary Gentlemen, and look at how THAT ended up as a movie. Anyway, Musa was a great piece of epic cinema in which all the elemnts somehow managed to slot together perfectly. It makes one wonder if Hollywood can make movies of such a calibre again: Epics that combine adventure, heartstopping action and an interesting array of characters. Like Ben-Hur, something that runs through the entire gamut of emotions rather than sticking to one tone (if it's an action film, you get explosions all the way through. What's p with that?).
This became a blow by blow entry again. Rats. Anywa, that was the weekend and now I'm into the final week here in Auckland. Five weekdays and one weekend consisting of two days. And one AAC Saturday meeting to go. Ouch. This shall be a painful week. Painful if long, even more so if short. I wonder if I'll be busy this week with offers to go out as I did this weekend? I'd rather not keep my hopes up, but I'm always ready for a boost to my ego by being told (in many unsaid ways) that I'll be missed once I leave this city and go across a couple of thousand kilometres of water and landmass. Sigh. I should leave the country more often if I can garner this sort of response. It's.... nice to be appreciated. I'm feeling all warm and chummy inside right now.
Incidentally, I seem to have inadvertantly started keeping an offline hardcopy diary by writing most of this entry down by pen. Maybe it's time I go back to doing that. For one thing, it means I can keep secret things secret (and remembered. Having mind like a sieve really isn't convenient) and this will probably change my writing style a bit, since I'm writing this online journal like an open email to the world, whereas a hardcopy version will be a private note to myself. And for another thing, it means I start practicising writing with a pen again. My hand cramped up so much while writing the entry above on paper it's not funny: Especially if this is going to happen when I'm taking notes for a University lecture. Yeah, I think I'll do more writing with pens. And the training will toughen my fingers up for university! Yeah! Now all I need to do is learn to study hard and not fail exams!
Well. Time to live out this final week as best as I can. Besides, I've almost run out of internet cafe time. Once more into the breach, my friends.... And then it's off to Adelaide, Australia. Where hopefully I can meet the anime club there. And make something of myself with all this confidence boosting attention. I just hope it's not all going to waste....
