On 1 July 2002, I wrote the following in my LJ:

A slightly younger Bob Barker saunters up to the ladies like the big spending, smooth criminal type you often see in these types of films. His gaudy shirt is unbuttoned halfway and his sequined tie hangs loosely around his neck. He drips with this rather Tom Jones'esk devilish charm and, as creepy older men always do in these sorts of things, scores with the ladies. Throughout the entire situation, you can hear a really drippy acid jazz version of The Price Is Right theme song playing in the backround.

God, I love my work.


Today, this video comes out:

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/showbiz/2009/05/16/nguyen.barker.memories.cnn

Long story short, he refused the opportunity to be a porn star! ;) Muahaha!

Brilliant.

I've decided that I am going to do whatever the fuck I want to do, when I want to do it. Anyone that doesn't like it can kiss my fat white ass.

I guess that I don't really need to say that I'm completely emotionally drained today. Nick and I came home late last night, but only after the "final notice" was given on the CFA website. We were very lucky to have a supportive place to go during this ordeal.

There is so much running through my head today. When all of this bush fire nonsense first started just over a week ago, I was nervous but not really scared. Nick and I packed some bags and kept them by the door in case we needed to make a quick exit. We didn't think we would ever have to use them, though. In fact, we were going to unpack them last night when the fire near our place started. The fire was 600m away from our home. When I saw that massive plume of smoke, I was genuinely scared. I sat at Nick's cousin's house sick to my stomach at the thought of coming home to ashes where my house once stood. You can say that if you're safe then it's all going to be okay, but it isn't. I didn't realise how different it was until we were the ones affected. We are thanking our lucky stars, but this situation could very well have ended differently.

Most of all, it took this situation for us to realise that we really AREN'T prepared for something like this. There are so many things we need to get and prepare in advance that we didn't even think of. Needless to say, we're going to take care of those things now. I think that, after this situation, I am going to be a massive advocate of getting your bush fire plan ready. It doesn't matter where you live...you need to have one. You never know what will happen.

Moving on slightly, I have received a very generous donation from an individual to go toward funeral flower donations for the unlucky victims of the bush fires. I was able to buy a number of sundries for this relief effort, which I am very thankful for. I have also spoken to my main flower wholesaler, who has agreed to assist with this project in any way they can. The outpouring of support is amazing. I hope that this, even in some small way, helps these families through this difficult time. As I mentioned before, please contact me if you know of anyone that could benefit from this donation.

To everyone: Thank you for your support throughout this ordeal and everything else. You are all so special to me. And please...stay safe.

Just wanted to let you know that Nick and I are safe. We left very soon after the fire near us started. Only two or so streets away, it was too close for comfort...and way too much smoke for my liking. We're now in Dandenong at his cousin's place. Not sure where we'll be tonight, but I'll keep y'all updated.

As most of you know, I am a freelance florist. Unfortunately due to the recent bush fires, many lives have been lost. In an effort to help in some way, I would like to donate flowers for the funerals of some of these victims free of charge. If you know of anyone that would benefit from this donation, please contact me on (03) 9754 6680, 0401 221 303 or admin@lasallefloraldesign.com and tell me your story. My promise to you is to provide beautiful tributes to honour your precious loved ones.

If you want to volunteer your time to help out with bushfire relief, you can register your interest here:

http://www.govolunteer.com.au/volunteer/events.htm

Nick and I have just registered our interest in volunteering on the weekends (unfortunately, that's all we can do since we work/go to school). Some of the things you can do include providing food and support to the firefighters, working in the relief centres and cleaning up after the fact.

People can be so fucking insensitive sometimes.

I think there might be a small chance that my house is haunted. Let's examine this idea for a moment:

1. I've heard voices in here a few times. One time, Nick had gone to bed and I was turning off all the lights in the front of the house. As I walked into the room, I heard a woman's voice say, "Goodnight."

2. We've now had two instances of doors in the house moving on their own. The first time, Nick and I were cleaning the house when the laundry door slammed shut. There weren't any windows open and nothing was leaning against the door. This last time just happened about 10 minutes ago. I was sitting in my lounge room on the phone with my mom when it sounded like Nick was coming through the door. We're talking the sound of the handle turning and the door opening. No one was there or even outside around the neighbourhood. And to my knowledge, the door was locked.

More shit will have to happen before I declare this place to be haunted, but that's definitely a start. I've experienced a haunting before at a hotel I used to work at, but I've never had freaking doors open and close by themselves and heard voices that came from no one else.

I wish I had a K2 meter. ;)

I know a lot of us in the safer areas of Victoria are asking ourselves what we can do to help. It might not seem like a lot, but there are a few things all of us can do that will provide a large service to those in need. One is to donate money to the CFA and various other relief organisations out there dedicated to assisting with the Victorian bush fires. Here's a list of some of these organisations:

CFA bushfire hotline - http://www.cfa.vic.gov.au

Red Cross - http://www.redcross.org.au

Salvation Army - http://www.salvationarmy.org.au/SALV/HOMEPAGE/pc=HOME

St Vincent de Paul - http://www.vinnies.org.au/home.cfm?nocache=932312

Wildlife Rescue - http://www.wildlifevictoria.org.au/cms/index.php

Gippsland Emergency Relief Fund - http://relieffund.org.au/

Victorian Bushfire Relief Fund - Donations can be made at any branch of National Australia Bank (BSB: 082-001, Acct. No.: 860 046 797)

Another excellent thing you can do is to donate blood. This small act of charity will make a big difference, particularly if you have a rare blood type. If you would like to make an appointment to do this, I urge you to go to the Red Cross website and fill out their online request form: http://www.donateblood.com.au/page.aspx?IDDataTreeMenu=47&parent=31 I've submitted my form, and hopefully I'll be giving blood on Wednesday.

And to everyone: Stay safe.

It's just been reported that people are RESTARTING some of the fires that the CFA have managed to put out! How fucking sick do you have to be to do something like that?! I'm not normally a violent person, but I think we should bring back burning people at the stake. I can't think of a better punishment for people like this.

After a two weeks heat wave with temperatures up to 45 C (114 F) for three straight days and again yesterday, conditions in Victoria were said to be the worst for bush fires since the 1983 Ash Wednesday fires.

About 24 hours after ther trouble seemed to begin, everyone is saying that this is the worst ever. Aside from one very worrisome fire about 4km away from us last night, we're relatively safe. However, there is a HUGE area of the northeast that is basically gone. One of the areas in that region that is on fire is in excess of 100,000 hectares. 35 people are confirmed dead and many more are expected. Friends of ours live frighteningly close to the main fire front, so we're quite concerned about their welfare. Here's the fire map of Victoria as of 2:30 today (under a cut due to the size):

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I can't believe all of this. I've sort of gotten used to hearing about the bush fires here, but it's so different this time around. Nick and I are in a high bush fire risk area now, and we have some bags packed in case we need to make a quick exit. That in itself is scary as hell. When we were looking for a home to buy, we almost bought a house in one of the worst affected areas. Nick and I were planning on going to Marysville this weekend for a short break, the township of which is essentially gone now. We didn't go because I lost my job. I have never been happier to be broke than I am right now.

I can't get those affected by this horrible situation out of my mind. I wish I could help somehow. I'm going to see if it possible for me to donate blood tomorrow. I have a rare blood type, so it might come in handy. That's about all I can do.



NOTE: I'm using my rain avatar for this post as (hopefully) an omen for the rain we desperately need right now. Let us hope and pray that it comes.

I'm officially a student again.

Yeah...my last entry? Scratch that. I got fired after 4 days of training. Yes, friends...not 4 days of doing any part of my job, but 4 days of TRAINING! And how did they do it? Over the phone, of course! Fuckers.

Hopefully I can still get into the course that I declined when I took the job with those pricks...

Two more years. Just two more years of slugging my guts for other people and I'm outta' here. Just two more years...

I have had my fair share of "paranormal" experiences in the past.

1. When I worked as a housekeeper at a hotel in my hometown, there was reported to be two entities residing there. After a few months of working there, they finally assigned me to the rooms where one of the entities (the one that was reported to be playful) always appears. Activity started happening about a week after I arrived. The rooms on that section of the hotel hadn't been remodeled yet, so they were very oddly laid out and it was quite difficult to get around the bed to the clock radio in a hurry. You'd have to go over the bed, in which case you would notice if someone did this. Anyway, I would be cleaning the bathroom when I'd hear the clock radio go on. There was absolutely no one else around and nothing else would have been disturbed. I went in and make sure it wasn't just set on alarm, which it wasn't. (It was also a weird time of day, like, 1:48 PM or something random.) So I turned it off and went back in the bathroom. Not even a minute later, the clock radio came on again. This type of thing would happen frequently while I was in another part of a room. I would even go back to the rooms where it would happen long after I had cleaned them to make sure the radio hadn't come back on. It never had. I finally said to the entity, "Look. I know you're here. I acknowledge your presence. While I don't mind you being here, I'm trying to work. Please don't keep turning the radio on and off because it's very distracting." It never happened again after that.

2. The only piece of furniture I brought with me to Australia was my grandmother's desk. It's a wooden secretary's desk with the little drawers and slots on top that was built in about 1920. This desk has been in my parents' house for as long as I can remember. During this time, the little knob from the middle drawer on the right-hand side has always been missing. We've never known where this knob was. When it arrived in Australia, I unpacked the box myself and made sure everything was in order. Anyway, about a year later I was looking at the desk thinking that I wanted to get it restored. I was a bit sad because I knew that they'd probably have to replace all of the knobs on the drawers because they'd never find another one like that. (The knobs are quite a unique size and style.) A few days later, Nick and I were cleaning up the front room when we decided to pry open the drawer without the knob. Sitting in the drawer was the missing knob with the original screw. Mind you, that knob has NEVER been there. I made sure all of the drawers were empty both when I sent it off to be packed for shipping and when I unpacked it and put it into place. There was nothing there. Needless to say, I put the knob on right away and called my parents to ask about it. They were quite shocked. Our only explanation is that Grandma was waiting for the right time to give it back.

3. As crazy as it sounds, I have dreams that turn out to be true. They're always pretty obscure, but they always have some message that someone should know. My first known case of this was when I was in high school. I had a dream that I had been on stage but had died of a heart condition. In the dream, my father was standing over me. Two weeks after this dream, my father went into the hospital with heart troubles. Two months before the 9/11 attacks, I dreamed that two very tall, identical buildings were on fire toward the top, and I had to try to get people out of them. Most recently, I had a dream that a loved one that died about 10 years ago was sitting in my dad's chair with a very sad look on her face. Not knowing fully what to make of this, I told my dad to just go to the doctor straight away if he started feeling bad. Two days later, he started feeling crummy so he went to the doctor. He found out that he was very sick. Needless to say, I interpret all of my dreams now...both with a book and with my own deductive powers.

And the last of two:


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As is tradition, here is the first of two:


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2008 Resolutions in Review:

1. To lose weight. (And not just say I'm going to, but actually do it...starting NOW!) - Does 10 pounds count?

2. To take better care of myself all around, and to actually care about my appearance and do whatever I can to improve it. - I actually did this. I started wearing make-up every day, and I actually cared about the clothes I wore. This is a continuing goal, as you will soon read.

3. To develop and embrace my personal sense of style. - Yep! Again...ongoing process.

4. To stop giving a shit about what other people think, and to stop sacrificing my personal comfort and sense of style because of what I think others are thinking about me. It's stupid, and it has to STOP! - I've pretty much done this, actually. =) I wear what I like because I like it, and I've been getting out there and auditioning for plays despite the mean people I sometimes encounter at said auditions. That's a nice feeling!

5. To get a job with a good florist and stick with it indefinitely, soaking up the good (and bad) experiences I'll most definitely encounter. - I didn't do this one. In the end, I decided that I had enough of shops and the whole prima-donna head florist thing. I thought that I could make it on my own, and I, indeed, have!

6. To at least start the Certificate III in Floristry. If I can afford to start AND finish it by year's end, great! Otherwise, I'll settle for at least starting it. - Didn't do this either, and I'm not going to. You'll read why soon.

7. To either have had a baby, be pregnant, or be at a position with my health where I can start fertility treatments. - Yeah. Not commenting on this one, as it would inspire a very long rant at the moment.

8. To advertise my wedding/events floristry business and get some more weddings booked for next year! - Done and dusted! =)

9. To audition for as many plays as I can, even if I don't think I'll get a part. - Taking into account the time period I was away in the US and unable to audition for any shows, I did reasonably well at this one. I'm in a play at the moment, and I'm still auditioning. Got some GREAT experience with this in 2008.</b>

10. To be HAPPY and optimistic about life. =) - For the most part, I win at this.

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2009 Resolutions to Achieve:

I was told recently that the main reason why people don't achieve their new year's resolutions is because they don't dissect their goals to figure out HOW they're going to achieve them. So, I've dissected my resolutions this year.

Get into the weddings/events management industry.
- Start the Advanced Diploma of Event Management at Swinburne University.
- Get a part time/casual position in the hospitality industry (preferably in a venue that handles weddings and conferences).
- Update my website to include my budding weddings/events coordination business.

Get back into the theatre.
- Keep auditioning for every show you can, regardless to whether you think you’re right for any of the parts.
- Get in shape!

Get healthy and happy.
- Go predominately vegetarian.
- Take a multi-vitamin daily.
- Do dance classes twice a week (not including rehearsals).
- Walk three times a week (either on the treadmill or take Zhaan out).
- Keep a log of sorts on Facebook that includes my weekly weight progress and monthly picture updates.
- Do 50 sit-ups every morning.
- Drink 1 litre of water daily.

Renovate the house.
- Remodel the ensuite bathroom (Devon and Plumber).
- Remodel the kitchen (cheap flat-pack).
- Install laminate flooring in the front area of the house.
- Remodel the main bathroom (Devon and Plumber).
- Finish landscaping the front garden (Nick and Devon).
- Install solar garden lights (Devon).
- Do light landscaping in the back garden (Nick and Devon).

Taken from aphephobia:

January - Here's to another good year filled with wonderful new experiences!

February - All last evening, I had this feeling that there was something I was meant to be doing.

March - I got another wedding gig today.

April - I found a website for wedding expos across Melbourne today, so I e-mailed them to get more information on a few of the expos being held later this year.

May - I just got back from the brainstorming meeting of "Play in a Day".

June - I just had an audition for a play.

July - Nick and I are back in Melbourne now.

August - I want to do some goth wedding flowers.

September - For many years now, I've felt like something was missing from my life.

October - I wrote this yesterday but forgot to post it.

November - I'm making a bitch decree for my friends listing: If you do that annoying Twitter thing and don't put it under an LJ cut, you will be removed from my friends listing. (Muahaha! Best sentence ever!)

December - You ever look at the people you're associated with and think, "How old are you?"

You ever look at the people you're associated with and think, "How old are you?"