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• Have to get up at 6am…downer
• Cat cuddles up to me…upper
• Find Eilix and Bato playing Hexic against each other at 7am….wtf
• See ducks sitting on neighbour’s roof as I pull out of the driveway…upper
• McDonalds breakfast…upper for the tastebuds, downer for my arteries
• Find out that my train is an express…upper
• Train is five minutes late and chock-full so I can’t play my DS…mild downer
• Realised that I just wasted money buying a ticket because I already had one…downer
• Arrive at uni, greeted by friends, do well on the newspaper quiz…mild upper
• Sit through the intelligence-insulting lecture that forces me to be on campus at 8.30 in the freaking morning…downer
• Get worked accomplished in intelligence-insulting tute so I can leave early…mild upper
• Don’t have a break and need to get to the next class…downer
• Realise I don’t have my tablet pen to take notes with…downer
• Lecturer makes me want to fall asleep…downer
• Sleepiness accentuated by lack of sleep last night…downer
• Stomach is dissolving in it’s own acids but don’t have a break until 3.30pm…major downer
• Consider skipping classes and going home to catch up on meals and sleep…upper, although it shouldn’t be
• Realise that I can’t go home even if I want to because I’m having dinner in the city with an old school friend…downer, although it shouldn’t be
• Skip second half of the lecture in disgust so I can at least eat something…downer
• Subway lunch with extra cookies…upper
• Need to take a cash advance off my credit card to pay for lunch and tonight’s dinner…downer
• No money left now until next week’s pay day…downer
• Feel very unhealthy walking up the stairs to class…downer
• Late for class…downer
• Get to class only to find that I have no bloody clues about this subject…major downer
• At least I don’t get pestered my the tutor about my lack of work…mild upper
• Get to next class and can actually make valid contributions…upper
• Battery on laptop went flat…downer
• Suddenly saw a puffer fish on the window…upper
• Have to consider fare evasion because I don’t want to waste the ticket I already had on a five minute journey…downer
• Organise my club membership and get excited about getting seriously involved soon…upper
• Elevator in the Union Building makes itself my mortal enemy…downer

Uppers: 12
Downers: 20

next…class which is looking promising, dinner which should be good but exhaustion will probably stop me from enjoying it properly, commute home which will only be frustrating and finally an evening in bed dead, exhausted and depressed because there were more downers than uppers today. And all this to the background of family trouble, boy trouble and education disorganisation.

It’s crazy how such…essentially unimportant things can change my mood so drastically.

My mind isn’t very healthy right now. I think I’m struggling. It must be the backwash of adrenalin and happiness from seven weeks in Japan. Been home for just over two weeks and haven’t been particularly happy any day. I’m not doing so well right now.

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From a music point of view, this was meant to be quite an exciting second-half-of-the-year. New albums out from my two favourite bands: the pillows and The Cat Empire.

However, while Wake Up! Wake Up! Wake Up! is still enjoyable to listen to, I feel like My Foot was a better album for the pillows. Boat House is a great track, don’t get me wrong! And the fact that Sawao sings a bit in Polish in the track Serious Plan cracks me up. Also a fun track. But overall….some disappointment. It probably won’t be an album I can play repeatedly in the car like I did with My Foot.

As for The Cat Empire…the album is out in September, I’ve already ordered the autographed CD and I’ll be at the album launch at the Prince of Wales in a few weeks time…but I’ve just listened to the first single No Longer There and….

….

…

……..

….it’s fucking elevator music. I see they’ve brought in a guitarist again. Is it the same guy that guested on the Cities album? Cities was a collaborative project, so having new sounds there was understandable and more: extremely successful. But that guitar was guitar at it’s wildest, suckled at the same teat as a sitar! That was guitar that you couldn’t imagine the songs without. Same with the Spanish guitar used in the debut album’s The Rhythm! What awesomeness!

But….The Cat Empire is a band that doesn’t have a guitarist and that is part of it’s appeal, much like Ben Folds Five. Don’t get me wrong, I love guitar-driven music. Look at the pillows, for crying out loud! Melodic guitars up to your earlobes! But…when i first heard Hello, what I loved was the drum solo and the horns. Horns! Trumpet! I love the trumpet! I want to learn it now, thanks to Harry J Angus!

Oh gods, it’s not Harry that plays the guitar in No Longer There, is it?! *cries*

It’s freaking elevator music. Making it finish suddenly and awkwardly like the Cities track doesn’t save it from the fact that it sounds like it should be played on the golden oldies radio station. I heard that JJJ was going to put it on high rotation but I wonder if that will really happen. It’s not typical TCE stuff. Some people say that’s a good thing, that bands should never play out the same thing again and again….I don’t think TCE ever did play out the same thing. They’ve been categorised under as many genres as there are types of instruments! But…this is plain pop. Plain, boring pop. Even Ollie’s piano sounds like something played in the foyer of an expensive restaurant, and nothing more. Kinda stupid lyrics too, although TCE have always had lyrics that tightrope-walked the line between stupid and whimsical. At least, Felix’s songs have. I generally appreciate Harry’s lyrics more.

Is it a Felix thing? All of the other members besides Jumps have side projects - serious side projects - and Jumps may simply be DJing independently as his side project. TCE always struck me as Felix’s baby. Has he taken it all back then? Made it his and his music alone? It’s not that unfeasible. The pillows’ music is certainly Sawao’s music. But…Felix’s songs began to ring warning bells with Know Your Name on Cities…will this be a repeat?

Gaahh! I don’t want to hate it! I don’t want to hate the new TCE album! I already feel a bit miffed about Wake Up! Wake Up Wake Up! - I don’t want the same to happen with So Many Nights! Please, whatever god of music may exist out there, please let the rest of the album be better!

Maybe it has to do with the fact that both the first singles from Wake Up! Wake Up Wake Up! and So Many Nights are ballads…I depend on the pillows and TCE to life my mood, not dampen it. Scarecrow, though, grew on me after a lot of listens….I don’t think No Longer There is ever going to make it up there in the list of ‘Songs I Enjoy’.

Kyo-kun! Tasukete!!

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So, back home from Japan now. May catch up on posts eventually. The two main things I want to write about are Hiroshima and Mt Fuji. Whether I actually sit down to belt all that out remains to be seen.

Holiday overall was awesome, however the last 30 odd hours were freaking painful. Left hostel in Tokyo at lunchtime on a Friday. Didn’t arrive back home until 9pm the following Saturday. Had a 2-hour delay in Brisbane and a 5-hour delay in Sydney.

Moral of the story: DON’T FLY JETSTAR.

It’s almost like Australia didn’t want me to come back home. This opinion is further compounded by the realisation today that, when I move out of home in two weeks time, the only person that will feel the teeniest bit sad about it is the lady from the milkbar.

I miss my mum.

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