Day 33

Evelyn: "Whats a place like me doing in a girl like this?"

Using the above quote cos I'm seriously thinking about ordering The Mummy duology, and thats my favourite quote from the film, cos it is a good example of what a lovely charming show it is.
"Ah, the old 'take over the world' ploy."

Once again, finished breakfast around 9:30 and worked on my assignment pretty much straight till 12:45, with only the odd short break inbetween. Finished the first book, and got through the second pretty quick (as I hoped it would work out) and started on the third. I'm am wondering how I shall get to the number of words (I think its 2500 minimum), but I'm not thinking about that yet.

Got a call from the recruitment guy, who said that the job guy (from 3 weeks ago) won't be ready to make a decision till next week, but there are some other back-up people he has to speak to. The good news is, though, that I won't be starting Monday, since I probably can't anyway. Besides, I'd have to take Friday off for the whole day meeting thing. And I haven't bought clothes or had a haircut yet. Plus, there's still so many movies to watch, and I need to get my saxophone playing back on track, and catch up with my lectures. And do my standard study reading.

Watched another few minutes of Mulholland Falls while having lunch. Unfortunately, between yesterday lunchtime and today, I read a review from Amazon about it, which painted a rather bad picture, and that is certainly what I'm experiencing so far. Although it has Chaz Palmentiri (The Usual Suspects) and Michael Madsen (Kill Bill) as fairly main characters, the lead (who has pretty much been in every scene so far) is Nick Nolte (who, though familiar, I cannot place) who I am finding very dull. And my favourite actor for this show, John Malkovitch, has had one scene which was a video recording of a promiscuous act.

Went for my walk afterwards, which took about 45 minutes. Another rather hot day, and the flies are starting to come out. I decided that going along Stirling Highway is too noisy, and uninteresting, and not shady enough, so decided to go down the street just before. Unfortunately, according to my memory, you could see the cars on Stirling Highway from that street, and I couldn't readily identify it. So I ended up on Stirling Highway, anway. So I walked to the next street, which was only two buildings away, and went back to the quiet street (Gordon, as it turned out), which was lovely and peaceful. That took me all the way back to Hampden, so it was a nice orderly rectangle. I noticed a definite curve in the street, as well. I think tommorrow, if I do go, I'll try the same route in the reverse direction.

After I came back, I made tea and planned to go on with my assignment. I started reading my book, but didn't get very far before I was feeling too tired, so sat on the bed and continued reading. Got through about a chapter, then was still feeling too tired, so just rolled over. But, I drifted off and woke up about four. So, then I was too blah to continue the study (and my tea was cold) so I made more tea, and went through lecture 1 of week 9.

The lecturer apologised for making the last week (on Isaiah) so boring and clinical, because Isaiah shouldn't be like that. So he began an introduction to the 8 pre-exilic prophets (Hosea, Micah, Amos, Isaiah, Nahum, Zechariah, Habbukuk and Jeremiah) by going back to 1 Samuel 4, the story about the ark being stolen. He then asked people to describe what God is like, based on that passage, and, once you get over the horror at how horribly sacrilegious such comments are, he relates the exact same feelings to the exile, and thus the way that Israel was feeling, and what the prophets had to counter. All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable lecture, and one that really, once again, reinforced the power (and the scariness) of the old testament, in terms of its uncomprimisingly human way of dealing with ungraspable eternal truths. The lecturer was very clear, that being the new testamentised people that we are, we often miss the message of the old testament because it wants us to feel things we don't think we should be allowed to feel.

I then went through Mandarin lesson 18, and have definitively decided that once I get through lesson 20, I'm gonna go back and do them all again, from lesson 10. There are just too many words that, maybe they don't sound the same, but, as far as I can remember, they do. Like 'going to' and 'want to' - as far as I remember, they're the same word: 'yeow', as I recall (and I know that spelling is not right, thanks).

They finally played a relatively old Simpsons episode - where they go to Japan. Hooray!
But they played another repeat of House - where he treats a nun. Boo!

Went to Hong Kong BBQ for dinner - but it was shut. Boo!
So went to Good Fortune instead - and had duck and pork, which was nice. Hooray!
But the portions were very small - and it was very expensive. Boo!

Now to bed, and more Isaiah. I saw something in Koorong's catalogue today about the bible in 3 months - 12 pages a day. I'd like to see that - 12 pages of Leviticus? I know its possible, but is it probable? I think most people would shy away even at the bible in a year. I think whats really needed is a purpose - such as cos you've got an exam in a month and half, and if you haven't read the thing you're probably not gonna get that HD. Yeah.