Short post is short, so have some photos of my campus. I might miss it if I’m not there next year.

The Atheist Foundation of Australia’s “Census No Religion” campaign is primarily aimed at people who don’t take religion seriously. It promotes honest responses to the religion question¹ of the census, suggesting people actually mark “no religion” on the census if they are irreligious.

Why?

The census isn’t completed for no reason. Governments use responses to the religion question to justify spending of taxpayers’ money. Euthanasia and marriage laws, to name two issues, have heavy religious influence and basis. Further, I pay tax and completely object to the fact that religious instruction and school chaplains receive government funding. Teaching of comparative religion in schools by teachers would be a good thing. Not teaching of one specific religion by someone from the church.

All the Census No Religion campaign is asking, is that people consider what their religious convictions actually are, and be honest about them. I hate that the jerktards at the Australian Christian Lobby (one of my least favourite things) get to say that the majority of the country is Christian, even though less than 10% of us go to church, and more than the census figures would have us believe, don’t take religion seriously.

Who is the campaign aimed at?

It may seem obvious to mark “no religion” if you don’t have one, but there are two groups to be considered:

1. Those who write joke answers like “Jedi” and “Pastafarian”. You are not a Jedi, and you are certainly not a Pastafarian. Presumably most people who write such things don’t actually have a religion or don’t take it seriously, so it simply waters down the number of people in the “no religion” category. After all, these answers are actually marked as “not defined”, so there’s no point writing it (even if you really, truly, believe in The Force!).
2. Those who aren’t religious, but put down whatever religion their parents are, or the religion of the faith school they attended, or the religion they were baptised into but don’t actually follow. Pretty sure for previous censuses (censii?), I put down my parents’ religion as my own, despite having never actually had a religion in my life.

So…my advice is to GO FORTH AND SECULARISE ON CENSUS NIGHT! Or, if you are religious, that’s fine too. The campaign is simply promoting honesty.

1. The question asks, “What is the person’s religion?”, which is of course completely biased, but that’s another issue…

Watching

• Mad Men: I could say more, but I think the above gif explains a significant portion of the show. Pretty sure everyone needs a bit of Christina Hendricks’s ass in their life.
• Community: it’s so meta and about ten different kinds of lulzy. I…I just love all the pop culture references and callbacks and continuity nods. Um, yep.

Reading

I stopped regularly reading fiction a long time ago. Non-fiction is where it’s at.

• The Ancestor’s Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Life by Richard Dawkins: as some of you may have realised by now, Dawks is one of my favourite people, and I would regard this as one of the best books I’ve read. It follows the course of human evolution back through time, from humankind to bacteria. It’s a longass book, and, admittedly, got a bit tedious towards the end, but it’s an excellent popular science read for a non-biology-studying person like me (and for biology people too, I imagine).
• Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson: we all find it hard to admit we’ve made a mistake. Cognitive dissonance is a well-established theory in social psychology and demonstrates that rather than owning up to a mistake or apologising for a hurtful action, people will instead start rationalising and justifying their decisions.
• Quirkology: The Curious Science of Everyday Lives by Richard Wiseman: a magician-turned-psychologist writes about quirky science of the everyday and various offbeat topics. For instance, did you know that there is an over-representation of marine biologists named Dr. Fish?

Playing

• Diablo II: I get the urge to play this again about once every year or two. It’s still great this many years later, what with the hacking and slashing and all. Blizzard is great. I’ve avoided becoming addicted to their latest offerings, but I’ll definitely be playing Diablo III when it is eventually released.
• SimCity 4: at first I was a slightly (okay, extremely) greedy mayor. Apparently it pays off not to tax the shit out of everything. Who knew?

It turns out that working almost full-time while being a full-time student and having all my assignments due at the peak of this busy period is not conducive to having any sort of “life”. Having one day off in seven weeks and being busy with aforementioned work/uni/etc. all day and well into the night every single day is just exhausting. And wearing shoes for all that time gets painful.

But anyway, as a lot of you (if I do, in fact, still have readers?) know already, I lost my job amidst of all this (for reasons not of my own doing, in case that’s how it sounds..!). Which means I now have available this mystical thing known as ~the weekend~.¹

And I’m pretty sure I’ve been aloof around my university friends (disgregard friends; acquire grades²). But that can now stop, I suppose. I “celebrated” finishing my assignments by seeing a show for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival with Lucy. Long story short, this happened to my arm, and fun times were had.

1. With which to catch up on all the schoolwork I’m behind in. Which is a lot. Argh!
2. Except not really…my grades may well be screwed.

Rule 34 of the Internet: If you can imagine it, there is porn of it.

Well! I recently formulated a sub-type of this rule. Rule 34b of the Internet states the following: If it exists, there is a Tumblr account for it.

I formulated this rule after marvelling at the sheer number of extremely niche Tumblr accounts that are floating around. For example!

• Asians Sleeping in the Library
• Kim Jong-Il Looking at Things
• Hot Chicks Picking Up Dog Shit
• Table for One

Yep, so totally go forth and spread this rule to make it ~mainstream~ and stuff. Or not, or whatever.

2010 in Summary

In 2010, I…

• Took photos on my random walks.
• Saw one of my favourite bands, The Decemberists, live, and had an amazing night.
• Was right when I declared 2010 would be a busy year. The second half of the year got particularly hectic. I’m terrible at balancing all the stuff I’m supposed to do.
• Saw a lot of people from my old high school at a party, and realised the more things change, the more they stay the same.
• Shared thoughts about “love” and relationships (two things I know nothing about) on Valentine’s Day.
• Resolved to start running. This failed miserably, and I blamed the weather for always being unsuitable.
• Visited Canberra to see the Masterpieces from Paris exhibition at the NGA…and for fun times in general.
• Made a public service announcement about the dumb fashion trend that is 3D glasses.
• Made a plan to self-improve.
• Shared probably more than is a good idea about my monetary situation.
• Visited the Tim Burton exhibition at ACMI.
• Criticised Twilight.

And something else you may be interested in is my 2010 movie list. Considering where I work, watching movies is all in a day’s work, right? And here’s a list of my most-listened-to artists in 2010.

Resolutions for 2011

• Maintain a First-Class Honours (H1) average in my psychology major and apply for Honours in 2012.
• Amass $25,000.
• Exercise (yay, vagueness!)
• Spend less time on Reddit and other time-sucking websites. Mainly just spend less time online. Instead, be vaguely productive in spare time.
• Continue with the aforementioned self improvement.
• Improve my posture.

Also! I created a new WordPress theme. Tell me what you think, as you’ll probably be stuck with it for another 17 months. I’ve viewed it only in Firefox 3.6 and Internet Explorer 8 on Windows, so you should totally point out any bugs.

P. S. Yes, you now know my middle name.

P. P. S. Happy holidays!

But before that, this:

I have a habit of bashing stuff that I’ve never even given a chance. This applies to people, too. I kind of have misanthropic tendencies and have “strongly disliked” a lot of people, only to realise they’re actually not so bad! Really, some of the people I’ve hated throughout school have ended up becoming quite good friends, and are actually cool people. I judge people too often and too early.

Also I used to say Glee was crap. I mean, it looked really, really crap. But then I had guy friends who recommended it, and at work, it was playing constantly for a while, and I realised it might actually be semi-decent. And then I gave it a chance, and although it is ultra-cringeworthy and nothing like shows I usually enjoy (think Battlestar Galactica, Entourage, Lost, Weeds), I actually do enjoy it. Also I swear the only reason Quinn is even on that show is for me to stare at.

I even gave Lady Gaga music a chance after saying it was awful, and…well actually it still is awful, save a few songs that are too catchy for their own good. NEVER AGAIN SHALL I DELVE INTO MAINSTREAM MUSIC (kidding).

Now, how is Twilight relevant to this? Well! Back in high school (at a time when it was still in relative obscurity), I attempted to read it. Obviously if I were to do that now, it would be pretty freaking sad, but at the time I just thought it would be a fun vampire/adventure novel! But man was I wrong or what? If I knew then what I do now, I never would have gone near it. But it does mean that I am justified in my criticism (I’m not all “lol twilight sux”, when I’ve never given it a chance). Admittedly, though, even with all my perseverance, I couldn’t come close to finishing the first book. But that just backs up my point that it sucks.

And why does it suck? Um, probably because 90% of the writing on the page is about ~*Edward’s perfectly sculpted amazing hot body*~. Can’t think of anything I care less about, pretty much. Also Stephenie Meyer can’t write for shit. NOT THAT I CAN. But I’m also not getting published. Oh and it’s a girlygirly romance novel. So yeah.

So there you have it, I gave Twilight a chance, realised it was godawful, and thus am justified in my criticism of something for a change.

On Sunday, we visited the Tim Burton exhibition at ACMI (from the Museum of Modern Art in New York), which was pretty interesting. They basically had a lot of his sketches and paintings, as well as costumes, props, and models from his films. In particular, though, I enjoyed watching Burton’s rare 1982 adaptation of Hansel and Gretel. It was like, super low budget. Seriously, the background for the forest was a very unironed sheet with trees painted on. I guess money was conserved in that area for the “special” effects. But the acting was hopeless, and it was essentially so terrible that it was hilarious. The fight scene between Gretel and the witch was especially hilarious.

I like Tim Burton’s movies, but I don’t think there are any that I’ve found superawesome or anything. Here, have some random quick thoughts on some of them:

• Batman (1989): Not a Batman fan! I mean, obviously Batman is better than Superman. But Burton and non-Burton Batman movies have not really appealed to me.
• Edward Scissorhands (1990): It was fairly good, but the whole romance aspect was tacky and not believable.
• Sleepy Hollow (1999): Good for a horror movie! Horror movies mainly suck. Of course, I still watch them, because I’m morbid and enjoy torture porn more than the next guy.
• Big Fish (2003): Apparently an eight year-old Miley Cyrus had a role in this movie, haha what. I did not notice this.
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005): Far behind the awesomeness of the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I loved that movie so much as a child. Well, maybe I still do. The remake left much to be desired.
• Corpse Bride (2005): I’m kind of a sucker for good animated movies. I especially enjoyed the Piano Duet.
• Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007): I totally dressed up as Sweeney Todd to a themed-party a few years ago. I looked pretty ace¹.
• Alice in Wonderland (2010): I’ve gotta say, it was kind of a letdown. Well, the screenplay was my main issue, so it’s not all good ol’ Tim’s fault. But partly? It is.

Focus questions: Do you like Burton’s work? What is your favourite Tim Burton film?

1. Characters from Burton films are popular at themed parties. There were various Edward Scissorhandses and Mad Hatters (among others) at a recent uni ball I was at. I, on the other hand, dressed up as the rapist Alex DeLarge, from Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange.

Ahem. Anyway, since I’m eagerly awaiting a few hundred dollars of tax refund to be deposited into my bank account, I thought I’d write about money. Money is awesome, am I right? I like to hoard it, and have two bank account for this very purpose:

1. Primary bank account
   This is where all my money from work is deposited, and where I withdraw funds from when I need them. I don’t keep much money here, instead transferring it often into my second account. Whereas some people get pleasure from spending, I feel guilty for doing so, and prefer watching all the pretty numbers rise!
2. Savings account
   Basically, a “high” (currently 4.90% p.a.) interest savings account where I keep most of my money, and never touch. A lot of people have a coffee habit and/or a shopping habit. As for me, I don’t drink coffee, and I avoid shopping trips at all costs. This is (partly) why I have $14,000 in here, which I’m certain is more than most students my age have, but of course in grand scheme of things, it’s nothing at all. That said, I’m quite satisfied with the hundreds of dollars of interest I earn on it yearly! I don’t really know how much Stuff costs, but I think I have nearly enough money for some sort of car? Not that I need one at the moment, but when I do…I’ll be all up in that.

Also! If I somehow manage to stay employed¹, I think I can double that balance over the next year. I’ve really hit stride recently, in that I’m getting a lot of hours, and my wage has also increased due to an increase in the national minimum wage. Also, since I’m classified as a “Level 3″ employee², I’m actually ever-so-slightly above minimum wage for my age (which only equates to a few extra dollars per week, but it’s still nice to have!)

Check back next month for another instalment of “Adam Tells the Internet Stuff He Should Probably Not Tell the Internet”.

1. Working at a video store = very low job security. It’s hard to feel settled when all the other rental stores around you are closing down. I’m expecting to be out of a job in the foreseeable future. Obviously I have a second job, but only a minority of my earnings come from there.
2. Which means I can open (i.e., am entrusted with the security alarm code and safe combination), close (i.e., do the figures at the end of the day and lock up), and work solo.