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Saturday, September 29, 2007
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I thought I'd introduce you to the bitchier furrier members of my family. My digital camera can take videos as well; I hope they turn out good. The videos were taken by my sister, and hence feature the strange high-pitched voice she puts on when she's bugging the cats. She's also using the 'Home Accent' (i.e. the accent we use at home when we speak Malay and English. It's quite a funny concept having 2 interchangeable accents, but anyway.) I obviously sound way hotter:
Moo-Moo in Ecstasy:
This guy is the only male of the family of four cats. He's such a retard. A real brainless dope. No offence, of course. Remember that time he got lost?? Well now he's back and being a manwhore all over again. He is cute though.
Nigger Posing:
I know, super racist name to call a cat, but hey! I didn't name her!! It was my brother, being silly, and the name just kinda stuck. Well, we do live in a pretty ghetto-ish area, ah well. See there's another cat jumping around in the videos? That's Imposter! My FAVOURITE cat. It looks like its mum, hence the name. It slept on my chest the other night, nibbling on my chin.
I discovered the wonders of macro photography today. I was walking around my backyard, stressing out about my HSC, enjoying the cool air, and I stopped to look at my rosebush (well, technically not mine but since I hacked pruned it, it's mine).
IT WAS COVERED IN APHIDS.
Nasty little ugly green things that attack roses. Anyway, I went to take a photo of it, but the damn camera just wouldn't focus properly. Grrr! Then I discovered the macro setting, and OMG voila! The most amazing pictures came out! Looky look:
A rosebud being raped by aphids. So vibrant!
Another bud! I love the young red leaves.
Oh! Pretty little ladybug.
It's a spider trying to eat Mr. Ladybug.
OMFG. I found a green spider! KEWL!!
Aren't these photos amazing? And I don't exactly have the steadiest hand either. ROFL. Anyway, co-op applications close tomorrow, then I can freakin' get on with my life studies...
When you see bananas lying in the fruitbowl for a week, and no-one wants to eat them, what do you think? I think, "Make banana bread!" Banana bread is this most awesome food. I think it's more of a cake than bread (maybe a quick-bread).
Anyway, the first time I tasted it was when my brother bought a slice from Gloria Jeans' and I scabbed some (duh). It was really nice (!!) so naturally I went home and researched how to make it. Here's a recipe I found (from the doods at SimplyRecipes) that makes a pretty nice banana bread:
RECIPE - Banana Bread:
INGREDIENTS:
3 or 4 ripe bananas; mashed
1/3 cup butter; melted
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda/powder
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cup of plain flour
Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F for you imperial dopes) and grease a loaf pan. Mash the bananas with a potato masher (or fork; its better to use old bananas, like REALLY old, black and oozy. They're sweeter and softer.) With a wooden spoon, mix the melted butter into the bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last and mix. Pour mixture into the pan and bake for 1 hour (don't open oven halfway!! I know, it smells SO good!) Cool loaf on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve:
Woohoo! Another pointless day! I did absolutely no study, my HSC exams are in 26 days, and I'm stressing out like HELL! YAY. Btw I've totally given up on the whole iftar update I can't be TOSSED. Guess what I ate today? FOUR PACKETS OF Mi GORENG!! I have officially overdosed on MSG and am going to die. As in RIGHT now. My stomach is killing me!!!
Anyway, I felt like talking about my family's meat ritual. Sounds really tribal doesn't it?? It's actually better called the 'Meat-Packing Ritual', but that's not very dramatic, now is it? Anyhoo, my family is huge (six kiddos), and we're cheapos, so we buy our beef in bulk. And I mean BULK. My mum orders huge-ass packages from the local butcher and we pay like $400 bucks. And haul it into the kitchen, spreading blood all over the floor.
!! HUMAN SACRIFICE!!
Unfortunately, you can't chuck 100 friggin' kilos of dead cow straight into the freezer. Thawing would be hell. Unless you have a chainsaw or something. ANYWAY, so we have to do this ritual where we sit on the floor, pack the dripping meat into little bags, get soaked in blood, seal them, and then chuck them into the freezer nicely. Takes AGES, it's a pain in the ass, but it's good value for money. This is what it ends up looking like:
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Saturday, September 22, 2007
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I lied today. I can't remember what it was about. I don't like to lie. It makes me feel dirty. Like a wet rag. Or a soiled toilet carpet. I feel really lost. Hehe. Today I woke up with a headache. Not a pounding headache, a sleep deprivation headache. The types where you feel like crap. Oh yeh.
OMG. My total UMAT score was 198. That makes me like, officially, a GENIUS! Woohoo!! [Actually the genius cut-off is 200, but who gives a crap!! I'm close enough!!] Too bad I didn't apply for UNSW Medicine...
That's me latest quandary. Whether to continue with this CO-OP thing and do finance, or stuff it all and do medicine. Damn it. Too many choices! It's such a curse. [Yes, I am aware that right now I sound like a self-absorbed arrogant skank, but this is MY blog after all...]
Taraweeh prayer sucks major balls. I really hate going. Especially when it's raining and you walk to the mosque in flip-flops and your toes get all wet and squishy. Nasty.
Check out this new Blogger program; it's called BloggerPlay. It just shows you pictures that are being uploaded at that point in time, frame after frame. It sounds lame, but it's really amazing! You can't stop watching! It's totally vouyeristic, perving into other people's lives HEHE. [I'm not like that ok!! It's really late at night and I'm starting to say weird things. Like HEMAPHRODITE. Ok. Moving along...]
I couldn't be bothered blogging about yesterday's events yesterday night, I think I was being SUPER-emo, [as usual. *Snigger*] so I'll fill you in on both days at once:
DAY FIVE & SIX
Where: [Day FIVE] - ThaiHutt:
This was it, the long awaited iftar, the one I really looked forward too. Do I sound depressed already? It was really good actually [NOT!]; Asem, Sayed and Kak came to pick me up from my house, but I was at the station [DAMN!Yes, things like that annoy me greatly.] Anyway, they came eventually, and I did the hi ho heidi ho thing [normal people refer to this as greeting your friends], and sat in the car. We drove off, and Asem drove like a nut, and Kak egged him on, and Sayed and I looked at each other and laughed at the silly imbeciles. We got to the restaurant, after picking up Fahs, and Salah and Ahmed were standing on the corner like cheap hookers. Etcetra, ETCETRA...
We sat down, ordered and ate. I had an entree of 'Sexy Girls' (yes, honestly, that's what they're called, weird prawn things. I'm trying to get a picture of them from Google Images but I'm being flooded by porn...) and had a main of chicken Hokkien noodles. YUM. It was quite fun actually, I was having good table conversation with everyone. At some point I played footsies with Asem, no idea why.
We went to bowling after that. [These people and their weirdness! Bowling!! After a huge-ass meal!] It was surprisingly good. I got 2 strikes, right at the end. Woohoo. Salah and Kak had a competition with each other [and everyone else got ignored. D/w I cheered for Salah ;P]. Not surprisingly Kak beat everyone, stupid sports freak. We went for a drive after that, typical Arab boys past-time [I'm totally integrated don't you worry] speeding around, playing music really loud. Except that it was mostly 'Destination Unknown', and not 50 Cent. At one point the speakers blasted out: IT'S BRITNEY BITCH!! [and then I started singing and dancing in the backseat, getting weird looks from my friends. What!? It was 'Gimme MORE'!!].
Driving around ['Cruising?' Eurgh...] is fun. We evetually went to Kak's house, and dropped him off, and then everyone parted, but me and Salah went to Ahmed's house for a game of pool. Funsies!!
[Day SIX] - Homesies:
If home is where the heart is, then where the f*ck is all the damn loving?? Sorry, home's actually pretty good, I'm just really emo about all the freakin' above.
What: Damn. I forgot about this section. Anyway, for yesterday's foodies, look up and see my sexy girls. *Cough*. And my long juicy Hokkien noodle. LMAO. Not an innuendo I'd be very proud of. Ahem. Today, I had more free-trade food: Chocolate! Again from Oxfam, except this time is was chocolate from Ghana. It was SO good! Also, more curry-puffs and stuff. A little bit of cheesecake too...
LMFAO. I didn't know so many people had access to SBS. Heaps of 'em saw it yesterday and they were saying that I should have said something, or how I just said there and looked frozen while my sister did the talking or whatever. LOL! I feel like going again just to say something.
DAY FOUR
Where: Home sweet home!
What: Free-trade rice pudding (from Oxfam; I mean the rice was from Oxfam, from Thailand or something. It was weird purple rice) and more deep-fried stuff. I am SO gonna gain weight. ARGH.
I just prayed taraweeh for the first time at home this Ramadan. It was one of the fastest and worst prayers I've ever done in my life! SHAME!!
And, why I didn't go to the mosque? 'Cos I was at SBS studios, jumping in the shooting of tomorrow's Insight program! Link. It was REALLY interesting! First we went in and I kept thinking to myself WTF am I doing here!? Then this lady handed us little envelopes; I looked inside and there was $50 BUCKS!! WOOHOO!
I want more money. I wanna buy more clothes. My clothes are getting old. I want mores shiny stuff. More food. I'm a heartless consumerist! Bite me. Really hard.
Then we got ushered into the studio, and I saw the host, Jenny Brockie. She was HUGE! OMG she looks so much bigger in real life its SCARY. Then the whole thing got set-up I we got put into our seats and the whole forum thing started, all being recorded by creepy looking camera-men. The actual show goes like this: Each show has a topic, and people are put in the audience, and are interviewed by the host, Jenny. Everyone in the audience is alowed to talk, so it's REALLY weird television. It was quite interesting. The topic was "Culture Test" or something like that. I was just listening, not really the type to put up my hand and input something on national television. This is what it looks like:
I was one of the noobs in the audience. There's Jenny! It was a total freakshow at one point: there was this Bangla chick saying how her dad (who was RIGHT next to her) wanted her to have an arranged marriage, and how she didn't want to, there was a Malaysian Chinese lesbian couple, a 25+ year old Muslim man who was born in Australia who only met his first non-Muslim last year or something, a Muslim woman who's wife didn't let her go to uni, but she went anyway, a Greek Orthodox Christian woman who married a Muslim Pakistani man (WTF!?)...and the list goes on. TOTAL freakshow, but a really awesome experience. I'll post up the video when it comes on YouTube. The show airs tomorrow.
Here's me when I just came back from the show:
Formal-wear WooHoo!
DAY FOUR
Where: In the CAR on the way to the recording studio. Now THAT is a new one.
What: Dates, kiwifruit and strawberries. Yum! And super sweet orange cordial (READ: water + sugar + colour). Then we pulled out the real food! We had little Malay fried curry-puffs called epok-epok. They are deep-fried puff-pastry filled with a curry filling. My mum uses kima-aloo type stuff (mince meat curry and potatoes). SO NICE!
In other news, Salah got an interview for UNSW Medicine!! Woohoo! That's like the most exclusive undergraduate degree there is: Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS). And he didn't tell me the skank! Ah well, I got it out of him eventually. I think he didn't want to tell anyone just in case he didn't get in. Poor kid.
I feel like posting more videos. I've had these stored in my bookmarks for quite a while; I wanna get rid of them! They're funny, weird or just plain cool. Enjoy!
New NASA Rocket:
How cool is this!? The force coming out of that rocket is insane!
Phew. Enough videos. Time for my Daily Iftar Update:
DAY THREE
Where: At home AGAIN. But WOOHOO! I organised an iftar outing at ThaiHutt, the Muslim community's lastest favourite restaurant! I can't wait! *Goes and obsesses over it from now*.
What: Left-overs from yesterday. And only a little bit. Weightloss attempts should work. Oh yeah! I jogged around my neighbourhood today! It was so awesome! I went to new places I've never seen before. Try it!
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Saturday, September 15, 2007
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Today was another amazingly uneventful day in my "banal" life (totally stolen off another blog). Actually, not really. For one, I went to another Islamic Class this morning with Sheikh Naeem, and he told us how he tasted frozen durians with his sons and how it looked like pus flowing down their cheeks. Not nice. I love durians though, fresh ones, bought in tropical countries like Singapore. Delicious.
I watched Naturo Shippuden 28 today. I watch the episodes at KunaiNaruto (it's a really kewl website that hosts the episodes for FREE!). I've never really talked about my love/hate relationship with Naruto before, but yeh, this episode sucked major wang. It was one of those "believe in yourselves emo children!!" episodes. Not in the mood.
Also, I made palmiers! Another great podcast from DyannBakes. As you can probably tell, I am totally obsessed with this site. I was SO hungry and bored, and totally not in the mood to study (EVEN THOUGH MY HSC EXAMS ARE IN 32 DAYS) so I went and bought puff-pastry at my local store. The palmiers turned out alright I suppose, not sweet enough for me though. Here's a pic:
These are before baking...
During baking...
And the finished product!
I'm at that point in my life when I'm stressing out over everything. I have to study for my exams, I have to fill out my Co-op Scholarship application, I want everybody to sign my shirt, I wanna go places for iftar, I want to blog about certain stuff, I want to ARGH JUMP OFF A CLIFF. I am so anal like that; everything HAS to go to plan. Maybe that's why I like baking. There's a plan you follow, and you get results! Perfect.
DAY TWO
Where: At home again. I'm still waiting on invites to friend's houses...
What: First, it was milk tea (I HEART) with a fat juicy date. Then I ate the palmiers I made and some pineapple upside-down cake. After we prayed, we came back and had asam pedas ikan (with RED SNAPPER! Jeez this fish is so delicious...) and rice. SO insanely tasty. I feel so fat and guilty now. Bulimia FTW! (Not.)
Aha! Once again, the most holiest of months is upon us: Ramadan!
At this time of the year, Muslims (like me!) all over the world fast (sawm), and refrain from eating, drinking, sexual relationships, bitching about other people, and being naughty in general. 'Tis the month to be pure and holy. Amen.
Today was the first day of fasting for many people (some people started yesterday, but let's not get into that little argument, for simplicity's sake). The start of the fasting is signalled by the sighting of the forming moon, the first crescent. The Islamic Calender revolves around the moon; its quite surreal if you think about it.
Anyway, today was pretty good! I survived without sustenance from dawn till dusk/sunset, at which point I broke my fast with yummy food.
Another important/strange part of Ramadan are the Taraweeh prayers, which we do every night (usually at the local mosque). I just came back from them. The mosque was PACKED out. Here's a pic:
Ramadan is also the month of weightloss. Yes. Even for non-fat people. *Cough*. Apparently, I shouldn't have the intention of fasting for the sake of weightloss, but ah well. I totally do it for the kudos.
Where: At home! The best place to BE!! Not. Actually it was a pretty nice atmosphere. No-one noticed that I was trying not to gorge myself on food. Which I usually do.
What: I broke my fast with dates and water (as per the sunnah). Later we had Hokkien noodles with meatballs and soup. Very Asian and very nice.
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Thursday, September 13, 2007
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My phone is RISEN FROM THE DEAD!! Thank you, oh Lord, for this greatest miracle of our time; the Resurrection of the MotoRAZR V3x!!
[For those who didn't get the Bible reference in the title, here's a link.]
LOL.
Ok, anyway, brief history: On the day of the APEC protests, my phone died. It was the worst moment of my life. I rely on it SO much! It just DIED. The screen stopped working. It would turn on, and vibrate when calls came, but it wouldn't respond to anything I did. I was totally vulnerable (electronically NAKED) is this brutally digital world. It was on the worst day possible too! I had the protests to go to, and a dinner that night. Mum called me a billion times and I didn't know.
After staring at the dead phone for a few days, and using some REALLY shocking old LG phone in the meantime (it still had an ANTENNA), I knew it was time to do something. I was ready. READY TO DISMANTLE!!!
Thanks to Google I found this guide (LINK) and used it to tear my bloody phone apart. I actually had no hope of fixing it, I just felt like opening it. And when I put it back together it WORKED! OmG I are genius. Heres a pic:
DIE MALFUNCTIONING PHONE DIE!!
This was the culprit. I think.
My phone came out a bit worse for wear (I cracked some glass bits and lost another thing) but at least it works now! Lesson learnt: When you're phone stops working, break it. But use instructions. Then hope for the best!
Eating: Baked potato wedges. The hot chip's (aka French fry's) hotter and more mature older brother. Commonly seen frolicking with sour cream and sweet chilli sauce, in the most classy of establishments. (Bought from Woolies LOLL).
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Wednesday, September 12, 2007
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I have officially graduated from High-School!
FINALLY, after 12 years in the same school, Malek Fahd Islamic School, it was graduation time. I cannot properly describe the emotions going through my mind on that day. I'm still a bit confused. I'm so happy, so sad, so nostalgic, so remorseful, excited, scared...
I'm gonna miss everyone so much!!
Graduation was SO awesome. Seriously this was the best graduation our school has EVER had. Usually they just hold them during the day and its quite uneventful, but this year it was at night, in the school hall. It was a completely official event, tickets handed out to parents, security, professional photography, the lot. It was SO awesome!!!
First I went to the school to pick up my robes. I put them on, and then I went with Hamjaneeh to get the professional photos done. And then, it was INSANITY time!! I went NUTS taking photos! I've never been much of a photogenic person, but I WAS NOT about to let my GRADUATION go unrecorded. Total cam-whore time!
I was so HAPPY! I was ecstatic, elated, drunk with joy, WHATEVER metaphor/saying you can think, I was just so excited. There's nothing quite like a high-school graduation with all your friends. It makes me slightly sad...
Well. At least I recorded it all HAHA. When we were waiting at the back, I was jumping on everyone and taking photos with EVERYONE MySpace style. I never knew it was so much fun!
Here's Ahmed and Ahmad, respectively. Yes, me on the right, and one of me bestest bestest friends on the left. I asked someone to take a photo but we weren't ready so it turned out funny. I love these candid shots! Watch for more of Ahmed's pics later. TOTAL natural cam-whore! He has the BEST poses!!
Here's me on the left with Kak. I LOVE this photo!! It's so cute. I look insanely happy. Like I'm on crack. LOL! Happy times are good. We have a such a strange history, but he's a super cool guy! Will miss him heaps!! Is it just me or does it look like we both have perfect teeth? He had braces!! I'm just naturally hot ;D
I'm totally creeping up on Wassim here. I look slightly disturbing, but I really like this pic! I can't put a finger on it. On maybe it's three fingers. Three fingers bent on Wassim's shoulder. In super creepy pedophile sort of way. Righto...
First photo I'm not in! Hamzah and Sayed doing CREEPO poses!! SCARY!
Dudeee. We're like totally too bored to even be here mannn. *Snort*.
Yay! A nice pic! Me and Fatih!
Haha, Karnib is SO tall and skinny it's SCARY. Gotta love that guy ;)
I was so busy cam-whoring outside that I didn't even realise that we were waiting for something to happen. The teachers opened the back door to the school hall, and then everyone started moving in. I was going WTF? and just followed the crowd. Turns out we were walking into the hall which was already full of parents, and this was like some kinda opening ceremony. ZOMG I had no idea!
IT WAS SO KEWL!!
We had the whole ceremony. First it started off with us being called up one by one onto the stage to receive our certificates and our gifts. It was so kewl. I was taking pictures of people (duh.) I got some good ones:
Here's Nahyan getting his certificate. WOOHOO GO NAHYAN!!
ZOMG. EVIL PRINCIPAL!!
Then the school captains did their speeches! I was a bit upset over that whole issue but I'm SO over it now. Go Kak! His speech was SO good!! I was so surprised that he did it so well! Hehe. It's a traditional thing where you say a little thing about everyone, and reminisce over the old times. It's really funny!
Then he got to the part when he said (in front of ALL the parents) that I (ME! Innocent 'ole ME!!) was a sneaky deceptive person who put all my intelligence to sneaky bad uses. HAHAHA. It was SO hilarious! And absolutely true mind you. Except that now all my friend's parents don't trust me anymore. Ah well. Schools out anyway. *Sob*.
Anyway after that we had food. It was really nice actually!! Heaps of chicken and pasta, creamy garlic sauce, beef; lots of Lebanese style food. It was SO good. And then they took out the cake!! YUM! Graduation cake! One bite and your shackles are BROKEN!
FREEDOM!!
Then I went and sucked on the helium tank and took more photos:
Here's my class, sitting down (quite a rare event) happily posing for my camera. I LOVE my class so much. We have very good dynamics with each other, most of the time anyway, and everyone's personalities are usually cancelled out. Harmony. NOT. Mind you, the girls outnumber us like 20 to 1.
LMFAO! Ahmed is such a POSER!! HAHAHA!
Looky look! Most of our class!!
Me and Sufyan!! My BFF!! *Dies at lame tween-girl reference*. Seriously though, total best friends forever, I've been his friend since Year One. That means TWELVE FRIKKIN' YEARS OK. DON'T MESS!!
Omar!! YAY! This is a really nice photo!
He wanted a personal photo with me and I very willingly obliged! All these photos turned out SO good! I discovered the secret!! Take at least 200 photos, and you'll get at least 100 good ones!!
Then Satan possessed Omar. I lost all hope.
Group photo with the Crew! Too bad my FREAKIN' EYES ARE CLOSED!!
Me and Rai!! Did I mention that she poured coke on me?
Dom and Anna!! Smirking at the camera AGAIN! Hehe :P
My music teacher, Mr Oblikov. He really doesn't fit into the school because he's such a nice guy. Really different. I wonder how he tolerates the insanity. Must be the music. He plays the cello beautifully. I used to come early in the mornings to hear him play.
Aha! Ms Mahmic!! English teacher who DOESN'T FRIGGIN' AGE. She looks exactly the same as 10 years ago, no joke!! Don't know how she does it...
I'd love to post more pictures but I REALLY can't be bothered. After we took all the photos, it was really late so we had to go home. I managed to convince my mum to let me go to Hamzah's place!! And Sufyan did too! So we all ended up at Hamzah's place at grad night. FUN!
I had a killer headache to I wasn't about to do anything insane, and it was really late too. Hamzah got out the beds and we stayed up till LATE attacking each other in his room LoL. That was one of the most fun days of my life!!
I went to the APEC protest yesterday at Hyde Park. It was PURE insanity. The sheer volume of police there was just amazing/disgusting/shocking. Not to mention a BLOODY waste of money! Me, Daher and Nahyan went (the rest of my aquaintances friends utterly dogged me). At first it was really peaceful, we were just walking around. We met some interesting people, like sex-workers united against George Bush, and a few nice women from North Africa:
No comment.
Why are my eyes closed?
But nothing would be more obvious on that day then the huge INSANE AMOUNT OF POLICE there! You cannot describe it in words! Numbers maybe, but not words heh. Here's a few pics of the police there:
This was my first view of them. Teaser trailer...
Then the cops-on-bikes came along, looking all evil.
They made a wall around the whole place. The right-most guy SEARCHED ME. THE BLOODY SKANK. I was taking pics and he came to us and grabbed our bags and started searching us. What a tool. These people get paid so little they need their little power-trips.
AND THEN the arrests started. We were JUST leaving, and then Daher turns back and notices that people were running towards somewhere, so we started BOLTING towards the action. I got right to the front and I saw that the police grabbed a protestor and were dragging him away. It was insane! They also grabbed a woman and she was screaming her head off as they dragged her away. The police were so brutal!! They were bashing heads on the floor, kneeing people, attacking, it was sick:
"Fools rush in where angels dare to tread." LOL.
Here the cops are dragging a guy away.
News crews!! REPORT THIS INSANITY!!
Too late. The police bashed this guy to the ground.
Me! Posing in the middle of the action! LMAO.
I took a video of the police grabbing on the other guys and wrestling him to the ground. It's not the best quality, but its RAW!! Blogger-Video is playing up so I'll use YouTube. Same company anyway. We all heart Google. LoL:
This protest was such an experience man. Once in a lifetime crap. I cannot believe more people didn't come! Such fools! And it's not like I came just for action. It was for a good cause. I was protesting against the US governments actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Australia's non-ending support for it. I don't for a second think that I actually understand the whole thing, but I don't like lies and deceit, and I ABSOLUTELY hate cops having powertrips.
