I’m, basically washing dishes, sweeping floors and cutting tomatoes. A real kitchen bitch.

Its defenitly not my most ideal job in the world, but with the current job market it was the only one i could find. Late hours Starting at 5 and sometimes not getting home till 4 in the morning. I need the money, so for now will stick with it till I find something better.

If anything it has reasured me that I will never be able to eat meat again. I leave most nights feeling sick, just from the smell!

I’m starting guitar lessons again on Monday, one of the perks of finally having money again. I need to really gain some knowledge in theory to back up my practical skills! Slamming out the same chords just gets boring after a while so I’m taking the time to fit the lessons into my now busy schedule!

I think I need to work out a real good budget of some sorts!

See you all later!

Bye

My manager at work had mentioned it a couple of days ago, bringing me back to my early teenage years of high school, acne ridden face siting in the library with people just as awkward and anti-social as myself.

A baseball cap covers my face and I look side to side cautiously as I enter our local comic book store.

“Ummmm” I half croak half cough out, “I haven’t played in a couple of years, so might be a bit out of the loop, but can I have a couple of starter and booster packs please?”

The Asian guy at the counter hands them to me and I pass him the cash, the exchange reminds me of a drug deal, and in many ways it is! “Magic The Gathering” a card game best described as an adult version of “Yu Gi Oh” wasted away many of my hard earned dollars when I was younger , here I am now, asking for more.

I message all my friends, telling them to bring there old decks over, to play some games.

But none of them are available to the weekend. I just can’t wait that long!

On the bus home I tear open the booster packs, the smell of new cards seeps into the air.I start constructing my deck immediately, I get so engrossed in the project I miss my stop and end up having to walk an extra 10 minutes to get home.

My girlfriend comes over and sees me hunched over the computer reading all about the new game mechanics.

She gets dragged away to the coffee table in our living room and taught how to play.

And then collectively kicks my arse twice in a row.

What have I gotten myself into?

I decided on a whim that I want to grow my own vegetables! If the garden was able to sustain a vibrant flower garden then a couple of veges wont do it any harm…..

I started off today just weeding a small section of the garden, digging up the dirt and putting some old fertilizer/top soil in that we had lying around!

Will work on another little section of the garden tomorrow, and hopefully get to the garden store this weekend for some seeds!

I’m thinking I’ll plant lettuce and broccoli in this little section!!

Here is a before and after shot!

Peace Out!

5.Training Dummy

We recently got one of these guys put in at the gym I train at and they are soooooo cool!

Its way better than hitting a punching bag because you can actually visualize where you are hitting.

The WOW factor of having one of these in your lounge at home would be great too!

4.Gibson ES-355

Dream guitar much? A second hand version of one of these babies in NZ will set you back at least $3000. But god are they sexy?

I am really GASing for a new guitar and want it to be a hollow body. But might have to settle with an Epiphone version for now

3. A Macbook

Yes I know, I always hated these machines, Have been a PC man since the day I was born. But lately I’ve been wanting to get into recording some of the music I write.

My computer is not very powerful and Macs are supposed to be really good for Media type work - So It will also come in handy next year when I start my photography course!

2. Stormtrooper costume

I am a huuuggggeee Star Wars geek, and for years have wanted my own Trooper armour, there is just something about it, you could wear it out to conventions and when not have it on a mannequin in the corner of a room striking fear into the hearts of anyone who visits you!

1. A Mustang

Coolest car ever

If you were to buy me a Mustang for my birthday, you are entitled to my first born child!

Peace Out!

Now since turning Vegetarian/Vegan I’ve decided to try all those fruits and vegetables that I always hated as a kid again. Mushrooms I’ve had to ease myself into, I started by eating them on pizza, or chopped up really finely in a pasta sauce, but today I took the plunge.

Portobello Mushrooms I’ve heard described as an honorary meat.

I fried them lightly in margarine and them let them boil in a sort of peanut butter sauce that I made.

I then added them to a sandwich that also had pineapple on it and a tiny bit of leftover vegan cheese then fried that.

MY GOD it was the best toasted sammich I have ever eaten! A+++ I would definitely trade again!!

And just because all the Vegan blogs seem to do it here’s a photo of what it looked like before I devoured it!

Oh I promised you Police Officers didn’t I?

Well like most Teenage boys I’m pretty anti-establishment, probably more so than most actually!

I have a huge dislike for police officers, not the people, just the job they do and how they do it.

I was in my second week and about $2,000 (90% spent on alcohol) into a drunken working holiday in Australia. Staying in a hostel right next to the main Brisbane city police headquarters.

I for some reason decided to throw a bottle of the balcony, it “unintentionally” hit a cop car that turned out to be owned by some big-wig cop.

Anyway they caught it on camera and kicked me out without refunding the money I had paid in advance for the next weeks rent.

Jobless and without any money left I slept on the streets of Brisbane City for the next 3 days, but that’s a story  for another day xD

Ciao

1. If you have to choose between locally grown or organic, which do you usually choose?
I don’t currently get much choice in the shopping department living unemployed with my dad he does most of the shopping, but one thing I want to do as soon as I move out is start growing all my own veges!
2. Favourite way to prepare potatoes:
Chop up into tiny pieces,boil, mash up with lots of margarine and peeper!
3. Do you press your tofu before preparing/cooking it (if you eat soy)?
Most of the time, I generally try to freeze it to, because I like the texture better!
4. Name your favorite recipe that is a tradition in your family:
Cheesecakes at Christmas, I will definitely try to make a vegan one for myself this year!
5. Any food allergies?
I don’t think so :S
6. When you want to go to a fancy dinner, where do you go?
Wow haven’t really gone out for a fancy dinner since going vegan, ummm Burger Fuel?
7. When you have a cold, what do you crave?
Something greasy!
8. What kind of water do you drink? (Filtered, spring, tap, etc.)
Filtered, or Mizone
9. Name a flavor of soda you’d love to see:
hmmmm I dunno purple colored but orange flavored fanta?
10. If the recipes you ate as a child were compiled into a cookbook, what would the title be?
“Your parents are trying to poison you again”
11. If you were allowed to grow one food that can’t grow in your climate, what would it be?
Bananas!!!
12. Favorite type of mushroom?
Portabello?
13. Most frustrating part of your kitchen?
Elements take forrrrevvveeer to heat up!
14. Last food you burned?
Oven cook chips sprinkled with mixed herbs!
15. Usual response to a vegan’s favorite question, “But where do you get your protein?”:
Beans and Soy Milk!!
16. If you were baking your own birthday cake today, what flavor would it be?
Banana!
17. Favourite brand of chocolate chips?
Don’t have one :S
18. You have $200 of your tax return reserved for Williams Sonoma - What do you buy?
A really sharp knife, and some nice big restaurant style plates!
19. Do you plan your menus in advance? Any tips to share?
Nope I tend to go with the flow and throw things together and hope like hell they work.
20. You have 3 minutes before you have to leave the house and you’re starving- What do you eat?
Peanut butter sammich xD
21. If Martha Stewart, Paula Deen, and Rachel Ray got into a fight, who would win and how?
Rachel Ray, doesn’t she come from the bronx?
22. If you eat oatmeal, what do you add to it before serving?
Golden Syrup
23. If you got to travel to one country and learn all the traditional dishes there, where would you go (ignore commitments in your current place of residence.)
India or Japan!
24. Favourite late night snack?
Steamed Spinich
25. Favourite springtime food?
Pastaaaaa
26. Favorite food-related magazine?
No Idea!
27. Which do you prefer: shoyu, tamari, conventional soy sauce, or Bragg’s Aminos?
We dont get any of those other ones here I don’t think…
28. What vegetable or fruit do you dislike the most?
Used to hate mushrooms, ummmmm Brussel Sprouts??
29. Name a holiday food you look forward to all year long:
>.> Birthday Cake?
30. If you could convert anyone to veganism with your magic wand, who would you convert?
I could say my girlfriend Aimee, but shes Vegetarian and has her own reasons for not going Vegan that I respect.  So um my best friend Dylan just because I know its something he would never even consider!

I guess I should first start by introducing myself! My name is Sean and I am an Eighteen year old guy who lives in Hamilton which is a city in the North Island of a little country at the bottom of the world called New Zealand.

This blog is I guess a social experiment, a way of me being able to see how I progress in life! A benchmark of sorts so in a years time I can look back and see how far I’ve come. It will be a no holds barred look into my life and how I plan on getting back on the straight and narrow!

Some goals that I will hopefully be able to acheive by my birthday in October:

• I need a job, I’ve been virtually unemployed since I returned from a 6 month holiday in Australia in October 2007.
• I need to pay of my $1000 overdraft.
• I would like to buy a car, preferably a Toyota MR2 I just think they are sexy little things.
• I hope that I will be well on my way to have moved or be moving out of my parents house.
• I will have applied to the Media Arts photography course at the Waikato institute of Technology

I’ve left my CV with a local job recruitment agency so If I don’t hear back from them within a days time I will call them again and ask them whats going on.

Feel free to subscribe to my blog, Or bookmark it. Feedback will be greatly welcomed!

Cheers

Sean