Ah, old Muse. Before they went dubstep and released that awful Olympics song.

I got into Muse with the Absolution album. I gave my little sister a copy and she got into Muse in a huge way and still is, though she’s not that thrilled with their latest offerings.

Other musical offerings from 2003 include the bloody awful earworm that is the Cat Empire’s Hello, and the not so awful earworm that is The White Stripe’s Seven Nation Army.

Another war and fear of a sneeze

2003 was the year the current War in Iraq began on rather flimsy grounds. The whole weapons of massive destruction thing is just so dodgy, it’s almost funny.

This was also the year we all got scared of a cold with the World Health Organisation issuing warnings about SARS. A tissue, a tissue, we all fall down. It didn’t turn out to be quite the epidemic we thought could happen, but it did kill a few hundred people.

In Australia, after years of drought, a massive bushfire broke out in Canberra, killing four people.  The fires burnt nearly all of the Australian Capital Territory, destroying hundreds of homes. Bushfires are terrifying and this one was particularly bad.

Falling festivals and ending study, not

I was in the third year of my arts agree in 2003. I was heavily involved with Edge Radio, which got me to the first Falls Festival to be held in Tasmania for free. I had to work at a merch stall, but I got to camp in the VIP area and I didn’t have to pay to get in, so that was good.

I was due to graduate from uni in December that year, but I had to defer my last exam so I could attend a conference for young people from all over the Commonwealth. The conference was about entrepreneurship in young people and I got to go because I was involved with the Foundation for Young Australians. What a swot I was. It got me a free trip to the Sunshine Coast though. So I ended up graduating in August 2004 instead. I didn’t bother going to the ceremony though.