Oh Uni, How Familiar

I have recently returned to University for my (potentially) last semester of my very long degree and it almost feels new again. Last semester I did not attend a single lecture (they were all too early in the morning) and did not find it necessary. This semester though, this final semester, in my fourth year of attending University.... I have decided to actually be the responsible organised student that I've been promising to be next semester each and every semester. It's going well so far. I attend lectures and those I can't (and some I legitimately can't) I listen to online. I read my textbooks and I finished an essay more than a week before it was due so I would have more than a week to work on another one. I'm doing so well.

And oh boy does it feel good to have it all sorted out for once. I'm doing a first year unit. An intro to the general idea of everything it seems called Ideas in Action. Different lecturers come in and say things about community vs autonomy and witch trials and all sorts of things. It's great because I walked in to this lecture theatre after not having been in a lecture since 2012 (and even then my lectures were all small theatres hidden in the humanities department building) but this... this theatre is huge. It's two stories tall at least and it is filled with hundreds of eager students with their ipads, laptops, pens, pencils, notepads, textbooks, highlighters, binders, and of course: that fresh faced look that says "I'm new here."

It is the iconic University experience. The massive theatre that's filled with a sea of faces that all look down at the tiny old professor talking about some subject that they find endlessly interesting whereas a lot of us are just learning about to pass this unit and go onto other, more interesting, subjects. It was both nostalgic and new all at once. It was the kind of lecture you see briefly in movies, not the kind of lectures I was used to where we would get told about the conventions and techniques of those movies. It feels great. It feels like I'm taking part in something.

Then I go to class for this 1st year unit and everything is just adorable. They've assigned us an 800-1000 word essay and oh gosh it's tiny. It's positively bite sized. All these first years are all so clueless. The tutor talks on and on about things and she is ever so helpful and understanding. She is really keen to make sure all those bright young first years are comfortable asking questions on things they're not sure about (and they are not sure about a lot of things) and it's all just so amusing to have put myself in such a relatively simple environment. While she was talking to the class about very basic essay related things like structure and choosing to express a single argument etc I was busy ignoring her and writing it anyway. I nearly finished it in class and would've had I not periodically interacted with the people around me/turned away to pretend to listen.

That may paint me in a bad light what with the whole not paying attention in class and being pretentious about it but I do actually aim to learn... just if you're going to spend half the class discussing the basics of essay writing then I don't need to really pay attention. I've been there, done that, repeat a dozen times over and then repeat again. Like I said, I'm actually being a responsible Uni student and doing work. I plan on evenly spacing everything out to minimise the rushed attempts to finish near crunch time that leads to being shut away in a room for hours on end with no distractions. I know I cannot do everything a week and a half in advance forever but that's OK because the more I get a headstart on now the less I'll need to do later.

Yes. I did it. I beat procrastination by simply just not procrastinating. I learned a valuable lesson last semester which was just that: do things sooner in advance and everything will be fine. Thankfully now I am doing only essay based units instead of film production units so I have this thing called "time". So much time and I know that if I don't waste my time I will enjoy my time a lot more.

Here's to a successful and slightly less stressful final semester!

There's No Sense of Ending This Semester...

Semester is "over". It doesn't feel over. I have exams which is weird because I don't normally have those for my course, nor do I have multiple at the same time. Even more strange is how this semester didn't end with a bang but a whisper...

See, I've done Film. Now I'm doing English. The difference between these are so immense it is like having grown accustomed to being beaten across the head only to suddenly be handed icecream. One of my teachers complained he thought his class was being lazy, as if they thought that literature was easy and the problem is: to me it is. Hence why, despite him obviously being a hard marker and me handing in my essay late, I did really well on it. What's hard about sitting down and writing an essay? My fingers are practically glued to a keyboard it's not like I even had to do anything but minimise the internet so I could sound intelligent somewhere else.

That sounds really braggy, and I'm sorry. I haven't always been this good at writing essays but I've been doing it for years. I'm halfway through my 4th year at University, I've written so many essays I've lost count. That's why, when suddenly there's no 5am starts to get to a film set for the entire day and being entrusted with several grand worth of expensive equipment, I think "wow. This is relaxing." Because it's something I can do and I can spend time doing it whenever I want. The only pressure that arises during essay writing is when you've started it too close to the due date.

I handed in my assignments while offering those around me chips. I spent a lot of my time on the final submission day hanging around with a friend before I'd actually sat down in a library to finish off my assignments. It was so casual, so stress free, so relaxing and simple and easy and... and...

It feels wrong. It feels horribly, horribly wrong.

I'm sitting around now not doing anything because... today is an average day? It's the day after final assignments are due! I should... celebrate? I should relax and take a break from all the stress? But there isn't one? My expectations have not been met. I did not become a wreck and come out of it triumphant and so sleep deprived that my bed became more important than life itself. There's no sense of... accomplishment.

It didn't challenge me enough so I don't feel accomplished. Now that's an odd first world problem now isn't it? "It wasn't hard enough." Oh waaaa. Waaaa. Boo-hoo.

But come on... you love it don't you? The day after. The excuse to lie down. The relief that floods your bones and loosens your muscles. That mental load you shove off and sigh away. The smile that creeps across your face as you realise it's over. You survived!

I... just... did... things. Does that feel worth it? Is it worth it if I'm not being challenged?

I hope so.

I've got exams, so maybe that will be a challenge? My past experience with University exams is that they're easier than expected. I study tons and then... realise I could've studied less. But I'll do it just in case. I want to have that push to be great. I'm not done being a student, and being a student means I still have things to learn. So I guess I'll start knuckling down, revising the things I learned this semester, and tackle those exams head on.

Then I can get my feeling of a well earned ending.

Still Unemployed

Time for... A MINI-BLOG!!! (mini blog!)

(Note: mini blog may actually become not so mini and go for more than just a few paragraphs)

Well, quick update. I did NOT get the job at Video Ezy... why? Because there were other applicants. That's in effect of the reason given to me... one job position + multiple (she said "many" which could mean anything) applicants = hahaha like hell we'd pick you.

Which I COULD take it as "Well although you're a friendly film student who it getting a university level education about the only thing we sell and you have absolute availability every hour of every hour we're open thus pretty much perfect* for this job seeing as you can WALK here from your house if you wanted to... we knew from the very beginning that you had no experience so we wasted your time interviewing you because what separates you from any other applicant (besides your film student status, probably the only reason why we even bothered to acknowledge your existence) is the lack of retail experience thus it was predetermined from the beginning that you were really just backup in case everyone else fell through..."

OR...

I could take it as.... wait a moment when I think of a better spin to put on this....

"Your film student status means nothing, you simply lacked the assertiveness to really go outside the set conversational boundaries of the interview thus failed to woo us as an exceptional person who stood out from the rest." (Yes that's positive)

WHICH MEANS.... that to what I need to do to get a job NEXT time I get an interview (which happens on average a year or year and a half right?) is simply just talk more... get to know my interviewer and show them I am more than just the answers to the questions on their sheets. OK that won't guarantee anything, but I have to find some way to stand out and my resume obviously isn't it.

I don't take it personally, that's just silly. Of course it's not personal, there just are people who do better. I am actually quite glad that they took their time to actually acknowledge my existence by phoning me up originally. Very few people do that... in fact... they're actually the only people who have done that. Out of all the job interviews (all 2 and a half in my life) this one was the first one where they actually called me beforehand to arrange it. The last one on the other hand involved them emailing me on the incorrect email address and then me finding out not long beforehand because my brother also got the same interview and they called him instead. Needless to say those people maintained that level of professionalism all the way through my interaction with them.

Each failure is another thing to learn from, every few months I rewrite parts of my resume, improve, learn to shake hands and introduce myself instead of just handing things silently to people, learn how to respond to pointless questions, do lots of volunteer work to make me look like a saint (a saint that gets retail and customer service experience when working the till at St Vinny's), learn sign language so I can handle the deaf.

I just need to improve beyond adequate... I need to be more than sufficient. I shall become superb in my application and interviewing process.

I am awesome. And I will bloody prove this.

Bring it world. BRING IT ON.

...he says for the 300th time...

*(Why is the job I'm most suited for also very highly sought after? Why can't I just get that damn job?)

Radio and Sound

University is coming to an end for the year. My goodness, scary is it not? I'm going to have SO MANY MONTHS OFF! Even longer between semesters than mid-semester break! How will I survive unless I find employment? Oh please Video Ezy choose the super-uber-awesome-film student to fill that position of yours, I really have nothing to do between semesters...

Let's not go on about that.

Radio and sound! Nice 1st year unit for those who want to get into radio later in life. Because of it's MCC### unit code that means it does not involve an exam (that's a lie, I have an MCC### unit that HAS AN EXAM! WHAT!? WHAT BETRAYAL IS THIS!?) but instead a test during the final week. Pretty simple, for Journalism it was worth pretty much as much as an exam would be only you didn't get time off to study for it. Also, it was pretty easy.

Speaking of pretty easy, the test for Radio and Sound was INCREDIBLY easy (and actually worth a surprisingly small amount). Yeah, you're probably thinking "Yeah, I get it you read the book once through and then understood it all so it was easy..."

No that's not it at all. Let me tell you how easy this test was... this test was not for University students, it was for highschool students. The comprehension was so simple the questions might as well have been "restate the 2nd paragraph" and "restate the final paragraph word for word." That is not how you write a test for the end of the year!

Just to stress my point... the test was so easy that anyone could sit down and take the test and still feel like they could've passed it even if they did not study the unit or take it at all.

Which is good seeing as I don't take that unit.

Yeah! Seeing as the days of silly test and exam answers are over because my exams ACTUALLY MATTER ALL OF THEM what with going towards my degree (that I desperately need to prove I actually DID something for 3 years) I have to find a new outlet for being an idiot.

So I sat in a lecture theatre and did a test I didn't have to for a unit I don't do. Fun right? I thought it was fun.

I stood around outside as people gathered to talk just before they did their test. I would go up to some of them and go "Man, I have NOT studied at all! I bet I'm going to fail... I haven't even listened to half the lectures." And it was quite amusing when you get genuine responses about your completely false concern... Then Sam-ham (the ma'am from Man......... durah) had to always interject with "YOU DON'T DO THIS UNIT!" (Thanks for telling them the TRUTH) That too was amusing because quite a few people thought I did... even the lecturer thinks I do. You see back when I was dumb enough to go to my Journalism lectures in the morning -which I could skip - on Monday's only to hang around for 4 and a half hours doing very little before my next class, I'd walk around and some of my friends do Radio and Sound so I would follow them into their tiny lecture theatre and draw while the lecturer talked about the British influence on the Australian broadcast media etc. I even stayed back to talk with the lecturer about things, giving him the illusion that I was a student eager to learn/a student who cared.

So I sit down, ready to take this test and I'm like "I'm just going to write nonsense on it for a joke... maybe some pictures." It starts and I put my real first name down out of habit... wait... DAMNIT! OK, better think of a fake last name... Knox........ no that's stupid... Knoxville! OK, pretty stupid but then again, I don't take this unit it'll be ok. But I couldn't just write random gibberish! It was multiple choice the first two answers! So I was like "hell, I can totally get this right... I'm going to tick the correct answer. This is so easy..."

Halfway through: "Man this is so easy I bet I could pass this.... wait... wait a second... I came in here to FAIL this test! Now here I am taking this seriously? But... it's just so easy!"

And that was about the time I wrote a swear word...

Well OK I put asterixes to censor it but you know you get the point. "When is it appropriate to use the dump button?" COME ON! Now that's just begging for me to not take it seriously. Seeing as at that point in time in the test I didn't know what it was (it was mentioned later on, thus explaining it. Don't you just love it when tests answer their own questions in the wording of other questions?) and I wasn't taking it seriously I decided this was the perfect time to say "When the b*** cheats on you with your brother and three other men! She's a whore! Dump her!"

You know, as you do halfway during the last test of the unit for the YEAR.

My list of silly answers was unfortunately very limited, I did really have very little room to work with. I was tempted to write "Chuck Norris" once but then figured out the answer. Yeah, I only answered like an idiot if I didn't know the answer...

Though in one it asked you a simple question of ethics where you had the phone number of the mother of a boy who has gone missing and your options are a) don't call the number b) call and REQUEST an interview c) Call and ask her questions, secretly record it and then later broadcast it on your show. Well the answer is obviously B (SEE HOW DAMN EASY THIS IS!?) then it asked you to justify your answer so I went "Because not even trying is not doing your job but if you're going to do something illegal you shouldn't broadcast evidence that you did it on the radio, sure do illegal things but be discrete if you're going to do it." Good advice.

Then I handed it in and left feeling that I could actually pass it despite not actually doing the unit... Though looking back I should've really done more. Like for example I came up with writing "...this isn't the biology test..." at the end of it. But alas, too late! Oh well, perhaps next year there'll be some test I can gate crash?

Well, we'll find out next year...

"This isn't veterinary science... this isn't veterinary science at all..."

Accursed Nature!

Alas, I have recently discovered that I am mildly allergic to bee-stings (which I found out the hard way). I was wandering amongst a lovely park in the city when unbeknownst to me, a bee had landed between my fingers with intent to harm! As I moved, I noticed the odd sense of pressure caused by something filling space where there shouldn't have been. Moving out of reaction, I tried to shake the thing from between my fingers, or at least bring it closer to inspect it. But no sooner had I noticed it was there, did the bee put it's evil plot into action! Thrusting it's stinger down onto my left pinky finger and leaving before I could see a thing! What a dastardly bee...

My hand proceeded to swell up and I was unable to bend most of my fingers for a while and it hurt a lot. Was quite a shame I use my pinky in my left hand for the shift key and a lot of my passwords involve multiple capital letters (because remember kids, random capital letters and numbers make things many times more secure than just "password") And also, to my dismay, I was unable to practice the piano! Curses!

That reminds me that I still need to perfect Beethoven's 5th for the performance. Bleh, there's always something I need to improve upon.

Well, soon I shall return to University, with a Minor in Creative Writing and a Minor in Journalism added onto my Bachelor of Screen Production, my future employment prospects are looking better than ever! (because you can always do better than never) I can't wait! It's only a few days now :D I've also dropped the only Unit this semester that involved an exam, as it was unnecessary and wouldn't have helped my degree... so hey, life is good when exams are a thing of the past :)

To the future!

Yes, this blog was mainly about me being stung by a bee.

Also, someone vote on the damn poll already!

3:42pm

It's that time again! That time where I tell you about my most recent and most worked on film of that semester/year. Well for this semester, my film is 3:42pm. A deep and depressing film about the horrors of abuse and the painful extremes of suicides to escape said abuse. It hasn't actually been marked yet as it was handed in on Sunday, but when I do get my results back I'll be sure to tell you. But yes, for my Screen Production unit I was tasked with the task (thesaurus? Nah, that's been extinct for 65 million years!) of making a one minute short film without dialogue and I did that. It took a lot of editing down to make it fit into that one minute, with many cuts but perhaps that's for the better. It worked out exactly how I wanted it to the end.

So here it is:

Embed? NO! This blog post isn't wide enough to fit a proper youtube videos widescreen into it! I tried resizing it but it just got warped and tiny and still didn't like me. So click the link up above.

Pretty darn interesting is it not? Yes, that is some Grade A acting from Daniel Buckle there. He's doing screen acting at FTI or so I'm told. He actually was very willing to do a lot of things, including slam down onto the floor again and again and again. I thank him quite a lot. He was also willing to get chest deep in a bath full of ice. It was as cold as he makes it look, if not colder. That bit isn't acting, he is seriously very very cold. I should know, I had to stand in the bath and film it. My legs were numb afterwards and didn't want to move much.

No actors were harmed (permanently) in the making of this film. We monitored his temperature before and after shooting. Funny story, his temperature was actually below normal before we put him in the tub... that bit I'm not kidding about. We quickly got him towels and ran a hot shower for him, gave him a change of clothes and spin dried his clothes so they were nice and warm and not wet at all. We did this while we played pool to celebrate a filming session well done. He was all very happy about it. See?



An entire film filmed all in one day... Ah, I may never see that again as it just gets more complicated and harder from here. YEAH! Here's to making a career out of this.

Extreme Blogging Challenge

Whoa hey lookit! A thing!

Today while hanging outside the assignment box a day after the assignment was due, as we cool Uni-student rebels do, my friend passed me a piece of paper to do with blogging. Not just anything to do with blogging but a competition so to speak to be the official blogger of Murdoch... or something. Read it? Who cares! Blogging! I had to enter this thing to do with blogging! OK there's also other things to win involved in this. So what am I going to do? Enter of course, and then blog about me getting a chance to blog! Basically there's four "assignments" that involve blogging.

Easy right? Totally. Talent required? Most likely. Have I got it? Stop asking questions damnit! The "theme" about this blog has to do with University life of course, and I do that already so I have a little bit of practice. But for this I need to up my game! Going to exercise my blogging muscles and become the greatest Pokemon Trai- I mean Blogger of all ti- this particular situation! So let's roll.

It's blogging time.

...that is definitely not becoming my catchphrase. That's just freaking stupid. Anyway...

Bush Court:

Unless you're one of those Vetinary students or just inconveniently parked, the Bush Court is something you'd normally walk through on your way to classes/lectures or a place you'd just visit to hang out with friends during breaks. A little sun never hurt anyone right? Well if you forget, there's a few sun-smart anti-skin cancer posters situated to the West of the Bush Court near the entry to the toilets, just in case you had forgotten that awful edited picture of that man with his skin burnt off with the caption "Forgot to slip slop slap!" Yes, definitely a deterrant right there. I got burnt first time I decided to sit and chat at Bush Court and now I seek out better and more expansive shade like everyone else. Ah yes, Bush Court, place of gathering, eating and smoking. A place to sit and watch those moving from lecture to class, like that guy who dresses up in a suit and tie and walks with his top hat and cane around everywhere. Does anyone even know what's in his suitcase? I wonder if there's more than just a notepad and pen in there... who knows? There's so many interesting people walking past the Bush Court everyday, including that woman with the dreads and the facial hair. No really, it is a woman.

You can see all this just by sitting between the area where various tents get erected for special events that you don't know about until the day they start and the big bronze sculpture of... something amorphous and indescribable. It's "art" just like the white dots on white canvas "painting" near the library entrance is "art". Yes, simplicity evoking powerful emotions? Emotions of disdain for your apathetic talentless painting! As we students sit there under the shade of a beautiful gum tree eating our cheap food from the assorted shops next to the Bush Court, we discuss many things like moving out of home, relationships, nicknames and assignments (that's a great conversation topic. You're never ever done talking about that one and when you've finished talking about it, it isn't long before you've got something new to say). Then, when you put your hand into a bunch of goo that a moment before was your best friend's face you'll freak out and then realise you just put your hand in your friends lasagna that they had scrounged around the few precious coins in their wallet to buy. Damn, that's going to annoy them. Uni life is one assignment after precious payday after another and we cherish it. We cherish it all. Damn right we do! Because it makes you able to appreciate when you realise you finally have enough money to buy from those many stalls that open in Bush Court on Thursdays! You walk up to them and you can buy Pulp Fiction without an ID because you know you're a Uni student now and thus look, act, sound and most likely are 18 and it feels awesome that you had a spare $15 for that double-disc special edition DVD. Damn straight the Bush Court rocks.

Oomph. Yeah, you just got blogged all over by my blogging muscles. Feel them, pulsating... like... a heart. A heart is a kind of muscle. Mmmm... Blogs.

University

Well I was going to blog about the first week of University, but then it kinda came and went so now I'm blogging about the first two weeks of university instead! Aren't you happy now? I bet you are! You're smiling ear to ear now that you've got two-for-one! (Though technically just one, but longer. Yay!) Let's begin.

I had this awesome idea that I would gather all my non-murdoch stuff and then parade around campus showing it off. The idea was to wear my Oxford uni shirt, drink from a Curtin drink bottle, wear a Curtin cap, carry my stuff in my ECU bag and use pens from UWA or ECU (depending on what I had). The reality of what happened was... I had an Oxford shirt and felt too stupid to constantly wear my slightly too small Curtin cap all the time so only showed it off occasionally. But yeah! I couldn't find the lid to my Curtin drink bottle so couldn't bring it :( I brought a batman one instead.

Well first day of Uni was a Tuesday. The awesome thing about that is when people when something will occur and I don't know or can't be bothered answering seriously I just say "Tuesday" as a joke because quite frankly, Tuesday's rock right? Much better than Monday (I want to shoot the whole day down) so for once I said Tuesday and it really was Tuesday! (Exciting so far isn't it?) OK well I had an awesome lecture about movies then went to the library and got out Charlie Chaplin in City Lights (which is awesome) and then I had a 3 hour lecture in the afternoon. It was so awesome. I have the best lecturer ever. He's incredibly funny but very informative. He's from Africa so has an accent but it's not hard to understand. Last lecture I had he started by opening up a youtube video of a foreign music video and singing along to it then proceding to dance. It got recorded for lectopia :P Martin (his name) is just plain awesome. You don't want to miss a lecture with him. We get to watch films! It's brilliant, we watched this eery Korean short film in the first week and the 2nd week involved watching Pretty Woman (which is apparently his favourite movie. We all thought he was joking, but no. He's serious he loves that film) and then soon we'll be watching District 9!

SUCK THAT ECONOMICS STUDENTS! Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha lol.

The same goes to any sociology, history, business, engineering students or anyone whose course involves labs/maths/science in any way.

Wednesday. I do believe that was the day that I had a Foundation lecture in the morning and sat next to someone who was tired. We connected on this tiredness and then afterwards decided to talk under the shade of a tree about things such as highschool and such. I had a 4 and a half hour gap between classes so I could've just gone home and then come back a few hours later but no, I socialised under this tree, unaware that the sun was moving through the sky. Hours later I think I should probably move slightly to the right to avoid burning. It didn't work. I got home and realised that my legs were unbelievably red. My arms were burnt aswell but not as badly. (They didn't start to peel a week later) It hurt to go into sunlight the next few days. I'd never been burnt that much before in my life because I generally avoid being in the sun for too long (I burn easy) as I am afraid of skin cancer later in life.

The next day was Thursday (Wow thanks for telling me!) and I had only a 4 hour break between classes so that was good. I went to the City and saw Lorna instead of doing work :) Sweet right? I came back with time to spare for my next class which was a workshop for screen production. Basically sat there as the guy went over the basics of using Adobe Premier CS4. I'd used a different version of Premier previously so I didn't learn much and it wasn't that interesting. I did however, spend half the lesson searching for the "cut" button. Seriously they got rid of it for CS4! It's just not there! I kept clicking absolutely everything and eventually I had accidentally shifted everything around so much that the timeline was squished somewhere, there were no more viewing screen for the footage and other things like toolbars had been stretched way out of proportion. I was too proud to ask for help... he didn't tell us where the cut button was.

I now know it's shrotcut is ctrl+K.

You know what sucks? Shopping. But other than that, getting up at 6:30am also sucks. Which is what Fridays are for! First week I didn't have a psychology tutorial (I don't know why) so I had to get up at 6:30 to get there by 8:30 (Over an hour of that is travel time there) just for one hour Foundation tutorial then an hour back. These things are compulsary unlike lectures and so I need to attend or I fail. Yay! Though it was good, tutorials so far have involved the tutor going "get to know people!" No really, our first instruction was "turn to the person next to you and get to know them." then our next instruction was "turn to the other person next to you and get to know them." It worked well what with the person next to you was right next to you, perhaps even half on your desk. You see there were two classes going on at once, but everyone went to one and so the other one was very small and joined us anyway. Over the course of 10-15 minutes it just got bigger and bigger due to latecomers and other class. We were in a circle and the circle was so big it was just a bunch of desks against the walls with enough space for people to be. Ridiculous I know, which is why they split us again the next week. I wanted to be in the original class because they old guy was funny but no... No I got stuck with the old lady who reminds me of my year 10 S&E teacher whom I wrote a nasty poem about, she found, she got me suspended for 2 days over... I thought it wouldn't be fair or possible to change back because the class was quite small. Oh well.

Week two. What happened week two of interest? I don't know... I met people. I'm always meeting new people. I've got a nickname already. I can't remember which day it is but one of them involved a screen production tutorial where I just sat down outside the doorway on the floor and waited for it to start. People arrived and they were like "Hey." and I was like "Hi. I'm floor man." so then they were like "awesome" and now I'm called Floor Man by some of them. Yay!

Well I'm sure there's an interesting story in week two besides the one on Friday but I can't remember them. Oh well. Well basically Uni so far has been awesome. I need to start doing more work for it than I have been so far but it's pretty cool. The amount of freedom and how fun it is to just show up and learn exactly what you want instead of having to deal with yet another boring math lesson is just incredibly great! Though sometimes I get tired or bored during foundation lectures or classes in the late afternoon, but that's OK. For activity sign up I shouldn't wait next semester. I waited until the day after they were open and then just saw that so many were full already. It was terrible! You're a day late and suddenly your timetable has got huge gaps in it like mine does... Terrible!

Well anyway, Psyche tutorial on week two, Friday. Well no one knows each other and we're all just sitting there in this room not doing anything. I see whiteboard markers... Of course I'm going to walk up and take one! Duh! (Who doesn't?) So my ingenious idea to stop everyone being awkwardly silent while waiting for the tutor (who won't show up for quite some time) is to play hangman! Yay! I put up 5 lines and go "Who wants to play hangman? Come on!" it starts slowly with people guessing a letter occasionally, but soon escalates and then everyone's happy and people are joining in and talking etc. See? I rock. People wondered how old I was and someone even thought I was the tutor just messing with them all but no, I was 17. They liked my beard.

When the tutor came she told us about her previous employment in the states only private prison. (Which she pointed out you can buy shares in, which means you rely upon the state to breed criminals for your shares to show profit. I suggested going around abusing as many children as possible to breed criminals so you can be rich!) Then she told us to interact with each other and get to know each other (Wow uni is so awesome! I love being told to talk in class!) and someone said that we pretty much all had been talking when she wasn't there (because of the awesome social power of hangman) so she's like "Well... talk to someone you've interacted the least with." I met some guy who grew up in Ireland in a 7 story house. Damn you! You make my 3 story house with two balconeys and an ocean view seem so insignificant... Oh well.

Then we had to talk about the bystander effect because, you know, university involves learning apparently? So I can't be bothered telling you about it, just google it! Google everything!

So yes, I have to go and read seriously huge amounts of my psychology text book because I didn't previously. Work! Work! Why must I waste half my weekends with parties and social outings? I have things to do!

I'm a university student now :D

Medieval Vegan Socialists!

I'm apparently all 3 rolled into one now.

Yes, we all have been in that situation where you're walking past a stall and suddenly a socialist is asking you to sign a petition and you decide "SURE!". I in particular have been in that situation 3 times yesterday alone. Wait no, OK I actually got asked more than that but I had already signed the petition a few requests ago so yeah. Yeah it was O-week (orientation week) for Murdoch this week and Friday was the final day. There was meant to be lots of entertainment, live bands and lots of free stuff! Of course the "free stuff!" was really free pamphlets handed out by the people asking you to join their club/organisation/religion/company/political party. Mainly socialists. Labour was handing out paper bags with... stuff. I didn't go near them. I was too busy talking to the socialists and medieval society. I also met some vegans.

Well yeah, I get there early (9ish) because I thought I should do the same as I had for previous O-week days (which involved getting up nearly 3 hours before it starts...) and when I got there I realised that being there on time wasn't too important. Not all the free ride stuff had been set up, the band wouldn't start playing until after midday. The stalls were being set up but those lively socialists had already set up and gotten a few signatures on their petition! They stopped me and asked me to sign a petition for the legalization of Gay Marriage which I of course would sign. I swear I didn't know they were socialists until AFTER I had signed it! I SWEAR I DIDN'T KNOW! Oh well.

Well he handed me a free small piece of paper and then offered me a magazine... for $3 or $5. Yeah everything was free there besides what the communists were selling. There wasn't just one communist stall, there were multiple ones. I was very confused. One was supporting gay marriage, the other was very concerned with climate change and the third one just wanted me to learn about Cuba for some reason. The first two wanted my money.

Wait... what? Communists want my money! Yeah I didn't actually realise the irony of it when I first was asked for their money. I just walked off to Murdoch's Chinese styled pond and walkway thing to sit, write and draw.



Well I then later decided I was being a massive introvert and I had come here to partake in the crowd so I might aswell be somewhere near them. I approached the first communist (this was before I learnt about the OTHER ones) and asked him how he felt about the irony of using a capitilistic method to spread anti-capitalistic messages. He agreed with me and said it was a "necessary evil." I asked him how much it actually costed to produce the magazine and he said $3 but I could pay $5 to help expansion. That kinda justified it to me you know. Only asking for enough money to make back what they spent and not too focused on profit.

But in true socialist style I stood purely by their set of ideologies and didn't give them a cent.

Later I was informed the socialist parties of Australia had joined together to become one to which I replied "The communists are finally working together!"

Well you know after a while of walking around and wishing I wasn't so polite I had signed lots of things and accepted many things. Yeah if someone hands me something I just almost always instinctively take it. I pretend to care also and smile or say thankyou. But really, I just think it's rude to make the people realise that all their efforts are futile and fleeting. I'm not going to read whatever you just handed me! Though I did only sign petitions I knew what they were about. Except one... which seemed important. I had walked off to near the carpark and was looking at my phone when someone says (or at least this is what I heard) "Would you like to sign a petition to stop the deforestation of poor villages?" Well I wasn't aware that somewhere in the world someone was busy logging an entire forest which somehow was situated within a small village where only poor people lived. I wasn't aware that such an indecency was being committed against random nondescript villages! But I want there to be a stop to it! So I signed.

I didn't sign my name. But I signed it. I put down one of my friends names then told him about it afterwards. He personally is against poor people and encourages burning down the forests, or so his reply text had said. Maybe he was joking? Who knows with him... By the end I had stopped signing my name and made ones up. One of the socialists wanted me to sign something about global warming or live animal export and then they asked for emails and stuff and I didn't want to give that out to socialists so I made everything completely up. I didn't want to decline from signing it because I had approached him to ask him what he was about (once again, I SWEAR I DIDN'T KNOW HE WAS A COMMUNIST!!) and had spoken to him for too long that I thought it would be awkward to have basically agreed completely with him and then said I wouldn't support him in any way.

I also met many many other people there. Not many were interesting. Though I did get a FREE magazine from some vegans telling me that the recommended daily dietry intake of protein is a MYTH and that normal people get far too much protein than needed. Even a vegetarian diet is capable of having more than enough protein. Interesting, yes, mhm.... I still like the taste of sweet bloody murdered cow. It just tastes good OK!?

I also met some people who liked to dress up in medieval garb and fight each other! Originally you see the randoms dressed in medieval clothes and you think that's pretty geeky and feel like laughing at them. Then you walk over, they give you a pamphlet and explain what they're about and suddenly they seem awesome! Right? I mean, who DOESN'T want to dress up in armour and hit someone else with a sword? I actually decided that it'd be pretty cool but I had nothing appropriate to wear... damn. That and the times that they go being medieval and such clashes with my University time table.

Oh well. Fortunately for me, if I ever want to form a political opinion, I can become a communist. They don't really have any paticular schedule that I need to stick to, they just are. I don't really want to be a communist but I don't really believe that they're all evil. I have a problem with abuse of power not the actually idea of communism. Abuse of power is present in both systems in real world situations so the only real reason why I personally would ever support communism would be to destroy Scientology, which cannot function within a communism environment because it's based solely on the exploitation of the suggestible for the purpose of huge monetal gain and personal power. So without any money, Scientology loses it's only function and thus no longer can abuse and destroy people! Yay! See what you did America? You fought the communists and now we have the Scientologists! Was that really a fair trade? Was it? NO!

Vote for the socialist party!



I start Uni next week. I can't wait.

Forever Unemployed

Hey there! As we all know, I've been searching for a job for... a very very long time! Well a week or so I get told that Woolworth's is looking for "longlife fillers" which is a fancy way of saying reshelf things. Now. Yeah I'm not above being a shelf stacker OK? A job is a job and even though my brother also wanted to apply to it, I was confident I could get this job. Seriously, what competition could I possibly have? So I handed in my resume even though I had excluded any references at all...

GUESS WHO GOT A GROUP JOB INTERVIEW! My brother!...... Me also! Yeah what's really bizarre is how on my resume I listed my contact details to include my hotmail email account... and yet they contacted me via my gmail account. OK that's one thing that Woolworth's did wrong so far! (Oh yes, let's count them!)

Well I go to the group job interview and I thought I was the oldest one there until someone else showed up. Apparently they weren't just interviewing shelf stackers so that person actually wanted a proper job. I was the oldest one wanting to stack shelves... Oh well right? Job interview went well. So well that...

GUESS WHO GOT A CALL BACK!... My brother!...... Me also! Well OK I got the one-on-one job interview which was pretty cool. I went there all smartly dressed and looking good, ready to be interviewed on time. I thought you were meant to show up 10-5 minutes before an interview for some reason. To show punctuality skills required for working at Woolworths like all employees are expected to have? Yes the fact that I had to sit around and wait for my interviewer after the appointed time means nothing, they have a job to do so that doesn't count as a mistake on their behalf. Wait for it people! Woolworth's a perfectly respectable company! Stop urging me to slander them and point out all their flaws! They're bound to make a few mistakes once in a while.

Job interview went well. I answered all the questions quite well except the last one which was "Why do you think you're suited to this job?" which confused me. Hadn't all previous questions actually been this question? Seriously what does that mean!? I hate interview questions because they're always so utterly pointless. "Why do you want this job?" "FOR MONEY!!" (I actually answered for money and to earn valuable working experience) and "what skills do you have that will help you with the job?" answer: capable of heavy lifting and can work independantly. The fact that I appear confident enough to apply to this job and talk to you should suggest I am not so shy as to be unable to work in such an environment and taking one look at me will easily determine that I have more muscle mass than any of the other applicants. You don't need to ask that question for the job. Job interviews for jobs that only teenagers take aren't filled with poignant and important questions. They have questions for the sake of there being an interview process. It serves two purposes, it prepares you for real interviews later on in life, and it shows you are capable of interacting with another human being for ten minutes without stuttering or mumbling. That's it. They know their questions are pointless, it's just how well you give pointless answers is what they rate you on. So yes, I was confused that they asked me such a redundant question that to me was "so, repeat all your answers to me please in a slightly different way. I want to see if you can make up an answer as to why you are suited to picking things up and then putting them down." (By the way, I don't like repeating myself when asked similar questions because it feels like I'm spouting tautologous nonsense which shows very little intelligence) Well I'm suited to in the sense that... I can do it? (Because really, it's SHELF STACKING) So my answer was "............because I am capable?" It's simple, it's truthful, it's really the only thing you can say at this point in time when the past ten to fifteen minutes has been thinking that the person across the table seriously needs to trim their nails because they're so long there are very noticable differences in the lengths and they have made less eye contact that you have. Seriously, how are they going to judge my eye contact and general body posture if they look down at the piece of paper most of the time, pausing to think about the question written down on the sheet of paper before reading it? Read the question! All you do is write down what I say!

Well even though her pause made me feel uneasy as if I had just shattered my perfect facade with an oddly bad answer, I was still confident I had done well. Sure, my interview didn't really reveal any of my actualy real traits or skills. I said "I'd say I'm intelligent, but I don't suppose being able to critically analyse and deconstruct literary texts helps with this job does it?" which a subtle way of saying "You don't need to be smart or skilled to do this job. Hence I am overqualified, but should get it anyway." I don't want to seem vain and think I'm more awesome than anyone else, but I honestly believe I am a very employable person who is wasting their talents as a shelf stacker. But a job is a job and hence not below me. No job on earth requires %100 of a persons skills so the fact that I have many that aren't needed for it doesn't matter. I left and then waited for my call back to see if I had gotten the job.

GUESS WHO GOT A CALL WHILE SITTING IN A CAFE NEAR THE BEACH THE NEXT DAY!..... NOT my brother! (damn right he didn't get a call!) Well it was the lovely HR whatever who was at the group interview (but not the personal one) who had called to inform me that I hadn't got the job unfortunately because they were looking for someone who was going for more long term employment...

"Wait..." I interject, not wanting to sit and be told things without actually talking back and going "excuse me! What the hell woman? Let me justify things before you tell me I failed!" Before she could continue I went on. "3 years is not long term?" Because when I was asked how long I was planning on staying at this job I answered "At the most 3 years. Not staying around forever. 3 years max to pay for some of my uni fees." "And so not just a few months?" (replied the interviewer) "Oh no. Not just a few months, that's far too short. I don't know how many months but more than a few." "OK so 3 years maximum?" "Yes, 3 years maximum." OK.... did you get the underlying theme there? The strong undertones of my point expressed by my repetition of the word "years" complimented by the other persons verbal confirmation of what I JUST SAID? Good! I'm glad you got it from just that because the real conversation was actually a few sentences longer and hence harder to miss what I was saying. "Sorry... I've got written down here you said 3 months." "No I most certainly expressed 3 years quite strongly." MISTAKE TWO! BIG ONE! "Oh, well sorry..."

OK I thankfully picked up on that and mentioned it. I get annoyed when I let people think they're actually right when they're logic is faulty. Just like with my drivers test... which I failed. Sure I actually failed legitimately but she said one of my mistakes included this one time I went onto a road without being able to see oncoming traffic. The person testing me thought it was amazing how I was able to not run into anything when she thought I was unable to see oncoming traffic easily enough. Well maybe the reason why I stopped was because there was a pedestrian crossing at the end of the intersection so wanted to let potential pedestrians past before driving on. Then as I approached the rest of the road I didn't need to stop because as you approach the road you can see onto it! Duh! She also said I made traffic slow down because I cut in without being able to see oncoming traffic. That was a faulty judgement on her part also, there was a truck. You see if a vehicle is slowing down to turn into the same road you're coming out of then no one can actually go past it so you're free to go. I don't need to see oncoming traffic because it's blocked by a truck. It was slowed because it needed to slow to prevent crashing... something I never ever do.

Doesn't matter, I didn't fail on those points, I lost due to a rather nasty instant fail involving a double laned roundabout and a potential hazard.

Anyway, where was I? OH YES! The reason why I'm currently still unemployed! :) Yes, I had forgotten to point out the obvious "well the person who did the interview is INCOMPETANT... that or you can't read. Thanks." But I had made my point that someone screwed up not me. She basically backtracked at that point in time trying to find a reason why I can't be employed anymore at this point in time... but in the future... because she's already given the job away to someone less physically suited to this job. "Oh... well it says Uni study may affect availability. Have you got your uni schedule yet?" "Not yet." "When do you get it?" "End of February I think." "OK well you call me when you get your new availability and then we'll see what we can do. See if we can fit you in." So thank you! Thank you for realising you made a mistake and that there isn't actually anything stopping me from being employed and then offering me the same job in the future to make up for it.

So it's not like I'm completely unemployable... it's just that they won't do it right now. So in a month I will call them back and they will most likely tell me they don't have any positions available and I will be still unemployed! Of course they might actually still employ me after all. Who knows?

I'm still going to apply to other places instead while I wait. Like hell I'm relying on people who either can't write or can't read! (Some people would be bitter after this happened to them... not me though... of course...) So now it's back to printing resume after resume! Now it's back to getting physically exhausted walking around all day looking for places of interest to hand in resumes into. No one ever calls me back, I don't think the whole "handing in resumes" thing actually works unless there's a sign asking for help. There's never any signs! Oh what fun it is to be unemployed...

...gives me time to work on my novel.

Revision Seminar

Yesterday I had a revision seminar. It was the biggest waste of my life. I drew a fish while waiting for it (in the natural sciences block, because the security guard gave me the wrong directions).



It was for Applicable Maths (Applicable... I never get that word in relation to maths. It must not mean what I think it means) and it was INCREDIBLY pointless. Sure, I could blog about it... but I'd much rather show you my notes. They'll explain things better.





I hope you can read that all :) Basically I couldn't read what the handwritten projections were, and didnt understand the words the guy said, and didn't care at all. I'm going to a Chemistry revision seminar tomorrow....

......yay.

P.S. Some of these were based on what he said. Like "Don't always believe your calculator" and "Always attempt things. You might get marks by having something carried through. Make things up." (He was talking about Venn Diagrams)