By which I mean people on the internet will make you want to punch them and yourself in the face to get away from it.
So I'm a massive Whovian, right. Like, I am so incredibly keen for the 50th anniversary and for the Twelfth Doctor and it just makes me so happy to think about with four freaking Doctors (and Rose!) this year and ohmygosh.
So the 50th anniversary is on November 23rd and one of my favourite DW pages posted a petition to have a replica of the TARDIS on the lawn of the White House for the week before. Now, I think this is a brilliant idea and would be awesome, except, November 22nd is the 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination. And I commented that perhaps people (Americans and the White House) woudl find the TARDIS disrespectful to JFK.
Bad idea.
I just can't handle people on the internet. Like, can you seriously not see where I'm coming from? The two are both incredible and increibly improtant things to acknowledge and celebrate (Not: celebrate JFK, not his assassination), but they are also completely separate things (unless you count in "Rose" when the Nine is pictured at the assassination). There is going to be a whole spectrum of opinions on a White House TARDIS and no doubt there are going to be people who love the idea and don't see it as disrespectful, but they have to understand that there are going to be people who see a British sci-fi show, regardless of its status and longevity, to be trivialising of a key moment in recent US history.
But I mean only two people have replied to my comment and one of them accepts my point so it's not like this is even a big deal I just can't stand the narrow-mindedness of people on the internet when they think they opinions is being attacked or invalidated. And I wasn't attacking or invalidating anyone's opinion, I was just expressing what is presumably also going to be a strong opinion.
I've been trying to come up with some costume ideas for the Arts Bookworm Ball, and so far, all I've thought of is that if I were a guy, I would totally be dressing up as Mr Darcy - he's the ultimate bachelor (clearly! But maybe I wouldn't know this if I was a guy?), and he wouldn't take much effort to dress up as, you know? A top hat, some breachers maybe, a vest, boots, a bow tie. Or even, though this is a bit more cliche, Prince Charming with a crown, or Harry Potter. It would be totally suitable, easy, and you would actually look like the character does in the book without changing much!
But as a girl?! It's so hard to come up with a good costume (pretty much regardless of the theme) that looks right. You couldn't simply go to any dress up themed event as Elizabeth Bennett just as she is described in the book, for instance, without somehow modernising her long, old-fashioned dress to make it look... well, 'hot' enough. For some reason - maybe the bombardment of over sexualised images of female celebrities and modals we see pretty much everywhere - our culture seems to demand that we girls must look 'hot' in order to not only impress, but fit in. Whether it's Halloween or Superhero day, characters always seem to have to have a certain sex appeal - hence why Supergirl outfits always have a mini skirt bottom, why Cat Woman is classically very 'sexy' in tight black leather, why even all the Disney Princess outfits for women are low cut or extremely tight around the waist.
Hell, I even saw an advertisement on the internet for an adult sized Snow White costume that boasted a 'FREE G-STRING' thrown in! - As if I would be then be like, oh yeeaah! Great! I would've bought a G-string anyway so that saves me some money! (Cough, cough!). I'm quite positive that no costume for men would feature a complimentary g-string (and much less have enough visibility in that area, unlike the short skirts for girls, to make it of any use!).
But, unfortunately, it feels like it's one of those situations where you're damned if you do, and yet damned if you don't. The option is: to fit in better with the rest of the crowd, even though you may actually feel like you're objectifying yourself to some extent - and not honouring the classic princess that the book described her to be. Or else? You're exactly like Lindsay Lohan as Cady in 'Mean Girls', when she goes into the Halloween party dressed full-on as a zombie bride and is humiliated! There are some limited options, of course. Hermione Granger or Katniss Everdeen are a couple of the few characters I could imagine girls' dressing up as that would not feature a corset or revealing top... but maybe that's just reflective of our lack of strong female heroines in past and present literature.
I think what annoys me the most about all of this is that there is a double standard; guys' don't get that same pressure, or at least to the same extent. Costumes of book/film characters for guys' online certainly are not sexualised in the same way the girls' are. Don't get me wrong; there's certainly nothing wrong with wanting to look a bit sexy. But when women are valued primarily for their sex appeal or domestic abilities? - That ticks me off!
There's only one thing I can be sure of: no G-String with any costume for me, thanks!
Sitting in my room convincing myself that now I've finished season to of Torchwood and my make-up and had lunch that I'll finally get around to my English assignment and I can hear the march down Swanston.
The thing is, I'm just over Australian politics. I remember this close to the last US election I was aware of Obama and Romney's policies, who I would choose and was adept at navigating their campaign websites. I try to do the same here and there is just nothing that adequately persuades me towards any party.
It doesn't help that my seat is a Green's seat still leaning Green and I grew up in an agricultural community (and family) that put up anti-Greens signs. Don't get me wrong, I in no way believe that I have to follow my family politically, I'm perfectly capable of making my own decisions, but I still understand things from a farming perspective.
And protests just never interested me.
I'm not even sure if there was a solid point to this other than #auspol is silly.
On Thursday afternoon, a massive tidal wave of assignments and readings pulled me under. Now, normally, I can swim through these - after year 12 my freestyle is pretty solid! - but, I feel like right now I've started to drown. It's all too much, and I can't see any cute life guards ready to save me (i.e. do all my homework), so I'm losing oxygen and eating chocolate (under water, yeah - go with it!), and praying/trying to convince myself I will sort it all out. Maybe surviving the university "sea" of issues requires a different stroke, like butterfly, and that's why my perfected freestyle isn't working? Or maybe I can't be bothered doing freestyle. And yet I'm drowning. Hmmm.
Oh dear, please excuse that terrible, terrible analogy! - yes, this is the desperate point I have reached!
See, I promised myself last semester that this time, seeing as I know what uni is all about now in second semester, I would not get bogged down by readings. I told myself I would be super prepared, always organised. With my amazing four day weekend, I envisaged myself spending every Friday at the library surrounded by notes and flow charts and summaries... I told myself I would have enough time balance work with a bit of socialising as well as extras, like making little cute lunches for myself to take to uni through the week, in coloured plastic tuppleware with those forks that fit into the lid... I would be well-rested, eating healthily, money jiggling in my pockets, exercising regularly, with an effective, habitual study plan that assured me I never got behind and never left anything to the last minute. I imagined I would be in a kind of 'zen' state with the balance of everything in the palm of my hands... you would find me gracefully, steadily walking through the lovely UniMelb campus, a gentle smile on my face, ready for whatever the world would throw at me...
But, Jesus, I was clearly dreaming. Dreaming a lot ! I feel like I'm exactly the opposite of everything I'd planned to be in semester two. I've already skipped a couple of lectures - for good cause, I should say - but not caught up on them. I say Yes to extra shifts Coles offers me even when I know it'll mean I'm cutting into the time I was meant to be studying and when I can barely stand up I'm so tired. I barely sleep, it feels, as I stay up a few nights a week cramming before my tutorials, and then binge on the free time over my weekend catching up with friends instead of having the early nights I need. I'm still broke, mostly because I never find the time to make those cute lunches and end up buying it everyday which really adds up quickly (as well as a coffee... or two...). And, I'm seriously struggling to get all of these readings done! Like, seriously struggling. I don't know how anyone could do it all and remain sane/have a social/work life. This week, for instance, I'm reading the Communist Manifesto and 'Wasteland' poetry and approx 60 pages of my Media, Identity reader, and probably about 45 of intense Media Law readings. Plus an essay due on Friday. Plus beginning that other essay due in a few weeks. And let's not count the bits and pieces of readings and lectures I never got around to in the last three weeks!!
I feel quite terribly guilty about it all, to be honest. That I should be 'trying harder' and getting more done, being better prepared for things. But no one's perfect. We all do as much as we can - we try to stay afloat, above it all. And you know what? We can always doggy-paddle when we start to drown.
(That's not going to happen NEXT week, of course! No doggy-paddling for me! Next week, see, I am most definitely going to be SUPER organised, you won't even recognise me! I'll go to bed early and not procrastinate and bring packed lunches and spend my first day off, Friday, sitting at the library with a coffee and some highlighters...)
First week's done and dusted and so far I'm pretty happy.
I was sceptical, even a couple of days ago, about the subject's I'd chosen, but after having all but one tute down I've warmed up a little. My biggest worry was gender studies because it's a topic that invites so much infuriating radicalism and judgement from all sides. But, I finished up with the tute last night and it was really chill, discussing the movie (Whip It!) and just general introductions.
Of my three tutes so far my introductory games haven't been too bad! They haven't asked hard or awkward questions, mostly just what we're studying. Although English and Gender studies asked which actor you would choose to play you in a movie. In English it was (assumed and mostly answered) as actor of your gender, but Gender Studies was specifically of the opposite. (My answers were Audrey Tautou and Nicholas Hoult. Love those two.)
On top of all the ncie ease and chill of the first week, I am already behind on readings and the like. But there are just so many!
Also, I really need to go to the supermarket but it keeps raiing on and off and a lot on.
Somehow we're back at uni again! I swear I didn't live through a whole 5 weeks of holidays. There isn't much proof of my holidaying - my bedroom is probably just as messy as it was before (that was probably expected, though) and I'm not more 'rested' or relaxed (a holiday bedtime of 1am probably didn't help that! Such a struggle to switch my sleeping pattern back!).
But aside from this, it's actually wonderful to be sweeping through the South Lawn in the sunshine with a hot coffee and the promise of exciting new subjects to begin and get into, and of all the people I'm yet to meet in tutorials on Thursday. UniMelb feels like it has this beginning-of-semester-glow to it. There are suddenly so many more students around (presumably because everyone attends the first week of lectures and becomes choosey about going to the rest?!)... so the lectures are full again, and everybody seems reasonably happy to be back, not yet bogged down by weeks of readings they haven't done, and assignments they should be doing, etc, etc. I don't know, maybe it's the weather, the picture-perfect blue sky and green grass, or the lovely coffee and vibe of the Shanti Bhagwan Cafe just out from the Alice Hoy building that I write to you from this morning, but being at uni just feels good!
At this stage, dropping psychology is the best move of my university life so far. Of the three lectures I've been to, I've actually understood everything the lecturers have said (HOORAY! But trying not to get my hopes up prematurely - I haven't been to Politics yet!). I mean, I've zoned out a couple of times, sure. The Literature lecturer spoke about this French modernist poet Baudelaire for a while and all I could think was I wonder whether 'A Serious of Unfortunate Events' (with Count Oalaf and his eye tattoo?!) was inspired by the poet Baudelaire's name for the last name of three children... and then what did happen at the end of that series? Did I even reach the end back in grade 6? Hmmm... I don't mean to say that the lecture was boring or anything, though! My little drift away from topic was definitely more due to my own lack of sleep. Coffee this week is way more important than ever before! But, yeah - the life without psych is suiting me so well! My subjects are actually relating to my VCE course last year and the overlap is a serious relief, because it's not all sciencey gibberish and the Basal Ganglia!
I guess it's a bit difficult and sad too, of course. I've run into a few of the people I sat with in psych and hated having to tell them I wouldn't see them there again. But one of the girls I remain close to from our tute last semester, and though walking into lectures and tutes not knowing anyone (all over again like semester 1) kind of sucks, I'm not going to let that get to me or freak me out. It's a lovely sunny winter morning and Melbourne University is my oyster, if you get what I mean!
Hopefully everyone is feeling similarly happy to be back? Good luck for your tutes! :)
Love,
xxx
To anyone who is not yet at uni, or who is about to begin this semester, I must warn you that one of the hardest questions you will be asked in your first tutorial for each subject actually sounds deceivingly simple:
'Please tell the class your name and one interesting thing about yourself'.
If you are at uni now and have answered this question already, what on earth do you say?! Please feel free to comment and share your interestingness! I am in serious need of inspiration. Maybe I'm over thinking it a bit, but last semester I ended up blabbering out something embarrassing nearly every time, and I must not let that happen again in semester two! I don't think I'm particularly un-interesting, I just don't have anything special or different to tell people, you know? (Damn the fact that I'm not from anywhere interesting - I haven't moved out, I'm just in my home state, chillin' with my family. The most common answers from my classmates seems to be "I'm staying at ___ college on campus"/"I moved to Melbourne from..." It's so simple and effortless, and yet it's cool too because it indicates a certain independence/exoticness, you know? I'm clearly a tad bit jealz!)
Alright. Brainstorm time.
'Hi, my name is Simone and...'
'...I live with my parents and sister, only a couple of trams away to uni.' (Too boring.)
'...once a magpie landed on my head and start pecking.' (Too weird. And probably won't help with that whole 'friend making' thing at all! I'm ashamed to admit this is what I told my psychology tute last semester. I thought they might laugh... but really there was a just a whole lot of staring, and that was all. Epic fail. Not sure how I managed to make friends in psych after that!)
'...I went sea kayaking to see dolphins in Byron Bay over summer.' (True! But the dolphins didn't turn up, so it's a bit of a fail of a story! Thanks a lot, dolphins, for ruining this moment for me... or perhaps I could just leave out the whole bit about them not showing up?!).
'...I barrack for St.Kilda.' (Hmm, does this sound a bit 'footy bogan'?! I guess it's not as bad as saying I barrack for Collingwood, but still... is it just me or are people not into footy immediatly slightly repelled by people who are?!)
'...I have a bit of a crush on Robbie Turner from Atonement'. (Having a crush on a fictional book character may freak some people out, though, even it is a whole lot better better than on one of the guys from One Direction or Justin Beiber or someone.)
'...all of the pets I've ever owned have either died or run away.' (Makes me sound like some kind of evil, pet-killing/hating person! Definitely not the right impression to give on Day #1. I swear my five goldfish were all fed and loved really well. And the cat was just a bit crazy from the begining. Totally not my fault).
'...I'm a checkout chick at Coles.' (I'm not ashamed of this - us uni kids have to make our money somehow! - but it does sound a little bit bogan and boring, eh?).
'...my favourite film is 'Pride and Prejudice'.' (Too boring? Perhaps it sounds a bit too posh, like I'm totally Mr Darcy-adoring and all. Pff. I don't like Mr Darcy! Not at all.....!)
'...I don't think I'm a boring person but I'm not a big fan of these get to know you activities because they do not reflect who you actually are and just make you feel embarrassed and awkward if you don't have anything particularly good to say in comparison to those people who just moved from Switzerland or whose father is an astronaut and WHY must you put us through this?!?!' (....or not?)
God knows what I'm going to say, dear readers. Maybe I should I just stick with 'Hi, my name is Simone and I am a worry wart because I thought way too much about what to say to this exact question!'.
(True.)
With our second semester starting in just a few days, how will it be different from last semester?
I'll probably tell myself I'll d the work more and keep organised and not leave assignments with two days to go (one for research, one for writing. What more do you need?) but considering I've already told myself all holidays I'll read my books for English and haven't it's not looking promising.
I have a four day timetable this semester and I'm already deciding I really don't need to go on Mondays and most of Wednesday is lectures too so I can skip that. This isn't the way to efficient studenting.
I might tell myself that now having internet at home means I'll actually get around to listening to lectures online but we all know it just means I'll be able to procrastinate more with tumblr, etc.
I've already acknowledged that I'll participate in just as few uni events so no need to even go there.
I hope this is super promising for any new students.
So, as you should know, I moved out of home to go to UniMelb, so going home for holidays is one of the things I do. So I got home about an hour ago and have only noticed how different everything is. My parents now have no children at home (I was the seventh and last to leave) so they have their own armchairs. There's no snack food in the fridge. (I haven't even checked the cupboards yet!) There's a new internet router. Mum has a new address book. Just little things all over the house are just a little bit different.
Then I get t my room. As soon as one of my sister's moved out at the end of last year Mum emptied and re-painted her room, so I was worried that would happen to mine. It hasn't. It hasn't changed too much. When I came home at Easter my bed had bee replaced (with a bigger, more comfortable one), and my table had been taken out. Now the cupboard's been taken out. No big changes. My desk and bookshelf are still here. My chipped purple paint. I even noticed my old nail polish stain on the floor. But it doesn't smell right. It smells like an op shop. I mean, I'm pretty sure the piles of children's clothes in the corner are from the op shop, so it makes sense, but it's wrong.
After four and a half hours of smelling v-line (which I would not wish upon anyone, especially the regional coaches) I just wanted to smell home y'know.
"Simone? That's you, yeah? I think they've put you on the wrong table," a girl in a sleek black dress had tapped her red fingernails on the list of names. "There must have been a mix up... I'm so sorry." I stared at the list of names on my new table, realising suddenly that I didn't recognise any of them at all! My friends and I swapped nervous glances. Couldn't I just squeeze a chair onto the other table? "No, it wouldn't fit," the girl had said, apologetically.
So, yes! A brilliant start to my much anticipated first ever-uni event, and surely one I will always remember: the time I stood in a foyer of a dressy reception, already dazzled by the atmosphere - the girls in gorgeous cocktail dresses, the guys in their ties and shirts, the set out tables, loud music - and felt my stomach drop, realising that for the entire Greek Tavern Night dinner, I would be sitting on a table of strangers! It's almost a bit of a nightmare to envisage arriving to an event to find out that you will be removed from the comfort of your friends. That, after all your preparations, new-dress buying, wondering, excitement, you will be placed on a table full of random people that already know each other! And very quickly, I can assure you, all that excitement you had becomes dread, and you just hope it's not all too awkward, and you have to convince yourself that somehow it will all be okay!
Gripping onto my coat too tightly, I'd approached the table of strangers, who all looked a couple of years older than I, and jumped into a pause in their conversation. "Sorry... I was put on this table by accident..." I'd stammered. They stared. "I'll just sit here on the end," I said, hurriedly, cheeks burning (I probably resembled a tomato - very beautiful). Then, one of the guys spoke up, motioning to a different seat. He smiled, eyes twinkling. "Feel free to join into the conversation, too!"
I tell you now, lovely reader, I restrained myself from giving him a hug. Sometimes, all you need is someone to say something small to make you feel like you're going to be okay. The rare kind word from a stranger is like a single breath of fresh, cool air on a stinking hot day - it doesn't completely solve all your issues, but you're thanking god it existed!
I'm not sure that I'm a big believer in "everything happens for a reason", or in "fate", but that night I decided that believing in "fate" was a bit of a good coping mechanism, because maybe I was somehow meant to become friends with the people on that table, that it was "meant to be". It's a romantic idea when you consider things like the chance meeting of lovers, or of those amazing coincidences that seem like they could only be miracles, but then not such an attractive philosophy when you put it to all the awful things that happen in our world, like murders and wars and poverty... that doesn't happen because it's fate too, right? It's interesting...
But you know what? Whether it was fate or just how it was, I ended up meeting some really lovely, funny people! The guys to my left entertained me with their tipsy chatter, about how they all knew eachother, their plans, and didn't blink an eyelid at the fact that they were put with a random first-year, as if I was some sort of old friend or something. They were well kind enough to offer to grab me a new drink, and always included me in conversation, so (though maybe it was the wine...) I never really felt awkward being on the random table! I still got to have a fantastic dance and catchup with my friends - we joined in both the traditional dancing (having no idea what we were doing, so that my foot movements were random side steps that I tried to make look complicated out of embarrassment that everyone else around seemed to know exactly how to do it!) and then we pretended we knew exactly what the Greek pop music lyrics were all about later on, with the DJ. The food was good - and, more to the point, alcohol free and unlimited! - though I was disappointed there wasn't any dessert... (what is a formal occasion without chocolate, people?!).
So - my first uni event didn't go exactly to plan. But, never mind the table fiasco, I would definitely go again! We were all still dancing to the Greek tunes in the early hours of the morning, joined by a few of my new table friends. And, in the flashing lights and thumping music, we laughed and swayed, the best way to let go of all of that exam stress and give a final salute to semester 1. Oppaa!
(N.B: My god, holidays are amazing!)
Number of posts found:
1327