∑±FOIHREQ ≥∞ !!!
Sorry, you just startled me right there by clicking on that link and opening this blog. I wasn’t quite ready for you yet as I was putting the finishing touches to a couple of things. But anyway, hey! I’m Ben’s brain, nice to meet you too.
When I’m not busy thinking of quirky anecdotes, attempting to be witty and making jokes that would make my Dad proud, I do enjoy long walks on the beach, shower singing and admiring myself in the mirror.
I kid. That’s just Ben. LOL
(And he’s going to hate me for writing this too, excellent :D )
I, on the other hand (pardon the idiom which can’t apply to me), enjoy analysing everything in Ben’s life to the nth degree, have a soft spot for sugar and am currently pondering those deep questions in life, like why do I always fall off the edge on Rainbow Road.
Anyway, you’re probably asking yourself a lot of things right now, but one of those things must surely be: ‘Ben’s Brain (BB for short), what utter tosh that you are currently chilling independently of your owner Benjamin and are up to shenanigans!’ Naturally, you are incorrect. Y’see, Benjamin woke up late today and quite metaphorically and literally ‘left his brain in bed’ shall we say. So now I’m just quickly getting through the list of things to do and borrowing his computer whilst he’s busy playing Tiggey with his cats… Oh dear. He just walked past our room now to check up on me, judging from those lacerations, I would warrant that he is losing and that his tagging technique is slightly off. Sigh, another thing to teach him.
Well before y’all decide to do something slightly more interesting like making a shampoo Mohawk or pressing alt f4, I guess I might as well fill you in on our holiday. It’s been good, that’s for sure. I have to say I’m happy that Ben’s been going easy on the old me (brain) cells too because really, I can’t grow them back and I already lose around ten thousand neurons a day… I didn’t read that in the K-Zone ‘did you know’ section either, I already knew that. :P
So far, we’re in the process of completing our set work and trying to read over notes for the rest of semester. With the examination dates having been released, we are (or at least I am) trying to plan out the next few weeks so as to maximise our time. By having a game plan, it makes me less worried about the weeks ahead as I know what I’m going to expect as opposed to just jumping into the unknown. And Ben too, of course :)
It certainly is good to be having a break fO Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy ..
ARRRRGHHH YOU BASTARD!!!!
Apologies, that was just Benjamin literally thinking of trolling us. I apologise for that rude intrusion. I shall punish him for that later by pretending to be asleep when he is concentrating or cause him to make a mistake next time he’s integrating some rate law or something… Wait, I’d better not do that actually, that would be totally mean. Mmmph. Curse you heart for having morals. I absolutely refuse to be associated with them. They restrict me from being cruel, calculating and generally pretty evil. God we’d make a good mad professor. Except the fact that we’re not really a professor. Ah well.
The weather’s been rather good, which has been great for maintaining my circadian rhythm… That was a bit of a non-sequitur so let’s follow that up with some more thoroughly unrelated things. These holidays Ben has: tried that Bubble Tea drink (which, I have to say, is rather good actually, but really strange at the same time), proved to himself (or to me at least) that he will never be a professional gambler due to his propensity to lose at Poker and Mahjong, for reasons unbeknownst to me has had good chats with his dog in French (which, of course the dog did not understand. Barking mad I tell you…) and had great fun at the Monash Science Ball (yes, he is a traitor and I despise him for it) getting taught how to dance by his somewhat unimpressed laoshi :P
…
Okay, Benjamin has just come back now, looking a bit worse for wear might I add after those cats. I did warn him… But yes, I should probably get going now and let you get on with whatever you were previously doing like respiring aerobically/looking up wiki how articles. I might try talk with you again if I get the chance, but otherwise it’ll be Benjamin. Don’t worry though; he’s almost as dashing and amusing as I am.
Rightio, farewell!
Sincerely,
B.B. feat. Benjamin xx
We're more than half way through second semester. In fact, eight weeks in and the scary thought that second year looms upon us not too far in the distance has popped up. It's been awhile since I last posted, as Uni has been quite hectic lately. Let me fill you in with what has been happening.
Student elections- You know its student election week when 'I've already voted' becomes the most used phrased at uni. Stepping onto the Uni grounds on Monday morning, I was confronted with countless numbers of coloured t-shirt campaigners. They were everywhere. And they were keen to get your vote. While I'm all for voting, the method in which some of the parties tried to get your vote seemed to be backfiring. Still, I voted, I survived my first student election week. Challenge completed!
A major problem- No pun intended, I'm having serious trouble deciding what I intend to major in. The difficulty with the Bachelor of Arts is that the broadness of it means that its common to become overwhelmed with the choices you have of what subjects to major in. You can choose to do either a single or double major. Personally, I think a double major would suit me better as it gives me more direction in my degree. While I'm set on doing Media & Communications as a major, I'm stuck on what else to choose. Psychology, Sociology, Criminology? So many options! It appears the holidays will definitely be spent researching what path I wish to take.
Clubs and societies- I've been quite busy with my involvement within both M-ASS (Melbourne Arts Student Society) and the Media & Communications Student society. I've found it to be such great opportunity to develop skills of organisation, communication and initiative while meeting some wonderful people. There's numerous Clubs and Societies on campus and I definitely encourage future students to become involved with those that interest them.
Two week break- After many essays and readings, the break is finally within four days reach. With the fast paced semester, I definitely feel I need this break. I'll hopefully be using it to catch up on some uni work, get ahead with my assignments and hopefully find some time to relax and rejuvenate for the final leg of semester when we return.
Wishing everyone a lovely last week of semester. With the temperature on the rise, I'm sure the break will bless us with some lovely weather!
Adeshola
Hi everyone, I haven’t posted in a while because I have three 1000 word essays due on the 14th of September, as you probably guess, I’m thrilled :’(.
I’m going to bring a serious tone to this post, this was really hard for me to write and I debated with myself whether or not to even tell you all this, but I realised that I had to, in case anyone else out there is in the same or a similar position as me, and if this can help anyone, then the struggle I went through to write this will be worth it, to all the readers out there, this one’s for you.
At the end of year 12, I began to experience severe depression, and upon seeing a doctor I was diagnosed with OCD or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and as a side effect of this severe depression. I’ve had this my whole life, and I’ve even had two tiny episodes where it flared up but I wasn’t diagnosed until then. This episode was far, far worse than those previously and this is what led to me needing to seek help. As you can imagine I didn’t have the best of holidays. I’d rather not go into the specifics, but just know that my OCD, doesn’t manifest itself in the form of the stereotypical media portrayal, I don’t count everything, I’m not obsessively clean and I don’t need everything in its place, in fact I’m a total slob, right now my room looks like a bomb hit it. My OCD is more internal, in fact if you didn’t know I had it, you would see no trace of it, the only difference you would see in me if you knew me previously is my low mood. In public, it’s invisible. But this post isn’t specifically about my OCD, I want to talk about how circumstances affect anyone and how we should view this, of course these are my personal opinions and you can listen or disregard them, but I hope these tips inspire you to move past whatever happens to you.
So here we go
Monique’s 3 pieces of Yoda wisdom for those with issues (so everyone ;))
So first of all, as a result of this my school year has been difficult; more than I expected and I have decided to take a year off next to recover and learn how to live with this. Now to everyone out there it is okay to take a step back and say, I’m struggling, I need to take a break. There is nothing weak about it at all; I repeat there is nothing wrong with taking time out. In fact, taking time off means you’re strong, brave and very intuitive, because you’ve realised that there are some problems that aren’t going away in a hurry, and you’ve got to deal with them and that maybe taking a break from things is a good way to do it. How does this make you strong and brave you ask? Because dealing with your issues, realising that a problem is serious enough to warrant a long break and letting other people in is hard, it’s scary and it can take a long time. There’s a reason people push their problems aside and throw themselves into something, because for some people, looking at themselves and really dealing with what’s going on can be extremely painful, but in reality if you push them away for too long, they can get worse, and accumulate until you break down, they will always be there if not resolved. Not to say that pushing your problems aside for the time being is bad, by all means take a holiday, have a movie marathon, take a break but realise that eventually you need to deal with those problems. And after you deal with them, you’ll be a stronger person, because you’ve made it through, you’ve either made it disappear, learned to live with it, or learned how to overcome you’re problems, and now if they ever return, or something new crops up, you will have the tools to get through it, and move on to bigger and better things.
Secondly, if something’s happening in your life that you can’t deal with alone, ASK FOR HELP!! There is nothing shameful, or weak about asking for help, nothing at all, whether it be from your family, your friends, a doctor or your school. You might remember my first post where I talked about my struggle with school and because of that I’ve had help from Melbourne Uni, they have numerous programs to help people with all sorts of different circumstances. The fact that I asked for and received this help does not make me less intelligent, less capable, less hardworking than anyone else in any way shape or form and it certainly does not in any circumstances mean that I don’t deserve a place at Melbourne Uni or any uni for that matter. Anyone who insinuates this is clearly ignorant and you shouldn’t let it bother you. The only thing this means, is that circumstances beyond my control have caused me to need a little consideration when it comes to my studies. Everyone in world at some point in their life will experience difficulty, and everyone will need help at one stage, for me it just so happens that I’ll need a little more help than others for a longer period. So don’t do it alone, you don’t have to deal with what you’re going through by yourself, there is no reason you should have to. Speak up, and you know what, chances are things will get a lot better faster with others helping you. Don’t let the opinions of others make you feel ashamed or stop you from getting the help you deserve.
And lastly don’t let your difficulties define you. Yes, I have OCD, but you know what, that is just one facet of who I am. My name is Monique Lucas, I’m 19 in 19 days ( haha I just realised how awesome that is :)) and I attend Melbourne Uni. I have a Thai mother, an English father military father (technically English, his ancestors were convicts on the first fleet which is awesome!) and an annoying yet lovable brother. I have two dogs, one of which seems to gain weight despite everything we do (I found dirt in her mouth once…. I wonder if she eats it) and the other is completely indifferent to me despite all the love I give him (every time I sit down next to him he gets up and walks away, it breaks my heart every time :’() -,-. I have best friend called Natalie, I love reading, crafts, I’m a nerd, I recently started watching Doctor Who, ( which is a mixture of awesome and what did I just watch ), my future house will have a library in it and I have big dreams that I won’t let anything get in the way of. And yes, I have OCD, but hopefully by next year I’ll be able to state that fact with the same amount of importance as I do when I state the fact that my hair is dark brown. The fact that I have OCD doesn’t change who I am, I’ve lived with it my whole life, for 18 years I didn’t even know I had it , it’s a part of me but by no means is it the most important part. If someone tells you something like this, they are the same person they were before they told you, now they just became a little more interesting :P So don’t be ashamed of who you are, or if something happens to you that is out of your control, the only thing you should do, is not let it ruin your life, because life is too good to give up, I mean look at life, it has sunshine and puppies, who doesn’t love puppies? And kittens!! And comfort food, and waking up and realising you don’t have to go to school, so you snuggle into your warm blanket and fall asleep, or waking up to the sound of rain. And of course, puppies, I mean come on, puppies (as you may be able to discern, I kinda love animals with all my heart).
So I hope this advice helps anyone out there struggling right now, and this applies to everything, any disability, any problem financial, and relationship wise, family related or anything else. Life is full of ups and extreme downs, like negative downs if that makes sense, which it doesn’t, but you have to get through it, move past it, learn from it and enjoy the ups when they come, and they will be so much better because you worked so much to achieve them. Although writing this was painful, it was actually also cathartic, so bonus advice, write things down! Or draw them, like a cartoon!!! Or sing them, like a musical!!! Wow I am totally doing that last one, just do anything to get them outside of your head. So yes, next year I am leaving, but I hope when I return I can come back into the sackbut seven :P Also, I hope I didn’t depress anyone with how serious this is, to compensate, I leave you pictures of cuteness.
Ciao!
P.S if anyone out there wants to talk, Yodina is in the house! (the female version of Yoda, I morphed during this post) but seriously I am here. Oh, also here is a link to information about the services Melbourne uni provides, I’m pretty sure their all free. And if any of you are not a Melbourne uni student, yet ;) Just search for services in your area, some will probably be free or at least very cheap near you :)
http://services.unimelb.edu.au/counsel
Greetings y’all!
I am aware of the fact that this is a late blog, so apologies for that. Have had plenty of assignments, Midsemester tests and work to entertain myself with lately (and when I say entertain, I mean that in the loosest sense possible :P).
A few weeks ago now, I was lucky enough to get the chance to be an Open Day guide at Melbourne which was awesome fun. I got to represent the Transition & Orientation Department with Kathryn and Ron, as well as a final year student Shu-Ling which was absolutely fantastic. They are all great people, and it was lots of fun talking about the blog and the transition from school to university with lots of young, aspiring people. So if anyone from the open day is reading this, here’s a shout out to you! And once again, don’t give up with the studying, you’re almost there! Exactly three months from now (less than that even!), you’ll be, as Dumbledore aptly put, ‘Emptying your brain’. So don’t do that now! :)
Just reflecting on study habits and diligence, make sure you are able to eliminate distractions. For me, it’s food :D Like, I eat to live. I plan my studying around eating. I eat when I’m hungry. I eat when I’m eating. I eat if something looks edible. It can be bad though. Seriously, I’ll have a break to get a ‘snack’ without even looking at what I’m getting. I’ve become aware just of what it is exactly that I am consuming. It mainly consists of chips, sugar, bread, chocolate and fruit, not very healthy aahaha. My conscience rests easy knowing that I am totally not deluding myself from the fact that I am still growing
It is crazy to think we’re almost up to the mid-semester break! Tempus fugit when you’re having fun (and ridiculously busy!) The other week, I was part of the mighty Dodgeball team ‘The Prickly Pears’, donned in ridiculous apparel, to raise funds for the Student Appeal, which helps those who struggle with the financial side of university, a good cause to support. It was crazy fun and we ended up winning! No Cactoblastis to be seen! (Had that joke planted for ages) ;)
In other news, I have refused to watch the football lately, just because it’s so heartbreaking to see my team, Melbourne, constantly face defeat. My heart breaks every time they lose, so much so that I reckon I could get a few horocruxes going by now :P
University is going well at the moment. With only a couple of weeks ‘till the mid semester break, it is very tempting to take one’s foot off the accelerator, but let’s all keep plodding along, some future chillaxation is in sight. I’m going off on a tangent here, but man Melbourne’s being extra specially good with all its sun and everything. It’s certainly a welcome change from all the rain and wind. But it’s not very nice when you can’t fully enjoy the day because of study :o Ah well, that’s what the holiday is for! I love Spring, although I do shudder at the prospect of losing an hours sleep soon due to daylight saving. This year I refuse to be sprung and oversleep, I absolutely refuse to!
Oh yeah, if you guys remember that Markovnikov’s rule song I did for Chemistry, our lecturer was kind enough to give us all vouchers to the book store at uni which is totally awesome :D
In comparison to last semester, it seems that at least in the subjects I’m doing, all the assignments have been done much earlier which is a welcome change. Although this semester’s been top heavy with regards to the work load, I much prefer it as it means that the last few weeks of semester are less stressful. I’m enjoying the subjects I’m taking at the moment, maybe because I’m trying to be more organised and proactive, or just because the subject content is more interesting. I try to make it fun too but have to resist the urge to make life punny. Once in an assignment asking a question along the lines of ‘What will happen when a parachute is opened?’, I talked about the glories of cross sectional surface area and drag. I found the question a bit drab and had to steel myself not to write: ‘the parachute increases the cross section area, with a larger cross section area increasing drag. Therefore, bigger is better, refuting Yoda’s First Law (‘Size matters not’).’ Was very tempted to include this until I learned who would be marking the assignment and the likelihood of them having watched Star Wars. We all have to ‘force’ ourselves to do things sometimes, that is a good example of that :P
Well that’s it for now. In future I will try do less infrequent, long blogs and keep you guys up to date with shorter, more frequent ones.
Happy Father’s Day!
Peace out,
Benjamin x
Golly gosh, I hope my absence from our humble blog hasn't made too much of an impact. Doubt it will since I don't believe I have many avid readers at the moment!
How is everyone doing? I'd love to hear how the Semester has been panning out for you all. So please update, comment, etc!
As for me, I've been very very busy as most of you would know. I started off the Semester pretty well academically, but have fallen into the horrible pattern of missing a lot of lectures and having to catch up on them in my own free time! Socially, it has been very busy with lots of Balls happening at the moment. If you read my previous posts you'll know that I managed four camps at the beginning of the year...now it is time for four balls! That's right, I'll be hitting up four balls this year (Wallet, please forgive me).
I've also been very busy with Aa as of late. It's leading up to our highly acclaimed Annual Ball so there is a lot going on with that.
I'd love to update you all a little more and chuck a few pictures here and there (you know I love pictures) but must run! Have a lot of work to do so I can't let a minute go to waste!
Hope you all have a lovely week.
Toodooloooo!
Last Monday morning at 10am I was dressed as a robot and marching into North Court of Union House. This is not how my Monday mornings usually begin, but this was Prosh Week. Let me explain for those of you who haven't heard of Prosh Week (where have you been?) or didn't have their lectures last week interrupted by a group of Proshers. Prosh Week is one of the biggest weeks at Melbourne University. It's a week long session of activities in which teams compete in events for points and pure glory. Each team has a theme in which they must base their costumes around. I was part of the Arts Spoons team and we were robots from the future! While I couldn't possibly document my whole week, let me share with you some of the highlights from my first Prosh experience.
Afternoon Games: We gathered on the University Square lawns and got involved with a series of seriously fun, wacky and messy games. Think 'Drag races' (guys racing to get changed into dresses and heels and run!) and 'Archaeology'- how many toy dinosaurs can you find by dipping your face into a bucket of yogurt. I participated in the four legged race which is harder than in sounds. I've still got scratches from the cable ties around my ankles.
Lecture stunt: If you've ever wanted to just get up and dance in a lecture before, you should consider doing Prosh next year. Combining with the Science team, we organised an epic lecture stunt involving fake security guards, a flash mob and Koren dub step. Apologies to the first year Biology lecture which was interrupted, but boy was it good fun!
Iron Gut: Definitely the most gruesome event of Prosh. It's one of those things you don't really want to watch, but at the same time, you do. Each team entered one participant who was presented with a four course meal of the most disgusting selection of food. I'm talking seven month old eggs, tuna and baked bean ice-cream and an all in one ball of vinegar, liver, cheese, fruit and chocolate sauce. Bon appetite!
Lift parties: My favourite event of the week! We grabbed our fellow team mates, speakers blaring music and lots and lots of party poppers. We then threw one hell of a party in the John Medley lifts, moved across to the Law building (got chased by security on the way) and then finally to Redmond Barry and Union House. Here we all are-
Scav hunt: Ready, set go! We had 24 hours to complete as many challenges, take as many photos and find as many items on the grand list we were presented with. So much fun! This event took us all around the city, all around uni and all through the night.
At the results party, it was announced that out of a total of 16 team, we had come second! Well done Team Arts Spoons. Prosh was such a fantastic experience of meeting new people, getting involved in uni life and just having lots of fun while bonding with my fellow team mates. I'd highly recommend it to anyone who likes the sound of the events above.
Until next time, Adeshola
Hello there! How are things everyone? Well, Semester Two has well and truly begun with assignments, tests and study galore, which is rather frustrating seeing as the Olympics are on. True, the reruns are on the tele at Union House but I haven’t really had the time. Good to know that the MX doesn’t have to start flipping the medal tally around again for the sake of saving national pride. :P
Man, it’s been busy. This semester it seems that I have more assessment and assignments than last, which is fine. I mean, if I weren’t doing work, I’d just be having massive facebook stalking seshs and reading. On that note, I apologise for not attending the bloggers lunch last Friday. It transpired that I had work an hour after university, something which I hadn’t thought about when I’d been blogging, hence my absence. I suggest that we bloggers try to organise a catch up some other time perhaps? It would be good to see/meet you guys again.
One consequence of being busy is fatigue. So naturally, when you’ve got a five hour shift at work straight after a full day at uni, you’re really relying on that coffee/grape Fanta to get you through. Generally this works, apart from the other day. I’m a check out chick (‘lad’ just sounds funny), right. So basically, one thing you need to do is talk, which is fine for me, seeing as I generally do that too much :P Anyway, so what happens right, this middle aged lady walks through the checkout, and I’m scanning her items and all that, you know, pretty uneventful. When she was done, she walked off, and I meant to call after her ‘See you later, bye.’ BUT INSTEAD BECAUSE I WAS SO TIRED I STARTED TO SAY ‘See you, love you, bye.’ as I would to my parents. Thankfully I managed to catch myself halfway through the ‘love’, so that it sounded more like ‘See you loovaaater’. I don’t think she heard, thankfully. But by golly, talk about what could have been fantastic customer service! You’ve got to do what it takes to get people to come back, right? :P But at the same time, whatever happened to 'treat 'em mean, keep 'em keen'? Hmmm
Open Day’s coming up next weekend, and I’ve been fortunate enough to be given the chance to be a part of it. I’m going to be a host! So if you have nothing to do on a Sunday afternoon, come down to uni for what shall prove to be a fun filled, exciting time from a rather energetic tour guide :D
Also, speaking of upcoming events, isn’t Prosh Week coming up? From what I’ve heard, it apparently is a rather interesting affair, so I’m looking forward to see what shenanigans people get up to this year.
OH YEAH. For all of those CHEM 10004 students out there, you know how our lecturer wanted us to make some sort of song for Markovnikov’s rule? Well the powers of showering singing and auto tune have combined to bring you the following soon-to-be smash hit: http://khu.sh/songify_50238a967ec1d&v2
It’s nigh ununderstandable, I know :P The lyrics are: ‘Markovnikov’s rule: When H-X adds across the double bond, the X adds to the most substituted carbon’. Let me know what you think :P
I’ve had my licence for a couple of months now, and let me tell you, it makes life so much easier. One of the best things about it is that it permits you to sing along to tunes on the radio with slightly more privacy than what you’d get in the shower at home. So, it is pretty fantastic. That is until you belt out a rousing rendition of some song on the radio called ‘As Long As You Love Me’. And realise that it is sung by Justin Bieber. And end up buying it anyway later that night. Makes you lose a lot of self beliebef.
Last Sunday I was quite literally caught with my pants down when I rocked up to basketball without my trousers so I had nothing to change into. Luckily, on ‘shorts’ notice, one of my mates had an extra pair so I’m very thankful that he saved me from wearing what would otherwise have been a choice between size 10 hot pink shorts or sweaty paraphernalia.
I’ve recently taken up playing volleyball with a few mates from school which is good fun. It’s important to keep in contact after school, because trust me, in uni it is much much harder to do when you don’t see each other as often. Anyway, so it’s quite good actually. It’s indoor beach volley ball and everyone mucks around and doesn’t take it too seriously which is great, it’s always good to have a bit of fun. I generally rock up in boardies to go with the beach theme. With regards to the match, it was sort of close until they found out our weakness; me. What followed was the ball gaining the annoying propensity of going towards me, the slightly overexcited, enthusiastic self-proclaimed cheerleader. On the bright side, I got some shots back. On the dark side of the force, I didn’t. One part I enjoyed was every change of sides you got to give the enemy other team a hand shake. One of the players and I tried to do a high five whilst looking in opposite directions and missed three times consecutively, arms flailing, before deciding to make contact. Obviously that sort of thing requires a more hands on approach. We haven’t won a match yet, but I’m sure that’s soon to change.
The weather this week was generally pretty off. My umbrella had a bit of a hissy fit and now refuses to work as well. Lucky I got to share with a couple of friends who had brought a spare so we all managed to squish in together, a good effort if I do say so myself. Hopefully the sun decides to make an appearance this coming week like it did on Tuesday which for a lot of reasons was just a fantastic day.
Right, I’ve got to get going so have a great week everyone! Hang in there, stay warm and stay well (I’ve got a snuffle too, Monique, minus the cough though)
Lots of love,
Benjamin x
P.S. Big Brother starts, Monday! I'm actually excited. I hope they bring back Friday Night Live!
Hi!
So I said I’d try to post once every two weeks, but then winter term started, and as everyone knows, in winter everyone becomes an infectious disease machine. I literally have not had one lecture or class go by, without someone sneezing or coughing (admittedly most of the time it was me :P one history lecture it was so bad I had to leave the room!). And of course, this meant I caught it too. This was one of my more worse colds, I now know that they mean by hacking lung cough, I literally felt like my lungs had detached themselves and were trying to climb up my esophagus and out of my mouth to escape and run away to join the circus. So to say my first few weeks back at uni haven’t been that pleasant is an understatement. I don’t know how many times I wished to be back at home sleeping. But I’m better now so yay :D
How is everyone settling in to their new classes? I’m finding I enjoy it more now I feel more confident, not to say I do feel confident, I mean I am still quite insecure when it comes to uni, but at least I have one semester under my belt, I’ve had exams, essays and have some sense of where things are at uni, plus my timetable is so much better. One tutorial though was so confusing to find! It was in the John Medley building, and I’ve had classes before, but this one was on the 6th floor. So I went into the elevator and it only goes up to floor five, so I went up and looked, didn’t find anything, so I went across to the other tower and the same thing happened. Finally I realized you have to climb the stairs to get there. I felt so embarrassed but also annoyed! Why would the elevator only go to floor five????
I also really enjoy my lectures, right now in Ancient Greece and Rome, we are learning about the Greek gods and Heroes and reading Homer's Odyssey. I really love this topic, the Disney movie Hercules is one of my favorites. Fun fact, did you know Hercules is the only character in the movie not to have a Greek name? Hercules is his Roman name, Herakles is Greek :D Also, Aphrodite, the goddess of Love? She was born from her brother Kronos, cutting of her father’s (Heaven) genitals and throwing them into the sea :)
Since not much else has happened in these three weeks, I hope you don’t mind if I talk about what I did a couple of weeks before the semester started. I was lucky enough to be a host at Uni Experience, and event organized for year 10, 11 and 12 students all over Australia and internationally, to experience life at not only Melbourne uni, but uni in general. People came from everywhere, SA, NT and even Malaysia. It was a two day event that I really enjoyed. We stayed at Queens college dorm rooms, which are pretty amazing, one part of it looks like the turret of a castle :D This was really cool for me, since I’ll probably never have the opportunity to actually live in a dorm room.
My day started off by arriving at the college and meeting all the other hosts, everyone else was amazingly nice, I knew one person already, from a previous event, and we were the only two first years! Everyone else had done something like this before, and was really good about giving advice. Then kids started to arrive and we helped them get settled into their rooms. Then lunch was served and we got to meet our group of kids! There was about 10-12 in each group with two hosts. I was the green team’s host, along with Johnson, a really nice enthusiastic second year bio med student. We got to know everyone and learned their names. That day we had an amazing race around the uni, with different questions and events to participate in. Johnson led our group while I manned one of the events, I had to sing which was mortifying but it was really fun despite the rain. Our group came in 3rd which I was really proud of, and then we all had crepes! It was my first one, I had coconut and nutella and oh my gosh it was delicious!! Then the kid’s had some lectures, and then after dinner we had a trivia night! There were music rounds as well as the traditional questions. I’m so glad my table and I knew so much useless knowledge :D Like who wrote Peter Pan and what the biggest brand in Australia is. One person even knew the full name for the TARDIS. We came in second place and had so much fun :)
The next day after breakfast the kids had some more lectures, but this time they could choose which ones they wanted to attend, they were about different courses. Then we had pizza and they said their goodbyes and left. Even though I only knew them for two days, I felt a little like a mother, with empty nest syndrome :P I had so much fun, and I am so grateful for the opportunity to not only meet great people but have some amazing experiences and learn some valuable leadership skills.
And last but not least did you guys attend the lunch?? I did!!! But I didn’t see you guys, I mean maybe I did but I didn’t realize it was you. If only we had name tags!!! But I did meet some other wonderful people and a second year blogger :D
Anyway, here’s to hopefully posting more and to keeping my lungs!
Bye!!!
As a University student hoping to become a journalist, I'd like to think that print media is far from 'dead'. Ironically, though I type these words to be published on a blog. Most recently was the Fairfax saga in which it was announced that hundreds of jobs would be cut from newspaper giants 'The Age' and the 'Sydney Morning Herald'. Furthermore, the announcement of a move towards digital copies of the two newspapers made clear the fact that there is a progression away from print media towards online mediums of journalism. However, with thousands of jobs being cut it is becoming an increasingly harder field to break into.
So where does that leave hopeful young university students like myself who for years have idolised the notion of writing for a newspaper, a magazine or becoming published authors? What's one to do when the media inundates us with negative perceptions of journalism careers and even friends and family giving you looks of pity at the word 'journalism'. Even walking in to University last week I was struck by Farrago's discouraging subheading: 'Journalism: Its fucked'.
Feeling quite discontent, I attended Farrago's 'How to break into the media' workshop last Friday and must say it was thoroughly intriguing. It was presented by Tracie Winch (freelance writer, columnist and ABC producer) who provided her insights into the increasingly competitive industry of journalism. While it was definitely a wake-up call in terms of the dedication needed to pursue such a career, I walked out of the room feeling quite inspired. While I scribbled down pages of notes, her main message was this: If you want something badly enough and are prepared to work hard for it, you will achieve it. It may however not come in the time frame or form that you originally intended. You will eventually get their though.
That's not to say that journalism is not a competitive industry, only increasingly so with a progression towards online mediums, but a career in it is not out of reach for those willing to follow it. These words do not only apply to the field of journalism, but to any profession desired by students. While its early days in the Bachelor of Arts, workshops and conversations with those in the industry provide valuable inspiration to University students like myself that make each subject, each semester seem worth it in the long haul.
Adeshola
Yo,
Welcome back everyone, to uni, school and study. It has been a good old break, but it really is good to jazz things up by getting into the swing of things. The (four four) time to remember the purpose of our brain is now. However, the best thing about uni is that it is a veritable excuse to raid the cupboard again. And really, that’s what makes it all worth it.
I just read one of those online ‘post’ things that run rampart over the internet due to them being continuously shared and emailed. You all know them. They generally go something along the lines of ‘if you post this to ten friends, your crush will: kiss you/buy you a present/turn into a unicorn/etcetera’. Seriously, what the Dalek? We ought to use our critical thinking skills. We won’t become ‘unlucky’ or whatever for not sending it on. Remember those chain emails from the ‘Nigerian Royal Family’ who would tend to feel extra specially good enough to give you ten million British pounds. All you need to do is send them your name, address, oh, and a few pesky little credit card details and fifty dollar deposit. If that were really the case and people gave out money like that, the economy would most likely crash, I would warrant (I have no idea, am not a commerce student haha).
This is a complete non sequitur, but the Blogger’s Lunch is coming up this Friday and I am mega excited! Unfortunately, I’m going to be an hour late due to a lecture, so you guys had better not leave before I get the chance to meet you/see you again. If you do, I’ll be forced to Facebook stalk hunt you down.
Had the best idea the other day. In the movies right, when the guy and the girl run towards each other on a beach to be reunited and have a bit of saliva exchanging action, there’s some dramatic music like ‘Chariots of Fire’ in the background, is there not? Have you ever imagined what it would be like if you were to ‘third wheel’ that particular moment when the two companions are about to fall into each other’s embraces (or play tonsil hockey)? Like, if you were on a Segway/unicycle? Then you quite literally would be. A random thought I came up with during the week. Okkk…….
You know those times when you look back on the past, but like, unlike in the movies, the surrounding air does not become fluid and pan away to illustrate a memory/flashback? Have you ever stopped and just thought about how hard it is to emulate that via size 11 font? Well neither have I. Generally when we reflect on things gone by, we use italic font, yes? Well I am looking back on the last couple of weeks right now and realising just how great that they have been.
The weekend before last, I was lucky enough to be invited up to the snow and got to hang with two of my best friends and had an absolute blast. We drove up on the Friday, the highlight being the Happy Meal that I bought, but more particularly, the toy, the squirrel thing from ‘Ice Age’, whom we christened ‘Scat’. We then learned shortly thereafter that his actual name is ‘Scrat’, supposedly the cross between ‘squirrel’ and rat’ (which, being a genetics student, just doesn’t seem right). On Saturday, we skied for almost the whole day until my legs decided to have a slight disagreement with my brain and commenced cramping and spasming shortly thereafter (this happened in the car on the way back too >< ). It was pretty funny though, I was pretty hopeless, but was semi-incompetent after a lesson which was naturally a good improvement. One of my friend’s hadn’t skied for a while, so we took the lesson together whilst my other mate tried some more challenging slopes in the interim. I was thoroughly excited to show off the fact to her when she came back that we could move on skis over a small distance without getting well acquainted with the ground. This over confidence resulted in me going down the first couple of slopes on my derriere. At least my other mate had some sense to compensate for mine! Just realised ‘mate’ and ‘other mate’ sounds weird’. E does not equal mc^2, it equals my mate (I’m saying mate again!) with whom I had the lesson. D = the gun skier :D Anyway, back to memories (although I do so like underline) Sunday involved skiing for the whole day until mid-afternoon when we headed off. Highlights include:d eating snow (just for the sake of Bear Grylls), having a snow fight, attempting to dance and managing to go down an intermediate slope without falling over. Medium lights included the awesome scenery. Traffic lights were also to be seen on the road. Yes I know, a most ‘illuminating’ observation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAfFfqiYLp0
Right, well before I run out of ‘bright’ ideas, I’m going to revert to unremembering font. It was a fantastic trip, and I can’t wait to go again sometime! I’m very lucky to have been able to go up, so thanks D!
Uni wise, things have been really good, actually. I feel much more on top (NO NOT LIKE THE WAY JOHNNY RUFFO MEANS IT) with my organisation and am enjoying the subjects that I am doing a lot. I’m doing Genetics, Chemistry, French and Flora and Fauna. It is rather fast paced, but so far I am keeping up alright. The difference between school and uni is really a matter of organisation. You have to be more organised as an adult in order to survive in the real world and by picking up these sort of skills now, we are making our lives much easier for later on.
It was also fantastic to see friends that I haven’t seen since last semester, so that was great. One thing I will say about university, is that it is great to catch up with mates. University is about study, but at the same time, it is a fantastic opportunity to get to meet new people and to make lasting friendships.
Well anyway, I’d better skedaddle. I’ll see you guys Friday.
Peace in,
Benjamin xo
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