Workshop: Characters

For this exercise we had to discuss our favourite literary characters. After intense deliberation (and I mean intense) I decided on Anne Shirley from 'Anne of Green Gables'. I have seriously read this book about ten times, apparently my mum used to read it to me when I was a baby. I really love Anne - she's such an entertaining person - and I love how we get to watch her grow in maturity and understanding.

Using our favourite characters, we were asked to describe a character (of the opposite sex) who portrayed a similar characteristic. I wrote about a boy with red hair and a vivid imagination.

Another great exercise we had was this: we were all given three pieces of different coloured paper. On on piece we had to write a number between 5 and 70 (I wrote 39), on another we had to write a unique physical characteristic and on the last, an extreme emotion. We then had to swap our cards with fellow classmates, so I ended up with a 39-year-old character with a disfigured arm experiencing extreme happiness. It was difficult! But I think I pulled through.

Workshop: Ways To Start Writing

We first started by using images as basis for a story. We then had to share them with a classmate - I've included the one which she thought was the best...



He knew it was time. The cheering above had subsided, and now he could hear the muffled tones of the judges, calling the names. He turned to the small boy beside him and tapped his sequined shoulder - 'Come on, they're waiting for you'.
For a moment their eyes met - the boy in his shining costume and white skates, the older, haggard man biting his lip. They walked towards the stairs, climbing them quickly, and then they were by the rink and the boy was pulling on his coach's sleeve.
'My skates'.
The man knelt down and gently held the laces, tying them slowly into firm, neat knots. The blades were sharp and ready, the crowd was on its feet.

I then had to take that story and combine it with a story I wrote corresponding to this image:



I found it really challenging! But it worked in the end :)

Workshop: Week One.

So I've had a few requests from people saying that I should put some writing that I do in my winter course up on the blog, and I have decided to follow through.

The first week of the unit has already gone by! We started off studying Henry Lawson's 'The Union Buries Its Dead', which I quite liked, then we moved on to Barbara Baynton's 'The Chosen Vessel' - much more terrifying! We also studied Vance Palmer's 'Josie' - a simple story detailing the reaction of children to the death of a classmate. They were all wonderful reads.

Polly Ticks.

So this morning Oz has a new PM.
I actually feel a little sorry for KRudd. Losing the support of his party - that's gotta hurt. Apparently he cried.
But he really didn't do all too much for our nation, and that whole home insulation business, the mining tax and his blatant neglect of the climate change issue (which he claimed was the 'moral challenge' of our generation and then backed down on) really hurt his leadership. I see him as a very elusive man - people are going on about how there are two Kevin Rudds - the public persona and the foul-mouthed dude.

Hopefully Julia can do a little more than Kev did for our country. (Hopefully Liberal can win the next election)

I LOVE THIS GUY.

GO ZACH! YOU'RE AWESOME!

WORLD CUP

WOW OK BRAZIL vs NTH KOREA --> 2:1!

I screamed when Korea scored! I mean even though I do like Brazilian football and think it's so beautiful to watch...GO KOREA GO!

Côte d’Ivoire and Portugal, scoreless draw! That's epic!

Spain play at 12am tomorrow morning!!!! VS SWITZERLAND!!! VIVA ESPANA! (and I can't put an accent on the 'n'... :( )

So, it's been a while, and I've sort of missed blogging.

My exams are now over! It's such a relief to have them finished. I feel like I went alright but we'll just have to wait and see.

My winter course starts next week. I'm looking forward to it...but keep having to remind my parents that YES, it did cost money, and NO, I'm not having a semester break. I think they think I'm crazy because I'm not having a holiday. But I'd much rather do something productive with my time rather than sit around doing nothing, which is what I would probably be doing most of the time if I had a holiday. And plus it's writing, and I love to write, it never completely seems like work to me.
It's sort of annoying though because my uni has given me no information as to where my classes are or what time they run. I have no idea what's happening. It can be frustrating...

I am so tired right now thanks to a little something called the World Cup! I have been staying up each night watching the games and have loved every minute of it. I have this thing when I support the underdog, so each game I go for the worse team and cheer for them like there's no tomorrow. Bit unfortunate about Germany thrashing us but we have to be optimistic. I can't wait till Spain play because then I can watch Fernando Torres in action! I'll also be checking out Argentina thanks to Lionel Messi...that guy, seriously...wow.
The whole tournament has been really surprising with the Asian teams qualifying. A lot of people underestimate Asian football but they're really doing well! Like Japan beating Cameroon...or Korea beating Greece...me, I can't wait till Côte d’Ivoire play...they're not Asian but what the hey. I love football.

Anyway, I better go take the washing off the line, it's 5pm and I hope the clothes are dry!

Peace.

I don't know if you heard about this, but there was a news story a couple of nights ago on this two-year-old Indonesian boy who smokes 40 cigarettes a day.

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I was horrified. Indonesia is becoming known for their problems with cigarette smoking - their weak regulations mean not only that young Indonesians are targeted in smoking campaigns but also that it is widely accepted by the community.
Artists such as Jamiroquai and James Blunt who have allowed their Indonesian shows to be used as props for tobacco marketing would not help the situation at all.
Smoking in Indonesia is painfully common, with studies showing that on average poor families spend more on cigarettes than on books or education.
And possibly most horrifying? The fact that increasingly younger children are being drawn into cigarette addiction. Trusty Yahoo!News presents this alarming statement:

"There are many children under five years of age who have started smoking. A decade ago, the average age of beginner smokers was 19 but a recent study found that the average is seven."

It is a shame that such a horribly common habit like smoking is not targeted in Indonesia. I personally find it a gross thing to do, it stinks and the side-effects are awful. I have a few friends who are into the cigar movement as well. I find all smoking disgusting but it has been proven that smoking a cigar is better than a cigarette (they are made of 100% tobacco and you don't inhale the smoke, so there is no risk of lung cancer...only throat cancer...wow isn't that delightful?) Plus they don't smell too bad either.

I think the reason that we find this instance of a young child smoking so shocking is because of the nature of our societies. We live in a world with anti-smoking laws. There are people who actually condemn the habit. Packets have those gross images of gangrene and whatnot plastered all over the front. There are those ads on TV laced with tar and cancer and strokes and nicorette. We set standards as to how a parent should raise their child. We have grown to know an alternative.

It actually makes me really sad to see that a two-year-old smoking nearly two packs a day does not raise cause for concern among the Indonesian people, and this story really made me appreciate my own standards, understand how lucky I am and to see the awful dire straits that some parts of the world are falling into and should never have to face.

WAKE UP IT'S EOFYS!

I don't watch all that much TV, but there is one ad that I absolutely cannot stand for the following reasons:

1) For ages I had no idea what EOFYS meant.
2) Why on earth do they have Christmas-like decorations on their house?
3) I just don't get the whole family-bursting-into-song-and-dance thing. Or the Foxtel dude showing up in the middle of the night. Or like 50 people celebrating in the front yard.

When I first saw the ad, I actually thought it said this:



'Happy Oedipus'. Adds a whole new dimension to the ad, doesn't it?

This is much more entertaining.