Members' News

Having lacked net access for a good while, I am now connected once again, for a little while. I would like to take this opportunity to encourage everyone involved to pat themselves on the back for making this whole thing work! Good effort.

Today I learned that a classmate of mine believes that dinosaurs still exist, are currently living in Africa, and this therefore means that evolution is a lie (he's a fundamentalist-creationist -- can you tell?).

I think he's both weird, narrow-minded and gullible. The fact that he's a fundamentalist has little to do with the fact that he gets on my nerves, but I will admit, it is the cause for his narrow-mindedness for sure.

But yeah, the dinosaur thing sounds more like a loch-ness monster spin-off to me than anything...

If you are lucky, he won't think you are a witch

And Nate, I don't really know why I asked that question the way I did .. I may be grammatically way off base.

Hex,maybe your classmate should watch more Animal Planet. The guys that host Zooboomafoo went to some remote lake in the back of the beyond in Africa looking for those dinosaurs or at least some giant snakes and they barely came up with enough pictures of crocodiles to make an interesting nature show. I can't believe how far the fundamentalists are willing to bend the facts to fit their narrow world views. I hope someday they find out how truly miraculous Creation really is.

He doesn't listen Grace, I already told him that. Maybe we need to speak in his own (wannabee) language

Ronsi tharrr, to be sure yarr ned to enable UBB cod, to be sure.

my mum's aunt died on monday; its very weird to be dealing with this from the other side of the ocean. Haven't slept properly for a while now, which might explain the persistant sense of impending doom (despite facing a week's holidays and seeing my boyfriend again after over a month).

Any advice? I'm actually worried for my health at this point; I really can't afford to get sick now.

roisindubh211 - terribly sorry for your loss. Everyone deals with these things differently and it depends entirely upon your character. My advice is get a project of sorts and keep yourself busy, the worst thing you can do is sit around and brood on it all day. But like I said...we all deal with these things differently, try talking about it with someone...your boyfriend would be perfect for this and will surely listen.

as for me...well, nothing of consequence to report.

Yo. I've been reunited with inter-house inter-net* at last. How's it hangin'.

*kind of. We'll get our proper network for this house in the next few days. This network is kind of someone elses. It's their own fault for not securing it.

Certainly does. I can never get to sleep before two in the morning (damn teenage hormone jobbies) and i have to get up at half past six for school etc and look at me! Crazy as a....crazy thing. But seriously sleep deprivation really isn't good like Buzzfloyd said try cutting out the caffein and maybe warm milk for bed? I don't know how you are for dairy products and it does sound a little childish but its a good way to calm you down.

I'm sorry but i really can't advise on the loss of your mother but you have my condolences. At least your boyfriend can help you through.

in my news....well nothing much. I've accepted the role of Mort in the UB drama production majigy or whatever its going to be called and just testing my microphone for that. Or i would be if my step-dad'd just unblock the voice test software. God knows why it's blocked but he refuses to set me as Admin :roll:

In other news I've accepted to do a cancer raiseing thingy at school. I'm going to come in a dress on the last day possibly for breast cancer but I'm not sure yet, still have to get in touch with the charity. But that'll be a barrel of laughs i'm sure.

Ha, the joys of wireless networks. Remember kids, setting up your own wireless network is fun, but keep it safe!

Well, I'm off to Boston now!

I'll try to post every now and then, but who knows?

Anyways, wish me luck on the great college search!!

Hex

xxx

Woowfor college hunting Hope you find one you like. I've allready found mine, just gotta get a good reference from my teachers....

Hey, good luck with the hunt, Hex!

Whee, I got my own wheels at last

It's nothing extravagant, a Suzuki Alto (it's a compact, European style - this for you Americans, whose idea of a compact is a Hyundai Accent)

But it's mine, and its shiny and new So am off wandering now!

Well done samps! Cars are cool. 8)

And hex, good luck with the college search.

Roisin, my deepest sympathies to you and your family.

Congratulations for the new wheels Sampanna.

Happy Hunting Hex and Dane.

just got back from an amazing Elaine Paige concert. I'll be singing 'don't cry for me argentina' and 'memory' in my sleep now. She is just phenomonal live....she's just...well...wow!

bed would be a good idea but I'm all psyched up...I'll go sing around my house and annoy the neighbours :badgrin: serves thwm right with their little darlings outside screaming at 7 on a sunday

We had a beerfest as fundraiser for our town's rugby club this weekend.
We have made N$ 15 000 profit ...
If you want pounds devide total be about 10 /11...
So in all... a good saturday night

I have returned to university life. How depressing it is.

I am not one of them Mal, though Bangalore driving is crazy! Chin up Roman, just think of it as getting you closer to finishing up .. that's how I managed to survive through it anyway I'm definitely not one of those people who have fond memories of college!

Edit: thanks for the wishes folks

It could have been better, if not for the local interpetation of Academic Freedom. Basically, the proffessor can do whatever he damn well pleases, and sod to anyone who objects.

Two years down, two to go. 'sigh'

compared to bombay???

I'm still debating whether jakarta driving is better or worse than india...though strangely enough Singapore wins the medal for utter stupidity on the roads...indicate left, turn right, bump up on the kerb, pull over to take a sip of that coffee because you dont want to cause an accident doing both at the same time, then start up and immedietley start texting... :roll:

Hey, in Bombay, if you say about lane-driving, the drivers don't think that you are talking about a new species of fish.

thanks for the well wishing, everyone.
Tried the less caffeine thing- hadn't been helping so I think it was just worrying that was damaging my sleeping. Doing much better now.

Fencing competition on saturday. I haven't picked up a sword in months. This is going to hurt.

... time enough until Saturday to practice dodging...

AHHHHH this is so frustrating. I can take five options for college. I have 7 options that i want to take. Four I'm taking no matter, one of which is a half course which means that that will be dropped in the second year. This means that i can confidantly take four full courses.

At the moment my list is as follows:

physics (definate)
psychology (definate)
critical thinking (definate, half course)
Maths (definate)

sociology (maybe)
computing (maybe)
accountancy (maybe, half course)

I've been dead set on doing accountancy all my life but now that I've looked further into it I'm less inclined to do it, it's only a one year course aswell which would mean that I'd on;y be doing three full courses which isn't what I want. So i'm kinda thinking thats out the window. But if i do want to do it after all I could still get into an accounting college after i leave college because I'd have done maths.

I want to do physics because I'm really good at it and I really enjoy it. I want to do maths because I'm really good at that, enjoy that and it compliments physics. I want to take critical thinking because that will help me structure and organise my work when doing exams and essays etc and thats on the unofficial agenda for universities. I have been told many a time that if a university were to decide between two equel candidates that they would go for the one that has done critical thinking. I want to do psychology because its an interesting course that a couple of my friends are doing, they tell me what theyre doing and from what they're saying and what I've been saying in reply I'm good at it and it really is an interesting course.

Which leaves me with either computing or sociology. Sociology will be usefull for psychology and no doubt other subjects and I've been looking over th info for it and it looks like a really good course. I've talked to the teacher and he seems to be an exellent teacher and certainly sold the course very well to me.

Then theres computing. I love computers and useing them which is why i took ICT GCSE (which sucks). What ICT GCSE turned out to be was another area of business studies Very boreing and not very much at all to do with ICT. Computing however is exactly what I expected ICT to be. It's leanring how to use the software, how to write programs and how the hardware etc etc works. All of which will be extremly usefull for a desk job and if i want to go down the route of cimputer science. A lot of jobs now-a-days require experience in ICT so computing will stand me in good stead.

So you can see my dialemma. Computing which i will enjoy and find very usefull later in life or sociology wich i will enjoy and find usefull in college and no doubt later in life. IT'S NOT FAIR. if only my crappy school could have gotten off it's royal behind and given us the job thingy. So far all the people of "lower capabilities" have had about five of the job...thingy lessons and the "more able students (I.E. me)" haven't had one! so now when i really need to know exactly what I can do with each of my options I don't know and am left in a pickle

If anyone can suggest any jobs that i could get regarding computing and/or sociology that'd be much appreciated

To be honest i have no idea. I've been pretty focused on accountancy for years, only recently have i decided to broaden my horizons so to speak. So far i have no idea what i want to be :? I'd like to do something with physics because I enjoy it so much. I quite like maths which is why I've been so dead set on accountancy but I'm not sure what else i can do with it. I know that if I do want to do accountancy after college I will still be able to get into an accountancy college beacuse I'll have done maths, I know that accountancy A/S isn't required for training in accountancy but would help.

I'm going to guess that sociology will help although I'm not sure how. I have a little sheet here telling me about the course and on the back it says that it will certainly help twords being a
social worker (not for me)
managment, administration, personnel (not to sure what that means but it sounds good),
teaching (no)
market research, advertising and public relations (nope)
Nursing (no)
jurnelism and publishing (maybe)
police (no)
community information and advice centers (who?)
health care (no)
Libaries, meuseums and bookshops (not sure about that)
accounting and banking (interesting)
retail managemen (interesting)

So i still have no idea what i want to do :?

Thanks rincwind, you've helped a lot. I've decided to do computing and have now filled out my application form and will post it on monday

now however i'm going out to a resturant with the family coz my step-dads going to america for a week tommorow:d

damn that leaves no one to blame but my dad and that hobo that once looked at me funny in the street...

Anyway got back about an hour ago and I'm still stuffed :shock: twas a damn good meal. Well mine was. My mums and step-dads were burned to a cinder so we got dessert for free

One of the main things to remember is that once you get beyond a certain point in your education, it is not necessarily the facts you learn that are important, it is the learning to learn - the techniques of absorbing new information and being able to process it - I am not saying that you should ignore the facts, but you should not just learn them and think that that will do you for life - especially if you are going for computing - I've been a programmer for 38 years, and I am still learning - the experience from my first few jobs, as an assembler programmer (and in one case pure machine code - typing in programs in octal!) is not actually a saleable commodity nowadays - even programming in C is being replaced by C++ - I am taking advantage of being out of work to train myself up in XML and Java - the Internet is where the future lies - the most important part of your education now is not so much learning the information, but more developing the right state of mind.

You will probably have to retain some of the information for exam purposes, because educational systems do tend to lag behind the real world, but when you get out into that real world, flexibility will be more use to you than facts - facts you can always go and look up (or in computer terms "If all else fails - read the manual!").

*Note to self - must stop writing sentences that go on for so many lines - sooner or later, Chief Grammar Monitor Buzzfloyd is going to kill me! *

Last night I received my IB Certificate. I got to see a lot of people from my old high school again which was fun. The ceremony bit was slightly over the top, but the fact that I was top of my class (out of 40 students) made up for it. They even gave me two books as a prize.

Well done, CY!

well done CY! that amazing *bows down to thee all mighty IB extrodanare* I'm starting it next year :?

anyway, i had a rather exhasting day, up at 6am on a saturday and off to school for 8 for a hockey tournament...played a bit...it stormed a bit...played a bit more...lost a lot...but had fun then watched part of the 52 hour basketball marathon going on at our school raising money for a school in ache we are re-building after it was destroyed in the tsunami. Our scool won by rougly 200 points (I didnt see the end so I'm not sure), the scores were over 6000 though.

Then i went home, got into my hallowe'en costume and went to help at a grade 5 disco which was raising money for street kids in honduras (I think i put about $50 dollars towards charities today altogether!)

Afterwards I headed home by good old public transport (what a wonderful citizen i am being today) and got some hilarious faces at my witches hat and black gear, its not something you see everyday...Wish i had a camera, the bus driver had his mouth open in shock!

anyway...my interesting saturday at school

Well done CY and well done fairyliquid for raising all that money

Just come back from dropping my step-dad of at the airport, he's going to Atlanta for the week for some intensive training. I had to get up at 8 and leav at 8:45 this morning which sucked but thats not so bad. Now I'm going to the town center to pick up Thud (finally!) and some cloths.

have nice saturday all

Just come back. I went to town and got a new belt (finally) quite a nice firtrap one, it's reversable And some new jeans and FINALLY i got Thud wooooo. So I'm going to be reading that tonight.

And a perfect end to the eavning, loads of my girl friends telling me their measurments :shock: :lol: :badgrin: and a fire works display outside my window! OOh and everyones out so i stole a can of Fosters aswell. Alls good in Dane's private world today

Excellent.

You know, I thought that sociology was good for
A) Sociologists
and
B) People trying to take over the world.

I thought potential world-taker-overs favored other subjects, like art (Hitler) or theology (Stalin) or foreign languages (Lenin)

Today sucked so much. I discovered that I am not incabable of crying. Health assignments make me bawl my eyes out like a baby. Don't those evil health teachers realise that something that looks easy on paper will be downright impossible in real life???

I rekon that when I'm Prime Minister I shall phase out homework altogether. Specially over weekends/holidays. Its just plain evil. I'm also pretty sure that marks wouldn't suffer at all, because if we weren't all so stressed from having to work every hour of the bloody day then we might have more time to actually sleep, as opposed as having to catch up in science class :doubt: .

I have to agree, homework over the holidays sucks. But I'm in no position to argue, I'm behind with way to much work to be moaning about :? I don't think that no homework over holidays and weekends would make much difference to my sleeping pattern, I never do homework and I still only go to bed at 12...then read till about 3.... So less homework would only mean less detentions for me That said i have done all my home/coursework for my Holiday which i am quite happy with aswell

Anyway I got Thud yesterday and set myself a limit. At the very most 100 pages a day...I read 101 It really isn't going to last....

Still a good book of what I've read so far

Thanks everyone.

Fairyliquid, . Nice fundraising.

Andalusian, good luck and you might want to try exorcism to deal with your health teacher. Even if it doesn't work, your teacher will be too scared to give you large amounts of homework again.

I'd say the only constant in modern-day megalomaniac education is political studies. For the more medievally-orientated conqueror there is always military school.

Ooh, news! So I just finished writing a short story for a competition my college is having. It's called 'Puzzle' and I've posted it up on our Members' Writing section (should be up there shortly *looks at the moderators!*).
I think it's good but would like some feedback, if possible.

Dane: choosing sociology can be an interesting subject it very much depends on what the teacher is like, though. A bad teacher will give you a crappy, pointless subject in disjointed navel gazing, a good teacher should be able to broaden your mind to the social issues and frameworks that underpin the culture and society in which we all live and be able to build a framework on which for you to analyse the social world around you... I do a lot of work in sociology type areas but never formally studied it...

As a marketer I can safely say that accounting is for chumps. Accounting has very little to do with maths, even if you are good with maths, accounting will not expand your horizons in terms of challenging and extending that ability. Most accounting is in business analysis, reporting and regulation. And when you get your qualification they'll make you an auditor, requiring you to check that other companies haven't cooked the books. (oh and make sure that whatever Accounting course you do it gets you the national qualification to be a practicing accountant otherwise your degree isn't worth the paper it written on).

Um: No news...still marking.

Whoa, I've been out of it for a while haven't I?

I have no idea why I haven't posted these last few days. I've just been run off my feet with school. I'm trying to develop a research project for psych, and get all my college applications in order after the Boston trip. It's mayhem!
Things seem to have calmed down slightly, so with some luck and hope I will be posting more as time progresses.

Psychology.

My car lives! For a day it was parked at the end of the college driveway because thats where it died, but it now runs and it has even stopped stalling. The doorhandle and CD player were also fixed. Woo-hoo.

To Faierie - happy recovery on your car, and by the way I loooove the second part of your sig!

I found a copy of Granny Ogg's cookbook in the store! Pee-in-the-pants funny AND I now know how to make a strawberry wobbler!

I have recently purchased my very own copy of Going Postal. I am also dead tired and depressed after five hours of sleep. I live and die by caffiene.

I've been in Sydney for a few days for a very old flatmates wedding... I hadn't spoken to this person in 2 years, hadn't live with her in 3 years and yet out of the blue I got invited to her wedding...

Oh well on Friday night I met up with some uni mates to have a night on the turps, and what turps it was too!!

Saturday was the wedding, kind of bizaar but more fun than expected too. I got to get all dolled up and hobble around in high heals all day. Very exciting.

Sunday we recovered and had 2 breakfasts and then drove back to Canberra...

(Perdita if you read this the name of the Turkish place in King St Newtown is Efe's. Best damn pizza ever.)

What's "turps" ? (And aren't weddings fun, in a slightly scary kind of way? The last one I've been to, the bride actually REQUESTED that neither the macarena nor the chicken dance got any playing time)

Roman, your avatar disturbs me severely. It looks like Lenin with long hair!

Turps is slang for alcohol (as in turpentine)

As they announced the bridal party at the reception each member got a different song to walk in to. For some reason the mother of the bride (a Russian woman, who doesn't speak english who'd been in Australia for 1 week) had 'Love Shack' by the B52s as her song... The guests were a bit disturbed...