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An overly colourful image of the Congress building, Washington DC, courtesy of my faulty, rusted camera. Editing
done in Photoshop 6 and coded with the help of FrontPage because I'm a lazy bum.
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graduation This probably should have come earlier, but at least it's here. We graduated last Thursday night - 25th September. In the morning we had a "pay out" assembly, during which we gave flowers to each of the teachers. In the afternoon we gave presents to each year, and heard sisters from each year say their goodbyes to their year 12 siblings. Some of the speeches sent the emotionally unstable us into peals of laughter and tears. By the time it came for us to walk down the traditional yellow brick road, laid out with yellow pieces of paper ("bricks") with our names on it, most people were in tears. Even those who promised they wouldn't cry.
year 12 luncheon The entrance was dimly lit. To one side, crawlers clung onto the wall. Underfoot, the path was laid with pebbles and accenutated with large pink tiles. The burning tea candles sent off wisps of citrus into the air. An angel sat playing on her large wooden harp, her fingers retracing that simple, unrecognised tune. It felt like a secret Celtic garden, hidden by tall overgrown trees.
strike As you may or may not know, public school teachers have today taken a full day strike in protest against their pay. SMH has put up an interesting discussion board for people to express their opinions. Let's begin by saying that I support the teachers' decision to ask for better pay - I believe it is a very demanding profession and I am grateful towards all good teachers who have put in so much effort for the sake of their students. Now, reading through the discussion board, I have never seen such a load of bullshit from supposedly mature adults. Feh.
Tuesday, September 30, 2003 01:28 p.m.
And through this I was grinning like an idiot. Graduation ceremony at night was very boring. Exceedingly hot in a hall of about 700-800 people. Someone actually fainted during our deputy principal's speech - never found out whether it was from the heat, from exhaustion, or a medical condition. The deputy's speech was very moving, especially towards the end (well, he did spend 20 minutes raving on about Julia Roberts, Drew Barrymore and their gigantic grins, and then this movie he watched with a swimming pool, and..lots of other irrelevant things). People began to burst into tears again during the recession. It was very sad, but I didn't feel like crying. Probably could have if I bothered. There's that whole thing about loss of security, but I sometimes think that we've been gradually getting exposed to that world during high school anyway. While it will definitely be much more intense going out, because you won't ever get that "community" again, it's one of those things you have to face sooner or later, and crying isn't going to change anything. I'm saying this because mum chucked a psycho at me after first finding out that I didn't make it past the UMAT (...heh, you won't believe what I failed), and then finding out that I was a heartless bitch and didn't cry during the graduation. The other thing is I don't think I've ever felt very close to the grade - my antisocial habits again, but it's also that while I know most of the grade, I'm never close enough with them that I would miss the people I don't keep in contact with.
On the topic of keeping in touch, we had a short fad of passing around graduation books for people to sign in. One very...elegantly put entry had someone cross out "I hope we keep in touch". I'm...lost for words XD Didn't know my evilness was that apparent h0h0h0~ Will probably be a good laugh later on.
Don't ever regret. Yesterday will never be yours again.
Tuesday, September 23, 2003 09:42 p.m.
It opened out past the small flowered archway. Pink, indigo and purple clouds hung from dark skies. The tables and chairs were clothed in white, a generous golden sash tied across the rib of the chair, making it an imitation of a throne. At the centre of the round tables were white statuettes, and heaped against it were fresh flowers. The wine glasses were placed in a circle, and within each glass was a golden butterfly. Lining either side of the hall, mounted on black pedestals were more "statues", and behind them were paintings of palladiums and other Greek-styled art. Once we were seated, these statues began to sing in welcome, and a group of white-clothed Greek maidens began playing their instruments under a vine-clustered sunshade. The entertainment consisted of three dances that recounted the legend of Persephone. The dancers were energetic and the choreography demanding and engaging.
The year 11's had threatened us with a barnyard theme, and we had threatened them with death in return. In the end the theme was ancient Greece, and it turned out very well indeed, making that 3 good years in a row. While ours is a mixture of luck, ingenuity and last minute hardwork, their luncheon made evident their effort and organisation. It was a memorable experience and we are thankful they made it worthwhile.
Wednesday, September 17, 2003 03:21 p.m.
Teaching is a career. How much it is worth depends on the industry. Although strike is a legal way to get more pay as a last resort, it hurts working parents, and causes great losses to the economy. There are lot of careers which can earn much more money, so why end up being a teacher in the first place?
Oh excuse me smart arse, I wonder where you got YOUR education from? You didn't have teachers? Hurting working parents, give me a fucking break! It's the parents' choice to send their children to school. YES, choice!! Believe it or not, you can stay home and teach your own kids if that's your bent. Great losses to economy? Tell us about that when the literacy level of Australian falls so low that we can no longer stand alongside developed countries. Do you realise how important education is?? We NEED teachers - it's one of the professions we NEED. Trust me, we DO NOT need a shitload of lawyers.
I'm sorry - but they simply do not deserve the increase they are seeking. The hours are nominal compared to any other job and the holidays are extraordinary - oh, incidentally for all those who say "we need the holidays because our workload is so intense" - rubbish, get a grip on reality.
Whatever. That may be true in certain industries, especially after the recession since 11/9 from ages ago, where many people have indeed been working overtime. Teaching however is a constant overworked profession. I come from a selective school, and it is more than evident how much effort my teachers put into their teaching. They would always be happy to mark essays, prepare notes, do extra research where the syllabus and textbooks have deficiencies, organise relevant excursions, and calculating our marks/ranks in order to give us feedback on our performance. The majority of the marking and preparation is done in their own time. During the term they have very very little free time, especially if they are senior high school teachers. Sometimes they have more stress than we do.
What people don't realise is that how difficult it is to face up to between one and two hundred schoolchildren a day. They are not on your same level - they will never be as easy to look after as people of your own age. They are also not your children, but your yearlong customers. You have to treat them with caution as well as the correct amount of severity, because either way the parents will be dissatisfied: with the way you are harsh with them, or with the way that you've spoilt them and allowed them to neglect schoolwork. Sometimes parents don't realise their own resposibilities in the upbringing of their own children. School is not somewhere you dump your kids for 13 years of their lives. It is a place where you and the teachers TOGETHER partake in the upbringing and education of your children. So in a manner of speaking, teachers are almost surrogate parents, and to them, anyone affected by the education system owe them their gratitude.
I am aware that not all teachers do their jobs very well, but with the drainage of staff from the public schools, sooner or later, parents will have to pay copious amounts of money just to get a basic education for their children. Adding more money to public teaching means that it will become more attractive to more people, heightening its popularity and therefore also attracting high-achievers to select that profession. There is also something about public school education that private systems can't imitate, and that is its democracy and sincerity. While they may not seem as prim and proper as private schools, public school education encourages, not forces, independent thought. Morals in public schools are also more sincere: if they are disrespectful, they act that way, not the rich hypocrisy surrounding private school kids, who don't even know when to stand up on a crowded train.
To end it all, the education system is screwed. Carr is driving everyone into the private sector, without realising every effect this would have on the populace. Education is not about money, or even prestige, it is about what society we are making ourselves to be in the coming tomorrow.
Edit: Hah, here's more bullshit for your eyes:
If they don't like what they are doing why don't they get another profession? ... Get on with your job and if you dont like it get out of the profession for god's sake ... the great bulk of them who teach because they can't get real jobs should if anything take a pay cut to fund the minority who a really beneficial for our kids.
Uh huh, imagine a world with no teachers. Now make me laugh. Fuck, are these adults?? They sound no more than 12-year-olds whining away just because some of their taxes are going to be moved from one end of the sector to the other. And *cough* how many of these adults are guilty of posting during their working time???? To be honest, Australia has been doing some pretty damn useless things - don't you reckon it's time to screw Americanism and come back to educating our future? Ever realise that if we have a highly-educated future generation, we might even never need to depend on Uncle Sam ever again? Bloody idiots.
new layout
Sunday, August 17, 2003 10:52 p.m.
Meh, not much to say except that I had time to spare after the trials =) I'd say it's a result of lots of experimentation with gradient, and patched up with brushes when I realised how badly it turned out *sigh* Many layers this one was, too bad the end result didn't look quite as integrated as I hoped. Can't remember how long it took me...The coding wasn't too hard this time around, thank goodness.
Yes, yes, it's a picture of the Congress building in Washington. I always got it confused with the White House until I realised how puny the White House was....especially compared with the building that was next to it, that huge...er, brown building. Don't get this confused with Americanism XD I just like to use my own creation on my blog, rather than borrowing from other mangas and animes. It also makes crediting a lot easier too ^^ More on Washington: the structure of the buildings were so Grecian/Roman! Very fine architecture, with lots of nice murals and other decoration. A very glorified capital city, unlike our own humble little Canberra, otherwise known to some people as "a hole". Washington doesn't quite have that naturalistic feel to it that Canberra has, but at least it's not stuck in the middle of nowhere.
Aye, now that the trials are over, there's so much I want to get doing T__T but I have to finish my major work first, and it's not coming to me. I've only just realised how much I've planned for myself after the HSC, am a bit too ambitious I think. Looks like I'm not going to have much of a break though. I really want to finish this story I'm writing this year (currently a quarter of the way done), but I have a running translation project...amongst other things, like getting my art skills up to scratch because right now I'm only doing sketches, not completed works. Ugh @___@ Before that, the HSC...must not fail...!
new design phenomena?
Thursday, August 7, 2003 12:28 a.m.
Normally I wouldn't post this in the very early morning right before a chem final for which I'm scr-cough, ill-prepared for. But after a round trip first to DDG, and then to wallpaper sites such as AnimeWallpapers and smaller personal wallpaper sites, I couldn't ignore the...sameness of a lot of these designs.
Phenomenon #1 - Whee..loops, hoops, whoops, everywhere!
Before, bad designers would slap an unedited picture onto the top left hand corner of the page, write a table over it and call it a linkware. But as people grew wiser to their schemes and gave them a less generous rating of, say, 2, they thought they would become smarter. Thanks to the number of photoshop and PSP brush sites that have popped up, these so called designers went on a downloading spree and got hold for themselves lots and lots of hoopy, loopy brushes. Or as the brushes were called before things got out of hand, elegant. My dear designers, elegance is not softening every possible edge on your design with loops, it's not cramming it over your character's face, and nice try to people who thought they could get away by changing the blending options.
The point is, this trick is OLD. Yes, I know you can't be bothered editing out those ugly edges in your pictures, and that's why I'm rating all of your designs 2 for effort. 1 if you didn't credit your brush source *begins to feel sadistically satisfied*. The other thing I don't get is that people are using these brushes when they don't need to! Not even to hide the edges! Look, your design looks like a mess. All I see is that you opened a picture in photoshop, picked a few brushes, vandalised the original artwork, stuck it in a table and then uploaded as a design.
A brush is a supplement, at most a tool..and at the very harshest, it's a reflection of a designer's laziness. Yes, I use brushes too, and I admit, I'm incredibly lazy. But I use brushes, and the fact is, too many designers abuse them. While elegant loops might belong on nice, pretty pictures of the Arina Tanemura, Cardcaptor Sakura nature, people who stick it on the likes of Cowboy Bebop and Trigun deserves to be kicked where it hurts.
Phenomenon #2 - The psychedelic glare look
This is more limited to wallpapers. We've all seen it. It's the ones where you have a background of swirling colours, either of lights rushing towards you or of light figuratively taking crack. I'll say this and be honest with it (thus losing all my credibility XD): I've never used this because I don't know how to. There. But the number of times I've seen its usage convinced me that it's not difficult to do in certain programs. But as with the brushes, there is a complete abuse of this effect. It is no better than cutting out a picture and pasting it on a conflicting background. I'm more picky with wallpapers, because wallpapers are often series-specific. For that reason, I rarely make a wallpaper on an anime or manga that I don't know about. My gripe is that even after you've meddled with it, your composition should still reflect the atmosphere of the anime from which you took it. As you can see, I'm the type of person who is annoyed when adaptations are unfaithful, and when Richie Ren is cast as Chor Lau Heung, but I digress =P
The problem with a generic background, or a sequence by which you follow for the making of every one of your wallpapers means ultimately a lack of variation across your designs. Remembering that anime is a medium encompassing a huge range of genres, it is inevitable that the tone conveyed by some element of your design will clash with the tone of the original series, or even with the picture itself. So unless you have a very good picture and kickass design skills, don't make a wallpaper with Heero smiling dreamily through a pile of snowflakes/sakura petals/what have you; and don't make a wallpaper with a DigiCharat cutie stuck in the middle of the matrix, because you're going to have at least one very pissed off viewer.
Thank you for listening to my rant. I shall now go and fail chemistry.
new chor lau heung
Sunday, July 13, 2003 08:29 p.m.
*Buahahahaha* Starts laughing just at the thought of it. I don't know, spent some time in the last day looking at galleries of the new TVB version of Chor Lau Heung, yes, the fatal one with Richie Ren in it (HAHAHA) What a total miscast XD Comparison:
Original: Chor Lau Heung was a suave lady-killer, who was sensitive, perceptive, and very articulate. He was very clever, and had an interesting sense of humour.
TVB version: Looks dumb, does really retarded things, puts his foot in his mouth all the time.
O: Chor did not fall for any of the girls he original had to look after.
TVB: Falls for every single girl, and when they die, falls for the next one that comes along. Man, what a playboy.
O: The assassin was named Yi DianHong (a drop of red - it echoes the way he kills: sword through the throat, and it's done so fast that only a drop of red blood flows out). His arm got chopped off. He did NOT die.
TVB: The assassin was named Xie ChangKong (blood long emptied - I mean, HUH???). He can't hold a sword (bloody hell he can). Falls in love with the wrong girl. Dies. (But at least his portrayal was much better than Richie Ren's - HAHAHA)
O: CLH was not prince (as far as I know), and he had nothing to do with Li XunHuan, who did not teach him Xiao Li Fei Dao because he taught it to Ye Kai, who by the way, is SO much better.
TVB: CLH is prince of Annan????? WTH??? And he knows Xiao Li Fei Dao. I would have swallowed it easier if he didn't MISS while throwing the bloody dagger. The whole point of Xiao Li Fei Dao is "Xiao Li Fei Dao, Dao Bu Xu Fa" - ie. "Little Li's Dagger, the dagger never misses". What the fricken hell is the POINT of XLFD if he MISSES????
O: CLH is about friendship. The friendship between him and Hu TieHua, Yi DianHong and Ji BingYan is pivotal to the story.
TVB: "What friendship? They screw around with each other and die, and we get the money. Ha!"
In fact, Richie Ren's portrayal of Chor Lau Heung was so off the mark, it led to the invention of the Richie Scale, as opposed to of course, the earth-shattering Richter Scale. I don't know how long it's going to take TVB to realise that Richie Ren doesn't have the face to do "smart" roles, after his crashing performances not only as Chor Lau Heung, but also as Yang Guo *faints at the very idea*.
I say kick Richie off the martial arts scene before he defaces any more heroes. I'll die of laughter if he plays Fu HongXue next. And Wong Jing can have a little more respect for the original novels, thanks. This is just about as bad as watching them adapt X from Japanese and calling Fuuma "Peter Pan", and having Kamui screw over every one of the dragons, then realise his true love in Seishirou. Ech.
Edit: While I still hold to my comments concerning the adaptation, I'd like to add that the starting song is simply B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L. I suppose you'd really have to have at least some background in reading either fantasy or wuxia novels, because otherwise it's hard to understand the absolute loneliness in the song. I can't find the right English word to describe it...listening to the song gives you a bitter feeling. The whole "roaming" warrior feeling (check RK), the bitter lonely nights spent murkily drunk, burying your pain inside you because of being a "man"..ech, I've been reading too much ^^;
Translation of lyrics (note, this is my very paraphrased translation....consider the poetic quality of the original piece and the heavy cultural undertones):
Laugh at the world / When are all the love and hatred going to end / Dusk is drawing near to evening / Walk alone unattached
Too charismatic / Not a care about the bitterness and hatred in the world / One word from the wanderers / Walk as though you are unafraid of right and evil
Elegantly and gracefully leaving behind a scent / The ghostly moonlight glows in the mountains / The night breeze on your troubles are as ocean waves
Come, come, a full cup of bitter wine / Please no one stop me / Drink hard and sing loud to your heart's content
Roam the seas / Accompanying dried leaves in wind, dust and sand / Can't conceal the real grace / If not infatuated then love a flower
Flowers are too aromatic / Flirting under the flowers, flowers die and have no order / Don't bring any pain / Only care that you loved her
Why do you hold back, reminisce, yet ignore her / A lonely boat rocking in the seas / Living like an animal / You still think of her so much
Why do you hold on to her and not let go / Fate doesn't last this long / It won't let you love / Why force yourself
Blue blue sea / Tomorrow I'm still a man / A word from the wanderers / Put your love aside
Flowers are too aromatic / Flirting under the flowers, flowers die and have no order / Don't bring any pain / Walk on without care
prosperity makes them, adversity tries them
Wednesday, July 9, 2003 04:45 p.m.
(Before anyone thinks I read too much Chinese books, I don't. The only Chinese author I read is Gu Long, although I've sampled Jin Yong, so I really have little place to review their genre. Note: All names are written as they would be in Chinese, and most are pseudonyms)
Gu Long is dead. He died in 1985. Was his a colourful life? Who knows. But his stories were incredibly colourful. To date, I've seen few authors who can create heroes the way he does. Are his heroes perfect? Not all of them, and certainly patronising to a fault. Gu Long is often discussed in comparison to Jin Yong and Liang Yu Sheng. An apt evaluation once summarised their written techniques: Liang's stories start off complex and intriguing, but faded as it drew to a close; Jin Yong often start from the meagre and trivial, but builds to an epic; and Gu Long? His short sharp sentences are unembellished but hard and to the point. He wastes very few words on description and background. His heroes often come from unexplained backgrounds but never fails to be marvellous. His plot switches in fantastic directions, but his endings rarely give a closure.
Most people prefer Jin Yong. They love the way he writes - and he writes like a true author. Each plot line is fulfilled and carefully entertwined with another. He is certainly fairer to women - Gu Long's women rarely measure up against Jin Yong, and he never intends to. Gu Long doesn't write about love - all the romance in his story play the second fiddle. He writes about friendship, and very few authors write about friendship the way he does. He recreates the complex world of human desires and hypocrisy, letting each character reveal something about friendship, whether it be betrayal, cowardice, or simply true friendship. There, his heroes hold fast through the trials, they give up everything for their friends. It is incredible and fantastical, and it reads like a fairytale, but his heroes, despite being remarkably accomplished, are remarkably human. He sees a world where friendship is valued far above love, because love can change. You can love someone for their appearance, for their money, for their reputation, or even for their personality, and every one of those conditions can change. As for a friend, if you really love your friend, you will support them, no matter what changes.
I like Gu Long better because Jin Yong writes too like an author, whereas Gu Long's words are from the heart. Reading through his books is like reading through his thoughts, you find something very intriguing about the hand behind the words. His biography reveals him as a man who loves to drink (all of his heroes appreciated good alcohol), who had many women but never really settled with one (his women are often treacherous and shameless), and he was very generous with his friends (as his heroes are).
His heroes are often loners, and most of them are frighteningly clever. They see things where people don't, they can double-guess where the answer seemed so deceitfully simple. None of them are infallible though. Every one of them makes mistakes, whether it be out of pride, pity, sympathy, righteousness, or simple stupidity. Some of them have admirable philosophies, others are too morally upright for their own good. But it is difficult not to like his heroes, each of them leading such colourful and imaginative lives. Gu Long may not know how to or even want to create admirable women, but his heroes certainly redeem him from that crime.
life begins in 4 days XD
Monday, June 30, 2003 07:38 p.m.
Ah, almost the holidays. People have been counting down to this thing called "life" since 4 weeks ago Oo;
On the manga front, Hikaru no Go has been announced as in process of being licensed. Fruits Basket is already on the licensed list. And so is Saiyuki rumoured to be licensed. It's most likely that all three have been listed by Tokyopop, who is dominating the English manga scene with some very apt and popular choices. The great veteran Viz is now struggling behind with fewer well-known titles, and a limited audience. TP unabashedly accepts all sorts of manga, from yaoi to shounen to shoujo to fantasy, one reason of its success; and the other, it claims to preserve the original manga as much as possible, without "westernising" it with American ideals (ech..imagine, Shuuichi is a girl and Yuki "her" long-lost cousin ~~;;)
Currently trying to drag myself through The Great Conspiracy and Darksong. I've been waiting for the latter for god knows how long, and I almost don't want to commit myself to a long, depressing read. Even though Isobelle Carmody has wistful endings, her books are nevertheless heart-breaking in segments.
Unless you've been in a cave, Harry Potter 5 is now out. I've seen mixed reviews of it. Some say they never cared about the character who died, some say that it was shocking but well-written, some say the teenage angst is overdone, some say the character never died....
Unfortunately I've been spoiled to the ending, and considering the character is one of my all time favourites ever since sheit (no spoilers there =P) appeared, I'm hoping the death better be well-written. To be honest, my two favourite characters in HP have had little exposure, but I like them nevertheless...
Aye..and poor Harry, he doesn't get made a prefect...(hopefully that wasn't a big spoiler?) Fan discussions about the ending of the HP series expects the death of our main character, which makes quite a lot of sense given the hints that Rowling has been dealing out. But HP remains for me just an entertaining read...it's probably never going to get on my top favourite reads of all time list. Especially considering my favourite character DIES...grr!! I'm a character-oriented person, and while most characters in HP are believable and the majority are likeable, they don't stand out enough amongst the myriad of characters created in other books.
I am like...
Anime girl: Miyu (VPM)
Bishounen: Kira Sakuya
Anime cliche: Hard-headed girl
Mystical creature: Phoenix
X 1999: Arashi Kishyuu
Yuu Yuu Hakusho: Kurama
Harry Potter: Harry Potter ~~;
Magic girl: Marron Kusakabe
Obernewtyn: Elspeth
Tortall Character: Alanna
Legend of Basara: Sarasa
Inuyasha: Kikyou
If I were a...
Tarot card...Wheel of Fortune
flower...moonflower
magical being...mage
a Greek God...Morpheus
season...winter
Misfit...Empath-Healer
an element...fire
precious gem...sapphire
mystical creature...dark unicorn
My Enneagram is...s 5w6 o 7w8