While uni's done its best this week to crush my spirits with mountainous piles of work, the pool club, at least, has taken some pity on me. Tonight was my first uni pool tournament, and while I expected one of the many pool regulars who haunt the Union House pub every lunchtime to knock me out in the first round, I actually managed to hang on for a couple of games! Will and Michael made it to the final of the doubles tournament, which resulted in the most nail-biting game of pool I've ever witnessed. I'd be out in the garage training for the next tournament now if it weren't so friggin' cold outside.
Meanwhile, life rolls on. I interviewed Catalina yesterday morning for my Professional Writing assignment, which was pretty cool. I could definitely see myself being a journalist in the future, if all you have to do is meet interesting people and then write about it. One thing occured to me, however, while I was contemplating the write-up. Journalism is essentially a professional version of Chinese whispers. Someone experiences something, which then gets warped into something else inside their brain. Then they relate it to you, you put it into writing, and by the time people actually read it and interpret it in their own individual way, you're lucky if there's a grain of truth left in the story. Even for the most serious journalists it's a struggle. I can't even imagine what relationship the stories in gossip magazines have to reality. One of my favourite quotes is, "The more words you use to describe something, the less true it becomes." Simply putting something down in writing changes its meaning. So essentially journalism is just a bunch of lies and some pretty pictures.
I've started reading more books lately, too. I don't know whether Media and Comm has inspired me, or whether it's just a phase I'm going through, but I have this desperate need to read everything I possibly can. Academic learning always pissed me off, but now that I'm out of school, I think the grudge I developed in response to schoolwork seems to have warn off. I've got a pile of books about media and politics a metre high that I need to find time to read. Also I've become addicted to watching Fox News. Go figure.
Anyway, I'm off to try and catch up on all the work I haven't done this week as a result of watching too much Olympics. There aren't enough hours in the day.
Caitlin
I haven't blogged for a while - partly because I've been busy trying to find work, and partly because the blogging part of my brain has been preoccupied with the blog I have to keep for uni. Yes, that's right - Melbourne Uni has joined the revolution. My Culture, Media and Everyday Life lecturers, in an effort to spread the cyber love, have set up a blogging system for us students to use in order to chat about the week's topic. Ever wondered what Facebook has in common with a panopticon? Oh, you don't know what that is? Here.
I've been back at uni for two weeks now, and it's all going pretty well. Professional Writing and Australian Politics get two solid thumbs up. Internet Meets Society still has potential, but the lectures so far haven't been anything special. Culture, Media and Everyday Life is, well... only 10 more weeks to go.
More importantly, the Olympics have started! I didn't think I was going to be that excited about it, but I've been watching obsessively for the last three days. I guess if I'm ever going to feel patriotic, the Olympics is the time to do it. The Opening Ceremony was really cool, but aside from the ridiculously cool display the Chinese put on, it was lovely to see all the countries walk out together. Iraq and Iran got a big cheer from the crowd, and I couldn't help thinking that if we had the Olympics every year, we might be a little closer to world peace.
My first assignment for Professional Writing is a magazine profile, which means that I have to interview someone and then write it up in the style of a certain magazine. I'm going to interview Cato about going away to China with the Gap Program, and might even work the Olympics in there somewhere. Strangely, I am actually looking forward to this assignment. It just goes to show that academia can be fun - when you take the academic part out of it. No references for the win!
Anyway, I'd better go back to watching the Aussies win medals!
Caitlin
Well, uni.
I have to admit that it's a relief to be back at the old Mel U (so called by one American student I met). There comes a certain point at which one wonders exactly how long you can sit around and do nothing before it becomes a waste of your time. I'd put it at about 2 months. Anyway, it's good to be back.
First day of lectures is always bizarre, because everybody else is a stranger. I always get to first lectures early just in case there's actually someone else out there who will voluntarily make eye contact with students they don't know. There's a specific pattern that emerges as new students wander over to await the lecture. The corners of the room fill up quickly with kids sporting iPod headphones; then the middle of the space against the walls becomes the next best bet. Finally students start positioning themselves at intervals around the wall before it becomes necessary to stand in order to avoid sitting inappropriately close to someone who may not be very friendly. There is a very real fear of sitting down next to someone who you may turn out to have nothing in common with, because by the time you've figured that out it's too late - you have to sit next to them for the lecture. Ah, First Lecture Politics.
My first class for the semester was Culture, Media and Everyday Life. It seems moderately interesting. The cover for the subject reader has a picture of the Simpsons in the middle of it, so I'm sure it'll get more interesting once we get past the introductory theory (ie. What is Culture?) The second lecture I had was Internet Meets Society, which was really good. The lecturer is funny, the subject seems really interesting and there's a good chance that a lot of the other kids might actually also know what a meme is. My timetable confused me so much as to the whereabouts of my French seminar that I didn't even bother trying to work out where it was, and quickly decided that if I wasn't willing to put in the effort required to get to my French classroom, that probably doesn't bode well for my chances of liking the subject. So I'm changing into Australian Politics instead. I'll still keep trying to learn French, but I really hated it as a uni subject. Sorry Mr. V.
So went my first day back at uni. First Professional Writing lecture is on Wednesday, and I'm sure that'll be good. Speaking of which, it's time for Good News Week. See ya!
Caitlin
I'm sure some stuff happened this week, but to be perfectly honest I don't remember what it was. I saw Wicked today, and I think it's only appropriate that the experience be summed up by the song that brought me to the musical in the first place. So instead of writing about how good it was, I'm just going to post this video of one of my favourite songs of all time, and say that I owe a huge chunk of my soul to Stephen Schwartz.
Caitlin
On Wednesday night, Mum and I went into Melbourne Central to attend the premiere of the new movie musical Mamma Mia! The main draw was the fact that Colin Firth and Meryl Streep were to be the esteemed guests at the event, and a fair crowd had turned out to witness the excitement. Mum and I turned up about half an hour before the advertised starting time, and somehow managed to find a niche in the crowd that had a fairly good view. We couldn't hear anything that was being announced over the loud speakers, and the people on the red carpet looked like very tiny, very well groomed dolls. For about an hour and a half, we watched Australian celebrity guests make their way towards the cinema... okay, so it was Mark Holden and some reality show contestants, but in Australia you're pretty much a celebrity if you have more than 200 friends on Facebook.
Finally the music stopped and the Fabulous Adam Richards announced that Colin and Meryl had arrived! They made their way down the red carpet, and the mostly female crowd cheered a little bit for Meryl Streep and a little bit more for Colin Firth. They didn't stick around for long, but I got some great shots of the back of Colin Firth's head on my phone. It was all very exciting, but I have a feeling that for Mr. Firth and Ms. Streep, the event may have seemed a little low-key compared to the shindigs Hollywood likes to throw. 'Attend Hollywood Premiere' is now on my life list, right after 'Visit Hollywood', 'Visit California' and 'Visit USA'. Note to self: add subheadings to life list.
Apart from that, nothing much has really happened since I last posted. I stayed at Ian and Anne's for a few nights and watched a lot of episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, saw friends, saw a couple of movies, wenting bowling a lot and filed a tax return. The holidays are just starting to reach that point where the novelty of having nothing to do is wearing off, and I'm beginning to miss Uni. Even the inconvenience of homework gives life a purpose. I took the trash out today; that's how meaningless my life has become. Results come out soon (hoping for an H3 or higher in everything), and then second semester starts! New subjects! New people! New assignments!
On second thoughts, holidays can stick around for a little bit longer.
Caitlin
Today was a grand old day indeed. I woke up to discover that I had approximately 15 minutes to shower and get ready to go to the football - half an hour later we were all packed into the car and on our way to the game. Melbourne versus Brisbane. Dees V. Lions. 16th against 5th. It was undoubtedly the most nail-biting game I've ever been to, but also the best. I actually jumped out of my seat three times in the last ten minutes, and yelled myself into a sore throat. Here's how it went down...
27 minutes gone: Melbourne has led for the whole match. Brisbane kicks a goal to be 5 points up. Panic sets in - how much time is left?
29 minutes: Brisbane kicks another goal - 11 points the difference. Game over, as far as anyone is concerned.
33 minutes: Cameron Bruce kicks a goal, closing the gap to 5 points. It doesn't matter, because surely there are only seconds to go.
34 minutes: Wonna grabs the ball 10m away from the goals and kicks... and misses. Game over. But no;
35 minutes: Miller kicks the winning goal to put Melbourne up by 1 point before the siren goes, ending what must have been the longest quarter of footy in history. Kieran was rather despondent at Melbourne's win... onlookers would have been confused watching a kid wearing a Melbourne beanie cheering Brisbane on throughout the game. Pick a side, little brother. Anyway, I know it doesn't really matter whether Melbourne wins or loses at this point, but I'd forgotten how good it feels to win. And to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat is doubly satisfying. Happy Caitlin.
Then this evening some of us went out to celebrate Tom's birthday. We took the train into Melbourne Central and had Japanese for dinner. I've never had Japanese before, but beef teriyaki has earned itself a new fan. It was actually one of the most delicious things I've ever tasted; too bad the serving sizes were miniscule. Then we went and saw Get Smart, which was actually really good. I mean, being a fan of the show, I'd set my expectations low, but the movie was actually really funny. Steve Carrell was brilliant, and Anne Hathaway was great as 99. Her character was considerably different than in the TV show, but in the scene where she donned a Barbara Feldon-esque wig, she did an impressive impression of the old 99. Which I liked, because it showed that the film was at once separating itself from and acknowledging the original TV series, without overdoing it. Classy stuff, Hollywood.
So that was my day. Helen gave me a couple of suggestions for potential employers, so I might do some resume pushing tomorrow. Would you believe, the day after?
Caitlin
Yes, I'm 19. Still too young to retire? Damn.
I had my last exam on Tuesday - Linguistics - which went pretty well. I left about 30 minutes early, along with most other people. It's embarrassing having to exit an exam hall early when you're wearing heeled boots, because you have the choice of either a) making a loud clicking sound as you walk, thus pissing off the other 1000 students in the room, or b) tiptoeing for about 100 metres while trying to look like you're not tiptoeing, which results in some weird kind of quasi-walk that will inevitably make you look like an idiot. I chose b).
So my first celebratory act of freedom was to take part in Jessica's Murder Mystery night on Tuesday evening. All her school buddies came over and we were each assigned a character and a mission. I was Lady Caitlin, a poor wife whose husband's sickness was eating a hole in her pocket. Luckily I was able to pay off my debtor with the chips I stole from Jessica at the poker table, and with the discovery that I, as the result of a serendipitous typo in my character description, had two husbands, I was able to forget about saving the sick one and focus my energies on framing other characters for the murder of Duchess Jessisca. I would make an awesome Murder Mystery character. I'm totally going to go and write my own murder mystery thing now. Agatha Christie beware.
On the birthday front, last night Dad's friend Steve hosted a poker game, and Dad, Kieran and I gathered up some 20c pieces and went over there to win some money. I won about $8 but Kieran ended up taking an extra $30. Then the clock ticked over to 00.00 and I became 19. I can't believe it's only one year until I'm 20... scary stuff. Today I got two new pairs of jeans, a new top, a bag, a bracelet, a vase, some soap, and $200. Which I will be putting in the bank immediately, like the responsible 19 year old I am. Presents rock. My favourite one - my ticket to Wicked, which has yet to arrive in the mail. The 19th of July has never seemed so far away. Anyway, after mum and I got back from jeans shopping, we went out to Taco Bill's for dinner with the family, because I have been craving fajitas for about a week now. It wasn't much in terms of a party, but hey; 19's a crappy birthday anyway.
That's about all for now. Tomorrow I'm going to see Melbourne play Brisbane at the G, and then into Melbourne Central for dinner and Get Smart with friends. I had this list of stuff I was going to do once exams finished, and then all of a sudden I grew a life. Hmm. May I just add, I finished watching Season 1 of Veronica Mars yesterday, and I can indeed confirm that it is the single best season of television ever written. That is all.
Caitlin
I swear on the Bible, I keep meaning to write, but life just keeps getting in the way. As soon as I get one final essay in, there's an exam looming ahead of me, and it all just goes to hell. I had my First exam yesterday: French. It was, coincidentally, hellish, but at least it's over now. I will be happy with a pass; an H3 would be a gift from above. By the way, why have I already made four religious references in one paragraph? It ends now.
In other news, I finally got that watch promised to me by the local Rotary Club. We went to their weekly meeting on Tuesday, which was a heart-warming but slightly bizarre experience. It was like stepping back into the 1970s for two hours. Most people there were about 60 years old, and we all sang the National Anthem to kick start the meeting. It almost made me feel a little patriotic. One of the members sitting at our table was relating the woes of having two middle aged unmarried daughters. Welcome to the 21st century, bub. There were some other kids there who had been attending mock UN meetings and camps and such, so we all got up and talked about ourselves and why we had been invited. Then some people built a sandpit and it was time to go. God save the Queen.
We left just in time to make it to puppy preschool, where Zoey wasted no time in bestowing her friendship on everyone there. I think the other dogs are scared of her, because her enthusiasm manifests itself in violent head-stompings nine times out of ten. I think the vet secretly likes her, though. She's certainly got attitude.
Anyway, last night after the French exam I went and saw an MTC production with Mum and some of her friends. It was called Scarlett O'Hara at the Crimson Parrot, and it was very funny. The story revolved around a 36 year old unmarried woman with an overbearing mother and a crush on the head chef at work. Oh, and she was obsessed with old Hollywood movies. The action on stage was sproadically interrupted with pre-filmed spoofs of romantic scenes from Gone With the Wind, Casablanca, Calamity Jane, The Wizard of Oz and others, and the whole thing was just a good idea well realised. I wish I had friends who were interested in theatre. Mum told me last night that I can, in fact, get tickets to Wicked for my birthday, and that the fact that I'll probably be going alone will make it easier to book them. I don't know whether that's fortunate or just really tragic.
So after spending most of today watching my newly found and purchased Veronica Mars DVDs (finally!), the rest of my day will probably be spent reading blogs written by Hollywood behind-the-scenes folks. I found them just before I started writing this, and I can already tell I'm not going to be studying for my Linguistics exam any time soon. Film industry bloggers. Cue fantasy movie sequence.
Oh internet, how you spin my life into a cobweb.
Caitlin
That's my new motto. Or my new excuse, or something.
I have been completely tied down over the last week with living at other people's houses, and finishing essays and stuff. Thursday until Sunday I stayed at Glen Waverley with Kieran and Jess, and then Sunday night I stayed at Ian and Anne's place by myself. Well, except for Nikita the cat, but he mostly chose to keep his distance.
I have to admit that after spending four nights sleeping in other people's houses, it was nice to come home to mine. But I can definitely understand the charm of living alone. You get privacy, but more importantly, other people's lives don't intrude into your own. Example:
On Sunday night at Ian and Anne's place I made myself mashed potatoes for dinner (which was very yummy, if I do say so myself), with a side of carrots, cheese and mandarins. While this may sound like the strangest dinner you've ever heard of, it was the healthiest I've had in a long time. And here's the thing: I don't have a problem with eating healthy: in fact, I prefer healthy food to junk food. I could easily stick to a diet if I lived alone. The problem is that at home, people bring home all kinds of crap from the supermarket, and we generally have take away for dinner at least 5 nights a week. I often wonder why I don't weigh twice my weight. I know I could technically not eat what everyone else in my family eats, but really: who has that kind of self control when there's chocolate yoghurt in the fridge and pizza on the kitchen bench?
I have to admit, I kind of loved cooking. My ideal night is having the TV on in the next room, then turning on some Broadway soundtrack and dancing around the kitchen while chopping carrots. You can take your nightclubbing and shove it, because nothing beats some good old Rent and veggies. And who knows, maybe some day I will progress past carrots and move on to, say, tomatoes, which require more chopping experience.
Also this week, I had to write and hand in my final Cinema Studies essay. I got the research done on time, but was still writing away until the very last moment on Tuesday morning. Tomorrow I have to go into uni to do some research for my other essay for Media and Comm, which will be equally as painful. I'm aiming to write it over the weekend, but who knows when I've ever stuck to that kind of goal. I generally love writing - but I love writing about what I want to write about. ie, not Australian National Cinema and New Media. Bring on the essays about Sex and the City.
Yes, I saw the movie tonight. My review is: it's the chickiest chick flick I've ever seen. If you're not a fan of the show, don't go near the movie with a ten foot pole. That having been said, if you are a fan of the show, you'll probably enjoy the movie. The only problem I had was that in a season of television, it's easy to give the illusion of time passing. Because time is passing from week to week. In a two hour movie, the scenes that are added to make time pass more quickly feel kind of formulaic, and tend to drag a little. But other than that, it was very enjoyable; lots of laugh out loud moments a la the television series.
So that's my loooong week summed up. Zoey is doing well - she had her first puppy preschool on Tuesday night and was very friendly with the other dogs. Perhaps a little too friendly, even. But I think she'll turn out to be an excellent dog once she's trained. Even if she looks like the creature from The Fly when she's wet. Scary stuff.
Caitlin
The first semester of uni has absolutely flown by. It's like someone knocked me over the head at O Week and I've just now woken up to find that it's 13 weeks later. It seems like no time has passed at all... except I think I was supposed to have learned something over those 13 weeks. Woops. I had my last tutes for everything except French today so, in memorium of my first ever subjects at Melbourne University, here's the end of semester wrap up:
French: J'adore le francais. But this semester French has been, if not completely unbearable, at least unbearably average. I'm giving it one more semester before I abandon it completely. If I wanted to learn about slavery and World War II, I would have taken History. Learning about these things in a foreign language makes them even more complicated and frustrating to get my head around, and therefore even more boring and pointless than when I learned about them in my mother tongue. All I ask of you, Melbourne Uni, is to make the French course inspiring. Make me want to learn! I'm certainly not going to make myself want to learn! You know what doesn't make me want to learn? Death and racism! Overall score: ** (out of 5) One star is for our tutor Marilyn, who actually didn't make me want to run screaming from the classroom for one hour a week, and the second star is for the song we listened to yesterday in our last tute. Because weird French music rocks.
Linguistics: This subject was very interesting, but useless to the extreme. Seriously, I don't know when my knowledge of ancient runes will ever come in handy, but at least I am now able to call stupid people 'diphthongs'. It's my favourite word after 'shenanigans'. If anyone can use those two words in a real sentence I will dedicate my next post to them. Yeah, I'm just that generous. Also, the girls in my tute were extremely friendly, so bonus marks for not having to sit next to psycho linguistics students. Overall score: ***
Intro to Cinema Studies: This subject may have been even more useless than linguistics, but getting to see free movies every week totally rocked! Okay, so sometimes the movies were weird (I could have done without seeing someone cut a donkey's eye open), but very often they were fun to watch. Even if our lecturer talked a lot. Cinema studies favourites were Jaws, Meet Me in St. Louis, Transformers and Gilda. Oh, and my tutor Fincina was always wonderful and enthusiastic, so extra points for her. Overall score: ****
Intro to Media and Comm: My favourite subject ever! Every lecture was interesting, every tute was fun and the people in Media and Comm were far and away the best out of all the students in all my tutes. Proof of this fact was that we all sat around at the pub for a good two hours after our last tute today with our tutor Brie and dabbled in the public sphere. Man, I am going to miss having her as a tutor. I could very well go through the next two and a half years of uni without meeting anyone else as interesting, funny and inspiring as she was. May I be as lucky when I return in August. Overall score: ********** (out of 5)
Now all I have is two 2000ish word essays to research and write, and two exams to study for and sit. But for now, I'm just going to enjoy my weekend and pray that I don't completely lose touch with everyone over the winter break, therefore completely nullifying three months worth of socialising. Also, I applied for a job selling merchandise for Wicked! I really, really, really hope that they call me for an interview, because I don't care what it is; if I can be involved in Wicked in any way, shape or form, it will be a dream come true.
On that note, I think this is one of my favourite songs ever:
Actually, it's not from Wicked - it's from Rent. And as such; yes, they are gay. Enjoy.
Caitlin
