friday. challenged by kimmie

So I'm asking all of my fellow bloggers, what is it about your partner that you love? Is it his crooked smile or her goofy laugh?
What is it that makes your heart flutter when you see your significant other?

it's the way he makes me laugh all day long. the way he lets me play with his prickley beard. it's his tussled hair he'll never let me re-arrange (but i do anyway). it's his squishy little nose. it's the way he makes me feel warm inside; the way he takes me in his arms and squeezes me tighter just to remind me he's there. it's the way we're perfectly and disgustingly in sync. it's the cute way he laughs when i get things wrong. it's everything we have in common, and yet it's everything we don't. it's everything.

So? What is it that makes your heart flutter when you see your significant other?

i am thankful.

bye for now
xR

thursday. story time

hola! i haven't forgotten about you.

every so often i re-discover a half written novel i wrote in primary school about a girl who dreams of being a spy and spends her time watching the most mundane people she can find. she finds the beauty in them. odd i know. she also has a brother named elvis, but that's a whole other chapter.

here's a snippet

I cautiously followed him. Behind the corner he’d taken was a door. It said “Janitor’s Closet”. I was not disappointed. I started to fantasize about what his life must be like as a janitor. Cleaning away all day in his toilets. You see, he was very protective of his toilets. They had to be spotless. If you took too many hand towels while he was cleaning he would glare at you until you whimpered with fear and put some back up the slot. His eyes would follow you out of the bathroom. “I’ll be good.” Would run through your mind.

At 6.45pm he would slowly, and contently, make his way to the newsagents just as they were closing and buy his lottery ticket, and a scratch-it. Sometimes he’d win – four dollars, eight dollars. At night he would make his frozen dinner and sit in his single bed with the quilt his mum had knitted him while she was still alive over him and watch the small TV at the end of his bed, read for fifteen minutes and fall asleep thinking of Urma - the library lady who kept him going back for more; more books that is. Just to spend that half a minute on Saturdays silently with Urma as she beeped his books and swiped his card. “Have a nice day”, she’d say as he carried them out in his enviro-bag. He was always too shy to respond. He would simply wobble his moustache and then wobble himself out. His life was beautiful in my mind. This was all a fantasy though. As I was about to find out something much more sinister…

oh dear, that was odd.

rhi

wednesday. phew

WOAH. okay. okay. time to breathe.

holy senorita i've been hella' busy lately! someone mentioned im quite busy these days and i sort've realised that yes. it's actually hard to find a spare hour or two to relax in my weekly scheduling. ready?

Monday - uni all day til 5pm
Tuesday - uni then work until 11pm
Wednesday - uni then dance class all night.
Thursday - uni then dance class all night.
Friday - uni til 6pm, then work til 1am saturday morning!
Saturday - recover from work, then off to work again around 4pm.
Sunday - Fame again for seven hours until it's basically dark.

how on earth do i find time for friends and special people and movies and baking chocolate puddings in this mess!! next week we are able to schedule our university times for semester 2,so hopefully this time i wont be silly and choose five days a week. it's been difficult even to find time to study or do assignments with all this work and extracurricular activities. oh dear.

but it's okay, calm down. breathe. it's almost holidays. although two weeks of those i will be at dance class every day ...

i am thankful for planning ahead and OCDish organisation

bye for now
xR

friday. iTastic

apple is a funny thing.
10 years ago you would ask someone if they had a music player. these days, you would say "what kind of ipod or iphone do you have?" like it's a prerequisite for adolescence. like an ipod was something completely different to a music player. because really, ipod is just one of many brands - yet we treat them like a whole different product. it's brilliant, really. that one brand can become so popular that their specific product is thought of as a whole new category.
my phone recently broke, and i'm thinking of getting an iphone. because these days, people buy iphones. when you don't have an iphone, it's "oh, you still have your old phone?" .. like iphones are a new product replacing mobile phones altogether.

i am thankful for our reliance on technology. wait, what?

bye for now
xR

thursday. sydney #2

it's holidays for us here at the moment; easter holidays. at uni we get a whole week and a half. i travelled down to sydney in this time, to see a friend of mine who lives down there. you might've already read about my first trip down there this year; two already in just four months?! she must be pretty special. myself and xanthea went to see a comedy show we had bought tickets for - an american comedian/singer/hilarious man who was doing shows for the sydney comedy festival. also in melbourne too. now he's back in the states.. well worth the trip down from brisbane!!
it was BRILLIANT

sometimes i make videos about things that happen. this one's all about the trip!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ORf2JQ-9qY

bye for now
xR

saturday. anyone there?

i havn't disappeared off the face of the earth, calm down. i know you're very worried. stop crying, okay? i'm fine.

but seriously, i dyed my hair very very dark. i know that's not a very important topic at the moment, but i've changed my hair colour 4 or 5 times in the last two months. i think i'll stick with this one for now. here's a picture.

i am thankful for backlighting.

bye for now
xR

sunday. update!

we've undergone a design overhaul!

okay, so maybe not an "overhaul" .. but we do have a lovely new banner up the top there. see it? just up there. no, further up. there yet? yep. isn't it lovely? this update, for the sake of being aesthetically pleasing, is care of Plumrose Lane - you can find a button with the link to her page on the left sidebar. she has heaps of backgrounds, headers, badges, buttons, etc. she also offers specially designed blog elements, which is what i've taken advantage of.

also, you may find i now have a cute badge on the right sidebar which you can add to your blog if you so desire. alternatively, you can stare at it for a while and appreciate how colourful and pretty it is. which is what i've been doing most of the morning.

i am thankful for the artistic people - making up for the existence of people like me.

bye for now
xR

tuesday. poetry

so my father dearest writes poetry. he's lovely. so is his writing. you should check it out. it's just launched, so follow and check in every once in a while!
http://heartpoetserendipity.blogspot.com/

i am thankful for public creative writing outlets.

bye for now
xR

saturday. fear

it worries me sometimes that the last couple of elections within australia have focused on australia's "refugee crisis". that the campaign for a whole new parliament of leaders is based upon instilling fear, when really, australia is one of the least effected countries when it comes to illegal immigrants and "boat people" - the term i dislike for many reasons - as if we're talking about inanimate objects. that's how they want us to feel. they want us to think of them not as people, but as objects of fear. not as real citizens of nations in turmoil, but as possible threats. we see what has happened in america, with 9/11 and full body scanners, and we shake in our boots. and we should. those were horrible events. but we need some perspective.

personally, i believe that while mandatory detention is necessary in keeping our country "safe" and "protected", it should definately not come at the price of the health and safety of those detained. countless detainees each year committ suicide or self harm, sometimes even children. stories of riots and burning buildings are also not unheard of. it's shocking, but apparently necessary.

also, on another note, if i told you that 70% of all illegal immigrants entering australia were from the same country, where would you guess they were from? i bet you thought of somewhere like iran or iraq or afghanistan. unfortunately you're wrong. something like 70% of all illegal immigrants (who enter australia using genuine means i.e. not boat people) are english. why is it we somehow overlook this when talking about illegal immigration and threats to our nation? think about it.

i am thankful for Ms Stevens, my Study of Society teacher for four years in high school.

bye for now
xR

monday. lovely!

i am realising how lovely this blog is. i've had a couple in the past and, up to now, they've never really amounted to anything. when i say this has 'amounted' to something, i actually just mean it looks aesthetically pleasing and has pretty colours. also, i have followers and friends here. i have music, links, twitter, ... it feels finished and established. it feels nice.

i am thankful for the internet

bye for now
xR

monday. metaphor

If a classroom of learners were an orchestra, the teacher would be the conductor. The job of the conductor is to direct the musicians to produce their best work in a collaborative environment. To work as a whole to produce energy that flows and moves about the space. The job of the conductor is not to make the music, but rather to lead it in the right direction.

I believe this metaphor can be used to express the energy and collaborative learning that takes place in the classroom. However, this metaphor is limited in that it only includes the musicians learning as a whole; as a team. It does not allow for one-on-one interaction with the teacher or “conductor”. The conductor can not stop during an orchestral piece to work with any one musician. In these ways, it cannot be applied to the classroom setting.

i am thankful for self-reflection and self-evaluation lessons.

bye for now
xR

thursday. chivalry?

so i witnessed something today that made me think. probably more than i should have.

i was on a crowded bus from my uni. the bus driver announced to the platform that he could fit either the male or female onto the bus, but not both, because of capacity etc. makes sense, right?
the man said oh, okay. and walked away to let the girl on board. this got me thinking. is the male population trying to make up for hundreds of years of worldwide female oppression?

if you asked that guy who gave up his spot on the bus why, i'm sure he would say something like "i dont know" or "i didn't really think about it" - it's just expected. maybe it's a part of our culture, how we're brought up. and i'm not talking about general politeness.
have you ever challenged a virtue which is so closely followed in your mind? you would go a little mad i think. of course, you have to exclude the possibility that the male did it to impress the girl or to make friends. they were strangers. strangers, and yet it seems, there was already a specifically created order in which they behaved.

standing up on a bus, a guy offers you a seat. why? are you too fragile to stand up for a few minutes across town? or is it something deeper? something imbedded in our social construction?
it may be general politeness - but you only see it one way. girls are never expected to act this way and put the interests of the male first in general social situations.

why do we still abide by chivalrous values in this day and age?

feel free challenge your own behaviour and social construction and ask yourself, why do i do this? why do i act this way? if you have time.

bye for now
xR

monday. collaborative learning

warning. more teacher talk.

as children, we've been taught to obey authority. this is drummed into our heads every day at school. think about it. we are conditioned to move about the school grounds at the sound of a bell. we are taught to behave dfferently around teachers and authority figures in the school yard, as opposed to our mates in the playground. we are conditioned to this traditional way of teaching. it's a safe option for us. however, it's not the only way to learn. in this traditional method, the tutor spits out knowledge in our general direction until our ears bleed. we mostly learn through silence every day, in rows of desks across the room. every day. every year.

fortunately for our future generations, however, the education system is changing. slowly but surely, classrooms are for the first time adopting new teaching methods. new, creative ways to teach our children. to get them involved in their learning. in these interactive classrooms, teachers will no longer regurgitate information at our kids. instead, they will work as partners in learning. partners in gaining and understanding knowledge. partners. they will be engaging all senses. they will no longer be listening to information six hours a day, five days a week. they will be interacting with their environment. interacting with each other. as a collaborative partner. learning through experience, not just theory. educating children through learner-based practices instead of teacher-based.

it excites me.

bye for now
xR

friday. epiphany

one of our first tasks set in sociology was a reflective first-person narrative focusing on the one moment we realised we wanted to be teachers. here's mine.

My admiration for the teaching profession started in primary school. I don't remember a lot of my time there. I don't even remember much that i learnt. I, like many kids my age, was transfixed by my life at home; going through my parent's divorce. I think this is the main reason i looked to my teachers for a solid and dependable role model. Someone i could rely on; someone who was there for us every day without question. I remember in grade four or five; I would hug my classroom teacher every morning. I was the "huggie monster". I was an affectionate child for sure.

There was no one moment where i decided i would make a good teacher. For me, it was more of an already established fact that i would enter this profession and enjoy it. I can't remember a time when i wanted to do anything else for a living. I have no real back up plan and i have never even considered not being a teacher. Sometimes this worries me - as if I’ve made it all up in my head and stuck by it without questioning why i want to teach. But mostly it just makes me feel happy. I think subconsciously knowing I wanted to teach from a young age made me value and respect my teachers, even in high school.

Attending a state school for all 12 years was an interesting experience. Some of the teachers we found to lack the basic grammar and literacy skills that we as students had already mastered. Although this was frustrating, we took solace in knowing that the majority of our teaching staff were good at their job, and loved doing it. Their enthusiasm about learning was almost inspiring. I found my favourite teacher in my favourite subject at high school - study of society. I found that I definitely enjoyed humanities over science and maths, mostly because i enjoyed learning from such a colourful and joyful teacher.

In a way, I’ve been observing the education system most of my life. We all have. How that works out for me, however, I’m yet to find out.


bye for now
xR

sunday. sydney

so this weekend louise and i decided we'd head down to sydney to visit a good friend of ours. her name is xani, and she recently moved to Sydney (re: travel). we're staying with her for the weekend and so far we've had a lovely trip. after getting up at 2am friday morning to catch a 5am flight, we arrived in sydney at 7:30am.
we went to see a band last night who louise absolutely adores (and who xani has never even heard of) and they were really really great. today we did all the touristy things like walking up the opera house steps and getting pictures in front of the harbour bridge (which i accidentally called the 'story bridge' - what we have in brisbane).
xani lives in a cute terrace house / town housey thing which is really quite nice. 10 minutes from both the city and the airport, she can even walk to uni. jealous.
at first glance, sydney looks pretty much the same as our home town brisbane. however, on close inspection, one finds sydney's outdated bus system is kind've balanced by their awesome train stations and triple-decker trains. they have footmalls in the middle of the city (pitt street), quite like queen street in brisbane. we visited a westfield there today and it was massive. the david jones even had its own food court with everything from butchers to fresh produce to truffles and chocolate covered strawberries (:
we fly back tomorrow around 10am (not another early flight, thankgod).


bye for now
xR

sunday. nymphadora tonks

notice anything different in my badly timed webcam photo today?
on saturday night i went to a seventeenth birthday. it was harry potter themed. so, naturally, after days of trying to choose the right character to dress up as, my mind wandered to nymphadora tonks. tonks is known for her trenchcoats. and changing her facial features and hair on a regular basis. in the movies however, her main hair colour is purple.
i have always wanted to dye my hair purple... (can you see where im going with this?)
yes, i bought three boxes of 8-wash temporary hair dye and by saturday night my head was a lovely shade of burgundy/purple. the colour has started to fade back to a nice dark purple; and i do prefer this over the burgundy.

in other news, im going to sydney next weekend to see an old friend and to catch up with my sister who lives down there in NSW.

bye for now
xR

thursday. odds and ends

(that's tea by the way.)

i apologise for neglecting you. please know that i really do love you. deep down. i have been persuing other endeavers as of late. i've recently found a steady job with flexible hours, have been accepted into university, and am about to switch my car liscence from a manual to automatic. which makes sense, considering i already have an automatic car. plus now i won't put off driving because im scared of changing gears. much easier i think. also, i've started vlogging. if you don't understand that term, google it. i'm enjoying it so far. my good friend Xanthea got me into it, once i saw how well her vlog was going. she recently moved to sydney. recently, as in today. this makes me sad. but it's okay, i'm going to sydney early february to visit her for a weekend. how exciting. also, i've been progressively getting better at the guitar!

bye for now
xR

Sunday. a.j.

this morning i had the absolute pleasure of meeting (for the very first time) my teeny tiny new nephew Aiden Jay. of course, the first time i held him he screamed and cried because he had never seen me before, but sure enough as soon as i started making faces at him and poking out my tongue he smiled and even laughed at me while i held him. there he was, chatting away about god knows what.. he didn't make any sense, but nevertheless it was adorable. such a shame he lives all the way down in Canberra with my sister. i will definately have to visit more often. there's a picture. i just want to squish his little face aahhh so cute!

also, like my guitar? it was a gift from a few friends a while back, and i am slowly getting the hang of it. at the moment i'm attempting to play Sara Bereilles's "Winter Song".

bye for now
xR

Thursday. floods

so yes, i live in Queensland "the sunshine state" ...
luckily enough myself and my family have avoided the terrible "2011 floods" which have devastated around 75% of our state (which now resides underwater; entire homes and businesses alike). it's just sad, really. for the last four or five days, we have been glued to our TV screen about 12 hours every day with continuous flood coverage on three channels. that's a lot of news. i have to say that between the three channels, national nine news has probably had the best coverage; starting for the most part at 5am each morning. it's quite surreal sitting here in our dry home, watching families only suburbs away who have lost everything. their possessions. their homes. their family.
we try and be hopeful, but this is made difficult by the concerning number of people still missing, which has been fluctuating between 50 and 70 all week.
although the news is grim each time it starts, it always ends on a somewhat positive note. i enjoy this. the news anchors remind us that, in the end, we are australian. and being australian, especially in queensland, means sticking together until the end. working together. mateship. we're strong, and we are resilliant.

our prayers and thoughts are with you, queensland.

xR

Friday. oh my

i cut my hair quite short yesterday. here's a picture. interesting, i know.

xR

Wednesday. travel

so now that we've finished high school and are moving on to university it seems people are very much accepting and embracing their newfound independance. a friend of mine will soon be travelling to Sydney  to attend university there. i have known her since grade eight, so it is definately a strange thought - her not being around. although we are planning on travelling down to Sydney to visit her in a month or two.

Another friend of mine is going on exchange soon for an entire year to France. instead of university, that is.. so she'll be sort've repeating grade twelve. except in another country. i have known her since grade three, and she is like a sister to me. however, knowing that she's coming back at the end of her journey always makes feel better about letting her go (:
as for myself, i have always longed to travel to England, as i have a lot of family there. plus i would love to see snow for the first time. at the moment, i am thinking about applying for a transfer to England for a semester of prac teaching during my (education) university course.

bye for now
xR

Saturday. New Years

Happy Two Thousand & Eleven! (Tweleven?)
it's strange to think that within a few short minutes the last year, filled to the brim with countless moments and memories, can just be cast aside as a new year is welcomed. i realise 2011 is the second year of this new decade, but still it makes me wonder... each decade in the 20th century was iconic and unique in its own way. each decade was known for something different to the next. from the hippie era to disco, and then of course the infamous 90's boybands and girl groups. most people say the naughties (2000-2009) will be known for its technological advances. i like to think it won't be our inevitably short-lived, under-aged pop sensations like justin bieber or cody simpson that makes the naughties infamous.

so, really, only one question remains.. what on earth are we meant to call this new decade?! personally, i like "the teensies".

xR