This is IT!

This time tomorrow, I'll be on a plane cruising to Malaysia, suckers ^^

Insha'allah, of course. Anyway, work experience is OVER, everything else is OVER, the bags are mostly PACKED, and everything's SET.

There's not much to say, really. I don't want to whine about a whole week of work experience, I don't want to do anything else but PARTY (and perhaps finish my NaNo, at least to the 50k tonight).

So I will leave you with....

... I don't really know.

Well, I'll inform you that I'll be back in Australia (once again, insha'allah) on Feb 14th, 2012. So apologies with the ditching of everything, i.e. your blogs and happenings.  I wish you well, and don't forget to breathe ;)

CIAO.

Peace in, 

Laila

She's a maneater

Makes you work hard, makes you spend hard, makes you- okay, no.

I mean, when I started work experience, it's not as if I didn't expect work, duh. Even when I first signed up for retail, I knew I wouldn't like it, but I didn't have a choice, really. 

And then, Ionno, the closer the date got, the more excited I got.

Day 1:

Tiring, monotonous, but friendly staff.

Day 2:

Tiring, monotonous, friendly staff, intimidating manager.

Day 3:

Tiring, monotonous, friendly staff, Hitler-reincarnation manager.

Ohhhh, yeah. On the first day, Monty actually told us the manager was mean. Even Jess told me, 'cause she heard it from someone else. I decided to just to see what happens. On Day 2, I actually had to work with her, and she appeared a little... intimidating in a impatient kind of way, but she wasn't mean. She just has that way... you know, like some older student who has to work with a junior one, and is impatient 'cause the junior is slow, but only shows it in expression, not really full on verbal or anything? Well, yeah, but that I could take.

TODAY. 

Oh. Lord. 

She kept saying we were too slow, as if we had like six years of experience or something. She just expects us to magically know where everything is, how to do everything. She acts suspicious, as if Jess and I would mess around or ditch work or something. And... here it goes.

So there was this chick called Amber. I overheard this, 'cause they act like I'm a fly on the wall, you know, and they don't mind talking about anything. The assistant manager (she's nice, she appreciates us) was telling Ice Queen Manager that Amber had called up to say she was going to be late because her bus didn't show. And Ice Queen Manager replies sarcastically, along the lines of: 'Oh, this just gets better and better.' Then Jess and I were going on our lunchbreak, and in the tearoom, we see Amber, and she was crying, right after having a talk with Ice Queen Manager.

I mean, how badly do you have to lecture your staffmember that you reduce her to tears in the workplace? Couldn't she just tone it down a little?

Well, Jess and I didn't even know what to do, 'cause we didn't know her either.

But seriously, Ice Queen Manager with her Hydro-Stare is driving me NUTS.

I can safely say, though, that I have the following things to add to my resumé:

1. Can stay on feet for over 5 hours.

2.  Can sort through any kinds of underwear.

3. Knows how to use a price tag gun.

Eh. It's not so bad though. I mean, being a clothes shop, you can't expect a rollercoaster ride. Plus, I get Jess. Although we don't get to work together, at least we bump into each other, and we get to spend the lunch+tea breaks together. Thinking about all the lonely souls who have to work in retail without a single friend around, and Star cleaning up poop at the RSPCA by herself, well.

AND TOMORROW I'M TRYING SUSHI.

ATM:

Reading: City of Ashes. Cassandra Clare. Course I can never say the plot sucks, I love that. Just the whiny characters annoy me.

Writing: Deep Blue. I added some serious violence *eyebrow wiggle*

Listening to: OH. GOD. NO. STUPID, STUPID SHOP SOUNDTRACK IS DRIVING ME MAD.

Feeling: Tired, man. That is all. 

Peace in, 

Laila

LOVE ME SOME PIE.

And I was like: IT'S PIE-DAY, PIE-DAY, GOTTA GET DOWN ON PIE-DAY.

(sorry, I had to steal that picture from Linch. It just suits the moment).

HERE'S THE PIE:

Apple and Blueberry Shortcake Pie.

Yum.

Made by Star, Jess, Sabby, Hashbrowns, and I.

That was my first ever (from memory) pie that I had made + eaten. Same for Star. It was worth it.

Well, I got sick after, not from the pie, but yeah, and so I went home and our epicus plan to play hide and seek kinda died, but whatever, it was still awesome.

So.. I left off with exams... my last three, after I swore to do minimal studying, went absolutely fine. Well, I know I didn't ACE them, except maybe Literature (it depends on how Mr A handles me calling Antigone a suicidal nutcase), but I'm p-r-e-t-t-y sure I passed 'em. So no more school 'til next year. Life's good.

And tomorrow I start work experience!

And for NaNo, I've passed 30k.

And I'm going overseas in almost two weeks!

EEP. THANK YOU GOD, FOR KEEPING ME ALIVE. 

Gosh, I have to remember these good days when life gets suckish, huh?

ATM:

Reading: City of Ashes. Cassandra Clare. Did I say how awesome The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was? 'Cause if I didn't. IAJSFK;DSLJ;OGISDUG, IT'S AWESOME. As for CoA, I swear, this whole Jace and Clary issue is creepy, and if they don't get over it, I repeat what I said to FF, I'm going to slap someone.

Writing: Deep Blue. NaNo story, and I'm making good progress so far.. I just want to add a little humour, but it's hard with serious characters o.o

Listening to: Picture to Burn. Taylor Swift. What?! She's cool!

Feeling: Rather good, thank you.

And if you're missing me,
You'd better keep it to yourself
'cause coming back around here
Would be bad for your health...

I hate that stupid, old pickup truck
You never let me drive
You're a redneck, heartbreak
Who's really bad at lying
So watch me strike a match
On all my wasted time
As far as I'm concerned you're
Just another picture to burn

Peace in,

Laila

 

Why you gotta be so mean?

The universe is mocking me!!

Okay, I know that all pressure must have a specific reason and God's probably trying to teach me something, but I feel like this is one of those things I'm going to figure out randomly. Right now I'll be grumpy and silly.

To summarize, two exams are down and I reckon I failed them - and I have to continuously repeat this, but I'm not doing a modesty thing, I'm serious. The first one, the first methods exam, well, I studied for 7+hours starting a week earlier, and when I got to the exam, nothing on the revision booklet was on the exam! I hate it when that happens! I don't blame my teacher, 'cause he's a good teacher, I blame the dumb one who wrote the exam - I even heard her class complaining.

The second one was my French. I nearly cried for this one. Of all my exams, I always had faith that of the two I'd definitely pass were French and Literature. I guess I missed out on a lot of French lessons for one thing, and I focused a lot on studying for the year 11 subjects, so that contributed. But mainly, when I sat down to that exam, I just went mind blank.

You know that horrible feeling?

When everything you know just flies out of the window, hitchhikes to the city, drops in the airport and gets on board a plane to Timbuktu??

Honestly, I knew the stuff, I just... lost it. So there were unanswered questions, incorrectly answered questions, and... yeah, I know should stop wallowing in depression. People have it worse, it's not the end of the world, etc etc. Okay. I'll stop now.

I don't know if it shows up your dashboard-y things, but I made a page - it's under linkage over there somewhere >>

... it's called 'The Better View'. Basically, it's got various inspirational videos I've come across, been sent, etc. Some I've already posted on here, but really, I don't want to spam you with a video every time, so I've put them all there, and I'll update it when I find something new. They all have differentish messages, and I reckon you should watch them in your own time. ALSO, if you guys have anything, leave me a comment or something, and if I agree on it's epicusness, I'll put it up. Just inspirational, though, 'cause funny is awesome, but there's so many and I'm not trying to recreate Youtube ^^

NaNoWriMo is actually going rather well! I've past the 13k mark, and I haven't raced through too fast (I have a habit of rushing things so I can get to the fun parts, and I was worried I'd finish the story in less than 50k... but so far so good). I have got to the bit where I bring Lenka in. Okay, so she's not a main character or anything, duh, she just sings her song, but still, I feel it's very significant :)

And Eid is tomorrow and for once in my life I'm not in a hypermode to go around baking or anything. See what these exams have done?! I'm losing my mojo!

But but but, Star and I have organised this awesome awesome day thing. See, we both one day came to the conclusion that we've never eaten pie. Like,  those sweet ones you hear about, apple, strawberry, rhubarb, etc. Maybe we have, but we don't remember. So the initial idea was to get together and make a pie.

THEN, we were having a chat with the L&J&S about what we do these days when we get together, as friends, I mean. It's funny 'cause when they get together, basically, they just watch a movie, eat, surf the net, etc. Star and I, I think... once we got together and watched a movie, besides the one time we went to see a movie at the cinema. But usually we bake, we walk, we paint, or we're doing homework. Or walking around the shopping centres, of course, but that's usually a catch up period when we haven't seen each others in ages. Oh, and there's the seeing authors thing. Same with Linch, we do surf the net and stuff, and watch a movie on occasion, but we run around her neighbourhood, knick-knock, and write stuff together.

In other words, not your average teenagers.

Then we got to talking about our childhoods, you know, chasey, murder-in-the-dark, all those make believe games, water fights, catching bees (is that just me?), climbing trees, and of course, hide and seek. She told us when her brothers were younger and they got together with all their cousins, they used to be so enthusiastic, like, they'd swap shirts, hide in trees, all this other stuff, and then we're all like:

AWWWW! Those were the days!

And then you have someone like E-rock who told us he didn't need crayons, they're boring, he had PS2, Nintendo, movies, etc. Poor soul. He didn't have a childhood.

So Star and I were like, to the others, one day we'll force them to have a no technology get together. In essence, anyway. We realised aftewards that all the things we wanted to do, well, we'd be going overseas too soon, so why not combine it all together?

At school, water fights are banned. Waste of water, plus people have a tendency to involve people who don't want to be involved, yeah?

So we decided to invite a whole bunch of our friends (funny how they're all our age, all at or previously been to our school, and then there's Linchy :P ) so we can make pie, have a waterfight at the park, play hide and seek and possibly make a video of Star's dog.

IT'S GOING TO BE AWESOME.

I'll stop with the rambling.

ATM:
Reading: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Stieg Larsson. It's getting soo so so so goooood.
Writing: Deep Blue. NaNo story. Le duh.
Listening to: Mean. Taylor Swift. It's so cute! The funny thing is that it seems like a song you'd teach little kids, and yet she makes it seem relatively cool.
Feeling: LJHLAFKJDHAFSD.

You, with your words like knives
and swords and weapons that you use against me
You have knocked me off my feet again
Got me feeling like a nothing
You, with your voice like nails on a chalkboard,
calling me out when I'm wounded
You, pickin' on the weaker man


You can knock me down
With just one single blow
But you don't know what you don't know

Some day, I'll be
living in a big ole city
And all you're ever gonna be is mean
Some day, I'll be
big enough so you can't hit me
And all you're ever gonna be is mean
Why you gotta be so mean?

Peace in,
Laila

He wasn't murdered.... until he was...

It's amazing right?!

It's like how Princess Diana was alive... hours before she was dead!!

:O

LoL, stupid newspaper headlines ^^

So another week has passed. What happened? Uhm. Oh yes, the Lit assignment? A+.

:D

... uhm... I had so much to say, but I've forgotten.

Well, for starters, the four SAC week actually turned into a two SAC week, with the others for next week. Thank you, God.

And... GOSH. WHY HAVE I FORTEEN EVERYTHING?!?!?

JO IS DEAD!!! 

JO! 

You know, Supernatural Jo! But... *sniff* ... I can't believe... *sniff*

Okay, okay, Jo is fictional. Whatever. She was awesome. She was dedicated. And I lovelovelove how, okay, the scene before she died right, before they got to Lucifer, it was 'the last night on Earth' sort of thing for the gang. And Dean waltzes up to her and... okay, scene goes like this:

Dean Winchester: Hey.
Jo Harvelle : Hey.
Dean Winchester : Hmm. So, dangerous mission tomorrow. Guess it's time to eat, drink and, you know, make merry.
Jo Harvelle : Are you giving me the 'Last Night on Earth' speech?
Dean Winchester : What?
Jo Harvelle : What?
Dean Winchester : No.
[laughs]
Dean Winchester : No, but if I was, would that work?
Jo Harvelle : [smiles at him and sets her beer on the counter. She moves in closer, puts her hand close to the back of his neck and tilts her face up to his. Just as their lips are about to connect, she pulls back] No. Sweetheart, if this is our last night on earth, then I'm going to spend it with a little thing I call self-respect.
[she turns and laughs softly as she walks away]
Dean Winchester : [watches her walk away and raises his beer to his lips] If you're into that kinda thing. 

SELF RESPECT.  

And this is why Jo Harvelle is the coolest chick on Supernatural, heck, one of the coolest fictional female characters ever. I swear, if only all the heroines or female protaganists were like that. See, my character, Meg, for my NaNo story, she's going to be like that. But not really. She can't be as witty-ish because... well, the circumstances make that difficult. Besides, I do have a shred of originality, you know.

Oh, I'm in love with one of the songs on Kelly's new album - What Doesn't Kill You. Makes you stronger. I know, the quote already existed, but how many singers of today sing about that sort of stuff anyway? Okay, I'll stop with the criticism of dumb songs. But you know what I don't like? How people can... well, it's like this. I've heard people make snotty remarks on how Kelly Clarkson is fat, how she's not pretty, how she sings about love when she doesn't even have relationships.

Come awn. Just because she doesn't paste her love life all over the media, doesn't mean she doesn't have relationships! And she's fat?? Really? I mean, so she's not a super skinny supermodel, doesn't make her fat. She's just healthy! And even so - last time I checked, she was a singer. Not a flipping supermodel, d'accord?

Gosh, people are just so awful. 

Even with little Miss Rebecca Black. I'm no fan, her music isn't my type. But my sister insisted on me watching a song of hers, 'cause she wanted by opinion, and on the comments there were these horrible, crude ones like.. well, the simply stupid ones were like, 'lol, I watched this video just to dislike'. I love how productive these people are. But then there's this thing of... okay, it's gross, but there's comments made by boys that say 'I hate her songs, but man she's got big...' Okay, you can just fill in the blanks, I can't even finish that.

SERIOUSLY. I get you can have an opinion, you don't have to love every song, everyone's entitled to their own tastes. But being rude and shallow and disrespectful in those ways... it just disgusts me.

Okay, I'll put that aside for now. Oh, my title. So, for OO, we have to make a mini-encyclopedia of a variety of criminal cases, you know, just the sort of thing I love to do.... I thought I was being sarcastic, but now I think I'm not... o.o

ANYWAY. So Star and I, we were hunting for some interesting ones, so as to avoid the ones that were bound to be done by others, and we came across this site. It's so unbelievably funny, and here we found, amongst many other interesting stories, the curious case of Michael Malloy.

The guy who wouldn't die.

Okay, so basically, he was the town drunk, and his 'friends' decided it would be nice to get the insurance money after he drank himself to death. They waited, he drank, it didn't happen. So they gave him free reign at a speakeasy, and he kept drinking. Didn't die. 

So they mixed his drink with antifreeze. Didn't die. Turpentine. Nada. Horse Liniment. Zilch. Rat poison. Nuh-uh.

The gave him oysters in arsenic and spoiled sardines or something.

Still not dying.

So, one night after he drunk himself to oblivion and it was below zero degrees Celsius, they threw him in a ditch after taking his shirt off and poured a bucket of water on him.

And he didn't die.

So they ran him over with a taxi. They realised after that they couldn't get the money if they didn't have a body, but hey presto, three weeks later, his body shows up for another drink. Yeah, three weeks in hospital and he's back for more.

So finally, they put a gas hose in his mouth and he actually dies.

But because they kept telling everyone, they got arrested. Adorable, right? :P

ATM:

Writing: Deep Blue. Planning, really. It's all in me head.

Reading: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Stieg Larsson. Finally.Well, haven't started, but I plan to.

Listening to: What Doesn't Kill You. Kelly Clarkson. I don't think  I have to justify it's awesomeness.

Feeling: Happy. I guess. Nothing's killing me, so I guess I'm getting stronger ^^

You didn't think that I'd come back
I'd come back swinging
You tried to break me, but you see

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger
Stand a little taller
Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone
What doesn't kill you makes a fighter
Footsteps even lighter
Doesn't mean I'm over 'cause you're gone

Peace in,

Laila

Scandinavian toilets!

Interesting way of describing things, eh? 

So, I have been throught the first week of the Term of Torment. I know, for a fact, that next week I have four SACs, and then, oh, man - five exams, 'cause they've decided to make two maths exams. So basically, I'm doing two more exams than the average year 10 in my school, four of which are year 11 subjects.

Yep, I'm gonna die.

But this week also brought about some awesome stuff. Like, for Objection, I got the highest in the class for our test - 64/65. The one I got wrong was in fact the easiest question. Yes, I am an oxymoron.

And... oh, oh, so when we started our sticky-note campaign, the one that we first put up was in the library. On Monday, when I went to borrow a book, I SAW THAT VERY STICKY NOTE STUCK ON THE LIBRARIAN'S COMPUTER!

:D It was the one that said: Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened. Or I think we switched it, to don't cry because it happened, smile because it's over.

That made my day big time :) It's being appreciated.

Yesterday, Jess and I went to the shopping centre to finalise our work experience, and whaddaya know, it was a different chick as opposed to the slack guy that was there last time, and she made us do this maths test, but we both got it and we're good to go ^^

Froi of the Exiles came out, and I'm d-y-i-n-g to buy it, AND, finally, I made the poster for our 'The Messenger' poster!!! EEP! I'm so proud! I mean, I have to reiterate it now - I'm not very pro at the graphic-ky stuff, I don't intend to go down a graphic-ky path, and technospeak goes way over my head. So if you're going to tear it apart, be nice :]

There you go :)

ATM:

Writing: Deep Blue. Well, I haven't actually started, but it's my NaNo story. Oh, and anyone who wants to add me for NaNo, when you figure out how to do it, my name is, as always, tiger-ninja.

Reading: City of Bones. Cassandra Clare. So far, I like the plot, but the characters annoy me. Except when they're being funny. Yes, humour is awesome :P

Listening to:... well, nothing right now.

Feeling: ... oh, this one's hard. Satisfied with the week, but I have this... dread, in me, 'cause of all that's to come -_-

And I have three words that I have to constantly keep in mind:

AWAKE.

ALIVE.

BLESSED.

Peace in,

Laila

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Honestly, my knowledge of Steve Jobs was very limited, but then Star sent me this video...

... and I hate to annoy you, but you should watch it. It's another one of those inspiringmotivationalfollowyourdreamsandbelieveinyourself videos, and it's lovely. 'Specially if you need a boost. In fact, this is another video I would advise to have played at school assemblies or something.

What a cool guy. And really a tragic loss :/ 

Even my mother notices he's dead, and she's not very into that technology/celebrity world, so that's big.

On a side note, don't ever ask me to decorate your cupcakes. I've been titled with 'The Blob Master', by Star. See, on Wednesday, I went to her house for this simple game plan: Work on project. Make cupcakes. Watch Jurassic Park.

We didn't get to watch Jurassic Park (poor Star will never have a childhood), but the first two we did. The cupcakes took a while 'cause we had to... improvise.... when we couldn't find stuff. That, I am proud to say, is something I'm good at. But then, when we were icing them, my first time, I tried to do a swirly top, like on ice-creams, you know? It looked like a blob. Hence, a la Blob Master. So I just went normal and patted it on, and it looked messy, but Star decided it was artistically messy, and she made me messy-fy hers, so that was okay :)

And and and our Lit project - we're turning Markus Zusak's The Messenger into a movie, but we have to twist it a bit. We found an awesome cast so far, though xD Alona Tal as Audrey was my idea! And this dude called Jim Sturgess as Ed. I think they're purrrrfect :)

Oh, this morning, at Fajr, Haloomi fell off her bed. It was so funny. Basically, the little ones were watching A Series of Unfortunate Events last night, and because it kinda scared them, Asma slept in the same bed as her. So at Fajr, I was kicking Asma back to her bed, and I gave her sheets back. When I came back to my room, Haloomi was on the floor, sort of looking dazed and rubbing her head. And I'm like, 'Haloomi, you okay?' 

And she nods, so I say, 'You wanna go back to bed now?'

And she nods again, but she just kept sitting there, and it looked so funny. I had to pick her up and tuck her in, and she was so out of it... LoL.

And... that is all.

ATM: 

Writing: Chipped. I'm still on a roll.
Reading: Little Women. Louisa May Alcott. This is so going on my favourites list ^^ At first, after thinking Jo was like me, I thought I was a bit of Jo and Beth, but now I'm back to thinking I'm just like Jo. I donno. We seem to have similar reactions to things :)

Listening to: How We Roll. Britt Nicole. J'adore this song, it's sooo catchy and uplifting.

Feeling: Meh. 

This just makes me wanna dance! 

I know that everyone's running
Just trying to get away (you, you can't get away)
Life can feel a lot like a rat race
Like everyday is so mundane
But I am saying...

Hey, hey, oh, oh
I'm not getting caught in the undertow
I'll be taking it easy and taking it slow
I'm never gonna follow, no

Turn it up, make it loud on your radio
We are gonna dance everywhere we go
Everybody knows
That's how we roll

Peace in,

Laila

A Moment

Sr Khadija, in our class, has a son without an arm.

He's like, maybe a year old now, and I've met him - adorable little hyperactive dude. 

Today, in class, she was telling us how she struggled so bad. When she first found out that he wasn't going to have an arm, she was so scared and she sent a super long text message to Sr Nish with all her doubts and worries, etc etc. Sr Nish's reply consisted of a lot of references and stuff, but the main thing was summed down to:

This is your test.

Sr Khadija had her baby, and Ali was just lovely. But she said how she could always just see him as having a disability, how she was always so worried, how she struggled so much. I never knew this, but people, strangers on the street, they used to ask her things like: did you have drugs when you were pregnant? What's wrong with him? Why's he like that?

Recently, she said she met a sister when she was going to the RCH to check out a prosthetic arm for him. And this sister said to her, "Why do you want to get one for him? He's fine the way he is - perfect the way Allah (SWT) made him."

And she said she got angry with her. Although she didn't show it, she said that when she went away, she was furious. She still wanted to get this arm, she wants to give her son that chance to try it out, to take the opportunity. If, when he's older, he doesn't want it, oh well.

We were discussing this verse in class:

O man! What has made you careless about your Lord, the Most Generous?
Who created you, fashioned you perfectly, and gave you due proportion.

And she just sort of... burst out, and she's like: "I understand now, what she meant. I mean, I've struggled so much, but this verse... it's shown me that Ali, Ali's just perfect. The way he's made. Just because he doesn't have an arm, that doesn't mean anything - it's how he was meant to be. He can do all these other things - he's never been the issue, it's just how I look at it."

And she started to cry. I mean, happy tears.

I was just so... okay, I had a fuzzy feeling I won't bother explaining, it's too sentimental. But it's nice - she's  been sort of emancipated. And I'm happy for her, and you know, let's share the feeling:

YOU'RE ALL PERFECT, THE WAY YOU ARE, IT'S HOW YOU WERE MEANT TO BE. SMILE. APPRECIATE.

AND, SR NISH IS PREGNANT!!!!!

x)

ATM:

Writing: Chipped. I'm on a roll.

Reading: Little Women. Louisa May Alcott. It's freaky 'cause Meg is like my older sister, and Jo is like me o.O

Listening to: The Lost Get Found. Britt Nicole. Christian singer, but some songs that are strictly God related are lovely. 

Feeling: FUZZY!

And happy October everyone :) (DON'T ask what I'm doing up at 12:12am)

So when you get the chance
Are you gonna take it?
There's a really big world at your fingertips
And you know you have the chance to change it
There's a girl on the streets, she's cryin'
There's a man whose faith is dyin'
Love is calling you

Don't let your lights go down
Don't let your fire burn out
'cause somewhere, somebody needs a reason to believe
Why don't you rise up now?
Don't be afraid to stand out
That's how the lost get found
The lost get found

Peace in,

Laila

'Cause we hopeful

So, I'm still on that MOTIVATIONAL LET'S SAVE THE WORLD high. 

Yesterday, half of us year 10s went to a university for an open day kind of thing. Same ol', same ol' - uhmm... okay, admittedly, I've never been to one of these things before, but it seemed rather typical. They talked to us about our pathway options, why uni is good, the ups and downs, how to pay, blah di blah blah. We got a tour around the place, and I found it impressive but once again, I've never really toured around universities before. Not officially, anyway.

There you go - I'm being thrust into the grown up world -_-

Whatever. So there was lunch, and the people who eat halal (i.e. moi) got to go downstairs to the halal cafe and pick whatever we wanted to eat, while everyone else had Subway. They were jealous. They told everyone today to be halal ^^

And THEN, they had this speaker come in. This dude, I forgot his name, but I wouldn't tell you anyway, but I know for sure he can be referred to as Dr B. Dr B was not related to the university, and he was there to speak to us about personal learning styles and boring stuff, but he was... so infinitely awesome.

He started with that questionairre - I'm sure you've heard of it? The giraffe in the fridge?

It goes like this:

The following short quiz consists of 4 questions and will tell you whether you are qualified to be a professional. The questions are NOT that difficult.

1. How do you put a giraffe into a refrigerator?

Correct Answer: Open the refrigerator, put in the giraffe, and close the door. This question tests whether you tend to do simple things in an overly complicated way.

2. How do you put an elephant into a refrigerator?

Correct Answer: Open the refrigerator, take out the giraffe, put in the elephant and close the door. This tests your ability to think through the repercussions of your previous actions.

3. The Lion King is hosting an animal conference. All the animals attend.... except one. Which animal does not attend?

Correct Answer: The Elephant. The elephant is in the refrigerator. You just put him in there. This tests your memory.

Okay, even if you did not answer the first three questions correctly, you still have one more chance to show your true abilities.

4. There is a river you must cross but it is used by crocodiles, and you do not have a boat. How do you manage it?

Correct Answer: You jump into the river and swim across. Have you not been listening? All the crocodiles are attending the Animal Meeting. This tests whether you learn quickly from your mistakes.

Yes?

So he started with that, which I found curious 'cause teachers are never interesting like that. He said that professionals, like lawyers and doctors and businessmen, when asked these questions, tended to fail. Primary school children usually got at least two right. Why? Because at a young age, we are curious and open to the world, we want to know everything, we want to learn everything. As we progress through school, into highschool, picking up specific subjects, going to uni or TAFE and becoming a 'specialist', suddenly our knowledge is 'specialised' to whatever we HAVE to know to do our job, and we forget about everything else.

He said the important thing was not just learning what you need to know, but learning to learn. To never stop learning. 

Then he told us about how to train elephants. Basically, when the elephant is a baby, if you tie a rope around it, to a stake, and dig it in the ground so it's impossible for the baby to escape, this will retain in its memory. When it gets older, it's possible for you to tie a simple string around it with a flimsy stake in the ground, and because it remembers its childhood experience, it will assume that to escape this is also impossible.

Learned helplessness. 

He applied it to our group, saying how some of us might fail a maths test or two, and then just assume we will forever fail maths and never try again, and how we should NEVER EVER FALL TO THIS.

He showed us a Nike ad, where a basketball player moves around a court, playing with a ball, rattling off excuses: 'I'm fat, I'm too short, it's too cold, my head hurts, I don't feel like it, I'm fat, I don't have time, I'm not in the mood, do I have to?, what's the point? I'm fat, I have better things to do, it's too boring, I'm fat...' etc.

The whole time, you only see the top half of him. Finally, at the end, it shows his lower half, which is actually on a wheelchair.

He says, "...And, my feet hurt."

Cue the catchphrase: JUST DO IT.

He put up a whole bunch of quotes about either people who were told they were failures but showed otherwise(Albert Einstein, Michael Jordan), and stuff that people said that were also proved otherwise, like some dude who basically said nothing else needs to be invented. He told us we should never just settle for something, we have to test our limits, never stop questioning, etc. Then he spoke a bit how we make excuses and how we have to stop with this, get on with what we have to do. He said the key to success came in five words...

 Summarizes it, dontcha think? 

After that, it was all the personal learning style stuff, (I'm predominantly visual, btw), and even though generally that's boring, he made it sounds sooo much better. AWESOME, AWESOME dude, he's on my hero list though I don't know his name o.o

COMETH TODAY. Or.... TODAY COMETH. Take your pick.

The other half of the year 10s went on the university experience, and only Jane and I were left from our class. Not that it particularly mattered - French, we had a few people, OO we had a few people, maths we were doing a test, and GS... well, here, I'ma speak about GS.

The year 11s and 12s were having a 'Road Safety' lecture thing today, and because the teachers had nothing better to do with us for GS, we went along too. The people running it were a dude called Shane, another called...Pete, and the last, a teacher from my school, who's Dave. 

They were speaking to us about how we drive (I don't drive... and after seeing all the trouble you can get into, gosh, I don't think I want to learn for a while), about accidents. They said to us: 'We're not going to tell you not to drink and drive. We're not going to tell you not to speed. We're not going to tell you not to text or talk to someone on the phone while you drive. But we're going to show you what happens when you do. When you crash."

The starting video was a straightforward crash that was really realistic. Basically, three chicks in a car on the freeway, driver is texting, she hits another car, gets knocked onto the opposite freeway, and a family car hits her. Slow motion of how their bodies impact. It speeds up again, the driver is the only one alive, and she has this awkward cry that makes it more real, and she just screams in agony. Another car slows down and a guy gets out, tries to help but can't get the door open. Ambulance and all the rest are called. Shows them getting her out, looking into the other cars. The thing that really touched me?

They showed the paramedics/firefighters going to the family car, the parents are dead, but there's this little girl sitting there, eyes wide behind a ridiculously large pair of glasses, and she's just asking: "Mummy, wake up! Why won't mummy wake up? Why won't she wake up?!"

And so it goes. They told us how it's not always blood and gore, it might not even show. But when you're travelling thismanyk'sperhour, and you hit the breaks, the first impact is the car hitting whatever, the second is your body hitting the dashboard, and the last, the killer impact, is your internal organs, still travelling, crushing themselves against your ribs, or ripping themselves out of place.

Charming, right? They had all these demonstrations. This guy had to throw a waterballoon full of red liquid against a white sheet to show what our organs looked like after a crash. These girls had to walk across a line while texting, to demonstrate how texting while driving is like driving blindfolded. So on.

They really reached out. The main reason for this is, their jobs, in real life, what inspired them to come talk, is that they're the ones who cut the bodies out of the cars. After a crash.

Even the teacher from my school. Added to my hero list, apparently this teacher (who I haven't actually had before), on top of being a teacher, is a lifeguard, does this body cutting out thing and volunteers for the CFA too. HE'S AWESOME.

BUT, the other thing was, they had one of the receptionists from our office up there, and Pete, he's like:

'Do you know this lady?'

(No answer)

"No? Well, go introduce yourself to her. Get to know her. You don't want to meet her the way I did; I was cutting her son's body out of a car."

... and she cried.

On that topic, I have nothing more to say.

I just want to give back to the community. I know I sit here and whine and seem pathetic, but I'm trying and nothing ever seems good enough. One of the comments on my last post referred to finding internal satisfaction (interesting ;) ) but I don't think, with all the stuff that goes on, I ever will.

ATM:

Reading: Life of Pi. Yann Martel. Haven't had time to read much lately, BUT THE ZEBRA WAS EATEN ALIVE.

Writing: Untitled. Hah. Something for Linchy's mental disorder contest :D

Listening to: Hope. Twista ft Faith Evans. Another oldie, and it's beautiful. They just don't make 'em like they used to.

Feeling: Confined. I think you know why.

I also wanna watch the movie this is from...

We will never break, don’t devastate, we shall motivate,
And we gotta pray, all we got is faith.
Instead of thinking about who gonna die to day,
The Lord is gonna help you feel better, so you ain’t gotta cry today.
Sit at the light so long,
And then we gotta move straight forward, 'cause we fight so strong,
So when right go wrong,
Just say a little prayer, get ya money man, life goes on
Let’s hope!

'Cause I’m hopeful, yes I am, hopeful for today,
Take this music and use it
Let it take you away,
And be hopeful (hopeful) and He’ll make a way
I know it ain’t easy but that’s okay.
'Cause we hopeful! 

Peace in,
Laila