My Logitech mouse has been playing up for a while, occasionally when I click the left mouse button it double clicks randomly. Not that fun when I'm closing a window and it closes the one after it, or when I'm trying to play a game. I did some forum-stalking and apparently it's a problem caused when the clicky things inside the mouse wear out and send the clicky signal twice by mistake. Only problem is that my mouse isn't that old. Like, a year and a half. At the most.
My Logitech keyboard's been playing up as well. The right shift key's not working. At all. I had to use the left one, and that's mighty annoying when I'm typing fast. I've switched back to the keyboard the computer came with, but I'd like my Logitech one to be fixed. It had volume controls and buttons and everything. :'(
And Holy crap on a cracker, that last post was looooong. Sorry.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
My Subjects and How They Came to Be
WARNING: This post will more than likely go on forever, much like my previous rant about toys. Do not begin reading unless you intend to make it through the whole thing.
So, this was originally supposed to be a post about my extension 2 English project, and then I thought "Wait up, nobody who might possibly read this is going to know what extension 2 English is, and understand why I'm bitching about it", so I've decided to do a whole "get to know ya" spiel before I start posting willy-nilly like I hope to soon. So, this is the "school" post. I've already done the "Toy Story" post and the "hello" post, and I intend to do a few more.
Anyway, I'm going to assume that any reader has no idea of how the Australian education system works. If you do, you'd better skip down to the next paragraph otherwise reading this will be a colossal waste of your time. We begin school at kindergarten, when we're 4 or 5 years old. The age thing is difficult because the cut-off point for starting school is in the middle of the year so all school years will have half the students born towards the end of one year and the other born at the start of the next. There are four terms in one school year, with each term roughly going for between 9-11 weeks, with a 2-3 weeks break in between. At the end of the year, we have our Chrismas/Summer holidays, which can go from between 6-10 weeks depending on how long your school day lasts. There are a set number of hours each school needs to spend teaching per year, and by pushing back the end of the school day or pulling the beginning forward by as little as 10 minutes per day, some schools manage to give 10 week breaks over Christmas. We go through kindergarten and years 1-6 at primary school, which I guess is the equivalent of the American elementary school, so there's 7 years all up there. We then progress to secondary school, more often than not referred to as high school. Yes, that's right. We have no "middle school". High school goes from years 7 through to 12, however it is only compulsory to go through to year 10, at which point you can drop out of school as long as you have a sustainable job, are doing an upper-level course at TAFE (I'll get to that), or have an apprenticeship. Otherwise you have to stay 'till year 12. Years in high school are usually grouped in pairs in terms of subjects, in year 7 and eight there is a set of predefined subjects (English, Maths, PDHPE, Geography, History, Visual Arts, Technology, sometimes one or two languages, and religion if you go to a private school) that all students have to attend. In years 9 and 10, the languages are normally dropped and you can pick two 'electives' that run parallel to the compulsory subjects, such as Art, Commerce, Information Software Technology, Automotive, etc. However, when you reach year 11, everything changes. The only compulsory subject is English (and Studies of Religion, if you go to a private school), you get to pick the rest on the condition that you make up 10 'units'. Most subjects are considered to be worth two units, however some (extensions, Music 1 and Studies of Religion 1) are only worth 1 unit. A unit is basically 100 hours worth of school work, so all in all there is 1000 mandatory hours worth of work in a year. There are three English choices: Advanced, Standard and ESL (English as a Second Language). You can only pick one of these, and ESL is reserved for people whose primary language is something other than English. Similarly, if you choose to do Mathematics as an elective, you get to choose between General Mathematics and Mathematics. General Mathematics and Standard English are basically just watered down versions of Mathematics and Advanced English. Most of the electives from years 9 and 10 carry through to years 11 and 12, with some exceptions or splits (History is split into Ancient and Modern, Commerce is spread among Legal Studies, Economics and Legal Studies, Information Software Technology is split into Information Processing Technology and Software Design and Development, etc.). Extension subjects are considered to be an extension of the base subject, and are only worth one unit. Extension English, for example, uses the techniques studied in Advanced English and applies it to another area, similarly Extension Maths is just Mathematics with a big boost of difficult behind it. In year 11 the only extensions available are typically English and Maths, however in year 12 you can choose to do an Extension 2 subject, on the basis that you are already doing the Extension 1 equivalent of it. Extension 2 Maths is Extension 1 with a whole lot more difficult behind it, and Extension 2 English requires you to complete a 'major project' throughout the year instead of having set assignments and classes. Other "major project" subjects include Visual Arts and Music 2. Extension History, Extension Music and Extension Languages (eg, Extension French, Extension Japenese, etc.) is also available as a subject in years 11 and 12. Extension subjects are usually conducted outside of school hours, for example in the mornings before school or in the afternoons. Technically speaking, you can do as many units as you'd like, however only ten of them go towards your High School Certificate, or HSC. At the end of the year, the HSC is sat by every student eligible for one (some students finish year 12 but do not have any interest in getting their HSC, and some subjects, known as VET subjects (Technology, Electronics, etc), disallow you from getting a HSC if you do more than one of them). A test for every subject is sat (with the exception of the major project subjects, in which case you have to mail your project to the markers). Results are scaled and tweaked and pushed around by the markers so that there is an even distribution of scores across the state, so some subjects final marks are significantly different to that of their raw mark (a mark of 80, for example in the VET course Hospitality usually scales down to a mark of around 50, however an 85 boosts up to around 90). It's complicated stuff, but the markers do it so there's an even bell curve with the majority of students getting within one standard deviation of the average score across the state. Therefore scaling differs every year because of different average scores. A list is compiled of your final marks for each unit (subjects worth two units will have the same score twice), and they are arranged in descending order of grade. The top ten units are chosen (if a two unit subject occupies place 10 and 11 on the list, only one of the units is counted) and put into a mark out of 100, known as an ATAR (Australian Tertiary Admission Rank), going up by .05's. For some reason it's impossible to get a perfect ATAR of 100, so the highest possible is 99.95. University courses have ATAR cut-off points, where you have to get above the indicated ATAR to get into the course. (For example, last year Interior Architecture at UNSW had an ATAR cut-off of 87) The ATAR cut off points also differ per year due to fluctuating interest in the course and the average ATAR of the state.
So, if you skipped that paragraph, then good, because it was essay-worthy. If you didn't, good work making it this far! So anyway, the whole point of making this post was to list my own electives. I have 11 units all up, so there's a spare one in case I screw up one of my subjects in the HSC. My subjects are:
Basically, I only do three subjects in school. They're English, General Maths and Ancient History. I don't have Extension 2 English lessons as I have the major project to work on, I do Extension 1 English outside of school hours, Hospitality is at TAFE on Wednesday afternoons and I've already completed my Studies of Religion HSC.
Subjects are grouped together on 'lines', there's 6 or 7 lines with a variety of different subjects on them each year. If Chemistry and Physics are on the same line, you can't do both subjects because they run at the same time. If you don't do any of the subjects on a particular line, you have a 'free' or 'study' period, where you and everyone else who doesn't do any of those subjects are rounded up and thrown into a room to be supervised by a teacher. Or you can just leave, which is what most people seem to do if they have double studies throughout the day or studies first or last.
ANYWAY, this has been my second big-ass post in a row. I promise to make them smaller.
If you've made it all the way through, I applaud you! You earn a cookie.
So, this was originally supposed to be a post about my extension 2 English project, and then I thought "Wait up, nobody who might possibly read this is going to know what extension 2 English is, and understand why I'm bitching about it", so I've decided to do a whole "get to know ya" spiel before I start posting willy-nilly like I hope to soon. So, this is the "school" post. I've already done the "Toy Story" post and the "hello" post, and I intend to do a few more.
Anyway, I'm going to assume that any reader has no idea of how the Australian education system works. If you do, you'd better skip down to the next paragraph otherwise reading this will be a colossal waste of your time. We begin school at kindergarten, when we're 4 or 5 years old. The age thing is difficult because the cut-off point for starting school is in the middle of the year so all school years will have half the students born towards the end of one year and the other born at the start of the next. There are four terms in one school year, with each term roughly going for between 9-11 weeks, with a 2-3 weeks break in between. At the end of the year, we have our Chrismas/Summer holidays, which can go from between 6-10 weeks depending on how long your school day lasts. There are a set number of hours each school needs to spend teaching per year, and by pushing back the end of the school day or pulling the beginning forward by as little as 10 minutes per day, some schools manage to give 10 week breaks over Christmas. We go through kindergarten and years 1-6 at primary school, which I guess is the equivalent of the American elementary school, so there's 7 years all up there. We then progress to secondary school, more often than not referred to as high school. Yes, that's right. We have no "middle school". High school goes from years 7 through to 12, however it is only compulsory to go through to year 10, at which point you can drop out of school as long as you have a sustainable job, are doing an upper-level course at TAFE (I'll get to that), or have an apprenticeship. Otherwise you have to stay 'till year 12. Years in high school are usually grouped in pairs in terms of subjects, in year 7 and eight there is a set of predefined subjects (English, Maths, PDHPE, Geography, History, Visual Arts, Technology, sometimes one or two languages, and religion if you go to a private school) that all students have to attend. In years 9 and 10, the languages are normally dropped and you can pick two 'electives' that run parallel to the compulsory subjects, such as Art, Commerce, Information Software Technology, Automotive, etc. However, when you reach year 11, everything changes. The only compulsory subject is English (and Studies of Religion, if you go to a private school), you get to pick the rest on the condition that you make up 10 'units'. Most subjects are considered to be worth two units, however some (extensions, Music 1 and Studies of Religion 1) are only worth 1 unit. A unit is basically 100 hours worth of school work, so all in all there is 1000 mandatory hours worth of work in a year. There are three English choices: Advanced, Standard and ESL (English as a Second Language). You can only pick one of these, and ESL is reserved for people whose primary language is something other than English. Similarly, if you choose to do Mathematics as an elective, you get to choose between General Mathematics and Mathematics. General Mathematics and Standard English are basically just watered down versions of Mathematics and Advanced English. Most of the electives from years 9 and 10 carry through to years 11 and 12, with some exceptions or splits (History is split into Ancient and Modern, Commerce is spread among Legal Studies, Economics and Legal Studies, Information Software Technology is split into Information Processing Technology and Software Design and Development, etc.). Extension subjects are considered to be an extension of the base subject, and are only worth one unit. Extension English, for example, uses the techniques studied in Advanced English and applies it to another area, similarly Extension Maths is just Mathematics with a big boost of difficult behind it. In year 11 the only extensions available are typically English and Maths, however in year 12 you can choose to do an Extension 2 subject, on the basis that you are already doing the Extension 1 equivalent of it. Extension 2 Maths is Extension 1 with a whole lot more difficult behind it, and Extension 2 English requires you to complete a 'major project' throughout the year instead of having set assignments and classes. Other "major project" subjects include Visual Arts and Music 2. Extension History, Extension Music and Extension Languages (eg, Extension French, Extension Japenese, etc.) is also available as a subject in years 11 and 12. Extension subjects are usually conducted outside of school hours, for example in the mornings before school or in the afternoons. Technically speaking, you can do as many units as you'd like, however only ten of them go towards your High School Certificate, or HSC. At the end of the year, the HSC is sat by every student eligible for one (some students finish year 12 but do not have any interest in getting their HSC, and some subjects, known as VET subjects (Technology, Electronics, etc), disallow you from getting a HSC if you do more than one of them). A test for every subject is sat (with the exception of the major project subjects, in which case you have to mail your project to the markers). Results are scaled and tweaked and pushed around by the markers so that there is an even distribution of scores across the state, so some subjects final marks are significantly different to that of their raw mark (a mark of 80, for example in the VET course Hospitality usually scales down to a mark of around 50, however an 85 boosts up to around 90). It's complicated stuff, but the markers do it so there's an even bell curve with the majority of students getting within one standard deviation of the average score across the state. Therefore scaling differs every year because of different average scores. A list is compiled of your final marks for each unit (subjects worth two units will have the same score twice), and they are arranged in descending order of grade. The top ten units are chosen (if a two unit subject occupies place 10 and 11 on the list, only one of the units is counted) and put into a mark out of 100, known as an ATAR (Australian Tertiary Admission Rank), going up by .05's. For some reason it's impossible to get a perfect ATAR of 100, so the highest possible is 99.95. University courses have ATAR cut-off points, where you have to get above the indicated ATAR to get into the course. (For example, last year Interior Architecture at UNSW had an ATAR cut-off of 87) The ATAR cut off points also differ per year due to fluctuating interest in the course and the average ATAR of the state.
So, if you skipped that paragraph, then good, because it was essay-worthy. If you didn't, good work making it this far! So anyway, the whole point of making this post was to list my own electives. I have 11 units all up, so there's a spare one in case I screw up one of my subjects in the HSC. My subjects are:
- Advanced English (2 units)
- Extension 1 English (1 unit)
- Extension 2 English (1 unit)
- General Mathematics (2 units)
- Ancient History (2 units)
- TVET Hospitality (2 units)
- Studies of Religion 1 (1 unit)
Basically, I only do three subjects in school. They're English, General Maths and Ancient History. I don't have Extension 2 English lessons as I have the major project to work on, I do Extension 1 English outside of school hours, Hospitality is at TAFE on Wednesday afternoons and I've already completed my Studies of Religion HSC.
Subjects are grouped together on 'lines', there's 6 or 7 lines with a variety of different subjects on them each year. If Chemistry and Physics are on the same line, you can't do both subjects because they run at the same time. If you don't do any of the subjects on a particular line, you have a 'free' or 'study' period, where you and everyone else who doesn't do any of those subjects are rounded up and thrown into a room to be supervised by a teacher. Or you can just leave, which is what most people seem to do if they have double studies throughout the day or studies first or last.
ANYWAY, this has been my second big-ass post in a row. I promise to make them smaller.
If you've made it all the way through, I applaud you! You earn a cookie.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Le Collection de Toy Story
Righto, so I wanted to distinguish this from the last post mainly because I want to make full use of the label tag feature thingo. This post is directed primarily at the activity known as "obsessive collecting". AKA, the purchase of one or two things from a vast collection, followed by the realisation that you want them all. Welcome to my Toy Story collection.
My tale of woe starts similar to that of many 9 year old children, the adrenaline rush after viewing Toy Story 3 in spectacular 3D for the first time. The only difference between them and me is money. I had some. Lots, in fact. So much that I went into Big W literally right after the movie ended and bought myself a talking Woody doll. BAM, $50 down the drain. The next day I went into town to see the movie again, BAM, I come home with Jessie. This goes on and on until I eventually have a small number of the main characters, which I'd hoped would satisfy my need to complete them.
Unfortunately, it was at this time that I realised how easy it was to open and fund a paypal account. So my collection took to the internet, and my money supply began to dwindle. Work was cutting down my hours and I quickly ran out of enough money to keep up with my binging.
Somehow I managed to pull together the main cast, from Woody to the LGM's. And then I discovered Bonny's toys. The Disney Store-branded plush versions of Dolly, Pricklepants, Buttercup and the Peas are good enough for me, there's no real need to severely modify them like a lot of people seem to have done. It took me weeks, but I managed to track down a Totoro plush from a Ghibli-certified reseller (unfortunately the website has closed down following the Japanese tsunami earlier this year), and I have yet to wait to see if Trixie will be coming out soon. I felt content, knowing that I had pretty much finished the two main groups from the third movie. And then along comes Ken. I had planned to buy the Toy Story-branded Barbie, despite the extreme amount of modifying Mattel had to do to make her appeal to a modern day audience. Knowing that the movie Barbie was based upon a real-life Barbie doll from the eighties, I somehow managed to find the original's leotard on sale on ebay. Seriously, compare the Toy Story-branded real life Barbie to the one in the movie. Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong. So anyway, I bought the original Great Shape Barbie's leotard, then sat in wait for a Barbie. I was hesitant as to whether or not I would buy just the barbie or get the "made for each other" set with Ken in it. I knew that Mattel had not released Ken on his own, and there was no way that I would be dishing out $100+ for the original Animal Lovin' Ken. So I took a chance and ordered the two-pack from an online store. After a few little tweaks (Barbie got a little haircut, as well as the old leotard and Ken's shorts rolled up and his shirt got pulled open), they were finished.
But it left me in an awkward position. Technically, Barbie was part of the main group during the film, and Ken was not. But there was no way that I'd be separating them. So now I've started in on the main Sunnyside toys. I know for a fact that replica Lots-o-Huggin'-Bears, Twitches, Chunks and Sparks' are out there, and that Big Baby is on his way along with a possible Stretch. Chatter Telephones are also on the market, including the vintage 1960's ones with the wooden base.
But I'm afraid that if I start collecting another group, I won't be able to stop. I'll complete them, then hone in on the Toy Story 2 characters. Zurg is coming out soon, the utility belt Buzz is out there, along with Tour Guide Barbie and Wheezy. Stinky Pete should also be making an appearance in the near future. Once I finish them, where to next? Do I start going for the lesser characters from the first two movies? Bo Peep, RC, Lenny and the rest? Do I modify toys to make Sid's mutant collection, start on some of the more identifiable Sunnyside toys, or call it a day and accept that I have completed the collection?
The fact that I'll be leaving for Uni next year doesn't help things. Where will they be stored, will I take them all with me? What do I do with them when I leave university and start making a living? Do I sell them? Store them for possible kids? Display them proudly?
I really don't know.
Anyway, this post was freakin' epically long. I apologise to my future-self for making me have to read it. Here's a picture of them all together, as well. Just because.
My tale of woe starts similar to that of many 9 year old children, the adrenaline rush after viewing Toy Story 3 in spectacular 3D for the first time. The only difference between them and me is money. I had some. Lots, in fact. So much that I went into Big W literally right after the movie ended and bought myself a talking Woody doll. BAM, $50 down the drain. The next day I went into town to see the movie again, BAM, I come home with Jessie. This goes on and on until I eventually have a small number of the main characters, which I'd hoped would satisfy my need to complete them.
Unfortunately, it was at this time that I realised how easy it was to open and fund a paypal account. So my collection took to the internet, and my money supply began to dwindle. Work was cutting down my hours and I quickly ran out of enough money to keep up with my binging.
Somehow I managed to pull together the main cast, from Woody to the LGM's. And then I discovered Bonny's toys. The Disney Store-branded plush versions of Dolly, Pricklepants, Buttercup and the Peas are good enough for me, there's no real need to severely modify them like a lot of people seem to have done. It took me weeks, but I managed to track down a Totoro plush from a Ghibli-certified reseller (unfortunately the website has closed down following the Japanese tsunami earlier this year), and I have yet to wait to see if Trixie will be coming out soon. I felt content, knowing that I had pretty much finished the two main groups from the third movie. And then along comes Ken. I had planned to buy the Toy Story-branded Barbie, despite the extreme amount of modifying Mattel had to do to make her appeal to a modern day audience. Knowing that the movie Barbie was based upon a real-life Barbie doll from the eighties, I somehow managed to find the original's leotard on sale on ebay. Seriously, compare the Toy Story-branded real life Barbie to the one in the movie. Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong. So anyway, I bought the original Great Shape Barbie's leotard, then sat in wait for a Barbie. I was hesitant as to whether or not I would buy just the barbie or get the "made for each other" set with Ken in it. I knew that Mattel had not released Ken on his own, and there was no way that I would be dishing out $100+ for the original Animal Lovin' Ken. So I took a chance and ordered the two-pack from an online store. After a few little tweaks (Barbie got a little haircut, as well as the old leotard and Ken's shorts rolled up and his shirt got pulled open), they were finished.
But it left me in an awkward position. Technically, Barbie was part of the main group during the film, and Ken was not. But there was no way that I'd be separating them. So now I've started in on the main Sunnyside toys. I know for a fact that replica Lots-o-Huggin'-Bears, Twitches, Chunks and Sparks' are out there, and that Big Baby is on his way along with a possible Stretch. Chatter Telephones are also on the market, including the vintage 1960's ones with the wooden base.
But I'm afraid that if I start collecting another group, I won't be able to stop. I'll complete them, then hone in on the Toy Story 2 characters. Zurg is coming out soon, the utility belt Buzz is out there, along with Tour Guide Barbie and Wheezy. Stinky Pete should also be making an appearance in the near future. Once I finish them, where to next? Do I start going for the lesser characters from the first two movies? Bo Peep, RC, Lenny and the rest? Do I modify toys to make Sid's mutant collection, start on some of the more identifiable Sunnyside toys, or call it a day and accept that I have completed the collection?
The fact that I'll be leaving for Uni next year doesn't help things. Where will they be stored, will I take them all with me? What do I do with them when I leave university and start making a living? Do I sell them? Store them for possible kids? Display them proudly?
I really don't know.
Anyway, this post was freakin' epically long. I apologise to my future-self for making me have to read it. Here's a picture of them all together, as well. Just because.
I'm back bitches!... again.
Okay, so this is the umpteenth time I've tried to re-open this blog, but ever time I do it seems to fall on a very inopportune moment and I have no time or effort to write often. But that is all about to change! I hope.
I've decided to just dump everything onto here - thoughts, photos, my latest e-purchase (seriously, I call them that. Mein e-purchases. I have a list of things that have yet to be paid for / delivered on my cork noticeboard thingy with that title.) and anything else in between. I can see the majority of my posts being Glee, Sims or Toy Story-related, so if you're against the strangely perfect singing of an Ohio show choir, a game of life for people who have no lives, or the charming tale of a ragband group of toys' misadventures, I suggest you leave. Like, right away.
I've decided to just dump everything onto here - thoughts, photos, my latest e-purchase (seriously, I call them that. Mein e-purchases. I have a list of things that have yet to be paid for / delivered on my cork noticeboard thingy with that title.) and anything else in between. I can see the majority of my posts being Glee, Sims or Toy Story-related, so if you're against the strangely perfect singing of an Ohio show choir, a game of life for people who have no lives, or the charming tale of a ragband group of toys' misadventures, I suggest you leave. Like, right away.
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