Gems Life

Santa

2008-12-14T02:15:26Z

Made an interesting observation yesterday in a conversation with friends about Santa and whether to have santa or not. I noticed that there were a lot more people on the side of no or at least could understand that than there would have been a few years ago even. Before most people would've just said oh don't be silly or something along those lines. So it was interesting to see that that is starting to change and people are deciding not to have santa. It wouldn't be any noticable impact yet but it seems that there is starting to be a decline in santa. Last year I knew 1 or 2 families that didn't do santa but this year it's about 5 or more plus I know several others who don't have children yet but say they won't have santa either. The predominant reason for it is the stranger danger contradiction of santa. Like that you teach your kids that they shouldn't talk to strangers and not to take stuff from them but then santa is a stranger who we then tell them to talk to and take stuff from. Other reasons though not as big are religious and the comercialisation of christmas aspect of santa. Anyway it's just what I've noticed around here don't know what it's like everywhere else but thought it was interesting.

Water restrictions gone down

2008-04-03T22:36:51Z

I forgot to mention this the other day when I posted. But on Sunday we went down from level 4 to level 3. To me it hasn't made much difference except that I don't worry so much if I have a slightly longer shower. It means we can use water outside again and can wash the car (on the grass) and water the garden (still at set times) and top up pools and such. So that is nice. I think it means the showers are back on at the beach as well,

I have to go into my school this arvo to watch a science lesson that I was meant to have done by yesterday but they couldn't fit it in. So now I have to go through all the paperwork for an extension of a day and I'll have handed it in before the paperwork even goes through.

I'm sick today so am spending the day trying to finish an assignment for next week but not getting anywhere.

Dean Koontz Velocity

2008-02-15T21:56:29Z

Book 12
I read this one really quickly and thought it was a great novel. This is the first Koontz book I've read a friend recommended him to me and I'm so glad she did. I'm trying to get hold of some of his others so if anyone has recomendations let me know. Anyway this book is about a guy that works at the local tavern and when he leaves work he finds a note left on his windshield that gives him a choice. He can go to the police and an elderly woman active in charity work will die or not and a pretty school teacher will die. He of course thinks its a joke and ignores it. The notes continue to come and the things they say happen. The deadlines get shorter and shorter and the person he loves most is threatened and he has to do all he can to protect her and find the killer.

I also read C is for Corpse by Sue Grafton and am currently reading the nanny diaries.

gemstone121 @ 2008-01-31T10:26:00

2008-01-30T23:50:03Z

I am going to be buying a new piano in the next week or so hopefully. It will be a digital one. I'll grab a link to the one I'm thinking of getting. I'll talk to me piano teacher on monday about it and see what she thinks and presuming that it is okay I'll buy it during the week. I've been saving up for it over the summer.

http://www.yamahamusic.com.au/products/musicalinstruments/ydp/ydp-131.asp - This one is cheaper and I can afford it now but from the specs (at least the ones that I care about) this one is better than the more expensive one. The other one is this http://www.roland.com/products/en/RP101/specs.html

Work has been going well I made a lot over the summer which is good. The overnight went well though I discovered I can be really jumpy when I'm responsible for children at night and am sleeping in a house I'm not used to. I ended up getting sleep in hour blocks before I'd wake up from some noise or one of the kids had woken. School is back and my other families are back from holidays now and I'm taking them again. This week is busy because everyone is back but should settle down again. March seems to be a busy time though not sure why that is. I have one other new family (can't remember if I mentioned them before) and they are really good and it has a lot of potential opportunities. I do a Tuesday night and usually a weekend night/day for them each week so that is good. We get along well. The kid is a 17mo old girl and she's really easy to look after. They travel a lot and affter I've worked for them for a while they are looking at taking me with them. Obviously not until I'm pretty comfortable with them and vice versa cos I'll be with them most of the time.

Semester 2 results

2007-12-11T00:30:45Z

Okay well results came out yesterday for all those that care I'll post them up - Prac turned out to be a pass

Course	Class Name	Official Grade	Grade Input	Units
My Grade Report > Semester 2 - 2007 > Undergraduate > The University of Newcastle
EDST 1200	Soc & Environ Studies Curic	C	72	10.00
EDST 2060	Professional Experience 2	UP	UP	10.00
EDST 3070	Early Childhood Literacies	C	69	10.00
EDST 3080	Prog Devel & Evaluation	C	65	10.00

C is credit
UP is ungraded pass - pracs aren't graded they are just pass/fail
My marks are usually a little higher but I haven't done as bad as I thought and I slacked off a lot this year.

So I'll continue with the normal progression for next year except for internship which I obviously can't do until I do prac 3 which will be in 2nd semester next year. I was thinking I could try and negotiate to do prac in semester one and internship in 2 but I think it will be too much and the semester one subjects are quite busy. It means I'll graduate a year later but oh well. They might let me do my internship in semester 1 2009 so I can graduate in July instead of waiting til Feb 2010. It doesn't really matter though I'll just get a nanny job or something for the first half of 2009 and then do internship in the second half. Though it means that I'll only be part time which I think messes up stuff for Dad or mum with centrelink but not sure. It will only be a year so I guess from end of next year I'll just stop being a dependent.

Going away

2007-11-29T23:45:54Z

Well it's time for NTE again. So I will be away from now until the 9th. My mission team this year is going to Harrington Park so that will be different to Orange. I'm leading the youth group while we're there so that will be interesting. Anyhow not that anyone much cares but wanted to let you know.

Birthday

2007-11-27T23:28:03Z

Okay well it was my birthday last Friday. I was at my church camp for the weekend. I had a great time. We had a chocolate cake which was really nice. I ate the piece with my name on it but then realised that my name when written on cake is actually long and it was a big cake anyway so I was like oh I can't eat it all. So I saved it and finished it on saturday.

I got lots of presents which is something I'm not used to.
I got a new bag which is really nice. I've been meaning to get a new one so that's good.
A sun catcher which has a bible verse on it - it's pretty and has butterflies and flowers on it.
A koorong gift card (the christian book shop around here)
A book with pictures and Bible verse it's really pretty to and I love it
A bath/shower gift pack
A gift card for dymocks (a book shop)
A note book
and some money.

So that was really good. I'm going out soon to use the koorong card and maybe the dymocks one if I can get there.

Musicianship exam results

2007-11-05T23:39:45Z

These actually came back last week but I don't think I mentioned it here. Most likely because I was upset about them. For no logical reason of course because I did really well. I was just annoyed at myself for thinking that AMEB would actually give me the distinction mark even when every other time they've always found something stupid to pull me up for. Why would it be any different this time. Anyway I got 93 by the way. 96 is a distinction. The mark I am annoyed about is in the definitions part where what I wrote was exactly right except I had a comma and not brackets but it still made sense and it was the exact words from the book except that I had , forced instead of (forced). Ah so annoying. The other ones were more legitimate one was my melody writing which is the one part I seem to have problems with. The other was a tricky turnary pattern where the repeat had only about four notes the same as the first. Like how am I meant to spot that. In fact I did but I said binary because the rest of it was so different.

Bali - 5 years on

2007-10-12T00:29:16Z

Well today marks 5 years since the Bali bombing. I can still remember that day and the days after finding out about it and trying to find out about friends who we hadn't heard from yet. I had a Japanese exchange student over (who I'd be going to stay with in a couple of months) and we'd gone away for a couple of days and so I didn't hear about it straight away I heard on the radio as we came back and from phone calls from others. I remember being at church that weekend and all of us teen were huddled in the back corner after church talking about it and asking if anyone had heard from our friends yet - no one had then but it was mostly family they were doing and so we had to wait to get word from the family. Anyway our friends were okay (as in alive) and we heard from them a few days later.

I just wanted to do a post so that it's remembered and because to me this one is more significant the september 11 but it seems Bali is so much easily forgotten. I can't remember the numbers I think it was about 200 dead all up and 88 Australian.

Birthdays

2007-09-24T00:30:29Z

Happy belated birthday Brittany

Happy birthday Anily

Hope you both had/have a good birthday.

Happy 21st Jennifer

2007-09-20T08:15:46Z

I know this is early (in your timezone) but I don't think I'll get on tomorrow to say it so:

Happy 21st sapphire_rocket!

I hope you do have a good day and enjoy your birthday.

I had planned to make you something but I have been so busy with uni that I didn't get it finished. I will try to do it over the weekend if I can and email it to you.

Prac - I might have passed

2007-09-11T09:42:28Z

OMG I can't believe it. I got my prac report back today and it says pass on it. I did a double take. I was like no way are you for real. I had not established on my final report and you are meant to fail if that is the case but they stamped it pass. So I don't know maybe they looked at my other reports and went there is no way that this is a true reflection (my centre was nice on the surface but could be a bit nasty behind the scenes). I think someone might have spoken to them for me and said that I really am good at it. Whatever happened I so much appreciate it. I can't believe it but it appears to be true. I wish I had known earlier because I could have done my primary prac at the end of this year but I don't know I think I want a break. Anyway I'm really happy about it. I will let you know when I hear that it really is true.

gemstone121 @ 2007-09-03T08:49:00

2007-09-02T22:58:05Z

Well this week was busy I had my musicianship (music theory) exam on wednesday and that went well. I'm aiming for honours with high distinction which means I've got to get 96%. I think I can but I always miss it by one mark and it's always for some silly reason like I spelt a word wrong or I forgot a comma.
Wednesday I also went into my school and taught some English lessons with the kindergarteners. That went okay. I'm not so good at behaviour management (I'll blame this on uni as well because we don't even get a course on it, but also myself because I'm not good at it anyway).
Thursday was the programming assignment - the philosophy one and that wasn't too bad but it's not that good by my standards either. It should pass though.
Friday I franticly wrote my literacies assignment for today. That one is okay. Also not that good as well. I've been slacking on assignments lately. I also babysit but that was easy as the 2 year old was asleep and I only had the 6 year old and she was sick with a cold and being a bit of a drama queen about that. I let her fall asleep on the longue.
Saturday I finished the assignment and then was meant to babysit but the kid was sick so I then meet the youth group down in sydney and went to exoday. That was fun pillar and switchfoot where there.
(might finish this later class is about to start)

gemstone121 @ 2007-08-23T12:03:00

2007-08-23T02:23:49Z

Well it's been a bit of a busy week for me this week. I've managed to get today off (because I went to uni monday when it flooded and they are repeating the lecture from then) and I have friday off anyway so that is good. So this is what my week has been liked. I'm pretty tired now but I'll get to sleep in tomorrow so that will catch me up.

Monday was just uni as normal except that it flooded. Uni closed at 5pm which was when my afternoon class finished. I was pretty much stuck anyway. Mum couldn't pick me up before then and the road up to the station was flooded so I couldn't really get up there.

Tuesday was uni in the morning as usual and then I had that stocktake at borders (it's a bookshop not sure if there are US ones) and that was ok I liked looking at all the books especially as I'm trying to read more adult fiction as there isn't much left in YA that interests me (there are exceptions of course) so I saw a few books that might be interesting. I didn't get home from that until about 1:30am so I'm still pretty tired from that as I haven't had a chance to catch up.

Wednesday I went to the school and helped out, practiced my writing on the board (that is so hard I can't believe I write it so well on paper yet you go to the board and it looks so bad - that's not helped by my tremor but that's not the point.). Then I talked to the teacher about what sorts of things I should do in my lessons next week. It's a kindergarten class btw so only 22 kids max. which is great. I'm doing there morning session so I've got phonics, handwriting and story writing. There doing 'y' which kind of limits the amount of stuff I can do with it especially as most of the y words aren't hugely familiar to them like yak. And then there are the ones I have problems with because there are different names you could give them like yarn (which most people here would call wool) and yacht (which I at that age would have called a boat.). But anyway that's being pedantic - it's all because last week in literacies we were talking about using alphabet cards and how some are good but some aren't and why.

Oh I also went to the shops and brought new moon and eclipse and I'm reading through them.

Today I had to babysit in the morning and that went well the kids were really good except the two year old when mum left but I expected that to happen and she settles pretty quickly if I leave the room for a minute or two. That sounds like a bad thing to do but I could still see the kids and it's just what works with her.

Anyway that's about it tomorrow I have nothing planned so hopefully I'll catch up on sleep. Saturday I am at the women's conference at my church and that should be good.

Everyones doing these

2007-08-18T00:56:53Z

Okay the code stuff won't work. No idea why. Anyway I got kind syltherin.

I wouldn't have expected that but my answers were very like me. Anyway it's still cool.

I've been reading twilight (finished it a few days ago) because I saw so many posts about it from people here and other places and decided I'd read it. It was great. I think this week or next I will have enough money to get the next one. I have 2 babysitting jobs and a stocktake to do this week. I'm trying to save up though because of NTE at the end of the year. But I'm getting pretty close and I think I will probably be able to ask mum and dad to pay the difference until I can pay the rest - so that I can get the early rate. I'd only be about $50 or less short I think.

Oh and on Thursday at uni we were playing with the smartboard (I've no idea how early childhood managed to get that but I'm not complaining). We couldn't do much though because it's not connected to a computer yet. I had fun with it though. Our class is so small (there's like 9 but this week there was 6) so we all had a go and then we drew up a mind map. It was fun I so want one in my classroom when I finish.

New laptop

2007-08-09T00:47:53Z

I got my new laptop yesterday. It is cool it runs so much better. Only problem is that we asked them to change the CD drive to a DVD burner as well but when they changed the drive they dented it so now it won't read CD's and doesn't really go in very well. So I'm now at uni downloading all the drivers for the printer and my PDA and other stuff that I have on my computer so that it can go on tonight or tomorrow so things will work. I'm on dialup at home (we can't get anything else - it sucks you'd think we live in the middle of nowhere but we're only 1.5 hours from sydney) so all my big downloads I do at uni.

Oh tonight at my church Howard and Rudd (the leaders of the two major potical parties) are speaking. They're trying to get votes (duh) and persuade the christians that they will support their values. I don't know if I'm going to go. It's being webcast but being on dialup that is unhelpful but if I don't go I'll get a transcript or something. They probably won't say anything good and will probably show their ignorance more than anything but you never know and I do what to know what they say about Christian issues.

gemstone121 @ 2007-08-01T16:48:00

2007-08-01T07:04:22Z

Well I talked to my uni lecturer on Monday and she said that the main problem seems to be that I don't get the support that I need so when I find myself in trouble I don't know what to do and I don't get that support. She asked if I'd redo it at the end of the year and I said at the moment I don't feel confident about it but I might later in the year. Then she asked if I was more confident with the primary school setting and I said I am and so she is going to see if I'm allowed to do the primary school prac and then come back and do this one but I don't know how likely that is. I so would love to though.

Anyway yesterday I saw the simpsons movie it was cool though not as good as I was expecting.

I was babysitting today and will be again tomorrow as the kid I'm watching has chickenpox and can't go to childcare. It's funny because I said on tuesday morning that I needed more babysitting work because I'm trying to save up. Also there doing this big stocktake at one of the major shopping centres near me and they were asking for people to do it so I applied and I got an email today saying I'm in. It's not for a few weeks but I get about $16.50/hour so it's money.

scribble

2007-07-07T01:05:41Z

Hey do you guys remember that scribble game we were all playing ages ago (last year I think). Anyway I was going through yahoo trying to find a game to play and I found a new version of it. It doesn't give you a rating like the other one did but it's still pretty cool heaps harder because it moves around.

http://games.yahoo.com/free-games/scribble-2

prac :(

2007-07-04T00:43:57Z

Well I finished my prac yesterday. I failled it again :(. That was upsetting but I saw it coming. I just don't have the confidence and I guess the problem is that I don't get consistent experience. Anyway now I've failed it twice I can't redo it without a reason. Uni suggested that I go and work in centres for a while and then come back and do it. I think I will do that. I'm also looking into nannying because I do lots of babysitting and I'm really good at that. We'll see what happens.

Anyway next week I'm away on wintercon as usually so I won't be here. Not that you'd know otherwise. It should be a fun week. I'll keep you updated. I'll miss the release of OotP movie but I don't much care for the movies anyway. I will see it when I get back.

wonky chats

2007-06-20T11:56:32Z

Okay the wonky chats once a month don't seem to work too well so I thought maybe over the school holidays (vacation for you americans) might work (you'll have to let me know of dates as I don't know them). Anyway I put up some dates on wonkycity for you all to decide on. So go over there and have a look.

Storms and blackouts

2007-06-10T10:42:08Z

Well there have been some really bad storms around here for the last few days. I'm not sure how widely it's spread but it's been pretty bad here and I know it's affected from the upper hunter through to sydney but it's probably further than that. It's been pretty bad and there is heaps of damage around the place. It will be a massive clean up job. From what I've heard 8 people have died during it and that's very sad. Aside from that many people (including me) have been without power for significant amounts of time. We got our power back early this morning (just after midnight) and lost it at 9 Friday morrning (39 hours all up). Thankfully there is no damage to our house. There's a few trees down and stuff but aside from that no real damage. We've got to throw a lot of our food out because the power was out for so long. Other than that things are pretty good. I got an email from uni saying that the campuses are closed until further notice.

I start prac on tuesday (monday is a public holiday here). That should go well. It's the one I failled last year but I should do really well this year. I think having done thee k-6 stuff has helped because I'm better at thinking about the sequencing of lessons and how to teach stuff so that will help with the stuff in the centre. I've gone through a lot of the stuff I did last year and thought of ways that would have been better to do it.

Unit of work

2007-05-31T01:04:21Z

It's finally finished. I had to put together a 10 week unit of work for a PE assignment. It was on interpersonal relationships and was for Kindegarten. It actually wasn't too hard but it took heaps of time plus there's lots of other stuff I have to do. Plus I had to put 3 detailed example lessons in it as well as the unit. I will bind it at uni tomorrow so that it is nice and because I want to keep it for when I'm teaching and internship next year.

I had a prac prep lecture last night. It is pretty similar to last year except some things you have more time to do.

I'm babysiting all day monday fo these kids from church (i think 6:30-6:30) there's 3 of them but 2 have school.

Beside that I've just got my essay for additional needs to finish (and cut down) which I am doing on self-esteem. Oh and I need to read through our paper for our confrence presentation next week.

I am passing all my subjects which is good - english I'm on 56 (with 20% to go) PE i'm on 43.5 (with 40% to go - that's the unit of work), leadership i'm on 16 with (80% to go/get marks back for), additonal needs I'm on 37 (with 40% to go) so I should pass.

Me and my friends HP RPG

2007-04-02T10:26:24Z

thetime_is_now is a Harry Potter RPG that combines Marauder-era and Trio-era characters. The start of play follows directly on from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, meaning that the game is officially an AU with the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

+BACK-STORY+
The Marauders and Lily have mysteriously appeared at Hogwarts. Memories brought to life by the power of an ancient arch, they were brought into being by the present-day Sirius's death. As he passed beyond the veil, his most powerful memory became real, and he and his closest friends materialised in the Gryffindor tower, exactly as they were at the beginning of their sixth year, their purpose unknown.

-THE-WAR-
The wizard war is on the rise, this is getting more and more obvious. The papers are putting their best efforts into covering up the signs, but no one can ignore the obvious for too long - Lord Voldemort is back. The wizarding world is currently experiencing the calm before the storm. The summer has been blessed with good weather and a long, well-needed vacation for most students and wizard families. This, however, only proved to be a tragedy waiting to happen. The Order and the Death Eaters are mobilizing their forces, and the growing pressure from both sides will force everyone to take sides. No one is allowed to remain neutral.

There are still many characters avaliable, and applications are due in by April the 10th, so please come and check us out!

The library staff are great

2007-03-28T04:04:14Z

Yesterday at uni I dropped my USB (Flash) drive in the library because I was in such a hurry that I just chucked everything in my bag and it slipped out. So I was sitting in my PDHPE Lecture (bored as usual) and I went through my bag to get my mobile and check the time and noticed it wasn't there so then I freaked out because I'd just finished a whole assignment and I'd have to redo it. Then after the lecture I went back to the library had a look around and couldn't find it so I thought I'll just go ask the library staff and see if anyone handed it in it's worth a shot. And they had found. I was so happy it had all my uni work for the last 2 years plus this years work and I don't have to redo an assignment which is great.

Election

2007-03-24T23:49:31Z

Well as I mentioned earlier there was a state election yesterday. Even though I'm 20 it was my first time voting because I missed the last federal election by about a week. This was state anyway but I hadn't voted before. I voted for the liberals because I think there water solution is better than labor's idea of building a dam that won't be ready for 10 years and we'd have run out of water well before than. Plus one of my uni lectures was running for labor in my electorate and she is mean. And labor (who have power and probably will keep it but anyway)have messed up public transport like 3 times in the last two weeks and that is very annoying. Plus they are doing road works in my street (which is a no through road) which means that to get out of the street we have to go 5 mins in the wrong direction. But the liberals won my our seat so that is great.

also daylight savings ended yesterday so I got an extra hours sleep which I very much needed. Uni is pretty hectic now (apparently this is the worst semester though). I had 3 assignments due on tuesday last week. Had 2 last week and 1 this week. Thank goodness it's almost holidays.