The OC

Maybe I haven't made it clear that I think the OC is absolute rubbish. Good escapism, certainly, but with no bearing at all on real life. The values they normalise on the show are just repulsive, such as sleeping with your ex-girlfriend's mother or losing your virginity at the age of 16 or letting minors drink alcohol in excess. I watch the OC for the fact that it's very funny and so I can guess what's coming next, which is enjoyable when watching a soap opera (if you haven't figured out that OC is a soapie by now, then shame on you). I definitely wouldn't encourage any of the morals and values the show implies.

Just thought I'd make that clear. If you want good TV shows, watch Scrubs or 24.

The One Leavers To Rule Them All

WHOA!! Leavers was damn fun, I wish we'd stayed more than four days, and we would have if it hadn't been for those damn Med interviews ... we originally booked to stay till tomorrow afternoon but some of us had interviews booked for tomorrow morning so we had to leave early :@

I read a letter in the editorial of the paper when I came home this morning. It talked about how Leavers are being 'set loose' to behave like 'drunken idiots' and go around in mobs to drink and have sex. What this angry writer obviously didn't realise is that these people don't define every Leaver who heads out of Perth. I won't deny that a lot of bad stuff goes on at Leavers, but the purpose of our Leavers was to relax and hang out. And that's exactly what we did.

First day: I drove the two-and-a-quarter hours to Bunbury. Should cut into my 25 hours that's required to get my Ps :D so we met the owner of the Chaletshed, Don, who looks straight out of a WWE competition. Really a nice guy who provided us with everything we needed including a 51cm TV screen, DVD player and computer. Of course the screen was poor quality, the DVD player could have been picked up for $50 at Cash Converters and the computer didn't even have Microsoft Word (and was hardly able to run the OC), but it's the thought that counts. Spent the day playing Halo 2 and watching OC episodes on the comp, which John kindly burnt for us.

Second day: more OC, Halo 2 and Dead or Alive 3. On a more positive note we walked to the beach (bloody one-and-a-half hour walk thanks to wrong directions) where I was able to educate my fellow Leavers on the finer points of boogie boarding. Also simulated Bhav hanging onto a pole while we tried to drag him into the water - got a great pic of it too. Spent the night watching an unexpectedly hilarious Taxi. The movie itself sucks but we had English subtitles in such poor English that we cracked up in the most serious moments. Also saw Collateral - though only I thought it was a great movie.

Third day: more OC, Halo 2 and Dead or Alive 3 ... anyone seeing a pattern here? But today was significant for the fact that we can now say that we sat through the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy NONSTOP! Try sitting through 8.5 hours of television in succession and it'll test anyone's bladder, but with the help of near-unlimited snacks and some warm sleeping bags, we witnessed the entire heroic journey of Frodo to Mount Doom. Sometimes we felt we were on an impossible quest as well in some of the movies' dragging parts, but we stuck through it and were rewarded with an unintentionally hilarious scene where Legolas hints at a homosexual side when he gives an odd look at Aragorn when he's crowned king. Ask me about it and I'll show you.

Fourth day: had planned to hit the town, but couldn't be bothered, so just hung around playing more Dead or Alive 3, Halo 2 and watching more OC. Too much OC is bad for your mental health because you start relating everything else you see to characters and situations from the show. For instance we concluded Marissa could be Frodo, Ryan was Sam and Oliver was Gollum. Like Marissa and Ryan from the OC, Frodo doesn't believe Sam when he thinks Gollum is lying and playing Frodo for a fool - which, like Oliver, he of course was. Tried to hit the beach from a different route but got lost, only to discover that we had been heading on the right track initially. Still, at least we tried.

Some of us pulled an all-nighter so we could be ready to leave the Chaletshed by 5.30 to catch the bus to Armadale by 5.50 this morning. Eventually reached Perth City around 9, and finally came back home.

As much as I'm relieved to have all the comforts of home back, I wish we could have stayed in Bunbury longer enjoying each other's company and taking time out from the worries of the world. In particular my night-time walks proved very ... enlightening, as well as giving me permanent foot sores. All I know is that when the time comes to head to Uni, I'll miss the many friends I made in high school and the comfort taken in knowing you're going back to school next Monday with the people you know.

Unfortunately for now, Med interview preparation awaits. Can't wait till this time in two days when I can truly feel free.

Post-mortem

Hey, TEE is over! Doesn't feel like it at all ... bit of an anticlimax really. They built up the TEE for the past two years, and then in two weeks, it's all over!

For the record, Applic was a little harder than the mocks, but still good. Dodgy last question about matrices though ... but no more worrying about any non-singular matrices with all elements not equal to zero and its inverse is itself. (If that was all gobbledegook to you, don't worry - it'll be Chinese to me in ten years too.)

But we'll never forget school. Two things that happened in the day after the last TEE paper reminded me of this. I went to David Jones (Garbo) and on the way out, my dad muttered that no one would ever buy there because it was so expensive and people would never have enough disposable income. BRRRING! Sets off the Econs signals ... disposable income ... factors affecting consumption ... ARGH! You get the point.

Hmm ... I've forgotten the second thing ... but like I said, you get the point.

Went ice skating today and my feet and thighs are friggin stiff as a result. Skating 5 hours in a row, especially if the last 3 hours is intense ice hockey, is bad for your standing position. Since I came home I can't stand for a long period of time without sitting down, and I walk slower than a Brazilian snail on drugs. Oh yeah ... the skating itself was awesome! I'm honing my technique as an attacker/wingman and growing out of my retreat-to-the-goalie position, and scored no less than FIVE GOALS!!! Take that you doubters ... I'm definitely coming back sometime these holidays.

Leavers is on in four days - far out I just realised how close that is. I really can't wait for it now. On the weekend I got a couple of boogie boards to take down, it will be hell fun out on the sea - as long as God grants us some good waves. But we're so far behind in preparation, hardly any of the food's bought, and we still haven't started packing, but what the hell, this is what post-TEE is like. All I do these days is either surf the net while chatting on MSN or watch DVDs.

Speaking of watching, Alias is on in about 15 minutes ... gotta run.

The deep breath before the plunge...

Due to my incompetence on computers in general, I couldn't figure out how to post more blogs until now. How I managed to switch on the computer in the first place seems an achievement in itself now ...

5 down, 1 to go. It seems strange that just three weeks ago we were all freaking out about the looming monster of the TEEs, anticipating these unbelievably difficult exams that would come out and surprise us all by their ... well, their difficulty. And now here I am, typing blogs the afternoon before my final exam when I suppose I should be studying. Well I did a past paper this morning and got a very satisfying mark - suffice to say it was above 90.

But now for the post-mortems:

Physics - definitely easier than the mocks. Was surprised by the focus on Atomic Physics - not that I was complaining since I nearly aced the test on that subject and it was my best topic. I"m a bit worried about the calculations though, esp. on Motion. One bummer was the fact that I got to the extended answer section with just 15 minutes left, meaning I hurried both of them, especially the second one, where I later realised the answer to the last question had been in the passage all along. But all's well that ends well, so I should get 85+ comfortably.

Calculus - the second-most worrying exam for me before I sat it. However thanks to all those past papers I did, with a little help from my good friend Andrew Creelman, I found a lot of the questions in the paper were just derivatives (no pun intended) of past questions, so should be able to post a +80 score. Just a little worried on those damn circle/centre question where some insane equation like z+i/z-i=2 and then we have to find the radius and centre of the circle ... those always kill me.

Chemistry - the most worrying exam for me, but my fears were allayed when there were no in-depth questions asked on the structure/formula of soaps and detergents (the chink in my non-corrodable, gold-alloyed armour). I had thought I'd struggle to get an A (which is high-70s), but now I think I might do well, thanks to those nice lab technicians who loaned me the past 7 TEE papers for $5.

Literature - all that hard yakka with Aunty Lena finally paid off, as I was able to apply an in-depth contextual focus to otherwise banal questions. (Is this sounding Litty already? I can't get it out of my system - whenever I see a movie or read a book from now on, I won't be able to stop myself wondering whether a dominant male patriarchy that marginalised women influenced the construction of the characters.) Small moment of joy came when I made John panic that he hadn't talked enough about context ... kidding ... anyway, should be able to perform well.

Economics - DISASTER!! I took the study for econs far too lightly, waiting until the night before to even touch my notes. Considering I had one day to prepare for this exam after Lit, I suppose I didn't have much of a choice in studying too long ago, but I definetely shouln't have spent the night procrastinating on MSN where Baetsen very effectively destroyed my confidence with a barrage of questions on the factors affecting interest rates and the definition of the GDP.

And tomorrow - Applic awaits. It's less than 24 hours now - actually 22.5 hours - till I'll be free of school forever. It doesn't seem real, as these two weeks have passed so quickly I haven't really had the time to feel worried or panicked about any of the exams. A lot of well-wishers have made me feel better by covering me with prayer - always a good thing when you're going into the exams that may define your life path.

Damn Chemistry...

Following the recent trend in blog posting, I have decided to follow suit and print my ravings on a blog. Whether or not people read it, I'm not too fussed, just so long as I don't have to compartmentalise all the thoughts running through my head without an outlet to release it on. So this blogspot will do.

It seems wrong that I'm typing this the morning before my Chemistry exam, especially considering Chem is my weakest subject (that's right, even weaker than Lit) and my revision has been very poor so far. All I've done is Sections A, B and C of the 2003 paper, which I recorded a mark of 83% on, so I'm happy with that ... however considering that I'm weakest on Section D (I've failed the essay in my last two exams) then perhaps that mark isn't a really accurate indicator of what I would get. On a more positive note, I aced the Calculations section! No doubt about it, that's my "money" section ... where I'll pick up all the marks I lose on Short Answer and Extended Writing.

John has written some very flattering comments on the Lit paper I did for him, so thanks for that...your own paper wasn't too bad, thought not up to your usual Lit Dux standard. I'm afraid your mark will be lower than mine, but you did ask me to mark critically.

Leavers plans are well and truly humming. Now I know I shouldn't be thinking about leavers right smack in the middle of the TEE, but I can't help thinking longingly of what I'll be doing two and a half weeks from now where we'll be playing XBox, boogie boarding at the beach, watching DVDs of every movie marathon known to man...but I must focus on the task at hand. It's 10AM the morning before my Chem exam, and I've got about 6 past papers waiting to be done, so I'd better be off.