Favourite NZ Quotes of 2005

"Wanker wanker wanker!" -Some cross-dresser verbally abusing the media after Donna and Wi Huata's fraud trial

"I don't want any candidates to be talking about their testicles to be quite frank" - Don Brash, Leader of National

"If I were [Chris Taylor], I'd be shooting myself. I'd be pouring petrol over myself and throwing myself off Auckland's tallest building." - Bill Ralston, Head of News and Current Affairs, TVNZ

"Do you know where the apes come from? She [Sarena Williams] is a reminder." - Tony Veitch, weekend Sports presenter, TVNZ/Breakfast host, Radio Sport

"Men's problems are traditionally dealt with by the criminal justice system. Women, on the other hand, get a bl**dy Cartwright Inquiry and get millions of dollars thrown at their breasts and cervixes. Men get nothing." - John Tamihere, former Labour MP

Funeral Fotos

Greg, Korina (my cousins), Aonghas, me, Janice (my cousin) and Hamish

All the family members at the funeral

Final Farewell

Today I attended my nana's funeral. My brothers and I began the procession by playing Amazing Grace as everyone was led in. A couple of hymns, eugoogolies (nah just joking eulogies!) and prayers. Hamish, Aonghas, Greg (my cousin) and I concluded the service by playing O Come All Ye Faithful as everyone was led out of the church to the hearse waiting outside. This Christmas carol was significant as it was the song our nana was listening to when she died.

 

There were about 100 people at the funeral, with relatives from all over New Zealand - Christchurch, Tauranga, as well as some from Australia making it all the way to Auckland just to be there.

 

I think I probably learnt more about my nana at the funeral than all the time I've known her! We were told how she loved our grandpa so much, and how she always put everyone else ahead of her, being willing to help others out whenever they were in need, even when she needed help herself. One saying she used often when asked how she was doing was

 

"Oh not too good but you've got to keep on going" 

 

Probably the most entertaining were the eugoogolies, when my dad, my uncle and my aunty got up to say a few words...well apart from my dad...he kinda went for a while despite being told to cut half of his originally prepared four page eugoogoly. Probably some of the best quotes came from my dad's little speech though:

 

"I originally prepared a four page speech but was told by my brother David to cut it a bit so I've reduced it to two pages. So Catherine Muir was born in .... she was sister to ..., whose parents were ... and ..., who were originally from... " (the beginning continued that way for a couple more minutes at high speed)

 

 

"When I came back up to Auckland my mum told me to get married so I took a four day weekend, and got married"

 

"I'd like to thank Noeline (his sister and our aunty) for looking after Mum for the last few years. I really should've been there more often. I'd also like to thank Waitakere Hospital and St Josephs Hospice for taking care of Mum. I'd also like to again thank you all for attending this funeral service. I'd like to thank all the ladies who helped prepare morning tea. Finally I'd like to thank my employers for granting me bereavement leave and for allowing me to attend this funeral service. "

 

Following the service we all had morning tea, and then went over to our aunty's place to hang out with all the relatives before they had to head back home.

 

Year in Review

With not much to write about due to a very slow holiday, for the next few days leading up to New Years I'll just take a look back at the year that was.

 

Here's a look back at the past year - the first couple sentences of the first post of each month (I got this idea off Grainam's blog ' FlyingCow's Blog' so be sure to check it out!!!!)

 

January

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Man there is so much to talk about. Yesterday (Friday 31 December) I was invited by my Korean twin friends Hyun and Joon to go to the movies with them. Surprisingly, my mum gave me permission to go!

February

For some reason people keep making bets with me relating to my personal/social life.

March

I know I said I would post more regularly in my last post, but preparing for this debate tomorrow has taken up a lot of my time and nearly all of my weekend, as they do…I had to stay up till 2.30am Sunday morning just to get it finished!

April

So much happening this week. It all started off with the biology trip to Piha yesterday...We set off at 9am on a Ritchies bus. Now you know what usually happens with Ritchies buses. Well yesterday was no different.

May

I once was on the phone talking to my neighbour Zippo when she told me I was weird and different to other guys.

June

I had my biology exam this morning which is the last of my exams, apart from the music performance exam tomorrow morning but I don't really consider that as an exam because I enjoy performing to people anyway!

July

Rest In Peace Greg (not my cousin, but our goldfish named after him) We found him/her floating upside down in the water.

August

My niece...or great-niece...or something along those lines from my mum's side of the family is getting married!

September

The election race is hotting up, and no it ain't the NZ General Elections. It's the Rutherford College BOT Student Rep elections!

October

My family got a bit of a reality check and decided to do a bit of home maintenance, starting with our clothesline.

November

On the 1st of November, Calum discovered anime.

December

I got attacked by my seven year old neighbour with a lemon.

I can't believe so much has happened this year, which seems to have flown past quite quickly!

Christmas All Over

Yesterday's Christmas wasn't such an eventful one. I spent the morning being watching ad-free TV (yay one of the best things about Christmas!), taught how to drive my dad's manual car and once again releasing the clutch slowly was holding me back! I managed to reverse right around a corner for a little bit of fun!

After that my family went over to some family's house for lunch. The food was great, I ended up filling myself up again, being asked to finish off the pavlova and the pudding! After lunch though things got a little bit boring as most of the guys my age left with their girlfriends and boyfriends and so we were just left with the adults who just sat there and talked about stuff.

Later that night my brothers and I performed a Christmas medley at our church's Christmas service. Once again I made a mistake at the beginning of the piece! Apart from that the church service was like any other regular service except for it being in the evening, and light snacks provided afterwards.

We thought we'd take the opportunity to check out the Christmas lights down Franklin Rd in Ponsonby, and some of those houses looked fantastic! It was cool to see heaps of people (mostly Asians) walking down the street admiring the lights, and having a good time!

Thanks Persia, Kelvin and Julie for the Christmas cards, and Phoebe and Chen for my only Christmas presents which were really great!

And that's Christmas over for 2005!

Seasons Greetings!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

(warning: this post contains mushiness)

 

I just want to wish everyone a very MERRY CHRISTMAS! I hope you all have a great day with your loved ones whether it be with family or friends, and remember to cherish every moment you have with them because time will just keep marching on and you won't get any second of it back! So be sure to let those dearest to you know how you really feel about them before it's too late and you miss the chance for whatever reason!

 

(Here's my turn) I also want to thank everyone I've met, talked to and have made friends with this year and throughout the years. It has been a pleasure and an honour being in the presence of each and every one of you! I appreciate my friendship and relationship with you all, no matter how close we are, and I'll always be there for you guys! If I have done or said anything to upset or disrespect any of you this year or in the past I apologise!

 

Have a safe and festive Christmas holidays, whatever you get up to please take care of yourselves out there! Remember:

-Don't Drink and Drive

-Hugs Not Drugs

-If you don't got the rubber there'll be no hubba hubba

-Make sure your meat is cooked properly or you'll be having fun in the loo ;)

 

Seasons greetings to you all!

Bye Nana

"Bye Nana. Thanks for everything, I'll miss you"

Those were the last words I said to my nana as she lay peacefully on her hospital bed.

My brothers, mother and I were at home watching TV when we got a call on the cellphone, which usually means an emergency because hardly anyone rings us on the cellphone! It turned out to be our uncle, letting us know that our nana has just passed away. We tried getting through to our dad at work but it was busy, most likely because of Christmas time, but when we got through we were told he had already left.

We managed to get to St Josephs Mercy Hospital where our nana had been staying for the past few days. In her room were all our relatives, and there on the bed was our very pale nana. It was really freaky seeing her lying there. You kinda expect to see her breathing, but when you take a closer look she just lies there very still, with a wreath placed beside her on the bed and a solitary candle burning by her bedside. Obviously my dad, my uncle and my aunty, all of our nana's children, were very upset. We each took turns to say our goodbyes to Nana.

There were a few comical moments. My dad took a little snip of our nana's hair, 'for DNA purposes if needed in the future', and got me to take photos our nana's face from all angles as it was our last opportunity to take any photos of her, and to also use it as a possible reference if we ever decide to digitally recreate her. My dad was about to raise the bed with the remote control to sit our dead nana up on the bed to take a photo of her! My mum told him not to though.

A couple days ago the doctors predicted our nana wouldn't last for more than a couple of days, but it was looking hopeful she would last at least to Christmas. Despite being so close she didn't make it.

The funeral will be held this Thursday. One song that will be played at the funeral will be 'O Come All Ye Faithful', the song that played when our nana left us.

Rest in Peace Catherine Anderson, 1923-2005

Catherine Anderson, 1923-2005

About an hour ago my nana, Catherine Anderson, passed away at St Josephs Hospital. I'm on my way there and will post more later tonight.

One Good Deed

I just want to add that I did accomplish one good deed while shopping - I donated $2.00 to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) so hopefully that helps save a few birds and bees!

Independent Shopping

Usually I always shop with my mum and my mum buys us everything, but because this morning my mum had to go off and deal with a bit of business and last night I wasted her time looking around Westcity for Christmas presents and coming away with nothing, she decided to drop my brothers and I off (with a bit of money) at Westcity to go shopping ourselves and buy Christmas presents for each person in the family.

We first got Hamish a watch because I lost the one he had for nine years. I had to buy that with my own money too!

Next we had to find something for our mum. Our mum is one of those people who always bangs on about saving money: DISCOUNT DISCOUNT BARGAIN BARGAIN BARGAIN! so we had to be aware of how much we spent on her. In the end we found something at The Warehouse I was at first proud of:

Dead-looking Tomato Plants   5 x $0.10    $0.50
Buttercup Plant                     1 x $0.50    $0.50
TOTAL                                                  $1.00

My mum likes gardening, and likes growing vegetables, so I thought we'd try find her some vegetable plants she woudn't have in her garden yet. We were served by Amber at the check-out. I was talking to her while she was scanning our six plants and doing all the checkout sort of things. After about 5 minutes she informed us:

"OK that comes to a grand total of......$1.00!"

We also bought her a set of $2.00 Christmas lights.

We should have bought these plants last though, because we ended up walking around Westcity with these drooping dead-looking tomato plants in The Warehouse bags! I even caught up with Jacqueline, Banthoon and Ben!

When we got home I was so certain my mum would be surprised at how cheap the plants were (Hamish did trip over while walking home and disfigured a couple of the plants though), but as soon as we came in showing her our five tomato plants and the buttercup plant, she told us

"We've already got tomato plants and a couple buttercup plants!"

First Drive

This afternoon was the first time I tried driving! My dad let me have a go at driving his manual car. He made sure I had the procedure clear in my head:

"Seat-belt, clutch down, gearstick in first gear, hand-brake down, turn car on..." (now I'm not so sure if that is the right order!)

I kept making the car jerk and had problems with starting the car up but it was fun for my first go! A bit like driving those little go-karts at Rainbow's End, only with changing gears and indicator lights and the other extras to worry about!

Calum's Curiosities

Just a few things that occurred to me in the past few days:

Last night as I was helping Aonghas mark his answers to the road code questions, I noticed that subsequent answers spelt:

A C C B A D

Could this just be mere coincidence, or could it be some subliminal message the LTNZ are trying to get through to us, that ACC is BAD?

--

Kiwi Careers, a website run by government agency Career Services provides A LOT of job outlines, but some have been excluded from the list, such as street worker, escort, prostitute... You would think that having legalised prostitution for two years now, the government would promote this initiative. Kiwi Careers has had plenty of time to create and add job outlines for such occupations, as they're now considered as perfectly acceptable career options now aren't they? (that should be read in a sarcastic tone)

--

Dictionary.com has published an alphabet of most looked-up words in 2005. Probably the most interesting inclusions have to be the words 'love' and 'sex' for most looked-up words for the letters 'L' and 'S' respectively. Do people not know how to spell a three-letter word such as 'sex', or have they just been looking in the wrong place to get their thrills?

License in the Mail!

I just got my learners license card in the mail! So excited! I like those sort of ID card things to put in my wallet and make it look full to compensate for the lack of money that's in it! I would put it on this blog but I'm not too sure if I could run into trouble doing it so I better not! I look whitey yellow with big dimples in my photo though! Really bad!

False Alarm

This morning we had to get out of bed and rush to the hospital, as my dad had been contacted by the hospital. He was informed that our nana's condition had deteriorated and that she might not last long. Gathered around our nana were her three children, my dad, my uncle and my aunty, their spouses, her sister great Aunt Margaret and her husband great Aunt Rob, and about eleven of her grand children (it's amazing how it takes something like this to bring all the family together! Us grandchildren should spend more time together!) We all held hands for a prayer before anyone was allowed to come up to our nana to say any last words to her.

 

There were definitely a lot of sniffing and tears. I was trying as hard as I could to keep it all in but thinking about my brothers' and my relationship with my nana made me feel really guilty inside that we hadn't spent as much time as we should've with her and that we hadn't been better grandchildren to her. So I led my brothers over to our nana and thanked her for always being there for us and supporting us, and apologising for not spending much time with her.

 

I thought those would be my last words to my nana, but as it turned out, the doctor came in to check on her and realised that she may have been a little dopey because of all the drugs she was on. My cousins and I all went to McDonald's for breakfast, and we ended up staying at hospital till one in the afternoon when we had to go to church to practise for the Christmas service next week. We returned to the hospital soon after and stayed there till 10.

 

Hospital is definitely not the most exciting place to be when nothing happens but then again you don't really want anything to happen. Late at night after visiting hours when the hospital was dark and we were sitting around our nana, suddenly an alarm went off and a red light outside a room started to flash. All these nurses went rushing down the hallway to the room! It turned out to be another false alarm.

 

My nana's always been a strong woman and she seems to be holding out but we're not too sure just how long she can hold on for. It would be great for her to enjoy one last Christmas together with all of the family.

Got It!

This morning I went into AA with the certificate the optometrist gave me to claim my learners license. The lady asked me

 

"Did you bring any form of identification with you...like a passport...or birth certificate...?"

 

I just started laughing because I had asked my mum before we left if I needed identification but my mum told me not to bother! This also happened to me when I first applied to sit the learners license test six months ago! We had to go all the way back home to pick it up but by then we decided we better go to a friend's place to get our dad's car fixed, which broke down once again yesterday.

 

Right at 4 o'clock before (I think) AA was about to close, I came back in with my passport, my bank statement, and the receipt I got when I sat the learners license test, and handed it all over to the lady at the counter. Finally after six months of procrastination I got a piece of paper which granted me the LICENSE TO LEARN!

 

We also visited our uncle at Auckland Hospital today who was recovering from an operation to treat a kidney stone found in him. He's doing well and will hopefully be discharged tomorrow.

Anime-zing! (lol Yeah dry!)

We continued our holiday tradition by watching late night movies and tonight we watched Spirited Away which was a ...different...sort of movie, but really cool! It's probably the best anime (is it right to call it that?) movie I've seen so far! (considering Pokemon - The First Movie is the only other one I've really seen...is that an anime movie as well?) That little mouse thing and the flying black thing carrying it is pretty cool!

I'm off to find us some more of these types of movies!

Finally!!!

Today I FINALLY got my eyes checked which means I can FINALLY get my learners license! We went to this Chinese optometrist, and found out that my eyesight has deterioted since the last time I had my eyes checked which was two years ago. I think I used to be about 150 in each eye, but now I'm around 400 for both eyes (if the numbers mean anything to you!) I got my certificate as well as a new set of glasses. All I need to do now is take the certificate back to AA tomorrow morning to prove to them that I have had my eyes checked and then they should be able to grant me my learners license!

 

 

Taking Turns

We visited our nana today in hospital. She had just had something done to her and had to have morphine injected into her, so she was in a bit of pain when we arrived. It was a bit uncomfortable sitting there watching her lying on the bed in pain and all worn out. She wasn't very talkative today and so it was pretty quiet. My dad tried adjusting the bed for my nana with the remote control which could make our nana sit up or lie back down on the bed. My dad had no idea how to use it so he tapped the buttons on the remote control and my nana ended up jerking up into a sitting position and then back down as my dad tried to figure out how to work the thing!

 

When we got home we found an message on the answer machine from our aunty asking us if we knew anything about our uncle (our aunty and dad's brother). Apparently he has a kidney stone and has also been in a lot of pain.

 

It hasn't been too great in the last couple of months for the health of my family, with my nana getting sick, and then my aunty (who suffered a stroke, but has recovered) and now my uncle. Hopefully they all get well soon!

Some Things are Better Said in Another Way

This afternoon I had an audition for an accordion teaching job. Three other people were auditioning to teach the piano. We each had to play a piece and then pretend another auditionee was a ten-year-old student and teach them a song for ten minutes.

 

I had this Asian girl who was auditioning to become a piano teacher as my pretend '10 year-old student'. When I put the accordion on her she had her legs together. When you sit with the accordion on your lap you have your legs slightly apart for your accordion to sit in the middle...so I had to awkwardly ask the girl to spread her legs slightly apart!

 

After we had all finished, the man assessing our teaching (who also happens to be my former accordion teacher) gave me this piece of advice:

 

"Be careful of how you ask a girl to open her legs"

 

Fortunately I've been asked to attend the teachers training course next month so I'll have to see how far I get from there.

Another Change in Direction

During the weekend I was talking to a friend about how I was thinking about doing NCEA Level 3 History by correspondence next year and she recommended against it as she thought it was a lot harder than Lvl 3 English and Classical Studies, and that the headgirl at her school took 3 sciences and history at level 3 and failed history. I have to take at least one out of Lvl 3 English, history or classical studies, and because correspondence would make history a lot more difficult (the teacher in charge of NCEA also told me out of the 5 students taking Art History by correspondence this year at our school, 2 pulled out and the other 3 didn't do well either), taking lvl 3 English is looking a lot more likely now than it did before, and to think I wouldn't ever have to study English ever again!

 

Does anyone have any suggestions? Level 3 history by correspondence vs Level 3 English vs Level 3 Classical Studies?

 

My dean told me that I REALLY NEED TO DECIDE WHAT I WANT TO DO AFTER I LEAVE SCHOOL AND THAT IT IS MY HOMEWORK OVER THESE HOLIDAYS TO COME UP WITH A PATH I WANT TO TAKE.

Beginning of Holidays

Last Friday night my brothers and I performed with the Auckland Symphony Orchestra in the Town Hall for this Christmas Carols concert. There were two Pacific Island church choirs present, with each choir performing a solo, and they were great! The Reverend of one choir explained the story behind their performance before ending with:

 

"I hope you enjoy our performance. If you don't......well I don't care!"  

 

It also took a bit of time trying to get to the Town Hall! My mum is unaccustomed to driving to the city or even on the motorway, and so we were trying to guide her. She was supposed to turn left into the Civic carpark but was in the wrong land and so had to continue driving straight. We couldn't get her to turn into a side street and turn around and so she ended up driving all the way to K' Road before she finally managed to turn around! In the end we got there though! Driving home was a lot easier though.

 

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It has been a tradition for our family to go to the concerts in the park every year and we've been to each Christmas in the Park since it started way back in 1993 or 1994 but this year my mum was thinking it was going to rain and so she couldn't be bothered going. It turned out to be hot and sunny, but then my mum said it was too hot to go!

 

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I managed to find a 37 page Christmas medley for orchestra (some pages only had one bar as there were 16 parts to this song!) and managed to arrange it for an accordion trio so we could perform it at the church's Christmas concert. I only finished typing the arrangement out the night before we had to play it to those organising the concert, and so basically we were sightreading it the next morning! The lady who wanted to listen to it told us we had to bring out the melody and let the interludes flow or something like that.

 

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So I've started tidying up the house once again these holidays and this time we aim to KEEP it tidy for the rest of the year!

 

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Our two yet-to-be-named tadpoles have grown rear legs!! We still haven't planned how we will look after them once they turn into frogs. We can't let them hop around inside just in case they get behind the TV and shock themselves, or my mum 'accidentally' cooks them, and if they go outside they might get eaten by the cats...

 

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My nana's still holding up! I'm aiming to spend a lot more time with her over these holidays!

Christmas Concert at the Town Hall

Aonghas, Hamish and I once again filled in for the Auckland Symphony Orchestra at their Christmas Carols concert at the Auckland Town Hall on Friday night.

A Happy Christmas Afterall!

It looks like it will be a Happy Christmas after all for most people!

 

Congratulations to Ayesha who has recently been appointed Head girl of Kelston Girls College! (of course I won't brag on about how I went to the ball with her! ;) )

 

I was informed that some people are having a lot more luck with certain things and a couple of people have finally discovered something which is really great news and about time!

 

Things are really starting to turn out good for people who deserve it the most!

Transcript - First Speech at Junior Prize-Giving

This of you who weren't at the Junior Prize-Giving Ceremony today, Mr Murphy and Mr Lee, two beloved maths teachers won't be back next year (they're off to Glenfield College), Mr Singleton is leaving to set up his business and Miss Ho won't be back for a year as she takes up the position as languages facilitator with the Ministry of Education. Apparently Ms Hsiao, last year's Chinese teacher is applying for the Chinese teaching job for next year! Miss Ho reassures me that we will get a good Chinese teacher and she will be back here and then.

 

This is the first speech I delivered to the school as head boy at the Junior Prize-Giving Ceremony today:

 

Hi everyone my name is Calum, and I'll be your head boy for next year. Like Heather, I have attended Rutherford College since third form and throughout the years have participated in various groups and activities such as the school orchestra, and the student committee.

 

Rutherford College is a great school. We have great students and great staff. We all know that. Now we must get out there and prove to the rest of Auckland just how good we are through taking up opportunities offered by the school. 

 

Next year Heather and I will lead a strong team of student leaders, who are dedicated to providing as many opportunities as possible for you all to take part in, as well as making your time at Rutherford a lot more memorable and enjoyable.  

 

My challenge to you all next year is to find a school activity or group that you are interested in, whether it is lawn bowls, rugby or the environmental group, and get involved. By representing the school out there or having a say and improving the school for everyone in some way or another, we will continue to help build Rutherford College up to be one of the best schools in Auckland, and at the same time gain some experience and have a bit of fun.

 

Of course schoolwork is just as important, and I too would like to congratulate all prize winners today. To the fourth formers, make the most of your first year of NCEA and to the third formers, make the most of your last year before NCEA! I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy holiday. Have fun, take care, and I look forward to seeing you all again next year! Thank you.

She Will Survive!

Yesterday I went to hospital to visit my nana, who has just recently been diagnosed with cancer in the kidneys and secondary cancer in the liver (I think that's the one?) Despite obvious signs I'm trying to stay positive and believe she'll get through this.

 

I haven't really been close to my nana lately and the relationship between her and my family has been a little shaky in recent times. For some reason she often likes to compare our family to our cousins, to whom she holds in high regard. 

 

Nonetheless I still hope she does get well soon. She's still family and she still means a lot to me. I'm not too sure how I'd react if I did lose her though. The last time I lost someone close was when my grandad died when I was about six years old, but let's not think about that just yet! She's still here at the moment and I have to make the most of it now.

And it's supposed to be the Holidays...

Today was book return day at school so we only had to turn up, return our books and get our sheet signed off before getting our yearbook. I managed to give out most of my Christmas cards (or holiday cards to be PC!). After that the student leaders group had a meeting to discuss the structure and the initial plan for at least the first week of next year. I'm put in charge of the Junior Students Group, which could possibly be one of the hardest to figure out, as there have been so many various forms of a 'junior student group' in the past few years, none which have been too effective because the group never had a purpose. I'll have to come up with something over the holidays.

 

We were lucky enough to be given free Subway (the first time I've actually had something from Subway apart from a small cookie I bought two years ago!), and then Heather and I were told that we have to give a speech at the junior prize-giving this Friday about...anything, or what we're passionate about, or who we are...really I have no idea what we're supposed to talk about!

 

My biggest fear coming into the job as headboy is that you have everyone looking at you expecting to do heaps of things for them and when either you don't make it obvious that you've done something for the students or you don't do anything at all for them, you get slated for it and people seem to (I don't know if they actually do) turn against you and put you down and lose faith in you. Next year rather than the head students doing everything while the student leaders lie back and relax, each person in the student leaders group will be in charge of a certain area, and so hopefully things will get done. I just hope I don't screw up the Junior students group!

 

This lady from church asked my brothers and me to perform some music at their Christmas concert, and is expecting us to be able to play it for her this Sunday, but the only problem is we don't have any Christmas music for an accordion trio which means I'll have to arrange some music! (By the way just to do my part for being a novice Christian, God and Jesus are really cool people, or spirits, or guys/girls whatever they are!)

 

This Friday I'll be performing with the Auckland Symphony Orchestra for a free Christmas concert at 7.30pm in the Auckland Town Hall just in case anyone has a Friday night to waste! This means I have to attend rehearsals on Thursday and Friday night.

 

I also applied for this job, and tonight I attended a little presentation about what would be involved, and if I decide to go for the job, I have to auditon for it next Tuesday which would require me to plan all this stuff and do a little performance and demonstration :S

 

I just want to RELAX for once!

All Over!

I left the exam room at 5pm and that was it for me for this year! No more NCEA exams for me! Chinese wasn't too bad. I'm not too good at listening and so I probably stuffed up that paper. This time round I wasn't the only person left in the room at the end but Julie (a friend from my Chinese class) and I were last to leave while everyone left before us.

 

The scary thing is when I was sitting outside the exam room before the exam with some other people, my dean walked past calling out to me telling me that she was expecting all excellences! She's going to be disappointed!

 

Anyway our computer upgrade saga continues...We bought a new motherboard but not after we bought a new power supply for the computer as we were told we needed a more powerful power supply. So now our computer has a new graphics card, motherboard and power supply. The next thing is putting it all together and getting it to work! We could probably create another computer out of our spare motherboard and power supply but that would cost more money...

 

 

Little Kids

I got attacked by my seven year old neighbour with a lemon. There I was, being chucked in the back with a lemon. No I couldn't touch her because I'm a guy and I might have been labeled a child abuser! Nah we were only playing anyway so nothing serious!

 

This Saturday will be the music school's (where I teach recorder) prize-giving. All my recorder students will be performing and the powers-above will all be there, so I've been preparing all the music and making sure everything is right for Saturday. Now all I can hope for is that the students turn up and they play their very best! I'm going to try dress up to give me that sophisticated teacher look ;)

 

 

Happy Birthday Shen!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHEN!!

 

Today I spent most of the day running around university following my brother as he tried to get his student loan and scholarship application forms all sorted out.

Originally I was also going to get my eyesight checked and probably some new glasses today, but it got postponed again, so no new glasses and no learners license for me for a few more days!

I also rang the computer shop where we bought the graphics card that wouldn't work with our computer, and the lady told us that it's because our motherboard is too old, so it looks like we'll have to buy a new motherboard now...With all this money spent we probably could have bought another new computer! We're going to try that and HOPEFULLY it works!

A Trip Down Memory Lane

I thought I'd post some random photo dating back a few years ago from the Anderson album just for a little bit of fun!
This is a photo from Henderson Primary's 150th Anniversary back in 1998, with some of the students from the school's production and a few extras singing on the outdoor stage. You (especially you old guys from Henderson Primary!) might recognise a few of the little kids up there! I might put a few up over time if I find any interesting old photos of you guys! ;)

Nearly All Over!

I sat my physics exam today. It was terrible! I've got Chinese left this Friday, which hopefully shouldn't be too bad. Come 5pm this Friday, I will be just like the majority of you, with no exams to worry about! 

 

Tonight I caught up with a few old friends which was really cool as I haven't chatted to them in a while. I'm hoping to meet up with a few of them during this holiday, which will be the first time I've seen a few of them in five years! I've known a few of them since primary school and have been together with them right up till intermediate school when they attended a different secondary school and left me! It'll be good to catch up with them anyway. Hopefully they'll recognise me!

 

Lately for some reason I've developed a taste for movie music, especially orchestral music like The Shawshank Redemption, Lord of the Rings, basically anything by John Williams, Howard Shore or James Horner and thanks to Phoebe I've started getting into Asian music! I don't understand what they're singing but some of the tunes are catchy. After helping Aonghas out with one of his Chinese assignments where he had to find a Chinese song and translate it, I realised that most of the music is about love anyway! (which I don't really need to know about thank you very much!)

 

For all of those looking for ways to celebrate Christmas, Rangeview Intermediate are having their annual Christmas carols evening next Thursday 8 December, entry with a gold coin donation, and the Auckland Symphony Orchestra (you might see my brothers and me somewhere in there!) are performing a carols sing-along concert in the Town Hall sometime I'm not too sure.

What a Way to Mark a Birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AONGHAS!!

 

Aonghas is turning lucky 15, and what a way to remember it! We were driving through the city centre of Henderson when we approached an area that had been cordoned off by police, with over five police cars around the area and policemen surrounding the perimeter. So we had to take a detour around the back of the cordoned area, and even the area behind the shops had been cordoned off and there was a man who looked as if he was some forensics guy with gloves, tools, etc. We began to wonder if someone had died or if there was some bomb scare or something but conveniently it just hit 4 o'clock and headline news on Newstalk ZB was:

 

"A robbery-gone-wrong has ended in one man dead and another man shot by police"

 

(For those who didn't watch the news or haven't heard, a knife-wielding man robbed a sports store (I suspect the one with kayaks usually outside it near the Salvation Army shop), stabbed the owner in the arm and another man before fleeing. He then stabbed an elderly man on the street. The elderly man died while being taken to hospital. The police arrived and called for the man to give up the weapon, but the man refused and a general duty police officer shot him three times.)

 

Eeek that was freaky! I'll post a couple of photos when

To TV3 re:Christmas in the Park

After discovering that TV3 would screen Christmas in the Park this year I felt the need to fill out their feedback form (even though it isn't really feedback):

 

I noticed that Christmas in the Park will be covered by TV3 again this year. I'm pleading with you guys to please stick to the stage and the performances this year rather than give your station's 'celebrities' publicity. We want to watch Christmas in the Park, not TV 3's celebrities in the park! Please do it right this time!

 

Last year it was a struggle watching it on TV3 as they kept cutting performances off to interview their own TV3 celebrities! I doubt they will reply but let's see...

Typical Computers

Thank goodness this computer's working again! We originally thought we had stuffed our motherboard but thank goodness we didn't spend extra money on a new one when this one was fine!

Because we need to do some video-editing on this computer (and we all know how memory-consuming it can get!) we decided to get a new graphics card and another hard drive. At the moment our computer only has a 65Mb graphics card which is really slow especially when rendering video and playing computer games! We're also down to our last gigabyte of memory despite already having 230Gb. So we bought a 256Mb graphics card and another 250Gb hard drive. After some playing around and formatting we got our hard drive going, but whenever we put in the new graphics card the monitor would remain on standby and wouldn't turn on! This graphics card didn't come cheap so we were hoping we had damaged it in some way so we could get a replacement under warantee. Unforunately after getting it replaced the same thing happened so we're stuck with this graphics card that isn't even compatible with our computer!...unless someone knows how to fix it? It is an ATI Radeon X800 Pro series 256Mb graphics card and our computer is:
Intel Pentium 4 2.40Ghz
AGP Motherboard
1.0 Gb ram
80 Gb+150Gb + 250Gb Hard Drive

After some fiddling with the BIOS our computer wasn't working for most of today but we got it going again today (even though it says something is wrong with our floppy disk drive). But...the new graphics card still won't work!!

Two More to Go...Not Looking Good So Far

I've had four exams so far - Biology, English, Calculus and Chemistry and I don't think I've done too good in any of them...what a way to cap off an unbelievably bad year!

 

I felt the least prepared and the most vulnerable for the end-of-year school exams this year than I had felt before any exam I've sat, and even though I managed to get through them all without failing them, I'm not so sure I'll get through these NCEA exams with such luck! 

 

In fact...I've already started planning on alternatives if it comes to such a case that I end up failing a few of my subjects such as chemistry, English, biology or calculus. I might end up doing year 13 English communication, make a return to the commerce subjects, try out classical studies....I have no idea but now I'm starting to worry! 

Congratulations Ayesha!

Congratulations to Ayesha (who I'm proud to say I went to the ball with ;) ) who has gained a First Foundation Scholarship and will be partnering with the great and almighty Fonterra Co-operative Group!
(OK so the article isn't about her but she's still in it!)

Japan Day 05

The Japanese drummers performing on stage while everyone wanders around looking at stuff and buying things

Konnichiwa!

Yesterday I went with my family to Japan Day out at ASB Stadium where there were all these Japanese stalls, Japanese performances and of course Japanese people. There were some Japanese drummers which were pretty cool and heaps of kids from a Japanese kindergarten doing a little dance with some Japanese superhero jumping in to join them. They announced there would be 'memorable' photo opportunities with the Japanese superhero so I was thinking of getting my photo taken with him...till they announced it'd cost $3!

 

They were even selling tadpoles at this festival, so we bought a couple to add to our fish tank with the other two surviving fish Sarena and Rydia. We still haven't named our tadpoles yet or thought of what we're going to do once these tadpoles grow into frogs!

 

After that we went into the city to watch the Auckland Symphony Orchestra perform in a concert of South Pacific music. One of the pieces featured an accordion soloist from America which was of interest to us. After this woman had played the conductor got the lady to explain a bit about the accordion so I'm guessing it was a bit of publicity for the accordion which is good!

 

On Saturday after finishing teaching all my recorder classes I was told I might get more students next year and have more classes which will hopefully increase my pay! I also tried ringing the guy from the coffee shop but it was his answering machine and he still hasn't rung me back. I suppose I really should ring him back if I want to seem as though I want the job...

 

NB. What a huge response to my last post on the dangers of oral sex! Three comments on my MSN Space! That has never been seen before! I should post more of that stuff up! (Not as in more posts on sex but more on issues and stuff!)

Don't Put Things in Your Mouth

Warning: This post contains sexual content and parental guidance is recommended.
(I'm not trying to be sick or anything but maybe more of a 'health advocate' ;) )

New research has found that putting certain 'things' in your mouth i.e. oral sex can give you a greater chance of developing mouth cancer. So for all you guys and girls, before you fill your mouth remember that oral sex is not a safe substitute for the real thing! But if you can't help it, be careful! I've never heard of mouth cancer till I read this article though (and that wasn't deliberate either!)

For more information, read this article .

NB. Smoking and alcohol also contribute to mouth cancer as well, especially when you're an older man

Happy Birthday + 2 Days! The Democratic Republic of Calum

Happy Birthday Hamish (for yesterday)!!

Happy 1st Birthday + 2 days Democratic Republic of Calum!

It's been a year and a day and 302 posts since I started this blog and I'm still going! I'm not too sure if anyone reads this but I shall press on!

I'm half way through my NCEA exams, having done biology, calculus and English. So far none of them have been too great. I'm not too sure how I did in my English exam and whether I actually answered the essay questions properly!
There was one that asked which methods were used in the short texts I had studied to influence my opinions on important ideas. I started off writing about how certain methods affected how readers felt, and then thought to myself....a thought or feeling isn't really an opinion is it? So I ended up changing parts of my essay!

I've still got chemistry coming up in a week, Physics and Chinese two weeks later, and then I'll be free!!

By the way...is there anything wrong with a guy working at a little 'coffee shop' that sells cakes, biscuits, and obviously coffee? I saw an advert looking for part/fulltime staff of all ages so I might apply for the job so I have something to do over the holidays...that is if it's OK for guys to work at these sorts of places!

The Rise of Lawn Bowls

Our very own Bronwen appeared in an article about lawn bowls today in the Western Leader! Go Bronwen!!

No More Biology for This Year!: The Aftermath

I've just come home from my three hour NCEA Level 2 Biology exam and it was horrible! I'm left with a nearly blistered thumb and a very sore neck. I'm in desperate need of a massage before I have my calculus exam tomorrow morning and the English exam the following day!

I'm not exactly too sure how I went in the biology exam. I nearly ran out of time completing the plants paper (comparing reproduction process of three different plants) but fortunately finished the ecology paper five minutes early. There was a bit of a surprise in the animal transport systems paper and the plant reproduction paper as it had one extra question that the teachers had not prepared us for! The cell structures paper also contained questions on respiration and photosynthesis which was frustrating especially when we were told we didn't need to know too much about it thanks to the vague achievement standard!

Oh well best thing about now is NO MORE BIOLOGY FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR!!! On to calculus! Five more to go!!

All the Best People!

All the best to everyone who is sitting NCEA exams this week, especially biology tomorrow! I've been trying to study biology all weekend and I'm starting to realise I won't be able to memorise everything by tomorrow afternoon!

 

Good luck too to all those who have NCEA Level 2 English and economics in the same day on Thursday! That's 6 hours stuck in the hall sitting exams, which is 25% of your day! Have fun! ;)

 

Anyway I'm off to bed, so I can wake up early tomorrow morning and study more biology!

Lucky Me!

Me with Phoebe and Esther and all these other girls!

Byebye 2005

No more school for 2005! (apart from NCEA exams and book return day)

I spent first period rehearsing with the choir and then wandered around for second period so I didn't have to go to chemistry. Mrs Taylor called me over to give me a letter Labour MP Chris Carter sent me about winning the Young Enterprise regional championship thing. That's when I met Ms Cumming who asked me to write up a report for Student Rep within the next 5 minutes! So I told her I would go back to chemistry class and do it, but when I got back to chemistry class I ended up taking all these photos forgot all about it! Half an hour later in physics class I remembered and got it in back to her!

My first official duty as headboy (well...it doesn't really count yet because in the end I didn't do it) was to direct traffic and let guests know where to park. I had to rush off to choir practice though so I left it up to Heather, Jane and Patrick. The carparks were all clear after prize-giving so I'm sure they did a good job!

We spent all of English eating, taking photos and drinking. I wanted to spend lunchtime with friends so I thought I'd go off and practise my accordion solo that I had to perform at prize-giving. Lunchtime came and took more photos!

Prize-giving was cool. It started off with Matthew and some junior girl singing and playing on the guitar this really sad song as staff and these professors in Harry Potter clothing walk up the aisle and onto the stage. Prizes were awarded and congratulations to everyone who got awards! I ended up getting first in Chinese, first in biology, first in yr 12 science overall, first in yr 12 speech competition, contribution to school production award, and the award for best overall research (which wasn't really for research but something to do with science).

I then had to perform my accordion solo which I thought I'd really screw up but thank goodness everyone was laughing at my bellowshaking loud enough to cover my mistakes! I forgot my words for the two songs we sang for choir (Workin' my way back to you and Shanandoh) but managed to remember them in time!

To cap off the day all prizewinners were invited to afternoon tea at the staffroom after prize-giving. What a good way to end the year! It's going to be sooooooo sad seeing all those yr 13s go and all those yr 11's and 12's leaving our school. At least there will be book return day to catch up with everyone for one last time before the end of the year!

>>You can check out some photos at the @ndersons website (all photos) or at my MSN Spaces page

'Tis the end!

Wow what a way to end the year! School was cool! I didn't have to do anything, and prize-giving was cool which ended with a little bit of afternoon tea afterwards! I also took 212 photos in one day! I'll post again later with all the photos!

They're all going!

Tomorrow is the last day of school and could be the last time I see some of my friends for a little while! Ben isn't coming back, Chantelle is moving on to the big world of AUT, Esther might be going...I'm gonna track them down and take photos of them with me...just in case they become famous and I need something to sell to get myself out of debt trouble!...and also for memories...

We've got prize-giving tomorrow afternoon when I'll have to perform my accordion solo as well as sing with the choir. I'm singing the tenor part with these two other guys (one is a man teacher) and they keep singing the tune so I always end up singing the tenor part all by myself. At least no one can hear me then :D Congratulations in advance to you all who are getting awards at prize-giving!

 

There's going to be a lot of sniffing and tears going on at school tomorrow!

Celebration All Round

Happy Birthday Lindsey, Jason, and Maxine for yesterday (7th November)!!

I just found out today that my cousin Greg got elected as headboy of his school Henderson High for 2006! Congratulations Greg!!

Today we had merit awards assembly for those who came second or third in clsss, or the teacher just happened to choose them for a merit award. Originally the merit awards assembly was going to take all of 5th and 6th period which meant I'd miss biology and chemistry, but because it was so short we had to go chemistry class after! I only got merit in English

Tomorrow we have 6th period off (which means no physics for me!) for the cultural awards assembly, and then we miss a bit more of school on Friday, our very last day of school before exams for the final prize giving ceremony when I have to perform this Italian Concerto by Bach (I'm sure the students will all find it riveting!) which I have never managed to perform without stuffing up!

Fireworks

Ain't Guy Fawkes night special? Not even the light rain could stop the fireworks being lit! Of course our family didn't set any fireworks off but we watched from our kitchen, and drove over to outside the Trusts Stadium as they set off their really really huge fireworks.

When we got home, we kept watching fireworks through the kitchen window when we saw these teens with little children walking around the middle of the road outside, and setting fireworks off aiming them at and down the road. They even set off those spinning magic sings in the middle of the road! Cars had to swerve to miss them with one of them driving right over it. They could've either endangered the lives of those driving by or those living in houses nearby, so I took the liberty to ring the police. However because they weren't 'throwing fireworks across the road or under a car' it didn't sound as though they considered it a priority or even an offence. So we kept a look out for these guys who continued to set fireworks off in the middle of the road, so my brother rang the police again who finally said they would try send someone over to have a look. Ten minutes later when the road had cleared and the guys were nowhere to be seen, a police car drove by.

Apart from that though, the fireworks at the Trusts Stadium was great, and there was a great atmosphere!

We should be thankful the Labour government is unlikely to ban fireworks from being sold, like it has been in some parts in Australia where only public fireworks displays are allowed. Just because a few people misuse fireworks and some don't keep their animals inside doesn't mean the rest of the population who want to enjoy fireworks should suffer

Happy!

CONGRATULATIONS to:

Headgirl for 2006: Heather

Deputy Headgirls for 2006: Jane and Joanne

Deputy Headboy for 2006: Hyun and Patrick

I got headboy which really surprised me! I was sitting through first period of calculus with Hyun wondering if they were going to tell us soon. Sure enough during the next period of biology they called us up and let us know.

Initially I wasn't rating my chances too highly because we had our interviews yesterday. I was first, and when I went in, the principal just said to me

"OK so tell me about yourself"

I was a little surprised but then just started talking and talking. The principal asked me about intermediate school and how I was headboy at Rangeview, as well as my musical contributions and then whether I was the cameraman for my brother's video. That was it. After everyone else had their interviews, I talked to them all and they told me the principal had asked them all these difficult questions like how they would deal with this sort of issue and that, etc. I asked one of the assistant principals if it meant anything that they didn't ask me those sorts of questions in my interview and she told me not to worry about it.

This morning before the principal announced the positions, he told us

"Now I came under some criticism from Calum for not asking him the questions I asked everyone else, but that was because he kept talking and talking and talking! "

Anyway it sounds like it will be a good team for next year, including those in the student management group. I can't wait!

 

Thank you to all of you who have been so supportive of me (if you're reading this!) I'm really grateful for everything!

The Discovery of Anime

On the 1st of November, Calum discovered anime. In recent times I haven't been such a fan of anime cartoons, with most of them revolving around monsters and stuff like PokeMON and DigiMON and Yugioh and Duel Monsters or whatever, as they were all the same thing...collect several thousand monsters to save the world! Although today I stumbled across some anime movie which wasn't too bad and it wasn't about collecting and battling monsters to save the world either! So recently I've been on a cartoon search and also came across Happy Tree Friends which I watched once sometime around Christmas on C4 last year, where these fluffy little animals managed to die in all sorts of creative ways around their Christmas tree. The cartoon really revolves around these little animals getting killed in different ways! It's pretty funny in a way but only if you can stand all the blood that splatters everywhere!
Now if only I had Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon...that would be cool...

Unexpected Drop-by

Yep that's Shen and me in front of the clothesline that we broke while playing basketball

Food, Soccer No Study

This weekend hasn't been too bad. On Saturday I taught my recorder classes in the morning. I was talking to them all about how I was looking for another part-time job, when one of them said

"How old are you?"

I told them I was 16 and the girl replied

"You look old! "

I asked how old and she said

"umm...about eighteen!"

That made me feel old! Anyway after that I had accordion lessons and then it was off to my aunty's surprise 50th birthday party! It wasn't much of a surprise because she noticed that food was missing from the fridge in the morning so she suspected something was up. There was heaps of food there, and I ended up eating too much. My cousins once again got hold of our phone and texted some random friends, but we did the same to them!

Today church was shorter because instead of Sunday school there was just an Annual General Meeting which we didn't stay around for. We got home and later on Shen came over and hung around to play a bit of basketball and talk a little! Thank goodness he let me know my fly was down before anyone else noticed! I'm sure I didn't go through church like that though... Before he went off he gave me a little drive down the road and back. He looks a lot more mature and grown up behind the wheel!

At the party last night our cousins invited us to come with them to play indoor soccer with them today too so they came over and picked us up. The team we played for consisted of all of our cousins so it was pretty much an Anderson/Brens team. Unfortunately we lost 0-6, and because my shorts were held up with a safety pin which came off halfway during the game, I had to run around holding my shorts up!

When we got home we found our mum sick because she had eaten unproperly cooked chicken that was leftover from the party the night before, so we thought we would try cook dinner ourselves! Unfortunately us guys in the household didn't know how to use a rice-cooker or the stove, so thankfully Zippo came to the rescue and helped cook the dinner for us (we helped around too!). I'm pleased to say I'm still alive and on the record the food did taste good! (baked beans, egg, mixed veges and rice)

I really should've been studying though...

The Wait is Nearly Over

Another week is over, with 18 days to go before externals! Today I was told though that we will find out who will become head/deputy head boy/girl for 2006 this Monday, so that will be nerve wracking!

Today we did an electrolysis experiment for chemistry which involved CuSO4. I spent a lot of time cleaning the metals and ended up getting the smell all over my hand which I couldn't get rid of for a loong time! The blue CuSO4 got on my hands too which made my fingernails blue and I spent a lot of interval trying to scrub my fingers but the blue colour wouldn't come off! An interesting thing happened in chemistry today too...Sarena fell for on Hyun (or was it Joon?) hmm.......;)

I applied at a couple of places for another part-time job and so far have received one response from McDonalds:

"Thank you we will contact you when we have a suitable position available"

So I'll be waiting! (It probably was an automated reply!)

Labour Weekend Labour

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESSICA (for Monday)

 

Sorry I didn't get round to posting earlier! I don't want to embarrass Jessica but she's probably one of my main rivals at the accordion (and often she comes out on top!) and is definitely a future accordion champ!

 

Labour weekend was full of hard labour...in terms of studying. I was originally going to use the weekend to get a few English essays planned but I didn't get round to doing them because I couldn't think of anything, so at least I managed to memorise colour changes of Oxidation-Reduction reactions. I have an exciting life! :D

 

The recorder classes I taught on Saturday morning were probably the most exhausting they've been in a while, even though maybe less than half of my students turned up because of Labour weekend! I had one student who brought along her friends and kept talking (funnily enough her birthday is on the same day as Sarena's!) and was impatient for class to finish probably so she could go off with her friends to play.

I'm also starting to feel the pressure to get the students to put on a good show for the end of year music school performance where all the classes of different musical instruments perform a few pieces. I want my students to look good so it doesn't reflect badly on them or myself and so parents will know their kids learnt something this year! I've also got to decide which students to give certain awards to, which will be difficult because I don't like choosing a few over the other!

 

Anyway the Monday off school was a deserving break from school no matter how short it was. Today I brought a watch to school which was good because I didn't have to keep asking Hyun for the time during calculus and I could determine it myself during physics! Now I've just got to work out a way to determine the date!

Englishache

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARENA!!

 

Today was another one of those days. I got caught out in biology class because I wasn't able to answer a question - I had done the wrong thing for homework and so I tried making up the answer on the spot but it didn't work out! Fortunately I have an understanding biology teacher!

 

We got our marks back for our English monologue assessment today) the one I dressed up as a roadworker for). I only got merit :S Prior to the performance I had asked the English teacher if it was OK that I didn't move around too much in my monologue since I was a roadworker who had to control traffic, and so obviously I'd have to stand beside my imaginary road and keep an eye on traffic. Despite missing a few lines in my monologue, it wasn't the reason I got merit - it was because I didn't move around enough and make more of my voice or something like that! Say one thing and change your mind later...They encourage us not to go over-the-top and I agree as when you're acting you're trying to act as if what is going on is real, but these English teachers most probably wanted us to exaggerate everything in order to get excellence which I don't quite understand. . Thank goodness I won't have to be subject to this subjectedness next year! If the Calum Curse has come back to haunt me it's a pretty bad time to!

What a Wonderful Wednesday

Today after school my parents, Aonghas and I went to North Shore via the Harbour Bridge to do some shopping only to find out upon arriving at the shop that someone had just jumped off the bridge and committed suicide. That was a freaky thought!

 

I also got my Chinese writing assessment today while tomorrow I'll be doing the last of my solo and group performances for my music internal assessment. I don't know why they leave it to the last minute when its less than a month to go before we have exams and we're all bogged down with studying!  But with all those other assessments we have throughout the year I suppose it's the only time to have them...

 

 

Student Politics Taking its Toll

Voting forms for head boy and head girl were distributed today. Knowing that the principal has the final say on who becomes headboy and headgirl, apparently students think I'll definitely get headboy and so they're taking the headboy contest as one for deputy headboy and so they aren't voting for me but for other people. Lord all I ask is for at least one vote...

 

My friend also told me today that after school on the bus he asked this guy who he was voting. He replied:

 

"Well my form class is definitely not voting for Calum"

 

When my friend asked why, he said:

 

"Because Calum has pi$$ed everyone around and hasn't done anything anyone has asked him to do"

 

Yeah that's a bit of a spirit-killer. It made me rethink why I was going for headboy in the first place and whether working for students and doing all the stuff I have for them for the past three years has been worth it when people treat you like this. Then again, this is what politics is all about.

 

What made today worse for me was I had to perform at this music performance, and I completely stuffed it up.

 

It's times like these the only thing you can really do is *think of happy thoughts think of happy thoughts*

Hard Work

Calum the roadworker (for our class's NCEA English internal assessment monologue) I'll post more about it and some more photos later today!

The Simple Man

After receiving a few requests, I have decided to post a couple sexist jokes just for fun! (I have nothing against women!)

Familiar Faces

Notice any face faces in this article that featured in four different Korean newspapers?

Korean Superstars

I was shopping at this Korean Food shop with my mum and trying to see if I could remember how to say some of those Korean characters (several months ago I thought I would try learn some Korean...when you can't beat them join them!) when we thought we would pick up a few Korean newspapers and guess who was in four different Korean newspapers: The Sunday Times, The Newstoon,  The Korea Herald and another newspaper with a Korean name (OK so I was informed prior to visiting the shop)...Hyun and Joon about them winning their scholarship!

Here is the article:

한국학교 장학생 5명 선발

우수학생 몰려 당초 3명에서 2명 더 늘려

선데이타임즈 article@sundaytimes.co.nz

오클랜드 한국학교(교장 계춘숙)가 당초 계획보다 2명이 더 늘어난 5명의 장학생을 선발했다. '비전 2020'의 일환으로 실시하고 있는 장학생 선발은 작년에 이어 올해 두번째로 1차 서류 심사와 2차 면접 등 엄격한 심사를 거쳐 결정됐다. 한국학교측은 "작년에도 그랬지만 올해는 특히 우수 학생들이 대거 몰리는 바람에 5명으로 늘려 선발하게 됐다"고 밝혔다. 선발된 학생은 독고이랑(오클랜드 대학교 1학년), 김지현(Rangitoto College F7), 오현석(Rutherford College F6), 오준석(Rutherford College F6), 신종하(King's College F5) 학생 등이다. 한재관 장학생선발위원장은 "장학생으로 지원한 학생 모두 뛰어난 학업 성적과 다방면에 걸친 재능과 봉사정신을 발휘하고 있어 우열을 가리기가 매우 힘들었다"고 심사 소감을 밝혔다. 계춘숙 교장은 "3~4세때 이민을 왔음에도 불구하고 유치부부터 중등학년까지 꾸준하게 한국학교를 다닌 결과 정확한 발음으로 한국어를 구사하는 것은 물론 현지 학교에서도 우수한 성적을 거두고 있음을 확인할 수 있었다"면서 "이는 학생과 학부모들의 성실성과 적극성이 밑받침됐기 때문에 가능한 결과"라고 말했다. 우준기 BOT 의장은 매년 훌륭한 한국 학생들을 격려하고 지원하기 위해 앞으로 장학제도를 더욱 발전시키는데 최선을 다하겠다고 밝혔다. 한편 선발된 학생들은 어렸을 때 부모님의 권유로 억지로 학교를 다녔지만 지금 와서는 이중언어의 필요성과 중요성을 깨닫고 있으며 부모님께 감사드린다고 말했다고 학교측은 전했다. 장학금 수여식은 15일 오전 10시 30분 북부캠퍼스 강당(Sunnybrae Normal School-36 Sunnybrae Rd. Takapuna)에서 열린다. (사진 왼쪽부터)독고이랑, 신종하, 오현석, 오준석, 김지현 학생

(http://www.sundaytimes.co.nz/news/read.php?idxno=1835 )

If you can't read Korean, never fear! I have spent *hours* putting my ability to speak fluent Korean to use and have translated the article to English (nah just joking!):

Korean school scholarship student 5 person selections

2 people compared to it increases from rainwater student being pursued very first time 3 people,

 

The Oakland Korean school (principal total Choon Soog) 2 people the very first time plan than compared to selected the scholarship student of 5 people which increase.

 

The scholarship student selection which it is executing in link of the vision 2020 was last year and at this year 1st document mind and the2nd interview back it passed by the mind which is strict second and it was decided.

 

The Korean school side even in last year like that this year in the wind where the rainwater students are pursued great movement specially increased with 5 people and but it selected and it revealed.

 

The student who is selected the poison nicely Rang (Oakland university1 grade), Kim Ji Hyun (Rangitoto College F7), 오현석(Rutherford College F6), 오준석(Rutherford College F6), 신종하(King's College F5) 학생 등이다 .

 

The drought disaster tube scholarship student selection chairman of a committee the student whom it supports with the scholarship student all was displaying the talent which superior extends in studies record and many sidedness and a service spirit and hides a superiority or inferiority was strenuous very and it revealed a mind impression.

 

The total Choon Soog principal 3~4 three time the emigration it came in spite of the result which the Korean school comes and goes until a custody couple sprouting middle class grade steadily it gathers the record which is excellent even from of course local school it will be able to confirm the thing which seeks an office the Korean language with the pronunciation which is accurate and it talked the result which is possible because the sincere result positive characteristic of the students and the parents had become underlay

 

Right the flag BOT design which it gives yearly will encourage the fine Korean students and it revealed that in the future the hazard which it supports the place best which develops the encouragement of learning system more it will finish.

 

One side the students who are selected come and when being young, the necessity and an importance of duplex language and the now when the school it comes and goes with hundred million Ji in inducement of the parents but they comprehend it talked that to the parents thanks they give, the school it conveyed sympathetically.

 

Scholarship presentation ceremony 15th morning 10:00 30 minute northern part campus auditorium (Sunnybrae Normal School-36 SunnybraeRd. Takapuna)에서 열린다.

 

(From the photograph left side) the poison nicely Rang, Under new species, Five present three, Five three which it gives, Kim Ji present student

 

http://www.sundaytimes.co.nz/news/read.php?idxno=1835

 

End of Week

Finally the end of the week, which means one week of term four down, four more to go, and four more till NCEA exams! The first week back hasn't been too bad, which is what I like about the first and fourth term of every year! We don't get much homework and we don't have to learn much more either.

It's starting to get sad though as we come close to the end of the year. I know many people (both yr 12 and 13) who won't be back next year, which is the first step towards all of us guys breaking apart from each other. I've got to make sure I bring a camera towards the end of the year to take photos of everyone! I just got a 1Gb card today which said on the camera that it could store 700 good quality photos and 300 best quality photos on it, so now the only thing that can stop me are be the camera batteries going flat!

A friend pointed out to me yesterday (you know who you are!) 'that being ugly is not too bad - when you're in war the soldiers will probably capture the good-looking girls and leave you behind'...he then realised it only applied to females...

Bite-Sized Thoughts

• Yay for Otago beating Canterbury in the NPC semis!!! Let's hope North Harbour beats Auckland tomorrow night so we can see a Otago vs North Harbour final! (go the underdogs!)
• Ain't it great we live in a country where a cat stuck up a very tree dominates the media?
• Air New Zealand has found its new chief executive after a 'worldwide'  search - he came from within Air New Zealand's board

Good News All Round

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MISS RAI! (Rangeview Intermediate's beloved music teacher!)

We tried visiting her today after school but she had already taken off. I miss that school! Congratulations too to the Oh boys who were told today they have won a Korean scholarship and our Young Enterprise team The Flashcard Company (no prizes for guessing what we sell!) have taken out the West Auckland regional competition!
 

Worrying Times

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACQUELINE (for last Sunday!)

School's started again, with only five weeks left till the proper proper NCEA exams, and I'm worried! I'm fast running out of time, and am not at all ready, especially for physics! To make things worse there are all these distractions - four internal assessments next week: Chinese writing, music solo and group performance and English monologue thing. I just got asked today to perform at a charity performance next Tuesday as well which will add to it all, although I suppose it'll help me prepare for my NCEA solo performance.

Head student elections will also kick-off next week. There are five girls running for headgirl (Kirsty, Renee, Heather, Jane and Joanne) and five guys running for headboy (Shen, Patrick, Hyun, Ryan S and me). Everyone who put their name down for the student leader group (which was predominantly students from the kaleidoscope class with the exclusion of two!) will most likely end up in the student leader group, which is cool because I don't think I could stand to see anyone have their hopes dashed or anyone split up from their friends (I know it probably isn't a big deal for some but yeah I feel bad about a lot of things!) Anyway next Monday at assembly all of us will most likely give a few words to the senior school before they vote in an indicator vote (the teachers also have a chance to vote and the principal makes the final decision).

It hit me today though that it's looking like an uphill battle for me to become headboy, as I'm up against some very able guys! If you get the most votes, it's most likely the principal will go with you and so you're a bit screwed if you don't. I was talking about this to my mum on the way home today and my mum suggested that if I don't get headboy I could maybe try apply for university instead. That could be an option...apart from a bit of extra knowledge and friends (not so sure about that one!) there isn't exactly a lot for me to stay around for. If I manage to pass all my level 3 assessments I might be able to get enough credits to pass NCEA Level 3 (but that's a long shot!), and if I go to university I'd be able to do all my university studies and finish a year earlier as well. Then again, I still have no idea what I would study at university, so that will most likely see me stay for year 13 regardless!

Power Out

This isn't too exciting but this was Glenfield Shopping Centre during the power-cut - as shops closed everyone had to wait around the place

A Series of Interesting Events

Yesterday I went to Westcity with my mum to check out some of the optomotrists so I could finally get my eyes checked and then get my learners license! Unfortunately none of them were as cheap as the Chinese optomotrist I've seen in the past over in East Tamaki, so I'll probably have to wait till next week to go over to East Tamaki to get my eyes checked at a cheaper price.
Anyway at Westcity when we went outside by E-Thing and Burger King, there were a few guys there with black eyes, one holding an ice pack to his eye, and at least half a dozen police officers around the place. As we walked past a police truck came over and all of these guys got put in there and taken away.

Today I was at Glenfield Shopping Centre, which is adjacent to the Music Education Centre where I learn the accordion every Saturday, when most of North Shore was hit by a power cut! Everyone poured out of the shops as they all closed. People selling ice-cream were in a rush to sell it all before it started melting. This old lady pushed her trolley onto a stationary elevator, and we all know what happens when you push a trolley onto an elevator don't we? It locks up and doesn't move. Unfortunately this old lady didn't realise that her trolley would get stuck and wouldn't move. This caused a big jam around her as people tried to get to the lower level. Fortunately, the power went back on just in time for my music lesson!