Crash Bang

I was walking home with my brothers Aonghas and Hamish after buying some ice-cream at the Henderson Pak N' Save (I met Allen, a good friend from back at Rangeview who is working there now! He had his whole walkytalky thing n all!) Anyway we were waiting at the pedestrian crossing beside the roundabout and opposite the Korean church and Falls Hotel, waiting for cars to stop. This red van came round the corner pretty quickly, and we weren't expecting it to stop. Within a few metres though, the driver must've made a rash decision and decided to stop quickly. The white car behind didn't have enough time to stop and rammed straight into the back of the van.

I feel really bad now because the right thing to do would've been to check that the driver was OK. Instead my brothers were saying

"Walk walk walk! Don't look!"

They later told me that they were afraid the drivers would be angry and take it out on us!

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Girls Are Evil - Mathematical Proof

Finally! A mathematical proof that girls are evil! (nah honestly I don't think they are ;) , and no Kat I won't be celibate...well not for my whole life anyway!)

Need Advice?

As much as I dislike saying this (this case will be an exception) all those of you single and lonely people out there (not me of course! I'm single and relatively happy!) should watch Campbell Live 7pm tonight on TV3 for tips on dating and finding the right woman

 

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Calum Comments - Thursday 29 September

I haven't commented on anything in a long time so I thought I'd do so today, seeing as nothing much is happening in my life during the holidays.

A research project recently completed which involved 500 14 year old Wellington students, found that 1 in 4 are bored at school. I'm sure it must be a lot higher than that! Or maybe school is more interesting down in Wellington?

Continuing with education, I'm glad to hear the PPTA have voted to oppose the Cambridge exam system. I won't go on about the need for a refined and constantly improving NCEA system again.

Isn't it amazing how we have so many of those singing idol/popstar/superstar shows on TV now? With NZ Idol and So you wannabe a Popstar? on TV2, and Sing like a Superstar on TV3, I think that is a bit too much, but its early days. We'll have to wait and see if these 'famous' New Zealanders are any good at singing, or making good TV...

It's good to see more NZ drama on TV though, even though most of it I wouldn't watch, like Outrageous Fortune, Interrogation (we don't have an UHF aerial so we can't even tune into Prime anyway!) and The Market, but why does NZ drama (excluding Shortland St) always need to have explicit language and sex scenes? I suppose in a way we could say it reflects our society, but no wonder NZ drama is always screened at times when no one is awake!

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Day 1 of the Holidays

First day of the holidays started off OK. I had to teach recorder classes for one last time this term. Only half of my students showed up, so that made things much easier. I had a sister and brother in one class. That was really amusing, watching them arguing and shout at each other, with the brother threatening to tell me who his sister liked.

After I had accordion lessons when I got a bit of a surprise from my accordion teacher who presented me with the Douglas Mews Cup for achieving the highest grade in a piano accordion exam within the last year.

I've just spent the rest of the day at home, and it looks like my holidays will probably follow suit.

 

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Complexities of the Female Human Species

No one reads this blog (and highly unlikely a female will) so here's a question to the guys out there: what happens when you try to be nice to someone (let's say female) and help them out with stuff and all that?

Answer: When you make a slight mistake, she ridicules you, abuses you, disses you (could quite possibly just mean the same thing) Anyway hopefully the point has been conveyed.

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Three Down

Term three is officially over! Even though exams finished a week before exams, the final week of the term was still pretty hectic. I got all my exam results. I didn't do the greatest. My best marks were in Chinese where I got all excellences but that isn't too significant since it's Chinese. Biology, chemistry, English and calculus (basically everything else!) wasn't too great, just average. Even though my worst marks came from physics, they were what made me happiest the most, because I passed everything in Physics despite going into the exam thinking I would fail everything!

For the past week I've been trying to finish this biology research assessment we were given several weeks ago. I chose to research laser eye surgery, seeing as I've got pretty bad eyes!

A few days ago the English teacher asked anyone if they wanted to enter the speech competition. Not one to pass up a good opportunity, I decided to enter, even though I didn't have anything to talk about! First I was thinking about speaking on sausages, but because I couldn't think of anything to say on them, I began thinking about bananas, and then when us guys were all talking about our old days at Rangeview, it got me thinking about how much I wanted to be a child again and how I was getting older and things were changing. So I decided to speak on living life to the fullest!

It was looking as though I would be up against no one till Shen decided to enter. He spoke about how its OK to cry.

So there I was, Thursday morning still up at 4am trying to get my biology assessment finished! Conflicting information from all around the internet was starting to drive me crazy! I hadn't even refined or practised my speech which I had to deliver in a few hours time! When I finally had everything finished I clicked print and...a message popped up on the computer screen saying 'REFILL BLACK INK'. Nooooo! Thank goodness we had biology first period this morning. While printing my biology assessment at school, I printed my speech.

In the end it was close but finally I came first in a speech competition after being beaten by Asians in two previous years! I feel a bit bad now because I'm sure Shen did pretty well (I didn't get to hear his speech as I was at biology) and am sure he probably deserved to win!

Anyway it's the holidays now for two weeks at least, and about time!

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Post-Election Relaxing

Today I only spent two periods at school before going into the city with a
group of students to watch the opera 'La Triviata' which was pretty good!
It was another one of those typical 'I love you so so so much I'll die for
you!' everyone gets mixed signals everyone gets heart-broken somebody dies
operas, featuring prostitutes, pimps and leather-clad women with whips, but
still it was good! Because it was all in Italian we had to rely on the
subtitles above the stage, but midway through Act I something blew and the
screen went blank. Thankfully it went back on before Act II got underway!

Because I haven't attended many classes today I haven't gotten many exam
results back except for one paper in physics and....despite it being my
worst topic and the one I didn't study for, I surprisingly managed to pass!

Tonight I gave my very last student rep report at the Board of Trustees
meeting which was really sad! In the end Chen won the student rep elections
ahead of Joon, Fazzah, Invalid Votes and Hashmi (in that order). All the
best to Chen and I hope he does a good job!

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An Action-Packed Election 05!

Wow what an election! We've seen candidates promise to streak, a bomb scare in Tauranga, pies being flung in candidates' faces, the prime minister being shouted down at a university campus, a plane hijacking, and finally a neck-and-neck election count!

Last night, watching both TV ONE and TV3's election coverage simultaneously (yeah I'm a bit of a news and political junkie!) was thrilling and more tense than an All Blacks vs Australia game! National were way ahead in the beginning, with most commentators writing off any hope of Labour getting back in. Nonetheless, Labour began to creep back up till both were both at the same level, and then with the help of the South Auckland electorates Labou finally pulled ahead, but by only 1%!

Of course there was a plane hijacking amongst all this action, with the pilot threatening to crash into the Sky Tower. My dad got let off work early since his office building had to be evacuated! Now where was our air force when we needed it? Thank goodness it was only a Cessna and the police helicoptor was able to keep up with it!

Anyway, it is sad to see John Tamihere of Labour lose his seat, and it will be sad to see Matt Robson of the Progressives go as well. The next few weeks will be interesting though with special votes yet to be counted. With 200,000 of them it could change the final results which only saw Labour ahead of National by about 2,000. Will Labour win in the end and be able to form a stable coalition? Will Winston Peters challenge Bob Clarkson for the Tauranga seat? Will Keith Locke really run through Epsom naked? How long will Helen Clark be able to last this term? Will we have to hold another election before three years time? Only time will tell!

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And the BOT Student Rep is...

While we have campaigning for the general elections going on around us, Rutherford College has had their own BOT Student Rep elections. Voting closed last Friday, and results still haven't been made public, but today I got access to them and so I...won't post them on this blog but I will post voting numbers, and keep everyone guessing as to who got which portion of the votes!

271

122

56

49

19

I can guarantee you that there WEREN'T 19 invalid votes!

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Deal On!

Last night Alex and I agreed to the following deal:

if labour wins, hyun owes me $5 so he can owe it to you and if national wins, u gotta help me get my $5 from hyun

Let's go LABOUR!!!

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RIP...Hyun

RIP HYUN

The last of the twins (in other words the other twin) has died. And again, no I'm sorry he/she isn't really the Korean twin we've come to love, nor is he really a twin, but one of the three remaining goldfish in the Anderson tank. Last night he was found lying motionless at the bottom of the tank and was instantly pronounced dead.

I can't really tell if the two remaining fish Sarena and Rydia were shedding any tears or not!

So it's down to two of our largest goldfish, both with female names (no link to their survival though!) - Sarena and Rydia

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Not Falling in Love any time Soon!

Physics yesterday was the last of my exams. I'm hoping I have done enough to have passed at least one paper on waves! I'll have to study more on the other two, mechanics and electric systems.

That means, today I have a day off school! I haven't really done much so far, but I've got a biology assessment on laser eye surgery that I need to get done over this weekend. I'll probably post my report up for anyone interested in undergoing laser eye surgery in the future to read!

This weekend is going to be an interesting one with the elections on Saturday and one of my neighbours' birthdays. Thank goodness they're not on the same day!

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More Choice

Another free-to-air music channel is set to hit Auckland television sets this coming November. The yet-to-be-named channel will be located between Prime and TV One. If you want to find out more check out http://www.channel62.co.nz for more details.

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Two Left!

I sat my chemistry and English exam yesterday. Both were...hmm OK not that great! I had to make stuff up for both so I don't really know what the outcome will be, but hopefully I pass at least!

Today I had calculus. I only had one night to study, and so I was working my way through the differentiation and integration papers thinking this actually isn't too bad! When I came to conics and complex numbers papers, well....they were complex! Again I don't know how well I did but I'm hoping I don't fail complex numbers and conics!

Tomorrow I've got Chinese, and then Physics on Thursday, which I'm set to fail (I told my teacher this but he said it didn't matter as long as I gained experience, and hopefully I might be surprised...slim chance of that happening!)

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Aside from exams, being able to come to school whenever and do whatever before and after exams without having to attend classes all day is a great feeling! It's cool hanging out with all the guys and girls!

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Voting for student rep closed last Friday. Yesterday before English exams Joon asked the principal's secretary if results were available yet. She told him to come back after school to find out. He did and.....she told him to come back next Monday! And so the waiting continues...

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The other day I was in the public library with a friend from my school who had gone to the ball earlier this year. He asked me if my ball partner (yes you Ayesha!) was my girlfriend! Wow we must've been convincing! He was a little disappointed too to hear that Joon and his partner weren't together, and there I shall end!

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Exam Horror

Well it looks like my whole year's work has gone down the loo. I've got my chemistry and English exam tomorrow and I haven't been as prepared as I would've liked to be! Originally I was hoping to start two months before the exams, but Rutherford Idol ended up consuming a lot of my time afterschool, together with squash, chess, and everything else. I've really got to cut back on the number of extra-curricular activities I participate in!

Anyway, I've just got to get through this week. I'm not expecting to come top in any subject this time round, I'm just hoping I make it through this week without embarrassing myself by failing something!

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One Down...Five to Go!

Apart from mufti day making this day significant, I sat my first exam - biology. One word...LONG! The exam consisted of two papers - genetics and animal transport systems. I think I spent a bit of time on the genetics paper (trying to work out whether I was supposed to write genes...or alleles?) and then when I came to the animal transport systems paper, I had to write a page each on insects, fish and humans, and then compare each of their transport systems. I'm pretty sure I repeated myself once or twice, but I'm unsure if I wrote the right thing...or even if they could read my writing! I really have no idea how I went so I'll just have to wait till I get my results!

I haven't talked to anyone else who sat the biology exam so I'm not sure how they found the test!

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Yay for 250!

251ST POST!!

Not too sure if anyone's ever bothered to read even a quarter of those posts but oh well. Let's celebrate this milestone with a bit of politics!

The TVNZ One News Colmar Brunton Poll released last weekend is a truly frightening prospect. If results mirrored those in the One News Poll, National would have 56 seats in parliament, and would need the help of NZ First's 6 seats to be able to govern. However, if NZ First does not make it back into parliament either by not reaching the 5% threshold or Winston Peters not holding onto his Tauranga seat, National would have 59 seats in parliament, one short of a majority, and would only need the support of United Future's one or two to govern.

We do not want National to govern alone, because that would give them the power to do what they want, which is definitely a scary thought!

Today National announced their health policy, in which they will scrap the universal health subsidy (by 2007 everyone will have their doctors' fees subsidised) and instead only keep it for those under 25 and those over 65. Doctors' visits are already expensive enough as it is. Not everyone over 25 and under 65 will be able to afford to see the doctor when they really need to, whether not not they get a tax cut or not. National 'apparently' have plans to allow those on low incomes to qualify for a GP subsidy but Dr Brash hasn't made it clear who will, and he says details haven't been worked out yet on how surgery waiting lists will be reduced. Also, he admits that last week's promise to give all people in low socio-economic regions a subsidy was a "mistake". 

It is hypocritical of them to bang on about how long the waiting lists are, when they cannot front up with a more effective plan to cut waiting lists themselves.

With two weeks to go, we are coming close to the elections and people have to look at all policies and factors, and not base their vote on one issue, namely tax cuts. Do we really want to be led by someone who's a political novice, doesn't know his own policies and possibly has a secret agenda up his sleeve?

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My Vote's In

I've made my decision

Smile!

My brother Aonghas (not her, the one on the left! lol jk!) featured in a photo accompanying an article on free dental healthcare in today's Western Leader .

Welcoming the Moon Festival

Yesterday I went with my family to our Chinese church's Moon Festival shared dinner. I wish they had these shared dinners more often because there is heaps of food to eat! Before we got to eat though, we all got into groups to make Chinese mooncakes. Unfortunately because it is a Chinese church, no one at my group could speak English (or were unwilling to speak English to me at least!), and so I had no idea what they were doing or what to do. At least in the end we all got to eat them!

 

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Rutherford Day

Today was Rutherford College's special day when everyone dressed up,
teachers were in their graduation gowns, and some students were in ties and
blazers. We got a half-day at school which was great, and the seniors had to
attend a Rutherford Day assembly. The guest speaker was Mr Sinclair, a
former history teacher/dean/deputy principal of Rutherford College and later
principal of Lynfield College.

I didn't actually get to hear the speech because I was preparing for the
string quartet performance but apparently it was better than last year's
guest speaker? I had to perform as part of the orchestra, choir and string
ensemble. I stuffed up in the choir but I don't think anyone heard me!

After the assembly, all the teachers, guests and us string quartet members
(surprisingly) had lunch in the staffroom, where people came up to us to
compliment us on our playing, which wasn't too great but oh well! Hyun
seemed to get people muddled up, firstly by telling this man who he assumed
was the speaker that his speech was great. The man replied

"Oh I wasn't the speaker!"

A little while after, we came all agreed that this man who looks a bit like
Mr Watson was the guest speaker. When the man came over to talk to us, Hyun
told this man that his speech was great. The man replied

"Oh I wasn't the speaker! He left a little while ago!"

Apart from that, the food was great, everyone looked great, all went well,
and we got a half day!

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Looking for Alibrandi?

Anyone wanting to watch Looking for Alibrandi (especially those who studied it last year for English!)...and you'd probably have to REALLY love this movie...be sure to stay up at 1.00 am on Saturday 3rd September and you'll be able to watch it on TV2!

 

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Elections on!

The election race is hotting up, and no it ain't the NZ General Elections. It's the Rutherford College BOT Student Rep elections! After deciding not to stand for a third term this year, four candidates from four different year levels are standing for the position.

A year nine student and a year ten student are standing for student rep, as well as two of my best friends Chen and Joon, which creats a dilemma - do I vote for Chen or do I vote for Joon? I could somehow try and get two voting forms and give each of them one vote, but that would just cancel each other out and would be pointless, so instead, I could just vote for both of them on one voting form and let my vote be ruled invalid :D Then again, I could vote for one of them and just not let the other know...

Today saw the four candidates give their 'vote for me' speeches at junior assembly, with me introducing each of them. I can say that it seems like it will be a two-horse race. While Chen's speech featured his typical humour, Joon's speech was more of a straight-to-the-point formal this-is-what-I've-done-this-is-why-I-want-to-be-student-rep-vote-for-me speech. Chen pretty much has the year 11 (his year level) vote, while Joon may have most of the year 12 vote, so the junior votes will most likely the be the deciding factor. I haven't talked around yet, but it will probably be up to whether the juniors go for the more humorous or the more serious speech.

Even though the head student elections haven't started yet, from the sound of things it sounds like things are starting to heat up, especially amongst the girls for headgirl. It'll be interesting to see how things unravel!

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