More Training

I went back to AUT today for more prefects training. My dad took the twins and me to the North Shore campus, and you know what happens with my dad's car. The motor stopped in the middle of the motorway. Thank goodness we were on a slight slope and so we started rolling forwards! Eventually the motor got going again just in time and we went to a nearby Repco to get a new car battery just in case, so the car wouldn't break down in the middle of the Harbour Bridge!

When we were in Ponsonby somewhere I got a phone call from Heather asking if I was coming (because by that time I was late..yeah I know...) and I told her our car broke down and so we were going to be slightly late. She thought that was a good excuse!

Anyway we finally got there. Only about a half of the prefects turned up. Suspiciously most of the environmental group didn't show up...hhmmmmm...nah I'm sure they had valid excuses!

Some talent lady from TVNZ came to observe what sort of stuff we were doing.

During lunch I thought I'd take my chance to grease up to this lady so that you know..maybe...anyway I came up to her and just started going on

"HEY I WATCH ONE NEWS RELIGIOUSLY!!!"

We're going to get a tour of TVNZ sometime so that'll be interesting.

After lunch we got to go out to the golf place whatever you call it (AUT's North Shore Campus has a Sports and Recreation Centre) and we got to practise doing a few tee-offs. All I can say is I have a whole lot more respect for golfers! I was really bad at golf, hitting the ground instead of the ball! Others like the twins and Patrick and Lindsey and Shen were pros!

There was a lot of leftover lunch which the AUT staff were about to throw out all the leftover food but after they saw me sneaking food into my bag they filled a whole tray and gave the lot to me! When I got home my mum decided not to cook dinner and we just ate that instead!

I've got to go to school tomorrow morning for string quartet rehearsal. Pray that I survive the hour! After that I have to go back in to AUT for more prefect stuff.

PS I've been told I need more 'friends' so if you have time to kill feel free to add me as a friend at myspace.com and make me feel loved!

ANZAC Day

Yesterday morning I attended my very first ANZAC Day service with Heather which was a good experience! It wasn't as boring as people make these services out to be. Heather and I wore our school uniforms and arrived at the place but we had no idea what we were supposed to be doing so we just followed the crowd.

 

The uniforms of the servicemen and women were really impressive! I also never knew they had sea scouts in New Zealand! Good on them for participating anyway!

 

Chris Carter, Mr Chan (Waitakere city councillor), Tau Henare and a few other dignitaries attended. A guest speaker gave his speech and we sung a few hymns. At the conclusion of the service a man collapsed near the front of the hall though, but fortunately he was OK.

 

It was unfortunate to hear of the passing away of the war veteran who slipped and died as the Last Post was played during the service at the Auckland War Memorial Museum.

 

However, good on Maori Television for providing good ANZAC coverage throughout the day! It was great to be able to flick through channels, from watching the events unfolding in Auckland live, to crossing over to Wellington to see what was happening. MTS is definitely giving our state broadcaster a run for their money!

 

Shen came over on Monday for a little visit and we ended up playing NBA Live on the computer, and then he came over yesterday to play with us again, which was pretty cool. I'll be seeing him again tomorrow at AUT!

 

POSITIVE: I made it to Heather's house and the ANZAC service ON TIME! Yay!!! As well as trying to fulfil my New Year's resolutions an additional goal for next term is to try keep my record of a term with no late detentions going, and maybe even make it right to the end of the year without getting one!

Perfect Opportunity Guys!

This has got to be one of the most interesting txt message forwards I've received (from Shen lol):

(censored)
A$$ Grabbin Day!!!
Nxt tuesday 25th of April, 2006 is a$$ grabin day. U wil b able 2 grab whoevas a$$ u wona grab. Spread da word. U must send dis 2 at least 11 pplz b4 12:00 2nite or els ur crush wil fal in lov wit ur best friend. get ready 2 get yo a$$ grabed!!! SPREAD DA WORD!

You have been warned! Just be nice to the war vets in the morning though...

Half-Time

I've finally managed to make myself productive! I talked to headgirl Heather yesterday and sorted out some stuff, and we both have decided to attend the ANZAC memorial service in Te Atatu on Tuesday morning, which will be a first for me! I remember listening to the dawn service on Newstalk ZB last year but I've never been to any sort of ANZAC service before which will be interesting!

Holidays are nearly over! Nooooo! Next Saturday I've got to start up teaching again so that's it for my work holidays! I was starting to enjoy sleeping in on Saturday mornings! It also means there's only one week left to get all my holiday homework done and as much music practice as possible as I probably won't get much time throughout the term with assessments and everything!

I just finished watching the movie Love and Basketball on TV and that was a pretty cool movie! It was one of those girl next door movies based on his boy and girl who were neighbours and both were really into basketball and they ended up growing up more or less with each other in pursuit of their dreams of becoming professional basketball players, with those obstacles thrown in like love and everything, but it was a feel-good movie!

Newsflash: Sun went Down

Today I went to school to take some photos for the student website, yeah exciting huh? Anyway today I just realised today that I've got chemistry homework and physics homework to do by the end of the holidays! I've also borrowed all these NZ history books so I can read up on the Treaty of Waitangi.

 

We washed our bedsheets and blanket covers today, and so it took me quite a long time to put the blanket back in the blanket cover...frustrating!...(yeah blame this on the lack of activity going on these holidays...)

 

ANYWAY if you happen to be a prefect at Rutherford it's been confirmed that we have to go to AUT on Wednesday and Thursday. I've also got string quartet rehearsal on Thursday and choir rehearsal later that day, but I'd much rather go to AUT!

 

 

 

 

Messy Start

The start to my holidays has been a little boring. I've been stuck at home being unproductive. On Monday while watching Mrs Doubtfire (good memories!) I accidentally burnt the toast AGAIN and filled the whole kitchen with smoke. I had to open all the windows and put the fan in the kitchen just to try get rid of the smoke and the smell but even when I tried to make it look as if nothing happened when my mum got home from shopping she shouted out

 

"Calum I told you not to burn toast again!"

 

While grabbing the knife off the dining room table to cut the wrapping to the 6-pack of pies I accidentally knocked a plate off the table which fell and broke!

 

Later that day I tried logging into my internet banking account but after three wrong attempts at typing in my password they locked me out! Now I've got to go back to the bank AGAIN and ask for another password!

 

Last night I just went over to the neighbours to watch the first Underworld movie which was pretty cool. I want to see the second one now! After the movie they had a look at my palm and told me I'm going to live a short life!

 

 

Stepping in (%*

This morning we had a special baptism church service for Easter, which was cool because there wasn't Sunday School. This time instead of giving us boiled eggs (yeah you know what Chinese are like) we actually got chocolate easter eggs! OK so they were hollow but...chocolate!

I spent the most of the day throwing around a football with my brother outside, the first time I've had any time to play around outside! Szelin the neighbour came out after a while and talked to us for a little while. Later that night her older sister Zippo rang me and made a bet with me - to french kiss a guy or a girl by the end of the year and she and her sister will each pay me $10, or if I come over to her house and french kiss someone right there (or my brother) they'll pay me $15. That's just disturbing! I'd have nightmares for a while to come! Anyway they pressured me into accepting the former bet (french kiss someone by the end of the year), I haven't even kissed anyone for a start so I'd have a long way to go!

After chatting to a few people in the past few days, I can tell this term will be an interesting one as we get closer to the ball! We'll be seeing people hook up, get rejected...interesting! Yeah nah maybe not that exciting but oh well let's see...

Easter Luxury

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIMBERLEY! (yesterday)

What a great day! No school, no ads on TV, just shops closed, but that wasn't too bad! Anyway I managed to catch up on my music practice today, as the accordion champs are coming up pretty soon in Queen's Birthday weekend and I've still got a duet and a trio to learn and memorise. I'm competing in the NZ Solo Class (second highest class below the NZ Championship Class) so I've got to play a programme of 10-15 minutes. My pieces will be Figaro, Italian Concerto and a Russian Dance. I've got to play a Chinese duet with Aonghas and a movement from a Mozart symphony (I can't really remember what it's called because the title of it is all in Chinese...it might be a movement from Eine Kleine NachtMusik.

Anyway TV was really cool, with no ads all day. I watched Pinnochio, Wizard of Oz (yes that brought back heaps of memories from our Junior production back in fourth form!), a documentary about the NZ Symphony Orchestra, and the find of the day - POKOYO!!!! It's this really funny kids show with this purple elephant, an orange dog, a duck and this little baby kid who looks like a rapper! Today they were trying to help the duck get rid of his hiccups!

Breaktime!

One term down another three to go! Wow this term went by fast! I did the second half of the statistics modelling assessment yesterday, which was a lot longer than expected but I managed to finish just in time! It was such a good feeling afterwards, especially since I had a free period! Today we finished at midday so that was pretty cool too, especially since two of the five periods we had at school were free periods for me.

Even though we've done quite a lot in just the first term there still seems to be quite a lot to do at school! I got the student website proposal accepted today, with a slight modification in that it will be hosted as a subdomain of our school website rather than a stand-alone website. Now I've just got to get all the content sorted out and pass it on to Carey, Ryan's brother who will be designing it for us.

I've also been trying to figure out a way of expanding student radio which doesn't seem to be running consistently because we STILL DON'T HAVE OUR OWN KEY TO THE ROOM and sometimes it takes all lunchtime just to find the teacher with the key! Plus only people sitting on the batters and hanging around under the shelters can hear it, which is only probably about a quarter (or less) of the school during lunch, so I've been trying to figure out how we can.

I still get this feeling that more can be, or should be, done to try and encourage students to participate in school activities and represent our school out there in the public. I don't know whether we just need better publicity, or to break that barrier with students, or whether we need a greater variety of groups rather than the traditional extra-curricular activities. I've been trying to do stuff at school that has never been done before to make things a little more interesting like with Valentine's Day roses and the Slave auction, but now I've just been trying to think of the next thing...Someone suggested a partner/date service for the ball. I don't know how many people are that desperate to use the service but I suppose we could give it a go!

Anyway I've got to catch up on schoolwork these holidays so I better make that my priority!

Flood of Work

Phew finally gotten my first NCEA History 3.1 research assignment out of the way! We had two weeks to research a battle or campaign in WWII, and I ended up changing mine three times because I couldn't find enough info for each battle I ended up choosing! Finally I chose the Battle of Berlin and I stuck to it! I really just rushed most of it in the last weekend and ended up spending my two periods and interval this morning finishing it. I only just finished right at the end of interval bell when history was about to start!

I also had a statistics assessment on modelling first period this morning. Fortunately it was just a practical and no calculations or writing to do! We just had to roll marbles down ramps of different heights. The second half of the assessment will take place this Wednesday.

It was announced that the ball will be held at the same venue this year at an increased price of $80 per ticket with the theme being vintage 1920's. It didn't come as quite a surprise to me that the theme would be some time period. Last week there were rumours going around that it would be the 1950's! Anyway 1920's 1950's I have no idea about what sort of fashion they wore back then. I was thinking because I've already attended two balls in the past two years in suits, maybe this time I should dress to the theme! All I can think of when I hear the word vintage though are those old cars. For some reason I don't think I can dress up as a car...I do remember that King Kong was set somewhere around that time period I can't remember, but if it was then maybe I should just watch that movie again to get some ideas...or I could just come dressed up as an ape!

School finishes this Thursday midday thank goodness! These last couple of weeks have been quite busy and I could do with a break to relax and also catch up on some work! I've still got to get a student website proposal sorted, as well as the flagpole for the school, the expansion of student radio (looking into that a bit more) and getting the Junior Councillors working on some more ideas these holidays!

Slave Sale Success!

We had the Slave Auction today at lunch which turned out to be a real success! I wasn't really sure how it was going to turn out in the morning as I wasn't sure how many were going to show up for the auction, or how much people would bid. I was expecting 20 people max and bids of under $1! We managed to get a full hall with people even watching from outside through the window!

We had Mrs Taylor our dean as the auctioneer, who turned out to be really good! She used my mallet as the auction hammer. Ezra was the first to be auctioned off and I feel a bit bad for him because he got sold off for only $4.50. The further we got though, the higher the bids. THe highest bid on a student was $40, and Mr White the PE teacher raised $36 while Ms McKane the other PE teacher got $24.

The highlight of the auction though was the auctioning off of Mr Jefferies, the year 10 dean. The bid went right up to over $50 with Ms Heath the assistant principal aggressively making bids. She started having competition with Mr Smith the technology teacher, until the bid went right up to $84 and finally she won!

All in all we raised about $300 in total for the Junior Council which was really good!

When I went to Ms Heath to collect the money, she told me she and Mr Jefferies had a little bit of a thing going between them and this was her way of having revenge, so tomorrow we can expect to see Mr Jefferies do some interesting things! I'll post pictures tomorrow! She asked me:

"So where's this money going towards? Please don't tell me it's for that bl**dy flagpole!"

Solutions

Only two more weeks of school left to go! Before school finishes though there's 1001 things I've got to sort out though, and I only discovered last night that we've got a debate coming up this Wednesday night against Diocesan! Thank goodness it's a limited preparation debate or then I'd be screwed!
So far in the last three years we've never lost to Diocesan, so we've got to keep that record going! Can't lose to girls!!!!

Today I went to the Careers Department to try out some program where you have to answer some questions and it then gives you a list of possible career options based on how you answered those questions. I was really hoping this would help give me some sort of direction, but...just have a look at some of the careers on the list:

Call Centre Operator
Help-desk operator
Plunket Nurse
Check-In Agent
Dancer
Singer
Dance teacher
Air Force Physical Training Instructor
Kaiwhakaako i te reo Maori (have no idea what that means!)

Yeah I don't think they really sound like me. There are a few interesting career options such as corporate/government lawyer, primary/secondary teacher, radio/television journalist, managing director and diplomatic officer, but that's still pretty broad!

I suppose I should be lucky that I only have to deal with this dilemma...I've got a few friends who are in more tricky situations! I've been trying to do my best to be a supportive friend and to say something worthwhile and meaningful but I end up joking about something stupid or putting all these random words together that make no sense at all to try and sound inspirational! But yeah I will just keep going and hopefully make a difference...or just keep going until they just avoid me!

P.S. Just to clear things up for those who read the last post I haven't dropped out of school! ;) Sorry to those people I fooled especially Christine!

Just to finish off with something I sent a friend to hopefully cheer them up (nope not original I ain't that great with words!)

Time, and time again
To realize the value of ONE YEAR,ask a student who failed his exams...
To realize the value of ONE MONTH, ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby...
To realize the value of ONE WEEK, ask the editor of a weekly newspaper...
To realize the value of ONE DAY, ask a daily wage laborer...
To realize the value of ONE HOUR, ask the lovers who are waiting to meet...
To realize the value of ONE MINUTE, ask a person who missed the train...
To realize the value of ONE SECOND, ask a person who just avoided an accident...
To realize the value of ONE MILLISECOND, ask the person who won a silver medal in the Olympics...
Treasure every moment that you have!!

YESTERDAY is history.
TOMORROW is a mystery.
TODAY is a gift. That's why it's called the PRESENT!!

I Give Up

In light of my recent bad results, I've decided to drop out of school