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“Why is Anzac day worth remembering?”, is a question that gets bandied around this time of year every year. Normally, I’d just assume “because it’s traditional” and not really give it much more thought. I’m no nationalist or true Australian patriot, but I’ve had family who fought, and always thought it was respectful to remember those who have died. I assumed, by and large, that everyone thought the same as me. I was wrong.
What could be more joyful than celebrating your birthday? There's cake, alcohol, friends, and best of all: presents. Many, many presents...just for you. From the giddy anticipation you feel while unwrapping (it looks like a DVD, feels like a DVD, you know it's a DVD - but just in case, you'd better touch the corners warily, squint at it like you're a scientist looking for the seam in the atom and shake it really close to your ears...) to the heights (or depths) of drunken birthday pashes, birthdays are the days we can dedicate (justifiably) to ourselves.
Tuesday – my first day at St. Vincents hospital to kick start my third lot of 5 week physio prac stints for the year. The day started well – I managed to jump out of bed at 6am without having to snooze more than once to go for a lovely bike ride on the quiet beach roads and watch the sun rise. Feeling all invigorated, I made myself an omelet for breakfast, showered, and put on my semi respectable uniform ready to be at work for an 8:15am start.
For reasons that have never been made clear to me, though I think it has something to do with lunar movement, Greek Easter (and all other Orthodox Easters) does not fall at the same time as regular Christian Easter. This year it was a week later on the weekend of the 22nd/23rd.
I’m not really all that religious, but I do find it an interesting celebration that I participate in, if not only out of habit, with the Greek side of my family every year.
Getting ethics approval for your Honours thesis is serious business. So is finding a solution to procrastinating...
It is my sad duty to inform the greater society that at 11:10pm EST a form of chemical warfare took place in downtown Annandale. The number of casualties was devestating. It is times like these that we must have a sense of history and remind ourselves what it means to be human. It is this innate humanity that gives us our rights and freedom of action. The oppression my housemates and I have suffered these past few months ended last night in a mushroom cloud of mortein. From the ashes of this conflict has emerged the spectre of freedom, justice and the ability to walk barefoot in my kitchen.
Remember when you were a little child and easter came around, when you were all excited and all you thought about was the easter bunny ( or mum and dad) bringing lots of yummy chocolate easter eggs that you could never possibly consume all of them ( and which co-insidently still sat there for months on end..) Well when I think about easter I don't think about chocolates, I think about the Easter Show!
And I'll tell you why...
For many people out there looking good is important. To achieve their desired look they'll spend hours working on their body; hair face etc., and many more hours shopping, accessorising and the rest of it. Around campus there are people with many different looks and with varying degrees. The easiest, cheapest, laziest most surprising look however, is the couldn't care, couldn't be bothered.
It certainly isn't the most interesting look but recent experience has proven that it gets more head turns than the majority of other looks.
It is however, important to consider the natural enimies of the couldn't care look....
You know sometimes how it’s hard enough focusing long enough on one subject to write an essay? Well that little conundrum is the same for blog land. Instead of curbing my brain's little excursions into the world of daydreams this week I'm going to give it a licence to wander and hope that the result is vaguely interesting and/or readable. Stream of consciousness has never been so pointless...
Awhile ago, someone commented that they'd never seen me in the same pair of earrings twice.
I took this as a compliment owing to my diverse yet chic taste in fashion, and carried on.
This afternoon, the meaning of this friend's words suddenly struck me, as I was making a vague attempt to clean my room.
Chains, pendants, brooches, earrings, watches were spilling everywhere (alarmingly, out of the three jewellery boxes I own.) As I began to tidy them, I decided to make an inventory of my findings.
For lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning students on campus, the past week has been a memorable one. The University of Sydney Union's Queer Convenors hosted the annual Pride Festival, celebrating sexual and gender diversity on campus.
I am always amazed by the incredible sense of community that can be found on campus. However, there are fewer close-knit communities than the queer student community. Pride Festival represents a showcase of that community spirit and gives hope for a more accepting and tolerant world.
Above: "My Life, My Pride". The mural I painted in the Graffiti Tunnel during this year's Pride Festival
As I’m sure you know by now, I am doing an Arts degree (or arts ADVANCED as I like to remind friends and academics). Now, some of you may think “What possible use is an arts degree?”. In fact, the age old joke goes –
“What did the art graduate say to the law graduate?”
“Would you like fries with that?”
Life is full of irony! For example, people who wear glasses are considered intelligent although if you think about it, they actually have a disorder with an organ of their body. The great Alanis Morisette ruminated on this topic, and in fact dedicated a whole song to this idea. And there is no better irony while at uni than having time during uni holidays to travel the world, but with hardly more than a pittance to do so. Enough with the kvetching (there’s my favourite Yiddish word popping up again!), I need your advice.
New words enter our lexicon all the time.
Remember when "Girl Power" was all the rage?
Or "dotcom," "millennium bug" and "metrosexual"?
Well, here's a new one for your vocab, kids: "smother mothers."
Never in my life have I seen so many girls in pyjamas, yawning, whinging, with hair that looks like a birds nest gone horribly wrong and no make-up on at 6am this morning....
For many high school kids thinking about going to uni, a big consideration is moving out of home. Whether it be into a college, the Sydney Uni Village (SUV), Unilodge or into a share house, there’s no disputing that the move from home can be a difficult, and for some, an emotional one. And that’s just the beginning…
I'm a law student, which means I'm very good at thinking about rules and regulations. I grew up in the suburbs of Sydney and was taught unwritten rules about what expectations surround friendship. I've drafted my own legislation which makes explicit the "unwritten" rules I believe in. This legislation attempts to balance the rights and responsibilities of both friends to each other by giving aggrieved parties a chance to proportionately deal with infringements to friendship loyalty, without over-penalising natural feelings that sometimes develop in uncomfortable and inappropriate circumstances. It recognises, but does not excuse, human frailty.
You think this is crazy? You haven't seen my case law! Here it goes. Introducing the...
Friendship and Personal Relationships Act 2006 (GAS)
