The Sower Sows the Seed...

This is what I did at my tertiary learning institution today:



Now that we are two weeks into this course some of us are starting to wonder why we are paying two thousand dollars a semester to play with textas. These ooey-gooey, touchy-feely learning theories are meant to get us in touch with our core beliefs but for the science and mathematics teachers the phrases 'bollocks' and 'load of arse' are all that come to mind.

Me though, I had fun. The quality of the work speaks for itself.

Why do I get more headaches when I am in Melbourne than when I am in Perth? And why does the index finger on my right hand smell like methylated spirits?

I had an interesting idea to pursue this evening but I went and had dinner with friends from church instead. It will have to happen Thursday night I think.

In the meantime I am going to pop a panadol and get to sleep.

Nighty, night!

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

BTW: Has there ever been a phrase more overused by sports journalist, bloggers and writers in general? This is not a rhetorical question. Please feel free to make a sarcastic comment or two…

THE GOOD – Doing a DipEd and doing it in Melbourne. After four days of lectures and tutorials it is such a relief to feel that these two choices are right choices. Aside from the state they leave the kitchen in, my cousins C (23) and D (19) are easy to live with and fun to hang out with. I miss the beach but the fact that nobody I went to high school with lives in this town more than makes up for that. I was terrified about the placement I have to do in four weeks but now that I know that I don’t have to be the fountain of all wisdom I am much more at ease. I am even looking forward to going head to head with some Year 9s and seeing if they can’t learn something. Bizarre, I know.


THE BAD – My honours thesis. The long and the short of it is that I didn’t get the mark I wanted. In fact, I got slammed in a seven page, DOUBLE SIDED, review from one of my three examiners. It concluded with this quote from Shakespeare’s Love’s Labor Lost: “He draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer than the staple of his arguments”. Ouch!


THE UGLY – The looming threat of employment. I can’t believe I am asking myself this but, here goes – Do I really want to go back to work? There was a time – approximately four weeks ago – where balancing 18 hours of work with full-time study would have given me a smug sense of moral superiority but now I am starting to wonder. I am content with my modest stipend from the government. I am very happy with the amount of time I have to be a human being with interests other than earning money and earning degrees. Why change anything?


On the whole things are good. My thesis result hurts but so what? First of all, criticism is part of academic life; I just have to suck it up and move on. To be honest some of the criticisms have the ring of truth to them. One of the other examiners said that: “I read the paper as an attempt at a philosophical disquisition without adequate equipment and training as a philosopher, and therefore find it lacking”. Yeah, I did feel out of my depth a lot of the time. I should have worked on thesis that wasn’t strictly “theory”, something that had a creative writing aspect to it. Secondly, it is good to cause a stir. Seven Pages?!? DOUBLE SIDED?!? Most students would kill for that kind of reaction to their thesis.

My First Day

It’s great to be back at university. For a start, there are more pretty girls here than you can swing a dead cat at. It was mostly uneventful but I did see this guy using an ATM near the education building:



It’s funny how spotting a celebrity tempts me to gawk like a slack-jawed yokel and shout out “Hey! I have seen you on television!” Even seeing a patron of my old workplace after a stint on Big Brother was kind of odd. Part of me wanted to pull out my camera and take a photo of BJ as he fumbled with his wallet but I know this would have been weird for both of us.

21 Things

Look, a bridge! Yes, this photo is irrelevant except for the fact that it adds colour to an otherwise dull space. Hey, here is some stuff about me.

1) I am a Christian.

2) My favorite TV show of all time is The Sopranos.

3) I am twenty-five years old.

4) I have pictures of sail boats on my doona.

5) I am 5’ 10’’ (179cm).

6) In an ideal world I would like to be 6’ 1’’ because I would look cooler and still be good at soccer and cricket.

7) I live in Melbourne.

8) I use to live in Perth.

9) I received my first welfare payment ever last week.

10) I want to buy a new digital camera.

11) I am studying to be teacher.

12) I studied civil engineering for three years and then dropped out.

13) I am single.

14) I can play “Blackbird” from The Beatles White Album on my guitar.

15) My favourite beer is Corona. With a slice of lemon.

16) I once swallowed a 10c piece during a drinking game.

17) I am pretty fit. I scored 12.4 in a beep test in January.

18) I am too uncoordinated to play basketball.

19) I like living near the ocean but hardly ever swim in it.

20) I am almost out of orange juice.

21) This is my third attempt at a blog.

I moved to Melbourne four weeks ago and having spent a lot of that time without regular access to my Ipod (left it back in Perth), newspapers (too poor at the moment) and the internet has taught me that I can do without (post)-modern conveniences, if I need to. It’s funny how the things that supposedly make our lives better actually steal our joy because they distract us from the one thing that really matters: relationships and people. I’m a lot happier – and I even appreciate technology a lot more – when I spend less time around it.



Why am I starting a blog then? I love blogs, they rock. I especially love how the seemingly mundane details of a person’s life can be shaped into a story that is humorous, tragic and uplifting. Writing gives you the power to find an identity and, if you need to, shed your skin and start fresh somewhere else.

On the other hand, spending too much time on a blog (like spending too much time with technology) makes you very self-absorbed. The type of lifestyle that is centered around my desires and getting everything I want is not particularly fulfilling. True freedom is not getting everything you want, it is being free from yourself.

What is really cool about blogging, is not that it gives you an opportunity to construct a more authentic self – that is just an added extra. Blogging, like any form of writing, offers , us the chance to inscribe knowledge and give insight. When we write about the things that makes us laugh or cry, give us hope or make us fear, we are not just getting something off our chest or telling a story that is entertaining, we are helping each other, we are teaching each other how to live. I hope that that is what this blog can be about.