Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: basketball, john mayer, japanese, food, candy, photography, michael jackson, chinese, restaurant, mall, shops, wagaya, city, market city, sydney, darling harbour, battle studies, this is it, pepper lunch, ramen, eel, karaoke
Sitting here chillin’ with John Mayer’s new album Battle Studies playing. Picked it up today and I love it. It’s classic John Mayer. The record is kind of a heartbreak album, and yet it doesn’t have a sad tone at all, rather it feels optimistic even though there are songs titled “Heartbreak Warfare” and “Perfectly Lonely”. My favourites so far are “Half of My Heart” (with Taylor Swift) and “Who Says”. Watch the music video for the latter here:
Anyways, onto the brunt of this blog; a not-so-quick recount of the past week of my life…
Monday
Monday was a day at Parramatta with the boys (plus SY and Mindy). Did the usual outing thing where we headed to Foot Locker then grabbed something to eat before heading to the cinemas to catch This Is It. I really, really enjoyed the movie; I didn’t really want it to end. The whole movie is a compilation of footage from the rehearsals for his This Is It tour, and I’ve never seen anything like it before. I found it amazing that MJ’s voice was still the same at fifty years old as it was when he was twenty. And this was just his rehearsal voice (which is apparently his 60% voice according to Milo), so that’s crazy. Admittedly, his dancing isn’t as energetic as it used to be, but that’s to be expected. Still, I could watch that guy dance for ages. The backup dancers were pretty awesome to watch as well.
Another thing I found out was that MJ was a perfectionist. At one point in the film he’s shown advising the keyboard guy on the right way to play a song. To us, the changes he makes are almost unnoticeable, and yet he was so picky about wanting every little nuance to be perfect, exactly how it sounded on the record.
This is a definite must-see film for anyone who is an avid fan of Michael Jackson. For those that aren’t that into him, I wouldn’t recommend it (Michael: “I almost fell asleep”).
Tuesday
I awoke at 11am and went through my morning routine before catching a bus to Epping just after noon. From there, I caught a train to Town Hall where I met Milo. I had come with my camera and my new 35mm lens, ready for an afternoon of photography adventures with Milo and his new Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3.
From Town Hall we headed to Pepper Lunch for lunch where we both had a regular beef with extra egg (and took some shots of our food while we were there).
We then headed to Market City to meet Winnie and Leeanne and we were soon joined by Sandy. We had some time to kill so we all headed to Darling Harbour and spent some time there. Played in the water bowl place thingy and on the rope climbing thingy (yeah, I’m awesome at describing) and grabbed some candy from Sweet Doctor at Harbourside.
We then went back to Market City where Swami had been waiting for half an hour, and a few things happened after that which I don’t really remember then others arrived and we were all waiting outside Market City for the rest to get there. As a group we then went to Wagaya Japanese Restaurant for dinner. I ordered a Kimuchi Ramen (they messed up my order and it only arrived after like 40 minutes, but I wasn’t too fussed) and Eel Skewers. Both were really nice. Naturally, Milo and I snapped away with our cameras at all the nice food.
After that a group of us went to karaoke which was fun before catching a train back to Epping and home.
Wednesday
Janet had her VA exam which finished at 11am, so we grabbed some lunch and chilled after that. Not much to elaborate here. xP
Thursday
Sign out day. I got to school at around 9:30am and began my trek around the school in the boiling heat to get signed off by every department. Ms. O’hare only had time to sign me off at recess, so before that I went down to the courts for a bit of basketball. That ended when it was time for recess (and it was way to hot to play anyway) and I finished signing out after a while (waiting for Mrs. Pooviah to chat to everyone took ages). After that Janet and I headed to Parramatta for some lunch and window-shopped.
Friday
Drove to The Brickpit in Thornleigh at 10am for a day of basketball with the boys. It was good fun getting back into basketball and playing a good game for the first time in ages. We had to get off the court at around 11:30 to make way for a big group of primary school kids, so we all went to the nearby park and played on the mad flying fox and spider web rope climbing thing (like the one at Bicentennial Park if anyone knows of it). We also had a bit of target practice where a person (mostly Kris) went on the flying fox and we took turns at trying to hit them with Deva’s gridiron ball. At 12:30 we went back to the courts and played until about 1:30. Everyone then loaded into Kris’ and my car to Pennant Hills for some lunch. I had a burger with the lot and chips and a drink, and it was good since I was pretty hungry by then (it was 2pm). At 3pm everyone caught trains or got a lift in our cars to wherever.
Saturday
Went to my brother’s basketball game at Newington College. Got there an hour early so watched the 1st team play, which was cool (Kings got thrashed 80-something to 40-something). Unfortunately my brother’s team also lost.
After that we went to “Taste of Shanghai” (I think that was the name) restaurant in Ashfield for lunch. One of the waitresses was really pissy. Some of our cutlery and bowls were dirty (had bits of what looked like porridge on them), so we asked her to bring us new ones. She made a pissed face and a pissed sigh and took away the bowl, plate and chopsticks and handed it off to a different waitress who brought them straight back to our table. We knew it was the same set because the bits of porridge were still there. Anyway, the meal was good. Got a few different kinds of dumplings and things like that, so it was nice.
Sunday
Today I headed to Macquarie Centre with Janet where we basically window-shopped again. Picked up John Mayer’s Battle Studies from Target (since it was cheapest there), and also realised that I had been ripped off by Borders for Matthew Reilly’s new book ($34 at Borders, $25 at Target). Ah well, at least I had decided not to purchase Dan Brown’s new one yet, which also had the same price difference.
Anyways, I hope my recount hasn’t bored you too much. And if you didn’t read it all, I understand. At least there are pictures and a video to look at. xD
I cannot wait till Tuesday, where I’ll get to catch up with all you guys again; the last time we’ll all be together as an entire grade, and all looking good too. I’ll see you all there. (:
But until then, as always, take care.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: basketball, celebration, festival, food, lunch, malaysian, mamak, pad thai, photography, photos, roti, satay, shoes, thai
Yesterday was a pretty eventful day for me. So much so that I didn’t have the time or energy to blog about it until today.
The day began with me waking up at 10am. I showered and got dressed before scoffing down a big croissant with scrambled eggs, while having to forgo the mango and pancakes that was on offer due to time constraints (don’t worry, I had them today instead). We (my family and I) then quickly jetted off in the car towards Sydney Grammar, where my brother had a basketball game at noon.
It was a nice day. The sun was out and I can’t remember the last time I was out of the house on a weekend, without having to study.
My brother’s team (Kings) ended up thumping Sydney Grammar. I had brought my camera bag along with me, but the lighting was even worse than it was at Hills on Wednesday, so after the first few minutes of trying to get a shot I just gave up. And the game was really messy at the beginning anyway; hardly any shots went up for me to capture. Speaking of which, check out my shots from Wednesday’s game on my Flickr: Basketball @ Hills.
After the game, we headed over to the main part of the city for lunch. We decided to try Mamak (hi Belle!), the famous Malaysian restaurant that always has a long line coming out of it but we lucked out. When we arrived there was only one other group waiting (as we exited after our lunch we had to push past a fairly long line to get out) and we didn’t have to wait very long to get a table.
The food was great. For our family of four, we ordered 2x Roti Canai, 2x Roti Telur (roti with egg), 1x Lamb Curry, a dozen Chicken Satays and 4x Ayam Goreng (fried chicken). For drinks I had a Milo Ais (Iced Milo, which is kind of one of the staple drinks in Malaysia), and the way it was all served and the quality of the food reminded me a lot of meals in Malaysia, without the hot weather. I’d definitely eat there again.
After lunch I went to look for some new shoes. The first store we went into was called Espionage, and I immediately found the pair I wanted in there. They had my size, so I quickly nabbed them. This is the first time I’ve gone shoe shopping in two years. The last pair of shoes I bought were my white AF1s, so I’m pretty happy with how long my shoes last me.
We got home at about 4pm and I had half an hour’s rest on the computer before I hopped back in the car (this time with me alone at the wheel) and went to pick up Janet before heading the Parramatta for the Thai Festival on the Parramatta River, or “Loy Krathong”. I came armed with my camera bag once again, hoping for some nice cultural shots and the like, but it was quite a big let down in that category. I expected a big stage with lots of performances and a spectacular traditional floating of the Krathongs- tiny boats made of banana leaves with candles and flowers and incense on them- that I would be able to take some good shots of, but it turned out that the stage was a tiny platform on the other side of the river and the Krathongs were few and too small to photograph anyway.
The food was decent, but that’s another story altogether.
We arrived pretty early; at around 5:15pm (the festival officially began at 5:30pm), and there was already people milling around the few stalls they had. First we got a snack: one pork and one chicken satay, and both tasted really nice. When the others arrived (Mindy, Gabriel, Doug, SY, Sharon), we went to get some more food, this time Thai Green Curry and Pad Thai. However, the stall we were buying from ran out of Pad Thai just as it was our turn to order and the lady serving told us that it’d be a ten minute wait. So we told her that we would wait, but she told us to just line up again in 10 minutes. So we go off to sit in a grassy area and eat with the others away from the crowds and then return to the store some time later, where we find that the queue is moderately long. While waiting, Aryan, Peter, Dan and Bosco arrive (who, by the way, took an age to find the place), and then they headed off to sit with the others in the grassy area.
So as we were waiting in the line we thought it wouldn’t be too long before we got our food; there was maybe 5 people ahead of us. Problem was, there was only one lady serving (the same one from before) and the system was horribly inefficient and terribly flawed. What was supposed to happen is that she takes our order on one side of the stall, and then you move out of the way to the other side to wait for your food. Problem was, for some reason people started lining up on the “waiting for food” side and got served before the people in the actual line. The result of this was that the walkway got clogged by a HUGE queue, and we were stuck waiting near the front of it for about 40 minutes, without it even moving. FINALLY, I got to the front of the queue (Janet had gone to sit down since she was in heels and we had been standing there for an age) and can you guess what happened? Yep, they ran out of Pad Thai again. There was no way I was going to leave the queue and come back again, so I just waited there for the ten minutes it took to cook a new batch. Actually, that makes me wonder about their system. For some reason, they only START to cook a new batch of noodles AFTER the previous batch has run out. I have no idea why they didn’t start the new batch BEFORE the other ran out. So anyway, while waiting for the noodles I had a little chat with the guy next to me (40-ish man) and we had a bitch about the way the serving system (or lack thereof).
We eventually got our Pad Thai with chicken satay after almost an hour of waiting in line. Janet thought the noodles were a bit dry, but I think I blocked out that fact because I really wanted our wait to be worth the effort. After that we chilled and listened to the performances which weren’t that interesting. They had a Turkish band and Japanese string instruments at the Thai Festival. What the?
Anyway, that was the end of my eventful day. Got home at around 10pm and watched a few episodes of Scrubs before bedtime.
Today was much more relaxed; spent it chilling at home with my brother.
Hopefully I’ll have something to blog about in the coming days (headed to watch Michael Jackson’s This Is It tomorrow), but until then, do take care. Apologies for the long rant in this blog, haha.
PS. I know I’m reusing blog titles, but what the heck. xD
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: exam, friends, hsc, jason reeves, photography, photos, school, the end
The end is such a scary place to start
Everything is torn apart
I don’t know where to go from here
In the end, there’s no reason to pretend
I know you won’t be back again
I gotta find a way from here…
I don’t know where I’ll fall down
but I’m sure to hit the ground..
‘Cause it’s not over till it’s over
Every ending’s a new beginning
One more chance to get it right
One more chance to get it wrong
It’s not over till it’s over
Sometimes nowhere leads to somewhere
And it all starts again, yeah it all starts again
In the end
And it’s such a scary place to be
Everything is in between
I don’t know where to go from here
In the end I see it’s all up to me
To figure out where I should be
I’m going to find a way from here
And I don’t know where i’ll fall down
But I’m sure to hit the ground…
But it’s such a scary place to be
Everything is in between
I don’t know where to go from here
-”The End” by Jason Reeves
So it’s been ages since I’ve posted anything here, and boy does it feel good to be back. I’d forgotten how fun it was to blog. I hope all your personal HSC experiences weren’t so bad. For me, initially, I found myself thinking “Hey, this isn’t so bad,” and I felt alright going to the library every day to study and all that; it felt good and it was fun catching up with friends. I spent a lot of it chilling with my best friend from primary school, Jonny, so that was nice since we don’t really see each other much any more. But when the exams actually came round, I think the magnitude of it finally hit me and it became a big deal. Still, it wasn’t too bad, but towards the end I was so burnt out and I just wanted it all to end. I’m sure I’m not alone with that.
The HSC was a very weird time. The concept of a real “life” disappeared and our lives revolved around study. There wasn’t really time to think about anything else, although I spent a lot of the HSC thinking about life post-HSC. Actually, that leads me to the weirdest thing about the past few weeks: the HSC warps time.
For me, time was a huge factor. I found myself checking my watch a lot more than usual. “How long have I been studying for?” “When’s lunch?” “Crap, just wasted an hour checking feeds.” Every time I wanted time to go quicker (“I wish it was November 4 already…”), minutes passed like hours. Every time I wanted time to slow down (“Sh*t! Three 5-markers to go in 15 minutes?”), minutes passed like seconds. And yet, at the end of it all, it seems like it all flew by. The night before an exam I’d be thinking “I can’t wait till it’s all done with tomorrow afternoon…”, and by the end of it it didn’t feel that long after all.
And now I’m here, at the end of it all, and it literally feels like it was just yesterday that I was arriving at the library and sitting down at my single table in the back corner. Man, I’ll miss that spot.
When I was thinking about writing this post-HSC blog, the song “The End” by Jason Reeves popped into my head. We’re at the end of our schooling lives. For thirteen years we’ve been going to school. 9-ish to 3-ish every day, five days a week, 40-ish weeks a year for thirteen years. Thirteen years out of the eighteen I’ve been alive, and it’s the end of it all. Jason Reeves’ song sums it up pretty well. It’s kind of scary now that we’re about to go into the real world and have real adult lives. That’s definitely not the main feeling, but I’m sure it’s in the back of our minds. The more important line in the song is “Every ending’s a new beginning”. The end of our school lives is only the beginning of the rest of our lives (hooray for corny clichés!).
But seriously, I’m pretty damn excited about the future (not to menti0n the three months of holiday ahead).
Hmm, I feel like this blog is really disjointed. I’ve basically been throwing random thoughts onto the screen, whatever comes into my head, so I hope it all makes sense.
Number one on my post-HSC “things to do” list was photography. So on Wednesday, the first thing I did after the Physics exam was head up to Westfield Parramatta, where I picked up a new Nikon AF-S DX Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G (yep, James’ lens). Haven’t had the best weather to try it out yet, but I promise there will be photos soon. That night I went to my brother’s basketball game at Hills for the first time in a long time. I tried my hand at some sport photography and found out just how difficult it is to shoot fast-moving sports in far from ideal indoor lighting. I only got a few keepers, and I’ll throw those onto my Flickr when I’m done processing them.
Apart from that, so far I’ve been a vegetable at home, just resting and recovering from the HSC by watching lots of movies and Scrubs. Today I slept in for the first time in what feels like forever and awoke at 12:30pm, as opposed to the steady 8am-ish I’ve been doing since I began my library adventures and all through the actual HSC. It felt so good, and I can’t remember the last time I felt this awake.
I’ve made a few changes to my Flickr. I’ve tried to clean it out a little so that it looks more like a photographer’s Flickr and less of a photo-dump. So unfortunately, I’ve made all my photos of friends/family private. The only way to access them now is through a “Guest Pass”, ie. a special link that allows access into the set. So if you ever want to have a look at the photos, either come back to this post or ask me for the links. Also, I finally uploaded the photos from the last Monday (Final Assembly) and Tuesday (shirt signing) of school. Here are the links to all of them:
22-07-09: Janet’s Dinner
03-08-08: KO Netball
20-08-09: Inglourious Basterds
29-08-09: USYD Open Day
05-09-09: UNSW Open Day
05/06-09-09: Deva’s Place
18-09-09: At School
18-09-09: Re-edits
21-09-09: Junior Uniform Day
22-09-09: An Ordinary Tuesday
23-09-09: SCR
24-09-09: Mufti Day
25-09-09: Party Time!
28-09-09: Final Assembly
29-09-09: Signature Day
30-09-09: Birthday Dinner
Anyway, I think that is all for today. To all of you still with exams, I wish you the very best. To all of you without exams, go out and have lots of fun.
Take care everyone.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: holiday, friends, school, parramatta, maths, chicken, final, exam, hsc, study, library, recount, nrl, rugby, footy, chemistry, charcoal
So, what’s been happening in the life of Jeremy these past few days, since we last met? You probably aren’t interested, but I’ll tell you anyway (and my future self when I read this again in a few years time. Shout-out to future Jeremy! Yeah, I’m weird). I love parentheses.
DIGRESSING, the beginning of our school-free lives has been pretty interesting, albeit hard work. Let’s go day-by-day…
Thursday
The day after our last day of school. Surprisingly, even at this point it hadn’t hit that school was over and that we would not be seeing each other daily at school everyday. And I was right not to worry, as the rest of the blog will tell you. On this day, I did about 10 minutes worth of effective study. Very productive. This day was also the day I talked to Janet when she came back from her Ancient History study group and found out how much work she’d done. This was a major turning point for me. I think it’s the first time I’ve ever been truly worried or panicky about exams, and it was a really good kick in the butt that told me to get going with HSC study. And so the next day eventuated…
Friday
I headed to Parramatta Library at the early hour of 9:30am; the library’s opening time. It was really quiet, so I found myself a nice single study table and got to work. This was a super-duper productive day. Got through a couple of Chemistry topics, breaking only for lunch (Udon at the upper food court of Westfield) for an hour in the middle. In the later hours of my time there (3 or 4pm), Victor, who had previously been at Strathfield Library, came and sat with me until about 4:30. The day ended when I left the library at around 5:30pm. This day made me realise how much I love libraries. I get no work done at home, but while at the library I am pretty much working the entire time I’m sitting down. So I decided to visit a library every day for the rest of the holidays.
Saturday
I drove (loving my P-freedom) Janet and myself to Castle Hill Library, since it was a bit of a change from Parramatta. It was a bit less productive than the day before, but I still got a decent amount of work done (Chemistry and 4U Maths). Had lunch at Towers.
Sunday
Sunday was a fun day; NRL Grand Final day and a bit of a break from study and a chance to catch up with friends. After waking up late, I picked up Milo from his place at around noon and we headed to a charcoal chicken shop that he had recommended to grab some lunch; a place called El Jannah Restaurant in Granville. It was a nice-looking place, and what was awesome was that they had little translucent PLASTIC business cards, so Milo and I took one each to keep. Awesome. Bought two whole charcoal chickens and a large chips and took it to Kris’ place. Upon arrival, the house was empty since Kris had tutoring, but soon after, Matt arrived with Danny riding shotgun and then Kris with his dad a little later. We went inside and got out all the food and it was good. The chicken was great. I haven’t had charcoal chicken many times before, so I might not have a very developed taste in this aspect, but it was good. Milo commented that it was a bit dry, however, since he’s had it before and it was juicier then. Props for recommending the place, Milo.
Anyway, after we ate more people arrived and we watched the lower grade grand finals while playing on Kris’ laptop and trying to get a bit of study done (of which I did hardly any). When even more people arrived, we played table tennis outside for a bit.
When it was time for the final, we all sat down to watch while Kris’ parents cooked a barbecue for us (I know you won’t read this, but say thanks to them again, Kris!). Good food, good game, good night. Afterwards we played a bit more table tennis in the dark, and I also did a little bit of night photography. We tried light trails again, courtesy of Milo.
At about 8:30 it was time to go home and I gave Milo a lift while he tried shooting the traffic outside.
Monday
Public holiday so the libraries were all closed. Regardless, I studied with Janet and got a few 3U Maths papers done.
Tuesday
Tuesday was Mrs. Pooviah’s Physics and Chemistry Study Classes (or whatever they’re called). Physics was pretty informative for me (since I haven’t studied it since Trials), while Chemistry was pretty useless (since I have studied it) and I zoned out for a lot of it. In the break between, which was meant to be at noon but the Physics class went overtime to 12:20, a huge group of us headed in four cars (Ben’s, Kris’, Peter’s, mine) to Carlingford Court for lunch (I had KFC), before we all rushed back for the 1pm Chemistry class. After the second class, David, Don, Buddha and I went to Carlingford Library for some study from 3pm to 5pm.
Wednesday
Today I went to Parramatta Library. I thought the library opened at 9am, so I went to the bus stop at 8:23 waiting for that bus which arrived at 8:51, with the intention of arriving early to grab some breakfast beforehand. After driving my car around for a few days, I now really hate public transport. Somehow, the 8:23 bus never arrived. Hooray. At 8:45, the next bus arrived but drove straight past. Hooray again. In the words of the dude waiting there with me from 8:23: “Are you f***ing kidding me?!” So, the next one was at 8:53 which arrived a little early, and I hopped on that one. Arrived in Parramatta at around 9:20 and grabbed a Deluxe Brekky Roll from Maccas. I then walked over to the library but it hadn’t opened yet, so I sat outside the library with the many others waiting there, soaking in the morning air and sun while eating my breakfast. Perfect timing; the library opened just as I took the last bite of my roll, so I headed inside and grabbed my favourite corner table and got to work on some 3U Maths. At around 10:30 I had almost finished my paper and more people started arriving. I knew that there was an Ancient History study group today, but boy was I in for a surprise when a whole lot of other people turned up- there was also a PE study group plus others.
At lunchtime (around 1pm), Janet, Sharon, Bryan and I went to Westfield, where they got Subway while I had a Kebab and chips. I don’t think I want to go back to that kebab place, though. The guy there didn’t look too happy serving me and he kind of made it half-arsed. Ah well, it still tasted good. Just as we we going back to the library, we passed all the others who were heading to lunch. Then Bryan and Deva went together into Hungry Jacks to pick up some onion rings for Winnie. Upon their arrival, they realised that the girl at Hungry Jacks had forgotten to put in the tomato sauce. So they went back. And then they came back, holding a napkin with a phone number written on it, purportedly from the aforementioned girl. Then ensued a big discussion about whether it was a real or fake number, and who wrote it. Oh, one thing I forgot to mention: the number had only nine digits. It was missing one. But anyway, for the full story ask one of them.
I got some more study after the break, although it was quite a bit less productive. Headed home on a 5:41 bus back to Carlingford.
Now and to come…
So, in the days remaining until the HSC, I plan to carry out my plan of visiting the library each day when possible (except Sundays, since they don’t open). Tomorrow I will be at Parramatta again, so I hope to see more of you guys like I did today. If anyone wants to drop in and say hi, I will be a Parramatta most days sitting on my single desk in the corner of the study area from 9:30am to 5:30pm (e-stalkers alert!).
I think this will be my last blog until after the HSC. So, if I don’t see you before then, good luck with your studies! I’m sure our grade will perform wonderfully.
Take care everyone.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: apprenticea, disability, down syndrome, injustice, justice, mediocre films, mediocrefilms, money, partner, perry brothers, ponceman, retarded policeman, video, youtube
Hey everybody. I’ll post a blog later on about what I’ve been up to recently, but first there is one thing I want to talk about.
The Retarded Policeman
Okay, so you’ve just read the title and your brain is thinking “???”.
The issue of the “Retarded Policeman” first came to my attention when I saw a video on my YouTube subscriptions page entitled “The Retarded Policeman: What Really Happened” by a very famous YouTuber called ApprenticeA. This is the guy that did the “Star Wars A Capella” video that was featured and got over six million views. Anyway, so I like his videos and so I was curious as to what his new one was about, but when I opened it it was clear to me that this was not one of his usual musical videos; it was just him talking in front of the camera.
Now, you’re probably wondering what the hell the “Retarded Policeman” is.
The “Retarded Policeman” was (and still is) a hugely successful and popular YouTube series about a… you guessed it; a retarded policeman. Here is the first episode of the series:
Now, there are a variety of reactions to this video. Some say it’s derogatory towards people with mental disabilities while others laugh at its apparent hilarity. I was in the non-laughing group when I first saw this video (and I still don’t find it very funny at all), but upon reading into it I realised that there was more to it than meets the eye. The actor that plays the “Retarded Policeman” (which I will refer to as RP henceforth) is a man that actually has Down’s Syndrome in real life. Although the series may seem like they’re (ab)using his disability to make money, the point is that a man with a mental disability is being given a chance to make something out of his life (a chance not given to most disabled people out there) through an acting career, and he’s making money at the same time. Yes, he’s making money; and this is the main point.
For those of you who don’t know, YouTube Partners make money off their videos for every view. There are advertisements on their video pages that collect ad revenue for Google/YouTube, and so the maker of the video receives a small cut of the amount received. From what I’ve heard, this amount is somewhere in the range of $2-5 per one thousand views.
So, $2-5 per one thousand views, got it? The RP series, to date, has gotten over 45 million views. If you can figure out how much they would have received from that many views, you’ll know that it’s A LOT of money. But here’s the catch. The series was a joint project between two groups: one being The Perry Brothers (PB), which includes Josh Perry, the actor for the RP, and the other being Mediocre Films (MF).
This is where it starts to get dirty. The series was posted on MF’s channel, and hence he received all the money, but it was agreed that they would split the profits equally, and that MF would cut PB a cheque every time he got a payment. This was all well and good for a while, since PB were very happy with their payments in the amounts of thousands, which they thought was an equal share, until they realised they were being ripped off. Turns out, MF was paying 5% of the total profits to PB, even though both parties contributed equal effort and cost in the project. And on top of that, there is the fact that Josh Perry is the leading actor AND he has a disability. 45 million views at, say, $3 per thousand views, is $135,000. 5% of that is $6750. So, PB: $6750, MF: $128,250.
Final Summation
The injustice of this hit me like a brick when I first heard about it. How could a person be so cold-hearted and just morally incorrect and greedy, especially considering you’re gypping the main actor who has a mental disability. I just don’t know how someone could ever do something so wrong, and at such an extreme level. Now, maybe I’m just believing one side of the story, but the evidence is pretty conclusive. The Perry Brothers have given their side of the story, as well as the numbers I mentioned, on their blog and in a video, while Mediocre Films have failed to provide any sort of counter to the evidence shown by PB. He’s posted a very short blog and an even shorter video that says nothing to back himself up at all; because he has nothing to go on.
But yeah, I’m not sure if anyone was even interested in all of that, but it was something that struck me and I felt the need to talk about it. I really hate it when people are taken advantage of and aren’t treated fairly; particularly the disadvantaged. Hmm, I guess that’s why I’m going to be a lawyer some day.
Anyway, if you read all that, I’d love to hear your thoughts about it and what you guys think about this whole situation. Do you agree with me or do you think MF has a case somehow? And, what do you think about the series itself? It is derogatory towards those with a disability? Or do you find it funny?
I feel quite cheap actually asking for comments, but this is the first time I’ve done it, simply because I want to hear what other people think.
But yeah, I promise I’ll post a normal blog tomorrow (or later). And I will also get around to uploading my photos from Monday and Tuesday. If you haven’t seen them yet, my photos from Wednesday night’s dinner are on my Flickr here.
Until next time, take care.
PS. Extra points for anyone who can tell me where “Final Summation” is from. Hint: YouTube.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: *fin, anberlin, assembly, autograph, beach, birthday, dinner, end, final, finale, food, friends, gridiron, guitar, high school, junior, memories, music, performance, picnic, school, senior, signing
I am so beached right now. Totally exhausted. It’s been a crazy long day and an even more hectic week.
But, it’s the night of the last day of high school and our entire schooling lives and so I feel compelled to blog about it tonight while it’s still fresh.
I think I’ve pretty much covered all my sentimental feelings in my previous few posts, so I’ll try to keep that to a minimum this time round. But, if you’re not a fan of recounts, skip to the end for the more reflective stuff. Actually, after writing this blog I think there’s still quite a bit of sentimentality intertwined with the recounts. Okay, upon reaching the end I realised that there is no reflective ending to the blog. Maybe next time. (Yes these were added further into the blog, not at the beginning because that would be weird.)
Anyways, let’s start with Monday…
Monday
Monday was our farewell assembly. Arrived at school early for Single Ladies rehearsal since I only knew like the first five moves prior to Monday. It was fun letting go of our inhibitions and our dignity in the name of going out with a bang, and I definitely will not forget it. I never thought I’d do what we did on stage on Monday, but we did. And I never thought we’d wear what we wore, but we did. I don’t think I need to go into specifics about that. But it was just really awesome to do it with a lot of my friends; most of whom I never thought would ever put themselves in that position. I never thought I would ask a guy “So, are you wearing a leotard?” and hear the reply: “I guess so.”
Dancing with the Single Ladies was great, but I had two performances to prepare for the assembly, the other being the “4-Chord Song” with SY, Carol, Annie and special guest appearances by Angelina and Mindy, or rather “JACS ft. AM-Dawg” as SY has dubbed us. This performance was not on a whim; it stems back from our time in musical in year 11. Being only minor principals, we were not often required for actual rehearsals at late-night principal rehearsals. So, we spent a lot of time outside the hall and in the gym equipment storage room just jamming to a guitar; mostly to the “4-Chord Song” and its many variations. For those of you who don’t know it, it’s a medley of a number of different songs to the same four chords, since hundreds of popular songs in the last few decades have been written to the same chord progression. It’s been done many times before by Norwegian Recycling and AJ Rafael and friends, just to name a few, but ours consisted of: Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours”, The Black Eyed Peas’ “Where Is The Love”, Alicia Keys’ “No One”, Sam Hart’s “Mario Kart Love Song”, The Black Eyed Peas “Where Is The Love” (the rap), Colbie Caillat’s “Realize”, Missy Higgins’ “Scar” and Ne-Yo’s “Easy”. Since the end of year 12 was a lot about remembering old times and reliving memories from our younger years, it was really nice to go out with this song, and I had a great time practising and performing with you guys.
Following the performances were the traditional speeches (although there was none by year 11s this year), video presentations and then our final roll call where we received our rams and walked to the back of the hall. Speaking of which, I would’ve liked the usual walk down the centre aisle rather than the side, but ah well.
After that there was the massive photo-taking and hug-fest. A little known fact about me: I like hugs. Some were more emotional than others, and frankly I was a little bummed that I wasn’t as sad as I’d expected. I guess I knew that I’d still see my friends in the following two days, so the reality of the end of high school hadn’t quite hit me as hard as it did for others.
Tuesday
The morning started with a mass shirt and book signing that only got bigger as the morning went on. At first it was difficult thinking of messages to write, but I think we’re all experts at it now. Not much to say except that I enjoyed this part a lot.
Then was the luncheon. I arrived in the hall a tad late and so the food supplies were low, but I managed to fill myself.
Then a group of us boys headed down to the oval for our last game of gridiron at school. Due to Deva’s request, our team became the “skins” team, along with Gabriel, Bryan, Ben and Eddy. Twas fun.
Tuesday night was Cabaret Night; the last school concert I will ever attend as a student. I kind of regretted not performing as I usually do, but it was nice just watching and cheering on the performers from our grade (and the other grades). Following this, I got home and proceeded to make the little puff things I brought for Winnie and Carol’s birthday picnic the next day.
Wednesday
I’m sure by now you’ve realised that I’ve kind of gotten a bit tired in the process of writing this blog. But anyway, I shall motor on with it. Don’t you just love unnecessary lines talking about the unnecessary nature of certain lines in a blog? Yeah, I’ll stop now.
Today I arrived at school to see everyone in mufti with their beach gear and everything. A few more shirt signings later and we had roll call (wait, what happened to our final roll call on Monday?), and during this, Rena from year 8 came to give Annie and I a little graduation gift and a final hug and goodbye. I found this gesture very touching, so although I know you don’t read my blog, thank you Rena, I love my monkey.
The beach was great, but unfortunately at this point I am too beached to remember the details. Briefly playing with Winnie’s skimboard, dunking people, eating at the picnic, doing a little bit of photography with James’ camera, a huge grade photo taken by a million different cameras… All in all it was a really relaxing final outing with the whole grade.
Upon arriving back at school, I noticed a few people pondering, and it was obvious to me that the end had finally hit them. For me, it still hadn’t. I knew that I would be seeing everyone again at night…
Winnie and Carol’s birthday dinner was held at The Ranch. There was a lot of talk about beer and there was a kind of mini-crackdown on underage drinkers but it all worked out somehow. I didn’t have any since I had to drive. I ordered the Scotch Fillet Steak Sandwich, which was pretty good, but the majority of the night was not spent eating. We watched Winnie and Carol open their gifts, we sang Happy Birthday to them and then the photo-taking started. Everyone just chilled out around the three big tables we had reserved and took luvos and just chatted. I lack the words right now to express how nice it was, so for now I’ll just use some an adverb and say that it was really, really nice. I guess it somewhat hit me at that point as people were leaving that I wouldn’t be seeing them properly again for a long time. But I know we still have the HSC and schoolies and ATAR BBQ and all that jazz. I think all of this is actually my mind making up excuses because I can’t accept the fact that it’s all over. But we’ll see.
After the dinner a small group of us headed to Karaoke in Eastwood: Janet, Winnie, Carol, Annie, SY, Angelina, Danny, Aryan and I stayed for the majority of it, while Leeanne left early on. Sang a few songs, then hugs all round as we left.
Anyways, I think that’s all I have the energy for tonight/early morning. Maybe I’ll write some more tomorrow. Photos from tonight should be up tomorrow or over the next few days.
But until next time, stay safe and don’t forget the memories we’ve shared at school.
Ruse 09; I love you all. And I truly mean that. We were the best grade ever. I am so thankful to have known you all, and for those I haven’t known so well; know that I have regretted it.
Take care everyone.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: camera, end, finale, flickr, friends, high school, james ruse, photography, photos, school
I’m not sure if you noticed, but I’ve used this blog title before; a while back. But I just have to use it again since it’s so appropriate.
These past few days have been very interesting. So many people have been bringing cameras to school and it’s awesome. People like Marcus have come out of their shells and succumbed to the photo-taking craze, allowing people like me to capture precious memories of our grade just before it’s all over. So, here’s a quick recap of what’s been happening these past three days.
Tuesday: Tuesday was a pretty ordinary day compared to the other days this week, with the exception of the Awards Day Assembly that seemed to last for an eternity. There were a few photographs taken, but not even close to the amount on the two preceding days of school.
Flickr Set: 22-09-09: An Ordinary Tuesday
Wednesday: On this day we experienced the weirdest weather that we have ever seen in Sydney as everything became covered in dust and the skies turned red and yellow. As a result, I was afraid to take my camera out of my bag outdoors; and no-one really wanted to be outdoors for extended periods of time anyway. I did, however, capture a few shots of common room clean up that afternoon.
Thursday: Today was a mufti day for “Crazy Hair Day”, even though I saw maybe a tenth of the school embracing the real purpose of the day. Still, it was a nice day, dust-free, and everyone was out of uniform for a change. The library was unusually packed with the entire grade attempting to get their Scholarship and Medicine application forms signed by Mr. Deigan, and I am still yet to get mine done. At the end of the day we had a party in Physics where Kelly prepared a delicious pancake mix and everyone took turns cooking and eating them, including a few visitors to our class.
Flickr Set: 24-09-09: Mufti Day
I’ve made a collection on my Flickr with all of these sets and the ones from Friday and Monday in it, so that’s where they’ll continue to be added until school ends. Find it here:
Flickr Collection: Ruse 09: The Last Days
Oh, and one more thing. Be sure to check out the photographs that Janet took when she borrowed my camera over the weekend. I think some of them are better than any photos I’ve ever taken, so I’m sure you’ll like them.
Flickr Set: 18/19-09-09: Janet’s Photography
And that’s all from me today. I will definitely post a full blog next week when our celebrations go under way and school is finally over.
But until then, enjoy it while you can.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: class, flickr, friends, jrahs, junior, photo, school, uniform
Today we discarded our white shirts that are a symbol of our maturity and responsibility as seniors in the school. In its place, we donned grey shirts and green tunics as a throwback to our junior years. Find the photos on my Flickr:
Flickr Set: 21-09-09: Junior Uniform Day
Some people looked hilarious in their junior uniform while others looked normal, somehow. It was fun to wear, too.
Sorry for the lack of discussion, but this is just a short, quick blog to plug the set. I would usually put things like this on my Tumblr, but I know that many randoms view/read that one. At least here I know only you guys read and there aren’t too many randoms.
More to come tomorrow.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: baby, camera, flickr, photo, photograph, photography, school
The other day I went digging for old baby photos for the presentation for the final year 12 assembly. I got Janet to scan them for me, and so I figured I may as well upload them also.
And speaking of photos, I brought my camera to school today to give to Janet to borrow over the weekend. But during the day I got a tonne of shots, with a lot taken by Thashan, Bryan, James and Ambert. Some great memories were captured, so I’ll be bringing my camera to school everyday from now on. Check out the set!
Flickr Set: 18-09-09: At School
That’s all for today. Stay tuned for more photos next week.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: freedom, friends, grade, high school, james ruse agricultural high school, jrahs, memories, routine, school, security, sentimental, university, year
It seems that my blogging has become increasingly sporadic. Even after the last post, in which I addressed the issues preventing me from blogging more often, I still have not found a resolve for any of them. I’m still sleeping late; in fact, I am actually waking earlier nowadays to play in the mornings. I’ve only done a bit of photography lately, not daily or two-daily as I used to. I think I’ve shot basically everything photographically-viable around my house and street, so there’s not much more I can do until I go out somewhere interesting. So, the point is, I can’t use the excuse that my creative energies have been spent elsewhere.
But regardless, here I am, just to get a few things off my chest.
There is no need to reiterate that there has been a huge increase in sentimental thoughts and blogs in the weeks leading up to the end of our schooling lives. I find myself constantly conversing about the past, the future, the short amount of time we have left at school.
And what a great school it has been. I can very confidently say that James Ruse Agricultural High School has been very good to me. I’ve loved the six years that we’ve been here, and I’ve loved all the people who I see day-in, day-out. Nowadays, I am quick to shoot down any stereotypical comments about our school. Sure, we do have certain groups that do fit the stereotype, but for the most part, people around here are very sociable. I am so thankful for the pride that we have as a grade and as a school, and I cannot say how much I love that our grade is so tight. Literally every other school has distinct segregated groups within each grade, and although we do have certain distinct groups, the barriers between each are very, very thin. It is because of this that I am able to say “Hi” to people I see out of school that I barely talk to at school. Excuse me for being very sentimental and border-line homosexual here, but I just cannot express how much I’ll miss our grade and school.
Shit, I said the word “love” too many times in that paragraph. Oh well; there they shall stay.
The other day James posted a very interesting excerpt on his blog, entitled “Security”, by Hunter S. Thompson. It discussed the differences between opposing values in society: do I choose security or risk? With security comes boredom and lack of purpose, but with risk comes both success and failure. This may be a tad tangential, but it got me thinking about school and the daily routine of timetables and bell times.
For six years we have lived each weekday by the sound of a siren, ringing eleven times each day and controlling the structure of our days. Never-failing. Constant. Routine. Routine. We say that we are looking forward to life after highschool; to freedom and university and a more open life, but I think secretly we all crave the routine. We need the routine. Through it, we feel safe; secure.
For me, the daily routine has been (on weekdays, with exceptions):
7:30/8:00: Awake, shower, get dressed, eat breakfast, brush teeth- there is virtually never a day where this routine is broken.
8:00/8:30/8:50 (depending on the day): Depart for school- I walk into my garage, through the automatic roller door and out onto the street. I turn left out of my house, then a right, another left and straight ahead to school. If school goes for 40 weeks a year, 5 days a week and I walk the route twice a day (to and from school), this means that I have walked the exact same path over 2300 times over six years. I could walk it with my eyes closed- and I’m not even kidding about this. Most days I am busy thinking about other things in my life or about the upcoming day, and sometimes I don’t even notice where I am until I am on the school grounds.
9:00 onwards: The day goes by; the bells ringing for each period. For the most part of my high school life, recesses and lunchtimes have been spent at the basketball courts- this is one part of the routine that I will miss. The way that everyone gradually arrives at the courts. The muck-around time that occurs every time before teams are arranged and a game is finally started.
What will we do without this routine? Some days we will awake early to travel to university; some days not at all. It is both a daunting and exciting prospect, although more so the latter.
So what’s the count? Nine official days of school (albeit with some not spent on the school grounds). I could never have imagined what it would be like to be at this point. At the beginning of the year it felt so far away. Even more so last year. And it was just a pipe dream when I first arrived in year 7. But here we are; nearing the end. Wow. Before we know it, the HSC will be over and we will arrive, finally, at that point that we’ve all been dreaming about- freedom.
So I say suck it up for the next few weeks. There’s not long to go, so we might as well make the most of it- both academically and in terms of spending time with friends.
It’ll all be over faster than we think.
And with that, I will end. Please do take care; I really mean this, and I wish the best to all of you.
