I was going to add this little bit onto my last post, but since my lecture posts aren't always exactly riveting I know most of you just skim over them (don't deny it!).
This is my last post! I was tossing up whether or not to continue after JOUR1111 came to an end, but if you've read any of my posts this semester you'll know I'm horrible at time management and probably wouldn't post anything for another month or so.
Thank you to all the people who read my blog. Thanks to you, I managed to achieve my goal of reaching over 1000 views, which is a great accomplishment for someone who's only just starting out.
I wish you all well (including those people from Russia who make up a lot of my views... I don't know who you are but thanks for reading!) and I shall see you all around!
Adios/Ciao/Au revoir/Tschuess/Aloha?/Auf wiedersehen/Goodbye!
Leila
Thursday, 14 June 2012
The Last Lecture
Lecture 11
From the moment I read the title of our last JOUR1111 lecture, I knew it was going to be some speech on how this course offers so much and we can go so far in our careers if we really have the motivation. But to be completely honest, there's only so many times we can hear "it opens so many doors" without rolling our eyes. To the person marking my blog: we have been learning all semester to share our opinions and that is what I'm trying to do now. Don't be mad!
The lecture was presented by Steve Molk, who we were told was one of the top four entertainment bloggers in Australia, and his career through blogging. Hearing how this guy went from being an IT professional to an entertainment blogger that interviews people like Will Anderson is great, but nothing new. Because of the generally good consistency of our previous lectures, I expected the last one to be... more. Don't get me wrong, I know we are here to learn and our lectures aren't purely for entertainment purposes, but this was by far the least enjoyable lecture of the semester. I felt like this was the first lecture where I walked out without having learnt anything new.
Steve talked about how important what we choose to publish is right now, because it's helping to build our brand for the future. He talked about blogging, the easiness that comes with new media, how the internet is killing magazines and how important it is to write freely now before we have guidelines. We've heard it week after week, it has been completely drilled into our heads and I just wanted to stand up and say "we get it!" (but unfortunately I'm only opinionated when I'm sitting behind a computer screen).
All in all though, I have to say that JOUR1111 is a fantastic subject to take. I know a few people reading this will think I'm just sucking up to the marker, but I genuinely enjoyed the course. So thank you, Bruce, for making my first semester of uni much less torturous than I thought it would be.
From the moment I read the title of our last JOUR1111 lecture, I knew it was going to be some speech on how this course offers so much and we can go so far in our careers if we really have the motivation. But to be completely honest, there's only so many times we can hear "it opens so many doors" without rolling our eyes. To the person marking my blog: we have been learning all semester to share our opinions and that is what I'm trying to do now. Don't be mad!
The lecture was presented by Steve Molk, who we were told was one of the top four entertainment bloggers in Australia, and his career through blogging. Hearing how this guy went from being an IT professional to an entertainment blogger that interviews people like Will Anderson is great, but nothing new. Because of the generally good consistency of our previous lectures, I expected the last one to be... more. Don't get me wrong, I know we are here to learn and our lectures aren't purely for entertainment purposes, but this was by far the least enjoyable lecture of the semester. I felt like this was the first lecture where I walked out without having learnt anything new.
Steve talked about how important what we choose to publish is right now, because it's helping to build our brand for the future. He talked about blogging, the easiness that comes with new media, how the internet is killing magazines and how important it is to write freely now before we have guidelines. We've heard it week after week, it has been completely drilled into our heads and I just wanted to stand up and say "we get it!" (but unfortunately I'm only opinionated when I'm sitting behind a computer screen).
All in all though, I have to say that JOUR1111 is a fantastic subject to take. I know a few people reading this will think I'm just sucking up to the marker, but I genuinely enjoyed the course. So thank you, Bruce, for making my first semester of uni much less torturous than I thought it would be.
Wednesday, 13 June 2012
One-time-only Rant
Please note: I realize I'm contradicting myself by writing this post. I just want to get it off my chest this one time and then I swear to never speak of such horrors again.
Every time I read something new about Schapelle, I just feel like ripping the newspaper to shreds. So she brought a mother-load of drugs into another country? Let her deal with the consequences without making her famous! Every single newspaper I've picked up int he past week has had a story about her 'imminent' release. She has a book written about her! This girl deserves nothing from us and I think it's disgusting that there are all these pitying articles describing how bad she's doing behind bars.
Because I don't want to swear on here, I'm going to shut up now. I know I haven't explained myself and I'm sorry, but I feel that if I get started I may go on for a couple thousand words.
Rant over.
Crowned Coolest Hamster on the Planet
After my brief attempt at posting a YouTube video each day completely failed, I kind of gave up on the idea of posting videos. But after watching this video about 10 times everyday, I figured I was under obligation to post it on here. Be prepared to witness the most adorable thing since the Sneezing Panda:
Love the description: "No hamsters were hurt in the making of this video". Priceless.
Myth-o-Maniac?
Everybody who knows me knows about my slight *ahem* fascination with mythology. I take a course on it at uni, I spout random facts about it to people who now think I'm completely crazy and I read about 3 books each week somewhat revolving around it. But never within the two years that I've been scrambling for information about mythology have I read a book as riveting, as tense, as good as 'Starcrossed' (and its sequel 'Dreamless') by Josephine Angelini.
I told myself, when I started this blog, that I wouldn't post reviews on books or movies on here, merely because my taste in entertainment in sometimes questionable at best (and I'll be the first to tell you that). But now, I've come across a book that makes me want to buy a million copies just so I can give it to everyone I cross and have them share in the pure awesomeness that it contains.
Yes, there are romantic themes in 'Starcrossed' and 'Dreamless', but that isn't the reason I love it so much. There's a kick-ass central character who isn't overly-anything. Some authors tend to make their central characters either overly-timid or overly-charismatic, but Josephine Angelini managed to find the perfect balance and have an actually likeable main character.
'Starcrossed' was released last year, and the reason I'm bringing up this series is because its sequel 'Dreamless' was published only a matter of days ago. I bought it and read it within a day. I almost, almost, posted something on Josephine Angelini's Facebook page accusing her of being a scion (descendant of one blessed by the gods) with the power to mesmerize people with her words but I thought I might come off a little crazy so I held myself back (up until now, that is).
I'm not going to say what it's about. If I try and describe the storyline, I know that everyone will that it lame and probably not read it so all I'm going to say is trust me!
And this book isn't the only one incorporating mythology in one way or another. I've seen countless books within the past 6 or so months trying the retell certain stories in a modern way (and as someone who loves to say they discovered something first, I'd like to mention here that I liked mythology way before it was cool) but some of them, to put it bluntly, are either completely confusing or fail abysmally. Last week, I read the Mythos Academy series by Jennifer Estep and, while decently entertaining, it mixed Greek mythology with Norse religion with a few Romans mixed into the storyline just to cover the major bases. The plot had major flaws and you weren't always cheering for the right characters. I don't know how to explain the frustration I had with this series (which is why I don't think I could be a good book reviewer) but suffice to say Estep is no Angelini.
Check out this article about YA books incorporating mythology, it made me smile :)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-parkin/interview-with-josephine-_b_1588387.html?utm_hp_ref=books
I told myself, when I started this blog, that I wouldn't post reviews on books or movies on here, merely because my taste in entertainment in sometimes questionable at best (and I'll be the first to tell you that). But now, I've come across a book that makes me want to buy a million copies just so I can give it to everyone I cross and have them share in the pure awesomeness that it contains.
Yes, there are romantic themes in 'Starcrossed' and 'Dreamless', but that isn't the reason I love it so much. There's a kick-ass central character who isn't overly-anything. Some authors tend to make their central characters either overly-timid or overly-charismatic, but Josephine Angelini managed to find the perfect balance and have an actually likeable main character.
'Starcrossed' was released last year, and the reason I'm bringing up this series is because its sequel 'Dreamless' was published only a matter of days ago. I bought it and read it within a day. I almost, almost, posted something on Josephine Angelini's Facebook page accusing her of being a scion (descendant of one blessed by the gods) with the power to mesmerize people with her words but I thought I might come off a little crazy so I held myself back (up until now, that is).
I'm not going to say what it's about. If I try and describe the storyline, I know that everyone will that it lame and probably not read it so all I'm going to say is trust me!
And this book isn't the only one incorporating mythology in one way or another. I've seen countless books within the past 6 or so months trying the retell certain stories in a modern way (and as someone who loves to say they discovered something first, I'd like to mention here that I liked mythology way before it was cool) but some of them, to put it bluntly, are either completely confusing or fail abysmally. Last week, I read the Mythos Academy series by Jennifer Estep and, while decently entertaining, it mixed Greek mythology with Norse religion with a few Romans mixed into the storyline just to cover the major bases. The plot had major flaws and you weren't always cheering for the right characters. I don't know how to explain the frustration I had with this series (which is why I don't think I could be a good book reviewer) but suffice to say Estep is no Angelini.
Check out this article about YA books incorporating mythology, it made me smile :)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-parkin/interview-with-josephine-_b_1588387.html?utm_hp_ref=books
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