just a note to myself

http://archiveofourown.org/works/548314/chapters/976562

Updating after an entire year D:

Just a quick update (probably my only update for this side of the year, but here it is anyway).

I'm only back on here because of fairy. Other than that, it's business as usual over at AFC. But hey, if you're open-minded and don't mind a slight yaoi fic, here's the link to my latest FF.net story:

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8003546/1/

It's called All I need, and this is the official summary:
"After Alex get's back from a mission, Tom gives him an insight into how hard it is to wait patiently and trust that the young spy will return home. Mild slash, don't like? GTFO. One shot, though I might turn this into a tom/alex dump file. R&R"


Anyway, I have full intentions of uploading more stories (recently, I took about 3 or 4 stories down from FF.net, and intend to fix them up before re-posting... Because I swear, I have OCD or something).

Anyway, that's all for now :) Bye :)

My English F.A

So bare with me, here it is XD:

*Feel free to just read the into and conclusion... The middle can get quite boring in my opinion. Also, keep in mind, this is just a draft and there are things that need fixing - I know that. Having said that, if you see a way to better this piece, please comment or tell me on AFC.. Thank-you ♥

“Working Class Man”

The ‘Aussie Battler’ mentality motivates Australians to remain strong in even the most adverse situations. Jess (insert last name) investigates our icon’s influence on Australian literature and art.

Aussie’s have long been known for their loyalty, hard-work and determination. In fact, it’s this ‘Aussie Battler’ mentality that is so largely responsible for the achievements of everyday Australians, as it gives us the strength and will-power necessary to get the job done.

The ‘Aussie Battler’ icon goes way back, right to the time when our ancestors first landed here as convicts. Against the odds, they survived the harsh Australian landscape, and eventually they carved the golden belief of what it is to be ‘true blue’.

We constantly see our Politician’s on TV reminding us of who we are – it helps and motivates us to get through the tough times, just like we always have. This is particularly evident in Anna Bligh’s recent speech to Queenslanders, in light of the devastating floods, “We are the ones that they knock down, and we get back up again” – truer words never spoken.

In fact, this mentality is not only portrayed through everyday actions and politics, but also through Australian literature and movies. A good example of this would be the novel My Brother Jack by George Johnston. Set just after the First World War, the story follows brothers David and Jack as they embark on separate journeys of self discovery in order to accomplish their dreams. For David, this means sacrificing all he holds dear to become a journalist (and later, a war correspondent). Yet Jack goes for the more typical Aussie dream of joining the army in order to defend his country. This novel is the perfect example of the ‘Aussie Battler’ mentality to never give up and fight to the end.

Similarly, the 2003 award winning movie Swimming Upstream is chock full of hardships, tears and betrayal – and an Aussie’s mission to swim through it all and bring home the gold. In the film, main character Tony, doesn’t get on with his father Harold and is constantly put down for not conforming to the ‘tough Aussie bloke’ ideal that so many young men are presented with. Ironically though, in a bid to turn the tables in his favour, Tony trains harder than ever before aiming for victory and displaying the true characteristics of an Aussie 

Battler.

This icon can be seen in Swimming Upstream as the characters constantly face obstacles they must tackle. For Tony, after taking his father’s ridicule, cruelty and favoritism towards John (Tony’s brother), standing up for himself and fighting back is a massive feat, one that he is determined to accomplish. After Harold chooses to coach John separately and thus turning the brothers against each other, Tony trains himself for long hours in the pool, displaying his will power and preparing himself for the race where he will not only face his brother, but also finally confront his father. After winning the race, we see Tony’s pride and strength shine through as he says to John “I didn’t win against you mate, I won against him”.

This mentality is consistent with My Brother Jack when David uses the last of his money to buy a type-writer as opposed to the pencils his mother wanted him to buy for art. When he comes home with the machine, chaos erupts in the household as his father screams at him “Get that infernal blood contraption out of this house and either come back without it, or not at all”. Fed up of conforming to his father’s outdated mentality, David takes a stand and chooses to move out, thus demonstrating the ‘Aussie Battler’ notion through his bravery and ‘don’t let ‘em get you down’ attitude.

Furthermore, throughout the novel, Jack is constantly faced with health problems that prevent him for getting deployed overseas. He reveals his determination to fight for his dreams, when towards the end of the book he writes in a letter to David “I have been classified unfit for overseas service. However I’ve got two officers pulling some strings” thus indicating that Jack will stop at nothing to pull through his obstacles and come out triumphant.

The ‘Aussie Battler’ mindset is reflected in the constant achievements made by your everyday typical Australians. This can be seen in Swimming Upstream when after training mercilessly, Tony’s efforts pay off as he wins and becomes the Australian Champion. He receives the ultimate reward when Harold is finally forced to recognize Tony’s achievements and praises him, admitting “You’ve got guts”. Tony doesn’t stop there though, after hearing about the possibility of getting a full scholarship into Harvard via the sports program, Tony perseveres, training harder still, keeping his mind-set firm and focused and is rewarded when he one day receives a letter in the mail informing him of his success. Tony has gone from being a no-hoper from a middle/lower class family to having opened multiple doors that lead to bright futures, all because of his perseverance and determination – qualities that make up a true ‘Aussie Battler’.

Additionally, in the novel My Brother Jack, David also displays the ability to persist until he reaches success. This can particularly be seen when he is offered a job by one of the leading newspapers in Melbourne, despite him only being 16 years old. Upon finding out David’s age, the editor Mr. Brewster exclaims “You write well boy. For a youngster, very well. I enjoy your pieces… Have you considered journalism as a career?” Therefore, this indicates that David’s writing occupation has already begun to flourish, due to his efforts to persevere as a journalist.

Another movie outlet for the ‘Aussie Battler’ icon is the incredibly popular movie The Dish. Set in Australia, the movie follows the story of how during the Apollo 11 mission, the Australian techies team up with NASA to create the first ever satellite interface. During their journey, the team faces multiple challenges and the road is full of obstacles. However, due to their continued perseverance and refusal to take ‘no’ for an answer, the team emerges successful, thus portraying the ‘Aussie Battler’ attitude of never giving up.

Australian literature and art will continue to display the ‘Aussie Battler’ icon, as they already have through My Brother Jack and Swimming Upstream. In both of these exhibits, bravery, perseverance, fighting spirit, strength and determination are all incredibly valued traits of the working class man. The ‘Aussie Battler’ notion has become an entrenched part of our society, as it evolves with us. Despite what some may believe, this concept will remain a deeply engraved part of the Australian Identity; in fact our beliefs are so closely linked with the ‘Aussie Battler’ mentality, that if we were to lose it, we would lose what it means to be Australian.

*It's over now, I promise =D

Quick Update

The only reason I get so much is because I work so much :(... Like slave labour... I probably shouldn't joke about that XD

Well the car looks pretty cool (to me), but yeah, it's cheap, it'll get me from A to B, that's all I really need :D

Also, I'll keep this blog, and occasionally post some stuff up on AFC... WHICH I FINALLY HAVE A JOURNAL ON!!! Geeze, only took a year XD

My day was boring, all in all. How was yours?

invalid worries XD

Yes, so apparently stressing over my school results was unwarranted XD. I got an A- on my IPT essay, and an A+ and an A (the test was broken up into 2 parts) on my Ancient History exam. Which also happened to be the top result in my year =D.. However, I failed Maths with a D+, but I was expecting that and can easily bring my overall mark for Maths up to a B/B+.

Ok I'm sorry, I'll stop talking about school XD.

I officially have $1000 saved towards a car, with the car that I am buying costing $2500. So that is not too bad. I am hoping to get the rest of the money for the car within the next 2 months, then I'll finally get the car!! Unfortunately though, it will probably cost me about $1000 dollars to do the car up (paint, tires, CD player, fixing parts of the engine etc), but all in all, I think I can get it ready for my birthday in September XD.

The car I am getting is the Mitsubishi FTO - 1994 model. So the car is the same age as me XD. Here's a link to the Google images page:

http://www.google.com.au/images?hl=en&source=hp&biw=1257&bih=937&q=mitsubishi+fto+1994&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=g1&aql=&oq=

I'll probably paint the car black because I'm doing it myself, so metallic and like rainbow colours are out of the question.

Hey multi, when I get up to 150 posts and can start a journal on AFC, should I keep this blog going? Or just copy and paste over to the journal?... I think I will keep this blog (it might come in handy in the future), but I'm not sure if I'll use it.... )=

Anyway, I'm getting a lot of shifts at my clothes store job, but work for my IT job is kinda dying. At the moment I get about 5 hours/week at protogear.com, whereas at Hit n Run I get like 15 hours/week on average. So all in all, like $250/week, of which I save like $150 and spend the rest on books, clothes, school stuff blablabla. To be honest, I don't know where most of my money goes /:

I actually bought Alex Rider: Scorpia Rising yesterday :)... I have all the books in the series, so when I saw the latest book had come out, I had to buy it. The first 2 chapters are dead boring (which is unusual for Anthony Horowitz), but that was easily forgiven as I was soon left on the edge of my seat! The book is really good so far, I'm deliberately going slow in order to savour the story, so I'm only half way through the book..

Oh, I replied to that debate about homosexuality on AFC. Unfortunately, I was in a bad mood so you will see a few low blows aimed at Cezen. But I think for the most part I put up a good arguement. However, I regret that the rebutal took me an hour to write XD, but it was fun so I don't mind too much.. I just wasn't lying when I said I don't have time to write him an essay (school load, work etc.).

I talked to my deputy principle today, he did nothing about my IPT teacher and pretty much said that I'll just have to take my education into my own hands... Great, thanks school system, I see the taxes I pay are well worth your continued survival :(

Actually, in addition to this, I made an appointment with the careers councillor at my school, for Thursday at 12:30pm. I think I'll ditch the whole idea of doing a hairdressing apprenticeship, honestly the more I think about it, the more I am convinced that it is just a waste of time. I think I will defer university for 2 years, during that time just work a full time job, then go back to uni after that. The reason I made the appointment, was to find out more about studying interstate or abroad, perhaps in VIC, TAS, New Zealand or Germany.

As a final point, I am now addicted to energy drinks :(... They have kept me alive for the last 2 weeks while I have been surviving on 4 hours of sleep per night. But unfortunately, I cannot go more than a day without one or else I will fall asleep, lose my concentration blablabla.. I'll have to sort out my sleeping patterns in 3 weeks when we go on holidays.

Alright, I'll stop now XD... Sorry about my meagre rants, I wish I could inform you that I was in a bank robbery today or something... I really do :)

So this week...

This week just passed was pretty stressful to be honest :(.

I had a piece of assessment due for English, which was a simple dot point draft that I enjoyed planning (I'm desperate to get it back so I can start writing the feature article XD) and also my IPT essay was due (but because I handed it in like 1-2 weeks ago I was fine).

No, the real reason my week was not too enjoyable was because I was incredibly worried about whether or not I failed my exam for English. You see, after we all took the exam and the teacher had finished marking them, Miss sat us all down (OK well we were already seated, but you get what I mean) and point blankly told us that a third of us had failed. She looked directly at me then proceeded to say "Some of the people who failed I was really surprised at, because you did exceptionally well in English last year and I expected better". I had the 2nd best result in English last year across the grade so my reaction was something along the lines of, "OMG I'm having a heart attack D=". Also, because she told me that if it didn't fix my draft, it would fail :( so I was really worried. The exam required us to memorise a movie script that we wrote, then write it out in the exam - that's why I had a draft for it.

Anyway I ended up getting a B- for it, which was the 2nd highest mark in the class, and the 6th highest mark in the year (about 100 students), so I am pleased with that, especially since it was really hard.

On Tuesday, I have an appointment with my Deputy Principal about my IPT teacher. Basically, Mr St John is possibly the worst teacher you could ever come across. I'll put his (massive) flaws in dot points, because it's fun:

☻He hasn't taught us anything this year (I'm not exaggerating, he literally walks into the classroom, sits at his desk, and stays there for the entire lesson, not speaking to us once)
☻He is constantly changing assignments on us - he gave us a task at the start of term to design a game, then changed it to the writing task I just handed in, now he is telling us there will be a test in 2 weeks and we will be going back to the game after that. If there is a curriculum, he is not following it
☻about that test, last lesson he gave us a revision sheet to do - I went into my documents from last year and pulled up the exact same revision sheet with all the answers filled in. He isn't teaching us anything new
☻Grrrrr... He is frustrating, in that you ask him a question, and he steps around the answer. So pretty much he just wastes your time

So I'm going to the Deputy to see if we can get a different teacher, or if worst comes to worst, if I can just do the subject via distance education.

Sorry for the massive complaint blog post about my schooling... I'm letting off steam.. In reality the worst is over, and from here on out everything else I can handle.

Thanks, Multiverse for following =D

First Post

So yeah, I am writing my first post before I even set up my profile, blog etc.. XD

Not really quite sure what to say, to be honest. I am not even sure anyone will read this. But here it is.

I probably am not going to have very many blog entries, so sorry in advance for that :)

I am 16, in grade 12 and honestly bored of living in Australia. I would like to go back to Germany and live there for a bit.

Oh yeah, to explain that statement, I am Australian; I was born and mostly raised here, but when I was 10, my father was offered a promotion; to help on a massive engineering feat in Germany. Hanover to be exact, which is where I proceeded to live for the next 3 years. I learnt German very fast (I couldn't believe how similar it was to English at first) and so I now speak fluent German and English (I am also proficient in Japanese but that is another story, for another entry XD).

Until quite recently, I was stressing out over what I would do when I finished school. Initially I wanted to do a bachelor in Information Technology but then I started having second thoughts. Just for the record, I am quite good at IT as I;

☻published my first website in grade 6 (it was about dolphins, for extra credit on a school assignment - I am quite competitive and wanted to get the best grade in the class =D)
☻designed my first game in grade 9 (I used the program Game Maker, so I wasn't exactly using coding)
☻then proceeded to actually code my first game in Grade 10 (using Visual Basic - ugh, I know, but my IT teacher insists on teaching us only this language, if you can even call it teaching - again I'll explain in more depth later)
☻taught myself C++ last year (with the help of my father and forums)
☻and I am head of the IT department for an online Australian business, despite my age =D
☻I've also done a certificate I, II and IV in IT

Back on subject, I started doubting this course because I want to have fun in life. Simple and exact, I don't want to lead a boring life, where I am just another statistic that finished high school, went to uni, got a degree and proceeded to get a 100-150K job with a husband and kids. That is not my style. I also cringe from the idea of having one qualification/occupation for an entire lifetime.

My solution? I'm going to do a hair dressing apprenticeship, then go back over to Germany and live there for a year, then go over to England and live there for a year (while working as a hair dresser). Perhaps after that, I will go to university in either Melbourne, Hobart or New Zealand and do my degree in IT.

OK I think I've bored you enough, I'll stop here =D. I will try to post again as soon as I can be bothered, promise!