Amidst times of worry & stress...

Hello all...as my aunt would say,

Coming to the close of nearly a MONTH online, and nearly the start of a relatively important study period (yes, only 9 whole days of Year 11 class to go), I think it's about time that we had an assessment of how our blog is doing (so that we don't have to waste time writing articles that aren't going to be read).

So, in a nutshell, we'd just like some general feedback for how our blog, http://eighthstlaundry.blogspot.com , is doing.

Please tell us - what you like about it, what you DON'T like about it & even maybe what you want to hear more of - we're open to new ideas/suggestions, so anything you say won't be taken to offense. So PLEASE BE HONEST.

And yes, amidst times of worry & stress, we do tend to procrastinate & reflect upon our progress in life (as I am doing so now)...So just as a little tip, these are a few quotes which I think of (& write in my diary):

"It's foolish to fear what you cannot avoid." - Publilius Syrus

"Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm" - Winston Churchill
--> my personal fave

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up" - Thomas Edison

Feedback would be greatly appreciated & GOOD LUCK for people with yearlies :D

~Louis Tiffon

Feathers in my Cap

With time ticking o so agonisingly quickly away, I am contemplating the philosophy of the school. It clearly dictates a well-rounded kind of life is the best kind of life - where you get involved in everything and strive for your optimum. I'm wondering if this is practical?

I know certainly, that I lead a relatively balanced life. And yet, my maths teacher is about on the edge of telling me to drop something or stop doing extension. While I know I am perfectly capable of doing extension if I wish, there is a certain element of time management that comes in to play to achieve excellence. However, I feel I have run out of time. I can't manage any better what I don't have any more of. I'm even posting this in the shadows of pre-dawn, pink starting to touch the sky - and certainally sympathising with Sappho.

Who else has experienced the woes of needing to sleep/eat/ensure one doesn't die from the crazy sheduel of glutenousely stuffing their minds with knowledge that is - while extremely interesting - sometimes too much to handle.

I think one of those new school with classrooms of 90 and exams where everyone works together sounds nice right about now.


- Wolf Mother

Meteors All Night

Poems. They strike at the most unexpected moments.

Case in point:

C.L sits down on a Monday night for a nice productive session of Conflict essay-writing.

All is going well but then C.L makes a fatal error: she writes an incomplete sentence. C.L glares at the computer screen because she can't see anything wrong with the sentence and thinks Word is just stupidly insisting it is wrong in that annoying Word way (ie. underlining in it in green squiggliness and suggesting to 'revise fragment'). Uh, not helpful!

Anyways, being in an irrational 'I am going to fix up this one unimportant sentence' mood C.L right clicks on 'About this sentence' to get an explanation for its incorrectness so she can fix it. Here's what appears:

C.L reads the pop up impatiently, but then gives a double glance at the phrase "Meteors all night" and thinks to self 'that's pretty... in a vague, grammatically incorrect sense.' Promptly gets sidetracked.

35 mins later: C.L has got no further on her essay, but instead has 3 versions of the poem "Meteors all Night" and accompanying music. Yay for random strikes of inspiration.

Enjoy:

Meteors all night- v.1

Come,

watch for

Meteors all night

Because the teacher said to.

And we will laugh clearly under the stars;

Those distant observers,

Blasts from the past

All over now.

Meteors all night- v.2

Come,

watch for

Meteors all night

Because the teacher said to.

And we will laugh clearly under the stars;

Those distant observers,

Blasts from the past

Dying in slow-motion

Just like us.


Meteors all night- v.3

Come,

watch for

Meteors all night

Because the teacher said to.

And we will laugh clearly under the Stars;

Celestial monuments to our Glory.

Let us grow young

Together.

BY COUNT LUCIFER

Music-matchability: Champagne Supernova (Oasis)

Note: Yeah the three versions are pretty similar, but Disco Read made a good point when she commented on their complete dissimilarities due to the different endings: Version 1 is about the fleetingness of Youth, Version 2 is more despairing in its outlook and Version 3 is well... hopeful?

Yes I totally intended that meaning :D

More Olympic Coverage

What an incredible Olympics. Yet unfortunately, it is unavoidable that I must blame it for my lack of studying for exams.

Firstly, congratulations to Matthew Mitcham- the legendary dive. But I know where he gets it from- there is no doubt some biological resemblance between him our great ‘Thorpedo’.

Here’s some thought for all you sitting on your backsides. Men’s 5000m track-Kenenisa Bekele ran it in 12:57.82. Now that number may mean nothing to you, but that’s an average pace of 15.25s every 100m. Incredible. I’m sure some people reading this can’t even run that fast over 100m.

I would like to pose a question. The two greats of the Olympics- Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt, who would you choose?

Me? Bolt- definitely. To be the fastest human on the planet. Nothing beats that. Literally.

But too much talk on the legends of the Olympics. Who else feels the misery of those whose years of training were just smashed in the last two weeks. Four years is a lifetime, much too long for another shot at glory- that’s if you can still shoot. Sometimes it’s hard to believe everyone who says- ‘all it needs is perseverance. If I can do it so can you.’ But how often do the failures become inspirational speakers? But finally there’s a whole article dedicated to them- front page of the SMH last Friday. They deserve recognition too.

Get energized for the closing ceremony tonight. Maybe China will yet again be able to prove their national identity- their ability to fake anything.

Her-cules

musical signs of bipolarity

You can all forgive my talent for feeling deeply philosophical one minute and then bubbly and irreverent the next, because I have discovered the joy that is Alphabeat. Yes, even the name conjures up images of 80's geekdom, which really nails it on the head, because Alphabeat is a singing dancing Danish popalicious band that smacks of totally uncool fun. Here's a review from popjustice about their newest single "Fantastic Six" which may make you snort:

"It sounds like an Arcade Fire track if Arcade Fire were barely out of their teens, had grown up in Copenhagen and sounded more like Junior Senior. It basically sounds nothing like an Arcade Fire track."

I've not heard any Arcade Fire, but that is beside the point. Personally I would recommend listening to "Fascination" which just makes you want to jump up and down smiling inanely and waving your arms like an ape. Go Alphabeat for bringing out the life-loving neanderthal in us all.

Clicky here to listen to "Fascination": http://angelmusicgroup.net/alphabeat/shop/bimbojones.html

[disco.read]

a frozen moment

Found this on a blog, talking about the different types of endings for short stories, and this one is the 'frozen moment' - where a tableau or scene is fossilised and preserved in unnerving beauty, as is the following:

“There is an endless road somewhere, and on that road speeds a hand-me-down rattletrap bus on an endless trip, and somewhere near the back of that bus, you and I are snugly squeezed into one of the two-seater benches, with you next to the window and me next to the aisle, holding hands like schoolchildren, talking, occasionally smiling at each other, looking like we will never let go.”

- “Passengers” by Luis Joaquin Katigbak

[disco.read]

Hair Trend Forecast: Pump up the Volume

In light of this season's (AW 2008) sleek, sophisticated looks, I think the next big thing will be VOLUME. As outrageous or uncannily weird as it might seem, the fashion and hair industry does have its slumps and booms as well...only possibly, in the sense of fabulous hair.

Currently on the streets, loose and pretty locks are in at the moment, especially with more 'casual' straight-cut fringes (- haha, not the bowl cut) that remind me of the days in primary school...Not saying they don't look hot, but yes, they do make you look a decade or two younger, unless a fringe is definitely for your face (you'll have to look at your face shape for that one).

But with runway looks all round, we can see a change from the 'clean' structured styles to the 'messy' structured styles - often being more voluminous cuts which make a statement. However, the bad news is yes, it is quite a difficult trend to work - you'll need to manage quite extremely-layered hair (the easiest option to create volume from thick hair) and/or maintain regularly, or otherwise you may risk the chance of getting a bird's nest of hair.

Alternatively, from what I've gathered, the best thing with this trend is that you could seriously walk out the door of your bedroom (with bed-hair), chuck on a thin headband (e.g. a ribbon) or braid it with a slight bouffant, pin loose strands, & voila! - statement hair.

Let's just say that hair trends can be quite unpredictable, so yes, this prediction is a mere speculation - so I don't really care if you agree with me or not...because I'm definitely NOT going full-blown with this trend *haha*.

~Louis Tiffon