Psapphirical

I need to vent.

Omg.  My Year 8s are the most rude, ignorant, STUPID little shits in the WHOLE WORLD.  OMG.  I wish corporal punishment still existed so I could kick their sorry little asses halfway into next week.

My morning classes went great.  My Lit class exceeded my expectations by all being prepared for their oral presentations and doing some damn good ones to boot, and my Year 10 class had an unexpectedly awesome discussion on To Kill A Mockingbird.  But then... Year 8s.  UGH!!!!!!

[Edit: On the bright side, one of my Year 9 girls won the Write Across Victoria prize for a story she wrote in class - she's getting published in the Education Age and on the Melbourne Writers' Festival website. So that's a win, I guess.]

I was reading the paper and it just occured to me that I really dislike the phrase "she fell pregnant to him".  The problem is the preposition to.   It has connotations of, I dunno, subjugation?  Lack of agency?  It's got the same syntax as "she fell prey to him" or "she was indebted to him".  I would much prefer the preposition with, since it's a mutual act.  But "she fell pregnant with him" is totally ambiguous.  So I don't know.  I also dislike "she fell pregnant with his child".  As if the child wasn't hers too.  And now that I think about it, I also have problems with "he got many children on her".  On?  Srsly? 

Fail.

Also - another fail? This:

On the subject of whether Indepedent and Catholic schools in Victoria can fire teachers on grounds of faith:

"Church groups were pleased Mr Hulls pre-empted the parliamentary review to ensure they will have the right to discriminate on the basis of sex, sexuality, marital and parental status and gender identity. They also accepted Mr Hull's ruling that they could no longer discriminate on the grounds of race, disability, age, physical features, political beliefs or activity, or breastfeeding."
From: http://www.theage.com.au/national/teacher-scorned-for-chosen-lifestyle-20091003-ghbl.html

Ensure the right to discriminate? Gee thanks, Mr Attorney General.

ZOMG I love my new car.

It drives like a dream. Srsly. It's like driving a brand new car, though I wouldn't really know, since I've never had a brand new car. But it feels like driving a new car. It even still smells new. It runs so smoothly. It's very, very, very maneuvrable. Corners and turns are so easy. Parking is so easy. It accelerates amazingly quickly. The heater heats up quickly. The demister demists quickly. Driving to work today, and driving home, was actually FUN. Usually it's the most tedious thing ever, but I can't wait to do it again, that's how awesome my new car is. CAR WIN.

I have some pictures I took yesterday but they are on my aunt's camera, and my aunt just left for Singapore so I can't get them off her. This is what my car looks like, except mine is more light blue-ish.

It turns out my numberplate is not WZX, but WRZ, so I'm not naming it Wesley (sorry, Tara). I'm completely unimpressed by my numberplate, especially since I hate the letter 'W'.

I am taking suggestions for names. Any and all suggestions welcome. [Poll #1430555]

( Also, major spoilers for just about every single TV lesbian relationship to follow, especially LHDP )

Yesterday was good.  Things that were good about yesterday:

1) I managed to finish an assignment in under 4 hours, which I have never in my life done before.  And I got all my assignments in before 5pm.
2) On the tram, I was sitting across from these two girls and my gaydar pinged.  And I was right!  Because a minute later one of them put their head on the other's shoulder.  Aww.
3)  I hopped into EB Games at Melbourne Central and picked up my Collector's Edition WotLK.  It was impressively big.  The salesgirl may have flirted a little bit.
4) I was reading mX on the trainride home when suddenly someone sat down across from me and kicked me.  A full on kick in the shins that actually HURT.  I looked up and saw my best friend tangledtale.  <3  We talked until she had to get off at her stop.  It was nice seeing her again, even if MY SHIN HAS A BRUISE NOW.
5) I came home and stroked my WotLK.  And I rocked it.  And crooned to it.  And then I opened it.  And then I took pictures of it.  Pretty pretty pictures:



So yesterday was good.  But today?  Not so much.

( Epic rant of doom )

Hey flist, if you don't hear from me again it's because I've been taken into custody for MAIMING AND KILLING the bunch of stupid, over-fed newly-rich Chinese wastrels that have set up camp in my house and are now singing out of tune karaoke while I'm trying to sleep, kkz?

So I've been following the news about the China/Tibet situation, and this is probably going to astound and/or piss off a whole bunch of people, but I do not support Tibetan independence nor do I think Western nations should continue to interfere.

( more )

You all know how I'm doing Viking Studies ja? Well, it's getting axed next year, along with most of the Classics department, Creative Arts and the removal of Gender Studies as a major (grr!).

Our university sucks, and our Dean of Arts is a moron! And here is a newspaper article to prove it.

( Axed Viking will harm Melbourne )

Stupid Melbourne Model. *kicks it*

Good things about today:

- I received a postcard from Copenhagen today, sent by a beautiful woman whom I love and adore. This makes me very happy. :-)

- I had a surprisingly good conversation with a Chinese guy (a nephew of some guy who is a friend of dad's). I named him Jack, because he was in need of an English name. He was going to name himself Johnny, but I was like NO! He wanted a name that started with J so I named him Jack. Anyway, Jack was very cool to talk to. We talked about history and politics and revolution and religion and freedom and wealth distribution and gender inequality and homophobia (which he is surprisingly very cool about... I haven't met many Chinese guys like that) and how much John Howard and George Bush sucks. I think my parents were amused that I talked to him for so long, because I usually hide in my room when there are guests over.

- I skipped Karate again and sat in the Rowden White (recreational library) reading A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian for two hours. That was fun. Although a little saddening too. I never knew that Soviet Russia confiscated the entire harvest from Ukraine during one year, deliberately creating a famine which killed like 20 million people in order to break the spirit of the Ukrainians. Seems like sad history is everywhere once you open your eyes to it. But anyway. Focus on the happy. Well written book = happy.

- wickedkiwi wrote that she is going to post Chapter 17 of tbsol_v2 next week. (Right? Right??) :-D TBSOL makes me squee. Loudly.

- It's raining. I don't generally like rain, but Melbourne needs it so badly. :-)


Bad things about today:

- I found out from my Vikings Studies lecturer that ours will be the last class of Viking Studies at The University of Melbourne ever. Growing Esteem is going to kill pretty much all of the smaller, more obscure subjects when it comes into effect next year. I really hate what's happening to the university right now. Apparently the Classics department is being dismantled. The Gender Studies department will also be axed. (!!!!) O.O History and Philosophy of Science is going to be split between the Anthropology department and something else. And the History department is being trimmed down so that, as of next year, first year History students will only have four subjects to choose from. Four. The History Department at Melbourne is ranked 7th in the world. I seriously doubt that this will be the case after next year. This is all part of the university turning into an elitist job factory that funnels students along in their degree in the fastest, most economical way possible (i.e. reducing the number of subjects so that the ones that remain will be super-classes which have large student numbers of 500 or more taught by one lecturer and lots of tutors. This is obviously much cheaper than having a wide range of subjects, each with their individual lecturer and tutors) rather than giving them a broad, liberal education. *sigh*

Then there's Voluntary Student Unionism. I feel like a bit of a hypocrite to rant about it when I myself haven't paid the membership fee this year, but I think, because of that, I'm feeling the change even more keenly. The student computing centre, once free, now costs non members $5 per half hour to use. The recreational library no longer lets me borrow anything, and has a roped off area which I can't access (segregation much? O.O). Judging by the sudden sparseness of the student ads on the Union House noticeboards, I'm guessing that only student union members can put ads up there anymore. Sure I can access all of this by paying $400 a year, but it doesn't feel right to wrangle the money off my parents when it's no longer compulsory... and I'm not rich enough that I particularly want to pay for it myself for nice but non-essential services. What I'm getting at is that in the end, it's always going to be the less wealthy or privileged students who are going to look at their budget and forgo the luxury of being a member. And so the uni becomes a place of class segregation where the ones who are willing and able to pay get the full range of services, and the one's who can't pay or won't pay aren't allowed to even GO into certain areas of the university.

The entire experience of higher education in Melbourne is changing. I feel sorry for the ones who will only know the new system.

Hmm, that turned out to be quite the rant.

Shit, I haven't done any homework.

Oh well.

:-)