Learn to manage things (24th of May)

After updating two of my blog posts, I spent another one hour to prepare for the tutoring tomorrow. I wanted to teach Calvin more things but I found that he's not that kind of person who is able to learn a few grammar points in two hours. Perhaps the most efficient way is to build a solid foundation by teaching him one grammar point at a time. Not to get him too sick of learning, as not to get myself too tired of teaching.

Dinner time was with her bf who hasn't come to visit us for almost two weeks. He suggested to take us to watch vivid but as I already have my plan with somebody, I rejected him. Sometimes I really see him as my dad when we have some educational talks about some social changes, such as what happened to the federal government these days. He is for the labor party, always has been.

Panpan came back at 10ish as usual. He told me something about his group collaboration in which I took it as his group mates weren't really participating, so I became a bit irritated that I seemed to be arguing with him. Maybe I was overreacting much as it reminded me of some group works I've done before. I personally don't like group mates are being slackasses contributing only a little or zero productivity to the group. You sacrifice your time for the group, and to make everything equally distribute to each individual, everyone should be doing what they have allocated to. This is just my personal opinion, but I just can't bear to see something unfair happening around me :/

Super brain and 'super' government (23rd of May)

So I received messages from both Gwinny and Anthony on fb in the early morning. I felt sorry that Anthony's vivid plan was ruined because someone he invited ditched him for something. Gwinny asked me where I usually look for resources from~ Oh and I became super addicted to this super brain show. So basically the two episodes I watched were about challenges between two teams and each term is containing four skillful contestants. The aim of the show is to show how far brainpower could go beyond the limits. I don't quite understand how much memory capacity those people have when they had to memorise 300 barcodes within 2 hours. You do know for each barcode, there will be a set of data consisting of more than 10 numbers right? Just by trying to stare at one barcode and look for what patterns it matches to one particular number, is enough to get you frustrated. Yet, two contestants could list all the numbers within 20 seconds when the middle part of one barcode (out of 300+ barcodes) was presented on the screen. This is only one example..Other examples such as the blind sudoku also made me go WOOWWW....They didn't give that 14-year-old little girl any numbers on any grids, instead, she had to fill out everything based on the 'dragon path' chosen by the other contestant and the numbers on the path must be in a strictly increasing or decreasing order. More importantly is that, she had to memorize the numbers she put in for each column and row as she wasn't allowed to look at the screen. Within only 15 to 20 minutes, she completed the task correctly. Another example is a challenge that both contestants had to memorize the 20 rubik cubes in one hour backstage, and on the stage, they are blindfolded and must solve 20 cubes within 10 minutes. No...they aren't humans I am pretty sure =3= And the show even gave me an intense feeling when I was watching it>.>

It makes me wonder how to increase my memory capacity so I actually searched some methods online. You see how tv shows affect people's behaviour offline? >.> Shame that I couldn't download some other brain training games to my phone as the storage is nearly full. That means, I have to remove some applications and I did, but it was still failed to do so. You now may ask am I not busy with my work as I seem to be bludged around today. I actually did something, but not much. I could have done much more than that if I didn't watch that show. But at least, I completed my quiz online so no need to worry about anything but my final essay for that online course now.

Lastly, I was told that from 1st of Jan, 2016, Australian government will change the way they provide funding to the education sector which students will have to start repaying higher education loan program debts back much earlier at a rate of 2%. That also means our debts will grow even faster, with the changes of indexation.  Lucky I'd be almost graduate by that time or else I have to repay 3 times more than now to the government :/ No wonder a numerous university protests occurred these days. But according to Fairfax media's assumption in which students could be forced to select courses without knowing how much extra fees will be added in 2016. Like geeezzzz....what this country has become... :/

make the full out of Thursdays (22nd of May)

My mood is as good as the sunny day today. During the group work in the morning lecture when we were all divided into 7 groups to discuss our scripts made by 5 random scenes we picked from the list, I actively participated in drawing and gave my other group mates some ideas on how to make our work more creative.  The only guy in our group is that sort of cheerful type who loves to express himself. Aside from his humor when he was trying to explain to all of us in what way he wanted our script to be, he has this passion in drawing anime characters. We were all amazed of his artworks he showed on his phone later on.

Digital images class was a pain in the ass because lots of work had to be done within 2 weeks time, plus I have to redo all the work I lost a week ago, which this has put me in an even worse situation than anyone else. Helen explained what we elements she'll be looking for from our final assignments. Whilst she showed us plenty of good work from the past students. Mickey was next to me saying how he finds this class the hardest in this semester. I wanted to know which task annoys him the most, then he told me almost every task was annoying. Later, I went up to Gold where he was sitting at the front and doing his own work. To seek for help, Gold has always been the one that I think he knows almost everything in using photoshop. However, as he was absent last week, he was also seeking for help from others. That was the first time ever I've ever seen him, this pro was asking a noob for help lol During lunch time, I went to broadway and grabbed something to eat with Mickey, Carson, Katey, Pai and Jim. Most of the time, I stay at the same class doing my work to wait for the next class starts. I've always been having fun at AIT during classes. But I barely hang around with people during that half an hour break. Anyways Mickey told me that we've got our result back today, so I couldn't wait to see what I got for my hard working that I rather to use my mobile data when I was out of AIT just to check it. It didn't turn out to be something I expected. 63 is obviously not good enough even though everyone knows that Helen is a strict marker and that the highest mark was 69. It was even more shocking to know that Gold and Pai got a bit lower than me. Hence, I seriously do not understand what Helen's marking criteria are. During our lunch time, not sure if that's how they usually sit or what, three guys chose to sit the opposite to us three girls as if we were in a triple date or something>.> But because of that, Jim, my new friend talked to me a lot about how he thought about social media such as youtube and his high school life. It really was a great lunch I've had most recently. I mean, long time, it has been quite a long time since the last time I had lunch with more than 4 people during school days. Jim told me that he'd like to have a youtube channel and invite us to be his guests lol Then Pai told us how she wanted to own a shop selling her DIY clothing with somebody, and the person she chose was Gold. Don't know since when we started talking about skin tone and nationalities. Pai revealed that she was mistaken as an Aussie in the club. I personally think that she does look a bit like a westerner though she's Thai. Then she pointed at me how she used to think of me as a Korean in the beginning of this semester, whereas Katie, the real Korean thinks of me as a Japanese all this time>.> Carson then added...I've never thought of you as a Chinese...>.>

After lunch, it was time for us to go back to AIT. Carson was being super naughty trying out everyone else's sunglasses. He even took off mine without my permission before we were going to cross the road. Perhaps having lunch with a bunch of friends really does so much good to my well-being. Seemingly my happiness was increased during my pre-production class where I moved around throughout the whole class after I learned that my storyboard was really good checked by Helen. She only said that I should fix some minor mistakes I made, such as the 180 degree camera thingy and over-shoulder shots, which they were meant to be the other way around and sometimes, I didn't get to draw them clearly. As my panel was closely done in just one day, I was all chilled and helping my friends around when they had problems. After checking Pai's 8th panel, I suggested her to make two panels separately by adding a tiny bit of elements; for Gold, his drawing was too time-consuming to be completed (Imagine how long it'd take to draw 32 panels bro...)but I got to admit that he's definitely a good drawer who only needs pencil to make an outstanding sketch. Carson and Jim were on the side discussing the format of the description though, Ashburn trolled me at the door where I was standing and it almost got me scream in the class...=3= Then I saw the other white guy who was playing 2048, I just sat next to him asking how many times he broke the record. He then started his gaming talk with me, surprisingly I joined and talked about how pro my mum is when she played 2048...I meant...she even got 4096>.> My god mum....what a game addict =3= Ahh and and and I told Gino that we had to combine three files into one just incase that he doesn't know. He then dragged me and asked if I've done other tut tasks from the previous weeks. Instead going back to my seat, I was sitting on the floor next to him telling what life has played a joke on me these days as I lost all my files just a week ago. To his empathy, he told me that we could do them all together next week. By the time I was going to go back to my seat, Tia came back from another class and she asked me to show her my storyboard. She was quite impressed to see how much I already did for our assignment 3 whereas she hasn't even started it. Oh and she complimented on my fingernails xD thank youuuuuuuuu :3 Before I left AIT to meet up with panpan, Anthony was standing near the entrance where several friends of his were talking about something. Yet I couldn't tell it was him again til 1 meter away from him. Later on he fb me when I was on my way to UTS, I didn't reply him til I went back home though~ sowiee~~ >.>

Anyways I walked all the way to market city because he didn't know I was going to UTS. A little bit of argument caused by misunderstanding, anger of being yelled at by somebody. After all, his pompous abc attitude is something that I don't like the most, and it still is. The silence between us lasted for almost 40 minutes while I was texting my mum/after I finished texting my mum. Oh I should also say that mum has improved a lot!!! The words she uses now is completely something that I'd never think she's able to use before. I feel damn happy for her being such a studious one learning English, really really happy for seeing her improvement days by days :) Ok..back to panpan and I who usually have disagreement on things, this time, same as usual, he said that I didn't make myself clear that I was coming =3=...After that silent moment that we had, with so much awkwardness and crankiness which made me want to get away from him, I lowered my head, he then touched my head, pulled me closer to him and put me on his lapse...And and and I thought everything'd be ok...No I guessed it wrong...Something even worse happened after we made our reconciliation. A part of my charger couldn't be found after I searched every corner inside of my bag, I became super irritated. He played around with me saying he'd get me a new one though >.> *yay...* We are such a playful couple love to tease each other to the max. Although the last second we were being quite unhappy, the next second we *smack* love to each other's face.. Everything went back to normal just in one second...

Ahhh btw so I attended his lecture with his friend. I hope that I didn't scare his friend when I slapped panpan's face so hard before the lecture started...>.> Panpan fell asleep two times, chin in his hand, unable to wake up though I poked him with my pen and finger. So they have learned Monetary policy today. Yup, something has to do with cash rate and interest rate. Btw his friend and I both became so awkward when we were together walking towards the train station. So they two were busy talking about what's going on among their classmates. After his friend left, Panpan then took me to rivy, we had our time there at the platform waiting for his train....

At night, Gino was stuck at a step of his retouching task, he fb me at late night asking if I knew how to do it. Since I wasn't on computer, I couldn't figure out what to do without using the actual software, so we planned to do the tasks together this coming Tuesday. Either he could help me with my previous tasks or I could help him with something he needs. Collaborations make things work :)

Inactive (21st of May)

Ok...Grungy text was hard to create and I am pretty sure that my work was screwed up since the blending option has made my whole thing darken...I asked Emanuel for help, he suggested me to take another method at the end of the class...

So a monk blocked my way when I was rushing to the train station. Such a cool person like him is hard to believe that he's a monk with a cool hair style and dressed like someone that plays heavy metals...If he only wanted to have a chat, I didn't mind. But I was asked to donate for a bit then that's a NO...Jap class was fine, my student Ferielle learns fast, she knows how to fix the stroke orders writing a single kanji. I enjoyed teaching her quite a lot as her cheerfulness brought me a lot of joys. Kiah, another friend of mine has a bit of problem with jap grammar points where she was fully stuck at answering the questions I asked.

And I was more of an outsider during the discussion today as I wasn't active at all. Even so, a guy was still approaching me during my one hour break when I was only sitting under the tree having my alone time, I wasn't expecting any randoms would like to pick me to have a chat...But of course I didn't walk away, I mean, why would I?

Anyways the strike was terribly happening around the campuses and some parks such as Belmore Park. This morning, I saw a bunch of students were gathering at UTS where they held the big banners and flags, somehow I heard they've got a slogan as well...Wasn't sure what that was, but this act of anti-federal government these days isn't surprised to know. And apparently it has taken the media spotlight when several news reporters were there reporting at the early morning. Even I was captured by such a scene when the second time I walked past UTS, I stood there for 5 minutes to watch them at the expense of my jap tut time. Cutting funds from both health and education sectors obviously would have gained extensive public criticism. I don't think Mr Abbott would really worry about how the public see him as a monster. Just from what he said from one of his interviews where he got to confront the mass public's questioning via phone calls made by them. One of the women claimed that she had no way out to afford her rent or simply to survive as the policy will be changed, her next move will be to join up the sex line...I don't need to say anything here...I mean what would you feel when someone says such a thing...

Lastly...my jap interactive exam was ok-ish. There is only a mark away from getting my distinction. I really wish I could have done some acting with my partner during that time. Oh...and Damon san is such a cutie. I'd call that he was born as a comedian from how he talks and acts. Even when we were asked to fix some hiragana mistakes on the board, he'd always be the first one raising up his hand to point out some minor mistakes that nobody'd ever notice. Anyways the second one hour was for us to read senpai's letters because preparation has to be made for the next coming weeks. Oh and and and super good looking couple re-appeared on the same bus I was catching. Their attractiveness got me fully awake. But for some reason, another lovey dovey couple was also there standing next to me during that time when I was waiting for my bus. You know how lonely le feel when their kawai-ness of hugging, biting and kissing each other has gone too far to the point where you started to be jealous? =3=....How good that is having each other around whereas thinking about myself not even get to see somebody once a week lol...

Sentimentality/technology (20th of May)

My plan for today is to get my storyboard started. I was happy that I finished 20 panels within 3 hours. That was one of the productive things I've done for the day. Then taking a break for one hour and had my sentimental talk with mum after she came back. I truly understood how she felt when she was told by her classmates something really traumatizing and insulting. I mean, how could you not cry in front of your daughter after all that happened. I guess it was one of those moments that she couldn't take it anymore. The fear and anxiety in her eyes got me quite worried and that I was so scared if there will be that one day when I have to confront that reality as she told me. I only wish that wasn't true, I only hope that it was only a dream. She told me not to worry, stay calm and be happy if that really happens. And obviously, fatty's word had cheered her up a bit. I know that he has always been there for us, without his support all these years, she would have collapsed.

Assuming that I now have an even clearer understanding of what should have known ages ago. Being slightly sentimental is inevitable, but more importantly is that it makes me even more value everything as I can. 

I don't want to make my post too upsetting because vulnerability is not supposed to show in the public. Anyways my media epic readings have inspired me quite a bit. Interconnection is made by diverse gadgets anywhere in anytime. Internet of things, this concept can be simply concluded the recent trends we have now, which our lives are becoming more and more transparent. Undeniably this transition has posed some threat to our privacy as well as our naturalness has slowly faded out. What has already happened is that human, this species gradually turns themselves into cyborg in a sense by allowing technology takes over our lives as we can't stop using them. In other words, technology is indeed an intoxicating product results in our intensify feeling of having everything in hand. But what's the scariest thing is that what if technology knows more about yourself than yourself....

Plain (19th of may)

My day has been great, greater than great. No distractions at all even when I was having my jap lecture, I nearly didn't talk to anyone but the person next to me, that was the only person I talked to for the whole day at uni. Then I just remember I was supposed to go to that career expo at AIT as Seri reminded me of it on fb. However I couldn't make it as online homework is the first priority that I had to get it done by 2pm today.

I've learned a lot from Media lecture as usual. Andrew's lecture has always given me this excitement that media is such a spectacular thing existed in this era. I mean, how can I not be inspired by his lecture. In particular, some videos he showed today, such as the Scottie's pinwheel picturing a group of pups spinning around the circular container while they had their milk, to associate with the concept we learned today-multiplicity and trans-individuation. Ok let's stop here, if you'd like to read more, go for my media blog: http://yishaliu.blogspot.com.au/

So Thai brothers saw me at that grass area near the train station where I was waiting for giant panpan chan to come and find me. I didn't  recognize it was Kael til he walked towards me, and Seri was there too. They both asked what I was doing there, especially Seri, who accused me of doing something fishy as he just talked to me 40 minutes ago on fb, and I told him that I'd be going home...Anyways panpan came, we both walked to his lecture, I stayed there the whole time doing my online readings and jotting down some key points as one of the preparations for writing up my blog post. I thought that I might fall asleep during his lecture but he ended up being the one that fell asleep next to me with his chin in hand like a statue. We then talked for a bit before he left for his tut upstairs. 

Well...another ordinary day I guess? But at least I got something done :) 

Controller (18th of May)

Long story short, Calvin was being quite annoying today in that second hour, enraged me whacked his leg as he looked elsewhere, he then said I physically abused him. A 5 minute argument between a kid and I started from that moment when he stubbornly gave me this dirty face, not willing to answer any questions I asked. Soon I had to have another deep talk with him so to keep that last hour going. I enjoy tutoring people. But the thing is tutoring kids is not that as pleasant as I thought it would be. However, I do fully understand that problems have to be overcome with interpersonal skills in certain circumstance like now, I am here to deal with a kid who has super short attention span. Building a good friendship with him can never be easy. I didn't know how I have told myself to be calm and returned to that friendly me...But one thing I sure about is that to remedy a situation, anger is not a good solution. Reconciliation was made when he finally realized that misbehave would only get him punished, suffered from 10+ hours of boredom and even more, his club meeting would be cancelled right after this lesson. I know what he was worried, and I've never thought about  giving a kid a hard time. All I wanted him to do is to pay a bit attention without looking elsewhere plus do the things I asked him to do. Maybe I still need more time to observe him...And by looking at how naughty he is now, I'm starting to think about how to educate my child in this earlier age...>.>

Starting from now, I will explore Chatswood more after my tutoring. Today, I treated myself with Thai food at an ancient-ish Thai restaurant where the lighting is darkened, the wall is made of wood. It gives you a feeling of back in old age. In the meantime, it's being modernised displaying variety of bottles up on the ceiling and hanging on the wall. The prices there are affordable and the amount of each dish is good enough. I didn't expect they'd offer something big unless they are super generous. All I want from a restaurant is that at least do not make me feel in a way of 'cheated'.

I guess you need to find some comfort from having some good food, staying at a good place after tutoring an  obnoxious child. >.> Anyways....people are geniuses these days. I know I have repeated the same thing for multiple times. But how could you not be amazed of those who do something startling and make you go WOW...ARE THEY EVEN HUMAN?? Thanks for that compilation peeps....Ahhh and...as expected, the great march around Sydney in order to go against the current government only a few days after some policies have taken effect is nothing new...We all know this'd happen sooner or later anyways...Now let's see what Tony Abbott will do about it *having popcorns in my hands*