Hi there

Sorry I haven't been on my blog lately, but I was busy for quite a while. I had to go on a fieldtrip and uni just started. The Facebook thing didn't really work out, I guess I'm addicted; but it may work once I get back to studying and I forget about it. I'll definitely start writing full blogs again from tomorrow. Right now though, I've got to get ready to go to uni.

Cheers from Australia

Art

I really appreciate art and love going to art galleries. My mum is an artist, so I thought I'd share some pictures with you. She loves drawing sceneries.

Facebook

I was just thinking of what to write as my next post while I was on Facebook. Then I realised, hey, why don't I write one about Facebook and technology. I'm not completely obsessed with technology, although I am on the internet quite often. But my excuse is that I have holidays, 3 months worth of them, being in university and all. I'm no computer expert either. Nevertheless, I would die without the internet. Once I couldn't sit still and was going insane when the power went out for a couple of hours. My point is that we can't live without it in this day and age. Question though, is it becoming detrimental to us, to our social lives, and forever changing the way we interact with people? I think so. For example, pretend there's a person Bee. Bee has a group of friends, and they don't invite her to an event. Bee sees her friends partying and having fun without her on Facebook. She feels betrayed. What is wrong with me? Don't they like me anymore? would be some of the questions going through her mind. It may seem exaggerated, but I bet heaps of people have experienced this. Including me. So, as I was on Facebook today sipping chardonnay, seeing tagged pictures, with them all dressed up, with statuses to match, made me sad. It made me sad because I felt like I'm wasting my youth, wasting my summer, all because I don't have many REAL friends. It's horrible to know that there are young girls and boys out there that are feeling alone and isolated, or are being cyber-bullied. You might have heard of recent cyber-bullying incidents where teenagers have taken their own lives. The success of Facebook shouldn't come at the expense of young lives. One person's life is precious, and I think young people are being drawn into too much technology too soon. We should be outdoors every so often in the fresh air, instead of in front of a computer all the time. If anything, technology should be bringing us closer together, not tearing us apart and detaching from people. In many, not all, situations this is the case. Facebook is great if you're already confident and social, but not so much if you're sensitive to others comments. Should your worth be measured on how many Facebook friends you have? Whether you go out partying every weekend? Or updating enthralling statuses every day? No. There are some fantastic advances in technology that are adding positively to our lives, but it doesn't help if they're supporting this mentality of available 24/7. So this is the action I'm going to take: I'm not going on Facebook for a whole week; this is my pledge to you. I will instead do things that I otherwise forget or don't have the time for, such as drawing and reading. That reminds me I should write a blog in the future on the best books, but I've got to read a couple first. See you in the next blog.

Australia

It's been quite hot here for the past few weeks. Summers in Australia get extremely hot; sometimes even hitting the high 30's and even 40 degrees. I'd really like to travel around Australia because it's such a vast, complex, varying continent, with different climates. I'm really interested in the Aboriginal culture as well; it's a pity that most Australians don't appreciate that culture though. Australians who live here don't think of Australia as that much of a travel destination; it may be a bit expensive but I think it's quite sad because there's a lot worth seeing here. On hot summer's days everyone flocks to the beaches. I went to Portsea recently and there were heaps of people, but the Piers and the ocean were beautiful. When I do get a chance to travel around, I'll be sure to be blogging it. 

New Girl

Well, I've started writing my blog and not many people seem to be reading it; in fact I don't think anyone has read it. I suppose I just have to give it some time. It's not like I'm wanting to earn a living from it. It's just something extra, something fun, I'd like to do in my spare time. But I feel like I'm talking to myself. Just wanting to let you know, since I'm in Australia, it's the 2nd of February here, so on the blog it says 1st Feb which is technically inaccurate. I think I quite like the idea of blogging, but it's tiring, especially trying to come up with new topics. And my blog entry's aren't that long either, probably because I like writing concisely.

Anyway, this blog entry will be on the sitcom New Girl, starring Zooey Deschanel. And it's kinda relevant to me because I'm new to blogging. I love Zooey's surname Deschanel; it's very pretty. New Girl has just aired in Australia, and I watched the first episode which I thought was hilarious, especially the three guys. Zooey plays the quirky Jess who is newly single after she found out her boyfriend cheated on her. She eventually moves into an apartment with her new room-mates, Nick, Schmidt, and Winston, who she slowy wins over with her bubbly personality. The first episode was basically about trying to get Jess back out into the dating world and the guys trying to cheer her up. In one hilarious scene we meet Jess' best-friend Cece who is a model, and the guys try and hit on her and fail. Overall I thought it was a great start to a new series. I thought Zooey's character was a lot nicer than Summer in 100 Days of Summer. 

Never Let Me Go

This is going to be a review on Never Let Me Go. I watched the film a couple of weeks ago on my holidays. I thought it was such a poignant and deep movie. It explored the injustices and unethical side of forced organ donation, through an alternate history. I really felt the last line in the film by Kathy: "What I'm not sure about is if our lives have been so different from the lives of the people we save. We all complete. Maybe none of us really understand what we've lived through or feel we've had enough time". This scene really pulled my heartstrings. The story starts off in Horsham where three children befriend each other and grow up together. They don't know why they are parent-less and the reason for their existence until their new teacher Miss Lucy informs them so; that they were made to donate their organs to their "originals" once they reach adulthood. Kathy and Tommy hide their feelings for one another from Ruth; the film centers around this love triangle. When they reach adulthood they are moved into cottages in the countryside. Eventually Kathy leaves and the relationship between the three become strained, until they meet again years later. I won't spoil it for you with the ending. Although I have to say that I was left feeling a little angry that they would just accept their lives and not fight for their rights. I would be extremely scared if this happened in reality in the future. I don't believe in making others suffer. I felt that, in the film, the "original" with the health problems could have learned to deal with the fact they had cancer instead of letting a clone of themselves be created purely for purpose of saving their own life. I thought that was extremely selfish. I didn't feel I sympathised with the "originals" at all. In the film, the schoolmaster, Miss Emily, tells them: "We took away your art because we thought it would reveal your souls. Or to put it more finely, we did it to see if you had any souls at all." That was extremely horrible. Kathy and Tommy didn't get to spend enough time together because of Ruth, which made me mad. And the fact that these forced transplants were normal and accepted, really made me mad. But I have to say that this was one of my favourite movies of all time.