All you need is Love?

So, I was thinking about what theme I could set for this week. In honour of Esther Day, which was Wednesday, I've decided to dedicate this week to things/people we love. Oh, and just in case you haven't seen Hank's Esther Day video, here it is :

I'll leave my post till next Thursday, but I'd like to see what you guys have to say on the subject :)

Pescy...what?

Hi Nerdy Bunch, it's Saturday THURSDAY. How are we all? I've just started back at uni after the end-of-first-semester holidays. Its good to be back, but it makes me sad that I'm busy already. Anyway, on to the week's topic!

I am a meat-eater. I have nothing against vegetarians, vegans and pesca...tarians? I have to admit that I had no idea what a Pescetarian was until I remembered that one of my favourite vloggers, KatersOneSeven, is one. Anyway, I would go so far as to say that I agree with the philosophy/ies behind the aforementioned dietary ideologies. I do not think that animals should be treated cruelly just for my benefit.

That being said, I can't help but find veganism/vegetarianism/pescetarianism just a little bit silly. Humans, my nerdy friends, are omnivores. In order to be fully healthy we need to source our nutrients from a wide range of places, and yes, that means animals and animal products. That is not to say that I think we have the right to be cruel to animals;  I'm not naiive about where that tasty bit of bacon I had with my lunch came from. I just think that there are widely available sources of cruelty-free animal products such as free-range eggs and meat from animals that have been raised and slaughtered in an humane way. I know that somewhere, an animal died so that I could have a delicious meal, but I try to go for cruelty-free products where possible.

Pescetarianism does have quite a good health benefit, what with all that omega 3, but I personally dislike fish/seafood, so I just couldn't live that lifestyle. Secondary to that is the fact that our seas are terribly overfished, which is pretty bad for the ecosystem.

Veganism is what really gets me. Like I said, there are cruelty-free sources of milk and eggs, and if you go for those, nobody is harming/killing some poor animal for your benefit and you are still able to get essential nutrients from those sources. It just seems...illogical, to me.

If I were to go with any of the alternatives, I'd be a Vegetarian, because I could still have eggs and milk, and could get most of my other nutrients from fruits, vegetables, beans and legumes. I make a mean Dal (Indian lentil-based stew-type-thing). But really, I do like meat too much to give it up.

Anyway, it is not for me to dictate who eats what. One of the great things about the whole thing is that I can choose what I eat. In that way, we're all pretty lucky, really. I mean, if I feel like eating an apple, I can just stroll to my fridge and grab one. Heck, I can change my mind and go for an orange, or a stick of celery, or a sandwich instead. And that's pretty awesome :)

See you next week! Am I right in assuming that I'm picking the topic?

The most important meal of the day.

Well, it is a rather unorthodox topic, but it's still fun to think about. My current breakfast food of choice is porridge. I make it by boiling rolled oats in milk and sprinkling some brown sugar on top (I believe it's called 'oatmeal' in some places). It's great for the Winter months (it's Winter here in Australia until the end of August), and it's nutritious and high in fibre, and with a little bit of sugar or fruit or both, it's certainly delicious.I am on a bit of a health kick at the moment, so porridge is basically the perfect breakfast for me.

And now for a little bit of a story.

When I was little, I read Oliver Twist. It was an illustrated version, but still. I was in like, grade 2 or something. I was such a little Nerdfighter. Anyway, I remember the kids at the Orphanage having to eat something called Gruel Thrice every day. That sounded terrible! I could tell that Gruel Thrice was gross and felt sorry for Oliver.

Little did I know--though I found out YEARS later-- that they weren't eating Gruel Thrice. They were eating GRUEL. Three times a day...thrice. Still, gruel is actually gross. It's basically a watery porridge and more like a drink than food. :( poor Oliver.

Anyway, what are you eating for breakfast at the moment?

I got the hang of Thursdays

Greetings hoopy froods!

(Just FYI, my title was almost "I got the Hank of Thursdays". Is it still a Freudian slip when you type it?)

Towel Day / Geek Pride day was yesterday. It celebrates some of my favourite things: Hitchhiker's Guide, and being a nerd. To commemorate the auspicious occasion, I went over to thinkgeek and salivated over some of the nerdy/geeky items that they have in stock, especially some of their Firefly and Star Wars paraphernalia. Unfortunately, it usually costs around $30 AUD to ship anything, and my budget isn't too accommodating at the moment.

Instead of buying nerdy things, I decided to do such nerdy things as studying for my finals which are coming up in a couple of weeks, and watching Glee. While I know that the show can be obnoxious, I think one of its strong points is that it takes a group of outcasts and gives them a voice. Unfortunately, a lot of people think that being a nerd isn't 'cool'. Hopefully this will continue to change; I think that things like YouTube and video games are becoming more and more mainstream, so general nerdiness is on the rise, folks!

Today, I took the day off uni to work on a research assignment; I have to talk about whether television is 'dying'. I think my angle will be that though the content itself isn't dying, the medium through which we consume the content is changing/fragmenting/whatever.

Don't Forget To Be Nerdy!

I can't think of anything to write about

>< Seriously, I have no idea what I can write about today, hence the lateness of this post. I didn't want to miss another week, so I think I'll just ramble along for a little while. I guess I'll just talk about what I've been up to this week.

I got great marks for an assignment I did about True Blood, so that's good. I've managed to pass all of my assignments so far this semester. It's been a little tough; the subjects I'm doing are really information-heavy, and having to read textbook chapters for 3 subjects every week, plus 3-5 cases for each subject, is not exactly the funnest thing ever.

I'm a terrible procrastinator, so that doesn't exactly help me. Thankfully, I'm not failing anything, and I've got my Arts subject to prop up my GPA. I've got 2 weeks before exams start, with 1 70% exam and 1 100% exam to do, as well as 2 assignments. One assignment should be fine, but I'm slightly worried about my one for criminal law.

Oh well, at least I'm busy!! xD

Respect should be earned, not demanded.

As we all know, the Royal Wedding is going to be taking place tonight. As I live in Australia, where the Queen is still OUR Queen and therefore William is likely to be our King one day, the wedding is a Big Freaking Deal. Every major TV station is going to have coverage of the wedding on at least one digital channel.

Unfortunately, it seems that some commentators missed out. The Chaser, a group of comedians known for heavy (and yes, sometimes tasteless) satire were going to host an alternative coverage of the royal wedding, but that has been stopped by the BBC / representatives of the royal family, because they do not want any footage of the wedding to be used for the purposes of satire. The ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australia's public broadcaster and the only non-commercial coverage of the wedding) was forced to cancel The Chaser's broadcast.

Oh, COME ON. Free speech, anyone?

Okay, sure, we should be respectful of people, but I am SURE that The Chaser would have kept things tasteful, and they have said as much. When you turn a wedding into such a huge media spectacle, how can you expect people to not want to satirise it? It really is bewildering, especially when you look at other Australian channels' coverage of it; one of the other channels is using Dame Edna, Australia's favourite drag queen, to commentate the event.

REALLY.

I guess I'll just have to watch the live stream on YouTube and rely on twitter for my satirical humour :(

Is anybody else going to watch the wedding?

It's still Thursday in Hawaii?

I THINK? HOPEFULLY?

Anyway. Hi, Nerdy Bunch, how are you? I'm good. Great, actually: I handed in the last of my due assignments yesterday, and now I am on mid-semester break. It's Easter, too, which means chocolate and homemade buns and omnomnomnom.

It was my mother's birthday yesterday (Thursday; it's Friday for me :3) so today we had everyone around for lunch and things. I got to see my nephew who is nearly 2, as well as my oldest brother and his girlfriend. It was a fun time, since they got back from a holiday to Bali recently and they brought presents--I got HP7 part 1 on DVD, and a new watch, which is awesome!

We don't have any special plans on Sunday, it's going to be a fairly relaxed day.

In other news, I bought the original Portal game yesterday and it is AMAZING! After seeing Hank play it I was convinced that it was good, which it is. I currently can't afford Portal 2 but I'm still going to watch Hank's commentary because it's just fun.

What are you folks doing over Easter?

Procrastinationnnn

I have somewhat of a routine when it comes to my studies. When a semester first starts, I usually vow to be a good student, go to all of my classes, keep up with my reading and study every day. By around the sixth week, I barely have the motivation to go to uni once a week and will read something only if necessary for an assignment.

I begin to regret this by the time we actually need to start handing things (like now) and after mid-semester break I usually turn back into a good student. At the moment, though, with two assignments due next Thursday, all I want to do is sit on Youtube or play Minecraft all day.

The only way I can get anything done during these study slumps is to create a very strict structure for myself. I'll give myself one hour of working-on-assignment time, then one hour of minecraft-or-youtube-or whatever time. That usually breaks things up enough for me to get things done. Unfortunately, I rarely use it because I somehow still think "bah, I'm a uni student, I'm so mature, I don't need to give myself structure!"

UGH. I infuriate myself sometimes.

Originality?

I'm currently participating in BEDA (Blog Every Day in April). The funny thing about it was that I was watching some VEDA vlogs and I was like "Oh, I'll BLOG every day in April! I bet nobody's come up with THAT idea before! I'll call it BEDA!". I then found out that people have been doing BEDA for a couple of years now.

*SIGH*

Coming up with original ideas is harrrrrd. You get really excited about something you think of and then you realise: OH WAIT. SO-AND-SO HAS DONE IT ALREADY. You know how that is. It's so hard to ignore it, and you constantly compare your efforts to everyone who has gone before you, and you end up resenting the idea and thinking that it is 'unoriginal'.

The thing is, at this stage and at this time, there aren't really many ideas you can have that somebody else hasn't already had. It's been happening for years; the Internet just makes it easier for us to find out how unoriginal we are. It's so hard to silence that voice that says "just give up, you won't do it better". NO. SSSSSTOP IT.

Your particular version of an idea is original. YOU will create something unique and valuable. So don't let the fact that other people have done something before you get you down; strive to make something that is truly yours, and I know that it'll be appreciated :)

Time management

Hi nerdy bunch! I'm loving this general blogging week.

The last few weeks before mid-semester break are usually really stressful for me. It's usually the time where I have four major essays / assignments, usually around 2,000 words each. This semester, I've got a Criminal Law assignment due on the 11th of April, and two assignments due on the 21st for Contract Law and TV&Pop Culture. The Contract Law assignment topic isn't released until the 14th of April, so that gives me a good three weeks to:

a) Finish Criminal Law assignment before 11 April;
b) Start and finish TV&Pop Culture before the 14th of April;
c) Start and finish Contract Law before the 21st of April.

The problem with a) is that there is NO WORD LIMIT for the assignment. Seriously. We're presented with a scenario and we have to explore their criminal liability, and if we miss an offence we can't get more than 75% for the assignment, but if we have TOO MANY offences it looks like we're just clutching at straws. Our tutor told us to not go above 2500 words if possible, and I'm nearly at 3,000 words and still haven't finished my first draft. This is making me worry that I've got too many offences and then I want to cut one out, but I'm afraid of doing so because it might mean that my marks are significantly reduced.

RAWR.

So, now I'm off to attempt to finish this bloody assignment. Wish me luck!

-missp.

No, it's definitely not easy.

Like most Nerdfighters, I am deeply concerned with the future of our planet. In fact, I'd wager that the majority of people in general are worried about the impact that our lifestyle as a whole has on the planet's health and ecosystems; unfortunately, sometimes it is not as simple as turning off your lights for an hour.

As an Aussie, I'm quite happy that Earth Hour originated here. Last year I participated and I fully plan to do the same next year, since at this stage I'm not in a financial position to be able to do much else. Some cynics say that it's nothing more than an empty gesture--this couldn't be further from the truth. I mean, sure, it's only an hour, but turning off your lights for however long--a minute, an hour, a day-- can make a difference, however small.

All this comes at a time when there's heavy debate over our government's 'controversial' carbon emissions tax. In order to explain this I'll need to give you a brief overview of the political situation here at the moment: Firstly, there are two major parties in Australian Federal politics (we also have state governments and local councils, but we'll get into that at some stage). On the left side of things, there is the Labor party. On the right, there is the rather deceptively-named Liberal party (who are the conservatives. Confusing). Then there are some smaller parties. The Greens are a little further left than the Labor party, and they are very focused on environmental issues. The Labor and Green party are in a coalition and have formed a minority government.

Generally the Liberal party appear to be against any sort of environmental policy because it might (gasp) cost some money in the short term. The Green party, without whom Labor could not govern, are on the other end of the spectrum. They do not believe that our current target of a 5% reduction in emissions by 2020 goes far enough, and wants 20%. This makes it very difficult for the Labor party to legislate anything environmental, because they need the Green party to pass the legislation, and will meet opposition from the Liberal party no matter what they do.

In order to attempt to do something, and to appease the very free-market-put-a-price-on-everything Liberal party, there was a recent attempt to introduce an Emissions Trading Scheme, which would basically put a price on carbon emissions and fiscally punish large polluters, but enabling them to basically 'trade' their emissions and creating a weird little market about it.

Unfortunately, the largest polluters are also the richest companies, and a well-funded Liberal party managed to vote the legislation down. Now, there's a proposed tax--which would work in much the same way, but it would directly TAX large polluters. The policy's main opposition comes from climate change deniers. There was an anti Carbon Tax rally a few days ago, and rather tellingly, it was attended by such parties as One Nation and the Shooting party. Yeah, Australia has as many stupid people as any other country.

The unfortunate and ugly truth is that the main opposition of 'going green' are those companies which stand to lose big time from sustainable energy, who also happen to be the richest companies--Oil and Mining companies, to be specific. It's an uphill battle, and one that really must be fought individually in countries like Australia and America. THIS is why Earth Hour is so important. We can raise individual awareness of these issues, and the more individuals who are trying to make a difference, the more difference we will make as a whole. Let the world know that you care, and it's okay for them to care too.

It's still Thursday somewhere, right?

...right?

These days, it seems that any disaster-type thing that happens is almost immediately eclipsed by yet another disaster-type thing. So far this year it's been the floods in Queensland in January, Earthquakes in New Zealand and Chile in February, and now this terrible situation in Japan. What it really brings to mind for me is just how unpredictable and harsh our planet can be.

Still, I know it's difficult to see sometimes, but really, it could be worse. I mean, I live close to the Brisbane river, which was flooding hardcore--we didn't get any water in our house, and the worst thing that happened to us was that we lost power for three days and had to throw out all our food. But it obviously could have been much worse. Less than a hundred metres from our house, several houses were inundated, and in other suburbs, houses were under water up to their roofs. None of us died or was injured, and we didn't lose what basically constitutes our entire lives.

At the moment, it's difficult to see how the situation in Japan could be worse; there's over 10,000 people missing or feared dead, and the toll is predicted to rise exponentially as the fallout continues. The nuclear situation is incredibly concerning and I can't imagine just how terrifying the situation is for thousands of displaced people, who may have lost their families and loved ones.

What we must remember is that humans, as a whole, are incredibly resilient and adaptable. It may not seem like it now, but life does go on. We have the ability to learn from these things and prepare for similar situations in the future and that is key. We can't predict a lot of these things, but we can sure as heck ensure that we are prepared when they do happen.

Bei Jing Huan Ying Ni (apparently)

I am one of those lucky people who seems to have done a lot of travel. I've traveled and even lived overseas for a few years, and done quite a lot of interstate travel in my lifetime.

But I'm not going to talk about most of those trips. Today, I'm going to talk about my trip to China.

As you will recall, Beijing was the host of the 2008 Olympic Games. You may not know that they formed a marching band consisting of students from China, America, Japan, Australia, and Guam. We weren't going to perform at the opening ceremonies but were rather an auxiliary band--we'd be part of other official events but not the main event.

As I play the clarinet, was a senior in high school at the time, and my parents could (just) afford it, I was able to go as part of the delegation. Months and months of preparation (including the memorising of 30 minutes of music) led up to our departure from Australia in August of 2008. We met and practiced with the other students for a couple of days, and then we went to Tian Anmen Square to perform--slightly exciting as we were the first foreign performers to ever perform there.

 

Hallo, Mr. Mao!

It was a rare sunny day in Beijing, and the heat was like... 40Celsius and so steamy, which is terrifying when you're supposed to be looking after a bunch of younger students. Anyway, our uniform did not help things:

Complete with high pants, cape and beret

Still, it was awesome. Over the next few days, we did a few more performances, but the real highlight of the trip was our performance at the Great Wall. Seriously one of the best experiences of my life. It was a rather steep walk with heavy instruments, and it was challenging, but I don't regret it, because the view (and the sound) was spectacular.

 

The Green Hub (Australia/Japan/Guam) performing part of our repertoire. Great Wall has Great acoustics.

 Fluorescent green isn't my colour; Great Wall is great

The Great Wall was our final performance in China, and we spent the remaining week in Shanghai basically shopping and hanging out. It was pretty awesome! I think I preferred Shanghai over Beijing--it was a lot more open and friendly; perhaps that was because of the high security in Beijing for the games, but Shanghai was much more vibrant. And, like all tourists, I did a lot of shoppping there:

Several fitted caps that I bought for my brothers and sister

Finally, something which I think you will enjoy. At our hotel in Beijing (which was seriously HUGE) there was a massage shop. Here is the sign outside said shop:

Ovary Maintenance? I...think...not.

In general, I think that meeting and mixing with people from all cultures was an amazing experience. Even if I never get to go back to China, I've always got that experience. It was truly awesome. I hope my life brings me many more stories like this.

Thursday's child has far to go

Well.

I'll start my account of my day from when it began, which was technically at 00:00 last night. Being a Uni student, I had just got home from some drinks/dinner with friends at the Red Room (UQ's awesome bar/grill. Just as an aside, the Red Room was momentarily renamed to "The Second Degree" *insert unenthusiastic laughter here* but then it was changed back to Red Room because obviously Second Degree was far too punny). From there we went back to my friend's friend's house where we went for a swim.

So at around midnight I got home, my clothes were drenched because I swam in them (I hadn't planned on going swimming when I left for uni that afternoon). I then spent a few hours playing Lord of the Rings Online and researching some family history on a few ancestry sites. I found out that I can trace one relative back to 15th Century England, which is kinda cool.

Fast forward to 11am, when I woke up. Being March 3 it's technically Autumn (Fall) here but really, it's still Summer. It was terribly hot and after breakfast I HAD to walk down the road and buy a few refreshing beverages. Once that was all done, I played more LOTRO and did some reading for my Constitutional Law lecture tomorrow. My life is so freaking exciting <_<

Tonight, I ate Kangaroo meat for the first time EVER. It was in sausage form, and let me just tell you that Kangaroo is tasty, but the texture is sooooooooo weird. Also, it's a little strange to be eating your national emblem. Just saying.

I also found out that once I finish my uni degree I'll be the first person on my dad's side of the family to get a university degree. NO PRESSURE AT ALL.

Oh, and I created a Goodreads account today! I'm doing the "Read 50 Books this year" challenge on Your Pants, which should be a fun undertaking.

Anyway, must dash!
DFTBA - misspronounced.

I never could get the hang of Thursdays

Yes, ladies and gents, it is I, the mispronounce-able misspronounced, your Thursday blogger on the Nerdy Bunch blog. I, like my esteemed fellow Bloggers, am a Nerdfighter. I have (I think) been one since December of 2009. Actually, I've been a Nerdfighter all my life, but wasn't really aware of it until I first saw the Vlogbrothers.

My first ever subscription on Youtube was the very...characterful... AngryAussie (he is, as his name suggests, an angry Australian). At some point, he began mentioning something called the Project for Awesome, organised by these two enigmatic gentlemen known as the Vlogbrothers. Intrigued, I decided to go look them up on YouTube. I instantly recognised Hank from his "Accio Deathly Hallows" video, and after watching a few videos, I knew that I belonged in the made-of-awesome place that is Nerdfighteria.

As a Nerdfighter, I guess I'm an all-rounder. My main interests are film and literature, but I'm basically interested in anything that I can learn about. I'm a firm believer that just because you don't HAVE to learn about something, it doesn't mean you SHOULDN'T learn about it. My favourite books are Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I have read Looking for Alaska which I adore, and I am currently reading Paper Towns, which seems pretty freakin' awesome.

In real life, I'm a 20-year-old university student in Brisbane, Australia. I'm studying a dual degree in Arts and Law, which basically means four years from now I will graduate with two degrees. I want to eventually do my LLM (Master of Laws) in England, and do something in technological ethical law or perhaps some sort of research or work in Internet law, because I want the internet to be freely accessible, safe and fair. Also, I want to eventually be a writer, but I know I need more life experience and writing skills (and an idea too) before that is going to happen, so I might as well do something in the meantime.

I feel very privileged to be part of such an awesome and eclectic group of Nerdfighters, and I look forward to getting to know you all better as this project continues!

DFTBA

edit: <_< it's an LLM, not MLB. Stupid initialisms :C