Phil Collins

This man's voice is shown off wonderfully in the song In the Air Tonight. A classic in my book.

Mature age!!?

For the 2 weeks of the school holidays my family disappeared over the NSW/QLD border without me... they went visiting and I stayed home doing assignments - 5 of them to be precise. Funny, I thought I only signed up for 3 courses! Ok, I know it's not supposed to be smooth sailing all the way, but this is getting ridiculous. More importantly, is this a glimpse into the future of of what my remaining studies will be like or an aberration? I can only hope for the second option.

School has been back for a week. Oh, except for the pupil-free day on Monday, and Anzac day on Wednesday. Besides those times I have spent at least 5 hours in the computer lab on campus every day (my home 'puter just isn't up to it). BTW, did I mention that just becasue school's back, it doesn't necessarily follow that uni is too? Whose great idead was that?? Bet they weren't a parent with young kids!

The time not spent in the computer lab would be a good time to spend with the family... wouldn't it? Ha! Got you! 5 hours a week are spent in the local hydrotherapy pool, trying to help my fibromyalgic body cope with what I'm currently putting it through. The rest of the time? Sleeping! No visits to my friend who'se just had a baby that I haven't seen since before she left hospital, no taking the kids to extracurricular activities, no TV, no time for my crafts (I promised myself that this was the year I would scrapbook once every week), no time for a bit of you-know-what with my hubby!

I still don't seem to be making much progress with my assignments! I don't know about these single, free, 20-somethings cope with it. Not only do most of them do a full-time study-load (mine's 3/4), but they go out, socialise, do the things that I remember doing in the long-ago time of my 20's. And some of them are even doing double degrees. I can't cope with thinking about more than 1 topic at a sitting. If I go in to work on ABC123, then that's all I'll work on, the poor brain can't cope with chopping and changing.

I'm now down to having 1 ongoing assignment and 3 set assignments, 2 of which have assessable progress checks in the next 2 weeks. Where am I on these? Nowhere near where I should be.

Is it just me or does this sound familiar to all those who have undertaken 'mature age' study?

It's not my first year, not even my first degree. I've been studying at Uni for about 7 years, at 3 different universities (portable family). I started with an Arts degree - philosophy, anthropology, psychology, sociology, linguistics, media studies, basic IT, web design and management, illustration, digital design, photography and I'm sure I've forgotten 1 or 2! No, I'm not a permanent student, just trying to find something I can do part time - because of my fibromyalgia, that is mobile - because my husband gets posted every 3 - 4 years, that I like - I spent 10 years as a tradesperson in an industry I hated and have vowed never to work again in a job I don't like, AND that I'm good at - so far, so good; is that so much to ask?

I've found it with graphic design. Ironic really because that 10 years I mentioned? was as a graphic reproducer (printing industry; before the printing and after the final artwork has been created) But is my current workload which sees me sleeping twice as much as most other people and popping more painkillers and associated drugs than anybody should have to (especially at 40) an indication of what my not-too-far-down-the-road worklife will be like? If I'm forever 'catching up' now what will it be like then?

Somebody, please tell me how these 20-somethings do it!

I feel like dancing!

After more that a year I went out last weekend. I don't mean out to dinner, which my hubby anad I do occasionally, or going around to someone's house for a barbie, but OUT. A girls night out to be precise, and I had a ball. I maxed out on my painkillers, had a few drinks and danced!!!!! Last time I tried that I managed to last maybe for 1 1/2 tracks. The hydrotherapy must be paying off because I danced for hours. Sure, I needed to top up my pain meds, sure I had a few more drinks - I'm not supposed to mix the 2, but after that long a time of not doing something that you love to do, you tend to say "stuff it". Hello to my fellow students that I bumped into along the way, no you weren't hallucinating, I really did go to the Tourist, no 96 and the Vic. I even went upstairs to the night club at the Vic. That pushed the limits a bit though; after all I'm not quite as young as I used to be:) My husband and the kids were away for all of the school holidays and it was the night before they returned, so the timing couldn't have been better. I woke up a little seedy and spent the next 3 days getting my pain levels back to normal, but it was SO worth it.

Dress-up, whack on some makeup and heels, buy some nice drinbks (other than beer...) and boogie! Thanks girls.

assessment #1

Finally… I have spent a great deal of time in the last few weeks catching up to where I should be in MPI104-2007. At least, I hope I’ve caught up!

I have 21 posts in my blog account, plus a Technorati link, a counter, sidebar links to my flickr and delicious accounts and a YouTube video bar that I’ve set to play music. I have also imbedded photos from the net and from flickr. The items on the assessment checklist have all been completed.

My flickr account has 79 photos. I had trouble with organising these because of the free-account limit of 3 sets; I’d already created 2 for GRP224-2007 as part of my submission for an assignment. When I tried to combine them I ran into difficulty and accidentally deleted an image. I’ll have to delete all images from 1 of the sets and re-upload them into the other. I’ll then divide the remaining photo’s I’ve already uploaded and those ready to upload into some sort of order. All images have been correctly tagged and the assessment checklist points accomplished.

The delicious account has 20 bookmarks, bundled tags, links for others and bookmarks to my blog and flickr accounts. All other checklist items from the assessment list have been completed.

All of my accounts have degrees of ‘interestingness’, although that is highly subjective and hard to quantify. I believe this is the case because of the eclectic nature of the material I have uploaded or posted. My blog, for example has information about extreme body modification, pavement art and The John Butler Trio. In addition to items of interest I have posted materials that will be of benefit to me over the course of my graphic design studies - animating in Photoshop.

Delicious really came to be useful for me, not only did I learn the basics of the interface, but I've been able to bookmark sites that I will actually be using this semester for another course. All items in the bundled tag refer to information relating to BMW - specifically its logo and identity. Additionally I've bookmarked information about creating vector art; also need for this semester. There are links to sites related to comedy, music and art.

Flickr is not as eclectic as my other 2 accounts- the time needed to resize, crop and retouch images has prevented me from uploading all that I'm intending to. In addition to the visual diary information for GRP224-2007, I have images for GRP223-2007 and photos from my own life. Already selected and scanned, but still to resize etc, are photos relating to my uni work in illustration and design and images of my scrapbooking and cardmaking.

Of the 3 sites we have used in the first 1/2 of this semester blogger has been the most fun, flickr the most work and delicious the most potentially useful.

technorati

This post is confirming that I have a Technorati Profile

delicious RSS feed

here is the rss feed to my delicious account. I don't understand its purpose. can anybody enlighten me?

anamorphic art

I think anamorphic art is very clever. Julian Beever is one of the more famous 3d pavement artists and one of his most clever works is the Make Poverty History globe done for Live8.

Body Modification - ADULT CONTENT

WARNING this is not for the faint of heart and links are to graphic images and articles...
I did a semester of anthropology several years ago and the subject covered, among other things, body modification. I've told stories many times of the weird and wonderful things I came across during that time. My research was very much driven by my interest that semester. Tatooing and piercing are pretty much accepted in Western cultures these days, but there is stuff out there that people are doing to themselves and others that is mind boggling. One thing in particular has always stuck out to me (no pun intended), and that is genital bisection. There is an amazing article by a 41 year old gay American guy who goes into the psychology behind his decision to "split his cock", his background and the mechanics of the procedure.

This site has a lot of interesting body modification info, as well as stuff relating more to fetishes of various types. And for those cocky males out there who need binging down a peg or two try this on for size!STRONG STOMACH NEEDED!

Animation

Flash is something I have trouble getting my head around. This video shows a way of animating in Photoshop CS2 that's easy to understand and do-able even for me.

Bob Sinclair

Ok, so this guy doesn't even exist... Sinclair is the alter-ego of Chris The French Kiss - a French DJ. The vocalist he often works with is a guy named Cutee B. Sinclair's got some great songs out - Love Generation and Rock this Party are my 2 fav's but he's done a heap more (to access, go to Discography, click on a song and when iTunes asks you to change stores click 'yes' - this site only has samples, not full tracks).

bored graphic artists

I was originally sent this as an email from a friend and then stumbled across it when browsing through LiveVideo.com. Some of the images are so-so, some quite clever - good practice for whoever did them though!

Scarlett Johansson

Another great speed-painting with Photoshop - this time Scarlett is made to look almost as gorgeous as she is in her publicity photos

Funky Town

This one's a classic from around when I was night-clubbing - Lucy's Tavern in Sydney (Elizabeth St??), for anyone who was around at the time. Still gets me bopping!

Time-lapse Photoshop

I stumbled across this beauty while looking for other stuff. If you're into Photoshop or illustration, give it a look. It's amazing!

Black Betty

I can't stand any of their other stuff, but this track's great (click on view video clip 2/3 down the page on the right)- maybe because I was around for an earlier version. Here's the lyrics to it - it's been banned from Universities because of them. Here's a slightly crazier version of the song done by Nick Cave that you can almost imagine the black slaves singing to.

Flaunt It

I love this song, it's been around for a while now, but the beat and the guys voice get me boppin along every time. Don't think much of their other stuff, but check it out if you're into techno dance music.

fibromyalgia

I mentioned fibromyalgia in my profile. It's a little-know condition so I thought I might use this opportunity to let you guys know what it's about.
As I mentioned, fibromyalgia is like muscular rheumatism. It's diagnosed by a rheumatologist (arthritis specialist) primarily by the identification of a number of tender points on the body. They don't know what causes it and it's not actually a disease, it's a syndrome. That means it's a group of symptoms including body-wide pain, limited muscular endurance and fatigue.
I was diagnosed with FM (fibromyalgia) about 8 years ago. One of the main reasons I started going to Uni was to find a career that I liked and am good at but that I can work on a part-time basis so that my body can cope and that can move with our family (we move every 3 years or so because my husband is in the RAAF). I dabbled quite a bit before finding graphic design, and hopefully I will eventually be able to work from home as a designer in some way.
I live on pain-killers, taking panadeine forte (pain-reliever), ibuprofen (anti-inflamatory), Restavit (a muscle relaxant)and Tramal (another pain-reliever). I use magnets - the sash-like thing I wear is a strand of magnets, an essential oil for headaches and do hydrotherapy twice a week. I also have a muscle rub cream and use a body-length electric body-massager. My next level of medication, which I'm trying to avoid, is morpheine.
It's not uncommon to have people's jaws hit the floor when I tell them of the medications that I take to cope with day-to-day life, but you've got to remember, I've been taking some of them for years - literally - and the body builds up a degree of tolerance; the Tramal is only a new addition, because the others weren't working as effectively any more. Some days though, the only thing to do is go to bed.
I couldn't manage without my husband who cooks, cleans, washes, etc etc etc, especially with 2 kids. I'm on a disability pension, have a disabled parking permit and on an average day can't walk 500m (we've used a pedometer to measure it) without my back seizing up.
My boys are great; they've nearly always had a mum who can't pick them up or play on the floor with them. They know to keep the noise down if I come home from Uni and collapse in bed for a couple of hours. If I say I'm sore, they know that I'm more likely to get cranky quickly and will try and tone things down if I ask them.
I've encountered a lot of doubting Thomases over the years, (including doctors and family members) after all I look 'normal'.
So that pretty much sums it up. I tell people when they ask that FM is like muscular rheumatism, it seems to make sense to people. I'm not after sympathy - just understanding.

John Butler Trio

There has been one song on the radio done by this group that I've heard, and I really like it, but it wasn't until I saw an ad on ABC2 that I was in the right place at the right time to look them up on the net. I found their web site and thought you might like a look. This 1st song isn't my favourite, but I think the guitar playing is brilliant. Great to listen with the stereo loud and lights out. This is the one I really like... Most of the stuff on their site links up with You Tube. Really worth a look.