Not quite Manolos...but still hot nonetheless

I bought shoes from Sportsgirl for only $39.95. It's something I like to call 20 per cent off already reduced items. It's a rare occurence that happens when the sun, the moon and Mars all line up.


Full shot.


Side profile.


Yes those are my legs. It was hard to get this shot but it's all in the camera angle.

The shoes are NOT gold. They are bronze. Bronze like the bronze period. I really like them, there was another pair that were a dark blue with a silver tinge but I settled on these as they were cheaper and a little different. If the other ones get reduced I'll probably get those too.

Oh I love shoes.

How did we get here? No, really?

One of my old high school friends recently asked me, “Did you ever think we would have all ended up here?”

After high school everyone begins different journeys. Catch-ups turn into gossip sessions over who has gotten married, engaged, had a child. Talk inevitably turns to what you’re studying, how long you have left, what you’re going to do with the rest of your life. Because obviously it’s been four years since high school and if you don’t know now when will you ever know?

I try not to look back to high school too much. I’m not one for dwelling on the past. But it’s interesting when you think how some people can do complete 360 degree turns with their lives and their personalities and how others are basically the same, just older, with some highlights in their hair and a better (or worse) clothing style. Everyone seems more independent, slightly more together.

But going back to the question of whether I thought that I and my old friends would have ended up where we are now. The answer is probably no. When I was 12 I thought that by the time I was 20 I’d have two books published, pursuing a law degree and have a really good boyfriend. Instead I’ve settled for some published articles, an arts degree (much better in my opinion) and waiting for this really good boyfriend (which I might have if I wasn’t so damn picky).

The only thing that really stands out from when I was younger till now is that I wanted to write and I’m still writing.

As for everyone else, I’m still surprised by what people are doing… getting married, learning Swedish massage, studying in Tasmania or whatever. I guess I had inklings of what I thought people would study, who they would date but life always throws in surprises. People you thought would study medicine end up dropping out, others move and you don’t hear from them again.

And so life progresses, paths cross intermittently and friendships drift without the day to day of high school that once anchored us down.

T

The Ethics of Editing

The Ethics of Editing

I have never really subedited before. Once in Year Three I was known as the ‘preferred editor’. This meant that my teacher recommended that I edit the cutesy stories that people in my class would write. Who knew my good grammar at age seven would finally pay off?

Anyway I am subediting for the student paper which is an all new experience. I get to read things before they go to print. I’ve also realised how I’m not used to reading pieces that are blatantly opinionated after a summer of ‘objective’ articles and conformity. It is a student paper after all so many pieces are lefty, less so are righty, and mine are the ones that are situated some where in the middle.

Perhaps I am being to hard on people when I split up sentences into smaller ones and nitpick on the correct use of apostrophes. I don’t suggest that my grammar is perfect nor do I suggest that I don’t make mistakes.

It is interesting comparing the styles of the pieces. One of the pieces was really colloquial and felt like the writer was giving a casual speech on the topic. Another was impressively researched to the point where I felt like I had inadequately sourced mine. The last piece used four or five adjectives per sentence (which made me cringe) but had some great thoughts.

In the realm of the student newspaper, writing is respected and style is appreciated. I have learnt to respect the style of the pieces I sub and leave them as is. I wouldn’t want someone ripping what I’ve written to shreds. Elsewhere however the same rules do not apply. So you have to interpret what the style should be before embarking on your own.

Where does that fine line lie in editing too much and taking out too much?

When I was doing my internship my entire feature article was swapped around, paragraphs were shifted up or down, a couple of sentences inserted or restructured. It was far from what I’d originally written. The lady doing the editing simply said that feature articles have their own natural shape, you just have to get a feel for it.

Maybe that tend to only apply for mainstream newspapers where paragraphs are short and readily re-assembled? Rather than when articles carefully lay out a biased argument?

All I know is that I’m learning as I go, and that seems to be the key. I will be learning shorthand soon, and will learn how to decipher the scribbles and write them myself. A whole new written language…

In other random events…
- Sunrise featured a Chow Chow on the show as a part of promoting Chinese New Year festivities in Melbourne. The weatherman hugged the Chow, it was gorgeous! Ruski was jealous.
- (OC SPOILER) Johnny fell off the cliff. I knew it! I could see it coming miles away. I felt bad for the character I mean his girlfriend cheats on him, Ryan saves him in a punch up, he gets hit by a car which screws up his surfing career, he attempts to rob a store for money for the operation but Ryan saves him again, he almost gets involved with Marissa’s younger sis Caitlin who is a ball-buster and then he tells Marissa he loves her (very cute, I laughed when he blurted it out and Marissa was just ‘oh shizzamonizza’) and then gets a letter saying she doesn’t love him back but how bout being my best friend. And then, and then! He gets pissed on tequila, climbs up a rock cliff, yells at Marissa for not loving him and how Ryan has to save him again…and BOOM slips, falls, crashes onto the beach. Poor guy. This all leads to the conclusion that Marissa causes the downfall of any guy who loves her who isn’t Ryan. The stats are all here:
EG. Oliver – exposed as a fake, and something else that I don’t remember.
Luke – has a gay father, sleeps with Julie Cooper, gets in a car accident (sound familiar?) and moves to Portland.
The Gardener Dude – okay nothing bad happened to him but he did lose his job.
Trey – gets shot in the back.
- who knew a cartoon could cause so much controversy? A sign of the tensions of the world I suppose. A cultural studies intellectual may see this as evidence of society moving back to image-based communication, where one image causes a chain reaction worldwide…fast to transmit…even faster to protest.
- I have three 21sts coming up in the space of four weeks. Outfits and presents need to be planned and/or bought!
- Fall at Your Feet

I’m really close tonight/
I feel like I’m moving inside of her/



T