Mishmash

Hi hi,

I'm in a flat mood today, so I feel this blog will not be as full of exclamation marks as usual. Possibly that's a good thing though, as F Scott Fitzgerald did say that using exclamation marks was like laughing at your own jokes. Oh dear, that might be what I've been doing in all my other posts. Cringe.

Anywhos, I have a few announcements:

1. I'm joining NaBloWriMo, because I thought it might be a good idea to actually force myself to use this blog more than once a month.

2. I now have a twitter account! And I will add a follow tag on the side of my page for those intersted :)

3. I don't talk about my swim-teaching much here, although it is one of the joys of my life - I love teaching this valuable skill to kids, and seeing them improve each term, because of ME is amazing. Sorry, I'm getting clucky, ignore me if you like.

So, I'm doing a Towards Competitive Strokes course this weekend, and I'm looking forward to it. It'll help me instruct kids on how to do butterfly, breastroke, and the other strokes with more finesse. I'm doing it mainly because I've never been sure of butterfly, and now I will feel more confident in my teaching ability.

4. Last post, I promised to let you know how my CP was going - it's going okay. I'm still on the first draft, and I'm at 10450/15000 words. I can't wait to finish the first draft and edit it down.

I should mention that I'm having lots of FUN with it. I can write freely for the first time in my degree. It feels good to have free-reign over my characters for longer than 15oo words.

So that's me for the month, until I start NaBloWriMo, in which you'll be hearing from me every day. Are you quaking in your boots yet?

Hi! Remember me?

It's been a while. I got wrapped up in dropping a unit of study, taking on an insane 'winter term' unit, and stressing out about my internship. Which is going great by the way.

The lady I mentioned in the last post is Wonderful. She's so enthusiastic and supportive.

For my first article I wrote up a short piece on this Australian poet, with an accompanying interview.

People, I cannot tell you how nervous I was after submitting that first piece. I was nail-biting for the first week until I got an email containing feedback. And then I didn't want to open it up because I was convinced they wouldn't want to keep me on as an intern after the horrible job I'd done.

But then they loved it. Maybe not loved it, but there was praise involved. They only had to change a couple of details before publishing it. So I was happy and telling everyone about it until I had to write my latest piece, a report(ish) on this event. Which I submitted today.

So now I'm a mess of nail-biting again. And the same thoughts are going through my head - are they going to hate it? Will they still want me working there?

Yes, I know I'm being irrational, but this is my process. I'll be absolutely ecstatic when (if) they like it again.

Other news: in my final semester of uni! And the subject I'm most excited about is the Creative Project. It's pretty much six months of writing. Heaven for me.

My first task in this unit is to submit a Project Proposal. This is fine, because I'd been thinking about what I wanted to write about for the last few weeks before term started again.

I'm going to write a back story to my side project Los Peregrinos (LP). In LP, my main character Tawny is the guardian of her nephew Kai. Kai's mother, Tawny's sister, disappeared five years ago in the world of LP.

The back story is of Sal (mother and sister), because it's been bugging me why she would disappear on her son and sister like that. Did I mention she and Tawny are orphans and she had to raise Tawny? Anyway, lots of interesting things going on there that I'm going to use this unit to explore. The story of long lost Sal.

If you're lucky, I might keep you posted on how this project goes.

So Glad

I've got a hectic day coming up on Friday. First I have my CPR certificate - I need it up to date for work - then I'm meeting up with the lady in charge of my Internship Placement, and then it's straight to work in the afternoon.

Pick out the most important item in that list. And it's not the thing that's could save someone's life.

I'm meeting with the lady in charge of my internship placement on Friday! I spoke to her last week and she sound like a very happy and enthusiastic woman. What did she say as soon as I mentioned my name?

"Hi Astrid! I'm glad your coming to help us, and that we can help you, and that everybody's helping everybody!"

Looking forward to Friday very much...

1940s

There have been many things on my mind lately, and I've been storing them up in the 'to blog about' section of my brain. But of course the thing that trumps them all is: fashion.

Here is my dilemma: I have a 1940s themed party to go to this Saturday. While I know very well what they were, I'm stuck as where to start when wanting to dress myself this way.

Does anyone have any tips on how to adapt current fashions to looks 1940s-esque? Or what to look for in op-shops? Preferably what's available in Australia too.

Thanks in advance for your help :D

Internship (woo, woo, woo)

I have an internship! I won't say too much because the details aren't finalised yet, but I'm very excited. And it could lead to being:

Published!

Just a few small articles, but small steps still add to an entire mile walked. Is that too cheesy? 'Cause that's how I feel.

I've been meaning to write this post since last week, but the news came the day before my birthday, and I've had an assessment hanging over my head.

Along with that news came the little piece of information that if I work hard this year, I could get a scholarship to honours next year! These two tidbits made my day, and were an awesome early birthday present.

So yeah, internship. The chance to be mentored by writerly types, and write a few small articles in the process. I may ask if I can blog about my experience there, it would give me a reason to be more regular with my posting.

And in reply to those who commented on my last post: thankyou :)

Kindness

I was talking with a workmate yesterday about people who are nice/smile and how much we liked serving them.

At work I try to talk to everyone with a smile, and those who bring a smile to me always make me feel better. Most of the people I work with are the same way (at least when dealing with customers).

Then there are the people who are grumpy and no matter how much I smile and try to be good natured about their complaints, just won't back down with their bad mood. People should realise that just because something annoys you, it doesn't mean you now have an excuse to take it out on those who are trying to help you.

I know I probably can't talk, but I've realised in the past few days that kindness really does make a difference.

You (this means me, you, everyone) smile at someone, you make them feel good. They smile back, they make you feel good. And vice versa.

This could keep going until you both explode in a shower of kindness (or Sprite).

Anyway, I should try to smile more and be kinder. So should you.

It's me!

I'm the girl who starts off on the left and travels to end on the right :D

PureSalsa at the SSC10!

And in case anyone out in cyberspace is interested in learning salsa, these are the guys I dance with:

PureSalsa ACT

enjoy!