WE WON!

Welcome back to the second "The Week that Was" segment on Daily Lukey. For those of you who do not know, this is the segment where I go through some of the events of the week. These can come from my life or from the wider world but all have had some significance in the past week. I begin today by elaborating on the title. Yesterday our school had our school Swimming Carnival which was a lot of fun. I did not swim but I did marshal for the first half of the day which earned house points to go towards winning. In the end, the best team did win (that means my team by the way) and as I am still Deputy House Captain until the new ones are elected it was a great feeling. As my school is only four years old there has only been four swimming carnivals yet my house has never lost a single swimming carnival. In fact, we have only ever lost one sporting competition which was the house Athletics Carnival last year but we did come second. It was great though but still, not unexpected. I mean, "we are the red team, the mighty red team. We are the strongest, we are the best. We'll stick together, in any weather. And we will win the sports today." That is actually our house "chant" which is sung to the tune of "you are my sunshine". Again, it is the best.

Source: http://www.aquaforceswimmingclub.com.au/Club_Races.php

In other news, I have to think of something else to talk about. A big issue in the media this week is the impending release of Julian Knight who was the perpetrator of the infamous Hoddle Street Massacre which killed 7 people and injured another 19. Through his time in prison, Mr Knight has shown none of the remorse he should and so the Government is not convinced of his rehabilitation. As a result, they are drafting new legislation which will allow Julian Knight to remain in prison indefinitely. This has raised a lot of debate as to whether this infringes on Mr Knight's basic human rights. He has done the time he was assigned for the crime he committed and the big issue is whether this should mean that he is set free. Mr Knight has completed a law degree while in jail and so he is actually a pretty smart man who might be able to contest this. However, this is not the first time that the Government has passed such legislation. Back in 1990, there was another issue over the impending release of Garry David who had committed some more heinous crimes and had threatened to recommit again when he got out. Even while in jail he still sent a lot of threats out to the community as he had a big issue with authority in general and, in particular, the police. As a result, the Victorian Government faced a similar issue to Julian Knight. In the end they passed legislation that would mean that Mr David would remain in prison indefinitely until his life was put in danger at which point he would be moved somewhere else (such as a hospital for instance if he was terminally ill). It is quite possible that the same thing will occur again for Julian Knight who is a person who many never want to see from this side of a jail cell. Something I neglected to mention last week was the release of Schapelle Corby from an Indonesian prison after serving a nine year prison sentence for drug trafficking after a large bag of marijuana was found in her boogy-board case. The worst part is that the public will never know the truth as to whether she is innocent or not as all we have to go by is her word. An issue that has arisen over this is whether Schapelle Corby should be allowed a television interview to tell her story. If she is to do this she will be set to receive a lot of money. In Australia, this would be illegal as there is legislation to prevent criminals profiting from a crime. However, if all the payments were to be done while she was serving her parole period in Indonesia (she cannot leave until her parole period finishes in 2017) Corby would be allowed to keep her payment. However, her parole officer has warned her not to do it as she is on strict parole conditions and an interview like that could land her back in a Bali prison. Schapelle Corby is lucky to be alive however as in Indonesia, they take drugs a lot more seriously and so the death penalty still applies to drug-related offences. Before I finish, I just want to say that there will most likely be no post tomorrow as I am out literally all day except for some very short breaks. I leave for training at 7:45am before returning home by around 1pm before having to leave again and go to a party shortly after. From this party I need to go to my father's party straight afterwards and so I am not set to return home until pretty late tomorrow night. For this reason, please forgive me for the lack of post tomorrow. I have also been sick the past few days with a very sore throat so this weekend will be my chance to catch up on the sleep that will help me feel back to normal by Monday. So I guess I will see you all Sunday.

Those were the big items of the week, join me next week for some more. See you tomorrow!

Australian Jingle Bells

As you all should know, Christmas is just around the corner! Usually we would all be very cheery and merry at this time but I have had enough of America's views of Christmas taking over the whole world's view. People are always going on about having a White Christmas but in Australia, any ice still left out has melted by the time Christmas comes around. As a result, I am taking some of the popular Christmas carols/poems/stories and making them more Australian. You can check out The Night Before Christmas in Australia by clicking here.

Source: http://travel.ninemsn.com.au/holidaytype/kidsfamily/654340/aussie-christmas-holiday-ideas

Australian Jingle Bells

Dashing through the heat

In a four-wheel open ute

O'er the pools we go

Sweating all the way

Bells on bob tails ring

Making spirits bright

What fun it is to laugh and sing

A sweating song tonight

Oh, jingle bells, jingle bells

Jingle all the way

Oh, what fun it is to ride

In a four-wheel open ute

Jingle Bells, jingle bells

Jingle all the way

Oh, what fun it is to ride

In a four-wheel open ute

A day or two ago

I thought I'd take a ride

And soon Miss Fanny Bright

Was seated by my side

The car was hot and dirty

Misfortune seemed his lot

We got into a drifted bank

And then we got upsot

Oh, jingle bells, jingle bells

Jingle all the way

Oh, what fun it is to ride

In a four-wheel open ute

Jingle bells, jingle bells

Jingle all the way

Oh, what fun it is to ride

In a four-wheel open ute yeah

A day or two ago,

The story I must tell,

I went out to the pool

And on my back I dove,

A gent was swimming by

In a one-piece swimming suit,

He laughed as I there painfully float,

But quickly swam away

Oh, jingle bells, jingle bells

Jingle all the way

Oh, what fun it is to ride

In a four-wheel open ute

Jingle Bells, jingle bells

Jingle all the way

Oh, what fun it is to ride

In a four-wheel open ute

Now the ground is parched

Go it while you're young

Take the girls tonight

And sing this driving song

Just get a bobtailed bay

Two forty is his speed

Hitch him to an open ute

And crack! You'll take the lead.

Oh, jingle bells, jingle bells

Jingle all the way

Oh, what fun it is to ride

In a four-wheel open ute

Jingle Bells, jingle bells

Jingle all the way

Oh, what fun it is to ride

In a four-wheel open ute

Merry Christmas everyone! Only 5 more sleeps to go. See you tomorrow!

Weird Inventions

Today I had no school due to correction day for teachers to mark exams and for students to complete make-up exams if they missed some for whatever reason. Anyway, so today I went to see Catching Fire (which is an awesome movie by the way) and at the end I had to go to the toilet, as you do. As I was relieving myself I got to thinking how weird inventions came about such as the "pee wall" (I could not find anywhere what the actual name was). Again, this is something you normally do as you pee. Anyway, so today I thought I would go through some of the inventions that would have seemed weird at the time they were conceived. Let us begin with the "pee wall". How did that even come about? Did someone want to make peeing on walls socially acceptable. Before this invention if you saw someone peeing on the wall you would call the police. Now, if you see someone pee on these "pee walls" you could congratulate them for not urinating in a public place. Seriously though, does anyone else think the conception of this idea is just a little weird?

Source: http://francis-moran.com/marketing-strategy/identifying-the-invention/

Next we have the odd yet incredibly popular "snuggie". Basically, it is a blanket that you can wear as clothes. Some people even wear it out (though why they would do that I do not know). It is great in that you have complete protection and do not have "cold spots" which the blanket did not cover. Like the pee wall, did someone think that they wanted to make it socially acceptable to wear a blanket in public? Well they definitely succeeded and have since made millions out of it. Such a weird invention but now the majority of people know what you are talking about when you say "snuggie". Now, what about those "Magic" 8 Balls that people set so much store in. We all know that it is merely chance and there are no supernatural powers working on that 8 ball. Still though, people set so much store in that toy. It just shows how much people do not want to have to make their own decisions. "Should I wear clothes today." "My sources say no." "Am I going to be forever alone?" "You may rely on it." "Will I ever feel better?" "Better not tell you now." Seriously though, all those replies are actually what magic 8 balls say (I Googled it and everybody knows Wikipedia does not lie). Who else hates those incredibly annoying singing fish? Who came up with that? Did someone want to feel like they could actually fish and so they made a fake plaque with a fake fish on it? Then, just for the hell of it, they added the power of speech and (most regretfully) of song. God, I see now what you mean by hell. You hath converted me. Now, for the final and creepiest invention of all I pass over to the furry "Furby". Did some lonely man or woman come up with that and realise that "Hey, there must be other lonely people like me out there somewhere. Let's sell these incredibly creepy dolls that speak their own language to other people like me. #Genius." Yes, I put a hashtag in a bit of dialogue. Do not judge me (I see you judging me).

Now do you see how weird some inventions actually are? See you tomorrow!

Another Late Night

I feel like this is happening too much to be normal. I feel that I am saying that too much to be normal. Anyway, have you ever being really bored and then, all of a sudden got an old song you had not listened to on years stuck in your head? For me, it happens once or twice a week. Last week I got back into Never Let Me Go by Florence and the Machine and this week it is Be Prepared from the Lion King. It gets worse when you can only remember one line and so that is all you are humming. It gets annoying.

I am sorry for all these late posts, they are written on my phone by the way which is why they are so short and devoid of images. See you tomorrow!

Problems

We live in a world where problems are everywhere. Such a change would require an equivalent adjustment but in our case society has just moved on and let these problems fester so that we become a generation of complainers. We have so many problems that we even have categories for them. Oh, there are so many categories. You have the ordinary relationship problems (self-explanatory) and health problems but then you have the more interesting ones which I will go into more depth later. We have had to create new categories that, just years before, could never have existed. In this way we are our own worst enemies and should tackle our problems head on instead of letting them get to us enough that we feel the need to categorise them.

Source: http://www.pinterest.com/search/?q=problems

We have people problems which come from our unstoppable need to be better than others. We have relationship problems, more commonly referred to as Taylor Swift Problems, which come in the form of boyfriends/girlfriends breaking up and, in the case of Taylor Swift, write endless songs about it. You see, we do not hold grudges. Then we come to the places where these problems are played out, our social media sites. We have Facebook problems with so much to do yet nothing that will not destroy a few brain cells. We have Twitter problems for those who read through every tweet in their feed. We have Instagram problems for people with too much photos and not enough followers. Do not even get me started on YouTube problems because that is a whole other post. Actually, come to think of it, it probably will be a whole other post (be looking out for that sometime in the distant future). Then there are all the other sites on the dark side of the internet. Yes, I am referring to CoolVid and LinkedIn, do not think I would not go there because I just did. Nothing is off limits in this post (well, many things are but). Then you have school problems for people who do not pay attention and wonder why their marks never improve. This is generally accompanied by parent problems when they find out what is going on. So, as you can see, our modern society has created so many new and 'interesting' (think of a horrible antonym) problems that we have felt the need to categorise them.

It is only through problems that we will grow but at this point, I think we are pretty much on a plateau. See you tomorrow!

Songs in my Playlist

Okay, so here is the big deal. I spent the last thirty minutes doing basically nothing except daydream about what this post should be about when it was right in front of me the whole time. See people, sometimes I do not even know what I am going to write about until right before I do (hell, sometimes I do not know what I am writing about when I finish my introduction). My wonderful source of inspiration this time around is my phone (so thank you for that Samsung [not sponsored]) which I was using to listen to music. I decided that I would like to go through some of my favourite songs that I am listening to right now that are on my phone. Of course, this is not all of them (I mean, seriously, who but a stalker (or your LOTE teacher) wants to know all the music you listen to?) but just a few of my favourites. I will embed a YouTube video of each song.

Source: http://wall.alphacoders.com/big.php?i=73967

1. Rise Above 2 from Spider Man: Turn off the Dark

This hard-hitting song from the ambitious Broadway musical is always on my playlist when I am having a shower. I prefer the cast recording version over the one Bon Jovi sings [Rise Above 1] (Bon Jovi and The Edge the creators of this musical). Here is a snippet of the song as performed on Broadway.

2. Applause by Lady Gaga

I'll confess I find myself a fan of Lady Gaga. I like her songs and have a majority of them. Her most recent song, Applause, is another one of the songs I like of hers. I have embedded the lyric video rather than the music video as it is a bit, uh, artistic shall we say and I want this blog to remain open to all ages.

3. Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus

I actually like this controversial artist's new song. I may not agree with her previous song "We Can't Stop" which just seemed to over-leap the mark (I have read too much Macbeth). Here is the official music video.

4. Roar by Katy Perry

I am yet another fan of many of Katy Perry's song and I am happy to say that I include her new song, Roar, as one of them. Below is the official music video of this great song (as judged by me).

I live for the applause, applause, applause. See you tomorrow!

Song in Head Disease

There are so many diseases in our World. Just think about it, there are hundreds. Due to the vast majority of such diseases there are quite a few that are often overlooked or simply ignored. Sometimes I wonder why they are ignored as they can be the most debilitating disease, especially one. I am, of course (just read the title), talking about the gruesome Song-in-head-Disease. It is a debilitating illness that can cause the patient to experience vast trauma depending on the artists or song. Sometimes it is brought on by others while most of the time it is our own fault that we contract the short-lived yet incredibly virulent disease.

Source: http://scienceillustrated.com.au/blog/culture/the-evolution-of-music/

At any one moment a person can be experiencing song-in-head disease from a variety of songs as we try to quell one song with the other. The disease starts off innocently enough with a song which is repeated and repeated and repeated and ... well you get the idea. By about the nth time this occurs you have fully contracted the disease and now must suffer through a song you most likely have no lyrics for. I mentioned in the introduction that this is a short-lived disease. This is true in the majority of cases as once the patient gets distracted by something else they quickly forget the song and the disease passes on. However, while the disease is in full control it is incredibly virulent. It can cause the person to hum the tune or sing it out loud which can cause the infection of everyone around them (as well as a few burst ear drums depending on the singer). Sometimes we also have the 'friend' who acts as a carrier. They do not suffer from the disease but have the tendency to sing out loud or purposely get a song stuck in another's head. Song-in-head disease is serious and should not be taken lightly!

Sorry for any offence, see you tomorrow!

Annoying

Is it just me or is there a lot of things in our lives that are annoying? Some of these things happen rarely while others happen quite often. Sometimes it involves other people or just yourself. There are many things I find that can be very annoying and come with varying degrees of occurrences. One of the most annoying things I find is getting a song stuck in my head and only knowing half the words. After seeing The Great Gatsby I had A Little Party Never Killed Nobody stuck in my head for days and I only ever knew the words that made up the title. In the end I just downloaded the song to put my mind at rest but then that did not help because I found myself listening to it so much that it got stuck in my head. Even more annoying than this however is when you are trying to fall asleep but you can not because you have a song stuck in your head. This happens to me so many times it stopped being amusing a long time ago. Sometimes I just really wish songs were not so catchy or at least did not get stuck in my head.

Image Source: http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/songs-stuck-in-head.htm

There are also the times when people say stuff to you that does not make any sense and when you try to tell them you have no idea what they are on about they treat you like an idiot. Just because they have trouble clearly explaining something does not mean I, or anyone else, is an idiot and it just really annoys me. Then there are those hypocrites which also annoy me. One minute they are telling you not to do something or how stupid it is to be doing that and then a week later you see them doing the exact same thing. The worst part is you can not say anything or else they will go on a long spiel on how they are not being hypocritical etcetera etcetera etcetera. Then there are the times when you ask someone to help you and suddenly they get it in their heads that they are way better than you just because you needed help with one question. Seriously, I mean no matter how many times they ask you questions if you ask just once suddenly your the idiot and they are the genius. Basically, it is pretty annoying when you are with someone who has a superiority complex or epitomises narcissism. It just really annoys me when someone does that. Then you have all the spoilt, screaming children you see wherever you go always complaining because their parents will not buy them something expensive that they will probably use once and then never again. Sometimes I think the parents just need to take them aside and tell them to stop it instead of giving in and buying them what they want. Of course you can never tell them this though because people get very protective when it comes to their children and struggle seeing their faults. What about all the people who give a group of people a stereotype. It really annoys me how some arrogant (cue annoyed adjectives), antisocial idiotic teenagers can do stupid things and give everyone else a bad name. It really pisses me off (if you'll excuse my outburst) how some people think they are above the law and feel no guilt in ruining something for every other person. I better stop now or else my language will continue to digress and there could be some swearing. I already had to backspace a few times with some of my descriptions.

Don't let the annoying things bring you down, see you tomorrow!

Dumb Ways To Die

So today I just wanted to talk about the best Public Safety Message of all time, Dumb Ways to Die, by our very own Metro Melbourne! I know this is old news but I just wanted to share the results of the most shared  public safety announcement ever. If you don't know what it is click on the link on the words Dumb Ways to Die anywhere it is found in this post.

Dumb Ways to Die is a public service announcement for Metro Trains Melbourne to promote rail safety. It has become viral due to social media and video sharing. The campaign was devised by Melbourne Advertising Agency McCann. It appeared in Newspapers, Radio, outdoor advertising, on social media sites (such as Tumblr [that is spelt correctly] and Instagram) and throughout the Metro Trains system. It was estimated by McCann that within two weeks it had generated at least $50 million worth of global media value and had appeared in over 700 media stories around the World for a fraction of the cost of one TV ad. Metro had estimated it had resulted in a decrease of 30% in near-miss incidents on the Metro train network.


An animated music video for Dumb Ways to Die was uploaded to YouTube on the 14th November 2012 and was made Public two days later. It features a cast of interesting characters killing themselves in ways that get funnier over the course of the video. Three characters are killed by trains in the video and within 2 days it had received 2.1 million viewers and within two weeks it had reached over 28 million views. Currently it sits on just over 40 million views. It has spawned numerous covers and parodies and has been received well around the globe.

When Dumb Ways to Die was released on iTunes 50% of the cost of making the song was covered by iTunes downloads in just three weeks! Dumb Ways to Die SoundCloud free downloads (advertised by the campaign website) has reached over 155, 000 downloads! On iTunes the song reached top ten in many countries and the song was played for free on Radio due to its popularity. This song was also played on radio stations around the globe where Dumb Ways to Die was popular.

Dumb Ways to Die has become the most viewed Public Safety Announcement and remember, be safe around trains!

May the odds be ever in your favour around trains, see you tomorrow!