Catch Up Monday (24/2 to 2/3)

Welcome to the inaugural weekly Catch-Up Monday post. This will only be a short post with a summation of all the posts of the week so that you are able to catch up on any posts you may have missed or just have an idea of what has been talked about that you may have missed. You may also find a segment that you might actually enjoy reading so, anyway, on with the post! The week started last Monday with the last fifty questions in a list of 100 really random questions that I found on the internet. I never realised how random the questions were until I started answering them (I did not read ahead) but you have those answers to look forward to if you go through the blog archive to the right. Monday also saw the announcement of this segment, the final day of the week without a segment now filled. I then missed Tuesday due to homework and Wednesday because it was my father's birthday and we went out for the whole night after school. We came back on Thursday however for another "At the Movies with Daily Lukey" segment where we continued our look through some of the highly anticipated films to be released later this year. The movies I looked at were Annie, Odd Thomas, Endless Love, Transcendence and Pinocchio. You should go check those out as some of them have trailers or posters available as well as a description of each underneath the headings. There are some pretty interesting movies to look forward to this year. We then came to a mixed bag of a "The Week that Was" segment as we mourned the loss of model-turned-television-personality Charlotte Dawson who fell victim to intense cyber-bullying causing depression. The subsequent post was dedicated to all those who have fallen victim to cyber bullying. The Sochi Winter Olympics were then discussed before I reflected on organising a Relay for Life team for my Kokoda group. You will probably get an update on how that is all going this Friday so stay tuned for that. I finished by discussing some of my training with the CFA which has recently started up (and the reason behind this short and easy to write weekly post).

If you want to read any of these posts, just look through the archive to the right or scroll down. See you tomorrow!

Merry Christmas... Still Short

I am so sorry for having to post all these short pieces but Mum is on the computer all day working on her year in review video that always takes a lot longer than it should. This means having to write posts using the Blogger application on my phone which can be very annoying. For one thing it does not let me format pictures which means they never look right and because it is on my phone it takes a lot longer to type out, seriously. It also is harder to gauge how much I have actually written because you can not show as much on your phone. At least I can go to sleep now though because I am really tired after the firecall I had to go to at midnight last night. Plus I have to get up early tomorrow for the CFA as well to help Weribee Zoo test their evacuation plan. At least it could be somewhat fun.

Anyway, sorry again for these short late posts. See you tomorrow.

Another Late Night Another Short Post

So it is that time again. Yes, for no discernable reason other than my own, another late post has come to pass. It seems that I am starting posts like this all too often. For this I am sorry but everyone has busy days and today was one of mine. There are many reasons why posts come out late. The main reason being CFA with training going until late. Homework is another big issue which is unfortunate but unavoidable. If it piles up then it still has to be done. Other reasons included illness, parties and unforeseen events such as procrastination.

I really am very sorry for these late posts, see you tomorrow!

Sticky Beaks

So today's post was a bit of a toughie to find a topic for. I hate to break it to you guys but finding inspiration is hard (something I have probably set several times, make that definitely). It is especially so when your life revolves around School, CFA (sometimes a source of inspiration), Piano, Jujitsu, Relaxation and Sandy. Of course my life does not completely revolve around those six things (can you believe how long it took me to count that? Well, probably not since it seems as though this sentence just goes on and on and on) but you get the idea. Sometimes I am lucky and I find some good inspiration which provides me with posts for many days ahead. So, of course, I use one and save the rest for a rainy day. Guess what guys, it is raining (well actually it is but never mind) and it is time to use up one of these posts. Granted, the inspiration was reiterated yesterday when I was walking Sandy but let's keep it going. Wow, I do mention Sandy a lot in this blog. I just went through my tags and there are twenty posts tagged with Sandy. That means that 11.9% of this blog is currently about Sandy. Anyway, moving on.

Source: http://goldsworthy.aminus3.com/image/2013-02-01.html

So I realised while walking Sandy yesterday (see there he is again) that my family are total sticky-beaks. I mean total sticky-beaks. No, I do not mean my family are birds with their beaks covered in a sticky substance. I mean that they like to know what is going on even when it does not concern them. Hey, I am little guilty of this as well. By little I mean a bit and by a bit I mean a lot. Sandy is a sticky-beak in almost everything. If ever we go to feed the chickens (whose coop is in the backyard) Sandy follows us always and if we do not give him a piece of the bread that we give the chickens then he goes into melt-down. Put simply, Sandy is very jealous of the chickens and always wants to know what they are getting. Then whenever we walk him and he comes a cross a bush he always tries to look over it to see what is on the other side (why he does not just walk around with me is something I will never quite understand). My Mum on the other hand was such a sticky-beak at one point that I made ten dollars once (I negotiated) just for walking out the front of our house to check if the neighbor's car was next door. Needless to say it was the easiest ten dollars I ever made. My brothers both like to know what is going on at any one moment and one just seems to have supersonic hearing, when it suits him of course. Then there comes to those reality television shows like Big Brother. I used to like it but have since stopped watching it as it takes up too much time. I'll watch it occasionally but sometimes this can be as little as once every two weeks if that. Mum and my brother on the other hand watch it devoutly. I swear, if that is not a sign of being a sticky-beak then I do not know what is.

Don't even get me started on my father, see you tomorrow!

No Politics Today

So today I decided I would give you all a break from the 'boring' world of politics as it is often referred to as being. Of course, as I may have demonstrated through some of the political parties Australia has to offer, this is not true for all of politics. Such an assumption would be absurd and tantamount to stereotyping. Actually, it is stereotyping. Not all Politics is boring obviously political parties like the Australian Sex Party and the Coke and Bubblers Party contradict this statement. Also, have you seen parliament? It is like a court-room drama with one side fighting against the other and constant bickering. You may have realised that today's post is only a short one and that is, of course, because Thursday nights are a bit of a busy time for me and sometimes I am able to pre-write long posts and times where I have tests and essays coming up I do not have time to do all this. You guys are actually pretty lucky I still manage to reach my daily post quota at times. So yeah, I thought I would give you all a break from Politics today (see that 'smooth' transition back on topic) and so the series will continue in two days and I am pretty sure we are already past half-way through the parties so there should really only be two or three more. Hope you guys enjoy the rest of your week, it's Friday tomorrow!

Can't wait for Friday, see you tomorrow!

Theatres and Fire Alarms

I have had very bad experiences with Fire Alarms and/or Theatres recently. I have started to think that there is some big conspiracy centered around me. As you can see, I am not very narcissistic. Basically, recently I have been having trouble with these locations/devices wherever I go and I guess it all started the week before last. I have written posts about the first two experiences which I will link in the next sentence, the third experience is one you will be hearing about first in today's post. The first experience was with a fire-alarm at Werribee Plaza and the next was a bad experience at the cinemas while waiting to see Despicable Me 2 which is hilarious by the way. The third experience happened yesterday so check the next paragraph for the story.

Image Source: http://www.mccurdyelectric.com/fire-alarm

In summary, the first incident was at the Werribee Plaza where I was shopping and suddenly a fire alarm went off but no one really did anything except continue shopping like nothing was going on. The second experience had nothing to do with fire alarms and more to do with cinemas/theatres. While waiting for Despicable Me 2 to start everything started going wrong and the movie did not actually start until fifty minutes after it was supposed to. The third experience happened yesterday at my cousin's Young Australian Broadway Chorus performance at the National Theatre in St Kilda. We were sitting in our seats and talking while waiting for the show to start and suddenly everyone started standing up and walking out and it was not until we could hear the sound of the alarm that we knew what was going on. In the end, after the MFB arrived, we managed to sit down and the show did not start until fifteen minutes after it was meant to which was nothing compared to the fifty minutes we waited the week before. I feel sorry for the girl who left her hair-straightener on that caused smoke to set off the alarm. So as you can see I am not having the best of luck with fire alarms and/or cinemas/theatres. At least we now know that the alarms at these places still work. Luckily, I sorted out the issue with Village Cinemas and managed to get free ticket vouchers which was good. As I am seeing King Kong next Sunday I am keeping my fingers crossed that nothing goes wrong because I am very excited about it. Also, the YouTube Subscription segment I did is now finished so tomorrow there will be another post like this one just so you know.

Remember, working smoke alarms save lives so stay safe and check your alarms, see you tomorrow!

Emergency Fail

I am going to start this post with a bit of a story, an anecdote to be exact. The anecdote begins, and ends, at Werribee Plaza last night (Friday 14th June 2013) around 7:30 pm. I was doing some shopping with my brother. We had just finished our shopping and had brought a Boost Juice (a drink, not the whole company) when, all of a sudden, the fire alarm goes off. So there are big whopping sounds occasionally interrupted by an automated message that was unintelligible throughout most of the Plaza. At first everyone looks around like "what's going on?" and people did not know what to do. The worst part was the alarm and the unintelligible message just kept relaying on a continuous loop and it was becoming annoying. No one had any clue what to do, there were people working in the shops looking around like they were lost. Some shops closed while the majority just remained open with staff not knowing anything. Then my brother and I decided to leave because we were on our way out anyway and what else would you do when a fire alarm goes off?On our way out we passed two security guards who had absolutely no idea what was going on and were literally shouting over the noise so everyone could hear how little they knew. I hate to say it but in an emergency when the authority has no clue what is going on, I think it may cause a bit of panic. It was a little after this that we managed to find a place where the roof was closer to the ground and we could make out the message relaying. The automated message was literally: "An automated fire alarm has being set off, stay calm and await further instructions". Ten minutes later the sounds finally stopped and things went back to normal. At no point was there ever a new announcement telling people what to do, even after it stopped. The only consolation was that the CFA had received an automatic alert about the alarm and Werribee, Hoppers Crossing and a few other brigades had already shown up. That was probably the one good thing about the whole night that if there had of been an actual fire (which there was not, this time) at least there were fire trucks ready. That was our excitement for the night and we drank our drinks and then left.

Image Source: 

http://wyndham-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/have-your-say-werribee-plaza-plans-questioned/

This simply is not good enough. It was a total and utter fiasco. There were staff not knowing what to do, security who were clearly out of their depth and an unintelligible alarm system. If there had of being a real fire lives could quite possibly have being lost. The alarm system in itself is a major flaw. In the busiest parts of the Plaza it was literally unintelligible aside from the whooping sounds it makes. The only place we could hear the words was in the most empty space in the Plaza with the lowest roof. Even then it was a struggle to make out what it was saying. If there had of being a real emergency no one would have known. Even as the alarm was going off we did not know it was a fire alarm until after it had all finished and we saw the fire trucks leaving. That is disgraceful! Werribee Plaza is always busy and even at 7:45 on a Friday night it was busy. All those lives were at danger as they had no idea what was going on. The security staff were not helping as even they had no idea what was going on. The worst part is that they did not even try and hide this from the people doing their shopping. How are people meant to remain calm when the people in authority have absolutely no idea what is going on? In a real emergency people would be lost both figuratively and, possibly, literally. At no point that whole night (we were still there 15 minutes after the alarm stopped) was there any other message than the automatic one. There was no explanation and this is Werribee Plaza, anything could have happened. Then there were the staff at all the shops around us. There are over 200 stores in Werribee Plaza and it would be lucky if, at most, 20 were closed. Most of the staff were standing dumbfounded out the front of their stores while others just continued working and serving customers. They had no idea what to do and how to handle the situation. This is a major flaw in the system and one that could be costly to many lives. This is a shocking wake up call at how ineffective the alarm system at Werribee Plaza is. This is deplorable and should never be occurring in 2013. The management at Werribee Plaza urgently need to update their alarm protocols and make sure they work as they should. I should never have experienced what I did last night, it was shocking.

Take a good hard look at yourself Werribee Plaza management, see you tomorrow.

Community

Community (No, I do not mean the popular TV show) is something most people classify as history, no longer a part of today's multicultural environment. I beg to differ and I believe that Community is still alive today and I have seen examples of this everywhere. By Community I am not referring to buildings or any physical. I am talking about the social links between people in an area.

Just recently I had the pleasure of seeing this, just yesterday in fact. As you may have read yesterday I went to Relay for Life and there were so many people united to raise money for the Cancer Council. There were just so many people and there was such a good vibe around that it wasn't hard to see the sense of community.

There were so many different teams there, and they were all happy to be there even though they could have been spending their weekend doing something else. There were Fire Brigades, School Groups, Paramedics, work groups and other community groups who all had busy tents and full teams. Then there was also all the teams who also sold raffle tickets, food, lollies (yeah, I know lollies are food) and those beads and necklaces and everybody was smiling and were talking to other teams like they had known each other for years. So there was a really vibrant sense of community at this event and like all other Relay for Life events that I had attended. I really enjoyed my time and that was partly due to the sense of community I felt at every part of the track, it really gives you hope for the world. NOTE: These photos are from Relay for Life 2012 and are from the Wyndham Relay for Life Facebook Page.

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

Relay for Life Reflection

So today, as you would have read yesterday, was Relay for Life. I'm not going to go into what Relay for Life is again so just click here to go to yesterday's post to read about it. So it started off at that temperature which is hot and cold at the same time. So I came wearing shorts, a CFA top and my CFA jacket to keep warm. Then, upon registering, you receive a Relay for Life T-shirt. Each year the T-shirt is a different colour and this year it was Purple which was cool since Purple is my favourite colour.

So the first lap of Relay for Life is for people with Cancer or who have previously had Cancer, they are called 'Survivors' and wear a purple sash throughout Relay for Life that has 'Survivor' written on it (not as in the TV-Show). They call this lap the "Survivors Lap". The second lap is when the people who look after, or who have looked after, a person with Cancer joins in. They are called the 'Carers' and this lap is called the "Carers Lap". The third lap is where everyone can join in and is called the "Family Lap" and so from here on in the Relay has started for everybody.

There is a team that is always there (I think they're called "Happy Feet") who sell these plastic necklaces (this year it was green) for $5 and then every lap they give you a bead (this year it was green for one lap, blue for every 5 laps, silver for 50 and gold for 100) for free which is cool and they would make a lot of money out of it because there are so many people participating in Relay for Life and almost everybody has one. This money is put towards the team fundraising total and is donated to the Cancer Council so it is not for profit. So here is a photo of me holding my necklace after my first three laps.

So I then continued for a few more laps until I got to this and had a break to get a drink. In this photo I was at 15 laps.

Then I just continued doing laps for a while and the time just slipped away until I got to around 30 (taking me 2 hours, 400 metres a lap and I was moving fast) where I started thinking about getting that little bit further and aiming for 50 laps. It took me a while and I finally reached 50 and my legs were killing me (walking non-stop for 4 hours can do that) but I pushed on and took this photo. I was very happy because I had reached my goal (the year before I had done 119 laps but I was there for the full 24 hours that time and I only reached 100 laps at 3am [yes, AM]). Here is a photo of my 50 beads, you can see the silver bead at the top.

So then I really had to have a rest because my legs were killing me and so I sat down for the first time for the whole Relay for Life and before we knew it I had to go home because my Dad had to drop my grandmother off on the way home. My middle brother is staying over night but I did it last year and unless I am doing it with my school it is not worth it. I mean last year I came home, had a shower and then fell asleep until dinner time (from 2pm to 7pm) and then I went back to bed and fell asleep and didn't wake up until 8am the next morning (I had no school) so you can see why I didn't want to do that again unless I could stay up and have fun with friends from school. So, all in all, Relay for Life was really fun (I say was even though it doesn't finish until 12pm tomorrow) and now I am relaxing and making this post. I ended up finishing on 52 laps before leaving (working out to just over 20.8km)

May the odds be ever in your favour, goodbye!

Relay for Life

So, as I mentioned in Yesterday's post, tomorrow I will be doing Relay for Life although I will not be doing the full 24 hours (as I did last year) but instead will be going on the Thursday and then coming home that night because my Dad has to work the next day and Mum won't be able to pick me and my eldest brother, who has his licence, is unreliable so it should be fun.

Relay For Life is a 24-hour relay where you go in teams of up to 10 and for 24 hours someone on your team must be on the track at all times carrying a baton for your team (this can be any item (appropriate!) that your team chooses). Each team raises money and all the funds raised (as well as registration costs) goes straight to  the Cancer Council. Last year I did it with my school and before that I had done it with the local CFA (Country Fire Authority). This year my school isn't participating because they didn't want to 'detract' from The World's Greatest Shave which was a big fundraiser at our school (well, we fundraised for it at our school). This year I will be competing with the Werribee CFA and it should be fun.

I will probably be able to blog tomorrow night because I won't be staying at the track for the full 24 hours but I might not be able to post tomorrow depending on the time I return. This is just a quick warning about the possibility of me missing tomorrow's post. So yeah, Relay for Life should be a lot of fun and I can't wait!

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

Good Friday, Survivor and SongPop

So yeah, today was Good Friday and that means the Good Friday Appeal!

It also means waking up before 7am to get to the Fire Station by 7am! It was worth it though and our Brigade raised $72,485.50! This all goes towards the Royal Children's Hospital Good Friday Appeal. You know, there isn't anything better than knocking on Strangers' doors asking for money!

So then I finished that around Lunchtime (I didn't want to stay the whole day) and came home and rested while watching the Survivor Marathon on Go! This was great cause it went to 5pm and caught me up on all the episodes I missed. Plus it was this years series so the next episode we get just 6 hours after the US! THAT IS SO COOL! So yeah, I have a new addiction to that. Which was a great way to rest after walking all morning, just joking, I was doing things while watching this.

Finally, I have a new addiction to SongPop. I am just going to say that I only started playing with Peter at 3pm and am already up to this, PS. (I AM STILL BEATING HIM!!)

So yeah, that happened and so now I have been doing that for a while but am taking a break to write this post. Also, I am having a Google+ Hangout with some friends at the moment which is pretty funny. Especially when someone keeps putting on mysterious noises (looking at you Xavier) and the other has a song playing. Anyway, so yeah. That happened. Also, I am STILL beating both of the players on SongPop and Xavier just totally asked "What's SongPop?" and I was (mentally) going "WHAT?!" but I replied like any sane person would...

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