Another Apology and a Hope

Again, I am sorry for the recent spate of short/missing posts. For reasons beyond my control, this blog has sadly been neglected over the past few days. For this I am incredibly sorry. I can not stress how sorry I am that this even occurs. I try hard to bring out daily content for all of you but some days are just too hard to get anything up. This is why I brought in things like Segments and Series so that I could schedule a few posts in advance to give myself some time off to catch up on homework. I am trying to keep this up but sometimes my life gets too busy with all these things going on but I am excited to bring you all new content. For example, I can not wait until April so I can share my Kokoda experience with you all, including the lead-up to the trek. However, there is a slight possibility that there may be a few days after the trek where you receive no posts. For this, I am apologetic but after hiking Kokoda I need a break. I will try to schedule as many posts as I can but there is only so much I can write between now and April. Anyway, all we can do is hope. After everything else is taken from us, we can still have hope. I hope that this blog returns to full-posts as my life returns to its normal school lifestyle.

I am very sorry, see you tomorrow!

Doctor Who Sunday: Top Moments of the Doctor Part 7

Finally, after what has seemed like ages, this segment is back on a Sunday. Doctor Who Sunday is all about Doctor Who and over the first few weeks (which are more than likely going to turn into months) I am going through my favourite moments of modern Doctor Who. I am currently up to Part 7 which means moments 31 through to 35. You can find the other parts by looking through the archives to the right. Let us get on with the show!

31. Sky Steals the Doctor's Voice in Midnight

This part of the episode of Midnight is when the shuttle that the Doctor was taking on the planet Midnight was attacked by a mysterious force outside. At first she copies the Doctor but then she gets closer and closer before she begins to steal his words before he can even say it. In the end, Sky becomes faster than him and the other passengers think that the Doctor is possessed rather than Sky. The stewardess however, sees what is going on and sacrifices her life to kill Sky.

32. The Nobles have Lost all Hope in Turn Left

In this episode an alien bug makes Donna go back in time and turn right rather than left which means she no longer meets the Doctor. Because of this all of the Doctor's victories are now losses after he dies in Torchwood because Donna was not there to stop him drowning the spider. After that, the only people left who could stop the aliens died each time and so London was destroyed by the Titanic spaceship. Here everyone has lost their hope. This is another of those emotional episode due to the lack of emotion. It is one of my favourite episodes by far. This part also lends on to the next scene I am talking about where Donna meets Rose to save everyone knowing full-well that Rose has told her than when she does finally come with her Donna is going to die. Rose warns Donna of the darkness that is spreading throughout all Universes and realities and when Donna's grandfather notices the darkness Donna decides it is time to go. Turn Left is definitely one of my favourite episodes.

33. Donna Makes the Ultimate Sacrifice in Turn Left

In this part of Turn Left Donna goes back in time to stop herself from turning right to ensure that she does meet the Doctor. She also makes the discovery that she is, in fact,  going to have to die. Donna then has to make the ultimate sacrifice to ensure that she does turn left instead of right. It is another one of those emotional scenes.

34. "Who are you? What will you become?" in Turn Left

This scene comes from the end of the above clip so if you do not want to leave this page and view it on YouTube you can watch the ending above. However, the last few minutes of Bad Wolf are cut out in the last bit so if you really want to see the ending of Turn Left you are going to need to watch this clip. In it the fortune teller who tricked Donna sees how strong she is and wonders on "Who are you? What will you become?!" while scrambling away from her. It really does set up for the two-part finale (The Stolen Earth/Journey's End) which incorporates all of the companions so far in modern Doctor Who including Captain Jack Harkness and Rose's friends/family.

35. The Doctor and Rose Reunite in The Stolen Earth

I am sorry for the above clip but for all of them you have to watch it on YouTube. It is when the Doctor and Rose finally do reunite after a whole season of each narrowly missing the other. It is a great scene that has been two seasons in the making. It deserves its place as one of the best moments of Modern Doctor Who.

There is a lot of emotion recently in the top parts of Doctor Who. This series is Tennant's farewell series though so maybe they were trying for something. Anyway, see you tomorrow!

Pandora's Box

There are many stories about the infamous Pandora's Box and what it holds. However, despite this infamous object's fame, very few people know much about Pandora's Box and its origins. Look no further for this post will aim to inspire you and inform you about the mystical mystery (yeah, I went there) of Pandora's Box. Pandora's Box is an artifact in Greek Mythology, taken from the myth of Pandora's creation in Hesiod's Works and Days which I think is some Greek mythology story. The "box" is actually a large jar which was given to Pandora and it contained all the evils of the world. You can see how such an object would appeal to such a wide variety of people and how it can be a source of great story telling. A popular phrase (that I have never heard of) which is "to open Pandora's box" means to do a little innocent action that has far-reaching and severe consequences. I do not know why that is important but it is, so deal with it.

Source: http://www.insanelymac.com/_/osx86/news-pandoras-box-beta2-is-out-r1000

In Greek mythology, Pandora was said to be the first woman on Earth. Zeus ordered Hephaestus, the god of craftsmanship, to create her and so he did. Athena then clothed her, Aphrodite gave her beauty and Hermes gave Pandora speech. In retaliation of Prometheus stealing fire from heaven, Zeus gave Prometheus' brother, Epimetheus, Pandora. In doing so he also gave Pandora a jar with strict instructions not to open it under any circumstances. Of course, due to her curiosity, Pandora opened the jar and all evil contained within escaped and spread over the Earth. Before Pandora had the chance to shut the jar, all of the evil had already escaped leaving only the one thing that lay at the bottom: the Spirit of Hope named Elpis. Then even Hope escaped into the World. So after this the world was full of every kind of evil, but it was also full of Hope. Pandora's Box has become something of a modern obsession for story-tellers due to its rich history and the possibilities it holds. Some people see the evil as truth and so that by opening the box an unimaginable number of truths, some good and some bad, would be let free into the world. Others see Pandora's Box as something which contains all the secrets of our world and existence and once found and opened our new lives can begin. The point of Pandora's box, however, is not the story. Rather, Pandora's Box is merely a vessel in which the ancient Greeks believed that evil and hope entered the world. It is a nice story.

I do not know how I got onto this topic, see you tomorrow!

Relaxation at Last

Finally, after hours (and I mean hours, that's right, it's in bold) of working on our Science Timeline Assignment it is finally at a point where all that is left to do is some final gluing which will take, at most, 20 minutes of our time. I am not going to go into another description of what the assignment is as I did that in yesterday's post. Basically, it is a very long timeline on the evolution of plants and animals that takes a long time to do. It was supposed to be finished at the end of our double period today but our Science teacher, being very nice, let us hand it all in on Friday. However, we plan to finish it tomorrow and hand it in then just in case something happens. I am really happy with this assignment and just want to put it behind me and move on to enjoying my holidays. Also, exciting news at the end of this post (not as exciting as Kokoda but up there)!

Image Source: http://blogs.library.jhu.edu/wordpress/2009/01/msel-hours-and-access-change/

First, an explanation of why the last few posts have been pretty short. The main reason, as you would already know if you read yesterday's short post, was the Science Assignment. Last night I stayed up to 11:30 to finish the titles for the timeline which meant that I was really tired and so not up to writing a long post. The day before the post was also a little shorter than normal but it was pretty long. Another reason for this is because I managed to download the Blogger app for my Galaxy Ace so it was hard to gauge how much I had already written due to the size. Also, images came up as their original size when you attach one and you can not choose where to put it so that was the main reason there was no picture yesterday. So basically that is why my last few posts have been short but rest assured that the following days will be back to normal. Sunday afternoon I am going to go see King Kong so that will be great and I will post a review that night, so look forward to that. It is meant to be really good and my grandmother (who is very critical) said it was the best show she had ever seen so I can not wait! However, I did promise exciting news before so here it is. Today I went to the Dentist to get my braces tightened and the dentist said that I could get my braces off now (hopefully this time it does, click here for the last time I was supposed to have my braces off). So we booked it in for next Monday morning which is great which means I will not have to have braces for the holidays. I will however have a plate/retainer to wear so that is the downside but it is great that after two years I can finally get my braces off. Hooray!

Good oral hygiene leads to healthy smiles and a happy Dentist, see you tomorrow!

What our Parents Taught Us

We may not realise it at the time but our Parents teach us a lot. Our Parents teach us things we may not glean from School. Some of what we learn may come into use later in our lives while most will not. However, it can be better to know more than you need to in case you do need it later in life. Although, most of the stuff our Parents teach us we just really want to forget right away. Most of what our Parents teach us is inadvertent and not what they want us to know.  Now I just want to say that what I am about to talk about DOES NOT all come from my Parents. A few of them maybe but I am not writing this about my Parents but about all Parents in general. Sorry in advance if I offend anyone.

Image Source: http://paperhoon.blogspot.com.au/2010/10/embarrassing-my-kids.html

The first thing that your Parents will teach you is that their word is law. Heaven forbid you ever break their laws. They brought you into this world and sure as hell can take you out of it. Later in life you realise that your Parents were wrong about many things and that not following their orders may have been the better option in some cases. However, when you are young you do not think about these things and think that all adults are always correct. Oh, to be a child... We also learn from an early age to always strive to "do your best". For some parents this can be as simple as just trying your best but for others trying your best means having to be at the top of the class. Second-best is not good enough for some Parents and I feel sorry for their children. How must they cope sometimes? Our Parents also taught us that we can be whatever we want. Well, except for a few jobs but we will not go there. Sometimes I think our Parents are setting us up to be rich so they can retire in comfort. That is actually a pretty good plan, must remember it in the future. So the lesson we can learn here from our Parents is have kids and retire happy, among other things of course.

Image Source: http://asianetindia.com/life-lessons-kid/

Among other things our Parents also seem like very big religious advisers. Always going on about praying about one thing or another. Whether it be a stain coming out of the rug or a mark off the wall. Always we are reminded to pray or may "God help us". Religion must really be essential in raising families. Logic is also a big issue in our World and our Parents show us from an early age what logic is correct logic. We must always remember to do something because someone said so. That is all the logic we will ever need in our lives. We are also taught to empathise and be able to read someone's feelings. If we are not able to read feelings we may get on the nerves of certain people at certain times of the month. The ability to read feelings is always important when growing up as it allows us to know which rooms are safe to enter and which to avoid like the plague.

Image Source: http://www.modernmom.com/article/life-lessons-to-teach-your-kids

A major source of our Vocabulary is our Parents. Without our fathers we would not know what to say when we drop something on our toes. Where would we be if our mothers had not taught us what to say when we burn something? Then there are the words we say when we get a fright. Where would we be if our Parents had not taught us them? Persuasive Techniques are also learnt through our Parents so we already have a head start for English before we even reach High School. We learn especially about exaggeration and appeals to emotions as children as our Parents make us feel guilty about choosing something or whether they exaggerate how many times they have told us things. They are also experts at personifying and thank the heavens inanimate objects can not bite or I would be covered in marks for every time I forgot where something was. Put simply, our Parents teach us many things and for this we are eternally grateful.

May the odds be ever in your favour, 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!