randomstuff

International Day was a day where all the ethnic groups found throughout Carlingford High School came together to share there culture and traditions with others. A lot of planning and organisation went into the day beginnig weeks before the day itself.

On the 19th, July 2006 the students of Carlingford High School arrived dressed in the traditional attire or national colours of the country of their choice . After the recess interval the students gathered on the quadrangle to host an assembly before filing into the hall for a concert consisting of acts from around the globe. The different cultures and traditions were spectacular. Some of the acts included a fashion show, exotic dances and traditional singing.

Once the concert was over the students were allowed to roam the school to explore the various traditional food stalls, games and to enjoy the rest of the day.

To bring the eventful day to a close the students divided up into there groups and began to clean up the school picking piece by piece of rubbush until the school was sanitary once again. After the sanitising of the school was complete the sudents were released earlier than usual. 

Overall International Day was a complete success. It allowed everyone appreciate the different exotic cultures and nationalities that make up Carlingford High School while having an extremely fun and entertaining experience.

Prior to the Term 1 school holidays Miss Raynor (English teacher) told us about our assesment task. It was a speech that was due in week 2 Term 2. This was the least of my problems (at least that’s how I felt at the start), we also had a science and history assignment due. I finished them and then came the speech. It was the day before school and hadn’t started. Every time I sat down to write the speech something would come up. I procrastinated more than I had ever done in my life; it got me good.

After a few days I finally thought to myself; I’m going to do this, I’m going to finish my speech. I thought of my topic which took quite some time, it was ‘The Health of Australia’s Future’. I began writing and did some research and by about 11 o’clock p.m. I had completed my speech. I was unbeleivably lucky that i finished the speech so quickly. All that was needed was for me to memorize the speech, personally this was normally the hardest part of speech making I had to leave this part until the weekend due to other homework I was accumilating and it began again, I was procrastinating. I had left the memorizing until Sunday the day before the speech had to be delivered. I was frantically trying to memorize as much as possible but could not accomplish enough to have said that I would get a good mark for eye contact.

On the day I was full of mixed emotion, they included a touch of nerves, anxiety and releif that the task would finally be complete. I delivered it and the feeling of relief engulfed me. It was over. Now all was left was the mark to see if I had done well.  After receiving my results I was reasonably satisfied with them and I vow never to procrastinate again (it will still probably occur but I’ll try not to).

Recently in the news (May 20) I discoverd that in Central Java the locals have claimed that Mt Merapi is erupting. This spectactular even has not occured since 1994.

On 17th, May 2006 Mt Merapi, in Central Java in Indonesia, shot a cloud of ash into the amosphere. Many people from the villages situated on the slopes of the volcano gazed at it in rapt attention, viewing the thundering, overwhelmingly dazzilng occurence. The ashes flowed down the mountainside luckily stopping before the populated areas. Experts have said that the area must be evacuated immediately. Some villagers did not cooperate wanting to see the volcano erupt. Some reporters claim that locals beleive the fiery mountain to be sacred. Many are making sacrifices by dropping live animals into the crater. Volcanologists say that the volcano can erupt at any time.

Later I heard on the news that Mt Merapi had actually had spluttered lava.

This was the most interesting and exciting news report I had heard in the holidays.

‘Tomorrow, When the War Began’ is the first instalment in the ‘Tomorrow’ series by the well known Australian author, John Marsden. It is an action/adventure story with a splash of romance added into the brew. The story circles around a 17 year old girl called Ellie and the events that occur while she and her 6 friends go ‘bush’ (camping).

Ellie lives in a rural town in Australia called Wirrawee. She and her friends planned on going bush for a week while the annual Commemoration Day Show took place. The site where they planned on going had been ‘Hell’ named by the locals of Wirrawee. Hell was a death trap to explore but quite secluded for this reason. During the week they spent in Hell they heard the roar of jets flying overhead much lower than normal. On their return to the town they notice that there are no people around. They decided to take the Landrover they had used to get to Hell, and travel to each of their houses in search any sign of people or messages explaining their absence. While there, they discovered that the electricity and communications had been cut. With no luck in finding anything the group’s suspicion arouses. They link up the jets with the situation and suggest that a war is in progress. They split up into groups to scour the town for any life. Ellie and 2 of her friends, Corrie and Kevin, are almost captured but escape because of Ellie’s quick thinking. By making a petrol bomb out of a lawn mower the soldiers after them were killed if not severely injured. However 1 group never returned to the rendezvous’ location and things appeared grim.

They gathered supplies from all over the town storing them in the Landrover then they fled to Hell where they set up camp. Later they discover the group that didn’t come back, consisting of Lee and Robyn, Ellie and Homer were searching for supplies. Lee was shot in the leg so they devised a plot to get him out that would compensate for his immobility; the plan was to obtain a bulldozer and place Lee in the front shovel and drive their way to a safe-haven. Along the journey Ellie, out of the blue, made up spectacular manoeuvrers to save their lives.

As more reinforcements arrived to fight off the rebellions, while this occurred the ‘guerillas’ as they considered themselves, further explored Hell and there love for each other. One day Ellie and Lee travelled down the creek until they arrived at an opening to a hut. The 2 believed that it was the home of the Hermit. They discovered many details of the Hermit’s past, including what happened to his wife and child. Rarely when they left to get supplies they would meet up with a town’s person. During this time they would gain as much information as possible from them and ask for any helpful hints about the invasion.

‘Tomorrow, When the War Began’ ends with Ellie, Lee, Homer and Fi attempt to cut of the enemies supplies therefore forcing them into a state of withdrawal. To find out the resolution you must read the book.

John Marsden’s book kept me at the edge of my seat, I couldn’t put it down!!! The action brought life to the book, suspense gave the edge that an exceptional book requires and finally passion within the book tied it all together. The determination of the group of teens to fight for their homeland is amazing. They go to extraordinary lengths just to see their families once again. The sequels to this book have high expectations to live up to. I strongly recommend that this book is a must read for any teenager that adores action, love and suspense. I guarantee that you will agree with my remarks.

St Patrick’s day is one of the most celebrated days of the year. This holiday is now celebrated all over the world. Some traditions include wearing green in remeberence to the Emerald Isle, wearing shamrocks, dancing the Irish jig, chanting traditional songs and drinking plenty of beer (not for kids of course). Firstly why do we celebrate this day? Who was St Patrick?
The person who became St Patrick was born in Wales around 385 A.D. His real name was Maelwyn. At the age of sixteen he was taken as a slave by Irish marauders that had raided his village. Six years later he escaped and fled to Gaul where he saught to study in the monastary under the guidance of St Germaine, bishop of Auxxre. During his training he discovered that he was to become a missionary. As his task he was to convert all the pagans of Britain to Christianity.

There are many tales of Ireland that refer back to St Patrick; some true others just legends. One famous legend is that he drove all the snakes out of the country but research shows that snakes were never existed in the country at that time. This legend is thought by some people to resemble the conversion of the pagans. One of the true tales was when St Patrick used the shamrock to explain the Trinity; how the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit came together as seperate elements to form a single entity.
After thirty long years of converting people to Christianity he finally retired to County Down. Eventually he died on March 17 A.D 461. Since then it was and still is known as St Patrick’s Day.

May your blessings outnumber the shamrocks that grow, and may trouble avoid you wherever you go.

A character in the famous Gilbert & Sullivan operetta, “The Mikado”, sings about “Let the punishment fit the crime”. By putting this quote into the case of Stanley Yelnats IV’s crime and punishment it will display many flaws in the judgement of Stanley’s felony.

Firstly what did Stanley do to deserve going to Camp Green Lake. He didn’t really commit the felony but was still convicted for stealing from a homeless shelter a pair of “Sweet Feet’s” (Clyde Livingston) shoes. This pair of shoes was important as Sweet Feet was a famous baseball player and was auctioning of his shoes to raise money for the homeless shelter from which he grew up in.

For this act Stanley was found guilty of all charges and was given two options; he would either be gaoled or he could go to Camp Green Lake. He chose Green Lake as he always dreamed of going to summer camp but his parents could never afford to send him. To Stanley’s surprise Camp Green Lakewas a lot worse than he imagined it to be. No lake existed at this time and there weren’t any activities or games. In a certain perspective the judge had tricked him. They had given such a pleasant name as Green Lake to a blazing desert, an eternal inferno in which young teens had to dig in. Day in and day out they had to endure what seemed to be the extreme heat of a kiln.

As each scorching day passed the boys of Camp Green Lake must dig another hole. This punishment is supposedly there to “build character” but as Stanley investigates further into the matter he discovers more to it than meets the eye. They are actually there attempting to discover the long lost treasure of Kissin’ Kate Barlow buried in the depths of lake’s dry bed. The judge knowing this punishment of digging taking place should know that it is an unsuitable sentence. A more appropriate one would be to fulfil a certain number of hours of community service and/or family or individual counselling.

Corporal or corporeal punishment is a form of intentionally inflicting the body of a person that has been convicted of a felony with injury, e.g. flogging with a cane or whip. It is a vile sentence that was common in early civilisations like Rome, Greece, Israel, Egypt and in Medieval times. The concept of it is so you know that if you break the law there will be severe consequences at your expenxe. Nowadays against children it is banned in most countries including Australia. In some places they allow paddling instead. This topic is commonly debated upon. Many believe that it shouldn’t occur but others think for it. In my opinion there should be a compromise, they should abolish corporal punishment but there should be some other consequence to set boundaries and limits for juveniles.

In conclusion I would like to state that Stanley’s punishment did not fit his crime as it was much to harsh but in the end justice was served when the Warden, Mr Pendanski and Mr Sir were all gaoled and Stanley and Zero ended up with there dreams coming true. I finish by saying corporal punishment should never be in practice anywhere.