erin.

mpi104 revision and assessment#2

2007-06-13T13:53:00.000+09:30

The end of the first semester is drawing closer and closer with each assignment being handed in and I’m really starting to freak out as I hope my blog page is interesting in terms of posts and aesthetics. I feel I have kept up to date with my work in multimedia as I do enjoy learning about programs that I will be able to use for the rest of my life. There are times where I do forget to post some of the websites on delicious but over the last few months it has become part of the ritual when I am using the Internet. My flicker account hasn’t had much of a work out due to the fact I broke my digital camera but as people say photos of drunk people are not really that interesting if you don’t know them!

So its two days before this post is due and I feel that I have adequately finished the checklist that Jo has provided as an outline for what we were meant to complete. There are a few posts that I even find boring but I’m just not that fantastic at writing so I am trying my best to make it as interesting as possible.

FLICKR

☑ has uploaded at least 30 pictures
☑ has organized pictures into sets or pools
☑ has uploaded screenshots of details of examples of good aesthetics in websites
☑ all pictures have titles AND descriptions
☑ pictures of interest to other students have MPI104-2007 tag
☑ pictures of no interest to other students do not have MPI104-2007 tag
☑ all pictures have tags other than MPI104-2007
☑ user has pushed at least 6 pictures to MPI104-2007 group
☑ user has at least 12 contacts, joined at least 3 groups and nominated at least 6 favorites

since the last assessment at the end of last term i have added more photos which have nothing to do with my friends and i getting drunk and being moles. so now there are more artistic photos from other artists such as 'alfredo d'amanto and his two pieces of photography which include mount etna and cocolari 'iron people'.

all my photos that i have uploaded have titles, descriptions and tags and most of the photos are in sets. though as i have a few photos and i do not have a pro account i am limited in the number of sets that i can create!

on my flickr account i have 30 contacts which is quite amazing most of which are from uni but there are a few randoms which im not sure who they are but none the less its all all. i also love looking in my groups for new and interesting photos. i am a member of 17 groups and they include street art, fashion photography, mpi104-2007, animatiors guild, light painting. all of which i have an interest in.

so when im looking in my groups i find many photos that are interesting and a few which i relaly like which i add them as a fav. you can see them in my favourite section of my flickr account.

DELICIOUS

☑ has saved at least 3 pages of bookmarks
☑ all bookmarks have descriptions
☑ all bookmarks have tags
☑ has bundled all tags
☑ all bookmarks of interest to other students have MPI104-2007 tag
☑ bookmarks of no interest to other students do not have MPI104-2007 tag
☑ has several other delicious users in their network
☑ has saved links for others

i currently have six pages of bookmakrs on my delicious account, this is because i have Incorporated delicious withing my Internet experience and saved the new sites that i found really good and interesting in terms of aesthetics and content.

all my bookmarks have titles, descriptions and tags. for example take a look at all my photography related bookmarks. all my tags are bundled except for the 'ones for others' which are a few for poodle, meg, matt and viv plus a few other various people.

i network currenty consists of 12 people 10 of which are fans. some of these people consist of cincity01, jeebuz, poodle., meg3willis and others. this allows me to quickly send a website to them if i think they would like it.

BLOGGER

☑ has more than the minimum posts
☑ has used working links in all posts
☑ has experimented with templates fonts and colours
☑ has included rss feed of their delicious bookmarks
☑ has a technorati “fave this blog” button on their blog
☑ has nominated ba-ma metablog as a favourite on technorati
☑ has counter (or sitemeter etc button) on their blog
☑ has a blog post about the visitors to their blog

Our class decided that the minimum amount of posts were to be twenty. I wasn’t sure if I would be close to twenty or not but when I checked I was already at twenty-two, I was really surprised but then I remembered most of my posts are short and not that in depth where as some of my friends such as Viv did have fewer posts but they were very lengthy and well written which I found very interesting.

All my posts do have working links. There was one post were the links did not work, which I could not understand why nor did Jo when I asked him about it but some how it started to work again and all is good. Last term I experimented with layout, templates, fonts and colours. Some would say it wasn’t that visually pleasing but I was thinking at least they were visiting my site! Though I do understand the comments people made about how it was hard to read. So I decided to update my blog aesthetics, it took me a while as it was basically trial and error when I was deleting a few codes from the html section of the blog layout.

At first I wasn’t too sure about the RSS feeds for my delicious bookmarks only because I still did not truly understand the full power of what an RSS feed could do. But after learning and listening to people talk about it I feel I have a good understanding about how people use it in everyday life and how they find it useful.

I have put a favourite link from technorati account on my blog so people can add me and my rank and authority will go up in the blogger world. At this very point in time my authority is 9 and my rank is 594,638. I’m not sure if that’s better than the last time I checked but its pretty good considering I have only used technorati for a few weeks! I have also added the multimedia meta blog as a favourite among my fellow class mates.

in the last week or so we learnt about visitors and counters. I had a counter last term but it was just one that showed how many visitors I had where as now I have a new one which from sitemaster which allows me to see how people entered my site and how they exited, how long they visted my site so on and so forth! since the the 30th of may i have had 64 visitors! previously i have written a post about visitors in class then a new one recently which was an updated one about numbers from visitors.

so in conclusion i feel that i have suscessful completed the checklist for this subject even though i feel like i havent done that much work i have its just because i have chiped away at it and not left everything to the last second, this has also helped me in learning everything in the outline of this subject.

i have had fun and cannot wait to do something else along these lines next term.

the new look.

2007-06-12T15:47:00.000+09:30

well. im kinda bored now as the last week or two i have been doing my animation assignment which did not go to well might i add thus i now have all this free time so i decided to create a new look for my blog. it took a while cause i needed to delete a few codes from the html codes for the blogger backgrounds and add a few in that i created.

but i think it looks better as its different and you can read the text which is also a bonus!
i didnt include a title as it just looked wrong with the image that i put there!

at first i had a black background which is below in the screenshot but decided it was too dark for my likeing so i changed it to white!

so untill i get bored again it will stay the same.

WE LOVE SOUNDS!

2007-06-11T14:05:00.000+09:30

yesturday my bestie steph and i ventured out to fox studios australia for the amazing and most well known music festival called we love sounds! it was a really good day and i saw many people that i hadnt seen in a while whilst also meeting new people!

the only bad thing that happened throughout the day was my friend steph droped her phone in the toliet and then her bf put her sim card in his phone which fucked his phone up as well! good times good times!

i was hanging out to see tiga. and when i heard 'sunglasses at night' i was in sheer bliss. its my fav. song thus we all just danced the night away!

soon to have some photos on flickr soon.

mpi104 : week 12 : tweaking templates/html

2007-06-07T13:53:00.001+09:30

previously my blog was very busy but jo kept talking about it which at first i didn't mind but then i started to freak out so i changed my aesthetics of my blog.

so what i had before was a pre-made template that everyone can use from bloggers options. then i changed the size of the font and the type of the text also the colours. i made my title 'erin.' really large and in red which is like what it is now. i also uploaded an image to flickr and put it in the html. codes it took me a little bit to work out where i needed to delete the old background so i could insert the new one. but i managed to work it out.

the problem with my old template is that it made the text hard to read. which i was cool about cause i had nothing really interesting to say and i cannot write very well! anyway jo always commented on it so i decided to take out the background which has made it easier to read the different posts that i have created.

i feel that my template that i have created is very simple but its also very individual.

just to note . html stands for.

Hypertext Markup Language.

i had no idea thus i thought i would share with everyone.

VISITORS.

2007-06-07T13:45:00.000+09:30

below i have included my first report about the visitors that went to my blog site. its not many but thats ok i will survive.

-- Site Summary ---
Visits

Total ............................ 7
Average per Day .................. 2
Average Visit Length .......... 8:56
This Week ........................ 6

Page Views

Total ........................... 43
Average per Day ................. 10
Average per Visit .............. 4.8
This Week ....................... 29

just to update you on my technorati numbers:

authority: 9
rank: 587297

so thats pretty good i reckon.

a case of mistaken identity.

2007-06-04T21:43:00.000+09:30

there's nothing worse than thinking you recognise a friend in public and greeting them enthusiastically, only to realise its actually a complete stranger. unless, of course, you're that stranger. here are some graceful ways to handle both ends of the stick:

for the misrecogniser:
- 'sorry, i think i need new glasses!'
- 'you see, im so in love with my new boyfriend i see him everywhere!'
- 'hi, i represent an agency for people who look like my friends. wanna sign up?'

for the misrecognised:
- 'sorry. but if i see her i'll say hi.....im sure i'll recognise her!'
- 'oh, and i thought i had the perfect disguise!'
- 'thank goodness you didnt mistake me for a hat!'

2007 mpi104 : week 11 : keeping track of visitors

2007-05-31T13:29:00.000+09:30

It is useful to know how many visitors you have as you can determine whether your content is actually good and if people read it. Previously I have used a counter from a different website which only allowed me to see how many people had visited my page. This is very different to the one that I now have which is from site meter.

Site meter allows me to see many things such as:

- how many people have visited my blog
- what time frame people visited
- how they came to my blog
- how they left my blog

So I have just joined site meter so I don’t have that many blog hits as I had to restart mine but I did get up to around two hundred which I think is a solid effort as my blog isn’t that interesting at all.

mpi104 : week 10 : technorati

2007-05-31T13:28:00.000+09:30

im still trying to make sense of technorati and i think im getting there but here is what i understand so far. Technorati is an internet search engine focused on the world of weblogs. it organises and processes blogs, photos, videos and many more. it allows people to get whats happening on the internet and the world right now.

i think that technorati is different but yet also the same as google. as it is both a search engine showing things that are the most popular pages but technorati searches through tags that people have put on their blogs. this doesnt really make that much sense at the moment but hopefully someone can shed some light to technorati in the next few lessons as im sure we will be talking about it or rather people will be very competitive about their rank and authority.

when someone says rank i think of high school or really any group which has some sort of hierarchy thus i find it really petty that a website's main purpose is showing how someone is 'ranked' in the world. authority is also similar as its defined as a power or right delegated or given. i believe everyone is equal and yes there are people in the world that have more authority and it can not be determined through technorati.

my rank: 641,369
my authority: 8

from what i can gather the smaller your rank the higher you are in the ranking system that technorati uses. the authority is how many people have saved your blog. over the next week or so i will keep checking my numbers.

technorati’s 100 most popular blogs.

my fav. blog at the moment is seths blog as it has a good balance between form and content. the information is very informative and would be useful if you are into that sort of stuff. but i like reading random things and i do find it interesting.

there are more snapshots of blogs that i find aesthetically pleasing at my flickr account.

AESTHETICS.

2007-05-23T15:14:00.000+09:30

from what i can understand about aesthetics is that it deals with many different ideas and notions of the beautiful, the ugly, the sublime, the comic and so it goes on. i also believe it has something to do with your emoptions in terms of your own sense of beauty and what you personally find visually attractive.

there are many sites that i find visually pleasing for many reasons which deal with text, layout, colours etc. for me i like the text to be big enough so i dont have to strain my eyes and in a colour that is easy to read when it is against a different coloured back ground. i personally like clean websites that arnt crowded (my blog spot is an excellent example of how i dont like it). so web sites that i do like include:

Eolo Perfido as it is very simple and easy to use. the text is easy to read and in white which stands out from the two toned dark grey/green background. the website is easy to navigate which is a bonus as things i dont get i have nothing to do with them. Eolo Perfido's work is also visually pleasing which also helps with the overall aesthetic of the website.

YU. is also another example of something that i find visually pleasing as it is simple but also has its own style. the white background is clean and the use of the grey text works well with the overall theme of the website. the use of the circle which works with the cursor that goes over a picture also makes the website more interesting.

everyone strives for a visually pleasing website but there are many out there that people just hate and there are people that show these ugly websites to others just to get a laugh. there are many reasons why one might think that a website is ugly, for me personally it is rank colours and bland backgrounds for example:

i find the austin homepage a really terrible website as i think some of the text is lost within the background. and i just dont like the colour green properly as fluoro green was a school colour and it brings up memories.

when i created my blogspot i wanted people to remember it and that is what i have done as every week joe refers to how large my title font is....and says im 'self indulged' or something like that. to be honest with you i couldn’t care less what he said about it but i know he has looked at it and remembers which was my main purpose.

rss feeds.

2007-05-10T13:10:00.000+09:30

a link roll and rss feed is basically the same thing when it comes down to it. you can find the rss feed in the right hand corner of some websites url's.

WHAT IS XML.

in simple terms an XML is a general/ mark up language in which it shares data across different information systems, in this case the internet. a mark up language is a system which identifies complex structres in a document.

>>>>>>>>>>>

WHAT IS RSS AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

RSS stand for many things such as
- Really Simple Syndication
- Rich Site Summary
- RDF Site Summary

an rss feed basically shows when a website has been updated. a prime example where you can find an rss feed are blogs, news sites, del.icio.us sites and photo sites. the RSS feed provieds a table of contents for the paticular site but not the information itself just rather links to the updated information. RSS feeds can be useful for those who know how to use it as it assembles information into an easier place to read.

>>>>>>>>>>>

i have now included an rss feed on my blog for my del.icio.us account. this will enable you to quickly check if i have recently updated my del.icio.us account with any other interesting websites that i think you should check out.

ASSIGNMENTS 2.

2007-05-07T11:24:00.000+09:30

since i have been back at uni it has been hell insane. normally i dont leave anything to the last minute but this time i have. the vis com essay is due tonight at five and i havent finished and its really gay. i dont think i answer the question at all and im pretty sure im going to fail. i just passed the other vis com assignment just. oh well. next time i wont leave it to the last second and actually do well.
that is all.
xx

ASSESSMENT NUMBER ONE.

2007-05-03T10:10:00.000+09:30

In this post I am supposed to explain how and why I think my blog, delicious and flicker accounts are interesting and have some sense of interestingness within them. This brings me back to one of my earlier posts about interestingness. this post basically talks about who determines interestingness and really I determine what is interesting thus I write it in a post for everyone to read and if you don’t feel if its that interesting well then that’s up to you.

Over the past eight weeks or so I have written sixteen posts on my blog erin. which do include those first few posts which link you to my flicker and delicious accounts. At first I thought the idea of keeping a blog was silly as it’s ultimately like keeping a diary and I am the worst person to keep a diary, it goes on for a about a week or two then I forget or I’m too lazy to keep going. I do however think very highly of people who keep blogs about their lives on the Internet for all to see. To me it shows a sign of courage, I feel that whatever I write I will somehow be offending someone but over the past few weeks I am starting to get over it. I tried to make my blogs as interesting as possible but it was hard for me to find a subject matter so I just wrote random stuff that had happened in the previous week. I feel the post about zits. was the most interesting as everyone goes through it and my friend Bri is in a competition to win something, still not sure as to what yet but I found it interesting as none of my friends knew about what Bri was doing until I wrote a post about it which I thought was pretty cool.

I saw blogger similar to myspace in terms of the layout and background; you could either have a pre-determined format or create one from scratch, which is what I decided to do. I used a website called mygen which is what I use to create my myspace layout/format. I used a picture that I found a while ago just browsing through some random images and I thought it was cool so I used that, then I found out that it was hard to read the posts and other writing so I had to wash out the photo and make the text large and bold. I prefer having bigger texts as its easier for other people to read as well as myself.

I comment a range of peoples posts that I find interesting a few of these peoples are Viv’s blog and Matt’s blog these two blogs are totally different from each other and has a sense of individual style which I do find interesting.

I feel that I have successfully completed all the criteria on the checklist for blogger. It took me a while to complete but I believe I have done everything correctly.

I was really excited when I was told what flicker. was as I have heaps of photos that I want to share with friends from home and here in Wagga. Previously I have used photobucket, which was fantastic as I could upload as many photos as I wanted per month where as for flicker. there is a limit to the amount I can upload which is annoying so I had to determine which photos should have the privilege of being uploaded which is a tad annoying at times as I have to wait for the next month which ultimately means I will forever be behind in sharing photos.

Currently I have twenty-three contacts most of which come from the MPI-104 course. Having contacts within flicker. also allows me to work out who’s who and see what they are doing within flicker, blogger and delicious. I have joined many groups within flicker. I find this very useful as I can express my interests in groups all of Australia and even the world in some cases. Looking through different groups I have come across a few photos that I find attention-grabbing in some cases so I have posted them as my favourites.

I have commeted on a few peoples photos some of which include Nicks ninjas, Matts butterfly effect shot and Alice’s music picture just to name a few. Most of the photos that I have commented on are social happy snaps except for Alice’s photo on the guitar.

I have used a wide range of tags on my photos such as
- abstract
- interesting
- mpi104-2007
- tapes
just to name a few. Once I get different types of photos there will obviously be more tags than there are now.

I have not as yet figured out how to make flicker more visually pleasing but it is on my to do list in the next coming weeks when I work out the best way to do so. Thus at the moment it’s a bit bland though its main purpose is to share photos which I believe it is doing very well. Hopefully after next week I will be able to upload some more photos from the holidays that are interesting and the photos that I use for my photography assignment that deals with human intervention. I believe I have done everything that has been asked on the checklist for flicker.

I now feel that my delicious account is a vital role in my day-to-day relationship that I have with the internet. It allows me to save and easily find my favourite websites whilst sharing them with people who have the same interests as me. I have a small network at the moment consisting of eleven but it is slowly growing. My bookmarks range from fashion photography to low budget animations and all in between.

At first it was a little hard for me to use as I really didn’t visit that many different sites but going through the delicious home page and other groups I am finding more and more useful sites about interesting things and what’s hot at the moment. I have just recently completed the link roll for delicious and saved it on my blog, this means I have now also successfully completed all check points on the list for delicious.

Overall I think that being exposed to these different websites have helped me use the internet better as I have been able to share and search for items in a different way. It has been an interesting nine weeks and I cant wait to see how my thoughts will have changed the next time the assessment comes around.

ME.

2007-05-02T07:10:00.000+09:30

I figured I might as well tell you a little bit about myself/my whole life story as its not that long and I wont really go into that much detail cause then it would take a lifetime.

My parents met at the snow and soon fell in love, both Australian born with heritage from predominantly the UK. After dating for a few years they decided to get married and have me. My name is Erin Elizabeth Hardman, born on October the 18th 1988 to Diane and Alan Hardman.

I grew up and still live in Strathfield Sydney, which is about 30minutes away from the city and 10minutes from the Homebush Olympic site. My younger brother Sam was born on March the 11th 1990. Sam and I attended primary school at Strathfield North Public School a year apart and left at the beginning of years four and six to move to England for two years as my father obtained a job working for the programming of the cows for the mad cow disease. We were all excited to go as they gave us little clues that we were leaving ‘to shop with the queen and to see big Ben.’ So in January of 1999 we trekked it over to England, my grandmother Janice also came with us to help us get set up. We moved around a bit but found our soon to be home for the next 24 months in Cranighly, Surrey, a nice country town where the people were friendly and welcoming. After six months of living in Surry I learnt that my dad was extremely sick and was visiting the hospital every day without letting my brother or I know. Turns out that everyone knew except for Sam and I that dad had Leukaemia even before we left Sydney.

Things turned for the worse over the next few weeks, my parents decided to move back home so dad could get treatment and be with family and friends. January 24th 2000 my father passed away from an aggressive case of Leukaemia. I personally did not deal with it that great and who would at the age?? I was angry all the time, I only cried once at the funeral and as my brother puts it I was just a mean bitch. In 2001 I started high school at MLC School Burwood, Mum couldn’t get me to talk so she made me go see the school counsellor and I really did not want to but the school was like if you don’t we will give you a detention and at that stage of my high school career I was freaked out about getting a detention. So I went and it was a complete waste of time, if I don’t want to talk to my family about it why would I want to speak to a stranger about it.

I eventually let the anger pass by year nine and I was back to being relatively normal for a 15 year old. At MLC they offer this camp for three weeks to Broken Hill which I have spoken a little bit about before, it was the best experience I have ever had in my life or rather one of the top few. I made great friends and I lost good friends. I found it as a curving point in my recovery with losing my dad. Year 10 I went on the American Sports Tour and that’s where I became really good friends with Steph. There were dramas on the trip but there always are on tours like that but I had a really good time meeting people and seeing the sites. Year 11 was an insane year as every one was cracking down on their schoolwork and going out heaps more. MLC offered the Debutante Ball and i really wanted to do it as my grandmother and my mum both did it but there was one thing that I wasn’t prepared to do which was the father daughter dance. I had no idea who I was going to ask to do it with me cause I wasn’t sure if it would be awkward or not so I ended up asking my grandfather as he has been part of the backbone in keeping my family together and I love him to bits for it. It turned out to be a great night as everyone got dressed up took heaps of photos and danced the night away.

2006 was a serious year as everyone was focusing on work and obtaining their best mark for the HSC so they could do what they wanted this year. I had no idea what I wanted to do and I personally still not sure if animation is the best thing for me, I love doing it and learning how to but I just have no idea. My birthday was a day before the HSC started which sucked as I had to study but it was also good as I looked at it as a reward after the HSC to go out with everyone. year 12 formal was such a hassel but it turned out to be a fantastic night. i took brett which was probs one of the worst decisions of my life but he was nice enough. My group could not decided on one specific spot to go to for schoolies so Steph and I decided to go on a cruise and I have to say it was most probs the best holiday ever as the nothing bad happened as there was heaps of security, all our meals were cooked for us, we could party till dawn and watch the sunrise, sleep all day and we met heaps and heaps of people from all over Sydney, Melbourne and a few from Newcastle. I do recommend it to anyway but unfortunately they have stoped doing all cruises due to the bad media PnO have been getting regarding the death of the lady.

2007 break was the best ever I worked three days a week at a newsagency at Cremorne, North Sydney and the weekends I went out with friends doing random stuff either at houses or parties or out on the town. Very quickly did I run out of money so I had to save and prepare to move to Wagga Wagga to do Animation and Visual Effects.

now im at uni im having a really good time. its hard to explain to people what its like living on campus you basically have to experience it to understand what its really like. i have made some really good friends that will be with me for life which will be amazing. the social scene in Wagga is very much so different to Sydney but i like it just the same.

As I reflect on the last 18 years of my life I feel I have grown emotionally and physically as I’m a much more out-going person that I was but cautious when I meet new people as for some strange reason I think that they will just leave me so I don’t want to have the emotional attachment if it does happen thus I see it as saving myself from myself in some ways but I am getting over it slowing as everyone keeps telling me it takes time.

So that is me and my story.

INTERESTINGNESS.

2007-05-01T21:10:00.000+09:30

who determines what is interesting?
what is the criteria of an interesting post/blog?
how do you know if you are interesting?
how do you know if you write about interesting things?
what is interesting to you the same as the person next to you?

these are the questions i ask myself every time i write a post for the blog.

in english i was the WORST writer there could have ever been at my school. my creative writing was really bad and i did average in my essays only due to the fact that most of them were pre-written and had to answer a question. so now im thinking i should figure out a question prior to writing a post so i can answer that and try to make my blog more interesting. now i think how to i create an interesting question for me to answer??

so i have come to the realisation that i personally do not care if people find my blog interesting cause im not suited to everyone nor am i to them thus no one can really determine what is interesting thus the criteria on the mark sheet of 'interestingness' should be deleted as everyone is interesting in their own way most likely not through their writing skills (more than likely referring to just myself here).

i will now share with a few photos that i find interesting.

ASSIGNMENTS!

2007-04-30T14:40:00.000+09:30

WOOT. i seriously thought i was going to fail my first assignment that i handed in last term. there are many things that i did wrong that i knew i was going to get marked down for....so why didn't i fix them before i hear you ask. well i was just so spaced out (not in a druggie way) because i didn’t know the standard how i was supposed to chose my own question then answer it. in high school we had a certain procedure we had to follow and here at uni its all self learning where as im more of a visual learner.

A few things i did wrong.

- i didn’t format it properly
- double lines
- font size
- i used lists
- i didn’t footnote
and the list goes on. but surprisingly i passed soo im happy. now i kind of know the standard and what’s expected so i better get cracking on the next one right now then.

XX

p.s. i cant change the font, size colour or anything on this computer so deal with the small font whilst i work it out.

BACK TO UNI.

2007-04-30T10:25:00.000+09:30

i packed my celica to the sunroof and i was sent on my way back to uni. my mum got a little teary but you know how mothers are. anyway it was a good drive i was listening to triple j the whole way untill it decided it didnt want to anymore so i found the local star fm which was ok but i started singing along to all the old songs that i liked and wasnt paying attention to the road signs and MISSED the turn off to wagga. i knew i missed the turn off when i strangly found the overpass familiar. so i was in a panic i didnt know what to do luckly there was no one behind me so i slowed right down and did a little cross country over the median bush region and took the exit coming the other way.

i killed myself with laughter all the way back to uni. and thinking about it now still cracks me up!
GOLD.
XX

IN LOVING MEMORY.

2007-04-28T14:39:00.000+09:30

these holidays i unfortunately had to attend two funerals, both grandmothers of good friends of mine. both were really different funerals to what i have ever experienced and i at the age of 18 i have been to my fair share of funerals and its not a pleasant event to attend at all. i personally am not that religious but as i went to a semi-religious school i attended religion classes so i learnt some what of the different types of religions and their customs.

the first was a small intimate funeral with family and close friends of Gloria Dulcie Smith 18th February 1915 - 17th April 2007. it was located at Rookwood cemetery in a small function room where there was a projector set up which was used when Robin and Paul (children of Gloria) did the eulogy showing photos of Gloria's life. it was a short funeral but on a more personal level as Andrew, Pauls son, said 'i would rather remember this as the celebration of nan's life rather than grieve...its what she would have wanted'. i had met Gloria on numerous counts and she always had afternoon tea ready for when Rosie, Michaela and i got home from school. it was not really a religious service just a small glimpse of Gloria's life that the family wanted to share with those who did not know her that well.

on the other hand the funeral that i attended the other day was for Nancy Mamo 16th February 1925 - 21st April 2007. this was the first Catholic funeral i have ever attended and it was absolutely beautiful in terms of funerals. the church was located in Five Dock, Sydney. i honestly had no idea the church even existed as it is such a suburban street and then there is this church in the middle of it. i walked in and it was totally packed out we had to sit up the back in the elevated stands. i went in a group of people who were also friends with the grandson Matt, all of which were Catholic. the service was full of prayers, readings, blessings, songs and communion. to me having a communion at a funeral was strange but Alan said it was very common. Mario, the only son of Nancy, delivered the eulogy and he was torn up inside but was still able to deliver his speech and his love to his mother. the priest who was overseeing the whole service was very good but there were many sayings and chants that i did not know as i was not catholic. the last song when the family were carrying the casket out really hit home for me and i was almost in tears as i was able to see Matt and he was absolutely shattered as he was really close to his grandmother more so than his brother.

both funerals were totally different to each other but yet beautiful in their own way, i was happy i attended both as like any experience it opens your mind to how different people live and you have a greater respect for your friends and family.

XX

FRIENDS.

2007-04-27T15:14:00.000+09:30

As I sit in the middle of my floor among piles of clothes not sure if they are dirty or clean, which I now think is pretty unhealthy that I haven’t done much washing for a while. I blame the rain and it being winter as nothing dry’s! Anyway I was just reflecting on my holidays and my friends so this is just a little post about my friends and who they are kinda.

I finished year twelve last year at MLC School, which used to stand for Methodist Ladies Collage but has changed as it is a Uniting Church School. I started at MLC in year seven and for a few years had friendship issues but our whole year had issues it seemed. MLC is an all girl school and during year eight I found out how bitchy girls can really be! By the time year nine came around I was freaked out as part of our curriculum was to venture to Broken Hill for three weeks. This was meant to teach us how to fend for ourselves kind of, we had to do our own washing, look out for ourselves, be organised, do our own cooking for breakfast and lunch whilst doing school work and having a good time with friends. As I was having friendship issues I went in a group with five other girls some of which I am still good friends with today some of which I am not. [the photo to the above is part of the third group to broken hill.
l-r top row swetha, alex, ra, zoe, tammy, me, lottie
middle row tash, sapna, tiff, bernie, sophie
standing lessa and michelle.]

I finished year twelve last year and Broken Hill was probably the best experience I have ever had whilst being at high school. I soon fell into a crowd of girls who were just having the best time and did the school work. So they pushed me and I felt like I was a lot smarter then I was! I put my name down for exchange in year ten and the teachers choosing who was able to go happened to dislike me for some reason so I ended up going on the sports tour to America, none of my close friends were going but I knew one girl Steph through a guy from my primary school, so we put our names down to be ‘buddies’ and that was how Steph and I became really good friends!

Steph is one of those people that everyone loves and gets along with. In year twelve she came first in the state for entertainment which we all knew that she would. Though we weren’t that far behind her! Also her art work got into art express which was fantastic you have no idea what a huge assignment and strain she put on herself but the concept and results were amazing. Overall Steph did outstanding in the HSC which was a surprise as it was tough year for her at home as Steph’s mum was diagnosed with cancer which put a lot of stress on the whole family but I’m happy to report that the cancer has completely gone and mrs wise is on the road to recovery. Steph like Ra is also doing the same course but with international studies. Steph and I have soooo many crazy adventures and we document these with photos but at the moment we have both broken our cameras thus life is pretty bland!

I met Ra through my friend Sophie and all I remember thinking was that she was really opinionated, but I suppose that’s why we all love her cause you can always have a good time either when you are arguing or talking about totally random shit. In broken hill I had and still do to this day, this fear of hair in the bathrooms I just thought it was so gross and unhygienic anyway, we were out for the whole day I think we were visiting broken hill high school anyway on the trip back to camp I was busting to go to the bathroom but Ra had the keys to our cabin so Kristina and herself ran back to our cabin and cut some of their hair and placed it on the toilet seat. I was freaked out when I saw it as they made this full story of what it was and I couldn’t go to the bathroom in our cabin ever again so I had to use our friends which was a good two minute run away! These days Ra is partying hard in Sydney whilst going to UTS doing a design in communication course and loving every second of it.

In my year there were two other girls with the same birthday and we all were nice to each other but not the best of friends. By the end of year twelve Sarah and I became good friends. Over the January holidays my mum and brother went away so I was home alone thus I basically moved into Sarah’s house and stayed in her brother’s room. Jenny (Sarah’s mum) said it was like having twins so basically we hung out and she is the evil twin due to the fact she is a bitch to the people she doesn’t like. Sarah is now dating our friend Chris who lived in England last year after finishing year twelve at trinity grammer. They didn’t tell me they were dating which I found quite funny, Bobby told me in our mini deep and meaningful session. Chris is pretty nice and loves to bust out as he likes to call it. He is a promoter of yu so if you need to be on a guest list check his myspace out.

Sophie and I both share the same middle name and the hatred for business studies and the teacher that we had. Sophie is the eldest of our group thus I think she is pretty wise. In some ways she is. Sophie loves music and everything to do with it. I love her taste in music as she loves everything and has introduced me to some bands that I now love to bits such as Clap Your Hands Say Yeah among many other bands. Every time I talk to Sophie she has got tickets to see another band. I never really see her when I come back for holidays as she is too broke to come out or sick to leave the house. Sophie has the wackiest sense of humour and can argue with anyone. It’s really funny when Ra and Sophie get stuck into each other as someone ends in tears because normally they are both wrong but too stubborn to admit it. Sophie now goes to UTS doing something with music.

People who don’t know Marnee and I think we are twins. We kind of do as we have blonde hair but that’s kind of it I reckon. Marnee has taken this year off to work and currently in Las Vegas to see Celine Dion among endless amounts of shopping. Celine Dion is Marnee’s all time idols; she totally loves her in every way. In Marnee’s room there are posters, perfumes, pens, badges and anything else collectable that you can imagine it’s totally insane. Marnee and I have the best time when we go out, we just dance and drink the night away and totally forget about everything that is happening to us. That’s why I love Marnee she is just classic to be around and have fun but also to talk about things that are really bothering you which is a great quality in someone.

Marnee’s closest friend and one of my good friends is Georgie. Georgie is the biggest WWE fan I have ever met. Her favourite wrestler is Randy Orton. I don’t really know why Georgie has this fascination with wrestling but its different and so is Georgie! Most of my group went on a study camp before the HSC so we could learn things anyway it was a crusader camp thus they were talking about Christianity and things so to keep us entertained we did prank calls and Georgie is the best at it I tell you its so funny we almost killed ourselves. Georgie is currently taking the year of to work and earn some money as she is going overseas for a family wedding then going on to see the rest of Europe by herself. I am very jealous of her as I would love to travel but I never got my act together to do it.

I went to the same primary school as molly then we both went to the same high school and now even the same uni but different campuses. Molly is a close friend of mine and she is absolute gold and she knows it. Molly is very outgoing and like me loves to have a drink. I don’t get to see her much as we are both away and both broke though I know we will always keep in touch because we used to be best friends back in the day of primary school!

Holly called me up one day and was all stressing asking if I would come and support her when she tried out for Australia's Next Top Model. She almost got through to the third round but got knocked out for one reason or another. I found it really entertaining watching all the want to be models who were not even that attractive and a few of them were from my school in the years below which was quite sad!!! I never really hung out with Holly during school and she only moved to MLC from Woolich in year eleven so it was hard for her to find a group of friends but we had two tables in the common room and who ever was there at the time during lunch that who you talked to so I got to know her better and now that we have finished school I go out with her and just hang as Holly is good company and a true friend.

My brother Sammy is the biggest brat I have ever met. We fight about everything, we can never talk we have to yell at each other. I do find it quite entertaining but my mum doesn’t. Sam is 17 and goes to Newington College year eleven. We are about 18months and some people think we are twins because we have blonde hair and he is tall. Last year Sam was in a rugby accident and was in the north shore hospital spinal unit for a week all is good now though he was in dark waters for a bit. So now he does rowing and baseball as he cannot do anything physical as something worse might happen. Sam has done baseball since he was really young and was good at it at one stage but due to politics in the representative clubs he and many others were not selected for state so he decided to give up that dream. Though baseball was where we met out good friends the Doyles. On many baseball trips that I had to attend I became really good friends with Ben and since then he has been a really good friend of mine.

Ben finished the year before us with Chris but at St Pats just down the road from where I live. Ben like me still has no idea what we want to do so he is currently doing a carpentry apprenticeship. Last year he was doing an apprenticeship as an electrician but decided that wasn’t for him. Ben is one of those guys that would do anything for you and would help you out if you were in trouble. He is one in a million and I am glad that he and I stayed friends as if we didn’t I don’t know who would come and bust out with us till the early hours of the morning.

When I turned 18 I went out with Ben and met all of his friends, now my friends and his friends are all friends and it’s really good to have a large group of people when you go out as you can just go from one place to another knowing that people you know will be there. At times his friends can be such chat moles but then again so can mine! anyway this photo to the right is a few of the people that are in Ben's group. [l-r. Ben Mikey Brett Mezza Poo Kitty and Davey in front.]

You can view more photos of everyone on my flicker account. There are a few more people I should write about but my fingers are cold and I’m pretty sure this post isn’t that interesting thus ...

Until the next time you want to read some random chat stuff.
xx

the curse.

2007-04-25T16:37:00.000+09:30

the bad luck curse is officially OVER!

my mum drove me to the station and was all like 'maybe you should take it off you dont want to lose it, its pretty expensive' i assured her that i wouldn't lose it as it was safely fasted to my wrist! on my 16th birthday my mum bought me this really expensive bracelet and necklace set that is just to die for.

anyway so i went out last night for my friend mikeys 19th at yu. which is in potts point just near kings cross in sydney. check the site out for detail and photos. all was going good untill like 1am and i noticed that my bracelet was missing i cracked the shits big time i had no idea that it fell off totally devastated searching everywhere then this nice girl suggested that someone might have handed it to a bar staff. as hopeful as i was knowing that my chances are really slim i asked and the very cute bar tender asked me to describe it and then he turned around and gave it to me OMG I WAS SOOOO RELIEVED. you have no idea how much trouble i would have been in if i lost it.

soo as i found it i put it in my bag and danced the night away. around 4.30 steph my really good friend and i decided to leave but we had to catch the bus home as we are really povo and as it just does it was pissing down with rain so by the time we got to the bus which we thought we had missed and looking like drowned rats! ahaha.

it was a great night.

have a good one

xx

BLACK FRIDAY

2007-04-16T16:07:00.001+09:30

I personally haven’t been that into superstitions like black Friday and the like, but after Friday my thoughts have totally changed. Nothing that bad or strange happened but in conjunction with recent events that happened to my friends and me I just found it a little freaky.

The last week of uni term was a dreadful one for me in terms of technology as I not only broke my camera at sparky’s house warming party but I managed to brake my phone as well thus I lost all my numbers, photos and music that people created which they saved on my phone. I did once own a 3LG flip phone but it decided it didn’t want to be a flip phone anymore and snapped in half and the ribbon broke thus all the information on it was totally lost. The numbers I can get back eventually but the photos from year twelve senior science classes where we made flubber were only on the phone among many videos that were made in the common room. It was a sad moment in time and the phone has still yet to be replaced and the weird thing is I’m not missing it as much as what people said I would!

When I realised that my family’s camera was broken I was soooooo devastated I had no recollection on how it happened and to this day I still do not remember how the screen smashed into little pieces. When I go out the camera is very much so apart of the night as taking photos is a good way to meet new people I have found. I was so anxious to see what my mum was going to say as the camera wasn’t just mine it was everyone’s and it is pretty expensive repair job as well though to my surprise my mum took it quite well and was just like ‘well we will just have to buy another one wont we!’ however she wasn’t too impressed that I messaged her at the crack of dawn to tell her the news.

So now its holidays and I’m back in Sydney I want to go out with my friends but I have noticed going out in Wagga Wagga is very much so different to Sydney outings but its good all the same. On Thursday my friend jewels lost everything i.e. phone wallet id keys money a.t.m cards etc. sooo that was a really expensive outing, as she had to replace everything including the locks to her house! I lost my keys once but we never replaced the locks ahaha dear lord I hope the person who has my keys doesn’t know where I live!

Then on freaky black Friday I went out with holly and kat then to meet up eventually with ra steph and molly. So holly kat and I went to world bar to meet holly’s uni friends then we moved on to another place but as lucky as I am managed to chip my front tooth. Lucky it was part of the fake section but I chipped it none the less and I was sooo disappointed that yet again another bad thing happened to me but I was grateful it was the third and final unlucky thing! On the other hand the luck still hadn’t turned our way. Kat also lost her phone and steph who takes a million and one photos broke her third camera.

So I now state that my friends and I have been really unlucky but now the tables have turned and we will have good luck for the rest of our lives! if you would like to see more photos from friday night go to my flicker account.
Until next time.
Xx

your first crush, your first kiss......your first zit!

2007-04-09T10:34:00.001+09:30

bri.
Originally uploaded by ezza..

both girls and boys are self concious when it comes to zits, blackheads and blemishes. i myself are in the same boat at particular times and i just think its life and everyone else is going through the same thing and they are.

well this is my friend bri. she is 17 and lives in sydney currently going through the stress of the hsc. at the moment bri is in a competition called zits happen. bri has to use clinique's 3 step anti-blemish 'to combat their pimple dilemmas over four weeks'. bri must maintain a blog from week to week throught the four week period to document the changes and effects that cliniques product has on her particular skin type.

to win this competition bri must recieve the most votes out of her two other competitors so please drop her a VOTE and lets see if we can make bri come first.

clinique is owned by Estee Lauder and is one of the world's leading brands of prestige skin care, makeup and fragrance products. i personally love cliniques range of make-up products as its allergy-tested and 100% fragrance free which works for my skin type. so im interested to see how bri goes with the 3 step anti-blemish products which will determine if i will try it as as of yet i have not been able to find a good cleansing product.

MYTH OR TRUTH.
a friend recently told me that if you get zits on your forehead its related to stress, on your nose or middle face region its related to food and on your chin its related to hormones. personally im not sure if its a reliable source and havent been able to find out if it is. so now its your challenge to tell me if its a myth or if its the truth.

final fling.

2007-04-06T10:41:00.001+09:30

a very good night.
Originally uploaded by ezza..

what can i say about final fling. it was pretty intense.

that night viv, sparky and i went to matts house for dinner and i swear it was the best meal i have had in about three months i would go back any day and i suggest everyone chimes in on dinner at his house cause its to die for!

we managed to get to thie vic and stayed there the whole night it was good as i knew a few more people from the previous gathering i went to the weekend before with the chunk of hair in the shower! it was a night full of drinking and dancing and making a complete fool out of yourself. i enjoyed myself and im sure all the other stewards people did as well.

though i do not recommend people drinking excessivly then driving home the next day...not to smart if you ask me.

well i hope everyone has a great easter and doesnt od on chocolate!
muchness
xx

viv 'the hair' and i

2007-04-02T16:30:00.001+09:30

viv 'the hair' and i
Originally uploaded by ezza..

last friday viv and i went to this house warming party at south campus curtesy of sparky. so viv matt and i decided to explore the place and just check it out!

it was totally different to what i expected it was more like the movies where the pile of plates were overflowing in the sink and the couches had been written on. it would be so fun to live there but i think i would get over it way quickly.

anyway viv and i needed to go to the bathroom and in the shower we found this lump of hair on the wall it seriously made me want to chunder everywhere whislt killing myself with laughter. one this i really dislike is hair in the bathroom.....

...back in year nine one of our camps was to go to broken hill for three weeks with a 1/4 of our grade anyway one day we went out on some trip around town and i really had to go to the bathroom but i had to go when i went home thus my friends got there before me and choped some of their hair and put it on the toliet seat and said it was 'pubic hair' i almost wanted to chunder everywhere and i couldnt pee ever. im sure you needed to know that but this is the reason why i hate hair in the bathroom...

.....so to make the situation a little better viv and i took a few photos with the hair! it was quite a good night i met heaps of nice people and a few locals which is good cause i only know a few.

so that is all for this post.
muchness
xx

flickr.

2007-03-29T13:20:00.001+09:30

elise and i.
Originally uploaded by ezza..

today we had to create a flickr. account so everyone can look and see images and photos that we have already created or that we find interesting. to me its alot like photobucket where we can put up heaps of photos and share them with friends and post them etc. i have this account but while creating my flickr. account it explained and looks a hell of alot easier than photobucket soooo im quite excited to start using flickr. instead.

my flickr. account

well i havent really gotten into the whole posting posts and blogs and stuff though over the holidays i will defs. start doing it more and spending more time with it sooo untill that time.

muchness
xx

del.icio.us

2007-03-22T13:03:00.000+10:30

well this week we had to create a del.icio.us account. del.icio.us will allow us to save and share websites that we find interesting or lame! at the moment i dpnt really know of any interesting websites as i havent as yet just 'surfed' the web for no reason but now i shall!!!

if you wish to see the sites that i find interesting or lame click here

hopefully you will find it as interesting as its meant to be....though im not sure how its going to go!
muchness
xx

first proper post

2007-03-15T13:14:00.000+10:30

well. im not a fan of writing posts/blogs but alas i must for this class or else i will fail and there is no point in failing due to the fact i dont like writing stuff that other people can read. soooo my blog will be very general and lame and hopefully people will comment me so i look like i have friends and i pass the course!

im erin.
im 18.
im from sydney.
im doing a ba in animation and visual effects.
im loving campus life.
im hateing dinning hall food.
im missing my friends from home.
im a cheap arse uni student so i dont call my friends i use myspace!

ahaha thats about it really.
i was addicted to myspace in year 12 and we posted chat photos of teachers at my school! sooo. i use myspace often as its a space where my friends and i share our crazy/random adventures out and about! and now im going to put a link and hopefully it will work or else im stuffed ahahaha! so here goes.

im soo cool i made the link work.!

that is all.
enjoy
xx

the first post

2007-03-08T13:55:00.000+10:30

there are two chat people sitting next to me! geytjekmi fg,.;ho;g'h[p
py'h'pholk

they are doing chat tgyhul,things 516t90o156 my bl3rt6ohug26+0reg

well thats my first blog i know how interesting it is.
muchness
xxgmkuj,iu