Photography trip - Gympie - 5

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Creatively Bereft

Currently having trouble expressing myself creatively.

I am Studying alone. I have a Uni-mode On/Off button over which it seems I have little control-- Practically the only things I write now are essays and notes for upcoming essays. My guitar, pencils, charcoals and jewellery-making tools lie gathering dust. My camera rarely sees daylight any more -- the recent photography trip was a total bust -- and I'm feeling despondent.

I try to incorporate a mixture of creative and functional activities into my day, in order to provide the requisite variety that I know I need to keep sane and reasonably sanguine. However, the reasons for doing so seem to appear less convincing as I get older and stupider and more depressed... It all begins to look like I'm devising more elaborate ways of distracting myself.

I often get prolonged blank moments that worry me and general thoughtlessness for which I chastise myself, perhaps pointlessly. I also find myself withdrawing from life in general.

  You know, when I started this post I was pretty sure it was going to go somewhere... once I'd worked up some steam perhaps...seems all I can muster today are self-absorbed maudlin ramblings. Perhaps tomorrow lightning will strike my poor addled brain.

This Week I have been mostly Listening to: Classical Music

• Albinoni - Adagio
• Anonymous - romance for guitar jeux interdits
• Bach - Air On The G-String From Suite No.13 in D Major
• Bach - Prelude and Fugue in D minor, BWV554
• Bach - Minuet and Badinerie (from Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B Minor)
• Bach - Toccata in D minor
• Barber - Adagio
• Beethoven - Minuet in G
• Beethoven - 'Moonlight' Sonata
• Beethoven - piano concerto no. 1 in c major op. 15 2 largo
• Beethoven - Fur Elise
• Bizet - Entr'acte To Act III (Carmen)
• Boccherini - Minuet
• Boccherini - quintet no. 7 in e minor for guitar and strings g 451 4 allegretto
• Borodin - Nocturne
• Bruch - Violin Concerto No 1 in G minor Op.26
• Chopin - waltzes op. 69 nr. 9 in a flat major op. 69 1 valse de la dieu
• Dallabaco - concerto dachiesa op.2 no. 4 1 aria allegro moderato
• Debussy - Clair De Lune
• Debussy - Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l'air du soir
• Debussy - Preludes, Des pas sur la neige
• Delibes - Flower Duet (Lakmé)
• Delibes - Pizzicati From The Ballet Sylvia
• Dvorak - String Serenade in E major Op.22, Moderato
• Elgar - Nimrod
• Faure - Pavane
• Gershwin - Summertime
• Gounod - Faust (margarethe)-ballet music 5 moderato con moto
• Grieg - Peer Gynt - suite no. 1 op. 46 morning
• Handel - Arrival of the Queen of Sheba (from 'Solomon')
• Handel - Concerto grosso in A minor op. 6 No. 4
• Holst - Mars, the Bringer of War - New York Philharmonic
• Holst - Venus, the Bringer of Peace - NYP
• Holst - Mercury, the Winged Messenger - NYP
• Holst - Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity - NYP
• Holst - Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age - NYP
• Holst - Uranus, the Magician - NYP
• Holst - Neptune, the Mystic - NYP
• Listz - Lieberstraum No. 3 in A flat major, G 541
• Liszt - Hungarian Rhapsody No.2
• Liszt - Les Preludes
• Liszt - Liebestraum No.3 in A flat
• Mascagni - Intermezzo (Cavalleria Rusticana)
• Massenet - Méditation (Thaïs)
• Mozart - Piano Concerto No. 21 in C, 2nd movement ('Elvira Madigan')
• Mozart - Rondo a' la Turc K331, No 3
• Mozart - Rondo Alla Turca, from Piano Sonata in A
• Mozart - The Magic Flute - Overture
• Mozart- Symphony No. 40, 1st movement
• Mozart - Violin Concerto No. 5 in A, 2nd Movement
• Offenbach - Barcarolle, from 'The Tales of Hoffmann'
• Pachalbel - Canon in D
• Puccini - Madame Butterfly, Un Bel Di, (arranged for strings)
• Puccini - O Mio Babbino Caro (Gianni Schicchi)
• Rachmaninov - Piano Concerto No.2
• Rachmaninov - Rhapsody On A Theme Of Paganini
• Rachmaninov - Vocalise Op 34 No. 14
• Rossini - Overture - The Barber of Seville
• Rossini - The Barber Of Seville - Overture
• Saint-Saens - Aquarium From The Carnival Of Animals
• Saint-saens - Danse macabre
• Saint-Saens - The Swan From The Carnival Of Animals
• Satie - Gymnopédie No.1
• Schubert - Ave Maria
• Sibelius - Rakastava
• Tchaikovsky - Swan Lake Suite Scene No.1
• Vaughan Williams - Fantasia on a theme of Thomas Tallis
• Vaughn Williams - Fantasia On 'Greensleeves'
• Verdi - La Traviata - Prelude to Act 1
• Vivaldi - Allegro from Spring - The Four Seasons
• Vivaldi - Flute Concerto in G minor 'La Notte', VI. Allegro
• Vivaldi - Mandolin Concerto in C, RV 425

Photography Trip - Gympie - 2

Bit of a washout due to shitty weather but some photos and text coming soon.

 

 

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Analysis of “The World is Flat” by Thomas Friedman.

In accordance with Glenn Fisher’s opinion that “Those from modern societies tend to place more stock in technical competence and qualifications, (1979 p. 25), Friedman believes that young people should be more inspired to be scientists, engineers etc. eschewing the more creative liberal arts subjects (as favoured by US colleges) for more economically profitable careers in the hard sciences (Johnson, 2005. p69,71).
Though my interests and qualifications span both liberal and technical subjects, I disagree that arts subjects should be de-emphasised. My library work related to the provision of multicultural resources for schools and education professionals, in addition to usual library duties I developed and designed language survival kits. It was very satisfying work as it enabled me to be creative, and work closely with the community, helping communications between teachers and students with first languages other than English. Some of my co-workers (translators) were refugees from war-torn countries, and it was fascinating to hear their stories, what they endured, how they managed to find work, and their aspirations.

I agree with Friedman on the importance of technological innovation. Advancements in speed, efficiency and availability of technology and communications since the late 20th century (Johnson, J. 2005 p69) facilitate global trading and communication, and increase competition. “The speed at which ideas are passed between people determines the rate of progress” (Leamer, 2006 p29) Expansion can have far-reaching negative consequences however, and here is where my beliefs conflict with Friedman’s. Writing from a predominantly western perspective extolling the benefits of business outsourcing, Friedman fills his book with anecdotes and selective statistics (Johnson. J. p70); failing to consider that the incentives of low costs (Varadarajan, S. 2005) and high availability of labour leads companies based in developed nations to outsource their labour to countries with comparatively lax attitudes towards workers rights; forcing people to work in unsafe conditions and for longer hours. “(few) americans felt the force of competition for their job from India or china…(many) companies were interested or engaged in moving jobs to India or china” (Leamer, 2006 p. 42). Such companies often do little to discourage or make a stand against the inequities and injustices that exist, widening the gap between skilled and unskilled workers. (Leamer, 2006 p. 11) puts it succinctly: “financial rewards relentlessly bend the system to their will”.

Despite these issues, I am in agreement with Friedman in my position that a large and diverse skillset is essential for survival (p88) to be adaptable to change (Field,1996), increasing employability. Those who “Fail to navigate the rapid changes”(Friedman, p88) or work to the demands of the flat world (Johnson, J. 2005 p69) will potentially be left behind.

Bibliography

Fisher, Glenn. 1980. “International Negotiation: A cross-cultural perspective.” Intercultural Press Inc. Maine, U.S.A

Fisher, Glenn. 1979 “Communications in a global society” Norwood, New Jersey. Ablex.

Friedman, Thomas. 2005. “The World is Flat: A Brief History of The 21st Century.” New York. Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux.

Field, Laurie.1996. “Skilling Australia”. Melbourne, Australia. Longman Australia Pty Ltd.

Johnson, J. 2006. “Mind The Gap.” Knowledge Quest, 35(2) p68-72.

Leamer, Edward E. 2006. “A Flat World, a level playing field, a small world after all, or none of the above? Review of Thomas L Friedman’s ‘The World Is Flat’” http://www.uclaforecast.com/reviews/leamer_flatworld_060221.pdf (accessed july 1st 2008)

Varadarajan, Siddarth. 2005. “But The World’s Still Round”. The Hindu. http://www.hindu.com/br/2005/08/02/stories/2005080200381500.htm (accessed 1st july 2008)

Careers and Personality tests...

I recently took one of those self-directed vocational suitability/personality test type questionnaires as part of my uni course.

You answer various questions involving self-evaluation of ability and various other factors. Each question is categorised and affirmative answers are tallied to scores in each category. The top 3 scores in each category become the three traits describing your personality and career suitability. the initial of each category forms part of a 3 character code. The letters in the code are prioritised so that the first letter is strongest, the second is second strongest etc. You are given a booklet detailing various career summaries and you can look up related careers suitable to your personality 'type' and skillset, and identify areas for improvement necessary for success should you decide to go for a career unrelated to your code.

I scored highly in the Artistic, Investigative, and Social codes, surprisingly.
The career/personality types in which I did not score highly in terms of suitability and general ability) were Conventional, Realistic, and Enterprising.

My summary code was AIS (Artistic, Investigative, Social) which confirmed what I already knew about my personality, and yet upon coding my occupational aspiration history I found a pattern that provided some new insight into why I made such a drastic career aspiration change recently:
My Code began with ISA (Forensic Psychologist)
then ARI (Sound engineer), then went gradually towards the complete reverse priority, AIS (Lighting Designer) Writer (ASI), and (Illustrator)(AIS).


Initially, from my results it appeared clear to me now why I no longer felt happy with the technical aspects of theatre in recent years: I longed for a position that was more creative artistically, it was the 'realistic' aspects of technical theatre that I didn’t truly enjoy and didnt come naturally to me.

Even though I enjoy working with technical equipment, learning new techniques and training others, I realise it was mainly the creative and problem-solving aspects of the job that attracted me in the first place.

I realised that I’d be more suited to illustrating and writing for a living, ambitions I have held since I was a young child, though admittedly they were often set aside for wildly divergent career choices to varying degrees of success.

Superficially, I found this survey to be somewhat useful, providing the validation I needed that my change was for the best, and I feel more positive about my future now that I have the information gleaned from the SDS and the career research report.

However, the usefulness of surveys of this sort have the potential to be compromised by confirmation bias, (See Forer, Beyerstein, etc) not to mention the similarly common self-serving bias and the dunning-kruger effect.

Awareness of the processes behind a self serving bias can help you to evaluate your performance and progress more critically, and it will allow you to use things like failures as learning experiences. (Smith, S. 2008)

I find this stuff fascinating, especially the implications for possible sources of bias in forensic psychological evaluation, one of my previous occupational interests.

Such awareness is useful for exercising critical thinking-- a valuable skill-- for university, most careers, and --of course-- life.

My apologies... I have made this post longer than usual because as Pascal said, I lack the time to make it shorter.

Laura

Pertinent Readings:

Holland, J. L (2006) Self - Directed Search:
Assessment Booklet. Macquarie University

Smith, S. 2008 http://www.wisegeek.com/

Forer, B. R. (1949). "The fallacy of personal validation: A classroom demonstration of gullibility". Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 44: 118–123.

Dickson, D. H.; Kelly, I. W. (1985). "The 'Barnum Effect' in Personality Assessment: A Review of the Literature". Psychological Reports 57: 367–382.

Justin Kruger; David Dunning (1999). "Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 77 (6): 1121–34.
http://www.apa.org/journals/features/psp7761121.pdf

Katherine A. Burson; Richard P. Larrick; Joshua Klayman;YUTAO (2006). "Skilled or Unskilled, but Still Unaware of It: How Perceptions of Difficulty Drive Miscalibration in Relative Comparisons". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 90 (1): 60–77.
http://faculty.fuqua.duke.edu/~larrick/bio/Files/2006%20Burson%20Larrick%20Klayman%20JPSP.pdf

Joyce Ehrlinger; David Dunning (January 2003). "How Chronic Self-Views Influence (and Potentially Mislead) Estimates of Performance". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 84 (1): 5–17. American Psychological Association
http://psycnet.apa.org/?fa=main.doiLanding&doi=10.1037/0022-3514.84.1.5

Photography trip - Gympie - 1

 

Going to Gympie on 23rd.

 

It's an old gold mining town, lots of interesting history.

 

Should be useful for my upcoming history unit on 'the making of australia'.

Considering visiting Amamoor state forest, might see a platypus!
Anyway, expect photos soon.

L

 

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Photography Trip - Gympie - 2

SP1 Results

For Study Period 1, I got 3 credits (for units ssk12, ssk13, phi120).

I'm pleased, not bad for my first ever term at uni.... prior to which I thought I would fail miserably.

Let's see how I get on with History and Politics in Study Period 2!

In Study Period 3 (September 1st onwards) I'll be studying Global Politics, Shakespeare, Metaphysics and Classical Mythology next, should be a larf!

L

Regarding gender and race issues....

Regarding gender and race issues.... well, like with most of what we've been discussing at uni, things are far from being perfect but in some ways they are so much better than they were. Bit of a weak statement but basically there's a long way to go yet.

It's actually easy for many of us to take what we have for granted... I've caught myself doing it at times, I'll admit, though learning history helps get a bit of perspective.

It seems to be human nature to quickly become acclimatised to a certain level of comfort....standards of living, benefits and rights etc. I guess the further removed we are from the actual struggles that won us these rights, freedoms, etc. the easier it is to become blasé.

It's why a proper understanding and appreciation of history and politics is vital, in order to know enough to recognise the warning signs... to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past.

One important thing that helps prevent me from getting too complacent is questioning even the most comfortable concepts. Too many people acquiesce unquestioningly and stay quiet rather than make a fuss which allows injustices to continue and proliferate.

Sorry, rambled a bit. hope i've made some sense...there was a point or two in there but they got lost. :-D

I shall finish on a quote:

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so sure of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts" - Bertrand Russell, attr.

Whatever comes next....

I've been here 3 years now, living in the sunshine state (Queensland) waiting to get my permanent residency and then I'll see about citizenship. Dual hopefully! I still think of myself as a Brit. And yes, my brummie accent has softened somewhat but still pops up in conversation when certain words are used.

I miss everyone, especially christmases where you all get together. Christmas here in Australia is kinda weird. It's really hot, for one thing, and I have a whole set of Aussie inlaws, for another. :-)

I do intend to visit the UK, but can't just yet for 3 reasons:
1. I have to remain in australia until the decision on my permanent residency visa is made.
2. I'm in the middle of a degree in History and Political Science at Macquarie University (it's in Sydney) I'm hoping to finish within two years.
3. Due to the above reasons, (especially exorbitant visa 'application fees') money is too tight. We're saving though so once I get enough money and get dual citizenship I'll be over to visit.

It's not hard to get citizenship, theres a 95% pass rate first time, but in the unlikely event you fail, you can retake it for free as many times as it takes to pass it! Unfortunately the same isn't true of University studies. I have to pay $805 per unit (24 units=1 BA in History&Political Science) as I am not entitled to a loan or any help whatsoever with fees (not a citizen) which is fine, I dont want to have a debt to the commonwealth. And at least by paying as I go, I will graduate debt free!

If you want to see what I'm up to , where i've been in australia and the photos i've taken, check out the archives. I'm slowly backdating this blog to the time I arrived in australia.... I've taken thousands of pics over 3 years and what with study commitments and life stuff getting in the way, it takes alot of time to cull and sort them and choose the least bad ones for the blog.

I'm hoping to take an art degree after this one, but not before taking a long trip all round australia and new zealand to get some inspiration.

Sewing

Recently bought my first sewing machine, a Singer.
Going to use it for repairs mainly. Who knows, maybe I'll get good enough to try making clothes or something!