arenaceus

The Adventures of Hobo

2011-12-05T22:52:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure who came up with the name, but Hobo was our mascot on Band Tour in August. Most of those photos of Hobo were taken on a haunted ghost tour, which was not scary at all because it turned into a history lesson about the house. Band Tour was right after my Trial Exams so it was a great break from studying - touring country NSW. I felt quite old, being one of about 6 or 7 year 12s while there were a lot of year 9s and 10s. However, I still had heaps of fun getting to know some of the people in the younger grades, although I only had a few weeks of school left then. The great memories on Band Tour definitely make up for all those early morning band rehearsals and the troublesome band competitions.

Picnic

2011-11-30T18:48:00.000-08:00

The last Thursday of school was spent with the whole grade at a park, enjoying a picnic and water fights. It was our last 'excursion' as a grade and I definitely enjoyed the bus ride with all my friends and our singing wars. Even though it was only early Spring, it was really hot and sunny which was definitely good for an outdoor picnic. It was a very fun day.

Last Days of School

2011-11-23T21:56:00.000-08:00

With the end of high school, it's time to reflect on the past 6 years of high school and even the past 13 years of schooling. Although it was boring at times and I probably studied a bit too much, overall, I really enjoyed high school. I made some awesome friends, had some inspiring and entertaining teachers and I leave with lots of great memories.

Cute little year 7s on the bus. I will miss school bus rides with my friends.

A little bit of bromance.

We had lots of fun on our maths table (not necessarily maths-related)

I don't know why he had an eye patch...

Bored (and most likely texting) in the middle of an Art theory lesson.

The Road Not Taken and Options

2011-08-27T17:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went to both the Open Days for UTS and USYD. It was pretty hectic and I unfortunately didn't have much time to ask questions about the degrees and now I am currently conflicted between two degrees. One is safe and standard the other is more risky and 'the road not taken'.

Bachelor of Commerce (Liberal Studies) at USYD

Pros

My parents approve
USYD and its beautiful campus
USYD has a great exchange program
I'm pretty interested in the courses
4 years
Leaves me with options for when I graduate

Cons

It's not what I'm truly passionate about...

Bachelor of Design in Photography and Situated Media + Bachelor of Arts in International Studies at UTS

Pros

I looooove photography
I like the Director guy - he seems to want photographers who think 'outside of the box'
If I want to pursue photography as a career, I will have lots of connections
If I tried really hard, I could possibly get 99.75 ATAR and get the Vice Chancellor scholarship that's worth $12K per year

Cons

I'm not 100% sure if I want to be a photographer
5 years with International Studies - it might be too long for me, especially if I want to do Post Grad in something else
UTS doesn't have a very good exchange program
My parents don't approve

What to do...

Besides Photographer, I'm also considering careers like Art Gallery Curator (Bachelor of PSM kinda relates to that) or starting my own business, selling creative products like photography accessories (B.Comm (Lib) is probably more useful for that).

I'm going to UNSW next weekend. Hopefully I won't be even more conflicted after that...

Also, I spent the week in country NSW on Band Tour. We went to towns like Wagga Wagga, Gundigai, Bathurst, Young and Katoomba. I will post about it later.

Friends

2011-08-21T02:40:00.000-07:00

So if you know me, you would know that I love photography. I would have to say, I love taking photos of my friends the most. We spend all these great times together and I get really excited capturing those times for us to look back on in the future.

Wednesday and Thursday, right after I finished my Trials, were spent celebrating Penny's 18th. She asked me to organise her party for her so I spent a lot of time and energy organising (throughout Trials) her 'surprise' birthday celebrations. It was hard figuring out what to do, when, where and how to get Penny to her party without her knowing. However, I have to say, it was definitely worth it. We (or at least I did) had a lot of fun just hanging out and not having to study (although we were still worried over how we did in our exams).

The two day birthday celebrations involved a classy ladies night out, sleepover at Penny's and a whole group barbecue. The 'classiness' of our ladies night out get ruined a bit by the rain but I still had a lot of fun dressing up and going out. The sleepover involved junk food, webcamming random guys from school until 4am, 'girl talk' and little sleep. Then we managed to spend a good part of Thursday just relaxing at a park - games, food, talking.

Hair moustaches 'cause we're girls.

Penny and her idols - Ohno, Seungri, KevJumba, Leehom

Killing Bryan/Martin.

The closest thing we got to a group photo.

I can't wait until schoolies.

I can't wait until the next time we go out as a whole group.

I can't wait until the next classy ladies night out. (Is it going to be right after HSC or for my birthday???)
I can't wait until I see you all at school tomorrow (although I'm not sure if these feeling are reciprocated)

Happy New Year!

2011-01-03T00:35:00.000-08:00

Wow, it's already 2011. For me, 2010 was a good year. I became close(r) to some great people and while also maintaining pretty good school marks, I also let my creative side flow through art and music (not so much dance this year, unfortunately). Some of the highlights of the year would involve outings with friends (Kumcha and "Can you get off me please?"), camps ("Snakes on Plains") and the National Art School B&W photography course I did for two weeks. With my final year of high school now having arrived, I hope 2011 can be even greater and more memorable.

So for the first time, I went to the city to watch the fireworks. I was expecting it to be incredibly boring, waiting over 9 hours for the fireworks but surprising I had lots of fun as my friends (and camera) managed to keep me entertained for the whole time. We managed to find a spot that was shady, not very crowded and had a great view of the Harbour Bridge. One thing I didn't enjoy was the half hour queue for the disgusting toilets. Overall, it was still a worthwhile experience and I hope to go again in the future (so long as I'm not overseas).

Also, I was extremely disappointed that my DSLR ran out of batteries at 11:57pm. However, I did manage to get some decent pictures of the midnight fireworks with my camera phone (as seen above).

At that point in the afternoon, I guess you could say we were ever so slightly bored...

These boys hope to get top marks this year.

Taken during the 9pm Family Fireworks

To celebrate the new year =)

Also, I'm going try and do a 365 this year so please check out my Flickr and tell me what you think.

Net idol? I wish!

2010-12-18T03:39:00.000-08:00

A couple of years ago some of my friends and I were obsessed with net idols and trying to be one. This would involve us taking loads of photos of ourselves and editing the photos in Photoshop to no end, as if we were the hottest things out there. Here are some examples from our 'portfolio':

Looking back at this, I think it's rather embarrassing but also pretty cute. This was a time where whenever I was bored, I would just grab out my camera and take photos of myself (this is evident in the last photo, where I was in the middle of drawing something for PD class). This was also an awkward time of my life in terms of my appearance, with braces and an explosion of acne. I'd like to think that I've grown out of this and become a mature, not vain, lady but really I haven't. I still enjoy taking photos of myself (especially with friends!) and I still occasionally wish that I was some sort of popular net idol/blogger.

A couple of my 'inspirations' back in the day - Xiaxue and Tang Guo:

'Cause I use film like a hipster

2010-10-29T01:27:00.000-07:00

I've read a lot of photographer raving about how much they love film photography but even after spending the last few months doing mostly film, I'm still a fence sitter between film and digital. I get anxious really easy and film photography just brings so many anxieties, especially with B&W where I develop my own photos. Sure, when they do turn out good, they just feel so special but most of the time you're not getting good photos.

Yet with digital photography - it's absolutely everywhere. I find it really weird when a little year 7 boy is the official photographer for school events and is also in charge of the school's photography club.

I spent almost every week this term taking photos at bowling for a 'photo series' but in the end I wasn't very satisfied with them.

My friend is into contact juggling, so he makes a very interesting/fun model.

Ballerinas are also interesting/fun models, even if they're in a park wearing school uniform.

Long Exposures = Super fun times!

2010-10-05T20:08:00.000-07:00

My grade recently had its Semi Formal on a cruise. The dining area/dancefloor downstairs was really crowded and cramped so my friends and I spent most of the time upstairs on the deck. I got a bit bored using flash all the time, so I played around with long exposures. Like always with long exposures, I got interesting results!

I spent all of last week at art school for Black and White Photography. It was super fun and tiring. It was a great experience spending the whole week devoted to photography and I made some interesting friends. The highlight was making massive A2 prints. That was really exciting! I'll scan some of my photos and upload them in the next couple of days hopefully.

the wonders of photoshop

2010-09-18T21:01:00.000-07:00

the difference between this and the original image freaks me out to no end.

ugh exams

2010-09-03T22:14:00.001-07:00

There are so many photos I want to post but I really should be studying right now.

(Wang Leehom rehearsing for the 2009-10 Taipei New Years Eve Concert)

Last Friday, 3 albums I ordered arrived in the mail. I really love all of them, especially Leehom's album. I'm now waiting for my Taeyang album to arrive!

Saturday in London

2010-08-06T22:27:00.000-07:00

Recently my parents and I went to London to visit my brother. On my parents' last day in London, my brother took us out and about to his favourite park in London (I can't remember its name) and the surrounding area. The day would've been perfect if I hadn't gotten three nosebleeds. As my brother describes it, the park was like "heaven on earth".

More photos from my London trip are coming up.

eclipse

2010-07-18T22:21:00.000-07:00

After a long (and pretty boring) day of training for a volunteer program, my friend Anthony I went to watch Eclipse. I quite liked the movie, although I wasn't particularly attracted to any of the characters except maybe Riley (the bad guy)...

It's mostly because I think he looks like Kyuhyun (my favourite member from Super Junior).

(I don't think they really look alike in that photo but as I was watching the movie, I could've sworn the actor, Xavier Samuels, looked like the white version of Kyuhyun)

Also, as we were buying popcorn from Kernels, I noticed that one of the workers looked like Seungyeon from Kara. Too bad I didn't get a photo of her for Bryan (biggest Seungyeon fanboy that I know).

help and pride

2010-06-15T05:49:00.000-07:00

I feel that with some of us, we can be quick to offer help (when it's convenient for us) but because of pride, we don't like to accept help from others.

omg we're so hot

2010-06-05T06:10:00.001-07:00

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

inspiration

2010-06-02T02:01:00.000-07:00

On Friday a man who had worked on Ground Zero after 9/11 came to talk our grade. Through his experiences he gave us a few invaluable life lessons. These are the things that touched me the most :

Every time we work or study, we are honing in on our talent which will help contribute to society.
We are unable to feel fulfilled if we only feed our egos. The only way to feel truly fulfilled is through helping others.

(Isn't ironic how instead of studying I was watching a drama hoping to get some study tips from it?)

Crying in public is super embarrassing

2010-04-27T04:12:00.000-07:00

First of all, I had a great "extra long weekend" as my school calls it (we had Friday to Monday off). I spent my weekend at church camp where I grew in my walk with God whilst bonding with fellow church members through fellowship, late night mafia/assassins, Disney movie skits, and numerous other silly games.

However, that retreat definitely did not last long enough and yesterday I had to return to the reality. Today has been quite a ride, filled with several flights and drops: balancing sickness, school work, family problems and other commitments.

Envy

2010-04-04T18:56:00.000-07:00

a feeling of discontent or covetousness with regard to another's advantages, success, possessions, etc.

Antonym: comfort, confidence, contentedness

I'm a person who likes to avoid drama as much as possible but as with all of us, I have a lot of internal struggles. One that God is currently testing me with is envy. I'm really unsure about how I should act. I know I should be happy for others about their advantages, success and possessions but what am I supposed to do about myself? Is it okay for me to still be aiming for better, even if that means I'm overtaking another? Will that still mean I'm happy for the advantages, success and possessions of others? How am I supposed to achieve the feeling of comfort, confidence and contentedness?

Also, Reality TV stirs up even more envy. I was watching MTV Teen Cribs the other day and I was so jealous of the people's houses. This is not good for my mentality.

Torn

2010-04-01T19:04:00.000-07:00

I was ripping photos to make a sort of photo montage thing as part of my experimentation for my recent VA project (the end product was really bad).

It's currently holidays and I'm planning on going out with my friends a few times, but I'm mostly going to be at home with nothing to do. It's the perfect opportunity to do something more with this blog.

Black and White?

2010-03-22T23:12:00.000-07:00

I wanted to see how the photos I took on Saturday would look in black and white. Comments are much appreciated.

Also, I need to customise my blog's layout. I will do this when it's the holidays (which is in a week!!)

Camera Panning

2010-03-20T18:56:00.000-07:00

Yesterday my brother was home for most of the day so I decided to try camera panning with him. It didn't really work, but it was fun trying.

My brother washing his car.

I think in this one I was showing my brother how it would look if I didn't pan the camera.

This is the best I got - his left arm is in focus.

One fine Sunday morning

2010-03-06T23:06:00.001-08:00

Early Sunday morning my friend Bryan was kind enough to accompany me around our neighbourhood to take photos.

He didn't quite enjoy posing...

I've been editing my photos using Lightroom and I love it! It's so much easier to use than Photoshop when I have a lot of photos to use.

School work's been killing me at the moment. My half-yearly exams are coming up in two weeks (exactly 16 days to go!) so all I have been doing this weekend is studying. Modern History is probably the worst. For my share of my MoHo study group's work, I have to take notes on a book 105 pages long and there's probably a lot more to come.

But I will obdura [persist].

-Harena

Glass animals

2010-03-04T02:25:00.000-08:00

One day I found these in my room (aka my brother's old room). I thought they were pretty so I decided to take pictures of them.