Singular Scene

So Singular in Each Particular

What’s the Worst that Could Happen?

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So, I’m closing in on the end of Week 5 of University and the truth is, it’s been the most challenging series of weeks I’ve had in the last 10 years of my life. Forgive me if I sound maudlin, depressed, or otherwise not as upbeat as usual, but I’m trusting that having been on this journey that is my blog with me for nearly 5 years you guys have learned to take the rough with the smooth. 

I don’t want to go into all the boring details really, suffice to say, the financial support I had been planning on to provide the bedrock for my life this year in the form of a Government allowance for my study was not forthcoming.  There are various reasons for this, but the short answer from them is that my post-graduate course is not on the approved list and therefore their hands are tied.

*insert all manner of wailing and gnashing of teeth, and maybe a little bit a shitload of swearing*

Now, before you panic, or you induce me to panic, I’ll point out that I do still run a business that brings in some income, I do still have a ‘one day a week’ nanny job (although there are times when I’m not required) and I still have babysitting that kicks in now and again, though my other regular sitting clients are in Europe for 2 months (downturn? what downturn?!).  Anyway, I’m just saying the ‘allowance’ wasn’t my only egg in the basket but the prospect of it was, as I said, the bedrock.  So it’s safe to say that the loss of that was akin to a small earthquake at Chez Deeleea.

The whole process has brought into sharp relief the fact that where I have never felt afraid of anything much in the last 10 years it really wasn’t until the loss of my financial security that I’ve felt the gut wrenching fear I’m sure a lot of other people are feeling in this current state of global economic woe.  Needless to say, having lived with this feeling for the last 5 weeks has meant the thrill of being at uni has been somewhat tarnished. One the plus side it has left me with a very suppressed appetite (can anyone say ‘weightloss’?!).

I haven’t been blogging. Instead I’ve been flirting with a vague depression I’m trying very had to prevent from going all the way into a tussle with what has never been a black dog, but could very well be a rather dirty grey.   

I am, of course drawing on every bit of spiritual and emotional support my faith gives me and am happy that it is really helping, but I don’t want to bore you with those details, you think I’m half mad already… I don’t want to prove you ‘all the way’ right…

The thought occurred to me today, if in fact all of this came crashing down around me, what’s the worst that can happen? 

I could admit defeat, quit uni and find a job. I would have lost the cost of this term’s fees, but I’ll still have a roof. I could  pack up my life, sell all my stuff and book a ticket for me and Lulu to go home to NZ. That would have its benefits too, can anyone say ‘niece and nephew time’?  The thing I’m coming to realise is, it’s all a matter of perspective.  Realistically, if I find that I can’t cope on what I’m earning and the small help I’ve received from emergency sources I could see out this semester and drop to part time for the next one, that could work.  It would be a pain, but it could work.

I belivee things will work out fine and that this (what I hope will be short) period is proving a great lesson in terms of just what it is I can survive without.  Alcohol, dessert, chocolate, pre-made food, restaurants, movies, dvd rentals, takeaways, new clothes, and even my daily skim flat white are all rendered unnecessary.  And I’m doing ok with that, yes, even without the coffee!

I’ll take each day as it comes, because really, in the grand scheme of things, what’s the worst that can happen?

Addendum… I just checked my mail to find a response from a woman for whom I’ve given a quote for a regular website updating job.  I need to call her tomorrow to follow up… Keep your fingers crossed for me, if this comes off the way I hope it to it will make up for the dastardly deeds of the Centrelink (govt) agents.  And if it doesn’t?  I’ll have a wee cry and a pray and trust that there’ll be something else around the corner.

Loose Translation

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So, I’ve been copping some grief for the nature of my status updates on Facebook (email me for deets if you want to add me).
Translations have been required more than once so I thought it politic
to post a glossary of symbols and TLAs* you may notice in my Status
Updates (or in the twitter column to your right)… oh, and while we’re on the subject my status updates are fed
directly from twitter. So most of the quizzical looks I get are because
some twitterism or other has crept in…

Twitterisms – http://www.twitter.com

For the record twitter is the current buzz in social networking.
basically a site built on people’s short status update like messages
colloquially known as tweets.

Tweet – a twitter message
Tweeps – your twitter friends contraction of twitter peeps.
Twitterverse – the Twitter universe
Tweeple – twitter people less personal than tweeps.
Twit – singular twitter user
Twas – former twitter user (i made this one up, but I like it the best)

Twitter lingo in the context of tweets (and by extension fb status updates) may come out looking like this…
@weirdname. In twitter the @ symbol is universally used to reply, and
thereby create a link back to the person you’re mentioning.
#followfriday or any other #thing. the hash tags the tweet so it’s
searchable and other people can follow along. It also links back to a
search page of other #hashtags
RT is to ‘re-tweet’ it’s a copy of someone’s tweet and an effort to
spread the word via your own network and hopefully the networks of your
followers

Some of the geek speak universally recognized in the circles I move in in the www may also creep into my status updates.

FTW – For the Win. Expression of joy, happiness or general all round good cheer and glee.
WTF – What the #@%% – well, you get the idea, basically the opposite of the above.
O_o – expression of confusion, weirded out etc.
OMG – Oh.My.Goodness ;)
WTH – What the Heck
BTW – By The Way

Full of Win – great, awesome, fabulous,
Fail – well, kind of speaks for itself but has become a noun as well as a verb.
Epic Fail – Proportionately huge fail.
Great Big Bucket of Fail – instant death, basically.
Fail Whale – is a twitter thing actually, speaks of the image that appears when twitter is down http://images.google.com/images?hl=EN&q=fail+whale&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2 has also become a noun in many geek circles.

I’ll add to these if I find other translations required, or you could contribute below if you feel so inclined!!

*Three Letter Acronyms

Hi, I’m Dee and I’m a….

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You may or may not know I blog in more than one place, in the past I double posted the content from here over at the wibsite (my original blog). Recently I decided to keep the two a bit more separate, saving the wibsite blog for occasional faith related posts, linking between the two to keep everyone up to date but trying to simplify life a little…

In any case, with that disclaimer in mind, I’m linking back to there with this post so you can read it if your’e interested.

http://deeleea.wibsite.com/2009/03/18/hi-im-dee-and-im-a/

USYD – Take Two

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Ok. My brain is fried on things like, Network Governance, Digital Publishing, Interactive Media and Remix Culture. I feel neglectful of the blog.. but, you really wanna hear about that stuff??

Yeah, thought so.

Here’s some pictures instead…

This first slideshow is taken at SCA, Rozelle, I have one class here each week learning Flash, the place is amazing, totally should be a set for some gothic horror novel… The college has repurposed buildings at the old (no longer in use) Rozelle Hospital, a mental health unit, and seriously, you can feel the Cuckoo’s Nest vibes when you walk around the place… (oh, and these pics really look better on flickr… click through to see them proper like…)

This next slideshow is of pix taken at the Camperdown campus, the University of Sydney’s original campus. It’s one of those universities that make you feel like you’re in Inspector Morse… (but nobody dies [thankfully]).  That is of course, until you walk past the Fisher Library which is right out of Life on Mars… or the new Law Faculty buildings which are a la whatever passes for noughties architecture… (it’s midnight, I’m knackered… cut a girl some slack).