Polaroid Past

Short post today, especially since everything I'm about to say is explained in a longer post elsewhere.

Anyway, since I haven't updated in awhile, I thought I'd just quickly mention a side project I've started. Essentially, I'm aiming to take a photo a day that some how applies to what I was feeling that day or eludes in some way to the day's activities. Not necessarily aiming for 'profound' or 'inspirational' shots or anything, but rather just chronicling my existence for the next year. Then, since I love Polaroids and they have this nostalgic feel about them, but the film itself is too expensive, I figured I'd photoshop each of these daily photos into a Polaroid format - just for an aesthetic if nothing else.

The blog itself is here: Polaroid Past.

Full explanation can be read here: Polaroid Past - The Concept.

Anyway, not a great deal more to say on it. It's not exactly for an 'audience' as such, but it just gave me something to talk about in the mean time on this blog. It's more for personal intrigue, just to look back in a year's time and go through all the photos in one go - a year of my existence. Figured I'd at least wait until I had a week or so of photos up before announcing it, though one or two people found it on their own anyway.

I know starting it right before the HSC when I won't be going anywhere as much to take more interesting photos probably wasn't the smartest thing, but now that I've started I won't be stopping until it's been 365 days, heh.

Adios.

Breaking Open The Nostalgia Box

Considering graduation just ended and there's a flood of nostalgia, I figured I would finally do something I haven't done in two years.

Be warned - it'll be a long post, most likely due to the amount of images.

Ever since the beginning of Year 11, I figured I'd try and turn things around with no regrets, since I'd missed out on a great deal in the junior years. It all began after meeting I guy called John from Pendle Hill during a week of work experience at a news company in graphic design. I'm not sure what it was, but something about just the way he talked about his friends spurred me on to finally be more social, and to go a bit beyond my boundaries that I was comfortable with. In order to remember these things, and a constant reminder to live with no regrets, I began the Nostalgia Box, where I threw every little object and trinket, beginning with the notebook from that very week at work experience.

The overflowing Nostalgia Box.

Anyway, I finally actually delved back into the box after two years of only throwing things in, and what an eventful year it has been. Full of growth, new experiences, and most importantly - new friendships, and continuing old ones. I figure that a picture says a thousand words, and the rush of nostalgia is barely able to be described, so I'll try to focus mainly on images with a only small explanation in this post.

Behold, the magnificent contents.

Behold, the nostalgia box. Two years worth of memories locked away in this thing, though I use the term 'locked' loosely as it is literally overflowing now with nostalgia. Just quickly, I couldn't get photos of everything because it's just so full, so here's a few extras, like Shuang's handcrafted invitation to her 18th birthday outing, or pens from the school librarian from my work on the year magazine. Also inside are some 3D glasses from a few films such as Coraline and Up, or a number of brochures from various art exhibitions that I've been to see with friends in the past two years, ranging from the AGNSW and MCA, to the Object Gallery or exhibitions at COFA. There's also a farewell card from Kate acquired recently, along with the tag she had wrapped around the accompanying chocolate.

The Easter Show!

One of the first items I found inside was a day program from the Easter Show earlier this year. It was absolutely epic. Both school friends and external friends came along (after an environmental rally in the morning which was also awesome), went on a number of rides, saw Vex Reverend with David, Pat, Elliot, and Zac from school in it perform, got a photo with the infomercial guy from Sunrise, and so much more.

Party Panda!

Continuing on from the Easter Show, this is also a stuffed panda I won at one of the sideshows. The stylish hat he is wearing is a blue party hat - one of a set that we all rocked for an entire day in the city for Derek's birthday. Totally stylin'.

Postcard-palooza.

Littered all the way through the box were an incredible number of free postcards, often stolen in a raid of the rack with Shuang and co. as we grabbed any free things we could find at any venue that had them available. The photo above only shows a *very* small selection of what is a ridiculous amount of postcards (sometimes even doubles) that will never be used. Never hurts to have nostalgic free stuff though.

National Art School forms and an invite to the final exhibition.

....and who could forget the two week course at the National Art School during 2008. Seriously, it was quite possibly one of the best experiences of my high school life. Not only was it an immensely enjoyable learning experience, an outlet for some creative freedom and new techniques, and more, but it created the foundations for some new (and some of my best) friendships ever since. Whether they were people I'd known prior from school, but just not gotten that close to in the past (Dora and Shuang), or entirely new friendships from a number of schools (Derek, Julie, Johnny, Stella), or even meeting Alicia's apparent clone, it truly was one of the greatest growing experiences I've ever encountered. Even the general atmosphere of the area, such as visiting Pie Face (and devouring an terribly undercooked quiche), or...

A Yoshinoya brochure, and some original Yoshinoya chopsticks, never been used.

...experiencing the much loved and now lost Yoshinoya beef bowl. The brochure was only recently acquired from Dora, as she'd thankfully held onto it. That, and after digging through my box of odds and ends, I came across some chopsticks from my first ever visit to Yoshinoya with Derek during the NAS week, kept in pristine condition and never used because, at the time, I couldn't use chopsticks anyway. I only partially learnt how to use them like half a year to a year later, heh. Certainly some great memories in that place, revisited many times before it closed.

First ever concert. The Red Paintings, woooo!

Next up was both a ticket and a newspaper clipping I found detailing my first ever concert - The Red Paintings. Yes, I know, my first concert was kind of late, only being in Year 11 and all, but I don't mind. Went with Kirsti and Joel (though at the time I was quite awkward and I'm pretty sure Joel thought I was retarded, heh), as well as my sister and my cousin, and they had a great stage presence. Awesome costumes, great music, very artsy atmosphere. Still a great night overall.

Miscellaneous memorabilia from Newtown.

Next up is an odd assortment of items purchased from Newtown with Dora/Lynneal/Shirley/Bas. I'd completely forgotten about some of this stuff, such as the small blue button badge that evokes memories of the *epic* button store that had buttons up to the size of one's head. Gould's was equally incredible - the sheer amount of books and reading all over the place was amazing, so I figured I'd buy a cheap comic as a token of the day (which just so happened to be an Issue #1 of this series, wewt).

Nintendooooooo!

Next up are a few odd Nintendo items from *both* days of the Nintendo Connection Tour for Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Went the first day with Kirsti and Joel, and the second day with Alex, Jeremy, and Lee. DESPITE the fact that I got beaten by a 5 year old girl at one point (which I have still not lived down), it was altogether awesome. Also, the hideous Polaroid they took for my ID Card for the competition resulted in some amused laughs from the girls at Subway when we went to order lunch, followed by some terrible flirting when they were quite obviously just trying to flog a sandwich, heh.

Miscellaneous Adobe scribblings.

Buried toward the bottom of the box was the item that started it all - this old and semi-useless notepad from my week of work experience in graphic design at a news company. I pretty much explained this in the opening paragraphs, but it's just a reminder of starting things over in my senior years, all because of that random John guy I met that week from Pendle Hill.

Ticket explosion.

Scattered throughout the box is a number of tickets from random places I've been and things I've seen. By no means is this picture exhaustive, as there were PLENTY more where these came from. This was just as many as I could fit in a single picture whilst still remaining barely readable. Ranges from movie tickets (e.g. Lars & The Real Girl, Coraline and Fame), bus and train tickets to a number of places, art exhibition tickets (such as the Archibald or Monet exhibitions), a ticket to a King Curly concert, some random receipts, and who knows what else. So many scraps of paper in that box, but each holds so many memories.

The collection of Derek's cheap-yet-amusing paper CD cases.

One of the recurring themes throughout the box was a number of Derek's paper CD cases for things he'd burnt me over the last year. I think I just kept them because of the thoroughly amusing images or messages he'd always draw on them, with my personal favourite being the first one depicting both the awkward squid and the sad orangutan (whom I'd completely forgotten about). Ah, the sad orangutan... created after he destroyed the statue of Diana back in the drawing class at NAS and then basically curled up in a corner with his drawing pad, heh.

Miscellaneous scraps of paper that were thoroughly amusing reminders of earlier times.

Oh now *these* were certainly a surprise. Random scrap pieces of paper that most likely all require some sort of explanation. Firstly, the "Happy Happiness" card and the manly pink present were concocted in a free period by Shuang for a number of us, celebrating her newly created holiday of "Happiness". Instantly put a smile back on my face just looking at it. The next is a random note from Srishti (note that the "Nordeau" name is an in-joke between the two of us) that, when Shuang, Dora, and I were all cooped up in the art rooms constantly working on our bodies of work, she littered the room with a random note for each of us that made no sense, but each was still absolutely hilarious. Lastly, the Cloud Cadet badge was received during an FBI Radio Concert with Ama/Shuang/Derek/Dora where we went to see Cloud Control. Aside from the ridiculously crap band known as The Bennisons, the rest of them were awesome. Sierra Fin were epic, and even signed my Frisbee, Tom Ugly - though not necessarily my type of music - had a great stage presence and entertainment value, and then Cloud Control was...

Absolutely. Freaking. Awesome.

Awkward Squid draft illustrations. The bottom left was the final choice.

The very last of these photos for now is one of a number of draft sketches for the Awkward Squid t-shirt that Johnny and I collaborated on (even though he actually got his made and I just... never got around to making mine). Though the awkward squid has died down slightly as of late amongst our group, it still lives on every once and awhile, going all the way back to the drawing class at NAS yet again, when I introduced them all to it after learning it from my cousin. Courtney from NAS even made an epic awkward squid emoticon to accompany it, and Johnny wore his shirt we made to the Sculpture By The Sea exhibition meet-up we had. Good times.

...Well, I guess I should stop rambling as that ended up far longer than intended, yet again. I know half of you probably just gave up altogether or only skimmed the pictures, but I don't mind. Even considering the length, this is only a minor snippet of the full contents of the box, which is only set to continue growing (possible in a new and bigger box). If anything, it was a bit more therapeutic for me, reliving the past two years which, with both their massive ups and incredible downs, have been exceedingly epic, due to the shared experiences with friends - new and old.

Adios.

The First Of The Lasts...

Today began the vast majority of the first 'last times' for everything at school, with - considering today being Friday and graduation being next Thursday - the final 5 days of school just beginning. For example, today was the last of many things, such as:

• Last Focaccia Friday at the school canteen.
• Last Photography free period before graduation.
• Last Ancient lesson with Ms. LeClerc.
• The end of the last Week A on the timetable ever.
  

...And this is only just the beginning. With four days left to go there's not a great deal of time and too many final opportunities, so I'm going to try and make sure I get involved in as much as possible. For example, when the grade came together for that junior uniform day I went out of my way to the clothing pool in order to be able to don a blue shirt the following day and join my nostalgic peers.

The grade lunches have also been kind of cool, just seeing the entire grade come together in one space for a short span of time and just... hanging out essentially. Many photos, including getting drafted into my first proper 'Toyota' photo ever, aside from one failed 'Jolly Greens' one with Shuang/Rose/Nichole. The second grade lunch was kind of soured a bit however, due to the intervention of some teachers breaking up the water fight, which I only got to observe a bit of anyway. Bugger.

Time just seems to be moving too fast, and today was the first day that it really hit me, so to speak, that it's almost over. Before today, I'd been waffling about as though it was business as usual, just with slightly less of a work ethic for the time being.

Not anymore though.

It's time to step it up with both work and enjoyment simultaneously. I'm going to try and remember as much as I possibly can of this final week, as well as start improving my study regime yet again for the final set of exams ever in a few weeks' time. I've started going photo-crazy at school to try not to forget anyone, and even scabbed one of those small books off Bernice to get people to start signing. Even though I only had time to get a few people to write in it today, it's still amazing to find all the little in-jokes and memories with specific people that I'd forgotten.

It looks like the back of a playing card! Sign it people!

Lee's page is absolute post-modern win. I may upload some of the pages later when it's all completed. I'll make sure to get as many signatures and comments as possible by graduation, and probably an enormous amount of photos, considering I usually go a bit trigger-happy with the camera even just on a general outing. It's just exciting, and yet depressing, that this routine of my life as far as I can really remember is drawing to a close. Sure, university beckons, but that 3-4 month gap in between seems so daunting and aimless. No idea what I'll do with myself.

Still, enough about the future. Aside from exam preparation, I'm living in the present until the end of the HSC, and that's it. No time for negativity anymore. I hope everyone else's final days are equally as awesome.

Adios.

The End Is Nigh

Yes, the end of the holidays is upon us, my friends. It is a most melancholic affair. I would insert a sad face emoticon around here, but I'm trying to have this blog retain *some* level of sophistication in the writing, as opposed to my usual MSN emoticon spamming. So, I'm afraid, you must imagine the anguish on the little round yellow circle for yourselves, dear readers (if you even exist by this blog post). As of writing this post it is past midnight, and thus it is the final day of this precious "break" (if you can even call it that, as with the impending trials any amount of procrastination leads to immediate guilt).

But yes, holidays are ending. Children across the nation are weeping as the trials draw near. And yet, despite this pressure, procrastination always seems unavoidable. Despite doing a decent amount of my body of work for Art, I've only touched on English a bit and my Histories even less... it's quite disconcerting. Still, with the stress explosion that is soon to occur, I must cherish this last day and relax. See those italics? Doesn't the word just look so cushy and lazy? It's perfect.

Though this is also an end, it is many beginnings. Firstly, the beginning of the final term of high school - ever (though yes, I am quite aware as this is also alluding to another end, so quiet). I can't wait for university... it's so close, yet so far. I just love the city atmosphere, so getting into UTS would be absolute bliss. Then again, there's the fact I still live in Penrith, so about 3 hours commuting there total per day would be terrible. I *would* like to move to the city, but then I'd have to worry about finding accommodation, roommate(s) depending on the rent or size of the place, and a job to pay for it all anyway. Bah, those were dark days working at Red Rooster, so hopefully I can get into somewhere above fast food.

At least I was a productive little worker, right?

This notion of fast food brings me to my next beginning of sorts though - the intense exercise and diet regime that shall commence first day back next term. I've lost weight consistently over the last few years due to a few inspirations, which I may save for a later post I suppose, and although I'm *close* to my ideal, I could do a slight bit more. It has been quite a battle, and my knee operation last year sort of put a stop to my motivation. This fervor shall consequently resume this Tuesday, and hence I have all of Monday to binge, should I see fit, heh. I may walk up to the local KFC and have a End-Of-Holidays Celebration before this cruel health program begins. See, working at Red Rooster used to work as a deterrent as I saw the disgusting kitchen conditions and how terrible and fattening the food really was. Yet, after quitting, for some reason I suddenly felt I could indulge without a care again. So, starting Tuesday:

-No more fast food.
-No more binging on chocolate.
-Alas, no more Tuesday Nachos from the school canteen, though this one will be a struggle to give up.

The goal of this all... well... I don't have a specific weight I'd like to reach. It's more that I just want to feel comfortable, and thus my target is fitting into an item of clothing. More specifically, the Cloud Control T-Shirt I bought from the Save FBI Concert earlier in the holidays. SUCH GOOD TIMES. I'm overcome by nostalgia thinking about it.

Ah, good times. Even got to hi-five my clone, shown behind me.

But yes, as I went to buy an EP Album of the first band that played, they also had the Cloud Control merchandise out. The shirt in question reminded me of one over on www.threadless.com which depicted a deer using its antlers as a hat rack. Though no hats in sight on this shirt, it was still just as cool with the deer silhouette. However, when I went to buy it, the girl could only seem to find shirts that went up to medium size, rather than large. Thus, although it fits, the shirt is a *tad* tight. So, my goal is that, by the end of the HSC, I *will* fit comfortably into this shirt. Here is the damn awesome shirt in question:

Who wouldn't want to wear that? So simple, yet so coolio.

This is my goal. This shirt. This excellently designed piece of apparel, oozing nostalgia from every thread, heralds the new era of exercise and food Nazism. Both a good and bad start to what is the end of my schooling days - at least until university.

I realise this was probably one of the more trivial posts I've made so far. Then again, there isn't much competition as I've only made three at this point in time, heh. Still, this blog just helps me collect my thoughts and set them in stone. Thus, by declaring this health regime I can no longer escape from it, nor can my diet buddy. We can do it. This is where I would insert a smiley face, but as explained in the first paragraph you must imagine the jubilation yourself. It seems we have come full circle, so I shall end here.

Adios.

And So It Begins...

Well, I'd never really been inclined to blog in the past - mostly because I'd come to the conclusion that 90% of it would just end up me ranting at the vast empty expanses of the Internet. However, my opinion changed after watching an interesting talk over on TED.com - it's a brilliant site. I've pretty much exhausted half of the archive of talks on there, with the content ranging anywhere from short, amusing pieces or lyrical musings to motivational, inspirational, and innovational speeches. Fuels the mind, really.

Anyway, one particular talk piqued my interest recently and coerced me into joining the marvellous yet somewhat overcrowded world of blogging. Specifically, a talk by one Mena Trott about how even complete strangers can take an interest in the random events in one's life and feel connected, despite little to no contact at all. Also, the notion that, after a great deal of time on this planet, many leave little to nothing behind, with her own grandmother (or at least I think it was her grandmother? I'd have to watch the talk again to check) leaving behind nothing more than a mere single photo. She goes on to say how blogs have changed all that.

For those interested (if anyone even reads this thing, heh), here is the talk in question - Mena Trott detailing blogs of the modern era:




In the world we live in, the vastness of cyberspace houses thousands upon thousands of remnants and snippets of individuals' lives which can be accessed by everyone and anyone who cares or takes it upon their self to look. I'd like to think that, even if I accomplish nothing of particular merit by the end of my life, that I've at least enjoyed myself and left something behind in some form - whether that 'something' is physical possessions, photos, or writings that are both on paper and virtual. Between my current and future possessions, multitudes of stored photos from the last few years in particular (when I suddenly got a bit snap-happy, though I'm desperately in need of a better camera at the moment), and the likes of say... Facebook, or now this blog, and whatever other endeavours of mine the future may hold, I'd hope that some sort of image of my life is left behind, even if only a brief glimpse.

So, that's what inspired me to finally get off my ass and write one of these things. As for how long it lasts - we'll see. Still, it could be a fun experiment. The whole idea of blogs always seemed somewhat cathartic to me anyway, so expect a rant or two amidst the sporadic and spontaneous ramblings that spring forth from my mind.

Now, my fingertips are *immensely* cold and it's just hit 2:00 AM... So I should probably be heading off to bed. At least I still get two more days to sleep in before school resumes.

Adios.