now a thirtysomething from Brisbane
I got 35.5/40 for the essay on Japan and the modern day effects of their past military agressions that I really did not like doing. Can you say Happy! 😀
I was bouncing round the room like crazy.
Then I put the camera on the tripod and proceeded to take 124 photos of myself.
But can you spot my fake tooth? or my ultra cool Mountain Goats t-shirt 🙂
I have the final exam for this subject today and unless I bomb out on the exam I will be getting a distinction.
Today I have written something like 1300 words or so only about 200 words till I reach my target but I will reach that when I finish my editing and write my conclusion.
The funny thing is that the essay I am doing is one that I have found reasonably hard to write even though it is on a topic that interests me more than any of the other essays I have done in my life. It is on a topic that I know really well and without a doubt will be a topic that I will follow for the rest of my life irrespective of what field I end up in.
I am doing my essay on the implications that the growing disparity in birth sex ratios is starting to cause in China.
You say what? Parts of East and South Asia are seeing a massive shift away from the natural population sex ratio that is roughly 104 males to 100 females. The reasons behind this vary from country to country.
In some provinces in China this ratio is 137 males to 100 females, this was in the 1-4 years age group in the 1995 census.
Think about that in a society where traditionally 99.9999% of the population were married at some stage of their life, even if a son died before he was able to get married, a ghost marriage would occur typically with a girl who had died before marriage so that their souls would have peace. Historically in Western Europe, about 85% of the population or so would marry. In the case mentioned if there was no migration in or out of this province and 2% of the females for some reason did not marry, there could be at least 2 in 5 males who would not have the chance to marry.
In saying that though the average for the lower age groups ie the people who have not yet married is around 116:100 – which would mean that you at looking at what 1 in 6 males not marrying who are going to have to adapt to a life of bachelorhood in a society where it has not been a traditonally accepted lifestyle.
This will increase before it decreases. Big changes ahead in China.
Why are the ratios so large? In China it is due in part to a number of reasons.
That is just some of the stuff I am writing about and I really enjoy it. So there is a sneak peak into the life of a final year Asian Studies student.
Bit of a change away from what I normally write about but hey it is something that interests me.
Ohh and you may have noticed a few cosmetic changes round the place. I have changed the images in my banner and a few other little things.
Ever wandered what AU$11.60 looks like in a collection of 50c, 20c, 10c and 5c pieces? Well the photo below shows you.
There is in 2x50c, 19x20c, 47x10c and 42x5c for a grand total of 110 coins.
You say, please tell Helen what does $11.60 buy you these days?
I respond by pulling out a 3 zone 10 trip concession bus ticket. The key to traveling across town and back four to five times weekly to go to uni.
For a number of reasons (impulse purchases and to keep my wallet thin), I only like to keep a couple $1, $2 and 50c coins in my wallet and maybe a $5 note. Everything else goes into a jar in my room and when the jar starts to get full I take it down to the bank and they have fun counting it all.
The other day though I needed to get a new bus ticket and you can only really pay cash for the tickets, I decided to see how much money I had in my jar, I had about$12 in coins, Bonza!!! The right amount to get a bus ticket. I bundled it all up in a piece of cloth and made my way to the shop to get a ticket. To put it simply the guy at the shop was not as enthused as I was about my pile of coins 🙂
The title comes from a song by Aussie singer John Willamson called “This is Australia Calling”
Tuesday morning I had a nice phone call from one of my older brothers who is probably the world’s best air traffic controller (well at least he is in my book :)). He is currently in Kosovo where he has been on and off for it must be a couple of years now working at the Pristina airport initially as part of the NATO mission in Kosovo (KFOR) and now with the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). It was great to have a nice long chat with him about life in Kosovo, his family, our life in Australia and all the usual chit chat we do. Out of 8 of us Toti and I are the only ones who share a similar first/middle name. His first name is Þórður and my middle name is Þura which is a short version of ÞurÃÂður. Þor (Thor) was the son of Odin.
This morning, my big brother Karl rang to thank me for his very late Christmas/early Birthday present. It was great to talk to him about all the random things we normally talk about, life in Iceland, my uni stuff, all that fun stuff. Sometime round the 1996/1997 he was given the CD – Hype! Surviving The Northwest Rock Explosion – The Motion Picture Soundtrack. Let me tell you that CD had extremely heavy rotation on the Palsson Washing Up Radio.
Some time early this year I was walking past a local music/dvd chain and starting right at me was the Hype! DVD and with no second thought I knew I had to buy it and send it to Karl. It sat on my entry table for a couple of months until I got off my backside and sent it to him earlier this month. It arrived in Iceland the other day. 😀
Both the DVD and Soundtrack are fantastic and you should check them out. Ever since we first listened to the CD, it was the two songs by The Fastbacks that have really stuck with me through the years and when I got my new phone, one of the first ringtones I made for it was a sample from The Fastbacks song – Just Say.
I have grown up with the ABC, every morning the radio in our kitchen is tuned into 612 4QR, our local ABC station and as we walk about house getting ready for the day we listen in. When it is lunch and tea time, the radio is turned on again and we listen, you don’t dare talk. As I have grown up and owned my own radio, I moved to the various commercial stations and would then dance back to the ABCs “youth radio” station Triple J or a couple of local community stations but still the radio in the kitchen has never budged from where it is tuned.
The last couple of weeks I have started listening to the radio (news) more than the mp3’s on my computer, it stimulates my mind more than music and I learn new things and keep up to date with events (in addition to reading two newspapers daily).
When Mum and I were driving on our big trip, after we had listened to one of our CD’s we would flick onto the ABC and just listen in. Especially when we were driving on Christmas Day, listening to all the Christmas programs, hearing people on the move like us ring in and say what they are doing.
The repeated news does annoy me sometimes, which is funny because most of the time I tune into ABC NewsRadio instead of ABC Radio National. Some days I can recite the news along with the readers 🙂
However, when the radio documentaries from the BBC come on, I just sit there and let the words pour in to mind. BBC radio journalists must go to a special school; they all describe the scene around them, or the events with such clarity and passion. They draw you into where they are reporting from or talking about. I tell you listening to those BBC people talk is like audio crack, they draw you in further and further with every word.
What’s on your radio? Is there a radio station that brings back memories?
I am so tired of writing and researching, but only a little while now till the holidays. I want to find the pause button so I can take a break. The parcel man came to my house today and delivered me a present 🙂 it was my threadless shirts from the $10 sale. I’m wearing one to uni today 🙂
On Sunday, I just needed a break from sitting at the computer (which is something I find quite hard) and we were out of whole milk so I took a walk in the lovely May weather we are enjoying and went up to the local Aldi and picked up some milk 🙂 As I walked home I took a moment to let my camera know that I do love it and that my neglect will not last forever. Here is to having one essay to edit, one to write, a presentation and five exams left for the semester! All of which will bring me one step closer to graduation.
These three photos are little snippets from thet “Streets of your(mine) Town”, the pot plants that have sat on this fence for as long as I can remember always glaringly white in the sun, the Bowls Club where Karl used to work and one of the bus stop signs on the street to our street. They recently changed all the bus stop signs, they used to be yellow and I like the old ones better.
The Go-Betweens, a band from my town that recently became no more, when Grant McLennan died in his sleep. Streets of Your Town is one of their few songs that I know quite well and it always makes me think of this here town, Brisbane.
Streets of Your Town
Chorus
Round and round, up and down
Everyday I make my way
Through the streets of your townDon’t the sun look good today?
But the rain is on its way
Watch the butcher shine his knives
And this town is full of battered wives.Chorus
I ride your river under the bridge
I take your boat out to the reach
Cos I love that engine roar
but I still don’t hnow what I’m here for.Chorus
they shut it down
they closed it down
they shut it down
they pulled it down.Chorus