Tails’ Blography

e-piph-a-ny [i-pif-uh-nee]
–noun, plural -nies.
1. (initial capital letter) a Christian festival, observed on January 6, commemorating the manifestation of Christ to the gentiles in the persons of the Magi; Twelfth-day.
2. an appearance or manifestation, esp. of a deity.
3. a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.
4. a literary work or section of a work presenting, usually symbolically, such a moment of revelation and insight.

I was debating about blogging about this, since if it doesnt work out then everyone knows I failed etc etc. But then I thought, “why should I fail?” And its true. Failing is not an option. So here I am, blogging about my epiphany: I’m applying to do a Bachelors of Education (BEd)!

Wow, it’s scary just typing it. Seems so daunting. It’s a four year course, and I’ll be applying to UNISA for full-time correspondance. I’d be aiming to teach Primary School, preferably Gr 6’s (Std 4’s for us old-schoolers), which to me is a nice age to teach (the mere idea of teaching high school scares the crap out of me!). I would have loved to do full time study at CPUT, but alas, classes are from 8am-4pm Mon-Fri, and I have a sordid thing called rent thats called for once a month. Oh, and insurance and a cellphone bill among other expenses. How inconvenient!

This whole tertiary education confuses me, what with all the modules and credits and exemptions. Speaking of which, I’d have to apply for a provisional exemption, since I didnt get one in Matric and I’m over 23 years of age. This really makes me wish that I would have applied myself better in high school. It certainly would have saved me these hassles I’m having now. I could seriously kick myself. Some institutions, like CPUT, dont require just an exemption. They also accept you if you got an aggregate of 950 or higher, and passed at least three subjects on higher grade (HG), two of which must be languages. All very well, but this is where I fall short (without knowing what my aggregate is). I passed both Enlgish and Afrikaans on HG, but dropped Biology to standard grade (SG) halfway through my last three years of high school. Its not like I was a terrible student, but I just didnt apply myself 100%, and I should have. My other subjects werent that great, but that was simply because I was lazy and, at the time of selecting my main subjects, didnt have any idea what I wanted to do after school. I chose Biology (HG, down to SG), Computer Studies (SG), Home Economics (SG), and Ceramics (SG). I would have chosen Computer Studies as HG, but that was a 7th subject and you had to be doing Math, which I didnt do well at at all. I dont know how I got by on Ceramics (yes, pottery) on SG, as to choose SG you had to be doing Art as well. If you werent doing Art, you were supposed to do it HG. *shrug*.

Anyway, I’m aiming to enroll for January, so I have until Oct 31st to get everything in order. It’s all very exciting really. I feel like I have a purpose now, and I feel so proud that I’m taking the plunge to study further at the age of 26 (ok ok, 25 until August). By the time I’m 30, I’ll be qualified! How insane is that! I know its going to be a huge responsibility, and that there will be tough times and chances are I will struggle, both with modules and self discipline, but I will give it my best. That’s all I can do. At the very least, if I’m struggling with modules, I believe there are a few lectures I can attend, as well as get in contact with other students and form a study group or something. And I’ve already checked Facebook, and there are some groups for people studying BEd through UNISA formed. And I have two teacher-friends who are only a phonecall away.

I’m so excited. I feel like a new person. I’m so nervous. I’m so keen. I cant believe I’m actually going to study for the next 4 years! Wish me luck!!!

This weekend past was another OC (Organised Chaos) LAN. For those who dont know what a LAN is, basically you pay R140 entry, bring your PC along on the Friday evening, connect it to the network, and play games like Call of Duty 4/COD4 (among other things) with (approx 700) other people on the network until Sunday afternoon. Of course, you dont have to stay the entire time, but the die-hards do. By Saturday morning their are tents, pillows, mattresses, and sleeping bags all over the place.

This month, we arrived on Saturday morning, since I was recovering from a sore throat (which subsequently turned into a head cold afterwards…sigh). We set up and got settled in. By this, I mean we plugged in our PCs, had a game or three, then went in search of food in the form of cheese burgers and chips from the local cafeteria.

Normally it gets extremely cold (around 3 degrees celcius) and we freeze our asses off despite jerseys, jackets, sheepskin slippers and a hotwater bottle, so this time we added a sleeping bag to the equation. Wow, what a difference! I’m definately bringing one to every LAN!

After hours and hours of gaming (mainly COD4), swearing, chatting, and laughing, we were paid a visit by a friend who’s never been to OC. Needless to say, after showing him the ropes and letting him have a go on the PC’s, he was hooked, and might bring his own PC next time. Score!

Each month lately they’ve been trying to have a theme, and this month’s theme was Tie July. The person(s) with the best tie(s) could win a 1 terabyte (I think) hard drive each – very worth it! I’ll snag a photo of the two winners from the OC Fan page on Facebook to show you (credit to Sheldon, the OC ‘tog).

I baked gingerbread cookies to take with (I even made one in the shape of a tie, but I didnt need it cos I wasnt there on Friday), and they were a hit! I made O’s and C’s, and offered them to the admin, friends, as well as random people I passed along the way. It was great!

Without further ado, photos! Of course all taken with my new Canon 40D! I’m positively loving the new cam, by the way! It handles noise so much better, it seems to capture light better than my Sony, and its very speedy!

Setting up

Just a look around at what it looks like on a Saturday morning

The OC gingerbread cookies I made

Another look around at our neighbours

A view from where I was sitting during prize giving on Saturday night

They dropped a CRT monitor from the Velodrome ceiling…it went BOOOOOOM!

Everyone goes in for the remains

What was left…

Our friend who came to visit

The bf gaming…

The bf and myself gaming!

My hot man!

The bf, Chris & Ferdie

Winner #1

Winner #2 – I really LOVE this one!

Dont worry, no spoilers! Just opinions (which you shouldnt read if you dont want to go into the movie with expectations….like if someone says, “oh the beginning was terrible”, while its not a spoiler, I find myself watching and waiting to see when the terrible beginning starts an ends…anyway, I digress…)

So my mom and I went to watch it together on Sunday night, and firstly, let me say, I have a huuuuuge girl-crush on Hermione!! Man, she’s HOT!!! Shew!! *rapidly fans face with hand* I thought my only Harry Potter crush was Severus Snape *lesigh* That button-down jacket he wears…oh my! Ok, now that that’s out of the way, I can tell you off the bat that I enjoyed the movie. But! I’m not sure if I enjoyed it for the movie itself, or just because its a Harry Potter movie and they’re always great.

As a standalone movie, I wouldnt say its that great. Also, if you havent read the book, you might find yourself a little lost as to who’s who and why so-and-so is doing this or that. I read the book when it was released (ages ago), and even I struggled to keep up with the story, often finding myself realising afterwards who the character from 5 minutes ago was.

I heard, before I watched it, that it ended suddenly. This may be slightly true, but I personally felt the ending coming, so it didnt surprise me by just fading to black or something as I expected from what I’d heard. Also having read the book helped, as the ending made sense. I guess I can agree that they could have beefed it up a little bit, or something..cant quite place my finger on it. I also felt they rushed through a lot of it, but this is only after thought, as while I was watching I didnt feel rushed at all.

So, if you count the movie as a means to an end (pairing ‘HP & the Order of the Phoenix’ with ‘The Deathly Hallows’) it was great. The special effects are awesome, Quidditch looking especially believable now, the characters are great as usual, Hermione is hot, Ron is bumbly and adorable, and Harry…well he’s perfectly Harry.

They left out some parts of the book I would have liked to have seen, and I’ll probably find more when I reread the book now, but I’m happy they split The Deathly Hallows into two parts, not rushing and cramming everything into one movie. So, bring on 2010 & 2011!

PS: Isnt this cute and fitting!

Have you been sick this winter (or this season, for my non-winter readers)?

Nope, nothing yet (63.0%, 5 Votes)
Yes, I’ve been sick (25.0%, 2 Votes)
Yes, I’m getting sick (13.0%, 1 Votes)
Yes, I’m currently sick (0.0%, 0 Votes)
Total Voters: 8

So turns out y’all are a lucky bunch of sods, having had no illness yet this season! Lol. Sigh, currently I sit here with a head cold and it sucks. I hate how my hearing goes all funny and I have to keep yawning to unblock my ears. *yawns*

Anyway, went to watch Harry Potter last night, will make a new post about it (no spoilers, dont worry, just opinions). New poll is related. Enjoy and thanks for voting! (8 voters!! ) Also went to OC this month, also will make a separate post for that cos there’s a lot to say and a lot of photos!

Took a self portrait today while home with a sore throat. I’m never happy with myself in photos, but I think this one’s ok Also tried out a new hairstyle by curling a few strands with my FHI…what do you think?

PS: Added it to the About Me page.