Saturday 24 November 2012

History - Our world view and how it has changed.

In Extension History, we've been learning about What is History, and more importantly, who are the historians? Taking a look into the historians, we've taken a look at one of the first historians in the world, a Greek man by the name of Herodotus (c. 500 BCE), which I urge you to look up.

Herodotus wanted to preserve the past, and more importantly; ask questions how certain things came to happen. More specifically, the Greek-Persian conflict. Two empires at battle for land expansion.

And so it led me to think about how our world view was, and how it is today, In a nutshell, how it's changed.  It's just slightly strange to think back then, they did not have the knowledge we do today. Of course, maybe back then they were more hardworking which required them to use brainpower seeming as they did not have technology to help them like we do today. But back then, that world was all they knew. It's not known whether if they knew there was more to be discovered or not, but they did not know certain people existed, for a fact, as you think about it, no one knew until they were discovered by European powers. (Aborigines in Australia, Native American Indians, Mayans, Aztecs, and Incas in the Americas, and so on. Many new people also evolved, many new nationalities evolved with interracial breeding and such, but that probably swerves towards our modern time with immigration etc.) Many things such as events, materialistic things, even countries as well as certain peoples (see above) did not exist back then.

Today we have an array of new things, such as new concepts, new history and so on. Today we have technology, we have transport technology, electronic technology, gaming technology, war technology and so on. Of course you're going to get things like the internet with these technologies. We have new history, such as the holocaust, WWI, WWII, colonisation of certain countries and so on. We have new concepts such as religion and science. Well religion came shortly after that time, but religion is a constantly changing thing so it's fair to say it's new.

But with all that we have today, are the answers we have not enough? Of course not. We still think there's more to be discovered, with all that's been discovered. We're still searching for answers. With new history comes new unanswered questions. Both old and new unanswered questions. Some of us still ask why ancient history events happened, and what profound effect has it had on the modern world? I believe history usually happens through a chain of events, not necessarily always but it does impact certain things. A modern world event that lead to another event could be September 11, for example, which lead to the Iraq war. If that had been prevented, many lives would've been preserved today. Not as many refugee camps would've established and so on.

History is an interesting thing when you think about it. It's one thing in your life that's always going to be relevant. Everyone makes history. This blogpost will be a part of my history once published, as well as a part of this blog's history unless deleted, but not really as it'll still remain as something that once happened i.e. this blog. History is certainly something that leads us to ask: Who are we? Why are we the way we are today? and Where did we come from? It poses really good questions towards life, unless you're someone that's just like I am as I am, and I couldn't care less about where I came from.

So yes, I hope this post has truly made you think, and maybe it shed some light on our past.

Sunday 11 November 2012

Year 12

So this post was due a little while back, but I'm finally writing it!

It's been a few weeks since I've started, and man I'm already freaking out. I have 1 exam and 2 assignments due all in the same week - in 2 weeks. Excuse me while I freak out again. I envy those who do not have to worry about getting ATAR as they are not going to uni because they don't have to work as hard, all they have to make sure to do is pass.

Yes, it sucks our assessments go towards HSC, and that they determine your ranking which initially could affect your mark.  I will work hard and get through this year. I just need to spend less time on the internet, and less time procrastinating.

If this is me now worrying and such, then imagine me in the middle of the year. Crap. But yes I shall get through this.

What do I want to do, you ask?

Well I want to do Journalism at UTS and for that you need an ATAR of 91.6 (as I recall), and you need get high band 5's and 6's for that, so now you understand my dilemma. Some people already have their live sorted out, so they're lucky. If I don't get that, I'll probably go to a different uni, then transfer later.

Maths, Legal Studies and English are probably what I am most worried about, particularly because for Maths and English, we're getting new teachers halfway through the year (for maternity reasons). Legal just has too much content, and I'm very afraid I won't remember it all.

Insha'Allah (God willing) I get a good ATAR though.

I also can't wait til school and HSC is over, I mean, I'm going to miss school and my friends, but freedom will finally be here, also considering that I will be 18 then too.I get to spend all the time on the internet, go out as much as I want, watch ALL the tv shows, and spend a lot of time with my friends (if I have any by then) without feeling guilty, and by guilty, I mean as in procrastination. It's also four months of holidays before uni. Imagine how much you can do in that time. I'm also hoping to get a job by then too.

So yeah, year 12, please go slow but quick at the same time.

Friday 2 November 2012

Stupid Usernames

All my posts have been pretty serious and/or quite personal so there's no harm in having a rant/comical post. This post is all about... you guessed it! Stupid usernames! This post is also inspired by Romy.

Here are the kinds of stupid usernames (I hate) that you find online.

(P.s. these are made up examples, but you are guaranteed to find these on sites like YouTube, Twitter, and possibly Tumblr etc.)

A lot of numbers:
E.g. Kowth53647625264

The ILoveCelebrity names:
E.g. Ilovehazzastyles69

The band usernames:
By this I don't mean lyric puns or band name puns because they're actually good if funny (like my old tumblr URL 'putawentz') I mean the band name completed by your name type of usernames.
E.g. AllTimeAmy
AndreaMeAtSix
OfMiceAndStacey etc.

They're not necessarily cringeworthy because they're bad, they're cringeworthy because its too common and everybody does it.

The fandom name name:
E.g. HustlerrrKelly
Dedicatedbelieber35

There are probably more out there, but these are just a few to begin with.