The UTS Library

Date: 30/05/2013 (Thursday)
Time: 11:06 am
Location: UTS Library in Haymarket
Current mood: Bored and a little bit lonely. I want to go grab coffee with the girls (or at least a nice iced chocolate with whipped cream) but our timetables seem to be allergic to each other.

Usually on Thursdays after my morning lecture, I'd go have lunch with 2 other comms students but today I thought I'd duck down to the library and scan something for my radio recording assignment. That took about 15 minutes and I really can't be bothered wandering back up to the tower building to find my friends again. So here I am.

I've kind of forgotten how lonely it can get at uni, especially when you don't have someone to talk to during your breaks. At the same time, I like the feeling of having time to myself so it isn't all bad.

Let's talk about the UTS Library guys.

It's quite a nice library I suppose. I mean, I've always wanted to study in one of those old fashioned libraries with the mahogany tables and oversized armchairs but obviously UTS isn't the place to do that. (I imagine the USYD library to be like that though.) The UTS one has about 6 levels and it gets progressively quieter the higher you go up. I think I'm on level 3 right now so there are a few people murmuring but at least it doesn't sound like a cafeteria. I like sitting in this spot because it lets me stare out the glass windows onto the street below.

The furniture in this library resembles something you might find off the set of a sci-fi film. For example, the table in front of me isn't even a real table. It's more of a cylindrical metal block 1 m in diameter. The chair I'm sitting on is comfortable though. I kind of feel like I'm sinking backwards into it. If you go down to level 2, you'll find funny kidney shaped tables. I think they're supposed to encourage groupwork or something. I've been told that there are high backed chairs that you can pull together to form your own little cubby hole for group work (and other things) but I have yet to see them.

Here are a few random facts about the UTS library:

• You can eat and drink in here. Just not hot food - it distracts the other students. (But people do it anyway).
• If you're feeling tired, you can sleep under the stairs. In fact, it's encouraged. They even provide you with mattresses.
• It is very hard to locate books. The signs will point you in a particular direction but later on, you'll realize the book you were trying to find was at the other end of the room.
• I once went up to the highest level just to see what it was like and dude, it's so silent up there, it's like a tomb.
• There are toilets inside the library (not really that interesting because libraries always have toilets) but on the back of the doors of the toilet stalls, there are signs accompanied by diagrams telling people not to squat on the seat while doing their business.
• The shelves are ugly
• The self-service loan machines hate me. More specifically, they hate my library card. I once spent 10 minutes standing in front of one trying to get it to scan my card. I eventually had to give up because I was going to miss my train.

Oh well, seems like it's almost time for my tutorial. Bye everyone! I hope you enjoyed this really fascinating post about the UTS library. And if you have time, why not blog about your uni's one. We could do a whole series of campus comparisons.

P.S. Is there any way to disable the camera click sound on the Samsung Galaxy SIII? The settings don't have an option for me to turn it off so when I took those pictures of the library, I got a few strange looks from the people around me. Talk about embarrassing.

Coffee, cash and Daryl-freaking-Dixon

Random image of the day that is totally irrelevant to the rest of the post:

Student Edge knows that no one ever clicks on their emails so they've started resorting to desperate measures to get people opening their emails. Not gonna work Student Edge. Not gonna work.

 

**********

 

I never talk about my days anymore. I think it's because trying to order my thoughts takes too much effort and I'd rather just do a post of 10 random things. According to my university lecturers, this is what happens when you live in a digitally connected, postmodern age. People become so used to consuming entertainment in short, small bites and checking their phones and laptops for notifications every 5 minutes that we lose the ability to sustain our interest for long periods of time. It's kind of true when you think about it. It's also why people are reading less and less. Speaking of reading:

 

 

If you really want to know though, today I went to a murder trial at the Supreme Court.

 

.... and that is all I'm going to say about that (because I don't want to get thrown in gaol for revealing court details).

 

What I can say though is that today, I realised that money - specifically the money you get from pursuing a career in law - is helluva sexy. Yes, I realize that is a very shallow comment but seriously, spend a day in St James just hanging around outside the Supreme Court and you will know what I mean. You can watch lawyers walk past in their black suits and silver Rolexes and secretly envy their wealth from afar. I mean, they work in a looming, glass high rise for crying out loud. These are people who, if they walk into a high security jewelry store, will have store clerks fawning over them within seconds. When I walk into jewelry stores, I get suspicious looks. But then again I'm a poor, short, Asian university student so it's not like I ever had a chance.

 

Money isn't everything I know. But it does make life a teeny bit more enjoyable, you have to admit. And on a side note, I was talking to a uni friend the other day and we decided that if things weren't improving in the romance department in communications, we would have to resort to desperate measures and sit in on a law lecture. Seriously people, the lack of males in communications is really worrying.

 

Speaking of communications, lately I've been teaching myself how to drink coffee. I'm actually a really big tea person but there seems to be an expectation, especially at UTS, that if you don't drink coffee, you've already failed the first step of being a communications student. (Reason #338 why Cynthia shouldn't even be in this field). So on Monday, I went to Gloria Jean's and ordered a café latte. It didn't taste bad per se...but I would pick the ice chocolate over it any day.

Don't lie to yourself Cynthia. You know deep down in your heart which one you'd rather prefer.


What else has been going on lately? Well I've started watching The Walking Dead again and THANK THE LORD FOR SEASON 3 OMG. I almost stopped watching the series because of season 2 (aka the season of stupidity and immobility). Why does no one ever have their priorities straight in this show? Who cares about your moral dramas and bitch fests? It's a zombie apocalypse! And for pete's sake, can y'all just get into the habit of looking over your shoulder every few minutes because I swear that's how the majority of the deaths have happened - stupid people forgetting to look over their shoulders after every fight.

 

Also:

 

 

Calling it now but badass Daryl-Motherfucking-Dixon is going to outlive everyone on the show. The final scene of the series will be him on a mountain surrounded by an endless supply of dead bunnies. I can see it already. 

 

Almost forgot to mention but I interviewed the girls from www.elletassy.com for one of my articles! They are so nice and friendly and perfect and ugh, I gotta stop now because this is getting embarrassing. And I love that they're just normal people like you and me, despite having achieved so much success in the creative industry for people our age. Anyway, check out their site and blog if you have time. 



Timetable for Semester 2

So apparently, this is my semester 2 timetable:

 I posted this up on facebook and everyone started telling me how sick it was. I can see why they said that. I mean, I only have to go to uni for ONE day. Sure, it's a nine hour day but at least I don't have to waste hours travelling there and back right? (Take that Shittyrail!)

But then I thought about it some more and being the glass-half-empty person that I am, I managed to come up with a whole list of downsides:

1. No breaks. It's literally nine hours of non stop lectures and tutorials with zero breaks. How am I going to eat? Do I even have time to buy food? How will I survive??
2. No socializing. I realized that all good friends I've managed to make this semester were people I hung out with during the breaks. Sure you can chat during tutorials but nothing beats chilling out on the "green space" behind tower building 1 after every sucky journalism lecture. And especially in a course like mine; if you don't spend the time getting to know people in your breaks it's very hard making actual friends. Who's going to listen to me complain about my lack of direction in life? Who's going to debate Lord of the Rings with me? WHO?
3. Getting home at 7 pm.
4. Getting group projects done. My assignment groups usually meet during breaks and after lectures or tutorials. If I have to catch a train to the city on a day that's not Thursday, just to work on something for an hour, imma punch a cat.
5. No hanging out with the USYD-ers. Before I left highschool, I was always joking with Nancy about sneaking into USYD and just hanging out with all the Canley Vale-ers. I didn't get to do that this semester because of timetable clashes and it seems like I won't be able to do it next semester either. The fates are against us. USYD hates me.

The good side obviously is that I'll have much more time to do other stuff (assuming I don't get swamped with assignments and homework). I'm thinking that this is a great time to start doing some internships. The problem however, is that I don't think anyone will take me on - especially since I'll be doing pub comm for the first time next semester. Well, I'll overcome that hurdle when I get to it. Here's another list - this time of the goals I've set myself for next semester:

• Get an internship or work experience
• Do regular exercise (psssshhh)
• Learn a computer based skill - something like photoshop. I don't know, I'll figure it out.
• Get more involved in university clubs
• Visit teachers at Canley (finally)
• Start ANOTHER blog and try to keep the life dramas to a minimum
• Learn how to order coffee. I feel like I've already failed communications because everyone but me knows how to drink that stuff.
• FIGURE OUT WHAT I WANT TO DO WITH MY LIFE OMG

The List of Random #1

1. Ever wondered what I 'learn' in communications? Here let me show you:

This is a pretty typical example of one of my 'readings'. Yes it's talking about George Orwell (Animal Farm guy). Yes it's also talking about Lolcats (a la the internet memes). And yes - the first sentence does indeed say "The Tits Show....". Welcome to communications bitches.

 

2. I've thought about it and really, the only thing I don't like about my course is the "journalism" part. I actually quite enjoy my core subjects - especially the Language and Discourse one. In this subject I have:

• Witnessed a fifty/sixty year old lecturer playing with Barbie dolls to demonstrate a discourse concept 
• Witnessed the same lecturer read to an auditorium full of 800 university students a picture book about children and teddy bears
• Learnt more about the sexual awakening of children that I ever want to know
• Seen another one of my lecturers transform into a Korean swordfighter midway through his lecture. No really. He tore off his coat and revealed a martial arts costume underneath and then proceeded to battle with another lecturer using a pair of wooden swords.
• Learnt about Freud and penises. Lots of penises. (Wait that might've been from my Ideas in History subject)
• Been told in one of my lectures to sit quietly, close my eyes and imagine being in a jungle surrounded by birds and monkeys.
• As a group, performed an overly dramatic radio script in front of the whole class. Currently working on reproducing one using actual audio equipment.
• Written an essay about Macklemore and Ryan Lewis' Thrift Shop (and gotten a distinction for it LOL).
• Been made to watch Tom Cruise montages as part of my Thursday lectures

3. Eurovision was on Last Sunday. In my opinion, they've really skimped out on the pyrotechnics, sequins and wind machines this year. I was seriously considering turning it off and catching up on True Blood episodes....

But then this came on and it was like my world had filled up with rainbows and unicorns and beautiful things because OH LOOK IT'S AN OPERA-SINGING, ROBE-WEARING,  ROMANIAN VAMPIRE WITH NUDE, LEOTARD-WEARING BACK-UP DANCERS. HE'S EVEN MANAGED TO INCORPORATE A DUBSTEP BEAT TO HIS OPERA. No words guys. No words.



 



 

(Source)

 

*slow clap*

 

4. Whoever made this Eurovision/Game of Thrones meme deserves all the internet pointz:

 

 

 

 

............

 

 

5. My sister just told me that Daryl from The Walking Dead models. Ya might wanna google that - just to confirm.

 

6. I am still addicted to BuzzFeed. It's how I came across this cat imitating this model:

 

 

7. And my internet adventures have also brought me this:

 

 

8. And this:

 

 

9. And this:

 

 

All credit goes to the brilliant arvalis from deviantart.

 

10. So in conclusion, the internet is a wonderful place and we should totally be allowed to live in it. 

Resolving the Existential Crisis

As a child, the first occupation I ever wanted was to be a vet. To 7-year-old Cynthia, being a vet meant you would spend your days at work playing with animals, feeding them, cuddling them and basically re-enacting that scene in Beethoven (the dog movie) with all the St. Bernard puppies. I don't know when it was but at some point, I realized that being a vet actually meant spending your days with your hands buried down a dog's throat and taking a scalpel to an exposed puppy's belly. Then I was like... no.

During years 6 and 7, I went through a novelist phase. I blame this on the documentary I saw on J.K. Rowling. (You can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6-6zaa4NI4). I wanted to be her. I wanted to have her success. I wanted to create this fantastical world that would be loved and appreciated by people from all around the world. I didn't think about the logistics behind it. Being a novelist is hard guys. You have to find a way to support yourself while you're writing. And even when your books are getting published, the money grants you receive are barely enough to live on. So there went that dream.

My cousin was the first one to suggest I pursue journalism. It was a while ago but I'm pretty sure his exact words were: "You like writing don't you? Go do journalism. You'll be able to write lots of shit."

^ Yep. That was the moment guys.

I'm not saying I went through high school with a career in journalism solidified in my mind. At the same time though, it was one of those things that you were always subconsciously contemplating. When people asked me, "What do you want to do after high school?", I would reply with: "I don't know. Maybe journalism." Then in September of 2012, I went to UTS' Open Day, attended the journalism talk, got fired up about all the things I would do and all the people I would meet and voila! Journalism it was.

When I look back, life has consisted of disillusionment after disillusionment. It seems like life isn't about discovering more opportunities - it's about increasingly being faced with the unattainability of your dreams.

Fast forward to now.

I'm at the end of my first semester of university and looking back, these last few months have been some of the most stressful, depressing and confusing ones of my life. I have cried, I have wallowed and I have laughed... about what a terrible choice journalism was.

Part of it probably had to do with starting university though. And to be honest, it wasn't always bad. The content was interesting at times and I made some really good friends.

But when I look at myself and ask the question: "Is journalism something you'd be happy pursuing for the rest of your life?", the answer is no.

No, I don't have the same passion for news/current affairs that everyone else has in the course.

No, I'm not idealistic - I don't want to use my writing to change the world, create conflict and expose corruption. I would love to use my writing to create fictional worlds but if you scroll up to one of my earlier paragraphs, you would see that isn't a viable option for me.

No, I don't want to go up to random people in the street and ask them what's happening that would be worth reporting on.

No, I don't want to be overworked and underpaid.

No, I don't want to enter an industry with so much job insecurity.

No. Just no. Journalism isn't going to make me happy, no matter how hard I try to conjure up the passion for it.

So that brings us to now. I've decided to transfer from Journalism into Public Communications at UTS. It's basically an advertising/marketing/public relations course. You do two core Pub Comm subjects and then choose which area you want to focus on (either Advertising or Public Relations). These are the reasons I've come up with:

• It is much less stressful than journalism
• If you get a job in PR, chances are your pay will be higher. I know money isn't everything but from what I've learnt in the journalism course, you can barely make a living out of a journalist's salary (unless you're mega successful)
• I would rather be the one generating or pitching the news than the person writing it
• PR requires a lot of writing. I like writing so that wouldn't be a problem
• There is still a little bit of creative liberty involved in PR - but it's obviously not as exciting as journalism
• You've still got contact with the world of media
• There is still potential to travel, maybe
• More job stability
• It's not limited to just one thing. PR encompasses a really big field. It may involve writing press releases, communicating with other businesses, planning events, that type of thing.
• You have to be organized and be able to multitask in PR. I think I can do that.

I know a lot of you guys are looking at those reasons and judging me for them but the truth is, the thought of doing another semester of journalism makes me want to break down and cry.  I seriously don't think I would be able to stand it.

I understand PR also has the potential to be a stressful job. But at least it won't feel as invasive as journalism. After all, you're not there to create conflict. You're there to minimize it. I would rather try to get someone to like me than set out to antagonize people. I also understand that to do PR, you need to be a big people person. I have to be honest, I have had trouble with the people side of journalism. That is partly due to my naturally introverted personality but it's also because I haven't felt entitled/qualified to talk to my sources. I think (emphasis on the think) that if  was to do PR, that problem wouldn't be as big of a deal because at least it would actually feel like part of my job. I would have the company name behind me and that would make it feel less invasive. Also, I really do need to get over my shyness. It is a useless trait that won't get me anywhere in life.

It might seem like I'm talking about this PR thing with confidence but in reality, I am TERRIFIED of making the wrong choice. I am absolutely, scared out of my socks terrified that PR will turn out even less suitable for me than journalism. After all, I spent the last year of high school absolute convinced of my resolve to do journalism.

I have to do something though. I'm not going to spend any more time torturing myself in the course when my gut tells me I'm in the wrong one.

So here's hoping it all works out. Here's to hoping I'm not making another terrible mistake. If I am, well I don't know what I would do. I've said it before but I'll say it again: adulthood sucks shit.

10 Things to Start Off Your Saturday

1. Daft Punk Cover by George Barnett - uploaded to YouTube 29/04/13

(Source)

 

2. I agree with everyone, The Great Gatsby soundtrack is, well...great. If anyone's interested, Lana Del Rey's music video for Young and Beautiful came out yesterday. You can check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_1aF54DO60

 

3. I am addicted to the VICE channel on YouTube. Last night, I spent almost an hour watching a 3-part documentary on North Korea. It was fantastic. Creepy as hell, but fantastic.

 

4. No, your eyes have not deceived you. It is a giant flying whale with breasts for wings.

 

(Source)

 

5. I am also addicted to Buzzfeed. That site just gets me (plus a billion other internet junkies). Screw mainstream journalism; in the future, I am going to apply for a position as internet aggregator (if such a job exists) at Buzzfeed. They might have Australian positions open.

 

6. I painted my nails...And it looks like someone accidentally tipped over a bottle of liquid paper before proceeding to drag a toothpick over the wet coat. I think I should've used a different colour.

 

 

7. I'm going to be writing/performing radio script about video games with two other people. It will be awesome and we'll all get HDs.

 

8. There is going to be a Sims 4. It's been like 10 years since I've touched the game but I thought I should let you guys know.

 

9. WHY WON'T RYAN GOSLING EAT HIS CEREAL??

 

10. This article made me lol a bit: Reasons You Should Never Re-enact Pinterest Photos. My favorite one is number 4:

 





Sneaking into USYD

NewsDay: (1) a day where UTS journalism students arrive at university very early in the morning, get briefed individually or in pairs by the tutors and then basically have about 8 hours to chase up a story, interview sources, write an article and then file it. (2) a day of mental breakdowns for many UTS journalism students.

Funny story guys. I spent about 2 hours last night raiding my mum's wardrobe for professional looking clothes to wear for Newsday. Our tutors had warned us that we might be sent to parliament, a press conference, a farm, etc. I knew some people who had done NewsDay the day before and they'd been sent to the much publicized Tom/Gai Waterhouse/John Singleton racing inquiry. I didn't want to look like a total doof. I also spent quite a fair amount of time doing a cram session on the latest news. Yes, I even read about rugby league.

When I arrived at uni this morning, I found out the three people before me had been sent to a football stadium and had been instructed to chase up a story about The Roosters. A scan of Twitter told me that earlier, some people had been sent to Newcastle.

What did I end up getting?

USYD.

I was sent to USYD.

HELLS YEAH.

It was about time I got me some good luck. The gods must've been smiling down at me. Maybe this was compensation for landing me with Kiama a few weeks back. I don't know. I don't even care. It was the best thing to have happened to me during this course.

Anyhow, my friend and I researched for an hour or two before heading off to the university. We got there and once again, my heart died a little as I caught a glimpse of USYD's epic green lawns. Why can't UTS have lawns? WHYYYY?? If I went to USYD, I would just bring a blanket to uni everyday and spend my breaks lying there staring up at the sky. I wouldn't care how idiotic I looked, I would do it. That place is so beautiful, it breaks my heart.

Ahem. Back to this UTS student infiltrating  USYD in order to complete a  UTS journalism assignment (how ironic is that?). My friend and I wandered around the campus for about ten minutes soaking up the awesomeness. Okay just kidding, we were kind of lost. We needed to find the New Law Annexe Building or something like that but ended up going to the wrong law building. Seriously USYD? One law building isn't enough? I mean they're connected by a bridge thing but it's still technically two buildings. We finally found it though and did our thing. We then went back to our crappy but loveable brown lego block of a campus where I stayed at uni until 6pm working on the article.

There was some whole other debacle with calling up an extra source for my article but I can't be bothered going into that. In the end, it all kind of worked out anyway. I mean, this story was probably the crappiest piece of shit I'd ever written but at least I finished it. And that's all that matters in the end.

Cynthia Versus The Essay

Today, I'm going to start writing my 3000 word essay on Cabramatta. No joke. 3000 words. On Cabramatta. I am so pumped. I am so ready. I feel like I've been preparing for this for the last few weeks and now it's finally time to let loose. I am going to write this thing. I am going to to ever-loving shit out of this thing. I AM GOING TO -

 

(Source)

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh pretty!

The essay can wait.