Hey guys!
I've decided to challenge myself with a goal. I want to write 100 articles, be they tutorials, journaling or something else, in 100 days.
That's pretty big for someone who doesn't really have much time on their hands. But I think that it's possible. The only problem for me is going to be coming up with topics. So if you're okay with it, I need your help.
Please please please comment with ideas for articles over the next hundred days. I'm going to get stuck, I struggled just coming up with this idea (I'm not very creative). Here's what I'm good at to write posts on:
Dance (Ballet and Contemporary specifically)
Cooking
Photography + using Photoshop
Music
Organising things (events, cleaning etc)
If you guys can come up with some stuff to go with those, that would be so exceedingly helpful. Thankyou so much xx I look forward to seeing your ideas.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Monday, May 2, 2011
First Day Back at School
Sorry I haven't posted yet today, I've been at school, then dance...
I went back to full time education today. It was pretty intense. At the moment I am so tired I feel as if I am going to fall over but that's okay.
I got up at 6am after playing a Zombie game for a couple of hours before bed. I shouldn't have done that because I had horrible nightmares about zombies eating people... Gross and friggin scary if you ask me. After my breathing treatments I got to go to school.
Wow, coming back to school was hectic. I forgot I had an oral presentation (thank goodness I have my laptop with my music and orals and everything I needed on it) for CLS, then I got told we were getting new locks, so I had to memorise a whole new combination... Eep. I have enough trouble memorising things already. After a double Extension English with arguing and yelling about a group project we have to do, and getting our book to study for this half-term (Animal Farm WHOOT! We're doing allegory) I had to go to the hospital for tests and stuff.
I had a blood test or 9. The first time I had to do them without Mum in the room because she had bloods as well. I was proud, I swear it hurt less without her. Then I went to the ENT (ear, nose and throat doctor) to check out my sinuses because of the hospitalisation last month. Apparently they're fine. Yay!
Then I had five hours of dance... Yay. I had a private rehearsal for my choreography for an audition in Western Australia. But I think I've gone on enough for one day. xx
I went back to full time education today. It was pretty intense. At the moment I am so tired I feel as if I am going to fall over but that's okay.
I got up at 6am after playing a Zombie game for a couple of hours before bed. I shouldn't have done that because I had horrible nightmares about zombies eating people... Gross and friggin scary if you ask me. After my breathing treatments I got to go to school.
Wow, coming back to school was hectic. I forgot I had an oral presentation (thank goodness I have my laptop with my music and orals and everything I needed on it) for CLS, then I got told we were getting new locks, so I had to memorise a whole new combination... Eep. I have enough trouble memorising things already. After a double Extension English with arguing and yelling about a group project we have to do, and getting our book to study for this half-term (Animal Farm WHOOT! We're doing allegory) I had to go to the hospital for tests and stuff.
I had a blood test or 9. The first time I had to do them without Mum in the room because she had bloods as well. I was proud, I swear it hurt less without her. Then I went to the ENT (ear, nose and throat doctor) to check out my sinuses because of the hospitalisation last month. Apparently they're fine. Yay!
Then I had five hours of dance... Yay. I had a private rehearsal for my choreography for an audition in Western Australia. But I think I've gone on enough for one day. xx
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Downtime - What I Do Offline To Recharge
Hi again people!
I've often been asked "When on EARTH do you have time to relax?". I'm a vocational ballerina (please refer to balleticlifestyle.blogspot.com) so I have a lot on my plate. But I also have to keep up with school, play my clarinet, do all my medications and treatments and sleep (I can sometimes find time for that :P)
But my downtime is the most important part of my day. I get Sundays to recharge my figurative batteries and do something to de-stress myself... And sometimes do a bit of homework.
I often spend my downtime online, but that just revvs me up even more. I'm supposed to be relaxing, not thinking what to post next on Facebook or Blogger. So I have a few things that I do to relax that don't involve an internet connection.
1. Read.
Yes, there are still books made of paper that you don't have to wait to load. I find it comforting after a long week to curl up on my bed with the book I'm reading and just try and get from cover to cover in one day. When you finish, you feel this awesome sense of achievement.
2. Clean.
I love to clean up my room. I can't work in a messy environment so cleaning on Sundays is a big must for me. After I tidy up, dust and vacuum I feel relaxed and re-energised. Sometimes I even take it to the extreme of re-arranging my bedroom. But it's so tiny I can't do much to it.
3. Go out with friends.
I might go shopping, to a movie or just for a walk in the park (with a camera to capture all those priceless faces that my friends pull). You don't have to spend money and it's uber-relaxing. Just chatting with your friends can make a crappy day amazing. Just try not to do the same thing twice!
4. Listen to Music.
This is my major time waster. I get out my iPod and chuck in the headphones. This can wake you up or help you sleep. Imagine a bus ride with no music! I sometime nod off on my bed reading a magazine with Regina Spektor going in my ears.
5. Make something.
Be it a dress, a knitted scarf, or a weekly planner crafting something is a great way to chill out. Especially when I'm in the hospital I need to de-stress myself, so I go to the hospital school and make some cards. As I type my knitted Afghan blanket is sitting half finished on my bed. So I love craft to recharge. Scrapbooks are good too if you are a ticket/picture hoarder.
6. Organise your schoolwork/documents/bag.
Organisational skills are important, and what better way to practice than by re labelling your school books or putting all your computer docs into seperate folders (yes I know, this involves a computer but it's good for you).
7. Bake!!
Yummy muffins, biscuits or cakes. I lurve to bake! I have entire folders dedicated to recipes. I just got back from making brownies (I had nooo idea how much chocolate could go into one batch! THREE FAMILY SIZED BLOCKS!) They're a hit with the family and of course I can take them to school to make my friend jealous.
8. Write a letter.
I love receiving hand written mail. It just makes me feel loved and special. So why not send some yourself? It might be slower but it's got ten times more heart than email.
I know that eight is a strange number to stop at, but that's really all I do to relax. I hope that you can put some of these into practise for yourself when you next need to recharge your own figurative batteries. xx
I've often been asked "When on EARTH do you have time to relax?". I'm a vocational ballerina (please refer to balleticlifestyle.blogspot.com) so I have a lot on my plate. But I also have to keep up with school, play my clarinet, do all my medications and treatments and sleep (I can sometimes find time for that :P)
But my downtime is the most important part of my day. I get Sundays to recharge my figurative batteries and do something to de-stress myself... And sometimes do a bit of homework.
I often spend my downtime online, but that just revvs me up even more. I'm supposed to be relaxing, not thinking what to post next on Facebook or Blogger. So I have a few things that I do to relax that don't involve an internet connection.
1. Read.
Yes, there are still books made of paper that you don't have to wait to load. I find it comforting after a long week to curl up on my bed with the book I'm reading and just try and get from cover to cover in one day. When you finish, you feel this awesome sense of achievement.
2. Clean.
I love to clean up my room. I can't work in a messy environment so cleaning on Sundays is a big must for me. After I tidy up, dust and vacuum I feel relaxed and re-energised. Sometimes I even take it to the extreme of re-arranging my bedroom. But it's so tiny I can't do much to it.
3. Go out with friends.
I might go shopping, to a movie or just for a walk in the park (with a camera to capture all those priceless faces that my friends pull). You don't have to spend money and it's uber-relaxing. Just chatting with your friends can make a crappy day amazing. Just try not to do the same thing twice!
4. Listen to Music.
This is my major time waster. I get out my iPod and chuck in the headphones. This can wake you up or help you sleep. Imagine a bus ride with no music! I sometime nod off on my bed reading a magazine with Regina Spektor going in my ears.
5. Make something.
Be it a dress, a knitted scarf, or a weekly planner crafting something is a great way to chill out. Especially when I'm in the hospital I need to de-stress myself, so I go to the hospital school and make some cards. As I type my knitted Afghan blanket is sitting half finished on my bed. So I love craft to recharge. Scrapbooks are good too if you are a ticket/picture hoarder.
6. Organise your schoolwork/documents/bag.
Organisational skills are important, and what better way to practice than by re labelling your school books or putting all your computer docs into seperate folders (yes I know, this involves a computer but it's good for you).
7. Bake!!
Yummy muffins, biscuits or cakes. I lurve to bake! I have entire folders dedicated to recipes. I just got back from making brownies (I had nooo idea how much chocolate could go into one batch! THREE FAMILY SIZED BLOCKS!) They're a hit with the family and of course I can take them to school to make my friend jealous.
8. Write a letter.
I love receiving hand written mail. It just makes me feel loved and special. So why not send some yourself? It might be slower but it's got ten times more heart than email.
I know that eight is a strange number to stop at, but that's really all I do to relax. I hope that you can put some of these into practise for yourself when you next need to recharge your own figurative batteries. xx
Netbooks versus Notebooks
As most of you in Australia will know already, we are back at school tomorrow! Yay!
At school, I've started to see many people using laptops instead of normal school books. I personally think this is a great idea but I've decided to weigh up the pros and cons of both options.
I use a laptop (specifically a MacBook) at school. I used to use an Acer Aspire One laptop running Windows XP. I liked my Acer, as I had the entire Microsoft Office Suite right there. THE tool for taking notes in class is OneNote.
Unfortunately there is no OneNote for Mac (damn you you hoarding Microsoft). It's the tool I miss most, and now I have to use Word for taking notes. OneNote was much more intuitive, you could write anywhere you want and you could add in pictures, video and audio with absolutely no effort!
But there is an alternative for Mac users. On this you can write anywhere, put in pictures, put random notes on the side and even customise the UI. This would be a good, spiral bound NOTEBOOK! I still use them for maths, I mean if you can figure out how to use a computer efficiently for maths, please PLEASE tell me. But with a notebook you can have more colours, more sticky notes (yeah go Post-Its) and even more fonts! Admittedly it's not as fast as typing but who cares. You take in more when you write things out by hand.
I only use a computer because I'm so often sick that I don't want to have to get every one of my school books from my locker whenever I get sick. I do have a few kilos of work to do. But otherwise I wish I could use a notebook and a good pen.
It's hard to transport schoolbooks to and from school. They can get ripped, scuffed and dirty. Plus they're generally heavier than your average laptop. If you're not a cheapskate and purchase a cover for your laptop, there's not much opportunity for damage. I also dance every day, so the pro of having a laptop is that I have all my work right there. No chance for forgetting a book.
One last thing... Notebooks can't run out of batteries! The number of times I've gotten in trouble in class for plugging my laptop into the charger is enourmous. Now, my Acer only got 2 hours at most, with brightness at minimum and WiFi off. My new Mac gets about twelve - thirteen hours with these settings, so I doubt I'll be having this problem again.
So I think that the winners are the laptops. But if notebooks are your thing, then own it. You might not be able to write very fast or very neat (this is why my friend has a laptop. English is her second language so her handwriting is very messy and sometimes in Afrikaans) so a laptop would be better for you. Spell check is also very useful. But for notebook users, power to you. I would use a notebook if I could. I used to love re-writiting my work so it was more neat. I take notes very fast without looking with books, so they're sometimes not even on the lines. But with touchtyping I can do the same with no mistakes.
Hope this helps you decide. xx
At school, I've started to see many people using laptops instead of normal school books. I personally think this is a great idea but I've decided to weigh up the pros and cons of both options.
I use a laptop (specifically a MacBook) at school. I used to use an Acer Aspire One laptop running Windows XP. I liked my Acer, as I had the entire Microsoft Office Suite right there. THE tool for taking notes in class is OneNote.
Unfortunately there is no OneNote for Mac (damn you you hoarding Microsoft). It's the tool I miss most, and now I have to use Word for taking notes. OneNote was much more intuitive, you could write anywhere you want and you could add in pictures, video and audio with absolutely no effort!
But there is an alternative for Mac users. On this you can write anywhere, put in pictures, put random notes on the side and even customise the UI. This would be a good, spiral bound NOTEBOOK! I still use them for maths, I mean if you can figure out how to use a computer efficiently for maths, please PLEASE tell me. But with a notebook you can have more colours, more sticky notes (yeah go Post-Its) and even more fonts! Admittedly it's not as fast as typing but who cares. You take in more when you write things out by hand.
I only use a computer because I'm so often sick that I don't want to have to get every one of my school books from my locker whenever I get sick. I do have a few kilos of work to do. But otherwise I wish I could use a notebook and a good pen.
It's hard to transport schoolbooks to and from school. They can get ripped, scuffed and dirty. Plus they're generally heavier than your average laptop. If you're not a cheapskate and purchase a cover for your laptop, there's not much opportunity for damage. I also dance every day, so the pro of having a laptop is that I have all my work right there. No chance for forgetting a book.
One last thing... Notebooks can't run out of batteries! The number of times I've gotten in trouble in class for plugging my laptop into the charger is enourmous. Now, my Acer only got 2 hours at most, with brightness at minimum and WiFi off. My new Mac gets about twelve - thirteen hours with these settings, so I doubt I'll be having this problem again.
So I think that the winners are the laptops. But if notebooks are your thing, then own it. You might not be able to write very fast or very neat (this is why my friend has a laptop. English is her second language so her handwriting is very messy and sometimes in Afrikaans) so a laptop would be better for you. Spell check is also very useful. But for notebook users, power to you. I would use a notebook if I could. I used to love re-writiting my work so it was more neat. I take notes very fast without looking with books, so they're sometimes not even on the lines. But with touchtyping I can do the same with no mistakes.
Hope this helps you decide. xx
How to Layer Colour on Black and White using Photoshop
Hi again guys!
I'm fairly sure that I forgot to mention that I'm a photographer in my last post. Just a studying one but I take some good stuff. Anyway, one of the things that I always wanted to learn how to do when I took up photography was something like this:
I wanted to be able to have a black and white photo with the focal point having colour.
I know it is a trivial thing to do, but I think it's useful to any beginner photographer. Please don't make fun of me, I'm just trying to help.
Okay, so I'll be using Photoshop Elements 9 for Mac. It's a good, powerful program. But if you can't afford Photoshop then the instructions will be fairly similar for Gimp (a freeware image processor)
Find the photo you want to edit. I'm choosing one of mine.
Open your photo-editing software and select: File - Open. Select the File that you want to open and it will appear in the main screen.
Using either the quick select tool or the magnetic lassoo, carefully select the focal point of the photo that you want to remain coloured.
Once you have selected the coloured object, select Copy (Edit - Copy) and the Paste it back down (Edit - Paste)
You will now have two layers. One layer with the whole picture (named 'Background') and one with just the selection (named 'layer 1')
Select background, which is your selection, in the layers box.
Now go to Enhance - Convert to Black and White:
When this box opens, select okay. Make SURE you are on your background layer.
Once it goes back to the main editing screen, you should have a photo that looks like this:
Congratulations! You have just finished your first layered colour on black+white photo!
Check back soon for more tutorials xx
I'm fairly sure that I forgot to mention that I'm a photographer in my last post. Just a studying one but I take some good stuff. Anyway, one of the things that I always wanted to learn how to do when I took up photography was something like this:
I wanted to be able to have a black and white photo with the focal point having colour.
I know it is a trivial thing to do, but I think it's useful to any beginner photographer. Please don't make fun of me, I'm just trying to help.
Okay, so I'll be using Photoshop Elements 9 for Mac. It's a good, powerful program. But if you can't afford Photoshop then the instructions will be fairly similar for Gimp (a freeware image processor)
Using either the quick select tool or the magnetic lassoo, carefully select the focal point of the photo that you want to remain coloured.
Once you have selected the coloured object, select Copy (Edit - Copy) and the Paste it back down (Edit - Paste)
You will now have two layers. One layer with the whole picture (named 'Background') and one with just the selection (named 'layer 1')
Select background, which is your selection, in the layers box.
Now go to Enhance - Convert to Black and White:
When this box opens, select okay. Make SURE you are on your background layer.
Once it goes back to the main editing screen, you should have a photo that looks like this:
Congratulations! You have just finished your first layered colour on black+white photo!
Check back soon for more tutorials xx
Saturday, April 30, 2011
First Post... Cool
Heyas!
Well I'm not completely sure at what to write in a first post, so I'll start by introducing myself.
Hi, I'm Sian. I live in Canberra, Australia but soon I'll be moving to Sydney to be a full time ballerina. I study at Trinity Christian School and I'm in year 9. It's pretty fun.
My only hobby (well not even a hobby, it's a frigging obsession) is dance. I'm a vocational ballerina as well as an accomplished contemporary artist. I've been dancing since I was 3. What three year old girl doesn't want to be a ballerina right? Well I was just one of the few that kept going. I love it!!! I'm quite quickly turning ballet into a career. As I earlier mentioned, I'm moving to Sydney in July to study full time ballet, and by full time I mean 9-4 every day except Sunday, at Tanya Pearsons Classical Coaching Academy! I have to leave all my family and friends behind in Canberra but it's worth it.
The last thing I'm going to say about myself is that I have Cystic Fibrosis. I think it's necessary to mention this as I may have some posts about medical treatments and such. I just want everyone to understand what CF is. Cystic Fibrosis is a terminal genetic disease that weakens your respiratory, digestive and immune system. Basically, I have really bad lung infections, can't digest fat and if I get a cold, I go into hospital. It's pretty bad. But it's all good as long as I take my meds, but even they can't stop the infections sometimes!
Anyway I hope that this covers all the important stuff. Goodnight and stay tuned for more awesome stuff! xx
Well I'm not completely sure at what to write in a first post, so I'll start by introducing myself.
Hi, I'm Sian. I live in Canberra, Australia but soon I'll be moving to Sydney to be a full time ballerina. I study at Trinity Christian School and I'm in year 9. It's pretty fun.
My only hobby (well not even a hobby, it's a frigging obsession) is dance. I'm a vocational ballerina as well as an accomplished contemporary artist. I've been dancing since I was 3. What three year old girl doesn't want to be a ballerina right? Well I was just one of the few that kept going. I love it!!! I'm quite quickly turning ballet into a career. As I earlier mentioned, I'm moving to Sydney in July to study full time ballet, and by full time I mean 9-4 every day except Sunday, at Tanya Pearsons Classical Coaching Academy! I have to leave all my family and friends behind in Canberra but it's worth it.
The last thing I'm going to say about myself is that I have Cystic Fibrosis. I think it's necessary to mention this as I may have some posts about medical treatments and such. I just want everyone to understand what CF is. Cystic Fibrosis is a terminal genetic disease that weakens your respiratory, digestive and immune system. Basically, I have really bad lung infections, can't digest fat and if I get a cold, I go into hospital. It's pretty bad. But it's all good as long as I take my meds, but even they can't stop the infections sometimes!
Anyway I hope that this covers all the important stuff. Goodnight and stay tuned for more awesome stuff! xx
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