Happy New Year!!!

Hello, Blogger land! I have returned from a very long absense!

Since we are not long in to the new year of 2014, I think I might give a brief review of the many things that has happened this year!

JANUARY
I began lessons again at the conservatorium, preparing for my 6th Grade Clarinet exam. I also joined the Chamber Ensemble, Wind Ensemble, Stage band, and Clarinza (a clarinet ensemble)
I enrolled and began to prepare for TAFE

FEBRUARY
I began my TAFE course! Met some pretty amazing people there, too!

MARCH
I think it was March when I auditioned for my first ever play Rockin' Robin, and received a chorus part.

APRIL
Headed back to South Australia for a holiday! Got to catch and meet a heap of the awesome people down there! We had my sister's 21st birthday party, and a homescooling camp.

MAY
I competed, with a clarinet ensemble, in my first ever eisteddfod, and, I'm proud to say, we won our section!
It was also in May that Rockin' Robin had it's performances. I ended up with a few small lines, nothing much, but it was heaps of fun doing it! Unfortunately, the last night of the play clashed with the eisteddfod, and so I couldn't be there for that one, but my sister filled in for me, so it was all good.

JUNE
I continued TAFE and preparing for my exam.

JULY
In July, I once again headed back to South Australia for South Australian Music Camp. I enjoyed it so much, and I really loved catching up with my friends again!

AUGUST
In August, I sat my grade 6 AMEB practical clarinet exam, which I received an A for.
I also helped backstage for the next theatre performance: Wyrd Sisters. On one night, I ended up being an understudy, as one of the actresses was ill, so I had to take her part! Fortunately, I had been prompt, so I knew all her lines already, and I just whacked on a costume and did it. I enjoyed it, too!

SEPTEMBER
In September, I went to the Lennox Head Catholic Homeschooling camp, and I had a blast, as always!
I also performed with the North Coast Performing Arts Association, at the Bellingen Music Festival. We played The Nutcracker Suite by Tchaikovsky, and The Armed Man by Karl Jenkins. I played second clarinet, with my teacher beside me on first.
I was also roped in to another play: The Boyfriend. They needed someone to play the character 'Dulcie' for them, so I did. I enjoyed working with my friends that I had made in Rockin Robin, again, and I made a heap more friends! One of them happens to be my favourite person at the moment. :)

OCTOBER
In October, I, once again, performed with the North Coast Performing Arts Association, in two concerts at Nambucca Heads and Grafton. I enjoyed both concerts, as this was my first experience playing in an orchestra.

NOVEMBER
I prepared nonstop for The Boyfriend, and also for the celebration concerts at The Clarence Valley Conservatorium. On the second last weekend of November, I played in the celebration concerts. On the last weekend of November, I performed in The Boyfriend.
I also passed my Tafe course: Cert IV Music Performance

DECEMBER
The first weekend of December held the final performances of The Boyfriend. I loved this play so much!
Later in the month, I turned 18! I held myself a party, which turned out to be an absolute cracker! It was brilliant!
I went to a homeschooler's Christmas Party, which was great fun! My oldest sister came to visit, as well.
Then, on New Years Eve, we went party hopping. We went to a homeschooler's party, and then to a party with our friends from The Criterion.


I want to thank all of my buddies who helped me out this year! And the thing is, a heap of you didn't even know you helped me. All you may have done is a little thing that people would consider "normal", but I remember and appreciate every single moment.

This year has been a year full of firsts for me... first time in an orchestra, first time on a plane, first proper educational course, first play, first boyfriend, first esteiddfod, and, on a much deeper level, it's the first time I've considered a place as 'home'. Yeah, I'm weird, but I never considered where I used to live as home.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY! Last year was great, let's make this one absolutely fan-tas-tic! Allons-y!
GERONIMOOOOOOOOOO!!!

TAFE

A couple of weeks ago I began TAFE; Cert IV in Music.

It is quite a good course. I have a more classical background when it comes to playing music  (whereas this course is more contemporary and rock), so it is different for me to go to TAFE, where nearly everyone can improvise, and just play together.

It's amazing how many people only learn to read off of a chord chart, or not learn to read any music at all; they just play chords via what they hear. Most people there have only started to read music this year, at TAFE. But, because I've already learnt, I am way ahead of them in that particular area.
Also, I know how to play a bit of piano. So I've sort of become my lecturer's guinea pig.
"Guys, come here and Helena will show you what we're supposed to be doing/what we're working up to."
And I'm not even that brilliant on piano, but I know enough to be able to make my lecturers happy so that is great.

My lecturers are also rather pleased with me because I am able to pick up things quickly. We did a little dummy recording today on the computer (where we just said a random sentence; I said 'Baa baa black sheep, have you any wool? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Three bags full!') And I got the volume and everything right the first time, so they were ecstatic about that.

But yeah, there are things, like improvisation, which I had never done before this course. Usually,  if someone just plonks a piece of sheet music in front of me, I can play it reasonably well via sight reading. But I am learning to, say, be given the chord chart, and just make up a solo.

So yeah, it's been good. I'm looking forward to all the things I have yet to learn this year! And my brother has joined too, in Sound Production. As in, they're the 'techies'; they learn more about mixing, using mics, and balancing sound coming through speakers. My class learns the basics, but the techies learn the details.

Me and Daniel at TAFE

Epic Heroes

In our Literary Lessons From Lord Of The Rings, we have just finished The Fellowship of the rings, and as our final 'unit study', we learnt about epics and epic heroes.

An epic was originally defined as a "long, narrative poem that recounts the deeds of a hero and represents the values of a particular civilization of culture"

Some of the greatest epics in history are;

The Odyssey - Attributed to Homer

The Iliad - Attributed to Homer

The Aeniad - Vergil

Epics, of course, have epic heroes in them. But an epic hero could also be in a story that isn't an epic.

Anyway, I was reading through the classifications that is needed for a character to be classed as an epic hero, and as I read through them all, one particular character of a series came to my mind; The Doctor from Doctor Who.

At the end of this unit study on epics, I had to choose one of five writing assignments. I chose number 4;

'Have you read any books or seen any movies that portray an epic hero? Write a paper telling how this hero fits some, or all, of the qualifications as an epic hero.'

Of course, Doctor Who is a series (although there is a movie and books!), but I figured that was close enough... anyway.. here's my essay (apologies for any spoilers etc. in the second to last paragraph [the one with 'The Eleventh Doctor' next to it] for those of you who haven't, but plan to, see Doctor Who.)

The Doctor: An Epic Hero

By

Helena

08 / August / 2012

   What is an epic hero? He is not necessarily the main character of a story. Epic in the modern day society means large, or massive. In the early days of poetry, however, an epic was an extensive, narrative poem that recounted the deeds of a hero and represented the values of a civilization or culture. Being classified as an epic hero in these poems meant that he (or she) had to pass certain qualities:

1. The epic hero is often of super-human origin
2. The epic hero is favoured by the gods
3. The epic hero performs super-human feats of strength and endurance
4. The epic hero must have previously proven his courage in battle
5. The epic hero is of national or universal importance and will hold the fate of a nation, civilization, or world in his hands
6. The epic hero represents the values of his age (culture)
7. The epic hero will usually take a journey to the underworld in order to accomplish his goal

The First Doctor

In BBC’s TV series, Doctor Who, The Doctor, who happens to be the main character, is an excellent example of a modern epic hero; he has mostly passed all of the above qualities. The Doctor, however, has not gone to the underworld, but he has gone to some pretty dangerous places to accomplish his goals!

The Second Doctor

   The first quality of an epic hero states that he must be of super-human origin. In a sense, this is true of The Doctor. He is a Time Lord. Being from this ‘alien’ race, he is therefore ‘higher’ than humans. “Superhuman [means] something that is not human, but considered to be "superior" to humans in some ways. […] A very intelligent or strong alien could be considered superhuman”. ¹ The Doctor is a brilliant alien, and therefore, is classed as a super-human.

The Fourth Doctor 

   The Doctor is not ‘favoured by the gods’, because they are not portrayed in this series. Instead, Time Lords ruled the universe. They chiefly controlled time and space, so they can represent ‘gods’ even though they really aren’t at all. Before the near-extinction of the Time Lords, he is just ‘one of them’; he isn’t favoured at all. When The Last Great Time War was finally over, however, nearly all of the Time Lords were wiped out. The Doctor believed that he had become the last Time Lord, and so, he must have become the favoured one!

Dalek Invasion Fleet

   The epic hero performs superhuman feats of strength and endurance. The definition of endurance is:

The ability to bear prolonged hardship: the ability or power to bear prolonged exertion, pain, or hardship²

Daleks

  To stop The Last Great Time War³, and the destruction of everything in the universe, The Doctor destroyed the ten million dalek ships. The explosions and burning resulted in the destruction of his own planet, Gallifrey, which was put into a ‘time lock’ – nobody could go in or out; it was frozen in time. For many years, he had to learn to live with the fact that he is the last Time Lord. The rest of his race was gone, however, because of that one act. While he may have felt torn, he knows that what he did was necessary. Thus, the obviously has the ability to bear prolonged hardship. This also shows another quality that the Doctor has, which portrays him as an epic hero; the feature to have courage in battle. Performing the act of destroying his whole race, his family, to end a war shows that The Doctor must, indeed, have an enormous amount of courage.

   In nearly every episode, or series of episodes, of this fantastic television show, The Doctor saves:

• The Earth
• Humans
• An alien species
• Another planet
• A combination of two or more from the options above

The Sixth Doctor

Thus, he shows another feature of an epic hero; they are of national or universal importance, and hold the fate of a nation, civilization, or world in their hands. When he protects the humans and/or aliens, he is defending their nation(s) and/or their civilization(s). The Doctor holds the fate of entire planets in his hand, and he protects them, showing that he does, indeed, have this quality of an epic hero.

The Tenth Doctor

An epic hero represents the value of his age.

   The hero must represent the culture he has come from, in the Doctor’s case, Gallifrey, the home of the Time Lords. This ancient race values knowledge, they must have knowledge in order to keep time and space in order. Constantly learning, The Doctor, in all of his adventures, keeps this value true.

      

The Eleventh Doctor

    Although The Doctor has not gone into ‘The Underworld’, in one of the latest Doctor’s episodes he does go into a time crack in order to save the universe. Doing this act meant that he wiped himself from history. He never existed. Because this is not a desirable place to be, this can, in a way, represent The Underworld. By going through the crack, he accomplished his goal; he prevented the destruction of everything that ever existed and everything that ever will.

           

The Doctor's Time Machine
The TARDIS
Time And Relative Dimensions In Space

 The Doctor passes every trait that he needs to be an epic hero. He is a super-human, and the favoured one at that. While he defends the world, he is practicing his endurance to live with the loss of his species. He has proved his bravery. Representing the values of his age, he is constantly learning and working to save mankind. To accomplish his goal, saving the universe, he went through a time crack, which wipes him from existence. He has therefore shown every one of the nine characteristics he needs. Truly, The Doctor is an epic hero!

______

Footnotes

¹ Wikipedia – Superhuman - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super-human

² Microsoft® Encarta® 2006 – Encarta Dictionary Tools - Endurance

³ http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Last_Great_Time_War

A Time Lord On Gallifrey

Pure & Simple

Last year I began to do computer studies with Pure & Simple book one. It's really good!

In the first half of the book, it teaches about inputting commands. Using a program which is purchased when you buy the book (either Microworlds 2.0 or Microworlds EX depending on your operating system [Linux, Windows 7, Windows XP, etc.]).

Basically, you make animations, learn new inputting codes for this particular program, and things like that.

Then, later on, it begins to teach HTML coding. It shows you the basics, and then sets you a project to make your own HTML website. This is the one I made; (ignore the pop-up ads and whatnot)

http://classifyinstruments.freewebsitehosting.com/

It gets back to programing for the microworlds program for the rest of the book.

In Pure & Simple book two, I started out by making games using the Microworlds program. I made a maze, a hangman game, a race, and one where the player makes a city-type-thing.

Then, it got into 'internet basics' - the first two lessons of this section was googling information. And then it was time to make more websites!

I made one, and I got it to look really good, but then I found that it was supposed to just be a layout, and I was to use an actual website editor.

So I uploaded the one I made - and now I am in the process of making one for the website editor.

spiritlyrics.webatu.com

^ There's the link ^

So yeah, it's great for learning computer basics!

Critiques

This year we were set a set list of books to read and we had to write a critique on every one. But since it wasn't happening we decided to just write critiques on books we chose - and I (of course) chose Ranger's Apprentice!