That's what I have to keep remembering over this semester. When I get back from NTE (which will be December 12th) I am going to sleep very, very well.

 

I have established that I have an assignment due every week until Study Vac (the end of semester) except for Lecture Recess and Weeks 8 and 9. Some weeks I have 2 or 3 assignments due. On top of that, I have my PR placement. On top of that, I have shifts for Broadcast Journalism's radio program (the program airs 12-1pm Wed and Fri each week starting this week till the end of semester.) Hours of work goes into a one hour program. THEN, on top of all THAT, I'm leading a CU Faculty, involved in 3 1 on 1s, being an Adventure Club leader, going on Ski Camp (NQ Xtreme) in Week 8, organising transport and accommodation for a bunch of people when we got to Sydney and Canberra for NTE, and somehow squeezing in a few CU Exec meetings, socials, evangelistic BBQs and birthday parties (I've already counted 5 incl. 3 21sts and an 18th) around all that.

 

What doesn't kill me, will make me stronger. What doesn't kill me, will make me stronger.

 

I'll get a bit of a break between end of semester and NTE as I have only 2 exams during exam block. But then it'll be onto NTE (which in itself is exhausting) and then home... to sleeeep. And I'll be HOME FOR CHRISTMAS this year!! XD It'll be my first Christmas with Andre... :) Ssssh. I know, how sad is it that I'm already looking forward to Christmas. Semester 2 only just started.  

 

ANYWAY.

 

How is everyone else's semester looking? Sucks to be everyone else. This is what me, a lazy humanities student gets. Good luck to everyone else for the semester... remember, what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger!!

I fail to understand women such as Dina Lohan. For people who have been living under a rock or whose ignorance on such matters may simply stem from having more of a life than yours truly, and so don't have the time for pointless web-surfing, Dina Lohan is the increasingly infamous Lindsay Lohan's mother.

 

Ms Lohan, Jr, was recently hospitalised following a supposed bout of heat stress. Having concluded that heat stress was just a cover for her hangover from the night before, one of the producers of her current project (Georgia Rule) sent her a somewhat irate letter telling her, essentially, to grow up and stop being a silly party girl, drop the "irresponsible and unprofessional" actions and get her butt into gear.

 

At which point, Ms Lohan, Sr, steps up and claims that such a letter was not a "smart thing to do to a young girl". ('Young', in this case, equalling 19 years old. Yes, I know she's 20 now.)

 

Now before we go any further, you must understand that Lindsay Lohan has increasingly been found following in the footsteps of people like her buddies (or ex-buddies, as the case may be) Paris Hilton and Kate Moss.

 

I'd be hospitalizing a girl who made friends with these two as well, if only out of fear for her sanity.

 

Anyway. Dina Lohan then decides this is the time to defend her little girl. If you listen to her mother, young Lindsay has asthma which is aggravated by extreme heat or cold- extreme heat, in this case, being 105 degrees F (40 degrees C). Don't ever come to Australia, sweetheart.

Ms Lohan Sr then goes on to say that health issues such as Lindsay's are "private" and they shouldn't "be aired out" for "everybody to know". Correct me if I'm wrong, but last I checked, it was Dina who "aired out" Lindsay's health problems.

 

In defence of the accusation that "ongoing all night heavy partying" was the cause for Lindsay's delayed appearance at work, Dina said that they had worked the schedule around her before and that the cast loves her. Sorry, but that doesn't defend the accusation of partying in my books.

 

Dina Lohan's last remark in reference to her daughter's status? "She will win an Academy Award for this picture… Justice!"

 

If the other comments didn't convince me that Dina Lohan's an over-protective, defensive fabricator of a stage-mother, that one did. It also convinced me that if Ms Lohan Sr would fabricate such falsifications, or fanciful misconceptions as the case may be, with this comment, then who's to say that the other comments... ? :P

 

--------------------------------------

 

DISCLAIMER: No, I don't hate Lindsay Lohan... that much. Her mother irks me, that's all.

Well, semester 2 of uni has well and truly started.

I'm actually looking forward to this semester. My subjects look like they will be good fun.

International Tourism: Our main assignment is an oral presentation and wiki of a country profile. It leaves heaps of room for interpretation and creativity. It's between 30 and 40 minutes long, but it's a 4 person group. Should be good fun.

Broadcast Journalism: No exam for this subject. We have two modules, one in radio and one in television. For radio the class is creating its own radio show on 4K1G, and we'll work on it based on 4 hour shifts (there are 2 available per week). We have to do a minimum of two shifts but can do more. We don't have to appear on air but we can if we want. For television, the assignment is a television news segment, I think. (Not going to air.)

Advanced PR: We have a mini-placement for this subject. Mini, because we only have to do a minimum of 16 hours. Plus, it's simply for this subject, not the whole degree, so we have to fit it around our normal timetable. I'll be doing mine at the JCU Multi-faith Chaplaincy, writing news articles, press releases, and helping organise PR for the upcoming food and culture festival thingy at uni.

Feature Writing: No exam for this subject either. Basically, just writing feature articles. Good fun. A bit of other stuff too, but meh.

CU also looks set for a big semester. We are emphasising evangelism more this semester, starting from our camp in the last week of holidays. We have started doing large-scale street fishing (ie. not just one or two pairs going out occasionally.) Instead, we have like 10 pairs going out each week for the first 4 weeks of semester.

We also had Impact World Tour come to uni on Tuesday night. I was dubious about IWT for the first few months I knew about it. I still was, even when I agreed to be a counsellor for it. I figured, even if I thought their method of promoting God left something to be desired, at least the word was getting out there, and at least I could help follow up people who decided to become Christians. As it turned out, the concert impressed me. A lot of the time people get caught up in the emotional hype surrounding events like this, become a Christian, and then when they come down off the high realise Christianity isn't all feel-good, my-life-is-perfect emotional highs, or struggle to keep interest. But Tuesday's concert wasn't like that at all. It was down to earth and you got the idea that those who responded knew what they were doing. I don't know what the shows at the Showgrounds will be like, but the one at the uni impressed me.

So following up people who became Christians on Tuesday night will also be a big part of what CU is doing this semester. We are also emphasising 1 on 1 ministry again. Prayer is also going to be emphasised, with this week being "Prayer Week", and everyone being encouraged to plug into a prayer group.

As well as being a Faculty Leader within CU, I've also been voted onto the exec now so I'll have that as well this semester, as well as Adventure Club and Focus at church.

Pretty full-on semester, but should be good fun.

Wow, CU's MYC was awesome. The topic for the week was on the Holy Spirit and it was brilliant. We had Keith Birchley from UQ's AFES group come and speak, and he's a really good speaker and easy to listen to. We also had 3 seminars on the HS throughout the week, by Dave Walker and Tim Earnshaw which were good too (Dave's seminar on the gifts of the spirit provided a lot of discussion material as did Keith's presentation about differences between the Reformed/Evangelical church and the Pentecostal/Charismatic one).

 

We also did 4 small group bible studies throughout the week on John (again, focusing on the HS) and door-knocking in Thuringowa, inviting people to church at the Baptist and Willows Presbyterian churches.

 

Monday night we had a presentation from Howard Spencer, the National not-Director (he's called something else) of AFES, on World Missions. Wednesday night we had a question time (which we extended because it was on the topic of gifts of the spirit and everyone had questions) and a Special General Meeting where I was officially voted into the exec... yay :) Tuesday and Thursday we also did Impact World Tour training for counselling and follow up at their JCU event. Thursday night was a theatre-sports concert which was great fun. The winning team consisted of Dave Walker, Andre, James, Sam, Janice, and Michelle A. WHOSE idea was it to put Andre and James in the same team? (Apparently it was random.) Those two together are unbeatable. Dave said he'd be in a team only if he could be in Andre's team... those two together were pretty good too. Anyway, they deserved the win, even if they did steal my team's best-score of 11.

 

Best one-liner of the night: By Benn Cox, acting as a pirate who has come across two people fishing on an island...

Benn: So, d'you wanna drink?

Tim E: No thanks, we're Christians.

Benn: Christians? *turns to Peter, another pirate* Hide the rum!

 

Oh. My goodness. We were in tears at that one.

 

So it was a pretty full on week. Each day we only had 1.5-2 hours free time except for Wednesday when we had a few hours in the afternoon- nice and lazy, perfect for sleeping and swimming and laughing fits... while in the pool... *cough*JESSIE*cough*... yeah. Oh, and Mike and Reece brought hammocks too which was awesome, nice for those lazy parts of the day, on the rare occurrance when we got one.

 

Thursday was Jessie's 19th birthday- HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESS!!! She had a 3L(ish) bucket of fairy floss which we ate about two thirds of, as well as Coke and Ceda (red creaming soda). We were so exhausted by Thursday night though that the sugar had no effect on us at all. Crazy. Red softdrink, not have an effect on Jessie? I think that's happened only once, ever... just this past week. Amazing.

 

Anyway. I'm off now... uni this arvo... yay :P