I wont make a habit of it.

15 Jun 2004

Well, for the first time ever, I left a session open too long, and it ate my cookie.  WHO STOLE THE COOKIE FROM THE COOKIE JAR?!?!!?

I want my cookie back :(  It’s kind of funny.  I type up stuff, and give up caring as soon as I type it.  I don’t really think that this is a great outlet, because I’m careful about what I type (publicly accessible websites are a little like that), but trying to make myself type what I’d lost requires concious effort.  More a reflection of my laziness than anything else, perhaps?  Ah well.

I’m combatting my laziness for a bit.

Three assessments happened today, most of which I was happy with.  Well, all of which I was happy with, at an individual level.  English, Business and a Cisco final exam.

English?  It was a group performance task, and we all performed pretty well, and had prepared… enough.  But the plot was somewhat lost in the space between our scripts and the audience.  Or so I think… Tori would have me believe otherwise, but hey.  I think we’ll do okay, so no major gripes there.

I’m not so happy about that assessment in general, though, due to the content of a certain other performance.  At risk of making it worse, I won’t elaborate here.  Bullying, or at least defamation, which of course passed undetected by the teacher for various reasons.  Somewhat angry about that one, in fact.  I’ll stop talking now.

Business was a report on Sydney Tower Restaurants, which I had done very little preparation for (save a quick Google the night before), for various reasons – I bothered to write a report scaffold on the bus on my way in to school this morning, though, which was mildly invaluable.  I’m happy with the assessment, although I didn’t get time to finish completely.  I used two booklets, and the last two pages are scrawled dot-point notes, because I realised I had a little too much to cover with five minutes to go ;)

The Cisco Semester 1 Final Exam, I managed to scrape in with a beautiful 73.9 – a pass is 70 – which was immensely cool.  I was meant to sit that one last Friday, but due to “preparing for English” (meaning, that is what I was doing, but it was highly unproductive… had fun drawing dyslexic flutterbyes, though) I didn’t.  Which, in retrospect, is almost definitely a Good Thing™ – I sat it this afternoon in the company of Year 12, who are infinitely more quiet than the year 11 cohort ever are ;)  Hehe, the funny thing is, they thought they were making too much noise.  You guys rock.

As promised to various people, my english script:

English script

Costume: School uniforms
Setting: SACS classroom
Time of day: Normal school times
Props + aids: Table, three chairs, paper + books, signs — “The Next Day”, “The Day Before Performance”, “Performance Day”

Kim:
Can we start, sir?

*teacher response*
Josh:
Hmm… so, what are we going to do for this thing?
K:
I dunno.
Tori:
Can we NOT do some dodgy love triangle soap opera?
K:
Just ’cause you’re insecure about your love life.
J:
How about we satirise the whole “school leadership” thing?
T:
Yeah… but would we get marked down for humour?
*Tori is stabbing table with pen mindlessly*
J:
What are the criteria?
*checks sheet*
It doesn’t say you can’t.
To Tori: What did the table ever do to you?
K:
To Tori: Could you please not? I’m trying to write!
T:
*Tori moves book onto lap, continues mindless stabbing*
Any better?
K:
*glares at Tori*
J:
To Kim: Hey, you should write shorthand.
To all: Hmm… but if we did the leadership thing, we’d have to make sure we didn’t attack anyone personally.
T:
Just because we say “school captain” doesn’t mean we mean OUR school captains!
J:
Yeah, okay.
*looks at Kim, who is writing constantly on her notepad*
Hey Kim, writing all this down?
K:
Most of it.
T:
Sooo… Do you think we can do this without being bitchy?
J:
Probably… not.
Oh! We could do a whole play where we are jealous of each others roles in the play!  Like, we think other people have better parts than ourselves… and stuff…
T:
THAT’S SO COOL!!! We could be all arty!
K:
What – just be ourselves and have monologues?
J:
Yeah, kinda.  It’d be about us writing this play– so crazily recursive stuff!
T:
It’d be cool…
*hesitates slightly*
…if we can get it to work.
J:
Yeah, it’d suck if we got up and everyone just gave us blank looks when we finished.
K:
But if we do it well — hey, this could work!

1st Monologue starts here.  T. stands, K. and J. freeze in background.  T. walks to front of performance area, and sits on a chair.

I don’t think this could work. It’s so complicated!  We barely understand it, how are we going to make other people get it?  We won’t do well if no-one understands what we’re going on about.  I wish I had their confidence. They’re so sure that it’s a good idea.  This all comes so easy for them.

T. walks back to K. and J., and sits down again.  She freezes, and then all unfreeze.  Dialog recommences.

T:
Yeah, okay.
*sounds enthusiastic, a slight edge to voice — passes un-noticed by K. and J., but clear to audience (i.e. follow-on from soliloquy)*
K:
We should probably finish up, Mr. Sandon wants us to pay attention.
J:
Kim, are you going to type up those notes?  We actually have a practical USE for them now!
K:
See, I knew we would!
T:
Cool.  Give us copies of the notes, okay?
K:
Sure, I’ll give you copies tomorrow.
All “exit”
The next day–in English.
Someone to hold up card, announcing this. (i.e. says “The Next Day”)
K:
Hey everybody, here’s the thing from yesterday
*distributes sheet with note written on*
*Tori stabs herself in the eye with a pen– okay, perhaps that wasn’t meant to be scripted*
J:
You have waay too much spare time!
*all read script for about 10-20 seconds*
T:
Hey, this is good.  Thanks for writing this up.
K:
Yeah, there were some good ideas in there

2nd Monologue starts here.  K. stands, T. and J. freeze in background.  K. walks to front of performance area, and sits on a chair.

Why does he always have the good ideas?
Wasn’t it my idea to write all this down anyway?

I can’t believe I’m getting jealous over ideas about jealousy.

I don’t want to admit it, but there are some great ideas in there that we should really look at using: like satirising the whole school leadership thing and being jealous of other peoples parts in a play.

I wish I could come up with ideas like that.

K. walks back to T. and J., and sits down again.  She freezes, and then all unfreeze.  Dialog recommences.
T:
So, we should probably start writing our script, hey?
K :
*somewhat grudgingly–not noticed by T or J, evident to audience*
Yeah, there are some good ideas we could use in there.
J:
Okay, let’s get to work.
All “exit”

Day before performance.
Someone to hold up card, announcing this. (i.e. says “The Day Before Performance.”)
T:
Did everyone practice their parts?
J:
*kind of reluctant* Yes…
K:
C’mon guys! I know we can make this work heaps well!! Show some enthusiasm. It’ll be heaps of fun!!

3rd and final Monologue starts here.  J. stands, K. and T. freeze in background.  J. walks to front of performance area, and sits on a chair.

*Looks at Kim* How can she be so… enthusiastic?

It’s kind of ironic, actually.  In preparing for a play about a play about jealousy, I wind up being all insecure about it… insecurity was meant to be an attribute behind jealousy, wasn’t it?  See, we don’t even understand what we’re meant to be performing!  Her confidence…

And Tori– she seemed a little reluctant at first, maybe I’m just paranoid about acceptance of ideas; but she is really good at just getting things done — I wish that I were able to do that.  She’s a good leader.

J. walks back to T. and K., and sits down again.  He freezes, and then all unfreeze.  Dialog recommences.
J:
So… umm… how about we practice our scripts again?
K:
Yeah, good idea!
All “exit”
Performance Day..
Someone to hold up card, announcing this. (i.e. says “Performance Day”)
K:
Can we start, sir?

*ALL FREEZE*

Characters: K: secure/apparently confident in idea
J: exhibits an ability to come up with ideas + make good suggestions
T: down to earth, implements ideas properly, and seem to be leaders.</p> Jealousies:
T. Jealous of K. + J.:
Insecurity (don’t think idea will work — the audience already knows this one, it was the subject of the soliloquy in scene 1) about whether the idea will work, jealous of confidence of other characters
K. Jealous of J.
Jealous of ideas/ imagination — (to be soliloquy in scene 2).
J. Jealous of K. + T.
Jealous of ability to accept these ideas (i.e. the leadership of some character, convincing others of what to do, etc.)</em>