This year, our school’s focus is celebration. The school production was also focused on different celebrations, with each class working on a different celebration to present at the production presentation night. Our class focused on Diwali, a Hindu celebration traditionally aligned with the battle between good and evil and the valiance of light. We were able to choose from four different acts for the production: two different dances (one filmed, one live performed), a scene involving signs and a march, and a scene involving Diya’s, traditional oil lamps used during the celebration of Diwali.

I chose to be part of the Diya group, which I thought was the most feasible task for me, as I was pretty sure I wouldn’t do my work in another group. We molded clay Diya’s out of wet clay and our hands. Mine turned out very lumpy and ever so slightly (read: very) square. We painted a base layer for our Diya’s after it dried up, which took around five days. I painted my base layer in a vibrant, slightly ochre-tinted yellow. The paint took around a day to dry, but we left it drying on the shelf for around a week. After the base layer, a layer of patterns was painted on.

We also made paper Diya’s folded following an origami-style tutorial. Although these weren’t used during the production presentation, we made much more of these than we did clay ones. The paper ones were very flimsy and made of plain coloured paper, which made them weak and easily malleable, unsuited for long-term keeping. We performed for the presentation yesterday and will today (though I am not performing today and only yesterday). Pretty much, we walked around with the clay Diya’s, now with Kmart electronic candles (caution: contains small batteries) inside them, on the stage in circles and then split into lines and stood there.

Another part of the production was filmed on a drone. The entire school stood in a massive coordinated ’10’ shape on the back field. After waiting for a signal, we dispersed and ran for certain points. We did two practices for it, and only ran on the real one (we didn’t run during practices). The drone filmed all of this, and it was projected onto the screen in the hall during the production. When standing in the  ’10’ shape, I could not even properly tell if we were standing in the right position. However, when watching the drone footage, it looked very good except for the slightly wobbly ‘1’ shape (the straight part looked like a giant noodle laid out on grass).

Overall, I will say that the production, though taking a lot of time, was rather boring for me. We did not do much and it took a very long time. However, I got to spend a lot of time making things which were reasonably fun enough for me. The real presentation and act was all right, but standing still in rows was slightly boring for me. If I ever had to do this again, I would do it, but I wouldn’t ever ask to do it.

This week, we have so far done three tasks to do with poems. I chose one of the poems that I have written to share on my blog, and I will briefly explain why I wrote it like this.

The sun is searing hot

The ground is burning up

I’m melting in a pot

Fires are in the cup

If I’m super lucky

I’ll survive this day

But I’m real mucky

I’ll get killed, it’s what I say

The ground is dry

And so is my mouth

I think I’ll cry

I know it’s a drouth 

And I’m melting into a puddle

A dripping, dribbling pond

The people can’t huddle

They can’t even respond

This is the end

It’s a hundred degrees

My mistake I need to mend

Now I want to jump 

Into the seas

But before that, 

I shouldn’t have jumped

Into the oven

I chose this poem to share because I like complaining. I titled this poem ‘The Hottest Day’, because it is about the hottest day. I tried to put a decent twist into the story at the end of the poem, but it didn’t get approved by anyone, so cannot guarantee a perfect story line. The rhyme scheme goes A, B, A, B, C, D, C, D and so on for most of the poem, save the end, when I had to twist it around.

Today, we did a division tables basic facts timed test, with ten minutes on the clock. I got ninety nine out of a hundred questions right, and I got it in two minutes and fourty one seconds. I think my basic division is quite easy, and I am recalling all of my facts easily. I think that I need to move on to the more advanced stages of division, as I got only one speed wobble on my test easily within the time. Dividing was slightly harder than my multiplication, but it took about the same time to complete. The main reason it was harder was because I did the test at a table with a bunch of hooligans yelling their heads off.

Today, we did a hundred basic multiplication questions. I finished them in two minutes and fifty-nine seconds, and I got a perfect one hundred percent score. I found the test easy, and I was recalling all of my questions easily. My teacher says that I need to move on to doing fraction multiplication, multiplication with decimals, percentage, fraction, and decimal conversion and other stuff like that. I am quite sure that I can do my basic multiplication facts easily enough.

This week has been slightly hectic, but I think that most of the time, it was decently normal.

For our maths topic this week, our group ‘learned’ written form subtraction, which I already knew. It was a bit annoying to have to do a huge number of easy calculations which I already knew how to do. However, after I went slightly crazy from an overdose of maths questions, I did get three questions wrong. They were, coincidentally, all questions that involved carrying over multiple zero’s.

Much like most other literacy sessions, I did not enjoy this week’s literacy sessions. I used to enjoy it, as I was able to do book work for my literacy, but now that I have to spend two hours each day staring at a computer screen, it is simply painful for my eyes. The MPR for this week was decent (less boring) than the others that I have done this term.

This week for passions, I did chess with Jake. I went crazy immediately and lost two games against him. Due to that fact, I don’t think that my strategies improved much, though I did develop a bit of a more resilient structure for them. I did win one game, though, from pure luck.

I hope that next week will be less of a drag and more of a enjoyable school week. Hopefully I get enough rest in the weekends and heal my brain.

School Monster Attack – Action Stations by Jeremiah Lee

For my session in the ‘School Monster Attack’ group for Action Stations, I created a monster and edited onto a picture of our school.  It took me about three sessions (three hours) to draw my monster, which is a huge plant hydra thing. I gave it nine heads and Venus Flytrap-like jaws. Although it isn’t visible, the monster has quite a long tail part. I think that I edited it well and was able to fit it nicely into the other picture. I did the editing on Canva, and I think that it was the best place to do it.

Do you have any questions about this piece of work?

This week, our meeting for the workshop went quite messily. I don’t think that we achieved much and that our goals were well constructed. For my piece of writing, I am working on my second book which I am near certain that I will also get published. We shared small parts of our stories, but I don’t think that any of the other people actually listened.

Today, I created a timeline of a nurse from World War I for my literacy task (which was to create a timeline about a person from World War I). I chose this format of timeline because I felt like it was easy to read and well organised. I think that the white writing against the black background is a good, contrasting colour selection for my timeline that makes it easier to read. I hope that the image placings and selection makes sense and at least represents the events written on the timeline. I separated out all of my events and images into columns so that it is easier to identify what the images are meant to be for. Do you have any questions about my work?

This term, I have written three continuous stories that show short, brief stories of the first Two Ages for my literacy. Personally, I think that my punctuation and grammar was consistent throughout the stories, and that they were used correctly. However, the opening hooks of my stories are not very good. They all seem to be more focused on opening up the story than actually grabbing the reader into the story. In my opinion, the most well-written story this term was actually the first one, as I did not finish writing the other two stories, and they are weak with their conflict and resolution, which I think is one of the most important parts in writing a story. The first story I wrote is

The Creation of The Nine Realms: Arüngorŷǎth

This is the recordings of the beginning as the Titans knew it. This is not accurate according to many other myths and folktales that the elves and humans have constructed, though most dwarves will not disagree with this recording. However their version is a bit different compared to this original myth.

In the beginning of time and space, there was One Divine one. He was nameless and holy, beyond the comprehension of any other mind. He created the Seed, from which the branches of time and space grew out and created the first fruits of the omniverse. Then he swore an oath by his name in protection of his realms. In doing so, he bound himself to the protection of the Branches, covering them with the Cloth of his Oaths. 

Across time He could see, across the fabric of reality he could see. He saw that He could not reign over the worlds in complete power; the peoples of the worlds would not obey him. And so  He created the Highest and Eldest, the Lords of the Universes. And of one particular he favoured. And the favoured one was Eös Crúsvar, Lord of the Nine Realms.

Eös Crúsvar was near holy, and he was entrusted with keeping the most important of the infinite branches of the omniverse: The Stem, or the Nine Realms. He first created his three attendants: Rħùä, Lady of the Underneath, Äethǒr, Lord of the Above, and Ǔrugôth, Lord of Darkness. They were in charge of creating the three elements of the world: the ground, the sky, and the inbetween of everything (darkness).

Each of the three elements were present in the Stem, but all were separated, except on eight worlds. Three of these worlds were created much later on in time; and yet it was created at the beginning, for in the beginning everything was created and time did not exist. But the other six realms were Earth, an important world to be inhabited by creatures and near intelligent beings, and the Five Realms of Magic, which were to be the homes of the Three Eldest.

But then anger arose, and Eös Crúsvar created war and conflict. The Three looked upon each other and their eyes flickered with flames. Their anger flared bright, and the flame of eternal war was lit. From then on, war never ceased and the spirit of fighting flared on. They fought by their lives, beyond the inexpressible immortality of their spirits. They ripped and tore the fabric of the omniverse, and time was created as they fought viciously, ripping across the timelines, and tearing apart entire universes.

The war lasted aeons, and their war created the landscapes of the many realms. They fought and as they did so, they created the first Five Elder Titans. Ǔrugôth rode forth in his war chariot, his shadow steeds charging at the other two Titans. Äethǒr flew through the air, slashing with sword and cursing the Rune-Links of Life. Rħùä ripped the mountains from their roots and threw them at the sky, piercing the other Titans.

But then Eös Crúsvar looked down upon them and felt dismay and guilt for what he had created. So he came forth to the great halls of the Nameless One, and he requested for a force so strong that it would halt the anger of war and fighting. And so He said to Eös Crúsvar: “Send forth your power I grant you today, and destroy the souls of your attendants, and crush their essence with the misery of separation. Go forth!” and so He granted Eös Crúsvar the power of misery, pain, and separation.

The power was taunting and yet very powerful, so extreme that it became a permanent part of his spirit, spread out through the Branches of the Omniverse, settling into the spirits of the other Highest and Eldest Ones. So Eös Crúsvar, despising the Three Titan’s hatred for each other, sent forth his power, in the stone of Night that became the tower of Nüthor-Gorn. The tower emanated darkness and despair, corrupting the fabric of the universe and spreading through the Branches. Pain and misery was cast upon the Three, disrupting their souls and crushing their confidence.

Then they ceased their fighting, for their newcome despair crushed their anger. Their spirits, which had been completely submerged in war for aeons, were now drowning in misery and pain. Their immortality was fading, and their essence dying. And so ended the war of the beginning, and the Years began and the Age of the Titans came upon the world.

The elemental giants arose from the blood of the War of the Three, and their bodies were made of the flesh of the earth: Eös the World. The spiritual being of Eös brought peace and prosperity to the ground and for another period, war ceased, and a new era of growth and creation. The realms of the Stem were established, the Worlds burned into the runes, and the history of the World and the Omniverse settled into existence.

Now peace had come, the true Ages of the World had begun, and the Nameless One looked back upon his work and found that the Universes were good to look upon. And so He let them flourish, and the worlds expanded. Then the world began, and time started, and our universes were existent, coming from the Seed, which grew the Branches which were the universes, and our mortal existence had been established.

This story is the origin of this short poem, written by a group of unknown elves in the Western Ages (a pocket of time and space where the fabric of the world is very corrupt and time and space have no true definition):

“Did the world come forth a ball of flame, 

Or did it come from hunted game,

‘Nay!’ says the Elong-goth,

Frosted worlds, covered by the Cloth,

Were made by the One, who Rules Supreme,

Now come to me, for you failed your exam in the extreme.”

Though this is in a very strange beat and is very little known to many people, it is one of the main pieces of writing that keep record of the Beginning.

As you can probably tell, the last paragraph is not necessary in order for the story to make sense, but I enjoy including pieces of short, fictional information like this in my short stories.

Do you have any opinions on my writing??

Today during Maths time, we created a column graph on Google Spreadsheets. The picture above shows both vertical and horizontal versions of it, though it may be a bit hard to read as a screenshot. Our topic was preferred drinks and our variable for our graph was gender. My graph is divided into genders and preferred drinks. The colours of the columns represent the genders. The axis’s differ for horizontal and vertical, but they show the number of students and the drinks. The title for both is ‘Preferred Drinks in Sharon’s Maths Group’. Above the graphs are the frequency charts for our data.