As you may not have noticed, my blog was updated to Wordpress 2.5 last week, thanks to Peppery. The only noticeable change is in the admin panel where is has been redone to be easier to use and look much nicer. It is taking a little bit of getting use to but after a while, I’m sure I will remember where they have moved things. For a new Wordpress user, the admin panel will definitely be easier to use but for an old user like me, I’m going to have to get fully use to it.

You may have noticed the lack of update in the past week or so. The reason for my absence in blogging is because I have been overloaded with assessments that were due. I had 5 different bits of schoolwork to do. One was a report for geography on the processes of building the new Carisbrook Stadium in Dunedin, which was really hard to do. I’d be lucky to pass because I had no bloody idea what I was rambling about. I also had a Statistics project to complete which was straightforward, just took a little bit of thinking and time to complete and write up. There was also some small bits of homework such as 2 pages of physics questions, some Computing tasks and also an electronics research project on transducers to be completed.

I have finished doing all assignments and hopefully my plate stays relitively clean for a while, especially during the holidays, so I can do what I normally do and not be tied down with homework and assignments to get done. Hopefully there is no homework for me to do over the holidays so I can have a relaxing break without having to even think about school or school work. I guess we will just have to wait and see.

Tuesday this week wasn’t a normal Tuesday. There were no classes, but the whole school was required to go to the Caledonian at Logan Park for Athletics Day. The day pretty much consists of doing athletic events, eating, socialising and sitting in the stands. The day is also an opportunity for the school houses to earn house points.

That is all great but personally, I don’t care about or feel like participating in the sports events, I socialise at school with people and a whole day of it would be too much for me. And eating and sitting all day (doing nothing) is pretty much what I do at home everday, right now for a matter of fact. So again this year like the past 2 years, I have felt no reason to go to this even so I stayed at home.

Anyway, I had a nice relaxing day at home. My mother took a sick day so she was here too. I pretty much did what I normally do, and that is go on the internet. Although I did take my day off to do something more constructive. I finished reading, well listening, to my audiobook that I downloaded from Audible. A also did some light housework and got $10 for it. Finishing an Audiobook  and making $10 or sitting down and hanging around talking to people and doing absolutely nothing, what would you do?

Going to Athletics Day is compulsory and you get a detention if you do not attend. But this year, and the two before it, I have managed to slip through the gaps and have had no punishment. To be honest, as far as they know, I was there. They wouldn’t know if I was there or not. I’m not one of the loud people or the people that get noticed so my absence goes unnoticed. If I did happen to be there, no one would probably notice either.

I’m pretty happy about getting the day off, again, like the other years. I’d always trade a more enjoyable and productive day for a boring and unproductive day. So pretty much I took a sick day when I wasn’t sick, although the ironic thing is the next day, I woke up a little sick with a cold that has been progressing for the rest of the week.  Karma, it gets you doesn’t it?

On Monday, school started again for me. I am now in Year 13, which is my final year. Pretty much this year is for getting University Entrance requirements. My first day subjects were my two favourite ones, Electronics, followed by ICT. All the class consisted of was admin stuff and course outline and such, not a lot of learning. In ICT, there were new computer which were really small, but powerful enough for what they are supposed to be used for, office crap!

The other subjects I do are Statistics, which is a small class and should be pretty smooth except with all the homework given. Geography should be easy. There is one problem, they have stuffed in 26 or so students into a small classroom ideal for 20 students. It is really squashed and you hardly have room to move. I hope they can get us a proper classroom. Then there is Religion Studies, which is compulsory, and I have nothing much to say about this subject. My final subject this year, which I finally had last period of this week is Physics. This is going to be slightly difficult, but the teacher is pretty good and has some new toys and technology for us to try/play with soon.

My week at school has been pretty cruisy, except for the annoying homework. Next week everything shold be normal. I still have a little trouble keeping up with my TV shows and podcasts, but that could be because I have been doing other things. Hopefully I can fit school, homework, internet and media all into my day and have it all done and watched before the weekend so I can have them free for other things, erm… I mean more internet.

Today, I officially finished school for the year. Classes stopped 3 weeks ago for study leave and exams. You are no officially on holiday until you get signed out of school, which they do on a specified date and time. I had to go back to school for 30 minutes just to return text books and get signatures from teachers so I can leave for my well deserved break.

It is stupid that they make me travel to school just to do that. Its a waste of time. I don’t see why they can’t do that during exams. That would save me from having to return when my exams are all over. At least they are not taking our textbooks back before the exams because they are a useful tool to use when studying, if you choose to study like everyone else, except me.

I personally would have rather slept in this morning instead of making the journey back to the place I would like to leave behind after the difficult year. Oh well, I have to do what I have to do. Now I have 2 months and a little bit more where I will have no school or work. I will be on the computer for most of that time. i with I had something as well as the computer/internet to keep me entertained during this long break. Money would be nice right now, a lot of it, then I could buy video games and other cool gadgets and gizmos to keep me busy until next year when I return for the final time.

As you may have realized, my blog has been down for about a fortnight, on and off. Well I promise (well Peppery promises) that it won’t happen again anytime soon. Now I shall return to posting on a regular  schedule knowing that the blog will be up for me to do so. I am going to try for a daily post because I have the time to do that now that I am on holiday.

Well now exams are over and from Monday at 10:30am, I am officially on holiday, although my body and mind have been on holiday for a good two and a half weeks already. I managed to struggle though my exams without studying and we can see the results (or lack of) from this exercise. Lets hope I managed to fluke everything again like last year.

At the end of March this year, I left a service called Twitter. Today marks the day I return to the service because a lot of my online contacts use it and I have been following them for some time now. I feel it is time for me to participate with them on the website so tweeting commences on my original Twitter profile. I hope that this time I can stay a little longer, just long enough for the service to capture me in its net and not let me leave. We will see how this turns out.

Well last time I tried to post, this time last week, something when wrong. I can’t explain what happened and never got round to re-writing the post. I  decided I would take a week off from blogging and in that time school has ended, study hasn’t started, life continues and I think its a holiday. This is going to come back and bite me in the arse, mark my words.

Tuesday was the last day of classes. It was a good day actually. Surfing the internet first period in ICT because I had long finished the assessment that at least two thirds were still trying to complete. Then I had a period of absolutely nothing. Then my final period of 2007, Electronics. Yet again I just wandered around, somewhat pleased with myself for being the only person to complete the course with two periods to spare. Then someone came along and managed to finish aswell, just in the nick of time. Two out of thirty of so people doing electronics actually completing the course in time is an extremely low number. Then it was lunch time and home time.

Prizegiving was also that night. I hadn’t expected to get anything because I have been extremely slack this year and hadn’t achieved very much to be honest. Anyway, I managed to slip in to get a certificate. Surprised me. Wasn’t happy to be there though, would have preferred to be home watching Heroes, Prison Break and Chuck instead.Managed to fit them in the night anyway so I was pleased.

Generally through the week, the TV shows, podcasts and video podcasts stack up for me to watch in the weekend. Since I have been home, that hasn’t happened. I have many hours free and I try to find ways to fill in the time. I should probably be studying instead of checking things off my media list, I’m afraid that the next two and a half months are going to be long, very long. I should probably spend that time watching some of the TV series I have downloaded and stored somewhere else to watch later.

I am running out of ideas on subjects to post about so if anyone has any ideas for me, *cough* Peppery *cough*, they would be greatly appreciated. I can’t wait for November to end so I have that free time to myself and school and exams out of the way. Next year, my final year, is going to be a strange and tough year. I don’t know whether to be scared or happy about finally leaving school.

Today was a strange and boring day at school. This is the last week and all that we do is study before the end of year exams. Three of my subjects that don’t have exams at the end of the year, we are finishing off the last parts for it. In Electronics, I am finishing my tone generator plus amplifier circuit and packaging it. In ICT, I am doing a website assessment. It is stupid, we have to make a stupid little webpage using frontpage. Honestly, no one is ever going to use this so I see no point at teaching it.

The strangest thing that has happened in a long time is a teacher walking out of the class. There was a discussion about a text we read in English and the class started to break into a debate like talk, well until the teacher got fed up and walked out saying that we can teach ourselves. This is not a good thing because we need a teacher to help us or else we aren’t going to do as well in the exam. The class is silly, why did this happen. I suppose next English period is going to be rather awkward, I’m not looking forward to it.