Category: Unlecture

Communication

Many many symposiums ago Adrian read out a girls blog that said, she didn’t like the subject Networked Media and that she was going to visit one of those people that help you transfer or get credits or whatever. I still don’t really know how university works.

That blog resonated with me because I was at exactly the same point in my “university experience”.  Just like when a sitcom deals with an issue that you had that day. The subject felt uncomfortable too me. All I thought was “This is just not for me”.

Whats interesting though is the blog entry turns. She decided to persist and realised that she just needed to change her style of learning.

It was like when a relevant sitcom wraps up all moral and life affirming. You feel like “YEAH IF RACHEL CAN DO IT SO CAN I!”

 

I have booked a meeting with a careers coordinator next Wednesday. I don’t really know what to say, however I have zoned into the biggest issue I have not only with this subject but with this degree.

Who am I helping?

I work with disabled kids as I have mentioned in other blogs.

Just recently I was spat on by a 5 year old with down syndrome. This lead to my face breaking out into school sores. I was on antibiotics and steroids for weeks and stayed inside for days. But I wasn’t angry because despite all the discomfort I knew I was helping someone to read, write and speak.

My job is more about communication than this subject. I know I will be fought on this issue (ie. its a different form of communication rah rah rahhhh). However it is the rawest and purest engagement in communication and I hope everyone gets to experience it.

Symposium Faces

The thing I like best about the symposiums is watching the reaction of all the members of the panel. So much so that I am distracted by the nodes, hubs, connections, links and whatever other networking terms they are talking about.

I love the thinking face, the nodding, the laughing and most of all the puzzled, what the fuck do they mean.

Maybe academics are really bad actors, it’s my favourite thing to watch. I need to listen more.

Success!

I really really liked the symposium. It was less like a lecture and more like a conversation, each panelist offering slightly different thoughts but also differing ways of expressing themselves. Some formal, some more relaxed. I’m sure everyone has there prefered speaker. Shout out to Jasmine – I’m a fan.

I enjoyed it.

The symposium style seemed widely accepted by others in my class too. Adrian should be happy.

I always thought At the Movies should be a symposium. I couldn’t work out why they got two “old” people to review the latest films. Of course they wouldn’t like Jennifer Anniston’s latest movie. What they need is two young people, to give a well rounded review, one that might actually like that kind of humour. Now as an “adult” and film scholar myself (not really – just another first year media student) I see that Margret and David are very credible reviewers. And that the Jennifer Anniston film was probably shit.

Still it may have made for interesting television.

“Blog about what you know. Blog about what you’re passionate about.”

Our second “unlecture” called for questions. I rather poorly put forward an overtly simple question; “What makes a good blog?”

Adrians answer was simple. “Blog about what you know. Blog about what you’re passionate about.”

I find this idea of passion funny. How do you simply stumble upon one thing and call it your passion. Passion itself is a funny concept. By definition passion is a strong and barely controllable emotion.

I have mused many times that I am not passionate about anything. This statement perhaps could be misinterpreted to make me seem dull or boring which I very much hope is not true. I have interests and hobbies. I like art, dogs, cinema, stationary, books and coffee. However I like these things, but I have never had a strong barely controllable emotions after an extremely well made cappuccino.

Whilst in New Zealand these holidays I spent three days in the small town of Timaru visiting a friend. After seeing the main street and the statue of Phar Lap I’d pretty much done it all. So I spent a few days relaxing inside watching TV. It was in Timaru that I discovered the show “Finding Bigfoot”. The shows follows a team of experts all over America investigating sightings of the ape like creature; the Sasquatch. The show is much alike many American TV shows; perhaps lacking in substance but entertaining enough for a half an our TV show. For myself; the most intriguing part of this program was not the stories from small towns in middle America. For me, I was most interested in the team. They have dedicated their lives to travelling the country finding Big Foot. It’s their passion. Most on the show are members of the BFRO (Bigfoot Field Researchers Organisation) and are considered experts in the field. Despite the fact that I think these people are perhaps a little crazy, their passion is clear. They know what they love, and for that I am jealous.


I don’t think passion is something that I will know. My likes change week to week so to think I will have one concrete passion any time soon seems ludicrous.

So perhaps mid way through this semester I may uncover my passion; that would be awfully convenient. However if this is not the case I will write about; what I like and what I know. And occasionally Sasquatch.