Tag: youtube

Stalker by Hazel Edwards

I was amazed to read on the blurb of this book that Hazel Edwards has written 131 books. That is a lot of books. I am sure I have probably read some of them, I just don’t remember them. Hazel’s Wikipedia entry says she has written 161. That is very productive. She also attended Traralgon High School for a part of her education according to Wikipedia.

Stalker was a light read. It gives an insight into the way radio works. It’s about a young volunteer radio announcer who receives a lot of unwelcome attention that ends in a conviction for the stalker. It’s an interesting topic in view of the information many put on the Internet now. How easy would it be for someone to collect enough information about a person to intimidate them?

I recently showed an Internet safety video to my students. The year 7’s took it more to heart than the year 9’s, who seemed to think they knew all there was to know about this sort of thing.

I saw ‘Everyone Knows Your Name’ on YouTube today. Whilst I don’t want people to live in fear of the Internet, I guess it’s important for all of us to think before we post, for lots of reasons. A good reminder.

All roads lead to David Bowie

In the days before the final bell went at school, I gave each class an overview of what they would be learning next year and the topics that would be covered. Many of my students really weren’t interested as they could smell the holidays by that stage and the thought of next years learning wasn’t a priority. So I explained to them about the RAS antenae and how it could help them to do better next year.
I did a course once that was about learning and I only vaguely remember the facilitator talking about your Reticular Activating System or RAS being like antenae and once you decided to learn something you would begin to notice it everywhere. The example that was given was when you buy a new car that you feel is rare and distinctive and then you start to see it everywhere. I have had that experience! I have also found that often when I was studying at uni, information and knowledge that I needed would seem to come to me from all different sources that I wouldn’t have expected. If you are interesting in learning more about this there is an interesting discussion here.
Getting back to the topic, lately I have been seeing David Bowie everywhere. Well not in person, unfortunately, yet I rather fear that if I did he would make a song about me and it would hurt my feelings like the YouTube clip my brother sent me where he sang about a ‘Chubby Little Fat Guy’. I would put it on here, except I thought it was a little sad and cruel. I have no sense of humour sometimes.
I have been reading him on blogs everywhere. Just little snippets or photos. So I think my RAS on David Bowie is in action. The wonder of it is, that I don’t know why other than having been a fan for so many years. I have never been to a concert sadly. I was very close to going to one in 1983, yet it was the night before my HSC (now VCE)English exam. Why didn’t I just go anyway? It would have improved my performance. I know that now!

Instead I will put this interview from Rove that was filmed about 8 months ago and shows all the things I love about him. He is healthy, interested and creative with a dry sense of humour that I love. Rove is great also. ‘I’m a bit of a Sunday futurist’  Enjoy!