Girl talk!!!

Check out my comment on this site @ http://grltlk.wordpress.com/about/

Opinion Piece: All Journalism and Media Studies 1 lectures for first years should be compulsory

You can check out my comment on:
htt://www.combatguide2uni.bolgspot.com

Opinion Piece: Most first years become victims of alchohol abuse.

Coming to varsity is a big step for many young South Africans, especially if you come to Rhodes, because it is famously known for its good education, other than that Rhodents has a bad reputation of being drunkards.This looks attractive to others, but to most it’s not always the case. Most students come to Rhodes with no intentions of becoming slaves to alcohol but this ends up being the case. As a second year student I have seen many first years fall into the trap of alcoholism this is a result of many things, things like peer pressure and having freedom for the first time in their lives.
Many young people leave their parents behind and they have to start a life of their own in varsity (they discover their independence), they get loose in that process because no one sets the rules for them/tells anything (no one tells them where to go, who to go out with, and what time they should come back). This is very tempting for many young people, who have no direction or guidance. Some do this because of friends, they want to fit in or they want to please friends and they want to be seen as cool. This is not only a Rhodes University problem this happens to most universities.
I myself was a victim of this in my first year, I had just come out of boarding school and finally I had my freedom. Varsity was a turning point for me, every weekend I would go out and drink, even on weekdays sometimes, but this wasn’t the case before I came to varsity. Besides myself I know lots of other people (friends) who became slaves of alcohol, some came back the following year some didn’t. This was a sad reality that showed how alcohol can take up your life and mess up your academics
This starts off as a little craze during O-week where you can drink as much as you want because you don’t have compulsory lectures to attend. Most people drink for different reasons but the most common reason for drinking amongst first years is to fit. At first the drinking seems fun, until you fall deeper and deeper, start missing lectures and failing tests that when some realise that it’s too much now. Then the third term which is called O-term (party term for others), this is where things start getting out off control because there are parties everywhere, and the biggest event of them all Tri-varsity. Tri-varsity weekend is a huge event in which most students go binge drinking, from Friday to Sunday, some start as early as Tuesday to celebrate this event. Most people agree that this term is the downfall of most Rhodents; if you didn’t start drinking and partying during you probably start this term.
In the end these are all the ups and downs of varsity life, they all depend on how you deal with them and how adaptable you are to a new environment. Most people get into things not knowing the dangers of them, the sad part is: some make it and some get lost and they don’t make it out.

I Just Bounced our bubble all over tha place

My comment can be found at:

http://vicariousrising.typepad.com/vicarious_rising/2008/10/proper-needs.html?cid=136005157#comments

The Birth of my Blogging Reflex

It was with mild irritation and a bored sigh that I heard the news: fourth term was to be blog term. I will admit, outright and honestly, that I was at first unimpressed. I kinda felt like I do when I feel like a coke and have to settle for crème-soda – not entirely pissed off, but not thrilled either. The idea of group work was enough to make me gag- I’d hoped that such tasks had been left behind in high school. Then again I guess high school follows one until the day one flat lines, so it might have been premature of me to think that.

But- and there it is – as my last week as a first year draws to a close, I can honestly say that the blogging course has been the best course this year so far. I feel like I have been able to express myself and actually use some of the skills I have been taught instead of having them float around my brain and settle in some dusty corner. I found that as much as I thought I’d hate group work, I began to enjoy planning and creating my blog with my group members and those late night blogging sessions and copious cups of coffee really made us bond as a blog team (that’s alliteration). And without sounding a little full of myself I feel as if I really contributed a lot to our blog. To be honest it is the first time in journ this year that I feel as if I have actually used my skills and been able to see how my skills and ‘talent’ is progressing. I also feel as if my writing skills improved tremendously as I was forced to write what would normally take up ten thousand pages and somehow squash it into a neat little box of 500 words (or less). Dealing with sources is always a tad pesky, but it seems the anonymity of the internet was a comfort to some poor souls and so this assignment was not marred by the shameful absence of good quotations and anecdotes.

I remember the feeling of complete frustration when I could not change the html on my template. Pure rage throbbed through me like a steady, angry pulse as I searched in vain for templates that would not be rejected by what I began to see as my stupid blog. I spent hours every day trying to change what now seems so small a detail – however then I saw it as not only the backdrop for what would be my brilliant posts (or so I thought) but as a way of attracting hits like fly paper attracts bugs. And so my moment of victory arrived one night after a chat with my thirteen year old sister. She mentioned off hand a pretty decent template sight and I checked it out. To my amazement the html code worked and I had a brilliantly beautiful new baby of a blog template. And I couldn’t have been more thrilled had my mouse jumped up and started dancing for me!

Although I won’t call this an ethical concern, one gripe that I have is that it seems as if not all blogs were monitored, or wait- it seems as if some ignorant and intolerant, prejudice-fuelled comments were allowed to slip through the blog cracks. Two days before I began this piece saw me sitting on my bed, looking at different blogs and seeing how much mine kicked their arses. I clicked on a blog post entitled “homosexuality” and was horrified to read the narrow minded, discriminatory commentary on sexuality at Rhodes, posted by somebody who excused his or herself because of her/his religion and the fact that they came from the East Rand. As far as I remember, we were all given strict instructions to have respect and decency when writing posts, and although we were encouraged to be provocative, I am pretty sure this did not entail gay-bashing the OUTRhodes society. However that is one small blip on the radar, a miniature-sized spanner in the machinery of my blogging experience.

I am grateful, for the first time this year, for the course that we did this term in journ. I honestly feel as though I have finally learned something this year, a skill that will not only need for my journalism career, but also for my own personal use as well. Sitting in front of the TV and reading SL magazine remained my personal favourite methods of keeping my posts entertaining and innovative, and by being forced to view and use different kinds of media, I feel like I can add more skills to my journalistic repertoire.

Although the course was challenging and frustrating at times, the hours of lost sleep and pizza ordering (I skipped meals and kept Debonairs on speed dial) were all worth it when I think of the glistening reward that I have received and I will definitely rate this a square 9 on the personal development scale. Not only do I feel more excited about taking journ as a subject, but I finally have hope for the next three years of the course (provided I get into JMS 2 of course)! I may not be the most techno-savvy sister around, now I sure have a few tricks up my sleeve that just might woo a potential soul mate (a subject that popped up across blogs many times – creepy but true) but also wow a lecturer or fellow student. The hours spent glued to the technicolour screen of my HP laptop, clicking and dragging my mouse like a deranged tap dancer, have all paid off. The blog- well she is beautiful. And as for me, well, all in all, I’m stoked, because I survived first year journ, and made it through this blogging course a happy camper.

A devastating realisation

I was truly devastated to read this piece on xenophobia. Perhaps I am extremely naive or unaware but I was of the impression that xenophobia was not a problem at Rhodes. Your blog has shown me that this is in fact not the case. It is inexcusable really. What is our country coming to when what they call "the top two percent" of our citizens can possess such a warped and destructive mentality? Our country should, above all others, know what acceptance means. Our peaceful transition from a once disgusting regime into one of democracy has been such a blessing and now it seems that our people are taking it for granted. How easily we forget what pain feels like when we are living in peace. I hope that if Rhodes gives these narrow minded students nothing else, they can at least leave with the realisation that all those amongst are humans, one people that need to come together to make this world a better place. Thank you for making me aware of this problem. Hopefully such words as yours can help to make people aware of their ignorance. Lucy from 4burstbubbles.

Something that just made me MAD!!

I posted this comment in response to a really pathetic blog post on:

http://gerbilthefunkyrhodent.blogspot.com/