25 March, 2010 in Uncategorized by Aonghas

“COLONY” Art

If you’ve walked/driven down Symonds Street before, you have probably noticed Colony. That’s the name given to the supposed artwork through the window of the Engineering building at Auckland Uni. I see it all the time, but I didn’t realise there is actually a meaning behind the scribble-like neon mess. I was waiting outside my lecture theatre today when I noticed the plaque next to the artwork with a description by the artist. The description read:

COLONY 2004

I made COLONY to enhance the counterpoint the monumentalism of its site: the lecture theatre and surrounding buildings in the Faculty of Engineering. This expansive neon light-drawing adds a sense of transition and movement to the space. Clustered elements radiate from a point, then unravel towards the perimeter, morphing from semi-figurative motifs to abstract-surrealist gestures. Rendered in my trademark graphic style, a synthesis of writing, pictograms and abstraction, the forms appear random, chaotic or free-form, but are actually highly considered and carefully placed. The title suggests a collection of related entities with similar goals cohabiting in a new found territory. I chose neon gas for its vital “living flame” quality. The incendiary persimmon colour of the tubes is the chromatic opposite of the tinted green glass encapsulating the space.

Paul Hartigan
10.03.2005

Sounds like quite a masterpiece right? You would think so with such in-depth analysis. The thing that amazes me the most is how someone managed to extract that much out of what seems like random squiggles with no meaning. You can decide for yourself…

Hardigan's artwork "COLONY" in the Engineering building at Auckland Uni

8 August, 2008 in Uncategorized by Aonghas

Ugh, It’s A Kilt!

Today the Year 13 students got the opportunity to dress up in cultural costumes to celebrate cultural diversity and also to round off International Languages Week. My outfit consisted of the Anderson tartan kilt with a matching Anderson tartan tie. I wore those long white socks that go nearly up to your knees; they were such a pain to keep up. When I got to school I found out that Dr. Colvine was also wearing a kilt and he recognised the Anderson tartan when he saw me. I was quite surprised how many Year 13 students decided to dress up actually. Some people even went to the effort of going to costume stores to hire their outfits!

A group of Year 13 students dressed up for International Languages Week

5 August, 2008 in Uncategorized by Aonghas

Chinese Celebration

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARTYN AND BECKY LI!
Day two of International Languages Week and we celebrate the Chinese culture. I should mention that yesterday’s day of celebration was actually Spanish (hence the pinyata competition). Today we managed to get the music playing outside the music room sliding door during interval. Yesterday I forgot to bring a CD of cultural music but luckily Caleb had some cool Japanese music on his laptop so we managed to get a CD burnt in time for interval. The main attraction of the day of course was at lunch time with the Chinese food being sold in front of B Block. Now I knew that Chinese food was always popular during International Languages Week, but I didn’t think it would be THIS popular. By the time I arrived at the food stall, all the spring rolls were already sold out. Now that’s what I call fast food! The fried rice was on its way out too by the looks of it.

After lunch I went to the junior assembly with Luke and some of the other Prefects before going down to the sports pavilion to help with the clean up of pots and pans and woks and utensils. When I arrived at the pavilion, it looked like everything was under control in the way of washing, so I helped wipe down some tables. After that I felt a little redundant because I didn’t know what to do. Ji Eun was practising for Bring It On so I asked if she could teach me a few moves from their performance. It wasn’t easy, let me tell ya! The 8 moves that I learned in 15 minutes was merely 10 seconds in their performance which was several minutes in total. If I struggled remembering the order of those moves, I think I would have no chance remembering everything in their routine.

Ms Hsiao asked us to go around school and take down all the advertisements of Chinese food from windows and classroom doors so the remainder of the period was spent doing that. Tomorrow… Japanese Day!

27 July, 2008 in Uncategorized by Aonghas

School Ball Round Two

I woke up this morning with the thought of the Avondale College Ball in mind. The weather outside was miserable and wet (hmm, I just thought about the weather outside, I mean it would have to be outside right? You can’t have weather inside…) and I didn’t really feel like going to violin lesson to be honest. But it was one of those things that I couldn’t get myself out of and usually when I feel like that, I end up actually enjoying violin lesson anyway. Mum came home just after 10am to take us to violin lesson. Afterwards we went to Pak’n Save on Lincoln Road and Mum spent forever in there. I think all three of us in the car were dazed and unconscious by the time she had returned, not to mention the fogged windows and smell of bodies in the car.

I didn’t do much for the rest of the afternoon when we finally got home, but I knew I had to pick Serenne up from her house at around 5:15pm so I made sure I allowed time to have a shower before I left. The storm outside was bustling and hurling around and I imagined arriving at the ball and seeing all the girls in their soaking dresses with smudged make-up running down their faces… it didn’t seem like a pretty sight.

When I arrived at Serenne’s house, she gave me the tie to wear that matched her dress material and colour. It took me three, maybe four attempts at tying the tie before it finally looked like it was the right length. Even then the skinny end of the tie was longer than the fat end at the front, so I just decided that I would tuck the thinner end into my shirt. We had a couple of photos taken before we left, and luckily for us, the rain wasn’t falling too hard at the time.

I forgot to bring the address of Serenne’s friend’s house where they were having the pre-ball and it didn’t help that the road map was left in our other car, so I was left to go with my gut instinct as well as listen to Serenne point me in the general direction. We ended up circling a few roads a couple of times, but finally managed to locate the house (which was lucky, because I was getting worried that we would be driving around in circles for the rest of the night)!.

When I walked into the house, I was introduced to the friend’s mother, and a few other parents were also there. I was ushered into the dining room where everyone else was, and Serenne introduced me to her school friends, some I had heard about before. It was a little unnerving being around some of her friends at first, because I didn’t know what Serenne had told her friends about me, and I didn’t know what sort of first impressions I was giving. I just tried to stay friendly and greet new people as I passed by. The photo shoot just before we all left for the ball made me feel like a celebrity! All the parents had their digital cameras out and there were flashes flashing all over the show for a good minute or two. I never realised how hard it was to keep a big smile on my face constantly for so long!

At first I thought I was going to be following someone else to the ball, because I had no idea where Eden Park was, but we weren’t sure who to follow and before long we were lost already. Serenne rang one of her friends who was still to come past us apparently, so her friend told us to stop on the side of the road and wait for them to honk their horn as they drove past. I stopped on the corner of the road (where it was perhaps not the safest place to stop) and sure enough a loud toooooot blazed past not long after (oh yeah, and I experienced the Doppler effect right there too).

Parking was not a problem at all because there were carparks within the premises that we could use. After walking up five flights of stairs, we walked across the red carpet and shook the hands of the head students and the College Principal. Serenne was on the look out for her friends to sit with, bumping into other people she knew on the way. We found her friends occupying a table on the other side of the dance floor so we joined them. After we had settled down in our places, someone suggested that we have our photos taken while it wasn’t too busy so we headed to the end of the ball room where the professional photographers were. First we had a group photo and then we had individual partner photos. Serenne and I were the last partners in the group to get our photo taken. I hope they looked all right…

The dance floor was being entertained by the live band they had up on the stage. I must say that the band was very professional and the standard of music they played was very good. I didn’t want to get too wasted before dinner though, so I made sure I didn’t pull out many of my signature dance moves too soon! There was a large variety of pastas, salads and meats to choose from at dinner time. Everything looked so appetising, but I didn’t want to over-eat and get too full. Dessert was served at our table after dinner. For dessert we had these cube-shaped ice cream-filled savoury things that tasted pretty good.

For the rest of the evening we spent most of the time dancing to the music either performed by the band or played by the DJ. It was very entertaining and a lot of fun, but as the saying goes “time flies when you’re having fun”, it sure did. I met up with a few old friends from Rangeview throughout the evening and I even got to have a photo taken with the Deputy Head Boy of Avondale which was very cool.

I just remembered that Carey was at the St Cuthbert’s ball tonight as well. I wonder how that went for him.

Oh and when I got home I heard about the All Blacks game. Disappointing 34-19 loss to the Wallabies in Sydney…

23 July, 2008 in School, Uncategorized by Aonghas

Burning Off the Fat!

Unlike usual Wednesdays when I get to sleep in until half past nine in the morning, today was different. The Prefects meeting scheduled for 8:45am in the Board Room meant that I had to wake up and get to school early. When I arrived at school and got to the Board room, most of the Prefects were already sitting down and Mr Coughlan was speaking. There were no chairs left so I went and stood at the back of the room with John Kim. Mr Coughlan was talking to the Prefects about help needed at Parent/Teacher Interviews tomorrow also at the Open Evening next Thurday night. He also talked about the evaluation of the Prefect group this year so far and suggested that we come up with ideas for the rest of the school year, because it’s going to go by so quickly. Luke continued the meeting when Mr Coughlan left and suggested some different ways the Prefects could profile themselves within the Junior student body. I thought all his suggestions were valid and I was keen to see them put to action, though I don’t know if some of the other Prefects had the same reaction. Maybe they might just have to bite the bullet on that one if they don’t like it.

It was strange going back to our form class and having the first period off because I wasn’t used to coming into school that early on a Wednesday. It felt like there was nothing to do, since I usually have a class before my study periods so I’m already switched on into that school mood.

The rest of the day that followed was pretty standard really. We had a quick cultural committee meeting in the music room at interval – that was pretty much just to get everyone up to date with what the cultural committee were doing this term and also to organise the Sing Star competition that we are running in week four of this term. At lunch time we had choir practice as well, because the choir is performing at Te Atatu Intermediate School on Friday this week to promote our school. Apparently Mrs Faaea-Semeatu had asked Ari to run the choir rehearsal because she wasn’t going to be here at lunch time. When most of the choir (actually not that many people turned up, I would say maybe half the choir was there…) had arrived to the music room and were lingering around, Ari called for a attention and gave us our starting notes on the piano. She gave the tenors (me) an F sharp as our starting note, but it sounded a tad odd. Maybe it’s because I haven’t sung The Rutherford Way for a long time, but I wasn’t really feeling it with an F sharp. It was like yeeeah.. but nah. The other people in the tenor section (who were there) were Julian and Alex Strange (I think he was supposed to be singing tenor… unless there was a bass part, though I’ve never heard it before). The balance between the girls and the boys wasn’t very ideal; the ratio was like five to one (5:1). “Five to one man, FIVE to ONE!” -Paul Fisher Anyway, before we got much further, Mrs Faaea-Semeatu (it feels weird typing her whole name out all the time…) popped in and we quickly ran once through The Rutherford Way. I accidently sang “The Rutherford Day” in one of the choruses and had a little self-chuckle.

The rest of the day seemed to fly past because our Year 13 assembly ran slightly overtime, which meant the English period was shortened even more than the already shortened periods we have on Wednesdays. Like yesterday, I wasn’t going to be picked up from school until later (today it was 4:30pm) so I just stayed in our form class while I waited. Today after school Ms Russell was helping John Kim fill out an application for a scholarship of some sort (I think) and was discussing some of John’s personality attributes. We all agreed that John was an honest, determined and considerate individual who tried his best all the time (good on you John!). I sat down on the sofa with Faber and we started to talk about the film camp in Christchurch that we went to last year. That’s when I took out my phone and started playing him the song Popular from the musical Wicked. It was a song that a couple of girls performed in the studio at film camp. That’s when Faber jumped up and told me that he had brought in his DVD of film camp to school. Excited by this, we both sat around a laptop and watched the Popular performance on the DVD. Michele Lee was also bystanding while we watched, although I don’t know if the performance was very appealing to her. Or perhaps it was just because the girl on the video was jumping around in a pink babydoll type dress. Other videos we watched from the DVD afterward included Feeding the Ducks which I must say was quite random. It was basically random shots of ducks in the river at St Andrew’s College (the school where the camp was held) with the shark music from Jaws as background music. I don’t know if they were trying to buld up some sort of suspense with that music but the ducks were too innocent-looking to cause any harm. We also started watching The LipSync Competition but gave up on it when it started to drag on for too long.

Time was running along and before long it was time for me to leave. Dad picked me up at the back gate at 4:30pm and I went home to get changed because I had an appointment with Nick at the gym today. I drove myself to Club Physical and saw Nick there, who had just started. I was a bit anxious about coming to the gym today because I hadn’t been for a good two weeks at least (Nick thinks it was more than that… I’m sure it wasn’t that long ago!). Nick decided that I would just do his workout today (well, with slightly lighter weights) so I could get back into the routine again. I must say that the weeks of not going to the gym took a bit of a toll on my body. The weights felt heavier than they used to be, but fortunately I managed to keep up with Nick’s intense regime. Half way through our workout I met Helena by the drinking fountain. Apparently she had just been running on the treadmill for half an hour (wow, I don’t even think I could run for that long!). Nick introduced me to all these weird exercises today, which he assured me were more advanced than the exercises I was doing before. The last exercise I did was this one where I lay on a backwards inclined bench with a pole held behind my head, and I had to do reps of crunches-type things while looking at the ceiling before swinging the pole from side to side ten times. Yeah I know it sounds weird and, believe me, it definitely looked weird too! After our workout at the gym I took Nick home in the car because it started to rain. Before I dropped him off we had a chat in the car just to catch up in general, since we haven’t really talked for a long time. It was a good chat though. Very interesting.

I didn’t really do much else tonight to be honest. I think I had better get some sleep though, because I have a walk with Mr Moore before school tomorrow!

21 July, 2008 in School, Uncategorized by Aonghas

The Start of Term… THREE?!

You know I really thought I would start the new term fresh and actually come to school all organised and ready for once. Unfortunately for me though, three hours of sleep and a cold morning to wake up to didn’t exactly help. I was procrastinating in bed about how much longer I could hold on to the warmth before I had to let it all go. After my quick shower I remembered that I hadn’t sorted out what I was going to take to school (all my books and paper were sitting in a pile in the middle of the lounge floor) so I decided I would just shove the whole lot into a bag and take it all to school; that way I could feel confident that I had everything I needed. Nick sent me a text asking when Warehouse Stationery opened, but I couldn’t reply since I don’t have any texts left! grr.

Travelling to school was another typical car ride filled with adrenaline. The minutes before the second bell were dwindling and my time allowance calculations for each set of traffic lights were not looking too great. When we finally arrived I dashed out and up the back gate driveway, only to discover that everyone was still lingering and only starting to move off to class. I saw Gannin and Mrs Russell walking towards our form class so I assumed we had form/tutor class before period one. Phew! What a relief.

I could hear the sound of chatter from the bottom of the staircase and prepared myself for another school term. I forced a smile and walked in looking as cherry as possible (nah, it wasn’t that bad actually!). Mrs Russell had a few quick words and mentioned Rose’s and my grades for our university papers in semester one. Caleb and TK had gone to Wellington and Deanna was talking to Caleb on her cell phone, as the rest of us discussed our holidays.

And then the daily routine began. First period… Chinese. We learned about future career occupations and talked about what each of us hope to do after we leave school. I was looking forward to my first free study period after English. After only two classes I already felt like I needed a break. After checking to see whether Mr Coughlan was in his office, Rose and I headed up to form class where we were met by Luke, Kirk and maybe someone else who I can’t quite remember (sorry, I’m tired okay!). Matthew..? Hmm.. anyway, I checked my lunch bag to see what I had to eat for today and found four pieces of bread. That meant I could go and toast them in the toaster! Unfortunately for me, when I walked out into the room next door, the toaster was on the table and the cable was wrapped around it. It was as if someone had taken it… during the holiday.. and didn’t plug it back in. grr. Okay, no biggie. But then when I put the bread back into the plastic bag and unwrapped the cable around the toaster, I discovered the cable was only half a metre long! I mean, what’s with that?! It doesn’t even reach the plug behind the table, PLUS the microwave was in the way too. Then I looked around for anywhere else I could plug the toaster in, and there was a power outlet on the other side of the room by the sink. But then I thought the toaster might get splashed by the water from the sink and I could possibly be electrocuted… Sigh, all the while my bread was condensing moisture as it sat in the bag on the table waiting to be toasted. I just decided that I couldn’t be bothered with it, so in the end I just took the bread back into form class and ate it raw. That was five minutes of my life wasted that I’ll never get back! ha

We had a head students meeting at lunchtime with Mr Coughlan in his office. Allie wasn’t at school today so it was just Luke, Rose and me. We discussed the Rutherford open evening next Thursday and we also learned that our Rutherford Day speaker for this year is going to be (and I don’t even know if we’re supposed to know this yet) our Prime Minister Helen Clark! Talk about going straight to the top. That was pretty exciting news, I can’t wait to hear what she has to say.

Rose and I went to look at the ball photos for order in the foyer after assembly. Mrs Russell pointed one particular photo out to me, which was a shot of me dancing (well, I assumed that was what I was doing, or trying to do) in the middle of the dance floor. It was um.. let’s just say it wouldn’t be at the top of my list if I was going to order.

When school ended and everyone left, I was by myself in form class. I resulted to lazing on the sofa as I waited for my ride due to arrive at 3:45pm. It was a tad awkward when all of a sudden the back door opens and in pops the head of the new cleaning lady. I forgot that the old cleaner (I think his name was Sam) had left at the end of last term so I wasn’t expecting to see her, or expecting her to see me beached on the sofa like a stranded whale.

Well that was pretty much as exciting as my first day back at school was. It’s a little depressing to think that more than half of the school year has passed, zzzip, goneburger. I guess the best way to stay positive is to not think about the end just yet!