Current mood:	good
Current music:	'Some Day (live)' by Blackfield
Entry tags:	interference, life, melbourne, photos, the chaser, university

Praise the non-existent Lord, for another semester of university is done. Yesterday, I submitted one massive essay and half-arsed my way through an exam, and that's it. Given that I half-arsed my way through the essay component of the course in which I had the exam and somehow emerged with a surprisingly high mark for my insubstantial efforts, I'm not overly concerned about the exam. My arguments at least were well-structured and clear, even if I spent the entire time insufferably bored and glancing out the window at the great view of Melbourne (this is the problem with doing exams on the tenth floor of a building). Hopefully that will put me ahead of a pack who seem incapable of articulating clear arguments even when they have weeks to write an essay as opposed to the two hour confines of an exam. Seriously, people, how hard is it to write "this essay will argue [whatever]. Three core points sustain this argument. Firstly ...; secondly ...; thirdly ..." and then stick to the structure you just signposted? I am stunned how often I encounter people in both History and Political Science who simply don't know to do this and fail to make their argument clear in the introduction. Then they wonder why they struggle to get a worthwhile mark. It doesn't matter how brilliantly written the damn thing is if the marker has no idea what position you're arguing!

Now it's suddenly the winter holidays and I'm not sure what to do with myself. Bonnie from Interference is in town this week, so I'm sure we'll have a couple of Melburnian Interferencer meet-ups. And I imagine I'll drag Kat on some rail photography expeditions. But for now, I'm sitting around feeling like I should be doing something, like assignment deadlines and exam pressures should be looming ominously above my head, but they aren't. I'm sure it will take me a few days to get used to being on holidays. Happens every time, really.

After yesterday's exam, I took a few photos of the view from both the northern and southern sides of the Redmond Barry Building, so I suppose I'll share them here. Unfortunately, it was a rather gloomy day, so Melbourne doesn't quite look its finest, but oh well.

	Looking roughly north across a cricket/Aussie Rules field in the direction of Brunswick.
	Looking more westwards to the left of the cricket and hockey fields, across Parkville to Royal Park and the Moonee Valley beyond. If you look really closely, the lighting towers and main hockey field grandstand of the State Netball and Hockey Centre are visible in Royal Park.
	Looking northwards again, this time to the right of the cricket/AFL field over the university (residential colleges? I never go up this end of the uni) to Brunswick.
	Now looking south towards the central business district of Melbourne. The ugly offence to architecture prominent in this view is Melbourne University's Doug McDonnell Building.
	Swinging a bit east from the previous southward view to take in more of central Melbourne.

Now, I would like to whet your appetite for a series coming soon to this very blog. This week, exclusive to Axver's LiveJournal, it's the 2008 Shit Boring Entry Series. At least three entries of the most tedious updates you've ever read in your life. Paragraph after paragraph of uninteresting proposals. I'll probably post it over a delayed timeframe to make it go even slooower. With my typical emphasis on detail that makes it well nigh impossible to ever see why you should care, you'll soon agree this is undoubtedly blogging at its dullest. In fact, just posting blank updates would probably be more interesting. That's the 2008 Shit Boring Entry Series, live but definitely not lively, on Axver's LiveJournal.

(You may also wish to whet your appetite for the 2006 Shit Boring Golf Classic, since I really should link you to that gem of a clip from The Chaser's War On Everything if I'm going to plagiarise it.)