Movies - Ironman 2

So last night I finally went to see Iron Man 2 with my friend Patrick.  I'm not really much of an action girl, but I really dig the Iron Man series and I've been dying to see this before it leaves the movies.  We both liked the film but we both could have done with more action :P  However his Scarlett/Gwen quota and my Robert Downey Jr. quota were well and truly filled.

Now all I have left to say (besides watch it if you haven't!) is DUN DUN DUNNNNN:

Last Class at Uni and Results

Yay! Today I had my last class at university for the semester and boy am I happy for the break.  It's not technically a break yet - I still have one massive (50%!!!) assignment and my german speaking exam - But after 10:30am on the 21st of July I am free - free I tell you!

So I got my german results back from our last writing exam - 22/30 booyah!  I also got back my second assignment results from Introduction to Journalism:

So basically I got like a high 6 - but YAY!  So for an update - I'm sitting on a 6 in my two Journalism subjects pending one assignment each, a 6 in German pending my speaking exam and hopefully a 5 in Spanish pending an abysmal final writing exam which was worth 15% I think?  ^_^

Toowong Cemetery - Part 3 - Interesting Finds

Yeah you better believe I'm milking this cemetery business for all it's worth lol.
Today's blog will be about some of the more 'interesting' finds of the day.  First up we have the gravestone of Edward McGregor - an amazing sculpture with a supposedly uncanny likeness to the deceased.  There is an urban legend surrounding this guy, that he supposedly changes the position of his head every now and then - some guy swears tooth and nail it winked at him, but I've yet to see him move!

Then I have a set of graves that totally made me think of chest pieces, framed by the freaky sky that afternoon.  NB: I did not do anything to enhance that photo, it just seriously looked SO weird that day!

And lastly, (and rather controversially) - this little beauty from the inside of the monument right at the front of the cemetery near Edward McGregor:

It reads: PUP - A faithful canine friend maliciously poisoned.

I am dying (no pun intended) to know what the hell happened here.  Why was the dog poisoned?  Who did it?  Was it even poisoned or was it the suspicious mind of its previous owner?  I guess I'll never know, but for now the drama of this little monument is enough to keep me sustained.

Media Conference at UQ

So today was the big day - the media conference held for our final assignment in my Reporting subject.  I'd spent the past three days doing mega research into the topic, a really light reading experience of - Human Trafficking in Australia.

If I wasn't typing notes to save my life I probably would have really got into what Andrea Schloenhardt head of the UQ Human Trafficking Group had to say about the issue.  Basically he talked about the way legislation was formed leading up to the policies we have now.  He also interestingly pointed out the way media has focused on only the sex trafficking and that the whole picture isn't being painted clearly.

From here I have to write three stories about human trafficking, it's a really really complex issue and I've been trying to wrap my head around all the things that have happened and are happening at the moment in Australia.  No doubt I am going to be talking to some really interesting people over the next two weeks as I'm hoping to do one story on each issue (kind of, I'm going to mostly talk about what's being done to prevent trafficking instead of a particular story about sex trafficking).

In the meantime if you're at all interested in this issue here are some handy links I've dug up:
The UQ Human Trafficking Group
NY Times Blog Debate on Overseas Adoption 
Julia Rollings Blog - This is an Australian lady that adopted 5 children and it turned out that two of her children had been illegally taken from their mother.
Project Respect - support for women in the sex industry, they're also an NGO on sex trafficking
The Scarlet Alliance - a pro-prostitution website bringing up valid points about making the sex industry a  safer environment and the effects of legislation on migrant workers/the trafficking situation.  Also reveal a lot of the misconceptions of 'sex slaves' and sex trafficking.
Human Trafficking Org

And some books on the issue:
Love Our Way by Julia Rollings
The Johns by Victor Malarek - an interesting viewpoint of looking into the men that create the demand for prostitution.

Toowong Cemetery Part 2 - Impressive Grave Sites

These are some of the bigger grave sites in Toowong Cemetery that caught my attention.  First up two shots of the monuments for Mayne.  I haven't read the Mayne Inheritance yet, but I did do a bit of snooping into who the Mayne family were and they were pretty big around Brisbane.  For one the university I go to (University of Queensland) I'm told the land was donated by the Mayne's.

And I live just across the road from where their main estate used to be - it is now part of the Wesley Hospital.  They of course also have a very interesting involvement with some murders in Brisbane, which I believe is what the bulk of the Mayne Inheritance is about.  And here's an urban legend for you - supposedly there have been a few incidents of a 'red liquid' seeping out from the grates below this monument.. ooooh creepy! ;)

Next up is Governor Samuel Blackall's monument.  It is by far the largest and most imposing monument in the cemetery - and to top it all off it sits on the highest point of the grounds, so I'm pretty sure you can see it from the highway but don't quote me on it.

Not sure if this is anyone important, but I was struck by how nice the sculptures were on this one.  Love how creepy the photo looks too!

Now Bonus photo - City views in the afterlife!

Toowong Cemetery Part 1 - Jack the Ripper?

So since the start of the year Justin and I have this new past-time hobby of going to the local cemetery, which for us is one of the biggest in Brisbane - the Toowong Cemetery.  We were sitting around doing nothing one Sunday in January and I had the idea of going to go check out the place, because I'd never walked through a cemetery and though it might be interesting.  Then I googled the history of the place and 'urban legends' - I am completely obsesses by UB's, I'll have to do a post about what I've found out over the years - anyway I discovered that a Jack the Ripper suspect is buried in TC.  It took us two days to find the grave because the first time I didn't bring a map but find him we did!

Anyway today we went with Justin's sister Sian and her beautiful little doggy Monty for a walk through TC.  We wanted to show her some of our finds in particular Mr J. Ripper and I took a few snaps of my favourite graves that I'll talk about spread over blog posts.

Our suspect Mr Walter Porriott was buried in 1952 in the same grave as his last wife Eliza (known as 'Bessie) - the surviving generation of Porriott's claim that he is not named on the grave because of a deeply shameful reason that no-one has discussed since that era.

The gravestone has been damaged but you can go to the Brisbane Times article to see it in it's former glory.  This is a shot of the gravestone listing of Eliza and Walter.

This is a shot of the grave from Sian's blog - because Justin pulled horrid faces in the shots I took!

This grave site can be found at "Portion 7A, Section 185, Grave Number 9/10".  The map for the west side of the cemetery can be found here and the east side can be found here if you'd like to have a look for some graves yourself :)

Studying

Today all I did was study from about midday to 9pm. So due to that this blog is now about the things that can be found on my desk including one very special little item...

These are my spanish revision notes. I find learning languages that the best way for me to learn is to write idiot-proof notes about rules and verb endings. Then I stick them up on my wall to read a few times a day.

This is my little fluffy stick thing.. it doesn't actually do anything but it lives with my pens to make them more interesting. Every now and then I might bring it out to piss someone off with.. it confuses the rattikins when I tickle them teehee.

This is Lappy 3: The Mac Reincarnation. My parents gave me it for christmas after Lappy 2: The Sony Vaio turned into a technicolor dreamland one day.

LOL. This.. I don't know what the crap this is. It's supposedly a 'wrist rest' but I think that all falls apart once you realise what you're looking at has a pile of poo in it's mouth. But wait! That pile of poo has a function! If you pull it out the little animal that is lovingly about to digest it will vibrate to 'massage' my wrist. The only thing it's massaging is my ribcages from laughing at its existence. Justin gave it to me for christmas last year - there was an entire stall of these guys! All I need to make my life complete now is one of their poo toys - literally a pile of poo that stands about 30cm high. Win!