Self-defence

I think it’s a good thing to be prepared for not necessarily the worst but at least a dangerous situation. I went to France as a school trip a year ago and we planned on Dad teaching my friend and me basic self-defence before we left in case anything happened. That didn’t eventuate, but I have started using the punching bag regularly over the last few days (partially because it's fun and, out of my holiday exercise regime, the easiest thing to commit to doing - seriously, we bought a Wii and Zumba ages ago and I only feel comfortable using it if I'm alone or if only my brother is home, because he tried it out once and knows how awkward it would be to do with others - and partially because if I'm ever assaulted I want to be able to punch without breaking my thumb) and my brother has retaught me the correct way to punch. People don’t all need to know different moves and have practice sparring etc if that doesn’t interest them, but I think it’s important to at least know how to punch, places to aim and other basic knowledge in case something does happen. For example, if you’re being put in a headlock you should drop your chin to your chest so that the person can’t get their arm to your neck and strangle you. The armpit area is really sensitive and pinching there is extremely effective, while not long lasting. You need to be aware of the positioning of your thumb, and whether you’re going to roll your wrist, when punching to make sure that nothing gets broken. Things like that, little tricks that won’t necessarily win you a fight or immediately get you away from a bad situation but might give you the opportunity to distract the assailant for a few seconds or get out of their grip or at least delay you being strangled, could be the thing that allows you to last until you can get help or that minimises your injuries.

CityFest: A Wonderful, Truth-Bringing Day

Mum and I went to CityFest. We ran into my cousin there, talked to a school friend and another school friend's mum briefly, and saw a netball friend and her family in the distance, and Dad met us there in the night time in time to hear the end of Luis Palau's session and the following bands. It was an amazing day. We arrived about midday so we had lunch at the foreshore before wandering around the stalls, watching some extreme bike riding, getting a photo with a guy dressed up as a stormtrooper, eating ice cream while watching people on one of the rides and going to the lighthouse (that we'd thought was Fort Scratchley's - oops!).

Before I relate my favourite moment, here's some context: Mum really liked the blue CityFest shirts but they were for the volunteers. We ended up both buying a white shirt, different design, but the blue ones were really pretty. Now, at one point my cousin, Zac, joined the people in front of the stage (Mum and I were sitting ten metres back in the shade). When he'd just reached the mass of people the people on stage started throwing shirts and other things to the crowd so Mum joked about Zac catching a shirt for her (we'd mentioned her attempt to get one earlier to him). However, we both figured that he wasn't anywhere near where they were being thrown. About ten minutes later, Zac returned and pulled out a rolled-up blue shirt from behind his back, revealing that the first throw had gone right to him and, as he'd been surrounded by small kids (he's over six foot so he'd have had to be trying hard not to catch it for them to do so), he'd told them that if it was their size they could have it, but if not he would. From memory, it was an XL, so it is actually too big for Mum and she hasn't worn it, but seeing Zac with the shirt when we'd assumed that there was no chance for him to have caught one was fantastic. It was also wonderful listening to Darlene Zschech from Hillsong, Luis Palau (and finding out that Dad was there when he came to Newcastle fifteen years ago) and all of the other bands to whom I otherwise wouldn't have listened (The Salem International Choir was awesome).

Luis Palau's was, naturally, the highlight of the night. My phone was out of battery, so I ended up writing notes on Mum's phone and texting them to myself so I wouldn't forget.There were a few things in particular that he said that resonated with me.

1. Have eternal life as a retirement plan.

2. Someone who dies is, in that moment, seeing God for the first time.

3. Sinning is spitting in God's face. While salvation is not based on works, sinning after salvation is like accepting God's gift and then turning around and spitting in His face.

On the third point, I've struggled with a particular sin over the past year and a half or so. What he said struck me. I'd tried to stop this particular sin previously but had never succeeded, partially because part of me didn't want to. This is helping though. When I initially drafted this, I didn't want to jump the gun and say that it's a fantastic thing that has changed my life in case I then let it lose its effectiveness, but the truth is that it has been very effective as a way of avoiding sin. Because my mind can force me to ignore other arguments, but it's kind of hard to ignore 'You continue like that and you're spitting in God's face'. This, coupled with a questioning of the depth of my faith, which I will get to in an upcoming post regarding the apocalypse, and an attempt to look at the Bible historically and to read related texts intelligently, which I will also get to, has helped me to face this sin. It's something that I encountered, and half fell to, again this morning after a month or so - so I have to thank the Lord for having today be the day I reread the notes I'd taken.

All in all, it was an incredible day.

Relatively small town/city living/There's not "nothing to do in my town"

I love my town/city. Towncity? It's officially a city, but because I've mostly lived on the outskirts of it I've always affectionately thought of it as a town. Regardless, I’ve lived in this general vicinity for my whole life and, while I’d love the greater range of opportunities to go to things like conventions or to find like-minded groups that would come from places with more people, I can do almost everything that I want to do here. There are fields and courts for a variety of sports. There are towns brimming with history nearby. There are churches. There are good schools, though I’m not sure whether I’m really qualified to pass judgment on that as I went to school fifty minutes away from home. There’s the mall and the shopping centre, and a wide variety of shops are available about an hour away. There are lots of amenities. There are beaches, though we’re not really a beach family. But one thing that has stumped me is what I’d recommend to a visitor. One of the French questions that we prepared for was what we’d recommend a tourist see or do. I decided to interpret it as in the Hunter Valley rather than my specific city as there is nothing that I’d really have to suggest, except maybe one annual festival that comes to mind or the monthly markets or travelling to surrounding places. My town is lovely. I love it and really hope to be able to eventually find full time work in the area rather than having to move. But, while there is plenty to do in Newcastle specifically – beaches, Fort Stratchley, the lighthouse, and probably a lot of things that I don’t know about – I don’t think there’s anything special to do in my town unless some festival or something is on. But in a weirdly converse way, the fact that it has nothing ‘special’ about it just makes it all the more special. It’s a town that may not have all that much to offer tourists within its own borders, but it’s also a town that has a lot to offer me.

People who just keep needing rescuing

If you’re in the position where you are constantly being rescued, either by a superhero or by Mario or by Link, wouldn’t you do something to take yourself out of that situation? Since the HSC finished, I’ve had a lot of time on my hands to read, watch TV, exercise and play some games that I haven’t played before or for a while. I’ve specifically watched a bunch of crime shows, Iron Man, The Dark Knight and some Harry Potters, and reread The Evil Overlord’s List and related lists, but the following discussion applies to trends perpetuated in movies in general rather than just in these ones.

The movie-watching and game-playing reminded me of how there’s often a character who just keeps needing to be rescued (usually a girl because it’s generally the love interest so as to increase the emotional impact). This may not be through any fault of his or her own. It may be that, like Princess Zelda, the character is the key to something important or holds a position of authority. It may be that they’re a good bargaining chip. It may be that the protagonist/hero cares about them and so it’s a way of hurting and/or manipulating him. It may be that the character is just that stupid and defenceless that (s)he can be constantly put in danger. The trend itself kind of makes sense. If you’re hanging around superheroes or your father is Jack Bauer, you’d expect to be near situations that they can deal with but you have no hope of handling due to the vast difference in your physical capabilities. If I were in love with Clark Kent, and he with me, I’d accept that someone against whom I have no chance of fighting would probably try to use me against him at some point. But, regardless of why I'm in the position of damsel in distress, after the first or at least the second time, I’d also try to equip myself with means of escape or avoiding it. I’d learn how to pick a lock in case I’m locked in a basement or handcuffed, and I’d make sure that I had bobby pins or whatnot in my bag or preferably on my person (well, having a bobby pin or two in my hair wouldn't be conspicuous) at all times just in case. I’d learn basic martial arts so that I’d at least be able to do something against enemies that aren’t superpowered. I'd make sure I wasn't the only person in the show whose phone ever experienced problems; if my dad's phone can be at full charge and capacity all the time, and I've already been endangered once, I'd make sure mine was the same. If I were American, I’d have a gun registered and know how to use it (and be aiming at legs because I wouldn’t be able to force myself to kill someone; though I recently found out from TV Tropes that that’s not a surefire way to avoid killing someone as you can still hit a major artery, so really shooting anywhere on a person is shooting to kill). There are probably a plethora of movies and shows and games in which the person who is constantly kidnapped is prepared. There’d also be those that subvert this trend. I’m not enough of a gamer or a broad enough TV watcher to know how often this happens, but Daphne was somewhat prepared in the second Scooby Doo movie and there's probably lots of examples of it on TV Tropes. But it confuses me that Bowser can constantly capture Princess Peach – you would have security systems in place even before the first time, and surely the sight of Bowser approaching the castle would set off a multitude of alarm bells and the addition of extra security personnel around the princess.

Updates and an equation about marks

I'm about to upload a group of posts that I drafted in December but didn't upload because I wanted to go back to expand and edit them. I'm reading through them and making minor changes before posting but am going to largely leave them untouched because they're really just holding up more posts as I wanted to wait until these were finished but now, looking back on them, am not sure whether I can really continue the trains of thought. I'll leave the ones that I didn't really get a good start on and hopefully come back to them at a later point.

Considering that the title for this post is going to be Update, I may as well give some updates on life at the moment. I'm happy with my HSC results. I wasn't on the first day as it was, while in the middle of the seven-mark range I'd wanted, a mark under the mark that I truly wanted. However, I then reminded myself that I should be very happy with that, considering I didn't study as much as I'd planned (I'd thought I'd do fourish hours a day, starting the second week of the holidays, but didn't) and was distracted during the last two weeks of exams, and that it was well over what I needed. When people from my year were sharing their results on our Facebook formal page, a person made a comment about how your mark isn't that important or something. Another person said how yes, it's not, but it represents the work that he put in over the year. Reading that exchange, even though both guys had been more forceful with their statements and from memory it was a bigger issue, was really interesting. It's important to see your mark as an equation: ability + effort + other (alertness on day, etc) = mark. If you didn't put in as much effort as you should have or if you'd been nervous and so had slept poorly leading up to exams, then that's the case. Don't look at it as "I didn't try my 'personal best', or there were extraneous circumstances that affected my mark, so it's not a true indication of my ability".  That's life. You put in the effort you did and you were as relaxed as you were and things happened, like they always do, and that culminated in your mark being what it was. Look at it as "My mark was very satisfactory for the effort I put in; if I wanted to try to get higher, I should have studied more/been more disciplined in sleeping patterns, and while there wasn't much I could do about those personal problems that cropped up during exam period, I could either appeal or I couldn't, and if I couldn't then I tried my best". I empathise with people who had personal problems during exam period. My grandfather was in hospital from the Sunday night leading into the third week until mid-December, and I had four exams in that time period, including one the day after he was admitted. But I still see it as important to view it in the latter perspective rather than the former. It's saying very similar things but the essence is different - one implies that the fact that you could've gone better renders that mark invalid, whereas the other says that the mark is a good indication of ability + effort + other and that there may have been things out of your control affecting both effort and other but that they happened and that you need to move on.

Okay, glancing over that paragraph it looks like I'm not content with my mark, but I really am. It's just that that process was the one I went through when reconciling myself with not getting over 90 and I tend to ramble when I have a keyboard in front of me (the computer kind, though the musical kind is about two metres away).

I've also started working in child care. I simultaneously love it and am terrified that I'll encounter something I can't deal with. (Yeah, proposition at the end of a sentence, but it sounds weird as 'something with which I can't deal'.). Which makes it a very good experience as the field in which I want to work is one where the point is helping people, which requires interaction and uncertainty about what the next cases will hold. Yeah, I still don't like calling non-family members on the phone (or even answering it, really, though that's less stressful). I can handle best friends but then if a sibling or parent answers it it reverts back to non-family-member-what-do-I-say worry levels. Even though it's just a phone call. That's something that I better overcome before I finish my degree, eh? Maybe I should call everyone whose number I have or go out to a park or something and make myself talk to every person who is neither a child without a parent, who shouldn't be talking to strangers, nor a creepy-looking stranger; isn't immersing oneself in one's fear supposed to help? Anyway, I am loving my job and the nerves at each new day have almost completely disappeared, so I think I just need to get accustomed to meeting new people.