Low Enter Score Is Not The End!

So Year 12 is finally over and you've finally got your Enter Score. You're either very happy with what you got or, like many others, you might be disappointed and upset.

Now you've got until 12pm on Monday 22nd December to change your preferences if you wish to.

I'm no expert, but Going to Uni has a list of alternative ways of getting into the course you want. Here are just a few:

• Wait to see if you're offered a place in the following second or third round offers
  
• Change your preferences, if you've missed out on the course you want then try applying for a similar course with a lower enter. Eg. If you didn't get into Medicine, you could apply for Biomedical Science.
  
• Apply to a regional institution, they tend to have lower enter scores compared to city institutions
  
• Look into TAFE courses and see if there's a similar course to what you want, you can apply for a transfer into a university course, if possible.

I was very disappointed when I'd just missed out on a place for a Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Science. My enter score was just below the clearly-in mark. But I got an offer for an Arts degree and I accepted. I took a science subject to make sure I'd still meet the prerequisite and then I applied for a transfer the following year and got into the course I wanted. This is only one example of how you can get into the course you want.

Here's a list of other helpful websites:

For general information on what to now that you've finished school visit www.year12whatnext.gov.au

For more information about uni courses and other ways of getting into uni go to www.goingtouni.gov.au

For information about going to TAFE visit www.skills.vic.gov.au

Best of luck!

Update Your Wardrobe!

Want to update your wardrobe but can't afford to? Well you can customise your old clothes using 101 ways to customise your clothes by Petra Boase, and fix torn clothes with the help of Hand Mending Made Easy: save time and money repairing your own clothes by Nan Ides.

Hand Mending Made Easy is really useful and full of heaps of handy, quick and easy tips on how to fix any item of clothing; from fixing broken zippers and loose threads in a cardigan, to altering your pants, which is what I've done. I know the original jeans look darker, but they're actually both the same colour - it's just my photography skills aren't so great.

101 Ways to Customise Your Clothes is also full of many easy-to-do ideas and it allows you to update your wardrobe without having to spend money on new clothes. I know I have a heap of clothes in my closet that I haven't worn but I've begun wearing some of them now after making them more interesting, like the top on the right.

So you might not be able to see it clearly, but my jeans had a rip in them right below my left knee (photo above). Instead of throwing my jeans out I decided to cover the rip by shortening my jeans and making it into 3/4 pants (photo below). It's actually pretty easy as the book explains it clearly in easy step-by-step instructions. But it does take a bit of time depending on how crafty you are! And guys, you can do this too! (Or maybe you can get your sister to, if you ask really nicely!).

So if you'd like to know how to convert your old jeans into funky new shorts just click above on the title to see which library it's available at, or you can request it in to pick up! I highly recommend both these books, especially if you like getting crafty with your clothes!

Release your inner fashion designer!

Rafah

Final thoughts on Learning 2.0

Well I can certainly say that this has been an interesting and worthwhile learning experience. There are many sites which I've started to commonly use, they've also become my favourites, such as bloglines, flickr, youtube (though it was already a favourite prior to Learning 2.0) and even just blogging!
However, I'm still a little uncertain as to how I can apply some of these websites to help benefit the library and library users. I mean Youtube and Blogger significantly help and contribute to my blogs on CCLC's Youth Blog, Quicksand, but I'm not sure about bloglines (except for my own personal use on keeping updated with news and information) or how flickr would be useful to the public, unless of course they were looking for a site to upload all their photos onto. Anyway, overall Learning 2.0 has been pretty good, despite the distractions, and goes to show that there's always something new out there to learn :)

By the way, the chocolate buddha is meant to represent my enlightenment following Learning 2.0!

Week 9: Youtubing

Since "googling" is such a commonly used term, I think the popularity of Youtube, practically parallel to Google, justifies the use of "youtubing." Anyway I'm a big fan of Youtube, so here are my top favourite Youtube clips:

1. I've been anticipating the release of Twilight (based on Stephanie Meyer's Twilight)which is coming out on the 11th December this year. I'm super excited and couldn't help but youtube every trailer. This one is my favourite so far!


2. This is one of the funniest clips, and one of the most talented ventriloquist i have ever seen. Hope you enjoy this and get some good laughs out of it.




3. I've just started watching a great British comedy series called Black Books but unfortunately I can't add the clip into my blog. But if you click on Black Books it will take you to the clip.

4. Here's a funny one I found about Librarians and the funny side of miscommunication, or rather, misunderstanding.



5. I recently saw Carl Barron live at the Atheneum Theatre and he was hilarious! Here's a small snippet from his DVD

Learning 2.0 Week8

After searching for the "New page" button for a good minute, expecting it to be next to the "Save" button, I've finally found it just below the Zoho Writer.

This zoho writer does seem to be very easy to use (once you've found the new document button ).

This is fun to play around with and also very handy. I've always got to rely on my usb to save my assignments onto, but I tend to forget my usb at home or forget it somewhere (i've only lost my new usb once so far!), so being able to use a sort of online word processor would make it easier to access and much less susceptible to being lost. So I think I'll be using this program a fair bit for uni. I'm espcially enjoying the emoticons . But there is one annoying thing about this program, which is you can't copy and paste sentences from other internet websites or word documents. You can't even do it from within the document. I hope I'm wrong, or that they intend to improve this, because i'm always rearranging things.

Anyway, i've just added ina few photos here that my friend took at Edendale Community Farm where people grow organic vegetables and fruits, has its own indigenous plant nursery and also a heritage orchard. There are also many animals there.

Hmm, another thing i've just noticed is that having published my document to my blog (as a draft), the photos became a little messed up and didn't fit the the blog, so i've had to alter them a bit. And i still couldn't find the button to allow me to change the font colour :(

And chocolate of the post is Koko Black's Classic Belgian Truffle . It is one of the most richest, overwhelming, chocolaty truffle i have ever tasted! The truffle is so smooth and rich that it just melts in your mouth and the sensation is also pure bliss. The truffle is lightly covered in cocoa powder, a slightly bitter but pleasant surprise to the senses, which makes the truffle even more delectable. Koko Black also has a very wide range of different chocolates, just check out their website - it's enough to make your mouth water.

Week 7: Wiki's the Way

If you couldn't tell from my blog title, I'm a fan of alliteration. Being a student, I'm an avid fan of wikipedia, but I never actually new that there was a whole "wiki" phenomenon going on and that wikipedia is only a small part of it.

It would be pretty good to have a CCLC website. Although I didn't like Princeton Univerisity's wikisite. I think it's best to keep it simple, and stick with the same format of wikipedia. Makes it a lot more easier and less intimidating I think. Anyway, we don't have a catalogue of our stock for the public, so a wiki would be a good way to build one up. People are always asking about our catalogue lists for DVDs. So WE could have lists of books, DVDs, CDs, online databases and magazine subscriptions, locations, etc. Maybe with a review or explanation accompanying each item. Although considering our stock, this could be really time-consuming and I'm not sure how effective it would be. But i think it would be fun, and very useful.

Anyway, since writing about a favourite book is too hard, since there are far too many good books out there for me to chose merely one favourite, I've just decided to write a post about my favourite restaurant (a chocolate restaurant) Max Brenner, on the PLCMCLearning Wiki Site. It's right near the bottom. The picture above is of one of my favourite desserts at Max Brenner - you have to try it, if you haven't already. It's absolute bliss!

Back Again! Week 6

Back again! Uni and exams are finally over for the year, and on my To-do list is completing Learning 2.0 and so here i am!
I've had a browse through Delicious - except having browsed through so many websites - i've lost track of which passwords i've used for which websites (this is where a little notebook would have come in handy) and it's pretty good idea for bookmarking - a bit like Bloglines except that you don't need an RSS to keep track of the website. Technorati is pretty good but only keeps track of blogs - so overall one could just use Delicious (which also allows you to categorise your tags). Although i think i prefer to use Bloglines for the simple fact that is so easy and simple to use (i had to read a bit to understand what on earth Delicious was about and how to use it - and i still haven't quite got the hang of it yet) and also keeps a record of what's new.

As for chocolate of the post - it's got to be Green&Black's Organic Milk Chocolate. It contains about 34 per cent cocoa, so it's slightly richer than your average milk chocolate but not rich enough in cocoa to be considered dark. If you're a fan of dark chocolate though you won't be disappointed with Green&Black's Milk Chocolate. This brand also has a very smooth texture to it, and just melts in your mouth....