08.31.06
Posted in Jakov's at 6:52 pm by Jakov
By: Jakov Olano Pekich
On the 26th of August, me and 6 other team members went down to present our answer to the TOM challenge at the University of Newcastle. To do this, we had to practice for 5 weeks to answer the challenge, and then prepare a script, paint the backdrop, make costumes and finally rehearse.
On week 1, 9 people were trying to get into the Tournament. They were Luke, Alana, Samantha, Mary, Briana, Chavez, Jake, Jess and I. In the end, Chavez and Mary gave up their positions.
We were given a choice of 3 challenges. They were the Language Literature challenge “Floored By Tragedy”, the Social Sciences challenge “Trick or Treaty”, and the Maths and Engineering challenge “Birds of Baradice”. In the end everyone but me chose the Language Literature challenge.
In week 2, we had to solve our problem. The problem was that a flawed member of the royal family has a complication and this affects the whole kingdom. We had to make a 10 minute play about what happened using the conventions of Greek Tragedy, as well as including up to 3 well known literary characters. We used the idea of reference to the gods, the wearing of masks, cross dressing (only men were allowed to act in Greece during the ancient times, female parts were done by men with fake breasts) and real time acting. This meant that for every second that passed in the actual story, a second passed in our play. We had multiple ideas, such as, the royal chicken gets run over, the king is assassinated and the Oracle is revealed as a stoner. We went with the stoner idea. The original story was about how a time traveller reveals to the public that the Oracle was a stoner. Then in the community there are two sides: the supporters of the Oracle and the supporters of the stranger (time traveller).
In week 3 we needed to assign parts and connect these parts with the selected literary characters. We found that we couldn’t assign enough parts with the current story line, so we made a new one. In this one, Zeus turns the king, the Minotaur from Picasso’s Guernica painting, psycho, in the process making the villagers (Eleanor Rigby from the Beatles, Sophie from the book “When Sophie gets angry, really, really angry“, “Oedipus” from Antigone, and one like Miss Gee from that poem (who was played by me.) making them seek the advice of the Oracle, also from Antigone, who was still a stoner. In the end the stranger kills the Minotaur, turning the village into a suicidal frenzy.
In Week 4, we had to paint the backdrop. It had a suicidal tree, a wrecked temple and sun with a light bulb in its head like in Guernica.
In week 5 we finalised the script. It had all our little jokes in it. We also made costumes. One of the conventions of Greek theatre is that only men could act. Most characters had fake breasts. I refused to do so, being Miss Gee who in the poem had a tumour, I pretended to have a tumour.
On Saturday the 26th was the big day. When we got to the Uni, Briana, Luke, Jake and I waited at the cafeteria where we should all meet, but the others never came. Luke’s Dad got a map and finally went to the venue. As it turned out, we waited at the wrong building.
As soon as we got there we had to do the Spontaneous challenge. We had four minutes to decide between 2 and 5 words in a list to make a headline. We chose Large, Stranger and World. In this type of challenge no points are awarded for our 1 min presentation. Just how we worked together and the words we chose. We got bonus points for not using the word giraffe. When we did the actual presentation we had no mishaps. No forgotten lines, nothing, until the end. One of my parts was to fall down and play dead but when I did I fell onto a chair. Mum said that all she heard was the thump. I couldn’t see passed my mask!
In the end, Hunter Valley School won and got honours because they entered 2 teams. Afterwards we all met at McDonalds and watched the movie about the play that Miss Stewart, our facillitor made. Then we all went home.
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08.19.06
Posted in Jakov's at 5:55 pm by Jakov
As told by Jakov Olano Pekich
Pirates of The Caribbean starts off with Will Turner, and the daughter of the Governer Elizabeth Swan being arrested on their wedding day for assisting in the escape of Captain Jack Sparrow.
The man with the arrest warrant is a Lord who makes a deal with Will to get Sparrow’s compass in return for his and Elizabeth’s freedom.
Sparrow is on his ship the Black Pearl when he is visited by an old and meant to be dead friend “Bootstrap” Bill Turner. Bill is the father of Will Turner. Bill gives Sparrow the black mark by order of Davey Jones, the most powerful immortal pirate, the Captain of The Flying Dutchman . Anyone with the black mark will be hunted down by the Kraken, more commonly known as the giant squid.
In his pursuit of shallow water, Sparrow and his crew are beached on an island, inhabited by cannibals. Some of the crew were eaten with their skeletons made into two spherical cages, the others stuck into the cages dangling over a canyon. The cannibals believe that Sparrow is a god trapped in human form. To make his spirit godly again they have to roast him then eat him. At around this time Will arrives at the island and is put in a cage. The people inside the cage managed to crawl up the cliff face. All the villagers leave Sparrow and start chasing the cage. Eventually the caged ones and Sparrow make it back to the ship and sail away to sea.
They make their way to a wrecked ship which Sparrow believes is the Flying Dutchman. The purpose of finding the Dutchman was to get the key to the chest that holds Davey Jones’ heart. When this is taken the owner can command Davey Jones to do his will. Sparrow wants this so that the Kraken can’t hunt him down. While searching the ship for the key to the chest, the real Flying Dutchman surfaces and takes Will prisoner. Davey Jones who resembles a squidman offers to give Sparrow freedom from eternal hunting by the Kraken if he can give Jones 100 souls, including Will’s in 3 days. When Sparrow can’t find enough people he decides to run away.
While this has all happened Elizabeth escapes from jail and joins Sparrow’s crew.
While on the Flying Dutchman, Will finds his dad, and steals the key of the treasure chest, which was hidden on Jones’ body. Sparrow and Will find the chest and use the key to open it. They pull out a small chest with the heart, which is locked. Sparrow, Will and Commodore Norrington (who tried to capture Sparrow for being a pirate) have a sword duel over who gets the key to open the chest. Using his cunning, Sparrow steals the key and runs to the chest. He opens it and takes out Davey Jones’ heart. He puts it in a jar full of dirt and fights the members of Davey’s crew trying to protect the heart. Commodore Norrington flees into an abondoned church as a distraction, and the rest of the crew gets back on ship and resolve their differences.
At sea again the crew sees the Flying Dutchman sailing towards the Black Pearl. A cannon fight occurs but the Black Pearl is too fast and sails off. The crew thinks that Davey Jones has given up when suddenly they are attacked by the Kraken. When most of the crew is killed, the remaining crew members plan to leave the beloved ship. Elizabeth finds out that the Kraken is after Sparrow, not the rest of the crew and also realizes that the Kraken will also destroy any ship Sparrow is on, she handcuffs him to the mast and lets him await his doom. The sad crew sail away and see the Black Pearl going down. Sparrow runs into its mouth trying to do as much damage as he can.
Later, the saddened crew goes to a small island with the witch doctor who gave Sparrow the jar of dirt. She tells them to go to a certain shore to find Sparrow. She puts them under the only captain to have sailed those waters, Barbarosa, who was meant to be killed by Jack in the 1st movie.
THE END!!!!!
It was a great movie with action and comedy! Must watch.
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08.14.06
Posted in Jakov's at 5:00 pm by Jakov
By: Jakov Olano Pekich
There are many reasons why a gaming console is good for kids. Here are some:
Firstly, people say it is better for you than watching movies or watching TV. The reason for this being that video games involve you more into the game. In movies you don’t get to decide what happens. In video games, you have to interact with the virtual environment to do anything.
Secondly, games give kids a sense of logic and strategy. SOme games like Pokemon need you to think strategically to win what you are doing. Yu-gi-oh videogames (as well as card games) need you to think about what you need to do.
Thirdly, kids get to look at new technologies. Online gaming lets you play video games against people on the other side of the world. You can use Eye toy which lets you see a picture of yourself on the TV screen. Then you can use this to play specially made games and increase hand n eye coordination. Plugging in a steering wheel will let you feel like you are actually driving a car.
Lastly, playing can bring the family together. Multiplayer games will involve 2 or more family members playing a game against each other, or getting them to complete a mission co-operatively.
As you should see, there are clear reasons why gaming console is good for kids. More reasons:
* Me and Vera learn to help each other
* Use as a reward when we are being good
* Use to learn more about your kids, if they like adventure or strategy
* Give kids a hobby
* Use to get kids out of parent’s hair
* Can be used for multiple things; cd and dvd player
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Posted in Vera's at 4:58 pm by Vera
by: Vera Olano Pekich
Playstation is a greatest toy anyone could get. There are plenty of great, fun games from adventure to supernatural ! Anyone could play it. It has no age restrictions.
It comes with a controler, memory card and one or two games. A playstation 2 can also play CDS, DVDS as well as PSI games ! How good is that !
If lots of people have PS2 people can burrow each others games and find out how great the games are. Also if you have a PS2 you don’t have to bother on buying a CD player or DVD players. Think about how much you save !
It also helps parents as well. Parents could have more time with each other and they could play it too. It could give you quiet free time while kids play it. You could also use it as reward for doing chores or work around the house. It also give talent to children because of the games like singstar and eye toy.
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Posted in Vera's at 4:57 pm by Vera
Dear Mum,
I should get a mobile for Christmas because it doesn’t only help me but it helps you too. It helps you because you, me and Dad uses the phone a lot. If I had to call a friend I wouldn’t have build up the phone costs because I would have a mobile to use. You also wouldn’t have to bother waiting until my call has ended. Also what if I get lost or if I want to tell you something when I’m somewhere else? A mobile would help through all those troubles. I also wouldn’t have to waste your credit when I need to call someone when we’re out of the house.
I really want a mobile so when I’m at a party I don’t have to ask to use someone elses phone. You won’t have to listen to me yapping to my friends because I could able to use a text message. Also if I was bored or waiting for a bus I could play games, change my mobile screen and even take pictures.
So please get me a mobile !
From,
Vera O. Pekich
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Posted in Vera's at 3:35 pm by Vera
Once upon a time there lived a blacksmith named William Turner and a lady who was a princess named Elizibeth. One day, they were arressed for helping a pirate out of jail. Their punishment was death. They had a chance of living if they made a deal with the King. They had to steal the pirates compass.
William sailed to sea while Elizibeth had to stay behind bars until William came back with the compass. He found an island very small. He explored but then got cuptured by canabals. He was trapped in a cage filled with other pirates. They escaped but it took a while. They all then went on the ship.
While they sailed, they got attacked by the krakken. A large sea beast which was terribly deadly. Lots died. Only three survived. There ship was wrecked. Later, other pirates found them and made them slaves. On their ship, William escaped but was hurt badly. He saw another ship and swam to it.
Elizibeth escaped from jail. She stole a ship then she sailed and found the pirate they’ve been looking for. His name was Captain Jack Sparrow. William arrived to the ship finding Elizibeth and Captain Jack Sparrow.
They weren’t able to get the compass but went to another town. They stayed there for 5 days then went back to sea. They got attacked by the krakken again, and Jack Sparrow died. They didn’t get the compass. After being attacked by the krakken, they searched underwater, and found the compass but it was broken. They went back to the king and give it to him but he didn’t realise.
William married Elizibeth and lived happily ever after.
The End
Pirates of the Carribean is a thrilling, funny, action filled movie. It was great! It had a great plot yet had very complex words I didn’t understand. The movie was cool and I can’t wait till Pirates of the Carribean 3 comes out !
by: Vera Olano Pekich
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