Free Showing of An Inconvenient Truth!

If you haven't already noticed, Murdoch's pretty keen on being green. Recycling bins everywhere, a recycling feature, special green days and now a free movie showing the impact humans are having on the world.

An Inconvenient Truth will be screened for free over two weeks starting August 17th during campus free-time. The movie will be shown in half hour segments starting at 12:30pm in ECL2 (Here's a map: http://www.murdoch.edu.au/maps/murdoch/theatre/ECL2).

Although the screening is free a gold coin donation toward the guild is being encouraged. This will help fund a 5kW solar system to produce renewable energy for the guild building.

I haven't seen this movie since high school, but I can still remember it's key messages. If your a climate change sceptic or interested in finding out what the whole 'global warming' issue is about then I highly recommend seeing this movie. It's impact is undeniable.

Quick update + upcoming Murdoch events.

I've just been having a look at the online unit guides for my classes this semester and checking out the kind of assignments I need to do. The doctor insisted I take this week off uni as I've still got a pretty bad case of tonsillitis. So scrolling through the unit guide for New Media Technologies I come across the big assignment that's worth 30% of my grade. I couldn't help but laugh when I read that the big assignment was to create and maintain a blog. I've been doing this for about a year now, so it'll be interesting to see what kind of grade I end up with. Aside from this every other unit insists I write an essay or campaign plan (what's new PR?!).

Setting aside study commitments Murdoch have some interesting events coming up. On the 15th of August they are holding a Fun Run. You can choose to run either 4km or 8km on the new Bush Court Sports Field. All it costs is a gold coin donation and you get a free running shirt. Registrations close this Friday so get to it here: http://www.murdoch.edu.au/City-to-Surf-2010/Murdoch-Fun-Run/.

Then on the 22nd you can look forward to the Murdoch Open Day which promises fantastic live music, help with choosing what to study and the chance to explore what student life is really like. For more information on the day check out the official site here: http://www.murdoch.edu.au/Openyourmind/?cid=od2010_homepage_onb&bnr=y.

One Movement Line-up announced!

Sunset Events have delivered again!

Hitting our shores in the second weekend of October will be round two of Perth's One Movement Music Festival. It made a pretty good first impression last year with an exceptional line-up, and it looks like this year is no exception.

Grinspoon, Ben Kweller (Heck yes!), Children Collide and British India are set to headline Saturday. While you can catch Xavier Rudd, Shapeshifter, Dan Sultan and Operator Please on Sunday.

The festival will host several of Australia's rising stars including Cloud Control, Sally Seltmann, An Horse, Hungry Kids of Hungary, Parades, Richard In Your Mind, Boy & Bear and Tim & Jean. Also making up the Australian component of the festival will be Miami Horror, Dead Letter Circus, Drapht, Gypsy & The Cat, The Melodics, The Holidays, The Only, The Chemist, The Paper Scissors and Unearthed High Winners Stonefield.

International acts set to grace the One Movement stage include Dengue Fever (USA), ZE! (Malaysia), Delta Spirit (USA), Via Tania (USA), Raghu Dixit (India), Jonneine Zapata (USA), Bedouin Soundclash (Can), KORA (NZ), The Telephones (Japan), Melodramas (UK), Liz Green (UK), Get Dexter (UK) and The Great Spy Experiment (Sing).


For all your ticketing information check out this site: http://festival.onemovementmusic.com/tickets. Sunset's are offering a few different ticket deals, so check them out and see what suits you!

This is definitely a line-up I don't want to miss! What do you think?

Festival day tomorrow!

The second Murdoch semester officially starts today, and I just know everyone's excited to get back to the books. In honour of a new semester the Murdoch guild are throwing a festival tomorrow! Complete with bands, free coffee, and  stalls. Only financial guild members receive free coffee, so the rest of us will have to bring a flask or donate to one of the lovely cafes on campus. The stalls will feature a bunch of clubs and societies around campus. If you're interested in signing up to a club then be sure to check them out tomorrow morning after 9am.

A bunch of fantastic Perth bands will be playing some sweet music tomorrow morning from 9:20am. Helping keep you awake will be Ruby Boots, Hunting Huxley, The Love Junkies and One Tiger Down. These bands are well worth a look, so come down tomorrow and support some local music! Also, the Red Bull DJ will be spinning a few tunes between sets. The guild have arranged a bunch of activities and other festival cliché's to make the day complete. The FREE activities you will find on campus tomorrow include Laser Skirmish, a Bouncy Castle, the Gladiator Challenge, Horizontal Bungee, and the Wrecking Ball. I honestly have no idea what half these things are, so I think I'll have to pop down and have a look myself tomorrow! And like all good festivals there will be fairy floss, ice cream, popcorn and slushies.

So if you're on campus for class tomorrow morning make sure you duck into bush court and check out some splendid local music and enjoy what the guild has on offer. Also if you don't have class, I recommend popping down to Murdoch. Sounds like it could be fun day. :)

The food of students?

Yes that's a lasagne sandwich. Not something I would pay 2 pounds fifty to eat, maybe not even something you could pay me 100 bucks to eat. This little beauty can be found in tesco supermarkets in the UK. Did I say little beauty? It contains 24g of fat and is the equivalent of eating two McDonald's cheeseburgers. I'd rather those cheeseburgers any day.

Thoughts?

I can tell that we are gonna be friends...

Finding inspiration to write blogs about my uni life is a little hard while on holidays. I could probably list all of the amazing and interesting things I've been upto recently, but the truth is their not that amazing or interesting. The other day, however, I went to see Little Red play at Amplifier Bar in Perth. I've never been to Amplifier before, so that was a little bit exciting. With me was my friend Steff, who helped me out tons in the blogging competition last year.

Steff and I met in the second semester of our first year at Murdoch. We happened to be studying several units together and became really good friends. That summer she let me tag along with her friends and camp at Southbound with them. Last week we caught up on our holidays and saw a concert together. I guess where I'm going with this is that I've made a friend for life at university. When I first went to uni it was like I moved towns and was starting school all over again. Living in Mandurah all the schools in the area are connected. I started off at North Mandurah Primary School, then headed to Mandurah High School with a bunch of other year 7 students. At Mandurah High I made new friends from other primary schools, we then moved onto Mandurah Senior College together. So needless to say that when I reached Murdoch knowing only 8 students from high school, things were going to be extremely different.

If you've ever changed schools before, you might be used to making new friends. But if, like me, you never changed schools things might be harder. University isn't too much different to high school in terms of meeting people. By the end of your first year you would have met a bunch of new people studying the same thing as you. The great thing about the people you meet is that you will most likely have things in common, because you're studying the same degree. Another plus is the thousands of people that attend uni, well at least it seems like there are thousands of people. You will probably come across a few similar faces while walking the halls, but mostly you'll see a hundred different faces each day. It can be daunting starting out somewhere new, but just think of all the other first years going through the same thing as you.

High School Vs. University Part 3.

The last thing I want to talk about on this topic is the University lifestyle. It is probably the greatest difference between high school and university that you will discover. If you're heading to university straight out of high school then you're probably turning 18 that year, which brings you even more freedom than what you had back in school. I didn't turn 18 until November of my first year, which was a little annoying, but the only thing I was restricted from was the tavern.

Ahh the tavern... it is the single most greatest thing about your new university experience. The ability to drink at school. It is the ultimate hangout between classes, way better than the school cafeteria. Then again, speaking of cafeterias Murdoch's is pretty darn awesome. Back at school I didn't get to choose between Chinese, kebabs, muffins, or chips and gravy every day. There's also several shops on campus that are sure to please. I'm a bit of a stationery fiend so I got a little over excited when I discovered the book shop on campus stocks an awesome variety of stationery. There's also a second hand book store which stocks packets of lollies and a ton of other every day needs. You'll even find a travel agency on campus, yeah not weird at all actually it makes a lot of sense. A lot of students choose to travel between semesters, and at Murdoch they have the luxury of planning their escape during study time.

There's also the many different people you will meet. They will come from different countries, different backgrounds, different suburbs (I live in Mandurah and having friends from Perth is a big deal), and different age groups. Never underestimate mature age students, you will learn a lot from them. Meeting international students is also a ton of fun. You'll learn about their cultures and what they're countries are like, you might even make a friend for life!

So to wrap things up, yes university is completely different to high school. But you shouldn't be scared, the best thing to do is embrace the change! I have enjoyed my last 2 years at university more than I enjoyed my 2 years of senior high school. It's an awesome experience that keeps on giving.

Jess.