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My New Blog

by 9grace

It’s that time of the year already!! I can’t believe how quickly the time has gone.

I have thoroughly enjoyed blogging this year, and since I am moving next year, I have decided to set up my own personal blog so I can continue!

My new blog address is gracefulartsblog.wordpress.com . I’m still setting it up at this point in time, so if there are not many posts (or no posts at all), don’t worry, I’ll be writing regularly once I settle into school.

Thanks to everyone who read my blog and left comments. I really enjoy posting so seeing that people are reading my work is really cool!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to Everyone.

Yours faithfully,

Grace

Where Has The Time Gone?

by 9grace

At the time that I am writing these words, right now, it is 10:54:11 am on Monday 5th of December, 2016. There are exactly 26 days, 13 hours, 5 minutes and 49 seconds until the new year of 2017 (Perth,Western Australia time zone). That is less than 1/13.76138147566719th of the year left!

…..and with that, here are some more fun facts and statistics about 2016.

  • As of right NOW, there are approximately 7,468,392,182 people in the world (and it increases 2<4 every second).
  • In the last 35 years, extreme poverty has decreased by more than 70%.
  • The dates of 4/4, 6/6, 8/8, and 10/10 have all fallen on a Monday, as will 12/12.
  • The last US, British, and Australian troops will withdraw from Afghanistan on December 31st, 2016.
  • The 2016 calendar is exactly the same as the 1994 calendar, right down to days and dates (including festivals).
  • There are approximately 3,515,474,044 internet users as of RIGHT NOW (and it increases by 8<11 every second).

So, there are some interesting statistic facts for you all to ponder over!

Yours faithfully,

Grace.

I’m Back

by 9grace

Hi again Everyone!

Sorry that I’ve been away for so long, There’ve been a few things going on that have meant I haven’t been able to get onto the blog or simply have not had time to blog at all.

However, I’m back at home now and things are starting to fall back into place so I should be able to pick up writing once a week again.

Thanks guys!

Yours faithfully,

Grace

My Apologies

by 9grace

Hi Readers,

I just wanted to post that I will not be blogging for a while since my brother has suffered an accident and has thrown our family schedule out of whack. There are a few complications which mean I won’t be writing for a while as a have other things to attend to.

My sincere apologies,

Yours faithfully,

Grace

Emergency Bedside ‘Kit’

by 9grace

Student Blogging Challenge: Week 4 – Activity 2; ft. Mrs Smith’s post

For one of Mrs Smith’s activities, she asked us to write a post about what we would pack in an emergency bedside kit for if a natural disaster were to occur.

Here, one of the only major natural disasters that occur regularly in or around our region are bushfires. Now, I’m not sure if my family has an emergency kit, but I know that I don’t have a bedside one. I do know, however, what I would grab to take with me in an emergency before I left.

The first thing (after my family) would most definitely be the dog. Even if we do not get anything else out of the house, as long as my family is safe (including pets), everything will be fine.

The second thing I’d grab would be a phone, as well as dad’s two-way if we can get to them. That way we would at least be able to contact people.

The third thing I’d grab would be some water, for obvious reasons.

I would also like to grab my wallet so that we have some money. At least we would be able to buy some food. I would have said a map, but I know that we have a good travelling map in the car which we would take with us or remove from the car on the way out.

For a little while now, I have been putting anything that has a special meaning to me, or that I want to keep special, into a small box next to my bed. It includes letters, photos, trinkets and gifts, some drawings and some of my old journals. If I had time to, this box would probably be the final thing I grabbed before heading out the door.

I often think about what I would do if my family had to evacuate due to an approaching bushfire. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to be thinking about it, we need to be prepared anyway, but if I stick to the subject for too long then I start to stress myself out.

I know that what I have written isn’t exactly an ’emergency bedside kit’ content, but it is what I would take if I had a minute to get out of the house.

Yours faithfully,

Grace

 

Who is She?

by 9grace
Student Blogging Challenge: Week 1 – Activity 1; Create an avatar/Write a post about your avatar

If you’ve been on my blog, or seen any of my posts on the class blog, you will have simageeen my little avatar hovering in the corner of the page.

For the last… I don’t know, say, 8 months, I’ve used one of my own personal pictures as my avatar. I’ve always liked this picture and felt that it represented me quite well. The first thing that I see is the colours. Yes, I have got a bazaar filter over the top of it, but I like it. I think the colours somewhat represent myself as an artist; new, inexperienced, yet optimistic, fun, and successful.

I also like the photo because, well, how many photos do you see with a rainbow filter? Hardley any! If a photo does have a rainbow filter, you either love it or hate it. The stuff that I do, my projects, my art, what I write about, it might not be for everyone. I like to go against the grain; be independent, different. Sometimes it works for me, sometimes not. Just like a rainbow filter, I guess!

There are a lot of reasons as to why I’ve chosen this photo as my avatar. But I think if I went on, I could write a full page analysing it…

So, with that, I will move on to my next avatar.

img_5539

https://www.bitmoji.com

This avatar is just a bitmoji from my account, which I am using at the moment for the Student Blogging Challenge. It’s my favourite one, though I kind of see it/her as my ‘alter ego’. Again, it (kind of) represents my artistic side. She has curly blond hair – although mine is much curlier, I assure you. Umm, I also think she looks a bit cheeky, which I like. People who don’t know me well will say I am anything but cheeky, but in some cases, I could say otherwise.

So, those are the two avatars that I am using at the moment. I’m not sure how long I will keep up my bitmoji one. It might be for a few weeks, perhaps longer. I haven’t decided yet.

Anyway, that is my little description of how I think my two avatars represent me. I’d actually really like to hear whether people agree with me or not, since everyone interprets things a different way. Let me know in the comments!

Yours faithfully,

Grace

 

by 9grace
Student Blogging Challenge: Week 2 – Activity 5: Visit other student or class blogs & Write a post on your blog

One of the aims for the Student Blogging Challenge is to actually get students from around the world to visit each others’ blogs and communicate; to make connections and friendships! So, naturally, one of the criteria and activities for the Student Blogging Challenge was to go and visit other people’s blogs and leave comments.

I’ve visited quite a few blogs. My plan was to post a comment and leave the page open so I could still see it, then come back, copy it, and include it in this post. Unfortunately, things rarely like to go according to plan. My computer crashed before I could copy all of the comments, so I only managed to save a few.

Although, ‘some’ is better than ‘none’! Below are a few comments that I have left on people’s blogs:

On Ingrid’s post, Harmony:

Hey Ingrid,
Your writing is really beautiful! I love your use of adjectives and description. It has a beautiful ‘flowing’ vibe to it!
I play/am teaching myself a bit of piano, but I don’t get much time to practice. I’ve always loved listening to flutes though. If I had been in a larger school a few years ago perhaps I would have taken up lessons!
You visited my blog a while ago and left a lovely comment. I left a reply on my post:https://9grace.edublogs.org/2016/09/07/lets-take-a-break/
I hope you continue visiting my blog, and we can keep talking!
Yours faithfully,
Grace

On Parker’s post, Braiding:

Hey Parker!
I love this post. I think it’s a really cool idea! I love braiding, I will often braid my friends’ hair at school at lunch time. My favourite braid to do in other people’s hair is a zipper braid, it looks extremely complicated but is actually quite simple. Here is a youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TEBfvmH2f0
You visited my blog before and asked me about places to see in Australia. I left a reply on my post:https://9grace.edublogs.org/2016/08/11/travel/
I hope we can keep chatting!
Yours faithfully
Grace

And on Jahaira’s post, What are you really learning at School?:

Hi Jahaira,
My name is Grace. I really like your post. I’ve pondered this subject many times myself and I think we have similar opinions towards it. I wrote a similar post myself for Blog Action Day, I’d love for you to check it out:https://9grace.edublogs.org/2016/10/20/what-were-taught/
Oh, I’d also like to ask; if you could, how would you improve/alter the school system?
Yours faithfully,
Grace

Ah, yeah, there are some of my comments. I’ve really liked each of the posts that I’ve commented on, so I urge you all to check out the blogs listed above.

Yours faithfully,

Grace

Commenting

by 9grace
Student Blogging Challenge: – Week 2 – Activity 2; Make a set of commenting guidelines

I know that netiquette is something that comes up in classes quite often, but I think it is still a good think to re-visit regularly because it is very easy to forget. So, when the activity for the student blogging challenge was to write up a set of your own guidelines for commenting, I was actually quite interested.

I think that the first thing that should be considered when writing a comment is the tone. Not everyone will read your comment in the same voice as you do, and so they might interpret the message differently. Things like sarcasm are hard to pick up in writing, without a specific tone. Even then, it could be mistaken and taken seriously. So, if you are going to include sarcasm, make sure it is very  clear.

The second thing that should never be looked over is grammar and punctuation. I cannot stress how important it is to use the correct spelling, tense, grammar and punctuation in comments. In fact, in all writing, if there is incorrect grammar or no grammar at all, the piece is going to be hard to read and difficult to understand. Plus, it is going to look messy.

In saying that, I think that comments can be a little more ‘casual’ than other pieces of writing. A little bit of slang is okay. A couple of extra exclamation marks are acceptable to stress enthusiasm, but we don’t need a whole line of them. Little things like that will generally be accepted, but still, practice good spelling and grammar.

Oh, one other thing. When commenting on a post, it is nice to compliment the writer. If you only criticize the writer, that doesn’t make anyone feel good. It is also nice to try and create a connection with the writer; ask them a question, or let them know that you learned something from their post.

Umm, so yeah, those are my ‘guidelines’ on commenting, and probably a brief summary of what most people expect in comments. Again, I think comments can be a bit more casual than other writing, but it is still good to follow a basic structure.

I hope this helped, or at least made a bit of sense!

Yours faithfully,

Grace

Life is a Journey

by 9grace

One of the most common questions I am asked by people is “what do you want to do when you are older?”

This question always stumps me. I’ll often answer with something like “oh, I don’t really know” or “I’m interested in a lot of things”. But the truth is, how am I to know what I want to be when I grow up, if I don’t even know what I want to do now!

This is actually something that has been on my mind for a while now. You see, a few years ago, when I was in Year 7, I thought I had it all figured out. I thought I wanted to go away to John Curtin or Perth Modern or some amazing art school. I thought I wanted to pursue a career in the visual arts. I didn’t want to perform or dance, I didn’t like writing, I just wanted to be accepted into somewhere bigger!

Now, I’m not sure I want to leave… The other night, I was tossing up the good and bad of going away to a school in Perth. Turns out, there are more things here that I would miss than the new things and opportunities I would have in Perth. I would miss the beach. I would miss the quiet. I would miss the freedom. I would miss the safety to walk around town by myself. I would miss a lot of things.

Now, I’m not even sure if the visual arts are what I want to create a future from. The last two years of the Zest Fest have given me so many opportunities and have taught me so much. Now, I do want to perform, I like writing and journaling, I like dancing, I like being in a small school.

Recently, I’ve also discovered a lot of new things that I am really quite keen to have a go at. Things like slam poetry and puppeteering and photography. I have always loved the arts, and I think I am just starting to discover how diverse that area is. All of my new interests are somehow connected to or involve the arts, whether they be completely ordinary or extremely unusual.

I guess, the lesson I’ve learnt – and that I’m still learning, is that your interests change with time. I thought I was set, I thought I knew what I was interested in and what I wanted to do. But, I really don’t know at all.

Yesterday, I came across a quote by Fabienne Fredrickson.

Know what you want to doI have to disagree with what she is saying here. Just because I don’t know what I want, doesn’t mean I haven’t already succeeded at life.

I don’t really care that I don’t know what I want to do at the moment. But I don’t see that as a failure.

I am happy with where I am right now. I am content with the way things are at school and home. I love where I live. I love that I have the opportunity to try as many new things as I want until I reach my heart’s desire and finally find out exactly what I want to do. I don’t know what I want, but I am, happy, and I’m enjoying life! That…that is what I call a success.

This morning, I came across another quote, this time by Ralph Waldo Emerson. I thought that was beautiful!

Maybe you do have a destination, or a goal that your heart is set to achieve, and that is excellent! Maybe you don’t know what you want to do right this second. It doesn’t matter!

Life is a journey. It’s something that needs exploring. It should take you places that you never thought you would go! Show you things you never thought you would see and give you opportunities you never thought you would experience.

Well, those are my thoughts on “life choices”. Let me know yours!

Yours faithfully

Grace.