Moving the Goal Posts
02/03/2013 12:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
izmeinaEvery year the local university has what they call Orientation Day. This is organized by the student union and is basically a feast of freebies where stall holders representing various businesses, political parties and student clubs and societies try to get students to sign up for their ever so worthy cause.
There will also be entertainment such as music and sausage sizzles. This time featured a pizza eating competition. So that kind of crass consumerism is still alive and well
Had been a student there back at the start of the century but was working at the time so rarely managed to turn up any time before 2pm. And then for some inexplicable reason would often get landed with a 3pm shift on that particular day so there was no point in even turning up at all if the mission was to snaffle freebies
Last year was one of those ‘Catch the bus from work” days. Arrived around 2pm when most of the freebies were gone but that had not been the main aim of the visit. It was more a bit of nostalgia and a chance to see an art exhibition. It was by a guy who I had never even heard of - a South Korean by the name of U Ram Choe. But it was simply the most mind blowing and amazing art exhibition ever. It featured moving sculptures made from metal that resembled living things such as fish, flowers and birds. A sort of twenty first century steam punk on steroids. This stuff was so elegant, lifelike and beautifully made that it made the artists at Sculpture by the Sea look like a bunch of slackers
This year there was no excuse not to be there early and the grand plan was to catch the bus around 11am, potter around and then visit the art gallery on the way back to the Lair around 3pm or so.
While all the stalls were set up along the main promenade, they were largely empty and there were far less crowds than usual for such an event. Most peculiar indeed. It was then I took a second glance at the various posters advertising the event. The O Day now had a new time of 2-5pm with barbecues, music and such from 5pm onwards
Yesss. The one year the serpent could come early they decided to have the party later. Didn’t mind but got to thinking about previous years. Such are the joys of old age. Was thinking how is it that ten years ago was studying 3 units per semester each with between 2-4 hours class contact time along with working two jobs that took 38 hours between them and was able to get all this stuff done. And now with those 38 hours available this lazy serpent still cannot manage a couple of Coursera classes.
Of course the freaky Fringe Festival had not existed back then so that was one less temptation.
Even though the stalls has not been set up when the serpent turned up, there was still plenty of stuff going on. First of these was a bunch of young things near a large car handing out monster sized ice cold cans of Monster energy drinks. Tried a lemon one as it was most likely not to be too sweet
It turned out to be a sort of wannabee iced tea. Not bad actually but a bit strange to have such a drink without the bubbles.
Not too far from these young monsters was a large tea chest full of ice cubes and skinny cans of Red Bull in assorted colours. There was no one handing them out and it was a bit of a free for all. It was a very hot day and a nice icy can was just the thing to cool down
It was also a chance to try these strange brews for free and to see what all the fuss was about. At least this red can had a bit of fizz but it was still too sweet for Izzie’s taste.
Some stalls were giving away plastic bottles of water in an attempt to claim healthy credentials. At least it was cold but even then the water tasted rather like plastic. It was quite horrid actually and not a patch on the stuff to be found in the numerous water fountains scattered around the grounds. Some of them are icy cold and especially delicious. Still cannot understand why so many folks actually pay $2 or more for a bottle of this crappy stuff when much better quality water can be got for free.
It seemed that it was mainly the banks, mobile phone companies and energy drink companies who were out there in force trying to convert all these young things into life long consumers of their products. It was likely only the licensing laws that stopped the breweries from turning up to promote their wares
Paid a nostalgic visit to George’s Kebabs which seems to be almost as old as the university. Their prices have gone up quite a bit in the last few years and even they have jumped on the ‘supersize’ coke and fries on the side thing. So they are still cheerful but no longer cheap but at least they have lots of vegetarian options. Was in the mood for something savoury rather than coffee and cake
There was one drinks stand giving out bottles of really interesting stuff. They had sparkling apple, lemonade with real lemons and ginger beer in real brown bottles. But by the time I came across them all their stuff was gone. But the stall next door to them still had green and silver cans sitting in big boxes of ice.
So got a can and slinked off to a bench near one of the gardens to sit in peace, watch the birds and sip this strange green brew. By then it was nearly 4pm and time to take a peek at the art gallery. But the Izzie was feeling all jittery, very hot and very bothered. Gobbled the rest of the nasty plastic flavoured water and it made no difference. At this stage had 3 empty aluminium cans and a plastic bottle in the bag. Would be bringing these back to the lair to put in the recycling. The general purpose bins at the uni were overflowing with these bottles and cans. They were also tossed in garden beds, on walls and all over the ground. If there ever was a reason to bring back the old ten cent deposit on cans and bottles this just had to be it. There must have been hundreds of dollars worth of these 10 cent cans just lying about and all this valuable aluminium would just end up in land fill instead of being recycled.
Here’s betting those cans don’t lie around for long in the South Australian universities.
As the day went on was feeling progressively freakier and freakier and it must have been about 4am the next morning was finally able to fall asleep. But that was the one morning of needing to be up early to go to the goblin taxation class
It turns out that these so called energy drinks contain not just lots of sugar but ridiculous amounts of caffeine. And silly Izzie had 3 of them and one of those was an enormous 500ml can. Had to go online to sniff this out being no longer capable of reading the ingredients list on the cans themselves
Silly serpent should have known better. Last year’s nano novel even had a character marketing a new brand of these evil energy drinks which he called “Kraken”
He was using certain white powders as his magical secret ingredient X. Whatever it takes to get the customers coming back for more
After this week’s experience with these hairy scary potions, Kraken will certainly get a new lease of life as the drink of choice at Camp Nanowrimo
Next time will stick to tea leaves
There will also be entertainment such as music and sausage sizzles. This time featured a pizza eating competition. So that kind of crass consumerism is still alive and well
Had been a student there back at the start of the century but was working at the time so rarely managed to turn up any time before 2pm. And then for some inexplicable reason would often get landed with a 3pm shift on that particular day so there was no point in even turning up at all if the mission was to snaffle freebies
Last year was one of those ‘Catch the bus from work” days. Arrived around 2pm when most of the freebies were gone but that had not been the main aim of the visit. It was more a bit of nostalgia and a chance to see an art exhibition. It was by a guy who I had never even heard of - a South Korean by the name of U Ram Choe. But it was simply the most mind blowing and amazing art exhibition ever. It featured moving sculptures made from metal that resembled living things such as fish, flowers and birds. A sort of twenty first century steam punk on steroids. This stuff was so elegant, lifelike and beautifully made that it made the artists at Sculpture by the Sea look like a bunch of slackers
This year there was no excuse not to be there early and the grand plan was to catch the bus around 11am, potter around and then visit the art gallery on the way back to the Lair around 3pm or so.
While all the stalls were set up along the main promenade, they were largely empty and there were far less crowds than usual for such an event. Most peculiar indeed. It was then I took a second glance at the various posters advertising the event. The O Day now had a new time of 2-5pm with barbecues, music and such from 5pm onwards
Yesss. The one year the serpent could come early they decided to have the party later. Didn’t mind but got to thinking about previous years. Such are the joys of old age. Was thinking how is it that ten years ago was studying 3 units per semester each with between 2-4 hours class contact time along with working two jobs that took 38 hours between them and was able to get all this stuff done. And now with those 38 hours available this lazy serpent still cannot manage a couple of Coursera classes.
Of course the freaky Fringe Festival had not existed back then so that was one less temptation.
Even though the stalls has not been set up when the serpent turned up, there was still plenty of stuff going on. First of these was a bunch of young things near a large car handing out monster sized ice cold cans of Monster energy drinks. Tried a lemon one as it was most likely not to be too sweet
It turned out to be a sort of wannabee iced tea. Not bad actually but a bit strange to have such a drink without the bubbles.
Not too far from these young monsters was a large tea chest full of ice cubes and skinny cans of Red Bull in assorted colours. There was no one handing them out and it was a bit of a free for all. It was a very hot day and a nice icy can was just the thing to cool down
It was also a chance to try these strange brews for free and to see what all the fuss was about. At least this red can had a bit of fizz but it was still too sweet for Izzie’s taste.
Some stalls were giving away plastic bottles of water in an attempt to claim healthy credentials. At least it was cold but even then the water tasted rather like plastic. It was quite horrid actually and not a patch on the stuff to be found in the numerous water fountains scattered around the grounds. Some of them are icy cold and especially delicious. Still cannot understand why so many folks actually pay $2 or more for a bottle of this crappy stuff when much better quality water can be got for free.
It seemed that it was mainly the banks, mobile phone companies and energy drink companies who were out there in force trying to convert all these young things into life long consumers of their products. It was likely only the licensing laws that stopped the breweries from turning up to promote their wares
Paid a nostalgic visit to George’s Kebabs which seems to be almost as old as the university. Their prices have gone up quite a bit in the last few years and even they have jumped on the ‘supersize’ coke and fries on the side thing. So they are still cheerful but no longer cheap but at least they have lots of vegetarian options. Was in the mood for something savoury rather than coffee and cake
There was one drinks stand giving out bottles of really interesting stuff. They had sparkling apple, lemonade with real lemons and ginger beer in real brown bottles. But by the time I came across them all their stuff was gone. But the stall next door to them still had green and silver cans sitting in big boxes of ice.
So got a can and slinked off to a bench near one of the gardens to sit in peace, watch the birds and sip this strange green brew. By then it was nearly 4pm and time to take a peek at the art gallery. But the Izzie was feeling all jittery, very hot and very bothered. Gobbled the rest of the nasty plastic flavoured water and it made no difference. At this stage had 3 empty aluminium cans and a plastic bottle in the bag. Would be bringing these back to the lair to put in the recycling. The general purpose bins at the uni were overflowing with these bottles and cans. They were also tossed in garden beds, on walls and all over the ground. If there ever was a reason to bring back the old ten cent deposit on cans and bottles this just had to be it. There must have been hundreds of dollars worth of these 10 cent cans just lying about and all this valuable aluminium would just end up in land fill instead of being recycled.
Here’s betting those cans don’t lie around for long in the South Australian universities.
As the day went on was feeling progressively freakier and freakier and it must have been about 4am the next morning was finally able to fall asleep. But that was the one morning of needing to be up early to go to the goblin taxation class
It turns out that these so called energy drinks contain not just lots of sugar but ridiculous amounts of caffeine. And silly Izzie had 3 of them and one of those was an enormous 500ml can. Had to go online to sniff this out being no longer capable of reading the ingredients list on the cans themselves
Silly serpent should have known better. Last year’s nano novel even had a character marketing a new brand of these evil energy drinks which he called “Kraken”
He was using certain white powders as his magical secret ingredient X. Whatever it takes to get the customers coming back for more
After this week’s experience with these hairy scary potions, Kraken will certainly get a new lease of life as the drink of choice at Camp Nanowrimo
Next time will stick to tea leaves
