Year 7/8 Social 2012

“Can’t wait for the social to start” I thought in my head. I waited outside patiently for the doors to open. Some of my friends had already arrived Starford, Kingston P, Raenan and Gabriel were all ready for the social to start. The social was last week on Thursday it started at 6:00 pm ended at 8:00pm and cost $5 per ticket which also included a free sausage and drink. We were able to buy the tickets at our school office.

The doors opened and the first thing I saw was black and white stripes of paper hanging down from the entrance into the social.  My eye’s were trying to adjust to the darkness in the hall as well as all the flashing lights. At the back of all the craziness played the Olympic opening ceremony because the theme for the social was the Olympics  Unfortunately at the start of the social it was pretty boring hardly anyone was there. But as soon as people came they flooded  the dance floor so I started to dance.

My dance moves were horrible or thats what I thought at first. I decided that I was just going to go with the flow following people around and joining groups of people who had started dancing in a circle. I could see a lot of white lights flashing from phones and cameras, people posing and doing signs for the cameras.

“Okay people we are now going to have a dougie competition so can you all make a semi circle and give our competitors some space please” called Selina. We created a semi circle and everybody was doing the dougie once the music started. At the end of the competition there were only two competitors left Mary L & Nezinli. Fortunately Nezinli won, thats who I was cheering for.

My favourite songs on the night was the Gangnam style song and the Azonto because they are quite popular at the moment and it was a bonus I knew the dance moves to them. I especially liked Gangnam style. The dance and video clip has funny dance moves like horse riding but not literally. I felt really hyped after the social and I liked dancing and posing in other people’s photos too. At school, I hope that we can have another social soon just for the seniors. I really enjoyed the night.

Man Up!!!

“I can’t wait to head down to Rotorua for men’s camp!!” This weekend I was going down to Rotorua with friends from church. Every year there’s a men’s camp and this year was my first time going. If you don’t know I attend Equippers Manukau Church and we also have a church in the city.

Unfortunately I had to hop into my friends, dad’s van along with two other guys and four adults plus all our gear. The whole trip down my friends and I were crammed at the back of a car like sardines in a can. I could feel my legs slowly losing circulation. As we headed down to Rotorua there was a detour which made our trip longer so we stopped and ate K.F.C in Paeroa . By the time we got to Rotorua it was 10:30pm so instead of heading to our first session of the conference which started at 9:30, we headed to a place called Crank backpackers thats where we slept for the night.

Mornings are the worst thing ever. I woke up and quickly got changed while I was half asleep and I was one of the last people to wake up, only because I heard a voice it was my friend Danny. After that I decided to wake up my other friend Noah. He told me that he was going to have a little power nap before getting up. As soon as all of us were ready we headed to McDonalds for breakfast. We finally arrived at the convention center for the first  service to begin. Once we were in there, we were seated and praise and worship begun. Pastor Sam Monk talked about something I couldn’t quite remember and I fell asleep. I woke up at the end feeling refreshed.

The next session I stayed awake this time but my mate Tremaine fell asleep. In this session Pastor Ian Wright spoke about how some men can get bored because they were not satisfied and they are tempted by pornography. It made me feel a little bit uncomfortable but it is a real life issue that some men struggle with. He talked about how to pray over temptation if it does affect you and to share and not hide it. I remember how he talked about how Adam knew he was naked and he hid from God. Throughout his message I didn’t really listen but I picked up some valid points.

So during our break time we headed to a park where all the men went to play games and activities. These activities included Touch, Rugby and Volleyball. I took part in a game of rugby but not with the adults just some of my friends, all around my age. After the rugby game we all headed to the playground to play tiggy.

My highlight for the whole camp was when they had this challenge in our 2 service where they had to chose one person from each church had a challenge to try as many push ups as they can. The most that one person did was 62 all in one go. But out of the whole camp I really enjoyed hanging out with my church friends.

Smoking Is Bad

Teenagers are usually pressured into smoking by their friends or sometimes they just want to be cool. My advice to you is don’t start. Smoking is bad for your health, also affect how you look and your money goes to waste.

Smoking is bad for your health because it releases chemicals in your body. There are 4000 chemicals in every cigarette most which can harm you. One of the most common drug is Nicotine which is addictive. This means that the body will crave for a cigarette because of the chemical. When the body doesn’t have enough nicotine the person feels stressed and grumpy  This drug can sometimes cause your arteries to harden which stops the blood circulating properly around the body. Then that causes heart attacks and amputations. Cigarettes can give you black tar on your lungs and can also give you cancer in any part of your body. But the cancer that is most common is lung cancer.

Most teenagers think that they will just smoke one cigarette a day but that won’t happen. The drug called nicotine causes the body to crave for a more nicotine. So you then end up smoking the whole pack and then you start smoking a pack or two nearly every day.

Did you know that people who smoke spend up to 15$ a day for one packet and spend 105$ a week. People who don’t smoke save more money more than smokers. Smoking can affect you financially and your health at the same time

My advice to you is don’t start because if you do then it is going to be hard to stop.  

Animators Apprentice

“I can’t wait to head into the Tusitala room to meet the Bro Town animators” I thought excitedly. When we got in the room it looked really cramped because of all the people in the room. The three instructors introduced themselves their names were Maka, Nills and Ali.  Ali was the main speaker telling us all about what they do and what they have done. Maka was like an assistant  always popping in saying something then going quiet. While Nills was the silent one taking photos

One of the favourite parts in the presentation was when they were teaching us about splitting lines, once I had figured out how to do the technique properly it became a really interesting thing to learn. It took a few tries but when I learnt how to finally master it everything became so clear.

I really like drawing and hope that when they come back they will teach us more about splitting lines and so that we can move on to more sophisticated drawings.



Animation Workshop, Darius from SchoolTV on Vimeo.

"Brown Brother"

Joshua Iosefo is a prefect at Mt Roskill Grammar. All of the prefect’s at the school had to prepare a speech to share. Rishard (Joshua’s friend) filmed his poem and uploaded it onto Youtube. Campbell Live came across Joshua’s poem and asked him to come to the studio and to interview him.

 The name of his poem is called “Brown Brother”. He talks about stereotypes and his poem is very inspirational. It talks about how people shouldn't listen to stereotypes. Stereotypes are people's ideas of how things should be done but it is not always right.

This poem that he shared may have been emotional for some people and inspiring for others. The way he presented his speech was very effective because it was almost like he was rapping but not rapping, preaching but not preaching and speaks a lot of truth about today's society . He talked about a lot of issues that people could relate to and wouldn't like to talk about. You can become anything you want if you just trust God and yourself.

Art Alive

Gone Fishing!

http://player.vimeo.com/video/45415849 


Head to this link to find me catching the massive snapper




"Mum, do you know where we are going??" I asked curiously. "I don't know where we are but I'm pretty sure we weren't suppose to drive over the harbour bridge",my mum said nervously. After our little tiki tour we headed back over the bridge into the city driving to the West Haven Mariner. We parked up and unloaded the car with our chilly bin which had our lunch packed, water and we brought some bait from a cafe. On the snapper charters we headed on to a boat named Snapper Fishing Charters. A few people were already on the boat, some with children and some flying solo. My mum was so relevied to be there before the boat left, they were just getting ready to depart.

"Okay now are we ready to go!" The skipper questioned us. The manager did a head count and then we were off to fish. "First time fishing" I thought. We sailed past Misson Bay, Rangitoto Island and stopped not far from Motatapu island. We stopped around there and started fishing while the boat drifted. We had to go all the way out there because it was winter and the fish don't come in as close as they would in Summer. One of the lady's on the boat named Emma gave us rods to borrow and showed us how to bait and reel in the fish.

Lunch was perfect for a very cold day. It wasn't a buffet it wasn't McDonalds or Denny's, it was just a plain sausage sizzle and a delicious creamy potato salad. "Let's fire up the BBQ", the skipper instructed us. As soon as my mum finished cooking the sausages, we shared out the rest of the sausages. I had 3 sausages and two bowls of salad. "Man, I was full" I thought in my head. We set off fishing again.

The first fish I caught (in my entire life) was called a yellow tailed fish, it was small but I was buzzing out at the catch. I also caught a couple of kahawai and another snapper but it was medium sized. The biggest fish that I caught, was a Snapper (see photo). It weighed in about 5 pounds which is roughly about 2.5 kilograms. After I caught it, my mum and I disscused that we should give the Big Snapper to my Grandpa for his birthday. It was in a few days. So as soon as we left the harbour we headed straight to my Grandpa's house to show him the fish that I caught.

That was a really good first experience of fishing for my first time. Next time I want to try catch alot more fish than I did that day. It was very cold as well, the only time I felt warm was when the sun shone down on me. I can't wait to go fishing again! Did you know that you can only catch 9 snapper? And they have to be at least 27cm long, anything less has to be thrown back into the ocean. Make sure you take a chilly bin and ice for the fish you catch.