Empire Times 43.3

EMPIRE TIMES YOUR STUDENT MAG

43.3

TIME Hilltop hoods | doctor who | nintendo | cheesecake | ALUMNI INTERVIEW

- Editorials -

Time.

It seems we’re always running out of it. But “time” itself is an arbitrary term for something exclusive to us, as living beings. “Time” is merely a way we measure existence. “Time” itself cannot run out--we run out of our mortality.

Better philosophers and poets than me have described it as a relentless river; forever moving forward, with no sign of stopping. We should really just accept it, yet our stories are filled with the what if; what if we could slow down time? Stop it? Go back or forward in it? What would be the ramifications of such an unnatural, god-like act? Inevitably it seems the lesson is to not do it, lest we risk screwing up the future in ways you couldn’t even imagine. Even the classic thought experiment of ‘why not go back and kill baby Hitler?’ fails when you realise that the possibilities for alternate history and our own future are literally endless. There are so many factors in play when anything and everything happens, it would be foolish to think we could go back and change just one thing and have a predictable outcome. To quote a hunky mathematician, everything is chaos.

So really, when you think about it, the fact that I’m here, and you’re here, reading this magazine, right now at this exact point in time; it’s actually quite amazing. You could be anywhere, doing anything. But instead you’re here, reading my words--words written weeks or months ago. Yet it feels as if I’m sitting with you talking in real time; such as the magic of words. (I apologise if you’ve just smoked a joint and are now freaking out a bit)

In Issue One, the ‘With Thanks To’ piece carried a thank you to Craig Sinclair. Craig was my teacher in Politics and English at Eynesbury. His passion as a teacher was clear.

Over my time at Eynesbury, he helped me far more than should be expected of a teacher. He was a mentor, a guide, a teacher, and a giver of great kindness and compassion. When I went through my first major depressive period, he was there to share kindness and lend strength.

They say that time flies when you’re having fun.

And boy, oh boy, are they right.

When my school friends and I turned 18 and graduated high school, the resounding feeling was disbelief; ‘We’re so old! How can we have finished school??? Where did all that time go?’

Now, I’m in my third year at uni, and I turned 21 in March; my 16th birthday was FIVE years ago...how is that possible!? We’re already up to our third ET of the year; only seven more to go!

I wanted to send Craig a copy of Issue One with a letter of thanks. I don’t have the chance any longer.

My time at uni has flown by; I remember being a little first year like it was two days ago, not two It’s clichéd to say ‘seize the day’ or anything years ago! I remember getting lost on my way to of the sort but I’d argue that’s only because class, befriending people in my classes who I am it’s said so often but listened to so seldom. still friends with today, and getting involved with Nonetheless, hearing of the death of a man I the uni mag. I remember nervously emailing the admired and loved makes me feel the meaning 2014 editors, pitching a story that I wanted to of the phrase. write...and the rest is history.

I can’t help but look back to the gap between when he died and when I heard about it. I spent the time watching TV, editing, sorting out my subjects, researching – all such pointless activities in the face of this knowledge.

It is fundamentally true that this wonderful man influenced many lives for the better. For me, he saved me taking a negative path and left a far more powerful mark than he could ever know. I can’t say more than that I hope everyone has a Craig Sinclair in their lives – a kind, grounded, good-humoured, wise, and passionate person who instilled a sense of selfworth in so many minds.

Now, as an editor, I spend a lot of time in our office - see above photo for proof! I spend a lot of time sitting at a desk, looking at a computer screen, hand cramping up from being poised on a mouse for so long. I spend a lot of time reading and re-reading contributions, toying with images on Photoshop, and evilly devising with Liam and Simone what Star Wars references we can slip in to the next issue of the magazine.

Time is a funny beast. When I was a young kid, time seemed to go so slowly, and now that I’m (legally) “an adult”, it goes too damn quickly.

There are not enough hours in the day for me to do all of the things a productive adult should do; sleep (and get enough of it), eat (enough fruits and vegetables), exercise (half an hour plus, so they say), work, and study (to a high quality).

Yes, the flow of time is chaotic and unending and always cruel, but at least we can be thankful for how things are right now, at this second. We could always be a lot worse off. You could have 4 eyes and a prehensile tongue. That would make dating awkward...or better, depending on your outlook.

I couldn’t have asked for more from anyone.

He left a great impression on many and will always retain a great legacy that only the kind, the patient, and the great can ever attain. He influenced me for the better and his legacy has an indirect impression on Empire Times, as after he taught me, he also taught ex-editor Laura Telford. His influence will always be felt.

Simone

Much love - Liam

Eleanor

TOP PICKS FOR THIS ISSUE

TOP PICKS FOR THIS ISSUE

TOP PICKS FOR THIS ISSUE

p. 10 p. 20 p. 15 p. 32

p. 11 p. 46 p. 34 p. 15

p. 13 p. 20 p. 15 p. 26

Politics Devil’s Advocate Ask JT Leo’s Oscar

Into the Gender Void TV Showcase - Doctor Who Fiction Ask JT

I sometimes feel like I’m failing as an adult, but then I think...just give me time, surely I’ll get it eventually. Right?

Fingers crossed.

Devil’s Advocate Coffee On Campus ASK JT Pocketchange Pantry*

* It was my editor’s duty to taste test Simone’s

mini-cheesecakes...they were delicious.

1

OH HELLO there.

Vol 43 Issue 3 EDITORS

Simone Corletto Liam McNally Eleanor Danenberg

SUB-EDITORS Anupol Bordoloi Kayla Gaskell Brenton Griffin Jack Harrison Jess Miller Marithe Solis

COLUMNISTS

Aden Beaver Rhianna Carr Kevin Clark Ashley Curtis Jordon T. Early Richard Falkner Brenton Griffin Kelly Guthberlet Emma Hough Hobbs Jess Miller Karen Smart Elle Void Amber, the Devil’s Advocate

ILLUSTRATORS

Sheydin Dew Benjamin Hall

CONTRIBUTORS

Georgia Brass Jason Byrne Kevin Clark Simone Corletto Eleanor Danenberg Genevieve Danenberg Kayla Gaskell Daichi Mario Ishiguro Lewis Koodrin Jasmine Koop Liam McNally Caleb Pattinson Andi-Claire Pegler Ali Roush Karen Smart Jun ‘JT’ Tumamao Tut M. G. Tut Laurence Williamson

contents.

TIME

INTRO

FEATURES

CREATIVE

1

EDITORIAL Words from the Editors

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34 FICTION Slaughtered Like Animals

5

LETTERS TO THE EDITORS It’s time to send us love letters

Empire Times is the student publication of Flinders University. All work within remains the property of the producers and may not be reproduced without their consent. Empire Times reserves the right to republish in any format.

COLUMNS

Empire Times would like to acknowledge the Kaurna people who are the traditional custodians of the land Flinders University is situated on, and that this land was never ceded, but stolen. We would like to pay our respects to the elders of the Kaurna nation and extend that respect to other Aboriginal peoples, past, present, and future.

7 SC INTERVIEW Environment Officer? Do they deal with trees?

‘The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the editors, Flinders University, or Flinders University Student Association. Reasonable care is taken to ensure that Empire Times articles and other information are up-to-date and as accurate as possible, as of the time of publication, but no responsibility can be taken by Empire Times Magazine for any errors or omissions contained herein.’

WITH THANKS TO Kate van der Horst for stepping in and helping, Anthea Stanton for being one of ET’s biggest supporters, and Flinders Press for doing their thing.

Sheydin Dew for providing a record number of six art contributions and her willingness to help whenever we asked her.

Craig Sinclair for the inspiration, the kindness, patience, and the good times - you will never be forgotten.

Apologies: We sincerely apologise to Emma Hough Hobbs and Jess Miller, whose names were mistakenly left off the ‘Contributor’ list in Issue 2, despite their contributions of a anime review and a book review respectively.

Contact us:

6 PATTO’S PERSPECTIVE Conversations with Caleb: a message from your SC President

10 POLITICS It’s Time, Australia 11 INTO THE GENDER VOID Time: Perceptions may differ 12 TECHNOLOGICA A Matter of Time 13 DEVIL’S ADVOCATE Time Will Tell?

14 GET SMART Paper Time Machine 15 ASK JT Advice that you should NOT take 18 WHAT THE FUC Thinking CaPS 21 HIDDEN GEMS The Blue Lake, Mt. Gambier

POLITICAL PLAYGROUND Is it Time for a Republic?

16 HILLTOP HOODS INTERVIEW The Blackwood band chats to ET’s music columnist, Aden Beaver 20

22

COFFEE ON CAMPUS Urban Paddock and Co - Bon Voyage - One Byte Cafe ALUMNI INTERVIEW Flinders grad, Andrew Southcott, now Federal MP for Boothby

24 VOX POPS Voice of the people 26 POCKETCHANGE PANTRY Gluten-free Cheesecake - you’re welcome!

28 WELCOME TO JAPAN Important times in Japanese culture 29 THE NOSTALGIA GAME The secret to Nindento’s sucess 30 TIME @ FLINDERS This international student’s journey to Masters 32 LEO’S OSCAR Did he really deserve it, or had his time simply come?

36 FICTION Roar 37 POETRY Water Song

CULTURE CORNER 40 FRINGE FREAK How good is the Fringe?

41 ANIME REVIEW Boku dake ga Inai Machi 42 READERS’ DI-JESS(T) Slaughterhouse 5 43 BOOK REVIEW My Sister Rosa 44 FILM REVIEW Goodfellas 45 LEVEL UP Superhot 46 10 SHOWS THAT CHANGED TV Doctor Who 48 MUSIC REVIEW Urthboy - Kendrick Lamar - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis Hilltop Hoods

FUN STUFF 38

CROSSWORD Win free movie tickets!

39

COLOURING PAGE Embrace your inner child

empire.times@flinders.edu.au www.empiretimes.com.au @empiretimesmag

FRONT COVER

@empiretimesmag

INNER FRONT COVER

/empiretimesmag Empire Times Contributors

Anonymous Flinders student and artist Sheydin Dew

INNER BACK COVER Emma Hough Hobbs

BACK COVER Alyzza Barreta

Advertising: stephanie.walker@flinders.edu.au

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- Calendar -

may Monday 30

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wednesday

Letters to the Editors

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FUSA Says Relax @ Plaza

Week 8

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FUSA Says Relax @ Plaza

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FBSSA “Show Us Your Assets” PubCrawl @ 7pm

FLICS movie night, “Enter The Dragon” Nth 2, 5pm

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Week 10

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FUSA Says Relax @ Plaza

Contributor deadline for ET Issue 4, “Free 4 All” theme

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Week 11

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FUSA Says Relax @ Plaza

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On this day in 1932, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.

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FLICS movie night, “Predator” - Nth 2, 5pm

Fill this in with all your upcoming events and deadlines!

If you would like your Flinders University event to appear in an ET calendar, please contact us at empire.times@flinders.edu.au

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On this day, Sherlock Holmes creator, Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was born in Edinburgh, Scotland.

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- unrepresented student Got a question? Compliment? Complaint?

Send your letters to empire.times@flinders.edu.au, tweet us at @empiretimesmag , or message the Empire Times Facebook page.

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5 5

- President’s Report -

FUSA Student President

- Student Council Interview -

Environment Officer

Patto’s Perspective

Caleb Pattinson Time is often used as a measurement of performance, goals achieved, or changes made. Yet time is also the great healer of mistakes made, friendships ruined, or loves lost.

of students is high. Increasing student numbers, while at the same time reducing the number of staff can be seen as a disaster in the long term.

The role of president is often unforgiving of mistakes or obstacles in the quest for change. A 12-month term makes it difficult to navigate the bureaucracy of the higher administration of Flinders who are all pushing their own agendas. Often elected student representatives spend so long finding their feet, the term is over before they can get things done. Yet without adequate change coming within a 12-month term, the fight for students and higher quality education is arguably reset. In this, time can be a grand driver of change, as we are pushed evermore to make a difference before the term is done.

The time spent by all of us at university changes who we are as people. We are challenged by diverse views of all topics, creating a campus culture where you, the students, want to hang around for longer - debating big topics and growing as individuals - or at the very least at the pub for a beer or two. This is what I believe the University should be focusing on. After spending $63 million on a new hub (and not having adequate car parking in order for students to use it) the University need to think about what they want from Flinders graduates and how the time on campus should be spent. Is Flinders going to push further towards the technological revolution and remove lectures? You then have to question the point of having a campus at all. The student association prides itself on creating that campus culture. We are constantly trying to facilitate events and run welfare initiatives to enable you to hang out on campus longer and get more from university than a certificate worth thousands.

This year sees our university reflect on its time as a provider of higher education. Flinders University was founded on very progressive roots of social justice. Through time, we have seen radical student movements, notably through the 1970s when the students stormed the registry building. A birthday celebration is about reflecting on the past and making sure our future years are just as progressive and life changing. The students of Flinders University don’t want to be part of another sandstone elitist institution. We want to diversify ourselves as the university that put staff and students first. Putting students first requires significant investment in time spent educating. Through this investment, quality of education is maintained and the satisfaction

We can all use time to reflect and learn from the past. I hope to use time as a benchmark of where the student movement at Flinders has been in the past and where it should grow towards in the future.

Ali Roush Why did you run for the position of Environment Officer?

For the three years I studied as an undergraduate at Flinders, I became increasingly frustrated with the lack of basic recycling facilities on campus, and general lack of awareness from both staff and students. Having travelled to several universities in Australia and overseas, it was clear that Flinders was well behind the game in terms of environmental and sustainable practice. I finally realised that there was no point in me just sitting back and complaining about it, and that if I wanted to see a change, I should actually step up and try to make a difference myself. So, here I am!

What do you want to achieve this year, with your position on Student Council?

There is more I want to get done this year than physically possible! But the main goals are: - Establishing an effective and sustainable Environment Collective network, through which all the environment clubs, committees, and collectives are able to work together and achieve their goals.

- Improve the waste and recycling system on the Flinders campuses, by installing recycling, 10c, and organic bins, and working with the cleaners, staff, and students to ensure waste is disposed of correctly.

- Collaborating with students at Adelaide University to begin a campaign to phase out plastic water bottles on our campuses.

- Promote awareness regarding the many social and environmental issues we face as a society, from food waste to the fashion industry.

Tell us about what you’re organising or contributing to right now, in the capacity of your position?

- I organised a Waste Awareness Day for the campus, which was on the 5th of April.

- Working with Buildings and Property to install recycling, 10c, and organic bins across the campuses.

- Working with the various environment / social clubs and groups on campus to achieve their aims, such as getting the university Fair Trade accredited.

AUTHOR Ali Roush, 21, Bachelor of Environmental Management (Honours) If Ali had a time machine, she would go a hundred or so years into the future, to see if the world has managed to actually get its shit together and solve all of its problems.

7

- Student Representation -

- Student - Features Representation -

Political

Playground

is it time for australia to become a republic and end ties to the british monarchy?

The liberals The subject speaks to its own importance.

Amending a nation’s constitution is a question of first magnitude to the society and must therefore be approached with care.

On the Republican movement’s website, the following quotes, taken from everyday Australians, are prominent, ‘It is past time to grow up as a nation.’

‘Our Head of State should be an Australian who lives in Australia and has Australia’s interest at heart.’

‘The monarchy makes a mockery of our uniquely Australian values. It is time to snap out of our lethargy and do what is right for our country.’

The failure of the 1999 referendum revealed that Republicans, bearing the onus proof, did not identify defects in the constitution and nor were there, in the electorate’s judgement, viable remedies proposed.

Chief among the reasons for change is the role of the Queen. There is an undeniable desirability in having an Australian citizen as the Head of state. However, given that removing the Queen is all the debate seeks to achieve, then, in my view, it simply reinforces the strength of our current system of governance. The constitution has served Australia well. Importantly, during the crisis of 1975, the Palace did not entertain overtures from the ALP appealing Sir John Kerr’s sacking of the Whitlam government. Indeed, the Palace hardly meddled but instead emphasised that such constitutional matters were in the hands of the Governor-General.

The proposal to remedy the current system as represented by the Queen, is, of course, a President. Peter FitzSimmons champions an appointed President. To succeed, a future referendum would probably

require minimal change as evidenced in Mr FitzSimmons’ proposal.

Therefore, a benign presidency which mirrors the current detached role of the Queen would probably be a palatable model for Republicans, like myself, in the Liberal party.

Tut MG Tut

LABOR LEFT Australia should become a republic and the Australian Labor Party is leading the way in fighting for this important issue. Australia previously held a referendum in 1999 to decide on this issue, and many Labor lefties believed it was time, with Anthony Albanese urging people to support it then. The referendum, conducted under then Prime Minister John Howard, was defeated due to a lack of proper process as Australians were divided on how to select the Head of State.

However most were in favour of Australia becoming a republic.

Now, almost 20 years later, we are still fighting for this important cause. We are in a unique situation where we have a second chance to make the overdue decision to change our national identity, and it needs to happen now. The leaders of both major parties are in favour of the republican movement, with the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader both in support of Australia becoming a republic.

The Constitution of Australia was created as an act of the British parliament in 1901.

Since then Australia has changed, and so have the wishes of the people of this multicultural and diverse nation. We must recognise and fight for our Australian identity and ensure we are representing all Australians.

Australia can no longer be represented by a foreign and unelected head of state who lives over 16,000 kilometres away in

Genevieve Danenberg

Australians. To ask Indigenous Australia to come into the fold while our national identity is so intertwined with a regime which committed genocide against them is sheer stupidity. Becoming a republic will give every Australian a chance to decide how we shape ourselves as a society by welcoming every race, religion and gender to ask, who are we?

LABOR RIGHT

If it is truly the most exciting time to be Australian, then it’s time to become a republic.

multiple castles and residences, some of which are unoccupied. This head of state does not understand or care about the issues everyday Australians face. It is time for Australia to become a republic now.

It’s Time.

The iconic rallying call for Labor in 1972 was a watershed moment for Australia that saw the rise of Aboriginal land rights, universal healthcare and the birth of our connections in Asia. However, there is a shadow which looms over this Australian boom. The Whitlam dismissal is perhaps the most controversial political event in our history, orchestrated by men putting political gain before democracy and sparked a fire which has been spreading for 40 years. 46 years after Gough Whitlam stood in the Blacktown Civic Centre and declared ‘It’s Time’ it is time now to take the final step by becoming a republic.

Australians have a constitutional right to vote for our representatives but the Governor-General is hand-picked from a secret list by the Prime Minister. Becoming a republic will gives us a choice in who our Head of State is by removing it from the hands of one person and their closest confidants. The best Republican model is one in which MPs and Senators elect the Governor-General on our behalf in a joint sitting of parliament. This will prevent personality-based campaigns financed by corporations like in the US whilst still providing us a chance to produce a President ideologically aligned with the majority of Australians.

Constitutional Monarchism encourages connections to the crown and England, which has been a hindrance in working towards reconciliation with Indigenous

Jason Byrne

Our position on this is pretty simple – the royals are lazy bludgers. They receive millions in spending money each year, and that doesn’t include the upkeep for their property, the free travel, and the tens of millions of stolen wealth they’ve amassed from generations of raping and pillaging other people’s countries. Lizzie and Phil, and their gross kids, should be stripped of their wealth and spend the rest of their lives working to pay back the people they’ve robbed, living on the miserable pension or dole that for so long has been the lot of ordinary people.

The Greens did not submit.

Laurence Williamson

SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE Bludgers living off welfare, never worked a day in their lives, stealing from the taxpayer… Yes that’s right, I’m talking about Queen Liz and her kids.

It is certainly time for Australia to get rid of the parasitic monarchy. The idea that a small group of ‘elites’ have claim to political and economic power in society based purely upon the family they are born into is revolting.

Below: the Queen, unhappy with the results of this issue’s Political Playground (probably).

However, even without a monarchy, this would still be the case under the system of capitalism. While revolutionary socialists support the abolition of the constitutional monarchy in Australia (and internationally), it’s obvious that getting rid of all monarchs isn’t enough to liberate humanity. What we need is to reorganise production entirely, we need a democratic system where those who do the work get to make the decisions.

We need to remove not only the monarchs (we advocate dropping them into their own moats!), but also the capitalist class who, much like the monarchy, are largely only capitalists because they were born so, create nothing valuable in the world, and live off the work of everyone else.

11 9 9

- Politics -

It’s time, Australia...

Time: Perceptions May Differ If you want a definition of time, I could give you one, but that’s not what I want to do.

Everyone sees time differently. One theory is that time gets faster as you get older because you’ve already experienced more of it. When you are a child a day is a long time because you’ve experienced relatively less of them, and when you are an adult a day feels faster because you’ve lived for much more of them. Of course this is just a theory and like all theories it’s subject to criticism.

We finally have a chance to make a difference, so let’s not stuff it up, guys.

Election time is just around the corner. Soon, we can expect the return of the wonderful fear-mongering, negative attack ads that viciously denounce politicians and their parties. The country will erupt into debates, interviews, campaign trails, speeches, and all that other fun stuff. Social media will be flooded with videos and articles outlining different politicians’ ideas, opinions, and policies. People will get into online feuds with friends and family as they publicly support a politician or policy that their Great Aunty Verna doesn’t agree with.

We may even see the return of the illustrious Gruen Nation, letting us know all the dirty tricks that our noble politicians use in order to get ahead. It’s a time to get excited!

Except, not a lot of people care. This is probably due to the fact that no Prime Minister has actually finished a full term in six years. And while Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten are the head honchos in the big race today, tomorrow it could be a completely different set of competitors. So, before we lock in our votes for this year’s political race, we should make sure we know who we are voting for. Last time we, as a nation, elected Tony Abbott as our Prime Minister. That was what happened, we must wear that sin. So let’s just be careful, okay?

More importantly, however, is that we know what we are voting for.

What policies will our vote support?

At the moment, there are strong undercurrents coming from the Australian public. There is definite discontent, and the last few months have shown that the public is willing to defy their government. This spike in frustration at the government is paralleled with the steady decline of Turnbull’s popularity, as well as a rise of Shorten’s.

This is evident in the reinstatement of sanctuary offered by churches across the nation to protect refugees from expulsion. We had hospital staff, strengthened by the members of the public, go on strike and risk their jobs, refusing to allow a new-born baby be sent back to Nauru. Prominent Rabbis quoted the Bible and history (the fact that Australia turned away Jewish refugees as the Holocaust was raging) in a letter to the government, showing solidarity with the refugees.

We had comedians writing to the PM urging the government to reconsider sending asylum seekers back to Nauru. Various State Premiers stood up to the federal government when the ruling came that Australia’s mistreatment of refugees was legal, and offered to take in the refugees themselves.

We had an Indigenous minister in the Northern Territory Parliament stand up and speak her language, and is now fighting to be allowed to do so when she so feels inclined, provided a translation is available.

People, in droves, have criticised the government’s decision to investigate the Safe Schools program, which is aimed at educating staff and students, to help stop the bullying of LGBTIQ Teens.

We even had a letter from over 40 religious leaders urging the government to scrap the upcoming equal marriage plebiscite, arguing it would bring undue emotional harm to LGBTIQ people, as well as allowing fanatical religious leaders to put forth their views which are not shared by all within that faith.

We live in the year 2016, but that’s not really accurate as it is based off the Gregorian calendar that was introduced in 1582. We calculate the year based off of the year that Jesus died, so when we talk about the date prior to that we use negative dates. There are other calendars that we could use such as the Assyrian calendar which puts us in the year 6766. The Islamic calendar puts us in the year 1437. Unix time is a calculation of how many seconds have elapsed since the 1st of January 1970, which at the time of writing this article is 1458610873.

Personally I’d love for time to be measured either from the age of the universe ((13.799±0.021) × 10^9 years) or even the age of the planet earth (4.54 × 10^9 years), but that’s unlikely to happen, or at least not likely to be widely adopted. And it really is easy to measure things the way they have been measured for thousands of years.

(I think they were talking about you, Australian Christian Lobby, who have asked the government to remove anti-discriminatory rules for their campaign against marriage equality. Seriously, guys, if you can’t put forth your views without being dickheads, shouldn’t that be an indication that your policies are flawed?!)

Right now, it is not just your traditional social and political activists who are standing up against the government. There is a broad spectrum of dissidence coming from the public.

Conversely, we have the current government doing some fucked up things. For one, it is upholding its inhumane policy towards refugees, even rejecting offers from New Zealand to take them.

Prime Minister Turnbull recently yielded to Cory Bernardi and other radical right-wing backbenchers, backed by the fanatical ACL, and set up an investigation into the Safe Schools Program. Bill Shorten, whilst condemning the investigation at a press conference, had Bernardi heckle him and call him a fraud, to which Shorten replied ‘Yeah, well, at least I’m not a homophobe either, mate’. What is even better is Bernardi then had a sook on Twitter, saying how sad it is that political leaders have resorted to name-calling.

Finally, there is, of course, the costly plebiscite coming up, which a lot of people from both sides of the fray say is a bad idea. This is mostly because a few ministers have explicitly stated they won’t even regard the Australian public’s vote, which is complete bullshit. Either you uphold your end of the bargain and vote with the Australian public, or just vote as a parliament. Don’t pretend to care about what everyone else thinks and masquerade as a democracy, when in reality you don’t care.

All in all, pressure is building, and this will make for an interesting election.

Luckily, we actually get a say; democracy is a wonderful thing. So, do some research, see what policies various politicians support and don’t stuff it up. It’s time to make a difference.

My perception of time is constantly changing though. Whether I am paying attention to time or not can warp my sense of it. The old adage “a watched pot never boils”, it’s certainly true to an extent. If I’m waiting for something time generally seems to go slower. I’ve had a package coming in the mail, but the more I think about it the longer it seems to come. Although neither the time it takes to get here, nor when I anticipate it, are correlated, my mind considers them so.

Many people tend to count down to or from significant dates as well.

Someone close to me recently mentioned how it was the two year anniversary of one of their grandparents’ death, and how things had been different because of it. People in relationships count anniversaries, whether monthly anniversaries in the beginning or yearly anniversaries over time. We count birthdays by year because it is far easier to remember how old someone is that way, instead of calculating how many days someone has been alive for.

For instance, I’m 24 years old, but I’ve lived for 8960 days, but that’s not a straightforward algorithm as I’ve also lived through seven leap years.

INTO

THE

GENDER

VOID

‘There are other calendars we could use, such as the assyrian calendar, which puts us in the year 6766.’

AUTHOR Elle Void, 24, Bachelor of Social Work

If Elle had a time machine, she would travel to an utopian future.

Uni being back has brought a lot of deadlines down on many of us, so perhaps we should all begin counting down to due dates instead of the day of the year. For me it’s 1 day after my first assignment or 7 days to my second assignment, 33 days to my third (I’ve got nine assignments over the rest of this semester and I have to make sure I don’t get any of them mixed up).

I went through my first puberty a little over ten years ago, but at the time I didn’t recognise how significant it would be for me. Last year I began hormone replacement therapy, and with that I’m completely understanding how significant it is for me, so I’ve been keeping track of when I began it (173 days ago!)

So what about you, what events in your life are significant enough for you to count down to or from?

Otherwise it’ll be another three years of this shit.

AUTHOR Brenton Griffin, 22, Bachelor of Arts (History)

If Brenton had a time machine, he would go to Ancient Egypt, to discover that world.

11 11

- Devil’s Advocate -

Technologica

A Matter of Time Go is an ancient strategy game that is popular in China, Japan, Korea, and increasingly across the rest of the world. Part of its appeal is just how simple it is to learn, but how difficult it is to master. Unlike chess, there is only a single ‘type’ of piece, either a black or white stone depending on the player, and also unlike chess none of these pieces move once placed on the board. While Deep Blue, the machine that was made famous for defeating chess grandmasters, was able to simply compute all of the potential moves and to play the best one, Go has far too many potential moves for even the most powerful of today’s computers to manage, requiring more atoms than exist on Earth. This being the case, it was considered that computer mastery of the game was at least 10 years off, even with the defeat of the European master in 2015. In the first couple of weeks of this semester, AlphaGo (a product of a Google-owned company) made history by winning 3 straight matches in a best of 5 series against the human world champion, despite the world champion’s boasts just a matter of days beforehand that he expected a comfortable victory over the computer.

While the human grandmaster managed to win the 4th game, it was not enough to save the series for humanity.

This is not the beginning of the robot revolution (even if it is, I want it recorded that I respect our robotic overlords and their increasingly superior capabilities), but it is certainly an encouraging example of computers using human-like intuition to approach complex problems without knowing every little piece of information or working out every possible result. This was done using a set of computer programs called neural networks: roughly modeled to learn in a similar way to the biological versions our

brains have. By being shown lots of ways that Go has been played in the past, and by allowing it to play repeated games with itself, AlphaGo was able to teach itself new strategies that no programmer or existing Go master told it to do. Neural networks are being applied to lots of other potentially tricky tasks, and providing increasingly impressive results along the way.

There are many approaches to machine learning, from giving the computer some guidance as to what good results look like, or showing demonstrations, to leaving the computer to work most of that out for itself.

That last one may seem a bit mind boggling, but last year a simple demonstration of MARI/O showed how that would work in an accessible manner, as the computer went from spending 10 minutes standing on the spot to achieving a perfect score in the video game level of Mario that it was assigned.

Personally, I am looking forward to the day when a computer can learn to enjoy the experience of a morning coffee. Perhaps then I will accept that they truly are reaching our level of intuition and insight.

AUTHOR Kevin Clark, 21, Bachelor of Engineering (Software)

Kevin says “If I had a time machine, I would go [back] to the future to grab a sports almanac.”

Tim e Will Tell?

I constantly have to explain my reasoning for not wanting children.

I find it frustrating that the older I get, the more often I’m given the chat regarding kids; ‘When are you having them?’, ‘When will you two get married?’, ‘When are you going to considering starting a family?’, and so on. It’s an exhausting barrage of life implications thrust on me at a moment’s notice, which I feel, more often than not, has absolutely nothing to do with the person who’s screaming at me. I’ve realised that this repetitious conversation is cast upon me not only by people who know me well, but by acquaintances and complete strangers. As someone who has actively made the decision to not have children, I think it is critical to consider people who do not have the luxury of making this decision for themselves.

For me, the heart of the matter is, I just don’t want children.

I don’t want to have them and I don’t want to make them. To me, the choice not to have children is analogous to; ‘Should I wear the red shirt or the blue shirt?’, ‘Do I want soup or steak for dinner?’, ‘Do I think dinosaurs or space is better?’. It’s not a choice I have to convince myself of, and (to me) there’s an obvious answer which I’m going to pick. At this point, I will state, it’s a choice I am privileged to make. All over the world, there are so many people who aren’t given a choice; cisgender women who may feel socially pressured into “motherhood”, transgender and gay people who may have biological difficulties reproducing, rape survivors who may not have a choice in their pregnancy... there are so many different situations which people may face, and these are only three of possibly infinite combinations.

I often have people tell me that I will change my mind in time.

It usually occurs after I have told them that I just don’t want to have children. After having to justify my decision, I’m told that my opinion is wrong, followed closely by why. I get the impression that they feel my decision is wrong, because they’ll tell me I’d be a great mother, or assume I can’t have a baby, and when all else fails, they tell me my decision is ‘unusual’ or ‘unnatural’. I’m asked about my reproductive health; does my partner shoot blanks? Do I have dud eggs? Do we have hereditary mental health issues? I’m asked if I’m ‘just trying to make a statement’, suggesting I’m having a feminist ego trip by subverting cisgender/heterosexual social norms. Sometimes

I’m treated as if my choice is a personal attack on whomever I’m talking to. They’ll accuse me of thinking they’re strange or wrong for wanting children. For the record, I don’t. I’m of the opinion that everyone’s reproductive choices should be their own.

I can only think of a handful of times I’ve had this conversation and haven’t been told I’ll change my mind over time, or as I grow older. The implications of this statement really aggravate me. It makes me feel like I’m seen as too young to know, that I couldn’t know now. Maybe it’s expected that one day my husband will change my mind, and that I, as a woman, couldn’t have that much autonomy over my own womb and future. I feel that the social norm of women needing to have children in order to validate their existence for living is incredibly outdated. I find it particularly frustrating that I’m considered strange for finding a “purpose” for living outside the “normal” social parameters of womanhood, and that somehow the slow decay of my biological clock will make me want offspring. It’s so degrading that this notion of time is considered the ultimate factor for my need for children, and that my purpose in life could only be for breeding.

The worst part for me is having to justify my decision; that I need a reason to not want children, other than just not wanting them. If I don’t, I find the conversation tends to drag on longer than I’m comfortable with. This aside, who knows, maybe in the future I will accept defeat? Perhaps I’ll be ground down over time by countless stares, obnoxious conversations with pretentious mums, or beautiful conversations with strong (and exhausted) mothers, and decide to have children? At the end of the day, I don’t care (whether I do or don’t), as long as it’s my choice. I feel that anyone who has the desire to love a child, to grow up with them, should have the option to have children. However, I think it’s critical that anyone who doesn’t want children, shouldn’t be hounded constantly for their choice.

AUTHOR Amber, 23, Bachelor of Behavioural Sciences (Psychology)

If Amber had a time machine, she would go back in time to New York, 1993, and see Nirvana play their best live set on MTV.

13

Pape r Time Mach ine

- Get Smart -

It’s a bad habit, but I’m always late. Deadlines, coffee dates with the girls, appointments – I’m always sliding in to home plate at the last moment (11:59 pm FLO submissions are my specialty), or even slightly after, adrenaline pumping, eyes wide from an M&Msinduced sugar high.

It seems counter-intuitive, but I always assumed I was at my most productive when I had a little panic in my heart. There’s nothing like a deadline to force the words out. Or so I thought.

As a creative writing undergrad, I’m expected to churn out original stories on pretty much a weekly basis. Anyone who has ever written fiction ‘for fun’ will tell you that a 2000 word short story is not something you want to be staring down the barrel of at 10pm on your due date.

And so, determined recently to rectify one of my greatest personal faults – hey, even delightful people such as myself are allowed to have flaws – I turned to the world of planners.

I’m going to pause here and submit to you a theory. Those that can, do; those that can’t, plan. Case in point? My traveller’s notebookstyle diary/study planner is a work of art. Being the type of individual who watches stationery haul videos on YouTube for fun — don’t judge, it’s a legitimate and informing way to pass time online — I had researched the best brands and ordered a bespoke leather cover for a truly obscene price from the U.S. Then, because I own the necessary hardware, I made my own paper booklets to fill it, each with a layout I designed myself.

It’s just how I roll. *waves nerd flag proudly* My planner is the balls to my Rundle Mall, the exhaust fumes to my Clipsal, the gravy to my chips — it completes me. It keeps me organised, sane, and prepared — as well as giving a grown woman a legitimate excuse to buy stickers, but we won’t talk about that. I have monthly and weekly sections, grid booklets for bullet journaling, and the pièce de résistance, my study planner booklet.

My single biggest time-management hack for life at uni is to work your study planner like the subordinate soldier that it is. Break it down into its components. Build it up again. You’ll have created something useful that will serve you well for the remainder of your time walking the hallowed hills of Flinders. But these days, when our lives are lived in an ever-expanding digital arena, using a paper planner seems almost archaic. Why write anything down when you can type a reminder into a calendar app twice as fast?

Short answer? Because digital clutter gets lost, misplaced, deleted, forgotten. Email inboxes are a classic example of this. Seeing that number gradually increase and knowing you’d have a hard time finding a specific email in the pile, isn’t the best system – it’s disconnected. With a paper diary, you’re forced to analyse, to distill only the most relevant information to note down. There’s a connection to the event/task that is missing when Siri is your homegirl. Just like spending cash forces you to engage your brain in

“I love d whoosh eadlines. I lik ing they f sound they e the Ly by” - Dou make as glas A dams

T J k s A Love-life got you down? Got a problem that no amount of therapy or booze will fix? Fear no more for JT is here to answer all your burning questions.

Hux and I touched hands the other day when we were playing with my Darth Vader figurine and I’ve been feeling confused and angry ever since. What does this mean?

-Ben

the act of spending money in ways that using PayWave generally doesn’t, writing down your assignments and readings onto paper (ordered chronologically in some type of calendar format) forces you to lock the information in.

So, how exactly do you make the leap from digital to hard-copy scheduling?

The first thing you’ll need is a diary. If you’re a normal person without a paper obsession, a K-Mart cheapie works just as well as an $80 ring planner from Kikki-K. The important thing is that it has a monthly section and a weekly view. Next, bring up the semester dates on the Flinders website and label each week of the semester in your planner. Google South Australian public holidays and whack those in too. After that, drag out your topic handbooks. Turn to the lecture/tutorial schedule. Note down any weeks where lectures and/or tutes aren’t being run. Then, turn to the scary assessments section.

Here’s where the nerd in me turns on the high-beams. I colour-code by task. One colour pen for readings, another for due items, a third for group work, and so on. I write down every single due date — in its appropriate colour — for every single item being assessed across all of my topics. I always make the due dates for any weekly readings the earliest class I have for that topic in the week, whether it’s a lecture or a tutorial. While the colour-coding doesn’t change the information, it changes how my brain interacts with the information. My eye scans over the page and automatically ‘grabs’ all the blue writing — in other words, I can see at a glance what my reading workload will be that week. Similarly, if I’m seeing a lot of red (due dates) it means I’m in for a lot of late nights and slightly-maniacal coffee runs.

It’s not a fun process, getting the next four or so months of your life mapped out in such detail, but it’ll be 100% worth it, I promise.

An afternoon geeking out with coloured gel pens will give you at least a modicum of sense and order and when you’re drowning in deadlines later in the semester (seriously, creative writing team – did you all conspire to have your 1500+ word major assignments due in the same week?!) and slinking by on the strength of KitKats and Redbull, you’ll be able to work on autopilot. No more overbooking yourself or wasting an unfettered four hours on Netflix because you thought that statistical report was due next week.

Now you’ll be able to waste the four hours with the added heartclenching panic of knowing you’re due to submit something in twelve hours*, like a Real Uni Student™!

*Stunt performed under the supervision of qualified professionals.

Do not attempt.

AUTHOR Karen Smart, ‘On the flip side of 30’, Bachelor of Creative Arts (Creative Writing)

If Karen had a time machine, she wouldn’t use it. She would stay right where she is; “have you not seen The Butterfly Effect?!”

Well Ben, assuming ‘Darth Vader figurine’ isn’t a euphemism for your biological lightsabre, I believe you have unfortunately crashlanded on the desolate planet known as ‘Developing Feelings’. The fact that you’re a full-grown man and you still play with figurines tells me you have a lot to offer this Hux. Feeling angry and confused is a perfectly reasonable reaction after touching hands with someone you had never previously perceived in a romantic way.

Love is a phantom menace and you can decide whether you want to develop it further like the writers did for a certain Padme we both know, or you can totally Jar Jar Binks it and have it be a permanent stain on what could’ve been a perfect romance. So just close your eyes and enjoy the ride. You’ll be walking on the sky in no time.

Also, the fact that this involves a person named Hux makes me believe their parents didn’t love him remotely and that it is your responsibility to repair this rift.

Also, if you have children, don’t let any guy named Anakin babysit them. We’ve all wanted our workload cut in half but maybe not so literally.

Help!

Every time I try to find a room to study, I get booted out by postgrads who I just know are using the space to hook up. How can I possibly do all my work in peace when I’m only allowed to book for a maximum 2 hours?

-Frustrated Dear Frustrated, it is a known fact that postgraduates are the horniest demographic on Flinders University. When they throw their graduation caps up in the air, they just as amicably drop their dacks. They put the ‘D’ in PhD or the ‘Masters’ in ‘mastur – So I understand that you’re having trouble finding the perfect study environment? I think you’ll find that the newly-established Hub study areas are quiet but for the subtle drone of productivity.

There are also several study spaces in the upper levels of the library.

The thing about study rooms is that they are essentially a zoo.

Spectators will watch you through the glass writing notes and reading incomprehensible textbooks and offer you some vending machine peanuts. And while I have never been one to say ‘no’ to free food from a stranger’s hand (within reason), I also don’t think confining yourself for two hours to these transparent cages will help your study. Try the campus’s beautiful outside areas or the Hub spaces and just enjoy the communal atmosphere of other academic undergrads studying away.

JT, My tutor hasn’t returned any of my assignments all semester.

They don’t respond to emails and I can never find them in their office. How do I know I’m actually enrolled in their class? Does my tutor even exist??

-Existential crisis

Also…the study rooms have had really sticky surfaces recently.

Perhaps you’ve just solved a mystery we were all perplexed about.

Tutors remind me of the guys I’ve dated: inconsistent, afraid of commitment, won’t reply to texts, forgets your name, always paying attention to everyone else but you, etc., although I shouldn’t use this column as a platform to subtly complain about dating. Swipe right for realisations.

Parking has become the most controversial issue of Flinders University since those ambiguous stains in the study rooms, but unlike those stains, no amount of acid can readily solve this issue.

But on a very serious note, you can throw a rock on campus and you’re guaranteed to hit a student who has had issues with their tutor. Perhaps you’ll even hit a tutor, though I don’t want to instil you with false hope. However, what we as students forget is that tutors themselves have a heavy workload. They are often PhD students under the stress of their own deadlines, or very old and under the stress of their own disintegrating bone structures and amnesiac tendencies. Trust me, they know you exist but you are but one grain of sand on a beach of obstacles and work they must complete.

Perhaps I shouldn’t compare you to a grain of sand. You people going through existential crises have a tendency of taking that literally. Patience is a virtue my friend, your tutor will solve your issue in due time. And with luck: most likely before your assignment’s due date.

Dear JT, What’s the deal with the parking?

-Car driver

Yes, Flinders did receive over thirty million dollars to upgrade the campus but I think you’ll find a significant portion of that went towards those deck-beanbags on the outside stairs rather than expanding our perilous lack of parking spaces. However, there are some alternative solutions I’d love to offer you: 1. Ride your horse to campus.

2. That’s a bit stupid to expect that everyone has a horse, so you could even ride your camel instead.

3. Perhaps you’ve recently just eaten your horse and camel, in which case take the bus.

4. If you feel like you’re above public transportation, haha.

5. Okay but seriously, try parking in spaces in the Flinders radius/ area – not necessarily on campus – and take our handy Loop Bus up to campus.

6. Hitchhike and rely on the trustworthy Adelaide public to give you a lift, though I don’t claim responsibility for your potential Wolf Creek experience should you decide to hop into any vehicle that presents itself.

Send all your desperate wonderings to empire.times@flinders.edu.au!

15

15

- Features -

- Features -

what-not. I guess it was a matter of the right songs and luckily for us, it all came together.

AB: On “1955”, the other single on the record, you worked with Tom Thum. How was that?

AB: What was it like working with James Chatburn on “Higher”?

DD: Yeah, we’ve been good friends over the years, he’s done a few things with us in the past, he’s very integral in the Australian hip-hop scene and has been since we started out. He’s [a] very multi-talented, multi-skilled guy, and fun to work with. He did it all off-location, Suffa was focused on that track while Pressure and I were busy with a bunch of other stuff, but yeah, (Tom) did all the horns and everything on that track, as well as the 1950’s sounding adverts. A bunch of sounds in that song are from him that people probably don’t know about.

DD: It was great, he’s amazing and fun to work with, came down at about eleven in the morning and left at six pm. Pressure wrote the hook originally, the chorus, and I think at first he struggled to interpret how exactly he wanted it, but once he got warmed up and everything, he made it clear, that this is a guide, (Pressure) wanted James’ spin on it, if he wanted to change a few words or pattern a bit here and there, and once he realised we wanted him not just to repeat what we’d written but put his own flavour on it, that’s when he opened up. He’s got an amazing voice and is super talented.

AB: So, you’re the beatmaster behind it?

DD: No, I used to make beats many moons ago. I’m the engineer slash DJ, I do all the technical stuff for the group, both live and in studio. Suffa and myself are in the studio, most of the session work happens there.

AB: You gather huge crowds at live performances now, is it always exciting, and do you still get nervous?

Hanging with the Hoods Empire Times’ music columnist, Aden Beaver, chatted to DJ Debris, of the Blackwood band, Hilltop Hoods.

Aden Beaver: I’d like to talk about your new album, Drinking From The Sun, Walking Under Stars Restrung. This is your second album with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. What’s it like working with them?

AB: Well it’s a great record, you made your first Restrung in 2007, what made you want to turn your hip-hop into an orchestra? It’s an interesting idea, not many artists do that sort of thing.

DJ Debris: It’s amazing. It’s inspiring working with an orchestra. It’s challenging as well technically, we’re used to recording a rapper or a singer, keys or a single instrument. Recording a whole orchestra is always a challenging feat, mixing it equally so. But it’s amazing working with them, I wish I could click my fingers and have them at my disposal more often! (laughs)

DD: There’s not much precedent for it there. I guess it kind of naturally progressed, we had a few strings on there before we did The Hard Road Restrung, and from memory, we had to perform at the ARIAs one year and we decided to get a quartet, and we were like “Man, that works really well”! That kind of preceded us getting an orchestra and expanding on it. It grew from there, a natural progression so to speak.

AB: So you’re more involved with recording them and writing arrangements?

DD: Jamie Messenger, the composer, writes the arrangements, I just oversee the recording process and do a huge chunk of the mixing. We mixed it ourselves between me, Pressure, and Suffa.

AB: How did they react when you first approached them with the idea?

DD: I don’t know, our manager dealt with the initial stages, but I guess it wasn’t too much of a shock, he had done it before.

I guess it was more of a shock to the other orchestras when we started on the national tour, but most of that is liaised by management so we didn’t get the initial reaction.

AB: Ah, yeah. They were all on board with it though?

DD: Oh yeah, definitely, definitely.

DD: Yes, I still get nervous, I think we all do, but it all dies within 10 seconds of going out on stage. I get nervous about the technical point of view, everything folds back to me, technology and Murphy’s Law are two great enemies that seem to show face once in a while and you never know when it’ll happen! But yes, it’s weird to be honest, the bigger the crowd the less nerve-wracking it is, for me personally, because they’re further away and it’s more like looking at a painting on a wall (laughs). It’s bizarre, but sometimes we have to do smaller gigs that are more intimate, and I get [more nervous] about those for some reason. The most nervous I get, is [during the gigs] my parents are at, and I’m sure the other guys feel the same.

AB: I guess you’re keen to impress them.

DD: Yeah, or you can just feel their eyes judging you the whole time! (laughs)

AB: I wouldn’t have known he did the horns as well, to be honest.

DD: No, and to be honest I think we would have struggled to get a horn player to sound that good, (laughs) or find a sample that good, he has some very convincing sounds. I wanted to catch him at the Fringe this year, it’s been a yearly tradition but time got the better of me and I missed out unfortunately.

AB: I didn’t get to see him either; I’m told he was very good.

DD: Yes, he always amazes me, and inspires me as a DJ as well, because he thinks outside of the box in terms of sound processing and ways to convey sound across to a crowd.

AB: Well, I only have one question left; do you have any advice for up and coming musicians who may be reading our magazine?

DD: Persist, don’t give up, if you’re in a group, put the music first… well, friendship first obviously, but the music, don’t let it come between you. Persistence, to me; people give up, I think when they see the signs that say they’re not going to succeed or get to where they want to get with it. But if you chisel away at it, eventually, it’ll happen. It’s not something that happens overnight, so persistence would be my strongest advice.

AB: Well, thank you for talking with us, and we look forward to seeing what your group does next.

DD: No problems, thank you man. Cheers.

AB: [Based on] one of the new songs from your album, “Higher”, does the group lyrically see themselves at the top?

DD: No, not really. We’re pretty humble, we acknowledge that we work hard and dream big, so I guess it’s more about that, our work ethic more than anything.

AB: What was it like starting out as musicians in Adelaide? I’m imagining it wouldn’t have been the easiest city to break out into.

DD: Yeah, it was kind of tough. There wasn’t really a scene when we started. There was a hip-hop scene but pretty small, Australian hip-hop wasn’t really accepted by the mainstream genres by itself, (hip-hop) was more identified as an American thing. We hoped for (success) but we never thought we’d actually be able to live off it.

It was something we just chiseled away at, and we did it because we loved it, it was an escape from our realities of factory jobs and INTERVIEWER: Aden Beaver, music columnist. Drinking From The Sun, Walking Under Stars Restrung is reviewed on page 48.

17

- Get Smart -

- Features -

founded 2014

THINKING CAPS

contact flindersthinkingcaps@gmail.com

WHAT THE

FLinders University Clubs

THINKING CAPS For a club formed in 2014, Flinders Thinking CaPS have achieved much in a short amount of time. The club conducts two pub crawls per year, a quiz night and a bake sale. Additionally, in 2016, Thinking CaPS will be the hosts of the inaugural Science and Engineering Ball. However, there’s more to thinking caps than this crowded social calendar. They have approximately 200 members, a cool mascot, Albert the Science Cat, and then there’s the lab coats.

Through asking Caroline Watson – President of Flinders Thinking CaPS – about the club’s aims and objectives, we get a clear perspective of what this group is all about: ‘We’re hoping to build a student community within the sciences where students can feel they can connect with each other and get help when they need it.

We’re doing this through our social gatherings and the associated networking, providing learning resources via text books in our common room and trying to connect students to tutors, and providing student advocacy when needed.’

Thirteen minutes and thirty-four seconds into the interview, Caroline turns my rather naff question ‘What can science tell us about time?’ 360 degrees. ‘More like, what can time tell us about science,’ she replies. ‘Time is a measurement that helps us understand things. We then rapidly move through a litany of examples: time-dependent chemical reactions, the degradation of drugs over time, radioactive decay and particle physics. She gently reassures me that even a self-confessed scientific ignoramus — yes, dear reader, it’s me we’re talking about — uses time on a daily basis to achieve chemical transformations such as cooking meals, washing clothes and removing stains. I feel enlightened. Time is on my side when it comes to surviving the 21st century.

As the student society for the School of Chemical and Physical Sciences (CaPS – get it?), the club has received great support from the Dean of School, Joe Schapter, and Dean of Faculty, Warren Lawrence. In fact, Caroline’s fondest Thinking CaPS memory is the day Joe gave the club the use of a room which became the Thinking CaPS Common Room. Caroline recalls, ‘Joe said, I really support what your guys are doing. We have a room. Go use it, make it a good place for people to come and interact with each other and study together.’ So the club has done that. Having found desks, chairs and

text books, they are currently organising tea and coffee-making facilities. They aspire to provide comfy chairs in the fullness of time.

Caroline recommends new students join Thinking CaPS because, ‘Science can be lonely and it can be hard when you are on your own, and by connecting with other students – I find peer-to-peer learning one of the best ways to learn. You ask someone who is on the same level as you to explain it in their own words. Your peers are your greatest resource.’

And so Caroline, at what time did you join Thinking CaPS? ‘Half way through last year. I went on the Semester One Pub Crawl. Then I was talking to Michael Wilson, the founding president, and saw what he was trying to do with the club and thought I wanted to get involved. So I organised the quiz night last August and at that point I decided to step it up and do things. So I went from zero to sixty really quickly.’

One of the biggest things Caroline and the Thinking CaPS team are currently working on is the planning and organising of the inaugural Flinders University Science and Engineering Ball. This has involved applying to the Student Council for a grant to secure the venue and liaising with the other science and engineering student societies.

The menu is currently being finalised and Caroline has fingers crossed for a sample or two.

Like many Flinders clubs, the Thinking CaPS have an annual bake sale, but how many clubs can boast a specific date for these events?

22/7 is the date for the Thinking Caps Pi Day Bake-off – when delicious vapours emerge on the south side of the lake. Prizes are on offer for those who most successfully utilise time to master physics and chemistry to produce the best pi(e) cooked to pifection. ‘After all’, says Caroline, ‘Baking is just another form of chemistry performed over time.’

Caroline answers my next question decisively: David Tennant, the Tenth Doctor, would be the best fit for Thinking CaPS. ‘He’s quirky on the outside and a scientist at heart. Plus, he made a habit of licking things to quantify them – not that I recommend licking anything in the lab, especially wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff.’

PRESIDENT Caroline watson /groups/FlindersThinkingCaPS/

Speaking of external quirks, the physical manifestation of the Thinking Capper is the vibrantly painted lab coat. Cast off the image of pristine white coats, these lab rats have gone technicolour. ‘The lab coats let us embrace our quirky side, accommodate individual expression and helps to make uni less scary for new students,’ Caroline says. ‘The lab coats serve as massive ice-breakers for students when they initially hit the lab and can identify fellow Thinking Cappers.’

So, dear reader, lets us take a stroll along the space-time continuum to September 16 2016. Let us mingle amongst the throng at the Stamford Grand gathered for the inaugural Science and Engineering Ball. Can you spot Caroline and her fellow Thinking CaPS in the sea of ball gowns and tuxedos? Just look for those lab coats.

PATRON ALBERT THE SCIENCE CAT

MEMBERSHIP 200

ACTIVITIES LAB COAT PAINTING SESSIONS, 2 PUB CRAWLS A YEAR, QUIZ NIGHT, HOSTING SCIENCE, BAKE SALE, AND ENGINEERING BALL

ACHIEVEMENTS FUSA Awards - Most Improved Club 2015, Best Club Member 2015 AUTHOR Richard Falkner, 51 (not out), Bachelor of Creative Arts (Creative Writing)

Richard would like to go back in time to 1598 London to hang with William William Shakespeare and get Some handy tips for his Much Ado About Nothing assignment

1919

- Features -

Coffee On Campus...

The flavour of the month in this issue is Time.

Some of us have it in abundance and some, never enough, but the one universal truth that we can all agree upon, is that there is always time for good coffee. I have only just started at Flinders and am a lowly first-year peasant; to that end I have been familiarising myself with the campus, facilities, staff, classmates, and of course, the best place to get a coffee.

Outlined in this segment will be the results of my caffeinated pilgrimage on the good, the bad, and the ugly coffee hot spots on campus. Please note all views expressed in the following paragraphs are my personal opinions, and do not necessarily reflect the businesses themselves, just my experiences with them.

Urban Paddock and Co. – Hub, The Eatery, Ground Level This was my first port of call during O’Week. I was drawn in by the comical appearance of a vintage caravan in the new, sleek food court area and decided to get myself a coffee. The staff were exceptionally nice and quick about serving me, even going so far as to ask how my day had been; the service was prompt and my coffee appeared moments later on a counter top to the side of the caravan. Urban Paddock and Co. has a fairly nice area situated just behind it where you can sit and enjoy your coffee, although you are in the centre of noise, confusion and hungry undergrads who constitute the food court on any given day. The coffee itself was superb, possibly one of my favourites in this list, they use an all natural blend of beans and from what I have heard, have a particular affection for the use of natural products instead of the processed alternative. I believe that all good coffee needs to strike a balance, a medium between the sharp aromatic taste of coffee and smooth, fresh milk combining to create the perfect brew.

Urban Paddock and Co. can deliver this.

Bon Voyage - The Laneway After completing three hours of consecutive Drama lectures examining the reasoning behind why male actors in Ancient Greece felt the need to wear fake penises all the time, I felt a coffee had been well deserved. On that note, I made my way across the Humanities Courtyard to Cafe Bon Voyage, situated in the Laneway near the central library. The first thing I noticed was that they had situated themselves in a prime location and as a result had a constant, steady stream of customers ordering

various food and drink. I lined up and eventually ordered a coffee, the service from staff was polite, if not a bit short on words, but in all truth, the opinion here is of coffee, not conversation.

It took a little while but they were inundated with customers so that didn’t matter; I gladly took my coffee and sat down in their seating area. By all accounts, the Laneway is just something to look at in its own right, vibrant colours and art taking over the walls and a tonne of character. Truly next level shit. Their coffee was excellent, I noted that it was definitely stronger than what I had ordered from Urban Paddock and Co., but I do enjoy strong coffee. I return to what I had said earlier on the balance of good coffee, and these guys know their stuff; they hit an equilibrium between bitterness and smoothness in their coffee and for that reason I can do nothing other than recommend them.

One Byte Cafe - Central Library I decided to try the One Byte Cafe next; so convenient, so purpose built for all the insomniac academics trying to finish their assignments, it seemed like a must. Customer service here was quite good, so I ordered my coffee without any hassles and sat down to enjoy. For once, I actually found myself disappointed; my coffee somehow came out lukewarm and bitter as all hell. As I said earlier, I like strong coffee but this was beyond that. It didn’t taste like what I had ordered, but rather a warm cup of disappointment.

Again, these are only my views on the day and I am certain it was just some sort of mistake or mix up but hot damn, the medium was nowhere to be found here. I would definitely not say ‘do not get coffee here’ but I know that in the future I am going to exercise caution before coming back.

The editors of this magazine must be experiencing overcaffeinated craziness, because they’re letting me continue this campus coffee review in the next issue! Which campus coffee bean will be next???

AUTHOR Lewis Koodrin, 18, Bachelor of Arts (History) / Bachelor of Education (Secondary)

If Lewis had a time machine, he would travel to Renaissance Italy in the late 1400s.

Tastebuds and opinions belong to the author.

hidden gems The Blue Lake, Mount Gambier, SA Mount Gambier; the perfect place to escape to for a ‘getaway’ holiday! If you ever want to escape the city for a little bit, to explore what South Australia has to offer, or if you just need an excuse to go on a road trip, Mount Gambier is the place for you. Not only does it have affordable accommodation, a shopping centre, every type of fast food outlet possible, and great places to eat, it is also home to the sacred ‘Blue Lake’.

The Blue Lake sits on top of one of the extinct volcanic craters in Mount Gambier, and during the months of December through to March, it turns a cobalt blue colour. This lake is so gorgeous, and it is incredible that our state is home to such a unique landmark.

There is a 3.6km walking trail you can take around the lake, or pay $10 and undertake a guided tour of the lake, which includes getting quite close to it and going in a glass elevator. If you are lucky, the tour guide might switch on the water pump, allowing you to see the water pouring into the lake, which is pretty cool. On the tour, you learn basic facts about the blue lake, its history, as well as its depth and temperature. There is also an electronic diagram that shows the pumping system of the blue lake and how it also helps provide water to the

community. The tour is a great way to learn more about the history and culture of South Australia, and to see why we may be living in one of the best states in Australia.

On the way up to Mount Gambier, stop off at Naracoorte and explore the caves, which is a free activity! It is breathtaking to see these caves, knowing they are still around after thousands of years. If you fancy a bite to eat, go to the House of Schnitzel located on the main street of Mount Gambier, where they offer over 30 different schnitzel toppings as well as pub food. They also have specials on every night, so be sure to check out the specials’ board up on the wall!

AUTHOR Ashley Curtis, 21, Bachelor of International Tourism

If Ashley had a time machine, she would go 100 years into the future, to see how advanced technology has become, to know if all of the jobs we have today are replaced by robots, and to see what the fashion will be like in 2116.

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federal parliament. Also, a lot of the issues around the economy, defence, national security, are very much federal issues, so I think that’s principally the attraction.

Did you find the breadth of experience afforded by attending both Flinders and Adelaide to be useful?

I think it’s good to have people with a range of experiences and expertise in federal parliament. I’d like to think I’ve brought something from my working life in hospitals to the debate in Canberra. You do want a federal parliament that has people from a range of backgrounds. Certainly, six years at Adelaide, and four and a half at Flinders [have influenced]. Both great experiences, and I loved being a student at both. I think all of what you learn is quite helpful because the breadth of issues you consider in federal parliament is enormous and sometimes you don’t know what the new challenges will be, so it’s good to have a good grounding, as I had in economics, international politics, and also medicine.

In 20 years in public office, what would you consider the most important learning experience you’ve picked up?

alumni interview 2: ANDREW SOUTHCOTT MP Empire Times sat down with federal politician, outgoing Liberal member for Boothby, Andrew Southcott.

What particularly drove you towards politics?

I really became interested in politics in my final years of high school.

I had a great love of Australian history. I followed very closely what was going on in the national debate in Canberra. I always had that interest. I got involved in political campaigns and in the end I think it was motivated by wanting to see the country as good as it could be; wanting to see the economy as strong as it could be; wanting to see our country being as secure as it could be. I always thought it would be a hobby or an interest – my primary goal when I left school was to be a doctor and I really thought politics was going to be a secondary interest but that wasn’t the way it worked out. I’ve been in parliament for the last 20 years but now I’m stepping down at the next election and I’m planning to return to medical practice.

But what drove me? In the end, I found it very interesting, very exciting, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea but it was something I just felt compelled towards. I was interested in a lot of different things and in politics you do have the opportunity to contribute a range of areas.

representation. I was president of the medical students. I got involved in different issues at university, so that’s where I got some taste of politics. I think when I went to Flinders, I was already working, but I was attracted to Flinders because there were some great people there like Graham Scott, who was an expert in public finances, [and] Dean Jaensch who was an expert in politics. So, I was very much attracted to studying at Flinders, and I was conscious that going into politics, having a background as a doctor, I needed to have something a bit more, so I went and did an economics degree, with one major in economics, one major in international relations and some Australian history subjects as well. It was a great thing to do in my spare time, although I was pretty busy at the time.

And you decided Flinders, rather than Adelaide, to pursue that?

For the economics degree, yes. They had a good economics degree.

Good economics school. Good politics school. It probably helped that Flinders was in the middle of Boothby as well so that was another good reason but really I enjoyed doing the economics degree at Flinders. I was very attracted by the high-profile, highcalibre academics they had in those schools.

Did your times at university have any influence over your involvement in politics?

What do you find particularly appealing about federal politics, rather than any other levels?

I suppose in different ways. When I was at Adelaide University, where I did Medicine, I gradually became involved in student

I think in federal politics, it’s really the scale of things, and you have people coming from all over the country to debate the issues in

I certainly feel I’ve learnt a lot, about people, and about working with people. Perhaps, if I go back a step, when my kids were at their school, they had the five keys of successful learning. Emotional resilience, persistence, organisation, getting along, and I forget the last one. All of those things are so true, though. You see it in politics, it’s good to get along, to be persistent, [and] it’s good to be resilient.

All of those things get tested in politics and elections. I think you have to approach any role you’re given with the right attitude and do it to the best of your abilities. You never know what might turn up afterwards. I think getting along, having a positive attitude, and being resilient are all tremendously important.

What would you put the last 9 years of instability in Australian politics down to?

The answer is I don’t really know. I think we’ve had such a period of long economic growth. One of the longest ever. I do wonder about that. [With John Howard] there were from time to time, some tensions there but he had a very strong support group and was able to keep on top of it. I’m actually not sure, but I think really, it’s because very few of our Prime Ministers have grown into the job.

John Howard did, and he learnt from his mistakes. Since then, every Prime Minister has, to an extent, struggled with the demands of the office. It’s a very tough job. You need to be able to handle a mass of paper, coordinate a massive government, but he was able to do it with a great team around him, and I think since then, everyone has struggled with that.

After 20 years, do you think you’ll miss it much?

I don’t think so. I think 20 years is a good time to step down. I’m sure I’ll still be reading the papers voraciously. I will still be watching politics on TV. I’ll probably be watching it even more than I’ve been able to in this job, but I don’t think I’ll miss it. After 20 years, I think I’m ready to move on to new things. If you leave in the right way, [and] on your own terms, I think you’re always, in a way, still a part of it. You’re not leaving in a bad way. You’re leaving on your own terms. I may go back to Canberra from time to time but I’ll be watching from the sidelines in future.

Thanks very much.

No worries. Great to talk to Empire Times.

Andrew Southcott on election night, 1996.

You’ve been there for the Howard Government, the RuddGillard-Rudd years, and now for the Turnbull/Abbott time. What do you look back on most fondly?

I think the years I was part of the Howard Government. It was a very good government. It had a lot of achievements, wrote off debt, supported East Timor becoming an independent country, stopped the boats, and reformed the tax system, as well as a whole lot of other things, including creating over two million jobs. I think that really is the gold standard, the Howard years. It wasn’t easy. We had lots of challenges. We very nearly lost a few times. But it was a very good government. I learnt a lot from John Howard. I think he was a very good Prime Minister, and he had a very good Treasurer in Peter Costello, and in Alexander Downer, Foreign Minister. They were very experienced people and I think that sort of experience does come at a premium in politics. John Howard was enormously experienced by the time he became Prime Minister and that did show in the way he was able to respond to issues. He was able to draw on this huge corporate memory. So I think the first four terms of my seven terms are probably the period. It was very stable.

People were able to get ahead. I think that was a very good period.

What lesson you’ve learnt in the last 20 years would you have most liked to have known before you started your terms?

You’ve just got to do the job to the best of your ability and who knows what might happen. You just don’t know. Look, I think with experience you become a lot more tolerant of different points of view and other people. I think it’s important to get along with people and not make enemies gratuitously. I think they’re some of the lessons I would have learnt.

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x o v pop Q.

1. Probably the roaring 20s.

The fashion, the culture, and the lavish parties of that time were pretty swell. The Great Depression would suck, though.

1. Elizabethan England, because of the fashion and history.

2. Can I choose neither?

3. Living overseas somewhere cold with many cats! I’ll be a backpacking cat lady.

4. With Cards Against Humanity...or Monopoly.

1. Far enough into the future to get bionic limbs.

2. Night owl (ex-bartender).

3. Making whisky in Ireland.

4. Global warning shenanigans.

5. I’ll tell you what I want, what I really, really want...definitely The 5. The Tasmanian Tiger.

Spice Girls!

6. Terrifyingly enough, probably Frank or Claire Underwood from House Of Cards.

Mary education / arts

1.IF YOU HAD A TIME-MACHINE, WHERE AND WHEN WOULD YOU GO? 2. ARE YOU A MORNING PERSON OR A NIGHT-OWL? 3. WHERE DO YOU HOPE TO BE IN 5 YEARS TIME? 4. HOW WILL THE WORLD END? 5. WHAT ONE THING FROM YOUR CHILDHOOD SHOULD BE BROUGHT BACK? 6. WHO WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE RUN AND SUCCEED AS US PRESIDENT?

6. Wild Turkey’s head distiller.

2. Considering I woke up half an hour late to my tutorial this morning, I would most certainly be the latter.

3. A graphic designer or a cinematographer. With rocking abs. And maybe, with my own cruise ship.

4. Lasagne shortage.

5. Yowies, man. Freaking yowies.

2. Night owl, definitely.

3. Employed, hopefully.

1. 5 years ago to get ahead in life.

4. Zombies?

2. Night owl.

5. Pokemon.

3. Europe, somewhere.

6. Tom Araya (Slayers vocalist) would be entertaining.

4. Greed.

6. Matt, the Radar Technician.

Have you seen his shredded abs?

Tucker health sciences

Melanie MEDIA

1. I’d stay where I am. Life’s a journey!

1. Viking Age Scandinavia.

5. I don’t think anything from my childhood should be brought back.

2. Definitely morning.

3. First year of my PhD. 4. It won’t. We will kill ourselves by forcing our environment to a state we can’t live in.

5. Progression is a good thing!

6. Someone who advocates peace!

6. Bernie Sanders is good enough.

Erik IT (Digital Media)

Sean BUSINESS

Grace biotechnology

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- Cooking -

- Cooking -

Pocketchange Pantry Gluten-free Baked Mini Cheesecakes Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

2. Crush your slivered almonds using a baking sheet and a meat tenderiser (or however you prefer to crush nuts).

3. In a mixing bowl whisk together the almond meal, almonds, baking soda, salt, sugar and cinnamon. Add the butter and combine with a spoon.

4. Line a mini-muffin tin with liners. Push the almond mixture into the bottom of the liners.

5. Bake for 10 minutes to set.

6. Turn oven down to 150°.

7. In a mixing bowl, add cream cheese, vanilla, sugar and eggs.

Beat until light and fluffy, with an electric mixer, or whisk if you’re too lazy to get the mixer out (but somehow not too lazy to beat the cheese by hand).

8. Spoon mixture into the muffin tins with prepared almond crust.

9. Bake for 20 minutes or until they start turning golden.

10. Remove from the oven and let them cool BUT also still eat whilst warm because they’re goddam amazing.

A wise man once said you don’t make friends with salad. And they were right; you make friends with cake.

But what if you want to befriend a coeliac? Fear not, dear reader, I’ve got you covered.

I first discovered this recipe through a Facebook ad (believe it or not) a few years ago, and it tastes so good that a gay man once proposed to me over them.

But don’t be fooled. Just because it’s gluten free, it doesn’t mean it’s healthy. It’s still cheesecake. But if you’re looking to impress with an easy, non-cardboard tasting, coeliac friendly treat, look no further.

These babies last a week in the fridge, 2-3 months in a freezer, or at least 3 weeks in the ET magic fridge that stradles those lines. At least it’s not made me sick yet...

*Double the final cooking time if you’re making larger cakes. Everything else remains the same.

And there you have it; my famous (I’ve made these 4 times) gluten-free mini cheesecakes. Just don’t do what I did and eat like 10 in one sitting. It’s tempting because they’re small, but you’ll regret it soon after.

Makes: 45-48 mini cheesecakes (or 24 muffin-sized cakes*).

For extra sweetness:

Ingredients:

Caramel:

CHEF / AUTHOR Simone Corletto, 24, Bachelor of Creative Arts Honours (Creative Writing) Simone says if she had a time machine, she’d use it to go back and wake herself up all those times she slept through her alarm.

1/2 cup granulated sugar

Crust: • 1 cup almond meal • 1/2 cup slivered almonds • 1/4 cup white sugar • 1/4 teaspoon fine Sea Salt • 1/4 teaspoon ground Cinnamon • 1/4 teaspoon Baking Soda • 1/4 cup melted butter

2 tablespoons water 1 tablespoon butter 1/2 cup evaporated milk Combine the granulated sugar and water in a medium, heavy saucepan over medium-high heat; cook until sugar dissolves, stirring gently for 3 minutes. Stop stirring and continue cooking for 10 minutes or until it’s light brown. Remove from

Filling: • 500g cream cheese • 3 eggs • 1/4 cup sugar • 1 tsp vanilla essence

heat; carefully stir in butter and milk. Place pan over medium-high heat until the caramelised sugar melts. Bring to a boil; cook a further 1 minute. Remove pan from heat; cool caramel to room temperature. Cover and chill 1 hour or until slightly thickened. When ready, dollop generously onto the cheesecakes and enjoy the sweet sugary goodness!

I buy Lucky Almond Meal; as in, “lucky we have an ingredient to make gluten-free desserts that are palatable to human beings”.

Original recipe: http://whatsfordinner-momwhatsfordinner.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/caramel-cheesecakes.html

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- Features -

Welcome To Japan

I know that’s quite a bold statement, but it’s true.

They consistently produce popular games and started many trends later taken up by their competitors. Shoulder buttons? Rumble controllers? Motion controls? Touch-screen controllers? All these and more are innovations that Nintendo developed first, before copycats Playstation and Xbox jumped on the bandwagon.

Yet in the grand Playstation vs. Xbox race, Nintendo often isn’t even considered a competitor.

And it’s true, while Sony and Xbox were champing at the bit with the Xbox 360/PS3, and now Xbox One/PS4, to produce the most powerful processor and the highest graphics (things the PC master race will smugly point out that they’ve already championed the market in for years), Nintendo released the child-like Wii and WiiU. These little plastic machines, with their wand-like controllers weren’t even on the same level as the mighty behemoths of Xbox and PS, right?

What are some famous events in Japan?

Despite the bittersweet times mentioned above, there are also enjoyable activities in March. I will introduce three Japanese representative events in March.

The Doll’s Festival The special event is held on March 3rd and is called “Hinamatsuri” in Japanese. This is when we celebrate our children’s growth. We stand dolls on platforms which are covered with red carpet. We eat sushi, drink sake, and enjoy the party.

White day

Many new couples would be born every year through both of these days. Therefore, for someone who wants a lover, these days are one of the chances to make this happen, and they might be nervous and tense during these days!

What is Valentines day?

It is held February 14th, one month before White day. Some girls who are brave try to make their feelings know to the boy they like. Some girls can get replies from boys on the day, and others can get it on White day. Also, by the way, this day is the most profitable day for chocolate companies.

Ohanami Some cherry blossoms bloom from the end of March in Tokyo.

Japanese cherry blossoms are very beautiful, and a lot of tourists visit Japan just to see them. Ohanami is an activity to see the trees with your friends and colleagues, eating Japanese food and drinking. If you come to Japan in this season, it would be an unforgettable experience in your life.

日本人にとって３月とは？？ 日本の３月と言えば、年の変わり目の時期として有名です。 月の初めには卒業式や送別会が行われ、出会いと別れの時期 でもあります。 ３月を代表するイベントとは?

1.ひなまつり ひな祭りは３月３日に行われ、ひな人形を飾り、子どもの健 やかな成長をお祈りするイベントです。ひな人形は子どもに 降りかかる災いを身代わりに受けてくれるとされておりま す。お祭りの中では、お祝いごとには欠かせないお酒やお寿 司も出され、みんなで楽しみます。 2.ホワイトデー ホワイトデーは、３月１４日に行われ、 バレンタインデーに チョコレートを貰った男性が、そのお返しとしてホワイトチ ョコレートなどのプレゼントを女性へお返しする日とされて います。 ３．おはなみ

AUTHOR Daichi Mario Ishiguro, 21, Bachelor of Business Administration If Mario had a time machine, he would go back to March 11th 2011, when the biggest earthquake and Tsunami happened in Japan. “I would like to tell the people who were living in the North-East area to escape, and to help them get as far away as possible, and quickly.”

THE NOSTALGIA GAME Nintendo is the greatest video game company of all time.

In Japan, March is a really important time, because in some ways, March is recognised as the end of season; the school year finishes then. At the beginning of March, graduation ceremonies and farewell parties are held. People might feel the pain of parting from these moments of their lives.

March 14th is the day for boys to give girls white chocolate.

The chocolate is a kind of love letter. So, the boy who received chocolate from a girl on Valentines day, would return the chocolate to the girl, possibly returning the feelings. Or, the following passage might be used then; “Thank you for giving me chocolate, but I think you are just a friend, sorry.”

- Features - Hidden Gems - -

日本では３月の下旬から桜が咲き始め、その頃からお花見を する人たちが増えます。家族や友達と桜の周辺に集まり、日 本の料理やお酒を飲んで、美しい桜を楽しみます。

Well, you are right. The Wii isn’t anywhere on that level. But they were never trying to be.

The genius of Nintendo, in staying out of the vicious battles between the other two major companies, was that it was able to dominate its own market; the nostalgia market.

The major releases for Nintendo in the past 10 years have been dominated by remakes, sequels, and spinoffs of its top franchises: Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and Metroid. Sure, sequels aren’t a unique idea. Xbox and Sony have their sequel franchises, pumping out a new Assassins’ Creed, FIFA, Madden, and Grand Theft Auto practically every year (just to name a few), as well as the hundreds of identical war First Person Shooter games that are so homogenous they might as well be sequels (That’s right, fanboys, Gears of War and CoD are the same bloody thing). But Nintendo is unique in that they focused more on their longrunning franchises fans have grown up playing.

Humans tend to love the familiar and routine. Yes, every Zelda game is basically the same 8-dungeon, solve-the-puzzles, rescue-the-princess, collectthe-things structure, but where it differs is in the dressing. Each Zelda game has a different story, sits somewhere unique in the multi-verse timeline, and adds something new, some new feature, amongst all the old familiar things you know and love. Each game is just different enough to make you want to buy it, even though you’ve already played the last 12.

This is the exact same strategy they use for Pokemon. And Pokemon is one of the most successful gaming franchises ever, coming in third after Mario and Super Mario. In fact, on a list of video game franchises that have sold over 100 million copies, 7 out of the 15 listed are Nintendo franchises, or at least released predominantly on Nintendo consoles. Sure, some people bitch and whine that only the first 151 Pokemon count, and maybe 721 is getting a bit much to try and “Catch ‘em all” (and who knows how many more Sun and Moon are going to add to that number), but when those new games are released in November/ December, you can be sure there will be long lines camping out at every EB Games in the city of nostalgic twenty and thirtysomethings (some even with their own children) waiting for their next fix. And in its 20th anniversary year, we’re being treated extra with the promising release of Pokemon GO, the first official mobile game that promises to let you become a real trainer, finding and catching Pokemon on your phone depending on your location. AND just a few months ago Nintendo re-released the first generation Pokemon games, Blue, Red, and Yellow, onto their 3DS digital store, where they broke the record for first-week sales previously held by Super Mario Bros. Will these re-releases out-sell their total original cartridge release? Time will tell, but I’m predicting it may well happen.

What does this mean for the future of gaming? Will everything just become a re-make of a re-make?

While Nintendo is highly successful, they are still just one player in the market. Outlets like Steam are absolutely championing experimental indie gaming, making sure that we don’t devolve into a sea of brown FPS games and Mario Kart reboots (yeah, I’m less into their “party game” series’).

And if Nintendo were simply remaking the same thing every year, it would be bleak. But it’s their combination of nostalgia and innovation that keeps them going, keeps the whole industry charging forward. And that’s a future I’m excited about.

AUTHOR Simone Corletto, 24, Bachelor of Creative Arts Honours (Creative Writing) Simone says if she had a time machine, she’d go back and stop herself from trading away her first Gen holographic Charizard card. (Curse you Tonya Minogne!)

ライター：マリオ（いしぐろだいち）

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-- Features Features --

- Features -

TIME@FU (Trust In My Education at Flinders University)

The decision to pursue a postgraduate degree in social work was brought about by my passion to protect and promote the rights and welfare of children, as well as for professional and personal growth. After several years of experience as a licensed social worker in the Philippines, I finally decided to take up further studies.

I researched how several different countries implemented child protection, chose Australia as the destination country for my postgraduate studies because social work practice is very much grounded on theories. There were also several prestigious scholarships funded by the Australian Government and I was determined to apply for 2016 intake. Because of this and eagerness and determination to have a postgraduate degree in Australia, I started preparing for the tedious the application process.

It was in December 2014 when I started checking various Australian universities and what they offer in their masters of social work.

During that time, passing the IELTS through self-review was the most difficult part of the application process because I was a fulltime social worker in a non-government organisation known as the Humanitarian Legal Assistance Foundation (HLAF). It was challenging for me to balance professional work with reviewing for the IELTS. I registered for the IELTS examination and my quest in achieving my goals started from there...

9:00 AM, Saturday, March 28, 2015

IELTS Examination, British Council Philippines Two days prior to the listening, reading and writing examinations was my speaking that assessed my use of spoken English. The speaking test went well and credit goes to my call center experience. Since it was my first time doing the listening, reading and writing examinations, apprehensions dominated me.

My reading and writing examinations were my challenges and it felt like the hours I had for my self-review were not enough because I only managed to review after work each day.

(Quite tough!)

2015 8:48 AM, Friday, April 10, 2015

IELTS Results - March 28 Examinations This was one of my downfalls. I got a passing band score but fell short on the writing test to be able to qualify to the to three universities on my list. But this didn’t stop me from pursuing my goal to do postgraduate studies here in Australia. Instead of nursing my disappointment over the results and derailing my drive to get a scholarship, I enrolled for another IELTS exam the following month.

(Thanks to my dear sponsor!)

9:00 AM, Saturday, May 9, 2015

IELTS Examination, British Council Philippines So I took the examination again. I had almost a month to prepare and this time I focused more on the writing exam. I thought I would have an advantage because the reviews were still fresh. I did fairly well on the second take and it gave me some relief from the incoming results since I was already pressed with time for the first scholarship application, which was due at the end of that month. (Confidence increased!)

9:13 AM, Friday, May 22, 2015

IELTS Results - May 9 Examinations I finally nailed it this time around and made it to the first scholarship application deadline.

To be sure, I applied to the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Australia Awards and the Department of Education and Training’s Endeavour Scholarships and Fellowships the following month. (I was really up for this, wasn’t I?)

2:44 PM, Sunday, May 31, 2015

Application for Australia Awards has been submitted.

7:02 PM, Monday, June 18, 2015

11:23 PM, Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Application to Endeavour Scholarships & Fellowships has been submitted.

Offer of Admission received from Flinders University Flinders University was one of the three universities I applied to for my postgraduate studies. University of New England and University of South Australia were the other two. From the very start, Flinders University has always been on top of my list because the topics offered in masters in social work were in my line of interest. (And I was really looking forward to meeting koalas in the campus!)

11:00 AM, Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Australia Awards Panel Interview Notice for the interview came in a month before.

The panel interview was the toughest part of my scholarship application because it focused on the applicant’s action plan. A re-entry action plan (REAP) is a key requirement in Australia Awards and mine was titled ‘Strengthening the Implementation of the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act in the Philippines by adopting strengths-based and culturally sensitive model in organizing child-friend communities’.

However, the panelists suggested that I take my masters in public policy instead of social work because they thought that my REAP was geared towards governance and legislation. I finished the process with a gut feeling that I might not be selected as one of the recipients. (I’m torn!)

9:08 AM, Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Endeavour Scholarships and Fellowships Results released It took 125 days to receive the results and I felt so blessed to have made it. I was one of the lucky seven scholars from my home country given the opportunity to take up a postgraduate degree in Australia. This then prompted me to communicate with Australia Awards to withdraw my application to give the other aspiring scholarship applicants a chance. (Share the blessings!)

2:06 PM, Monday, November 16, 2015

Confirmation of Acceptance and Enrollment to Flinders University After receiving my scholarship confirmation documents, Flinders University finally admitted me in the Master of Social Work - Graduate Entry program for semester 1 in school year 2016. (Shout out to my social work MATES!)

2:29 PM, Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Letter received from Senator the Hon Richard Colbeck It was indeed an honour and privilege to receive a congratulatory letter from Senator the Hon Richard Colbeck who also happened to be the Minister for Tourism and International Education. More than the congratulatory message, by that time, I felt that I was already welcomed in Australia. (Hello ‘Straya!)

4:52 PM, Monday, December 21, 2015 Request for Additional Document from Australian Embassy It had been two weeks since I lodged my application for student visa. This was actually the most terrifying part of my journey. I was asked to provide a copy of Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC) for my entire duration of stay here in Australia. There was really no separate document for the OSHC. I replied to the embassy representative that as stipulated in the acceptance letter it is the Department of Education and Training that would make arrangements for the visa length coverage of OSHC. (Fingers Crossed!)

1:26 PM, Thursday, December 23, 2015

Visa Application Decision arrived My early Christmas present came unexpectedly- Visa granted! I thanked God for this blessing because all my hard work and sacrifices paid off. A day before Christmas, my girlfriend and I already booked my flight going coming to the land down under. I already planned my endorsements and turnovers to my beloved HLAF in preparation for my study-leave starting mid-January 2016. I was flanked with many congratulatory messages from my loved ones and colleagues. All of them hoped for the best for me in my journey to professional development. (See you all folks in 2018!)

12:10 AM, Thursday, February 11, 2016

Flight from Manila, Philippines to Sydney, Australia then to Adelaide The time finally came to fly overseas and start a new chapter of my life. I had a 4-hour waiting time for my domestic flight from Sydney to the so-called Festival State: South Australia. I felt overwhelmed but full of joy because my girlfriend welcomed and accompanied me and that made everything easier (she’s studying in Brisbane by the way, that is why our LDR rocks!). It was 5:50 in the evening when I finally set foot here in SA where new learning and experiences are awaited me.

2:30 PM, Friday, February 12, 2016

First Visit to Flinders University I went to Uni and picked up my student identification card.

It dawned on me that, my TIME has come with Flinders University, my new home in the next two years, and that with confidence and trust, I know it will allow me in to achieve my personal and professional goals. Dreams and goals happen at a certain point in TIME, and it was time for me to fulfill mine.

Present AUTHOR Jun “JT” Tumamao, 32, Master of Social Work (Graduate Entry)

JT says ‘If I had a time machine, I would like to go back to 1990, the year before my father died, and ask him of his dreams and plans for us—his family. I would also make the most of that time to get along with him and experience the love of a father.’

31 31

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- Features -

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- Features -

THE LEO, THE REVENANT,

& Georgia Brass asks the tough question: Did he deserve it?

Anyone who knows me personally knows that there are three things I love more than life itself – quoting films, chicken nuggets, and Leonardo DiCaprio; the latter being my greatest love of all.

Ever since I first watched Titanic on VCR in my nana’s lounge room when I was just a nipper (which I still vividly remember), I was absolutely smitten with his boyish good looks and cheeky nature.

As I grew into the film buff I am today and watched more of his mature movies, I fell in love with his acting skills as well as his characters. Then when he emerged as an avid environmentalist it became all too clear to me that Leo was the perfect man.

He became the figure I compared every guy I dated to, and as expected, no one has ever measured up (which is probably why I’m still single). I doubt you will ever find a bigger Leo lover than me, and thus, I doubt that you will find anyone who advocated for Leo’s Academy Award campaign more than me.

For years, decades actually, I have strongly been of the opinion that Leo is one of the greatest actors of our time. That he’s been long overdue for an Oscar. That he’s been overlooked for nominations for a number of roles, and has deserved a win for at least two of the years he has been nominated. So when his name was thrown into the hat for this year’s Academy Award for Best Actor, I was overwhelmed with hope. Between the social media sensation of Leo Vs. the Academy sweeping the world, and the incredible critical reception The Revenant was receiving particularly for Leo’s performance, I could feel it in my nuggets that this was his year. Not to mention that after years of playing characters who meet violent ends (which was extremely reflective of Leo’s long fruitless journey to claim the Oscar), The Revenant gave Leo the opportunity to play a man who fights and conquers death. For me this was a divine sign of what was come – Leo would finally fight through and conquer the Academy. So, after a restless, seemingly endless wait for the moment of truth to arrive, when Julianne Moore finally announced the winner of the Oscar, I reacted as you’d expect any overexcited fan girl to react; I screamed, I cried, and I wore my Leo tee with pride. Not to

mention I subjected all my poor Facebook friends to a relentless liking and sharing spree of every news post and meme that emerged on my feed in the following hours.

But as the hype has died down, the question that has been on everyone’s lips, and on my mind is did he deserve the Oscar?

Did Leo’s performance in The Revenant warrant the number of awards he has picked up since its release, particularly the most prestigious of all in the film industry? Upon reading a number of people’s opinions and reflecting on them as best I could from an objective perspective, I have come to a painful conclusion considering my emotional position in regards to Leo. Firstly, I will start by saying I wholeheartedly agree with the argument put forth by Kimmy West in her article published on Page To Premiere. Leo should’ve definitely won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape back in 1994. When you consider his age, his limited experience as an actor at that stage in his career, but the professional development of such a nuanced realistic character, he more than deserved it. But I believe the Academy thought Leo would have plenty of opportunities in coming years to win an Oscar (which he did, but that’s besides the point), and in this, he was ironically overlooked because of his age and limited experience. Even after years of portraying a range of characters in countless films, I still believe this is probably one of his greatest if not the greatest performance in his career and that was the only year he was truly robbed. In this, I find myself also in agreement with Wenlei Ma who published an opinion piece on news.com.au, the title of which had my eyes angrily glazing over as I read–‘Why Leo didn’t deserve to win.’ Despite how much I despise the title and the writer’s general attitude towards Leo, after reading the article, I found myself shockingly both in agreement but also of course strongly disagreeing with a few elements of Ma’s argument.

THE OSCar. Here comes the kicker, so prepare yourselves: I actually agree with Ma that Leo shouldn’t have won the Oscar for Best Actor for his performance in The Revenant, as in comparison with the rest of his repertoire, it wasn’t (at least in my opinion) the pinnacle performance of his career. Now this is not to say I don’t believe Leo wasn’t fantastic — he portrayed his character’s struggles and emotions on a predominantly physical level that I don’t believe he has before. But his somewhat one-dimensional character and his slow, at times cliché story arch didn’t provide Leo opportunity to demonstrate his full capabilities as an actor to develop a ‘real’ performance with convincing relationships to others in the same way previous roles have, mostly due to limited dialogue.

I agree with Ma that (in the instance this was a deciding factor for the Academy) Leo shouldn’t have got the Oscar based on the hardship he faced during production, including working in literally freezing cold conditions, sleeping in a horse carcass and eating raw bison liver, even though such effort is admirable and speaks to how dedicated he is to his craft. I agree with Ma that Leo shouldn’t have got the Oscar based on the fact he’s ‘overdue’. There were performances from the other nominated actors that saw for a lot more development and required a lot more skill and thus probably deserved it more than Leo, such as Eddie Redmayne’s The Danish Girl. I agree with Ma’s general statement that Leo isn’t the only actor to be cheated of an Oscar and that there are a vast number of actors of distinctive talent who have gone unmerited for much longer than Leo. And though I believe Leo deserves an award for his body of work or at least one day will deserve it, I agree with Ma in saying he doesn’t deserve this Oscar on that basis alone – this is an award for a performance in a particular film and this particular performance was not Leo’s greatest.

However, I DO NOT agree with Ma’s argument that Leo has a tendency to overact. Considering most of the extreme roles he’s undertaken, including a mentally handicapped boy, a drug addict,

a deluded psych patient, an undercover cop and a racist sociopath, in my opinion and evidently in the opinion of many others, he’s played them to the appropriate degree of madness according to the situation the character is placed in. And I would actually like to point out that Ma contradicts herself in saying Leo overacts and doesn’t deserve an Oscar due to that, after commenting that in The Revenant he was ‘a little more restrained that I expected’ going to show he does show control in his performances.

So overall, as big a Leo fan as I am, I don’t believe that he should’ve won the long-awaited Oscar for his role in The Revenant – in fact, I believe he should’ve won it back in the day when he was first nominated and already demonstrating incredible talent at a young age. But nonetheless, as arguably Leo’s biggest fan, I am beyond ecstatic he has finally been duly credited for his talent and effort in his field. I also am extremely proud of how he accepted the award in the fashion of a true class act, with humility, poise, grace and purpose, using his shining moment to draw attention to an issue close to his heart and pressingly important for the public to pay notice to, that of climate change. His work ethic and skill, and his gratitude towards all those who have helped him grow as an actor are probably the main reasons why the Academy have finally given him an award, and are definitely the main reasons why I absolutely adore the living hell out of Leonardo DiCaprio, and probably will for the rest of my life. Just like I knew this would be Leo’s year, I know there will be many films and roles to come for Leo that will be worthy of Oscar nominations, and I have no doubt there will be many he will once again win and truly deserve-and even if he doesn’t, I can guarantee that I will still be cheering for him, all the way through the rest of his career, however long that may be.

AUTHOR Georgia Brass, 22, Bachelor of Education (Middle and Secondary) / Bachelor of Arts, (English and Drama)

If Georgia had a time machine, she would would time-travel to November this year when she would have finally finished her degree, which in turn would also place her somewhere in the UK on her celebratory trip!

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- Clubs -

Slaughtered Like Animals Footsteps clatter down stairs slick with rain and soot. The heavy breathing of those around them is unnerving, approaching like some untamed beast. An echoing gasp, and they turn, repulsed by the screams which soon follow.

Everyone keeps moving.

They are pushed and scrambled, slipping and colliding — some collapsing. Then they reach the ground, the snow crunching underfoot and some sinking into it, making way for those who would trample them. Screams, stolen. Bones, broken.

The air has almost been sucked out of them but they keep moving.

Anything to keep moving. Anything to keep moving.

A strangled cry rises above it all, above the sounds of gunshots and fear. They are a herd, forever fleeing those who hunt them. They breathe as one, until all breath is gone and the doors close them in. Trampling feet scramble, eliciting cries of pain, some sorrowed. Demands are screamed over them, in a language they don’t under-stand. In a language they’ve never heard.

Fear rises. Children scream for their mothers.

Keep moving.

It’s the instinct that floods through them; it’s the demand shouted at them. Like they are animals.

Mud and snow flecks the crowd as they dash to and fro. Anywhere to avoid the bullets. Anything to avoid death.

A child screams and a gun explodes. The sound ricochets throughout the yard, and time stops.

All air leaves the space until a man releases his cry of sorrow.

They are still. Eyes frozen upon their captors.

Watching. Waiting.

Instincts scream to keep moving, but they’re paralysed. The snow is slick with blood. Too much blood. Children cower behind their mothers’ skirts. Fathers search for their families, lost amongst the chaos.

No one moves a muscle.

They are waiting with baited breath. Only the man’s cries are heard, echoing back at them from every angle. Their captors bark at them, the words unknown. It is an order which cannot be understood. A savage roar, and their guns ignite, throwing fire into the sky.

They scramble, fighting to keep life. Children are snatched out of the way. Those terrified cry out.

In pain, in longing, in despair.

Keep moving.

A moving target is less likely hit.

It is only the blood that stops them, only the blood that captivates them into si-lence. An old man falls from where the guard had held him.

Blood oozes from his slit throat. They cannot look; they turn away, but others cannot.

Savagery.

Children’s cries start to build. A baby cries and a soldier roars. A woman steps out of line after her son, and another shot is released. The sound is savoured by the winter air that snatches the warmth from their faces. Tears freeze upon cheeks.

Mothers are too still to wipe their children’s faces.

Behind him, they stand frozen. His people. His people lost.

Down the steps, the man still tumbles, a lifeless body amongst many to join him. They look up, and a soldier cracks his rifle against his leg. A warning.

‘You cannot do this,’ he tells the soldier, who does not understand. The man rests his mother upon the snow, her hair matted with blood. He has no chance to get to his feet. His people have stood too still. Tentative, they watch as a young woman weaves through them. They pray she will not be spotted.

The soldiers bark at them. Again, not understood. The rage in their faces defies their cool collectedness. These people are nothing but savage.

An old woman’s howl surrounds them, cocooning her people united. The scarf is ripped from her head, pins tearing out her hair. Silken.

Bloodied. She collapses, gun aimed between the eyes, and she makes not a sound. Staring at her captor, she dares them, spits at his feet. He may take her life but never her freedom. Never her faith.

Soldiers above keep their aim upon her, keeping watch of that red scarf in a sea of black and brown. She reaches a door which does not open.

A cry escapes her, and she turns to her people.

They are moving; they collide, slipping through snow and blood and crying their hunger for life.

Their fear of death.

The gunshots don’t echo; there are too many.

They are silence. They are walking death.

The gunshot rings out like the cries of her children as it splits the air. Their sounds are terrible and human.

There is no life left here.

A man moves for the solider, hands outstretched, pleading. Hands tight, the soldier cocks his gun. Aims. Without fear, the man bends for his mother, her face smeared with blood and terror. He gathers her in aching arms, and dares to look up. The solider remains, gun aimed at his head.

AUTHOR Jasmine Koop, 20, Bachelor of Creative Arts (Creative Writing)

Jasmine says if she had a time machine, she would go to London in 1890.

ART Sheydin Drew

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- Fiction - Poetry -

Wave Song

Roar

I stared at his face. He smiled back at me, eyes twinkling, one hand clasped around a plastic cup of beer and the other extended in a ‘thumbs up’ salute. Jesus, those eyes. Eyes that knew almost every inch of me; eyes that had dipped into my soul as I had once swum in his. One eye framed in a crooked eyebrow, split into two by a childhood scar. I told him once that I imagined it as the result of a knife fight for my honour, and he laughed and told me he would save me from all of my demons if I saved him from his. I mentally traced the scar and my fingers mimicked the path on the table-top.

Like they remembered. # We were an unlikely pair, he and I. The country mouse and the country lion.

I with a crippling shyness and fierce inferiority complex and he with a roar so magnetic it made people want to follow him anywhere. He was larger than life. Two years older. Crazysmart. Prefect. Perfect. And with that maddening confidence that only the genuinely good-looking seem to have.

All things that should have rendered me invisible to him. And yet somehow – How? Why? – He saw me. He saw me.

We fell hard and fast. Boys started to notice a new prospect on the market, and he fought for my honour as he promised he would, not with knives but with words and his scorn and the safety net of him. We became a fixture, like the furniture. If I stumbled, he held me up. If I was paralysed with fear, he held my hand. He was not scared. He was proud. How? I had nothing to offer him. He had a dozen

In broken hours she sends her thoughts out to the sea, who waves to the misshapen little mermaid stranded on the balcony.

The sea sings as it calls her to sink or to glide, to dive or girls his own age ready to swoop on my carcass. He had the whole world. One day, I asked him.

‘You don’t see your own light from my direction,’ he said, as he pushed the curtain of hair I used as a shield behind my ear and whispered into the dark.

‘You only see your shadow. But you’re wrong. You’re much brighter than I am, stronger. You have no idea.’ He spoke the words with ease and I melted into the warmth of them.

We lived in each other’s pockets for a year. He serenaded me on acoustic guitar while I sat behind him on his bed – door open at the insistence of his parents – and played with his hair and traced his jawline with feather-kisses.

We were breathless and drunk on each other and we never wanted it to end.

And slowly, so slowly, I became a lion too.

‘Your light!’ he yelped one day, swinging me around by my waist until we were both dizzy and gasping on the grass. ‘Do you see it? It’s like the sun!’

And I knew then – he had changed me.

And then suddenly, we weren’t together. The details aren’t important.

It hurt less than I thought it would, giving him up. I think that was his last gift to me – he gave me his roar so that I’d never again have to use my squeak.

I was still roaring when, after a year apart, he asked to see me. I was still roaring when I threw my drink in his face, and I roared louder still when he laughed and wiped vodka and orange juice from the cleft in his scarred eyebrow. He opened his wallet and showed me the picture, the one he’d taken of me after Prom, asleep in the

limo coming home.

‘I kept this with me all year.’ He put the picture between us on the sticky table.

‘It kept me whole. You kept me whole.

Look at that light.’ And I loved him and hated him and loved him again all in the same breath.

But it was too late. We both knew it.

Years later, we found each other again.

I told him about my husband, the man who heard my roar in the void and gave me three cubs and he told me about his wife, whom he’d met in graduate school.

‘I told my mother she was just like you – and she told me this time I’d better not let the girl go.’

He was a teacher now. He had a new boy-cub of his own, and he was adored. I was okay, he was okay. We just weren’t okay together. We faded again, contrails in a bright blue sky. # And now here he was, staring into my soul from behind the unblinking eyes of the photograph on the screen.

A squeak rose in my throat but I choked it down. My fingers found the keyboard again.

for it to be that – but my heart drew into a tight knot and I keenly felt his absence from it. I thought of his wife, his son, this weight that they’d have to carry. I thought of his parents, who had so long ago insisted we leave the door open to protect my virtue and how we had laughed over that until our sides split. I grieved; there was no other way to describe it, but I felt like a fraud. What right did I have?

I didn’t know what it was that stole his roar away from him – we had new lives. But maybe, somehow, I could have stood with him as he faced his demons as he had once done for me?

I would have roared so long and so fierce for him that it would have been enough; enough to beat the darkness back, enough to take the rope from his hands.

to drown, to join it forever.

The waves start to blur as they catch in the sun.

With the division gone, the sky is just a paler ocean and she becomes surrounded.

The rows of houses in between diminish, until liberty seems just one choice away. In broken hours, she sends her thoughts out to the sea.

Suddenly I was furious. I was standing over him again, seventeen years old, fire in my eyes while the juice dripped from his hair. How dare you! And he was laughing at me now, as he had then.

I smiled, and finally understood. He had no shadows left.

Look at your light! Look at how bright you are!

What happened? Was he sick? An accident?

Oh God, you didn’t hear? His wife found him. Such a waste.

And just like that, my roar died.

I cried for the lion while my husband slept beside me unaware. It was not love – too many lifetimes had passed

Andi-Claire Pegler AUTHOR Karen Smart, , Bachelor of Creative Arts (Creative Writing)

Karen says if she had a time machine, she would go to 24 hours before the FLO deadline of every assignment.

3737 37

Complete the crossword and send a picture of your answers to us at empire.times@flinders.edu.au and WIN one of ten free double passes to Palace Nova!

ACROSS

DOWN

1. Red shoes, flying monkeys, and a hurricane – oh my! (4 words)

1. Precious, the dog, steals the show in this tasty crime thriller (5 words)

3. A son sends his father back in time to successfully impregnate his mother. Also, there’s robots (2 words)

2. In this black and white Audrey Hepburn film, the daughter of the chauffeur of a rich family becomes torn between the two handsome, eligible sons.

5. This spinster may drink like a fish, smoke like a chimney, and dress like her mother, but she writes a wonderfully funny journal (3 words)

3. A scientific experiment creates a very unlikely set of twins – who against all odds, defeat crimelords, and search for their biological mother.

6. Nicolas Cage can see into the future, but can he see the impending doom that is the rest of his film career?

12. An undercover journalist’s expose about American high schools goes awry when she falls for her teacher – and he falls right back… (3 words) 13. This welder would definitely win her company talent show with her dance moves.

16. STELLLLAAAAAA! (4 words) 20. Who knew that Barbarella would make a terrible mother-inlaw to be??? (3 words) 21. This heroine is the female version of Sampson, but in animated, child-friendly, non-bible format.

4. This bride to be discovers that the father she’s never known, is one of 3 possible men, and she determined to find out which. Well, no need to make a song and dance about it! (2 words) 7. In this film, Mr Darcy learns to speak Portuguese to woo his cleaning lady, and Professor Snape is a very bad husband (2 words) 8. Pottery had never been so sexy up until this film… and slow-dancing with Whoopi Goldberg had never been more bizarrely intimate.

9. This action film follows a terrorist’s plans with plutonium, and possibly the brainiest Bond girl in history, named after an international holiday (5 words) 10. Freud and Jung’s bromance encounters complications over a female patient (3 words) 11. This nautical romantic comedy should have been called “an ethical grey area”; a widowed father convinces a woman suffering from amnesia that she is his wife and mother of his children.

14. Singing nuns and yodelling goats; these are a couple of my favourite things. (4 words)

22. An animated musical about the love between a prince and a swan (3 words)

15. A movie about the wonders of brotherhood. Oh, and bunk-beds (2 words)

23. Thank you, AOL Instant Messenger, for one of the greatest rom-coms ever (3 words)

17. Dancing and singing on top of a bar can be very empowering for shy, sheltered young women (2 words) 18. Julia Roberts has a fear of commitment and a great pair of running shoes – a perfect combination (2 words)

Crossword clues by Eleanor Danenberg

COLOURING PAGE

19. A charming teen film about virginity pacts, webstreaming a hot nude foreigner without her permission, and the Sherminator (2 words)

u

x

Uni stressing you out? Unleash your creativity and unwind...

Artwork: Sheydin Dew

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- Features -

FRINGE FREAK! Over the past 2 years, I have been to approximately 50 Adelaide Fringe shows – and before you even begin to consider that a typo, I will reiterate: FIFTY SHOWS. And that number is not even accounting for any other Mad March events I have attended, such as the Adelaide Festival of Arts or WOMADelaide.

Many of you might think I must be absolutely mental to see so many shows over such a short period of time, especially considering the expense of doing so for a financially and time poor uni student; and I agree with you. I am as mad as March in Adelaide. I have been called a Fringe fanatic, a Fringe nut, a Fringe fiend, a Fringe enthusiast, and my personal favourite, a Fringe freak. At the end of the day, whatever the label may be, I am proud to don it, and here are my five fantastic reasons why: 1. Let’s talk about the first, most obvious reason: the four week period spanning the end of February and beginning of March that we call the Adelaide Fringe is one of the only times of year, dare I say, the only time of year that Adelaide really comes alive.

Not that our charming little city isn’t interesting and doesn’t have other fun events in the other 48 weeks of the year, but those events are mostly specifically interest-based, like sport and/ or age-restricted, like music festivals. This is the one time of year when the young and old from every cultural corner of the city seem to come together with one common interest – to be entertained. Life is breathed into the streets and parks of the CBD, becoming a buzzing hub with a distinctive hustle and bustle only seen at this tail end of summer.

2. Seeing as during festival season Adelaide suddenly becomes oh-so interesting and the place to be for performers, the Fringe often brings international and Australian acts to our shores that any other time of year seem to avoid us like the plague, because apparently ‘nothing is working in Adelaide at the moment’.

(Shut your damn slanderous mouth AJ Madden -- maybe if you brought Soundwave to Adelaide at a time of year that’s NOT post-Christmas and pre-Mad March, when everyone becomes a peasant, you wouldn’t have the ‘poor ticket sales’ issue – but that’s another can of worms!) Yes, the acts may not be household names, but they are nonetheless talented people who choose to bring their world-class shows to our humble big small town.

3. Getting involved in the Adelaide Fringe, whether it’s buying a ticket to a show (or fifty like me), or simply buying a bite of food from a stall at one of the bigger venues, sees the South Australian economy skyrocketing with excess revenue; and that often goes back into funding for the Fringe the following year. Additionally, depending what show you buy a ticket to and what vendor

you buy your feed from, such purchases see local artists and businesses thrive, allowing them to showcase what they do and occasionally garner fans or regulars from featuring in the Fringe.

4. The Adelaide Fringe heartwarmingly unites the vast arts community and turns it into a big beautiful family. Every night you see acts collaborating onstage or helping backstage or front of house with each other’s shows, recommending other artists to their own audiences, drinking and dancing together at The Fringe Club. It’s a truly wonderful thing to witness and really demonstrates the power of the arts to bring people together. (I hope the government is getting a good look at the value of the arts as well as the gold it generates and will actually try to keep the industry alive rather than inflict more budget cuts).

5. Finally, I’m going to bring it back to basics. It’s as simple as this; live performance of any kind is an event that is incredible to be a part of, as performer, and as an audience member. Unlike a night at the local cinema or in your best friend’s living room where you’re left to gawk at a screen, live performance brings a whole other element - liveness, if you will – to the experience. There is a rawness, a realness in live performance that can’t be felt in film.

The action becomes so immediate that you literally could reach out and touch it. There is an energy shared between the people onstage and the people watching, where each feed off the other, with no screen between them to block the flow. A relationship between the performer and spectator exists, whether it’s explicitly through banter or implicitly through recognising one another’s presence and part in the performance. Live performance unites the audience, who may come from all walks of life, and sees them collectively laughing, crying, singing, dancing together, and allows a connection and sense of community unique to live performance for just a moment in time. Festivals like the Adelaide Fringe, that provide opportunity for live performance to be constantly just a stone’s throw away, allow for its patrons to feel like they’ve been apart of something special, even if they’ve only gone to just one show – this is the feeling I’m addicted to, and the real reason why I go to so many shows a year.

And if the above are not good enough reasons for you as to why I’m a Fringe freak, then frankly in my opinion, you’re the freak.

AUTHOR Georgia Brass, 22, Bachelor of Education (Middle and Secondary) / Bachelor of Arts, (English and Drama)

If Georgia had a time machine, she would would time-travel to November this year when she would have finally finished her degree, which in turn would also place her somewhere in the UK on her celebratory trip!

ANIME REVIEW:

Boku dake ga Inai Machi

Setting an impossible standard for the rest of 2016, Boku dake ga Inai Machi or its English title The Town Where Only I Am Missing has burst onto screens with possibly the most unique and prodigious plot the modern anime genre has yet to offer.

movement of characters. The powerful shot compositions and effective, beautiful use of colour are overwhelming successes in this work; not having to delve into the bizarre and alternative (looking at you, Shaft productions) to make for a stunning visual score.

Based on the 2012-2016 manga of the same name by Kei Sanbe, Boku dake ga Inai Machi was one of the first few anime to air in 2016; and its refreshingly compelling content has already made it a standout hit. Skilfully combining darker, more serious, themes with the playful nature of the anime genre, director Tomohiko Ito and writer Taku Kishimoto have really brought out the best in each other on this series. It is expected to run for 12 episodes as a stand-alone series.

Boku dake ga Inai Machi is just one of those series that puts almost every other anime airing alongside it to shame. It totally opened my eyes for what anime in recent years is missing: stories that have a dynamic collision of genres balancing both fantasy and real life elements. This anime has that and more; it has honed storytelling in a way that has almost transcended anime as a medium, becoming something more. Powerful, moving and controvertible, the hard work put in to making the show as emotionally stimulating as it is certainly paid off.

Satoru Fujinuma is a 29-year-old failed manga author; haunted by a series of classmate abductions which occurred during his childhood, he is plagued with the responsibility to prevent tragedy from occurring around him. As a result of this, before an incident transpires, his consciousness is suddenly sent back in time, giving Satoru a second chance to prevent hardships and accidents. The plot kicks in when Satoru is sent back 18 years into his childhood after discovering the heinous killer from his youth is still at large.

The audience, as well as Satoru, must try to uncover the truth behind the disappearances. It is a captivating and interactive experience. Every new episode leaves me on the edge of my seat, scribbling down theories and predictions.

Animated and produced by A-1 pictures, the visuals and movement are pretty high class and the whole show displays what would be expected of a high budget animation. No frames or background characters go amiss, utilising a perfect attention to detail and smoothness to the

It’s an easy 5/5 Shinji-kuns for me. Boku dake ga Inai Machi has nailed every aspect of what makes a mystery plot compelling and enjoyable. The unusually heavy and meaningful narrative takes complete and total control over the viewer as it masterfully juggles each component of the show into one of the most compelling and emotional pieces you’ll see in a long time to come.

AUTHOR Emma Hobbs, 18, Bachelor of Creative Arts (Digital Media) Emma says if she had a time machine I’d go to five minutes ago Hakone, Japan and spend a few weeks there.

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Readers’ Di-Jess(t) Two years ago, my friend’s girlfriend told me I should read Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five – in fact, palms slammed onto the table, her eyes burning into me, she kind of insisted that it would change my life. The cliché made me sceptical. But in hindsight, I wish I’d borrowed her copy then and there. Instead I said hello to it in bookshops for a couple of years, and only forked out the fifteen dollars when it became important for my postgrad research. What a mistake the waiting was.

Slaughterhouse Five is a satirical science fiction comedy in which an unreliable narrator tells the story of Billy Pilgrim, who has ‘come unstuck in time’. Billy’s experiences as a chaplain’s assistant in World War II, and as a survivor of the fire bombing of Dresden in 1945, are told through jumbled fragments which the reader must then piece together themselves. His life during the war is

relayed in and around his family, his work as an optometrist, and his time spent on the Planet Tralfamadore as a subject of alien study. As Vonnegut himself survived the Dresden bombings, this book has been labelled semi-autobiographical (well, as much a book about time-travel and aliens can be, anyway).

It is also commonly referred to as a work of postmodernism. For those of you who haven’t encountered it yet in your time at uni (lucky you! I’m joking, po-mo is great), a postmodern novel is the problem child of books. It won’t give you the whole story. It won’t answer your questions. No matter how much you ask it to, it won’t stop making fun of other books through satire and parody. No-one can agree when it was born or if it’s now dead.

The central idea of postmodernism is that no idea is stable, and Slaughterhouse Five’s strongest postmodern element is its exploration of how unstable our sense of time may be.

During his stint as a zoo spectacle on Tralfamadore, the aliens tell Billy that the past, present and future are all in a state of having

- Book Review -

already happened.

‘All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings and explanations. It simply is. Take it moment by moment, and you will find that we are all, as I’ve said before, bugs in amber... trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why.’

The fragments of Billy’s life are presented much like bugs in amber. Because of the narrative’s scrambled nature, I was encouraged to look at these fragments individually, instead of in relation to previous or succeeding moments. I acquired a sense of Billy’s life from the scraps Vonnegut allowed me to see. And I found that this was somehow a more accurate depiction of life; our stories may be told in chronological order but our memories will not wait in line. We are all, just like Billy Pilgrim, a random assortment of moments trying to make sense of things.

The acclaim heaped upon Slaughterhouse Five is largely due to the sheer excellence of Vonnegut’s writing. The Dresden bombings are told with beauty, and dotted with such humourous observations and hilarious characters, despite being an event shrouded in tragedy. Billy is such a passive, respectful character that there is no sense of blame or anger directed towards either side of the war. This is just the story of events, told often in short, blunt sentences as though relaying facts—as though the facts are all the narrator can muster.

Its slightly magical, surreal depiction of war is reminiscent of novels such as Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief or Jonathan Safran Foer’s Everything is Illuminated. It looks less at the brutal realities of war, and more at the great sense of fragility underneath—the realisation that for all our battles over power, space and people, we are temporary. So it goes. In a way, you could say this book is all about mortality. Slaughterhouse Five’s structure teaches us more than anything to appreciate the everfleeting present, rather than constantly looking to the future or worrying about the past.

All we have are our moments, our bugs trapped in amber, tragic and lovely and everything in between, and we should make them count.

Rating: aaaaa AUTHOR Jess Miller, 22, PhD (English and Creative Writing)

If Jess had a time machine, she would go full ‘Midnight in Paris’ and return to the 1920s to hang out with F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.

When I first read Justine Larbalestier’s work in 2011 I fell in love with it. The book was Liar and to this day it is one that I return to again and again. With the release of My Sister Rosa, I was excited to see the level of publicity the book had drawn. The novel was everywhere. This was excellent for Larbalestier, but with all the hype I was worried that this book wouldn’t live up to my increasingly high expectations. Despite being not what I expected, and different in many respects to Liar, I reached the end knowing without doubt that it was definitely worth the read.

In recent years Young Adult (YA) fiction has grown into a massive market and it’s still increasing. It was once thought of as a genre for young people throughout their teenage years, however that definition now spans from around eleven to about thirty years old, although it is still aimed at teenagers. This change in the market can be most easily demonstrated by the Harry Potter series.

Classed as a YA fantasy, Harry Potter appeals to people of all ages despite being originally aimed at a young adult audience. While the series did mature as it went on to keep pace with its audience, it continues to be classed as YA fiction. This is increasingly what YA is doing, expanding not just through fantasy and the supernatural, across genres into crime and psychological thrillers. This is where Larbalestier’s work comes in, with three thrillers already under her belt.

My Sister Rosa explores the story of child-psychopath Rosa through the eyes of her seventeen-year-old brother, Che. Che has known all his life that there was something wrong with Rosa, but he’s always been unable to convince their laid back parents who claim she simply has ‘development issues’.

All Che wants is to have a normal life. Normal like his friends back in Sydney where all they worried about was school, girls, and boxing.

The family arrive at their new home in New York in time for Che’s 17th birthday. Jetlagged and frustrated, Che chooses to spend his first day in America at the gym where he meets his new boxing

instructor and a beautiful girl named Sojourner. Things get more interesting when he meets his parent’s friends, the McBrunights and their three daughters: Leilani and the twins, Maya and Seimone.

Che is drawn forcibly back to reality when Seimone catches Rosa’s interest. Anything catching Rosa’s interest was a foreboding sign.

In preparation for the inevitable, Che starts a journal detailing Rosa’s terrors including the murder of her friend’s guinea pig back in Bangkok. In the weeks to come, Che remains on edge, aware that at any moment Rosa’s psychotic side will show. Instead, Rosa and Seimone become best friends, which makes Che even warier of his sister and concerned about Maya’s exclusion. As Che gets drawn in and corrupted by the American way of life, his vigilance starts to slip and then when Rosa appears to be under control, everything goes wrong.

In a similar way to John Green’s startlingly intelligent and inspired characters, Larbalestier provides Che with his passion of boxing and Rosa with her mathematic and manipulative genius, inflating their characters until they are almost life-like. Angst-filled Che goes through all the rituals of being a rebellious teenager; alcohol, drugs, sex… and religion? While Rosa hides her psychotic side with layer upon layer of sweetness and charm—but is she really the psychopath her brother claims her to be or is Che just crying out for attention from their otherwise indifferent parents?

While Liar is still my favourite of Larbalestier’s books, My Sister Rosa is a fantastic read that will keep anyone on the edge of their seat. If you have some spare time, a day free, or even a few hours, I would highly recommend sitting down with this strangely unsettling thriller—it might just leave you wondering if the person next to you might be a secret psychopath.

AUTHOR Kayla Gaskell, 20, Bachelor of Creative Arts (Creative Writing)

Kayla says sometimes she would like to visit the Victorian Period if she had a time machine, other times medieval Japan or China, or even just to the 1960s. It’s a hard choice--particularly as she’d have to consider the situation of women in each period.

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- Game Review -

Level UP

REVIEW

t Goodfellas b Goodfellas is a ‘cult classic’ and at some point in your life you must watch it. A truly good film will change the way you view things, Goodfellas will make almost all other films of the genre seem subpar. You don’t have to be a film aficionado to enjoy this film, but you do have to have a taste for cinematic violence.

This mafia masterpiece was released in 1990, and has always been one of those much loved films for me that I feared I would never get to see on ‘the big screen.’

I was ecstatic to find out Marion Event cinemas was playing it recently as one of eight cult film classics shown during their special program ‘In the House’ season 2.

Before I viewed Goodfellas at Marion I was sure of my favourite scene, but by the end of the two hours and 28 minutes I realised I had forgotten just how difficult it was to choose just one.

Goodfellas is based on a true story. The script is derived from Nicholas Pileggi’s 1985 bestseller Wiseguy, a name the film too was initially going to share before being changed. The beginning of the film shows how and why Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) worked himself into the mob scene at a young age, introducing this flashback with the film’s most notorious quote: “As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.” Goodfellas draws you into the mobster lifestyle, a window into

the violence and style of these people.

This film has serious elements as well as humorous ones. The dark humour complements the seriousness of the subject matter. The first half of the film shows the lavishness that comes from stealing and intimidation caused by violent but charismatic characters: Henry Hill, James Conway (Robert De Niro), Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci), and many other people involved in the mob including Henry Hill’s not-so-innocent wife Karen Hill (Loraine Bracco) who finds herself swept up by the extravagance of it all. Henry and Karen get themselves into serious trouble with not only the law but also the mob family of which they were once integral members.

The uneasiness and paranoia of the second half is heavy. The dealing and using of drugs inflates this paranoia. The one and only issue I have with this film is the abrupt narrative style change in the final few scenes, which I believe pulls the viewer out of the ‘story world.’

When Goodfellas was originally shown to focus groups, people were walking out in droves due to its violence. It’s all a matter of taste. Most of the violence comes from Joe Pesci’s hair-raising character Tommy DeVito, who was a violent psychotic to say the least. Martin Scorsese’s (director) mother and father played cameos within the mobster family, and they also assisted on set with pressing the collars of mobster

suits. Scorsese previously made a short film on his parents called Italianamerican in 1974. Goodfellas launched several careers, some who would later go on to act in arguably the best television series ever made, The Sopranos. David Chase (creator of The Sopranos) made a reference to Goodfellas in a scene with Michael Imperioli who shoots someone in the foot and says “It happens,” as Imperioli’s character ‘Spider’ in Goodfellas was shot in the foot.

There are many ‘cult classics’ that are not appreciated in their own time, but Goodfellas received decent recognition.

Not only did Joe Pesci take home a much deserved Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role at the 1991 Academy Awards, but the film was also nominated for an additional five. Goodfellas is Martin Scorsese at the top of his game, and it’s also a fantastic demonstration of a team of actors and crew working together to create a masterpiece.

aaaaa AUTHOR Rhianna Carr, 21, Bachelor of Media Arts

If Rhianna had a time machine, she would go back in time to front row watching Queen performing Bohemian Rhapsody in Montreal 1981. If she could see Freddie Mercury perform that song she would be the epitome of happy.

Superhot

A red crystalline figure raises their arm to point a gun at you - as you move closer a bullet fires heading right for you - then you stop. The bullet is frozen in mid-air - you step to the side, calmly avoiding it, and move closer to the figure. You take a step closer and punch him - his gun flies into the air as he is knocked back, so you catch it and pull the trigger. The figure bursts into a hundred shards of crystal. This is Superhot.

The basic gameplay of Superhot is your character endlessly killing enemies made of red crystal, whether it be through shooting, punching, whacking with a baseball bat, throwing bottles at, slicing in half with a katana, or more. Where it gets interesting is the time mechanic; time only moves when you do, so if you stand perfectly still, nothing happens, but as soon as you turn your head, time starts moving and you may just be struck by a bullet or a sucker punch.

This leads to some of the most action-movie cliché gameplay ever, with impressive bullet dodging (think The Matrix), slow motion jumps through the air, setting up enemies to shoot each other in the head, narrowly avoiding obstacles, throwing your gun at someone to stun them and take their own (which is much quicker than reloading), and so on.

Although it may not seem like it at first, beneath all of the violence and murder there is an underlying story full of espionage and intrigue. You start the game in a chat console with a friend who raves about this game, Superhot; they then send you a file, leading to the gameplay levels, a game within a game. However, you soon find out that the game appears to be glitched, with strange error messages appearing that suggest the game creators aren’t too happy that you’ve somehow managed to access a password-protected section of the game. As the plot progresses, you eventually unlock some new gameplay mechanics that result from you becoming a slave to the game.

Superhot comes from humble beginnings, independently developed

by Superhot Team, it originated as an entry in the 2013 7 Day FPS Challenge, a challenge where the participants attempt to build a

‘It’s kind of random, no plot, no reason for anything, just killing red guys’ - The Player

first-person shooter within seven days. It was then released as a browser-based demonstration, where it received so much positive attention that the Superhot team ran a Kickstarter campaign to fund creation of the full game. This game was released for PCs on February 25th 2016, with an Xbox One launch expected in March 2016.

In terms of design; the game is very minimalist with an entirely white environment in which red enemies and black interactive objects exist, all apparently crystalline. This minimalist design works well for the style of gameplay, and the visuals of an enemy shattering in an explosion of crystal shards and light when you kill them both looks great, and really helps you tell when you’ve succeeded in your task.

Gameplay is short; I managed to finish all of the levels in about 3 hours, but once completed, challenge levels open up. These challenges restrict you in some ways, such as only being able to use one kind of weapon or mode of attacking, which does make the game longer and quite a bit more challenging. I found that the game campaign is not too difficult to play, and the game as a whole reminds me of Portal, with its unique mechanic as the key focus along with such a short playtime.

I would highly recommend this game to anyone looking for a more strategy, puzzle-based first-person shooter, or just a shorter game to play. The gameplay is simple to grasp, yet challenging enough that it suits all abilities from casual to hardcore gamers.

The game was released on the 25th of February 2016, and so far is available on Linux, Microsoft Windows, and OSX platforms, and purchasable through Steam.

AUTHOR Kelly Guthberlet, 21, Bachelor of Education (Middle and Secondary) / Bachelor of Science

If Kelly had a time machine, she would go back to see Queen perform at Wembley Stadium in 1986.

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---Television TelevisionShowcase Showcase--

-- Television Showcase --

grew up loving. Peter Capaldi, the best Doctor, started early, with the 15 year old version of himself writing of his admiration for the show in local papers. Outside of the show itself, actors such as Patrick Stewart, Tom Hanks, Stephen Fry, and Robert Downey Jr. have come out as Whovians. Others in the industry, including Matt Groening and George Lucas, admit that Doctor Who was, and still is, a show they appreciated from its classical era. Even further afield, Stephen Hawking, the man most likely to discover the physics that allows us to build a TARDIS, is yet another fan of the show a statement only made better by his statements that he thinks it’s about time we had a female Doctor.

On screen, the show explored many new techniques and concepts that have helped emerging shows since. Right from the theme song, one of the first on television to be recorded entirely electronicallywith no conventional instruments. It may have taken several weeks to record, but it certainly left its mark. In 1971, the Queen was introduced to Desmond Briscoe, the lead talent behind Radophonics Workshop which created the theme, its various forms, since the beginning.

10 shows that changed television #3

Much of modern TV is violent, including children’s shows, but Doctor Who was considered high on the BBC’s list of violence — in 1972 when they did a self-assessment of their shows they found that Doctor Who was technically the most violent, at least using the definition of violence they did. However, that same year a poll came out which had only 3% of respondents stating that Doctor Who was unsuitable for family viewing. A journalist, Philip Howard, responded with the apt, ‘to compare the violence of Dr Who, sired by a horse-laugh out of a nightmare, with the more realistic violence of other television series, where actors who look like human beings bleed paint that looks like blood, is like comparing Monopoly with the property market in London: both are fantasies, but one is meant to be taken seriously.’ Doctor Who allowed the BBC, and other stations, to consider what constitutes unreasonable levels of violence: particularly in a show about a peacemaker.

So no, I am not trying to convince you that Doctor Who is the best show of all time (although it is at least close), but rather demonstrate that regardless of how cheap the original effects were or how much smaller it is outside of the UK it has influenced television as an industry demonstrating that science fiction is not just for young children or very small groups of nerds, but every man, woman, or child who enjoys shows about optimism, romance, and kindness. Doctor Who may be as British as the Queen drinking a cup of tea, but that has not stopped its immersive stories from impacting across time and space in an area that’s much larger than it appears from the outside. Doctor Who continues to inspire and impact beyond classical boundaries of space and time.

Christmas is a special time of the year: providing excitement and anticipation for millions of people worldwide. I myself eagerly await the surprises BBC has packaged into the Doctor Who Christmas special each time it comes around, as one of the highlights of the festive season. It’s come a long way from the pair of confused teachers, the too-knowledgeable student, and the elderly man that started the series, and it’s now stronger than ever. At the centre of the series are themes that have been a core of science fiction (and good fiction, in general) since writing began: questions of humanity, ethics, and politics. As much as I would love to explore these themes, for example comparing and contrasting the explorations of war and peace in the Genesis of the Daleks and the latest season’s two part view of the Zygon war, summarised best by the Doctor’s war speech at the end of The Zygon Inversion, that is not the purpose of this article. For the TV show grows bigger on the inside, when you look past the screen and measure how it’s impacted our television since that first episode aired in 1963.

Doctor Who holds the record for the ‘Largest Ever Simulcast of a TV Drama’, earned by airing the 50th anniversary into theatres and television screens in 94 countries, demonstrating how far it had

come across those decades. When it first aired on TV, marketed as a children’s’ show, Doctor Who was a low budget production with minimal special effects, low initial views and no international audience. For years it would struggle overseas as several American stations did (and some still do) label it as ‘too British’, however this has not stopped it influencing the television standards well outside of its own viewership. Some of the most well known science fiction, such as Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy were written after, or during, a time when their creators were getting experience and insights working on Doctor Who a show which encouraged creativity and detailed scripts. The show valued writers who moved away from the cliches of the genre, with producers promising before the first season that there would be ‘no bugeyed monsters’, although this only held true until the Daleks first appeared in only the sixth episode.

While Doctor Who may not have been the institution that previously long standing British television show The Bill was, in terms of providing a testing ground for emerging British talent, it certainly inspired many to take the plunge into acting — many of whom have returned to the modern series to play in the show that they

AUTHOR Kevin Clark, 21, Bachelor of Engineering (Software)

Kevin says “If I had a time machine, I would go [back] to the future to grab a sports almanac.”

ARTWORK (opposite) Ben Hall

4747

- Music Review -

The Music Column Urthboy / Kendrick Lamar / Macklemore / The Hilltop Hoods “I was going to review Kanye’s new album, but...”

It’s time for something different this issue; four very different rap albums by very different artists.

AAAae

Australian rapper Urthboy attempts to become the Paul Kelly of the rap scene (that is to say, a great Australian storyteller) with his latest record The Past Beats Inside of Me like a Second Heartbeat. The album shows Urthboy is on top of his game, with uplifting sonics on the tracks “Long Loud Hours”, “Daughter of the Light”, and “Rubble of The Past”, as the album looks back at history; both Urthboy and his feature artists’ personal histories and world history. The album is on par with his 2009 release Spitshine (and holds similar production) and one of his better records.

After being robbed of Album of the Year at the Grammy’s, Kendrick Lamar returns with the surprise release of untitled.unmastered. Many of these untitled tracks have already been performed live on late night shows in America, and some didn’t make the cut on his previous album, To Pimp A Butterfly. Kendrick’s flow is top notch, opening with a track foreshadowing judgment day, and continuing with themes of financial difficulties, black confliction, and many more recurring themes from the To Pimp A Butterfly era. Instrumentation is just as jazzy and inventive as his last record. The record is cohesive, and despite it being shorter, is still an excellent listen. Pimp-pimp, hooray.

aaaae Macklemore has released his second album with producer Ryan Lewis, This Unruly Mess I’ve Made.

His sound and style hasn’t changed dramatically, with the lead single “Downtown” the hook, the groove is catchy and fun, and a highlight of the record. Macklemore tackles newfound fame and self-awareness on “Light Tunnels”, and the 8-minute epic closing track “White Privilege II” is by far the most interesting cut from the LP. Macklemore tackles many subjects on this track, analysing a variety of racial issues from multiple perspectives. A few tracks are too silly, overdone and aren’t worth the time, such as “Brad Pitt’s Cousin” and “Dance Off”, but overall, Macklemore has crafted a hip-hop record with highs and lows, many vocal features, and decent instrumentation.

Adelaide’s own three-piece rap group Hilltop Hoods collaborate with the 32-piece Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, and 20-piece choir, to retouch and breathe fresh life into their recent songs.

The 19-track album features most of the songs from their past two records, given a fresh set of string arrangements replacing and accompanying the original instrumentations, to create Drinking From The Sun, Walking Under The Stars. The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra provide strings, brass and even choral sections on tracks like “Cosby Sweater” and “Speaking In Tongues”, providing clever iterations of the original beats. The songs have a fresh weight and the orchestras never sound overbearing. The first of few original tracks is “Higher”, an inspiring and elevating song, with James Chatburn lending his voice to the chorus. Pressure raps about chasing dreams, while Suffa raps about balancing work with life, and compares his career to the story of the Greek god Icarus. Icarus is also referred to in the chorus, and the song feels like the conclusion to the duology albums that the Hoods have crafted over these years.

aaaee

Lastly, I would have reviewed The Life Of Pablo, Kanye West’s new record, in full, but why bother? I can sum it up in a few words: Sex, drugs, women, promiscuity, Taylor Swift, more drugs, and more sex.

Kanye spits the most explicit, misogynistic lines I’ve ever heard, and the album crashes faster than his PR team after reading his Twitter. I’m glad he’s stopped releasing CDs and music to mainstream sources. It saves the world from any more of his drivel.*

AUTHOR Aden Beaver, 19, Bachelor of Creative Arts (Digital Media)

aaaae

If Aden had a time machine, he would love to visit either the Renaissance period or Pre-Colonial North America.

*not going to lie, I was a big fan of Yeezus though...

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By Emma Hough Hobbs

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