I’m actually a chronic re-reader of my favourite novels (hello, Harry Potter, read about 20 times), as I find that I discover new interesting tidbits in each novel. The more I re-read, the more I discover, and the more complete the world of the novel becomes. It’s like catching up with an old friend who you haven’t encountered in a few years, but with whom you always feel comfortable sharing the most intimate secrets of your heart – secrets you don’t even share with a lover or partner.

Anyway. I digress. My question was going to be: Who’s your favourite musketeer?

Everyone I know who’s read these novels tends towards a preference for d’Artagnan – young, passionate, a born leader. My personal preference is for Athos, the Comte de la Fere. Noble, handsome, intelligent, cultured (although with a penchance for Spanish wine), he’s attractive to me in a way that the others couldn’t hope to be. Aramis? Porthos? Not a shade on Athos.

Yes, I do tend to have crushes on fictional characters. That’s just what I do.

A former student who is suing Geelong Grammar School says she decided to seek damages after she failed to qualify for her preferred university course.

Rose Ashton-Weir, 18, alleges Geelong Grammar gave her inadequate academic support, particularly in maths.

Seeking compensation in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, she said her final secondary school score was too low to study law at the University of Sydney.

Of her time at Geelong Grammar, she said: ”I didn’t ever feel I was getting the support I needed to really excel.”

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Whatever happened to taking some personal responsibility for the fact that you simply weren’t smart or dedicated enough to get into a course at a prestigious university? A conscientious student would have requested and sought more academic support if they cared about their marks. The fact that you didn’t reflects on yourself, not on the school. School records show that you failed to complete school work, was placed on internal suspension, and were frequently absent from class. Your own disregard for the education you could have received led to your inability to get into the course.

What a self-entitled idiot.

Even faster than the spread of the campaign itself, has been the naysayers. Those who warn against the blind slacktivism shown by those who retweet and repost videos and messaging without taking action. Those who mock and insult those and wave their own research (e.g. Tumblr) credentials in the air claiming that they are superior because only they have all the facts.

Frankly, my interest in the campaign was first piqued not by the content and messaging of the Kony 2012 video, nor in the near-immediate backlash from the cynics. As a marketer and communicator for a charity that is consistently trying to: a) increase its profile and b) garner public awareness for a particular disease, I am fascinated by the impact of this one single video and how much support it received in a matter of hours.

I’m going to draw back here and explain one thing – charities need community support. Unlike what you’re probably thinking right now, this support doesn’t just come in the form of money. A truly efficient charity would look for support from the community in one of three ways: Money, Time and Influence.

Money is a quick and easy way for people to give to a charity. However, a good charity marketer recognises that not everyone is able to donate money. A lot of people are hard off and struggling to make ends meet. They don’t have the money to donate when they have kids to feed and clothe. And sometimes money just can’t buy the support you need.

Time is invaluable to a charity. If a charity can get volunteers to donate their time to help achieve their mission, that’s human resources that they couldn’t have otherwise afforded. Manpower is invaluable, and sheer numbers can achieve what a small skeleton staff cannot.

Influence is key to a charity. If people are both cash and time poor, they can certainly give of their influence. They can tell all their friends and family about the charity and its mission and how they can help. If they can influence 5% of everyone they know to give of their own time or money, that creates a ripple effect of support that a charity couldn’t achieve on its own.

Going back to Kony 2012, I am fascinated by the fact that they have strongly decided to focus on Influence as their own key area where they can grow community support. They’re not asking for a lot of Money – the Action Kit that they’re asking people to purchase only costs $30 and would only earn them around $10 per kit after creation costs. They’re not asking for Time – people aren’t being asked to go out and actively run events or otherwise.

Instead, Influence is where they are focusing. And it is working. Millions of people have watched that video. Half of them would have shared that video with their social networks – reaching hundreds of people yet again. Now consider this:

• If 5% of a potential 500 million that the campaign has reached pays $30 towards an action kit – that’s $750 million (or $250 million after the cost of creating the kit) in Invisible Children’s coffers.
• If 5% of that 5% then go on to take action by writing a letter to a government representative, that’s 1.25 million people who wouldn’t have taken action otherwise.

From a purely basic awareness raising charity perspective – you can’t fault Kony 2012. By focusing on Influence, they have potentially raised up to $750 million – light years ahead of their 2011 annual $13 million revenue. They have potentially gotten 1.25 million people to take action – light years ahead the 91,355 supporters who pledged for a campaign in 2011 (per their annual report). This awareness campaign is something that every charity is currently wishing they could replicate.

Just without the backlash.

Part of this nostalgia also means looking up things like this and testing my nineties knowledge. So far, I have:

A: Austin Powers
B: The Bodyguard
C:
D: Dumb and Dumber
E: Edward Scissorhands
F: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
G: Ghost
H: Home Alone
I: Interview with a Vampire
J: Junior
K: Kingpin
L:
M: Men In Black
N: The Nutty Professor
O: Outbreak
P: Pulp Fiction
Q:
R: The Rocketeer
S: Speed
T:
U:
V: Very Bad Things
W: Wayne’s World
X: The X-Files Movie
Y: You’ve Got Mail
Z: The Mask of Zorro

I just can’t figure out the rest though! They’re probably ridiculously obvious too. How many of the movies do you recognise?

I’m so excited that I got sorted into Gryffindor! I think I have an amazing wand as well, that actually represents myself as a person (Forer effect). Ebony with dragon core, eleven and three quarter inches, reasonably supple. From the additional content provided by JK Rowling, this combination means:

This jet-black wand wood has an impressive appearance and reputation, being highly suited to all manner of combative magic, and to Transfiguration. Ebony is happiest in the hand of those with the courage to be themselves. Frequently non-conformist, highly individual or comfortable with the status of outsider, ebony wand owners have been found both among the ranks of the Order of the Phoenix and among the Death Eaters. In my experience the ebony wand’s perfect match is one who will hold fast to his or her beliefs, no matter what the external pressure, and will not be swayed lightly from their purpose.

As a rule, dragon heartstrings produce wands with the most power, and which are capable of the most flamboyant spells. Dragon wands tend to learn more quickly than other types. While they can change allegiance if won from their original master, they always bond strongly with the current owner. The dragon wand tends to be easiest to turn to the Dark Arts, though it will not incline that way of its own accord. It is also the most prone of the three cores to accidents, being somewhat temperamental.

I’m not that far into the Pottermore experience at the moment (what with the whole sexy times thing, and the moving thing), but from what I’ve experienced so far, the whole website has just completely blown my mind. I loved McGonagall’s back story, and can’t wait to get further into the book to explore – I’m only up to Chapter Nine at the moment.

However now that I’m moving to a city that I’ve only ever navigated with public transport before (and even then, primarily only in the central business/shopping/tourist district), I can see the need for a GPS device. The question is which device I choose – an actual separate GPS device, or whether I take advantage of my iPhone‘s capabilities and simply buy the TomTom application and use my phone as a GPS.

I can see the pros and cons of both. I particularly like the minimalist nature of having everything in the one device…why buy more things when you can simply buy the application? But what do you think? If you’ve got one, did you opt for a separate GPS device, or have you downloaded an app to your smartphone? I’d love some input before I fork out the dollars.

As for the movie itself…I cried. There was laughter and love, but it was mostly tears. I feel like a part of my childhood has died with the series. How do you even begin to say goodbye to something that has been part of your life for so long? That’s part of the reason I’m so excited about Pottermore – it’s an opportunity to revisit a part of my life in an entirely new format. It would be like falling in love all over again.

I had a pretty warm and fuzzy last week of July as well.

A friend introduced me to the term butterface when she came over to watch the Royal Wedding footage with me. It’s essentially the new version of a Monet from the 1995 movie Clueless: “It’s like the painting. Seen from far away, it’s okay; but up close, it’s a big ol’ mess.” Or as my friend explained it, “She’s got a nice body, but her face (butterface)…”.

This was, by the way, in reference to Pippa Middleton. Nice body apparently (though I think she’s a bit too thin, but it seems like it runs in the family), but her face…

It reminds me actually of something an older woman once told me – that once you get past a certain age, you have to decide whether to sacrifice your body, or your face. You either keep your figure but show every wrinkle on your face, or you get plump to fill out the wrinkles. Or I guess, you stay thin and opt for Botox to fill out the wrinkles.

For some time, I contemplated getting an iPad – I wanted something lightweight that I could just lounge about on the couch with. Then I considered building a desktop computer – something with a bit of grunt and power behind it so I could do more complicated things like getting back into design with the full Adobe Creative Suite. In the end, I’ve settled for a new Samsung 15.6 inch laptop, from which I’m currently blogging. I’m not particularly good with technical specifications, but I do understand that the following is considered pretty decent – 8GB RAM, 500MB disk space, 1GB graphics, and probably other stuff that I’ve either forgotten or discounted as being irrelevant to my needs. I paid $841AUD for the laptop ($30AUD off the listed discounted price), and bullied the salesperson into giving me $70AUD off the extended two year warranty, and $70AUD off a leather trimmed carry tote. All up, I paid $990AUD for my new laptop and accessories.

It’s worked out cheaper than both the iPad and custom building a desktop and purchasing related accessories (keyboard, mouse, screen, etc). It has more grunt and power than the iPad, and more flexibility than a desktop. I’m pretty satisfied with the purchase, but no doubt the real test of how good it is will come further down the line when I start playing endless hours of SimCity. For now at least, I can say goodbye to toting a heavy laptop every day on the train, and leave it at work where it should stay!

In other news, I will be somewhat scarce over the next week or so. I’m staying in a hotel in the city over the next three days as I run a two day conference and associated social events (7am – 11pm working days!) for disability sector workers. I’m actually rather excited about it – the theme this year is Human Rights and we’ve managed to secure both the Australian of the Year (philanthropist and advocate Simon McKeon) and the Senior Australian of the Year (2010 Chair of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with a Disability, Professor Ron McCallum) as our two major keynote speakers. Later in the week, I’m going overnight to Swan Hill to run and participate in the rural community’s Harmony Day celebrations to celebrate cultural diversity and individual achievement against the odds.

Oh and in even more unrelated news, I went and saw Usher last night. Unfortunately there was no backstage loving to be had. I have screamed myself hoarse though, and have high hopes for the next time he’s in Australia. As I said on Facebook, my aim in life now is to be the girl on stage licking his chest at his next concert. I will make it happen.

I went to the Broadway production of Hairspray on Tuesday night. It was genuinely one of the most engaging and fun experiences of my life. I knew I would enjoy the show as I loved the movie, and know all the songs by heart. What I didn’t anticipate was how well the story translated to stage and live action. I was up and dancing in my seat throughout the show…yes, I was one of those annoying people in the audience.

It’s such a shame that I don’t get to go to the theatre as often as I would like. The last time I went was to Chicago, and that was almost two years ago now.

The main problem is that the cheapest stage show tickets in Australia for these big musicals regularly cost around $120AUD each. I don’t know how much they cost in America, but if they’re anything like concert tickets, shows like this cost about double the price you would pay in America. It makes a certain type of sense I guess – when bands bring shows to Australia, their own costs increase as they have to pay to fly their crew and all their equipment halfway across the road. It would be the same for stage shows.

In fact, the only reason I even went to see Hairspray is because I managed to get half price tickets ($66 per ticket for the upper balcony) through one of my daily deal websites. Without that discount, there was no way I could afford to go to a stage show like Hairspray…it simply wouldn’t fit within my monthly budget. Let’s just hope I manage to get similarly cheap tickets to Mary Poppins and Rock of Ages as well, as I’m dying to see those shows!