Hey everyone! We hope you’ve been having a good few weeks. It’s definitely a busy time of the semester (if you’re not busy maybe check iLearn because this is peak first sem assessment time) and it goes quickly! There’s also a ton of college events coming up, we’ve been very busy making sure we attend them all!
It’s been great to see everyone having lots of fun at the events and we’re sure this will continue throughout the semester. College events are always a good study break and good for stress relief so don’t forget to give yourself some time off!
Block Wars
The scent of competition was thick in the air on Saturday morning as the residents of RMC emerged from their blocks dressed to represent. With E block in black and white, C block in yellow, D block in blue, B block in red and A block in green, it was clear everybody was ready to compete.
It was a busy morning with balloon popping, cotton ball beard constructing, cake eating, tug of war blisters and making lines of clothes. The blocks competed to the best of their abilities and although there’s only one winner, everyone made their RAs proud!
Congrats to all the blocks and all the residents who competed! Particularly C Block who took home the trophy!
RMCSA GENERAL MEETING
On Wednesday, all the residents came and gathered around hot chocolate and a few cookies for the General Meeting to elect committee members. These were for Sports, Social, SVF, Cultural and CCM committees. We had a lot of speeches that filled the room with laughter and assured us that all candidates would do a great job. Speaking in front of a full dining room is no easy feat but everyone did an amazing job and you should all be proud of yourselves. Congratulations to everyone that got a position, we are sure that you will do a brilliant job. And thanks to Sophia for organising, running and promoting the GM!
Sports Committee
You’ll see the sports committee getting everyone keen for intercollege sports, the next one is on the 8th of April and is Netball!
CCM Committee
The Block captains work with the RA’s to make great block events and to keep up the block spirit. Stay tuned for your next block event!
Cultural Committee
Look out for this committee on International Night, they will be there to organise it and make sure it all runs smoothly.
Social Committee
This committee’s main event is Ball but you’ll also see them working hard for events like Harbour Cruise and Pub Crawls.
SVF Committee
We’ve already seen this committee in action at Earth Hour and what a great job they did! You’ll also see them raising money at the Biggest Morning Tea.
How to Play Chess
With exclusive advice from Andrew Holdsworth
After a grueling 2 and a half years of competion, the offical score card between Andrew and Jonty stands at 74 games to Andrew and 31 games to Jonty with a total of 5 draws.
This makes him the ideal man to give us some helpful pointers!
So this is how you set up a chess board - there’s a line of pawns in front of all the ‘slightly more useful’ pieces. The black queen will always start the match on a black square, and vice versa for the white queen. And in case you didn’t know - to win the game you have to capture the other player’s King piece.
The Pieces
Pawns
Rook Knight Bishop Queen King
Check is a point in the game where a move has been made, which results in your King being captured on their next turn. When check happens, you have to move your King piece so that he is then out of harm when your opposition makes their move. Checkmate however, occurs when there is no move possible to get the King out of harm’s way; whichever way you move. This means the King he will be captured when your opposition makes their move, this means that the game is essentially over and that you have lost.
The Bishops The Queen
The Queen is probably the most powerful chess piece on the board. She can move in any straight line and for as many spaces as you need. This includes, diagonal lines, forwards, backwards for only one space, or for eight spaces! (Red lines). However, the Queen cannot move beyond a point if there is another piece in its way. In this occassion the queen would capture the piece in it’s way thus finishing your turn.
The bishops are one of the more useful pieces on the board. They can move diagonally for as many or as little number of spaces as you please in both a forwards and backwards direction. The colour each of them starts the game on is the colour they must remain on for the game. This is indicated by the green lines. The bishops follow the same rule as the Queen, whereby if a piece is in it, is unable to move beyond it, and can instead choose to capture the piece or move to the space before it (indicated by the crossed out line).
The King
The King on the other hand, is a very important piece, but doesn’t often come into play during the game because he can only move one space at a time, however he can move both backwards and forwards. (Blue lines)
The castles are very useful pieces in chess, they have the ability to move in straight lines for as many spaces as you choose. However, if a piece is blocking the way, the castle cannot move beyond but instead may capture the piece and move further next move.
The Knights The Castles
The Knights have a different method of moving around the board. They can only move in a L-shape. The knights also have the ability to jump over other pieces and are the only pieces on the board that cannot be obstructed by other pieces in play. The knights also have the ability to move forwards and backwards.
The pawns can be valuable if used correctly. From their starting position, they can either move one or two spaces forward. However, once moved from their starting square they can only be moved one square at a time. When choosing to capture another piece the pawns can only attack in a diagonal line moving one square forward. Furthermore, pawns are the only pieces on the board that cannot be moved backwards. Once they reach the opposite end of the board, they can be replaced by another piece of your choice - whether this is a piece already on the board, or one that’s already been captured by the other player. I.e. if your queen is still on the board and one of your pawns reaches the end of the board, you can replace the pawn with another Queen and therefore have two Queens in play.
The Pawns
Some helpful advice from Andrew!
Hey guys! Here are a few of the tips that have helped me over the years playing chess! Hopefully they can help you guys too!
- Develop major pieces to protect the developing pawns in the middle of the board.
- Try to control the centre of the board.
- To control the centre of the board, use the pawns to attack and the knights and bishops to support the pawns.
- General rule of thumb would be to try and castle fairly early in the game to protect the king.
- Know the obscure rules like ‘en passent’ and rules involving catling on both sides of the King.
- Develop the queen later in the game to use her powerful figure to your advantage to simplify the board.
- Use bishops and knights to pin and fork pieces to your advantage respectfully.
- Castling is when the king moves two places to the right or the left and the castle moves over the king to go to the spot next to the King, oppposite the corner it came from. It is the only move in the game where you can move two pieces during the one turn. It can only be done when the king and castle have not yet been moved in the game.
Ultimate Frisbee in the Sweltering Heat!
With a top of 40 degrees over the weekend, the RMC ultimate frisbee teams and their supportive sideline cheerleaders trekked out to the fields (in air-conditioned cars). Aside from a few minor injuries, our impressive players managed to survive the heat with the help of icy poles and an esky of ice. Although we didn’t win all our games, under Tim’s impressive coaching our girls team put up some great competition during their game and our boys team won against the Village. Well done to everyone who attended and to those players that battled the heat to represent RMC.
World’s Greatest Shave
Julian, Raman, Mark, Toby, Andrew, Mitch and Pat all worked to raise the money and got a range of colours and cuts for the cause!
Bonus Wiretap!
Kyah *during Toby’s head shave*: “he’s going to look like a noodle!”
Over the past few weeks a group of RMC boys began raising money for the World’s Greatest Shave. What they didn’t expect was to get over 50 donations totalling over $2,200. Thanks to the immense support of all of the donations the boys coloured and shaved their heads reminding us all how important it is to support these organisations and make a little sacrific to help all those in need.
Earth Hour
An important event each year, Earth Hour is organised by the SVF committee and reminds us about the importance of minimising the electricity we use everyday and doing the most we can to conserve the environment in any little way we can!
It was a lovely night, with food, music, pyjamas and company! Although Earth Hour is only from 8:30 - 9:30 PM, everyone continued enjoying the event until much later in the night!
CLIMATE CHANGE
Easter Festival!
Who doesn’t love an Easter egg hunt and egg decorating?!
With most people going home for the Easter long weekend, RMC RAs organised a week-early Easter Festival to spoil us with chocolate eggs as the Easter season approached!
Working both as a study break and a study snack, the event was enjoyed by all the residents who searched for the eggs and attempted to work out Jonty’s anagrams.
For anyone curious, here are Jonty’s anagrams for the location of some eggs around college during the hunt:
Yenfron St Ruradcececo
Nitmend Shanacee
Softal Dennar
Wlab Fott
Dertassre simence
Don’t forget that for anyone interested, the Trinity Chapel will be holding special services for Easter, one on Good Friday at 6:30PM and two on Easter Sunday at 10:00AM and 5:30PM.
Having Easter egg hunt withdrawals?
We’ve hidden 11 Easter eggs throughout this issue for you to find and don’t pretend you didn’t love doing these as a kid!
E Block Trivia and Ubar Pizza Night
Showing a clear love for trivia, E block attended a second trivia based event this week!
However, this time it was at Ubar and was combined with pizza and a few drinks with friends.
A huge number of E block residents came out and enjoyed the night, clearly hungry for some great pizza, good company and challenging trivia.
Although it took a little while to get into it, the teams smashed the general knowledge category with one group even getting 10/10.
An Introduction to our New RMC CouncellorMeredith Wagstaff
Living on campus whilst studying at University brings so many wonderful opportunities and can present some daunting challenges at the same time. Having lived on campus myself as Uni student, I understand first hand many of the issues that might influence your sense of wellbeing, the effectiveness of your studies, relationships and overall experience at RMC. I spent several years at the Women’s College whilst studying Arts Law at Sydney University, and after a wonderful career in law, retrained and now work with young adults to enhance their personal and academic
effectiveness. Topics that regularly come up include stress and anxiety, depression, procrastination and motivation, relationship concerns, identity issues, traumatic experiences, grief, homesickness, sleep, substance abuse, porn etc… As the new RMC Counsellor, I want to help you get the most out of College life.
I am available on Tuesdays from 10am6pm for confidential drop-in chats or appointments and will be running some talks during semester on popular topics. You can contact me by email: Meredith. wagstaff@rmc.edu. nsw.au.
I S A S A F E Z O N E F O R
A L L L G B T Q I +
A Block Beach Day
A block headed out to the beach with high hopes that it wouldn’t rain and lucky for them it was a beautiful day.
With the long trek out to Manly Beach, they were rewarded with the beautiful view of the beach.
The day was spent lounging around in the sun and swimming in the cool water. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the nice break away from studying.
Update on the puzzle:
The puzzle has been completed after many long nights trying to work out where the pieces go, who knew there were so many different shades of pink in ice-creams!
A block was rewarded with a variety of flavours of ice-cream for all of their hard work.
Humans of RMC
Human #5
Darian Adriano
What is your favourite memory of RMC so far?
This question is really hard for me to answer because RMC has given me so many memories... whether I remember them or not is another question. From meeting the execs to Scav Hunt, my time at RMC has been a great experience.
Where are you from? Does it differ a lot to Sydney/ Australia?
I was born in Woodlands, Texas... moved to Alpharetta, Georgia.... moved to Dallas, Texas... then moved to Phoenix, Arizona... and now I live in Weston, Florida, but go to school in Tempe, Arizona. I KNOW IT’S CRAZY!
Sydney is a mixture of all of them put together especially since the weather is so bipolar!
What do you study? And what is your favourite part of your degree?
I am a Business Communication Major with a Minor in Film & Media Productions. My favorite part about my major and my minor is that it’s what I love!
I love communicating and getting to know people, and I love movies, editing, and vlogging. So it’s a perfect combination.
What other event would you like to see happen at college this year? And what has been your favourite event so far?
FRIENDSGIVING!!!!!! I LOVE IT!!! IT’S GOING TO HAPPEN!!! I’M SUPPER KEEN FOR IT!!!!!!!!!! Actually.... let’s call it MATESGIVING! Yes.. this is happening.
My favorite even was the Harbor Cruise because I stayed..um... really hydrated. S/O to Tom.
What’s an interesting fact about you?
That’s easy! I vlogg ( S&D Videos)... I have a dog named Almond. And... I AM VERY SINGLE.
Darian’s message to society: Don’t be afraid to be who you are because who you are is better than who you are not.
To Check out Darians vlog check out his youtube - S&D Videos!
Human #6
Daniel Williams
What is your favourite memory of RMC so far?
O Week would be the easy answer; there was just so much packed into one week. But to pick one thing, I’ve gotta say the Pub Crawl: it was an amazing night. I got to talk to so many different people that I hadn’t met before, and it really allowed me to get to properly know so many of the people here at RMC that I talk to daily. Plus when the Breaking Free remix came on for the High School Musical night at Side Bar... I’m so glad there aren’t any videos of that.
Where are you from? Does it differ a lot to Sydney / Australia?
I’m from Boambee, which is about 10 minutes from Coffs Harbour. Although Coffs definitely isn’t ‘small’, it’s got nothing on Sydney; this city is massive. But I do like the fact that almost anything you could need is within the Holy Trinity of
RMC, the uni, and the Mac Centre. It makes everything feel a little smaller and a little more manageable. I’ve never really been a huge fan of large city centres, so being a bit outside of the bustle is perfect; but if things ever need to be spiced up a little, the public transport is right there.
What do you study? And what is your favourite part of your degree?
I’m doing a double degree studying Law and International Studies. I love the language that I’m studying, which is French, but the absolute highlight would have to be my INTS101 unit, which is called Asia in the Global Context. I enjoy going to lectures so much because the convenor makes all the content so easy to follow, and the topics are all studying cultures in lesser known parts of the world, which is great to find out about. I try not to be too late to these classes!
What other event would you like to see happen at college this year? And what has been your favourite event so far?
The C block games night, Block Wars, and the Intercollege sports events (which I get far too into) are all up there, but the Scav Hunt night wins out for me. Shoutout to Kate for shaving my head and waxing that cross into my chest, and although I haven’t checked in a while, I think that that particular wax strip is still stuck to the table under the tree in the centre of the courtyard, which is always a great
reminder.
My creativity for making up new events is basically zero, but I would love to do another Scav Hunt now that I know most of the people around college, and how their personalities are. Having a second go of those challenges with good friends now would be awesome.
What’s an interesting fact about you?
I was born on Halloween in Hammersmith, which is an area of London, as my parents were working there at the time. Also, if I had been born a girl, my parents had already decided that my name would have been Katherine.
Don’t forget! If you want to be a Human of RMC all you have to do is contact one of the editors and we’ll happily send you the questions and feature you in our next issue!
Down
1. B block colour
Busters’ dog
Number of RA’s
Andersons’ dog
RMC cat
E block colours
2. RMC’s logo
3. Sixth RMC Master
5. RMC’s fortnightly mag
6. The Dean’s favourite author
9. Number of student exec ...members
10. C block colour
16. First RMC Master
17. Winners of Block Wars
A block colour
Mark: *talking about D Block captaincy* “Justice is milkshakes motherf***er”
Tom: “What kind of guys do you like?”
Lauren C: “ 1. Not a dick. 2. Has a dick.”
Sarah T: “The pizza has so much powder stuff on it?”
Julian: “Ummm...the flour...?”
Jake B: “Are you a three legged moose?”
Lydia: “These are just some sad people who have to wash their butt rag.”
Matt: *referring to fairy bread* “It’s going to be furry by the time I’m done with it”
Darian: “Mozzies keep biting me but I’m kinda into it.”
THE Wiretap
Sarah H: “One time I got a cold on the first day of summer...I should be getting a warm not a cold!”
*Jarrod, Tami and Emily squished on a S3 two person lounge*
Jarrod: “Gotta love these three seater lounges”
Jeremy A: “Now I actually have to start studying... I’m going to watch this exorcism video first, it seems interesting.”
Darian: “I was expecting everyone in Australia to look like a version of Chris Hemsworth, but it’s not like that...”
Zoe W: “What are you talking about? Clearly I look like him!”
Cindy: “Karl and Jackie-O. Ohhh wait, Karl is on Sunrise.”
Annonymous: “Just need to get a stick and stab you”
Mar 16 - MaR 26
Michael: “Trust me, life isn’t like GTA. You can’t just use your prostitutes and then shoot them. I’ve tried it myself and it didn’t work.”
Sam D: “Put your mouth on it Ramen.”
Mark to Emily *exasperated*: “Do you wanna just play with my jelly?”
Tyla: “Try before you buy”
Jack H: “Do you want to just do a three-way?” Mark and Samuel: “Yeah sweet!”
Darian talking to Jack H: “We can work with just one nipple.”
Hannah: “how much milk do you want?”
Tyla: “I trust you.”
Hannah: “wtf no, why would you say that.”
Tyla: “So how many quarters are we playing?”
Raman quoting Julian: “Take off your pants and get in.”
Jake B: “I’d love to be a snuggie.”
Hannah: “I lowkey have a fetish for colouring in”
Dean: “Darian’s got this cake eating contest, he’s American. Oi Darian, just pretend there’s oil under the cake!”
Jen: “I want to impeach someone in government...it’ll be fun”
Cindy: “Operation take my bra off”
Share your voice!
Are you a creative soul and want to contribute to The Voice?
Send through your work as a message to our Facebook page or submit it annonymously to one of the editors! Any contributions are accepted - drawings, poems, stories, articles etc. And don’t forget any to send in any funny submissions to the Wiretap. If you want to be featured in the Humans of RMC section, let us know and we will interview you!
Or feel free to talk to one of the editors Zoe Walters (A207) or Jen Good (A203)
