The Voice Volume 4 2020

Editors: Jonathan Howles & Annaliese Collins

Despite a quiet start to the term, both the Community RA’s and the Exec managed to give us a great Arts Week! From Bob Ross to Revue, the week gave RMC residents a chance to show off their creative side.

Chalk Drawing

Bob Ross Painting

Drawing with a trackpad and mouse might sound like a recipe for disaster, but the artists of RMC proved us wrong with some awesome pieces of Bob Ross art! Congratulations to Anna for being the best MS paint artist!

By Anna

By David

Revue

Revue was short and sweet this year, but the talent certainly wasn’t missing. There were awesome performances from all entrants - with Zara and Anna stealing the show with their acoustic rendition of Focus, by Sigrid.

Life in Quarantine

Amanda, Malaysia

A month ago, I got a call from my parents telling me to book the next flight back to Malaysia. Little did I know that it was the last flight back from Sydney until July.

We’ve all heard the term social distancing one too many times now, and that’s the one thing everybody was extremely conscious of throughout the entire process. Airport security was tight (you could only enter the airport if you had a valid boarding pass) and everything else in the airport was closed (I really wanted Maccas before my flight and they weren’t even open, I was devastated to say the least).

When I arrived at Kuala Lumpur, everything was closed and taped off, leaving us with only one decision - to exit. It was a long process, but this is a summary of how it went down (social distancing was practiced strictly):

1) Our temperatures were taken.

2) We had to fill in a form, and wait in line to be checked by a medical officer (I didn’t get tested as it wasn’t compulsory then, but all passengers from arriving flights are now required to get tested at the airport).

3) Upon immigration clearance, we were given 2 more forms to fill in, and we had to wait at the waiting area.

4) We were called in groups, and were directed to collect our luggage (they had been taken off the carousel for us).

5) We had to queue to get sanitised (even our luggage) before hopping onto the bus.

Nobody knew where we where going, or where we would be staying for the next 2 weeks. Finally, we arrived at the Marriott hotel. Both the police, and hotel personnel were ready in their PPE to check us into the “quarantine facility”. The next day, medical personnel came to the hotel to check up on us, and informed us that they would be doing daily checks over the next 14 days. We couldn’t leave our rooms for 14 days (I had a massive room with 2 beds to myself, so I wasn’t really complaining). Food, mental health kits, and other necessities were delivered to us by hotel personnel. I continued to call my friends and family throughout the quarantine, and in no time we were getting ready to leave. (Finally).

Home has been great, but it’s a little weird to be doing Uni from home given that I would only return home for vacation, so it felt like Uni was over, and I was back for a holiday. While it didn’t turn out to be as bad as I thought, keeping up with the time difference has been a challenge. Although Malaysia is only 2 hours behind, I have to bear in mind that my classes are now 2 hours earlier (don’t even get me started on my exams, I’ve got a paper at 7 AM so I’m really hoping that I can wake up in time for my exam!).

Shoutout to all the frontliners for making sure that we’re all safe and healthy! Take care everybody <3

Aiden, China

Quarantine has been a nightmare for my family and I! It was at the peak of winter when we heard the news, nobody was prepared for a lockdown because we thought it was impossible for a megacity to be shut down. We didn’t store enough food, and immediately we were not allowed to go out for shopping. Very limited food was delivered by the Government to our house, but it came at a steep price. During those times, the great good and evil in human nature was captured - you began to see things that were totally unexpected. The hospital was overcrowded, patients were wandering on the streets asking for help, some people died in the waiting process, young and old. You are shocked, you feel hopeless, you get angry, and then you get used to it. I felt sad that there was nothing I could do but stay home and self-isolate.

People say quarantine is an opportunity to take a rest and study, but I consistently feel anxious about many things. I don’t know if I will wake up tomorrow with a sore throat or a fever, I couldn’t have felt more insecure at that time. But after all, it did give me a lot of time to reflect and think about my future plans, and I watched some shows to get away from the TV news broadcasts. During that time, I read the Bible and prayed a lot. I desire a long life for myself and my family, but I also know the goal of life isn’t to escape physical death. I do not know what will happen tomorrow, but instead, I can only say, “If it is God’s will, we will live and do this or that.”

Looking back, there is not a single winter that is insurmountable, but spring is not far away! I pay my deepest empathy to those who lost their lives and their families. To those who lived, we are not the lucky ones, we are just survivors. Dust yourself off, and move on. To live, to dream, to be different, life is a great adventure.

Study tips with the Academic Ra's

BELL:

Best study tip?

The best study tip I’ve been given is probably my Mum telling me to timetable my day the night before if I’m starting to get stressed about everything I have to do. It’s good to include fun things in your day to break up the study (e.g. exercise, hanging out with friends or whatever you like to do!). Otherwise the day can get away from you and before you know it it’s dinner time and you have just been procrastinating all day (this is definitely me some days). If you have a timetable to tick off your achievements you can feel a lot more accomplished and on track.

Biggest lie you’ve been told by a professor?

I suppose this isn’t an outright lie but definitely misleading. I won’t mention the unit name because I’d totally be throwing the convenor under the bus, but one time I had a consultation with a convenor asking about some quiz questions I was really confused about because they were contrary to what the textbook specifically said. She then proceeded to bring up wikipedia to try and explain why the textbook was wrong. Needless to say this was my least favourite unit at uni so far.

LIAM:

What works for you when studying?

Well something that works for me is that I know when I work best, so I try to study during those hours if possible, and relax the rest of the day. That way I can be refreshed before and after I study, making m happier overall.

Worst study tip?

I always used to think of playing games as procrastinating, so I would try to avoid playing games while I was supposed to be study. But then I would just end up watching YouTube because I was trying to procrastinate what I thought was the ‘real’ procrastination activity, which was playing games. That was really bad because then you’re two layers deep in procrastination, and no close to getting work done!

BETH:

What works for you when studying?

Definitely listing out everything that needs to be done, and taking time out of your day for self care or doing anything other than study.

Worst study tip?

Ive never really been given a bad study tip, but I do suggest people find their own study style and routine - for me, I find mind mapping and colour coding just waste my time haha!

TONY:

Best study tip?

Learning that sleep is a form of studying. During the day you are in a position where you introduce new information in to the brain. However, consolidation of that information only happens during sleep. Its been something I’ve struggled with in the past, but I’m trying to work on it come exam period!

Biggest lie you’ve been told by a professor?

My professor told me he would respond to my email… he went on vacation instead.

Need a Study Break?

Bored during isolation? Here are some great websites to check out if you’re looking for a quick break from study, or something useful to make your day a bit more interesting.

mynoise.net :

An awesome site with various soundscapes that never loop! From the sound of rain on a tent, to the background sounds of a busy cafe - this website is a great aid to setting up the perfect study environment.

gnoosic.com and bestsimilar.com :

Two simple sites for anyone who loves music or movies! Just plug in three artists or bands you’re currently enjoying into gnoosic, or a movie into bestsimilar, and they will give you an artist or film you’re likely to enjoy as well!

oldgamesdownload.com and classicreload.com :

Looking for that classic game from your childhood? These sites have hundreds of games released on a variety of platforms from the 1970s, all the way through to the early 2000s - all to download or play on your browser for free!

Keeping up with RMC

Story Time with Tom S

My most memorable bike ride in Sydney takes me back to the second week of my first semester as a fresher, in 2019. I was a country kid, new to Sydney, and had no clue on how to get places to do my training. I figured I’d leave early to avoid traffic, and meetup with a group for safety reasons. This meant leaving college at 3:30 in the morning in the pitch black to fight what weren’t such quiet roads for the time of day. I ended up getting very lost. Getting stuck on the M1 with cars screaming past at 110km/h was honestly one of the scariest moments of my life. Thankfully, I found where I was meeting the group and was on time. The ride was beautiful, passing through places such as Bobbin Head National park, and Akuna bay (both pictured below). 120km into the ride, and both my tyres went dead flat. Having only one spare tube I had to call an Uber, and embarrassingly try to explain why he should give me a lift home in the state I was in. $35 later, I was left carrying my wheel, and my pulled apart bike a block back to college. After that dilemma, I decided to cut down on how much I ventured out into the big smoke, and invested in an indoor bike to do the majority of my training on. Since then my rides have been much more enjoyable!

Wiretap

*Talking about a Swan Lake production* Tees: Its funny, how these guys are dying.

Bea: Big balls, small balls, any type of balls, they are in there.

Zara: I’ve got no man to scape for.

Miss Isabella Knowles: I am quite literally the definition of a dumb blonde. I’m not even that blonde, but definitely that dumb.

Sarah to Long: I’ll tell you when you’re hot.

*dancing and singing to HSM* Emma: Someone needs to shoot me.

Bea: There’s bread in my tits.

*14 degrees and windy*

Long: Let’s eat outside, it’s nice outside.

Anonymous: Someone who is a 10 in RMC is probably a 7 in the real world.

Pat: I think I’m going bald.

*Jim holding Long’s phone*

Henry: You don’t know where his phone has been.

Jim: You don’t know where my hands have been.

Sarah: Wait, lube doesn’t give you STDs?

Jim: if you want an orgy Pat, just organise one.

*In reference to hobo Johnson’s ‘peach scone’*

Emma: It sounds like slam poetry.

Rowan: Or slow rap.

Anna Single: I have terrible taste in men...

I mean I have the right taste, they just don’t taste me back.

Long: Until I was 8, I didn’t know girls pooped.

Theresa: Are DLC allowed drugs at their college?

*Talking about women*

Bec: Isn’t it cool we can make milk.

Sally: Yeah it is cool, we are like goats.

Natasha Naiju: I enjoy racist TV.

Sequoia : We could infect the whole of RMC if we wanted to.

*Sam proceeds to walk past*

Matt: You’ll never get my chesticles.

Lily *taking to Ziggy*: If you ate a ping pong ball would you poop it out... it might be too big.

Emily : I don’t do metaphors, I do psychology.

Carlos: Everyone needs a gateway drug.

Carlos: Midnight Oil has a song named after one of your mountains... Mt Kiosko?

Everyone: Do you mean Kosciusko?

Matt: Boobs are just an ass on your chest.

Rowan: You can incubate things other than babies?

Overheard a funny conversation? Said something that can be taken way out of context? Send them in to The Voice’s Facebook page to be featured in the next edition!

Trinity Chapel Macquarie church service times: Sundays @ 10am and 5:30pm - Find Zoom links on the Trinity Chapel Website.

Life Explored: Tuesdays @ 7:30pm- Find the Zoom link on the Crossroads Facebook page. Talk to the Chaplaincy RA’s for more information.