Day 3 - Slynshady's Birthday & Waterbombs

Happy birthday Sleena! For those that don't know, she's the third writer of this blog, better known as Slynshady. She's brought us such wonders as songs for sleep deprivation, not to mention this little number. And she's 18 now, so let's all wish her a fantabulous day.

*crowd cheers*

 I feel this picture accurately depicts her.

Woooh. Day started off with double PE which is probably my favourite thing ever. Too bad I slept in and missed half of it. 

Walked in to see a bunch of a filled water balloons in a bucket, though, and I knew then that this day would be good. Both recess and lunch were promptly spent attacking our fellow Fortians with said water bombs and much hilarity ensued.

Firstly, under the guise of "oh shit Pat's not here yet what do we do?", Jacky succeeded in getting right up to Isaac while he didn't suspect a thing, but failed to actually, you know, hit him. AT POINTBLANK RANGE. But Harman the waterbender was there to clean up the job.

Then Pat finally got to school and we all told him we were going to get the Year 11 indie fagz. But really, we couldn't resist getting him instead and Cameron, Alex and WillNG finally got their revenge from a particular soaking in Ancient History a few days before.

Next few attacks I missed 'cause I was caught up in a conversation with Mr Malcolm, my basketball coach at school. We talked for nearly the whole of lunch about his university days - I pretty much know his life story now. But it was pretty awesome, he told me about all these basketball trips he used to make to a bunch of different places, and he talked more about how he got trashed after the games than the games themselves. I'm now looking forward to post-Speech Day drinks with the teachers more than ever. 

Judging from the videos though, they seemed to get Jacky pretty damn good. Apparently Kef's was better but Josh screwed up the filming or something. Check out Alex's facebook for the good one's, though. Or you can scroll to the bottom for mine, if you enjoy maniacal laughter permeating your Cold War anxiety viewing experience. 

Afterwards all the big boys and girls went down to the pub opposite the station to celebrate Sleena's birthday. Sadly this came just 3 days too early for me to join in but we still managed to have a sit down with them inside (not on a highchair, much to Brad's dismay). When the rest of the school reached the station we went back out to see Pat and Jacky dropping even more bombs from the station bridge, this time at the unsuspecting juniors below. Good times.

Audience participation today - wish Sleena a happy birthday! Share a cherished memory that features the one and only, Slynshady! Conquer the 7 seas!

Videos after the jump

Day 2 - Tuesday Sport & Disappointment

People can underestimate the weight that sporting achievement bears on a kid in highschool. Some people spend everyday playing their sport, every lunchtime perfecting their skills. I know for a fact that I've seen a ball fly through the hoop more times than I've looked at any textbook, that I can hear the sound of a swish (or click on the outdoor courts) louder than any teacher's voice, that I can recall the memories of past games better than any syllabus, and that sport vs school comparisons are fun to write. 

Today I played my last game of basketball while representing Fort Street. A midget playing a giant's game, throughout the years I've banded with my fellow hobbits and together we ventured to destroy the One Ring to show that the little guys can play too. Five years of flawless grand final victories later, we stood on the very cracks of Mt Doom, leading towards what should have been an easy victory despite losing our best and biggest player to Balrog-related injuries.

I wasn't kidding about the midget thing. Look at that height difference! I'm barely up to his shoulders. I had to mark that for most of the game.

First 10 minutes went down a little like this:

Hey Hunters Hill, what's up? Oh wait, what's that? Your point guard is taller than our centre? No worries mate, we'll just casually double your score whilst playing the best team basketball I've seen us play in ages. We'll make the extra pass. We'll hit the open shot. We'll close out the half playing slightly worse, but its okay, we're still 10 points ahead of you. 

Second half was a bit of a worry, though; they got to within 2 points of us in the last minutes. Then one of their players drew a foul and was shooting free throws when - time's up! We won! This guy's a scrub, he won't hit these two shots, right? Wrong. He hit them.

Then we lost in overtime.

Damnit. To win every game in the season, only to lose in the semi finals. That's heartbreaking. Year 12 basketball was something I was looking forward to since Year 7, too. All those accolades from the teachers and students at school and coaches I've had over the years just crumbled in front of me when I realised that we couldn't even carry Fort Street to the victory we've had every year since I've been here. Shit is mad lame. 

But it ain't all bad. We've had some massive successes  in sport as a school, and as individuals. Mr Bradley Fisher playing for the North Sydney Bears, then later winning a different competition with the Dragons. Big man Ramilo going overseas to rep hometown Philippines in U20s rugby union, and bringing that cup home. Jacky finding his passion in soccer.

And as the year comes to a close and we temporarily trade in our brawn for brains, I can only hope that I'll always remember these moments of sporting success with y'all. Especially in basketball, because really, fuck every other sport.

Year 7 when EVERYONE played.

Year 8 when I was king. 

Year 9 when Willie took my starting point guard spot.

Year 10 when Nelson kicked everyone's asses.

Year 11 when - fuck, when I didn't play for almost half a year. And Harman rose from the shadows to dominate all. 

And finally, Year 12, when I realised that basketball really is more than just a hobby. 

And to everyone else I haven't mentioned yet - Squiddy, Nahizzle, John, Joey, James, KP - you're all ballaz. Goodluck in the HSC gaiz, and keep up the ballin' attitude. Sorry Willie for not keeping fit for knockout earlier this year. Sorry everyone for an all-round disappointing season/performance this year. Love you all, 4real. (NO HOMO) (Damnit, we need to take a ballaz photo before the year ends)

More photos after the jump.

Day 1 - Report Day & Rock Park

I woke up this morning not even realising that we were getting our reports today. All I was thinking about was how great it was having a double free first thing in the day. Man that was good. Good, like only having 9 units to worry about now. 

Then on the train it hit me. I didn't need the report to tell me that I dropped ranks in every subject. That I totally dropped the ball and was pretty far from my target of >90 ATAR. But then I remembered all those cliche thoughts about how an HSC syllabus isn't a measure of intelligence and how an ATAR doesn't define a person, listened to Disruption by Spit Syndicate and rocked up to my interview and was pleasantly surprised to find that my estimate is 84.5-89. And the best thing - its just an estimate.

Spit Syndicate - Disruption

BUT MORE TO THE POINT - Rock park!

Fort Street's very own shining beacon of hope and relief in times of English periods. I feel as if that guy's changed as much as we have during the years. Before it was was just a simple Rock in a Park, now there's all this fancy 'pavement' and 'gates'. And I'm pretty sure that once upon a time there wasn't any play equipment at all. Then there was some pretty cool things like monkey bars and spinpods. Now there's just a bunch of other lame things that I won't even talk about cause they're lame.

Nobody goes there much anymore, that has to change. Me, Alex, Daisy, Jana and Jess went down today and I can only beg for you guys to follow suit. Here's a cool photo!

 '08 til infinity

Okay, so I haven't done this before, but if you're digging this post give me some feedback, plaase! And while we're at it let's get some audience interaction in this bitch - tell me your fondest memory of Rock Park. Or if you're from another school, tell me about your school's most convenient jigging spot (kguy)

Don't leave me hanging and looking like a fool here, c'monnnn guysssssssssss.

Count Scratchula's FSHS Set (Which Never Came To Be)

So I had this set kind of prepared for Fort Street Fest 2010 which was a little different to the party sets i'm used to making. I decided against competing in the end but not without releasing a FSHS Fest 2010 teaser (which I never actually released). I recently just found it so I may as well upload it, it's only the first 4 tracks of the mix and is less mb's than most of the songs here so it would be appreciated give it a quick listen and leave some feedback in the comment section.

Count Scratchula's Fort Street Festival 2010 Teaser


Also while i'm at it my first 10 min mix is currently down so heres the re-upload while i'm on the topic of shameless self-promoting.

The Count's 10 Min Mix

Tracklists after the jump

Fort Street Represent

The wait is nearly over, just 1 more sleep until Fort Street Fest. I know i'm as geed for K-0ner as everyone else is but theres an inside word that Nick Lupi from Spit Syndicate and Adit and Nick BS from Horrorshow will be making an appearence. Also stick around for Triple J's Unearthed's Phatchance who will be performing from 3:40 onwards but get there early to check out the very talented Jae Moon and battle of the bands veterans Cradle of Faith.

Seriously what a year FSHS '05 was. I remember going to the end of Year IMP concerts every year since 2000 and watching the quality school bands with Fuji Collective involved and well as Nick BS on drums. Yep thats right Solo plays (or at least played) the drums and i'm guessing there is some influence of that on Horrorshows' 'The Grey Space' and 'Inside Story '.

I also remember Miriam Waks and Nick BS being the stage band singers (yeah there were singers in the stage-band once). I have seen Miriam's performances advertised in the paper and she has appeared on Spit Sydnicate, Phatchance and Coptic Soldier tracks. My dad used to always compare Nick's style and voice to Frank Sinatra and listening to Horrorshow I can see where he is coming from.