Colour-Blind Early Childhood Educator

Pencil Crayons Black & White by Adam Clarke, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Colour deficiency is when you can see all the colours, but your eyes can't make the distinction between them when taken out of context.  Lights are the worst. I describe my perception of lights as warm or cool. I can't tell the difference between red and yellow lights unless they're next to each other. Blue is usually okay. I could...

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Wake-Up Weirdness

Day 17/365 by Crystal Sanchez, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 This has been a weird week for sleep. I should have gone to bed earlier because, being a relief staff member, I can be called early in the morning to come to work. I went to bed late anyway, and had some weird experiences when work called early. WEDNESDAY Although I'd gone to bed about 1:30 or 2:00 the night before, I somehow woke up before 6:30. After...

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Reflections on the Blog

Every so often I realise this blog is over two years old, and I remember how easy it seemed to get followers for The Dark Corner of the Mind. Maybe that blog was more accessible, more distant and authoritative with a special title of its own. And here I am with a blog titled "Ryan Sullivan"; not a standout name, just another person in the crowd. As a review once said, with The Dark Corner of the Mind I was sporadic with my posting. But still,...

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Speaky: Like Facebook, but for Language Exchange

Speaky is an attractive social networking site I've discovered that serves as a language exchange platform. When you set up your profile, you select your native language, as well as the languages you're learning. "Statuses" in those languages (in my case, English, French and Spanish) pop up in the main feed. However, this is not the main aspect of Speaky. The site will suggest people who are at varying levels within the languages you're learning, and who are also learning your native language. You can request to "buddy" these people, and begin...

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What I'm Looking Forward to in 2016

1. My new job as an Early Childhood Educator. I've always been in pursuit of a viable job that balances satisfaction and consistency. Writing books and teaching piano were unreliable, but Early Childhood Education ticks all the boxes. 2. Seeing my baby nephew grow up. Because let's face it -- the more babies can do, the more fun they are. 3. A potential trip to France. It's not confirmed . . . but I can still imagine it, right? Hopefully getting better at the language day by day, drinking coffee in shops that say "coffee" on them. 4....

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Gratitude for 2015

2015 was a difficult year. Even with the difficulties, I succeeded in many ways beyond my wildest dreams. Here are some things I was grateful for in 2015. 1. Friends. I'm grateful for two particular friends in 2015: my best friend at home, and my close friend at Uni. I have other friends here at home, and I had others at Uni, but without these two closer friends, Uni would have been unbearable. 2. Finishing my Bachelor of Music. I hate that feeling of always having an assignment due. That feeling's gone now. I feel liberated. Apparently, I...

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Creating a Language For My Books

(I'll try to keep the language jargon to a minimum, but when I get to the technical aspects it'll be hard to avoid. A quick search will tell you anything you need to know.) Creating a language sounds time-consuming and complicated. I'm sure many people have gone in-depth and created some awesome languages. I had enough to focus on, so I went about developing a new language in a way that was painless, quick and fun. There could be holes...

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How Long 'Til I Learn From My Mistakes?

  You should learn from your mistakes the moment you make them. So why don't I? How harsh do the consequences have to be before I try harder to improve? Last year I failed History simply by leaving work too late.  I've been spoilt by a lenient teacher, whose classes, ironically, are the only ones I've failed. He accepts work late, hates administration, and believes that the main thing is that all the work is handed in at the end....

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Of Rainbow Drinks

It's bath-time for my friends' son, and after many a bath-watery coffee, he offers me a rainbow drink in a rainbow cup. "A rainbow drink?" I ask. "How do they get the rainbows down?" He says, "The rainbow clouds rain rainbow rain down 'til there are rainbow puddles. It makes rainbow trees grow, and rainbow grass. There are rainbow squirrels too. And rainbow houses." "How do the houses become rainbow coloured?" I ask. "Does it rain on the houses and leave rainbows on them?" "Yep!" "So everything's rainbow?!" I say with a sweeping gesture....

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Other Things I Do: A "Get to Know Me" Blog Post

For this blog I've always wanted to discuss not only writing, but various aspects of my life, or whatever might be on my mind. The purpose of this is to give my book readers and blog readers alike a place they can find out more about me as a person and get an insight into my life and thoughts. So rather than just give you blog posts that seem to come from nowhere, right now I will give you a short list of things I do. Any of these things may or may not be blogged about in the future. 1. I'm studying a Bachelor of Music Performance. This...

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My New Favourite Font

The final result. The paperback version of Aundes Aura has seen many small changes since it was first released. The biggest change was switching out the font on the front cover, but that was only the latest thing to change. Before that, it went through a few other alterations as I tried to maximise its aesthetics. The font of the interior was my main focus. Its original font was Garamond, which came with Word. But the italics...

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What I've Been Reading and What's Next

I sometimes go long periods without reading. Now that I've moved back home and have three hours of travel five days a week, there's one thing I can appreciate about a long commute. I can get a lot of reading done when I wouldn't otherwise do it. The Name of the Wind This book was suggested to me for its prose, and I think I've learnt from reading it. I've also seen a different approach to the plot of a book. So far it's not political and there's not much saving the world, but there is tension and conflict as the character has a specific goal...

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