Scene Study
Well, well, well, what do we have here!!
It’s another Acting class, scene study.
It’s taken a while to get this uploaded due to going straight after class, heading off to Hong Kong and Vietnam. I’m also making a blog on that as well, check it out on the confidence and accessibility when it comes out, here.
The piece that I did was called The fundamentals of caregiving with Paul Rudd, I played the person living with a disability, Trevor, who in the film was portrayed by Craig Roberts, interesting, he’s a non-disabled person.
Even though I haven’t seen the film yet, I’m sure Craig plays it well. Even though I do feel that you’ve got to play roles that best cater to your ability, meaning disability scenes should be played by people living with disabilities. Now I know that can be a stretch and ask, but at least give the humans a go. So everything has an equal amount of opportunities.
Any let me know what you think, i personally like the third take as the best!
Interest and the AI
Back in 2007 (HOLY SHIT) I was returning to school full time after suffering a catastrophic stroke (a bleed, size of a golf ball) it was difficult for me to speak, to formulate words. It took extended periods of time just to process the information, let alone answer five questions on the board in class concisely! So my aides and I would collaborate on the questions one at a time. When I say collaborate, I mean that I'd ask the aides to rephrase the question for me, and if I still didn't understand it, they'd go more for the approach ‘learn from seeing’. Right here, I don't want to upset anyone. I loved my aides, and they had the best of intentions for me.
My personal belief is a fault in the education system:
A) It wasn’t as common as it is now for an ABI individual to be in a mainstream school and so have the capacity to deal with me, not like today
B) it didn't allow for my capacity to answer the 5+ questions in the given time frame, with my slow processing. ‘Yer not a chance!’
So we got into the habit of ‘learning from seeing’.
As I progressed through school, the rewiring of my brain started happening, my competency grew, and my cognitive processing sped up. Note that having aphasia does not mean you are less intelligent; learn from the link above and equate yourself with this knowledge.
As time progressed, I started ‘playing the system’ with things like English, I couldn't give a flying f@!! about how to write an argument on the Crucible or William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet (it’s different for everyone, I understand!). When we did Edgar Allen Poe, it was different for me; I liked his creative, dark, gripping, twisted short stories, but that was the only thing I had an ‘interest’ in.
However, it was different when it came to things I cared about and had an INTEREST in. Then I'd step in and I would ask more specific questions, or know the answer and explain the difference between the aerobic vs anaerobic systems in PE (year 12).
Noting, I had the privilege to be able to pick and choose what I wanted to learn without the pressure of exams.
So why this background info?
In today's world, AI is moving in and taking place, destroying industries, creating new ones, diversifying and refining even further than we ever thought was possible. I want to touch on the big NO NO’s or YES YESes at uni.
Some universities have outright banned it, while other universities are more willing, open, and have a more experimental approach to the matter.
One of the studies done by (Crawford et al) suggests there is a growing number of university students using AI like ChatGPT and Bard to support their academic experience.
The question then becomes, are we learning anything?
Well, according to Muhammad et al, it has a negative effect on students' academic learning, as well as retention of information or in simple terms, memory.
If we look further afield, after the student has finished the university degree and let's say they are going for job interview, in simple terms ‘how well will they know their shit’, After all they’ve got chatGPT to whip up their masterpiece, cover letter, resume but it can’t speak for them, it’s just them and a panel of higher ups, that’s when they will be starting to sweat.
It begs the question, why are you going for the job interview in the first place?
Fundamentally, it all comes down to interest; Muhammad et al words it as ‘natural curiosity and the passion of learning’. If you've got the interest, wouldn't you want to participate and actively learn as much as possible in your given sphere?
I'm not saying we should all go back to the Stone Age or anything like that, just ChatGPT at Uni has no place in writing the essay for you. Muhammad et al do give some reasons why students choose this option, such as heavy workloads and time pressure, but at the end of the day, you can ask for an extension.
Finally, when working with other academic students, it can foster collaboration, networking and social wellbeing aspects (Kilmove & Pikhart), and you know what, the individuals might even become friends for life or work colleagues in the same industry.
P.S. If you ever suffer a stroke, a good point of call and need some information about life after stroke, visit The Stroke Foundation.
THE JUICY GAMES
WADA has a similar line to Sport Integrity Australia (SIA), they have condemned the concept of the Enhanced Games with the agency saying that it is dangerous, unethical and damaging to sport. Sport Integrity Australia
Yet Kristian Gkolomeev has shaved 0.02 seconds off the world record 50m freestyle swimming as opposed to a year ago in the Paris Olympics, where he finished 5th, according to Listen ABC. Listen ABC also says he took home a $1 million bonus for smashing the record while on the juice.
James Magnuson said ‘he got jacked’ but when he competed in the same event, he didn’t smash any records. The ex-Olympian came out of a 7-year retirement. Saying he transitioned to a healthier sport as opposed to a dirty sport and that the money was more of an incentive James interview channel 7
Coach Brett Hawke, Listen ABC says both ‘athletes’ have been through an enhanced protocol to obtain and focus solely on smashing records. When we say protocols, we're talking prescription drugs that are prescribed by doctors; however are banned by WADA hit list.
The coach also said it dramatically improves recovery time after training.
The underlying argument/reason that the ‘for” camp has is, ‘Where can we take human potential?’ The driving motto is catchy, ‘Live enhanced’.....
Now I feel that this is not my place to criticise the rights and wrongs, and to be frank I couldn’t care. The part that irritates me is the money/healthcare (like the opposite to Robinhood) side to all of this. As James openly admits, he has medical check-ups every week…. Just for a competitive race, so he could potentially ‘win’ and smash a record, and get a bonus of a 1 million American dollar cheque on top of the $250k that they will automatically receive. Apparently, this is partly funded by the 1789 Equity Group and Peter Thiel, the founder of PayPal, according to The Observer, just to name a few.
People look up to these role models and might be encouraged to take substances, all because of their public image. The issue with this is it is unlikely to be a controlled setting, unlike James, who has a ‘doc’ check-up once a week.
So not being in a controlled setting could potentially have a more damaging response, essentially blurring the lines on what is okay and what’s not for an amateur and their health.
The founder, Aron D'Souza tells his vision is ‘...to push the limits while their (athletes') health and drug intake is steadily monitored for safety.’ The question I want to ask is, who's paying for these “steadily monitored, health tests?”. This is according to the ABC. Furthermore, Mr Aron goes on and says ‘The Enhanced Games are very different. They're run by capitalists, who believe in the
future….’, okay, so what he's saying is that it's a self-interested investment… Anyway, that topic is for another day.
Coming back to the point, the organisers said to The Guardian, Bryan A Graham rather than penalise athletes for using banned substances, normalise and study their use in a medically supervised environment. Again, it comes back to the fact that the ‘amateur’, who doesn't have the clinical trial, medical backing, might just juice the juice when it’s the wrong type of juice or go overboard on the juice.
The organisers again do mention that Drugs must be legally prescribed and athletes must be medically fit to compete, all to see where the human potential can go? To do this, it's going to take time, money, resources, and researchers. (The Guardian, Bryan A Graham)
However, the other Guardian paper talks about the risks, saying it's underestimating, incorrect and misleading about the risks and gives a more in-depth explanation and examples, such as heart attacks.
Another avenue that hasn’t been explored is, if the enhanced athletes, coaches or possibly even scientists want to re-enter back into their given sport/work it could be very nearly impossible. Like Andrii Govorov, the Ukraine Butterfly world record holder says “This is a one-way ticket for me.” adding “I’ll never come back, no matter what,” refering to the enhanced games. in a TIMES article.
History, with Lance Armstrong, everyone’s heard of him. Everyone knows what he did. He’d be saying right now, ‘why wasn’t this invented 14 years ago?!’ It would have been a real money spinner for him. The fact was not really finishing first up a mountain on a lot of EPO and whatever else. Let's be honest here, it was highly likely that everyone was on some kind of juice. According to Ethics unwrapped ‘During the seven years that Armstrong won the Tour de France, 20 out of the 21 top three finishers were also found to have doped at some point in their careers.’ An example of this is
Pantani in another Guardian paper highlighting skepticiasm or a more recent BBC article questioning accusations.
The reason Lance was highlighted is to point out that ‘enhancement’ has been going on for years. A 2011 study on biological passports indicates an estimation of an overall blood doping prevalence of 18% (Retrospective study). In the same study they also highlighted that the higher prevalence were female athlete’s.
Yet the enhanced games so far have NO female athlete’s.Enhanced
An ethical debate, it’s pretty clear that Mr Aron is creating an industry, with throw-away comments like ‘capitalism’... Now that’s fine if it’s all self-funded but when one of the groups (1789 Equity Group) is led by Donald Trump Jr. and billionaire Peter Thiel, then it raises questions on how far this could potentially go.
The issue is these opportunities will only be given to people who have financial backing; essentially, the more money you have the better you'll be, so the better you'll be the more money you’ll make. Same small cohort. Enhanced
Mr Aron, who took a law degree at Oxford University, says, "It will always be a tragedy if something does go wrong." In this instance, he's referring to ‘signing waivers’ (BBC)
Imagine the ability to make people into human guinea pigs, to reduce things like human aging (BBC) and breaking human limits (thinking of the hulk). (Listen ABC, Jonathan Green) all for pharmaceutical benefits and more money, what lengths are these cyborgs going to go to just for that?
Pro’s:
Could the researcher’s find safer levels of ‘doping’ or equivalent and in turn regulate it better?
Could it redefine a cleaner sport?
Could it help natural sport be better recompensed?
Borderline questionable:
Good for the US pharmaceutical industry bad for the rest of the world in pharmacology?
Is it classified cheating, when everyone’s cheating?
Con’s:
Like I said earlier, role modeling at an amateur level could be extremely dangerous and a younger generation could take more risk to achieve that elite level.
Fact: Enhanced Games athletes will compete in XY or XX divisions as opposed to male and female TIMES
Funny fact, Armstrong is competing in the Enhanced games in swimming, supposedly.
masters & the why
Figuring out what I want to do has taken me a while; it probably started when I was tossing up between doing further study in either dietetics (more one-on-one), teaching, or public health (more global). I had a sit-down with one of my lecturers, and she reminded me that public health was a viable option…
The Tassie ride has partly given me the incentive. So the ride itself was EPIC fun, we had people every step of the way and were and are very grateful for this! We managed to raise close to 22k for the Stroke Foundation since the start of January 2025, and the main event, the 3 points journey, consisting of exactly 4 weeks.
There were some people we met along the way who reminded me of where we, as disabled people, sit in the food chain (in a good way!), just highlighting the inequalities.
But I know this battered body can still have input into a meaningful area.
I don't see it as just being below the poverty line; that’s a major issue, but in some circumstances, being paid below the minimum wage, regardless of awards or assessed work capacity percentage (fairwork), these humans are working to the best of their ability. What's the price of quality of life?
The rights of a disabled person.
Is it fair to struggle to put food on the table or pay bills? According to poverty & equity, 1 in 4 disabled people live in poverty and ‘tend to be worse off’ financially, let alone in an emergency (AIHW). I’ll reiterate, is that just and fair? I don't think ‘tend’ is the right word here.
I am extremely lucky to be in the position to say I am 1 of the 3 people living with a disability to have completed year 12. (Human Rights Commission) And I'll say this, I regret not putting in harder days' work in school.
In terms of further education for people living with disabilities, only 17.0% of students with disability aged 20 and over have a bachelor’s degree or higher compared with 35.0% of those without disabilities (ADCET)
Yet, interestingly, I was intrigued and curious, and pretty much as I thought, there are limited scholarships/grants for people with disabilities at a university level. Now there are some eg RMIT/Dylan alcott foundation or Melbourne Uni with the Robertson scholarship, which is under 10k (funny how they word it ‘.....is offered to assist physically handicapped students.’) I think they are a bit behind the times… Anyway, looking further afield, there's La Trobe Flexible Research Scholarship (Flex) - Candidates with Disabilities. Monash Graduate Research Equity Supplement.
But basically nothing that stands out, that highlights, YES, we see you as a person and we want to give you your best opportunities possible, because it’s fair.
Moreover, in 2023, undergraduates with a reported disability had a full-time employment rate of 71.0%, which was 8.9% lower than the 79.9% for undergraduates without disability. (ADCET)
This data is talking in terms of full-time, and sometimes it is just not feasible to work full-time, due to other mandatory commitments, eg an appointment. Looking at myself, I'm a hell of a slow walker, so already my time in a day for work or play is already reduced.
Also, it is ironic that there is no mandatory employment requirement in Australia, so it makes you wonder if it is assumption bias….? (Human Rights Commission)
Levelling the playing field is really not that hard, it’s just the government won't act, they don’t want us to be able to have these opportunities. Simply reduce the fee or payback HECS-HELP rate of higher education for the 1 in 3 disabled people who are going to university. (shocking, I know, I wonder where I got the idea…..)
So by accommodating as close to as many needs as possible, accessibility, financial further cost, e.g. technology, advocacy issues, or in other words, addressing the gap between the disabled and the enabled. (Education)
The question is, when are we going to be given these opportunities?
PS I'm doing an 8-week acting course called scene study, it's term 4. My objectives are a) to have some fun, b) to work on my game face (sometimes I smile while in the scene), c) long-term, I would like to give a bit of representation, e.g. a 5 to 1 ratio in everyday films and d) when doing self-taping auditions make it a bit more ‘clear’ as to what ‘they’ the casting directors want from us.
PPS Don't get me started on the Centrelink DSP and the $0.50 to the dollar bullshit!
As always,
Peace out
TQ
What have i been up to?
Hello,
I’ve been absent haven’t I, apologise for this but I haven’t been doing nothing, I promise you that!
So what have I been doing?
For starters I’ve been doing a lot of filming content and creating themes for the upcoming ride which is starting well under a month, the 15th of March till the 11th of April crossing the three most extreme points of Tassie, called Takin on Tassie! To follow the journey on Instagram click here at the same time I’ve been having good healthy collaboration with the Stroke Foundation we are raising funds before, during, and after the Tassie ride again mainly around content.
I’ve also been sending so many emails I think I’m brain-numb from them! In regards to the council members, state and federal politicians which has received positive response! As well as business in Tassie and school communication.
We also had a fundraiser that raised over 5k for the4points.org to facilitate the ride in Tassie and we have to say a big thanks to all the people who were involved in shaping the event but also donating towards the cause!
During the fundraiser, we also launched this 4-point journey summed up into a song with the help of Jack (chief editor, filmmaker and all-round legend), Dave and Mattricks. What can you do collaboratively, we can change the world, that’s what!
See the finished music video below!
So what else?
Outside of the 4 points life that’s been time-consuming, I’ve been working with the La Trobe University masters OT’s in communication skills, that’s been super fun and I’ve been doing it for a few years now!
It’s been a lot of a blur, to be honest, my acting is on hold because the timing of the classes isn’t aligned. I’ve done a few school talks, one today actually for the upcoming ride, it was super good fun with the tear 5’s focusing on resilience and leadership!
In regards to my Physio/exercise regime, the first one is going really well and with my right hand, I’ve got the nine-hold peg test down to a 1:28 in the space of 4 sessions!
And terms of exercise I’m working up to it, currently this week I’ve spent 6.5 hours on weights and concept 2 and on the bike, I’ve done about 25kms, as Reecy from paramount would says that’s just the warm-up!! So steadily working up to it.
So what’s next?
do more training cause Tassie ain’t gonna be a walk in the park!
Do more training
And
Do more training
That’s all the focus now!
Saying that I’m out to do cross-training today!
This will be the last blog till after the ride I feel as if I need to focus on the task at hand.
So stay classy you sexy individuals!
Peace out