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Interview with Diane on teaching by Hayden Jonathan Lorge Tuesday 19th May 5:44 pm.

I met with Diane school teacher in a cafe for an interview. She told me about her experiences as a school teacher.

She said she became a teacher because “(she) had a much younger sister, 14 years younger and (she) realised (she) enjoyed helping her with her homework and explaining how things worked.” She “started her career in South Africa and after (she) had children she tried various careers but always longed to get back to teaching. She felt that she “first of all missed working with children and second of all having a career that she felt was actually making a difference.”

When asked why she has a soft spot for children she said she “finds children honest and loving and finds that they don’t have the filter (that adults have)” When it was suggested that everyone starts life as a child and then are the next generation she said that she absolutely agreed and “when you are working with children in this generation you are inadvertently helping the future of the country because of the impact you are having on the children.”

When asked about home schooling she said “it can be very positive for children who don’t fit into mainstream education. They can have a curriculum that’s tailored to them and they can do a lot more outdoor activities with their parents or with someone in their family. That would have a very positive impact on those children provided they have a happy family life. Unfortunately this isn’t always the case. If the children were at home with a dysfunctional family then that could have a very negative impact on those children. More and more it’s used by families whose children don’t fit into generic education.”

I asked her to compare her first years of teaching to now and she said “as a new teacher I was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and I was keen to put everything I had learnt to work but if I look back now I think I was a much better teacher when I had had my own children because I understood children because they could have had a sick sibling or a nightmare due to a thunderstorm and I was a much better teacher when I came back to teaching and when I look back to South Africa I think there wasn’t a philosophy of education and it was more about getting through the workload than teaching the children.”

When asked about children who cannot afford the school fees at her school she said “(she is) actually not aware of any but every child will get an education.”

While Diane was talking it was clear to me that having her own children taught Diane something about them. This is that everyone starts off life as a less refined human being then they are going to be and with the aid of a teacher everyone can become the fully realised person they have the potential to be.

LSD Report. Hayden Jonathan Lorge. Monday 11th May 2026 5:08am.

LSD-25 is now appearing on circular tabs. This inconspicuous means, along with prodrugs, hard socio-political times may be actual change with marijuana in America. Not just drugs, we are at war as allies to USA.

Music is pro-drug on the radio and pro-sex. In clubs is an electronic beat. AI is empowering choice with a video game being a chat away. Applications aid criminal activity, though as people, we can arm ourselves with information in a new way, although; will AI info be called the same as ‘Google doctor?’

Fire Escape Report. Hayden Jonathan Lorge Monday 11th May 2026 1:27am.

The fire escapes of any car park can be accessed by any individual. This includes seedy individuals and common people. The graffiti in fire escapes is often offensive. Many of the objects left behind, if not cigarettes, is drugs.

Often unpleasant left overs you need a strong stomach to spend very much time in fire escapes. Objects like used syringes and circular tabs of LSD. Objects like methamphetamine and a smashed cologne bottle, my memory of fire escapes is intense.

The truth is a lot of homeless individuals use fire escapes to commit their crimes.

Parties have been observed in fire escapes with streamers up the stairwells and the remnants of a good time had.

Write hl@lorge.net.au with information on fire escapes.

How to eat on a student budget. A listicle by Hayden Jonathan Lorge Sunday 12th April 2026 5:16pm.

How to eat on a budget as a student: Top 5 ways

Eating well is essential to succeeding as a student as food gives us the energy and nutrition we need to function at our best. But on a typical student budget: it can be quite challenging to get enough food for as little as sometimes needed. Using these seven tips, however, you can eat as a student on a reasonable budget and get the fuel you need to power you through your studies. 

1. Plan your meals a week in advance.

One of the biggest wasters of money as a student is trying to get just anything in the lunch squeeze from a nearby shop and back in time for class. Eating at restaurants is difficult to budget for unless you know the area well already but typically we don’t get a single taco from taco bell every single day. Planning your meals a week in advance can give you an idea of the overall cost of the weeks meals and lets you plan your nutrition and have a variety of meals that fall within your budget.

2. Know your unique budget.

Every student has a different budget for food. By working out your own budget and sticking to it, you can avoid overspending because of food envy and making impulsive purchases. Everyone should understand that people live within different means and while some people can afford fancy drinks to take to class, some people would struggle to pay for this. If you understand that what you have to spend on food is not the same as the person sitting next to you, you can avoid fantasising about pearl milk teas and watermelon smoothies and save.

3. Have communal supplies in the kitchen (such as tea and coffee).

Pitching together and getting a box of tea and a jar of coffee with long life milk for everyone to share can help everyone cut costs together. This can be a generous and advantageous addition to the student kitchenette that would mean people can have a delicious hot and mentally boosting drink for no cost during class. Sharing is caring. There are other things you can get for a college kitchenette such as cup a soups for Winter, however, don’t go crazy as the objective here is saving.

4. Making meals at home can avoid paying premium at restaurants and cafes.

You can make batches of meals to mix and match during the week that can help you avoid paying the extra cost of eating out. Your college should have a microwave and kettle to reheat food that you can keep frozen. This way you can still have a hot meal without eating out and paying a premium. 

5. Treat yourself once in a while to keep eating interesting.

If you follow the previous tips regularly you will save money eating as a student. But you don’t need to follow it religiously to get results. Buying an item of food that is appealing to you is a good idea because we all need a treat every now and then. It can feel good to wait until the end of the week to do this and that is easier to plan for as you know what savings you have already made by then. Remember, you can still get a treat for a reasonable price, looking for items that are on special at the time can be a great way of doing this.

Following these tips should help you save money while eating as a student. Remember that nutrition is essential for our cognitive functioning and it can take just a little bit of effort to get this right.

Inside medical journal. An interview by Hayden Jonathan Lorge. Sunday 12th April 2026 5:13pm.

Inside medical journal publication.

Publishing industry for medical journals contains pleasant message on approach to reading through documents. Katie medical publisher provides us with an interview that reveals insider tips and her reading style when approaching documents seeking publication in her medical journal. Also, insights into what it’s like to work as a publisher for a medical journal. 

Katie says when she receives lots of documents seeking publication there are some things that make some stand out. “Within the editorial department at a medical journal, we receive various types of submissions, most commonly original research articles, reviews, and case reports. The documents that stood out to me were those that clearly demonstrated an understanding of both scientific and editorial expectations.” She speaks about what requirements she has for a document to be deemed as pleasant to receive and read through. ”I really appreciated studies that followed the appropriate reporting guidelines, such as CARE for case reports or PRISMA for review articles. Adhering to these frameworks helps ensure that research is transparent, accurate, and reproducible, which is essential in medical publishing.”

She intimates that “high written quality and close adherence to our house style made a noticeable difference. Simple things like consistent acronym usage, clear structure, and natural language made a document much easier to read and edit.” Her paper outlines the guidelines for its tradition.  She went on to say “we routinely used plagiarism and AI detection tools, it was often quite obvious when something lacked a genuine authorial voice.” They practice detection of plagiarism and AI because these pose a threat to the integrity of the paper. “Finally, I also value submissions that were already compliant with guidelines set by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (APBI), as this demonstrates professionalism and a clear respect for publication standards.”

Katie tells us some of the ways she approaches reading documents to best absorb the information in making determinations for publishing. “When reading submissions, I tended to approach them in layers. The first scan was always for whether the author had followed the appropriate guidelines that we expect for the paper type. In the scenario where we receive a ‘Case Report’ I’m checking for the main subheadings that are outlined in the CARE checklist. This includes 13 sections which include an ‘Abstract’, ‘’Clinical Findings’, and ‘Informed Consent’. This is helpful for assessing the writing quality and suitability for our audience.” Guidelines provide a tradition for publishers.

She tells us what makes a document particularly memorable for her in her job: “There were a few times I found myself reflecting on particularly strong or unusual pieces well after I’d finished reading them. What made a document memorable wasn’t just its scientific merit, but its ability to communicate something complex in a way that felt accessible and relevant. Interviews and congress reports, especially, tended to linger because they captured a sense of immediacy and voice. While this isn’t exclusive to publishing, working in editorial certainly sharpened my awareness of what makes content resonate. A memorable piece usually combined clarity, originality, and a clear sense of purpose, it stayed with me because it felt meaningful, not just informative.”

Katie remembers a particular story that stuck with her “there is one case report that stands out, which described an unusual presentation of a dermatological condition in a young child. The patient had been unresponsive to traditional treatment options; however, an alternative topical therapy, not usually used in this context, demonstrated a clinically meaningful reduction in symptoms. The authors also detailed how the child’s quality of life was significantly improved as a result of this novel use of the treatment which added a very human dimension to the clinical findings.” A child responds to an alternate therapy for a dermatological condition after failing traditional treatment. 

She leaves us with the message that “In the publishing industry, memorability is intrinsically linked to scholarly impact and a very memorable document can function as a bridge, connecting the world of academia to the practical challenges of the clinical setting.” Memorable documents are more likely to be published in medical journals.

Should we clean graffiti? An opinion piece by Hayden Jonathan Lorge. Sunday 12th April 2026 5:10pm.

Graffiti plays a bigger role in connecting culture than popular belief?

The swirling cursive of letters and symbols of graffiti is a language of culture that emerges in parallel with the lifestyle of influential figures in society. Anthropology owes so much to language as is traditionally believed and graffiti is a suburban cave painting, post-modern and, today, is forming twenty four hours a day every day by the spray can. Art, graffiti gets some recognition but it seldom garners the respect of local councils who clean it up as a nuisance, however it may be respected as communication, status and expression by gangs but also youth and many inspired and inspiring individuals.

Should we be cleaning up graffiti? Perhaps, but if it wasn’t cleaned this two dimensional phenomena is nothing but adding a visual dimension to architecture? Is it really akin to littering when it has such meaning to so many and holds hands with inspiration and runs deep veins of culture in the spiralling, flowing writing that appears on the face of so many buildings. Can we reach a compromise? Well, it certainly is true that a compromise could be made. 

Certain buildings could be clean while turning the rest of the city over to the artists. In the midst of potential societal change, is there a new way of looking at graffiti, not harshly, like an eye sore, but as the story of some of our influential persons being told for us to walk amongst and appreciate? This reporter thinks so, if we reproach the graffiti problem with fresh eyes, we can improve the quality of graffiti and turn it into a socially beneficial form of art and hail in a new layer of beautiful calligraphy to our next era, to adorn our beautiful architecture and relieve tensions amongst gangs and disenchanted youths who need a sense of permanence in their actions to feel valued in our great society.