The Times They Are A’Changin
So I’ve been absent for two weeks for a number of reasons, many of which I won’t get into today but suffice to say it’s been a tough two weeks. A lot of change, and for those who know me quite well, I don’t do well with change. I need time to adjust. So I guess this is just a general entry to say that I’m still alive, that I do plan to continue this blog in some capacity, and to let out my general thoughts on the changes going on around me and how I plan to deal with them.
Feel free to ignore the entry, it might be changed to a general personal entry at a later date.
So. First and foremost… I’m moving house. In two days. An opportunity came up for me to move in to a place of a decent size with an affordable rent and people I like, and I took it. Considering the entire decision process happened in the space of less than 3 weeks – from announcement of a free room to actually moving in – I’d call it radical to a degree, but it would be unfair to say that I didn’t plan this out. I’d been wanting to move out for a while now and, like previously stated, this presented a good opportunity for me.
I won’t lie and say I’m confident, I’m scared out of my mind, but that could easily be due to the short time it took to organize more than anything else in particular. That’s not to say I’m not excited though. I’ve been talking to my new flatmates (two of whom I don’t know very well yet) quite frequently through Mack (my other, third, flatmate who I do know quite well) or through social mediums and I’m confident that we’ll get along fine. If worst comes to worst I can hole up in my new room just as I hole up in this one and leave everyone be. Here’s hoping it doesn’t come to that though.
I do have an astounding amount of cutlery that I’m taking with me (8 forks, 10 knives, 15 spoons of varying types and styles, if I recall correctly) and I’ve got a much finer appreciation of thrift stores again. My only other issue now is job hunting and budgeting. Again, for those who know me well, me and money don’t mix well; as soon as I have money I feel the compulsive need to spend it. And it’s not that I’m a shopaholic, I don’t spend on anything in particular, it’s more the urge to make the money material than anything else. So budgeting is going to be fun, I’ll be sure to keep a pretty constant twitter feed about it so stay tuned if you need late night entertainment.
Besides switching locales I’m also thinking about the future a lot more now that it’s nearing the end of my first year at Auckland University. It’s kinda scary how time flies when you stop noticing it. One second it’s March and I’m trying to find where the science building is, and the next it’s October and I’m weaving through four shortcuts to get to a lecture on time. Also it’s nearly time to choose classes for next year and I’m on the edge of my seat for the date applications open. For those who don’t know, psychology fills up ridiculously quickly at this uni, and considering I would like to major in it (along with linguistics) it would be highly beneficial for me if I got into psychology for my second year.
I did a quick scan of the classes available not ten minutes ago and set up a brief first draft of a timetable just to see. If all goes to plan I’ll be taking three papers of each of my majors for the entire year (two for linguistics in semester 1 and two for psych in semester 2) as well as a creative writing paper to keep myself sane and potentially a dance paper for my general education and “fitness requirement”. This is all, as I said, if all goes to plan. We all know how well Murphy’s Law and I get along so I refuse to name my chosen classes or call anything definite until it’s in electronic format that I’ve officially gotten into the classes I wanted.
Then I can shuffle my timetable and angle for a few more free days throughout the week.
In Other News…
It’s Q’s birthday tomorrow!! I know she’s not excited by this news but I am. There’s a chance I’ll take her out to play pool for a while; we both need to relax and hit a few sets of balls with sticks for a while in a controlled and safe environment.
My story with Jack is now at 336,189 words and we’re still going strong. Yes, it’s an obsession, yes, it’s ridiculously long, no, I’m not making the word count up, no, I have no idea if and when this will ever end, yes, I will keep updating the word count, no, you don’t have to care.
RAOC had a documentary made about it by a student from South Seas Film and TV School. That’s right, the same South Seas that I went to in 2009 and graduated from. The director was lovely and I can’t wait to see the finished product. Keep you posted on both here and the RAOC website so check in on the link once in a while.
I have no new reviews in The Midnight Screening this week. I really need to get my ass into gear with this again…
“1000+1 Books” has a few more books. I add to it when I feel like it, since this isn’t a review page, but it’s always a good place to go if you can’t think of your next book to read. For much better (and very informative) reviews, check out Collecting a Library, she never lets me down.
Incidentally, don’t forget to check out the new entries from Jack (who has promised an entry, finally) and Lochinvar too. Show em the support and love they deserve, guys, these blogs are amazing.
This week’s songs are :
-+- Colder Weather – Zac Brown Band
-+- Sing It Out – Switchfoot
-+- Thistle and Weeds – Mumford and Sons
Stay classy guys, till next Castiel day…
Bandit, OUT.
May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favor
This week has been interesting. My sleeping pattern has been screwed over beyond belief, Holmes flew over from Aussie for a fortnight and we have some wonderful things planned (for more info see “In Other News” this week), I got back 4/5 of the results I was awaiting and although I’m still (according to some) irrationally annoyed with one grade the others I’m quite happy with. Not bad going for someone who spent the last week of the previous term skirting the edge of a mental breakdown and following the sleeping patterns of the Narrator.
Over the last week I’ve also been getting many blog post ideas from Master Four while the man procrastinated from studying a subject I doubt he’s even interested in. And now I’m spoiled for choice when it comes to writing one this week! And I’m even starting early, knowing that by the time my brain becomes semi-conscious and my eyes blink all the metaphorical sand out of themselves and I return home after a coffee with a friend I might no longer be tempted to write or have a spare moment to.
The title this week comes from The Hunger Games but the book – or upcoming film adaptation – won’t feature in this blog. More it’s an allusion to what I plan to write about. One of the suggestions I got was to have a countdown or general listing of sorts, of either best characters or TV series or ships. Now, I know for a fact that a few readers don’t care much for shipping – even though they ship without even realizing it – be it het and canon or slash and fanfic, so I’ll leave that one sailing this week. That leaves characters or TV series. And tempted as all hell as I am to pimp out my favourite TV series on here, I might go with characters this week.
I’m going to limit the pool from which I pick to only films or series this time, might do a book one if this proves interesting to more than one person or if it’s requested. I’ll also do my utmost to avoid book-to-film adaptation characters here unless I’m completely unaware that a film was based on a book. But in the meantime…
In no particular order of indiscretion committed
—~+~—
Lenny Drake
From: The Escapist
Played by: Joseph Fiennes
Lenny is a thief serving time (7 years if I recall correctly) for a murder he and a partner committed while stealing something. His partner gets released before he does and he, for perfectly understandable reasons, is less than pleased about this. And that’s about as much as we know about him going into the film. There are few words to describe just how much I adore this character. The guy is rumoured to “walk through walls” and while the exaggeration is obvious, it’s also, in a roundabout way, quite justified. Anyone who can make a saw that cuts through metal in a jail out of pieces of bed, plaster and a diamond imbedded in a guy’s tooth is pretty much my hero. The fact that he’s played by Fiennes and that he says very little beyond finding out specific details and glaring at everyone is just a bonus, really.
Priestly is just your average guy in his early twenties, with crazy coloured hair and more fake holes in his head than real ones, who works in a funky little sandwich store with a bunch of girls. That… is pretty much all you can say about Priestly really. He’s full of infinite wisdom for everyone about anything and is – in my opinion – one of the most romantic characters I’ve seen on film for a while. Besides the fact that Jensen played him, the character is actually pretty fleshed out for someone who is, in essence, a stereotype of all things non-conformist. I love him, anyway.
From: Veronica Mars
Played by: Kristen Bell
Tempted as I was to have this entire list consist of guys, I can’t deny that there are a few female characters that kick so much ass that they deserve a mention. Veronica is one of them. I actually didn’t get into this show for a long time because the idea of a series based on a high school girl solving crimes with her PI dad just sounded, well, dumb. I can honestly eat my words with that one, it’s an incredibly clever show and well acted. Veronica made the list not only because of her brains, but because, as much as I am wont to say it, she’s easy to relate to. At least, for me as a girl, maybe guys like her for her Kristen Bell exterior, I’m not sure.
Like I say in all my reviews and recommendations of this movie to others: do not be put off by Jesse McCartney heading this thing if you’re not a fan of his. I’m not, never have been, but that doesn’t stop me thinking that this is one of those Oscar-worthy performances that never got the attention it deserved. Keith is a smartass. For a while his entire way of carrying himself makes no sense; he just appears to be a kid who likes to play with words and infuriate people by being clever and annoying as hell. It’s a cliche to say there’s more to him than that, but it’s true. And what that particular thing is, is not something I plan to spoil on here.
From: The Guard
Played by: Mark Strong
A brilliant example of a minor character stealing every scene he’s in. From memory, he doesn’t have more than a handful of lines in the entire movie, but from all the characters (sometimes including even the mains) he’s the most memorable for me. Maybe I just have a thing for sarcastic smart smooth-talking hitmen. Besides the script for the film being Oscar-level hilarious, Clive’s character isn’t fleshed out at all; everything you know about him you gather as the film goes on. Because of this, his paragraph isn’t quite as detailed as the others, but believe me when I say he’s one of my favourite characters ever.
From: Sin City
Played by: Jessica Alba
A few people might debate my choice of Nancy for this list, but I can justify myself. First off, she’s not from a book, she’s from a graphic novel. Radical difference. Next, of all the women in that particular graphic novel, she and Gail and Miho are the only girls who kick ass without even trying. Sure, the Old Town girls are fierce, but none of them are 19 and self sufficient from age 15 due to a huge legal and political misunderstanding. Nancy was saved from rape and a painful death by John Hartigan when she was 9, and not allowed to testify on his behalf when he was wrongfully accused and jailed. Since then she’d been in love with him and doing everything in her power to make sure she grew up strong for when he was released and she could see him again. Call me an oddity, but I adore their story, and I love how Nancy drives a shitty car only she can keep running and has a revolver that she keeps under the seat… I just love her and since this is my list she’s staying on it.
From: A Life Less Ordinary
Played by: Ewan McGregor
Ok Robert makes this list for one reason and one reason only: “Right you asshole, I’ve got your daughter here, and I’m gonna send her back in pieces if… OH! I’m sorry, madam. No, I haven’t got your daughter here, I’ve got someone else’s. No, we’re not married. Yes, I’ve read the same thing, it’s very hard to find suitable young men these days. Well, I’m sure your daughter’s very nice, in principle I’ve got no objection to meeting her…” This film isn’t one that a lot of people like, in fact most people think it’s stupid and refuse to watch it twice which is a shame. Robert Lewis is, in a nutshell, the worst kidnapper ever to kidnap. Maybe it’s McGregor’s acting that got me, or the script, I don’t even know anymore… but when making a list of favourite characters that aren’t from book adaptations, Robert Lewis has to make the cut.
From: Indiana Jones
Played by: Harrison Ford
This is probably the most recognizable face in film history and besides Sherlock Holmes (who can’t make the list due to his literary roots) was my hero as a kid. I think it was because of him that I wanted to be an archaeologist, not realizing that I would actually have to study for years and do a lot more boring paperwork and readings than I would shooting bad guys and flailing my whip around. Indy is childhood for me; he’s the ultimate badass. A professor who jumps out the window of his office when fangirls block his doorway, who was named after the dog and has the most annoying and coolest father ever. Ah, Indy… love of my life for so many years…
I am so proud of myself for holding out long enough on this list before Eames came up… it’s not exactly world’s best kept secret that I am not only head over heels in love with this man but also quite similar to him when the mood presents itself. Now that the hype has worn off, most people don’t remember the movie. Fair call. If it ever hits cult status it will take time, but it doesn’t stop me loving it. Another example, like Clive Cornell above, of a minor character – in this case more minor than the main three but still quite important – taking the spotlight away from the leading man. For me, at least, Eames was the most fascinating character with the most difficult and fascinating job. Also, he pretty much singlehandedly made up the process by which the inception had to be done so he should get a lot more kudos for that than he currently does.
I’m not sure which film, if any, will beat out The Fall for me for my favourite film of all time. There are just no words to describe how brilliant this movie is, and how much I loved Lee Pace in it. Roy is one of the most powerful performances I’ve seen on screen, and even though he’s the last character I plan to post about today he is by far not the only I wish I could mention. Roy is a stunt man lying in a Los Angeles hospital paralyzed from the hips down after a stunt went wrong. He’s upset, he’s in pain and he’s young. Every emotion portrayed by him in reality, as well as all that are projected on to the Bandit in his story, is so humanly genuine it’s painful to watch. He’s a completely unforgettable character; he owns my heart, my soul and I am honored to take his name on this blog weekly.
Sadly, as I just said, I have to stop at 10. There are so many more I want to write about, but I’ve already doubled my word count for the week and fear if I push for 15 I’ll find an excuse to push for 20 and so forth. Might keep this idea around for once-a-month entries when I run out of ideas for anything else. Besides, I still have book ones to do!
In Other News…
My collab with Jack now sits pretty at 249,480 words and counting as we speak (early morning writing sessions, bliss), kids are going to school next door and I’m cackling at them since I don’t have Russian today and can come in later for coffee with a friend and NOTHING ELSE. Love Fridays.
Holmes and I are taking a roadtrip this weekend up north and a little east to the Coromandel Peninsula to see an old car show. Here’s hoping the weather parts for us, it’s been pouring with rain here pretty regularly and we need it to stop. Or, put it this way, we would prefer if it did. We can work with anything, though, we’re just that awesome.
RAOC has some amazing things upcoming, so watch this space and the website for details on that as it happens!!~
I have no new reviews in The Midnight Screening this week. I really need to get my ass into gear with this again…
“1000+1 Books” has a few more books. I add to it when I feel like it, since this isn’t a review page, but it’s always a good place to go if you can’t think of your next book to read. For much better (and very informative) reviews, check out Collecting a Library, she never lets me down.
Incidentally, don’t forget to check out the new entries from Jack (who has promised an entry, finally) and Lochinvar too. Show em the support and love they deserve, guys, these blogs are amazing.
This week’s songs are :
-+- Super Psycho Love – Simon Curtis
-+- Set Fire to the Rain – Adele
-+- Lose Yourself – Eminem
Stay classy guys, till next Castiel day…
Bandit, OUT.
A Rose By Any Other Name…
Today was the last day of the third term of uni for 2 weeks and I am on the verge of an exhaustion collapse, so I apologize in advance for the sheer number of typos this damn thing will most likely have. The last week has been… less than perfect, shall we say. In the last 2 days of the term I had 2 tests and 2 assignments due, 3 of those things on the same day, and even though I planned my time well and actually got things done in advance (ish) I was off my feet come Friday. While writing my history essay I found myself completely enamored of my topic, so I thought I’d write a quick discussion here before I collapse happily into bed and sleep for about 14 hours.
For those who don’t know, hi, I’m Bandit and I take sexual history. Yes, that does mean the history of sex and sexuality. And yes, it does involve studying all the naughty things that just ran through your mind. But in this particular instance it was less kinky sexual practices and more absolutely fascinating views of the human body and its meaning.
I was working on an essay on an article by J. A. Schultz, analyzing Gottfried von Straßburg’s medieval courtly romance “Tristan and Isold”. For those who bounced up thinking “oooh I know this!” I am not referring to the film starring James Franco here. But a text written around the 1200s in Germany, in Middle High German (MHG) that seriously has one of the most confusing plots ever. The reason we were studying this was because at the time – meaning Europe, and Germany specifically, during the thirteenth century – eroticising a body did not involve describing it with gender specific detail. That means that women weren’t described as having big/small/normal breasts and men as being well hung. In fact, till around the 1250s, there was no mention of women’s breasts at all when it came to describing a female character. Beauty was believed to be androgynous.
I found the essay absolutely awesome to write for two reasons:
1. I completely agree that beauty shouldn’t be gender specified
2. It’s so completely different to how we see or understand beauty now
In order, then, since my brain is running on 18% battery power right now.
In “Tristan”, beauty was nobility. It was the way you held yourself, it was the way you walked and talked and presented yourself… sure people were always beautiful in courtly romances (kinda part of the genre) but even people who were described as being less than the MHG beauty stereotype could be called beautiful because of their nobility. What’s also fascinating is that, as previously stated, androgyny was beautiful. Women and men were meant to look similar at the time for someone to find them attractive. There’s a passage in Wolfram von Eschenbach’s “Willehalm” (written around the same time as “Tristan and Isold”) where the narrator describes two siblings as being nearly identical save for the brother’s beginning of a beard, and mentions that “I would be happier if the hairs of his beard were not there, for then one might have taken the man for the woman, their bodies were so similar.”
Beauty is not gendered here, you aren’t beautiful because you have nice hair or perfect breasts if you’re a girl or if you’re well built and manly if you’re a guy… you can be a blank slate and be beautiful if you carry yourself. Partially I think it’s because heterosexuality was believed to be innate so no one had to prove their sexuality by their partner preferences.
Whereas nowadays we’re bombarded with imagery of what men and women should look like (cue scene from Fight Club asking if real men look like Calvin Klein underwear models on a bus) and what we should all be aiming for to be “perfectly beautiful” human beings. And before you start with the argument of “everyone’s beautiful” think about it. How many plus size models make the cover of GQ or Vanity Fair? Hell, how many plus size WOMEN do you see being happy with themselves lately because of all the propaganda about “blissful skinny bodies”?
When you hear a beautiful person described, what usually comes first? Obviously it depends on who’s describing whom (girl describing a guy or other way around) but you usually describe any and either gender with completely genderless words such as “beautiful eyes” or “nice hair” or “sinuous hands”… both genders have them. Interestingly, this is how people were described back in the 1200s too, and you could only tell which gender was describing which by the way it was written (cue long political discussion that I don’t have the brain capacity to write right now; ask in comments if you care). But while in the 1200s, this was the ONLY way to describe people, nowadays we have the added bonus features such as “killer rack” or “six pack”. And due to the modern concept of sexuality (the term homosexuality wasn’t invented till the 1800s and heterosexuality was invented even later) people are now worried what their “image” (both outward appearance as well as the features of a person they notice and point out) will say about what sexuality they are.
Who cares, guys? It’s not unusual for a girl to dress in jeans and a shirt and trainers, is it? It’s pretty damn common. But you never stop to think that in essence she’s actually cross dressing. Don’t try to argue me on this one, it’s a fact. But you don’t see that because to society nowadays it’s normal for a woman to be able to wear both pants and skirts (hopefully at different times, but the way fashion is going sometimes I do wonder). And so it really gets me both thinking and actively wondering, why do people care about their image so much when it comes to portraying their sexuality? Why does it bother some people that girls walk around in jeans 99% of the time and only wear skirts on occasion? Does that make her a lesbian? Possibly, but correlation does not equal causation. I’m straight and I cringe at the THOUGHT of wearing a skirt or heels.
I guess the only way to sum this rant entry up is by linking it back to the title. Shakespeare, love ‘im or hate ‘im, was a wise man when it came to describing love and beauty. Forget the damned petals, it’s what’s on the inside that counts, wake up and smell the roses, and other stunningly cliche expressions.
In Other News…
All the bones in my body hurt, I have a new 2TB hard drive, Holmes is coming to NZ in 2 weeks, my collab with Jack now sits pretty at 171,145 words and I’m craving pizza.
RAOC had its first meeting this Monday and it went really well! Thanks so much to everyone who showed up, updates will be posted on all projects as soon as we sort through the paperwork, so keep your eye on that site.
I have no new reviews in The Midnight Screening this week. I am on break now though so chances are I will at least get a chance to WATCH films again.
“1000+1 Books” has a few more books. I add to it when I feel like it, since this isn’t a review page, but it’s always a good place to go if you can’t think of your next book to read. For much better (and very informative) reviews, check out Collecting a Library, she never lets me down.
Incidentally, don’t forget to check out the new entries from Jack and Lochinvar too. Show em the support and love they deserve, guys, these blogs are amazing.
This week’s songs are :
-+- Our Time Is Running Out – Muse
-+- Rollin’ In The Deep – Adele
-+- Cells – The Servant
Stay classy guys, till next Castiel day…
Bandit, OUT.
So…
…”my bad” isn’t gonna cut it after two weeks of absence? I can almost feel the glares. Shite. Ok fine. I’ll quickly explain exactly why I was AWOL for two weeks and then write some semblance of an entry.
So the week before last I skipped an entry due to actually honest-to-blog forgetting that I had one due. I couldn’t get my brain into gear to come up with a decent idea in 34 minutes so I took the easy way out and just left it be. Last week what happened was I got home, I got into bed and I believe the technical term is “I blacked out”. Don’t remember much till Friday morning when I was on the bus remembering I owed an entry. Apparently I did something nuts, but like I always say, pictures or it didn’t happen.
Jokes aside, though, I wasn’t feeling too good at the end of last week. Can’t say what exactly but it wasn’t fun. Master Four has been reprimanding me and telling me that I should look after myself better but he’s one to talk. Really. Either way, I survived the weekend and taking on a new week with the help of a very long vicarious living story with Jack. I still note take 11 hours a week, have enough readings to drown in and can feel the assignments watching me from the dark woods as I drive home.
Add to that nerves about certain things I won’t name in case they come true (or don’t, as my fear is) and general happy life shenanigans and you have the typical Bandit week.
Life has been… life. Headaches and insomnia aside, I’ve been running to and from lectures (sometimes actually running), enjoying the company of some very fascinating people at and after said lectures, writing like the wind on the story Jack and I have started (up past 210 pages now), staring at the ceiling a lot more often than necessary since I changed it to be fully covered in a mixture of GQ, Inception and Supernatural imagery and playing pool with Q. The latter I should do much more often.
Add to that the artist who I approached about drawing a cover artwork for my Five Bets Verse sending me the first draft of the image that floored me and made me scream like a fangirl in the middle of the corridor in the business school and you have my life so far in a nutshell.
Oh man.
I have so many things I could talk about on here, most of them sexual history related, but it’s getting close to midnight again and I honestly can’t formulate anything beyond a few monosyllabic vowels or maybe a grunt. And as appropriate as both sounds are to the study of the history of sexual practice and tradition, I doubt it’ll be informative or entertaining to anyone who isn’t as tired as I am right now.
I guess all I can say for these three weeks of (pretty much) silence and/or crap is I’m sorry. I feel like death warmed up. Or like his pizza wasn’t made to his exact specifications so he killed half the Chicago parlor in annoyance. Supernatural reference, forgive me.
Well. That’s me. Hopefully life decides to give me a break for next week and I can write something interesting. For a change.
In Other News…
RAOC has its first (official) meeting on Monday 22nd of August at 5pm in Clubspace, Auckland uni. Come if you can, bring friends, tell others. People overseas are not exempt from the meeting, we talked about this.
I have one new review in The Midnight Screening this week, and that’s The Escapist, which was MAGNIFICENT and which I keep watching over and over and over again just for certain scenes. If you get a chance, definitely watch this movie. Mack and I are having a James McAvoy-a-thon over the coming weekend so I should have more movies to review then… but I dunno if I’ll be able to. Lately with my head being about to explode and all it’s hard to concentrate on writing for long periods of time. Except the collab. That shit’s holy.
“1000+1 Books” has a few more books. I add to it when I feel like it, since this isn’t a review page, but it’s always a good place to go if you can’t think of your next book to read. For much better (and very informative) reviews, check out Collecting a Library, she never lets me down.
Incidentally, don’t forget to check out the new entries from Jack and Lochinvar too. Show em the support and love they deserve, guys, these blogs are amazing.
This week’s songs are :
-+- I Will Follow You Into The Dark – Death Cab for Cutie
-+- Pretty When You Cry – VAST
-+- Death is the Road to Awe – Clint Mansell
Stay classy guys, till next Castiel day… when I hopefully won’t be feeling like a slightly inebriated special olympic snail.
Bandit, OUT.
A General Groticism of the Organism
In short, I feel like crap. I’m barely sitting up to write this now and I’m only doing it because I have a feeling I’ll need another “bum entry” later this year and I don’t want to waste it now. So this will be very short and to the point.
1. The RAOC table has been a huge success at Re-O week!! Mack and I spent the majority of our time there and we had a blast. Thank you so much to everyone who volunteered and showed up for shifts, forgot to volunteer and showed up anyway, and to those who brought people along to sign up. It’s really a great cause and I can’t wait to kickstart it next week with Mack. Subscribe to that blog for all updates, but I will post short pieces about the RAOC happenings on here too.
2. This week has been insanely busy. Besides RAOC, I’ve also been getting into the habit of note taking for every class this semester. Thus far, it ended up being 7 hours for the week since Russian only starts up from next week, but it’s been quite stressful. Thinking I’ll allocate some free periods for re-writes of notes so I don’t spend hours on them at home. Good source of income though. I also snagged the enviable role of class representative for sexual history. Mack and I joked that I should hold a class party at the end of the year with the theme Adam and Eve and make nudity compulsory. Super keen.
3. For those not yet aware, Holmes and I started up something called The 10 Day Challenge [a.k.a. The 10 D.C.] a while ago. The idea was to get our muses back into action since neither of us had posted a decent fanvideo for a very long time and we both missed it. The challenge is simple: we choose a film between us, choose a song for the other person to cut the film to, and have 10 days to complete the challenge. Thus far, we’ve completed 2 rounds of the 10 D.C. and have just started on the third. All links are on the page, so do check them out. There will be tons upon tons on there soon. And every 5th challenge is a Quarter Quell, as it were. Wait and see.
4. Speaking of muse awakenings, the 10 D.C. actually helped me make a video I’d had in mind for some time:
It’s a Supernatural video, about Dean and Cas but not slash. So those fearing the slash factor can breathe easy. It is about love, yes, but not romantic love. Unrequited, unending and true love. The angst was eating me alive till I made this, so now I can breathe again and I am actually incredibly proud of it. All comments are welcome either here or on the youtube page, and all feedback is carefully read and thoughtfully considered.
5. This is the number five.
6. I’ve seen two of my seven film fest movies and am seeing a third tomorrow. I have been tossing up whether to review them or not, but decided on not. A few of them are very controversial and I would rather not spend a review arguing my beliefs and entry upon entry defending them. If you know me, you know what I feel about sexuality and religion, and that isn’t going to change for a while. I won’t incite riots.
7. Master Four recommended an amazing site to me that I might just recommend to you. Catch is, if you want me to tell you what the site is you have to comment and let me know so I can email a voucher to you. It’s not because I want to play James Bond and be all sneaky, no, it’s much more self-centered than that. Every person that I invite to the site gets me a 10% off voucher for later purchases. And I would like to hoard those. The site is genius, though, because I’ve found books on there that are insanely cheap and not available in NZ at all. Also, did I mention there is free shipping worldwide from that site? No? Well there you go, blatant incentive.
8. Because I can’t have seven points on my blog, and I don’t want to have ten.
In Other News…
RAOC had a stall for Re-O week next week, for all you lucky bugs that go to Auckland uni. Thanks again to all the volunteers, and to Mack in particular for keeping me insane.
I have one new review in The Midnight Screening this week, and that’s Atonement. I have actually gone through quite a few films recently – mostly James McAvoy – and more reviews will be due on here soon enough. Once I figure out how to, you know, have a life outside of study and RAOC.
“1000+1 Books” has a few more books. This time it actually does. I add to it when I feel like it, since this isn’t a review page, but it’s always a good place to go if you can’t think of your next book to read. For much better (and very informative) reviews, check out Collecting a Library, she never lets me down.
Incidentally, don’t forget to check out the new entries from Jack and Lochinvar too. Show em the support and love they deserve, guys, these blogs are amazing.
This week’s songs are :
-+- After The Storm – Mumford & Sons
-+- Roads – Portishead
-+- White Blank Page – Mumford & Sons
Stay classy guys, till next Castiel day…
Bandit, OUT.
Damned Retrospect
How many art students does it take to make a camcorder play back a tape?
Answer: None, apparently, as none can do it.
Cue the film students. How many film school grads does it take to make a camcorder play back a tape?
Answer: One, but it takes 3 hours.
In retrospect, I really should have paid attention to all the lectures on CLA in the first term of film school instead of making up chants about them with the rest of the editors. Although from memory we were never actually taught how to play tapes back in camera, I think that was a skill reserved for only the elite that got into and continued on with CLA. Pity, it could have saved myself and Mack a lot of time…
The mission of the day was simple: get a camera, put miniDVs into it, plug the camera into the computer and record what you needed off the tapes. Easy. Generally it’s still termed as “digitizing” so when Mack asked me if I knew how to do it, I jumped at the chance. After all, I had been working as a digitizer for over a year after film school and I was pretty decent at my job. Granted, I was used to commanding a cinetape as one conducts an orchestra, so one simple camera couldn’t stump me, right?
Yea. Damned retrospect.
It all started with cables. Not even the cables that connected the camera to the computer; the cables that connected the camera to the powersource. It took – safe to say – about half an hour for Mack and I to decide to change powerpoints in the wall before the camera whined and clicked to life. I think we were so astounded by our victory that we didn’t bother with the computer cable for at least 10 minutes after. When we realized that all the cables I had brought with me didn’t fit the camera, we started our journey.
Another thing in retrospect: when you have a heavy as hell camera, get the front reception desk to look after it for you instead of trudging around a foreign school with it.
We trudged around Western Springs college in search of he main office. Finally found it. Were informed that the entire media studies department had just returned from a trip and was most likely already signed out for the day and for us to not hold out a hope. I think both our rather defeated determined-looking expressions convinced the receptionist to give us the department extension to call, and we left the office and returned to our original place in TAPAC to wait for lunch to be over.
We made the call. Arranged for a cable. Trudged fully equipped through the college again. Collected the cable. Trudged back to TAPAC. Set up all the equipment again. Found that the cable fit the camera end. Rejoiced. Spent a little too long rejoicing. Found the laptop we were working with to not have a firewire port. Stopped rejoicing. Weighed up our options. Complained of being hungry. Blinked at the wall for a while. Told anecdotes. Weighed our options again.
Eventually Mack decided to return to the media studies room and ask if they had another cable. I stayed with the equipment this time and took on the challenge of figuring out how to get the camera to play back tapes for me.
For those who don’t know me very well, let me explain how I work: I don’t read manuals. I have a very masculine approach to dealing with technology, and I blame this in part on being close friends with mostly guys in film school. The way a girl would deal with equipment would be to find the manual, read it, push all the right buttons and save time. The way a guy – and I – would do it would be to push every single button imaginable till something happens. Time consuming and wasteful as that sounds, it’s because of my manly approach to technology that I can figure out how to use any mobile phone within 5 minutes of holding it in my hand, and – usually – understand a digital camera within a slightly longer length of time. Panasonic over-shoulder DV cameras are a whole other bowl of cheese though.
I figured out how to find every single menu on the camera (there were 3) and change most settings in playback mode (about 15) and pimp out the camera with in-camera effects (more than I could count) but I could not find the most obvious button to get the damned tape to play for me. To cut a long story short, it took both Mack and I (once she returned, having found the room locked and empty) about 2 hours to actually get the tape to play, and that’s only because I happened to find a remote control in the camera box and accidentally aim it at the laser receiver on the camera while absently, masculinely, pressing buttons till something happened.
T’was a victory, to be sure.
Eventually we decided that there was really nothing for it but to return the cable and ask to borrow the tapes from TAPAC another time. And so, the equipment was packed up for the final time and we made our way back to the media studies department of Western Springs college. We waited a while as the school day came to a close and the creative people of the media room rushed about returning cameras, finding batteries and getting tripods back to their original stance.
We must’ve looked somewhat broken by the weight of the world when we gave the cable back, as the teacher asked us if we got anything from the camera. We vaguely mumbled something about not having a firewire port in the computer we were working on and how we would figure something out for later. She stared at us for a while before pointing to a computer behind her and telling us we could use it if we wanted.
Another victory.
With my manly prowess in button-pushing, I figured out how to use Adobe OnLocation and we started collecting the clips we needed. Once the clips were safely in the computer, Mack packed up the camera – with its remote, that I had become quite attached to – and returned it to TAPAC. I stayed and attempted to figure out why the “export” function on OnLocation gave me three pages of HTML instead of lovely .avi files. That took time. And effort. And attempts to read instruction manuals – which failed as I didn’t have the login to use the school internet server – before the teacher just asked where I had saved the project and pointed to a handy folder within it titled “clips”.
5 hours, many trials, laughs, and anecdotes later, in retrospect we really shouldn’t overthink things, Mack and I, it gets us into trouble.
In Other News…
PLEASE READ FOR ALL IMPORTANT RAOC NEWS UPDATES.
Second semester starts next week and I am excited as all heck for it. I got a pretty decent GPA for semester one and it spurred me to get better grades in the next semester; once my GPA is a solid B+ or above I can safely apply for the 360 exchange and work my ass off to get money for Scotland. Incidentally, I’ve also taken up more notetaking work for this semester that will guarantee I pay off my outstanding debts to friends and save up for Scotland at the same time as depleting my student allowance somewhat. Take the good with the bad I guess. Holmes and I have also started something called the 10 Day Challenge, which involves us choosing a film between us, then each picking out a song for the other to cut said film to. We have 10 days per film to complete the challenge so look out for a new page on here that will feature all the final projects. This week’s film: Wanted.
RAOC has a stall for Re-O week next week, for all you lucky bugs that go to Auckland uni. Come find us, we won’t be hard to miss if we follow through with our plans from today, and encourage others to do the same. We have some more updates on the website and will hold a full club meeting some time in the second week. As always, ask away if you have any questions.
The Hope to Haiti crew returned from Haiti successful, happy and very very tired. More as it happens!
I have one new review in The Midnight Screening this week, and that’s Limitless. I have actually gone through quite a few films recently – mostly James McAvoy – and more reviews will be due on here soon enough.
“1000+1 Books” has a few more books. This time it actually does. I add to it when I feel like it, since this isn’t a review page, but it’s always a good place to go if you can’t think of your next book to read. For much better (and very informative) reviews, check out Collecting a Library, she never lets me down.
Incidentally, don’t forget to check out the new entries from Jack and Lochinvar too. Show em the support and love they deserve, guys, these blogs are amazing.
This week’s songs are still all by Mumford and Sons, because they’re freaking awesome:
-+- Dustbowl Dance
-+- Thistle and Weeds
-+- Liar
Stay classy guys, till next Castiel day…
Bandit, OUT.
And So It Goes…
To borrow a phrase favored by the wonderful Tim Roth. This entry is a lazy last-minute fill-in on all the wonderful goings-on in my life. Because the world cares and I have finally become blog-famous according to my stats today.
This week has been busy in some regards and almost snail-pace slow in others. I have finished 2 out of my 4 exams already and I am forcing my exhausted and not-quite-there brain to pull through for me before I can face freedom on the open road on the 26th. As much as I would want to run away from my problems by simply driving away from them, I can’t. So I have to get decent grades to get into my courses next year and keep up a decent GPA for Scotland. I think it was Diz that was laughing at me the other day coz I was “complaining about school”… thing is I’m not complaining about uni, I’m complaining about exams. And it’s less comparing and more fearing. So your argument is invalid. I love uni, I just hate and truly fear exams.
Besides that particularly boring set of news, the story and art for the J2 Big_Bang that I’ve been collaborating on has been posted today!! As always, if you don’t like slash don’t even go near the page, I am more likely to laugh at you for taking the time and effort to tell me how much you hate slash than to consider your feelings on the subject. Don’t like? Don’t freaking comment. Simple as pie. For those who are interested, the link can be found at the top of the page or right here!! I am so happy with the final result; the soundtrack cover looks amazing, I’m getting wonderful feedback, and the download link for the soundtrack WORKS for a change, so that’s fantastic! A huge HUGE hug to Vicky for being amazing. This year has thus far been the best Big_Bang year ever.
What else what else… to be honest a lot of my spare time I spend slubbing – a mix of “bumming” and “being a slug” – watching shows like Project Runway or America’s Next Top Model. It gives my brain a break and some of the designs and photos are very well done. I had a movie marathon with Loch when she finished her exams, and although we watched a fair share of movies that I should review, I actually can’t be bothered to at the moment. And some don’t make it past my 5/10 mark anyway so they have no place on the screening. I did finally get hold of Source Code online – took way too long – so that review is up. Also got The Tree of Life because I’ve seen it recommended left right and center and it reminds me of The Fountain. If anyone knows what the classical music track on the trailer for it is, please tell me!! It’s been driving me insane on a rollercoaster for over a week now.
By chance and happy accident, we acquired a water-stained, badly painted bookshelf yesterday from our neighbour. I wasted no time adding it to my room decor; it took maybe 3 minutes to drag it from the back porch to my bedroom and place it at the foot of my bed. Once it’s painted, it should fit right in. I now officially have 5 shelving systems in my room, not including the drawer space on my bedside and working tables and my dresser, and I have piles of things on my floor looking for a home. I have about 3cm between the cupboard door when it opens and the new bookshelf, and I now actually have to crabwalk my way around my bedroom, but I couldn’t be happier!! Once it’s painted and all the books that need new homes have found their heaven, my room will feel almost complete.
In the spare time I get between slubbing and studying, I’ve been rereading “Fahrenheit 451″ by Ray Bradbury. Words cannot express how much I love this book. It seems lately that every time I pick up a dystopian novel it hits just that little bit closer to home. Or maybe that’s sociology making my life more hellish by not only making me take notes on modernity – the most boring subject in socio, I swear – but by also putting a lot of shit into rather harsh perspective. Next book after this? My signed copy of “Life’s That Way” by Jim Beaver. I’m honestly hoping this doesn’t send me on a crazy auto/biography addiction, because I need to save money for a change (har di har har from the back row)
Speaking of saving money, the Epic Road Trip of Utter Epic is due to start at 7am on the 26th! I will write a bit more about it on the 23rd and will keep a running live-blog commentary up on Twitter throughout the time I’m away, so watch the twitter feed on this page if you’re keen and don’t have an account to follow me. Not sure what the likelihood of getting internet when I’m away will be but I will try my utmost. After all, who isn’t lost without their blogger? (quote, anyone? ;) )
Phew, well that’s my boring life. What’s been up on your end? Believe me, not a pathetic attempt at communicating with my readers, I communicate with some of you people more often than is strictly healthy (“I don’t know half of you half as well as I would like, and I like half of you half as well as you deserve”) but I honestly just think that my life right now is THE most boring and I need to be proven right. Got a story more boring than mine? Bring it on! Maybe there’ll be prizes for the person with the most dull week of the year.
In Other News…
Art for the J2 Big_Bang 2011, like I said, is posted!!~ I’m ridiculously proud of it and very happy I participated this year.
More amazing actors have joined the cast of The Hobbit. I never thought that so many brilliant people would be in this shitty spit of land at one time again since LOTR ended. Now not only is Lee Pace in the country, but Benedict Cumberbatch is also here! Martin Freeman and Richard Armitage remain in the cast and make me very happy. Fingers crossed for seeing em “accidentally” on the Roadtrip Of Epic Awesome. Starting June 26th, stay tuned.
I have one new review in The Midnight Screening this week. Check out my thoughts on Source Code while another week passes and I attempt to make my brain get into gear enough to review more films on my “pending” list. I have watched a few more movies but had no time to review them. A lot of them were ones I’ve reviewed on here already anyway. Stay tuned for more when they come along.
“1000+1 Books” has a few more books. This time it actually does. I add to it when I feel like it, since this isn’t a review page, but it’s always a good place to go if you can’t think of your next book to read. For much better (and very informative) reviews, check out Collecting a Library, she never lets me down.
Incidentally, don’t forget to check out the new entries from Jack and Lochinvar too. Show em the support and love they deserve, guys, these blogs are amazing.
The Hope to Haiti project run by therandomact.org is still in full swing. We need all the support and love we can get, it’s a wonderful cause. Please visit us on the site, or check out this blog post for details on how you can help! They’re off June 20th, four days time, but it’s still an ongoing project that I am incredibly proud to be a part of.
This week’s songs are:
-+- The entire Thursday Night Special soundtrack… I had to celebrate by hearing it one more time :)
Stay classy guys, till next Castiel day…
Bandit, OUT.
And Your Pastimes Consisted of the Strange…
Well, the last entry was a hit huh… Honestly I had no idea that I would illicit such diverse reactions from people with an entry like that… But for those who don’t read the comments and replies usually on my blogs, I would just like to reiterate firstly that the entry was not made for a pity parade, I honestly don’t CARE if people don’t read my blog, believe me, I’m astounded that people DO, and secondly that I like being criticized and challenged with comments, so if there’s something you dislike or disagree with, by all means let me know!
This week, I thought I’d base an entry on a book I’m reading. Right now I’m incredibly busy so I haven’t actually had the chance to read for pleasure often, but the last book I started (and have nearly finished) is titled Psychoshop and is written by Alfred Bester and Roger Zelazny. The idea is simple: there is a place in this world where you can go to exchange any aspect of your spirit as long as you replace it with something else. Only catch? No takebacks.
The idea caught me right off the bat, and I actually remember in the bookstore, clutching the book to my chest and doing a little victory dance that I had gotten hold of the last copy. Word to the wise, if your local book store is holding a 3-for-2 on science fiction novels, get there early. The reason this got me so interested is that I – and I’m not alone, I’m sure – have always wondered what it would be like to exchange something of mine for something better and to see whether or not it would work out as well as I had imagined it.
So let’s pretend that I can go to the Psychoshop, with the same rules as the book has (you can exchange ANYTHING as long as you take something new back). First thing I would do would be to exchange my procrastination for eidetic memory.
Instantly my grades would improve, I would get a fantastic GPA, because of my higher GPA and fantastic grades I would be able to apply for academic scholarships overseas, most likely get accepted and go to countries that I only dream about, live the life I always wanted and keep my self intact. Perfect. Who wouldn’t want to make the switch? But is it really?
Sure, I now remember all my class notes, don’t need to study for tests because the book and lectures are stored in my immense and never ending brain capacity, but how long could I last like that without going completely and utterly mad? Most people who are considered to have eidetic memory are savants. And savants, no matter how brilliant, are not particularly sane people. If I could recall every little memory at will, I would remember every bad thing anyone had ever said about me, I would remember all the times I had had a hard time and why, I would remember nightmares and frightening studies and terrifying experiences…
Now that I think about it, I’ll keep my procrastination. Procrastination has thus far led me to – among other things – start this blog, meet new and amazing people all over the world and discover things about myself. Procrastination is, if anything, the ability to put off doing something. In the time that I put off doing things, I have read fantastic books, watched films, thought about so many things that I don’t necessarily WANT to remember… Yea, I’ll take this to eidetic memory any day.
Next up on the switch-front? Writing skills for the ability to draw in the style of photographic realism.
I’ve always been so envious of people who can pick up a pen and sketch, sketch and sketch and sketch… things they see, things they think about, things they imagine that will never (and can never) be real… I’ve always been able to make up incredible characters that I can see in my mind, and love and believe in, and I have never been able to draw them for others to see. There is only so much information you can give someone about a character in a work of fiction. Any reader knows that no matter how well you describe the character, people will always, always see them differently in their own minds. There is no way to avoid that. So I have always wanted the ability to draw the characters that I thought up, or even the characters that already exist in other people’s work, in places and situations they would usually not find themselves in, or in worlds that can’t and won’t ever exist.
Now, for all the writers reading this… I have actually seriously thought about this as a switch. To give up all and every aspect of my creative writing ability (I’m making this obvious in case I end up being a brilliant artist and completely illiterate) for the ability to draw. And there are times when I wish I could. If you’ve ever read my writing, you’ll know that I don’t always write happy things. In fact, I rarely write happy things. Anything construed as “comedic” in my portfolio is usually under the dark umbrella of sarcasm in a downpour of satire. I don’t do happy. My stories are dark, or very, very sad. The characters I make up are in every way part of me as the parts of my body; characters always are to people who are true writers. It’s in our soul. And I would love to give that up for the ability to draw.
Drawing, like writing, is a way to get emotion out, to de-stress, to calm down, to bring about the ultimate personal catharsis. Swapping one for the other wouldn’t really offset me much in terms of creative flow, would it?
But if I stopped writing… what characters would I draw? Sure, I have enough fandoms to choose from to last me a lifetime and a half, but the reason I wanted the switch was to draw my own characters. And I don’t think I would have my own characters if I gave up the ability to write creatively and spend that part of my imagination on constructing them in the first place. The best part, for me, as a writer, is not only making up the character but also their history. Their back story and relationships, their reactions and mannerisms… when I build characters I become them, I can tell you anything about them from their favourite color to their most horrific experiences as a child growing up. And this is with every character I have ever written in my creative life (and I have been writing since I was 9, telling stories from the time I learned to speak).
So perhaps I’ll save that swap for another day, and stick with my ability to construct worlds in my mind that no one can see or begin to imagine. I need my own place to escape to, after all.
What would you swap? I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s thought about this for more than a few minutes. Tell me, I’d love to know and discuss. Go anon if you have to, doesn’t bother me.
—~+~—
In Other News…
therandomact.org has a new wonderful campaign running called Hope to Haiti which you should really take a look at. For more info, visit us on the site, or check out this blog post for details and how you can help!
I have absolutely no reviews in The Midnight Screening this week!! I’ve been slack busy this week but will certainly pick up the pace for the next entry. I have a few films that have been seen and are pending review.
“1000+1 Books” has a few more books. I add to it when I feel like it, since this isn’t a review page, but it’s always a good place to go if you can’t think of your next book to read. For much better (and very informative) reviews, check out Collecting a Library, she never lets me down.
Incidentally, don’t forget to check out the new entries from Jack, who really needs some bloggy-support for a new entry, Collecting a Library and Lochinvar.
On a final note… Knight In Shining Armani is still my highest-rated and most-viewed post on this blog of all time. It usually out-rates the latest entries by views weekly… should I do another update of it, for the 2011 annum? Let me know!!~
Title this week is from Arctic Monkeys’ song Crying Lightning, which is an insane and rather addictive song. Listen and seek out at your own risk. Strangely, I’ve found myself listening to a ridiculous amount of Daughtry, Keane and Christina Perri this week… I’ve found myself a new anthem that’s keeping me afloat in difficult times.
Stay classy guys, till next Castiel day!!~
Bandit, OUT.
How Do We Tell Apart The Time To Leave From The Time To Wait
Thank you to all of you for being, unknowingly, the participants of a socio-psychological experiment I hosted today.
As you can undoubtedly see, I’m posting my blog rather late today. Why, you might ask? Well there could be a number of explanations: I was busy, I forgot, I had no idea what to write about since this is “thinky thoughts week” and I felt the pressure… and all of those would be correct. But at the same time, I decided to put some of my knowledge of sociology and psychology to the test to describe a phenomenon that I hypothesized.
Now, before we continue, please note the following:
-+- this was a general study done for practice before psych and socio essays start to be due
-+- I do not in any way judge any of the participants (this will make sense as you read on)
-+- this is not an attempt to get more views/less views, merely an observation
As previously mentioned, there are a number of reasons as to why I posted this blog entry so late. Yes, I have been very busy lately, I’ve been working with therandomact.org crew quite actively on a new project (that I will mention later in this post) I have been catching up on my readings for uni (which have been substantial) and I have been working many long and late hours on a birthday video for a friend of mine. I also did forget to post, and remembered early this morning. This is actually the reason this experiment came about. And yes, in a way I was worried about what to write for this thinky blog.
But then I had an idea…
If I were to skip a day and not post until very late (if then), would anyone notice? If they did notice, would they care? And if they did care, then why? So I put off writing my entry to see what the day had in store for me. I wanted to see if anyone would email, txt or outright ask me why I hadn’t posted, because I remember once when I had legitimately forgotten to post last year, I got messages from a few people early in the morning asking if I was ok.
Today I got nothing. And it got me wondering, why not? Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to win pity points or shame you all for not asking if I was ok, I just wanted to know why at one point in my blog-life I got concern voiced over an unpublished entry and why this time I didn’t. Was it because no one actually reads this and just say they do to make me feel better? Is it because you’ve come to expect tardy entries? Is it because you thought someone else would ask and you were spared the responsibility? Like I said, got me thinking. Here’s why:
We were studying diffusion of responsibility – using the murder of Kitty Genovese in 1964 as a prime example – in psych today and I got cold shivers up my spine. For those not familiar with the definition, diffusion of responsibility implies that the more people there are present in a situation (such as a murder or a rape) the less likely they are to help or call for help. Scary, no? And it got me thinking, what if the situation wasn’t as extreme. What if, for instance, I didn’t post my blog today and went off the grid for a few days, no contact with anyone. Would anyone care or “call for help” as it were by asking around for me or about me?
And this is how the idea came about. I wanted to see if people as a collective, readers, people who comment, friends I know personally and friends I know online, would worry if I were to go away, vanish without a trace. Then I thought, what if I told people – via mass communication mediums such as Facebook or Twitter or Tumblr – that I wasn’t ok, that I was scared of something, or tired, or ill… would anyone ask then?
From past experiences where I have gone AWOL for weeks at a time with only one message on the mass communication web, I’ve found that only select people care. Again, this isn’t a pity party, more an observation. Is it because others don’t particularly care about how I am? Is it because they feel that others are “closer” to me as friends and thus it’s their responsibility to make sure I’m ok and report back? If it’s the latter, who decided this hierarchy and how widely known was it to the rest of the “collective”?
In the case of not asking about the blog post, is it because you’re used to an entry once a week and now take it for granted? Were you perhaps too busy yourselves to ask me about it? If this wasn’t my blog and was a more popular one like, say, Hyperboleandahalf, would you care more then? Or would that turn into diffusion of responsibility and no one would care at all?
I’ve come to the conclusion, after all that, that I like having a small fanbase (I’ll allow myself this moment of self-love), and that humanity as a whole scares me to no end. Which is why I am a moose.
—~+~—
therandomact.org has a new wonderful campaign running called Hope to Haiti which you should really take a look at. For more info, visit us on the site, or check out this blog post for details and how you can help!
I have only one new review in The Midnight Screening this week I’m afraid. Like I said before, now that uni’s picked up and therandomact.org is being as amazing as they are, I have very little time for the films that are like air to me. Check out my review of Leon: The Professional and await more new shiny films next week!
I also added a new page to my blog after much convincing from Lochinvar. The page is titled “1000+1 Books” and is a list of books that I adore with a sentence or two about why I like them. I did this because I tend to recommend books to people all the time and they forget which I recommended. So, here we are. It’s only got a few on there at the moment but the list will grow as I add to it. Mine are just a sentence each, but if you want to read amazing and brilliantly written book reviews, then you can’t miss Collecting a Library‘s blog.
Incidentally, don’t forget to check out the new entries from Jack, Collecting a Library and Lochinvar.
For those curious, the title is from Poets of the Fall, in honor of their new album today, Alchemy Vol. 1. A perfect thing to listen to if you’ve never heard Poets before, it’s their “best of” disk with two new songs. Seriously awesome stuff. Anyway…
Stay classy guys, till next Castiel day!!~
Bandit, OUT.
Converting Vegetarians
I’ve spent most of the week listening to Infected Mushroom so my brain’s communicating with me in garbled techno-voices. It’s scary because they’re not scary anymore… I should go back to Massive Attack for a while, at least they discussed inappropriate sexual behaviors in velvety seductive tones… *cough* moving on.
Welcome to the first official “bum entry” for 2011! The reason for this is that this past week has been completely ridiculous.
You might recall that on this day last week my entry was almost posted on Friday because myself and Master Four had spent the day driving halfway down the North Island to pick up my new puppy. Well, the week has been spent (among other things, later mentioned) training the puppy and getting her used to her new home. Not as easy as it may seem. After the first two very quiet days where she didn’t do much more than follow me around asking for hugs in silence or whining in a strange chirp-like way, she began to get used to the house and her new “pack” as it were. Q and I are her alphas and she knows that we won’t take any shit from her (sadly, literal she still gets away with…) even though that gets hard too. How, you might ask? Well has anyone here ever had to crate-train a 10-week-old puppy? No? Well there ya go then.
Crate training involves locking a puppy in its crate and ignoring their howls, cries and barks for however long it takes for them to settle and fall asleep. Why is this done? To teach them that whining and crying is not the way to get attention and that their crate is their safe-place for when they need to go lie down or burrow or get comfort when people aren’t home. So for two nights this week I have stayed up till 4am (only to wake up at 7am to take the puppy out for her morning pee) with a pillow over my head feeling like those bastards the SPCA locks up for animal abuse. Believe me when I say that it is very, very difficult to crate train a puppy. BUT it is also insanely rewarding to have the puppy learn, after two days, that her crate is her place, and choose to go there voluntarily during the day for a nap. I feel like a proud mum!
Course, now that Aya (that’s her name for those who asked) knows her crate and answers to her name, she has a long way to go with house training. Although I have to say that she is getting better, she responds well to pats and hugs so when she does her business like she’s meant to outside she gets praised ridiculously for it. I feel rather foolish standing in the really cold morning garden being eaten alive by mosquitoes, patting a rat-sized dog on the back cooing “good girl, good girl Aya, that’s right, toilet, good girl Aya, good girl!” in Russian, but that’s how you train em. As I said, she is getting better. Though I have already heard Q call “Val, drop it!!” across the house and have come running to find out what it is I’m meant to be dropping. We’ve both decided that the day we praise each other for going to the bathroom properly will be the day the men in white coats can officially take us in.
Besides puppy business (which has been equally painful and rewarding) I started uni orientation this week!! Nothing new on that front just yet, seeing tons of people who I know through friends of friends (they’re all 2-3 years younger than I am) and feeling very old in my nearly-21-year-old-ness, but no classes or lectures yet. I did meet some very entertaining third years today though who spent the better part of half an hour teaching me how to flick a rubber band properly so it flies far and hits hard. Very educational and most certainly entertaining. They had a dog bowl of chocolate kisses on their help desk too which made me feel as though the men in white coats might get to me before they get to Q but what can ya do…
Speaking of Q, we both attended a very interesting lecture discussing the difficulties that foreign language interpreters face when working with patients of speech therapists. Since speech therapy is one option of a future career that I’m looking at, it was a very educational night. Fun, too, considering we got locked in the building and meandered around for a while till we found 3 more people who were stranded and had to get security to let us out (though a very tired yet helpful cleaner showed up just before security did to unlock the door for us).
Besides my dull existence the world has been going mad. But since this isn’t a political blog and most likely never will be, I’ll just mention it in passing. My heart does go out to Libya though, it’s horrendous what’s happening there right now… and closer to home Christchurch has been shaken by another earthquake, this one worse than the last, with reported and confirmed fatalities and damage to most of the city center. It seems that while politics destroys one hemisphere, nature chooses to bring the other to its knees.
Sadly that’s all for the week, folks! I have absolutely nothing new in The Midnight Screening this week either; yes, I know, I’m slacking off again, but I have an excuse!! I’ve finally found another show that I can rank with Supernatural and White Collar in quality and obsession level and I just finished the final ep of the final (thus far) season about 3 hours ago and I’m still in mourning. Also I have to get up in… 5.5 hours to get Aya outside so I’m thinking I’ll get back to my regularly schedules slobbing next Wednesday. I might review all my Top Ten lists if I can’t think of anything to watch, those need to be filled up pronto anyway.
Don’t forget to check out the new entries from Jack, Collecting a Library and Lochinvar!!
Stay classy guys, till next Castiel day!!~
Bandit, OUT.
Pretty Cute For Two Ugly People
Had that song in my head all evening, sorry. It’s Holmes’ fault for suggesting it as the perfect song for Angela and Hodgins from the show Bones. And after episode 20 of the latest season I am inclined to believe her. Check it out here if you don’t know it.
So, welcome to the third week in a row when I am totally uninspired to write anything at all. It sucks, actually, since I feel really sorry for you guys who have to read 1000 words of utter crap.
But I was thinking (a dangerous pastime, I know) about change and how I would like my life to go from today onwards and I find myself at a crossroad of indecision. I’ve simulated a debate on this blog before and that ended badly so I don’t think I’ll attempt that again, but according to Henri Amiel “we only understand that which is already within us”, so maybe by writing down the things that I am at a crossroads about I will absorb them into myself, as it were, and understand them more clearly? Worth a try right?
The major conflicts within me are pretty simple:
I would like to go to university to study English Linguistics and Acquisition and psychology. I wanted to study psychology for about 5 years now; even before I applied to film school and attended that for a year and received my diploma. For those who don’t know me particularly well and who are obviously blind to the fact that I write a BLOG weekly, I like to write. That’s how I communicate and how I get my ideas across when I can’t say them. I’ve been writing since I was 9 years old and I have been telling stories since the day I learned to talk (and even before then, I think…) so English as a subject is the perfect fit for me at university. Psychology has interested me since I went through a hard time in my life at age 15 and got some help. My final school philosophy essay was titled: “…we will always learn more about human life and human personality from novels than from scientific psychology.” – Noam Chomsky. To what extent would you agree?
And for those who care, I got an A.
A few of you may be thinking “dude, really, what’s the big deal? You know what you wanna study at uni, you have a diploma under your belt already, go to it!” and I would, and you have no idea how much I would like to… but here’s the other side of the coin, as it were.
I went to film school because from the age of 15 I have been fascinated by films and film making. Sure, I started off wanting to be a famous actress like Kate Winslet, then a famous director like Andrei Tarkovsky (for those of you NOT Q, please look him up, he is a genius), but then I decided that I wanted to work behind the camera, which is why when I got accepted into film school and decided to accept my place there, I chose to study post production editing.
It’s important to note that theatre is my one true love. More than film.
When I graduated film school I had a job in the industry. It was a low-paying job and pretty much entry-level on all accounts, but it was a job. And I was one of the first in my graduating class to get a job in the industry. I still hold that job, 8 months later. Now, please understand that I knew what industry I was getting myself into; I was well aware that I wouldn’t be a sensation overnight, or over a few months. I also know that I am by far not the most talented editor (besides a few of my closest friends from film school including but not limited to masters one and three, most of the people I watch on youtube have never attended film school and they are so much more talented than I), but nonetheless I went into the industry prepared to work weird hours and long days and boring shifts in order to move up the ladder.
The problem is, that the position I hold at the moment doesn’t allow for any growth career-wise for me. And with an industry like this one it is incredibly difficult to find a job at all; especially for a graduate student of the average-to-low category.
So here I stand now, at this impasse. On one hand I could go to university to study something that interests me and that I may enjoy a lot more than the industry in which I am now working; accumulate so much debt that by the time I graduate I will the equivalent of a house in government loans, and spend 4 years at least in another institution. Or, on the other hand, I could grind my nose in the industry that I graduated into, fully aware of how long (if ever) it would take me to get anywhere.
I feel as though I am failing myself if I quit the industry which I spent so long convincing my family would be best for me. But at the same time I tried something, hands on, and it wasn’t what I thought it would be. I guess by the definition provided in Little Miss Sunshine I’m not a loser.
Well, that’s a good thing I guess.
*sigh* I can’t handle change well. At all. One of the reasons that I loved film school so much is because it was a hands-on course. We had ONE written exam, the rest was us working in groups and sitting practical exams in our chosen field. I can’t sit exams. I just can’t do it. No, I’m not being a whiny bitch, I just actually can’t sit them. Let me explain:
At school we were graded on a system of 1-7; 7 being the highest grade. In English, which was not only my favourite subject but also my best, I averaged a high-6 throughout the year with internal assessments. I was one of the few people who got a 7 on my end-of-year exam unseen text essay. And yet, when all my English examinations added up, my final grade in my favourite subject was a five. At film school, when it came to lectures and practicals, I understood the material, I answered questions, I was someone people would go to for advice. I studied for my final exam for three weeks straight. Wrote enough notes to fill two ring binders. And I failed.
I can’t sit exams.
Is that an irrational reason to be scared of university?
Mood: 
Annoyed.
Music: Massive Attack
Movie: Bones season 5 (and an ongoing Supernatural marathon with Holmes)
Book: Nothing at the moment; I couldn’t finish the Picoult book. I need something else… ideas?
