15 posts from January 2008

Today was cool! Okay there was the usual... 5 hours of class. But! Well, back up.

When I went to see Atonement (for the second time), we were stopped on the way into the theatre by this woman with a clipboard. I never consider clipboard people to be good news, but she was - she gave us tickets to a free advance screening of this movie "Blindness".

It was at 7:00 tonight, and I was informed by a girl in my house who's pretty into movies that we ought to go quite early, since they have limited space. Everyone who was with me when we got the tickets ended up having class, so I ended up going with said girl. Anyway, we left at about 5:45 and walked to the theatre. There was quite a crowd, so we were worried, but we got in line. A loooong line. But we slowly advanced, and got in. We got searched for recording equipment! Ooh.

Anyway, this movie isn't coming out until the fall, so it's unfinished. It was funny actually... in a sort of minor bit describing a bus going off the road, they just used low-resolution stock footage off the internet, to later be replaced by their own stuff I guess. And one part had a subtitle with the line they were changing it to.

But yeah the movie needs some work. I basically liked it overall, but some of the pacing was dodgy, the mood wasn't quie right, and goddamn a couple of the scenes were disturbing. Suffice it to say a lot of people walked out, and I was crying.

So we filled out this questionnaire, and it was a good way to sum up my thoughts on the movie. AND my companion and I were asked to stay for this focus group discussion afterwards. Only 25 people out of the whole group - and we'd filled the largest theatre I'd ever been in. I think we were picked because we looked like the youngest people there.

The discussion was good, and people agreed with a lot of my comments. It was fun - I wish we could do that with all movies haha!

And they gave us DVDs as thanks. I got "The Queen". I wanted to see that, I guess, so.

Yeah so even though the movie wasn't the best, it was a really fun experience! A well-spent 5 hours of my life.

There is a Periodic Table up in our Common Room, for no particular reason. We were looking at it the other day, and no one, including chemistry kids like myself, could figure out what W was. Well, I shall inform you that it represents the element wolfram - better known as tungsten.

Hmm, Wolfram would be a cool name. I doubt I shall have biological children of any sort, though.

I finally saw I ♥ Huckabees. I quite enjoyed it though... I could see why some people wouldn't. I had been told several times that I resembled Jason Schwartzman's character, and although I had resisted that characterization, I suppose there were some aspects. Mostly though, I think many of the comparisons were drawn from the similar haircut I had at the time of release.

Unsurprisingly, it seemed this morning that the nu-winter was over - most of our snow cover had melted. Howevvvvver, by this evening, when I went back to the burbs for dinner with the family, it was snowing yet again. Really nice and flaky. But also really gross and wet.

This song is good!

Super Furry Animals - Into the Night

Super Furry Animals

Now ordinarily I wouldn't be so positive about a song that uses the word "Professorsaurus", but they are one of the best Welsh exports (in any area), so I'll let it slide... this time!

Toronto once again demonstrates his skill as a climatic quick-change artist, disappearing behind a screen of darkness for but a night and emerging changed from his near spring form into one of new winter again!

I must admit that though the ever-fluctuating season can be frustrating, it is ensuring that the snow is always new and white, and only rarely that horrid black crust and slush so characteristic of a winter city.

I am out of the funk I was in earlier this week. "There are other fish in the sea", I suppose. Whaaaatever.

I told 3 other friends last night. Less enjoyable - they reported being not as surprised as the first person I told. Sheesh, they could've at least pretended, haha.

I saw Atonement again. I'm glad. I rarely see movies or read books twice because I know I won't be able to recapture the feeling of the first time, but I noticed new details, and it was just as emotional as the first time. Well nearly - I did, after all, know the ending.

Dad is back from China! It sounds like it was an excellent trip, and I'm going home this weekend for the full run-through. And laundry.

Posts like the one I made last night do tend to make one feel pathetic upon reading them later. But that's what happens when I make an entry late at night. Things always look better in the morning! And they did today. Mostly. Eughhhh... But I won't delete it - shit happens.

Anyway, I tried to post the song "Bro's" by Panda Bear, but it is too large. I guess... it is more than 12 minutes long, so. But it really rings true with me - makes me think of a now-defunct friendship I once had. I always wanted a brother... I wonder why? Someone to look out for me? A male influence? A friend?

I just saw Sè, Jiè (Lust, Caution). It was an amazing movie, but I have to admit there was not a lot of emotionally-satisfying material there. Not a great pick-me-up. But I actually do feel a bit better, because, well, I'm not in that situation.

Kōan:
What is the fate worse than finding out a boy you fancy is straight?

Response:
Finding out that he is gay, but also quite taken.

Objectively not actually worse, but frustrating nonetheless.

I need to get over myself.

Grandmother always told me of the dangers of microwaves. But... today I figured out that they're non-ionizing. I mean it makes sense if you look at the EM spectrum. It's between infrared (heat lamps), and radio waves. So you can interpolate the effects from that. So, far from the radiation poisoning I was led to believe would happen, the worst you're going to get from a microwave is what your food gets... a little heated. And you'd probably notice before you got burned.

Silly.

I dreaded the day I would make some sort of emotional early morning post so characteristic of my old Livejournal, but this could potentially be it. Note first that this is the soundtrack to my feelings:

Black Moth Super Rainbow - Forever Heavy

Black Moth Super Rainbow

One of my New Year's Resolutions was "shave every day". Well I am sorry, 12/31/07-me, but it is just not happening.

Apathy wins in the end.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
(Which is also why I skipped philosophy this morning)

Wow earlier in the week I was thinking about how I was enjoying how slowly the days were passing (boo only 7/8 of my undergrad left...). And then the last 3 days went by like nothing!! I did get sick though, so I think that may explain it. I did nottthhhinnnng yesterday. I got half a reading done. Tsk tsk.

But I got a whole lot done today and it didn't feel like too much work. Sure it was 6+ hours of work, but I've discovered that bringing my knitting to the library and doing some between sections helps to keep me from getting bored. And fun yarn makes the library (a grey example of Brutalist architecture) a much more pleasant place.

People are commenting on how much happier I seem! That's good! I do feel so very happy lately. Life is good, if you notice it. Just the experiences of life are enough. The feel of a wall, the smell of plants (and I don't just mean flowers - not many of those this time of the year), the sound of music on the street, the low winter sun on a seemingly autumn day - i feel like I've been missing out. How could I?? Stop and smell the roses - really! Or in my case, Salvinia molesta, which we are working with in Bio lab. We're doing a 9 week eutrophication study, and it's really quite cool. I'm definitely going to take Limnology in 3rd year.

Another pleasure of life: friends. Some housemates went out for dinner tonight - the food was good but the company was the best.

Someone told me that I'm "a good friend, you know". That means a lot to me, because I've been really trying to be lately. To everyone. Even to people that aren't to me. Being mean is no way to be happy. And I'm glad I realize that.

So life is good!

I realized I missed jPod. And I will always miss it because House is on then, and CBC makes me a minority in the TV democracy of my residence.

Today was windy! Don't you feel like the wind just makes the world come completely alive? First, of course, there's the chill, and I mean right from waking up, since I left my window open over night (our building is quite tropical in climate). The wind was blowing straight in, whistling excitedly the whole time. I don't know how my Kalanchoë felt about the chill, but my Flytrap needs it to make it go dormant for the winter. Tsk I left it a little late...

But anyway, the wind just makes you notice all those things you take for granted as being steady and silent as you pass them on whatever routes you take in your everyday life. On my way to Philosophy this morning, puddles that yesterday would have been placidly evaporating now were home to small tempests. Banners slapped protest against stone walls. Ivy tore off buildings, probably taking a bit of corroded stonework with them. Even in class, the window open 10 cm allowed quite the gust in through most of the class (thanks to the unusual warmth lately, it wasn't too chilly). The wind was the way nature reminded us that despite us being inside, she was certainly still there!

And the wind brings the dry! All those quads, courtyards, and green spaces which had been abandoned after being transformed into any manner of unpleasant limnic environments by the unseasonal thaw were now restored to their dryland state and reoccupied by the campus denizens. Campus is alive again!

Yay