Apologies

Yesterdays blog went unwritten because I had quite a bit to do and not enough time to do it. Excuses aside though, the blog will be updates regularly again at least in the foreseeable future.

At this very moment [Well, outside of writing this update] I am working on redoing parts of my screenplay. Some scenes need to be slightly changed while others need complete rewrites. It's fun, but also aggravating as I'm supposed to be filming this afternoon and it's not even completed! I'll do an extra update tonight to fill in how well it goes.

Last night was a mix of emotions; initially there was relief, because I had finished the second of three exams and it didn't go too badly. Then it was panic as I realised I'd forgotten to pick up the camera that I desperately needed and the place to pick it up from closed at 6pm, which hadn't long passed but was still too late. That led to me scrabbling to sort out alternate arrangements and work out a solution, which as it stands haven't actually been sorted. Happiness soon followed as I decided a last minute cramming session wasn't going to help me that much and so I attended a party for my mate's birthday. It was worth it, I had such a good time and I didn't feel worried at all. Finally, there was tiredness as I looked at a few formulas before dropping off to sleep.

I am hoping to find some extra reserve of energy and enthusiasm for the rest of the day. At the moment I am spent, and it's not long gone 12 and I have to keep this up for a good 10 hours at least. How do people do it?

I hope that in the future, this blog won't simply contain my boring daily schedule but insightful thoughts or interesting anecdotes instead, but I have to at least build up to a point first where I am updating regularly. Only when I get into the habit of doing that will I be able to venture into writing about better things, and unfortunately that means there will be a bit of this ultimately uninteresting stuff to suffer with until then. Unless, that is, you get some kind of kick from hearing about what time I got up or how many lectures I had today. If that is you, I would advise getting some medical help.

Collection

Instead of a run through of today's events, I'm going to share some completely unrelated thoughts and pointless anecdotes in an order that isn't relevant to anything.

• I was in the zone earlier on, I had the best line drawing abilities sans ruler around, I mean look:
  
  You just don't see that sort of thing in real life. So I went away for a couple of hours and came back and look what happened :(
  
  


• As I was stocking hoodies in work today, this woman comes in, picks up the Daily Mail and goes to my boss who was serving on the till. Queueing up behind her was the Students Guild president, John Cox. Cool guy. So, she pays for it, and he makes a comment about the paper and she says 'The only reason I buy this paper is for the crossword.' And that makes me happy. [Because I hate the Daily Mail, in case you didn't get that]


• More and more websites have started cottoning on to the fact that 'English' isn't what the Americans call English. That's why it's nice to consistently be presented with more and more options to choose 'English UK' over the horrible 'English US' It just took them very long to learn.


• I have lived in the same house for a few months now, and have never, even in my reckless dashing up them, tripped on the stairs. And then today arrives, and I go and do it twice; once banging my shin and stubbing my toe, and once while holding a bowl of hot soup. My housemate later enquired as to why there was 'custard' on the walls and I laughed.


• Had my very first impulse purchase of 2009 today when I saw season boxsets of 24 and Futurama for under £15, so I bought one of each and am extremely pleased, if a little guilty.

That's all for tonight folks.

Well

Would you believe it? I've been updating this blog for a solid five days in a row and I didn't even acknowledge it until today. Am I going to become a blogger from now on? Who knows, not me.

I had a real breakthrough today regarding my screenplay [For those of you not in the know, I have written and cast a screenplay to be shown on my University's TV station by the end of February] I had a really good creative writing sessions where my fellow Producer and Director Katy and I just went through the story and in particular the crucial first few scenes, and threw ideas at each other and really developed the plot and the characters. It really feels like it's alive for the first time in a long while. I cannot wait until Saturday arrives and we're able to film this, it should be amazing.

I love going back over something you think you vaguely know, and finding out that your memory has stored more of it than you thought. This is what happened when I looked over Differential Equations work today. Okay, so it's not exactly the works of William Shakespeare, but it is a lot more relevant to me than he is right now.

Watching TV earlier, and 90210 comes on. All of a sudden, horrible memories from months ago come flooding into my brain as I recall watching the pilot for this teen drama abortion. I'm trying to hold back, but here's what I think is wrong with it:

• Blatantly underestimating its audience (One of my biggest bugbears about TV is a situation where relevant plot details are shoe horned into dialogue because they cant bear the thought of establishing details through other methods which don't intrude on the story e.g "This is Beverley Hills!" "This sucks." "Oh Josh, you've been saying that the last 1500 miles from where we came from, Kansas, which is that place we moved from to come here to help my ill mother." "WHY ARE YOU TELLING ME THAT? I WAS THERE! YOU EXPLAINED THIS TO ME SEVERAL DAYS AGO, YOU KNOW, BEFORE WE PACKED UP OUR STUFF AND LEFT?")


• Horrible clichéd characters (There's the sassy grandma, the quick talking and know everything journalist, the sleazy jock, the cool and witty teacher, the bitch, etc ad nauseum)


• In the opening five minutes, a main character gets into his car at the front of the school, which is populated with students everywhere, and is receiving a blowjob. That's a blowjob, in front of school, with people everywhere, and not even tinted windows, in the front seat. Not only has this never happened in the history of the world, but it also smacks too hard of 'anything goes on here, we're crazy!' which is too unrealistic to forgive.


• MTV generation hyperactive editing disorder, which can be succinctly summarised by the following rule; if it's been more than two seconds since we changed to a different camera angle, then it is too long. It's possible to get dizzy even while you're sitting down inactive.

I couldn't watch it for very long, and even despite it's awfulness, it has achieved success in the US and even has a spinoff in the works. It's doing its part in putting me right off working in the TV industry, that's for sure.

One Down

Another short update for you i.e me. I attended the first examination of my year today, and overall it went all right. A couple of questions I looked at and just couldn't do, while others I looked at and smiled. Then the few in between which could go either way though I know I've passed it, for sure.

I've been Mr Organised today, trying to set things up for this weekend and the epic film session that it is going to be. Getting cast and costume organised, locations scouted, cameras booked and places to meet finalised. I am looking forward to it in the same way I would look forward to a tidal wave if I was freezing my ass off in a rubber dinghy in the middle of the ocean.

And that's all for now. Not even a funny video for you to watch. But if you're after something new to listen to, off the top of my head I recommend you seek out 'Warm Sound' by Zero 7. It is one of the most relaxing and amazing songs I've listened to.

Finally

I figured it out, I think. I'm talking about my inability to ask for help. I'm quite sure there's a psychological link to something in my childhood about never needing to ask for help, or wanting to do things on my own, but I'm not about to go there. I need to conquer this somehow and just ask when I just don't get something.

A short post today because I'm cramming before work tomorrow morning and the first exam in the afternoon. While I don't get everything though, I am not nearly as bad as some people who only went to 2 lectures this term! I do hope they get somewhere with their all night revision though.

What else did I do today that is of any recognition? Well, it might not seem much, but I completely avoided any sugary foods proving that if I put my mind to it, I can do anything. Actually, that sounds particularly pathetic, but the sentiment is true.

Oh, an addendum to this post that I completely forgot to mention; today I discovered the genius of Karl Jenkins, a Welsh composer and conductor who makes absolutely amazing music. It came about from a message I received through my 'Swansea Media Group' facebook group [Which led to me creating the video I'll embed below] asking for my help in creating a video to play in the background of a choral performance of 'One Armed Man' by a local choir. To cut it short, the man is a legendary composer, and I urge you to listen to a performance or two. Also good is the aforementioned message, meaning I might be able to snag myself some work this May, I just hope I don't forget about it.

Before the video though, just wanted it noted that I actually progressed with my drama today, and filming will begin this weekend. Except I'm lacking two of the actors I need, and need to cast them asap if I want to proceed with filming. This will be all that I think about during this hectic week ahead. Okay, my music video, enjoy:

Revision

Another day of revision and all I could do was try and procrastinate. I did a bit of both in the end. Here's what kept me distracted:

Fez Trailer
The game not only looks gorgeous through it simplicity, but it also looks fun as hell. There's a better video out there basically playing through a few minutes of the game but this one is better quality. If you can't be bothered to watch it, the summary is that it's a game that looks like a 2d platformer, until you realise you can flip dimensions and depending on which you change it to you can use different platforms. A bit clever and a bit unique. Looking forward to it.

I've been watching several episodes of Two And A Half Men and going back to the first season, the show doesn't seem nearly as tired as it does in recent episodes. The plot advances and while it's still pushing the boundaries of what it can do, it's not all it's doing. I think this is one of those shows that, like Everybody Loves Raymond, people will either love or hate and I don't know what it makes me but I love them both. I also like Black Books, Veronica Mars and The Shield though so I do have some taste.

I'm writing again, which is a big relief but I'm doing it at the wrong time. Exams start Tuesday, and I'm losing roughly two hours due to actual paid work that morning so every hour counts. I find it hard to care though, but will just have to try my best at concentrating for all of tomorrow. What struck me as weird today was that, as I was revising, I was actually appreciating doing it, as in really feeling somewhat upbeat that I was learning something, even though I dislike the subject. Will that be enough to tempt me into a solid day of revision tomorrow? We'll see.

Five Blogs

I counted them on my way to writing this post, and I have that many, which astounds me. It shouldn't, because I created them all, but it does. This either proves my inability to maintain a single blog for long, or it shows my wildly changing focus. However, being my original blog, this is going to be a typical blog entry, so do bear with me if I bore you in parts.

Let's start with my self. I've started running, again, and I'm not covering great distances or beating my times but I am trying. Considering it's coming up to exams week and I've still been achieving about 2-3 runs a week I say that's quite good. I've tried eating healthier and not simply snacking as and when I feel like, and I've been successful in cooking well and eating regularly but the only thing that lets me down is my one true weakness; biscuits! I love them so much and a lot of the time I end the day with a cup of tea and a tub of the little buggers, chomping away. I one day will vow to slow down this terrible habit, but not yet. Maybe when I feel like I just can't get away with it anymore.

University is going ok, though I've lost a lot of the motivation and love for my subject. I just find mathematics boring. I always share the look of confusion when people ask me what I study because I know what they are feeling; I am feeling the same thing "Why am I doing this?" I don't really know what to do about it except grin and bear it and see it through. I do worry that I will end up doing abysmally out of it, and seeing as it's nothing to do with my career aspirations I think will it be worth it? But in this world you need a degree to even be on the same level as everyone else, not to stand above them like it used to be. Outside of scholarly matters, I am finding myself ever more excited for the extra curricular side of it. Particularly XTV and my current projects include a drama and a student ripoff of Come Dine With Me, both of which should be extremely fun. That's when I finally get around to doing them, they follow the exams which have been taking over my mind recently. After they;re done I will feel so relieved.

I've constantly battled with my own conscious about what I should be doing in my spare time. I'm content to watch TV, browse the internet and just do mindless and pointless tasks but the better part of me wants to try new things like learning new recipes, new skills, new crafts and I always find myself itching to write and draw but freezing anytime I am about to do them. Do other people deal with these sort of inner tussles? I wish I was stronger, and could get over things like my lack of 'stick-to-itiveness' and just see something through even if it sucks. I've done that with other things before and recently so why do I find myself incapable of doing it in other stuff?

I hope by writing these feelings down I can learn from myself some day in the future when I decide to read back upon my life. I hope this is the start of a new era in my personal story, one where I realise that I have to take charge of my own life in order for it to be better. I hope the 'Publish Post' button is magical to that effect. Here goes.