Excuses, excuses

I have to re-read Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and write a Reading Journal on it by Tuesday. Its not that the reading journals are such difficult assignments... in theory. But I always go a bit over and above the call of duty and feel like I have to *cough* research them as thoroughly as possible. Which in the case of A Complicated Kindness, for instance, meant finding everything possible on Miriam Toews (which admittedly wasn't that much) and reading it. Did I incorporate everything I'd read into my RJ? Of course not. Instead I mostly rambled in a likely ambiguous and unintelligible way about my fundamentalist Christian upbringing (read ACK and you'll see the connection). But I had to do that research before I could start writing. Same with Oranges (one of my favorite books by the way, and also closely connected in subject matter with ACK) - right now I'm typing this up in Firefox and I have five other tabs open in JSTOR with various scholarly articles to do with Jeannette Winterson open.

Its very weird. In some ways I am such a lazy, procrastinatorious (C) person and in other ways I can be oddly industrious and dedicated. We have to write RJs for each of the novels we're studying in this class; six of the twelve I've already read so you'd think that would make my life easier right? Because technically I've read them already so all I have to do is write the RJs. No, no, no! I can't do that. I have to read them cover to cover all over again in case something completely obscure comes up in class and I don't get the reference.

*sigh*

I also have at least two chapters to catch up on in my ridiculously badly-written philosophy textbook, Remains of the Day to re-read, a scholarly article on Remains to re-read, a class presentation (which I'd thought wasn't until the end of November but it turns out is next week) to create, two History of Art chapters to read, and a topic and bibliography/references list to hand in in three weeks.

This is the first time I've ever tried to take three classes at once and I thought I was handling things pretty well and I still am not that worried but... I just wish I'd remembered my class presentation date a little sooner...

I guess if I were also willing to sacrifice more doing-nothing (i.e. online Scrabble, random website browsing, watching tv with Colin until 3 a.m.) and socializing time I'd be more than caught up. But that's where the whole "lazy and procrastinatorious" part comes in.

Tomorrow I'm going to be out all evening wearing a long black, red velvet lined cloak.

Before you get any funny ideas (which are perfectly alright with me, don't get me wrong), let me clarify that by saying I'll be at the Zoo.

What? That clarification didn't help?

Okay, okay - at the Zoo volunteering for UNICEF. Normally at this time of year I'd be at the Zoo every night for four to five hours, fundraising and supervising fellow high school volunteer fundraisers, but due to some changes in the Zoo's priorities we're no longer welcome there every night - we've been allocated just this one, in fact.

Which, as part of this totally unfocused post, leads me to Elliot's comment:

One of the activities I listed, helping with UNICEF's Halloween fundraiser at the Zoo, is organized by Anactoria, who puts tons more work into it than I do. So she was a little sad to hear that she missed out on this scholarship. She's got a point. But all I can say is NEXT TIME APPLY FOR IT, WOMAN!

Part of being procrastinatorious and forgetful (I forgot to mention the forgetfulness earlier) means forgetting to apply for such things as scholarships. I'll be lucky if I remember (please remind me everyone) to apply for the Faculty of Education in time for the February 2008 deadline!

Plus, Elliot has a much better GPA than me (and may quite possibly just be naturally brilliant) so he's pretty much a shoe-in for the scholarships. I could make the excuse that my GPA suffers because I'm so busy being self-sacrificing and giving back to my community and the world, but you can probably guess the truth - its just because I'm lazy.

Goodnight.

Me + Blog = ?

Sometimes I wonder whether my blog reflects my true potential. I like to think I can "write" (write what?) but when it comes down to it, it takes an awful lot to get me started (well, if a school deadline can be considered 'an awful lot'). Often times I'll come up with blogging ideas that never come to fruition - they just stay in my head, partially formed, half-ideas really. Sometimes (read - lately) I'll avoid my blog altogether for days on end because I feel guilty for *not* writing in it. I like to tell myself that its because I'm too busy living Real Life to write in my "stupid blog" but the real reason might just be plain old laziness (it certainly wouldn't be the first instance).

And sometimes I realize the limits of this particular blog - sometimes I want to write things that are really personal, but I don't want to do it in a forum where people who know me will read it. Which makes me think I should have multiple blogs... but when I can barely keep this one going, is there any point? I used to "blog" (I would have called it journaling though) at least a few times a week about what was going on in my life. I still have five years worth of those posts. I rarely read them, but I like to know that they're still there, that they exist, that my memories are in a tangible format and I can go back and check the details of things I've started to forget.

But back to the idea of whether one's blog reflects one's true potential. Some of the people I know are prolific bloggers (does this reflect their innate genius, their better work-ethic, or their admirable supply of post ideas?) and others can barely post once a month. If a blog is a way of putting one's opinion out there for the world to see, I'm not really doing a great job of it. At the same time, I like to think that this blog is mostly for me - just a little pretty website for me to record my random thoughts (or rants, as it mostly happens). I'm not in competition with anyone and no one is grading this blog (judging maybe, but that's doubtful, and if so, do I really care?). Whether I write in it or not - will it matter in the grand scheme of things? And if the "scheme" of things is essentially just life - my life - then maybe if I want to write, I should be writing something more thought out, like an essay, or a journal with a specific theme, or a story, or even a book. In the long run, I might end up with more to show for it then just a blog full of scattered thoughts.

(And while I'm at it, have you ever noticed how many bloggers end up blogging about not blogging?)

An update

In case you were wondering (despairing, even) - yes, I have been doing more then obsessing about Disney. I promise. I even went out this past weekend to celebrate Sarah's 24th birthday. That involved a very hilarious scavenger hunt where a 3-girl team sparred off against a 4-boy team in a fast-paced hour and a half race to the finish (the boys won). We also went out that same evening to The Elephant & Castle where we drank green beer in honor of Saint Patrick.

Oh, and I've also been researching for my final Conflict Resolution paper. Its worth 25% so I'm a bit nervous. And when I'm nervous I procrastinate. Then I panic two days before and write the entire thing in one night. At least, that's what I'm counting on happening.

My paper is going to be on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Some nice things about this are that 1) the topic is extremely interesting, 2) I already did a lot of research on it last year when I was torn over writing about the TRC or Rwanda's gacaca program for my Restorative Justice class, and 3) Elliot and Melissa were nice enough to buy me a copy of Desmond Tutu's No Future Without Forgiveness which so far is excellent. So this means I have all of my research gathered. I just need to finish reading/rereading it and then start selecting quotes and streamlining towards a thesis.

Generally, these are the steps I go through for writing any kind of a serious research paper:

First I choose a topic. If I can't think of a specific topic, I think of a general area that I'm interested in and start searching the UofW Cybrary databases until I find an article that looks interesting. Then I'll read that article and hope that it sparks an idea.

Once I've got a general topic, I pull up as many interesting looking articles as possible and print them all off. Sometimes I'll even go the library, but not usually as this has resulted one too many times in excessive late fees. *sigh* As a result I've learned that its smarter for me to buy a book than to borrow one and end up paying for it in the long run. So for a major research project I'll usually buy 1 really great looking book and start reading it about a month beforehand to get a feel for the topic. (For my project on Rwanda I read We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families. With the combination of the book, numerous articles, documentaries, and movies I ended up overdosing on genocide and experienced a hellish month of darkness. That's another story.)

If my topic is for a major research paper, I usually also watch a movie or documentary (or two or three). For my TRC project, so far I've only watched In My Country. Its gotten poor reviews but for my purposes I give it a 5 out of 5. It gave me a feel for what it must have been like to sit through the Commission hearings and it included numerous real life testimonies. (And I didn't realize until I watched it that the Commission moved all over Africa - it journeyed to the people, rather then making the people come to it like a traditional court would have.)

Once I've finished watching and reading, I take all of my material and start typing out all of the quotes I found interesting. For my Rwanda paper, I ended up with over 30 pages of quotes. For my Gandhi paper, I ended up with 15 pages (but that was for a much shorter assignment).

Once I've got all of my quotations typed up (with their page number and author and article title next to them), I start sorting them into made-up-Anactoria-categories based on the points I've realized I want to make as I write my paper. This way, as I go through the paper I can go to my quotes and just pick and choose - I've already got my layout, including a quotes section for my introduction, thesis, and conclusion.

Of course, sometimes I've gone overboard and ended up with waaay to much information.

In fact, that's probably always the case...

But I'd rather have too much than not enough because I like to be able to state things... authoritatively in my paper.

Anyways, once my quotes are sorted I start to write. It really, really helps to have all of those quotes right there for inspiration!

As I write, I use the best quotes in the body of the paper... but sometimes I have so many good quotes that I end up creating footnotes just so I can include the extra quotes that it would hurt me to leave out.

What was the point of this post again?

Oh yeah, do the rest of you do this? I guess I'm trying to figure out if this is the typical student way of writing a paper. If not, what do you do that is kind of special? (Or eccentric even!)

P.S. I got an A+ on the Rwanda paper. I got an A- on the Gandhi paper. So far the system is working. But if you have any better ideas, be sure to let me know! ;)

P.P.S. How desperate is it to write about doing your homework instead of actually doing it??? Argh. (And no, I didn't do any today.... I was too busy eating odd potluck food and watching Gilmore Girls.)

P.P.P.S./Amendment - I have been told this was an extremely boring post. So sue me, Sarah! :P

On the Phenomenon That Is Disney...

As I prepare to launch into the planning of yet another vacation to Walt Disney World, the question that keeps coming to mind is "Why?"

Why WDW?
Why a place I've been to repeated times* before?
Why some place I know, a place I've nearly memorized my way around?
Why a place that some say is 'just for kids'?
Why spend my vacation money sustaining a huge (some even say immoral and brainwashing) corporation?

I've been asked those questions and, admittedly, have definitely asked them of myself more than once before.

So, now to try to address them in writing - mostly for myself, but in part to hopefully give my friends some sort of a semi-logical explanation.

I think I'll start with the short answer of what Disney gives me:

• 1) Fantasy
• 2) Escape from reality
• 3) Unmitigated fun

Now the long answer.

1. Nostalgia

I was raised in a JW household (and I will get into the full implications of what that means some day, I promise). The point is that Disney was an intrinsic part of my childhood - and probably that of a lot of JW kids.* The first movie I ever saw in a real movie theater was the re-released Cinderella. (I loved it.*) My memories of movie watching with my sister in our family basement include countless viewings of "old" Disney classics like Robin Hood, Lady and the Tramp, and Peter Pan.* As we grew up and stopped watching Disney movies at home, this transitioned to Disney movies being one of the basic ingredients of family events. Our large, Ukrainian, all-JW family would get together at one of the aunts' homes for a big family dinner. With six kids and their spouses and children this usually meant a pretty large dinner party. And of course, no family dinner was complete without perogies, cabbage rolls, and don't forget - KFC chicken. After dinner there would almost always be a Disney movie (or The Princess Bride!) on in the background for the little kids to watch. The grown-ups would sit in the dining room talking over their cake and coffee, the teen age cousins would be in the basement playing video games and the two groups would drift back and forth, in and out of the family room where the little ones would be watching The Little Mermaid for the umpteenth time - catching bits and pieces of it, pausing for a funny part, stopping to see the ending yet another time.

*sigh*

Moving along...

When I think back to my childhood between the ages of 5-10 years, I remember two incredibly cool things in particular that my parents did for my sister and I. The first happened one summer when my mom had taken Karina and I out to the cottage at Grand Beach. We were eating supper one evening when my dad pulled up in the car outside, having driven out for the weekend from the city. We ran out to greet him and there, hiding in the back seat, were our cousins Wade and Candace! They'd come down for a visit from Ontario with their family. Since they only came out to Winnipeg once a year their visits were pretty important to us all. And the fact that my dad had surprised us with them, when we hadn't even known they were coming to Winnipeg, was such a huge deal to us at the time - the thrill! the excitement! There was much fun and sand castle building to be had that weekend...

The second cool thing was a trip to Florida which included a visit to Disneyworld. They told us about their plan right in the dead of winter (always the best time), showing us the brochures and a video about the Magic Kingdom. I remember by the time they were through discussing it with us we were so excited we printed off little calenders and taped them to our bedroom wall; each night we would X off a day that had gone by, counting down to the day we'd leave.

That first trip is mostly a blur now (I remember toting my raggedy old teddy bear around everywhere with me so I must have been quite young). We evidently had fun though because when we got back we started planning another vacation to WDW - this time with our grandparents coming along. All in all, we made (as I recall) 5 trips to Disney as a family. Sometimes just the 4 of us, sometimes with our grandparents or an aunt, uncle, and cousins coming along.

Of course, the family trips stopped when my sister and I stopped being JWs.

So in 2005, we made our own solo trip there. Just the two of us and one of our best friends. It was pretty neat to go to a place we'd only been as children, now returning as adults (*cough*) with all of the freedom that entailed. There was some sadness of being in a place with so many memories, but in a way I think we made that trip to start over with some new memories.

Okay, sorry, enough nostalgia!

*phew!* Its after midnight, I have a paper due (mine is on Gandhi), a UNICEF training session tomorrow, and a birthday sleepover party for lux to prepare for!

Next up - Disney's amazing ability at creating escapism (a.k.a the fantasy of the American Dream).

To Be Continued...*

______________________
* Trip #7 commences May 5, 2007
* The basic reason behind this being that Disney movies met the high standards JWs have for entertainment - they were G-rated, 'wholesome,' family movies, usually with little or no violence and certainly no promiscuity or profanity. Of course, they were almost always full of magic - a fact that was usually ignored by most JW families. (And this from a religion that was anti-Smurf!)
* In case you were wondering, my all-time Disney favorite is Beauty and the Beast.
* However, as a true PP fan, I don't view the Disney version as the real deal.
* Yes, I know - I've said that before and then forgotten. I offer up the following in my defense: "I have read but little lately. Experience has overshadowed prose." (Emily Dickinson)

Miscellania

Quite a few people liked Apocalypto after all, which I think justifies my growing desire to see it!

Among them, one critic made the interesting point that Mel Gibson always makes movies about cultures/civilizations on the brink of extinction. Which I think is a pretty neat theme to tackle from a movie vantage point. Some days I wish I was a film student...

Anyhow, it seems that directors who repeatedly make movies with similar themes are called auteurs. (And the fact that 'auteur' was a word I didn't know again leads my mind on another dumb tangent of wondering how large my vocabulary is supposed to be by now and whether I'm ahead or behind... )

Of course, as it goes with the Net, one link leads to another and soon I was reading about Leni Riefenstahl who created documentary propaganda films for the Nazis and is still renowned as a director despite the extremely controversial nature of her work. At one point, she was accused of using concentration camp inmates - who some claim were later killed - on her sets. She was brought to trial in France but professed her innocence and naivety and, ultimately, the accusations against her didn't stand up in court.

I'm not exactly sure how anyone in such close contact with Hitler could convincingly profess their innocence in not knowing that the Nazis were up to something that was purely evil or at the very least, not good. Especially this coming from a woman who sent Hitler the telegram:

"Your deeds exceed the power of human imagination. They are without equal in the history of mankind. How can we ever thank you?"

The Wiki article concludes that "Riefenstahl suffered from a deep denial of her actual culpability, to the point that she even began to believe her own lies regarding her innocence."

I find that extremely disturbing - the points to which we can go in deceiving ourselves, I mean. It seems like self-deception should be a contradiction in terms and therefore impossible.

I think I'd have to argue that in almost every case (except perhaps cases of extreme mental... illness? but maybe not even then), an individual always knows what they are doing and always knows their own motives. Whether they'll acknowledge that they do is another story, but that doesn't change the fact that the worst should always be assumed.

Hmm.


Now for something that made me laugh, check this out.

Basilectically speaking...

Sometimes I wonder whether other people have to wonder as much as I do about speaking, before they speak. Thinking before they speak, I mean. Oh, you know what I mean.

For example, today I was in the car with my sister and we were listening to 'oldies music' - you know, music from the 50's and 60's on AM radio. Anyhow, a song came on and the guy singing used the word "ain't" instead of "isn't" - probably in a sentence like "ain't it a shame" or "this house just ain't no home anymooooore" (which makes me also think about how often song-writers overuse the same old tired phrases). But anyways, hearing the word 'ain't' made me start thinking about how rarely we use it in conversation - you usually only hear it in a song. If you heard someone actually say ain't out loud in a sentence you wonder about their education level or you assume they're doing it to be amusing. But if you hear it in a song, you just think... well, you either think nothing of it because you're not overly analytical or maybe you think "Wow, this guy can get away with bad grammar because he's so cool." Or whatever.

Then I was thinking about how maybe singers prefer the word ain't instead of isn't because isn't is such an ugly sounding word - I mean, say it out loud and it sounds scratchy like sandpaper. And also, ain't is only 1 syllable rather then 3! So it would probably suck to have sing the word isn't over and over again.

The point is - this was just one of those stupid little conversations you have with yourself in your head in the span of about 3 seconds. And usually you keep them to yourself because they're so trivial. But sometimes when I'm tired or feeling extremely giddy (usually due to caffeine overload) I actually have to question whether sharing the thought I had about the word ain't would be wise or not. I mean, would my sister go, "Wow! I'd never thought about that! Thank you for enlightening me!" Or would she just stare at me blankly and wonder about my IQ...

I think this is a case for Calvin & Hobbes.

Too bad they took the decade off. *sigh*

FINAL FANTASY XII

As I play FFXII (12), I'm reminded a lot of Guy Gavriel Kay - especially his style in A Song for Arbonne and The Lions of al-Rassan. The essential components seem to be: an intricate plot revolving around political intrigue, fighting between multiple factions, a lush Mediterranean-esque setting, with high romance and adventure carried out by intensely passionate and beautiful people (all of the FF characters are stunningly perfect physically - just like those in a GGK book *sigh*) who dash from one kingdom to another on their quest to save the realm of [insert name of the main character's homeland].

Reasons I'm in love with FFXII:

1 - The graphics: I'm spoiled. You know those diehard fans of FF who started playing at FFI and think that it was just grand? Well, I'm not one of you. I get no pleasure out of playing a game - a game that involves hours and hours of sitting and staring at a screen - that is not enjoyable to look at. The graphics in FFXII are colorful, rich, and full of detail. The designers traveled to the Middle East and the Mediterranean in their search for inspiration and it certainly tells.

2 - A major leap in dialogue quality. FFXII seems to be trying for a semi-Victorian formality in its language. I don't care if its a historical rip-off - its still extremely refreshing to hear the characters speak using a creative vocabulary.

3 - Ivalice is 'a fully realized world': For the first time, I feel like I am playing in a book. A very good book.

4 - The characters are unique and intriguing. You wonder about their relationships with each other and want to learn more about them. They're not caricatures; they possess little quirks and mannerisms that endear them to you. I'm particularly curious about Balthier (that's him to the left). He's a "rakish sky pirate" with a sarcastic wit whose partner in crime (no pun there) is Fran, a lovely Viera. The Viera are (from what I can tell, and this is going to sound a bit funny but strangely it works quite well graphically) a half-woman/half-rabbit race that - like Tolkiens' elves - have an amazingly long life span and are bound to the Woods they live in. Fran is a Viera-exception since she left the Woods to travel with Balthier and in doing so broke her ties with the Wood's Voice and thus is shunned by her sister-Viera. Fran and Balthier's relationship with each other is hard to decipher - they're extremely close and he's very protective of her but are they together romantically or just close friends? Fran is hundreds of years old, while Balthier is only twenty-two so it would be quite an odd romantic relationship I suppose...

Anyhow, I'll leave off in my silly speculations and instead direct you to a fantastically written review of the game which probably describes things much better then I ever could (although I disagree with the writer's description of Fran's voice acting - I think she is supposed to sound subdued considering her age and background).

Things that have been making me happy lately...

The Knight & The Wizard, by Gene Wolfe - At first I didn't like them because they felt very video-gamish in plot and because Wolfe likes to kill off a lot of minor characters that you've grown attached to. But then about a third of the way into the first book, the main character thinks out loud to himself "...it was like a big video game, except I was on the screen. Or virtual reality maybe. I sort of felt at my head for the gear, but there was not any..." Once I read that I felt better. I decided to read it as if it were just a glorified video game plot made into a book (or a glorified TV- show-to-book...*cough* Neverwhere *cough*) and then the plot and the sometimes forced-sounding dialogue became more acceptable. And now - part way through The Wizard - I've actually let myself start to like some of the characters and I'm finding myself reobsessing over medieval concepts of honor and 'knightliness.' (As for the minor characters - well, a bunch were killed in the first half of book one but now things seem to have calmed down. Some minors even made it into book 2 - wow!)

The Fellowship of the Ring, the movie* - No, not the entire series because, though it pains me to say it, I think The Return of the King was just slightly less good then the others. I think that Fellowship was the best. It might be that I feel this way because 1) I just rewatched the extended version of Fellowship for the first time in over 1.5 years and 2) in the Fellowship, the Quest has just begun and so there seems to be more light then darkness to it, whereas Return of the King is so very dark in places, especially the Mordor bits with Sam and Frodo and 3) the Fellowship seems to capture the perfect combination of humour and heart-wrenching emotion (as well as splendidly showcasing the archetypal human flaws, but then, that's more Tolkien's doing then Jackson's).

However, I haven't rewatched The Two Towers lately so perhaps tomorrow I'll be rambling on about how The Two Towers is the best of the three! I do seem to do an awful lot of mind-changing!

Battlestar Galactica, the 'reimagined' TV series - I love how its grittier and darker then any Star Trek series ever was. (Actually, I think the only series that I could compare it to somewhat would have to be Buffy - but only to certain seasons, particularly 6 and 7.) And I like how I can sometimes predict what's going to happen in an episode not because the plots aren't well-written or challengingly tricky enough but because the writers/producers aren't big on soap opera storylines - the kind that drag on and on, where nothing is ever resolved.

I could say more about BSG... Much more. Oh, and about FFXII too! But another time...

_____________________________
*Colin and I started watching the extended version of Fellowship on December 25 with E & M and tonight we finished it up with J's kids. Good grief! Little kids sure can be distracting! Over the course of an hour and a half I lost count of how many times I had to say "Shush!" to A and of how many tumbles and somersaults and yoga positions she went through on the carpet as she tried to find the Perfect Movie-Watching Position.

*sigh*

I'm not complaining, really. (Well, maybe just a little teensy bit.) I think its good for me to be around Real Children and not just the ones who are tiny perfect figments of my imagination. Its very... educational. And cautionary.

The Claw has posted about the disappointment that is the Eragon movie.

I can't say I'm surprised. I picked up the first Eragon book and couldn't even get through the first chapter - it just seemed like a not very good rehashing of LOTR. (Even worse, it almost reminded me of Terry Brooks! *shudder*)

Anyhow, among the comments in response to Elliot-the-Claw's original post, I said (yes, I'm about to quote myself...):

...Its nice to get kids involved in fantasy and adventure but most are anyhow, regardless of what movies they see. It bothers me that there is such a lesser quality standard for childrens' books and movies then there is for adults.

I've been watching a lot of kids movies lately with Aelys and so many of them are just rubbish - pathetic dialogue, illogical plot, no moral lessons - just tripe.

It makes me think that just screening movies for violence and sexuality and profanity isn't necessarily good enough. You have to screen movies for intellectual worth too!

I'm not saying that all kids movies should teach things but even a kids comedy should have a challenging level of humor rather then taking a dumbed down, thinly veiled 'South Park' approach.

Further to this - I think that if we want to raise intelligent, creative children we shouldn't just be plopping them down in front of the TV and letting them watch sub-standard "entertainment." Challenge children and realize that they are capable of a lot more then we tend to give them credit for. I've read in more then a few places that this concept we call "childhood" is a relatively new thing and is particularly isolated to North America/Europe. In my African Development class one time I remember we were talking about child soldiers and many of the Canadians in the class were ranting about how terrible it was to steal innocent children. The African people in the class didn't disagree that it was awful to concscript young people into such terrible battles but they did question our notion that a twelve or thirteen or fourteen year old boy could not be considered a man.

That said, in many ways I think our concept of childhood is wonderful - I think its a fantastic thing to give children 18 or so years to play and explore and learn without being tied down to the more difficult of 'adult' responsibilities. But those years should be formative ones used to help children grow into citizens of the world. When children turn 18, adulthood and adult responsibilities should not come as any shock. Adulthood should not be about sending children out into the 'real world,' as if for the first time. (After all, its not as if anything particularly magical happens when one reaches one's 18th birthday!) Rather, perhaps it should be about conferring youth with new privileges and new opportunities - ones that they don't have to dread but can be excited about. It should be about receiving, after much preparation, the right to full participation in all aspects of human life - civil, social, and otherwise.

More on this another time, gotta get back to work. But I will add one last thing... there are a growing number of activists working to have the voting age changed in their countries to 16 rather then 18 or 21. I'm sure you can deduce the reasons for that. The push is towards giving youth more of a say in the world, rather then less.

I say, if we're going to give youth a say at an even younger age, let's start informing them.

You know you're really sick when six pain killers have absolutely no effect on your physical state.

*moan*

(I know, I know - I should be braving the pain naturally and suffering in silence like the gods intended, right?)

In other news...

WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME THAT THERE ARE 2 BEOWULF MOVIES!?

All this time I've been under the misimpression that the 2006 Beowulf & Grendel movie was the one with the screenplay written by the not-as-awesome-as-Gene-Wolfe-but-still-pretty-fracking-awesome Neil Gaiman! My expectations were crushed when it received terrible reviews (from critics and reliable friends alike) and I still haven't watched it.

However, today I was catching up on my pop trivia by reading Wiki bios when I stumbled across this:

"Beowulf is a motion capture film starring Ray Winstone and Angelina Jolie with a scheduled release date of October 2007"

[gasp!]

I blame all of you who know me well! Why didn't you use your Esper powers and correct my error earlier?

In any case, I suppose I can take pleasure in the fact that my disappointment was all for naught and I now have 2 hopefully-good-movies-cross-your-fingers to look forward to - Stardust and Beowulf.

Rejoice!*


__________________________________
* Hey, I never said my blog would be meaningful or that I'd post in it often. I mean, I do aim for meaningful but so do a lot of other bloggers... *nudge* *nudge* (Forgive me, I blame the cold.)

I've been thinking a lot about school (as usual) and about what to do once I finish (as usual). A lot of times it seems that I think more about school then I actually am in school or doing school work...

Anyways...

One of the after-degree possibilities that interests me is the JET program (which has captured my imagination ever since I heard about it from a boy I used to date who was getting his Masters in English).

And so a few days ago I started to look up info on it and in the process I stumbled on to this absolutely awesome blog called An Englishman in Nyu-gun. Sadly, the guy who wrote it has stopped writing since leaving Japan and returning to the UK but there are still a good two years of posts to wade through.

It seems a common thing that 'expats' encounter cultural differences between our Western world and that of Japan - and Lewis the Englishman writes about many of them with hilarity.

My three favorite anecdotes so far are: bear bells, Japanese national holidays, and the samba-playing coffee machine.

In the spirit of global brotherhood and inter-cultural understanding, go and check them out!