Ten ways to avoid coursework

Christmas was great. Really great. I think as I get older Christmas actually gets better, which is probably not normal, but I've been heading backwards in maturity for the last couple years now :) The food was amazing, the company wonderful (it took one Christmas away from home for me to appreciate how much more fun I have with them than without them), the TV entertaining (Wallace and Gromit, Doctor Who AND Strictly? Perfect). The presents could almost be overlooked, despite the two hour present opening ceremony (the result of eight people taking turns to slowly open presents as everyone else 'ooohs' and 'ahhhhs' over what they got) but were still very lovely. Actually, they seem to get better every year too, despite the credit crunch. Perhaps we are all just getting better at shopping for well-thought-out bargains. And we did all make some effort to remember what it is all meant to be about, even if it was mainly just a lot of sleepy 'Happy Birthday Jesus' mumbles.

But Christmas shopping is over, and Christmas Eve is over, and so is Christmas Day and Boxing Day, and now there are really no more excuses . . . COURSEWORK! Yes, the same coursework I was reading for half the summer,and then took the extra week at uni to finish off. It's still rather . .. incomplete. And to avoid pointless procrastinaion whilst still avoiding work, here are Ruth's top legitimate coursework-avoiding acivities:

1. Freaking out about terrible laptop keyboard. Yes, it is truly awful, I am having to go back and correct the spelling of 50% of words today.

2. Entering (or thinking about entering)writing competitions to win money. Because I should write more. And I'm broke.

3. Thinking of ways to stop being broke :(

4. Watching some of the gazillion hours worth of history shows my mum has taped me off the tv.

5. Playing games with the siblings . . . family time and all that.

6. Making cups of tea for everyone :-s

7. Vaguely offering to help with the cooking, and then standing in the kitchen talking instead.

8. Leaving people nice messages on facebook (clearly not pointless procrastination)

9. Tidying my bedroom. Again.

10. If in doubt . . . News 24.

Oh, and sleeping. Very important.
The frustrating thing is that I've put a lot of time and effort into researching this daft piece, I just seem to have hit a bit of a brick wall on how to write it. Oh well, hopefully it'll all come together .. .

Films, films, films . . .

For a blog called 'Ruthlovesmovies' I very rarely (if ever) actually talk about films . . . so I thought I'd tell you about two I've seen in the last fortnight or so.

Firstly, 'Changeling'. A lot better than I thought it was going to be, a brilliant film in fact, but more than a little traumatic (not one to take the mother to!) I'm not sure whether it was the blatant lies of the corrupt police force, the terror of a woman thrown into an institute for disagreeing with the men around her, or what was really happening to the children . . . but this wasn't one for the faint-hearted. Wouldn't be suprised if Angelina Jolie gets the Oscar, and she would almost deserve it for this. And Clint Eastwood's direction was near flawless, though I still think I prefer 'Mystic River'.

More importantly, though, 'Waltz with Bashir'. Wow, what a film. I went in with high expectations, and they were totally surpassed. The 'Haunted Sea' scene (see picture above), which everything revolves around, is one of the most breathtaking, spine-tingling thirty or so seconds of animation and music that I have ever seen. It is a totally new slant on animation, documentary and portayals of war in general, and I hope it wins every award going. Probably my film of the year, I really want to see it again. I must say, very graphic and explicit in places (it gets it's 18 certificate for a good few reasons), and certainly wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea, but it is a very original film, the type that gives you hope for the movie industry :) And the soundtrack is INCREDIBLE.