Time flies

I just got an email from Mercy, my Zambian housemate - she was both my housemate in Zambia, and actually Zambian, which was a little rare for the school where I was working - most of the Zambian staff were married and lived with their families, most of the young, single staff were European and American volunteers.

Mercy is amazing, and meeting her was probably the best part of the whole six months. Because of visa complications, I was the only gap year student there (the others arrived four months later), so despite being a few years older than me she immediately became my closest friend on the site. When the other gappies arrived they were placed in a house together, so I think their experience was probably very different - Mercy showed me Zambian culture from the inside, made me Zambian food every day, tried to teach me some of her language, let me see the Western world from her point of view, and even took me back to her family's home in the capital to spend Christmas there. I miss her very much.

Anyway, this email made me feel very old. How is it three years since I first met her? I guess a lot has happened since then, though I don't always feel like it. She had just got engaged when I met her, got married shortly ater I left, and now her baby daughter is walking! Really hope I can meet her little girl one day. Plus she was emailing to wish me a happy 22nd birthday, which is on Friday. For some reason 22 seems like the first age to be 'properly adult', 21 almost seems like the learner year of adulthood, and 22 is the real thing.

And I still don't have a clue what I want to do with my future. If I want to do at masters at my uni I need to decide in the next two weeks. If I want to go to Japan I have about a month to make up my mind. If I want to do in a masters in Glasgow whilst living at home, I probably have about two months decision time. Why do they all want me to decide on my life plan a few weeks into my final year? The more they try and rush me the more I procrastinate :-s

I should blog earlier

So I can do early videos . . . occasionally. Early waking is a bit hit-and-miss, more like every other day at the moment. Perhaps I should write my blog earlier in the day too. That way I wouldn't have reached the falling-asleep-on-the-keyboard stage by the time I'm wanting to do my previously-nightly update. At the moment it's 20.18 and I'm at least capable of writing in comprehensible sentences. ish.

So, this week hasn't been very interesting so far. Some more Kennedy-related stuff has been viewed. I finally finished that 'Dark Side of Camelot' book. The built-in cupboard has been cleared, only to be filled again because I have nowhere else to put my uni things. My bedroom is beginning to resemble the trenches of 1914 - there are now so many boxes that I can barely make it from my bed to the door. Strictly Come Dancing fever has replaced Derren Brown fever, and evenings are spent watching the rumba rehearsals on 'It Takes Two', instead of slowed down footage of a dapper illusionist. Not that DB is entirely out of favour, despite failing to stick me and the sister to the sofa, but Strictly never fails to become at least an incy bit addictive . . . even when old favourites are replaced, the celebs are unheard of, and a certain presenter really needs to retire Oh BBC, you do make me worry. Attempts to please everyone at once always lead to an inability to please anyone at all.

I'm re-reading John Green's 'Paper Towns'. Another book that I'd forgotten how much I like. For some reason it's put me in a nostalgic mood all day, despite being about as far removed from my own life experiences as you can imagine. A strangely beautiful book anyways.

The long day

So today was several hours longer than most other days. As in I set my alarm for 7am, rolled out of bed at 7.15, and was breakfasting and videoing by 7.45. So stuff actually got done today. Woop. A hundred pages of course-related book, three hours of course-related dvd.
The room didn't get any more packed this weekend. But this early-bird lark could majorly help with that this week.

Hmmm . . . currently watching a CSI Vegas episode I've never seen before. That, for me, is pretty rare. I don't think I could have possibly all 200+ episodes, I think channel5 must just show the same forty or so again and again . . .

Goodness, waking up early leaves you tired *yaaaaaaawn* I'll probably head to bed once I've found out whodunnit. Me, in bed before 1am??? The bodyclock must be adjusting already.

The early bird catches the worm

Not that I have any flying abilities to speak of, or have any desire to catch worms. But I've had this crazy, Wheezy Waiter inspired plan to get up at 7am this week, eat a decent breakfast for once, sometimes video, and generally find that there are more hours in the day. It will be a minor miracle if this works out, especially as it is currently 1.42 am and I am still online. Which is perfectly normal for me, but not ideal if I am planning on being awake again in just over five hours time.

This is a necessary endeavour though, especially as the uni term is fast approaching, and I still have a lot to do. Today was generally spent procrastinating . . . all I can tell you of interest about today is that videos are more quickly made when someone else is in the room, and that Strictly Come Dancing isn't that great so far, but Chris Hollins is better than expected. So there you go.

Now to grab however many winks can be had in five hours.

My mum is a search-engine whizzkid

Ignore the majority of the previous post. My mum managed to find the film to view online within ten minutes of switching on her computer :-s And my mum doesn't even understand the internet :) Well, I am officially an idiot, and my mum is wonderful. Especially as she saved me a whole load of money. I watched the movie as soon as she found it - I had this paranoia that someone would remove it before I got the chance . . .it's pretty good as these movies go. The men are handsome, the music is dramatic, it has a few comedic touches, and the battles, whilst going on a bit, look realistic. The whole thing bares little resemblance to what actually happened, but that would be asking too much :)

For the rest of the time today i packed my room. Hurrah. It looks messier than it has done in years right now.

Last night I had a very strange dream where my middle-aged, strict former English teacher married Peter Serafinowicz, and they were moving in with us . . . and I spent more time distressed that I would have to give up my room, than taking the time to question this incredibly weird pairing. Wonder what on earth sparked that craziness?
I did watch a fair bit of Serafinowicz tonight on YT as a result. The diet plan and kitchen gun sketches remain some of the funniest inventions of British comedy :)

Right, to sleep, and hopefully will conquer the rest of that Kennedy book tomorrow. Or within next couple of days anway.
Ooooooh, Derren Brown is trying to stick us to our sofas tomorrow night. Literally :D

Kennedy related despair

I was halfway through a vaguely ok blog post when the blogger made the window disappear. I hate it when it does that.

I'm too tired to type it all out again :-s To sum it up, I've spent most of the evening looking for some way of watching PT109 without having to pay £50 for the one and only video of it on Amazon. No video of it on Youtube or other such sites, no dvd release, seemingly no other VHS that isn't American region, and only one place to download it from (and though I don't fully understand the legal and virus implications, I'm too paranoid to go for that option). I'm still not full convinced that the £50 copy is UK region. It better be.

The original post attempted to be far more more insightful than that. Ponderings on how unusual it is to find anything that can't be bought or viewed with the click of a button these days. But the silly blogger ate that version, and now I must sleep. Zzzzzzzzz.

Finish it

I just watched The Fountain, showing for the first time on British digital tv. The day and the hour that they chose to show this film reflects that it was a bit of a flop - it cost a lot to make, the actors and director involved generated a lot of hype, and then the majority of the reviews were average to negative. Not all of them. This was one of the rare occasions where film critics were really divided - a few thought it was a brave attempt at something different, or that it was well directed. The dude from the Radio Times gave it five stars, which is why I gave it a go tonight, but he's made a career of saying the complete opposite to everyone else. It was genuinally seen as a misguided, flawed and overambitious mess. Crucially, the words 'pretentious' and 'self-indulgent' were used in early reviews, and appearing snobby is one thing that many reviewers of today fall over themselves to avoid, so it was beaten into box office oblivion, almost as if they were afraid of it.

I suppose I'm saying this to remind myself that I shouldn't always go along with what the critics say. I'm far too easily influenced by what is fashionable with my favourite writers, whether it be in book and film taste, or in political views. Often I bluff my way through life trying to sound far more intelligent and well-read than I really am by copying the opinions of people I think are more clever (or, to my shame, more popular) than me.

So, The Fountain is a great film. Yes, it is very different, it is more like three movies in one, with the relationship between the three parts not clear cut (present, future and story? But more than that, as they bleed into each other at unexpected moments). But it's not pretentious, or over-ambitious. If anything the unusual struture if one of the clearest ways of capturing experiences such as grief, the moments before death, and love, where a linear tale doesn't seem sufficient. I can't remember who said it, but it's true that our minds don't work that way, they're constantly flicking back and forth - present, past, a dozen different daydreams, stories and possibilities. Why should books and films be any different? Why must movies be expected to 'make sense', with a beginning, a middle, and an end that nicely ties everything up? Life rarely works in that way. Rachel Weisz and Hugh Jackman were really, really good, and it was visually stunning. Sometimes I don't understand critics.

Devil horns and beard stroking

Yes, my parents have got so sick/irritated/worried by all the Derren Brown talk that I have been reduced to communicating with my brother about the show in Ruth's Sign Language. Let's get it out of the way - DB is a fiendish, deceitful, devilish man, but his show was as entertaining as ever. It has been very amusing to see how many tweeters actually think he did predict the lottery by using 'the wisdom of crowds' - getting 23 'random' (ie. gullible) people to 'free write' (?) numbers, which got sorted into predictions by Tyler (the American plant?), and later by Derren himself, which were then added up, divided by the number of people, into an averaged-out, 'collective prediction'. We never saw any of the volunteers' predictions, and though the whole hour long show tonight contained little examples of how fantastic DB is at influencing people, none of this had anything to do with influencing a lottery machine. It was an hour long case of misdirection. The little tale at the end of how he could have fixed the lottery (involving inside people at the BBC, hypnotising the guards - cue silly hypnotist face - and replacing some of the balls with specially made ones 20grams heavier) was amusing, especially the number of times he stressed how he had NOT done it that way :) How I wish he had. But no, it was most likely the split screen or the specially made, ridiculously expensive LED screen balls. Alternatively, for those who insist that he would not use flashy techno, a false wall hiding an assistant, or a truly awesome case of sleight-of-hand.
For all the deception, he is a fantastic entertainer, who really does get everyone talking. Top of the twitter trending topics for 15minutes or so after the show.
Woot, he's using some weird subliminal film to literally stick the viewing public to their sofas next week. That should be fun.

In other news . . . I went to the dentist today. Yey. No real problems, some cleaning scheduled for December, and apparently I still have a milk tooth left . . . which is strane. And a little worrying if I end up with a massive gap in my teeth in a few years time . . hmmm. Kings of Leon was playing at the dentist's, thought that was pretty cool. Oh, and what is with them getting two old singles back into the charts all of a sudden? They're not touring here at the moment as far as I know.
I failed to vlog as I mis-timed my whole day, and then ended up downstairs looking after the dog . . . I have new-found respect for the VEDS.
Trying to decide if I can really bothered watching all of 'Harper's Island', this silly murder-mystery slasher show BBC3 have imported from America, or whether I should just look up the ending on wikipedia. Decisions, decisions . . .
Watching the first ever episode of Family Guy at the moment. Paul collected all the box sets a while back, but we eventually lost interest. It's funny how different they all looked back then, and how much tamer it is. Brian is still strangely attractive. For a cartoon dog.

Boxes

I spent a large part of my day packing things into boxes. Oh the joy. Actually, a lot of the time was spent taking files and ringbinders out of boxes, taking sheets out of plastic wallets, removing staples, and putting most of a good five years of exam work in a box to be recycled. It was a strange afternoon. It's funny to think how difficult so much of that schoolwork seemed at the time, and how pleased I was with a lot of my writing then. When I read it back it seemed so easy, clumsily phrased and, above all, kind of pointless. So much of it was things I never really understood in the first place, but have never used since. Mum is the type of person who believes that all GCSE and A-level work should be saved 'just in case' (because clearly I might need a diagram of the the water cycle for my History degree), but even she agrees that most of my unnecessary belongings need to disappear, so most things were thrown. Including all the A-level History, which really isn't relevant to anything I'm studying at uni. I kept a few vocabulary books, because you never know when you might need to speak some French (or Latin . . .), a couple of my best junior projects, for sentimental reasons, and (perhaps tellingly) virtually everything related to English Literature.
Yes, I did read all the essays marked by a certain sixth-form English teacher, and his comments still make me very happy, because they make me believe that I can write. Yes, however much I've improved at History in the past year, I do sometimes still wish that I'd taken the English degree. Especially now that there are no jobs anywhere anyway, so it hardly matters which is the more employable. I wonder when I'll stop thinking that way?

What else happened today? I listened to a lot of DFTBA music - one of the benefits of having a music-mad brother with a fair bit of extra cash. The Driftless Pony Club EP is fantastic. I vlogged about 'The Beach'.

Oh, and I thought a lot about Derren Brown's stunt. Either a split-screen with old feed taking up the left side, whilst somebody writes the numbers on the balls, or the white balls having special LED screens, either transmitting from the board he writes the announced numbers on, or keyed in by someone at the back. And that's my final answer. He'll try and convince us differently on Friday night - he'll come up with some complicated formula, and then sit back and smile when the nation tries to use it for next week's Lottery - but his phoney 'solutions' are all part of the illusion. Admire him from afar, but don't believe a word he says.

Numbers

So it's 09/09/09, and Derren Brown just correctly predicted the Lottery. Yes, I know it's a trick, and it's unlikely that he really did 'predict' it earlier in the day like he claimed . . . but then again . . . He'd written it on plastic balls, admittedly facing away from us until after the official BBC announcement, but he had them in full view of the camera for the whole show. There didn't seem like any opportunity for sleight of hand. He was chattering away for about five minutes or so, and there is no way that BBC has that kind of delay on the Lottery show, even if it wasn't live to the second like he claimed. If there was some form of delay, then the BBC would be first to call him a fake, as they're a rival channel. He seemed genuinely terrified that it might not work - he looked physically sick at one point. There was nobody, apart from the cameraman, in the room - no smoke, no mirrors, no cutaway.
And yes, aspects look suspicious. The apparent claim that Channel4 wouldn't let him buy a lottery ticket, in case people claimed he had unfairly led to a loss in their winnings - well, I suppose that is something they would do,but it would have made the trick a hundred times more impressive if he'd had that winning lottery ticket in his hand. And not being able to show his numbers until after the BBC had chosen the balls? Well, I suppose there may be a legal rule about who annonces the Lottery, but if he was actually making some form of educated guess I doubt they would sue him for it . . . it would have helped the BBC show ratings no end.
And then there is the usually taken for granted 'fact' that the Lottery cannot be predicted. Otherwise, surely, someone would have done so already? Yes, Derren may be a very clever man, with an incredible brain capable of learning huge quantities of information, and he may well have spent the whole of the past year working out some giant mathmatical formula of probability, but to get every number correct on live tv?
So what to think? I've recently become a little suspicious that Derren's 'explanations' are just as much as part of the trick as the stunt itself, so I will almost guarantee that whatever he says on Friday won't be the whole truth, and might not be the truth at all. Sometimes when he gives one of his 'here's how I did it', where he claims to have used some subliminal sign, or pattern of speech, or to have learnt some seemingly impossibly large quantity of information, I can't help but wonder if it was, at least in part, a far simpler use of traditional 'magic', or at least a good dose of hypnosis. This obviously isn't the case for all of his tricks, some can't be explained without his famous 'power of suggestion', but I do think he makes things seem a little more complicated than they are, and that is why we marvel at him. He is a true original, and one of the greatest showmen in history, even if we can't always trust him.
My theory? He'll claim that it's due to some formula, and 95% of me will be desperate to believe him. He's very difficult to dislike, or to believe capable of staightforward deception, for all his mystery. But there will still be a part of me that will believe it was a different type of trick, some form of projection or inner-writing mechanism on the plastic for example, or even a frozen split-screen like someone on YT just suggested, that meant the numbers could be added seconds after the BBC anouncement. I think part of the thrill for him is making us believe that he is capable of mental feats that seem almost impossible.
Here's the link, I don't know how long Youtube will keep this footage up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG-5qebwflA

In other news, I ordered two $9 Threadless t-shirts today, which made me very happy :) And the JFK stuff is already pretty interesting.

And I'm back :)

So, the weekend was great. And also slightly surreal, and more than a little bit exhausting, but mainly great. I caught the coach on Thursday morning, spent five cramped hours wondering why I'd downloaded such naf music to my phone, re-reading the same three chapters of a scandalous JFK book and the entire reviews section of Empire magazine, before pulling into Manchester in the late afternoon. My crazy, inspirational and very funny friend SA drove me to her mum's new flat, where I ate waaaaay too much food (SA has recently started learning how to cook) and stayed up until almost 5am watching movies - Benjamin Button ( beautiful, and even better than the reviews claimed), Slumdog Millionaire (a really great film, but perhaps did not quite live up to the hype), and Single White Female (scary, but in a creepy, psycological way. A bit of a classic).
Friday I hung round town and bought second-hand books whilst my friend went to her cleaning job. Then we went off to Chester and saw SH, another of my best friends, who I write to almost every week but havn't seen for a couple of years. We got very, very lost though - silly Satnav. SA's new flat (which we went to see - it's a room in an almost mansion belonging to an old couple, very atmospheric) is very near SH, so it was great they got to know each other a bit better. And SH cooked lasagne. Mmmmm. We sang along to Oasis on the way home.
I was dropped off at SM's, and we met her boyfriend (who is also a film geek, so movie conversation was had into the wee hours). SM had a skating exam on the Saturday, so I met up with BY (a sixth-form friend who was disappearing back to uni before the Sunday meet-up), and we talked in a coffee shop for three hours about career options, and friendship and technology of the future :) One of those all-encompassing conversations. And this probably got her car clamped because she had only bought a short-stay ticket . . . . I explored the shops, quite a few had changed. A very happy hour was spent in Toys 'R US (kids toys are so great these days! A lot more Star Trek, Harry Potter, Doctor Who and Indiana Jones, and far fewer Barbies :D) Then had tea (or frappucinos as the case might be) with JE and CE from my old church - again probably hadn't seen them for a couple of years. Same old college and job thoughts catch-up, but they're also helping to run the youth group at church, and it was great to hear how lots of new stuff is happening. Dinner was at the chinese buffet place with JN, hadn't seen her since sixth-form, so I was a little nervous as to how we'd cover so much ground . . . but it was good, and she seems very happy.
Then more films with SA - The Perfect Getaway (so, so much better than the trailer suggested, even if we guessed what was going to happen twenty minute in, it was still brilliantly done), and The Ugly Truth(which really shouldnt have been as funny as it was, considering it probably put the feminist movement back several years).
Sunday was breakfast with SM, a meet-up with five of the college gang - coffee and Pizza Hut, much talk and general noise :) And WB was there! I hadn't seen him since my 18th. I went for tea at Wetherspoons with MD and JS (two of my favourite people in the world) and then saw District 9 with MD. Wow, I love that film. Different to what the hype suggests, a lot more bleak, but brilliant. Thought-provoking. And the lead actor as INCREDIBLE, especially seeing as this was his first ever acting role - think he's usually a props guy!
And Monday was coffee with DE, and then home. Five hours listening to the Eagles and then reading The Beach - went pretty quickly :)

And that was my weekend. That was probably of little interest to anyone but me, but I wanted to remember it, because don't get to see these guys very often, and this will probably only get worse as we get older :( Though we're hoping to go to Canada next year. But still, sometimes I don't like growing up.

And I'm off . . .

I'm heading to Manchester for a few days :) Hoping to catch up with a lot of people, and chill out. Probably limited internet access whilst I'm away, so I probably won't write until my return.

The weather at the moment . . . . urrrrrrgh :-s