A blogging challenge . . .

It's decided. Unless I'm away, I'm going to blog every day for the rest of the summer. Why? Because I'm terrible at keeping a diary, and it would be nice to remember what I actually got up to over the summer break. And I like blogging, I just always forget to do it. So here goes . . .

This summer so far has been fun. Actually, the fun part is pretty much over . . . I went to Skye for a week with the family, which was great. I was then home or a day before getting a train down to Brighton (a very long trip, I read almost all of David Mitchell's 'Black Swan Green', which is an incredible, imaginative, moving book. It was the second time I'd read it and, like all Mitchell's books, I'd totally forgotten how good it was) for a church conference. That was good, plus there was the beach and plenty of graffiti photography opportunities which always make me happy. On the way back I stopped off in the Lake Districy for a long weekend with some friends from the sixth-form days, which was fantastic. It's weird how those two years of 'transition' at college, which most people overlook and leave behind pretty quickly, got me the only bunch of friends that I've really kept in contact with. It's insane that it was ive years ago when we first started Ridge. Madness. It really doesn't feel like that long ago at all. Despite me being he only one who took a gap year several of the rest are on four year/ foundation/ graduate courses, so hopefully we won't have too many people disappearing on us yet.

So now I'm back, and writing obituaries (my summer job. Unusual I know. But it's really interesting, if a little sad), and thinking about my dissertation . . . . I should hopefully get back to Manchester for a couple of weekends at some point, and one or two people are planning on visiting me up here in Glasgow, so fingers crossed the next couple of months shouldn't be toooo boring. Plus I came up with a list of '100 things to do this summer' (but could only think of 90). So far I've completed:

1. Write cards for old friends (postcards ftw!)
3. Start a creative writing journal (an actual notebook, not online as most other things in my life. Though I might start an online one too eventually)
25. Buy replacement flower-power bracelets (me and the sisters had matching flower bracelets, but they all broke this year. So we've got new new beaded ones instead).
47. Sign up for the organ donor register (after all those years of saying I would it took approx. 3 minutes)
58. Get back into a retro computer game (Tony Hawks 3 on the Playstation, oh yes :D)
59. Play a retro board game (The Game of Life. Twice.)

And so far that's it. Quite a few to go then. Some of them I'm looking at and already thinking that they're not going to work out. The heat-wave was very short-lived, so majorly out-doorsy plans may have to be scrapped . . . but it's waving off the boredom anyway.

In other news . . whilst I was away Dan (my youngest brother) did something to my laptop that made it go back to factory settings . . . or maybe he didn't and it just happened like he said. It's not the greatest of computers so it could probably have happened to anyone. But as it is, it happened whilst I was away, and a combination of guilt, a recent inheritance and my approaching disseration means the parents have very kindly ordered a new one. It has about six times the memory of this one, it's purple, and it has a built-in camera. Oh yes. Which means after all those years of saying I wanted to vlog I might actually do so . . . be afraid.

End of term

Stale cornflakes really are not pleasant. But once you’ve put milk on them there’s not much you can do but go ahead and carry on eating. There’s a lot of strange stuff you have to eat when it’s the end of term and you don’t like wasting food. Today’s menu: Four crumpets, baked beans, 2 yoghurts, a third of a jar of pesto, 3 oranges, half a pint of milk. Yum yum yum. And then there’s the sorting of the notes into folders from their scattered places around my room and dotted between various notebooks, the finding the right library books and battles with the librarians to take them out a few days early, the washing of clothes, the trying to fit everything into one suitcase. Fun times. And then off on a train at 12.12, pulling into Stockport at 16.25 for family, funerals and friends who I havn’t seen in 18months or more. And then back to Glasgow to sleep.

Wonderland

Here's a thought . . . isn’t it strange how movies that you watch as a kid can completely change their meaning when you see them again as an adult? Take Alice in Wonderland, the Disney version. I think I always found it a little creepy, but now . . . it’s like some hallucinogenic daydream. One which you can’t get out of. I mean, I love it, but it is so weird. But a lot of the Disney classics are, I don’t think they’re allowed to show Pinnochio in full now because of the kids who smoke cigars and drink beer before they turn into donkeys. In Snow White there’s that terrifying Queen, in Bambi the mother gets shot, The Rescuers is about child abduction and exploitation, in Sleeping Beauty she loses everyone. Does this just wash over us when we are little? They certainly don’t make them like they used to. It’s a shame. I always liked the children’s stories that were dark, scary and a little bit depressing. But I was a weird kid. The most gothicly off-beat kids film that I’ve seen in recent years is ‘Monster House’, and that wasn’t exactly mainstream. Bring back the gloom Disney. You can have the happy ending, but give me a good dose of nightmares first.

And yes, Pogo’s ‘Alice’ remix has been pulsing through my head all day, which might be where this sudden Disney nostalgia comes from . . .

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.

Election Day

Just a quick one, seeing as this has been a topic that's been a major part of my life for the past 18months, and I really could go on about it forever . . . but I have a French class in an hour and work not yet finished, so . . . .

It's the big day, and I am a bundle of nerves, all tingles and anticipation :) This whole campaign has been like something out of a film, and I still find it so exciting to see bloggers, you-tube users, twitterers and people of all ages from across the globe so caught up in the presidential race. As a massive Obama supporter the whole thing has a surreal quality to it, I'm still not quite sure that I'm awake, that this is actually happening. Back in late 2006, reading Time magazine in the middle of Zambia and feeling a million miles away from the rest of the world, I first heard of the young black senator who was causing such a stir, and was rumoured to have White House ambitions. And I thought he seemed interesting, I thought that he was somebody I would like to support, but I never thought he would get this far. I hoped and I dreamed, but I never thought he would win against Hillary, and even now, when the polls seem to favour him so much, and the dream looks set to become a reality, part of me still can't believe that he's going to win.

But he will. And he has to. I can't imagine anything more terrifying for the economic and physical safety of not only America but the rest of the planet if we see a McCain/Palin victory. Obama is a new start, a change. He brings hope. The long September of 2001 may now end. I don't know if he will live up to the huge expectations that his millions of followers worldwide now have of him, he won't be a perfect president. He is young, and he does lack experience. But this whole campaign has already changed politics. It seemed unlikely that we would see a female or black President within my parents' lifetime, and both those glass ceilings have been significantly dented, regardless of today's result. And however naive it may sound, especially in this culture of image and spin politics, I trust Obama. I trust him to do his best and to follow his heart, even if we will sometimes be disappointed with the results. I trust him to move us on from this crazy 'war on terror', to move America into a more 'united' state, to be genuinely concerned about the plight of the poor and the forgotten.

To quote Sam Cooke's famous song - It's been a long time coming, but I know a change is going to come. Oh yes it will.

You know you're back at uni when . . .

. . . it's 23.12 and you're eating Tuc biscuits out of the packet whilst trying to write an essay. Oh the joys of a new uni year :)