Thursday Thirteen

13 Things That You (Probably) Don't Know About Me
1). I'm the eldest of three siblings.

2). Despite the intriguing facets to the arc story of the first season of Ghost In The Shell Stand Alone Complex, I prefer the second season.

3). I don't have a driver's licence, have never had a lesson, and have no intention of learning any time in the near future.

4). For a brief period in my teenage years I considered a career as a pyrotechnician.

5). I have several scars on and around my left knee, and I can't account for them all.

6). It is local elections day in the UK, and I voted this morning.

7). My current best play at Scrabble is the single word "ENGINEER" which scored me 80 points. (you may already know this if you've been following Racing Entropy)

8). As a high school student I had a poem published in a local schools anthology. (actually, there is a much longer story to this, that I will try to remember to tell you soon)

9). The reading I gave at my father's funeral was Ecclesiastes 3:1-8.

10). I'm quite ticked off about an email that I got from someone this morning, but have no idea how to tell them how it made me feel because I'm certain that it would cause a rift between us.

11). One time in primary school I technically stole noisms lunchbox: I thought I was doing him a favour in taking it home as I thought he had left it behind, but then couldn't remember which house he lived at. I then remembered that as it was Friday he would be at his class's swimming lesson. Upon returning to the school about a quarter of an hour later I couldn't get back up to the room where lunchboxes were kept, and so I just left it on a windowsill in the main stairwell and hoped for the best. I have no idea if he got it back.

12). I have known the date of my viva since last Tuesday.

13). I applied for a job yesterday, and will know quite soon whether I am being considered for interview.

Thursday Thirteen

13 Movies I Would Love To Watch Again For The First Time

This just came to me out of the blue yesterday; I was thinking about conversations I had had with noisms in the past about not being able to see films with fresh eyes once you've seen them once. Sure, you can not see a film or read a book for a long time, and you can always get something new when you re-watch a film or re-read a book, but you can never see it for the first time.

So, in no particular order, thirteen films that I would really, really like to see again for the first time.

1. Annie Hall
I've seen a handful of Woody Allen's films, but this is by far my favourite; I love both the humour and the relationship between him and Annie and how they lose the something special that they have between them. I'd like to see it for the first time because then there would be so many amazing lines that I would hear and see being played out, and they wouldn't be familiar to me.

2. The Matrix
"Unfortunately no-one can be told what the Matrix is..." Is it a twist that the world is not the world as Neo knows it? It was clear from the trailer that something was different in this world, but still it would be good to see it and not know it back to front.

3. On The Waterfront
The only film on this list that I have actually only ever seen once, and I'm just so thankful that I have seen it because Brando's performance is up there as one of the best ever in a film. Had I not seen it already, I would have that to look forward to.

4. Chasing Amy
Because then I would have hope that everything might just work out alright...

5. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
For similar reasons to Chasing Amy; and for seeing those beautiful landscapes to that haunting music for the first time.

6. Amélie
The magic, pure and simple.

7. Se7en
Bilbo got me thinking about this a lot a few days ago, and if I hadn't been so busy with my thesis in the evenings I would have watched it again. Still, can you imagine that sucker punch to the gut from the finale for the first time? Or seeing everything unfold before your very eyes and not knowing where it was leading?

8. Four Weddings And A Funeral
Because I've seen it so many times... I really love this film a lot, but it would be great to see it again and not be anticipating the dialogue so much.

9. Dawn Of The Dead
The original, not the fast zombie remake from a few years ago. I think because it would be good to watch it and not know who was going to survive and who wasn't.

10. Terminator 2
I watched this recently actually, for the first time in a long time, and was thinking, "If you knew nothing about it, the opening is hugely suspenseful - simply because there are these two guys and you don't know which one is good and which one is bad."

11. The Empire Strikes Back
"I am your father."

12. E.T.
"I'll be right here."

13. The Phantom Menace
There have been films since that I have really looked forward to, really been excited about, but I was just so excited about The Phantom Menace that I couldn't think straight. And it would be nice to have that and not have the knowledge that it didn't live up to the hype.

And that's my Thursday Thirteen for this week. Hopefully a blog post tomorrow afternoon: I just finished my sixth chapter (of seven) today, and I'm feeling pretty good.

More soon.

Thursday Thirteen

Amanda has been doing "Thursday Thirteens" for a couple of weeks now. I don't normally partake of memes, but today's "13 Wants I Can't Classify As Needs (Yet)" was just too good a meme not to spread! (especially since some of those wants spookily mirrored some of my own)

13 Wants I Can't Classify As Needs (Yet)

1). A new mp3 player. I keep chugging along with the old one, even though the battery life is getting shorter and shorter and it cuts out always when I need some music to help me get through the afternoon.

2). A laptop. Work would be a bit easier, and a laptop would be much more conducive to me actually getting work done at home... But do I really need one? Probably not at the moment.

3). A Nintendo Wii. Several friends at uni have them and rave about them, and having had a quick go of my sister's friend's son's Wii I really, really want one... This is almost a need, but I'm dampening down my need until after my thesis is done.

4). My thesis to be written. I could keep writing for months and months to come, the final deadline is not until the autumn, but I just want it to be over now.

5). To go back to Edinburgh for a holiday. It's such a beautiful city!

6). To go back to Japan. So much still to see and do.

7). To visit the US. New horizons...

8). To read "A Series of Unfortunate Events" by Lemony Snicket. All thirteen books. It's in my books section of my 101 things in 1001 days list... Here's a need: I need to finish that damn list...

9). To see The Police in concert again. Because once just wasn't enough.

10). To act again. I used to do a lot of amateur dramatics type stuff when I was younger, and then in my mid-teens I just seemed to stop. I wrote little skits and scripts for a while, but then that stopped too. I'd love to do some Shakespeare actually...

11). To take a day off. But I can't.

12). To start a webcomic. And I will.

13). To go out for cake with my friend Helena this afternoon. Oh wait, I am!

More soon. Thanks again to Amanda for inspiration!

A (Thurs)day in the life

4am: Wake up. Check the time. Wonder what I was dreaming about...? Zombies? No... But there was something. It escapes me.
6am: Wake up again thanks to alarm. Stretch a couple of times and finally get up after about twenty minutes of procrastination and bleary thoughts.
6:20am: The shower's still out of use (there's a leak somewhere that means water is getting through to the floorboards, and hence the ceiling of the ground floor) and is likely to be for weeks to come.
7:45am: After breakfast, getting dressed, making some lunch and catching the breakfast news I leave the house for the local train station (less than two minutes away, but I had to run). On the train I think about the day ahead and read some more "Tales Of The Dying Earth" for a bit.
8:35am: Arrive at uni after walk from Lime Street station. The rain only started as I crossed the edge of the campus, so I don't get too wet. First order of business on entering the office is to login and perform my daily ritual of checking email, reading blogs (quite a few these days) and completing the daily puzzle.
9:10am: Start work before I can procrastinate any further. Only have a little more work to do and then will have two chapters to hand to my supervisor for comments. Want to get the work done before teabreak (at 11), so all I have to do then is write a covering paper with some points that I think need addressing and any questions I have.
10:30am: Going well, almost done, and then my officemate arrives and I turn my back on the computer to have a chat.
11am: Oh look at that! Time for a break! Over tea and plain chocolate digestives we talk gossip, intrigue, moan about university red tape and admin and then finally concede that we should get back to work.
11:30am: Takes only a little while to finish the changes to the chapter, and then about a half hour to write the letter for my supervisor. The rest of the hour and a quarter before I hand it in to him is taken up with more small talk, sharing of news stories, some more departmental gossip and discussion of specs for laptops.
12:45pm: Print off work and hand in to supervisor; eat the tuna and spinach wraps I made for lunch and check the 17 webcomics that I have bookmarked (praise be for Firefox's "open all in tabs" button!).
1:15pm: Go to café with officemate for caramel shortcake and to talk some more about stuff. Then back to the office where I start my next chapter. It's an extension of the one I just finished, so it should come fairly easily. Aiming to have a draft complete by next Friday.
3:30pm: Have managed to get quite a bit done, but then my attention starts to wander. I check to see if some blogs have been updated through the day. I dash off a couple of emails, and start to think about what I might blog about.
4:30pm: Remember that my mum wanted me to pick up something from the art shop, and that I also have things I want to pick up (OK, comics). Leave early.
4:33pm: On the way to the art shop remember that I forgot to blog, forgot some emails I had to write and still didn't get to writing down the definitions for another chapter that I had intended to do last week. Sigh.
5:20pm: After picking up Chinese style stamps from the art shop, and comics from Worlds Apart, read comics on the train home.
5:45pm: Home. Finish reading week's comics and wonder how come the new run of the Ultimates can have turned into a fan-fictionish parody despite having one of the best writer's in comics and jaw-dropping artwork.
7pm: Dinner. Keep out of family disputes whilst enjoying salmon steaks and wholegrain rice, then wash dishes. Family go out to Tesco for something or other; in their absence I make a CD of music for a friend on my computer and sing along loudly to Tom Jones.
8pm: Watch a couple of episodes of Buffy whilst thinking about what I did during the day (and, a little guiltily, what I didn't do). Friend texts me a couple of times and I reply; remember that I am meeting them for lunch and smile.
10pm: Turn off TV, see what family are up to now and decide to call it a night.
10:17pm: What will I dream of tonight?

More soon.

Crazy Eights

Continuing the meme I saw on Bilbo's blog...

Eight things I'm passionate about
1). Reading
2). Cinema
3). The philosophy of comics
4). Solving puzzles and problems
5). Maths
6). Music
7). The world
8). Learning

Eight things I want to do before I die
1). Travel across America
2). Go back to Japan
3). Meet Neil Gaiman
4). Make a feature length film
5). Publish a novel
6). Eat at a Gordon Ramsay restaurant
7). Prove something amazing in maths
8). Find someone to help me make sense of it all

Eight things I say often
1). "I don't know."
2). "I pay to live here you know!"
3). "It's what I'm here for..."
4). "I have chocolate in my drawer." (never for me)
5). "Ugh."
6). "Son of a -"
7). "Hey..."
8). "Does this sound right to you?"

Eight books I've read recently
1). No Dominion by Charlie Huston
2). The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller
3). Woken Furies by Richard Morgan
4). JPod by Douglas Coupland
5). The Dreaming Void by Peter F Hamilton
6). To Say Nothing Of The Dog by Connie Willis
7). The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett
8). Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Eight songs I could listen to over and over
1). Chicago by Sufjan Stevens
2). Typical by Mute Math
3). Message In A Bottle by The Police
4). Wichita Lineman by Johnny Cash
5). You Were Always On My Mind by Elvis Presley
6). The Girl Is Mine by Michael Jackson & Paul McCartney
7). Somebody To Love by Queen
8). Daring Daylight Escape by Caedmon's Call

Eight things that attract me to my best friends
1). Willingness to talk about nonsense
2). Ability to talk over points of genre trivia
3). Sense of humour
4). Shared birthdays - like we're in our own little club
5). Love of video games
6). Intelligence
7). Their faith
8). They listen

And there we go. The meme is passed on, natural selection at its best.