So Sue Me.

I always did this with journals, I’d make some grand statement at the end of a long entry I’d made saying how I’d make more detailed and more regular entries yet, if you were to look at one now, you’d see months between that statement and the next entry that begins with a sheepish apology to myself.

So I’m about ready to make some changes, trouble is I don’t know exactly which steps to take or, more specifically, when and in what order. I would love to spend time in Australia, get a working visa and go live there for a year or longer if they’d let me, but I’m 26 and after I’m 30 I won’t be able to apply for one of those visas. “But 4 years is ages!” I hear, well, myself cry. True, but I gotta get some money together first, which won’t be that hard actually, it’s the other thing that’s keeping me undecided – I want to teach.

I can apply mid September to get onto a PGCE course in Sept 2010, which is all gravy. The thing is, apparently I need to have experience working in a school and with kids before I apply. I don’t have that yet, and school’s out, so where would I get it? I could do volunteer work and the like, but I can’t see me getting a substantial amount in before the applications start getting accepted.

A couple of hours ago I was thinking I should go do Australia first, I might even get some teaching experience out there, but thinking about it while I’m writing, I should apply for the PGCE this year, get whatever experience I can, if it’s not enough, too bad – but either way I’m gonna have put a bunch of money aside (because I’ll be taking a massive cut in income when I take the PGCE), if I haven’t got on I can use that money to go right to Australia, get more experience, come back (assuming I decide I don’t want to stay) and apply again with no worries (mate).

That sounds like a plan, right?

Back once again.

Woof.

Been a little while since my last blog – I know why too, it became all about the mash-ups, and then I lost heart when they kept not getting selected. So then I neglected to blog, tut tut.

So here I am, back from the wilderness, in attempt to return this blog to its roots. No frills this time, not even any pics – this is 100% concentrated Scott you’re getting here.

In a little over a week, I’ll be leaving to go do my inter-rail trip around Europe, hitting about ten countries in between Spain and Norway, and I’m so looking forward to it. I’ve gotta do it in two weeks, which means I’m not gonna be getting a lot of time to spend in each of the countries I visit, probably not even a day in most of them – I knew it would be like that though, and I totally wanted it to be, for a few reasons:

1: It’s been a while since I just got away from totally everything, on my own, and was just me - I figure this is almost a kind of meditative thing, like this gonna help me re-center and I’ll be able to put a sharper focus back on my life. You know, all work and no play really does make Jack a dull boy.

2: One of the countries I’m visiting is Germany, where I’ll be going to find the place I was born, a hospital in Hanover. I realised I have no memory of the place I was born (not through any kind of Jason Bourne-esque amnesia, I just moved from there when I was about 5 years old), and I’d kinda like to have that – just to know my roots.

3: Like most people who make a conscious decision to travel on their own, the appeal of it is that I’m not obliged to follow anybody’s plan/itinerary other than my own.

I have the rest of this week to make sure I’ve planned as much of it as I can, with any luck I’ll blog more on the trip.

The beat goes on.

Should really be doing other things, so I’ll make this brief – my third ‘bands’ effort!

In the face of adversity.

Another week goes by and I still have only managed to get one poster mash-up into the Empire feature – Gol’durnit!

So this week I decided to adopt the “keep shooting ’til you hit something” mentality, and have so far produced not one, but two mash-ups. Expect a few more blog entries over the next few days as I go on the mash-up offensive. Anyway, here’s my efforts so far:

You might have noticed that the theme this week is ‘bands’. If you didn’t, then I haven’t done my job properly.

And so I laughed.

I was going through one of the video game forums I post on, can’t remember which one now, and found this picture:

I’m a sucker for these stupid pictures, they always crack me up. Anyway, only reason I’m posting that is ‘cos my ‘mission statement’ from my first post said that I’d be using this blog to post cool shit I found on the internet and since then I kinda, well, haven’t been doing that. I guess it evolved into something else, which I’m more comfortable with, but I wanted to prove to myself that I hadn’t lost sight of what started this thing off.

I’m keeping it real.

Elsewhere, had a few more dreams, involving vampires, prisons, Jerusalem, helicopters and those “taxis” that are actually just two-seater carts drawn by some poor bastard running his arse off for a living. Still questing to get myself to do a reality check in a dream though.

The man-flu, not sure if that’s coming or going, I do know it’s sort of blocking my ears up and making everything a little quieter, which I don’t remember happening before, but it freaks me out when I get used to it, forget that they’re stuffed up, then one of them pops and everything suddenly sounds clearer.

Aaaaand, last of all, I saw Gone, Baby, Gone and loved the hell out of it. I hadn’t realised it was such a long film though, I remember thinking it was drawing to a close at one point (if you’ve seen it you probably know when I’m talking about, and anyone who hasn’t, run away from here quickly ‘cos I’m breaking out the **SPOILER** tag!). I was really taken with it because of the choice he has to make at the end, wondering what I would’ve done in his situation. In a lot of films where someone has to make a difficult choice, it’s usually pretty easy to see what the hero will do, because he’s supposed to make the most noble decision, the one we ourselves would make if we were the best versions of ourselves, in an ideal world. I’m reasonably sure that the percentage of people who would actually make the noble choice if presented with it in the real would drop considerably, some opting for the easier choice – i.e. if Neo had decided he didn’t wanna take his girlfriend and go sacrifice themselves for the majority.

My point is, with Gone, Baby, Gone, I don’t think the noble choice is as clear-cut as it usually is. Those people did what they did for the good of the little girl, and she really would have been way better off with her adopted family. On the flip-side, Patrick gave his word that he’d find out what happened to Amanda, that he’d do everything within his power to bring her back if he could – promises he’d made to the girl’s aunt, a much more postive female influence in the girl’s life than her mother. The problem there being that, by doing so, the girl goes back to what will mostly likely be a less than ideal life. To sum up, he can be noble in the sense that he’s sticking to a strict moral code, which is what he does, or he can be noble and abandon that moral code and take the very good chance that she’ll lead a better life if he simply doesn’t take any action.

Anyway, that’s enough rambling.

It’s about how hard you can *get* hit.

So here’s my effort for this week’s poster mash-up, hasn’t turned out as well as I’d hoped, but I don’t think it’s awful, I’ve worked it to the best of my ability, that’s for sure:

I thought the pun was pretty good at the very least.

Still battling a mild flu, so I thought it best to stay at home in order to not make it worse but dammit, I’m bored now! I’ve got plenty to keep me occupied, for sure, but my brain is bouncing off the walls of my skull even while I’m doing other things. Maybe this is what cabin fever is. Or stir crazy. Yeah, I’ve gone stir crazy.

No Fish For Old Bruce

So my adventure in search of lucid dreams continues. I still haven’t had one, although I’ve been having dreams every night since I decided I wanted to control one, for example, last night, one of my dreams had something to do with Scrubs. You may notice I’m still not too hot on the details and the remembering thereof with regards to my dreams. I’m working on it, chill out. I fully intend to try again tonight, although I’ve been struck by a deepening case of man-flu and can’t help wondering if that will have a negative impact on my ability to dream.
DAMN THE MAN-FLU!

Elsewhere, once again, my movie poster mash-up didn’t make it into the final selection over at Empire. Picky bastards, I thought that was funny! Bruce Fillet? The Last Boy Trout?! That’s pure gold! OK, I’m not that self-deluded, it was an easy pun and many people twigged to that fact. This weeks subject is sports, and I’ve got a killer idea for it, it’ll involve a little more work and depends upon me finding the right images, but it’ll be good if I can pull it off, so watch this space.

The viral game for The International had an event this past Thursday, which involved some GPS co-ordinates that pointed to a location in Soho Square, not two minutes away from where I work. Obviously I was first on the scene, obviously it wasn’t where it said it would be and obviously I once again didn’t succeed in my mission. Luckily for me, Agent Lex from the unforums was a little more patient than me, and scoped the park to find it was attached to a bench a little way away from where it should’ve been. I say luckily for me because Agent Lex is a goddamn legend, and a chivalrous one to boot, having seen that I was in the area but unsuccessful, he promised to split the take with me. Which he did. I just hope that I manage to find the second drop next week so I can return the favour.

Anyway, the dreamscape beckons, and I’ve got a bone to pick with it, so I must take my leave.

Peace out!

Getting My Dream On

So I was watching an episode of Ed yesterday (if you don’t know what that is, shame on you, for it is awesome) and, in it, Ed discovers the phenomenon of lucid dreaming and winds up having an adventure that is both hilarious and insightful.

Now me, I’m impressionable but slightly skeptical, I sat watching it thinking “This is hilarious, but there’s no way it’s for real.” only to then go research the concept to find out for sure.

Turns out it’s legit! Found this entry on Wikipedia, and then these videos on YouTube which basically tell you how to “train” yourself and your brain so that you can consciously decide to have one of these lucid dreams, the whole point being that once you’re in it you can influence events i.e. you can control your dream! I started last night, got my dream journal all prepped and within arms reach of my bed, told myself I was going to remember my dreams, then fell asleep, had a few dreams, woke up after each one, only to stumble there because I was too tired to actually write in the journal before I A: fell asleep again or B: forgot the dream by the time I was able to write in it.

The only thing I managed to remember was that Taye Diggs was in the dream and that was definitely because he also popped up randomly in Ed’s lucid dream too.

Told you I was impressionable.

Anyway, gonna try it again tonight. Oh! The International game kicks off again tomorrow, there’s a dead drop I’m hoping to grab, I’ll let you know how it goes.

Something fishy…

Dammit! Dime Hard didn’t make the cut this week, but I want to get Bruce Willis in one of these, so this time, for the fish theme, I’ve gone with this;

Again, I’m proud of this, let’s see if they go for it!

The Night The TV Came Home

So Scrubs, 24 and Lost are all back this month! Having seen the first episodes from the new seasons of Scrubs and 24, I thought I’d weigh in with my opinion on them.

First off, Scrubs – why does it feel so… empty? Don’t get me wrong, it was funny, I laughed, and I enjoyed it but I couldn’t help feeling a weird void afterwards, like something was missing. I don’t remember seeing the Todd in there, but he alone can’t generate that feeling, and so far I’ve been able to put a finger on exactly what it is that could. Maybe it’s because each character didn’t get a whole lot of screen time, and they’ve shifted a little bit of focus onto three new doctors, the problem being that, as I understand it, these three new doctors are being groomed to take over the show for season 9 (should ABC decide they want one), but each one of them are the kind of ridiculous one-dimensional charicature the show is known for wheeling out for comedic effect (see Snoop Dogg Attending, Dr. Mickhead, Dr. Beardface, squeaky voiced intern etc etc) – how are these guys supposed to carry a show that counters the wackiness with a good dollop of melodrama? Plus, even though I didn’t hate Courtney Cox’s character (the same cannot be said for her in Friends – Monica and Phoebe brought that show down), I really didn’t care for the way she dispensed with the Janitor. Yes, I imagine he’ll be back somehow but it was like NO-ONE noticed he was gone! I’ve stuck with Scrubs through seven solid seasons, so there’s no doubt I’ll give this one more than a fair chance, but I hope the series picks up a little. That said, it totally got me good with the guy whose mortality JD and Turk helped him face.

And then there’s 24. It’s so good to have it back. So, so good. I don’t even care that it’s already thrown up about nine billion of it’s own clichés, like moles, deep cover agents, torture being the best way to get anyone to say anything, Jack being entrusted to act responsibly by an authority figure, only to immediately be presented with a reason to not act responsibly in the name of ‘the greater good’ – it’s all gravy. It’s still pretty fresh, so I’m not gonna give away spoilers that weren’t already well known, case in point, Almeida is back from the dead, and he is evil! What kind of craziness is this?? The good, 24 kind, that’s what kind.

In all seriousness, it’s good to see Tony back in whatever frame of mind (although his presence now completely invalidates the emotions I felt when he ‘died’ in Jack’s arms in Day 5, one of the few times I’ve actually shed tears for a TV show), as I always thought that the show needed Tony as a counter-point to Jack, like they were two sides of the same coin, or Jack was the Hulk to Almeida’s Bruce Banner i.e. Tony was Jack’s control side post-Teri. No wonder the show suffered so much in Day 6, if you ask me. Welcome back Tony. Now behave!

Last but not least, Lost is back in a week or so, and I can’t wait – I have this awful feeling that this is going to be another stellar season, and the 14 or so episodes will pass by entirely too quickly and leave me frothing for more, ala season 4.

To sum up, January is a good month to be a TV geek.