lecture Art

Dear readers,

You have made me so happy. So apparently more people read this collection of thoughts and conclusions than I expected. It feels good to know my 'time and effort' are not going to waste.

This is not a blog entry exactly, just a thank you.

But while I'm at it, I'd like your opinion on something:

A few weeks back, during some boring lecture or other I drew this:

And then during the past six hours of lecture, I got bored again, and decided to photoshop this. It's my first Anime on photoshop:

So, a simple question really:

Which do you prefer?

Or any other comment you wish to share.

Yes, Matt I know about the hair issue.

A proper blog will follow soon. No worries.

Until then

Out

Risking a Coma

It amazes me, it really does.

How am I able to stare and think of nothing for hours? I’m not saying a lecture going on, and I’m in a world of my own, thinking about this, imagining that, or remembering the other. No, that’s fine, that’s normal, I am speaking about, sitting in lecture after lecture, staring at a random spot, and not thinking.

I only realize it has happened when I look at the clock and realize 20, 30, 50 minutes have gone by, and I have no idea what has happened in them.

I look around at the people around me who look just as dead.

I begin to think that maybe I had fallen asleep. So I lean over to the person sitting next to me and ask, but no, I’ve been awake, or seemed to be awake.

So either I learnt how to sleep with my eyes open, or I manage to totally blank my mind. But I do not recall the waking up suddenly feeling, so I must have been awake.

But let’s think about it.

So I empty my mind during a boring, pointless lecture and the time seems to fly by faster than I can conceive, or I try and find something to do and every minute stretches out to seem an hour long. And don’t look at me badly saying I should be paying attention. Most lecturers just repeat themselves or try to teach us something which is common sense to a 5 year old, and they give us the notes anyway. “So don’t go to the lecture and do something useful with your time,” I hear some of the more liberal thinking readers say.

Well, damn lecturers take attendance, so that’s out of the question, and the mood for doing something productive dies as soon as my foot touches the inside of a lecture room. Not to mention the feeling of walking into a thick soup of 2^nd hand air.

So the only choice I have is go through an instance of nothingness, risking going so deep into nothing that I’ll fall into a coma, or go through 60 years of mind numbing boringness and come out of that insane.

I could write more blogs in these lectures, but come on, I have barely 5 readers ( I know of) as it is, imagine if I update much more regularly. Plus, I will not be able to come up with enough interesting content. And the same drowsy feeling which stops me working effects my writing too.

So, after considering all things carefully.

And after seeing the pros and cons of all results.

I’m risking the coma.

Cardboard and flattened flowers

Yesterday was the day the past weeks of rehearsals have lead up to. All the sacrifices, pains, injuries, exhaustion lead to the three minutes spent on the stage yesterday at about 4.45 ish.

But I don’t want to spend long talking about the dance itself. That went well, no one made mistakes, I was told it looked good and organized. I am happy about the result.

Also, we were live on NET during the dance, and we did it in front of approximately 14,000 people, not counting TV. I danced! From all things I danced in front of such a large crowd. But that was fine.

The day as a whole was just epic.

Firstly being in front of the VIP barrier for the first time as apposed to stuck behind it, is an awesome feeling. Being in a cut off section, having a chair, just knowing I was taking part, was such an amazing feeling. Showing the cards and passes to get into places, just really, really amazing. Just being part of it. And Congrats to everyone that took part, speakers, dancers, and bands.

Next, I want to thank all the people not involved who came to cheer and give support, Bettina, Jamie, Ursula, Martha, Martina, Esther, Erica, and so many more. I want to say a special thank you to my mum, who managed to get to the front of the crowd and stood their beginning to end. I would have given anything to give her a seat, but she stayed and saw it all. Smiles

The feeling backstage before going on.

OMG!

I don’t think I’ve ever been so nervous. It was only for a few seconds, I promise, but in those few seconds, I thought I was going to throw up.

It is a real shame that nearly all the people left after the pope left. The people after where just as amazing as the people before where. The hardcore people who stayed there until the very end enjoyed the last great acts, and even got to storm the stage to the last song of Cedarhouse. That was fun.

And the chairs. Enough said on that.

It was a great day. Opinions on the organization of the event are going to be kept to myself to keep the blog a positive one. But let’s just say I would have done it differently, but then again, what do I know?

Out.

Stone hedges and one ways

It hasn’t happened in a while, well at least to me. And I don’t want it to happen again any time soon. “What is he on about?” I hear you ask.

(well imagine you ask, but still)

I am talking about the horrible feeling, the annoying and angering situation of being utterly and completely lost.

Now I don’t mean being in a town and taking a wrong turn and being in the wrong place. That’s fine, it’s just a matter of finding one road leading back in the right direction that’s not a one way street. I mean finding yourself in a place and having absolutely no clue of where on the map you are. Now for you foreign people, I live in a country with a surface area of 300 square kilometers, it’s small! Drive in one direction for half an hour, and chances are you’ll hit a coastal road, and from thee you know where you are.

But last Sunday, I attended a wedding. Getting there was fine, I was following someone else from the church to the venue. I did note the way we came in, and also that there were road works in progress, but I had other things on my mind at the time, so didn’t think much about it.

It was a fantastic wedding, mass and reception, both well thought out and every detail was perfect.

Anyway, as I drove out of the parking lot, tired but very satisfied with the day, it hit me, that I had no idea where I was. Thinking I could just backtrack the way I had come I drive up a road to find my way blocked by that dreaded red circle with a white horizontal rectangle, a no entry sign. Fine, how hard could it be to get out of a small town? Right?

Fifteen minutes later, I’m still stuck in what seems to be a closed grid of roads. In frustration and desperation I called up the friend who I had followed in, assuming he knows the way out.

“Hey, how do you get out of here?”

“I don’t even know where I am, let alone how to get you out!” he yelled back mirroring my feelings.

And that’s just it! That feeling of not knowing where we are is what’s so horrible. We usually have a vague idea of the direction we need to take, but not knowing where we are, AT ALL gets to us.

It takes us back to the feeling of being lost as children. We never know where we are when we are young, because we rarely care. If we are out of the environment we know, we don’t know where we are, how we got there or how to get out, but as long as we see PEOPLE we know we’re fine; As soon as we do not, we panic, we freak out.

Last Sunday it was the same thing, except I was in a car, and I was not lost in a park, or supermarket, but in a town.

Thinking about it though, I think the feeling of being trapped made it worse. I was trapped in this town, I didn’t even know the name of, because when we eventually we got out of the grid of roads, I was still completely lost and had no idea where I was, but at least I was moving towards somewhere, knowing that eventually I would hit a main road I recognize. In that situation, the feeling, if it wasn’t plead by frustration would be interest in seeing where we would end up.

So being lost AND trapped is the frustrating situation.

Unless it’s a choice.

There are of course Mazes, where people purposefully go into a group of alleys and dead ends for entertainment. That’s fine, its safe, it’s fun.

But turn the paths into roads, the hedged into houses, the dead ends into no entry signs, and put people in vehicles, and you’ve got my friends and I in some town below the line.

Thinking about it, the alcohol might have been a contributing factor, and I didn't really ask directions, but like all famous bloggers, I’m blaming the government and their road works.

Dragon Craving

Walking out of a film at the cinema, I find myself walking around and acting slightly different to my normal self, especially if it was a great film. Why? Because I’m acting a little like the characters from that film.

An example of this happened maybe two weeks ago when four of us walked out of Tim Burton’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’. We walked up to the car speaking in the odd accent walking in a funny stride and gesticulating rather oddly and extravagantly. Basically, we were acting like Johnny Depp as the ‘Mad Hatter’.

And who, all those years ago, walked out of ‘The Matrix’ not imagining himself dodging bullets and running up walls and jumping buildings? Or tell me if anyone walked out of "Ironman" without thinking up the design of his or her own suit? It’s just the way the brain works. We see something we like, or find cool, and we try to assimilate.

Of course there’s a negative side effect to watching epic films and wanting to be alike. And that is of course when the action or thing done in the film (or animated feature film) is not possible in real life.

Walking out of “How to train your dragon” (from the creators of Shrek, yes Dreamworks are impressing me)last Friday, I was all excited and hyper and full of energy, until, while walking to the car it hit me, I will never own a dragon and definitely never fly one. It’s a very sad moment.

It’s the same feeling one gets when waking up from a fantastic dream and lying in bed remembering it, and then all of a sudden, realizing it wasn’t real, “Damn so I’m not going out with…” one would say.

But back to the dragon.

The film was amazing, the dragon was cool and cute, the actions and thoughts behind them where amazing. Something which really excited me is when Hiccup started making discoveries about dragons. I mean it was exciting! And everyone in the cinema wanted a dragon at some point during the film, I’m sure of it.

But we get used to the disappointment that our lives are not as cool and interesting as those on the big screen.

We find our own alternatives. For example: like I told Matt after the realization of the possibility of owning a dragon are zero, the next best thing is a motorbike. Think about, for those who have watched the film, you still bank to turn, you still control the ‘gears’ with your feet, you still stir with your hands, and the chances of you loosing a limb while riding it are about the same.