| New Country, New Shoes, New Blog. |
[Mar. 21st, 2007|02:36 pm] |
As you may (but most likely haven't) noticed, I've been pretty thin in terms of posting lately; this is due to a large combination of factors, principally my 'can't-be-assed'-ness.
Anyway, to get to the point, this is my last LJ entry; I'm still gonna check-in and throw the odd comment around, but I'm finished with the actual 'posting' part of the experience.
In true Star Warsian fashion though, the ending signals a new beginning; Since I'm moving to Japan and I anticipate a dramatic upswing in the number of posts along with a large quantity of bandwith-sucking photographs (that I frankly can never be bothered hiding behind cuts) I figured it'd be more considerate to shift to blogspot where I can be assured that all visitors are either specifically interested in reading what I've been up to, or random web-ites who are reading out of chronic boredom anyway. I kinda like the customisation options too.
So, if you happen to be curious about what I get up to across the sea update your bookmarks! (or like, make a new one!) Shaun now virtually lives at:
http://www.kanjiforbeginners.blogspot.com/
Totally feel free to leave comments of course, you can use your Google ID if you've got one, otherwise just put your name/screen-name in so I can tell who you are (after all, it's no good telling me about your awesome night of alcohol-fuelled recklessness if I can't tell the difference between you and some random Lutheran pastor from Munich).
Ok, time to go- it's been fun guys!
Shaun, signing out. |
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| Merry Boxing Day! |
[Dec. 26th, 2006|11:58 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Desk-land. | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  lethargic | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Steve Conte-'Living Inside the Shell' | ] |
Another giant gap between entries, 'cos really... what's to say? I'm alive, you're alive; whoop!
So I finished/graduated honours a while back, that was pretty huge at the time; but after I'd finished sleeping off the end of the acedemic year it seemed like old news (I don't care what anyone says, the hangover from uni is worse than anything that could be induced by Jack Daniels). The certificate still looks pretty though, and I'm still a sucker for taking a zillion photos of my friends while they're dressed in the silly-lookin' hats and gowns.
After graduation I pretty much entered 'relax' territory, a couple of jobs here and there but nothing that severely impacted on my sloth-esque sleeping/sitting schedule. I even managed to resurrect my social-life to a certain extent, which seems like something of a miracle considering how I did nothing but babble about whatever piece of animation I saw the night before for several consecutive months there. Oh wait... I'm STILL doing that, oh well... guess you're used to it by now. :P
In big-ish news (for me anyway) I'm finally invested in a plan to escape the confines of my childhood home, I'm feeling a little burnt out after three 'final years' at uni in a row, so I'm taking another 'gap year' and deferring the PhD until 2008. That means I have time to actually get a job that might provide more than 10 hours a week worth of paycheck... in a stunning coincidince I have two friends from primary school who are also looking to move out, which means that together we might be able to afford to live somewhere that is within the loose bounds of 'the city' and perhaps only has a small population of rats and cockroaches! I have grand plans to turn our rented domicile into a 'party palace' on a par with the Taj-Mahal of old! *manaical laugh*
I've had planty of time to catch up on my reading, DVD watching, music listening, game-playing and web-surfing lately (All the important things in life really) which is beyond nice, like 'deep-heat for the mind' or something, thank god because I really needed something to take the edge off Christmas, I swear my family gets more frenzied about this silly end of year shennanigan every time it rolls past; still, they bought me a nice chair to sit on while I type this in honour of the event, so too much complaining would be concieted. There was some yelling and assigning of blame at the family gathering (as usual) but noone actually got physically wounded and there was minimal proprty damage so I guess the day was pretty much a success. I mostly hung out with my cousins Bethany and Andy, drank goon and Smirnoff pre-mixes and bitched about the whole thing, which was actually kinda fun.
Today we're getting another dog (just temporarily mind you). Our neighbours are going away and leaving their labrador Charles in our care while they're off in New Zealand for a fortnight, which means an even harier more dog-dominated house. Wish me luck with producing bulk amounts of dog food and managing FOUR big dogs on a walk, here's hoping they don't gang up on me.
The world spins madly on,
Shaun. |
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| All Your Quiz Are Belong To Us. |
[Sep. 21st, 2006|05:59 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Home on the range. | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  calm | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Josh Joplin- 'I Am Not the Only Cowboy' | ] |
It's been ages since I've done a lame, random internet quiz... so here's one I thought was just random enough to warrant doing. Read, Steal and/or ignore at your discresion.
Your name?: Shaun S. Clamp
What were you doing five minutes before now?: Writing my Thesis... which is rapidly turning into a quasi-scientific argument about why 'The Lion King' sucks... which wasn't exactly what I was aiming for, but meh.
What's the deal with your userpic?: That's Chiyo from 'Azumanga Daioh', she rocks! And again, she's in my thesis. Which has taken over my life.
What Blood type do you have?: Umm... AB I think.
Post one random link from your favorites list: http://amvhell.com/
Name your most prominent flaw: Uhhh... caffine addiction?
What element/sign are you in the Chinese zodiac?: A Water-Dog (Wooo! taking 'Religions of China' at uni finally paid off) :P
When was the last time you washed your car?: At least 9 months ago. It's dirty.
If you went into the witness protection program and had to change your first name, what would you change it to?: Something cute, like 'Kiko' or 'Lucky' :P
Do you still have your highschool yearbooks?: Yup, although they're pretty dusty.
What was the last thing you set on fire?: A cat! :P Uhhh... I mean NEWSPAPER, yeah, I was lighting a fire, that's right. ;)
Make up a cool title for a movie: 'Snakes On a Plane' :P wait... 'Tokyo Cheerleader Zombies in Harlem' Yeah... that'd OWN!
Pirates or Ninjas?: Pirates! At least they can talk! :P
Who's your favourite poet?: I'm tempted to say 'Jewel'... but no. :P let's say William Blake.
When the zombie-apocalypse comes what weapon will you wield?: My sharp sense of humour? Or a baseball bat, since I at least know how to swing one.
Make up a new expletive: What? Ummm... 'Skizlif' does that sound dirty enough?
If your current country of residence was swallowed by the ocean, where would you emigrate to?: Britain probably since I have the right passport, but I'd like to check out Canada and Japan too.
What is your favourite colloquialism for 'toilet'?: 'The Porcelain God'
If your life was a sitcom/drama series, what would be the theme song?: Heh... Maybe "Can't Get There From Here" by R.E.M. Come to think of it, that'd make a cool title for the show... or my autobiography. :P
Is it 'cheating' to digitally modulate or quantize a singers voice to keep them on key?: Hell yes! If you can't sing without a computer, then you should get out of the studio! *glares at Paris* :P
Write 'Goodbye' in a language other than English: Sayanora!
Whoa... there goes 15 whole minutes. Peace and Love,
Shaun. |
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| Nothin' but net. |
[Sep. 11th, 2006|12:54 am] |
Right, so I got all my painting done, layed all my floorboards, ran my wiring in the walls, assembled my furniture, put up a buncha shelving and moved into my 'new and improved' bedroom/workspace. All without any of the predicted hernias, concussions or stress-induced breakdowns that I was predicting. Woo! Me. You have no idea how cool it is to have an internet connection again... and to sleep in my own bed... and to be able to work on something that isn't my paleazoic-era laptop.
Anyway, I'm sitting here (Captain Kirk style) amoungst my faux-birch furniture feeling pretty much exhausted; still it was a nice opportunity to do all those things I always want to do but never actually get around to: like alphabetize my CDs and clear out all my old books. Again, going through all this stuff makes me feel OLD, I can't believe I own magazines that talk about 'Will CDs ever really be popular?' Yeesh... I guess the world really does move as fast as all those old dudes say.
Uni's still eating up most of my time, I had to give a presentation on my thesis the other day, and that went pretty well (but hey, I brought alcohol and I made people watch cartoons... what's not to like?) ;) My supervisor ran off to do some acedemic tour of Europe for the next three months, so I'm pretty much on my own from here on out, really I'm not that worried though; it's all trudge-work from here on out... although if anyone has any great references re: videographic gaming theory please shoot them my way I'm still kinda thin in that area. :P
Work aside, life's been pretty mundane; Kristy's B-day was rockin' (and very alcohol soaked) God... shots, shots, shots: one day we'll learn, honest! (probably the same day someone falls off a balcony, but still) ;) I went to the show with a couple of people from uni on Thursday, we walked and saw stuff, and mocked stuff, and grabbed as much free crap as we could, but overall it was pretty much a reminder of how the show hasn't changed in forever. For the first time I didn't even get ONE showbag, although I've gotta admit to be kinda hooked on the Masala tea they sell there, so if I seem tired it's probably just 'cause I've swapped off coffee for a while.
Still reading? God, WHY? I'm even kinda boring myself here. Still, boring is good I guess, and drama is overrated. I've decided that as long as I can drink coffee with my friends, watch a decent DVD every now and then and curl up with a good book at night life is pretty much A-grade. Woo! Now I'm an internet philosopher. Yay... let's be glad I'm not a emo-death-junkie-angst-monkey huh? You ever tried just reading random journals around here? Marylin Manson would cry.
In terms of TV I'm still keeping to my 'one new disc of animation every night' plan, since last entry I finished up 'Full Metal Panic!' (which is a Japanese thing kinda like 'Tom Clancy meets 90210 with giant robots') and 'Niea_7' (which is a Japanese thing kinda like... god I dunno, It has a girl who's roommate is an alien, a pyromaniac and a dope-smoking Indian dude). Anyway, my perspective of reality has been seriously skewed again. I love this stuff, but if I watch too much I get into a mindset where it's hard to look at it objectively, I'm gonna go and watch my way through 'Broken Saints' this week (which is American) so hopefully that'll clear my perspective. On an interesting sidenote all this animation has inspired me to (try and) start drawing again, which is something I haven't done in like, five years. I'm way rusty, but not quite as bad as I thought I would be (maybe about Rolf Harris level) :P If I get obsessive enough maybe I'll sap to deviantart. :P
Right, enough of my stream of conciousness ranting... congrats on reading this far (if you did). Now go do what you're meant to be doing! :P Really have a great day (even if it *is* September 11th... funny how that's almost creepier than Friday 13th huh?) Be good, smile, show some love, do your best and... stuff.
Leaving New York's Never Easy,
Shaun. |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 23rd, 2006|09:48 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | The white room. | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  uncomfortable | ] |
| [ | music |
| | 'Snakes On a Plane (Bring It)'-Cobra Starship | ] |
Phew... I just finished clearing out my room, which means that now I'm sitting in the strange minimimilist environment; seriously, it's just me, a white desk with a keyboard and monitor, a bed (which still has pretty 'You Are Gorgeous' bedsheets) and four white alls (oh, and a window, but it's dark out so it's a black space really). And yeah, I have a mug of coffee, 'cause y'know... I'm me. :P
Anyway, there's no real point to this, I just wanted to write an entry from my own personal Kafka-land. I swear the sound of the keys is echoing in here, but that's got to be my imagination right? Heh... I never imagined that a lack of CD's and DVD's could make me feel so... unprotected.
Anyway, tommorrow I rip up the carpet and go crazy with paint! Wooo! I mean: Uhhh... work. |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 15th, 2006|12:35 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  contemplative | ] |
| [ | music |
| | 'Raspberry Heaven'-Oranges and Lemons | ] |
Hi! Miss Me?
I haven't posted anything on here for ages... partially because off-line life has been keeping me pretty busy, but mostly because I guess I haven't had much to say, or at least nothing that I felt I had to 'share with the world' or whatever I'm ostensibly doing here. Pffftt, if you're even half interested in what I've been doing you probably already know right?
So mostly this is an 'I'm still alive!' entry, although the fact that it's late and I don't feel like working anymore has a pretty huge role to play too. One semester down, one to go... which means I've actually had to *start* my thesis, and now it's sucking my time like a ten-dollar whor... uh, vaccum cleaner. :P
Actually I'm not gonna bitch about uni, 'cause really it's still fun... I've made some friends who I'm comfortable enough to drink tequila with (which is just about all you need to make tertiary education worthwhile, really.) And 90% of my 'research' involes sitting down and watching 'animated entertainment' from around the globe, including all that anime that I love so much! (the other 10% is boring ol' book-learning, but that comes with the territory) In the past few weeks I blitzed my way through 'Galaxy Angel', 'Love Hina' and 'Azumanga Daioh' and they're ALL rockin'! check 'em out if you feel like a laughter filled countercultural buzz! :D
I also cannot overstate just how much I love being a postgrad. The perks are rockin'; a private computer suite and conference room, all you can use ultra-high-speed broadband, the ability to requistion funds for just about whatever you can justify as 'research expenses' (I got into AVCON free this year!) :P It's nice to finally feel like your ideas are taken seriously too; one of the lecturers from Asian studies asked me to look over his lecture on 'Contemporary media in Japan' because I'm obviously a 'niche expert' (oh yeah... I laughed), while the English department is talking about 'publication of papers' now... ohhh! I'm excited! :D
PLUS, I have my first acedemic junket coming up! The University of Queensland is gonna give me a 'travel scholarship' to go over and talk to some of the people in their department about a 'research position'- two days of talk, four days of sun, beachside cocktails and theme parks! Booyah!
Um... In other news, well I turned 24 a few weeks back, felt melancholy for a while as I thought about my youth sliding through the hourglass of history... then I went out with a buncha people, drank some beer and did some kareoke and felt MUCH better (although OWWWWWW! Why can neither I nor ANY of my friends sing? Big props to y'all for getting into it though!) :P My 'giant project' for this period (thesis aside) is renovating my room, I'm tearing out all my furniture that I've had for about 15 years now and redoing *everything* which meant me going down to Ikea and dropping about a $1000 on flatpack. (Do NOT tell me how much alcohol that equates to or I'll cry.) :P Anyway, I found out just how carthitic it is to chuck stuff out. Bring it!
Other stuff I want to do (call it 'Shaun's social wish list'... call me if ya wanna help out!) :)
1) Get out the unibar again and drink a whole lot of beer.
2) Go to the earliest available screening of 'Snakes On a Plane'... because I can already tell it's the greatest movie of my lifetime. Why isn't *everyone* excited?!
3) Do a pile of shots and watch DVD's... let's find a weekend!
4) Drink coffee. Uhhh... I guess I can do that by myself, but company is good too.
Right, and on that optimistic note I'll leave y'all (probably for another half a year... but hopefully not). Maybe next time I'll talk about something intellectual like books or greyscale movies... or not.
Peace, love and good times to all of you,
Shaun. |
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| (Holds up sword) I *HAVE* the *POWER*! |
[Mar. 12th, 2006|10:17 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | contemplative | ] |
| [ | music |
| | 'Always Love'-Nada Surf | ] |
So life is back to what I essentially consider 'normal'; uni has started up again, and I'm back to my standard (and fairly well loved) routine of reading, talking, writing, drinking (coffee) rinsing and repeating.
Anyway, for once I've got an entry here that isn't prompted by guilt and/or boredom- actually it's the result of uni-discussion. We've been talking a lot lately about 'the preservation/memorialisation of memories' and the various ways that people choose to 'solidify' their memories, from the obvious (like taking photos and writing journals) to the less elementary (like writing fiction or making films). Anyway, after reading a bunch about the practice I've gotten kinda hooked on all those strange internet sites that I probably would have mocked mercilesly a week ago... the ones where random people share mundane stories about their workdays and post pictures of their pets for the whole world to see, podcasting in particular now seems fascinating. Often the material conveyed is mundane, but it's obviously important to the producer... and in terms of 'emotional conveyance' it's kinda amazing.
Anyway, the whole thing kinda made me see the 'blogging' phenomina in a whole new light... maybe these things ARE important after all (no, this doesn't mean I'm gonna do daily updates from now on... don't worry) :P
In fact, uni's been pretty awesome in general lately; It gave me and excuse to hang out at Writer's Week down at the memorial gardens just about all week and soak up a dose of (much needed) sun as well as the knowledge; plenty of interesting speakers down there, and I picked up ANOTHER batch of books to check out (just as soon as I finish with the compulsory reading list *sigh*) Tutes have been cool, people are friendly, I actually *know* most of the people in my classes, and I got the supervisor I wanted! :D Yay! The only problem was my thesis on the development of adolescent narrative got vetoed for being 'too derivative' (whatever the hell *that* really means). But I'm not too bugged, because the faculty members I spoke too seemed pretty enthused about my 'back-up' idea of writing about 'narratology in animated productions' (plus hey... that's a total excuse to make watching all those 'Kim Possible' and 'Totally Spies!' *official*) ;)
In other news, I haven't been totally remiss with the Fringe/Festival... Colin Hay (and his funky dancing Peruvian wife) were awesome (thanks again Juanita!) :D O'ball was pretty cool (although it was Waaaaaaay long, someone stole my wedges, we had to watch a couple practically have sex in a flower bed, and I had to leave 2/3 of the way through Little Birdy's set to get home... they were awesome as always though!)
Apart from that, it's mostly been reading, movies, coffee, music and the occasional bout of work... all cool, but perhaps not entirely space-worthy.
Anyway, be good out there and don't forget to love one another (that's just what John Lennon would have wanted!) :P
Shaun.
P.S: 'Crash' totally deserved to win Best Picture... that movie RULES. ;) |
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| (no subject) |
[Feb. 22nd, 2006|11:33 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | amused | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Tammany Hall NYC - 'Cindy' | ] |
Ever start to worry that you're becoming just Waaaaay too lazy?
God, it seems that I NEVER get on here anymore... last time someone asked me to explain my absence I told them sincerely that 'logging in is a pain', WTF? When did I become Shaun the Hutt? Not that I'm ever THAT excited about updating this thing, but god... how do I expect to write a thesis if I can't be assed filling in two fields huh?
Anyway, short version: I'm forcing myself to do this to prove a point. AGAIN.
Life's been 'quietly fun' anyway... it's been O'week down at uni, so in between prelim lectures and running around sorting out a pile of admin paperwork I've been grabbing what free (and mostly useless) stuff I can, sitting around enjoying the discount coffee again and catching up with all those people that you never see unless you're on campus.
Maybe it's the enthusiasm of all those bright-eyed first-years rubbing off on me, but I'm actually kinda excited about this year; I've got a good course, good lecturers and a good text list. I'm pretty sure I know what I'm doin' and how much caffine I'm gonna need to do it. Booyah!
In other good news the thirs season of 'Scrubs' came out on DVD a few days early, So I've had a solid fix of GOOD TV in amoungst the free-to-air wasteland that seems to be prevailing indefinately. Is it wrong that I STILL wanna hug Elliot every time she does ANYTHING? *slaps self* BAD Shaun. It's not sexual I swear! :P That show has great music too... really, thank god I have good taste in TV, otherwise I'd have no taste in ANYTHING (no, not even shirts) :P
In 'near future' events it's O'ball on Saturday, so I get to see Little Birdy for the THIRD time (jeesh, I really like 'em and all, but my concert record is making me look kinda obsessive) ;)
Ok, it's midnight... time to sign off and do something useful... make myself a better person, help the world... or just go and play more Guild Wars... 'cause I can. :P |
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| I'm only happy when it rains, and I only update when I'm sick. |
[Jan. 30th, 2006|06:09 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  sick | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Beni Arashiro-'Call Me, Beep Me!' | ] |
*waves*
Heh... I just realised that if you don't check LJ for a few months, and then read a few pages of entries then the stream of verbage kinda seems to coalesce into something that vaguely resembles a Thomas Pynchon novella… hmmm, ‘group blogging as imaginary realism, and inadvertent genre conformity’… there’s a thesis title for someone out there. :P
Anyway, it’s kinda sad that it’s taken me getting sick to update this thing, nonetheless I guess it’s provided ONE positive to what would otherwise be an ENTIRELY unpleasant bought of food poisoning, so uh… yay? :P
In any case, you haven’t missed much but not being constantly informed about my life; here’s a 30 second rundown for anyone who hasn’t been around to hear me mood-swing in person:
-New Years was great… if you subscribe to Chinese astrology this is MY year, and it’s gonna be fantastic even if I have to take a whole pile of pills to make it so. ;)
-I FINALLY managed to escape the workplace I’ve been moaning about for the past eternity, actually Brian kinda pushed me by selling the place, but the point is I’m FREE at last, it’s been almost a month now and being unemployed still rocks hard. I never get tired of sleeping in and not wearing a tie. :D
-Lotsa cool social stuff, Glenelg was cool, Schutzenfest was cool, Oz day was cool,coffee is cool, movies are cool, alcohol is cool. Yay! Thanks to everyone who’s given me reason to get out of the house.
Other cool developments include the end of the break in US TV schedules, so I can continue downloading *decent* TV again to counteract the horribleness of what streams in through my own set. Also Disney decided to bring ‘Kim Possible’ back from the dead with a forth season, so a major “BooYah!” there (really, that kinda like announcing that Buffy season 8 is coming soon… be excited for me people!) ;)
Uhh… and now I feel kinda tired and kinda queasy again… and I wanna lie down and feel sorry for myself. For gods sake someone bring me an antacid! :P
In sickness and in health,
Sajan. |
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| Graduation and shot-politics. |
[Dec. 21st, 2005|05:21 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | accomplished | ] |
| [ | music |
| | 'Feel So Free'-Ivy | ] |
Wooooo! Another 'end of an era' day today; I put on my black 'cultist' robes and stupid hat and went down to uni to graduate (again). Again the giant-snake was a no-show, which was kinda a let down 'cause I really wanted to use my makeshift hair-spray flamethrower on *something* y'know? But the Hogwarts type atmosphere made up for it; if anything it was cooler than last year because I knew what to do this time round (plus they've actually installed air-conditioning in Elder Hall now, thank god so there was lots less sweat.) :D Anyway, chatting, coffee, lotsa photos and plenty of whining about next year ensured... yay! :D
Adding to the excitement, on the way back I stopped by the post-office and got a letter telling me that my English Honours application was approved... not anything that I didn't already 'unofficially' know, but it's nice to have the piece of paper... I love it when things go as planned! :D
Everyone's pretty much already heard about Juanita's place... it was an awesome night (mainly 'cause I feel like I hardly get to see you guys anymore... *sob*) :P I have to make ONE point though; after trolling the internet (briefly) most people seem to agree that '100 shots of beer in 100 minutes' is a fine achievement... the only thing is, they define a 'shot' as an fluid OUNCE of liquid (that's about 28.5 mls)on the night in question, we were using 60ml shot glasses, I did somewhere between 70 and 80 shots, while Kristy did somewhere between 30 and 40... that means I SMASHED the 'standard' amount, and Kristy probably came damn close. Not that I want to condone binge-drinking or any form of alcohol consumption, but that is MOTHERF*&KING HARDCORE S#^T and we deserve to worshipped as GODS!!
Uhhh... or not. Whatever.
Carols by Candlelight was cool too, if somewhat twee... I don't have much to add to what's been said: I had the most ridiculously overpriced and CRAP Nachos EVER (uhhh... Bolognaise is NOT an acceptable substitute for salsa... am I alone on this?) :P And the highlight for me was the nameless Port-river Dolphin that wanted to be a raindeer... mainly 'cause it was just strange.
Oh, and it turns out I'm gonna be unemployed soon... Brian has FINALLY announced his intention to retire, handing the business over to it's new operators in mid January; I'm not sure if they're be an opportunity for me to stay on yet, but I already told Brian that I'd leave too, if I don't get out now I can see myself stagnating in this cess-pit of mediocrity forever, and dammit I'm just too YOUNG to give up on life! :P Anyway... if anyone knows of a small independant chocolate/alcohol factory that's hiring people called Shaun, lemme know huh? :P
Right... so that's life, at least as I know it. I'm off to try and feel merry or something... *shakes snowglobe*... damn, guess I'll have to find ANOTHER way... ;)
Shaun. |
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| Bad Shaunta. |
[Dec. 13th, 2005|01:47 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | working | ] |
| [ | music |
| | That's Me Trying'-William Shatner and Aimee Mann | ] |
Again I'm gonna plead 'busyness' as my principal reason for not getting much wordage on here; Christmas is a total time sucker... everyone busts out of uni, and suddenly there's this big 'social explosion' and you find yourself perpetually stuck away from home, at the mercy of every tect message that flies across the void. Perhaps I should buy myself a notebook computer, so I could use my fancy inbuilt cellular modem to write these on the bus, then again I think that might be a step into geekdom that even *I'm* not willing to take... and I still ocasionally get persuaded to play tabletop RPGs. :P
Anyway, this entry comes to you from my lunch break at work; Brian is actually away, having gone into hospital a few days ago for a double hernia operation... he still calls and rants down the phone periodically though, so his painkillers can't be working that well, or at least not well enough for ME. ;P Bless his little aging heart though, get well soon boss!
As I mentioned, it's been something of a social maelstrom lately, so I'll just highlight some of the cooler / unusual things I've been up to:
Archery: is fun! Also, it is quite hard; my personal claim to fame was that I wa the only attendee to actually permantly lose arrows (two in fact). It was kinda like a bushwalk with ocasional simulated violence against wildly assorted artificial animals (ducks and carribou included) Peter is scary-good... he's like Legolas, only with a cooler looking bow and more hair (keep it going man! The beard rules!)
Movies: lotsa them; the Original 'Swept Away' was a laugh riot, a laugh riot WITH sodomy! :P Uh... if you find that kinda thing funny, it's better than the version with Madonna though (although, isn't that true EVERY time she's invlved with something?) :P Although just about everyone I saw 'Shop Girl' with didn't like it, I was kinda a fan... it was nice, quiet and it kept my attention, meh; what more could you want from a romantic comedy? It was certainly better than the drivilling mass of 'Prime' which totally relied on one of those plots that are dependant on all the principal characters being moronic. 'Kiss Kiss Bang Bang' is my pick for best film of the holiday season (out of the one's I've seen anyway) It's like a modern pulp-detective story with a total overdose of black comedy, go see it, really... NOW. Val Kilmer needs the money. :P
Carols: almost make me like christmas again, I had lunch with my friend Ali, then went down to the state library to see her and my other friend Cassia sing for a few hours; those guys are good at what they do; they almost made me feel bad for negelecting to do anything remotely christmassy so far.
Parties: A few, although they seem to be dying down in intensity; I had to drive to David's 22nd, so I couldn't really drink; but that didn't stop a trio of drunk guys from picking me up and throwing my fully-clothed ass in the swimming pool... that woulda been fine, only my car keys fell out of my pocket and got caught in the pool filter... I had to get Alexis to drive me home to get a spare set of keys so I could drive my car back... on the way back the exhaust pipe detached from my car... I just paid $200 today for a new one. Other than that though... all good, alcoholic slussies are fantastic this time of year! (plus only 7% alcohol, so you can have lots!) :D
Coffee: Too many to count, more often than I should... keep calling me though people; you know there's no limit to how much I can chat while I'm drinkin' the stuff! :P
Right... so I could say more, about work and how annoying brats keep ringing up to ask about the King-Kong game, or about how my stalker sent me the creepiest christmas card ever, or how I love Veronica Mar, and can't wait for the season to finish up on TV so I can rant about it with everyone without spoiler-problems...
But, I gotta get back to work. :/ Many hugs and giggles anyway,
Shaun. |
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| God loves a holiday. |
[Dec. 3rd, 2005|07:47 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | chipper | ] |
| [ | music |
| | 'Away'-Leroy | ] |
Ok, so I'm back... in fact I've been back for a few days now. You know what's it's like though, holidays are exhausting experiences... ya need to take time off afterwards to recover. :P
Anyway, I had a fantastic week: we walked up Mount Remarkable, Played a buncha tennis and basketball (plus lotsa cards and board games) hung out at the pub, watched a heap of movies and TV, slept in, went down to beach, sat around barbeques drinking wine and stuff like that. 'twas awesome, really.
While the lack of GSM coverage in the Flinders ranges meant I was pleasantly incommunicado, it DID mean that I had this scary-huge pile of messages when I got back... most of them were work-related, again confirming my indispensibility. Unfortunately that didn't save me from having to pull some MAJOR hours when I got back... I hate backlogs, and I'm really NOT looking forward to the Christmas rush... extra hours = extra money, but it'd be nice to just be able to ENJOY Christmas for once ya know?
Right, so I'm back... consider me back in the loop and all that. Now, who wants to drink something? ;P
Shaun. |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 25th, 2005|12:09 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | busy | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Brilliant Green- 'It's Up to You' | ] |
I'm lazy and I don't REALLY wanna update, 'cause I have so many other things to do... like pack, and listen to music, and pack, and play stupid web flash-games (right now it's 'Swan's Room' at http://mofuya.com/flash/swan_en.htm, and if anyone can figure out how to get out of the damn room you'll have at least a week worth of respect from me) oh yeah... and pack.
Anyway, I'm all finished up with uni now... no more essays, exams, posters, seminars, tutorials, lectures, thumbscrews or other forms of diabolicalness... lemme tell ya, it feels gooooooood! I kinda went on a 'mad social binge' as soon as I got out, saw a few movies (some better than others... ask me about 'The Bitter Tea of General Yen' sometime) ;) drank a buncha coffee, didn't drink much alcohol, played some basketball, helped out a few other people with assignments (which is actually kinda carthitic if they're not yours) applied for yet ANOTHER year of uni (Wooo! Honours! *cries*) :P And now I'm setting up for a week in the Flinders Ranges with a buncha people from uni (if I never update again, you can imagine my fate to be as Evil Dead / Cabin Fever as you like) :P
In other news, my boss is still being a dork... he yelled at me for not fixing his ordering error a few days ago, then apologised 10 minutes later because he 'wasn't being fair'... then the next day he noticed again and yelled again. I wanna buy him a new brain for christmas. My car is still soaking up money like a sponge... now it needs a total overhaul of the cooling system, 'cause the radiator is full of oxidisation, and the hose flanges are... *insert mechanical rant* anyway, I might need to sell a kidney; between this and my dad's birthday next week I'm mondo-broko.
Broadband still rules... I downloaded a pile of 'Samurai Pizza Cats' the other day- Ha! It's animation-perfection! :D
Ummm... yeah, so seeya all later! Hang in there everyone, it's almost 2006! :D
Much coffeelove,
Shaun. |
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| The Dark Ages of Me. |
[Nov. 8th, 2005|04:19 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | numb | ] |
| [ | music |
| | 'Like a Man Possessed'-The Get Up Kids | ] |
I'm currently in the middle of my English take-home exam... actually it's kinda stupid to call it an 'exam' when we have 3 days to do it (and access to as much coffee as we can afford), but I'm still ticked-off (at least as ticked as my numb psyche can manage) 'cause I've *literally* been stitting at this desk for 3 days straight now, and I just wanna have a break, but I can't until I've finished this AND done another 4000 words worths of Anthropology by next monday. *random moaning*
So you can suffer with me, here are some question samples:
1. Relate ONE element (i.e., not all four) of Baudrillard’s concept of the simulacrum to any one text’s construction of the Middle Ages.
5. Some texts we have studied seem confused about what genre they belong to, or even stage conflict between genres that would seem to oppose each other. What relationship does this confusion have with any single text’s projection of “the medieval”?
7. What would you say about the claim that any given female character in an otherwise male-dominated text is the primary site of “the medieval” as projected by that text?
Blah blah bliddy-blah... I have to write on ELEVEN questions like that. There.is.not.enough.coffee.in.the.WORLD.
Why can't I live in a cheesy TV-drama where my biggest worry is finding out I'm my mother's brother? :P |
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| I Lie in the Sound... |
[Nov. 2nd, 2005|12:45 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  silly | ] |
| [ | music |
| | 'Move ALong'-The All American Rejects | ] |
Ok... this is the lamest update ever, but since I'm online anyway and just a tiny bit drunk on crappy cask-wine, I figured I'd type some random crap anyway; you see, I've been sitting in this chair for about 6 hours now, sipping wine eating chocolate and assorted fruit (mainly to offset the chocolate guilt) and watching random episodes of One Tree Hill that I pulled off the internet, god it's major-melodrama but it GETS TO ME. I finished watching the season 2 premiere about 10 minutes ago and I only JUST stopped crying, 'cause dammit if all that crap about Hayley worrying about her and Nathan CD's, and then getting married wasn't just TOO beautiful, and dammit if Barry Corbin isn't as fantastic as ever, he gives the whole shoddy enterprise the lack the cred it needs.
Ok, drunk ramble over. Chill it peeps! ;) |
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| Happy Halloween yo! |
[Oct. 31st, 2005|03:31 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | artistic | ] |
| [ | music |
| | The Devlins-'Five Miles To Midnight' | ] |
Yup... I'm still not dead. Although my LJ really is, I really WANT to blame it's deadness on me being so ridiculously busy/popular that I just can't squeeze updating into my life, but y’all know that’d be lying… actually the busy part isn’t, I feel like work and uni are having some sort of grisly tug of war over my heart, mind and soul… really they just fight over my time; which then gets spent insulting my boss at work and procrastinating at uni. Not exactly ‘Platoon’-level epicness there.
Anyway; instead of my usual missive about how I stayed up ‘til o’zillion in the morning writing some essay about whatever emmy-nominated HBO flop is finally on TV here four years after it was cancelled in the US, I’m gonna ‘help the community’ by snarking out some reviews of all the televisual material that I’ve watched/suffered through under the guise of ‘learning’ during the last 6 months… that seems kinda appropriate, since this crap has consumed my life, plus it’s Waaaaaaaaay more interesting than reading about whatever cool event or coffee/alcohol drinking session you were actually AT now, isn’t it?
Right, so without furthur ado… Shaun and Shaun… at the movies (and the TV):
The Animatrix: Remember the days when you could slap ‘Matrix’ on anything and confer instant mass appeal? Then they made those two sequels and while lots of money was raked in, the world woke up to the fact that the whole thing was a cash-cow just like the Star Wars prequels and the ‘cool’ disappeared. Oh well. ‘The Animatrix’ was produced in the space between the first and second film and received a limited theatrical release right before ‘Reloaded’ came out. The ‘project’ is actually a collection of 9 short animated films, and they’re certainly a mixed bag, some are absolutely stunning, while others look like cheap Yu-Gi-Oh! Knockoffs, some of the stories are haunting, others defy comprehension. It’s fascinating as an experiment, and if you like your animation as art then you’ll love it, but I wouldn’t say it’s ‘entertainment’ per-se. ***
Bratz: Oh. My. God. When I was in Blockbuster looking for ‘research material’ and I saw this movie, I couldn’t resist (there’s something about the promise of unadulterated badness that draws me, moth-like towards my own destruction) :P Well, I wasn’t disappointed… imagine the four most vapid people you ever knew, made into social heroes by the insane machinations of an equally vapid plot. Essentially it’s a touching story of four ‘popular-girls’ on a sacred mission to dodge their schoolwork, shop as much as possible and ‘save the prom’… it’s only 65 minutes long but I was clawing at my eyes after 20. Burn a copy today and guarantee your place in heaven. *
The Incredibles: I remember when this one came out in cinemas, I remember being put off by the annoying kiddie-level advertising campaign, the ridiculous quantity of tie-in merchandising and the fact that I figured it was Disney’s attempt to cash in on the Superhero craze that seemed so ubiquitous at the time, Actually I regret not getting out to see this one now, considering it’s both well-written and visually amazing; I can only imagine how impressive this would be on a cinema screen. Despite the fact that it manages to hit (or parody) just about every cliché of the genre, it’s a film with a lot of heart, and really I’ll applaud just about anything that manages to get me to actually sympathize with the ‘good guys’ these days. ****1/2
Kingdom of Heaven: Pleasantly surprising; while I have great respect for Ridley Scott’s earlier work (I don’t care what anyone says, ‘Bladerunner’ is GREAT dammit!) :P After ‘Gladiator’ I lost my faith… KoH is actually much the same in terms of intrinsic plot elements, but here everything is done better, both in terms of the acting, and the production itself. Historically it’s pretty divergent from the truth… but really that’s an excuse to throw in a buncha battle-scenes and a somewhat trite ‘religious tolerance is good’ theme to the film. Great visuals and good fun though. ***1/2
Lilo and Stitch: I think this is one of those Disney films that just didn’t saturate the public consciousness the way most of them do, maybe it’s because it doesn’t look like a ‘traditional’ Disney production, or maybe it’s because the story is such a patchwork of ideas, genres and themes. Personally I loved nearly everything about this one, the backgrounds are beautiful hand drawn matte, and the characters are shaded cells drawn in the same ‘inflated’ style that gives you the feeling that the whole production is one of those giant picture-heavy storybooks brought to life, huge props to the writers too, for having the guts to present some moral ambiguity, a ‘broken’ family AND realistically proportioned characters. The sci-fi elements seem kinda ‘tacked-on’ and the constant Elvis references are a shameless marketing device, but check this one out anyway. ****
The Lion King: You’ve all seen it, I know, and it’s a ‘classic’… but I gotta say, the more times I watch this film, the more I find things to criticize about it. From the irritating light/dark dichotomy (why the hell is Scar the only lion with a black mane? Aren’t he and Mufasa supposed to be brothers?) And the fantastically simple (and dubious) reasoning behind the politics of the Savanna, it’s hard to enjoy if you so much as scratch the veneer of cheeriness. Does anyone really think the songs are all that either? *1/2
Love Hina: The Japanese do animation (and storytelling) like no-one else; to be honest most ‘anime’ goes over my head, while I’d be the first person to say that mixing a high-school drama series with a show about giant killer robots is a recipe for success, I’ve yet to see an actualization of the idea that I’m happy with. ‘Love Hina’ however is a gem, there are no battle-robots, instead we get to follow the story of Kentaro, a 20 year old slacker who’s desperately been trying to pass the entry exam for the prestigious Tokyo University for the past 3 years. His grandma calls him over one weekend, and he ends up appointed as manager of an all-girls dormitory (as you do). It’s hard to describe the appeal of this show, it’s a mix of over-the-top comedy, less over-the-top drama and frantic action, and yet somehow it manages the hit the ‘feel’ of jumping through the hoops at university almost flawlessly (plus the theme song is funnier than a whole season of ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’) :P ****1/2
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2004 series): Woah! This was more shocking than anything else; the turtles have gone seriously hardcore since I watched them as a kid, they have this ‘hard-edged angles’ visual style now that (along with their totally white eyes) makes them seem more ‘adult’, plus in the episode I saw Shredder actually got DECAPITATED. Yikes. It’s certainly not genius, but the boys in green are still more watchable than most of the Saturday morning dreck. ***
Heh… look at that, I’ve hardly scratched the surface, and look at all those words… I’d finish chronicling everything, but that would require a cut… and frankly I can’t be stuffed… besides this way I can do more next time! :D Betcha can’t wait. :P
Stay sane and Happy Halloween,
Sajun. |
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| C'mon! It'll be Fuuuuuuunnnn... |
[Oct. 7th, 2005|07:46 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  bouncy | ] |
| [ | music |
| | 'Looking At the World From the Bottom of a Well'-M Doughthy | ] |
Yo Yo!
Life continues... I am busy. Uni continues to simultaniously be a thorn in my side, a pain in my arse and a gun to my head. Even so, I do ocasionally manage to score some time off to uncork the increasingly volitile bottle of emotion that I've become, props and thanks to everyone who's helped me out there too! :D
Ok, so here's a plan for an event: Last light Juanita handily informed me that Royal Crown Revue were currently touring Australia, and in fact they're due to stop in at Adelaide next Thursday (that's the 13th) at the Governor Hindmarsh Hotel.
Anyway... I'm excited and I wanna go... but I also want company (and maybe a buncha people to yell 'We Love You Jonathan!' with me. :P So if you've got a spare $42 and a night off, BE THERE! :D (tickets for this one are through Venuetix)
Ok... that ends the advertisement, and this entry; now back to my medieval essay-writing torture, cry for me people. :P
Shaun. |
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|
| I am the Joy and the Laughter... |
[Sep. 18th, 2005|10:10 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | ditzy | ] |
| [ | music |
| | 'Pray For the Girls'-Frank Black. | ] |
I'm gonna update 'on the fly' again, 'cause seeing everyone else's entries has me feeling major-stupid-guilty, so I'll slap down a few words so that the world (or just you) know what's happenin' in the never ending whirligig of fun that is 'Shaun's Life'. :P
Ummm, right... so I'm busy, like REALLY busy, uni is the single most sadistic social organisation on the planet; in theory I'm on 'break' as of now, but in order to ensure that we don't have actual FUN they seem to have taken sadistic pleasure in assigning a gargantuan pile of reading and assignments to be crunched through in my ‘time off’. Even worse my boss actually NOTICED the ‘break’ this year and decided that I should ‘catch up’ on the (digital) paperwork in the office too *sigh* I’m thinking about taking a lethal weapon (maybe a crossbow or flamethrower) to work… maybe I’d get some of that R.E.S.P.E.C.T. that they kept talking about back in the 60’s.
Ummm… so I haven’t been really very social lately, Kristy’s B-day was really cool (but then any occasion involving Mexican food gets full stars from me, even if it involves bioterrorism) :P It was a nice cushion to the ‘blow’ of leaving teenagehood behind though, right? ;D
On Thursday the social-mess of my calander actually came together surprisingly coherently (despite the fact that I was double, triple or maybe even quadrupled booked on that day seemingly) anyway it seemed like I met with or ran into just about every person I know… me, Juanita and Frank saw this pretty cool French film ‘The Beat My Heart Skipped’, which was kinda like ‘Rent’ meets ‘Shine’ if you can imagine that. There was lotsa coffee, some burritos and cool conversation anyway… if you weren’t there, you shoulda been! :P
On Friday I had movie night at Tim’s house which was kinda scary since everyone who rocked up was married… it was ok though, ‘cause me and Penny sat on the sidelines and snapped of wry slams at the expense of traditional family values, we watched this anime movie ‘Kiki’s Delivery Service’ which was pleasant enough, although totally twee, and then ‘Shark Tale’ which was totally twee, but pleasant enough. :P
Yesterday was my Cousin Erin’s 11th Birthday, so we did the ‘family’ thing and went down to that, I was kinda dreading it, but my Grandma didn’t show up, and Erin’s a cool kid, so it was a nice enough afternoon. I got her a pile of ‘Powerpuff Girls’ comic books (after buying a bunch of the DVD’s earlier and being told by my mother that she already had them *groan*) Anyway we sat down and laughed at them together… comic books rule! :P
Ya know what else rules? The Powerpuff Girls! :P Once again, serendipity has dumped another great TV show for me to plug… I’d never even seen an episode until those inadvertently bought DVD’s fell into my lap, and uhhh… now I’m kinda hooked. I know I totally missed the fad, but I totally GET it now at least… the stupid advertisers made this look like something that was aimed at kindergarteners when really it’s totally funny and smart… Mojo Jojo is the most hilarious monkey ever! Ummm… And I’m gonna shut up before I get put in a white room somewhere. :P
Yeah… so that’s my piece, hope you’re all good and chock full of sanity… I’m off to read more Umberto Eco… and stain his pages with my tears. :P
And once more the day is SAVED! Thanks to… UNI! Remember kids: you can’t get hurt if you can’t have FUN! ;)
Shaun. |
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| *sobs* |
[Sep. 10th, 2005|11:42 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  aggravated | ] |
| [ | music |
| | 'Strawberryfire'-Apples In Stereo | ] |
Ok… so it’s been ages since I posted, and now I’m gonna break the silence with this quiz that’s been doin’ viral-type rounds recently. I suck. Anyway, life’s been good; just WAAAAAAY too busy for my liking (it’d be ok if ANY of it were social as opposed to draconian uni/work demands) *sigh* Ah well… I’ll put up something meaningful soon. Sanity permitting of course. :P
1) Quote from nearest book to you:
"…and after they had eaten all the bird carcasses and all the unclean animals they could find, there was a rumor in the village that somebody was beginning to dig up the dead…”
That’s from ‘The Name of the Rose’ by Umberto Eco, and it makes the book sound a LOT more interesting than it is. Trust me. :P
2) Quote from nearest CD insert:
Nearest? *gulp* ok…
“…Melissa Joan Hart would like to thank: My best friend James, my mother for her 22 years of support, my dad…”
That’s from the ‘Sabrina the Teenage Witch’ soundtrack album… uhh… points for honesty? :P
3) Quote from nearest piece of paper written on by you:
God… “ ‘Darshan’: Auspicious sight – vision of/closeness to the divine (Heuristic device in social conception of religion?)”
That’s from a pile of my REALLY boring uni lecture notes, be glad I didn’t quote more. :P
4) Quote from nearest piece of paper that was written to you:
“Shaun – BITE ME! -David Fury”
Yeah, that my ‘signed script’ thing that I got from the Con, I still haven’t figured out where to put it or what to do with it.
5) Quote from something on your desk:
Umm… I dunno, I have an ‘I *heart |
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| Screensavers for peace, puppies and your amusement |
[Aug. 20th, 2005|08:06 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | gloomy | ] |
| [ | music |
| | 'Naked As We Came'-Iron and Wine | ] |
It’s been a slow day, I blew off work to chill at home and ended up feeling guilty about my recent lack of academic motivation, so I’ve spent the last 6 hours reading about and writing a critique of some guy who analyses the architecture of convents to make deductions about ‘the inherent nature of nuns’ *sigh* I wish I could at least PRETEND I was interested.
Anyway, this is a brief bout of procrastination expressed in literary form; lucky you, it’s like you’re ALL part of my boredom vicariously. :P The day hasn’t been all bad, I stumbled across this cover of ‘Nobody Does It Better’ by Aimee Mann which both makes me giggle (‘cause really I always thought Aimee was fairly antithetical to all things Bond-related) and is supremely pleasing to my ears, plus it finally kicked ‘Rocket Man’ out of my head, so I’m feeling mentally relieved.
Oh and hey, speaking of net-randomness I’m not usually one to plug random websites or good causes; but this one caught my attention; there’s an organization called ‘United Devices’ which has developed a program that puts your computers spare time to good use by allowing you to download a screensaver that helps to solve large scale scientific problems, so essentially while you’re not using your computer it sits and helps find cures for cancer, smallpox or whatever.
Anyway, I think it’s a fantastic and zero-cost contribution to global wellbeing (plus it looks really cool) :P check out www.ud.com to read up and participate.
Ok, that’s the end of the community-service announcement, my laziness… and this entry.
Nobody does it half as good as you,
Shaun. |
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