bennet_7

Once again I have totally failed to go to bed at a decent time.

But! Check this out! It's Mental Floss's "22 Fascinating and Bizarre Classes Offered This Semester". Choosing just four I'd like to take is hard but I've narrowed my ideal course load down to:

Wordplay: A Wry Plod from Babel to Scrabble at Princeton University

Obsessed with Words With Friends? If you’re at Princeton, you’ll almost certainly enjoy this class, where students will “challenge one another to games of Scrabble and Boggle, and enjoy the ‘Princeton dimension’ of the whole enterprise.”

“Oh, Look, a Chicken!” Embracing Distraction as a Way of Knowing at Belmont University

Not only does it have an amazing name, “Oh, Look, a Chicken!” has the best course description I’ve ever read:

“Oh, look, a Chicken”….This course will pursue ways of knowing through embracing [little ants, carrying a morsel of food across the table] what it means to be a distracted [I could sure enjoy a peanut butter sandwich right now] learner as well as [OMG--I get to go to the beach this summer] developing an awareness [I need to trim my fingernails] of one’s senses. The instructor teaches in the school of music, [do I hear water dripping?] so there will be an element related to that woven [spiders are amazing] into the course. [oh, it's the fish tank behind me] Those registering for this section may even learn to juggle [I'll be right down, I just have to finish this...what was I working on?].

Physics for Future Presidents at UC Berkeley

Planning to fill Obama’s shoes one days? Then you better check out this course, which will make you well-versed in topics like spy satellites, medical imaging, nuclear weapons and energy conservation.

How to Watch Television at Montclair State

Has that big screen in your living room always perplexed you? Flummoxed by the little rectangle that seems to control its every image and sound? Sorry to say, this class isn’t going to help. Despite its title, “How to Watch Television” is really about analyzing the medium and evaluating TV’s impact on our lives.



What would your semester schedule look like in an ideal world?

I've been busy trying to balance work and university lately. Right now I'm tutoring a bunch of high school kids in various subjects, including helping one girl in a period of history that I myself have never formally studied. So I have to spend time teaching myself so that I can then teach her. It's nuts.

And it's not like I don't already have more than enough material to study for my honours as it is. I'm so busy researching the short essays that I haven't really touched my thesis for the last four weeks. But I'm starting to get a good handle on it so hopefully I'll be able to work on it soon. As long as I stick to my schedule I should be ok.

Having said that, I had intended to start an essay or at least plan it out today and I didn't get round to it. But I did a whole bunch of stuff around the house so that's ok-ish. Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow...

(Not a reference that really works in this context but it is late. I apologise.)

I still find time to watch TV and you know what I quite like? 10 Things I Hate About You. It's proved to be charming and quite clever at times. And I really like Kat. She decides to do things based on how feminist it will be and how it will impact on the environment. She's probably the most feminist character on TV right now. I find Bianca kind of irritating, think Cameron and Michael are just creepy, and Patrick just needs to talk more, but Kat's pretty awesome and I wish more female characters were depicted as actually being feminist and caring about these issues.

On the weekend I talked my mother out of seeing The Ugly Truth because I was kind of disgusted just by the trailer. I'm really sick of Hollywood portraying successful business women as cold abrasive shrews (last month there was another such character in The Proposal too) incapable of forming romantic relationships without a man to teach them how. A well done mentor/lover or opposites attract story can be very entertaining but when you rely on lazy characterisation, no matter how charming the actors, you are still perpetuating a stereotype. And not only is that bad for women, but it's damn boring too.

You can say that I'm taking something that's meant to be light entertainment too seriously. I do do that sometimes. But this issue gets my hackles up.

Sometimes I think I should have done Media Studies.

I have not updated in ages which is so weird because I check LJ practically everyday. But for me LJ is about escapism and I don't much care to rehash the boring details of my life when I could be finding new David Tennant picspams to drool over, searching for that perfect Pushing Daisies fanfic, or popping in on bat shit crazy fandoms like Twilight to point and laugh (They're so earnest and pissed off - it's great (am I being mean? I think I am).

Anyway, here is what is new with me:

1. University is over until March next year. My exams weren't great and I haven't checked out my results yet. I'm hoping that my class work will help me maintain my HDs but I'll probably get knocked down to Distinctions which will suck but I suck at exams and that's life.

2. I'm going to Egypt next year for about two weeks. I'm really excited but I'm going by myself (I'm doing an 8 day tour when I get there but I will be on my own for several days) and so that excitement is heavily tinged with nervousness. But it's all booked and paid for (except for two nights accommodation in Alexandria - any recommendations, let me know!) so there's no backing out now. Plus I've been wanting to do this since I was 7.

3. I just can't believe that the writers strike is still going on. I thought it would be sorted by now.

4. We have a new Prime Minister in Australia! And we're ratifying Kyoto! Our days being America's lap dog are over! Go us!

5. TV-wise, I'm loving Cranford and Top Gear (thank hypothetical deities for the BBC!) After ten episodes of not watching Moonlight but being a member of a Moonlight community I finally watched Moonlight. It's terribly cheesy but I kinda like it and you can actually see it improving.

Finally, I am not a fan of Jack Black. But every time I watch this trailer, I not only laugh, I feel happy and hopeful. Maybe it's the magical powers of Mos Def and Michel Gondry working to tone down Jack Black's Jack Blackness. Whatever it is, I can't wait for this film which looks to be not only good but great.

Subtitle: Why am I the only one celebrating International Talk Like a Pirate Day?

I haven't updated in ages because University, like the sea, is a cruel mistress. Me classes have been keel-hauling me and me work in the galley has left me plum tuckered out.

(Christ I'm awful at this pirate business. Anyway...)

Because of this, I've been a bit blue (like the sea), but haven't wanted bore ye all with me existential angst.

Recently, the wind has changed and I've become a land lubber for two weeks while the good ship University is in the dry docks. I've many an assignment to do, so it's not much of a holiday, but it's still put a smile on me dial.

(Seriously: Ben=worst pirate talker ever Y/N?)

Here is me top way to fight off the mid-semester blues (other than with a sword and a pistol of course! Arrrgh!):

Watching Flight of the Conchords clips on YouTube



Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros.

Howls of derisive laughter!

( More beneath tha waves )

Guaranteed to put the wind back in your sails!

Arrrgh!

Hey there everyone. I'm posting from the megalab at uni. My first lecture only lasted an hour when it was supposed to go for three and I have some time to kill before I learn about killing French people (Thermidorian reaction this week).

I always feel slightly uncomfortable when I go on lj in such a public place but looking around I can see that at least half of the people here are on myspace so I'm in poor company.

I've been so busy lately with school and the new job, but most of my assignments are out of the way now which is good.

---

And now for something completely different.

Does anyone have a cover of Cheap Trick's "I want you to want me" that is not by Letters to Cleo, Chris Isaak, Lindsay Lohan or The Pucks? I'm looking for a version with an indie/alternative vibe going on for a fan mix I'm making (Kelly and Ryan from The Office have completely eaten my brain. Love them).

Secondly, can someone direct me to a user friendly mp3 editor? Preferably a free one. I have this live track with a sound check at the beginning that annoys me greatly and I'd like to cut it if possible.

If you're feeling a little down, may I suggest you head over to boysofculttv where there are many delightful picspams of the men from our favourite TV shows leaning against things. Not entirely safe for work as the Jamie-Bamber-in-a-towel-pics are in a couple - not that that is ever a bad thing.

I watched the first episode of the new Robin Hood and was not impressed. It does feature Richard Armitage (Mr Thornton from the recent North and South) but he's actually kind of fugly in this. I'll keep watching for a couple more eps because it is unintentionally funny.

Finally, please oh please universe, let the rumors about John Krasinski and Renee Zellsquintsalot be not true.

So I haven't updated in a while. Pesky tertiary education asked to be paid some attention and I've been doing end of year assignments. Sleepless nights, headaches and existential angst - and I'm paying for the priviledge.

( More on school, life, turning 19 and the first of many interesting facts about genocide that I have recently learned )

I wish I'd never seen the film Alexander, Oliver Stone's 'vision' of one of history's greatest leaders. The film gets a lot of the history right but unfortunately they cast Colin Farrell as Alexander. He is devoid of the charisma that the real Alexander had and had to have in order to achieve what he did.

And as I write this essay on  Alexander the Great, I can't get Colin Farrell in a terrible blond wig out of my head. The film has warped my perception of this amazing historical figure.

Boo.

Was back at uni today. I spent $85 on just one book. I also paid my amenities fee and got my parking permit.

My class today was Practical Writing which is one of my core units for my minor in editing. The handbook is just filled with typos. 

That's how I like my irony served.

I went to yoga class tonight but I was really tight having not been for a couple of weeks. Feel great now.


Commander in Chief started tonight. It's the new political drama staring Gena Davis as the first female president of the U.S.

As The West Wing is my second favourite TV show of all time, I couldn't help but compare the two, and of course, Commander in Chief came out lacking. The first ep was ok but I wasn't immediately hooked. It may get better.

The acting was...not that great. Even Davis, who won a Golden Globe for the role, failed to convince me of her character. I guess she grows into the role. She certainly didn't enter the room proclaiming "'I am the lord your God'" which was a pretty awesome introduction to Jed Bartlett.

Comparing it to The West Wing again, I've decided to call Vince  'Beardless!Toby' even though he is nowhere near as awesome as Toby.

And I shall be calling Ever Carradine's character (my god she looks like her dad) 'Crying girl!Sam'.

The actors who play Davis' children annoyed me and I really couldn't believe it when the son said "Have a sense of history!" to his sister. No teenage boy says that.

And on that note, the dialogue was...well it wasn't written by Aaron Sorkin that's for sure. Sorkin's dialogue is fantastic. It's witty, it's intelligent and it immediately establishes character. The dialogue in Commander definitely needed the 'Sam Seaborn polish'.

Two of the many things I love about TWW are the music and the set. I adore the score. The theme piece is so inspiring. The music for Commander was just generic orchestral stuff that was decidedly uninspiring.

When they entered the Oval Office for the first time I immediately said to my mother "It looks wrong." The set for The West Wing is beautiful. Not seeing Mrs Landingham's finger paintings in the outer office (I've been re-watching season one of TWW) was such a disapointment. The set for Commander is fine, though we didn't get to see much of the White House and it'll probably change for the next ep for such is the way of pilots.

The thing that will bring me back to Commander in Chief next week is Donald Sutherland. I liked him as the bad guy, though I thought his stunt at the end was cheap. It seemed like his accent was all over the place but he had great presence.

The verdict? I wouldn't bother downloading it if you don't get it in your country. However, I'd rather watch it than anything Jerry Bruckheimer has to offer on TV. It lacked the neccessary emotional resonance needed to impact upon the audience and hook them in. It wasn't really that interesting.

But in the end, I may just get out my West Wing tapes (yes I have the first season on TAPE! I got it for my 15th birthday. While everyone else my age was watching Dawson's a Creep I was watching The West Wing. I'm a huge geek) and enjoy that instead.