William, you are a god. Your sister is very nice too. :)
Arrived around 11PM on the 22nd, picked up by Shawn (good thing too...they don't have...ummm....addresses here). Thank god for having him here--his command of Arabic is fairly basic, but he's gotten to know some people and is good enough to not get ripped off as much as the normal whitey. I'm stealing the wireless from somewhere else and a roomate's computer to write this.
What have I done so far? Walked around downtown a fair bit (where the apartment is), eaten lots of fun food, smoked shisha (big part of the culture here...coffee/tea and shisha shops all over the place), gone on a ferry down the Nile, had dinner with William's sister Maggie and Shawn last night, and today (when it rained!) went to the Egyptian museum--tomorrow, riding horses to see pyramids. Ahhhh life! I'm keeping a semi-journal that I'll post along with impressions once I'm back.
Also, I think I miscalculated. January 22nd was my last exam, and I got here on the 23rd. Next term starts on February 11th, meaning that rather than the exactly 2 weeks cut down by flying time that I thought I had, I have nearly 3. Sweet. Shawn leaves on February 4th I believe...we'll see what I do. We will see.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Off (this time? please?)!
Last exam: Philosophy. Went fine...easy-ish stuff, in that exams really just involve, as Nikki put it this morning, eating a lot of information and just throwing it up all over the page. Yum. Point is, not much original thought involved.
Tonight should be good (read: celebrating (read: drinking)).
Tomorrow:
Gonna try for Egypt again! Cab leaves at 6.45 tomorrow morning, and I'll just try to get the earliest flights from Edinburgh to London and London to Cairo, where Shawn will pick me up. It should be fantastic. I'm not going to take my computer, so I may have internet access at cafes/his place and may not. Either way, I'm bringing a camera and journal and I'll let you know how it is when I get back!
Tonight should be good (read: celebrating (read: drinking)).
Tomorrow:
Gonna try for Egypt again! Cab leaves at 6.45 tomorrow morning, and I'll just try to get the earliest flights from Edinburgh to London and London to Cairo, where Shawn will pick me up. It should be fantastic. I'm not going to take my computer, so I may have internet access at cafes/his place and may not. Either way, I'm bringing a camera and journal and I'll let you know how it is when I get back!
Monday, January 21, 2008
On why I like my shaved head...
Which, incidentally, I have. Not bald, but I think it could almost be accurately be termed a buzz cut.
I like it for the same reason I like my semi-skater clothing. Because it's anachronistic. That's not entirely the right word, but its the one I want to use and you get the point. I've never touched a skateboard--why would I wear a skater brand? I've never touched a surfboard--why would I be from California. And why the hell would I have a skinhead/military haircut? Why?
I like it for the same reason I like my semi-skater clothing. Because it's anachronistic. That's not entirely the right word, but its the one I want to use and you get the point. I've never touched a skateboard--why would I wear a skater brand? I've never touched a surfboard--why would I be from California. And why the hell would I have a skinhead/military haircut? Why?
Sunday, January 20, 2008
"After Dark"
Fuck you Murakami. How can you just make it work?
Not really a novel, not plotted, not important, really, in the long run, no grand themes or messages, no passages of amazing beauty, won't really have an effect on my life. Still, "After Dark" is incredibly put together. Dammit, it's different. Of course.
It takes place in the course of a single night, starting in a Dennys after all other restaurants are closed. Every chapter heading is a clock, and the upper corner of the page keeps track of the time, minute by minute. It's not the most important night ever--the most interesting thing to happen is in the second chapter, when a prostitute is beaten--but otherwise its all conversations of people getting more and more tired in various all night places, awake for no particular or important reason. The fact that all the characters but one are awake through the night juxtaposes an odd character who we return to every few chapters who is asleep, and (SPOILER ALERT) we learn has been for the last two months. (END SPOILER)
The narrator is fascinating here. All-seeing third-person narrators are pretty stock, but Murakami makes his narrator very specifically into a film camera, or some equivalent, a semi-disinterested point in the air that he moves around very deliberately, saying things like, "we observe her sleeping, changing angles at regular intervals". And always, it's "we". Along with the prominence of technology like TVs and cell phones, it gives it a very night-bathed-in-green-light-from-Matrix-computer-screen feel without being cheesy or science fiction-y. Very cinematic.
Not really a novel, not plotted, not important, really, in the long run, no grand themes or messages, no passages of amazing beauty, won't really have an effect on my life. Still, "After Dark" is incredibly put together. Dammit, it's different. Of course.
It takes place in the course of a single night, starting in a Dennys after all other restaurants are closed. Every chapter heading is a clock, and the upper corner of the page keeps track of the time, minute by minute. It's not the most important night ever--the most interesting thing to happen is in the second chapter, when a prostitute is beaten--but otherwise its all conversations of people getting more and more tired in various all night places, awake for no particular or important reason. The fact that all the characters but one are awake through the night juxtaposes an odd character who we return to every few chapters who is asleep, and (SPOILER ALERT) we learn has been for the last two months. (END SPOILER)
The narrator is fascinating here. All-seeing third-person narrators are pretty stock, but Murakami makes his narrator very specifically into a film camera, or some equivalent, a semi-disinterested point in the air that he moves around very deliberately, saying things like, "we observe her sleeping, changing angles at regular intervals". And always, it's "we". Along with the prominence of technology like TVs and cell phones, it gives it a very night-bathed-in-green-light-from-Matrix-computer-screen feel without being cheesy or science fiction-y. Very cinematic.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Weekend Times
A few notables today:
1. Got a haircut. Short. Really short.
2. Called William's sister and talked about Egypt. Expensive call, but should be worth it--this trip is going to be so much fun.
3. Sent off a CV (resume) for a job as a receptionist at a hostel here in St Andrews. Who wants to be a receptionist, but still, at a hostel. Hopefully I'll get an interview at least.
4. Reading "After Dark" by Murakami. He is the most incredibly readable author--impressions to come.
1. Got a haircut. Short. Really short.
2. Called William's sister and talked about Egypt. Expensive call, but should be worth it--this trip is going to be so much fun.
3. Sent off a CV (resume) for a job as a receptionist at a hostel here in St Andrews. Who wants to be a receptionist, but still, at a hostel. Hopefully I'll get an interview at least.
4. Reading "After Dark" by Murakami. He is the most incredibly readable author--impressions to come.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
The holiday continues...
Stayed up all night last night-because I could. Playing World of Warcraft, arguing with the two guys who stayed up with me about social policy (mostly immigration). Both fun guys, one ultra-conservative (as much as you can get in Britain-"close borders" kinda guy) and the other who, interestingly, is both religiously Christian and a semi-closet hippie (he doesn't act the part, but his views align and his goal after uni is to go live in a commune). Very college-like. Fun.
So, stayed up till breakfast, went back to sleep, woke up at noon, finished "On the Road", took a shower, went to lunch. Now sitting in the kitchen, as always, still looking for flats. I want to semi-review "On the Road", but I'm not sure I can. It was more a collage than a story, really evocative and fun but hard as hell to read because of the sentence structure. Not much more to say, really. I'm a bit tired to be honest.
So, stayed up till breakfast, went back to sleep, woke up at noon, finished "On the Road", took a shower, went to lunch. Now sitting in the kitchen, as always, still looking for flats. I want to semi-review "On the Road", but I'm not sure I can. It was more a collage than a story, really evocative and fun but hard as hell to read because of the sentence structure. Not much more to say, really. I'm a bit tired to be honest.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Why does nothing happen after activity bursts?
Yesterday morning had my Psych final (about what I expected...this is really the one I've been negligent about studying for, and while I'm fairly sure I passed, we will see if I got my ass handed to me and to what degree). Learning experience, yeah?
Since then...not much. Played World of Warcraft. Still reading "On the Road"...slowly...Got some movies out this morning. Talked about flats for next year with peoples. Went out last night, which was fun. I really want to write, but...it's not as if I don't have anything to say, its just that the setting, MY setting, seems not-right. LA is an easy place to write in-big and broad and dirty, but new and empty enough to be a blank slate. Here, I get lost in the history and the details (and in, duh, college life)...everything from how early it gets dark to the space of my room. Of course, here I am, writing about it. I just need to do a different sort of writing. I did for my show. But I need to learn what that is...
Any advice on flat (apartment) hunting? Parental units--they seem to range from £75-£100 a week/person, with 10/11/12 month loans, depending. Talk to me about cost. I know £100's getting a little pricy.
Since then...not much. Played World of Warcraft. Still reading "On the Road"...slowly...Got some movies out this morning. Talked about flats for next year with peoples. Went out last night, which was fun. I really want to write, but...it's not as if I don't have anything to say, its just that the setting, MY setting, seems not-right. LA is an easy place to write in-big and broad and dirty, but new and empty enough to be a blank slate. Here, I get lost in the history and the details (and in, duh, college life)...everything from how early it gets dark to the space of my room. Of course, here I am, writing about it. I just need to do a different sort of writing. I did for my show. But I need to learn what that is...
Any advice on flat (apartment) hunting? Parental units--they seem to range from £75-£100 a week/person, with 10/11/12 month loans, depending. Talk to me about cost. I know £100's getting a little pricy.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
First exam and books
Milan Kundera has a very long middle finger. He is able to raise it at style, at storytelling, at pacing and at relevance at once and not get burned. Finished "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" just now. Really enjoyed it, but I'm left marveling that he can start a book on philosophical speculation, move through years of characters lives with no discernible direction, leave me confused as to which characters and which, reveal two of the main characters deaths 30 pages before the book ends and THEN go on to continue the narrative with them still living and never mention the deaths again.....and still have an incredible book. I did something with this book that I've never done before: every time I came to a fragment, sentence or passage I liked, I underlined it. Felt utterly wrong for the first couple times, but it made certain passages stick and I think it'll be really interesting if I go back and re-read it.
Yesterday morning I finished the "graphic novel" "Watchmen". I've never been a fan of comic books, but this one certainly earns its praise for utter moral ambiguity. T The story takes place in the Cold War. In this alternate history, superheroes along the Batman line (without superpowers) actually existed, but have been banned as the public became uneasy. The question of "what would adults who put on tights to fight crime really have been like" is a central issue, as is "and what do they do afterwards?" So, you have heroes who are just in it for fame/money, who have been utterly consumed by their fake identities, who are effective but utter assholes (including a rapist), who have been pushed into it by their parents, and the only one with actual superpowers (the typical nuclear-experiment-gone-wrong scenario) feels disconnected from humanity and ultimately says "fuck it" and goes to live on Mars. In this way, extreme stereotypes are re-examined from new angles--and with excellent storytelling. Huge numbers of parallel stories (including a comic-within-a-comic), backstories, and thematic elements (one chapter is, panel for panel, compositionally the same forwards and backwards) tie it together. I was impressed.
And exams. Yeah, school. International Relations was okay. The first question "does IR theory fail to solve the problems of the current international system?" could not have been vaguer if it had asked, "so, like, what is IR?" Which theory? Which problems? Answers...how? So I waffled. The other two were better. I chose "compare realist and neorealist views of the war in Iraq", a pretty basic ideology question, and "how would a Marxist view globalization?", which was fun because it was just an excuse to take easy pot shots at inequality and exploitation. Wee!
Psychology tomorrow. 90 multiple choice. Not really looking forward to it, but then, who would?
Yesterday morning I finished the "graphic novel" "Watchmen". I've never been a fan of comic books, but this one certainly earns its praise for utter moral ambiguity. T The story takes place in the Cold War. In this alternate history, superheroes along the Batman line (without superpowers) actually existed, but have been banned as the public became uneasy. The question of "what would adults who put on tights to fight crime really have been like" is a central issue, as is "and what do they do afterwards?" So, you have heroes who are just in it for fame/money, who have been utterly consumed by their fake identities, who are effective but utter assholes (including a rapist), who have been pushed into it by their parents, and the only one with actual superpowers (the typical nuclear-experiment-gone-wrong scenario) feels disconnected from humanity and ultimately says "fuck it" and goes to live on Mars. In this way, extreme stereotypes are re-examined from new angles--and with excellent storytelling. Huge numbers of parallel stories (including a comic-within-a-comic), backstories, and thematic elements (one chapter is, panel for panel, compositionally the same forwards and backwards) tie it together. I was impressed.
And exams. Yeah, school. International Relations was okay. The first question "does IR theory fail to solve the problems of the current international system?" could not have been vaguer if it had asked, "so, like, what is IR?" Which theory? Which problems? Answers...how? So I waffled. The other two were better. I chose "compare realist and neorealist views of the war in Iraq", a pretty basic ideology question, and "how would a Marxist view globalization?", which was fun because it was just an excuse to take easy pot shots at inequality and exploitation. Wee!
Psychology tomorrow. 90 multiple choice. Not really looking forward to it, but then, who would?
Friday, January 11, 2008
Thoughts before exams
From Milan Kundera's "The Unbearable Lightness of Being":
Franz shook his head. "When a society is rich, its people don't need to work with their hands; they can devote themselves to activities of the spirit. We have more and more universities and more and more students. If students are going to earn degrees, they've got to come up with dissertation topics. And since dissertations can be written about anything under the sun, the number of topics is infinite. Sheets of paper covered with words pile up in archives sadder than cemeteries, because no one ever visits them, not even on All Souls' Day. Culture is perishing in overproduction, in an avalanche of words, in the madness of quantity. That's why one banned book in your former country means infinitely more than the billions of words spewed out by universities."
Where is relevance? Culture countered by counter culture...but in a decade or two, the counter culture becomes mainstream. Hippies are a harmless, amusing relic of the past, and Rent is now a major motion picture. How do we know what is new, what is cutting edge, what is 'not allowed'? Why, of course, because it dresses in certain clothes, listens to certain music, and follows the pre-prescribed 'lifestyle'. To survive outside the box, you must find another box or suffocate in the emptiness of space. Where is the anti-box of the 2008? Freedom of speech, college campuses, youtube, and the anti-box grows so wide that it's hard to tell the two apart. Artistically, intellectually-when nothing shocks, when nothing is banned, what can be new? And, more importantly, what can be relevant?
Franz shook his head. "When a society is rich, its people don't need to work with their hands; they can devote themselves to activities of the spirit. We have more and more universities and more and more students. If students are going to earn degrees, they've got to come up with dissertation topics. And since dissertations can be written about anything under the sun, the number of topics is infinite. Sheets of paper covered with words pile up in archives sadder than cemeteries, because no one ever visits them, not even on All Souls' Day. Culture is perishing in overproduction, in an avalanche of words, in the madness of quantity. That's why one banned book in your former country means infinitely more than the billions of words spewed out by universities."
Where is relevance? Culture countered by counter culture...but in a decade or two, the counter culture becomes mainstream. Hippies are a harmless, amusing relic of the past, and Rent is now a major motion picture. How do we know what is new, what is cutting edge, what is 'not allowed'? Why, of course, because it dresses in certain clothes, listens to certain music, and follows the pre-prescribed 'lifestyle'. To survive outside the box, you must find another box or suffocate in the emptiness of space. Where is the anti-box of the 2008? Freedom of speech, college campuses, youtube, and the anti-box grows so wide that it's hard to tell the two apart. Artistically, intellectually-when nothing shocks, when nothing is banned, what can be new? And, more importantly, what can be relevant?
Friday Morning
God my sleep cycle is messed up. Went to sleep yesterday around 5 PM, slept through dinner, woke up at 11 PM, stayed up studying/reading, went back to sleep at 2 AM, woke up at 5 AM. Still, 8 hours. Not bad. I feel well rested and capable, hopefully getting a good load of studying in today for my final tomorrow.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Okay, lets make this a habit again...
In an effort to resume blogging at a reasonable pace: here goes.
For all that they rail against it, Wikipedia has proved a really valuable tool in studying for my International Relations final, with good little summaries of many of the 50 odd million major theories.
Stephen Colbert and the Daily Show are back in business, though still without proper writers. The result? Lots of cheap gags, not as much really good irony or anything particularly funny. Oh, well. Still not entirely shabby. I've been watching standup by an English comedian named Jimmy Carr, who has some funny stuff and the exact same accent and mannerisms as one of the guys who was in my show.
I'm gonna rail off a few quick reviews of things I've watched/read over break. Because I can, and in a year when I can't remember it I can come back to this and go "oh. right."
Sweeny Todd: Decent movie, excellent actors. Tim Burton's goth approach works well for the most part, but by removing the ensemble and the intro/finale where they call on the audience to "attend the tale", he achieves what I assume to be his goal of shortening and humanizing the show, but also somehow makes it less relevant. Onstage, it is a cautionary tale, almost a fable or allegory about human nature. Onscreen, it's just a lot of blood and some 17th century emo's.
I Am Legend: Better than your standard zombie movie in the suspense department, inferior on gore. The first half-2/3 is promising, but the ending absolutely stereotypical.
Juno: Tries too hard. We know you are an Indie film. Now, some dialogue that is a little more believable...please? Although the dialogue bugged me, all fantastic actors, some really funny moments, and a decent amount of (Indie) human truth mired up in the fucking dialogue. In the end worth it for the beautifully awkward characters.
Once: This really didn't feel like a movie. Fun, pretty good, and probably more believable than anything I've seen in a while. Basic premise: boy meets girl, boy and girl sing and play guitar/piano, sorta kinda fall in love. Completely broke the feel of a "movie experience" for me, I think because of the lack of any blatant structure or drama.
Birdsong: Long book about World War I. Fairly good writing, good structure, decently well plotted. But I wouldn't necessarily recommend it--felt more like an homage than an original work. There is so much writing from the trenches that still feels alive that a work simply ABOUT the trenches feels somehow dated. It held my attention and offered up a good story, but I wanted something more.
The Raw Shark Texts: Excellent writing. Definitely. Funny, great metaphors and descriptions. Does some new things. And that's good, because the book is really largely about the writing. The whole thing mixes its reality and metaphor, so that in the "sea" of human interactions, there is a "shark" out to get the protagonist--and that's the conflict. Starts amazingly with a fresh take on an amnesiac waking up and slowly being filled in on what's going on by letters pre-written and arranged to be sent by his former self. When he goes out adventuring and finds a love interest and blah blah blah it gets a bit "we've done this before," but its worth reading for the beginning--and once you've read that, you want to read the rest.
Right now I'm reading The Unbearable Lightness of Being and Watchmen (a comic book-well, a "graphic novel"-but really good, I promise) so I'll probably write those up in between procrastinating for exams.
Meanwhile: “The Cold War system was so profoundly stable, both within and between blocs, that its end was justifiably unpredictable.”-Discuss. And, "Can appeasement ever be a legitimate policy option for states in the current international system? "
For all that they rail against it, Wikipedia has proved a really valuable tool in studying for my International Relations final, with good little summaries of many of the 50 odd million major theories.
Stephen Colbert and the Daily Show are back in business, though still without proper writers. The result? Lots of cheap gags, not as much really good irony or anything particularly funny. Oh, well. Still not entirely shabby. I've been watching standup by an English comedian named Jimmy Carr, who has some funny stuff and the exact same accent and mannerisms as one of the guys who was in my show.
I'm gonna rail off a few quick reviews of things I've watched/read over break. Because I can, and in a year when I can't remember it I can come back to this and go "oh. right."
Sweeny Todd: Decent movie, excellent actors. Tim Burton's goth approach works well for the most part, but by removing the ensemble and the intro/finale where they call on the audience to "attend the tale", he achieves what I assume to be his goal of shortening and humanizing the show, but also somehow makes it less relevant. Onstage, it is a cautionary tale, almost a fable or allegory about human nature. Onscreen, it's just a lot of blood and some 17th century emo's.
I Am Legend: Better than your standard zombie movie in the suspense department, inferior on gore. The first half-2/3 is promising, but the ending absolutely stereotypical.
Juno: Tries too hard. We know you are an Indie film. Now, some dialogue that is a little more believable...please? Although the dialogue bugged me, all fantastic actors, some really funny moments, and a decent amount of (Indie) human truth mired up in the fucking dialogue. In the end worth it for the beautifully awkward characters.
Once: This really didn't feel like a movie. Fun, pretty good, and probably more believable than anything I've seen in a while. Basic premise: boy meets girl, boy and girl sing and play guitar/piano, sorta kinda fall in love. Completely broke the feel of a "movie experience" for me, I think because of the lack of any blatant structure or drama.
Birdsong: Long book about World War I. Fairly good writing, good structure, decently well plotted. But I wouldn't necessarily recommend it--felt more like an homage than an original work. There is so much writing from the trenches that still feels alive that a work simply ABOUT the trenches feels somehow dated. It held my attention and offered up a good story, but I wanted something more.
The Raw Shark Texts: Excellent writing. Definitely. Funny, great metaphors and descriptions. Does some new things. And that's good, because the book is really largely about the writing. The whole thing mixes its reality and metaphor, so that in the "sea" of human interactions, there is a "shark" out to get the protagonist--and that's the conflict. Starts amazingly with a fresh take on an amnesiac waking up and slowly being filled in on what's going on by letters pre-written and arranged to be sent by his former self. When he goes out adventuring and finds a love interest and blah blah blah it gets a bit "we've done this before," but its worth reading for the beginning--and once you've read that, you want to read the rest.
Right now I'm reading The Unbearable Lightness of Being and Watchmen (a comic book-well, a "graphic novel"-but really good, I promise) so I'll probably write those up in between procrastinating for exams.
Meanwhile: “The Cold War system was so profoundly stable, both within and between blocs, that its end was justifiably unpredictable.”-Discuss. And, "Can appeasement ever be a legitimate policy option for states in the current international system? "
In St. Andrews again
Trouble with traveling while a little sick is that at the end you are....still a little sick. Slept badly last night.
But where did I sleep well? That's right. The airplane. And where did I eat well? Oh. The airplane. Four course meal. Cannot get over that. Little shrimpy appetizer, full salad, main course, ice cream sunday-personalized. One after another. And wine, and, with desert, Amaretto. Read for a bit, got tired and...pressed the button on the chair that said "bed." The whole thing rolls forward and flattens out, pull up the big snugly blanket, wake probably four or five hours later after uninterrupted sleep for breakfast. William--wow. And then in Heathrow, picked up my bags and got on the London-Edinburgh flight with no problems whatsoever. They were about to close sales for the flight so they just went ahead and issued me a seat, so I didn't even have to wait to get on. All in all, probably the absolute best flying experience I've had.
The bus was a bit iffier. They've been having gale force winds and rain, and the bridges to St. Andrews from Ediburgh have been patchy, so I was re-routed through a couple bus stations and it took around 5 hours from getting off the flight to get to the town. Even so, not a complete waste--met and waited with a couple other students also just getting in (a girl from Germany and one from Switzerland). Ate chocolate. Got in. Went to bed. Slept badly.
Now I'm up putsing on the internet after breakfast, probably going in for some hardcore studying/napping this afternoon.
But where did I sleep well? That's right. The airplane. And where did I eat well? Oh. The airplane. Four course meal. Cannot get over that. Little shrimpy appetizer, full salad, main course, ice cream sunday-personalized. One after another. And wine, and, with desert, Amaretto. Read for a bit, got tired and...pressed the button on the chair that said "bed." The whole thing rolls forward and flattens out, pull up the big snugly blanket, wake probably four or five hours later after uninterrupted sleep for breakfast. William--wow. And then in Heathrow, picked up my bags and got on the London-Edinburgh flight with no problems whatsoever. They were about to close sales for the flight so they just went ahead and issued me a seat, so I didn't even have to wait to get on. All in all, probably the absolute best flying experience I've had.
The bus was a bit iffier. They've been having gale force winds and rain, and the bridges to St. Andrews from Ediburgh have been patchy, so I was re-routed through a couple bus stations and it took around 5 hours from getting off the flight to get to the town. Even so, not a complete waste--met and waited with a couple other students also just getting in (a girl from Germany and one from Switzerland). Ate chocolate. Got in. Went to bed. Slept badly.
Now I'm up putsing on the internet after breakfast, probably going in for some hardcore studying/napping this afternoon.
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