shall we not

Monday, February 28, 2005

oscars

"Bush did some stuff you could never get away with at your job. You know, when Bush got into office, they had a surplus of money. Now, there’s like, a $70 trillion deficit. Now just imagine you worked at the Gap: you’re closing down the register, and you’re $70 trillion short. The average person would get in trouble. You’re $70 trillion behind on the register, and then you start a war with Banana Republic, because you say they’ve got toxic tank tops over there. You have the war, people are dying – a thousand Gap employees are dead. You finally take over Banana Republic, and you find out that they never made tank tops in the first place."

"When our next visitor isn’t dazzling us with his acting ability, he’s boring us to death with his politics…" – Introducing Tim Robbins.

"Please welcome comedy superstar, Jeremy Irons."

I know it's wrong but i find Chris Rock funny (sometimes)

Happy that Million Dollar Baby won so much, it was my favourite (if that's the right word) of the 'best films' but haven't seen Aviator or Ray (and don't plan to either) and Hillary Swank was amazing and it was cool Charlie Kaufman won for Eternal Sunshine.

Sunday, February 27, 2005

thumbsucking somersaults

Becoming increasingly aware that my one word to describe myself is holding more true than ever, capricious. This means that over the weekend (and the past few weeks too for that matter) i have gone from being very outgoing and playful to feeling incredibly annoyed and prone to tears, with relatively minor incidents able to send me either way. Maybe it's because i'm begining to feel that i'm connected to other people and the outside world in general with my world taking a far less prominent position which is a good thing i guess.

Also, a few observations:
- Two days off a week really doesn't begin to be enough.
- I've noticed myself saying 'in that' a lot as a means of clarifying the point i'm making.
- My moods have this week been soundtracked by the rather good Patrick Wolf album (anyone who can remind you of Jeff Buckley, Nick Cave and a bit of good Morrisey can't be bad)

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

the art/science of conversation

Beginning to realise that my blog is becoming rather moribund and introspective, i shall try and be more sanguine but think of this as more of a consideration of some of the thoughts that enter my head rather than all of them.

In the pub last night i couldn't help but think about the difficulty of conversation. Weary that i would only know a couple of people at most i went with that in mind but came back acutely aware of how difficult conversation can be. I'm normally better when a group chat around me and i'll add stuff when i want to but direct conversation with new people is just plain difficult (i get thrown by the simplest, so what do you do? type questions) and it felt like everyone else there knew each other already. There a certain points in conversations where i can see that it'd be appropriate to try an include people in the discussion but i don't know how to, or i say something and realise instantly that i didn't mean what i said or phrased it very badly, i see people that you think i'd get on with but have no idea what to say...If there was a course, i'd sign up immediately. I'm actually happy if on meeting new people i able to interact with just one on some level (which happened last night so i didn't feel like too much of a failure). Also how do you end a conversation and move onto talking to someone else?

Monday, February 21, 2005

a quick question

i predict a riot

Feeling rather manly today having just got back from a run in the snow whilst still nursing my impressive bruise from Lol. On less manly things had art therapy in cluster. Found it a bit frustrating due to my inability to project what i was thinking or feeling on to paper but maybe i was thinking about it too much. Also, i know it wasn't the point to produce some art but most other people's productions were all really cool. I appear to have a tendency to gravitate towards artistic people and be very interested in it but completely unable to do it myself and that's probably why i spend my time reading what other people think, watching films and listening to music and hearing the analyse from fellow clusterees. Over analysing things? me, never

Friday, February 18, 2005

other possible blog names

  1. the superficial life of phil spiderman
  2. do you like hammocks?
  3. what the helen of troy?
  4. his little dancing horse
  5. the life and times of phil the prawn
  6. rock and/or (roll)

Thursday, February 17, 2005

muftiday

Just realised that for seven days in a row i've done things in the evening (a rarity) which means i'm tired but was also thinking how much they've probably done me good, conclusion; people = good.

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

banality reigns

If you go to the Empire website (www.empireonline.co.uk/site/news/newsstory.asp?news_id=16560) there's a link to see the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trailer which appears to have a lot of my favourite people in, Mos Def, Sam Rockwell, Zooey Deschanel, Martin Freeman and i even think Stephen Fry in it too who was great at the Baftas. Also, i get people saying that i'm a movie geek but i hadn't seen either of the big Bafta winners (Aviator or Vera Drake) but then i haven't really wanted to, so there...

I would put some less banal stuff up but i can't articulate very well at the moment, my thoughts are merely swilling around in my skull but general topic areas include friendship, housing and university. Maybe the answers will come to me whilst trying to sleep (see Abigail's blog) or when i'm running or in the shower. I often tend to answer questions better in my head about half an hour after they were asked, i guess this could make talking to me difficult.

Saturday, February 12, 2005

a very important anouncement

beck appears to be back on form, hurrah

let us see where this goes...

After much moaning in the face of prompting from God, i went to the half night of prayer last night (ain't i cool) and thought i should put up some thoughts about it in their incorehent glory:

1. There was something about us being on the verge of something as a church community (aren't we always!) and a need for us to deal with the fact that we're so rich (through the eye of the needle stuff) in that we can easily fill are gaps (which i think is linked to Naomi's blog about the stampede in Ikea and Fight Club) so it makes it hard for us to know how to be Godly in that we shouldn't become hermits and get rid of all our possessions but somehow balance wealth with the notion that in God all things are possible. Oh i don't know....

2. Sheffield is clouded with things that make it an oppressive place which can drain us (i can realte to that)

3. There was prayer for Dan which in a funny way made me appreciate testimony more in that i got really bored at the baptisms last week (God changed my life, hurray! said ten times) but hearing Dan fill people in on his last few months but actually having been with Dan some of the way made me realise that most testimonies are a limited summary of an amazing process that people go through and that is something we need to hear.

4. I'll stop there.

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

fleeting pamphlet

Was talking to my hairdresser this morning about Dublin (don't worry, i didn't take photos in or anything!) and realised how much i appear to have missed. He kept going did you see this or that and i hadn't a clue what he was on about. Much as i enjoyed it over there i did just do the really touristee stuff at the expense of other cool things, which is kind of like why i like it here, i know how it works and where stuff is.

Also, feel like i should apologise if i seemed odd last night, had stuff on my mind plus the whole why don't you have a girlfriend things tends to bring out my worse qualities.

remember all your bad dreams are not far from reality

Man, I'm finding it really hard to get back into a work frame of mind, feeling tired and little grumpy. Dublin was really good, it was great to go away and have a break from the norm and have some fun. However, given the amount of money i spent i think i'll be staying in for most of February!

Thursday, February 03, 2005

what's the rumpus?

How on earth do people manage to juggle full time employment and full time life, I certainly appear unable to do both. This may be as there is a lot going on at the moment, some good, some bad, all stressful...
1. I have a Masters (hurrah with a 1st for my dissertation)
2. Because of 1, I now have money again which had been a pain.
3. I' m moving out of the Clifford's by the end of April and i have no idea where i'm going to live.
4. The Clifford's have had a thoroughly gorgeous kid but this means the house is kind of manic and stressful.
5. I'm not getting nearly enough sleep.
6. I'm finding it hard to relax
7. A load of my friends seem to be having a hard time at the moment.
8. Oh yeah, i'm meant to be doing a PHd
9. I've got loads of new cool albums but my Amazon order still hasn't arrived.
10. Kate lent me the complete My So Life and Ant's downloaded a cool HBO series called Carnivale.

I know this is kind of me just letting off steam but hey, it's what i'm thinking about this week. Also, who knows whether or not i'll survive my weekend in Dublin...

Tuesday, February 01, 2005

addictions

given the smorgasbord of cd's i've bought recently i thought i'd put up some comments about them. I really like the Lou Barlow album which is upbeat acoustic which is what i'd hoped for (his Folk Implosion and Sebadoh albums can be very hit and miss) with loads of regal and biblical imagery. Coco Rosie is really nice and one of the songs sounds like the theme from Bagpuss (no bad thing). Emilian Torrini is great to have on when you're trying to relax and the new Trail of Dead (based on 2 listens) is kick ass, far more complete as an album than Madonna or Souce Tags so enjoyable throughout, kind of reminds me of a Smashing Sonic Pumpkins Youth album. Oh, and Bright Eyes hasn't arrived yet...bloody Amazon. I think a theme is that i'm listening to a lot of stuff by people who have a real passion for what they do even if it's not what's around in the mainstream (Sufjan Stevens, Regina Spektor, Joanna Newsom et al). It's like they feel compelled to do it anyway which makes it really interesting.