I really should stop putting things off... ¬_¬
Hey everyone! Guess what, my -once again unannounced- hiatus is over :)
I've really missed you guys!! And I've missed blogging! Life has been c-r-a-z-y like you wouldn't believe. I'll do my best to fill you in on what's happened in the days to come, it's too much for one entry. :P
As an added incentive, I've signed up on National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo), since I can't do NaNoWriMo due to extreme workload and thereby lack of time, and also to keep me going throughout the month as a sort of driving force, to get back into the habit. To be honest I've generally neglected the internet, which surprises me the most. Even on Dailybooth I often miss a day or two (or three ¬_¬) because I simply can't come up with an interesting pose or something to take a picture of. And I've been running around uni like a mad woman, all those classes and extra-curricular things.
In particular:
As far as uni is concerned, I'm loving it. My classes are finally interesting and engaging, and I'm feeling like I'm learning things every day and improving as a writer. My schedule is actually pretty good, and most of my activities are neatly packed within one day.
This is my timetable.
Monday9am-12pm Screenwriting
1pm-4pm Writing the Short StoryTuesday1pm-2pm Reading Music
Wednesday6:30pm-9pm AnimeThursday9am-10am + 12pm-1pm Modernism
1pm-1:30pm Voice Gym 1:30pm-2pm Femmes Fatales
2pm-3pm Audition Skills
4:30pm-6pm Voices (pop choir) 6:30pm-9pm Musical Rehearsal*Sunday1:30pm-5pm Musical Rehearsal*
Screenwriting is very cool, although the lecturer, Max Kinnings, is kind of bland at best; I think he either thinks too much of himself or too little of us, or a bit of both. Either way though, it's all stuff I really haven't heard before, so I get to learn quite a bit about screenwriting, work on a 10-minute short film screenplay bit by bit and see how it evolves, how the process itself shapes the script... It's a lot of fun. My screenplay is based on a particular incident that occurred sometime in September, before I left Greece. [I really need to tell you guys about my summer too, I've been such a lazy updater eurghhhh.]
Writing the Short Story is AMAZING. Easily my favourite class yet. My lecturer, Neil Griffiths, is awesome, he really gives us feedback we can use to improve our writing, in a very practical and understandable manner (eg. use less adverbs, concentrate on the subtext in a character's dialogue rather than the superficial nature of what he's actually saying, etc). His advice is always very understandable, concise. I find myself looking forward to his class the most :) I'm even reading the first of his two books right now, and have the second one on standby. I want to see just what kind of writing he himself employs, to sort of see his advice at work. So far it's pretty good, I'm like a third of the way in.
Modernism is an English Literature module, and I'm very satisfied that I picked this one over all the rest. The lecturers change almost every other week, as certain people have more expertise on a particular writer or sub-division of Modernism. Of all the people coming in to teach us, I liked the head of module William Watkin, and the last guest lecturer Gavin [last name unknown, I didn't actually catch it when he was introducing himself]. they're both humorous and make the lecture engaging and interesting to watch (as opposed to the woman who came in for a lecture on short stories... She was basically reading off of a bunch of photocopies, sad little thing >.<). The module itself is very interesting, I've always liked modernist literature/poetry although I couldn't quite fully understand it, so my objective was to understand why it appeals to me, and so far I think I'm on a very good path. Every lecture reinforces my love for that period/movement. ♥
As you can also see on the timetable, lots of extra-curriculars this year, and most of them music/performance related. I'm very much liking Reading Music, I'm learning how to read music from scratch (since I've never really had any proper musical education). It's still quite confusing after three lessons, I think I'll have to look for a book or some sort of other auxiliary material to help me understand some things that are still a little fuzzy in my head (and will probably remain so until I practice hard enough for the knowledge to seep in :P). It's quite awesome though.
The Anime Society is doing great :) I've met a bunch of awesome people there, more about them in another post lest I get out of topic :P We screen a different movie/series every week, so far we've seen The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (my suggestion, which won by vast majority in the second week's bento box screening - each of the committee members screened one episode of a series, and the members voted on which they wanted to see), Jigoku Shoujo, Steamboy. It's been a lot of fun, both screening my favourite stuff or watching things I hadn't before. The atmosphere is endlessly better than last year now that Chris the annoying (now former) president is gone... The people there are ace :D
Voice Gym is a vocal training class for beginners, run by the theatre workshop director, Eileen. Sadly it's very short so we don't really get to do maaany things. I've already started to change the way I breathe during singing though, because it's so much more than just using the lower part of the lungs - pushing the air out correctly is far more important, and I've been doing it wrong. It's a really big group too, about 20 people! All of the voices joined together sound quite amazing, even though all we do is sing through simple vocal and breathing exercises.
I basically linger behind for Femmes Fatales, the ladies choir, also run by Eileen. I must admit I thought it was a bit lame when I'd seen them last year, basically because the women in it weren't students but women in their 30s or older (there's an adorable woman in her 60s, dare I say 70s, with a beautiful voice). this year a lot of students joined, so the age mean is a bit more balanced. We're doing Gershwin and Christmas songs at the moment, although again because it's only half an hour long there's really no time for much progress, we move quite slowly. It is incredibly fun though.
After that I linger for the Audition Skills class, where we've mostly done improvisations and some work on short duologues, again with Eileen. We put a lot of emphasis on being honest and truthful in acting, which might as well include doing nothing whatsoever - something that I'd been very conscious about in the past. Last time we worked on some short scenes in pairs, and Eileen commended me on my acting (in fact, she seemed very impressed). I'm very weary of such reactions though, as it seems that while people are impressed by my skill, I'm never quite the one for the part >.<
After lunch break I head to Voices, which is the pop choir I was in last year as well. We sing pop songs and stuff from musicals, pretty much anything really. We're really easy going and fun, I love that about this choir. Also, there's lots of people, both guys and girls, most of whom are also in the musical by tradition. This term we're doing the following songs:
- "Sir Duke", Stevie Wonder
- "There's Nothing Like It", a song about going to the gym from a musical called Closer Than Ever. It is utterly hilarious.
- "You Raise Me Up"
- (possibly) "For Now", from Avenue Q
- (probably, under my own suggestion, and likely to be a quartet solo) "Hide & Seek", Imogen Heap.
I'm always looking forward to Voices, and thankfully because my Thursdays are full I am never late anymore :) I really had trouble coming into uni on time last year when my Thursdays were empty, and ended up late 99% of the time. >_< It's one of those things that I can't help, unfortunately, as my self-discipline is non-existent.
And then there's the musical. We're doing Little Shop of Horrors, which you might have seen as a movie with that guy from Honey I Shrunk The Kids... IMHO it's really nothing special, it doesn't impress me, even though it's supposed to be super famous and everyone loves it. I'm like "pffft, whatever". I tried for the main girl or one of the girls who sing all the songs, kinda like a Greek chorus that's always present and interacts with the cast/audience, but got cast in the chorus. Again. Eileen commended me on my singing and acting, but ended up choosing a new girl, in her first year, who I must admit is amazing, especially in singing. I was fine with being in the chorus because last year was pretty darn awesome, the relationship with the other cast members was fantastic, and we had a lot of laughs backstage in rehearsals and during performances. But it is not the case this time. If anything, I'm bored during the rehearsals, the cast hasn't really bonded with each other (yet - which is kind of unacceptable seeing as there really isn't much time before the actual performances, just over a month), and the musical itself is, dare I say it, boring. Also, the chorus is on stage only for three songs, one of which is like a minute long, and there are no cameos, no small roles like the drunk maid I did last year, or something of the sort. Nothing. It is actually depressing: we come in twice a week for at least 6 hours combined, only to do one freakin' song over and over again. And I don't have the time for that. I have so much writing and reading to do each week, let alone my hobbies (... internet, jdrama, etc) which I've had to neglect because of this lack of time.
So all in all, I've decided to quit. I could use an extra free day and an earlier end on Thursdays (12-hour days, someone kill me ¬_¬). I don't feel like I'm having fun, or that I'm needed there in any way possible. I was thinking about it the other day at rehearsal, that if I was taken out of the choreographies, nothing much would change. and i have no solo lines in songs or anything, or a cameo of any kind... It's like I'm a decorative element... unnecessary. I can't afford to be unnecessary, I've got so much to do and I'm pushing myself for no reason.
So, tomorrow I'm quitting. I'll miss certain people, but overall we don't really hang out or have as much fun as last year. And maybe I'm giving up early, but really, I don't think it's worth it pushing myself so hard, or ending up failing something just for the sake of staying somewhere I'm not happy.
So yeah, I'm going to have free Sundays and earlier ends on Thursdays (or at least, free time to do homework and be done on time rather than rushing). I can't wait to see what that's going to be like :)
I think I'm going to wrap up here for today, am incredibly sleepy.
Lots more to come tomorrow - stay tuned!
I've missed you guys!! *happy tear*
ps: Hello to a new friend, starsystems , whose awesome icons I've been stealing for a while :) Looking forward to lots of conversations! :D
pps: New layout! :) Header-less until I find time to make something. XD
I've really missed you guys!! And I've missed blogging! Life has been c-r-a-z-y like you wouldn't believe. I'll do my best to fill you in on what's happened in the days to come, it's too much for one entry. :P
As an added incentive, I've signed up on National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo), since I can't do NaNoWriMo due to extreme workload and thereby lack of time, and also to keep me going throughout the month as a sort of driving force, to get back into the habit. To be honest I've generally neglected the internet, which surprises me the most. Even on Dailybooth I often miss a day or two (or three ¬_¬) because I simply can't come up with an interesting pose or something to take a picture of. And I've been running around uni like a mad woman, all those classes and extra-curricular things.
In particular:
As far as uni is concerned, I'm loving it. My classes are finally interesting and engaging, and I'm feeling like I'm learning things every day and improving as a writer. My schedule is actually pretty good, and most of my activities are neatly packed within one day.
This is my timetable.
Monday9am-12pm Screenwriting
1pm-4pm Writing the Short StoryTuesday1pm-2pm Reading Music
Wednesday6:30pm-9pm AnimeThursday9am-10am + 12pm-1pm Modernism
1pm-1:30pm Voice Gym 1:30pm-2pm Femmes Fatales
2pm-3pm Audition Skills
4:30pm-6pm Voices (pop choir) 6:30pm-9pm Musical Rehearsal*Sunday1:30pm-5pm Musical Rehearsal*
Screenwriting is very cool, although the lecturer, Max Kinnings, is kind of bland at best; I think he either thinks too much of himself or too little of us, or a bit of both. Either way though, it's all stuff I really haven't heard before, so I get to learn quite a bit about screenwriting, work on a 10-minute short film screenplay bit by bit and see how it evolves, how the process itself shapes the script... It's a lot of fun. My screenplay is based on a particular incident that occurred sometime in September, before I left Greece. [I really need to tell you guys about my summer too, I've been such a lazy updater eurghhhh.]
Writing the Short Story is AMAZING. Easily my favourite class yet. My lecturer, Neil Griffiths, is awesome, he really gives us feedback we can use to improve our writing, in a very practical and understandable manner (eg. use less adverbs, concentrate on the subtext in a character's dialogue rather than the superficial nature of what he's actually saying, etc). His advice is always very understandable, concise. I find myself looking forward to his class the most :) I'm even reading the first of his two books right now, and have the second one on standby. I want to see just what kind of writing he himself employs, to sort of see his advice at work. So far it's pretty good, I'm like a third of the way in.
Modernism is an English Literature module, and I'm very satisfied that I picked this one over all the rest. The lecturers change almost every other week, as certain people have more expertise on a particular writer or sub-division of Modernism. Of all the people coming in to teach us, I liked the head of module William Watkin, and the last guest lecturer Gavin [last name unknown, I didn't actually catch it when he was introducing himself]. they're both humorous and make the lecture engaging and interesting to watch (as opposed to the woman who came in for a lecture on short stories... She was basically reading off of a bunch of photocopies, sad little thing >.<). The module itself is very interesting, I've always liked modernist literature/poetry although I couldn't quite fully understand it, so my objective was to understand why it appeals to me, and so far I think I'm on a very good path. Every lecture reinforces my love for that period/movement. ♥
As you can also see on the timetable, lots of extra-curriculars this year, and most of them music/performance related. I'm very much liking Reading Music, I'm learning how to read music from scratch (since I've never really had any proper musical education). It's still quite confusing after three lessons, I think I'll have to look for a book or some sort of other auxiliary material to help me understand some things that are still a little fuzzy in my head (and will probably remain so until I practice hard enough for the knowledge to seep in :P). It's quite awesome though.
The Anime Society is doing great :) I've met a bunch of awesome people there, more about them in another post lest I get out of topic :P We screen a different movie/series every week, so far we've seen The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (my suggestion, which won by vast majority in the second week's bento box screening - each of the committee members screened one episode of a series, and the members voted on which they wanted to see), Jigoku Shoujo, Steamboy. It's been a lot of fun, both screening my favourite stuff or watching things I hadn't before. The atmosphere is endlessly better than last year now that Chris the annoying (now former) president is gone... The people there are ace :D
Voice Gym is a vocal training class for beginners, run by the theatre workshop director, Eileen. Sadly it's very short so we don't really get to do maaany things. I've already started to change the way I breathe during singing though, because it's so much more than just using the lower part of the lungs - pushing the air out correctly is far more important, and I've been doing it wrong. It's a really big group too, about 20 people! All of the voices joined together sound quite amazing, even though all we do is sing through simple vocal and breathing exercises.
I basically linger behind for Femmes Fatales, the ladies choir, also run by Eileen. I must admit I thought it was a bit lame when I'd seen them last year, basically because the women in it weren't students but women in their 30s or older (there's an adorable woman in her 60s, dare I say 70s, with a beautiful voice). this year a lot of students joined, so the age mean is a bit more balanced. We're doing Gershwin and Christmas songs at the moment, although again because it's only half an hour long there's really no time for much progress, we move quite slowly. It is incredibly fun though.
After that I linger for the Audition Skills class, where we've mostly done improvisations and some work on short duologues, again with Eileen. We put a lot of emphasis on being honest and truthful in acting, which might as well include doing nothing whatsoever - something that I'd been very conscious about in the past. Last time we worked on some short scenes in pairs, and Eileen commended me on my acting (in fact, she seemed very impressed). I'm very weary of such reactions though, as it seems that while people are impressed by my skill, I'm never quite the one for the part >.<
After lunch break I head to Voices, which is the pop choir I was in last year as well. We sing pop songs and stuff from musicals, pretty much anything really. We're really easy going and fun, I love that about this choir. Also, there's lots of people, both guys and girls, most of whom are also in the musical by tradition. This term we're doing the following songs:
- "Sir Duke", Stevie Wonder
- "There's Nothing Like It", a song about going to the gym from a musical called Closer Than Ever. It is utterly hilarious.
- "You Raise Me Up"
- (possibly) "For Now", from Avenue Q
- (probably, under my own suggestion, and likely to be a quartet solo) "Hide & Seek", Imogen Heap.
I'm always looking forward to Voices, and thankfully because my Thursdays are full I am never late anymore :) I really had trouble coming into uni on time last year when my Thursdays were empty, and ended up late 99% of the time. >_< It's one of those things that I can't help, unfortunately, as my self-discipline is non-existent.
And then there's the musical. We're doing Little Shop of Horrors, which you might have seen as a movie with that guy from Honey I Shrunk The Kids... IMHO it's really nothing special, it doesn't impress me, even though it's supposed to be super famous and everyone loves it. I'm like "pffft, whatever". I tried for the main girl or one of the girls who sing all the songs, kinda like a Greek chorus that's always present and interacts with the cast/audience, but got cast in the chorus. Again. Eileen commended me on my singing and acting, but ended up choosing a new girl, in her first year, who I must admit is amazing, especially in singing. I was fine with being in the chorus because last year was pretty darn awesome, the relationship with the other cast members was fantastic, and we had a lot of laughs backstage in rehearsals and during performances. But it is not the case this time. If anything, I'm bored during the rehearsals, the cast hasn't really bonded with each other (yet - which is kind of unacceptable seeing as there really isn't much time before the actual performances, just over a month), and the musical itself is, dare I say it, boring. Also, the chorus is on stage only for three songs, one of which is like a minute long, and there are no cameos, no small roles like the drunk maid I did last year, or something of the sort. Nothing. It is actually depressing: we come in twice a week for at least 6 hours combined, only to do one freakin' song over and over again. And I don't have the time for that. I have so much writing and reading to do each week, let alone my hobbies (... internet, jdrama, etc) which I've had to neglect because of this lack of time.
So all in all, I've decided to quit. I could use an extra free day and an earlier end on Thursdays (12-hour days, someone kill me ¬_¬). I don't feel like I'm having fun, or that I'm needed there in any way possible. I was thinking about it the other day at rehearsal, that if I was taken out of the choreographies, nothing much would change. and i have no solo lines in songs or anything, or a cameo of any kind... It's like I'm a decorative element... unnecessary. I can't afford to be unnecessary, I've got so much to do and I'm pushing myself for no reason.
So, tomorrow I'm quitting. I'll miss certain people, but overall we don't really hang out or have as much fun as last year. And maybe I'm giving up early, but really, I don't think it's worth it pushing myself so hard, or ending up failing something just for the sake of staying somewhere I'm not happy.
So yeah, I'm going to have free Sundays and earlier ends on Thursdays (or at least, free time to do homework and be done on time rather than rushing). I can't wait to see what that's going to be like :)
I think I'm going to wrap up here for today, am incredibly sleepy.
Lots more to come tomorrow - stay tuned!
I've missed you guys!! *happy tear*
ps: Hello to a new friend, starsystems , whose awesome icons I've been stealing for a while :) Looking forward to lots of conversations! :D
pps: New layout! :) Header-less until I find time to make something. XD