things sure have changed since yesterday

So I ended up seeing Inception three times...two Tuesdays ago, last Friday, and last Saturday. Each time I loved it a little more, and each time I noticed something new or made a new connection. Holy crap, how is this film so awesome?

This post is pretty much me just figuring everything out, because three viewings in and I'm still unclear on some points. Lots of discussion, lots of speculation, some blatant fan-girling of Eames (♥), rampant abuse of italics and capslock...also, spoilers, so if you haven't seen Inception, for gods' sakes go and see it and then come back and discuss how awesome it is!

( Cut for spoilery discussion and speculation...3500+ words of it. :D? )

Short version? Inception is a pretty awesome movie. Like all movies, it has its flaws and its triumphs, but I think it came out on top, although some aspects frankly worried me. But I can't wait 'til the DVD comes out...yay special features! \o/

p.s. Have now seen Mysterious Skin and can actually see it working as Arthur's backstory. Am also now really, really creeped out.

p.p.s. Just did a spell-check of my post in preparation for the actual posting bit...I'm amused that the spell-checker highlighted my "nyah nyah bitchcakes".

Rules:
a) Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search (http://www.flickr.com/).
b) Using ONLY the first page, pick an image.
c) Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Mosaic Maker. (Change rows to 3 and columns to 3.) (http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php)
d) Save the image and post it!

The Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favourite food?
3. What is your favourite colour?
4. Favourite band?
5. Dream vacation?
6. Favourite hobby?
7. What you want to be when you grow up?
8. What do you love?
9. One word to describe you.

( Mosaic )

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Last weekend I went to a Krav workshop coordinated by my instructors and led by the highest-graded instructor in Australia, Richard Fagan...my body still aches. This is, of course, the very same Richard Fagan to whom I very earnestly chatted to at the Krav Christmas drinks in Brisbane a couple of weekends ago. *facepalm* But he was very nice, and he didn't look at me like I'm a freak, and he told me I was doing well at one point, so I'm counting it as a win. It still kills me that I had to quit Krav when I moved to Vancouver...I could've been P4 by now.

My uni made me decide straight up if I wanted to pay up-front or take out a HECS/HELP loan. I chose to pay up-front, because I'm only taking one course this semester, and if I pay before the census date I only have to pay 80% (the government covers the rest). Also, I already have a HECS/HELP loan that I have to pay off, and I'm not interested in adding to it.

We're not going to NZ anymore...well, we will, but in April, not this Christmas. Going to go see Granddad for his birthday, and maybe dog-nap back Max if the old man is still feeding him crap. Also hoping to pop into Tauranga and check in on the Phelps branch of the family, and New Plymouth, and maybe the South Island, too...I've never seen it.

Christmas is going to be spent in Brisbane this year. Mum won a gift certificate for a hotel in the CBD for two nights, so we're staying there Christmas Eve and Christmas night, then going to her boss' place for his annual Boxing Day Bash.

We're putting in a garden soon. We bought some herbs on Monday - rosemary, sage, marshmallow, self-heal, peppermint - and investigated dirt and different methods of creating planter boxes today. Mum's getting into natural remedies, and I've been interested in herbs since I was 12 or so, so it'll be good to give it a go. My last garden did really well until it was eaten by a goat, so I think it'll go okay.

Back in Oz! It's very strange. Everything's changed, and yet nothing has changed. All the little things that I missed while I was in Canada are back, like noisy mynahs and crickets chirruping and my cats talking to me and the Southern Cross in the sky. I could navigate my way around my suburb in my sleep, and I still know my way around the Gold Coast.

I've been sneezing like crazy lately...South Australia's turned into a dust bowl thanks to the drought, and when a big wind kicked off down south all SA's top soil got blown up to us. It's driving me nuts.

I got my licence reinstated today! In my absence I graduated from Provisional to Open licence, which I'm pretty chuffed about. I'm somewhat pleased with the picture, too.

I also went down to see Matthew, my optometrist, and get my eyes checked out...I've gone from -5.50 to -6.50 over the course of a year and three months, and when I told Matthew I was planning to go to uni he was like "...right" and later told me that if somebody walked into his practice and asked him how to make their eyes worse he would tell them to go back to uni and to get a job where they spend the bulk of their time in front of a computer (basically, my Canada Line job). Which...yes. Anyway. He gave me a set of -6.50 dailies which I am wearing now and am in love with...I can make out signs! And trees actually have leaves, not smudges of green at the top! Unfortunately, he only had the one set of dailies, so I'll be back to my old contacts until Wednesday, when my new contacts will be in and my glasses will be ready.

Turns out my mum's partner has been cheating on her for as long as they had been together. She discovered this thanks to a note addressed to "John Fradd and wife" that was left along with a bag of his clothes at our gate by the woman he was having the affair with. My mum had actually been considering giving him a second a third a fourth another chance - they'd been pretty much separated for the last couple of months - but this woman's letter saved her from making that mistake. I, for my part, am absolutely livid. If I see him in the street, it's going to be very difficult not to beat the ever-loving shit out of him, but I'm going to keep the moral high ground just in case the fucker decides to take mum to court over the house. I'm also astonished that the spineless fucking git was such a skeevy asshole that he decided to call my mum his wife so that the woman he was cheating with wouldn't get clingy, even after my mum had turned him down on multiple occasions.

GRAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH.

Anyway.

Going up to Garden City tomorrow to set up a bank account, and to buy a new phone and a SIM card...both my Aussie SIMs expired while I was away, and my current phone doesn't have the bands necessary to function properly in Australia. It should be fun!

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I'm kind of epically fond of Colin Morgan...the way he played that rant was fantastic. Arthur/Gwen is adorable, but still very abrupt...I know we have no idea how much time is passing between episodes, but I would've liked to actually see their relationship deepening, so that the kiss - which was really amazing, actually...such a good shot - didn't seem so rushed. I'm still convinced Arthur knows about Merlin, and I hope I'm right because I'd like to see the fallout from that. Next week episode looks awesome...can't wait!

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( that freakishly accurate test everyone and their cat has been doing )

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What happens when you fall in love with a fic snippet, start wondering - a lot - over the idea behind it, watch a lot of related episodes and clips on YouTube, and then get stuck on a fourteen-and-a-half hour flight?

Fic. That's what. I have no idea how it happened or why, but I'm writing again.

A while ago, somebody wrote a fic snippet for Doctor Who where the Doctor is walking along in present day London and sees Jethro (Colin Morgan's character from the Doctor Who episode Midnight) hand-in-hand with Ben (Bradley James' character from that ridiculous show Dis/Connected). Jethro sees the Doctor and the Doctor realises from the look on his face that yep, Jethro was a companion. He's somehow ended up in this day and age after parting ways with the Doctor, and it obviously wasn't an easy parting. Ben notices the Doctor and gets all protective of Jethro. Jethro seems like he's going to come over and say hi to the Doctor; the Doctor turns into an alley and heads back to the TARDIS, not willing to face him but deciding to look Jethro up.

The snippet ends there, and I always wished that the author went back and wrote more. Three hours into my flight home, after watching Midnight on my laptop, I decided I might as well have a crack at it. Surprisingly, I didn't end up with writer's block after three words, and managed to hammer out several scenes and sketch out the story arc of the Doctor and Jethro's first adventure. I also wrote a scene detailing their parting of the ways and Jethro's subsequent meeting with Ben.

This probably won't end up going anywhere...if I finish it at all, I'll probably chicken out of posting it and leave it languishing on my laptop for all eternity. But! It's nice to know that my writing-fu hasn't completely abandoned me! It's just...been in hibernation. Or something. :/

Yesterday was my last day working for SNC-Lavalin. I didn't get out of the office until 7pm because I was arranging for couriers to pick up the boxes of drawings to go up to head office, but I am done, finished...it's over, finito, praise and glory and pass the ketchup.

The past eight months have been hilariously, horrifically insane. I can't quite believe I managed to stick it out. Those first few weeks were touch-and-go...I'm sure some of you remember the multitude of tweets that went something along the lines of "i can't do this". It wasn't pretty; there were a few panic attacks and a lot of crying jags. But I got through.

I'm going to miss working there, I think. Yeah, it sucked beyond belief at first, but the people were pretty cool, and so is the finished product. I took a tour of Waterfront and Vancouver City Centre Stations before they were finished, but yesterday I went down to check out Waterfront Station on my lunch break and it's just...I can't believe it. I helped make this; I contributed to bettering a city's infrastructure. It's kinda staggering. I'm tempted to jump on the train tomorrow or the next day and just take a peek at the nine stations I helped out with...it'd be interesting to see what all the bits and pieces ended up being, and whether or not the problem stations worked out in the end.

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So what's next? No idea. I feel like sleeping for a week, but I probably won't. I know for a fact I need to track down a hard-case for Boo, and shut down my phone account and find a way to use up the credits I accumulated. I also need to go motorbike-boot hunting for Mum, and pack...a lot of packing to do. A lot of crap to throw out. It's going to be interesting, for sure.

I'm thinking about heading down to Seattle on the Labor Day long weekend for Bumbershoot. I've already got the 4th off, which means I could have a day to settle in and explore before Bumbershoot kicks off. Also, that's my birthday weekend...finally 21. I actually wanted to be in Chicago or NYC for my 21st, but Seattle is a decent runner-up. I really like Seattle; if for some reason I couldn't settle in Chicago, I think I'd end up there. And Bumbershoot would be a decent way to celebrate: music and arts and words, three of my favorite things.
...except that apparently only people with US or Canadian billing information can purchase tickets, because obviously people from other countries don't want to go to this. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. I'm going to call them tomorrow and see if I can pay another way.

Another thing I'd really like to do while I'm still here is road-trip. Just pick a direction and go. Unfortunately, I don't have a car, or a Canadian driver's licence. One of the things I'll be happiest about when I get back to Oz will be renewing my driver's licence, so I'll be able to just pick up and go if I need to.

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Reading U2 by U2. It's one of the most amazing things I've ever read, and it gives me a lot of hope.

At first I was going to write a long post about it, and then I was going to write one sentence about it, but now I think I'll go somewhere in between, because I hate talking about it and I hate that we have to talk about it but some people just don't.seem.to.get.it. and I need to get my thoughts down or they'll drive me insane.

Trauma comes in many different shapes. People deal with it in many different ways. If you're writing about something traumatic that you know could be triggering to those who have lived through it, for the love of all the gods WARN FOR IT.

I don't care if you think your story will lose its special "shock factor", or that you feel you're compromising your artistic integrity, or if you look at it after you've written it and you think well, it's only a very little scene...it might be triggering, but I doubt people will mind, or what-the-hell-ever. It is your duty as a human being - as a person with the capacity to think through your actions and consider how they could impact on others - to prevent any undue psychological trauma being visited upon those who've already experienced more than anyone should have to in a lifetime.

Everybody is different. Everybody reacts differently. You do not know who is reading your story. One hundred people who've been traumatised could read your story and be fine, but is it worth it for the one person who gets triggered by a mere turn of phrase and has a panic attack, or a relapse into depression, or is psychologically broken for another few days or weeks or months or - gods forbid - years? For the sake of a heading entitled Warning: and a few words giving people a chance to save themselves.

Just...please. It takes five minutes at the very most, and could save someone a world of hurt. Put warnings on your story...or your essay, or if you link something...basically, if you're directing attention to anything that could be triggering? Warn.

ETA: I'd like to commend arsenicjade for how she dealt with the intial incident...by all accounts, she was calm and polite and handled all commenters with grace and dignity, and amended her warnings once she realised it was an issue. Thank-you for handling it so well.

I know - or I hope I know - that everyone on my f-list already knows all this. This is just me getting my thoughts down...not directed at anyone in particular, just a general blah of words to address the situation at hand.

Just spent the evening introducing the roomie to the wonders of Star Trek XI! She hadn't had a chance to see it before now, and probably won't until it comes out on DVD, so I set up the laptop and we watched it. It was fun to watch with someone...I kinda miss it. I used to go to the movies a lot with friends, and we'd always talk out way through them...not loud enough to bug anyone else in the theatre, but we'd keep up a running commentary to each other and try and work out what was going on and so on.

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Now it's 2am, and I have a headache. I'm thinking it's dehydration and/or sugar rush...I had a couple of cupcakes. Going to drink some water and crash out soon...hopefully tomorrow the noggin will be screwed on straight.

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I really miss my Aussie friends. I really only have two over there: Karina and Aimee. Well, and John-Ross, who's Karina's younger brother.

But yeah, I miss them. I lost contact with them...god, must be six months ago, now. I'd had tenuous contact at best for the six months prior to that, and for probably a year and a half before that Karina and I hadn't really been that close.

I didn't keep up with them. I tried...I did. But I was also trying to deal with living on my own in another country, and I couldn't keep up. And I'd always been the one to keep up the contact, to call up or start a convo on MSN or shoot off an e-mail. So when I faltered, it all collapsed.

Karina was my best friend...hell, she was my only friend for a long time. Looking back on it, she probably saved my life. I'm still bitter about how that all played out, in the end...maybe one day I'll be a better person and let go. It's still stings, the memory of that betrayal...how easy it was to be shrugged off and left behind. And I feel bad for sort of doing the same to her. But I was tired of being the one constantly reaching out.

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I want to go to Ireland. I want to try and trace my family tree; I think it'd be fun. My mum's dad's mum is from County Clare...that'd be a nice place to start, I suppose. I should probably look into flight prices and so on...could be my next great adventure.

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I want to get two armband tattoos: a traditional Maori one depicting my maternal family line and my connection to New Zealand on my right arm (the right side denotes the maternal side) and a Celtic one depicting my connection to my Irish roots on my left arm. I'm going to mull these two over for a while...not that I don't always, but these two are a very cliche sort of tattoo, and will also be highly visible.

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( Don't read if you want to always think of Razia's Shadow as a nice love story. )

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xox