Updates on the Drama & Boondock Craziness

Okay I'd like to start this out talking about one of my favorite shows, or what used to be my favorite show: The Boondocks. I really don't know anymore. What started out as a new and fresh medium for black people to express frustration against Americanism, has turned into my opinion Aaron MacGruder bitching about black people and white. I never denied the fact that he knows that in order to make something successful you have to talk about yourself in the process if you want it to be a true to life way of looking at things.

I mean you could look at previous seasons of the Boondocks and see that with the way that rap culture comes out everytime Huey and Riley watch "Booty Butt Cheeks" or whatever. That was funny and true to me. But it seems as though he has taken that sentiment and made it much darker. After the two year hiatus from the show when no one expected it to return, he came out with his first episode about Obama, in which he takes the entire episode to critize Obama and everyone that stood with him.

Do I get the message of the dangers of "dick riding" Obama? Yes. Do I dick ride him myself? No. I don't think he's absolutely perfect. I don't think he's the superstar that's going to save the United States. But I do think he's doing a fantastic job with what he's been giving. It took a strong man or woman to have to stand in that position and try to pick up all these pieces that George Bush left behind and he's going a great great job. So no, I don't agree with Mr. MacGruder. I think he's being entirely unfair to the left and to the people of America that voted for what Obama stood for: change.

As for the show itself, it seems to have just delved deeper and deeper into different ways of calling people niggers and finding different ways to point that out. I don't know. I do believe that this will be the last season though. I don't think Sony is gonna put up with that shit too much longer.

Now then on to the next. I had a very long conversation with Steven the other day and we literally talked like the whole day online. Turns out that after he was yelled out by his boss (the same woman that he told me about wayy back before) that now he wants to quit and up and move to San Diego. Whereas the last time we were talking he had told me the decision wasn't definite, it seems like this latest attack has pushed his mind into the idea that is going to be permanent. Let me be clear about this now. Do I want him to leave? No. But do I want for him to be stuck in a place where he's unhappy? No. So where does that leave me? Not too sure. But he was saying that I needed to come to San Diego with him and all of that and I'm thinking to myself, "are you fucking crazy? Have you lost your mind? I've never even met you face to face and you want me to move out to another city with a man I've never met to try and build a life together?" Okay I may be a romantic, but I'm not crazy and even that is a bit beyond me. I just simply told him that if he choose to leave, that that's his decision but that it would mean that we're most likely not going to get together unless he really wanted to. I'm looking at it from the standpoint of that you're not going to have me jumping on a jet every weekend paying god knows what money into travel just to spend a day or two with you before I've got to head home. Maybe some people can do it, but that's not me. It's the same reason why I broke it off with Pete earlier this semester. Someone's who's three hours away from me but who can't even find the time off of work to come and see me doesn't deserve to have me as their partner. They need to focus on what's going on their area and find someone there that they can relate to. I'm not about to be jet-setting for just anyone. So on that front, we'll just have to wait and see.

I had my meeting with Jeff yesterday and I went to see him about the resit information on my essay after he failed me for the Poetry course. It was funny to me a little because he could tell that I wasn't happy (who would be?) and he was just trying to downplay it the entire time but it didn't matter. Basically he was just saying that I didn't do the essay correctly and that it was confusing and he couldn't get a read off my work from it. Turns out, that was one of the deciding factors in the grade on my poetry, considering that I got a 56 on the poetry part because he said he was confused and didn't agree with the line arrangements or on what our definitions of "prose" was. I thought it was literally anything that didn't rhyme or have a definable meter. He claims it's all about margins and lines and all of that. Truth is, it's probably a bit of both, but the point is, I certainly didn't know that, so I'm thinking I can't be blamed for something I didn't know. After he told me that he was confused by my essay and couldn't read the work, I asked him for a remark of the poetry and the essay because the way I see it, if I can rework the essay to explain the poetry, then he should have a much clearer understanding of what I was trying to do, and therefore give me a better grade. It pisses me off that I have to go into all of this when people like Dambara and Ashley turned in their stuff like the weekend of after not having anything all semester and yet they both end up with mid 60's. That shit is beyond frustrating. But he said I just have to turn it in and move on, which is what I will attempt to do. Whatever.

I got a situation cleared up with Jon and apparently he doesn't "do" friends with benefits or whatever, which is fine by me, though shelling all this money every time he appears is getting thin. So we'll have to work something out on that front. Also, David asked me to see him again this morning and then was talking about fucking in the bathtub. Where as before I was seriously considering the offer, after that little piece of information I was like, "oh thank god I didn't go." Because I know now that that'd be a terrible mistake. And I ain't even gonna bat an eye. I turned down Marek, I can certainly turn down David.

I taught again yesterday for Tony to a group of 12 year olds and one of the teachers came to me afterward and said she really liked the lecture and that it was the highlight of the day which was great. Tony immediately asked me when it was over, "please don't leave England." lol. Which I thought was funny. Apparently he seems to think I'm quite good at teaching, if it wasn't for the fact that I don't have a PGCE degree or whatever, I probably would go into it. But that just means that when I get home I have work to do in trying to figure out if I wanna do one more year of school to get it out of the way, or just go the sub route or whatever. Ugh. I have so much work to do when I get home.

P.S. I got my article published by CampusProgress!! yay. Couple that with the email that says they're paying me $100.00 for it, I'm like, YEAH! Even better.

The Curse of Prematurity

Okay so I've had a few days to get over the shock of Jeff's class, and while I'm still angry, I'm a bit over it at this point. He sent me an email where he didn't give me any kind of reason for failing me, just that he felt that I didn't explain my work at all, and that my paper needed a redraft. I didn't even get into the part of the fact that apparently everyone else's work in the class must be better than mine since I got a 56, which was the lowest grade in the class. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to set my face to go into his office this week. I can't make up my mind to decide if I want to be angry, or sad or what. After talking to Louise, she was just saying that I need to look at what I did on my other essays and try and emulate the same process. I already know what I was doing with Jeff's, in that I was trying to pull from the genre of poetry before explaining my own, but I guess that approach didn't work. So anyway, I'll have to figure out how to do that this week.

Next up: Goncalo. He's a really nice Portuguese guy that lives on the top floor of the building here, and we've been talking and seeing each other almost everyday. Don't worry it's not like that, as he's straight, but he's still nice to look at. Of course, now that I've been talking to him almost everyday and getting to him generally, I realize now just how young he really is. And he and Kirsty are the focus of this blog this time around. Nadia and me spent the better part of an hour trying to convince him not to exit university because of the fact that he hates film theory and feels like he's the next George Lucas because he can already do film praticals or whatever. I was trying to explain to him that even though that might be true, Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, and all the rest all have film history in their resumes because you have to know about the history of the medium before you can work in it. But he wasn't trying to hear that. It just showed his age, and showed how stubborn he can be. Funny, because he'll probably have to learn the hard way when he can't get any kind of regular job because of his unwillingness to deal with things that he disagrees with.

Now with Kirsty, that's a different story all together. My flatmate here, she's intelligent, beautiful, and has her head on her shoulders. She would be a powerhouse to be reckoned with if it wasn't for the fact of one thing: her boyfriend Nick. I spent a few hours with them tonight and we just sat drinking and talking about life and movies. They're quite cool but her boyfriend is going to be the downfall of her. I can see it coming. It's like watching a train wreck in slow motion. We're talking in the kitchen and he mentions one time when he's out doing something "when I was fucked up on drugs and alcohol, yeah?" and kept talking as my mind played back the previous statement. ?????!!! So I casually asked her about this after he runs outside for his 12th cigarette in an hour. And she replies that not only does she know about his drug habit, she's quite alright with it, saying that she loves him regardless...blah, blah...and I'm thinking to myself, "so you want to be cleaning up all his coke habits in two years?" I mean it was RIDICULOUS. This girl is beautiful intelligent and great. And for her to be with this guy, (who's heading head first into a massive supernova of an explosion with his willingness to be an actor) it's like unthinkable. I just kept thinking the whole time, "you stupid, stupid child. Is this what I was like when I was 20?" Oh wait. No. Even at 20, I had more sense than that. *sigh* I suppose eventually she'll learn. When she's dragging his overdosed body into the bathtub for a cold shower.

Poor Kirsty. Poor Goncalo. Poor 20's.

............. :(

So I failed poetry. What else is there to say?

What Is A Friend With Benefits? I Mean Come On, Really.

So let's see. I've had an interesting few days to report. First the unimportant stuff (so to speak). After handing over my precious Xbox to these people get fixed, I got this call saying that there was nothing wrong with the system and that I would have to come in and pay for it to be returned to me because apparently she thought (Daniella) that I was making it all up. UPDATE: that's incorrect. Sunday night, I get an email from one of the guys in the shop saying that the repair on my Xbox has been completed and now I owe them 60 pounds for the service....? Considering there was nothing that was supposed to be wrong with it in the first place, this is news. So I called them yesterday to discover that apparently they had discovered that I was not making it up and that yes my box had indeed Red ringed on me. So they fixed it. Supposedly. But now when I'm trying to pay them I realize they sent me the request to the US bank account, and I'd rather pay through UK but now I can't so anyway I'll have to wait till the money comes all the way back around because I put an extra e in the email. Fucking stupid.

Anyway. This week our grades should be out for our Spring classes, and I'm just curious as to what I got. I'm not in any danger of failing, as I figure, as both of these classes I actually cared enough to participate in unlike theory last semester. I mean yes, I like Sharon Norris, but I mean it's theory, not my thing. (We'll get to that later) So that should be interesting. It'd be really nice to get a first in both classes this time around, but I suppose I'll be satisfied with 65 and up this time around.

I invited Jon over for dinner tonight and he came through and we had a blast. He's really nice. I wish I had met him earlier when I got here, because he's really nice and I think we have a good time together, but I'm not even going to entertain any thoughts like that, as I'm leaving he knows it. But he came over and I cooked lemon pepper fried pork chops, new potatoes, salad with peppers and mushroom topping, macaroni and cheese, and broccoli. I went all out. I don't really know why. Maybe I just felt like doing it. Not sure. But it was fun and the food was good.

Speaking of going home, guess who I heard from today. Steven. Like two years ago Steven from VA Beach Steven. I had totally forgotten him to be honest, I just knew his screename of Etienne from MySpace. He messaged me the other day saying he missed me and to hit him up. So I did, and we started talking and he remembers me from two years ago! Crazy. Even crazier is the fact that he still likes me....maybe I have a reason to go home after all. But I'm wondering do I just make him a friend with benefits or something more? I'm wondering is the part when I lay my intentions bare and let him know and just expect devastation all the way around? I've never been in the situation where I say something and then someone says something right back and it's just perfect like it always is in the movies. Granted I've had people tell me amazing things (Paul...) but with him being married and all, it really doesn't count. So now I'm wondering. So I just continue to flirt with Steve innocently or really let him know that I'd love for him to become mine for good??

On the Grind. Maybe.

So I've been doing the whole job posting thing today and I absolutely hate it. I hate this so much. It sucks seeing everyone around you working and making money and not even knowing what you're going to be doing or where or how because you don't know how you're going to get there. I need to just fast forward life just to see what comes next because this is ridiculous. I mean it's like everyone everywhere has all these specifications and it's like I didn't plan myself out enough to know exactly where I need to be to get what I want. Very very frustrating. I can only hope as time goes on that I can eventually end up somewhere worthwhile with a good job, and a good house. I know what I want. I just don't know how to get there. *sigh*

This is what I want. Some day I will have it. I will.

Breathtaking.

That's what Wicked was. God I'm glad I went. The show was marvelous. What I loved most was the story. Not having seen Wizard of Oz, but knowing the basic parts, I loved how they connected so much without having to try. Like Tin Man being Elphaba's sister's lover who's heart shrunk after Ness tried to kill him with a spell, or the Cowardly Lion as a result of her actions in school scaring the lion cub. Or most interestingly, how Scarecrow was actually the lover between both Elphaba and Glinda, after he was wrongfully accused of murder, and she attempted to save his life, and they left after she faked her death. Such a great, great story.

On a side note, I was in Victoria station for a little while and tried to go to Burger King (a rose of the same name is NOT a rose) and thought of Andrew. I couldn't help it. I realize now that I was actually falling in love with him, as funny as that sounds. He just seemed so...perfect. Perfect face, perfect connection, perfect body. God. What I wouldn't give to have him. It just doesn't seem fair. I texted him and tried to see him but the show went over long after he left work, so I didn't get a chance to. I keep toying with the idea of trying to see him after work one day, but honestly I don't know if I should. I'm already emotionally raw when it comes to him, so that would be like flaying the wound. But I just want to see his face honestly. Just to look at him and stare at it. Ugh. Need to think of other things.

Tomorrow I'll be inquiring to find out just what the hell these people are doing with my Xbox and I have to do a bit of work with Tony on a Taster day, so that should be interesting. What I REALLY need to be doing is getting back to work on this script. After all, I've only got 3 weeks from Tuesday to have it finished. And I'm only on page 34 from a week and a half back. *sigh*

A Wicked Revitalization

So it's been a little while since I've done a proper blog and in this time I've decided to start a semi-professional version of a blog that I can keep in the future after going through a few of my friends. MySpace was getting a bit stale, so this will work better I think. I've been spending the last week porting old blogs over from MySpace (over the last five years) over here so that's been a mammoth task, but I thought I'd take a break from that and catch up on some modern stuff too. Let's see:

Over the last week:

My beautiful wonderful Xbox has suddenly come down with Red Ring and so I've sent it off so this place in East London with the hopes that they can fix it, though they haven't contacted me back yet when they were supposed to yesterday so it's making me raise my eyebrows.

While working with Filomena (an ambassador here) she was telling me about Wicked tickets being on sale through the university for tonight. At the time, we were going through a green mesh net that the school is trying to set up as a walkway for disabled students through their garden and into the play area for this Shakespeare thing that we're supposed to be doing in the next two weeks....(huh yeah right at this rate, I'm really wondering if we're even going to really do it. These people SWEAR being disorganized!! First it was GLBT week (or the lack thereof) and now this?! Over it!!) So I contacted the school and sure enough they were selling tickets for Wicked tonight from a discounted price of 60 pounds to 35. But do you think that's what I paid for them? NOPE! Upon further inspection, we discovered that disabled people's tickets are....15 pounds. Score!!!

Let's see. Today is Thursday, so Tuesday I had a very interesting experience when Monday afternoon Tony called me from UK recruitment to let me know that one of the lecturers for the Creative Writing program had backed out and he wanted to know if I could do a guest lecture for the students. Ordinarily this would be fine. Oh did I mention, they were 9? So I was freaking out for a fraction of a second trying to figure out what to do with these children after I called Chimba. And so I came up with a gameplan and Tuesday I was ready to go. Of course, getting there Tony was pissed to discover that the security team here at the university (whatever they call themselves, cause it sure as hell ain't security) didn't have a key so I had to crawl down a giant flight of steps but it was alright. When the lecture started, I was a little nervous sitting there looking at all these faces listening to me talk but it was really cool. Maybe I'll actually like teaching for a change. I showed them a trailer for How to Train Your Dragon to explain about how writers are responsible for all of that then I talked about writers and what we do and we did an imagination exercise with Doby and Tails. Then I talked a little more about imagination and finished with some poetry. It was a good session.

Sunday actually, was pretty interesting. I figured I should write about it now or I'll forget. Technically I was supposed to have rehearsal for Shakespeare but that got cancelled since so many of the people didn't show. Which is not unusual for this place. Ugh. Anyway, it ended up being okay because I went to Putney to meet with Bernhard, who this really hot guy from Austria but he's living in Berlin at the moment and he had business in London. We had been talking via Romeo for awhile and so when he came we ended going to Nando's for lunch which was great. Love the manager there. She's so awesome. We talked for a little while and it turned interesting when he started asking me about what I liked to do and so when I told him, he started messing with me under the table...that was....interesting. Well I decided to go with him in a cab and we went back to his hotel and talked for a bit, and more happened (cough, cough) and then he took me for a drink and I went home. That was nice. I wish I could've stayed with him for a bit longer, but with him being on business, I doubt we'll ever cross paths again, which is a damn shame.

I went to lunch with Jen on Monday, and we had a chance to catch up which was really nice, as I rarely ever get to talk to her as much as I would like. Jen is like one of those in between people that I never know quite where I'm at with her, but I think she smoothed that at lunch on Monday. Unfortunately I'm caught in the middle of a war between her and Chim after Chim left her stranded for a ride at the airport. Granted, I understand both sides and Jen's mad because she's tried all semester to be friends with her and Chim always was finally ways to avoid the situation and when she said she would do something and didn't, it made it really difficult for her. But Chim was saying that Jen only comes to her when she needs something and Chim was saying that their not good enough friends for her to be asking for favors like driving to the airport at five am. I mean I know I could, but at the same time, I guess she could've said no in the beginning and it would've saved people a lot of drama. So that's sad. But eh, we'll be gone in a little while anyway so it's not like it matters terribly anyway.

Speaking of which, I bought my ticket to go home Saturday and it was wonderful. Granted I hated having to pay over double for what I paid to come here but everything considered, it was a better deal. 695 for a flight back and that includes insurance for my luggage and my chair, which I think is important. But I'm leaving Britain Wednesday August 4th at 9:00 which will be great. I'll enjoy being back home. It will be a nice chance to all this madness.

Over the last two weeks I've been hanging out with Goncalo like almost everyday which is cool. I'm pissed that I really didn't get to know him till like 2 months till everyone's scheduled to leave, but such is my luck. He's really cool.

I've also had my X Factor audition like two weeks ago and that was interesting. Chim took me there at five am and we got there and had to stand in the freezing rain for two and a half hours, and then got in the room and when I did my audition I got through only to be cut on Tuesday when I went back with Goncalo. That sucked but it didn't matter. 17 year old British girls probably don't know about Etta James or Al Greene so that's fine. Their loss.

Um let's see I've seen the New Nightmare on Elm Street. It was alright, but the original is much better. But as far as remakes go, it was pretty good. I've also seen Iron Man 2 but I certainly wasn't paying to see that shit. It was okay, I've never been a fan in the first place but I did like Scarlet Johanssen as the Black Widow. That was fun.

Okay so I'll have to do more updates later. Gotta get dressed for Wicked!