Lacking and Exams

Not sitting down to write for a while really got to me. I mean, knowing I had no internet and knowing I was powerless to actually do anything until the situation was resolved played its part, but I really think I stopped writing because I knew it wasn’t going to be published anywhere for people in order to read. Knowing I had that deadline to stick to – one short story per day, posting it on Blogostino (So meta right now) and having people reading whatever nonsense I was creating was the driving force behind me putting in that extra effort.

So, here’s what I’ve done in the past week…

Hopefully passed an exam. I was pretty confident about 70% of my answers, but it’s that nagging 30% that makes me think it could go either way. After my exam, I was sort of in this post-exam haze. I basically felt like a large portion of energy and life force had been sapped from me and no matter what I did, I felt like it was gone for good. This concerns me because my next batch of exams is three exams in the space of four days, which might end up with my husk slumped over an exam desk while my inner being has departed for otherworldly adventures involving lollipops and square dancing.

I also saw Super 8. I quite enjoyed this film. JJ Abrams has proven once again that he is a very capable director. Michael Giacchino provided the score yet again, but it had so many shades of LOST/Star Trek to it that I kind of wonder whether he sits there and just adds slight variations on works he’s already completed. Right after the film had finished, some hipsters behind us immediately started deconstructing the film. I was not aware that wearing a cardigan and having an awkward fringe somehow equals film critic. However, if you are going to try and critique a film within earshot of other people who had just seen the same film, don’t raise points about things like exposition to try and sound smart. Just because you personally feel you didn’t need to know everything about the plot of the film doesn’t mean 99% of movie-going audiences would agree with you. Especially when said exposition leads to the protagonist of the story gaining a deeper understanding of the situation they’re in and provide them with the insight into solving both a personal and situation-related problem.

If anything, sitting through a film that gives you no details or insight into the world that you interact with for that time can be quite an infuriating experience. JJ Abrams understands this even though he got away with six seasons of LOST without explaining everything. But in Super 8, it works in the sense that you’re not begging for answers to an unsolved mystery. Why not comment on the obvious homages to the films of Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and George A. Romero? Or how kids respond to being stuck right in the middle of a crisis?

I’ve been watching a hell of a lot of Community. I wrote this show off after watching the first episode when it came out. How mistaken I was. At the time, I didn’t want to invest in another series as I was already watching an extraordinary amount of television. Due to cancellations and shows ending, I can now fill those gaps with other shows (new or old) that have been recommended to me. I’ve managed to churn through the whole first season in the last week between work, study and social commitments.

My lack of internet saga continues – the matter has now been referred to Telstra to fix up my phone line problems. I am currently writing this update at uni while studying for exams. There’s a lot of people around here occupying space, but doing absolutely anything that could be considered studying. I am currently engaging in such behaviour by typing this update, but I’m post-grad and we are beyond reproach. It’s true. Try and reproach me, go on!

My NYWM goal has come to a screeching halt for the time being. This is nothing less than a failure on my own behalf, but I’m thinking it’s a better opportunity to revisit earlier stories and perhaps expand on them and develop the ideas a bit more thoroughly. I’m not creatively bankrupt for the month, far from it. What I seem to be doing is sitting down, starting a story and then feeling like it’s a pointless act (as I mentioned above). So what I have to show for the past six days is a stack of 100-word intros that would probably read like a bad acid trip if I stuck them all together into an attempt at create a narrative.

I just received a phone call from a real estate agent I’d been dealing with regarding a property in Reservoir. I’m not going to bore you with all the details, so I’ll go into a brief account of how things played out prior to this conversation.

Me: “Hey. I like this place, will dollar value X get it?”
Agent: “Mebbe yes. Mebbe no.”
Me: “Ok. Get me the section 32 and I’ll put in an offer.”

What seems like an infinite time lapse takes place here…

Agent: “Here is section 32.”
Me: “Thanks. I’ll get it looked over and then we’ll meet.”

It all checks fine.

Me: “Ok, so dollar value X is the best I can do.”
Agent: “No worries. We haven’t had any official offers yet.”

The next day…

Me: “Dollar value X?”
Agent: “I probably should have told you, we had an offer at dollar value X and the vendor decided to go straight to auction.”

Now by this point, I was pretty peeved that this idiot was clearly holding out for more money. The place went to auction over the weekend and was passed in on not one, but two vendor bids – one 5k higher than dollar value X and one 5k lower than dollar value X.

Now, it didn’t sell anywhere near the range they wanted, but I knew it wouldn’t, which is why I offered what I believe is a fair price. The agent knows what my limit is, yet they call and expect me to up my offer all of a sudden? I think not, Senor Agent Idiota! Calling to see what level my interest is yet again after I’ve made it clear on numerous occasions in the past exactly what I was willing to part with is a testament to this agent’s idiocy. The search continues…

Back to study!