V for Vendetta

Today I read the graphic novel V for Vendetta. I didn’t realise that I was reading it on Guy Fawkes night, thus unwittingly making a political statement. I had seen the film before and loved it, although I had forgotten the details of it. The graphic novel is brilliant. It is intelligent, poignant, gripping, insightful, and fantastic. I highly recommend it. It is even more relevant today with the rise of fascism, xenophobia, and religious extremism around the world. It was written in the 1980s and yet still feels fresh and relevant. Alan Moore, the man who wrote it, is a genius.

After reading the graphic novel, I thought I should watch the film and do some comparing. First, having Natalie Portman play Evey is a complete mistake. She’s an awful actress that makes any film she’s in not as good as it could have been. Also, her fake english accent was so bad that it destroyed any possibility for me of buying into the narrative. Then there are so many things that are wrong with the film. I mean it’s a good film in and of itself, but when you’re comparing it to the graphic novel it’s very poor. It fails on certain key points.

One of the things that really bothered me is that Evey leaves and is somehow fine for the whole summer. If we are to buy that it’s a fascist surveillance based society that is being represented than she would have been arrested within a week. The feeble attempt to say that no one recognised her because she’s changed so much on the inside is completely unbelievable and frankly insulting to our intelligence. If a former colleague had seen her, given that in the film she worked at the state tv, they would have recognised her. Journalists are supposed to be observant, even in fascist regimes.

But that’s not the worst one in my opinion. The really bad thing in the film is the last bit when V says that he fell in love with Evey and is personalised in this way. V is a symbol, that’s why anyone who wears the Guy Fawkes mask after him and is free, truly free, is V. He is the hammer, the destroyer, the bringer of chaos before the advent of true Anarchy, spontaneous order through consent. He isn’t a simple man. He doesn’t fall in love with Evey. He trains her for what is to come after the revolution. He is the destroyer and she is the creator. I just felt that it was such a hollywood moment that completely and utterly missed the point of the whole thing.

Anyway, I really really recommend the graphic novel, it’s brilliant. Also, my favourite part in both the novel and the film is Valerie’s story. Alan Moore created one of the most gripping, heart breaking, and believable story for her. She brings home the fact that those who suffer under fascism are human beings. Her story shows that there is no such thing as acceptable bigotry. Racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, islamophobia, xenophobia, antisemitism, disablism, etc are all evil and must be fought. They must never be allowed to be “normal”. They must be stopped where ever they are found. On this note, stay safe everyone. Love you bye.

No Time To Blog

Hi everyone. I don’t really have much time to blog. I’m working and it seems that it’s kicking off in Egypt again. I’m not very sure what’s happening but it seems that the police has attacked the martyrs families who have been camped out in Tahrir. It seems that clashes are ongoing right now. I’ll try to blog more about it when I know exactly what’s going on. It seems that the revolution, that was never completed since the army seems to continue the dictatorial regime of Mubarak, is back on and might be seen through. I am also going to stay up I think and try to work while I’m also watching the news. In the mean time stay safe. Love you bye.

No More Self Pity

Right I did a lot of work today. I haven’t produced much but I did a lot of reading. This means I’m getting some of my focus back, which is great news. I’ve also decided to stop feeling sorry for myself and try to be a bit more positive, you know all that hippy crap. I have a lot of stuff to talk about, there’s the Bahraini police/army destroying the monument at pearl roundabout, as if that would somehow make all the angry protesters who want freedom go away. There’s the Yemeni security forces snipping the pro-democracy protesters, killing over 40, and declaring a state of emergency. There’s also the whole No Fly Zone over Libya. The protests in Syria are also a new development. There’s the whole situation in Japan, which is a whole other can of worms. However, I don’t really have time to write about any of these today. I will however write about one, or more, of them tomorrow. If I keep going the way I’ve been going I think I will have enough time to give this blog the attention it deserves. See you all tomorrow.

A Little More Abuse

I would like to say hello to the many new readers of this blog. It seems that my review of the Promise being trolled by a few people increased the traffic on my blog quite a lot. I hope you enjoy this blog, it’s usually me moaning and naval gazing. On occasion I write about important events or review shows or books I like. Anyway, I write a post every day in order to keep in the habit of writing. Anyway, it’s not all about you new people, some people have stuck with me for almost a year now and I don’t want them to be jealous. So I’m going to stop speaking to you specifically and start addressing the whole bunch.

So as I said the traffic on my blog increased significantly. I was expecting a little more abuse from zionist trolls, but I only got one comment from A Reader. I don’t think that’s their real name. Although who knows maybe it’s Alan Reader, or Alexandra Reader, or Ahmad Reader, who knows. Anyway, this reader wrote the following: “You’re out of your depth trying to understand, let alone writing about, The Promise. It is to lazy thinkers like you that the series was aimed.” So this particular reader doesn’t think I’m delusional, or just kidding, or even that I’m a racist. Simply they think I’m an idiot. To be honest, I might be. I would think that an idiot isn’t really aware of their own stupidity.

But according to this reader, I am out of my depth trying to understand the Promise. I mean according to them understanding it is not even in the realm of possibilities, because trying to understand it is too much for me. I am so thick that trying to understand a television Drama is beyond me. But then the reader makes what I find to be a bit of superfluous point, by pointing out that writing about it is even more out of the question. You see in the course of my academic work I like to understand something before I write about it (I’m not a journalist hey? You know what I mean? ha! zing! …is this thing on? you see I was implying that journalists write about subjects they don’t understand… oh nevermind! My older readers enjoy my sense of humour and my weird writing style, some would say erratic and bad but they’re wrong).

So as I was saying from my experience if one cannot understand a given text they definitely cannot write anything about it, so the point seems to be superfluous. But the reader continues and points out in what seem to be a statement that contradicts their previous statement that the series is made for lazy thinkers like me. This confused me, it might be because I’m an idiot, but if the series is aimed at lazy thinkers like me, then why would I not be able to try to understand it. The point seemed to be that I am too stupid to even attempt to understand it. In other words, the series was way too intelligent for someone as thick as me. However, if it is aimed at a lazy thinker like me then shouldn’t I get it? Or maybe the reader is making an even more disparaging point about me. They seem to be saying that even though it is aimed at a lazy thinker like me, I’m still too thick to get it.

Now this seems to be a little much don’t you think? I mean I don’t think I’m a genius, but I didn’t think I wouldn’t get something that is aimed at me. Well, my liking the Promise and writing about it has made me discover many things about myself. I am apparently a thick, delusional, lazy thinker, who is somehow equivalent to 22 arab states and is a racist. If anything I’ve learned that about myself. Thank you random internet trolls for allowing me to understand myself better. I thought I new who I was but now I have this whole new complex identity to deal with.

Working, Hanging Out, and Stand Up

Yesterday was a good day. I haven’t had one of those in a very long time. It started a bit weirdly. I ended up sleeping for about 12 hours and woke up quite late. I decided to go to town to work, rather than staying home. So I went to Broadway Cinema and sat in the cafe there. I spent most of my day doing work. Again it was mostly reading, but it was better than nothing. It was fun seeing the cafe fill with people and get quite loud, then empty up and become quiet. It was a bit of a cycle. I was going to meet a friend who I met on twitter during the height of the Egyptian revolution.

Around 6 she came over and we went and had some food at an indian place and then had a bit of tea. It was really fun. I haven’t hung out with people in a while now, and it was nice to go out and see someone. She was here to work, she’s a stand up. I went with her to the club and hung out with her and the other comics in the dressing room. It was an incredible insight into the world of a working stand up. The club, it has to be said, was a bit of a shit hole. But it still made me want to try out stand up even more.

Everyone was so nice to me when they heard about me wanting to try as well. Everyone gave me names of promoters and were really encouraging. I will try to write some material and have it ready to try out this summer. I want to get through writing a couple of chapters of my thesis before I try though. I need to get my work in order, than try stand up and see how that goes.

Anyway, this was the first time I met someone online and then met them in real life. I knew this friend before from a few tv and radio appearances and liked her material a lot. We got to talking while tweeting for the revolution in Egypt and just met up when she was here. I can say that I have a new friend now, and I’m really happy about that. After the show we hung out a bit with the headliner, who was a very nice guy, and chatted about stuff. The whole day, afternoon, and evening, were just lovely and I had an excellent time. It’s been a while since I felt this way and I’m glad I made the effort to go to town. Anyway, I need to go back to work now, I’m still quite late.

Quick Hello

This is a quick hello to all my faithful readers. I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to look at the number of hits on this self indulgent project of mine. Thank you very much for coming back to read about my insignificant ramblings. I am in town working today. I don’t think I will make it home before the midnight mark, as I am going out to watch a friend do some stand up later. I have therefore decided to write this quick note now.

I don’t have much to say. I’ve been trying to work hard in order to make the deadline in a bit over a week. I’m still a long way away, but I’m making some progress. Hopefully my going out tonight is going to recharge my creative batteries and I’ll be able to write a few thousand words in the coming few days. So far I have mainly been reading and gathering concepts and ideas that will go into this chapter. The problem with this phase of the work is that I can’t see the results. Hopefully, that will change soon.

Anyway, that’s pretty much all from me. I am waiting for a friend now to meet me here in order to have a chat and a coffee before tonight’s gig. I will therefore leave you and get a little more work done before she gets here. Thanks again for coming back, especially when my posts are so boring and tedious. Hopefully, once the work starts flowing they’ll be a little more entertaining. Bye for now and see you tomorrow.

Supervision and Teaching

It’s going to be a short one today I’m afraid. Also, it’ll be about my life and not politics or the revolution. So today involved me going to University in order to teach and also in order to be chastised for my lack of productivity in a mid day supervision. Let’s begin by talking about the teaching. I’m a seminar leader in this first year module. Basically students give a 20 minutes presentation and then I take over and basically fill in the blanks. I had three sections to go through today. I like this class, as it is quite easy and quite pleasant. It’s nice to see the students’ minds open up and expand as they start to get more and more intellectually stimulated.

Anyway, the first class went fine. The presentation was pretty much what I expected. It was very much what one would expect. The second presentation however blew my mind away. It was fantastic. It was a truly complete and perfect presentation. I really didn’t expect this from first years. It was easily on the level of final years. I was riding high. I was really proud of my students. However, I was brought back to earth by the third presentation. It was awful. 5 minutes, no powerpoint, even though it’s about interpreting art. So that was a real downer. But I explained that the next presentations need to be better.

Finally, let’s talk about my supervision. I have been writing about the fact that I am quite late with my thesis and not really able to work for a while now. The fact that I was going to be chastised by my supervisors was a matter of time. Today was the day. They were very nice still, but made it clear that if I don’t produce something soon I would be in real trouble. We have now drawn a very tight schedule. I need to write up this chapter in 2 weeks, and then write another one 5 weeks after that. I’m hoping to do that. However, this would mean not doing much that is not work. So all I’m saying is that I might still write a few long posts from time to time, but most of them in the next 2 months will be short. Anyway, that’s all from me now. Good night you lovely readers.

>36 Hour Day

I almost forgot that I needed to write this blog post today. After a very weird beginning of the day, I spent most of my day working, and I got so caught up in work that I forgot about this. Anyway, I’m on a bit of a break at the moment, so I thought I could write this for you, you greedy bastards, right now. If you remember I wrote a very short post yesterday, well I say very short it was about half the required amount of words for me to feel satisfied. I have my rules don’t judge me. I’m not mentally ill. The reason for my short post, you’ll remember I hope, was that I had been awake for 24 hours and was really tired and wanted to go to sleep. However, that plan went to shit very quickly. As the title implies I went on to stay up for another 12 hours. However, that comes later in the story that is my >36 hours day (for those who don’t know > before a number means more than in math speak. I’m not saying you’re think, I’m just covering my own arse. Because  will literally receive tens of characters in one email complaining about it). Let us first go back to the beginning of that very long, and slightly traumatic day.

So I woke up on Sunday at around 18:00 or 19:00 on Sunday. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to sleep at a normal time. So I therefore decided to try and stay up until a normal time on Monday in order to try to reset my sleep again. Because I’ve done it a few days ago but it didn’t work. Anyway, I spent most of the night not doing much and watching some stuff online. I had to try and fight my sleepiness around 10:00 because I had a supervision at 12:30 and I needed not to miss that meeting. So I kept drinking a lot of tea in order to build up the caffein content in my body.

I have been watching a new series and spent all night doing that. I watched Warehouse 13 last week and it seems to be set in the same universe as the series I’m watching now, which is Eureka. This means that I will soon be able to write two different posts reviewing each of these series. I love that I have these two posts there for me to use when I have a non-creative day in which I can’t think of anything to write about. I am a devious human being who isn’t mentally ill.

Anyway, when it came time to make my way to university I was quite tired, but was looking forward to my supervision. I haven’t had one in a very long time and it was good to have the chance to touch with my supervisor. I really like my supervisor, he has always been very understanding and very helpful. Anyway, I made my way to university. It was quite cold at that time of day. Anyway, the supervision went very well. I laid down my plan for the rest of the year and discussed with my supervisor. I all goes to plan, I will be able to finish my thesis without a writing up year. I will however, we have decided, still use my writing up year in order to get some publications out. I have a chapter which I believe can be mined for two articles. I believe I’ll be able to publish them as there is very little work done on the subject. This definitely works in my favour.

We also discussed my progress report that I have to submit right by tomorrow. We discussed what should go in and what should stay out. The final thing we discussed was the coming deadlines that I needed to set for myself. I have to write about three quarters of a chapter by the end of the month and hopefully get a first draft ready by early February. This means that I can incorporate the comments I get from my supervisors by the middle to end of February and then move on to the next chapter. If I manage to get this finished in time then I have a very good chance of getting my thesis on its way to completion.

After that very enjoyable and energising supervision I went back home. My plan was to fight my urge to sleep. I tried to do some work, but got so sleepy that I had to stop. The problem is that I was starting to have blurred vision and was unable to focus on my work. I decided to go and do the laundry instead. This meant that I had to get out of the house and face the coldish weather, by the time I got out of the supervision the weather was a lot warmer. On my way to laundry it was actually pleasant.

Once I got home and hung my laundry I felt extremely tired. I decided to watch one episode of Eureka and write my blog and then go to sleep. The first two parts of that plan went perfectly well. I made my way to bed, laid down, and just like a perfectly oiled machine felt completely awake. It was disconcerting. I had been awake for a bit over 24 hours by then and I couldn’t understand why I wasn’t able to sleep. I felt sleepy and tired and cranky, but I couldn’t sleep. At first I got angry, because it was ridiculous. By every possible scenario I needed to go to sleep like a log and wake up a whole bunch of hours later. However, it wasn’t to be.

I stayed in bed, trying to bore myself into sleep, for a few hours, but to no avail. This was simply not going to happen. I therefore decided to make the best of it and try to work. This turned out to be impossible. I was so tired that I couldn’t get my brain to concentrate on my work. It is high theory after all. By the way, when I say high theory I’m not blowing my own horn. It’s just that this is what people call it. I don’t think that what I do is more valuable then what other people do. In fact, I believe that I could be spending my time doing stuff that are a lot more useful, as I have detailed in previous posts. I think that a lot of people who are working on things that aren’t called high theory are doing way more valuable work then me. But that’s by the by.

So I wasn’t able to concentrate on work. In fact, the only thing I could concentrate on was tv. I therefore loaded a bunch of episodes of Eureka and watched them until I wasn’t able to keep my eyes open. During that time I watched a whole bunch of episodes but also took a bbc lab test that tests one’s musical ability. Z posted it on my wall. I was always secretly afraid that I don’t really have what it takes to make music. I have trouble keeping a beat, I can’t sing, and I am not used to playing with others. I love music and have been doing it for a very long while now. So I took the test in order to know for sure. It turns out that my ear is highly developed when it comes to interval and melodic recognition, as well as pitch although that was a little lower (still very high though). My rhythm recognition and replication score was very high as well. The only thing that I can’t do it seems is sing, and that is probably because I am not trained to use my voice as an instrument. The problem is simply that I don’t know how to place my voice onto notes. I don’t know how to press the right keys on the keyboard that is my voice. I don’t know how to press the right fret on the guitar neck that is my voice. I don’t know, alright you get the idea.

After that, I went back to watching Eureka until I couldn’t stay awake anymore. It turned out to be around 2:00 or 3:00. I was a little pissed off again by then. I just had a day that lasted over 36 hours and that’s just not right. I hope that I’ll be able to reverse my weird sleeping pattern. If by the time I get back from Algeria I’m not back to a normal sleeping cycle I will go see a doctor and take some evil drugs that will get me to sleep. I really hope that I don’t have to though, because I hate them things. Anyway, that’s my very long post to make up for yesterday’s short one. I believe you’ll all agree that I have wasted enough of your time. You may now return to your normal activities and I will see you all tomorrow.

Another Fast Day

Well Tuesday was a weird one again. I woke up quite late, having made up for the previous night’s bad sleep. It was very strange. I haven’t had a sleep like that in a while. I just closed my eyes and then opened them again. I felt a little refreshed and ready to work. I made myself a cup of tea and then went ahead and did some work.

Most of my work though involved reading. This is good but I need to start translating this reading into words. I think that if I’m able to keep working steadily I’ll be able to get something ready by the end of the week. At least I hope so. Something along the lines of 5 or 6000 words. That would put me in a good place to double that the next week. I have been thinking about my thesis as a whole as well, and I think I need to change it up a bit. Nothing drastic, well it s a little drastic. I think I need to turn it into a 4 chapter thesis with a very long introduction. That way I’ll scrap what was chapter one and lay it all over my chapters. I think that this way the argument won’t be interrupted. I need to finish the first draft of this chapter and talk about it with my supervisors though. If I make a good argument, I think they’ll go along with me.

Anyway, the other feature of that day was that I have a cold. It’s strange as I haven’t really been in contact with anyone. I think that I might have caught something when I went out to do some shopping. I hope it’s just a cold that I can fight off and keep working despite it. It sure looks that way for now. Let’s hope it doesn’t turn into something more ugly.

The thing is though, the day passed very quickly, and before I knew it, it was time for me to watch the last episode of Upstairs Downstairs. It was very good. I really like how the drama of the household is intermeshed with the political upheaval of the mid to late 1930s in the UK and Europe. Again it is very well done. After that though, I wasn’t sleepy and didn’t know what to do. So I decided to start watching The Wire. I heard a lot about it. All of it very very positive. I know it wasn’t a hit when it aired, but everyone had nothing but good things to say about it. So I thought I’d give it a go.

I have to say, I was blown away by it. It’s not just a tv show. It really is a televised novel. There are so many characters in it, and each and everyone of them gets properly characterised. Not much happens throughout the whole thing, but that’s not what it is about. There is a main story, that involves the Baltimore Police trying to catch a major drug dealer. However that’s not what it is about. It’s very much a treatise on the fall of an empire. You see how the US is completely rotten. The ghettos where people’s lives are worth nothing, and the way in which everyone is distracted from the real issues. It is really very good. I’m still on the first series, but I’m completely hooked. I will hopefully write about it again when I go through more series and give you a more detailed review. But so far, this is a masterpiece of television. Rarely have I seen tv so well done.

Anyway, that’s about all that happened to me on Tuesday. I went to sleep relatively early in the hopes that I wake up on Wednesday and get some more work done. Hopefully, I’ll keep working and working and get my stuff done. Anyway, until tomorrow, be safe and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.

Weird Fast Day

So I went to sleep at a normal time on Sunday. But my sleep was disturbed, very disturbed. I kept waking up  almost every hour. I don’t know why, I couldn’t keep sleeping. Was I having nightmares? Was I nervous? I don’t know what was wrong. The point is that I woke up feeling grumpy and completely and utterly exhausted. I did wake up at a normal time though, which is good. I had decided that Monday was going to be a long work day. I made myself a cup of tea, checked my mail, and decided to watch a little tv before I got started.

I then made myself another cup of tea and thought ‘you know what I should wash my dishes from last night’. So I did that. Then I thought I should make myself my food, since I ran out of leftovers and I thought that way I wouldn’t have to worry about it later while I’m working. If I make my food now, I’ll just need to reheat it. So I made myself some vegetables soup. I was very tired by then and I thought I should make myself another cup of tea to keep me up. After my tea I thought I should start work. So I got everything out, checked my mail one last time and then sat down to work.

I wrote about 100 words very quickly. I was proud of myself, but I started getting hungry. So I thought I should eat. I heated my food and had it while watching some tv. I finished the food before what I was watching was done, so I thought I’ll watch the rest. I then was quite sleepy and tired. So I thought I could play a little FF, just to get through the drowsiness. It helped and I got to kill a few Adamantoises, which is what I’m doing right now. I’m basically farming for some rare materials and experience. And that enemy is the only one that yields those rare items. So I did that for an hour or so. Then I thought it was time to get back to work, but by then I was really tired and it was impossible to focus on the book I need to be reading. So I thought I’ll just keep playing and see where that goes.

Before I knew it, it was quite late and it was time for me to watch the things I want to watch on tv. The first thing I wanted to watch was Richard Herring on Celebrity Mastermind. As you might know, I’m a big fan of his and have been looking forward to seeing his performance. He did very well on a very difficult subject, which was Rasputin. He however lost by one point in the end. But it was a gripping and interesting episode. After that, it was time for another episode of Upstairs Downstairs. This remake is getting better and better. I know I’ve said it before but the BBC are really very good at making costume dramas. Plus to see what it was like in the 1930s in England is a lot of fun.

After that I watched Charlie Brooker’s 2010 wipe, which is a sort of funny irreverential look back at tv, games, and news items and their coverage from the year. It was a lot of fun and it was also nice to remember some of the things that seem so far away now, like the volcano. After that I played a bit more and stayed up to watch the final Russell Howard’s Good News of the season. The main reason was that again, I know I’m such a silly fan boy, Richard Herring was on. And I wanted to see him. After that I got myself ready to sleep, and felt like I could have done more with my work. But through the power of procrastination and the effect of a very bad night of sleep, I was unable to deliver. Hopefully the next day would be better.