These are largely New Zealand charities that I keep in mind if not actually donate to (alas, I'm a broke student). Here are links to their donation pages and a short description of what exactly they mean to me.
Who do I know that's affected? My best friend, and a few other people I went to high school with who go to the same school as him.
In my last year of high school, Kyah Dale Milne, the baby daughter of an old online friend was diagnosed with cancer. I followed her story at
kyahsjourney up until her death. Both the Ronald McDonald House and the Child Cancer Foundation supported Kyah and her family every step of the way.
I was suicidal in my second to last year of high school. While I never actually called Youthline, I appreciated their existence.
I grew up free of abuse. So I want to help other people be able to as well.
As I started to come out of the closet, I became gradually aware of HIV/AIDS and its effects on the gay community and Third World nations.
Music is one of my two loves and in high school particularly I played and wrote the most. Play It Strange runs a songwriting contest that actually motivated me to finish songs three years in a row.
My paternal grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer and is presently in remission.
During my time in Florida, I got involved with the Relay for Life in Celebration with my workplace team. No longer being in Florida I can't exactly participate again next year.
My maternal grandmother has Alzheimer's and tends to forget who I am, seeing as I haven't been around her that much living in another country and all.
The Red Cross New Zealand, particularly their earthquake appeal
Christchurch was hit by a magnitude 6.3 earthquake, six months after a magnitude 7.1 which already had the city destabilized. At time of writing there were 166 confirmed dead with 240 unaccounted for, which in a small country like New Zealand is huge. Everyone in this country knows someone at least affected by it. The Red Cross is checking on welfare, assisting the needs of affected people and communities, providing fresh water, helping people find missing friends and family, and giving emergency grants to people without water, power, or sewerage.
Who do I know that's affected? My best friend, and a few other people I went to high school with who go to the same school as him.
Ronald McDonald House
A home away from home for families of sick kids in hospital for treatment away from home.
Child Cancer Foundation
Support for families of children diagnosed with cancer and doctors and researchers.
In my last year of high school, Kyah Dale Milne, the baby daughter of an old online friend was diagnosed with cancer. I followed her story at
kyahsjourney up until her death. Both the Ronald McDonald House and the Child Cancer Foundation supported Kyah and her family every step of the way.Youthline
A youth helpline, counselling, and leadership training.
I was suicidal in my second to last year of high school. While I never actually called Youthline, I appreciated their existence.
Women's Refuge
Support for victims of domestic violence.
I grew up free of abuse. So I want to help other people be able to as well.
New Zealand AIDS Foundation
Support for people living with HIV/AIDS.
As I started to come out of the closet, I became gradually aware of HIV/AIDS and its effects on the gay community and Third World nations.
Play It Strange
Support for young songwriters and musicians.
Music is one of my two loves and in high school particularly I played and wrote the most. Play It Strange runs a songwriting contest that actually motivated me to finish songs three years in a row.
Philippine Breast Cancer Network
Support for breast cancer patients, education, and breast cancer research.
My paternal grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer and is presently in remission.
American Cancer Society
Support for cancer research, education, advocacy, and service.
During my time in Florida, I got involved with the Relay for Life in Celebration with my workplace team. No longer being in Florida I can't exactly participate again next year.
Alzheimer's Association (US)
Support for Alzheimer's sufferers, research, and education.
My maternal grandmother has Alzheimer's and tends to forget who I am, seeing as I haven't been around her that much living in another country and all.
After a hard summer (2010-11), I decided that for my twentieth birthday (March 25th 2011), I'd set myself thirty goals I want to accomplish before I turn thirty. Hopefully this list will be motivation to make it to thirty.
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Today Sophie and I went along to LegaliseLove's celebration rally and march for marriage equality! For the non-Kiwis, the marriage equality bill got pulled out of the ballot a bit ago, public support for it is pretty damn high, and from interviews et al a majority of MPs from across the political spectrum (like, there's only one party who isn't behind it) look like they're going to support it (it's going up for the first reading, debate, and vote tonight). EDIT: IT PASSED THE FIRST READING!
There was a great turnout! And lots of families with little kids C: The final rally at parliament was kind of awesome, with the local iwi doing waiata to open and close, MPs from across the political spectrum including the one who wrote the bill, one of the first campaigners for gay rights in NZ back in the 80's, a couple of Anglican ministers (literally, a lesbian couple). They were great speeches, and hearing and seeing so much support, I kind of just loved everyone. C: There was a small (nineteenish?) group of counter-protestors from the Korean Baptist Church but they were pretty damn respectful, just stood on the outskirts with signs; I was really impressed by the MPs who acknowledged them without calling them out. Tolerance!
LegaliseLove threw out three dress code suggestions on their Facebook event: Purple, rainbow, and wedding. Apparently I took this as a challenge to do all of the above, and rocked up in rainbow tiedye tights, my yellow, orange, and pink tiedyed dress, and a purple trenchcoat with Chris' rainbow scarf as a belt, blinding the entire city. (Though really, as Wellington's generally inclined to black, the entire, colorful march was kind of a shock to the eyes.) And I brought along the bubble gun I bought at Armageddon and fired it at random, delighting several people, especially when I let them have a turn with it. Especially this one little girl who was also quite enamored with my rainbow tights 8)a This may be the best way to make friends, guys.
( Thirteen bigger-than-I'd-expected photosCollapse )
Sophie and I went along to LegaliseLove's celebration rally and march for marriage equality! For the non-Kiwis, the marriage equality bill got pulled out of the ballot a bit ago, public support for it is pretty damn high, and There was a great turnout! And lots of families with little kids C: The final rally at parliament was kind of awesome, with the local iwi doing waiata to open and close, MPs from across the political spectrum including the one who wrote the bill, one of the first campaigners for gay rights in NZ back in the 80's, a couple of Anglican ministers (literally, a lesbian couple). They were great speeches, and hearing and seeing so much support, I kind of just loved everyone. C: There was a small (nineteenish?) group of counter-protestors from the Korean Baptist Church but they were pretty damn respectful, just stood on the outskirts with signs; I was really impressed by the MPs who acknowledged them without calling them out. Tolerance!
LegaliseLove threw out three dress code suggestions on their Facebook event: Purple, rainbow, and wedding. Apparently I took this as a challenge to do all of the above, and rocked up in rainbow tiedye tights, my yellow, orange, and pink tiedyed dress, and a purple trenchcoat with Chris' rainbow scarf as a belt, blinding the entire city. (Though really, as Wellington's generally inclined to black, the entire, colorful march was kind of a shock to the eyes.) And I brought along the bubble gun I bought at Armageddon and fired it at random, delighting several people, especially when I let them have a turn with it. Especially this one little girl who was also quite enamored with my rainbow tights 8)a This may be the best way to make friends, guys.
( Thirteen bigger-than-I'd-expected photosCollapse )
- Current Location:New Zealand, Wellington
- Current Music:Uncharted 02x14 "Tunnel Vision"
Brilliant season of and what remains all round, really. Variations in how much the crowd laughed at some bits (it took till opening night when we finally managed to make a scene that I'd been struggling with making funny funny) or how many people were crying by the end (and what remains is that kind of play), that awkward moment when there's a haka in our play and an All Black in the audience, but loved the whole thing, wasn't stressed out about it at all like I sometimes was during Summerfolk. Tonight the final night and I was expecting to be a bit shit because I'd had work and was tired, and while I did minorly screw up a few lines, the whole cast had this spark tonight and it was, we're told, our best run ever.
Which was all the better because Miria George, who wrote this thing, was watching, along with Hone Kouka, who directed the first three seasons of and what remains (and no one's really touched the play since).
She and one of my Summerfolk directors, who teaches and what remains in English/theater 112, were apparently laughing way too loud at every remotely funny bit all the way through, and she said afterwards that we did a great job and that I was perfect for the character. I've identified with Ila ever since I studied the play so hearing that, from the person who would know, was such an honor; I babbled at her that I loved Ila and she said she was glad I got to play her. Hone Kouka enjoyed it too and that from the show's director almost every other time it's been put on? Oh man.
I still feel like an idiot for not getting a photo with Miria but I had her sign my goggles, so that's going to be with me everywhere now.
Doing this play has seriously been such a confidence booster for my acting, though: I've also had comments on my acting in it from said Summerfolk director and a few of my castmates from that (my favorite was "you've been hiding all that talent!"). In Summerfolk I didn't have much to do and what I did have I was kind of blah at; here I pushed the story along because my character was a jerk (or in Miria's words, "so charismatic and outspoken but she still puts her foot in it"). So praise for my work here from people whose work I really admire (these were some of my Summerfolk castmates I admired the most) and who have seen me doing not so great is kind of lovely.
The other two plays in this season were Naomi in the Living Room by Christopher Durang and He Reo Aroha by Jamie McCaskill and Miria George (so she got to see two of her plays tonight!), both of which had one of my classmates from classical theater workshop last year and now site specific devising, so it was cool to see them again. Naomi was this very weird play about meeting an actually crazy mother-in-law; I think we all remember it for a faked almost!orgasm scene and the crossdressing guy (who happened to be my classmate) who walks better in heels than I do. He Reo is a love story with two actors playing four characters and they did a fantastic job of differentiating the characters just with acting, no costume changes or anything, even if I did think my classmate was playing a very flamboyant gay man when he was actually playing a girl. And one of them had never acted before!
Packout was pretty quick, even with a significantly smaller cast and crew to help out, because our sets weren't as huge (that's what happens when you have three half hour pieces of theater in one night); it even turned out pretty fun when someone chucked on music and it deteriorated into a dance party. (This part surprised me because I was getting pretty tired and stressed during Summerfolk's packout. I suppose On the Edge ending at a decent time of night had something to do with that.)
And then we had the afterparty and I wore a moustache the whole time because Naomi had some left over that they weren't using and I felt like it. This would probably be an appropriate time for #YOLO if I didn't think that meme was ridiculous.
( cast photo!Collapse )
And now I get to breathe for a bit before devising rehearsals start. This is gon' be weird.
Which was all the better because Miria George, who wrote this thing, was watching, along with Hone Kouka, who directed the first three seasons of and what remains (and no one's really touched the play since).
She and one of my Summerfolk directors, who teaches and what remains in English/theater 112, were apparently laughing way too loud at every remotely funny bit all the way through, and she said afterwards that we did a great job and that I was perfect for the character. I've identified with Ila ever since I studied the play so hearing that, from the person who would know, was such an honor; I babbled at her that I loved Ila and she said she was glad I got to play her. Hone Kouka enjoyed it too and that from the show's director almost every other time it's been put on? Oh man.
I still feel like an idiot for not getting a photo with Miria but I had her sign my goggles, so that's going to be with me everywhere now.
Doing this play has seriously been such a confidence booster for my acting, though: I've also had comments on my acting in it from said Summerfolk director and a few of my castmates from that (my favorite was "you've been hiding all that talent!"). In Summerfolk I didn't have much to do and what I did have I was kind of blah at; here I pushed the story along because my character was a jerk (or in Miria's words, "so charismatic and outspoken but she still puts her foot in it"). So praise for my work here from people whose work I really admire (these were some of my Summerfolk castmates I admired the most) and who have seen me doing not so great is kind of lovely.
The other two plays in this season were Naomi in the Living Room by Christopher Durang and He Reo Aroha by Jamie McCaskill and Miria George (so she got to see two of her plays tonight!), both of which had one of my classmates from classical theater workshop last year and now site specific devising, so it was cool to see them again. Naomi was this very weird play about meeting an actually crazy mother-in-law; I think we all remember it for a faked almost!orgasm scene and the crossdressing guy (who happened to be my classmate) who walks better in heels than I do. He Reo is a love story with two actors playing four characters and they did a fantastic job of differentiating the characters just with acting, no costume changes or anything, even if I did think my classmate was playing a very flamboyant gay man when he was actually playing a girl. And one of them had never acted before!
Packout was pretty quick, even with a significantly smaller cast and crew to help out, because our sets weren't as huge (that's what happens when you have three half hour pieces of theater in one night); it even turned out pretty fun when someone chucked on music and it deteriorated into a dance party. (This part surprised me because I was getting pretty tired and stressed during Summerfolk's packout. I suppose On the Edge ending at a decent time of night had something to do with that.)
And then we had the afterparty and I wore a moustache the whole time because Naomi had some left over that they weren't using and I felt like it. This would probably be an appropriate time for #YOLO if I didn't think that meme was ridiculous.
( cast photo!Collapse )
And now I get to breathe for a bit before devising rehearsals start. This is gon' be weird.
- Current Mood:
indescribable - Current Location:New Zealand, Wellington
Today we headed out to the Wrights Hill Fortress, a WWII gun emplacement made to stop ships out in the Cook Strait and also a shelter - that was never used because they finished it in 1945. Funnily enough, it's actually in my suburb, but I'd never been up there. The guns are all gone, sold, ironically, to Japan, the country the place was made to try and stop, for scrap metal after the war, but it was still really interesting seeing all the old machinery, and things sounded different in the tunnels, and ~space~ was just really different eighty feet underground. I loved the displays of wartime propaganda and info on New Zealand's involvement in the war, possibly because I never took history at school so I never really knew much about it. My favorite part was this display of the money used in the countries Japan occupied, like Sumatra and surprise surprise the Philippines - the fifty centavo bill cracked me up considering it's usually a coin.
And then on the way out we took totally the wrong path and spent several minutes lost on Wrights Hill and started discussing who would die first and who would turn out to be the murderer because "this is how all the horror movies start: A group of college kids get lost!" We had brilliant plans to subvert some of the conventions and have all the gay people live: "WE'RE SAFE! Oh, wait, there's quite a few of us in this class..."
We also went to St. Gerard's Church and Monastery out in Mt. Vic, one of those places I used to always see from a distance (it sits on the side of a hill very visible from the waterfront) but never went in until today. Used to be a Redemptorist monastery, got bought by a Catholic missionary group with members from all over the world who live there together and do everything like cook and eat together too. Lovely place, and I say that as someone who's usually a bit of an awkward turtle in churches, but I felt oddly at peace in the chapel. (If a little awkward as my classmates ran around looking at everything while my brain was going "IT'S JUST A CHURCH" with a side dish of "I cannot fathom any theater other than Easter plays and the Nativity in here".)
And today we performed and what remains to our director's mentors. They liked it! Though we're going to be reblocking the whole thing six days before we open 8| because we suck at working with the thrust stage. And my notes were about my ongoing issues with articulation (wrapping your tongue around words so that people who haven't heard them before understand is hard) and "more sass", which I struggle with because before I got told to tone down the bitch and have more compassion and now I can't find the balance. \(o_O)/ But we're getting a field trip to the airport (and what remains is set in the international departures lounge at Wellington Airport) on Sunday, which I am really excited about because I've been demanding a field trip the whole rehearsal process! Admittedly half of my demands were for a field trip to a farm because one of the characters is a dairy farmer and he's being played by a priest's son. But hey! Field trips.
And then on the way out we took totally the wrong path and spent several minutes lost on Wrights Hill and started discussing who would die first and who would turn out to be the murderer because "this is how all the horror movies start: A group of college kids get lost!" We had brilliant plans to subvert some of the conventions and have all the gay people live: "WE'RE SAFE! Oh, wait, there's quite a few of us in this class..."
We also went to St. Gerard's Church and Monastery out in Mt. Vic, one of those places I used to always see from a distance (it sits on the side of a hill very visible from the waterfront) but never went in until today. Used to be a Redemptorist monastery, got bought by a Catholic missionary group with members from all over the world who live there together and do everything like cook and eat together too. Lovely place, and I say that as someone who's usually a bit of an awkward turtle in churches, but I felt oddly at peace in the chapel. (If a little awkward as my classmates ran around looking at everything while my brain was going "IT'S JUST A CHURCH" with a side dish of "I cannot fathom any theater other than Easter plays and the Nativity in here".)
And today we performed and what remains to our director's mentors. They liked it! Though we're going to be reblocking the whole thing six days before we open 8| because we suck at working with the thrust stage. And my notes were about my ongoing issues with articulation (wrapping your tongue around words so that people who haven't heard them before understand is hard) and "more sass", which I struggle with because before I got told to tone down the bitch and have more compassion and now I can't find the balance. \(o_O)/ But we're getting a field trip to the airport (and what remains is set in the international departures lounge at Wellington Airport) on Sunday, which I am really excited about because I've been demanding a field trip the whole rehearsal process! Admittedly half of my demands were for a field trip to a farm because one of the characters is a dairy farmer and he's being played by a priest's son. But hey! Field trips.
- Current Mood:
awake - Current Location:New Zealand, Wellington
One week to opening night! Starting to get nervous; I think I've hit the two week out wall: I'm dropping lines, timing things wrong, forgetting blocking changes, and it's freaking me out aaaaaah.
We watched season one's dress rehearsal last night and it was kind of amazing: One of the boys is very elaborately pretending to do Everything is Going to Be Just Fine! by Roger Walter, fake publicity materials including program notes and a Circa-style photoshoot with people who aren't even in his cast and all, but is actually doing a black comedy, Yesterday An Incident Occurred by Mark Ravenhill, and they nailed the mood switches. The other kid did The Bear by Anton Chekhov which was hilarious and had our violinist from Summerfolk and the set was by our makeup guy. Oh man, we have to be that good! The opening night function was fun, though, even though our playwright didn't show up like our director said she would. Hey, there was Camembert.
Uni's started back and I've had all my first classes now. Well, I suppose for Women and Film we've only had the film screening because this one's structured film on Wednesday and lecture on Friday, which I like, but I was nearly conking out at our lecturer's five minute "this film is by X soundtracked by Y historical impact" spiel. Oops. Also, I forgot how much I dislike Vertigo, not even just from a feminist perspective but I just don't enjoy it, and less now that I, uh, know someone who died that way.
The first Language Across the Curriculum lecture was about vocab which I just looked at in 201 (this is what I get for doing classes out of order) but I still got really excited about it so I feel like this is a good sign. I love my minor. But I'm mildly concerned that one of my first thoughts looking at the course outline was what forgiving mandatory course requirements. No, self, This Semester Will Be Different.
My theater class this sem is devising a site-specific piece, which I was nervous about because I'm way used to scripts so making it up myself, and on my feet with other people rather than sitting down alone and writing a script, is kind of terrifying, but I wanted to get better at it and get over my fear, so I went for it. (One of my friends is trying to make me change to the other theater paper who are putting on Camino Real by Tennessee Williams. But... nah.) And it seems like it'll be really good! I like our course coordinator already, and it's a nice small class (thirteen tops) which I'm more comfortable with than the twenty-two that was Summerfolk, with some of my friends from 204, a handful of people from Summerfolk, and a girl I've seen around and thought would be cool to get to know, and there's three of us who aren't white (that's a quarter of the class!). And thus the first thing my 204 friends and I devised together was a piece about having to devise a piece. (The pieces had to be about a really emotional moment, and one of my friends gets overwhelmed and confused given a prompt like that.)
Site-specific stuff seems like it'll be really interesting, though I'm nervous about having to do a presentation pitching a site to perform in next week (uh, it's production week!!). (It doesn't need to be in Wellington. Immediately one part of my brain went "OH NO" because another one went "DISNEY!!") But I'm excited about the field trip checking out sites tomorrow!
( grief stuffCollapse )
We watched season one's dress rehearsal last night and it was kind of amazing: One of the boys is very elaborately pretending to do Everything is Going to Be Just Fine! by Roger Walter, fake publicity materials including program notes and a Circa-style photoshoot with people who aren't even in his cast and all, but is actually doing a black comedy, Yesterday An Incident Occurred by Mark Ravenhill, and they nailed the mood switches. The other kid did The Bear by Anton Chekhov which was hilarious and had our violinist from Summerfolk and the set was by our makeup guy. Oh man, we have to be that good! The opening night function was fun, though, even though our playwright didn't show up like our director said she would. Hey, there was Camembert.
Uni's started back and I've had all my first classes now. Well, I suppose for Women and Film we've only had the film screening because this one's structured film on Wednesday and lecture on Friday, which I like, but I was nearly conking out at our lecturer's five minute "this film is by X soundtracked by Y historical impact" spiel. Oops. Also, I forgot how much I dislike Vertigo, not even just from a feminist perspective but I just don't enjoy it, and less now that I, uh, know someone who died that way.
The first Language Across the Curriculum lecture was about vocab which I just looked at in 201 (this is what I get for doing classes out of order) but I still got really excited about it so I feel like this is a good sign. I love my minor. But I'm mildly concerned that one of my first thoughts looking at the course outline was what forgiving mandatory course requirements. No, self, This Semester Will Be Different.
My theater class this sem is devising a site-specific piece, which I was nervous about because I'm way used to scripts so making it up myself, and on my feet with other people rather than sitting down alone and writing a script, is kind of terrifying, but I wanted to get better at it and get over my fear, so I went for it. (One of my friends is trying to make me change to the other theater paper who are putting on Camino Real by Tennessee Williams. But... nah.) And it seems like it'll be really good! I like our course coordinator already, and it's a nice small class (thirteen tops) which I'm more comfortable with than the twenty-two that was Summerfolk, with some of my friends from 204, a handful of people from Summerfolk, and a girl I've seen around and thought would be cool to get to know, and there's three of us who aren't white (that's a quarter of the class!). And thus the first thing my 204 friends and I devised together was a piece about having to devise a piece. (The pieces had to be about a really emotional moment, and one of my friends gets overwhelmed and confused given a prompt like that.)
Site-specific stuff seems like it'll be really interesting, though I'm nervous about having to do a presentation pitching a site to perform in next week (uh, it's production week!!). (It doesn't need to be in Wellington. Immediately one part of my brain went "OH NO" because another one went "DISNEY!!") But I'm excited about the field trip checking out sites tomorrow!
( grief stuffCollapse )
- Current Location:New Zealand, Wellington
- Current Music:Castle 04x14 "The Blue Butterfly"
Jo's 21st was in the weekend and I had a great time! Good pizza at Big Dogs on Blair :) And it was lovely to catch up with Obligatory theater babble: We open in two and a half weeks!! And we are barely off-book ahahaha. But it is lovely to have the team back together ;o; and I have my costume! And I accidentally found two perfect props for my character, because it turned out A) Mom bought a Starbucks travel mug in the Philippines that actually says Manila on it, and B) I forgot I had a book named Connecting Flights: Filipinos Write From Elsewhere. (It's a book of essays, fiction, and poetry by and about Filipinos outside the Philippines; I bought it last year in the Philippines because it seemed relevant to my interests but I never got around to actually reading it until today's rehearsal. Some pieces are interesting...)
At one point last week my director looked at my outfit and said, "Can you just wear that in the show? You are Ila." Sometimes I think she's right.
To my surprise and elation, I have passed all my classes from last semester! B in Company (Summerfolk), B+ in scriptwriting, and the aforementioned but still surprising A in language teaching methodologies. So I have ordered myself a Sackboy Nathan Drake keyring and Uncharted: The Fourth Labyrinth as a reward, because everything fandom is Uncharted and nothing hurts
To end on a downer note, Wednesday will be what should have been
Chris's 21st birthday. I was already thinking about it, but getting the birthday alert from LJ felt weird.- Current Music:Grimm 01x04 "Lonelyhearts"
- Current Location:New Zealand, Wellington
We're doing the end of and what remains, which means we're working with a lot of history to our characters the audience won't see, but a lot of it hasn't really shown. Yesterday at rehearsal we only had me and the guy who plays someone my character gets into some really personal fights with before the piece we're doing, and on a whim we actually read the argument scenes a few times through. It was fantastic! Because sure, I'd read it, but it's one thing reading something by yourself and another reading it aloud with a scene partner and getting even more bitter at each other. And it got us pissier at each other in the scenes we're actually doing, too :D
Today I went out to see Snow White and the Huntsman with the family. I quite enjoyed it! ( spoilarzCollapse )
While we were out I randomly bought a jacket partially because it reminded me of Chloe from Uncharted's, only to get home and realize it's basically the cut of a couple of her jackets but the color of another. Whoops. Oh well, I might chuck it on if I cosplay her, considering Wellygeddon's in autumn.
Speaking of Uncharted: Sometimes I'm kind of a creeper on Tumblr and check out the blogs of people who like/reblog stuff I post the rare times I use more standard tags, so I ended up following a complete stranger who reblogged an Uncharted fic of mine because it turned out she also sometimes writes fic I like and reblogs lovely photos the rest of the time and we appear to share similar headcanon. I didn't really talk to her though until a couple of weeks ago when she reblogged some comic panels I'd posted with tags to the effect that she hadn't read them herself, and I offered her the scans I had and we also briefly gushed in mutual admiration of each other.
That was about the extent of our interaction until her tags on a photo inspired me to write a fic, and we had feelings at each other about it, and then she wrote a fic inspired by my tags on the first fic, and oh my gosh, I am so pleased.
Today I went out to see Snow White and the Huntsman with the family. I quite enjoyed it! ( spoilarzCollapse )
While we were out I randomly bought a jacket partially because it reminded me of Chloe from Uncharted's, only to get home and realize it's basically the cut of a couple of her jackets but the color of another. Whoops. Oh well, I might chuck it on if I cosplay her, considering Wellygeddon's in autumn.
Speaking of Uncharted: Sometimes I'm kind of a creeper on Tumblr and check out the blogs of people who like/reblog stuff I post the rare times I use more standard tags, so I ended up following a complete stranger who reblogged an Uncharted fic of mine because it turned out she also sometimes writes fic I like and reblogs lovely photos the rest of the time and we appear to share similar headcanon. I didn't really talk to her though until a couple of weeks ago when she reblogged some comic panels I'd posted with tags to the effect that she hadn't read them herself, and I offered her the scans I had and we also briefly gushed in mutual admiration of each other.
That was about the extent of our interaction until her tags on a photo inspired me to write a fic, and we had feelings at each other about it, and then she wrote a fic inspired by my tags on the first fic, and oh my gosh, I am so pleased.
- Current Location:New Zealand, Wellington
- Current Mood:
good
Last night I saw Sunset Road by Miria George with the And What Remains cast and director. It was really good! Despite my dozing off early on; apparently I needed my nap. What is even happening to me. Everyone was fantastic and the physically stylized moments were gorgeous-looking. And after one of our Summerfolk directors (she's mentoring our AWR director) came in, watched a scene, and told our director we shouldn't always get so shouty (we do kind of scream at each other a lot), it was really interesting seeing the power that people had in emotional scenes without getting shouty. Hearing some lines recycled from or very similar to And What Remains was kind of funny, though.
It was also an amusing bonding experience with the AWR cast. Our director mothered us a bit so we've started calling her Mum or Mama [her surname] for lulz, resulting in things like "Mum told you to be quiet!" We also learnt a bit about her family and tea (she's English). And apparently our first year girl is hilariously expressive watching things and ruined the big scene for one of the boys because her face is an open book and you could see her shock and "BUT WHAT?!". We can't take her anywhere. AWR rehearsals are so much fun, though; we spent ten minutes the other day trying to pick Adele songs for some of the characters, although one of the boys ended up with a Kanye song because he said Adele wasn't deep enough for his character.
Speaking of And What Remains, I really like the poster for the honors directing seasons!
( Maybe I'm only saying that because I had nothing to do with this one. It is actually so nice only acting instead of acting AND doing publicity for a show again.Collapse )
In other news: ( I appear to have gotten an A on that class I thought I failed.Collapse )
You have no idea how confused I am. Hell, I am even slightly displeased as this means I'll get into 302 next tri and I'll once again have three classes, one of which is a production paper, and now all of them will be 300-level. (Then I kick myself for being lazy.) But hey, this means I can still get my ALIN minor.
It was also an amusing bonding experience with the AWR cast. Our director mothered us a bit so we've started calling her Mum or Mama [her surname] for lulz, resulting in things like "Mum told you to be quiet!" We also learnt a bit about her family and tea (she's English). And apparently our first year girl is hilariously expressive watching things and ruined the big scene for one of the boys because her face is an open book and you could see her shock and "BUT WHAT?!". We can't take her anywhere. AWR rehearsals are so much fun, though; we spent ten minutes the other day trying to pick Adele songs for some of the characters, although one of the boys ended up with a Kanye song because he said Adele wasn't deep enough for his character.
Speaking of And What Remains, I really like the poster for the honors directing seasons!
( Maybe I'm only saying that because I had nothing to do with this one. It is actually so nice only acting instead of acting AND doing publicity for a show again.Collapse )
In other news: ( I appear to have gotten an A on that class I thought I failed.Collapse )
You have no idea how confused I am. Hell, I am even slightly displeased as this means I'll get into 302 next tri and I'll once again have three classes, one of which is a production paper, and now all of them will be 300-level. (Then I kick myself for being lazy.) But hey, this means I can still get my ALIN minor.
- Current Mood: chipper
- Current Location:New Zealand, Wellington
Summerfolk was kind of brilliant. On the last night we had a full house and extra seats in the galleries!! I love being right there with the audience reacting to stuff; I had this off screen line screaming for a boat and on the last night I actually heard someone worrying about it. It really taught me that acting is such a process, because things still changed and we still figured out new things about our characters as the season went on: One of my friends came down into the dressing room shouting "I GET IT!" about one of his lines halfway through the season, and on the last night I suddenly really understood my character in one of my scenes. Way too late.
( Stupid brief stories from show nights.Collapse )
The afterparty was pretty fun too. :P I spent half of it with a toy pistol tied into my back cardigan straps (it was one of those wraparound cardis dancers wear) because my friend who was drunkenly pretending to shoot everyone put it down and I don't know, I guess I thought it was a good idea to steal it? His confusion when he couldn't find it again later was fun too, though I am surprised no one noticed. I danced and ate cake and peaced out and taxi'd home at 4AM like a proper university student.
We had a very complimentary review in the Dom Post! My favorite part:
( Two more videos of rehearsal/show footage.Collapse )
With all the time I spent either at Summerfolk rehearsals or recovering from them in May and the first week of June, I ended up getting an applied linguistics assignment in two and a half weeks after it was due. The way LALS treats late work, I fully expect to have failed it, but I was getting sick of having it over my head. So I also pretty much expect I'll have failed the class overall, because I don't think I did well enough on the exam to salvage it (although I was pleasantly surprised by how little of it I didn't understand - you know you didn't really study when). (On the upside, we had a pizza afterparty for the exam! It was great; why don't more classes do this?) I've pretty much made my peace with this, because I crunched the numbers and I don't need the points from my minor to graduate at the time I'd planned to (next year), and two classes instead of three next semester (this ALIN class is a prereq to one I'd signed up for for next sem) will be. relaxing.
That said, I also got in the last theater assignment a couple of days late. :| Next semester will be different... I think I'm starting to figure out good places/times for me to work on things, since I've figured out a few places I really don't do work.
So now I'm free of uni until next month, and And What Remains rehearsals have started, and I seriously love this play. And our cast is so amazing; I can't believe one of the girls is only first year because she has this monologue that almost makes me cry every time she says it (and I'm onstage for it auuuugh this is going to be hard). Our director's already starting to entertain fantasies of causing lots of controversy (it's. a very controversial play, especially given current events) and getting picked up by Downstage Theatre and doing the whole show instead of just the three scenes we're doing (honors directing shows are half an hour pieces). We're on July 25th - 28th, and the other directors are starting to freak out because they've only had like three hours with their actors and there's four weeks to go (the first season is the week before us), but we've already got the skeleton of our piece and we have the biggest cast (there's five of us; most of the shows have two people).
I'm also really enjoying being back at work at my old time and department and having weekends. I'd missed my workmates ;o; and knowing where everything is at the till, ahaha. And I swear working at Farmers has made me appreciate the value of underwear: I went to a Flight of the Conchords concert last week and linefaced at the $15 Conchords underpants thinking, ugh, overpriced concert merchandise (before proceeding to buy a $40 tour T-shirt, uh, self, what) but then I realized that the higher end mens' brands sell underpants/boxers at like $25+ a pop. :|a
The Conchords concert, by the way, was fantastic! Music was gorgeous, with a few stuff I hadn't heard from the show before (something about wooing a lady in 1353 and a song called "Hotties on Cuba" which I liked because I work on Cuba) and a cellist so that was lovely, and the boys were hilarious in between songs. They made this great pot shot about making a band in New Zealand: "Do a few gigs, go overseas, make it big, and then maybe people will come to your shows."
And a lot of The Hobbit cast were there that night too; my friend who angsted about not getting general admission tickets when those came out somehow managed to get premium tickets and ended up sitting in front of Billy Connolly, Sir Ian McKellan, Martin Freeman, and James Nesbit (I am quite proud of him getting up the balls to talk to the first two; he was very nervous). Naturally the boys made jokes about this too:
Fangirl: [unintelligible]
Jemaine: "... was that human? We know there's a lot of people from the Hobbit cast here tonight, so is it people from the Shire?"
later
Different fangirl: [unintelligible]
Jemaine: "Was that another hobbit? Bret, you're an elf, what did she say?"
Finally, my comic collection has gotten to the point where I bought a giant accordion file to organize it and save it from ending up squished in the mess that is my bookshelf. (I also half-suspect I just wanted to decorate a folder, but hey.) I am not sure what has happened to my life.
( Stupid brief stories from show nights.Collapse )
The afterparty was pretty fun too. :P I spent half of it with a toy pistol tied into my back cardigan straps (it was one of those wraparound cardis dancers wear) because my friend who was drunkenly pretending to shoot everyone put it down and I don't know, I guess I thought it was a good idea to steal it? His confusion when he couldn't find it again later was fun too, though I am surprised no one noticed. I danced and ate cake and peaced out and taxi'd home at 4AM like a proper university student.
We had a very complimentary review in the Dom Post! My favorite part:
As an ensemble piece of theatre, this is ideal for a roup such as these very talented students. All 21 create real, believable people and appear totally in tune with their characters and the situations they find themselves in, even those playing characters of the opposite gender and much older than themselves. The production moves along at a cracking pace. The energy, vitality and the stylised and broad playing that the actors bring to the production as a group make it great, thought-provoking entertainment.I am so proud.
( Two more videos of rehearsal/show footage.Collapse )
With all the time I spent either at Summerfolk rehearsals or recovering from them in May and the first week of June, I ended up getting an applied linguistics assignment in two and a half weeks after it was due. The way LALS treats late work, I fully expect to have failed it, but I was getting sick of having it over my head. So I also pretty much expect I'll have failed the class overall, because I don't think I did well enough on the exam to salvage it (although I was pleasantly surprised by how little of it I didn't understand - you know you didn't really study when). (On the upside, we had a pizza afterparty for the exam! It was great; why don't more classes do this?) I've pretty much made my peace with this, because I crunched the numbers and I don't need the points from my minor to graduate at the time I'd planned to (next year), and two classes instead of three next semester (this ALIN class is a prereq to one I'd signed up for for next sem) will be. relaxing.
That said, I also got in the last theater assignment a couple of days late. :| Next semester will be different... I think I'm starting to figure out good places/times for me to work on things, since I've figured out a few places I really don't do work.
So now I'm free of uni until next month, and And What Remains rehearsals have started, and I seriously love this play. And our cast is so amazing; I can't believe one of the girls is only first year because she has this monologue that almost makes me cry every time she says it (and I'm onstage for it auuuugh this is going to be hard). Our director's already starting to entertain fantasies of causing lots of controversy (it's. a very controversial play, especially given current events) and getting picked up by Downstage Theatre and doing the whole show instead of just the three scenes we're doing (honors directing shows are half an hour pieces). We're on July 25th - 28th, and the other directors are starting to freak out because they've only had like three hours with their actors and there's four weeks to go (the first season is the week before us), but we've already got the skeleton of our piece and we have the biggest cast (there's five of us; most of the shows have two people).
I'm also really enjoying being back at work at my old time and department and having weekends. I'd missed my workmates ;o; and knowing where everything is at the till, ahaha. And I swear working at Farmers has made me appreciate the value of underwear: I went to a Flight of the Conchords concert last week and linefaced at the $15 Conchords underpants thinking, ugh, overpriced concert merchandise (before proceeding to buy a $40 tour T-shirt, uh, self, what) but then I realized that the higher end mens' brands sell underpants/boxers at like $25+ a pop. :|a
The Conchords concert, by the way, was fantastic! Music was gorgeous, with a few stuff I hadn't heard from the show before (something about wooing a lady in 1353 and a song called "Hotties on Cuba" which I liked because I work on Cuba) and a cellist so that was lovely, and the boys were hilarious in between songs. They made this great pot shot about making a band in New Zealand: "Do a few gigs, go overseas, make it big, and then maybe people will come to your shows."
And a lot of The Hobbit cast were there that night too; my friend who angsted about not getting general admission tickets when those came out somehow managed to get premium tickets and ended up sitting in front of Billy Connolly, Sir Ian McKellan, Martin Freeman, and James Nesbit (I am quite proud of him getting up the balls to talk to the first two; he was very nervous). Naturally the boys made jokes about this too:
Fangirl: [unintelligible]
Jemaine: "... was that human? We know there's a lot of people from the Hobbit cast here tonight, so is it people from the Shire?"
later
Different fangirl: [unintelligible]
Jemaine: "Was that another hobbit? Bret, you're an elf, what did she say?"
Finally, my comic collection has gotten to the point where I bought a giant accordion file to organize it and save it from ending up squished in the mess that is my bookshelf. (I also half-suspect I just wanted to decorate a folder, but hey.) I am not sure what has happened to my life.
- Current Location:New Zealand, Wellington
- Current Mood: cheerful
( Video of us all dancing and singing along to Elephant Love Medley during rehearsal breaks.Collapse )
None of this was planned.
None of this was planned.
- Current Location:New Zealand, Wellington
SO ONE OF MY SUMMERFOLK PHOTOS WAS IN THE DOM POST
( two photos!Collapse )
I took the publicity photos forever ago knowing they'd be used eventually, but it was so long ago that I sort of forgot, and I never really expected one to pop up in the Dominion Post of all places! Even if it's itty bitty. There's a bigger one in Salient, too, but uh, it's Salient. Not as big a deal, haha.
Opening night was great :D One of those audiences that laughs at everything. So it made the quieter crowd the second night a bit of a bummer. :| But I was pleased to see some of my friends there, Rophie and Nicola :D Tonight's audience was more like the first, but I was having an off day to start with (had some free hours to do my long overdue assignment, totally failed to do it, beat myself up about it, had trouble putting up my hair, strapped a bit too tight and couldn't breathe properly) so I ended up bumping part of the set in one scene and flubbing a line to a version I haven't said in a week. Eurgh. Tomorrow I'll do better.
Y'all Wellingtonians should totes come if you haven't already :D
In other news, I went to see my baby sister in my old high school choir at the Big Sing yesterday. I cannot believe Teal has a hundred and fifty girls now! That's what you get for making it all comers I suppose; back in my day you at least had to be able to carry a tune in a bucket. They were lovely. I'm just disappointed I had to leave and go to uni before I could see the other choirs my sister and my cousin are in, not to mention a bunch of other choirs I usually enjoy (Twilight Tones, Coll Chorale, Con Anima) and a bunch of songs I like. I only managed to see Chilton's student run junior choir, who were pretty cute, especially the One Direction song they did.
( two photos!Collapse )
I took the publicity photos forever ago knowing they'd be used eventually, but it was so long ago that I sort of forgot, and I never really expected one to pop up in the Dominion Post of all places! Even if it's itty bitty. There's a bigger one in Salient, too, but uh, it's Salient. Not as big a deal, haha.
Opening night was great :D One of those audiences that laughs at everything. So it made the quieter crowd the second night a bit of a bummer. :| But I was pleased to see some of my friends there, Rophie and Nicola :D Tonight's audience was more like the first, but I was having an off day to start with (had some free hours to do my long overdue assignment, totally failed to do it, beat myself up about it, had trouble putting up my hair, strapped a bit too tight and couldn't breathe properly) so I ended up bumping part of the set in one scene and flubbing a line to a version I haven't said in a week. Eurgh. Tomorrow I'll do better.
Y'all Wellingtonians should totes come if you haven't already :D
In other news, I went to see my baby sister in my old high school choir at the Big Sing yesterday. I cannot believe Teal has a hundred and fifty girls now! That's what you get for making it all comers I suppose; back in my day you at least had to be able to carry a tune in a bucket. They were lovely. I'm just disappointed I had to leave and go to uni before I could see the other choirs my sister and my cousin are in, not to mention a bunch of other choirs I usually enjoy (Twilight Tones, Coll Chorale, Con Anima) and a bunch of songs I like. I only managed to see Chilton's student run junior choir, who were pretty cute, especially the One Direction song they did.
- Current Mood:
tired - Current Location:New Zealand, Wellington
I got a part in And What Remains!! I am delighted: There are a grand total of five characters in this show so I have a lead in a show I like and oh my god, guys, the director did callbacks but I wasn't called for one, and that means I was good enough to be cast on my two slightly blah readings of sides and oh my god. There was no one I needed to fight for my role, whether that's because no other Asian actresses turned up or I was just that good and I choose to believe the latter.
And I got a part I love! The part who when I was studying this last year I thought, "IT'S ME!" because she has these lines:
And this character's Gujurati Indian, right, and there's a clause in the performance rights that says you have to get the right ethnicity actors - but the director got special permission from the playwright to change the character to cast me "because I thought you'd bring quite a cool pizzazz to the role" and oh my god. They're going to have to change a line to reflect it ahahaha. I am so stoked that it is barreling over my increasing flailing over my non-Summerfolk classes.
And I got a part I love! The part who when I was studying this last year I thought, "IT'S ME!" because she has these lines:
“Every word that I utter, in the presence of my family, has been edited, has been selected, carefully, so that I don’t cause offence with my own thoughts. Every word that I utter is tailored and tapered for them – I’m a fucking seamstress! And it’s not only what I say. It’s what I do. Every movement that I make, every arm raised… every finger lifted… it’s for them! In their presence. It’s all for them!”
And this character's Gujurati Indian, right, and there's a clause in the performance rights that says you have to get the right ethnicity actors - but the director got special permission from the playwright to change the character to cast me "because I thought you'd bring quite a cool pizzazz to the role" and oh my god. They're going to have to change a line to reflect it ahahaha. I am so stoked that it is barreling over my increasing flailing over my non-Summerfolk classes.
- Current Mood: ecstatic
- Current Location:New Zealand, Wellington
( My costume! Missing white suspenders and a cheesecutter hat.Collapse )
I think once I get the hat I'll end up looking like Ryan Evans. I am not sure how I feel about this.
Ryan, or...
We tried strapping down my boobs but it was not working (though this may be because none of us know how), so now half the costume team wants to make me just androgynous if not just a girl. Which I am on board with, because I'd wanted to play him as a girl, but the directors were like "we're not changing the gender of any characters because that sends a message we're not really looking to send" at the start of this. And my costuming friend wants me as a girl just because she thinks me and the girl playing my character's girlfriend are the cutest couple. :|;;; She kind of has a point there, because Zimin/Sonya is the most stable couple in the show, and we have gotten a lot of "that was really cute!" comments after our scene.
I think once I get the hat I'll end up looking like Ryan Evans. I am not sure how I feel about this.
Ryan, or...
Me: So, my suspenders: Up, or hanging?They almost got a bowtie; that would have been even more Doctorish...
Costuming friend: ... I think we should just dress you as the Doctor.
Me: I AM NOT PLAYING THE DOCTOR
Dramaturg friend: We could just subtly change some of the lines...
Me: I intend to marry that crazy Doctor.
Costuming friend: YES
Me: I'm no youngster! I'm nine hundred years old!
We tried strapping down my boobs but it was not working (though this may be because none of us know how), so now half the costume team wants to make me just androgynous if not just a girl. Which I am on board with, because I'd wanted to play him as a girl, but the directors were like "we're not changing the gender of any characters because that sends a message we're not really looking to send" at the start of this. And my costuming friend wants me as a girl just because she thinks me and the girl playing my character's girlfriend are the cutest couple. :|;;; She kind of has a point there, because Zimin/Sonya is the most stable couple in the show, and we have gotten a lot of "that was really cute!" comments after our scene.
- Current Location:New Zealand, Wellington
In the next month I have:
An essay comparing two theater companies from a list (which I was briefly displeased, after my mid-essay rant last year on ethnocentrism in our theater studies, to notice had only two companies that weren't European, American/Canadian, or New Zealand, but naturally I only noticed this far too late to ask if I could write about a company who isn't on the list, and I also pretty much don't know any theater companies)
A 3-5 page script (though I'm not too concerned about this because I decided to write some sudden fic inspiration in script format and as my fics occasionally do, it has run off on me to the point that I've had to cut scenes to fit in the page limit)
A microteaching session and a report on said (oh. dear.)
A show
A report on said show
Possibly more; I ought to read the course outlines more often
And what do I do? Mess around on Tumblr, write fic, and watch Dad play Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. :| (Dad is between contracts again so suddenly he's gaming a lot. Though we literally just finished it.I say 'we' not because I actually played but because I worked out a few of the puzzles and looked up walkthroughs for some of the harder bits, ahaha.) Blargh argh. After my best semester for grades were while I was grieving, I think my subconscious must think I can get away with this crap. :[ I really need to smack myself into gear, because I literally only have one day off until June 10th.
But you know what? June is gonna be great: We'll perform Summerfolk, the Uncharted comic omnibus comes out and I canthrow more money at this franchise actually buy it here, and I'm seeing Flight of the Conchords live! I just gotta keep pushing through till then. /o/;
Speaking of Summerfolk, if y'all Wellingtonians could share this Facebook event if you have Facebook and/or reblog this post if you have Tumblr, that'd be fabulous. :D And come to the show!
( I took the publicity photos and someone else Photoshopped the posters up, but I whipped this up to use as my Facebook cover photo and now some people in the company like it better than the official poster, whoops...Collapse )
Random stuff that's happened to me lately (apologies to people who've seen these on other social networking sites):
Saturday was Free Comic Day and I have realized that if I'd had work instead of rehearsal (and known it was an international thing in advance), I could have actually gotten a free comic. :| Ugh. Instead I was actually charged the correct price on a comic for once the day before, because one guy at the comic store routinely undercharged me and for once I got a different guy serving me.
Sunday I worked with a girl I coached for Year 9 debating when I was in Year 13. Now she's in Year 13 and coaching Year 9 debating: "I get it now; it's really fun!" I am so proud.
Yesterday I had a patient at the hospital who spoke very limited English and a receptionist and I were having trouble communicating to him that his appointment was a different day. The receptionist was getting frustrated, he was getting frustrated...until I whipped out my phone and Google Translated part of what we were trying to tell him into Arabic, his first language. I mean, the grammar was probably horrendously off but he seemed to get the message, so. It was a pretty rough experience; I swear if I do wander off and teach English somewhere, it'll be somewhere I speak at least a little of the language (ie. the Philippines or somewhere Spanish-speaking).
An EFL/ESL reading comprehension task we did in class as an example says that if you got 10/10 of the questions right, you read the text too slowly. I was mildly offended by this because my reading speed, according to that test, is 550wpm |D
A couple of weeks ago in workshop we read this article and I am weirdly charmed by this ugly little bird. He looks like an alien!
Someone in another city tried to steal cardBieb from her local Farmers. Besides being generally stunned by some of her quotes and behavior, I find it hilarious that the police station sang "Baby" to her when she came in!
And what do I do? Mess around on Tumblr, write fic, and watch Dad play Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. :| (Dad is between contracts again so suddenly he's gaming a lot. Though we literally just finished it.
But you know what? June is gonna be great: We'll perform Summerfolk, the Uncharted comic omnibus comes out and I can
Speaking of Summerfolk, if y'all Wellingtonians could share this Facebook event if you have Facebook and/or reblog this post if you have Tumblr, that'd be fabulous. :D And come to the show!
( I took the publicity photos and someone else Photoshopped the posters up, but I whipped this up to use as my Facebook cover photo and now some people in the company like it better than the official poster, whoops...Collapse )
Random stuff that's happened to me lately (apologies to people who've seen these on other social networking sites):
Today was Wellygeddon! I closet cosplayed Masaru, poorly, and sis closet cosplayed Chika because I find cosplaying as siblings hilarious. Random bits from wandering around:
A stall selling Doctor Who merch had lifesize cardboard cutout Daleks. I really wanted one, so it could exterminate cardBieb.
Sis saw a pedobear cosplayer. Now her ambition is to cosplay pedobear and photobomb everyone. Oh no.
I am quite proud of myself for managing not to buy a $60 gunblade, a North High girls' uniform, or a Lightning costume.
A player in my only game at the moment was there :) We chatted a bit.
One Direction is playing Wellington tonight and on our way to and from lunch outside the con, we inadvertedly wandered past their hotel, and thus a crowd of fangirls. On our way to lunch they were screaming (Dad suggested I scream back, "ELENAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA") and on our way back they were singing. I was like, is this really my city?
( Anime panel with Brian Beacock, Dave Wittenberg, and Vic MignognaCollapse )
I bought a bubble gun, a boxed set of Pokemon Orange Islands era, collector's edition Final Fantasy XIII-2 (actually I'm kicking myself about this one because it was cheaper online), a sonic screwdriver LED torch, a Stargate comic about Vala, a few art prints, and also got a free Avengers comic. Got the Avengers comic autographed by Carlo Pagulayan, who is lovely and Filipino and we had one of those conversations where the other person speaks Tagalog and I answer in English about how long I've been here and how much Tagalog I still speak. Also got my goggles and Digimon: Data Squad DVDs autographed by Brian Beacock and Dave Wittenberg :D
( Photos with Brian and Dave. Seven total.Collapse )
More cosplay photos in a separate entry to cut down on loading times!
( Anime panel with Brian Beacock, Dave Wittenberg, and Vic MignognaCollapse )
I bought a bubble gun, a boxed set of Pokemon Orange Islands era, collector's edition Final Fantasy XIII-2 (actually I'm kicking myself about this one because it was cheaper online), a sonic screwdriver LED torch, a Stargate comic about Vala, a few art prints, and also got a free Avengers comic. Got the Avengers comic autographed by Carlo Pagulayan, who is lovely and Filipino and we had one of those conversations where the other person speaks Tagalog and I answer in English about how long I've been here and how much Tagalog I still speak. Also got my goggles and Digimon: Data Squad DVDs autographed by Brian Beacock and Dave Wittenberg :D
( Photos with Brian and Dave. Seven total.Collapse )
More cosplay photos in a separate entry to cut down on loading times!
This last week has been spent unsuccessfully fighting off a cold. :| From a headache born of a runny nose to coughs so hard it's like the force of throwing up, it's been a bit shit and I haven't finished anything due this week, ugh. The presentation I'll legitimately do after the break; the three page solo script I'm just going to suck up the late penalty for. I know it's partially my own fault (could have started these well before I got sick) but I still hate having deadlines still hanging over me over the break. The few days off will be nice, though: I half-plan on catching up on Switched at Birth and Pretty Little Liars, maybe finishing FFXIII, and watching Dad and sis play the first Uncharted.
( Summerfolk stuff.Collapse )
( Summerfolk stuff.Collapse )
- Current Location:New Zealand, Wellington
- Current Mood:
contemplative
My actual birthday was a nice quiet chill day, with dinner with the family out at the Flying Burrito Brothers, aka the same place we went to for my birthday last year. I was a cool twenty-one-year-old, wearing my digivice earrings and Guilmon/Pikachu bracelet like a responsible adult (I feel #likearesponsibleadult should become my new Twitter hashtag or something), and had a virgin strawberry margarita. B) It was delicious! And our waitress this time was Argentinan, so legit Spanish speaker explaining the menu! Except all of us were too shy to actually speak Spanish to her, haha.
( bla bla bla fandom shopping can you tell it's pay day ALSO A PHOTO OF A SUCCESSFUL SHIPPING PRANKCollapse )
Yesterday I was wearing my Ash Ketchum hat and Digimon Adventure T-shirt in an attempt to deflect attention from the fact that I hadn't brushed my hair. It totally worked: Tons of comments on the hat, and I accidentally sparked one of my friends and his (PhD student) officemate on their longstanding debate about which out of the first couple of seasons of Pokemon and Digimon Adventure-verse is more realistic. That's what I get for opining "I think Ash would quite enjoy Digimon Adventure" in response to "you can't dress up as Ash Ketchum and Tai at the same time". Now, I happen to fall on the side of "Tamers is more realistic than both of them", but the guy on the side of Pokemon was willing to ignore everything about the deity Pokemon and those with powers over space-time and declared Ash's death and revival by Pokemon tears a metaphor, so I feel this debate was skewed.
Then my friend started explaining to me how they'd spent a week trying to model the magical society of Harry Potter but had found too many inconsistencies and unexplainables to be able to program a decent simulation. (This is what PhD compsci students do with their vast free time, apparently.) Cue an hour or so of them trying to reason out (for example) how the economy works ("why does anybody work? why are the Weasleys poor? they can make everything they need by magic") and so on and hitting the same "IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE" conclusion over and over. It was kind of awesome; I'm still a bit depressed I had to leave for scriptwriting class and was kind of tempted to skip it to keep listening. I think these boys should make a podcast.
Speaking of script, actually: I've found the classes frequently useless and tend to use them to RP, although I do quite enjoy how chill our teacher is on formatting (screenplay format kind of drives me nuts). And yet my script adapted from an RP fic got an A-! Once again, RP fic gets me a good grade.
( I kind of love the teacher comments on it.Collapse )
And now the next scriptwriting assignment is a solo, and I was completely blanking (I had a hard enough time writing my autobiographical solo piece last year) until I realized that this could totally be a place for me to write a video game script because I can pile it full of action and environment interaction (we spent a whole three-hour class rambling about space this week) and well, look at Uncharted, Nate talks to himself all the time even when he doesn't have allies or enemies around. And I can use the dialogue to "conceal stuff from us which we would be interested in finding out more about", ie. vaguely allude to the plot ahaha. And I am totally putting a bloody airship in here.
( Summerfolk and character rambling. I feel like I'm apping a minor character in an RP.Collapse )
And unrelated to anything here but still something that had me thinking a lot this past week: This article (trigger warning: suicide) happened. Coroner's report is a kind of closure to that question, I guess. Hm.
( bla bla bla fandom shopping can you tell it's pay day ALSO A PHOTO OF A SUCCESSFUL SHIPPING PRANKCollapse )
Yesterday I was wearing my Ash Ketchum hat and Digimon Adventure T-shirt in an attempt to deflect attention from the fact that I hadn't brushed my hair. It totally worked: Tons of comments on the hat, and I accidentally sparked one of my friends and his (PhD student) officemate on their longstanding debate about which out of the first couple of seasons of Pokemon and Digimon Adventure-verse is more realistic. That's what I get for opining "I think Ash would quite enjoy Digimon Adventure" in response to "you can't dress up as Ash Ketchum and Tai at the same time". Now, I happen to fall on the side of "Tamers is more realistic than both of them", but the guy on the side of Pokemon was willing to ignore everything about the deity Pokemon and those with powers over space-time and declared Ash's death and revival by Pokemon tears a metaphor, so I feel this debate was skewed.
Then my friend started explaining to me how they'd spent a week trying to model the magical society of Harry Potter but had found too many inconsistencies and unexplainables to be able to program a decent simulation. (This is what PhD compsci students do with their vast free time, apparently.) Cue an hour or so of them trying to reason out (for example) how the economy works ("why does anybody work? why are the Weasleys poor? they can make everything they need by magic") and so on and hitting the same "IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE" conclusion over and over. It was kind of awesome; I'm still a bit depressed I had to leave for scriptwriting class and was kind of tempted to skip it to keep listening. I think these boys should make a podcast.
Speaking of script, actually: I've found the classes frequently useless and tend to use them to RP, although I do quite enjoy how chill our teacher is on formatting (screenplay format kind of drives me nuts). And yet my script adapted from an RP fic got an A-! Once again, RP fic gets me a good grade.
( I kind of love the teacher comments on it.Collapse )
And now the next scriptwriting assignment is a solo, and I was completely blanking (I had a hard enough time writing my autobiographical solo piece last year) until I realized that this could totally be a place for me to write a video game script because I can pile it full of action and environment interaction (we spent a whole three-hour class rambling about space this week) and well, look at Uncharted, Nate talks to himself all the time even when he doesn't have allies or enemies around. And I can use the dialogue to "conceal stuff from us which we would be interested in finding out more about", ie. vaguely allude to the plot ahaha. And I am totally putting a bloody airship in here.
( Summerfolk and character rambling. I feel like I'm apping a minor character in an RP.Collapse )
And unrelated to anything here but still something that had me thinking a lot this past week: This article (trigger warning: suicide) happened. Coroner's report is a kind of closure to that question, I guess. Hm.
- Current Mood: awake
- Current Location:New Zealand, Wellington
So I run this stupid Digimon Texts From Last Night blog (though I haven't posted in about a week). Last July, in the early days of this blog, I posted ( this.Collapse )
Today, ( this popped up on my dash.Collapse )
I don't even know the artist (personally, that is; the OP is the artist). Mindblown.
Today, ( this popped up on my dash.Collapse )
I don't even know the artist (personally, that is; the OP is the artist). Mindblown.
- Current Mood: FLABBERGASTED
- Current Music:watch as I repost this to EVERY SOCIAL NETWORK I HAVE
- Current Location:New Zealand, Wellington
I like to describe Maxim Gorky's Summerfolk as a bunch of upper middle class Russian douchebags at their bach, whining about their lives just before the Russian Revolution. One of my mates, listening to me and another mate bemoaning our #firstworldproblems (mine was something about an apple IIRC), remarked that "oh god, Summerfolk really can be translated to today" but most of them seem to be suffering more from ennui and in a couple of cases actual depression. (Watch me diagnose fictional characters.) One character's having an affair with her friend's husband's assistant; two of the guys confess their love to women who reject them because while one of these ladies does seem to be interested, she's also twenty years older than him, and the other one's married and sulking over how a writer she had a crush on as a teenager is no longer so cool. The rest just whine about how the 99% are going to rise up.
The lady who is interested in possible cougar life has a daughter who's the chillest and possibly wisest person in the whole play and kind of sits down her mum and goes, look, stop being so miserable and go for him, it's going to be awesome, he'll be like your son and once I marry my lover the four of us will be one big happy family. (I said possibly.) I got her lover. :) I had originally auditioned for the cradlerobbed guy, asking to play him as a lady to up the stakes of their relationship and change the dynamic of his relationship with his sister, but I did note my interest in the two young lovers. So getting a part I actually wanted for once is really cool! I may ask to make my character female just because I think the daughter could feasibly be LGB, given how much the script makes of her seeing the world "simply and clearly". Okay, actually I just want to play a lesbian for once, and I swear this guy's lines sound like every cliche lesbian U-Hauler.
(I'm also just really glad I wasn't cast as the serving girl: I'm the only one in my class who isn't white; it would have looked really awkward.)
I got the production role I wanted too: Publicity. :D I'm so keen to bust out the sketchbook and the camera and Photoshop/maybe Final Cut Pro, and I have these ridiculous ideas about advertising via social media (I mean, Overheard has a ton of people and VUWSA and Failient have a lot of followers too).
We're sort of moving the play from pre-Revolution Russia to a currentish New Zealand wine festival; I say "sort of" because the directors haven't yet decided how explicit the move will be (whether lines mentioning "Russia" get changed to "New Zealand" etc). And our set design looks awesome, all stylized with bits that can be removed so it looks like it's falling apart as the characters are.
So I am really looking forward to this show. :D She says, before rehearsals to ten at night start (this week).
The lady who is interested in possible cougar life has a daughter who's the chillest and possibly wisest person in the whole play and kind of sits down her mum and goes, look, stop being so miserable and go for him, it's going to be awesome, he'll be like your son and once I marry my lover the four of us will be one big happy family. (I said possibly.) I got her lover. :) I had originally auditioned for the cradlerobbed guy, asking to play him as a lady to up the stakes of their relationship and change the dynamic of his relationship with his sister, but I did note my interest in the two young lovers. So getting a part I actually wanted for once is really cool! I may ask to make my character female just because I think the daughter could feasibly be LGB, given how much the script makes of her seeing the world "simply and clearly". Okay, actually I just want to play a lesbian for once, and I swear this guy's lines sound like every cliche lesbian U-Hauler.
(I'm also just really glad I wasn't cast as the serving girl: I'm the only one in my class who isn't white; it would have looked really awkward.)
I got the production role I wanted too: Publicity. :D I'm so keen to bust out the sketchbook and the camera and Photoshop/maybe Final Cut Pro, and I have these ridiculous ideas about advertising via social media (I mean, Overheard has a ton of people and VUWSA and Failient have a lot of followers too).
We're sort of moving the play from pre-Revolution Russia to a currentish New Zealand wine festival; I say "sort of" because the directors haven't yet decided how explicit the move will be (whether lines mentioning "Russia" get changed to "New Zealand" etc). And our set design looks awesome, all stylized with bits that can be removed so it looks like it's falling apart as the characters are.
So I am really looking forward to this show. :D She says, before rehearsals to ten at night start (this week).
- Current Mood: cheerful
- Current Location:New Zealand, Wellington
( by a handful I mean fourteenCollapse )
Still waiting on an embeddable video of the waltz :| Because I've watched the friends locked one my aunt posted and we did damn good.
Still waiting on an embeddable video of the waltz :| Because I've watched the friends locked one my aunt posted and we did damn good.
- Current Location:New Zealand, Wellington
So my 21st birthday party was tonight! (Actual birthday's not till next Sunday, but this was the only sensible day we could get the venue.) Had it at the James Cook Grand Chancellor, aka where some of my friends' seventh form ball was and my cousin's debut while I was in Florida was. A big, sort of fancy thing - I say "sort of" because I totally wore Chucks and my goggles with my long $30 on end of season sale at Staxs three years ago gown, and some of us sat in a big circle on the floor for supper (there weren't many chairs).
My sister made me a slideshow and sang me "My Life Would Suck Without You" with some changed lyrics (something along the lines of "I won't take back all I said before like that you're so stupid for walking into doors" - I literally walk into our hallway door at least once every few days) :) Had some lovely speeches fromSophie, Johanna, one of my cousins, and one of my friends from primary. And then my cousin and I danced a slight adaptation of "Can I Have This Dance" from High School Musical 3, as kind of a cotillion thing but with less people and obviously not a debut (that's eighteenths) and also as kind of a tribute to Chris. I'm actually quite impressed we didn't screw it up or fall off the bench which we never actually practised with or something!
( Considering this happened during a practice yesterday. Youtube embed under here.Collapse )
Still, I'm quite glad I did a dance with just one other person instead of a cotillion: It made organizing practice a lot easier than with seventeen other people like a cotillion, we kind of just chatted through practically every runthrough, when we screwed up (frequently: apart from that video there was one time where we tried dancing on a piano stool for part of it and it fell) we just laughed at ourselves where in a group everyone would laugh and then everyone would get mad, and "Can I Have This Dance" is actually really hard because there's a ton of lifts in it but we still managed to do it having only started practising on Tuesday.
Also can I just say that I suddenly really understand why Vanessa Hudgens was in a sleeved dress for that dance? Because I have this really intense-looking underarm bruise from the chorus lifts now. :| And Zanessa would have had to do it so many more times than we did!
( This went okay though! The most impressive-looking photo from the dance that someone took on my camera.Collapse )
Ooh, and towards the end these two complete strangers came down from the wedding reception upstairs looking for me: There were signs around downstairs and on the floor saying "Caryl's 21st" and it turns out the lady of this old Pakeha couple was also named Caryl and was very surprised to find there was another one in the world spelt with a Y! Apparently she's named Caryl because her mother read some poetry by a Caryl Brahms (I'm so not spelling that right).
All in all, I had a really good time :D and will probably post more photos/videos as some good ones go up (especially the dance because I am freaking proud of that and I think Chris would have been too - well, no, he would have been my partner for it). I mean, I put my camera out with a sign saying to use it, and people did (170 photos) but they're pretty much just hilarious and I'll go through them more after work. :P
In uni news: I ended up adapting a scene from an RP fic for my first scriptwriting assignment :/ Whoops. And auditions for Summer Folk are on Wednesday and I have to learn a monologue and this is kind of embarrassing for a theater major to admit but this is actually my first time having to learn one for an audition?? Because most of my auditions have had sides available there, or, well, musical theater, I'm more about the songs. But this is kind of why I took this paper, to get better at the acting stuff. :)
My sister made me a slideshow and sang me "My Life Would Suck Without You" with some changed lyrics (something along the lines of "I won't take back all I said before like that you're so stupid for walking into doors" - I literally walk into our hallway door at least once every few days) :) Had some lovely speeches from
Sophie, Johanna, one of my cousins, and one of my friends from primary. And then my cousin and I danced a slight adaptation of "Can I Have This Dance" from High School Musical 3, as kind of a cotillion thing but with less people and obviously not a debut (that's eighteenths) and also as kind of a tribute to Chris. I'm actually quite impressed we didn't screw it up or fall off the bench which we never actually practised with or something!( Considering this happened during a practice yesterday. Youtube embed under here.Collapse )
Still, I'm quite glad I did a dance with just one other person instead of a cotillion: It made organizing practice a lot easier than with seventeen other people like a cotillion, we kind of just chatted through practically every runthrough, when we screwed up (frequently: apart from that video there was one time where we tried dancing on a piano stool for part of it and it fell) we just laughed at ourselves where in a group everyone would laugh and then everyone would get mad, and "Can I Have This Dance" is actually really hard because there's a ton of lifts in it but we still managed to do it having only started practising on Tuesday.
Also can I just say that I suddenly really understand why Vanessa Hudgens was in a sleeved dress for that dance? Because I have this really intense-looking underarm bruise from the chorus lifts now. :| And Zanessa would have had to do it so many more times than we did!
( This went okay though! The most impressive-looking photo from the dance that someone took on my camera.Collapse )
Ooh, and towards the end these two complete strangers came down from the wedding reception upstairs looking for me: There were signs around downstairs and on the floor saying "Caryl's 21st" and it turns out the lady of this old Pakeha couple was also named Caryl and was very surprised to find there was another one in the world spelt with a Y! Apparently she's named Caryl because her mother read some poetry by a Caryl Brahms (I'm so not spelling that right).
All in all, I had a really good time :D and will probably post more photos/videos as some good ones go up (especially the dance because I am freaking proud of that and I think Chris would have been too - well, no, he would have been my partner for it). I mean, I put my camera out with a sign saying to use it, and people did (170 photos) but they're pretty much just hilarious and I'll go through them more after work. :P
In uni news: I ended up adapting a scene from an RP fic for my first scriptwriting assignment :/ Whoops. And auditions for Summer Folk are on Wednesday and I have to learn a monologue and this is kind of embarrassing for a theater major to admit but this is actually my first time having to learn one for an audition?? Because most of my auditions have had sides available there, or, well, musical theater, I'm more about the songs. But this is kind of why I took this paper, to get better at the acting stuff. :)
- Current Location:New Zealand, Wellington
- Current Mood: happy
I've had my back X-rayed and hopefully when I visit the doctor again I'll find out the hell went wrong here and how to fix it. I wish she'd hurry up; I'm not looking forward to theater shenanigans with a munted back. :/ At least I'm really light on textbooks this sem: Only one of my classes has a student notes book and it's not too thick (that's what she said).
First scriptwriting ("Scoring the Performing Body") lecture was basically a three hour, sometimes very existential ramble. :/ Although I am kind of glad that our lecturer didn't like the LOTR films either (sometimes I feel like the only one in Wellington), and his story about his cat's movement ("nothing... nothing... nothing... GO!") reminded me of orchestra. It's way too easy to tune out because so much of it is actually nonsense. Hopefully it gets better from here. I'm a bit nervous about the assignments because he said he doesn't want us "writing Shortland Street [a very long-running NZ soap set in an Auckland hospital], because they talk about nothing" - stupid shipping drama and talking about nothing is kind of what I do, whoops. First assignment is a one page script due next week; we'll see what I pull out.
Also, there's a kid from Yale in the class. In the words of one of my friends, "Why would you come from Yale to this shithole?!"
I really loved the first applied linguistics ("Language Teaching Methodology") lecture though! Lots of talking about the meta of language teaching and sharing of experiences of language learning. And there's a huge variety of people in this class :D A Turkish guy, a half-Japanese half-Pakeha girl, that one deaf guy from my theater class last year (I love watching his NZSL interpreters, and it's really cool to have a perspective from a language that isn't a spoken one)... The class is like a third Malaysian instead of half like ALIN 202 was last year, which I was kind of surprised by! 201 isn't a prereq or anything but 202 does make reference to 201 material and I figured most people do it in order.
(It's dorky, but I really like how diverse second language ed is compared to film/theater, because I'm so used to walking into the room and being one of, at most, three people in the room who aren't white.
(Mildly related: Today my theater director quoted someone saying that the two great theaters of the world are Russian and English, then asked why that author would say that. Thinking the author was just from one of those countries and really patriotic, I asked where she was from. "She's American, I think. It's very Western-centric - that's what you were going to say, right?" Oops, I've become that student, after I spent an assignment last year railing on the ethnocentrism of the theater course and I rambled on my third year theater class application about how I'm a minority in like three ways and not represented on stage and how sick I am of casting notices asking for Pakeha or Maori/PI actors.)
My theater class this sem looks good! You know, apart from the rehearsals until 10PM three times a week and whole day Saturday rehearsals (work will be so pleased).At least I know now I absolutely cannot app into any more games or any more characters at WR. BUT I like most of the people in the class and I really like our director having worked with him last year. We're doing Summerfolk, and we have a legit Russian in the class so we'll actually be able to say all the names, ahaha. (I don't know why I have so much trouble wrapping my head around Russian names when I'm perfectly fine with Japanese names.) Hopefully I like the play - I should really start reading it...
And finally: Yay for St. Pat's Town winning McEvedy!! I know that as a Girls' girl who did take a class at Coll I should probably be rooting for our brother school, but damnit, all the douchebags from my primary school went to Coll and my first boyfriend/best friend was a Pat's boy so I've always identified more with Pat's (one of my favorite pages on Facebook is "hanging up your St. Pat's uniform after a hard day of being a champion").
First scriptwriting ("Scoring the Performing Body") lecture was basically a three hour, sometimes very existential ramble. :/ Although I am kind of glad that our lecturer didn't like the LOTR films either (sometimes I feel like the only one in Wellington), and his story about his cat's movement ("nothing... nothing... nothing... GO!") reminded me of orchestra. It's way too easy to tune out because so much of it is actually nonsense. Hopefully it gets better from here. I'm a bit nervous about the assignments because he said he doesn't want us "writing Shortland Street [a very long-running NZ soap set in an Auckland hospital], because they talk about nothing" - stupid shipping drama and talking about nothing is kind of what I do, whoops. First assignment is a one page script due next week; we'll see what I pull out.
Also, there's a kid from Yale in the class. In the words of one of my friends, "Why would you come from Yale to this shithole?!"
I really loved the first applied linguistics ("Language Teaching Methodology") lecture though! Lots of talking about the meta of language teaching and sharing of experiences of language learning. And there's a huge variety of people in this class :D A Turkish guy, a half-Japanese half-Pakeha girl, that one deaf guy from my theater class last year (I love watching his NZSL interpreters, and it's really cool to have a perspective from a language that isn't a spoken one)... The class is like a third Malaysian instead of half like ALIN 202 was last year, which I was kind of surprised by! 201 isn't a prereq or anything but 202 does make reference to 201 material and I figured most people do it in order.
(It's dorky, but I really like how diverse second language ed is compared to film/theater, because I'm so used to walking into the room and being one of, at most, three people in the room who aren't white.
(Mildly related: Today my theater director quoted someone saying that the two great theaters of the world are Russian and English, then asked why that author would say that. Thinking the author was just from one of those countries and really patriotic, I asked where she was from. "She's American, I think. It's very Western-centric - that's what you were going to say, right?" Oops, I've become that student, after I spent an assignment last year railing on the ethnocentrism of the theater course and I rambled on my third year theater class application about how I'm a minority in like three ways and not represented on stage and how sick I am of casting notices asking for Pakeha or Maori/PI actors.)
My theater class this sem looks good! You know, apart from the rehearsals until 10PM three times a week and whole day Saturday rehearsals (work will be so pleased).
And finally: Yay for St. Pat's Town winning McEvedy!! I know that as a Girls' girl who did take a class at Coll I should probably be rooting for our brother school, but damnit, all the douchebags from my primary school went to Coll and my first boyfriend/best friend was a Pat's boy so I've always identified more with Pat's (one of my favorite pages on Facebook is "hanging up your St. Pat's uniform after a hard day of being a champion").
- Current Location:New Zealand, Wellington
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