Mootpoint

Seven days already? Not according to that regular journal I’m supposed to be keeping, dammit. Turns out drinking all night long is not conducive to a period of considered self-reflection prior to finally making it to bed. ON the upside, it also turns out that the ill-considered self-reflection of the infamous “Guilts” seems to have abated. No longer does every social interaction from the night before get insanely over-analysed, detail by minute detail. Which is all good, and I’m sure means something is going right somewhere, or that I’m not making a fool of myself as often while drinking.

Hmm.

In fact, the last seven days have been pretty damn cool. Got my marks back: did better than expected, which was nice. Started the second term: busier than expected, which isn’t so nice, but isn’t particularly concerning. Went to Wellington to go to a Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation conference (NZ responses to the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report): super cool, even though a lack of sleep and caffeine led to my pen being jammed into my thumb to stay awake through some of the less, um, well presented seminars. Drank beer in the Beehive: wouldn’t describe this as super cool, more mildly amusing due to their “cult sacrifice” decor in the function room next to the bar.

I also Went to Wellington to visit the assembled Christchurch ex-pat masses up there: even more super cool, with everyone found to be in fine form. Managed to catch up with most people around the place, although if I missed you it was definitely due to a lack of time in the city as I fled back to Christchurch early to finish a presentation… the MBA really is going to be the stock standard excuse for everything this year Saturday was especially cool, starting as it did with a drive out to Eastbourne Turner’s Auctions to help Adam sell their new car (long story, think the auctioneer bought it. Wait, just looked at the auction report online, he may not have…), and a long walk down to the Wellington Food Show at the Cake Tin.

Course, for Adam and me it was more the Wellington Wine Show, although that was more due to the generally disappointing nature of the food on display than anything else. Best straight out stealing of the day award to Adam, who swiped a couple of wine glasses ($5 each) from a table. To be fair though, he did try and pay for them, he just didn’t admit that he’d just taken them from the table behind the girl who said that we “didn’t need to pay, as we already had glasses”… ah well, more fool them. They didn’t have particularly good wine anyway.

So anyway, after dinner at Harem (mmm), we all ended up, via Havana Bar and several expensive cocktails later, at Will’s apartment, where guitar and singing, cheese and crackers, some appley alcoholic beverage and coffee, massage and arguments about the Iraq War all ensued over many hours. I wasn’t involved in that last one, believe it or not.

And then, home on Sunday. So that was a good weekend then.

Missed the 48 Hour film viewing though, which is a bit pants, although did see that it got a pretty good review in the forums so hopefully it gets through to the finals so I can see it with an audience in attendance. Yeah.

Two days. Amazing how much creativity can be jammed into such a brief period of time.

This year saw a slightly different TBALC/Occasional Goldfish team take shape, with the subtraction of those now spread around the world in various secret and not-so-secret locations, the addition of those returned from such locations (Scott, Adam) bringing their tried and trusted skills to bear, and all-new members (Andrew, Hamish) who brought with them both leet cameras and the required skills to make said cameras rock. Hard. And, what’s more, who have read the appropriate histories and so are appropriately steeped in TBALC lore. The film that was eventually produced was of a higher quality in almost all aspects than last year’s attempt (suggesting they’re obviously not steeped enough in he lore), with many of the lessons learned from Wormflu coming in handy as the days progressed. I think the planning for next year’s one has already begun!

Handed in with 20 minutes to spare and clocking in at 6 minutes 56 seconds (of the possible 7 minutes), we appeared to have judged our run almost perfectly, excepting the cut Priest scene – funny, but not plot-essential. Although for a while there it looked like everything was coming unstuck at the last, as the camera/laptop/recording onto the miniDV interface started to glitch and Andrew started to yell even more. I reckon the laptop was about this close to being thrown out of the window… and that it must have been karma for last year’s easy run to the finish line. But, it was done, the free beer was drunk, the watching of those less fortunate (seconds late. Gutted) and the hellos to the many people known on the other teams were shouted along with high five action.

Was all good, especially for one who was so sure he wasn’t going to be involved just a few weeks back. But then I relented and thought it’d be fun to be part of the brainstorming/scriptwriting crew. And then I played proxy Producer for Saturday afternoon and night. And then I even made it (uncredited) into the movie itself for a last minute voice over. So yeah, I guess I actually ended up doing a hell of a lot more than planned, but in a much more relaxed fashion (the weekend happened to be my two days of holiday between MBA terms) than last year. Muy excelente.

What’s more, I found the DVD Heq made for me with many mp3s, among which is my favourite U2 single ever, “Please, Live from Rotterdam”! Fan-frickin-tastic.

Had the first lectures of term 2 tonight. Strategy looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun, and Economics, well. It will also be fun, but I was very quickly reminded why I hated economics when I was doing Pols (“Rational” actor bullshit already, and we’re only one lecture in . The lecturer is a really cool guy, if pretty right on the political spectrum, a fact he certainly doesn’t try to hide in his lectures! So we had a chat afterwards (I am, after all, a mature student now) and it promises to be a fun few weeks… I definitely need to brush up on my left-wing economics/political science theory in order to compete. Remains to be seen what the rest of the classes will be like this time round, although I can honestly say I’m not looking forward to HR with it’s 2 inch thick reader. Bugger. Although, at least the lecturer provided a reader, and I didn’t have to buy another $140 textbook. Ouch ouch ouch.

We get our provisional marks back for term 1 tomorrow, and I’m expecting (unless they’ve scaled me up or down somehow) a couple of A+’s, a couple of A’s, an A-, and a pass for the pass/fail course. All in all, not too shabby, and successfully on top of the required GPA (not that I’m obsessed or anything…) Also, a good return from something like a month straight in the computer lab towards the end of the term.

Managed to come first in the Accounting class as well. Shh, don’t tell Dad, he was always so upset I never became an accountant!

Otherwise, things seem to be mostly good. Life is beginning to develop a pattern that’s conducive to getting by, although sleep and money run in short supply at times. Am taking the chance while single to do some much needed work on me, and to begin to reconnect with what I really find important in life, whatever that may be (I’m working on it!). Even had to do a final assignment on just this, with interesting results.

So yeah, as part of development plan attached to that project, I’m going to try and actually blog once a week. No really.

Seriously.

Of course, I’m even too crap to update Twitter!! Ah well, we’ll see.