I woke up this morning feeling like large portions of my skin, particularly on my face, had transmuted into sheets of lead. Oh well!
Today has been taken a bit easier. It dawned on me that today will be the first day in England where I haven't walked several kilometers while carrying one or more heavy bags. Gee, I wonder if that has contributed to my being tired?
But lo and behold, by giving my body a rest I've found some of the burning intensity that I need to feel if I am to write anything worth looking at twice. I've gotten halfway through my BBC application (which includes a 600 word synopsis/analysis of the last film I saw, I might post that here for comments), written five pages for one of the three script ideas I'm juggling ("Sweet Fever") and even got some joy out of writing a poem (or song or rap, depending on how you want to read it). That last item was a lot of fun because I just let loose and wrote the kind of strange hybrid tract that comes out of me when I am really cheery.
A hydbrid of what? Well, generally some insightful wordplay interspersed with the kind of crass rhymes which would seem out of place anywhere but in an Atlanta men's room stall. Keeping this in mind, it is not at all hard to understand why I love Achewood so much. So damn much.
ANYways...Ryan North also does a webcomic that I love. He is, in fact, pretty much responsible for me getting into the darn things. I always feel kind of guilty when I endorse webcomics that are not his. In other Ryan (and Victor) news, he and his brother have just signed up to do a charity climb of the CN Tower. Head on down to his website if you'd like to sponsor them!
It looks that I am staring down the barrel of a very enoyable weekend in Broadstairs. Lucky me, I got a call from Tim in Reading last night - who made it clear that I was welcome to come over that way for a drink or five when the mood struck me. If it isn't too costly to take the train there, then I think I shall do that on the following weekend. As I recall, Paul (a nice guy who is part of that crew) had dabbled with the BBC as a scriptwriter for Robot Wars (re: Witty Banter). So maybe I could mix some business with my pleasure, depending on where life has taken him in the past two years.
Thanks to y'all for your comments (and emails and gmail chats). Remember, you don't have to be a blogger member to do so. These things help keep me warm in these early, isolated days.
You can stop when I am so wealthy that I have to have my wallet regularly pumped inbetween coating my various posessions with an edible platinum coating. Your words will be too tiny for me then. Just too darn tiny.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
As the dance instructor said to the student with ADHD - "One step at a time!"
I am investigating BBC work experience and it has been a bright spot for sure. I most certainly do have "a relevant degree" AND, not "or" but "AND" I "have made a short film". Plus I can put my two CSTC courses under the additional qualifications segment. I might even include stinky ol' "Trenchcoats & Corsets". Oh, I love that movie as it is my first baby....and I assure you it isn't a morbid thing that I mostly see it's faults. It's just so I know better for next time - as I did when I made "Tonight...". I'm already starting to see all the little things I could have done better in "Tonight...", but the difference this time is that I am immensly proud of so many more aspects to the work. I am still very excitited to start hustling with this puppy.
I was also lucky enough to spot a copy of "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72" and...and...and I...am too tired to keep writing! A family friend, who I watched grow up, has said that I should wait about a week for the jetlag to finally surrender. I swear, it is like getting a sneak preview of my senior years...
I was also lucky enough to spot a copy of "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72" and...and...and I...am too tired to keep writing! A family friend, who I watched grow up, has said that I should wait about a week for the jetlag to finally surrender. I swear, it is like getting a sneak preview of my senior years...
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Tonight We Link To YouTube
Yes, the trailer for "Tonight We Fall In Love" is finally online. The compression required to post it on YouTube has reduced the quality, but not to a mongoloid level.
My father has a friend who specializes in video file manipulation who will take a crack at rendering a higher quality video which still fits within YouTube's hilariously tiny file size requirments. But hey, you get what you pay for and this is much better than nothing. That being said, I think I shall wait until Dad's friend takes a crack at it before I send it out to production companies and other folk who I would like to give me money in exchange for my goods and services. Also before I send it to the cast/crew because I think they deserve only the best after the hard work they put in for naught but tasty sandwiches and a chance at fame.
Meanwhile, today was alright - despite finding out that getting a bank account in England is pretty damn hard compared to how it is in Canada. Mostly I am just pleased to be finally making good progress against the evil forces of jet-lag. It took all the way until 5pm before every cell in my body stood up to say "SIT DOWN AND STAY DOWN". This is hard because I want so very much to keep going. My mind is almost constantly twittering away, working on ways to get the basics set up so that I can then have the time to waste on the finer things. Ah well, I suppose it could be a lot worse. I could be working for Joshua Blahyi.
Meanwhile I finally tooled about connecting my camera to my cousin's computer. More pictures will arrive as I find things worth taking pictures of - which should be in the near future as I hit downtown London and/or Broadstairs in the coming weekend. My cousin and her husband are both getting back this weekend from long, seperate and draining trips. After seven weeks apart, I reckon I should let them have some privacy with which to rest and catch up. Christ knows I wasn't ready to entertain company when I got off at Gatwick.
They are not the same as us and the vice is versa!
1) Apparently I cannot hate Google Maps too much. Today I discovered how a good deal of roads will continue without any physical interruption, but at some point they will change names and even switch up the numbering system. All I could do at the time was cut a fatted calf and spill it's blood on my copy of "London A-Z", in the hopes that everything would be okay.
My father has a friend who specializes in video file manipulation who will take a crack at rendering a higher quality video which still fits within YouTube's hilariously tiny file size requirments. But hey, you get what you pay for and this is much better than nothing. That being said, I think I shall wait until Dad's friend takes a crack at it before I send it out to production companies and other folk who I would like to give me money in exchange for my goods and services. Also before I send it to the cast/crew because I think they deserve only the best after the hard work they put in for naught but tasty sandwiches and a chance at fame.
Meanwhile, today was alright - despite finding out that getting a bank account in England is pretty damn hard compared to how it is in Canada. Mostly I am just pleased to be finally making good progress against the evil forces of jet-lag. It took all the way until 5pm before every cell in my body stood up to say "SIT DOWN AND STAY DOWN". This is hard because I want so very much to keep going. My mind is almost constantly twittering away, working on ways to get the basics set up so that I can then have the time to waste on the finer things. Ah well, I suppose it could be a lot worse. I could be working for Joshua Blahyi.
Meanwhile I finally tooled about connecting my camera to my cousin's computer. More pictures will arrive as I find things worth taking pictures of - which should be in the near future as I hit downtown London and/or Broadstairs in the coming weekend. My cousin and her husband are both getting back this weekend from long, seperate and draining trips. After seven weeks apart, I reckon I should let them have some privacy with which to rest and catch up. Christ knows I wasn't ready to entertain company when I got off at Gatwick.
They are not the same as us and the vice is versa!
1) Apparently I cannot hate Google Maps too much. Today I discovered how a good deal of roads will continue without any physical interruption, but at some point they will change names and even switch up the numbering system. All I could do at the time was cut a fatted calf and spill it's blood on my copy of "London A-Z", in the hopes that everything would be okay.
Monday, October 02, 2006
Mind and Body, Oliver has Landed
Well, I've foraged and eaten and realized that if I wait for myself to be perfectly free of jet-lag and disorienation, then you might all have to wait until early 2007 before getting another post out of me. So!
I've decided I'll file all but the most epic or relevant of Canada/U.K. differences at the bottom of my posts so that only those who are fussed (or planning to travel over here) have to read them. I think I shall use an appropriate heading to split things up.
Right then, it's early afternoon and I am doing my best to break out of the jetlag malaise and get rolling. The equivalent of a SIN number over here is an NI (National Insurance) number and so that is my top priority in the short term, as you cannot be employed without one. Last night I managed to read a local paper cover to cover, something unusual for me in Ottawa (just try and bear with the Sun's many, many grammatical errors and horseshit journalism....I dare you!). Two things stood out, which I thought I'd relate.
One is that Tottenham recently had a "Peace March" which had nothing to do with overseas wars. It was a community thing where churches of all shapes and sizes opened their doors to all others of any shape, size or colour. Where large throngs of people made a point of being friendly in formation and local politicians took the time to establish their stance on horribleness being "no good". It's a nice idea, but I cannot help wondering if I should be alarmed that such a thing is considered necessary. The jury is still out on what kind of a neighborhood I've moved into, crimewise.
The other is that, thank God (I know I don't believe in him, but "Thank the unconfirmed possibility of something bigger than us" is too much of a mouthful, unlike this overweight addendum) there seems to be a decent supply of office jobs for which I am overqualified...but they do not ask that I speak "French" or have security clearance. This is what I pretty much knew all along, but it was nice to have it confirmed. So hopefully, even my "just get a steady income and then keep looking" job will actually be a step up from the bloody Comic Book Shoppe or data entry at Pearson.
Not long before leaving for England, I did something up for my pal, Shawn MacLean, to help pay him back for numerous favors. I took a pen and marker, then outlined all sorts of interesting downtown locations for him to explore on a big map of Ottawa. For a laugh, I outlined the airport and wrote "Progress to next level" or something similar on it. Little did I know how this image would come hurtling back to the forefront of my mind within the first minute of sitting on my flight. I don't know if this is a Zoom airlines thing or if all airlines do it now, but on the big television screen at the front I was treated to a pixelated map of the northern hemisphere with a little plane on it (sitting over top Ottawa, of course). There was a dotted red line leading to London, which became solid line as the plane went along the path. The screen would rotate between this and a series of stats on how fast we were going, how long until we got there, how many kilometers we had to go and so on. In-between movies we were treated to little updates and when we were descending into London, a glowing green diamond formed over Gatwick's location. To a fellow who grew up on world management computer games, it was pretty weird!
No sleep was had, of course, but luckily I didn't have to wait too long before my cousin Daniel showed up to help me get from way down South London all the way up to North-East London. After having been up almost 30 hours at that point, I wasn't quite up for pulling the task solo. Even with a good buddy, I was hell of paranoid about running into trouble as I had all of my possessions (not including the many boxes I left in Carp, love you mom! love you dad!) in but three bags as well as all my money in the world. I really felt in touch with my primal, caveman ancestors who had naught but the contents of a crude leather sack to carry with them. As I rode the tube. Sitting across from some kid fiddling with his iPod Nano.
Ahem.
What with all the lack of sleep, I was happy just to eat the meal Dan kindly cooked up for me, then sleep for many hours and then read the paper before going back to bed again. After I post this, I see a small nap in my immediate future - followed by another exploratory walk around the neighborhood. Luckily it seems that Suzanne is quite savvy about where she buys a home, as I am but two blocks south of a busy market street with many places to explore. According to Google Maps, there is a good sized park a little ways North-West....but let me just say that the simple act of trying to get home from the supermarket with one of their printed maps made me lose a good deal of faith in the bastards.
In other news, the last technological hurdle has been jumped and so my trailer for "Tonight We Fall In Love" should be up on YouTube within less than twenty-four hours.
More later!
They are not quite like us! We are not quite like them!
1) Garbage bins are much harder to find. Get used to stuffing candy wrappers and tissues in your pocket for later disposal, instead of just walking eight feet as in the good city of Ottawa.
2) Street signs are rarely found on top of poles. They tend to be posted on the wall of a corner building, about twelve feet up. Assuming the stupid thing hasn't been vandalized or removed - in which case keep an eye out for chalk or painted substitutes....or nothing at all.
3) Google maps can bite my arse. It is sort of accurate, but leaves out every fifth side street and occasionally blurs two streets together. Sometimes it is just plain wrong about a street name. I'm sorry people but the shit just is not infallible.
4) Taxes are included in the listed price of items, which made grocery shopping way the hell easier to budget this morning.
I've decided I'll file all but the most epic or relevant of Canada/U.K. differences at the bottom of my posts so that only those who are fussed (or planning to travel over here) have to read them. I think I shall use an appropriate heading to split things up.
Right then, it's early afternoon and I am doing my best to break out of the jetlag malaise and get rolling. The equivalent of a SIN number over here is an NI (National Insurance) number and so that is my top priority in the short term, as you cannot be employed without one. Last night I managed to read a local paper cover to cover, something unusual for me in Ottawa (just try and bear with the Sun's many, many grammatical errors and horseshit journalism....I dare you!). Two things stood out, which I thought I'd relate.
One is that Tottenham recently had a "Peace March" which had nothing to do with overseas wars. It was a community thing where churches of all shapes and sizes opened their doors to all others of any shape, size or colour. Where large throngs of people made a point of being friendly in formation and local politicians took the time to establish their stance on horribleness being "no good". It's a nice idea, but I cannot help wondering if I should be alarmed that such a thing is considered necessary. The jury is still out on what kind of a neighborhood I've moved into, crimewise.
The other is that, thank God (I know I don't believe in him, but "Thank the unconfirmed possibility of something bigger than us" is too much of a mouthful, unlike this overweight addendum) there seems to be a decent supply of office jobs for which I am overqualified...but they do not ask that I speak "French" or have security clearance. This is what I pretty much knew all along, but it was nice to have it confirmed. So hopefully, even my "just get a steady income and then keep looking" job will actually be a step up from the bloody Comic Book Shoppe or data entry at Pearson.
Not long before leaving for England, I did something up for my pal, Shawn MacLean, to help pay him back for numerous favors. I took a pen and marker, then outlined all sorts of interesting downtown locations for him to explore on a big map of Ottawa. For a laugh, I outlined the airport and wrote "Progress to next level" or something similar on it. Little did I know how this image would come hurtling back to the forefront of my mind within the first minute of sitting on my flight. I don't know if this is a Zoom airlines thing or if all airlines do it now, but on the big television screen at the front I was treated to a pixelated map of the northern hemisphere with a little plane on it (sitting over top Ottawa, of course). There was a dotted red line leading to London, which became solid line as the plane went along the path. The screen would rotate between this and a series of stats on how fast we were going, how long until we got there, how many kilometers we had to go and so on. In-between movies we were treated to little updates and when we were descending into London, a glowing green diamond formed over Gatwick's location. To a fellow who grew up on world management computer games, it was pretty weird!
No sleep was had, of course, but luckily I didn't have to wait too long before my cousin Daniel showed up to help me get from way down South London all the way up to North-East London. After having been up almost 30 hours at that point, I wasn't quite up for pulling the task solo. Even with a good buddy, I was hell of paranoid about running into trouble as I had all of my possessions (not including the many boxes I left in Carp, love you mom! love you dad!) in but three bags as well as all my money in the world. I really felt in touch with my primal, caveman ancestors who had naught but the contents of a crude leather sack to carry with them. As I rode the tube. Sitting across from some kid fiddling with his iPod Nano.
Ahem.
What with all the lack of sleep, I was happy just to eat the meal Dan kindly cooked up for me, then sleep for many hours and then read the paper before going back to bed again. After I post this, I see a small nap in my immediate future - followed by another exploratory walk around the neighborhood. Luckily it seems that Suzanne is quite savvy about where she buys a home, as I am but two blocks south of a busy market street with many places to explore. According to Google Maps, there is a good sized park a little ways North-West....but let me just say that the simple act of trying to get home from the supermarket with one of their printed maps made me lose a good deal of faith in the bastards.
In other news, the last technological hurdle has been jumped and so my trailer for "Tonight We Fall In Love" should be up on YouTube within less than twenty-four hours.
More later!
They are not quite like us! We are not quite like them!
1) Garbage bins are much harder to find. Get used to stuffing candy wrappers and tissues in your pocket for later disposal, instead of just walking eight feet as in the good city of Ottawa.
2) Street signs are rarely found on top of poles. They tend to be posted on the wall of a corner building, about twelve feet up. Assuming the stupid thing hasn't been vandalized or removed - in which case keep an eye out for chalk or painted substitutes....or nothing at all.
3) Google maps can bite my arse. It is sort of accurate, but leaves out every fifth side street and occasionally blurs two streets together. Sometimes it is just plain wrong about a street name. I'm sorry people but the shit just is not infallible.
4) Taxes are included in the listed price of items, which made grocery shopping way the hell easier to budget this morning.
A Moment of Lucidity
So it's too early in the morning and I've woken up thanks to the timezone difference. Luckily the "hunter-gatherer" portion of my mind kicked in and awoke primal survival instincts which led to my adding a rudimentary link section to the site. My film trailer will be up when my pal Shawn MacLean helps me to jump one last technical hurdle.
When I get up again I shall head off into the Tottenham hinterland and forage for nuts, berries and maybe even a little lager. Later on I should actually have my head about me enough to trust myself to pen a proper "I Have Arrived" post - something I look forward to.
When I get up again I shall head off into the Tottenham hinterland and forage for nuts, berries and maybe even a little lager. Later on I should actually have my head about me enough to trust myself to pen a proper "I Have Arrived" post - something I look forward to.
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Six hours and six long blinks later
I have landed and am all in one piece. Food has been put in me and after more than 24 hours awake, it is time to go into a hibernation. I'm excited as all hell, but I imagine it will be quite impressive when I wake up with the energy to be excited - if that makes sense.
Meanwhile I fiddled with the settings on this thing so you don't have to have a blogspot account to leave comments.
More later!
Meanwhile I fiddled with the settings on this thing so you don't have to have a blogspot account to leave comments.
More later!
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