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[Strife26]

Good luck. I've got no advice though.

[Kagus]

Yeeg.  Got to bed at 11:30.  I'm even worse off than when I went to bed at 3:30.

Nobody has a big, old-fashioned key.  The theater teacher is making one out of clay for me that I hope will turn out alright, as there seems to be a shortage of the real deal around here.

She also says that she has 30's-style dresses in various sizes that I can borrow.


I'm trying to figure out what's worse...  Having all this stuff ready, or not having it on hand.  With the props ready, that means it's just up to me to get things in gear.  Whee.

[Kagus]

Well, that went poorly.

After a whole morning spent stressing over actors, props, lighting and scenery, I was greeted by my film partner arriving back a couple hours early, in time to help me out with the whole ordeal.

We managed to get everything together, and then we decided to contact the last actor required for the shoot.


He'd gone home.



Just like that.  We had talked with him for weeks about making this thing, and had told him yesterday that we were going to be filming today, which he said he was game for.  And then he just takes off.

Everything had to be called off.  There's nothing we can film without him, and not really much else we can take care of aside from filming.

Furthermore, tomorrow is the party with last year's students, so no filming.  We might be able to get the scene worked out on Saturday or Sunday, however.

But that's just one location.  In total, we'll be filming at three different locations, and we'll need to devote a whole day to each of the other ones just so we can coordinate stuff.  And we can't use either Saturday or Sunday for that, since we've got seminars.

Then comes Monday, which we might be able to use.  Then comes Tuesday, which we can't use since that's when we have side classes instead of our majors.  On Wednesday there's an optional but highly recommended event where the students can get some information on education possibilities after Skiringssal, so it's probably off-limits for a film day.  After that is Thursday, which is our appointed deadline and last day of editing for the class.

There's no bleedin' way we're making that.  Especially not now.  I'm going to have to talk with our main film teacher (we get the secondary teacher on Thursdays, and he's the one who's most concerned about getting something done before the deadline) to see if he can get the hounds off our back.  He should be here on Friday.


So, yippee.  Everything went splat.  And we're getting lip for it, too.

[Kagus]

Weekend again, with most of the interesting folks taking off to Oslo to get hammered and puke because it's fun.  I begin to wonder how much of this is just habit.

There was supposed to be a seminar for me today, but it ended up getting canceled.  But that's alright, since "Impro" didn't sound like it would be that much fun since all the fun people were dropping it to get to their train on time.

I've pretty much just been sitting around and playing Survival Crisis Z all day.  I really should've been reading the translated works of Plato from philosophy class, but I haven't gotten around to it and I can't be arsed to do it now.  I'll see if I can start memorizing it on Sunday.


Oh yeah, I haven't told you guys about the "Fjorårsfest" (last year's party).  All (well, all those who could make it) of last year's students came down here to mingle with the current batch of Skiringssalians.  We got to talk with last year's Film and TV class (fourteen people, half of them girls...  Lucky bastards) and see some of their work, including how things can go spectacularly (and hilariously) wrong when you're doing a live sending.

It would appear that there's just some special vibe with F&TV.  Found a lot of parallels.  Fiercely proud to be a part of Film and TV, not the most active class in school, suffering from bouts of chronic laziness, and going through the same problem of coming up with a spectacular idea that's only spectacular until you actually start working on it, whereupon you find it's just lame and tedious.

Also, a rivalry with Outdoorsmanship.  Funny thing that, since outdoorsmanship decided to call all of us gay on their student night...  I wonder if that'll grow into anything like last year's F&TV students were describing.

Well, in any case, the whole school was shown a movie created by last year's F&TV crew, which exposed the shocking truth about the Outdoorsmanship major, revealing that it was in fact a government movement to keep young adults possessing mental capabilities below those that normal schools would allow.  They were put into various programs aimed at keeping them busy and away from the public eye.  Sports were a prime choice, as it also gave an excuse to dress them up in protective wear, in order to prevent them from hurting themselves during a normal day.  They would also be sent out on trips frequently, as extended contact with the other students might arouse suspicion.

The film showed secret footage taken during a normal day of Outdoorsmanship.  Probably the best scene in the whole film was where they got to see a film, and the teacher left to let them set it up. 

In order to do so, someone put it on the little light-thingy used for displaying documents on the screen (I have no idea what they're called).  This resulted in a DVD-shaped shadow appearing on the screen.

The class hurriedly shut off the lights and went to their seats.  After a few moments of rapt silence, they suddenly burst out laughing.  All except one, who apparently didn't understand that scene.


All in all, they just weren't as packed with raw humor and talent as we were.  But their hearts were in the right place.  And Outdoorsmanship got theirs.


So yeah, that was that.  Plus chips and brownies.

There are of course other details, but it wasn't exactly the most amazing event we've had here.  Some students from last year showed off their stuff with some songs and a couple movies, and one rather impressive display from theater which had one actor on stage, and one guy doing all the sound effects off to the side.

Then we had some stuff from this year, with more singing (including one song that was sung by one of the gals from theater.  Certifiably insane, but a great voice.  She blew everyone away with that performance), a couple of movies (one from Outdoorsmanship, where they did an advertisement for a Christian Skiringssal, and the boy-girl party prono/music video), and a stage performance. 

That stage performance was the sexually-transmitted disease dance from the boy-girl party.  Those poor gals thought they were just putting a show on for "the guys" when they thought that up, but then they have to perform it in front of all their parents and relatives, and just now they had to perform it for all of last year's students.  I wonder if that thing's going to get recommended for any other large events...


Since it's been a pretty hectic week for Film and TV, we didn't get to show off any of our stuff (hadn't set it up).  However, just to prove that we weren't completely useless, I took one of the guys from last year's class aside and showed him "Where Nobody Would Believe That Anyone Could Live", and some of the outtakes.  He said it was pure genius.  I hope he told a few other folks about it, since he was the only one I managed to show it off to.

Ooh, speaking of the boy-girl film (which y'all should see, if only for my death metal performance), anybody know a place where I could host a 1.25Gb video (I could just zip it into a file for download), preferably without exposing my identity in any possible way?


Well, that was that.  Or, more importantly, that's all I can be arsed to write about it right now.  As for this evening, I was starting to feel a little down because of the various interactions between the late-night folks around here, but then I invented a fingerpicking thing on the guitar that sounds friggin' professional.  I'm going to have to come up with a stable pattern and then transcribe it, 'cause there are some nifty chords in there.

Oh yeah, also had a miniature jam with a gal, where she played rhythm and I played lead guitar.  That's because the guy sitting next to me (who had gone through guitar class) couldn't be buggered to play along with me.

[penguinofhonor]

Filedropper has a 5gb limit.

[Kagus]

And I apparently have a ridiculously slow upload speed...  I'll see what I can do some other time.


Well, another weekend come and gone.  No filming was accomplished, nor did I read the philosophy assignment.  However, I did shoot thousands of zombies in SCZ.


Actually, I did get some filming done.  Just not on my project.

Tonight was the first night with me in my role as the janitor, where I had to play opposite X.  It actually worked out alright, I think I'm finally starting to get over her.  And since she's been acting like nothing ever happened straight from the beginning, things worked out.

Well, except for that time I accidentally jammed my shin into her crotch.  That was awkward.  Surprisingly enough.

Anyways, this movie's going to be one of those "so bad it's good" horror movies.  Continuity goofs, clichés around every corner, lame story, ridiculously bad writing, and decidedly mediocre acting to boot (X is actually not that bad of an actress, but she keeps bursting out into laughter.  I'm bad, but I can hold up if I've got something to go on.  Which I didn't).

So we managed to film a couple scenes, and I tried my best to be creepy.  I was actually looking forward to the role, as I thought I would play an actual character.  You know, a lovesick janitor driven to the point of madness by a young girl.  There's potential for a real person there, and real people are fun (and, actually, relatively easy) to play.

However, one of the directors enlightened me as to what my role was actually going to be.  A creepy dude. 

He was actually trying for an effect like in "the Grudge".  That wasn't a person, that was just a creepy inexplicable ghost.  And that's what I have become.


I tried inserting a little humanity here and there, but it was difficult.  I hope I was being creepy enough...  That's actually kind of a fun reputation to have.  I've been first choice for every creepy, scary, or evil character so far.

Well, filmed some stuff, gave some advice that prevented a couple scenes from being utterly hopeless, and had some laughs while doing it.  Unfortunately, my costume is ridiculous...

Ah well, such is life in the film business.


ADDENDUM:  Oh yeah, my roommate just got back.  Fortunately, this is just in time for the room cleaning tomorrow, which he owes me.  Unfortunately,  this also means I have to share a room with him.  Hmm.

[Kagus]

Another party coming up on the 30th.  Can I be arsed to go?  I doubt it.  Had a mini chat with X wherein I tried to convince her that going to a party and remaining 100% sober through the whole thing is not fun.

Thing is, I think she manages to have fun under just about any circumstances.


If I recall correctly, I've actually only been to one of the school-wide drinkfests.  And even the heaviest drinkers admitted that that one went a bit overboard.  But still, looking at the pictures from some of the other ones, I really don't see how anyone could have fun without being completely and utterly hammered.  Unless you delight in watching and remembering all the drunken exploits of those around you, which admittedly is a bit fun.  But only for the first half-hour or so.

The first and only time I've ever really tried drinking an alcoholic beverage was on New Year's eve, with the glass of rat-piss champagne.  As such, I've never been drunk.  People don't seem to understand why I don't want to get drunk.

I try to tell them that I don't like losing all control, which is what seems to be the whole point of getting drunk in the first place.  You lose your inhibitions and start doing things you never would have done in your right mind.

Under other circumstances, I might have tried doing this, if only to try and have a good time.  However, this is Kagus of the wonderfully corrupt intentions we're talking about here.  Considering the fact that I can scare myself with the suggestions (I can't really call them "urges", since I don't feel any strong desire to do them) when I'm not following through with them, I shudder to think what would happen if I lost the self control that keeps the demons inside my head.

Someone could get seriously hurt.  Or repulsed.  Or...  Well, I'd really rather not discuss that.


However, I am protected by my ridiculously stubborn personality.  All I need is someone to try and push me into something, no matter how gently, and I can safely say that I will most certainly abstain from whatever that happens to be for the next few months.  I cannot abide people trying to tell me what to do when I have already stated that I have no intention of doing so.


Ironically enough, I was wondering if anybody had opinions as to whether or not I should sign up for the upcoming party.  The cost is at most a little under $6, and they'll be providing transport to and from the place.  I will also be armed with the knowledge that I can call a cab at any time and just hitch a ride out of there.  Unfortunately, knowing my cheapskate ways, I'd probably wait through a whole night of drunkards stumbling over me and indulging in personal pleasures with each other just so I could save $30 of cab fare.

Good points: 

• Several gals who might be at least mildly interested in me, and who might get drunk enough to do something about it
• Free Sprite
• The chance to observe and mentally record lots of nasty things
• The chance to observe and record lots of nasty things with my phone's built-in camera

Bad points:

• Annoying Brit
• Disgusting Sri Lankan
• Runty Greek that X is still gaga for
• My roommate
• Several girls who might be at least mildly interested in me, and who might get drunk enough to pass out and remain unconscious for the rest of the night

Hmm.  Well, now you see the point breakdown of why I don't bother with parties.  Essentially, I'm enough of a paranoid control-freak that I can't stand the thought of letting loose, and I'm too much of a nice guy to take advantage of someone who is under the influence.

Of course, I could just go around complaining in as strong of an Irish accent as I can muster, tossing in outdated university-grade English terms and sayings while jabbering on senselessly about why I'm really the nicest person in the whole school, now fuck me.

Please.


Only problem with that is the annoying Brit, since he can't stand it when someone is using a U.K. accent, and he is one of those people who actually thinks it is not only possible, but also prudent to try and get everyone to do things his way.

I suppose I could just do Texan...  That would ensure a failure t' c'myunicate.


As it stands now, I think I'm probably just gonna stay here, listen to the music that I like (woohoo 20Gb of newly-acquired tracks!), and play guitar and video games.  Maybe I'll browse through that illustrated Kama Sutra again (for those of you who haven't, it's actually kinda funny just leafing through it.  The stuff that's talked about in there is ridiculous outdated mumbo-jumbo), or perhaps pick up the book on Tarot.

Or I could try memorizing the bible...  I've been meaning to do that. 

Nah, too difficult when it's in another language.  Besides, I don't think my willpower is quite strong enough to power me into such an ordeal.


Any comments?  Mind you, I reserve the right to completely ignore any and all of you should the whim strike me to do so.

[chaoticag]

I say go, because if you do then something interesting might happen whereas if you stay nothing interesting will happen. Also, you could somehow prove your confidence at this party.

[LASD]

You're almost exactly like me in this drinking thing. The Finnish parties consist of identical heavy drinking and I just don't get the point of getting really drunk. I've even tried few different degrees of drunk (although never totally wasted), but still I don't see any point in it.

It might be because I'm not a shy person at all and not afraid of making a fool out of myself, so there's no limit's to break there. Also I don't have things that I'd desperately want to forget. Another factor is that I'd rather not become an asshole to others like most people do when they get really drunk.

However, I am protected by my ridiculously stubborn personality.  All I need is someone to try and push me into something, no matter how gently, and I can safely say that I will most certainly abstain from whatever that happens to be for the next few months.  I cannot abide people trying to tell me what to do when I have already stated that I have no intention of doing so.

This is me. I don't know why, but I violently refuse to succumb to peer pressure. If I convince myself that there's no reason to do something or someone tries to force me to do something without a particularly good reason, I just won't do it. Whatever the circumstances. Although I call this strength of mind, not stubborness, which might be more accurate.

The only difference between our opinions about drinking is that I'm not that afraid about what I would do if I was drunk. The stubborness goes a long way even if you've taken quite a few drinks. Although I have never even thought what would happen if I got so utterly and completely wasted that I'd lose all control. That wouldn't be pretty I guess, but that's true for everyone.

So yeah, although being (one of) the only sober one(s) in a party isn't fun at all sometimes, I've had some really good, quite unusual discussions in parties with people that are sober or enough so. Parties are also good to get to know new people that you wouldn't otherwise talk to.

So, it's nice to go to parties occasionally, if you haven't been in one for a while (as I gather), now might be a good time to go.

EDIT: Edited some silliness caused from not having time to read this carefully.

[Kagus]

I was called out last night to do some more filming with the Grudge crew.  I can hardly bring myself to talk about it.

One thing is having a script that would've been rejected by even the lamest teen horror film (you know the type, they're a genre unto themselves), another thing is having an uncanny knack lack for scenography and camera angles, not to mention some absolutely dreadful actors and a continuity editor who doesn't exist.

But it's another thing entirely coming up with some of the lamest and most out-of-place ideas while filming on location, and then running with them.


Well, I managed to entertain myself.  I do not believe I will be proud of this picture, but that's pretty damn tough luck considering I'm in it.  Let's just say that this thing will put Final Destination 3 (something I consider an epitome of the cheesy horror genre) to utter and complete shame.  At least in terms of stupidity. 

Unfortunately, FD3 could hold its own on breasts and gore alone.  We have neither.


For today, I went to the further education and career opportunities exhibition.  Went around picking up free stuff from the various stands for several hours, and didn't really find anything that jumps out as me as being my direction in life.  Wasn't really expecting it to, but that's a moot point.

As for free stuff, there was everything from candy (almost every stall had a bowl of assorted candies), to waffles and pancakes, to deli meat, to fresh produce (including the lamest pear I have ever eaten), to a memory stick that holds just under a gigabyte of space.  John Smith, who was also attending, snagged a stuffed bird-ish animal toy from the University of Southern Queensland's stall.  I don't think it was put up for that purpose.

His bag (complements from University of Bergen's stall) ended up looking like the bag of a very busy trick-or-treater, with various candies filling in all the space around the brochures he picked up in order to get the candy.  He also picked up an apple and an orange for some reason.


And that was that.  Not particularly interesting or enlightening, but it had its moments.  And sugar.

[Kagus]

Today we had a special thing at 12:30 instead of normal Friday afternoon classes, where two guys set up some presentation stuff about different subjects (wildly different subjects, in fact).

The first guy came up and said a few things about Gandhi, some interesting facts about his early life and his way of furthering his beliefs (I'd seen a special about Gandhi during Christmas vacation, so there wasn't a whole lot of new information).  Also a bit of background on the relationship between England and India.


Then the second guy gave his own presentation.  He quickly switched the topic over from Gandhi and India over to Rwanda (his homeland) and genocide.

This second presentation was a little less well-absorbed, seeing as Norwegian was not one of the five or so languages he could speak.  Instead, he spoke a heavily accented English that even I occasionally had a hard time making out what he was saying.

He also wasn't a particularly skilled public speaker, but he managed to get by on virtue of being African (funny how well that works).  He also talked about how we should always be very careful when listening to the media, and how we should always critically inspect our views so that we don't just go blindly rushing off into something.  As an example, he mentioned how so many people completely disregarded global warming, but then several scientists came along and proved that the environment was indeed in imminent danger.


I immediately decided that it'd be interesting to have a chat with this guy afterwards, and mention that although there are several high-standing scientists who have "proven" the dangers and inevitability of global warming, there are just about as many high-standing scientists who have disproven it.  It's a better example than he thought it was, regarding taking things critically.

So I ended up sitting across the staff table from him in the food hall.  After a while we started talking, and I brought up the subject of the environment.


Well, that was interesting.  Turns out he's about as open-minded as a brick, and is locked into a very specific belief about the world, which oddly enough includes making people see things from another person's angle, and opening your mind to conflicting ideas.   Meanwhile, he is completely disregarding everything I'm saying about contrasting scientific reports regarding global warming.

However, he did seem like a nice guy with his heart in the right place.  Even if his head wasn't quite there yet.


Then his partner piped up about something (I'm pretty sure he's Norwegian.  Speaks it like a native, and he just kinda has that look about him), and I ended up chatting with him for a little bit.  Behold a guy who reveled in the differences in culture and background of different people, and thrived on the exotic-ness created by having such wildly different beliefs and traditions.  I think it's kinda funny that this guy was so much more accepting of different cultures, when the African sitting next to him came from a place where indescribable atrocities have been caused by lack of just such an acceptance.

They had to take off shortly thereafter, but I felt quite good about getting to talk to both of them while they were here.  I think that I would've had a much more interesting conversation with the Norwegian though...   Just seemed more my type of guy.


Also, the principal was running around snapping photos of the whole thing (this presentation was apparently a big deal for him).  He happened to have the camera with him at the table, and around the time everyone else had left the table, he got up and took a picture of me having the little heart-to-heart with the Rwandan.  Naturally, if you get your picture taking when you're talking with an African (without being forced to), you look like a politically or environmentally-minded intelligent person.  In think I may have buggered up on the "intelligent" part of that equation, but at least I'll look minded.  Impressive.


In fact, I think I was actually the only student here who got to have a real conversation with those two.  Or at least the first, it's quite possible that someone got a chance to talk to them when they were packing up their stuff.

[LASD]

I personally must say that I haven't seen any reports of global warming being false (at least not by scientists.) It might be because in Finland global warming is mostly regarded as a fact and the media likes to keep it that way.

However, it doesn't really matter if human-caused global warming is an absolute truth, as we need to act that way unless it's unconditionally disproven, because:

Case 1:
People take global warming as a serious threat, develop alternate fuels, use more renewable energy and do other enviromentally friendly things. Few decades later turns out that global warming wasn't true after all. What have we lost then? Virtually nothing, as we have achieved cleaner air, reduced pollution throughout the world, reducing the risk of cancers, and saved valuable, unique ecosystems, amongst other things.

Case 2:
People keep wondering if global warming is a real threat or not and keep living as is, using the last of the fossil fuels until turning to cleaner power sources. Few decades later turns out that global warming is true and there will be absolutely nothing humans can do to make the impact less severe anymore.

Then we're screwed.

[Kagus]

If you do a bit of reading around, you'll find all sorts of reports and claims.  A fair number of them by some high-profile(-ish) scientists.

You'll find everything from the "vanilla" (it's happening, it's happening fast, it's deadly, and it's our fault.  This is the most widely-distributed one, thanks to various environmentalist groups), to ones that say either that it's not happening, that it's happening so slowly it will go up by about a degree (Celsius) in the next hundred years, that it's just a natural warm/cold cycle of the earth and isn't severe enough to do much damage, that it's a natural cycle and IS dangerous, and that it's just happening because of outside influences.

There are also some things showing average temperatures from England a century ago, and what they are today.  Some groups say this is because the world-wide pollution increase has caused global warming, others say that the England-wide pollution decrease cause England to heat up (the older coal-powered factories have been replaced, and the field of smoke particles they emitted are no longer causing moisture to stick around and cause clouds and frequent rains.  Therefore, it's hot, and it's going to get hotter the more England cleans up its air).


As for the well-known cause of global warming (CO₂ buildup in the atmosphere), there was a study that somehow looked into historic global heat patterns and atmospheric contents.  That study showed that heat would go up, soon followed by CO₂ levels.  Seems slightly backward, don't it?

There was also something looking at the recent heat changes on Mars, which has been showing a trend quite similar to Earth's own (according to that study).  So unless there's an invisible Martian SUV factory chugging out vehicles that we're not aware of, it's pretty safe to say that pollution is not necessarily the cause of planetary warming.


But regardless of what the truth really is, staying away from cleaner and more efficient energy sources is just stupid.  Alternative fuels and renewable energy sources are just a smart move.


But more of what I was getting at was not his position in the matter, but more that he clung so fiercely to it without even giving so much as a thought to the prospect that he might be less than 100% correct.

[deadlycairn]

From what I've heard, it seems that the global warming is part of a cycle - its happened several times before. This brings up several worrying issues, at least in my mind - what happens if we actually manage to prevent global warming and screw up the cycle, what happens if we make the cycle worse (what most people think we are doing) and most importantly, what about the global freezing that comes afterward?

I'm not joking, global freezing seems a far worse problem than global warming to my mind - even if I won't live long enough to see it.

[Kagus]

Currently 1:02 AM, but life is beautiful because I get to sleep in tomorrow.  Also, I think my roommate is packing for a trip, which means I'll have the room to myself again. 

Then again, he may just be looking for something.   Hard to tell.


Sleeping in on Saturday is actually a difficult choice, since the school tends to serve especially good food on the weekends, and it means I miss breakfast.  But bugger it, the best food gets served later anyways, and I can always just wake up earlier on Sunday.

For now, my bed is harking for me...  Which disturbs me, because that's actually a word.


EDIT: Also, could we please leave global warming out of this?  That always leads to problems, and I'd rather not have my bastion of egotism get locked down because someone got in a fight over how they're going to die.