Aloha! 

Mon dieu, it's been a fair while since I posted anything! And what to say.... I guess the obvious first.

Merry belated christmas and a smashing new year to all, I hope you have wonderful festive periods filled with love, laughter and of course great food. May 2008 be positive and bright for you all :)

Onto the next obvious thing, I'm currently travelling my way around the world... well select parts. For now I'm stationed in the UAE (United Arab Emirates) where I spent a large chunk of my adolesence, hanging out with my parents (who still live here) and seeing old, old friends I've not seen in about 6 years (which has been good, weird, funny and mindboggling). If you're puzzled as to where the UAE is - think Dubai. That's it's big signposting place at the moment, and apparent city of wonders and marvels. I personally don't like Dubai, it's become a grotesque and vulgar place to live in my opinion. It tries to be decadent without any class - men pulling up to traffic lights in hot Porche's who open their doors to spit onto the road. Don't be fooled by all its building they're doing here at the moment, no matter how awe-inspiring it seems. This place is still a third-world nation when it comes to rules, regulations, and rights, hiding behind the facade of a first world nation. But hey, I've always been cynical about the place - even when I did live here. 

Dubai is, however, a very interesting, intense place to visit. There is the most amazing amount of stuff you never thought could be built - the infamous Palm Islands (which there will be 4 sets of, 3 in Dubai and 1 in Sharjah), the World Island (which are being constructed at the moment), the Burj Tower (the worlds tallest building), the Hydropolis (worlds first underwater resort that floats in the ocean), and of course the infamous Burj Al Arab (world only 7 star hotel, where prices start at $1500USD a night for the cheapest room!). I would recommend the place if you love shopping, as there are easily 50+ huge shopping malls here and 2 HUGE shopping festivals (I mean huge too), and love sun and the beach. This place is incredibly rich, and they love to flaunt it. Though it has a tacky air to it, hard to explain. All in all, you can't really describe Dubai, or the UAE for that matter, unless you come here. And you can't understand it properly unless you live here. Catch 22 I guess. The rest of the UAE is quite different to Dubai, which I prefer though most people in the world assume Dubai IS the UAE. Thankfully it's not.  Since I was last here (2001), the city has become almost completely unrecogniseable to me. Where the end of the city once was in 1999, it is now the middle of the city, and is still continuing to grow RAPIDLY! I feel completely like a tourist, which is the weirdest sensation after I used to consider the UAE my home more so than Australia. I'm also a mixture of melancholy and relief - sad that the place I grew up in just doesn't exist anymore, like it was a mirage, and relieved that at least I got out while the place was still bareable to live in.

My parents live in an oasis city called Al Ain, which is about 1.5 hours from Dubai, 2 hours from Abu Dhabi and is on the border of Oman (which you can drive into easily. I highly recommend Oman!). Depite it being a city of roundabouts and horrific driving, I don't mind it here. It's like how Dubai was about 20 years ago. Hell, even 10 years ago! The city has lots of greenery, where the natural springs irrigate much of the city and desert. It apparently is a very rich area, with the ruler of the UAE being born here, yet they don't like to spend their money on infrastructure. It's no where near as "cool" as Dubai is, but I'm enjoying the low-keyness of here. Plus I'm having a wonderful time with my parents, and their range of interesting friends. I spent my first Christmas with them in 7 years, which was just spiffy! My days are spent "sightseeing", taking copious amounts of photos and going through my mum's insane DVD collection (at least 2500+) - I thought I loved film!

Anyhoo, if you're interested in seeing the place I've created my own gallery, to which I'll slowly add more photos too over time. So far I've taken nearly 2000 photos, but I'm taking my sweet ass time cleaning them up in photoshop - so it might take a while to get them all up. Though there are a few up at the moment for you all to have a sneakybeak:

Gallery

In two days I'll be off once again to Italy, the next stage of my journey. I spend 2 weeks there with my parents, mostly staying at their house in Umbria. I keep forgetting where exactly it is but its somewhere between Rome and Florence. My brother is going to meet us in Venice for a couple of days before heading back to their house, and he'll go back to France - first proper family "reunion" in a very, very long time. I'm uber excited about spending winter in Europe, despite freezing my tootsies off! I'm sensing many photo opputunities!

Next stop, England! For 10 days I'll continue the snow-fest and head to both London and Manchester to see/stay with some of my closet friends I've not seen in yeaaaaars. Originally I was going to my friends wedding in manchester, but because I'm a pov student I had to back out  since I just can't afford to go :/ Sucks being on a tight budget, especially in the UK. This leg of my "tour" is the part I'm most looking forward to, and have fanatically been working out what I want to see and do while I'm there - last time I went to England I was 14 and a moody teenager :) 

After England is back to the UAE for 9 days, to get some wisdom teeth pulled out and to say adios to my parents and friends until I next see them again. Then it's back to sunny ol' Melbourne, just in time to walk into the first semester of 2008 at uni.

So that's my current planned travel imprint on the world, even though my carbon imprint is a lot bigger than I wish it was :/ But praise godly idols, I needed a holiday. It's been refreshing, relaxing, fun and informative. The biggest downside is I miss my lovely El Monsta, who's stuck back in Melbourne with our daring kitties. But he'll be brought many gifts, just like the wise-men bought that baby boy in the stable... jesus I think he was called :P 

Stay tuned for more photos and random updates! 

Toodles :)

It's my birthday :)

Quarter of a century old.

Like the tides, a month has come and gone since I last wrote. And a bunch of things have happened, as life can be adventurous.

( Read more... )

I'm starting to have the beleif that being socially conscious, environmentally compassionate and sustainability passionate is seen as a "crazy" idea these days, even though there is this huge movement around the buzz word 'climate change'. I'm starting to beleive this because I think most people I know are beginning to think I'm crazy, if they've not thought that already. It's not a very reassuring feeling when you want to change the world, and people laugh at you for even wanting to try. Or write you off as having whacky ideas that are just conspiracies.

Such is the life of a hopeful future ecologist.

I did this career matchmaker test online to see what I *should* be doing with my life. The questions were fairly standard, you know the whole "would you do a job that includes...working in offices/paperworl/technical etc". At the end it spits you out a list of what you should do, career wise. Here's mine:

1. DIrector of Photography (Cinematographer/Cameraperson)
2. Set Deisgner
3. Costume Designer
4. Special Effects Technician
5. Animator
6. Desktop Publisher
7. Actor
8. Cartoonist/Illustator
9. Fashion Designer
10. Director
11. Makeup Artist
12. Artist
13. Graphic Designer
14. Comedian
15. Computer Animator
16. Casting Director - (!!! what kind though teeheehee)
17. Musician
18. Medical Illustator
19. Composer
20. Website Designer

Well, least I'm sorta in the right industries hehe.... There was more to the list, such as Magician, Potter, Horticulturist... the ones I was hoping for (Photography, Evironmental Consultant) came towards the bottom of the list. Maybe its written in the stars, thou shall not dedicate life to sociolgoical research...

Film criticism is harder than it looks. Well, good film criticism at least. This semester I have been attending a screen/film criticism class, and apart from the early starts and putting my brain in a constant analytical mood, it's fantastic. My teachers are two academics and previously published film critics, notably Rick Thompson (who infamously interviewed the critic's critic, Manny Farber) and Anna (who's writing a book on the works of MIchael Mann). Last week we had film critic Jake Wilson from The Age newspaper come in an give us a guest lecture. Very interesting and informative, even bringing in the great monster sequence in from The Host (AWESOME Korean film of 2006) and the chick knife fight in Kill Bill 1. (I'm pretty sure everyone knows of the latter film by now.) He was incredibly nervous though, but was a previous student of this perticular film class so it was easier to relate to how you can get from an Arts degree to a fun job. He advised us to start a film dedicated blog if we're interested in being critics, as that's he got found ultimately.

Anyhoo, if you want to see the level I'm writing at the moment (and usually not happy with), feel free to look at this review I did on Capote (2006) here Maybe if I get better at writing I'll start a film blog.

Now onto a more visual fiesta!

A couple of weeks ago we here in Australia were blessed with being able to see a total lunar eclipse. Although the sky was cloudy, the moon was a reddish-brown orb suspended in the navy blue sky. I couldn't get the shots I wanted, but you get the idea anyway :)


( Onto Teh Photies )
On another note, I've been getting into LOLcats. I blame Alex mostly. The benefit of having kitties is that there is many LOLcat photo opputunities.



And on that note I'm heading off for a siesta. Mmm, snooze-a-liscious.

1. Had another tooth pulled out. This had slowly been disintergraing over the years as a filling fell out a while ago. Me being a chicken didn't go to the dentist for a while, and left it til there was nothing but a sliver of tooth left. At least it's a top molar so not noticeable.

2. Now my mouth tastes like a mixture of pungent French cheeses and halitosis, thanks to the lovely power of infection. Mmmm...

3. I've spent most of the morning watching clips of classic Sesame Street moments that my ex-film tutor and I have been sending back and forth to each other over Facebook. Classics you can watch include:
tale of lowercase n
Rebel L (parody of Rebel Yell)
Hey Food (parody of Hey Jude)
Cereal Girl (parody of Material Girl)
Capital I (though it's an S strangely)
Monsterpiece Cinema: Twin Beaks (spoof of Twin Peaks)

4. I've been on a soup making craze. Today I want to try something new to make, soup wise. Hmm...but what?

5. I just found out how to make HDR photos (High dynamic range) which I might try and take some on the weekend. Another new technique to try out :)

6. I made a dress that looks nice but it's too loose around the top. The stiching, as always, has my trademarked fuckups. Still, my first dress and I'm proud that the pleating looks nice at least :)

7. I should get out of the house today.

The Original Lolly Store has opened a new shop on Smith St, just down the road from my house. This is bad for El Monsta and me as we're confectionary fiends, much to the dismay of our bellies I'm sure. Today I ventured into the shop and was completely mesmerised by the range of candy I'd not had since being overseas. My mouth began to water and my fingers did some Yellow-Paging ('let your fingers do tha walking!') After racking up a bill of $38, I thought I should probably stop. My arms couldn't hold anything more. But in all seriousness - it was totally worth it :D

For those interested in new, interesting music - I recommend Gogol Bordello.
They are a gypsy-punk fusion made up of eastern European immigrants who ended up in America. Most are from romani descent I beleive.

I'm fascinated with the lead singer, Eugene Hutz.