Wintergirls & The Kite Runner

I went thought my stats and apparently the terms most searched for and the post most read on this blog is “Wintergirls” and my review of “The Kite Runner.” As I saw that I found it a bit weird, because those two probably represent my best and worst post ever written.

 

Wintergirls is one of the best reviews/in-depth analysis I’ve ever written on a book. The book was one that moved me deeply and I connected very much with the protagonist. Today this book is still very close to me, and I feel like it is one of the best YA-novels I have ever put my hands on. It is such a real and moving story and I think it must have been an incredibly hard job to write it.
It is one of the best analysis I’ve done, it was done as a school assignment and it was only published after the assignment had been graded. However upon the publication of the review I tweeted the author of the book, Laurie H. Anderson, the link and she actually replied to me and said she thought that was the best review she had ever read for that book. That she wrote that to me has of course made me very proud of that analysis, and I still think it is rather good. And I do understand that this might be a post people would like to read because I put a lot of work into it and it is well written.

And on the other hand we have my review of The Kite Runner (the movie), which I really, really hated. It is not that I don’t care about the war in the middle east or that I am a racist or anything like that.  But I found the movie long and slow, and there were points in it that didn’t make sense or add up unless you read the book. I am a firm believer that even though a movie is based on a book it does not represent the book but stand a long as it’s own story. If you must have read the book to understand the movie, someone has done a bad job transmitting the message of the book to the screen.
And, I do have the right to have my own opinion. I did not care for or like this movie. In my eyes it was bad and boring. This review too was for a school paper, but it was written with less passion than my book review for “Wintergirls.”
I will not put up a link to this post because it isn’t well written, and I’ve had to close the comments on it because some people hate that I hate it and does not understand that I am fully allowed to hate it. That I hate the movie doesn’t mean I hate the people, I just didn’t think of it as a good story because everyone who has escaped war has a story so why this particular story? What about everyone else stories?

In the end I have seen my best and my poorest written post is the most read on this blog. I find it kind of funny and kind of odd, but at least I was honest i both posts.

2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 14,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 3 Film Festivals

Click here to see the complete report.

Spent the last two weekends in Hounslow.

So the last two weekends I’ve been to Hounslow, or more precisely I have been to Heston. So I have now had my first experience with London’s overground transport system, and I have to say that I am not particularly a fan.  The buses are always on time when you are a little late and they are always late when you stand there waiting. Also I figured out that my oyster-card only works on some buses, the rest of the local buses I have to pay for even when I have paid for a weekly transport card.
And London traffic in the afternoon when you want to get home: it make a 1 hours trip into a two and a half hour trip.

That aside I had a rather nice weekend in Hounslow, this weekend and the weekend last week. Though I would prefer the first weekend as it was only workshops and only one examination, this weekend I had my practical test and another test.
What kinds of tests? Well, it occurs to me that I, when I get my exam results back, is a qualified gym instructor. And I will, after a semester here in Kingston, start to apply for a part-time job

The course was set up at David Lloyd Heston. Avery prestigious gym by the way which I will never afford a membership at, and I can not fathom that anyone do actually use that much money to be a member at a gym. But then again it got everything, a tennis court inside and out side, golfing, swimming and a fully equipped gym, so I figure it has to be expensive.

The first weekend there I had an Anatomy and physiology test along with two 8 hour workshops.
This Saturday I had my practical assessment and my “training principals”-test.
Meagan from my history-class was kind enough to help me out and be my participant for the practical. And she did very well actually and I passed my practical!

We went around Hounslow, even though Kirsty told us very strictly that if we went there we would get shot. But the starvation from getting up at 5.30 to get to Hounslow in time, having no breakfast and working out, made us leave the bus at the bus station and search the streets for a restaurant that served something edible.

We found one after roaming the streets, a small, and as Meagan put it: a cool restaurant.  Though the food was good out waitress could have mad an effort to tell us that rice came outside of the menu. We had to order rice after getting our food which consisted of chicken and sauce.

The had really cool jugs and cups though:

Also when we went home after eating, one of the guys in the street shop managed to trick me into buying 6 kg of fruit. And it was so cheap!

So I have had some great weekends lately and workshop is fun, it is the first time I have went to learn something and stayed interested for the whole thing. I even could comprehend everything the teacher said!

I am rather amazed…

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

.. by this place. London, though this is a part of greater London, keeps on amazing me, it contradicts all I ever though about cities like this.
You see I’ve always thought there were less life in big cities, like London, New York, Paris and other big cities. Of course I know there wouldn’t be zombies walking around or dead people around. I expected it to be noisy and I expected the people to be very busy and very little engaged, and I didn’t expect to see many animals maybe except cats and dogs. Well, I guess I just always thought of these places as places people go and then leave, maybe just because I’ve never stayed in a place long enough to see how it kind of works.

NUS is wasting your money

You know how this studentcard is supposed to make you save oooooo soooo much money?

Well I bought mine the first week I was here. I haven’t been able to use it ONCE because they haven’t activated it. I was told it would take 7 days top before it was activated. It’s now been 3 weeks. Yesterday I had to order my school books, and I couldn’t use my student discount because my card isn’t activated so therefore I have no access to my discount code. SO 150 ponds for books, hurray and then add 12 pound for that stupid card.

Maybe they should just stick with their old system, where you activated your card manually on the web. Because this sucks and I dream of this being enough to sue them and send them into a ditch. Sorry, I’m pissed off right now because I’ve sent them 5 e-mails to four which I’ve gotten an automatic reply and nothing else. Now this card is pretty much useless to me, because I’ve bought everything I meant to use my discount on because I needed it den not in three months or three days.

Well, maybe I can figure out a way to get my 12 wasted pounds back.

Making my way around Kingston

So, I’ve finally managed to connect my blackberry to my computer so I can take and post pictures now. I was thinking about going around taking pictures today, but I kind of suck at taking pictures so I took some at the start of my walk from Surbiton to Kingston then I took none.

So this is just around the corner from where I live, there are few restaurants there and it’s right by my new gym. Which will be the next picture:

I think the sign states that you can reach Kingston with bicycle? Well I walked to the Kingston Market

I don’t really know what I was taking a picture of here, but you can kind of see some of the way I walk to get to Uni (that is if I chose to walk this route).

The scientology church in Kingston, I think… It’s right across the road from Uni.

The Kingston market where I bought stuff for my vegetable soup.

I could never buy soaps like that I would eat them

When I got back home I started making vegetable soup, I don’t know how it will taste yet it’s on the oven. But this is what it looked like before I put it there:

Well what would a great long walk be without buying something heavy to carry all the way. Yesterday I bought a 10 kg kettlebell to carry, today I bought that soup pan, a lot of vegetables, new shoes and some books. Believe me when I say that it was just as hard to carry all that way as carrying the kettlebell.

“Quite a mix of books there” the cashier pointed out. “Yes” I said, because I think a parody of 50 Shades of Shit (yes intended misspelling of the title, it would be more suitable for the book anyway) has the potential to be freaking hilarious.

Joining societies…

Where to start about that? I came here last week, the 12th to be exact on the date, and I didn’t know much I just knew how to enrol at Uni. Now I’ve moved in to halls and I’ve met my flatmates. The last days I haven’t made much food and I haven’t really been with anyone, because I’m socially awkward and I like to be alone a bit (besides I’ve been ill and I didn’t want to make anyone else sick).

Today was the last day of the Fresher’s Fayre, which is a fayre where most of the Uni’s societies and sports clubs are represented among side companies who sell stuff like board-bands and mobiles. Yesterday I signed up for most things, anything put in my hands I wrote my name on, today I was there mainly because of the free cake at the Hub station (it tasted amazing!) but I did check out some more sports clubs.

These societies have an annual fee that members have to pay so I have to choose a few societies. Though there are many societies that sounds like a lot of fun and probably is worthwhile, I can’t join them all I don’t have that amount of time or money.
I’ve looked through them all over and over for a while and now I’ve think I’ve cut the list down to 7 sport clubs and societies I’d like to join or at least try. The number 7 is a number that still is too large, and I think I’m stressing this much with joining a lot of societies because I’m afraid I won’t make any friends so I have to sit alone all the time and drift back into my well-known clinical depression.

The one society that I’m absolutely positive that I will join is the “History society” I study history it’s almost obligatory to join that society then. To join that will most likely help me in my studies and I can be with people who are interested in discussing history and in that way get more focused on the different topics in my history modules. By giving my course more focus in my life I’m more likely to do got on my assessments.

Another society I’m positive that I’ll going is the  “Cinema Appreciation society,” which gathers to watch a movie every Friday. That way, if I end up being alone all the time I know that I will have somewhere to go every Friday and not stay at home and make it so obvious that socially I’m an awkward loser. Besides I like watching movies and I would appreciate to discuss films with other people who are interested in film.

“MAD history” is another society I think I would like to join, because they arrange trips to museums and watch films (documentaries I think), and that again could help me get focus on my course and have a positive effect on my assessment.

“Connect UK International” is the society I’m most hesitant to join, I’m not sure I want to hang out with someone solely based on that we all are international students (That’s why I’m positive I’m not joining The Scandinavian society, Norwegians are flocking together too much already).

One more society before we move over to Sports clubs. “Rock and Metal” society, most people who know me knows that I’m not a metalhead, but I do like rock and metal but in moderation. And a concert now and then, wouldn’t that be good? I don’t know, but I think I might join that society.

To join any sportsclub I have to buy a sports card which costs £30, and for now I’m kind of interested in two Sports club.

Taekwondo is the one I’m most interested in at the moment, because I’ve been doing some martial arts before (Tai Ji or more popularly spelled Tai Chi). And they have gathering twice a week I think and that would be good, right? Then I would have to go to a work out twice a week.

The other one is Mountaineering (Climbing), and I’m very interested in that but I’m also terrified when standing on a chair and I have to jump down. I’m so afraid of heights, like crazy. But I would like to overcome this fear, I really, really would like to overcome this fear. And climbing would be good for my shoulders, since I have “weak” women shoulders (I’m going 35 kg in military press so weak is relative).
The main problem with the Climbing club is that it apparently crashes with one of the meetings to the Taekwondo. Though I really would like to apply for both.

Those are the societies that made the cut, some of those who didn’t quite make it: The wine society, scuba diving & Jiatsu.

So this is my numbering mess of the day. I think all these societies will be too much, but I’m planning to go abroad next year (exchange to Auckland or Windsor) so I can’t say like I take half of them now and half of them next year. Well for now I’ll just pause and not buy anything too fast, think it through and then see what I do. To many societies will ruin the time I’ve got for studying and writing too. Maybe next week, maybe then I can decide.

Btw: I won a competition today, who could hold a bucket with 10 kg water the longest.

And I bought a Kettlebell that I carried from Kingston to Surbiton (that also weighting 10 kg)

London calling

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I moved to London last week, to be more precise I moved to Surbiton to attend Kingston University.

This year I will be living in Halls at the Uni with 5 flatmates which all are rather nice. I’ve just got all the kitchen equipment I need to make food during this year so I guess I won’t be starving either, thought I’ve more or less lived on other’s food the last coupe of days.

Dear Inspiration…

…now would be the appropriate time to struck.

I think my inspiration died right before I had my last Exam in June. It just haven’t been the same ever since. For a short while I had this whole globe of inspirational light inside me.

I think I wrote about my big bowl of light. We started to plan this huge, epic, fantasy manuscript. We sat down and draw maps and started to make languages and religions. I started to research weapons and medieval life, and that left me with that I now know that swords weren’t as heavy as some books wants them to be. Inside my mind I started make up countries and small wars between certain countries. The light shone so bright that I now think I might be blind, because I feel so drained.

It’s happening

I’m soon living in London, it’s really happening. And I’m not really sure if I believe it yet, I’m not sure if I’ve wrapped my head around it. In a month I’ll be moving into my room at Seething Wells and I’ll stay there until next year.

In September I’ll start on a BA in History & Creative Writing, and I’m not sure if I’m excited or not, because I’ve been going through some major changes this summer. Anyway I hope I’ll have a good time, and that I’ll do well (most of all…)