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'My Corduroyed Life' - Mark A's Journal
Another month; another monthly review!
Only a month after being put into a three-month redeployment situation by my employer, The University of Salford, I’ve been redeployed. As of today, I will no longer work for The Careers Service. I will work for The School of Languages. It’s a pretty significant move for me considering I’ve worked for Careers since January 2001. I guess I’ll be able to tell you all about my new job next month. It’s been peculiar this month in Careers: packing up, closing the programme, tying up loose ends. I really am looking forward to my new opportunity. It’s now lunchtime on my first day, and I’m feeling a little flustered and somewhat like I’ve been dropped in at the deep end, but we’ll see!
I’m not even going to talk about finances! I just have to spend less: it’s as simple as that.
With regards to my love life, I have a boyfriend. It’s early days, but I do feel that this might just work. His name is Steve. I believe an appropriate articulation at this point would be: Yay!
Despite feeling that I wasn’t prepared enough for my Ninja grading last month, I passed, and am now a 5th Kyu Ninja (exactly half way to black belt! – Yay!). After I whinged about the change in class times, they’ve been changed back to the original times, but are now only one night a week. Already I am missing the two nights of Ninja per week, and am looking into either joining a Capoeira or a Yoga class. Also, within the School of Languages, they provide free starter courses for staff (other people have to pay [grin]), and I’m thinking of doing Sign Language and/ or Japanese!
I’ve still got no home t'internet, and have kept a steady level of reading. Not the amount I once did in my teens and early twenties, but certainly a respectable amount, and I’ve read some really interesting stuff. Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser was both a fantastic, compelling read, and upsetting/ worrying. Not that I eat much fast food anyway, but the book confirmed my fears/ suspicions and added so many more! I’ve also read Dude, Where’s My Country by Michael Moore. I’m a huge fan of Michael Moore: anyone who can write a political book that is only outsold by Harry Potter last year has got serious kudos from me! I’ve just started Dave Gorman’s Googlewhack Adventure by (dur) Dave Gorman. This was basically inspired by all the googlewhack fun I’ve had over the past couple of months. I’ve also bought a fair few other cool books too!
I bought another album this month! In fact, I bought three! I’ve found a fantastic, fantastic shop in Manc called Fopp, and it sells CDs (and DVD and books) extremely cheaply! As such, I’ve bought Enemy of the Enemy by Asian Dub Foundation, Animal Rights by Moby, and Red Snapper by Red Snapper. They’ve all proved to be good purchases and excellent examples their musical genres (dance, thrash, and ambient respectively). And for fifteen quid for the lot, they were a proper bargain!
Screenselect is a beautiful thing! Quite what I did without it is anyone’s guess. I also heart The Cornerhouse. Two of my very favourite things!
At the cinema I’ve seen Troy, I’m Not Scared, Japanese Story, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
On DVD I’ve seen (as well as the whole series of Firefly which I just have to boy): Murder By Numbers, Predator, Spellbound, Alien 3, Once Upon A Time In Mexico, Skinny Tiger, Fatty Dragon, Hellraiser, The Eye, and Sexy Beast.
Ratings:
* = Shocking
** = Passable
*** = Worth Seeing
**** = Superb
***** = Unbelievable!
Troy - ***: I felt that this was a slightly dumbed down version of The Iliad to appeal to the masses, but lots of wonderful set pieces and impressive scenes.
I’m Not Scared - ****: An excellent film filled with beautiful imagery and clever metaphor.
Japanese Story - ****: A romantic that actually made me feel something! Possibly because it didn’t have a happy ending… I cried.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - ****: Fun film. Darker, better acted by the kids, and generally just slightly better than the previous ones.
Murder By Numbers - ***: Only got it out because it has Michael Pitt in it, but it was an above average thriller.
Predator - ***: A very cool no brainer! Should have seen this years ago!
Spellbound - ****: A fantastic documentary about American Culture and the Spelling Bee. Really enjoyed it.
Alien 3 - **: A bit disappointing considering how much I loved the first two.
Once Upon A Time In Mexico - ****: Thoroughly enjoyable escapism for a couple of hours. Go El Mariachi!
Skinny Tiger, Fatty Dragon - ***: A fun and silly cop story! Sammo Hung steals the show with his comedy Bruce Lee nunchaku impersonations!
Hellraiser - ***: Another horror I’ve meant to see for ages. Not what I expected, and a decent, watchable film.
The Eye - ****: Superb psychological thriller that had me on the end of my seat!
Sexy Beast - ***: A very good gangster film in which Ray Winstone shines.
I've blogged a lot less this month, and would say it’s mainly due to lack of inspiration, rather than lack of time. However, I can see next month being the opposite now that I’m in a new job. I said I wanted to shy away from just ranting, and then immediately posted 101 more Things I Hate – go figure. I’ve found precious little on t'internet, but the rather peculiar, eccentric and surreal The Phone is well worth a visit.
As usual, I'll do the blog courtesy thing...
mcphee
Bowch
Pixie
Fluff
Prince Gaz
Mojo
Blurty Friends: Jadash and Ajax
Other significant stuff includes my lovely camping trip with Andy and Tom that I’ve already covered, the Speedway Grand Prix in Cardiff, and me getting so drunk at a Naked Lounge gig that I literally had to be carried home (and to bed) – it’s been a long time since that happened!
To cover the whole month in a few words: a lot of significant changes in my life this month, and I’m pretty sure that I can ride that wave!
Have fun,
M
Current mood:
nervous.Current music: 1000 Broken Mirrors by ADF feat. Sinead O'Conner.