Jaz Design

I know it’s been a good long while. I’ve been so ridiculously busy finshing up the last of my coursework – some of which I may share in the not too distant future – and working amongst trying to stay sane and see my friends, Mister, family etc.

Whilst it’s been terribly stressful to the point of losing my mind, I’ve also had some awesome times in the last few weeks – seeing an old friend in London for the day after 4 years of not seeing each other, attending my Mister’s dad’s wedding which was just such a lovely day, spending time with the Mister – romantic meals and whatnots, seeing the Michelles. It’s all good.

Also, speaking of the Mister, he just won the Design4Science competition for our category (Web and Multimedia) – FIRST PLACE. The piece of work he did is awesome, and I’m not just biased You should still be able to view it here. If you’d like to read more about the competition, check out the Design4Science website. I’m so proud, as you can imagine. His work will be exhibited in Sunderland, Manchester and Stockholm.
Also, I was tagged, sooo…

Instructions:
Remove the blog in the top spot from the following list and bump everyone up one place. Then add your blog to the bottom slot:

1. Fat Chick Crafts
2. Put a Sock in it
3. Suzy Sells Sea Shells
4. Enjambed
5. The Daily Ghosthand

Next, select five people to tag:

I think I’ll stick with the people already tagged… since I don’t know who else has blogs? I’m so out of the loop.

1. LK
   
2. Cherie
3. Christin
4. Twain
5. Sniggs

What were you doing 10 years ago?

Worshipping the Spice Girls, attending junior school, living a life free of responsibility. I was about to be ten, so actually I guess I would have just finished school for the summer. I’d just moved off of the farm I lived on for a year, I wasn’t too happy about that. I loved the farm.
What were you doing one year ago?

Desperately longing to tell my Mister how I felt and not doing I keep a diary and I started a new notebook about this time last year, it never ceases to amaze me just how much has happened for me in the last year. Never. I was probably sitting in exactly the same place, well not exactly, over on that other desk, working away like a busy little beaver, daydreaming…
Five snacks you enjoy:

1. Cookies
2. Kekkle chips
3. Cheese baps
4. Cornflakes
5. Pancakes

Nice and healthy then… haha.
Five songs that you know all the lyrics to:

1. “Wonderwall” by Oasis
2. “Invincible” by Muse
3. “Unintended” by Muse
4. “Butterflies and Hurricanes” by Muse (I could just write, all the Muse songs, and be done with it)
5. “Sleeping with Ghosts” by Placebo

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire:

1. Cry?
2. Give some money to my Mum, other close family
3. Invest some, aren’t we supposed to be frugal and things, pensions? High interest savings accounts? I’m sure I’d do that with some of it.
4. Buy all the cameras.
5. Buy a PS3 just for the sake of two games.

Five bad habits

1. Sleeping
2. Eating rubbish for breakfast
3. Not making important phone calls. (will keep this one too)
4. Procrastinating
5. I only have four, I’m perfect No I’m sure I have others.

Five things you like doing:

1. Making arts
2. Spending time with the people I love
3. Reading
4. Photographering
5. Sleeping

Five things you would never wear again:

1. ?? I don’t think I’ve ever made that much of a fashion tragedy, not that I can think of anyway.
2. Ok maybe this pair of massive cheap boots that were impossible to wear, but that’s not by choice.

Five favourite toys:

1. People…
2. My cameras
3. Play Doh
4. ??
5. Stuff

I know, this still needs updating, the template needs finishing, the front page needs finishing, everything and anything is up in the air. There’s not a lot I can do at the moment I’m afraid – lacking reliable internet and what not. Once I set up EasyPHP and what not on this newly formatted mashup of a PC I might get chance to sort things out.

On a more excitable note, I start my second summer of work at 3-Wise Internet Solutions (who are also my host, <3) tomorrow. On top of that, I have three, maybe four, units still to finish for university due to my illness at the end of the first semester, my dissertation research, self elected research and other general course reading to do. That’s a lot, but that’s ok, because it’s all positive. I also have my own personal photography and internet projects in mind. My head’s a bit full at the moment, I’m sure you can imagine.

I took my Mister to his home for the weekend, gave myself a bit of a break during that time, to play Guitar Hero, spend time with him and generally do not much. It was gooood. It all had to end tonight though, ready for tomorry Oh, and yeah, it was some sort of five day weekend, haha.

My Mister took me to see the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie last week, I’ve always thought the storylines were silly, but the movies are certainly entertaining. Worth the look.

Yesterday the other half an I went to see 300. He likes Miller and knows about these things, whereas I have no clue about things like graphic novels and was mostly going because I liked the trailer, and I’ve dragged him to every shitty horror flick that’s come out since October. I was surprised, I thought the film was amazing.

It was certainly visually stunning, although I’m not so sure I’d have been so accepting of the obviousness of CG had I not known it was based on a graphic novel. Either way, they really went to town on it. I especially loved this technique that I’ve only just started noticing appearing in movies, where, for example, someone shoots an arrow, the camera pans in on the arrow, time slows down and it moves around the arrow before it speeds up again, drawing you in and making you feel a part of something otherwise quite flat. It’s almost 3D without being 3D.

Gerard Butler was impressive, I’ve only seen him as the Phantom in Phantom of the Opera, it was very entertaining to see him do something so different, and do it so well.

The story wasn’t that strong, it was mostly about the fighting which is fair enough, but they did manage to put enough of a storyline in to have me crying by the end of it (I felt like I’d been hit with an emotional bus, but I think that may have just been me). There were some very touching moments, some downright scary moments, but mostly, a lot of bloody moments. But even then, they were well engineered bloody moments.

The soundtrack, the soundtrack, the soundtrack, I adored it. Rocky vs classical, always a winner with me. I thought it fit the movie very well. I’d recommend the movie, assuming you can deal with slow motion decapitation… or just generally a lot of slow motion. I read somewhere they filmed most of it at 50-150 frames per second – shows just how much slow motion they did or planned to use!

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I realise now on DA you get a free prints account, so I just messed around with the options to see what would happen, as a result, this photo of the sunset over Southsea is available as a print.

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All else is going alright. Got a lot of work on at uni, but it’s all good things. Thinking of things to write about for a dissertation, working up a design for a competition, running a business focussed on environmentalism (proper website and details available next week), it’s all good.

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Thursday 21st March

Nothing!

Wednesday 20th March

Chocolate chips 0.49
Pizza 1.15
Broccoli 0.46
Butter 0.46
Chips 0.88
Enterprise Investment 30
Car Insurance 476.04 (not including this in percentages as it tips it too much, just included for records)

Totals so far…
£235.35
Necessary £179.96 76.46%
Unnecessary £55.39 23.54%

Glandular fever (mono, ‘tever). Well. Whodathunkit. Worst timing ever to get this. Well, I suppose there’s never really a good time to get something like this.

It’s still not 100% confirmed. I have to have another blood test, but from the results of the last one, it looks like I have it. And also the fact that the antibiotics aren’t touching the tonsillitis – because that’s actually gotten worse over the last few days.

I’ve been ill two weeks now. Two weeks. I’ve missed two deadlines, I managed to make one other one but I’m not too happy about what I handed in. This was supposed to be our two weeks off to do things like visit Johnathan Creek’s windmill, but nooo. I can’t drive. Bah. There was so much else I wanted to do too, and I’ve already lost a week and still have that work to do when I feel well enough. I’m also bored of being stuck indoors – since last Tuesday the only places I’ve been are the doctors and the Co-Op (for Mars eggs, yeah, chocolate, so kill me) – and I’m used to galavanting many many miles cross country for uni, boyfriendness and various things, but, stuck here. Bah.

On the plus, I’ve been spoilt by my mother and my boyfriend and even J came to see me I have *flowers*. They so pretty Props go to those people for putting up with me being all ill and stuff. I can’t imagine it’s much fun for them either.

I’ve been listening to old Placebo music while I’ve been dozing, some of which I’d not listened to before – and I’m endlessly fascinated by how all their songs rhyme. What’s up with that?

Also, happy Imbolc.

Almost 24 hours until the first deadline hits. I like flashing underscores, they’re helpful.

I also got rid of so many videos in the last 24 hours that I’m terrified. My amazon wishlist consists almost entirely of DVDs now, which is most unusual.

My hair is two colours. See my Myspace for more details.