Er, yeah, H2A maybe?

Haha I can dream on. At the rate I’m (not) going, I might get a H2B if I’m REALLY lucky.

I just wrote another uni blog about TV. I should write more about my favorite topic but…I dunno.

Anyway:

What? Using Britney Spears lyrics? Atrocity!

I am writing this on the day that the new Glee episode Brittany/Britney is to air. I already have the songs on my iTunes, and have been listening to Toxic on replay since yesterday.

I have seen some screencaps on Tumblr of some highlights, and on Twitter I can see that trending topics include Heather Morris (the actress for Brittany, the blond cheerleader on Glee), and yet I won’t get to see the episode until 7:30 pm.

Watching TV isn’t just the act of watching TV anymore. I think watching TV has become something like living the moment of watching the show. Social networking sites like Twitter and Tumblr have made it possible for us to voice what we feel about a particular scene IMMEDIATELY. (Well, the immediacy is more a feature of Twitter, but Tumblr comes with pictures so in a visual media, that helps too.)

I’m not innocent of the need to broadcast my thoughts at the same time as watching a broadcast. Last week, when Glee’s Season 2 premier was on TV (I had refrained from watching it online three hours prior to 7:30, because a) I’d wanted to conserve bandwidth and b) I wanted to share the experience of watching it with people “around” me – online with me, in my timezone. Also I got yelled at quite a few times for revealing spoilers), I had been watching and tweeting all the moments that I found glorious. Someone replied to me, “I had missed these Glee tweets”, referring to the dry-spell when the show was on Summer hiatus.

Even when I’m watching a show not airing, such as last week when I was watching True Blood, or a while back when I was watching Chuck (neither of these shows are airing in Australia anymore), I still tweet about it. There is always going to be someone else like me in my larger social group who is a fan of a show not airing on Australian TV, and sure enough, my tweets gained a few “likes” on Facebook (because I am so connected, my tweets appear on Facebook too), and I immediately knew who else is a True Blood fan.

Ironically, when I am watching a show that DOES air in Australia, but ahead of everyone else (because we all know Australia sucks at keeping up with America, though they are giving it a shot with a few shows), I have to PROMISE people that I don’t tweet spoilers. I am currently ahead of Australia in NCIS, How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory, and as much as I want to tweet about it, I shouldn’t, because revealing something about it would ruin the experience for other people.

Which brings me back to my title. I don’t have qualms about listening to a Glee song before the episode airs, but one of my friend does. She is a huge Gleek as well, and I asked if she wouldn’t want me to send her the new songs when I get them. She told me she’d rather listen to them at the same time as seeing it on TV, so when she later listens to them, she can imagine the scenes on TV. The two of us both love Glee equally, but we like to experience it differently. I like to have all the social networks at my fingertips as I’m watching, because I like to see what others think about it, as well as have others see what I think about it. My friend would rather be shut off completely and be only concentrating on the show, and that’s how she rolls.

Currently, TV shows don’t really interact with other forms of media when they are airing. I guess that’s the traditional way. I do remember that the Glee pilot had once aired a re-run where as the show is airing, the cast of the show is live tweeting, and their tweets and commentary runs across the bottom of the screen (this, again, wasn’t available in Australia).

I guess where I’m headed with this is that, maybe, TV shows in the future would become sort of INTERACTIVE with Twitter, or whatever replaces Twitter next. Those who are like me can use Twitter to enhance their viewing experience, but those with a more traditional viewing habit like my friend can still watch the show as it is, and then talk about it.

TV is no longer an experience as it was when it first appeared, with the family gathering around a set to watch it together – I actually don’t like having my parents next to me when I watch a show I want to concentrate on, despite being online while watching the show. As weird as that is, I like it better when I’m alone with the internet… – but it’s not exactly a complete polar opposite either. Personally, the generation and cultural gap between what my parents like and understand and my own tendencies renders my family a divided unit when we watch TV, but I’m more than certain that in some other families, there is still at times a show or movie that has the whole family sitting together in the living room (or maybe in different rooms but with the TVs on the same channel, cos that happens too) watching together. The experience of watching a show is just as interesting as the show’s contents itself.

Okay I think I’m excused for another week before I post again? 🙂

Alex.

I’m such a TV whore.

Alex.

P.S. What is a TV whore? I just felt like saying ‘Whore’.

What has been happening of late?

I suppose this is possibly the worst month of effort I have made ever. I guess it was a mixture of me not particularly having anything to blog about, and sort of just feeling everything is mundane. Don’t worry though, I haven’t written in my uni blog either. I think tomorrow I will blog there, then maybe start reading for my assignments.

I will do a quick catchup, though. I have finished Chapter 8 but I actually want to post Chapter 8 and 9 together (if not 10 as well) so, sorry, but you do have to wait.

In my actual life, not much has happened. We started on our mid-sem break, and I have put off work. I suppose I’ll work for the 2nd half of this week, and first half of next week. I also should organize all my notes, start doing reading in my leisure time (force myself to enjoy it) and prepare for my exams at the end of the year. I don’t have my schedule, so I don’t even know how early my liberation is.

I may or may not go to badminton on Friday at Monash, but most likely not. My body was very sore this weekend from its lack of exercise. But apart from my last venture to the other university, I really haven’t had much of a social life – and I want to keep it that way these holidays. Call me a shut-in, but sometimes I prefer some quiet time (alone, with internet, so not alone. Basically I can talk to people without having to be all presentable. At the moment I am in my PJs). In fact, I rented (and it costed me more than I like, so I will probably refrain for a while) the first two seasons of True Blood, and I suppose you can say I got hooked, but it really does try your patience for gore at some point. I don’t look forward for more hungrily (but then again, after marathoning 2 seasons in 4 days you do get turned off) as I do for NCIS, Glee, House, HIMYM, TBBT, The Vampire Diaries etc…

Speaking of which, NCIS and Glee comes back tomorrow, but Glee will air on TV pretty much straightaway (wow Ch 10 is REALLY fast-tracking. Then again, they’ll probably take a 1 week break randomly so that they’ll be a week behind, AGAIN). The Vampire Diaries is only a few days behind, and since I don’ t follow many blogs on Tumblr for TVD, I’m not too fussed about spoilers that I might come across. I watched HIMYM today, and it was a rather exciting preview to what we’ll learn in this season. My biggest beef is Dexter, which I don’t really have the bandwidth to watch but I know the blogs I follow will spoil them for me. I guess I will soon have to decide what to do.

Anyway, as per usual, an update about my life has turned into a rant about TV. Splitting hairs aren’t we?

Everything else is still the same. I’m nearly halfway through my Project 365, and literally nothing has changed about my life. I think I already emo’d about this, so I won’t today.

Mom has been home, obviously, and I think she’s getting a bit bored so she’s cooking a lot (which Dad appreciates, I think, except he still cooks most of dinner and on weekends). I know I’m meant to cook, but I really don’t like learning from my mom because she’s not a great teacher, but a great yeller. Dad usually just wants to cook and get it over and done with so he can rest and watch TV (they bought a crap load of new Chinese drama, but thankfully the DVDs play on the other DVD player which is a bit temperamental, so I don’t have to move from my position), so he doesn’t really want to teach me either.

Anyway, because she’s cooking so much, I’ve also gained weight that I didn’t actually want to gain. That, on top of my lack of motivation to exercise lately, means this summer will be spent indoors. I will start collecting as many TV series as I can from friends. And maybe get my paws on FRIENDS, too. Again, yes, shut-in.

Anyway, that’s enough of a catchup for now.

Hope everyone else is doing well.

Alex.

Our Concentration It Contains A Deadly Flaw

[Maintain Consciousness – Relient K]

I finished the Glee season finale today! It was so emotional – without spoiling, it tied up everything pretty nicely…with plenty of hand-covering-mouth moments.

Which means I finished Vampire Diaries, NCIS, How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, FlashForward and now Glee.

Yes, Lie to Me is still on the TV, I decided to watch House along with the TV even though I know it’s ending as well, and Dexter comes back in…SEPTEMBER!

So I don’t know what to do now, in terms of shows. I suppose I can keep working through my Conan.

I am still slowly getting used to the feeling of “I have nothing to do and it’s okay”.

Alex.

2 Weeks

My net uncapped!

But because for the next 2 weeks I have all my final essays to write, this is what I shall do:

Today: Watch 1 ep of NCIS from last week while nomming on coleslaw, then finish my Cinema Studies ACMI close analysis essay.

Then watch 1 ep of GLEE from last week, and then finish editing both my close analysis and my Creative Writing short fiction.

Then watch 1 ep of How I Met Your Mother from last week, and then start violently on my “Travel Piece” for Professional writing. Write at least 200 words.

Then watch 1 ep of The Big Bang Theory from last week, and then write another 200 words of Travel Piece.

That’s it for today. Tomorrow I might be going out but tomorrow I aim to finish the Travel Piece, as well as the episodes of House and FlashForward from last week.

This month I aim to not download anything until the end of the month. I also figured that Megavideo streaming uses less downloads than those from, say, Zshare, so I will try my best to cope with the time limit on Megavideo.

I don’t know how I would cope with not getting new Glee songs.

I shall edit this piece later tonight to tell you if I managed to do this.

Alex.

/edit I finished Cinema Studies and I remembered that the Creative Writing piece can be workshopped on Friday so I don’t have to worry. Other than that I haven’t started on my Travel piece but I will bring a notebook to the city tomorrow and start writing it.

If You Jump I Will Jump Too

[Skyway Avenue – We The Kings]

This is again posted by Jenny, because my computer isn’t back yet.

I have to smush both Tuesday and Wednesday together because I’ve left it too long and some memories have faded! See, old age is getting to me.

On Tuesday, I went into the city for Nat’s farewell lunch. Pris took the train up with us; she didn’t get her 2nd round offer with RMIT so she’s gonna be stuck in my course.

Met up under the clock, as always, and waited ’til everyone got there. Nat wanted to go up to Lygon St, so we went up to Papa Gino’s and had pizza. The only funny thing I can remember was Raj’s story about how Q.H. once brought her own tupperware to a restaurant and put all the food in at the end to “save money”. Ahh Asians.

After lunch we went to get Gelati, and sat down in a park to eat them. I had to leave early to meet up with Jenny so I got directions to the tram stop. Unfortunately I walked the wrong way and had to go back. It was hot!! Finally got back onto a train. Got off at Mt Waverley and met up with Jenny at the library. Giggled at all the school kids and then went to Glenny and just sat around at the food court. I sneezed so loudly it echoed all around the foodcourt.

I walked home, in the heat. By the time I reached my front door I was literally dripping with sweat. Disgusting huh?

That night was the return of NCIS. Finally got Jenny interested in it.

On Wednesday it was Cathy’s farewell (it’s a bit sad that so many people are going). We had a picnic at Alexander’s Gardens. Met a lot of new people, friends of Cathy’s (Ming aka Dimitri, Pe-, Shie- Jackie, Theresa, Amy etc), and also caught up with the Jalex twins. There was so much food! But as the good Asians we were we ate and ate and ate. Then the cameras got whipped out and Jack took charge as the weird creepy photographer. Some pretty disturbing pics were taken, but thank God some good memories were captured too.

After Angie left for her lecture, we went to Photoplus and I got forced to take pictures! It took them about half an hour for them to just decorate it. Before Photoplus, I just remembered, they tried to walk into Club X. I waited outside, because you know, I don’t want to go in there. After that we went to Chaplin on Little Bourke, a Korean karaoke joint. It looked great! Got stuck into the singing (and some dirty dancing on their behalf. I felt that who needs Club X? Ok yeah that’s creepy.

Sam picked “When You’re Gone” by Avril Lavigne which nearly brought Cathy to tears. Oh Cathy I will miss you so much!!

Went home after Chaplin. I have yet to find a way to go to the airport on Tuesday when Cathy takes off. Cue tears!

Well, that’s it for now. Thanks Jenny for posting!

Alex.

This City Is On Fire Tonight

[Good Life – OneRepublic]

Thanks to Katherine who showed me that song! I finally got around to making that video montage for Sorrento today.

It was quite amusing going through the photos that I took, as well as the other girls, and having memories be revived. It also astounds me that around this time last year I went to Sale. ONE YEAR ALREADY! Yet Jen and I still make the same jokes.

I was contemplating whether or not to post the video on here but I thought perhaps that wouldn’t be wise. So search it up on youtube, or even better it’s on Facebook, not that just anyone can see it.

Jenny (from now on whenever I mention a Jenny it’s Jenny Z, unless specified otherwise. Jen is still Jen, a different person. Note to self: make friends with different names) introduced me to/pushed me to actually go on Lamebook and I’m pretty much hooked reading the stupidity of other people. I’d reblogged on Tumblr quite a lot of the good ones I’ve found (my Tumblr link is on the side of the page “SmellsLikeAwesome”) but go check it out for yourselves. My personal favorite category are the TypOHs.

I think I’m going to be spending a lot of time at home from now because of my mom (personal family issues, nothing to be too concerned about), but I look forward to maybe going to the mass IKEA hide and seek on Saturday.

On another note: TV shows are back! Just today, I’ve caught up on the latest episodes of HIMYM, House and NCIS, with TBBT, FlashForward and Lie To Me soon to follow, I think. And update: no jobs yet. I’ll keep trying but I’m getting kind of annoyed and depressed.

Take care,

Alex.

Sealed The Exits With Caution Tape

[Dear Vienna – Owl City]

Clearly I’m playing Owl City today haha. Okay, today I caught up with some primary school friends.

Sorry, I guess I’ll be dropping a lot of new names here.

I got on the train this morning at 10:26 (which is earlier than I’ve been waking lately) and saw Ula when she walked on. Got excited ‘cos it’s about 19 days ’til her wedding! Nice.

Ka- called me freaking because she apparently doesn’t take trains often, so she ran onto a carriage and thought, “Okay I’ll stay here and they’ll figure out how to find me.” I told her to go up the train, and when she was running up, she heard the announcement that the train was on Platform 2, so she freaked and ran into the wrong carriage again.

Okay, okay sorry I had to say it! Noob…

Cas got on at Mount Waverley, and it was really great to see those two again, because I haven’t seen Cas since Yr 10 (or thereabouts) and I haven’t seen Ka- since Gr 6.

Talk talk talk on train. Ka- had an awful cold. Then got off at Richmond, and waited for Yas. I made a bit more fun of Ka- regarding trains, and Cas said, “Oh come on, don’t call her a noob, especially when she doesn’t know what it means.”

We high fived.

Yas appeared (hadn’t seen her since Gr 6 pretty much, either) and we took the train to South Yarra. I didn’t get lost to Jam Factory this time! Got our tickets and sat down at Gloria Jean’s outside for some drinks. Some guy in there had PMS or something and demanded a refund for a drink they messed up, so we got 2 free drinks.

Chatted, caught up, laughed a lot (Yas laughs like an old bed-spring) and then went to see Sherlock Holmes.

Yas and Ka- were pretty noisy but it was funny because…well when you haven’t seen friends in a long time everything they do is weird but funny. I felt sleepy halfway through, and didn’t enjoy the movie as much as reviews would’ve suggested I do. Still pretty cool the way he fought, and deducted from observations.

Went back to Flinders and then went to Melb Central. Unfortunately we passed Photoplus where Ka- (a while girl, no less) insisted we get sticker photos. Of the 4 that were printed, I wasn’t in one of them because Cas stabbed my ribs and I jerked out of the shot. Lovely.

Cas had to leave at that point, so after getting some quick sushi she left. I took Yas and Ka- to Big W and got these babies:

Many thanks to Katherine for telling me they were on sale! Big W for 30 bucks. Not bad bass for it, too!

At that point we went back to Melb Central and decided to go home. Said bye to Yas and took the old ass train with Ka-. It was really hot! Just our luck to ride that bloody train too. Discussed TV shows on the way back (NCIS being a clear favorite. Go NCIS.) and then bid her farewell while I took the bus home.

Nina was meant to come but she…couldn’t. So I think another reunion is in sight! Very much looking forward to it.

Alex.

P.S. It was endearing that they tried so hard to call me Alex (I forgot and called myself by my other name), and apparently I never showed affection to them, so me hugging them was new. Huh.

Last Day Of The Last

Remember my post First Day Of The Last?

I can’t believe that I’m now writing last day of the last.

Today is the last day of the last “school holidays” I’ll ever have. After this, holidays are just merely…holidays. No more 2 weeks of every 10 weeks. Pity.

I have been 70% successful in my venture to study and do homework. I have also been 90% successful in resting, sleeping in and watching NCIS on my computer and all those other shows online.

So, holidays well spent, in my opinion.

After this is what really counts. Exams, studying, preparation, and then I can rest.

So there you have it. Last day of the last.

Take care, everyone about to head off into exams. Take care of yourself, and take care to not fuck up (joooookes).

Good luck, too, of course.

Alex.