Journalism Week 1 is over.

My first week as a Journalism student is over! Okay maybe not really since I had no Monday class this week but it feels like it so I decided to blog. So far my classes and instructors seem pretty cool.

Canadian History is definitely promising to be the least interesting but to be fair there is only so much you can do with a history that was based on signing a bunch of treaties . At least Mike Walsh, my instructor who constantly refers to himself as a dinosaur but drops more Jersey Shore references than anyone I know, has a fun sense of humour and has structured the classes  in a very engaging way. Today we discussed the burning of the qur'an, Canada's freedom of speech and enlisting in wars.

My other class today, Writing for Newspapers, was just an in class assignment that was actually more fun than I expected it to be, even though I still found it a bit challenging. Kathy, our instructor, seems to really know a lot but for some reason I can't exactly pin down yet, I'm frightened of her. I think it has to do with the fact that I don't feel my English is at the same level of everyone else's and it just makes me super paranoid.

Regarding my other classes I really don't have much to say. Design for Print seems fun and unlike anything I have ever done before. Also this is my teacher. Yup. Part time wise newspaper man, part time cool punk rocker in a band called Jam Toast. Go, him!

Intro to Desktop Publishing reminded me a lot of high school computing class except you know, programs people in the biz actually use. We didn't get too into it (most of the class consisted of us taking mugshot pictures so our instructor can remember our names...what did people do before computers?) but the little she did talk about promises great things for my life. Soon your eyes won't be offended by the awful blog design I stole from someone else. Before you know it, employers won't glance over my boring resume thinking I'm just one more of a bunch (unless the rest are also indesign-knowledgable people in which case I'm screwed).

And finally there is Research Techniques. From what I heard through the grapevine it was one of the least liked class by my fellow journalism students but I loved it. Andrew clearly knows a lot about his field and his documentary really reassured me I was in the right field. Its the sort of thing I want to be doing some point in the future. Fingers crossed.

Technically I have one more class on monday but its History of Journalism so I'm not exactly expecting great things from a history class.

Regarding my movie project I'll probably get back on schedule sooner or later. Currently I'm battling a deadly case of common cold and I am too weak to piratebay search the next movie. I have (black) musical Dreamgirls which seems like a good movie so I'll watch that and a couple more over my long weekend and I should be good. Plus we all know black musicals are the best kind of musicals because they deal with real things (I still have my fingers crossed for Precious!: Based on the Film Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire, the musical about a fat black girl who is precious inside and out. She will be played by Kelly Clarkson in blackface).

All in all, life is good and is best expressed by a chibi peace sign which I googled and instead found this chibi effeminate Link from The Legend of Zelda. You're a beautiful girl, Link. Date me.  

My Day at Orientation (incredibly original title thought up by Journalism hopeful: me)

  I am now officially behind (by 1 day, nothing too serious) and it because yesterday I had orientation for school. It was both somniferous and exhilarating at different times. The first part was more of a general "Oh hey, here is a bunch of information that everyone could easily access on our website but we'll make you sit on uncomfortable bleachers for roughly an hour and a half while we waste precious time of your life that you will never get back" kind of information.
 
  The second part however was Journalism-specific and was pretty cool. There was actually plenty more people than I expected following around the yellow shirted individual carrying the "Journalism-Print" sign. We eventually reached the Newsroom (I'm basically Clark Kent now), where we sat down, received a copy of the Sheridan sun and were welcomed by our course coordinator and course instructors. The instructors seem (upon the shallowest of judgments) to know what they are doing, and the course load seems challenging but manageable. I'm mostly excited about actually working (albeit salary-free) for the newspaper at the beginning of next year; the experience is the sort of invaluable bonuses of college vs. university--at least for me. The only course I'm dreading at the moment is (and I am aware of the ridiculous contradiction) "Writing for Newspapers 1". It promises to be the most difficult--while at the same time probably the one I will be most helped by so its not all bad.

  At some point, after the instructors had introduced themselves and their courses, a second year student--invited by the course coordinator-- gave us a bit of a heads up as to what to expect and what sort of things to do to help ourselves move forward career-wise. Most of it was probably common sense, but she did mention that in journalism portfolios are very important. She suggested we contact websites that we like to visit and ask them if we can write for them--most of them will probably say yes. The idea of doing this sort of activity is something that never even crossed my mind and the mere mention of it was a bit nerve-wracking. Suddenly my brain began to scramble through my internet history trying to come up with a site that I could possibly write for-- I have yet to figure it out. I don't think adult oriented site cam4 needs any writers (although some more accurate descriptions would be appreciated, I bet) and I can't really think of any particular subject I would feel comfortable writing about. Perhaps music--although I must admit that I would probably have to read more about it. In any case, after the initial shock and general feeling of unpreparedness, I decided that I'm not going to allow myself to predict failure so fast. I'm going to read more websites, write fake articles in my spare time (what spare time) and eventually contact websites hoping they'll have me. Take that, general pessimism and tendency to self sabotage!

  Regarding the movie project, I'll probably watch 2 movies between today and tomorrow to get back on track. No big deal. Problem solving magic.

This is the Beginning.

This sad little blog will chronicle the absurd and unnecessary minutia of my life as I attempt to watch 182 movies in 365 days. It sounds easy enough and I'm sure many people watch more than that every year. I however usually don't. Besides the occasional movie at good old Empire Theatre I probably watch an average of 50 movies a year. And its not just the sheer increase but also the (stupid) rules that I'm following. There has to be at least a certain amount of dramas, documentaries, animated, etc as well as a certain amount from the last 4 decades. It means I'm watching Raging Bull, Dream Girls, Taxi to the Dark Side and Confessions of a Shopaholic (early contender for new favourite movie I'm betting) possibly all in the same week. Lets hope I can keep everything scheduled and organized or else that last month or so is gonna be fucked since I will probably be either way ahead of schedule or completely behind.

I'm not entirely sure why I decided to do this. The truth is that come September between school and writing classes and this and all the other stuff, its going to be a bit hectic. My brain will be fried, my will to continue with this project might disappear and this blog will probably have no more updates. Maybe its the very fact that I probably will feel overwhelmed that attracted me to the idea. The last couple of years have been filled with a lot of unnecessary drama created by my mind during nights that I had nothing to do. I'm really not in the mood of history repeating. I'm hoping that this project (and all my other activities) will keep my mind busy and unable to self sabotage my life-- as its become an expert in doing.

In any case, regardless of if it helps or not, at the end of the day its still 182 (hopefully) good movies that I will watch and its hard to see that as anything less than positive. I'll try to review every single one of them and anything else I actually watch plus, every now and then, the post of how this project is not only not helping but actually destroying my life.

The start date of this is August 23rd aka this monday aka 4 days from now.

Apropos of nothing here is a picture of a cat that will be living with me for one more day. It's pretty sweet!

PS. I totally forgot to add that I will not be doing this alone. My friend Maria (twitter.com/tokidokilolita if you're on the twitterz like betty white) will also be fucking her free time to watch movies with me. Different movies though. Except the ones that are the same. Sadly she lacks that cute cat as well.