Flicks

Comedy... Drama... Thriller... Horror... Art Nouveau... Indie...

Just several genres of films that exist. Within each of those exist even more sub-genres. Within those thousands, probably even millions, of films exist.

But I am here to tell you only about a few special ones. Special to me anyway...

When I was younger and I was asked the question of type of movies I liked I would instinctively answer comedies. If I have to think back on which ones in particular, I would not be able to give you a single one, rather I would have to name the actor who starred in those comedies. Jim Carrey. From "The Mask" to "Ace Ventura" to "Dumb and Dumber". As I have grown up however I have come to appreciate Adam Sandler and some of his comedies. However if you were to ask me now what my favourite comedy is I would have to say "Kung Pow: Enter the Fist" it is by far the most silliest film ever made! I have come to realise that placing that film at the top of my comedy list, that I have the sense of humour of a 12 year old boy. I accept that.

I was never a fan of action films. There are 2 (or 5) that I do have to mention. First is the "Bourne trilogy". There is just something about a good spy movie that I like. The intrigue. The chase. The doomed romance. (I also like the "Mission Impossible" series but I refuse to put it on this list because one is not a fan of tom cruise, hence the brackets.) The best action film however is, and always will be, "Kill Bill". There is nothing about this movie that I do not like. The story. The direction. The way the story is so disjointed. But most of all I like the killing scenes. The whole movie is basically just one big killing scene. My favourite scene from both movies is where The Bride kills O'Ren. It is exquisitely done. Very artistic yet very brutal. One of the best scenes in film history!

I am not one for science-fiction but one cannot deny the brilliance of "The Matrix". It is a film that greatly affected pop culture. Today one can still find references to that infamous shot of Trinity suspended in mid-air. Another famous scene is the one where Neo bends backwards to avoid an Agent's bullets. I am pretty sure all of us have imitated that move one time or another. I like The Matrix for a lot of reasons but there is one reason in particular. The premise of the film is that we all are plugged into computers and living this virtual life. Although it is meant to be fiction it is not that far from the truth. Consider this... All of us these days have a mobile phone and we all have facebook pages, twitter accounts, BBM, whatsapp... We are all in fact plugged into technology and we socialise and live our lives through these technological mediums. So if you have think about it we actually are living in the matrix. Life imitating art? I would think so...

I have also come to appreciate a good drama. Horrors are also a favourite of mine. But I felt like have said enough for now.

I would urge all of you to watch all of these before you die.

Peace. Love. Happiness.

Friendships

So I'm sitting on toilet, as one does, pondering about random stuff and my brain locks on to the word relationships. That got me started on friendships.

Friendships have always been a tricky thing for me. I don't easily make them, because I don't easily trust, but when I do I give my everything. Like most things in my life if I do something I do it all out. "Go big or go home".

I started thinking about the really profound friendships I have had in my life. Those which are now lost and those who still remain.

The longest one is with one of my closest friends. One of the roots in the tree of my life. We have been friends for over 15 years. There have been ups and downs. Major ones, but still loyalty remains. I suppose it stems from us both being outcasts. One of the peculiarities of our friendship is that we can go weeks without speaking with or seeing each other and yet when we do it is like no time has passed at all. We recently went through a period of 6 months without speaking and yet when we spoke after that it was like we were the two nerds again back in high school talking a whole bunch of rubbish and laughing our heads off at out silly stupid jokes only we understand. That is a true friendship.

I have a sneaky way of measuring the depth of my friendships. I believe that if you can sit in silence with someone without being uncomfortable at all then you have a true friend at your side. I have made a lot of people uncomfortable by doing this and was fun seeing them squirm in the silence but try as I might they never turned out to be good friends at all.

Another is one I consider to be one of my best friends. We shall call her "Grace Adler". We knew each other for a while before we became friends. Funnily enough I can't really recall how our friendship started but one thing I know for sure is that I do not think that it is gonna end soon. She is one of the most real people I have ever met and one of the strongest too (although she does not always realise it). We have a lot of laughs but we also have sobering moments, and that is what it is all about.

It is not all about laughing and having good times. You can have those with anyone, even strangers. What matters is if you can take the good with the bad. Can you be there for your friend when they are not at their best? Can you tell your friend what's on your mind without fear of judgement? Can you handle harsh advice from your friend? Are you able to give hard advice to your friend? If you can be all of you and they are still by your side, hold onto them for a very long time.

Several of my longest running friendships, I realised, have been with people who are considered outcasts, hurt souls, those who have been marginalised.

There is one person in my life whom I can count to always put a smile on my face. Let's call him "Jack Mcfarland" lol

Then there is "Karin Walker". The rich socialite queen who irritates us all sometimes but we cannot live without her.

These are some of my real friends, my roots. Those that I wish I will have for the rest of my life.
Friends come and friends go. Longevity should never be the yardstick of a friendship. There have been people in my life whom I have known since birth yet our relationship never progressed more than a tenth of some of the ones I have now. Some people are just meant to be in your life for a season. They are meant to teach you one thing and then move on. If you can learn to accept that fact then you will learn to appreciate the ones that matter.

I suppose this is dedicated to those who have experienced the best and the worst of me and through it all chose to stick by me.

Relationships are fragile. They can take a lifetime to build and they can be ruined in a second. Treasure your friends.

They are your chosen family.

Peace. Love. Happiness.

Back and Forth

Bleh!

What a day!

This morning I didn't hear my alarm which means I did not make it to class. It is not that big of a deal anyway. I despise that lecturer. It is obvious that he only qualified with his Masters recently but that still does not give him the right to come and try to lecture us while he himself learnt the same things only yesterday! I am of the opinion that a lecturer should at least have extensive experience before being asked to teach others. It's just common sense. He's the "lecturer" that "taught" me constitutional law last semester. Horrid man!

Although I did not attend class today I did have go to the campus because I needed to sort out some stuff for another module. There has been a trend recently where the lecturers feel that we students will enjoy working in groups with our fellow students. WRONG!!! Group works sucks! Big time! This is how it normally goes. We are sorted into groups of 10 or so then there are those few (about 4 or 5) which are keen to do the work and learn. Then there are those who just don't care about pulling their weight. They never attend group meetings and some hardly attend the classes but yet want throw a fit if they do not receive the same marks as those who made the time to help the group. Last year (and even last semester) I tried to cover for them and I was my normal helpful self. This time around however I have taken a different stance. I will not do anything for those type of people again. Now I could be all noble and say that I will not do it because I feel that me helping them is just enabling their laziness and by refusing to help them that I am teaching them a valuable lesson in discipline, but truth be told I am just sick of it. In fact I feel violated and taken advantage of. They should realise that they are studying law and when they are out in the real world there's not going to be a Garth Skye to help them along. They are gonna be crushed by more ambitious people.

One has to walk a fine line when one is a leader, especially in respect of friends. I am 100% sure that in taking this stance I will lose some "friends". But this is something I have to do for my own sanity. I have to take this stand. There's a saying that goes...

"If you can't stand for anything then you will fall for everything"

Moving swiftly along...

Today has been a very productive day as well. I returned to studying again. When I say studying I mean I actually read through my coursework without any need to. I just hope I can keep it up.

I also started exercising again today. I did Taebo and Hip-Hop Abs. I figured doing aerobic exercises should be much more beneficial than just riding my exercise bike (Mandy). Taebo is a killer! Iyoh! And I only did the basic workout. Could you imagine if I did the normal workout... Death by sweat!

Hip-Hop Abs on the other was very fun... and so sexual! All that thrusting your hips back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth... I prefer doing Hip-Hop abs to Taebo.

So let's just hope one can stick to the exercise plan because one MUST look sexy for Cape Town.

Well one has to go now.

P.S. Shaun T is SO gay!

Until next time...

Peace. Love. Happiness.

Age ain't nothing but a number

Ok... Uhm... Wow...

So it has been quite a while since my last entry. I have been busy. So many things have happened. I doubt I'll remember them all though.

The first thing that comes to mind is the camp that I attended last week. I had reservations about going because I am cynical like that sometimes. Surprisingly I enjoyed myself. Now you should know that I am not a mans man. But that is a whole other blog entry by itself. I digress... I spent the whole weekend with my girls and I had loads of laughs and photo shoots and adventures in the forest. For the first time at a camp I felt free to be me.

The Saturday evening however was an extremely emotional one. If you have watched "The Freedom Writers" you would be familiar with an exercise called "cross the line" where certain questions are asked and if it applies to you then you must cross the line. I became emotional not because of me and my situations but because of my friends and what they are going through. At that moment I felt so helpless when all I wanted to do is hold them and tell them everything will be ok.

So on my way back from camp I found out that Amy Winehouse has died and about the disaster in Norway. My heart goes out to everyone in Norway who lost family members or friends. I cannot say that I am surprised at what happened to Amy though but it is still sad none the less.

She died at the age of 27 and I found out that several former stars died at the same age. I found that intriguing and I did a bit of research on it (meaning I Googled my behind off). I discovered a lot of conspiracy theories, illuminati included. The most interesting article I found though purports that our life consists of cycles and they change drastically between the ages of 26-29. Most of it sounded "way-out-there" but it got me thinking... I am 27 and I HAVE noticed quite a few changes in my life. I have become much more mellow. Things that used to interest me in the past no longer matters. I value family more than before. I appreciate my friends a lot more also. Even the type of music I listen to has changed. So I suppose there might be some truth to that statement.

If I have a word (or several) of advice however it would be that you should not wait to be 27 to mature. Love your family. Appreciate your friends. Laugh as much as you can. Live your life, don't just watch it pass by you. You never know what might happen tomorrow.

From now on I'll try to post more entries more often. Until then....

Peace. Love. Happiness.

Unfounded worry

So today was one of those weird days...

For the past few weeks I have been stressing my sexy behind off. The reason: exam results. Now I am a fairly intelligent being. You can almost say that I am as smart as I am fat. A few weeks ago I had to write several modules and the worst of those by far was constitutional law (note: I will not use a capital letter C because I do not and nor will I ever respect it)

I started this day off being my normal grumpy-self. One is not a morning person. The results were released yesterday already but due to an incompetent administration process mine were being withheld.
A huge part of my stress was how my parents would take the news of me failing constitutional law or even writing a supplementary exam (I would not be able to handle the shame). I was fairly confident that I failed...
Today, however, I got my results and... I PASSED!!! All my modules!!! Granted I did not pass as well as I would have liked but I passed none the less. I have restored my faith in myself.

No bad news for parents. Everything is like two unicorns kissing on a rainbow.

Onto a new topic... Grahamstown Festival.

Last week, or such, I went on a bit of a road trip to the Grahamstown Festival (hereafter referred to as the gfest). Initially one had some doubts as to whether one would actually get there. I blame women. It turned out that my fears were unfounded. So early on a saturday morning I got picked up by a car full of sexy, feisty chicks. I plopped my bags in the trunk and off we went!

The trip there was a ball filled with sepia and black and white memories. Our accommodation was a sore point from the beginning. I had a reasonable fear that we will be killed by our host and that our flesh would be sold as meat in a butchery. It turned out that the accommodation was everything I thought it would be! Extremely dodgy and filled with foreigners. I think we were saved by the fact that we hardly spent any time at the place.

Naledi (find her blog here lardbuster67.blospot.com) and I saw a few shows. One very good. One very confusing. One very crappy. The very good one: The Complt Wrks of Wllm Shkspr is/was a must see! "Lady Gaga will slit all out throats!"

While Naledz and I soaked in the culture Luci and Lauren were soaking up some other stuff...

Was a bit bummed that we didn't go out the saturday night but all in all it was a great weekend.

Final thought...
Just before we left our host Mohammed decided to get deep with us. He spoke about gardens and rivers... He said God will give you a garden (a blessing) and you must look after that garden and God will be the river that will nourish said garden and if you are good to that one garden then God will give you more gardens...
Use it... Don't use it...
Here's to my intelligence, my three gardens, a vegetable patch and a fruit tree!
Peace. Love. Happiness.

...and so it starts...

Well hello there world. You may be wondering who I am and what this blog is all about... Yes? Well... Tough! You'll get to know me as the time goes on.

Gosh! I have so many things to say (as I am rather opinionated). Some of you will not like what I have to say. Don't fret little one, I still wish love for you, or as my dear friend Mohammed would say "Due respect to you".

So I'm 20-something, overweight, neurotic, a bit deep at times, an average amount of schizophrenia, a lot of psycho and definitely outspoken! I believe in unconditional love and acceptance and breaking down stereotypes. Oh lord! I feel like I'm starting to get preachy. Blah blah blah...

Anywho... Let's get going with one's first entry...

Today I found a quote by a very (I daresay one of the most) intelligent and wise woman on our planet. Maya Angelou.

"I don't know if I will continue, even today, always liking myself. But what I learned to do many years ago was to forgive myself. It is very important for every human being to forgive herself or himself because if you live, you will make mistakes- it is inevitable. But once you do and you see the mistake, then you forgive yourself and say, 'Well, if I'd known better I'd have done better,' that's all. So you say to people who you think you may have injured, 'I'm sorry,' and then you say to yourself, 'I'm sorry.' If we all hold on to the mistake, we can't see our own glory in the mirror because we have the mistake between our faces and the mirror; we can't see what we're capable of being. You can ask forgiveness of others, but in the end the real forgiveness is in one's own self. I think that young men and women are so caught by the way they see themselves. Now mind you. When a larger society sees them as unattractive, as threats, as too black or too white or too poor or too fat or too thin or too sexual or too asexual, that's rough. But you can overcome that. The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself. If we don't have that we never grow, we never learn, and sure as hell we should never teach."

That bit of wisdom is SO true! I would know because I have made a lot of mistakes in my past and if had to carry the regret from my past around with me then I would have been a wreck of a person today.

Message of the day: forgive yourself for the mistakes you made. Cry a bit. Be depressed for a little while if you have to but get up and go on with your life. The best gift you can give yourself is to start living.

Ah what the hell! Turns out that I'm in a preachy mood. Deal with it!

I'm done for the day.

Peace. Love. Happiness.