This morning, I got up fairly late. Finished watching The Phantom of the Opera on YouTube (which I started the previous night and I had to finish it this morning). Then I did some productive things like wrote the journal/reflective logs I'm supposed to be writing for class. Then I took a look at the giant to-do list I wrote in my written journal and decided that it was time to check off a few of those things.
I went to find a weekend trip for myself but it's surprisingly difficult to get to a small town in France very cheaply. But SkyScanner has this wonderful thing that enables you to look at any prices from one airport to any airport anywhere. It's amazing. I found tickets to Marseilles for approximately 30 quid and I was seriously considering going, until I looked at exactly when the plane leaves. I would have gotten there Saturday afternoon and would have had to leave early on Sunday. So, unfortunately, Marseilles didn't work.
Also found a site that gives good information about ferries all over Europe. At first, I thought "Oh, it'd be fun to take a ferry from Stockholm to Finland!" And then I discovered that there are no direct ferries from Stockholm to Finland and a look at a map told me why. But then I attempted to find something from Stockholm to Turku and a train from Turku to Helsinki. For some reason or other, that was more pricey than I wanted. Or was it odd times the ferry was coming in? I can't remember. But I decided that it wouldn't work out and moved on.
I did, however, check out things to do in Helsinki. And I've seen pictures and now I'm really excited to go there! Should I cut another country short for Helsinki? I don't know. I would want to visit all of them equally, but more research on what to do and what to see will be required. I hear Oslo, Stockholm, and Helsinki are all lovely cities. There's bound to be loads to do in each one. So yes, more research.
Went to visit Oscar later in the afternoon. We attempted to book Brussels but when I told him that a flight would be cheaper than trains he didn't really believe that he'd have to pay 120 quid for the flight. I said that I know what I'm talking about, but he heard Francie get really cheap flights but he couldn't remember the company. So he wants to talk with her first, but I'm positive (and I told him this) that she'll be thinking about Ryanair and I've looked. Believe me, I've looked. And there is no direct London to Brussels flight for Ryanair. They don't even offer options for changeovers. And trains are more than 60 quid for a return. It's 60 quid one way and 80 quid coming back, which would mean 140 quid both ways. So that 120 flight is looking really inviting to me. But he still wants to talk to Francie.
We ate dinner at a place called Imperial Tandoori which is barely a block away from the dorm. I walk by it every day and I can now say that it's really good food. I had the honey chicken with the rice stir fried with almonds. Oscar liked his marsala better, but he agreed that I had the better rice. He attempted to figure out how I base my morals, which I've never considered before so it was very hard to answer his questions. Then he explained how he based his morals and then asked a few really hard questions which I attempted to answer to the best and truest of my abilities. And then we moved on to which ancient civilization we think is best (somehow). He also made fun of me for not understanding a lot of foreign English accents. I don't think he realizes that if the foreign accent is hard, try a foreign accent in an accent that's not your accent. America has, what, three main accents for five very large portions of the country? You walk ten miles over here and people have different pronunciations of the sound "ah". Also, still don't hear many British accents in London. Yeah.
Upon return to the dorm, we had some booze (yum, Smirnoff) and put in the movie Hard Candy. Hard Candy is the confrontation between a 14 year-old girl and a 34 year-old man you think is a pedophile. But then the tables turn when she drugs him and proceeds with the psychological torture. Oscar loves this movie because it's right up his ally. Not only is it controversial on so many levels, but he has formed a solid opinion about the movie which, of course, I don't really agree with. I decided to withhold opinion for a while and now that I've had time to mull it over and think about other things (and talk with other author friends who interpret things similarly to how I do), I have come to a decision.
I appreciate the film as a film but I do not like it on a personal level. Similarly to my relationship with South Park, in that I appreciate it for being a satire but I don't like it. But unlike South Park (I just don't like the humor), I cannot relate to the characters in the film Hard Candy on any level. The only one with any development is Jeff and Hayley is just a psychotic bitch with no development and they are quite literally the only two characters in the movie. And one being developed and one not being developed is such a contrast that I feel as if the balance is tipped and there's no equality within the movie. And that is my opinion about it. I also checked out the reviews on IMDb and it's either you love it or you hate it. While most people love it and only a few hate it, I'm not going to admit to hating it just yet. It'll just be something I'll take pains to avoid from now on.
Next time, I'm introducing Oscar to my favorite movie: Speed Racer. See if he likes it. (There's no controversy at all, the villain if fairly ineffective, and it's very, very trippy and colorful.)
Afterwards, I came back to my room, and saw that Jessica was online. Hooray! And then Dan called on Skype. Hooray! And so we had a conference chat with Skype for about an hour where we talked about the new Skype update for Windows that allows video conferences (must look into). We also talked about Alan Moore and his graphic novels, the awesomeness that is Neil Gaiman and Patrick Rothfuss (as separate entities though both of them together is a huge overdose of awesomesauce), and interning at the UW Press, which I'm seriously considering and I have two close friends already there who can put in a good word for me. Also, they love people from PubCom (WUD Publications Committee) and I'm a member of PubCom simply for being a member of Working Title. So there I go. Also: Blackdog Publishing.
And now it's 2am again and I'm still awake. This bodes well for Skyping into Working Title on Monday.
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