The Blog - The Archive

 I guess this is a movie review, but it started out with me just ruminating on the train...

I don't remember reading Where the Wild Things Are as a kid. I know I must have, because the art is so iconic, and I remember that there was a boy and he was a monster to his family, and he goes to an island and becomes king of the Wild Things, and eventually he returns home. (That much detail probably stuck just because I love any and all Fred-goes-to-an-alternate-world stories. As I've said before, that's my favourite fiction kink.)

But I loved the movie. From the very first scene, it was perfect. There was nothing I wanted changed, and while I don't remember the specifics of any individual illustrations from the book, I felt like at some point during each scene the characters must have been perfectly lined up with their illustrated counterparts. Because it just felt right. There wasn't too much talking, rather they were happy to let the characters be silent as they had their adventures, with just the music (and the children's choir and the music was fantastic) to tell the story.

I cried. A lot. Everything Max felt, I felt too, from his anger at his sister and her friends to his sadness at being unable to make everyone happy like he promised. I cried because Jim Henson didn't live to make this movie, though the creature shop did him proud. I cried because I couldn't tell where the animation finished and the puppetry began. I cried because I want to be one of the Wild Things, and I want to go home afterwards and have cake. I cried because I'm old and bitter and I don't want to be.

And that was all right. It's how it's meant to be for the grown ups. I wish I'd brought a little kid with me, just so I would have someone little to hug in the scary parts (not that I'm sorry I brought Gemma, but she's meant to be glomping onto me). Apparently some people are saying the movie isn't appropriate for children, but I really don't buy that. Kids get these things, they know that hurting their friends and being bad is bad, and they relate to Max as much as the grown ups do. Because we all remember times when we were the wild things.

Labels: childrens literature, long live the revolution, movies, review, wild things

 Time for a break...

Promised myself I wouldn't work on the paper today, as I'd had enough and could barely stand to read it. So instead I wrote three pages of thesis. Wow, that's just awesome and I should do that more often. I love derivations. They rock. A few more days like that and the first section of this chapter will be done.

Nothing fun to report today, as I'm on dial-up and essentially have no internet. Now to finish off a few presents for the Heidi and then sleep at last...

Labels: Heidi, InaDWriMo, knitting, latex ftw (but not the fun sort of latex), thesis ftw, writing

  Hmm...

Well hey, I'm becoming increasingly certain that I'm not going to make the "getting the paper done" task this month, but the word counts are still more or less on track and I'm feeling okay about the paper stuff I have written. I even spent today on that "write something intelligent about the figures" thing, but it feels like it's going slow because like all journal papers it's two columns of tinytext and getting a quarter of a page written is a huge task but not very satisfying from a "watching my pagecount leap forward" perspective.

Today's lesson: \allowdisplaybreaks[1] is your friend. Especially when, like me, you have giant blocks of equations that you'd like lined up wherever possible. This nifty little command allows the blocks of equations to be broken up and split across a page break so that you don't have whitespace all over the place whenever one of those blocks gets bumped to the next page.

Today's nifty link: Eric, by Shaun Tam, a cute little picture book about an exchange student who comes to visit.

Labels: a pity party for one, InaDWriMo, latex ftw (but not the fun sort of latex), thesis ftw

 For those keeping score...

Well, the boss asked me to redo a graph, derive and type up the equations and write "something intelligent" about the plots. I'll leave it to the reader to guess which one I haven't done today (and will have to do before tomorrow afternoon's meeting).

Labels: going to flip out and chop off someone's head, InaDWriMo, thesis ftl, writing

 Thundering Outside...

I hate writing up sections of equations. I'm no good at proofs, and even though the page count goes up as I write it, I know I'll have to rewrite later when I actually know what I want to say and how to say it. I suppose I ought to be glad that I've gotten this section half written up, but I think I'll go back to the paper tomorrow. It feels more productive to be working on the real physics than the maths, even though I know the maths is more important.

I just don't feel like I can see the end anymore. I've only gotten one whole chapter and two half chapters written out of seven, and every time I turn around someone is asking me when I'm going to complete. I don't even have all the results for the main results chapter yet. I want to go home.

Labels: a pity party for one, InaDWriMo, thesis ftl, writing

 They say a picture is worth a thousand words...

...but I decided this should only count for 500 as I'd have to explain what it means to anyone who wasn't me or Mark.

Been a bit rough today; every word's an effort and I just can't seem to do more than fill in minor gaps in the proofs. They all count, but I don't feel like I've achieved anything worthwhile, not even with two pages and the graphic added.

Labels: deadlines hurt my brain, InaDWriMo, strange days, thesis ftl, writing

  Worked up about the Festival of Gemma...

Had a lovely lunch at David's restaurant on Sunday (followed up by leftover pizza for dinner tonight *grins*), and watched tv with mum afterwards. Tonight we're curling up with our knitting and NCIS, so she can perve on Mark Harmon some more. Tomorrow's the big day, so I better remember to wrap her present.

I'm starting to wonder if I haven't set myself enough to do for the month, if I can write ~900 words a day on good days. We'll see what happens tomorrow when I have to spend some time working out the theory behind this stuff so I can explain it.

Labels: gemma, InaDWriMo, never going to graduate, thesis ftw, writing

 I can't see the screen anymore...

Well, it's Friday and so I'd better update on progress. I think the introduction of the paper is closer to being properly first-drafted now, though I haven't really gotten the overarching narrative together yet because I can't quite find the story I want to tell. But there are words talking about the book the story resides in which has to count for something. As you might be able to tell it's time to move away and let it percolate in my brain for a bit and figure out what needs to go in the other sections.

Labels: InaDWriMo, thesis ftw, uni, writing

 My Philosophy...

"That we are all small, and the world so big. No matter how much we grow, there is always something bigger than ourselves, and our lives collect the detritus and clutter of our past to shape our future. Ever present is a clock, ticking away our seconds and pressuring us to move forward with our lives, too fast sometimes to even notice the destruction we've become.

"A hug becomes a kiss and becomes too clingy, and soon another person is swallowed in the ever growing katamari of our life."

-- The Book of Leon

Labels: katamari, philosophy, strange days

 Joy... Rapture...

Spent much of today seeing dentists and x-ray peoples and all the rest. Haven't got the specialist's opinion yet, but it's very likely that I'm to have my wisdom teeth out as soon as I can get an appointment. Because they're so nestled, I'll need to get a general anaesthetic, which terrifies me to pieces. The only good thing is it can all be done in my Mum's building, so she'll be able to look after me when it's over. Naturally I'll try and see if I can keep them as a souvenir.

This will bring my total of professionally removed teeth to 20.

Labels: InaDWriMo, sickly-Cat, teeth, thesis ftl, writing

Okay then...

So, while most everyone I stalk online is either participating in NaNoWriMo (one of these years they're going to fix the name) or moping that they don't have time for it, I've realised that I need bullying and encouragement to make it even a little bit of the way through writing my thesis. After much procrastination I decided that I'll be unofficially participating in InaDWriMo instead, with a goal of 10,000 words of thesis and my paper written.

This does mean I'm going to be boring and not posting much aside from word counts for a month, but you can deal with that. You are all clever people, after all. And this will hopefully keep my mind of other crap in my life at present.

So, bring on the encouragement. Nag me if I'm slacking on posting (I'll try and do it every four days), and I'll admit my many flaws. I'll also try and figure out a good way to include equations in the count, since my thesis is full of them.

Labels: InaDWriMo, paperwork, thesis ftw, urge to kill rising, writing