Time. Time is space. Space is time. Therefore, I haven’t posted here for quite a few kilometers. Ah well. That’s life. :)

Hello and good evening. My name is Ben, and this is my journal. I’m going to try for a decent editorial/entry now, as there’s a bit of ground to cover. Keep all legs, arms, tentacles and other appendages within the tour vessel, and remember, paper bags and breathing masks are available in the drawer below your feet.

The Autumn session of Uni has now wrapped up, with only one part remaining - the finding out of results™. This will happen, oh, on Wednesday/Thursday, or somewhere around there, so I’ll probably post the actual final results then… but let’s do some lead up, shall we?

The last few weeks of Writing went down nice and smoothlike. Handed in Folio #2, comprising of my tripoem concept, Someday Dreaming (see below) and a short play entitled ‘Democratic Entertainment’ which is basically a satire of film vs. theatre with a bit of cultural amusement included. No batteries, admittedly, but it’s still fun. Final mark for the folio was 78/100 - a nice Distinction, and, according to dearest Shady, with my other Folio mark and my participation marks, I have been pushed up to the Holy 80 Percent mark, which allows me to try to obtain permission to do more writing courses. More in a minute.

The Exams now, were a tad fun, a heap stressful, and a patch of medicated. I took quite a few cold and flu tablet, as exams always bring out the bugs in me, I studied more for anything than I’ve ever studied in my life, seriously, had an easy (read: well prepared) exam, a medium exam, and a difficult exam that I managed to do well in. The easy was the Biochemistry theory exam, and I’d spent a great deal of time studying for it, so was quite up to speed on the material. Did the 3 hour exam in about 2:15. Was quite happy. :)

The medium was the Biochem practical exam - not hard in itself, more difficult because, in a nasty fit of ‘let’s screw Ben’s timetable’ the Committee placed my Organic Chemistry exam the day after said Biochem exam - so instead of being able to do a focussed study on Biochem prac stuff, I was spending far more time doing Chemistry. Did about two or three concerted Biochem hours in the end - whereas, if I’d had the Chemistry first, I could have done a good five or six hours, which would have been better. Ah well. Pretty positive about Biochemistry in general - feel a Credit or (possibly) a Distinction there. ^_^

Chemistry now… was certain Bad Things™ were going to happen - studiedish quite a bit for it, went in to do the exam, dropping in on Shady before it started to pick up my folio, had a bit of a chat, crammed a tiny bit more, went in (adrenaline = mmmmm!), read through the paper… and felt the stress bleed off me in nice, wavelike motions. Had the typical Aussie thought at that point - “No worries. She’ll be right.” Yes - the exam wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been. I left fairly certain that I’d passed, possibly even with Credit. We’ll see. :)

Now, after the exams were over, I decided to focus on the writing matters at hand. I’ve been toying with the idea of a degree change for a while, and I finally thought - that’s it. I’ve had enough - and so I sent an email to the Head of Creative Writing, asking about how one goes about changing into a dual Creative Arts / Science, and failing that, if I could please (big smile) do a writing course or two.

Now, he contacted the Sub Dean of Creative Arts and - assuming that I get a D in WRIT101, which I have - provisionally approved. I’ll need to do two Biotech subjects, which I would do anyway, a 100-level English subject, and another WRIT subject - probably either Prose Fiction or Poetry. After the results are released, I’m to contact Monsieur lé Dean and take it from there, which will lead into an interview/portfolio, and approval granted, taking a dual degree from next year - first year creative arts, third year biology. My first thoughts on receiving this forwarded information from Tony Macris?

FUCKING YES!!!!!

Ahem. Yep, something like that. So, it looks like I’ll be able to do Creative Writing - assuming I do good in WRIT next session, and put together a good portfolio/interview. Which, with the motivation I have, won’t be too difficult. :)

That’s about it on the Uni front. Moving into more fun areas, I’m currently writing a script for a short film, which I will be directing and shooting in about three weeks, starring various friends of mine. The reason? A 21st birthday present. You see, back in Year 10, a mate of mine, whom we shall refer to as Peter, for reasons of nomenclature, combined with myself to film a movie based on the discovery of Troy by Heinrich Schliemann. It was, as most school movies are, pretty bad - and I have long intended to attempt to digitise it onto VCD or DVD and provide a copy at Peter’s 21st, for hilarity reasons. But around last November, I started pondering the idea of creating a special, redone version, like a ‘Special Edition’ with a new cast and properly done, putting it on a disc with the original, possibly some special features… anyway, the idea has evolved into a DVD project of a ‘Mockumentary’ with a group of around 10 people working on it, with some funky stuff going on - proper cast, digital filming and editing, some Flash cartoons if possible, intercut footage from sources such as the Love Boat, South Park and the movie Troy, as well as some good old fashioned Ben Humour™. But yeah, it’s going to be fun - and who knows, I might make the thing available as a DivX on my site, when it’s done. We’ll see. :)

Which brings me to another point - the sad closure of the Source Cod, my host for the past couple of years. Ben is finally closing his server as he moves off to college, and so I need to seek new hosting space. I’m currently looking favourably at Dreamhost, as although they’re a tad steeper than the Cod and a few of the others I’ve browsed, their multi hosting means I can finally move Epi.com away from DotEasy - not that I dislike Doteasy, just that I’d like to move on. And also, since Dreamhost allows 3 domains for the package, I can finally pick up moonlit-studios.net, or whatever is available, all things considered. :)

Let’s do a bit of life stuff at the moment. Currently, I’m not too bad in terms of mood… have been swinging around a bit with bouts of depression in the past few weeks (which occurred when I found out about something the weekend before my chem exam, and kinda made me a bit… upset. Ah well. Sometimes life is like that) due to shall we say, relationship stuff, but I’m dealing with that. Have a nice six or seven different writing projects going at the moment counting Looters of Troy (you can even find the beginnings of a Harry Potter fanfiction I’m doing on, logically enough, FanFiction.net, which are in turn driving me crazy - but let me just say that for those people who’ve been waiting for a new chunk of the Fall of the Nervii (II) - like me, in fact! - that it will hopefully be coming soon. As soon as the provisional script is finished, I plan to work on TFOTN and Alterael (the project I’m working on with Sam, to write up a D&D campaign into fiction, which is incredibly fun). And, if I get some time, I’ll do another chapter in Curse of Blood (the HP thing) and might do some sketches for Magister Templi , which is a novel I’m looking at doing about the First Crusade and the founding of the Poor Fellow Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon - the Knights Templar. ^_^

And now, I think it’s time for some anime stuff - I don’t seem to have done a penis sized post for a while, so here we go. :)

Stuff I had last time I did something like this, either on order or getting:

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Perfect Collection (8 DVDs)rnNeon Genesis Evangelion: Movie Collection (2 DVDs)rnHellsing Collection (4 DVDs_rnHaibane Renmei Vol. 1 - New FeathersrnHaibane Renmei Vol. 2 - Wings of SorrowrnHaibane Renmei Vol. 3 - Free BirdrnHaibane Renmei Vol. 4 - Day of FlightrnVoices of a Distant Star (Hoshi no Koe)rnSpirited AwayrnWitch Hunter Robin Vol 1. (w’box) - RevivalrnNoir Vol. 1 (w’box) - Shades of DarknessrnNoir Vol. 2 - The Hit List

Noir Vol. 3 - The Firing ChamberrnNoir Vol. 4 - Death WarrantrnNoir Vol. 5 - Terminal VelocityrnNoir Vol. 6 - Cloaks and DaggersrnNoir Vol. 7 - The End of the MatterrnLast Exile Vol. 1 - First MovernLast Exile Vol. 2 - Positional Play

rnSince then, I have picked up:

Neon Genesis Evangelion: ResurrectionrnNeon Genesis Evangelion: Genesis Rebo

Love Hina Collection (8 DVDs)rnLove Hina Christmas SpecialrnLove Hina Spring SpecialrnLast Exile Vol. 3 - Discovered AttackrnExcel Saga Vol. 1 - The Weirdness Has BegunrnWitch Hunter Robin Vol. 2 - BeliefrnWitch Hunter Robin Vol. 3 - Inquisition (arrives Monday!)rnSamurai X: TrustrnSamurai X: BetrayalrnSamurai X: ReflectionsrnCowboy Bebop: Best SessionsrnFinal Fantasy Unlimited: Phase One (sold it!)rnAh, My Goddess! - The MoviernSomeday’s Dreamers Vol. 1 - Magical Dreamer (w/box)rnSomeday’s Dreamers Vol. 2 - Power of Love (arrives Monday!)

rn… and quite possibly a few things I’ve missed. Shrug. Have yet to watch any of Samurai X, most of Cowboy Bebop, Last Exile 3 (watched 2, finally!), and Ah, My Goddess! - The Movie (which I actually want to get the series for before I watch the movie).

I think I have around about 50 anime DVDs now. Not certain. But, apparently I’ll be having an ‘Evangelion Party’ soon - being, when I get around to it. But now that my dear, dear, favourite father has decided to buy a 50 inch plasma TV with a full 5.1 sound system, I think it’ll happen shortly after said TV arrives. Man, am I looking forward to it… I’m especially looking foward to watching Noir again, in widescreen, with 5.1 sound. Drool.

As for anime not on DVD, I’m currently in love with Madlax, a new series being done by Bee Train/Victor Entertainment - the team who did Noir. Interesting characters, beautiful art and a fabulous soundtrack - I just wish I could get Erin to download episodes for me faster. I’m like, 3 behind! ;)

Hrm. I’m running out of things to say now. Ah well. I’ll close with a goodnight, hope you all enjoyed tonight’s tour… any questions, there’s a pretty little ‘comment’ link down here somewhere, or anyone who matters has my email, right? I’ll be trying to update a bit more frequently now I have the time, of course… I think I always say that though. :)

Ah well. Cuio Vae!

-Andiyar