The World Of Jadeey

A guy proposed in one of our cinemas today. It was pretty cool. He'd arranged it with us beforehand. He made a DVD of him and their friends, first their friends told her to marry him and then he asked her. He invited all of their friends to the movie and we made sure they were seated before the guy and his girlfriend arrived. The ads started in the cinema and then the dvd started playing.

She said yes. Yay.

The concept itself was pretty damn romantic. I wasn't actually all that fond of the dvd he had made. I thought it would have been better without their friends on it, but since I wasn't the one being proposed to it doesn't matter what I think!

It must be so hard to come up with a romantic, unique way to propose. Everyone wants to be able to remember it as this hugely romantic thing so it is pretty important that it is done right. Man, way to add to the pressure of an already pressure filled situation! I can't even imagine the nervousness of the whole thing.

Okay, I'm going to keep this extremely short tonight since I'm tired and want to go to bed soon.

Peace out.

I have to blog.... My mind is blank.... I'm trying.... I'm trying really hard in fact, to come up with something to say..... The only thing in my head right now is the words 'zippity do dah!' I don't know why.... I really don't... Conveniently I've just remembered that those words are, in fact, spoken in The Office which means I can use it as my title... Doesn't help me explain why those words are stuck in my head though...

Today was my day off. Whenever I have a day off I try and do some washing and some general cleaning of the flat. The general cleaning of the flat is usually the dishes and/or the vacuuming. (Did I spell that right? It's saying I didn't but I can't decide if there should be one 'm' or two.) Today I did both the dishes and vacuuming. Neat. Unfortunately the vacuum cleaner bag was COMPLETELY full and we had run out. So, I had to stand at the bin and empty the bag so I could reuse it. Scary stuff for someone as terrified of spiders as I am because I remember vacuuming up a spider not that long ago. Yuck.

I also resigned today. Well... Sort of. I didn't actually resign. My boss resigned for me. It's complicated but basically, my boss told his boss that I am leaving at the end of the year. His boss then called me to find out what was going on so I had to admit that, yes, I was planning to leave. I had been going to tell him tomorrow so it was pretty annoying that the cat got let out of the bag early. Doesn't make me look good that's for sure! I was told it would be a freeing feeling (hehe those to words look very similar, I thought I'd typed the same word twice for a second) when I had resigned. It's not. I just feel guilty and scared. (Guilty because I didn't get to tell him myself and scared because I've been with the same company for 6 years so leaving is a big thing for me.) Hopefully those feelings will pass and I will feel free.

Heh I wonder if I'll have anything at all to write about over the summer. I can imagine them going a little something like this...

"I walked on the beach. It was warm. I talked to myself for a bit because there was no-one else around. I am so bored."

Perhaps I'll just repeat that every single day.

I went to Crowded House last night. It was AWESOME! I was scared throughout the whole concert that they were going to forget my favourite song but, thankfully, it was their final song.

Better Be Home Soon.... Such a great song. Ah how that song brings back memories.

Being a 14 year-old falling in love for the very first time; a look across the room; a smile; shy conversation beneath a full moon; a hand brushing across another; a fluttering heart; a short message scrawled on a piece of paper just saying 'I like you'; timid kisses; nervous touches; him singing Better Be Home Soon by Crowded House; rainy afternoons watching a video; endless conversation about the future, life and love; an apologetic look; the words 'I think we should just be friends'; a good-bye hug; heart-break; falling asleep crying; not being friends; time easing the hurt; seeing him around with someone new; renewed heart-break; more time passing; easier again; hearing, years later, that he's engaged; nostalgia but no heart-ache; memories of a first love.


Yeah, I love that song.

I really love that moment when you realise you are falling asleep. I don't notice that moment every time I go to sleep but I like it when I do. That heavy, peaceful feeling is about the most relaxing thing I know. The feeling of waking up, not so good.

I'm not very good at sleeping. In my (very wide) repartee of skills sleeping doesn't rate very high. It's something I love to do, I'm just not so good at it. As I've mentioned before, as soon as I get a bit of quiet, alone time my mind starts up at a million miles a second. A mind wandering at a million miles a second is not exactly conducive to sleep. So, it often takes me quite a while to get to sleep. Then even when I'm actually asleep I'm still not very good at it. I constantly wake up. I know there is a period of time when I sleep very deeply, or perhaps it is just on certain days when I'm exceptionally tired, because I've got up the next morning sometimes to find a txt message I didn't hear come in or other things have happened that I haven't noticed. For the most part though I wake up to the slightest noise. Thankfully, I often find it easy enough to fall back asleep after these moments. Even more thankfully, my brain has learnt to block out the sound of the trains so they don't wake me up.

I really do love sleeping though. I don't understand people who set their alarm even when they don't have to get up for anything in particular. I hate waking up to an alarm so only set it when I absolutely have to. I have a pretty reliable body-clock which helps. If I am having a late start at work I don't usually have to set an alarm because I can rely on the fact that I'll wake up naturally. My sleeping patterns have changed a bit since I've gone back to shift-work. I didn't used to be able to sleep past 10am even if I'd gone to bed really late the night before. Now it's more like 11am. I'm sure when I move in with my dad it'll change again and I'll get up really early since he'll be getting up early for work each day.

I'm going to Crowded House and Supergroove tonight!! Woohoo!! I can't wait!

(Actually I'm going to get my mountain dew on, get my Scrubs on and get my The Office on.)


I really hate when you are walking up to a set of traffic lights you know really well and you see that you have just missed the sequence. This happened to me on the way home tonight. I was dying to get home cos me and Kat want to watch the latest episodes of Scrubs and The Office, also it was raining a little bit. Annoyingly the light I need to be green when I pushed the crossing button turned orange a split second before my hand connected with the button. This meant a long wait since it's a fairly long sequence of lights.

Work was pretty slow today. It got exciting towards the end but I spent the first few hours thinking I should just pull a sickie and leave. Lucky I didn't considering how busy it got at about 8pm though!

Okay I'm off to watch tv... Yay!

(I promise you that the above quote is actually relevant to the subject of my post. It's just that it doesn't seem relevant if you haven't seen the episode of The Office that it's from)

What is an acceptable age-gap between a couple? Sure, people will tell you that age doesn't matter when it comes to love but that's not always true. It may not matter much to the two people involved but it sure as hell matters to those around them.

Obviously the acceptable age-gap increases as you get older. When I was 10 an age gap of more than a year wouldn't have been acceptable. Now, an age gap of 4 or 5 years is okay. It also depends on which direction you are talking. It would be acceptable (although probably commented on) if I was going out with a guy ten years older than me but totally unacceptable if I was going out with a guy ten years younger than me.

I can't imagine going out with someone a lot older than me. I probably don't really act my age anyway (I still feel like a kid) so to go out with someone who was a lot older would seem weird to me. I'm not saying I wouldn't do it, if I fell in love then of course I would, but the thought of it is a bit strange.

I was reading a website once where a couple of people were talking about how they were 'in love' with someone who is still a kid. I'm talking people aged 18+ saying they are in love with people aged around 10 or 11. I found this very gross and immediately judged the people as Ephebophiles (The link takes you to a blog where I explain in great detail what this word means. Essentially it means people who are attracted to adolescents.) These people were not breaking the law, they were all saying they would wait until the child they were 'in love with' was legal age but that they already know it is the person they are going to marry. Personally I don't care that they aren't doing anything illegal, it's still pretty skeevy and just seems wrong to me.

I find it hard to imagine back when it used to be acceptable to arrange a marriage for your child at age 12. Some of these girls (I think it was mainly the girls that were married off young) were married to people 10 and 20 years older than them. Nowadays it seems so disgusting (not to mention illegal) but back then it was acceptable. It's funny how times change.

This happens to computers and robots sometimes

My laptop is beginning to annoy me. It keeps getting really hot and that makes it all slow an annoying. Not to mention it burns my legs! I've run virus scans, spyware checks and defragged it and still it runs like crap. In fact, right now it is running so slow I'm typing about a sentence ahead of it appearing on the screen. Very annoying!

I'm bored. I feel like doing something but I'm not sure what, so that's not helpful. Perhaps I will watch a dvd... I have about a million I want to see, I bet I won't be able to choose one though!

There are heaps of New Zealand films about at the moment. Kat saw Perfect Creature last night and apparently it was pretty bad. I didn't even realise it was a New Zealand film actually!

New Zealand films generally annoy me because they are so bad. Don't get me wrong, every so often one will come along that is absolutely fantastic, but for the most part they are bad. In My Fathers Den is one of my absolute favourite films and it is a New Zealand film. But, it is a New Zealand film in the same way that King Kong and LOTR are New Zealand films. They are filmed here, by Kiwi directors but star non-Kiwis so cannot be completely classified as New Zealand films.

Actually, In My Fathers Den is far more of a New Zealand film that LOTR or King Kong. It is at least about Kiwis even if the main guy is British. And it's based on a book written by a New Zealander so I guess that qualifies it as a truly New Zealand film. I'm not sure really, it was funded through both the NZ film commission and the British film commission. I guess it's pretty debatable whether or not it is a New Zealand film.

The awful thing about the New Zealand films I like is that they don't generally look like New Zealand films. Kat talked yesterday about how she can't take the Kiwi accent seriously on film. For me that isn't the problem, isn't what annoys me. (Possibly because for university I watched so many foreign films I got very used to other accents, and other languages, in film). The big thing that annoys me (other than the often appalling acting) is the way they look. New Zealand films look like low-budget films and it makes me grumpy. I understand that we can't get big budgets over here but you can make a film look good even without a huge budget. (In My Fathers Den was a pretty small budget and it still looks good). It is this look (and the acting) that will stop us being taken very seriously on the world-scene. As a one-time wannabe filmmaker I am saddened by this.

Work is very, very boring at the moment. I appear to have lost a lot of my motivation. I still care about the place very much and want to do my job well but have no desire to do a whole lot extra. That makes me sad. It also assures me I'm ready to move on.

I watched the new episode of Heroes tonight. It was good but not as good as last weeks which is a bit sad. There was just something about last weeks episode that was bloody fantastic, for that week I cared far more about what was happening on Heroes than on The Office.

Still on the topic of TV, apparently after last nights episode of Sensing Murder the police have received a huge number of tips. That's pretty cool. I hope the case gets solved due to the show, that'd be neat.

I think tonights post will be the last one with a Friends-type title. I am thinking about moving onto movie and tv quotes. Or (perhaps, if I'm feeling up to it) Office quotes because that actually would be pretty difficult (to get them to be relevant anyway). Yes, I am obsessed with the show but you try thinking of a quote from a show that's only 3 and a bit seasons long to fit with whatever it is you have just rambled about!

That's it from me tonight. See ya!

Heh, not really. That's far more dramatic than the reality of what happened.

I wanted Kat to do her Tuesday vlog this week of her singing "Hero" but she wouldn't do it. She wouldn't do it even when I double dared her! What's that about? (heh how old are we?) It would have been funny, I would have liked it.

So, because Kat didn't do it I will instead post the video of (my future husband) John doing it:



So good.

In other news, my dad has found a possible job for me in Wellington. It's just an admin job but it pays alright and means I won't have to freak out about having no money. Also, because it's an admin job, it's 8am-5pm so no more crazy shift work. I'm going to apply and see how it goes. I probably won't get it anyway but it's worth a shot.

Labels: Hero, John Krasinski, Karaoke

Yeah, I know I should be doing that now to get it over with but I can't be bothered. The internet is running so painfully slowly right now I think I'd rather stick pins in my eyes than try and surf. I had to wait 1 minute and 45 seconds for this window to load just so I could type this blog!

Hmm what brilliant things can I tell you today? Not a lot really. I went to work, did some stuff, came home, ate dinner and that's about it. Now I think I will go to bed and read the book I didn't manage to finish on the plane ride home. I've had a couple of good story ideas I plan to start detailing before Christmas so I can get stuck into writing them after Christmas. This time next year I might be a published author folks! And you can all have the privilege of saying you read my work back before it was cool to do so. Cos y'all know one day reading my work is going to be the thing all the cool kids are doin'. :P (A girl can dream can't she?)

Something odd I've noticed about myself (I've actually known this for a long time but don't think I've written about it before) is that I unconsciously imitate anyone I'm around. I went to school in Petone then Lower Hutt. For those of you who don't know the area this means I went to school with a lot of Maori and Pacific Island kids and yes, I imitated them. So, there I was, a little white kid getting ridiculously high marks in English yet speaking like a mini-gangster. Seriously, I used to say "da" instead of "the", "aight" instead of "alright" ALL THE TIME.

When I was eleven or twelve I was great friends with a girl who swore A LOT. Suddenly I also swore A LOT. My sentences were peppered with fucks and shits. Again, when I was young, I was friends with someone who talked about sex a lot and continuously made dirty jokes. I immediately developed a sewer-mouth myself. It's pretty funny really. My flatmate pointed out to me last week that after watching (far too much) The Office we have begun talking kind of like the Office characters. I don't mean we are developing American accents but we are talking about things the characters on the show would talk about and having discussions in similar ways to how they do. It's crazy.

One TERRIBLE day (oh god, just as I was beginning to type this story I had a sudden flash to typing it before which makes me think I have told it before. I'm going to tell it again though because I've already started typing and I don't want to delete all the previous paragraphs) I was visiting a friend who had just got out of hospital. She was suffering anorexia and, for reasons I don't understand, the medication she was on made her develop a german accent. (How on Earth does that work? Does anyone have any idea how medication can make someone develop an accent?) Anyway, without meaning to I kept imitating her damn accent. It was awful! She was suffering this huge thing and I kept inadvertently making fun of her. I felt so bad but just couldn't stop myself. I still shudder when I think about it.

Okay, i've traumatised myself a little bit reliving that story, and also with the thought that I am now repeating stories, so I am going to stop myself there.

I have to type all of my holiday blogs into here. It's about ten pages of writing. I am tired of typing it all and I'm only about halfway through. This makes me unenthusiastic about writing much today.

It's kinda nice to be home. I wish I didn't have to go to work tomorrow though. The idea of going back to work makes me feel very tired.

Here is an amazing piece of information - I unpacked about 2 minutes after I arrived home yesterday. That's a first for me. Usually it takes me a few weeks to get completely unpacked. Perhaps I am turning over a new leaf!!

It's almost Christmas (sorta). I better start thinking about presents. Yay for Christmas!!!!

At the airport. Still about half an hour until I can board my plane. I'm thoroughly bored. My parents left an hour ago which was very sad. I miss them a lot already. I'm really looking forward to living with my dad for a while when I leave Auckland.

I'm planning a couple of months of long walks, enjoying the sun on the beach, good food and LOTS of writing. I've always dreamed of going somewhere like Scotland to live in a cottage alone and just write. I think this will be better because I'll have my dad for company when he isn't at work. Considering how lonely and depressed I get when I'm on my own this is probably a good thing.

I have a pimple on my forehead. (Right up by my hairline, not like a unicorn horn, thank God) It hurts.

Gah I'm not looking forward to having to type all this up when I get home. It's 11 pages! I might have to ration it out over a few days. Okay, boarding is now in ten minutes so I should go find a toilet so I don't need to pee on the plane. I really hope we get good food on the plane. Especially since the movie isn't going to be that great.

Went touring around Brisbane today. It was very cool. Then out to a (very expensive, glad I wasn't paying!) restaurant for dinner. It was probably the best dinner I've ever eaten in my entire life.

Today was a lovely end to the holiday, I had a lot of fun. But I just don't want it to end! Funnily enough, at the same time I am looking forward to going home. I don't want to go to work but going home in itself is pretty good.

Today everyone except me left. It was sad. I am now at my parents friends' house in Brisbane. It's lovely to see my parents but sad to see my friends go and know that my holiday is almost over. I've enjoyed it far too much to want to see it end.

I did buy lots of DVDs today. That cheered me up somewhat!

The cop at Movieworld was HOT! He is my best memory about the place. (The whole thing was totally awesome but the cop was seriously hot! He was in the Police Academy Stunt Show and SO DAMN HOT. I got tricked by the stunt show, it was sad. They asked for volunteers from the crowd and one of them was actually a plant, I just didn't realise it. Part way through the show he fell off the roof. Needless to say I was pretty shocked and worried!

Excitingly they were playing the Licence to Wed trailer on their big screen so I got to watch John quite a few times. It was nice! (Funny that when we were showing the same bloody trailer and even when we were showing the movie I didn't care a bit)

The other highlight of the day was the Superman Rollercoaster. I've never been on anything quite like it. It had the biggest drop of any rollercoaster I've been on. Even worse (or cooler) was that instead of going slowly up the slope to the drop like normal, it was powered so we shot up. So scary. So awesome.

The evening was spent at a place called Draculas. It's a very novel idea. You book tickets in advance and have to arrive between 6pm and 6.30pm. You're then taken to the restaurant via a 'ghost train'. The restaurant itself was huge. We were entertained by a comedy show as we ate and the waiters were all dressed as vampires. After dinner there was a 2 hour show. Some of the show dragged on a bit but for the most part it was fantastic. I felt a little bit uncomfortable about the 10 year old girl and her parents sitting next to me because it was very sexual but ah well.

Dolphins are AWESOME! I want one! The first thing we did at Seaworld was watch the dolphin show. It was worth the entry fee just for that. Oh and we got to see baby dolphins. Soooo cute!

After the dolphin show we did a few rides; a couple of water ones to get me wet (TWSS), a ferris wheel and a rollercoaster All in all a very cool day I just can't be bothered dissecting it in great detail.

Once we were done at Seaworld we headed home for showers and then back out to REading to watch Hairspray.

That's it. Oh, I also finally go hold of my parents. They haven't been receiving my txts but I rang them and they answered. Yay, I won't be stuck on my own once Ingrid and the boys leave!

Dreamworld was today. I chickened out of the giant drop which was the first ride we decided on. So I stood off to the side and watched. I've been on the drop at Rainbows End which is only about half the height and that was bad enough. I don't mind the dropping itself, that's quite fun. It's the waiting for the drop that I can't stand. The horrible feeling of knowing it's coming, of a 30 second wait that feels like an hour. I get shivers just thinking about it!

I thoroughly enjoyed the log ride and whitewater rapid ride. For some reason I really enjoy rides where I get wet. (That's what she said!!! {ha! excellent use of TWSS right there}) And, I got the wettest by far compared to everyone else on the whitewater rapids ride. (TWSS. Again!) I got absolutely saturated, it was so damn fun. (I want to stop right now but I can't because that's what she said!) Ingrid & Gavin both took photos of me after the ride so I'll chuck one of those up when I get them.

We also did a couple of rollercoasters that were awesome. I'm a big rollercoaster fan. There is a ride there called The Claw which you get strapped into and swung about while it also spins you. It was kinda fun but made me feel SICK!! Ingrid and Antz went twice but I could only manage the one time since I wasn't in the mood to vomit.

The evening has been spent relaxing in the spa, eating another yummy dinner (this one cooked by Gavin, last night was Anthony) and chatting. Oh, and trying to get hold of my parents who still aren't answering my text messages. Tomorrow is Seaworld and a movie (Hairspray since the boys haven't seen it).

Today was spent with me stuck on NZ time. I woke up at 6am because my body was telling me it was 9am. I then spent the entire day thinking it was way later than it really was. (Stupid jet-lag!)

Antz, Gavin and I decided to o out to the supermarket this morning and buy food for the week while Ingrid was sleeping. We tried to do the shopping last night but all the supermarkets were shut by 8pm. (Stupid Australia!) On our travels we were stopped by a woman giving away theme park tickets. Not being one to turn down free stuff we agreed to go to a 90 minute presentation in exchange. Ingrid and I lucked out, by the time we got to the presentation they had too many people so they just gave us the theme park tickets and sent us on our way. Antz and Gavin were pretty jealous since they had to sit through the presentation.

The rest of our day was spent relaxing. We bought a few DVDs, had a walk on the beach, swam in the hotel pool and watched Superman Returns on TV. Altogether it was exactly what I'd want out of the start of a holiday.

Oh, I should answer the in-flight movie question from yesterday. You'll never believe it! No, I didn't get Licence to Wed but bloody Ingrid does on the way back! Not fair!! I got Die Hard 4.0 which filled in the time but wasn't great. Oh! And I had icecream on the plane. That was cool. On the way home I get Evan Almighty (and hopefully more icecream) which I hear is awful (the movie, not the icecream). Bugger.

The plan for tomorrow is Dreamworld. I'm excited.

(Okay I'm back and typing these up from the book I wrote them in. I'm going to copy them all exactly as I wrote them)

I decided not to blog before I left this morning because I would have been blogging about nothing. Hopefully by blogging now I'll actually have something interesting to say.

I chose not to bring my iPod. I'm missing it already. I've had the taxi company jingle for Discount Taxis stuck in my head for about 2 hours now with no way to relieve the pain.

I'm at the airport right now waiting for my flight. I've still got an hour until we board. I've done the customs thing already; I've browsed the duty free stores; I've stared into space; I've mindlessly fiddled with my cellphone. It's disappointing how little time these things passed. I actually got my flight time wrong and arrived an hour earlier than I needed to which basically sucked.

My taxi driver on the way here was very talkative. I am not good at small talk so I hate things like taxi rides. You see, when I feel under pressure to talk to someone I don't know I start to make stuff up. I have no idea why I do thins but this is not the first time it's happened. I somehow started telling my taxi driver about my architect in training fiancé who is finishing his studies at the end of the year. Apparently we are planning to start a family next year. Oh, and I've lived in Auckland for 2 years. What on earth? Why couldn't I have just stuck with the truth? Or, if I was going to make up a fantasy life why didn't I make it more interesting? I could have made up ANYTHING and that lame story is what I chose? Sheesh, I'm never going to make it as a writer if I don't develop a better imagination!!

I'm currently eyeing up some internet booths. I don't know what I'd do on the 'net other than check my email though so I'm going to try and resist the temptation.

I wonder what the film on the plane will be. I hope it's a good one! My fingers are crossed for Licence to Wed cos that would satisfy my current John Krasinski crush (which I am gently nurturing at the moment to ensure I get the full enjoyment of the celebrity crush). I'm doubtful I'll get that lucky though. Too much of a coincidence. Also, I've heard that it's awful so I probably shouldn't hope for it.

Heh, by the time I'm copying this onto the computer I'll know the answer. In fact, it will be a week later and I will have watched a film coming back as well.

Okay, I'm going to stop now. My hand is sore. I'm clearly way out of practice at writing since my university days. Hmm I hope I can read this back later! It's pretty messy.

Guess what tomorrow is. Go on... Guess!

That's right! I go to Australia tomorrow!! Woo!

I still haven't packed. Kat is a little bit worried about this but I'm not really a packer. I might do it later tonight but more than likely I'll do it tomorrow morning before I leave. It's okay though, I pretty much know what I'm taking.

Me and Kat are impatiently waiting for The Office to download. We want to watch it before I go away but she has work in the morning. At this rate it won't be down until about 1am which is way too late for Kat since she has work in the morning. Sad.

Okay, while I am away I will be writing everyday in a book I've bought specifically for this purpose. When I get back I'll copy it all onto here. Won't that be exciting! (Probably not at all)

Bring on the theme parks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Only 1 day to go! Yep, the day after tomorrow I'll be flying off to Australia. How cool.

I have to do the roster tomorrow. That sucks a lot. It shouldn't be too hard since we have no programming until Monday so I only have to do the easy part of the roster. Oh and finish off stocktake since I didn't get finished today. Bugger.

I think I'll be buying quite a few dvds in Australia. I had initially planned to go on a The Office stars dvd buying spree. In other words, buying any dvds I can find with any of the Office stars in them. That list is pretty long though and filled with lame movies so I might change my mind on that one.

In other news, the plans for our business next year are coming along nicely. I have this feeling it's actually going to work out as amazing as that seems. Let's hope I'm not wrong.

Okay, Studio 60 is starting so I'm going to go watch that for a little while then go to sleep.

So, I don't really have a lot more to say but I will ramble for a bit anyway since I promised a second post.

Tonight at work we had the premiere for the movie The Devil Dared Me To. This film was made as part of the Headstrong project. Basically, heaps of wannabe writers wrote screenplays and submitted them to Headstrong. Headstrong selected around about ten of the screenplays and had the writers workshop them with well-known New Zealand writers. Eventually one of the scripts was chosen and made into a film.

I'm always interested, when meeting or seeing celebrities, to see how they act to the public. Obviously I have no idea what it is like to be famous but, despite that, I want famous people to be really nice. I want them to appreciate that without the adoring public they wouldn't be famous. I don't want them to think they are better than everyone else just because they are famous. So, when I see celebrities acting like they are too good for everyone else it pisses me off. Particularly when they are New Zealand celebrities. Ie only famous in a country of 4 million people, not that big of a deal really.

Tonight we had an interesting mix of New Zealand celebrities. Some of them were friendly and seemed just like normal people, not like they thought they were better than everyone else. Others obviously thought they were a million times better than everyone else. Still others were somewhere between the two. It's funny really because all of the Hollywood celebrities I have met (a whole 4 of them) were totally down to earth and friendly. Yet, so many of the New Zealand celebrities I have met are dicks. It's crazy really.

I have to go to work very soon. Going to work is such a waste of a day!

I have decided I will blog when I get home rather than now because I can't think of a lot to say and I'm busy.

So.... See you in about 9 hours!

I spend a lot of time inside my own head. By this I mean, when I am alone and not doing work, I can totally zone out everything going on around me. I get very deeply involved in my thoughts. Actually it probably makes more sense to explain it as my own world rather than my own thoughts. I'm not just planning what I'm doing the next day or thinking about things that have happened to me, I'm writing stories. I think I have explained before how I write stories in my head almost constantly. I often have a story going on that I just continue whenever I have the time. These never get committed to paper but in my head I am telling myself the story as though I am reading or writing it. Sometimes they can take weeks to complete. It's kind of a pity I can't write them down actually but usually I'm not in a position to be writing.

Anyway, I was doing the dishes a few minutes ago, listening to my iPod and 'telling myself' a story I've been working on for about 3 days. Suddenly, I was pulled out of my thoughts by something (i'm not sure what) and for about 2 seconds I actually had no idea where I was. I had to really think about it to realise I was at home, in Auckland. This isn't the first time this has happened to me but it is still a weird feeling. It's like when you wake up from a really realistic dream and it takes you a couple of seconds to realise it was all a dream and you are at home in your bed. It was like that, it took me a couple of seconds to realise I was in Auckland and not where my 'story' was taking place.

So yeah, that is weird I know. To me it's also kind of cool that I can get so involved in my story-telling. It makes me feel like I really do have a chance to make it as a writer. I've just got to start actually writing stuff down.

Okay, I'm off to pick Kat up from work and give her a driving lesson. Heh I've never given so many driving lessons as I have since I've lived in Auckland!

I had to go back to work today. That was disappointing. It was roster day. Boring.

Sometimes I sit here and prepare to blog but my mind is COMPLETELY blank. This is one of those times. I cannot think of a single thing to say other than saying that I have nothing to say.

Tomorrow is my day off. I need to do washing and prepare for my trip to Australia. (I leave on Saturday! Woo!) As promised while I'm away I will write blogs down on paper and type them in and post them when I am back. No blenderised happy meals for me I hope!

Damn it! As I was typing that last paragraph I thought of something else to write about and now I've forgotten. Piss.

I didn't mention how sad I was about losing the rugby yesterday. I'm not really sure how I missed that actually. I am completely gutted. I cannot believe we lost!!! To France!! Again!!!

:(

Because I just bored you all with a lecture on grammar I thought I'd write the post that I had initially intended to write today. I want to talk for a little bit about celebrity crushes.

When I was a kid my celebrity crushes were no different to my crushes on real people. I guess my crushes as a kid were mostly physical. If I thought someone was attractive that was basis enough for a crush. If they were also a nice person then that was extra great! I guess in the case of a celebrity crush it was based more on their character's personality than their own.

The first celebrity crush I can remember was Luke Perry (God that's embarrassing now). For those of you who don't know, Luke Perry played Dylan on Beverly Hills 90210. I wouldn't really call Dylan a 'nice guy'. He was a bit of a bad-boy really but it was in a fairly harmless way from memory. He had that tall, dark and sexy thing going on and I've always been a sucker for the tall and dark guys, rather than blondes.

After I moved on from Luke Perry I discovered a New Zealand actor named Craig Parker.(there were probably some minor celebrity crushes in there somewhere that I'm not remembering, I'm just going to discuss the major ones.) Craig played Guy Warner on Shortland Street and, again, was tall (well tall compared to me, I was 11) and dark. (Did I mention that I met him recently? That was an exciting moment for me, I've never fully shaken off my Craig-crush). I quit watching Shorty-St once Guy left, I missed him a lot.

The most major celebrity crush of my life would have to be Stephen Fleming. I still adore him (almost) as much today as when I first developed the crush 12 years ago, just in a more realistic way. Oh look, there is a theme! Stephen Fleming is also tall and dark! (And INCREDIBLY sexy)

Stephen was my last spontaneously-occurring celebrity crush. Since then I have had celebrity crushes but they are created-crushes. For instance, two years ago I met Colin Hanks at the King Kong afterparty. He was cute (very cute actually, it surprised me), he was nice when I met him and (it turned out) I thought he acted really well in King Kong. I was excited about having me a proper Hollywood celebrity so I decided to get a crush on him. Crush really probably is the wrong word but I can't think of a better word to describe it. I decided I was going to marry him (jokingly of course) and bought a lot of films he was in. I don't seriously believe I am ever going to marry him, I don't even think I am ever going to meet him again, I don't constantly have dreams involving him and I don't pine for him. So no, it's not a crush like a crush on a real person is. It's just a bit of fun.

Anyway, following on from Colin was Hugh Laurie. I decided on the Hugh-crush because I became obsessed with the show House. Before House I knew Hugh Laurie as Mr Little from Stuart Little. I really didn't know him from anything else. His acting ability on House astounded me and he is super-duper sexy in House as well. To me that seemed like a good enough combination of attributes for a new celebrity crush (celebrity crushes get a little boring pretty quickly because once you have seen/collected everything they have previously been in it's a long time between drinks, so to speak.) So, I set about buying everything Hugh has been in. Again, he is a great actor so it's not like this is a chore for me.

I am now ready for a new celebrity crush. House let me down a bit in Season 3. I still like it but it's lost a wee bit of the magic. I'm hoping it will recapture it in season 4. But, just in case, it's time for a new crush. As you have all gathered my current tv/dvd obsession is The Office. It is, of course, the logical place to discover a new celebrity crush since I am already obsessed with the show. (Just like I crushed on Hugh because I was obsessed with House.) I have decided on John Krasinski as my Office-actor of choice. (It's taken me days to be able to remember his last name. He plays Jim, by the way) He's WAY cute, his character on the show is adorable and he's a really good actor. So, basically, he's perfect. Prepare for some John Krasinski raving from me in the near future! And definitely prepare for an increase in John Krasinski films in my dvd collection as well.

Yes, I enjoy buying DVDs in themes. It makes DVD buying more interesting than just going out and buying stuff I saw at the movies and liked. This way I get to watch and own stuff that I haven't necessarily seen before and that is, maybe, a slight deviation from the norm. I just like it. Shuddup!

Labels: John Krasinski

My flatmate and I were just discussing grammar. Grammar is something I am very poor at. Its not something that was actually taught very much at the schools I went to. I have no idea why not. I remember some (very basic) instruction on what verbs, nouns etc are but don't really remember any instruction at all on the use of the comma. (ha! That's probably why I'm so bad with my comma usage! Yeah, I'll blame my education not myself. Good plan.) I'm pretty sure the majority of my 'English' instruction at primary school was spelling and the majority at college was analysis of texts. (By the time I left high school I was SO sick of looking for symbolism in everything I read.)
I could be wrong, it could be my memory failing me, but I think grammar (other than the basic) was left off the syllabus to a large degree at the schools I went to. Disappointing.

I know a lot of people rely on the grammar checker in Microsoft Word. I wouldn't recommend that. It gets it wrong a lot. I often have little green squiggles under my sentences (for those of you who don't use Word, the little green squiggles mean Word thinks you have made a grammatical error) and when I look at the suggestions they are preposterous. Sometimes I don't know and I always check a couple of other sources before making the suggested changes.

Yes, I am a writing geek. I'm sure we have established this many times over. Occasionally I will spend time surfing grammar websites to find out the answer to a grammatical question I have been pondering. A lot of the websites explain the rules so clearly that I am certain I was never taught them at school, I'm sure I wouldn't forget such simple rules. (The when to use who or whom, for instance, is ridiculously easy but until about a year ago I couldn't work out when the appropriate time to use each word was.)

My flatmate and I were discussing the use of the article (some of you may know it as 'noun-marker' rather than article) an as opposed to a. She is currently completing an extremely important assignment and had typed the word 'European'. She assumed (as would I) that an should go before European rather than a. However, Word did not agree and instructed her to use a. Word, in this case is correct. (I just looked it up.) I then mentioned the use of an in front of words beginning with the letter h. Kat had never heard this rule. I had heard it and use it but didn't know the actual rule, I just knew that an had to be used in front of certain h words (hospital, hysterectomy). I have now looked up the rule so I can explain it to you all. (I am so kind!)

You use the article an in front of any word that has a vowel-sound beginning. SO, you don't actually use it in front of any word that starts with a vowel. That is why you do not use it in front of European. European does start with a vowel but it doesn't start with a vowel sound. If you were spelling European phonetically then you would start it yoo, therefore no an.

As always there is an exception to the rule. That exception is if the word in question begins with an unstressed syllable (ie hospital, historical, hysterectomy). Apparently the use of an or a in these cases is a matter of personal taste as both are grammatically correct.

So, there you go. A grammar lesson for all of you. I hope you found it exciting and informative. (Ha, I'm guessing not. I must remember that not everyone finds grammar as interesting as I do!)

I'm tired of being sick. I am enjoying not having to be at work but I don't feel like being sick anymore. In a small way it seems worth it for a few unscheduled days off but I doubt I'll think that way tonight when I am trying to sleep but cannot stop coughing.

As I get nearer to the end of the year I'm getting nervous. I'm feeling that terrified feeling of not being sure I'm doing the right thing. A month ago I was certain, now I'm not. Absolutely nothing is finalised but I've been making plans and now I'm wondering if I should actually follow them through. I'm certain I will, because it's either that or just keep drifting along as I have been. It's just nervousness talking. The cold feet before the wedding type thing.

I've done some writing today. Good on me. Nothing major, just some more planning out of a story I am keen to write. I am so lazy about my damn planning! Once my plan is all laid out there I suddenly get very motivated about the actual writing, but that damn planning always takes me a million hours longer than the rest of the writing. I'm sure JK Rowling was far more excited about her planning of Harry Potter than I ever am about any of my planning. I hope this just means I haven't found the idea I'm the most passionate about rather than that I'll never be good enough to be a published writer.

I'm hungry. I think I should go find something to eat. And concentrate on the movie I have on at the moment. (Kinsey)

Okay because I cannot move past my current obsession with The Office I am going to talk about television couples for a little bit. Sex is, of course, the basis to most films and television shows. Usually they are not the primary theme (unless you are watching porn) but 99.9% of times sex will be a theme in there somewhere.

Watching tv is, when you think about it, a pretty voyeuristic activity. You don't sit there watching tv or a movie thinking that it isn't real life. Obviously normal people don't sit there actively believing that it is real either. You logically know it isn't real but that doesn't stop you becoming invested in the characters and caring about what happens to them. You believe IN it, even while you know it isn't real. (If that makes sense.) So, the fact that we sit and watch the lives of these 'people' is really rather voyeuristic. (Particularly in some of the R rated stuff when you are watching people have sex.)

Right, so far we have learnt that sex is a theme in 99.9% of all movies and television shows. We have also learnt that watching tv and film is a voyeuristic activity, something we do to escape from our own lives and live someone else's, even if it is only for a little while. Then add into the mix the fact that love is a concept most people believe in and experience in their lives (even the 'guys' guys who try to pretend they don't believe in it). While, in real life, people don't only have sex with someone they are in love with (some do, but the majority of people, in the Western world anyway, don't) in the fictional world (again, unless it's porn) people generally want love to be the reason for sex.

Looking at all of this you can definitely see why people find it so important that the characters they imagine working well together actually get together. Television producers particularly, capitalise on the fact that this is what they viewers want to see. Even if they haven't set the scene from the beginning, when they see that a particular couple are sparking interest amongst the fans suddenly sexual tension will be written into the story. A couple of examples of this that spring to mind are Grissom and Sara on CSI and House and Cameron on House. The writers/producers became aware that the fans saw a certain amount of natural chemistry between those characters and so wrote some in as well. This is the point where you get the "will they/won't they" scenario. A scenario which can go on for YEARS without being answered. (When the writers have contrived a couple right from the beginning the will they/won't they scenario probably started immediately from the first episode.)

Back when I was a teenager two shows I loved were Friends (still love it!) and Lois and Clark. Both of these had will they/won't they couples right from the beginning. (I think I am going to refer to the will they/won't they thing as wtwt from now on for simplicity) Ross and Rachel were presented to us as a possible couple right from the moment Rachel ran into Central Perk in her wedding dress and we could tell from the look on Ross's face that he was 'in love' with her. (Characters on tv are always in love rather than just having silly crushes like we do in real life.) Lois and Clark were even more obvious since everyone pretty much knew about them already from the Superman movies.

I think in the case of both shows it took around 3 years (actually just under 3 I think, mid to late 2nd season) for these characters to actually get together. In the case of Lois and Clark it lasted (not that the show lasted much longer). Ross and Rachel didn't last past the 3rd season but fans never lost hope. We finally saw them get together in the last episode of the last season. (In a move that was very well thought out by the writers.)

The trouble with the couples with the amazing sexual tension, the couples that the majority of fans are dying to have get together, is that once they are together the show loses it's appeal. Often the general, everyday lives of a couple are not all that interesting. I think perhaps the exception to this rule, the genre that can get away getting their couple together early on is the comedy. Comedy can still be there when a couple gets together. Too much drama though? That just gets lame and unrealistic.

You can look at The Nanny as an example of a comedy that couldn't pull off getting their couple together. The tension between Fran and Mr Sheffield was there from very early on (maybe even the first episode, I'm not sure) and fans were DYING for them to get together. Eventually they did and people stopped watching. People thought that's what they wanted but after they got it, it lost it's appeal. Perhaps better writers would have been able to keep the magic of the show alive but, alas, The Nanny didn't have better writers.

I think the reason the writers of Friends split Ross and Rachel up again was to keep the fans wanting more. I have faith that the writers would have been good enough to keep the magic alive even with this couple properly together for the rest of the show but I really, really love how it turned out so I'm not complaining. I don't know for sure but I think Lois and Clark ended up failing because Lois and Clark got boring where Lois and Clark with plenty of sexual tension and the fans wondering will they or won't they (damn it, that didn't seem like a good place for my wtwt abbreviation) would have probably stayed interesting.

On The Office (ha! You knew I was going to bring it up at some point right?) Jim and Pam are the big wtwt couple. Throughout the first 3 seasons we've seen Dwight and Angela hook up and Michael and Jan hook up. I've got to say that neither of these were couples I saw coming before the episode they were revealed in. But while all this coupleness was going on there was still no Jim and Pam. We thought there was hope at the beginning of season 3 when we found out Pam had broken off her engagement to Roy. But, sadly, it seemed her and Jim weren't talking. THEN when they finally were talking damn Jim had gone and got himself a Karen already. The end of season 3 left us with Jim asking Pam on a date. Those veterans to tv land, and particularly tv coupledom, know that this does not mean we'll actually have a PB&J in the 4th season. The writers could have just been psyching us out. (PB&J is Pam Beesly and Jim by the way, also known as Jam.)

I have every faith that the writers of The Office are clever enough, and good enough at there job to make Pam and Jim work as a couple. I do not think the show will be ruined if they are a couple. Okay I have been holding back information since a lot of the people who read this are Kiwis and season 4 hasn't been released here yet. BUT if you don't mind spoilers and feel like keeping on reading then scroll down and I'll tell you the outcome of PB&J.


























































THEY ARE DATING!!! It is so damn cute! Pam and Jim are actually the personification of love. If you want to know what love is - look at them. Hell, I know they are just actors but I have never seen actors pull off in love as well as Jenna Fischer and John Krasinski do in their portrayals of Pam and Jim. These two getting together can only make the show better.

Ha! And now I am off to watch episode 2 of season 4! Yay :)

Yeah, I was sick again today so left work once stocktake was all done. Thankfully I got stocktake done nice and quickly.

Guess what I am doing right now.... That's right! I'm watching The Office! Kat went and bought season 1 & 2 today since my copies are in Wellington. This is very, very good news.

My brain is a bit fuzzy so I can't really think of anything to write. One thing I do like about having a cold (about the only thing I like) is that everyone can tell you are sick when you have a cold. It's not like when you have a sore stomach and you feel like crap but no-one can tell. When you have a cold and feel like crap it's pretty obvious. My voice has gone kind of high-pitched and weird in the last hour. It's not great but at least no-one will accuse me of faking!

Okay I must stop now. My laptop on my lap is making me all hot so I need to turn it off.

See you all tomorrow! :)

Yes, I am watching The Office for the millionth time. I love The Office. Perhaps I am obsessed with The Office?

I am also sick. 9 times out of 10 I cope well with being sick. The 10th time I get sulky. I have a feeling this is going to be a sulky time. I have work for the next 3 days but I don't see myself managing to get there for many of those 3 days. Normally I wouldn't be too bad but with school holidays and having to serve heaps of customers I won't cope well. I sneezed and coughed over a large number of customers today. It was kind of embarrassing. (and disgusting)

And how is everyone? Good I hope!

Yes, I have begun naming my posts using the Friends naming system. I am tired of song lyrics at the moment.

I spent far too much of the day today watching The Office. I only have season 3 since Ingrid is borrowing the first two seasons. I have decided that Jim from The Office is to be my new celebrity crush. My basis for this crush is that he is cute and I like the character he plays. I am sure that is enough. It is pretty much the basis for all of my celebrity crushes. Well, celebrity actor crushes. (Colin, Hugh and now Jim, who's real name is John and will in future be referred to thus)

I remember back before I actually watched The Office someone mentioned that a similar idea based on my workplace in Wellington would be a cool idea. I actually even started writing it. All of the characters were based on real people at my work or that I had heard about at other cinemas. (But with extraordinarily clever and subtle changes that would make the characters unrecognisable to the people they were based on!) I've got to say that even though I began writing it just off the premise of The Office that had been explained to me, I can very much see the similarities. While not everyone I worked with was insane when you write about the slightly more eccentric characters and focus on bringing out their eccentricities it does seem to build a workplace that feels very similar to the workplaces portrayed in The Office.

You know, I really think I might finish that screenplay at some stage soon. Here in Auckland I've certainly met some more people worthy of being included! I can see it sort of being a cross between Clerks and The Office.

Okay that's it from me today. I have a sore throat and am feeling a little sorry for myself. :(

Today was a world record. (Or at least a Holly-record) I finished the roster at 3pm! I actually got home on time! It is amazing!

It is quite stormy at the moment. At 5pm I heard on the radio that there had been 1300 lightening strikes across the North Island. 1300!! I've never heard of anything like that before.

When I was a kid living at home with my parents our house used to get hit by lightening on occasion. We lived up on a hill and it would hit our roof. As far as I know it never did any serious damage. Although, I do remember one time there was a thunderstorm and the lightening hit the ground next to my next-door neighbours horse. The horse died. (I really hope he died instantly) It was really sad.

Tomorrow is my day off. Woohoo!! Only something like 8 more days of work and 3 more days off until I am in Brisbane! :)