Bonjour, mes copains! (Hello, my friends!)
Life lately. Does anyone every feel as though each day is so chock full of stuff that all of the time just flits away? Slips away, more like.
I've been feeling like that a whole lot in the past couple of weeks. I feel like my day consists of waking up, going to French class, practicing piano, and doing schoolwork. Ah yes, and going to sleep.
I feel as though my life is completely filled up by work. I know that saying that sounds like I'm exaggerating, but that's how I feel nonetheless. Some days I don't finish my school-work until around 9 at night. The days that I let myself do something fun in the evening (i.e. Youth Group, Go to a Play, the Library, etc.) I don't finish until around 11 PM. It's driving me insane. I feel as though I'm slogging through school and the only bright point is the weekends. Even those are sometimes filled with revising papers.
So what? So what do I do about this life where I don't have much/any time to call my own? I've tried reorganizing my priorities so that I get all of my school and piano practice done in the early bits of the day so that I have evenings to myself, but the fact of the matter is that there is too much work.
My main problem is not the work, however. It's the lack of play. Remember, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." I guess I'm becoming something of a dull girl. How can I find the balance? I want to do something fun during my days, but I feel like I don't have time. How can I compromise- how can I know when to let some of my schoolwork go to do it the next day and set aside some time for myself.
I sure don't know. But that's my mind right now.
-Tina
BY THE WAY: The film festival was very fun. I didn't place, but I got an honorary award for "Best Screenplay" and it was neat to see my film up on the big screen. :) Here it is, for those who want to watch it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWcVcS06bLY
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Thursday, February 4, 2010
ZIP!
Right now is the time to write a super-quick post before bed!
I'm updating you on the status of my film and the film festival. I finished the film the day after I wrote the last post about it, and editing was finished roughly...lastthursday. I cut it pretty close because the film was due on friday. Yep, I was slow!
Anyhow, my film got accepted! It's to be shown along with other films at a local movie theatre. I wonder if it'll be shown on the big screen? Who knows. I'm hoping to have a marvelous time, and I'm very excited about the whole affair already.
I don't want to get my hopes up, but I hope that I place at least.
Goodnight!
-Tina
I'm updating you on the status of my film and the film festival. I finished the film the day after I wrote the last post about it, and editing was finished roughly...lastthursday. I cut it pretty close because the film was due on friday. Yep, I was slow!
Anyhow, my film got accepted! It's to be shown along with other films at a local movie theatre. I wonder if it'll be shown on the big screen? Who knows. I'm hoping to have a marvelous time, and I'm very excited about the whole affair already.
I don't want to get my hopes up, but I hope that I place at least.
Goodnight!
-Tina
Saturday, January 23, 2010
...and Alice Cameron, whose number is 634-4964. Then we have Richard Canon, whose phone number is 340-7893...
Confused about the title? Good. You're a pretty normal type of person.
However, our American Senate is not composed of normal-type people. Not in the "normal" sense that I'm using. They're pretty weird. In fact, the American Political system is so filled with loopholes and crannies and ways to get around the rules that were set up by the Founding Fathers that its pretty likely that a bunch of the predecessors of our nowaday politicians were just as nutsy.
Which brings us to filibustering! Do you know what that means? I didn't really until today. I'd heard about it before, but I didn't quite understand the significance. Let's check out the definition:
filibuster [(fil-uh-bus-tuhr)]
A strategy employed in the United States Senate, whereby a minority can delay a vote on proposed legislation by making long speeches or introducing irrelevant issues. A successful filibuster can force withdrawal of a bill. Filibusters can be ended only by cloture.
In case that dictionary-speak wasn't quite clear (and it often isn't to me), I'll explain further.
Filibustering is when a politician or groups of politicians do not want a bill to pass or a legislation to go through the senate, and to keep the bill from passing or the legislation from going through, a Senator yaks a good long while and stalls. As the U.S. Senate has a policy of allowing its senators unlimited speech on a subject while they have the floor, no one can stop them.
Ridiculous, right? My mom heard tell of a politician that read the telephone book to stall. The telephone book! Seriously.
The longest recorded instance of filibustering in American History is by Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, when he filibustered for 24 hours and 18 minutes straight to keep a bill that prevented racial segregation from passing. That's pretty long, and to keep something good from happening. :(
There's a bright spot, though. In the definition above, the last sentence said that, "Filibusters can only be ended by cloture." Cloture is the bright spot. A Senator is allowed to call for a vote to reduce the time of the Senator who has the floor to one hour, and once the Cloture rule has been invoked the bill or legislation has to be resolved within 30 hours.
Unfortunately, Cloture can only be invoked fully if the vote the Senator calls for is passed by 60 votes, i.e. 3/5's of the Senate. Sad.
Confusing stuff, huh? Politics is like a tangled web. I've always thought that, in general, but I didn't realize that our system allowed Senators to get up and read out of a telephone book for something like 24 hours straight, just to get their way. It's sad.
Pray for our justice system and our political system; just our government in general!
Love,
Tina
However, our American Senate is not composed of normal-type people. Not in the "normal" sense that I'm using. They're pretty weird. In fact, the American Political system is so filled with loopholes and crannies and ways to get around the rules that were set up by the Founding Fathers that its pretty likely that a bunch of the predecessors of our nowaday politicians were just as nutsy.
Which brings us to filibustering! Do you know what that means? I didn't really until today. I'd heard about it before, but I didn't quite understand the significance. Let's check out the definition:
filibuster [(fil-uh-bus-tuhr)]
A strategy employed in the United States Senate, whereby a minority can delay a vote on proposed legislation by making long speeches or introducing irrelevant issues. A successful filibuster can force withdrawal of a bill. Filibusters can be ended only by cloture.
In case that dictionary-speak wasn't quite clear (and it often isn't to me), I'll explain further.
Filibustering is when a politician or groups of politicians do not want a bill to pass or a legislation to go through the senate, and to keep the bill from passing or the legislation from going through, a Senator yaks a good long while and stalls. As the U.S. Senate has a policy of allowing its senators unlimited speech on a subject while they have the floor, no one can stop them.
Ridiculous, right? My mom heard tell of a politician that read the telephone book to stall. The telephone book! Seriously.
The longest recorded instance of filibustering in American History is by Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, when he filibustered for 24 hours and 18 minutes straight to keep a bill that prevented racial segregation from passing. That's pretty long, and to keep something good from happening. :(
There's a bright spot, though. In the definition above, the last sentence said that, "Filibusters can only be ended by cloture." Cloture is the bright spot. A Senator is allowed to call for a vote to reduce the time of the Senator who has the floor to one hour, and once the Cloture rule has been invoked the bill or legislation has to be resolved within 30 hours.
Unfortunately, Cloture can only be invoked fully if the vote the Senator calls for is passed by 60 votes, i.e. 3/5's of the Senate. Sad.
Confusing stuff, huh? Politics is like a tangled web. I've always thought that, in general, but I didn't realize that our system allowed Senators to get up and read out of a telephone book for something like 24 hours straight, just to get their way. It's sad.
Pray for our justice system and our political system; just our government in general!
Love,
Tina
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Can't breathe...
Without you. But I have to.
Just thought I'd do a post title that was completely unrelated to the content of my post. 'Cause while I DO have "Breathe" by Taylor Swift stuck in my head, my mind is running more in the direction of filmmaking than of country music.
Today was the second day of filming for a movie that my friends and I are making. Believe you me, It was nuts. I went into the venture vowing not to become stressed because I was the director, and then, wouldn't you know it, I got stressed about trying not to be stressed about being the director. Seems as though I can't win, eh?
Perhaps a better plan would have been to accept that I would get stressed, but to have plans for dealing with it rather than trying frantically to keep it out of my head. We got alot done, though; only four scenes left to film.
The movie is called The Wishing Well, by the way. It's a little script that I wrote up, inspired by some great books by Edward Eager. I must admit, I had alot more fun writing the script than directing the movie. After the crazy, "5, 4, 3, 2, 1, ACTION!" day was finished and I was feeling about as tightly wound as a kite string, I wondered why exactly I didn't like directing as much as I thought I would. I think I've figured it out.
ONE: I was not merely directing. I was deciding who got recorded, and where every shot would be taken. I was being the cinematographer as well as the director. Cinematographer=add on extra work and stress.
TWO: I was recording the shots, being the camera woman as well as the director and cinematographer. Camera woman=add on more work and stress.
THREE: I was not only recording the shots. We only have one camera, and in order for the shots to look nice and have different shots per scene, we had to move the camera and often record the same scene again. And again. And again. So technically, I was a team of camera people. Team of camera people= add on lots more work and stress.
So what does that add up to? A grumpy Tina at the end of the day. I suppose that this blog post is just a complaint soaked internet page. But then and again, I think it really does do me good to write out my feelings- so maybe one complaint soaked internet page will ensure that there will be less complaint soaked internet pages in the future. And maybe that makes my title make sense in a weird way:
Perhaps I have to keep taking deep breaths and calm myself down. Or maybe its that I have to accept the stress that I've got and work through it. You know, how Taylor Swift can't breathe without her man, but she has to? Heh heh, yeah...
Anyhow, have a good night, and wish us luck on filming tomorrow!
-Tina
Just thought I'd do a post title that was completely unrelated to the content of my post. 'Cause while I DO have "Breathe" by Taylor Swift stuck in my head, my mind is running more in the direction of filmmaking than of country music.
Today was the second day of filming for a movie that my friends and I are making. Believe you me, It was nuts. I went into the venture vowing not to become stressed because I was the director, and then, wouldn't you know it, I got stressed about trying not to be stressed about being the director. Seems as though I can't win, eh?
Perhaps a better plan would have been to accept that I would get stressed, but to have plans for dealing with it rather than trying frantically to keep it out of my head. We got alot done, though; only four scenes left to film.
The movie is called The Wishing Well, by the way. It's a little script that I wrote up, inspired by some great books by Edward Eager. I must admit, I had alot more fun writing the script than directing the movie. After the crazy, "5, 4, 3, 2, 1, ACTION!" day was finished and I was feeling about as tightly wound as a kite string, I wondered why exactly I didn't like directing as much as I thought I would. I think I've figured it out.
ONE: I was not merely directing. I was deciding who got recorded, and where every shot would be taken. I was being the cinematographer as well as the director. Cinematographer=add on extra work and stress.
TWO: I was recording the shots, being the camera woman as well as the director and cinematographer. Camera woman=add on more work and stress.
THREE: I was not only recording the shots. We only have one camera, and in order for the shots to look nice and have different shots per scene, we had to move the camera and often record the same scene again. And again. And again. So technically, I was a team of camera people. Team of camera people= add on lots more work and stress.
So what does that add up to? A grumpy Tina at the end of the day. I suppose that this blog post is just a complaint soaked internet page. But then and again, I think it really does do me good to write out my feelings- so maybe one complaint soaked internet page will ensure that there will be less complaint soaked internet pages in the future. And maybe that makes my title make sense in a weird way:
Perhaps I have to keep taking deep breaths and calm myself down. Or maybe its that I have to accept the stress that I've got and work through it. You know, how Taylor Swift can't breathe without her man, but she has to? Heh heh, yeah...
Anyhow, have a good night, and wish us luck on filming tomorrow!
-Tina
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
*Gulp*
I just quit Facebook.
It's true. And now I feel like a fish floundering out of the water! It's not a good feeling at all, at all! The only good thing, though its still not pleasant, is that I know that because I'm feeling this way that facebook wasn't a very good thing for me. It's not good to be too attached to things, even to sites.
The reason I decided to quit Facebook was because the only reason I went on there was that I had nothing else to do. Isn't that incredibly lame? To go on a site for hours at a time simply because I had nothing else to do? Yeah, lame. I could learn origami or something and become an origami pro in that time. Ridiculous.
We'll see how this goes. Facebook is interesting and seems useful, but I guess that people survived before it was invented and even, *gasp*, communicated! Remember those old-fangled things like the telephone and e-mail? I'm going to stick things out. No going back.
Hold me to my word, guys!
-Tina
It's true. And now I feel like a fish floundering out of the water! It's not a good feeling at all, at all! The only good thing, though its still not pleasant, is that I know that because I'm feeling this way that facebook wasn't a very good thing for me. It's not good to be too attached to things, even to sites.
The reason I decided to quit Facebook was because the only reason I went on there was that I had nothing else to do. Isn't that incredibly lame? To go on a site for hours at a time simply because I had nothing else to do? Yeah, lame. I could learn origami or something and become an origami pro in that time. Ridiculous.
We'll see how this goes. Facebook is interesting and seems useful, but I guess that people survived before it was invented and even, *gasp*, communicated! Remember those old-fangled things like the telephone and e-mail? I'm going to stick things out. No going back.
Hold me to my word, guys!
-Tina
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Little lights sparkling, falling snow glittering...
Drumroll, please!
It's winter! But then, you knew that. Where I am, it's been winter for almost an entire month! The snow is still coating the ground, and today at noon the clouds dusted us with just a bit more.
I love snow. I don't like cold much, but I love snow, so I can tolerate the cold if I can have the snow. I really do hope that it stays up until Christmas. Don't you hate it when you have a green christmas? I mean in the north, when it's not merely green but nasty, grayish-brownish-green.
Regardless of snow, however, I'm excited about Christmas. This year my little niece and nephew are going to be here for Christmas morning, and I'm beyond excited to see them waking up early and yelling in excitement over their stocking. When we trimmed the tree last Saturday (which they were here for) it was awesome to see the two of them concentrating so very hard to put the ornaments on the tree. Too cute.
I love my family alot. I'm really grateful that I have a cool family that loves me, and more importantly, that I can talk to. I was thinking to myself, and I honestly believe myself to be serious, that if I had every present I wanted and no family except my parents to celebrate Christmas with, it'd be a pretty sucky Christmas. I would much rather have my brothers and sisters home for Christmas and no presents.
Luckily we've got the happy medium, hey?
Merry Christmas, everyone!
-Tina
It's winter! But then, you knew that. Where I am, it's been winter for almost an entire month! The snow is still coating the ground, and today at noon the clouds dusted us with just a bit more.
I love snow. I don't like cold much, but I love snow, so I can tolerate the cold if I can have the snow. I really do hope that it stays up until Christmas. Don't you hate it when you have a green christmas? I mean in the north, when it's not merely green but nasty, grayish-brownish-green.
Regardless of snow, however, I'm excited about Christmas. This year my little niece and nephew are going to be here for Christmas morning, and I'm beyond excited to see them waking up early and yelling in excitement over their stocking. When we trimmed the tree last Saturday (which they were here for) it was awesome to see the two of them concentrating so very hard to put the ornaments on the tree. Too cute.
I love my family alot. I'm really grateful that I have a cool family that loves me, and more importantly, that I can talk to. I was thinking to myself, and I honestly believe myself to be serious, that if I had every present I wanted and no family except my parents to celebrate Christmas with, it'd be a pretty sucky Christmas. I would much rather have my brothers and sisters home for Christmas and no presents.
Luckily we've got the happy medium, hey?
Merry Christmas, everyone!
-Tina
Monday, November 23, 2009
Tis not a fun thing at all...
To be sick. Especially when Thanksgiving is in only a few days and the family is coming home.
My head keeps pounding and my nose keeps running and my eyes keep watering. Like I said, not fun. I'm going to do my best to beat it back with vitamin C's and keep the pounding in my head down with aspirin, but it's still not good.
Getting sick like this makes me wonder, "What is there to be thankful for about this?" You know, cause it's almost thanksgiving. It's really hard. I can be thankful for my family coming home, and getting to see them, but being sick kind of spoils it.
The best thing I can do, I guess, is offer up my sufferings to God. It sounds a little cliche and overused, but it's something I've been learning about. It's the mindset of praising God in the storm (Like the Casting Crowns Song); trusting God that things'll turn out okay even if they seem awful at present. Sound simple? It's rock hard. I've just got to keep plugging away.
Pray for me!
-Tina
My head keeps pounding and my nose keeps running and my eyes keep watering. Like I said, not fun. I'm going to do my best to beat it back with vitamin C's and keep the pounding in my head down with aspirin, but it's still not good.
Getting sick like this makes me wonder, "What is there to be thankful for about this?" You know, cause it's almost thanksgiving. It's really hard. I can be thankful for my family coming home, and getting to see them, but being sick kind of spoils it.
The best thing I can do, I guess, is offer up my sufferings to God. It sounds a little cliche and overused, but it's something I've been learning about. It's the mindset of praising God in the storm (Like the Casting Crowns Song); trusting God that things'll turn out okay even if they seem awful at present. Sound simple? It's rock hard. I've just got to keep plugging away.
Pray for me!
-Tina
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