Post, Strange, & Pirates

Well, time for another random post on relatively insignificant subjects.

In recent news: I have officially been accepted for a Post Production major. Not hugely surprising in all honesty, but still very satisfying. And - I now know my crew for Term 3! Those of you I've spoken to about my past crews will understand that it was with some trepidation that I approached the board to find out who I will be stuck with for 9 or so weeks. And well - it's not too bad of a team. (Phew) Certainly several magnitudes above my past crews. Yes, for once I am not dreading crew projects. So that's cool.

I've finished Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, and my word was it ever a good book. I don't think I've read anything so masterful since Till We Have Faces. The author managed to mix Austen's 'comedy of manners' style and Dicken's insight into human nature with a good dollop of the mundanely fantastic. It's a rather enormous volume (over 1000 pages) but has a plot to match, even if it does dabble in Les Miserablesesque exposition (it even has a chapter on Waterloo, though in Strange the battle is significantly more relevant to the story, and is actually able to be read in one sitting). For those of you who have read it: will you ever be able to think of mice the same way again?

The next book on the menu is Tolkien's The Children of Hurin. I know that Tolkien heartily disliked Shakespeare, but my goodness, this book is as close to the Bard as any 20th century novelist got, in my opinion. In terms of the tragedies, that is. It lacks the more plebian qualities that Billy was fond of, but I think I can survive without those. After that I think I'll move on to some lighter fare; I have a friend who owns almost every book Terry Pratchett has ever written, so I don't think I'll be at a loss there...

Seen some amazing films, and some less than amazing ones *coughpiratesthreecough*. Incredible how you can go into some movies with incredibly low expectations and still be disappointed. That doesn't happen very often, but every now and then a very special film will just take the cake. However, I generally have a very good nose for which movies I'll like and which I won't, meaning that most of the films I watch get rated 8 or higher. Watchlist is currently down to 31....