Star Wars Confessions

For anyone who knows me, the following will be a horrifying revelation. Luckily the problem has now been remedied so there isn’t much cause for alarm!

Until about 2 months ago, I had never seen The Empire Strikes Back or Return of the Jedi… I’ll just give that a second to sink in.

Now, had anyone asked me, I would have sworn blind I had and I could hold a conversation with any buff about the ins and outs of my favourite lightsaber battles and hyperdrive operation. Not to mention my substantial knowledge of the score… which I can now fully appreciate. As a geek there are just some things you have to keep to yourself or risk having your geek card revoked!

There are certain things that very few people watch for the first time as an adult. Things like The Sound of Music, the Wizard of Oz or Bambi, and for most people Star Wars is right up there. It’s hard to say how I managed to miss it, but I imagine it’s probably because my family have such an aversion to sci-fi (though my mum has admitted to being something of a Trekkie in the 60s…). Of course, I have no idea how I would have reacted to seeing it as a child, but I can tell you now, watching it as an adult is a hell of an experience! Knowing you’re watching something completely amazing for the first time, which you can never unsee… admit it, you’re kinda jealous.

Although I had a vague idea of the general story line, I can honestly say I had no idea of how it was going to end. When Luke’s hand was cut off I nearly wet myself, and when Darth Vader threw the Emperor down the shaft my heart was beating so hard I could barely hear the TV.

Now I’m going to do the unthinkable and definitely risk losing my geek card forever… yes, I have seen the new trilogy, yes I liked them (admittedly, nowhere near as much as the original trilogy) and (here goes)… they almost enhanced the experience a little more. As much as you might not like to admit it, the characters have am important back story which affects the original trilogy. While knowing this back story may have ruined certain aspects (like Vader being Luke and Leia’s father… but come on, I don’t live in a cave), it meant I understood references, saw symmetry and generally followed the story line much better.

Though the high I experienced at the time has passed, and the history of lies may obscure the exact timeline, I will never forget how I felt the first time I saw these movies. Anything that has had such an enormous impact on popular culture has to be seen to be believed; and I should probably leave it at that before I come up with any more clichés.

Someday I’ll go through the details more carefully, but for now… Luke is made of awesome and Han and Leia’s kiss in The Empire Strikes Back also had me wetting myself!

The joys of job hunting!

In “Just a Geek”, Wil Wheaton talks about an inner dialogue which he calls proof to everyone that quitting Star Trek wasn’t a mistake (or proof to everyone to his friends…). I’m sorry to say that I too have an internal voice which I call proof to everyone that it was a good idea to do a music degree.

For quite a while, proof to everyone was trying to get me a job in administration because “I would like to get into Arts Administration and to do that you need office experience!”. This is something I did very briefly before being made redundant and becoming a drain on society, and to be perfectly honest, I loved it. Sure, it wasn’t the most stimulating job in the world, but as far as ‘jobs you take while you’re waiting for something better to come along’ go, it was a damn good one. Good company, comfy chairs, long breaks, internet access, loads of time for reading and most importantly, flex-time. The annoying thing is, I really didn’t appreciate it at the time and now I know I will NEVER get another job like that.

The thing is, I know it’s not something I wanted to do. It was so frustrating to see people I’m smarter than as my boss- not that I would deny people the jobs they’ve worked all their lives for, it’s just it’s nice not to be treated like an idiot. Ya dig?

The thing is, proof to everyone has done something very strange lately. For some reason, he (yes, my internal dialogue is a he) as decided to listen to all those annoying people who assumed you only do music so you can teach other people music and apply for teaching! What is strange about this is that he and I had pretty much agreed we weren’t going to do this because of the annoying people, but proof to everyone assures me I do in fact very much want to be a teacher. The more I think about it, the more I realise this is probably true.

So, all being well, one of the three Colleges I’ve applied for will be able to accept me, and by this time next year I could be out on teaching practise. I have all my fingers crossed! Well done proof to everyone!

New Year’s Resolutions

1. Be myself: I like to think in most situations I can pretty much be myself without concerning myself with other people’s opinions of me. This year I would like to make that true far more often. This nicely leads on to…

2. Share More and blog more often.

3. Be funnier: This year I definitely want to write more often. Hopefully this means hilarity in every day life will be within my reach.

4. Eat more sensibly: Michael McIntyre says everyone comes to a point when they realise it’s time to lose weight. For him it was being asked to move to balance the weight of a plane. For me it was when I realised “I’ve had half a bottle of wine and feel no effect whatsoever.”

5. Sort out what to do with the rest of my life and do it.

6. Be less easily pissed off.

7. Be a Trekkie.