Festival Unattendable

Today I, finally, finished my last exam of the year. Oral math – just shoot me. Went fine though, I passed at least. This weekend was, in celebration, dedicated to a metal-festival that’s being held in Copenhagen annually – Copenhell – but when I got home, I didn’t feel like doing anything spectacular, and I still hadn’t bought my ticket (which goes for around 90 Euro), so I told my friends that I wouldn’t go anyway. One of ‘em tried to convince me to change my mind – and dammit, he almost did – but I stayed strong, and obviously I’m not there now. Would’ve loved to see Korn, Judas Priest and other great names, but there’s a time and place for everything.

 

This whole festival-business was rather messy for me, though. At first, my one friend from school had told me about it, and proposed that we should

go. “Awesome,” I thought, but then we kind of forgot about it for the past few months. Then, when it came closer and closer, another friend of mine – totally unrelated to school – kept updating his status on Facebook, with excitement for this festival, so my spark was ignited once more! Sadly though, I didn’t have time to think about it – finals and all. So it wasn’t until thursday night, yesterday, that I actually got around to talking to my school-related friend about it. He told me he’d already bought a ticket, and I definitely should come. I said yep, and I told the other guy that I’d probably show up, and we should meet, because we so rarely do.

Anyway, after the exam, I didn’t feel like it. I was happy with the result of that final, and it was my first day of summer vacation, but I wasn’t really in the mood. So I told ‘em both that I wouldn’t show up. Now I’m sitting in my room, pondering if that was the right decision! It sounds so awesome, and I seldom do what most people would call “fun things.”

Nevertheless, here I am. Almost two months (!) of free-time ahead of me, and I am ready to knock it off! Whatever that means… That sounds kind of suspicious. Anyway, have a fantastic summer!

Reading is a Virtue

I don’t read that much, really. Sometimes, though – especially while on vacation – I chop through a couple of books, but I’m not a consistent reader at all. When I was in Turkey a few years ago with my family, I read around ten books in those two weeks. I don’t know why, but those kind of hotel-holidays where you do nothing but swim in the pool, and eat out, just bores me. So I read instead. It probably started earlier, when I was reading all the Harry Potter-books, and then I switched to some of Dan Browns most notable titles. Then I just read whatever was there at the time. My family reads, not a lot, but they do, so I always had something to choose from. It didn’t matter if it wasn’t interesting – vacation meant reading.

I don’t read now. Almost never. Mostly when I have to for school. Obviously I read a lot of homework, but rarely books. I just bought “Catcher in the Rye,” though. About halfway through. Then I realized I still had to read a Danish book called Radiator for monday. Shit. So those are the ones I’m working on right now. I’m honestly not even halfway with my latest adventure – outside of the two I just mentioned – The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. I really want to read it, but for some reason I find it really hard. Fiction is just much easier to go through quickly, and I’ve been reading that one since about a year ago. Pretty pathetic, to be honest.

After I’m done with the two I’m working on right now, I plan on reading more, and more consistently. I’d like to read some Stephen King, since I love horror movies, and would like to be a screenwriter. It makes sense to read some source-material, I suppose. Plus he’s a legend, or whatever. I should probably start reading some scripts, as well. Even though this screenwriter-dream is still all new and fresh, it’s good to get used to the format. Who knows if I give up on it in a month or two, still gives me something to do and think about while it lasts. We’ll see.

Do you have any good books you can recommend? Other than Stephen King, I thought about reading some more Clive Cussler – The Golden Buddha was alright, albeit not my favorite style. My style is more Dan Brown-oriented I suppose. How about you? Leave it in the comments. :-)

 

Digital Shopping Habits

I’ve never been much of a “shopper.” I know most guys aren’t, but maybe I’m particular about it, because I rarely – if ever – go out with the sole purpose of buying something. If I need a new pair of socks, or a tee, or shoes, I’ll mostly just order it online. It’s easier, and usually cheaper, too. Perhaps it isn’t very social, but my social life – outside of school, Skype and Facebook – consists primarily of trips to the movies, “hanging” or visits to the local McDonald’s. Shopping is just not something I can wrap my head around.

But now, I fear that I’ve taken my digital habits too far. It started with the small stuff: books, movies, video games, – pants and shoes, stuff you wouldn’t always find in the stores, anyway. Stuff that normal stores might have to order home first, and it felt like simply skipping the middle-man for a more efficient experience. Then it was more clothes. Then all clothes. Granted, I don’t buy that much clothing, it’s still quite disturbing that I never buy anything in a normal store. When I bought DVDs or video games, it was almost always well-considered, no impulse-purchases. But then I realized that merely ordering games is so 1990, and then came my true, economical tragedy…

Steam. Steam is a wonderful little application for all your computer game needs. It also has a lot of cheap games on sale, quite often too. A lot of these games aren’t games you’d ever buy under normal circumstances… But who can say no to 2€?!? So now I’ve started to build up a collection of downloaded games from Steam, and a few other sources. Some I played a lot – 20-30 hours. Others, I’ve barely touched, and some of them I doubt I’ll ever even play through! I may not be the worst out there, but considering my fairly tight economy, reserved entirely for entertainment, buying cheap, boring video games probably isn’t such a good idea. Darksiders looked so much fun, though! And Mount and Blade has a good reputation… OH MY GOD, Total War: Rome! I don’t even like strategy games, but I HAVE to have this! Myself in a nutshell…

What are your shopping habits like? Do you go out to have fun with friends, or just stay rational and shop online? Perhaps I’m not the only one with a sense of uncontrollable impulse when it comes to digital sales… It’s just so easy!

 

You can always make new friends, right?

Lately I’ve been having sort of a strange conversation with my sister. A little background: She’s in her first year post-high school (working so she can travel), and I’m in my second year of high school (meaning I’m done in 2012, because it’s Danish high school.)

The argument revolves around the notion of keeping your Facebook. Why do I have a Facebook? Mostly to easily communicate with my current class, arrange stuff with them, pretty much solely school-stuff. Sure, I got some old friends on there, but mostly my old friends (who I wish to keep contact with) is kept in other institutions (phone, Skype, mail.) Now, I wouldn’t say that I don’t like my class currently, I mean they’re nice people, but I doubt I’ll ever talk to any of them after graduation.

When I’m done here, I hope to travel too. Maybe an interrail, maybe a few months in a monastery in Tibet. Under any circumstance, I definitely want to leave the country – whether by travel or education. I don’t want to step in the footsteps of my parents, who keep up with their parents on a weekly basis. I want my own life, free from the bonds of obligatory relations like family and friends. That might sound a bit cynical, but that’s the truth, really. It’s not meant in a bad way, my family is great and all, but I’d rather not deal with them my entire life. No hate there, no unsolved childhood issues!

Any who, back to the argument. So me and my sister have a very different view on what Facebook is for. We probably use it for the same things right now – planning stuff with people, talking to people and so on (even though my use is likely much, much more school-ish… Seeing as she doesn’t go to school at the moment.) She said that her Facebook is a way for her to collect her friends (I paraphrase,) so she can stay in touch with a ton of people when she won’t be seeing them on a daily basis. A noble goal, sure. But I don’t want that. I plan on deleting my Facebook (if that ever becomes possible!) as soon as I don’t “need” it anymore. It feels like a complete waste of time (also the reason I have it right now… Better than school!), and quite frankly I’d rather spend my time on something different.
Besides, I can always make new friends, right? Better friends! Right, less cynicism next time…
What’s your view on Facebook? Eternal or temporary?

How much are you willing to share?

Today, or to be more specific, tonight, I took a drastic decision! Very mildly drastic, but nevertheless! I decided to start filling in information on my Facebook-page. That is, my favorite bands, music, books, quotations and that kind of stuff. Alright, so it’s not exactly the outline of an epic movie script… But where there were previously empty space, is now information… About me! If I keep going like this, maybe in a few years I’ll catch up to the rest of the world and it’s expectation of personal openness…

But it got me thinking. I’ve had all that info stored away in my own head for so long, despite it being a pretty popular topic in any given conversation. I happily share my thoughts on Die Hard or Metallica in those situations, but for some reason I wouldn’t put it on Facebook. Virtual anonymity, if you will. Despite the page containing my actual name and email… Whatever! Now it’s out there, and who knows, maybe someone will use it as an icebreaker, now that people know.
(Speaking of weird virtual concepts… Does any of you know of the online community known as Anonymous? Anon, if you will. Isn’t it weird how they have a Facebook-page…? I mean, most people are called their real name (or some variation thereof) on Facebook… Not very anonymous… Just a thought)

I’m an avid updater on Facebook, just because I don’t got a lot to do. I suppose that shows something of my character. Often times it’ll just be a link to a good song on YouTube, or maybe a funny joke I thought of (<my> definition of funny!>, sometimes it’s something more useful. At least I don’t “Like” 30 pages per hour… How much information about yourself do you like to show on Facebook? In your profile, pictures, status updates? Maybe it’s only “your friends” that can see it, but if you’re like me or the people I know, you often times don’t talk to 90% of your Facebook-friends, and it might feel more stranger-oriented in that way.

Split Virtual Personality

I talk a lot about myself in this blog. “Me! blah blah, me! Blah blah… My life! Blah blah blah…” – and for that I apologise. If you’d like to read some less personal things that I write, head on over to Njuul, my older blog. It’s not quite as active anymore, but I left plenty of reading material there. :-) I simply use this particular domain as sort of a personal vent – thus why I often decide not to include any tags. I appreciate readers, of course, but this “project” doesn’t live on them. Thanks for reading, anyhow!

To the point. I just read a very interesting post, from another WordPress user, and it hit home pretty well! As is known, I’m sort of a nerdy guy. Yeah, shocker! I play a lot of video games, and sometimes in video games, you come to have close relationships – virtual ones of course – with your fellow players. It might be an exaggeration to call it real relationships, but nevertheless, a not-so-short term interaction with various people. I’ve met some people who I played with online in the real world, and some have befriended me on Facebook (which sometimes confuses my “real” friends… “Who the hell is that swedish dude”). It adds a personal element to the game, and I’d dare say that it makes the encounters more intimate, and you become more attached to… Whatever it is, you do together with these practically unknown people. It adds responsibility.

So when, eventually, you get tired of playing with these people, you definitely want to end it on good terms. You could just remove them from your friends list, but you don’t want to! You’ve become virtual friends, and that deserves as much respect as any real-life friend would. I give an extra effort to keep playing with the people I befriend like this, and sometimes it pays off… Other times, not so much. Nevertheless, it’s an experience, and a good social activity. And they said video games weren’t social!

So what am I trying to say with this? Maybe I’m just saying you should try to be nicer on the Internet, and to try harder to be a good person – even virtually. “Don’t be an e-jerk” is sort of cliché, but that doesn’t make it any less true. The Internet is a spawning pool for retardation, please don’t add to that, my dear reader.

Dream Big, Bigger, Screenwriter!

Always wanna play, but you never want to lose

I think a lot about my future. Not in any specific way, but I often consider, and try to find, jobs or careers that I might be in to. As previously mentioned in this blog, I don’t have any special talent, nor passion – it’s pretty much pick and choose. But as you can see from the title of this blog, and the general atmosphere, I like movies, video games and I’m also pretty lazy. Obviously I enjoy writing, too. The past couple of years, I’ve been mostly into the idea of becoming a writer. preferably not fiction though, I’m not an artisan of words. Journalism was my obvious bet – both of my parents took that road – but it might be hard to find somewhere to write about what interests me. Because I don’t just like to write, I like to write my own thoughts and ideas down.

My newest “mental adventure” in this futuristic dream-process is becoming a screenplay-writer. I love a good movie, and what makes a good movie is in 99% of the cases a well-written script. We call actors who appear charming in movies for geniuses, when really they didn’t make up their own lines… They just deliver them (don’t get me wrong, I respect an actor as much as any other person in the movie business. Just an example!). I thought to myself: “I have humor. I like writing. I like movies…” And it made sense to me. The upside is that it doesn’t even require an education! It’s probably a good idea if I took one though, since I have no idea what it’s about (though I have begun snooping around…), but even that is only 2 years. I’m not a big fan of massive amounts of structure and enforced rules, which seems to be very present

in the screenwriter-scene, but I think I can overcome that. I love refining my own work, I love writing, and I love getting some sort of final result. Admittedly, a final screenplay isn’t that product, I think seeing your own writing take another form – in the shape of a movie – must be immensely satisfying. That’s my new pursuit. I’ve started gathering material from the almighty interwebz, and I plan on reading a few books about the basics, and of course watch some movies (anything else would be nothing less than hypocricy!).

The big question is if I’ll ever be able to get into it though. You can become good at anything (ideally), but you can’t enjoy whatever you want. Motivation is key, but it sounds pretty perfect right now (“the honeymoon stage”).

Does any of you out there have any experience as a screenwriter, or some other form of writer? Maybe some career in the movie industry, or writing industry at all? I’d love to hear what you think about it, and how you got into it. Maybe a tip or two!

 

… As always, my current music:

• Metallica (“Enter Sandman)
• System of a Down (“Aerials”)
• Skillet (“Monster”)

Cutting for Justice

You know I constantly talk about “how hard it is being a teenager.” I hope that it’s a given that everything is relative – it’s probably not hard being a teenager, compared to being a slave or a suppressed woman, a hostage or a poor african villager. But you get the point – for western standards, teenagehood is pretty tough. I’m not an overly rebellious teenager at all though, and even though I don’t necessarily enjoy it, I tend to just be neutral in a lot of scenarios, it works. But I also like to consider myself, at least mentally, sort of a rebel. I may not party all night, create havoc in the streets or make old ladies feel unsafe, but I don’t take a lot of things very seriously – things people tell me will change the rest of my life, and beyond! That’s not exactly a huge, impressive rebellion, but it’s my own little war against “the man.”

So being this shy kind of, low-self-esteem guy I am, I decided to do something out of the ordinary! Last night I picked up a scissor, and officially became a cutter. No wait, that’s not right… Well, an alternative kind of cutter! I cut most of my hair off! Not neatly, didn’t use any fancy machine to make it all cool, just made it short and ugly. It was long and ugly before, at least now it’s practical. I know that’s sort of a weird thing to do, even for a teenager, and so far I haven’t had a chance to get reactions from anyone. I’m guessing people will call me silly and laugh at my weird hair, but whatever, I don’t care too much. As I said, I don’t actually take these kind of things (included: looks, school, reputation) overly serious. Looking at pictures of yourself with amazingly bad-looking, and long, hair is just too demoralizing, and if anyone asks, I’ll say that I’m a man of action. Makes most people shut the f*** up about it, I’m sure!
(I know I’ve still been slacking with the blog updates, but I don’t know what to say. Unmotivated blog posts are worse than nothing! Might make a recap of my Florence-trip soon, we’ll see!)… and to finish todays post, here is the music I’m currently listening to:

Pantera (Greatest Hits)
P!nk (“Raise Your Glass” and “Fuckin’ Perfect”)
P.O.D. (“Youth of the Nation”)
Rise Against (“Savior”)

Florence, School and Girls

I know I’ve been inactive lately, and I know that in the last post, I promised to do something about that. Well, not for another week. Tomorrow morning, I’m going with my class to Florence Italy, to “study” math and history. That’s the excuse, anyway. Really it’s just a fun trip! I doubt I’ll be bringing my laptop – I just don’t see the reason, and I hate airport security – so no blogging from there. That’s going to be a big part of my new “socialization experiment”!

Girls. I know I use way too much time talking about this girl I’ll never talk to, but I need to! There’ll be a big, fancy party on my school in April, and having a date would be ideal. I’ve promised myself to talk to her (other than on Facebook) after this week. Also made a promise with a friend of mine, that when I get back, she’s talked to her crush, and then I’ll talk to mine. I’m such a teenager, I know…

See you in a week!  q

Road to Socialization

In an effort to blog more often and regularly, I bring you my “Road to Socialization.” This’ll be sort of a series of blog-posts, to capture my newest attempt at “living a normal teenage life”, by going out, staying out (!), and generally just act more “wildly” from now on. This might seem counterproductive to some, but where I’m from, it’s frowned upon not to get drunk at least twice a week at my age. Denmark is a weird place.

So! Day 1 of this experience was yesterday, 18th of March 2011. It didn’t start out too well, with me sleeping through school (oops!), and thus missing the 2 hours of cheap beer after school. Dammit. But I made up for it later, by going with my friend (whom I don’t see very often) and some of his friends to a concert, with a band one of his (other) friends is in. Now, none of us are really “metal heads”, and even though I like rock, and even some heavy, this definitely isn’t my taste in music (it was death metal, mainly). But it ended up being quite fun, and even if we went home early (at around 12), it was only because the concert ended at 9 (and we just stuck around).
Day 1: Success!

Today, I’ll be going to the movies with 2 of my friends. I do that from time to time, so I hardly think it can be counted as me trying to socialize more. Next week, Italy with school. Lots of opportunity to become a better member of society! And hopefully stories for a few blog posts.

[>Now playing: Artist - Album

• System of a Down (Toxicity)
• Disturbed (Believe)
• P.O.D. (Satellite)

(Yet another attempt to spice up this blog! :-))