Just watched, “As Good As It Gets” – bit of an old film but still good in its own way. It follows Romance Plot #1 (Two people hate each other, slowly fall in love, crisis drives them apart then, wham, they’re brought back together for the final scene.
Of course, it’s a tragically depressing film. Jack Nicholson’s character is an intolerable bastard, but he manages to improve his personality and become vaguely normal towards the end.
It’s depressing because I’m stuck being the Ice Queen Hell Bitch of Death. No super dose of Prozac for me.
Anyway, with that in mind, I’ve been staying up too late for too long and my brain is frazzled.When people on twitter start telling you to go to bed, that’s a sign you’re burning the candle at both ends, and the middle… actually just chucking the whole thing in a fire.
So lacking the bearsedness to write anything properly, I will cheat and ask: how are you?
Update! Wait! I thought of something! Today’s the start of taxpayers paying other taxpayers to buy new cars! Now, I hate protectionism at the best of times but this morning a guy from Nissan was on extoling the benefits of using this “Free Money” scheme to buy a Nissan Micra. Please, people, please don’t buy Micras. They are, it seems, terrifying to drive above 20 miles an hour, ridiculously frightening to go round corners in and feel like you’re driving at 100 mph when you’re only doing 10. I don’t know what it is about Micras that make their owners so damned relaxed..
… wait… maybe that’s what I need. Maybe I need to give up the stupid sports car. Give up the ridiculous obsession with libertarianism and buy a Micra and learn to enjoy a more chilled out, relaxing kind of life. Yes. Yes… I mean… all I need to do is decide I love Gordon Brown, that I love the Labour Party, that Socialism is Great and the State is Awesome and that, you know what, Micras are actually cool? Well I could be happy right now. I could close the blog and go do something else.
But I don’t. I choose the way of pain, the way of adrenaline, the way of stress, high stakes and excitement. I choose conflict and struggle. Why can’t I choose Micras? What’s wrong with me?
I’d still like to know how you are, of course. Especially if you’ve got a Micra.
Martin said...
18 May 09 at 11:54 pm
Tired and bored. I need to finish revising this last topic or I shall die tomorrow at 9:00 when my exam starts.
Which means I’ll have to get up at like 7:30. I havn’t left bed before noon recently, so that sucks.
Charlotte Gore said...
19 May 09 at 12:01 am
Oh dear. At some point then you’re going to debate with yourself whether or not to do an all-nighter as the only way to guarantee you’ll be up for the exam.
The thing about all-nighters is that they seem like a brilliant idea around midnight and seem like the most stupid idea ever by the time you get to 7am and your eyes are rolling in your head from tiredness, you realise you can’t string a sentence together and ‘See Spot Run’ may as well be War and Peace for the amount of time it’ll take you to read.
Try to remember to have breakfast, and good luck!
Hmm I suck at being an agony aunt
Martin said...
19 May 09 at 12:07 am
I did an all nighter with a friend in the library last week. I fell asleep at 4 am, and photos were taken and put on various “web 2.0″ facilities. So, no, that’s not a good idea.
Anton Howes said...
19 May 09 at 12:08 am
good lord – my situation is almost identical to Martin’s!!!
…must be the IB?
Jennie said...
19 May 09 at 12:09 am
AAAAAAAAAAAAARGH MAT’S PARENTS TONS OF MAIL HOUSE MESS INDIGESTION NEED BATH ARGH!
Charlotte Gore said...
19 May 09 at 12:10 am
Jennie, I recommend Valium and/or weapons.
Anton, I recommend Bed.
Anton Howes said...
19 May 09 at 12:12 am
Charlotte – agreed.
Jennie said...
19 May 09 at 12:15 am
Drugs sound good. Mmmm Drugs.
Roger Thornhill said...
19 May 09 at 12:43 am
There are few people who are not, to some extent, like the Jack Nicholson character IMHO.
Those who think they are not like him at all are either a) to be avoided as deluded monsters b) a saint but knows it and so must be avoided.
I would say most guys make the mistakes Jack does, but maybe (and just maybe) not to the same extent or as often. Many don’t realise they do (see a, above).
The film hit me like that proverbial diamond into the forehead of Colonel Kurtz, for it is a mirror to humanity, especially urban. It was not the first time I was hit thus – see below.
I am not ashamed to say I saw some of my flaws in that film. Not all, and not to the same degree, but they were there. What is worse is to see what one does, knowing now what one does wrong. It is not a red mist, but a form of fog in reverse, when things up close or immediate are obscured, and from a distance and over time they become crystal clear. Painfully so.
The reason the film is so good is it contains one of the core elements of memorable films – a form of redemption.
Martin said...
19 May 09 at 7:38 am
Fuck.
I went to bed directly after that comment. It’s now 7 40 and I didn’t sleep for a second. FFFFFFFFFFFF.
Julian H said...
19 May 09 at 7:48 am
Yeah I’m good, thanks.
Charlotte Gore said...
19 May 09 at 7:49 am
Oh dear. Fingers crossed for your exam, then.
Stu said...
19 May 09 at 8:56 am
From my experience with exams, it’s better to be rested and not revised than it is to have facts buzzing round your head but no energy left to get them on to paper. I used to sleep a lot in the run up to exams…
Well, and for the rest of uni, if I’m honest. But still.
I loved As Good As It Gets. But then ‘Romance Plot #1′ was always my favourite – the ultimate example of the genre, of course, being A Life Less Ordinary
Charlotte Gore said...
19 May 09 at 9:23 am
Ah yes, good call. Very underrated film I think. Is that another Morgan Freeman As God film? Was it the first?
Bunny Smedley said...
19 May 09 at 9:25 am
‘Full of complaints’ is the answer from Soho, Charlotte. My main complaint is that I’ve had a cramp in an intensely dreary muscle in my shoulder, apparently called a trapezius, for days now, with the result that I can hardly even type, let alone do anything useful. The fact that this is sheer neurosis on my part – the cramp goes away the minute I’m distracted by anything nice – adds to my annoyance. Surely if one realises an ailment is neurotic, one ought to be able to make it go away, just like that?
And I haven’t seen any of the films that anyone has mentioned here, so I’m culturally deficient, as well as crippled by completely unnecessary, although weirdly painful shoulder problem.
Well, you did ask!
Letters From A Tory said...
19 May 09 at 9:57 am
My god, anyone who even considers buying a Micra is having a serious crisis.
asquith said...
19 May 09 at 10:28 am
Feeling a tad shite as I am frustrated beyond measure with the people I’m surrounded with- cannot have an even vaguely intelligent conversation or discuss the things what concern me & that.
I find myself having to talk talking about pointless shite I don’t have any interest in if I’m going to talk to anyone at all, at work & that, most days- consequentially hating the sound of my own voice & feeling as life is a bit pointless if you can’t have good company or owt along those lines.
In the usual position of wondering whether it’s just me. But I don’t think so- as I am right appreciating interactions on blogs & real life conversations with those who are on my wavelength- such as people who actually are friends, & those from blogs whom I meet in real life & who are perhaps friends in the making if I see them more oftehn & that.
I can’t help thinking there’s some colony of really interesting & great people & I’m somehow barred from joining it. But in fact, I think they’re just ridiculously thinly spread so you have to consciously gather them together & plan some form of business to enter such a situation.
Aye- references to that gathering we attended are cropping up as I go further into my own mind in this analysis. Would like another
Well, you did ask.
Just about keeping a lid on it though- I’m not the sort that flips, more the sort that gets gradually run into the ground & defeated.
asquith said...
19 May 09 at 10:30 am
You find out who your real friends are when you have a mind as abnormal as mine. Most of them are feckers I met in my student days- still keep in contact with them as I prefer them to everyone else. Which is, of course, why I befriended them in the first place.
Charlotte Gore said...
19 May 09 at 10:45 am
It is possible to control genuine physical pain with your mind though, Bunny – I might not be so quick to assume that it’s psychosomatic!
But, hope it gets better soon.
Charlotte Gore said...
19 May 09 at 10:50 am
That may well be the fundamental state of being human.
Why would you think of yourself as abnormal? Comparing yourself to ‘normal’ people is always going to be a recipe for distress and upset. The trick is to view yourself as an individual, unique, and decide who’s opinion you actually care about. Make things a lot easier.
asquith said...
19 May 09 at 11:31 am
Yes- that was a bit tongue in cheek, as I haven’t the slightest wish to be like most people. I’m just making some expression of the fact that “they” don’t share my interests & concerns.
Just expressing a longing for the company of like-minded folk
Bunny Smedley said...
19 May 09 at 11:45 am
Thanks, Charlotte. Unfortunately, this shoulder thing really is psychosomatic – this isn’t the first time it’s happened – so although I am pretty sure what it is, and indeed pretty sure what set it off this time, I have absolutely no idea how to get rid of it …
I am now going to distract myself with some sushi and Michael Martin’s looming resignation in the hope that some of will at least cheer me up!
Paul Lockett said...
19 May 09 at 1:17 pm
Well, I was feeling quite good until I found out that driving a Micra puts me in the same demographic as Volvo drivers.
BeingMeSince1964 said...
19 May 09 at 10:00 pm
Nissan are part-owned by Renault and Renault are thieves and shysters. If I can dissuade one person from giving money to Renault, I will die a happy man.