NDBT

Customs is not ever, ever going to release my laptop. After 3 phone calls and 2 faxes over the last 2 days, I got a call today at 4pm saying they needed a fax of my passport photo. To release the laptop. And seeing as I don’t carry my passport with me, I couldn’t get that to them by 5pm, so the laptop gets delayed yet another day (current ETA: friday). Because the first 3 people I talked to couldn’t tell me to send a passport photo over the last 2 days of faxing them things. And I can’t just go TAKE MY PASSPORT TO THEM AND PICK UP THE F***ING LAPTOP.

I hate new zealand customs and fedex. As soon as my laptop is in my hands, I am going to raise holy hell.

Otherwise, work was good. Jenn transfered all responsibility to me today, and it was a busy day, so I felt very productive and capable. I also really do feel like Pam. (“sometimes I get to shred things!”) I’m renting the Office the next time I turn in my DVDs.

Holy crap – did you know Butch Vig produced “Sing the Sorrow” by AFI? The things you learn…

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My laptop is in Honolulu!! Yay! My musica is on its way!!!

Speaking of music; should I wait to replace my ipod until I can afford a complete replacement (the new 30gig ones), or should I buy a little mini mp3 player that holds like 100 songs to hold me over for taking to the gym?
Wandering around town taking photos today (which I’ll be able to upload… from my laptop!).

We got a new roommate. She’s German, but she speaks Spanish, too! So we’ve got a lot of spanish going on around the house.
Saw Perfume last night. It wasn’t completely brilliant, but it was a really admirable job for a subject that most people said couldn’t be made into a film. Ben Whishaw gave a brilliant, nearly mute performance. He’s the reason the film works. The narration was occasionally stilted, although it gave the film sort of a feeling of a fable (and now everytime I hear voice-over I think, “…and God help you if you use voice-over in your work, my friends. God help you. That’s flaccid, sloppy writing. Any idiot can write a voice-over narration to explain the thoughts of a character.”- Brian Cox as Robert McKee in Adaptation). Jesus – Ben Whishaw was 24 – my age – when he appeared as Hamlet at the Old Vic. Holy shit. Overall, I enjoyed the film. Parts of it were really sensuous, especially the scene with the plum girl. Parts are really creepy – Tom Twyker did a good job (the original german trailer is still one of the creepiest trailers EVER). I do wish the part of the story when the girls were dying had drawn out a bit more (although it was already 2.5 hrs). I would love to smell the box set of perfumes that was created for the film.
Things to distract myself with till the laptop arrives:

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Work has been going well. I'm being trained by the leaving temp, who is a lovely girl, Jenn, from Glasgow. Our boss is Graham, who is really nice, but he will be leaving in a few weeks and is currently ... [Continue reading this entry]

This updating every few days is rough. Lets see if I can remember everything. Friday I slept in (hey it was my weekend, sort of) and went to see the Cathedrals. Both were smaller than I expected and absolutely covered ... [Continue reading this entry]

Hmm - don't remember my last post. Well, things here are going well. I spent Thursday catching up on sleep, and Friday I went to USIT orientation, then going out for lunch with another American (Jenny) and then we took ... [Continue reading this entry]