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Filler for now

I'll do full updates later, I've got a backlog of notes and travel experiences and photographs from the past few weeks... it's been nearly a month since I posted last, hasn't it? Yikes... I'm sorry...

What have you missed? Jon came to visit and we went *everywhere* (it was amazing), I've been going crazy with how stressed I am, and when my internship is done I'm going to the Alps to finally see Melanie for the first time in ages before I head home.

So, here I am on the second last day of my internship. I'm trying desperately to finish up these promotional videos but I'm not a very good editor. Don't get me wrong, I can edit. When I have the time, I can edit fairly well. But I am *not* a Good Editor. I can't edit amazing pieces in the blink of an eye, I make mistakes and stumble. Sometimes it feels like I'm groping in the dark when I use my editing software... Ellis once told me there are 3 ways you can have editing, but you can only ever have 2 of those three. It'll either be fast and good but expensive, fast and cheap but bad or cheap and good but slow. I am "cheap, good and slow" in that saying. And right now, I'm trying to be fast and cheap... without having the finished product be terrible.

What am I doing right now? Waiting on the render that never ends.

I am so inept that this one sequence I'm working on seems to constantly need to be rendered... ok, so it's not really my ineptness, it's how complex this particular one is... but it makes me feel inept so bleh.

Plus this particular sequence is next to impossible because one interview is with a person who is a constant re-phraser who never actually starts or finishes a complete sentence and the other says 'like' every other word... so beyond the issues of trying to edit a good piece waffling back and forth between two people (one person is easy, 3 has some symmetry, but 2? It's a painfully constant back and forth) I'm dealing with people who do not talk in an editable manner. Blah.

For my next trip, I shall try to edit 2 complete single interview pieces within 4 hours... I need an Amped energy :/

Oh look, my render's finally done... for now.

TTYL... probably very later >.>

Dippy Jones Across the Pond: Day 69 - Happy Birthday to me!!!!!

So, most excellent birthday made even better by the day of my trip it happens to fall on? Yes. My day is complete.


Today, I walked into my office like any other today. But today, someone else had been in my office first...

How did I know? They left a clue:

XD SO ADORABLE! It spells out my name and everything!

I was talking to Miriam on Friday and had mentioned that my birthday was on Monday, I guess she decided I needed an army of cupcakes! Such a great surprise. I love my co-workers! The card was super cute too... I think it's made of fabric or something... it doesn't feel like normal paper.

The cupcakes are not only adorable and creative, but absolutely delicious as well, in case you were wondering. I ate the one on the end with the little <3 flag first. Now I need to decide how to devour my name... I'm thinking of starting with the A. If it were shaped like an animal, I'd have to bite the head off first, it's just the rules... but since it's a name, I think I'll eat it from end to beginning, keep it recognizable as long as possible... Ok, so I'm severely bizarre; your point?

When I got home I went for a run, and you'll never believe it but I managed to jog, not walk briskly or alternate between kinda running and depressing limps, but full out jog for a whole episode of How I Met Your Mother without stopping, or dying of an asthma attack! I've found my exercise muse; television. And people say it's making America fat, puh-leez! I suppose it's partially because I'm used to watching TV with no image that it works for me. I used to stay up way later than my parents thought I was listening to the Gilmore Girls on Global TV once I discovered that my radio can pick it up at the lowest band of the dial. But I digress. A full 20 minutes of proper jogging without immediate ill effects! Go me! It was followed by another 20 minutes of walking briskly and jogging intermittently, yet another episode of HIMYM.

Then, when I was home from my jog, I made myself some smoked salmon pasta, which left something to be desired but still, smoked salmon is delicious! And then ate some of my Ben & Jerry's Phish Food. Mmmm.... The Phish is Delish! ^_^

I also shared some of my cupcakes with Katie and Faye. They're too good to keep to myself! ... I think I should convince Miriam to give me that recipe... I won't say they're better than Heather's, but maybe I just haven't had cupcakes in a little too long :P

But look at that! There's even a heart made of sparkly sugar on a couple of them! Awwwww!

They did look a little nicer in the office though... Transport wasn't great for them. Nor was my relentless picking at the edges of the icing for just one more hit of the sugary sweet.

Anyways, it's well past my bed time. I think it's time to hit the hay... or eat myself into a sugar shock. Decisions, decisions!

Dippy Jones Across the Pond: Day 68 - So far? Best Birthday EVER!

This weekend I had been considering taking a day trip to Newcastle-upon-Tyne (3hrs on a train each way? Yikes..). But I had fallen asleep with my window open, so when I woke up (at 4 am), my allergies were so oppressively bad I couldn't breathe right, I couldn't sleep anymore, my eyes could barely open and my sinuses felt like they were going to blow my head up... it was Not Fun. I needed to do my laundry anyways so I made an executive decision to go to Newcastle some other time.

Having woken up at 4, since I'd gone to bed at like, 7pm the night before because I was so exhausted, I was already awake when Jon called at 7. I suggested he do something (I can't even remember what) and he replied "I don't really have any money". I was taken aback by this.
"But Jon!" I said "You've been saving up money, how do you not have any?"
"I spent it all on your birthday present." he said sheepishly
*shocked silence* "What could you have possibly gotten me that you'd spend that much money on!"
"I'm coming to visit you." he responded.
...
...
...
O.O REALLY!?!?!?! XD *dies*

Seriously though, best birthday present ever!!!! Here I had prepared myself, suppressed my previous hopes that he'd come visit (he'd wanted to come for my birthday so I wouldn't have to be alone) so I wouldn't be sad when he wasn't able to come over, either because the ticket would be too expensive or because he was going to a summer school math class, and then he just goes and buys a ticket!?! ^_____^

So he's coming to visit. His flight leaves on the 13th, he gets here early in the morning on the 14th and he leaves on the 20th. I can't wait! I don't know where we'll go... I mean, I've gotta take him somewhere! Maybe Scotland? Or maybe I'll just take him around to various places kind of close by... I think he said something about wanting to go to Alton Towers; that could be really fun!

I spent the next few hours working myself up so much that I'd have to go to sleep. Then I'd wake up, work myself up again and go back to sleep. Finally, I got up for real and went and did my laundry, grabbed some snackies from the Select and Save and ran into Faye. We wound up talking a bunch and I invited her to come watch Repo with Katie and I later that night.

Now I didn't "force" anyone to watch Repo (so you can bite your tongue mom! XP lol); you see, Katie's sister LOVES Saw, and when I mentioned I'd met Darren Lynn Bousman, and explained how I met him (which is through shadowcasting/making my documentary about Repo shadowcasting) Katie decided she had to see Repo! The Genetic Opera. So we sat and watched it... I tried to bite my tongue throughout, but the urge to do callbacks is just so ingrained now! Now they want to go see the Repo Shadow Cast in Birmingham, so I think if they're having a show in the next month, we may just have to take a trip down there!

Faye and I decided we'd go grocery shopping together on Sunday, since we both needed things. She showed me where the Sainsbury's is, since I've been doing all my shopping at the Morrisson's. I got such a great haul of stuff, including smoked salmon (which our local Morrisson's doesn't carry) and a special birthday treat, Ben & Jerry's Phish Food icecream (my fave!). It's going to be awesome! For my birthday dinner I'll make myself a simple smoked salmon pasta with Phish Food for dessert! It'll be fantabulous! Maybe I'll even buy myself a Fufu Berry Jones Soda as a special drink to go with my special meal!

I made myself a pretty special meal tonight too... I made myself an applewood smoked cheddar grilled cheese sandwich *drool*... it's like there's bacon in it, without there actually being any, you know, bacon :P.

Faye, Katie and I tried to have a Chatroulette party, but for some reason it wouldn't let us do video chat... we could do text chat, and we had some pretty funny ones, but still, no video :(

We did do a video chat with my parents on Skype though! They wanted to wish me a happy birthday and so my friends got to meet the famjam. And now, having seen my kitchen, Katie wants to come visit even more! I think I'm winning her over about Canada being more awesome than the US of A. Although her NYC and Florida obsession may run a little too deep for me to counter >.<

All in all, a pretty awesome birthday weekend for my having not left the Newcastle/Stoke/Keele area!

Dippy Jones Across the Pond: Day 66 - Canada Day pt 2

I realize I never actually explained what I did for Canada Day! I needed to have some sort of celebration, right? Well, Katie wound up coming to my office at the end of my day because that's the only place I have access to my iTunes Library and she wanted my TV shows. So now she's watching New Who from the very beginning (and I imagine, staying up all night to do so) and also has a few other shows to try out. Then we went home and when we passed by the post office, I checked the board to see if I had any packages waiting and I did! But the office was closed so I couldn't pick it up... I had a feeling I knew what it was though... When we got home, we had some of her left over birthday cake as a Canada Day treat and we decided we'd go have dinner and a pint at the Sneyd Arms together as our own little celebration. We both had steak and ale pie. I reasoned that Steak and Ale pie is appropriate Canada Day cuisine as it is as close to tourtière as we're going to get here in England! XD It was totally delicious and totally worth the ~1/2 hr walk to get to the pub :D

Oh and apparently Thursdays are Pie Days at the Sneyd Arms, so even better!

Mmmmm.... Pie....

Today, I picked up the package and I was right! It was my package from the YOWilkies! It contained 4 different boxes of Kraft Dinner; Original, Extra Creamy, White Cheddar and Sharp Cheddar. I ate a full box of the Original for dinner with a bottle of Fufu berry Jones Soda; a truly Canadian meal just a day late for Canada Day. Perfect!

KD is so delicious... but now my tummy is a little angry with me. I think it's bed time...

Dippy Jones Across the Pond: Day 65 - Happy Canada Day!

Happy Canada Day!

If I were home, I'd be watching fireworks tonight. Hanging out in Riverside Park, seeing all my old friends from Rovers and Venturers; one of the few times all year I manage to see them. I'd probably be enjoying a barbeque or something, maybe stopping by the houses of family and friends having Canada Day celebrations and saying hi.

If I were home, on Monday, I'd be eating dinner with my family. Probably at East Side Mario's or an All-You-Can-Eat Sushi place. Celebrating my birthday.

If I were home, I'd have a pool party to celebrate my birthday and I'd invite all my friends; from Guelph and from Toronto.

If I were home, only 4 people would actually come. But we'd still have fun, I've gotten used to the low attendance rate of my parties.

If I were home, I'd be enjoying my family's brand new pool. Well, our old pool revamped. Enjoying the solar heated, salt system water surrounded by mock river-rock pavement.

If I were home, I wouldn't be annoyed that because of that new pool, no one is coming to visit me.

If I were home, maybe I'd have gone to the cottage for Canada Day and put on my own fireworks display from the dock.

If I were home, I'd have Jon by my side, laughing and joking and cuddling wherever I happened to be.

If I were home, I wouldn't be travelling alone.

But if I were home, I wouldn't be seeing dozens of cities I've only ever read about before.

If I were home, I wouldn't be perusing library and museum alike, weekend after weekend. Devouring experience after experience. Learning, seeing, photographing voraciously.

If I were home, I wouldn't be visiting the locations I've seen on the silver screen, big and small, all my life.

If I were home, every other meal wouldn't be some sort off meat filled pastry.

If I were home...

Well I'll be home soon enough.