Arrested Development Review - Season 1, Episode 1 'Pilot'

Hooray, another published piece of work! This time, a review for one of the funniest TV comedies ever to have aired, Arrested Development. Creator Mitch Hurwitz recently confirmed that he's developing a limited run fourth series (as a lead in to a full feature) due for an early 2013 release, so if you haven't yet caught on to the AD bug, it's never too late to start.

Read my review for the 'Pilot' episode here, and purchase the entire three seasons at your nearest DVD retailer. No, don't borrow it. BUY IT. It is definitely worth your money.

The Dark Knight Rises

"He's the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now."

My love for Batman has never been a secret - just ask any of my friends. The new trailer for The Dark Knight Rises was recently released, and every single time I watch it, I get the chills. Christian Bale, you are beautiful. The reason I love Batman so much is because he's just a human being, devoid of any superpower - he's simply a superhuman. 

I am ecstatic to be watching The Dark Knight Rises later this year, in none other than Gotham City, aka New York City after dark.  

First published article, yay!

I recently wrote a personal essay for a uni assignment, and I reworked it, and now it's published! Gather all your friends, and read it here! Optimal reading amusement will be achieved by putting on glasses and eating yellow skittles. You can also follow the hilarious writer and creator of Bon Vivant, Ben Vernel on twitter here.

Take that, physiotherapy! I'm already enjoying my newfound calling in writing.

In need of a hobby

One of the benefits of moving from a Physiotherapy degree into a Communications degree is time. Where I was once attending university five days a week, I am now only there for three half days. My life has moved from "must-write-notes-on-the-gluteus-maximus" to "I-could-do-those-readings-oh-look-the-new-episode-of-Community-is-out" (I probably ended up watching Community regardless of how engrossing the gluteus maximus is, but let's be fair, sitting on our cushiony butt muscles while watching Community is simply putting theory to practice). I don't even have to do those readings because I no longer have any exams. And consider the fact that I tend to skip my lectures, so that leaves me, sitting at home, literally watching time fly by. I guess this is what it feels like to be a dog - just eat and sleep. The problem is, I have so much free time, but so much I want to do. It's on par with walking into a supermarket and being overwhelmed by the choices. I'll work myself up with everything I want to accomplish, but the moment I have the time to do so, I shut down. In the words of John Mulaney (who is an excellent comedian, and you should check out his stand up), "it is 100% easier not to do something than to do them."

My cousins (some of whom are in the same boat) and I were discussing this last night, and it was decided that we need a hobby. It occurred to me that other than watching a shit load of TV, I don't have a hobby. I am reminded of my Facebook profile, where you are able to list your activities or interests. The following contains some of my listed hobbies: travelling, markets, being off with the pixies, basking in the sunlight, exotic and tropical fruits, british accents, improv.

I also do not understand how these count as hobbies. Let me clarify that I do not go around shouting out names of exotic fruits to passer-bys in a terrible British accent, nor do I immediately transform into a lizard at the sight of a patch of sunlight. I need a real hobby.

The most popular suggestion by my cousins was a sporting activity, say swimming (I'm not sure if sports is a hobby so much so as it is a maintaining-your-health requirement). The thing is, my brain understands that taking up exercise will exponentially increase my life expectancy, but when this theory is outsourced to my limbs, I die. I'm still recovering from UTS' Amazing Race from 4 days ago, having run up and down 100+ flights of stairs - I have literally been walking around like a duck, and I have to swing my legs around my body because I can't physically lift them. I think the following .gif perfectly encapsulates my curent fitness level:

I have promised myself (many times), that I need to go out for a run, or even lift weights (mainly because I fear that my arm muscles are melting with every second). It's a worry that I haven't exercised properly in years. Maybe I won't be the first person to live to 150 after all.

Hobby suggestion #2: make something extravagant, like a massive costume. I have an almost unlimited supply to fabric, but making a costume requires me making it. I haven't even begun to sew on the lace trimmings to my socks from months ago - and I don't even have to make it. I'm not that talented of a crafts person to design my own costume, so I would have to use a pattern, and using a pattern requires me cutting out the pattern, then pinning it down to the fabric and cutting the exact same shapes again. It's painful. If I had the pieces already cut out, I would definitely be more motivated to sew. But almost all the time, the end result doesn't turn out to be as great as I hoped. The singlet I made when I was 13? Too embarrassing to wear out, and I modelled it for an event at school. The tiered skirt that I made when I was 15? It made me stumpy, and I have since let it gather dust at the back of my wardrobe. This poses a problem for my Hobbit costume plans for the Comic Con International event I plan to attend later this year. I can't turn up at one of the biggest festivals in the world in a poorly made Hobbit outfit. But there you go, something extravagant for me to work on in my spare time.

Suggestion #3 was the best of them all. Make a claymation or stop motion animation, to the likes of Ben Wyatt's Requiem for a Tuesday:

As you can see, the story is very deep and emotional. I myself have teared up from the beauty that is Requiem for a Tuesday. How such an animation was overlooked by Aardman Animations (the same production company responsible for Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run) I will never know. Let's see, if I take one photo (of a mini workstation set up somewhere in my room) each day, for one and half years, the animation will be completed...never. It will literally be to the likes of Ben Wyatt. Yay, for incomplete stop-motion animations! And if this becomes my hobby, who knows, I could have, like 50 incomplete films by the end of the year.

I'm Ron fucking Swanson

I'm currently eating my way through the first three seasons of Parks and Recreation (again), and Ron Swanson is one of the greatest TV characters in all of history. Behold, the 'Swanson Pyramid of Greatness', a "perfectly calibrated recipe for maximum personal achievement".

Favourite categories:

• Frankness: Cut the B.S.
• Capitalism: God's way of determining who is rich, and who is poor.
• Crying: Acceptable at funerals and at the Grand Canyon. 
• Stillness: Don't waste energy moving unless necessary.
• Handshakes: Firm. Dry. Solid. 3 seconds.
• Skim milk: Avoid it.

Nick Offerman as Ron Swanson is stand out hilarious (as is the rest of the cast and show). I highly recommend watching 2.02 'The Stakeout'. It also wouldn't hurt to visit this website.

Shortcut through the Turkish district!

I do believe that there has been a blanket fort revival since the airing of NBC's Community episode 3.09 'Conspiracy theories and Interior Design'. The idea of a blanket fort has been a childhood dream for me. In the past, I have built cubby houses out of blankets and fabric scraps, but never anything as big or elaborate as a fort. This was until a fortnight ago when an opportunity presented itself: my parents were going away, and my sisters and I had the house to weekend. Other kids would jump at the opportunity to throw a house party, and perhaps we would've if we didn't live two houses away from our grandma, or if the design of our house wasn't intended to be so cramped. So, we realised our childhood dream instead. 

 

After three hours of intense pegging of fabric scraps together and delicate placement of fairy lights, it was complete. And it couldn't have turned out any better. Apart from a kitchen and bathroom, the fort was literally a small apartment (however, not so small that it could've been a centre for ants). We managed to include two couches, a television, mattress, beanbag, treadmill, and a coffee table. Impressive, I know. But don't take my word for it; here are some testimonials:

• "SO. PUMPED." - Michelle, of Fried and Dried (via Facebook)
• "...this is WAY TOO COOL. Where was my invite?! I want to be there too. The lights are just MAD." - Katrina, of One Sentence Movie Reviews/Thoughts (via Facebook)
• "YOUR FORT LOOKS REALLY COOL AND NOW YOU JUST NEED SOME LIGHTSABERS, DISCO LIGHTS AND BUBBLES FOR SOME EXTRA FUN!" - Sophia, of MoulinFrock (via Facebook)

And now for some advanced praise:

• "I know I love this fort because my tail is going at a hundred miles per hour!" - Sonny, our dog.
• "Totally worth it." - Clothing pegs, who strained to hold the fort together
• "Crawling is the new walking!" - my hands and knees

We held a sleepover in the fort, and squat danced to Foster the People, and 'Breathless' by The Corrs (in which Andrea assumed an egg roll position, as she was overcome with too much nostalgia), while sipping on our lemon lime and bitters under a canopy of fairy lights and lanterns. It was glorious and one the best projects my sisters and I have ever accomplished.

We kept the fort erect for the entirety of the weekend, refusing to sleep in our own rooms (our dog included). And here's where my weekend was cooler than yours: I got to sleep in a blanket fort.