I’ve posted a lot of Tea Reflections lately, and I realised that I haven’t actually written an old-fashioned “this is what’s happening in my life” post yet! The last one was back in December, and a lot has happened since then, so… here’s a list of things that have been going on!
? University
I am halfway through semester two and I’m honestly having a hard time reconciling this! Time has sort of flown by, but at the same time, I’ve done so much in terms of projects for this course that I think, “Yeah, actually, two months of this seems pretty fair!”
So, firstly, all the good news: I have passed everything from semester 1 with flying colours, and have been passing all assignments for semester 2! I don’t know how, but I am keeping on top of everything, to the point that I have submitted two assessments a whole week before they were due!! That has never happened to me before! When did I turn into such a good student?! ? I think it’s really down to me enjoying the degree a lot! Turns out I can’t wait to work on things when I’m actually enjoying them! Crazy, right? So let’s go in order:
Documentary: unfortunately, and it really pains me to say this because I really cared about it, our group’s documentary has fallen apart, to the point that we won’t have the finished product that we had envisioned when we first started, due to a couple of hiccups we had with some of our group members. We tried really hard, but there was no way we could deliver a full 10-minute documentary with just me and Peter working on it — and it would have been unfair on us to have to do half the group’s work anyway. Do not worry, though: we are still passing the unit as long as we submit our individual edits and paperwork, which Peter and I did! In fact, my edit was one of the assignments I finished a week in advance (and Peter submitted his own edit last week as well). I am very happy with it, and Peter and my friends liked it a lot, too! They all congratulated me on my editing, which I really appreciated. ❤️ I think I might edit together a rough version of what the documentary should have been like if we didn’t have all these hiccups, and I can put that up on Youtube with a small disclaimer. I wanted the documentary to be a portfolio piece for me, to show my directing and editing skills, so this setback wasn’t ideal… but it’s only first year — there are plenty more portfolio pieces to be created next year!
Graded Unit: this is by far the biggest subject this semester! Our Graded Unit is a personal project and we got a choice between a few creative projects that we could do. So I went a bit crazy… and chose to make a short film! Yes, I am making a short film! I still can’t believe it, but it’s happening. I have a crew and locations, I’ve gotten permission from a Japanese duo to use their piano music for the soundtrack, I’ve written
Those are the two main projects I wanted to report on — everything else is fine! ? I’ve chosen the topic of my radio documentary and I’m carrying out interviews for it right before the April holidays. Also I received some amazing feedback on my feature and ad copy for last semester’s writing class — my lecturer said my feature is solid and so good that it could be published in a newspaper! He said I had a great command of the language and flow. I was so happy about it! ? It feels good to have all your efforts and all the time you spent perfecting your writing recognised like this.
? Lifestyle
I’ve made some lifestyle changes! I am really cracking down on my waste — I want to reduce it and buy as less plastic as possible. Also, here is the biggest lifestyle change of them all: I am trying out veganism! I’m currently in my second week. Lots of trial and error involved, and I’m cutting things out bit by bit. I’m excited to cook vegan dishes and to eat healthier too!
Also, I’m happy to say that I’m still going strong with bullet journaling! ? It has really helped me keep on top of things and remembering everything, along with helping me feel like I have more power over my days — i.e. time doesn’t feel like it’s “flying” and “passing me by” as much as it used to. I honestly feel like this is the best part about bullet journaling, and what’s really had the most positive impact on me.
I don’t have any other news here — I want to get back into exercising, but it’s hard with my packed university schedule and all the projects I have on my plate at the moment. Still, maybe during the Easter holidays I can get back to my daily walks!
? Hobbies & Projects
I’ve made so much progress here since December… it’s list time!
?Books: I finished all the books I was reading in my last update (I, Robot, Notes on a Nervous Planet and The Shadow Over Innsmouth) and I enjoyed them all. I also read Frankenstein, Jane, the Fox, and Me (this one was in the college library and I couldn’t resist! Such a lovely illustrated book ?) and To Kill a Mockingbird. I absolutely loved Frankenstein… but I didn’t like To Kill a Mockingbird very much. I also started reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, while I’ve chosen to tackle Dracula as my next classic. I also started reading a Hellboy comic, because I’ve been meaning to read those for a while. All is well in reading land!
?Video games: I completed Life is Strange: Before The Storm, Titanfall 2, The Silent Age, Yoku’s Island Express, Finding Paradise, Hue and Celeste! Many of these were completed in January while I was waiting for semester 2 to kick in properly. I also got better at Hollow Knight, although I haven’t finished it yet. At the moment I’m about to finish Bayonetta and I also tried out Wargroove and Darkest Dungeon (the latter was a gift from two online friends! ?). I want to finish a few more games (like Fable, which I’ve left unplayed since December…) before I start any more — at the moment I’m thinking of tackling Okami and The Witcher 3 next. We’ll see how well this goes given that I have a radio documentary and a short film to work on! ? In general, though, I’m happy that I am finishing games!
?Youtube: I am very, very happy to say that… I have finally filmed my second video! Boy, this took so long! Basically, I went through months of not knowing what to film, but when I realised my Youtube “anniversary” was coming up and that I was in quite a different state of mind from way back when I made my first video… I finally settled on an idea for the second video and filmed it! I was also inspired by videos by other
And that’s all for my March real life update! I hope to post a bit more during the Easter holidays, as I have a lot of ideas to catch up on for the Tea Reflections. Hopefully, by the time the next real life update comes around, I’ll have a Youtube video uploaded and will have made more progress on my short film! ? I’m so excited for the future! ?