And my predictions are...
Alright, I figured I'd give my predictions for this year's Academy Awards. I haven't seen all the movies, but I think I can make some educated guesses as to who's going to win the awards. I'll do many but not all.
Best FilmLittle Miss Sunshine - Traditionally the Academy shuns comedies, but this one is too good to pass up in my opinion. The acting is great by the entire cast. The general storyline with the dysfunctional family trip angle is old, but this movie gives it a new and refreshing taste. Finally, it's real, kind of. It shows real people with real problems that many people have to deal with in their lives eventually. Sure all films do that, but this one is more direct and not just a characteristic of a person. I think that makes sense.
Note: I haven't seen Letters from Iwo Jima or The Queen.Best DirectorMartin Scorsese for
The Departed - You've all heard constantly that he's been shunned for so long from getting the Best Director nod. They'll give it to him. There's just too much hype going around for him to not get it.
Note: I haven't seen Letters from Iwo Jima, The Queen or Flight 93. Traditionally war movies don't get it and slice of lifers are simple enough to denote what happens and how it's filmed. Therefore I didn't vote for them.Best ActorForest Whitaker - Again all signs point to him. I haven't seen this movie but not because I haven't wanted to. It looks amazing. Also, Whitaker is a great actor. I saw a movie of his called Ghost Dog and it was very well done.
I must say since I haven't seen
The Last King of Scotland my own personal choice would be Ryan Gosling from
Half Nelson.
Note: I've only seen Half Nelson and The Pursuit of Happyness. However, as I mentioned I can appreciate Whitaker's acting, and also Leonardo Dicaprio as well who's nominated for Blood Diamond.
Best ActressOddly enough I haven't seen any of the Best Actress films. Though Helen Mirren is getting all the nods. Meryl Streep for
The Devil Wears Prada is probably the dark horse here.
Best Supporting ActorAlan Arkin in
Little Miss Sunshine - His character in the movie was amazing. Nearly every word out of his mouth made for a funny moment. He also made you feel that he was a great grandfather at the same time. Also, he isn't in the film for maybe half of it, but his influence plays a great role.
Note: I'd vote Mark Wahlberg because he was great in The Departed, but his character was pretty one dimensional. And the others I haven't seen. It was good that Arkin clearly performed well that I didn't have to worry about the others.Best Supporting ActressBecause
Dreamgirls will get relatively shutout of the major awards, the buzz around Jennifer Hudson will likely result in her winning the award. That's the safe bet. My personal choice out of the 3 I've seen act would be Rinko Kikuchi from
Babel. She played a messed up young deaf-mute girl verrrry well. Quite believable.
Others (minus explanations):Best Writing (original screenplay)Little Miss SunshineBest Writing (adapted screenplay)The DepartedVisual EffectsPirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's ChestForeign LanguagePan's LabyrinthDocumentary FeatureAn Inconvenient TruthCostume DesignMarie AntoinetteMakeupPan's LabyrinthThere you have it people. Those are my choices and I'm stickin to 'em ... we'll see how I do after the winners are announced on Sunday!
Peace.
...Or stay the course and not cut and run...
(for the reference, see previous entry...it's related)
Yesterday I had to go to school and as a class we met to discuss how our internships were going and whatnot.
For the most part the whole thing was a waste of time, and only provided me with an excuse to leave work a little early, and by little I mean two hours, one-and-a-half of which was spent at the Eaton Centre... I needed new earphones. Anway I digress...
After the meeting I spoke with one of our instructors about my future prospects. I asked him straight up if it was worthwhile to continue doing school for one more year to get the PR course. He told me, honestly, that he was bias in a way because it's basically the school's task, if you will, to make sure I get a job when I graduate, because it looks better on them come stats time. But he also said that you can never have enough education (aka it couldn't hurt).
He offered a solution, if not a temporary one, that I can work with. He said to maybe wait a little bit after finishing up my placement and see if anyone takes the bait and offers me a job. If after a few months and there's no takers, then maybe pursuing the PR program would be the best call. The good part about the programs are that they're offered in both September and January, so I can effectively give myself an extra four months or so to decide where I want to take things.
I really want to move on with my life and start living on my own etc. so landing a job without having to be preoccupied by school until Sept. 2008 will save me a lot of time and money. At the same time I enjoy school a lot so going back wouldn't seem like all that much of a hassle to me. In the end, I think his solution is a good middle ground for me and I'll see how that goes. So it looks like I shant be going to school for the time being... but who knows?
Peace.
One more try...or one and a half...or more even...
I don't know how to preface this post so I'll just get into it.
I'm nearing the end of the program. There's just over two months left before I graduate. In fact, tomorrow when I'm at school for a class meeting I'm handing in my application to graduate form. It's a great time for me, personally. I'll be the first in my immediate family to have finished college. This was a big goal for me and I'm glad I'm going to achieve it.
However, coming to the end of this program I don't feel I'm necessarily ready to get out there yet. I can get a position easily and be on my way, but I wouldn't feel to comfortable, I don't think. I need a little more.
So since I've decided to take the Public Relations/Corporate Communications route, I've been looking at courses. I've found 3 colleges in the city offering 1 - 1 1/2 year post-grad programs in Corp. Comm. : Humber, Centennial and Seneca.
If I decide to take the chance and join the course it'll give the specific skills I think I require to do the PR/Corp. Comm. thing. Things I haven't explicitly learned while in Journalism. I've been given great skills, I think, that I can apply, but I really have little idea what's expected of me in the corporate world.
Of the three colleges Humber is the least familiar, so it's down at the bottom. I go to Centennial now, so I understand how it works. The program is even offered at my tiny-ass campus, so I'll be pretty comfortable there. However, right now I'm leaning towards Seneca's program.
Like I said it's one year, with a half-semester co-op option (which costs more but I think is worth it). They offer the same/similar program to Centennial and Humber. However since they're affiliated with York University (it's at that Uni), the program has a partnership with the University of Western Sydney in Australia. And that would mean after I finish at Seneca, and have the proper average (a B avg., nothing too difficult), I can go to Australia. The beauty of it is that it would only be for four months to get my degree because they accept 40 credits towards it.
One semester in Australia while going to school would kick-ass. I've been wanting to go there for years. I'm not saying that I would definitely go, but having the option to live a life experience like that while learning is something I would deeeeeply consider if the opportunity came my way.
So yeah, there you have it. I'm heavily leaning toward going back to school, even though I technically will never have left!
Peace.
In short...
As many of you know I don’t really have any inclination to become a reporter; I haven’t for quite some time. The lucky part with the program I chose is that it gives me quite a few choices career-wise.
During my internship I’ve gained more (albeit I haven’t learned anything more) experience in proof-reading and copy-editing, both are jobs worth pursuing, if not for the short-term only. I’ve also gained a lot of experience in the corporate communications aspect. While I haven’t done media releases or anything important like that, I have had the opportunity to write a few articles. They aren’t the articles I’ve gotten used to writing over the past two-and-a-half years, these are more lopsided, in favour of the organization I’m at. Basically all pros, no cons.
I understand what’s being asked of me and I have no problems giving only a certain view of a subject. I’m actually happy that I get to write like this because it presents a different kind of challenge than what I’ve done in the past. Before it was the interviews that were tougher, having to find the right people and getting different viewpoints to keep your article balanced. Now, the interview is easy because they give you everything you ask for, even if they say not to write it, they give you the information anyway.
Speaking of writing, that used to be the easy part, now it’s a little more difficult as I said because it provides me with a new challenge. I have to get all these positive points across, make sure what I’m saying is worded properly and give kudos to certain people or the company as a whole whenever I get the opportunity and so on. There are a lot of things I have to get in because it will influence the reader (employee/person with vested interest) in a positive way, which will in turn get them to think of the “company”, as it were, in a positive way.
The only thing I haven’t gotten to do is design. That’s been my passion since I took design class in second year. What they have let me do is recognize I know what I’m talking about when it comes to design, and let me put my opinion in to make the paper better or more appealing. It’s not exactly what I wanted but it’s a start and it shows they’re taking my opinions seriously.
That just about sums up what I’ve been through in my first month at my internship and I think it’ll get better and hopefully less boring haha.
Peace.
Get your body parts for cheap, here!
I was watching the news earlier today and one of the stories raised a bit of a moral dilemna for me.
The piece was about a Canadian man who needed a liver (or kidney) transplant. It wasn't a life or death situation, though offhand I can't remember the reason for it. Facing wait times of about eight months in Canada, he took his issue to Pakistan. There he found a poor Pakistani man who was a match, making him suitable for donating his organ. The Canadian man paid this guy $3,000 for the donation.
My dilemna here is...
I'm happy the man's troublesome situation can be resolved, and that he can go on to live a healthier life. He was resourceful in going to another country to help himself, and if others do it, many more lives can be saved, instead of waiting anxiously on a list for such a long period of time for a donor.
However, this whole situation sucks because I get the feeling (if it hasn't been going on already) that with this story it'll become a trend among those in First World countries going to those lesser off and exploiting their people for their body parts in exchange for nothing in comparison to what they're losing. Sure there's a financial benefit to the poor donor, but what's $3,000 going to do for them when they start having complications from the surgery or any other number of things that can come out of that.
The issue scared me a little, as I envisioned Third World humans simply being used for their parts as rich First Worlders came in and took what they wanted. I hope that doesn't become the case and someone can do something about it before it inevitably does. The cost of saving one life in exchange for a life not worth much to begin with isn't a fair deal. It's still a life no matter what the financial or societal difference.
Peace.
