New Plans or Just Dreaming?

I've started to become a bit reluctant to share (on here, but also with others in person) what I think is potentially newsworthy in my life, since I realised (eventually - it had to happen sometime) that I often come up with grand schemes that don't always go anywhere. The "we're taking a giant trip to the USA" post comes to mind. We were originally going to go this September, then it was pushed back to sometime next year, and now... well not sure if it's happening to be honest.

However at the same time, I doubt I'm going to stop coming up with big plans, especially since they're so fun to think about. Also it's my blog so I can dream on it if I want to!

I'm still hoping to finish my PhD by the end of this year. The plans/dreams concern what I would be doing next year. Originally I was hoping to get a job at a neighbouring university, and therefore stay in Sydney. However when discussing this with my supervisor, she mentioned that it is quite difficult career-wise to stay in the same place. Universities want to hire academics from different countries, or at least people with experience working in another country. I ended up speaking to Husband about this, and he was surprisingly fine with us moving overseas if I got a post-doctoral position somewhere. Post-doc jobs typically last 2 years, and then we could come back to Sydney, and I might have a better chance of securing a permanent position here with the international experience.

London (from my pinterest board 'dreaming of the UK').

Thinking about this possibility allowed my wish to live in the UK to resurface. I would find it hard to move there forever as I'd miss people here too much, but knowing I could potentially stay there for a year or two would be lovely. So now in the next few months when I have to start looking for work for next year, the UK is going to be my first choice. The hard thing though is - in my head I've already moved there and am having a wonderful time. This just makes it that much more disappointing if it doesn't actually occur. 

Plus, well I suppose I should also work on making sure I do finish my PhD first! But dreaming of my possible adventures over there is much more enjoyable right now...

30 days of movies - the lazy edition.

The reason I'm calling this the lazy edition is because basically - I'm tired. After being sick, this week has been super busy trying to catch up experiments and I've also had things on most nights. I still just haven't had a chance to catch up on sleep. Anyway, the point is I'm going to answer a couple more of the days on the movie challenge very quickly, as for these I can't really think of overly long reasons explaining why they're my answers - they just are. 

[via imdb]

Day 5 - Favourite Drama: American Beauty. For Year 12 English we had to pick a movie based on some theme I can't remember anymore, but I chose American Beauty. I thought it was an OK movie, but because I had to watch it several times and analyse the potential meaning behind it all, it really stuck with me. Especially since when you think about it, nothing extraordinary happens until the end. However I do think it's really interesting the whole way through. This is one of the few movies I'm willing to watch, even though the ending doesn't turn out exactly how I'd usually like it to go. 

[via imdb]

Day 6 - Favourite Comedy: Hot Fuzz. Generally it seems a lot of comedies that come out these days are either romantic comedies, or 'boy' comedies (i.e., crude). Hot Fuzz is neither, and I think it's just great! It was a bit gorier that I was expecting, but besides that very amusing. I also think the friendship between the two main characters is fun and sweet. Favourite quote: "Have you ever fired your gun up in the air and gone aargh?"

What would you pick for your favourite drama and favourite comedy?

 

 

P.S. I realise I haven't actually explained what these movies are about (and now that I think of it, I don't think I did for the earlier ones either). Is that a problem? I guess I kind of assumed people have either seen them, or have a vague idea of what they're about. 

 

P.P.S. A giant THANK YOU to all the lovely comments from my previous post about having to go to hospital - I really appreciated reading all of them. While I did mention earlier that I'm very tired, besides that I'm heaps better and really trying not to take health for granted anymore. 

Thankful.

Something I've been whinging about a lot lately is the lack of sign ups by participants to my studies. I really need to make sure I get enough so I can finish my PhD. Finally in the past two weeks I've had a reasonable amount of people sign up, however...

[via]

I unexpectedly had to stay in hospital for a few days this week (don't worry, I'm almost totally ok now), and I had to get my supervisor to email all my participants to postpone the experiments they'd signed up to. I opened my email later on to find many many emails from participants wishing to reschedule (usually they can just cancel, or if not enough notice is given, take the credit anyway) and also saying they hope I felt better soon, and they were looking forward to participating in the experiment later on. At first (besides thinking it was sweet they were wishing me well) I was a bit irritated, because now I have to reschedule many different timeslots - but then I remembered, I've been praying for more participants, and even though I was sick they still all want to come! 

Two more things I'm thankful for - nurses, and family/friends. I already thought nurses had a tough job, but having to stay in hospital for a few days really showed me just how much they do. Even though visiting hours finished, one nurse let Husband stay in the room all night, because she knew I hadn't been in hospital before and was a bit scared/overwhelmed. As I mentioned, I'm also thankful for the family members and friends that came to see me and cheered me up, and especially for Husband. He got time off work so he could just sit with me for hours. 

It's times when something bad happens, that you really get the chance to see the good in people, and I'm very thankful for that reminder.

30 Days of Movies: Two in One!

Since I've been pretty slack on this front, and to try and preempt the still ever present possibility that I might abandon this project, I am lumping two together today. So there.

Day 3: Your Favourite Action/Adventure Movie.

I have many favourites in this genre, but I think the one that was super unique when it came out, as well as very compelling, as well as Keanu Reeves-y will be my pick: The Matrix. It is the only movie I've seen at the cinema more than once (...I think).

[via imdb]

To be honest, I'm a bit 'meh' about the two follow up movies, but the original was awesome. Interesting concept and super cool special effects. It also kind of freaked me out a bit, as my 15 year old self thought: how would I know if I'm in the Matrix - this could all be real!

Day 4: Your Favourite Horror Movie.

Creepy, but awesome [via imdb]

Horror is generally not the movie genre I choose to watch, but I still have a very clear favourite: Sleepy Hollow. Part of the reason I like this movie is probably due to the lengths I went to to actually watch it! My friend (Hi Anide!) and I went to the cinema to see Sleepy Hollow the day before I turned 15. When we showed up to buy tickets I wasn't allowed as I didn't have my ID to show my age (in Australia this movie's rating meant you had to be 15+ to see it). So we caught the bus to my house, and I realised nobody was home and I didn't have my keys. So what did I do? Remove the screen from a window and break in. With my ID we went back, to which after viewing it the ticket lady asked - "Don't you turn 15 tomorrow?"

After briefly trying to pretend we thought it actually was my birthday today (which did look pretty stupid - who doesn't know exactly when their birthday is?) we then just resorted to trying to sweet talk the lady into letting me see it a day early. She finally relented and the movie scared my pants off (don't worry - not literally). Christopher Walken does creepy extremely well - to the point that it doesn't matter if he's in a movie where he's nice, he still creeps me out. Now I'm not the biggest Johnny Depp lover (sorry!), but I do like his character in this movie. I did find it hard though to see Christina Ricci as the love interest however, since I was so used to seeing her in Casper and Now and Then. Even still, the reason it's my favourite horror movie is because although there is a lot of gore, there actually is an interesting story behind it, and it's quite clever. 

Question: what movies would you have picked for action/adventure and horror as your favourites?

30 days of movies challenge from here and here.

Look at it.

[via my pinterest]

...And in non-duck-related events, the last few days have been a bit mixed. On Sunday, as husband and I were just getting in the car to go shopping, I randomly sprained my ankle (I think partly from the unbalanced-ness that is caused by my ear infection). However I carried on to the shops like a trooper - Husband had actually agreed to take me shopping just so I could buy clothes, as if I'd give up that chance, hobbling around or not! I did get some good clothes too. Since taking on some extra responsibilities at uni, I need some "grownup person" clothes, so I don't get mistaken for a random person in meetings who wandered in by accident. 

Surprisingly for me, I've also been quite productive the last couple of days. I submitted a paper to a journal (4th time's the charm...?), and just finished writing another one, and both my experiments are ready to go for next week (fingers crossed people sign up this time)! 

Well, I think that's mostly it for now. Sorry if you found my update boring, but in that case go back and look at the duck again.