To Not So Boldly Go..........

There is a strange but well documented phenomena taking place at the moment when it comes to releasing older movies on Blu-ray, it would seem that after the complaints of an ignorant few ( and sorry if this offends but you are ignorant ) various studios are using excessive digital noise reduction on their films in order to remove film grain from movies often severely compromising picture quality in the process, this is nothing new and it doesn't look as though it's going to stop any time soon.

Unfortunately this has happened to the Star Trek movie franchise, with the exception of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn which for some reason actually received a proper restoration, now I have no idea why only Star Trek II received this treatment but the result were impressive, the movie looked great for a production of it's age and at times looked absolutely stunning, the detail and quality of the model work ( remember when they used models to make movies, those were the days ) was outstanding, this is an example of restoration work done right.

Recently I was ably to buy the Star Trek Movie Trilogy Boxset for cheaper than I could buy Star Trek II alone on Blu-ray so I though I'd get the boxset and see if things were as bad as I'd read.

As I'd mentioned earlier the restoration of Star Trek II was impressive, it was easily the best looking version of the movie I'd ever seen, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, wasn't too bad, there were scenes where the attempt to remove film grain did indeed compromise picture quality but as far as I could tell it was fairly minimal but the places where it did occur had me feeling a little nervous when it came to viewing Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, as that was a movie that was fairly grainy in places and sure enough this movie suffered a lot more as a result of attempts at noise reduction, in places towards the end of the movie I'd go so far as to say the result was an image quality in certain scenes that was of a lower quality than the original DVD release.

I've seen some people say the movies are unwatchable and that is simply not the case but it is very disappointing and at times jarring to go from high quality visuals to sub-standard picture quality which often didn't remove the apparently offending film grain anyway.

The Star Trek II Blu-ray is well worth purchasing but I think I'd only bother with any of the other Trek films on Blu-ray if the were extremely cheap of if the powers that be realised the error of their way and commissioned the proper restoration the movies deserved in the first place.

Master the art of blowing (feathers)

I love Thursdays.


Was walking to the bus stop this morning, got picked up by Jennifer. Apparently, Dr Robertson's stories (see yesterday's blog) had not blown over yet.


Had an assembly about the humanist religion today.


We all came out as humans.


Awesome.


ANOTHER carphone warehouse is opening in Union Square... 

Another one? They must think we are really lazy if 

they don't think we can walk to one of the 

three shops that already exist in the 

shopping centers

That means one thing and one thing only....

Job opportunities!!

You see, my friend Laura has applied for... well... must be around about twenty jobs so far. And, guess what? She hasn't got one yet.

Not even an interview.

But she can be a bitty blonde sometimes (can't we all?) and Linzie thinks that she wouldn't make a good phone's sales person.

CUSTOMER: Excuse me, can you tell me what features this phone has?

LAURA: Don't know.

CUSTOMER: Well... what does it do?

LAURA: This one's blue and this one's pink.

CUSTOMER: So, what one is better?

LAURA: *Patronizingly* This one's blue and this one's pink.

CUSTOMER: What's the price?

LAURA: Can you nae read?! *throws phone off of him*

Disturbingly, I can see this becoming a reality....

STUDY

Not much studying going on, when is my thick brain going to realize that it's only 7 weeks to the exams?!


We were "reminding" Linzie of the good old days, where she used to play Clarinet, and she played the Blue's Brothers "Everybody needs somebody".


Heh-heh. She's never living that down.

MATHS

SO annoyed. I knew most of the answers to the prelim now.


It wasn't actually that bad... It was just the wording that was tripping us all up if I'm being honest.


I feel sorry for Dougal, anytime my table are stuck on a question, we ask him for the answer. He's a hero. But he doesn't really want to help us constantly so he's a reluctant one to say the least.


Calum wasn't there (skiver!) because he had to run home (NOTE: He did not literally run home) and grab something for his interview at Markies.


Sophie told us that she was going to enter the "Kincorth's got talent" competition with....


Interpretive dance.

Got to love interpretive dance.

Especially if Louie Spence is the one doing it.

Although... Sophie says she doesn't really know what interpretive dance is. So this should be interesting!

DOUBLE PSYCHOLOGY

Brilliant.

Even though Dod was off...

We had Sammy's Mum as a guest lecturer instead!

Who, I now LOVE because she told us what we were going to have in our prelim!

But shhh! Don't tell Dod.

Sara forgot her folder in English, even though it is HUGE and the size of a first year. So we went up to Ms Ashleigh's room and what do we see?

Ms Ashleigh and Mrs Ashleigh having a romantic lunch together... Awkwaaaaard.

Then Mrs Anderson came down the corridor and she was saying how she was tired and ill, shame. I told her to go home (in a nice way... I think) and she said that she wishes she could.

She COULD. Just saying. She's got a fancy crossfire too, I'm sure she'd be home before we could realize that she had even left.

Also, got to go to this stupid "information evening" next week so we can find out the S6 choices. Mrs Anderson told me to get my Mum to ask Mr Whyte about the photography course directly.

FREE

Talking about one legged prostitutes, having sex on a running machine and what Kelly says whilst drunk.

KELLY: Do you smell cauliflowers?

Just you're average free period.


Grant was eating sweets, so he was tossing them to people in the library, Kristina says she wanted one so she caught it and then placed it down on the table.

LAUREN: What are you doing?!

KRISTINA: I'm not hungry just now.

LAUREN: Then why did you ask for a sweet?! 

Best thing ever?

ME: Can you have sex on a running machine?

LAUREN: I know someone who has had sex on a running machine.

ME: WHAT?!

LAUREN: Yeah, he was on top of her and then her hand slipped, and pressed the on button and she went shooting out from under him.

Respect. 

ART

Ahhh, hilarious as ever.


Don't get me wrong though, we are a VERY bitchy class.


But we are like a family.


Kelly's globe was finally done. Notice the stress on the word was?


Mr McDonald came over to her and, honest to god, said this:

MR McDONALD: Maybe add oil to it? An oil rig maybe?

You should have seen Kelly's face at that suggestion.

She got confused with that idea so she just took out one of the feathers and started blowing it again.


Sara came over and started making inappropriate comments...

SARA: You're getting really good at blowing!

Something every girl wants to hear.


Kelly's going to see "Death of a salesman" with her English class tonight.

KELLY: I'm going to the theatre tonight!

ME: Oh! To see what?

KELLY: Death of a Salesman.

ME: Is it good?

KELLY: How am I meant to know?! Haven't watched it yet!

Oh the humiliation. 


And we're thinking of going out as a "goodbye" to Kristina (sad face).


Lauren xxx

Define yourself.

Popular.
Emo.
Jock.
Geek.
Idiot.
Slut.
Joker.
Stoner.
Goth.
Pretty.
Douche.


Labels.


It's all about the labels.


Or at least, it is in Secondary school/High School.


We are all so hypocritical, we're quick to label someone with one of these terms, but we detest it when the same is done to us.


I'd say that people see me as a geek. That's cool. I am a geek afterall, I get pretty good grades, I don't get into any trouble, I'm not a drinker, or a smoker, or a slut, I'm hardly drop dead gorgeous, I'm socially awkward... You get the point.


I can admit that I am a geek. I don't mind that. But sometimes, I wish that people would take the time to look under the surface. 


I'm basically a collage of labels. But people don't really register that. Let's face it, we're products on a shelf. Every single one of us.


What can you do for me? Why should I consider keeping you in my life? Are you disposable? Can I throw you away once you've done your purpose? Can I throw you away once I've had my fun? 


We're treated as products. And humanity is fairly selfish, so what happens if you're deemed to be a "product" that is only good for the bargain bucket at poundland?


Change. That.


Why can't you? It's your life. Hard work and dedication are the two things that ensure that anything can happen in this life. Can't play guitar? Go get lessons. Failed that test? Revise. Feeling like you're worthless? Mute that voice in your head. You're not.


Same goes with labels.


You have the right to rewrite the labels that society has handed to you. Be whoever you want to be. Don't let them hold you back. The greatest thing is that even if you can't change people's opinions of you, it doesn't matter. A label is just a label. It can peel off. It doesn't have anything to do with the product underneath, it's just a label.


You have the right to define yourself, be who you want to be, do what you want to do. Don't let fear or conformity get in the way of that.

Lesbian rabbits.

All shall be explained.


Once again, fantastic day. Mother Nature? You're cruel behavior to us over Winter has been forgiven (P.S. thanks for the snow day)


Today was good. Apart from the fact that Kelly wasn't in P.E. and Art today cause she, Lewis and Lee had their Hospitality exam (which I hope went well!)

P.E

Usual sort of stuff, doing absolutely nothing, sitting around on the floor...


That was, until...


The head of P.E. came up to Fitness and told us all:

MR MCNAUGHTAN: Go and do something! Mr Whyte is coming to visit with a councilor. You can go back to do nothing in five 

So that's what happened.


We all went onto the rowing machines, cross trainers, exercise bikes etc for a few minutes until Mr Whyte came up, councilor in tow, and as soon as they went away, we stopped exercising. 

I call it the Homer Simpson technique.

I love the deception that Kincorth Academy has to deploy, merely to stay open. Fantastic.

Megan was attempting to come up with her stage name for RSAMD. Because Megan Stewart is not "billboard material". 

Some of the names that were being thrown around were hilarious.

ART

Not as good without Kelly.

Still doing design, was just drawing a rose. Didn't go too bad!

Just speaking to Kati and Hayleigh for the whole period, should see Hayleigh's rose that she made out of fake petals to put on her dress. It's gorgeous!

Lugging into parts of other conversations too.

ZOE: *tries to open drawer, sees it's locked* What's in this drawer Mr McDonald?

MR MCDONALAD: That's where I keep my pornos. 

Some people laugh nervously.

MR MCDONALD: Please take that as being a joke! Here, better take the key... prove that it was just a joke!

GREG: You would have regretted that if the councilor came through the door at the moment you said that!

Heh. What a legend.

DOUBLE ENGLISH

Mrs Fulton was off (English teachers have bad attendance) so we were stuck got Ms Shaw and Mrs Still instead.


They expected us to write two critical essays, in two hours, with no notes, and a question paper that had insanely hard questions.


Needless to say, some people couldn't be assed.


Megan didn't attempt it, Billy chose the wrong question, I had writer's block, Lee had a Hospitality exam, Caitlin didn't write a lot, Sean didn't write anything and Calum and Ashleigh played hangman.


Woo. We're getting A's in the final for sure!


It was hilarious though, Ms Shaw was going over what we had to do, and we said that we couldn't do it without the notes.

MS SHAW: You're prelim was just last week (NOTE: It was two weeks ago). You should be able to remember your revision!

CAITLIN: *laughs in disbelief, a hissing noise comes out at the end*

Caitlin then applies some lipbalm.

MS SHAW: Is that to stop the hissing?

She then left the classroom, our class was in pure silence and all you could hear was a muffled Ms Shaw complaining:

MS SHAW: She hissed at me!

Then we just learnt a little about Shakespeare. Let me share some knowledge with you:


He was married to Anne Hathaway. 

This is not the Anne Hathaway that Shakespeare married.

He was bisexual.

He wrote Sonnet 18 (Shall I compare thee to a Summer's day?) to the dude he was sleeping with.

He looked like a Butcher.

He was NOT a Butcher.

He was very wealthy and 10,000 spectators went to see one of his plays.

He took cannabis (supposedly).

Learn something new everyday.

Calum tried to sneak away early.

CALUM: Ms, can I go?

MS SHAW: You got somewhere to be like?

CALUM: Lunch.

Haha, nice try bud!


Halle came to see us at Lunch! Very happy. Got to give her a GIANT squeezy hug before she goes away to New Zealand for a few weeks.


Hopefully, she's going to come back with a gold medal!


Also, saw some uneducated graffiti...

"We were all here".

Wooooooooooow.


Only in Kincorth.


Poor Abie can't eat the school's yoghurt anymore...


It contains beef gelotine.


I.e. Jellyised beef... Ewwwww.


New phrase of the day?

"Fit's adoo with yer Petite Filous?"

DOUBLE HUMAN BIOLOGY

Awww, so funny today!


We were learning about the brain, so someone's skull (NOTE: Someone's skull, not a skull) was passed round. 


Claire was mighty freaked out by this skull. Me and Abie had a much more laid back approach...

SKULL: *Mouth flapping, Abie controlling this* Hello Linzie!

It had it's front teeth missing. Sexy.

DR ROBERTSON: What was your first memory?

Everyone ponders.

DR ROBERTSON: Mine was back in Nursery. I wet myself. My son went one better though, he was sick on his first day.

Bless!!


Best thing he came out with though?

DR ROBERTSON: I have two female rabbits and... they know their meant to do something so they... climb on top of eachother...

Nah nah nah nah naaaah! Dr Robertson has lesbian rabbits!

Although, I'm sure any rabbit would go gay

 for this particular rabbit...

We were talking about stuffed animals and Abie came out with a story that had me and Linzie in tears of laughter.

She was at this museum place in third year, where you are surrounded by stuffed animals (Creepy, I know) and she sat on a chair that was easily stuck.

So she tried to slide it backwards  but it didn't work, so she put more force of it and, in her own words, "wiped out two sections of animals", including an owl and several trays of butterflies.

Or at least, that's the story as I heard it. There was something about a head ending up on her lap too... 

Another time perhaps?

Lauren xxx

I don't hate a lot of things...

As anyone I know can tell you, I don't really have a problem with... well... anybody, My music taste is diverse to say the least, and there's very few things that can get me annoyed, really annoyed.


But, my pet hate about human nature and society in general is the amazingly quick time that it takes for judgements to be made and for prejudice to take place.


Think about it. Have you ever been walking home at night, see a man that looks quite threatening and have crossed the street? How about refusing to give a homeless man your change because you believe he's just going to go out and spend it on drugs? Or, have you ever looked at someone and thought "I don't like you?".


If the answer is yes to any of these questions, then you might like to consider taking the time to at least attempt to stop making off the mark judgements of people.


Tattoos do not mean thug.
Skinny does not mean beautiful.
Fat does not mean ugly.
Bitchy does not mean evil.


Yet, in the world today, this is what must of us seem to believe. 


Imagine the person that you hate the most in the world. Just visualise them for a moment.


Got them?


Good. Now think to yourself, have they got any friends? If they have friends, there MUST be something to like about them. Right? Why would someone hang around with a person that is constantly mean, irritating and just plain evil? 


We hate for stupid reasons. She stole my boyfriend! He burst a tub of Garlic herb sauce over my head! She has an annoying voice! He's got an annoying laugh. She's a bitch!


Newsflash: There's more to life. Are you really going to spend time hating on someone that, let's face it, you don't really know for such trivial reasons?! Forgiveness is divine. Move on. I'm not saying that you have to be best friends, I'm just saying that if we can spend so much time and dedication to hating someone, why can't we do the same for loving someone?

"We hate so fast and we love too slow"

Society has enough hate. Assault, murder, rape, torture, war, riots, bullying... It doesn't need more hate. Oh no, in fact, it feels as though one more morsel of hate would cause the world to explode. What we need now is love. Or if not love, tolerance, forgiveness and understanding.


If this Mother can forgive her Son's murderers, surely you can forgive your "enemy" for having a strange hair cut, or for looking at you in the strange way?


Surely....

Killed by a pineapple.

Okay, what gives? It's a glorious, Summer's day... that is freezing and in Spring. So confused.


Linzie was telling me that her cousin took Advanced Higher French and for it, she has to speak to an examiner for twenty minutes, straight up, in French.


Eh... Impossible?!


I can't remember half of the stuff I learnt in French. I remember:


Je voudrais deux timbres si vous plait (I want two stamps please)
Je t'aime. (I love you)
Voulez vous coucher avec moi? (Would you like to sleep with me?)


Linzie remembered "Ce n'est pas ma tasse de thé" or, It's not my cup of tea in English.


So our French conversation would go like...

ME: Je voudrais deux timbres si vous plait.

EXAMINER:  Nous sommes dans une école, pas un bureau de poste!

ME: Je t'aime... Voulez vous coucher avec moi?

EXAMINER:  Ce n'est pas ma tasse de thé... *winks*

ME: Le paedophile!!! LE PAEDOPHILE!

I may be able to get an A in Advanced Higher French with that.


Or a lot of bribe money. Either one.

P.S.E

Despite being in 5th year, I spent the period doing a job that P5's usually do...


Ripping the labels off of folders.


So was doing that with Linzie, Sara and Claire. 


Linzie and Sara had to climb up onto a chair (Health and safety? Eat your heart out) and place the folders on a shelf, in colour order...


Then Linzie went and dropped the folder on my head. Thanks for that.

BIOLOGY

Brilliant period, drew a graph, and in terms of "work", that's all I did.


We went onto a new topic about populations, and Ms Duncan made it into an elaborate role playing/fantasy idea, where our class was abandoned on a deserted island.

Hammock not included.

MS DUNCAN: You'd land on the island and the first thing you would be thinking would be "Hmm, I'm hungry". So what do you eat?

AARON: Chicken 

JASON: Pineapple. 

MS DUNCAN: How would you eat the pineapple.

STEWART: Make tools.

MS DUNCAN: What kind of tools?

STEWART: A pineapple cutter.

MILTON: Wait... Is there any cows on this island? I'd like some milk.

MS DUNCAN: There's goats! Now, after you eat some food, what do you do?

STEWART: Make shelter.

JASON: Couldn't you just sleep under a tree?

EMMA: You might get killed by a pineapple whilst your sleeping.

What a horrible way to go.

MS DUNCAN: After that, you're going to need some sanitation, what do you do?

MILTON: Dig a hole.

MS DUNCAN: How?

ABIE: With your hands?

MS DUNCAN: Then what?

STEWART: Cover the hole pack up, or just leave it... *says something about holes sorting themselves out*

MS DUNCAN: *blank look*

STEWART: Have you ever made a sandcastle?

Spoke to Kelly at break about awkward pool moments. Like when you're stuck behind someone that is going up the stair out of the Swimming pool and their ass is in your face?


Awkward.


Or how about Old men wearing speedos, that don't leave much to the imagination?


Awkward.


Worst one? Getting water from someone's swimming trunks getting spilt onto your face because your climbing up the ladder just behind them.


AWKWARD.

DOUBLE ART

I got an A!!


Ch'yeah.


Hardly even revised. I'm chuffed with that.


We were just continuing on with our Design folios. Mine's is coming along but no-where near fast enough. Hurry up Lauren!


Listening to Rachel talking to Mr McDonald made my heart smile. 

RACHEL: So do you love your wife?

MR McDONALD: Of course I do, she's my best friend.

D'aaaaaw!


Overheard that Lauren broke up with her boyfriend by text message... that's not cool!!


Stephanie has a kick ass new hairstyle, really short. I wish I had the guts to cut it that short...

DOUBLE MATHS

Hell. HELL!!


I knew I failed that maths exam... 30%. Gaaah.


Technically, it was 31%. If you rounded it up.


Ahh well. I tried my best.


Only Dougal passed at our table, he's such a genius. He managed to get an A.


Sophie got three 6's... Haha, should have seen her face. Mixture of shock and happiness. Bless.


We were meant to find out where we went wrong for the double period. Double period? I need a month. 70% (or 69%!) was wasted because I had no clue.


Just wanted to go home and cry at my failure. Even though I was expecting it and even though I know most people failed it.


Felt sorry for Calum, Mr Hughes was treating him as if he should know these things. ALL of these things. So he can't remember a formula! Don't keep pestering him to give you the answer! Tell him what it is so he has a chance of remembering it.


Uncool.


Educated Calum about Wowzies though, and Calum, if you are reading this, information about Wowzie is here! And you are my Maths buddy and I'm glad we're both still on the course! ^_^


Ahh well.


Can't believe it's only Tuesday. This is insane.


Waiting for my Maths tutor to get here. Poor Charles. He fairly has his work cut out for him.


Lauren xxx

Screenplay

Yes. I haven't officially made a statement for this (Amazing how much of a celebrity I'm feeling like right now) but I'm attempting to write a screenplay.


Actually... I'm attempting to write three.


With five Highers... It's not happening.


I just add little bits and pieces to the scripts when I feel like it, or at least, when I can add something to them.


Rundown of the scripts:


Everything's going to be okay


Can never describe this one...


Basically, it's a social commentary on the hardships of teenage life. The major issues affecting our generation being teenage pregnancy, drug addiction, alcohol abuse, depression and self harm. It's a "Valentine's Day", "Love Actually" type direction, but with the genre being drama instead of rom-com. It revolves around (for the most part) three students and their Guidance teacher, who attempts to help them overcome their problems and enable them to do whatever it is they want to do with their lives.


Let's just say, there's a twist, and lots of people won't like it.


Anna


For the lack of a better name... Still haven't really titled it.


This is the script I'm focusing on most at the moment, based on the work I did for my blog post on pro-suicide websites, but this time focusing on pro-ana (Pro-Anorexia) vlogs (video blogs).


I've written a few scenes for it. Or rather... A few soliloquies for Anna's character. I'm pretty proud of them. It's going to be written around anorexia and it's roots, what triggers it? What is the day to day life like for an anorexic person? It's also going to be about depression and self harm.


Not going to lie, Pink's video for "F*ckin perfect" influenced me.


Blood stained snow


My "treat with caution" piece. Too nervous to write it incase I go wrong with it.


Going to take a different view point on the "standard" school shooting movie. Instead of having a homicidal, gothic maniac terrorising fellow students for, from what the viewer can tell from the movie anyways, no reason, my screenplay would try to create a sympathetic villian out of this character, which creates a conflict of morals in the viewers mind. 


See why I'm nervous about writing that one? I don't want to mess it up and end up offending people who have lost their Sons, Daughters, Brothers, Sisters, Friends, Boyfriends, Girlfriends, Fiances or Partners in school shootings. I swear that's not what I'm trying to do.


Ooh. Four if you count the new idea I've got... a comedy about evil henchmen, where the henchmen are the protagonists and "Agent Blonde" is the antagonist.... with cheesy lines when he crashes into the lair.


What up.


Just had to share that with you all.


Oh! And Happy March.


Lauren xxx