Leap year post

In the mood for a post
for (excluding special days)
I like this one the most
But why, you ask, you say?
Because why not, today is a leap day!

I made something similar
four years ago. Reading it felt
Nostalgic and nice
so now I decide
that I'll do it twice.

Today is a day of rest
which is always the best.
Looked inside computer
and it was full of dust;
a massive clean
was definitely a must.

Despite all the dust
flying up to my face,
soon my desktop was
running at a happy pace.

Opened up Sims 2,
created a dormitory lot,
while the Sydney outdoors
was nothing but hot.
(and looks like this heat spell
would not be short)

Wanna see a picture,
wanna see? I've uploaded
a pic at the bottom
in all its....glory (???)

Lunch at home is always nice
Because I absolutely love
Soup, noodles and spice.
Afterwards it was time
to go to work
and earn some dime.

Work was tiring
despite being 3 hours long
kept trying to stop a kid
from bursting into song
it's just addition kid
finish it and move along.

Took an early train home
but it was one of those tins
checked reddit and found
Leonardo has finally got a win!

Had beef & fish for dinner
now all nice and full
now sitting in front of comp
feeling clean and cool

Hence that was my day
my abysmal poem stops here
Will make another for 2020
if my blog is still here

Backlog

Sometimes it gets so busy I end up paralyzed and end up doing almost nothing effectively. I feel like that right now. By the end of this month - scratch that, by 19 days, I have to finish the following:

-THESIS (lemme bold that)
-Presentation for Thesis
-Group assignment (that takes forever to compile every time I do it so I got to be careful)
-Individual assignment
-Online quiz
-Group assignment for data mining + research + practice

Saying I am feeling slightly overwhelmed is a huge understatement. I AM SO OVERWHELMED. It feels like I am putting out fires constantly. Best strategy for me, as ironic as it sounds, is to just do nothing. At least until I calm down a little, and then I focus on one thing at a time. ONE THING AT A TIME. Actually just listing out everything makes me feel a little better too. This is just the uni stuff...granted, not really that many personal stuff, just things like zomg I need to plan holidays zomg I need to do this and that and zomg I need to reply to all these emailsssss. In fact, I've almost sorted non-uni stuff, particularly driving (I passed on the first go! I was so thrilled. I've been stressing about this for nearly 5 years it is over. I am so glad) and I've done my taxes. But sorry to everybody who I have basically said 'sorry I cannot make it to the events you invited me because thesis'. Luckily most people are super understanding, it's awesome.

Other thing I do other than nothing, is to play some games. Been playing a lot of sims (but not A LOT, I am not an idiot I know I got things to do) and it helps me relax a little bit.

I think what is difficult is more my perception of what I need to do. Even if nothing (in terms of progress) has changed, my mind goes between "oh I can do this I can make it" and "omg I cannot make itttttt helpppppp". I wish I was more stable there. I think the most challenging thing wasn't uni (although it is VERY challenging and directly contributed to my next point) but my ability to mentally deal with everything. I can't confirm because I haven't actually been to a doctor or anything by I suspect I have been slightly depressed this year. All good now though, oddly. Of all times to be stressed/depressed, I am quite fine. Just got a lot of fires to put out.

My train of thought has ran away too fast because I originally wanted to write this post (hence the title 'Backlog') was to say I suddenly found my entire collection of Sims 1 on my bookshelf and lamented that I never actually managed to play every expansion. I got up to Unleashed which I only played VERY briefly before I went eff it I want to play Sims 2 (and the rest is history). Okay my point is, I have a bunch of games sitting in the backlog that I've yet to play. Makes me sometimes why I bothered to buy them

-Pokemon Omega Ruby (and I basically preordered it (I say basically because I can't remember if I pre ordered it or not but I am pretty sure I got it on the day))
-Codename S.T.E.A.M (zomg it was $44!!! nek minit it was $35 like two weeks later. What the hell.)
-Professor Layton/Phoenix Wright crossover (Given that this game was *THE* motivation for me to get the 3DS, I am quite baffled I have not played this either)

I do have a $5.50 voucher for ozgameshop but at the same time...what am I gonna spend it on?! I got so many games already.

Finally a pic of one my sims' houses that I designed. On a scale of 1 to 10 how wrong was I to choose statistics over architecture?

Modern dystopian young adult narratives and their role in shaping the audience's values

Yikes I was overdue in blog writing by 18 days. This is going to sound odd but I actually had a lot of things to write about and was eagerly waiting for September 2nd to come by so I can do my monthly post. Alas my procrastination got the better of me, and I have since forgotten the 30 or so topics I was hoping to discuss.

So. Since I've forgotten everything, I will start fresh. Topic right now is Maze Runner, specifically the second movie that came out sometime recently...? No matter. Prepare for my essay, titled "Modern dystopian young adult narratives and their role in shaping the audience's values". (You know what, maybe I should've done my thesis on English instead. JOKES I will never do this shit).

Disclaimer: this is based on only having watch the first two movies of Maze Runner, the first three movies of The Hunger Games, reading the books trilogy of The Hunger Games. Opinions are based on only what I know.

In recent years, the popularity of post-apocalyptic dystopian narratives for young adults has led to a wave of such novels being converted to the film medium. Common themes in these narratives include friendship, death, and most importantly, resistance against authority. In this essay I will discuss the rebellious message these novels perpetuate, in particular the author's handling of story resolution. In addition, I will also explore how a modern context shapes the audience's interpretation of relationships between characters.

Did you really think I will really write an essay? For a moment I believed I would too. I will still address all the points, and here's a lazy dot point version (disclaimer: spoilers soz):

• Maze Runner: Scorch Trials ('the Movie') was overall good. I give it 7.5/10. Action-packed, visually exciting, however felt pacing was an issue. Sometimes confused with plot, and some plot points are slightly beyond belief.
• Examples include: ease of escaping what is clearly a well fortified and secured complex, convenience of finding shelter once escaping (and captors deciding to not look in the first possible point of shelter), strong martial arts skills of protagonists (not that far-fetched), driving long distance in a car with an apparently full tank in a world that is post apocalyptic. Refer to Cinema Sins if they make a video about this. 
• Themes I want to discuss: friendship, death and resistance against authority.
• Resistance against authority: this is more relevant to the final book that I read a synopsis of. In general, I get this vibe that the author does not know how to close off a story like this. I had a similar problem with the Hunger Games, so much so that I've basically pretended that the final book does not exist. The protagonist can rebel as much as they want but there's a question of 'then what?'. For the whole Movie I would often think "okay, yes they are escaping the wicked WICKED but so what if they succeed? What is even out there for them to escape to?". There's always a sense of hopelessness; I don't see how it could end up a good thing. The endings are full of unhappiness and even though "peace" is achieved it doesn't feel satisfying.
• Death: too much death. I feel like it strikes a fear into the young audience about the harsh reality at the same time no real solution to handling it. I feel like it's killing for the sake of killing because having everyone survive is unbelievable. I used to mock stories where all the good guys survive but...that's why it's a story! Stories are meant to be extraordinary, something unlikely to happen as happened. Maybe these sort of stories are not really for me.
• Friendship: also related to relationship/love interests. Didn't feel it too strongly between Thomas and Teresa but I reckon it was balanced quite nicely. The last few scenes though it felt like a wake up call to me: possibly Thomas's most important person is Minho, not Teresa. And then I track back everything that happened in the movie and just thought they were such a perfect team, including Newt and Frypan as well. Their camaraderie is probably for me one of the most important things I took out of that movie. I'm definitely quite upset when some of the original glade peeps did not make it throughout the movie. It's so precious, and when Minho was taken away Thomas was willing to go on a "suicide mission" to save him. New brotp guys. I refuse to be contaminated by Tumblr. 
• Final words: from what I understand, the movie is very different from the books, including the plot. I am hoping that this means a better ending in the movies. I hope the same for the Hunger Games series.

Alright that's it about the movie. I feel like I do too many of these movie reviews. In other news, other news in (would you guess) dot points!

• What I'm stressing over (order of magnitude): thesis, driving test, holiday plans, other (several thousand other things)
• Words of advice to self: it's doable, take it slow, not the end of the world. Get some good sleep.
• Things to destress but end up making me more stressed: Fire Emblem, Two Dots, reddit, Game of Thrones, Elementary.