Saturday, November 9, 2002. 7:41PM

Hmm... this week has been fairly hectic, but not in a very exciting way. I handed in my assignment on Monday, as one does when one has an assignment due. Got soaked by the downpour on the way in, and got my cover sheet really quite wet. It reminded me a little of my year ten Math exam, before which the train was delayed, due to the rain, I suppose. I ran through the rain down Claremont St in order to be not quite so late, and arrived just as reading time was ending, soaked through. My quite long, very wet hair dripped all over the paper, and when I got it back, many moons later, it was crinkled and stuck together, and much of the ink had run. I think I got an E+, which about fit the pattern of my Math marks, rain or no rain.

Tuesday I made a vague attempt to study for my Business Statistics exam. Business Statistics is boring as hell, and I've only been to two thirds of the classes, and when I sat down with the practice exam it was the first time I'd ever attempted a Business Statistics problem. I won't be surprised if I fail. The exam itself, however, was better then I expected. It was pretty much the same as the practice exam, except different numbers, of course. I basically worked off the formula sheet, but even that didn't always help. I still can't get Standard Differentiation (a fairly basic thing) to work - a major blow to my problem solving ability. In the end I wrote "At this stage, I admit defeat" on the top of the paper and sat out the last few minutes. I screwed up all of the theory, but with any luck my half assed attempts at the problems will get me enough marks to cover what I got wrong in the multiple choice. The top part fell out of my pocket watch at some point in the day, also, which means that I can no longer open it by pressing the catch thing (I have to slide my finger nail down the inside of the lid and press it down). I also can't adjust the time any more (I'm just glad it happened after daylight saving, so at least I get a few months use out of it). On the upside, however, where before it kept terrible time on account of my constant fiddling with it altering the setting, it now keeps time well.

I came home in a fair state of jubilation, having got the hardest of my exams over with. I messed around till like, eight o'clock, when I thought, "oh well, I'll have a bit of a looksy at the practice exam for tomorrow, just in case." I soon was thinking "what the hell is all the crap?" I made the vaguest attempt to study, and was still doing so the next morning (I had been to sleep and watched TV a while in between) when my man David rang and said "Come to the city, we'll study together." I did, and found it to be a vastly better system of study then what I was doing at home. I actually know a lot more about computer hardware now (my exam was Hardware and Operating Systems). The one thing we didn't study was the Linux we had done in the early tutes however, and when it got to the actual exam, I opened it up and found a whole bunch of questions on Linux. I dredged my memory, and I think I provided some approximately correct answers. I left like an hour early, and as I was on the way out I was shouted at for discussing the exam outside the other exam rooms (well, a loud "Shh!"). As I got to the lift I saw my occasional acquaintance Sandy going into the bathroom, so I called out "Sandy, how'd you do?", and she said something like "I'm still doing it", at which point I realised that the very angry looking old woman following her into the toilets was the toilet accompanying woman. I hope I didn't fail her or something. I've never really had all that much to do with her, but I've always modeled my life on the roles of John Travolta, and the chance to get with a chick named Sandy is just too appropriate for me to pass up.

After that I went to the Chinatown cinema to see the double of the month, Burning Paradise and Prison on Fire. With any luck I'll review them after I finish this log. I think of it more as a social event then a filmic experience. It's weird, we've never really had more then thirty or so people there, except a few moths ago for some Maggie Cheung film (which I have a lot to say about, but can't remember the title) and this month, when there were heaps (truth be told, quite a few came out for The Killer, too).

On Friday I did pretty much nothing in a vague protest against my mother leaving me a note demanding I get a job. Today I went to the South Yarra Film Festival, and saw Bollywood Conquers the Alps and Heidi Island. I don't know how much I can honestly say I took away from Heidi Island, basically on account of the fact that it was entirely in Japanese. There were subtitles, however they were entirely in French. All I could really tell was that they mentioned "cheese" twice. It was a documentary, and there were often these long interviews with Japanese people that lost me entirely. In between them, however, there were shots of the Japanese trying to be Swiss; yodeling, wearing Leiderhosen, blowing those big mountain horn things, feeding goats, and generally being damn hilarious. Also there was these fat Japanese kids rapping that was damn funny, and lots of cute little school girls giggling at the guy asking the questing. Bollywood Conquers the Alps was about this guy who coordinates Indian films (and the production thereof) in Switzerland, and was really quite an interesting insight into an aspect of film production that's not really dealt with that often, and also the Indian film industry as a whole. There's a lot of an interview with an Indian director spliced in, and some of the stuff he says is really very profound. Coupled with that was a lot of shots of the films themselves, most of which were completely insane. The films (Heidi Island and Bollywood Conquers the Alps) were both basically portraits of cultures who are obsessed with Switzerland, and worked pretty well together. All in all it wasn't a bad afternoon out for free.

That pretty much brings us up to out current point in time kids, so I guess I'll leave it there. If anyone has an idea for a feature film but doesn't have the time or the skill or the energy or whatever to write it, send me a treatment. I have a vague desire to be creative.

Till next week (or beyond)...