Appassionato

I am writing a story. I am inviting you to be in it.

Categorised as Literature, Miscellaneous & tagged with fun, gaming, interactive, writing.

Despite all the ranting about losing my creative juices, I figured that trying to revive them while there are remnants is better than waiting till there are none left.

I have written stories before. But they were all mystery thriller psy­cho­pathic ones that made me freak out so bad I couldn’t muster the courage to walk over to my bed to sleep. So for a change, this time it’s a fantasy.

1. I love World of Warcraft, but I can’t stand most of the people who played.
2. I have a hidden knack in drawing and designing fantasy ancient-style Tolkien-style maps.
3. Always wanted to write a love story involving myself.

But, it’s not going to be a love story, it’s not a fan­fic­tion, it’s not going to be a copy of anything, it’s going to be original (or as original as what I have in my head).

So here’s my invit­a­tion to you: Would you like to be a character in it? And here is some info to help you decide. Read more…

Academia has taken a toll on my creativity

Categorised as Literature, Personal, Rants, School & tagged with language, law, uni, writing.

Team work, creative solutions… has uni (law school at least) been for­get­ting this? Out of five years’ worth of courses in Law, Finance and Economics, I have come across one class with a strong group work element. It’s true that law lecturers always encour­aged creative thinking, yet did they ever endow us with the skills to properly develop our cre­ativ­ity?¹ Not in my classes. We all know that in the real world we will need to cooperate with one another (even if grudgingly for some of us), but for most of the past four years I’ve gotten nothing but an indi­vidu­al­istic, com­pet­it­ive vibe from my envir­on­ment. 90% of you respons­ible and academic-oriented ones may enjoy this, because all if not most of you would have exper­i­enced having to cover three other group members’ work in the last minute. And I was indeed one of the 90% who stood by indi­vidu­al­ism yet shame­lessly stressed how much of a team worker I am in job applic­a­tions. Was.

The dispute res­ol­u­tion paper I took over January-February involved a group present­a­tion, with seven students in each group. When this course require­ment was intro­duced in the first class, I cringed. By the end of the course, I have made six new friends, allowed my cre­ativ­ity to soar, and exper­i­enced staying so late in law school that we got locked in the building. The group present­a­tion deprived me of a golden A, but was non­ethe­less the most rewarding exper­i­ence I have had through­out my years of uni.

By fifth-year in uni, most law students tend to think of them­selves as working indi­vidu­ally in small cubicles, little to do with other “lowly dumb commoners”. When people are put in groups whether it be during class or in a co-curricular activity, the ambitious ones are fighting to be the only one to present all the ideas for the group (as if they did all the work), the less-ambitious ones are as quiet and non-contributing as they were five years ago, and the “leaders”² are bossing other people around without ‘please’ and ‘thank you’s.³

Creativity-wise, I used to create admirable artworks and designs. Recently, I’ve struggled to create an averagely-attractive blog design for even the simplest blog.

Stories and poetry used to flow out of my head any time, anywhere. These days I’m hitting walls trying to come up with any decent descript­ive language to write average quality fiction. After all, I’ve written five-years’ worth of research essays in a strictly pro­fes­sional tone about nothing but law and economics.

Those studying in the creative fields may not be able to sym­path­ise, but I’m dying to finish this semester so I can escape this rigid cage, con­fine­ment, whatever. Of course, while at work I’ll still be referring to statutes and reg­u­la­tions, but at work I support and am supported by a team of amazing col­leagues and I can once again bring back the daily usage of Adobe Photoshop and flowery adject­ives after 6pm without a trace of guilt.

1. By this I mean not just telling us to think outside the square, but teach or train us how to think outside the square. [↩]
2. Thank you very much for encour­aging this, law firms. [↩]
3. Dis­claimer: these come from my personal exper­i­ences and my obser­va­tions on a general scale. And I said “tend do”. [↩]

The Phantom of the Opera

Categorised as Arts & tagged with Movies, music.

Made of WIN.

The $120 NZD ($65 USD) was so bloody worth the live stage show a few metres away from me. If you thought the 2004 movie was amazing (as I did), this was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G with capital letters.

I was sitting in the middle-middle of the theatre, and almost the entire time the chan­delier was hanging right above my head. And for those who don’t know the story of this musical, the chan­delier falls and crashes to the middle of the theatre. But W-O-W at the music and stage effects.

I came home, sat down at the computer, and am replaying the musical soundtracks and singing along to it. I remembered the entire script and the lyrics since years ago. I’m obsessed. I’m def­in­itely going again when it comes to Auckland again in ten years’ time.

What a great treat to myself to celebrate end of 2008 exams. If the show visits your way, make sure you throw in your money, and for the premium seats too. It’s going to Perth after leaving Auckland at the end of the month. Again, made of WIN.