Popcorn: The Smell of Cinema

For anyone who knows me well enough (or even those who have only just met me), they are aware that I have a love for movies and going to the Cinema. I can't place when my love for cinema began exactly. Seeing a new film on the BIG screen, the surround sound, munching on some sort of confectionery while you watch, (usually Malteasers for me).

It is a past time I will never get tired of. Perhaps it's just one of those things I was always meant to enjoy. Or maybe there's a deeper reason I enjoy the occasion of going to the Movies. It started long before I went with friends. It could of been when Mum took me as a child to see Bambi (one of my earliest memories). I mean I recall being pretty engrossed in the film while my sisters couldn't sit still. (admittedly they are younger than me though).

Or perhaps it is because of my Dad who to this day I still go to the cinemas with to enjoy a latest release film. He has taken me to see a number of movies over the years. Apollo 13, Independence Day and all the Star Wars movies just to name a few. And as I've got older I have taken him to see a few movies.

Perhaps it was both my parents combined who could of been responsible for the love I have of film and Cinema. Whatever the case, I love cinema and going to the movies. Which is why I designed a brochure about going to the Cinema and the different types of Cinema there are. Well for a Uni assignment. I don't think there would be a need for such a brochure in the real world. People like going to the movies and seem to already know about the Cinemas that they have available to them.

Basically the assignment was to design a DL Brochure around any subject we desired, so long as what we designed looked good and was designed in some way that could represent the subject matter. The information within the brochure was entirely up to us. And so I present to you my DL Brochure design for the assignment, a brochure about Cinemas and going to the movies which I have appropriately (I feel) titled "Popcorn."

Everything was designed by me and the photography was taken by myself as well. The next part of the assignment is to create a webpage with the same subject matter. It wont go live onto a server, but perhaps I'll take a screenshot when it's complete and blog about it later.

2013

So once again it's been many a month since I have actually posted on here. When I last left you all we were back in 2012. It is now (as the title suggests) the year 2013.

A lot has happened since then as you can imagine. Christmas, New Years, Uni Holidays. I had my wisdom teeth out which I may blog about before I forget the experience. Many new dinners had, and Rums I have indulged in with the discovery of a new Rum! Sailor Jerry spiced Rum.

Over the Uni Holidays I became a slave to Social Media by getting myself a Twitter account and becoming obsessed with Instagram. You can follow those here;

http://instagram.com/lachlan1988/#

https://twitter.com/1988Lachlan

If you so desire.

Naomi and I have moved out and into our own place. Uni is back in full swing and so far has proved to be a busy looking year! I have done quite a bit, but at the same time haven't even begun to hit the tip of the iceberg. Also in 13 days I will be 25. Holly Shit!!

Once again I will try and keep up with posting, but as always there are no guarantees.

- Lachlan

Ready? BREAK!

Today I am free! Free for 2 whole months it would appear as today was the end of the First Semester at Uni. And there is excitement while I post this as the Caps lock on the work 'break' might suggest. I try to keep my blog post title's interesting or unique in some way all the while being relevant to the blog post they are headlining.
While it is clear why I have used the word break somewhere in the post title some of you may ask why I have chosen to make it sound like the beginning of a play from an American game of football. Well thats simple; 1. It's because it's the first title that came to mind and 2. I might have been watching a little too much Blue Mountain State in the passed month.

Now while I still will be working any hours i receive from my casual employment at The Honeysuckle Hotel this 2 month break between Uni semesters is the longest break I have had in I don't know how long. And to be honest, I think I deserve it. The one thing I want to do over the Uni break is keep myself occupied, this way I wont get bored and waste the time off that I have. As I said earlier this year, I wish to be productive. So I guess this particular post today is a checklist of everything I wish to achieve in the holidays.

Alright, in no particular order here is my list;

1. Go to Crescent Head while Naomi is on placement. Eat out in Port Macquarie. Toast Marshmallows over an open fire and look at the Stars
2. Have drinks and catch up with Dave Nixon
3. Catch up with Tom Raymond
4. People I need to call and catch up with;
   - Nikki
   - Adam
   - Panaho
   - Wayne
   - The Vellings
5. Go for a run EVERYDAY. Rain hail or shine
6. Read the last 2 Hunger Games books
7. Wash the Car
8. Re - watch Alien, watch Aliens and go see Prometheous
9. Watch Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet and Moulin Rouge
10. Create a Zine
11. Contact Eleane and create some final designs for Femme Modelle
12. Play the Playstation
13. Do some more Cooking and learn some new recepies
14. Do some creative design work. Maybe begin thinking about how I want my portfolio to look

I'm sure I will add other things to the list during the holidays, but I think that this is a good start.

Student vs Working Man

As I do my best to keep up my blog this year (and hopefully years after this one), I still don't post as often as I would like, or as often as I should. Not that there's any pressure to keep this blog up to date, it probably will serve no purpose other then reminding my future self of what my life was like at this time. But in order for me to do that properly I should be posting more regularly.

This years return to my blog began with a very lengthy post of what lay ahead for me in 2012. I had started the year with a full plate that will keep me occupied for some time and since that first post 3 months has already passed and a lot has happened. At least a lot of Uni work. Because who would of thought, Uni is hard work and very time consuming.

Once upon a time when I was a 'working man' with nothing but a Job that would occupy half or most of my days I would often scoff at Uni students who said they had it tough. I would think 'how easy' Uni students got it and how they were 'always on holidays' and barely at Uni. From an outside perspective it seemed they weren't doing much. I always thought you had to be smart to go to Uni but with my friends seeming like they were always on holidays I didn't think they did a lot. I would always see people from Uni out on the weekends, or on Uni night and going to parties. And then every time I turned around they were on holidays for like a month! I used to work 4.30am most weekends out on the back dock of Woolworths, which was freezing in winter and hard work. 'Uni students don't know what tough is', I would think. And the discounts! Student prices. I would get frustrated that they got things cheaper. Just because I worked didn't mean I could always afford things, I wanted a discount too!

Now, I have a full stomach because I've had to eat my own words. Since starting Uni I've come to the conclusion that those Uni students who were always out on the town and never appearing to do Uni was either because they were bludgers and not doing all their work, or they were doing a shit load of work that I never saw them do. Either way I'm understanding that even with all the holidays you might get at Uni, they are well deserved. If your a hard working Uni student that is.

Now I go on Uni holidays in 3 weeks and have a break for at least a month and I gotta tell you I can't wait to have some time off. While Uni might not seem as physically demanding as my previous job I will say that at times it can take it's toll. With assignments always in the back of your mind it's a different kind of stress then I used to experience at Lawrence and Hanson. At L&H when the day finished I could forget about things and go home to relax. Uni doesn't stop and wait, it's always there until you complete it, there's no going home to rest if you have an assignment due the next day. And as for physically demanding regarding Uni, there's only so many late nights / early mornings or all nighters the body can handle before it wants to shut down and rest.

Now people might be inclined to argue that it's the 'working man' that has it tougher, while others will say that the 'Uni Student' has it pretty tough depending on which side of the fence they sit on. I find myself in a somewhat unique position of experiencing being a full time working man before becoming a full time Uni Student and only casual working man. Ive experienced both sides and I think I can safely say they are both difficult in their own ways. But I think that that's just life, It ain't easy no matter what your doing. And while there are times that Uni can be a bit of a struggle I would never go back on my decision to go. I'm glad to be calling myself a Uni student and I know the hard work is going to pay off.

2012: The Year My Life Begins

They say 2012 is the year the world ends. But I think 2012 is the year my life begins. I say this because I truly have a big year ahead of me. I have goals, things I wish to achieve and this year, I'm doing something about it!

You see I myself am my worst enemy. I generally don't have enough confidence in myself to do the things that I probably should of done some time ago. And the stupid thing about that is I know I'm doing it, yet still couldn't help myself. This year is my first year at Uni, something that I probably should of been saying 4 years ago after I finished TAFE. But that word, 'Uni', it frightened me. It represented something that to me sounded so scary and difficult. What if I failed? This is not a good attitude to have, and I'm ashamed in myself for having it, but I still couldn't get passed that fear. I never considered myself a Uni student. Only smart people go to Uni don't they?

So I never went. I never even tried actually. Once I finished TAFE I got my diploma and just kept working at Woolworths. Which is fine, but I was just cruising along, happy in my safe little world. I then moved to Newcastle and got another job, a full time job as a Storeman for an electrical wholesaler. And I cruised along there too. Thoughts of Uni did linger in my mind, but I was still afraid and so I would dismissed these thoughts and keep cruising along.

3 - 4 years pass since I finished TAFE in 2007. It's now 2011, how quickly time flies. I'm still working as a Storeman for L&H and I'm hating it. Ive never hated something so much and I've never been so stressed and overworked in my life. And it was in this year, in 2011 that I started looking at myself. I thought about my passed, about where I was in life at the moment, and where I wanted to be. Who I wanted to be. I thought about all the things that I wanted to achieve and realized that I wasn't going anywhere, that I was stuck. But this time rather then mope around, complaining; 'woe is me', I decided I had to do something. That if I wanted a change, I had to make it happen, me. I realized that I had to believe in myself and take a few risks. And so that's what I did.

About halfway through November in 2011 after another terrible day at work I went home, got on the internet and applied to The University of Newcastle. There was a course I liked the sound of; Bachelor of Visual Communication Design. It would be another 2 months before I knew weather or not I was to be accepted in the course, but I already begun planning leaving my current job and what I was going to do when I was accepted.

January 2012 was a big month for me. A lot happened in just a couple of weeks. I new I would need a casual job/s whilst I was studying as well, so I set out and handed out as many resume's to as many places as I could think of around Newcastle looking for casual work. I had written a short cover letter explaining my situation, about how I was to be attending Uni and would give anything a go. In one day (I was on my holidays from work), I handed out 23 resume's to various bar's and clubs. I got lucky, and within a week I had 3 job interviews to attend.

January 19, 2012 I received a text message from the University of Newcastle, I had been accepted! It was all starting to happen. I accepted my offer, I was now a University student. All I had to do next was get at least one of these jobs that I was being interviewed for. However this wasn't the only thing on my mind. I had some other big plan's that were happening over the weekend. Other plan's that would also be life changing.

January 21st 2012, I asked the love of my life Naomi Anderson to marry me, to which I'm glad she said yes. And while it might still be a year or so before we 'tie the knot' or be able to afford our own place together I didn't let those things stop me from what I wanted to do. I love her and wanted her to know how I truly felt. Why wait for the 'perfect moment'? Or to be financially secure. Love isn't rational. I know I want to be with her forever, so I took the steps to show her and everybody else that. Like I said earlier, I know what I want, and this year I'm doing something about it.

January 23rd the day of the Job interviews. The first at The Warners Bay Hotel turned into a 4 hour trial, after which he offered me the job. The second was at Sunglass hut at Charlestown. Unfortunately I was unsuccessful here. Last interview was at the Honeysuckle Hotel, where they also offered me a job. I took the one at Honeysuckle Hotel, I liked it there better. The next day I walked into L&H and I quit.

So there you have it, the beginning's of a massive year ahead, the first steps into what certainly feels like the beginning of my life. I have direction again and am starting to believe in myself. I officially finish up at L&H on Friday the 10th of Feb. (And I can't fucken wait to get out of that hell hole!!). Ive already started my new job at the Honeysuckle Hotel and am loving it so far. And on Feb 27th . . . I start my first day at Uni. Bring it on