evangelionak

I felt like writing a reflection on this semester break that is rapidly coming to a close. Don't worry, I won't be blogging reguarly.

1. Ughhh. Holiday boredom.
I never thought holiday's would be so impressively boring. It's a relief to finish my exams, yes, and to not have to do any holiday homework that so plagued my last few holidays at high school. But, geez, 5 weeks is far too long to have a holiday >_< , especially if you're broke and unemployed. Well, I spent most of the holidays at kendo training. That much is great.

2. Kendo.
With the holidays here (and almost gone) I've been able to spend more time doing kendo. AKA Japanese armoured fencing. So yeah, it's great stress relief, great energy release. I eagerly wait for the day when the juniors will able to do jigeiko (free sparring I guess), but I understand that we are perhaps no where near ready. Sensei likes to surprise us though, like when he suddenly made us don the helmet and gloves, out of the blue. A pleasant surprise. I wonder if he will surprise us next training with our first jigeiko...

Kendo takes up heaps of my time...but that's fine since I have heaps of time to waste. I've volunteered for everything they've chucked at us...without considering if it may clash with my uni studies. But I have faith that it won't. If there is a clash Kendo comes first .

For instance, I've volunteered 9hours of my Saturday to help out at the Victorian Kendo Championships. I look forward to it, mainly because it's kendo, but also because we get to wear suits. I've been looking for a good excuse to wear my suit for a while now...to be honest, I miss my school uniform I wore so hatefully at Xavier. To think, the things I hate the most are the ones that I miss the most? o_O . I just need to find a red tie, my xavier tie won't do what with all its black and gold striping.

I attended a Gasshuku at Monash University midway through the vacation. Very cool. The seminar was led by Yano Sensei, no doubt one of the best kendoka in Australia. We did everything from the basics to more advanced stuff, including a jigeiko, and some kata practise. We learnt so much, we came back to normal training knowing a lot more than those who didn't attend.

Kendo kendo kendo...an obsession. I feel like an obsessed kendoka...I am an obsessed kendoka.

3. Creativity.
I had some time between trainings to draw. My brother took the camera with him overseas so I wasn't able to do some photography. I churned out a series of 5 cartoons, "a day in the life of the obsessed kendoka". I haven't posted them up here, because I plan to get at least then then zip them up into a single file. I'm a fan of neatness, and minimalism; 'cleanliness is next to godliness'. It's very 'in-joke' humour...you would not get it unless you did kendo. I went through two biros to draw those, yeah, I use biro to draw. Here's a link to the forum I posted them on if you are interested.

KENDO CARTOONS

Apart from those I haven't drawn much else. My passion is drawing, but these holidays have brought out the lazy side of me. As I have said to many people many times, when I get bored, I get creative. That didn't apply much these holidays. Instead, I just spent my time becoming nocturnal and sleeping in till 3pm, waking till 3am. Terrible I know.

However, I did actually make a movie once I was so bored. Yeah, a movie. It's a short, plotless, random film I call 'the backstab'. I'll post it up I guess, but goes to show how bored I was.

4. Movies.
I spent some days with my friends in the city and went to friends houses. I went to a few parties, but didn't get drunk, which is good I guess. Being in the impoverished state that I am, I had to leech off people >_< ...but hey that's ok they're rich .

We went to see Sin City a few days ago. Pretty awesome movie. Plays more like a comic book from the 50's. Very very original, I highly recommend it.

The Melbourne Uni anime club had a few marathons. I went with some friends to these. It had been too long since I watched an anime, too long. Last one I saw was Gunslinger Girl, back in year 12, and Interstella 5555, about the same time. There was only one anime that was shown that I wish to see the whole series of: Honey & Clover, an anime about Uni life for some undergraduates in Japan...incredibly funny. There were others that were ok, but really I'm after originality or style.

I went and bought Interstella 5555 at JB Hi-Fi. Finally. Great to finally watch and listen to Daft Punk grooves on the home cinema. I couldn't stop dancing! It's one of my most favourite animes.

5. Uni.
So uni is about to begin again. A mixed blessing? I'm happy that the boring monotonous holidays are at an end, but I'm sad that the immense freedom I had during these holidays will end to. I need to study real hard this semester to cover an H2A average in my commerce subjects if I want to become an actuary. I will try to draw some stuff; I need a release from the crappiness of my uni homework, but I suspect it will come in slowly.

Until next time then, it's getting late.