Getting my groove back

I sat down today and studied diligently for a couple of hours. After a while, I began to nod off and the material swam before my eyes. Just so I would wake myself up again, I put my frontal cortex to work (ie. plan) by making a schedule of my next three days. I realize that writing down to the T what I have to do everyday is actually a very liberating experience. It gives me a sense of satisfaction and sense of control even before I do anything.

In any case, my new plan will involve some hard core studying. The next round of exams are looming ahead of me like that monster in Cloverfield and I have a dreaded feeling that unless I institute my plan, the monster will swallow me alive.

Speaking of which, I went to see Cloverfield on Sunday. It was a very gripping thriller and I believe it succeeds in what it tries to do, to wit, it attempts to capture the terror an ordinary average joe would feel on a day when Godzilla's cousin attacks his city. It was doubly unfortunate for the girls in this film, because they were at a party and not exactly dressed to sprint. The entire film was shot with what seemed like a handheld consumer camera. At times they made it deliberately jerky to imitate an amateur who can't seem to hold the camera steady for even 5 minutes. The overall effect was to make me feel queasy after about 60 minutes into the film. I was also, absurdly, even worried that the "amateur" would at some point, turn off the camera by accident or shoot someone's back pocket for an extended period of time. I then realize I was being silly because of course the filmmakers of this movie were professionals and they WANT you to know what's going on and the only way that would be possible is to continue to shoot relevant and interesting footage, since Morgan Freeman did not magically appear to narrate for us in this film. One word of warning though, if you are a type A personality and you watch a film and want to know all the whys and wherefores of this film, this movie is not for you. It is like a poem, it tries to capture a feeling, an essence, a partial story even, but its intention was never in the plot, it was never interested in answering "what happened next, before, after, and why".