No sugar
March 31st 2003 -
No sugar
I’m back on the no sugar diet. This time, I’ll stop when I hit 86kg. I’m hoping it’ll take three months or so – that’s how long it took to lose an equivalent amount of weight last time – but I have a suspicion it’ll take longer this time.
It’s pretty tricky this time. I’ve only been on it for 24 hours, but I’m craving sugar much more than last time. Part of the problem is that I don’t have such a definite “start” point as the last time, in which I’d already been without sugar for several days due to illness. I keep starting to get up from the desk, to go and buy a chocolate and can of coke. Gah. I figure that when I’ve been going for a week it’ll become easier, if only because I hate changing habits.
Henry Fool
Although I’m a big fan of Hal Hartley’s films, I’ve never seen his critically acclaimed “Henry Fool” until Friday night. It was very good, but didn’t hit me in the same way as “Trust” or “The Unbelievable Truth”, but I think part of the power of thoe films was how unexpected they were. But I still found myself admiring Henry Fool’s terse dialogue and wonderful camera setups and lighting – Hartley’s art direction is always great. Oh dear, faint praise. Um… well, I enjoyed it a bunch and I’ll definitely watch it again and probably buy it on DVD the moment it becomes available.
Final Fantasy X
I finished off Final Fantasy X finally on Saturday morning. Pretty enjoyable, but rather too time-consuming and addictive, in the same way that solitaire can be. Anyway, just as I had finally gotten free, Andrea brought her copy of Final Fantasy VIII over to torture me with.
Hangi
Had a hangi on Saturday lunchtime, with my Dad, Chris, Amanda, Andrea, Paul, Greta, Marija, and Anna’s mum & dad and brothers. Unfortunately, it was our first flop – I don’t think the rocks were hot enough when Anna put the food in, so the three and a half hours were inadequate, and we had to heat the veges in the oven and fire up the BBQ to finish everything off. It came out kinda OK in the end, though Anna was terribly disappointed.
Afterwards, we did some roleplaying games, and Paul & Greta joined in, immediately getting the idea and apparently enjoying the experience. A good afternoon/evening.
Papa
Dad came over on Saturday afternoon for lunch, then disappeared to see “Bowling for Columbine” when he found out that we were going to be roleplaying for much of the evening. We hung around for a bit on Sunday and had lunch at the Post Office Cafe (good food, but a bit expensive) then went home and watched “It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad world” (I’ve discovered the art-house and classic section of our local video store). It was actually rather good. The car chases especially impressed, as they were done generally with long takes, so in several shots it was perfectly clear that it was the actors actually doing some of the lesser stunt driving. And they were good stunts. I was quite surprised.
We introduced Papa (in my case, with a little envy) to the sixty-niners icecreams, and he went through a bunch of them over the course of his stay, settling on the Chocwork Orange. They really are quite good icecreams, despite their appalling names (Jami Hendix?!). And their run will certainly be over by the time I come off the no-sugar diet. It’ll be the middle of winter by then, so I won’t want any, anyway.
Dad was over for a medical conference on child care, and also for the formation of a group of doctors opposed to showing violent footage of the war at times at which children could see the footage, a perspective that hadn’t really occurred to me. I had been a little annoyed by the US media reluctance to show pictures of anything other than soldiers giving water to defeated Iraqis, holding babies, etc. on the grounds that they really ought to see the truth of the matter. This idea – the “rub their noses in it” kind of thing – is an odd and unpleasant impulse, and I’m beginning to suspect that showing images of terrible violence and horror wouldn’t do anything constructive, and would probably be the worst kind of war porn.
The Prisoner
I watched a bit of “The Prisoner” with Jon & Kate yesterday. I’d already watched a number of episodes, but it was still interesting thanks to Jon’s running commentary and assorted insights from them and Steve & Steve. Enjoyable. Apart from the fact that everyone else had creme easter eggs for dessert.
Film stuff
Paul & Greta will probably be able to come along to a fair bit of the 24-hour filming on Friday, so it looks like we’ll have enough people to even do two short films, if we feel like it. Good stuff.
I lent the lighting gear out to Chloe’s mob on Friday, but still haven’t gone along to any of the filming. I feel a little disappointed, but at the same time relieved. It really was a very busy weekend.