From 'The Logic of Images'

As a boy, I often used to ask myself if there really was a God who saw everything. And how he managed not to forget any of it: the motion of the clouds in the sky, every individual's gestures and footsteps, the dreams ...I said to myself that while it was impossible to imagine such a memory existing, it was even sadder and more desolating to think that it didn't and that everything was forgotten. This childish panic still upsets me. The story of all phenomena would be infinitely great, the story of all surviving images infinitesimally small.

- Wim Wenders

Basic, administrative updates

It's been awhile ! I keep wanting to blog but then other things come along, so of course I wait till I'm at work and need a little break : )
Just an update/summary of my life and happenings:

• I finished my internship at L end Feb and started working at a consultancy/research company the week after. This group S needed someone with an Asian background to help out with the chinese consumers in a big report they are doing for another L company (very big, make-up and skincare and haircare...) So far I've done a report on R/L perfumes with lots of statistical (dumb) crunching.
• I still have not finished my mémoire but honestly I am very close to the end !!!! Reduced my analyses from 8 to 10, just have to read through and correct them, write my third part (about 5+ pages) and finish the introduction... I just need like an entire week with nothing else to do except this stupid piece of shit and I would totally finish ! So far I work mostly during the weekend, but friday night is out because I'm just so happy it's the weekend I want to chill/see people, saturday I start working but we end up running errands etc, and when i finally get into the swing of things it's Sunday night and I need to sleep not too late or i'll be hopeless at work the next day. At the same time though, the mémoire has been a pretty cool experience because it made me realize to what point i love the cinéma ! Plus, I've been reading a ton of books on directors, cinema history, image analysis etc which are super interesting ! On the other hand, it has made me super intolerant to bad movies (ie big budget hollywood films / pretentious little films). Midnight in Paris, for example. I wasn't even watching it - Gaetan (D) was - but just the little that I saw in passing and especially the conversations, it makes me feel nauseous. :( Also, what I've realized after watching so many historically 'great' films (not that I'm always a fan, but the magnitude is almost always resonant) is that most of the films I've watched almost all my life were kinda shitty. There were some good films, but good in the sense that they're entertaining, fairly tasteful and/or original, not stupid. But very few (if any!) that were Great. Also realized that I like Nordic directors quite a lot. I'll probably put up my personal list of greatest films soon.
  
• Renewed my student visa for another 6 months yesterday -- i'll definitely be in Paris till 31 october ! woo, another few months of relative tranquility...
• Watched two amazing moves recently: The Seventh Seal by Ingmar Bergman and Seven Samurais by Kurosawa. Can't wait to have more free time after the mémoire so I can watch moremoremore ! D is completely seduced by the idea of getting a video projector so we can watch movies in style : )
• Part of a writing/installation project that will be put up for one day in a new media/technology festival in June... here's the link, it's in french though, but google should be able to translate it ! http://ener.ensad.fr/2012/04/real-time-poetry-game-1-conduit-daeration/
• Started a volunteer programme with D early in the year where we visit a lady in her 80s who can't really independently leave her apartment. We have tea and chat with her - I've been getting really fat because we always bring many cakes and share them ! Went to a group programme lunch on Sunday with many old people (both the volunteers and the people in the program were reeeally old) and it wasn't that easy actually, haha, difficult to really converse because one thing that I've noticed about some old people is that they don't like to hear certain things and they don't like it when you disagree with them also. The meal lasted almost 3 hours... and the lady we accompany, A, was a bit touchy that day. Complicated ! That's why I like working with kids more in a way, although I like old people a lot too, but life is a lot simpler with kids...
  
• Had a small election 'celebration' with D and 2 other friends where we watched the results of the first round voting process and the speech of the candidates who had had the most votes. I am sad that the candidate I support most didn't get as many votes as he seemed to be heading towards for awhile... (extreme left candidate, very very funny and charismatic, he could charm a snake into turning vegetarian :)
• I think that's about it. My job contract will probably be extended til end of July, which means I'm financially covered till then : ) Need to finish my mémoire, then really start deciding what I want to do career wise - so difficult ! There are so many jobs in fashion that don't have specific titles/well known descriptions... And part of me is still interested by advertising... bla bla bla. I think I do prefer fashion though. Or make-up/perfumes. Have to run a self analysis soon.