Sunday, August 07, 2016
Day 167:
School reopened! Yay! Wow!
Ok... seems like my 2-day school week became a 4-day school week this week due to timetable changes, but it's still pretty alright. Visual Effects class was probably the toughest in terms of upcoming workload while there a few pretty interesting lessons coming up for the Advanced Cinematography class. Shoots start in a two weeks and it's gonna be pretty hectic soon.
It's semester 2 but to be honest I haven't made quite as many friends as I probably should have (wasn't it all about the 'living the uni life' to the fullest?), mainly because I was never so much of a social person in the first place, and I don't quite see a point now because I'm most probably (98%) not migrating here anymore... I don't quite fit in to the Australian culture (International student misfits). My sad social life is reduced to 90% parkour community people and a few good ones from poly and of course family.
I first thought of getting contacts with classmates to get as much exposure in the industry here in Melbourne, but then despite my awe and passion for film, it's just different when it becomes something you want to do for a living. I'm not quite sure if this is the line where I want to head in the future, but it's just something I have as a backup for now. I feel that I should go for more shoots and stuff, but then I would rather spend that extra time working to earn money (which is really high up on my priorities list), and I'm not quite sure how interesting the shoots will be. My mindset isn't where it 'supposed' to be, sadly.
Managed to clock a good amount of hours of work this week despite the semester resuming. There was also finally UberEats in the Hawthorn area for bicycle couriers, which is how I managed to earn $138 in 5 hours of work. Did a total of 61km today as well. Seems like I'll get a bit more income with this new addition to my work, it definitely is getting more hectic and tiring (leg day err day), but that's a good thing I guess. Challenges make work less monotonous. Absolutely looking forward to November/January/February when my priority is just work work work work work.
Shoots are coming up and that would mean I have to give up my shifts almost entirely, and there will be periods of break in between shoots where I wouldn't be able to work because I gave my shifts up. It's such an annoying system that Deliveroo has but it is what it is. Andre has gone home now so the rent is back up to 800-900/month instead of the 500-600, it's shocking how much the $300 difference can make as I still have about 7 more months worth of rent to pay. Starting to look bleak to hit the target of $14k ($10k pure earnings + $4k that I started out with when I came over), especially if you factor in rent money/money that you have to fork out for your own shoots/trips to brisbane/december holidaying/occasional eating out, but we'll have to see how it goes.
I watched a theatre show yesterday titled 'Jump First, Ask Later' where Justin Kilic (Guy from Sydney Parkour) is a main cast in it. I am honestly really inspired from it as it's a first for me to see Parkour being a key part of the story of a drama/play, that goes on for a full 50 minutes. Truly haven't been in a performance where I am really proud of, but this really opened up my eyes in terms of showmanship in parkour performances and having theatre plays as another way to live out the Parkour life. Would be amazing if I could come up with a unique alluring storyline and clever choreography for a show that we can do in Singapore. Seems like a lot of brainstorming and work to do - not forgetting all the other Parkour goals like setting up a gym/LCG turning big/first Parkour clothing company/Parolye (SG all star crew)/video ideas... That'll be my full time job once I'm done with this phase of life.
Other than school and work this week, I'm now done with week 2 of my Smolov Jr. routine. It is indeed getting really intense and I'm not sure if I can fully keep up next week. Really liking the volume that I'm doing now, although I'm afraid that I'll get heavier (which I already am), thus affecting my jumps instead of improving them. Seems like I got a lot of cutting to do once done with this. Also, probably have to cut short this routine as school shoots will get in the way soon.
Released a video on my Denester channel finally, of my Sydney jumps. Small video, but I guess constant content creation (dat alliteration) is most important now. There's still a huge video coming out that has similar pksg mix&match vibes, supposed to get this edit out of the way ASAP, but just ain't being productive enough I guess.
Speaking about Sydney, I almost forgot to recount about it when it obviously was a big thing to recount on lolz. It was a great escape, living in a nice house, eating good (non homecooked) food everyday, decent sunny trainings, I recall each night I was feeling way wrecked to do anything else but sleep - meaning that I did make the most out og everyday. Glad I did the trip! Had 300km mileage both ways as well, getting good long drives experience, but far from where I want it to be, still got about a month till my family comes over... Hopefully I won't be a disappointment.
Welp, that's pretty much it.