A Bit Of This And That

I still feel sleep deprived which is starting to take it's toll on me. It's not that I can't sleep, the problem is that I can't fall asleep! It feels like I've tried everything, but so far, no luck! I guess I have to hope that my holiday trip will make things change.

Speaking of which ... I will leave on Wednesday morning to visit my families for the holidays, and I will be back late on January 3rd. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone, but it will be tough since it will be my first trip there without Zorro in a long time. It will also be quite difficult to celebrate Christmas without him.

This pas Friday, finally, my Les Misérables in Concert 25th Anniversary DVD finally arrived - yay! :) I got an email on November 24, saying it had been shipped, so I was starting to get seriously worried - but at least it did arrive and of course I watched it almost immediately! :) I won't make a real review of it, after only having seen it once, but I don't think I can help myself from making a few comments!

I love the fact that the 25th anniversary concert is so much longer than the 10th anniversary concert (TAC), they have included almost the entire musical which was fantastic! That being said, I was absolutely horrified to realize they removed "Little People"!! *gasp* I'm in love with the Original London version so I was a bit let down when they changed it to another version - but removing it completely (almost), that's almost criminal, isn't it?
I have to say the stage in general was better than in TAC, more props and set pieces, which made for a better dynamic on stage. Unfortunately I felt that many of the performers didn't quite take advantage of that. They still use microphone stands - is it really that impossible to use head-mics?? - and that made a lot of the cast just "stand there" instead of trying to interact with one another.

It was great to see that they included the speeches at the end (Cameron McIntosh, Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg) - I still will never understand why they removed the TAC speeches from the DVD when they are included in the video.
The finale with the 1985 cast was absolutely amazing! While I think only Michael Ball from that cast are among my favourites, it was fantastic to see them all on stage together - and the four Jean Valjeans (Colm Wilkinson, John Owen-Jones, Simon Bowman and Alfie Boe) was also wonderful (gotta say, that was a really nice version of "Bring Him Home"!)!

Oops, quite a few comments there ...:)
Unfortunately I won't get the chance to watch the DVD any more before I leave, but I will try to watch it and make a proper review when I get back here in January.

While I haven't been at Uni that much lately, I made an appearance there this past Friday. I didn't get that much done, but I managed to borrow a book from the library, and I also ran into an old friend there, that I haven't seen in quite a while. We ended up talking for about an hour, and that was really nice! Not much has been working out at Uni lately, so it came as a bit of a list. We also found out we'll be going to the same seminar tomorrow afternoon.

This weekend has been a bit tough, with regards to Zorro. It goes up and down, which is only natural, I guess... At times, things work, and I can go about my business without constantly thinking about him - but then at times, the grief just stabs me like a knife straight though the heart - and just trying to grasp the fact that I have to live the rest of my life without him, and that I will never ever see him or hear him or feel him ever again ... well, that's what makes me lie sleepless at nights ...

I'm right now in the middle of the last preparations for my trip but I will hopefully be able to update the blog at least once before I leave.
Take care!

20,000 Visitors!

YAY! The blog hit 20,000 visitors today!! :-)
A great big thank you to all my visitors - also thank you for coming back, even though I haven't been active on this blog lately!

I have had a few pretty rough days now, although today has been a bit better. I don't want to go into details as it is very personal, but it's been rather tough.
Today has been a bit better, even though I'm feeling really really stressed out over my studies right now. I find it difficult to find a routine that works for me right now, but at least I keep trying.

I also found out today that Den Ny Teater in Copenhagen are currently playing Les Misérables!!! I nearly fainted, I'd LOOOOVE to go!!! Unfortunately the tickets are horribly expensive, to get the good seats you have to pay just over 600 Danish Kroner ... *yikes!!* Considering that I'm currently living off a bank loan, there's no way I can afford it ... but there's no stoppin' a girl from dreaming, right?! :-)

Tomorrow I have a seminar regarding my essay! I have tried to put together a paper for it tonight, but I don't feel great about it, and I don't feel prepared at all for the seminar, not practically and not emotionally! I don't know what's going on but lately time seems to fly by sooo fast ... I never find the time (or have the energy) to do anything these days ... Ah well ... I guess I'll survive it somehow ...

I Have Found My Jean Valjean!

(Apologies for the lack of pictures, I haven't been able to make any scans from the actual programme yet ...)

Les Misérables - June 27, 2009

We went to see Les Misérables on June 27, and to be honest I was a bit nervous, because I entered Queens Theatre with a terrible migraine and nausea! However, after hearing the wonderful intro, I was completely into the musical, and even though the migraine was worse after the show, at least it didn’t bother me during the show – and that’s the main thing!

I have to say this was one of the best – perhaps THE best – Les Misérables show I have ever seen!!! First and foremost, I have finally found my Jean Valjean!!! Ever since I got into Les Miz some ten years ago I have tried finding a really great Valjean, but never succeeded. I have seen a few perform live and I have a number of recordings (quite a few actually!!), but no one has caught my eye completely – except David Shannon!! At first I hardly dared to believe it, and toward the end I was at the edge of my seat, wondering if he’d last the distance or if he’d make some unforgivable mistake toward the end. And he didn’t!! According to me, he was perfect in every respect! He handled all the songs in a wonderful way, he didn’t go over-the-top, which I find difficult to handle, and he just WAS Jean Valjean!! I really, really, really, really want to see him to the part again!!

Javert was played by Earl Carpenter, Annika had seen him last year and was quite impressed, so I was very curious! And I have to say I have mixed feelings for him, similar to the way I felt for Hans Peter Jansens in 2006. Carpenter was good most of the time, but sometimes I felt he was a little too soft. To me, Javert is almost ruthless and keeps standing strong, even when he decides to take his own life, and at times Carpenter felt a bit meek. But his voice was really pleasant and overall, he did a good job!

Rebecca Seale, who played Fantine, was also rather uneven. She portrayed the frail, careful Fantine in a very good way, and “Fantine’s Death” was wonderful and very emotional – but the more forward and driven Fantine didn’t quite work out.

The Thénardiers was funny as usual, and I was pleasantly surprised to see Martin Ball as Monsieur Thénardier, because they had apparently found a guy that wasn’t only extremely funny, but was also a terrific actor and singer! I think he was fairly new (if memory serves, he started out at the cast change earlier in June), and he messed up the lyrics in “Master of the House” a little … Like last time, it felt like “The Wedding” was funnier than “Master of the House”, and in my head, I can’t help feeling it should be the other way around!

The kids did a great job, I’m always sooo impressed at these very young girls and boys handling the stage in such a fantastic way! Young Cosette was beautiful and did a very good “Castle on a Cloud”, but you could tell she was quite new, she was a little stiff and probably rather nervous. Gavroche, played by George Sargeant, was really good – it’s not an easy part, but he could really pull it off. Apart from a few minor mistakes, he truly embodied Gavroche!

Cosette was played by Katie Hall, who I’m sure is very talented! I really liked her voice, but unfortunately I’m having great difficulties in figuring out the character, I have never ever understood Cosette, and that does affect my general opinion as well.

David Thaxton played Enjolras – he was Bamatabois in 2006 (and totally creepy!!) as well as understudy for Enjolras, and I think he was a fairly good Enjolras! He’s not the best I’ve seen but I don’t have anything against him. On the positive side, he really had the voice potential that Enjolras demands. I have seen actors in the part who are out voiced by the powerful music, but David Thaxton had a very very powerful and forceful voice which was great! Unfortunately he didn’t quite have the charisma that I feel Enjolras has to have – in order to get the other students to follow him, he needs something special, and I didn’t feel like Thaxton had that!

Grantaire was played by Jeff Nicholson (who also did the part in 2006), and I really like him. I have had difficulties in grasping that part as well before, but Jeff Nicholson really gives the character life!

Nancy Sullivan played Eponine, and it was a change to see a blond Eponine! She was however, amazing and one of the stars of the show! She did such an amazing job of the character that I can’t help but commenting on one thing. She did use very proper English, and considering the dialect of the Thénardiers and her character as a street kid, I would have liked her to go a little bit more cockney … the contrast ended up feeling a little bit strange. But overall, she was fantastic!!

I have to say it was a really nice audience, I think there were lots of people who hadn’t seen the show before and that was really cool! Lots of laughs and also some shouts at times! :) I also have to mention a funny thing during the curtain call – Earl Carpenter must have had his own little “fan club” of friends there, for when he entered the stage, there were some booing from mid-stalls!! It was apparently in good spirit, and it was quite funny to see the expression on Carpenter’s face!!

Despite feeling pretty terrible, I really enjoyed the show, and I think what I’m mostly carrying with me from it is the fact that I Have Found My Jean Valjean!

Bothered By The Heat!

We're currently in a heat wave here and I don't like it!! I've never liked the heat, and I don't think I ever will. Granted, I can take it if I know I don't have to do anything at all and can just relax with a good book and a cold shower nearby, but otherwise, I really really don't like it!!!
You can't help but feel stupid too, because everybody is just soooo excited about it being so lovely weather and the sun is shining and it's nice and hot outside and blah blah blah ... and you just hate it ....

I've tried working on Biblical Interpretation studies today - just realized I'm gonna totally have to focus on that for the next 1½ weeks or so ... partly the essay we're writing and partly the article I'm going to discuss with the professor at some point, since my migraine attack stopped me from being there for the oral presentation ... But I haven't gotten much done, the heat has totally bothered me all the time - I'm having extreme difficulties concentrating and my mood has been outright horrible!!

I overslept too, so the morning was totally slow, and I had to go shopping - hoping also that I might feel a bit more upbeat if I at least got out of the apartment ... but the only result from the shopping trip was extreme sweating, difficulty breathing (due to heat combined with allergies I think) and also some rather nasty dizzy spells, which had me a bit worried! I don't really think there's something serious, it's probably from being exhausted, but I guess my body really is telling me I've done enough now! Unfortuntately, Uni doesn't think so ...

Aparently we're gonna get equally hot tomorrow - GAAAAH! - but better (that is: colder!!) starting next week! Unfortunately, I have a really intense workload tomorrow, so I'm not sure how I'm gonna cope with that if I'm gonna have to do it in a 30-degree heat!

Sorry about the whining, I'm just in a terrible mood!! I spent some time in front of the computer tonight, so I did a Philip Quast wallpaper ... not that happy about it, but I guess it's okay ...




Take care!

---------------------------------------
My Life At The Moment!
Currently reading: Biblical Interpretation stuff
Currently watching: Stargate SG-1, season 10
Currently listening to: Nothing
My Plans for tomorrow: Studies!!

Drastic Actions!

Well, I didn't get much response to my post on my websites and such, and since I've had a pretty rotten day today, I decided to get a bit drastic tonight!
I haven't finished going through everything (currently downloading the stuff from the websites I'm removing, to at least have some backup), but I have decided what will stay and what will go! :) I will make a separate webpage with the URL to all my websites that are current and active, when I've finished everything - naturally you will get the link here, so you can have everything in one place.

So far though, it looks like ending up like this:
Blogs:

• Another Day - Another Destiny
• Ytterligare ett försök - version 2.0 (Swedish)
• Att leva med social fobi (Swedish)
• Stargate SG-1 (will have a new look and a new URL)

Forums:

• The World of 007 (looks like the activity might pick up there now, so I'm keeping it for a while at least)
• Possibly a Forum connected to my Flying Doctors site

Websites:

• Jessica's Flying Doctors Page (will go through a make-over and a move to a new URL first)

That's it!! I've removed a number of blogs, will close at least two websites and have deleted two forums ... yup, I'd say that qualifies for a drastic evening, wouldn't you?
Still, websites and such are supposed to be fun, right? Mine was only causing me stress and trouble and problems, so no use in keeping them, right?! :)

Oh yeah, I downloaded this really cool digi.scrap-kit earlier, and found out it would work very well for graphics! :) What do you think?





Like I've said, I've had a pretty rotten day today, but I hope it was a temporary set-back and that I can be back-on-track tomorrow again! :)

---------------------------------------
My Life At The Moment!
Currently reading: The Brotherhood of the Rose (David Morrell)
Currently watching: The Simpsons
Currently listening to: Bring Him Home, Les Misérables 10th Anniversary Concert
My Plans for tomorrow: Very confusing, no idea!

Websites, Forums and Blogs!

Since I am about to start the most demanding semester I've ever gone through on Monday, I figured this was as good a time as any to try to figure out what to do about all my websites, blogs and forums - because I seem to have a ton of them and I have no idea what to do with them! (Currently mostly thinking I'll delete everything except this blog, but that might be a tad too drastic ...)

I'd really like to hear my visitors opinion on this, wether you visit any of my blogs/websites/forums and in that case which ones, if you want me to keep some in particular or if you don't really care which! ;) Comments are usually rather scarce here, but I want to point out that I'm really giving you a chance to say what you think here ... otherwise I'll just decide on my own! :)
Some things regarding this I already KNOW, so I will list them here (they are non-negotiable!), but with regards to everything else, I really welcome your opinion!

Okay, this is what I really know:

• This blog - Another Day Another Destiny - will stay in its current form! It seems to be getting visitors and I'm happy with the way it's working now.
• I will also keep my Swedish blogs Ytterligare ett försök - verison 2.0 (which hasn't officially even started yet!) and Att Leva Med Social Fobi.
  
• My Stargate SG-1 blog will move to a new location and undergo some changes, but will stay and will hopefully be updated on a regular basis.
• Jessica's Flying Doctors Page will move to a location as well as get a new layout, and I will also start up a Flying Doctors Forum to replace the crappy Bravenet forum that currently exists.

That's what I've decided so far ... but there's lots more to decide upon! What is left of all my "projects" (and I appreciate your thoughts and comments on these ...) are:

• Zorro: Master of the House - Zorro's Swedish blog
• Tänkvärt - my Swedish blog with lyrics, poems and quotes
• ~Jessica: TV, Film och Annat Smått och Gott~ - TV, movies, books-blog
• Les Misérables: Beyond the Barricade - my Les Misérables blog
• The ABC Café - My Les Misérables Forum
• ~*~ Carpe Diem ~*~ - My 'general' forum
• The World of 007 - My James Bond forum
• Jessica & Zorro's Website - my personal website
• One Day More! - My Les Misérables Website (currently down)

I'm hoping to reach a decision about this fairly soon - so comments are very much appreciated! Yes, I'll stop nagging you know, sorry! :)
Hope you're all having a great Saturday!

Not So Great ...

Have a less than great day today, for some reason or other this has been one of those days when absolutely nothing works out!
Main focus now is studies of course (duh!!), but I'm having a hard time figuring out! I know I've missed a lot and all that, but I find it difficult to know how to study ... how much shall I know by heart (because it is really impossible to learn it all), what shall I focus on, how much do I really get ... I mean, I can easily read a grammar rule and understand it, but do I really know what it's about when I see it applied in a sentence, can I recognize it etc ....

Several other things are less than great as well, although that's nothing I really feel like writing about here ... I tried to cheer myself up tonight by trying to sort out a new layout for my Les Misérables Forum, and just went from bad to worse, I can't for the life of me figure out what to do with it.
And it seems there's hardly any activity whatsoever in any of my other forums ...

Sorry, I realize I'm totally depressed now ... I'd better just sign off and get to bed ...
Take care!


Jessica's Websites

Melancholy ...

Not quite sure what's the matter with me tonight, but I just feel generally very sad and depressed. A lot of very hard thoughts going round and round in my head, and I just can't seem to shake them off.

I do hope I get a good night's sleep now, and can start preparing myself for tough times tomorrow. Things have not exactly gone well during the start of this semester and I feel I have fallen behind on my studies ... as well as ... well ... oh, God it's complicate to explain! Anyway, the whole Uni-situation isn't the best at the moment, and we have our fist exam in 9 days! *gulp* I pretty much figure that I'm getting my last chance to try to make a go of this semester now,by giving it all I have!!
Of course, should any new disasters occur, I can't guarantee that I'll be able to focus completely, but if I pretty much get "left alone" (when it comes to panic attacks, general embarrassment or illness), I'm hoping I can make a go of this course.

I'm still working on getting my James Bond Forum going:
http://007secretagent.proboards83.com
As a break today, I also re-designed by Les Misérables Forum:
http://abccafe2006.proboards105.com/

Take care!


Jessica's Websites

Definately Hebrew!

Today has flown by rather quickly, but I think I have managed to get a few things done. One thing I have done is listen to my Hebrew Les Misérables recording that I bought on eBay a while back! I really like it!! I haven't listened to all of it yet, but most of it!
It was especially interesting to me, as I'll be studying Old Testament-Hebrew all of next semester (yes, I am strange, I already know that *lol*), and even though I imagine it's not exactly the same language (after all, some development should have occurred over about 3-4000 years, right?), I guess there are some similarities! As a matter of fact, I discovered one fairly early! One of the very few Hebrew words I do know is "Elohim", which means God (well, one aspect of God anyway ... long story!), and that occured quite a lot in the recording! Also, it's such a beautiful language! I could never have guessed, but I really do like it, and I'm very much looking forward to learning more about it next semester!!

I also tried to bring some form of life back into my Les Misérables Forum, so if you have a minute and feel like it, you can check it out! (More members and activities are always appreciated *hint hint*)
I know I have neglected it myself recently, but I will try to make an effort to post a bit more often from now on!

I've also put up some stuff for sale on Tradera - if anybody's interested, you can find it at http://www.tradera.com/category/auctionlist.asp?ftgnr=212855! I hope I can get a little money for it, at least! (Also hoping to add some more stuff tomorrow night!)

Well, apart from that I don't have very much to report! I've become really inspired by the Lord of the Rings-dvds I'm watching, so I really hope I'll have the time and energy to start making dvd caps soon - I bet some of the pictures there would make awesome graphics! *fingers crossed*

I know I have one more day off before next week starts, but there are lots of things that start piling up at Uni now, so I'm really getting nervous. I'll try not to be too negative in advance, and I guess I'll have tomorrow to try to work with myself regarding this ... but it feels like it'll be quite heavy from now and until Christmas at least ... *gulp*

Take care!


Jessica's Websites

Countdown: 16 hours 9 minutes

Another countdown on the way now! This time to the group presentation which takes place tomorrow!! I haven't really had either time nor energy to worry much about it - until today! And now I'm in a state of total panic!!!
I met with the others in the group today, we decided how we should do the presentation tomorrow and stuff like that ... and right now I feel like bailing completely and get on the first flight out of the country!!
Okay, maybe it's not quite as bad as that - even though I wouldn't mind a trip to London *lol* - but I certainly feel awful about all this, that's for sure!! I feel rather insecure about the stuff we're supposed to do the presentation on, it feels rather vague to me, and I'm also completely terrified about the "questions-discussion"-whatnot that will aparently follow after the presentation ... *gulp* I know I simply have to make it through tomorrow - and it probably won't kill me - but I really really feel very very bad about this ...
I've been most upset ever since I got home, and I haven't even started studying, so it's gonna be a long night tonight, becuase I do have quite a lot to do! First of all, I have to really go over my parts of the presentation, see how and what I should say, and try to "rehearse" a bit, and then I have to go through all the other reports too ... although I'm thinking of maybe not putting too much effort on that! I'm hopeless when it comes to discussions, I do have a hard time speaking up and being active, and I know that one of the teachers is fully aware of this, I don't think he expects too much of me, so I'm hoping that I can just look through the other reports so I know what they're about, and instead focus on our presentation! Oh, God I don't want to do this!!!!!!!!

Okay, I'll try to give you some happy news too ...
A while ago I saw this totally cool cd set on eBay, it was a radio recording of Les Misérables in Hebrew!!! Totally cool!!! (It doesn't hurt that I'll be studying the Old Testament and Old Testament-Hebrew all of next semester!!)
Anyway, I bought the set, it was quite cheap, so including shipping from USA I payed a little under $10. I payed directly, but about a day later I got an email from eBay saying something about the auction/sale beeing cancelled. I also got an email from the seller, telling me basically the same thing - but since I'd payed already, he would send me the CD.
This felt a bit worrying, and I was pretty sure I'd been fooled, but I figured that I could live with loosing $10 ... I emailed the seller, just out of curiosity, to see how he responded. I got this super-nice reply, where he told me a little about what had happened ... but I still wasn't convinced he was genuine! Until I came home today and found a note from the Post Office that I had a package to collect, and the sender was the seller on ebay! *yay* I hope I have time to get it tomorrow, otherwise it will be on Friday! I'm really happy about this, and in the mail I found out that I was the last person to get the CD set - so I'm guessing it's rather rare! :)

See, I can see positive things as well ... !
Even though I hardly feel positive at the moment, this whole thing tomorrow feels really haunting, and there are some other Uni-related problems, of variuos severity, that I have to try to deal with too.
I guess I'd better start studying now, instead of just sounding ocmpletely depressed in my blog!
Take care guys!


Jessica's Websites