Midnight in paris

I have just finished watching Midnight in Paris, recommended by my friend (Check out her awesome blog here . I am writing it about it here to recommend it to you as well.

Midnight in Paris, directed by Woody Allen (2011), has gained critical acclaim since its release and has been one of the films I have enjoyed most this year. This may be for a variety of reasons:
a) I love Paris - who doesn't?
b) I love writing - and this story explores the struggle of a writer.
c) You get to meet all your favourite authors/painters from the 1920s ranging from Picasso, Hemingway, Fitzgerald and many more.

Overall this film is romantic, magical, existentialist and a film that is perhaps needed in this time where people seem to easily forget about the struggles of the past which has brought us here. This does not mean we must live in the past. By appreciating the past, we appreciate what has made us, but by living in the present we form ourselves. We are often surrounded by several oppurtunities we let slip by, either because we are living in the past or the future. We must make sure our eyes are open to these opportunities, these 'chance meetings'...

This film explores the concpet of the 'Golden Age' - which time period is best to live in? Is time as linear as we assume? I certainly think not. I believe it is often good to be reminded of this, especially if we are trying to be creative. Creativity is certainly not linear, and shouldn't be.

Zite - Personalised iPad magazine

Since I have been ill for the past week with tonsillitis and currently with a bad cough, I have been spending quite a lot of time reading, watching films and discovering more about my iPad. For those iPad users out there I want to talk about the app 'Zite'.

Zite is a free personalised iPad magazine which posts articles from all around the web in an easy to use, eloquent looking digitalised magazine. You can share articles on social networking sites such as twitter and facebook, and the more articles you 'like', the more personalised the magazine will start to become. You can choose from a range of topics ranging from history, pop culture, cooking, theology, science...and eliminate the ones you are not interested in.

I thought I would share the fact that this magazine has provided me with hours of interesting articles and has been one of my favourite apps to use on the iPad. Truly a great experience.

Quote of the Day

"To live a creative life, we must lose the fear of being wrong." - Joseph Chilton Pearce

A Candle in the Dark

This is an image I had whilst dreaming...but I quite like the idea.

Imagine a room – An enormous room, almost unimaginably enormous (the ceiling and the walls are so far apart you cannot touch a single wall if you walk for days.)

Now imagine the Universe – or ‘Existence’ IS the room.

The room is pitch black and full of objects/paintings/furniture.

All you have is a small candle and you are in the middle of this room.

All you can discover and see are small parts of the room at a time.

By walking around you can try and piece together, through your perception,
what you believe the reality of the room is.

But you cannot see the room in its entirety (unless you find a light switch – which is nearly impossible, by the mere size of the room as well as the fact that the switch could be anywhere – and most probably somewhere you cannot reach.)

You can make assumptions about what the room is like, or what it is made of, but you cannot KNOW for certain.

Even if you were to find the light switch you would see a small section of the room from a subjective viewpoint.

You might spend your whole life walking around this room trying to discover the ‘secret’ of the universe or your existence.

Now imagine further that this room is part of a larger house still and you firmly believe that only the room you are in is the one that exists.

When you 'see' you may come to 'believe' that everything around you is the only truth/reality (but you still cannot know). When you 'believe' it is more than everything around you, you may 'see' reality in a different way but again not know...

I feel this is one way that could also be used to describe the plight of believing or not believing in a God (or a Creator) of the Universe/Existence..


Science fumbles around with one candle, religion with another, philosophy with another, and individuals with another...

We can change the world - An inspirational song...

Graham Nash - Chicago
Sleepy Sun - Chicago cover


So your brother's bound and gagged
And they've chained him to a chair
Won't you please come to chicago just to sing
In a land that's known as freedom how can such a thing be fair
won't you please come to chicago for the help that we can bring

We can change the world rearrange the world
It's dying - to get better

Politicians sit yourselves down, there's nothing for you here
won't you please come to chicago for a ride
don't ask jack to help you `cause he'll turn the other ear
won't you please come to chicago or else join the other side

We can change the world rearrange the world
it's dying - if you believe in justice
dying - and if you believe in freedom
dying - let a man live his own life
dying - rules and regulations, who needs them open up the door

Somehow people must be free I hope the day comes soon
won't you please come to chicago show your face
From the bottom of the ocean to the mountains of the moon
won't you please come to chicago no one else can take your place

We can change the world rearrange the world
It's dying - if you believe in justice
dying - and if you believe in freedom
dying - let a man live his own life
dying - rules and regulations, who needs them open up the door

Quote of the Day

"A man's errors are his portals of discovery." - James Joyce.

Children are lots of fun.

It's my third day at the school and I'm loving being a Teaching Assistant. I went up to Barcelona on Monday for my orientation and met some other teaching assistants . There were about 300 at least and all from different countries: England, Italy, Ireland, France, U.S. I think this program has a lot to offer for cultural exchange. Having a native speaker in a local school all around the world in order to help with language acquisition is a great idea and helps with learning a language in a more natural way. Children are also interested in other cultures and traditions, so in that sense there is a lot to explore and many ideas to come up with. I'm thinking of getting the children to celebrate Halloween at the end of October. I'll let you know how that goes.

I've forgotten how much fun children are; they are awesome and they come up with the funniest questions and ideas. The school has an amazing atmosphere and it's so satisfying being able to be a part of something that is full of lots of positive energy. I will write more on this later as I am currently on my lunch break but all I want to say is - to all my previous teachers out there - I am sorry for being loud and talkative when I was a kid. I now know how it feels like. And another thing is - I have endless respect for teachers. Seriously. It's hard work and should not be taken lightly.

In the last few days I have been thinking about when I was 8-12 years old and what thoughts I had, what games I used to like to play, what I enjoyed doing. And I realised it was all about FUN (mostly). I think this is why I like working with children - they manage to remind you of how much fun having FUN is. I find myself seeing my old self in some of the children and smiling. Some of them have hair braids in their hair that they made during break time. I used to make hair braids.

All in all, my first week so far has been great. =) Looking forward to my presentation next week where I will introduce myself, my favourite hobbies and my countries.

Another thing is - they all keep asking me if I have seen Big Ben. I reckon I need a photo of it in my presentation - if any of you have great photos of London (big ben, london eye etc.) that I can share for the sake of cultural exchange, please send them to me. You can contact me via email : melissaclissold@gmail.com

Take care for now! Adios!