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Jes

About Me


I edited my profile with Thomas’ Myspace Editor V3.6 !
My photo gallery for anyone interested.
I came to London in 2000. I'm a qualified philosopher-turned-humanitarian-international-charity-worker . I'm bidding for a Masters degree at the moment *fingers crossed* Also a certified MadLondonCyclist™. See that girl cycling in the traffic in a skirt cutting off those wankers wearing those please-kick-my-arse-cycling-outfits? Yea, that's me. I love film without being a couch potato or film snob (absolutely terrified of horror films though - even the chainsaw massacre dubbed over in German, which I don't understand). I am obsessed with talking about food. What can you do. I can't stop travelling... how frightfully middle-class... my carbon footprint has to be absolutely appalling :( I enjoy music but not the snobbery (/disllusions of being interesting?) that can come with it (been there, done that, worn the t-shirt, quite literally), reading (getting more interested in non-fiction and reading about politics - gasp!), exhibitions (the freer, the better!), sunshine, and all that sort of stuff. Can you tell that I'm just the sort to look for a quiet life? :D Yea... right! Arrasa, Bicha!
And generally I like people offline. The 0n1ine-effect... makes people generally appear more contemptuous than they actually are :)
"I've always been disturbed by the thought that I'm not painting a very objective picture of myself" - from 'Sputnik Sweetheart', by Haruki Murakami.

My Interests

Cycling, Films, Art, Travel, Music, Dancing, Cooking, People, Fun stuff, Serious stuff, Nature, Nuture.

I'd like to meet:

my destiny - not you :p

Highly aesthetic people without a shallowness problem

People who have opinions and stand by them regardless of whether they'll make them popular - who aren't afraid of being seen as a wanker if its their honest opinion *high five*

People with a direction and who are good at what they do

People who by their very presense make it a pleasure to be alive

People who give a shit about things

People who LOVE food

Music:

Electronic / Electro / Ambient / Trance (e.g. Orbital, Prodigy, Chemical Brothers, The Knife, Röyksopp, Mylo, Crystal Castles, Goldfrapp, Autechre, This Morn Omina, Gridlock, Kai Tracid, Felix da Housecat, Northern Lite, Risque, Portishead, Tricky, JoJo de Freq), Rock / Indie (e.g. Out Hud, The Killers, Bloc Party, U2, Our Lady Peace, The Verve, Muse, The Dandy Warhols, The Smashing Pumpkins, Hard-Fi, Manic Street Preachers, Snow Patrol, Franz Ferdinand, The Postal Service, The Go! Team, Cansei de ser Sexy, Matthew Good Band, Moist, Bjork, Radiohead, Blue Oyster Cult, Third Eye Blind, Aerosmith, Live), Cheese (e.g. Limahl, China Drum, They Might be Giants, Kate Bush, O-Zone, Echo Image, The Bloodhound Gang, Softcell, A-Ha, all kinds of assorted 80s classics), Orchestra (From Arthur Russell to more non-specific), and a bit of everything else really. I've stopped being a music snob, so am not remotely obsessed with anything listed above, and listen to other stuff with an open-mind.
This is not an exhaustive list

Movies:

Ring, Battle Royale, City of God, Braindead, Laputa, Totoro, Spirited Away, Howls Moving Castle, C.R.A.Z.Y., Whatever, One Night in Mongkok, Amores Perros, Pusher, Dancer in the Dark, Goodbye Lenin, Everybody is a Killer, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Paradise Now, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Like Water for Chocolate, Light at the End of the Tunnel, Farenheit 9/11, Bowling for Columbine, Hong Kong films and comedies, Withnail and I, Take care of My Cat, The Beautiful People, Dogma, Snatch, Monty Python, Gormenghast, Clerks, Lord of the Rings, Romeo and Juliet, Hotel Rwanda, Harry Potter, Happy Gilmour, Billy Madison, Bill and Ted, Austin Powers.

Television:

Spaced, The Mighty Boosh, My Wrongs, A League of Gentlemen, Chef, Red Dwarf, Absolutely Fabulous, Yes Prime Minister, Cracker, Bonzai, Look Around You, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, How Clean is Your House, Mad TV, Star Trek: Next Gen, Simpsons, Kimi Wa Petto.

Books:

Genres: Biographical tales retold as fiction, epic adventures, books based on historical/cultural/sociological/psychological insight, modern humour. I like books that build characters. And most importantly, I love books with happy endings.Recent reads include Haruki Murakami's "Norwegian Wood", "Sputnik Sweetheart", "South of the border, West of the Sun", DBC Pierre's "Vernon God Little", Ben Elton's "Popcorn", Xinrin's "Sky Burial", Danny Wallace "Yes Man" and "The Centre of the Universe", Philip Gourevitch "We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda", Ben Kiernan "The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-79".Old favourites include 'Dune' by Frank Herbert (I'm named after the Lady Jessica), Anthony Bourdan's 'Kitchen Confidential', Irving Stone's 'The Agony and the Ecstacy', Dan Rhodes's 'Timoleon Vieta Come Home', the Harry Potters (I was a hater until I read them), J.R.R. Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings', Xinrin's 'The Good Women of China', Pauline Gedge's 'House of Dreams' and 'House of Illusion', Amy Tan books, Roahl Dahl books.GIVE ME HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HOLLOWS!! :) And I hope there's gonna be Harry Potter and the Midlife Crisis. I am a sad Harry Potter geek.

Heroes:

Jay and Silent Bob. Steve Irwin.

My Blog

Training for that hot bod yea!

I used to be averse to the idea of going to the gym, but going with my kiwichick Elle to a pump class followed by pilates last week changed my mind right away. I rejoined the gym 2 minutes from my hou...
Posted by =^..^= on Thu, 26 Apr 2007 12:56:00 PST

On strong opinions and statements

Tell me... why do people make such strong statements about themselves over and over again? While I love it when people have opinions, there is a difference between actually having an opinion and... we...
Posted by =^..^= on Tue, 24 Apr 2007 12:51:00 PST

The real politics of Darfur?

Right from the beginning our Assistant Director of Programmes had warned against the simplistic picture that the media has often portrayed of the Darfur conflict being a simply evil Arab government pe...
Posted by =^..^= on Sat, 31 Mar 2007 04:51:00 PST

Lumo

I think I might have to take my first sick leave of the year tomorrow as today was very fragile. I did, however, manage to go see "Lumo" which was a film showing as part of the human rights watch f...
Posted by =^..^= on Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:31:00 PST

I am truly a SoppyJes™

I am soooo obsessed with this song "Untrust Me" by Crystal Castles!!! I don't know why, but I get so obsessed by particular songs and can listen to them on repeat, like, forever! :D Crazy stuff... I t...
Posted by =^..^= on Sat, 17 Mar 2007 06:35:00 PST

The eternal sunshine of 2007

So far so good... should be just after my birthday that I hear back from SOAS on my masters application. I really want this. Even on my holiday I've been reading some of the background reading and it'...
Posted by =^..^= on Wed, 14 Mar 2007 03:27:00 PST

Courses and discourses

I've pretty much decided which optional courses I'd like to apply for in MSc Violence, Conflict and Development Studies. First choice "Human Rights IV: Justice, Reconciliation and Reconstruction" or t...
Posted by =^..^= on Sun, 28 Jan 2007 02:23:00 PST

A Long Way Down

It's funny the book I'm reading has a suicidal character in who shares my name. She's fed up because she wants explanations. In the quest for answers she's been labelled a stalker... "... I didn't th...
Posted by =^..^= on Sat, 27 Jan 2007 05:08:00 PST

Next country - Cambodia!

That's right bitches, I shall be going to the land of the Mekong and temples in February. If counting the stopover in Oman en route to the Far East, this will now bring the total number of countries I...
Posted by =^..^= on Sun, 24 Dec 2006 11:30:00 PST

Flakey flakey!

Cool! My ex-colleague/friend Giovanni has just come back from Sri Lanka, so hopefully see him in Brick Lane tomorrow night for Short'n'Sweet film night :) Today didn't quite go as originally envisaged...
Posted by =^..^= on Sun, 17 Dec 2006 03:29:00 PST