I saw a petrol station today that was decorated with six USA flags. Six. That is just excessive. It can't possibly carry any weight or meaning anymore, as a symbol, the way everywhere is saturated with flags upon flags upon flags.

We went to a pretty, small town today, and mainly looked at slightly dull interior-decoration type shops, except for one with was full of awesome Art Deco and 1950s stuff, and a medieval and fantasy weapons store. (Me: "That double-headed battle-axe is so cool!" Dad: "Why do you think that's cool? You're a girl!" Me: lulz) (I'm pretty sure he was joking.) (XD)

And now everyone is watching the Superbowl and I'm doing some moonspeak writing practice*. I was gonna go over to the TV to see what it was like, but I can't really be bothered. At all.

I am getting up stupidly early tomorrow, and flying to Texas to see petrolbomb! :D It is so good seeing my friends again, I can't even properly verbalise it. <3 Too bad I couldn't hang out with scintillae longer. :/

In extremely other news, it is now illegal to make more than one post that doesn't mention AC in a row katlovescookies posted this earlier:



I really, really don't know, but I can't. Stop. Staring. XDD


*I'm currently sitting in front of a mostly empty page of notebook paper which begins 私の好きな所は..., and having a crisis of loyalty about whether to write about Hamburg or London.

I shall not succumb to jet-lag! I shall not.

The flight to the States yesterday was an odyssey. First one engine wouldn't start and they sent an engineer to try to fix it, and then an hour later we taxied back to the gate so they could take the starter motor from another pane's engine and replace ours. In the end we left with three and a half hours delay, and got into Newark at 10pm local time, 4am my body's time. =__=

Today I took the NJ Transit train into New York City to mee up with Grace/Nicola/scintillae (she of many names) for a few hours. It was so good to see her again! ♥ ♥ We had some super fun times together.

( Click here for super fun times. )

In conclusion:

That's what she said.

Right, I think it's time for me to listen to some more of my Discworld audio book and thengo to sleep.

I did another set of hourly comics yesterday, for shits and giggles, as they say. I tried to do them as quickly as possible, thus they are very messy and not particularly pretty. Not an entirely pointless exercise, though! Next time I'll try to strike a balance.

( Uneventful. )

Tomorrow, my parents and I are flying to America! :D So excited. I've been packing:



For once I think I neither under- nor over-packed. Yesssss.

I spent my last Audible credit (I'm going to cancel my subscription for now, for the recovering health of my bank balance) on Unseen Academicals to listen to on the flight. It feels like it's been ages since I last read a Discworld book. I'm pretty excited about that, too. :3

Hourly comics! There aren't as bad as I thought they were; I got so frustrated yesterday. ¬_¬ I got behind in the afternoon, and trying to catch up kept me from actually doing any of the things I wanted to do. Like play Assassin's Creed for hours.


( The rest. )

So everyone has been getting formspring accounts lately. You can ask people anonymous questions, and stuff. Somehow I don't think there actually is anyone who anonymously lurks my online existence and has burning questions to ask me, but I got one anyway. Because I have a sickness where I am compelled to make an account on every webservice I come across, just to see what it's like. So here you go: Ask me anything.


Oh wait, I drew a comic about today, as well:



I have a new favourite. XD

The French government: fighting sexism by... um... restricting what women are allowed to wear on their heads.

I am not a great fan of repressive religiosity either, but in nothing that I've read or heard on the radio today has anyone stated a good reason for the government to get involved in what people are wearing. Are the 1900 French women who cover their faces all secretly members of a bank-robbing gang that can't be caught because no-one knows what they look like? Are they? Oh no, they're just ~*un-French*~.

Fuck off.


Anyway, sketchdump:

( Click here for some naked people. )

Oh, and I got my official offer letter from UCL. Hee. Start date: 27 September 2010. *starts counting down the days*

"You know, my house is really old, too! It's 20 years old."

"Wow! Well, the things I dig up are a lot older than that. Some of them are a thousand years old."

"How old?"

"A thousand years."

"How old?"

"A thousand."

"That's not a number!"

They're the best.


I finally brought my laptop to a repair shop to have its overheating problem fixed, so I'm not gonna be online much in the next few days. If you require the thrill of my conversation, you can always hit me up on Google Talk, which I've got on my phone: breakfastspoon@therandomplanet.com

I'm listening to the A History of the World in 100 Objects programme on iPlayer at the moment. It's pretty neat. Good old Olduvai Gorge, amirite? And it's available as a podcast, so you can alllll listen to it, even if you're not in the UK. :D

My parents' mac's screen has some weird contrast settings going on; it's making my eyes hurt.

I heard an interview on the radio a few months ago, with a psychologist (I think), who'd dome some research on multi-tasking that indicated two broad types of behaviour: "explorers", who constantly crave new stimulation and jump from task to task, and "exploiters", who concentrate on only one thing and do it thoroughly.

Which is how I'm justifying my wish that I had enough room on my screen to watch a TOS episode and play a single-player game of Solium Infernum at the same time.


In the mean time, the alien fly that invaded the Enterprise has landed in Captain Kirk's coffee, and I think he's about to swallow it.

Oh wait, no, it's not a fly, it's a super-fast space woman who wants to get in his pants.

I went to my UCL interview on Monday, and it went well! I was incredibly nervous and ineloquent, but I got an email the next day saying they've recommended me for an offer, so I must have made a fairly good impression. Haven't got the official letter from the college yet, but it looks like I'm going! :D :D

Ummm, what else. I went to see the Staffordshire Hoard after the interview. It was pretty cool. Sparkly, shiny things. I'll blog about it properly later, right now I've got a cold and my head is a bit foggy.


Some links:

• The Desert Peach - I rediscovered this the other day. The greatest piece of historical fiction set in World War 2 that exists, in my opinion.

• Choice of the Dragon - A very well written multiple choice text game. In which you play as a dragon:


What more could you want, right? It's got a great attitude on gender & sexuality. I noticed it when I was playing, and then I checked their blog and read the most recent post at the time, which confirmed how much thought they'd put in it. It's so refreshing not to have presumptions shoved down your throat: you can chose the gender of the dragon, and the dragon you futilely attempt to mate with (I will get the right combination of stats/actions one day), and it doesn't go "'knight' obviously = 'he'", either.

Their quest to introduce meaningful choices into games pleases me, too. It makes the whole thing instantly many times more engaging and entertaining. My only criticism is it wasn't long enough. :P

• One of my favourite fiction series, "Union Dues" by Jeffrey R. DeRego (as seen on Escape Pod and Clone Pod) is apparently being pitched as a TV series. I think that's brilliant. I'm not of the opinion that everything that's good should eventually be made into a film and/or TV show — TV is not the end-all of storytelling media — but I also don't have a problem with different versions of stories and things jumping form medium to medium and taking on new forms (I mean, look at Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy). In fact, I encourage it. If I find a fictional world I love, I want to experience it through as many different lenses as I can, to see all of it's permutations and facets and flavours.

Also TV probably has a larger audience than podcasts, and I think something of quality deserves to be seen by as many people as possible. (Or maybe rather: Everyone deserves to be exposed to quality entertainment.) I've never been into superheroes much, and I love "Union Dues". It's definitely worth it.

• I also have a key for the Star Trek Online beta! It's currently downloading. Very slowly.


Pff, I started this entry thinking I'd only list a handful of links, since my head hurt, and I ended up rambling all over the place anyway.

The weather!
As you might have heard, the UK has been covered in snow lately. Of course the infrastructure of the entire nation is on the verge of collapse, but luckily I'm a layabout with nowhere to go, so I'm free to enjoy how nice everything is.



( more )

My birthday!
I'm twenty-two! My birthday was fun—Tim and I were going to go see the fireworks in London, but while the tube is free all night, the first overground train is at 6-something AM as usual, so we decided to wait until next year, when we'll probably both be living in London, anyway. Instead we stayed at my house and played Cranium (superfun) and had some epic fireworks of our own.

I got really good presents, as well:
( picshars )

On the 2nd, we went to the theatre. :3



We had pretty bad seats—all the way on the left, almost all the way at the top—but the show was so good. ♥ I sort of want to get the soundtrack. XD

University!
I have an interview at UCL for my MA on Monday. I'm nervous, but pretty confident I'll do alright. I was looking over the info about the programme and the professors on the UCL website in preparation, and got twice as excited again about going there. It's going to be so amazing, you guys. I really really can't wait.

Anime!
I have not been keeping up! It's been about a month since I've downloaded any anime, so I haven't seen the end of anything yet. XD I'm at Tim's house atm, though, so I've seen a few of the first episodes of stuff from the new season.

There's one about some cat-girl demon protecting a teenage boy with a jealous childhood friend blah blah lots of stupid fanservice &c. &c. that I really couldn't care less about. There's also Chu-Bra!!, which is about a girl who likes wearing and designing fancy underwear, and is obviously an excuse to look at girls' underwear a lot, but also has messages like "you shouldn't judge people by how they dress", and "girls can look pretty for themselves, not just for men"... except for the fact that it's also an excuse for the male audience to look at 2D girls' underwear for 25 minutes a week. Anime is weird.

But, there is also Durarara!! (double exclamation marks are in, I guess?), which is going to be so badass. :D It's already my favourite thing. The storytelling and pacing and art are all greatly to my taste, as far as can be seen from the first episode, anyway. :) :) :)

In Conclusion:


Foot brush!

Hello Elllllll-jay! Sorry for not posting for ages again: I just haven't felt the urge to actually turn on my laptop this holiday season. I've been mostly hanging around in the living room enjoying our epic new HD TV, or gaming, or reading. I do have a cookie recipe for you, though!



( Click for delicious. )

It's a family tradition to make these at Christmas, but there's nothing that makes them intrinsically Christmassy, so you should go make them right now. You won't regret it.


We got an Xbox 360 for Christmas, collectively, and I've been playing Dragon Age: Origins. Chose a human mage to begin with, and it's tons of fun so far. :D I put points into cunning and the coercion skill, which means I can make NPCs do almost anything I want in conversations. It's pretty sweet. I dunno what specialisation I should go for, though. Blood Mage is out, since I'm being good, so maybe Arcane Warrior. I am going to shut up now, because no-one cares.

(I am also hitting on Alistair the Grey Warden guy as much as possible, because he is adorable. When you give him a gift he likes, he goes "R-really? This... this is for me? ;_;" like no-one has been nice to him ever before.)

I got Assassin's Creed II, as well, but I am determined to play them in order, so I'm waiting for Amazon to send me AC I.

Got some other great stuff, too, like a sexy jacket, books, socks, and a subscription to and back-issues from Current World Archaeology from Tim, which have actually been stopping me from reading the books. I really miss Archaeology, I have realised.


I've also been to see Sherlock Holmes and Avatar. I want to take Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law out of that film and insert them into a better one, so I can enjoy their brilliant interactions in a better plot.

As for Avatar, I am in two minds. It's cliché, and shallow, at times offensively so, but I adore the look. Especially the creature designs, fuck yes. Giant fantasy animals, insect and dionaur/reptillian influences, bioluminescence... basically they are pushing so many of my aesthetic buttons that I managed to completely ignore the stupid cat people for most of the film, in favour of the pretty colours.

Oh, except for their language, which was sort of cool, I guess, but that's probably only because I know they had it especially designed. Though I agree with this, in that I'm not sure why you'd go through the trouble of having a language made if the rest of your alien culture couldn't be more of a Noble Savage cliché if you were actually trying.

To be honest, though, I wasn't really expecting better. Sorry, films, I have low expectations of you.

But fuck it was pretty. I'm probably going to go see it again for that. Oh, and because I feel that every ticket might just be encouragement to make more sci-fi films. Alien planets: they work! Now put a good plot on one! Please?


I'm turning 22 tomorrow! It is common knowledge that, while I am ageing in a linear fashion, my greatness increases logarithmically. I've been in a pretty good mood, lately. Come on, 2010! Let's have a good new decade. :D

It's a Colony recap! Previous chapters. Wow, this one ended up looooong.

Chapter 8, in which David has some growing up to do.

Yay, this chapter's back on Island One! I am growing really really fond of Evelyn and David. Maybe it's just because I've seen more of them than a few pages of introduction, but I just... like them. I really enjoy their interaction in this chapter, too.

I don't remember if David's age is ever stated, but even if he's an adult, he's pretty much got the mind of a teenager, in my opinion. This is his puberty chapter.

It starts with them at the holo!ballet.

( Yes, the holo!ballet. )

And with that, we get to the end of Book One (of five). Pray to the gods of the five-act structure that now things will begin to happen. Prediction: David and Evelyn team up to save the world.


Sometimes reading books, you think about whether they would make good films or not. I think Colony would make a neat anime. I'm not sure why it makes me think of that rather than live-action, maybe it's the politics and the great silliness.

Also, I'm still hoping for a Colony Drop (TV Tropes, click at your own risk.).

THREE DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS, GUYS! Are you excited? I'm excited. I like Christmas. :3


And now, an entry:

FFFFFFF, how long has it been since I last posted? I didn't intend to take a three-week break, I just never got around to writing an entry. ¬_¬ (Though I have been twittering it up as much as ever.) I haven't done that much, to be honest:

I took the JLPT!

It was pretty easy, to be honest; there was only one or two questions I wasn't sure on. (Damn you, particles.) Results come out in March, I think.

I also got the references in for my MA application! I got an email last week that it had been passed on to the appropriate course coordinator and that I'll hear from them again in the new year. They'll probably ask me to an interview, too. Ah, so much waiting, I want to know nowwww whether I get to go.


Now that those two things are done, though, I'm really being worn down by not having anything to do — I'm so easy to irritate sometimes, it's really pretty ridiculous. I'm going to try to get more work next year, also enrol in a Japanese course to prepare for the next level of the JLPT, maybe start practising my violin again, and keep working through the Ruby on Rails textbook... you know, all those things I resolved to do when I left Durham. I might do a New Years Resolution post sometime, so they're written out and I have to stick to them.

Also, I'm trying to draw every day. It's not going perfectly, as you can see, but at least I'm drawing a bit, even if it's only doodles. These are pretty bad, dirty scans, but I'm too tired to fix them right now.

( Draws )

If I don't do art posts on a semi-regular basis from now on, someone shout at me about it. Next time: maybe an actual nice, finished drawing. :O Shocking.

I also have some Colony recaps, gonna post the first when I finish this post. \o/


And now I'm going to bed and reading about ancient gas warfare. Tim got me a subscription to Current World Archaeology for Christmas; it's making my life right now. :D

I sent off my MA application to UCL today! :D Oh man, I feel amazing. It's finally done! I'm also pretty confident about the JLPT on Sunday, so basically I am just relaxing all over the place today. :D

Ok, there's still other stuff I need to do, but today I am relaxing all over the place.


I also did some scanning! This is a bit depressing, because it's pretty much a month and a half's worth of drawings. T_T I want to draw more and practice more, really.

The first one of these is a bit NSFW.
( Let me dump some art on you. )

I have 15, and no-one ot give them to. Here's a video thing that explains what you can do with Google Wave:


I think it'll be pretty cool once more people use it. I'll screen comments, so if you want an invite just comment with your email and I'll put you on the list.


I have not accomplished my week goals, because I've been busy coughing my lungs out. I feel a bit better today, but then I also felt a bit better on Thursday, and still spent all Friday in bed watching Life, so... *shrug*


PS: If you are some anonymous person, I'm not going to give you an invite unless absolutely no-one else wants one. I don't know if you're a spammer or whatnot, and also I'd prefer to give my invites to people I actually know, at least a bit, and can potentially use Wave with. Nothing personal. You can always introduce yourself in an email or something!

Technically I'm meant to be studying Japanese right now, but I want to read more Colony, which means I have to write more about Colony or I'll get too far ahead. (I should just write about each chapter as I read it, really. But some of them are only 4 pages long, so I can read about a million in one stretch.)

( Chapter 6, in which we are imprisoned in the home of the evil Sheik, oh noes! )

( Chapter 7, in which you are a white-ass dude )

I am actually quite excited about all these bits of plot that keep being set up, but I really hope this is the last one. I'm ready for them to get started moving and actually happening now, ok?


PS: Spellcheck keeps asking me if al-Hashimi shouldn't be "sashimi".

THINGS I WILL DO THIS WEEK:

1. Send off my MA application.
2. Finish that now embarrassingly ancient entry about the "native British" already ffs.
3. Get my laptop to a repair shop.
4. …That's all I can think of, actually. Neat. (Apart from general drawing and studying Japanese and stuff, obviously.)

I shall report back on Friday.

Guys. I tidied and rearranged my bookshelf a few days ago (I was procrastinating), and I have a ton more vintage sci-fi and fantasy books hanging around waiting to be read. I think I should make this a ~series~. What do you guys think of Sign of the Unicorn by Roger Zelazny next? With a cover like this it's got to be good, right?

( Previously... )


( Chapter 4, in which we meet the World Government )


( Chapter 5, in which Evelyn gets hit on a lot )

I've read the next few chapters, as well, but I'm too lazy to write more right now, so I'ma save it until the weekend.

Charlie Brooker and Yahtzee should make out.

Anyway.

I was going to write about Colony yesterday, but making tea turned into having dinner, which turned into watching TV with my parents and then Warehouse 13 was on and the The Mummy Returns right afterwards, and then I went to bed.

And now I have at least three blogposts in my head that should be set free onto the rolling hills and pastures of the internet (and a million comments to reply to, where "a million" = ca. 6), but I am so very tired even though it's only 11, what's up with that, but nonetheless, SO TIRED, so I think I'm gonna go to bed and then blog my face off when I wake up.

It's a plan.


PS: I read pretty neat Star Trek fic today. You should probably read it if you think you would appreciate AU Star Trek slash based on the new film. It has vampires in it?

[I wrote half of this last night, hence it is a little rambly. But it does have subheadings! 8D]

I miss the times when I'd go to see a film at least twice, with different friends or whatever, and I'd always bring a notebook to the multiple viewings and take notes and write down quotes to use in my LJ review. I think I should start taking notes and writing about TV shows again, too. It’s fun.


2012
I went to see 2012 last weekend. It was pretty cool if you like seeing things fall apart in grandiose and dramatic ways, and I really, really like that. Especially the Earthquake stuff when the ground moves in waves like water; that is so badass.

( Mild Spoilers )

ANYWAY. It was a very pretty film. it suffers from that thing that films sometimes have where all the side characters are more interesting than the main ones, but if you're like me you'll spend most of your time enjoying the destruction and fantasising about what you’d do in an apocalypse, anyway, so that's alright.


Doctor Who
( Spoilers for the latest Who thing )


Tin Man
The first half of a film (mini series? idk.) called Tin Man (which I'd heard about. On Fandom Secrets. XD) was on the SciFi channel last night. It's pretty good! Much like Alice in Wonderland, my only knowledge of The Wizard of Oz comes from pop-culture osmosis, so I may be missing the odd reference, but it's fun in any case. Not super amazing, or anything, but fun.


ΠΛΑΝΗΤΕΣ
When Tim came over this weekend, he brought a box set of Planetes with him, and we watched it, and I totally thought we had run out, but it turns out that box set was only half of the series, and we're going to watch the other half next weekend. This makes my life a small but statistically significant amount more amazing.


Twilight
My mum is suddenly really into the Twilight film, and she really wants me to watch it, too, and I really just have no desire to. I clawed my way through the book, I know what happens, I just don't feel like bringing up the energy to give this a chance. Ok, no, I do sort of want to watch it with Steph and an intoxicating substance of some kind (by which I mean caffeine, because I couldn’t stay awake through a movie if I had alcohol), but that’s a different matter altogether.


I think that's all I had to write about. Now I shall make some tea and write about the next few chapters of Colony. Mustn't let my reading get too far ahead of my writing.

I had a lesson with the tiny Germans today. We made spiders! 8D


Mine had three eyes, but one fell off.

Tiny boy-German made a spider that was a cowboy first (it had a lasso), and then turned into a princess ('cause he made it a crown). Yeah, tiny boy-German is pretty awesome.


I got my test voucher for the JLPT yesterday! Much excitement. :3 I think I'll do one of my past papers tomorrow. Things I will also do tomorrow:

- Go to the post office
- Edit my personal statement
- Finish colouring robot commission
- Find a cobbler who will fix the zipper on my boots

Awesome!


I've read the first three chapters of Colony now. ( A vague summary of stuff that's happened. )