Sorry for the long silence, was busy dying of swiiiiiine flu. It sucked. I am better now, though. :D
Also, while I was bored and slightly feverish, I made a Tumblr dedicated entirely to octopuses and moustaches. That's just how I roll.


I think I should start injecting German phrases into casual conversation.

You know it'd be epic.

I totally didn't get this idea from Ace Attorney fanfic, or anything. Ehrlich.


Have a survey:
X what you saw have seen.
O what you haven't didn't finished/saw have seen sizable portions of
Bold what you loved
Strike for what you disliked/hated
Leave unchanged if neutral

</pedant>

NOTE: I'm pretty sure every Disney movie I ever saw as a child was my favourite EVER until I saw the next one, but I'll bold the ones I remember really loving.


Classic Disney
--------------
[x] 101 Dalmatians (1961)
[ ] Alice in Wonderland (1951) I have somehow managed to go my entire childhood without seeing or reading anything Alice in Wonderland related except for The Looking-Glass Wars, a lot of which was probably lost on me, and a bit of a documentary on whether Lewis Carroll was a pedophile or not)
[x] Bambi (1942)
[x] Cinderella (1950)
[x] Dumbo (1941)
[o] Fantasia (1940) (In high school Music class)
[x] Lady and the Tramp (1955)
[ ] Mary Poppins (1964)
[x] Peter Pan (1953)
[x] Pinocchio (1940)
[x] Sleeping Beauty (1959)
[x] Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
[ ] Song of the South (1946)

Score: 10/13

Disney's Dark Age
-----------------
[x] The Aristocats (1970)
[ ] The Black Cauldron (1985)
[x] The Fox and the Hound (1981)
[x] The Great Mouse Detective (1986)
[x] The Jungle Book (1967)
[ ] The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977)
[x] Oliver and Company (1986) (This is that Oliver Twist with cats and dogs thing, isn't it?)
[ ] Pete's Dragon (1977)
[x] Rescuers, The (1977)
[x] Robin Hood (1973)
[ ] The Sword In The Stone (1963)

Score: 7/11

The Disney Renaissance
----------------------
[x] Aladdin (1992)
[x] Beauty and the Beast (1991)
[x] A Goofy Movie (1995)
[x] Hercules (1997)
[x] Hunchback of Notre Dame, The (1996)
[x] The Lion King (1994)
[x] The Little Mermaid (1989)
[x] Mulan (1998)
[x] Pocahontas (1995)
[x] The Rescuers Down Under (1990)
[x] Tarzan (1999)

Score: 11/11

Disney's Modern Age
-------------------
[x] Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)
[x] Bolt (2008)
[x] Brother Bear (2003)
[ ] Chicken Little (2005)
[x] Dinosaur (2000) (Ahaha, I really want to re-watch this. I'm so lame.)
[x] Emperor's New Groove, The (2000)
[ ] Fantasia 2000 (2000)
[ ] Home on the Range (2004)
[x] Lilo & Stitch (2002)
[ ] Meet the Robinsons (2007)
[x] Treasure Planet (2002)

Score: 7/11

Pixar
-----
[x] A Bug's Life (1998)
[ ] Cars (2006)
[x] Finding Nemo (2003)
[x] The Incredibles (2004)
[x] Monsters Inc. (2001)
[x] Ratatouille (2007)
[x] Toy Story (1995)
[x] Toy Story 2 (1999)
[x] Wall-E (2008)

Score: 8/9

Don Bluth
---------
[ ] All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989)
[ ] An American Tail (1986)
[x] Anastasia (1997)
[x] The Land Before Time (1988) (BOLD UNDERLINE ALL CAPS FOREVER
[ ] The Pebble and the Penguin (1995)
[ ] Rock-a-Doodle (1991)
[x] The Secret of NIMH (1982) (All I remember about this is that it CREEPED ME OUT. I want to watch it again sometime.)
[ ] Thumbelina (1994)
[x] Titan AE (2000)
[ ] A Troll in Central Park (1994)

Score: 4/10

Claymation
----------
[ ] The Adventures of Mark Twain (1986)
[x] Chicken Run (2000)
[x] Corpse Bride (2005)
[ ] James and the Giant Peach (1996)
[x] Nightmare Before Christmas, The (1993)
[x] Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)
[ ] Coraline (2009) (Not out over here yet. Need to get a hold of the book first, as well.)

Score: 4/7

CGI Glut
---------------------
[x] Antz (1998)
[x] Happy Feet (2006)
[ ] Kung Fu Panda (2008)
[o] Madagascar (2005)
[ ] Monster House (2006)
[ ] Over the Hedge (2006)
[x] Polar Express, The (2004)
[x] Shrek (2001)
[x] Shrek 2 (2004)
[ ] Shrek The Third Ew. Justin Timberlake. General failure.

Score: 6/10

Imports
--------
[ ] Arabian Knight (aka The Thief and the Cobbler) (1995)
[ ] Fantastic Planet
[x] The Last Unicorn (1982)
[ ] Light Years
[x] Triplets of Belleville, The (2003)
[ ] Persepolis (2007)
[ ] Waltz With Bashir (2008)
[x] Watership Down (1978)
[ ] When the Wind Blows (1988)
[ ] Yellow Submarine (1968)

Score: 3/10

Studio Ghibli/Miyazaki
-------------
[ ] Grave of the Fireflies (I really want to see this, and Tim owns it, I just haven't had time and/or the right mood to sit down with a depressing film.)
[x] Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
[x] Kiki's Delivery Service (1989)
[ ] Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986)
[o] Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro (1979)
[ ] My Neighbors The Yamadas
[x] My Neighbor Totoro (1993)
[ ] Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
[x] Only Yesterday
[x] Pom Poko (Tanuki War)
[x] Porco Rosso (1992)
[x] Princess Mononoke (1999)
[x] Spirited Away (2002)
[ ] Whisper of the Heart

Score: 9/14

Satoshi Kon
-----------
[ ] Millennium Actress (2001)
[ ] Paprika (2006)
[ ] Perfect Blue (1999)
[ ] Tokyo Godfathers (2003)
[ ] Memories - "Magnetic Rose" (1995)

Score: 0/5

Shinkai Makoto
------------
[x] She and Her Cat (1999)
[ ] Voices of a Distant Star (2001)
[ ] The Place Promised in Our Early Days (2004)
[x] 5 Centimeters per Second (2007)

Score: 2/4

Other Anime Films Released In The U.S.
(either shown at indie theaters / colleges or available for rent / purchase at some point)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ ] Akira (1989)
[ ] Appleseed
[ ] Appleseed: Ex Machina
[ ] Arcadia of My Youth (U.S. Title - Vengeance of the Space Pirate)
[ ] Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (2003)
[ ] The Dagger of Kamui (U.S. Title - Revenge of the Ninja Warrior)
[ ] Dirty Pair: Project Eden
[ ] End of Evangelion
[ ] Fist of the North Star
[ ] Galaxy Express 999
[ ] Ghost in the Shell (1996)
[x] The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
[ ] Lensman
[ ] Macross: Do You Remember Love (U.S. Title - Clash of the Bionoids)
[ ] Metropolis (2001)
[ ] Neo-Tokyo
[ ] Ninja Scroll
[ ] Patlabor the Movie
[ ] The Professional: Golgo 13
[ ] Project A-ko
[ ] Robot Carnival
[ ] Robotech: The Shadow Chronicle
[ ] Silent Mobius
[ ] Space Adventure Cobra
[x] Steamboy (2004) (I'm sure I watched this, but I hardly remember ANY of it. It seems like just my sort of thing, as well, so I'm v confused as to why it left so little of an impression. Should re-watch.)
[ ] Sword of the Stranger
[ ] Unico and the Island of Magic
[ ] Urotsukidoji: The Movie
[ ] Vampire Hunter D
[ ] Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust
[ ] Wings of Honneamise: Royal Space Force

Score: 2/30

Cartoons For Grown-Ups
----------------------
[ ] American Pop
[x] The Animatrix (2003)
[ ] Beavis & Butthead Do America (1996)
[ ] Cool World
[x] Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)
[ ] Final Fantasy: Advent Children
[ ] Fire & Ice
[ ] Fritz the Cat (1972)
[ ] Heavy Metal (1981)
[ ] Heavy Metal 2000 (2000)
[ ] Hey Good Looking
[ ] Lady Death
[x] A Scanner Darkly (2006)
[ ] South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999) I love South Park.
[ ] Street Fight (AKA - Coonskin)
[ ] Waking Life (2001)

Score: 3/16


Other Animated Movies I Can't Categorize
-------------------------------
[ ] Animal Farm
[ ] Animalypics
[ ] Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon The Movie
[ ] Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker
[ ] A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1969)
[ ] The Brave Little Toaster (1988)
[ ] Bravestarr: The Movie
[ ] Care Bears: The Movie
[ ] Charlotte's Web (1973)
[ ] Fern Gully
[ ] G.I. Joe: The Movie
[ ] Gobots: Battle of the Rock Lords
[ ] He-Man & She-Ra: The Secret of the Sword
[ ] The Hobbit
[ ] The Iron Giant (1999)
[ ] Justice League: The New Frontier
[ ] Lord of the Rings
[ ] Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (1992)
[ ] My Little Pony: The Movie
[ ] Pink Floyd's The Wall (1982)
[x] The Prince of Egypt (1998
[ ] Powerpuff Girls: The Movie
[x?] Quest For Camelot (1999) (I think I watched this, but I may have only played the tie-in Zelda rip-off gameboy game)
[ ] Ringing Bell
[x] Road to El Dorado, The (2000) (I saw this in the cinema FIVE TIMES. And it still took me until a re-watching years later to spot t3h gay.)
[ ] Rock & Rule
[ ] Space Jam
[ ] Starchaser: The Legend of Orin
[ ] Superman: Doomsday
[ ] The Swan Princess
[ ] Transformers: The Movie (1986)
[ ] Wizards
[ ] Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
[ ] Wonder Woman

Score: 3/34

Final Score: 79/195

Comment, foo! // Comment at LJ

Aw, look at how empty the calendar for this month is; I fail at blogging. Anyway.

Before I write about anything else, my BFF snow_vs_asphalt twit'd this while I was gone:



I love what this says about both of us.


Sososososo, EASTERCON. I guess I'll tell you about it day by day...

Friday

On Friday I mainly sat on trains. XD Because I have very little trust in rail-replacement bus services, I left massively early, and ended up having to wait at King's Cross for almost two hours, but eh, it wasn't too bad. Read a bit, listened to podcasts, ate sandwiches, sketched people standing in line without them noticing me, fun times. Spent the rest of the journey watching BSG eps on my Zune (they were right, it does get better).

I went to a few things when I got there. The pre-game meeting for the Kunji Revoltt(he LARP - I almost started to dissuade myself from going, because I'm a shy self-hindering lame-o sometimes, but I stfu'd and got on with it, since I'm not a teenager anymore just awesome like that), and then had in character lunch... dinner... dunch at 6 with the other members of the Royal Society.

Then I went to a panel on Bad Biology, which ended up being more cool speculative Biology (migrating forests!) than bad, but nonetheless win. Wish I'd taken more notes there. Then one on "Researching Your World" which ended up being mostly on near future type stuff (Charles Stross was on the panel, so), and the effects of technology on society, as well as a little general advice on researching worlds. One of the best of the whole con, I think. I really liked all the people on it; gonna check out their work. There was a Kunji event, and after that a panel on "Classics that Aren't" - things that are considered classics that shouldn't be & such. A little over my head since I haven't actually read that much classic sci-fi, and towards the end it degenerated into some guy (who's probably important or famous in some way) raging against fantasy novels in general. >_<


Saturday

Some pretty good stuff on Saturday. Mostly on at the same times as other stuff.

A few Kenji things and then the first panel I went to was "Maqpping the mysterious" about designing worlds in a map-making sense. I wish there'd been more of it, it didn't go on at all long enough! And half of it ended up being on whether maps should be included in books. Apparently they're very expensive to put in.

After that a "Starting with Comics" panel cum recommending session to get into comics, which was awesome, and resulted in the majority of this. (Feel free to recommend me more if you know any, btw. I'll buy them all eventually.)

The next panel was the best of the day, I think. Missed the Easter Doctor Who special for it! XD Not that it was what I expected it to be. It was called "Dealing with Dead Meat", about "how dead bodies really are", so I expected a lot of, I dunno, decomposition and stuff. Well, alright, there was that, too. Anyway, what it was was a doctor and a mortician telling their funny, disturbing, and sobering stories. it was amazing.

And then there was "Bad Sex in SF". Oh, the lulz. And they quoted this, which is my favourite passage of bad prose in the world.

The one talk I was a little disappointed by was one titled "Space Ain't What We Thought It Would Be", which was basically a run-down of the space missions of the last few decades. Which was interesting, but I pretty much knew all of it already. :/


Sunday

Sunday was probably the busiest day. The first thing I went to was "How Movies & TV get their Martial Arts wrong (on purpose)". I haven't see many martial arts films, tbh, but it's always fun seeing people throw other people around. Especially when the person doing the throwing is in a wheelchair! I was seriously impressed. Want to see that in a martial arts movie.

The next panel was a prettyt easy choice. I mean, it was titled "They Keep Killing Hitler". How could I resist. Got a lot of recs for alternative history novels from that. The next one was a presentation by a folklorist about Spring-Helled Jack, who/which I'd never heard of before, but it was interesting to see how rumours and urban legends get started and propagated.

The next was "A Little Learning is a Dangerous Thing", about references in novels and whether it's possible to enjoy them without getting them. The Discworld books are an extreme example, obviously, but did you know there's obscure medievalist word-usage in-jokes in Lord of the Rings? Apparently so. Also, apart from anything else, my notes from this panel have the best doodles of the weekend:


And then I went to an introductory talk on Quantum Mechanics, which was awesome. The woman who gave it was brilliant at explaining. Such fascinating sutff. <3

Afterwards there was a panel on "The SF-savvy Criminal", which continued to get derailed into the ethics of surveillance cameras and so on, and then there was the book launch and signing for The Third God, the last volume of one of my favourite book series, which I have been waiting for for quite literally years.

Apparently, according to his talk, Ricardo Pinto realised while writing this volume that it was actually all a big autobiographical therapeutic exercise. I think I'll continue to enjoy it for the complex and dark world, though. The man is a genius at world-building. (Or, you know, obsessive, with the plasticine models and shadow-angle calculations. But I think that's really cool.)

After that I went to a what-if-famous-novels-were-RPG-campaigns panel, which was really funny, but also, um, a bit over my head, seeing as I've never actually done any roleplaying, though I really want to try. I started feeling a little noobish and out-geeked, by the end. >_> Must remember it's not a competition and I have nothing to prove...

Then after the last Kunji event (which was a little disorganised, but we did kill a werewolf), the same woman who did the Quantum talk gave a Brief History of the Universe talk, and then I took the bus back to the hotel, and packed while watching red Dwarf on Dave.


Monday

Just four panels on Monday, before the end, and another two hour wait in a train station, because pff, timing, who needs timing when you can have cheap, late train tickets.

The first was "World Building with Music", which had a lot about classical music and it's narrative structure. Then another recommendations for comic-n00bs panel (this time "for the discerning SF fan") where I won a Hellblazer comic in a raffle. :D

And then "Terraforming vs Pantropy" which was another of the highlights of the con. (Pantropy, btw, is genetically engerneering humans to match other planets instead of the other way around. New favourite word!) A lot of speculation about generation ships and artificial wombs and colonies on Mars, as well as some more book recs.

And then another Physics talk. "Beginner's time travel", light clocks and worm-holes and paradoxes with billiard balls.

Your useless fact of the day ration: astronauts are on average 10μs younger than they would be if they'd never gone to space at high speeds.


All in all, I really really enjoyed it. I'm glad I went to the LARP, though it was a tiny bit disorganised, and maybe just not suited to a con setting, it was a good way to start talking to people... even if it was about selling the treatment that'd allowed Queen Victoria to live until 2009 to alien kings. Even without that, though, I loved the whole atmosphere of being able to turn to anyone sitting next to you and have a friendly conversation. I dunno, maybe incredibly socially capable people feel like that all the time, but it was pretty novel to me. I'm going to try to carry over that confidence to normal life. Though when I said something to people on the next bench over while waiting for the train, they looked a bit bemused. XD

Oh, also, click here for a txt file of all the book and comic recs I got from panels and such. (Man, I feel crippled without access to my website. There's photobucket for images, but where do you PUT txt files. Ooh, Google docs, maybe? *goes to find out*) (ETA: Go go Google docs!)

In other news, I went shopping with my mum a few days ago, and got some pimpin' new shoes (my other ones aren't really suited for warm weather):


Also a cool new top. Also a sweat-dress type thing, which I can't find on the website. And some new bras. Yay, bras. :D

Anyways, the train to Durham leaves at 10 tonight (again with the late cheap trains ftw), so I'd better get back to packing.

Comment, foo! // Comment at LJ

Back home! well, I got back from the con on Monday, and then spent a bit of time at Tim's house just hanging out and generally being the awesome people that we are. I borrowed a few volumes of GTO to read from Tim, since he's been telling me how good it is. I'm on volume 4 at the moment, and it definitely rocks pretty hard so far.

Anyway, EasterCon was tons of fun. Went to a bunch of panels, took part in the LARP, got The Third God and had it signed... :3 I think I'll write more on all the stuff I went to &c. later, at the moment I'm going through my notes and putting all the book and comic recs on my Amazon wishlist.

Skimmed through the stuff I missed on LJ earlier; I may or may not bother to catch up with the THREE MILLION twitter posts I no doubt missed. Depends on whether DestroyTwitter and/or my internet connection stops being flaky.

Oh yes, and I also got an account on Artician, which seems to be setting itself up as a new and better DeviantART. Haven't got a real opinion on it yet, still playing around.

Comment, foo! // Comment at LJ

Because that is what blogs are for what what.

My thoughts on Watchmen: It's not brilliant, but it's definitely not bad. I was expecting it to be either BRILLIANT or TERRIBLE from what the internet was saying, but it was just pretty good and... existed. Didn't ruin the comic, but didn't add anything. The comic is better, but it was pretty good.

My thoughts on K-ON!: Cute girls. PRETTY ART ZOMG. (Facial expressions!) And I guess it has a story. It's sort of generic. I will, possibly hypocritically, completely disregard that because PRETTY ART. Basically: pretty Lucky Star with less silly hair, plus a band and small hats.

My thoughts on The Years of Rice and Salt: I am still so completely in love with this book, even though it's taking me ages to finish. (I blame essays. Also, I read Q&A in between, which was alright.) <3 <3 <3

My thoughts on Fullmetal Alchemist: Huh. I expected this to be a more serious series, for some reason. Dunno if I'll keep watching it.

My thoughts on BSG: How does a Cylon get an Australian accent, anyway? Are Australian accents genetic?


I'm gonna write some proper reviews again sometime. It'll be fun.

Comment, foo! // Comment at LJ

OK. THINGS I NEED TO DO TO-DAY:

• Print out train info & such. (Ew, have to take a bus between Surbiton and Clapham Junction.)
• Fill out form so I can graduate and have fancy dinner and all that good stuff.
• Fill out form for Beamish tickets.
• Pack.
• Find batteries for camera. (Doubt there'll be much to photograph, but you never know.)

Also, have to ask mother dear when she comes home whether I can get a ride home from King's Cross on Monday, because I got late tickets for money-saving purposes and I do not feel like spending an hour on a rail-replacement bus at 11 at night. Otherwise I'll go to Tim's house which is only an hour on the train with considerably less hassle.

I don't think I'll take my laptop with me (maybe if I had a pretty little netbook *lusts*); I should be able to conserve my Zune battery, since I'm only going to be using it on the train there and back, probably (I've put all of S3 BSG I haven't seen yet on it. :3). And I'll be doing my bloggin' on Twitter, meanwhile, so you can go there if you miss me. XD


Also, Tim and I went on a date to London all day yesterday, to see Watchmen and go to the Forbidden Planet and all the usual stuff, and we walked around and talked and it was really, really nice. <3 Hee.

Comment, foo! // Comment at LJ

I made an awesome find to-day:



It's a 1930 guide to the zoo in Hamburg I used to go to as a child. Found it in a charity shop in Leatherhead. Apparently the proprietor's mother was a dancer and visited it before the war. Obviously I couldn't not buy it.

I'm not sure what I'll do with it, though; maybe I should frame it and hang it on the wall, to keep it safe.


Obviously you should put all the young of carnivorous animals into a nursery enclosure together. Duh.

Might scan all the pages first and put them up somewhere for general amusement.


Does anyone else reflexively press Ctrl-S to save when writing LJ entries? XD


Tim's mum came up to Durham on the weekend, to give us a ride home; and before that, we went to Beamish, since I haven't been there despite living in the North for years.

Oh man, you guys, it's SUCH an amazing place. I took a million (read: 300-ish) pictures and missed half the interesting things the people in costume were telling the others, because OMG OLD SIGNS.



I have such an artistic hard-on for old type. I've uploaded all the photos I took onto photobucket, since there are too many for a free flickr account and I'm waiting for Tim to move my site over to the new host (we share).

I want to go there again at LEAST twice. Need to fill out the form for the year ticket (it costs the same as regular admission).


There's probably a million typos in this, but we're off to some new Japanese restaurant my mother discovered, so I'll have to spellcheck later.

Comment, foo! // Comment at LJ