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Update from between the years.

Happy holidays, friends! I hope you all had fun winter festivities. I’ve been staying at my parents’ house for a week or so, having a good time with the traditional Christmas activities and feasting. Feasting is the main traditional Christmas activity, as far as I’m concerned.

I got some great presents as well:

picture of Christmas loot, iPod with headphones and exercise armband, books, new graphics card, DVDs, and an electronics kit

The thing in the box is a FEZ Spider Starter Kit, and I’m really excited to start playing with it, although I still have a few tutorials to go through until I do. I may try to convince my brother to lend me his music expertise and collaborate with me on some kind of cool chiptune-y project. No idea what it will be yet, but I think it’d be fun. Maybe we’ll build an instrument, kind of like those modified Gameboys.

The books are Der Hundertjährige, der aus dem Fenster stieg und verschwand; Steam-Powered: Lesbian Steampunk Stories; Machine of Death; and Guns, Germs, and Steel. I also got some colourful brush pens from my brother, which I forgot to draw. /terrible sibling

Unfortunately I’ve been incubating a cold all week which has chosen today to come out in full force, and so I’m off to drink tea on the couch and sulk about my hands being too unsteady to draw properly.

29. 12. 2011 7:52 pm | Personal | Tags: , | Comment

Slightly belated Happy New Year, internet pals!

Gutes Neues Jahr

 

The pig is there for luck. Apparently pigs don't symbolise good luck in England, as I learned yesterday when Tim asked me why it was there. This is weird and interesting and makes me want to do a survey! I’m pretty sure four-leaved clovers, chimney sweepers, and possibly horseshoes (with the legs pointing up so they look like a bull’s horns, according to my grandmother) are shared, as well as all the unlucky stuff like walking under ladders and breaking mirrors and so on. (I suspect those were popularised by films and cartoons.) My mum brought me bread, salt, and a penny when I moved into the flat -- for plentiful food, wealth, and good luck, respectively, though we had to look that up -- and when you find a penny on the street you’re meant to (pretend) spit on it three times and keep it in your pocket for luck. That’s all the folkloric traditions and superstitions I can think of off the top of my head. Do you have any?

I think pigs are pretty cool animals, regardless.

So, in the time since I last blogged I’ve been having really nice Christmas and birthday/New Years times. Hung out with my family, baked cookies, ate delicious food, and played card and board games (everyone seems to be coming around to my point of view that board games are for cool kids. My dad even enjoyed Settlers of Catan, after initial scepticism – “You can’t kill anyone?”). Everyone seemed to like the presents I got them, too.  :D (Paintings for my parents & brother, and a pair of Hello Kitty headphones for Tim.) My parents got me a new keyboard and screen, which I asked for intending to attach to my laptop, but then Tim got me the parts of a computer to go with them. :O! I am coming to you at this very moment from my super sexy new desktop PC. I got some other  really great stuff, too:

•There is finally a successor to my faithful old bag. It’s very similar and feels pretty sturdy, so I’m hoping it’ll serve me just as long
•Books! I am so excited to read those books.
•I love my jar of erasers. Perfect present idea. ♥

On New Year’s Eve, Tim and I went out to see the London fireworks. The travel guidelines said the viewing areas start filling up around 8, so we went out for dinner and ended up on Westminster Bridge around 7. And then we sat and read books for five hours while Radio 1 played really lame music. It was totally worth it, though: the fireworks were spectacular. I adore fireworks. Pretty bright colours and loud noises are just viscerally satisfying. Fuck yeah, watch us light up the sky! I didn’t want to waste any of that feeling on trying to take photos, because photos of fireworks are never as good anyway, but I did tear myself away for a couple of seconds because the sea of cameras and phones that went up in front of me when it started was too amusing not to document.


Everyone on the internet already knows what fireworks look like, guys.

I was thinking yesterday about whether I should make a resolution this year. I usually don’t, because I think about my goals and how to achieve them pretty frequently anyway, so I don’t feel the need to do it at new year’s specifically. My life has been going really well in the last few months. Everything feels like it’s rolling in the right direction. I like where I live, my relationship is really good, I’ve been making some cool friends at uni and being social, and I got my first essay back before the holiday and got the best grade of my academic career so far holy shit. Of course this is a dangerous moment and I can’t rest on my laurels and stop pushing to keep rolling in that direction, so I’ve decided that my resolution for 2011 is: “Take all necessary steps to ensure the continuation of awesome good times”.



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4. 1. 2011 4:09 am | Personal, Syndicated | Tags: , , | Comment

Pokemon and giant robots, fuck yeah!

Someone on the radio just started talking about their experiences of war. This entire entry feels even more frivolous now. Read on for frivolity.

I am re-reading Cloud Atlas. It's possibly even a little better than I remembered! :D

Also I am super late to the party, but I actually listened to some Lady Gaga songs the other day, and they are pretty good!

Thus concludes the not-quite-as-geeky section of the entry. ONWARDS~

So Saturday Tim and I went to Forbidden Planet and bought POKEMON CARDS. 8D A deck each and some boosters. And now I am really into it again, and I may make an excursion into the attic to see if I can find my old cards. Are they even legal anymore? I really want to build a Ghost/Psychic deck. In some way this is porbably Tumblr's fault for enabling me to look at so much fanart.

Some teenagers on the train on the way back made fun of us. XD Man, teenagers are ridiculous. I am pretty glad I'm not one and can enjoy Pokemon cards with impunity.

I also bought this pretty rockin' t-shirt:


Too bad Uniqlo doesn't have any Gundam t-shirts that look that cool. Don't worry, I still love you Gandamuuu~ ♥ I will love you even more when more Unicorn comes out. >_>

And and and I finally found a pre-owned copy of Beautiful Katamari at Game, so that's what I've been doing all weekend. No, really. All weekend. Except I forgot to save yesterday so I had to do everything again. >_> But I got more points and actually managed to do the Mars level without wanting to strangle someone, so woo!

I'm pretty sure Katamari is the best thing the games industry has ever brought forth. Pff, Half Life 2 or WoW or whatever. KATAMARI WINS ALL.

Over all it's been a pretty great weekend.


Only a week and two days until Paris! Paris Paris Paris! I am super excited. Gonna buy so many comic books and do lots of sketching and look at lots of beautiful architecture!


Speaking of architecture, I haven't done much drawing in the last few days, apart from a commission for my mother*, but here is a brush-pen doodle of some houses.


LOL WHAT PERSPECTIVE


There were some really great urban scenes in the exhibition of 20th century Chinese prints at the British Museum, and they've inspired me to try to get better at buildings and so on. Architecture and cities are one of my very favourite things.


Thus concludes the rest of this entry. Do come again.

*I think I'm going to start advertising my services for commissions sometime soon. :O Don't know how that will go, but one or two people — apart form my mother — have asked me, so it's worth a try!
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14. 6. 2010 12:51 am | Personal, Syndicated | Tags: , , , , , | Comment

Subheadings~

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.





I bought a brush-pen a few days ago with some of my birthday money! I'm not very good at using it yet (can you tell? XD), but I've been practicing, and I think it's gonna be really good for my drawing.

Here's some of my practice doodles that aren't completely terrible. :P


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:


I forgot to put a few things from Tim in that drawing, actually: he also gave me Vol.2 of the Darker than Black manga, and the bag also had these totally rad ¥1000000 playing-cards in it:



My parents also gave me some money to be spent at Uniqlo, with which I have bought myself some delectable attire.


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!

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9. 1. 2010 7:06 pm | Personal, Syndicated | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Comment

Oh hai guys. I haven’t blogged in forever.

The exhibition was pretty cool! Many pretty things. I love Aztec Mexica writing so much. This was probably my favourite thing, but I can't find a proper picture of it online. I'm amused that the guy on the left is named "leg". Friday at 3pm was the wrong time to go, though; it was massively crowded. And people kept. Standing. Right in front of me. While I was reading something. щ(≖益≖щ) *murders*

I finished reading the Third God as well, and the ending was surprisingly good! (almost everyone I was really attached to survived! :O) In the last few chapters everything sort of comes together and you see the huge cycle of history that the characters only occupy a small, final part of, and it shifts the way in which you look at the story in a really interesting way and FFF I LOVE IT, OK. I can't really say more without spoiling, which I won't because I need you all to read it so I have someone to talk about it to. It's main selling point is the setting, I think, which I'll probably talk about more later. The author also has a huge amount of world building notes up on his website, which makes him my favourite.

I think I'll probably end up reading it all over again soon from this new perspective and to look for foreshadowing. :3

The book I'm reading now is one my mum brought me from Germany a little while ago; Die Praktikantin by Yannik Mahr. It's a sort of satire romance intrigue, I think, about a Journalist who gets put in charge of a small rural newspaper, not the big metropolitan one he had his eyes on, and hires a pretty intern, and then according to the blurb something mysterious happens, idk. It's really amusingly written, so far.

I had my second German lesson last Monday, and it went really well. :D I ran out of time before I ran out of things to do, and everything. Spent the first half an hour or so talking about the Middle Ages, because the kids didn't know anything. They hadn't even heard of the reformation, apparently. I'm probably going to give them a short history lecture every week, starting with the Völkerwanderung next Monday, since it's relevant to the Nibelungen. I'm making a ~powepoint presentation~. 8D

I also have about two thirds of a blog post written about Nick Griffins hilarious "indigenous British who've been living here for 17000 years!" comment on BBC Question Time, which was about a million years ago in internet time but who needs temporal relevance amirite? I might finish it tomorrow, I've been wandering around London a lot today shopping with Tim and I'm not in the mood to concentrate on properly structured writing. God, I missed writing properly structured things about archaeology/history, though. So much.

Oh yeah, I also started filling out my MA application! My personal statement is another thing I will probably write tomorrow.

PS: I say I was shopping with Tim, it was mostly Tim shopping, really. I only bought one thing. A pretty cool thing:




BFFs!

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30. 10. 2009 10:35 pm | Personal, Syndicated | Tags: , , , , , , , | Comment

Fortune and glory, kid.

Sky was showing all of the Indiana Jones films in a row on one of its movie channels to-day.

I didn't get much done to-day.

Also, Raiders is the best.


Have a comic about how cool my new phone is!



As an aside, here's the words I've taught my phone so far (in rough chronological order):
● yuri
● XD
● pwned
● raptors
● raptor
● ChairmanWow (to make it quicker to log in to things)
● btw

That's either a statement on me, or my phone's dictionary's inadequacies; make up your own mind.

I haven't decided what to call it yet, which is a deeply significant decision which I will have to put some thought into, clearly. I'm not sure what me buying a smartphone means for the Zlorq family*. Technological singularity?


I've also got a new desk! One that's big enough to work on and not wobbly.


(Picture from aforementioned phone because my camera has no batteries in it.)

Also a drawer unit so my stuff has somewhere to go that's not the windowsill (my mum really hates that).

I went down to the Adult Learning Centre in Cobham to-day, only to be told it hadn't existed for two years. XD Oops. Anyway, I got a brochure at the library (I might get a library card - it's a pretty lame tiny library, but there must be something in there worth reading), and found a Japanese course in Guildford for JLPT practising purposes, but... it might be a tad too easy. The learning goals lists, along with reading hiragana, katakana, and 80 kanji:

"Ask and answer questions using "Nani( =what)", " Dore( = which)", " Doko( =where) etc..."

...yeah, that's not going to take 12 lessons, guys. Really. Trust me. (This is their Level 2 course, apparently. I don't know what they do in Level 1, but it doesn't involve asking any questions.)


I still have one or two of my comics from Italy to finish, and then there will be a big post about it, promise! I've been busy looking for jobs and researching MA courses and assembling IKEA furniture and probably doing something else that I can't remember now. Sleeping.


Ooh, also, I have been reading Dune. I was expecting it to be a bit silly in an old sci-fi sort of way, but it's actually really good so far. Also, I'm a fan of the idea of sending someone to a planet to insert a prophecy legend into the culture there in case anyone needs to get help there however many years into the future. (I've just read that bit and I have no idea if it's going to be an important plot point or if no-one has any idea what I'm talking about. I imagine it's going to be at least a little significant. At least I hope so, because it's an awesome concept.)


This post ended up being longer than I intended it to be.


*Have I mentioned that my phones are named after/represent in some strange way the royal family ruling a small independent moon colony? It was founded by Zlorq III, which is something I named one of my phones once on a whim.
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1. 8. 2009 11:10 pm | Personal, Syndicated | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Comment