Current literature: Shogun by James Clavell, Goodbye Tsugumi by Banana Yoshimoto, Much Obliged, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
Website: the mad aristocrat
Anime/ficblog: fic sushi
For the love of Bob, sign the guestbook!
Still in school, dammit:
UNC-Greensboro
Nara Women's University
Manchester Metropolitan University
Posted elsewhere:
Fanfiction.net, Photo.net
Partners in crime:
Diana, Haru, Jamie, joudama, Katie, Leah, Melanie, Michael, N
Reads:
Andre, Bridget, Cat, Lex, Lisa, Natalie, Sabina, Thorne, Twig, Violaine, Witch King of Angmar
Hangs around:
Bounce magazine, Ninjai.com, !SuperCat Online, Sekai Seifuku, Passion Fruit, Crimson Tears, The Japanese Flannel, Bleeding Hearts, windward, Sequential Tart, Diagon Alley, Shiroi Heya
Webcomics:
Jinks, ADVENTURERS!, Little Gamers, Nine Stitches, megatokyo, Bite Me!, Boy Meets Boy, Sinfest, Spades
Drools over:
Isamu Noguchi, Chanel, Gackt Camui, Sony Japan, Style.com, Heath Ledger, Aiwa, European Furniture Importers, anything covered in toile, matcha, fried okra, Hemmings Photography, yakisoba
Listens to:
Dreams Come True, Ryuichi Kawamura, Hikaru Utada, Natalie Imbruglia, Gackt, Sarah Brightman, GLAY, Enya, Paul Simon, Jimmy Buffett, Travis, Judy and Mary, L'Arc-en-Ciel, Hyde, Chihiro Onitsuka, Garbage, John Mellencamp, REM, Melissa Etheridge, K.D. Lang, The Phantom of the Opera, Rent, Sophie B. Hawkins, Nicholas Tse
Books & manga:
Hanazakari no Kimitachi e, X, WISH, ElfQuest, Transformers, Ah! My Goddess!, You're Under Arrest!, Bakuretsu Hunter, Rurouni Kenshin, Slayers, Weiss: An Assassin and White Shaman, Gravitation, Gouhou Drug
Watches:
West Wing, As Time Goes By, Slayers, Rurouni Kenshin, Cardcaptor Sakura, Inu Yasha, Cowboy Bebop, any Gackt or Glay videos I can get my hands on, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Ed, Edd, & Eddie, Just Shoot Me!, Samurai Jack
Spends paychecks at:
EXPRESS, YesAsia, Apple, J. Crew, L.L. Bean, Target, Amazon.com
Archives:
12/17/02-1/10/03(Holiday)
11/2/02-12/14/02(Sekirei)
10/3/02-11/1/02(Halloween Elise)
7/31/02-10/3/02(Natalie)
6/12/02-7/27/02(Debauchery)
5/3/02-6/12/02(Fun with mochi)
3/24/02-4/28/02(X pretentiousness)
1/10/02-2/27/02(Home again)
12/1/01-1/3/02(Nara III)
10/9/01-11/27/01(Nara II)
9/3/01-9/29/01(Nara I)
...Damn you, Twig, now I'm going to be completely useless for the rest of the day.
Except that I have to find a train ticket to Bath, and book a hotel. And catch up on e-mail. And-- &*£$*! Screw it. I'm going to re-read that last chapter.
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current music: Hikaru Utada, 'Uso mitai na I Love You'
One hour to go till lecture starts in the next room.
One shiny, happy ALHR update on the screen in front of me.
*cracks knuckles*
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...I SO did that on purpose. XD
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*bounces* I love, love, LOVE Photoshop 7. It is my bitch. That image only took about half an hour (and only because I was an idiot and had to go back and re-create separate layers for half of it). Oh, how wonderful it is to have something to look at up there.
...That said, it's time to archive this monster. XD In a couple of days, anyway.
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The damned funniest thing I will ever, ever read
...with the exception of the Birthday Fic, of course. I can't even finish it here, because I'll make a public spectacle of myself as I laugh my ass off.
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current music: Ainslie Henderson, 'Keep Me A Secret'
Dude, it's Fat Tuesday. I totally forgot until Mom mentioned the church dinner... I hope you guys ate bacon for me! So I guess now I have a perfect excuse for stopping to get a nice hot takeaway dinner tonight instead of eating soup and toast as usual. Score. :D
I bought music today... I couldn't stand it any longer! I'm listening right now to a song I picked up from the radio, and I found the single for such a good price I snapped it up. It's the catchiest, most /fun/ song to sing to that I've heard in ages. Ainslie's got a really nice voice. I also got a Fatboy Slim album (a LONG overdue purchase) and Travis' first album (another CD I've wanted for almost two years). They're both great and the total for all three of these was less than the price of two CDs at home. Finally, something that's not more expensive!
I just got my fall semester registration info... minus the advising code, of course, because Penelope hasn't sent that yet, OF COURSE. Yeeha, time to camp out on UNCG's course catalog again....
Oh, and I've been spared, for the time being. Vanessa's out sick and Neil briefed us on the other half of the project (the half I'm actually going to DO) this morning. Whoo. Now, to work on all that research. >_<
It amuses me no end that my little brother's tagboard has devolved into a family accusation-fest. XD
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I am so screwed.
I went in to my Premiere workshop at half-one, right, and it lasted until after four. Then I went to the supermarket and picked up some dinner and a magazine, then back to the flat for about an hour and a half. Then I came to the library, stopping in the studio to check the boards on the way.
Our animation project briefing is not, in fact, tomorrow. It was this morning. There was a big, honking flier on the board advertising this that was not there last week. Now I ask you, what good does that do me? I am so fucked. I have to grovel and kiss the floor tomorrow and hope that Vanessa doesn't rip me a new one, all because nobody bothers to distribute information in a timely manner around here. (Of course, it doesn't help that I'm juggling two different levels' worth of work here, and I still don't have a clear idea of whether they want me to be in the I or II lectures on Wednesday, much less that no one seems to agree on which professors are in on which days of the week-- Vanessa OUGHT to only be in on Tuesdays, hence the assumption that the meeting was TOMORROW. I suppose she wanted to get a jump on this one... gee, would have been nice if someone had SHARED.)
I'm so screwed. And now I have to crawl into the studio at NINE tomorrow morning to make sure I have time to grovel.
On top of that, I need a haircut. My hair looks like a bad wig.
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I want this mug. :D
Sephie, I can always count on you to keep me in my place (in a corner office with four weeks' paid vacation and my own personal sushi chef). Oh, and would I get to design the tattoo myself? Because the Dark Mark is just so tacky.
Wait. They dated the rebirth to WHEN?! oO; Oh my. Oh, shit. Excuse me, I'm going to laugh myself into a coma now.
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Well. I think you'll be more interested in reading this letter of resignation than in anything I could possibly have to say. At least, I hope so. It certainly restored my faith in a way... until I reminded myself that this is one more upstanding citizen /not/ employed in the higher levels of government. It's a beautiful letter, though, and you really ought to check it out, obligatory advertisement and all.
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Okay... what the HELL is up with the dating on some of these blog entries? They're backwards, mismatched or just plain WRONG and only a couple of them are ones I'm sure enough about to fix.
Damn you, stupid code, do your job. >_<
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........
I think it's going to be one of those weekends for bad poetry, Natalie Imbruglia CDs and Victorian novels. Hooboy.
The drizzly weather, of course, only serves to validate this assumption.
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So I don't linksurf for a week, and look what happens.
This is me, absolutely swinging from the chandeliers in jubilation. Not only that, the last two chapters were even better than the first (and that's saying something, because the first one is all Yohji and Schuldig, and the second is OC-centric, but goddammit, Nyoko rocks.) I think it had something to do with the fact that there was more than sap involved... nuts and bolts of Kritiker, wheee! Now /that's/ the kind of thing that sucks me in.
Okay. End sharing of ficcish happiness. Cue stomach rumbling. oO; Definitely time to hit Sainsbury's.
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THIS makes me want to shriek with elation, jump up and down and possibly dance, and explode with happiness. All at once, even.
It shall be dubbed, which is sad because no one who watches shall discover the amazingness that is Mayo Suzukaze's voice, but it's Rurouni Kenshin and it's going to be on every single afternoon. As far as I'm concerned, the world will be a happier place for it.
Haven't felt much like rambling or even talking back lately... or emailing, even. Mostly because I've been too busy working and catching up on sleep, but also because I just got tired of it. I'm still tired of it, in fact, but being reminded about Kenshin motivated me to share my joy. ;P What can I say? It's hands-down my favorite Japanese comic, the end, thank you and goodnight. I'm very much looking forward to getting a few friends hooked on it over the summer. Even with one episode a day... that's still FIVE MONTHS of Kenshin! :D Oh, sweet.
I finished Treasure Island the other day, too-- finally broke down and got a little paperback copy, although it was very tempting to buy an audio CD instead. It was lovely and loads of fun-- although I have to wonder if it's not going to bring those chase-dreams back in force. You know, the ones where you're running like mad from a group of people chasing you, even if you're not sure why, and you're hiding and dodging and leaping over things like a monkey and in a crazy way it's kinda fun? Yup. Treasure Island has always been the ultimate form of that sort of suspenseful situation to me. Probably one of the more bizarre reasons I like it so much. I'd forgotten how abruptly it ended, though-- it was weird. But oh, hooray, hooray for Silver! (One-track mind? Me? Noooo.)
I discovered cream of asparagus soup yesterday. It looks like something you'd find at the bottom of a swamp, but it's quite possibly even better than tomato soup. (That's high praise, from me; tomato soup is one of my favorite comfort foods.) The onions and croutons were lovely too. I need to go to Sainsbury's and get a loaf of bread and some more peanut butter today, though-- it comes in teeny tiny jars here that last maybe three or four days, if you're in the habit of making three PB sandwiches at a time like me. (Or slathering it all over apple slices; that makes it go even faster!) At least I'm not starving this time 'round... but I do believe I'll get some ice cream, too. I'm going to have to remember to make a haircut appointment tomorrow for Saturday... my hair is so long now it's falling into my mouth and I HATE that. It's looking ragged, too. Manchester city water's not very kind to it, nor are the dampish weather and the wind.
Ye gods, I need to go music-shopping this weekend. You have become my worst enemy in my campaign Not To Get Sucked Into New Music Markets. It's probably no more than I deserve, on the other hand... *grins* Poor baby. I wonder if any of the Chinese students here have mad hook-ups at home, perhaps? We could negotiate the delivery of one Nic Tse, carefully wrapped, to your doorstep.
Diana, you silly girl... would it be appropriate at this point for me to say 'I told you so'? XD And I totally feel the 'd'oh!' moment with your new boss. That's hilarious. If I send you a big fat letter instead of a postcard, would I get a tankoubon or two? (I just /know/ there's a couple of new HanaKimi volumes by now...) Very bad of me, though, not to mail you sooner. I just keep forgetting! Same to you, Mel, but don't worry. ;)
N, you ought to make Jinks t-shirts. They should be black with a little circle on the front, in which different characters would reside with their names... and on the back a single line, like their signature saying or somesuch hilarity. Or you could put whole one-shot strips on the back of each shirt. I dunno. I just want to be able to wear Simon and Deb, is all! XD
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You, yes YOU, little brother dearest, I see what you have done and if you were not a blood relative (and a very lazy one at that) you'd be very, very dead. As it is, I think I'm just amused. But you still have to delete my stats counter!
Okay, forty-five minutes until my last lecture. Ho-hum. We watched Brave New World today in Futures-- one of those 'must-see' movies that I, of course, had never seen. It was very cool, but they did change the ending somewhat... eh. *shrugs* Still. Good movie. Leonard Nimoy rocks.
I read the second story in Kitchen last night; I couldn't make myself save it for later. It wasn't as good as the one the book is named for, but it was still a lovely little story. I like Yoshimoto's style; her characters are easy to identify with, and her writing doesn't have that overall air of despondency and existential listlessness that I have absolutely no patience for anymore (and yet it seems to be quite fashionable in short fiction... /still/). I was seriously waiting for both those stories to end on depressing notes, but they pleasantly surprised me, and I find myself wanting to re-read the book already.
Oh, and I finally pinpointed one of the major reasons I still enjoy the Shannara novels-- no squishy romance. I have grown absolutely sick of 'soul-bonds', 'life-bonds', 'destined loves' or whateverthecrap the author likes to call them. They're characterization cop-outs. Romance, period, is barely present in Shannara books to begin with, but when it does show up, it's very low-key and incidental and (surprise!) concerns only the characters, not the Fate of the World or Grand Destiny or anything else. It's more or less /believable/, and since I hate being beat over the head with anything at all in a book (much less romance), I take it in stride with the rest of the story. Otherwise I'd be sitting there making faces at the novel, trying to ignore the gooey parts and still manage to enjoy the rest of the story. I detest having to do that; I shouldn't have to do that to be able to enjoy a book. By the same token, I think that's why I still like re-reading Pern novels so much; lots of good story, very little gooey romance but what /does/ exist, is just as enjoyable as the rest of the book.
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current music: L'Arc~en~Ciel, 'honey'
Thirteen minutes on the cafe meter. Let's see how far I can get.
*hugs* I love you, I miss you, and I'm going to send you a letter soon... er, once you send me your mailbox number. ^_^; I've been enjoying the moon here, too-- it rises really large and yellow over the buildings in the city center, and it's incredibly cool to see. I love the way the moon rises over the mountains behind Todai-ji, I love the way it rises at home to shine in my window through the tree branches, and I love the way it rises here, to float over endless expanses of moor and urban sprawl.
I had SUSHI for lunch yesterday! This was made even more wonderful, if possible, by the fact that I'd finished Shogun all in one go the night before, and the descriptions of food in that book were absolutely killing me. By the time I was on the last page I wanted sashimi so badly I could taste it. So I went into the studio yesterday with the distinct ambition of finding out where the nearest decent sushi bar was. Wouldn't you know it, the girl whose desk is right next to mine was actually there-- not only is she my age, she is switching to fashion design soon and she loves all things Japanese. oO I really do have some crazy luck. She told me about the sushi at Selfridge's, and then we decided to just /go/ there because she needed to do some shopping and I didn't have any lectures that afternoon. So. Free bus into town (another great discovery, right to Triangle Square) and then down to the food hall on the ground floor, where we sat at the counter in front of the revolving belt with all the little individual servings rolling by (I couldn't believe my eyes-- oh, how I miss those places). We stuffed ourselves and ended up only paying £7 each, and I got my giant serving of sashimi. Mackerel. Oh God, my favorite. It's like butter, I tell you, smooth and wonderful and I am /so/ making this a weekly visit.
Now that I'm good and hungry again, I best be off to the supermarket for some dinner. I've got a lot more work to do tonight.
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current music: Chihiro Onitsuka, 'infection'
...I absolutely LOVE that I can intuit what some of my favorite songs are about. I've never closely listened to/read the lyrics for 'infection', but it's my personal Subaru/Seishirou theme song for a reason... and I was vindicated last night when I actually went to look up some words. 'The broken pieces of my heart...' smack in the middle of the refrain, among other things. I know that doesn't sound hard to figure out, but I'd never bothered to find out what 'hahen' meant for sure. Whoo. When I get my hands on my kanji books again, this sucker's getting a real translation, you better believe it. And /then/ it's getting a wallpaper, and a layout... >:D
Where the hell did this day /go/?! I slept late because I didn't have to be in the studio at all, but 'late' turned into 'abominably late' and then I forced myself to leave and come to the library just so I'd have to walk somewhere. I've got some more animating to do tonight, and I'm going to have to seriously buckle down tomorrow and work on the Bloomberg project, because it always seems to get pushed behind animating, and that's not good.
Oh, and you and I must have been thinking along the same lines at some point today, because there's a snippet in my notebook from earlier that's little more than Tseng mocking Vincent's love of melodrama. *grins* Sucks for Vincent, that he's my favorite character. He's in for one unpleasant ride. STEPH! I want reactions from the horde! You can't just send me that one-liner and expect me to believe that nothing's going on over there, eh? And you signed off just as I opened a window to talk to you under my second IM name. Suck. Oh well, I'll see if I can't get my phone to cooperate tonight.
I'm STARVING. Time to eat and do some work.
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I saw The Lion King at the Imax theater today. It was just as wonderful as I knew it would be; seeing the opening sequence on the big screen again was an absolute dream. I was so psyched for animation after that, I stayed and book-browsed for an hour in the Printworks center until Treasure Planet showed. (Bad form of passing the time; I now have another novel to show for it.) Treasure Planet was showing on the digital screen, which meant that rather than being projected as an image through film, it was digitally reproduced on a /really/ large screen. I could actually tell the difference, it was so perfectly sharp and crystal-clear. I might have to go see it there again, rather than seeing it at the regular theater up the street. I mean, WOW. And yes, I had a stupid grin on my face the whole time. Silver, Silver, Silver.... :D
I found the Muji department store here. And the Uniqlo. And the Dr. Martens store. Hello, new shoes and sweaters. Triangle Square is my new favorite place, oh my yes.
Steph... you better catch up on your reading pretty darn quick. *Wicked grin* Chapter 36... well, going on what you had to say about Events Previous, maybe you won't want to after all.
Yes, Twig, it is a soap opera. We love your soap opera and we're going to be very sad when there's finally no more of it to look forward to in the future. ;)
So yeah, Steph... get ready for one giant OOPS. Wheee! And I hope this posts okay, because I tried to reply to your email and the campus server wigged out so it got lost. Yargh. In regards to said mail: You rock, you made my weekend, and if I was some kind of millionaire I'd have a temple built just for you (or maybe the voices in your head?) I cannot WAIT to try out some of those aspects of the story. Especially the Hojo-related schtuff *sniggers*. Now, I'm all for Sephiroth as the angel on your shoulder, but Tom as the devil? I think he and Sydney ought to trade places. :P
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On the way to my post-modernism lecture, I was suddenly aware of a large, tightly-packed and unusually silent crowd on the other side of the street. I looked over and realized it was a funeral gathering outside the Catholic church; there was a slick black hearse right out front. All of this kind of hit my brain at once, but over all the input only one thought came out clear. Those flowers are incredibly beautiful.
In fact, if I had a vase at all, I'd probably go buy a huge bouquet of peach-colored roses right now. As it is, I think I'll buy myself a nice dinner and a movie ticket.
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Must dash to lecture now. Futures was fun, of course. The topic du jour was George Orwell, mostly 1984 but several other books as well. I covered a yawn with my hand about halfway through class, and the professor saw me. "Good god, you lot are bored stiff already! I must be awful!" I laughed; couldn't help it.
I had a chicken sandwich with lettuce and lemon-mint mayonnaise on rye bread for lunch. /Damn/, it was good. I still wouldn't eat the stuff with a spoon, but lemon-mint mayo on rye is a really great thing, I tell you. Mmmmm. I had hot chocolate too, and it burned my tongue.
Running to class now. *bolts*
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My world is shrinking, my world is shrinking!
Well, what else would you think when you find out that not only do most of these net-friends you talk to /know each other/, but some of them go to school within spitting distance of oneself?
...Among other things.
oO*
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I raided the ML archives, and tossed my findings up on the ficblog. Have managed to refrain from posting song lyrics so far. Please, pray I don't start. It will be a long slide down a slippery slope, and Subaru and Seishirou will laugh at me all the way.
Thorne nearly made me spit out my gum in the middle of a packed computer lab. Now whenever I watch Haldir I'm going to tack on 'son of Weenus' to everything he says... Steph, help meeeee....
Speaking of, and if Thorne ever does read this-- have you been reading Neil Gaiman's journal? If you go down nearly to the bottom, you'll find the entry where he tackles Gollum slash. >:D It was so very, very... yeah.
Livejournal-surfing is a very disorienting experience. oO*
I just extracted myself (and my Visa card) from the university bookstore, AGAIN. I had to get Elizabeth a birthday card (I'm sorry, Elizabeth, it will be late but I've been thinking about it all week, does that count? Hugs!) but of course I didn't stop there, oh no. I found a lovely, dreamy-looking little novel called salamander by Thomas Wharton, and then I, Lucifer caught my eye. I figured it looked too good to be true-- most snarky religious parodies fall flat when I try them-- but by the third sentence I was snickering madly. This Satan has /bite/, baby! So yes, it's also in my backpack now, along with a mini-wall calendar of black-and-white photography in Venice (chosen to ease the stranglehold The Thief Lord seems to have on my imagination). I resisted Treasure Island and the shelf full of Vladimir Nabokov, but I'm sure they'll be revisited. At the counter they threw in (free!) a tiny (free!) tome called 'The A-Z of Free Expression' (appropriately, free!), filled with essays on the state of freedom of expression and all that jazz. Did I mention it was free?
Holy crap, I didn't come here to crank out artwork... I came to READ. Somebody better whack me upside the head with a stylus, and fast. After all, I'll have four months in which to do little else once I get home. But I have no TV, no computer, and no stalwart cronies to drag me out of the room or otherwise distract me in the evenings-- give me literature and see how little I care. :D
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current music: All The Things You Said
Speaking of dance music... Dave, you'll be interested to know that 'Boys of Summer' has been remixed and re-recorded by DJ Sammy-- and here we thought it couldn't get any cheesier! Oh, don't worry, I have it on MD so you can hear it in all its hilarious glory.
Aaaaaugh. I'm going to crawl back into bed now... I didn't sleep very well and the fact that I didn't have to get up until ten-thirty meant nothing, thanks to the horrid banging and crashing that came from the street outside at NINE IN THE BLOODY MORNING. It sounded like someone was repeatedly raising an entire skip about twenty feet off the ground and then dropping it. /Then/ the obnoxious guys in our flat decided to rise bright and early and be social about a foot away from the other side of my wall. >_<
I did have a fantastic dinner last night, at the cafe where I've been doing my observation. I caved and ordered an entree-- garlic-crusted haddock on top of herbed mashed potatoes in garlic-cream sauce. It was heaven. It was even worth the fact that now I'll be eating instant soup and apples for the rest of the week.
My new Japanese dictionary is a lovely, lovely toy. Oh my yes.
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In the Chinese grocer's today... we found Pretz.
And strawberry Pocky.
*munch munch*
My photos came out quite nicely. Perhaps I'll have time to diddle in the Macsuite tomorrow and make something pretty for the top of this godawful page.
In the meantime, lookit. XD Yay for Bridget!
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Someone stop me, I can't seem to help myself....
Tim and Dave, if you see this and agree with it, you better make sure I never find out. I'm already afraid it's true. ^_^
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All hail the sensible fans:
'We write, and we read, fiction. We write, and we read, things that stimulate us, physically or emotionally or both, and to some extent there's a tackiness/tawdriness to all of it, whether the subjects of the stories are characters or real people. There have always been people who couldn't separate their fantasies from reality, long before RPS was a common public phenomenon.'
I know lots of you have /no clue/ what this is all about... and glad, too. ^_~ Fandom fascinates me. It's been one hell of a trip, these last four years, watching all the crazies come out of the woodwork and onto the 'net. On occasion, I still love digging in and mucking around in all the weirdness. Just... ow, people. As if there isn't enough shit going on in the world already-- you don't need to create any more! (Is it just me, or are there other people who think most of these rabid fen need to read some real books from time to time, just so they remember what it's like?)
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...What a crappy afternoon.
It's been a good day, but damn. First the STA office tells me bad things about my ticket, then NONE of the telephone booths will take my Visa card, and AAAARGH. I'm also very hungry, but I have to go eat the food already in my room because I was very bad this morning and bought another armful of books from the university store. I really should not have gone in there... but oh, the wonderful things they have! I found a Japanese dictionary that actually had extra-useful things in it that none of my books at home have. Oh, the happiness. I was poring over it in the cafe for half an hour before I could tear myself away to do my sketching.
There was plenty of other crap I intended to ramble about, but I'm so hungry I've got the jitters. Time to leave and feed myself, I think.
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current music: Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me courtesy of my flatmate's TV
Oh my lord. That was insane.
It still weirds me out, how everyone I find interesting on the weblog/lj circuit seems to know each other. It's like Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, only you'd start with Sabina or Lex instead.
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When I get home, I'm never going to want to see another potato again.
...But until then, I am so addicted to the perfect, scalding-hot, golden piles of chips the Pizza Company around the corner serves. In fact, I might have to get some now.
It's still snowing at home. I'm still jealous as hell.
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current music: 'Boheme', Deep Forest
UNCG has started serving sushi?
*brain liquifies* Mel, please tell me if it's true, it'll still be there in the fall....
Yesterday was very damp and cold, and shaping up to be pretty depressing because I had nothing but an afternoon of drawing ahead of me. Yay for distractions! One of the other girls in the first level was heading into town and I asked her where the best fish & chips place was-- and promptly got dragged there in person. Ooooh, it was good. It was so very, very good. My stomach was screaming 'THE GREASE! TOO MUCH GREASE!' but the rest of me was far too happy enjoying the giant slab of fried fish that I'd been craving for weeks. It was too greasy to eat often, though, but luckily they had other wonderful things on the menu that were also /very cheap/. Sweet. That might be a place to stop for dinner when coming back from observation stints.
But that wasn't the end, oh no. We went to WHSmith next, and spent far too long poring over the books and discussing what we liked and what we wanted to read. I did get my copy of Antrax, though, and a giant map of Britain for my wall (because I'll be damned if there's any better way to make sure I learn where everything is).
Then I found the P.G. Wodehouse books. Oh, my god. Jeeves & Wooster is the literary equivalent of a giant bucket of Edy's ice cream, and I haven't had any in /years/. I've got one paperback now, and there's no telling how many more I'll manage to acquire. I fell asleep at ten o'clock, though, so I didn't get to read very much.
This morning sucked, really. I couldn't find the correct lecture hall AGAIN, but neither could ANYONE I asked. This included the art department admin staff, after I hiked all the way to their office to see if they had a schedule with actual /titles/ on it. I ended up being directed to the wrong theater, and listening to something intended for the film students. The kicker is, when I asked one of the STUDENTS IN THE LECTURE if it was the Futures lecture, they said yes! >_< AAAAARRRGH.
Anyway. Fixed that one by grabbing a classmate out of the studio and grilling him on where everything was, who it was taught by, and /was it going to move around mysteriously every week/? So. Now I have to run to my second lecture, and I need to get a bite to eat first. I'm blowing off the third one in favor of a Level II guest speaker who's supposed to be focusing on portfolio arrangement and job-hunting, which I think at this point is far more important than whatever they're going to expound upon to the first-years.
Oh, and I found Chinatown yesterday. I have chopsticks now. :D
They have Nicholas Tse CDs. So much for the no-music-purchasing thing.
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current music: 'The Last Time', Fuel
Far too much crap going on over at the ficblog. Slayers unexpectedly leapt up to fill the writing void... and if Lisa keeps it up, X just might be more forthcoming too.
As for those of you who don't give a damn, too bad. :P Today was terribly uneventful, and I'm about to leave and get some dinner. Ta!
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current music: Gackt, 'cube' (RR live version)
Okay, day started out crappy. Thought I was late for class, turned out not to be true, but Vanessa was coming around the studio and checking on our sketchbooks. Needless to say, I spent the weekend NOT working on that particular project, so had nothing to show except a few ideas I'd jotted down before she got to me. She was giving a presentation at 2, so I went back to the room, ate lunch, and took a nap. Lo and behold, I went into Chatham and could /not/ find the lecture room to save my life. Thing was, no one else I asked knew where it was either. I finally located a map and figured out the bass-ackwards way to get in there, and by then I was fifteen minutes late and there was a sign on the door that said 'room in use'. Well, duh, but it still made me feel even worse about walking in there late, which is something I loathe doing anyway. On top of that, there was no sound emanating from inside.
So, really pissed off and frustrated with myself, I left the building, got my camera, and set off to explore. I was going to get /something/ done this afternoon, by God. Turns out, it was a blast. I went down towards the convention center and discovered a whole street full of designer furniture shops and awesome-looking restaurants. YUM. I took lots of photos of buildings, naturally, and managed to fill up two rolls by the time I got up to the Town Hall. Since that's where I've kind of settled on doing my observation project, I settled into a window seat at the Starbuck's across the street and pulled out the sketchbook. I stayed there till it was nearly dark, and then I went back by way of Oxford Road... and I found the camera shop which rocked because I had film in my pockets that needed developing. I'm getting one roll put on CD so hopefully I'll have something to share by next week.
Last night a bunch of us watched the Michael Jackson documentary, and then we realized that the snow had actually /accumulated/ on the ground outside. By the time we threw on our coats and dashed out the door, the entire hall was in the courtyard or on the sidewalk, engaged in a massive snowball war. It was brutal; these people can /throw/! We eventually walked round the corner in search of pristine snow because Chloe wanted to make a snowman, but not before lobbing ice-missiles at the guys across the street who seemed intent on aiming for our heads. We made it to the vacant parking lot behind the halls, and after we'd been there a few minutes a bunch of the Chinese students wandered in. We had a great time dodging their snowballs (and besides, quite a few of them were very cute) until a contingent of British guys filtered in and they decided to have a war. And I do mean war. The opposing sides actually fell back, amassed more ammo, then charged each other all at once, over and over. It was so much fun! Eventually we went in because we could no longer feel our fingers or noses and we were very wet, but it was so worth it.
Here's hoping I don't get raked across the coals, though, by Vanessa tomorrow. I bet there was a register at that lecture, dammitall. >_<
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Ooooy. I slept and read all weekend, thus completely missing any (limited) opportunity to either use a computer or actually have contact with the rest of the world. It was rather nice, actually.
Then, of course, I read yesterday's paper.
Enough's been said about it all, and I was only five when Challenger blew up. I honestly don't remember it at all, probably because lots of factors contributed to my having a childhood touched hardly at all by mass media of any kind save Saturday cartoons. All I could think when I heard about Columbia was please, let it not be true. It was almost like hearing that a carful of my friends had been involved in a fatal crash-- just unreal.
Too much of this is happening at once... something is seriously out of whack in the world. Lots of things, one greater Thing; it's a gut feeling and I don't like it one bit.
In my smaller world, however (ensconced as always in my College Bubble), life was good today. It has been alternately dark and snowy, and bright and sunny. Currently the snow is having its way and the sun has set. It's thick and slushy and it plops rather than falls softly, but by God, it's snow! It's even starting to turn things white. Hallelujah. I finished my animation project last night, got a whopping two hours of sleep and somehow STILL managed to make it through this day bright-eyed and alert. That is most definitely a first, but a welcome one. My ten seconds of animation is rough and penciled, but it actually flows pretty well, considering I have never ever done this before and I was totally making shit up as I went along. I'll have to see about converting it to QuickTime so I can share. The hardest bits were actually the most fun to animate, too, which was a rewarding discovery-- I might be more cut out for this aspect of the industry than I thought, or at least not so averse to putting in the hours.
Our course leader was absent today, which cut my workload in half, so I got to relax a bit and talk with the students. People are friendly, you just have to be in enough of a lull to have a real conversation. No small talk forthcoming in these parts, which is just fine with me.
I finished Ilse Witch last night, without planning to. It was unexpectedly tense and ended on a cliffhanger, which is something I've not come across in a Shannara novel before, and it drove me nuts because now I really do have to go out and buy the sequel. No waiting till I get home on this one. I'm too happy to be back in the mood for fantasy and in possession of books that can actually meet my expectations. It says something, I think, that as disillusioned with most fantasy writers as I've become, and as hard as it's been lately for me to 'lose myself' in sci-fi and fantasy novels in general, that Terry Brooks can still suck me in as much as he ever did. It's not the Tolkien formula, which is obvious and replayed over and over and over-- it's his characters. I /always/ want to know what happens to everyone in his books, and I still have a great time watching events unfold. Lately I've been really interested in the names he comes up with, though. They're consistently reminiscent of absolutely nothing, and yet manage in many instances to conjure impressions about the character. I find that rather fascinating, because try as I might I have a lot of trouble making names up from total scratch, and often lead my imagination in circles.
The snow's letting up a bit. Nooooo! The weather here is so abrupt and shifting-- the weather itself is a lot like home, no surprises there, but the patterns... well, there are no patterns. One moment it's sunny and blue, the next it's leaden gray and the sun's nowhere in sight, then hours later it will squall and rain for ten minutes, then sun again. It's crazy! And the cold seeps into everything, the wind burrows into every single crack so that even with my window closed, the curtains shift as gusts tear down the street outside. I sat on a rock in the park for five minutes to bolt down my sandwich on Friday, and my butt was numb before I got up again. That's some serious cold.
This morning I realized that two years ago yesterday, I was at a luncheon with the president of Nara Joshidaigaku. It's absolutely nuts how much has changed since then. I'm not even sure I can begin to wonder where I'll be two years from now, either-- but the thought that I might be in Japan gives me a little thrill. The thought of grad school is also exciting; I just have to decide how to approach it.
Now the snow has stopped. ARGH. What fun is bitter nasty numbing cold without SNOW? *sigh*
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In our Futures lecture this morning, the professor was giving instances of extrapolation of figures. (Mostly to illustrate how ridiculous it is.) Take vegetarianism: "Someone predicted that in the next few years, 70% of all British people would become vegetarians. Now, I think vegetarianism's great, but come on! Seventy percent?! For my part, I think once everything else is destroyed, they'll be the ones we should eat. Lots healthier, you know."
And of course, words to live by: "Never trust a Scot under 5'4". Big ones are all right, but the little ones are nasty. When Scotland attacks England, we'll be up to our armpits in tiny angry Scots."
I am so hoping the next two sessions are this entertaining. Now I've got a few minutes, I need to run and get some lunch.
But first, Steph, check this out... Ooooo. And more ooo.
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current music: Gackt, 'Dears'
Because you were curious:
I'll start with the writing process. With me, it's the reverse of sucking on a Gobstopper-- I start with a vague notion or a single mental image, sometimes only the idea of a certain viewpoint. It usually grows one conversation or thought-snippet at a time, beginning with an empty mold and slowly being filled in, but never methodically or even constantly. I can leave a story untouched for weeks, months or even years, but still have the intention of finishing it at some unspecified date. Haru, I'm sure, remembers the Rezo songfic. Yup, it lives... but only in my head because I've scrapped it completely. I still like the idea, though, so that's what I've got now, just the beginning and a few bits of the imagery that I liked.
I chew on something whenever I'm in the mood; my ideas are like brain candy. They're there just to entertain me when there's nothing else around I can or want to do, or when I'm starting to think particularly dark and nasty thoughts. It forces me to think about something pleasant or at least more constructive. Then there are the occasional spats of perfect dialogue-- because stories are nothing but dialogue in my head before they hit paper-- that pop into existence just the way they should be, and almost never when I'm near a piece of paper or even a pen.
This would be why Alternate Fantasy exists in the state it does-- a giant, shapeless mass of largely unrelated conversations between the Turks, Zack and Sephiroth, and Zack and Elise, with the occasional Rufus thought-snippet thrown in for good measure. It's usually the flavour du jour for my imagination, but I tend to focus on specific scenes rather than bothering with a linear plot (which is why it's taken me so long to even have a concrete opening, and I'm still going to rewrite it one more time.)
To a larger extent, my entire thought process is like one giant inner monologue. It hardly ever pauses, but I think in concrete words and sentences like mini-essays in my head. The only alternatives are what I call 'movie mode' and 'art mode', and they're pretty much what they sound like. Movie mode is when I'm listening to music or thinking about a visual sequence (story-related or otherwise), and there are /never/ words, only images and music. I'm not sure whether this comes from my strong association of music with stories or vice versa, but it's certainly one of the major functions of (and reasons for) my music collection. Some songs I've come to associate with certain images or stories so much that every time I hear them the same little movie comes up, unless I'm distracted or singing along. I can picture whole 'videos' in sequence, whole scenes with dialogue (if music's not involved), and even camera angles and lighting, the whole works.
'Art mode' is usually for when I'm thinking about mundane things, or ideas for a project, any kind of brainstorming. Quick thinking. A relentless cascade of images and impressions, 'overall feelings' that I remember from certain places or works, etcetera. I just let it all shuffle past and keep flipping until I stop on something that clicks, then elaborate.
My imagination is so very, very melodramatic. >_< The only thing that's changed is my ability to filter the amount that leaks into the light of day.
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current music: Natalie Imbruglia, 'Beauty On The Fire'
Finally remembered to bring along the MD player... excellent. You know what the best thing in the whole entire universe is? Nope, not puppies... oh, okay, puppies. But the second best? OBLIVIOUS SLEEP. Sweet, sweet shuteye, utter mental blankness and inactivity for upwards of six hours at a time. Now guess who got some last night. Not only that, I've got some decent food in me. I'll be the first person to tell you that British food is not, in fact, godawful and disgusting-- it's very tasty and stick-to-the-ribs --but it is. Not. Healthy. When I say meat and potatoes, I mean that's ALL it is! It's not hard to find fresh fruit, thankfully, there are vendors everywhere, but vegetables of any variety are another story. (That would, of course, be what makes up most of my diet...) I'm slowly making some headway, with tomato soup and the odd deli sandwich, but the sandwiches are expensive and so are the fresh veggies at the supermarket. So it's still touch-and-go for the most part, but my stomach's getting used to the idea that no, this is not Japan where conbini food is utterly good for you, nor is it home where at least a decent sampling of the four food groups can be located with ease.
ED: Hmm, I'm starving... oooh, chip nan.
....Yeah.
Today, however, armed with my relative good-night's sleep, I went in to uni and got some real work done. Some, not a lot, but I can do a bit more before I go to bed tonight. I went to a lecture our course leader gave, then did a bit more work, then called it quits because I desperately needed to go into town before it got dark, and I wanted to walk. I could take the bus, but I don't get to see things when I take the bus. I like watching people on the street, craning my neck so I can see the upper facades of the buildings lining the pavement and peer down sidestreets and into shop windows. I did find a place, actually, that my professors had told me about; a gallery called, surprise, The Gallery. Well. It looks really interesting inside, though, so I'm saving an afternoon for that sometime. I saw a bit of an art shop in the entrance, too, so perhaps some of you will get postcards from there, hmm? I've been wondering where I'd find non-touristy postcards, or indeed tasteful postcards of any kind. Because as much as I know and understand that you all don't mind getting touristy postcards in the least, I detest buying them in bulk. I feel like the worst sort of thoughtless weirdo bringing them up to the counter, like 'well, here's something for the people at home who won't know the difference!' Even though that's not the case, I just can't help it. Comes from being surrounded by the dratted things in Asheville, I suppose. Hence my weakness for museum postcards (and you won't catch me complaining about that bit!)
Once I hiked up Portland Street-- gods, it was windy and cold today-- I managed to locate the giant Boots that my flatmates told me about (I'd been misdirected to the tinier, closer one yesterday). Right next to it, though, was Superdrug, and Superdrug was even larger and even cheaper. Hairdryer for £6, SCORE! But bless Boots anyway, because they have boxed oj for 50p and bags of baby carrots. I was so happy to see those two things I nearly did a little dance in the aisle. (See above dramatisation with stomach.)
So I've got time to kill and I'm not worn-out yet, and I get it into my head to turn the corner and wander into the mall. Oh, the mall. It's huge. It's a freaking maze. It's fantastic. I found a WHSmith and wasted a happy hour poring over books-- it's enough of a bookstore and it's been long enough since I was in one that I was perfectly content to lose myself in their limited selection of stacks. Found a copy of Lady Murasaki that I'll have to get eventually, although probably at home, because that's heavy-duty Japanese feminine ambience-- the stuff of summer for my brain. I did buy The Thief Lord, because it looks like a cozy, wintery sort of story. (For me, thick tangled fairytales and sci-fi/fantasy are for winter-- anything Japanese, otherwise Asian or of the historic persuasion tends to be summer fare, despite what I'm reading now. I actually had to put Shogun aside, because I started having freakish dreams about daimyos assassinating other daimyos one after the other, and that just wouldn't do.) I also grabbed a few interiors magazines-- my undying obsession-- and a copy of Michael Moore's Stupid White Men, because it will make me laugh and once I'm good and disturbed, I can pass it on to my flatmate Olly or someone in the studio. There were quite a few history books there, too-- coincidentally one about 'Samurai William', the man upon whom the main character in Shogun is based. A good reminder to look him up more closely, although the book itself didn't really have much beneath the surface to offer anyone who was already familiar with Japanese culture and history to any great extent, from what I could glean.
*pauses for breath* I'm really on a tear, aren't I?
Really, after that, all I did was strike out for an electronics store-- and I actually found one! Not only that, I found a gorgeous CD radio-- it's red and chrome and it was £36, the cheapest I could find, not too bad. I really had to wrap it up after that, because of the weight of my packages. I thought I'd have to hail a taxi, but there was a taxi line just a half-block away. I really do think cab queues are one of the most civilized things in existence. I HATE hailing cabs and when your hands are full it's rather difficult, anyway.
So the stereo is now on my desk and has the GLAY album inside, where it will most likely stay for a good long time. I'm not planning on buying any CDs here, really, and the radio will be more than enough for the rest. I'll take the BBC any way I can get it! Besides, Unity Roots and Family, Away is probably my favorite GLAY album to date. I love Heavy Gauge and ONE LOVE, but this one just rocks all the way through, consistently and beautifully. 'Way of Difference' had me just spinning inside, it was so good to hear it again. I love this CD with all the pieces of my music-worshipping heart. It's mellow and sweet and perfect and the end-roll remix of 'ALL STANDARD IS YOU' is just about the best thing I've heard since, well, the original version on the previous album. Oh, I will follow GLAY to the end, I am so lost. They rock my little world.
Now. Thirty minutes to go. Time to shut up and check out Bloomberg's website and do some thinking about my design project, because our tutorial group meets tomorrow.
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fic sushi
...Because I couldn't help myself.
Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Michael!
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current music: blessed silence
Jamie, for some reason NO browser here will let me view your blog! I've tried every computer I've used, as many browsers as they've got, all to no avail. Might be something about the campus network or some kind of safeguard... I have no clue. Grar. So, if you want me to see some tidbit of info, you might have to email me. :)
Head cold is mostly gone, but for a lovely nagging cough. Insomnia still in full force, but a double-dose of prescribed sleeping pills got me about eight broken hours of oblivion last night, so we'll see how things go. At least today I felt more human... even though I didn't wake up until 2 PM. I was determined to get out and about, though, so I got dressed and inquired into where I might find a hairdryer. Boots was the unanimous answer, so I pulled on the trenchcoat and struck out for the city center-- only to arrive cold and windblown and damp to find that no, Boots sold nothing of the sort. Damn and blast. I didn't really need anything else they had at the moment, either, so I made the walk worth the trouble by getting dinner at the McDonald's across the street before hoofing it back to the university.
Now I'm in the library, because it's warm and quiet and NOT my flat, which I'm quite sick of by now. I forsee quite a bit of avoiding the place in the future, not because of the company (well, most of it) but because anyplace that is not my own room is totally filthy. The kitchen alone defies description. I can't even bring myself to do more than use the microwave in there, so I've taken to keeping all my nonperishable food in my own room, along with my cups and mugs. At least that way they're clean and at-hand and I don't have to shuffle into that den of squalor just to get a snack. The shower is usable, if only because the guys use a different shower across the hall (thank heaven), but so cluttered I feel like I'm taking my life into my hands every time I step barefoot onto the floor. The kitchen and bathrooms, toilet and all, are supposed to be cleaned daily by the cleaning staff of the residence hall, and while I've witnessed them going about their business they seem to do a very cursory job of it, if any. Most days I can't tell they've touched anything, even if they've kept the kitchen blocked for a good half hour.
Well, that was a lot of moaning on my part... but there's really no other way to describe things in the flat. Most of my flatmates are, themselves, absolutely wonderful. They're friendly and sweet and get on with each other beautifully-- there's just four guys that don't seem to fit that picture. Those would be the ones that woke me up--woke me!-- at two in the morning, bellowing and carrying on not a foot from my doorway. Just my luck the worst noisemaker in the bunch lives right next to me, and two more just across the hall. His door is open every day, all day, and he is as loud as can be. I'll say this: If he lived in any dorm at home, within three days he'd have every person on the hall banging on his door, threatening the life of his stereo. All he said to me was, "You've been sleeping all day, how can you be tired now?" and went back in his room.
If I hadn't been so turned-about I could hardly stand up... oh, the entire hall would have heard what I had to say about that. But the noise lessened or I blacked out again, not sure which, so here's hoping they don't pull that shit again tonight.
Hopefully tomorrow I'll make a bit of headway in the studio, getting my work schedule back on track. My first project with the Level I students was to have been due today, but I never even got it off the ground thanks to the head cold and lack of sleep. We'll have to figure out something I can do in its place. My course leader and one of the younger professors have both been beyond wonderful, both in getting me worked in at the doctor's office and in settling my work for me. I just hope the professor who actually /teaches/ my level will be as understanding...! *crosses fingers*
Not much else interesting to say-- maybe once my mind starts working properly again more of interest will be produced. I'm still in torrents of envy over all of you at home who've got snow and cold and no-school days, however-- torrents, you hear? Oh, for bright cloudless frigid winter days! I hadn't realized I'd miss those so much, but I do. Or at least, I miss having a spacious house to curl up in when they happen. And Drew, you better keep close tabs on Inu Yasha for me, you hear? If anyone else from home is watching it, and has a VCR handy, I would love you forever if you'd tape some for me. Love, as in reimburse with goodies. ^_^
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I'm a big dork. See what happens when I don't have my stash of bookmarks handy.... Thank you, Bridget. I'll be good now, promise. XD
As I typed that, I just saw the most hilarious beer commercial ever. Foster's, actually, but it was all in Japanese-- cute Japanese guy buys a cleaning-robot and tells it to fix up the apartment, then leaves. He comes home and finds the robot in his bed with the microwave and the vaccuum cleaner, pouring beer into its fuel receptacle. It was the guy's voice that did it-- "Naaaani o shiten da yo?!"
I would have laughed out loud, but my throat protested and I ended up coughing up a lung instead. Garn. Okay, you stupid virus, you've had your fun. OUT OF MY BODY NOW.
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current music: The BBC, flatmates talking
Blergh. Still sick as a dog. So very not cool. Went to the pharmacy again to specifically ask for something that would knock me flat for over six hours. Haven't slept more than four hours a night all week, sleep filled with crazy restless dreaming that leaves me mentally drained. I really, really hate my brain sometimes.
I'd have more interesting things to say if I weren't laid up with the Cold From Hell-- Manchester's great for the healthy. We did go out to eat last night, for Jenny's birthday, and I had fun even though I couldn't taste anything. x_O I dragged my butt out of bed in time for our guest lecture today at two, which was pretty cool, but now I'm just doing some laundry, using Carly's computer, and then knocking back that medicine ASAP.
I did get my package from home today though-- and that means I HAVE X 18, baby! YEAH! Oh, the glorious happiness. Typically evil of CLAMP, too, to draw Nataku so adorably right before he goes *splat*. Meh. Sure filled his quota of wistful looks, too. And on the little slipcover that's sometimes around the graphic novels when they first come out, there's a maddening little teaser that proclaims 'the climax is near!' --and judging by the spine art on THIS sucker, the next one will have Fuuma's giant face shot on it, and most of us can guess what THAT means. AAAAAAAAUUGH. 19 volumes? What the hell, CLAMP?!!? I hope like hell I'm wrong. I want Subaru closure, dammit, and with their recent habit of stretching a whole lotta nothing to fill half a book, this just isn't gonna cut it. Grrrrr.
Diana, you KNOW that delicious TV anime flier just made my week, right? I now have Subaru and Seishirou to stare at all semester... oh, the joy. Thank you! And my GLAY album... now I just have to find a CD clock/radio so I can play it.
I know only too well what Thorne means about all the good blog entries being in one's head. Another reason to hate my brain-- all the good thoughts come tumbling one after the other across my tortured mindscape at two AM when I'm literally praying for sweet oblivious sleep. Like I'm gonna get up and write THOSE down, yah.
Laundry's almost done. Hopefully I'll get good sleep tonight so I can get WORK done tomorrow.
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*points and LAAAAAUGHS*
No, no, please don't kill me, it's just-- Weiss strikes again-- oh sweet jeebus, no one's safe anymore! *coughsniffle* Ahem. Hey, at least this might mean there's one more source of decent Weissfic to cling to. Oooh.
Of course, I can't really point fingers... because what should leap into my head last night as I listened to the Moulin Rouge soundtrack but the FFVII version. In Wall Market, of course. Oh yes. Starring Zack and Cloud in their respective hair-color roles. What's French for 'Golden Chocobo'? (Honeybee Inn doesn't sound quite right...)
Blame it on the head cold. I know not what I do. In fact, I'm leaving now before I cause some kind of incident.
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So sick. So very, very sick. Head feels like it's underwater and 10,000 feet in the air at the same time. >_< I need to find a pharmacy so I can get some medicine....
I finally got campus access! I'm killing half an hour in the library until my professor gets back from a meeting so I can sort some more things out. Looks like Thursday and Friday are mostly free days for me, but that's deceptive because of all the studio work I have to do, and the occasional guest lectures/tutorials we have as well. But at least I don't have to worry that I'm supposed to be somewhere I'm not.
I think I will start that ficblog after all. Now all I need is a suitably pretentious name....
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AAAAAARGH. Aoe & Shoori finally UPDATE and I've got five minutes left so balls to that, then. >_<
It's official, I have a cold. I also have an animation project due on Tuesday, and my own workspace in the studio. *sniffles* Go me.
Want ALTC, want now....
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current music: more muzak. Must... remember... MD player...
Fifteen minutes... lessee how well I use it. I've got sandwiches and crisps calling my name, and it's raining HARD outside. Or was, at any rate. I actually had CLASS today, shwee! It was a lot of fun; I got to use the line testers in the animation studio, and then I went to a Premiere tutorial which was more of a roundtable discussion without the round table.
On Saturday, I went shopping. I had to get a duvet and a pillow and some clothes hangers and other boring room stuff; Japan soooo spoiled me because I was hating the fact that I had to walk almost a mile to get anything useful! But it was worth it, because I made a Discovery. I struck out for the city center... and it's an architectural gold mine. I wanted to clap and shout and dance on the sidewalks as I looked up at all the gorgeous buildings-- the town hall is a HUGE wedding-cake of a Gothic Revival with corners that really wish they were part of a French castle. The theaters are all redbrick Victorians with tall domed towers and neon lights, and on every street there are delicious smells coming from the doors of fascinating restaurants. I found a camera shop; I'll go get a roll put on CD so I can share all the delicious visuals.
As for Certain People in Certain Places Where Snow Has Fallen... feel my jealous rage!!! Asheville, Boone, Greensboro, and KYOTO OF ALL THE CITIES... I wanted to scream, I really did. The gods of winter must take special delight in thwarting my wishes for a good slushfall at every turn. It's been years since I got to pack a good, hard iceball and bean someone upside the head with it. And Diana, I hope this means you have PHOTOS of Kyoto-no-yuki, yes?
Tomorrow I'm going to bug someone about getting my more-than-ghetto student card, so I can use the campus computers. This is getting ridiculous.
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current music: bizarre pop selection courtesy of the internet cafe, presently something by Madonna
What a week. It feels like Friday but it's NOT... how cruel. We went out last night, to two different bars; it's a good thing, I think, that places here close at two AM instead of staying open all night. We'd be in real trouble then. It was a lot of fun, though, and I discovered the joys of Indian fast food at three in the morning (samosa, oh GOD I love samosa) and cheap bus rides. Must remember, though, buses stop running at three AM....
I'm in the Illustration and Animation course here; the art department as a whole just blows my mind. The resources, oh the resources, how my head reels! Gutenberg printing presses, guillotines, automated color photo processing, image capturing, giant darkrooms, private studio space for every student... I'm never coming home. XD
Once again, though, net time's been eaten by answering email, so hopefully by next week I'll have campus computer access.
And now, for your moment of Zen: Oh my god! c.s. lewis is eating people! ::head explodes::
Thank you, Michael. I will never, ever be able to get that out of my head.
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*spins* Two minutes left on the netcafe meter. No time to email everyone. Page to be facelifted later in the week.
Manchester is wonderful; getting here was NOT. But here I am and it's fantastic! Diana, Mom told me your package arrived just after I left... THANK YOU! She's gonna mail me the stuff because I refuse to wait two more months for CLAMP goodness or my GLAY album. Mwah!
Email me if you're really impatient... later!
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ED ordered a drink @ 01:42 p.m.
ED ordered a drink @ 01:09 p.m.
I'm Javert! Though my personal integrity is admirable, I tend to see everything in absolutes, and I don't cope at all well with ambiguities or opposition. I should probably seek therapy for those obsessive-compulsive tendencies.
Which Les Miserables Character Are You?
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Congratulations! You're Pippin!
Which Lord of the Rings character and personality problem are you?
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You don't do things on purpose, so people tend to
cut you some slack. Still, it would be best if
you stopped doing things all together.
What Lord of the Rings engrish subtitle are you?
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ED's stomach: *gnaws thoughtfully on pure starch for a few hours* Oi! Woman! Where's the salad?
ED: Uh... sorry. You'll have to do without that.
ED's stomach: The hell I will! GIVE ME GREENS! Carrots! Lettuce! Broccoli! Now!
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