Finally, we get some news about the second season of Gundam00.

I am meant to be doing a lot of work today, but I am suddenly far too excitable.

There are many many things to get excited about:

1. TIERIA IS IN THE SECOND SEASON. Look at him, he's there! He's there! I can watch it happily if Tieria is in the second season! And, apparently, the text seems to say that he didn't die and that it is our Tieria, hooray! (I was so worried that we'd have to put up with just Regene, and I know Regene has the same face and all, but that's not Tieria.) Oh T-chaaaan ;_;

2. Hello crazy outfits. What is this, a CABARET or something? Oh well, I don't mind. The outfits look pretty fabulous to me. AND, there is not one pink cardigan in sight *rejoice*

3. Lockon. It says Lockon Stratos. Lockon is there in the second season. Look at him. Now, speculation suggests to me that this may be Lyle rather than Neil, and just reusing a code name (if so, Lyle, WTH are you doing there?) but he is still called Lockon. Lockon is there. Also, regardless of whether it is Neil or Lyle, Lockon/Tieria: I will be shipping it SO HARD. And with Lyle it would just get so interesting, and possibly Tieria may get even more moe.

(When did I stop caring about the plot, and only caring about who Tieria falls in love with? I don't know!)

2. Allelujah seems to have finally realised the boon of having depth perception, and has now changed his haircut accordingly. In fact, he is the only character that seems to look any kind of different, at all.

3. Why doesn't Setsuna look any older? I wasn't expecting it from the others, but Setsuna's a growing boy! Obviously an impoverished and war-torn childhood has left Setsuna a little on the short side. And even with Lockon making him drink all that milk too. Poor Setsuna (looks like he's still shorter than Tieria, hahaha).

4. Even the Gundams look the same. What's going on? Part of me is kind of amused that Tieria still gets the frumpy one.

IN CONCLUSION

The second season looks just like the first season at the moment, only slightly more fabulous.

Also, Tieriaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! And Lockonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn! *tears of joy*

ROLL ON OCTOBER

In other second season news, but this time Code Geass:
Sayoko is actually AMAZING. I never thought I'd come to like her this much. And Orange-kun is still kind of funny (but he'll never beat Patrick on funniness).

Watch for the sign on the lollipop!

God I used to hate the patch stop with a passion. And looking back on it, I can see why; so so dull. Clearly, it was the dot stop where all the cool stuff was going down. Don't deny it! You know it's true! (I was well sad when they got rid of the dot stop.)

Shall we do some counting, boys and girls?

Things what I have done recently:

- Read 1 (one) book for my dissertation
- Eaten 2 (two) mangoes
- Was woken up by a call from my flatmate who'd lost his keys at 3 (three) am

And rearranging them in order of goodness to badness:

- 2 mangoes
- 1 book
- 3am. OH GOD FLATMATE. 3. A. M.

ALRIGHT, that's enough of that silly business.

Hey Mariya,
Re: The final episode of Death Note
1. Light gives swimming lessons (There's no audio to this, YouTube isn't broken!)
2. Light gives Near and the gang some lessons on being popular with the ladies.

I seriously can't take the ending of Death Note seriously any more. But then, I don't think I took it seriously when I first watched it. In fact, I seem to recall laughing all the way through the last two episodes. Brilliant.

I'VE GOT A JOB INTERVIEW IN TWO WEEK'S TIME!

\o/

Whatever you might think, I haven't watched another episode of Telepathy Shoujo Ran. And I definitely didn't watch it in order to get another glimpse of could-it-be-Tieria-chan.

Be that as it may... In this week's episode, Tieria-chan is upset because she couldn't live up to the high standards that she had set for herself.

"I am unfit to be a middle school student."

This is fun. I have been procrastinating all day on Muxtape.

Basically the premise is: you upload mp3s to make an online mixtape that people can listen to without having to download it.

Because I thought it was a fun idea, and a great excuse to procrastinate, I quickly threw together a mixtape of mp3s that I have been listening to a lot recently. Because it's always interesting to hear what people are currently listening to.

So, here you go:

haveatyou.muxtape.com

These are all songs that I've had on repeat at some point or another, and most of them are recent finds. As you can see, it's a fairly eclectic mix, and I have a reason for that:
Normally I like music that's kind of bleepy bleepy funky dancy let's have a disco party, but at the moment I'm quite stressed, so recently my music taste has taken towards songs that are calming and pretty and can chill me out. On this mix there's a mixture of the two. I've started with the calm, pretty songs, and arranged them so they slowly get more upbeat until you start dancing without even realising it. Awesome.

Bonus points go to the very last track, the MSTRKRFT DFA remix, which is a great song anyway, but I have been listening to it again recently because it reminds me of Patrick so much that it hurts. Speaking of which, I did draw a bit of Patrick last night, and I'll upload it whenever I get round to inking it (which may be in a few days or a few weeks, I've no idea).

Today I am busy applying for more jobs and doing more dissertation work (I conducted my first research interview yesterday and it went quite well and my dictaphone worked and everything!)

During my lunch-break I thought I'd try out a new anime: Telepathy Shoujo Ran. It seems to be a cute little shoujo story about a telepathic girl. But while cute, it doesn't seem to be too interesting (although, maybe that's because I'm about 10 years older than the intended target audience). I doubt I'll be watching any more of it, but, the thing is, while I was watching it, one of the characters looked scarily familiar...

T...Tieria? What are you doing in a shoujo anime? And why are you a young middle school girl? And why are you always so moe?

Maybe this is an appropriate point to mention this video. And while we're at it, this video weirds me right out. WHAT HAS SCIENCE DONE?

In non-Tieria news, I really fancy drawing Patrick at the moment. I can't believe I've only draw him once! Maybe I'll find some time this evening for it.

Code Geass has all the pretence of a show that takes itself very seriously, whereas, actually, it does not take itself seriously at all.

OH GOD SAYOKO.

I had to pause it for about 3 minutes so I could laugh and laugh and laugh. It was almost as hilarious as the whole deal with Euphemia at the end of the first season.

Oh Code Geass, this is why I enjoy watching you.

In other news, have a messy Lockon doodle:

Bedtime now. Tomorrow I shall work on my dissertation proper good. Yes!

I slept for 10 hours last night, and that's on top of my 2 hour nap yesterday afternoon; I must have been tired.

Now, it's not often that I dream of fandom things, which is surprising, considering how much of my time it takes up when I'm awake, but last night was an exception.

I dreamt that I had an alternate personality, and that alternate personality was Hallelujah. (I wasn't Allelujah in my dream though, I was myself, but for some reason my alternate personality was an evil guy with dark hair and tight jeans.) Hallelujah would come out when I was asleep at night, and when I'd wake up in the morning, I'd keep finding that he'd done all this stuff. I'd wake up to find my room strewn with empty beer bottles, or rubbish, or, in one case, a pinball machine. And, quite understandably, I was all "Goddammit Hallelujah, stop making me do stuff without me knowing!"

I also dreamt that I was trying to walk up a very very steep road; it was so steep that I almost had to climb. I dreamt it in two different instances; during my nap yesterday, and while I was asleep last night. Hmmm. Whatever that means. I have no idea.

In non dream news I was listening to the News Quiz on BBC Radio 4 last night. As you do. (I always rock out on a Friday night.) And Jeremy Hardy, who is a very funny man, came out with a line that was so funny I had to share.

They were talking about giving money to lap-dancers and pole-dancers:

Phill Jupitus: "...as I delicately tuck twenty pounds into her knickers."

Jeremy Hardy: Apparently, if you haven't got cash, you can use a swipe-card.

So, there's working hard all day and there's 'working hard all day'.

I had lots of appointments this morning, and I was going to come back home and work hard this afternoon. But seeing as I've only really had one day off in the past 4 weeks (and I mean one in which I wasn't travelling all across the country) and I plan to do work all day tomorrow, I decided to take this afternoon off.

Or, more precisely, I had a lovely two hour nap, then woke up and thought 'stuff it, I'm going to finally ink that picture that I drew 2 weeks ago'.

It's amazing what a nap, a lot of pretty music, and a drawing of a sunny Sunday morning will do to you.

So, the story behind this one: Do you remember that fanfic I wrote a couple of weeks ago of a speculative, post-series, happy Tieria? In the fic I mention that all Tieria has is a photograph, and a part of me wanted to play with the idea that maybe he has another memento. It's faded and worn now, 10 years on, and it only smells of detergent and Tieria, but it's still comforting in its own way, and Tieria likes to wear it on lazy Sunday mornings when he has a few hours to himself.

Note to self: Be more cool.

Note to self the second: Go to bed.

I am still stressed and I still have no time to myself D:
I should just get used to it really, it's going to be like this for the next three months ;_;

In better, but still dissertation, news: I HAVE A DICTAPHONE
Awesome. What am I supposed to do with it?

And I'm still up on listening to some Seasick Steve at the moment. My Dad suggested that I should watch this video of him singing in the back of a cab about chiggers - it's quite amusing: And then you gonna itch like something you ain't never itched like before.

Oh god. I don't have any time to myself at the moment. One week in and my dissertation has taken over my life. When I'm not emailing people frantically trying to arrange things, or speaking to my tutor, or trying to buy a dictaphone, I am in the library. And when I am not doing any of those things I am trying to search and apply for a job for the rest of my life.
D: D: D:

My jaw hurts, which means I have been grinding my teeth in my sleep, which is a sure sign of stress for me. The rest of the degree wasn't this bad; why do I feel like I have to do everything at once now?

The bathroom needs cleaning and the toilet's all limescaley and I don't have time to do it. I've got loads of anime to catch up on and I don't have time to watch it. I've got a lovely Tieria doodle that is crying out to be inked and coloured and I don't have time to ink and colour it ;_;

Also, I haven't been getting nearly enough sleep lately, which, as I'm sure I have drummed into you all by now, is not cool, and is a big deal. ILU sleep; I wish I could spend more time with you...

Conclusion: POOR ME. (note to self: get over it, or at least get a grip. Jesus.)

In other news I seem to be spending my weekends gallivanting around the country at the moment. This past weekend I went to Theresa and Colin's engagement party. How exciting. I'm well excited for them.

And then, the day after, we went to Great Yarmouth to play a round of crazy golf on the beach.

And while golfing, Theresa asked Deborah and I to be her bridesmaids.

D:

And then she asked me to be her chief bridesmaid.

DDDDD:

I was not expecting that at all. I am completely made up. I'm even more excited now. I can't wait! What an honour! I won't let you down Theresa, I swear! (Now to get all anally retentive on the wedding plans, hahaha.)
Questions I am clearly not interested in, but secretly I actually am:
1. What colour will our dresses be?
2. Who gets to be the best man?

And then Theresa, Deborah and I all managed to get a hole-in-one on the same hole! It was an amazing day.

And this weekend I'm off to the wedding of one of my cousins. I am going to keep a hawk's eye on her bridesmaids, let me tell you.

(All this talk of weddings keeps making me think of this photoshopped picture. Tieria looks so pretty in a wedding dress *single tear*)

Right now I am busy saying DISSERTATION! DISSERTATION! DISSERTATIOOOOOON! Sadly however, how much I complain isn't relative to how much work I actually do. Nevertheless, my proposal is done, and now all I have to do is actually research and write the whole thing. For the next three months. Without a break...

...

...

And why haven't I had dinner yet? It's past eight o'clock! I can't believe I'm even procrastinating from making myself dinner!

Anyway.

1. Music of the moment at this moment is Seasick Steve. I listened to my parents play his CD at the weekend and then I came home and listened to Cut my Wings on repeat, non-stop, for the past 4 days. His music's pretty awesome if you're in an old-school blues sort of mood. My dad described him as 'very raw'; I'd describe him as 'a one-man, hobo, three-stringed blues band'.

2. Maybe because I've been listening to a lot of blues, or maybe because I ACTUALLY CAN'T STOP PROCRASTINATING OH GOD, I wrote a fanfic about Gundam00. As I'm sure you're aware, fanfic is not normally my thing; I think I may have posted fanfic here once before? But I can't actually leave Tieria this show alone D:

So, background: it is set 10 years after the end of the first season of Gundam00, which means that it contains SPOILERS for the end of the first season of Gundam00.

Title: 10 Years On
Summary: A small piece of Tieria introspection and a familiar face.

SPOILERS AHOY

=> Read more!

Hi guys. IMPORTANT NEWS:

There's a new page of Clematis up.

Do you know that Clematis has been going now for about 5 years? Maybe you didn't catch that. Let me tell you again. Clematis has been going for five whole years. Can you believe it? I certainly can't. Although, at the snail's pace I seem to be taking at the moment, it's not that surprising. I think that when I finally get a job and don't have to think about coursework and dissertations any more, I'm going to have to up the pace on Clematis in a big way. I doubt I can do a page a day like I did in the crazy heyday of 2003, but maybe at least a page a week? Roll on September!

In other news, I've just come back from a weekend at home with my parents. And in a case of real life imitating fiction, we went to see a big old country house, or more specifically, the landscaped gardens of a big old country house.

Hello phone photos and cloudy English summertime:

The gardens had lots of small temples and follies and statues and monuments scattered amongst valleys and lakes and trees. The location of the monuments and the planting was quite clever, so that if you stood in certain places, there were pleasing vistas of distant monuments framed by the trees:

See also: Venus in the Rotunda:

And posing like the famous Grecians in the Temple of Ancient Virtue:

I couldn't go inside the Temple of Ancient Virtue without shouting "Baachu" multiple times. There didn't seem to be a Temple of Nadleeh anywhere however (haha, lame joke is LAME).

Anyway, the gardens seem all pretty and nice, and then you go and read the guidebook and realise how political it all is. No, really. The owner was expressing his political views through garden design (I'm still not sure why he decided to do this, but there you go).

As time went on we started making up our own monuments.

Me: I'm just off to the Toilets of Gentle Charity
Parents: Ok, we'll wait here by the Cafe of Providence, and maybe go have a look in the Gift Shop of Temperance and Wisdom.

And then we went home and watched Alien.

Right, ok. I have to sleep now, and then I have to do this dissertation work for my tutor, and later I'll do everything else, including checking my emails and taking the rubbish out (the whole flat smells of bin, ohgod).

Hiya. I done my exam yesterday. I think it went ok. I answered all the questions at least, and I've got the friction burns to show for it! (3 hour exam, why are you so long? My poor hand can't write that much!) The good thing though, the really good thing, is that I don't think I'm going to have to do another exam ever again. What did you say? I said, I'm not going to have to do another exam EVER AGAIN! My, is that a good feeling.

So, I had a jolly good weekend this weekend. I certainly didn't spend it revising, that's for sure. On the Friday I hopped on a train to see Steve in Bristol (and I got second sit on his new sofa. SCORE!) then Nick turned up, from flipping Germany! And then James turned up, from flipping Tanzania! We had sausages and mash and then watched a documentary about British Christian fundamentalists (clearly we know how to ROCK OUT on a Friday evening).

The next day involved lots of watching of Shipwrecked instead of getting ready to go like we were supposed to. And then Steve's new kitchen turned up quite uninvited, and we had to help carry it up the stairs. Clearly the kitchen did not know that we had a schedule to stick to.

Then, finally, after stopping to buy some pants for James, we made our way to Siân's place in Chippenham. I have never been to Chippenham before, but I have to say, it is a WEIRD place. There was some kind of folk festival going on there this weekend. I seriously have never seen so many morris dancers in one place in my whole life! There were loads of them, all in different colours. You actually couldn't go anywhere where you couldn't here the sound of bells jangling. (We wondered that if two different groups of morris dancers crossed paths that maybe they had to have a dance fight. The answer is obviously yes.)

Anyway, the point of the trip to Chippenham was for a big university halls reunion involving pub golf. Steps in pub golf:
1. Buy golfing attire.
2. Watch Cool Runnings. (optional)
3. Put on golfing attire.
4. Choose golfing names.
5. Eat pizza. (also optional)
6. Go go go!

Siân had a set of mini golf clubs that we dragged around to all the pubs with us. Cool man.

(The remaining photos in this post were lovingly stolen from Nick.) Because I can't afford golfing attire, my outfit consisted of a visor that I borrowed from my flatmate. It is an amazing visor though. It has SHADES built in to it that slide down whenever you want. Super. Here is a photo showing off my visor and THAT'S NOT MY DRINK I SWEAR.

Because I don't drink, my job was to keep the score (which means counting how many sips it takes for everyone to finish their drinks, to see who can finish the course of pubs with the lowest number of sips in total). My golf name was Sue Barker (shut up I know she doesn't do golf). Here's a picture of me scoring and trying to put on my best "I am keeping score properly and officially" face (which, incidentally, makes me look so much like my Mum that it's scary).

The winner was James who came in at 13 under par. This massive achievement was due to clever drinking of shots and timing of toilet breaks, plus most other players forfeiting the game by getting lost on the mean streets of Chipppenham and not finding the last two pubs at all. As the winner, James got a lovely rosette. Hurrah.

Highlights: impromptu games of golf beside the bar.

Upon returning to Siân's there was much spilling of drinks on the carpet, much spilling of hot tea on Sam's nipple, and much coercion from Sam to try to get the boys to teabag Steve while he was passed out on the carpet. (Although I am glad to report that nobody's testicle ended up on anybody's face during the course of the weekend.)

I got woken up at 8am on Sunday morning by a re-watch of Cool Runnings. What.

Songs of the moment

I watched a lot more TV over the weekend than I normally do, so I came across some adverts for bands that I hadn't heard of before (I really need to start listening to the radio more. I'm so out of the loop with all this 'popular' music).

Anyway, I was spurred on to check out a few bands via the wonders of their myspace pages:

1. The Ting Tings - The Ting Tings have the same problems that Bloc Party seem to have, which is to say that monotonous shouting does not a good vocal make. Does this make me a heathen? Anyway, regardless of that, Great DJ is a good track and it makes me want to dance.

2. Vampire Weekend - These guys have a very nice sound. APunk in particular is good for dancing and shouting to, and M79 may well be the prettiest song I have ever heard ever.

3. Crystal Castles - Ok, so I didn't see these on the TV, but I heard that they've got an album out now, and I wanted to decide if I want to own it. I think the answer is probably yes (they sound exactly like my childhood it is scary). See also: remixes by Crystal Castles.