TFC.net

Right, this post is weeks overdue, but better late than never.

Firstly though, I have to tell you some things that happened to me this week re literature:

1. I got given a book at work. This is awesome. Proper hardback too. I had to declare it to the higher-ups so that they can check that it's not a bribe. Hardcore.

2. Also at work, I was talking to Megan about books, at which point one of us said "hey, have you read Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell?", at which point both of us exclaimed, "OMG I love that book!" I am insufferably happy now I've come across another fan. She won't be back at work until next Wednesday, but I'll make sure to corner her for some more fangirling when she is.

3. I was reading some more of The Count of Monte Cristo on the train the other day, as I am often want to do. Now, the story is getting pretty climactic at the moment (1 revenge down, 3 more to go). The part I was reading was set at the opera. I didn't realise how much I was into the book until the mobile phone of the guy sitting next to me started to ring. "Pah!" I thought, "How rude! How dare he have his phone on while we're at the opera!" I then had to stop and realise that I was not, in fact, at the opera, but on a train, reading about people being at the opera. Whoa.

OK! Now onto:

Tales of Dublin

Dublin is a cool place because the traffic lights sound like space raiders. It's rather small as cities go, but it's a good place (if expensive). Hearing Irish accents all the time was rather jolly too. I had a nice old surprise when I realised that Irish people do actually talk about "the craic". All this time, I had just thought it was a stereotype!

Now, I have to admit that I was in Lockon mode while I was there. Well, who wouldn't be? You can understand my shock therefore, when I stepped off the bus and met Deborah. Deborah had a work-friend with her. She introduced him: "this is Neil."
I adghafghasdfghasfg-ed for a few seconds before Neil opened his mouth and I found out he was Scottish and not Irish. Oh well. You can't have it all.

Pictures:

Trinity College. You can see how beautiful the weather was while I was there. But, for some reason, it felt quite fitting.

Some stained glass, I don't know.

Next to a cash-point, I saw the cutest bin ever. He looked so happy!

The rest of the photos are stolen from Deborah. We went to see an exhibition about the history of Dublin:

WHAT THE HELL AM I WEARING. (It was so heavy.)

Scratch that, WHAT THE HELL IS DEBORAH WEARING.

Excuse me, sir. Did you leave this behind?

And then we came across one of those pictures where you get to stick your head through and look like you're a person:

Don't laugh. This is my actual height.

How cool are we.

Album cover version.

What's inside? Is it lingerie? Golly I hope it's lingerie.

Piss me, I haven't posted here in ages. I keep meaning to... I just haven't gotten around to it. And I'm not going to get around to it tonight, because it's now my bedtime.

But, just so you know, here's what I was intending to post about:

1. Photos of my trip to Dublin
2. Shameless Tieria fangirling
3. Haro!

One or all of these may or may not be appearing here in the near future (aka next week). Oh the suspense!

Just when I thought I couldn't enjoy the second season of Gundam00 any more... Sunrise just knocked me for six.

Spoilers for episode 7 below

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I finally got around to fixing my camera. It turns out that the best way to fix my camera was to CHANGE THE BATTERIES. Turns out, the old batteries had run out. No, wait, I'm not that stupid, hear me out; the old batteries were meant to be rechargeable but they'd stopped recharging. So, I just put in some common-as-muck non-rechargeable batteries and Bob's your uncle.

The good thing about having a working camera is that I am now able to show you a picture of my new coat, which is currently my favourite thing in my life right now.

I spend my morning commute on the tube playing "whose coat is better than my coat?" It's a tough game; there are a lot of good coats out there on those commuters. Sadly, when the tube is too crowded I have to switch to a different game, which seems to be "which random person am I going to end up spooning today?" NOT COOL.

I went to get myself some euros today ready for my trip to go see Deborah in Ireland next weekend. I'm pretty excited. I think my subconscious thinks it's going to see a Lockon when it's there. You're wrong subconscious. Clearly Lockon lives in space now. But there might be a lot of nice accents to listen to anyway.

Hey, do you remember when I went to New York? I remember. I've just stolen some photos from Mariya. Hooray! Let me show them to you:

We had afternoon high-tea in the most British establishment I have ever been in.

Then there was some funny business.

Then there was even more funny business (aka the slippery slope that is known to many as cosplay). Loveless cosplay. Mariya made a pimping Soubi (just look at that coat), while I did some very ghetto Ritsuka cosplay (notice how Ritsuka likes to wear the same T-shirt that I was wearing earlier in the day). I'm quite proud of my ears and tail though; proud mostly because I got my Mum to help me make them, which means that she made them and I watched. ILU Mum.

My wig was pure QUALITY (100% synthetic fibres! For only a few pounds? Surely you kid!)

Obligatory ear-piercing scene.

Note to self: lern 2 get in character! Ur doin it wrong!

Mariya does her best impression of "I am not a paedo. Why do you ask? I'm only sneaking in through your bedroom window late at night." Oh Soubi, never stop being Mr Creepy.

Um, I don't even know anymore:

And then there was some serious business, which is also known as WEDDING DAY. We had some time to kill so we took some photos with the limo. Our hair and make-up was done by one of the scariest Chinese ladies I have ever met. My hair was rock solid :D

I PASSED MY PISSING DISSERTATION.

I've got a flipping MA OMG.

So, while the rest of the world, well, mostly America, is asking itself the important question of "Daddy or Chips?" (Daddy, please be Daddy), I find myself asking:

Lockon, why the hell are you dressed up as Rick Astley?

The second season of Gundam00 is still going ruddy well, and Tieria gets better and better.
Also, this:

The meisters look like they're just a couple of electric guitars away from rocking out, Daft Punk style. That's A++ in my book.

In other news, I am loving The Count of Monte Cristo like there's no tomorrow. It is awesome. I am also fangirling the Count so hard (it doesn't help that in my head he still speaks with the same voice as he does in Gankutsuou). I am a little sad, however, that the story has just left Rome, and I have a feeling that that may be the last of Franz that we see in the book ;_; I'll miss you Franz, but it's probably for the best, because I was only a few more pages away from shipping the Count/Franz hardcore, which would be quite a turn-up for the books and my OTP. Ahh! I want to watch Gankutsuou again so badly!

Also, I finally updated the gallery. I've dumped a load of pictures in there, most of which are Tieria, and most of which you've seen before (although a couple are new).

So, I was just watching an old episode of Mock the Week on the BBC iPlayer. One of the panelists was the Irish comedian, Ed Byrne. I haven't seen him on the telly for ages, but there he was, and I suddenly had the realisation that he looked a bit like someone.

Lockon, is that you?

But maybe I'm just going crazy because it's Gundam-day and I still haven't watched episode 4 yet D:

And this is the part where I go on to say just how much I love the BBC iPlayer. I forget it exists, so I don't watch it enough, but I think it's great. No more having to sit through boring shows, I get to watch something that's interesting whenever I want. Golly, it's just like the rest of the internet, only legal d^_^

I've been trying to hold out on posting here until I had a new picture to put up, but sadly Tieria refuses to cooperate with me. I will try to get him down on paper once more and see how it goes. I haven't drawn in so long though. I am RUSTYYYYY.

So today is Gundam-day. This means that it is the day when I try to avoid the internet as much as possible until the subs come out (hopefully) this evening. It's all good though, I've got plenty of cleaning to keep me occupied; my flat is proper squalid at the moment.

News: I bought a dress yesterday! It's for my little cousin's wedding next Saturday. I am currently telling myself that I will fix my camera soon and take a photo of it to show you. Whether I actually get around to doing this or not is another matter. Anyway, having a job is great. Everyone else is all "Ohhh, credit crunch!" and "Ohhh, financial crisis!", and I am all "I haven't had any money to spare for the past two years (at least), let's go spendy spendy spendy!" I am currently trying to book myself flights to Dublin :D

In other news: I have started reading The Count of Monte Cristo. I had heard that it was boring, but I have to say that I am enjoying it immensely. I find myself looking forward to lunchtimes so I can read some more. Now, I started reading it because I loved Gankutsuou so much that I had to try my hand at the source material. So far, I have been able to remind myself of why the Count is such an awesome character. In fact, because the book seems to be telling things from his point of view, it makes him seem much less like a big scary blue vampire, and much more sympathetic. Also, I am very excited because Franz has just shown up and Franz was very much my favourite character in the anime. He hasn't been in the book long, so I can't say what he's like so far, but it's already been stated that he dresses like a cross between an artist and a dandy <3 I had heard that Franz didn't swing that way in the book, but so far the evidence suggests otherwise.

Hi! Let me tell you about a supposedly exciting weekend that I just had:

I went to see Steve in his pad, which was exciting because he's just installed a new bath, and then we had lovely pie and mash, and then I bought a new coat, which I love so much that I've worn it every day since, even though it's not really cold enough yet (I would show you a picture, but my camera is kind of dead).
The exciting part of the weekend was that we went to see the Mighty Boosh live. I was well excited, man, well excited. Sadly, it wasn't anywhere near as good as the first time we saw them live. It was funny, don't get me wrong, but not quite as funny as it should have been. Also, Cardiff International Arena kind of sucks if you're sitting near the back and are short. I couldn't see much. And I really wanted to get a good view of the glitterball suit show too. Still, good bits involved Howard looking like he'd just jumped out of Ben-Hur, Tromboner (oh baby), and Tony Harrison raping the severed head of the honey monster. Speaking of which, there were a couple of people in the audience dressed up like Tony Harrison; pretty awesome if you ask me. And if you don't know what Tony Harrison looks like, then this might help you realise why walking around Cardiff City Centre dressed like him is quite a brave thing to do.

Anyway, in other news: I forgot to post this here before. I made a video of the Gundam Meisters. Warning: not safe for work and really flipping weird. I still have no idea what possessed me to make this; I think I was dissertation crazy. In any case, that's milkshake y'hear. MILKSHAKE. But, well, I'm still slightly disturbed, to tell the truth.

And. At work today, I was cataloguing some records from Northern Ireland, and one of the people mentioned in one of the records was called Lyle. It was his surname, mind, but still.

More news about Lyle, and Gundam00 season 2 episode 3, below. SPOILERS AHEAD

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Right Right Right

So I'm back from an amazing weekend in New York in which Mariya had a WEDDING. It was lots of fun. There was also Loveless cosplay in the park (unrelated). I am subsequently very jetlagged at the moment. Staying awake at work is hard. There'll be more about NYC later once I've had a chance to steal some photos from facebook to show you.

As it is I have another very exciting weekend coming up, for which I have to go pack right now.

In other news: Gundam00 second season is taking my life at the moment. Loving it so far. But most especially, this is relevant to my interests.

Goodness! The very final episode of Code Geass aired days ago, and I still haven't blogged about it yet? Some fan I am!

So, here goes.

SPOILERS FOR BOTH SEASONS OF CODE GEASS AHEAD BE YE WARNED ALL WHO ENTER HERE

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Prompted by Nick.

I am still here guys. I've been a bad blogger recently, I know.

But you know how I said I've been a little funny in the head recently? I'm still not quite over it. I think my mind needs some time to sort itself out proper-like.

In other news: I've finally finished reading The Life of Johnson! Hooray! It only took me a year and a half. Dear God. Now I've started reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, which I seem to be getting through at the rate of knots. I think I'll have finished it come the end of tomorrow D:

I had a crazy week last week in which I actually went a bit wrong mentally in the head. I think, just between you and me, that I was getting a bit of cabin fever.


Luckily though, I started my new job on Monday, and now that I am leaving the house every day I am suddenly much better.


Things about my new job:


- I LOVE MY NEW JOB
- The place I work in has a nice atmosphere

- I've spent the past two days reading books on interesting historical subjects
- Today I got to read (and touch) a volume that was hand-written in the 16th Century

- Tomorrow I'm getting paid to go look around a museum


I hope this honeymoon period never ends.


Also, I'm going to a wedding on Friday, then going bridesmaid dress shopping on Saturday.


And in other wedding news, you probably know that I am going to NYC for Mariya's wedding in October. I found out yesterday that both of my flatmates are going to be in New York on exactly the same weekend. We all booked separately and in ignorance of each other's plans. In other words, this is a really freaky coincidence. If there's time, we should meet up in Manhattan and have a mini London celebration.