Posted by Janine on 11 Aug 2008 in blog
I LOVE YOU CODE GEASS
but...my crazy OTP...
and my minor OTP too...
I LOVE YOU CODE GEASS
but...my crazy OTP...
and my minor OTP too...
There is nothing nicer than sleeping for 11 hours straight (god I needed that) then waking up and having a lovely shower (I needed that too).
Yesterday I went to my very first hen-do; it was for my course-friend Emma, who's getting married in September. (Why so many weddings at the moment? Must be crazy pheromones in the air or something.)
Hen-do consisted of:
A picnic in the rain (oh England), drying off in front of the fire with cake and a romcom, pizza, and a bus tour of London town (which I didn't go on, because I could foresee myself falling asleep for the whole journey (see also: sleeping for 11 hours straight last night)).
Also, there was paintballing. I've never been to paintballing before, and my only experience of it was from watching it on Spaced.
- I don't like active things. I don't like aggressive things. I don't like things where I might get hurt. On the way in we saw a very large group of young guys - our opponents. We got in and had to sign an insurance form that absolved the paintball company of all liability in case of injury or death. DEATH.
- I was, to put it mildly, ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIED.
But it turns out that it's no way near as dangerous or as painful as I first thought. The games were short and the guys were very sporting and not boisterous at all, and it was considered perfectly fine to spend your whole time hiding sniping.
And actually. IT WAS PRETTY FUN. The most painful hit I got was to the knuckle of my trigger finger. I have a bruise. I am insanely proud of it and call it my 'war wound'.
So, in conclusion, paintball was good, but judging from my experience, I reckon I'd be pretty rubbish if I had to do actual war.
OK. It's back to typing now.
I know I've got to send lots of facebook messages (esp. to Mariya: I saw your engagement photos, they're lovely), and I want to draw Tieria fanart and write Tieria fanfic so badly it hurts, but it'll have to wait until I'm feeling less pressured.
brb, typing.
I thought this chapter I was writing was going to be 3000 words long, but it ended up being 5000 words. WRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRYYYYYYYYYYYY
It's 2:40am and I've only just finished writing. WRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRYYYYYYYYYYYY D:
Zooming in to tell you things you know already:
1. I have to write my dissertation
2. I AM STRESSED
3. I am stressed because I have to write my dissertation
4. Writing lots of words does not come easily to me. I mean, I am concise, which is a good thing, but being concise to the point of 'summing up the whole of a dissertation chapter in 100 words' is not a good thing. Each extra word that I manage to squeeze out is like a minor victory. Is this what giving birth feels like?
In non arghwargharghargharghhhhhh news:
There's a new trailer for the second season of Gundam00 and it actually contains new material! After successive and closely monitored viewings I am happy because:
- it contains Tieria! He looks just like his old bitchy, 'you are not worthy' self, which is good, because I like that, but also interesting because I thought that he might have mellowed out after four more years (which, for all we know, may well have doubled his age). Hmmm, Tieria got so much character development in the first season, I'm interested to find out if he's developed any further over the 4 year gap.
- it contains bondage!Allelujah! other things, which don't get me excited in the slightest. He's got a muzzle! Shut up.
But,
- Where is Lockon? I want to see Lockon!
- Also, Patrick. Ou-est Patrick?
AND NOW FOR MY FINAL TRICK. WATCH AS THIS POST ENDS IN A HIGHLY DISSATISFACTORY MANNER:
brb, writing dissertation
Today, the list of countries that I have to visit once I'm earning some money come September has been upped to 5. Golly. I hope I can afford it all. Not to mention, my carbon footprint is going to be awful D:
But who cares about the environment when I can go visit my friends? (Sorry, environment, but I'd be nicer to you if you were my friend. Come on environment, don't be like that, give me a call sometime, maybe we could catch a movie.)
At the moment, I am currently trying to organise a trip to NYC OMG OMG OMG.
Mostly it involves large portions of being excited, large portions of looking at websites, and large portions of doing nothing at all, because I'm frantically trying to do work for my dissertation.
Re: My diss and the whole Web 2.0 thing.
While listening back to the interviews I've conducted over the past couple of weeks, I've come to a realisation. Wouldn't it be awesome, Web 2.0 wise, if there was a site that compiled everything that you are active on online. Listen to this: it would be your homepage, and it would be a one stop shop for all your notifications. This homepage will be completely customisable, and it will pull in feeds from whatever you want. It will show you:
- new emails in your inbox (for all your email accounts)
- notifications from facebook and whatever other social networking site you're using
- feeds from whatever blogs, podcasts, whatever the hell else you want to keep track of
- news stories and weather forecasts, if you want
- twitter statuses of your friends
- bookmarks
- photos and videos friends have posted
- documents that you are collaborating on for work
- new messages from colleagues
- the status of orders from online shops
- new posts on forums
- updates to any webpage you want to track
- etc etc etc
- plus handy immediate search tools for wikipedia / youtube / google / multimap / the library catalogue / whatever you want
This one login homepage will show you everything you need to know, both for your personal and work life (and you'd be able to customise it to view it differently at work or at home if you wanted to split the two - for example, if you don't want to be bothered by personal stuff when working, etc). No more having to log in separately to each email account that you own (I have three). No more getting an email notification that someone's written on your facebook wall, then having to log in to facebook as well to reply. No more having to remember to check the news / your bank balance / updates to your favourite fanart sites. It will all be there. In one place.
Of course you can zoom off to the rest of the internet if you want to research something or fancy a bit of a browse. But wouldn't it be so much easier if everything was collated all together?
I'm not sure how feasible it would actually be. But it sounds great to me. If this is already possible and I've missed it, please let me know!
Lots of news!
1. It was my birthday yesterday. I had a great day all in all. I'm going to have a great weekend too (I'm not going to think about my dissertation at all). I'm 24 now though. Good God.
2. It was an even better birthday because I got offered the job I went for on Wednesday! It sounds like a really interesting job too, even if it is only for a year. I'm so happy.
(@Mariya: On account of me now having funds, I shall begin to put into motion plans to organise a trip to NYC :D :D :D)
3. The Gundam00 drama CD was released and it is just about one of the best things I have ever heard.
I have to say, I don't normally care about drama CDs. Mostly, this is on account of them being audio only, and my knowledge of Japanese being close to zero. However, even with a translation they're never normally that interesting. So, when I first heard there was going to be a Gundam00 drama CD, I mostly thought, 'Yeah, whatever'.
Then I found out that it was going to be set in a school, and I became even less interested. Why should I care if it's AU? And a cliche-ridden high-school AU to boot?
Then I found out that it would involve schoolgirl Tieria and my interested was piqued.
But do you know what? IT SURPASSED ALL MY EXPECTATIONS. It is the most hilarious thing. And the fact that it is still funny, even to someone who can't understand the language at all is saying something.
It is all brilliant. But some of my favourite parts would be.
- Setsuna. Oh Setsuna. I've never found him an interesting character, but his acting skills are amazing. Whenever he opens his mouth in undercover-schoolboy-mode I crack up laughing. Choriiisu! You know, I've been teetering on the edge of becoming a Mamoru Miyano fan for a while now, and a think this just pushed me over the edge \o/
- The other character that stole the show was Graham (aka Hamu-sensei). Everything he did was brilliant. But I think maybe his fighting moves were the best. HAMU-KICK! HAMU-PUNCH! HAMU-CHOP!
- Special mention goes to Hallelujah for turning out to be even more amazing than I thought. A) For humming the theme-tune. B) For the bonus track and his amazing negotiation skills.
- Another special mention goes to schoolgirl Tieria. I was wondering how they'd manage to get Tieria to pass off as a schoolgirl, seeing as he doesn't sound like a girl at all. It turns out that he did it by putting on a shockingly high-pitched voice. I nearly died. He sounds like such a polite schoolgirl too. (And everybody mentions how the new girl in class is so pretty. AHAHAHAHA.)
So, obviously, schoolgirl Tieria is something that needs to be drawn. Not that there isn't plenty of schoolgirl Tieria out there already, but now there should be even more in the wake of this drama CD. And that brings me onto...
4. Fanart dump! I quickly inked and coloured a lot of stuff yesterday. (I'm not sure I'm actually pleased with any of it though, but there you go.)
There is no way that I could listen to the drama CD and not draw this. Obligatory schoolgirl Tieria.
I drew this ages ago. Just a little sketch based on the fanart I did a while ago of a happy post-series Tieria in Lockon's shirt :D
I told you I drew a Lelouch didn't I! Long time no see Lulu! I was going for a different style for the eyes on this one, which is actually, kinda, really weird. Never mind, it was just drawn for fun anyway.
Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa-Patrick! Tieria aside, Patrick is my favourite character in Gundam00, so I thought I'd better draw him some more. Patrick is a brilliant character of the comic relief variety. I like him because he makes me laugh so hard. And for some reason, I have my own whole elaborate head-canon about Patrick which I could go on and on about for ages. In short, I like to think of Patrick as a mixture between Vince Noir, Russell Brand, Ace Rimmer and a failure. Bless him.
5. Right. Come next week I'm going to be going dissertation crazy. ONLY A MONTH TO GO D: D: D:
Interview limbo status: I didn't get the job. Oh well, plenty more fish in the sea.
Next week's interview status: It got moved forwards from Friday to Wednesday! Now I have even less time to prepare!!! And to iron my interview clothes!
Shingles status: May not be shingles after all. May instead be some kind of stress-induced hives. It's slowly spreading...and getting more itchy. WHAT ON EATH IS HAPPENING TO ME. I'm falling apart...
Weekend status: Going to visit my aunty. Note to self: take some cool clothes. Note to self the second: I don't own any cool clothes. Don't have enough money to buy any. Note to self the third: Goddammit. OK. Get a job, then get some cool clothes.
I think I might have shingles.
I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT SHINGLES ARE, but I think I might have them.
On top of that, I burnt my finger a little.
In the non-illness/injury side of things:
I still haven't heard if I've got that job or not. (Oh limbo, when will you be over?)
But I did hear that I've got an interview for another job next Friday. Incidentally, that means that I get to spend all of Thursday (which just happens to be my birthday) preparing for it.
Great.
The good news is that I've spent all afternoon dancing to myself. I haven't danced like a loony in ages. It's brilliant as a stress reliever. Oh bleepy-songs, never stop being so bleepy - but if you want to add more cowbell too, I'm not going to complain.
I think it went ok. Now I'm just waiting on a reply (apparently I have to wait until Monday).
*crosses fingers*
So, to calm myself down before my interview, I was wandering around YouTube. And.
I found the most amazing Gundam00 parody video. Here it is: a Gundam00 iPod commercial. Each time I find a new video of dancing meisters I always think it can't be surpassed, and then it is! This video is...I am just in awe. And if you re-watch the original you can really see the effort they've put into making them look like the characters. Just brilliant. I've watched it a million times already today. (Hahaha at Tieria's girly dance.)
Seriously. It's the best thing I've seen in ages.
And then I watched another parody, which fits quite nicely in the 'What on Earth is this?' category. Here it is. it's parodying Cutie Honey, which I've never seen, but it is hilarious all the same. WHY DO TIERIA'S CLOTHES KEEP FALLING OFF.
I would like to say that I am not nervous in the slightest and actually cool as a cucumber.
But if I did I would be lying.
Oh well, a little nerves never hurt anyone; it'll just focus me better.
I hope.
So, God, I haven't mentioned Gundam00 in this post yet, what is wrong with me?
I actually have little to say, apart from the fact that the trailer for the second season gets me all kinds of excited, despite the fact that it only has a couple of seconds' worth of new animation.
I would link to the trailer here, but it's kind of full of spoilers for the end of the first season.
Nevertheless, I shall reassure you that it is well exciting.
And did you know
Being nervous makes me doodle.
I may dump a Lelouch (YES I SAID LELOUCH AND NOT TIERIA. BE AMAZED.) sketch on you later if I get the energy (and maybe a Patrick too if you're lucky).
Because the Meisters' second season outfits are just so fabulous, I felt compelled to draw this (click the image for bigger).
And if you don't get the reference (and if so, goodness, where have you been all your life?) then this handy video should explain all *dances along*
But now I'm in turmoil trying to assign each Meister to a member of the Village People. Here's what I've got so far:
Tieria - Indian Chief (No question. It's the feathers.)
Allelujah - Policeman (High boots and tight trousers anyone?)
Lockon - Cowboy (Lockon is always the cowboy.)
Setsuna - Gundam (But Setsuna, there isn't a Gundam in the Village People! Setsuna: I am Gundam >:I OK, Setsuna, OK. Whatever you want.)
And for the remaining Village People:
Contruction worker - Lichtendahl
Army guy - Lasse
Guy in leathers - Aeolia Schenberg ???!!! (You know it's true.)
In other news, Gundam00 has been the gift that just keeps on giving this week. Not only do we finally find out about the second season, but we also find out that in the official high school AU audio drama (oh God, what?), Tieria decides to infiltrate the school by dressing up as a schoolgirl. YOU HEARD ME. That's OFFICIAL schoolgirl Tieria right there. HAHAHAHAHAHA. I hope this drama CD comes with illustrations!
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/