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So I finally finished my dissertation proposal. Good God, that was the hardest 750 words that I've ever had to squeeze out. I hope the 15,000 words of the actual dissertation won't be as difficult as this. I think the problem lies with the fact that I still have no idea what I'm doing *flail flail* Clarity where are you?!!!!

Also, I need subs of Gundam00 episode 21 like a person with a headache needs painkillers. Rarrrrrrh.
Speaking of which, I think all that standing in the cold on Friday has made me ill because I'm kind of snotty and (possibly unrelated) my nipples hurt TMI.

I've got to write up my dissertation proposal today. Don't believe me? Check my list:

Things to do today:
- Write dissertation proposal

Do you see? But I don't want to because it involves thinking hard and even though I spoke to one of my lecturers last week I'm still worried that he'll think it's a rubbish idea. And I don't want to think about it because it scares me.

Come on. 1000 words. I can do that. Easy.

Also, I still feel a little funny after getting frozen yesterday.
Also also, I don't want to run into any Gundam00 spoilers since the raws of the next episode are out, so I'm having to do the internet version of sticking my fingers in my ears and singing 'lalalala' until the subs are here. Which makes procrastinating on the internet much harder.

Hmmm, maybe I should write my dissertation proposal in lolspeak; that would make it more fun.

Dis mai dissurtayshun proposal:
1. How u archive computr?
2. Research dis
3. Dis vry importnt topik
4. Referensezez
I can haz MA nao?

Let me recount my day to you, and keep in mind that I've got a lot of dissertation proposal that I should be writing.

- wake up after not enough sleep - 7am
- go to library, re: dissertation proposal - 10am
- go to watch Deborah abseil off the side of her building - 1pm
- wait around in the cold and the rain for the abseiling - ages
- it's finally Deborah's turn to abseil off the building, by which time I am absolutely freezing cold - 3:30pm
- go home and drink lots of hot drinks + sit in a blanket + have a warm nap under my duvet - 5pm

So, um, I didn't get much work done. But I was so cold that I really had to recoup lots when I got home. The good news is that I did warm up, and when I woke up from my nap (7pm) I felt all fuzzy and cosy and comfortable. And then I got an idea to draw fanart (click for big):

You see, I have come to believe, in my own fandom canon, that Tieria can be really unwittingly adorable when he forgets himself (like when he's just woken up).
I also like to think that he is so bitchy and snarky and unforgiving because he just doesn't know any better. He has no empathy at all, and I like to think that this is because he was made/programmed/unleashed into the world not too long ago, and that he doesn't have much experience with dealing with other people. But he's learning, and that shows from his smile and 'so this is humanity?' when he sees Lockon forgive Setsuna; he's probably never seen forgiveness before, and it has a big impact on him. In other words, by the end of the series I reckon Tieria will be a happy bunny (if he's not dead, that is, but if he does die it will probably some significant sacrifice, personal growth, yadda yadda, I hope it never happens).

tl;dr, Tieria is cute when he yawns.

Man, I haven't been excited enough to blog about a new Tsubasa chapter in ages.

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So I finally watched Gundam00 episode 20. Hooray.

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Golly, that was a bad picture I drew yesterday, wasn't it?

Anyway, I got home today to find that there still weren't any Gundam00 subs (newsflash: they're out now, but I haven't watched it yet). This lack of Gundam had given me a right urge to watch some sci-fi (which is not an urge I get often, let me tell you).

Then I found out that my flatmate has a copy of 2001: A Space Odyssey, so I watched it. I hadn't seen this film for about 10 years! I'm glad I watched it again.

Man oh man, this is how sci-fi should be done. A superb superb film.
I love the slowness of it; it's appropriately grandiose. And the use of music and sound-effects is just amazing.

Also, once again confirming the belief that all computers are inherently evil *looks at laptop warily*

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go hum the Blue Danube and spin slowly on an axis.

No sign of this weeks Gundam00 subs yet :(

How can I be expected to start the week without my dose of Gundam00?
I NEED IT. I CAN'T GO COLD TURKEY. DON'T MAKE ME.

In order to work through my problems, I drew a quick, and very bad, picture of everyone's favourite, cardigan-chan Tieria.

Come back soon cardigan-chan!
(I wish I knew how to quit you.)

Today I got a big case of STRESSSSS

You see, I actually looked in my diary, rather than trying to avoid it, and I realised just how soon my coursework deadlines are, and how close together they are. But, I've got that feeling, you know, where there are so many things to do that you don't know which to do first, so you don't do anything at all.

To dissipate my fear I decided to not think about it, and do some therapeutic drawing. THAT'S THE WAY TO DO IT.

Here's what I came up with; Badou from DOGS:

I had to draw Badou, because he's my favourite. It took me a few weeks before I felt brave enough to do it though; Miwa Shirow-sensei's art is so well done, that anything I do will be pathetic in comparison. Oh well, I got over it. Anyway, the pose seemed ridiculously hard to get right; I hope it's ok and not funky (I only finished it a little while ago, so I'm not able to see it properly yet).
The main reason that I drew Badou is that I wanted to draw his clothes. His fashion style intrigues me; he dresses like a throwback to 1996, the time of glow-sitck ravers and anorak-wearing indie kids, but I don't know why. Oh, but I should note that I took a few liberties and made his coat a little longer, so it could swish on the floor.

ps The song I've had on repeat all day is 'Stuck on Repeat' by Little Boots. No really. Go check it out!

I did nothing useful today, not even check my emails (I'm a bad friend I know).

All I've done is watch this on repeat:
Japanese fan-made crazy Gundam00 EuroPop dance party.

The whole thing is really cute. Oh Allelujah, stop being so adorable; you're going to give me diabeetus.

asdfghasdgh... Oh wait, no, that comes later.

First, in real life news:
asdfghasdfghjasdfg

I had a great reading week last week, and did no work. But I had to go back to lectures today, and I suddenly realised that all my deadlines are suddenly very close, and I have absolutely no idea what I am supposed to be doing.

Luckily for me, everyone on my course seems to be feeling the same way. Every single conversation we had today went something like:
:(

Tomorrow is a horrible day full of horrible classes. I can't wait.

But I did have a nice reading week. I went home to see the dentist my parents. I ate lots of unhealthy foods, like burgers, and chocolate, and chips. And I watched films:
A) Midnight Cowboy, which was great. It's a really good film. But sad. Really sad. And why is it that when I hear the theme tune I keep thinking of Lockon?
I ain't a f'real cowboy, but I am one helluva stud.
I think I've gone wrong.
B) 300. By golly if this wasn't the most testosterone-infused film that I've ever seen. The only parts of the film that didn't contain fighting, contained numerous naked ladies! The choreographed slow-motion fighting was quite fun to watch though, even if I wasn't target audience.
C) You Are What You Eat. Oh wait. This one isn't a film. Why do I watch so much trash TV when I go home? If I never have to look at another person's poo again, it will be too soon.

Oh come on then. It's Gundam00 episode 19 time!

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Guess what!

Today I got around to finishing the next Clematis page, which I seemed to forget in all the DOGS furore. SO, not only did I put up a new page of Clematis, but, BUT! I overhauled the site as well!
And. AND. I spent my whole afternoon/evening/early hours of the morning, drawing new pictures to put on the characters page! Go see! Go see!

Oh man, I haven't had so much fun in ages. Asdfghdfghjkdfg I WANT TO DRAW MOAR!
But it's bed time. And tomorrow I have to study. Sadface ):

Haha. So I ended up compiling a fan soundtrack for DOGS in the end, because I wanted one that badly. This isn't really a proper FST, in that I'm providing youtube links to the songs, rather than downloads, but I feel a bit funny about uploading mp3s (plus I don't actually have half the songs on my computer). But this way you get to watch the videos too if you like.
I should also say that this FST is by no means definitive. I haven't had time to go through all the music in my collection, so I'm sure there are other songs that work easily as well, but these are the ones I came up with.

Right, I'm hoping that the music in this FST will give you some feel for just how badass DOGS is. I didn't really choose any of the songs based on lyrics (although some are a happy fit), I was much more interested in picking songs that had the feel of the manga. In other words, I mostly picked songs that are good to shoot people to. It's quite fast paced, fairly rocky in places, with a few oddballs thrown in for good measure.

I've also tried to order the songs so that a) they sort of lead in to each other without it being too painful and b) there's a very slight narrative running through the whole thing.

So, without further ado, I present my take on a DOGS FST \o/

Shot Me Down - Audio Bullys and Nancy Sinatra
'Bang Bang. He shot me down.
Bang Bang. I hit the ground.'

- Lulled into a false sense of security, then BANG! you get caught in the crossfire.

I'm Waiting For the Man - The Velvet Underground
'He's never early, he's always late
First thing you learn is you always gotta wait'

- You have to go and save his ass when he doesn't show.

You Will You Won't - The Zutons
'You may you might
Your chest gets tight
You say you love day
But you come out at night'

- Walking the streets in the heaviest boots in town.

Chelsea Dagger- The Fratellis
'Well you must be a boy with bones like that
She said you got me wrong'

- Just when you thought it was about gangsters and prostitutes, it turns out to be a buddy movie.

Don't Give Up - Noisettes
'When the system's wrong you gotta tear it down let it fall to the sea bed like a rusty crown'

- Who said anything about giving up?

Puttin on the Ritz - Fred Astaire
'High hats and narrow collars
White spats and lots of dollars
Spending every dime
For a wonderful time'

- For all the pinstripe suits. It's funny how tap-dancing sounds like gunfire.

Weapon of Choice - Fat Boy Slim
'Check out my new weapon, weapon of choice'

- Nearly every Fat Boy Slim track fits this series perfectly.

Let's Dance - David Bowie
'If you say run, I'll run with you
And if you say hide, we'll hide'

- A song about angels.

This Fire - Franz Ferdinand
'I'm gonna burn this city'

- A far too obvious choice, but I couldn't leave it out.

Walk Idiot Walk - The Hives
'I got some people say it's this way
I got some people say it's that way
And then some people say there's no way
Hell, I know'

- Idiot is the key word here.

What a Wonderful World - Louis Armstrong
'I see skies of blue, clouds of white
Bright blessed days, dark sacred nights'

- A song to bleed to.

Ball and Chain - Janis Joplin
'Something grabbed a hold of me, daddy,
Felt to me, honey, like a ball and chain.
You know what I mean baby,
I said it's way too heavy now.'

- If you're going to angst, you may as well do it soulfully.

Apple Tree - Wolfmother
'Dear Sir, can you remember me?
Have a look inside your family tree'

- Rocking out. Hardcore. Go crazy.

Danger! High Voltage - Electric Six
'Danger! Danger! High Voltage!'

- Explosive situations.

Le Disko - Shiny Toy Guns
'Razor sharp, razor clean
Feel the weapon's sensation
On your back
With loaded guns'

- Girls with knives.

I Want I Want - Digitalism
'Am I not always be wanting this?'

- You can't hear the gunshots over the sound of your heartbeat.

Galvanize - Chemical Brothers
'Don't hold back'

- Make or break. You're not as cool as you look.

Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien - Edith Piaf
'Non! Rien de rien'

- At the end of the day, what are you doing this for?

I was saving up some things to post about. But now I don't really want to post about them any more, because I've got something I want to talk about much more. But lets get them out of the way first.

1. I made sushi with Deborah at the weekend, and watched myself a bit of Howl's Moving Castle. The movie is as unsatisfying, plotwise, as I remember it. But who wants to watch it for the plot anyway? I have also come to the conclusion that Howl comes across as being oh so charming, because of some brilliant but subtle direction, and I'm not making it up I swear. Studio Ghibli films are always such a pleasure to watch.

2. The next day I watched Sweeney Todd. It's very singy. And quite gory. Don't watch it if you don't like blood, I'm telling you. I quite enjoy a bit of on-screen violence normally, but I was having to watch half of this from behind my fingers. The good news is that because of the singing, you don't really notice that Johnny Depp has just reused his Jack Sparrow English accent. Also, he doesn't look as old as I was worried he would look, and actually works the whole waistcoat thing quite well. Bonus points for the appearance of Sasha Baron-Cohen.

3. More Gundam00, yadda yadda, Patrick fails again, blah blah, half of the episode is a recap, yeah whatever, and one of the new characters is sporting the male hotpant look? Has that ever not been ridiculous?

RIGHT!

What I have been burning to talk about is that I have just, in the past few days, binged on all of the manga DOGS by Miwa Shirow. I suddenly felt like I had to read it because a) all the cool kids seem to be reading it, and b) I saw this picture of one of the main characters, Badou, with SOUBI. I know.

So, lets review. The good thing about DOGS is that the art is ridiculously good. Ridiculously. It makes me a little giddy. The other good thing is that the plot is like that of a really good action movie. I mean that in the sense that the story is not good per se, but there is so much cool gun-toting, sword-wielding action, that you still leave the cinema feeling like you got your money's worth. (I would compare it to a Tarantino movie, but I won't, for fear of looking like some kind of heathen who doesn't know what she's talking about.) And all of the characters seem like they've been pulled out of the big bag of characters that you have to have in an action movie. You have:

- The blind priest who is secretly badass, with a sword in his cane, just like Zatoichi.
- The cold sword-maiden who is out for revenge.
- The happy-go-lucky, chain-smoking loser, who becomes a lot less happy-go-lucky, and a lot more trigger-happy, when he runs out of nicotine.
- The retired old assassin, who always seems to run into trouble, because he's not looking for it anymore.
- The half-crazy guy who is almost as likely to rip your lips off with his teeth, as he is to shoot you.
- The cute twin girls, who are also deadly. And insane.
+ Many more gansters, prostitutes, evil scientists, and people in double-breasted suits.

Then they go and (in the words of the business) fuck shit up.

I think I have to agree with the world and his aunt, when I say that Badou is my favourite character. But that's neither here nor there.

What I want. What I really want is a cool Tarantino-style soundtrack to go with this manga. It needs a soundtrack. It's calling out for one. There are so many songs that would work brilliantly, including, it seems, half the music on my computer hard-drive. I've had a quick look for fan soundtracks, and only managed to find one, which, to my disappointment, contained Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance, and other whiny guitar bands (the staple of most fan soundtracks it seems, and the bane of my life). This series calls out for better!
I would make a fan soundtrack myself, but I don't have the patience to do it right. Maybe I'll just compile a list of the songs that I have that work, and leave it at that.

At the top of the list would be Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) by Nancy Sinatra, from the Kill Bill soundtrack. Hands down. Or maybe the Audio Bullys remix for extra hardcore.

Completely unrelated to DOGS, but I came to a realisation today:
Strict Machine by Goldfrapp is a perfect song for Tieria. OMG why didn't I see it before?

I haven't written here in a while. Mostly, over the past few days, I have been:

- Thinking about dissertation topics
- Thinking even more about my lecturers dancing in the style of West Side Story. We've been laughing heartily in our lectures, but oh god DO NOT WANT. Especially not the subsequent Michael Jackson's 'Beat It' crossover. My eyes! MY EYES!
- Defrosting the fridge. AGAIN. It almost deserves the status of a HOBBY by now.
- Listening to The Rapture on repeat and dancing dancing dancing.
- Not dwelling on Gundam00 at all. LIES

Now, let me give you a run-down of some more things that I've been watching recently:

Spice and Wolf
I decided to drop this one in the end. After 3 episodes I realised that merchant trading in fictional pseudo-European towns is boring boring boring.

Honey and Clover - Live action TV series
I've only seen the first episode of this. The production seemed a little cheesy, and I can't help comparing it to the live action movie, even though it's never going to match up to that. I might drop it. Each episode lasts an hour; do I really have that much time in my life to waste? But I might keep watching it because Honey and Clover (in any incarnation) gives me the warm fuzzies like you wouldn't believe. We'll see.

Shigofumi
The animation in the first two episodes was quite nice. The story started out normal, but turned completely crazy over the top. The plot almost seems like something I'd have writen when I was 14, and thought that every good story had to start and end with character death (this was different to when I was 12, when I thought that every good story had to have a group of animals who went on an adventure). Anyway, I'll probably keep watching this if the animation quality stays nice.

Lark Rise to Candleford
OMG! An actual TV programme that's on the actual TV! Like on the BBC and everything! I hardly ever watch those! This is an easy to watch costume drama about a girl in the late 19th Century, who leaves her hamlet to go work in a post office in the big town. There is nothing difficult or gritty about this show at all. It's pleasant, like buying a new scarf, or eating cake with your Nan. It also contains Mark Heap, of whom I am a large fan (even if he is getting a little chubby around the face now). I think I'll keep watching this if I've got nothing better to do on a Sunday evening.

Right. Now I should go draw some more Patrick! Clematis.

Hmm... why do I feel like doing absolutely nothing today? And why am I bored?

In good news, I may be closer to pinpointing what I want to do for my dissertation.

In other good news, I bought Howl's Moving Castle today, for only 5 pounds! And I used a gift voucher! Which means that it actually cost me 0 pounds! (I've done the maths, and that's quite good.)
- but watching it today would be too proactive for my current state of mind

In even better news; I made a very witty quip about Boris Johnson last night, in my dream. I called him John Boris Johnson, like Jon Bon Jovi. Do you see?
- Don't laugh too hard. You might hurt yourself.
- Oh the satire; it's sharp as a knife. Ow! Chika-chik-ah!

Oh, and it was also Gundam00 episode 15 day.

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