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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.

Full story »

I just borrowed Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas form my flatmate. Man, is that one bad trip of a film. I had no idea what was going on most of the time, but I think maybe that was the point. It was fascinating to watch, in a way where you don't really want to watch it, but you can't look away. It was enjoyable though, and funny in places.
On a related note, I really don't think that I have a personality that would work well with drugs; my level of fear about the whole world is just set too high. Seriously, that stuff would scare me senseless.
Anyway, the main point is that Johnny Depp is very good at acting like he's off his tits. Once again, it makes me wish he could to play the gentleman with thistledown hair in the upcoming Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell movie; it would be brilliant I say, brilliant.

'We can't stop here, this is bat country.'

I also finished watching Moyashimon in a big binge the other day. That show turned out to be a lot funnier than I originally thought it would be. And trap Kei... trap Kei made my day. The microbes were being a bit cryptic at the end though; is there going to be a second season? I hope so. But one thing's for sure; I don't want to kill any of the cute microbes. I'll never wash again!

In the new run of cartoons this January, I tried watching Hatenkou Yuugi, which seems to be about a young girl and her two travelling companions. But I, I don't get it. At all. The show is bad. Bad animation. Bad plot. But. It's tongue in cheek bad. It's meant to be that way. And I don't know why. Is it meant to be a parody? Is it meant to be funny? I just can't grasp it, so I'm going to have to let it go. I was almost tempted to keep watching because I realised that one of the characters was voiced by the same person as the Medicine Seller from Mononoke, but it wasn't enough. Subsequently I found out that the same guy also voices Suzaku from Code Geass. Suzaku? And the Medicine Seller? Voiced by the same person? I had no idea. I'm quite shocked.

And, because my flatmate is good at lending me stuff recently, I also borrowed Pieces of the People We Love by the Rapture.
Handclaps? And Cowbell? MY ONLY WEAKNESS!

Golly! When do I ever post site news?

Anyway, I wanted to let you know that I've changed the gallery around a bit. Because, although I hate it when you go to galleries and scroll along, and the artwork gets progressively WORSE with each picture you look at, I hate it even more to see all my old artwork staring at me like a bad smell whenever I open up the gallery page (also, the page was getting large enough, that you had to wait ages for all old thumbnails to load before you got to the new pictures).

So, what I'm saying is, I've rearranged the pictures so that they run from new to old, instead of old to new, and I've also relegated the really old stuff to another page.

And, as an added bonus, I've made it slightly more streamlined so that it's easier to browse by fandom (because it's all fanart anyway).
- This makes it a lot easier to see where I got stuck on a fandom and couldn't let go. Looking at it, I can see that I've roughly gone: Lord of the Rings - Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle - Code Geass - Gundam00 Gundam00 Gundam00. THE STORY OF MY LIFE.

Hm. So the next time I decided not to do any work came sooner than I thought.

I ponced about with a piece of coursework today, for about an hour. Then I decided that it was Allelujah time. I can do the coursework over the weekend (I'll finish it tomorrow OMG).

My initial thoughts on Allelujah can be summed up as:
- best outfit (although that's not saying much in this show)
- prettiest hair (completely impractical, but prettiest)
- most ridiculous name. Allelujah Haptism? Haptism? Allelujah?
- wettest weekend

Hahaha, then Hallelujah showed up and I realised that Allelujah's hair was a PLOT POINT. I was dumbfounded at first (my general reaction to everything in Gundam00), but then Hallelujah turned up again and just started killing killing killing and making Allelujah cry space tears. Hallelujah is brilliant. As everyone knows, the best alternate personalities are evil alternate personalities. And the more space tears I get the happier I am.

About this picture, Hallelujah looks more compassionate than normal, but I'm sure he's just gloating really.

@Gundam00:
More Hallelujah please!

@Me:
LEARN ANATOMY D:

I found this today:

A music video for a song about PCR reactions

Seeing as I once spent 6 months of my life doing nothing but PCR every day, I find this pretty funny. Especially the part at the end where the guy is holding the PCR machine and crying tears of joy. Beautiful.
I've seen quite a few humorous geeky biochemistry songs about over the years. But, where are the archive songs? Clearly this is an avenue that is yet to be exploited by the archive community. WRITE ME ONE PLEASE.

In other news, it was a tough decision between coursework and Lockon today. Lockon won out (click for big).

It's the first time I've drawn him. I wasn't too much of a fan of Lockon in the beginning, because I didn't really like his hair, or his clothes. I still don't like them (notice how I drew him in his under-flightsuit shirt instead), but he's growing on me slowly, because:
a) He's the only one of the meisters that actually seems kind of normal
b) He's got an evil twin
c) I like to imagine him with a Northern Irish accent, and that's pretty cool
d) Everyone fangirling (or in this case fanboying too) over him got to me after a while
e) He's Tieria's favourite

Now, I still haven't drawn Allelujah yet, or better still, Hallelujah. Maybe next time I decide not to do any work.

Halo. Today I'm going to talk about Gundam00 episode 14.

BUT FIRST!!!

My new clothes.

I got that threadless T-shirt that I'd been eyeing for the past year and a half. I think that just owning this T-shirt makes me cooler by 15% \o/

A got a hoody as well. It's got stars on. But I wonder if maybe it makes me look a bit chavvy, because it came from a chavvy shop.

In the same chavvy shop I saw a brilliant red jacket. I put it on and rolled the sleeves up to my elbows and said 'hee hee, chamone, check ma bad self!' I really wanted it, but in the end I decided that I probably looked more ASBO-worthy than Michael Jackson, and why do I want a Michael Jackson jacket anyway? I'm still pining for it.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT:

I watched Gundam00 episode 14 today. I have a lot to say. I don't think there are really spoilers, but I'll cut it anyway.

Full story »

I had an awful day at uni yesterday. We spent the morning talking about dissertations *shudder* and then I had the worst lecture ever (and it was supposed to be my most interesting module this term)!

@New lecturer: Shape up or ship out.

So today (after a morning in the library mind) I spent my time watching and reading stuff.

The watching:

So its time for new anime to watch again. Which is good, because most of the shows I'm watching are lagging because there are no subs. I keep having to watch normal TV! Its awful.

So I watched a show called Spice and Wolf. It wasn't as bad as I thought it might be, and Horo, the wolf lady, was quite likeable, despite spending the whole episode naked. But I'm worried it might turn out to be a bit boring. It's set in generic western pastoral village. I hate generic western pastoral villages. Everything I've ever watched with generic western pastoral villages in it (Romeo and Juliet anyone?) has been AWFUL. If it was a set time and place I would love it. If you told me it was set in rural Somerset in 1750 I'd be all over it. But the makers can't be bothered to do the research so generic it is. I am bored already. But I'll keep watching the show for a bit longer. The first episode wasn't horrific after all.

Then I watched a show called Persona, which is based on a video game. As it's based on a video game, the plot doesn't sound to innovative, so it might end up a little dull. But. But! The character designs are beautiful. So even if it gets boring I might be happy to keep watching anyway. And. The ending credits don't seem to have much to do with the show, but the visuals are so wonderfully surreal that it got me a little giddy:

<3<3<3

The reading:

Then I read the latest Tsubasa chapter. I wish CLAMP would stop pulling the carpet from under my feet when I just get to grips with the plot. WHATS GOING ON? WHO'S WHO? STOP CHANGING THE BOUNDARIES.

@CLAMP: I love it. Don't stop ever. But please explain to me what is going on, because my poor little brain can't understand no more.

Turns out I wasn't finished drawing Mr Thompson today.

I wanted to try out a different style. Which makes him look like a lady. Unintentional.
Hmmmm....Needs a lot of work I think.

*sigh* I should take a look at my palaeography coursework, instead of playing about with colouring pencils.