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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.

So I was going to finish this off yesterday, but instead I spent my time napping, and subsequently taking ages to fall asleep last night.

Here we go:
A new Clematis page \o/

It was my first day back in lectures today. I should hate that. But now I've handed in my report I feel like I can finally have that Christmas holiday that I've been wanting. I still have another piece of coursework to do Shhhh...I'm not thinking about that one.

Other good things: It was Gundam-day today for the first time in two weeks. Nothing extraordinary happened, but I ended up laughing a lot (hahaha! Hong Long! Who gave him steroids this episode? Bullet proof skin!) and Patrick's in next week's episode; I shall prepare myself to laugh a lot more.

SUCCESS \o/

OMNOMNOM

Setsuna F Seiei.
I KNOW. I didn't draw Tieria this time. Crikey.
Testing out the 'happy virus' as a sketchbook is better than writing essay plans.

Big up the new year!

So far this year it has rained - not good 2008, not good
but then I bought a squash - the year's looking up \o/

I went to visit Theresa for New Year's again, but I stupidly forgot to take any photos. How on Earth will I remember it now?
What I have learnt: A wii is a great equaliser, in that it makes everybody look as undignified as each other. Shake those remotes! Shake them!

And now it's time for me to start up a countdown. Because I have realised that I have only 5 days to research and write an essay about the management of electronic records. It felt like I had ages to work on this at the beginning of the holidays. WHAT HAVE I DONE WITH MY TIME.
Super panic essay mode: GO!

Hi! I'm back from Christmas! Did you have a nice time? I had a nice time.

First of all I went to Steve's house with Linda. We had a Christmas dinner and watched Samuel L Jackson and went to the zoo. Photo!

Omnomnom

Then I came back home and then I went to see my parents. It was a short-ish Christmas, but it was enjoyable. I saw some family, and it wasn't too traumatic (we played the Family Fortunes DVD game). My parents and I went on a winter walk in the countryside. I thought it would be cold and horrible, but it was very pleasant; the trees were bare, the air was crisp and the holly was green, and also I got to wear wellies.

I also watched some stuff on TV. Christmas day we watched the Christmas episode of Doctor Who. I have to say, I find Doctor Who to be a little ridiculous. It was fine when I was younger, but now it just looks shoddy. I suppose most people find the shoddiness charming. Did you see the part where Kylie pushed the bad guy into a fire with a fork-lift truck? This show would be hilarious if it wasn't so obvious that the people making it aren't taking it seriously in the slightest. Nevertheless, David Tennant as the Doctor makes it quite easy to sit through a whole episode.

Then later we watched Pulp Fiction. It was the first time that I'd actually properly watched this film. It was good. Although, Kill Bill was my first Tarantino, so I've a feeling that it'll always be my favourite. Anyway, I'd by this point watched Samuel L Jackson in two films in the space of four days. Awesome. I've been overcome with the urge to end every sentence with 'motherfucker'.

Then the next day we watched the Mighty Boosh live show, which was being shown on BBC3. It was good to watch it again; I'd forgotten a lot of the jokes since I'd seen it last. And it was good to watch it with my parents; I will force them to watch it, and I will force them to like it. I'm on a boosh high now. I think I'll be in a good mood for the next week.
'I will show you things you have never dreamed of.'
'Like what?'
'Unicorns... with AIDS!'

Presents. Lets have a picture rundown of presents!

I got a kind of crystal thing. I think it's meant to be decorative or something. It comes in a fancy box. But since I've watched the Mighty Boosh, I've been refering to it as The Ruby of Kukundu, because it makes me laugh.

Hahaha. I will learn Japanese even if it kills me. I may not be ready to put any effort into it, but at least I have the books now, right? This is to fool myself into the belief that I will be able to translate things, if only slightly. Watch me go!

(Blurry photo, I am sorry) Mariya sent me an awesome 1920s hat. It looks quite a lot like one I drew Chloe in once. I <3 1920s fashion. (It's quite cold in my flat, so I've decided to bring back the cravat look. With a cardigan. Don't laugh.)

This is me sporting the jumper that Mariya got me. It's also my 'Yesss! Christams!' photo.

So recently I have decided that lolcats are the best thing, since the last best thing. They make me laugh. I have also realised that it is fun to speak like lolcats when sending text messages. You have been warned. In light of my new-found enthusiasm I decided to take photos of my cats when I was at my parents' and lolinate them.

Um, the last one is not my cat. It's from Bristol Zoo.

So now I'm going to do lots of research for my essay then head off to Theresa's for a New Year's of fun and merry-making and fun. She's got a Wii. I'm excited.

I was going to open up Gundam00 episode 11 again to make me some macros, but I ended up just watching the best bits instead.

I have come to realise that Hallelujah is brilliant. Proper kill everyone mental. And Allelujah is all, 'nooo! I don't want to kills the people!' and then he does, while screaming at the same time. THIS SHOW IS GREAT. Well, for a given value of great. It isn't GREAT, but it sure keeps me entertained for 30 minutes each week.
Speaking of which, is there an episode airing next week? Not that it matters, because I'm going to be at home with my parents. And everyone will be all 'Woo! It's Christmas!' and I'm going to be all 'WHERE IS MY GUNDAM00'.

In Tieria news, I'm pretty sure that he's a robot/computer now, and not a girl. I've convinced myself because his eyes keep glowing, and everybody knows that glowy eyes = computer. When my suspicions are confirmed I will go and listen to Robot Rock on repeat for a fortnight. Not that I can see Tieria rocking out, unless rocking out = standing around disapprovingly in corridors. But if he did rock out, maybe it would be a bit like this (10 points for enthusiasm here, but -20 for style). Nope, I'm pretty sure that Lockon is the only one that would know how to rock out in this show; oh, and Patrick too, bless him.

I was going to do some research about records management today, but then it was 5pm already, and all I'd done so far was let in the man to read the electricity meter. So I started drawing more Clematis (although, maybe you won't see this page for another month, if you go by my current track record).

And tomorrow, although James has skanked us for family, Linda and I will be going to see Steve's flat /o/

Yes, but, I did a lot of reading for my next essay today, so I'm allowed to indulge myself a little, right?

Maybe I should draw Setsuna for a change; I'd be quite interested in drawing Setsuna. But mostly I just wanted to draw eyelashes.

Where is episode 11? I want to watch eet.

To the library tomorrow. Work ho!

Wow. I had a pretty busy weekend. I was so tired when I got home yesterday that I could hardly watch the TV. Today was great, because it's the first day of the Christmas holidays, so I didn't have to go to uni. I slept for most of the day, then I did my Christmas shopping and also bought some mince. (I think I had a lucid dream last night, but I don't remember much of it. I think I was in a lift at some point, which grew teeth. And I was introduced to this guy called 'Gummi' as in Gummi Bear', it was so ridiculous that I laughed in his face.)

But, let me tell you what I did at the weekend! In sequential bullet point form!

- Saturday am. Like, really am. Like, 7am. I went to Billingsgate Market, which is a big fish market in East London, with James. It was pretty cool. There was loads of fish there, and there were loads of people buying them. Only, if you have no idea what type of fish is what, you feel like a bit of an idiot. Luckily we were helped out by a guy who saw that we had no idea what we were doing, and we got ourselves 2 nice sea bass and a big crate of prawns for 20 pounds, which is pretty good if you ask me. The only problem is that the floor was covered in fishy water, and now the bottom of my trousers smell of fish.
It was exciting though! I really felt that I was in the middle of some living history. The market isn't in it's original location by the Tower of London any more, but I can still imagine Londoners doing exactly the same thing for the past 2000 years or more. After all, what is London if not a place of trade and commerce and market stalls? The whole living history aspect is what gets me really excited about London, but that's a story for another day.

- Steve came down by coach, and Nick flew in (after a delay of 4 hours on his flight). We congregated in James' house, which we soon realised was freezing because the boiler is broken (and it is also the coldest it's been this winter so far; proper scarf and gloves cold). We soon warmed ourselves up by eating some sea bass and watching Robin Hood on the TV.

- We went to go to a concert in an old operating theatre, but it was full up. So we went to a pub across the road instead.

- Retiring home, Steve and I attempted to watch the last episode of the Mighty Boosh. But the episode isn't online!!!! What's going on BBC? I need my Boosh!

- The next day we met Sarah for brunch. Steve had to run off to catch his coach home; we sent him the wrong way, but luckily he made it on time with 30 seconds to spare. Phew!

- We went to the Tate Modern, because it is free. And saw for ourselves this crack that everyone's talking about. I'm not sure about it being art. But it's interesting to wonder how it's done.

- We then travelled back to James' freezing house, then quickly moved on to his equally freezing local pub. Boy was it cold this weekend! One dinner later and it was time for Nick to catch his train home, and time for me to go home and go to bed for a well deserved rest.

Pictures:

Next weekend Linda's here and it's off to Steve's house. Or so I hear.

I've finished my essay guys! I handed it in today! Woo!

I don't think it's very good, but I did get another piece of coursework back and I got a B!
It turns out I'm not failing, and I might just pass this degree after all \o/

To celebrate I watched some of Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, and then some of The Mighty Boosh
p.s. I'm going to see that glitterball suit the Mighty Boosh live next October. Eeee!

Also I celebrated by fanart-ing.

I'm sorry. It's Tieria again. I seem to be very much a 'one-trick pony' as of late. I think he's replaced Lelouch as the 'character from a mecha anime that I like to draw a lot'. And I have to get my fill before he suddenly turns female. Not that I think he will, really. Did you see the bit where his eyes went all shiny? I think it more likely that he turns out to be a robot or something, which would actually be pretty cool.
Also, it is cold and I feel wintery. Can you tell?