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Do you remember I said I done a picture of Tieria from Gundam00? Well here it is. I inked it badly then coloured it. I quite like colouring things shoddily at the moment, for which I apologise, but it's quick, and I quite like the effect it gives. Anyway, the main point of me drawing this picture was that I wanted to try to make the pose as realistic as possible.

It was quite difficult to try and make Tieria look male, especially when he insists on wearing that stupid cardigan. Seriously. I doubt any of the other characters can actually take him seriously when he's wearing it. I know I can't. But the thing I like about Tieria is that he doesn't act like someone who should be wearing a pink cardigan. Mostly he bitches at people for doing everything wrong, and makes Allelujah sit on the naughty step (and I laughed so hard when I saw that).

My current second favourite character from Gundam00 may just be Patrick, the pilot for the AEU, because his ego is hilarious.

Oh, but what I would do to see Yun Kouga's original character designs. I want to see them so bad. I bet they're beautiful.

In better anime (no, seriously) news. I watched the film Paprika the other day. I enjoyed it. The plot wasn't the best I've seen, but I liked the whole dream logic to it. And you know that I love anything that's about dreams; in this case, about a machine that allows the users to sit in on each other's dreams. And the character design wasn't my favourite (although I loved Chiba's character design for some reason). But. But! Some parts of the animation were just, sublime. The scene where Chiba runs along then turns into Paprika, and the way she runs changes ever so subtly but still perceptibly...I have no words for how much I love that part. There are other parts, but I can't list them all. But the thing I loved most about the film was the theme tune as heard in this trailer. There is something about that tune that I find completely engrossing. I have been listening to it non-stop all day. My problem with the film was that they don't use the theme tune enough D:

So I've been slightly wrapped up in the spirit of the film for the past two days. The chase scenes in the film got me all excited. I spent all of yesterday wishing I could just run through the wall or out of the window or into a painting. But sadly I wasn't asleep, and was in the middle of a lecture, so I don't think it would have gone very well if I had. But I really want to jump into a painting!

On a related note, I think my ability at dream recall is increasing. I mean, I've always been good at remembering my dreams, but recently I've been mentally noting them when I wake slightly in the middle of the night, and now I'm recalling a number of dreams per night. I can remember at least three distinct dreams that I had last night, maybe even four. And I remember parts quite vividly too. (You know, I think that getting more sleep than I used to is really helping). And last night, or this morning rather, my final dream was a lucid one. I'd had a dream that I was at the beach, then woken up and thought something along the lines of 'what a weird beach that was'. After this I dozed off again and found myself back on the same beach. It took a couple of minutes, but then I suddenly remembered that, 'hold on, I was just thinking about this, it's a dream'. I can remember that the thing I really wanted to do in my dream when I became lucid was to go rush into the sea, but I got too excited and woke up. (I was rubbing my hands together to try to stay in the dream, but at the same time, because I was waking up, I could see my hand beside my pillow, and saw that I wasn't actually rubbing my hands together, so it didn't really work.)

Things I learnt from my dreams last night:
- don't throw your rubbish into the sea
- it is possible to kidnap someone on Tottenham Court Road
- an old church converted into a London underground station would be the best thing ever

I have to say that, at the moment, going to sleep is the best part of the day. I actively look forward to it.

Note to self:
Why on Earth did you think that a couple of hours would be sufficient to learn the whole history of English land law?

Note to old dead guys:
Stop making the system so confusing! Legal fictions? Who thought that would be a good idea?

So yesterday, when I was writing my coursework, I used the term 'cross-sectoral', meaning across different sectors. My spell-check, however, didn't like the word 'sectoral' and suggested that I used the word 'scrotal' instead. I found it quite funny. When I mentioned it to my flatmate, he asked me if maybe I had an spell-check for the over 18s only.
And then the idea of an x-rated spell-check wouldn't leave my head. It would be completely useless of course, but it would be quite funny. It took me ages to get to sleep last night because I kept giggling to myself. And so the first thing I did this morning was make this:

On the subject of cocks; this video (warning, NSFW because it's quite sweary) makes me laugh. Oh Prince Philip, what have you done?

One piece of coursework down!

Now I just need to finish the other piece that's due on Thursday, then I'm free to focus on even more pieces of coursework, that I haven't even started yet! Alright!

And I'm paying to be put through this? Good lord.

It is waaaaay past my bedtime. And unlike the last week, in which I was scott free, I have to go in to uni tomorrow, and in the morning too. But I'm too tense to sleep now.

Mostly it took me this long to finish the coursework because I spent a large part of the evening drawing Tieria (and his horrible cardigan). I think it requires inking, so I'll put it up when that's done.

Hmmmm....I've had the same 10 songs on repeat for the past 4 days. I think I can feel my brain melting.

Hurrah deadlines. The feeling is almost nostalgic.

So it turns out that you can watch the first episode of the new series of the Mighty Boosh online (if you live in the UK at least; I'm not sure about other countries). What I mean to say is, I WANNA POUND YOU LIKE YESTERDAY'S BEEF. Possibly the best show in the world. I love baileys this show.

I went to the library today. And then did no other work at all. But at least I went to the library, right? What I did do was spend ages in Habitat looking at all the nice things. THEY HAVE SO MANY NICE THINGS. I wish I wasn't pitifully poor so I could buy something, anything!, from that shop. Is it so wrong to want to put nice things in my flat? (They had this cool crockery set with pictures of stag!people on the side.)

I then bought some Christmas cards. After last years 'let's make them myself!' fiasco, I realised that buying them was the best option. (Seriously, who's ever heard of a Christmas card without a bend in?)

Later I made myself a stew with the some leftover gammon that I had.

The gammon was tasty. But the whole thing was more salty than a wizened old sea-captain in brine. I'm now trying to rehydrate myself like there's no tomorrow. So thirsty!

I have decided that I am not good enough at drawing anything. And so I thought that if I drew from life enough times then the things that actually make people look like people should rub off into my non-from life drawings, if I do it enough times.

So I've been drawing the models in fashion photos.

Second photo down:

Not perfect, and golly that hand is giving me gip, but I'll get there in the end, even if it takes me my whole life (which it probably will).

In other news, I did plenty work today. The aim is to go to the library tomorrow and get this coursework finished off. Booya.

Half-way through reading week now. I'm quite enjoying getting to stay at home every day. My plan is to get this coursework done tomorrow or Friday, and possibly go to the library too. Only, with this coursework to do, I get the urge to do other things instead.

I DEFROSTED THE FRIDGE AGAIN YESTERDAY

I think this explains how desperate I am at the moment. But the fridge is cold enough again (my milk going bad too soon was the final straw). I also want to clean the bathroom and the floors. Maybe if I work hard now that can be my treat later (how exciting).

Also, my flatmate has put up a recipe for bourbon biscuits in the kitchen. I now have an urge to make bourbon biscuits. It would be fun! But also a lot easier just to buy a packet.

In Gundam00 news: I've realised that the series is going to be around 50 episodes long. Good lord. No wonder it seems slow at the moment. The only good thing that's happened so far is finding out that Allelujah is possibly mental (and has magic hair).

In non Gundam00 news: I think that maybe I've got an infection and that I'll have to go to the doctors. I'll see if I'm still in pain by tomorrow.

.
.
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Coursework preparations commence:
- Lemon Jelly CD playing: Check
- Notes in front of me: Check
- Gone for number ones: Check
- Microsoft word open: Check
Alright! Let's do this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmA6LDcPVS8

Series 3! Series 3! Series 3!

In list form. For your perusal.

1) Croissant. Followed later by gammon and cheese sauce. Not in the same course mind.

2) It's perfect weather for this kind of year. It's cold and the leaves are brown and the air smells like bonfires.

3) We didn't get twins in Tsubasa. But the Holitsuba AU never lets me down. Fay and Yuui! And Yuui's a chef in Italy? Expect me to fanart this at some point.

4) Being reminded just how funny We Are Scientists are. They're possibly the funniest band ever. They should win an award or something. Make sure to read the whole site.

5) Gee wiz I actually did some work today. Maybe I'll do more tomorrow.

**Not good per se, but still worthy of note: I dreamt I was pretending to be Jewish last night. Is this a sign? I got a free mousemat at the convention; the perks seemed pretty good.

I have been doing coursework today! Only, I chose to do the easy coursework over the hard coursework. Only, the easy coursework involves reading really tiny old handwriting and now my eyes hurt. Tomorrow I will do the hard stuff; for the sake of my eyes!

I have also been spending my time watching Moyashimon. Yup. It's that anime about microbes (although it seems to be mostly about yeast so far). And they're all so cute! It's ridiculous. I've never seen S. Cerevisiae look so cute before. I wonder if S. pombe is going to be in it too? Or maybe C. crescentus? Or perhaps even the good old E. coli? Man, I wish microbes were so cute when I had to work with them; but all I remember was them looking like a load of cloudy water that smelled really bad. Hmmm. Anyway, the microbes are cute and the rest of the story...I don't really care about the rest of the story; I must remember to stop watching this show while I'm eating, because it's kind of disgusting (please, less fermented seagull sucking please); and I've heard that the main character's best friend starts dressing up like a lady half-way through the series?

I have been listening to some more laid-back music today. I was reminded just how brilliant the album 'Lost Horizons' by Lemon Jelly is. It's proper nice; the sort of music that you hardly even notice as it laps across your eardrums and simultaneously presses all the happy buttons in your brain. I was also reminded how boring the album 'I'm Wide Awake It's Morning' by Bright Eyes is. The thing with Bright Eyes is that the music isn't very special at all (I always zone out after listening to it for more than a minute) but the lyrics are very nice. Seriously. If you go by the lyrics then 'First Day of My Life' is quite possibly the most beautiful love song I've ever heard:

Yours is the first face that I saw.
Think I was blind before I met you.
I don't know where I am I don't know where I've been
but I know where I want to go.

[...] this is the first day of my life.
I'm glad I didn't die before I met you.
But now I don't care, I could go anywhere with you
and I'd probably be happy.

In other news. I think I have indigestion. I ate some cheese that tasted a lot like rubber balloons =_=

I actually have nothing to say. But. You know. What's new?

I just had a smoothie, which was warm (eurgh) but tasty. Only, I think they put too much pineapple juice in it, because the citric acid has damaged the back of my throat. It hurts when I swallow! *weep weep etc etc*

It's remembrance Sunday in a week's time. But I have somehow managed to lose two poppies in the space of two days. Seriously. What on Earth is going on? I'm normally good at keeping my poppies in one piece. Now I will look like a heartless bastard but I'm really not! Maybe I'll try and make my own out of salami and toilet paper.

Getting new glasses status = fail
Turns out I need a voucher from my optician first. Goddammit.

But on the good side I went to bed early last night, and managed to wake up early while still getting 11 hours sleep. It felt great. You can't put a price on not being tired. You really can't.

Okay. I garnered a lot of enthusiasm yesterday after finding a motherload of Mononoke fanart sites. I think I might draw for a bit. But I also have to do loads and loads of coursework next week. So don't be surprised if I don't post much, or if I post every five minutes, or if I gouge my eyes out with a spoon.

Hey I did a new Clematis page! I want to do more and more! But I've got a deadline in just over a week, so I should really, you know, actually start writing the coursework *guilt guilt guilt*

Mostly yesterday I watched the film Waking Life. I thought it would be interesting because it's all about a guy who has one long lucid dream. Only, the thing has no plot, and is full of random people talking about really "deep" things, or rather, they would seem deep if you were 15. Mostly the whole film was like having a really long boring conversation, only you can't interject half-way through and say 'this is a load of nonsense, talk about something interesting'. The animation technique is interesting for about the first five minutes, then you realize that you dislike the main character merely because you don't like the look of HIS FACE. Thank goodness I've never had such a boring dream.

I have realised that my new alarm clock isn't so good because it ticks so loudly that it keeps waking me up. Not good, clock. Not good.

In other news: I'm sure I had some other news, but I have forgotten it right now. (Imagine if the newsreader said that on the tv. It would be unprecedented! No-one would know what to do. I think I'd quite like it.)

Oh yeah. And happy Halloween (completely forgot that one).

Seeing as how the bullet points seemed to work yesterday, I'm going to stick with them today.

1) I've realised that the lecturer that I have on a Monday is really quite funny. It's always nice to have a class that you enjoy sitting through. He was telling us today about the Stanley Kubrick archive. Apparently the reading room is done up like something from 2001: A Space Odyssey, with proper space age and white lights and electric shelving that tries to kill you and everything. Only, when he told us, I was half expecting him to say that they'd done the reading room up like A Clockwork Orange, with a reproduced milk bar full of statues of girls with their tats out. But I've a feeling that wouldn't really be very good for the researchers, so space lights are probably better.

2) My alarm clock has been broken for the past few days. It refuses to tell a time that is not 8:20, even when I put two new batteries in it. It was quite annoying, because I wake up before 8:20. In fact, I do lots of things at lots of times that aren't 8:20. I hardly do anything at 8:20. It wasn't working out between us. So I bought a new alarm clock, which was super cheap, and looks a bit retro and so possibly cool (if you squint). The only problem is that I bought it from Argos, and so you only see a picture of it in a catalogue before you actually buy it. I brought it home and realised that the thing is HUGE! It's like the size of a large brick, or a small dog. Seriously, it's ridiculous. I am dumbfounded. Have a picture (although it's slightly difficult to judge the size by a picture, AS I FOUND OUT)

3) I watched CLAMP in Wonderland 2 in a higher resolution. I have found a new favourite moment. I love the part where Kamui automatically assumes that it was Fuuma who ate his okonomiyaki and is all 'You ate my okonomiyaki you bastard! *emo tear*'. And Fuuma is all ಠ_ಠ

4) I found out that I can get a pair of glasses free when I buy my new ones. I think I may get some sunglasses that actually pretend to be cool, rather than the ones I have that look so blatantly like prescription sunglasses that I would rather burn my eyes out in the sun than wear them. Good.

5) I would say more, but I'm sure you don't want to hear me talking about salad.

I went home for the weekend, to see my parents. It was pretty whistle-stop though, because I'm back again, and ready for another day in lectures tomorrow. Well, I would be more ready if I was actually doing some coursework right now, but...well...you can't have everything.

Have some bullet points, because I don't think I'm up to prose at the moment.

1) I went to the opticians and found out that I have to get new glasses. That's kind of annoying. New glasses are expensive. Luckily I get 30 pounds off for being a student. I found a pair I like, I think I'll go and order them tomorrow. But at least I will be able to see the overheads a bit more clearly in class now (I thought I just couldn't read the handwriting).

2) I am drawing some Clematis right now (reason #1 for not doing any coursework). Hopefully the page'll be done some time this week. I've really been wanting to draw some Clematis all weekend. I have been inspired by a) listening to some Franz Ferdinand for the first time in ages (somewhere along the line, Franz Ferdinand songs and Clematis have become linked in my brain) and b) finding a really beautiful Japanese fanart site (maybe if I practice drawing hard enough I'll be that good some day).

3) I watched the film 'If...' yesterday. It's a very good film. It starts off in a public boarding school and is very Tom Brown's School Days, but the further you get into it the more surreal it becomes. I think maybe it was more metaphorical than straight surreal, but what it was a metaphor for, I'm not quite sure. Anyway, very nice direction, I would recommend watching it.

4) CLAMP in Wonderland 2! I've only watched the low quality version so far, but I'm enjoying it. My favourite parts so far: a) Evil Vet!Seishirou b) Ashura! Ashura! Ashura! c) OMG Ioryogi is so cute in his little car!

5) I seem to have developed a fascination with the evolution of the English language. I think I'm going to have to read up on this if I ever get time.

6) Maybe I had something more to say, but my memory feels about as cohesive as a...very...um...some sort of not cohesive...thing...

It sure is dark out now that the clocks have gone back.

So, just when I was starting to despair that I wouldn't find anything good to watch this season I came across Ghost Hound. It's better than the name suggests, and doesn't seem to contain any spectral canines so far. The story seems to revolve around a boy who is traumatised by an incident from 11 years ago, and keeps reliving it in his dreams.

The animation is by Production IG, and going only on my experience of xxxHolic, it does have a Production IG feel to it with the colours and the animation. But the animation is nowhere near as shoddy as in the xxxHolic anime, and was actually very nice. The soundtrack gives the whole thing a wonderfully sinister feel. The lack of fanservice being shoved in my face is a nice change too. If the quality stays at the level of the first episode (which is always doubtful), then this should turn out to be a great show.

Plus, the first episode was titled 'Lucid Dream'. Coincidence or coincidence, eh?

Other shows I haven't dropped just yet:

Gundam00
As I mentioned before, I'm staying with this one because the fanart it'll produce is likely to be really nice. I seem to be a fan of Tieria so far. I was pleasantly surprised to find that he wasn't the wet flannel that I'd assumed he'd be; turns out he just likes wearing a series of horrible cardigans. I also feel that I'm supposed to be a fan of that blond pilot and the scientist guy with long brown hair, but I just can't do it because that long brown hair is the worst haircut I've seen on anybody, ever; it's just horrible.

Dragonaut: The Resonance
The animation for this one is quite nice, and the story is interesting enough. It's a shame that the CGI is so bad that it almost ruins the whole show. Nevermind; if I close my eyes during the CGI parts it should be fine. I'm interested to see what part the best friend is going to play; he looks like he might be important.

Shugo Chara!
I'm experiencing deep shame that I'm still watching this one. I understand that it is vapid and awful. But sometimes it's quite nice to watch something that's full of meaningless cute and pink and glitter and every sickening magical girl plot device you can ever think of. I might drop this if I come across anything else that's worth watching. Or maybe I'll just watch it anyway and kill myself slowly from the inside out.

I had my first lucid dream last night! (Well actually my second, but I don't think I was properly lucid in the first first one, which was years ago anyway.)

How exciting.

I was dreaming that I was talking to one of my cousins. She was telling me that one of my teeth looked like a tic tac. And then my teeth started falling out. This has happened in a number of dreams that I've had before, and it used to really worry me, but this time I said to my cousin, 'Don't worry about it, this has happened to me loads of times before; it's just a dream'. At that moment it was like the metaphorical lightbulb went off in my head. Holy freaking shit, I'm dreaming and I realised it! I was quite excited. And then I could feel a sort of pressure, which I assumed meant that the lucidity was slipping away from me, so I tried rubbing my hands together, which you're meant to do to ground yourself in your dream. What I wasn't expecting was how realistic it would seem. It felt like I was actually rubbing my hands together, it didn't feel weird or dreamlike at all. I really didn't think that a lucid dream would be as tangible as the real world. It freaked me out and I got scared and deliberately let go of my lucidity. A few seconds later I was awake.

So I didn't get to explore the dream world at all. All I can remember seeing during my lucid state was the bin that I was spitting my teeth into and the floor with loads of my teeth strewn over it. Hopefully next time I won't freak out so much. Who thought it would seem so real though? Awesome.