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Whew! It feels very close today. And by close I mean muggy. And by muggy I mean humid. And by humid I mean that I kept waking up last night because I was too hot.
I love my duvet. It has a high tog, so it's really nice to snuggle into on a cold winter's evening. But in the summer it's kind of oppressive.

Clematis news:
I was going to update Clematis on Friday. Can you believe it? But comicgenesis has been playing up again. It still hadn't updated by this morning, and now the whole site's down. So please don't lose faith in me! I actually drew quickly this week. You just can't tell out there in internets-land is all.

In other drawing news, I am not going to draw a doujinshi. It is not going to be a Zero/Lulu doujinshi. Because that makes no sense at all, and defies the laws of everything, everywhere, but mostly physics. Good job I don't have the time to draw it then!
Seriously, I don't know how I manage to even entertain the idea of drawing anything else when I'm so slow with Clematis.

Work news:
We got two new computers and three new monitors at work last week. I wasn't expecting them at all, they just sort of turned up. The delivery guy was all 'Are these yours?', and I was all like '....ok why not'. Anyway, they're both macs, and the monitors are all widescreens; they go with the mac that we already have at work, which got one of the new screens too. We set them up today; they're all sat next to each other on a big table. Now, I'm not a computer geek at all, and not really a mac geek either, but these new computers look so sexy. Seriously, it was all I could do to stop myself from jizzing all over them. Oh man oh man. We can now say that we have a mac suite. It's super.

Looooooooooook! Only CLAMP should ever be allowed to draw Lulu, ever. I concede that Lulu still fails to be as pretty as Kamui, even when drawn by CLAMP, but look at the outfits!

Q. So if Lelouch is Kamui does that make Suzaku Fuuma?
A. Not until Suzaku pins Lelouch to a wall with numerous sharp objects.

Also, gay earings are gay. Imagine them trying to walk in opposite directions! Ouch.

Spoilers spoilers spoilers

Full story »

Two movies watched in two days (I shouldn't be as proud of this fact as I am)

Movie Uno: Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo
Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful to watch. I really enjoyed this film even if, looking back at it, nothing much happened. This is one of those films that you should show to anyone that doesn't watch anime to prove to them how good it can be. Bonus points because the cool Aunty is a conservator (heritage sector REPRESENT!)

Movie Dos: Death Note II
Not as good as Movie Uno but enjoyable nontheless. The ending, rather than mediocre (as I suspected) left me feeling quite content. In fact, I think I watched the whole ending like this:
D:
And how extravagant can a death scene be? I'm quite sure a heart attack doesn't last that long (hmm, I think some actors, especially the extras, wanted to do some SERIOUS ACTING). Anyway, I once again come away utterly persuaded that L is absolutely adorable. Oh man, Live Action!L >>> Animated!L

Meanwhile, I have been:
- Drawing drawing drawing
- Dropping all my food on the floor (no, seriously)
- Dreaming about strange old spiral staircases that lead to secret old places

Here's the new page of Clematis. FINALLY.
I'm in a very Clematis mood at the moment, so there may be more within a reasonable space of time (we'll see).

So, this weekend was good. Firstly, there was sun, and lots of it. YES. Also there was ice-cream. (Note to self: Do you want a heart-attack and type II diabetes? Stop going to the Häagen-Dazs cafe!)

Also there was:

a) SPAMALOT
Very enjoyable (even if we were sitting a bit high-up). Although there's only so much humour that can be got out of going to see something where you already know all the punchlines (maybe it's because I'm so used to seeing the Monty Python folks doing it that it doesn't seem right with different actors). There were some new bits though, don't get me wrong. Things I liked:
- The excalibur song
- Lancelot being G.A.Y.M.C.A.

b) PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN III
I spent the first half of the film trying to remember what happened in the previous film (whoops). So, once again not quite as good as the first film (also much more trippy), but still plenty of swash and buckle, and that's all you really need isn't it. Important things:
- Tia Dalma isn't quite as cool as I originally thought (she's much better as a wise mysterious witch lady. Because mysterious witch lady screams Yuuko to me and Yuuko is just that cool. I think I read a fic once where Yuuko met Tia Dalma, or did I just make that up? But of course Yuuko knows Tia Dalma, of course she does).
- This film didn't have nearly enough OT3. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE OT3?
- Johnny Depp has to play the Gentleman with the thistledown hair. Please someone, MAKE HIM DO THIS.

I spend all evening slogging away to get the new Clematis page ready, and what happens? My FTP has gone down!

Re: What I said earlier about free webhosts vs. paid webhosts

Man, comicgenesis, how many times does this happen?

Hopefully it'll be back up over the weekend. I hate leaving people hanging for too long (in this case, 1 month, I SUCK AT FAST UPDATES).

Mannnnnnnn, why do my first two days back at work have to be so stressful? I mean. The whole world and his aunt seemed to descend on the archive this afternoon! That is, if the whole world and his aunt = 12 people. But they all turned up at the same time! And we didn't have enough chairs! Lordy.

So, I was in Cornwall last week. I am missing the slow pace of it all very dearly. We went walking over the cliffs every day (and then had to go to bed early because of being absolutely cream-crackered from all the walking). Also we ate fish and chips and pasties a lot, and I read Michael Palin's Around the World in 80 Days (which could alternatively be titled Around the World in the 80s).

Places we went:
- St Ives (well, that's where we were staying)
- Lizard point (Mr. Lizard...)
- Land's End
- Cool old tin mines
- A theatre on a cliff

When I came back to London it was like being slapped awake. WHY ARE THERE SO MANY PEOPLE HERE?? I had gotten used to walking in the countryside where there are hardly any people. It was calm. Living amongst so many people gives me a bit of rage. Anyway. Cornwall was nice, and sunny, and relaxing. It looked a bit like this:

But the bonus about being home is that I received this:

Tsubasa artbook! Did someone say SSSSSEXY? Oh man, does this ever brighten my day. Dear CLAMP, please release a xxxHolic artbook too, thank you please.

Other things. I went to see Philistines by Maxim Gorky last night, which was basically about a group of Russians in 1902 being miserable, and shouting about it, FOR 3 HOURS. Ah, but I jest. It was actually quite compelling, despite all the shouting.

Annnnd, while I said that I would do lots of drawing on my holiday, I didn't figure that my whole week would be spent on cliffs. Ergo: total drawing done = zero
I'll try to get some done tonight!

Oh my God guys. Oh. My. God.

I think I just had an epiphany.

ps. Going on holiday for a week. Hope to draw and write letters while away. Laters.

So I finished watching two series recently.

A. Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto
I hardly understood any of this. My knowledge of Japanese history is low, so most of all the war stuff passed me by. The animation and character design were nice though, so it was pretty interesting to watch all the same. Kanna was my favourite, but I think that's because he looks like Fay with his lovely blonde hair and angst and guns. Funnily enough, I think the best part of the series was episode 8, where Kanna and Aikidzuki have that huge fight; it just kept going and going and being awesome.

B. Le Chevalier d'Eon
So I didn't really understand any of this one either. I was only starting to grasp what was going on in the last few episodes. Two episodes of this series were animated beautifully: the first episode and one near the end (I forget the number). Sadly, the rest of the series was quite poor in animation terms. My favourite character was Maximillien Robespierre (surprise surprise, he looks like Kanna too); Robin also grew greatly in my estimation towards the end of the series. And the award for the character who should have been awesome, but actually wasn't goes to d'Eon. I'm sorry d'Eon, but you're just really boring, and not even wearing a dress will change that.

And at the end of that round the score is:
Blonde guys with angst 1 vs Blonde guys with the spirit of their dead sister 0
Actors 1 vs Sword-fights 5
France 0 vs Japan 0 (Fance wins 1:0 on aggregate and will go through to the quarter-finals)

Somebody get me a history book!

Phew. I thought tinnedfruitconundrum.net was no more for a second there. It seems they were just updating it, no need to panic.

The thing that is so great with paid hosting compared to free webhosting, and the thing that I still can't get my head around, and should take for granted, but don't, is the level of support that you get. I have only had to use the support feature twice in two years, which is pretty good going I reckon; and each time I have used it, the response has been fast and, God golly I almost don't believe it, has solved the problem straight away. With free webhosts the response will take 2-8 weeks and by that time the problem will have fixed itself or you will have ditched the host in frustration and joined the circus (or something).
So, much love to paying for this shit. Although I'm not sure I use it to its fullest possible potential (I should start the forum again) but who cares?

Also, don't worry! My dream journal has been started in a notebook; you won't ever have to read it.

Dear Mariya,

So I have had another go at designing a new layout with the same image. What do you think of this one? I might tweak the bottom colour a little if I ever get around to putting it up, why am I so slow?

I've spent the morning reading about lucid dreams. It's really fascinating, but I'm not sure it's something that I'd ever like to actively pursue. Yes, it does sound like it could be kind of AWESOME, but I don't know. I've only really ever had one lucid dream that I can remember (rather than those ones where you become lucid only just before you wake) and it was really quite terrifying from what I remember:
I've a feeling that I knew I was dreaming as soon as the dream started (it was late morning and I'd drifted back to sleep after waking up slightly). But the extent of control that I had over the dream was quite slim; I could choose in which direction I wanted to go, but couldn't control what happened as I zoomed off in that direction. Perhaps it was scary because as the dream continued I had less and less say over what happened until things (literally) spiralled out of control. And then I had one of those moments where you think 'I want out, right now. Get me out get me out get me out. I don't like it.', and then you wake up, quite terrified.
So maybe if I had more control in a lucid dream I wouldn't mind it so much. But I'm still not too tempted to try. Also, doesn't it take the fun out of the dream if you decide what happens next? I think I'm too boring to make a dream interesting by myself (and I hate making decisions).

I am intrigued by the idea of setting up a dream journal though. It has come to my attention over the past few years, as I have questioned people about it, that I am more adept at dream recall than most other people. I don't know why. I don't do it on purpose, I can just remember what I dreamt about the night before, or the week before (sometimes dreams that I had years before). The problem is that while I find my dreams endlessly fascinating, other people do not. I think the words 'Will you stop talking about your dreams?' come to mind. So if I did set up an online dream journal I'd have to make it separate to this blog to spare people the boredom, but that sounds like too much effort. Maybe I could just put any dreams at the end of the post and mark it clearly 'dream starts here' so people can skip it if they want. Or maybe I could just keep a paper journal and save everyone the hassle.

Either way, I can't start a dream journal today because I can't remember what I dreamt about last night, at all. No, really. But I've been really quite tired recently, and I don't remember having any dreams nearly so much when I'm so tired that I sleep deeply.

In other news I spent all of yesterday watching so much anime (I counted up and it was at least over 6 hours worth). Only 2 and a half hours left to watch today and I will have cleared my backlog. Yes!
Other things to do: Make new site layout - I'm trying, but no success yet.

Kurogane finally smacked his bitch up! More please Kurogane! (But not Sakura, just not, no)

Also, I made sushi today. And it actually looked like sushi!

Cream cheese and red pepper filling - not really traditional no, but I was working with what I had in the fridge.
Note to self: Next time add less vinegar...and less cream cheese JESUS.

Also also, Linda's in town! We're having dinner tomorrow, but I'M SORRY I SKANKED YOU AND JAMES YESTERDAY, LINDA (it's not my fault, my email was seriously spazzing right out!)

And another thing: how great is facebook for catching up with old friends? It's super great that's what.

And after watching A Matter of Life and Death, it turns out that the 1940s were kind of really cool, and full of bicycles and norwegians.

The new page is up. It's up, it's up, it's up.

Some amusing things from the past couple of hours:

1. David Blaine

2. So apparently someone out there has written Subaru/Kamui rape fic. For serious! The highlight has to be Subaru's line "Shut the f**k up Kamui !!! Stop whining !!! You give me a headache !!!"
Ahahaha! See also: baby Jesus is crying right now.

3. A dialogue that happened this very evening.
My flatmate James: I'm going to a fancy-dress party on Saturday.
Me: What are you going as?
James: I don't know. Me and my friend thought about going as a double act.
Me: Like Wham? :D
James: . . .
James: No.

Did I insult him by mistake?

4. Extra special bonus. Not amusing, but pretty darn cool anyway. That new Justice song again; this time in YouTube format!

Man, I suck at blogging at the moment. I keep being busy at the weekends (this weekend was spent traipsing around London with Deborah's friends from Milan), and I keep being busy during the week by trying to catch up on all the sleep that I missed at the weekends.

On the agenda at the moment:
- Trying to draw more Clematis. I'll try to get a new page up by the end of today.
- Cooking dinner (OMG, why does this take so much time?)
- Ironing and packing to go home for the bank holiday weekend
- Reading A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian
- Watching all the anime series that I'm behind on (too many)
- Sorting out a graduate loan for myself
- Writing letters (yes, this is on my agenda, I will try to write them at some point)
- Wasn't I supposed to be changing the layout of this page?
- Sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeping