Today I am busy applying for more jobs and doing more dissertation work (I conducted my first research interview yesterday and it went quite well and my dictaphone worked and everything!)

During my lunch-break I thought I'd try out a new anime: Telepathy Shoujo Ran. It seems to be a cute little shoujo story about a telepathic girl. But while cute, it doesn't seem to be too interesting (although, maybe that's because I'm about 10 years older than the intended target audience). I doubt I'll be watching any more of it, but, the thing is, while I was watching it, one of the characters looked scarily familiar...

T...Tieria? What are you doing in a shoujo anime? And why are you a young middle school girl? And why are you always so moe?

Maybe this is an appropriate point to mention this video. And while we're at it, this video weirds me right out. WHAT HAS SCIENCE DONE?

In non-Tieria news, I really fancy drawing Patrick at the moment. I can't believe I've only draw him once! Maybe I'll find some time this evening for it.

Code Geass has all the pretence of a show that takes itself very seriously, whereas, actually, it does not take itself seriously at all.

OH GOD SAYOKO.

I had to pause it for about 3 minutes so I could laugh and laugh and laugh. It was almost as hilarious as the whole deal with Euphemia at the end of the first season.

Oh Code Geass, this is why I enjoy watching you.

In other news, have a messy Lockon doodle:

Bedtime now. Tomorrow I shall work on my dissertation proper good. Yes!

I slept for 10 hours last night, and that's on top of my 2 hour nap yesterday afternoon; I must have been tired.

Now, it's not often that I dream of fandom things, which is surprising, considering how much of my time it takes up when I'm awake, but last night was an exception.

I dreamt that I had an alternate personality, and that alternate personality was Hallelujah. (I wasn't Allelujah in my dream though, I was myself, but for some reason my alternate personality was an evil guy with dark hair and tight jeans.) Hallelujah would come out when I was asleep at night, and when I'd wake up in the morning, I'd keep finding that he'd done all this stuff. I'd wake up to find my room strewn with empty beer bottles, or rubbish, or, in one case, a pinball machine. And, quite understandably, I was all "Goddammit Hallelujah, stop making me do stuff without me knowing!"

I also dreamt that I was trying to walk up a very very steep road; it was so steep that I almost had to climb. I dreamt it in two different instances; during my nap yesterday, and while I was asleep last night. Hmmm. Whatever that means. I have no idea.

In non dream news I was listening to the News Quiz on BBC Radio 4 last night. As you do. (I always rock out on a Friday night.) And Jeremy Hardy, who is a very funny man, came out with a line that was so funny I had to share.

They were talking about giving money to lap-dancers and pole-dancers:

Phill Jupitus: "...as I delicately tuck twenty pounds into her knickers."

Jeremy Hardy: Apparently, if you haven't got cash, you can use a swipe-card.

So, there's working hard all day and there's 'working hard all day'.

I had lots of appointments this morning, and I was going to come back home and work hard this afternoon. But seeing as I've only really had one day off in the past 4 weeks (and I mean one in which I wasn't travelling all across the country) and I plan to do work all day tomorrow, I decided to take this afternoon off.

Or, more precisely, I had a lovely two hour nap, then woke up and thought 'stuff it, I'm going to finally ink that picture that I drew 2 weeks ago'.

It's amazing what a nap, a lot of pretty music, and a drawing of a sunny Sunday morning will do to you.

So, the story behind this one: Do you remember that fanfic I wrote a couple of weeks ago of a speculative, post-series, happy Tieria? In the fic I mention that all Tieria has is a photograph, and a part of me wanted to play with the idea that maybe he has another memento. It's faded and worn now, 10 years on, and it only smells of detergent and Tieria, but it's still comforting in its own way, and Tieria likes to wear it on lazy Sunday mornings when he has a few hours to himself.

Note to self: Be more cool.

Note to self the second: Go to bed.

I am still stressed and I still have no time to myself D:
I should just get used to it really, it's going to be like this for the next three months ;_;

In better, but still dissertation, news: I HAVE A DICTAPHONE
Awesome. What am I supposed to do with it?

And I'm still up on listening to some Seasick Steve at the moment. My Dad suggested that I should watch this video of him singing in the back of a cab about chiggers - it's quite amusing: And then you gonna itch like something you ain't never itched like before.

Oh god. I don't have any time to myself at the moment. One week in and my dissertation has taken over my life. When I'm not emailing people frantically trying to arrange things, or speaking to my tutor, or trying to buy a dictaphone, I am in the library. And when I am not doing any of those things I am trying to search and apply for a job for the rest of my life.
D: D: D:

My jaw hurts, which means I have been grinding my teeth in my sleep, which is a sure sign of stress for me. The rest of the degree wasn't this bad; why do I feel like I have to do everything at once now?

The bathroom needs cleaning and the toilet's all limescaley and I don't have time to do it. I've got loads of anime to catch up on and I don't have time to watch it. I've got a lovely Tieria doodle that is crying out to be inked and coloured and I don't have time to ink and colour it ;_;

Also, I haven't been getting nearly enough sleep lately, which, as I'm sure I have drummed into you all by now, is not cool, and is a big deal. ILU sleep; I wish I could spend more time with you...

Conclusion: POOR ME. (note to self: get over it, or at least get a grip. Jesus.)

In other news I seem to be spending my weekends gallivanting around the country at the moment. This past weekend I went to Theresa and Colin's engagement party. How exciting. I'm well excited for them.

And then, the day after, we went to Great Yarmouth to play a round of crazy golf on the beach.

And while golfing, Theresa asked Deborah and I to be her bridesmaids.

D:

And then she asked me to be her chief bridesmaid.

DDDDD:

I was not expecting that at all. I am completely made up. I'm even more excited now. I can't wait! What an honour! I won't let you down Theresa, I swear! (Now to get all anally retentive on the wedding plans, hahaha.)
Questions I am clearly not interested in, but secretly I actually am:
1. What colour will our dresses be?
2. Who gets to be the best man?

And then Theresa, Deborah and I all managed to get a hole-in-one on the same hole! It was an amazing day.

And this weekend I'm off to the wedding of one of my cousins. I am going to keep a hawk's eye on her bridesmaids, let me tell you.

(All this talk of weddings keeps making me think of this photoshopped picture. Tieria looks so pretty in a wedding dress *single tear*)

Right now I am busy saying DISSERTATION! DISSERTATION! DISSERTATIOOOOOON! Sadly however, how much I complain isn't relative to how much work I actually do. Nevertheless, my proposal is done, and now all I have to do is actually research and write the whole thing. For the next three months. Without a break...

...

...

And why haven't I had dinner yet? It's past eight o'clock! I can't believe I'm even procrastinating from making myself dinner!

Anyway.

1. Music of the moment at this moment is Seasick Steve. I listened to my parents play his CD at the weekend and then I came home and listened to Cut my Wings on repeat, non-stop, for the past 4 days. His music's pretty awesome if you're in an old-school blues sort of mood. My dad described him as 'very raw'; I'd describe him as 'a one-man, hobo, three-stringed blues band'.

2. Maybe because I've been listening to a lot of blues, or maybe because I ACTUALLY CAN'T STOP PROCRASTINATING OH GOD, I wrote a fanfic about Gundam00. As I'm sure you're aware, fanfic is not normally my thing; I think I may have posted fanfic here once before? But I can't actually leave Tieria this show alone D:

So, background: it is set 10 years after the end of the first season of Gundam00, which means that it contains SPOILERS for the end of the first season of Gundam00.

Title: 10 Years On
Summary: A small piece of Tieria introspection and a familiar face.

SPOILERS AHOY

Read more »

Hi guys. IMPORTANT NEWS:

There's a new page of Clematis up.

Do you know that Clematis has been going now for about 5 years? Maybe you didn't catch that. Let me tell you again. Clematis has been going for five whole years. Can you believe it? I certainly can't. Although, at the snail's pace I seem to be taking at the moment, it's not that surprising. I think that when I finally get a job and don't have to think about coursework and dissertations any more, I'm going to have to up the pace on Clematis in a big way. I doubt I can do a page a day like I did in the crazy heyday of 2003, but maybe at least a page a week? Roll on September!

In other news, I've just come back from a weekend at home with my parents. And in a case of real life imitating fiction, we went to see a big old country house, or more specifically, the landscaped gardens of a big old country house.

Hello phone photos and cloudy English summertime:

The gardens had lots of small temples and follies and statues and monuments scattered amongst valleys and lakes and trees. The location of the monuments and the planting was quite clever, so that if you stood in certain places, there were pleasing vistas of distant monuments framed by the trees:

See also: Venus in the Rotunda:

And posing like the famous Grecians in the Temple of Ancient Virtue:

I couldn't go inside the Temple of Ancient Virtue without shouting "Baachu" multiple times. There didn't seem to be a Temple of Nadleeh anywhere however (haha, lame joke is LAME).

Anyway, the gardens seem all pretty and nice, and then you go and read the guidebook and realise how political it all is. No, really. The owner was expressing his political views through garden design (I'm still not sure why he decided to do this, but there you go).

As time went on we started making up our own monuments.

Me: I'm just off to the Toilets of Gentle Charity
Parents: Ok, we'll wait here by the Cafe of Providence, and maybe go have a look in the Gift Shop of Temperance and Wisdom.

And then we went home and watched Alien.

Right, ok. I have to sleep now, and then I have to do this dissertation work for my tutor, and later I'll do everything else, including checking my emails and taking the rubbish out (the whole flat smells of bin, ohgod).

Hiya. I done my exam yesterday. I think it went ok. I answered all the questions at least, and I've got the friction burns to show for it! (3 hour exam, why are you so long? My poor hand can't write that much!) The good thing though, the really good thing, is that I don't think I'm going to have to do another exam ever again. What did you say? I said, I'm not going to have to do another exam EVER AGAIN! My, is that a good feeling.

So, I had a jolly good weekend this weekend. I certainly didn't spend it revising, that's for sure. On the Friday I hopped on a train to see Steve in Bristol (and I got second sit on his new sofa. SCORE!) then Nick turned up, from flipping Germany! And then James turned up, from flipping Tanzania! We had sausages and mash and then watched a documentary about British Christian fundamentalists (clearly we know how to ROCK OUT on a Friday evening).

The next day involved lots of watching of Shipwrecked instead of getting ready to go like we were supposed to. And then Steve's new kitchen turned up quite uninvited, and we had to help carry it up the stairs. Clearly the kitchen did not know that we had a schedule to stick to.

Then, finally, after stopping to buy some pants for James, we made our way to Siân's place in Chippenham. I have never been to Chippenham before, but I have to say, it is a WEIRD place. There was some kind of folk festival going on there this weekend. I seriously have never seen so many morris dancers in one place in my whole life! There were loads of them, all in different colours. You actually couldn't go anywhere where you couldn't here the sound of bells jangling. (We wondered that if two different groups of morris dancers crossed paths that maybe they had to have a dance fight. The answer is obviously yes.)

Anyway, the point of the trip to Chippenham was for a big university halls reunion involving pub golf. Steps in pub golf:
1. Buy golfing attire.
2. Watch Cool Runnings. (optional)
3. Put on golfing attire.
4. Choose golfing names.
5. Eat pizza. (also optional)
6. Go go go!

Siân had a set of mini golf clubs that we dragged around to all the pubs with us. Cool man.

(The remaining photos in this post were lovingly stolen from Nick.) Because I can't afford golfing attire, my outfit consisted of a visor that I borrowed from my flatmate. It is an amazing visor though. It has SHADES built in to it that slide down whenever you want. Super. Here is a photo showing off my visor and THAT'S NOT MY DRINK I SWEAR.

Because I don't drink, my job was to keep the score (which means counting how many sips it takes for everyone to finish their drinks, to see who can finish the course of pubs with the lowest number of sips in total). My golf name was Sue Barker (shut up I know she doesn't do golf). Here's a picture of me scoring and trying to put on my best "I am keeping score properly and officially" face (which, incidentally, makes me look so much like my Mum that it's scary).

The winner was James who came in at 13 under par. This massive achievement was due to clever drinking of shots and timing of toilet breaks, plus most other players forfeiting the game by getting lost on the mean streets of Chipppenham and not finding the last two pubs at all. As the winner, James got a lovely rosette. Hurrah.

Highlights: impromptu games of golf beside the bar.

Upon returning to Siân's there was much spilling of drinks on the carpet, much spilling of hot tea on Sam's nipple, and much coercion from Sam to try to get the boys to teabag Steve while he was passed out on the carpet. (Although I am glad to report that nobody's testicle ended up on anybody's face during the course of the weekend.)

I got woken up at 8am on Sunday morning by a re-watch of Cool Runnings. What.

Songs of the moment

I watched a lot more TV over the weekend than I normally do, so I came across some adverts for bands that I hadn't heard of before (I really need to start listening to the radio more. I'm so out of the loop with all this 'popular' music).

Anyway, I was spurred on to check out a few bands via the wonders of their myspace pages:

1. The Ting Tings - The Ting Tings have the same problems that Bloc Party seem to have, which is to say that monotonous shouting does not a good vocal make. Does this make me a heathen? Anyway, regardless of that, Great DJ is a good track and it makes me want to dance.

2. Vampire Weekend - These guys have a very nice sound. APunk in particular is good for dancing and shouting to, and M79 may well be the prettiest song I have ever heard ever.

3. Crystal Castles - Ok, so I didn't see these on the TV, but I heard that they've got an album out now, and I wanted to decide if I want to own it. I think the answer is probably yes (they sound exactly like my childhood it is scary). See also: remixes by Crystal Castles.

MY EXAM IS TOMORROW.

THIS IS IMPORTANT.

DON'T FORGET TO GO.

(Scarily, I'm feeling rather complacent about this exam. Oh well. Can't be helped.)

See you after the big event. I've got lots of golf to talk about.

I was watching Amatsuki episode 5 today. And there was this one character where they were all "You look like a lady, but you sound like a guy. What's going on?"

And so the character in question goes, "Well this should answer your question":

And they were all like: "Smooth as the bonnet of a Porsche."

See? Not hard at all. Why can't Tieria do this and put us all out of our misery? I've never had such an urge to get a glimpse under a character's trousers before. Am I really going to have to wait till the end of the second series to find out? :(

Also, there's a new Tieria fanart in the gallery (not of his genitalia or lack thereof, I might add), go check it out.

Today I am full of woe.

Because I have to:

a) revise
- How am I supposed to write for an hour on three of these topics? I can probably do 5 minutes, but an hour? Hopefully more revision will make things crystal clear. I wish I had more revision time; suddenly 3 days doesn't sound like enough.

b) dissertation
- I'm meeting the people that I'll be doing my dissertation with for the first time tomorrow morning. I am panicking now, because I have no idea what I am doing for this dissertation. What on Earth do I say to these people? Hopefully I'll understand more after the meeting. Hopefully.

And I was speaking to Steve on the phone earlier, and complaining about all my woe, and he suggests
"Have you tried getting over it?"
Best advice I could get really. I shall indeed try to "get over it". Wish me luck!

But the good part about today is that I found what must undoubtedly be the best Gundam00 fanart site in existence: here. The fanart is mostly Graham and Billy, and some Lockon, and I'm not really interested in fanart of Graham and Billy, but you know, I don't actually care, because the artwork on this site is so good and so well done that I love all of it, no matter the character. Seriously. Beautiful beautiful artwork. I have no words. I actually have no words. I am in awe...

...

And on that lovely note, I'm off to bed. Goodnight.

Well, I haven't really had a post in which I've gotten all excited over CLAMP instead of Giant Space Robots (shh, Code Geass doesn't count) in a long time.

Let me talk about Tsubasa chapters 189 and 190, oh, and how about recent xxxHolic too, for good measure.

Spoilers ahoy!

Read more »

Hello. I've finished my coursework, so I've time to make that epic post that I've been wanting to make for ages. So.

Item A
Good Lord, this is a big shout out to James. He's in Tanzania of all places! I've been reading his blog and I can't quite believe it. It sounds like a telly show or something. Not that James is likely to read this, but, you know, I wish him all the best all the same :D

Item B
Alright then, lets talk about this work experience that I did. I spent two weeks in the archive of a large banking company. Their office was in the city! How exciting is that? I took the tube everyday, with all the suited, corporate, big city workers. I liked that. Well, pretending to be a city worker that is, not taking the tube. Don't get me wrong, I still think the tube is fun to a ridiculous degree, but it is considerably less fun if it is 8:30am, packed full of stressed people, and my stomach is very full from a big breakfast. Bonus points if the train has to wait in the middle of a tunnel for 5 minutes, and I'm usually the opposite of claustrophobic, but when that happens, something inside me just starts shouting "I want to get off! I want to get off! Why am I here? Why are all these people in my goddamn FACE?" Good times. Good times.
Um, so my job was to catalogue two small collections. It was fun. No really! You might not think that banking records are the most interesting, but when they date back to 1816, and are written in old flowy handwriting? Oh God. This is why I love 'doing' archives. I love touching the old books and imagining them being created. Ahaha. I even came across some photos of company directors from the 1920s, and one of them was wearing a monocle! A monocle! Brilliant. Yes, being a student and sitting around at home all day is nice, but actually going and getting my hands dirty with some old stuff is betterer.

Item C: aka stuff what I am watching right now

Right, before I get onto the whole anime business. I have to talk about another show, that being:

Peep Show
The new series has just started and it is amazing brilliant. I am loving it. It is the fifth series, and it is still just as hilarious as the previous 4 series. What's going on? Why hasn't the comedy started waning yet? Anyway, that's a good thing. And this show is funny; it is definitely one of my favourite comedy shows ever. Oh yes, it makes me cringe and feel bad too, but in a good way. For fun times, here's the very first part of the very first episode of the very first series. Crikey.

Alrighty. So it's new anime season time (has been for a few weeks in fact). Let me give you a rundown of what I'm watching. (Not sure why I feel compelled to do this, but I do.)

iiiin alpahbetical order, here we go.

Amatsuki
About some boy who gets trapped in the past, and I have no idea what's going on. Why am I watching this one? Probably because it's not awful. Hopefully it'll turn out to be interesting.

Code Geass R2
Needs no explanation. I went crazy over the first series of Code Geass last year. I find myself being slightly less crazy over the second series, but only because I'm still pining over Gundam00, which I have to say, was better. But, Code Geass is still fun and exciting and full of plot twists and turns. I'm betting it's going to get even better when we get to the season finale. Will Lelouch eventually become his father without realising it? I HOPE SO.
I wonder if I'm going to get the 'got to draw Lelouch' drawing bug again. Only time will tell.

Itazura na Kiss
This is my corny corny shoujo of the season. Girl falls in love with the smartest boy at school. Boy hates girl. But girl's family has to move in with boy's family. Hijinks ensue. Don't look at me like that. I like a bit of shoujo every now and again. This show isn't amazing, but it's cute. Clearly they are going to be all rabu-rabu by the end.

Kurenai
I'm still kind of worried that this show is going to turn into something I don't want it to. One of the main characters is a very forthright young girl of 7 or so, and I am worried that she is fanservice. No bad loli fanservice has appeared yet though, and the story is interesting, and the animation is nice. Hopefully it'll stay that way.

Toshokan Sensou
The subtitle for this show is Library War. No really! I am not kidding you! It's set in a time when certain books in Japan have been made illegal, so libraries have started up their own armies to try to protect the books. The concept makes me laugh, but it's actually quite a good show. The only problem is is that it makes me shout things at the screen, such as "How on Earth did a library ever get that much money?" and "What about the archives! They're much more important! Won't anyone thing of the archives?". And then I try to imagine archive wars and it makes me laugh.

Vampire Knight
This is my other cheesy shoujo of this season. It is about a school of vampires; that should tell you enough. It's kind of corny, but also kind of really good. I can't get enough of it. I am kind of ashamed to get so caught up in it, but each time her adopted brother gets urges to bite her neck, I am ON THE EDGE OF MY SEAT. I shouldn't be admitting to this.

xxxHolic Kei
So the first series of the xxxHolic anime was a little poor (not Tsubasa Chronicle level poor, of course, but still poor). This season seems to be slightly better made, but it's not amazing. Maybe I don't have the interest because, having read the manga, I know what's going to happen already? I don't know. I'm watching this one out of loyalty.

And a special mention goes out to Ghost Hound, which I just finished watching, and is a fantastic series all round. Really. I don't have enough words to describe how good it was. Everyone should watch this.

Another special mention to Tsubasa RC chapter 189 which made me say OMG. In a big way. I might expand on this more in another post if I get time.

And that brings us on to:

Item D

Because, really, I can't sit down and solidly write coursework. I really can't. So sometime in the past couple of days, I drew a little fanart of Allelujah (not Tieria, I know, but still Gundam00. I am quite possibly addicted to this show.)

What I really really wanted to do was to draw Allelujah's cheekbones. I don't know why I think it, but in my head he has nice cheekbones. I'm not quite sure that I succeeded, but this was just a quick little procrastination sketch.

And did you know that if you do a google image search for Tieria fanart, nearly all my Tieria fanarts come up almost at the top of the page? I don't quite know how I feel about that. Perhaps a little embarrassed?
Hahaha, and looking at my blog's referral stats, most people that find this blog through search engines are searching for some combination of Tieria or Lockon/Tieria. Golly. But then, one of the referring searches was for 'dissertation proposal on tap dancing' so, um?