English = Boring

Hi. Didn't do much but English today. Which is boring. Oh well.

A Little More Stardust

Grandma and I set out this morning to see Stardust at Southbank, but as I stood in the ticket line the screening SOLD OUT. Go figure. School holidays, PG rating, all that jazz. So we went over the river and had lunch in the city, and saw Stardust at the Regent. She likes it and approves it for 71.5% of her grandkids. I liked it even better than the last time I saw it.

Real Beauty

Is it just me, or is this deeply scary and unsettling?

Hi!

So today I did some English and I watched a movie and I went grocery shopping for vegan wholefoods ingredients. Hooray!

wisdom, and kidnappings

Questionable Content was awesome today.

I'm back from being kidnapped! No worse for wear, except I watched Eragon (..ghh. The books were bad enough in the first place.) But also saw Ratatouille! Which is really good and kinda gross, in the way that most truly excellent stuff for kids is. Which isn't totally unexpected, coming from the director of The Iron Giant, which is one of my very favourite movies of ever. Except I was really underwhelmed by the Incredibles, which was the other thing Brad Bird did.
Anyway, shopping with the shopping-obsessed cousin was welly fun, watching old X-Men cartoons with all three cousins was shiny too, except I can't out-comic-geek the eldest one. But that's kinda refreshing in itself. Plus, we all gossiped about my sister.

Then on to dinner at other cousins, for more gossiping about my sister, being flogged at Dance Dance Revolution, arts and crafts, hats (a Bunnings hat with aforementioned arts and crafts stuck to it, and a hard hat which was my DDR lucky hat) jumping on the trampoline of death, and running around giggling. Also cream buns.

Someone tell Rach that after she told me to, I tried the Showtime/Fun Fair Skittles or whatever they're called, and she's right, they are very yummy. The popcorn flavour ones are the best!

And... Dun Dun Dah... I HAS GETTIN MOAR INTERNETS!!11!oneone1!
(so I don't have to trek into uni every day of the holidays to work on my assignments, and poor Grandma and Grandpa can use the internet too.)

Books

The internet hates me. Aaargh.

The google "word of the day" is daiquiri. Which made me grin as I cannot but think of Nanny Ogg and her banananana dakrys from Terry Pratchett's Witches Abroad, which is a book I'm quite fond of.

Have spent the weekend engrossed in my English assignment. Let us say no more of that.
Time not spent engrossed in English has been spent in marvellous books. I'm about halfway into Neil Stephenson's Quicksilver, which is quite a feat as the book is about the size of two bricks. It's very good, spanning England, the Continent, and the Colonies, with people like Issaac Newton and Charles the Second running around.
I'm also about three-quarters of the way through After Dark, by Haruki Murakami, because I read all of his stuff I can get my hands on. It's compulsive reading, with that strange dichotomy of dreamlikeness and sensibility he does so well.
I finished The Man who was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton last week, not sure if I told you all about that one. Seriously awesome roller-coaster of a book and also hilarious. I like Chesterton's sense of humour :)

So. I'm being kidnapped this afternoon, so shall bid the farewell.

I see Stardust

Howdy. I haven’t posted the last couple days, sorry ‘bout that; I very cleverly managed to run out of internet at home and at uni simultaneously. And much drama ensued.

Yesterday, I went to see Stardust! Err, twice.

It was good enough the first time to make me want to see it again in short order, and I liked it even better the second time. Robert DeNiro was *awesome*, and I’m kind of in love with Charlie Cox, and all in all, it’s a funny, cute movie that y’all should go see.

(Paragraph has very low level *spoilers*) There were only two things from the book I missed, and it wasn’t the tree or the Lion/Unicorn battle. It was Yvaine’s very quiet profane reaction to being knocked out of the heavens, and the fact that Tristan didn’t free her from the silver chain willingly (if stupidly.) But if that’s the price to be paid for all the good new stuff, so be it.

If there’s any way of managing it, I prefer to go to the cinema alone. In spite or perhaps because of this, I love watching other movie-goers, and the people who saw Stardust were fascinating. The folk at the Regent in the morning were an interesting bunch (like the red-corseted girl who juggled plastic rings in the theatre waiting for the show to start, and *aww* the three generations of women from the same family who came along together,) but the people at Garden City in the evening were more fun. They were the ones who laughed in all the right places. Judging by both screenings, Stardust is the Gay Teen Date Movie of Choice (unless it has become the fashion for all teenage boys to wander around in pairs holding hands.) And you know how when you walk into a movie there might be a bunch of pensioners, or a bunch of twenty-something couples, or a bunch of teenagers in packs, or a bunch of families with kids? Stardust had no ‘or.’ Probably the most demographic-crossing movie crowd I’ve seen.

The trailers were cruddy (Fred Claus, Enchanted, something with the Rock) except the Golden Compass, which I’d be going to see even if the Fabulist didn’t say it was cool, and one of my favourite artists wasn’t doing conceptual work for it. I think I may pick up the books sometime between now and December, also.

I think I might go again next week sometime :)

Mean Reds

Don't you hate it when you're so tired you're antsy and agitated all day? I do. Feels terrible.

Da da da! Your problems are over. The cure - go walk around David Jones for a half hour. It's a very calming department store. The lighting feels golden, and you're not tempted to spend money because you can't afford anything anyway. The piped music isn't all that excreble, and if you don't look posh the staff don't bother you. Heaven :)

Holly Golightly had Tiffany's. I have David Jones.

Sigh.

The Face that Launched a Thousand Ships

I entered a "Greek Mythology" picture-taking contest for the sims 2.

I entered Helen of Troy. My fave pic is this one, of the sack of Troy:

Did you just say "thoom?"

Check out Sugarshock for Joss Whedon e-comicy goodness. Woo! Woo!

Current here.
Back issue here.

Amazing

Went to see Philip Yancey talk tonight.

Amazing.

Am falling-asleep zombie girl right now. Goodnight.

Stuff of today(ish)

Yesterday was kinda fun. Went and wandered around the city after my lecture, and bought a can of cherry coke. Collected four huge doorstoppy-type books from the library. Watched the Spicks and Specks, and the Chaser. Read book. Slept.

This morning I have spent making a sim (for a prize in a friend's competition.) I'm fairly happy with her; she favours who she's s'posed to, but still looks simmy.

I'm gonna go to uni soon, then to a Philip Yancey thing.

Today, of all days

Hmm. Today. Well, my alarm didn't go off this morning, but I made the seven o'clock train nonetheless, albeit without breakfast (I only just barely remembered shoes.) Luckily, the cafe at uni does yummy apple muffins, because I'm one of those people who needs breakfast.
Handed in maths games, and early indications are that I've done reasonably well on them.
Was zombie-like throughout the day, split a sushi lunchbox for lunch, drew a harlequin buccaneer instead of listening in the english lecture.
Came home, washed my face, went to tea at the cousins'. Which was nice. They-all were tired to, so we're having an early night.
I've got about two pages left in Thursbitch, which is what I'm reading right now. (It's kind of like Krispy Kreme donuts: underwhelming at first taste but compulsively addictive. Except not trashy.) I'm prolly going to finish it before I sleep. Next book is Lian Hearn's The Harsh Cry of the Heron, which I promised myself I wouldn't steal from my cousin 'till the midterm round of assessment was done. And now it is, so I have stolen it... hehe.

I has finished the maths games!

Woot! *does happy dance* The evil fearsome maths games are finished!

And I know I've been all "ZOMZG they is hard!!!11!oneone" so sorry 'bout that.

And they're done! Huzzah!

Pictures:

Heck, you can have all five of them for your very own if you want :) (That's a zipped file uploaded to Zoomshare, fyi)

*happy dances*

If you are like me, you will love this comic from xkcd.

Ooh, and this one.

I am resolved

As of now, I am saving for a graphics tablet.

Maths Games again

There are 14 animals in the barnyard. Some are cows and some are chickens. I counted 34 legs in all. How many animals are chickens?

There are 15 animals in the barnyard. Some are cows and some are chickens. I counted 38 legs in all. How many animals are cows?

There are 16 animals in the barnyard. Some are cows and some are chickens. I counted 42 legs in all. How many animals are chickens?

There are 17 animals in the barnyard. Some are cows and some are chickens. I counted 46 legs in all. How many animals are cows?


By Tuesday, I shall surely have gone mad.

procrastinations

This morning instead of yet again working on maths games, I painted my fingernails black and found a blog full of big fat wonder woman pictures, here. I really like it - the BBWWs are entrancing.

Books and Movies

Thursday. Hmm.

I went to the library and put a bunch of books on hold - I haven't read anything not uni-related or on a computer screen for much to long, which is unlike me. So after hurriedly scribbling down Susanna "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell" Clarke's list of favourite books and "If you liked this then try" from somewhere, I went looking for them. (One was actally on shelf - a rarity for my hopeless library - it's called Thursbitch, and the first chapter is interesting so far.)

Hopefully by the time I hand in my maths games on Tuesday, there'll be a book or two waiting for me at the library.

The Empire magazine Stardust verdict: Starbust. I was sad.
But then, they gave that Earthsea movie four stars, and I really wanted to like that movie but it deserved two and a half at best. So one never does know.

It's Windsday, Rabbit!

Today: maths exam. Wasn't worried at all. Did really well except for stupid mental blank; completely forgot what a histogram was. Had studied that exact thing on the weekend and this morning. Just one of those times when your brain mutinies. Ergh.

What I am worried about: Maths Games. The physical deadening in the pit of my stomach has arrived as of yesterday, and I'm not expecting it to leave 'til Tuesday when I hand the games in.

Happier: The Fabulist has a mix tape. New music to get excited about!

Squee!

Had a couple of fangirly moments today. Firstly, there was a humongous Stardust poster on the back of the bus that took me to uni this morning.
Secondly, Will Eisner was referenced in my English Ed tutorial this arvo. That's never happened before, and I rather doubt it will again. Pretty cool. Am inspired to add some Spirit stuff (and, incidentally, Tintin) to my unit of work on detectives and detective stories.

More on Stardust: check out today's post at Neil Gaiman for some awesomeness from the "Stormhold Tourism Board."

Monday agains

This morning Louise and I agreed that
a) we should be studying for Wednesday's math exam, and
b) we were going to Garden City instead.

So we did. We looked in bookshops. It was fun.
The rest of the day was consumed by maths games. Bleh.

Aaargh.

Maths Games. Aaargh Aaargh Aaargh.