pez: (Yukimura - Cake!)
Celebrated my birthday last weekend! [livejournal.com profile] storme has reported on it all so I won't bother repeating but in summary, a marvelous weekend was had with a bunch of wonderful people. I used to think my social skills are terrible but maybe they've improved? XD

I've finished the first two books of 1Q84. Strangely, although I'm generally a Murakami fan, whatever other people are feeling about these books, I'm not feeling it. The story is interesting but the writing hasn't drawn me in. Though, for both books I felt that the translation was very weird. Although it was done long before the English translation, the choice of words and sentence structures sometimes makes it feel like it was translated into English and then into Chinese. And what's with the excessive use of commas? COMMAS EVERYWHERE. I wonder if the original Japanese text is like that. I reserved the third book in English at the library, so maybe that'll give me some answers on the style once I get to read it.

Sales are on the increase at Coscraft! Planning to get wigs from a new supplier, now waiting for samples to arrive to check on the quality first.

Commissions are not going well. Purple fabrics are difficult to find. Everything is difficult to source. I've dropped the massive prop weapon twice today but at least nothing got broken, guess it means it's pretty sturdy. Wish it's shorter so that it doesn't hit the ceiling light or bookcases or other thigns every time I turn it around. >_>"

We're still rewatching PoT. There are about a million episodes between semi-finals and finals of Kantou tournament. The animators really did everything they could to stretch this out. Storme is getting bored waiting for Rikkai to appear and we're already watching episodes on high speed on VLC.

Gonna need to find subbed versions of Tenimyu.

1Q84

Jan. 21st, 2012 06:44 pm
pez: (Yanagi - face)
I've been reading 1Q84 - bought the two books in Chinese a long long time ago but never got around to reading them. Almost at the end of book 1 now, and I don't know how I feel about it yet. It felt pretty unusual for Murakami, but it does have the really familiar references to day-to-day life alongside very, very odd similies that are typical of Murakami.

So I've been thinking about writing again, which means I should've picked up 1Q84 sooner because I'd forgotten how reading Murakami (especially in Chinese) helps me write. Last time it was Yanagi. This time maybe I'll do PoT again too. *gasp*

Having said that, I'd really love to read a Princess Tutu/The Last Remnant crossover. It'd work, very easily too.

Just read a (well, two) PoT Inception AU. Someone who can write prose in PoT fandom! Need to keep my eye on this author.

Lastly, I have a Mytho cosplay planned. This one:



This will either be fabulous or disastrous or a bit of both. Time will tell.
pez: (Yukimura - chocolate sprinkles)
It's [livejournal.com profile] storme's birthday tomorrow, so we both took the day off yesterday to make it a three-day weekend.

Went to Aveda and got our backs pummeled. The knots have been obliterated but it'll take a while for the owwww to go away. I think we frightened the women who massaged us with our epic knots.

Saw Inception at the cinema - I'm not the type to analyse flims or compare one with another, so I can only say that I enjoyed it despite a few flaws and questions. And on the whole, like many other enjoyable films, it would probably be greater as a TV series because there'd be more time to explore each character in depth.

[livejournal.com profile] giving_ground, I think Inception is your type of film. You'd come out of the cinema wanting a Rikkai crossover. >D (Also, HMV is selling Leon: The Professional Director's Cut for £8. The DVD now exists! :O)

Got my Xbox 360 upgraded to the new one! The shops were doing really good upgrade deals, and if I'd expanded the memory unit to 250GB and bought the wireless adaptor for the old console, it'd be more than what I have just paid to upgrade it. So now I have a wireless, 250GB Xbox 360 which is almost completely silent. *___* It's also smaller than the previous one. Don't care much about the shiny exterior though. I prefer things matt usually.

Got Resonance of Fate and Alan Wake second hand.

Out of curiosity, I went to Amazon and did a search on Kawashima Yoshiko. I'm surprised that there don't seem to be any English book about her. Huh. Now I wonder... maybe loads of western people have never heard of her.
pez: (Niou - point)
I bought quite a few volumes when I was last in HK, but never got around to reading them! Started Grand Guignol Orchestra (Guignol Kyuutei Gakudan/人形宮廷楽団) by Yuki Kaori but I only have the first two volumes. ;; So far though, compared with Fairy Cube, I'm finding this far more enjoyable. Fairy Cube was destined to be a short series, which was fine, but it was so rushed. After the first two volumes I wasn't even motivated to look for the third (final) one. Maybe I'll look for scans instead.

Guignol Orchestra has its faults... sometimes the character's faces and the camera angles make me think I'm reading Angel Sanctuary. The body language of the characters feels a bit similar, too - Lucille is totally Setsuna+Alexial sometimes! And Too Many Servant-Type Girls already, dammit. (It's Yuki's personal fetish, I am aware. But.) Still, the story is interesting and the pacing is much much better. Also! Gwindel has a fierce love for hedgehogs. This can only mean very good things. :D

After this I'm going to read Ludwig Revolution, which I have all four volumes of. I have high hopes for this one.

Also caught up with Kuroshitsuji up to the end of vol.8. Events are getting darker and darker. I do like this manga very much.
pez: (Tezuka - Dead)
Ah, the good ol' dead Tez icon.

A Sunday (or was it Saturday) of 13-hours-work plus two nights of 4 - 4.5 hours sleep = dead Pez. Tonight I need to STOP WORKING.

The plans are to:
- finish FF13. (Nearing the end. This game is actually pretty boring which is why I keep not finishing it.)
- write fic. (I have three AUs ongoing. Tonight I'm going to work on the one temporarily titled [Bind].)

I finished reading The Prince of Mist.

D:
pez: (Last Remnant - Emma and Valeria Heart)
Things I meant to watch but haven't, and will therefore be hunting down on iPlayer: last week's Doctor Who and The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister. Did anyone watch that? Was it as interesting as the ads made it look?

[livejournal.com profile] storme got me Carlos Ruiz Zafón's latest translated work, The Prince of Mist, which is a young adult book. Haven't started yet, but I can't wait. <3

Some photos from the Expo weekend. For more photos, try here and here!

Today I remembered to check my DW account for the first time in... months.

Today I feel like I can write fic. Something slow and quite beautiful. I wonder if I can sneak that in during work.

A bit tired today after having slept less than I should. Worked on the website some more, setting up email templates and all. I just hope nothing breaks too dramatically when it comes to testing.

Can't wait to move house. I'm already thinking about the furniture for the home office.
pez: (Last Remnant - rear assault)
Finished reading The Carpenter's Pencil last night. I have a few problems with the style, but it's vintage and foreign so that might be one of the reasons. It was hard to follow, sometimes, because of the style. POVs shifting all over the place. Anyway, I quite enjoyed that.

I need to go on LJ more and catch up with what's going on. Next week, I think, my attention span will be back and I'll actually have time. (Haven't even replied to the ebay seller whose item was lost in the post... and other online messages...)

*goes back to her drainage plan*

[edit] Is it really bad that I literally only just noticed why Alucard is called Alucard in Hellsing?

*stretch*

Oct. 18th, 2009 12:52 am
pez: (Last Remnant - >()
Inside Out was brilliant.

Persuaded my Wii console to work. It has become one of those half-defective Wiis which require plugging and unplugging the power cable several times before it would read a disc (if unsuccessful, it simply switches itself off). Then, because I got it running, I suddenly wanted to play Wii Fit, so I did. Was at it for about 15 minutes and then my back told me to watch it. XD Guess I'll have to slowly build it up again.

Just read about the Stephen Gately - Jan Moir controversy (also on Wikipedia). It doesn't surprise me that Daily Fail allowed such an article through, it doesn't surprise me the reactions it caused, it doesn't surprise me that the woman plays victim. Sigh. Some people seem to take the freedom of opinion and speech as a warrant to be distasteful. What kind of world are we living in?

Just read the synopsis of the third Gentleman Bastards book. HA! What did I say about Sabetha? I am win!
pez: (Urahara - lollipop)
"Your mother's cunt has a peculiar tubular shape!" he yelled. "Nonetheless I tolerate its effluvium and enthusiastically lick its inner folds whenever she demands!"

...said Kolya. This man? Is ace.
pez: (Chinen - rabu reta-?)
Read "City of Thieves" by David Benioff, and despite it being a war novel - the genre I just don't like - I really enjoyed it. I didn't even mind the predictable ending. I think I'm going to check out his other writings.

The girl who took pictures of my David cosplay (and said she was planning to make a Rush some day) at Aya's studio set PM-ed me. Turns out she'd been seriously unwell when I was wondering if I should send her a PM or a text to chase for pics and whether or not that would be rude. Anyway, more pics coming soon. Gonna meet up with her at the Expo.

*eyes writing* I haven't written that many TLR fics, yet this is the second time Rush is telling Dave to "put some pants on." Really, Rush, do you not want him pantless?

My head's a bit woozey today, the "I just had a really long bath and now I wanna sleep" sort. Which is a nice feeling, but wasted at work.

...I've more-or-less stopped talking about personal life stuff here since some months ago. Now, looking at my LJ, it seems like my life is about nothing but fannish activities. Ah, wouldn't that be great?

Last but not least: HANAHANA. COME BACK TO PEZ. D:
pez: (Yanagi - DO NOT WANT)
Renji (a harddrive I rescued from a broken laptop and put into a USB case) seems to really be dead. D: I think a malfunction of the front USB ports of the comp killed it, because nothing else I plugged in there works anymore. But plugging Renji into other USB ports also don't work (though other things work that way). Poor, poor Renji. First you lost your body, now even your brain's broken.

So now I got an old MS and installed Firefox Portable there. Guess what, FF 3.5.3 and AdBlockPlus don't like each other. DDDDDD: Nooooooo!

Syl called last night, she might visit at some point this weekend or I might see her tomorrow night or something, nothing's been decided because I don't know what I'll be doing. Tonight I'm going to see family and maybe staying there for the night, but I don't know how long I'll be in London for on Saturday, what people want to do and whether or not they expect me to participate. Because I'll be in London, though, I've printed pictures of Dave in case I get time to go to China Town for a haircut. (Could do that closer to home, but somehow I have a feeling that in China Town I'll get less weird looks for pulling out such pictures and saying "I want this.") But yes, [livejournal.com profile] dystopiarcadia and [livejournal.com profile] storme you guys are welcome to visit if you like! I'll be posting when I know what I'm doing tomorrow. >> Sunday I definitely have nothing to do but that's also when the East Anglian train line gets engineering works and travelling becomes quite annoying. =/

I've been reading Sekai Kindanai Taizen. I got past the first few sections just fine, but when it got to the graphic necrophilia and cannibalism... um... *shrinks into the seat* It's not even "kindanAI" anymore, it's... kindan-THIS IS SO GRAPHIC I'M GLAD IT'S IN CHINESE AND NOBODY ELSE ON THE TRAIN CAN READ IT ARGHHHHH.

Um. Yes. Friday.
pez: (Hiyoshi - Super Mario Bros)
I think I have mail stuck in the postal strike. =/

Currently reading Historic English Costumes and How to Make Them.

My boss is such a child sometimes, I want to hit him with... something very hard.

Uploaded lots of pictures to curecos in one night, and suddenly ranked #121 (out of 68k) on view count because of it. XD Dude, wot. And what's with all these Japanese sites that have rankings anyway? It's that way with ameblog and I'm sure with other blog sites as well. It's like a popularity contest. Poking at the functions, I realised I could even make myself a fanclub. So I did. WTFLOL. There can be fanclub-only photos. Maybe I should upload the corset picture. XD

So, yes, that thoroughly amused me last night.

This weekend I'll get working on the Gae Bolg again. I'd love to hop down to London for a day (though not sure for what) but there are rail engineering works, meaning an extra bus journey. I guess it's not really that bad, hmm...
pez: (Default)
Been reading the manga. Lau is clearly the awesomest character in the whole thing. I get why people love Sebastian and Ciel (I do too), but for the supporting characters, why are people always going on about Grell and Undertaker etc when Lau is so infinitely more wonderful? Oh, I love him so much. ♥

Eck, bed time.
pez: (Fuji & Karupin - WHAT?)
I'm reading the first volume of a Taiwan-done translation of "Dreadful in Truth" (令人顫慄的格林童話/本當は恐ろしいグリム童話) by Kiryuu Misao. It's about the older editions of Grimms' fairytales. When I was small I actually read an older edition in Chinese, and was rather surprised by the chopping of ankles and toes in Cinderella. Don't think my family ever realised what kind of book they supplied me with! Anyway, there are bits in "Dreadful in Truth" that I remember reading as a kid, but not all of it. And some details I can't even find on the internet! Sure, people have always said it was Snow White's birth mother, not stepmother, who wanted her dead. And that the prince was a real necrophiliac who didn't just kiss her, but had her coffin with him all the time when he ate and slept, that he'd take the corpse out and stroke it and jerk off, and that the annoyed servants who took the corpse out to beat it up were the people who dislodged the poisoned apple from her throat. But I'm also reading that Snow White's father was quite a paedophile, that Snow White, aged 7, was a manipulative bitch who was sleeping with her dad and stealing his love from her mum, and also that when she lived with the dwarves she slept with all of them. Heh? Really?

Of course, there has been many editions of the fairytales and Kiryuu (actually the pen name of two people) don't necessarily use the same edition for every story, but I wonder about the accuracy. It's also clear they inserted explanations in the actual tales as well, so it's not the bare text of the originals. I wish they didn't do that, since they always have an analysis chapter for every story and they could've just included all the explanations there.

In any case, it's an interesting read. They've also listed the resources they've used. I can always just follow their bibliography to look for more stuff.

On a differente note: cosplay stuff. )

Oh I've booked on-site accomodation for Aya. It's a bit expensive but I've stayed there before for a work conference, they're pretty okay rooms and less travel = good stuff when one is cosplaying! I'm also hoping that because they seem more expensive, less con-goers will be using them and therefore it won't be too noisy at night. >_>"

:(

Jun. 23rd, 2009 06:24 pm
pez: (Last Remnant - Blood & Kellendros)
I had a dream last night which has left me rather melancholy today. I'm still feeling crap because of my head, haven't slept well for a long time, and I've been in the car today.

Chinese stuff: writers, this is worth reading. Especially the extract on the right. Sure, it's not directly related to creative writing, but the points are still valid. And that's what I find lacking in a lot of things I read. Well, it's also what I find lacking in a lot of people in general.

Today I started reading The Shadow of the Wind for the third time because [livejournal.com profile] sinistera recently reread it and posted some quotes, which made me want to pick it up again.

[Siege/Surrender] ch.18 here. Is anyone still reading it?

[edit] I FOUND TLR FIC TO READ AND IT LOOKS PRETTY GOOD.

ROGER!

Jun. 5th, 2009 11:20 pm
pez: (Federer - Orgasmic)
Was going to start Star Ocean tonight, but spent the evening on watching Federer at Roland Garros instead. Exciting stuff. And then I finished reading The Angel's Game. The book left me with this face: o_o. I don't really understand what Vidal did there, towards the end. What was he really thinking?

Aaaaand [Siege/Surrender] Chapter 3 is here. A chapter a day, more or less, might exclude weekends. Don't get too excited over how this chapter ends - don't forget that Allan's there. Just don't forget about Allan. He doesn't like being forgotten. It makes him sad. XD
pez: (Kai - and this time the future is ours)
Trying to find Alanis Morrisette's "Surrendering" to listen to, but imeem doesn't have the full length song and last.fm is filtered by work. Can anyone help?

Reading The Angel's Game rather slowly. Did get to sit down on a bum-hurting corrugated beam for an hour to read yesterday because the trains ground to halt after someone got killed on the line, but other than that it's the usual little bits of reading to/from work. I'm not nearly as taken with David as I was with Daniel and Fermín in The Shadows of the Wind, but it doesn't seem like the author was trying to create the same mood anyway. The story has a slow start but it's picked up now and it's making me really wonder about a few things. It's interesting.

Captured by that strange, weird, dark hole named "I just finished a long fic". There are other things to do, of course, but the withdrawal, oh. I think I want to write a gothic or mafia-ish story now. Or Locke Lamora in space. Except that'd require me rereading the two novels first and I'd rather tell other people *eyes a certain housemate* to write it so that I can read.

Fic is going to be called [Siege and Surrender] (or maybe [Siege/Surrender] is more fitting) unless I can come up with anything better. I'm going to post a chapter a day, perhaps. [livejournal.com profile] giving_ground did offer to beta it (bless!) but considering the length and the fact that she doesn't have that much free time, unless anyone here is really bored and really wants to beta a TLR long fic, I'll just go over it myself quickly, post and hope it's all right. I just can't make myself ask people to do this for me, especially since everything I get people to do for me, I demand speed. Efficiency rules a large part of my life, although the rest of it is about doing absolutely nothing.
pez: (Last Remnant - I love my Torgal plush)
So many things to do (fuck inflation forecasts), yet the day is going so slowly.

A few things.

Thing number 1: Allan ♥ Torgal ♥ Emma ♥ David ♥ Rush and they all love each other because none of them got enough love in their childhoods. </Chicago>

And...

Dave: I shall not deny him the chance of vengeance. We can only kill Hermeien once, after all.
Rush: Wait, in TLR didn't we kill him twice?
Dave: *head tilt* What is TLR?
Rush: ...never mind. >>

Thing number 2: I pre-ordered The Angel's Game from the bookshop near work. :DDDDD

Thing number 3: I need to give The Gone-Away World another try. The narration annoyed me last time. But sometimes reading is like that. One needs to be in the right sort of mood to enjoy certain styles.

Thing number 4: For years (as in, until recent months) I thought "a couple of" means "a few/some/several"-ish sort of thing, ie, three or more. It never occurred to me that it really means "two" even though "a couple" (as in two people) is, well, two.

Thing number 5: I have apple strudel and it is delicious.
pez: (L2 - Mau and Akaya)
Oh, Monday. I could feel it's Monday the moment I woke up.

Last week, this conversation took place (paraphrased):
Pez: So, I was reading The Picture of Dorian Grey on the train.
Liz: Yeah?
Pez: I know it's Oscar Wilde but... IS IT MEANT TO FEEL LIKE I WAS READING PORN ON THE TRAIN?
Liz: Yes.

Saw Coraline on Saturday. It was really good! Tez-Toast is now wearing 3D glasses. I need to post pictures of him, I don't think the internet has met Tez-Toast yet.

I'm thinking that after IU, I'll play Eternal Sonata. Then after that, if SO4 isn't out yet, I'll play IU again. *cough* I did say it has no replay value but... yeah. (Basically, everything they said here is true.) The system still annoys the heck out of me, though I'd like to find out what I've missed (It has such fanfic potential.). And having a big, full HD TV does make gaming SO GOOD, even though IU's graphics is crap compared with TLR. But IU has much less loading time and no delayed ejaculations, so I suppose it's a case of "you win some and you lose some". Maybe I'll be more patient the second time around since I already know the full story? And I'll follow a walkthrough so that I won't miss anything.

You know, it would be interesting if Capell really was locked up in a cage when he was little. >D Bet there's a fic somewhere about this... *joins [livejournal.com profile] vesplume_tower*

The thing that really got me more interested in the whole game, apart from post-Sapran events, is the fact that I (and everyone who was watching me play last weekend) started substituting "lunaglyph" with "cock". As soon as I did that, the plotline from vermiforms onwards became so much more interesting and fantastic: some spoilers below cut )

Yes, I'm still 5 years old.
pez: (Last Remnant - plant Rush kicks a)
I'm in bed, but near the edge of it because my cat has decided to lie down in the middle and I don't want to move her.

Best caption ever.

Monopoles are refusing to spawn. Why?

Tried to run the PC demo but failed, as expected, since I couldn't even get the benchmark to run.

Need one more skull scavenger cranium for Deathmask. Spent an hour repeatedly killing skull scavangers in Blackdale and only caught it twice, neither time splitting into skulls. Arghhhhhh. To prevent hair-tearing, I'm going to start on that new story instead. Need to think about the best way to begin... I think "the phone in his hand exploded" would be a good starting sentence. Also need to decide whether this is normal adventure, (slightly) fantasy or gangster. So many ways it can go... one of the plot points is much harder to explain in a gangster scenario though. The tattoo thing can still work in the other two I suppose...

Finished reading Death and the Penguin today. I don't really know how I feel about it. Wasn't a bad read though. Enjoyable if satire is your thing.

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