Wherever you are, whatever you do

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.

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.

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?

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.

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!

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:

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...

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. >_>"

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

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.

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.