(I don't think I've used this icon before. 'Tis my cat.)

Why is it that given all the opportunities people have to wear awesome socks all year round, they only wear them on Halloween? Rather, the day before Halloween being the day that people were supposed to dress up at school. Awesomesocks should not be merely a Halloween thing, sillies. Anyhoo. For the first time since the age of three, costume have I not. This week has been conspiring to prevent me from doing anything. I've been sick for all of it which doesn't really lend itself to costume-making and I probably shouldn't go trick-or-treating anyway with this cough.

"Trick or-coughcoughwheezehackCOUGHCOUGHCOUGH"
"Er."
"Coughcough-sorry, treat!-wheezecoughhackcoughcough"
"Er, here you go. Honey, are we vaccinated yet?"

It's rather rotten. However, I'll carve pumpkins and listen to Danse Macabre and plant some native plant seeds so it's okay. Saw the olympic torch yesterday which was neat. On one hand I get what all the The-Olympics-suck-and-we-should-be-fixing-our-problems-first lot but on the other hand, there are problems everywhere and it's useless just going without an event that really does all the peace-and-happiness-and-everyone-should-love-each-other-woopee theme rather nicely just because there exists global warming and homelessness and starvation in Africa and breaches of trust with First Nations tribes. Of course we should try to fix them but does the Olympic spirit not help all that in a way?

Also, I HAVE A PLOT! And not exactly a day too soon either. It involves rafting around in space in persuit of a nutty fellow (who is on his way to inadvertantly kill my main character's sister through thinking that a recipe for baking babies was, in fact, not a joke) and a space-whale and a morphed-serpenty-woman-thing. Also, this is probably the last day I'll be journalling since my plans for November basically consist of a) school and b) NaNo.

Happy Halloween, whoever's reading this and onward, ho!

More autumnal goodness.











This, my friends, is my very favourite place in the entire world. The pictures don't do it justice, as they usually don't. There was a little vignette I wrote during this English writing-while-listening-to-music activity (I didn't really pay any attention to the music and when it wasn't instrumental I actively ignored it) something to the effect of "somewhere below my liver I felt a part of me that had been cold for a long time become suddenly unbearably warm" and "feeling the overwhelming need to burst, I turned to her as someone to catch stray organs when I did" which describes not all that badly the oh-my-god-something-in-me-is-bursting feeling of standing on a mountain surrounded by mossy rocks dripping rain water and to the south the steeple of a church silhouetted against the sun breaking through clouds over the sea and to the north-west a mountain with its top shrouded in mist to the and your dog beside you. Nothing beats it.


Mushrooms everywhere. I've never seen this many before. Wonder where they come from.

And on the way back from getting my new glasses ( which are red and shiny and have a pattern on the side and are generally much much better than the spare ones I've been wearing for the past couple of months) I stopped in at the graveyard which is another of my Favourite Places in the Whole Wide World. I love how everything is a bit unkempt and how the pavement is uneven and covered in leaves and vines. Maybe some people would object to having their relatives in such a messy place but I think it's really the only way a graveyard should be. And the place is utterly owned by our neighbourhood deer.  I think I saw about five when I first came in. And I made friends ("friend" being defined in that I certainly enjoyed his company and he didn't seem to object to mine at least insofar as he continued to hang out in exactly the same spot through the twenty minutes or so that I spent on a bench reading and didn't mind my human inability to resist running about taking pictures of him) with a young stag. I named him Salix. Because. He probably already has a name for that matter but this is my human one.


Good shots of deer always end up being blurry. It is a fact of life, I think. I love his baby antlers.




I think I may be the only person who ever comes here just for the heck of it for that matter so unlike a park which does get used, it's pretty much all theirs. I feel a bit bad invading. Why a graveyard is any different from a park I'm not quite sure. I mentioned something about the deer a while ago to my cousin who went "and what were you doing there exactly?" I'll admit it might have been reading The Graveyard Book that inspired me to come here more often last winter but I don't really understand there being anything creepy about tombstones at all and really I'm good for reading in any well-treed place especially when there are nice stone benches.

On that topic: death may be scary because we know nothing about it but it is not a bad thing. I will argue vehemently against immortality and against us even trying to find immortality through anti-aging drugs and all the crap we have now because the day that we find out how to cheat death I think our species will be pretty much in for it and probably the earth as we know it as well. People will indeed use such a drug/body part replacement technology/whatever if it comes about and that's the scary thing. We are supposed to grow old and fall apart. The fact that there's life is dependent on it falling apart again. So why ever is it - together with all life's cycles and the earth and the universe and 42 - not a beautiful thing?

And on that topic, Danse Macabre is fantastic.

</Halloween themed soapbox>

If there is a better way to spend a Saturday morning than lying on the couch listening to 11:11, watching rain fall and trying to read The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul (lent to me by OhSoAwesomeNewFriend) but failing because of aforementioned 11:11, I am not enlightened as to what it is.

In other news: English - 100%, Math - 53%. Bloody hell, I wasn't aware that I was this unbalanced. That aside 53% is a rather spectacularly atrocious mark. And I swear I'm trying harder than I was last year. The final exam is all multiple choice too and I have half a mind that I'm going to fail that spectacularly so I suppose I should really start finishing my homework and attempting to get enough of a... C+ that I'll pass the course if I do completely bomb. This is rather unprecedented. What happens if you fail a Challenge course anyway? They can't exactly kick you out.

In more other news, I wrote an essay that ended in "AAAAAARGHHELPIT'SEATINGMEAAAAGH!". I was refering to a chalkboard. I hope my English teacher appreciates my sense of humour.
( Autumny pictures )

O October, I do love thee. Thou art more lovely and more temperate than any other month. Well, with the possible exception of May. I must take pictures of this loveliness.

I also must plot for NaNo. I have some pretty solid characters and a rather awesome (if I do say so) setting (underground lakes, floods, volcanic activity and cheese crepes!) and a general plot idea but all the intricacies are non-existant. Perhaps it isn't coincidence that the plot is always the last thing to fit into place (if it ever does which often it, er, doesn't).

It's incredibly interesting looking at things that were on your mind a year ago. Like the election. "Other good news: My NaNo story actually has some semblance of a plot! The main character has a name!" Gosh, I'm predictable aren't I?

Right, I've been practically spewing words Pom and Chloe-before-she-left's laps for the past few hours (ironically, I just completely failed to articulate something in proper real live talking to my father) so I figure I should write a blog entry and spew over the lap of the whole world which is considerably larger than the laps of Chloe, Pom, and one other friend. This may be mostly compromised of things copied-and-pasted from other places.

1.
"Robin McKinley* is pep talking for NaNo! It will include footnotes! I AM EXCITED.

Speaking of more writingy things, I found out yesterday that the short story** I entered into a contest at my library won third. I get $25 meaning that so far I have earned exactly $275 in my literary career. Woohoo. xD

* the person who I have usually listed first since I was ten when asked to name my favourite authors.

** it was really pure sillyness really and I was half-expecting them to think it completely nuts and stick it at the bottom of the pile so this is good."

From the "Tell Me Something Good About Your Day" topic at TG. So yes, Chlorine succeeded. The library, in googling found this pile of bloggery and says that they'll post a link on their website (I am currently trying to figure out where on their website this would be) so I may potentially get some new traffic. How exciting!

2.
New default picture featuring my one and only properly decent fawn lily photo. I can't stop staring at it. As I mentioned somewhere on my website, just to taunt me the blasted little minx of a flower won't have its picture taken. It sways in the wind and makes everything all fuzzy and odd.

3.
Conversation with a substitute teacher on Thursday (I seem to recall this is the second substitute teacher conversation that I've talked of here):

Teacher: Ramblerambleramble, did you know that there's a word for people who like long words? It's-
Me: Sesquipedalian? (and it was a guess, I only knew what "sesquipedalian" meant)
Teacher: Yes, exactly! And if you like really long words you're called an... um-
Me: Hippopotomonstrosesquipedalian?
Teacher: Right, that's it! Wow, you're the only person I've ever met that's known that. How do you know that?
Me: Er, I don't know...
Amusing fellow in my English class: Probably because you are one.
Me: True, that.

I might actually credit my knowledge to Edonil, whose about page is the first place that I can remember encountering it. But I don't think it's foggy knowledge, several people in my class have heard of the phobia - it's just that nobody realises how easy it is to remember how to say "hippopotomonstrosesquipedalian". Come to think of it, wouldn't you be a sesquipedaliophile?

4.
Is this not the most awesome thing you've EVER SEEN? Medieval surrealism! Aaaah! And too much symbolism to absorb at one sitting. If I ever find myself in Madrid, I am going to go see that thing in person.

5.
A new friend and I completely failed at doing a presentation for our English project today. I think I am correct in assuming that we’re just presenting the project and aren’t really getting marked on the presentation (or at least I hope to the God of Agonised High School Students that we aren’t being marked on the presentation).

My English class, as I have said, tends to be pretty hilarious. So I came up with this pretext for it (involving the fact that by now pigs had taken over the world and we were all pigs and I was an archeologist-pig – it’s a project based on Animal Farm) that I thought was, in keeping with the usual English-class-hilarity at least somewhat amusing. Writing “Archeology Dpt. of Dr. S. Flough, pig” on the board ought to earn at least a few chuckles right? Wrong. Either I have deluded myself into thinking that I am not in fact, the most unfunny person that has ever lived in the whole history of the world or… I don’t even know what. Nobody even smiled and the teacher had this “What the hell are they talking about?” expression on his face. I thought we’d be fine just winging it without really deciding on which parts of the project we would summarise but we ended up standing there whispering stuff to each other and not hearing what the other person said. Eventually realising that people were falling asleep in front of us (note that we had been talking for not even five minutes by now), we just shut up and sat down. And even as we were laughing at how horrendous it was everyone else just sat there. I really don’t know, maybe it was something in the air.

6.
Reading Neil Gaiman’s Blog Will Give You Tabs

7.
If You Like Any Given Artist/Writer/Musician, Eventually Neil Gaiman Will End Up in Their Flat

8.
The above are inevitable rules of nature.

9.
While reading NG’s blog I discovered this which is a very fantastic defense of a book about gay guinea pigs (indeed, gay guinea pigs) (and it’s fantastic because it succeeds in completely out-arguing while being incredibly nice at the same time). The book upon which the most grief has fallen in the past three years is apparently a childrens' book based on the true story of those two male penguins that took care of an egg. A true story. Penguins. How silly are people, really?

From ChloePom (which was by now just Pom I think) conversation:

“In all SRSBSNSing I don't see why people are so desperate to shield their children from everything. Childkids are not that fragile. They will not break when exposed to things that grownups consider icky business. They will find out about icky business on their own eventually and in worse circumstances than in a story and if they've had stories, chances are they'll understand things better.
Not to mention that I have no idea why gay people = icky business but even if it did the argument still wouldn't work.”

(We also deduced that Chloe is not in fact a guinea pig and does not have an uncle named Bobby. This is rather unfortunate.)

10.
“I should go to my nearby graveyard on Halloween... why have I never thought of this before?
And I think I might do my YCI's trick or treating for non perishable food items thing. Because it would be a good way of assuaging the guilt I'm starting to get when I ask people for candy while still being able to go trick-or-treating.
the problem with being old:
a) you feel guilty making people give you candy
b) you don't even like the sort of candy that you get from trick-or-treating much
but I LOVE wandering around in the dark.”

Halloween plans, as decided during ChloePom conversation.

11.
“I wish I could write with my Storytime fervour while doing proper stories” says Pom.

Yes, indeed. Sometimes I almost wonder whether I really enjoy this writing business or just think I enjoy it. But everything I’ve read on the matter says the same thing: it’s a sticky business. It irresistibly attracts and irresistibly repels you at the same time. From Stephen Fry’s blog:

“ It took my friend Douglas Adams to encourage me to go further and he did this by pointing out that the reason I had never managed to finish a novel was that I had never properly understood how difficult, how ragingly and absurdly difficult, it is to do. “It is almost impossibly hard,” he told me. It is supposed to be. But once you truly understand how difficult it is,” he added, with signature paradoxicality, “it all becomes a lot easier.” It was many years later that Clive James quoted to me Thomas Mann’s superb crystallisation of this “A writer,” said Mann, “is a person for whom writing is more difficult than for other people.” How liberating that definition is.”

This makes me feel rather awesome. Until…

Fade in. JASPEK walks onto the stage and looks around, sees EMILY sitting at the computer.

JASPEK
Ahem.

EMILY
Oh. Right. You. Hi, good to see you.

JASPEK
Good to see you too, O Creator.

EMILY
Indeed.

EMILY goes back to typing. JASPEK does not move. A beat.

JASPEK
Hem.

EMILY looks over her shoulder.

JASPEK
You can’t ignore me, you know. I’m always going to be at the back of your brain nagging you until I am properly done, finished, edited, rewritten and have watercolour illustrations.

EMILY
Oh shut up, I know, I know, you don’t have to make me live in a permanent state of guilt because of it!

JASPEK
Indeed?

EMILY
FlAARGH. I WILL FINISH YOU. I WILL. UPON MY LIFE.

JASPEK
Well righty-ho then.

Fade out.

Yes. This happens to me every single day.

12.
Some Storytime for your amusement:

( Cut for length and being rather confusing/esoteric. )

The End.

 

Dear Jenny has pretty much been the soundtrack of my life for the last week. Not in that the lyrics are particularly fitting but in that try as I may I can not get it out of my head. Thank you Jack for posting that original Night Reconnaissance video on the TG Chat slider. It your fault that acquaintances are wondering why exactly I keep muttering "Ashley talks to astronauts" and "Christmas hasn't been the same since Dad replaced the central heating" and such under my breath. Come to think of it I discovered Regina Spektor through someone's NaNoWriMo blog and I discovered NaNo through TG when I was in seventh grade three years ago so it works that way too.

I am, as I do not think I have done before, writing this at 8:30 in the morning. May I reiterate that I love mornings. I just hate the getting out of bed part. And the having to do math shortly after getting out of bed part doesn't exactly fill me with ebullient joy either. The reason that I love mornings and rain and fog is sort of like this line from The Blue Castle which I can't actually quote because I gave the book to a friend but it went something along the lines of, "The thing about dandelions is that they don't have secrets. But soon they go to seed and then it's a different matter."

Ah, here it is (thank you internet): '"Dandelions shouldn't grow in the woods, though. They haven't any sense of the fitness of things at all. They are too cheerful and self-satisfied. They haven't any of the mystery and reserve of the real wood-flowers."

"In short, they've no secrets," said Barney. "But wait a bit. The woods will have their own way even with those obvious dandelions. In a little while all that obtrusive yellowness and complacency will be gone and we'll find here misty, phantom-like globes hovering over those long grasses in full harmony with the traditions of the forest."'

Rain and mornings are positively dripping with secrets, possibility, what not that sunny afternoons just don't have.

Going with my father to buy bread. Ta.

We're actually always under the weather aren't we? I mean, unless we're in an airplane...

I have a cold. I do not believe that I have caught the swine flu and if I have, you shall be duly notified. (Did you know: the Canadian government has been sending body bags to aboriginal reserves hard hit by the flu? Thanks a lot for the help, Canada.) Meantime, I will post garden pictures from last week.



The Cat.




Top-ish garden.




Plants <3







Grapevine in the bottom garden where the vegetable plots are. The grapes are amazing. They have subtleties in flavour that the ones from the grocery store lack.




Tomato plants in bottom garden.






Lots of spiders around now.




Gate and some veggies.




A holy allium.

It's a lot easier to post pictures using HTML. In other news, I have made this,



this,



and read The Liar by His Moonishness, Stephen Fry. I think this book was good for my brain. I could practically feel the passages between my neurons (are there passages between neurons? Let's just pretend there are) being knocked open what with all of the levels of truths and untruths - actually, just untruths beginning with the fact that's a work of fiction which he notes by saying "Not one word of the following is true". I may point out that if we're to take that literally, the acknowledgments at the end are ALL LIES as well. There's also the fact that I probably understood well under half the literary references. When I am old and wizened I will read it again. It also amuses me that Donald Trefusis also has his own twitter account.

International Talk Like Jeeves, Wooster or Psmith Day shall be allocated to the 6th of May, sir. In the jolly old Wooster-opinion (and not such a shabby one it is, if I do say so myself) it ought to have it's own website, what?

Over and out.

(Why do we say "over and out" anyhow? Over and out of what, exactly? Give me suggestions!)

I've been meaning to do this sort of thing for a loooong time. A bedroom tour. Really, I just think it is very pretty, especially after being newly painted green after being a rather ghastly shade of pale pink for a long time (and just for the record, I would have gone with a far less-pink-more-red colour for the window sill but Motherly Authority claimed it was the same colour as the windowsill in the bathroom which she couldn't stand to look at and this was the only colour she would approve). So a tour you get.


Aha, I have a lair! I did that sign-thing a couple years ago but am still quite fond of it.
( Dare you come further? )

I am now looking at last year's first-day-of-classes entry. It doesn't feel like a year, it really doesn't. I don't think anyone else finds this rambling terribly interesting, but I like going back and reading them more than anything I suppose. Do not feel obliged to read it.

Before School
I caught the right bus and got to school early. This is a good thing. I loitered around the foyer a bit. I realised that I had left the sheet with my courses, room numbers, etc. on it and panicked a bit.

Homeroom
We did nothing, as is usual during the first-week-only homeroom. The... three-ish friends I have in my homeroom and I complained about how it was taking to long. I attempted to figure out which order my last two classes came in from the classes that other people had.

Math
Awkward-new-kid time commenced. It was alright though, I have a couple of friends in there. I am not, however, looking forward to math this year. At all. The teacher went to great lengths to explain how hard the course was and predicted that our parents would complain. We have a test tomorrow for marks. Graaaah. I think I like being in this stream. Some of the guys are smart-alecky in a fantastic smart-alecky way. "Kilts aren't skirts! That's like calling man-purses purses! They're satchels!" I deduced that I had to have English before Drafting from surveying enough people and stopped panicking.

French
I have lots of friends in this class so that's good. The teacher was alright - started teaching right away which I like (as the alternative to what the other teachers seemed to do - go over the course outline and then stand around doing nothing for the rest of the block) and actually spoke in French which I also like. Nothing like having a French teacher that doesn't even speak in French.

Engrish
I LIKE MY ENGLISH TEACHER THANK GOD. He was extremely amusing. For some reason, I assume also filling up time he spend over half an hour doing the attendance and trying to remember our names during which time he went off on several tangeants, name related and not (to a girl whose last name is Brace: "You should marry someone whose last name is 'Yourself' and hyphenate it!"), tried to hypnotise us and explained that although he wished his name had three 'E's in a row, there were really just two on one side of an 'N' and one on the other. Homework is to find two 'cool words'. I shall bring 'defenestrate' and 'hippopotamonstrasesquipedaliophobia'. I think they are certainly very cool words.

Drafting
Other than this one kid I had drama with last year and this other kid that went to my middle school, I know no one in here. Still, it seems like a fun one. We also have no computers until Friday so I have no clue what we're going to do tomorrow since the teacher explained that we basically do everything digitally.

After School. Also known as the NOW.
I rather want to see 9 (the movie), it being 9/9/09 today the idea has not been mother-approved so. I should cut my nails, reorganize my room and do that math worksheet (which the teacher impressed upon us is easier than the test tomorrow).

I glued a piece of colourful fabric to my backpack so I no longer have the backpack that everyone around here also seems to own. I am also wearing knee-high lime green socks, capris with a bit of striped fabric sewed onto one leg, a batique patterned shirt from Malaysia over a sweater, these shoes and my usual dragony necklace. My binder is painted, my cloth wallet-y thing is patterened, I have faded and not-very-succesful henna on my left hand, my room has swirlies on the top, I have another pair of shoes that I cut up, sewed, painted and wrote "MAKE LOVE NOT WAR" on the side of... It occured to me today that some might consider that I overdo the colourful-patched-together-paint-on-everything look just a little but, er. That's alright. I may wear ordinary pants tomorrow in any case. Ciao.

Tis the last day of summer for me. I have assumed a decidedly neutral view on this.

Good Bits
- I get to see friends/people I haven't seen since mid-June. The vast majority of my attempts at being social (at least, in person. If you include TG Chat and writing letters, I've not done badly) have crashed and burned,  I would like to think for reasons out of my control/someone else's fault.
-  This summer has not been very eventful, a change would be nice.
- I quite like school some of the time, depending on subjects and teachers. I have math, french, english and drafting first semester. I hope at least three out of four of these will be enjoyable. (Please let me have a good English teacher. The stupid thing a bout English is that essentially I love everything about it. I love to read, I love to write and yet I always end up hating the goddamn subject. All I would ask for is one short story assignent, ONE!)
- Strings, choir and piano lessons are starting again. I may join YCI (youth combating intolerance) and the school newspaper (as of yet, I have not been able to figure out how exactly to do this - it all seems rather insidey) and maybe do something in the musical, I'm not quite sure what. If it's cheesy, I'd rather do crew or backdrop or something but if it's like last year's (The Mystery of Edwin Drood - dark, Victorian, Dickensian, no cheese) I wouldn't mind being in the chorus.
- I'm not doing dance this year. I feel so free. In fact, last night I had a bad dream about it (maybe sparked by thinking about a friend of mine that I unfortunately won't see anymore because of quitting) that just makes me all the more glad to have stopped.
- A couple friends of mine in the year younger are coming to my school.
- I'm in a new program which means potentially new Interesting People.

Not-so-good Bits
- I have math first thing in the morning with a teacher commonly regarded as Hell on a Stick. I don't like math. I don't think well in the mornings. I've been informed that I'll actually have to do my homework (I tried last year, I really did! But towards the end of the year it just got so terribly boring...).
- I don't like school, depending on subjects and teachers.
- Homework. That really awful stressed-out feeling.
- Less time (then again, during the summer I tend to waste it. Stupid Time)
- Having to wake up early.
- Not waking up early enough and missing the goddamn bus.
- Joining new things tends to make me stressed out until I know someone who is also doing it. I'm silly that way.
- I really need to practise piano and viola more. Really really really.
- I'm in a new program which means potentially everyone already knows each other and I'm sort of an awkward new kid.

In other news, my room has finished being painted. It's olivey green. I like it. Will take pictures shortly (I recall saying I'd take garden pictures to. Er.) The weather over here seems to have sensed that it is September and it has, in accordance, started to rain. This makes me happy, as rain usually does. I like fall more than summer, just season-wise. The cold isn't so great though, especially since it means that I'm going to need pants and as usual, I seem to have no pants anywhere to be seen. Must go and buy two more pairs of jeans. Soon. The cold is, however, nice because I get to wear my fluffy grey scarf that Rachael's grandmother made and long socks and sweaters.

I'm approaching 1000 pageviews on dA. I think I was at around 700-something at the beginning of the summer. This makes me feel quite prestigous.

Saw two plays at the local Fringe Festival. They were both quite a riot.

I attempted to henna my left hand and rather failed at it. It's really faint and looks rather like I've just drawn on myself with orange marker except it's more permanent. I think I'll try again with lemon juice and sugar, as is the advice of the henna website. It looked rather cool before I washed the stuff off though:



I need to write more. I need to paint more. This is the story of my life.

Featuring! Pom (as Toaster and Greg), Floam (as Floam and Namhcouc) and I (as !emily, Emily and a whole bunch of coach/couch/coughs).

 

 

( Cut for length =O )

</span></div></div></span>

I think I’ve broken my glasses for good. Fortunately, they were ridiculously scratched and I want new ones. Unfortunately my mother will most likely not succumb to my requests of getting a new pair of glasses and make me wear the uncomfortable, not-very-funky-looking spare pair of glasses instead. Flargh.

Went canoeing yesterday down a longish inlet with my father. ‘Twas fun. I like canoeing. It was even better when at one point I declared “to hell with footwear” (well no, I don’t think I actually said “to hell with footwear”, I think I said something more mundane like “I should take off my shoes”) and went barefoot for the rest of it which included beaching the canoe, eating ice cream, walking around parks and reading Magic’s Pawn.

Spent the better part of today finishing Magic’s Pawn for that matter. I think I’ve mentioned here before that Lackey has this knack for not letting you go from books until you’ve finished them. It’s been on hold at the library for, what? Two months? And there’s someone who’s got a hold on it after me so it’s probably a good thing that I’ve finished it quickly, I feel their pain. Magicz and gay men, hurrah! I think Savil (your average sharp-as-a-tack no-nonsense post-menopausal-lady-in-charge) is my favourite character, really. And Moondance is pretty awesome. And Van when he isn’t being a self-loathing prick. Well I guess I rather like him as a self-loathing prick as well. Not that you can blame him being arguably the most Royally Messed Up character I've ever read about. The Royally Messed Up Character also seems to be quite a Valdemar staple. Still, a right good book (and I'll admit, there were many parts that made my inner fangirl extremely happy).

My to-read list excites me. Next up: A Little History of the World (which I'm almost finished, it had to step aside for Magic's Pawn somewhere around the split of the Christian church), Great Expectations, A Spell for Chameleon, the third Deathnote book which I have conveniently forgotten the name of, and Dream Country (of Sandman persuasion).

Working on Jaspek, slowly… ish…

I hope it'll rain tonight.

Tea for the Tillerman is officially the best song under a minute long ever written.

On that hap-py day, on that HAAA-PYYYY DAAAAY!

This song is also ridiculously catchy. Thank you Frog for bestowing the And Ting on us.

I leave you with this quote, selected at random from my file full of quotes:

""So often in real life, one person wants to be understood, but obscures her feelings with completely unrelated words and facial expressions, while the other person is trying to remember whether she ddid or didn't turn off the burner under the hard-boiled eggs" -Lynne Rae Perkins - Criss Cross

Changed my default icon for the sake of change. It's by whispyr whose icons are beautiful.

Summer and I don't get along that well. I spend all of my school year dreaming about this vast expanse of free time. And then it comes and... I do do the things I told myself that I should do but of course I never get nearly all, or half, or a quarter of them done. Flargh. Jaspek, can I conceivably finish rewriting you before school starts like I said I would? Eh. Maybe?

To Do List
- Edit Jaspek
- Holy Book on Onion
- Make things for christmas craft fair
- Practise watercolours
- SEKRET art project
- Paint room
- Paint flying paper mache pig to hang on ceiling of room
- Meet up with some friends? Sometime? Maybe?
- Conceivably come up with a NaNo plot?

What is this SEKRET art project, you ask? I struck inspiration for a silent comic last night, kind of in the style of this (which just makes me happy every time I look at a panel, go see it!). Will I actually do it? Er, maybe.

George. A Thing who abides on the Galeantian island of Heliotrope. Things are very friendly towards just about every species of creature if you choose to overlook their habit of eating just about everything, including their good friends of all species. They enjoy limericks, particularly those of Edward Lear. Also pictured here: The elusive eye lily. Those lucky enough to capture the seeds of this mysterious flower may guarantee protection for their garden against deer, robbers and various other unwanted things that might otherwise go unseen.

A base!

Outlines/minus outlines, facing right/left, various skintones. I might scrap the nightelf and do something more... er, human instead.

Finally did see HBP. It strikes me how the movies (like the books did) keep evolving. I remember the second and third as really not being all that great... the plot and the acting didn't really grab me. But this one. Shiz. It was fantastic. Characters like Draco, who I just thought were rather silly earlier have become wonderfully human, conflicted characters. Had a discussion with my mother on what the books would have been like if Harry were as human as Draco (well, discussion, I was kind of talking nonstop and she was nodding distractedly). T'would have been interesting.

An elderly (heh, I'm sure he wouldn't be all that pelased to be called 'elderly') dog walking friend of mine gave me a link to his blog upon which I found an entry he posted featuring my dog and I and my sandals. Saying:

"Her dad says she has the soul of a hippie. Her choice of sandals says the same. They would have fit real well at the wee gathering that took place at Woodstock forty years ago this summer, the one that inspired Joni Mitchell to write about bomber jets turning into butterflies("above our nation," although she was and is a Canadian, poetic license, I suppose)"

and various people commented saying things like:

'I love her sandals. I would wear those, and I'm a wee bit older than this young lady.'

and

'Thank goodness there are some young ones with the "...souls of hippies..." The lack of a youth with a idealistic concept is part of what is wrong with the corporate, greed-driven society of today. (Said the aging idealist)'

I'm quite flattered (and I was wearing tie-dye that day to-boot). He doesn't know I have a blog as well. Perhaps I will not tell him.
( Moar artstuff. )

 

It just started raining out of nowhere. Noisily. I love rain. Pom and I are working on the Holy Book of Onion. I should probably crack open a Bible for inspiration. Our garden is beautiful. Our grape vine is taking over our cherry tree, winding itself around several electrical wires and producing nice sour grapes. My mother is making toast with melted cheese on. My cat loves me. I'm reading with a nine year old girl at the library and despite the fact that I can't seem to make her think that Roald Dahl would be a good choice, it's very fun. Life is good.

Garden pictures next time, methinks.

So. Life. Perhaps the best thing that's happened to me since I last posted is Luminara which I talked about last year (hey, this blog was started more than a year ago) and can be very well summed up by this person.  I hope to volunteer next year. It's magic. Also, the Symphony Splash which featured an acquaintance of mine on piano playing Rhapsody in Blue which I now cannot get out of my head. She's amazing.

A couple of relatives that I haven't seen since I was three stayed the long weekend and proved themselves to be very nice, interesting people. It was ridiculously hot last week. 42 degrees in Bella Coola. Shit. It's thankfully cooler now but I could really do with some rain. I've been slaving over my website a lot. Yes. Life.

Here's another story, which I like quite a bit better than the watermelon one even though that was pure sillyness. I wanted to see if I could think of anything that would suit a 'summer heat' themed contest at my library and, er, well. Demons. Yeah. Cookies go to Pom, my original idea-generator, Floam for the chlorine idea and the 'yarnum' curse and Rachael (who appears to no longer have a site =<) for beta reading. Any CC would be fantastic in case I still want to enter it xD.

( Wichaw. )

Also, I finished this after what? A year?

There was something on the radio this morning about The Wind in the Willows. On that topic I went and perused my bookshelf. Here I give you a list of my favourite children's books, children's books being defined as things I read or were read to me when I was youngish that mostly have lots of pictures.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
I still pull these out a lot and marvel at how brilliant Lewis Carroll is. The Jabberwocky and The Walrus and the Carpenter are two of my favourite poems ever.

The Secret Garden and The Little Princess
These books were my favourites until I read The Blue Sword. They enchanted me. They, particularly The Little Princess, made me vow to be a better person. I'm not really sure whether my eight-year-old self managed this or not.

consequently The Little Prince
Maybe the most beautifully true book ever written.

Where the Wild Things Are
They're making a movie out of this! Eee, they had better not ruin it. From the pictures though, it looks pretty awesome.

Madeline
I really wanted to be brave just like her.

Puddle Lane
This was a multi-character epic series of tiny little picture books about cats, children, dolls that come alive and go on adventures and many other things.

The Magician's Nephew
The only Narnia book I really read as a kid and I think also my favourite, perhaps after The Horse and His Boy.

The Magic School Bus
Education! These were really fun. I own all of them but the one about water.

Mrs. Ticklebelly (can't find this - I hope that's actually the title)
I made my dad dress up as Mrs. Tickelbelly and come to visit me once.

everything by Dr Suess, specifically The Cat in the Hat and One Fish Two Fish and All the Thinks you Can Think - the list goes on

Go Dog, Go!

Millions of Cats

Because a Little Bug Went Ka-choo!
Cause and effect!

My Father's Dragon
Another epic.

various books by Roald Dahl such as The BFG and Matilda and lots and lots of others
This guy is amazing. Particulary, how utterly morbid his stories for adults can be (in a rather similar style to that of Mr. Gaiman).

Little House in the Big Woods
I really wanted to eat steamed venison and go to town to buy candy after reading this xD.

The Railway Children and The Magic City

Anne of Green Gables
I can relate ridiculously well to Montgomery's heroines. I would think that she had actually created me writing about Emily except for that I'm not a mournfully hopeless romantic and I've never described anyone's eyes as 'orbs' xD.

The Trumpet of the Swan
This is the first book I read by myself that I remember reading into the wee hours of the night, unable to put it down.

The sad thing about children's books is that ultimately you don't remember most of them, or forget the titles. I particularly remember one story about a princess who wanted a dress made out of the sky so her servants climbed ladders at cut a piece of the sky down and made it into a dress except then the stars caught the palace floor on fire. I have completely no idea what it was called. Anyhoo. I wish to know your ('your' being defined as the people who actually read this thing) favourite/favourites.

Been pulling stuff out of the ground today: grass, ivy. I feel a bit like a monster but it's very satisfying. Am pulling twigs out of my hair as I type this.

There are lots of people on the street today, lots of them looking like they aren't really going anywhere in particular. I must have looked pretty strange as well walking back and forth and all over the place with my dog but on a hot day like this, it really isn't worth the energy to try to tug her along in the direction that I would rather go in.

I really want to watch HBP. I also really want to watch OotP but for some strange reason -coughyourfaultrachaelcough, haven't. I have yet to see on-screen-Luna! Shameful. Whenever a new movie comes out, I feel a bit of regret that I haven't kept a bit more on top of the Harry Potter fandom and such. I forget more than half of the plot-line come to think of it. Ah well, maybe some time I'll get around to rereading the books.

Discovered this which looks rather awesome. Might join and try it out. I love handwriting.

I also have somewhat of an urge to join Twitter. Must. Resist. No, Twitter, you cannot have me! I have enough ways to waste my time already.

Will post a few photos from the trip later. Some are pretty gorgeous.

Meanwhile, here is a doodle. It's not exactly a work of great fiction but I had far too much fun with the dialogue. It's about... well I would tell you what it's about but that would spoil it,
( would it? )( wouldn't it? )

Quick post to say that I shall be gone until July 12th or so. We're going camping. With Cinta. It'll be interesting. My goal is to finish The Two Towers by the time we get back (which will hopefully keep me busy enough that I won't suffer too much without the computer, or my usual music since I seem to have managed to misplace my mp3 player). Visiting the Vancouver art gallery on the way back which I'm already looking forward to. Ciao.