Yet another bit of procrastination

[Harry Potter]Adding to the plethora of posts on LJ about Book 6

Thu, 21 Jul 2005 14:54:07 GMT

So, picked up the book a few days back (sadly, bought it before I found out that I might have been able to get it by redeeming customer points at local petrol station) , finished reading it. My thoughts?

On the book overall: A generally better read than the previous one. OotP, while containing important stuff, and a few good moments, and Luna Lovegood who amuses me to no end, was a bit too much work to read. This one, by contrast, was a much more fun experience.

On Draco Malfoy: Ha! Finally, I am vindicated. The abundance of fanworks featuring Draco Malfoy as either a shining paragon of virtue, or the Real Big Bad of HP never cease to amaze me. I dunno, I honestly find it a bit hard to see Malfoy as anything but a spoiled rich kid, who is certainly unpleasant and does a decent job of antagonising Harry... but throughout the series, I've never seen any indication that he's anything more than that. Seriously, where are some of these people getting this? His purpose in the overall plot (as far as I can tell, feel free to argue the point) is to make the real villainy stand out- Draco's little schoolboy pranks and campaigns against Harry just make Voldemort's actions much more evil by contrast. The idea of Draco really amounting to anything big is pretty much incomprehensible to me.

On Ron/Hermione: Hm. Could go either way. Will not be surprised if they actually become a couple in the last book, but I wouldn't say it's graven in stone.

On Harry/Ginny: Decent. Honestly wondering if this is the end, or Rowling will have more of this in the next book, despite the whole Spiderman moment at the end.

On Dumbledore: Now you see, this is how Sirius should have gone. We really got to see the relationship between him and Harry build, got a sense of just how good he was... and then he died in a well-handled way, as opposed to the whole thing with the curtain. Also, am quite fond of his entire speech on the prophecy not really mattering to Harry- makes the anticlimactic revelation of it's contents at the end of OotP less annoying.

On Slugthorn: Oh my goodness, a halfway decent Slytherin? About bloody well time, JKR. Also, nice little shell game with him, Snape, and the Defence against the Dark Arts post.

On Tonks/Lupin: Eh. The couple itself is okay, but the pairing was not very well done. It really wasn't so much a side-story as a plot device to confuse the readers. For a short while, I was wondering if Tonks was the one who had passed the necklace in the girls bathroom.

On the Abridged History of Voldemort: Not bad. Useful to know, and helping to build a better picture of the villain of the series.

On Snape: Hokay, this one is... interesting. Not entirely sure about the Half-Blood Prince stuff- when you get down to it, you could probably excise pretty much every mention of that from the narrative, and the story could proceed okay, which is kind of odd considering it's the sodding well title of the book. As for the whole 'Yup, he's definetly evil' bit... I dunno, I'm, finding it pretty hard to believe, actually. If nothing else, what was up with that whole 'look of hatred' he gave Dumbledore at the last- we've never had any indications that he felt anything more than periodic irritation towards Albus on account of his not getting the DaD job. On the other hand, if one assumes that he's a White Hat, and deep cover within the ranks of the Death Eaters, then it makes perfect sense- that hatred is because he's being begged by Dumbledore, the one person who seems to truly trust him, to kill him. This also explains away his sudden rage at Harry's calling him a coward. Maybe it's just my comics background showing through in this- that's a genre wherein 'deep cover' can extend to being killed, brought back from the dead as an undead assasin and crashing a helicarrier into the sea thereby killing hundreds of people on your side, before finally breaking cover. Next to that, offing Dumbledore seems somewhat mild.

Also, I must say that I do like how Snape pretty much bitchslapped Harry magically during their short fight. The Boy Who Lived has uncommon talent in DaD, as well as the freshness and unpredictability of youth, but head-on, against a seasoned veteran wizard? No contest, and something that's nice to see after the hard-to-explain showing of Dumbledore's Army against the Death Eaters in the previous book (at least this time, Ron and Hermione got through it because of Felix). Then again... hmm, I wonder if the Horicrux theory might help explain that as well...

On Horicrux: Huh. Not exactly surprising, but a decent plot device. That's quite a bit for Harry to do from now till the end of Book 7- unless JKR writes the destruction of some occuring off-stage in-between books, which is a bit unsatisfying. Then again, we have the mysterious R.A.B out there, so there's always that.

On Dobby/Kreacher: Muchly amused. I think they could rate a short story all of their own- "The misadventures of Dobby and Kreacher".

On the ending: Hm, I'm honestly wondering what on earth Harry's going to do next? His resolution to track down the rest of the Horicruxes seems a little bit niave, seeing as how he's stonewalling even the Order of the Phoenix on their existence. I mean, all he has in the way of resources is Dumbledore's lessons on Voldemort's history, his account at Gringotts, Ron, Hermione... and Kreacher and the resources of Black mansion, I suppose- not very impressive considering the task ahead of him.

Report on Neil Gaiman previews of Mirrormask

Wed, 06 Jul 2005 22:57:19 GMT

As requested by monkeygod, delayed by RL.

Event kicked off with... Neil being late (apparently, the restaurant he was dining at wanted photos). To compensate, we, the audience were enquired as to the possible presence of any under 16, and when that was confirmed to not be the case, a short film called... A short film about John Bolton, which was written by him. Funny, in a somewhat black way- the sort of humour one finds in watching a roomfull of blindfolded people groping about for something you can see clearly.

Once Neil actually entered, he, in his own words, 'burbled on' about what we were going to see, and Mirrormask in general. Entering the theatre not knowing much of it (I'd like to say that it was a deliberate thing, but I just never got around to hunting down info). Said that it was to be something in the same genre as Labyrinth or Time Bandits, but without David Bowie's bulge. Gave a little story about how he was approached, which ran something like this:

LISA HENSON (daughter of Jim Henson, of muppet fame): Neil, I have a problem

NEIL: Go on

LISA: Labyrinth and Dark Crystal, while considered bombs when they first came out, have been selling very well on DVD- Sony has noticed this. They thus would like us to make another fantasy film.

NEIL: That's nice.

LISA: The problem is that those two cost us about fourty million to make during the '80s... Sony is offering us four million to make this new one.

NEIL: That is a problem.

LISA: So, with a budget of four million, we're thinking of getting Dave Mckean to direct, as we've seen his short movies and he can film fantasy for almost nothing... but we can't afford to hire you to write a script, so we were hoping you could do a loose storyline and we could get someone much cheaper to take that and do their best Neil Gaiman impression and make it into a proper script.

NEIL: ...if you can get Dave to direct, I will write you a script, and there shall be no further discussion of money.

LISA: ... okay. (Neil notes that she was likely hoping for this)

Neil also digressed slightly with a short tale about him and Terry Pratchett going into a meeting to listen to the ideas for a Good Omens movie (apparently, Tom Cruise was to be Newt Pulsifer, Julia Roberts to be Anathema, Adam was to be 15-18 years old and have a crush on her...).

Dave McKean was discussed ("We can't have a scene in a school, that'll cost too much... but I can have the world crumple up like a piece of paper and bloom into a flower for nothing, how's that?"), how he'd hired animators straight out of art school for the project, so they'd have less to unlearn, and a little tale about how he'd watched with Neil, one day in Jim Henson's old house as a break from scriptwriting, a three and a half-hour unedited version of Labyrinth. Neil says that he and Dave were most impressed at how Jim Henson managed to cut and edit the full ten minute 'Black Magic' dance scene with David Bowie into something far shorter, not funny, and with much less of David Bowie's bulge.

Neil described what we were going to be seeing- the Electronic Press Kit for Mirrormask, consisting of three scenes from the movie, before-and-after comparison of a scene with and without blue screen, and some soundbites from an interview he'd done... in which he'd apparently told something of a bald-faced lie about David and was surprised that it was the one of the bits selected for the press kit.

With that out of the way, the press kit was watched, and a good time was had by all. The first scene was a nice little showcase of animation- the main character getting an explanation of some of the background of the world she's in accompanied by little animated puppets. The second was a creepy rags-to-gothic-princessy-thing transformation sequence facilitated by an unnerving set of musical boxes (Neil: As happens to all of us, from time to time). The last was a musical montage, haunting and with nice use of light and shadow.

The bit following that was nice, although Neil noted that "if you're going to try and show off the application of your clever special effects, you might do better not to choose one of the dimmest scenes in the movie".

And lastly, came the soundbites, in which we finally got to see Neil's little bit of lying... which turned out to be a tale on how, as a young lad, Dave McKean had been traumatised by a man leaping out of him wearing a mask and had been hospitalised, only to be revived by nurses wearing long-nosed Venetian masks coming in and making faces at him, this child of four years with a beard, and that is why masks are a common feature in his works. ^_^

The actual trailer for Mirrormask itself was not shown, to my surprise, but as Neil pointed out, you could easily get that off the web. The Q & A session following all this, produced some interesting results.

Neil on Tamlin: Dead. However the rights for everything to do with it that isn't the movie itself have reverted to him, so we may yet see it in book form.

Neil on Alan Moore: The only way he knows he influenced Alan, was that he was told that Promethea was "for Sandman fans with nothing else to buy". Neil however was heavily influenced by Alan, learning, if nothing else, how to do comic scripts from him, and his first few years being very Alan Moore-ish, his own voice breaking through at around Sandman #6. Alan, he says "has forgotten more about writing than anyone else will know... because of the drugs of course". As an example, Neil described himself describing to Alan an idea that had been mentioned several years back that he was curious what was being done with it, that of a woman marrying herself (and the accompanying row with herself over who would sit on the groom's side and who would sit on the bride's side, the honeymoon with her bouncing on the bed, and the final heartwrenching divorce from herself), and being told "Huh. That sounds like a good idea- must have been on a brain cell that went away."

Neil on Good Omens: The standard answer on whether there is to be a sequel, until a few months ago, was something along the lines of 'it will be a cold day in hell'. However, after a chat with Terry about what C & A would be doing nowadays, things are slightly different. Good Omens 2 '668, the neighbour of the beast', which he and Terry had originally thought of, which would feature the Second Coming of Christ, accompanied by angels with little earpieces herding him along and the Lamb of God wandering off to minister to the poor in Times Square, that book... will not be written. However, more C & A may yet come forth in the future.

... he also noted that whatever it would be, would be greeted by hordes of people writing C & A angel/demon slashfic saying "it's not as good as mine".

Neil on Death: Yes, there will indeed be a Death: High Cost of Living movie.. On the question of casting- "as in this day and age, all of you are one and a half minutes away from putting it up on aintitcoolnews... no comment".

Neil on known as that Sandman guy: Pointed out that it depended on which country he was in- apparently, for example, in Poland he's known more for his fantasy novels, and is asked by Poles about being a Post-modernist. He also noted that he didn't know what he'd be known for in the future, and was simply resolved to keep making art. He was resigned though, that news of his death "would be greeted by fan cartoons of a guy with floppy hair and a leather jacket being led off by a girl with a smile".

Neil on Terry Pratchett and writing Good Omens: The writing process itself was described as Neil, waking up in the early afternoon to a message on his machine saying "Get up you bastard, I've written another good bit", and the entire thing as "a mad dash to get to write the next good bit before the other guy". As for how he and Pratchett's styles had meshed during the working on Good Omens? "Brilliantly!"

He wrote to make Terry laugh, Terry wrote to make him laugh, and the only arguement they had during the entire thing was over Aziraphale's exorcism.

TERRY: People can't say 'fuck' in a Terry Pratchett novel.

NEIL: He's not. He's saying it in a Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett novel.

TERRY: All right, they can blame you.

So ends the report. There was undoubtedly stuff that isn't recorded here, either because I couldn't be arsed to try and remember it then, or because I can't be arsed to write it down now. The signing dragged on (there is a very humourous tale as to why I was near the back of the queue- however it will not be related on account of my looking a bit of a burke in it. This entire aside only real point is so that I can use the word 'burke' ^_^), and ended up being held in the local Comics Mart branch when the theatre closed.

Some random thoughts

Tue, 28 Jun 2005 14:23:44 GMT

On food: Wagyu sukiyaki beef is good, but not enough to justify it's price compared to regular beef. Twice as good for six times the price? Mm, no thank you.

On games: You'd think that by the 5th Dynasty Warriors game, the makers could find or train english voice actors who could not, y'know, mangle the pronounciation of certain names? It's not like they have to do a full-blown recital in huanyu pinyin, just a few names of people and places. Not sure if the game overall beats 3, but at least Zhang Jiao in 5 no longer sounds like he's auditioning for the role of Albus Dumbledore, as he did in 4.

On cats: I give the IKEA kitchen table a year or so, and then the felines of this house are going to claw their way through one of its legs by using them as scratching posts.

On entertainment: Naruto DVDs played on 32-inch plasma screen...mmm, bliss. Pity the DVDs just left the country with eldest sibling.

[fic] Naruto: Legacy?

Fri, 10 Jun 2005 18:14:43 GMT

... this can be indirectly blamed on harukami, for getting me interested in writing again, and for Naruto especially, with her ~~brain-breaking~~ amusing tales. Feel free to shred it to pieces and point out any errors or flaws. No real spoilers, apart from Orochimaru's intentions past the Second round of the Chuunin Exam?

Legacy?

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, IT CAN'T BE DONE!"

Cringing slightly, Konohamaru, personal assistant to the Hokage, waved his hands in a vain attempt at supplication. "But big brother, it's not possible with what we-"

"Don't bother coddling him, Konohamaru. If dead-last here can't even accept that fact, maybe I should take back the title from him."

"Oh, don't be so mean, Sasuke-kun. Besides, I think if anyone should be taking that back, it should be me. Don't you have your family to think about?"

The grumpiness easing from his face, Uzumaki Naruto, freshly-appointed Kyuudaime, bounced up from behind his desk to greet his visitors, the wide brimmed hat denoting his office fluttering to the floor in his wake. "Sasuke! Sakura-chan!"

"Hmph. Naruto, try and remember who you are now." Leaning arrogantly against the doorframe, Uchiha Sasuke glanced out the window. "What you're so worked up about isn't even that important anyway." He was frankly, quite glad to have relinquished his position as Shichidaime. He'd only come to the office after the Rokudaime, Jiraiya, been forced to step down due to crippling injuries sustained during the Fourth Great Ninja War that had been instigated by Orochimaru. Konoha had needed a strong warleader then, and Sasuke, with the strength of his bloodline and unique insight into Orochimaru, had been agreed upon as the best candidate by the council elders. Stepping down from his position once the war had died down to fully dedicate himself to rebuilding the Uchiha clan, the former Hokage concluded, had been the best for everyone- he acknowledged that he lacked the patience for the day-to-day administrative duties needed to run Konoha, and would have made a poor peacetime Hokage... unlike the person beside him.

"Not important? Sasuke you- ow!"

Sighing even as she bopped her old teammate on the head, Haruno Sakura plucked the official Hokage hat off the floor from where it had fallen, dusting it off before replacing it on his head. "He's right you know, Naruto. With or without it, all of Konoha has already acknowledged you as Hokage... isn't that the important thing?" Sakura smiled at her two old comrades as she spoke, wondering if Sasuke was thinking about his own term as Hokage. As his sucessor, she had been faced with the unenviable task of attending to the scars left across the faces of Konohagakure and it's allies by the war. Her time as Hokage had seen her trapped between the stress of rebuilding Konoha and maintaining the fragile peace that had been forged with the destruction of both Akatsuki and Orochimaru. It had been with great relief that, to grant Konoha a more aggressive Hokage to better suit the rising tensions between the ninja villages, she had finally relinquished her position to Naruto, who's dream to become Hokage had never wavered since their Academy days.

"But, but-" Spluttering wildly, Naruto raised his hands to tear at his hair, met the brim of his resettled hat, and settled for waving incoherently at the window. "Aaaaaahhh! It's not fair! Why does it have to be like this when I'm finally Hokage?!" He knew that what they were saying was true- he'd worked long and hard to prove himself to the village and the council as a worthy Hokage...

"Don't worry big brother! We can always erect a statue somewhere, or maybe we can hang a giant banner alongside them with you on it-"

... managing to finally escape from being viewed as nothing but the accursed vessel for the Kyuubi...

"Ch. If the masons say they can't do it, they can't. Get that through your head, dumbass."

...gaining a fresh appreciation for what being Hokage took, working under his old teammates during their terms...

"Besides Naruto, isn't this a little hypocritical? Considering what you used to do to them when you were young?"

...but why was it that they had to run out of space on the mountain when the time came to carve his face amongst the other Hokages?

Author's Note: Actually, I estimate that there's juuuuust enough space on the mountain for a 9th head, but making Naruto into Kyuudaime was too neat to resist.

I'm 'It* apparently. Huh.

Thu, 09 Jun 2005 20:21:51 GMT

Having been tagged by filthyjinx, I follow the directive below:

"List five songs that you are currently digging. It doesn't matter what genre they are from, whether they have words, or even if they're any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying right now. Post these instructions, the artist, and the song in your journal, then tag five other people to see what they're listening to."

1. Vince DiCola- Dare, the extended version (Because hey, the Transformers movie is always classic)

2. Mari Kirioka- Beyond the Bounds

3. Revolutionary Girl Utena- Absolute Destiny Apocalypse ("mokushi kushimo shimoku kumoshi moshiku-")

4. KOTOKO- We Survive (Yes, I know what it's the opening theme *to*. No, I don't know what the lyrics actually mean. Doesn't matter)

5. GITS Stand Alone Complex OST 1- Beauty Is Within Us (The anthem of the Vampire RPG)

And as for who to tag in return? ~~For vague embaressment, like misery, loves company~~

1.dark_puck
2.busyyuu
3.saraswathi_rani
4.harukami
5.monkeygod

Of Devils and Serenity.

Sat, 16 Apr 2005 17:05:58 GMT

Having played through roughly half of Devil May Cry 3, I think I can safely say that it is a Good Game, and a worthy sucessor overall to DMC1. The gameplay itself is smooth, the enemy AI is well, actually present unlike DMC2, and even Dante's strutting about isn't too bad- it's an improvement over his mostly silent DMC2 performance, and it actually makes sense if one considers that as a prequel, Dante being at an early stage in his career, is quite likely to be even more flamboyant, to the point of mild irritation.

In other news, working my way through the Firefly DVD set, I must join my voice to all other fans of the series in asking: Why on earth was this series dropped?

Eh, must stopy typing and return to packing- flying off come the morrow.

Hmmm...

Tue, 12 Apr 2005 00:29:57 GMT

Ganked from bonita_chaotica, with um, interesting results...

If You Ruled the World: by oomarilynmonroe
Username
national religion
Type of Government
How you take over
You would name it
You would overthrow	busyyuu
Your second in command would be	guerillagrodd
Your sex slave is	stardust_rain
Commander of the military:	bonita_chaotica
Put to death for insubordination	dark_puck
Figure head in the puppet government	filthyjinx
You are overthrown by	harukami

Quiz created with MemeGen!

Birthday today.

Wed, 30 Mar 2005 15:59:54 GMT

Back in Singapore, a country with none of this 'ground floor' silliness. Laptop fixed and running with precision (and a working period key). My brother actually calling the house for once to wish me a happy birthday. Silliness with the cats. Sukiyaki for dinner. Four different flavours of Gelato for desert. And a viewing of the Kung Fu Hustle DVD in the basement with the parents to cap it off, with a bath drawing as I type these words.

Not a bad way to kick off my third cycle on the Chinese Zodiac.

Someone wants to see how I do in hell

Mon, 28 Feb 2005 17:32:26 GMT

... I am thinking that this is not exactly a compliment, but okay.

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Eigth Level of Hell - the Malebolge!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Low
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Moderate
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Low
Level 7 (Violent)	Moderate
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Very High
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Low

Take the Dante Inferno Hell Test

Whee! I'm EVAHL,fear me!

Not entirely sure how I rate the Eighth Circle- my best guess is either my yen for fantasy gets me in with them Magicians and Diviners, or that I've been judged likely to abuse any future higher office I might gain.

Fair is fair, I suppose.

Thu, 17 Feb 2005 17:24:56 GMT

Ask me four questions. Any four, no matter how personal, private or random.

I will answer them honestly. I have to answer them all.

In turn, you post this message in your own journal and you have to answer the questions that are asked of you.

Oh look, content

Fri, 11 Feb 2005 23:16:36 GMT

Gads, I've got to check more than the friendslist on this LJ on a more regular basis it seems- I keep on missing on people friending me. Well, what's up with me right now? Just got back the essay I did on "the arguements for and against tourism in Burma" for my South East Asian studies course. Did pretty good, even with my accidentaly mixing up pages two and three- couldn't understand why the comments included an admonishment to have my numbered footnotes done in numerical order, till I checked. ^_^;; Am looking forward, in an odd way, to seeing what my father's reaction to my getting corrected on the use of subheadings in my essay, which is one of the more constant pieces of advice he's given me. Ah well, the next essay is due in soon, but it's fairly broad, and I've just hit reading week, so I should manage, assuming I don't waste too much time on frivolous matters.

... Stop laughing you lot, I'm not that easily distracted... much.

*resists urge to pause writing this to load up Geneforge 2 again*

Anyhows, apart from that? Well, for those of you on GAFF, I can honestly say that non-numerical challenges are interesting to view as an observer, but if you're the judge, the experience can be likened to a bloody well bukkake scene, in which one sits down and asks people to step up as they will, and hit you in the face with their best (or worst) shot. I suppose it's not yet as bad as my first Challenge, but it's still early- I have ~~dread~~ confidence in the abilities of GAFFers to traumatise me.

Right, enough of this- back to ~~Geneforge 2~~ work.

Oh yeah, I've got this LJ thing, don't I?

Thu, 06 Jan 2005 12:13:02 GMT

I knew I was forgetting something... ah well, at any rate, hopefully the next post won't have quite so big a timegap, but term is starting up again, so all is uncertain. As usual.

Bah, on to what I've been doing.

1) Catching up on movies- mostly bad ones. Watched Catwoman on the flight back, simply because that's the only circumstance under which I could justify watching something so obviously crappy to myself. Not to my brother though- I do so wish I could have seen his face when I related this to him, if only due to the sheer horror in his voice as he castigated me for watching Catwoman, at all. Of course, he did have a something of a point in that my parents had picked up the DVD as freebie elsewhere, so I could have watched it in the comfort of the home cinema. Then again, that probably would have gotten brother dear to bitch even more about decontaminating the place or suchlike.

My thoughts on the movie itself? Halle Berry had one or two decent moments- and not a single one occured when she was trying to be catlike. Particularly amusing in it's crappiness is how she escapes a jail cell by squeezing through the bars like a cat would. Or the dominatrix scene in the dance club. Or the really, really sillily obvious CG work when Halle is running along the walls dodging bullets. Or- heck, the entire movie is goofily funny in a horrendously crappy way.

2) Phantom Brave- oh my goodness, but this game is a delight. The format is somewhat familiar, being a turn-based reminiscent of FF Tactics in some ways, but in other aspects, the game is deliciously original and freeform. Almost everything can be customized until a humble Water Can may be used to slay a Dragon, and at a beginner's and intermediate level, the system is elegant and uncomplicated enough that it's very, very easy to pick up. Of course, it helps that I've the official strat guide, but even so, Phantom Brave, while capable of becomind quite complex, can be reduced to very simple steps and procedures. More on this game may be featured in this space.

3) Cats- oddly enough, following the departure of Ginger, the old fat tom of the house, Ariel, the previously skittish mother of three has become surprisingly friendly, to me and people in general. Now if we could only get her not to demonstrate her newfound ties to the house by using the basement as her toilet...

Must go, dinner calls.

Because it isn't a proper LJ without a sprinkling of quizzes...

Tue, 02 Nov 2004 22:27:01 GMT

Hm... maybe I'll try that one out sometime.

Boo.

Mon, 25 Oct 2004 21:27:07 GMT

The way my schedule works is that the first few days of the week are dedicated to irregular dining- the idea of my getting the traditional three square meals during this time is laughable. Part of this is the fact that, well, that's the way I am- I generally don't have terribly balanced meals normally. The other reason is that my classes are staggered such that I normally have to make do with a quick sandwich or something in between lectures on some days.

And therefore, I can only conclude that there is a shadowy conspiracy afoot aimed at tormenting me. For instance, today, and every monday since my schedule settled down, coming back from a lecture that goes from 1800 to 2100, with a few minutes in between for a Snickers bar, I must brave the gauntlet of the aromas of roasting meat, fried fish and sundry other morsels wafting from a certain restraunt just around the corner from my flat. Even better, the comic store I swing through on my way back from noontime lectures seems to be linked to some sort of restaurant- I've seen them carting in supplies through the a door hidden in the middle of the racks in the basement. The last few weeks, either the chefs have really gotten into the swing of things or someone's left that door open by a crack, because my nostrils have been courted by the aroma of grilled steak and other vittles whilst checking to see if the latest installment of historical samuria romance action is in.

Clearly, the only explanation is someone or something has chosen this as a form of exquisite torture.

Eating a more weighty meal prior to attending these things doesn't seem to do much good- my gut knows it BLOODY WELL hasn't been fed at the appointed time, and reminds me pointedly when prompted by these little reminders. Perhaps with a little more time it'll get into the swing of the new schedule.

Could it be gasp... content?!

Sun, 17 Oct 2004 11:28:37 GMT

Well... it is if you count my semi-random musings as such.

The first thing is that I've just recently been reminded of what a strange, uncharted domain my mind is. Case in point: I've recently started using the phrase "It's not rocket science", to the point of abuse. The odd thing is that, when I stop to think about it, I have absolutely no idea why I've been doing this. I've never used it before, it hasn't been used in my presence recently, nor have I read or watched anything that contained that phrase- I haven't even been exposed to anything on rocket science itself (this trend predates the recent coverage of commercial spaceflight). Yet, for some odd reason, this phrase has percolated through the layers of my consciousness and socketed itself into my assemblage of commonly-used phrases.

Creepy.

In other news, I have been mistaken for another nationality for the nth time, this time by a checkout attendant at the local Waitrose. This... irks me. Was asked if I was Phillipino this time, which I suppose makes a nice change from my accent being taken as British, American, Australian- and in several odd moments, Cockney English and Thai. Must remember to ask my language teacher what he makes of my accent- although, with the way things are going, he'll probably identify it as Mongolian or something.

And so it begins...

Sat, 16 Oct 2004 18:45:05 GMT

Right, first entry in a spanking new livejournal. Welcome, whoever is viewing this. There's not much here right now, and I can't really promise any sort of coherent schedule of updates, but hopefully you'll find what's to come entertaining and/or insightful.

... is there anything else? Mmmm... guess not for now.