We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be

Icons Meme

2009-10-22T22:35:54Z

From pigrescuer, otherwise known as 'the person from whom I steal all my memes'.

01. Comment to this entry saying 'ICONS!' and I will pick 6 of your icons.
02. Make an entry in your own journal and talk about the icons I picked!

The picture is from the 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice series, otherwise known as the One True Austen. It shows the youngest and silliest of the Bennett sisters, Lydia, doing what she does best. "A whole campful of soldiers! SQUEE!"
I use this icon to express fangirl-y glee. Or just general liking for something.
Made by michaela0823and posted on book_icons.

This is another one from the Pride and Prejudice TV series, this time with Mr. Bngley's objectionable sisters and BFF, the brooding Mr. Darcy trying to persuade him not to marry Jane. By looming. And staring critically.
I usually use this icon to agree with someone who's posted about something bizarre and I agree with them, but I also (rarely!) use it when someone has posted something I don't agree with and I want to let them know. Passive-agressive? Well, yes, a bit.
Made by chili_das_schafand posted on the book_iconscomm.

Another one I hardly ever get to use! The quote is from Lynne Truss (aka The Grammar Goddess)'s book Eats, Shoots and Leaves, aka 'my comfort reading book that makes me laugh out loud on school bus trips and then have to explain why to my classmates who just do not get it'. This is my Beta-reader icon. Which I only use in the kindest of spirits. Truly. I also get to use it when talking about writing.
Made by fourthageand posted in book_icons.

Ooh, this is my favourite! It's from the Queen's Thief series, taken from the part early in The Thief where Eugenides collapses by the side of the road and the Magus complains that they can't stop, being only half-way to Methana. Eugenides thinks to himself that he should just lie there forever, as 'a convenient sort of mile-marker - get to the thief and you're halfway to Methana'. I made the milemarker by adding the lettering in Paint, but the wonderful thelasteddis added the reclining thief in the corner when I absolutely could not figure out how to do it. Apparently she now performs a double-take whenever I use this icon around sounis, wondering what her friend 'R' is doing on my icon. Teehee. This is just a general Queen's Thief icon I use on the Sounis fan-community, and especially if we're talking about The Thief.

For some reason or other people comment on this icon a LOT.

The screenshots are taken from a episode of one of my favourite TV shows, Black Books, about a crazy, anti-social, perpetually drunk Irishman (hmmm, it sounds awful put like that!) called Bernard who runs a bookshop called, funnily enough, Black books. In this episode, Fran wakes up in her underwear on the couch in the shop, somewhat disorientated. All her clothes have been put in the wash by Manny's match-making parents. The situation is too horrible to be endured. I think. The DVDs are back home, I can't check.
I found this icon on, of all strange places, Bebo, back before my conversion to bigger and better sites, and now can't even remember who from. It lost the animation for a while, but I managed to persuade it to work again, I'm not sure how.

This is my default icon, chosen in the days before I realised most of the people I hang out with on Sounis and LJ have much bigger vocabularies than mine! Ah well, ever onwards. I keep it because it's still cool, and besides, I like silly puns.
I understand the picture comes from a t-shirt... from a website that also makes 'she blinded me with librarian science' shirts which I have, to my utter delight, seen walking around my University. Oh frabjous day.

Now, must return to study. Remember, TA, Study Week is NOT A HOLIDAY. If I just keep repeating this to myself, I might believe it...

Gudday Y'all - translation, weather glee, and the government.

2009-09-20T03:50:22Z

Since making my read-aloud chapter for sounis, I've been told that the New Zealand accent is odd - so here, my dear American/English flist people, is the answer. Presented for your perusal, the New Zealand Herald guide to translating Noo Zilland. I leave it to you all to decode. As always, click on the image to see it bigger (You need to read the text to get the joke).

It was a full-page advertisement I pulled out and hung on my wardrobe door. The Green Party stickers are incidental to the translation. :)

(Sorry, my attempts to post myself reading out the poster all failed because LJ has no voice-post service for NZ. Grrr.)

Also, it's spring guys! Actually, officially spring, and the weather is beginning to realise it! Look:

Blue sky and daffodils = HAPPINESS.

And just because they're cool: the mints I bought at the parliament shop when I went down to watch the House of Representatives in session last week:

I love visiting the government sittings. As a politics student, I'm meant to know how the whole thing works, but I usually spend my time picking out the Members of Parliament I know by sight or by name, throwing filthy looks at my electorate's representative (I didn't vote for her, sure and certain!) and trying not to giggle at the infantile way they all behave rather than thinking abut tabling motions, supplementary questions, and the Envioronmental Resource Management act. I cherish the memory of the Speaker of the House telling an opposition MP not to be ridiculous, for which all the MPs demanded - and received - an apology!
Apparently being able to walk into a parliament session whenever you feel like it is unusual in other countries. When I visit, there are certain security checks I have to go through, but if the house is sitting, I can sit in the public gallery and watch the MPs below to my heart's content. But I hear in other places this is just not allowed, no matter how many metal detectors you parade through. Guys? True/False?

Answers to the favourite books meme

2009-08-30T00:14:19Z

Some of you wanted to know the answers to the Books meme a couple of days ago; well, here they are!

Before I reveal all, nobody guessed number 7. If anyone wants another crack at it, here's the extract, expanded to give more of a clue:

7. **** **** was working in the small kitchen garden by the Abbot's fishponds when the boy was first brought to him. It was hot August noon, and if he had had his proper quota of helpers they would all have been snoring in the shade at this hour, instead of sweating in the sun; but one of his regular assistants, not yet out of his novitiate, had thought better of the monastic vocation and taken himself off to join his older brother in arms on King Stephen's side, in the civil war for the crown of England, and the other had taken fright at the approach of the royal army because his family were of the Empress Maud's faction...

Am I really the only one who's read these books?

Answers:

1. The corridor was long, and it was a good place to pick up speed, but the stone floor was covered in rugs, and a rumple at this point could be fatal.
'Thief!' short story by Megan Whalen Turner, for the Queen's Thief series
Guessed by Rosie and PR

2. It was nearing midnight and the Prime Minister was sitting alone in his office, reading a long memo that was slipping through his brain without leaving the slightest trace of meaning behind.
'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' by J.K Rowling, for the Harry Potter series
Guessed by Rosie and PR

3. **** sped on up the hill. Every now and again he bent to the ground. **** go light, and their footprints are not easy for even a **** to read, but not far from the top a spring crossed the path, and in the wet earth he saw what he was seeking.
'The Two Towers', Book III of The Lord of the Rings by J R R Tolkien, missing words 'Aragorn', 'Hobbits', and 'Ranger'.
Guessed by Tree_and_leaf, Rosie, PR and Anachred

4. My Dear ****, I note what you say about guiding our patient's reading and taking care that he sees a good deal of his materialist friend. But are you not being a trifle naïf?
'The Screwtape Letters', by C. S Lewis, missing word 'Wormwood'
Guessed by Tree_and_leaf and Anachred

5. **** **** sat at her writing table and stared out into **** Square. The last tulips made a brave show in the square garden, and a quartet of early tennis players were energetically calling the score of a rather erratic and unpracticed game.
'Gaudy Night' by Dorothy L. Sayers, for the Lord Peter Wimsey series, missing words 'Harriet Vane' and 'Mecklenburgh'
Guessed by Tree_and_leaf

6. **** returned to consciousness with his eyes still closed. His brain seemed to smoulder with the confused embers of some fiery dream, formless and fading.
'Memory' by Lois McMaster Bujold, for the Miles Vorkosigan series, missing word 'Miles', fixed word 'smoulder', because it was missing a letter :-P
Guessed by Tiegirl

7. **** **** was working in the small kitchen garden by the Abbot's fishponds when the boy was first brought to him. It was hot August noon, and if he had had his proper quota of helpers they would all have been snoring in the shade at this hour, instead of sweating in the sun; but one of his regular assistants, not yet out of his novitiate, had thought better of the monastic vocation and taken himself off to join his older brother in arms on King Stephen's side, in the civil war for the crown of England, and the other had taken fright at the approach of the royal army because his family were of the Empress Maud's faction...
'One Corpse Too Many' by Ellis Peters, for the Brother Cadfael series, missing word 'Brother Cadfael'.

8. They say that the prospect of being hanged in the morning concentrates a man's mind wonderfully; unfortunately, what the mind inevitably concentrates on is that, in the morning, it will be in a body that is going to be hanged.
'Going Postal' by Terry Pratchett, for the Discworld series
Guessed by Tree_and_leaf and PR

9. The primroses were over. Toward the edge of the wood, where the ground became open and sloped down to an old fence and a brambly ditch beyond, only a few fading patches of pale yellow still showed among the dog's mercury and oak-tree roots.
'Watership Down' by Richard Adams
Guessed by Anachred

10. So aftir the quest of the Sankgreall was fulfylled and all knyghtes that were leffte on lyve were com home agayne unto the **** ****, as The Booke of the Sankgreall makith mencion, then was there grete joy in the courte, and en especiall Kynge **** and Quene **** made grete joy of the remenaunte that were com home.
'Lancelot and Guinevere', Book 7 of 'Le Morte Darthur' by Thomas Malory, missing words 'Table Round', 'Arthure' and 'Gwynevere'
Guessed by Tree_and_leaf

11. I suppose that if this story has a beginning it is with Kahu. After all, it was Kahu who was there at the end, and it was Kahu's intervention that perhaps saved us all. We always knew there would be such a child, but when Kahu was born, well, we were looking the other way, really.
'Whale Rider' by Witi Ihimaera
Guessed by Philia and Tiegirl

12. My father took one hundred and thirty two minutes to die. I counted.
It happened on the **** Road. The prettiest road I’d ever seen, where trees made breezy canopies like a tunnel to Shangri-La.
'On the Jellicoe Road' by Melina Marchetta, missing word 'Jellicoe'.
Guessed by Emmaco

13. The great marsh lies on the Essex coast between the village of Chelmsbury and the ancient Saxon oyster-fishing hamlet of Wickaeldroth.
'The Snow Goose' by Paul Gallico
Guessed by Philia

14. From the Fosseway westward to Isca Dumnoniorum the road was simply a British trackway, broadened and roughly metalled, strengthened by corduroys of logs in the softest places, but otherwise unchanged from its old estate as it wound among the hills, thrusting farther and farther into the wilderness.
'The Eagle of the Ninth' by Rosemary Sutcliff
Guessed by Tree_and_leaf

The Favourite Books Meme, stolen from Pigrescuer

2009-08-27T04:59:49Z

'Cause it's been too long since the last pointless but fun meme-thing!

So, the quite-flexible rules:

1. Pick 10 11 ... 14 of your favorite books or series
2. Post the first sentence of each book. (If one sentence seems too short, post two or three!)
3. Let everyone try to guess the titles and authors of your books!

1. The corridor was long, and it was a good place to pick up speed, but the stone floor was covered in rugs, and a rumple at this point could be fatal.

2. It was nearing midnight and the Prime Minister was sitting alone in his office, reading a long memo that was slipping through his brain without leaving the slightest trace of meaning behind.

3. **** sped on up the hill. Every now and again he bent to the ground. **** go light, and their footprints are not easy for even a **** to read, but not far from the top a spring crossed the path, and in the wet earth he saw what he was seeking.

4. My Dear ****, I note what you say about guiding our patient's reading and taking care that he sees a good deal of his materialist friend. But are you not being a trifle naïf?

5. **** **** sat at her writing table and stared out into **** Square. The last tulips made a brave show in the square garden, and a quartet of early tennis players were energetically calling the score of a rather erratic and unpracticed game.

6. **** returned to consciousness with his eyes still closed. His brain seemed to smoulder with the confused embers of some fiery dream, formless and fading.

7. [Edited to add another sentence to the quote]
**** **** was working in the small kitchen garden by the Abbot's fishponds when the boy was first brought to him. It was hot August noon, and if he had had his proper quota of helpers they would all have been snoring in the shade at this hour, instead of sweating in the sun; but one of his regular assistants, not yet out of his novitiate, had thoguht better of the monastic vocation and taken himself off to join his older brother in arms on King Stephen's side, in the civil war for the crown of England, and the other had taken fright at the approach of the royal army because his family were of the Empress Maud's faction...

8. They say that the prospect of being hanged in the morning concentrates a man's mind wonderfully; unfortunately, what the mind inevitably concentrates on is that, in the morning, it will be in a body that is going to be hanged.

9. The primroses were over. Toward the edge of the wood, where the ground became open and sloped down to an old fence and a brambly ditch beyond, only a few fading patches of pale yellow still showed among the dog's mercury and oak-tree roots.

10. So aftir the quest of the Sankgreall was fulfylled and all knyghtes that were leffte on lyve were com home agayne unto the **** ****, as The Booke of the Sankgreall makith mencion, then was there grete joy in the courte, and en especiall Kynge **** and Quene **** made grete joy of the remenaunte that were com home.

11. I suppose that if this story has a beginning it is with Kahu. After all, it was Kahu who was there at the end, and it was Kahu's intervention that perhaps saved us all. We always knew there would be such a child, but when Kahu was born, well, we were looking the other way, really.

12. My father took one hundred and thirty two minutes to die. I counted.
It happened on the **** Road. The prettiest road I’d ever seen, where trees made breezy canopies like a tunnel to Shangri-La.

13. The great marsh lies on the Essex coast between the village of Chelmsbury and the ancient Saxon oyster-fishing hamlet of Wickaeldroth.

14. From the Fosseway westward to Isca Dumnoniorum the road was simply a British trackway, broadened and roughly metalled, strengthened by corduroys of logs in the softest places, but otherwise unchanged from its old estate as it wound among the hills, thrusting farther and farther into the wilderness.

I expect some of these to go completely unanswered. And I tried to make the obvious ones less so, to make it more interesting, so... go to, guys!

PS: For those that are from series or sequences of books, extra credit for guessing the specific book/segment!
PPS: Anyone who gets number 11 wins an internet.

I love my suburb and its cranky, literate 'burbians.

2009-08-08T10:04:00Z

I snapped this picture with my phone several months ago. It's outside a house down by the train station, where, sure enough, there was a real estate sign for several weeks. One day it disappeared, and was eventually replaced with this. Looks like the estate agent got fed up with our local vandals...

The sign reads: "Notice: To the person who thought it was a good idea to smash our real estate sign (it cost me $120.00) You are an IDIOT. Idiot n. 1. A person with severe mental retardation (Collins Shorter Dictionary 1993)"

I laughed a lot.

(Click on photo for a larger version)

KIA ORA E HOA! IT'S MAORI LANGUAGE WEEK!

2009-07-31T06:16:02Z

Quick! Everyone run around like headless chickens!

(animation shamelessly stolen from Checkers, who I think stole it equally shamelessly from Emmaco...)

Quick background for foreigners (aka 90% of my flist): Maori, otherwise known as Te Reo, is the language of New Zealand's native Maori people. As a direct result of European governance since 1840, the language came very close to extinction in the first half of the 20th Century and is only recently gaining some ground. Stats say about 130,000 of Maori adults can converse about everyday things, but only 18,000 speakers are 'fluent'. Maori Language Week is a government initiative and has been running since the 1970s.

So, understandably, the Maori Dept. at Uni has been going berserk ALL WEEK doing stuff to promote my favourite second language, in the hopes that MOAR PEOPLE WILL SPEAK IT ONE DAY. As a FIRST language even.*
Fun activities for the week included a faculty-wide debate in Maori (debating one of the wuuunderful suggestions of the Maori affairs minister, pai kare...), kapa haka demonstrations in the centre of town, a hangi (a proper underground one, ohhh nom nom nom) and, as 20% of my assessment for this trimester, going into a primary school to teach Maori to a class.
Let me elaborate on that: TEACHING A CLASS OF 28 HYPED-UP ELEVEN YEAR-OLDS. FOR AN HOUR AND A HALF. I take my hat off to y'all who deal with hordes of middle-school kids all day for a living. I couldn't do it.

The deal was that on Tuesday, my second-level Maori class was taking a trip to a local primary school, where we would split into pairs and each pair teach one class Maori for an hour and a half. My teaching partner was a hyped-up guy, 19-going-on-9, who cannot sit still and will not shut up. He was such a God-send. Set a thief to catch a thief, set a hyperactive guy to catch the attention of nearly 30 hyper kids - the logic works.
Hyper-man and I came so close to disaster, though, because we both, um, --WARNING EXTREME DITZYNESS AND DISORGANISATION TO FOLLOW-- forgot that we were teaching that day and turned up with no resources. Cue 15 minutes of utter panic and OHNOEZ in the van on the way to the school, a very hastily-modified lesson plan (Thank goodness I had it with me...) and the most *intense* photocopying ever, (you thought you'd seen intense photocopying, but you'd never seen this...) and we were standing in front of our class, going "Hey there, we're Hyper-Man and Te Aroha, and we're your teachers for the afternoon!"

We had the Best. Afternoon. Ever. It was totally exhausting, but so cool. We ran our modified lesson-plan as a competition, with the kids split into groups and scoring points for correct answers in our activities.

First we had first a dictionary word-finding challenge in Maori, which was pretty straightforward. Then we tried solving maths problems like this one:

Rua-rau tangohia wha-tekau whakarau i te rua =
(200 minus 40 multiplied by 2 = )

They had to work out what numbers the words signified, do the math, and then give us their answer verbally in Maori. How's THAT for a brainteaser?

The last thing we had them all do was Classroom Idol, our very own, very cool, very hip version of American Idol. The groups got to pick between singing the National Anthem in Maori and the world-famous-in-New Zealand All Blacks haka, Ka Mate**, and, surprising us, they ALL chose to do both! They all retreated to practice very seriously for half-an-hour while Hyper-Man and I 'circulated' helping them with the pronounciation and the tune. It was so cute seeing them all line themselves up with their arms across their chests in proper patriotic style. Everyone was getting so into it we had to herd them all back in for the judging, which they took very seriously indeed, performing with impressive enthusiasm and Hyper-Man helping them all out with the haka. Some of the boys got extremely into the haka, which was awesome. The real teacher, who'd been looking on with interest, and I did the judging and conferred points, and just like that, it was three o'clock and time for us to finish.

Somewhat shell-shocked, exhilarated, and in possession of a glowing evaluation-sheet from the class teacher (this was for us to hand to our lecturer, so she could give us our marks), we had an awesome time and - who knows? - might even have taught the kids something.

It was fun.

Oh, and in honour of Maori Language Week, click here for an internet game about traditional Maori marae. It amuses me. You can click the language toggle at the top of the pane to change the instructions into English (if you really want :-P)

I totally considered writing this whole thing in Maori, but the grammar!fail I would cause gave me a headache. Safer this way :D
I whakaaro ahau me patopato i enei whakaaro i roto i te reo, engari i mamae taku mahunga mo te whakaaro o taku wetero koretake. He mea haumaru ake tenei :D

*The fact that I know children whose cradle tongue is Maori gives me hope for humanity. In a warm and fuzzy way.
** Tried and failed to find a decent non-rugby recording on YouTube. Bleh. Curse my sport-mad compatriots. This haka is an old one composed by the famous and feared chief Te Rauparaha, and is NOT primarily a rugby thing. Really.

Looking For Silver Linings (But Not Very Hard) in HBP and RL

2009-07-25T14:24:21Z

Ow.

Have somehow managed to make right leg very, very sore. I hobbled around campus (My campus is one of those that needs a three-dimensional model, not a plain map, to communicate the sheer... three-dimensional-ness of it. Third floors segue into first floors. I'm not even kidding.) for three days, flinching and swearing under my breath ("gods damn, gods damn!") and almost killing myself getting down the hill to the train station in the foulest stretch of weather I've yet seen here. Winter is apparently deciding to start its swan song NOW, just to make sure all the final flourishes, crescendos and crashing kettledrums can be fully appreciated before Spring finally arrives. (I always imagine spring with flutes. Thank you, Grieg.) So, what with lugging the weight of a small child in textbooks around and not being able to drag even myself along, I had to call for pick-up from the train station to home. Very pathetic. Am kinda amused at own helplessness, but would really appreciate being able to walk properly right now.
I guess not everyone can manage to incapacitate themselves and have no clue how it happened.
Yes, that was a totally transparent attempt to find a silver lining.

Ok, /gratuitous parentheses, and /self-pity.

I promised a review of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Warning: I've had time to percolate my ideas a little, and the result is more a generalised and lengthy grumble than a systematic review. Anyway, here it is, a week or so late:

Well, HBP was better than the others. But that's not saying much, really, is it? There are still far too many 'WTH????' moments for me to enjoy these movies. So, I think I'll start with those, get the moan over, and then go on to what I liked.
For example, and as I think TLE mentioned, the movie starts with Harry sitting in a Little Whinging cafe reading the Daily Prophet. On his own. In a Muggle cafe. And hitting on the waitress. There are just so many things wrong here, I don't know where to start.
How about that scene at The Burrow with the Death Eaters? Oh dear. The Death Eaters did a drive-by? Walzed in and burnt down the burrow? And nobody even said 'Gosh, all those protections we canonically have around our house, seeing as we're harbouring the second most wanted Wizard in Britain, should really have kicked in, dontchaknow?'
Seriously, guys. Since when has The Burrow been surrounded by corn? Well, I guess if Hogwarts can magically transform (of course, magic) from a manicured park into a vertical mountainside between movies, then continuity is pretty much down the gurgler already...
Ok, the cornfield. Why, oh why? It's not canon. It doesn't advance the story. It has no point. People ran around in corn, Bellatrix did some heavy breathing (as usual), Harry blundered around, Ron did the 'sod-my-usual-character-traits' thing and just stood there, and Ginny, who as of this point in the movies is still lacking a personality (more on that later) runs after him, only to join in the blundering around and get thrust behind Harry when the real danger arrives. Then when they all arrive back at The Burrow after one huge anticlimax, it's on fire, like oh my gosh. Which is tragic, and could have been an awesome lead-in to the reality of the coming war, except for the fact that the episode is never mentioned again, and therefore falls totally flat.
About Ginny: Where is the fiery redhead we know and love? Between moments of slightly creepy must take care of Harry, she does not appear to have a personality. Feeding him tarts was kind of sweet, but am I seriously the only girl in the world whose mouth dropped open at the ~~blatant misogyny~~ shoe-lace tying scene? Sure, yes, girlpower in all shapes and forms, and I can accept that the filmmakers may not have time to develop the straight-up person with the formidable anger and blazing looks of the books (whatever happened to the Several Sunlit Days?). But a Ginny who hand-feeds Harry and ties his shoelaces like an infant disturbs me more than a little.
Dumbledore... was not Dumbledore. He was like Saruman - so much potential gone bad. He spouted quack, ribbed Harry about his love life, and generally acted like a complete stranger. Remember that time in GoF when Dumbledore practically had his hands around Harry's throat? I lost all respect for the movie!Dumbledore at that pont, and it hasn't come back. I confess to not being paticularly sad at the death scene. It was sans Harry's immobility, sans Dumbledore's state of collapse, sans the battle on the staircase, sans any drama or interest whatsoever. As if Harry would have just stood under the platform while Dumbledore was murdered if he could possibly help it. I don't think so.
More disappointing, though, was the scene after that, when the Death Eaters 'flee' the school with Snape and Malfoy. In the movie, the vicious staircase fight and fleeing through the grounds has been transformed into a few glasses smashed by Bellatrix 'crockery destroyer' Lestrange in the the Great Hall, and a leisurely stroll through the woods. The confrontation between Snape and Harry made me want to cry tears of frustration. The Half-Blood Prince's identity is glossed over; movie!Snape is, as ever, calm and phlegmatic, and the focus is entirely on Harry. The 'Don't call me coward' line, one of my favourite parts of the entire series, the moment at which Snape loses control and we get to see the first hint of his real sorrows, was CUT. GAH. I am really interested to see how the film makers manage to portray Snape as good for DH, after this fiasco.
The homage to Dumbledore was laughable. There was no grieving Hagrid, no striken Harry, none of the blurry shocky feeling of that scene in the books which would have lent itself so well to film.
The last scene was the icing on the cake. After several minutes of Harry and Hermione standing together on the top of the Astronomy Tower, calmly discussing events and incidentally discovering a note from RAB in the incidentally-fake locket (because this isn't an important plot point at all), the camera pans and we see Ron, sitting some way behind them on his own while Harry chats up Hermione. Steven Kloves, I have news for you. The Harry Potter shipping wars are over, and none but the most delusional shippers still cling to the idea that Harry/Hermione = OTP. Even in your somewhat skewed version of the Potterverse, another, more permanent, more fitting, more canonical love interest has finally arrived for Harry. It is time to let go. HEAR ME?
The H/H moment drags on, and on, until Ron finally joins the happy couple at the railings and Hermione and Ron inform Harry that they're accompanying him on his Horcrux hunt, in a moment excruciatingly reminiscient of 'We're coming with you, Laddie,' Fawkes flies off into the sunset, Dumbledore is mysteriously and secretly interred by a person or persons unknown, Ginny presumably will continue to hang around wistfully baking Harry biscuits, since we're never told otherwise, and the movie ends. Seldom have I been so grateful.
Also: Daniel Radcliffe. The boy has either been terribly poorly directed by the series' entire string of directors, or just cannot act at all. 'Nuff said.
I understand why the whole Tonks/Lupin storyline was cut, but that doesn't make it less sad. There goes my favourite 'ship, sunk with barely a gurgle. ~~And with a lame joke about the first day of Lupin's cycle being the worst. Arrrgh.~~
I want to stab my eyes out when I think of the way Mr. Weasley and Lupin were cast. I'm sure the actors are great in other parts, but every time I catch sight of Lupin's little moustache or twitchy eyes, I want to cry. He could have been so good.

And now for the positives. Greyback was wonderfully done. He was chilling and freaky and well worked into the plot even where he isn't in the book, but it actually works. His appearance at The Burrow was that scene's only scary part.
Rupert Grint goes from strength to strength. He was hilarious as Ron in this movie; lovestruck Ron, nervous Ron, total prat Ron, even convulsing-on-the-floor Ron; he played his part consistently brilliantly. The moment when he is cured of the love potion by Slughorn is priceless. Utterly priceless. I hope Rupert Grint gets the screentime he deserves in the next two movies.
Maggie Smith was, as always, good value. I love her McGonagall to pieces, even though I have a different image of her when I read the books.
Slughorn's parties were hilarious. I loved the interaction between Harry, Hermione and Cormac McLaggen. Emma Watson's Hermione almost managed to be likable at this point, and Malfoy being dragged in by Snape was suspenseful and exciting.
The cave scene - gotta admit, I was freaked out. It was very scary,The inferi were so well done, like horrible waterlogged zombies, and just like everyone else in the theatre on the 15th, I jumped when the inferi arm caught hold of Harry. Um, I was the only one who actually screamed, though. *hangs head* My only complaint in this scene was that Dumbledore didn't seem to be in nearly enough distress.
One thing I liked was the sound of this movie. Something that really irritated me in the previous five was the overuse of frenetic!violins for suspenseful scenes, happy scenes, we're-all-British-schoolkids-in-this-together scenes, and any other scene they could jam a phalanx of fiddlers into. This is purely a matter of personal taste, but it just got on my nerves. It sounds kiddy-ish to my ears. The score for HBP sounded (after one viewing) much more restrained, for which I am very thankful.
The biggest plus, however, was the look of the movie. Thank goodness we've moved on from the can't-see-anything dark blur of Prisoner of Azkaban, huh? The visuals on this movie are luscious. The scenes showing the lake made me want to jump on a plane to Scotland. I have to confess that I want Hermione's cute jacket. Hogwarts was more beautiful than ever. And even though I hated the cornfield scene for its sucky plot, I about died at the gorgeous flicky corn visuals and magnificent fire.
This could have been a really awesome movie. There were so many things that could have been fantastic and just missed their mark. If only the plot had been consistent and some of the acting a little less sucky, the movies might be more than just really expensive fanfiction. I guess we'll have to wait thirty years for a remake.
But this is a definite improvement, so my hopes are high(ish) for the next one.

PS: Can't believe I never made a Harry Potter tag before this entry. I am a disloyal fan.
PPS: When I was looking for the comparison cartoons, I also found this, which is hilarious.

The massive, disjointed, compilation pic-spam post of doooom.

2009-07-03T23:57:06Z

I'm home!

Exams are oooover, and I survived my first trimester at University. I'm quite proud of myself, but am reserving final judgment until after exam results come out. After exams I went out with some old friends and new for a post-mortem and dinner at Nando's (Take note, Sounisian people. I totally only went there because I heard you all talking about it) and then gelato and bubble tea (NOM NOM NOM!) I also had my own private celebration by ducking into my favourite second-hand bookshop and buying myself two Dorothy L. Sayers books I'd put on hold. The joy of possession - I has it.

Three Whole Weeks. To do Whatever I Want. I think the occasion merits the gratuitous capitalisation.

What have I done with my freedom so far?

Some looong over-due editing, some slightly tardy betaing, and even some of my own writing has finally been done. Yeah! I am accomplishing stuff!

I got sick. Blech. Every time I travel from home to uni or back again, I end up a sniffing, miserable mess. Could it possibly be the climate differences? Pass the echinacea, plz...

I finally found time to read Memory, by Lois McMaster Bujold, and Forged in the Fire by Ann Turnbull.
Memory, part of the Miles Vorkosigan series, was amazing. For the last three or so books I'd been wondering how Miles' split-personality thing was going to resolve, or even whether it would.
Well, it did. And better than I ever thought. Bujold smacked Miles' identities face to face the hard way, which is the fun one to read about, and I loved it. I loved the way Miles makes mistakes, sometimes massive ones, and has to live with the consequences. But most of all, I loved the Illyan story, which takes over Miles' own crisis until you don't realise how their identity problems mirror each other. When all the problems started, it was Illyan I felt for, not Miles, and it was his issues (without being spoilerific) that upset me most. Yes, I am a sucker for strong characters getting badly hurt.
Forged in the Fire is the sequel to No Shame, No Fear, which I'd better at least mention first. It's set after England's civil war, and tells the story of a romance between a Quaker maidservant, Susanna, and an Anglican businessman's son, Will. The nice thing about NSNF was that it didn't just focus on the romance, but included interesting insights into religious conflict (A topic that could definitely do with some insight!) and merchant-class people's lives back in merrie olde England. And, thank goodness, it wasn't set in London. I've had it up to here *gestures somewhere around throat* with Historical Fiction set in London. Give me a nice village with ducks quacking on the green and rats snacking in the pantry, any day.
Forged in the Fire, unfortunately, was lacking in most of the elements that made me love its prequel. Although there was still some antagonism of the Quakers as a plot point, it was no longer the main focus, and there was nothing new in the way the characters approached (or fled from) it. The main story was Will and Susanna's continued romance and marriage, woven into the events of the black plague and great fire of London. Which is all well and good, but - eh, I'm just a little fed up with first-hand Hist. Fiction accounts of the great fire, I guess, not to mention my aversion to London*. That, and the fact that the main plot tension (not counting the fire, which is tacked onto the end) was a very thin romantic misunderstanding. It's still a book I'd recommend as pretty historically spot-on, and fairly well-written. I still cared for the characters and, yes, I would read more, but it doesn't live up to the standard set by No Shame, No Fear.

My school friends Ducky and Bear and I watched all three Lord of the Rings movies, back to back. Note well, not only did we watch all three, but they were the mega-awesome extended versions. We started at 6.10 in the evening and finished at 5.30 the next morning, still arguing over who was best: Aragorn, Boromir, or Faramir. (Yes, that is the kind of deep meditation Tolkien's epic inspires in our fangirl-y hearts. I am only slightly ashamed.) By the time we finished, we were holding our eyes open with our fingers, although I had slept right through Helm's Deep. That's what comes of living near a hospital - when the emergency helicopter doesn't wake you at night, it's a fair bet that 10,000 screaming Uruk-hai won't either.

I went on an oh-so-domesticated cooking binge, producing mammoth batches of orange-chocolate-chip muffins. I think the final count was somewhere around 60. They'll all get eaten, for sure - I have a B-I-G family. I also cooked up two double-batches of grapefruit cordial, grapefruit obligingly picked by the hordes of small children related to me. I've been dying to do this since the cold weather kicked in, but had to come home for the fruit. I'll definitely be taking a couple of bottles back to Uni with me!

Fig. 1: Small child, relation, bribed by hot muffin to stand still for photo with aforesaid muffin.

Matariki, the Pleiades' rising, and Maori New Year, has come and gone. It's not an official holiday in NZ, but not for lack of trying, and has got increasing press these last few years. Seeing as we live in a part of the world where Christmas falls in Summer and Winter has no bright spots, my family always celebrates with a meal for the extended rellies, games and general jollification. We had a hangi (Maori roast, traditionally steamed underground, but we do it in an old beer keg with manuka sawdust) for dinner, and included mussels. Look what I found in one:

tiegirl probably remembers me trying to explain about my strange liking for eating an unidentifiable type of crab. Well, I still don't know what they're called, but this is it. They live inside shellfish around here, and often turn up inside hand-picked mussels.
It's about the size of my thumbnail, but after looking at it this closely, I'm kinda put off...

And, just to complete the pic-spam, tiegirl asked for some non-identifiable pictures of the area I live. Excited at the thought of exercising my camera, I immediately dragged tencups_i_swear out to take some snaps. We only managed to get a couple before the batteries died, but I found some other fairly generic pictures kicking around the hard-drive. They're all from around my home-town, not the city where I go to Uni.

.
Fig 2. Artistically blurred (read: I didn't stop to focus) photo of the busy urban centre, about 6 pm.

Fig. 3 Those are herons on the apex of the church roof, and they can be pretty clearly seen if you click on the photo. They like to perch in the windows and nest in the big trees around there.

Fig. 4. This was taken last summer. Not my garden, but I do live under the hills.

Fig. 5. Taken last summer, again, this is my school friends and I doing what we attempt to spend every minute of summer doing: swimming in the river. Ducky, Bear and I are all here, plus a couple more.

Fig. 6. My favourite beach, on a mercifully sunny day last Summer

Fig. 7. Pohutukawa blossom, from a tree growing down the cliffs of that beach. TG, I tried to find a picture that showed both tree and blossom reasonably well, but this will have to do.

And that's all, folx!

*which exists in fiction only, yo. London in real life still looks pretty good.

PS: Happy Independence Day, Americans!

Aural architecture, I sneer in your general direction.

2009-06-08T06:19:19Z

The powers that be at my University have lost their minds.

Today I tripped into the city to return my library books, and realised that something was very wrong in my former safe haven. The University library has two staircases, one of which is open to the library floor and covers three levels, and one behind a door that covers all floors.
In the first, open staircase, as I climbed up the curving steps, admiring my favourite view, I was assailed by an unidentifiable, insect-like high-pitched whining noise, which turned out to be emanating from strange sucker-like things attached to the curving glass exterior wall that half-encloses the staircase. 'Ouch, my head,' I thought, and then 'must be some kind of strange meteorological thing.'
Things began to get weird when I reached the top of the open staircase and switched to the enclosed one. Jogging my way up to the sixth floor, my eardrums were pummeled by rhythmic thumping and clicking noises. 'Some kind of structural repair work with high-pitched instruments?' was my next guess. 'I hope they're done soon...'

On my way out of the library, I asked the issues desk librarian what was going on. I think my exact phrase was "that horrible noise in the stairs". She replied 'Sound Installation', which told me precisely nothing, and pointed me at a notice attached to the wall.

I read it.
I read it again.
This was no irritating but necessary interruption to be endured - it was 'aural architecture', a.k.a some kind of satanic torture dreamed up by the School of Music students to torment the rest of us who have EXAMS and need the library - let me repeat that, the UNIVERSITY LIBRARY - to STUDY in.
Apparently it is meant to remind us of the aural landscape outside and the wider world which is obviously passing we sad cloistered students by.

ARGH. Aural Architecture? Hamiathes' hiney (to borrow a phrase from ~~TLE~~ Checkers*), the world is against me.

* I stand corrected

'Coulda Had a V8!'

2009-06-05T05:02:16Z

A tale of daring, derring-do and cultural diversity

As I am a poor benighted person, who lives neither in the USA or the UK, there are many things the folx over at sounissay that make me go 'bwuh?' and wander down strange and foreign paths. thelasteddis 's mention of V8 vegetable juice was one of these. She was referring to this veggie drink ad campaign in the US pitching the drink as one of those 'make-you-smarter' things. Apparently the ads show people doing dumb things and then getting bopped on the head by someone who then says cheerily 'coulda had a V8!' i.e 'If you'd had a V8 you wouldn't be so dumb!'
Of course I was totally ignorant of all these subtle cultural overtones, and our conversation went something like this:

TLE: 'Coulda had a V8!'
Me: Bwuh?
Tiegirl/Philia/Ninedaysaqueen/TLE: *explain*
Ninedaysaqueen: *suggests how I can find out for myself*
Me: But, guys, this stuff sounds disgusting. Besides, it reminds me of racing cars. Hey, they're cultural... a bit.
Checkers: Lolz, you missed your chance to get your very own shipment of yuck!
Philia/Tiegirl/Checkers: *continue discussing it*
Me: Hey, people are still talking about this. Mayhap I should assuage my curiosity and expand my cultural horizons (Two birds with one stone! Oh frabjous day!) by trying some. Okayz, everyone? I'll tell you all if it tastes horrible.
Philia: You'll love it, really.

So off I toddled to the friendly local New World supermarket and bought my very own bottle of imported eight-vegetable goodness (in a nice glass bottle, too. I approve.) which I then produced at home to the bemusement and entertainment of my family.

fig. A: The specimen after I've had one drink but am pretending I haven't for narrative purposes

tessitura wasn't so sure about my experiment.

Tessitura: Why are you doing this again?
Me: The nice people at Sounis told me to.
Tessitura: *tries it* Ew, this tastes like cold soup. Drink it yourself.
Me: Foiled again. Bottoms up, then!

fig B: 'It does look like cold soup...

Verdict: It tastes like tomato juice, which is a lot better than I expected. Tomato juice is acceptable; celery juice is not. But juice that is mostly tomato and in which you can taste no celery is still ok. tiegirl, I remain unconvinced: veggies are WAY nicer fresh instead of pulped and bottled, no matter what the Vegetable Protection League says.
But V8 still tastes gooood. My only regret is that I had no vodka to take you up on your suggestion of bloody marys. (A/N: yes I am over the drinking age in NZ :D)

I feel all warm and fuzzy and culturally aware now. Thanks guys. XD

PS: The transcript is only loosely based on what people actually said in Sounis. Sounisians are very nice and give very helpful suggestions.
PPS: Heehee, the V8 website makes me giggle.
PPPS: Yes, I do enjoy gratuitous pic-spamming.

Tencups' Birthday Surprise

2009-05-16T00:00:00Z

Hi, everyone!

Some of you have heard of this already, so a brief explanation. For my little sister tencups_i_swear 's birthday the other day (ahem. Happy Birthday, tencups!) I gave her copies of our favourite books, The Thief and The Queen of Attolia. Before I sent them, I printed off some chapter headings kindly translated from the Japanese edition of these books by ninedaysaqueen , and illustrated each heading with a scene from the chapter, and slotted them and some other surprises between the pages.

Those of you who know tencups know that she's a MUCH better artist than I, so my efforts aren't anyway near such entertaining caricatures of the characters as hers are (try http://goat-foot-baa.deviantart.com/gallery/#Queens-Thief ) but here they are!

Tons of thanks (and international cookies) to everyone who contributed to the present, and also to the people whose work I used without warning them, namely peggy_2 (for the original Japanese photos) and ninedaysaqueen . Also, thanks to thelasteddis for her very helpful feedback on the pictures. She'll have noticed that I didn't take her advice, for which I can only defend myself by saying that I ran out of time, and ink drawings unfortunately don't lend themselves to much last-minute revision. But it was very much appreciated :D

Also, I *am* aware that I spelt 'thief' wonky. Mea Culpa!

101 Sensible Things To Do With An Umbrella

2009-05-03T21:57:28Z

Why yes, I *do* get very bored on the train.

With grateful thanks to K, E, R, and Mum for ideas, PR (and Ro) for number 98, and Sir Terry Pratchett for number 7.

Edited umpteen times because a) LJ still hates me, and b) I can't count.

1. Umbrella duels

2. Become a Nanny

3. Use it as a sword

4. Go up chimneys

5. Stick it in your tote

6. Understand it

7. Stand on top of a hill in a thunderstorm wearing wet armour, holding your umbrella and shouting ‘All gods are bastards!’

8. Use it to frighten ducks

9. Use it as an Arc for one

10. ‘Avast, ye scurvy slow-moving pedestrian.’ *poke poke* ‘Hie thee hence!’

11. Get the point

12. Umbrella hats!

13. Urban streetscape wind-surfing champs (perfect for Chicago and Wellington)

14. Keep it CLOSED in wind

15. Spike litter

16. Store soft toys in it

17. Grow seedlings in it

18. Keep fish in it

19. Keep laundry in it

20. Herd cats

21. Prod cattle

22. Hold it low over your head in a tightly-packed crowd. Hey, the Recession’s had a negative impact on optometrists, too – someone’s got to provide custom for them.

23. Use it as a crutch

24. Wave it in the air

25. Devise an umbrella salute

26. Salute whatever the latest ‘stand-and-be-counted’ fad is, be it moro bars, electricity, or KiwiBank

27. ‘Tidy up’ using a deftly-wielded umbrella, while staying cosy and comfortable in bed

28. Frighten small children with automatic umbrellas

29. Break it

30. Attempt to fix it

31. Stomp on it

32. Throw it out

33. Shish kebab!

34. Use it as a toboggan

35. Use it to stop tobogganing

36. Sunshade

37. Pose as an Edwardian Heiress at a garden party

38. Library shelves too tall? Never fear, the umbrella’s here!

39. Twirl it

40. Sit underneath it – inside

41. Invoke bad luck

42. Use it as a Moses basket

43. Use it to avoid awkward!eye contact

44. Use it to remain (temporarily) unaware of oncoming traffic

45. Paddling pool!

46. Use it to display the art of some painter you’d never heard of before

47. Play limbo

48. Use it to collect apples

49. A handy way to ‘accidentally’ smash ugly ornaments

50. Make a propeller

51. Disappear behind it

52. Create a melancholy baby

53. Be Britney

54. Be Rihanna

55. Be Jo March and Professor Bauer

56. Conduct a moving and dramatic film scene underneath it. Pick a scene – any scene.

57. Conduct an orchestra

58. Conduct a choir

59. Conduct lightning

60. Don’t use it

61. Use it as a softball bat

62. Use it to draw ‘HELP’ signs in the sand

63. Use it to draw your name in the sand

64. Use it to draw your name and another in the sand

65. Use it to draw hearts in the sand

66. Knock down cobwebs

67. Knock down prized heirlooms

68. Knock down passersby

69. Use it as a giant soup ladle

70. Use it as a giant ice-cream cone

71. Use it as a giant lockpick

72. Use it as a giant toothpick

73. Waltz on the beach underneath it

74. Don’t give your butler one

75. Gatecrash a Vettori painting

76. Gatecrash a Renoir painting

77. Use it for balance whilst tight-rope walking

78. Use it as a ballroom dancing prop

79. Tap-dance

80. Jazz-dance

81. Rain-dance

82. Handy when you can’t find the remote control

83. Use it for photography lighting

84. Use it in photographer fighting

85. Mount a flag on it

86. Mount a hill with it

87. Mount it on the wall

88. This season’s new take on the sword-stick

89. Use it as a back-scratcher

90. Use it to direct traffic

91. Ski-poles

92. Spare tent-pole

93. Spare tent

94. Use it to open magical doorways

95. Let opium-addled caterpillars recline on it

96. Use it to punctuate large sentences

97. Use it as a parachute

98. Reprobate use a) turn into the Stick of Insanity.

99. Reprobate use b) spin in the middle of the street in the middle of Piccadilly when choosing between Starbucks, Costa, Cafe Nero and Starbucks

100. Collect rainwater in it

101. Stand underneath it in the rain

So Do La Fa Me Do Re...

2009-04-22T04:43:43Z

I *still* can't get over how awesome this is!

Edit: And I managed to embed it properly on only the third try! Go me!

Big Sister Plug

2009-04-04T02:26:21Z

Those of you who know tencups_i_swear may also know that she has a Deviant Art page on which she posts quite a LOT of Queen's Thief art. http://goat-foot-baa.deviantart.com/

Being her big sister, I'm biased, but I think a lot of it is quite good. She's also made a Queen's Thief picture meme! Now, I don't even draw, but I had heaps of fun filling this in, even with all the ink and scanner and cropping dramas it entailed.

I do apologise that it's so tiny. Clicking will bring it up larger, but I can't figure out how to make it bigger on the page...

Also, TIME: They don't have it down here!

2009-03-23T22:28:56Z

Why is it impossible to keep time in this city?

A. The University does not appear to have ANY wall clocks, anywhere, excepting, of course, the ones handily placed BEHIND the projector screens. WTH?
It also has cellphone coverage that is patchy to say the least, so I can't look at my screen to divine the time. Everyone on campus must own a phone - what is wrong with this picture??

B. I spent two hours tramping around the central city this morning trying to find a pendant watch. Why is that so difficult? This *is* an honest-to-goodness city, don't people need to get to, I don't know, appointments and meetings on time? Without having to fork out $200 for precious ones from actual jewellers?

Also, it would be nice if Metlink didn't randomly cancel the off-peak trains. Ok, some of them were replaced with busses, but NOT the ones from my station, and more importantly, HOW in the world would I have known if they had been? So I had to wait 40 minutes (in a freezing cold wind, I might add) to catch the next, and missed my tutorial. Which was compulsory. Gahhhh...

*headdesk*

Ok, complaints over.

Fandom meme, nicked from TLE and everyone else on the interweb.

2009-03-23T22:12:33Z

Pick any fandom you know I know about, and I'll tell you:

1) the first character I fell in love with
2) the character I never expected to love as much as I do now
3) the character that everyone else loves that I don't
4) the character that I love that everyone else hates
5) the character I used to love but don't any longer
6) the character I would shag anytime
7) the character I'd want to be like
8) the character I'd slap
9) a pairing that I love
10) a pairing that I hate
11) my favorite character
12) my five favorite characters
13) my five least favorite characters
14) which character I am most like
15) my deep, dark fandom secret

FYI: My favourite fandoms = HP, LoTR, QT, Austen, Hayao Miyazaki, Alexander McCall Smith, I Capture the Castle, Artemis Fowl, John Marsden... er, and a lot of kids' books. (I'm so sad the dictionary doesn't count as a fandom)

'Why yes, some science tomes for my bedtime reading would be lovely, thank you.'

2009-03-14T10:15:05Z

I'm living with family who are very scientifically-minded, and put up with my Arts degree with some joking eye-rolling. When I moved in, I bought a bookcase just so I could fit in all the books I brought from home. I've also been book-shopping today, to spend the book vouchers I got at my school prizegiving last year.

Tonight I had this little gem of a conversation:

Sceintifically-minded Uncle: It's nice having you, Te Aroha, cause you've brought all these great new books to the house.
Me: (looking around happily at my stacks of books) Yeah, they're fun reads. Feel free to borrow...
S-M U: It reminds me of when (Scientifically-Minded Aunt) was studying environmental sciences. She'd bring home all these books...
Me: Environmental Sciences?
S-M U: Yeah, great books, and - (catches sight of my face)
Me: *Is laughing hysterically*
S-M U: What? What?

To each his own, I guess...

For anyone interested, today I bought:
A lovely copy of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, by C.S Lewis, my absolute favourite of the Narnia series, and the indispensible Penguin History of New Zealand, by the great and sadly lamented Historian Michael King. This is pretty much required reading for New Zealanders, and still in the top 100 NZ best-sellers list 5 years after publication. Not bad for a History book :D

Stealth Knitter Strikes Again; 'Will New Book Have Knitted Pages?' Fans Wonder

2009-02-28T10:01:00Z

Dear Sounisians: You won't believe this.

Remember this post?

Looks like our esteemed authoress has taken a break from 'Eugenides and the Bath Bomb of Doom', upped sticks and taken a stealth visit to New Zealand.

With her knitting needles.

Cuba Mall, Wellington

Looks like this is the Summer-time version of the tree cosy. ("And for the discerning fashion-conscious sapling, our new season collection...")

I think this was actually part of the Cuba Street Festival, which was on last week.

Stolen from just about everyone... 'Seeds'

2009-02-09T09:59:34Z

Yes, I'm bored :D

Optional RULES:
1. Put your MP3 player, iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc. on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS.
4. Tag at least 10 friends (make me #11 so I can see your results). Gah. Do I have to?
5. Everyone tagged has to do the same thing.
6. Have Fun!

IF SOMEONE SAYS 'ARE YOU OKAY' YOU SAY?
'Cloud Nine' - Evanesence. Well, that's pretty chirpy of me :-)

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF?
'Reverie' - Brooke Fraser. Well yup, most of the time I am off in my own world, thank you very much.

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
'Perfect Drive' - Luke Thompson. Since my driving is pretty amateurish, this would definitely be a bonus!

HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
'What Can I Do To Make You Love Me' - the Corrs. LOL that sounds fairly desperate does it not?

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
St. Jimmy - Green Day. I have no idea what this song is about... hmmm.

WHAT'S YOUR MOTTO?
'Bettween the Lines' - Leigh Nash. That's cool. I am severely lacking in the ability to look below the surface of things sometimes, so maybe I really should adopt this one...

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
'Mofo' - U2. !!!!!!! Please no!!!!!

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
'Love, Where is Your Fire?' - Brooke Fraser. Oh no, I hope not!

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
'Angels' - Solace. Um, no.

WHAT IS 2 + 2?
'Beautiful' - Shooting Stars. Ooooookay. These are some strange answers.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
'Please' - U2. LOL! I do spend a lot of time eye-rolling at her. But in a nice way.

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
'In Swings the Tide' - Anika Moa. Inevitability?

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
'Baby I've Been Watching You' - by I have no idea. I want to be a stalker when I grow up. Except, you know, that I don't.

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
'My Neighbourhood' - Katy Ray. Oooookay. Again.

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
'Over the Water' - Shooting Stars. Funny, that really is a funeral song.

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
'RIdiculous Thought' - The Cranberries. Ridiculous like this answer is ridiculous.

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
'Minas Tirith' - Howard Shore, the RoTK Soundtrack. Yes, I admit my LoTR obsession... it fits right in with all my other fannish obsessions.

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST FEAR?
'Ash and Smoke' - the RoTK Soundtrack. Oh, that is scarily accurate. 66 (at last I heard) people just died in bushfires in Aussie, and there are cars crashed into each other on roads where people tried to flee and didn't make it. It's so horrible. And very very Scary.

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
'When You're Gone' - The Cranberries. ...I'll reveal my biggest secret :P

WHAT DO YOU WANT RIGHT NOW?
'Kotahitanga' - Anika Moa. Oh. Yes. Kotahitanga means unity and is a metonymy, in my mind at least, for cultural harmony in NZ. Of couse I want.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
'Big Rock Candy Mountain' - O Brother, Where Art Thou? Soundtrack. It's not true, I swear it!

WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
'Seeds' - Brooke Fraser.

Hum. I think this proves more than ever the utter randomness of things more than anything deep and meaningful :-P

I AM WILTING LIKE A REALLY HOT DESSICCATED WILTING THING.

2009-02-09T09:18:45Z

Please, let the heat stop. It's past ten at night and must still be up in the high twenties. I am suffering.

For Northern-Hemisphere People: that's around 80 degrees F. AAAAARGH.

YIPEEEEE KI-YAY!!!

2009-01-22T09:36:25Z

I finished my map!!!!!!!!!

Yes, I officially have too much time on my hands, and so I tried to research and map the geography of Eddis, Attolia and Sounis. And tried. And tried. And screwed up drafts and threw them at the walls.
And finally, I have something geographically coherent. Even if the river does run uphill.

Anyway, I'm going to wait till the results of the song contest on Sounis are up (lol. I can't wait to see who wins!) and then I'll post it on there. I just wanted to celebrate!

Here is a snippet of what the finished map looks like:

Since I drew it longhand and scanned it in, the colours are just slightly off - a bit faded, I think. Ah well!

Edited: Exclamation mark overload, anyone?

Resolutions for 2009

2009-01-11T02:33:57Z

Yes, it did take me an awful long time to decide on some resolutions, didn't it?

1. Learn to touch-type (sample of current touch-typing skills: 'Leaitn tyo touch- ti[a[-ope.' Nuh-uh.)

2. Wean self off emoticons - perhaps a ration of one per day? :)

3. Enrol for university - note to self: HURRY UP OR APPLICATIONS WILL CLOSE. It would be so embarrassing if you had to take a gap year because you forgot to enrol!

4. ~~Finish~~ read 'War and Peace'. And since I've been stalled at page 138 for a whole year, it's back to the beginning.

*turns to face year, determined expression firmly plastered on*

Also, me, tencups_i_swear , maccalla , ardie_bea and the rest of the family are all going to the beach for two weeks tomorrow! *is very excited* Sun, sea, surf, sand in the spines of my books, starry nights and huge skies, here we come :D (gah! my emoticon for the day!) I now have a camera, so I am definitely taking photos!

Fixed! A quizzy thing

2009-01-09T05:26:56Z

YAY! Anachred has explained the internets to me, and thus armed, I now present: A quiz stolen from checkers, because it is awesome. You are hereby tagged :)

Your result for The Pop Culture Archetype Personality Test...

The Tinker

Ninja, Robot, Punk, Cowboy

The solitary tinker is detached from the world at large, forever deep in thought analyzing or inventing something. They are fond of games, puzzles, mathematics and language, with the task they are performing secondary to the mastery of the logic involved. They are relatively easygoing and likable enough, but when their beliefs are trod upon they become outspoken and inflexible, and while they do not want to make a spectacle of themselves they will defend their point of view vociferously. They are quite critical, of themselves and others, and they will correct imprecise language or thought, and consistently second guess themselves, often predicting impending failure. This lack of trust (in themselves and others) leads them to pursue solitary careers, leaving them aloof and detached, lost in the workshop of their own mind.

Tinkers often fall into Schizoid behavioral patterns, with an indifference to social relationships and a limited range of emotional expression. They take pleasure in only a few solitary activities, and keep only a few close friends (often relatives), pushing aside all others and things. This emotional frigidity leaves them detached and indifferent to praise and criticism.

Famous tinkers include Socrates, Descartes, Newton, C.G. Jung and Albert Einstein.

Take The Pop Culture Archetype Personality Test at HelloQuizzy

(Edited twice, once for ignorance, and once for stupidity.)

Question:

2008-12-28T08:31:35Z

I was having an argument with my History teacher and it got me thinking.

Of course you'll all know the old question about the tree falling in the forest. Well, I have a different question about a tree.

Q. If a tree falls in a forest, and no-one saw it fall, DID IT STILL FALL?

...this is not a trick question. Really, it's not. Myself, I'm positive about the answer. But my teacher disagreed, and I wonder... what does everyone think? Can anyone help?

Because Obviously I Need More Impossible Challenges in my Life...

2008-12-23T03:15:30Z

... I am trying to map Sounis, Eddis and Attolia!
After tearing out my hair over my first draft, making notes from all three Queen's Thief books the morning before my NCEA Geography exam, and extended discussion on Chatzy... I am trying again.
AND ... I AM SO EXCITED! I JUST PUT IT ALL TOGETHER! ATTOLIA'S BORDER FORTS WITH MAGYAR ARE IN THE NORTHEAST!
And... this is the border that Eddis is NOT...
Ergo! Eddis is South of Attolia, and Sounis South of Eddis, which fits with what I originally thought!
We are getting somewhere!
*goes off to scribble more notes*