At some point, I swear, I will write an entry that does not solely consist of random things

[laliandra]

Like, Bulgaria or the new Harry Potter Movie or funtimes with my crazy family...

But not today!

Firstly,

Mission101!

And firstly, Graduation! It was actually a lot more fun than I thought it would be! My Dad, true to form, very nearly missed it by staying on the bus as it went right through town, which led to me, in full robed garb, standing on the steps of the university yelling "JUST GET OFF THE BUS" into my phone.

Speaking of robes. ROBES! Oh, my Bat Cape of Responsibility (copyrightmcollinknight ), I am not sure you were worth £20 an hour, but you were so very swishy. I swept about the place feeling very like Professor Snape. Or DDG Pansy. And I graduated in The Great Hall. It was awesome.

Obviously, I could not resist a bit of a swirl



Also, I have

2. Got my hair cut, finally. It has come to something when a haircut is a luxury.
16. Cooked gammon with honey and mustard glaze.
28. Read 'Never Let Me Go' by Kazuo Ishiguro. I borrowed it from my friend who has been extremely sceptical and occasionally condescending about sci-fi and fantasy. She loves this book. This book is sci-fi. Just because it doesn't say so on the back cover, just because it uses words like "darkly skewed" and "re-imagining", does not make it anything but sci-fi! ARG. Okay, so, this has turned into a rant. The book is very good, beautifully written and heart-achingly, bleakly real
And the entire Rough Guide To Bulgaria. Which was also surprisingly interesting! And informed me for our trip to churches so I could make serious noises about Byzantian vs Thracian. *history dorks about the place*
61. didn't lose the keys to my old house once. It's a miracle!
76. C.V updated and given out to about a million companies. Sigh.
87. Taken lots of photos recently. Yay!

And I have more words, from Flame, my sunbeam.

1. LOST BOYS
Once I played a lost boy in a production of Peter Pan. There was a lot of fake mud involved. I hear also that it is a sexy, silly 80's vampire movie. I might go put it on Nat's LoveFilm list, actually. And by put on, I mean, highjack without his permission. Obviously.

2. NICK (or as we call him in my neck of the woods NICK YO MAMA! RYVES) Nick! The esteemed protagonist of The Demon's Lexicon. My dear, my lasagna (christened so by the chat, for he is hot and layered and saucy). I know that your opinions, Flame, run a little different to mine, so here is my take on our boy.

I tried to be vague but warning! Possible spoilers for TDL!

I loved Nick from the get-go, despite his dickishness, his coldness and complete inability to relate to anyone. I sort of... got him. Or so I thought. So whereas some people were relieved by the reasoning SRB gave him at the end, I felt almost like the Nick I thought I knew, wasn't. If you see what I mean. But I eventually reconciled Nick with, um, Nick, in my head and still love him, borderline sociopath that he is.

And I know that you thought that Nick was painted as No Good because of his ways of picking up girls and generally being a bit of a Rake and a Cad and Flirt (or getting by on his good looks) but to me that wasn't a way that SRB made him mad, bad and dangerous to know (which is kind of is, but it's totally not his fault, kay!) but a way that she highlighted that he couldn't really connect to people. What we saw of Lianan, for example, shows us that this is not uncommon, that sex and flirting is one of the few interactions that they can actually do. Nick can flirt, joke with people, but that's about it. He can only really connect with Alan on any other level. Which is more sad that rakish, or so I thought. My two cents pence, as it were.

He is still entirely at liberty to try and seduce secrets out of me any time he likes...

3. BOOBIES - I am, as the terrible fanfic cliché goes, a girl with curves in all the right places. Or something like that. My friends used to put me to good use by positioning me to attract the barman's attention. This was after they had realised that sending me to the bar by myself is a terrible idea because I get distracted by other things and forget to order drinks. I used to accuse them of letting me be, essentially, the only girl in their group for what they could use me to get. The only downside is that sometimes, the punchline of my zombie!tee gets hidden...

4. AWESOMESAUCE- I LOVE this word! I use the word awesome, way, way too much. I blame the internet! Acesicles is another excellent word, by the by. I think the intenet has seriously Americanised some of my language, although I still like to put all the extra vowels back into things. I also say 'like' far too much. Awesome.

5. ♥ okay, so that's not a word, but it kind of counts because it's a symbol of erm-- something (: - Hee! It is a symbol of love! Or <3. I less than three you...

Aaaand finally a meme I stole from Colline

Ask me to take pictures of any aspect of my life that you're interested in/curious about -- it can be anything from my favorite shirt to my DVDs. Leave your requests as a comment to this entry, I'll snap the pictures and post them in the next post.

(Somehow, it took me 6 hours to finish writing this post. WTH?)

Comments

[greenfaeriedust.livejournal.com]

Ooh! Saw this on my friends page and just had to comment that it is required for everyone to swish in graduation robes. They are just too much fun to play with! Although the hat made me look like a pirate somehow.

I took my robes off and insisted every member of my family posed for pictures in them. Yes, a grown woman can play dress up in public apparently. : ) I also threw my hat in the air because that tradition should be international! *grins*

[laliandra.livejournal.com]

We did not get hats, it was extremely sad. I was Put Out!

That sounds like a wonderful idea, I should have made my Dad wear them too.

[iamashamed.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you had a great graduation:D It sounds great:D (I love that you threw HP in there;)

2. Is that your ex? I'm kinda new on your F-list so I don't really know:)

3. BOOBIES: HahaXD Dude, I have have been "blessed" with big breasts myself, but I have never really worked it out to my "advantage" Like you have. Kudos;)

4. I have been addicted to that word lately. I'm not kidding. I'm making myself tired of it, but I can't seem to stop using it. LOL. And other americans words aswell. And I'm not even a native english speakerxD

[laliandra.livejournal.com]

I throw Harry Potter in wherever possible!

Hee! No, Nick is, sadly, fictional. He is the hero, well, kinda, of a brilliant book called The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan. It's completely awesome! Nick is the narrator but there are loads of other cool characters too.

Yeah, "blessed"... :D

[iamashamed.livejournal.com]

:D

Ahh, okay:) Cool:D I have never heard about it, but it sounds cool:)

LOL exactly XD

[anthimaeria.livejournal.com]

Wow, I love your green shoes! Why not take a pic of those? Can't really see them in the graduation photos.

[luchalibrarian.livejournal.com]

But why would you want to write an entry NOT about Bulgaria, or Harry Potter, or family funtimes, or any other random thing? :P

[laliandra.livejournal.com]

I am going to! I just felt like I had loose ends to tie up first, plus those things actually require some thought and forward planning, neither of which I am in the mood for...

[miabee023.livejournal.com]

AWESOME IS AN AMAZING WORD. One of my favorites as well. I spent about six months trying to find an Italian equivalent, and my host mom was insistent that there wasn't one... until one day she went "PAZZESCO!" during some movie, and I was like, "... cosa?" at which point she went, "Oh, that's the Italian word for... I dunno, 'awesome'?" Facepaaaaalm.

Your robes look FANTASTIC - I can only hope my own university will have robes that swishy in four years time.

NIIIIIICK. (Yes, I am pinging around your entry like an electron, I AM TIRED AND IT IS LATE, FORGIVE ME.) You bring up so many fantastic points (and so many fantastic nicknames as well), which all serve to remind me just how much I utterly enjoyed that character. (I am kind of miffed that the next book will be from Mae's perspective, honestly. I suppose I should just hope that this will serve to actually make me care about her, though. I dunno what it is with me and female characters, but unless they are out and out awesome (see: every female character that Terry Pratchett has ever written), I find it difficult to relate to them. I'm sure this says something about my psychology or whatever - all I know is, I rather delighted (albeit guiltily) in Havemercy's "men only" policy, since I knew from the start that I wouldn't have to worry about any female characters getting on my nerves. I look forward to this mysterious female character in Shadow Magic, though, as if she is even half as fantastic as Lily Evans, then I will be SOLD.) Ummmm... where was I? Oh yes. NICK. I thought that the devastatingly attractive bad boy thing ONLY WORKED because of that depressing incapability to connect with other people, as otherwise I feel we all might have given up trying to relate to this character at all halfway through the book. However, I definitely agree wholeheartedly with your last comment.

As for the pictures... I guess I am interested in knowing what Leeds looks like, so if you could be so troubled as to whip out a camera next time you're in the town center, I would love seeing a bit of it!

...why do I always end up writing a TON in any comment left in your journal? This does not usually happen, I swear.

[laliandra.livejournal.com]

I swear, I have taken to saying Awesome! instead of just okay, which is confusing to people. I dread to think how much I say it without noticing...

NICK! I do not have as much trouble as a lot of people seem to do with female characters, but I totally agree that they can be a LOT more problematic than male ones, especially for female readers. They can often stray into the SUPERAWESOME SUPERGIRL! which is really irritating. Which I what I liked about Mae, really, that she was a real girl, who cried sometimes when things were horrible and liked pink and had a streak of pure steel inside. Whenever I try to sum up Mae for people its difficult because I want to use words like "sassy", which makes people extremely suspicious, or "just a really nice, real girl", which sounds like damning with faint praise. But it's not! Female characters in fantasy are so problematic but Mae, well, I liked her. She was my least favourite of the four, I have to say, but I have faith in Sarah...

This is a Safe Place for rambling! I love long comments!

[miabee023.livejournal.com]

I suppose I didn't dislike Mae, this is true... it's just that I was (kinda sorta) hoping for a book from Jamie's perspective, or maybe Alan's, or maybe Nick's again... it was rather off putting to discover that it was going to be from the one perspective I hadn't really been pulling for. While she was not annoying (thank goodness), she did not strike me with the fiery passions of awesomeness, so... I will give her another book and another chance, and I can only assume she will pull through for me this time around.

[laliandra.livejournal.com]

I would actually KILL for something from Alan's POV *sigh*. Apparently book 2 was very nearly from Gerald (everyone's favourite blind Irish magician!) 's POV. Which might have been cool. And Book 3 is, possibly, from Sin's.

Sarah has written some pretty cool female characters before, so I am hopeful.

I think that Jamie POV would be AWESOME. I totally want a little brother like Jamie.

[miabee023.livejournal.com]

... is it just me, or do these characters seem kind of random? Of course, who am I to talk, wringing my hands in anticipation for a book half from the perspective of two rather minor characters, so... never mind. But I was under the impression that the foursome from Demon's Lexicon were rather... well, IMPORTANT, I guess, and had assumed that the focus would stay fixed on them. Obviously, I must have been a bit off on the mark.

JAMIE WAS AMAZING. Not to mention the perfect counter to Nick, seeing as how I loved them both HEAPS. Oddly enough, one of the homestays I had in Australia (with a family in Canberra) had a 13-year-old son who was pretty much EXACTLY like the Jamie I imagined. He was adorable and hilarious and I wanted to just go, "PLEASE COME HOME WITH ME AND BE MY LITTLE BROTHER FOREVER," but figured that would be kind of creepy, so I didn't. It was hard to resist, though, especially when he went and begged his parents to be allowed to get up at 6 am in order to make us pancakes (THE BEST PANCAKES I HAVE EVER TASTED.) the day we were leaving. Ridiculous.

[isil-helyanwe.livejournal.com]

2. Got my hair cut, finally. It has come to something when a haircut is a luxury.

Ahh, it's all about the free haircuts from the hairdressing colleges.

Ooh, and I'd love to see pictures of... ou favourite place to hang out, be it your house, a park or whatever. :P

[laliandra.livejournal.com]

That is an extremely good plan, I should have thought of that...

I will take some pics once it stops raining like it's the end of the world!

[azurelunatic]

Hooray for swirliness! I would have more deep thoughts but I have the tired.

[branquignole.livejournal.com]

Feeling like DDG Pansy in sweeping robes must be awesome! Which brings me to the next point, which of course is that "awesomesauce" is an awesome word and that I have to try and restrain myself from using it in the RL, because, really, my friends don't understand English. Which is not at all awesome and very frustrating.

Ah, boobies. Ah, t-shirts. As you know, I can identify. I have yet to put my breasts to good use, but the day will come when I will need my cleavage for my driving license and I will not let that opportunity pass!

Yay relevent icon!

[laliandra.livejournal.com]

I have been slowly introducing such phrases into my friends' vocabularies. Everyone should know the brilliance of AWESOMESAUCE. My friend has also started using the phrase "shipping" in regard to TV :D

What good are thy if you don't put them to good use, I feel. Every cloud and all that...

Re: Yay non-relevant icon!

[branquignole.livejournal.com]

It is something I should try to do, too. One of these days, I will succeed. And good of you to introduce the word "shipping" to people, because really, it's one of the most important words.

Indeed. *nods sagely* We are those upon whom hath been bestowed a... huge... gift. It's the weapon of choice!

Boomdeyada is always relevent!

[laliandra.livejournal.com]

Shipping is one of those phrases you can use to test out whether someone is secretly One Of Us.

Trufax.

[laliandra.livejournal.com]

Hee! Not so much. I was just distracted by things. I am so easily distracted, as well you know...

[kaiserkuchen.livejournal.com]

IF I AM STILL TOO ADDLED TO MAKE A POST then the least I can do is catch up on commenting! Ha-ha!

AND O SNAP YOU ARE REMINDING ME THAT I ALSO STILL HAVE WORDS TO WRITE UP. I fear that I have become That Person who comments to meme posts and uh, never actually does them fffffffffucksticks, must ameliorate ASAP DD:

Your teeny motion pic of robe-swishing! And even in the tiny pic I must say that your green shoes look utterly delightful!

Haaah good to know the history behind the Nick=Lasagna thing lolol I admit to having wondered about that a bit XD

And speaking of books, I'll have you know that my current reading list this summer is basically half what you and C have been talking about (TDL, Lies of Locke Lamora and Red Seas under Red Skies--- OMG IT IS SO GOOD, I just started RSuRS and akhfkjaf excitedddd), some books that have been mentioned on TDS (One of Neil DeGrasse Tyson's books about stuff in spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace) and things that people on the internet have also told me to read (World War Z, Salt: A History of the World or whatever its called...) :DDD OM NOM NOM BOOKS

AND MEMETIMES well uh I am just gonna recycle what I asked C too-- TOP FIVE THINGS YOU LIKE TO EAT IN YOUR FRIDGE. Hmm, and maybe: A favorite sight when you walk around town? A shot of your favorite time of day! Something INTENSELY BRITISH that you walk past every day.

ohohoho <33

[laliandra.livejournal.com]

Aw, my poor addled Kaz!

There are bigger pics over on facebook, but yeah, they are pretty much my favourite shoes ever! They were expensive but I love them.

Oh god, the TDL marmfish chat produced so much madness. Basically, you know Sarah has this whole thing about different types of heroes being muffins and sandwiches and patstries? Well, when we were emailing about the ARC she said something about Nick being totally angst free and just "*stab* oh well time for tea, I hope it's lasagne." and then we decided Nick was lasagna, not an angst muffin...

YAY BOOKS! That is how I find out what to read too, mostly, I read TLOLL etc because of C too!

Okay, cool! Will do!

[cellophane_ria.livejournal.com]

Robes! (uh, I got quite carried away by yelling "words" and now I can't seem to be able to stop?) I'm a bit sad/jealous that we didn't have any ceremonial robes for graduation. *pouts*
Anyway, CONGRATULATIONS, again! ^^

[ravelqueen.livejournal.com]

I have been woefully absent and if you've read my last post you know why, but I haven't commented and nothing and while backtracking would take forever and a day I will try to comment from now on.^^

I totally agree with you on Nick, though! I mean I'm such a feminist I crack on a lot of figure of speeches sometimes, but with Nick it didn't even bother me that much, that he didn't seem to treat the girls right because it was kinda clear to me, that he couldn't really connect to anyone (except alan of course^^) right.

I mean he was so confused by the fact, that he wasn't entirely unmoved by the thought of Jamies death! So he also has a big place in my heart!(also not if he seduces me first!)

also big boobies...I hear ya, but for me a family thing like the bad eyesight

I hug you lots!! see you in chat soon!

[laliandra.livejournal.com]

That is totally fine! Welcome back to Europe!

OMG LONDON. I cannot wait, it's going to be SO MUCH FUN! I am excited, in case you couldn't tell from the all-caps...

Yeah, I verge on the militantly feminist sometimes, so I figured if it wasn't making me want to reach into the book and slap him, he probably wasn't just being a jerk...

I hope to see you in chat VERY SOON!

*hugs back*

[theburningboy.livejournal.com]

You make an uber excellent point here! Why oh why am so easily swayed by, like, LOGICS or somefin. OOOOOUUUUUF! Bad form! Makes me seem capricious. Point is, yes, a rake but rakes usually want to get away with something and with him it's only more that RAKE is the extent of what he can possibly give in those types of non-relationships. I see this now. Yes, totes makes perfect sense. :))))))))))))))) So glad I made you elaborate on Nickface.

Also, BOOBIES! <333333 Yay for boobies. There are too many skinnies around and I love women with curves. I sound all flirty and such, but it's more of a personal aesthetics thing and the fact that I like teh pretty-- wherever it comes from.

Thanksyee muchly for doing this post. IMO, 6 hours well spent. lol

♥ <-- awesomesauce (almost as awesomesauce as yr mood images)

P.S. Astolat sounds WAY familiar to me. *goes away to holmes it hard*

[laliandra.livejournal.com]

I may have given this book a bit too much thought, I'll be honest. But it is worth it, I think! I like that, that RAKE is as much as he can give, and he's not getting anything good, or anything lastingly good, back. Which is really sad.

YAY FOR BOOBIES INDEED. I have had to learn to love mine, but I think that skinny is in no way this great ideal of beauty it seems to be made out to be.

They are from Black Books, which is AWESOMESAUCE.

She is like, quite a BNF, and wrote lots of good Merlin stuff.