A Study in Contradictions

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
( Spinny, swoopy Lal! )

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?)

I am going to try and be organised today!

First OoB: IT'S JUNE. Which means it's Book Day, aka the release day of The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan (sarahtales ).

Do not walk, run and go and purchase this book! DO IT! Ahem. Seriously though, it's the best book I've read all year, and I have read many books, many of them excellent. I can't think of a single reason why not. Also, the fandom is kickass, and you get to be a marmalade_fish .

I fail at summerising, so here is the book in 20 words, according to Miss Rees Brennan " Fencing. Fighting wolves with bike chains. Torture. Demons. Magicians. Ravens. Books. Families. Rooftop chases. Lies. More lies. Love." If you need more convincing I will explain why any one of these things is impossibly awesome.

Second OoB: My brain twin mcollinknight has returned to us from Kenya! So I am Order of Businessing in her honour. She built a school, people, I have no words for how sparkling she is.

Third OoB: SUMMER. HOTHOT SUMMER. I am so happy that it is hot and sunny. I love Leeds in the summer, because of the park.

( It was sunny a second before )

Everyone goes and plays and sunbathes and meets up and barbeques. It's brilliant. What did I do in the park? Well firstly i wore a very large straw hat. But I also had a range of fun activities
( I love my notebook! )
Eating ice lollies, reading the paper/doing the crossword, reading The Demon's Lexicon, again, and writing Jenn's birthday story.

Which brings me to my Forth OoB: Namely, it may seem like I haven't been writing a lot but, um, I've been hiding it away! I've been doing bits and dabs of writing for a cute AU, which kind of borders on RPS, and I didn't know if all y'all would be okay with that. But, well, I'm enjoying it, and I like what I've written more than anything I've done in a long time, and so if you would like to read it, I am going to unlock it/link. There is kissing in the rain, the throwing of inanimate objects and boys being hopeless! But also, it uses real life politicians and pundits, so if you feel uncomfortable with that, cool, I'll warn, and I really, really don't mind if you don't read it.

OoB Five: Mission 101! Holy crapola, this is late...

I have

• made Thai Green curry from scratch.
• made Eccles cakes, which are a northern tradition, and very yummy, pastry and dried fruit affairs. I love making pastry!
• Completed The Guardian crossword, in ten mintues flat! 4/10
• Begun an address book.
• Ginone for drinks with people from French and a photo exhibition with Melinda.

I didn't drink champagne on Mum's birthday. I was busy and poor and in the middle of exams. I might make that a different goal, IDK.

So I'm feeling very summery in a dress I got for free, with the summer stretching out before me, full of potential. I'm pretty damn happy right about now.

*pets new layout and moodtheme*

First things first, Mission101!

In progress

16. Cook a new meal from scratch every month. and 17. Bake something once a month. see this entry for details and pictures.


24. Go to the theatre 10 times. 5/10 I went to see Wren play in a crazy german opera about necromancy, and to see West Side Story, which was amazing and made everyone cry.

25. See live music once a month Bands at a gig night, Gary Stewart Band

26. Join a dance group and attend all meetings. This is going very well. Especially as it has become 3 dance groups. It's such good exercise, and really good fun too.

28. Read a new book every month. Nation by Terry Pratchett. He is a truly incredible author. A book about society and expectations and the idiocy of colonialism. Also, hilarious.

29. Have at least 5000 songs on my computer. 3554. Thank you for the songs C! Very helpful.

33. Take part in 2 Amnesty International Campaigns a year. The Banned in Burma campaign. I also got to meet Palden Gyatso
which was surreal and inspiring, to say the least.


So I asked for things to write and blog about and I got lots of responses. Thank you! I knew I could rely on you guys. The writing stuff is getting done, I promise.

To start, here's what Colline wanted to know:

What are you studying at university? I am studying French and History, Joint Honours, which means I do an equal amount of both subjects, at least in theory. More specifically this year I am doing
-The French Revoloution (in History, I get that this is confusing)
- My dissertation (on French Revolutionary Propaganda)
- Core grammar. (BLURGH)
- Representations of the City (I ♥ this module soooo much. Oh Paris, je t'aime)
- French to English translation in theory and practice (I enjoy this in a deeply tragic, geeky way)

and what are you planning to do with it? Or what would be cool, career-wise?
Well firstly I'm planning on doing a Masters in translation. I really like it, and I think I would be happy being a Translator. But really, I don;t know. I'd love to use my French, and I'd like to have a creative job, or be able to write. Alternatively, I could be a spy. What?! That is actually a viable career option for me, apparently.


Studying and practicality aside, if you could have any job or do anything AS a job in the world, what would it be? I've wanted to be an author for as long as I can remember. But I get that this is kind of a pipe dream. I would also LOVE to be a Blue Peter presenter. Blue Peter is a children's television show that's been running for like, 40 odd years. It's kind of a magazine infotainment thing. And the presenters get to travel the world and make things and interview famous people and dress up. It's like my dream job.

Aaaaaaand if you had to pick only one place in the world to travel to, where would it be? These questions are difficult! Right now I would say somewhere warm, maybe Thailand.

If that one place you went had to be the place you stayed for the rest of your life where would it be? Well now, i don't know. New York! I don't think I would ever get bored there, although I don't know seeing as I've never been *sighs*

If there's anything anyone else wants to ask, well, ask!

Exciting times in the world of Lal, oh yes, I am currently doing the "essay handed in!" dance, and I am eating ice cream and best of all, I got a present, and its a Micie of my very own! A little plush micie from Anna *twirls her*! She is the cutest thing, little red dress and most strangely, but most brilliantly, the fabric of her ears matches the cushions I have on my bed!

( she's a princess mouse! )

I am very behind on posting my Mission101 update as well, so I thought I would sort of combine the two, so here is my list, with added mouse!approval in the pics.


2. Get my hair cut at least once every 4 months. Just scraping in under the deadline here. I got about 7 inches cut off, which was quite scary, but I really like it.
( nose to nose )


16. Cook a new meal from scratch every month. Quesadillas from the recipe book Cat gave me.

17. Bake something once a month. Mince pies! Camera cake!

28. Read a new book every month. Wicked Gentleman. READ IT. See how mini!micie loves it just as much as the real one does!
( other books also beloved )

35. Recycle all plastics paper and glass.

37. Don't accept plastic bags at the supermarket.

44. Learn 5 new French words a week. Many exciting words about 18th century politics.

53. Show boyfriend around Isle of Man (my childhood home) He came over for New Year and we saw some of the sights and played the "how many people in this room/pub/etc did Lal go to school with?" game, with often alarming results.

58. Hoover the house once a week.

62. Print out pictures and put them up in my room. I really like my photo wall.
( there is a system, of sorts... )

98. 98. Buy Star Wars KotOR 1. Ok, so it was a present from my Dad. But I have it!

101. Doing it now!

I fear I must also report a failing,
48. Start essays at least a month before the deadline.
You guys, this went very wrong with the essay I handed in today. I ended up having to stay up til like 3am to finish off all the referencing. I know, I know, but I've given myself a good talking to, and I'm NOT going to do it again. There's a reason I have this 101 business, to get my disorganised arse into gear.

Aaaand Finally, not relevent to Mission101 but very relevent to darling frantic_mice , the RL micie who is just as squishable as my minimicie, STEAMPUNK BOOTS AND SATCHEL!

( I love clearing out the attic! )

There is virtual housekeeping to be done!

Firstly. The holidays are coming! I love picking/making cards, so if you would like one, tell me! Tell me what kind of card you would like. British? Fannish? Notable quotations of Shakespeare? Send me your address and I will attempt to fulfil your wishes. Please do, it would be fun!
Returning the favour is appreciated but in zero ways required. But I shall provide the location of my abode on demand.

Secondly. Mission 101. I need an update, yes I do. For if I do not update, I do forget..


( I have... )


Thirdly, here is a little collection of Drabbles I wrote for SQ. One of them was the first fanfic I wrote, its not great, one was a joke prompt about Mary Sues and one is, I think, one of my very favourite things I've written. Can you guess which?


( perserverance )

 

 

( hesitate )

 

 

 

( Mary-Sue! )

 

 

 

( mistake )

 

( return )

 

 

( walk )

Seeing as a while new month has begun I figured it was time for an update, and to go to the community and say "Well Done!" to as many people as possible, because we all need a little help on the way.


( The State of Play )


My full list is in my previous post.