The games of my life
21 Sep 2010 3 Comments
in Sort of a review Tags: more awesome than you can handle, shiny, videogames
So, after watching the Prince (referring to Prince of Persia here — sorry about the wikipedia link, couldn’t find the official website on the first try and couldn’t be bothered searching more) hurl himself comically into the distance when I clearly told him to go toward a ledge to the exactly opposite direction, I can conclude three different things: one, Ubisoft has a thing for collecting glowing things; evidence:
The shiny things you collect in Rayman 2, a Ubisoft game
The shiny things you collect in Prince of Persia (note the ridiculous-looking abs)
Two, they also have a thing with vines, since I pretty much remember climbing as many vines in Rayman 2 (one of my absolute favourite games, by the way, it’s AMAZING and awesome and rather epic, when you think about the fact that it’s a game about a guy whose limbs aren’t connected to his body which isn’t connected to his head and he has a banana peel for hair) as I have in Prince of Persia. Admittedly, there weren’t as many pillars and amusing dashes to the depths in Rayman as there have been in Prince of Persia, but then again, I don’t think the game engine was as intricate as the one in Prince of Persia. Ha. Uh, then there was some third thing that I learnt, but admittedly, I’ve forgotten it during the time it took for me to search for those pictures (in my defense, I actually tried to look for more games with shiny things and vines, but apparently Ubisoft has published a lot of games lol). I think it may have had something to do with learning about the possibility of me feeling like a healthy, sane human being again, which would nicely reference to the fact that I haven’t been posting lately (again) and hinted at why this was without me having to pause and actually explain it to you, hee!
Uh. Anyway. I think I might make this post about videogames, since I’ve already started down that track — and I think I’ll start with announcing some of my favourites. Like I said above, I at least think (because establishing favourites has always been kind of tough for me, since I believe that it exhibits certain narrow-mindedness and favouritism [which, I suppose, is the whole point of it, but SHUT UP I'm being pseudo-philosophical] and doesn’t always allow for new possibilities) that Rayman 2: The Great Escape is one of my favourite games. I was introduced to the game ages ago, when I was still less than halfway through primary school, and mostly I played it by watching my father go through it, since I got too scared in certain levels — I especially remember this one where (this is where I did some searching for any screenshots of the particular enemy I’m going to describe, and since I couldn’t find any, you’re going to have to do with my extremely confusing description) there were these… walking barrels that would shoot beams of electricity at you. What was especially creepy about these particular enemies was that they had this annoying habit of hiding behind corners, even while they’d be shifting their weight a bit, so you could HEAR them there, but you couldn’t see them — you knew they were there, but WHERE? It was TERRIFYING — especially when you got to this one area, where there were more than just one of them (they had huge healthbars, too, so they were actually a pretty real threat, with the huge damage they could do to you), and where there were actually sirens, warning THEM of YOUR presence — so they’d come stomping up to you, trying to zap you.
Terrible! And it doesn’t help that the stupid robots that were your enemies could bury into the ground and randomly jump up at some other place. Try having a robot like this in your face, then disappear and then jump at your back and tell me you wouldn’t be at least startled:
Oh yeah, and they chase after you, too. Anyway, what I really loved about Rayman 2 — what I really love about any game, really — was its huge, way awesome story. And the levels are pretty amazing. As you can see, the graphics aren’t very good at all, but hey, what do you expect form a game that was released millions of years ago? Also, there were some pretty cool puzzles there, I think. And the characters were odd and quirky and stuff. Basically, it had this whole exploration action platform-jumpy element to it, which I really like — because there was just SO much to it! And the controls were pretty simple. Oh, and your powers would be totally awesome when you got more silver lumz from Ly. I remember this one stage that you had to complete where you FLEW through the whole stage and it was all covered in LAVA! Awesome. I can’t wait for Rayman: Origins, which apparently appears through PSN toward the end of this year, hee.
Some more of my favourite games are The Sims series (just to take a break from Ubisoft for a bit — I’ll come back to it sooner or later, trust me), not because I’m such a girl and like playing with interactive dollhouses (ok, maybe a little, but I totally didn’t tell you that), but rather because I genuinely like the gameplay, always have (which, you may argue, is exactly the same thing, but shut up, I never played with dolls anyway, but with plushies, because animals are way cooler than people). Also, I’m a writer, and I enjoy creating a face (and with Sims 3, a personality, because of their AMAZING personality system, which makes each Sim feel unique in a way it never did, before — it’s actually a lot cooler to watch them interact with their environment now than it ever was with Sims 2) to usually faceless characters in my brain. Also, it’s cool to create a bunch of people, stick them together and just string them on through their lives. I seriously can’t put my finger on what the attractive thing about Sims is — I suppose that we’re just all egomaniacs who like toying with other people’s lives, or curious of how other people live their lives (what, that’s just me? Shut up).
Another series with a permanent place in my heart is, of course, Pokémon. I dare you, name one kid who grew up in the 90′s who hasn’t heard of Pokémon. Of course, the “generations” (because usually there are three games to a “generation” — they’re all a slight variation of the same game, with different pokémon and sometimes characters and events and that sort of stuff) that I love most are generation one and two, mostly because those are the ones that started it all, and will always carry this feeling of originality, never-seen-before, at least for me. I especially loved the reboot they made of gen 2 recently, Heart Gold and Soul Silver (I finished Heart Gold in roughly two weeks, not to brag or anything — I love my Ampharos, she kicks ass — oh, and I beat my boyfriend at it twice, too : D), because as much as I love gen 1, gen 2 really took some things gen 1 did well and then elaborated upon them, adding a huge amount of stuff that made the whole thing even better. You could argue that this went on for gen 3 and gen 4 as well, but what I especially love about gen 2 is that it was actually a direct sequel to the gen 1 games, unlike gen 3 & gen 4. Besides, I think that some of the gen 4 things — even the remakes of Gold and Silver — added a huge amount of useless minigames and rubbish that aren’t really central to the game itself in any way. The pokémon contests were pretty cool when they started in … gen 3 (otherwise, I can’t remember much about gen 3 at all, and I think I’ve lost the copy I had of a gen 3 game, so I won’t even try to comment on that), but in gen 4, they’re so overly complicated and full of useless shit that I have to confess that I never even played any of them. Dear game developers, I do appreciate that you try to put more content into my game so that I get as much game as I possibly can, but could you keep it to the actual point of the game, which is to catch and raise pokémon, and not to toddle about doing completely irrelevant and useless shit? I might then regain my faith in you. I’m having this ominous feeling about gen 5, which is on its way, but hey, what can you do. Replay Heart Gold, I s’pose?
The thing I find that makes me so attracted to Pokémon isn’t necessarily the story — because let’s face it, it’s always the same. I mean, there are some cool inspirational quotes and the general underlying theme of “you can do anything you really want to do” that I kind of love, but there’s always the raise-pokémon-defeat-rival-defeat-gym-leaders-defeat-champion-toddle-around-and-look-for-additional-stuff-to-beat. The thing that interests me is the utter freedom of the gameplay. Sure, there’s one place you have to go before the other is unlocked, but you’re free to toddle around in one area for as long as you want: and the pokémon that keep appearing, and your pokémon growing stronger always seems to keep you interested. Then again, there’s always the possibility that toddling around for too long, or having too long transitions from one area to another become too long and annoying — which is also why I loved gen 2, because the area was so compact and everything was so close by; it was an efficient, nice little game for a short attention span like mine. But it wasn’t too short, since it gave you this whole second region and everything, and even there, everything was comfortably close by. Another thing that makes Pokémon so attractive are the cute, awesome Pokémon, of course. Mwaha.
Uhm. Maybe that’s enough talk about Pokémon. Last, but definitely not least, a game I replay on definite intervals (usually about a year and a bit, because that’s enough time to let you forget the specifics of how to do everything, and what happens next), is Beyond Good and Evil. I keep telling pretty much everyone who will listen how underappreciated Beyond Good and Evil is — how amazing a game it is, and how amazing the themes and messages in it are, and how awesome the gameplay and how great the graphics are, considering that this game was released in flippin’ 2003 — and how awesome the soundtrack is, and how lovely (though kind of confusingness) and engaging the story is. Seriously, there are two groups, when considering this game: those who loved it, and those who haven’t played it. Maybe that’s exaggerating a little, but seriously, it is a hell of an awesome game. It’s got sneaky bits, action bits, taking-photograph-y bits, racing with floating vehicles bits, and and and and I must faint now in the face of the awesome that is this game. I’m sorry I can’t adequately express my love for this game — OH HOLY SHIT I FORGOT THAT YOU COLLECT SHINY PEARLS (AND CRYSTALS) IN THIS UBISOFT GAME TOO HOW COULD I FORGET I’m a bad person and I really need to replay this game *catches breath*
Um. Er. Hi. There are other games I play, of course, and I may have forgotten some of the most important gaming experiences of my life, but I don’t have infinite memory (or infinitely patient readers, either), so I’ll have to stop listing and expressing here. Besides… I totally forgot what I was going to say, heeee! Uh. I congratulate you for getting through this long post — in fact, I will reward you by not posting & answering another question tonight. 8D If you have any more questions about the games I play, feel free to drop a comment (but please don’t tell me how much of a girly gamer I am, that’s a sensitive spot :p). Oh, and go play Beyond Good and Evil. Now.
Peace and love and shiny, collectible things.
It’s like a fruit salad, except sans fruit
14 Sep 2010 Leave a Comment
in Personal Tags: 35 days, flow of consciousness, more awesome than you can handle, shiny, sleep deprivation, writing
Before I begin, I would like to share something AWESOME with you (and this here is a pause in which I accidentally go and take interest in other things on the net before I realise that I was making a blogpost, oops):
After seeing and laughing at this video last night some three times before I went to sleep has caused the peculiar effect that every time I think or say “awesome,” it’s now sung by that guy. I also know that I endorse consumerism on a grand scale by saying this (hey, what’s wrong with a little indulgence every now and then, anyway), but I really want this shirt. And, well, since I got the ball rolling, I also want this (Bite Me! is an awesome vampire comic, by the way, I definitely recommend checking it out — otherwise I wouldn’t be contemplating buying it, right?), this (and the season after that, too) and an assortment of other stuff, too. And I’m not entirely sure why I’m complaining about it instead of actually getting all this stuff — might be because I’m rather conscious of the fact that I don’t have a job at the moment and that I would probably have to use some of my money on schoolies and on other, unrelated summer activities.
Which will probably mean that, come summer, I will actually have to go back to work again. I was planning on turning down the job re-offer when the new place opens (I mean, we’ve been pretty much guaranteed a spot at the cinema I work at that closed around June for renovations, but I guess that you can’t always be too sure), but I might have to accept it instead. I’m pretty certain I’m going to get a new job next year anyway, but before I find one, I’ll have to stick with making popcorn, then selling it (while enduring complaints from people that it’s entirely too salty/expensive/something else) and then cleaning it off floors when people are unable to aim at their stupid mouths.
Ah, retail, how much I hate you.
Um. I had a whole lot more to squeal about, like, how much I loved that it was all sunshiney today and it smelled like spring again and EVERYTHING was flowering in trees and in grass and it was warm and pleasant and then there was the little girl on the bus who sat next to me and brightly talked about her Tinkerbell all the way from the stop at the mall to my stop — she was incredibly cute, even though I only understood a half or so of what she was saying. Oh God summer is so close and I can’t be bothered beginning to study for exams and I sure can’t wait ’till exams are over an I wish they were over now because SO MUCH EFFORT and ahhhh, at least summer is here soon, and I can wear t-shirts (woah, I totally re-read this bit just now and accidentally read “wet t-shirts” and I’m like NOW THERE’S A DIRTY GIRL) and other colourful stuff. And short shorts. Mwahaha. And flowy skirts. And no shoes.
I love summer. I can’t wait for summer. I want the exams to be over already so I don’t have to get stressed about them. D: I’ve been relatively un-stressed for these two days that have made this week, and since I’m not going to school tomorrow to be pestered by my literature and English teachers, tomorrow, I think, will be a stressless day, too — I’m really finding that I like this stresslessness, was what I was trying to say with that.
I’m kind of getting tired. Does it show?
Day 25: Your favourite part of yourself
My ability to speak languages, I suppose. I thought this would be a difficult one to answer, because there are lots of parts of me that I like, and lots of parts of me that I don’t — and sometimes the two different categories overlap for different reasons. I think I’ve expressed my distaste for questions like these before, the sort of picking out simple things about yourself and then evaluating them. I still don’t think that it’s necessarily possible to pick apart a human being and say what is most important about them, what makes them who they are (because, whatever I may say, I think I do like who I am). However, I think I can also safely say that what I think one of the cornerstones of myself is my ability to comprehend and learn different languages.
This is because I love writing, and like I’ve probably expressed plenty times before, I think that it’s essential for a good writer to know their chosen language forward, backward and then upside-down. My writing process always begins with a feeling or a meaning or a gist of something I want to express, wordless in my brain — most of my thoughts are wordless, really, and only sentiments, and hence can be expressed in all of my three languages — which will then be expressed by picking the right words to correspond the nuances of that idea or feeling or whatever it is that I’m writing down at that moment. I love being able to do that, and I love knowing all these words with their precise, subtle connotations that mean exactly what I want them to; I love understanding how to do all of that. I love writing clever little sentences and I love thinking about people reading them through again — never mind the language I’m writing in.
Now I just wish that I could do that verbally, too, but I suppose that no-one can do everything, right?
Day 26: A picture/description of one of your scars
Day 27: The most stupid picture you’ve ever seen
Riighty-o. I’m sorry that this post seems rambly and doesn’t appear to have a lot of substance at all — ironically enough, since I felt like today I would’ve actually had stuff to talk about. Well, one can’t really do anything about one’s tiredness, can one? I’ll just say “one” one more time to annoy you. Ha. One.
Peace and spring flowers, dearies~
In our series of sleepy shenanigans
29 Aug 2010 1 Comment
in Personal Tags: 35 days, pseudo-philosophising, shiny
There I was, merrily searching for apps again (I seem to be doing it, like, every second day or so, as a reward for myself for being productive [more on that later] — I’ve become smarter than I was at first, though, and I hardly ever buy any apps if I haven’t tested the lite versions out, first; aren’t I a good girl?), when my significant other logged on after being away for the entire day, and pretty much the… tenth thing he said to me was “there’s no new blog post!” There is seriously something wrong with your relationship if your boyfriend monitors how much you post on your blog and seems to be significantly upset when you don’t. It’s like we never communicate “in real life”!
… Of course I’m kidding, and I sort of love him for reminding me about my blogging responsibility, because I really do love blogging. Sometimes I just feel like searching for apps aimlessly would be more fun, or that I can’t be bothered moving enough to get a post started, or that I really don’t have anything to write about, but if I’m nudged a little, I suppose that it always turns out that I actually do and that I can. Sometimes I just need a kick (ha, Inception reference) to remember that. :3
And yeah, I’m feeling significantly better today. The morning was pretty terrible, with my half-blocked nose (I have this weird history of pseudo-allergies — I always get this weird spring half-flu, or something, but I haven’t actually ever been diagnosed having pollen allergy, and even if I do, it’s such a mild, irritating case that it could very well be just the SPRING SNIFFLES) and aching head and jaw (what’s up with that?) and everything, but after I omnom’d some pancake (PANCAKE, not pancakes, you heretics) — nah, I didn’t get French toast, I’ll just try to burn some by myself on wednesday — and painkillers and allergy medication, I felt a lot better. Not necessarily more awake, just better. But seeing as it’s Sunday (I just totally wrote Saturday) and tomorrow’s a school day and there’s only three weeks left of this term (holy FUCK YES), I had to start doing some homework regardless.
Four hours and thirty pages of research later, I was a third into my Chemistry research project thing. I’d forgotten how much I really love doing chemistry — I was perfectly entertained for those four hours — and yes, I know that I’m a freak of nature and everything, but I just enjoy my sciences. And knowing stuff. Especially knowing stuff. Oh, and rubbing it in your face when I know stuff and you don’t. Ha. … Uh, what was I saying… Oh, and then I did the valiant effort of actually writing up a poetry analysis. Here’s the perfect opportunity to go on a rant about how my Literature teacher sucks, but frankly, I’m a little too well-humoured to be bothered.
AND I applied through VTAC (Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre) for a few university courses, and got horribly excited. I really, really can’t wait for holidays, and after that, I really can’t wait for uni. It’s supposed to be really awesome — and I’m reeeally hoping that it’s going to be. Imagine that! Studying something that you really want to with people who want to study it, too, as taught by people who know what they’re doing in this huuuuge area with lots of buildings and opportunities for getting lost. Guh. I am so sold.
So anyway, I’ve had a pretty productive day today, but otherwise it hasn’t been really interesting. My brain’s been pretty empty of any sorts of thoughts or ideas or anything, and I’m feeling kind of mellow, but at the same time, extremely uninteresting (everybody totally feels extremely uninteresting a lot, right? It’s normal, right?). In fact, so extremely uninteresting that I really don’t have anything more to add (yes, yes, I know, Inception, but I’ve not been thinking anything for the entire day [I suppose I'm still rather tired], and I really can’t find myself really interested in thinking about/writing about that movie right now, however much I liked it; sorry), and will just go ahead and catch up with the prompts that I’ve missed. I answered wednesday and thursday’s yesterday, so I have… three more left to go. Right? Right. There’s no-one there to tell me how wrong I am, anyway, so NYAH at you.
Day 17: Something you don’t want people to ask you about
Oh, I generally love answering questions that people pose to me, because I really like talking about myself. In fact, I’m a lot better at answering questions than I am at actually coming up with things to tell about myself on the spot — but if you go deeper than just the sort of “I like to talk about myself, hence I like answering questions,” it’s not actually about me being extremely open to everyone around me at all. On the contrary, it’s a sort of a self-defense mechanism: if I wait for someone to ask something about me, I know what they’re expecting (and that’s mostly why I’m so good at school — I usually know what questions mean and what they’re asking for and what information teachers wish me to give), and I can shape my answer accordingly. If I am to actually offer any information, it’s completely different — I won’t know how it’s going to be received, and I risk getting hurt by getting a negative reaction.
It seems kind of ridiculous and that I’m uncertain of myself — and, well, I suppose I kind of am — but sensitive people get hurt by the smallest things (I’ve learnt this the hard way), and we’ve got to protect ourselves some way.
Day 18: A daily ritual/routine
Waking up, eating breakfast, having a shower, getting dressed, leaving for school? At the moment, I don’t really have any interesting daily rituals, because mostly my days consist of getting up, going to school, coming home from school, lying in the bed dead for an hour or a few (sometimes, in the gravest of situations, falling asleep), having dinner, frantically doing homework and then going to sleep again, after getting thirty minutes of Chuzzle (this adorable game on my iPhone — I really can’t be bothered looking for a link for you right now; you should find it if you google it, it’s pretty popular and ADORABLE and addictive and all other praise that I can’t think of right now) or some other superficial relaxation in. Lather, rinse and repeat.
I wish my life was more interesting and quirky and I’d have something more to tell you about. Next year — or during the holidays (even though those will be mostly “get up in the middle of the day, have brunch, study, have dinner, study, sleep”, I suppose) — I hope.
Oh! Well, I have a few WEEKLY routines, like every Wednesday and Saturday (except the next ones, sadly), my boyfriend and I go and do something together — usually come back to my place, because it’s closer to the school. Sometimes he stays for dinner. It’s not really a ritual, though, because we don’t exactly have this certain way of doing things. We like not to fall into a routine.
Day 19: Five things you like about yourself
I despise listing questions like this. I’ve never been able to work out three or more things that I like (or don’t) about myself. What do you classify as a trait that applies to this? If I say “I like that I’m pretty,” is that too, well, arrogant, for one, and for another, is it too broad a topic? Shouldn’t I be saying something like “I have a cute nose” or “I have a pretty smile” or “I have a good sense of balance” (you’d not believe that one, though, from the amount of times I report having walked into a doorframe or a wall or something, but it’s true!) or something like that? How about personality traits? Is “I’m generally happy” one that applies, or should I specify why?
The problem is that as much as you define yourself, so does your environment and the people around you. I like myself when I’m surrounded by the people I love, who complete me and who understand me, and I don’t necessarily have to try to work myself out or explain myself to myself, because whatever I do, I know that I’m loved and I know that I’m understood. I’m too important to be broken up into five simple things about myself — I’m too much of a complex character to even begin stating only five different things that make me the awesome person that I am (because I think that everybody should be entitled to think that they are awesome, because to them, they are) — I’m too much loved. And so is everybody else.
Day 20: Objects or things that are in your bed
Day 21: Something illogical that you think or do
Yep, that’s me finished. I’m sorry I’ve been so tired or empty or out of it so as to not be very interesting. I promise that when I manage to get some relax-time or sleep in — but I expect that to be at the time of the holidays, because I have that huge chemistry report due on friday, and I’ve got 30 pages of research to carefully look through before that, and then to write the whole thing up (though it’s supposed to be only 1200 words — how in HELL will I be able to do that?), and the following week I have the English practice exam that I need to do some work for, and for the following week, the last week of school, I anticipate at least three SACs (math, literature and chemistry, the remaining three SACs)… So I’ll be fairly busy. … So! During holidays, I promise that I’ll not spend TOO much time being comatose or panicky, and at least some time being interesting for you guiz, because you’re speshul.
Peace and pancake, duckies!
Are there even any creative ways to express sleep deprivation?
19 Aug 2010 Leave a Comment
in Personal, Sort of a review Tags: 35 days, seasons, shiny, sleep deprivation, slight angst, suspense
And yet another day of neglecting to update my blog. Sigh! I can say that it’s because I haven’t been sleeping a lot lately — which is kind of fine, seeing that I’m not actually feeling too bad at all and can function normally (except for the whole, you know, deteriorating coordination thing that makes me hit myself and walk into things a lot), but it also means that I don’t have enough energy for extra stress (which is a good thing) or any additional effort, like writing a blog — which is a bad thing, I suppose. I’ve never really been good with this sleeping thing, though, not even as a tiny little kid. Mother always tells me how I was an exhausting child, since I never slept any during the day.
It also showed in school, when I burst into tears in French, since my mind completely blacked out and my teacher is very good with making things stressful, especially when we’re supposed to have a conversation with her, completely in French. Speaking was never my forte, not even in English — so I hate that I’m expected to express myself orally in the end-of-year exam. It’s not that I don’t understand or know the language, I just can’t speak it, just as I can’t speak anything else!
Ok, so my oral skills (ha) have improved consistently since I actually started talking, unlike your average Finnish person, but hey, if I want to cling on to my perception of my personal problems when there are really none, I will! … Because that totally makes a lot of sense.
So, my excuses for not writing a blog post is that precious little has actually happened (since precious little ever happens at school — also, you’re probably sick of me mentioning my significant other every two lines or so, so maybe I shouldn’t talk about how we went and had lunch/coffee [iced chocolate -- Gloria Jean's, I love you so] and it was very, very nice), I am tired to the point where it has turned from beneficial in reducing stress to stressful, and I am addicted to my iPhone.
Well, it was kind of expected, wasn’t it? I mean, it’s shiny, it’s got cute and addictive games on it (like ROBOT UNICORN ATTACK), and heeeaps of useless apps that are just shiny enough to pique my curiosity and have me spending loooots of money on them. Sigh. Welcome, bankruptcy, I wish I still had my job…
Anyway, since my few days have been rather uneventful (on the sort of let’s-tell-the-world-about-it scale), I’ll go ahead and answer the prompt I missed, along with today’s prompt:
Day 08: Your favourite fruit
I know that it isn’t (or may not — ever since grade 3, it seems to have been some sort of a competition between everyone on how to classify fruits, vegetables and berries and so on and so forth, you know, to the tune of pineapple being a bunch of berries) necessarily a fruit, but I love strawberries. A hell of a lot. I mean, they’re reeeed and juicyyy and kind of sweet without being too sweet, retaining that sort of a tangy flavor sensation. I’m not too good with sweet things, so anything that’s sour goes, pretty much. Hence I also like pineapple, green apples (that bright green, sour kind), etc.
Day 09: Something that you’re really waiting for
SUMMER. You’ve heard all about this, but I want it to stop being cold (it’s not been too bad the past few days, actually — I’ve almost felt my toes for the first time in a few months, even though yesterday one of my fingers swelled up with warmth once we got home, that’s how cold it got outside), dark, grey and rainy. I’m perfectly ready to be complaining about the hot temperatures and the piercing sunshine again.
And holidays, of course, with the passion of one who hasn’t slept well for a week and will have to get up tomorrow to go to school, and on sunday morning to go to a bloody French thing where they dissect the exam so that your studying is made easier for you. I mean, it’s incredibly useful, I suppose, in terms of exam strategies (like my English teacher likes to say) and knowing what the hell I’m doing for once, but AT 9:30 ON A BLOODY SUNDAY MORNING, IN THE CITY, TO WHERE A TRAIN RIDE TAKES AT LEAST 30 MINUTES? I’m already sacrificing my whole bloody week for this insanity, and most of my sleep and my life and my.. sanity, AND NOW THEY ASK FOR MY SUNDAYS?
… I need a holiday.
Day 10: Something you want from your life
Day 11: A book you’re going to read during the next month
You kiddies try to sleep a lot more than I do, ok? Accidentally banging your head against everything that remains immobile (because the mobile things know how to dodge me already, lifeless or no) is really not fun.
p.s. I might not update tomorrow because of a severe case of tired (or of shiny), but when I do, I’ll try to give you some picshars of/taken on my shiny gadget thing. Just for shits and giggles, you know?
Turning software into hardware is impossible, thank you very much
18 Aug 2010 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: 35 days, late at night, shiny
(psst, the title is a reference to the geek joke/pick-up line “you turn my software into hardware, baby” — I just thought it went well with the general feeling of the post)
Good evening, you generic kiddies whom I always seem to write to — it’s been a rather busy day for me, and if it wasn’t for my oh-so-great significant other, who took it as his job to remind me that I DO have a blog to write and that the 35 day prompt challenge thingomajig is a 35 day prompt challenge, and not a challenge that I’m allowed to stretch out when it’s convenient for me. I found this preposterous! … and yet, here I am, so what can I say. In Finland, we’d say, literally translated, that I’m “beneath his slipper” — to which I believe the English equivalent has something to do with toes and wasn’t significant enough for me to remember it.
Anyway, why the big day, you ask, since today was one of those days in which I only had four periods of school and was RATHER free to ignore all necessary homework (despite there being a literature SAC tomorrow — but I’m fairly sure I’ve expressed my sentiments on that before) and do whatever I wished, which mostly consists of me lying in my bed in a comatose state and surfing the vastness of bullshit that is the internets. I assure you, even that vastness of bullshit can be quite entertaining when you know where to look.
Regaaaardless, my day was significantly brightened by the announcement made by my father that the iPhone 4G that I had acquired in principle, but not in practice, as a present for my birthday a few weeks prior had finally arrived in store. It was simultaneously dulled by how my old phone decided to pick this very day to screw itself up completely, so that I couldn’t actually transfer any contact details from a phone to another. But how shiny is this thing! *gazes at phone in awe* It’s all black and sleek and black and sleek and… sleek. Quite classy, I must say, while managing to be shiny and awesome at the same time. As you might have noticed by now, I’m not exactly the most technological person around, since I’m not gushing over… whatever it is that tech-oriented people gush over when they get to hold something technologically awesome (and when everybody else decides that the least awkward approach would be to just ignore that stain at the front of their pants). Not that I’m saying that this phone here is technologically awesome — and yet, not that I’m not. All I’m saying is “I’ll be fucked if I know” and go play Bejeweled. Oh, and Robot Unicorn Attack.
As you ALSO might notice, you Apple-haters out there, these are not exactly qualities that are solely associated to Apple products, so don’t get all butthurt over me getting a brand of smartphone instead of another. I could go on and on about why it’s unnecessary for people to be so hostile over such a small, and somewhat ridiculous thing as operating systems and hardware, but I suppose that first world people have to have their problems, too. *snortgiggle*
Another thing is that I’m not as acutely stressed as I was before — might be because I decided to go “fuck it”, might be because I don’t have to worry about my old phone giving in on me (I was kind of getting annoyed at it recently), might be because mother dragged me to the gym she and father are going to and made me exercise (gasphorror — not really what I imagined of an afternoon of lying in bed in a comatose state and surfing da interwebs) for a solid 45 minutes. Or it might be that I’ve only got English and lit tomorrow, three periods of school in total, and I only need to start worrying big time on thursday. I mean, tomorrow, for thursday.
I’m not sure it’s entirely possible for me to ever write a post that doesn’t somehow relate to stress or schoolwork. Hey, I’m just ecstatic that there’s so little of it to go, relatively (and yet, every moment now feels like it’s deliberately dragging itself out into one painful torture of .. something, I suck at analogies), and very bad with dealing with stress. So deal with it. Ha! I told you!
Um, right, and now the primary reason I’m here, you sneaky little thing:
Day 07: Something that turns you on
I could really answer this in one word and then go toddling off, but I suppose that that’s not really the point of it, so I’ll start by a rambling preface: I’m the sort of a human being who doesn’t notice the most blaringly obvious things that manifest around her. I know I’m female and everything, but I hardly ever notice if someone has recently had a haircut (unless it’s, like, fire-engine red), is wearing new shoes or something. Hence, appearance really doesn’t matter that much to me — it’s more how you use it, how you carry yourself and project yourself to everyone else.
In other words, I’m extremely attracted to confidence. Any sort of a confidence, really. Not the sort of cocky “oh-look-at-me-look-at-how-well-I-can-drive-this-bike-into-that-wall-and-then-set-it-on-fire” sort of attention-seeking, but a quiet confidence of knowing one’s own strengths and one’s own limits and having no doubt about either. This is very likely born of my own, occasional unsureness and almost constant need for reassurance — –
I just realised that this explanation is becoming kind of moody and dark and more of a what-I-need-in-a-relationship-and-why sort of a self-examination instead of a lightly humorous recounting of what turns me aaawwwnn. Might be the time, might be that I really can’t think of a simple answer to that. A lot of things turn me on, if they’re done right — but mainly it’s the answer I gave before. Confidence is fucking sexy, just ask anyone. Confidence, but also a certain humility, impulsiveness and creativity.
Ultimately? Ask my boyfriend.
Day 08: Your favourite fruit
Day 09: Something that you’re really waiting for
Ok, that’s my disjointed obligation of today under my belt, I’m going back to bed to play Bejeweled. I mean, to sleep. Of course. To sleep. … Ha.
Peaceful mushrooms for y’all~
The love for balloons — I mean, friends — and a bunch of other stuff
16 Aug 2010 1 Comment
in Personal Tags: 35 days, more awesome than you can handle, music, shiny, writing
This is pretty much what things looked like in our house yesterday — and in fact, to be completely honest, they still kind of do. I’ve just been too tired as of yet to clear away the previously-floating, Helium-filled balloons from around the house for three separate reasons: a) I didn’t go to sleep very early on saturday night, b) I was woken up by a mean, figurative little badger who had a fascination for tearing bedclothes away from the bed in a freezing room to wake you up on sunday morning and c) I really like balloons, and I will like them to stay where they are for as long as they will.
Leftover cake (which we had for breakfast on that sunday morning — the only reason that I’ve forgiven this figurative badger), and sad helium balloons that are now making close contact with the ground — one would think there had been a party here!
And there was, indeed. I could say a whole lot about it, but it would all get a little bit more personal that I’m perfectly comfortable with on the internet and everything — besides, it was one of those things that you just had to experience, to know what it was really like. There just isn’t words enough — and that’s why writers have to go out and experience lots of things before they can write awesome books, you see? :3
Anyway, what I will say about that party is that it related very much to the two prompts that I missed on saturday and sunday, because of this party and then because of the resulting tiredness of a short night’s sleep: “something that makes you smile” and “someone who makes you really happy” for days five and six, respectively. Essentially, you see, this entire night was about my significant other (I know that I talk about him a lot, and that I may seem a little clingy to some people who will only know me through these posts — and trust me, I seem even more clingy when it comes to reality; however, if you know anything about me and where I come from and what I’ve been through rather recently, you’d say that I deserve a bit of support and love and clinginess, so I’m not even going to be concerned about the picture I give, here) proving to me how loved I am. There was this whole thing where he tried to chase down some of my friends from Finland to get their greetings on video — and he did chase one of them down, and that was most awesome, because they showed the DVD when everybody was watching and my darling friend spoke all in Finnish and I don’t know why it was so awesome but it was <3. And and and oh, I really loved how I had threatened people on the invitation on how we will play the music _I_ like, for once (which, if you haven’t yet guessed, is mostly symphonic & power metal, with some exceptions), and in the end, a lot of them didn’t seem to mind it — or seemed to like it.
I hang out with a bunch of cool peeps, I swear. :3
But most awesome of all was perhaps the fact that they had all gone and gotten me started one of those Pandora bracelet things, which looks like this:
Isn’t it just the cutest thing you’ve ever seen? It is so sweet of them to have gone and done this for me, it’s so… just… moving. I feel so loved. And I should: I am, I know.
But that’s probably enough about me gushing over how awesome it is to have friends this awesome (I’m just really not used to it — I’m the sort of a person who will not make many friends, but who will have a few who will stick with me through the years, like the two of my best friends who I’ve known since grade 3). In other news, I finished writing the draft for that Literature creative response writing task thing that I MAY have spoken about before — the one where I had to write a creative response (well, duh) to Pat Barker’s Regeneration. As it is, I don’t like it overly much — it’s a fairly generic war response thing, and not really replicating Barker’s style or anything in a very significant way. But I suppose that it reflects some of the themes of the novel, even if it leaves the most important duty vs. ethics one out — oops, it does, doesn’t it, I only just realised that… Well, I should probably get around to fixing that on at least wednesday, when we’re supposed to write out a final copy. I’m not expecting it to be anything glorious, because I simply haven’t had enough time to work on it as much as I would’ve wanted to, but seeing how useless a subject Literature has turned out to be, I really don’t mind.
Ah, and the weather has turned from horrible to moody — I think it’s gone from blue skies to rainy at least four times today. I got to use my umbrella twice, but I didn’t get my toes wet! Aw, and I lost my scarf around friday (ha, seriously, that shows you just how tired I’ve been: I have no idea how that happened, only that in the beginning of the day, I had it, and at the end of it, I didn’t), so my neck has kind of been freezing: I forecast some serious headaches because of these monstrous shoulders of mine. Aaaand what else… OH, I listened to this French podcast, and I didn’t get most of it. 8D I’m getting kind of panicked about the whole oral exam again, because it’s in October and that’s kind of behind the corner already. In fact, this whole school situation seems surreal: my last French SAC (School Assessed Task, just a test that contributes to our final score in a lesser measure than the exams, it’s a sort of cumulative score) is next week, I only have one math SAC and one English SAC left — and two each of chemistry (one of them is a take-home report thing, though) and lit (one of which is the creative that we’re supposed to have finished on wednesday). It’s almost the end of my high school education — I can’t believe it!
Or, well, yes I can, considering how stressed I’m beginning to get again, and how far (five weeks, so 24 days of school) the next “study break” (read: holiday that our tyrannical coordinator person doesn’t want us to call a holiday, because we’re never supposed to have any fun as long as we’re in HIS school) is.
I was considering answering another prompt, but I suppose that I’ve been rambling on and boring you for long enough as it is. I’ll just either answer two tomorrow or skip one or just stretch 35 days out to 36 — maybe you won’t kill me, right? These are the ones that are coming up:
Day 07: Something that turns you on
Day 08: Your favourite fruit
But what if my favourite fruit turns me on? D;
Peace, potatoes and leftover cake <3
The one with metal fans, balloons and umbrellas
12 Aug 2010 Leave a Comment
in Personal Tags: 35 days, Following the Gay Umbrella, ideas, music, shiny, writing
So, my mood has steadily declined from the deliriously bubbly earlier today, mainly because of the fact that I’ve been doing chemistry for the entire afternoon & evening, and my wrist hurts like a bitch right now. It couldn’t even be some cool theory stuff, no, but all this explanation about different types of energy, that I’ve been doing since, uh, ninth grade, I think. It was interesting and everything, but there was too much of it, and too much writing.
And then I banged my elbow twice to something, because my upper body was jealous of the damage that I did to my toes this morning.
BUT then I thought that I might cheer myself up by keeping my promise and picking up my camera; it produced a photo like SO:
Hee, yes, this is the beloved b’loon that my mother brought home with her, to my delight. Oh, and also the weirdly clinically-looking hallway-thingy of my house. … I really don’t know what else to say about it, except that it’s a b’loon and hence it must be awesome. Speaking of which, mother came in just a few moments ago, looking for the other bag of balloons that she was supposed to fill with helium later. I suppose I’m not the only one who loses things easily…
BUT what I thought that was far more important than this picture of the balloon, delightful as it is, was the picture of my gay umbrella. This is him (on the pile of stuff that is the bed I sleep on):
There’s somewhat of a story behind the acquisition and hence the name of the umbrella. I think I found him at Dangerfield, some time last winter, when we were shopping at Westfield with this Swedish girl who has hence moved back into Sweden. Of course, I’m a sucker for any sorts of colours and I was actually looking for an umbrella, since I didn’t have one and it was, at the time, raining quite heavily outside — and then I spotted this one, a rainbow of an umbrella, and of course I had to have him (I hope that my referring to inanimate objects like people isn’t freaking you out). And, of course, due to its colouring and the positive feelings both I and said Swedish girl have for homosexuals, he had to be gay.
And there’s more to it than just that — I really early became fond of pointing the umbrella at directions before walking there, because it’s just that sort of an umbrella. At one point, when aforementioned Swede was with me, I pointed it at a direction, grinned and said “let’s follow the gay umbrella, eh?” to which she remarked that it sounded curiously like some title for a novel. Being the writer I am, this struck me, and I had the idea for the novel that is still, after more than 200,000 words and slightly more than 30 chapters “under construction,” under the title of “Following the Gay Umbrella.” It’s weird where the smallest seeds of ideas get us, isn’t it?
The gay umbrella, too, has become an increasingly important part to the plot of my dearest novel-child, to the extent where if I told you, I would have to kill you — I mean, if I told you, that would be totally spoiling the story, and though I’ve spoiled it from at least two people who might want to read it at some point, I wouldn’t want to do that, would I now? Anyway, only thinking about him makes me incredibly excited, so mind the post for a while while I go bounce around my balloon in a weird sort of ritualistic dance.
Now that I’m done with that, let’s go back to the whole 35 days thing.
Day 03: Three concerts you would have wanted to/want to attend.
Three concerts? At the moment, since I’ve been following Nightwish’s camp diary thing with insanity in my eyes, all three slots are taken by some sort of fictional Nightwish concerts that will only begin taking place after their new album will have come out — which will be, I think, around the Australian spring of 2011, if even later than that. No-one knows, yet! Or, well, I suppose that the band itself will know, but that’s not really relevant to my point. I’ve seen Nightwish live once, and that was 1.1.2008, and that was pretty insanely rad. After that, I wondered why I had never really been to any concerts/gigs/things before D;
Which kind of sucked, since then we moved to Australia and the concerts from that particular genre of music I listen to seem pretty few and far between around here. Sonata Arctica, I think, came down at some point, but it was a small, 18+ gig at a time when I wasn’t just yet 18. That would’ve been pretty cool to have attended, I’m sure. Then there’s bands like Disturbed, After Forever and Epica that would be, uh, pretty epic to see live — and bands like Poets of the Fall that just kind of make me cry like a waterfall without really trying, and even though I’m not sure how much I’d like them live (they’re the sorts of things you just listen at home to yourself; and I’ve seen some recordings of their concerts, they seem kind of awkward and too poppy on stage — probably because they ARE technically pop), I’d have to go just to show my appreciation.
My final answer, though? Nightwish, Nightwish, and Nightwish.
Can you tell?
Day 04: Four moments that changed your life
Day 05: Something that makes you smile
Want to be huge metal fans (or anything else — I’m so much more than just a huge metal fan [now to make an incredibly terrible "I can be anything you want me to be" joke]) with me? This is how you do it:
- READ POST
- LEAVE COMMENT
- ????????????????
- PROFIT
Whirled peas. n_n
The state of my toes and some very floaty business
12 Aug 2010 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: enthusiastic rambling, seasons, shiny
Oh dear, but I believe that I am addicted. For the entirety of last night (during which I proceeded to do nothing school-related, by the way — I was really proud of myself [and even more proud I could be if I could stop my obsession with my education for long enough to actually not even mention it once during a post, but hey, what can I do]), I kept on having this insane urge to post something here. I have fallen in love! It feels good.
But my “special someone” (how silly is that name?) could’ve told you that already. :3
Anyway. It’s thursday morning as I’m typing this, and I’ve already hurt my toe twice. It will probably be thursday afternoon/evening when I FINISH typing this, and it might be every bit as confusing and disjointed and LONGPOST IS LONG
because I like talking. Or writing. Or whatever. Anyway, I need to leave to go to be tortured by education now, so see you in the afternoon, *snicker*
… *silence* …
*abrupt sounds of a door flying open and a bag being thrown into a corner, accompanied by some cursing when clothes are changed to something more comfortable, mostly because of the excessive layers of clothing one must wear when the ventilation of the school consists mainly of literal HOLES IN THE WALL (called vents, but SERIOUSLY HOLES IN THE WALL)*
Good afternoon! According to my predictions, I should be falling over dead right now, but I’m not, strangely enough — instead, I’m just having a short break from doing my chemistry homework, because the words started doing the hula in my head, and I wasn’t absorbing anything of what I was reading. Don’t you love that feeling? You just look down at the words and go “I’m pretty sure that it says something of importance here, but I can’t figure it out for the life of me.” So I suppose I’m tired, after all — just not so tired as to want to curl up in my bed and read Cracked until dinner, where I will gain some energy from the CARBOHYDRATES included in it, and will keep on going ’till midnight.
I mean ten. Ten in the evening. That is when I go to sleep, because I’m a good little girl who doesn’t, by any means, keep herself up too late most nights just because she is a) chatting to her boyfriend on msn, b) reading some interesting articles on the site she just advertised (includes miscellaneous surfing of zhe internets), c) staying up for the hell of it, d) not sleeping because of the full moon.
Excuse me while I laugh a little.
I had a pretty cool day today, even if it did include my speshul someone telling me that my derrière is fat, for which he then proceeded to apologise many times over (which was quite amusing, I’ve got to admit) — and the fact that I carried my gay umbrella to school today in the paranoia that Poseidon would continue his bitchiness today and I would get soaked, if I didn’t, but of course it didn’t rain, it NEVER does when I have my umbrella with me. Except on tuesday. There are exceptions to every rule! Well, at least my toes stayed dry.
I have this huge urge to post some pretty picture of my gay umbrella for you to look at, since I kind of remembered today that father DID give me his old camera when he got a new one — and this is related to a story, too, hang on for a moment, I’ll finish this one first — but it’s dead, because it’s battery is completely empty, and the charger is not in my possession. And, being a member of generation Y, I WANT IT NOW, but my father is busy installing new showerheads (that I’ve been waiting for like it’s something edible — the old ones were crap), and hence I cannot. Oh joy. I suppose that I’ll just get it off him when he’s finished, and then post pictures of the umbrella later. :3
Speaking of which, the catalyst in this remembrance of that camera that has been gathering dust in one of the cupboards under one of my bookcases was the absolutely awesome balloon that was merrily floating, waiting for me in the corner of my room when I came home. If you know anything about me, then it’s that if it’s not shiny or made by Apple (this is a joke, you Apple-haters out there, and it’s semi-inside; however, check out this video here to gain a glimmer of knowledge [Christ, that was a Look Both Ways reference] as to what I’m going on about), it better be a musical — with which I mean that I like balloons a hell of a lot. Not in the way that they make me feel strangely turned on, but in the way that they make me feel bubbly and happy and probably roll around on the floor a little to express the delight that cannot be expressed in words. It’s an incredibly cute balloon, too! And it’s floating. I love you, helium. Speaking of helium…
Anyway, there’s a reason that balloon is in my room, and it’s the fact that I’ve been legally an adult for some time now (like, two weeks), but we’re only having a par-tay on saturday, and knowing how much I love balloons, especially when they’re floating, my beautiful darling mother had gone and bought this container of He and two bags of balloons (I think she said that there’s some 50 of them), and the special one that is now floating merrily in my corner. I’ve probably said “floating” far too many times now, I know, but I’ve only realised just then how pretty that word is and how much I love it.
I suppose that’s enough of me rambling about how awesome my life is for the moment. I promise that once I get the charger to the camera (I can’t really think of it as MINE, because the last time I operated a camera was a loooong [refer to fig. 1.1 at the top of the post] time ago), I will post photographic evidence of a) the balloon, b) the gay umbrella. And also, I’ll answer today’s prompt for the magical 35 days thing then.
’till then, keep your toes dry and away from high-velocity impact with other solid objects!
