My People

I only truly and fully get the awesomeness that is Tumblr when I have a crush on some unattainable figure ... like Sue Perkins.

Tumblr gave me this:

from SuePerkinsSuperstar

And many many many more gifs and imgs of Sue Perkins and Sue and Mel.

Oh yeah. Tumblr, you mah people.

Read(s) of the Month: September (Additions)

Whatever possessed me to do a Read of the Month at the beginning of the month rather than at the end of it? I feel like I've been devouring books these few weeks. In the month of September, I finished:

• Tarquin Hall's Vish Puri series (हिंखोज good read यार!)
• Nick Trout's The Patron Saint of Lost Dogs
• Kathy Reich's Bare Bones.

Looks like I won't be finishing The Anthologist or Jo Nesbø's The Bat. Books too easily put down and not tempting enough to be picked up again.

You Learn

After a while you learn the subtle difference
Between holding a hand and chaining a soul,
And you learn that love doesn’t mean leaning
And company doesn’t mean security.
And you begin to learn that kisses aren’t contracts
And presents aren’t promises,
And you begin to accept your defeats
With your head up and your eyes open
With the grace of a woman, not the grief of a child,
And you learn to build all your roads on today
Because tomorrow’s ground is too uncertain for plans
And futures have a way of falling down in mid-flight.

After a while you learn…
That even sunshine burns if you get too much.
So you plant your garden and decorate your own soul,
Instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.
And you learn that you really can endure…

That you really are strong
And you really do have worth…
And you learn and learn…
With every good-bye you learn.

Jorge Luis Borges

Just across this tonight. It makes me want to cry. How long is "a while"?

Mephisto

I came across an old note I wrote back Nov 2008 in which I was mad at the boss. Funny how I'd forgotten the anxiety and turmoil of my decision.

Mephisto offered to shoot the tires off the bus I'd said I boarded and couldn't get off ...

No regrets, I still wonder what would've happened if I had got off that bus.

Mephisto had left before i returned and I don't know if he's even still alive. I have been missing him. He's always so sure and I guess that's what I need now - that confidence and self-assurance.

Read(s) of the Month: September

The more I feel stressed out, the more I read, apparently. Which I guess makes sense because whenever I feel overwhelmed in any way, I look for exits. Books make for great escapes.

Anyway, I'm done with Principles of Design 1 and Digital Design 1. The final project for Digital Design 1 was food boxes/carriers for a food joint. We had to come up with a concept for the food joint and design and make the damn box/carrier. The flip food box had issues, so I made another box (actually I made at least four or five — including the prototype — and only submitted three).

On a term break this Wednesday and next Monday ... thank Goddess for the breather!

Reads of the month:

• Into Darkness by Jonathan Lewis
• Room by Emma Donoghue (finally!) — OMFG I love this book so much I think I'll buy a copy!

I also borrowed I, Lucifer again but prolly won't get around to reading it. I also think I prolly won't finish The Anthologist — when I put it down (for reasons unrelated to the book), I don't feel the need to pick it up ASAP. Also, I'm reading an old Kathy Reichs that I'd missed (so hard to read in chronological order when you have to depend on a library) which is hard to put down, so.

[...]

So the assignment (100% weightage!) for one of my classes is:

To design a packaging for restaurant/café for customers to take away their food. This packaging should feature the unique qualities of the restaurant of their specialty dishes or ingredients.

I found this unique and awesome food packaging and so have (very foolishly) decided to base my assignment around that (because it looks awesome fun to make and I was itching to make my own). Following the video, I actually managed to make it cuz it's really simple!

Other than this little spot of joy, I feel like everything else is a chaotic, crushing mass — work, classes, my eating, my physical condition ... Fuck.

Read(s) of the month (can't remember when I finished reading these, whether it's at the beginning of this month or the end of the last):

• Cat Out of Hell: <3
• The Last Tomorrow: Is he trying to ape Ellroy? Cuz it's a fail fail fail. If not, then I think it's an overly complicated tale with very few sympathetic characters (if there were even any at all). Will not read Jahn again.
• Lost Cat: I cried. Because [spoiler] ... Tibby and Fibby both died =...((

Homework =(

I always take fucking FOREVER to complete my homework from the Principles of Design class. So now I don't have any time to do the stuff that I actually like doing and want to do ... =(

This is the homework for a/symmetry. My instructor didn't actually approve two of them (one of the asymmetrical ones and the symmetrical out-of-the-box variation) but I prefer what I'd done that horrible ones I did that she did approve. I feel like the moon should be colored in ... but can't visualize whether that would make the whole design more "heavy" (wtf?).

Freedom to Read

A simple one. I really should start working on my Principles of Design assignment since I've already decided to once again skip stretch & core and aerial prac this afternoon (during which I'd planned to hold up to five seconds on my toe hang and practise my spinning straddle — but, oh well ...).

Sigh.

And Tango Makes Three

ARGH. This whole fiasco makes me SO. MAD.

I work in a library. I believe libraries should provide access to and be a repository of knowledge and information; libraries must be inclusive. What I don't believe libraries should do is "reflect existing social norms, and not to challenge or seek to change them". Hell. No.

The NLB's stance (and, I believe, the government's) to not challenge or change — to maintain status quo — should be drivel espoused by unthinking folks, not by a public institution of knowledge. Shame on you. I hope your decision and your justification for your decision are met with universal condemnation and ridicule.

#FreedomtoRead

Read of the Month: July

A very fast read this time round (because it was a crime/thriller book): Where Evil Lies.

Promising start, very unsatisfying denouement — almost anticlimatic. Female characters seem to be there only to give blowjobs, fuck male characters, and provide emotional comfort. The author seems obsessed with blowjobs (including a "mouth rape").

Oh well, at least it was a quick read (and didn't piss me off as much as Ian McEwan's Sweet Tooth). When I dropped off the book this morning, I thought I should've stuck a Post-it in there to let the person who has reserved the book (yes, there was one — goodness knows why) know it's not worth their time.

On with the next book!

Crimson & Clover

One of my favoritest songs ever. I love both the original by Tommy James & The Shondells and Joan Jett & The Blackhearts' cover (which reminds me of the opening of one of The L Word episodes even though iirc the music used was the original and not the cover). I also have a cover by Tommy Roe and used to play all three versions over and over on loop.

Joan Jett ... So. Hawt.

'Crimson and clover' is also why I fell in love with Jarvis Cocker's 'Black Magic' on the very first listen.

There's just something addictive about this particular riff/chord pattern ... In the words of Duke Orsino in Twelfth Night:

If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die. (I.i.1-3)

Hello Cruel World

Yay! I didn't nod off or waste too much time watching the telly this afternoon so I got something so show for my time! E's (Mark Oliver Everett) lyrics again. I initially thought of doing only "Hello cruel world" but decided to continue the stanza a little further. Not a good choice (also, it led to the food stain — the perils of writing on the kitchen table). Much prefer just the first three words.

Some Practice

Bought a ZIG Calligraphy II pen and I'm liking the 2mm tip. I skipped Stretch/Core and Aerial Gym to practise my handwriting ... wonder if it's even worth it. Sigh ...

Anyway, eels' lyrics today: 'A Daisy Through Concrete' and 'Somebody Loves You'. The other one — "Write now, right now" — just occurred to me.

If I'm not too lazy tomorrow, I'll want to be able to write something for a cutting.

At Last ...

Finally finished the book, so ...

Read of the month: The Little Old Lady who Broke All the Rules. (I do and cannot recommend this book.)

Yay to getting some learning on Illustrator!