Rambling and "The Big Bang" [NO Spoilers]

So I watched "The Big Bang" today. I won't give out any spoilers apart from saying that I liked it. And so did my little sister who had never watched a full episode of DW before. Her verdict was that it was clever.

I'm currently slogging through yet another horrid cold, which is hateful, especially the racking coughing. This does mean I'm getting more writing done, which is the silver lining I suppose. At least I'm beginning to breathe normally again, so I'm hoping to get some dance practice in tomorrow.

I had a great time at the Irish fair last weekend; I bought a wooden sword that looks like Anduril, since my mother still won't let me get a real sword on the grounds that there are too many little kids in this house. It's a simple thing, but I mean to sand it and paint it and stuff to make it look really good. I also got really sunburned because I was busy putting sunscreen on little siblings and so forgot to get my own shoulders . . . they're peeling, and it's really irritating me so I'm trying to ignore it.

Nothing else much of note has happened lately. I went to a used bookshop today and nearly bought the first 3 Aubrey-Maturin novels, but that's a slippery slope considering how many of them there are, so I didn't buy them after all. My two-year-old sister was talking a bit about Mario from the Nintendo games (my younger brothers are obsessed with those games and she likes to watch), and she told me quite seriously that "Mario is the bluest boy in this angry world." It almost sounds deep, but I don't know what she meant. You can puzzle over that until next post :)

"The Pandorica Opens"-Not Spoilery, Really . . .

AAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*Head explodes*


. . . Not much else I can say. Oh, except, I seem to be feeling utterly depressed and absolutely excited at the same time, which is a rather bizarre feeling; I didn't even know those two emotions could work in conjunction like this.

And "Never underestimate a Celt"--One of my new favorite quotes ever.

"Doctor Who" Season Finale Approaches!

First "The Pandorica Opens" clip released. I'll be at a dance competition all weekend and so will have to watch the actual episode late, alas! The Doctor's "element of surprise" ramble in this clip is hilarious, though. And *spoilers* Yay for Classic Series monsters!! *end spoilers*

More Artwork

This is a bit of still-life charcoal work that I did for my art class. I really hated doing the pattern on the cloth, which is why it's a bit wonky. I drew the cloth itself, with all its folds, one classtime, and then next classtime it was all moved, so I basically had to reinvent the pattern since it no longer matched my folds. Bother it. That's what I get for choosing to draw the set-up at a weird, cloth-central angle!

More "Who" art--child Amy Pond, waiting for the Doctor to come back. This blocky style isn't typical of my work, but it fit how I wanted to draw the piece, and I had a lot of fun contrasting the lights and darks, which is why I love charcoal anyway. And I had red conte crayon at hand, so I was able to add the red highlights :)

Rory!

So, I'm gonna start posting my art more frequently (hopefully!), especially since I'm trying to focus my energies on artwork a bit more now that I am taking a year off school (this goes hand in hand with the focusing more on writing thing).

Ta-da! It's Rory! I sketched him last night while watching "King Kong". It's my first time attempting to draw him, so I think it turned out pretty well all things considered. Also, I'm more a charcoal person than a graphite person, so this is my best pencil drawing in a, uh, looooong time :)

I'm starting a series of Doctor Who paper dolls, just for fun. It's entertaining so far. I'll post pics when I'm done with the first one; I'm experimenting with Photoshop for the first time to fix the coloring errors I made when I was just coloring with pencil.

In the Kitchen, Mostly

Nothing much to report about the last few days. I baked biscuits today, and yesterday I made cream of mushroom soup for lunch. All my siblings of course didn't want to eat it, so I tried to think of a way to get them more enthused about it. My solution: Dye it green!

The end result was that half of them loved the colour change and ate it happily, while the other half only became more adamant in saying they didn't want it. So I guess the experiment was a success?

I was watching "Tombs of the Cybermen" today with Lathspell, who had previously never seen it before. He's enjoying it so far, which makes me happy. Oh, and I practiced dance for about forty minutes today, and would have worked longer, but my toe is really hurting me again, so I decided it'd be most prudent to go ice it instead. I hope I can compete in top form at the competition in a few weeks' time. My left ankle is also being a bit dodgy.

Nothing else to report, really. Life's just moving along at a nice pace, and I'm starting to study the DMV manual, and perhaps am thinking seriously about getting my driver's license at last, oh no! Yeah, I'm nineteen and don't drive . . . I happen to like the bus system in Hawaii, but now that I'm back home, where things are a lot more spaced out, I really do need to start transporting myself places under my own power. I just don't like the idea very much. Drivers are crazy here. The only other bit of daily life that could possibly pass as news right now is that I got distracted while adding sugar to my tea at breakfast this morning and as a result ended up with three heaping spoonfuls of it, haha! It tasted like tea-flavored candy . . . I was very energetic the rest of the day, and put that energy to good use by cleaning up the kitchen, the front hall, the living room, and most of the dining room. I have to learn to not talk about books while preparing breakfast; it never ends well!

Writer's Block?

Well, no, I don't really have a block in my way so much as a field of mud. Despite my best efforts, everything is going so very slowly, and so tediously, which makes me suspect that they are therefore not my best efforts after all. I'm planning on giving up Facebook for July to see if that makes any changes, but for now I'm just continuing my life as usual, just trying to write every day and get back into the swing of writing seriously every day.

Today I baked banana bread, which I have actually never done before. I just guesstimated how much nutmeg to use, and was terribly anxious the whole thing would come to pieces when I flipped it out of the baking pan, but it stayed together nicely and tasted great spread thinly with margarine. It made me very happy, and my siblings and parents liked it too. There's just enough of the loaf left to eat at breakfast tomorrow alongside my usual grapefruit, so I'm looking forward to getting a yummy start to the day!

My brother's currently reading "The Tempest" for the first time, and I think he's enjoying it. My nine-year-old sister is just starting in on "The Return of the King", how exciting for her to be reading that amazing book for the first time! I wish sometimes I could rewind the clock just to read my favorite books for the first time. There's a special feel to reading them a thousand times, a sort of worn and comfortable and happy feel, but the first read is always so exhilarating, and alas, it only happens once. At least I got to read LotR for the first time when I was six, completely unaware of what would be in store for me on the next page--She's grown up surrounded by LotR movie posters, books, movie books, art books, and a wall I papered entirely with newsclippings from when the films were being released, hehe. So she's known who Frodo and Gollum and Aragorn, etc., are since birth. That's got to make for a different reading experience.

I myself am reading--well, nothing really. It's very bizarre. I desperately need new books to read--Namely, Chesterton's "The Napoleon of Notting Hill", the next few books in the Aubrey-Maturin series, a long list of Sutcliff books, more works by Faulkner after "As I Lay Dying" whet my appetite for his work back in April, Silvius' "Achilleid", "Seven Against Thebes", and sundry other reads. I'm still reading "Le Morte d'Arthur", but the going isn't very fast, and I'd like to be able to leapfrog between five books at once like I usually do. I started "Guy Mannering" yesterday, but so far it's not really caught me, though I'm sure it will eventually--that's generally how Sir Walter Scott books go. I'm going to start reading to my sisters at bedtime again, but the problem is that we had just started "The High King" when I left for college two years ago, and never finished it, so they want me to finish it now, but I feel obligated to begin the entire Prydain series over again from "The Book of Three" because otherwise they won't understand everything that happens in "The High King", the best book in the series, because they'll only have fuzzy memories of who everyone is, especially side-characters like Prince Rhun and Magg. What a muddle.

The good news is that I've FINALLY begun writing chapter one of my novel today. Remember I referred to my current authorial state earlier as a slogging through a field of mud? Well, it's coming along. I've been expending all my extra thought on the problem of this beginning for the past week, and I think I finally made a breakthrough this evening. I have written most of the first few chapters, as well as eighty pages all told of the actual novel, but the very beginning has always escaped me despite innumerable rewritings and has left me rather stymied. I think, however (although I have thought it before) that today I've begun the process of conquering it, which is a glad thing indeed. I'll try to get it all written tomorrow, and then on with the story! I'm determined to use this year off of school to write my novel, and of course NaNoWriMo is quickly approaching again! This time I'll be ready for it. I have a few ideas about what I wish to write, but I'm determinedly not thinking too much about it because I want to be free enough to write 50,000 words quickly without worrying about niceties of plot and things.

Any other happenings around here? Um, no, not really, other than "Vincent and the Doctor" continued "Doctor Who"'s winning streak for me that really began with "Vampires of Venice" and hasn't let up since, huzzah! In fact, "Vincent" might be my favorite of the new Doctor's stories so far, but I'm not sure. "Amy's Choice" was also excellent. And "The Lodger" looks to be nothing but more goodness. But "Vincent" made my eyes tear up a few times, and was all-in-all very well done indeed. Scenes like the one below were amazing (don't watch if you haven't seen it yet, of course!).



My only critique for this series really is its fondness of Earth. Very, very few stories have been set outside of Earth (Okay, "Amy's Choice" was kinda not Earth, but it kinda was still), and although I've loved the time traveling, which I felt wasn't done enough with Tennant, I miss the space traveling. And with the finale taking place at Stonehenge (yaaay, Stonehenge, I remember going there! It was very windy and very wet), it seems the series will be sticking with Earth until the end. At least it's broken out of the previous series' fondness of London, though, ha. Hopefully next season will have more planet-hopping action. And more aliens that are truly evil, too, not just misunderstood creatures :)

Oh, and I keep meaning to post some art on this blog again, but I keep forgetting, and though I have remembered now, it's late and time for me to be getting to bed, so it'll have to wait. Good night!

PS-I just realized that my last post was number 200. Wow.

Book Reviews for May

Well, this will be an itty-bitty post, since I only found time to read four books in May. This was due in large part to how busy I was: finals, packing, and settling in at home for a year-long stay! However, quantity does not necessarily equal quality, as April proved! So, here are my book reviews for May!

Black Ships Before Troy, by Rosemary Sutcliff
I might have mentioned before that my dad got me a box full of Rosemary Sutcliff books for my birthday this year, and I have yet to finish reading all of them. But managed to read some more of them this month--in fact, they're the only books I read this month. This was the first, read during finals week! Basically it's a retelling of the entire body of Trojan War mythos, so it tells not only the story of "The Iliad", but also about the Judgement of Paris, Achilles' death, Ajax's suicide, and of course the Trojan Horse. I adore "The Iliad". So a retelling of its stories needs to be REALLY good to satisfy me (I've rejected a few other 'redoings' of the tale already). I'm happy to report that Sutcliff does a fine job. Again, however, it would only serve as an intro to the stories, and is by no means a replacement of them. This book is clearly written for children, albeit written well.

Outcast, by Rosemary Sutcliff
More excellent Sutcliff writing, this time in the form of an original story about a Roman boy who after being orphaned in a storm was adopted into a British tribe, only to be cast out when he reaches adulthood. His subsequent trials and tribulations as he struggles to find a place for himself in a world where both his adopted culture and the culture of his blood rejects and abuses him are pretty harrowing. He's enslaved, he's duped, he's beaten, he's starved, and he has pretty much the worst life ever. But it's all excellently written as usual; a little bit reminiscent of "Ben-Hur" in its plot, but with more heart. The ending was a little weak in my opinion, because I didn't feel it made sense after everything Rome did to him, but the story was strong. Definitely a good read.

The Sword and the Circle, by Rosemary Sutcliff
This is the first in an Arthurian trilogy by Sutcliff, a retelling of the Arthurian legends from the story of Merlin uncovering the red and white dragons in the earth to when Perceval arrives at Camelot shortly before the beginning of the quest for the Holy Grail. Now, I have a confession to make. I have not yet finished reading Malory's "Le Morte d'Arthur" in full, although I'm in the middle of it. I have, however, read "The Mabinogion", Layamon's "Brut", various medieval lays telling the stories of Arthur and his court, and other more recent works like "The Once and Future King" and Tennyson's "Idylls of the King". Thus while I can judge that Sutcliff's book is a great retelling of the stories, I cannot really tell how much originality she injects into the stories. She gives motives for characters which I find fresh and interesting, but I don't necessarily know which are canon and which are of her own devising. Nevertheless, it's a worthy read. Her descriptions are, as always, beautiful, and her rendition of the Lancelot-Guinevere-Arthur triangle is reminiscent of White's. I especially liked her Merlin and her telling of the Tristan and Isolde story. I have a question though: She describes Lancelot as ugly. White describes Lancelot as ugly. Is this canon or not??? Where did Tennyson's raven-haired Lance singing 'tirra-lirra' come from then??????

Warrior Scarlet, by Rosemary Sutcliff

Book of the Month time! It's also, incidentally, the winner of my "Worst Cover Art EVER" award, but let's gloss over that, because the story was magnificent. I want to rip off the cover of my copy and draw my own cover to paste in its place.

"Warrior Scarlet" is set in a prehistoric Britain--prehistoric, but not at all primitive, which is something I love very much about Sutcliff's writings. The culture is elegant and beautiful, as well as strangely and instantly relatable, and the story is engaging and poignant as well as surprising, and the ending was very satisfying. I would have loved to have an entire story set around the supporting character of Talore the one-handed Hunter, but never mind that now. Drem is a wonderful protagonist, and his struggle to become a warrior of his tribe despite his withered spear-arm is both believable and engrossing. The girl who is adopted by Drem's family--I forget her name at the moment, though I know it began with a B--is also an excellent character and significant presence in the story despite her appearances being rare.

I don't want to spoil the story, so I won't really say any more. But I do strongly recommend it. This is a definite case of "Don't Judge a Book By It's Cover"!


May was the month of Sutcliff. This is not a bad thing, but I hope to add a bit more variety to my reading schedule in June!

Hey

No time for anything more than a quick hello right now, I'm afraid, but a quick hello is better than nothing at all! My laptop's still messed up, but I'm probably going to start using it again soon anyway, which means I'll be able to post more frequently. Also, I am aware that my monthly book review post is late. However, my reviews and stuff are all on my laptop, so I've been unable to access them! Look for the review post soon.

I played hopscotch with my siblings yesterday; it was very clear and hot outside, but in a very different way than in Hawaii. The sky was more white than blue, and the air was very dry. We also blew bubbles and drew chalk pictures. And Lathspell and I both speedily drew our own versions of Faquarl the djinn from the Bartimaeus Trilogy; mine's better, of course. Maybe I'll post it later, haha.

Also, I still want to post photos of my artwork that I did over the course of last semester! All the pictures are, you guessed it, on my laptop. So expect a flood of posts in the near future; I have a lot of catching up to do.