#48

Wow, it's been 10 days again! I haven't really done anything and still haven't found time to write, oh dear.

I still haven't finished too many of my overdue assignments. But I did do the orientation assignment so at least I'm not piling more overdue stuff on the pile this year! Yay.

Even now, I don't really feel like I have a lot to write about... School started, same old, same old. It's just that since our subject for this period is diversity and multiculturalism, there's a lot more white boy whining than usual. Oh well. At least we don't have an open homophobe in my group, like A has. Ugh. I feel so bad for her. Also I feel a vague urge to just kick his ass the first time I see him, haha. Ha. Maybe I'll just avoid him altogether, that would probably be better for the general public. I'm pretty glad I'm not a tutor, let's be real.

I'm trying to make a Star-Lord helmet prop for Tracon IX, but I'm super nervous about the equipment I need arriving in time. I had to pay 60€ and then another 60€ for shipping for my foam sheets (definitely not buying them from there again, but at this point I just want to receive them so I can get the project started, I don't even care). I'm just glad my parents paid for a lot of the other supplies, to be honest. We went hardware store shopping with my dad for all that. But a lot of it was like, a hot glue gun, rubber gloves, protective gear and such, which I mostly won't need to buy again. The supplies themselves (the polyester resin and body filler) were not too pricey.

Also, my Guardians of the Galaxy OST and War Horse DVD arrived! Pretty quickly, to be honest. The DVD wasn't supposed to arrive until maybe the 27th of this month, but it arrived together with the OST? Not that I'm complaining, but it was a bit weird. I think that, seeing as my foam sheets most likely won't arrive this week, I might spend next weekend looking for other stuff I need to buy for the cosplay, such as the shirt, craft supplies to make the ankle "jetpacks", and leathery things to construct his bag from. Maybe even a toy gun - I might be making his weapon if I have the time.

Whatever, I kind of want to get to sleep soon so I'll write more some other time.

Bye!

#47

The short of it:

- my friend A is coming to the same school as me (!!!)
- I went to see Guardians for the second time (still awesome)
- also I saw the film Lucy today (also very very cool although sort of mind-blowing)
- my split-up friend-couple are still, well, good friends, I guess?
- my newly-a-couple-friend and his boyfriend are  a d o r a b l e 
- I just sorted out a lot of school-related stuff

and

- turns out my high school degree & matriculation papers are not lost after all! We were a bit worried with my parents for a little while there, ha. But it's good that they were found, now I can put them in my minuscule Drawer For Important Paperwork (i.e. random receipts/warranties, and miscellaneous certificates).

Mostly, I feel relieved right now. The certificates were found, and I managed to move forward on some school projects that I've been putting off. I think I might go to the campus library in the city centre tomorrow, maybe borrow some books, and then work there on my laptop for a while. Lord knows I have trouble working at home, so maybe that would be better. There are only a couple school-related things that I can't sort out right now and/or on my own at all, but I'll get to them as soon as I can book a meeting with my school counsellor. I'm sure everything will be fine in the end!

I spent a little while reading through the notes I've made in the spring for an assignment I've been sitting on (read: procrastinating) since early spring and damn, I've almost got it together! I only need to catch up on some recent law-related stuff and then I can type it out! Yas.

I also spent the weekend watching Star Trek movies with my parents, which was awesome. My War Horse DVD (yes, I finally found a reasonably-priced region 2 copy on Amazon! I should continue to use the UK version of the website in the future, too. Insert gratuitious reference to self) is on it's way, as well as my order of the deluxe OST to Guardians of the Galaxy! Seriously, that movie has so much good music in it, I can't even deal. The Captain America - Winter Soldier DVD should come out soon enough as well, I'm looking forward to eventually ordering Snowpiercer, and I already pre-ordered Only Lovers Left Alive, which is going to be released in September. The Hoard in preparation to our eventual Hiddleston marathon is building, dun dun.

Me and my parents went to get our passports and identity cards renewed a few weeks ago, and my passport already arrived. Now I'm just waiting on my ID card. The PIN codes for it also arrived already, but the card isn't here yet! They post the card and the codes separately to maximise security fr the recipient, since you can prove your identity for all kinds of official things with those, and apparently if you get your hands on a valid, functional ID card or passport, it's relatively easy to forge a fake one on top of it? In any case, 2/3 official envelopes have safely landed in their new home, so I'm not too worked up about that. Now the only thing I still need to get handled is getting new lenses and possibly a new prescription for my glasses... These babies are so scratched up I won't be able to see anything soon enough.

Anyway, I think I'm going to play RuneScape for a little while since I'm probably a bit too worked up to get a lot of good writing time in. I'll just go hunt down a plan regarding youth and children in our society first, so I can use it in my assignment!

Bye!

#46

Summer is certainly a time of change, whoa!

Also, this would probably count as entry, I don't even know, 562 to my "list of facts that make me happy I'm not in a relationship": two friends of mine who have been together for a little over 3 years (which is not that much, but taking in the context that they're both only in their early twenties, it's a decently long period of time to be in a relationship) split up. And it's only a couple of months since they moved in together. I'm just glad it wasn't a dramatic or "angry" break-up - they're going to continue living together and so forth until one of them finds their own flat and gets their life sorted. But still. The main point was, at some time when they were both somewhat upset, they both wanted to discuss this with me... I mean, I'm flattered that they value my company and advice in difficult times, but damn. It was kind of taxing. Again, it would've been a completely different situation in terms of difficulty if it had been a less friendly break-up: I can only imagine what friends of ex-couples that split up through arguments must have to deal with post-relationship-wise. Shudder.

All my responsibilities concerning that nightmare camp are over now, yes. I'm relieved. It just kind of made me irritated all the time, knowing I'd have to deal with those specific teenagers. There was a spectacle even on the day of the confirmation mass, but I won't go into that either. I'm really, honestly just so done with that camp and everyone who was involved. Except most of the young leaders and two thirds of my fellow camp leader team were great, and I'd be happy to associate with them later, too. Ha.

A couple in my group of friends split up - and to keep the balance, another friend of mine now has a boyfriend! I'm über happy. I always feel kind of out of the loop with some people in this circle of people, but then I'm really caught up to a select few, so I guess you win some and lose some. I have no problems accepting the fact that I'm really too bad at keeping in contact with people to warrant getting frequent updates on everyone. I'm just glad I have the few people who do want to talk to me about most of the things in their lives.

In other news, Guardians of the Galaxy was epic as all hell! Hilarious, too. I've been dying at all of the lovely graphics and gifs and things I've been finding online after seeing it... and some friends of mine are going to go see it with me for a second time (their first, because they couldn't come the first time we went to see it as a group). Seriously, all the characters and the witty dialogue and the 70's and 80's music... ahh. It's really almost there, almost level with the Avengers in terms of epicness. It's just, the movies kind of have different merits since they have pretty much completely different takes and ways to look at the story of a group of superheroes... but I digress, I'm just going to see it again anyway. (This could also come from being "used" to the Avengers, since I've seen it so many times and the great one-liners and dialogue and jokes don't strike me as much, anymore, as they used to. Who knows.)

In about 22 hours I shall know for sure if I'm getting the ticket for the first day of Tracon IX in that online auction... Fingers crossed! I really want it. It would be super annoying to have paid for a hotel and the second day of the con (and go to the event with a friend who has a 2-day ticket) without being able to get in on the first - and major - day. But it's looking good so far! No one wants to / can afford to pay more than what I'm offering at the moment, it seems. Who knows, though, maybe there'll be a super race in the final hours. (God, I hope not. I think it's kind of pushing the limits to pay 61€ for a ticket that originally cost about 15€ - more would be frankly outrageous. Obviously, it wouldn't be the seller's fault, but still. Ugh.)

At any rate, I think that's the last of the stuff I have to write about tonight.

Bye!

#45

Camp was a hot mess.

The following gif is the best approximation of my general feelings when describing the camp to anyone who wasn't there:





(Also, wow. Embedding that bit there with HTML took me back to the Expage days in grades two to five. Whoa.)

Anyway, I don't really feel like I even want to talk about camp at this point. I've talked about it to some friends and at home, maybe I'll write a bit more detailed info about it here, too - but later.

Yesterday I went to Tallinn with my parents. I bought some awesome Marvel shirts and other stuff, it was generally a rather enjoyable trip. I'll probably post a couple of pictures from there, at least on Jux.

Tomorrow will be a pretty busy day - passport and ID card business at the police station in the morning, confirmation mass practice at noon, meeting a friend straight after, and then the Guardians of the Galaxy premiere in the evening... ah, I'm looking forward to it a lot.

I also bought some booze from Estonia (as is only appropriate) because my friend is apparently planning to split up with her boyfriend of about 3 years, who she currently lives with. She already pre-warned me that she would want to get drunk after breaking up with him. It might be with me if I can find a night where we both have no schedule problems getting drunk on a night... We'd have to be quick to make it during this summer. Eh, we'll see.

In any case, I think I'm going to leave all this at that.  

Bye!

#44

Whoa, what a weekend!

On Friday, we went to see How to train your dragon 2 - and continued to my house to watch The Devil Wears Prada, The Grudge and Enchanted. J stayed over, and on Saturday we went to see Snowpiercer.

After the movie, I came home. My sister's summer vacation just started so she had some friends over. We hung out in the back yard and then went to a local dive bar... And they continued with a pool party today. I was a self-proclaimed cleaning, dishwashing and serving lady, ha. It wasn't too bad.

I also started watching In The Flesh more, which is a w e s o m e. There are so many amazing characters, and - not going to lie - Simon and Kieren are ADORABLE. Except that everything seems to be going wrong and I'm dreading where this is going to go.... Ah.

My sister will hopefully be sober enough to drive the car home after dropping me off where the bus to camp is going to leave. Crossing my fingers! But at least it seems she's asleep now, so that's a good sign.

I'm trying to finish the second season of ITF as quickly as possible so I can get some sleep tonight, too. I've gone to bed at about 5am on both Friday and Saturday nights, so it might be a bit of a challenge to fall asleep a lot earlier and wake up at 6-ish... we'll see. I really hope I can wake up on time, dear God.

Anyway, I just wanted to post something before leaving for camp. It would be nice if I'd remember and have time to write something while I'm there, too, but we'll see. I'll definitely take a couple pictures during camp, of the area and such. It's kind of a historical island. I'm dreading my colleagues a little bit but I don't have many responsibilities during camp so hopefully I won't make a mess and become angry at anyone... The kids seem pretty great, though.

Bye!

#43

Since the title to my last post was the answer to all questions in life and the universe, why continue posting, huh?

No, but really, I've literally either been doing stuff or recovering from camps the past month. Sigh.

Last camp was a lot of fun, if also a lot of work. I was trying to be as diplomatic as possible - but even though a lot of things went wrong and had to be fixed and there were many discussions and arguments about how things should be done, I didn't lose my patience even once. It's rare that I do though, and most often not with teenagers. Mostly I have problems containing really spiky comebacks that sometimes seem to jump out of my mouth unbidden. Aargh.

I've started constructing a quotebook for myself. I can't even remember if I mentioned this in a previous post, but I was thinking I'd create like a bigger, actual scrapbook for movie tickets and other paperbound memoirs (which I've collected a lot of, and would like to both save and efficiently store), and then a smaller notebook-sized one where I could just print out some quotes that I like. Of course the first one had to be Tolkien's The Road, but so far I've got about a dozen other quotes I've liked. Anyway, it's a thing that's meant to be kind of accumulated over time. Obviously, since I've never had one before, there's a bit of a backlog to muddle through...

Also, I just watched Amélie for the first time. I was under the impression the movie would've been made a lot later than its actual release year, 2001! Also, the piano theme brought back some memories from past camps, oh dearie.

Sudden picture attack!

And I almost forgot! I went to see The Fault In Our Stars tonight with M as well! He was almost crying before the movie even started, but I managed to soldier through without a single shed tear. Or tear collected in eye. There were a few scenes (namely, Isaac and Hazel's first eulogies for Gus; and the scene where Hazel's parents talk about how their life is going to go after she's gone) that made my heart ache a bit. I really liked how they actually made Hazustus seem like a kind of pretentious, horrifyingly naïve couple - which they undeniably are. It's just that since the original novel is in Hazel's point of view, that aspect is kind of ignored completely. In general, the movie did great justice to the novel, in my opinion - it didn't glorify the genuinely dumb aspects of the story. Final verdict: we both liked it, probably 5/5 for fans, but would recommend for anyone who can bear the amount of syrup you have to muddle through to get to the actual point of the story... so, for non-fans, maybe 2-3/5?

Still, I don't think I have much else to write about now. I'm leaving for camp again on Monday (thank God my sister is dropping me off, I would have to leave horrendously early otherwise. Ugh.)

Whatever. Bye!

#42

"Answer to The Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything."

I had a friend in high school who was hardcore into physics and chemistry (and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) and he used to have that quote on his bookstore bonus card. I have a quote from the Little Prince. Ah, memories.

Anyway, I'm mostly through CoHF now, and so far it's been really good! I haven't really been able to take it anywhere - naturally, because it's so huge I can't very conveniently carry it anywhere. It's very easy to read, on the eyes, but the book is so huge and heavy I have to worm around trying to find a position that won't tire out my hands and arms in three seconds flat. The struggle is real. Also I saw Cassandra Clare doing a Q&A session on Twitter, and it cleared up a lot about the build of the Shadowhunter!verse for me. For example, she's planning for the universe to include 5 book series... and they'll be published partly out of chronological order. There's going to be one that's set after The Infernal Devices but before The Mortal Instruments - that's the second one from now she's going to write. The next one to see the light of day (first book is planned to be released in 2015) is set after TMI, if I understood correctly. Then the third and last to-be-released series is going to be the last in chronological order as well. I still need to buy the Shadowhunters' codex and The Bane Chronicles is going to have it's first 10-story edition bound into a book this October, apparently. I'm pretty excited.

Anyway, the book series in chronological order are going to be:
The Infernal Devices
The Last Hours
The Mortal Instruments
The Dark Artifices
The Wicked Powers

and then there's also The Bane Chronicles, and that Magisterium series she's co-writing with Holly Black.... can't claim I'm not excited, really.

Phew, that's definitely enough about Cassie Clare for now. I really like her writing - it's effortless to read and fun, and the characters are interesting even though their relationships and the story arches kind of tend to repeat each other ... at least when it comes to comparing TMI and TID. Oh well. Still entertaining!

I lied, now I'm done talking about Cassie Clare. Ha.

Anyway, I hung out with J yesterday, and since the weather prediction said it was going to rain, we planned to stay inside. Naturally, it ended up being a sunny if not very hot day. Still, we had fun - we watched the first 3 X-Men movies at J's house. They were pretty good, although looking back at their plot twists after having seen DOFP kind of shows you how little they've done towards actually structuring a long movie series - at least Marvel has learned a lot in that area since starting the Avengers CU / storyline. Storm's hair kept getting better in every movie, that was about the only consistent in the series, let's be real. I still enjoyed them though, don't get me wrong - but my amusement doesn't require sound plot devices and character development to be appeased when it comes to entertainment, really. I acknowledge that and actually talk about it a lot.

I'm supposed to be working on my late assignment that I had left over from January. We'll see what comes of that - if I could just catch myself back up on the research I've already done and so on, that would actually work out great. I usually don't stretch out the writing of assignment over this long a time period but I've been putting this one off way too long... the last saved version is from almost 3 months ago, at this point. I have a vague urge to bring my Macbook to camp with me, but being realistic - I probably won't have time to write at any point. We'll see what I'm going to do. (I could always choose to spend less time with the camp kids and/or young leaders and spend like an hour a day writing, but... yep, we'll see.)

OH! I'm also thinking I should actually start a third blog. Granted, I don't really publish a lot on my hidden blog anyway, so I actually only have one - but I haven't really felt like this is the place for me to post pictures. I just imported the batch I shot in Amsterdam to my laptop a few days ago, and thought I might like to put them up somewhere. I really don't care if people use my very mediocre photos somewhere, so I'm not morally opposed to uploading them onto the interwebs... I might just do that. I don't really go around with my SLR with me since it's kind of a bother to lug around, but maybe I'd have more incentive to do that, too, if I had a purpose for taking the pictures, you know...?

I'm in the process of figuring out if I'd like to use tumblr. or blogger or some other blog site entirely for the photography blog. The idea will shape out more precisely later, I'm sure.

Bye!