I don't really remember how much
time has passed since my last blog. It says the last post was 25th June
but that doesn't mean an awful lot in real money to me. I have a few
milestones but they all seem to happen in one lump at the start of
August and really nothing happened in July.
- My books acquired mould again, very much against what I had hoped
but that is the way life is. I still don't have my primary bookshelves
anymore, which makes my room look bigger but sader because books are
lovely! It chose to occur when no-one was at home except for me (of
course) and so that was hella stressface all over!
- Printing orchestral scores is a pain in the arse and highly
stressful too. I don't recommend it to anyone (unless you are a
professional printer or you enjoy inducing stress in your life, in which
case by all means and do you fancy doing mine in the future?). However
the scores looked pretty good even with the few hiccups that occurred,
but we'll know better for next time :D
- Putting one half of my first pet to sleep. This was very much the
most traumatic and it was worse because parents weren't home to deal
with such issues (so I made Jonaface deal with the vets for me) and Tarq
was in all day rehearsals which he couldn't miss. Her sister is still
with me but I worry that she's going to get les mis (because rattybums
do so). I still love her to pieces though.
- Iolanthe. After all that stress and sad the show was pretty good.
I'm still apprehensive about it but mostly because I just wish I could
do better. However I have been told that it sounded and looked fabulous
so that's all that really matters :D that and everyone seemed to have a
fantastic time! In fact I'm going to elaborate a little on Iolanthe
thoughts right here and now but in a haphazard sort of way :P
Score carrying, constant
rechecking, front seat, Panda driving, Les Miserables belting and half
casting, over the mountain, through little villages, remeeting and new
meeting, little cottage, spiral staircases, lots of talking, fun times
and laughing, expensive taxi, cosy bedding, early morning, detour
breakfast (not open, back to tescos), flute and piccolo playing, photo
taking, wrists breaking, parent meeting, performance time, new dress
(very exciting), avoiding anyone in white, pretty sure lunch was
somewhere, showtime starting, not bad overture, photos midperformance,
MD missing, 2nd act, applause, packing up, get out quick, dump stuff,
Panda, pubtime talking, soup snack eating, chinese foodles, tastynom,
travel back home with acquired Annak, sleep times again, lazy start,
dreams are shattered and ice cream is dust, dreams reborn, TINY TRAIN,
sweetie shop, breakfast time, 14 rolls and 16 rolls, old books and dice,
new books and maps, Penistone and being sworn at by locals, tiredout,
home time.
- Started second job, it was pretty good and easy enough (we were on a
quiet bar that served the boxes so there was minimal customer contact).
Hoping to get many more shifts but certainly don't have enough hours to
move out yet >:( it is all of the rubbish.
Those
are all the things that I think I have done of note recently. I haven't
really been up to much, taking a break from G&S because MY GOD too
much in one week much! Although I do miss G&S uni group and it's
weekly rehearsals and seeing those people and I miss G&S second
group (I don't remember if I gave names anywhere but I try not to use
any names ever in anything because I enjoy it :P) and the people there, I
will be very much glad when it all starts up again even though that
means stresstastic times for me as I have two scores currently in
progress and another two that may or may not make an appearance (one my
brother is dealing with... aaaat some point and the other isn't
confirmed yet). This whole G&S malarky seems to take over lives and I
swore I wouldn't let it happen but it has and I'm not 100% complaining
:P not yet anyway!
Last
night I was lying in bed and my brain was composing. I was writing
music and I thought to myself, should I get up (even though I've already
gone to bed and am starting to go to sleep) and write and write and
write (or possibly sit in front of a computer screen and curse my
inability to create the things that are in my head even though they are
there and waiting) or sleep at a decent time (like I have been for quite
a few nights now) and hope that inspiration does not desert me. I chose
the latter and inspiration did indeed desert me like a stealthy thing
in the night. WHICH IS A MAJOR BOTHER! *mental salute to Maj. B* I am
forever losing these moments and yes I should have just got out of bed
and hoped that I wasn't still working on things until 4am but I didn't
and blah!
It was after
watching Brave (which, by the way, made me cry more than once because I
am a sap and Pixar are just too good at everything) and the whole folky
music style thing which I've been wanting to do for ages because I've
been contemplating writing music with a purpose but haven't quite got
round to doing anything about it. Maybe I should do some concept arts on
the matter and make an immersive world and scenes and stuff and compose
to that but anyway, it got me totally wired and thinking about stuff
that I wanted and I was getting little riffs and instrumentation and
linking phrases from one to the other and it was awesome and now it's
all gone (verysadface).
Brave
reminded me that I wanted to learn Gaelic (technically I wanted to
learn Irish Gaelic because I love Clannad's music but Scottish Gaelic
would be just as fun). Actually one thing I didn't quite get was the
ages of people when they were young. Those three tiny boys, I have no
idea how old they are meant to be but they seem older than their stature
would make you presume. They are brilliant though. The whole thing is
wonderful and I'm so glad that they made it.
I'm
also hella glad that I've ordered the ost already so that when it
arrives I can listen to it and hopefully be inspired. I'll have to work
fast on concept arts and things for what I want to do although whether I
can get everything done in time is another matter.
I
also want to try and plan another NaNoWriMo but I don't know if I can,
at least not in time for this November, but it's always worth trying, if
I don't start now then November will be here and then it will be too
late to plan for this one but too early to pressure me into planning for
the next one. I'm just not sure where or when I want to set. I mean I
never specify in any of my stories on that matter but is it a dystopian
future, a rural past, a parallel to our own time? This planetesque?
Outer spaceesque? I have a few, really I should work on L'u and Dust but
I worry it's too similar to other stories I know but since I'm never
going to publish it does it really matter? I worry I don't have enough
to get me going but then even though I planned Snow for about 3 years I
didn't know a lot about the story until I started NaNo. Will I jsut end
up recycling characters too much? Will I always have an emphasis on
music even accidentally that it bores people?
I
should really finish Snow. I mean it has beginning, middle and end but
somewhere in the middle it got to the bit that I couldn't be bothered to
write out fully and so I did it in note form. I mean I still hit 50k in
the month but it's not a complete novel currently and it's been a
couple of years since I tackled it so I might be ok delving back into
it. I should also look at what material I can salvage from previous
writings, I have so many snippets, mostly from the same type of
universe, that I should try and bring, at least the ideas from,
together. I don't want to be a writer, many of my friends either do or
have gone through that as an idea, but I don't want to be a writer at
all. I don't really want to have a job that relies too much on a
constant stream of creativity. I just want to get ideas flowing,
concepts brewing, world creating!
I'm just finishing the fourth (and final?) book in an excellent "twilight" series:
I was rather surprised 1. with the fact that for once Blogger has let me place the covers in the correct order with minimal fuss (comparatively) and 2. that this Russian series has a lot
more to offer than the first film shows. If I remember correctly the
first film is actually the first third of The Night Watch (the book)
(although I was aware of something that happened in The Day Watch (book)
that I think happens in TNW (film) which kinda confused me). It is
certainly an interesting series and ok, yes, yet again we have
magicians, witches, vampires and werewolves (and others) but it seems to
be covered in a thick dusty layer of realistic grey and brown (like so
many computer games these days that are known as "gritty realism").
However this does not detract from it (actually it is very much more
grey than brown based on the twilight levels but that is something that
should be read about and not spoilerised) and certainly takes away all
this Disneyfication that fantasy has taken to doing currently (I'm
thinking Harry Potter, Twilight and all that spawned after it). Although
yes those books are for children/YA but this (whilst only found in the
sci-fi/fantasy section in book shops, well away from YA/kids etc.) isn't
exactly difficult to read and could have gone down the whole vampires
are misunderstood/evil route but kind of sits in the middle of vampires
are just vampires like people are just people. Not everyone is "evil"
even if they are Dark and not everyone is "good" even if they are Light.
It doesn't do a whole lot of moral stories though, just that people (or
in this case Others) are just as unfortunate and messed up as everyone
else. They are branded as one type or another but means about as much as
the branding of a football team in the reality of everything. It's very
good and the covers are excellent, imo.
I
only had the first and the last to begin with. I had picked up the
first I think new from Waterstones or somewhere, probably in a sale or
in a special offer, because it was pristine and it is unlikely that you
get those from secondhands. The last was a charity shop buy (Oxfam if I
remember correctly but that might be a fabrication). When I started on
the first and discovered that I was enjoying it I jumped straight onto
amazon.co.uk and bought the next one (and then the third even though it
would have made more sense to buy both at the same time but I'm trying
really, really, really hard not to buy new books currently
so though it best to wait and see on the matter and it came almost just
in time for me to start reading after finishing the second book). One
of the most interesting things about it though is less on the stories
(which are good) and the writing (which is also very nice) but that when
it mentions a thing that occurred in another book there is an asterisk
and a note telling you where this information comes from. It happens not
too often that you want to hit either the author, or the translator, or
the publisher for allowing it to be on the page, but just often enough
that it jogs memories when things are mentioned. My favourite one (and
so far has only happened once and I'm half way through the second story
of book 4) is on page 78 of The Last Watch:
"This story is told in the movies Night Watch and Day Watch."
I was amused :3
I've
probably wittered enough for now (and maybe the next couple of months
or so :P) and I want to try and finish this book tonight because things
are getting intense and it's exciting! Maybe next time a little less
rambly and a few more pictures? Although my blogs are nearly always more
a higher ramble to picture ratio, I think it's just the way I am (and I
use this as a
omg-all-of-my-brain-be-out-on-this-digitalised-form-of-paper).
Love and fluffythings,
Buttercup xxxxxxxxx