In the dark of the night just before dawn

I finished a book this morning that was actually very good. It was one of those "I'm going to put this book down now because I've read a lot of it but somehow it's now back in my hand only five minutes later" type of books. It wasn't mindblowing, it wasn't groundbreaking but it was interesting and that was nice.

I picked it up because the cover intrigued me. That whole saying of don't judge a book by it's cover? Ha! Some of my favourite books I picked up because I liked the cover, it's an excellent way to judge a book. I mean yes it doesn't always work and really in life you shouldn't judge things by covers but I find if it has a pretty cover I'm more likely to pick it up. The book that is, not random people :P

It is a little confusing though because there are three threads of story throughout although two of them become closer and closer together. One is the past/present, one is future/present (it depends on which bit you are reading although theoretically I think they are all written in past tense but so really it's past/past and future/past but nyeeeeeeh) and the other (which is less frequent) is present/second-person. That one is weird but quite nice because not many authors ever use it.

There are two main characters; Celia and Marco. There is a mysterious circus. There is magic and illusion, monochomacity. There is a game that some call a challenge. It is mostly set 1880-1900.

Really instead of reading I should have been working on the Princess Ida score that I'm copying. I've got to part way through act 2 finale and I've stopped. part of it is because my laptop doesn't fit on my desk anymore and thus I can't do my now usual dual screenage. That means I should tidy but that is such a mammoth task that I don't start because it's scary. One could almost say that it is scrry biscuits. I have been doing little bits, the bits that I find fun. Mostly organising my books. I can see the order in them and where they need to go and how best to maximise space so it is nice and easy to do. Normal tidying where a thing could go there, or there or over here and even somewhere completely different, is hard because I don't know where it would be best to put and so I don't put it anywhere except maybe a little to the left of where it was, or in the ever growing piles of stuff on my floor. When I have my own place someday my bedroom is going to contain a bed and some wardrobes and that is it (or thereabouts). No computer, most books elsewhere (obviously not the current read if I have been reading in bed). No instruments. No piles of stuff. All of that can go in other rooms. Ah I can only dream of this as a thing so far (and probably only ever dream of this as a thing because really, I'm going to end up with crap in my room regardless because that is what I am like :P).

I should go back to more productive things than procrastinating on here. The internet is a terrible and wonderful thing. Terribly wonderful and wonderfully terrible :D

Loves,

Buttercup xxxxx

And he made a little fiddle of her own breast bone

I found a thing on tumblr and I was just going to tell you about it but here is a link as well because then it makes my job a lot easier and less boring, also pi'tures :D

The thing I found on tumblrs!

Anyway the whole thing made me realise that whilst I believe that three of the best sammiches in the world are the following; ham & pease pudding, peanut butter & cucumber and ham, carrot & cucumber (ones for on a regular basis made with standard food found in the fridge), I certainly do not make interesting sandwiches ever. Most of the time I only make peanut butter ones because I feel like if I'm going to have bread it might as well have filling. (I do often, frequently, actually frequently, just eat ham straight from the packet because om nom and I always find that ham (unless you make an actual doorstop of the stuff) is really easily lost in flavours within sandwiches... it is also partially because I am lazy and that is easier and also bread is very stodgy).

I keep misplacing hairbobbles and this is a bother! Why do they always disappear all the time. Also why has insomnia returned? I was doing so damned well too!

Normally when I'm out and about and fancy a sandwich type dealy (normally this is a toastie or a panini) it is majoratively ham and cheese (although the last was BBQ chicken, bacon and cheese which was nomalicious!) (Found a hair bobble which makes life much better with hair off my face and neck). But so this website has made me think, it would be awesome to make interesting mini sandwiches (mini because it makes it more of a challenge and I don't feel overstodged with bread) but I can't think of cool ideas and it would require ingredients and things. I am pretty lazy after all, maybe I'll just imagine awesome sandwiches instead. Like I imagine making awesome cakes and then don't because Jona is better at making cakes and I just feel a tad fail in the end.

Two albums arrived over the past couple of days; Brave OST and Julie Fowlis -Uam (who is on the Brave OST)

I realise that I'm a little obsessed with Brave currently and while I do hope this will wane a little I don't really mind if it doesn't at all. However it is JF that I am mostly considering here. On Brave she sings in English (which was weird because Uam came first and thus I listened to that first), on Uam (which means 'from me') she sings approximately half a song in English and the rest in Scottish Gaelic. As part of the lyrics booklet there are both the lyrics and the English translations which is actually pretty awesome.

The music is lovely and folky and has some excellent folky harmonies and there is one piece that is a capella which is wonderful (Ho bha mi, he bha mi - it has accents on the o and the e but I can't be bothered to find them on here). I definitely want more of her stuff as it is very chilled but also awesome.

I've been having thinking on writing. It may be a story within the world of Snow but completely nothing to do with that at all but maybe just set in a similar world instead because it may be too hard to link them properly without going back and reworking a lot of things (which I can do if it bothers me I guess but isn't a necessity because no one will know but me :P) and as far as I can tell there is magic and dragons because these things are awesome. I also want it to be set northwards. Hills and mountains and forests and snow (not Snow but the weather variety that he is named after although I guess if it is the same 'realm' then it would plausibly be someone like Snow causing that... aaaaahh complicated!). It's purely writing my own escapism but that's cool with me :) Since I have an area that helps me a little, I have a couple of characters forming, no names which is a bother, but hopefully they'll solidify a little. I have absolutely no plot at all :D as far as I'm concerned it can be a free for all!

Until later, loves

Buttercup xxxxxxxx

I will ride, I will fly, chase the wind and touch the sky

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