Take a load off Annie, take a load for free, take a load off Annie, and you can put the load right on me

So I haven't posted since last year and I've been very lax in the whole idea of blogging. It's that wonder as to whether people read your blogs and whether or not they read simply because they feel they have to or whether they actually enjoy it or not. I tend to ramble and squirrel- yeah I get off topic quite a bit but meh! I shall post as I see fit.

Quite a lot and not much has happened all at once. So I'll just tell you some things of things.

I finally finished one score that I was doing and now I'm over half way through the next one. It's a bit ridiculous how much I'm doing on these scores. With the time I use on them I could totally have a full time job with actual wages and stuff... Two part time jobs isn't really enough to do anything with. But better than nothing so I'm not complaining too much :)

This second score feels so much shorter it's like there's no music at all. Five pages later and BAM! another song done :D It's a very nice feeling, instead of TGD which was a slog and a half and I think my average speed dropped a few pages an hour which when there is 500-600odd pages to do kind of makes a huge difference. However that one is done and now I'm just slogging away with the poor quality editing that is Kalmus. Three pages, three pages!, in and I was already annoyed. Trumpet is in the wrong place, pizzicato markings unresolved, key signatures that are wrong. Oh well, that is the joy that is Kalmus!

I started a thing this year. I saw it one... someones facebook feed and thought, hey why not. Kinda cute, little bit ridiculous and a pinch of stupid but I'm quite enjoying it so far. I bought a glass jar (actually it;s a really nice metal lock jam jar from Wilko's and is rather bon, I have one for the damage counters for Pokemon) and I write a nice thing on it that made me smile with the date and the fold it up and put it inside. It makes me happy how much there is already in it. It's instead of resolutions. I don't stick to them. So instead I'm lettingm yself know what an awesome year I had (by the end of it) so I can look back and go "oh yeah, I remember that now, that was awesome". 

I nicked that image off weheartit but it's the concept of what I am doing. I'll see how far I get. Who knows I might actually stick with it for the whole year! However I did start the first few with 2012 written on them. That was amusing :D

I saw another thing that was an interesting concept. Instead of explaining I'll put the link here: linkylink

I really like it as a concept but currently I don't have the money to do it properly. I mean I considered doing it with 50p intervals instead of £1 ones (so the last week is 26 rather than 52) but that is still impractical with my income. It would be awesome though because even with only saving the 50p version you'd still have a jar with £689 in it at the end of the year. That's a whole lotta cash in one go! Maybe if I get a third/better job :D it would be another jar with nice smiley things in it!

However I would always be tempted to take out a pound here or there (or several) for you know, the bus fare or so I can go out and I totally promise I'll replace it when I have the change in my purse honest! But it'll never get replaced and I'll just end up spending more money than normal because it would be there, in a jar, in front of me, grinning and waving its little hands at me! Goddamn money!

Another thing I've been doing this year is I'm taking Wednesday's off. This may change over the course of the year but I discovered I didn't actually have any me time. I was losing myself in scores and rehearsals and travelling here, there and everywhere but I wasn't getting anymore enjoyment out of it because I was tired and grumpy and didn't want to. Currently I have Monday's and Wednesday's where I don't go out and rehearse or have particular plans. It's nice for a change. Ok so I still copy up scores and stuff but I can also do other things. I've started doing Project Wednesdays where I try to do a thing just for me. Or for learning. Or just for the Kraken. It's for doing nice things like making caramel or cinder toffee or fixing that bag or drawing this thing or that thing or writing or even just chilling out with a book. I'm intending to stay saner and more chilled. By the way, cinder toffee is kinda hard to do (I think the recipe is wrong) and caramel is awesome and easy to make but it seems to disappear so maybe I made magic caramel that walks away... it's apparently really good though :D

I'm attempting to challenge myself, to do things. It may only last a couple of months but that's a couple more than none :D However I'm now going to curl up in bed with my DS and continue with Harvest Moon DS:Cute (called that because it's the version for girls! You can change your clothes and wallpaper and stuff!). I absolutely love Harvest Moon (the original FarmVille) and I get really addicted to it. I'm attempting to get all the Harvest Sprites and rescue the Harvest Goddess and have at least one of each building, one of each animal and have shipped one of everything, own one of each item and so on. I'm going for completionist on this. I mean I'll probably get to the stage of having cows and sheeps and get bored and want something new :P

I'm a brunette in this but I just love that cover art! My cat is Cifa (because Cifa cat!), dog is Rufus, pony is Epona and I currently have eight chickens (all with different names including Trubbs a tribute to Trouble but that was too long for the system).

Anyway, loves to all!

Liffy xxxxxxxxx

There's a zombie on your lawn

So currently I'm playing a few games quite a lot and I thought I would talk a bit on them. Firstly the pc games.

Jona (brother) bought me the Game Of The Year Edition of this on steam. I've already almost completed it on Xbla (Xbox360 Live) (only got one achievement left to get - 40 waves on endless) but I really like my tower defence games and this one is rather good (that and steam had a sale~). It's pretty user friendly, it's basic enough that it's accessible to almost anyone but has enough difficulty that it isn't boring. The graphics are cheerful and the music isn't all that bad.

I've already completed the first play though and I'm well on my way through the second. I'm not sure why I find this so addictive but I do. Do you want to know my favourite part? The Zen garden. I'm not even joking, my favourite part (after completing the main game) is growing plants and picking up new plants from either Crazy Dave or on other levels. As the name Zen suggests, it's soothing. The music is nice and I like finding out what new plants I have acquired. It sounds ridiculous I know, especially when I'm so absolutely terrible at keeping plants alive in real life.

Any way, essentially I love this game because you can just turn it on and play for a short burst of time. There's no plot at all so that's not an issue and each level is about 5 to 10 minutes long (except for each last level of the area which is a double level).When my 360 was in my room I would play it a lot on that and now it's on my computer I'm playing it a lot at the moment. 'Chievo hunting (because the achievements on Steam are different to the Xbla ones).

Ahh good old Minecraft. I don't actually play this as often as I seem to make out. In fact I haven't played this in a couple of months and have only just reinstalled it today after the windows overhaul. Jona mentioned that the sheep had been altered so they are producing wool again after shearing (which I was having a major issue with last time) so I thought I would open it again and have a mooch. They've also added apples a a tree drop which is fab.

I do love this game, mostly because I just like building a nice house and then going off on a wander around the countryside and through the caverns and caves. I like exploring, although really I should head off to the Nether and the End at some point but that's kinda where all the scary things live.

I tend to play this game solidly for about a week (in a darkened room because it makes it easier) and then after that week appear, bleary eyed and blinking at the sun, and don't play it for about a month. It is a good game but I overkill on it. This is how I play most games really. I play them for hours each day and then stop. Then when I finally get back to them I'm all "dude, why did I stop? This game is AWESOME!". As it is I'm in the early stages of building a house (making the walls out of dirt and any other random materials that don't require tools to gain, because I like to play it out perfectly and dirt is easiest to change). I have already found sheep and pigs near by and I'm situated next to the sea. It should be fun so I'll let you know how I get on.

On Xbox I'm playing this: Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3, another game that Jona bought me (this time for christmas). We are somewhat collecting these games (currently own DW1 (PS), DW2 (PS2), DW3 Strike force (I think, PS2), DW5 Empires (Xbox360), DW6 (Xbox360), Tactics (PS2), Warriors Orochi 1+2 (Xbox360) and DW Gundam 1, 2 (still with Anth, I really should get that back) and 3. DW in original format is about the Romance of the Three Kingdoms in China and the warring that happened then. You generally play as one of the factions (Wu, Shu or Wei) and as a person from one of those. Throughout the game you unlock new people to play as and stuff. It's hack and slash in the extreme (press x to win). Orochi takes DW and Samurai warriors (a spin off from the same game company) and some demons and makes them all fight because some demon dude called Orochi decided that would be cool. It's quite fun because Jona and I are sitting there going "you don't fight together, you hate each other!" or "Lu Bu!? No one defeats Lu Bu!" and then steal his horse Red Hare (the fastest in any of the games). It's certainly interesting but the plot is pretty meh whatever. Mostly we have it for more co-op game play and because, like I said, they're fun. Hack and slash is awesomes.

Gundam is basically the same except with mechas. 1 and 2 followed the same formulae and were almost ctrl+c, ctrl+v of each other with some slight graphics changes. The story was the same, the campaigns were the same. It was the same game. Kinda disappointing. Actually one of them has the option for Japanese speech and the other doesn't. I don't remember which one but the American voices aren't too good (especially when they keep saying the same thing when they take a base/kill a named guy/kill x amount of people).

DWas of yet. Also the plot is different (although essentially the same as Orochi). There are also a million chapters and missions to do (mostly copy/paste but that's fine) so I'm going to be taking a while on it. It is good if you're angry, upset or insomniac though. Many a night has been spent on DW6 with Jona and they're good fun. Just don't play them for plot, or interesting things happening. They're all kill loads of guys and then kill the big bad boss at the end. Sometimes there are "save this guy" or "don't let X die" but mostly "kill Y to win".

Again one of the best features about it is that I can normally complete a mission in about 10 mins (they give you a time limit of 90mins. I think that would be soul destroying and really hard to require that length of time. I reckon my AI allies would defeat everyone in that time if I didn't :P) so I can pick up a controller and quickly kill some people and then go do something else.

Finally when I'm out and about I've been taking my Gameboy color with me to play this. I've already mostly completed it on emulator years ago but I finally picked up a copy for cheaps off Amazon. It's a very basic game with a similar layout to the original Red/Blue in the way that there are gyms and you defeat 3 people then a gym leader. There is also a rival (who I can't remember the name of) who turns up every so often. You get to choose your starter deck (Bulbasaur/Charmander/Squirtle and friends) and off you go. The cards that are used in the game are from the base, jungle and fossil sets with the promo Meowth (Blackstar 10) that was originally released with this game also used (I didn't get one because it was second hand but I can get one off ebay pretty cheap).

There isn't much to the game but I quite enjoy it and sadly I also rather enjoy thinking "yup I have that card in reals". It's a game about collecting things and in my family that's quite a trait that we have. I'm not very far in it but I'm still having fun remembering how to play the original TCG (the updated version I play on TCGOnline is better but nostalgia!).

So you may have noticed that very few of my games at the moment are plot driven. Really only DW:G3 can boast any kind of plot and even that doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. It's mostly because at the moment I don't want to be thinking "so I have to go here to talk to this guy to get this quest to get to this part of the game to find out blahblahblah". All I really want is action at the moment. At some point I'm going to go back to my pile of incomplete Squenix games (Persona4, FFXIII, Last Remenant, other FFgames) and Mass Effect (finally got for Christmas) but I feel like it would just be too much (I also need to find a synopsis for the first disk of Last Rem because I haven't played that in about 3 years and I need my maps for FFXIII and probably need to restart VII, X and get a synopsis for I and III). See! Look at how much effort plot driven games are when you are a sporadic gamer like me! Maybe after these games I'll go back to Theme Hospital (with no plot) and finally complete it (on consultant level because I enjoy it hxc on there). I should also go back to Pokemon.... Soul Silver, Black, start Diamond and Emerald. We got them all at roughly the same time so I have a major backlog on that front.

And then I have other things I need to be doing other than gaming! :P I need to start applying for a second job (bleh), reading all my hundreds of unread books (le sigh), tidying and decluttering my room (all the frikking time!), getting a good night's sleep for work the next day (very important!), sorting out the Iolanthe files so I can send some to Hazyshade (because I've overkilled my mind on copying up the score and it's just a little too much and he is fabulous and keeps offering, also 70 page 1st act finale anyone?!). I also want to be practising my instruments more and learning how to play the ones I've bought but never learnt (or acquired) but I don't seem to have enough hours in my day! I agree with Blue on the thought that sleep is such a waste of time but such a damned necessity!

Now I should make a checklist for tomorrow and go to bed because it's almost 00:30 and I should have been in bed an hour and a half ago so goodnight all my lovelies and may all your dreams come true (just the good ones and not the nasty nightmares).

Lemonses and butterflies, Buttercup xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Who are you, who who who who?

Ok so I've neglected blogging for a while... which is annoying because I've read books that I should review and listened to music that I should review but I just don't have the time to sit and blog for an hour or so. When I'm not working I'm taking breaks in the form of not writing so while I could blog in my breaks it's writing and that makes the break feel less breaky.

Since the last blog I have read: Ink Exchange and Fragile Eternity (both by Melissa Marr) and started on Acorna's People (Anne McCaffrey). I've bought a greatest hits of The Who (because they are awesome and CSI is awesome) and fallen further in love with MCR and started learning tab for Unintended to see if I can't crack guitar tabs (also learning to bar chord which is starting to work sometimes =D). I've played on Rainbow 6 Vegas 2 with my brother (FPS) (he's better than I am), Viva Pinata (again) and some Dynasty Warriors 6 (again). I've been to a concert, rehearsals, slept to much and worked too little. I've fallen back in love with classical music, especially the more modern, slightly dissonant music.

I've eaten more candy in the past couple of days than I have in the past few months and I'm still going. I'm no further forward with my tai chi but I'm still going with it because it is the most wonderfully soothing thing to do.

I've gained a piercing and now have 7 which is a better number but I'm still trying to work out if I can feasibly make it to 11 without looking overkill... if I can't I'll have to settle on 9.

I've been snapping pictures on my camera as often as I can, but losing days through working. I've discovered the joys of Spotify for my work but can't ever see it replacing iTunes and buying cds. I've looked though old photos and remembered that the old days before medication weren't actually all that bad sometimes.

I've realised that I am who I am and that is who I want to be.

I'm not moving out any time soon but I'm kind of ok with that. I would love more room space but don't have the mental strength yet to tackle living without the parental wing to guide me and keep me safe.

I can finally climb my bed-ladder without anything on it (except my current book and iPod for nighttimes). and I don't remember the last time that was actually possible.

I'm hermitising but actually don't feel too bad for it, although I should get out and see more people... maybe in a month when uni is finally over.

I'm looking forward to the new American McGee's Alice game and I'm very much determined to play through the original (360 download) before cracking into the sequel and completing that! Also rather determined to make some progress again on Persona 4 and to finish FFXIII this summer and maybe crack open Dragon Age again. 

At some point I'm going to start looking for jobs but it's of no hurry anymore since I'm not moving out.

I have a lot of work to do and I'm not sure how I will finish it in time but I have to because it's the final stretch. This is it. No more past this. I'm aiming for a 2.1. I might hit lower, I mostly likely won't hit higher but that is my aim. I'll keep going until I make it. Sure there may be some late nights and early mornings and some removal of the internet to force work out but it will get done. I will finish this damned degree. Then I shall drink and sleep and dance to my heart's content.

I think that's it. A whirlwind catch up. Back to the workings!