phrasemuffin: Bare: A Pop Opera (Default)
( Aug. 23rd, 2008 12:26 am)
I need one of those days. You know those days where that random person smiles at you, genuinely, and you think 'wow, maybe today isn't totally shit'. I've had only one of those days. Ever. Then again, maybe it was just because he was cute. I don't know anymore; I'm so confused.

But I need one of those days. I'm starting to feel like I'm caving in on myself. Like I'm crumbling under the pressure of the silence weighing down on me. It's a vast expanse of emptiness, let me tell you, and it weighs a fucking tonne. I don't know how much longer I can keep playing the role of Atlas to all these secrets.

I just need one of those days. You know, those days where you rescue me? Where the words get spoken and silence lets go? 'Cause I need help. And I've got no heroes left.

___

Joe's 21st tomorrow night. Eep.

Eep, I say.
phrasemuffin: Bare: A Pop Opera (hidden camera)
( Aug. 21st, 2008 05:01 pm)
... in which there are thematic devices.

In reference to the dream post, I realised this morning what my latest Theme is. It used to be Levitation, before I started posting about them. Then it was School and Uni, which was more about their geographical locations and spatial layouts than learning. Then it was Funerals and Death. Fun times.

Now, it's Movement.

Lots of vehicles (plains, trains, automobiles).

Lots of running.

Lots of four-limbed running (i.e. with hands).

Lots of excessive motion (e.g. the elevator).

Just lots and lots of movement.

Isn't that interesting? If I didn't know any better (which technically I don't), I'd say that these Themes are related to Project: Ether Engine - Movement and Levitation are two of the Domains that can be controlled by it, and Space is definitely a major consideration that affects and is affected. Death, or the prevention of, is in some cases the ultimate purpose of the Ether Engine, like in wars or what have you.

I wonder if I'll go through a run of dreams based on Making Things Work, or Finding, or The Weather, or Projection, or any of the other Domains related to the artefacts. That'd be interesting.
... no seriously.

I would label it a nightmare, because it wasn't really the sort of dream you wake up from in cold sweats shouting "OH GOD, THE BUNNIES!". It was more the sort of dream in which you fear death in a semi-detached way.

The bits that I remember start with me on a ship. A big ship. A glorious old ship. And by ship I do indeed mean water ship. A ship with gardens and foutains and an immense library (I suspect it was somewhat based on Uni and/or the Women's College, but don't ask me why; I couldn't pinpoint it if I tried). A ship with 'god' knows what sort of specs for the dream that ensued. Then again, it did become one of those horror movies based on puzzles and getting ALL the answers right, because a wrong answer does of course mean death; that's how you find the winner. Thankfully the game didn't get quite that far, but the fact that it was like a horror movie (and, you know, a dream) meant it had licence to change any and every spatial spec at its whim.

To preserve space on your FLists )

The reasoning was then left to me, because I was the only one who had any idea about what "phrygian" meant. I thought that perhaps, as pleather is fake leather (i.e. not really leather), and phrygian is not really a scale (a sort of fake scale...ish), that perhaps the lion had been giving the crocodile back one of his scales. Or, perhaps, he had been disguised as a crocodile (in a skin bag) and was giving it up (sort of like a wolf-in-sheep's-clothing revealing himself amongst the sheep). Or maybe he just didn't need a purse, which was my initial reading of the riddle. Of course, after I'd read it and found the WHY? hidden between the trees, it all disappeared leaving a box with a lid and no adornments. When M answered, the troup leader pulled a slip of paper from the box (perhaps the right answer) and then gave her her punishment.

All I could think from that point on was "I have to get through this with my team - the two guys and the girl. Especially [the guy I was flirting with]."

Sadly, I woke up before I could find out the answer and complete Trial Three. Does anyone else want to try and answer it? It's sort of like "Why is a raven like a writing desk?"; Alice never does get the answer. I really am curious as to why the lion dropped the pleather bag though.

I realise the whole thing doesn't sound particularly death-fearingly horror movie-like, but there was an undercurrent of it throughout. I knew what the consequences were, so I knew to fear them.

Now I just want my answer. That and to know why I'm having batshit crazy dreams with this level of detail and reality.



*** actually, there was something about a train... lots of us were on board, including Nick (yes, you) who was told to dance and I was rather unimpressed (I expected more from you Nick), and there were a couple of little kids too. There was some huge fight between people, there was a bar, there was also a teacher (that's who told Nick to dance! in an attempt to break things up, I think? Or to calm people down after?) who I had to call over to get him to stop the fight. He wore a purple robe. After the fighting was done, nearly everyone literally went home - one of the little kids had to get a plane home with his guardian (another non-human I think), and he was running out of time so he ran away but came back saying he'd missed it because he'd been in the bathroom when they'd called it. Apparently he couldn't wait to go on the plane because plane bathrooms scared him for some reason. I think my friends on the elevator were therefore remnants of the train people.

***** to get to the stone courtyard, I'm pretty sure that we had to go through a section of land that rather resembles a part of Uni. The bit where the Transient Building ends and you can turn right and go up the stairs to the Paved Walkway or keep going straight and curve round the next building next to the car park. There was a similar sort of junction with the same question I always ask "which is faster?".
... in which there is an update.

A big update. Sort of. Two images and set of descriptions.

Also, another update. This is to further explain PCBs.
phrasemuffin: Bare: A Pop Opera (Default)
( Aug. 13th, 2008 02:56 pm)
... in which David concedes.

I woke up this morning feeling like I'd been sleeping folded in half, shoulder to shoulder, squashing my entire left side. There was a terrible pain in all the diodes down my left side. Plus, I was drifting between being awake and only half asleep for hours last night, so when I woke up this morning, I really hadn't had enough sleep. I only had one 2hr lecture today and I'm not going to SUMS tonight because of Otello, so I skipped it and went back to sleep. Sigh.

There goes my one free lecture for Politics this semester. Watch it float away, and wave buh-bye.
phrasemuffin: Bare: A Pop Opera (hidden camera)
( Aug. 12th, 2008 11:01 pm)
... in which David proves he's usually not that stupid.

Except that I won't, so let's all pretend I have.

SUMS Camp 2 is coming up in about a month or so and the revue night's theme is Sci-Fi. Which, you know, sounds easy in theory, but I am once again struggling to come up with ideas. As much as I would love to do Clark Kent Undressing Into Superman again, I think I've over-used it just a touch this year.

So... thoughts? Current ideas are:

- Wolverine (but would require the claws... needs thinking, as well as a black jacket, but that could be done easily)
- Arthur Dent (dressing gown, pjs and a towel just seems too easy)
- The Tenth Doctor from Doctor Who (have the glasses, require a suit and brown coat and purple cons)
- John Constantine (would require a new coat and a cigarette, but I'd totally do the arm tats with that stuff we painted on Kevin)
- The Nutrimatic/Nutri-mat/something (not really a possibility, but I love the thought of going as a Sirius Cybernetics Corp. appliance, and I think the Infinite Improbability Drive would be just a touch more difficult. Plus, you know, tea!)

Other than that, I'm sort of out. Ideas?

Also, my sister is having a Heroes and Villains themed party at some point, and she's going as Jubilee!! I find this incredibly awesome of her.
... in which David talks about nuts.

So I opened the peanut butter jar and looked into it, and for the first time ever I realised "oh my god, it looks like a nut paste".

Head, meet Desk.

Also, tomorrow night, I'm seeing Otello at the opera house. Woot! It'll be my first opera. But... I'm not really sure what to wear yet. I have to look spiffy (can't let the team down), but I don't want to look better than everyone I'm with. It's a constant struggle, really, but when you add fancy clothes, that just makes it harder.
Tags:
... in which fruitarians are required.

Guys, I have a problem. I can't decide whether anthropomorphised food would find cooking shows to be gore-fest horror shows, or something between a fashion show and kinky porn. Or is it a little from column A, a little from column B? Would cooking shows be considered snuff-film-style porn to food?

Now, obviously, you're saying to yourself "David, they slice, dice, roast and/or boil food on cooking shows, to say nothing of the taste-test at the end; how on earth can it be porn when they all die?!". And this is valid. Except... well, first of all they're all already dead, as would be any food watching your television unless you have one out on the farm. Second, for us the purpose of food is to be eaten, but I wonder if food actually wants to be eaten. Is an apple that doesn't feed anyone any less of an apple to all the apples in the orchard that do?

Also, would the state of the food pre-anthropomorphisation (i.e. fresh vs cooked/processed [eg anthro Apple vs anthro Apple Pie) change the way it viewed a cooking show post-anthrop.? I mean, for cooked/processed (depending on the process) it's like a home video of everything from foreplay to conception to the actual birth of a new food, while fresh it's... well, I'm not sure.

I'm serious about this, by the way. I want to know your thoughts.
phrasemuffin: Bare: A Pop Opera (let's get pissed!)
( Aug. 4th, 2008 11:33 pm)
... in which David prepares.

Listening to the Avenue Q soundtrack, I'm starting to think I'd like to perform Schadenfreude for the SUMS Camp Revue. Of course, I'd be Gary Coleman - I'm not volunteering for something and then not being the leading man. My emo hoodie is doing things to my eyeballs everytime I look down to see myself type so imma go stop doing that now. The other of courses, of course, are that I'll have to find someone else to be Nicky, and someone to accompany (and therefore sheet music) unless I want to do it a capella. And that Hannah will mock me mercilessly for doing a showtune, while The Clique will love it if done correctly. (Kenny and Roman apparently saw Avenue Q while in England.)

Except... I can't fake laugh.

The bigger songs would be better for four partness, but require, you know, more people. Sigh.

Perhaps Will is an A.Q fan? *angelface*

This is just idle thought, though...
phrasemuffin: Bare: A Pop Opera (Ditz)
( Aug. 4th, 2008 03:03 pm)
... let me lose you them.

Yah, that's pretty much it.

I have a hole in one of the pockets of one of my pairs of jeans. The pair I wore to uni last week to be specific. As I only have uni two days a week so far, this is how their mornings went:

Day 1 - "Oh hey Andy*! Nice to see you. My keys just fell out of my picket through my pants leg, so don't worry about giving me a lift to uni or anything. I'll just put them in a different pocket."**

Day 2 - [silence] (No Andy. No pocket-falling to respond to. No putting keys in other pocket.)

so on Day 2 I lost my keys. I won't be wearing those jeans again until I fix that damn hole. And, in case you find a lone set of keys, if they are a triplet with no cheesy keyring-like adornments, and two are angular while one is rounded... can you give them back to me? *puppy dog pouty eyes*

Day 2 (Wednesday) was also the day I saw Highly and was finally able to have a hot beverage on campus. It was a good thing I saw you, actually, because I was about to cave and get one anyway. I guess fortune really does favour the insane.

And how do we know that I'm insane? Well, apart from losing my keys in a pair of jeans so recently proven to be capable of dropping them, upon hearing about Emergency Ponchos for the first time today, and having them described as "plastic bags with hoods" (sadly without any emergency provisions like human rations and/or screwdrivers, sonic or no), this was the image they conjured:

Apparently, though, they're just the normal plastic ponchos you use like a raincoat. What a let down :( I think the term Emergency has here been used a touch too losely. I say we sue for false advertising! Who's with me?

Also, hello [livejournal.com profile] areyoustrange! Welcome to my paradise of weirdness!**** :D



* My dad's business partner who occassionally rocks up at our house. 'Cause my dad works at home, as does Andy. Also, when he "just so happens" to arrive when my dad is getting a quote on solarly powering the house***, it means he can get a free quote too!

** You (mostly) all know the tangentalness of my thought-patterns.

*** I like to really bury the lead, you know? Also, can you footnote a footnote?

**** I have just come to the realisation that I am considerably less weird than I used to be, or at least once professed to be... this makes me sadder than emo tears. :(
phrasemuffin: Bare: A Pop Opera (Muffin)
( Aug. 2nd, 2008 01:34 am)
... in which David is his own lubricant.

Julius Caesar was tonight. As was work, but work was pretty much just the regular, with one small addition; Lynn and I worked out the compulsory criteria for the next two employed peoples:
  • his - attractive uni-aged female of Catholic nature who doesn't mind being the object of attention, possibly more...

  • mine - gay/bi/curious/open-minded-and-very-willing-to-flirt-like-Kurtis male, also of an attractive nature bit without the added Catholicism....


Was earlier to JC than I thought I would be. Was surprised to find two extra SUMSites there - Roman and Kenny of The Clique. Was interested to find that The Ex's Current was in it (though, according to Kenny, I am much pretty than he is :D). Was also interested to find that JC was a woman, as were Antony, Ocatvaius and... that other one. Was disturbed by the amount of laughing by both highlyeccentric and kayloulee at all the slash-able material they were gathering.

Back at the women's college, there was tea, followed by several layers of Harry Potter debates, the etymology of Kinokuniya, and lots of Old/Middle English/French/Japanese stuff I didn't get. As well as many other things, of course, like the discussion of shampoo and it's non-uses as a sexual lubricant, which somehow led to my saying something mistaken for a claim that I am my own lubricant... I forget the words now, though, as it is late.

Actually, that's a lie - it isn't too late for me to be remembering life properly. However, three things happened after leaving Amy's that are kind of trumping attempts at Memory Recall. Thing the First is that I was a little bit murdered by a tree, who tried to drop a branch on me, B, and areyoustrange (which upon reflection was probably a fair rection to my wish of seeing a country shop of trees... like, a shop that sells trees, in the country, but not a nursery... just nod and smile) but only managed to flick my elbow a little. Thing the Second is the creepy cab driver who I could have sworn was giving me the eye - first he said I was sick because of "too much sex, probably", then asked if I had a girlfriend (and why not) and looked me up and down, and then asked how old I was. Thing the Third is that I jammed myself out when I got home - I suddenly had a craving for jam, and I succumbed to it. I hope it is clear why I cannot for the moment remember things.

Also, I had a couple of ideas for more comics, but I forgot them too. Hopefully I'll remember before long. Because the world needs more comics featuring stick figures with sentient, sadistic, sometimes-phallic anthropomorphic jam. Actually, that's what this post was going to be - the 'etymology', if you will, of jam, for Highly's sake. Basically, I was having a midnight snack ( !! that was one of the ideas!! OSM!!) of jam on cold fridge!bread, when I realised I use far more jam than anyone else in the house per serving. This led to the exclamation "I am a jam monster!" which conjured images of little children running into a jam monster in the middle of the forest, which in turn conjured images of said events occuring in a children's comic strip, like Jessica Monster's (either / or). I figured I would be able to do something along those lines (though probably not exactly a kid's comic, more one along the lines of Pictures For Sad Children), so I have challenged myself to come up with one comic for every week of this semester. I will probably post two next week, instead of one tomorrow.

Finally, Kay, do you happen to know what Will The New Attractive Bass plays in the orchestra?

Note for B (and Are You Strange): The hand gesture after "S and/or M" was an underline-come-full-handed-pointing-between-two-choices, not anything sus involving friction and/or lubricant.
... in which David shares.

If you're looking for a new webcomic, might I suggest Pictures For Sad Children. You may or may not want to start earlier... I think this is the best so far.

On real matters, I am becoming sick. My throat, to be more specific, is getting sick. Soreness, especially when attempting to rumble the basser notes at SUMS. It is annoying. Also, I require an x-ray for my orthodontist. I'm not sure if he requires an x-ray of me, or just... an x-ray. I probably should have asked.

On unreal matters, I would like to start a comic. I have thoughts. Jam monsters feature in my thoughts. Prominently. Also, there are stick figures. And jam. Jam is a theme that I like at the moment. It was canibalism. Before that, the word 'ikarian'.

Who knows what zany ventures my brain will next have.
... in which David speaks Davidian.

Pimps and Hos party saturday night. Was really fun, the only problem was that it was another Heathcote trip to make. I went as a Catholic Schoolboy Slut, and my outfit was complimented nicely by Kurtis' Naughty Schoolgirl outfit (yes, Kurtis, as in Amy's boyfriend). Kelly was Seaman Kelly, mistress of the docks, Ash was a Madame, and everyone else was general slut/ho or pimp.

I still have my eyeliner on - I can't be bothered taking it off. Plus it's kinda hot. :P

Also, I still feel kinda squirrelly. My inards have been all twisty and jumblful today like an overgrown scribble with a finepoint felt tip pen. I guess I'm losing my natural resistance to the hangover, which is sad, because they are not fun, especially the kind that lasts the whole day.

Oh, and I've somehow misplaced my iPod between the clothesline and... the rest of our property? Whoops. Eep. I really hope I find it, because I don't think I should be carefree about buying a new one when there were only a few minor issues with it. Not with the number of birthdays still left in the year.

Finally, yodallama, I just want to say YOU'RE AWESOME AND I HOPE YOUR CIRCUS LIFE IS JUST AS AWESOME IF NOT MORE SO WHICH WOULD BE HARD BECAUSE YOU'RE JUST THAT AWESOME!
... in which David rises from his ashes.

Internet was shut off on Friday because my brother neglected to pay the bill. This was quite painful, though it did force me to get the guitar out, along with the casio keyboard and my vocal chords, so perhaps it was a good thing.

Then, Sunday, a couple of us went to a sex shop. the city for lunch. Kelly and I were talking and we have come to the conclusion that we both need boyfriends.

Afterwards, I worked on Project: Ether Engine for a bit. Got the dimensions for the floor panels set, more or less (is a circle with a 1m diameter too small for a chair?). First ring has 8 blocks, second has 12, third has 16. I've even come up with a couple of artefacts for it***: an amethyst pendant used to Find, a ring that controls Movement, a monocle that can show its user Flaws, a hammer that causes things to Work, a cane that causes things to Open, a masquerade mask that causes Invisibility, stones that control Weather (Rain/Hail/Snow, Wind and Lightning), and my absolute favourite (apart from the hammer that makes things Work, oh the irony) the dragon-headed parchment receptacle created for the granting of Wishes, which was for centuries mistaken for a scroll holder - many a scroll was lost to the dragon "inside" (actually to the creature resembling our dragon, on the plane connected to via the workings of the artefact) having sometimes catastrophic affects *cough*Jebus*cough*.

Furthermore, I've come up with a potential reason for the seemingly magical nature of the artefacts, which are in fact not magical... except... well, I guess it isn't really science, but it's not really magic... lets call it religiously tainted phenomena? It involves pre-universe time and two immortal entities: Good and Evil, who would be known today as God and Devil. Except they're more like personifications of the concepts, along the lines of Death and Grandfather Time and Mother Nature... yeah? Or the pagan gods, each having a domain they control. Except not really magic, but apparently not science... they sort of just become religion by default. It's the only way I seem to be able to justify this whole thing, sadly. But, anyway, Good has a weapon (Good's Thunder <-- precursor to/basis of Random Generators) that will destroy Evil and his armies, but Evil steals it and it goes off and it "destroys" all of them: Good, Evil, both their armies, and their battlefield. They are torn apart, down to the subatomic level, but Good and Evil retain their consciousnesses due to their immortality. Their particles then scatter across the universe when it forms in the Big Bang, along with fragments of their colective consciousnesses being tied to the particles. Now, I think you'll agree with me that it'd be hard to keep sane being somewhat aware, if fragmentally, for that amount of time without any sort of rest (how do you sleep when you aren't even, in some cases, a whole atom?) and all alone (I keep thinking Billy***** from Remnants, a series I read when I was younger). So, the particles spread and the minds go wonky, but they learn to semi-cope in the darkness and find a way to sway natural events in order to bring their atoms back together. But, you know, there a lot of atoms in a body. Like, a lot. And Good and Evil, as concepts, are pretty broad strokes of the brush, if you catch my drift. So far, only small deposits of their particles have been formed, and where they form, they lend their host artefact augmented abilities as the distorted/distorting (twisty) energy from the framgented consciousness attached to the displaced particles disrupts the normal flow of a universe they don't belong to. Or something like that. Actually, I just came up with that last bit... does that make it sound any less lame? :( I actually really like the Article (Good's Thunder <-- you'll want to follow that) I wrote up to explain it, but... I dunno, I want the whole thing to be more scientifical.

B? (Or anyone else?) Any suggestions? You are my resident Person Who Would Know These Things.




*** I just realised something. Everytime I think of "artefacts", I now associate them with the "objects" found in a t.v. show called The Lost Room. I was going to link to the wiki page for The Lost Room to see if anyone had seen it/heard of it/understood the scissors (which I worked out while writing this post! :P The rotate things... they're scissors!), but then I came across this:
"Another (though not necessarily contradictory) view of the phenomenon suggests that reality was somehow shattered at the location of the Room, thus separating it and everything in it from time and giving its contents metaphysical abilities. Should the items be collected and returned to the room by an individual, that person would then have complete control over reality. This theory works under the assumption that the one gathering the objects has the knowledge to utilize them properly. Since the Objects are just considered tools, they would do no good if the user were unaware of their paranormal functions." - the wikipedia page for The Lost Room
This is so very similar to the original concept, the current concept, and the Creation Story that sprang from them, that I can only assume someone has read my thoughts and turned them into Hollywood. That's naughty.

***** "Billy Weir: Billy is a true enigma. Originally a Chechnyan orphan, Billy is adopted by a Texan family. He was born Ruslan, but his father, Billy Weir Senior, aka, Big Bill, changed his name to Billy. At times it seems that Billy has infinite power, and has a strong connection with Mother. Early in the series he was carried around the computer generated world by Jobs thereby fusing friendship with Jobs that is persistent throughout the series. Long before the Mayflower, Billy dreamt of events that would unfold over 5 centuries later. While in hibernation, Billy did not sleep, and was awake for the journey. The ordeal twisted his mind, giving him telekinesis, the power to levitate, and many other strange abilities. These abilities make Billy a match for Mother, to the point where they assimilate to become one. Billy dies in the re-greening ritual: it is possible he may have survived, but 2Face's attack and the subsequent energy Billy spends to drain her life force may have contributed to his death. He is dubbed "Billy Weird" by many of his enemies (which amounts to anyone seeking control of the ship)." - the wikipedia page for Remnants
phrasemuffin: Bare: A Pop Opera (muppo)
( Jul. 16th, 2008 08:26 pm)
... dreams about losing my teeth are disturbing. And I mean dreams where I actually lose my teeth, where they fall out of my mouth as I'm looking at them in the mirror, one after the other, until there're only molars left.

Last night's was not the first. I want these dreams to stop.
Tags:
phrasemuffin: Bare: A Pop Opera (muffins invade)
( Jul. 16th, 2008 07:13 pm)
... in which it comes to an end.

Today was my last day "helping" with the pilgrim-feedings. It would appear that there are no more local festivities, and that from today on there will only be boring meals like boring breakfast and maybe dinner, for which I will not be needed. This is sad, because it means I won't get to see Manuel again, and we only got to talk for a little bit this afternoon.

So, for the conclusion to Project: Lure, I tell you this: today, Manual went to the city with a German girl. Clearly, we all know what will/has ensue(d): efficient German sex. At least that's what I tell myself to get that look he gave me as I passed him his slice of Welcome To Australia cake out of my head. Such a cute little "Oh, hello. How are you?" in tentative English, all surprised and gratefull and happy to see me (if you catch my drift). He's going to be here for a year, minus the 4 weeks he's already been here, but I won't get to see him again because just as I was getting into the conversation and was about to delve a little deeper than "So how was yesterday?" and "what are your plans for the day" (btw: Theology of the Body??? WHAT IS THIS?!), this girl comes up to him and starts speaking in German to him and they have to go and catch a bus, so there was no chance to exchange any details, not even a quick facebook (I'm not even sure he knows my first name, so there's no chance either of us will find the other) OH MY GOD MY NAME IS GERMAN HE WOULD HAVE REMEMBERED DAMNIT!!!!. I would have spoken to him earlier had I had the chance, but he was so far back in the lunch line that I didn't find/serve him until the first bus was already leaving (yes, busses left before everyone had even been served, let alone allowed to eat, though everyone did get to eat). Once I was done serving food, he'd disappeared again (I think he must be part Ninja) and didn't turn up until there was very little conversation time left. I was eyeing the bracelet the whole time I was talking to him; it was going to be my next question. Clearly Time just likes to conspire against me; He has me stuck in 'Two minutes late', much like the Hair and the Hatter are stuck in 'Tea time'.

le sigh, or however you say that in german... :(

Sidenote: Oh, and he didn't want to go to the zoo! I was told this by one of the helper girls in the group who took him around the area on Monday. So no awesometastic elephants for Manuel, sorry Jessi :( Btw, did you want to know if the zoo is awesome, or if the internship(?) you're thinking of applying for is awesome?

But afterwards, I was given the chance to drown the sorrows of a failed project in Max Brenner's chocolatey goodness. Waffles with banana and strawberries and icecream, drizzled in goooood chocolate, accompanied by a hot chocolate. I was about ready to explode, but it was worth it. Why have I never socialised with the church girls before?! I swear I hope the pub crawl Steph was wanting gets organised. Would be soooo good.
phrasemuffin: Bare: A Pop Opera (muffins invade)
( Jul. 15th, 2008 12:27 am)
... in which David is uncharacteristically social/camp, and teaches Steph to Snap like a black woman/gay man.

Project: Lure didn't go quite as planned. I had hoped that at some point I'd be able to bring up the bracelet while Manuel (?? :S) and I were just, you know, alone off to the side. That didn't happen though, because I somehow bonded with three more local girls (and came out to one of them after she asked me if I'd found any nice German girls :P), and I was with at least one of them all night.

Plus, you know, it would have been totally awkward to just say "Hey, so uh, that bracelet... did I hear that it was given to you by a boy back in Germany?", especially slowly while watching him translate it. I have to admit though, that that is part of his charm - softly spoken and tentative; it sort of just draws you in. Perhaps the next quesetion would have been more awkward though: "So, is he someone special? Or just a friend?".

However, I still have at least one more shot. There's a barbeque lunch on Wednesday that I am being made to go to (I don't think Steph would take no for an answer), so I will likely see him there. Problem is, though, that he'll probably have a whole bunch of new German friends by then. If I find him on Wednesday surrounded by a gang of Germans, all speaking their native tongue, I don't think I could just squeeze myself in next to him and start up a conversation.

But I hear you ask "what's he like?", so here's the skinny:
- German, obviously
- blue eyes, dark brown hair
- 23 y.o. (just scrapes in!)
- high cheek-bones, strong chin
- doesn't drink because in his village, there isn't any public transport at night, so getting home he would have to either walk or ride his motorcycle, which he used to do but then had an accident which broke his wrist
- rides a motorcycle
- blue eyes
- thinks Australia is really nice because not everyone is an alcoholic (polite way of saying Germans are drunks, okay?)
- doesn't play sport (woot!)
- thinks beaches are boring
- can't swim, possible reason for thinking beaches are boring
- thinks the city is boring
- apparently has crappy guides because no one is showing him a good time in Sydney
- wants to go to a wildlife reserve, may be interested in zoo
- blue eyes
- is on a working holiday visa or something of the sort for a year (I think that's right?) - basically backpacking across Australia, I think, working and whatnot as he goes
- recent convert to Catholicism/religion; unsure as to reason; suspect possibly has something to do with drinking and motorcycles but could be very wrong
- shy
- does better one-on-one with the speaking

Most of this was learnt this morning while taking him for a walk around town - from the school, to the main road, to Maccas/Subway/TAB, back the windy way to a nearby park, rest stop, then back to the school for food. It was at the park I learnt about the bracelet.

I'm fixating though, aren't I? There were so many cute/hot German guys that I didn't even speak to because I didn't want to abandon Manuel. We lost him twice: once for about a second (he just went to get food), and then a second time for at least half an hour (... I still have no idea). That scared the group a little, not just me, so I'm not the only one who's bonded with the guy on some level. And none of us wanted to abandon him for other Germans, but I think we sort of hindered his socialising with them... that or he was a little scared of going and speaking to new people from other parts of Germany. I saw him speak to two unattractive German guys the entire night and I thought yes! no competition! except in ease of communication and I felt a little guilty that that might have been our fault. He will be bunking with these people, after all, sharing three showers among 200? Should really be on good terms with them in such close quarters. (it probably didn't help that he came by himself though, and not just not in a group of friends, but without any strangers arriving at the same time, hence our looking out for him, despite his being older than all of us! :P)

There really was an awesome community spirit tonight from the locals, I must say. So many people, even people I'm pretty sure I've never seen before. AND SO MUCH FOOD! Everyone wanted to feed the pilgrims and make them welcome. We kept hearing/talking about other schools taking in people and not being anywhere near as generous as us - no heaters, single showers, single bar of soap, no enormous food stash for breakfast, no huge welcome, and worst of all, no me. Ashbury will be remembered across the world (or at least in Germany, Italy, Africa and Brisbane) as the pride of Sydney's World Youth Day. It'll finally put us on the map!!!

I'm hungry. On an unrelated note, I got five hours sleep last night thanks to Inspiration. She struck at 2am to tell me about an add-on to Project: Ether Engine - a bunch of off-shoot tunnels, one of which houses an imaging platform and was designed for testing Artefacts and their properties, which took an hour to completely transcribe so I wouldn't forget anything. There were also a couple of broad ideas for people to populate the world, namely the cybernetically-altered (for reasons of efficiency) science officer in charge of said room's goings on, the chief engineer on special first-name basis with the head of the entire base, and the head of the base himself. There was also a scene where the base was infiltrated and a scared chief engineer had to hide within the projections of the imaging platform (which at highest resolution is affected by physical interuptions to the projection [i.e. sticking your hand int he projection makes random blurry dark bubble spots to appear across the projection]).

[also, I just wanted to say how awesome it is that you guys support Project: Lure! :P)
phrasemuffin: Bare: A Pop Opera (Default)
( Jul. 14th, 2008 01:27 pm)
was supposed to pick up germans for wyd this morning (I know horribly religious ew get it off me - me too, don't worry, B, but I thought potential for hot german catholic boy who needs help getting his tongue around the English language ;) except not quite so slutty school girl) but... something happened don't know what. Still, I agreed to help so went 'round the corner to my primary school/church-combo and helped with the Welcome morning tea thing. Figured it wasn't exactly pro-catholicism, just pro-humans anti-David being a dick.

and I was rewarded. what with, you ask? cute german boy who can speak english to a degree, but not exactly an elite. Also, he told one of the girls I was with that he was given his bracelet (somewhat colourful bracelet, one would say) by a boy back in germany. he has blue eyes. not blonde, but I can deal :P

might head back tonight as I didn't really get a chance to talk to him alone which is sad because he seemed more comfortable in a one-on-one rather than three-on-one. will have to try and corner him tonight :P
... in whcih David shares.

So this is what I finished today:

First, a couple of shifts ago, I noticed an odd patten that had been left on one of the work benches after a wet cloth had been used to quickly wipe something away. These are the streaks it left:

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If you tilt your head to the right completely, it will be the right way. Sorry, I can't seem to be able to rotate it without damaging it.

The Process )

After that, there was only the not-so-simple task of colouring left. However, I actually like the way it turned out. Woot!
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So, an explanation. Clearly, she is not human; that much is obvious. Also, she looks a little Irish, which is funny seeing as she was originally quite Texan. But, to the clothes!

The hat has a hole in the top through which part of the hair is to be pulled. it's quite common among her people to wear the hair either straight down over the edge of the hat to rejoin the rest of their hair, or two wrap the hair between the brim and the hat's wall, much like a moat. The purple piece of fabric is completely separate to the green dress, and is soemthing like their version of a tie, except it isn't quite as gendered. The dress is supposed to be quite figure-hugging, so I don't totally get how it's come up quite so high as to be practically around her waist, however there it is. The sleeves are supposed to be in three parts: one is the shoulder, with the piping and the diamond design, or whatever a particular dress may have; the second part is an outer sleeve, draped from the shoulder to halfway down the forearm at an angle, finished with a tassle-like fringe; third is the sleeve proper which comes down to the wrist and is usually worn open. Beneath the dress is a silver support system; much like those bell-type dresses under which you could hide several small children if you wished, it keeps the dress in a particular shape. The support is not completely circular, nor does it come to a unifrom end; contemporary fashions are rarely understood by either previous generations or the next. Underneath the support is a heavy fabric for warmth (it's pretty much just a thich woolen rug attached to the support) which is not entirely covered by the dress - the dress only comes to halfway between the support and the end of the heavier fabric. Again I say, contemporary fashion.

This isn't really how I first saw her, though. The hat is wrong, the tassles are wrong, and the wings had to be changed. Her sleeve isn't nearly as complicated as the original pattern suggested. And she no longer looks like she's been thrown or pushed by some force, which is what the original definitely suggested. Furthermore, she's lost a lot of the fear from her eyes along the way; one of the reasons I originally attempted it was that I loved the expression I could see on her face. But most of all, she's lost her Royalty. I have a feeling she may have been inspired by Princess Peach...

However, I am pleased with the final result. Especially with my shading, which has generally been quite crap in the past. highfive?
phrasemuffin: Bare: A Pop Opera (Default)
( Jul. 10th, 2008 01:45 pm)
...in which David is not impressed.

I got an email last night from the head of the music department at uni telling me that, basically, she shouldn't have given me permission to do one of the subjects I want to do next semester, so she's going to have to revoke it.

In other somewhat related news, I'm pretty sure I won't be doing Honours anymore. I can still do the qualifying subjects for the Honours course, but I never really wanted to do either of those subjects, and after speaking with my old singing teacher who is herself a Music teacher I have pretty much decided that Music Honours would be a waste of time. Especially if I decide to do another degree after my BA. And I'm not talking about the Dip Ed; I mean a non-music/teaching-related degree.

These two things will most likely have the following repurcussions:

1 - I do only two subjects this next semester, and then do another two subjects first semester next year.

2 - I do Music Ensemble 1 next year instead of Music Ensemble 2 this semester (for which permission was revoked though I have no idea why!) and nominate SUMS as the ensemble I'll work with.

And either

3 - I have a six month break and work heaps and heaps before I do my Dip Ed, after which I will decide whether I still want to be a music teacher.
Or
3 - I start my new degree in the second half of next year.

I hate uni right now. Sure I'm probably just being emo, but I'm allowed to be. I've been fucked over. I was so excited about doing Ensemble next sem - my first performance subject - as I consider myself a performer more than a composer or musicologist <--- what all my other subjects have been. And that's the order I'd prefer my strengths to go; performance/composition/musicology. Sadly, I think musicology has been first up until now. Which is stupid seeing as I haven't really done any music theory subjects since first year, so I've pretty much been winging it since then. Actually, I need to get my ear trained up again - I have a pretty good ear naturally, but I don't practice it, so it's been sort of lagging behind the rest of my classmates'. Sigh. [/stream]
.

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