Random Ramblings

Sorry, the title's a bit of a joke. XD

So I read the first story in my vampire short-story collection today- Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu. It was one of the first 'modern' vampire stories- that is, when it passed from mere FOLKLORE (liek, omg.) into the realm of pop culture. It was a short story printed in a magazine - Irish, by the way, lol [at least, I think so - the writer is]- and predates Stoker's Dracula by 25 years - it actually probably inspired quite a bit of it. Also, apparently Carmilla makes an appearance in the Hellsing anime... Ja, here be Wikipedia on it... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmilla
AND, you can read it yourself here. D: Awesome!
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Carmilla

So, the story.
( I go through the story, basically. Spoilers, and my thoughts on the book also. : ] )

Goblet o' Fire finished! XD

'Twas a good read. People kept interrupting me at the WORST times though. And it was like "Liked that last plot twist? Have another!" XD Ohohoho!

And I was reminded of something I'd thought of while watching Naruto awhile back, but especially now since I finished reading/watching both stories... I find the Triwizard Tournament and the Chuunin exams are RIDICULOUSLY similar concepts. Contests [with 3 challenges!] between nations meant to foster friendship amongst said nations, which gets fucked with by a snakey villain, with people in disguise helping people along, and the whole contest used as an opportunity by said villain to get what he wants from a promising young boy from the host village/place, who places/has placed a curse mark on him which causes him pain, and also uses the event as a chance to make a rousing comeback and scare the shit out of everyone?

Not similar at all.

Except I think Voldemort's a bigger deal than Orochimaru, I mean seriously. Orochi's like... not EVEN.... plus, he gets-
Villain gets unexpectedly hurt by someone he picks a fight with, gets locked in place for a long amount of time, and has souls extracted.

Casts doubt upon nations affiliated with said villain...

And then there's the trifecta of the the kid from a lineage, famous, whose parents were killed (except Harry's far less bent on revenge and is actually a nice person...) the goofy joking best friend guy, who WISHES he was rich and famous, and the girl that HE likes, the smart one who follows the rules...

I've always thought Naruto was a bit like a ninja Harry Potter, for coincidences like that. Naruto was actually, I think I read, supposed to be a fantasy sort of manga. I mean, there are obvious differences, the characters aren't copies and the stories aren't the same... but still... it's kinda odd how many similarities I could just pull out of my hat, at least in those two arcs...


But man. I think Harry Potter books are more like mystery novels. Every one has our heroes face off against weird and absurd circumstances, but by the end of the term, the mystery is unraveled. And I LOVE it. I love mystery books...

I find it funny though, that Harry never put it all together. Of the three Death Eaters missing from Voldemort's circle, Crouch was the one faithful in Hogwarts, Karkaroff was the coward who ran away, and Snape is the one who was lost to him forever. The one he swore to kill.
They don't give Snape enough credit...

And I just realized something. Malfoy was saying, at least, that they were going to go after the muggles and mudbloods and whatnot, soooo.. is Voldy there racist? Which I find HILARIOUSLY Hitler-y - since he's half muggle himself. Sheesh, such hypocrisy...
Oh but yeah, his muggle dad was a bastard. So I can see how one would get a skewed view...


And... and now I must... I must draw some fanart. Of Voldemort.
It's really the only time I've had the urge to draw HP fanart.
which is weird
I guess I don't like to draw fanart from books as much, since... it's not really the visuals I pick up on. But snakes and villians and long fingers and skeletal and pale people... hot damn. Must draw.
Don't know what really. But I have to give it a shot.
'Course, the movie version's stuck in my head, sorta. But that seems a perfect and apt adaptation of him, so I'm not worried... herrrmmm

Oh, and was a lot of shit cut from the movie of this book? Because a LOT of shit went down, and a LOT was explained...

Hmmmm...

I sometimes find, and I am sure you know the feeling, that I simply have too many thoughts and memories crammed into my mind. ... At these times ... I use the Penseive. One simply siphons the excess thoughts from one's mind, pours them into the basin, and examines them at one's leisure. It becomes easier to spot patterns and links, you understand, when they are in this form."
- Albus Dumbledore.

Never were truer words spoken... XD
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Let's see... Well, I'm slowly working through the Potter's...
rather, The Goblet of Fire...
I spent most of today pondering PVC furniture, shopping at Michael's for finger puppet supplies (and having mom get all distracted all over the place! XD ) and then going to Lowe's AND Home Depot and looking at things - Good news? Pipe is cheap, and I found boards PERFECT for both shelves and desktops. Bad news? Tee-shaped fititngs are $1.04 APIECE. And I need lots of them...
Did the math, and the bookcase will run me $70, the desk $30 something, and the shelf OVER the desk $10-15. Good prices on everything but the goddamned bookshelf. DX $26 of that is fittings ALONE, and another $30 for the shelves- 5 at $6 a pop... But hey, it'll work...

Wondering if I should figure out a chair, or if anything I make would be horrible to sit in for hours at a time, and I should just look in thrift stores...

Holding off on even thinking of the bed until later. My current bed will do me fine. I think I'm going to coerce the sister into helping me clean up in her room so I can move it...

God, it's scary to think of moving that thing.

On the other hand, I've almost totally gotten over my fear of cleaning. I've realized it RARELY is as bad as it looks, and if you just dig a little beneath the surface, it's actually quite easy to sort through... which is nice. Found my copy of "Fantastic Creatures and Where to Find Them" last night, and was well pleased...

And I can see my FLOOR again! OHMIGOD!
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And then there's this.

Beauty and the Beast Unit



"They're Beauty and the Beast. They weren't even soldiers to begin with, you know. More like victims of war. They suffered shell-shock on the battlefield. Post traumatic. It damaged their minds pretty much beyond repair. So the only way they could cope with the reality of battle was to become war machines themselves. The remnants of their human side are buried deep within. The beast... That's what you see on the outside."

Laughing Octupus
Screaming Mantis
Crying Wolf
Raging Raven


(for a bigger, better look ---> http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2007/235/926596_20070824_screen016.jpg )
(For CHOICE images of all the girls, here ---> http://www.gconsole.com/cgi-bin2/show.php?page=news&id=4671 )

WATCH THIS TRAILER: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/23950.html

...
Holy SHIT I want to play this now...

Oh Metal Gear Solid, you NEVER cease to amuse me. Why can't I seem to fucking work up the nerve/time to play youuuuu???? XD

I found this thanks to Erin talking about how there's this lady in MGS4 who has dolls of Psycho Mantis and The Sorrow, and uses them to control people... and I was interested, and looked them up. SURPRISE! There's a unit of weird badass chicks in mechanical suits with mental issues. 8D

I'm sorry, but damn, this is sexy. XD

They're all so FUNNY too... I know they're probably not supposed to be, but you've got a "wolf" lumbering around sobbing, a "raven" screaming "RAEG!!!" all the time *my favorite* and octupus chick laughing maniacally. But screaming mantis seems so composed... and that bow was just... nice...

It's so... odd. MGS4 looks like a straight-up "shoot people in the desert" sort of thing, but then you get cow-bots and robot-soldiers and ninjas and vampires and... it boggles the mind. ^_^ In SUCH a good way... aw man...

And seeing this game in person, instead of on Youtube? in all its hi-def glory?

**8D**

Priceless...

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Also... That quote... I guess the girls struck a chord with me, because that quote up there would describe Ms. Mord to a tee. That's...almost EXACTLY her case... So hearing that after JUST finishing polishing up her bio... was bizarre, to say the least.

And the RP is GOING!!! XD Excited as all hell. Sorry I didn't get it sooner... I'll be sure to leave the window open and check when I can. I'm now signed in "Forever," lol. XD
HERE ---> http://shadowcouncilserver.proboards104.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=rp&thread=18&page=1 :3
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Also, fangirl squeals go off in my heart every time I remember I'm actually going to see MSI. XD I forget, then I remember, and then I'm so goddamned happy. XD

GUESS WHAT.

YOU GOT ME.

I'M FINALLY FINISHING HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE.

XD XD XD XD XD
I FAIL.

I got midway through that book, and for some reason, stopped. D8 Never picked it up since. But the new TRAILER omg omg omg omg...

You guys know I like villians. And backstories. And character development. And hence, therefore...


8DDDDDDDDDD

And OMG, just realized that sounds a tad like Sean - "I can make things move without touching them, I can make bad things happen to people who are mean to me..." And I'm sorry, but the possibility of talking to snakes has always been uber-cool to me, dunno why... And incinerating dressers and flashes of what is to be???

HELLZ YES INTERESTING.

So I'm going to catch myself up. Surprisingly, all it took was a couple minutes to jog my memory - I was pretty far along - Rita Skeeter had just busted the news of Hagrid's half-giant-ism to the world - and so I was afraid. Pssh, no. So now I'm plowing along.

Sister has the next two books - I got her book 6, actually - that's the one we have hardcover. I FOUND IT, sitting GLORIOUSLY atop a bookshelf at the Goodwill. THE GOODWILL. I was happier than happy...

Neither of us have finished the series... Em stopped reading in book 5, since apparently Harry was acting like this:

And it was annoying her. But I'D read it to get to all this good shit...

Of course, wouldn't you be cranky and pubescent if you were surrounded by goblins and sh*t all the time? :o
We all have our days.


Holy fuck, wait, this is the trailer for the Half Blood Prince??? D8 (well, that does make sense now, with the cover...)

BUT HOT DAMN.

SO MUCH TO READ NOW.

I THOUGHT THIS WAS BOOK FIVE.

WHEN DID THAT MOVIE COME OUT???

Wahahahahahahahahahahah... damn.

Oh yeah, that:


I fail at life.
Though watching that I was like "AGHSPOILERSPOILERSPOILERDON'TSHOWMEEE..." Oh wells..

MAN I need to read these books. I need to read these books NOW.

What self-respecting person HASN'T read all the Harry Potter books? That is the question...


Also, am working on Mord's character, reading WoW lore too...

Oh yeah, and all this went up today. *Is rather proud* http://seira-chan33.deviantart.com/gallery/#9-Levels-OC-Contest

And I might be making a variation of Devi's bed from "I Feel Sick" using PVC pipe.
Like so:

Thank you TaliaTheHedgehog on Photobucket......
It's possible. :D Of course, there will be some changes to be made, since I'm pretty sure a bed on spikes is structurally unsound. I'm just bound and determined...
Try looking up "I Feel Sick" in photobucket. You alternately get photos of sickly looking people and images from the comic. XD
I'm also making a desk and a bookshelf - figured those out Wednesday at Erins. :3

And MSI finger puppets... XD

I'm hoping to finish them before the show, and give them to the band afterwards, since I hear they talk to the fans... :3 <---- hopeful

Of course, I got up at almost 1 today, after coloring until 5 AM last night, and didn't do jack shit except figure out exactly what that bed looked like/drew it, did dishes, scanned and colored some more, and put up that contest stuff. And then the lady offered an extension until Sunday.

Rage.

I also figured out that my hair is now long enough to almost decently hold pigtails. [sometimes the front strands come out. >[ ] I am so happy my hair isn't in or on my face, though. I was starting to eat hair.
I think I may shave my head. Might solve the hair picking problem. Might also turn it into a scalp picking problem again though. :/

I think I just might take that animation class, since I know I'd be kicking myself if I didn't. And I'd get to work in 3D (puppets, etc.) some, which would keep me sane, at least I think so. Asking the teacher if it's Kosher, since I'm in CA, not KI...


Ugh, brainfreeze.

The Big Read thinks the average adult has only read six of the top 100 books they've printed below.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicise those you intend to read
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read less than 6 and force books upon them.



I kind of fail.  I read a lot of stuff NOT on this list that I've really liked, and not finished a lot of things.   DX  Oh well...