Hallowesome

Well, today is Hallowe'en, and last night I went to Beth's Hallowe'en party. I managed to get my costume made and working perfectly, and I was very impressed with how I turned out, and I was even more impressed with how Emma turned out. She had the same costume as me, but had the hair perfectly done. We were both amazing Starfleet Science Officers, I was the rank of Commander, she was a Lieutenant. And I haven't had a costume this good since I was a headless man. Though last year's droog was pretty neat. Natasha had a great red wig with horns, and she wore her usual slut outfit. For Hallowe'en. Not that she usually dresses like a slut. She doesn't.



Beth's party was great, she had a wonderful collection of music from the last 20 years, and Spaceman and It's Like That were the favourite songs. I haven't danced with Emma that much for months. Dan also burnt the Mylo CD and that was on repeat for a while, which is good because it's an amazing album. Dan managed to spill almost every drink he had, as well as other people's drinks. I noted that you know Dan's been to a party when the floor has a blood-alcohol level. There was one guy, who had really bleached blonde hair, who latched himself onto pretty much every girl he could see, and I think he was pretty offended when Emma didn't reciprocate his advances. After seeing him try to pull Anna up to dance for a while, I found one of the spare witch brooms which was lying around, and I stuck a note on it, stating "BEAT AWAY THE BLONDE GUY WITH THIS", which most people seemed to find funny. He didn't. And he went on to attack Emma for it for 20 minutes or so. He also argued with Mike for what seemed like ages. Not many people liked him it seemed, despite him claiming that they were all his best friends. My follow up note, "BLONDE GUY NOT WELCOME" was removed from the door, despite being Beth-approved. But he did generate a lot of chuckles, even if Dan wasn't around to see them.

I have more and more work due, and it's mounting up. I had an extra long modeling session in 3D Animation today, with Boolean Compounds causing me immense frustration. I will work on those more, probably tonight. The cars are coming through quite nicely. I wore my Starfleet Uniform to University today, and it was great. The looks and stares were worth it for the fact that Dan and I were walking around University in a pirate costume and a Star Trek Uniform. I should have dressed as a ninja and jumped into the 3D Animation class and started fighting him.

We saw the Descent, which is genuinely scary, and I haven't jumped that much since I was very young. Or seeing The Ring. But as Beth pointed out, there is an amazingly frightening part just after half way. I did enjoy it. The Grudge was also good, better than the American version. We're watching the Japanese Grudge 2 tonight, and Halloween (the old film). Should be fun if we get around to it.

HellRaiser IX

There shouldn't be anyone who doesn't see this film when it comes out.

That was just a quick Photoshop, and I did it on the laptop, so no mouse or memory (only 192MB). But it was an idea I had for ages. Anyway, enjoy.

It's the Hallowe'ekend from Saturday until Tuesday night, where the house just watches an imperial tonne of Hallowe'en movies, starting with Hocus Pocus (I know), and having all of the Hellraiser films, The Descent, Halloween, The Grudge (whole saga [Japanese version]), and many more.

I had a weird evening last night. Becky came over to watch Hocus Pocus and Hellraiser, and after I dropped her home, I went to my usual doughnut car park, and on the way out this couple waved me down and asked for a lift to Raynes Park. I normally wouldn't, but I couldn't take my father to the airport so I was down on petrol. And he offered to pay me to take him, so I did. And I made £10 for about 4 minutes of driving. Not bad.

And then I encountered either a really bad or drunk driver. I saw him racing up behind me, and while he was doing that, I was in the slow lane while another driver was in the middle lane, and the drunk guy coming up behind didn't realise that it went down to two lanes, so after he passed me, I slowed down. And I'm glad I did because the drunk guy had to slam on brakes as soon as the fast lane disappeared. Almost an accidents. He then (later down the road) swerved into my lane, and I had to go around him. I knew he was going to probably do something like that, so I was ready. But still, Saturday night drivers.

Natasha's been staying around and it's been fun for her to be here. I have been doing a lot of work during her stay though, and staying up late doing it.

Still no word on a speeding ticket, I think I have been let off. Life is going well. I have developed my Roehampton Oreo (with Emma's help) into a cake. Well, she developed it into a cake, but I have made my own now. Becky's working at the Entertainer, where I used to work. It's so strange to see that uniform again.

Back in Black

I know, another time without updates. I did plan on updating more, and a lot has happened in the past 11 days or so, but I just haven't had the energy to write about it. There was the time I almost got a speeding ticket after picking up Becky from Canada, and how I waited for a week fearing a letter from the government telling me they didn't like my driving style.

For anyone who thinks that driving fast is automatically dangerous, I refer you to Germany (where more than half the motorways have no speed limit and the motorway accident record is lower than England [wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobahn]).

I worked insanely hard on my dissertation proposal, which is about a mobile phone game in C#. I made a storyboard for my 3D Animation, and I have done a ton of 3D Animation as well. That brought me to my first Amazon purchase in ages. I bought a C# reference (my first ever textbook for University) and an external HDD (320GB, Western Digital).

As well as a wonderful (expensive) Chinese meal with Qian and going round to Weiwei's house a couple of times, I haven't been extremely active these past few days. I am having dinner with Laura tonight, which I am looking forward to. I have booked a restaurant and I'm dressing (semi)formally.

Natasha is here, she's back in England for 10 days or so and she's staying with me for a week(ish). It's been a very long time since she's been here and it's great catching up. She is using her laptop next to me now.

I finally found a suitable Halloween costume. I was planning (and have been planning for a year) to dress like Carlos, but I couldn't find a good enough coat. I did find something great for my new costume at Tescos yesterday. I look forward to making it.

Flashlights, and Explosions

As pointed out for me by Dan, the lead singer of The Knife lends her vocal talent to What Else is There by Royksopp, my current 2nd favourite song. Everyone must listen to it.

It's been a little over a week. Allow me to fill you in.

Monday: Emma and I went to see Miyuki, who is leaving the country soon. It'll be sad to see another friend go, but it always happens with International friends. I'm going to drive her to the airport when it comes to it. We went to the Chelsea kitchen and enjoyed a really tasty English meal. Emma and I also scoped out Housei's old restaurant, as we were planning on, well, you'll see Wednesday.

Tuesday: A successful day of 3D modeling for my project. Nothing too fancy, just old fashioned node dragging.

Wednesday: We took the JCS (all those willing to sign up and turn up) to Yoisho, a very authentic Izakaya where Housei used to work. Expensive, tasty, and worthwhile, it also played a part in a charade of myself and Sandra pretending to be dating. Rather strange, but I also managed to befriend some attractive French and Belgian girls on the way back.

Thursday: My first experience teaching a whole class for an extended period. It was frightening, but worthwhile. I taught a class entirely in Japanese. We studied saying hello and greeting people and introductions. It was great fun. Emma and our other teacher Fuyu had a good time and I have to make a lesson plan for next week.

Friday: I spent almost all day writing an essay.

Saturday: I met with Sarah. What can I say? It had been too long and I can't wait that long next time. We had a wonderful evening. Followed by going to Tescos with everyone.

Sunday: Cleaning. Writing more essay.

That's so structured, I don't like writing like that. But I have felt I have done something worthwhile most days. I have more work to do. The essay I have been working on is at 3700 words, but needs a little touching up before I hand it in tomorrow. But I should be good with it.

That and dottings of CSI Season 5 every day. And some Star Trek.

Asleep on Pins

Hey fans, I am still here.

I won't be long, I'm just saying that the JCS is getting off to a great start this year, and we're really eager for it to do well this time. We have a lesson which is going ahead on Thursday, followed by a trip to Housei's old restaurant, Yoisho.

University is going well, we're entering the third week and I am enjoying the work we're getting now. Although I still can't stand getting out of the warm bed and climbing into a cold chair, desperate to sleep.

I am worried about lots of things right now, though Ems takes my mind off them, and it's only when I'm left thinking about them for a while that they begin to annoy me. One minor thing is that I lost my spare stylus for my phone. Which makes two in as many weeks, so now I'm stuck using my finger, which sucks. Other things include a Development Project and 3D Animation projects.

Becky's also gone to Canada for a while, which is a shame, I'm going to miss her. On the way back from Gatwick, I managed 122mph, a personal record. And I think the fastest I've ever traveled in an automobile (maybe not on).

I watched Mission Impossible 3, which was much better than I was expecting, despite the weird lead character, and I saw The Island, which was fantastic compared to how I'd heard it reviewed. A very underrated film.

Anyway, nothing much new, I'm being overcome by a few stresses, but I'll be fine. Probably sleep will help. I'm not like this very often.

Needed Update

Hey all.

Sorry for the lack of updates. As I've told a few of you reading, my grandmother passed away on the 25th. I haven't really felt like saying anything until now. I'm sad, but I've been expecting it for a while, she was 93.

So since then, I have a lot of news, which, frankly, I'm going to paraphrase. We went ahead with our planned trip to Brighton. Mizuki and Emma and Housei and I all drove down to Brighton for a fantastic day, where we ate Italian food, and played sliding coin games, as well as giggling on the very rocky beach. We had a wonderful time, made only more wonderful by Emma constantly calling me out every time I crept over 90mph.



It's a shame Becky couldn't come as well, but she had babysitting. We also had a group trip to Ikea, with Becky and Kiana. Becky spent a ton of money on bedclothes and lights and the like, and I got some non-alcoholic Pear Cider as well as a small posable mannequin, which I thought would be useful for my new lectures.

I have started University. I'm taking subjects like XML and 3D Animation, with lots of Database stuff thrown in. I'm also teaching this semester as well. I'm teaching the 1st years how to take apart computers and put the back together. I love that job. It's good to get back into the routine of playing pool between lectures and having sandwiches with friends. I can do that now that my loan has come in. Due to the amazing ingenuity of Roehampton University, a simple MS Access interface managed to baffle the best staff the University had to offer, and they neglected to press the "Submit Registration to Student Loan Company" button, delaying both my and Emma's loan.

Housei's friend Hiro left a few days ago, but they took us to a restaurant in Earl's Court, which was very tasty, but since they were paying, I felt reluctant to eat the food, which was in the manner of ordering several dishes and sampling each. I feel more like Emma all the time. The lights in the restaurant kept going off and on again every few minutes. Eventually, the bulb on the wall near our table popped, fell out of the light shade and smashed on the table below, sending shards our way. Although they were not clearly visible, the shards posed enough of a risk for them to quickly take away the food, not charge us for it, and offer us many desserts. We said goodbye, and took photos of us with the sign. He also gave Housei a really cool stool he'd designed, which was made of white metal, but is hard to describe in shape. I should just say it didn't look strong, but due to its design, it was very strong. He and I discussed the use of aesthetics in design, and it was very interesting to hear a designer viewpoint on it. I didn't need to take him to the airport, he, and his brother, made their own way.

Housei left this morning, and we said out goodbyes last night, as well as taking loads of photos. It was very sad to see him go, we had a lot of really good times together, but I feel bad for Emma now, who won't see him for months and months. He may come over again in February, but it's still a long time. She's going to miss him, and I can tell.

I went to Heathrow with Laura today, to pick up one of her friends. After that we went to a long needed Tesco shop, and with my newly given loan, I finally bought some long overdue treats, such as Naan pizza, and chocolate digestives.

I also got a call from Sarah today, and we chatted for ages about all sorts of problems we both had. I chatted with her brother too, who I hadn't spoken to in a while.

There have been some other family developments that I'm not comfortable discussing here, and in honesty, right now things are kind of depressing for myself and my family, but my sister is there for me a lot, and I'm there for her, and we're sharing a lot of grief. I don't really feel like sharing my feelings too much right now because of it, so my updates will be a bit more sparse for a bit.

This isn't like Dan's blog, which began with the immortal words "This time, I'm not going to update 17 times in the first week, and then twice in the year after that.". With his update frequency, twice a year is optimistic (he made an initial post and one post with a quote from my blog).

Also, Justin Caldwell, of Des Moines Area Community College, is a homophobe.