guild'ed

I can not believe I only discovered the Guild this week... I watched Dr Horrible when it came out but never did read the surrounding press otherwise I would have know about this awesome geeky websitcom...

And can you believe that the guy is Wesley from Star Trek? I used to have the biggest crush on him (the only reason I ever would watch that show) and it turns out he is not the coolest geekiest guy ever - beside of the facial hair... I am seriously considering comicon next year (I put the booking date into my diary already) to get a real life picture!!! But while on the topic of Wil Wheaton's hair, this picture is awesome as well.

Long live deviantArt

Why do nights out turn into photo shoots?

So I went out last night - surprise!!! It was the last day of my Birthday week, and I stumbled accross this awesome event on one of my many many ticket info emails - a Harajuku Night in Camden. As my usual geek friend was not available, I posted it on Facebook. First time ever I did the sad thing, openly acknowledged my lack of friends and asked if anyone was up to join me. The shame! But it turns out that the girls at my work are as cool as I always suspected them to be, and S and C were totally up for it.

So the three of us have been hyping each other up for days about the fancy dress, the theme, the color scheme... basically how to look japaniiisiii...

The result turned out to be lots of fun at home as we were getting ready at mine with vodka, pink eyeliner, pizza, glue on stars, gluten free dinners, gin, fake eyelashes and lots and lots of pink clothing.

And then the cameras came out... We had not even left the flat yet! I am pretty sure the picture on the left was taken on the way to the venue. Which we were lucky to find as we all assumed to kind of know where it was, and that one of us knew for certain where it was... We found it, we got ID'ed (dear door man, I am wearing a silly costume, I did not bring my brick aka the handbag with me, therefore I have no ID on me, please look into my pink-framed eyes and believe me I wish I was still young enough to worry about carding...), we got in, and then were a tad/mightly/distinctly underwhelmed... where was the visual kei, the gothic lolitas, the cosplay, the Harajuku district vibe??? (see here for inspiration: http://www.harajukustyle.net)

So what to do with the cameras, now that there was noone in daring, awesome, out there, we love it outfits... Easy, first off sit down, get some drinks and take lots of pictures of the random older japanese couple sitting smack bang in front of the indie band. I mean, he kept nodding off, and she kept sipping her diet coke, during a indie rock concert! Then wander around, meet: 1 Pickachu, 2 gothic lolitas, a handfull of kawaiiiiiiiiiii girls and two dudes who recognized my cosplay. Score!!! (http://www.crunchyroll.com/skipbeat)

And then the evening turned into one continuous random photo session. C kissing some random picture on the wall, S making poses like another random person on a picture in front of said picture, me doing the same for another picture (see underneath), C sitting on the lap of some cool Japanese dude, S sitting on the lap of the same cool Japanese dude, different combinations of us taking pictures of each other. Eventually we had exhausted the photo potential and then moved to new objets d'arts on the way home. Me climbing on a bronze horse, S embracing a bronze statue, C doing a Marilyn underneath some huge silver statue.... pose, picture, walk, pose, picture, walk.....

And this is not the first time this has happened. Recently it seems that I am taking more and more pictures. Growing up taking pictures was expensive, but with the arrival of good affordable digital cameras I started building up a nice gallery of pictures. And since I got my new cell phone with a 7.1 cybershot camera, my picture drive has exploded. I have 2 shoe boxes full of old fashioned print out pictures spanning the first 22 years of my life, one 700MB burned CD spanning the next 4, one 4GIG burned CD spanning the following 4, and another 4 GIG spanning the last 2... anyone see a pattern here? The exponential growth is alarming. So, I have probably of my longest, oldest and best friend D 30 pictures, and at the same time I have the same amount of pictures of the cool friend of a friend that joined us for N.E.R.D on Thursday... Where will this lead? I just got a Terra of outside storage as a birthday present, I am sure in two years time it is full of pictures of my second cousin's flat mate's ex-boyfriend's best friend's little brother. I hope he is cute if I dedicate my TB to him.

Panic! I do not even remember her name! I need to make her my facebook friend before I forget it, I hope she was tagged in one of the albums of that night... ;-) all good fun, eh?

A quiet week?

I am constantly struggling with the concept of a quiet week. I can not remember the last time I was bored. But then again I do not understand people that are bored.

I love being alone, I really do. There are so many TVshows I want to watch, blogs to read, things on the internet to check out, movies to see, comics to read, manga to devour, books to enoy, and friends to gchat with. If I did not have to work, I would happily stay at home for 6 months on end and turn into one of these Otaku weirdos. Oh wait, I did this actually a couple of years ago, and loved every single second of it. Eventually I decided it was slightly unhealthy behavior (plus I was broke), so ventured out into the world again and resumed my crazy happy social life (that does include paid full time employment). But I always promise myself that I will stay at home 2 nights a week to read. It NEVER happens. Free concert tickets here, leaving do there, quick after work drinks or some exciting event I just need to check out (Harajuku night in Camden for example). Friends to meet, things to do, places to discover.... but when, oh when do I then indulge in all my geeky past times? It seems in the middle of the night.

The concept of a quiet week therefore does not work for me. I come home from being out at a reasonable time because I want to have a quiet week and then happily watch Eureka until 03.00 in the morning. A Sunday afternoon spend at home doing laundry instead of pub lunch turns into a The Guild Marathon on Youtube. There are just too many distractions to accomplish a quiet week. Even if the distractions are found in the internet instead of at a club/pub/bar... So thus I keep on living a balance act between pisshead and geekhead, and the only side that loses is my beloved sleep. And I did feel it this morning. Oh boy, today's tube ride was a philosophical journey as I was so sleepy the letters of my fantasy tome kept blurring in front of my eyes and thus had nothing better to do then ponder this dilemma

I have had long discussions on the past about this with my friends and family, and it seems everyone keeps busy differently. Some can happily sit still for a whole day and read, otherwise need to move and do things - the eternal beach vs mountains questions. I want to do both!!! I guess there is no hope for a quiet week for me... ever... as appearantly I meet some friends tomorrow for dinner. I just agreed with a friend to go to a interactive museum over the weekend. D'oh!

me, myself and random children

So I have a weird relationship with children. I seem to attract them, and I enjoy their company for a little while. The little while should have a clear ending time. Then I am sparkly sparkly company, craft them little cats and frogs out of paper napkins, make monkey noises, play with them, etc etc. Parents seem to be entirely happy to let me be their kids babysitter on planes, at airports and in any other kind of public transport where I can not escape them. It might be my childish enthusiasm that attracts them...

Nevertheless, I sometime am stunned... I mean, who puts their 4 year old daughter and 6 year old boy unaccompanied on a plane? Yes, the grandparents picked them up at the other side, yes it was a short flight, yes there is a service for it, but still, they were tiny and soooo cute. I had to fold a lot of monkeys out of paper. Then, the lady whose child jumped out of the tube just when the doors were closing. At least she noticed and pulled the alarm. The faces of the passengers in the tube were priceless though as they were all equally fighting with being annoyed at getting stuck at a tube stop, horrified about what could have happened and laughing as the mother scolded the boy to smitherens. This all happened within 6 hours on an average sunday journey from my parents to home. I will not even start recounting my kid attraction factor on icerinks... that is a winter story...

I wonder if I ever will be a godmother? I would be an awesome godmother. I would tell them all about their parents misdeeds, could spoil them rotten, and then go home and read my pristine comics in peace :-)

pure genius

How awesome is this picture? Favourite actor promoting one of my favourite things, and it is all so nicely tongue in cheek. Even though Jayne still rocks my world, praise to Castle...

Things I love to hate

Ok, you non-existing followers, this is quite an old one, but for completeness sake I feel the urge to add it. Maybe one day someone will stumble over it and think how awesome I am, and email me, and we will fall madly in love, and live ever after...

Herewith the things I love to hate. While living in London, as I am sure I will miss these things dearly once I move far far away

• A London must: tube strikes where people that earn more then me strike for even more money, while I can not even get to work to earn my paltry salary
•  Italian tourists on Oxford Street, especially over Christmas. I mean, is Italy not famous for its fashion, why are they jamming the street with their humongous Primark bags?
•  London touts that ensure concerts are sold out in 2 minutes flat and then sell tickets at 49236times the price
• Glastonbury hype: the people that don’t go claim they are totally ok with not being covered in mud, but are actually dying internally from jealousy. The stinky smelly Glastonbury returnees on the other hand claim it was super, even though they were dying internally for a clean shower and toilet. And returnees, please don’t sit so close in the tube to people that have been at work all day Monday
• Commuters who jam their arm into the closing door of the lift instead of waiting for the next one and thereby make you miss your tube
• Bus drivers that have no idea where they are going or what the names of the bus stops on their route since 1962 are
• People on facebook that don’t get a good rant and complain that I am some human being hater and that there are always deeper meanings and considerations. It’s a rant, grow up. This applies to this post as well...
• English people that complain ALL year around that they never have a decent summer. But oh behold, it is above 25 degree Celsius, and suddenly it is unbearably warm. FACT: There is no too warm on the English isles.
• People abroad that believe repeating loudly the same words in English over and over again will make the poor local trader/bus driver/taxi/waiter understand their ramblings any better. DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH? This does not even work on English Bus drivers and they do speak English...
• TV show season finale cliff hangers – I have watched the show for the whole season, why do they think I will stop doing so unless they threaten me with killing off the main character? By the time the new season starts I will anyway have forgotten all about the amnesia/accident/runaway bride…
• Cheap Airlines that think people are too stupid to realise that paying 30GBP extra for your hand luggage and 75 GBP for extra special bad customer service instead of super duper bad customer service is a rip-off
• People that wear sunglasses at night inside a club – are you vampires? Have a UV eye allergy? Are you an X-men? No? Then take the bloody things off, otherwise you just look like a desperate wannabe famous twit. Jack Tweed anyone?

oh to be young again

Oh, how nice would it be to be young again. Then I would have celebrated with my high school friends the same way we celebrated back in 1997...

I would have

1) gone to sleep at 8am, after getting my dad to pick me up. Oh and share my bed with a random close highschool friend who never made it home and whose parents are not as cool as mine

2) swam in a lake at 7am, after walking there in some silly wellies instead of my heels

3) performed some strange balletlike twirling on a stage at 6am. I make a terrific dead swan imitation

4) raided the fridge for booze and snacks of the youth centre at 5am, and started foregoing glasses altogether

5) randomly dressed up and danced to my friend playing the piano in the backroom behind the stage at 4am

6) danced totally inappropriately with the much older brother of the groom at 3am (despite the groom being my highschool sweetheart)

7) been one of the last one standing at 2am (the wedding couple, my best friend and her bf, the grooms' aforementioned cool (cute?) brother, and the mentioned piano playing - staying over - friend of mine) 

8) left the wedding to buy cigarettes with the above mentioned old school buddy, gotten stuck in the pub chatting, and then almost caused a riot by leaving without paying at 1am (not on purpose!)

9) told very naughty stories to keep my table entertained at 12pm despite the fact that this was the first time I ever met any of them
 

Now, being a grown up, my average wedding is as follows, prim and prep from 1-3pm, wedding from 4-6pm, then reception, booze, smokes (that go with the booze very well indeed...), silly talk, food, more silly talk, a little of random dancing and then head home at 12pm

As I am a grown up now, can someone explain to me why I keep sneezing and why my whole body aches? I do NOT understand. Back in 1997, when I was young and still celebrated, I never felt this way the day(s!!!) after. Very very bizarre...

what am I doing?

really? I am going to blog? I love the internet more then most, but less then people that twitter, but the discipline of writing? noooooooooooooooooo :-) Oh well, let's set this up for now and see it how it goes