Grace Notes @ Snarkattack

Found out about it on Neil Gaiman’s blog, as usual. It is published on the Entertainment Weekly website, and is listed as ‘The New Classics’.

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(I wrote this yesterday…)

Despite the fact that I didn’t actually sleep this morning, I’ve had a wonderful day. Because…

- I wrote a poem. Then translated said poem into French. I think it might be nicer in French, haven’t decided yet (thanks B for helping me out)
- finally worked out how to open the stupid bloody laundry door. This is no mean feat, the lock’s well buggered up the anal cavity
- someone who I missed is back in my life and it’s like we were never apart (I mean you J, if you read this)
- the guy at the coffee shop at work thinks I’m cute, even without the pink hat (even if he doesn’t remember my name - I mean, who does anyway?)
- I made a new friend at said coffee shop because of the ace xkcd tee I was wearing (thank you Randall Munroe - social retards like me need friends)
- my boss said nice things about me on my evaluation (he’s so nice it’s almost criminal NOT to have a crush on him. I don’t, I promise)
- holy fuck, someone just made some really funny racy comment directed at me on Facebook. I mean, I really laughed my head off - haven’t done that for ages…(it was pretty…direct)
- I have a few really lovely friends, they make me gush…

Thought it might be cool to keep a record of what I’ve been listening to this week. I won’t do the weekend because I think I’ll be fairly busy and probably won’t be listening to that much.

Mon 12th May, 2008

V/A Nanoloop 1.0 - oh my gosh I cannot stress just how addictive this album is. It’s no longer available so I was very lucky to get it. Various electronic music artists, some well-known, others not so, get together and make music using the synth on a Nintendo Game Boy! How rad is that?! So it’s got that chiptune sound that just makes it so fun. Reminds me of when my most recent ex actually liked me. Feck, that was long ago.

Thom Yorke, The Eraser - okay, so if you like Radiohead, chances are you’ll love this, and it doesn’t disappoint. Lush, soothing, and glitchy. Yum. I played it straight after the album above to ‘wind me down’ (the above being high-energy stuff, hehe).

Jan Jelinek, Tierbeobachtungen - haven’t given this much of a chance despite this being by one of my favourite electronic music artists. Glitchy, minimalistic electronica that hypnotises. It’s the sort of music that washes over you. Nice for listening to late at night (which is exactly what I’m doing now).

Portishead, Dummy - me and housie were testing (non seq. thank you SO MUCH Rob for fixing my laptop) a Foobar feature. Man, it’s been forever since I listened to this album. I was a young’un when it first came out…I think my first boyfriend bought me my copy.

Tue 13th May, 2008

Boys Noize, Oi Oi Oi - yeah, yeah, I know I keep crapping on about it but it’s really wicked. The best description I can think of is that the artist sounds similar to Daft Punk, whom I’m not overly keen on (and must be the only person on the planet who seems to feel that way too…gosh, you should hear them crap on about them at work)

Luomo, Paper Tigers - zomg, Vocal City was tha shiznit. The Present Lover wasn’t too bad either. But I can’t say I’m a big fan of this album…maybe I need to give it another chance, and maybe Luomo needs to stop riding the success of ‘Tessio’.

Portishead, Third - I need to listen to this album by the seminal trip-hop act more. Man, it only took them eleven years…sheesh.

Future of the Left, Curses - woo hoo, some members of mclusky! Cursory listen, so not much to say at this point.

Einsturzende Neubauten, Silence Is Sexy - my ex put me on to these guys, and I’m glad, I really like what I’ve heard of them. They have an industrial lilt.

Julie Doiron, various tracks - supposedly a ’sadcore’ artist. Beautiful, haunting folk, with generally pared down instrumentation. She sings in French and English.

Wed 14th May, 2008

The Rapture, Echoes - debut album produced by the DFA - it rocks, I reckon, though they do sound very ‘arty’ for rock, and sometimes wimpy - but I dig that kind of thing.

Peaches, The Teaches of Peaches - I first saw this when I was in the UK in 2002 and because of the cover, said “hmph, why are they flogging this girl band shit?!” - uh, I was an IDIOT. It’s not girl band shit at all. In fact hypersexual electro is where it’s AT. Woo.

Thu 15th May, 2008

Klaxons, Myths of the Near Future - initial impressions are not good…thought I would like this a lot more. Probably need to give it a chance.

The White Stripes, Elephant - the only White Stripes album I own. Can’t figure out if I prefer this or White Blood Cells

The Bravery, The Bravery - fantastic EP. Kind of electro-rock.

Pilot of the Future, 1 - chiptune-inspired music! A duo from Brisbane who have this whole album available for free download on Last.fm which is where I got it from and found out about them. Go 8-bit go.

The Rapture, Echoes - yep, again!

The Soft Pink Truth, Do You Want New Wave, Or Do You Want the Soft Pink Truth? - electro versions of punk songs! It’s really, really good, the songs are so damn catchy and very provocative, as one can imagine. This has seen a lot of play in my car and my various residences.

Internet radio tagged ‘gamba’ on Last.fm - I’m really missing my early music CD collection, need to collect some stuff from my parents’ place. This is the best I can do for now. So far they’ve played some absolutely rapturous Tobias Hume and John Dowland. Thought it would be good music to have playing while I read some poetry.

Thanks Rob for picking up my packages at the post office *grins*.

Today I came home (to my parents’ place where I am still currently staying) after a very nice and cheap Japanese dinner to discover that I had more packages waiting for me! Woo hoo!

I got…

Volumes 4 & 5 of Alan Moore’s Promethea comic (I don’t like it as much as Sandman but it’s very addictive)
Volume 6 of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comic (M - I’m very jealous if you really did get all of the volumes for as much as you said. You lucky, seedy bastard)
a new lipgloss (MAC Fafi Squeeze It l/g!)
some Silk Road Trading Company soap (L - these smell wonderful! You must try them!)
some MAC Heatherette items

So glad for the comic books, just finished Neil Gaiman’s Marvel 1602 (imagine Marvel superheroes transplanted to Elizabethan England) and was panicking somewhat.

And christ you should see the list of hard-to-get CDs I have on the way…Life will never be the same now that I’ve joined Discogs. Next payday I’ve decided I’ll be getting Simon Schama’s History of Britain on DVD, am dying to watch it again.
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You have been tagged nablopomo by www.thegoodqueen.blogspot.com

Rules:

1- Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.

As above.

2- Share 7 random and or weird things about yourself.

1. I love the taste of cod liver oil (yeah, I’m a sick freak).
2. I have very chipped nail polish on at the moment and it looks oh-so tarty.
3. I live with two guys.
4. I have a brother who is a funeral director’s assistant.
5. My initials spell my nickname.
6. My first memory was at the age of one.
7. I work in a call centre.

3- Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.

1. http://heart-strutter.org
2. http://bleedingespresso-sognatrice.blogspot.com
3. http://glenyalla.typepad.com/once_upon_a_blog/
4. http://snarke.net
5. http://musicandcats.com
6. http://mandajuice.typepad.com
7. http://phoenixpcd.wordpress.com

4- Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
Done!

That’s my post for today…not many more left for NaBloPoMo!

It’s a…meme! Yea, huzzah! Pinched from Deeleea as always.
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Not much has happened since I last blogged, gosh and it’s only day 7 of NaBloPoMo. Going to be a loooooong month.

Today I tried the BPAL fragrance Siren. It’s very strong, I think it might be a love oil. It reminds me of a specifically sweet-spicy scent I’ve detected at Indian grocers - it’s really pleasant but just a bit too heady for me I think. Here’s the description:

Bewitching, tantalizing and dangerously seductive. A thrilling, exotic blend — deceptively sweet, but spiked with malice. White ginger, jasmine, and a touch of vanilla.

I don’t really know what white ginger smells like but I definitely get the jasmine and vanilla - and oh how I heart jasmine. Anyway, it started off really wonderfully but now smells like…like crayons. Yes, crayons. I kid you not. A capital shame the vanilla and jasmine didn’t stick around the whole time, sigh.

Still reading The Night Watch and am hoping to finish it this week. I signed up for a 50-book challenge on aNobii. Here’s my list of books read so far. Man, I’m running out of time…

1. Sena Jeter Naslund, Abundance
2. Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess, Stardust
3. Charles Vess, Book of Ballads
4. Evan Bates ed. Japanese Love Poems
5. Thorsten Veblen, Conspicuous Consumption
6. Naoko Amemiya & Aoi Hiiragi, Baron: The Cat Returns
7. Terry Jones & Alan Ereira, Medieval Lives
8. John Hollander, Rhyme’s Reason
9. Kevin Brophy, Portrait in Skin
10. Margaret Atwood, The Penelopeiad
11. Neil Gaiman & P. Craig Russell, Murder Mysteries
12. Peter Lyssiotis, The Bird, The Belltower
13. Professor Solomon, Japan in a Nutshell
14. Eric Shanowar, Age of Bronze: A Thousand Ships
15. Bill Willingham et al, Fables vol 8
16. Dorothy Porter, Wild Surmise
17. Robert Fagles trans. The Iliad
18. Edgar Allen Poe, Selected Tales (Oxford University Press edn)
19. Carol Ann Duffy, The World’s Wife
20. Edward Lear, Complete Nonsense
21. Art Spiegelman, Maus I & II
22. L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
23. Alice Sebold, The Lovely Bones
24. J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
25. Yann Martel, Life of Pi
26. J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
27. John Betjemen: Poems selected by Hugo Williams
28. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnets from the Portuguese
29. Louisa May Alcott, Little Women
30. Tom Standage, A History of the World in Six Glasses
31. Ella Holcombe, Welcome/No Vacancy
32. The Great Gatsby: A graphic novel adaptation by Nicki Greenberg of the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald
33. Neil Gaiman, The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes
34. Mike Carey & John Bolton, God Save the Queen
35. Christopher Paolini, Eragon
36. Bill Willingham et al, Fables: Sons of Empire
37. Neil Gaiman et al. The Sandman: A Doll’s House

Wish me luck getting to 50!

View my profile on NaBloPoMo

I’m waiting for my bimbo to finish her time at the gym and hurry up and lose weight so I can progress to the next level and found this as I logged into my feed reader. Quiz time!

Pinched from Dee. Supposed to be one-word answers.

Where is your mobile phone? Bag
Describe your boyfriend/girlfriend? Imaginary
Your hair? Curled
Your mother? Controlling
Your father? Amusing
Your favourite item? Lunchbox (a very specific one)
Your dream last night? Odd
Your favourite drink? Martini
Your dream car? Jaguar
The room you are in? Bedroom
Your ex? Estranged
Your fear? Eternity
What do you want to be in 10 years? Well
Who did you hang out with last night? Family
What you’re not? Energetic
The last thing you did? Played
What are you wearing? Clothes
Your favourite book? Gah! (too hard in one word!)
Last thing you ate? Cake
Your life? Dystopic
Your mood? Exhausted
Your friends? Few
What are you thinking about right now? Sleep
Your car? Working
What are you doing at the moment? Typing
Your summer? Hot
Your relationship status? Single
What is on your TV? Nil
When is the last time you laughed? Today
Last time you cried? Weeks
School? Non-existent

Filched from Singular Scene, a mate of mine…

Ones in bold indicate those read. I have a horrid feeling Dee might’ve read more than me, which is appalling given that I was a lit major. Bad moi. Someone tell me to stop playing World of Warcraft and get reading dammit!

Edited to add that the ones in italics are ones I plan on reading.

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. The Bible (not all of course!)
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald) - reading
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery) in French too! woot!
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According to Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97.White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

Okay, I just really wanted to post the list because James Joyce’s Ulysses is on it. That is easily one of my fave reading achievements, being able to say I’ve read it because it’s bloody hard and I don’t care what anyone says, it’s impressive that I’ve read it, heh heh. Believe me, it ain’t easy going.

There’s a lot of books there I’d like to read. I should try polishing off some of the books on this list. Does it count that I’ve read a lot of those authors but not the works of theirs on this list? Then there are those I wish I hadn’t like Dan Brown. Though I might read Angels and Demons on a Sunday afternoon, he’s nice and pulpy (don’t shoot me).

Damn, makes me want to go on a bit of a popular fiction binge, I don’t read nearly enough and not all popular fiction is awful.

edit 24/5/08: yea, read a few more! woo!

I got a shoebox and filled it with some of the titles I want to get my teeth stuck into for the Spring Reading Challenge (yes, it’s not spring in the Southern Hemisphere. Apparently the people that come up with this stuff forget there is no season on the blogosphere, pout pout).

It’s not quite as scary as it looks - a few of the titles I’m already in the middle of reading…
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I’m subscribed to three different word-of-the-day list thingies and here are some words I thought people might find interesting. They sure are unusual! You might learn something cool too!

omphaloskepsis (om-fuh-lo-SKEP-sis) noun - contemplation of one’s navel.

incunabulum (in-kyoo-NAB-yuh-luhm) noun - a book printed during the infancy of printing, especially one produced before 1501.

flibbertigibbet: a silly, flighty, or excessively talkative person

inkhorn: affectedly or ostentatiously learned

Argus-eyed: extremely observant; watchful

pule: to whimper; to whine

sawbuck \SAW-buck\ noun - *1 slang : a 10-dollar bill; 2 : sawhorse; especially : one with X-shaped ends

virga (VUHR-guh) noun - rain or snow that evaporates before hitting the ground

misology (mi-SOL-uh-jee) noun - hatred of logic or reason

favonian: pertaining to the west wind; soft; mild; gentle

I could no longer resist the temptation…I’d heard so many things about it but did not check it out. Finally I caved and now I am a LibraryThing user.

If you like you can visit my profile by clicking on the button:

Or you can see what’s in my book collection by clicking on the following:

And everyone knows how much I lurve the lists…it’s so much fun! The only catch is free accounts are only allowed to catalogue 200 of their books and most bibliophiles I’m sure would have a lot more! I’m actually considering subscribing for life as it’s only 25 USD and that way I can list to my heart’s content! I’ve been choosy with what books I’ve added to my library only because I’m a tad afraid of hitting the limit too quickly.

Did I mention you can perv on others’ collections too? What glee! So have a perv at my collection to get an idea of what’s on my shelves!

As the attempted smart-arse title suggests, there are quizzes aplenty. I can’t help it: I see others do them and I feel compelled to do them myself so I thought why don’t I just do a massive post with a whole lot of the bloody things? I thought it might distract me from my current mood drop. It’s helping a bit.
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There is a small part of me that really wants to be a burlesque dancer. No, it doesn’t have anything to do with yesterday’s book purchase (or rather, I mean, I got that book because of my interest in it, rather than it making me interested in it).

Sadly, upon looking at the newly acquired book, it seems that I have this knack for picking professions I’m clearly meant to struggle to be any good at.
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Been trying to write a review. For nearly an hour, the page has but one sentence on it. Clearly, the review thing is not coming along. Generally, I write the introduction in my head and then get that on paper. The rest is quick to follow. No intro, no review.

Boy, this sucks.
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It’s a list, and it’s short, don’t worry.

1. I’m watching National Treasure even though I’ve seen it before and Nicolas Cage so sucks.
2. I seem to have (temporarily, I hope) lost the capacity to be happy with my own achievements
3. I got up at 2.30pm. Ugh, that is bad.
4. There’s money in my bank account and it’s staying put because not even the idea of a splurge is cheering me up (?!?!)
5. It’s hot and we have evaporative cooling
6. Casino Royale isn’t out at the cinemas till Dec 7th here and my lovely US pals are telling me how cool it is but I have to wait till then
7. My kitty didn’t sleep with me last night
8. Because Sean Bean is always the bad guy in films. What is up with that? And why do all American action/adventure etc. films have to have foreign baddies? Don’t make me run off a list - it’ll be long
9. Because I want to be a burlesque dancer?
10. Because I’ve got person’s block (if writers can have writer’s block, people can have person’s block, eh?)

Okay, now that’s out of my system, I feel slightly better. Watching Nicolas Cage act is more painful than my life, and for some reason, I can’t look away - haha, like a car accident.

Why fight it? The other day I was explaining to my mother that it’s not usually a good sign if I’m craving sugar or sweet things often. It usually means I’m about to start getting depressed again.

It turns out I might be right. I tried, I really did but I couldn’t make it outdoors today. That’s bad.
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Cat who stole it from someone else. Well, not so much stole but borrowed.
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Inspired by Jonathan Harris’ Yahoo! Time Capsule project. I actually submitted a photo - I wanted to submit two but I’d probably get into trouble for the second one, so I only sent one of the dear feline friend, under the category ‘Love’.

If you want to check it out, go here. It reminds me a lot of the UK blogging project where as many people as possible with ties to the UK were invited to submit a blog/diary entry and it gets housed in some British library. Yup, I submitted an entry.
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