Where to begin??
It's been so long, and I've only stopped being insanely busy over the last few days.
I'll start with Christmas.
Mother and Father loved their joint present!! It was something they'd been trying to get hold of for years - Stressed Eric on DVD. I knew they'd love it!!
I got a graphics tablet for Christmas. And I'm overjoyed with it!! My digital drawings are coming out far cleaner and might I say, I can do line art in hours now, when it would take days, or even weeks, using the touchpad. I was a bit apprehensive about how user-friendly it would turn out to be (having never even seen one in my life before opening up mine), but it's great! Moving the cursor is by hovering the pen over the tablet, and each part of the drawing section is assigned to a specific part of the screen, and I'm getting used to it fast. And to click or make a line in Photoshop is by touching the pen down. And it's pressure sensitive so my drawings are looking more natural.
I signed up to FA recently as well, having the desire to draw more anthros not related to my book. I'll use these to test my imagination for a physical design (I'm best at coming up with characters, personalities, back stories, things like that, but my physical designs are rather basic) and improve my skill. I'm in the process of drawing a griffin which is about 90% lion and 10% bird. It's fun :3
I also got the box set of Final Destination (my favourite movie series by far), and a nail art kit from my brother, and some jewellery including a gorgeous dragon skull necklace :D and I also got some money which I'll put towards craft projects in the summer after my second year is finished.
New year:
My uncle and aunt and 2 cousins came down for the new year with the plan to light a firework box at midnight on Shaldon beach. I was kinda miserable that night, mostly because I actually wanted to get to sleep early and the custom is to go out, so I was never going to get to sleep before 1. Also because I was really desperate to study (I'll get onto that later), and because fireworks remind me of George and the less I think about him, the better. Also it was just so cold. Out, was not where I wanted to be. But it was nice to spend time with my family and the firework-box-thingy was actually pretty impressive, and it got a cheer from a few people in the beer garden... "Yeah, Shaldon!". It was pretty hilarious watching men in fancy dress chasing those new year lanterns down the beach trying to get them to fly :P
Anyways, being home was pretty great. I was back for about 2 weeks - and surprisingly, I did study!! The best thing was all the time I got to spend with the pets though. Mambo seems to spend more time sleeping at the foot of my bed now than ever, and wherever I went, Dizzy would inevitably follow. And Wallis was extra cuddly while I was there.
Dizzy is my favourite thing in the world. But she's 10 years old now. We've had her since she was a kitten, and we've made sure she's had the best life we could give her, but now I spend most days in fear that I'll get a call from my parents saying she's in the vets', and in a bad way. But in any case, my aunt has a cat who is 19 now, and still healthy. So I'm hoping for the best.
Exams:
Oh god. This is where it gets miserable.
So I took 4 of my 7 optional modules last term. This meant I would have more work than most, especially just before the exams. And I can safely say, I've never worked so hard in my life. Some nights I'd study until 3, and get up at 9.30 for my exams at 1PM, and get this: I went to each of my 4 exams no face. Not a shred of make up. It was humiliating, but I'd rather spend the hour it takes to put on my face, studying a little more for the essays.
I'd never really done essays like that before - where one has only a vague idea of what the questions might be, and a choice of 3. There were things I hadn't actually covered because I left my revision so late (NEVER AGAIN!!) but I think I can say, I got lucky. In one exam I got a question very much like one I'd already answered in a prepared essay a couple of months before, so I was overjoyed.
And most of the marks for the end of term tests/coursework are out now. The code they used for us was confusing. I had to make an educated guess as to what number represented me, based off my candidate number and all. If my guess was correct, I actually did far better than I thought for the end of terms. And the poster... I wasn't expecting anything much for that. In fact, I was praying for 60%. I got much higher, that's all I'm saying. I got a better grade for that assignment than I did for the other tests, and it was my worst subject!
Anyways, moving along.
Had a weekend totally carefree. I had my best friend in the whole world, Milly, over and the plan was to go out on the piss. Like last time. And like last time, we got wasted, but didn't leave the room. And Ollie came over and ordered us Domino's. I could hardly eat any on the night, but it was fantastic hangover food in the morning.
Bought Rayman 3D for the DS (well I say bought, it was £15 and I had a £20 voucher). It's a remake of TGE that I played on the PC so long ago. Right back to my childhood. And I'll say that the cages are still driving me crazy.
Started watching Torchwood. Watched the first episode so far.
Bought Rocksmith today. Something else I've wanted to get for months now, but put off 'till I had more time on my hands. I was excited to get playing when I got back from town but I discovered a disturbing fact. It's 12 gigabytes. 12GB!! That's insane!! Friggin' good thing I got a new computer, that's all I'm saying! In fact that's what led me to write this entry now - it's taking forever to install. It'd probably have been easier to buy an Xbox to play it on instead.
And with the entirety of this entry, installation progress hasn't... well, there doesn't seem to be any progress to speak of. I guess I'll go make dinner.
I'll start with Christmas.
Mother and Father loved their joint present!! It was something they'd been trying to get hold of for years - Stressed Eric on DVD. I knew they'd love it!!
I got a graphics tablet for Christmas. And I'm overjoyed with it!! My digital drawings are coming out far cleaner and might I say, I can do line art in hours now, when it would take days, or even weeks, using the touchpad. I was a bit apprehensive about how user-friendly it would turn out to be (having never even seen one in my life before opening up mine), but it's great! Moving the cursor is by hovering the pen over the tablet, and each part of the drawing section is assigned to a specific part of the screen, and I'm getting used to it fast. And to click or make a line in Photoshop is by touching the pen down. And it's pressure sensitive so my drawings are looking more natural.
I signed up to FA recently as well, having the desire to draw more anthros not related to my book. I'll use these to test my imagination for a physical design (I'm best at coming up with characters, personalities, back stories, things like that, but my physical designs are rather basic) and improve my skill. I'm in the process of drawing a griffin which is about 90% lion and 10% bird. It's fun :3
I also got the box set of Final Destination (my favourite movie series by far), and a nail art kit from my brother, and some jewellery including a gorgeous dragon skull necklace :D and I also got some money which I'll put towards craft projects in the summer after my second year is finished.
New year:
My uncle and aunt and 2 cousins came down for the new year with the plan to light a firework box at midnight on Shaldon beach. I was kinda miserable that night, mostly because I actually wanted to get to sleep early and the custom is to go out, so I was never going to get to sleep before 1. Also because I was really desperate to study (I'll get onto that later), and because fireworks remind me of George and the less I think about him, the better. Also it was just so cold. Out, was not where I wanted to be. But it was nice to spend time with my family and the firework-box-thingy was actually pretty impressive, and it got a cheer from a few people in the beer garden... "Yeah, Shaldon!". It was pretty hilarious watching men in fancy dress chasing those new year lanterns down the beach trying to get them to fly :P
Anyways, being home was pretty great. I was back for about 2 weeks - and surprisingly, I did study!! The best thing was all the time I got to spend with the pets though. Mambo seems to spend more time sleeping at the foot of my bed now than ever, and wherever I went, Dizzy would inevitably follow. And Wallis was extra cuddly while I was there.
Dizzy is my favourite thing in the world. But she's 10 years old now. We've had her since she was a kitten, and we've made sure she's had the best life we could give her, but now I spend most days in fear that I'll get a call from my parents saying she's in the vets', and in a bad way. But in any case, my aunt has a cat who is 19 now, and still healthy. So I'm hoping for the best.
Exams:
Oh god. This is where it gets miserable.
So I took 4 of my 7 optional modules last term. This meant I would have more work than most, especially just before the exams. And I can safely say, I've never worked so hard in my life. Some nights I'd study until 3, and get up at 9.30 for my exams at 1PM, and get this: I went to each of my 4 exams no face. Not a shred of make up. It was humiliating, but I'd rather spend the hour it takes to put on my face, studying a little more for the essays.
I'd never really done essays like that before - where one has only a vague idea of what the questions might be, and a choice of 3. There were things I hadn't actually covered because I left my revision so late (NEVER AGAIN!!) but I think I can say, I got lucky. In one exam I got a question very much like one I'd already answered in a prepared essay a couple of months before, so I was overjoyed.
And most of the marks for the end of term tests/coursework are out now. The code they used for us was confusing. I had to make an educated guess as to what number represented me, based off my candidate number and all. If my guess was correct, I actually did far better than I thought for the end of terms. And the poster... I wasn't expecting anything much for that. In fact, I was praying for 60%. I got much higher, that's all I'm saying. I got a better grade for that assignment than I did for the other tests, and it was my worst subject!
Anyways, moving along.
Had a weekend totally carefree. I had my best friend in the whole world, Milly, over and the plan was to go out on the piss. Like last time. And like last time, we got wasted, but didn't leave the room. And Ollie came over and ordered us Domino's. I could hardly eat any on the night, but it was fantastic hangover food in the morning.
Bought Rayman 3D for the DS (well I say bought, it was £15 and I had a £20 voucher). It's a remake of TGE that I played on the PC so long ago. Right back to my childhood. And I'll say that the cages are still driving me crazy.
Started watching Torchwood. Watched the first episode so far.
Bought Rocksmith today. Something else I've wanted to get for months now, but put off 'till I had more time on my hands. I was excited to get playing when I got back from town but I discovered a disturbing fact. It's 12 gigabytes. 12GB!! That's insane!! Friggin' good thing I got a new computer, that's all I'm saying! In fact that's what led me to write this entry now - it's taking forever to install. It'd probably have been easier to buy an Xbox to play it on instead.
And with the entirety of this entry, installation progress hasn't... well, there doesn't seem to be any progress to speak of. I guess I'll go make dinner.