Day 1: Every day is a new day, but today is going to be special
I've decided that I'm going to start forcing myself to draw every day. Just lame stuff. It'll probably mostly just by my random little self doodles that don't really count as art. It's just something to make myself do. If I manage to produce something more worthwhile that's what I'll go with. But yeah. It'll be like 95% doodles. Regardless, I'm going to make myself post one ever single day.
Monday October 1, 2012 at 10:42 PM. Pen and the edge of my manilla folder.
What I'm reading:
The Life and Times by Jewels5
Harry Potter fanfic - James/Lily. My OTP. Aww. To be honest, the writing is a little bit pretentious and overly-flowery and it's making it kind of difficult to get through. I paused reading and started in on something else. Not that that's unusual for me or anything.
The Boys You Grow Into, & The Boys You Grow Out Of by jellyjulie
Another James/Lily fic. This one is interesting because the author makes it a point to go against the standard James/Lily personality stereotypes that have already been hashed out ad nauseum. It's based heavily on Gone with the Wind, which I've never read, and I don't think I've ever even actually watched the whole movie. Lily is a spoiled little princess like Scarlett - pretty, popular, entitled, smart, rude, etc. She isn't the sweet, studious Lily you're used to. James a la Rhett is actually pretty close to the typical fandom!James, though perhaps a little less exuberant. It's only five chapters long, but they're pretty freaking long chapters. One thing that's irritating me a bit (the pervy part of me, anyway) is that it's rated M but the author keeps copping out on the sex scenes and pulling the ol' fade to black. Boo.
What I should be reading:
Organic Chemistry, 10th Edition - Chapter 4.
OR
Various scientific journal articles about plant community structure in temperate deciduous forests and/or carbon sequestration.
OR
Various scientific journal articles about HIV/AIDS
OR
NOT THE INTERNET. SCHOOL, ASHLEY. DANG.
BONUS! (because I'm terrible at doing what I'm supposed to be doing):
Tuesday October 2, 2012 at 3:01 AM. Marker and pen on manilla folder. Very fancy.
(Most of my doodles will be uncolored - this one is just special. Needed to emphasize ma Gryff pride!)
My friend, Amanda wants to drag me to see Breaking Dawn, Part II with her next month. The idea doesn't sound particularly appealing - even when you take into account that part of her plan involves showing up at the midnight premier decked out in Hogwarts attire. Cedric Diggory lives? (He'll always be Cedric Diggory, I don't care what anyone else says.) As much as I'd love an opportunity to bust out the Hogwarts gear - well, her plan still involves making me sit through several hours of Stephenie Meyer's drivel while surrounded by rabid fans. The teenage ones. With the squeals. Oh god, no, please. Oh, and I'll be paying exorbitant movie theater prices for the experience. Doesn't that just sound fantastic?
No. Absolutely not.
I'm not even one of those super militant anti-Twilight folks. Well, at least I'm not very vocal or insistant about it. In fact, back in the day - we're talking 2006 - I was a fan. I will admit that I genuinely enjoyed Twilight...when it was just one book, not a "saga." (Am I the only one that thinks that calling it a saga sounds kinda douchy?) But, well, I'm a weirdo. I've spent most of my life obsessed with vampires. I've given it some thought, actually, and I think it dates back to 1993 when my parents rented Bram Stoker's Dracula and forbid my sister and I from watching it - which was reasonable, given that we were six and seven years old at the time. But we didn't feel the need to follow the rules and we snuck to watch it anyway. So, when all those years later a pretty unique take on the genre surfaced, of course I was interested. And hey! Snarky banter and romance? Great! Window-creeping aside, I still don't think Twilight itself is that bad (the plot anyway - I've since realized how much the writing leaves to be desired). Edward was so much more likable in the first book, before he got all broody and sullen.
Then New Moon came out, and my reaction was, "What the crap is this?" and afterwards Eclipse wasn't much better. I was invested at that point though. I laughed my ass off through Breaking Dawn though. I honestly couldn't believe that was the direction she'd heading towards the whole time. It was thoroughly ridiculous.
But then time started to pass and Twilight kept gaining popularity and people kept getting more vocal about their distaste for the series. I couldn't help but notice that a lot of the complaints seemed legitimate. How had I not even had a passing thought about how kinda creepy it was for a 104 year old dude to spend night after night watching a teenager sleep without her knowledge? That didn't bother me all that much because, well, it really hadn't occurred to me while reading so I thought it might be reaching a bit. But then I started to notice the wider, overarching themes of the series as a whole and the absolutely awful, anti-feminist bullshit Meyer was pushing. It's so subtle that I didn't even realize it at first as a twenty-something, not even an impressionable young teen. I don't know who said it, but there's a quote, "Bella Swan is the worse thing to happen to feminism since the sandwich." (lolz.)
SNIP SNIP! Oh man, this got really ranty and feminist and, well, basically all the arguments you've probably seen written better somewhere else on the internet. I'm certainly not the first one to have these ideas. Just suffice it to say that the end message of the whole series really pissed me off. Really original opinion, huh?
ANYWAY. Wow. I really got away from my original point. I have to admit to being pretty well versed in Twilight - and yeah, I did willingly go the the midnight premiers for the first three movies. To be fair, though, I laughed my way through them all. I mean, really, does the sparkly skin need sound effects?
Then I moved to Virginia three years ago. My stepmom, RAD, is one of those freaky, crazy, middle-aged Twi-hards. She seriously went through a period where she watched Twilight EVERY. SINGLE. NIGHT. I was never a fan of the movies to begin with, but after this I couldn't freaking stand them. Just hearing Kristen Stewart's pitchy voice would make me cringe. The constant exposure turned the canon of Twilight into something I absolutely loathed. As such, I have still never seen Breaking Dawn, Part I. (I was busy doing much more awesome things the night it was released, anyway.)
SO! I decided that if I'm going to end up letting Amanda drag me to the premier of Part II, well, I should probably have a go at Part I first. When it first came out on DVD last spring my dad picked up a copy to send to RAD (who is stationed overseas). He wanted to watch it, just to show some interest, or understand or whatever, something that his wife was excited about. He declared movie night - and I decided that the only way I'd make it through was to turn it into a drinking game. Google delivered, as per usual - a couple of those would have killed you even. In the end, though, I decided that even inebriation wouldn't allow me to suffer through and I begged out. My dad still made an attempt (with his own alcoholic crutch), but he only made it twenty minutes in before he just accepted that Twilight was not for him. I laughed my ass off at him. We then proceded to watch something awesome and manly, like Gladiator or The Godfather. (Apparently I like dude movies? Whatevs.)
The idea of the Breaking Dawn Drinking Game resurfaced yesterday though, when Amanda sprung her gate-crashing-Hogwarts-style idea on me. A while ago I found this really awesome idea on reddit:
Oh hells yes, right? Right. This game needs to be played. And I decided that it just may be the only thing that could make Breaking Dawn bearable. Cut-out mustaches and tequila. Yes.
That got way longer than I had intended. My bad.
Observation: I've watched season 3 of How I Met Your Mother entirely too many times - I think I honestly have the whole thing memorized. Dialogue with inflection and all. "I appreciate your help, but there's a reason you name is Robin, not Batman."
I really need to just go to sleep. Hah.
Monday October 1, 2012 at 10:42 PM. Pen and the edge of my manilla folder.
What I'm reading:
The Life and Times by Jewels5
Harry Potter fanfic - James/Lily. My OTP. Aww. To be honest, the writing is a little bit pretentious and overly-flowery and it's making it kind of difficult to get through. I paused reading and started in on something else. Not that that's unusual for me or anything.
The Boys You Grow Into, & The Boys You Grow Out Of by jellyjulie
Another James/Lily fic. This one is interesting because the author makes it a point to go against the standard James/Lily personality stereotypes that have already been hashed out ad nauseum. It's based heavily on Gone with the Wind, which I've never read, and I don't think I've ever even actually watched the whole movie. Lily is a spoiled little princess like Scarlett - pretty, popular, entitled, smart, rude, etc. She isn't the sweet, studious Lily you're used to. James a la Rhett is actually pretty close to the typical fandom!James, though perhaps a little less exuberant. It's only five chapters long, but they're pretty freaking long chapters. One thing that's irritating me a bit (the pervy part of me, anyway) is that it's rated M but the author keeps copping out on the sex scenes and pulling the ol' fade to black. Boo.
What I should be reading:
Organic Chemistry, 10th Edition - Chapter 4.
OR
Various scientific journal articles about plant community structure in temperate deciduous forests and/or carbon sequestration.
OR
Various scientific journal articles about HIV/AIDS
OR
NOT THE INTERNET. SCHOOL, ASHLEY. DANG.
BONUS! (because I'm terrible at doing what I'm supposed to be doing):
Tuesday October 2, 2012 at 3:01 AM. Marker and pen on manilla folder. Very fancy.
(Most of my doodles will be uncolored - this one is just special. Needed to emphasize ma Gryff pride!)
My friend, Amanda wants to drag me to see Breaking Dawn, Part II with her next month. The idea doesn't sound particularly appealing - even when you take into account that part of her plan involves showing up at the midnight premier decked out in Hogwarts attire. Cedric Diggory lives? (He'll always be Cedric Diggory, I don't care what anyone else says.) As much as I'd love an opportunity to bust out the Hogwarts gear - well, her plan still involves making me sit through several hours of Stephenie Meyer's drivel while surrounded by rabid fans. The teenage ones. With the squeals. Oh god, no, please. Oh, and I'll be paying exorbitant movie theater prices for the experience. Doesn't that just sound fantastic?
No. Absolutely not.
I'm not even one of those super militant anti-Twilight folks. Well, at least I'm not very vocal or insistant about it. In fact, back in the day - we're talking 2006 - I was a fan. I will admit that I genuinely enjoyed Twilight...when it was just one book, not a "saga." (Am I the only one that thinks that calling it a saga sounds kinda douchy?) But, well, I'm a weirdo. I've spent most of my life obsessed with vampires. I've given it some thought, actually, and I think it dates back to 1993 when my parents rented Bram Stoker's Dracula and forbid my sister and I from watching it - which was reasonable, given that we were six and seven years old at the time. But we didn't feel the need to follow the rules and we snuck to watch it anyway. So, when all those years later a pretty unique take on the genre surfaced, of course I was interested. And hey! Snarky banter and romance? Great! Window-creeping aside, I still don't think Twilight itself is that bad (the plot anyway - I've since realized how much the writing leaves to be desired). Edward was so much more likable in the first book, before he got all broody and sullen.
Then New Moon came out, and my reaction was, "What the crap is this?" and afterwards Eclipse wasn't much better. I was invested at that point though. I laughed my ass off through Breaking Dawn though. I honestly couldn't believe that was the direction she'd heading towards the whole time. It was thoroughly ridiculous.
But then time started to pass and Twilight kept gaining popularity and people kept getting more vocal about their distaste for the series. I couldn't help but notice that a lot of the complaints seemed legitimate. How had I not even had a passing thought about how kinda creepy it was for a 104 year old dude to spend night after night watching a teenager sleep without her knowledge? That didn't bother me all that much because, well, it really hadn't occurred to me while reading so I thought it might be reaching a bit. But then I started to notice the wider, overarching themes of the series as a whole and the absolutely awful, anti-feminist bullshit Meyer was pushing. It's so subtle that I didn't even realize it at first as a twenty-something, not even an impressionable young teen. I don't know who said it, but there's a quote, "Bella Swan is the worse thing to happen to feminism since the sandwich." (lolz.)
SNIP SNIP! Oh man, this got really ranty and feminist and, well, basically all the arguments you've probably seen written better somewhere else on the internet. I'm certainly not the first one to have these ideas. Just suffice it to say that the end message of the whole series really pissed me off. Really original opinion, huh?
ANYWAY. Wow. I really got away from my original point. I have to admit to being pretty well versed in Twilight - and yeah, I did willingly go the the midnight premiers for the first three movies. To be fair, though, I laughed my way through them all. I mean, really, does the sparkly skin need sound effects?
Then I moved to Virginia three years ago. My stepmom, RAD, is one of those freaky, crazy, middle-aged Twi-hards. She seriously went through a period where she watched Twilight EVERY. SINGLE. NIGHT. I was never a fan of the movies to begin with, but after this I couldn't freaking stand them. Just hearing Kristen Stewart's pitchy voice would make me cringe. The constant exposure turned the canon of Twilight into something I absolutely loathed. As such, I have still never seen Breaking Dawn, Part I. (I was busy doing much more awesome things the night it was released, anyway.)
SO! I decided that if I'm going to end up letting Amanda drag me to the premier of Part II, well, I should probably have a go at Part I first. When it first came out on DVD last spring my dad picked up a copy to send to RAD (who is stationed overseas). He wanted to watch it, just to show some interest, or understand or whatever, something that his wife was excited about. He declared movie night - and I decided that the only way I'd make it through was to turn it into a drinking game. Google delivered, as per usual - a couple of those would have killed you even. In the end, though, I decided that even inebriation wouldn't allow me to suffer through and I begged out. My dad still made an attempt (with his own alcoholic crutch), but he only made it twenty minutes in before he just accepted that Twilight was not for him. I laughed my ass off at him. We then proceded to watch something awesome and manly, like Gladiator or The Godfather. (Apparently I like dude movies? Whatevs.)
The idea of the Breaking Dawn Drinking Game resurfaced yesterday though, when Amanda sprung her gate-crashing-Hogwarts-style idea on me. A while ago I found this really awesome idea on reddit:
Oh hells yes, right? Right. This game needs to be played. And I decided that it just may be the only thing that could make Breaking Dawn bearable. Cut-out mustaches and tequila. Yes.
That got way longer than I had intended. My bad.
Observation: I've watched season 3 of How I Met Your Mother entirely too many times - I think I honestly have the whole thing memorized. Dialogue with inflection and all. "I appreciate your help, but there's a reason you name is Robin, not Batman."
I really need to just go to sleep. Hah.