29th March

Just a small update for me, but I thought I'd better show y'all that I'm not completely dead yet. Again. :B I've been very very busy again recently, what with coming home for Easter and playing the catch-up game with people, y'know... So, I've not had chance to do anything much.

I've still got an essay to write, which I need to get started on asap if I want to get a decent grade, really (not to mention I'll enjoy being home more when I have less to do), and since arriving home over a week ago I've not read any of Gunmetal and Lace. Shockhorror! I know I've been a bad girl, but I do plan on doing some reading of that tonight, or at least over this week. I really want to get that damn proof ordered sharpish!

So, I have my essay to write, GaL to reread a final time, and a bunch of other stuff to do. I'm sorry if I'm not very active online while I do it!

11th March

I felt a bit better today, and could actually smell and taste some stuff, too! Although, my hearing is still screwed up, and I still have a stuffy nose and a bad head. I think I'll go to bed after posting this, I'm that tired.

Today was, again, pretty standard. Rachel, Kate and me went to the module enrolment session today, only to find that everything they told us was in the pack they'd given us before (and which Kate and me had already read, so we didn't even need to be there!) Then I came back, ate and spent some time reading for my seminar, which started at 4. This was really interesting, as we were talking about the issues of both race, and sex, and my seminar leader Ben is really relaxed. We had a few jokes about Hillary Clinton and Margaret Thatcher, but generally the discussion was quite serious; it was really good, and I felt I learnt a fair bit, or at least got some bits of information I'd never really paid attention to before...

This evening I did very little. No editing, because I don't think my brain is up to anything like that yet, but I'm about to go and do some reading for next week before sleeping. We have to read Tarzan of the Apes which so far looks like a brilliant read, and Ghostwalk which I'm also really looking forward to (especially because the author of that is giving the lecture on Monday!) So, on the whole a good week for books, methinks - although if you ask me that after a weekend of crammed reading, I might answer differently!

Tom is coming to visit tomorrow, so before I sleep I should also hoover the room and make it tidy for when he gets here. That's also why I want to start reading now, so I have less to do while he's here. I should also buy food, but it's too late now, and I have little money. I'm sure he won't mind eating pasta... Haha. Ah well, it could be worse: I could have no food...

Anyway! Time to go listen to some crappy radio and read before sleepy time. I hope this cold will be gone, at least mostly, by tomorrow. I don't want to pass it on to any more people. :gonk:

Night guys!
x

10th March

I haven't really been feeling fantastic today. I knew I was going to get a cold on Friday when I started off with a cough. The cough got worse over the weekend (though luckily didn't ruin Wicked too much) and then yesterday I developed some nasty cold symptoms. Today has been awful; I've lost hearing in one ear, can't taste anything, and can't smell anything either. Ah well. Hopefully it'll go away soon!

I've done my washing tonight, watched two episodes of Dead Like Me, and am now talking to Tom. As of midnight (11th March) we start Skyping, and now I'm getting ready to go to bed. The lecture today was quite interesting, on sexism (with a focus on the feminine; next week we have a lecture of masculinity), but everything seemed kind of muffled. I was intending to maybe post about it, but I don't feel much like doing that now.

I went to the cinema with my flat mates. We saw the Green Zone. Not brilliant, but not bad. Action-y Matt Damon. I got what I paid for. :P Would have been better if I wasn't feeling so queasy while watching it. I almost fell asleep at one point because my cold was having a nasty attack. Good night, though.

Sleep time now. Cold blog not coherent.
Bed.
Night.
x

9th March

I don't really have anything to talk about today, so that kind of makes this blog post redundant. But, I figure I'll post it to let people know how I got on with my essay. It took me hours to get it written, but I did manage to get it all done in one day, which is a plus!

I also edited three chapters of GaL, so I'm on 18/21 now! =D

Talked with Tom about going to London in the summer, and we're contemplating seeing two shows (Avenue Q, We Will Rock You, and Oliver! are still in the running) and staying in a hotel over night. However, nothing will be booked/finalised until he comes to stay at the weekend. In two days (aka the 11th) we will have been going out for a year. It seems like much longer, yet time has totally flown. :3 I'm a very happy person right now.

I'm also very tired. I've been for my run tonight, and done some stretches (although I think I still probably managed to pull my calf muscle...) so I'm going to call it a night. Today's been somewhat productive, so I've got nothing to complain about, even if I didn't do my reading for tomorrow's lecture yet!

Happy, happy.

Toodles~
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8th March

Today I have been bad. Sort of. Today I skipped one of my lectures (my Literature In History II module lecture on The Turn of the Screw) to go into town with Natalie and Isabel. Isabel's hamster, Peanut, died yesterday, so we went into town to buy cake from Number 33 to cheer her up. We ended up going shopping, for clothes and food, which I totally hadn't planned, but it was good because I ended up buying two nice new tops for a decent price. :) Things could be much worse!!

Other than that, today has been pretty uneventful. I wrote a plan for my essay, which I'm going to work on tomorrow, and did some editing. I've been speeding through that pretty well at the moment, and once I've been through it once, I'm going to read through it once more (hopefully finding little to no error) before I .pdf it and get it sent off for the proof. I think I should make my deadline of April 1st, because I'm currently on chapter 15 out of 21 of the first read-through, and I've only been working on it sporadically due to uni. Once easter rolls around, and I'm at home, I can spend a couple of days just reading through it, no pressure, and then I'll be done. Hey, maybe I'll get through it even before April! That would be brilliant, and give me plenty of time to make a cover and stuff for it (because I do want it to look good, really... >_>)

Ah well. It's half 2 in the morning now (which is only allowed because my 10am seminar tomorrow has been cancelled) and I need to sleep.

Hopefully more editing tomorrow, after that damn essay on Native Americans being portrayed as 'savage'. Yay.

Wish me luck!

Toodles~
x

7th March 2010

Jesus Christ. I know it's been a while. I've been putting this off forever.

I've had a serious problem with depression over the last few months (quite possibly a combination of homesickness and being on a new kind of medication that messed my body up quite badly) and so I haven't felt much like commenting here. Especially since it seems like NaNoWriMo was such a failure (with regards to the quality and dedication of my novels, anyway, if not word count), and I've not written much since then.

However, I am now no longer taking said medication, and I'm feeling much better! I'm much less homesick, and I haven't cried in weeks. =D It sounds stupid, but I'm much more productive now (and am even losing a bit of weight after having been trying for MONTHS), so I'm definitely much pleasanter to be around.

With regards to the lack of writing, there are a number of reasons for this. Firstly, I managed to finish Gunmetal and Lace in first draft form, and have since been editing it. This is now my major project, and until it is done the only kind of writing I'll be doing will be essay writing for uni. Secondly, the essay writing. It takes up a lot of time, and when I'm not writing I'm almost definitely reading for my classes or sleeping. In this case, then, writing isn't a good thing to be doing - I'd definitely rather sleep.

Once Gunmetal is finished, though, I've got a budding idea in the back of my mind about what I'll work on next (for the SuWriMos probably). After that, I plan on perhaps rewriting what I have of the third book in my trilogy, completely scrapping the original stuff and perhaps even changing narrator, concept and story-line. But, we'll see about that. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. :3 For now, GaL is enough to keep me occupied. My deadline for that is to have it completely edited, converted to .pdf with all the right page-sizes and margins for a book (if you know how to do this, please let me know!) and with a front cover to go on the book by April 1st. I want the proofcopy that NaNoWriMo offers so that my mum can read it on her holiday in May, and last time it took about 4 weeks to process and send. This will be one of the only books my mum has ever read, so I really would love for it to be finished in time...

On a completely different note: I went to see Wicked again yesterday with one of my flatmates!! I thought I'd never go again because, y'know, lack of Kerry Ellis and all, but Lucy really wanted to go and I thought I'd like to go again to see Dianne Pilkington and Oliver Tompsett again before they leave at the end of the month. I'm so sad they're going! The entirety of my favourite cast will be gone! I hear Lee Mead is playing Fieryo next, and I've never wanted to die faster. XD

Anyway, Alexia Khadime was playing Elphaba, and I have to admit I was almost worried about her. I knew she had to be good enough to be in the show, but Kerry's was a hard act to follow. She has a good voice, with a good range, and isn't totally useless with her power, but Kerry is by far more powerful. Alexia was good with the whole 'transformation' part of Elphie's role, where after the interval she appeared older, wiser, more cynical, etc., but I still can't get Kerry's final Defying Gravity out of my mind. Still, my heart was still going crazy during this performance, and I was on the edge of my seat, so it was by NO means a failure.

Basically, that show never fails to make me feel happy, productive, inspired and musical. :P I'm planning on seeing if I can take my sister to see The Lion King in the summer (Mum may want to go as well, but we'll see...) and I'm thinking about coercing Tom into spending a weeking/overnight in London to see one of the shows he'd like to see (Les Mis, or Avenue Q, I think), rather than do what we were originally planning to do (going on holiday together). This way he can save a bit of that money for when I'm in America in 2012 for my degree; he can come see me, then.

Aaaaannnyyyywaaaay. I have lots to talk about, but I won't. I'll just try and update more regularly in here again. I'll do my best! Even if all I have to talk about is university shit... :)

Toodles~
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