Friday 30 November 2012

Monthly Update 30/11/12


I’ve decided to start doing these as monthly updates instead of weekly ones just because it will take up less of my blog and mean I only talk about more important things. So let’s get right on with it.

This Month:

  • NaNo – NaNoWriMo was a failure again for me this year due to having too much university work to do. I have vowed that next year, regardless of the amount of work, I will complete it. A big part of it I think is that I didn’t perfect my methods of working until around the end of the month.
  • Screenwriting Results – I got the results back for the first assignment I handed in for my screenwriting module. I got 64%. I didn’t think that sounded like a lot at first but then I remembered you only need 70% to get the top grade, and this was the assignment I felt least confident about, so I’m feeling good about the rest.
  • Reading Log – I completed and gave in the first assignment for my prose module. We basically had to read 10 short stories and write a short paragraph on each. I found it a little tricky because it had to be 2000 words, meaning I could only write 200 on each.
  • Dreams – I have been having some really crazy dreams in the last week. That might not sound relevant but it is to me, just because of how interesting they were. Now there’s been a lot of danger and scary stuff in them too but last nights was the first of recent dreams to actually scare me. It was even done in the style of a horror video game. I think I need to cut down. I really hope this continues though.
  • Presentation – I had to give a presentation on Wednesday as my second assignment for prose. I did it on Richard Laymon since he’s been my favourite author for years and no one in my class has ever read any of his stories. I’m hoping that will change now. One of our teachers has already bought a book. It also went a lot better than I thought it would.
  • Proposal – I (finally) sent in the proposal for my Independent Study Module. Surprisingly, I’m not worried about whether I’ve done it well. I’m just waiting for a response now.


Next Month:

  • Assignments – I have 4 assignments to give in in just under 2 weeks. So far they’re going pretty well, I have second drafts for my short story and script and basic 1st drafts for my two essays. I’ve also figured out how I can have them all finished on time without having to overwork myself, provided I stay motivated and do everything I have planned for each day. 
  • Going Home – I’m going back home on the 13th of December and I can’t wait! It’s going to be so good to be back again and it will be nice to relax without having any work to worry about.
  • Birthday and Christmas – It’s my birthday on the 24th and then Christmas the next day obviously! Unfortunately I only had money this year to buy a present for one person and I chose my dad. I don’t think I’ll be getting many presents either as no one has much money at the moment but I don’t care about that. I’ll just be happy to be with my family and be able to eat properly.
  • Independent Study – Did I say no work? Well maybe a little. The Independent Study module has taken a while to get going so I’ll be working over the holiday to make up for it. Luckily though this one doesn’t require much work and the work it does require I’ll love. All I’ll have to do is a bit of research and some planning that can be completed in January. I’m hoping to have my first draft complete near the end of January or early February.


Thursday 29 November 2012

Cosplay May 2013 Begins


Expo has been over for a month now and as such many people have already started planning for May. I won’t have the money to properly start for a while (not before February at least) but I can still plan. My plans for the moment are as follows:
Ulquiorra – Bleach (chibi/release form)
Silica – Sword Art Online
And 1 other.

The third was originally supposed to be Yumichika from Bleach as part of a group but now they may be doing other things and if so I’ll probably be joining them too. I know I could still do Yumichika but it just sounded better to me as a group, although I still plan on being him at some point regardless because I get into character way too easily.

So anyway it sounds like the alternate cosplay option is going to be from Naurto again so I may end up doing Deidara again (and improved) or I may do another, I haven’t decided yet. I need to check what’s actually happening first.

So I’m currently in the process of how I’m going to be doing each costume. I’ll be giving another cosplay update soon with the plans I have for each. Again, I’m making everything myself this year so this should be fun.

Wednesday 28 November 2012

What did I used to do? And apparently, how I do presentations.


Have you ever been really busy for a while then when you have time to yourself you have no idea what to do?

That’s me today.

So one of the unfortunate things about being a creative writing student is having to give an essay that’s 20% of your module grade.

That doesn’t sound so bad right? That’s probably what you’re thinking if you’re a normal person.
I am in some ways a normal person. I eat, I sleep, I poop. There are also many ways in which I am not ‘normal’. As such, I do not have this response.

Let me put it as a sum:
Me + Presentation = Bad news

To expand:
(Autism + Terrible past experiences public speaking) + (Talking in front of massive crowd + Being judged for an important grade) = Stress and panic

It actually went really well, though I kinda screwed up one of the questions afterwards. It was also the first time during university I’ve been late to class. The one day I get times mixed up, and it’s the worst possible day, especially considering I was scheduled to go first. Luckily, the late nerves killed most of the presentation nerves.

I want to take a moment out to talk about the psychology of positioning. Firstly, I never understood why people never want to be first for things like this. I always want to be first. Yes, it can be a little scary, but at least you won’t have to take the risk of following someone who gives a better presentation (or whatever) than you. I also don’t understand why some people thought it was less scary when they were sitting in front of everyone. It depends on the person I’m sure, but I couldn’t even stay sitting while I was doing test runs. Also, psychologically speaking, standing should be better. It (supposedly) puts you in a position of authority to be the only one standing, part of this being because you are then higher than everyone else. That doesn’t work in a lecture theatre. If you’ve seen a lecture theatre, you know why.

Now, let’s talk about how I apparently thing presentations are done. First, I’m pleased that I didn’t mess up many words or sentences. I’m also pleased that I gave the presentation in exactly 5 minutes, the time limit. It’s very dizzying to look at all those people while trying to give a presentation. The light doesn’t help. Of course, it also doesn’t help that you’re supposed to make eye contact with everyone, and when everyone is spread around the room you need to change the direction you’re looking a lot. I’m fairly sure you shouldn’t do it as much as me. I’m sure there was a time when my head stopped moving, I just can’t remember it well. The rest of my body for the most part was a lot more still than it had been in the test run. I’m not sure whether I spoke too fast or not. I’m not completely sure what my voice sounded like. In a lot of the test runs it usually ended up sounding almost emotionless like a computer or speaking in a different accent. I think my voice today was a cross between my normal voice and the computer one. It just can’t be controlled.
I need to go back to my brain laboratory and figure out how the hell I’m gonna do this next time. I’m guessing there will be a next time.

Here’s the part where I get back to the opening topic. Because I knew I had the presentation today I didn’t schedule any work on assignments for myself afterwards so I could just relax. I sat there for a lot longer than I should have trying to figure out what I could do. I tried to remember what I used to do before all the work took over. There was writing, but I felt I needed a little break (yet I’m writing this now). There was gaming, but my batteries were dead. There was reading, but I couldn’t pay attention. I think after something like today your brain just goes out for a while and takes a while to come back.

When that happens, I’ve found, there’s nothing to do but waste time watching crap on youtube and playing whatever stupid no-thought-involved games you can find on google.

If anyone knows how to give the brain a jump start, do let me know. It’s taken it 5 hours to get back to normal.

Luckily the work I have for tomorrow is fairly simple. I’m working on two things, both second drafts, so they should only take a couple of hours each at most. Then there’s anime society.

Just a quick final note – Liverpool is freezing. There are not enough blankets and coats in my room.

Monday 26 November 2012

Failed NaNoWriMo... Again!


It was looking hopeful for a couple of days but for the second year in a row university work has stopped me from finishing NaNo! I know there are still a couple of days left but I still have work to do and I really don’t think there’s much chance of getting 45000 words done that quickly.

I still consider it a general victory though as I’ve written more this month in terms of stories than I have in a few months. To me that’s a little more important, though I do really wanna win NaNo.
Next year, I don’t care if it is the last and probably hardest uni year, I will be victorious.

I’m still going to try to continue what I’ve been doing though, when I have the time. I think I’ll just ignore the fact that it isn’t NaNo, just as a challenge for myself, see how much I can get written each month. I mean, I really do need to be writing more stories as well as other things so that’s definitely going to continue after November.

Friday 16 November 2012

NaNoWriMo Problems Over

A couple of days ago I posted about the problems I was having getting anything written for NaNoWriMo this year. So far since then I've written an extra 13,076 bringing my total so far to 14,022. Most of it was written yesterday when I didn't have a class and I decided to focus more on NaNo than assignments (which is not going to happen often) just to attempt to catch up. I still don't have as much as I probably should but it's getting there pretty quickly. And I owe it all to easy plots I barely even have to think about. Today and tomorrow are going to be focused more on getting some uni assignments done but I will be writing a bit for NaNo of course and as Sunday is my work free day (I had to give myself one) I'll be focusing on NaNo then as well. My goal at the moment is to have 25000, the half way point, finished by Sunday. If things continue the way they have been in the last couple of days I imagine it will be an easy goal to reach.

Wednesday 14 November 2012

Failing NaNoWriMo

Things aren't looking good for success with NaNoWriMo again this year. The first week was focused on finishing one assignment and I only got 946 words written. The second was focused on another assignment and I didn't manage to write anything else. I'm still determined to win though. I have another assignment due at the end of this month and four for the beginning of December, but as I have more time for them I'm hoping there will be enough time to finish NaNo as well. I plan to start again after class today so hopefully I'll manage to get a good number of words done.

Tuesday 13 November 2012

My Halloween 2012

This Halloween was great. I watched some horror films, played some horror games, had a costume. Halloween is always more exciting when you have a costume.
Here’s my costume:



Jeff the Killer! There were so many issues doing the cuts.
I was looking forward to the fact I’d been given permission to go to class in costume, and it was great. I still haven’t decided whether it was extra fun or slightly awkward that I was the only one dressed up.
I’m also a little sad I didn’t see any of my flatmates that day. I thought it would be fun trying to freak them out.
Later I went to Anime Society for their Halloween thing. I was pleased I wasn’t the only non-anime character but no one knew who I was. I thought Jeff was pretty well known. Oh well, different circles I suppose. As I expected, there were a few Joker-themed comments. The Halloween themed anime were great. I didn’t stay to go drinking after because I had no money and was still recovering from the cold I got walking between the hotel and expo. I did walk around with a friend for a little while afterwards and we had some fun conversations. She bought me a bar of chocolate and later gave me one of her own, so at least I still got candy for Halloween!
Next year’s Halloween will be better, I’ll make sure of it. I already have my costume for that planned too.

My Expo - October 2012

It’s now been a couple of weeks since Expo ended. I meant to do tonight’s posts sooner but I’ve been too busy with assignment deadlines. That shouldn’t happen again though as I have a lot more time to finish my others.

(my wigs in the background of this picture seem to be trying to mate)

So, on to the events of Expo. Friday morning saw me having a Star Trek marathon as I hurried to finish my sandal for Sunday’s roleplay. It only took me a little over an hour, a third the time of the first one the previous night. A short while later we finally left for Expo where we spent the first few hours talking with friends, and there was cake! We then went to our hotel. After finally getting to the right hotel (don’t ask) and doing what we had to there, we then spent 2-3 hours trying to find the way back (we later found a shorter way). We arrived and got our wristbands about an hour before it closed. We then had a fun night back at the hotel. We didn’t spend much time outside this expo aside from travelling because it was so cold (I developed a cold after I got home thanks to all that walking, but luckily it didn’t affect me that badly). Also, my friend’s brother tells amazing bed time stories.

Saturday was even more fun. Around midday we went and had our photo-shoot for our Kingdom Hearts roleplay group. I stupidly forgot to use the two props I’d brought. We then hung around with the group for most of the day and later went to see another old friend.

On Sunday a friend and I were cosplaying from Bleach and found a number of other Bleach cosplayers to hang around until our other friends arrived. We proceeded to have yet another fun day with friends. This was also the day I actually got some stuff, despite having almost no money. A number of friends had already bought me snacks (I didn’t ask them to or anything, it was just kindness). One of my friends bought me a Vincent Valentine plushie (she’d already given me a little Grimmjow thingy the previous day, she got two free when she bought two Bleach DVDs the previous day). I also got Bleach lieutenant’s badge (Renji’s one, for my future cosplay). I had half the money (I did have more than that before I lost a pound coin, still have no idea how) and two friends helped pay for the rest. Later that night we had more crazy KH rp  fun.


('But Vincent, that's my pancake.'
'But I'm adorable.'
'...Oh, okay.')

Overall, I think this was my best expo yet and I’m now looking forward to the next one even more. I'm already planning for the next one.


(I have a lot of pics but the ones here are just of me/things because I haven't gotten permission from people to use their pics on my blog yet. Not sure I actually have to ask but it's nice to anyway I think.)