Back To London/Expo!

The time has finally come!

I'll be going back to London in the morning. I have a couple of things I need to do before then. I want to write the third draft of my screen assignment tonight so I at least have that done for Tuesday when it's due. Then I have to pack and do any other things that have to be done, like cleaning up. I hope I'll be able to get to sleep early. I won't be able to make any more posts until Tuesday because I'm not taking my computer. There won't be any point because it's an extra bag to carry but I won't have much time to use it.

So I have to get up at about 4 in the morning and get on the coach around 6:30. Then it's six hours until I get off at London. There won't be much time to rest because I have to go to the shopping centre and buy the last bits I need for my cosplay shoes as well as my snacks for expo. When I get home I'll be finishing making my shoes, which I will hopefully be able to do before bed time. My friend is sleeping over like she usually does before expo but she won't be able to get to my house until about 9 or 10. Hopefully at some point I'll fit in a shower.

Then Friday, we get into costume and get to the hotel, hang around with friends until we can check in, ditch our stuff in the room and go line up. Of course by this time the line should have already started moving (check in time is around the same time as opening time). I don't think we have much planned for this day so it will probably just be walking around with friends as usual.

Saturday we're having the photoshoot for our Kingdom Hearts group. Hopefully that will go well. Then in the evening we're going to Chinatown for dinner. I literally have no spending money for this other than what I already had to pay for snacks and oyster card but the friend who invited me said she'd pay for me and that I don't have to pay her back. I love her.

Again, I don't think we really have anything planned for Sunday so it will be more fun random happenings.

On Monday I think I will have to leave early because I have to get back to my house, get some stuff and then get to the coach station for about 4pm. I don't like having to leave so early but I have class (and a deadline) the next day.

New Plan for NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo begins in a little over a week and thanks to my trip to London, work on an assignment due a week from now and inability to do anything over expo, I have no plan. I like to have a plan for longer stories, especially when there's a time limit. That is why I've decided to go to my back up plan of writing a series of shorter fanfics. It may not be the ideal choice, I had been looking forward to writing a novel this much, but it is still good and at least I can still win NaNo this way. If next year is the same then I may not be able to do an actual novel during November until I leave uni, it seems there's always a lot to do during the month and this year there is a lot more than last year and it is much more important to my degree, so I'm sure no one can blame me for not wanting to put my focus on something else.

On another writing note, a teacher posted this on our class facebook page. Look who I got! Accurate or not, I consider this a great accomplishment.

I write like
Edgar Allan Poe

I Write Like by Mémoires, journal software. Analyze your writing!

How the Modern World Killed Libraries

I want to tell you a story, a story that holds a very important message for me. Sometimes, things bother you, but you don’t feel the need to write about it, even when it relates to the most important thing in your life. That is, you don’t feel the need until something inspires you to write about it. As an optimist (or someone who attempts to be one) I suppose it makes sense that this inspiration comes from more positive sources. In this case, it began today when I went to the LRC – Learning Resources Centre, it’s a fancy term for library in colleges and universities throughout England, and maybe internationally, I don’t know – to borrow some books for an assignment I have to write.

Now, let’s turn the clock back several years. To many people, nineteen doesn’t sound like an age to be considered old, but two decades is enough to gain understanding of the way in which the world changes. There’s a word I have come to dislike – renovation. I dislike it because it took away my childhood. When I heard it, it should have been a hint. I grew up in London and still live there when I’m not at university. Around the corner from where I live is a park, Tabard Park to be precise. As a child it was a wonderful place, but they turned it into something horrible. I don’t know what half the stuff they put in there is, only that I’d rather have it back the way it was. And who removes two thirds of the swings when everyone knows that’s the most popular part? Do they want to start fights? But this isn’t about that. This is about a bigger part of my childhood.

Perhaps it was innate to my being or perhaps it was escapism from the real world that was so necessary in a place filled with bullies. You can call me a loser, loner, nerd, whatever they term people like me as now, but ever since I was an infant, it was always books. Reading and writing have been at the top of my hobbies list since before I was able to do either. I would memorise the words in stories my parents read me so I could recall them to myself before the letters were given meaning in my mind. Before my pen could produce more than scribbles I was giving life to characters in my head. This is essentially my entire life, although now new hobbies have come in as well, these two will always hold special significance.

It’s natural for one such as myself that the centre of this obsession would be the local library, after all the books in my collection were read and before I could afford more, what better option was there? John Harvard Library was my local one, and I remember well the way it was. I know in my head and heart the way libraries are supposed to be. My local was of course one of the main influences of this image (though I’m sure the one from Disney’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’ got in there too, what book lover wouldn’t want to be Belle in that situation?). Brown isn’t the colour I would usually use for decoration (it would be both horrible and hilarious as the primary colour in a bathroom) but in libraries it is perfect, perhaps because it is the colour we most associate with tree trunks, the source of our books. White and red make good secondary colours in this scheme. The library air is unique, thicker than the outside air, one may get the impression they’d suffocate if they spent too long in there, of course with a good selection they should never want to leave. It is warm. The smell of paper should be prominent. I am one of those people who must sniff every book I obtain before I begin to read. It is strongest in the middle and paperbacks smell better.

These were all features of my local library. They had a massive section of children’s books, though I only spent a few years in there, beginning to read ‘grown up’ books while I was still in primary school. They had a big section for everything, even my favourites: graphic novels, sci-fi, fantasy and horror. They had a bigger horror section than most book shops I’ve been in and that is my number one genre. I would be bringing home piles of books every other week.

Then it happened: renovation. I forgot the previous time it seems because I was convinced the library would become better, and even have a bigger selection of books. Silly child, libraries don’t work like that anymore.

I was so excited the day it reopened. It looked great from the outside. I disliked it as soon as I stepped in. Everything was white. Nothing man-made should ever be all white. It is cold and sterile and inhuman. The air was just like that outside and the smell was not of paper. The counter was replaced by a small help desk, self-service machines its place. I hated self-service machines when they first came out. I love them now but it is still the only part I can accept, and I missed the old ways. I miss watching the stamp and the other item they used, I don’t know what it was called, but I missed the sound.

You know what took up half of the library, don’t you? It was a coffee shop. As if there wasn’t a Starbucks and a Costa and whatever else outside. Do you know what it means for half the library to be taken up by a coffee shop? That’s right, half the books. Every section reduced, some brilliant books removed, many of my favourites gone. I love coffee. Coffee smells good. Coffee tastes good. Coffee is the perfect partner for reading and writing. Coffee does not belong in a library. It isn’t so bad in book shops, but only because they are still so big that it doesn’t impair the function of the shop by reducing half its stock. Even then, it is usually only in big chain book stores like Waterstones. I love Waterstones, but there’s something about those little book stores you find on street corners that is a completely different kind of special. Of course, everything’s Amazon now isn’t it? It’s cheaper and you don’t even have to leave the house. What an age we live in. Everything can be done without having to communicate with people.

Back to the topic, no, I don’t believe that is what makes a library. I haven’t been back in a few years. There was no point; there was almost nothing I wanted to read. Maybe they’ve had some new stock since then. Maybe I’ll take a look at some point.

So we come back to the present, and I mentioned at the beginning of this post that I went to the library at my university today. They don’t have a coffee shop. They have the colours, and smells, and air I remembered. I walked in and it was so hot I felt instantly dehydrated, my legs were weak. That shouldn’t sound like a good thing but as I looked through the shelves upon shelves of books, which they have three floors of by the way, I was reminded of the way my old library used to be, of the way libraries should be. Of course, being an educational place, it wasn’t separated in genres such as ‘horror’ or ‘fantasy’ though I did manage to find a bit of both, but that’s really beside the point. This is the way libraries should be, this is what gave me hope again. I fear that soon too many will be like the one I used to go to. There’s a lot of modern architecture and interior design I hate to be honest, more things need to look the way they did in the previous centuries. I know there’s the whole thing about how mankind and society needs to evolve and move on but seriously? They redid my old school recently too and the result was pretty much the same. If everything’s going to end up that way can someone hurry up and build me a time machine please?

I may be called a hypocrite because I love my technology. I love my laptop, my video games, my music, but there’s a line that shouldn’t be crossed. Like technology wise, I’m not a fan of everything being downloadable. I hate it. I want my music in CDs (yes I have an iPod but still, everything on it is from discs), my films on DVDs (though I do have fond memories of VHS) and my books in books, not on a screen. Yes, there are some great stories online that aren’t available in paper copies, but those that are should be kept there. I know that’s not quite keeping with the library topic of this post but I thought it was a relevant note to add.

So I want to know what other people think of this. I know I see some things differently from ‘normal people’ by I can’t be the only one who sees these modern libraries as atrocities. It completely changes the experience of reading and I don’t think it does so for the better, and of course experience is key to inspiration.

Weekly Update 22/10/12

I’m getting worse at posting these…

Last week:

• Deidara wig finally arrived with no sign it had even been sent.
• Bought shoes for my Deidara and Zexion cosplays.
• Made more plans for expo.
• Started working on assignments for classes.
• Found the disc that came with my camera that has software that finally lets my computer read the .mov files my camera films in.

This week:

• Get books from library for reading log assignment.
• Submit first screen assignment.
• Go back to London.
• Finish making cosplay shoes.
• Expo!

I Made a Sandal! - Cosplay Update

It is 10 days before Expo. Nearly a week.

Let's see how far I've come:

Deidara

• All clothes sorted, if slightly inaccurate. But I don't plan to take my coat off so that's fine.
• It's been 3 weeks since I ordered my wig and it hasn't even been sent yet. I've accepted I won't have it in time and as I'm low on money have decided to do it with my own hair without dying it (I really don't want to dye it). Again, inaccurate, but better than nothing.
• Still need to make the shoes and figure out how to do my hands.
• Bought some weapons from Tokyo Toys.

Zexion

• A friend has said I may be able to borrow his book.
• Still need to find some cheap black boots somewhere.

Jushiro

• All clothes sorted. Wig has arrived and is perfect.
• Started making my sandals. The firt came out good but not great. I know what went wrong though and I think I can fix it without taking the whole thing apart. The second will be done the Thursday before expo. I'm sure I'll have them done in time.

(The sandal so far.)

I did have a plan for NaNoWriMo...

I am still determined to win NaNo this year. A week ago I was trying hard to find a plot. I thought of one that had potential but somehow it turned itself into a sequel to the novel I planned last year. The problem is, I want to write that novel first, but not for NaNo, so that plot is out.

I have just over two weeks to come up with and plan out a new idea. I have a few so I just need to develop one enough to have a novel. I don’t think it will be anything I try to get published, more just to put online and prove to myself that I can still write novel length stories. I may even do a fanfic, I have a few of those planned too.

Planned Cosplays

Yesterday a friend came over so we could work on our cosplays together. We got really excited and started planning future cosplays, since most of ours are done together. We ended up with 2 years worth of coplays planned. They may still change of course, but I'm sure up to next May won't change now. Here are the plans for me so far:

October 2012

• Deidara (Naruto)
• Zexion (Kingdom Hearts)
• Jushiro (Bleach)

Halloween 2012

• Jeff the Killer

May 2013

• Yumichika (Bleach)
• Ulquiorra (Bleach - Chibi/Release form)
• Silica (Sword Art Online)

October 2013

• Wonderweiss (Bleach)
• Orochimaru (Naruto)
• Mayuri (Bleach)

May 2014

• Ritsu (Fruits Basket)
• Yuffie (Final Fantasy VII)
• Peta (MAR)

October 2014

• Undertaker (Black Butler)
• Ulquiorra (Bleach)
• Seshomaru (InuYasha)