Reading surprises
Sometimes, reviewing your old reading habits can surprise you. Sometimes you’ve forgotten about books you used to love, or sometimes you come across a book again and you can’t believe that you used to love it.
Or then, sometimes, just your actual reading statistics can surprise you.
In the beginning of the year, I was looking at my “year in books” on Goodreads. It was pretty normal stuff… number of books read: close on 60… I knew I hadn’t entered every single book I read during the year (especially not those I reread for the fifth time), but it’s a fairly accurate statistic. I take my Goodreads very seriously.
Then I clicked on “number of pages read” and things changed… (more…)
Beginnings are very important. So are endings, but the most important thing is to begin.
The title is something that I have come realise afresh over the past two weeks. If you want something to begin, then you should work on that. With no action from you, there will be no beginning.
On a related note, I know some of you wanted a report on what is going on with my creative writing and anxieties about sharing it with my class. So, here, have a report.
Hot chocolate and writing (and procrastination). That is my life right now.
Indeed, I have turned into that person who takes photos of her drinks and then shares them with everyone. (more…)
So this is the promised status update
I’m home now. Back from holiday, perhaps a little more cynical (just like I always feel after a holiday) and hopefully a little more rested. I hope that I will be able to say that I am also now a little more psychologically stable. But let me start at the beginning. I’ve been very quiet for a while, so I feel that I owe this blog a proper update.
To break up this extremely text-heavy post, I will add some of my photos. Not all of them recent, but all of them mine. 🙂
So, what’s up?
Hi everyone. This is a new – I hesitate to say regular – feature. It will give me the opportunity to post updates about things that happened to me or to other people away from the cartoon updates. It can also serve as a platform for me to share an opinion about something that happened in the world, if such an opportunity arises. I’m doing this on weekends, separately from the normal cartoon updates, on purpose so that people who are more interested in the laughter can skip these personal posts and those who are maybe more interested in text posts – I don’t know if there are any of you – can read these at their leisure. So welcome to…
This time I’m just going to have a long string of updates, as the blog has been a bit abandoned of late and I thought I’d share some pictures of what happened. They’re all of books, don’t get too excited. Every one of these updates won’t be as personal as this, but let’s start off on a human note. (more…)
The pros and cons of studying language
This cartoon is a bit outdated by now. January is the time for thinking about these things, not February. However, I could not post it in January, because— Oh, you probably all know why by now.
Things that are slightly interesting that I forgot to say
So after Wednesday’s long, rambling, text part of the post, there were still several things that I’d forgotten to say. In fact, these things were probably more important than my complaints about ineffective call centres, but they are still not very important. This is, therefore, just a general blog-housekeeping post. Let us hope that it is more effective than my real housekeeping. If you don’t believe me, have a look at the mess of homework that’s on my bed right now. (more…)
One for the history books
That’s my history book, not yours! 😛
I meant to post this yesterday, actually, but my stupid internet died.
Anyway, yesterday, the 29th of November, is a day to go down in my history book. Why? Here’s a bulleted list of reasons. Everyone likes bulleted lists, don’t they?
- Yesterday I handed in one play review. As if going to the theatre and watching a play and then reviewing it was something I had time for this month. That wasn’t such a pain, it was more of a nuisance and a waste of time. I’m not a journalism or drama student, why do I get play reviews as assignments? So I went to the theatre alone last week, for the first time in my life. People gave me weird looks. They were probably wondering what a young girl (I look about 16, remember?) was doing there all alone. Maybe they thought I was waiting for a boyfriend who never pitched…
- Yesterday I handed in one research essay. 3000 words. The longest one I’ve ever written. Possibly it was also the most painful one I’d ever had to write. I always struggle with research essays, not because I can’t write them (I generally do quite well in them), but because I am so attention deficient. And I don’t do well on computers with my attention deficiency. Seriously with the amount of time that I spent playing FreeCell, Spider Solitaire and Angry Birds instead of working this past week, I could have won NaNoWriMo in 20 days and finished three research papers. These days, I turn off my laptop’s Wi-Fi access when I’m trying to work, but unfortunately none of those three games need internet access. Anyway, I always struggle with the temptations and distractions when trying to work, but it has never been as bad as this past week. My motivation to do anything academic related has been 0% for a while now and trying to study for my last paper and finish that freakin’ essay in that state… I’ve used a few more choice words at it the last few days. (more…)
21 today
Hey everyone! Just a quick update, because I don’t like leaving the blog hanging in the air.
A lot of stuff has been happening recently and today.
Today is my 21st birthday. I spent like a million hours texting today. That’s what I hate about birthdays: you have to reply “Thanks for the nice wishes” over and over and over again. It’s so annoying it could make a good cartoon, but I don’t have time to draw one. The good thing about all these birthday wishes is that friends you haven’t heard from in ages suddenly bob to the surface again. And that almost makes up for all the brainless texting.
Obligatory birthday pic.
^Doing yet again what my father refers to as “skulking”. He always insists that I lift my chin up in photos and I hate that posture because it looks so condescending.
And… speaking of being busy, today I also had my last class for my degree. Now it’s only the exams and then it’s all over. It’s pretty unreal and it feels as if three years couldn’t have flown past like that. So, understandably, everything was a bit crazy today. If you are inclined to metaphors, you could probably have something to say about the significance of having a 21st birthday on the day that classes are over. You could probably say something about one age ending and a new one beginning. Or you could just get on with it, because no-one cares.
But if only this was the only reason that I’m busy. I can deal with classes and revision. But NaNoWriMo is just something you can’t deal with. No matter how many times you do it and no matter how used you are to writing, it is going to spin out of control. In a way, that is all part of the fun and in a way, it is extremely stress-inducing.
As you can see, over there in the sidebar –>, I managed to break the 10K margin (yay, one fifth done!), but tonight I still need to reach 11,167. I have very little time left today to reach this. I was so sick last night that I couldn’t even reach 800 words for the day. That meant that I lost most of my 1,000 word head-start that I’d built up in week 1. Now I have to catch that up again. Darn it.
Now I’m going to go write at the speed of summer lightning. Anyone else participating in NaNoWriMo: how are your novelling attempts going? How is NaNo treating you?
I’ll try to do a NaNoWriMo motivation post next week, with maybe a drawing or two.
Panic
Hi everyone! Guess what I want to shout right now?
This was a really lame cartoon, I’m sorry. I wanted to add more panels and reactions and things, but then my internet just died last night when I was composing this post. I think it must have hit the bandwidth limit. Oopsie. That’s embarrassing. Too many vlogbrothers videos, maybe? That’s another thing I do when procrastinating, and it’s kind of addicting. This is why this post is even later than usual. I’m in the university library right now, using stupid, slow Internet Explorer to write this. Ugh.
I had to get it published before NaNoWriMo starts, because I also have to add that I don’t know how regular updates will be between exams and novel-writing and everything else I complained about above. I’ll try to update on my writing and I have a few cartoons that I can upload, so we’ll just have to see how far I get. Anyway, if you want to laugh at my failure to write, the NaNo widgets have made a reappearance in my sidebar –> right underneath the follow icons. It’ll update with my word count, if you’re interested. Now I can just hope my internet makes a reappearance tomorrow.
Speaking of NaNoWriMo, I made myself a word count calendar this year and I’m uploading it to the internet if anyone else wants to use it. Feel free to download it, save it as your wallpaper, print it or share it with your friends! Just don’t remove my watermark, or distribute it as your own.
Details:
Featuring: a Lord of the Rings themed NaNoWriMo calendar. (I took the opportunity to compare NaNo to an epic journey, Frodo’s to be specific.)
Size: 1920 x 1080 (HD)
Click here to download it.
Enjoy!
Now, for the random stuff (yes, this post is long, consider it making up for future lack of posting): when I started this cartoon, I thought of this book cover:
Don’t panic! That’s advice I could do with remembering! That’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, for those who can’t tell.
And then… as I took this picture, I though “How many things are there sticking out about my head?! Seriously…” So then I made this (I was bored):
Okay, that is probably quite enough. I’m going to look for a novel plot now. Find me on Tumblr for more NaNo related stuff, or check the sidebar widget and good luck to everyone else participating!
Happy Hallowe’en! :[
A Day in My Energy Levels
Hi everyone! I hope everyone had/is having/will have a great Monday!
And here’s a new cartoon! Instead of “A day in the life of…”, it is:
This is my real Thursday timetable. On Tuesdays my classes are a bit later and closer together, Wednesdays are unpredictable and usually consist of a lot of running around and on Fridays my classes are later, which is good because I actually have time to wake up, but it is also bad, because they are neverendingly long on a Friday afternoon. 😉 Oh, and on Mondays I don’t have class. Now you know why I post on Mondays. The secret? It isn’t actually to brighten up your week. (Well, maybe just a bit of that. :P) It’s because I’m at home. 🙂
In other news, I think I have finally found a font to use in my drawings! It’s the one I used in this cartoon. I’ve been using all kinds of fonts lately to try and find one that I can be consistent with. It needed to be a font that went well with everything, that I can use in all caps if I want and above all, one that has a decent * symbol. Yes, I’m so happy to have found the one at last! An added bonus is that this font looks a lot like my natural handwriting. Except that it is x100 times neater than my handwriting. Anything is neater than that! 😉
I hope you all have a great week! 😀
Random vlog
In which I talk for 7 and a half minutes about nerdy obsessions, hobbits, NaNoWriMo, get distracted by absolutely everything flying past and look everywhere except at the camera.
I know I sound weird to most of the world. Sorry if it’s annoying! Also, I seemed to have developed an allergy to breathing lately, so my nose is all stuffy and… yeah.
Why does my voice sound so weird?
I look like a school kid doing a speech.
Just look at the camera, will you?
Bad quality, ergh. Glare. Ergh. Why does it lag there. Hate lag…
Why am I doing this?
Why am I such a boring conversationalist?! I only ever use one tone of voice!
Doubts and random pointless videos aside, there’ll be a new cartoon on Monday!
Urgh. Recently.
Hi guys.
So I’m sorry for the lack of blogging. I didn’t have time to blog last week and I don’t have time to blog this week. It was one of those weeks last week and it still is, which is probably making the those in that statement illogical…
I have three assignments (long essays) due this week and I have to a novel read for this week and I have another longer, huger and more important assignment plus a novel to read due for next week. Everything of course happens at once. The phenomenon of spreading work out over several weeks is unheard of at all universities all over the universe, I think.*
Now if only I could keep myself off the internet and in particular off Pinterest and Tumblr that would be a big help… but I just can’t. Every few minutes I am back on. So what I am going to do is finish typing this and then shut off my wi-fi connection. It’s the only thing that helps. 😛 Then I am also going to forbade myself using Inkscape or Photoshop until this assignment is done.
So this wasn’t a real blog post. This was just a heads up to let everyone who doesn’t care know what is going on. I’m not quite sure why I am doing this, but it is probably because when someone whose blog I am following suddenly stops posting I always wonder if they suddenly died. Wow, that sounds really creepy to admit… Well, I wouldn’t want anyone to think I’m dead, so this post exists. I probably won’t be back next week either, but after that it is the mid-term break, so I will definitely be back then! 🙂
To make it up to you, here are some photos and images from recently:
Yes, I am indeed now making crossover graphics, using lyrics from the LotR musical and images from the movie trilogy. This is indeed getting weird. 😛
I’m sorry for putting my watermark in the middle, but this is the internet after all. I usually don’t put any of these graphics on the internet. I have a whole stack of them, but I don’t want them stolen. I’m fine with redistribution by the way, as long as people link back here.
This is probably the most complicated graphic I’ve ever made. I love these lyrics and they mean so much to me. I named this graphic “This too shall pass“.
I meant to say something about Suicide Prevention Day last week, but it totally slipped my mind. This is of course I feel something that I feel very strongly about and I meant to use this picture as illustration to my point, but oh well.
I also meant to say something about 9/11 last week, but so totally forgot that I only remembered that evening when it was on the news. Well, here is this year’s image, like the one I made last year.
I was ashamed for forgetting it. I’m not American, but I still hold a moment of silence every year. I know one or two people directly affected by this and it just feels right to hold a moment of remembrance.
Okay, bye. 😉
*When I start spewing nonsense like this, you can know I am panicky, tired (and/or ill) and cynical, or most likely all three (and/or four) at once.
Sometimes I wish…
Hi! 🙂
Sorry for the late post! I have books to read, tests to study for, life to deal with… you know how it is! 😉 I’ve also been working very diligently on an actual series of Lord of the Rings graphics that I will tell you all about some day soon (which means I’ve been neglecting everything else, because that is just way too much fun).
But enough about that and on to today’s cartoon!
You know those little selfish wishes and dreams that you always have? Wishing you could just get that annoying person to stop talking, or make an end to everyone who whistles in the corridors? Yes, those. This cartoon is about those wishes that probably never should come true.
It never misses. After telling you off, the librarian will go into her office to make a really loud phone call. 😛 *sigh*
I hope you enjoyed it! This has now officially been my third library cartoon and I am starting to see a pattern here… but you know, the library is my hangout place, so why shouldn’t I write about the place I know best? I’m a proud nerd! 😆
I’ll be off now and I’m sure you’ll excuse me if I don’t talk so much today. I’ve got a lot of work and sleep to catch up on. 😉
We’ll talk again next week!
Books, books, books, books.
Yes, we are starting this new series right now!
Introducing…
Yay!
So, what does this book challenge consist of? Here are the list of posts:
Day 01 – Best book you read last year
Day 02 – A book that you’ve read more than 3 times
Day 03 – Your favourite series
Day 04 – Favourite book of your favourite series
Day 05 – A book that makes you happy
Day 06 – A book that makes you sad
Day 07 – Most underrated book
Day 08 – Most overrated book
Day 09 – A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving
Day 10 – Favourite classic book
Day 11 – A book you hated
Day 12 – A book you used to love but don’t anymore
Day 13 – Your favourite writer
Day 14 – Favourite book of your favourite writer
Day 15 – Favourite male character
Day 16 – Favourite female character
Day 17 – Favourite quote from your favourite book
Day 18 – A book that disappointed you
Day 19 – Favourite book turned into a movie
Day 20 – Favourite romance book
Day 21 – Favourite book from your childhood
Day 22 – Favourite book you own
Day 23 – A book you wanted to read for a long time but still haven’t
Day 24 – A book that you wish more people would’ve read
Day 25 – A character whom you can relate to the most
Day 26 – A book that changed your opinion about something
Day 27 – The most surprising plot twist or ending
Day 28 – Favourite title
Day 29 – A book everyone hated but you liked
Day 30 – Your favourite book of all time
Doesn’t it look exciting? 
You can expect the first post tomorrow. I know I said last week that I will stagger the posts a little further apart until I actually leave, but now I’ve noticed that I’ve so many posts that I can let them post every day, even now when I am not gone yet. Yes, I’ve written way too much for some of them. For some of them, I was not sure what on earth I should write. But it was great fun (I’ve been working on this for months).
Anyway, what can you expect from me in this challenge? Well, maybe the easiest thing would be to tell you the kind of things that I read. Then you can decide for yourself whether you would be interested in following along with me in this challenge.
These days the largest part of my reading consists of everything that I have to read for class. I am not too happy about this. I am not crazy about many of the books that I have read or still have to read, but so far I have been lucky. There were very few books that I hated and couldn’t get through. I have read colonial and postcolonial, modernism, classics, renaissance and am now facing a term of the Romantics. I’m not looking forward to many of the books staring at me from my university shelf right now. One of them is Wuthering Heights. I tried to read it once and I was nearly bored to death. Another one is A Portrait of a Lady. I watched the movie once and Nicole Kidman annoyed me so much I nearly threw a cushion at the screen. I can only hope the novel is better. But I haven’t got much hope. 
I’m digressing again! What I meant to say was that while I usually spend my time on these genres listed, what I prefer to read is fantasy. I’m hesitant to call myself a fantasy buff (because I haven’t read many of the titles that are considered the staples of fantasy reading these days), but it is still my favourite genre. I also love historical fiction (but not the romantic kind), I like science fiction and I read the occasional classics. I can’t stand romances and I’m none too fond of fluffy reads. People always tell you to switch off your mind whilst reading. If I have to do that to like a book, I’d rather not read it.
So, I like fantasy. But which fantasy? Lord of the Rings! I also love Harry Potter, though I haven’t read it in years – it is true that it does always stay with you. And then a series that you will meet far too often in this challenge… the Discworld-series by Terry Pratchett. It’s just so much fun: I love all of it!
Don’t worry, these are not the only books that I can talk about and will be writing about! I read wider than that!
The other thing is… about comments whilst I am gone. Of course comments are always welcome, but I will not be taking comment moderation off. This means that if you have commented two or three times here before, your comments will still be approved automatically. However, if you have not commented before, or if you are suddenly using a different account to comment, your comments will go into the moderation queue. All of them will be saved, they will simply not show up on the posts until I get back to approve them. (I might pop by when I am supposed to be on holiday, if the world starts to annoy me too much and do a little comment moderation. But don’t count on it. 
) I could have taken this moderation off, but this blog receives too much spam and I don’t want to chance it. I just wanted you to be aware of this.
Lastly, I thought all of you interested parties might be interested in a peek at the books that I will be taking away with me. All of them are books that I have not read before. Half of them are from second-hand bookstores.
Oh, the choices about which ones to take and which ones to leave! The English title of that Dutch book is They Came to Baghdad, in case anyone was wondering. Yes, I have read the English one. The two at the bottom are part of my reading list for next semester. I should probably get started on them, before I get as pressurised as I was this semester again! Also, my father is probably going to complain about the amount of books that I want to drag along. He always complains. And then he finds space for them anyway. Look:
Like most rulers, that ruler is 30cm (a.k.a. 1 foot) long. Yep, that’s how high my stack of books are! 
And that’s it! I suppose this is goodbye for now! I’ll be back in a month or so. Except, you know, if I’m in an accident. Or my laptop gets stolen. Or I die. Or someone else dies… Except for all those “excepts”, I’ll be back. And I probably shouldn’t joke about death. Also, I promise faithfully to get my bum into gear again and to return with cartoons to place this blog back on its original path.
If anyone misses me (hah!) come visit me on my Tumblr. The queue is well-stocked with Discworld stuff! And the other places you can find me is, as always, listed in the sidebar.
Love,
PS. I actually don’t wear glasses, but I wanted to do one of those stereotypical “reader” images for my header, so I played about with an old pair of my mother’s glasses. I was struggling to see the camera!
Well, I’m back. (And on Pottermore).
My titles just keep getting weirder and weirder. I seem to like putting punctuation in them lately. Also, I’m going through another “quoting Lord of the Rings“-phase.
Anyway… hello! How is everyone? I’m (mostly) back from my exam-imposed exile. I wrote three papers last week. Three! I only have three modules! And the exam period is three weeks long, but what happens?
^^ Pinterest supplies me with wonderful things like this, to help me rant my way through three papers. Now I only have one paper left, two weeks later than the others. I usually hate my exam timetable, but this time it is worse than usual.
Well, that is all over and I survived. And now… on to what happens now.
Once these exams are finally over, I’m going to go away on a little holiday. A bit of road trip and a visit to family. I will be taking mobile internet with me, but I don’t think I’d be able to blog. So, I got an idea! I decided to queue up a lot of posts. (Not a very original idea, I admit.) But what would I write about?
I starting searching for a topic or blog challenge that would last me a long time. Finally I settled on the 30 Day Book Challenge, which means I can talk a lot about books. I love talking about books, but most people don’t want to listen. They tend to walk away in confusion, but the blog can’t walk away on me, or try to remind me that the things I read are not real. (I hate it when people try to do that. I know it’s not real, but that’s not going to stop me talking about it as if it was real. 😛 ) Well, I suppose the readers could walk away in disgust. But you are not going to do that are you. *glare* 😛
I have nearly finished writing all the posts and then I will start queuing then up. Actually, I think that it will be more than 30 posts. Why? Well, if you ask me to talk about my favourite character, do you really expect me to talk about only one person? Some of the entries grew into small essays, so I split them up seeing that I did not want to actually cut them shorter. So then I will post them across several days, because no-one wants to read that much all at once.
I will start posting the entries further apart before I leave, so that there is still space for me to pop in with other posts, but once I leave, I will set them to post everyday. Won’t that be fun? The only time that this blog has ever been active with posts!
Now for the most important order of business… (to me, anyway 😉 )
Pottermore!
I’ve wanted to get into Pottermore ever since I heard about it. I signed up for beta, but I never got an email. Then, when it opened to the public in April… I was in the middle of working through my stack of assignments and I was so disappointed. I was seriously tempted to just create an account anyway. Once, I got as far as the log-in screen and I was filling in my details when my sensible side decided to close the browser window to avoid further temptation. So I waited… until really late on Sunday night, I think. Then I signed up. I went much too fast through the first few chapters because I wanted to get to Diagon Alley and the Sorting Hat so badly… A wand and a House… those were the main attractions of Pottermore to me. Especially the House. I always wanted to get Sorted when I read Harry Potter all those years ago. Even though it’s just an online quiz it still felt… more official to get Pottermore to tell you your place at Hogwarts, instead of you deciding for yourself.
So… first I did the wand quiz and got a wand:
I thought it was kind of cute how the quiz asked: “Are you short, average, or tall for your age?” Obviously I’m a bit old for any “for your age”, but I’m still short. 😛
And then… I got to go on to the Sorting Hat quiz. I knew what House I wanted to end up in, but I wasn’t at all sure if I would get it. I know many people complain about not getting what they wanted on Pottermore and how the quiz is rigged, so I was ridiculously nervous. When I started the questions though, I could not see how people think it is rigged, or that you can really cheat on it. Sometimes there are six options to choose from and sometimes only two. And it is hardly ever obvious where any of the questions lead to, so I don’t think you could lie and answer in such a way that you would be guaranteed to end up in your preference. I must say, some of them I could answer immediately and some of them left me stumped. 😉 There is no indication of how many questions are left (actually, I wondered if some people get more questions than others) and I was still happily beavering away, when a screen popped up.
And…
………
…
YES! 😀 Exactly what I’ve always wanted, ever since I was a tween! 😀
Even when I was a little kid and my mother read me Philosopher’s Stone as a bedtime story, I wished that I would be in Ravenclaw. My preference never changed, even though I haven’t read a Harry Potter-book in years. I went on a happiness-high for the rest of the night. And the next day. I’m still kind of excited right now. 🙂
If there is anyone here who is also on Pottermore and would like to add me as a friend, my username is:
An unexpected bonus if you add me is you’ll be able to see in what country I live. It has always been something that I am sensitive about revealing online, because you wouldn’t be-lieve the stupid comments people leave you if you are not from one of the “mainstream” countries like the USA, the UK or Canada. I want to be judged on who I am, not where I live. So I completely stopped revealing my location. However, on Pottermore you can’t hide it. 😉
Right, now I’ll stop gushing about how wonderful Pottermore is. But can I just say that I love exploring the entire site? Right, right…
And I apologise to anyone who is not a fan of Harry Potter and found that entire last piece incomprehensible. I’ll try to limit my talking about it! 😉
In other, non-related news (nothing in this entire blog post is related to anything else), here are the results of the poll I put in my last post. Thank you to everyone who voted! I was surprised to see the wide age range of people who have patience with my ramblings! So…
I think that is now everything! I’ll get round to starting the book challenge posts sometime soon!
Ravenclaw-ish love,
PS. On the 3rd of June I finally achieved a 500-day writing streak on 750words.com. Phew! That was a lot of hard work, but I’m still continuing on! 🙂
Happy Bloggiversary to… uh, me!
Today this blog is one year old! Yay!
So how about right now for a time to go down memory lane?
Today one year ago, I wrote my first post on here about how much I hated that security gate in the library. I still hate that security gate, but it’s a new one now, so it hasn’t given me problems yet. That doesn’t stop me from feeling nervous every time I have to walk through it.
I wrote and drew that very first post when I should have been studying for a test. But I decided that this was way more fun. (I failed that test by the way.) My habits in blogging have not changed much in a year. Actually I should be sleeping at the moment. 😉
I didn’t get any views on the blog that day, but the next day I got two. Goodness knows where those two came from. I didn’t get any comments either, until I asked my friend to come and read. Now I have neither shortage of commenters or viewers. Everyday this still amazes me. This blog started as a little diversion, a little cure for boredom and a big factor in procrastination. Now just look how it has grown. Today, it lies at over 52,000 hits all time. And hundreds upon hundreds of comments.
The day that I signed up for my WordPress account (my old account, for my previous blog), I said to myself, while viewing the homepage: one day I want to write something that will end up on here as well. A girl can dream, can’t she? 😛 But it proved to be more than a dream, because on 17 January this year my blog was indeed Freshly Pressed. When it was only 7 months old. I was so completely overwhelmed by this. The reaction, the comments, the stats going haywire… I didn’t know how to handle this dream come true. But is it not often like this? You dream and dream, but when it becomes reality, it scares you. This happened to me when going to university for the first time. I’d dreamt of going for years, but when I finally got there, I was scared stiff. By evening, I was sick from nerves. The same thing happened with FP. I was scared stiff by the email notifications streaming in about one or two per minute. I didn’t know what to do with it all!
Fun fact:
This blog started off under the name “Cartoon Dramas”, the same as the URL. It was only for cartoons. I was not interested at that stage in publishing any of my creative writing on it, because I knew what a commitment that was. But then… I started following Mara’s blog (eccentricowl.com). At that time, she ran Weekly Writing Challenges. I wanted to participate, so I needed to publish a story on my blog. So I did. And later decided to change my blog name to suit the new content. Today… I pretty much blog beyond the content designated by the title all the time. Like now. And last time. This state of affairs will probably still be continuing for a while, because exams start next week. Of course, I cannot escape without a nasty timetable either. I write three papers in one week. Most excellent.
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So I’m sorry for the lack of cartoons. Or, for that matter any kind of content. I have just finished with my assignments for this semester (and, my word, it was an extravaganza) and handed in the last of the little bastards today. Next week, exams start. I don’t think I will be around much for a while then. I would have queued posts so that the blog could keep running, but I didn’t have time to make any. Heck, I didn’t even finish drawing this week’s cartoon, and I really wanted to. It was a good one, I thought, but it will just have to wait. That’s something to look forward to.
Well, well, this was a strange post for me. The shortage of visuals and whatnot… I’m not quite used to this Just Writing. And… I think I just forgot what I was going to say. That just shows you what my concentration levels are like at the end of a semester. I think I should just stop now with this post, before it all goes completely down the drain.
Oh yes, just one more thing. Seeing that the blog is now one y/o and everything… Can y’all please complete this poll? Especially if you’re a regular reader, I’d really appreciate it.
I’m not going to do anything with this info – it’s just for me. I’m just interested in finding out where my readership lies. From the comments, I’m getting the idea that it is in the younger generation… but you can never really tell. Thanks in advance! 😀
PS. I celebrated my bloggiversary by downloading a million (okay, about 70) Lord of the Rings screencaps. For… you know… making graphics once the exams are over. 😉
Gah… I want to do a vlog again. Actually I should, seeing that I still have a few announcements and things to make. I’ll have to see what I can do.
Expect me when you see me!
This is a bit ranty… Also, The Hunger Games
Well…
I’m so ridiculously tired right now. If I sit for too long, I fall asleep. This week has been too long. And it only gets worse after this. For the rest of the month, I have at least one assignment to hand in per week. And then at the end, the exams start. Yay. Things are always this crazy just before the end of a semester, because all the deadlines just start heaping up and everyone tries to fit everything in before term’s over. Oh, and of course every lecturer lives alone in their world. No other subjects or work exist. “Why can’t you do three assignments for me? It’s not as though you have anyone else to also give you three assignments, do you?” Bleh.
This has been my position for the past few weeks. Keeping my head down, scribbling as fast as possible. I usually end up working at the dining room table, because there are less distractions and the constant traffic past the table keeps me working, instead of dreaming, drawing or staring. Also, it is easier to work there than clear space on my desk. It’s kinda full… of stuff… not work.
My paranoia over assignments is not helping during this time, either. Every time we get written work back, I fear failure. This comes with me from school-days. I’m the kid who goes all wobbly-kneed when I spot the stack of assignments on the lecturer’s table. It doesn’t matter if I know the quality of writing I did, I still doubt it. I have only once failed an assignment and that was way back in first year. It doesn’t stop the paranoia. Tests? Oh yes, I’ve failed a few of those. Mainly French literature. I hardly ever knew what page we were on, much less what the story was about. Anyway, tests are much more salvageable if you fail them. They usually don’t count as much as assignments. So yes, what I meant to say was that I live in constant paranoia at the moment with this stream of assignments. Seriously, I hand in one of the little bastards and then go straight back to the library to start on the research for the next one. I’d rather write this amount of tests in the place of the written work to be honest. I hate analytical essays. All that quoting and referencing and comparing stuff drives me crazy.
Anyhow, I don’t really know why I just subjected you to my complaining over my work. I wouldn’t blame you if you just skipped over the above two paragraphs. Nobody is interested, probably. However I haven’t anything blog-worthy to say this week. I haven’t drawn anything and nothing except work has happened. But I feel guilty about not posting and stats have already fallen through rock-bottom a while back and I don’t like that much. 
So… what I’m going to do is…
I’m going to review The Hunger Games movie. Someone (hmm… no, I don’t know who it was anymore, sorry) suggested in the comments last time that I write what I thought about the movie. I’m calling it a review, but this is mostly my opinion. I’m not going to do all that fancy stuff with the technical details and the actors’ names. If you want to know, look it up. And there are going to be spoilers and spoilers of other movies and books*, because I can never talk about one movie without comparing it to other movies. Right. Everyone still awake? Here we go.
*Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Artemis Fowl and Mistborn, if you must know upfront.
Thoughts I had in the theatre (in approximate order):
- Why does someone have to sit in front of me!? You be stealin’ mah footrest! I can be very uncharitable about my footrest in theatres.
- Ooh, the score is beautiful. (I knew this beforehand, actually. Because I downloaded the score before seeing the movie.) James Newton Howard is a master.
- Hmm, District 12 does not look at all like I imagined it. Hmm.
- Aww, no drunk scene for Haymitch. That was hilarious in the book and I was disappointed not to see it.
- “Mahogany!” Hehehehe!
- Peeta is cute.
- Wow, the Capitol! Also, Cinna!! And his gold eyeliner!
- Girl on fire! Eep!
- Caesar Flickerman! (Have I spelled that right?) Oh my, my, my, my, what a treat. He was so exactly like I imagined him, so perfect, that I was quite overwhelmed. I couldn’t stop staring at this blue apparition. In fact, I was compelled to say “He looks like a huge, blue peacock on that stage!” Not loudly mind, I’m not that person who comments loudly in theatres.
- The fire dress! O-O
- Well, the training is fun to watch.
- Katniss, haven’t you got another top to wear?
- “Thank you for your consideration.” Hehehehe!
- Ah, finally it is starting.
- I really hate bees. Wasps. Tracker jackers. Whatever. This entire scene made me feel very queasy because I can’t stand swarms of buzzing insects.
- Rue! Eep!
And… and then all thoughts went out of my mind as Rue was hit by that spear.
The girl in front of me gasped so hard and started crying that I felt quite sorry for her. Obviously she did not see that one coming. I knew it was coming and it still hurt. I knew it before I read the book, in fact. Stupid internet. Spoiling that one for me. I had to be rather strict with myself not to join in the general teariness that was going on in that theatre. I never cry over movies or books.
Then came the scene of rebellion in District 11, one of my personal favourite moments. I’m a sucker for scenes like that…
I told myself, “Seriously Elana, you’re 20 years old and you’re crying about a picture on a screen. It’s not real.”
Then Katniss started crying. And I decided…
And I joined in.
That’s it, mostly, for my thoughts. After Rue’s death, I mostly stopped thinking and just sat staring. Though I have to say, I’m glad I was waiting for the muttation to appear when it did, because there was some more general screaming and gasping in the theatre when it did.
Other things:
- I think they did a really great job with the cast. Everyone looked and acted more or less like described. I hate it when moviemakers take a character and, for example, change the hair colour all the way from brown to blond. I always want to ask, “So, why was hair dye invented?” I’m glad it didn’t happen in this movie.
- I really loved how we got to see the Games Room, or whatever it is called. And also the other districts.
- At first I didn’t like how they portrayed Haymitch and then he got kind of endearing.
- Have I said yet that Rue’s death now falls under my category of “Most Painful Partings In Movies”? It now joins the ranks of the deaths of Dobby (In Harry Potter 7), Dumbledore (Harry Potter 6), Root (Artemis Fowl and the Opal Deception), Kelsier (Mistborn 1), and the ending of Lord of the Rings. I tear up every time I see Sam’s face there at the Grey Havens. It never gets any less tragic.
So, in conclusion, I really liked The Hunger Games movie. I couldn’t find anything that seriously bothered me in the adaption and that is quite rare for me. It was a treat mostly and Jennifer Lawrence made a great Katniss.
Aaaaaaaaand… now my words are all used up. Now for a nap… sleep and perchance to dream. (Shakespeare is probably turning in his grave over that mangled quote.)
Too many things to fit in this title
Well yes, it’s true. There’s so much I want to post about! Sorry that it’s a bit discombobulated.
Earlier today, I posted this on Twitter, but I may as well ask here too:
So, what did you other Tolkien fans (I know you’re out there!) do for this special day? For those of you who don’t know Lord of the Rings / haven’t figured it out yet, the 25th of March is the day on which the happenings in Lord of the Rings culminate, making it a special day for the fandom. Apart from the Hobbits’ birthday (22 September) and Christmas Day (the day the Quest set out), of course.
Beth from Hear a Snippet Here wants me to say my ABCs. So, in the words of Monsieur Hercule Poirot, my ABCs, they shall be said.* Bethie is probably also the first person to ever call me cool. 😉
(*M. Poirot didn’t say exactly that. I improvised a bit. However, can’t you just here David’s Suchet’s voice in your head if you read that? 😛 )
First for passing it on:
Because I’m fed up of thinking of people to pass these things on to, I’m opening up the rules and saying: Go on, take it. This is a free for all. If you want this, grab the picture, post me a link and make your own list. All of my followers are awesome and I’d love to read your lists! Have fun! 😀
I decided to make my list on book characters, to fit in with Beth’s list of books. So here follows an alphabetical list of characters that I love. I just went on the first names and I included the books where you can find these ink-and-paper people. Sorry if there are any spoilers!
Artemis Fowl – This one was a tough choice between Allanon of the Shannara-series, and the main character of the Artemis Fowl-series by Eoin Colfer. But there are many wise-wizard characters in fantasy (even though Allanon is pretty awesome among them), while there is only one Artemis Fowl.
Bilbo Baggins – How could I not mention Bilbo here? He’s wonderful. Be prepared to meet many more Lord of the Rings characters in this list. Just look, how could you not love him?
Christopher Chant (Chrestomanci) – He’s arrogant, intimidating, cares way too much about his clothes, generally annoying and brave. I love him. Find him in the Chrestomanci-series by Diana Wynne Jones.
Damson Rhee – If there is one thing that I really admire about Terry Brooks’s writing, it is his strong female characters. Damson is strong, independent and resourceful. Find her in the Heritage of Shannara-quartet.
Eowyn – According to me, Eowyn of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings is one of the earliest, most feministic characters ever written. I love her strength.
I agree with you, my lady.
Frodo Baggins – How could I leave out Lord of the Rings’ main character!? I love hobbits, incase you haven’t noticed yet. Actually, I’d love to include Sam here with Frodo, because they go together in my mind. Frodo wouldn’t have got far without Sam…
Gandalf – This is so obvious. I’m not saying anything more.
Harry Potter – And this as well. I’m just glad that J.K. Rowling made him not only a hero, but also a very human character. He has his flaws and faults, just like everyone else.
Igor – Actually I didn’t know who to add here, because I couldn’t actually think of anything favourite characters with an I-name. So I’m just adding the Igor-characters from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld-series. Yes, there’s a whole family of them and they all have the same name, because it saves confusion. If they say so… They are pretty entertaining however!
Jane Marple – I love Miss Marple. I love her way more than Agatha Christie’s other sleuth, Hercule Poirot. She is just such a sweet old lady, but she has a mind of steel. It is impossible to put one over her. I love her for her sweetness and for her hidden fire…
Kelsier – This one was another tough choice. I wanted to put Katniss Everdeen of The Hunger Games here as well as Kelsier, but in the end, Kelsier won. He has wonderful charisma that makes him a great leader, but he is also a flawed, broken human being. He’s arrogant, but a great friend. He tends to walk over everyone else, but he cares intensely about people. He’s one of my all-time favourite characters and you can find him in The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson.
Luna Lovegood – Ah Luna. What can I say about her that has not already been said? I guess all I can say is that she is my second-favourite Harry Potter-character, and probably the single character that has had the greatest influence on me.
Moist von Lipwig – Ah, Moist! Conman who has to turn civil servant, or else he gets hanged – again. He’s hilarious, always moving fast unless what is chasing him catches up and the most insane ideas seem to sprout from him. He is also a very close contender for the honoured position of my favourite Discworld-character. Moist makes his first appearance in Going Postal by Terry Pratchett.
Neville Longbottom – Neville! Here it comes: Neville Longbottom is my favourite Harry Potter-character. Yes, I loved him from the very start in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. I can write a whole post just about Neville – and actually I already have. I’ll publish it sometime!
Oliver Twist – I read Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens some time ago. At times it was torturous going and at other times I loved it. Oliver is just such an endearing character that I had to include him in this list.
Pe Ell – I think Pe Ell is one of the most interesting characters in Terry Brooks’s Shannara, probably because his path is not set from the beginning, unlike many of the other characters. I love his conflict and his character development – always a surprise. Find him in The Heritage of Shannara-quartet.
Quentin Leah – Ah! Another one from Shannara. I can’t even promise it’s the last. Well, it is such a mammoth series after all… Mostly Quentin is just here because of the letter his name starts on. Let’s just say he is here as representative of the rest of his Leah-family. And make that the Ohmsford-family as well. I couldn’t think of any other character that has a Q-name, except for Quirrel from Harry Potter and he always annoyed me, so Quentin it is! I like him well enough, he’s just not that special.
Rincewind – The first Discworld character (close enough anyway), so he deserves a place on this list. Actually, Rincewind can annoy me a lot with his cowardice, but at the end of the day, he is just such an endearing character. I think there is a little Rincewind in all of us, to tell the truth. We all probably know that the “right” thing to do is to be brave and stand and fight, but when the guys with swords approach you, all you want to do is run away so that your flip-flops fly through the air. The eternal coward…
Sherlock Holmes – No, not the BBC’s version, but the original created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. And of course, Dr John Watson deserves an honourable mention too. What is it about these two characters that have made them so popular throughout the ages?
Tiffany Aching – I love young witch Tiffany. She is one of the few characters that I can really identify with, even though I’m double her age. She makes her first appearance in The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett.
Uhl Belk – Okay, he’s basically here because of his name and nothing else, because I seriously could not think of any other character with a U-name. However, I can’t deny that he is interesting and I love it if we get a bit of back-story for an evil Dark Lord so that we are not just forced to accept his evilness for a fact. Find him in The Heritage of Shannara-quartet.
Vimes (a.k.a. His Grace, the Duke of Ankh, Commander of the City Watch, Sir Samuel Vimes. There’s also a Blackboard Monitor in there somewhere, but I’ve forgotten where now.) Okay, I’m cheating by going on the surname, but who cares. Between Vimes and Lord Vetinari a great battle is going on for my fav Pratchett character. And I can only have one here, because there’s only one V! 😦 However, I’m choosing to put Vimes here, because he is a way more accessible character, other than Vetinari, who is miles away on an icy throne, even though he is awesome. I don’t even know what to fit in about Vimes here, so I think I’ll have to write a whole post about him too! 😉 He makes his first appearance in Guards! Guards!, so go read it yourself and make up your mind!
William de Worde – Here comes another Discworld character! William is the world’s first journalist and I always find myself giggling at him, because he is always correcting everyone else’s spelling and grammar, just like I do. You can mainly find him in The Truth.
Xeno – Okay, last Pratchett character, promise! He’s mostly here just because of his name as well, but he is quite funny in the books. He is a parody on the Greek philosopher Zeno who was famous for thinking of paradoxes, and you can find him in Pyramids.
Yavanna – Another hard one. I didn’t really know who to put here, so I just picked her out of Tolkien’s Silmarillion, even though I have not read the whole of that yet. Another contender for this letter was rebel-leader Yeden from Brandon Sanderson’s The Final Empire, but he was not that kind of exceptional character. I’ll just stay with Tolkien, thanks. 😛
Zoroastro – Last one picked by name. Last one in general as well, obviously. Zoroastro is a character in Theresa Breslin’s The Medici Seal. He provides a nice contrast to the other characters who are most Catholic, whereas Zoroastro still keeps to traditional beliefs and rituals.
And there you have it! Sorry it got so long. I always talk too much when it comes to books and everything related to them. Now I have to read some more of King Lear. I gave up reading from my book, because it’s just too hard to follow and now I’m reading the “dual-language” version on Sparknotes. The bonus is that, with their new background, I get to look at Katniss Everdeen whilst I’m reading. And at Peeta and Gale too, of course. 😉
Have a great week!
Taking words literally
I love words. I’d speak about them all day. I’d also use words to speak about more words, which is, I admit, not a very unique trait.
This little dialogue from The Truth by Terry Pratchett could directly be applied to me:
‘You talking to me about knocking back? Don’t know what a tosheroon is, do you?’ he said. The dwarf shrugged.
‘Yes, I do,’ said William. ‘There’s several meanings, but I think you’re referring to a big caked ball of mud and coins, such as you might find in some crevice in an old drain where the water forms an eddy. They can be quite valuable.’
‘What? You’ve got hands on you like a girl,’ said Harry, so surprised that the cigar momentarily drooped. ‘How come you know that?’
‘I like words, Mr King.’
– p.212, 2001 Corgi Edition.
It may or may not also be this single little conversation that has made William de Worde one of my favourite Pratchett characters.
But without going into a digression about how I love collecting words and being an obnoxious little know-it-all, let’s just say that I also find words quite funny. However, before the funny, I first have a couple of other things things to say.
Firstly, sorry for being MIA. University started again a couple of weeks ago and I’ve been spinning around like a crazy elf. (Kudos if you pick up the reference!) Everybody seems to think it is my goal in life to read a score of boring articles a week. Well, maybe not a score. But a lot. I was going to make a vlog again, but halfway through recording I noticed that the mic was not picking up my voice properly and I was basically inaudible. I didn’t feel like dubbing it, so you will just have to make do with my bland text.
I’m not sure what this means for the blog and how often I will have time to post. Perhaps I will start doing smaller posts, with only one or two frames. But I am definitely going to continue blogging! Unfortunately I am enjoying this far too much to stop! 
Anyway, just be aware of this in case I go missing for 3 weeks!
Oh, and before someone asks, our academic year does run along with the calendar year.
Secondly, I… uh… received quite a lot of awards recently. Uh… 5, I think. I will make my next post about that, but firstly I need your help! Everyone seems to want you to tell your readers random things about you. However, I’m fresh out of ideas. I don’t even know where to start this time round. So if any of you have any random questions that you would like me to answer, let me know in the comments and I’ll include it! If I receive too many, I’ll just pick some.
Also, if anyone has any suggestions for blogs that I can pass these things on to, let me know as well! I wouldn’t complain as I never seem to be able to think of the required amount of new nominees. 
See? Working together we can get there! To the stars!
Thirdly, enjoy my
Taking Words Literally!
There are words that are so common we all know them and use them everyday. But have you ever noticed that some words can have very strange meanings if you look at them literally? No? Observe:
Please don’t get me wrong. I don’t hate every random person who happens to own a tablet computer. I just hate the show-offs, and believe me, there are enough of those in my classes. So right, you are able to afford one of these ludicrous new note-typing machines. That still does not give you the right to look down at the rest of us who cope perfectly well with a pen and paper and to come in late to class, wait until all eyes are on you, take out your shiny tablet and start to preen it. *
* Well, maybe I’m just a tiny bit jealous. Jealous of those who don’t need to lug heavy handbooks around, because they simply scan them onto the tablet. But I am certainly not jealous of having to look after a liability like that all day and be nervous that it will get stolen – with all my notes and books on it. I’m paranoid enough about my phone already, thank you all the same.
Sorry, but I just could not resist sticking a random, old-fashioned London dandy into this cartoon. I don’t know how these ideas get into my head, or what exactly he is doing there.
PS.
I hope everyone enjoyed this!
A silly post
I am actually blogging! Yay! Even though this is a silly post. But I’ve been wanting to share this, and now I have an excuse. I’ve been so busy that I didn’t have a chance to draw much. But firstly, I did do an illustration of what I looked like this long, crazy week:
“Oh hai! I’m Nick the Headless Chicken!”
“Nearly Headless Nick? What?”
“No, Headless Nick, the Chicken…”
Story of my life. Week. Whatever. 
The other thing is a writing exercise (I guess…?) that I found by random tag-clicking over on Bethie’s blog. And I’ve been dying to do it myself. So here it is:
A Story I Wrote in the Tub
Thomas Bergersen and I stood staring at the transparent stalker that had taken residence in the corner of my bedroom.
“Curse your intolerable good looks,” I said angrily.
It replied with, “Shut up and kiss me, fool!”
Upon hearing this, I was so brave, that I took up my collection of Broadway programs, and stroked the intruder’s face with the object(s) clasped in my hand. Pink and white rose petals issued forth from its fingers as a result of my action.
Wounded, but not mortally, it opened it’s mouth and said, “I know you did not mean to harm me, so I forgive you. Here is the Dark Gift as a token of my true feelings for you. It is a symbol of the deepest kinds of regret.”
“Thank you,” I said. “I will treasure it until I find something better.”
And then the world exploded.
The Creature Who Stole My Heart.
…
Now I’m off to catch some lost sleep! Sleep! Come here…
The annoyances of bus riding
Status update: Where did the week go to? It’s university recess and I didn’t even notice it because I was working procrastinating so hard!
Eating: –
Drinking: Chocolate milk.
Listening: “The Road” soundtrack ~ Mute Records. (It suits my mood.)
Reading: “The Pilgrim’s Progress“– John Bunyan. (Not that I’m making any progress at all. 
)
Hey guys!
So, before we get to today’s actual post, there are a few things I want to say first.
1.) Firstly, this week came with some milestones for this blog. The blog is now so close to 3000 hits that by the time most of you will read this, it will already have passed that. Now, I know it is petty and ridiculous to obsess over this, especially since I know there are blogs that get that in a day, but I promise I will stop after I have said this. I’m feeling very accomplished right now, because this is the most successful anything that I have started up on the internet has ever become. Well, except for the articles I write on wikiHow, the most popular of which has just over 89,000 views, but I must also point out in fairness that is almost 3 years old, whereas this blog is now only, what, four months? My previous blog only got a 1000 views after a year, and a lot of that came from clicks over here. I also used to run a website, and erm… that was even a bigger flop… So, maybe it’s third time lucky, hey? Thanks to everyone who is making it possible! 
The blog also passed 100 comments this week. Okay, so half of them were my replies to people, but do you care? 
Okay… boring, show-off-y stats obsession over!
2.) Quite a few subscribers joined the bandwagon this week, so to everybody who’s new: welcome! 
3.) Thirdly, I would just like to ask you all to please bear with me. Over here it is a month before final exams… so this means it is crunch-time. Of course every lecturer thinks that he/she is alone in the world and therefore gives written assignments as if something such as “I already have three others to write” does not exist. And I have a lot of lecturers… = thus lots of work! See? I’m even beginning to type in class notes style!
So, what I actually want to say is that I don’t know if there is going to be a blog next week. Maybe only a little something small. We’ll see. I shouldn’t even be blogging right now, but I’m going crazy reading up on the theory of existentialism and it is so heavy and depressing! Okay, so that’s it: I just want you to know, just in case I disappear for three weeks, that I haven’t given up blogging! 
4.) Look! ↑ A numbered list! *ahem* Sorry… 
♥♦♣♠
Right! Today’s cartoon is about… the annoyances of riding on the bus.
I have to ride the bus home from university several days a week when there is no-one to pick me up, or I finish early or something. And I just wish I could drive myself, because… let’s just say the bus is not very trustworthy at the showing-up-and-not-breaking-down area. But I don’t have a car, or permission to drive either, so I am stuck with it for now. At least it is giving me lots of interesting stories to blog about. Sheesh, I have lots of bus-stories by now!
Now, basically everyone here will have no clue at all what my bus looks like. So here’s a picture of it:
No, it does not actually look like a loaf, that’s just my bad drawing skills. The colour is also only a maybe. I’ve learned by now that the bus can be basically any colour, except maybe pink or orange, but at least it is that colour quite often.
Right! Moving on… the look of the bus is not important – what is important to note is what it says on the front. Or, what is doesn’t say on the front, because, very often, the bus looks like this:
I suspect they do it to spite me, because the bus always gets me excited and then I jump up and think it is coming, and then when it is close enough to read the name, it is usually the wrong one. That’s when I get so annoyed that I will just board the wrong bus and walk an extra three k at the end, out of pure frustration.
The second annoying thing about waiting for the bus is sitting there at the bus stop…
… and realising that you need to go to the bathroom. You take out your watch…
… and start wondering if you have time to run there and back before the bus is due. This represents many conversations I’ve had with myself on that thrice-darned stop:
“I’ve got 10 minutes, do you think I can go that fast?”
“Of course, who takes that long?”
“No… there’ll be a queue and then I be late.”
“Don’t be silly, why now?”
“Why not? Besides, if I leave now, the bus will be early today.”
“You know it never is. You know it’s always late.”
“But today might be an exception…”
And so forth.
Usually I spend the entire time until the bus finally comes just debating with myself and then I still haven’t gone. Whoops…
Another annoying thing is the waiting itself:
I think this says everything there is to say about it. I look at my watch every two minutes; I stand up every minute to look down the road… and then that last watch depicted is still only a maybe. The worst feeling is when that last watch also passes and still no bus…
No, I tell a lie. The worst feeling is when…
Someone you know from class comes blaring by the stop in their arrogant little car, making certain that you notice them… And then they’re gone. And you are still stuck waiting for the bus. This feeling is of course amplified if the person driving is younger than you. It is moments such as this that leaves me green with jealousy, and wondering if anyone will mind if I just quickly excuse myself to go stab the bastard and return to the stop before the bus comes.
There are of course still many other annoying things about riding the bus, such as it being late every single day, but the day that you were talking to someone outside class and end up tardy, it will be on time. Or even early. Then you have to run your legs off and arrive at the stop just when it drives off again…
Poor legless, carless, you…
So, what about you? Do you have any qualms about riding the bus? Any horror stories? Or any little gremlins that annoy you so, so much? I could go on like this all day, but I have to end this post here and now.
Until next time then!
