And Away We Go!

Here today, Australia tomorrow.

Catch you on the flip side!

P.S.: The plush bacteria are coming with me.

Update XXIII: Anniversary

Because I feel that I ought to write a few words every now and then, if only for the silent lurkers who surprise me months later by quoting, verbatim, fragments of my blog posts.

It's been about two weeks since this blog turned two years old. (And still without any customised graphics. I ought to fix that some time.) I find myself with a degree completed, on the verge of heading back overseas to boost it with an Honours title. It's going to be a different year certainly, but seeing as I've survived this far, I can guess that the schoolwork won't be what kills me.

A big difference is that I will now be a senior student, with the responsibility of the new RP students to take care of. I'll try to keep them from making the same mistakes as we did, but it will be an uphill battle. I suppose there is no way they'll believe us until they've gone and suffered though it all over again.

On the drawing front, I've made leaps and bounds. Roughly three years ago PowerPoint surprised me with its almost PhotoShop-like capabilities. Now MSPaint has surprised me with its ease of use as a sketching tool, even under the control of a mouse. While paper drawing still has its advantages, I'll probably focus on improving my digital art skills. At the moment they are still limited (by time, especially), but given how far I've come, I think there is still much further I can go.

I've also surprised myself with how much better I've got at gaming. I successfully completed Red Alert 2 at a higher skill level, pulling new strategies which I never tried before and completing missions much faster than I used to. Generals seemed almost insulting in how simple it was to win. While gaming in itself is not an inherently useful occupation, the skills required to be any good at it are valuable. I like to think I am better at strategy now. (Perhaps I should try playing chess again.)

All in all, I can see I've grown as a person, and perhaps am more ready to handle the world than I used to be. While last year I was a nervous wreck, this year I aim to approach it head-on, with a generous helping of confidence.

Now for the real important question: should I take my little helicobacters with me, or leave them at home?

Meme: Gift Thingy

Got this off Eud:

The first five people to respond to this post will get something from me. It will be about or tailored to those five lucky "victims". The catch? Oh, the catch is that you have to put this in your journal as well, if you expect me to do something for you! (or facebook, or something.)

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I give you!

2. What I create will be just for you.

3. It'll be done this year.

4. You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be fic. It may be poetry. I may draw or paint something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!

5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

Now post away! We love making presents, yes we do...

Retrospective: 2008

January 1st this time, and the new year has once again safely arrived. Reading the words I typed one year ago, I've decided that 2008 was the Year of Growing Up for me. I've changed as a person, one of the most important changes being that I've accepted my oncoming responsibilities as an adult. No more wishing that I could remain a child forever - that's all past and irrelevant now. No more being afraid of what will come.

That is not, however, to say that I will stop collecting plushies or Bionicle sets. I reject the notion that one needs to be a child to do those things. I'm also going to continue playing with PowerPoint as a digital art tool, because I've found that its limits can be pushed extremely far.

As for serious business, I'm going back to Australia for further studies at the end of the month. I have no idea what will happen, but I'm sure I'll discuss it as the year passes.

To the new year!

Helicobacter

<3

Update XXII: Point Form

• I'm back in the city of lions!
• Figuratively. I mean, we've never actually had lions and-
• I saw WALL-E on the plane. It was fantastic. Fluffy, but not in the utterly clichéd way most family movies seem to steer towards. And the underlying serious message elevated this movie from family fun to something truly great.
• Seven-hour flights suck. I woke up this morning feeling as if I had been rolling in gravel the previous night, instead of sitting in a cushioned chair for an extended period of time as was the case.
• I came back and found my room entirely cleaned up, the doing of my hardworking mother. I think I'll leave it that way. I'm not going to be here for long anyway.
• I managed to find a copy of the 2007 Transformers movie on DVD at half price before leaving Australian soil. I think Kmart was just trying to get rid of them.
• The trailer for the ambitious Black Mesa mod of Half-Life came out recently. Watch it on fullscreen mode, it feels like playing the game.
• So there's this one sculptor who uses Lego bricks for art. Magnificent.
• I love Auditorium. It's like being some sort of composer, in colour as well as sound.
• I ate large amounts of fish today.
• That is all.

Update XXI: These Titles are Getting Longer

Okay, so the most of the crunch is over. One more piece of Honours business to settle, and then it'll all be up to other people. Which means relaxation until graduation day, drawing comics, that sort of thing. Oh, and eating M&Ms peanuts. Lots of them.

I found a moth in my mug the other day. It didn't even have the decency to be dead.
...I hate moths.

I don't know what these flowers are, but they have a gorgeous scent.



I've decided that Copperpot is the greatest food company since PepsiCo - they manufacture dips with awesome-sounding names like hummus, tzatziki and guacamole. In spite of hailing from various countries, all of these dips taste fantastic. Even on their own. Yes, I've tried. It may be that the sauces themselves are inherently delicious in their own right, but I'm letting Copperpot have the credit for now.

The brilliant mind behind Concerned has a - well, not new, but newly-discovered by me - blog chronicling the exploits of an NPC and his attempts to lead a life completely lacking in eventfulness. Start reading it from here. While the adventure - or lack thereof - is set in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, you don't have to have played to game to get the humour. It's funny that the exploits of a nobody, especially one so hideous, can be so riveting, but there you are.

Colour IQ test! I managed to get a score of 0 (perfect), which is great news both for my eyes and my laptop's colour calibration. Maybe now I'll stop second-guessing my colour choices when illustrating something... Anyway, give it a go!

Dalek Workout - turns out even those evil guys need to exercise from time to time. I agree with one of the comments, the corny music absolutely makes it.

DE_dust2 - CounterStrike humour! The funny thing is that I actually have a friend who refers to himself as "SWAT". And we all know a Camper or a Newbie.
Take note, since this is about CounterStrike, practically everyone dies in the end, even the awesome characters.

I'm linking to this purely because I never thought Movie!Megatron could be so goshdarned adorable.
Also, Thumper, you horrible creature. How could you.

Anyway, that's all for now. More photographs and things later.