Post Exam Days

I am finally back after a week of intensive exams (each three hours long, and it doesn't help that we have to wear these kooky gowns that makes tourists gravitate towards you for photos). Spent the previous term writing essays, revising, cramming, despairing, and sorting other stuff out. Not I'm spent, and life seems so directionless without the stress, the reading, and the writing.

Oh wait, I do have to write a dissertation by September, and I need to get moving with that. But right now I'm just elated....this feeling will probably dissipate the moment I receive the exam results. In two weeks time.

NANO!

Guess what I got as an early birthday present (a really early birthday present....since its not until January)! My dad decided to buy it because it was cheap, and because he wanted to take it for a test-drive first...so right now he's just browsing through the photos and albums, turning the thing 90 degrees every now and then. But I get to use it when I head over to the UK. Apparently I wasn't the only person on campus who ordered one, since the delivery guy had an entire truck full of ipods that had to be delivered to students in dorms.

And Happy Mid Autumn to everyone! Mooncakes for all. Shall post something related to that soon enough.

Next Station

An image of Aein and Blithe together getting ready for the next station: London! Well, this applies for the Olympics but also for myself...grad school starts on October 1st.

Well, the Beijing Olympics are over, and I'm still nursing a headache from last night. Might have been the noise my neighbours were making during their celebrations, or it might has been that I stayed up too late (ended up watching movies- plural!- after the ceremony ended.)

The closing ceremony was pretty nifty, with lots of fireworks and shining lights. The London segment was interesting, though they were pretty much dwarfed by the scale of the other performances. The dancing was very energetic (tempted to use the word 'flexible) and creative. Leona Lewis was a confusing choice to represent London, and the poor girl didn't really have much of a performing moment; not with the awesome guitar drowning her voice out, and the cameraman focusing mostly on the guitar the entire time. (She's still a good singer though, nothing really changes that.)

Nonetheless, since I'll be in London in 2012, definitely will go to their opening ceremony and see how they convey their youth culture to the world. Might as well celebrate the fact that I'm almost past my youth, and must party while I still can.

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Death and stuffed animals....morbid stuffed animals. Afterall, he's not really about unicorns, 'plushies' and anything that seems approachable.

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And hurrah, I got my D-Grayark book today through the post! Scans posted online does it no justice. I did my maths; it's cheaper to order books online in Japan and have them ship it over to the 852 than to buy the book in Sogo HK! I don't understand where those extra charges come in; tax? Import fees?

In other news I'm getting my UK visa this Thursday, and I'm almost peeing in my pants. The guidelines on the website are effing scary; I can't bring anyone else with me, I can't arrive more than 15 minutes early, and I have no say in anything. I remember going into the U.S. embassy and I almost coughed up blood with the eerie silence and the stares from the security guard and other officials.

Home Once Again

So I'm finally back in Hong Kong after my little skit in Vegas and L.A.; and I take my words back from my previous post. I don't regret going to the Grand Canyon at all, the scenery was spectacular and the trip very educational.

But it wasn't without its problems. The meeting time for the Grand Canyon tour was 6:15am, and due to late buses; late tour-mates; car crash on the freeway; broken bus; another car crash on the freeway; detours, we got back to the hotel by 11:35pm. Needless to say we were all grumpy and tired at the end of the day, and it didn't help that we were wearing Summer clothing on a desert-cold night.

And right after the heatwave from graduation week, we were greeted with a series of thunderstorms in L.A., which also adversely affected (alliteration!) our flight back to Hong Kong. It was bad enough that LAX is currently undergoing renovation (meaning that half the airport was being taken apart), but the air hostess at the check-in desk was slow as hell , not to mention that there were a trillion children on the airplane with us.

I've even nicknamed the one sitting in front of me 'Damien' (from The Omen), because she wouldn't stop crying....not even to sleep or breathe.

But, one spot of good news is that I got into my graduate school of choice. So it is 'hello U.K.' for me afterall! My grades from my last semester as an undergrad are out, and it's the same as my freshman year; won't reveal what they are, but I'm just extremely pleased. Hyuk.

Surprisingly enough, saying goodbye to my friends in L.A. didn't turn out to be as difficult as I thought it would be. Perhaps I over-prepared myself for this sort of separation, so by the time I actually came around to experience it ...it was just such an 'old' feeling. Or perhaps I've been hanging around my L.A. friends way too often for the past few weeks that I might have 'overdosed' on their company. OR, it could be that they don't seem to regard the finality of my departure from L.A. on the same level as I do, and therefore I don't feel as though they actually will miss me (probably not true, but I can't help but assume at this point right now).
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Is it just me, or are the recent two DGM chapters super amusing? I love the characters so much that even if the plot is sheer crack I'll read it. Plus, having a mini-Kanda in there doesn't hurt.

Repetoire

Just an image of Erebos 'Nano' Rose and Aein together. One always coughs up blood, the other nosebleeds like no tomorrow. No wonder they make such good chums.
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Yes! thanks to hard work and dedication (or, spending 9 hours straight in the library writing), my thesis is 90%-92% complete! All I need to do is just polish off the conclusion and discussion portions, and tweak the transitions here and there between paragraphs. And then let my professor tear it apart on Monday. Oh joy. Anyways, I admit that I wasn't very specific as to the happenings on Thursday night, but I participated in a long standing tradition at the college I go to; and it was awesome. At first I thought I might have to go through it alone (seeing how I didn't want to get my phone wet so I left it at home...and then I couldn't find my friend at the meeting point because of the crowds), and it is a good thing that I was lucky enough to run into the people I was supposed to. So the last day of classes passed without much incident; except for a slight case of intestinal infection on my part. Funny how I start my freshman year with intestinal infection, and end with the same ailment too. Lets just hope I don't have to rush to the porta-toilet during the ceremony itself. But it was nice to end things quietly on a Friday afternoon having lunch with friends and just chatting away. Some good news would be that I'm getting over my attachment with the campus now. Came to the realization that I don't miss the university itself as so much as the undergraduate lifestyle that went with it. But then we all have to grow up eventually, and better now than never and realize that you missed out on so much more by staying in one spot your entire life. But this doesn't mean I'm not going to cry when I leave L.A. Sob.

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My friends and I were talking today and we agreed that it isn't wrong to hate someone to the point where you actually take delight in their misery and failures in life. Call us horrible people if you will, but what can one do? Damn, thats the situation with my roommate and I right now. Well, I dislike my roommate, and I hate my flatmate. My last flatmate is perfectly fine, and she's a cool person to hang out with.

The other flatmate is an absolute slob, and apparently doesn't like us because we're not the same kind of person she is (replace 'same kind' with 'race'...but I don't want to make her sound like a racist). But my roommate just won't stop bitching about the smell (actually had a breakdown in front of her parents), and since slobby flatmate left for the weekend there really isn't much we can do about it. Drama queens.

Countdown to Graduation: 14 days

Busy busy week; the last week of school is always hectic. Classes to go to, art projects to finish, essays to write, free lunches to eat, senior undergrad statuses to abuse....

Went to the end-of-year party at my part-time job, and got a free gift. Never realized how much I will miss my supervisors and co-workers until now. Sure, the job was repetitive and boring, and was labour intensive; but I also had a smashing time meeting new people. Plus, what job lets you get away with taking hour-long coffee breaks and lets you throw books into dumpsters? My official last day of work is next Thursday...and after that I'll be unemployed.

And running in water fountains is bloody awesome. The photos of the top are from the event, and I was worried that my camera would die after having water be splashed on it (but it turned out fine!). The water was gross and cold; my clothes are still soaked since last night; I got a few cruises and scratches, but it was totally worth it. Waited four years for this; but now I'm too tired to even move around. (Plus, I ran across campus last night; the most exercise I have had in years). Saw some old freshman/sophomore friends who I fell out of contact with; but thats life. I don't expect myself to be talking to everyone I met throughout my life.

Also, I picked up my cap and gown, and I feel like an oversized Batman. I swear the guy who measured my head wasn't looking at the tape measure properly; the cap is a little too tight, and makes my skull look super elongated (conehead!) But I felt a surge of smug satisfaction when a girl claimed that her head was big....and she only had a 7" skull! My head beat hers in terms of size.....(and probably ego).
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Now I have to finish my thesis before next week and have it proof-read and fixed. Need to revise for my exam, though I couldn't really care less how I do now. Need to buy a proper outfit for graduation.

Squared!

Well, spring break is here! Cheers! Ironically enough, I get no break at all. I have to work on my art project, my thesis, and my other graduate school applications. Oh, and I got suckered into going back to work on Mondays and Tuesdays. And my roommate left for Northern California without washing her dishes first, so the entire kitchen smells like a dump. Gah. ANd then I found out that my PS3 won't work on my laptop because it doesn't have the processing speed for it.

On the bright side, I got my laptop fixed [it had issues previously] and I'm happy about that; the processing speed increased. I still need to get more RAM to bring the laptop to its full potential (I don't want to buy a new laptop....that's too expensive) but I'm content so far. Lovely weather forecast for the weekend; cooler temperatures and windy conditions. Awesome.

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An image of Blithe Bauhinia...she likes her cubed hair ties. Drawn + Coloured completely on Open Canvas.

Loop and loop

Okay, only about an hour left before Dexter starts (sigh....Michael C. Hall....so smitten by his sociopath-i-ness) so I better make this quick and snappy. Here's a picture of Tieria Erde, whose bastard-ish attitude has won me over. That, and I like drawing his hair.

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Anywho: I was having another one of my "drama filled" weeks and I started crying three times already for no apparent reason. It can't be "that time of the month" because I don't get those anymore; and not because of menopause (I have another few decades to look forward to that). But I don't eat well enough, and I've pretty much stopped growing or 'aging' [appearence wise] since the start of college. So I'm stuck at this teenager point of life, and believe me, it's not fun to have someone constantly check your ID or ask if you're actually attending college when you're trying to make a purchase on campus. It also means I'm emotionally immature and prone to depressive episodes. But then again, some bad things did happen....

-I bought CS3 for a really good price, but that damn adobe website won't load and let me have the serial number. Damn you, adobe, you've thwarted me once again.

-head ache. Very painful. I need to see the doctor, though I highly doubt those useless bastards would do anything about it. (Last time I got food poisoning the ass told me to go to the pharmacy and buy myself antibotics. Didn't even tell me what kind of antibotics I needed).

-Didn't get enough sleep because my roommate come back early and made another ruckus around the apartment. And then I managed to piss her off when I told her I was staying in the apartment for Spring Break. Up hers (sorry for being crude), I live here too. Plus, unlike her, I have no family on this side of the Pacific so where the hell does she expect me to go? And out of spite she said she was going to stay a few days too...well if she wanted to have privacy tell her to go to her boyfriend's house. Oh wait, but she's cheating on him....

Oh hell I'm such a bitch today.

Rain on their parade please

Just two images testing the sort of colouring I want to use on Aein. I want Blithe to have vibrant orange hair with golden eyes, Edel to have dark eyes but with strawberry blonde hair-- but Aein has been such a difficult character to colour. So now he has brown hair with pink/green eyes. Ue shall have red hair with red eyes, because "red is the colour of blood". Sorry, I don't know where that quote came from.

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Well, I finally bought my plywood, and for 3USD a slab (140cm by 50cm each) I think it was a pretty good deal. Of course, I could have always picked something similar from the rubbish, but who wants to do that?

I'm also getting myself a second job, this time at the department I study at. Hopefully I'll get a decent hourly wage-- unlike what I get at the library I currently work at. Speaking of the library, my co-worker and I discovered larged puddles of water on the library floor today; and in the section with the books from the 1800s. Apparently the building is leaking, and the rains won't stop until Monday. I just hope I won't return to the library on Tuesday and realize that the entire place has been flooded.

PS: Cold weather is fabulous. I get to whip out my favourite Zara coat. And I must say that Zara is a wonderful brand.