Thursday 26 November 2009

Shiny new computers, art canvases and Godzilla

This is the first blog I'm writing on our shiny new Windows 7 computer. Windows 7 is new and shiny. That's all there is to say. Also I have a proper clock on my desktop as well as a calendar (those gadget things).

My art canvas is not going to be done for Monday. No one's is. I'm stressing out. Some people have gone past the stressed out stage and gone straight to the "wheeee I'm hyper" stage (where you get so stressed you just don't care). I don't like what I'm painting, mainly because it's not my idea but my teacher's. It also focuses on perspective, and I have always hated perspective, especially on big scale pieces as it's bound to mess up. It already has.

Been on Popcap games recently, completed the free version of Plants vs Zombies in around an hour (no, I don't have an addiction).

I've been ill the past few days (was properly ill on the weekend, all tired and runny nose and headachey) but have been at school/on psychology trips (that was on Monday, it was alright but I wanted to sleep). Being a combination of tired and ill is not good. I sometimes feel all lightheaded and floaty.

Read a book for the first time in over a month (mainly on the trains to and back from the psychology trip) - it was Slaughterhouse Five. I quite liked it, even if it did get slightly confusing with all the jumping around in time.

They sold lemon muffins in the canteen today which made me happy as I had been randomly craving lemon cake for a while (except they were 428 calories (I only checked because one of the art teachers asked me to, I never check the calorie count otherwise)).

I have been looking up Kaiju on Wikipedia (this probably stems from my obsession with Blue Oyster Cult's "Godzilla". How can you not love a band that has a song about Godzilla?) and now I finally know what the other creatures are from the end of the Simpsons episode (the one where they visit Japan) which had been bugging me for a while.

I have noticed other people haven't updated their blogs in a while *coughcough*...

Sunday 1 November 2009

New York! ...and other stuff

I do really need to write a blog about NY so I will do it now (instead of my fucking psychology essay that I actually cannot do).

Friday I arrived at the airport and while we waited I played Irish snap with Suzy, Jess and Ailis. Fastforward to getting on the plane. There is a fault with one of the computers. We wait over an hour to get it fixed. Finally the plane takes off. On this flight I watched the US version of Life On Mars (It's awful! Don't watch it!), Flight of the Concords (I've never seen it before so I watched the two eps they had, good stuff, may watch more one day) and Coraline (this was good too). Finally we arrive and there is trouble at the US customs with a few members of our group or something like that. We finally get on the coach... but it's the wrong one! We get off and get on the coach behind, which is the right one. Arrive at hotel. Dump stuff. Go to Bubba Gump's about four hours late. Get high on Mountain Dew. Off to bed.

Saturday we visited the Metropolitan and Whitney. Now the Metropolitan was pretty awesome, but I didn't like the Whitney. The layout was odd, it was too dark and there was nowhere to sit (did you know you can get addicted to sitting? Yeah, I found that weird too). That day I purchased on of those infamous I <3 NY hoodies. A lot of walking, my feet started to hurt. Dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe (where I bought a t-shirt). More cheeseburgers! More Mountain Dew!

Sunday we visited the International Centre of Photography and went to Brooklyn to draw views of Manhattan. Walking over the bridge, you could look down between the slats and see the flea market and river and other stuff below. Thankfully I'm not afraid of heights (only of falling) so I found this pretty fascinating. Other people didn't. More walking, hurty feet, Jess and I getting dragged around the clothes shops by Suzy and Ailis. I'm pretty sure it was Sunday we went on the Staten Island ferry and saw the Statue of Liberty from afar. Dinner at Bubba Gump's again, met a waiter George and asked him lots of questions, found out he had been in an advert, ate Southern fried shrimp. More Mountain Dew! Times Square is crazy at night. There is so much light pollution that the area above looks like day. Went up the Empire State Building (after being in a queue for about 2-3 hours - totally worth it though).

Monday we visited the MOMA which I loved and we also went to Ground Zero and drew that. In the evening we went to a secret floating garden place (it was some old Metro thing) where there was an amazing sunset. Plane back to England, which I tried to sleep on and didn't watch anything.

I have seriously condensed my trip down but I do have a tendency to attempt to write every tiny little detail - most of which you probably don't want to know (there were loads of odd people in NY. The prize goes to the large woman dressed in an American flag clothing making out with the stomach of a mini Statue of Liberty (that was outside a shop). Still disturbs me). Also on the last night all boundaries were lost between me and my roommates. You don't want to know what we were talking about. Oh and breakfast was good too. Pancakes and waffles! We all craved healthy food after a while.

Tuesday I arrived back but then had to go meet Sophie a.k.a "my friend from Pontefract" (one of the people from HS). Wednesday we both went out to Kingston and didn't really buy much (I did however get Jess' birthday present). Then went and invaded Twickenham's charity shops and bought some stuff, went to Blockbuster and bought second hand Blade Runner (director's cut) and Shaun of the Dead (Sophie told me it was good). We spent ages looking for a third DVD (it was 3 for £10) so she got one of the Scream movies for herself. Watched SOTD that night, it was good. Thursday went to Portobello road and Camden market, I bought some seahorse earrings (I love them!) and a new bag. That night watched half of Blade Runner (Sophie hadn't seen it) and watched the other half next morning. Again I could go on about how I love BR but I won't. Oh and the DVDs weren't scratched! They worked fine! So maybe only the rent-y DVDs are scratched. Also introduced her to We <3 Katamari, she thought it was really weird (don't blame her). On the train to King's Cross she was talking about her favourite movies and now I would like to see Rocky Horror (well, it was already 1st/2nd on my to see list (it keeps switching with Die Hard)). This means I'll have to search Blockbuster again one day. One day.

(Also I have broken my Star Wars virginity! I have seen the first episode. It wasn't the greatest but I didn't have high expectations in the first place... I'll see the second ep soon).

Oh you may have noticed the lack of pictures in this blog... I will do a post one day that will be all NY pictures so don't worry.