I see what I want to do there

OH. MY. FUCKING. GOD.

2008-05-14T15:05:57Z

Dissertations done and handed in. Exams next week. Moving on to the OMFG.

I was looking around my old old external harddrive to find some Kyou Kara Maou (no, I don't know why) and found a bunch my old High School work. Including a script for an English project done with reservoir and others. We had to perform a modern adaptation of a scene from Macbeth, and we decided to tape ours and edit it to make it all shiny. Our modern adaptation was in the style of, uh, Valley Girls. So, Seana has said I should post it, because for all of its cracky 11th grade immaturity it is still very funny in a satire of badfic kind of way.

This is now 5 years old, unedited from that time, a lot of the humor may only make sense if you know the people involved, and it was always meant to be (awesomely) bad. So, with that in mind, I give you our 11th grade English project (Oh god ...):

Macbeth, William Shakespeare, Act IV, Scene i
Modern Adaptation: Valley Girls

Cast:

Jane (first witch) – Kerry (chibikaijuu)
Tracie (second witch) – Seana (reservoir)
Stacie (third witch) – Kat (white_howler)
Heci (Hecate) – Lowell (aegeus)
Mac (Macbeth) – Lowell

---------------------------------

EXT. A SEMI-WOODED AREA – DAY

A cauldron sits in the middle of the scene, JANE comes into the scene carrying her familiar, a CAT, and a bag.

CAT
Mew, mew, mew.

TRACIE enters with her familiar, a HEDGEHOG, who nips at her nail, and a few grocery bags.

TRACIE
Unh! Stupid animal! I broke a nail …

STACIE enters with her familiar, a CROW, and a bucket of assorted items.

CROW
Caw! Caw!

Jane starts to flounce around the cauldron, and pulls a dead frog out of her bag while Tracie and Stacie look on.

JANE
Come on, let’s like dance around the
cauldron and I’ll throw in this icky frog I found
on the side of the road … ew …

Jane’s face takes on a look of disgust as she holds the frog at arms length and throws it into the cauldron. Stacie and Tracie join her around the cauldron.

STACIE, TRACIE and JANE
Double, double toil and trouble;
fire burn …

Stacie burns her finger on the cauldron.

STACIE
Oooow!

She regains her comopsure.

STACIE, TRACIE and JANE
… and cauldron bubble.

Tracie pulls a fillet of sole out of one of her grocery bags, and steps towards the cauldron.

TRACIE
I, like, couldn’t find fillet of fenny
snake at the grocery store, so here’s,
like, some fillet of sole …

STACIE
Leather?

TRACIE and JANE
Shut up.

Tracie throws the fillet in the cauldron, and then pulls some more things out of her bags. She throws these in, getting increasingly disgusted with each that she throws in.

TRACIE
And then, like, the eye of newt …
and the toe of … frog …
and a bunch of other icky stuff … ew.

Jane and Stacie step up to join Tracie at the cauldron.

STACIE, TRACIE and JANE
Double, double toil and trouble;
fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Jane and Tracie step back while Stacie picks up her bucket and starts to put things from it into the cauldron.

STACIE
Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf …
this is starting to sound like a Chinese
place … liver of blaspheming jew …

Stacie and Tracie look accusingly at Jane, who pulls an innocent face. Then Stacie dumps the rest of the bucket into the cauldron.

STACIE
And whatever else is in this bucket.

Tracie and Jane again join Stacie at the cauldron.

STACIE, TRACIE and JANE
Double, double toil and trouble;
fire burn and cauldron bubble.

TRACIE
This is getting, like, repetitive and is
taking way too long …

An easy-bake oven-esque BING.

TRACIE
… oh … it’s done!

HECI walks in wearing a bathrobe, fuzzy slippers, and a towel on her head. She is buffing her nails.

JANE
Aren’t you like, supposed to come in
with, like, a puff of smoke?

HECI
The smoke machine is broken and I
don't know how to fix it. That’s
what guys are for, duuuh!
(pause)
Well, Stacie, Tracie and … Jane …
you’ve all done a good job.
Now we dance around the cauldron
like elves … like Legolas … mmm …

Some grunge rock comes on from nowhere.

HECI
Um, like … no. Who’s picking the
music out these days? Ergh.

The Sign comes on and the witches plus Heci start to dance around the cauldron merrily. Heci dances out of the scene. Stacie knocks into Tracie, almost knocking Tracie down. Tracie stands up and looks daggers at Stacie, Jane looks daggers at both of them. Hit Me Baby One More Time comes on, we hear the lyric (Hit me …) and Tracie slaps Stacie. Jane then slaps Tracie. A fight insues, and MAC walks into the scene.

MAC
Like, dudettes, what are you doing?

The witches stop in mid-fight and look up at Mac.

TRACIE
Aerobics?

STACIE
Mulching?

JANE
(totally blank look)

MAC
Woah … dude … it’s like …
aerobic mulching! Dude! …
So, yeah, like I just came because
you dudettes are like so cool and
like my heroes and yeah. Dude.
Can I like, ask you something?

The witches scramble to their feet.

TRACIE
Of course.

STACIE
For shure!

JANE
Like, yeah … but maybe …
you want to hear your answer from
like, the higher powers that control us?

Mac looks confused for a moment … then appears to understand.

MAC
Uh … yeah, dude, that’d be cool.
Bring on the apparitions.

BLACK OUT

-------------------------

The finished product was even crackier due to someone's playing way too much with some of Final Cut Pro's sillier settings. The fight scene especially got drawn out and I believe ended up not having Britney Spears but Heart's Barracuda played over it. I also don't think this is the final version of the script, as I remember some other jokes in the final product, though those might have been improvised on the day. There was also an easter egg thing with reservoir dying of a SlimFast and cough syrup overdose that came after the credits.

We ended up getting a 100% even though almost none of classmates got the jokes. Our teacher did and that's all that matters.

asdf

2008-04-30T21:55:22Z

I might die of dissertations. Due on May 12! D: I might actually start posting normally again after all of this is over. Maybe. I am however very proud of this line at the end of chapter 4 of my Language, Truth and Literature disseration:

"Therefore, Lewis’s views on truth in fiction are left completely untenable and must be abandoned."

Take that David Lewis! And I even let you keep modal realism to do it!

Oh god I just tried to save this LJ entry, spending way too much time in Word. You may now return to your regularly scheduled friends page.

BATTORU: MALFURION v MEDIVH

2008-03-07T22:21:35Z

View Poll: BATTORU

Meme!?

2008-01-31T22:01:09Z

I don't usually do memes, but I like this one. :O

Leave a comment and I will:

1. Tell you why I friended you.
2. Associate you with something - fandom, a song, a color, a photo, a word etc.
3. Tell you something I like about you.
4. Tell you a memory I have of you.
5. Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.
6. Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.

Also, I apparently win at analogies. SPN fans, please don't kill me.

aegeus: and jensen ackles is hot
aegeus: but he was much hotter in dark angel
aegeus: so after dark angel
aegeus: watching spn
aegeus: is like watching spiderman for tobey maguire because you can't get your hands on anything with jake gyllenhaal in it
reservoir: ....that is just like
reservoir: the best analogy ever.
reservoir: I mean, SERIOUSLY
reservoir: BEST
reservoir: EVER

I'VE STARTED A BLOG :O :O

2007-12-16T22:39:35Z

Went shopping on Oxford Street yesterday. That was FUN. In all reality, it wasn't too bad. Got a scarf and some new jeans at Topman, then went Christmas shopping for Alex's family. (We're doing all shopping for US people in the US, because fuck bringing stuff on the plane ... also, cheaper!) Spent a lot of time in Liberty looking for Alex's mum, and not really finding anything, then went down toward Soho for some food, bought wine for Alex's parents (a nice 1996 Saint-Émilion Grand Crú, natch) and some other presents, then decided to walk all the way back to Liberty to check the price of a vase Alex had seen and wanted to get for his mom. That ended up being Murano glass. And £400. So, yeah. Didn't buy that. He got her a placeholder present of a bauble with promise to get a better present in the US. Went over to his parents to help decorate their tree and had a nice Sunday roast too.

Anyway, I like to talk about music. I like music. I hate some music. I rant, I ramble, I do a lot of talking at people about it. I regularly filibuster jlh in IMs because I have no real outlet for it. I don't post music stuff here much because most people just go TL;DR at it. So, I've started a music blog. It exists mostly as a place for me to write up my thoughts about music, and will generally be quite rambly and obscure, and I don't really expect anyone to read it. However, if you would like to read my music blog you can find it here. I will include recommendations, and would love comments and recommendations on it too. I'll still talk some about music here, but anything long I'll post there, and may or may not link to from here.

Have also created an LJ feed for the lazy to friend: ohnoesmusic

Recommend Me Some Musics!

2007-12-11T18:44:40Z

Term is over and am up in London with Alex until next Wednesday when we go back to the US for Christmas. By the end of the holidays I need to have figured out my dissertation title, so I forsee a lot of reading during this time, but still a lot less than during term time, as it is the holidays. I went through a month of not really playing WoW much except to arena, but have gotten back into it more recently, going to Kara and clearing it with DotA. Have participated in the downing of everyone in Kara except for Aran and R&J (and Chess, but that doesn't really count). I have like 10 million heroics to do for even more badges for crap. But yeah.

Anyway, I've been thinking of coming up with some sort of best/top/favorite albums of 2007 list. I'm doing this more to listen to music I may not have given enough of a chance or overlooked than as an actual exercise in ranking the albums, but I figure if I go into with that goal in mind I'll actually listen to everything more attentively. So, I've come up with a shortlist of albums I think fall into this category, to be listened to and whittle downed into a smaller (ranked?) list, but I want some of your input too. I miss a lot, musicwise, because I don't listen to the radio anywhere near as much as I used to, and I miss a lot of some of the more obscure US stuff as I'm not there anymore. So, please, recommend me any albums that came out this year that you really liked, that you think were amazing, that are in your top albums of the year group. I don't want to accidentally miss this year's TV On The Radio. Which I totally did last year. : /

Current albums on my shortlist, in no particular order:

Foo Fighters - Echoes Silence Patience & Grace
Justice - †
Maxïmo Park - Our Earthly Pleasures
Simian Mobile Disco - Attack Decay Sustain Release
Efterklang - Parades
Feist - The Reminder
Bruce Springsteen - Magic
M.I.A. - Kala
LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
The Wombats - A Guide to Love, Loss and Desperation
The White Stripes - Icky Thump
Fountains of Wayne - Traffic And Weather
Future of the Left - Curses
The Pax Cecilia - Blessed Are The Bonds
Deerhoof - Friend Opportunity
Battles - Mirrored
Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Editors - An End Has A Start
!!! - Myth Takes
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
Paramore - Riot!
British Sea Power - Krankenhaus?
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Is Is
The National - Boxer
Broken Social Scene Presents: Kevin Drew - Spirit If...
The Rumble Strips - Grils and Weather
Patrick Wolf - The Magic Position

There are a few things on there that I already want to cut out after listening to again, but I'm going to leave it up as it is for now, and whittle it down later. I may not ever actually whittle it down, as my real goal is simply to listen to a lot of new music. And ranking shit is hard anyway.

HAIRCUT ZOMG

2007-11-28T15:16:21Z

I broke my habit of only having a haircut once a year by having one a mere six months (!?) since the last one. It's so SHORT. It's shorter than it's been in YEARS. The fringe/bangs is still longish, but quite short for me, and the back and sides are just absurdly short, but I really really like it. Before and after pics after cut!

Before:

After!:

You can't really see the back in those pics but it's really quite short, especially compared to the front. It feels so weird, but I really like it so far. Whoo. Also, wow, my room is a bit of a mess. I really should clean it. >.>

Smoothies with Hats

2007-11-23T16:15:39Z

I totally forgot yesterday was Thanksgiving until I asked Seana on IM why she wasn't at work. Oops. My Thanksgiving dinner consisted of a massive korma I didn't finish and felt sick after eating. A good Thanksgiving indeed. 8D

Only two more weeks of uni until the winter holidays, and in less than a month I'll be back in the US with Alex. Whoo. chinawolf and Drae should be showing up sometime tomorrow, cruelly stolen from yuki_scorpio via our associates in Oxford. Haven't seen Tine in a bit less than a year, and have never met Drae, so should be fun! If Drae isn't secretly evil. >.> I don't think Tine would date someone who was evil though.

Anyway, the real point of this entry is that Sainsbury's is selling Innocent smoothies WITH HATS ON THEM:

They have cute little knit hats and don't cost any more than normal (in fact they cost less than they were supposed to, what :<). Supposedly 50p or so of every smoothie with a hat sold goes to help old people, but I can overlook this for the sheer fact that it is a smoothie wearing a hat. Alex is slightly worried about what we'll do with the hats when we drink the smoothies. I think he's missing the point of it being a smoothie in a hat.

ETA: Finally have Leopard. Off to installllllll.

pewpew

2007-11-10T07:08:15Z

The rave had lego! So I made a spaceship:

Bed time now. At 7am. >.>

It's hard to write an entry and not make it try to have a point

2007-11-09T22:35:38Z

Went to Oxford Circus today to go shopping. There were so many people out. Does no one, like, work on Friday? I thought maybe we would have avoided the insane weekend crowds I hate so much, but no, they were out in force. Bought some clothes, including a pair of jeans that got a big NO from reservoir and jlh, but I bought them anyway. (wordplay and broken_wings217 thought they were a good idea, so :P)

Went to the Apple Store to buy Leopard but it had shut early for iPhone launch. There were droves of people outside queuing for a smartphone that isn't 3G and has its amazing potential in other areas completely gimped by the firmware. I love Apple, but I really think the iPhone is a bit shit, they've got this great touch interface (like, absolutely fantastic) and then went okay, so know we don't have to make any of the other features any good. Especially considering most of those features could be included with no actual work on Apple's part. Oh well.

Alex and I are off to meet friends to go to a rave. Well, not a real rave, as it's in a club in Vauxhall, not a field somewhere. And it's not 1998. More of a new rave. Though I don't know if it will be New Rave. More on this later maybe.

A real entry WHAT :

2007-11-09T00:51:58Z

So imma start updating more. I used to update a lot, with real updates. That was a long time ago. I still, as always, read my flist everyday ... I just don't post. I think I had a block against posts having to be special for some reason, exceptionally funny, or an important commentary on something, and I couldn't post just about my day and stuff going on. It's lead to me posting very sparingly and when I do it being random vaguely funny stuff that's not actually about me. So I'm going to start actually using this like a journal again. Hopefully I'm not too boring. >.>

Got my plane tickets home for Christmas, and Alex is coming too. :D He hasn't been to the US since my prom and graduation in 2004. That was a great visit, though prom could have been better. Nothing that happened in particular I just didn't feel in the mood, which was a shame because I was at senior prom with my boyfriend, and that's not something a lot of guys get to do. At least not without it making some sort of statement or upset. It looks as if this time my mom will actually let Alex and I sleep in the same room (omg yay, this annoyed me to no end last time, us sleeping separately, though I see why my mom made us do it :<). Alex is also coming down to a Brighton a lot more this year as I have a much better flat that isn't a shit hole. This is a Good Thing. It also means I don't have to take the train every weekend up to London, which is always a pain in the ass. >.>

Third year at uni is ... weird so far. There's like, zero work, but TONS of reading. Like, I've done more reading in the last five weeks than I did in all of my first two years. I have an essay due on Tuesday, but it's unassessed (doesn't count), and it's my only work this term. I have three courses, two are evaluated by exams in May and the other by a 6,000 word dissertation (not a dissertation of the sort you'd think of in the US, just a long essay on a topic of my choosing - I'll actually have two of these to do, one on a topic in Wittgenstein and one on a topic from a later course). My three courses next term are the same. So come April/May I'll probably be going insane with study/dissertation writing. And then I'll be done and out in the real world. More on that in another post, maybe. My ethics course, Moral Problems, is interesting, but I'm running into difficulties being an ethical non-cognitivist in an applied ethics class. How do you argue applied ethics when your meta-ethicial viewpoint says there's nothing in them to be arguing about? (ETA: Alex doesn't like those two previous sentences. He says I'm alienating my target audience. <.<) Wittgenstein and Philosophy of Science are less difficult in that sense, but still quite challenging in some respects. Wittgenstein especially, but that's the nature of his work so I can't really complain.

So, who's around DC December 19-29 and wants to do stuff with me and Alex?

MacArthur Park

2007-10-30T23:54:20Z

aegeus: It took so long to bake it!
wordplay: Look, baby, I have the recipe right here.

Look, it's little Sally Whitemane ...

2007-09-22T11:16:05Z

aegeus: so
aegeus: how's nipponland
reisha: I got crazy lost on the way to the hotel
aegeus: :<
aegeus: How long?
reisha: :< I wasn't counting
aegeus: haha
aegeus: How many times could you have run OH in the time you were lost?
reisha: OVER 9000

Captive Child says: Woot!

2007-08-19T04:36:15Z

aegeus @ 2007-08-10T14:14:00

2007-08-10T18:42:22Z

So. reservoir and I are at my parent's mountain house in the middle of Assfuck Nowhere, Blue Ridge Mountains, Virginia. Last night at dinner the people at the table behind us were discussing how their friend had written two academic books on Harry Potter, was working on a third, and had just been to a Harry Potter conference.

The middle of nowhere just isn't what it used to be. Though it is very pretty. And quiet. Very, very quiet.

Because we all need more funny

2007-08-03T17:20:38Z

Sent to me by jlh, who had it sent to her by ali_wildgoose. Don't know the original creator.

aegeus @ 2007-07-30T17:47:00

2007-07-30T22:26:03Z

There a NOT any spoilers in this entry. Read on, and please keep the comments spoiler-free too.

I tend not to engage in canon analysis because it annoys me, but sometimes JKR says something colossally stupid and I have to comment. From the Bloomsbury chat over the weekend:

J.K. Rowling: Muggle-borns will have a witch or wizard somewhere on their family tree, in some cases many, many generations back. The gene re-surfaces in some unexpected places.

Okay. This Does. Not. Work.

It can't be a purely recessive gene because it would then be quite rare for a wizard/witch who marries a muggle to produce a wizard/witch, which from the evidence we have doesn't appear to be true.

It can't be purely dominant because the Creevey brothers are both muggle-born, and if it were dominant then they would both have to be mutations and the chance of having two siblings with the same genetic mutation is very, very low. Also, it would mean that all muggle-borns have the phenotype due to a random mutation, and given JKR's earlier comment that 25% of Hogwarts is muggle-born this seems highly unlikely. Also against this is Ron's comment that they had to marry muggles or risk dying out, which wouldn't be an issue with a dominant gene.

It can't be incomplete dominance (where an intermediate phenotype is expressed, ie white and red = pink) because that would imply that half-bloods have less magical ability than pure-bloods, which isn't true, look at Tom Riddle and Snape.

It can't be co-dominance (where both traits are equally expressed) because, again, of the Creevey reason.

It seems the only way for it to work would be the 'gene' being magical itself, that is not just the phenotype being magical ability but the actual allele working magically. This would mean a squib would seemingly be someone for who the 'gene' magically (randomly) turned off. Many generations later some descendant of the squib would have it magically (randomly) turn back on for them, and we have a muggle-born witch/wizard. This is just mutations again, and leads back to some of the above questions. It also doesn't explain why it happened for both Creevey brothers, but not for both Evans sisters. It seems this is just another case of JKR having a complete lack of understanding in a specific subject, but applying it anyway. For it to be a 'gene' of the sort JKR implies it would have to be so far removed from the concept we have of a gene so as not to really be a gene at all.

To people who have more genetics knowledge than I do: Is there a way for this to work? I mean, as a single gene, not as the expression of multiple genes, which gets more complicated and could probably be twisted to make this work.

As multiple genes it could, I suppose, work by there being a phenotype for each gene such that its expression contributes X to magical variable M, and once M crosses a certain threshold you have magical powers, but an M just over the threshold and one way over the threshold grant the same power. That is, it would be a discrete threshold that has nothing to do with talent, merely the ability to either do magic or not do magic. While the idea of many genes has real life parallels in things like height, hair color and other things, I don't think there's a parallel to the discrete nature that would be required (if there is, can someone point it out?).

However, I doubt JKR thought about multiple genes, I think she just thought it would work when it didn't. But when her whole series is about supposedly ungrounded fanaticism in pure-bloodedness it seems almost irresponsible to give that grounding a basis in genetic fact. :< Oh JKR.

Doctor Who - The Sound of Drums

2007-06-24T09:57:14Z

So. I thought the episode was kinda ... shit, sadly.

Bear with me while I explain. I think The Master was done very well, his characterization has been very good. The Doctor's relationship with him has been treated well. Martha's story is all good. Essentially the 'character plot' is all very, very good. However the mechanical plot, the simple who's doing what to whom, seems to me to be a re-hash of so many other episodes.

For more of an explanation take Russell's favorite Buffy, which he admits to trying to emulate both here and in Torchwood. Buffy, when it was doing well always struck a very good balance between the character and mechnical plots, and for the most part kept them both original. While the mechnical plot may have always been 'OMG something's going to destroy the world' it was always done differently each season and it always affected, or even reflected, whatever emotional drama the gang was going through. The villians always used different means from their predecessors toward ending the world and antagonising the gang.

So, back in Doctor Who we have the character plot going strong and original, we're dealing with The Master and Doctor's relationship, The Master's plans and the Doctor's in turn to save him. We have the Jack plot, and the Martha plot all tying in. But The Master's actual plan? The mechanics of it? We'll have a lot of things come out of the sky and kill people on Earth. The companion will be separated from The Doctor and have to do something to help, possibly even to save him. We even see Martha running around with some sort of resistance type thing next week - because we've never seen that before. My guess is, as always, there will be some sudden epiphany in the last ten minutes of next week that will save everything.

Of course elements of the mechanical plot have been interesting, the build-up, all the mentions of Saxon in earlier episodes and in Torchwood. The method The Master is using is interesting, with the TARDIS being a Paradox Machine, but overall The Master's method for taking over Earth has been done before, more than once. I've always had my reserverations about Russell as a writer, I think he makes very good characters but re-uses and steals plots and lack originality in that regard. I think this episode just exemplifies that.

It's not that I thought the episode was bad, I just think that it got so caught up in this return of The Master and his characterization and relationship with The Doctor that they just thought that could carry the mechanical plot. There's no reason we couldn't have a more original way for The Master to be attempting a take-over of the Earth, it just seems Russell was lazy, and everything I've seen so far is either an element of something used before, or almost a direct rip-off (the Taklofene [sic] flying down WAS the Daleks flying down). For a lot of people, especially in fandom, it seems The Master is enough, having this character plot is enough, but for me the lack of an interesting and engaging mechanical plot makes the character plot hollow. If Buffy could always at least attempt to make the mechanical plot different and interesting each season, why can't Doctor Who? It has made The Master, despite being a very interesting and different CHARACTER, the exact same hollow VILLAIN we've seen so many times before.

[NB: Not saying Buffy is perfect, it has its faults. There are also other shows that mix character and mechanics very well, I just picked an example that I knew Russell liked and tried to be like. It's use here is nothing more than as an example, don't try to reverse my argument by arguing that Buffy didn't work either, because even if it didn't the point of the matter is that a show should at least TRY.

NB2: Also, when I say fandom is the more likely culprit to think that the character plot is enough to carry the show I don't mean it as a negative to anyone in particular, or even fandom in general. It's merely an acknowldegement that because of its nature people in fandom are going to be the ones more concerned with the characters. They know the backstories, they know the signficance of every character and their interactions, and the characters are what drive fandoms, especially shippy and fic based fandoms. I also hold no problem with the people that think the character plot carries the show and an interesting mechanical plot isn't as needed, it's just not my opinion and means I got less out of the show than they did.]

I do hold out hope for twists next week that may make everything I said here invalid. I just doubt it'll happen.

aegeus @ 2007-06-16T20:06:00

2007-06-16T19:08:17Z

Who mentioned to malachan BEFORE the entire third series began that Derek Jacobi should be The Master simply because he'd be the perfect casting for the role?

Oh yeah. That would be me.

The first of many, hopefully.

2007-04-27T14:55:50Z

Right, so I've not posted in FOREVER, as usual. But as always I am reading my flist everyday, so that's something, right? Anyway, going to endeavor to post more often. Don't know why it's so hard now, when four years ago I'd post twice a day.

Life is good but also full of stuff to do. Exams, essays coming up. Have to figure out housing for next year as we can't stay in this house, as amazing as it is. Spring break was fun, reservoir visited me in Brighton and then we went up to London for a week where we did silly tourist things that I never really bother with, and also saw Equus. Yes, Daniel Radcliffe naked. Mmm. Okay, moving on. Rest of the break was quite relaxed, stayed in London for most of it, then back down here for the last weekend before school started back up. I have a new phone which is apparently 'the world's slimmest slider' and has all the top end features and can also produce Shakespeare. Well, maybe not that last one. It's also technically not available yet. I had no idea it was this good, I just went into Vodafone for an upgrade and pointed and was like 'this one is pretty.' *shrug* It has a great camera so I've actually been like ... taking pictures. Have posted a bunch on Facebook if you have me friended there. (Supposedly you can see them by clicking here even if you don't have a Facebook account. Someone tell me if this works?) Anyway, more updates, divided into neat categories so you can skip the ones you don't care about:

School:Essay deadlines coming up, and then four exams after that. I really don't know what my position is on one of the essays is, on epistemological transfer of warrant, so I really need to throw myself into reading for that one. The other one is on anti-individualism in Philosophy of Mind and I know my position very well, I just need to re-read Burge a few times to make sure I cover all my points against him. And he's dense. Very dense. And Chomsky likes him, which is never a good thing. Third essay isn't really an essay but an 'exercise' for Pragmatics which essentially involves all the work of an essay without having to write nicely. Haven't gotten the sheet for it yet, but I know at least half of it will be on conversational implicature, which is very fun. (wordplay, will you be around for talk of Grice for this in the next few weeks, or are you busy with work and school?)

Life: Life is ... good? Full of stuff to do. As I said above we're not living here next year, so I need to sort out where I'm living next year and possibly put stuff in storage as my furniture can't go to London for the summer while I'm in Silver Spring. Also need to sort out flight home. And figure out how final bills are paid for utilities. Meh. In lighter news I started playing WoW in January and have been going strong since then, but am faltering a bit on it now. I think it's mostly because I have too much work and am at a level in WoW where I need more undivided time to play then I really have. So I've started a bunch of alts, but I probably won't be on it much until after exams. Other than that life is mostly school, and London with Alex on the weekends.

Music: Last music post I made was in ... December? I think. Recc'd CSS, Gossip, Datarock and Broken Social Scene, the first three as I was moving into listening to a lot of electro-indie/new rave stuff. Still listening to a lot of that but Klaxons have caused this huge New Rave explosion that's brought in a bunch of shit that's just not worth listening to, so I've not really bothered to sift through it all to try and find anything good yet. The lead singer from CSS (the weird electroindie Brazilian band that's gotten quite big, at least here in England) is making a solo album with Timbaland which I'm really not sure about. Could be amazing? Could be shit.

Am really behind and have only just picked up the 'new' Deerhoof album The Runners Four which I was told was very good, and is, in an odd noise rock gone pleasant sort of way. Not as jarring as the stuff off Apple O' and therefore more generally listenable. Didn't realise how old this album was, actually, apparently was released in late 2005? They've just released another new album, which I may have to pick up.

Moving back towards the electro indie but away from the New Rave side of things I've picked up the first two volumes of the DFA Remixes. DFA is a record label based in NYC whose bands include LCD Soundsystem, The Rapture and other sort of Dance-Punk outfits. Two of the founders of the label do interesting extended remixes of sort of indiscriminate genre, generally quite stripped and electronic and layered with lots of build up over the entire track. Generally more of a new song than an actual remix, taking cues from the music of the original and overlaying the vocals. Anyway, the remixes are very good, include remixes of Soulwax, Le Tigre, N.E.R.D., Nine Inch Nails, Hot Chip and Gorillaz, among others. I may have played the Gorillaz Dare remix for people sometime over the last year as I've had it for awhile. These are highly recommended if you can get your hands on them/ask me to upload some of them.

Back to rock the new Maxïmo Park album is good. Very good. Excellent. Also not very like their first album at all. The new Arctic Monkeys is meh. I didn't like the first one, I like this one more, but not very much. I have the same problem with them as I have with Klaxons - they're good, but not that good, and there's much better in the same vein to listen to. Unlike Klaxons, however, I do hear moments of genius in Arctic Monkeys and keep hoping they'll relax and stop trying too hard, and they might be amazing. :<

Need to listen to more of Idlewild, Soulwax/2 Many DJs and try to find more DFA stuff, as well as a ton of random indie bands to sift through.

Also Stanton Warriors have made me like breakbeats, which is scary as I swore that would never happen. And I'm also starting to prefer house over trance. My whole dance music world has been turned upside-down. Need to sort that out.

TV/Anime: Am so behind on both TV and anime watching it's not even funny. Over the summer I'll download insane amounts and catch up. Until then ... too much other stuff to do. :<

A picture! But not of me. :P

My housemate Jess, on the train to Brighton Monday night. Somehow we got from closing time at the pub in Beckenham where she lives to the LAST tram to East Croydon (South London for those who don't know) to the LAST train to Brighton and into Taxis and home at 1:30. We still have NO IDEA how we accomplished this.

I need a haircut. Anyway, off to London for the weekend.

ROFLCOPTER

2007-01-20T22:29:16Z

Right, so the third best football (soccer) team in Switzerland is called BSC Young Boys.

Their stadium? "Stade de Suisse Wankdorf."

That is all.

aegeus @ 2006-12-19T12:00:00

2006-12-19T17:00:54Z

Can I just die please? So tired of this shit. Kthxbai.

Cough. Cough. Cough cough.

2006-12-18T19:31:35Z

Right, so I've decided I'm going to start updating this thing more often, I feel out of it when I started University last year and various people have been bothering me to get back into it. So, here goes early New Year's resolution.

I've been sick the last few days, though it's been very odd. From 7 or so in the morning I've felt fine and then in the evening I'd start feeling bad spiraling into horrible nights of hot and cold and vomitting and 101ºF fever. Had a strep test which came back negative, and they've taken blood for mono, but as I wasn't tired for weeks beforehand and am already starting to feel better I doubt it's that. Most likely just a virus that will run its course soon.

So, am home in Silver Spring until next Saturday, have been hanging out with friends and went to an hp_dcmetro meet-up at Bertucci's on Dupont Circle on Saturday when I was in one of my feeling okay states, was fun to see everyone. The last term has been good, as I've had no assessed work, but next term is going to be fun as I have three assessed essays due on the same day. You'd think that since these classes are in the same department they'd talk and not do this to their students. But no. They do. Also have the assessed work for this term due in summer that I should probably start doing research on.

Anyway, main reason for posting is that I've uploaded a few albums for people and thought I'd post them here for anyone else who may want them. All are 40-50mb, except the Broken Social Scene album which is 100mb, because it's encoded at a higher bitrate (and needs to be). Album names are the download links, artist names are Wikipedia links.

Album: Cansei de Ser Sexy
Artist: Cansei de Ser Sexy (referred to as CSS in most international markets)
Genre: Electropop-rock/indie, Crazy Brazilians
Notes: They're from São Paulo, and started as an excuse for the members to get together and drink. Lyrics aren't exactly silly, but can be quite odd ("Music is my beach house," anyone?). Fun and dancy. (This album is their Brazilian debut, the released an album with same title under the band name CSS internationally which is a combination of this album and their second.)
Favorite Songs: Music Is My Hot Sex, Alala.

Album: Datarock Datarock
Artist: Datarock
Genre: Electrorock, 'New Rave'
Notes: Norwegian electronic band, though they have quite a rocky sound. Some of their lyrics can be very silly, but they are technically brilliant and very tight musically, which is nice compared to some of the more overexposed 'New Rave' bands like Klaxons who seem to just drop some E, throw their instruments around and call it a song. I'd recommend them even to people who don't generally like electronic music because there's no really heavy bassline, and the songs are quite fun in general, and are musically quite interesting.
Favorite Songs: Computer Camp Love, Fa-Fa-Fa (this one is musically amazing if you listen all the way through), Ugly Primadonna.

Album: The Warning
Artist: Hot Chip
Genre: Electro-pop. But not.
Notes: Sort of like if you took The Neptunes, made them nerdy white boys and quieted them down just a little bit. Very hard to describe, definitely worth downloading to see for yourself.
Favorite Songs: (And I Was A) Boy From School, Colours, Over & Over, Won't Wash.

Album: Standing In The Way of Control
Artist: The Gossip
Genre: Rock. Overt Riot-grrl influences, without being as abrasive.
Notes: The lead singer is this short fat white girl from Arkansas with the voice of Aretha Franklin. Girl can sing. The entire album is full of upbeat dancy gems, with a few choice ballads. Very much Seattle, sort of a riot-grrl/grunge fusion for the 21st century.
Favorite Songs: Standing In The Way of Control (Listen to this first to hear her voice, because? Damn.), Coal To Diamonds.

Album: Broken Social Scene
Artist: Broken Social Scene
Genre: Indie-rock of the more subdued, non-dancy persuasion.
Notes: Canadian supergroup/collective of currently 16 artists. This album is multilayered and magnificent, but if you don't listen to it on equipment with good clarity it'll just sound muddled, dense or even 'what the fuck is going on?' Read this review, as it think it captures the album perfectly. If listened to correctly it is a magnificent, multilayered genius that is one of the best albums I've heard in a long time. Also, easy to listen to without being boring, which is always a plus.
Favorite Songs: 7/4 (Shoreline), Handjobs for The Holidays.

If you download any of these, give a listen and comment with what you think?

What're everyone's plans for the holidays? Is always fun to see what insane things you all have planned.

Funniest. Thing. Ever.

2006-12-02T17:14:45Z

I tend to not like it when people put up videos, but this doesn't play automatically and is quite short, so if it annoys you, just skip it. That said, this is the funniest thing I have ever seen.

Memetastic!

2006-11-05T12:13:49Z

So, I haven't posted in a few months. And now my first post is a meme. Aren't I so exciting? Anyway, off to do the two essays I have due this week. -_- Have fun with the meme.

Shuffle Meme

Step 1: Put your MP3 player on random.
Step 2: Post the first line(s) of the first 20 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing the song.
Step 3: Post and let everyone you know guess what song and artist the lines come from.
Step 4: Strike out the songs when someone guesses correctly.
Step 5: NO CHEATING (that goes for the guesser, too!)

Had to skip a few songs that weren't in English, were instrumental, had the title in the first line or I didn't even know. Anyone who's seen my iTunes library of 14,000 songs would know there's a lot of these, and if I were actually to put merely the first 20 songs that came up on shuffle I probably wouldn't be able to get any of them, much less any of you. Hopefully I haven't made it too easy.

1. See, I don't know why I liked you so much
2. Feels like I'm standing in a timeless dream
3. ~~Toe to toe, dancing very close~~, Rapture | Blondie, primroseburrows
4. ~~My friend the communist~~ Soak Up The Sun | Sheryl Crow, bloodstarz
5. ~~Once upon a time, not so long ago~~ Livin' On A Prayer | Bon Jovi, benjj
6. ~~Who doesn't know what I'm talking about?~~ Wide Open Spaces | Dixie Chicks, wordplay
7. There is nothing that is wrong in wanting you to stay here with me
8. ~~Get up, get on up~~ Sex Machine | James Brown, jlh
9. ~~I am an anti-christ~~ Anarchy In The UK | Sex Pistols, jlh
10. ~~Get a load of me~~ Why Can't I? | Liz Phair, rosegurl
11. ~~I opened a bank account when I was nine years old~~ Lost Woman Song | Ani DiFranco, hanacandi
12. I come from down in the valley
13. ~~Nobody on the road~~ The Boys of Summer | Don Henley, jlh
14. ~~Say your prayers little one~~ Enter Sandman | Metallica, bloodstarz
15. ~~The color of the sky as far as I can see is coal grey~~ Like The Weather | 10,000 Maniacs, jlh
16. She smashed the radio with the board of education
17. Friday night, it's party time
18. ~~Your body may be gone, I'm gonna carry you in~~ Ocean Breathes Salty | Modest Mouse, wordplay
19. ~~One pill makes you larger~~ White Rabbit | Jefferson Airplane, jlh
20. ~~Day after day I'm more confused~~ Drift Away | Uncle Kracker feat. Dobie Gray, primroseburrows