Too late, I’ve fallen in love

with my new layout. Consider this an attempt to motivate myself to get back to blogging properly. The glorious background is from DinPattern run by the talented Evan Eckard. The patterns are lovely, I tell you. A lot of ‘em are illustration-based, which is always a delight. I picked this one because it was reminiscent of Where the Wild Things Are. Hopefully this change in appearance will bring about other changes as well.

That being said, have some (oversaturated) pictures of people:

Everything was taken using Vignette, which is sort of like Instagram for Android, I guess. Top to bottom–1. Ate Jacky at Moonleaf (she had their peppermint milk tea. I ordered Yoghurt, which is basically a large serving of Yakult.)  2. Franz, at Box ‘O Rice (picture snapped by Ate Jacky) and 3. Geo at Casaa, eating her lunch (yes, that small jar) of spinach and potatoes. Mrmm.

 

Let’s be Meteors

She opened her eyes and saw a wide field of grass under a wide indigo sky. The stars were just beginning to come out, the clouds glowed a deep orange. The field curved into a hill, and she was standing on top of it. The wind blew, and she could hear the rustling of trees towards the east, but when she turned to face the sound, there was nothing except more hills.

A thunderclap, a line of lightning. What am I doing here? Her eyes traveled over the contour of the land, tracing a line from earth to sky, fixing themselves on the stars. What did she expect to see, or hear? A deep voice from the heavens?

Who are you? Show yourself. The words were dry in her mouth, but whole in her mind, and a vein of fear came alive somewhere inside her. She didn’t expect that fear would feel like fire. It burned, white-hot through her body, but she could not close her eyes. The orange clouds began to move, slowly at first, until they seemed to rush over like a river.

You. She was on her knees when it happened, eyes staring at her dirtied knees and the surface of the grassy hill while her hair hung around her face. A bright light came, filling up the darkness, seeming to consume and conquer everything around her, stretching out for miles and miles. It was unbearably bright, and at the last moment she reached up to cover her face with her hands–

Suddenly, everything was warm.

/Fifteen minute writing exercise

Life-in-general Update

The musical rut

I am in one, and it’s lasted longer than usual. I’m not the type who can’t live without it–MUSIC IZ MY LYF–no, no. But I miss finding shiny new gems of song, I miss floating through the day on a single melody. The siblings make up for the background noise, however. It’s been snatches of  Stereo Hearts and Oh Land and Ellie Goulding. I was telling Jessica about the evolution of Abigail’s musical taste–how I’d “raised” her (influenced her, rather) to match my own indie-pop/electronica/non-mainstream preferences, only to have her veer away into Katy Perry, Usher, Taylor Swift, etc. I don’t mind at all, really. It’s just surprising that Pat’s the one picking up on the doe-eyed floaty-voiced female vocalists (Oh Land and Ellie, and Florence) despite having rued my music in general (she found a lot of it weird–I have Laura Veirs to blame for that).

I am perfectly content with waiting for the fruit to fall, though.

The scholarly life

Has been enjoyable to a degree, has been driving me mad, but still, it is an enjoyable drive. One class has turned me into this grade-conscious creature, but only because I know I can ace it, but fall short somewhere, somehow. Let’s see.

As expected, some classes capture my full attention, others don’t, although I am blessed with incredibly considerate and loving teachers for the latter sort. Forever grateful. If anything, the Anglo-Am survey courses serve to quicken the mind and raise the blood pressure levels: both classes are highly entertaining, surprise graded recitation and excessive moodswings provide a dose of unwanted drama and classroom strife from time to time.

Writing classes are fairly productive, although cramming has proven itself to be a hardy habit. Still, I feel I’ve had enough drive in me to carry on through the semester with pretty good results so far. The Lev Lochan story is an uncertain creature, although thankfully non-corrosive. The yet-to-be-written Two Bowls story remains a germ, but we’ll see where the next few days take it, idea-wise.

Idle moments and strolling through glass

I have at least two books to read at the moment: one is for class, called The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst, and the other is the third volume in A Song of Ice and Fire, A Storm of Swords. I’ve barely started Hollinghurst’s, but I’ve been on a three-week ASoIaF streak, with one book a week. Tomorrow is the one week mark for Storm of Swords, and I’m only halfway through. This, and the continuing search for Batgirl #1 and fairly decent food is what preoccupies me.

And writing, of course. I killed the excitement-wave for the McDo vs. Jollibee stories, but maybe I’ll take them up again sometime soon. Too many characters are in it, the novelty’s worn off, at least for me.

Things that are awesome

Food-wise, it is Lord Stow’s iced tea, Sonja’s cupcakes and still the tre formaggi from Friuli. Of course, there is mint Kitkat, raspberry ice cream from SC’s own version of Fruits in Ice Cream, and isaw from Mang Larry’s.

People-wise, they are my classmates. From barely-met people, they’ve grown into friends with secret sniggers and jabs. They ask opinions, share snippets, complain, walk, text, talk. They laugh, most of all, about a lot of things: nicknames, all things phallic, all things gay, awkwardness, teachers, other classmates and the noises that happen while a lecture goes on. They fangirl with you about Game of Thrones and try to loop you into Doctor Who, they offer to cover your books in plastic and hang out after class, even if it is raining.

So far, I feel I am in a good place. I am thankful.