Mark Me Up, Jenny!

When I signed up for a Graduate Diploma in Media with RMIT, it was inevitable that, again, I will be faced with a task where I create my own blog. Thus, all posts categorized by the tag “grad dip”, and categorized under “RMIT” will be posts for marking consideration. Of course, I’ll be adding other appropriate and relevant tags and categories, however, the ones mentioned above are the main ones to look out for. Considering my lack of frequently blogging, there shouldn’t be any confusion when reading from my home page.

And, needless to say, my use of language will be much more formal, and my use of song titles will be noticeably zero.

Currently, I am to share a link to something that interests me. This seems like a very broad requirement, because I can feasibly send a link to tv.com and call it a day. But here is something that really interests me, and may be of interest for the reader, too.

One of my favorite pastimes is to read comics. My favorite series – and the only one which I make sure to buy hard-copy tradebacks for – is Saga, by Brian K Vaughan (also known as that guy who’s writing the television adaptation of Under the Dome), with art by Fiona Staples.

It’s hard to pinpoint my favorite thing – or the “why you should read it too” – of Saga. At a glance, the covers should tell you of Fiona Staples’ prowess in illustrating an expansive and fantastical world. Her mastery over color, even with an art style which calls on more flat colors than gradients, enhances the myriad of species and lights that BKV’s Saga-verse has to offer. When I read the first issue, I was immediately sucked into the dramatic and intricate history of the characters. Despite the slightly obvious Romeo-and-Juliet overtones, that the narrator’s voice comes from the infant child of the main characters denotes a certain “A long, long time ago” feel.

No, I can in fact point at my favorite aspect of Saga: Lying Cat. An interesting creature, the Lying Cat is an unerring lie detector, but also a useful and loyal weapon. Sidekick to the antagonist apparent, a merc named The Will, Lying Cat plays host to many humorous and even tender moments, when the truth – or the absence thereof – is the only thing you can rely on.

So, this is my initial post on something I an interested in, posted on my blog which I set up. What. A. Conclusion.

Alex.

I do not reserve the rights to any of the pages or works to which I’ve linked. Contrary to my wishes, I do not own television, nor do I wish to encroach upon Fiona Staples’ amazing art. I do, however, wish I owned a Lying Cat.

Moonlight Would Provide The Spark

[Three Cheers For Five Years – Mayday Parade]

Serena brought it to my attention that I never finished this post.

As this was two years ago and I’m not bothered enough to check back, I’ll do them all now. I actually have a post in draft for the last few days that I didn’t write, but since I have to sleep within the hour, this might be faster.

Day 01: Your views on death, how you cope, etc. – If I answered this already, forgive me. I guess my answer will be different now. Since then, I’ve come across two deaths, one close but not extremely close to me, and another in my own family. Both were very sad but not in the shock tragic way. The former is definitely very upsetting, since it was my friend who battled cancer for eight years, and who ultimately lost to it. The thing is, the whole family knew it was coming, so they had time to prepare, to spend time and to smile and laugh. Her last days were spent in the company of her friends and family, so all things considered, it was pretty beautiful. The second death was my own grandfather, and it was a bit of a shock, but he was old, he lived a full, happy life, and there were no prolonged pain and suffering. He left my grandmother with a place to live, money to spend, and they had a lifetime of memories together. So my views? Death sucks, obviously, since it’s the ending of an existence, but I’d prefer to think about them when they lived, and how good they lived, and in that way they can continue existing in a sense, and positively so.

Day 02: How you introduce yourself to new people. – I try to be myself, but for the most part I gauge the situation. It’s easy to create a public persona, a funny, slightly inappropriate jokey, kind of persona, and just let that take care of the social conventions. But let’s be honest, we all do that. It’s how society is made for us to survive in, and instead of condemning it, think about the kind of people in your life around whom you could drop your public persona easily. It makes times with them even more special.

Day 03: What you think about love. – Judging by the time stamp, this was initially written just before I met Amelia. June 2011, I was pretty into someone else, and it wasn’t requited. I would have been a bit naive, hopeful but ultimately cynical about it. Now, I think it’s probably at the stage where I think love is definitely something which can fix someone, but also an elusive something which you may never know you’ve had, because who knows what love is? How can you tell you’re in love, and not just deep infatuation? And more importantly: does it matter? If you’re happy, and they’re happy, and your sex drive is VERY happy, then does it matter if it’s not really “love”?

Day 04: Write about someone you love. – Please see previous posts about Amelia. SORRY I just have to sleep very soon.

Day 05: A list of things you fancy doing. – Lately, I’ve been working more, so I do appreciate down times when I can read a good comic or book, or watch some shows while playing Jetpack Joyride, or reading about cool new techie things. I also really, really enjoy cuddling Amelia’s dog Meg.

Day 06: Recommend some books to read. – This might just show my immaturity and taste in literature, but a few books I’ve been recently reading that I really enjoyed:

Perfume – the Story of A Murderer by Patrick Suskind (yes, I saw the movie first)

A Song of Ice and Fire (the series Game of Thrones is based off of) by G. R. R. Martin

Repotting Harry Potter – A Professor’s Book-by-Book Guide for the Serious Re-Reader by James W. Thomas (a wonderful way to also read through the series itself as you go along)

The Casual Vacancy (Where Rowling shows she really, really understands how people work) by J. K. Rowling

White Fang (literally one of the first adult English books I ever read, and I fell in love with it) by Jack London.

I’m also going to recommend some comics which I like.

Saga – Image Comics. The illustration is astonishingly beautiful, and Fiona Staples conveys emotions so artfully that some panels are laugh out loud funny, because of the way she’d draw the characters. The story is also compelling, but now that I’m waiting monthly for them instead of consuming them in one go, I feel like it’s so slow!

Chew – Image Comics. I have a thing for Image. Chew is funny and then punch-you-in-the-guts heartbreaking without notice. It takes quite a lighthearted approach at a really, really morbid theme, and it’s so fun to see where everything is headed.

Rising Stars – Image Comics. This series ended a while back, and I blew through it in one day. I’d wanted to savor it slowly, but before I knew it, it was pitch black and I had a sore butt, but I was just sobbing at how things turned out. It’s like Heroes, but better (which isn’t saying much, I guess).

American Vampire – Vertigo. Ever since reading Preacher (which is also good, but I won’t put it on my list), I thought Vertigo would come out with weird-ass things (just like Hellblazer too), but American Vampire’s story really SUCKED me in, even considering the fact that it had time jumps and deviations in protagonist focus. The world which Snyder created is so engrossing I wish they could make a bigger thing of it.

Fables – Vertigo. Also a surprisingly not weird series. It’s like Once Upon A Time but not so whiney. The reason I got into it was because I read a review for Wolf Among Us, which is the Telltale Game’s prequel to Fables. The game sounded fun, and the comics did too, so I gave it a go. Great decision, cannot wait for the game now.

Numbercruncher – Titan Comics. This was one of those random new comics recommended by Comixology, and I gave it a go. It was strange to start with but then the premise really grabbed me, then it continued being extremely awesome, and it’s something I’d totally re-read slowly while contemplating the idea behind it.

The Bunker – Hoarse and Buggy Productions. Yet another random digital-only recommendation, which turned out to be very time-travelly mind-bendy stuff. It’s slow in picking up and just started, so it’s not built up to much yet, but the creators are promising something huge, and I hope they deliver!

Day 07: Write about the arts (music, art, dancing). – Obviously, these things are all around us and we don’t realize it. It feels like these institutions have been built to such an elitist state that, if you’re not AMAZING AND TOTALLY ACE at it, then you’re relegated to “sucking” and “keep it as your hobby”. I mean, for most people, it probably is a hobby anyway, but they don’t need you to tell them that. I wish I was good at all three, because musicians/artists/dancers are sexy, but I think I’m okay with just writing and storytelling.

Day 08: Write a poem. – I once took a creative writing class where one of the assessments was to write a poem. I think poems are also built to be something more than it needs to be. Poems are meant to be a gathering of words in a way which draws beauty and instills thought and emotions into the reader. Just because you didn’t write it in a bloody sonnet format doesn’t make it any less special. A limerick isn’t any lesser than a haiku. A kid who wrote an acrostic poem using the word “MOMMY” and writing about how much they love their mother means a lot more to that mother than anything Hemingway could have come up with, because poetry isn’t about how poncy you are, it’s about the emotion behind it. In other words, I can’t really be bothered writing one right now.
Day 09: Photo of your favorite pillow. – I only have one pillow, and it’s light blue. Unless you want a photo of Meg again?

Day 10: How you wake up in the morning. – I tend to wake up more often to alarm clocks than not, then I take 10 minutes to scroll through my overnight Twitter feed, especially for interesting news, then I get up and do my stuff.
Day 11: Write about your sibling(s) or what it’s like to be an only child. – Being an only child can be lonely sometimes, and also your parents pressure you a lot, since they only have you to make them proud. But, you get lots of stuff, so whatevs, right? It’s getting late and these questions ask too much of me!
Day 12: Your relationship with your parents. – I think this is a bunch of worms which need to remain in the can for tonight.
Day 13: Write about what you believe in, be it God, yourself, etc. – I believe in finding happiness, and one’s innate right to be happy, no matter how. Of course, if being happy means you absolutely need to go on a killing rampage, then maybe you shouldn’t be happy, or even alive. I’m not really one for all-life-is-sacred, because in the end we have about 6 billion on this planet, (I’m the only one with the uncanny ability to be awesome,) about half of them is in a constant state of poverty and probably dying, and the other half cares that a deranged gunman not get a death sentence? Again, let’s keep those worms for another day. My point is, being happy is all you should aim for, because once you die, who knows what else comes after?
Day 14: What you do for Valentine’s Day. – I’m not allowed to celebrate this day because Amelia hates it.
Day 15: Write about the best gift you’ve ever received. – It’s hard for me to pinpoint the best gift, since I constantly want and get tired of new things. I think that a photo album that a friend gave me when I left my old school was probably the most heartfelt and sweet thing, though.
Day 16: Write another poem, about the weather. – Roses are red, the sky is blue, the rain is gray, brown is poo.
Day 17: Post your favorite gif.

I used this reacting to when Amelia said that we were no longer in the honeymoon period.
Day 18: Your plans for tomorrow. – I work 8 hours.
Day 19: Write about something you fear. – I’m scared that Amelia will find being with me too tiresome as times goes on, because we either have to hide it from our families forever, or come out and face the consequences. We’re both bi, so I’m worried she’ll end up finding it easier just to be with a guy who she can be public with. But that’s silly, because she loves me, and her dog has basically imprinted on me so it will take too long for it to love someone else.
Day 20: What did you eat for dinner last night? – Dad fried up some Spam and we ate it with burger buns and he also made soup.
Day 21: Your favorite thing to drink. – SO I HAD MY FIRST WET PUSSY (well…”second”) TONIGHT AND IT WAS DELICIOUS AND I LOVE IT.
Day 22: How you take your coffee or tea. – I usually have a latte with one sugar, but I used to do double shots with one sugar as well. I take tea black with one sugar, unless it’s green, then no sugar.
Day 23: Your favorite thing to wear. – I like wearing hoodies because they feel like mobile blankets.
Day 24: Another poem, about the shoes you wear most often. – Roses are red, my shoes are purple, some bits are black, so black and purple.
Day 25: Write about where you live. – I live on a street predominantly white, and we used to have a problem with some kids down the road, who would ding-dong ditch us, and they escalated to kicking our trash over, harassing my mom when she’s working in the front yard, and once egged our house. They’ve stopped recently, though.
Day 26: Your favorite smell. – Amelia! Also bacon. OH IMAGINE IF AMELIA COOKED BACON!
Day 27: Your thoughts on the internet. – I don’t see a problem with the internet itself, I see a problem with people. It’s like guns. Yes, guns are bad things and they kill people, but honestly, a gun sitting there by itself wouldn’t be that scary, but you put a pair of hands on it and WOAH it’s a problem. It’s the same thing with the internet. It’s a great way to connect things that are otherwise unable to be connected, but once you put a human behind the mouse and….
Day 28: Write about how you feel today. – I’m a bit annoyed that I spent all day watching TV and not doing some writing, but it is my rest day after all, so I should just be happy I got to rest. Next week is a tough working week, but I’ve got Pokemon Y to look forward to on Saturday!

Holy Orange Jesus!

Today was Dani’s birthday dinner. And as bad a mood as I am in now (being completely irrelevant to Dani and her birthday), I think I will do my best to write about it cheerfully.

So I was a few minutes late, but I met Dani at Flinders Station. She was wearing a hat from Beth, so even though Beth couldn’t come down, she was there in headwear.

I re-met Theresa, and met Corey. And Mel was there, and her hair was green. It was no longer red.

Holy shit, Mel is Ramona.

Dani really liked the present I put together, which is really just a bunch of small nothings that’s more memories than anything. But she liked it, and that’s what was important.

After a quick coffee charge at DeGraves, we set out to Windsor, where Mel and Dani know some good Op Shops. And so, as shopping with Dani usually entails, a car crash of musty books and soft shirts and doorways and curtain change-rooms dominates my memory.

I found a really cute toy of two dinosaurs with their necks entwined, and I got it for Jen for her own personal reasons. It was the only thing I bought today but I was pretty damn happy with it.

We went into a pet store, and there was this kitten with a patch on its chin. I called him Shannon Noll. Shannon was cute. It winked at me.

We went to Grill’d for lunch, and I didn’t want to spend too much money, plus I couldn’t finish an entire Grill’d burger. So I bought the Kids Meal (and the checkout chick was nice enough to let me get it), which came with this cute as mini burger, the yummy chips, A FRUIT JUICE BOX, AND A COLORING PAGE.

I colored a blue cow. It was great.

We also went to a bunch of comic book stores in Windsor, and then later on to Minotaur which is on Elizabeth Street. I have never really been into a comic book store before, and the place is bloody awesome. I think I might be going to them more often, just for fun merchandise. I really wanted to walk into the comic book store with a musical t-shirt like Koothrapali on TBBT. I would link you to the video but my net is capped (with 10 days to go, I am screwed).

Corey is a huge comic fan – he and Mel had a discussion over who is more powerful, Dr. Manhattan from Watchmen, or Peter Petrelli from Heroes. Seeing as Peter Petrelli can absorb any super power near him, and has since learned to keep those powers, he would therefore have Dr Manhattan’s power and more. BUT, Dr Manhattan’s power isn’t really a power, it’s more derived from the fact that his body is pure energy. Is it possible for Peter to absorb the power and stay human? Because where would his powers come from, if his body is human?

We went back to the city, passing MacRob on the tram (naw), and after Corey satisfied his craving for Churros, we went to Red Silks (where else. Honestly, we go there too much).

Anyway, that’s roughly where the day went sour, because mom made me go home early. As in, I was halfway through dinner and she called me to leave. I couldn’t even stay for cake, much less Galactic Circus later on. It’s not even that I wanted to have some fun (even though I did, because I hadn’t been able to go out for the entire past week), but I RARELY get to see Dani these days, and the people at the dinner aren’t exactly daily meet-ups either, except for Mai.

So, I am home now.

Still, good day.

Alex.

P.S., the title is derived from the fact that Dani somehow misread my handwriting in the card as “Jesus” instead of “juice”.

We Were Just Kids In Love

I actually sat here for a long time trying to think of a suitable title, and then I gave up. So I just wrote in the first line of the chorus of the song I’m currently playing. I think maybe for this whole summer I’ll do just that, and I’ll pick songs from my summer playlist (that I haven’t made yet but I will, and I know this song will be on it).

So this song is:

Kids In Love – Mayday Parade

Sorry, Mai, but you inspired me to do this.

The downside of me doing this, of course, is that at a glance you wouldn’t know what the post will be about, just (if you happen to like my type of music) what song I was listening to.

This post will be a photo post. I just cleaned out my study and decided to take pictures of stuff I discover hidden away in piles of paper and books. Since in my study I basically chuck everything that I come across during the course the year (and, apparently, last year and some from the year before) I thought it would be a fun memory lane trip thing. (It also means that the page might take a while to load for people with slower internet. Although I’ve compressed all the pictures, they’re still over 100 kb each.)

That’s what I started with.

The crap I had in front of my computer. Note the 3 cool gadgets, in size order.

My English teacher needed to learn names. I thought the Joker thing was really snazzy.

Ah, I couldn’t bring myself to throw out the folder of notes from Jack’s. It’s actually really heavy now.

Omgsh, 31/50, FAIL SAC!

Here’s a visual of what I was writing about a few weeks back. April, as you can see, signed her name very “bigly”.

Oh, Pooki, Eunice, if you still read this…I still have it.

My lack of mid-year exams.

Just. Plain. Awesome. Also, ignore the huge scratch on my screen protector.

I love it. I forgot what was in the letter (I didn’t re-read it) but I remember it was nice.

See those blanks? They were me walking around the library making people talk to me.

12I = the entire known physical universe.

See, proof that I’m hardcore. Highlighted in bright pink are my misdemeanors.

Was tempted to write “FAil” like I did last time but no.

Haha, April, remember this! This was at the start of Yr 11. The packaging made me rofl.

I drew this way back in 2007. Carmaine had sprained her ankle, and I drew this small comic depicting what would have happened if I had to move her because she couldn’t do it herself. Everything is to scale.

Do you see the “hand up brief” one? It made the entire class chortle. That’s what she said.

It’s blurry, but that message got me through some pretty rough Methods class.

Look what I found! This was end of Yr 10, 2007. When I took the picture of the picture, my camera recognized our faces.

Dom, Carmaine, remember these guys? I still haven’t opened mine haha.

Just when I thought I finished, I turned around and saw this.

I cleaned out that pile of textbooks that I couldn’t/didn’t sell. What do I do with them now? Seriously, someone tell me.

Sorry if I just capped someone.

Well, it was a pretty good trip down memory lane. There were heaps of stuff I chucked out that I didn’t take a picture of, for example the stuff we wrote for English at the start of the year that was meant to be about us. That wasn’t used.

2 favorite things I found were the comic of Carmaine and the photographs.

Alex.

Squish & Ko cont’d

Sorry about the sudden cut off last night. I was getting rather tired, and beside my parents were telling me to go to sleep.

So, I do believe that I left off at the point where I left the school at the end of Period 5.

Emily needed to get home on time for a certain formal she had to attend, and since she forgot her umbrella she went with me – I’d brought another jacket and an umbrella, feeling ever so smart. It was unfortunate for her that, at the stop lights near Domain Interchange, the ground seemed to love collecting large pools of water, and through which Emily waded in her flats. She was soaked to her ankles and complaining every 3 seconds, which I would’ve found amusing but I was rather worried about my schoolbag getting wet.

We got to Flinders, and realized our train hasn’t left yet. Thundered down the escalator, and I had my finger 3 cms from the button when the light around it blinked off, and the train left the platform. Being the Connex veterans that we are, Emily and I with perhaps 3 utterances of complaints powered back up the escalator to take the Cragieburn reverse loop. Made the Glen Waverley with plenty of time to spare, except there was an old lady in a wheelchair who tried to run Emily over and swore at her when she didn’t manage.

Emily’s dad gave me a ride home, which saved me perhaps half an hour of trudging home in the wet. Dad had taken the day off and he was home – which I had no idea, so it was a surprise to see someone home – and I put my bag down, so glad that school can be out of my mind for at least 2 days.

I had a dinner plan with BRuCE at 6:30, so I went online, tried to beat my previous Tetris time, and at around 5:50 went to dress and do my hair. Yes, I did my hair. Bee said it looked good so I suppose it’s all worth it. I arrived at Coco Lounge early, and took our booth – we’d wanted that booth because we’d originally had 8 people invited. In the end 3 showed up. Eunice joined me, and we had a look at the menu, then Bianca joined us. Both of them looked smashing.

Carmaine, as I had mentioned yesterday, was sick, so she’d said she’d drop in later. At around 7:50 Carmaine came in – just as I was about to say something about her – and we had dessert; Tiramisu.

I think the point of interest was that Eunice and I had ordered Bitters, and at some point, the conversation came to this (paraphrasing may have occured):

Eunice: [imitating Kath and Kim] “It’s noice…it’s un-yooh-shle…Oy loike – IS THERE ALCOHOL IN THIS THING?”

We subsequently had a long laugh at what would happen if Eunice  was to finish the entire Bitters, and what would happen for her 18th. We had a small chat about Staff Politics and Relos, and Bianca had several mini orgasms over her prawns. And over the male waiter. Which promptly led me to mention Matt, and also for me to voice that Bianca had, by technicality, lost the bet from last July, and she owes us all a drink.

So, at 7:50 Carmaine joined us for dessert, and we had a few cheap laughs and whatnot. It felt, on the surface, that BRuCE was back to its original power again. But don’t we know otherwise, Carmaine? But, hey, it’s 11:50 in the morning and I’d had a long breakfast (mustard and salami cold, don’t do it), I don’t want to delve into that.

After taking ages to pay, we went to Strike near Village to play pool. But, and this was much to Carmaine’s distain, we needed IDs to play pool, because it is in the bar section. So we didn’t play pool, and promptly went home.

Now, Squish & Ko.

On Thursday, I’m sure I’ve mentioned about the mini cartoons that I’d done that went along the lines of “My Friends Don’t Give A Shit About Me”. My memory fails me, so I’ll repeat it in case I am wrong.

On Thursday, I had an idea to do small comics (similar to Non Sequitur) that went along the lines of…what I’d say before. They’re just small ditties that have happened to me, or that I’ve noticed. On Thursday night I put down 2, and yesterday while waiting for dinner I put down 2. Scanned them up this morning. Have a look:

I am aware that it’s not straight, and I am very aware that it’s rather small so you’d have to click on it, and it’s simply screaming at me obvious that it’s a bit of a rip-off of Pon and Zi, of which I am a big fan.

It will get better, and hopefully less emo.

Well, I’ve uploaded NCIS and am just waiting to watch it. Have a good holidays, and Happy Easter (I mean, I’m still coming back, I’m just saying this now).

Alex.

Come and go now as you please

And I finally found that life life goes on with you
And my world still turns when you’re not around

Naive Orleans – Anberlin

(Well, I’m working my way towards that.)

Today was not an eventful day, but altogether not a bad day either.

This morning I took the 7:29 with Carmaine and we went to Dani’s place. Showed Carmaine Andrew’s Special Poster. It was rather interesting…for her…good for future references? Haha. We went down to Coles because her class was having a class party and people forgot food. We got some chips, dips, hot cross buns etc, and went back up. Andrew drove us to school.

I wrote Tiff’s plane letter in my 2nd period free while sitting on a picnic table with April. After writing the letter I started drawing random stuff on a piece of paper. April and were talking about a specific topic, and I started drawing our conversation onto the piece of paper. It went something like:

Dude 1: “No one wants me” [cries]

Dude 2: “Shut up, you’re getting me wet.”

Dude 1: “Don’t you care?”

Dude 2: “I do. I care about my keeping dry.”

It thus inspired me to start a small comic strip-thing titled “My Friends Don’t Give A Shit About Me” but now I’ve changed it to “Squish & Ko” because I might not necessarily do every comic as “my friends don’t give a shit about me”. It’s nothing personal against my friends, either. Just random funny moments that have happened.

Tomorrow is the last day of Term 1, and free dress day. Which means that today was actually my last official day wearing school uniform FOREVER! I only realized after I went out later to take out the rubbish that my school shoes, sitting in an easy-to-reach place on the rack, can now be moved to the very back. I drew on my school dress by accident but that doesn’t even matter anymore. My school socks have holes worn in them but that don’t matter, no. And since today and yesterday was rather hot, Tuesday was actually my last day wearing that blazer. Strange feeling, it was.

More to come tomorrow (I’m going out to dinner so…something to write about).

Alex.