An Everyday Alien

David Miliband

2011-10-22T00:11:00.000+01:00

Back just before the general election, I wrote a blog post. It was about how I saw David Miliband and Nick Clegg speak before the election, and what I made of each one. I wrote most of it and promptly forgot to actually post it. Oops. Anyway, the gist of it was that despite leaning towards the Liberal Democrats at that point in time, I was fairly disappointed with Nick Clegg, and a lot more

Jesus is my cool older brother

2011-10-16T23:53:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone! I'm going to reiterate my apology for not posting more here, but since I've prepended it to so many blog posts now I guess you can just assume I say it for every post hence, haha. In fact, it's been so long since I last posted that I am watching Ouran High School Host Club *again*, this time with my boyfriend, and we're enjoying it immensely. But this is not the reason I post.

Liberation froth

2011-06-06T17:56:00.001+01:00

More Maelstrom awesomeness! For Noah: - Getting into the Bitter Moon teahouse again! Twice! - Almost becoming the subject of a supplication, then not (awwww) - BUILDER TENT - Ishtar's becoming an imam ceremony - The bad guys - you were all fantastic at being very scary, even when I didn't see any of you! - Lunch on Saturday, being in charge of the barbecue and meeting the Gerosons, who were

Unity

2011-05-10T14:19:00.000+01:00

I like finding common themes in my life. It feels more like a narrative that way, that there is a plot and direction instead of an aimless trudge from one day to the next, it makes me feel part of a big picture. Very appealing to my author sensibilities. Anyway, one I've realise recently is the theme of unity, which is a little special because it's been encroaching on not only my own life but

Consolidation froth

2011-04-26T23:44:00.000+01:00

Obligatory Maelstrom froth post. Because this event was amazing beyond belief. So, here was what was awesome: - Ptolemy's funeral, and the brief awakening of the gut-wrenching terror Noah has of the afterlife - The hen(na) night, and the ladies (and priests) who turned up. Thanks to Sha for the henna! - A brief conversation with Nefertiri (even more moving in retrospect, as it was our last) -

Shameless procrastination - and thoughts on Ouran

2011-04-07T17:27:00.000+01:00

I've got a lab report to write. And I'm still in that stage where boredom trumps fear, and I'm scrabbling to find something - anything - to occupy myself that isn't this report. So, I turn to my much-neglected blog. What shall I talk about? I've recently watched (and then read) through the entirety of Ouran High School Host Club, a funny and satirical shoujo anime/manga following Haruhi

Stories in Heaven

2011-02-18T11:36:00.000Z

I have a strange question. First, I'm going to talk about three things: I love stories. The way that you can emotionally engage with them, relate to the characters, share in their joy and pain, their hopes and fears. The way that you can join them on a journey, and end feeling as if you have discovered more about yourself in the process. It's also why I like writing - that I can lead the reader

Emerging doubts

2011-01-19T18:28:00.000Z

Hello folks, Happy New Year! I'm going to apologise again for not posting on any sort of regular basis, and then I'm going to stop, I think, and leave it as a nice surprise every now and again - oh, she's posted something! So, various things have been on my mind recently, one of them being the Emerging Church. Some say it's heresy. Others say it's the only way that the world will take us

My first LARP character has run her course

2010-11-13T16:34:00.000Z

Today, Commander Ria Morrow of the Durholme City Guard passed away. By which I mean that my very first LARP character, after over year of trying be helpful while at the same time being painfully naive, was killed on an adventure. (Short biography ahead, spoilers, FOIP, and some stuff that will never be found out in play, be warned) Ria was one of those unfortunate children left on a doorstep. A

What revelation feels like

2010-10-07T22:10:00.000+01:00

Today, while walking back from small group, I looked up. It's a clear night tonight, and over the grassy area between the bridge and my house, there's enough distance from street lights to get a good look at the sky. I love looking at the stars when I can. And while craning my neck upwards it occurred to me - all of those stars are unimaginably enormous globes of heat and light, bubbling and

A Day in the Garden

2010-10-04T12:48:00.000+01:00

I'm in that peaceful period (supposedly) between finishing work for the holidays and the start of term on Thursday. To be honest, it's not that peaceful - the next few days being taken up with Fresher's Fair and other related things. However today has given me some time to chill out a bit. Now all my house-mates have moved in, and more plant-inclined people have taken a look over the garden,

Maelstrom: Retaliation awesomeness

2010-09-13T16:12:00.000+01:00

I swear I will get back to proper blogging some point soon. However, in the meantime, I need to froth about Maelstrom once again! The awesome: - High amounts of IC paranoia - Getting business, and being rich enough to do things like eat at the noodle bar and buy Drake a drink for a change - Tea and sweet things in Flambard - The Jade Lotus, for amazing food, and being able to have a free meal

Maelstrom froth!

2010-07-27T11:28:00.001+01:00

You know the drill by now... Awesome things: - Drinking with the Scholars on the Friday night, and unexpected Diz outburst - A slight change in style (skulls and crossbones and cocktail umbrellas?!) that was noticed by all the wrong people, with hilarious results! - The Bastet picnic, which was amazing, as usual. - Lots of angst about Drake. - Lots of angst about the other Drake, and the end of

Anime preview first impressions part 2

2010-07-21T22:08:00.000+01:00

The continuation of my previous post. Pumpkin Scissors After a huge, devastating war, a ceasefire is announced, and the Eastern empire is left to pick up the pieces. It seemed like a fairly good setting to base an anime. In fact, this was the only preview episode I couldn't watch all the way through. The main character here seems to be a loud, brash, over-confident lieutenant of a war relief

Anime preview first impressions

2010-07-20T11:21:00.000+01:00

While packing the other day, I went to chuck out the pile of Neo magazines by my bed and noticed a couple of them had preview DVDs attached to them, showing the first episode of a couple of anime series. I sat down and watched them the other night. Here were my thoughts on each one. Berserk Okay, the idea behind this one is that you have a mysterious black swordsman who is secretly under the

Packing

2010-07-11T17:21:00.000+01:00

As strange as it seems, I love packing. I've moved house enough times in my life that I don't feel terribly sad about changing home. Instead, I love the opportunity to find stuff I didn't remember having. In the process of packing up my room, I've come across and had the opportunity to look back over the following: - a load of leaflets I collected at the Edinburgh Fringe last year, and the Burke

Response to Psalms

2010-07-06T18:50:00.000+01:00

A response to SPACKLick's video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-dG8EX5yfw&playnext_from=TL&videos=TsMrFT83pTI An atheist reads the whole bible Pt. 15 Psalms 42-150 (a.k.a. "150 of them! FUUUUCK!") Hey SPACKLick - yeah, the response is going here because YouTube won't let me post walls of text in the comments! Oh deeear... :< First off - what a trooper! I read through the entirety of

Nerd East!

2010-06-21T15:42:00.000+01:00

There was a convention! It was called Nerd East! And it was a success! Born from a chat in a pub, a group from Treasure Trap got together to build on their previous successes with kit fairs and decided to launch a mini convention to cover all types of role-playing, from tabletop to LARP, with traders of kit and games from around the country and various clubs and societies promoting their games.

I HEAR HIS VOICE - 3YGB froth

2010-06-13T22:36:00.002+01:00

Ahahaha, it comes, the inevitable 3YGB froth blog post. Erp, it's a big long wall of text. Firstly, thank you to the refs for writing an awesome event and for giving me a character who was great fun to play. Daxynrae started out as one big grieving, terrified mess, with one friend in the whole world who she couldn't even trust, and the Titan she loved and served dead, but unable to tell anyone

Maaaaaeeeeeeeeeelstrooooooooom!

2010-06-07T09:45:00.000+01:00

Froth time! Awesome Things - That palisade. Boy was that impressive. - Singing round the campfire with the Malathians on the Friday night. - Nefertiri and her tarot readings, especially Melei's! - Many, many awkward conversations about marriage - Atmospheric weather. Seriously, the whole weekend was utterly perfect. Hot and oppressive for the first two days matched the description of the site,

Huge Success

2010-06-01T17:10:00.000+01:00

Am making a note here, etc etc. Anyways, I'm back from a wonderfully successful trip to Newcastle. On the agenda was mainly publicity for Nerd East, but I also managed to pick up a good deal on a set of light waterproofs, which is another step on the road to becoming independent from borrowing my parents' kit for outdoorsy stuff. :P Publicity-wise - Ias was the hero of the day and managed to

Definitions of omniscience

2010-05-19T20:17:00.000+01:00

I don't often have long conversations with my housemate Rob, but when I do, they're never boring... The topic in this one ranged from how ridiculously mind-boggling cosmology is, to how much about the universe can be known, by science or otherwise, culminating in an interesting conundrum: Is it possible for an all-knowing being to know that they are all-knowing? I would argue yes, but Rob

Over the past 48 hours I have...

2010-05-01T20:11:00.000+01:00

- Woken up - Gone to lectures - Revised - Went to an election hustings and was equally impressed and annoyed, at all the wrong things :P - Gone to Full Collapse :D - Been afflicted by insomnia >:( - Gotten up at 4 am to celebrate May Day! - Worn my Harajuku dress for the first time in ages - Sung Jonathan Coulton and other awesome songs at the top of my lungs - Had a pub breakfast - Gone to bed

I don't hate you Iceland

2010-04-21T13:11:00.000+01:00

Poor Iceland. I've seen a ton of people on Facebook join 'I hate Iceland' groups, simply because a volcano erupted on this island sitting on fault line. Iceland's a fantastic place, and it's geological activity only serves to make it the amazing and beautiful place it is. I'm taken back to Lochaber High School's 2008 Geography field trip there - I'm never going to forget the black glaciers,

Maelstrom and other turbulence

2010-04-06T20:28:00.000+01:00

What a week it's been. I have just returned home after battling through rain and floods (oo-er) and am enjoying sitting at a computer again. It's been a bit of a rollercoaster of emotions for me. I set off for England Tuesday last week for two main reasons. Firstly was my gran's funeral in Cambridge. Even now it's still sinking in that I won't ever see her again, so I'll just say briefly now

Initial thoughts on Caprica

2010-03-28T21:26:00.000+01:00

Spoilers and references to adult content ahead. Being an enormous fan of Battlestar Galactica, I was excited to finally be able to see the feature length pilot of Caprica, which my dad has bought on DVD (yay for cool parents). So, it's nice to see some more of Caprica before it was blown up. Set about 50 years before the first season of Battlestar Galactica, the story focuses on the families of

Ponyo!

2010-03-21T19:52:00.000Z

(Spoilers follow) My fascination with Studio Ghibli began way back when I first watched Princess Mononoke. It is probably my favourite film studio - a Japanese one co-headed by the fantastic Hayao Miyazaki which produces animated films. My love for it was definitely helped by the fact that I got to visit the Studio Ghibli museum in Japan last June, which was - sorry for the cliche - a magical

Day of Promise

2010-03-15T00:12:00.000Z

Woah, now today's been a bit amazing to say the least. It's a Sunday, and Sundays always begin for me with going to church, which is always a good thing. Today was rather special - it was the Day of Promise at Emmanuel, an event we've built up to over the last few weeks about really experiencing the Holy Spirit, and a day of prayer and fasting. So we got off to a good start in the morning when

A response to Numbers

2010-02-26T13:21:00.000Z

(A response to the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOnYdnRHFaI since YouTube has a character limit on its comments). Hiya SPACKlick, I'll agree with you that Numbers is a very odd book to read, however the disjointedness you're noticing seems to happen quite a lot in the Bible. I'm wondering whether to just put it down to cultural differences (it's the same with repetition - it

Joy

2010-02-07T22:34:00.000Z

Once a month, Emmanuel Church holds a student/20s night in St John's College called 737. Someone said earlier tonight that "strange things happen at 737". They're not wrong. It's not like a church service where there's an order - we sing these songs, and then we have a sermon, and then there's coffee and student lunch - it's very much more a free thing, guided by the Holy Spirit. So we began the

Peace

2010-02-06T23:43:00.000Z

Today I took part in the 24/7 prayer in St Oswald's church. Emma had signed up for a one-hour slot at 10 o'clock, and I joined her. It was quiet - we were the only two in that slot. And we just sat and prayed out loud together for a bit, about church tomorrow, the baptisms and the people coming for the first time, for DICCU's Life week and that people would be reached through that, and for our

A Candlemas update

2010-02-03T00:59:00.001Z

This seems to be the state of my blogging at the moment - realising I haven't blogged in a while, then summarising everything in a huge long post. Oh well, here goes another one - this only goes back to last Thursday, but it's been an eventful few days to say the least... So we start at Thursday. I was very bad and missed two lectures. :P First I kitted up and went off to the Refresher's Fair to

So I'm back...

2010-01-21T18:37:00.004Z

Back in Durham, and the term has started with a bang, kinda. My first three and a half days were incredibly stressed and busy. Having arrived back and starting to find my feet again, I was thrown into two maths collections (which weren't difficult, but more stressful than they're worth), homework and a lab report to hand in, so many emails to send, a whole pile of creative writing assignments to

Hannah looks back...

2009-12-31T09:38:00.003Z

Random: I just noticed that this blog now has over twice as many posts as my Japan one. Which, I suppose is a good thing since the Japan one lasted two weeks and this one's been going for years... (Go read, we had an awesome time)But anyway, 2009. What a year it's been. In fact, it's been such a year, that several of my friends have declared that it officially never happened, since nothing ever

I'm still alive...

2009-12-10T00:20:00.001Z

Oh dear! I haven't blogged in ages! Well, I am still alive, chugging along in university quite happily, still enjoying my course and social life, etc.However I came back here to write about something that happened last night. I went to my church small group's Christmas social at Hannah Dexter's house, where I helped decorate the tree (photos to come on Facebook) and then felt weird about

...and a masqurade

2009-11-12T10:11:00.004Z

After pretty much recovering from the Muse concert (and the tiredness afterwards, which basically resulted from jumping around a lot and then waiting for a half four - you read that right - train back to Durham), I next had a masqurade ball on Wednesday night. I'd also been looking forward to this for quite a while, being one of the first things I booked when all the Durham information came in

Muse!!

2009-11-12T09:35:00.004Z

So basically this is going to be a bit of a recap of the past few days, which have been pretty eventful for me. As you probably will have already guessed from my enthused raving over Twitter/Facebook, I went to see Muse in Glasgow on Monday. Me and Ruth had been waiting for this since way before I booked the tickets back in June (yay for fan presales!) so you can probably guess how excited we

Progress report: one month down...

2009-11-08T19:04:00.002Z

It's hard to believe that I've been away from home for over a month. I guess I've been busy enough to stop myself feeling too homesick, although coming home this weekend will probably trigger that a bit. Overall, my time here so far has been overwhelmingly positive.Starting with the house - I'm so privileged to be in the nicest house in the college with a piano room, an excellent kitchen/social

An interesting thought...

2009-10-27T22:50:00.003Z

This analogy came to me in the CU meeting this evening, and I want to note it down. Basically, we were discussing evangelism, and the fact that the gospel really is good news and we should present it as such. One of the things that was mentioned was a personal relationship with God, and that got me thinking.In school, for the first five years the teachers were very much on a higher plane of

This is what happens when I think too much about my surroundings...

2009-10-26T10:38:00.002Z

The CLC cafe is exactly what you'd expect of a science site cafe. Fluid,modern shapes, bold colours and (mostly) clean surfaces, bright strip lighting and childrens' artwork on the walls, as if in an effort to make the place a bit more human. On the hour it becomes a crossroads since its peculiar location means that the bored hordes traipsing out of their lectures have to weave through the chairs

In Christ Alone

2009-10-25T16:36:00.005Z

First a question for the Christians out there: do you have a favourite hymn/worship song, or one that just stirs something in you whenever you hear it? For me it would be In Christ Alone by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend (there's a rather amazing version of it by Avalon that you can find on Spotify here). I think it just about sums up what Christianity is - plus it's a musically gorgeous song

What a delicious day!

2009-10-21T01:07:00.003+01:00

There's nothing like the wonderful scheming feeling of creeping upstairs in a big group with a birthday cake, trying to light the candles in such a way that you don't trigger the fire alarm, then pounding on the bedroom door and waking someone up to a rousing chorus of 'Happy Birthday!' Happy Birthday Will! (Well, it was yesterday now, but still).Today we cracked open the ginger beer, which was

Homebrewing in style

2009-10-18T22:59:00.001+01:00

My family have probably been waiting on tenterhooks for this, but I have finally begun to try to home brew ginger beer! I spent yesterday afternoon making a complete mess of the kitchen as I grated ginger and tried to funnel lemon juice and sugar into a plastic bottle using my cafetiere (this actually worked, but was a bit messy). So now there is a bottle of ginger beer fermenting away in the

Rambling on university

2009-10-17T16:54:00.003+01:00

Has anyone read The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers? If not, I demand that you read it. But if you have, you'll have some idea of what I'm talking about when I say I feel a little like Bluebear at the Nocturnal Academy - my brain is being filled with information on all sorts of topics: not only with physics that I'm studying, but with theology and the odd fragments of Italian,

Facial Deja Vu

2009-10-08T18:37:00.002+01:00

I'm waiting for Rachel to finish writing up her Ancient Greek notes before hitting the JCR or the bar for a bit, but while I wait, let me tell you about a strange phenomenon that I have been experiencing lately.It's seems that I recognised have the new people I met over the past week or so. Let me be clear - I had never met any of them in my life before coming to Chad's (except for Josh who I met

First Impressions of Durham

2009-10-06T08:57:00.004+01:00

I'm gonna get back to Exogenesis at some point, but to be honest, you all know I love it anyway, so I'll implore you to listen to it and leave it at that, since something far more blogworthy has come up. What's that? Oh, only the start of university!So, uni finally started for me this Sunday - for those who don't know (where've you been?), I'm at Durham University, St. Chad's College which is a

THE RESISTANCE

2009-09-14T21:48:00.004+01:00

Muse are one of the few Earth artists with universal appeal. Universal in this case not meaning all-round by Earth standards but that they actually have appeal throughout the universe. My homestar Rigel in particular has a large fanbase of alien Muse supporters (one day I swear we will abduct them for a tour of Orion - we will return them, mostly unchanged, I promise). So for all the off-world

Uni preparations!

2009-09-13T21:32:00.002+01:00

People in my year have started posting pictures and talking about their first days at uni. This is so weird, because I know I'm going to go through all that, but there's still weeks to go yet. I'm still at the buying necessities stage. Things I have already bought/had bought for me:An iPhone (of course, this was absolutely necessary!)A kettleA stapler and hole punchOn my list of things I still

Lochaber Onstage at the Edinburgh Fringe...Part 3

2009-08-28T14:03:00.004+01:00

Yes, I finally get round to bring you the final instalment of my Fringe experiences!That Tuesday evening, a group of us, accompanied by Mr Welch and Mr Young (this is significant), went out to see Facebook: The Musical, by request of several cast members. We took the opportunity to have a bit of a wander around, passing the Underbelly, a Fringe venue shaped like an upside-down cow (I kid you not)

Lochaber Onstage at the Edinburgh Fringe...Part 2

2009-08-24T20:12:00.002+01:00

Tuesday morning dawned with the thrill of not quite knowing what you'll be feeling by the time you go to bed. The schedule for the morning was a photo shoot for half of the cast and a visit to the Surgeon's Hall Museum for the rest of us, where we got to see what Doctor Knox and Burke really looked like (Doctor Knox - like a worse-looking Charles, with more facial hair and Burke - like Robert if

Lochaber Onstage at the Edinburgh Fringe...Part 1

2009-08-23T14:22:00.006+01:00

Well since it was over a week ago since we came back I imagine the curiosity's died down somewhat, but I'm writing this more for my own benefit as it definitely was an experience to remember.On Saturday 8th August, two days after our first rehearsal of Burke and Hare for weeks, we set off from Lochaber High School to the first performance of Burke and Hare outside of Fort William. The prospect

Fringe on the brain

2009-08-17T13:30:00.004+01:00

I will write about the Edinburgh Fringe in more detail at some point, but first I need to tell you about a dream I had last night. Lochaber Onstage members will realise just how much of the experience has seeped into my brain!So it started out in reality - I was going to see Rich Hall at the Fringe (woo!) along with Ruth, only it wasn't in the Assembly, it was in a brightly lit alleyway, which

The road home

2009-07-28T20:44:00.002+01:00

This must be a strange time in my life that I am getting so many vivid flashbacks. However there was one today that really got me thinking. Now I'm not an enormous fan, but I do like the band Keane, whose music is good, if a little depressing. My iPod was on shuffle, and their song Black Burning Heart (see what I mean?) came up. For the most part it's just more of the same from Keane, but there

Senses

2009-07-21T16:41:00.003+01:00

It's incredible what can spark a memory. Here I am working, with a cup of coffee that's pretty much gone cold. I need the caffeine so I take a gulp anyway. The strange, almost metallic bitter taste in my mouth is not quite unpleasant, and as it sensation lingers on the edges of my tongue, I have a sudden recollection from years ago - I'm fairly sure it was the Peirera(?) Road days in Birmingham.

The highlights of Lendrick Muir SU Music Camp 2009

2009-07-18T19:16:00.003+01:00

As anyone who went this year will tell you, music camp was fantastic. A few of the things that made it special for me:- First and foremost, getting back into God's word, which I'll admit I let slide for a while before camp.- Meeting old friends from last year- Making new friends this year- Happy Day!- A whole load of fantastic talks from the leaders- Memory verses!- Peter and his moustache- Jace

K-on - is Japan's latest craze really worth it?

2009-07-07T22:21:00.005+01:00

Andre mentioned K-on a lot to me before we went to Japan, but I didn't realise the extent of this anime's popularity until we went over there, where we saw it (and heard it) in just about every anime, manga and general otaku store.K-on is a slice of life drama, made by the studio Kyoto Animation (also know as KyoAni), a high quality anime studio known for hits such as The Melancholy of Haruhi

Japan!

2009-06-02T12:49:00.003+01:00

http://analieninjapan.blogspot.com/Many of you know now that on the 13th of June, me and two friends will be heading for a holiday in Japan. This is the link to our shared blog, where you can read our thoughts and experiences. 11 days to go!!

Creation vs. Evolution - Christianity's confusion

2009-05-28T10:07:00.004+01:00

http://tinyurl.com/puq2u3 - I got this from the NewScientist Twitter feed today.So how did God create the world? Was it in seven days, humans being created on the sixth and a day of rest on the seventh (in which case I'd rather say the world was created in six days)? Or was it by the slow process of evolution, creatures changing and adapting to their developing circumstances, in a world which is

When to clap and when not to - concert etiquette for dummies.

2009-04-13T14:08:00.004+01:00

As promised, here is the guide I've wanted to write for a long time. I am a member of Highland Schools Wind Band and the New Scottish Youth Orchestra, and my sisters and friends are members of various string orchestras, full youth orchestras, big bands, swing bands and other music ensembles. These youth groups are fantastic, and love to be treated with the same courtesy you would give a

It's all good...ish

2009-04-09T19:10:00.004+01:00

I ended up buying Time Stops For No Mouse off Amazon, as well as its sequel, The Sands of Time. This has propelled me to page 17 of my script - I need to be on page 30 by the end of tomorrow! Eek! But I'm getting into it, thankfully, and it shouldn't be too hard to make up the difference.My opposition lies in exam revision and computer games. EVE Online, specifically. It's a fantastic game, and I

And the results of my search?

2009-04-01T14:54:00.002+01:00

Well, after a little while of blasting through the cardboard boxes in the storage cupboard, I found a ton of forgotten delights - the Switchers, the Borrowers, Glorie Stories, Mennyms!!!, Commander Kellie and the Superkids, but no Hermux Tantamoq. I'm starting on the first page of Hermux Tantamoq though, because I remember, line for line, the first chapter of the book. But the chapters in Time

In a frenzy!

2009-04-01T14:25:00.003+01:00

For the past couple of weeks I've been looking forward to Script Frenzy, the script version of NaNoWriMo which I attempted (and didn't quite make) last year. Still I'm determined to write 100 pages of script this month! There's only one problem...My plan was to adapt the novel Time Stops For No Mouse by Michael Hoeye, because for years and years I have wished there were movies of those books. I

A year in a chemistry lab

2009-03-27T22:26:00.003Z

I'm in my last year of high school. Funnily enough, ever since first or second year there's been talk of refurbishing the school and, just weeks before I leave, it's finally starting! One of the first victims of the demolition squad will be the middle block of the school which contains the sixth year chemistry lab. Here's a little mull over everything that's gone on in there over the year for me.

Thoughts on the capital

2009-03-04T19:23:00.008Z

Well now I'm back from London and have had enough sleep to begin to recover, let me give a brief overview of the sights I saw. I woke up at five am, endured a thirteen hour bus journey with the rest of my school year (come on folks, thirteen hours is nothing compared to the time taken to get to Rigel from here - now stop complaining and being sick plzkthnxbai) and arrived in London in the evening

What to make of Breaking Dawn

2009-02-14T14:54:00.007Z

Well, I promised people I would write an honest and as balanced a review as possible, so I'll do my best. Spoilers abound, please don't read this until you have read the book or if you, wisely, decide never to read it at all.People saying it's the best thing to come to literature are so unbelieveably wrong that it makes me want to cry that people think this way. And yet, those saying it's a

And some comment

2009-01-29T20:26:00.003Z

So, what do I think of that article? Admittedly it's from Betelguese, somewhere I've only been once, and it's a bit cold and miserable. I'm not that great with the language, but I felt quite happy that I was able to get the gist of it across. The fact that Earth is coming back up for discussion in the Galactic Council is pretty exciting. It's a pretty special experience for me - Earth comes up

An interesting article

2009-01-27T22:41:00.002Z

Translated from an article on the next Galactic Council convention on Pollux later this (Earth) year. Thanks to a friend on Betelguese for the heads-up, this seems to be the first article I've seen about this, but I'm sure there'll be more to come. Dates converted to Earth-time and stars given their human names for you. :)'Ever since its discovery, the small star its natives call Sol has

Tweet tweet

2009-01-25T11:12:00.003Z

All right folks, I have a Twitter now, at http://twitter.com/YTMDetc. I'm going to keep my daily thoughts there and keep this space for longer essays, rants and stuff. Stay tuned. :)

Depressed, moi?

2009-01-20T19:15:00.002Z

Man, I need to blog more often. Right now I've given the impression that for the last little while I have been moping over Cambridge. Nah.I'm already excited about going to a Durham University open day tomorrow. It's cold outside and my house is warm. I am listening to a piece of musical genius called Butterflies and Hurricanes (MUSEYAY!). Oh yeah, and Barack Obama's president now.I'm really

Map of the Disappointing

2009-01-05T18:23:00.002Z

Your heart beatsAccelerates.Frantically your mind graspsFor any comfortAny distractionAny oblivion.But like a cruel mazeEvery turn leads backTo that which you long forYou burst forYou dread.Your attention swaysOscillates.Between the here and nowTense, blissfulAnd the end of the roadThe drivewayThe letterbox.......Like an eternityA second turns into a dream.From a million miles away you watchAs

Happy...

2008-12-25T19:10:00.002Z

I interrupt this sadly overdrawn hiatus from blogging and completely horrible lack of effort on my part to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year (Happy Hanukkah and Hogmanay, happy birthday if you were born around now and happy any other celebrations that you may be having as well).And if you're not celebrating anything at all, happy holidays, you poor, poor human. ;)

A brief history of Jupiter

2008-12-02T09:29:00.003Z

As I mentioned in my last post, Jupiter was discovered and colonised by a Alexandros Jupiter, a businessman who set up an industry there. Gas giants are very popular for heavy industry, with near-unlimited power for production of various metals, spaceship construction and many other power-intensive industries. The first factory on Jupiter was like most others - a heat-shielded, low-atmosphere

The Solar System, from outside

2008-11-13T22:31:00.003Z

So, you might have wondered, why Earth? Why this tiny insignificant little planet in a backwater wisp off an arm of the galaxy? Why do the aliens visit here, of all the millions of stars in the galaxy?Well OK, humans aren't quite as humble as all that, but I'm sure you wonder.Despite there being a strong galactic community in the Milky Way, with several thousand planets now represented in the

Ziggy Syndrome - Aliens on Earth

2008-11-09T18:41:00.003Z

Lately I've been thinking a lot about what it means to be an alien on Earth - it was partly because of this that I started this blog, so I've decided to start writing articles about it. I don't know how regular you can expect them to be, but these are just my thoughts, having lived on Earth for over 100 years.Ziggy Syndrome - Aliens on Earth, and how Earth affects aliensWhen thinking about aliens

The Procrastination Station

2008-11-07T22:58:00.003Z

Procrastination.Ack, I love that word. It's so long and important-sounding, and writing it is procrastination in itself. And isn't it ironic that after procrastinating so long about blogging here, I finally post while procrastinating from (about? with? must check...) something else.I don't suppose you've heard of NaNoWriMo? National Novel Writing Month. I kid you not. The aim is to write a 50000

And talking of music...

2008-09-27T15:04:00.004+01:00

...I have a new design up in my cafepress store here. Your tune is unique to you. It makes you special. It can be heard by anyone who speaks to you, in a little place in the back of their mind that they have almost, but not quite forgotten about. There's no one in the universe who has the same tune as you, and that makes it all the more amazing.LOVE YOUR TUNE PEOPLE!

Musicals for the win!

2008-09-27T14:46:00.004+01:00

Aw man, I haven't posted in a while... to be honest, though, I've been so busy recently. Last night was the last night of the school show, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, in which I played the clarinet. It was absolutely amazing - everyone performed their hearts out, the audience was great (although perhaps not as enthusiastic as Thursday nights') and yes Miss T, I did attempt that

Tomorrow...

2008-09-09T19:53:00.002+01:00

...the world is not going to end. I promise.The misconception people are getting is that there's a small chance the Large Hadron Collider will create a mini black hole that will engulf the Earth and kill us all.In fact, there's a very good chance that mini black holes will be created, but they are so small that they will evaporate almost instantly due to Hawking radiation.There's another

Another celebration!

2008-08-05T22:12:00.002+01:00

Today my human identity hits 17 years of age, and I myself reach roughly 117 years of living on Earth! Wish me Happy Birthday! :DOf course, I am a lot older than that. But I'm not gonna tell you my age! :P

Go see Wall-E

2008-08-04T18:16:00.002+01:00

Yesterday I went on a trip to Glasgow for my birthday, which is tomorrow. There, I went to see Wall-E.YOU MUST SEE THIS FILM.Forget all the animated crap that has been coming out of Hollywood lately, this film is amazing. I came in knowing in my head that this was a good film, because of the five stars it received in most reviews. However in my heart I was completely sold from the spork reference

100 hits! Let's celebrate!

2008-08-04T10:44:00.002+01:00

Woot! 100 hits! :DIn honour of the occasion, I proudly announce the opening of my Cafepress store, I'm an Alien for Jesus! Now all you Christians out there can declare your faith as well as being just like me! :DOK, the last statement was a bit of a joke. But seriously, go check out the store. Its original purpose is for the T-shirt design I thought up a couple of days ago, but over time I will

The wonders of houseplants

2008-08-01T09:55:00.003+01:00

Well, to be perfectly honest, I was barely aware of bonsai before yesterday, when suddenly the burning question entered my mind at random - can you make bonsai trees any size you like, or is it limited to a certain small size? Well luckily on Bebo I have a friend who is actually quite the expert: according to her, you can make bonsai trees any size, but you'd need a large pot!So there you go, eh?

My head is going to explode

2008-07-23T17:48:00.004+01:00

My little human sister has a friend round. That's right - there are now two twelve-year-old girls in the house, and worse, in my room. Ugh. Why? Why are they so hyperactive and giggly and immature and annoying? I usually understand humans fairly well, but the mind of an insane twelve-year-old girl?I wouldn't even want to know what's going on in there.I am so bored right now. Look here, I am

And it begins!

2008-07-22T18:36:00.002+01:00

So, the idea is, I create as much hype as I can about this, so that I just have to keep going now...Yes, I have begun my Warcraft-based fan webcomic. It can be found here: www.drunkduck.com/Reflected_Destinies. The first page is not up to much, but it gets better, I promise!

Because I felt like it

2008-07-21T21:46:00.003+01:00

I feel like writing something. So I shall tell you about the two songs which are taking it in turns to go around my head.First - Happy Day by Tim Hughes. I LOVE this song. We played it in the New Scottish Youth Orchestra when we met at Lendrick Muir SU Music Camp last week. It's so happy I just want to dance every time I hear it (which is every five seconds lately). It also helped that the guy

Well...

2008-07-10T21:08:00.002+01:00

I think it's obvious that I hadn't run Magister's Terrace before writing the previous post...the music in that cutscene is almost identical to the Blood Elf part of the Wrath intro. Ah well - it did sound more epic in the Wrath intro, so I guess I still made a bit of a prediction on that still. Lawl. I'm such a noob. xD

Analysis of Wrath of the Lich King through leaked music file

2008-07-09T18:54:00.003+01:00

Because I've been listening to it a lot over the past couple of weeks, and I think I'm in love. In case you're wondering, I'm talking about the music file which was part of the leaks that came out of the World of Warcraft Friends and Family alpha testing, and has since, I think, been removed from the site that had it. Because Blizzard has said they don't want this information out, I'm not going

Congratulations

2008-07-08T10:11:00.003+01:00

So I sat through the entirity of the Wimbledon Men's Singles Final. A more evenly matched tennis match I have never seen in my life. It was amazing.So of course, well done to Federer - coming back from two sets down was incredible, managing to claw back two sets from Nadal and fighting through the fifth set.But a big congratulations to Rafael Nadal, who proved just too strong for Federer,

Back from space

2008-06-29T11:22:00.002+01:00

Well I'm back. Headed off to Jupiter for a five-day trip on this physics course, which was awesome. Physics? Yes, aliens do still do physics, duh. Only this wasn't exactly cutting edge science or anything, no teleportation or portal physics conferences, just a study of Earth science, because that's all my poor brain can really handle. I'll leave the wormholes to people who can actually understand

This week in gaming...

2008-06-20T22:19:00.005+01:00

...I finished Portal - I love this game to bits, literally in GLaDOS' case. I freakin' love that computer, shame I had to kill it really... but then, it made me euthanise the Weighted Companion Cube, so it had to go. Mind, I'm one up - I memorised the WCC's molecular make-up, so hopefully on return to a planet with a programmable materialiser (possibly Jupiter? Must check) I will be able to

Spaced out...in a metaphorical sense

2008-06-16T20:56:00.002+01:00

I might be getting planet-sick, I'm not sure...but I've lost my usually voracious appetite, and I'm feeling very sleepy. I do however plan to take a space trip this Sunday, so I'm not going to be around until the following weekend. Should be fun!In other news, I'm seriously considering starting a webcomic - I've got a rough story and some characters. It's going to be a WoW fan-comic the way it's

Haven't posted in a while...

2008-05-18T12:24:00.001+01:00

...so here's an update:Since last posting to this blog I have got a new gaming computer I named Yuki, hit level 70 in World of Warcraft for the first time, sat a Higher English exam and got a boyfriend.Go me.

Japan Stuff

2008-03-15T11:24:00.004Z

If you were to put me into a high school stereotype, it would be geek/otaku. I like gaming, anime and manga, science fiction, science in general, that sort of thing.Still, that's sort of obvious. I love keeping pace with Earth's scientific developments, especially since you're getting to the stage where in a little while you'll begin teaching us stuff. I really can't wait for an Earth perspective

Strange Fruit

2008-03-02T19:47:00.005Z

What do you know about the pineapple? It came up the other day on radio 4 which I just happened to be listening to at the time, and made me smile. It is one of several plants that produces a special enzyme that is protien-digesting, which gives it uses in meat tenderising and prevents jelly from setting, which is why you don't find much pineapple jelly around. However, this protien-digesting

Latest catch-up with friends

2008-01-28T20:50:00.000Z

They say you learn something new every day. Well I found out today that sentient being eaters are called sgrektschen in the official galactic language - a word that roughly translates to 'gulpers' in English, and is often used by aliens on Earth. I didn't know that.Well, if you get attacked by someone trying to eat you, then at least you know what to complain about to the space police.

What's so cool about Earth then?

2008-01-23T19:39:00.001Z

People are beginning to wonder why I am on Earth, instead of in a cool star system like Sirius or Polaris, or even on the Jovian colonies which you are so close to, yet so oblivious to it's cute.Well, I can rule out Jupiter anyway, since it is mostly industrial and I can't survive the environment without a suit and taking the form of a Jovian is the weirdest experience in the world. It's like

Moving House

2008-01-18T23:05:00.000Z

It's strange - the building I knew as home for five and a half years began to look less and less like home the more we packed away stuff into boxes. By the end of it all, that same house looked as far away from home as it could get. And when we moved, and began to take out furniture, and all those precious items we keep with us, the new house, which seemed so hostile and unfamiliar when we first

Feeling gloopy

2008-01-08T20:53:00.000Z

Ouch. Just when I thought I'd successfully avoided all those awful winter human diseases, I come down with a very bad cold (or is it this virus going round that everyone's talking about?)I missed school yesterday, due to only getting three hours sleep the previous night. I went to school today, and got through alright, although I'm feeling really bad right now. It's like every moment is an effort

Happy New Year everyone!

2008-01-01T10:49:00.001Z

That's it - your little blue-green planet's made another trip around Sol. Everyone's celebrated (and maybe gotten themselves a little drunk). Well done for not breaking into nuclear war yet. Keep at it! (The peace that is, not the nuclear war!)I've certainly had a busy few days since Christmas. On Boxing Day I took a freighter to Jupiter. Met up with some friends in one of the under-surface

And a Merry Christmas to you too....

2007-12-24T20:19:00.000Z

I love Christmas. All the flashing lights begin to remind me of the inside of a flying saucer (they're perfectly real but absolutely terrifying to fly). All those carols and cheesy Christmas songs. All that promise of snow and excitement which only really manifests itself on television. And then the chance of hitching a lift with someone who's passing by to watch the fun.I like to take a quick