Happy New Year, folks!

We have a long and interesting year ahead of us, and I hope that you all enjoy it and that nothing too traumatic happens to any of you.

Resolutions

1. Work hard at Uni. Get at least a 2.1 on my Mods, preferably a 1st.
2. Keep up archery. Become less fail at it, and don't give up, even when it seems like everyone's doing much better than me.
3. Be more friendly at uni. Make friends and talk to people. Try not to mention Batman, dolls, angels, PTerry or Tolkien unless it arises naturally in conversation.
3.b. Exception to above is Taruithorn, where all of the above may be mentioned. Remember, TolkienSoc is your friend.
4. Keep control of finances. Don't overspend, but also don't be a miser. Buy a bow.
5. Wear hats. Don't let other people dictate fashion sense. Don't be self-conscious. I wear the hat. It does not wear me.
6. Hold head up and walk with pride. Don't lurk, slouch or insinuate. I am a Cool Person with Kickass Clothes.
6.b. Stop worrying about my accent, there is always someone who talks more posh than me. I know this. I have met them.
7. Write that fanfic. Stop being so embarrassed about it, there are fanficcers out there far worse than me.
8. Draw more. Ink more. Think more. Write more. Creativity is the only thing preventing society from stagnating. JSM knows what he's talking about.
9. Eat healthier. Nibble carrots, not chocolate. Get take-away no more than once a week at most. Preferably fortnightly or less.
10. Stress less. The world will not end if I fail an exam or get laughed at or any of the billion things I worry about on a daily basis.


(On the subject of 7, the fic in question is now 1200 words and looking rather less stuck. It does, however, look like it's going to end up in lots of little bits that will need to be stuck together later.)

Let's make this a good one, people!

Well, we're currently stuck in that bit between Christmas and the New Year, so I think it's time to sit down and take stock.

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas or equivalent winter festival, saw lots of relatives and gave and received lots of presents! My haul this year contained an awful lot of Batman, which was expected but still somewhat shocking. There was also a lot of Alchemy Gothic in the house, and some geeky t-shirts. *Lady-Liara, your stuff STILL hasn't arrived, I'm so sorry.

I have about 2 weeks left of holiday before I go back to uni, although I wish it were more because I have hardly done any work and am SO going to bomb Collections. Yay failure!

Oh, and someone give me some more groups to join, it's kinda embarrassing that the only one I'm in right now is a Joygasm fanclub.
(On an extremely related note, *gothicdragon752 is pestering me to write a fanfic. So far it's 300 words and stalled. More failure!)

I'm back home now, having been unceremoniously booted out of college to make room for interview candidates. I'm now rather at a loss for what to do with myself for the next month. So far, I have:
> bought a hat (a rather nice black pork pie from New Look, which I now rather suspect *Lady-Liara also owns, sorry!)
> beaded two new Christmas baubles
> completed Assassin's Creed for the third time
> installed Batman: Arkham Asylum only to discover that my sound card is made of AIDS

I have plans to go charity shop crawling at some point, and I also bought yet more fun printed cotton which will sit around my room until I can work out which of my dolls really badly needs something with holly on it.

Also interesting to note is that my wishlist this year is almost entirely Batman-related in some way (in fact, also contains a disproportionate amount of Two-Face, what is this?), and is also rather short. I'm not sure what to make of this.

Oh, and I saw Steeleye Span on Sunday. That was fun. If I can still dance around like Maddy Prior when I'm 60+ I'll be a very happy bunny.

UPDATE:
I have also bought a new pocket-watch and a vintage opera hat. Neither of these were expected, especially the hat. I how have 3 hats (one of which is still in potentia, as it's an Xmas pressie). Where do I apply for my Mad Hatter ID card?

This morning, I walked out of college and straight onto the set of Lewis. My surreality meter is maxed out.

As the title of this journal suggests, it is week 6 of 8. Meaning I have only 15 working days left until we break for Christmas. It's gone SO fast it's untrue.
So far, everything's going much much better. Aside from Analysis, which needs to die in a fire, the work is going pretty well, and I'm more in tune with the social side of things too. I've almost got my White Arrow in archery, which means that I'll be able to shoot unsupervised. JOY! I'm considering asking for my own bow for Christmas. With green arrows, if I can possibly find some.

I'm currently suffering from an overload of Batman. This was not helped by my friend lending me Hush, or by me then watching Begins and The Dark Knight. Please send men in white coats?

I'll be popping back home this coming weekend, mostly to use the sewing machine as a matter of some urgency. Also, I miss my cat, although I am informed that the feeling is not at all mutual.

Well, it's now half-way through 3rd Week and I've just about got the hang of this university thing. Here are some thoughts from the front line.

- Lecturers vary enormously in quality. Dynamics Prof is epic and everyone likes him a lot. Analysis Prof is also good, although not quite AS good. Algebra Woman is okay but cannot work a microphone to save her life, which doesn't help when trying to understand her strong German accent, and her m's look like her n's, which is bad news when matrices are involved. Calculus Guy is already fighting at a disadvantage because calculus and I do not get on. Still, he's not too bad. I have yet to form an opinion of Geometry Guy, but given the difficulty I'm having with the problem sheet it's likely to be unflattering.

- I've become a fan of formal hall. It's extremely silly and largely pointless because they serve the exact same food as first hall but everyone wears gowns because the Fellows eat then. It's also vital that you can control yourself, as someone reads grace in Latin before you eat and every so often you get someone who reads it in a hilarious Italian accent. Plus there's candles and you can't leave until the head butler (who looks a little bit like Alfred but who is disappointingly called Kevin) waves his napkin. Also one of the junior butlers looks a little like Robin from Batman Forever.

- I've joined the archery club. The impressive bruise on my inner forearm from the trial session in 1st Week is now almost gone, which is sad as it was very pretty. I also met a girl there who reads Batman. She is now my only fandom friend within city limits, which is sad. Still, one is better than none.

- STEAM. The steampunk exhibition at the Museum of the History of Science is beautiful. There's a HUGE sign outside that says STEAMPUNK in big brass letters and it makes me smile every day on the way to lectures. Plus a couple of weeks back I met up with a few steamy people after matriculation and much joy and merriment was had. Plz to be coming back again? Next fun event is the Steampunk Big Draw this coming Friday and Saturday.

- This is now week 3 of my horrible drawn-out illness, which started off as a fever and nausea and has evolved through various stages including feeling faint, coughing uncontrollably and my throat feeling on fire. The worst part is that at no point has it been sufficiently bad to warrant staying in bed. It's getting rather tiresome. It's now reached the point where I now just cough occasionally, my throat hurts a bit and sometimes my nose is blocked. It's like it's not even bothering any more.

In other news, I am not speaking to Ubisoft*, as they have now pushed back the release date of the PC version of Assassin's Creed 2 to the end of Feb next year. I AM VERY VERY DISAPPOINT.

That's all, folks. See you soon.


_{*...not strictly true, as AC1 is currently in transit between here and Play.com. I need SOMETHING to fill the gap.}