My Current Reading, or How to Bankrupt Yourself and Fail Your Degree in 2 Easy Steps

1. Enter a bookshop.
2. Do what comes naturally.

So what am I reading at the moment? Far too much, and I have far too much to say on them to keep to comment conversations. So here's a blog post about some of the books on my shelf. These are what I have finished recently:

The Wise Man's Fear- Partick Rothfuss
Not particularly enamoured with Rothfuss' writing. The story and world bases set down in The Name of the Wind got me willing to read this eventually, but something that was massively foreshadowed in the first book and should have happened at the beginning of the second so the plot could develop freely still hasn't happened. I fear another fantasy author following the GRRM path of fretting out  after book, full of words, characters and magic: signifying nothing.

Ender's game- Orson Scott Card
Obviously read it because of the film and I've wanted to read it for ages anyway. It's so good. Thematically it reminds me of the Hunger Games, but with rather better intentions behind it and less death. Still brutal treatment of children for the sake of survival and stability. Plus space. Gotta love the bit about it being set in space! Anyway, it's well written, thematically interesting and compelling plotwise, so this one makes me happy.

The Books of Magic- Neil Gaiman et al.
I had never read a graphic novel before and I wanted to give the genre a shot. Someone mentioned this one, so I found it and bought it. It took some time to get used to reading speech bubbles and using the pictures as part of the story telling. It was amusing, but I don't think I'm going to return to graphic novels, especially considering the price. I understand why they are more expensive, but I still feel I am buying less.

______________

And this is what I'm actually picking up at the moment. It's a little much to be coherent in my mind. I don't tend to read one book straight through (except books which are badly written; really don't know why that is), so it's a longer list than such a one should really be.

Let it Snow- John Green et al.
Saw it on a shelf, stirred something in my memory, bought it. 1st print English ed. paperback. What took you so long Penguin? It was only published in the States 5 years ago... I've read Maureen Johnson's story. Rather good, although I'm going to wait to get into something of a more Christmassy mood to keep on reading.

Les Miserable- Victor Hugo tr. Norman Denny
I've only seen the musical 3 times (plus the film, but... doesn't really count does it?) I figured it was time to read the original. Well... a translation anyway. If I had been told how it began I would have been apprehensive about it. Chapter after chapter exploring the intricacies of a single character. But somehow it works. It was a joy to read about Monseigneur Bienvenu and learn of his brief encounter with the wretch who is to become the main character. To quote the translator's introduction, "[Hugo] was incapable of leaving anything out. The book is loaded down with digressions, interpolated discourses, passages of moralizing rhetoric and pedagogic disquisitions." This and more is already obvious from the short way I've travelled in this book, and I am really looking forward to continuing.

The Dark is Rising- Susan Cooper
This was suggested to me by a Nerdfighter Primary School teacher friend of mine due to my taste in fantasy. I'm not particularly impressed yet, but that might be the age of the target audience rather than the actual quality of the book. That said, I was told that it gets better in the rest of the series, so we'll see if I manage to get far enough to find out.

The Hobbit- J.R.R. Tolkien
Because I've always something from Tolkien on the go. My university room didn't feel like home until my LotR and Hobbits arrived. Nothing's changed. It's still as brilliant as last time I read it.

A Not-So-Brief Primer On Australian Politics So That You Will Understand The 30-Second News Spot You Get Later Today Announcing Things.

Today in Australia is Federal Election Day. I'm not sure how much coverage we get overseas, but it's likely to be non-zero but minimal, and as your resident Australian I thought you might be interested in a slightly deeper understanding of what's going on.

The Basics

Let's start with the very very basics. Australia is divided into five states and two territories. Each of these has their own state government, whose responsibilities are generally pretty local - school curriculums, hospitals, highways. That kind of stuff. There is also a Federal Government. Their responsibilities are things like collecting taxes, running Medicare, setting foreign policy, and so on.

Apart from different areas of responsibility, the two levels are pretty similar, so in the interests of brevity I'm just going to talk about the Federal level from now on. If you want to skip ahead to the bit about the election, that's cool. This is mostly background.

The legislative arm of government is called parliament, and it consists of two houses. We were very uncreative back in the 1900s, so we nicked the names off the US (They're called the House of Representatives and the Senate) and the way they work off the Brits (they work pretty much like the House of Commons and the House of Lords, except we elect our upper house members).

The House of Reps is largely responsible for making laws, as they are the only house that's allowed to introduce bills (draft laws) that spend money. The House requires 50% plus one vote to pass a bill. All bills need to be passed by both houses before they become law. If one fails a vote, then it is sent back to be amended, which can happen a maximum of three times before it has to be dropped. It's generally considered rude to continuously block important bills like the budget, because it can cause the Governor General (the Queen's representative) to exercise their only remaining legal power and turf you all out to have a fresh election. This has only happened once, and it caused rather a mess.

For the sake of convenience, there are several parties which tend to hold blocks of seats in order to make getting their legislation through easier. Which ever party currently holds a majority in the House is called the government, and the leader of that party is the prime minister. Occasionally, like at the last election, a coalition of parties will form a government together, which causes headaches for everyone because usually they disagree with each other on stuff. I have no idea how much this was publicised outside of Australia, but the last couple of times our prime minister changed, it wasn't because of elections. It was because of exactly this type of inside-party power struggles. If you did hear about this, I'd be curious to find out how it was portrayed internationally.

Elections

Every three-ish years (there are no fixed terms, just a four year limit), the current government calls an election. The election date is always a weekend, (usually a saturday), and because this is Australia, generally timed to avoid any major sporting events. Because we would legit rather watch the cricket than go out and vote.

Except that voting is compulsory. You don't have to enrol to vote, but if you are enrolled and you don't vote, you get sent a $50 fine by the electoral commision. Americans tend to find the idea of being compelled to vote abhorrent, while we find the idea that less half the population sometimes votes a bit ridiculous. Both systems have their benefits and drawbacks, though - ours is that it results in simplistic campaigns and policies appealing to the lowest common denominator to try to sway uninterested voters.

So, you rock up to your polling place. You get two ballot papers. One is for the House of Reps, for your local Member of Parliament. There's one of these for about every 80,000 citizens, and they're elected by a local area. These tend to be more stable, as you have the same people mostly voting the same way for the same local person every election. For example, I live in a seat which has elected Julie Bishop every year since 1998, and today, we're probably going to do it again. Some people find this frustrating.

Then you have to vote for the Senate. There are 12 Senate seats per state, but they're on 6-year terms so we only elect half of them at once. Much like the US, this is because the smaller states put up a fight way back about not getting pushed around by the larger ones, who would get more House seats because of their larger population. The senate tends to be a lot more diverse, and minor parties or independents are much more likely to get elected here because they don't have to sway a whole local area - they just have to find their quota of votes, from anywhere in the population. This gives the Senate a reputation for being a check on the government's power, though occasionally one party will gain a majority in both and use it to push their own legislation through.

The way your vote works is like this: You number all the boxes, in the order prefer. Then, after everyone's '1' votes are counted, if there isn't a clear winner, the candidate with the lowest number of '1' votes is knocked out, and their votes distributed to whoever those voters voted '2' for. This process repeats until a candidate gets 50%+1 vote, and is elected. This is great, because it means you can't 'waste' your vote by voting for a minor party - which actually gives those parties a chance to get votes.

We generally know our election results, at least in terms of who will be the government, the same night, or occasionally the next morning. Counting every vote does take a couple of weeks, and sometimes Senate seats can be up in the air for a while.

The Issues

So here's who's running this election, and vaguely what issues we're basing our decision on as a nation.

The Labor party currently holds government, though only tenuously. They are left-wing economically, and like to portray themselves as looking after the average Australian. They originated from, and still have strong ties to, workers unions. Hence the name. They're led by Kevin Rudd, the current Prime Minister.

The Coalition is comprised of the conservative Liberal party (yes, confusing) and the regionally-focussed National Party. Being right-wing-ish, they generally focus on lowering taxes and reducing Government spending. They're currently led by Tony Abbott.

The Greens are very left wing, and are generally about the environment and social justice. Last election they won their first House of Reps seat ever, so they're irrelevant there. In the senate, though, they're a quite influential.

There are a couple of new parties too. Palmer United is run by Queensland billionaire Clive Palmer, and mostly has the policy of Clive Palmer wanting to be Prime Minister. They might win some seats, but I think they just look more significant than they are because of Palmer's penchant for spending his billions on political ads. Then there's Katter's Australia Party, run by former independent (non-party member) Bob Katter. I don't even know what they stand for.

Oh yeah, there are also a bunch of independents and minor parties.

This election, they've been mostly questioning the character of each others' leaders, though occasionally some actual policy gets announced by accident. Most people find the state of the situation generally to be "slightly bullshit", and tend to classify the lot of them as "bastards".

The policy which has actually been debated is centered around:

• Asylum seekers, and how we should deal with them. Both major parties want to 'stop the boats' (referring to how they arrive on boats), and put refugees in detention or send them to Indonesia. The Greens alone want to land them.
• The National Broadband Network, a massive infrastructure project to install fiber-optic internet in every Australian home. Started by Labor. Amazing idea, but is naturally over budget. The Coalition wants to scale it back, and just run fibre to every street corner and use the existing phone infrastructre for the 'last mile'. This will be slightly cheaper, and much slower.
• The Carbon Tax. Last term, under pressure from the Greens, Labor introduced a price per tonne on carbon dioxide emissions. The Coalition wants to replace this with an emissions trading scheme (which basically means they want the carbon price to be set by the market rather than the government.) The Labor party also want to do this because it's a reasonable idea, so nobody is quite sure what they're yelling about.
• The Mining Tax. Last term again, Labor introduced a tax on large mining companies who make extremely large profits. It was pretty unsuccessful, mostly because they introduced a bunch of concessions in order to appease the mining companies, who are basically holding up the entire economy and are the reason we didn't go into a recession with the rest of the world. The Coalition wants to get rid of this one too.
• Both parties want to return the government budget to a surplus, but disagree on how to do it. This is generally the least substantive point, as it leads to a lot of name calling about how bad the other guy is at balancing thier budgets.
• Gay marriage, which Labor supports and the Coalition opposes. Though this is a pretty minor issue for most people.

As I said though, these issues are maybe getting 20% of the discussion? The other 80% is basically shit-stirring and name-calling. If you're interested in seeing which party you agree with, the ABC has done a survey thing called Vote Compass which goes through this election's main issues and tells you where you stand. If you're interested in what politics feels like in another country, I'd recommend checking it out, and I'd be interested to hear where you guys stand if you do take it.

...

Okay, that turned out to be not such a short primer after all. But hopefully, you'll understand what went into the 30 seconds of handshaking and speeches you get on your TV a little better than you might've otherwise.

Thanks for reading.

All revved up with no place to go

The problem with a small music festival is that after spending money to see the headlining act one feels obliged to watch the warm up acts and wander the other stages.

So here I am, sipping a rum and ginger beer, listening to some incredibly good music from someone I've never heard of. The price of this good music is of course opening myself up to being ripped off (the rum and ginger was £6).

On the other hand- good music. My knowledge of musicians is awful. Looking down the line up I realize that it takes someone of Bruce Springsteen proportions for me to recognize. Luckily he's the headline act.

So mixed mood right now, but the Boss is on in 3 and a half hours. If anyone has any tips for meeting people at festivals, now is the time.

And in case you're wandering, no; Meatloaf isn't here, that song just popped into my head as an appropriate title.

Kindle Musings

You might remember that I got a Kindle Paperwhite for Christmas. Since then, I've read a couple of books, maybe 2/3 on the Kindle and 1/3 as actual books, with paper and stuff.
Lately I've been thinking about what I prefer and I came to the conclusion that I actually really can't decide!

PRO Kindle
- It's light. It's thin. I can put it in any bag and it's so easy to take it out and read it, even at the bus stop. Also when I travel I notice a difference because it really weighs much less than any book.
- When I travel, I don't have to worry anymore if I have enough to read or if I will finish my book while I'm away. If I do, I just connect to WIFI and buy a new one! I used to take two or three books with me, and again, weight!
- I like the "xx minutes left in chapter". It's really quite accurate and it's useful to know, for example if I should better stop reading and go to sleep because the chapter is still 15 minutes long or if it's just two minutes left anyway. Of course you can also flip forward in a book and see how much is left, but somehow it is never that accurate and I always underestimate the time I will need and end up reading way longer than I planned. Plus, there is always the danger that you accidentally read what will happen.
- Probably my favorite feature: the dictionary. It is just SO FUCKING USEFUL. Many books I can read without looking anything up, but for some books it's just absolutely necessary (note that I don't read translations and that I read many books in English. Obviously I don't need the dictionary in German, although it can also be nice). For example: A Game of Thrones, or now A Clash of Kings. I started reading the paper books and I almost threw it at the wall because it was so frustrating. I'm glad that I decided to buy it on the Kindle and try it again because those are really good books, but the language is a bitch and I do need to look up a lot. I don't know many of those 'Old English' words and I'm also not that well versed with war&weaponry.
- The background light is neat.

CONTRA Kindle
- It's an electronic device and that means that you have to turn it off during take off and landing in the plane. In my opinion it should be enough to turn on flight mode, but recently the stewardess got angry at me because I was reading and told me to turn it off. That's a bit annoying, especially when they turn on the fasten seat belt sign in the middle of an exciting scene.
- It doesn't have the book feel and more important, the book smell. The smell of a new book is one of my favorite smells ever and I do miss that when I read electronic books.
- Books in a bookshelf are pretty and I am missing having some of those books to 'display'. Series and books that are important to me I would buy as a paper copy anyway (or additionally), just to have it in my shelf.
- Buying books is a great feeling. I don't buy in book shops very often anymore, but even getting a package with shiny new books inside is just so great! I'm a book hoarder and I have many books that I haven't even touched yet. With the Kindle, you don't get that feeling, probably because it's just a couple of clicks and you don't get to unpack anything.

The hardest decision for me is what to buy for Kindle and what to buy as a physical copy. If I know I will travel, I rather buy it for Kindle, but when I'm at home it doesn't really matter on what medium I read (unless I need the dictionary).
In the last couple of month I bought a whole stack of new books again, so you really can't say that E-books kill the normal books or however people say that :)

Those of you who read E-books, do you still buy normal books too? How do you decide?

Why are boobs great?

So I love boobs. They're great for so many reasons - here's a few reasons why:

• They're like fun stress balls that carry round everywhere with you. They're just so squishy! I mean what more could you want.
• You can become a single handed milk making machine for when you have children. I mean, just whip a boob out, and all of your child feeding need are just sorted.
• When wet, a boob becomes slippery, and I know that I'm not the only girl that spends about 80% of shower time washing boobs because it's awesome.
• Talking about storage, bras are incredible places to stuff money/phones/mints/anything you want. Particularly when wearing dresses, because apparently dresses don't need pockets,
• They are important for balance.
• If you have particularly large breast, you can balance things on top of them, such as laptops - making an easier viewing platform when lying in bed. Or balancing clothes whilst folding them.
• 10 minutes of staring at boobs daily can prolong a man's life by up to five years!

and finally, because boobs.

CDSM #23 - Confessions

Today, I'll be talking about this new trend that has surfaced on Facebook, that of University confession pages. I've only seen pages from unis in Malaysia and Australia, so I'm not sure if it has spread or came from  other unis worldwide.

So basically, people have been setting up Facebook pages where you can anonymously submit "confessions", usually uni-centric things about fellow students, staff, life on campus etc. Then these "confessions" are posted up for all to see, like and comment on. They can be pretty harmless stuff like complimenting people or testimonials of embarassing moments. But the more scandalous ones are those professing love for others (SO MANY), happening across x-rated situations, stuff about lecturers and others.

It's mostly all in good fun, although some things said can be very mean. I've seen some pages where you can submit pictures and people have posted pictures of girls whose butt cracks are showing. But like I said, it's a source of entertainment more than anything. Given the anonymity, most of these things are probably made up and shouldn't really be believed but it's still super fun to read all these crazy, outlandish stories.

I first came across other university's pages, but one for my university popped up a couple days ago so it's all hot and fresh. The posts have been rolling in like hotcakes. As much as I enjoyed reading other university's pages, it's incredibly amusing to read when you know who the subject is. Plus, people will often say all the things you don't want to say out loud yourself.

Some of my favourite ones include a post talking about how great an ass one of my lecturers has (totally agree), close calls of getting caught making out in places and people professing their love to some of my friends. Heck! One showed up today with someone calling me a "total babe". I have a feeling it was one of my friends who put it up as a prank, but boy was it a surprise. 

So is this a thing in your universities? CONFESS YOUR SINS, PEOPLE. 

CDSM #20 - Sexy Questiooooons

Whither do you wish to wander in your life?
Everywhere. I've been to Italy twice and would love to go back again. I also want to go to Japan since I speak the language a little bit. I'd love to go to outer space if I get the chance. Hopefully I will but I probably won't.

Your favourite villain (from comics, tv, movies, novels etc)
The first person that comes to mind is Dr. Horrible - I think more generally I just like that type of villain. He's clearly evil - he wants to overthrow society and rule the world and all that jazz. But for some reason we still root for him and we still want him to succeed. People are complicated and I like it when books/movies/comics/etc reflect that.

Preferred coffee beverage? Or tea, if you don't drink coffee.
I am really not a fan of coffee. I don't really like the smell or the taste. Once in a while I'll get a cappuccino, and I've been known to drink a mocha, but those are very rare occasions. I think it's probably a good thing; a few of my roommates drink coffee all the time and it's really quite addictive. I think someone told me that if coffee weren't already such a staple of our diets it would probably require a prescription.
That being said, I like my tea black and with a lot of milk and sugar. Green tea is okay but I am definitely a black tea person. I really like chai in particular.

What wood and core would your wand be made of?
I'm gonna go with Redwood since it's available in bounty here. In terms of cores I just googled a bunch of stuff and one random website had Kitsune Tailhair as an option. Which sounds really cool. And foxes are really cool. Obviously I don't know a lot about this...

Favorite joke?
That's a really tough question. Here's a pretty good (clean) one:

Kermit the Frog walks into a bank. He approaches one of the tellers, a woman named Patricia Wack.
"Hello, Ms. Wack. I'd like to take out a loan."
"Of course. What is this loan for?"
"Ms. Piggy and I are going to buy a house together."
"Congratulations! How much would you like to take out?"
"$200,000."
"Alright. Mr. the Frog, as you probably know, when a customer takes out such a substantial loan we like to keep some sort of collateral for security reasons. Do you have anything to offer?"
"Yes! Actually, I brought something with me, so we can get this all squared away right here."
Kermit reaches into his bag and pulls out a small porcelain figurine of an elephant, the sort that you might find in a cheap tourist shop in some city's Chinatown. He places it on the counter and Patricia looks at it, confused.
"Mr. the Frog, I'm not sure you understand. The collateral needs to be something valuable, so we can be sure you'll pay back the loan."
Kermit looks offended. "Are you implying this isn't valuable? It's valuable to me. It's one of my collection. I have hundreds of elephant statues of all sizes, but this one is the most special to me. It was a gift from my parents on the day I graduated from high school. The first in my collection, in fact."
"I'm sorry, but we need something more valuable. It's our policy. Do you have anything else to offer?"
Kermit begins to get angry. He and Patricia argue for a few more minutes, and eventually he requests to speak to the bank manager. Patricia calls him out and explains the situation. Kermit again talks about his collection and why this porcelain elephant is really quite valuable as collateral. The bank manager thinks it over for a few minutes, finally deciding:
"It's a knick-knack, Patty Wack. Give the frog a loan."

It's so bad but so good at the same time. I apologize.

Embarrassing childhood moment?
When I was in first grade (so like six years old, okay?) I had to pee at school. So I went to the bathroom and after I peed I realized there was no toilet paper in the stall. This must have been the first time I'd encountered this situation or something because I distinctly remember running all the way back to my class crying with my pants still around my ankles...I was not a master problem-solver at that age.

Gigi

Gamelan

One of my favorite parts of being a music major is getting join really cool ensembles, and this quarter I decided to play with the Balinese Gamelan Ensemble.  Gamelan is an important musical tradition from Indonesia, and the term refers to the set of instruments.  Each Gamelan is uniquely built and tuned so the instruments between different sets are rarely interchangeable.  There are two types of Gamelan, Javanese and Balinese.  Javanese is more structured, while Balinese is more free-spirited and sporadic.  This reflects how outside countries and political upheaval during the early twentieth century affected the traditions of the Bali people, allowing them to maintain their culture and traditions, while dramatically altering them.  Gamelan Angklung is the most widespread type of Gamelan orchestra.  It is primarily used for ceremonies, particularly cremations.  The word angklung refers to an older type of ensemble, angklung bambu (one tone rattle bamboo), and is actually onomatopoetic with the purpose of evoking the sound of the bamboo rattle.  Gamelan angklung differs from other Balinese traditions with its four-tone scale (deng, dung, dang, ding), saih angklung.  The instruments typically used for this are two jegogan (low pitched metallophones), four gangsa gantung gede (ten-keyed, high-pitched metallophones), four gangsa gantung barangan (metallophones), an eight-pot reong (a set of knobbed kettles), a set of ceng-ceng (large cymbals), a suling (bamboo flute), and a pair kendang angklung (small cylinder-shaped drums played with a mallet).  

Here is a picture of the UCLA Gamelan from quite a while ago.

Here is a sample, it's pretty awesome.  Enjoy.

CDSM: More random rambles

The popcorn button
A while ago I was informed that there are microwave ovens with a popcorn button in them (There are also buttons for pizza and the like). I cannot believe there is a button just for popcorn! On the actual oven! This assumes that all popcorn is done in the time frame and settings determined by that single button assigned to it! Actually, with popcorn I might just believe it but with pizza? No. The last I checked, the food industry doesn’t compare and contrast and calibrate their damn food like that. So why waste the time and energy to actually create a button for such? What’s wrong with just the timer and the heat settings? And maybe a button for de-frosting. But a popcorn button? C’mon. Really?

The name Tigernach (Irish)
It doesn’t mean tiger night and it’s pronounced teer-nee. I am disappointed.

Corgis
I feel like they are over-glorified on the intormenets. They are like the new llamas. Just corgis. Everywhere. They got old about as fast as llamas, too. I wonder how much the corgi-breeding business has benefited from this internet craze.  No, wait, no I don’t.

A friend suggested I also discuss spoons in this blog entry, but I don’t feel like I have informed enough an opinion on such a controversial issue as spoons.

CDSM #15 In Which I Struggle to Post Before the Day Ends

So I was originally going to write my second post about werewolves today, but then I became super distracted with a bunch of things: mainly the book I am currently reading. So today's post might be short so I can get back to reading   makes sure this is posted in time.

So today I will tell you all about the first time when I skipped school.

I was three years old.

Here I am rocking pink suspenders and a purple shirt.

So the story isn't really as bad as I made it out to be. I was in Kindergarten with my best friend at the time Sophie. I was three years old (having a late birthday and everything) and I think Sophie was around four. Kindergarten used to only run for half a day. The schedule was simple. We learned our alphabet and our numbers, we had indoor play time, outdoor playtime and story time. Then we got to either go home to our parents or go to daycare. 

Now if I remember this day correctly, it was overcast when we went outside for our play time. My two friends at the time (Sophie from above) and Evelyn (I have no picture) and I were playing by some trees behind the playground. I guess we were having so much fun that we didn't hear our teacher blow the whistle to say that play time was over. Instead we continued to play happily. I can kind of faintly remember looking up and realizing that we were the only kids on the playground. This for my childhood mind was kind of mind blowing. I brought this to the attention of my two friends. We had a very serious discussion (as serious as any 3-4 year old could have) and only when Evelyn started to cry (she was scared of what would happen to us if we got caught) did we go back to our classroom.

I don't really remember what happened after that. I don't think I was punished. 

Well there you have it, I slacked off at school even before I knew that slacking off at school was a thing. Does that makes me some kind of school hipster?

I have this other story about an afternoon where our supply teacher never showed up... but I will save that for a different day.

DFTBA everyone!

CDSM #13 Wh?

CDSM #13

Okay so here are some answers to some questions :)

Where are you going on holiday?

À France! To a little campsite near the town of Vic-sur-Aisne in the north east about an hour and a half away from Paris. We’re staying in a mobile home for a week and we’re going to Disney, as both James and I want to relieve our childhood.

What games do you play?

I’m not really a computer game type of person, although I do have a few guilty pleasures from childhood such as crash bandicoot, spyro and anything sims. Also pokemon. I get very competitive at board games, to the point where quite a few people refuse to play monopoly with me anymore, as my strategies are too ruthless. Another couple of favourite boards games are logo (a game where you have to identify logos and answer questions about brands), and articulate (a game in which you have to describe and guess words in a set time).

What’s James doing?

Currently he’s led on my bed, eating biscuits and watching me type this. However, I assume that you’re referring to what he does with his life in general. He works as a senior administrator for a training company (basically he’s the office gossip/holdertogetherer) . He spends a lot of his free time volunteering for the British Red Cross, helping people in their hour of need. Also, he’s nice to me some times.

What is your favourite mathy thing and explain it to us?

My favourite area of mathematics is cryptography and coding theory, which is basically the maths which keeps all your personal information safe when paying for stuff online. I would explain it to you, but unfortunately it’s far too broad an area mathematics to explain. So instead I’ll attempt to explain a formula which actually made me question my life. I’m guessing you all know what pi is (you know the 3.14 the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle), I’m not sure if you know what e (Euler’s number). This is what it equals:

Which is approximately 2.72 and irrational like pi.

Also, I’m not sure if you’ll know what I is (as in the irrational number), but it’s given by the square root of -1

So this is all well and good, but what’s exciting about that. Well it’s when you combine e, i and pi you get interesting results. Be prepared to be amazed.

Wait what? These seemingly unrelated number when combined in a very specific way equal -1. What?! Yeah.

What’s your little niece doing?

You know just living the hard life of a baby. Eating, drinking, pooping, crying and sleeping. Also, not just pooing, but projectile pooing at James’ mother, who needless to say, nearly screamed down. It was the pure look of joy on my niece’s face compared to her nan’s reaction which I just couldn’t but laugh at. Also, does anyone know why babies clothes have pockets? I mean what is a baby going to need a pocket for? They can’t even coordinate their own limbs yet, but they’ve got a handy place to store bits and pieces if they so desire. But yeah, Elsie is a cutie, and I love being an Auntie.

Whould you like to be Queen?

I’d like to be a princess, but what girl wouldn’t want to be at some point in their life? I don’t think I would want to be a Queen though – far too many efforts to give. James says he wants to be in the band Queen on piano because Queen is the best band that has been, continues and will ever be in the whole entire multi-verse. James just likes Queen a little bit.

CDSM #12 A Crash Course in Werewolf Studies Part One

Today I'm going to begin a Crash Course on Werewolf Studies. I originally wanted to do this as one post, but it seemed almost impossible to condense all the information. So let's see how long this werewolf saga takes! 

Most of the information in this post is based off of a course that I took last term taught by Dr. Renée Ward. 

At the end of the werewolf saga I will offer a Works Cited/Bibliography/Further Reading section which will include Dr. Ward's Thesis because she is awesome.

So here goes nothing:

Defining Identity: Man vs Animal

Before you read my Russian-length novel on "werewolfery" I'm going to ask you three questions, and your homework will be that you need to think about them while you read said Russian-Length Novel. 

Your homework questions: 

1. What is identity? 

2. How to you define your identity?

3. What is normal?

I know, they're pretty heavy questions. But they're important.

The werewolf is a problematic figure because it takes the definition of humanity and the definition of the animal and smashes them together to create an all new figure, one that doesn't fit comfortably in either category. 

The werewolf serves as a liminal figure, he is both human and animal and neither at the same time. Because of this the werewolf causes us to question: what is human? What is animal? What is identity?

Voluntary vs Involuntary

Kirby Flower Smith wrote A Historical Study of the Werewolf in Literature in 1984 where he argued that the werewolf arose from a bunch of different sources. Some of the examples he gave where Out Law Tales (think Robin Hood) or Medical and Physical conditions (lupus = lycanthropy). Smith divided the werewolf into two different categories: the voluntary and the involuntary.

The Voluntary Werewolf retains the intelligence and cunning of a man but is more or less clouded by his bestial nature. The Voluntary werewolf tends to possess a ravaging hunger. They're extremely violent and are partial to acts of impiety: slaughtering children, cannibalism, slaughtering innocents at will etc etc. As you can guess Smith doesn't like the Voluntary Werewolf, for them werewolfery is represented as being negative. Smith views the Voluntary Werewolf to be the true werewolf because the Voluntary werewolf chooses to give up his humanity when they know that what they are doing is evil. The other interesting aspect of Smith's argument  he doesn't see the transformation as a transformation into a different species. Therefore when a werewolf eats a human it is still a human eating another human. HUZZAH CANNIBALISM!

Other interesting facts on the Voluntary Werewolf: they can transfer at will. Transformation can either be Constitutional or Magical. Constitutional Transformation means that the werewolf has an innate ability/gift to transform. While Magical transformation tends to rely on a magical object such as a salve, a cloak or even a spell. There is nothing in Smith's descriptions about the lunar cycle. Also, the Voluntary werewolf tends to be male (most records from the Iniquity and the Medieval narratives have male werewolves).

The most important fact that you need to take away about the voluntary werewolf is free will. He chooses to change. He knows what he is doing. He just likes to eat people and be violent. 

The Involuntary Werewolf on the other hand is a victim who is devoid of malice. The transformation is not their choice, and they remain kind hearted despite the fact that they turn into a wolf. Smith doesn't see this as problematic. 

Overall Smith sees the werewolf in very black and white categories. 

Montague Summers and Why We Don't Like Him (Much)

So Montague Summers also wrote on werewolfery, and he took the categories that Smith had created and ran with them. Summers also drew on documents from the 16 and 17 Century. His major issue is that he looks at sources without their historical context. Some sources and these sources in particular are influenced heavily by their time periods.  Summer condemns the werewolf. His religious outlooks heavily influence his analysis of the werewolf. His views towards pre-Christian culture is tainted. Interestinly enough he knows he is biased and announces this. He is writing entirely from his out theological and philosophical view.

To Summers all werewolves are inherently evil:

"All such transformations are effected by diabolical power (no matter what it is somehow connected to the devil"

Some of the Methods of Transformations (According to Summers)

• A Glamour - caused by a demon seems  to be transformed but not an actual physical transformation
• Mesmeric Trance - Sorcerer in a trance and has a wolf familiar - mind goes out in the animal
• Cloaking - a casting over - aerial effigy of a beast on a witch after preparation by the witch
• the demon surrounds the witch with the effigy of the beast

In his opinion to no physical act of change ever takes place. Also werewolves are slaves of Satan.

So What Is Summer's Useful for?

Summers has one use (other than being extremely interesting to read in my opinion). He does an in-depth analysis of etymology (if you're into that thing). The werewolf is a universal creature. It is also interesting to notice the different names for the werewolf all have guttural sounds when you pronounce them.

werwulf (German)

loup-garou (Old French)

garall, garoul (Old French as well, but southern)

varulv (Norwegian)

rargr, varg-ūlfr (Old Norse)

lupo mannaro (Italian)

vir (Latin) = man

   

So Ends Part One on your journey through the history of werewolves... What's up next? Well stay tuned for more Cannibalism, Scape Goating and the Sympathetic Werewolf!

CDSM #11: Beautiful Animation - GIFPALOOZA!

We all likely grew up watching animated movies and shows, it’s like an entrance to visual entertainment, right after picture books. It is therefore not much of a stretch to make the claim that animation affects us a great deal. So, today I’m going to talk about beautiful animation, with the help of some gifs I painstakingly made.

Balto (1995), Amblimation

Balto is a movie about sled dogs fetching a serum to cure diphtheria, focusing on the story of a half-wolf half-dog named Balto, who doesn’t seem to fit in anywhere. The movie is (fairly loosely) based on a true story of the diphtheria epidemic in the 1925 Nome, Alaska.

Many of us probably saw this when we were young. I certainly remember loving the movie, I even have it on a VHS. I rewatched it to make gifs and while it still has great moments, scenes and other aspects, some of it, I find, falls flat. Especially the attempted comedy to lighten the story. But I won’t go into that more, it's not my focus. Why I’m writing about this movie is that it had some great animation and background, as well as character design. The scene I made a gif of is from one of the beautiful scenes - Balto struggles up from a pile of snow after falling down a gorge. After this, he remains huddled up in the cold and sees the white wolf, Aniu. Just look at that smooth animation and the light effects. Gorgeous.

Since I am essentially celebrating the work of artists who worked on this film, I tried to find the sites of the animators, which can be quite a difficult thing to do. Many simply do not even have online galleries and this seemed to be the case with a lot of the artists working on Balto, despite the fact that many are working in the industry even today. For example, Kristof Serrand (lead animator of the character Boris) also worked on How To Train Your Dragon. Andy Schmidt (lead character, Steele, additional animator) seems to currently work on Disney/Pixar and he has worked on Rescuers Down Under, Beauty And The Beast, Up, and Brave, among other things. All I could find of him was his LinkedIn profile. Since I am falling ill currently, I do not have the energy to quite search the whole animation team, but here are the sites I was able to find from Balto team:

Steven Albert - background artist http://www.steven-d-albert-art.com/
Stephen Hanson - background artist http://www.stephenhanson.co.uk/

The movie was worked on by Amblimation studios, an animation studio founded by Steven Spielberg (closed down in 1997). The studio also worked on An American Tail: Fievel Goes West. I recommend never watching the awful sequels made for this movie.

Rescuers Down Under (1990), Disney

A Disney movie about a young boy, who, in an attempt to save a rare golden eagle, Marahute, gets captured by a poacher. Two mice, Bernard and Bianca, are sent to his rescue. This movie has several beautiful scenes, which for traditional 2-D animation are absolutely amazing, yet people tend to forget about this film when they consider Disney movies. Especially the scenes featuring Marahute are great to look at.

One of the most notable animators and character designers working on this film was Glen Keane. I would have to say that he alone is responsible for what I thought for a long time eagles should look like, especially in art. Hell, I still carry that influence, his work on Marahute was simply that beautiful to me, even when I was little. His animation is consistently great and his work can be seen in Beauty And The Beast, Tarzan, Little Mermaid, and Tangled, among other things. While he doesn’t have his own portfolio site or an official blog, I recommend searching his name and looking at his work. Here is an excellent blog displaying his work http://theartofglenkeane.blogspot.com. He recently retired from Disney.

How To Train Your Dragon (2010), DreamWorks

A movie about an awkward but inventive young buy, Hiccup, who cannot seem to fit in with the rest of the Vikings. Despite his clumsiness, he manages to down a dragon who no one has even managed to see before. Instead of killing the beast, he befriends it, naming it Toothless, and learning more about dragons than anyone else in the process.

This is just a great film. The final battle scene alone is a gorgeous work of art, but another striking thing about the animation are the flying scenes. If I could see the 3D effect, this would be the one movie I would like to see in 3D. The wind affects the dragons’ wings in a such a realistic manner that you can practically feel it yourself. The skin on the wings quivers and bulges from the strength of the wind. In the scene where Hiccup manages to pull up Toothless just in time, avoiding crashing into trees at a dizzying speed, you can see how the wings really cut the air. The variety of animation on fire in this movie is also great to look at. Some of the fire is almost lava-like, while some works like an explosion.

To see the work artists and the production crew did, I recommend watching this video, The Making of  How To Train Your Dragon: http://youtu.be/vDsFQIWVfEQ This is one of the best making-of videos I have seen on a film.

You can see more How To Train Your Dragon production/ concept art in the How To Train Your Dragon tag of the animation tidbits Tumblr blog: http://animationtidbits.tumblr.com/tagged/how-to-train-your-dragon

Nico Marlet - character design http://artofnicomarlet.tumblr.com/ (unofficial)
Alessandro Carloni - head of story, animation department http://alecarloni.blogspot.com
or http://www.cgsociety.org/index.php/CGSFeatures/CGSFeatureSpecial/alessandro_carloni 
Simon Otto - head of character animation http://simonotto.com/
Mark Williams - animator http://www.markwilliamsart.net/index.html

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole (2010), Warner Bros (Village Roadshow Pictures, Animal Logic studios)

A young owl, Soren and his brother are kidnapped by owls referring to themselves as The Pure Ones, who are building themselves an army that could take over all the owl kingdoms. Soren’s only hope is to find the legendary Guardians, who he isn’t even certain exist.

Thos movie is pretty much full of absolutely gorgeous scenes and animation, yet very few seem to have seen this movie and no one has talked about it in years. It is a severely underappreciated movie, yet I sort of understand why. When I saw the first trailers for this movie, I laughed. It displayed owls in helmets and it looked ridiculous. But the trailer also showed one of the movie’s most striking scenes, where Soren flies through a vortex of air in a storm, which lead me to want to see the movie. It is gorgeous and dramatic, and after seeing the movie, the owls in helmets idea didn’t seem so silly. They managed to make them convincing. The story itself, though perhaps predictable, reminds me of stories the likes of The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen. More people definitely should watch this movie, if not for the story, then for the beautiful animation and cinematography.

Tohru Patrick Awa - character design http://www.patrickawa.net/
Felicity Coonan - art director http://felicityc.blogspot.com
Cecile Dubois-Herry - character artist http://cduboisherry.blogspot.com
Vivienne To - concept artist http://www.vivienneto.com/

If you want to find more of the artists’ pages (of any of the animated movies you‘ve seen), I recommend checking out the full crew lists on IMDB and proceeding to google. You might get lucky and find some of the artists who have contributed to your favorite movies.

CDSM #10: Matt's Story

So today I'm going to talk a bit about my story. I hope you enjoy it! Like I said in my previous, it's a mixture Greek myth, Plato's philosophy, and my own additions.

Disclaimer first: for this story I am changing a lot of the Greek myths and the pantheon (quite a few of the major gods in the pantheon are getting combined), so it might be confusing at the outset. Mostly I'm trying to give the gods more character development. Also, pretty much all of the concepts I borrow from Plato are from his Timaeus and his Republic, but also the Apology and the Symposium. I really like Plato, in case you couldn't tell. :)

Anyway, on to the story, or at least part of it:

**

Imagine a place, a level of reality higher than our own, where the grass grows evergreen without the aid of rain, nor fear of snow. A place where, as Homer says, "the air is outspread clear and cloudless, and over it hovered a radiant whiteness."

This place is Olympos: the Realm atop the mountain, the Realm bathed in the light of the white sun, crafted by the Demiurge himself in the best image of the realm of the Forms. Olympos is home to a race of beings known to themselves as the Oikergos ("descendants or family of the craftsman") and to humans Theos or gods. The Oikergos are a powerful race, to be sure as they have such command over the fabric of reality that on Olympos they can create and destroy matter. They are the last defense against the Beyond and the creatures of chaos that dwell there. It is from the palace on Olympos that the Keepers and the Hierarchs below them stand ever-watchful. They use the power and energy of intellect and creativity (ambrosia) to keep the Beyond at bay. Using their power to create a great defensive wall, they have created thousands of universes. One of which is ours. For ages untold, Zeus, the current Keeper of the Paradigm, has ruled with an iron fist and a just heart, but a tired sigh has crept into his nod in his old age.

This is where our story begins; with the first snowflake on Olympos.

The Archivist (Athena) was standing in grief and remorse over the grave of her dead sister, Pallas, situated by the river, when she saw it falling. She caught the snowflake on the tip of her index finger. The flake melted on her skin, but the very idea of a snowflake on Olympos scared her. For the first time, since when the Archivist had seen a cloud in the sky on Olympus and the mysterious illness struck the Keeper of the Family (Hera/Hestia) which lead to the execution of the last Father of Souls (Apollo/Dionysus/Poseidon), she felt as though time was running out. She had to accelerate her plans.

She looked up and and saw the Judiciary (Hephaistos/Ares/Hades) watching her from afar. She would have to accelerate her plans a great deal. Even though she would be risking being caught breaking the Paradigm by interfering with one of the crafts (universes), she had to find the soul who would help her.

The words of the Fates spoken only to her still echoed in her ears.

"The child of Athena will succeed the King."

**

Ok, so that's a bit of the background. I've been working on. I would say more, but it's late and I'm getting tired. If you want to ask questions in the comments, then I can try to answer them! It would be really helpful to me if you asked questions or tell me what you think!

CDSM #9: Playing music loudly and making shapes with my body.

A month or two before I graduated from high school last year, I started thinking about what I wanted to do during college.  The past four years were filled with musical theatre, academic league, and of course, LOTS OF HOMEWORK.  One thing I always wanted to do but never got the chance to, was marching band.  So right then and there I decided that during the summer I was going to learn an instrument and try out for the UCLA band.  

The day after graduation, I picked up a trombone (it has a slide, how could I not?) and got to work.  Two months later, I sent in an audition tape and was fortunate enough to be accepted.

Since then, life has been pretty fantastic.  Although marching and practicing for 10 hours a day during band camp was grueling, and having 7am call times for football games was not too much fun, it is one of the best decisions I've ever made.  Finding an immediate group of awesome people who eventually became my good friends and advisors made freshmen year suddenly less intimidating.  The first few weeks were pretty difficult, learning marching drills and memorizing music while still trying to excel at basic trombone skills, but as time went by, things started clicking.  I got to play at all sorts of school events, not just sports, and was also given the opportunity to travel for free, going to NorCal twice, Columbus, OH, and Seattle, WA.  

It's an odd activity, who thought that running around a field while playing a wind instrument was a good idea anyway?  It's also a very American thing, every time I see a band, images of eagles, stars and stripes, and fireworks instantly come to mind.  But it's quite exhilarating, running onto the field with your fellow bandmates (around 260 of them), feeling the audience get so excited and absorbing the energy, then playing your school's fight song and feeling a strong sense of pride.  It's a tradition filled with passion, camaraderie, and good spirits, and I am so incredibly happy that I get the chance to be part of it.  Go Bruins!

Pre-Game Show

Ending of our Queen Show (we beat our rivals USC that day and it was glorious)

CDSM #8??? All the feels

So since I have no idea what to write about I'm just going to write.

This may get a little personal but sometimes you need to.

There seem to me to be some people in the world who just get it. I don't know if I can explain further than that. I don't think I can explain or define what "it" is. Some people just seem to get it.

During high school I was lucky enough to be super involved in a theatre group full of such people. I came in extremely shy and slightly depressed and came out confident and more talented and creative. It did wonders for me and I was definitely missing something these first two years of college. I love my friends here and my roommates but that bond was missing.

But I was lucky enough to get into an a cappella group here this past week who also seem to get it. Only a week and I feel like I'm part of a family again.

These are my thoughts on this:

1) In most new social groups, you are assumed to be an outsider, you are assumed to be uninteresting, you are assumed to be unremarkable and unattractive, and you have to prove that you are a good person who is fun to be around and has good ideas and a rich life. In these groups of people who seem to "get it", everyone is immediately welcomed. You are innocent until proven guilty, so to say; you are accepted for who you are before they even know who you are. It seems hard to find people like this but people like this are amazing. I feel like nerdfighters can be like this too (I mean look at this blog, prime example!). It's just so positive and heartwarming and I wish the whole world was like that (echhhhh listen to me)

2) Both of these experiences I have had were with performance groups. My second rehearsal experience with my high school theatre group was fight choreography - not fight choreography, no, Gigi-gets-beat-up-violently choreography. When you're part of a performance group you are immediately thrown into very close situations (both physically and emotionally). With live performance especially, you're constantly creating, and relying on each other to create. You almost have no choice but to be family when you're always working together to try and make something beautiful.

I dunno. I'm just really really happy.

To give you some fun treats (and to show you why I am SO FREAKING EXCITED TO BE IN THIS GROUP) here are some videos from the weekend for your enjoyment. That is me running sound in the first one (us newbies only performed in a couple of the simpler songs).

CDSM #7 What if we ...?

So I'm going to being attempting to answer the most frequently searched for “what if we…” questions asked on Google. Don’t expect anything too serious.

… had no moon?

There would be fewer tides, we’d get hit by more asteroids and the earth would spin faster so our days would be much shorter. Also we’d be lacking a comparison to what amore is.

… ruin it all?

Well I’d argue that it would be pretty hard to ruin “it all”. I mean some people definition of ruining is another’s idea of improving. Like when people paint over antiques and it makes some people want to cry, but others think it’s wonderful.

...change?

Like evolve? I don’t know. I watch an interesting film called Idiocracy. It’s all about how humans are in fact devolving. It’s fictional, but has some truth to it. The general idea is that it tends to be people who aren't as intelligent who have children younger, and hence more children, whereas those who are more intelligent tend to put of having children in favour of a career and often leaving it to late to have children.

…all had a car?

Our cities would essentially turn in to giant traffic jams, and motorways into glorified car parks. Also, unless we could find a way of running them on some kind of renewable energy, we soon wouldn't be able to run them anyway.

…were superheros?

Then the world still wouldn't be great. It’s a widely known fact that whenever there’s a superhero, there’s an equal and opposite super-villain. Super-villains aren't something that I want to be dealing with. Also, I imagine their evil laugh might get a little wearing after a while.

…fly?

Then probably someone would invent “fly through” fast food, because that’s just the world we live in.

…are aliens?

Then we’d probably remember we were. That is unless we were planted on earth by some greater alien intelligence as an experiment. In which case, we were probably a dismal failure.

CDSM #6: Where, What, Why and When: Whquestions!

Today is especially non-silent! There are two posts today, but if you can read only one, read Sarah's, because it contains cats. I'm just here answering some very great questions (thanks for those) in different categories:

DEPARTMENT OF HISTORIES

What is your favorite ancient text and why?
The Dream of Scipio, by Marcus Tullius Cicero. This is basically Scipio's account of a dream he had, in which his grandfather takes him up to the Milky Way, shows him the universe and predicts the future. Purely from a historian's perspective this is fascinating, because it gives us a glimpse into how the universe was perceived. But it's also very cool in a philosophical way, because one of my favorite parts is when Scipio Maior (grandpa) shows Scipio Minor the Roman Empire, and how insignificant it is if you compare it to the greatness of the universe, and goes on to talk about how unimportant earthly possessions and fame are and what happens to us when we die.

Who would you want to go back in time and meet?
Considering the previous question, obviously Cicero. Also, Socrates, Augustus, Solon, Plato, and HOMER. Homer mostly because it frustrates me to no end that nobody knows who he was or if he even existed. 

DEPARTMENT OF FAVORITE THINGS

What's your favorite whale?
I'm going to assume you are just very loyal to the wh- theme and actually meant 'tale', in which case I'm going to say the Tale of the Three Brothers (also because I am scared of sea creatures).

What's your favorite tree smell?
For this question I actually went outside. In the dark! It was scary! Well, it's becoming apparent that I am a chicken. Anyway, I smelled all the trees (two) in my street and I think the w(h)illow is a w(h)inner. 

DEPARTMENT OF ME

What's one thing you whine about sometimes?
I don't whine a lot, if I may say so myself. I'm one of those glass-half-full kind of people. I actually used to wear a bracelet that read 'Don't whine, but shine!', which is a ridiculous text, but I liked it, because you were supposed to put the bracelet around your other wrist any time you complained about something. Something that sparks annoyance/madness in me, however, is when people say something incredibly mean, and then say 'no offence', as if that somehow makes whatever they said less insulting. I HATE THAT AND IT MAKES ME SCREAM.

Can you whistle?
Yes, I can! But only during the day. (I wear night time braces.)

Who would you like to invite to a dinner party (dead or alive)?
I'm going to go with some friendly people who are also very awesome: J.K. Rowling, Maureen Johnson, Willemijn Verkaik, Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, and also the man outside of the train station who asks for food and only seems to be there when I have neither food nor change with me.

DEPARTMENT OF RANDOM STUFF

Why is the water cold?
I suspect the nargels are behind it.

Where’s Waldo?
Ross says he's behind the elephant.

Where's Wally?
One of the things I like to brag about, is that I know an actual person named Wally. He's a collegue of mine at the restaurant I work at, and whenever we can't find him, somebody will ask 'Where's Wally?'. I find this hilariously funny (He does not). Oh, and he's usually in the storage room.

Stuff?

Is an excellent center back of the Swindon Town Swoodilipoopers.

So, that was all for today! It will now be ghostly silent until tomorrow! *grabs saxophone* *plays scales* 

CDSM #5: Cats. What else?

It's 4 am, I still have two and a half hours more to go and I'm not really in a state anymore where I can write deep blog posts about philosophical topics (not that I ever do that, but yeah).
So I will write about cats.

Cats are awesome. I'm 100% a cat person and I get along well with cats. I don't get along well with dogs, I don't like them and they also don't seem to like me.
But cats, cats have personality! They are nobody's pets, you are their master!

I will now introduce you to some cats. Mine, my boyfriend's family's three cats and maybe some more. Let see!

Mischa

We got Mischa in 2007 after searching for a while for the perfect cat. We had high demands - my mother wanted a red cat, the rest of the family wanted a symmetrical cat, so we ended up with the most standard cat you can get. She was so cute though, how could you not take that little ball of fur?

At first we wanted a male cat, Maine Coon/Norwegian Forst Cat kinda cat (our neighbors had one of those at that time, called Gepetto), which we would have called Hannibal (so that we could buy him a little plushie elephant). We didn't find a cat like that though and so we ended up with that little female. In Hannibal Rising, Hannibal Lecter's sister is called Mischa, that's where she got her name from. We also call her Misch-Misch or Mischili. She does listen to all of those names.

At first she was really cute because she was so scared of grass that she would set a paw into it - we had fun carrying her to the end of the garden and let her race back into the house. Soon after, her evil side started to show when she decided it would be fun to jump at my hair and climb up people's pants (especially appropriate with guests). 

Now that she is grown up she has even more personality. She is very attached, especially to me, and loves to come and lie on me. At the same time, she is very aggressive and unpredictable, which results in my hand being torn into pieces (she doesn't just scratch to warn, she starts biting and scratching your arm and doesn't let go. My boyfriend swears she goes for the arteries). Almost every time when I go to pee, she comes to sit on my lap. She likes cake, but not chocolate cake. She knows my steps and waits at the door when I come home. She is a big hunter, some days in summer she brings three mice a night. She always sorts the animals into the rooms though - mice go into the bathroom or the corridor, lizards stay downstairs, dragonflies are always put under the table. Her masterpieces were two goldfish, a bat and a mole (there are no moles where we live). What else can I tell you... she loves my boyfriend, but he calls her "The Evil" and is a bit scared of her. My sister's boyfriend is deadly scared of her, but I think he is not a cat person overall. We keep a "Am I fed?" list where we tick off when we fed Mischa, because otherwise she would eat six times a day. In the morning, she always wants to lick some butter or margarine (she doesn't like the cheap one from the discount shop, but we didn't like it either). She also likes routine, you used to be able to set the clock after her because she always came back from outside at 21:45 sharp, but that stopped since my mother moved out. She loves the color yellow. 

I could go on like this, but then this would probably become a Russian novel about cats.

Ready to go shopping

Felix, Kubus & Sheldon

Felix is my boyfriend's family's oldest cat. He's a Maine Coon and huge. He weighs more than 10 kg, but if you would ask my boyfriend's mother, she would tell you that it's only fur. He loves bags and suitcases. If you bring a suitcase into the house, it doesn't take five minutes until he sits on it. A backpack is also acceptable, a laptop bag preferable. He is unable to open doors, even if they are actually opened.

Kubus was a surprise (they found a female cat on a parking and a few month later it doubled) and he is quite a weird cat. He runs after my boyfriend's mother like a dog and when she goes into the bathroom, he is meowing in front of the door until she lets him in. He also exclusively sleeps on her clothes. (I don't really have any pictures of him because he is my least favorite, if you can say it like that.)

Sheldon is my little baby. After the female cat died, my boyfriend wanted to buy his mother a new cat. We did some research and decided that we like Chartreux the best. I called some breeders in Germany and finally we found a woman with 15 cats. When we went there to buy a cat, there were seven tiny kittens and we had to choose. I never wanted to leave there, but eventually we picked the friendliest.

I said as a joke: "Let's call him Sheldon until we find a better name!" and somehow that stuck. He is really pretty and he has those crazy orange eyes. We travelled more than 800km by car with the little guy and it was no problem. We stayed in a hotel and when we tried to shower together in the evening, that little cat meowed so loudly that we really couldn't leave him alone. We blame that moment for his current craziness - he loves water. His biggest joy is if you turn on the tap for him so he can stick his head under the water. He also fell in the bathtub a couple of times already and if he can't get water, he smashed flower vases because he figured out that there is water in those.

He doesn't like to be carried, only I can hold him longer than 20 seconds (as I said, I'm good with cats). He also doesn't really grow, he is two years old now and still looks like a kitten. We call him bonsai cat. He adores Felix and does everything Felix does, too. That's why I often have two or even three cats on my suitcase when I'm there.

---
I didn't have time to upload this yesterday because Old Guy woke up at 5 am and wouldn't go back to sleep. He got aggressive, tried to get up all the time and for two hours we were just shouting at each other. But I survived and I think it was a good experience overall :)

We grow cats in our garden

May The 4th Be With You

...yes I took the time to edit these gifs just to do this.