Viva Forever

Cable Scarf
Pattern: MimKints
Yarn: Almost two 50g balls of silver, half mohair/acrylic yarn
Cost: About AU$8

I finished it about a week ago. Took me MONTHS to finish from start, though that’s mostly due to laziness, uni and other stuff that got in the way of actual knitting. I’m quite proud of it since it was the first thing I’ve ever knitted. I should’ve made it a little longer (it’s about one metre in length) but it’s good to wear to work as it’s quite narrow and non-bulky. I realised too late that it gets scratchy to wear next to the skin (especially the neck). Oh well, I wear it over thin turtleneck tops. The cables were a pain in the ass to do with all the constant shifting of stitches but it was fun and straightforward. I’m absolutely in love with the colour (don’t think the camera quite picked it up though, I’m terrible with taking photos) but the yarn is this very lovely silver colour.

Gryffindor Scarf
This is what I’ve got so far:

Well… I’m not going to have this finished by the fifth Harry Potter movie, which I’ll probably be seeing tomorrow! Either way, I’m quite happy by how it’s turning out (IT’S SO EASY TO KNIT, especially compared to the cable scarf above) though it’s taking a very long time. It’s so massive, though I keep referencing Harry Potter movie pics and they are apparently supposed to be that wide. I’m a tiny bit frustrated that the yellow yarn is a bit too saturated compared to the movie pics but I quite like the bolder colour (even if it’s not exactly canon, sigh).

Well there goes my “blog once every few days” record. No picture of the scarf yet, recharging camera batteries. Three of my friends are in Japan at the moment on their three week trip there, probably taking heaps of pictures of the wonderfully wacky people at Harajuku. *envy envy*

My holidays so far has been utter bliss. I’ve watched so many movies (most rented) and I’ve been knitting heaps.

Quick movie reviews
Riding in Cars With Boys - Wonderfully sad but adorable movie. Unlike what the Gilmore Girls might suggest, teen pregnancies are not a piece of cake. There is a terrible amount of sacrifice and lost opportunities involved. There were parts of the movie (like the wedding scene) that almost brought me to tears (and I don’t tear up often!) because of how understatedly tragic the whole thing was. Highly recommended.

The Boondock Saints - Quite a funny movie at parts. Very violent, but it’s just so… ODD to see Billy Connolly’s play an incredibly badass, gun-toting character. Willem Dafoe’s flamboyant cop character was pretty hilarious too. Still… I don’t quite agree with the ending, with it’s seeming advocacy of vigilante behaviour. It was a nice touch on the end of the movie of this acknowledge controversial stance. Recommended.

Bowling for Columbine - Nice documentary about gun control. The most striking part of the documentary was the parody cartoon that breezed through American history and highlighted the way fear had always played such a big role in American mentality. This could be one explanation of why so many people think guns are so important so to protect themselves. It seems that other nations do not share America’s quite unique paranoia about each other.

Requiem for a Dream - MOST DEPRESSING MOVIE I’VE EVER SEEN. Not a teary/sad kind of depressing, but the type that makes you agape and sickened by the sheer tragedy of it, giving you a punched-in-the-stomach feel that’s guaranteed to last the rest of the day. The movie isn’t just about “drugs are bad”, it’s about problems that exists for some people; loneliness, disconnection from the world, frustration and probably some degree of nihilism that make substance abuse so desirable. The results are devastating and life destroying. All four stories are distinct in their own way, but the one that Jennifer Connelly plays was the hardest to watch. It really struck a chord by how earlier in the movie, when she was relatively drug free, she said that money wasn’t want she wanted, contrasted with the ending where she’s blank, drugged up and defeated, rolled up and protectively clutching a wad of money. Highly recommended but don’t say I didn’t warn you!

I haven’t been commenting much on people’s blogs, doesn’t mean I don’t read them though!

Also I’ve closed down my writing site and plan to tweak it for this blog’s next layout. Yay, recycling. :P I’m half-contemplating actually moving this site (with a name change) to its own domain that was intended for the craft blog (and the craft blog becoming a subdomain). It’ll be quite a big step since this blog has been the way it has for about 4 years so I’m still uncertain. Also, will be changing hosts soon, might be going with Host Nine.

Here’s a long post of Things That Have Happened Recently.

Movies
Watched Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer a few days ago. UTTER SHIT, basically due to Jessica Alba’s portrayal of Sue Storm. As I said in a forum, Sue Storm from the comics is supposed to be a top-notch scientist (with four science doctorates under her belt) and is a very capable leader. Sue Storm from the movie was a whingy, pathetic woman who was constantly complaining about not getting to have a perfect wedding and a normal family. WTF. It was nausea-inducing to see her UPSET about Reed Richards working on his scientific projects TO SAVE THE WORLD. It didn’t help when there was a sudden, unexplained redemption of this at the end of the movie.

On the other hand, I saw Transformers yesterday and that was pretty awesome! I myself am not much into the Transformers franchise but I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. It was action-packed and suspenseful almost all the way through, however I got a splitting headache at the end (though probably unrelated, methinks I am developing a cold). They did great work on the transforming sequences though it’s unrealistic how the robots look so much bigger than the vehicles they transform from.

Games: WoW
EB Games is having their store-wide sales and Tim and I saw the 14-day trials of World of Warcraft DVDs on sale for 97 cent each. We’ve been resisting the hype for a long time and seeing it almost given away for free, we bought two copies on impulse. We have heard horror stories of people becoming absolutely addicted to the game and we were quite apprehensive about it but we figured that we’ll see how it goes for 14 days. I was a little appalled that it required so much space; installation from the DVD took about 50 minutes and the patching process took an extra 1.5GB of downloads!

Anyway all I can say is, wow I’m so incredibly disappointed in the game. I’ve played MMORPGs before and I’ve enjoyed them to varying extents. I’ve played Maple Story, Silkroad and Fly For Fun, as well as dabbling for a tiny bit in Ragnarok. All of these games, except the latter, were free and fairly enjoyable.

World of Warcraft seems to be almost exactly the same (in playability) as the above games but costs money per month. Sure it’s pretty, has little features like talking monsters and the dialogue between you and the NPC does not contain evident spelling mistakes (unlike Silkroad and Fly For Fun). But… it’s really not all that different from other FREE games it seems. You select a class, kill x number of monsters for experience and/or money/equipment or deliver things. Sure it’s fun to lose a bit of time in when bored… but I’m certainly not buying into the hype of it. I’m glad I guess, that’s one less thing to potentially get addicted to.

Craft: Scarves
I finished my first silver scarf. Pictures tomorrow.

Currently working on my Gryffindor scarf. I figured out how to do circular knitting, now it’s just about churning out a good 66,800 stitches before I’m done. I realise that not only would I most realistically not have the scarf done by when the movie is out, but that I might not live to see the day where I’ve completed this mammoth of a project. Oh well, I’m going to keep going with it.

Meme
Got tagged by Danielle. You have to post these rules: one, each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves. Two, people who are tagged need to write their own blog entry about their eight things and post these rules. Three, at the end of your entry, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names/pseudonyms/blogs. Four, don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog. Ready? Here goes!

1. I have both duvet AND a woolly blanket to keep me warm at night, even though in Winter our house has central heating. No love for cold.
2. I have four posters in my room; Two of characters from X/1999, one of Fruits Basket and a little one of Sephiroth from FFVII.
3. I have a habit of starting games but don’t often finish them. It’s usually not the fault of the game, I guess I just get distracted easily.
4. I can’t stand sexism, either to men or women.
5. Having said that, I do watch America’s (and Australia’s) Next Top Model, but out of morbid curiosity. I find it so mind-boggling that judges of photo-shoots of the girls would say things like “in this photo your eyes are too dull, you don’t have fire in your eyes.” What the hell? “Fire” comes from reflecting light; it’s the photographer’s fault for not catching her in the right lighting. Also, how easy is it to put a bit of glow to her eyes using Photoshop? It’s not like they aren’t ridiculously airbrushed as it is. Watching these kinds of shows is like watching the circus; surreal and comical in an almost sad way.
6. I’ve never been to the circus.
7. I haven’t cleaned my desk or room at all after my exams. *is so lazy*
8. I’ve done too many of these memes, can’t remember what “random facts” I’ve stated previously or not.

Random Pet Peeve
Someone else has brought it up on their blog/forum post a long while ago and it really stuck with me. It really annoys me when people dismiss anger from women as being “oh they’re just PMSing”. Maybe, JUST MAYBE, they’re actually, I dunno, ANGRY AND/OR FRUSTRATED? Females ARE capable of such emotions! Sure, some women get bad PMS but I venture to say that generally speaking, anger/frustration is more common than PMS that is severe enough to manifest as uncontrollable emotional reactions. Next time a woman is angry at you, if you’re tempted to think “oh she’s just PMSing” maybe think to yourself that your dismissive way of thinking is probably the very reason that she thinks you’re a douchebag, no matter what time of the month it is.