How exciting :D

Finally started the first chapter of my new novel. Also done the prologue, which you can now read, hurray!

http://utopiaguardianship.blogspot.com/2010/07/prologue.html

Genre, I would say, is gonna be sort of science fiction/fantasy kind of thing. I’d appreciate any comments and stuff, after all, that’s how writing improves, right? :)

So the first chapter is under development, and hopefully should be a good one. Haven’t written for aaages, so if my writing’s a bit rusty, don’t kill me.

On other news, Royal Society work was amazing, met so many inspiring brilliant scientists (and others including the astronaut crew from the Atlantis shuttle and had lunch with Ranulph Fiennes ;P). Worked with great people too. :)

Ahhh, bugger about the World Cup. Damnit, I had Holland. :/

But yay Wimbledon :D Omfg love Nadal so damn much.

Now there is nothing to tweet about. :/

Ohyeah; and I had a great birthday last week :) thanks again to all the birthday wishes. Going to see Inception next Sunday, heard it’s amazing.

That’s all for now, but watch that space in the link above ;) Ofcourse I shall post the new chapter’s link up here too when it’s done.

Music time!

Addicted ;P

Aaand

Yay :D

~Illusionist

Forgive me if this blog entry doesn’t look right or something- I’m still learning how to mess around with Windows Writer; it’s a very cool program, I have to say.

Omai, I got a new laptop :D It is fantastic- fantastically gorgeous. Dark, stylish red on the cover, bordered at the top and bottom with strips of matt black; 15.8” screen, lovely quiet keyboard for good, silent lecture typing. Volume buttons that glow a soft white glow when pressed, a glossy power button and an extremely satisfying soft click when the lid is closed.

I think I’m in love. :D

Considering my last laptop was XP, jumping to Windows 7 seems like a pretty big leap, both in technology and ease of use. Gosh, it makes you feel sorry for the people thousands of years ago who only had Windows 98. (Actually, I was one of those people, but I’m a little younger than a thousand years old)

For people who are interested in spec and so on… It’s a new Dell, Inspiron, 17, 350Gm; I could write a lot more stuff but I doubt there are too many people interested in minute spec details :D

I must say, I am loving Windows 7. The graphics are just as gorgeous as Vista, and the snappy window things are useful, as I usually have more than a hundred windows open (jk). Task bar is cool, nice themes, all rather floaty but nice. And I know you could get Writer on Vista, but I still love it, as this is the first time I’ve used it.

Actually, and I know this might sound odd, but I would much prefer I didn’t have this laptop- even though I’m in love with it. But that’s another story.

Anyway, that’s enough of laptop/love talk, moving on :D

Had a lovely long holiday in Cornwall the other week, surprisingly good weather but surprisingly bad surf. Hardly got any surfing done- and I seem to have lost whatever kind of touch I had with my surfboard. Let’s see if I can behave like the world cup players and blame my board. I might have to take lessons; shock horror.

Right now, I’m on holiday again. Well, I wouldn’t call it a holiday- a two day break? Anyway, typing from the hotel room in Marriot hotel in Norfolk. Today, been on a very windy beach (85mph, at a guess) and been to a brewery for fathers day (Yes, I know it’s not today). Tonight, the reason we came to Norfolk, we’re going to an excavation on a beach. Looking for half a million year old human remains; well exciting :D

Blogging news- I’ve made a photography blog; hurrah and all that jazz. Not giving you the link yet- haven’t put anything on it to date. Will do soon, but it is taking a while to search through the million or so photos from my camera/s :( Only putting on the best of the best (SIR *MIB reference*) on the site, of course. If you could call them the best.

Apologies for the lack of pictures on this entry, don’t have many on my new laptop.

World cup, now. Sorry for non-football-fans, you losers can move on if you like :) First things first: ENGLAND, SMARTEN UP, THIS IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH.

I would say I cannot believe this is happening, but I really can. We usually fail on the first match or so, right? In every WC it’s the same. Then we get good enough that you think we have a chance- then, at the top of our game, we fall back down again, never to be heard from again.

This time, however, I cannot see us surfacing from the deep pit of despair/doom/death/destruction/cataclysmicfailure that we now reside within. I hope I am wrong- and this phenomenon often occurs, so don’t toss your England flag away just yet.

It’s my birthday in a few weeks :D Yay

You must all know what’s coming up now. Yes, music.

Stunning, beautiful song by the Villagers, my repeat-this-for-hours song at the moment.

Hope you are all well,

~Illusionist xx

p.s. this page might have a new blog layout soon- keep watching ;)

Hello again.

I have a lot to update on, and have been waiting a while to write this blog entry, so I forgive you if you’re not going to read it all. Feel free to skip bits :P

These past few days have been extremely excellent (alliteration, hah), and I have fallen in love with far too many things too quickly, this I am sure is not healthy. However, I do not care one little bit, as the things I have fallen in love with are fantastic. So just ignore my little OMFGILOVEIT attacks here and there.

First off, I hope you all had a great Easter, plentiful in little fluffy bunnies and large helpings of chocolate. As it was the end of Lent on Sunday, I ate more biscuits than chocolate, as that was the food I gave up for the 40 silly days I had definitely begun to hate by the end of it. As I’ve said before, I think, I admire people greatly that have given up chocolate, (*cough* Celeste *cough*) and I shall try and repeat their amazing feat of determination next year. But for now (Jamie Cullem lyrics seem to weave their way into everything) I will be content with chocolate.

Now, Easter wouldn’t be Easter without Doctor Who, right? (Wait, no, that’s not right, should be Christmas. Ah well.) So what follows is a short little review of my opinion on that episode, The Eleventh Hour, on Saturday. Hopefully I haven’t forgotten much. Spoiler alert if you haven’t watched it yet.

Let’s go in chronological order to avoid confusion (mainly in my own head)- beginning with the title sequence. Instantly disapproved the music, sounds much too...Electronic? not the right word. Anywho, however, I then much approved the fonts. Still not so sure about the logo, the ‘W’ still looks like a radiator to me. But overall, title sequence was quite different and therefore quite good.

THE DOOR FREAKED ME OUT.

Ahem.

The plot, especially at the beginning, was a little predictable, what with the ‘Promise you’ll be back in five minutes?’, and it reminded me a little of the whole Rose thing when she was dropped back, like, 4 months later or whatever it was, and Jackie got pissed. But ahwell. Otherwise the plot was great, looks like Moffat is going to be brilliant. I’ve always loved his episodes so am looking forward, as I’m sure everyone else is, to a whole series of him. I thought the crack idea was really good, especially seen as though I’ve got one almost identical to that just outside my room, and I wish that they’d stuck with the crackinthewall idea more.

The door freaked me out. When it opened after she’d moved or whatever. :0

The big eye thing seemed a bit random though. :/ Loved the eelsnake thing, fantastic teeth, twas cool when those little girls got the teeth. The dog guy was scary too. :D

But, of course, how can you not love Matt Smith? (first of my loves) He is simply brilliant. :D Although, I mustn’t be too quick to judge, so I’m going to wait a few episodes before I announce that I either approve or disapprove of this new Doctor. Of course, David Tennant is missed greatly, and I still like him better, and not sure that Matt Paint will overall be better than him. So we’ll have to wait and see. But I do love his boyish enthusiasm and his matter-of-fact sort of manner. He’s also got a more light-hearted tone than Tennant. (He’s also gorgeous when he smiles.)

Urgh, I suppose I’m just jealous, but I’m not sure about this Amy Pond yet. She had a cool name in the beginning, but ‘Amy’? Hmm. Again, trying not to be quick judging on her. At first I would call her plain, but she’s really not, she’s different, and I can see why the Doctor might like her. I just hope to god it doesn’t turn out the sort of ‘I love you’ and ‘Omg I love you too’ thing like Rose did. Donna was brilliant in that respect. (Martha was just useless)

I have, however, got a serious problem with something else.

The sonic screwdriver.

They are supposed to be BLUE.

Not GREEN. It’s not supposed to be BLOODY GREEN. Urgh. Well, I shall have to live with it.

Other than that, the new colours of everything (including his outfit and the TARDIS) are definitely agreeable, love the new kind of fantasy fairytale theme. I must say, the new interior of the TARDIS is fantastic, I love the shinyness and bright colours, nicely disorientating. His outfit, not so keen on, but the bowtie is cool. Very cool.

Overall, the whole episode was rather mind-blowing, and I am certainly pleased to see Doctor Who at its best :D Looking forward to next Saturday’s episode!

~~~

Then there was F1 on Sunday. I woke up bright and early at 8am to watch the start of the race, as I knew I wouldn’t be there for the end of it. After the pretty messy start, with Hamilton picking off his ‘victims’ (as the BBC called it) rather more frequently than usual, and Button doing his usual ‘right let’s get ‘em, lads’ thing, the race went quite smoothly for a while. Sad to see Glock spin off or whatever he did, didn’t quite catch the whole thing.

But then, legasp.

Schumacher ;_;

I CRIED. Jk. I didn’t quite cry. But I was dismayed and horrified and traumatised (nah not the last one) when I saw him slowing down, and radioing through to say there was a problem. It was like Apollo 13 all over again. A wheel nut or something had come off, I’m not quite sure what had happened.

But DAMN he looked awesome on a motorbike :’D

Ahem, anyway, yeah, it was so sad he was out. I am seriously beginning to doubt my prediction that he’d do relatively well ): He can still get it back, though, c’mon.

Congrats to Vettel, some great driving there. Where on earth had the Ferrari lot gotten to? Ahwell. Hamilton died or something amusing.

~~~

Okay, next love comin’ up.

I got a new camera last week. :D

ITISSOSHINY.

Okay, technically it’s not mine. Technically it’s the ‘family camera’. But my dad hardly ever uses cameras, and my mum never does. So it’s all mine. ALLMINE, I TELL YOU.

For people who know about cameras- it’s a DSLR, Nikon D5000. 18-22 lens, hopefully getting a telephoto next year. I luff it soo much o3o Hoping to get into more professional photography, with more lenses and the like. (prints might be available :D) Went out to Clivdon Gardens to test it out, put through its paces. Pleased to report it was excellent, after I’d figured how to do the manual focus (yeah, shuttup :/ ) and all the different scene settings. (It has a setting for blossom, which came in handy)

YAY FOR PREVIEWS.

~~~

Okay, last thing I promise.

Yesterday was a very sad but momentous day. For it was the day that the last episode of Wonders of the Solar System was on. ): It is a brilliant programme presented by the brilliant Professor Brian Cox, whom I’ve met and gone to one of his lectures on the LHC, where he works on the ATLAS detector there. I think he’s very inspiring, and is great at passing on his obvious passion for physics and astronomy.

Anywho, the series had been excellent so far, so the last episode was bound to be great. And it was. Really very inspiring and exceedingly interesting. An epic tribute to our Solar System and the wonders within it. I also thought it was great that at the end, after he’d introduced the idea that our civilisation is the greatest Wonder in the Solar System, he didn’t waffle on about how we need to ‘get our acts together and save our Earth from the death that is heading its way’. Because most people do that.

He has much rekindled my love for physics and desire to be a physicist again. I remember the days when I would dream of working at CERN, and I might quite possibly want to work there again :’D Let’s see if they have a department in Berlin. I could design cars in my spare time.

~~~

As usual, lets end with some music.

Fave Gorillaz song at the moment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SxlD74hvRk

And a video of a cat. (My own. Not my own cat, my own video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pOLjt4q32s

Hope you enjoyed this very long blog entry. :P Talk to you all soon.

~Illusionist x

:/ Bit late, but lets see how bad my writing's gotten. I started writing this a few weeks ago, but then deleted the whole thing and started again- so don't expect it to be great. But I think it's alright ^^' Again, you might recognise the black haired boy, he's one of my favorite characters from my Nano. The other boy is a character under development, this helped a lot.

At the bottom of the village, past the willow tree and through the apple orchard, there sat two boys on the dry riverbank, under the dappled shade of the canopy of rich emerald above them. The deep azure river lay still and silent, a small sandy cloud of mayflies swarming over the water. One of the boys had a fishing pole in one hand, his neatly cropped hair framing his sharp features, a stony but relaxed expression on his face as he adjusted the pole, tugging it back slightly as ripples pulsated across the glassy surface of the water. The other boy was startlingly different, with longer black flyaway hair nearly covering his bright silver eyes and a mischievous grin seemingly permanently etched onto his casually handsome face, a cigarette held indifferently in slender fingers.

The two boys were universes apart, but in the same world.

They enjoyed the atmosphere of early spring, with the forests echoing with nightingale ad lark calls, the light cooling breeze whispering in the trees. A flash of blue and gold- a kingfisher darting across the river. The boy with the fishing pole glanced over at the other boy, who was sprawled out on the grass next to him.

“Sorry, I forgot.” the dark haired boy said in German, flashed him a grin and took one last puff of his cigarette before lightly dropping it and patting it out with his boot. He then folded his hands and put them behind his head, gazing up into the huge clear dome of eggshell blue sky.

Grey knew full well that Stoermer had not forgotten that he hated it when he smoked. He scowled and irritably twitched his fishing rod with a flick of his wrist, the line making a cut through the smooth water as he pulled it slightly closer to the bank.

“You know your father wanted you in the stables earlier, I forgot to tell you,” yawned Grey, his moss green eyes focused firmly on the river.

“Yeah, and I got a ‘gram this morning from the British, saying the Wall’s come down.” Stoermer answered promptly, casting a dark but somehow wistful look over to the opposite bank.

Grey made a sceptical snort, following Stoermer’s gaze to the dark cement structure looming over the water on the other side of the river.

Philippsthal was a small town in West Germany, just north from the Fulda Gap. The Berlin Wall, or Berliner Mauer, ran straight through the village, splitting it in two, laced with barbed wire and studded with watch towers along its length until it snaked out of the village and into Berlin beyond the hills.

The residents of the village had learned to live with it. They compared it with the evil in the world- you can’t pretend it doesn’t exist, nor can you get rid of it completely, so you must learn to live with it. And that was exactly what they did.

Grey scowled again, deeper this time, glaring at the foreboding, dismal wall of concrete opposite them across the water. It cast a giant shadow on the forest beyond it; or at least on the tips of the trees that were visible. Suddenly the bird calls sounded less vibrant, the river less beautiful, the sunlight darker. Gritting his teeth, Grey had a sudden urge to hurl something across the river- a stone, his shoe, his fishing pole; anything that would make a mark on the barrier between him and the rest of the world.

“Stoermer, what do you want to do with your life?” Grey hissed, unable to keep the fury from his voice.

His friend propped himself up on his elbows, looking at him warily, his silver eyes glinting in the sunlight. “Live fast, die old?” he suggested with a casual shrug.

“Seriously,” Grey tutted, fingers tightening on the fishing pole in his hand, his eyes still frowning at the Wall.

There was a few heartbeats of silence. “I don’t know. Something useful,” Stoermer murmured eventually. He was oddly solemn; his silver eyes were slightly confused but thoughtful. Another pause. “What about you?”

“I am going to be the first over that Wall,” Grey spat.

The hint of a smile was back on Stoermer’s features. “Bit late, mate. You mean the first one over the Wall alive?”

“You know what I mean.”

“Yeah.” Stoermer picked a blade of grass from the earth and twirled it between his fingers.

There was another minute of silence, in which Grey twitched his wrist, drawing the fishing line a little closer to their bank, as if he didn’t want it any closer to the Wall.

“D’you miss her?” he enquired.

“Miss who?” Stoermer looked up.

“Arianna.”

For a moment Grey wondered if he’d gone a little too far in mentioning her name, even though they had both known who he was talking about before he’d said it. But Stoermer’s handsome features lit up with a grin.

“Of course. But she can look after herself, she doesn’t need me.” he gave a bark-like laugh.

“When was the last time you spoke to her?” Grey enquired quietly.

“The last time she could cross. Before they closed the borders.” Stoermer answered vaguely. Grey knew he wouldn’t go into it any more.

Another silence.

Stoermer folded one leg over the other and put his head back again.

“Do you think we’ll get out of here one day?” Grey mused thoughtfully, his anger slowly dissipating. He still gazed darkly at the Wall opposite them.

Stoermer rolled his eyes, and Grey breathed a sigh of relief. “You’ve always been a dreamer, Turin, but do you honestly think we’ll stay in this dump forever?”

Grey scowled- hardly anyone called him by his first name.

“But do you want to leave?” he shrugged, gripping the fishing pole between his knees and putting the fly catch in between his teeth.

“Duh.” Stoermer laughed again. “There’s not really much here for me anymore.”

“Where would you go?” Grey frowned down at the fishing pole, concentrating. “Not to Berlin?”

“Out of Germany, if I could.” his friend answered vaguely. He glanced over to Grey, his bright silver eyes laughing. “But of course, you’d already be in America, wouldn’t you?”

Grey couldn’t help but snort with laughter. If he ignored the concrete Wall on the opposite bank, the scene was still beautiful. A light spring breeze rippled the crisp air and the kingfisher streaked along the glassy water with another blaze of fiery ochre and sapphire.

“I’ll go and see what the my father wanted from me, then.” Stoermer ran a hand through his handsome black hair, rolling his mischievous eyes and grinning his usual grin. “And I’ll go and get that ‘gram from the British. Then you won’t have to die.”

With that, Stoermer stood and ambled back up the bank into the apple orchard, leaving Grey alone with his fishing rod.

Within a few minutes of silence he had caught his third fish of the morning- a small gleaming salmon, the pinkish tinge to its belly reflecting the sun, silver scales acting like a mirror.

Grey sighed, laying the dead fish aside after he’d removed the hook from its jaw. He liked fishing. But like his friend had said, there wasn’t really much here for him anymore.

He sent another dark glare at the Berlin Wall on the opposite bank, casting its great shadow on the glassy waters of the river. He hated it. Hated it with every fibre of his bones.

Would he indeed get over it someday? Alive?

He would have to wait and see, he thought, sighing again.

There, not too bad? (: Should we have some music again before I go?

Recent fave.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwGgaBjoL3E

And some more Einaudi! Quite a different one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScC9K1A8mAQ

~Illusionist