Mario Mushroom Magic…

Another weekend gone and now it’s Tuesday.  Already.  As far as mine went, the weekend was quite uneventful especially if we are going to discuss social interaction, which I can tell you we aren’t.

So for all the nerds and crafters out there (maybe even Nerd-Crafters), I want you to know – I’ve done it!  Something in my brain has finally clicked in to the right place and I can follow an Amigurumi pattern. 

Below is a picture of my very first Amigurumi creation.  Don’t be to harsh with your judgment – he is my first.  I’m sure you’ve all made terrible firsts before.  So be nice, you don’t want to hurt his little mushroom feelings now do you?

As you can see it is a Super Mushroom from Super Mario Bros.  If you like him you can get the pattern from this website HERE! 

Not only does this ladies site have easy beginner patterns like this one, she has full patterns to make an actual Mario and a Luigi and heaps more fun things.  She even has 10 or more Pokemon for you to choose from.

As a first timer there were parts of this pattern that didn’t make sense but if you look up what all the abbreviations mean in a how to crochet book or online you should be able to work it out.  Also there are plenty of crochet tutorials and blogs out there that a very helpful to beginners like myself.

The red mushroom above was unfortunately stuffed with old plastic bags because I was too excited to wait to go to the shop and get some stuffing, but this green one is properly stuffed and looks a lot nicer because I looked at some tutorials and learned how to do decreases properly.  This easy tutorial is quite helpful.

So after a day or so, I went and got some stuffing.

And this began.

Which eventually became this…

He’s not entirely finished because he needs his spots.  But that doesn’t mean they can’t be friends.  He’s not really the right shade of green either, but it’s all I had.

As you can see the properly stuffed one looks HUGE, compared to the poorly stuffed with plastic bags one. 

Enough of those. Some books from this week.

        

As far as reading goes this month it has been very tough indeed.  I literally trudged my way through the first 5 chapters of a novel named Coonardoo for TAFE.  It was so excruciatingly slow.  I had to read the first 5 chapters twice because my brain just kept dying and not retaining anything.  I finally got past them and the ‘crappest*’ book ever turned into a half decent read.  Pretty tragic story actually.

Within two days of reading that and I decided I was ready to choose something I actually wanted to read.  It was Scarlett Fever, Maureen Johnson’s sequel to Suite Scarlett.  It was a fun quick read, too bad it ended so soon.  Damned Johnson and her cliff-hanger ending!  I anticipate the third.

Now I really should do my homework. 

*This is a direct quote from another student in my class. Not my opinion.

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Would You Kill A Kitten…

This guy for some unknown reason by me, tweeted (because you’re clearly not cool unless you tweet these days) the rhetorical question ‘would you kill a kitten to save the world?’

I don’t know about you, but that question got me thinking.   Not only about the killing of a kitten but of the repercussions of killing said kitten.

If I killed a kitten to save the world – how long do you think it would take until I became this villainised cretin that murdered the cute little defenceless creature to save 6 billion or so people I don’t even know?

Those 6 billion people would then become the most ungrateful, unappreciative jerk bags on the planet wouldn’t they?

So maybe the kitten and I would be selfish save ourselves and leave everyone else behind.

Then I end up in the same situation.  I.  Am.  The.  Villain.

God.  I really empathise with Hamlets soliloquy when faced with the question of killing the kitten or not.

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

I hear you. 

I feel emotionally drained now. 

Until we meet again.

Wait.

This. Makes. Me. So. Happy. I Burst.

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Turmoil

Dilemma.

I.
Want.
To.
Blog.
But I have way too many assignments.
People consuming my free time.
Yarrrr!!!!

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Radar Inked SOS

I was thinking.  (Somewhere someone who actually knows me, has just read that and laughed so hard a little bit of wee came out)

In all seriousness, now that I’ve a had a little bit of time to mature since high school.  I’m studying my butt off in some TAFE course to try and get into Uni as a mature age student – what do I actually want to go to Uni for.

At the beginning of the year when I made the decision to return to study, the goal was to be a primary school teacher.  I don’t know if that’s what I want to be.  I then decided maybe I could do a BA in English Literature, but what on earth would I do with that?  I’d most likely end up some cranky batty high school English teacher dealing with kids who hate me every day.

I still want to do the English Literature and maybe some language and linguistics too, mainly because that stuff is interesting to me.  I’d be expected to build a career from this wouldn’t I?  I LOATHE the word career.  It never sounds ENJOYABLE.

I’m not very career focused.  I do not dream of having a fabulous career.  I never have.  Why.  So.  Much.  Pressure? 

I suppose it would mean not being a checkout operator for ever, which is ridiculously unrewarding.  I’m pointing fingers at RUDE people here.  Don’t get me going, there is always an almost explosive rant building on that topic.

I remember the fantasy bookshop (like Meg Ryan’s in You’ve Got Mail)/coffee shop dream job from when I was 13.  Except in this fantasy I was also an awesome author/poet and all the cool people hung out in my book/coffee shop.  It was the trendiest place to be.  But really a little bookshop like that has no chance with massive chain stores around.

[Off topic for a second.  For example all the GREAT music stores in Wollongong are eventually going to close down since JB HIFI moved in, with their super bargain awesomeness.  This makes me sad, because I would go to JB HiFi like most people because their prices are freakin’ low.  How can awesome little guys compete with that?]

I really though I was past this ‘What do I really want to do’ BS.  This internal mental dilemma was so I HATE BEING A 16 YEAR OLD, shouldn’t I be different now at 24.  Aren’t I supposed to want to follow through with a crazy idea for once? 

Maybe I could do the Uni thing and be an editor.  Maybe I could work from home.  In my tracksuit pants and Ugg boots.  Take breaks when I feel like it.  Sit outside on my deck and work in the sun.  Does this job exist?  Can I invent this? 

Does anyone else have the brain implosions?  Because my brain goes through the I will I won’t I can do this I can’t do this BS on a regular basis.  It makes things ridiculously hard to stay motivated.  It makes me want to sleep in forever.  It makes me want to loll about in pyjamas and escape in fiction until the end of time.  Which of course would be so much easier.  Which brings to mind The Scientist by Coldplay lyrics…

Nobody said it was easy,
No one ever said it would be this hard
Oh, take me back to the start

Oh Just listen to it.  I love this song.  It’s so freakin’ unbelievably melancholy.

You’re probably feeling depressed after that one.  I know I am – but I’m a fan of the Epic Wallow sometimes. 

Now to cheer you up I suggest the following.  I think Darwin Deez is abso-frikkin-lutely adorable in a Napolean Dynamite way.

See you on the other side.  Excuse my while I continue thinking.

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Bits and Books and Tags

I think it is time for a new blog, I’ve been pretty inactive all week on this thing they call the internet.  I contemplated what to blog about on the bus trip home this afternoon whilst doing so I also checked what was happening on Twitter.  It seems I have been tagged in a blog game.  My first tag for anything ever.  I got a little bit excited.

I was tagged by Alaena Helt, you can see her lovely blog if you click right here.

The Tag game goes as follows:  Go to the 8th folder in which you store your photo’s (I know 8 sucks, it should have been 7) and then select the 8th photo (even if it’s a photo of you that is thoroughly FOUL and you’d rather kill yourself than post it) then with said photo post it to your blog and tell the story behind it. [Disclaimer: (AKA THE FINE PRINT) after following the above instructions, you are ‘supposed’ to tag 8 other bloggers.  MUAHAHAHA evil isn’t it?]

So the story goes… After New Years my boyfriend and I went on a road-trip to visit family and friends at numerous stops along the way round.  After a few nights at my Aunt and Uncles in Sawtell NSW, we decided to drive out to Tamworth NSW where they hold the Australian Country Music Awards to visit my Grandfather and my other Aunt and Uncle.  The above photo was taken at Captain Thunderbolts lookout just outside a little town called Uralla (he was an Australian Bushranger, if you want to know more I’m sure you can Google it).  As you can see, I’m the tiny little person sitting in front of the MASSIVE cluster of MASSIVE rocks.

The people I tagged are:

The Mermaid

Meet Me At Mikes

Interference In Private Matters

Weddings By Brooklyn

A Nerdfighter’s Blog from the Ning

Nerdfighters Blogstyle – A Collaborative blog by Nerdfighters

Books and Quills

John Green – Hahaha, like he even has the time to play.

Apart from that, this week has been pretty epic on the study scale.  Assignments and testing all over the place.  Statistics things here there and everywhere – Major Reports Due and not so major in class assessments.  I just got given my major assignment for Human Rights, this one I’m a awfully excited about – I think I could even get really passionately enthusiastic about my topic.  I’m choosing to do human rights abuses resulting directly from conflict diamonds.  Yeah, that’s what I said.

The May reading is coming along nicely.  So far I have read:

Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson was an absolutely lovely book to read about a young girl and her family who live in an old hotel in New York.  The characters were realistic and witty and the book was thoroughly enjoyable.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson is a collaborative effort by John Green and David Levithan.  Each author writing from the perspective of a different character.  I think this book was brilliant, especially the way it explored both platonic and romantic relationships among young males.

Seven Awesome Things

1. While on the bus, noticing the way the suns hides behind the mountain giving everything an ethereal golden kissed edge in the afternoon.

2. My art is going on the front cover of a publication.

3. This one is not necessarily awesome but it made me laugh and think about the poor little girl.  A not so ladylike lady yelling ‘if you keeping stomping like that I’m gonna flogyourarse’ at her child whilst exiting MacDonald’s. Poor child will probably have an alcohol dependency and be a chronic smoker by 12.

4. Escaping in fiction.

5. Donating money every month to Amnesty International.  It makes you feel all good.

6. Harry Potter, Harry Potter, Harry Potter lyrics from a terribly AWESOME song from Wizard rockers (WROCKERS) Harry and The Potters. (you can Google them too, lazy)

7. Having a hot shower when it’s freezing cold.

So people – I’ll write when I write.

Ciao!

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