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“You should always be taking pictures, if not with a camera then with your mind. Memories you capture on purpose are always more vivid than the ones you pick up by accident.”
- Isaac Marion, Warm Bodies -
You can find Irene Astral (model/styling/editing) here: www.facebook.com/ireneastral
Accessories by: AstralWork Creations (www.facebook.com/AstralWorkCreations?fref=ts)
And many thanks to Jim Keith (www.facebook.com/JimKeithCosplay?fref=ts) for his assistance.
This series was featured in:
1.) Dark Beauty Magazine: www.darkbeautymag.com/2015/03/spirosk-photography-irene-a...
2.) Ladies of Steampunk Magazine (print, too): www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/901617
3.) The Greek book of Steampunk stories "Gods of Steam" (as illustrations and cover): www.goodreads.com/book/show/24293119---steampunk
Shot in an abandoned factory in Drapetsona, Greece.
"The contemplation of beauty, whether it be a uniquely tinted sunset, a radiant face, or a work of art, makes us glance back unwittingly at our personal past and juxtapose ourselves and our inner being with the utterly unattainable beauty revealed to us."
— Vladimir Nabokov (The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov)
Day 55 - Best Viewed Large On Black
Being doing a lot of contemplation lately... glancing back, looking forward! This shot taken looking east at sunset...
in Indonesian edition this book has 576 pages...
i recommend this one hehehe
from beginning... till the end i cry :P
(berlinang air mata... berlari ke arah matahari terbenam)
p.s: this saturday i start doing mentor 3 kids in a row... wish me luck hehe
"The muffled tongue of Big Ben tolled nine by the clock as the cortege left the palace, but on history's clock it was sunset, and the sun of the old world was setting in a dying blaze of splendor never to be seen again."
— Barbara W. Tuchman (The Guns of August)
Postcards From London Series #1
*Samsung EX1 - 3 shot HDR (-1, 0, +1 EV)
More at A Raven Image
This little bear is posing with Something For Christmas, a 1958 book by Palmer Brown.
My parents read this book to both of my older brothers and to me over the course of many Christmas times, many years ago.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone on Flickr! Cheers!
Something For Christmas by Palmer Brown (Goodreads):
www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/11533513-something-for-chr...
The days aren't discarded or collected, they are bees
that burned with sweetness or maddened
the sting: the struggle continues,
the journeys go and come between honey and pain.
No, the net of years doesn't unweave: there is no net.
They don't fall drop by drop from a river: there is no river.
Sleep doesn't divide life into halves,
or action, or silence, or honor:
life is like a stone, a single motion,
a lonesome bonfire reflected on the leaves,
an arrow, only one, slow or swift, a metal
that climbs or descends burning in your bones."
— Pablo Neruda (Still Another Day (Kage-an Books))
* Pentax K20D and Samsung D-Xenon 50-200mm Lens
A starlet comes to Reno to start a new life—and end her old one forever
Sylvia Shoreham’s Hollywood dreams came true long ago. Critically beloved for her beauty, talent, and style, she was on her way to international stardom when a bad contract committed her to seven years of trashy comedies and half-baked melodramas. Her marriage to her producer husband has become a rotten, loveless sham, so Sylvia’s silver screen life verges on a nightmare. To escape her celluloid hell, she’s got only one option: Forget Hollywood. It’s time for a Reno vacation.
She comes to Nevada hoping for a divorce from her husband, Vicki, and an end to her contract, but the ugly side of the business follows her. To protect herself from Vicki, she enlists Nevada’s biggest Sylvia Shoreham fan. He’s six feet tall, strong as a mule, and just happens to be Reno’s sheriff. When her divorce turns into a war, this Hollywood icon will be glad to have him on her side.
archive.org/details/time-peice-with-time-peice-interview
obituaries.times-news.com/obituary/dr-j-rn-bramann-108441...
www.goodreads.com/author/list/751043.Jorn_K_Bramann
www.amazon.com/Wittgensteins-Tractatus-Modern-Arts-Braman...
www.amazon.com/stores/Jorn%20K.%20Bramann/author/B001KCAC4Q
archive.org/details/waterwoman-part-2
sis.piopend.info/?Unemployment-And-Social-Values:-A-Colle...
Three cheers for public libraries. Every year for I am not sure how long, maybe since I retired as a school librarian in 2013, I have been reviewing children's literature new in the year. Many of these books are vying for the title of Caldecott Gold and Silver - for the best illustrated book of the year. I belong to a Caldecott Study Group in GoodReads. We play a Mock Caldecott Award voting event in January of each year, a week before the Caldecott Committee votes and announces the winners at the American Library Association. Our choices are often very close to the real committee's choices.
I do enjoy reading and reviewing the new books. I am so fortunate to belong to the Des Moines Public Library System. Any book that I would like to read, it seems like one of their libraries in the system has the book or has it on order. The librarians wave to me when I come in. My books are waiting on a reserve shelf. We book talk the books. I am so happy to share ideas with them. I usually walk out of the library with a stack full of books.
As I picked up this first set to read and review for 2022 at GoodReads, the librarian told me that they are already hoping ONE of these will carry through to the award ceremony in January 2023 and win the coveted award! Time will tell!
A fangyi was a Chinese bronze vessel in the form of a small hut or granary, per the Brittanica. The little "hat" is a knob in the form of a hipped roof, to lift the cover. Archaeologists call this sort of thing a ceremonial object, meaning "we don't really know what those people used it for." Some people argue for a wine offering, others for food. They're found as grave goods, so it's reasonable to suppose the offering was to sustain the deceased in the afterlife.
The design is an animal mask, which likely means this was southern Shang, per the Met catalog.
Fangyi were made with ceramic piece molds. The simple square shape of the fangyi with its four corners has suggested to many observers that the flanges (ridges that rise above the surface of the vessel) mask the area where the ceramic piece molds were connected.
Refs: www.britannica.com/art/fangyi
www.khanacademy.org/partner-content/asian-art-museum/aam-...
A nice old Met museum catalog of a 1997 show, mostly PRC loan stuff. I reviewed it at Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/review/show/3048354171
"Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself."
HDR Trees Series #2
* Pentax K20D + Samsung 50-200mm Lens - 3 Shot HDR
Ending
Each day is born with a sunrise and ends in a sunset, the same way we open our eyes to see the light and close them to hear the dark. You have no control over how your story begins or ends. But by now, you should know that all things have an ending. Every spark returns to darkness. Every sound returns to silence. And every flower returns to sleep with the earth. The journey of the sun and moon is predictable. But yours is your ultimate ART.” ― Suzy Kassem
=========
The photo was taken during June 2014 at Umhlanga Rocks, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Info source: www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/sunset
"...denn ich war plötzlich den Vögeln ein Nachbar geworden, nicht indem ich sie einsperrte, sondern indem ich meinen Käfig in ihre Nähe versetzte."
H.D. Thoreau "Walden" Seite 93
© 1979 Diogenes Verlag AG, Zürich
"Walden: or, Life in the Woods", 1854.
"...for I found myself suddenly neighbor to the birds; not by having imprisoned one, but having caged myself near them.”
Rolleiflex 6008
Planar 80mm
AGFA Agfacolor Optima 100, exposed as 50 ASA,
exp. 08/2000
Induro AT 14
Novoflex ballhead
Sekonic L-758 D
Epson V 750
"Love is like a tree: it shoots of itself; it strikes it's roots deeply into our whole being, and frequently continues to put forth green leaves over a heart in ruins. And there is this unaccountable circumstance attending it, that the blinder the passion the more tenacious it is. Never is it stronger than when it is most unreasonable."
— Victor Hugo (The Hunchback of Notre-Dame)
* Pentax K20D and Samsung D-Xenon 50-200mm Lens
بعد عمليات الشد والجذب اأنا ووأدومه
وعمليات العصر الذهني لإيجاد فكرة صورة :P
وبعد تصوير مليون ألف وسبع وستين صورة
توصلنا إلى هذه الصوره الهادفه الراقية في معناها << تحاول تهون على نفسها
على أنها بعيدة كل البعد عن أفكار الصور الي قبل بس سبحان الله يقولك دايم الشي اللي شسمه كذا
الزبده أنا قلت خل أصير هادفة اليوم :D
هذا رابط موقع حلو يساعد عالقراءه وتقدرون تدعون أصدقاءكم له
فكرة الموقع تعتمد على إنك تضيف قائمة بالكتب(بعد التسجيل) الي قد قريتها والكتب واللي ناوي تقرآها والكتب الي حالياً تقراها
هو يساعد عالقراءه والتذكر في كثير من الأحيان ، وبدال ما تروح مكتبه تدور لك كتاب تقدر من خلال هالموقع انك تتفرج عالكتب وكل كتاب فيه له سمري عشان تتعرف عليه
موفقين
Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace (1875-1932) was a prolific British crime writer, journalist and playwright, who wrote 175 novels, 24 plays, and countless articles in newspapers and journals.
Over 160 films have been made of his novels, more than any other author.
In the 1920s, one of Wallace's publishers claimed that a quarter of all books read in England were written by him.
He is most famous today as the co-creator of "King Kong", writing the early screenplay and story for the movie, as well as a short story "King Kong" (1933) credited to him and Draycott Dell. He was known for the J. G. Reeder detective stories, The Four Just Men, the Ringer, and for creating the Green Archer character during his lifetime. [Source: the Goodreads website at www.goodreads.com/book/show/1363197.The_Traitor_s_Gate]
“The Southern Cross — a 22,000 ton whaling factory ship — steams into the Antarctic ice during a violent gale and becomes caught, crushed, and immobilized by the tightening pack. Five hundred men are stranded as the ice closes around the hull, rescue ships fail to reach them, and the outside world eventually assumes all hands are lost. The outside world gives up hope — but the story isn’t over. Two battered lifeboats eventually reach a whaling station in South Georgia, revealing that a handful of survivors have endured an almost impossible escape across the ice.” – Goodreads
Said to be “the greatest disaster since the loss of the Titanic,” Hammond Innes makes the story of the Southern Cross feel uncannily like reportage. Nothing in the story corresponds to an actual historical Antarctic shipwreck, but Innes builds the story out of real geography, real weather systems, and real whaling-fleet logistics, which is why it reads like a lost chapter of polar history.
Innes based the serialized story on his own time aboard a whaling ship, and the result is one of the most vivid fictional depictions of a polar maritime disaster ever printed. The ship was recklessly driven into unstable ice during a gale, worsened by human conflict. The size of the ship, the number of lives at stake, and the dramatic, helpless entrapment in the ice give the disaster a Titanic-like magnitude.
So even though the Southern Cross never existed, everything around it feels like it could have happened, almost like a historical event you somehow missed. “Wait . . . did this actually happen?” The disaster at the heart of “Calling the Southern Cross!” was later published in book form as “The White South.”
“The stupendous fantasy of the Aztec hounds turned loose on the modern world.”
“The stories of Francis Stevens are unique in the records of great Fantasy. There is in them a power to evoke the very essence of all that is strange and weird and at the same time make live both the real and supernatural characters. You will find in this marvelous, colorful adventure qualities possessed only by the most famous fantastic mysteries of all time.”
--------------------------------------------------
Two adventurers, an American and an Irishman, discover a lost city in the Mexican jungle. One is taken over by an evil god while the other falls in love with a woman from Tlapallan in the wilds of Mexico. Back in the states, the possessed man begins to use magic to mutate civilians. The other walks away, but the pair must duel in the end.
Originally published in 1918, “The Citadel of Fear” is a fun pulp novel that weaves elements of various genres, from Aztec mythology and lost world adventure to gothic horror. The author, Francis Stevens (pen name of Gertrude Barrows) has been called “the most gifted woman writer of science fiction and science fantasy between Mary Shelley and C. L. Moore.”
[Source: Goodreads at www.goodreads.com/book/show/957430.The_Citadel_of_Fear]
Oh yes.
School's back in, pimp-o-holics.
Guess who's back?
HERE COMES THE hammer PIMP...
OH OH OH. OH OH OH. Here comes the hammer pimp... yeah.
news and pimpnotes
I made the minipimp do this.
I know you are salivating over the "Wall Of Fedoras" back there! I actually masturbate while looking at that wall when I'm alone regularly.
I know you had one too. Sorry for the unexpected orgasm. Those fedora's are tricky.
I'm going to post a real picture coming soon. Oh yeah. We're on it. Don't you worry.
Here comes the pimp. (just to remind you). Pimp's back bitches.
Oh by the way, I think I'm going to start calling myself MC Pimp. Ever notice if you throw "MC" before any name it just becomes better? Let's try it!
Barrak Obama = liar, changed nothing, more war, blah blah blah
MC Obama = fuck all that stuff above, he now RULES!
Joel Osteen = um. how about...(let me pray).. um. No?
MC Joel Osteen = Yes. Oh. Fuck brothers and sisters!
Joe Buck = suck a duck, B O R I N G and L A M E
MC Joe Buck = turn the volume UP, less Troy Aikman, more MC Joe Buck!
Tom Brady = nah nah nah nah you just got beat by Eli Manning again LOSER! :-P
MC Tom Brady = oh lookie someone just got cool again! Eli who?
David Hasselhoff = um. Knight Rider anyone?
MC Hasselhoff = now we can't hassle the hoff anymore! Even The Hoff becomes cool with MC thrown in!
Tony3 = father of flickr
MC Tony = father of instagram
Otis Adelbert Kline is best known for a literary feud with Edgar Rice Burroughs for producing close imitations of Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars novels, though set on Venus. The Buccaneers of Venus concerns Robert Grandon, a man from Earth fighting a race of pirates and various monsters while dealing with political conflicts on a world gone mad. Kline’s Buccaneers prompted Burroughs to write his own stories set on Venus. In return, Kline wrote two novels set on Mars, as well as several jungle adventures reminiscent of Burroughs’ Tarzan.
[Source: www.goodreads.com/book/show/18866014-the-buccaneers-of-ve...]
Later, Kline became the literary agent for Robert E. Howard, creator and author of stories about Conan the Barbarian, stories written mainly for pulp magazines. That was long before Arnold Schwarzenegger had a chance to mangle the legend of Conan.
Don't distract me honey, I'm having a good read!
.
The Dilbert Principle is one of the funniest books ever written for people working at the office, and sadly enough it's all true.
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I started reading this classic back in 2009... and because I wanted to extend the joy of this book, I decided not to finish reading it directly, and put it on a shelve instead.
So now, 10 years later, I can continue enjoying the rest of the book.
Some books are not worth to consume in just one weekend, it doesn't do any harm to take your time for pleasure.
.
Day 3 of #timewillwaitchallenge to spoil yourself with something exclusively for yourself.
.
.
- Inane 4000-word fan report… and back story. Sorry not sorry. I know I enjoy reading long fan reports and back stories when I'm obsessed with someone. Maybe I'm alone in this. :D
- Please assume all dialogue to be paraphrased. :p
- Click here for all the weekend’s 13 pics.
- FYI, if you are for some reason reading this without being a Wenhamaniac: Daisy = his great nickname.
My fangirling over him had been low-intensity, i.e. if I came across a movie and bothered to read the cast list and it mentioned him, I would eventually watch it. Timeline:
2003: I see "The two towers", but I fail to notice Daisy. :'D
2004: I see "Van Helsing" and notice the sidekick's adorkability. Apparently I check his IMDB. (But mostly the movie makes me crush on Rox. Actually I went to see it because of a 1 second shot of Rox in the trailer, looking all Snape-esque and… *mumble* Ehehe…)
2005: I see "The return of the king".
2005: I rewatch "Van Helsing" and write "OH, DAVID WENHAM IS SO GOOD IN IT! Awwwwww!"
2005: My journal sayeth "Today I checked the actor forum and they say THERE WILL BE ANOTHER SCIFI CON ON MARCH 12-13!!! And… Sean Astin and Robert Englund will be there FFS!! And R2D2 and someone else… YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!! HOPE IT'S REALLY AN ANNUAL EVENT NOW!!! Or at least that someone cancels and is replaced by Nick [Lea], Brad [Dourif], Rox or Daisy… Hehe…" (Sean cancelled!)
2005: I see "Moulin Rouge" because of Rox, and I fave it, and I finally get why everyone is swooning over Ewan. That Audrey is fab too, btw. "GOODBYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYE!!!!!!!!!!" A short while later I happen to look at Daisy's IMDB again. Ooooooohhhhh! Someone is versatile!
2005: During a lecture I produce one poem about Brad Dourif (my LOTR favourite) and one poem about Daisy. (Either my 2nd, 3rd, or 4th LOTR favourite – Craig and Elijah are also in the top 4... but I did happen to write zero poems about THEM! And… I actually haven't seen Craig in anything but LOTR… *hangs head in shame*)
2006: I see "A little bit of soul".
2008: My heart is mightily gladdened by the news that a) one of my fave novels, "Pope Joan", is going to be a movie and b) Daisy will be in it! :D
2010: I see "300".
2012: I see "Australia".
2014: I randomly spot the "Pope Joan" DVD at the library. "So it fucking exists!" I had presumed it cancelled and dead. :') MAYBE I SHOULD HAVE SEARCHED HARDER. I grab it. Note the utterly unimpressive rate at which I see Daisy movies.
2016: I have the LOTRathon I've been thinking about for months; I have them every couple of years. Extended edition, of course. :) Then I decide to watch the huge-ass Appendices for the first time. Everything insanely insane. :O
And I look at Ian McKellen and think "Aww, I have seen a fair few LOTR stars, but not him, and he's pretty fab. If he ever does a play in London I should go…"
And I look at Daisy and think "Ah, imagine if he would grace our con with his presence. Yeah, fat chance. Can't catch them all. But now, let's read the journal entry about my Brad encounter and reminisce. I'd better check the con site tomorrow, btw. I've been sloppy about that lately. Never know what unmissable names might turn up. What if Brad… I'm gonna scribble CON here on my wrist."
2016 – the next morning, March 14: On my way to the bus, I think "Ye olde mid-00's, that was a pretty fun, golden age – when LOTR boys would rain down on our con." At school, wifi kicks in and I look at my phone.
There's an email from WhatsOnStage, announcing that Ian McKellen will be doing a fucking London play. :O (With Patrick Stewart, whose work I don't know, but I've seen him in many memes on Facebook, so… that's a bit fun.)
Then my wrist reminds me to check the con site. I see the next con will be in my real hometown (450 km away) on April 2-3.
AND DAISY IS ON THE LIST!
Rat: "I APPROVE OF THE THINGS."
Rat: *jumps a bit, screaming internally*
Rat: "11 YEARS, MAN!"
March 14-31: Rat: "YES! X DAYS UNTIL I GET TO SEE DAISY! Unless he CANCELS!"
March: Rat: "Oh look, he has a verified Twitter. Oh look, environmental Tweets. LE SWOON!"
April 1: Rat: "SHIT!"
Rat: *takes train from uni-uppsala to home-gothenburg*
April 2: Rat: "OH NO! Today is FUCK-UP DAY!"
The con would open at 10; I got in line at 9.30. The local paper had said something about a rekindled interest in sci-fi and the like… And I had never seen such a long con line. I entered at 10.30, and legends told of a 4.5 hour line later in the day. o_O Anyway, I found the siggy tables
and
I SAW DAISY IRL FOR THE FIRST TIME. :D
But I had already decided to stay back for a few minutes and observe his interaction with the fans, as I had done with Brad… An easy decision to remember, since I was, of course, too fucking scared to step right into the siggy line anyway. D:
Observe. Secure a photo session ticket. Observe. He seemed nice enough. Observe. Observe. Hesitate. Hesitate. Hesitate. Hesitate. Hesitate. Hesitate. Hesitate. Hesitate.
I never considered NOT going up to him, but, meh, meh, whimper, meh, did it have to be this minute?!
At 11.40 (…) I took my place behind a couple of other fans. (At times there had been no line at all, but I wanted someone to hide behind for a bit…) AKFHGALKDFHGAK. I had hoped for at least one of the siggy photos to feature Carl from "Van Helsing", and one did. :) Approximately everyone else seemed to pick Faramir photos. And the guy in front of me was talking to Daisy about "300".
Daisy: "It was nice being fit. :) We trained for five months, but I don't do that anymore…"
They said their goodbyes. The terrible news was that it was now my turn. The good news was that I had managed not to hop forward at the wrong time and interrupt anyone.
Rat (hopefully smiling): "HIIIII, IT'S SO NICE TO MEET YOU!" (True, after all.)
HANDSHAKE!
Daisy: "Nice to meet you too."
Daisy: *reads my t-shirt*
Daisy: "'Teach the controversy'?"
Rat: "Yeah, it's… Do you know about 'Russell's teapot'?"
Daisy: "No, what's that?"
Rat: "Ehehe, it's an atheist thing…"
I decided against explaining Russell's teapot quote and the idea behind the collection of "Teach the controversy" T-shirts. Reasons: There were people waiting behind me. Worse, I had teh dumb (and probably shouldn't give philosophy lectures even on the best of days).
But it works out, for if Daisy was truly curious about it, he could Google it. If he was just asking a polite question, he made a lucky escape. :D
WHAT IS CONCISION.
I kneeled in front of the table, mainly because the backs of the stars' necks must ache after a day of looking up at fans. :B
Daisy: *signs "van helsing" photo*
Rat: "I think you were the best part of that movie."
Daisy: "Thank you."
That movie. It slips on and off my fave list. (Right now: On.) It has a certain charm :D and it’s one of several fond memories from the dear summer when I first saw it. But CARL! HE IS THE MOST ADORKABLE CHARACTER IN CINEMATIC HISTORY, MEANING HE IS EVEN MORE ADORKABLE THAN… THAN… BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH AS ALAN TURING, AND THAT'S SAYING SOMETHING! *diez*
Rat: …
Rat: …
Rat: …
Ratmind: "FSMdammit Rat, say one of the things."
Rat: …
Rat: "And 'Pope Joan' was one of my favourite novels, so I was really happy to see you involved in the movie…"
Daisy: "Yes, it's a really interesting story."
Rat: "Yeah… It's been 15 years since I read it, but… I'm gonna re-read it soon, heh."
WHY, RAT, ON A SCALE FROM 0 TO 10000, HOW ENTHUSIASTIC DID THAT SOUND?! But the truth is I had accidentally spent years assuming the book was out of print or something (it isn't :D ), and both my reading list and my re-reading list are quite long, sooooo. :p Last time I checked, the book was my 2nd or 3rd fave novel. ^_^ GIRLPOWER!
The signing was done. HANDSHAKE!
Rat: "Thanks so much! Bye, seeyouatthephotoboothIhopelol!"
Ratmind: "That went reasonably well! I just hope he doesn't think he missed out on a coherent and rewarding teapot lecture!"
Ratmind: "Hang on, why was he reading my shirt?! :B "
[x] The text is high-contrast and so would probably catch anyone's eye! Additionally, there's a fucking teapot! In space!
[ ] Splendid boobage!
I got in line for the photo session, which was a quicker procedure and perhaps also free of complete disaster. :D
Rat: *dumps backpack & camera at the door (whence they did not get stolen) and sweeps into booth*
Rat: "HI!!!!!!!!!"
Daisy: "Hi, how are you!"
Rat: "I'm… good… :B "
Unsure if I was speaking audibly!
Before I knew it the photographer was counting down – unfortunately from 3 and not from OVER 9000. That would have been cozy.
I never had time to decide what to do with my right arm, but it ended up looking civilized. :p
I… forgot to note where Daisy's right arm was. Pity. :)
Last time I teeth-smiled for a picture I got to regret it, so I kept my mouth shut. I don't fucking know how to arrange my face for photos, so I still looked like a psycho due to lopsided smile and some kind of insane expression in my eyes. :B
… THAT'S WEIRD, SINCE I WAS SO CALM AND COOL AND STUFF.
I thanked Daisy – a handshake or two occurred at the booth as well – and rushed off. :)
This was the first time I went to the con on both Saturday and Sunday, because why not. (I would have gone both days in The Year Of The Brad, but… I took the S.A.T. that Saturday. :B ) I had waited 11 years; school wasn't killing me at the mo; the con is a pretty nice place to hang out; being in the same room as Daisy is particularly nice; and if I wanted to I could find a quiet corner and write or study. Besides, Daisy’s Q&A was scheduled for Sunday, but I wanted to grab my chance to meet him on Saturday in case he would be sick or something on Sunday.
And I didn’t want to wait an extra day to meet him.
And I wanted to get it over with. :D
Anyway, very little writing happened, because much of the time I just stood around and ogled a certain star like a creep. o_O There was no great place to hide. :D I mostly leaned against the far side of a concrete pillar, or lurked behind a rack of action figures. Of course Daisy would look around every now and then, including in my direction. WHAT DOES RAT DO?!
a) HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDE BEHIND PILLAR!
b) FEIGN INTEREST IN ACTION FIGURES ON RACK!
c) AVERT HER GAZE! (Yes.)
d) KEEP STARING! (HELL NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!)
Heh, hopefully he didn't notice the creep at all.
Only since finding out about the con had I seen modern-day photos of him. He looks so different from the LOTR era. And I don't mean "uglier" or "ravaged by plastic surgery" – au contraire in both respects… 15 years ago he was teddybearcute. Now he’s got a Devilishly Handsome^TM thing going on. 8D
And he looks a lot like…
David Bowie. xD
Without the glasses, he does!
(DON'T YOU THINK?!)
Anyway, over the course of the weekend I heard a number of crowd members go "Which of those guys is him?" when a blond boy of 30-35 was assisting at the siggy table. :)
I took a few pics of the other stars (although it was a bit too dark for my camera). Most of them I wasn't familiar with, but they were:
- David Warner – I heard he's been in 200 movies. I may have seen only two. :B "Titanic" is on fave list. "Shergar" was sad. :)
- Christian Brandin (I forgot to take pics of him…)
- Kim Coates, who seemed to draw the largest crowds (even though more visitors, according to a survey on the website, were there mainly for Daisy). From what I could see he seemed extremely fan-friendly and outgoing, possibly to the same degree as Craig. :D (Craig sat on his siggy table and Coates stood in front of his…)
I thought about going up to at least Warner and Coates, maybe the others, just for handshakes and shit as I have done in the past. But… Meh… I didn't have enough to say to most of them, and I was using up much of my, uh, courage on Daisy encounters. And just seeing the stars was nice too, so I'll live. :p
Sometimes I took a little walk around the con, checking out the merch. After a short while I had seen it all - ours is not a gargantuan five-hotel con like I hear they have over in them States. However, a) walking is kind of easier on one's back than standing still and b) it could make me look less like some sort of creep who just wants to stare at Daisy all day. %D
I had a few more things to ask/mention to him now that he was finally here (unimportant things… I guess I mostly wanted an excuse to meet him again :B ), but the weekend was young! So I decided to wait until Sunday and collect myself a bit. o_O I watched him leave 5 minutes before closing time.
On April 3 I showed up around 9, when the line was only about 10 people long. :D
I remembered the time Sean Astin cancelled his visit – there were signs posted about it around the entrance. I looked now, and saw no such signs about Daisy. Yay!
Things to do: TALK TO DAISY AGAIN! (SCAREH!) Enjoy Daisy’s Q&A. Shop some merch I had seen the day before.
Once again I headed straight for the siggy tables, and through the crowd I could see that Daisy wasn’t there yet, which was unsurprising as the con had been open a mere 10 seconds. But a bit later I noticed a sign on the table, saying…
"David has been sick all night and will be here when he is feeling better. We will keep you posted."
1. That sounded horrible. MY POOR BABY!
2. Now imagine if I had skipped the con on Saturday. (Though I never considered doing so…)
I realized he might stay sick for the rest of the con or worse, but of course I would stick around and see. I took another turn about the room, got some journal-writing done, and briefly envisioned myself storming into a hotel room, going…
"LET ME THROUGH, I’M A NURSE
student
first year
for non-human animals
but yeah"
…
-_-
On one of my con walks, ca 1.30 pm, I spotted one of the organizers starting to scratch out something on the day's schedule. I looked, knowing what to expect – and Daisy's photo session and Q&A had indeed been cancelled. I immediately assumed he wasn't coming at all today, but I returned to the siggy table to check for news. There I found the organizer again, writing something and then holding it up for everyone to see. It seemed the plan was for Daisy to arrive around 2 pm! I freshened up my hideous apparition and sat down by a wall near the siggy table. I missed his arrival, but arrive he did, and a rather huge siggy line had formed.
As I said, I didn't exactly feel I was done talking to him, but I was definitely going to wait until the line ended. At least. Considering that Daisy might feel too unwell to continue until closing time (four hours away :O ), or even until this line ended, and of course I had had my fun on Saturday… Time to leave him to the Sunday siggy people now. :) Maybe his goal was to just tend to these most desperate fans, and to leave again as soon as there was a gap in the line?
In the meantime, I would just play my staring game again. :D A Daisy-happy crowd formed in front of the table, snapping photos, so I joined them for a bit and got a few non-blurry Daisy shots, unlike the day before… :) He didn't seem to be feeling all right yet, as he left a couple of times, but he came back and soldiered on. :x After about an hour the line ended for a while! And Daisy remained.
Ratmind: "OK, Rat. Now we know you can kind of go talk to him again. GO ON…"
Ratmind: "GAAAAAAAAH, NOT THIS MINUTE! :O I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO SAY EXACTLY AND, AND -"
So I hid and stared and walked and sat some more. :B At one point, Daisy took a break and passed a couple of meters from my un-great hideout. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! SHIIIIIIIIIEEEET!
What did NOT happen:
Daisy: *walk walk walk*
Rat: *THUD*
Rat: *FACEFLOOR*
Daisy: *turns*
Daisy: "OMG! Somebody fetch the smelling salts!"
^_^
But this was an hour before closing time, and I didn’t know if he had left for good or not. :O I sat down by my favourite wall again, fiddling with my phone, and looking up every now and then.
And suddenly Daisy was walking by! :)
And he looked in my direction! :D
And he smiled! xB
And it was too late for me to look away! So I smiled back! Well, at least I hope it wasn't one of those times when I think I’m smiling but IRL am looking murderous! 8D
SQUEE!
So… maybe I should go up to him and talk now? Well, how about at 5.15? Actually 5.20 would be better. Shit. No. 5.35? Then I'd really have to –
The ghost of Frodo: *plops down next to me*
The ghost of Frodo: "Go on, Rat! Ask Faramir for a dance!"
Rat: "I think I'll just have another ale."
The ghost of Frodo: "Oh no you won't!"
The ghost of Frodo: *unsuccessfully attempts to shove rat with his misty ghost arms*
Rat: …
The ghost of Frodo: *cries*
But around 5.25, Daisy left again. This time with the siggy assistant, which led me to guess that it was permanent. I think David Warner also left around this time, maybe some other stars – not many fans in the house this late, and the ones that were there were extremely likely to have got what they wanted already. :B
Ratmind: "Good going, Rat. Don’t ever hesitate about anything ever again under any circumstances. Loljk."
I remained by my wall for a few minutes before heading for the exit. I would shop the merch thing and head home. Halfway to the door my imagination imagined what it would be like if Daisy had stopped to look at something, causing me to catch up with him. Yeah right, that would be a miracle. *snorts at imagination*
But when the exit came into view I could see Daisy standing there, talking to a couple of the organizers. :O AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. Maybe I lengthened my step. :B Snuck up next to the group, who soon ended their conversation and Daisy turned to leave.
Rat: "Excuse me! David! Excuse me!"
Daisy: *turns & stops*!
Rat: "Igotyourautographyesterdaysothankyou…"
(*facepalm*, for this may have made it sound like I was about to ask for a last-second siggy for a buddy or my ass or face or something…)
Rat: "… but I just wanted to say hi again while I can… And I’m sorry you’ve been feeling… bad… :/ "
('Bad'?! I'm pretty sure a more correct term here would have been 'unwell'?! ME FAILZ ENGLISH FOREVUR.)
Daisy: "Oh, I just need a good night’s sleep and then I’m going home." *starts walking again*
Rat: "You’re going home tomorrow?"
(UMMMMM, YES, RAT… That was sort of implied by the 1 sleep he intended to get before said home-going. AND my question made it sound like I meant to stalk him at the airport too. But I wouldn't have stalked him at the airport even if I could have remained in town that long, which I couldn't. :B )
Daisy: "Yeah, back to Australia! :) "
(WHAT DOES AUSTRALIA HAVE THAT GOTHENB– Oh. Oh, nevermind. *cri cri*)
Rat: "Heh, have a good… trip… :) "
(Massive trail-off, as it struck me that no amount of well-wishing is likely to render such a long flight… agreeable or anything. :p I hope he slept a lot on it. :) )
Daisy: "Bye! :) "
Rat: "Bye! Thank you! :D "
Rat: :)
Rat: ^_^
Rat: *facepalm*
Rat: "OK, THAT COULD HAVE GONE WORSE I GUESS. %D … Still… 'Now I’m gonna go home and have a heart attack.' FROM EMBARRASSMENT."
Rat: "GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH."
Rat: "Of course, if I hadn’t gone for the door convo I would have regretted THAT, and wondered forever if it would have been embarrassment-free."
#firstworldpains
A few more points:
- Five days later I caught up on my journal-writing. A normal day takes up one or two pages; this weekend used 29. :D
- I hope I looked into his eyes at least once. I want to look into special people's eyes. 8) But that's hard to remember when one is in front of them and blacking the fuck out.
- There were of course cosplayers at the con, including soldiers from "300". One of them was walking around when a dude yelled after him:
"This is madness! :D "
Soldier: *turns to dude*
Soldier: …
Soldier: "THIS… IS… SPARTAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
Then he walked up to Daisy and got his shield signed. :)
Another cosplayer stomped around in a fucking huge mechanical 3 meter robot costume, accompanied by bikini-Leia. They stopped near Daisy's table.
Leia: "Hi! Do you like my friend?"
Daisy: "I do, I do!" *snaps a photo of them*
:)
- I have now seen "Better than sex", "Gettin' square", "Oranges and sunshine", and this music video as well. :)
- My mum: "ARGH, you're obsessed with these fooooooools! This con business is ridiculous! And you poor thing, you travelled down here for Zombie Jesus Break just last week, I don't know how you do it."
Rat: "11 years I've waited… Hey, wanna see a couple of Daisy's scenes?"
My mum: "Well, all right, SIGH, UNNGH."
My mum: "So, this is the guy you were with today?"
My mum: "… lolz, 'were with', that makes it sound like you slept with him, haha."
Rat: a) *blush* b) … c) "No, we just looked at my stamp collection." d) *facepalm* e) "Brb, gonna reply to this email asking me to rate the hotel's chandelier."
My mum: "Where is he from?"
My mum: "How tall is he?"
My mum: "Is he married?"
My mum: "How old is he?"
My mum: "You should have worn the nice new hoodie, maybe then he would have been interested, WINK WINK."
Rat: "Er."
PS. Why yes, I did get me a ticket for Ian McKellen’s play! October 22! :D
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Vegan FAQ! :)
The Web Site the Meat Industry Doesn't Want You to See.
Please watch Earthlings.