I keep grinning like an idiot every time I glance a glimpse of myself in the mirror. It feels so much more like me to be red-haired. The blond is okay too, by the way, and I liked the white streaks in my hair as well, but the brown hair that I’ve been sporting for the past month or so was boring me to tears. This is SO much better.

In other news, Brenda and I have vowed to each other we would write again, starting this week. We would write 1K a day, or else at least 7K a week. And so we wrote. The both of us have been doing some plotting and did some blessed writing. As of tonight, I wrote 7100 words this week, and I’m extremely pleased with the fact that I’ve had some output. It still doesn’t come easily, but if I just find the right story to tell, I’m sure I’ll get better at it again. I just need to find a story that wants to be told. ‘Dead In The Water’ apparently is not that story, but that’s okay. I’ll just keep searching.
And in the meantime, the Fortress is as good a place as any to write in. That world feels like home, even though writing stories in it is getting increasingly complex with the increasing complexity of the world. Brenda and I are doing a lot of retconning, but even that’s okay. We’re having fun doing it, and that’s the most important thing: getting the fun back in writing.

In other other news, Olli and I watched the whole ‘The Fast & the Furious’ movie series in one week. We stumbled over ‘Fast Five’ the other day, and we enjoyed the movie, so we thought we’d check out the rest. One is enjoyable, two is okay, and then ‘Tokyo Drift’ is utter shite (it didn’t even have anyone from the main cast), four was kinda fun (it had Vin Diesel again!) and five was pretty good once again. Not so much plot-wise, that’s just nonsensical action. But visuals and cool things-wise it was petty good.
But then again, I’m easy to please – I could listen to Vin Diesel reading out a dictionary and I’d still be entertained. He has such a lovely voice.

So Connus Minimus was born – our own Mini Con with a silly name. We were with eleven people, so in the end we broke the group in two. Brenda GM’ed one group in a murder/mystery/ghost story setting upstairs in the living room, and Derek GM’ed a group in the dining area downstairs in a Spartacus-on-sea pirates/gladiators setting.

All in all it was a great success. Not only was it just fun to get the whole group together, but we also had a blast of a time roleplaying. I was in Derek’s game and apparently our group was terribly loud: laughter galore. In the end Wendy and I had a showdown between our characters and mine died painfully, but it was still awesome. Wendy and Olli were the only characters that walked away with their lives and pride and money still in tact, but MAN did we had some laughs on the way

We stopped gaming around 1.30am, after which more drinking and talking ensued. I went to bed at 4.30am, after a quick walk with Arno, Tijs and Bodhi in the rain. We were all up and about around 9-ish, so I was muchly sleep deprived. While the boys all went to the jam studio I snuggled on the couch with Bodhi, a blanket, and season two of Breaking Bad. I kept meaning to nap, but that series is so awesome I kept thinking ‘one more episode’ until 11.30pm. So now I’m still sleep deprived.

But I had a great weekend, and that’s all that counts. If it has to rain all of July, then at least we can spend our weekends having laughs with our friends, raight?

The most important cleaning we’ve been doing is physically: by now Olli has quit smoking for over fourty days. Without any aid whatsoever, I’m so proud of him. He is doing really well too, he seems to be surprisingly okay with it. This in contrary to earlier attempts to quit – it seems he’s now quit for real. And in addition to that, we’re dieting. In my case it was very badly needed; I was so well on my way to gain back all the weight I lost last year that it wasn’t funny anymore. I also had a hard time fitting into my pants anymore So time for change – time to lose at least 5 kg before we go to Finland on vacation (six weeks from now). I’ve now lost 2kg in two weeks, which is something I’m very pleased with. (Three more kg to go before I’m satisfied) Of course Olli’s lost much more, but that’s the unfairness of males versus females for you

Meanwhile I’ve watched through three seasons of True Blood in roughly a week, getting up to speed before the new season starts in a month or something. I’ve also started watching Game Of Thrones and so far I’m sitting on the fence: I love the designs and the way the world is brought to life, I love the actors – but I have the idea that anyone who hasn’t seen the books will have a hard time following what is happening and why you should care. But it’s definitely better than the Starz series Camelot, so that’s good.

My writing has been completely discarded lately – which is something I hate, because I do have the feeling I have stuff to tell. It’s just not coming out in words, it seems.

In happier news: Symphony of Agony managed to qualify for the Ninth Popmundo Festival! It’s terribly exciting, I’m so chuffed that we made it!

We ended up in a complete poule of death that we had to compete in… just like happened with Rebel Justice last year. But this year the girls and I managed to SMACK THE GODS very thoroughly and came in 2nd. The first three would be qualified – and with six bands playing a GS show things were incredibly tense there for a while. So we’re at least with the top 50 of best bands in Popo, which is hopeful.
Tomorrow we play our Festival show, as the second band to play. Our repertoire peaked a couple of days before and is on a sharp way downwards, but the good thing is that most of the competition has the same problem. We might do really well after all – who knows? If you wanna keep your fingers crossed at 11am… thanks

In other news, ever since I mentioned Gannicus on my blog I’ve been getting a lot of hits for people searching information about him and his role on Spartacus: Gods of the Arena.
Nothing to see here, people, move along. Just some other chick who has wet dreams about him.
But oh, wasn’t he gorgeous last episode? There was this very big death scare which had me shouting “nooooo!” at the television, but thankfully he pulled through. However, the season finale is next week so I’m fairly sure he’ll bite it tomorrow. Since this is a prequel and we haven’t seen him in Blood and Sand I’m fairly sure he’ll be dead as dead can be. Thankfully, we still got to gaze at him for seven episodes. He’s so PRETTY!! <3

I detest that kind of pompousness. It’s one of the very reasons probably why I’ve always been so very very careful with calling myself a writer. Of course once you get down to it, when you write stories, you’re a writer. When you spend thought on how to write stories in the most pleasing way possible, you’re a writer. Why not call yourself one? Well, because I don’t want to be a pompous arse, I suppose.

Oh well, pompousness notwithstanding, there’s something I’d like to share tonight. Soaking in my bathtub tonight (with a Lush bathball that was a bit too glittery and gold for my taste) I’ve been reading Brandon Sanderson’s The Hero Of Ages. And holy shit people, THIS man can write. I know I said a little bit about his Mistborn trilogy earlier, but the third book is kind of blowing my fragile little mind.

(Here comes the pompous remark, people)

As a writer, I really fucking enjoy well-crafted stories. (*waits for everyone to stop booing and hissing on that remark*) But the point is, I really do. Maybe it’s because I’m attempting the craft itself, but I love seeing how a story comes together. Those little details, those clever hooks in the story. The pieces of dialogue that must have made the author gniffle while s/he wrote them out. The beautiful set-up, the twists and turns and the intrigues. I honestly adore it.

The Mistborn series has a lot of things going for it. A nice twist on the standard fantasy setting, an intriguing magic system, a BEAUTIFUL twist on the good and evil balance, sympathy for the devil, and nice & well-rounded characters. There’s this tiny little plot twist that I see coming that would be beautiful if it would indeed play out the way I think it will. But even if it doesn’t, it’s very clever, engaging, and a wonderful story. Kudos to you, mister Sanderson. As Perine already stated – he did great work with finishing up Wheel of Time for Robert Jordan (for which I appreciate him muchly) but please let’s give him kudos for Mistborn as well. Because it ROCKS.

In other news, another thing I was very pleasantly surprised about in recent weeks (next to the hilarious and engaging Misfits) was Spartacus: Blood and Sand. Yeah, colour me surprised as well. I didn’t see that one coming. I kind of half-saw the show while Olli was watching the episodes, but the incredible amount of blood that splattered over the screen and the random nakedness kind of put me off.

I mistakenly assumed that the blood and soft-porn was just the plot itself, but now that Olli got me to actually watch the series, I now realize this is not the case. HOLY SHIT this series is actually intelligent! The plot is riveting and all the intrigues and politicking is beautiful! It’s so exciting that I can’t wait for what’s coming next. I loathe half the characters, but I can’t wait to see what they do next. And well, what’s wrong with random nakedness anyway?

Everyone needs a bit of (naked) Gannicus in their lives!