the fingers of your thoughts are molding your face ceaselessly

OH KILL ME NOW I just realised I have two presentations and an essay due next week. I sob in terror.

maybe I just won't sleep until evening that way my body clock will reset!!

the thought strikes me, doing my readings as I am at an absurd eight am, that our teacher was right after all-- a lot of the meaning of words/phrases are lost when you refer to them exclusively by their abbreviations. the case I am thinking of right now is the 'United Nations'. how powerful is that phrase! nations, evoking all the ideas of sovereignty and states and peoples and nation-states and nationalism, within a realist framework of every-state-for-itself and power politics. and then all of that is turned on its head when you put the word united in front of it, evoking more...I dunno, liberal, maybe internationalist ideas of cooperation and transcending that. (within IR,) it's not often I see a liberal internationalist idea put right alongside a realist one. it's really fascinating.

and all those connotations and associations are lost when you simply shorten it to 'UN'. that just makes me think of the existing organisation itself and a lot of its failures; far more nondescript and mundane than the soaring vision and the beautiful contradiction.

I think I should go to sleep now.

I have a HUGE FONDNESS for snow (to the extent that it doesn't turn to ice that makes the streets slippery) it's almost embarrassing. I stepped out of the house today to head to school, realised it was snowing in gorgeous flurries, and proceeded to squeak in great glee and grin like a maniac and run back into the house to grab my camera. it didn't photograph well but what the heck, every snowy interval (because it then snowed for a few minutes each time) made me GRIN LIKE A NUT. a happy, happy nut. ♥

and on my way home I was walking down red lion street, which the wind was just happily BLOWING THROUGH, UNOBSTRUCTED, from the start of the street to the end of it. it was bone-chilling (and I was wearing a skirt + tights because after Poland I have become very geykiang in that I wear tights when it's zero degrees and above). anyway the noteworthy thing is I was walking behind this Asian couple and it was hilarious because they were just screaming their heads off at the cold. I couldn't help laughing at them okay, it was so funny ;_; but they were laughing at themselves too so it was alright.

on another happy note LOOK LOOK I HAVE A NEW CHAR(MANDER/MELEON/IZARD) ISN'T IT ADORABLE? *____*

a bit of fic I got to after a few rounds of clicking links, about my subject:

"It's about how the world works," she tells Gwen enthusiastically after her first Classics of Social Thought class. "Not history or current events, but why and the big picture. It's like having a veil torn away."

which is actually a really accurate description; I always fail horrendously at describing it to others because I just reduce it to "it's like politics and current affairs, but worldwide" which really isn't all that accurate. and I still haven't worked out why I like it yet. hmm.

I wouldn't describe it as akin to having a veil torn away, though. for me it's much more a-- sharpening, bringing into focus, of blurred things that were once just beyond my reach and realm of undersanding. instead of having a veil removed it's more like putting on a pair of spectacles. :>

ANYWAY OH GOD THIS FIC. I just read it and...wow am blown away. after I finished it I just kind of sat back and whimpered-purred a bit in wordless appreciation.

this is what facebook surfing gets me:

OH MY GOD WAIT WHAT SINCE WHEN DID RJC GET A GRYPHON MASCOT NAMED GRIFFLES? WHAT WHAT WHATTTT. FACEPALM. "GRIFFLES", SERIOUSLY?!

IS THIS REALLY OLD NEWS?

also okay okay if it's really spelt Gryffles then it's obviously a portmanteau of Raffles and gryphon but STILL, IT IS HIDEOUS. LIKE ONE OF THOSE HORRID PAIRING NAMES THAT SPLICE TWO WORDS TOGETHER. LIKE BEDWARD.

would blog, but am exhausted for some reason. long day, but lovely day, got to hang out with my akeyanha and talk and I love how we can just talk about happy things and people and AUs with all our established terminologies and common vocabularies.

but I am all full of vitriol and dissatisfaction from tonight, which has also left me feeling really worn out. so much vitriol! so I shall bid thee adieu and flop into bed.

right. now my phone has died as an indirect result of my heater dying (it's not entirely my fault I swear!!) and as a result I've missed two lectures, sadface. I don't have a watch or anything, so my phone doubles as my clock. the first one was yesterday, because my phone kept switching off by itself and I had to reset the clock...wrongly...anyway, the second time was this morning, because I set the alarm but it didn't go off because the phone was just utterly dead.

I'm going to need to get a new phone. phones are quintessential! I have no idea how I survived without a mobile phone in the past; it's pretty inconceivable, already I'm itching to sms random people.

but I don't want anything fancy and phones in London are so expensive. ):

ON THE BRIGHT SIDE my heater has been fixed :)

hee I thought this was pretty cool/funny. and this! I laughed out loud.

the heating in my house died sometime yesterday, so we've been going over to our friend's place to shower (I would just refuse to shower, but I figure that's not very nice and my hair'd look all gross and oily anyway). I've also borrowed his portable heater, which is the only thing keeping me from being cryogenically frozen at the moment, and am holing up in my room until the gas people come to fix it tomorrow morning.

continually making cups of hot tea helps :>

I have been watching the Big Bang Theory with so much glee, these few days. THE BEST THING (okay, ONE OF THE THINGS I MOST ENJOY) is...how, when the comic/superpower references come, I get them before they're made. which I am actually kind of proud of.

heeee.

1. my IR306 class teacher is gorgeous, and has an awesome sense of fashion and skill with eyeliner application. I seriously spend half the class thinking about how gorgeous she is (and the other half trying to come up with intelligent points to say, of course).

2. this other third year girl in my IR306 class is also VERY pretty and always sits across the class from me so of course I notice how pretty she is. also very intelligent and articulate. *_* oh LSE why you like that

here is a beautiful photo of London that I found on the internet. London doesn't really look like this, except in the ODD MAGICAL MOMENT, but photographers can make magic happen and anyway HERE:

( London when it snows; Big Ben and Lovers by Kayode Okeyode )

also,

char: I'M COLD ):
char: /makes a nice cup of hot tea

country acclimatisation FOR THE WIN.

today I cooked eggs + onions for breakfast, made a whole pot of cream of mushroom soup, did the dishes, vacuumed my room (for the first time since........I came to London at the end of September, well done me) and the kitchen and the common corridor, packed my room, folded my clothes, replied about half my tags maybe, filed my schoolwork, printed out my reading lists for the coming week, and it's not even noon yet. this independent living thing is quite fun sometimes!

I am, of course, procrastinating on working on my essay. :>

but you are what you love
and not what loves you back.

eek! such a beautiful song. it's called beautiful things can come from the dark by azure ray, and even the SONG NAME itself is so...beautiful. eep!

I have hope for you,
that you will keep your love for the world,
even though it beats you down, every day,
for the rest of your stay

though your life has been short,
you’ve seen more pain than most of us know,
if you make it through this, vacuum up the mess,
smile to yourself, lying on your nice new clean floor

this is bad I think I'm going to get hooked on getting my hair dyed-and/or-highlighted. nnghhh /nosebleeds cheerfully at thought

HEADS UP AN EXTREMELY GIRLY NARCISSISTIC POST AHEAD! everyone is forewarned.

so I went to a hair salon academy yesterday (because I'm cheapskate that way) to get my hair dyed. it was really splendid haha. see right, I told them purple and they were all cool, purple! but somehow it came out RED. sigh. and the annoying thing about getting my hair coloured is that it's black originally, so the colours don't really show up unless I'm standing under some strong light. it is a good thing, however, that I absolutely adore red and reddish hair. so now I have dark hair that magically blazes into red when I step into the sun -_- it looked nicer in the salon though, I suppose it always does.

I WANTED PURPLE THOUGH, I guess I will have to wait til next time. a couple of months maybe? probably in September, because I can't go to work with purple hair and I have an internship during July and August. and because I can't dye my hair again this soon after just doing it. NEXT TIME, PURPLE, I DON'T CARE. (I always say this and it NEVER HAPPENS.)

but yeahhh I love that academy place lol. the hairdressing students were really nice and I got a lovely girl who was really nice AND OF COURSE, I absolutely loved getting my hair all fawned over hahaha. she and her teacher were all whoa, lovely hair, so soft so shiny and I was just...sitting there like a dumbass trying not to beam away. ego boost to the maaaax. and the best part was, as always, the after-colour hairwash and head-massage aaaahh so glorious I would go do things to my hair just to get it washed and massaged. heartshape.

and then I went and bought four pairs of tights. I love colourful tights. I think I must have at least fourteen pairs now or something.

although uhm it is pretty heartbreaking to go wash my hair now because I just stream pink water and I know this will last a week at least, based on past experience.

char: sleeps at 7pm, wakes up at 2am. studies.
housemate: wakes up at 4.30am, cooks.
other housemate: is actually sleeping like a normal person

what what WHAT my brother has an ipod (touch)! and he doesn't even listen to music! WHAAAAT okay that does it man I'm totally saving up for one for myself. STAT. I don't really know how I've gone without a portable music player all these years lol. okay my phone has sufficed. but my music collection/interest has BLOOMED in the past year so maybe it's high time to get a proper one.

exceeeeept I know nothing about ipods and ipod touches and whatnot hmm. advice?

'kay sometimes I like owl city, but then sometimes it's so saccharine happy I have to skip quickly to the next song on my iTunes. it's...really too happy for me sometimes lol.

today I went on a near-midnight library run to get the readings I needed for class tomorrow. very last minute, I know, and another thing about it is that I have to keep moving in the photocopying room so that the lights won't go off, because it's that late. hee. good times.

1. HAHAHAHAHA YEAH!!!!! the one time I oversleep for the IR200* lecture AND IT'S CANCELLED, YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!

you can't see it but I totally did the Hiro-YATTA! fist pump when I checked my inbox and saw that email. :D

*ie international political theory; I really like this module.

2. Sea Wolf west coast tour with the Album Leaf ): I want! though I have bought a ticket for the Album Leaf gig in London this March, but I just realised it's the first week of my easter holidays which means I'm quite likely to be away and travelling actually. this is what is called a happy dilemma.

3. and I thought my day couldn't get any better, but it did. I spent my waking daylight hours curled up under my duvet alternating between my couch and my bed reading the first two books of The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel. you know, the feeling of being fully immersed in another world and caught up in the storyline when you're reading? I haven't had that for very long, chiefly because I haven't read fiction in very long (the LSE library has no fiction, no nearby library with fiction, and I'm usually too cheapskate to buy books) so I really savoured it.

it was a fun read. not mindblowingly spectacular but quite an enjoyable read. slightly predictable, and Michael Scott drops enough hints that when events happen they're relatively unsurprising, and the twins' dilemma of whether or not to trust the people around them gets a bit tiresome and overdone at times, but! there's a lot of mythology, which I like, and he does a remarkable job of fleshing out each Elder. and a lot of history, which I adore too, and haha there's Machiavelli and John Dee and a nod to Bacon lol. and all the magic is really fun too :D

except now that I've read the first two books, I want all the rest but the last three books won't be released for months/years. CRY. but I really want to read the third one because it's set in London!! and I love books set in London.

4. I want purple hair. the question is, will I chicken out (again) and get red hair instead (again)? only time will tell.