Not that I'm planning on a major hangover on Sunday ^_~ (I'd better not as we don't have any decent food in o.o; ) But it got me wondering and now I'm really interested to hear from everyone out there!

I've got 2:

1. Black coffee and a bacon sandwich (if its a work day and there's a good cafe on the way to work that I can buy it from then alls the better)

2. I still have a soft spot for my traditional student hangover brekkie: Big Mac, large fries and a vanilla milkshake XD

(tho I haven't been to McDs in a few years now o.O; )

A mate of mine said the best hangover breakfast is the rest of the night before's pizza (even better if you left it by your bed so all you have to do is roll over and eat XD ) - I'm not a big fan of cold pizza tho >.<; Especially not cold greasy kebab shop pizza! urgh

Tags: food
aroundabout now, i am: thoughtful

Beautiful sounds out of this guy's busking with an electric violin :D



Wow, this guy is pretty amazing judging by his wikipedia page --> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Alleyne-Johnson

Tags: music
aroundabout now, i am: enthralled

I'm going to be starting a 3D games environment modelling blog next week and I need a name! I'm drawing a complete blank, can anyone think of anything?

It could be concise, snappy, witty, stupid pun-y, or even something incredibly random that's completely unrelated to 3D...

My best ides is to call it 'marmite toast', after the fact that I've been eatingthat as my breakfast (and sometimes also lunch) for the last couple of years at least, so its been my companion through a lot of 3D work ^^; Of course, that doesn't really make any sense if you don't know me o.O; (and Wren - I managed to eat porridge for breakfast for 1 day, then I went back to the marmite ^^;; )

But yeah, something a bit better than that would probably be good >.<;;

Tags: 3d, random
aroundabout now, i am: geeky

Up close n personal with some instant heart attack food concoctions...

http://thisiswhyyourefat.com/

The giant scotch egg is horrific looking! >.<; But with a burger called The Steakinator how could you possibly go wrong? XD

Tags: food, random
aroundabout now, i am: amused

...pity books cost money >.<;

Anyway, there's an excellent short primer on getting into Tezuka over on Robot 6 --> http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2009/11/comics-college-osamu-tezuka/ (link via Mangablog)

I've read MW and the first volume of Black Jack, but that's it so far. I'd like to read more Black Jack, Phoenix, at least the first volume of Buddha, Ode to Kirohito, Apollo's Song (possibly just because it was described as a bizarre sex-ed guide set on an island of copulating animals XD ), and actually I'd really like to sample Nextworld and Metropolis as, altho the general consesnsus is that these series are more clunky than the others, I love the idea of flipping through some really cool looking Tezuka futuristic city backgrounds XD

...weirdly tho, I've got no real urge to try out Dororo...probably because I know it doesn't end properly ^^;

Oo! and I'd like to read vol. 3 of Astro Boy as I'm asking for Pluto for christmas (I wonder if they're doing roaring sales of just vol 3 of Astro Boy now? I kind of hope that Pluto has helped Astro Boy sales in general as I would like to see as much Tezuka as possible come over into English ^^ )

I'm also kind of interested in at least looking at (if not getting hold of) Helen McCarthy's 'Art of Ozamu Tezuka' - probably not so much to read as to flip through the pretty pictures. One day I'd love to have a house with a great big coffee table, so I can put out coffee table books! :D Gorgeous art books are so wasted stuck in shelves 99% of the time, but if we put them on our coffee table here they would probably either immediately get moved off onto the floor (as we use the coffee table to do brainstorm/sketch work), or covered in curry or ramen broth splats (as we eat all our meals at the coffee table too)

...I guess I can also aspire to one day owning a house with a dinner table ^^;;

Tags: manga, random
aroundabout now, i am: busy

Anyone else remember this one from Mannequin? I used to adore this song XD Still love it actually - its epic XD

Suddenly want to buy Mannequin on DVD o_o;;


I must have gone insane from overwork ^^;; I'm actually going to listen to Belinda Carlisle next >.<; I'll hate myself in the morning XD Right, just a couple more hours modelling to go...might even listen to Lisa Stansfield o_o;

Tags: films, music, random

Wow, I should probably have looked sooner but Unearthly Challenge has had its deadline extended by 7 days yay! This means I have slightly more of a chance of actually finishing something.

With the old date of the 16th Nov I would have had to texture and light my entire environment in 4-5 days, which was (when you get right down to it) almost 100% impossible.

Now that the date is the 23rd Nov I have about 12 days - still quite a tall order, but certainly a better chance of getting something quick-and-dirty done.  Luckily my scene doesn't involve any nasty effects or elements that would involve me having to do any R&D (e.g. water, swirling vortexes, complicated skies etc. etc.) - it just involves lots and lots of simple tasks, such as making high poly models of hard-surface objects for normal maps, getting repeating textures to work, creating a buttload of decals and getting the lighting to emulate the concept art.

In a perfect world, to give myself the best chance of finishing with a good entry, I should continue working at this pace until the deadline. However, I just don't think I can do that without hurting my brain (and shoulder muscles) a lot. Plus, I have some real-life things planned starting next week that I don't really want to have to miss in order to work more on this project ^^;;  Therefore I'm going to continue at this pace (i.e. work all day and evening, do not go out unless 100% necessary), unless I have something else planned on a particular day, in which case I'll completely put the project out of my mind and have a good time (luckily I'm quite good at not dwelling on things when I don't need to - if you can forget work completely when you're having fun, the brain-reset really helps you to produce better work when you get back to it ^_^ )

Man, I was so geared up to be finishing this thing next Monday for better or worse that, altho its exciting to think I can do a better job now, part of me just doesn't want to spend another week on it ^^;;  My muscles are already feeling weird from just sitting working all day with barely any breaks, let alone gym sessions...I'm gonna start walking to the science park and back again in the mornings tomorrow just so I don't get DVT >.<;;;

Tags: 3d, unearthly challenge
aroundabout now, i am: busy

Thought I'd do a brief update as I try to re-gain my brain functions after a small mountain of lemon meringue pudding (if you want a low-fat, high sugar pudding: get a meringue nest, plonk a heaped teaspoon of lemon curd on it then zap it in the microwave for a few seconds - instant hot meringue with lemon sauce! just don't go mad and have 2....urgh... my stomach and head... ¬_¬;;; )

Anyway, I'm gonna be pretty absent from most net stuff for about the next week due to massive volumes of 3D work (apart from Twitter - there's always time for an odd sentence of nonsensical ramblings XD )

At the moment a normal day for me is

- Wake up, eat breakfast, shower, get dressed, check emails/net
- Work
- Make and eat lunch, catch up with Mangablog over a cup of tea
- Work
- Apologise to Lee for getting him to make dinner whilst I work
- Eat dinner, take 30 mins - 1hr break in order to regain sanity (usually by playing co-op Borderlands with Lee :D <3 )
- Work
- Go to bed

I get out of the house a couple of times in the week: Saturdays we do food shopping, last Thursday was the fireworks, Tuesdays I've got WW (there's a 2 week break from anime on Wednesdays tho, which is good because I get more time to work o.o;; )

I'm not doing the gym or badminton until the comp is over now ~apologises to her aching shoulders for this~ >.<;

The deadline for the comp is the 16th Nov (this is the one I'm doing the big giant laser of doom project for...I'll probably post some pics of my work once the comp is over and I have some time ^^; ) - so, I've got 6 more days to finish.  I've 95% finished and UV mapped all the low poly versions of all the models plus designed all of what will be modelled-in for the high polys, but I still have to basically do everything pretty with it (normal maps, colour textures, spec textures, lighting layout etc.). Luckily, this project spams the hell out of tiling textures and repeating instances of models (its the best working environment I've ever come up with), so once pretty things start to happen, they will fill the environment out quickly.

Thing is, even with that I'm almost 100% sure that I can't get it done for the deadline - I'm just keeping on trucking to see if I can do it, as there's still the odd 1-2% of me that thinks it could be done ^_^

...and there's also the chance of an extension being given ^_~ 

Even if I don't get it 100% done for the comp tho, I'm going to have the bulk of a portfolio project complete in a very short time - a fantastic thing to work up to a lovely level of prettiness for potential employers as soon as I re-gain my energy. 

Competitions and heavy deadlines I find are often very useful (as someone who doesn't have a manager breathing down her neck at a day job) to get work done. I'm sure I can get pretty slow and complacent, but if I have an illustration pitch to draw in a day, or a 3D project to finish in 2 months flat, then I do some of my most efficient (and somehow best realised) work. I think I work somewhat better when put on the spot ^^;;

When I've finished the competition I'm going to clean the house top-to-bottom (which shouldn't be too hard as we're in a flat with no stairs XD ), then play (and hopefully finish) Valkyria Chronicles, then spend a few days doing nothing but writing Comic Mole reviews! And in between all that I'm going to be out and about seeing people, doing christmas shopping and generally getting on with my life - it'll be like the complete opposite of now o.o;

Luckily, even tho I've been working my butt off I've been able to steer clear of calorific *omg I'm working hard so I need snacks* foods ^_^ 

I'm still working off some weight I put on as a random blip just before our Center Parcs trip (I managed to only put on half a pound over our holiday week [where I ate out 4-5 times], but put on 3lbs the week before, where I'd eaten 1 pizza over my points allowance and done plenty of exercise to cover it - go figure :S )

I lost 2lbs this week tho so yay! :D I want to lose 4 more lbs before christmas, then I will have lost exactly 3 stone over this year! ~determined face~ So far I've lost 37.5lbs altogether, which is pretty cool ^_^

Our WW meeting is thinning out tho ('scuse the terrible pun ^^; ) - as we near christmas I think more and more people are deciding to just start again in January.  I'm hoping tho that sticking with the plan on each day that I'm not doing something special will help me not to put on weight on the run-up to christmas. I'm sure if left to my own devices I could pretty easily put on a stone between now and January, but hopefully I'll limit that to just a couple of pounds over the actual 2-week holiday period ^^;;

Anyway, I guess I should go get some more work done...maybe I'll just fit in a little bit more then catch an earlier night tho as starting work for the evening at 9.30 seems a tad on the late side *is super tired already* -_-;;

Tags: 3d, art, food, unearthly challenge, weight
aroundabout now, i am: sleepy

Wren suggested I might want to write down how we made some of our soups in case we want to make them again, which seems like a good idea, so I'll try to remember to note them down here ^_^

Last night's soup was a good one and pretty easy to make so here goes:

Tomato & Picante Pepper Soup (makes about 4 big bowls / you need a blender of some kind for this)

You need

- 1 large onion
- Olive oil (I use the spray version for less WW pointage!)
- 2 red peppers
- 6 pack of basic salad tomatoes
- Salt & pepper
- Jar of Peppadews ( you can get them in supermarkets, they're usually by the jars of olives)
- 2 cans of good quality chopped tomatoes
- A teaspoon of chopped ginger (I use very lazy chopped ginger in a jar ^^ )

To make

- Heat a teaspoon of olive oil in a large saucepan on a low heat. Roughly chop the onion and red pepper and add to the pan. Cover the pan and cook for 5-10 mins or so until the veg are slightly softened.

- Meanwhile, roughly chop the tomatoes (I didn't bother skinning the tomatoes or red peppers, but you could if you wanted to). 
- Once the peppers and onion are slightly softened, add in the fresh tomatoes and season with salt and pepper - cook for a couple of minutes to slightly soften the tomatoes, then stir in the 2 cans of chopped tomatoes and the ginger.
- Cover the pan and simmer on medium/low for 20 mins

- Add in some Peppadews (we're chilli fiends here so we added in about half the jar, but if you're more normal I'm guessing you would want about 4-5 of them for this amount...you can always add more if you taste it and its not quite hot enough, so go easy at first if you're not a big fan of heat)

- Whizz the mixture up in a couple of batches using a hand blender or jug blender.  Pour the blended soup back into the (empty) saucepan and re-heat for a couple of minutes on medium just to make sure its piping hot.

Serving suggestions

- Goes really well with a chunky slice of tiger bread and butter
- You could top this with a blob of creme fraiche (or even stir some in) if you fancy something creamier

Tags: food, recipie
aroundabout now, i am: tired

Urgh, I'm tired, headachy and unfocussed...I think I worked too hard -_-;; Guess I'll try and take it a bit more easy tonight, tho still an insane amount to do o.o;

I'm making spiced stewed plums again today!  Gonna get them on the hob now as a break from work.  Seeing as I've become a spiced stewed plum fiend this winter I thought I'd share the super easy way I make them - the ultimate healthy yet goreous comfort food! :D

What you need

- Plums (1 Tescos 'ripen at home' punnet makes about 2 bowlfuls...I usually make up 2 punnets worth to have a supply for a couple of days)
- Splash of water
- Sugar (preferably a tasy sugar like demerara, but any sugar would do)
- Spices (I use ground cinnamon and ground cloves, but I'm guessing you can use any sweet spice that you like ^_^ )

How to make

- Wash all plums, half them all and take out all the stones
- Put plum halves in a saucepan with a small splash of water (cold water is fine, like 2tbsps worth odd)
- Sprinkle over sugar (the amount depends on how much of a sweet tooth you have - 1-2 teaspoons per punnet of plums is about right)
- Sprinkle over spices (the amount depends on how much you want really - quite a bit of cinnamon is fine because its not that strong, but if using cloves just a gentle sprinkling will do or it gets a bit overpowering ^^; )

- Cover and simmer gently for about 30 mins - stir once or twice just to mix everything together, but don't stir too much or the plums will smoosh to goo rather than keep their shape
- Once the plums are softened and the juice is a nice dark red, they're done - check sugar and spice levels by trying a bit

Serving suggestions

- I love them warm in a bowl on their own! (plus, super healthy!)
- Serve with cream or vanilla ice cream
- Serve with porridge for breakfast
- Can be eaten hot or cold
- Can be used as pie or crumble filling, or with rice pudding

Tags: food, recipie
aroundabout now, i am: hungry