Forgotten photos

I took these in October and forgot all about them until yesterday. After some amateur post-processing, I'm pretty happy with a few of them! The whole set is here, but I've posted my favourites below. I'd love to know what you think!

FoF: Tackyman

Tackyman the Deer Whisperer, originally uploaded by tackyshack.

Have I told you how amazing Tackyshack is? If not, I should have done. Marvel at his skill with lightpainting. MARVEL.

I'm performing at a poetry event on Saturday! Don't know what I'm reading yet, might be something as yet unwritten... wish me luck :S

Good news, everyone!

celebrating with expletives

I got a 2:2, which is what I expected (when I was stable enough to not be expecting failure, the disapproval of my friends and loved ones, and being put down for my own good). My mum was so excited! And my dad told me that he's been published, which is SO fantastic. My dad's pretty much the best.

Ben got the First that he SO deserves, not to mention a bajillion exciting authorial opportunities. That boy's going places, I'm telling you. B. John Shaw Liddle, keep an eye out.

Also, gay marriage is now legal in New York! Seems to be a good day all round, really. I hope you've got something to celebrate, wherever you are.

I went to a fancy dress party last night, actually wearing a fancy dress for once. It was SO fancy. I haven't uploaded the photos yet, but here is an artist's impression:

Much love to the incredible @irkafirka for that picture! Trying to remember which children's illustrator this reminds me of. It's a bit Horrible Historyish, but I don't think that's it... answers on a postcard please. Anyway, yes, I'll upload photos at some point. I've been taking a lot more lately, which is a lot of fun! They're all going up on my Flickr account, as usual, but here's a couple of recent ones I like:

a barbecue and a waterfight

"More or less exactly" is an oxymoron that I find myself using lately. As in, I've been single for more or less exactly a year. I can't be sure of the date because I didn't blog about it at the time, and without the internet to serve as my external memory I'm more lost than a puppy filling out a tax return.

I was seriously thinking about writing a "how I feel about stuff and things" post, but to be honest I don't have anything interesting to say about the subject. I lost my faith, and that was the only dealbreaker. Fin. So instead I want to share some awesome stuff I've been doing!

Two nights ago some friends and I had a beach BBQ. It was honestly the loveliest sunset I've seen in a very long time. Here are some pictures of that:








And then yesterday we had an epic waterfight, of which there are no photos, because I was too busy watergunning fools (and getting cups of water thrown over me because Aston's a dirty cheater.)

This but with guns and laughing

I'm really looking forward to seeing my family in a couple of weeks; we're going on a sort of road trip holiday thing so that'll be cool.

Much love to y'all!

Bristol: JoCo

Bristol, you are so good to me.

The first time I ever went to Bristol, I met a bunch of awesome beatboxers, and I somehow manage to go back to Cardiff (yay!) instead of Plymouth (boo) where I actually lived.
The second time, more epic beatboxing, and a hug from Hobbit (who BY THE WAY is @hobbitbeats on twitter),
The third time, I met Mr. Jonti Picking aka Weebl, and nerded all over the place for a full weekend, not to mention taking some awesome photos that I'll show you as soon as my friend uploads them (meaningful looks at Dave),

And last Thursday I finally got to see Jonathan Coulton and Paul and Storm performing.

Ici, la photobomb.

I'll say it again, Bristol, you are SO good to me.

FoF: Sam Vimes

Vimes turned to look at the squad..., originally uploaded by my beanie hat rocks.

Isn't it amazing? Agh, I love Vimes so much. He was very good to me during my brief stay in A-M.

Today I was out with Ben and Dave picking up the pre-release copies of Suncaller (Ben's book). Along the way we saw a girl in a gothic lolita jacket, walking her cat. On a lead. Ben stopped to compliment her cat or something, and ten minutes later we were in her flat looking at her incredible, surreal paintings and her homemade steampunk goggles. It turned out her housemate is having some work published by Dead Star Publishing (Dave's business, also publishing Suncaller), so, you know, small world! Then we all went out for brunch.

Today has been weird, but also good.

Found on Flickr 9

Banksy Downtown LA, originally uploaded by Sonja Teri.

Mr Glass, originally uploaded by SiLver sKY.

Plus, some non-Flickry (but equally awesome) pics:

We don't want your kind here!

The graffiti pictures are in LA, where Banksy's documentary is premiering tonight.

Ooh, actually, while we're on photography, I thoroughly recommend This Isn't Happiness for interesting and unusual images.

Found on Flickr 8

Left Turning Wool Orb, originally uploaded by tackyshack.

I love Tackyshack's photos! He's the best lightpainter I've seen on Flickr. Give the photostream a look if you're into that sort of thing.

Frantic catch-uppery!

Hello all! Right, first off, I've been listening to a lot of Owl City (Spotify link). It's beautiful stuff; Fireflies has been #1 in the UK. I have no idea how long for, and in fact it's a miracle that that much information made it into my head.

I'm afraid that my extreme slackness means I'll have to do a bullet-pointy catchy-uppy thing.

Friday 29th Jan: We had a uni field trip to Cardiff Bay, got rained on, and went to the pub; and I had one glass of rosé and wouldn't stop talking. Here's a  few photos from the field trip:

Saturday 30th: I'd had a very early night, and consequently woke up at 4am. My housemates were awake, though more of the "still up" variety than my "already up." I watched Iron Man, started making my boyfriend's Not-Valentine's Day presents (bath bombs! It's ok, I've already given them to him), and saw the final episode of Dollhouse. No spoilers here, don't worry, but I was a WRECK by the end! A shell of a woman.

The rest of the day consisted of a girls' day at my church. I hadn't been to one of these things before, but my wariness of all things girly has subsided somewhat as I've grown up, so I thought I'd give it a go. After a worship session of rather gutless and floaty (but very pretty) songs, we had a great sermony thing, and set off on a Grand Adventure.

We started with a pub lunch at the Captain's Wife (a name that gave me the giggles for some reason); after which we traipsed around the beaches of Penarth, enjoying the sunshine and taking photos of people, places, and (in my case) interesting bits of driftwood.

Back at the church, we watched a movie called My Sister's Keeper. It was billed as a chick flick - I was expecting something with Sandra Bullock in, you know, a guilty pleasure, but instead I got a child dying of cancer. Lolz were not had. Don't get me wrong, it's a good movie, but crying at a screen twice in one day is just demeaning.

My week at university was fairly standard, and then I had another action-packed weekend...

Friday 5th Feb: I went round to my boyfriend's house and watched Buffy. He got the box sets recently so we're plowing happily through them! We're into the 3rd season now, and honestly, I wholeheartedly forgive Joss Whedon for always killing the one I love. When I'm King of the World, I'll ban FOX from cancelling anything he ever makes, ever.

That night we went to TGI Friday's. I'd never been in one before; the food was great (if pricey) and the service was excellent, but I couldn't help staring at the waitress's 'flair.' I've gone off pin badges lately - I used to think they were awesome, but I never seem to have a good place to put them. Yes, I have braces, but now that I've seen Office Space, they've become emblematic of workplace dictators and the futility of ambition. So YAY for that I guess.

Saturday 6th: Pub, house party, home at 7am. I met lots of lovely new people, and totally messed up my 8-day streak of 'early to bed, early to rise' success.

Sunday 7th: I woke up late for my new role-playing thingy! Also, I appear to be having noun troubles today. ANYWAY. The pub's just around the corner from my house, so I ran in with my dressing gown flapping dramatically behind me (untrue, but improves the visualisations). We started playing a Victoriana game, and it's AWESOME. Also, I'd never met the GM before - his name's Nimrod and he runs a convention called OddCon  UK. I very much like the sound of it. I've been searching for geeks like this my entire life... I'm so happy... and determined to get myself a pretty set of these:

Also, a huge thanks to the legendary Andrew Canham for the blog's new look. As someone remarked, mine is the Incredible Changing Blog, but I think this is a dramatic improvement over the old look! What do you think?

Goodbye doctor

10/04/2009 16:57, originally uploaded by alun.vega.

Goodbye, 10th doctor! No spoilers, don't worry. I just wanted to share this picture with you, and point you towards the rest of Alun Vega's photostream if you're interested.

Found on Flickr 7

Blacklight Laser Test 2, originally uploaded by tackyshack.

I've been following this photographer's work for a while, and I can't believe how amazing it is! Light painting to aspire to.

Found on Flickr 6

116.365, originally uploaded by rebeca :).

My apologies for not updating last night, I wasn't home. I must make a mental note to plan posts in advance, or when I have to leave unexpectedly, I won't have anything to give you!

Previous FOFs:

FOF 1
FOF 2: the photo was sadly deleted, sorry about that.
FOF 3
FOF 4
FOF 5

Red-faced

I don't sweat.

Not like normal people, anyway. I've been out in the blazing sun all day, cycling up hills and through traffic, and I'm just not sweating.

I decided to ask my body why this is.

"Sweat?" she gasped, clearly appalled at the suggestion. "Everybody sweats, how frightfully common. No, I think my system is much better."

Ah yes, her system. Because when a body gets hot, it has to cool off one way or another; and when mine gets hot, I end up looking like a socially-conscious tomato that's just farted.

Thanks, body. Thanks a lot.

In other news, the photo course is going very well, and I'm still taking hundreds of fire photos. Because these guys are awesome, and crazy talented. I found out that Gav can do staff-twirling too the other day, he's been keeping that one quiet!

As always, the photos can be viewed large on my Flickr page.

Recommended blogs and flower pics

Yesterday, I went to a wedding. The wedding was unique and wonderful, and worthy of a better post than I can write today. so I hope you'll bear with me until I get the photos uploaded.

(On a related note, I want everyone in the photos to be able to find them easily; so after much consideration and sulking, I've decided that I may have to reactivate my Facebook account. SIGH.)

Until then, I thought it was time I wrote about a few of my fellow bloggers. There are some remarkably entertaining, intelligent people out there on the internet, and I fully intend to find all of them. Eventually.

Here, then, are a few blogs I read and enjoy.

1. It's no secret that Wil Wheaton is a fantastic writer, as well as a lovely chap. If you're even remotely interested in geek culture, gaming, writing, or just reading about the life of a strange normal bloke / internet celebrity, I really can't think of anywhere better to go. WWdN: In Exile
2. Meg Pickard* writes for the Guardian, takes wonderful photographs, and is endlessly fun to read. Her site, Meish.org, is also the home of the infamous anti-Valentine's cards.
3. I've only been reading Boobs, Injuries and Dr Pepper for a little while, but she's funny, and fascinating, and I fully expect to continue reading for a long while to come.
4. Innocent Loverboy is a sweet and sexy student who blogs about life, love, and the chaos that comes with it. Give his blog a looksee, and if you like it, tell him I sent you!

In the year since I wrote this post linking to other blogs*, I'm embarrassed to say that my reading list hasn't got much longer. This is where you come in. If you'd all be very kind, I'd like you to post your favourite blog in the comments section. For everyone who does me this favour, I'll click their name and take a look at their blog as well. It's only fair, right?

*Yes, Anna and Meg are related. Sisters. And it does show in their writing styles, and the things they get irritated by; which I think is very charming.

Shameless appeal for votes time!

That's right ladies and gentlemen, the time has come when I need to borrow you for two whole clicks. I was recently asked to do an interview for http://bloginterviewer.com, and if my blog is the most popular, I get $50. I would like some shiny pennies so please go here and vote me up using the handy thumbs-up! Or I guess vote me down if you think I suck, only, please don't. That would be awesome. If I made some money I could actually call myself a blogger, and it would cover some of the domain name fees and the like, which would rock pretty damn hard.

In other news, the day after I found my bracelet, I went to see a performance by Adrian Plass (an author I've liked for years) and Saltmine Productions (a travelling theatre company). They were absolutely hilarious, and after talking to Adrian afterwards I've got a whole newfound respect for the man, he said some wonderfully encouraging things to me.

And the day after that... I went passed a church that had a big sign saying "God loves you Anna." That made me happy.

I'm back in Cardiff now, very much enjoying having some space and being back near my boyfriend.

In the meantime, please do vote, it would mean the world to me! Apparently you can vote once a day, so if you're keen...?

Anyway, an interesting link for you. Enjoy the Platitudipus.

Volunteers and things in ears

Ever been 'volunteered' for something? As in, told that you were going to do it and then left to deal with that fact? Of course you have. Well, last Thursday was the date of a church party that my sister had volunteered me, my brother, and my youngest sister for.

We were all up visiting her for the week, and had been shopping a few times and watched a lot of movies by this point. When I got to the church on Thursday, I started blowing up balloons for the games. I'd been told what game I was going to run, and secretly I was delighted to return to something I knew that I was good at. I did a year of youth work for a Christian charity on the Isle of Wight (something I've blogged about on many previous occasions), so I have a huge repertoire of games. We played quite a few classics that night; Mafia, this is a tick, Splat, and of course musical chairs. We were catering for people aged 15 to 90. My previous experience with youth work had been a lot more... youthy, but I distracted myself by taking photos of everything in sight.

These were the lights in the kitchen of that church - look how pretty! Oooooh! (Photographers are much like magpies. Anythign that looks even vageuly interesting, and we're as good as hypnotised!)

While we were staying with my sister, I absolutely fell in love with a cat that had adopted her. The cat's called Lilcat Freesian, or Lily Freesia for short, and is a one-eyed beauty with a heart on her back. Sadly her real owners showed up towards the end of the week, but I absolutely loved having some kitty time anyway! Honestly, those of you with full-time cats are very lucky indeed, I have to borrow cats from my friends.

I'm back with my parents on the Isle of Wight now, after a beast of a train journey that was meant to be direct (but ended up with two changes and huge delays). I've been meeting up with old friends and relaxing (as relaxing as anything can be when you're once again surrounded by siblings) and I'm very much looking forward to getting home to Cardiff!

I got a phone call from my boyfriend this morning. He's - how much of this have I told you? - He's on a stag do for his best friend, and they successfully survived the mountain-climbing part. He hasn't been so lucky with the pubs and clubs part, however, as apparently he had to be taken to a medical centre to remove something from his ear with pliers! Now, I love and respect my boyfriend tremendously, but if I can't mock him relentlessly for that then there's just no point us being together, is there.

I feel pretty

I felt a bit out of my element when I first went in; but the guy I had arranged to see was very friendly and quickly put me at my ease. His bleached blond hair and a skinny scarf around his neck made him seem younger than he told me he was. He seemed surprised that it had been a year since I was last seen to; a year and two days, to be exact. And he was right, it was high time I was sorted out!

He started out with a head massage. We spent a bit of time just chatting before we, well, got down to things, and he told me that his trade name is Jay. (Most people who get into the business take on another name, something I knew already - my aunt has been known by another name to everyone since she started working in Soho.) It felt wonderful when he ran his fingers through my hair, and that naive little voice in my head started saying "Oh em gee he loves me!!," and I had to silence it by reminding myself that it's his job and that money would be changing hands afterwards.

For the next hour, I was the absolute centre of his attention as he made me feel beautiful, occasionally taking something out of the toolbelt around his hips to use on me. He was professional and gentle, and truth be told I enjoyed the fact that there was a big mirror on the wall so that I could better see what he was doing to me.

I left with a spring in my step, feeling more like a woman than I had in... ooh... about a year!

I must get my hair cut more often.

Corrupted (plus photo recap)

Well, it's official, my mind has been broken.

I was helping out with the lounge today, which is an event not unlike Soul Café for an older patronage (so, no dance mat. Boo!) It's held at our church, Woodville Baptist. It was a lot of fun, and I even know how to make lattés and stuff now (although, hey, let's not test that knowledge just yet).

But yes, the guys I was helping refer to the various coffee contraptions by female pronouns, as you do. And at one point, someone was making a hot chocolate, and that particular contraption was a bit tricky to use, and he said "Ooh she's a squirter... nice." And I was the only one who laughed.
Ok, right now half of you are laughing, and the other half are thinking "I don't get it," because I have a wonderfully diverse readership like that. But essentially that was the moment I realised that I have been seriously warped by the people I hang around with.

Hang on. I didn't say that was a bad thing. The way I see it, I just have a whole new sense of humour to supplement my regular sense of humour. Only, the new one involves piles of dead babies, and ducktaping cats.

In other news, I realise I'm stretching the term "almost daily" to breaking point since about mid-December. I'm not sure whether to apologise or not. On the one hand, my blog is suffering and my readers aren't getting their regular injections of wit and humour that I so skillfully bring to their otherwise drab lives. (I know. Thank me when you see me.) On the other, the blog isn't the only aspect of my life that's suffering, and you people don't pay me anyway. CONUNDRUM.

But I will try to be better. Really, really I will. Since I've been taking tons of photos lately, I'll use them to jog my memory about all the things I need to update you on.


Ah yes, this is the Elm Street legal graffiti wall. The girl in the picture was interviewing the artists as Ross and I walked past, so she found me on Flickr and emailed me a few questions. You can read what that was all about here.

Next...


Lucy! My lovely lovely Lucy! I had a great time with her. She's an old friend from the Isle of Wight, whom I have mentioned on multiple previous occasions, and she's very lovely and special. We went for a walk up past Roath Lake to a place where there was a river and squirrels and trees, which made me happy. (It was actually SUNNY, too!) We also went shopping - I bought a dress! And a not-diamond not-silver ring that was £1! It's so shiny! And we did face mud mask thingies, the pictures of which will NOT be finding their way online. Nope. Also we went to see Aladdin with Anthony Costa in the starring role. It was my first panto! And it was amazing! Ok, Costa (from Blue, don'tcherknow) was shit, but the 3d glasses made up for it. Then we had sushi, watched Iron Man, slept like babies in my lovely lovely bed, and had pancakes for breakfast round the corner from my house. It was so great to see her again.


Oh oh oh and then the other day, I spent from 1pm till 5am - holy poop, 15 hours?! - at Ross's house watching movies n' stuff! I know, I know. Shocking. But it was so much fun, and Ross, Rich and Dan are just about some of my favourite people. Being cuddled up under a duvet watching great TV with them (again) is no great hardship. We saw 3 Batman movies, several episodes of Nighty Night, some League of Gentlemen, the final episode of Avatar, and several hilarious personals on Gumtree. A++, would do again.


Ahh! It's Gav's Rock Face! Yes, last night I finally got to see Gav rocking out on the bass. Apparently his energetic performances I've seen thus far have been the restrained ones. The band, Gary and the Gutners, did some quality covers at a birthday party in Buffaloes. I took hundreds of photos - probably around the 500 mark! - and danced with some of the lads from church. Oh and also! A lady got talking to me about my photos, said she works in media... I'll definitely follow that up, she gave me contact details and everything. Exciting!

So, yes. While I have been low and am not getting on with uni work or organising my life AT ALL, at least I'm making time for the important things.