Quick!

What are you still doing here? I'm rambling over here now!

Give me coffee. Or the protagonist dies.

Yes, dear readers, it's NaNoWriMo time again! Which means a copious amount of caffeine, an inadequate amount of sleep, and an unimaginable number of typos and tautologies, all in the name of authoring a novel in a month (even less, since my month will be interrupted by exams). This year's entry will be a thriller/horror. The story will be based on the lines of T.S. Eliot's 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock', with each line forming a new chapter. However, our beloved Mr. Prufrock has been given a sex change (for no reason other than my own amusement) and has gone totally psychotic and serial killer on us (because the poem just lends itself to such interpretation). So, without further ado, I give you the first chapter of my NaNo 2008 entry, 'What a Wonderful World: the diary of a serial killer'.

November 31, 2008: Let us go then, you and I

I stood on the street corner with a lit cigarette hanging from the end of my blood stained lips, the smoke coming up in twirls, pirouetting around me as though my rapid heartbeat were a song for it to dance to. My breath came in short, shallow gasps, each filling my lungs with the sweet scent of burning tobacco, the sweet taste of death. I never intended for it to end this way. I had never wanted it to end this way. No. Perhaps this is exactly what I was after all along. Perhaps this self destruction was exactly what I needed to set me free from all this. Free from this dreariness. Free from the inanities of society. I was sick. But my disease wasn’t something that could be cured. It was something that was bound to kill me over time. But not before I had killed other people. Many other people. Many more than the people I had already killed. The politician, the lawyer, the homeless man, the prostitute, the R n B artist, the newspaper editor, the evangelist, the commerce student, the inept literature lecturer… they were all just the beginning… No. I had done enough. It was time I made just one last grand statement.

I took one last drag on the cigarette and stubbed it out on the scar from where I had cut myself, the smell of burning flesh sensation recalling to me my senses, shaking away the inebriation of the night. I lifted the large pine lid of the coffin. It was much heavier than I had expected and the task would have been much simpler had I had full use of both arms. Instead, I was forced to lift the lid with just my right arm as my left hand was bloodied from the self inflicted stab wound from the fountain pen. I climbed into the coffin and wondered whether the ink poisoning would kill me first or if I would run out of oxygen first.

I imagined what it would be like when they discovered my corpse. Would they discover it tomorrow? Perhaps even next week? I hoped it was later. A rotten mutilated corpse has far more impact. And with that thought, I pulled the lid of the coffin shut.

And smiled.

The Miracle of Fountain Pens

Jasmine: *plays with fountain pen* Wow! That's so cool! Where does the ink come from?!?
Cheng: It's a fountain pen, it works on capillary action.
Jasmine: *looks at pen from various angles* Oh, there must be a switch somewhere

Note: this was happening during a lecture and despite the tranquilising effects of the lecturer, I assure you, Jasmine was indeed sober at the time.

Point and laugh, children

This is what happens when Hollywood gets its grubby little hands on a classic Japanese anime. Dear lord...

Introducing my family

While rummaging through my stationary cupboard today and doing an inventory to find out what needed replenishing (which turns out to be just a fresh pad of parchment for letter writing), I realised that I owned quite a few nice pens. In no particular order I currently own:

-a silver Parker IM (ballpoint): despite being the baby of the Parker family in terms of price (they retail at a very affordable $10 AUD), they are still very reliable and feel quite nicely weighted in the hand.

-a silver Parker Jotter (ballpoint): the next step up from the IM is the every reliable Jotter which has been around for as long as I can remember being interested in shiny inky goodness. The one I have I received from my mother, who tells me the pen is about as old as I am. Despite it's age and the fact that I've probably dropped it over a dozen times (usually flying from my shirt pocket while chasing down public transport), it still functions perfectly.

-a blue Parker Reflex (ballpoint): this was the model that was superseded by the IM as Parker's entry level pen. The one that I own is in a fairly poor state, with the rubber grip all but worn through, and the spring mechanism also fairly defunct. While it was working though, it was fun to write with and the longer than usual barrel helped balance out the pen.

-a blue Waterman Harmonie (fountain): one of the newest pens in my collection and an absolute beauty. Typically of Waterman, this pen possesses an understated sense of elegance yet stands out from the crowd. The ink flow from the nib is gloriously smooth and the pen feels very poised in the hand when writing, with or without the cap.

-a black Parker Sonnet (ballpoint): I rarely leave the house without this pen. Of the pens that I own, this is probably the most elegant of the ballpoints. While I thoroughly enjoy writing with fountain pens and calligraphy pens, there are some things that can only be done with a ballpoint. Namely the crossword puzzles in newspapers.

-a silver Sheaffer Agio (fountain): my other day to day pen, I use this for everything that I can. It's a tad light for my liking, but the nib is fairly durable and seems to become smoother with use. Not quite as elegant as some of my other pens, but still nice and understated.

-a brushed metal Lamy Logo (calligraphy): probably the most fun to write with of the pens I own (owing primarily to the turqoise ink it's charged with). The calligraphy nib lets me write beautiful script (or at least it will once I learn how to write beautifully) as well as barely legible scrawl (in which I am very well practiced). The ribbed grip section and the spring loaded clip are also very practical touches.

-a black Parker Vector (calligraphy): surprisingly cheap for a calligraphy pen ($50 AUD for the pen, 4 nibs of varying broadness, 6 cartridges, and an annoying draw converter). Handy for learning the ins and outs of calligraphy although the lightness of the pen does tend to allow your hand to dance around the page somewhat. But hey, I guess at that price you can't really complain too much.

So there you have it. My happy little family, which I hope to add to as time passes (and my bank balance permits). And for those of you who have no idea what any of these pens look like, you can find photos of them here.

I grow old, I grow old...

... I wore the bottoms of my trousers rolled... and had a totally awesome party!

Despite the rather large amount of time and effort it takes to plan and host a party (not to mention the shitload of cleaning that needs to be done afterwards), I still enjoy hosting parties because it's nice to fill the house with noise and friends. So thanks to everybody for turning up and helping me make my 21st a blast. ^^.

As I sit here typing this, I'm looking at the pile of gifts from my friends and realise that they know me all too well =). Let's go through the things I like most:
1. Pens - oh, I do love a good pen and this growing obsession was satisfied quite nicely today. I received a a Lamy semi-calligraphy pen (and a bottle of pretty green ink) from Samantha and Charley, and a Waterman Harmonie (I think it's a Harmonie) from Tracy and co. Thank youuuuuuuuuu!
2. Coffee - I drink way too much coffee (so much so that my liver suffers because of it). Of course, there's no such thing as too much of a good thing, so a whole gang of people chipped in and got me a brand spanking shiny coffee machine. And while it's possible to argue that they're trying to kill me, it will be a very happy and hyper death.
3. House - Yay! Kirsten and co. got me Season 4 of House. Need I say more?
4. Puzzles - it's a daily ritual. Pick up the newspaper at the campus newsagent and try to get the sudoku (and as much of the other puzzles as possible) done before classes start. The sudoku usually gets done, but now that Cyd, Amry and Desi saw it fit to purchase me an electronic sudoku, you can bet that my attention during lectures will drop dramatically. So thanks for that guys =). Also thanks to the Guildford gang(I think...) for getting me a totally funky lateral thinking board game thingy that I'll probably just go through by myself.
5. Japanese movies - yay! Samurai box set from Terry and Robert. Woot!
6. Books - Lauren got me a gift voucher for Angus and Robertson. Sure, the staff there are totally imcompetent but that's just half the fun of shopping there. I also received a copy of Freakonomics from Desi, Cyd and Amry, which promises to make for some fun light reading.
7. Vienna Teng - as if the shiny Lamy pen and ink wasn't enough, Samantha (vocals) and Charley (guitar) also saw it fit to serenade me with 'Lullabye for a stormy night' by Vienna Teng. It was just totally yay and I can now tick 'be serenaded' off my list of things to achieve.

The other gifts are also very much appreciated and will be put to good use. Who knows, maybe they'll kickstart yet another unhealthy obsession!

Special thanks also to the people who helped out with everything today so I could play the role of host. Thanks to Jeffrey and Liang for manning the BBQ all night. Thanks to my lovely mother who slaved away over the deep fryer to make deep fried chicken and her legendary spring rolls. Thanks to Samantha and Samantha (no, that's not a typo) for coming over crazy early to help roll the aforementioned spring rolls and to skewer large amounts of meat. Thanks to all the photographers who were snapping away all night. I'm looking forward to seeing all the photos (especially the one of me kissing Robert).Thanks to all the drivers who stayed sober and got everyone to and from the party safely. Sorry you guys couldn't drink, but I hope the food was good enough to make up for it. Thanks to Grace, Desi and Haidang for bringing their PS2s and Wii to keep us all entertained for the night. Thanks to Ace for just generally helping a bit with everything. A huge thanks to Keagan who helped heaps with the clearing up and saved me several hours of cleaning. And thanks to everybody for being responsible with the alcohol.

It was great having you guys over, and I hope you all had as much fun as I had (if not, more!). Let's do it again some time, ne?

And the words...

they're everything and nothing. I want to search for her in the offhand remarks.
- Vienna Teng, 'Recessional'

And so begins my latest project. I recently bought a pretty little journal and I intend on filling it with beautiful quotations. I suspect that there will be an inordinate number of quotations from Vienna Teng and T.S. Eliot (probably all of Prufrock), but hopefully there will be some other gems as well, like this one from Henry Ward Beecher:

'Laughter is day and sobriety is night; a smile is the twilight that hovers between both, more bewitching than either'.