Do you still think that way about me now?

Had a dream in which I sneaked out of the house before anyone else was awake, drove my car to some town, went to a carpark and promptly stole another car, drove it around to another carpark, at some point was in a forest where a festival was going on, families wandering about with picnics, got chased by a cult, found a shopping mall I hadn't known existed, did a bit of shoplifting and came back out to my stolen car, at which point my mum and sister arrived in their car, and my sister slapped me in the face for running away.

...I envy my dream-self; she gets to have all the fun.

I met up with Ruth and LJ last night for pizza and cinema. We saw The Brothers Grimm. I really enjoyed it; I loved spotting the folklore and mythology references: Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, Rumpelstiltskin, The Princess and the Pea, girls disguised as boys, talking animals, Rapunzel, The Snow Queen, Ophelia from Hamlet, Cinderella, kelpies and infernal horses, the golem legend, The Two Brothers, the Greek myth of Talos, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, werewolves, sacred/enchanted forests, The White Cat, Jack and the Beanstalk, stolen children, vampires, Hansel and Gretal, Snow White, The Gingerbread Man, The Goose Girl, witches, spells, beautiful and vain queens, The Frog Prince, Grandfather Death, animal helpers (and enemies), the youngest as the hero, Manypelts, three siblings, enchanted weapons, curses, and maybe - only maybe, mind; I'm stretching a bit here - a story I once read about a boy with odd-coloured eyes, one which sees the world as it really is and one which sees all that it could be (but isn't). Some bits were pretty creepy ( Slight spoilers ) The juxtaposition between the superstitious German peasants and the rational French forces, coming out of the anti-superstition French Revolution, worked well, I thought, and brought out the nationalist motivation behind the collecting of fairy tales (if there's a folklore, there has to be a folk - a race of people linked by blood and land, with a common national identity). And I am Jake Grimm! You don't know how painfully I've wished sometimes for stories to be real *pets Jake with his cute little glasses*

Also, you know you've been spending too much time in Forbidden Planet when you start to dream of being accused of shoplifting from it.

*yawn* Today is going to be a weird day. I dreamt about marking essays and one of my flatmates telling me off for keeping my bread frozen. I'm tired and icky-feeling. I couldn't shower this morning because the sockets in my room stopped working last night so I had no hairdryer. I've got a little bit of a tummy ache. I haven't got anything done on my chapter revision like I was hoping. And of course, the day I go down early to Forbidden Planet is the day that they're shipping this week's new comics late >.< *yawn*

Not so much sex in Rome last night, just lots and lots of folk getting killed, yay!

Rain! Rain rain rain rain rain. And I had to walk through it up to Elms Reception, waaaaaaay up the Malone Road, because the stupid people forgot to get me to sign for my keys. I am now sitting with massive wet patches just above my knees where my rain coat dripped water on to my jeans. My legs feel cold and horrible and GRARRGHH!

Yeah, I didn't make it on to the internet at the weekend like I'd hoped. I spent Saturday running from pillar to post, trying to get shopping and laundry done - especially the laundry, cos of course I never had the right money for the machines first time round, so I had to run out and buy some utterly pointless thing just to get change, and our nearest shop is two streets down - and on Sunday, the libraries were all shut, so no computer for Rhondy.

I did get work done in that I finally read Gulliver's Travels and Moll Flanders, which are the first books I'll be teaching on in *checks* one week's time. Shit. And I still have to go register for this academic year. Must remember to do that.

( Dreams )

( Survey stolen from Marzi - er, one answer is a bit TMI )

This one didn't have as clear a plot as yesterday's, and I only remember fragments of it: searching through boxes of comic-book back-issues and discovering that a mini-series which I thought was only for 3 issues actually ran for 6, staying at a slightly creepy B&B built of gold-coloured brick, needing a ticket for a train to university and rushing to catch it with all my luggage, waving my ticket breathlessly in the face of the inspector, then riding on the train, watching the other passengers sway back and forth. The train sequence looked like it had been shot through a blue filter.

I need to be careful about this new comic-book thing. I've been restraining myself from any non-essential purchases lately; I want to save up so I pay off as much as possible next year without borrowing from my parents. I haven't been buying any new books, CDs or DVDs for a while now, but the comics are threatening to overwhelm my resolve. It's their serial nature: you can't buy one issue without needing half a dozen more.

PhD work: well, I got a few things done this week. I'm gonna try and start writing next week. I haven't been able to work up the will to do anything for a while, and I want this stupid chapter done before the academic year starts again. I've had no word from Leon about anything since teaching broke off. I don't know if he's on holiday with his family, or on a research trip, or here in Belfast.

The cramp in my leg has finally faded, hurrah!

The weather has turned wet, boo!

*hugs to Joanne*

Happy birthday to featherypony and a (rather belated - sorry!) birthday to jellostar.

Yeah, I don't have much to say. Got a lift home which I wasn't expecting; had a very weird and detailed dream last night, in which I was doing my PhD, not in university, but in my old secondary school, and I forgot that PhD students don't have a timetable, so I was panicking because I hadn't got mine; finished the Ubiquitous Book of the Summer - I was disappointed with some elements but I'll give her the benefit of the doubt till the last book comes out; went on a bike ride with Mum and Sharon.

Today is the birthday of P. T. Barnhum, showman and circus-owner, who reputedly came up with the phrase, "There's a sucker born every minute." (info courtesy of my Forgotten English calendar)

I feel as if I should make a nice, long LJ post, seeing as how my last few have been itty-bitty short. Hmm, what to say, what to say...

FINALLY got around to seeing Batman Begins, which, for the record, was BRILLIANT!! :DDD I could follow the fight scenes just fine, apart from the one in the warehouse, and you weren't supposed to follow it, because it was all about the confusion. My brothers went to see War of the Worlds, which will be my next target. And they got to see the trailer for King Kong!! *flails*

I had a dream about Bruce Wayne. During his wanderings, he joined a circus that was a cover for a training school for revolutionairies. He had a girlfriend and a girl best friend, and he was incredibly happy. It was so nice to see him happy *pets happy Bruce Wayne* :) And then I dreamed about Spiderman, who was in a valley with black web-stuff arching over his head.

Work-wise, FINALLY got to meet with my supervisor. He's still keeping me on redrafting the second chapter :/ I dunno, I'm supposed to have the thesis done for next February, I still don't have an angle for my third chapter, I'm teaching in the upcoming semester on 18th century literature, which isn't really my area, and from what I've heard it's very easy to get distracted with teaching preparation, my funding runs out in September, and I just want it OVER ALREADY, so I can find out what it's like to have a life :P

This is Graduation Ceremony week, so there are people wandering about in black robes and coloured sashes. I love the graduation ceremony. I love wearing robes, getting my picture taken, and then strawberries and cream in the quad ;.; I wish I were graduating already.

Anyway, I should give you a heads-up that I probably won't be on LJ next week. It's the week of the Twelfth - July 12th, when the Orangemen march to celebrate William III whupping James II's ass at the Boyne. In certain parts of Belfast and in some other places, it can get nasty. The last few years have been ok and I doubt anything would happen in the area I'm in, but meh, I'd feel happier at home - or my mum would feel happier if I was at home, which amounts to the same thing. Anyway, important point is, I won't be on the internet as regularly, so try and not have any important crises while I'm gone :)

Anecdote no 1: A friend challenged William Cowper to write a poem celebrating the invention of the sofa. The poem eventually ran to 5000 lines and six books. Only the first ostensibly deals with the sofa, and the sixth book ends with the Second Coming.

Anecdote number 2: When two farm labourers who were to be married were killed by a lightning strike, Alexander Pope wrote two different, but equally sentimental and heroic, epitaphs for them:

ON TWO LOVERS STRUCK DEAD BY LIGHTNING.

When Eastern lovers feed the funeral fire,
On the same pile the faithful pair expire.
Here pitying Heaven that virtue mutual found,
And blasted both, that it might neither wound.
Hearts so sincere, the Almighty saw well pleased,
Sent his own lightning, and the victims seized.

and:

NEAR THIS PLACE LIE THE BODIES OF
JOHN HEWET AND SARAH DREW,
AN INDUSTRIOUS YOUNG MAN,
AND VIRTUOUS MAIDEN OF THIS PARISH;
WHO, BEING AT HARVEST-WORK
(WITH SEVERAL OTHERS),
WERE IN ONE INSTANT KILLED BY LIGHTNING,
THE LAST DAY OF JULY 1718.

Think not, by rigorous judgment seized,
A pair so faithful could expire;
Victims so pure Heaven saw well pleased,
And snatch'd them in celestial fire.

Live well, and fear no sudden fate;
When God calls virtue to the grave,
Alike 'tis justice soon or late,
Mercy alike to kill or save.

Virtue unmoved can hear the call,
And face the flash that melts the ball.

More privately, however, he also wrote this:

Here lye two poor Lovers, who had the mishap,
Tho very chaste people, to die of a Clap.

---

I had a dream last night, but I've forgotten it now. It involved some sort of crime fighting/government agency, I think.

It was two dreams which merged into each other. The first half involved storybook/fairytale characters who needed me to arrange their library - it had been messed up by bad guys and, being book characters, it was a life-or-death issue to get it sorted. There was a Duchess, a King of Hearts (who was very pleasant if rather harried-looking), Disney's Chip 'n Dale, a young Queen, and the Queen of Hearts from "Alice in Wonderland" (but only from a distance and from behind. She was riding on a donkey and was dressed in green.)

( First half in detail )

So, after a lot of angsting and frustration I accepted the job of helping them out. Here, the dream fastfowarded to the end of the job. The Duchess pointed out the approach of the Queen of Hearts, which, she said, was to thank me for saving them (apparently, seeing her from the back and at a distance was thanks enough).

Then I showed visitors around the newly restored library. They were all good-looking, contemporarily-dressed people around my own age, and one particular group were looking to get my help. There are five of them to start with: an earnest girl, who is the one in charge, a clowning-around type of guy who had blond hair, and a arrogant bitch-queen with dark brown hair and her boyfriend, who seemed more interested in bullying and humiliating me - they poked me and pushed me around. ( Don't touch my panties! )

The earnest girl managed to persuade me to come with them to their world, though having saved one world, I wasn't sure whether I was supposed to save another one (can one be destined to save two worlds, or can destiny only cover one?). So they took me to a bar/restaurant on their world. The building had those ceiling-to-floor windows so you could see everything outside: there was a village on the left, a small square leading to a bridge over a river in the centre, and then meadows and parkland on the right. It was snowing and everything seemed to be fine.

Bitch-queen and boyfriend were still trying to bully me (I got poked an awful lot in this dream; it was sore) and I stumbled away from the group towards the bar. I was leaning on the bar, getting my breath back, when this really, REALLY cute guy came up and sat down. I knew he was going to tell me to "sit"; I was willing him on to come out with it, while trying to pretend not to notice him. He had dark auburn hair with a strong red tone in it. I kept trying to predict when he would finally say it: "Sit." "Sit." "SIT." He kept silent for about half-a-minute longer than I was expecting, then said it: "Sit." And OH, *meltmeltmelt* he had the loveliest voice I've ever dreamed! ( This is the guy who, had I finished my dream, I would have slept with before the big final showdown )

The others joined us - the earnest girl was dressed in purple winter sports gear, but clown guy was just wearing a dirty-white T-shirt and jeans - and they explained what was wrong. Their world had been invaded by aliens, who lived on the life-energy of other beings, sucking out 10% from each of their victims. (The explanation was longer than this, being interrupted by bitch-queen pretending to want a massage from me, then saying I was crap, and also me getting angry about all these people who kept demanding I help them.) While this was being explained, the snow stopped: a bad sign apparently because everyone began to get nervous. I tried to point out that snow can stop naturally, but their uneasiness made me uneasy. I kept watching how the snow melted and wondering if it was going too quickly or not. A police-guard-type man, in a blue-purple uniform with a cape, came in and reported to the earnest girl that the aliens had just been moved into a new home. He came back later to warn us that they had settled and were on their way into town. My companions all left me, bar clown guy. Outside the snow had gone completely and I knew it would not have melted that fast; something unnatural was going on.

( Invasion - this is the part that made it the coolest dream ever )

And then I woke up, and thought: "That was the coolest dream EVER!!!... But DAMNIT I wanna know what it felt like to get 10% of my life-energy drained out of me! This dream had given me the sexiest-voiced man I've ever heard - the draining was going to be SO COOL!"

Damn!

Sparky dreams of a cheerleader magazine. I dream of an old-fashioned alien conquest, with giant robots stalking the land, picking up puny humans and doing unspeakable evil to them!

I love my dreams <33333

I just figured out today that I like my characters to be already defeated. The more defeated the better! Know how, in The Incredibles, Syndrome threatens to take the baby and raise him to be the implacable enemy of his real family? I would have liked to see that story. Oh yeah, pile the angst on, baby, now we're getting to the good stuff!

Now, for a ( meme )