Today I'm giving you something slightly special, which is a very shallow adventure inside my sporadic thoughts. However ordinary the workings of my mind may be, there are sometimes sparks of disorientation that wander across the peculiarly normal inward vision. This is a list of wayward inklings. _________________________________________________________________________________
"For a dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.”
i. i really do dislike the word inkling. it reminds me of ink and in reality it has nothing whatsoever to do with ink, which makes me slightly disappointed. the word also has an unnerving sort of fluidity. i dislike it.
ii. i am currently hoping that the listless mediocrity of my life is the deep breath before the plunge. this is a thought of which i have reminded myself multiple times.
iii. the sky outside looks like a dome of shattering ice today, as the clouds are coming in strands.
iv. i think that adventure should be a priority.
v. sometimes i think that the stars are portals inside disorienting fantasies and sometimes i think that they are distant and cruel white holes in the sky. i have never seriously considered the theory that they are merely very large spheres of flaming gas.
vi. even the reality that is portrayed as raw is only ever a perfected version of true reality.
vii. there is quite a lot that has been sacrificed for the creation of things.
viii. the skin on my hands feels as if it has been stretched too far. it's cracking in little red grooves because of the cold.
ix. it would be a very offended world if everyone was honest.
x. i often look in the mirror and wonder why i am myself and not someone else. it is quite a disturbance, and a practice i do not particularly enjoy.
xi. there are one hundred thousand million stars in the milky way, and great quantities of light, and faerietales and hand-bound books and obsidian rock and Doctor Who episodes and invisible colour waves, and quite a bit of humans, and there is also you, which is kind of cool.
xii. there is a distant watery sound above my head, and i want to know where it comes from, and why it exists, and why it sounds distant but still entirely close enough to be distracting.
xiii. i wish that lovely people were told more often that they are lovely.
xiv. paper is one of the best substances ever to be conceived.
xv. light is altogether very unappreciated. light is very important, and very beautiful, and also very overwhelming, when you think about it in any sort of depth.
as is anything.
xvi. i love the feel of warm coffee on the inside of my throat. i am currently in need of it.
xvii. i wonder if any individuals in the future will have already retired from reading this post, carrying a lack of interest. i am certainly on the verge of it.
xviii. yellow is an underappreciated colour.
xix. i think that changing the present and watching the future will always be more important than regretting the past.
xx. days are for action. night is for reflection. sleeping is for health. death is for motivation.
this list is twenty-three memories of yesterday and today; which happens to be the day that i was born.
i. white and silver snow on harsh Canadian ground.
ii. chocolate cake.
iii. my intensely amazing aunt gave a life-sized standup poster of Kili the Dwarf. he is very content in his corner beside my bookcase, and i can't stop laughing every time i see him.
iv. pulsating adrenaline before the symphony choir enters a stage on which we are to sing.
v. the ringing of an orchestra tuning.
vi. the performance of Handel's Messiah, from the view of a chorus soprano, before hundreds of locale in a magnificently stifling stone cathedral. the soloists were pristine. the conductor is passionate, and he moved with fluidity and grandeur and flamboyance. the months that we had spent in rehearsal were threaded into the performance. we were given a standing ovation lasting three minutes. the sound was piercing in the acoustics of the church, and my mind still throbs with violin strings. it was glorious.
vii. decreasing adrenaline and a sore throat post-concert.
viii. wishing myself a happy birthday as i climb into bed after the performance, as the clock read twelve o'clock A.M. on the morning of December eighth. it is mine and Dominic Monaghan's birthday.
ix. dreams of music.
x. breakfast with my father this morning, marked with conversation concerning geological mining samples and the alto soloist's turquoise dress from the night before.
xi. the excessive consumption of eggnog.
xii. embroidered leather moccasins, in which i hope to spend the rest of my walking career.
xiii. the overwhelmingly underwhelming thought that i have now gone around the sun fourteen times.
Or, The Very Best Under-rated, Under-appreciated, Forgotten, Unconventional, and/or Wayward Thinks I Could Think
i. blueberry lemonade. It's more famous cousins, raspberry and strawberry, are but mere mortals in comparison to this piece of perfection. ii. words like: ebullience (n. bubbly; boiling over; enthusiastic); cynosure (n. point of focus; guiding star); quiddity (n. the essence of something; a peculiarity); apricity (n. the warmth of the sun in winter); snout-fair (adj. handsome, good looking; pertaining to Tom Hiddleston); nefilibata (n. cloud-walking; day dreaming); splendiferous (adj. splendid); delectation (n. pleasure, enjoyment); penumbra (n. half-shadow); mellifluous (adj. sweet-sounding); filipendulous (adj. hanging by a thread); wanweird (n. an unhappy fate); verisimilitude (n. having the appearance of truth).
iii. frozen grapes. For reasons I have yet to understand, grapes taste 89.7% (I've done the math, guys) better when frozen.
iv. the first few notes of your favourite song. v. the thesaurus. Sadly, not a dinosaur. More like a dictionary. But spicier.
vi. how to steal a million. Audrey Hepburn shoots Peter O'Toole in the arm and then they steal art. Comic genius.
vii. letters from father christmas by j.r.r. tolkien. Following the escapades of Father Christmas and his argumentative henchman, the North Polar Bear. Also broken north poles, soggy biscuits, and evil Christmas goblins. Read it. Unless you're very boring or very grown up. Which you should fix immediately. viii. that feeling you get from standing at the edge of your fear, then forcing yourself to leap, not knowing if you're going to succeed or go splat. Although, if your fear is of heights, particularly of cliffs or buildings, I do not advise you to literally leap.
ix. smelling a scent or hearing a song that will be forever linked with a happy memory. x. actually being able to say something when there's something that needs saying. xi. the ache in your belly when you've laughed too hard. xii. the realization that, when you've done something that you thought you couldn't do, that maybe you could do something else you thought you couldn't. xiii. baby sloths. Or any sloths really. I'm a fan.
listen::the wind rustling the last of the golden autumn leaves; the lonely sound of wind chimes drifting from somewhere down the street; christmas carols; autumn leaves by ed sheeran
read:: holiday cookbooks; the book thief by markus zusak; that novel you've been planning on rereading since forever inhale:: the hint of snow mixed in with the cool autumn wind; the scent of coffee & whiff of your favourite holiday drink as the barista hands it to you in a christmasy-red paper cup; the trace of cinnamon in the air from that delicious something in the oven wear:: hoodies, skinny jeans, boots, & holiday patterned sweaters do:: hang the holiday wreath on the front door; decorate the house with evergreen garlands & put up the christmas tree (because no, it's certainly not & never will be early); bake a batch of gingerbread cookies just because; sprinkle crushed candy cane over your vanilla ice cream; drink tea every day; go christmas shopping watch:: your favourite classic holiday film; it's a wonderful life; the nativity story; the psych holiday episodes
"i must be a mermaid. i have no dear of depths & a great fear of shallow living." --anais nin--
I'm Eve Victorie. My heart is out at sea & my imagination all over the place. I dream in sea blue & turquoise & I like stories more than anything. I believe in the little things in life because they are the ones that can make a difference. Windswept hair & sea breezes & coffee are my favourites.
"I can see in you the glance of a curious sort of bird through the close-set bars of a cage, a vivid, restless, captive. Were it but free, it would soar, cloud high."
iv. Thor {2011}
"Look at you. The mighty Thor! With all your strength! And what good does it do you now? Do you hear me, brother? There's nothing you can do!"
iii. The Princess Bride {1987}
"You truly love each other and so you might have been truly happy.
Not one couple in a century has that chance, no matter what the story books say.
And so I think no man in a century will suffer as greatly as you will."
ii. The Phantom of the Opera {2004}
"In his eyes, all the sadness of the world."
i. The Return of the King {2003}
"How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on, when in your heart, you begin to understand, there is no going back? There are some things that time cannot mend. Some hurts that go too deep... That have taken hold.”
ONE // AMSTERDAM
"Some tourists think Amsterdam is a city of sin, but in truth it is a city of freedom. And in freedom, most people find sin. "
-- John Green
TWO // VENICE
"You can't visit Hogwarts or Neverland or Middle-earth. But you can certainly travel to Venice."
-- Cornelia Funke
THREE // EDINBURGH
"This is a city of shifting light, of changing skies... A city so beautiful it breaks the heart again and again."
-- Alexander McCall Smith
FOUR // PRAGUE
“The streets of Prague were a fantasia scarcely touched by the twenty-first century—or the twentieth or nineteenth, for that matter. It was a city of alchemists and dreamers."
-- Laini Taylor
autumn, or at least autumn weather, comes early in northern Ontario. this is a list of happy things from the season preceding my favorite season, and all its glories.
i. neverending cups of Earl Grey tea
ii. fuzzy sweaters & slouchy toques & combat boots
iii. the plunge into grade nine // my Latin course {I'm such an intellectual}
iv. rain // cold weather // grey skies
v. waiting for Thor: The Dark World
vi. library trips
vii. watching endless Korean dramas // commentaries with Ashley
I'm ashley, Abby's asianaphile friend. I'm not asian, but I wish I was.
She asked me to do a guest post, and I drew up blank question marks where my inspiration used to be, but she gave me a suggestion that led to this.
she asked for it.
Aside from Gangam Style (and possibly Gentleman) by PSY which has just seized the world due to it's dance and PSY must just have a great publicist, not very many people have listened to Asian Music.
Unless, they are Asian, of course.
But, to keep this easy, I'll just keep to Korean Pop (Kpop).
So, here is my list of Top Ten Kpop songs (and their respective music videos) arranged in no particular order:
1:::Chocolate Love by Girl's Generation
Aside from the chocolate crunch sound affects, and the prettiness of the song, I love it because, get this, this is actually a commercial. really. this song was written and choreographed for a chocolate commercial. It just cannot get more amazing than that.
Apparently South Korea does not do cheap jingles, hardly surprising for a country whose major attribute is their music (besides being the unfortunate that got smacked up against North Korea)
2:::Ring Ding Dong by SHINee
SHINee was the band that got me into Kpop, and therefore, all their songs hold a special part in my heart. But Ring DIng Dong was the one that first made me go, "wow...I might actually like this" and "yep. gonna totally have a korean crush" (Key. BTW. Key was my first Bias. I even own a picture book of him. just him).
but wings! and coats! and dance!
Koreans know how to break down and dance.
3:::Fantastic Baby by BigBang
Abby told me, that the one requirement to doing a kpop post was that I had to include her 'Unicorn man', but I was going to include Fantastic Baby anyway.
This song. I can't even describe how much I love it and it's music video. It's just sooo.
fantastic (baby).
Because of it, whenever anyone says "Fantastic" I'll launch into singing this, and it's only mildly embarrassing
for everyone else, of course.
It has me dancing every time I listen to it, and has some right beautiful Ikemen (wait. thats a japanese word...) in it.
4:::Be my Baby by Wonder Girls
I just like this one. a few reasons being it's a pretty simple dance, and is one of the few that I can actually do. I've done it in heels too, just to know I can. ;) It's a fairly simple music video, but fun to watch all the same. (and I also have seen one of the boy bands do the dance to this song, and it was down right hilarious...)
5:::Face by Nu'Est
And now we've come to my current all time favorite boy band ever.
These are the boys I'd act like a crazy fangirl over.
And honestly, I'd put up all their songs as favorites if I could.
I've listened to this song only 10,00000000 times, and it never grows old. And I can almost sing the korean words! big thing for me since I don't actually speak korean.
especially since it has my future husband in it. Ren doesn't know we are going to get married, yet, but he will someday.
6:::Monster by Big Bang
brought to you by the same band who brought you Fantastic Baby comes a second favorite!
Monster makes me cry like a baby, seriously, I am listening to it right now, and crying while typing.
This is another that I've watched countless times, and can almost sing. I could actually probably sing it if it wasn't for the fact that I get choked up each time I try.
7:::Sexy Love by T-ara
I don't listen to this one as much, since the full version is almost 15 minutes long (its basically a mini movie) but its SO SO SO worth it. It's another that I cry in.
I'm going to write a story based off of this video some day.
and, if you just aren't interested in watching 14:55 minutes of pure incredible, here: just have the dance version:
I just personally like the longer, drama version better.
8:::Nillili Mambo by Block B
this song.
I listen to/watch it when I'm sad because it makes me happy and Zico is an adorable dreadlocked puppy and that smile and sugfbuigufiaq;hguoigfhiewalhgbirqhgtoriqhqr
I bounce like this, bounce, bounce like.
I bobbing to the music music-
ok Ashley. stop singing and show them the video:
9:::Lipstick by Orange Caramel
Orange Caramel is just one of those light hearted bands that are just perfect fluffy lovey dovey sweetness. And I, honestly, love everyone of their songs. I don't listen to very many girl bands, the boy bands greatly out weighing them, but of the three or four that I do listen to frequently, Orange Caramel is on the top of them all.
so you know what I'm going to do. I'm going to put a second song under 9, because I do what I want Thor.
10:::Love Ya by SS501
ok, so the real reason I put two songs on #9 is because I wanted to include one more song.
Love Ya gives me feelings.
And breath masks.
ahuj`fkiasfbhdskajg
and their OUTFITS. Korean boys know how to dress. (unless they are named G Dragon...) but they are such good dressers. and everything looks good on them. Or maybe that's just my opinion....
Sadly, SS501 is no longer together, their band broke apart, which is a sad sad sad thing.
and, there you have it.
*bows*
Thank you Abby for letting me guest post and also for letting me just ramble on about my koreans...It must be hard for you. ;)
annyeong! (thats goodbye..)
P.S:
I'm going to give you a brownie and give you one Japanese song..I can do that, right?
Love Yourself, sung by KAT-TUN, is actually an intro to a Jdrama, (Japanese tv show), that I really love, but its one of my favorite KAT-TUN songs, and the lyrics (you'd have to look them up. ;D) are beautiful.
ok. done.
annyeong, Sayōnara, and all those sayings that come with parting. ;D
I absolutely ADORE costume drama, and this would be a list of (in my opinion) the best BBC costume drama TV series. In a rather particular order. I'm also going to apologize in advance for not having seen Downton Abbey, which would be why it is not on my list.
I've seen Cranford three times now, and it is delightful. It's absolutely charming, the costumes are lovely, and the characters are so very endearing. Huzzah for that. Also, Tom Hiddleston. In a top hat.
#4 // Emma (2009 mini-series)
Starring Romola Garai, Sherlock Holmes and Dumbledore Johnny Lee Miller and Michael Gambon.
I have seen this version of Emma twice, and I must say, (please don't eat me) that I like it much better than the 1996 version with Gwyneth Paltrow. The costumes were {GORGEOUS}.
It was also splendid to see a Harriet who was reasonably pretty.
#3 // Pride and Prejudice (1995 mini-series)
Starring Jennifer Ehle, Colin Firth, Susannah Harker and Julia Sawalha.
I really don't know how many times I've watched this one. It's completely lovely, and the acting is fabulous. Really, the only negative thing I would have to say about this version is that the romantic reconciliation in the end was less than dramatic, and actually rather unsatisfying, even though it was closer to the novel. In that aspect, I prefer the 2005 version's dramatic kiss in the sunrise. But other than that, the 1995 Pride and Prejudice is decidedly spectacular.
#2 // Lark Rise to Candleford (2008 TV series)
Starring Olivia Hallinan, Julia Sawalha, Brendan Coyle and Claudie Blakley.
I have watched all five of the series thrice, and aksdfssjgfasjfaghalsdk it may very well be my favorite BBC show, even over Sherlock and Merlin. Lark Rise to Candleford is simply glorious. The acting is lovely, the costumes are utterly divine, and the stories have this aura of warmth and grandeur.
AND THE FEELS, BRO. I FEEL THEM.
#1 // North & South (2004 mini-series)
Starring Daniela Denby-Ashe, Thorin Oakenshield in a suit, and Brendan Coyle.
Gahh. Where to begin.Not only is this my favorite period drama, but it (and BBC Robin Hood) also introduced me to the wonder that is Richard Armitage. The characters are rather amazing, as well as the plot even though {Le Spoiler Alert} six people die in one episode.
The costumes are equally splendiferous. Especially the suits.
Also, /RICHARD ARMITAGE IN A TOP HAT/.
At first, this post was going to be my top six Sherlock episodes... But then I remembered.
Dragons happen to be my favorite of mythological beasts, and this is a list of the dragons from books or films that hold a special place in my heart. Hopefully you loverly humans will be too distracted by the pretty pictures to notice I was to lazy to add a commentary under each item.