Austin, Texas

I went to 'merica for a week to see my parents. They live in Houston but we visited Austin for a couple of days over Halloween. I took some photos that I think are nice.

Adventures in Lumpy Space

Hey gurl! Long time. I've been up to some stuff, wearing some clothes, playing some games, the yoush. This past Sunday I went to Armageddon (my first Armageddon but not my first con.) It was fun! Better than Supanova this year for sure. Mainly because I got to catch some celebs I was super excited to see, and also I got a cosplay done in time. Here's the proof:

What the lump are you looking at?

Australian Women Writers Challenge - Sibyl's Cave by Catherine Padmore

Okkkk.... it's getting closer to the end of the year and I've got some reviewing to catch up on! As I said previously, for anyone who missed it, I'm doing the Australian Women Writers Challenge, in which you just read some books by Australian women writers and then review them. I'm doing the smallest version of the challenge, which is 3 books, but you can do more if you want. The first book I reviewed was The Stone Key by Isobelle Carmody and my review of it is here.

I've had Sibyl's Cave sitting on my bookshelf for quite a few years, ever since I took Catherine Padmore's course on 'Writing Fiction' at La Trobe. I remember thinking she was cool, and that it was really cool that she'd had a book published, but I never got around to reading it until now. To be honest the genre of the book is not one I usually delve into (historical fiction/drama) but it was interesting to have a reason to read something like this. Here's what the cover looks like:

So... yeah. I don't read a lot of books with a cover like this. I've never really let go of that childish voice in my head that goes "that looks booorriiinggg" and hangs around the sci-fi section looking for the most interesting looking cover. But hey, the good thing about being an adult is you understand when the voice is being shallow, and you go ahead and read it anyway.

I did end up enjoying this book quite a lot. It revolved mainly around the life of one character, and all the stuff she goes through moving from Italy to England to Australia in the mid 20th century. Also all the serious *life biz* that happens. I found some parts of this book refreshingly honest, to the point where you cringe a bit like ugh, yep, that's real. Other times I found it a bit whimsical in its language. It's not that I thought the language was bad, it's just that whimsical isn't really my style, and makes me a little bit uncomfortable.

I was about to write a paragraph criticizing the title, but you know what? It's really fricking hard to come up with titles. I get the significance, I think it's a little obvious and far stretched at the same time, but whatever. The book itself is a good read, very well written. The characters are realistic and believable, and you do end up feeling like you know the main character very well. There was a point in the middle of the book where I was kind of wondering where it was going, which is the danger of something like this which isn't so focused on plot as it is character development. But the end wrapped up well, *spoilers* apart from the one bit where Eli cuts her foot, because I thought that was a little too cheesy and obvious. Like a family movie.

I was happy to read that some of the London parts in the middle were influenced by Vali Myers' biography, because that's really cool. 

So yeah. Not something I'd usually pick up, but I enjoyed reading it, and it was definitely well written. Interesting enough to keep you reading til the end, and for the characters to stay in your mind for a while afterwards. A good effort, Catherine Padmore! Well done.

Kitty at my foot and i want to touch it

I love these Lee dungarees so much. I was obsessing over getting some just as a belated birthday card arrived in the post with a General Pants voucher in it. I was hoping they'd have some and these are perfect! The problem with most one-piece clothing items is that if you're tall, a lot of them don't fit properly. The torso part is usually too short resulting in a wedgie. But these fit perfectly :) I also found the perfect beanie, typically after searching all winter through the freezing cold, just as it gets warm. Oh well.

Lamington Drive Illustration Residency

For the month of August, four Illustrators have been in residence at Lamington Drive Gallery in Collingwood. One of them, Ashley Ronning, is a good friend of mine, and on Thursday night they held the opening of the exhibition which showcases what they've been doing for the past month. The theme was Slumber Party. Queue crocheted blankets, spice girls posters and lots of lamingtons.

There are a lot of photos in this post so click the jump.

Good Books and Games

Hey there! I was feeling particularly pumpkiny the day this photo was taken. I love the colour orange. I also love these space tights, which were from ebay. I got a whole bundle of different ones for vurrry cheap.

I've been doing many things. Life is full right now. It's good. Moss Piglet, the journal I'm working on, is almost ready. Good news for those who contributed back in April! It's taken a while, and life has gotten in the way more than a few times, but it's nearly there.

I'm very excited to read these books, which arrived in the post:

They're by two of my favourite internet ladies. I have to admit, I already read Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth on the tram in one sitting when it arrived... but it's one of those poetry collections I know I'll go back to a million times. It's amazing. Particularly the section called Conversations About Home (at the Deportation Centre), which I wish anyone who thinks refugees are just 'queue jumpers' would read. Using that phrase makes me sick. If that piece of writing could become the most well known writing of this century, it would benefit the world infinitely. Warsan Shire can be found on tumblr, and twitter.

Mia McKenzie runs one of my favourite blogs, Black Girl Dangerous. The articles are so good, and so on point every time. The blog is a space for Queer/Trans/People of Colour (QTPOC), so be respectful and just read it unless you're part of that community. But I highly recommend reading it even if you're not, to get an education. The Summer We Got Free is Mia's first book and I'm really excited to read it.

I never ended up doing a games post :( Blogging takes time, which I only have a little of now. But I've been playing Path of Exile recently, with my housemates, and it's awesome! It's basically the Diablo 3 you wished you had. It's an independent New Zealand game, and somehow it's free, with the only microtransactions being completely aesthetic and not changing the gameplay at all (apart from making your character look awesome-er.) It's still in open beta so I can't wait to see what else they do with the game as it progresses. It's a giant fuck you to big games companies who have millions of dollars to work with and then create shitty, cartoony games with crap graphics and even crapper storylines... cough Blizzard cough.

Here is my Ranger character Buttz McGee being awesome. I have a blue frog with a crown on as a pet. That's an example of something you can buy with real monies.

Usually I'm not a fan of microtransactions, but the fact that I'm enjoying this game so much really made me want to give some money back to the developers. So I was happy to buy something.

You can download and play POE for free here.

That's all for now, stay tuned to see what colour I dyed my hair (OMG WHAT COULD IT BE?) and more inane ramblings about my life.

25

I turned twenty five a week ago. It was cool. These tights made my legs look really pale. These new shoes!!!

I've been thinking about writing something to do with age and how different it feels, but I'm not sure. The past three years I've been twenty two in my mind, and now suddenly I'm twenty five. It felt kind of scary leading up to it, but now it feels normal. Kind of good? Twenty one year olds seem very young. I guess they always were.

Whatever, life continues, regardless of your feelings. It's good. It means you won't be stuck doing the same old shit forever. I feel like I've been in a rut, and it's taken a long time to get out, but I'm finally making progress. I feel like I've also given up on the 'this is the year everything's going to change' attitude. That's some hollywood bullshit. And it gets in the way of real life. In which things change slowly, and never by themselves.

If you make cakes, your life will be filled with cakes. How good is that?! And I don't mean that as some cheesy metaphor for the cakes of life. I mean actual delicious cakes. The ones above were made by my friends, and they were coconut cakes. The best.