This is disgusting...

I am not a Muslim. I am not Buddhist, or Christian or Jewish. I am not atheist. Religious affiliation doesn't matter when it comes to basic human decency, and this woman was shown none. :-/

My crochet so far...

I've finished the one on the left, and the one on the right I am currently working a skirt for. 150 stitches round for 9 more rows will take foreverrrrrr. Erghhhh. Anyway, I hope to have it done by Sunday.

I started this project randomly one day because I was bored. Nothing else to do; no inclination to watch TV and definitely one of those lazy days where your brain cannot even be bothered to process words in a book. Nope. So I got out my wool box from when I was ten and decided to make something. Courtesy to Beth from By Hook, By Hand for providing such an ambitious project! Did NOT want to knit due to my last horrendous attempt at doll making when I was nine;-

Ew. Still, plaiting the hair when I'm bored out of my skull is a good time-wasting enterprise.

I decided to learn how to crochet. I watched a couple YouTube videos on how to crochet in the round and I basically figured I'd give it a go; it wasn't until I hit the halfway mark of making the doll itself that I realised the stitching was technically inside out. I decided I gave zero craps: I prefer the square stitching over the zig-zaggy ones anyway, and anything is a step up from my knitted doll. (I think I based it off Morgana from the Merlin TV series; might just give it another go.) 

I had a limited supply of wool - Browns, blues, skin colours, whites, blacks - so I decided I wanted to depart from the norm and go with white as a hair colour. I searched white haired characters up and a picture of Emilia Clarke in Entertainment Weekly came up. It was so beautiful, and I conveniently had all the colours, so I made a Daenerys Targaryen-themed doll. Might seem stupid seeing as I've never watched the show or read the books, but I certainly made sure to acquaint myself with her character through YouTube. From there I stumbled into Sansa Stark, which I've almost finished making. It's my understanding that a lot of people don't   actually like her character, but after watching a majority of her storyline (I think) I'm inclined to disagree with proclamations of her weakness. She's a little girl trapped in a game she was not raised to be part of, and is certainly too young to understand. Anyway, I love Sophie Turner (she read for City of Heavenly Fire audio) and I love her hair, so I thought I'd make another doll. I've almost finished, just got to finish her skirt off, and then the sleeves. I'm happy with the hair colour choices I made as they are both able to reflect some of my other favourite characters - Elsa and Celeana Sardothien, Tauriel and Clary Fray. :-)

After this I'll make one for my Nanna. She loves knitting and crochet, but her fingers have sorta become deformed due to a sort of twisting of the muscle from an associated medical problem (she's very vague about it), and she can't do it anymore. And she wants a doll that has blonde hair and blue eyes like me (she had an old doll restored a couple years back and I helped her pick out a wig - she was dismayed to find that blonde didn't suit the dolls skin colour at all so we went with a honey coloured one). I'll make it in time for her birthday I think.

Yeah, so that's what I'm doing to alleviate the stress of exam week. And boredom. And for fun, cuz it's pretty cool to make something all by yourself. 

I'm going to sleep now. Thanks for reading!

My first book-related post! And other random thoughts...

I had my last exam for the week today. Yay! It was Chemistry, which sucked. I studied for eight whole hours yesterday for it because I was so fucking terrified I knew nothing. Well, I got in the exam today and I think I did alright; I felt like I understood everything, so that's a bonus, I guess. Chemistry's pretty much my worst subject, yeah. Pretty sure I'm just scraping a pass. I'm finding it really hard to juggle my coursework lately - I might just drop out of Chem, you know? I've been told I don't really need it as a prerequisite, so if the exam didn't turn out well, then maybe that's what I'll do. It'll be hard though, because it's like admitting I can't do something, and I hate that feeling more than anything. Maybe it's a byproduct of the way I was raised.

Ha. My brother's being a little prick. He has this new favourite pastime where he repeatedly says "Em? Em? Hey, hey Em?" over and over in a high-pitched voice regardless of whether or not I answer him. The first few times I threw the nearest non-fatal object at him, and he'd just run away and laugh like a little girl. I try to ignore it, but it's hard! Anyone with siblings - you know that feeling where it's like, no matter what they do, your sister or brother's personality just always grates on your nerves? Is that just me? Our relationship is pretty much built on him pissing me off and me screaming at him over it. Call it unhealthy, but eh...

And woah! Look at the tangent I trailed off into! I started this post intending to do a book post. That didn't work out. I waffle on a bit, if you haven't already guessed :-). 

MY TOP FIVE FAVOURITE BOOKS/SERIES OF ALL TIME

The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling

 "You're a wizard, Harry."

Maybe this choice is a typical one, but it is by no means less valid. I love this series so much. When I was a child I didn't really feel connected to anyone. I was pretty much a loner - it got to the point where I literally read the dictionary at lunchtimes during primary school to alleviate the boredom and utter depression of being alone. Harry Potter changed that; here were a group of misfit kids who save the day and perform magic! I loved this world so much that I did projects on it, I would play pretend that I was part of the Harry Potter universe (always Hermione), and I would read the books and watch the movies over and over. These books taught me to love other books, and provided me with my ideals. I owe J.K Rowling so much.

The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare

"At least," she said, "you don't have to worry about rejection, Jace Wayland."
"Not necessarily. I turn myself down occasionally, just to keep it interesting.”

 I will admit that I didn't really think much of the first book until I hit the cliffy at the end - super pissed the movie spoiled a plot device that progressed for half the novels, but super excited about the new TV show coming out soon! I love this series. I know a lot of people thought the last three books were unnecessary and just made the series too long, but I think the last three books really established it in the adult-young-adult market. The whole Jace-Clary-Sebastian thing was pretty interesting. Sick oftentimes, yes, but it broached a sect of society that is definitely not talked about in mainstream entertainment (unless you're Jaime and Cersei Lannister). And the world building - beautiful. I really wanted to be there with them, and I totally have Clary envy. Simon and Jace and Sebastian after her?! The humour lifted the dark tones nicely too, so it wasn't a drag at all. I strongly recommend this series to anyone who hasn't read it - young-adult urban fantasy, I believe.

The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

“Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?” 

"One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.”

It just gives me all the feels. I prefer the extended editions of the movies for Lord of the Rings, but I absolutely adore the novel of The Hobbit. I really love the movies too - they all make me cry like a bitch at the end.The world-building is epic, and I just love everything about. It's another one of those series that just encompasses your entire life. I just love it so much. I love Samwise Gamgee and Bilbo Baggins the most, I think - I always love reading their parts. Love, love, love! Yeah, I love it. :-)

The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini

“Into the sky to win or die.”

I first read this series when I was ten years old. It took me a week to get through the first two books and I loved them. They were my first dragon series; I've never found any to measure up.

The Inkheart Series by Cornelia Funke

 “Books loved anyone who opened them, they gave you security and friendship and didn't ask for anything in return; they never went away, never, not even when you treated them badly. ”

Probably the series closest to my heart. I shared a bond over this series with my grade 5 teacher; she remains to this day one of my absolute favourite teachers. I fell in love with the concept of the power of words, and the way in which this story portrayed it. I love Meggie, and Dustfinger, and Resa and Mo and Elinor. The entire story was just beautiful and finishing it left me so sad, I have not picked it up to this day. Absolutely beautiful, and I recommend this series absolutely. Go. Read it now.

So, there you go. Get reading people. Next time, then!

I understand, Harry.

This is the part where I introduce myself...

Hello, I guess, if anyone ever reads this. I suppose I should tell you my name, which is Emily, and a little bit about myself, which I'll try to extend out because I have a track record of a) writing one paragraph and just giving up, and b) bragging about myself because I was such a massive snob as a child. Seriously, I've had to delete EVERYTHING off this blogging site I wrote like ten years ago because my younger self just makes me cringe. I'll be a legal adult later this year, and I'm currently in my last year of high school.

Why did I start this blog? Well, to be truthful, I'm procrastinating. I have a midterm exam tomorrow for a subject that I'm basically done studying for (religion). I had all these server issues on the internet because I was curious about what I wrote in the past regarding knitting patterns and the like, so I downloaded a new server and I got my answer - diddly squat. A string of enthusiastic posts across several blogs about "how great this will be" and "you'll learn so much from me". No, nothing useful, so I deleted them all. One look at my woefully empty blogspace page and I decided that now I'm older, I might be better at communicating.

What will I do on this space? No clue. Depends on what I'm feeling on the day I decide to update. I'm pretty bad about updating things though, so this might serve to retrain my brain from the lazy-ass habit of giving up when I can't be bothered. Chances are the posts will be nerdy. Books, television, movies, knitting, crochet, cats. Let's face it, I'm so uncool in real life you'd never remember me if you saw me on the street. Anyway - maybe you'll have posts on makeup, hair, clothing, shopping and the like. Again, it depends, doesn't it?

A little bit about myself? I'm a teenage girl. My interests span across a range of different nerdy topics, hence the title. Videogames and the like will sometimes catch my eye fleetingly, but I will emphasise here and now that I am not really a videogamer. I leave that to my friends, who are massive dorks and always call me a noob :) I'm trying to achieve the goal of an ATAR (sorta like SATs I guess) high enough to get me into medicine. The biggest thing to know about me is probably the level of seriousness in which I take my schoolwork.

My biggest problem is books. I have a helluva lot, and a tiny room to put them in. Its getting to the point where I'm thinking of putting shelving above my doorway to make room for them all. So maybe I'm a hoarder, but I'm capable of parting with shit unless its my books or something of extreme sentimental value. But yeah, I'm a compulsive book buyer. My idea of surfing the net is going onto online bookstores and adding books to my wishlist. Pretty sad, huh? Oh well, I am a pretty sad person, so no surprise. I'm also really inappropriate. I make dirty jokes about everything, which amuses me because I have a lot of gung-ho Catholic friends who cringe at the sexual undertones of a conversation with me.

I have a brother, by the name of Jake Matthew. He is almost thirteen, and he's finally hit puberty. Unfortunately, he's going through that pre-teenage phase where he does absolutely everything he can just to piss me off. Oh well, only another ten years of tolerating it and he'll settle down (please tell me I'm right??). Jokes, I love him to pieces. I have a mother and a father, and our stereotypical upper-middle class family unit lives in a cozy suburban household with one psycho rabbit and two cats. Expect a lot of posts on the cats; none on the rabbit, because when she bites it fucking hurts.

My current projects? Getting through the next two weeks. Exams, baby, woo! Finishing (starting) George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones. Convincing my strict dad that because I've read the books, I can definitely see (all of) the TV show. Finishing my current wool project, a crochet bleuette doll (that I've realised the stitching is technically inside out for, but hey - creative license!!).

Until the next time, people. Thanks for reading!