Pacific Rim makes me very happy

Finally got around to seeing Pacific Rim. It was really refreshing. I was actually invested in the action sequences, which hasn’t happened to me in a while. Action sequences are more impressive than they have ever been and should be really exciting but I end up bored and praying for them to end. But in Pacific Rim it feels like there’s actual stakes, and you care about what’s happening, and even though the level of destruction is pretty epic it feels appropriate and there’s little touches that show that the chaps all care about their job of defending the cities, and there’s actual weight to the physics and it’s really exciting when a giant robot punches the space dinosaur! Most of my entertainment came from the armour the jaeger pilots wear is virtually identical to the armour in Mass Effect. And actually all of the apocalypse weary put me very much in mind of Mass Effect 2 and 3. There’s a couple of Serbian pilots (and now I look them up, their names are Kaidanovsky… Coincidence?), who pilot a big heavy-hitting brute of a jaeger, and the chap particularly looks like he could be a krogan. It did also, through happy coincidence of art design, allow me to a version of ManShep I could get on board with — Idris Elba as Commander Shepard. ‘Twould be awesome to be sure. I assume that they knew what they were doing with the armour design because of course GLaDOS is in the film.
In the meanwhile I have been continuing with the 365 doodle. So some catch-up…

• 14
• 15
• 16
• 17
• 18
• 19
• 20

Ow I ate pancakes.

Indeed today I made big fat fluffy pancakes and ate the whole batch and now I feel awful. Managed to leave my phone in Oxford over the weekend, which was super clever of me. But while I was there we managed to pick out a coat for @philsi (did not however manage to figure out why it had six zips) and I did do 365 doodle no.11!

This may well be a combination of drawing lots of cutesy animal designs while having Poirot on constantly. They had a marathon over the weekend. Lush.
And today my net profit is:

I have discovered in the course of going through animals by alphabet that if I am dissatisfied with a cutesy animal design I can add a bowler hat or similar, wherein I am satisfied. And I suppose I shall delegate the 365 doodle no. 12:

And no. 13:

And I’m very pleased that my brother @ohnomoogle deigned to reply to my little bait with a quick doodle of his Dragon Age Origins Warden, who isn’t canon at all.
Though as I understand it, if there is no Origins save imported, Dragon Age 2 assumes the Warden is a Dalish elf. So I’m slightly more canon. Pretty and pointy-eared, baby.

Marine animals in ice cream colours with letters of the alphabet

So I managed to colour two of my endeavours today. Sort of. I might touch up the line work a little bit. I couldn’t decide whether to break out the black pencil, which is the overwhelming concern with colouring the zebra.


Also my friend @pandalion has started a doodle-a-day affair thing, and because I’m a pathetic loser I decided I’d join in. I had some catching up to do, so as of today I am up to no. 9, which was mainly aimed at my brother @ohnomoogle. Because of course the canon Warden from Dragon Age is an elven mage and most certainly not a casteless dwarf. Except it isn’t.

Unfortunately that hairdo is not actually available in the game. Dragon Age Origins is possibly my favourite game ever. I am close now to racking up thousands of hours of playtime, I adore it. It answers all of my filthy self-insertion fantasy itches, except for the hairdos. If they could make the hair in Dragon Age as lovely and shiny and pretty as the hair in the latest instalments in the Final Fantasy series then it would be completely perfect. Even if they didn’t fix the combat so it wasn’t so boring.
When I mentioned to friends that “I’m playing Dragon Age!”, they would reply, “Do you actually mean you’re cheating your way through the rubbish combat in order to enjoy the witty dialogue, compelling characters and rigorously constructed universe?”, and I would say, “YES.”

And I sort of know the alphabet

Today, on my to-do list of things to assemble in order to be taken seriously as a designer, I have primarily been drawing letters of the alphabet. This is in order to prove I can read because literacy is a very desirable quality, and while I was there I thought I might as well draw some animals with them.


Those are the ones I’m sort of pleased with so far and have thus made it through to the next round wherein they must continue to retain my favour after I have coloured them. I managed line work for a few others as well but I might wait a day or two and see if I still like them enough then.
Oh and going through my pad unearthed a robot I drew instead of the dog character sheet I was supposed to be doing.

Raaaaarrrr.

Zut! Les Mangemorts chassent Harry Potter et ses amis!

So I am supposed to be learning about JavaScript today. I’m up to functions now!

But instead I went and read up about different translations of Harry Potter! And it was fun! I’m afraid I’m rather a sucker for etymology and languages and such, and I just love this sort of thing. I didn’t read through every single thing — leant towards French, because I can sort of speak it, and Italian because between choral singing and being a classically trained singer I can fathom a teeny weeny bit of Italian. Any German I learned from Goethe, which I’m told is both the best and also the worst possible way to learn the language. Or something. Anyway! Learned lots of interesting things:

• Slytherin in French is Serpentard. That makes me giggle.
• When my brother and I first read the books, we pronounced Hermione’s name her-mee-own. Our parents find this hilarious. But that is how the French pronounce it. And in Dutch her name is Hermelien Griffel, which I find very lovely.
• There’s a few very sweet straightforward translations of names. Like Arnold Peasegood (I’m afraid I don’t remember the character) is Arnold Bondupois in French. Death Eaters in French are Mangemorts, which I cannot imagine has the same menace. Also Nick Quasi-Sans-Tête. That makes me giggle.
• In most cases, ‘Deathly Hallows’ is translated as either the gifts of death or the relics of death. Except in Danish, where it’s Deathly Regalia, which sounds rather fun.
• Speaking of book titles, Harry Potter e il Principe Mezzosangue. That makes me giggle.
• Quaffle is translated in Italian as ‘pluffa’. Seriously, seriously cute.
• Also in Italian, Quirrel’s name is Raptor, which seems rather spoiler-y to me. It isn’t dinosaur as I first thought though — it’s bird of prey, which is more spoiler-y to be honest.
• Cornelius Fudge is a genius name of course. In Italian it’s Cornelius Caramell, and in Finnish it’s Cornelius Toffee.
• Translations of He Who Must Not Be Named are very cool. They’re mostly straightforward, but in Irish it’s Mac-an-Té-Úd-Eile, which I understand means Son of the Other One, or something to that effect. Maybe like how part of Altair’s name (Assassin’s Creed) means Son of None?
• Translations of Tom Riddle’s name are interesting because it has to be an anagram of ‘I am Lord Voldemort’ or similar. This means that Voldemort’s middle name in French is Elvis. I didn’t think there was anything sillier than Marvolo but I see now I was wrong. So in French Tom Elvis Jedusor –> Je suis Voldemort (Jedusor is pronounced like jeu du sort, meaning game of fate, a.k.a. riddle of fate); in Hungarian Tom Rowle Denem –> Nevem Voldemort (the W becomes two Vs); and in German, very to the point, Tom Vorlost Riddle –> IST VOLDEMORT.

The lists can be found here.

And back to JavaScript. Pffffff…