Pack, Pack, Packing....

So... first blog from Finland. I have been here two weeks now and have been having a pretty awesome time. Also this particular post will most likely be somewhat random and rambling.

It's currently heading towards 3am and I still haven't finished packing for my trip to Estonia. I have to be on a bus at 6am to Helsinki, and then catch the boat from there at 10am.... really should go pack. After this blog I will.

So two weeks in Finland and I was met at the airport by two of my friends. Between them they had one sign and multiple chocolate bars- to get me started. I love Fazer chocolate. We had lunch and then I continued my journey onwards.

When I finally got off the bus in Turku I was greeted by two more friends. One is the friend I am currently staying with and the other is a German friend who I met when she was doing exchange at the same time as me. They also greeted me with chocolate and a sign. I love my friends!

I attended Ruisrock music festival which was three days of amazing fun and I got to catch up with a few more friends at that and see plenty of awesome bands. Still not sure how Snoop Dog fits into a rock festival though.

Since Ruisrock I have caught up with more friends, eaten plenty of chocolate, done a bit of shopping, and generally been relaxing and having fun.

Now onto more packing and Estonia! I figure I don't need sleep tonight... I have plenty of time to sleep on the bus, boat and in the car today...

~~ Random Logic ~~

Oh god, oh god, we're all going to die...

Well not really... I just have that particular line from Firefly stuck in my head at the moment.

So today marks 7 days left until I leave this sunburnt country for a land of ice and snow. I finished work a week ago now and have been packing frantically to move out of where I'm living. 4 days of the last week have been spent essentially in transit to and from where my belongings are being stored. My dad and brother spent today moving another load.

All that's left to move now are basically the things I will be taking with me to Finland.

As I started packing my suitcase today it kind of hit me what I am doing. This is a major move. It's a one way ticket. It's the opportunity of a lifetime. I'm freaking excited!

But at the same time I'm kinda scared.

I won't be able to just call my parents up at any time or even just jump on a bus to go visit them. I won't be able to just call up some of my best friends and ask them if they want to hang out and catch a movie or anything like that.

And then I balance it against what I am doing.

I am moving to a country I love.

I am going to be doing something that 10 years ago wouldn't have even crossed my mind.

I am going to be catching up with friends  haven't seen in 5 years. I can call them up if I want to hang out.

I am putting myself out there.

Talking to a friend tonight I asked her if she felt the same thing when she moved to the centre of Australia for a job. She did, but she settled and I know she loves what she does. I guess it's just a matter of getting settled into my job in Finland and back into the country as well. I guess the best thing about it is that I will be in an area that whilst I am not entirely familiar with it, I am familiar with the region and I have friends around who can help me if I need it and who I can just chill with if I need it.

I guess the biggest motivation behind all of this move is the fact that I felt a little bit stuck in a rut. I love Australia for sure, and I have made so many amazing friends here over the past couple of years, but it's something beyond friends and family. I have had a couple of jobs since I finished high school and my youth exchange. I never seem to stick in the same kind of industry either. The only constant is that all jobs have been administration based... something which I do not want to be doing for the rest of my life unless it is in a position that I absolutely love and adore.

I'm looking forward to this more than it scares me and I think that is the best thing possible when all is said and done. I know I will have an amazing time and the experience of a lifetime.

So I will go back to packing secure in the thought that life goes nowhere unless one is willing to a take a chance, and we are all in charge of our own future even when it seems like we aren't.


~~Random Logic~~

Sydnova 2012!

IT'S SYDNOVA TIME ONCE MORE!

For many people in Australia who are massive fans of science fiction, fantasy, anime, comics, and various other fandoms that fall under the general pop-culture banner, Supanova Pop Culture Convention is the go-to event of the year. It travels around and 5-6 of the major cities/population centres of Australia get a taste of Supanova throughout the year.

For those that don't know what Supanova is- It is basically an entire weekend(Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday) devoted to anything you would commonly attribute to geeks. From computer games to books to movies, comics and tv shows. If it is in the category where it can get a massive following then it is generally represented. The main events of the weekend are special guest stars, with photo and autograph sessions as well as individual panels. The next major thing of the weekend is cosplay(costuming up as a favourite character from a particular fandom or even just in something original). Hundreds of people come in costume to these conventions and there is a massive cosplay competition for people who choose to cosplay and many people start planning their cosplay for the following year as soon as one convention is finished or they build on a cosplay and just improve it again and again each year.

Anyway this weekend was the weekend for Sydney Supanova... or Sydnova for short. It is probably one of the most attended of all of the Supanova events being that it is in the centre of Sydney and people do travel from far and wide to attend, even interstate.

I attended Sydnova for the third year in a row this year. I've only ever attended one day of the event but have been getting more and more into the spirit each year. The first year I went as myself, last year I went as a pirate in a generic pirate costume I bought at a costume shop, and this year... this year I went as Vala Mal Doran from Stargate SG-1.

It started with a friend introducing me to someone via Facebook... we got talking about Stargate and Supanova and then I mentioned I was thinking of going as a Stargate character. Someone else chimed in saying I should go as Vala. I agreed as long as someone went as Daniel Jackson and then someone volunteered to make the costume for me and we went from there. This occured back in March. So over the past few months the costume was in the works and I got more and more excited. It was made without using any specific costume patterns, she basically created it from scratch with the dvd's for reference.

It turned out fantastically! She is a genius!

I was recognised by a few different people over the course of the day and took many photos... mostly with Star Wars cosplayers(Darth Vader photobombed my photo with the Emperor!) and I guess that was mostly by choice of my own. I am a self confessed Star Wars fan. There was a harem of Slave Leias and they were all amazing! They had made their costumes from scratch and planned it out together and they had heaps and heaps of attention. Somehow I got roped into a whole bunch of photos (not that I am complaining) and it was pretty entertaining.

The other big thing for me this year was getting some of my hundreds of books signed by their authors. The 2 big drawcards to the Dymock's stand this year were Christopher Paolini who wrote the Eragon series and Matthew Reilly who has written several series including Scarecrow and Seven Ancient Wonders. The other author drawcard for me was Garth Nix who is the author of the Old Kingdom Trilogy of Sabriel, Lirael and Abhorsen.

I waited in line for about an hour to get 4 of my Matthew Reilly books signed, I accidentally left one at home meaning I now have only one of his books which remains unsigned. I also managed to get a photo with him and some of the Slave Leia harem later on in the day.

I got my brother's Eragon series signed for him and then I got my own Garth Nix novels signed as well. I have been wanting to get a chance to meet Garth Nix for several years now but somehow any book signing he has had in Sydney has always been when I haven't known or been able to attend if I have known. It was awesome and he was a really nice guy. I also went to his and Matthew Reilly's panels which were both fairly interesting. Garth Nix certainly had some good advice for budding authors.

There is only one thing that threw me off today. I was on my way home and at one of the train stations when a guy asked if he could get a pic of me. I said sure and then he decided to tell me I was pretty 'hot' for a cosplayer... I am not sure what world he is living on or maybe I am just modest but I definitely think he may not have been seeing the same people I saw at Sydnova today... good looks are not lacking in the female cosplayers, and many of them are much better looking than myself!

Overall the day was fantastic, and fun. Probably went the quickest of any of the Sydnova days I have attended thus far and definitely something I look forward to in the future. In the meantime I will keep an eye out for any photos lurking about of myself from this year. I know there are sure to be quite a few with the Leia harem... it's just a matter of tracking them down.

~~Random Logic~~

Goodreads

So I'm packing my books, and one night I decide I will just randomly browse the Market on my android phone... and I discovered the Goodreads app... I was already a member on there from earlier this year so I decided why not download it.

Then I discovered it has a barcode reader on it. YAY! Now I can just scan my books onto my shelves on the site... unfortunately I'd already packed 4 boxes or so. Now I'm unpacking just to scan and repack. I think I'm a sucker for punishment.

So here's to the next few weeks of scanning and packing the hundreds of books I own into Goodreads.

~~ Random Logic ~~

Let's Talk About [Books], Baby!

Books! LET'S TALK ABOUT BOOKS!

I've posted before about books... including my long delayed 30 Day Book Challenge posts... I really need to get up to date on those... woops!(it's even worse because I do have some typed up already), but today I am bringing up the topic of books for a different reason.

Today I am packing- my books that is. The hundreds of books with thousands of pages between them are going into storage because I will be moving overseas for a while. As a result all of my books(with the exception of 5- my friends put a limit on how many books I may take with me) will be boxed up and placed in storage in my parents garage. 

It's not so much the packing of the books that makes it difficult. I love my books but I have had to pack them before so that I could move- It is the fact that I will not be accessing these books for a significant period of time, and therein lies the problem.

With previous moves, I have just packed the books into boxes, got on with it, moved and unpacked. As such the only order in packing my books came as a matter of:

- what size books fit effectively in this size box?

   and

- How can I minimise the space required for storage.

This time my problem is how to effectively pack these books in such a manner that if I decide I really want to take a particular book with me and I have packed it away, I can quickly locate it and access it. I am also trying to keep my book series together. I read a lot of series and am fans of particular authors work whether as part of a series or otherwise, as such I have probably 10+ authors where I have 5 or more books by that author. Not to mention the few such as Christine Feehan, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Clive Cussler, John Marsden, Tamora Pierce, and Patricia Cornwell of whose books combined could fill a box alone. This makes it a challenge to pack my books, especially when I have both hardcovers as well as soft covers for a few of these authors.

As such I have come up with a plan. 

- I will label boxes(I never label boxes) with the authors name

- I will put as many series in a box as possible in order to minimise the amoutn of boxes I may find myself raiding in the next 5 weeks.

- I will try to leave certain books until last. If not because I want to take them with me, but because Garth Nix and Matthew Reilly are both going to be at Supanova this June and I haven't got all my Matthew Reilly books signed or any of my Garth Nix books signed.

In the meantime I shall drink my Kossu and try to not get to too depressed over the packing away of books, after all- It's just temporary and it's a sign of change in my life. Bring on Finland!

~~Random Logic~~

Castle Season 4 Finale Time!

So today was the much awaited, highly anticipated, finale of season 4 of Castle. The episode is titled Always and there has been much speculation amongst fans about this episode over the past few weeks.... Maybe even months. And it ends what has proven to be a season that has left many on edge at various stages throughout.

---- WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW ----

Season 4 started with Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) being rushed into surgery after having been shot in the season 3 finale. Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) had ended that season for us with the three words we had been wanting to hear him say to Beckett forever. He told her he loved her as she lay bleeding on the ground. She later told him she didn't remember anything about being shot and we find out she did indeed know.

Season 4 was full of tension. There were many moments where I, and I'm sure other fans thought that Beckett would reveal her feelings to Castle (4x07: Cops and Robbers) only to be cut off or distracted by something else. But we had to wait, and finally in this finale, we get what we have been waiting for.

This episode had, I think, some of the most brilliant acting I have seen throughout the entire series. Whilst Stana Katic and Nathan Fillion never fail to deliver in any episode, it will be hard to top this most recent one. We have in impassioned declaration by Fillion as Castle openly declares his love for Beckett and begs her not to pursue the current case, a case which has ties back to her own shooting as well as the murder of her mother. His secrets are revealed and she shoots him down. He declares that he is walking away, refusing to watch her let herself be killed. Both had tears in their eyes through this scene, and I must admit so did I.

We also get to see some other brilliant acting from Beckett. The confrontation between herself and the man who shot her (Tamoh Penikett), who we finally have a name and a face for, even if that name- Cole Maddox - is most likely just an alias. That showdown was great, and although his part was just small I'm looking forward to seeing him back in Season 5. The best part of that showdown however, was the end. Beckett hanging by her fingertips from a building and facing her own mortality once again as her shooter gets away. Someone calls her name, she thinks it's Castle coming, turns out it's just Ryan, and some other cops all geared up. Oh, and Captain 'Iron' Gates.

The unsuprising result of this is that Javier Esposito and Kate Beckett get put on administrative leave by the no-nonsense Gates. The suprising thing- Kate resigns.

The episode definitely ends fantastically as well. Alexis is graduating High School and giving her speech at the ceremony, this is intespersed with scenes of Kate as she packs her desk and the chilliness of the bromance gone sour between Esposito and Ryan who were at odds from the moment the case was revealed to be linked to Beckett's shooting.

I think one of my favourite parts of the ending is with Beckett sitting on the swing in the rain. You can just see her processing what has happened and where she wants to be as well as remembering the conversation with Castle in the first episode of the season where she talks about the brick wall she has built up around herself.

But by far my favourite scene and the one we have all been waiting for waiting for was the very final scene between Beckett and Castle. She turns up at his loft, soaked, and with a tear stained face to apologise and tell him she wants him. Fantastic.... and FINALLY!

So what will next season hold? I have no idea!

As things stand at the moment:

• Beckett and Castle are finally together .
• Beckett has resigned.
• Esposito is on administrative leave.
• Ryan is getting the cold shoulder from Esposito for going to Gates.
• The mysterious Mr Smith, one of Montgomery's friends, is facing the end of his blackmail on those who tried to kill Beckett.
• There is most definitely still a hit out on Beckett and she will have to face that again next season.

I do hope we get a bit more on Castle's father next season. This season touched on the fact that he may have been a CIA agent... whether there is truth in this we are yet to see. I also hope to see Beckett's mother's murder finally wrapped up. This finale has shown that while it's definitely still a driving force behind why she does what she does it is no longer the be all and end all for her. I think to drag it on for much longer would be just a little much even if all of the related episodes have been simply brilliant.

So here's to Andrew Marlowe, his brilliant creation and all those who make this show what it is. Let's hope season 5 starts off with a bang!

~~ Random Logic ~~

Joss Whedon is God!

So it's almost midnight here in Sydney, and I just got home not long ago from watching The Avengers.

This movie is BRILLIANT!

I have to say I'm not the first person to go out and watch the latest movie based off comic books or cartoons be it superhero or not. Spiderman, Superman and Batman have never really done anything for me for the most part. I've never seen a Hulk film and I hadn't seen the first Iron Man movie until the second had been and gone from the cinema. I had however watched Thor when it came out at the cinema, and then Captain America when it too came out. I enjoyed them both and the trailers for the Avengers had me wanting to see it from the first moment I saw them.

They do not disappoint.

 

Joss Whedon(Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Serenity, Dollhouse, Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog) has done amazing things with this movie. He is known for having a cult following for his tv shows, which brilliant as I, and many of his other fans think they are, always seem to get cancelled.With The Avengers he hits all the right spots. The dialogue wasn't forced, the interaction between characters was fantastic and the whole thing was just thoroughly entertaining. I posted on my facebook page he is god and had a friend comment that she read somewhere that this film is a giant "F*** YOU!" to anyone who had ever cancelled a Joss Whedon show. I would have to agree. He inserts humour without it being over the top and makes it all enjoyable. The movie is never dull and there is no over-emphasis on any one character which is something that could have happened considering the fact that you have six superheroes in one film.

This film will, I daresay, go down as having been the best film of the year. It's definitely the best one I have seen this year and probably even last year and I only hope they keep Whedon on if they make a sequel. They'd be stupid not to!

~~ Random Logic ~~