Pencil > sword

That's what I'm listening to at the moment. My mum copied some of her CDs to iTunes on her work computer, which I used to back up my collection. This is the music of my childhood - maybe not this exact song, they all sound the same to me. It evokes lazy summer Sundays at home, just mum and dad and I pottering around the house. I never listen to this stuff of my own accord but I'm always tickled when it comes up on random.

Two things have sort of rocked my world lately. First, I decided I'm learning to draw. Came across some excellent sites that say that anyone can draw and I figure it's just a perceptual and motor skill that needs to be practised. Talent schmalent. We shall see if my decidedly unvisual brain (see also: total inabilty to read a map or navigate any of the three cities I call home) can get the hang of it. There are these classic drawing texts available online by Andrew Loomis - oldschool but awesome. With the "Fun with a Pencil" one, you start drawing decent-looking cartoons within the first five minutes so tis very positively reinforcing. Just started last night and already it's changing the way I see things. Suddenly the view from my window is no longer just of my grungy neighbour's yard, but made of shapes. The sky is divided by the vertical lines of my Venetians, intersected at right angles by power lines. The best thing is that it's a hobby that only requires a piece of paper and pencil, superbueno. Slightly less involved than hang-gliding and less risk of gruesome death by gravity. Quite a bonus.

The other thing is mind mapping. I've always pooh-pooh'd it because it's so messy and imprecise. In Year 10 our teacher made us do essay brainstorming with spider maps and it was torture. I told her I think linearly and in hierarchies (internal: LIKE A RATIONAL PERSON) and she said she knew, I was too boxed in, that's why I had to try and EXPAND MY MIND and I said yes yes ma'am (internal: feh, BA hippies). But now I find they're actually useful, and more accurately reflect how people think. Sooo...Ms Tulk / BA hippies 1, moi 0.

La vie est spiffy at the moment. Exams done, nice weather, clean clothes and room, food in the house. Ahhhh. MedBall was...interesting. Good food and far too much good drink. Too much = 4 in 9 hours, stupid acetaldehyde dehydrogenase. Maybe those puritans are onto something. A firstie had to be ambulanced because of alcohol poisoning and we saw a drunk girl bashing up her boyfriend. She tried to steal our cab, but the cabbie was on our side- not knowing that moments earlier, my friend and I were plotting what to do if I had to puke (window? move my stuff to her bag and chuck in mine? luckily, neither plan had to be tested). Heh.

Oy, another pointless post. Can't give you a nice dovetail ending all the time peoples. Learn to draw is the point maybe.