Dusk

Bellydance goes well, on 25th there will be a big party, many of the girls will be dancing, and clarieberry and me will be dancing too. I'm very looking forward to it. Got new earrings, very jingly;-)
Been to Stock House, got two metres of light blue satin to make harem pants and little top for the party. I wanna decorate it with golden and silver beads if I have time, as my jewels are both silver and golden, so I wanna bring it all to accordance.
On 24th will also be xanalith's party with Dr Who theme, and I need to make Leela's costume, but I haven't started yet... Oh well, it's not that much of a costume to make;-))) I wanna wear it with my white boots.
allova's and sven_helsong's 21st party on Saturday was great, I had a very good time. There were lots of funny moments, like when allova ran up to me and several other people to whom I was talking, and hid behind one of them screaming "Hide me from the Russian!" Me got puzzled;-) Then found she was running from xepera_xeper who tried to pull her ears, that's a Russian birthday custom. Eventually he got her, and then had to run from Tigger who chased him all around and was generally very scary. It's nice to have a man who can protect your honour *sigh*. Live music by Amplitude, the band from 2014, was great. I notice I use quite a lot of bellydance moves while dancing with modern music, it's not all about belly;-) Cake was huge and very yummy. And ten people fitting into little children house in the kindergarten was just dodgy, very dodgy.
I'm officially out of Auckland Sword and Shield now, talked to Chief_Instructor today. Will not be coming to the end of the year feast neither, as suddenly found it's a Nightmare Circle weekend, alas. I'll keep doing the secretary stuff till the AGM so will be coming to committee meetings, and then will pass it on to someone and quit completely. Still, have no intentions to leave events like NAAMA and Easter Camp, it's fun, even though I'm a poor fighter *sigh*, but it's not all about fighting.
I'll be at St Cath on Saturday (one day only), so slothphil and other people from outside of Auckland, I'll see you there!
Also planning to be at Mistletoe's party on 7th, she said come as your favourite fantasy creature, here it is, my chance to wear the ears again!
And then there will be Nightmare Circle, and I'll be crewing, yay!
And then there will be Christmas and the 3 weeks break, and lots of sleep and free time!
Life is good.
Now I'll go buy some oranges, have food, and take my antibiotic, as I'm still fighting the virus.
*happy hugs to everyone*

I think I start understanding forgiveness.
Maybe I'm not yet hopeless from the position of spiritual self-improvement.
Feels good.

Friday night I crawled home so very happy it's weekend at last (and now it's over, *sob*!), and I got kinda sleep.

On Saturday the photosession with adamww didn't happen as burningsol couldn't come, so we postponed it. At 1.45 I left home to go see starfirenz, and the bloody bus was 15 minutes late, and then I got so very lost very close to her place because I forgot I have to make one more turn and was walking around the wrong street, and couldn't even text starfirenz because I have no credit left on my mobile. Eventually I got there, and we went for a nice walk to the One Tree Hill domain, where we saw lots of sheep and very cute and bouncy little lambs *squee*, they were jumping all around *squee*, and they were so very funny! *squee-squee-squee*
I watched "Angel", and I think I really like Angelus. He's so bloody sexy.
I also read a bit of "Petshop of Horrors" manga, and I think I really like Count D. He's so bloody cute.
Did some sewing. After long planning and thinking I have at last understood how to make those 17th century beautiful sleeves. I have 3.5 sleeves left to make, and 2 of them are not for me, so I'm gonna be very-very nervous about the right length. But I like sewing, it's one of those things where I just enjoy the process.

The other enjoyable process is eating chocolate. I've allowed myself to spend several dollars again for my favourite Hazelnut Whittakers. I just love it so much;-)

Been to S&S today, though I didn't train much this time, but nevertheless it was a good one. I saw a white lily and some other cute flowers. Had a nice talk to a friend, and that has at least partly decreased some of my worries. At least the thing that was bothering me for almost a year doesn't look that terrible now. Troubles are sometimes not that scary as they look like, I do know it, I just sometimes need to be reminded. Same about people.

And now I'm gonna do some more sewing, eat my chocolate, watch more "Angel", and try to go to bed early - something I almost never succeed in, but keep trying. Is there any way at all to make yourself to go to bed at, like, 10pm, or at least 11?

*fluffy hugs*

P.S. NZLARPS AGM tomorrow... They said you can ask the GMs questions, and I remember I have some question to ask, but I can't remember exactly what it is I'm going to ask...

A comment from cat_i_th_adage made me think: what if I add a bunch of people to my F-list  whom I don't know in real life, but they are writers whose books I really-really love?
I read them in online libraries. I read them a lot and I love them. Very much.
I like reading what they write in their LJs too. It's interesting.
So why not add them here? Really, why not?
Ah, by the way - they are all Russians;-)))
Though if I found LJs of people who write in other languages and I like what they write - I would add them too.
Anyone knows if Robert Jordan has an LJ?
Or you know other writers, especially of fiction and fantasy, who have LJs?
P.S. And on top of the Russian writers list will be the author of "Night Watch" trilogy... He's actually the most popular LJ-user in Russian part of LJ.

Just added another friend, and this time it was a long perverted way to add him.
In fact, I saw him posting in IC thread first and thought he has a cool nickname.
Then I saw pictures from the game and so was able to identify the guy, like "Hold on, I know him!"
Then I noticed that KAOS emails sent by him have same name as he used at forum.
Then I was posting comment to tzadik_mossad's comment and reading what he wrote I suddenly realized that the name that guy used was actually somewhere in someone's F-list!
Yes, I have a very good memory that sometimes can suddenly give me the details that I didn't even know are kept there;-)))
So I've got one more friend now, and I'll go and comment something in his LJ to make myself visible. Especially minding the comment to that post will make lots of sense. I'm almost unable to make senseless comments, they must have sense at least for me if not for others *sigh*.
I'm generally very shy.
I wonder how many people here will believe it after me being so very naughty yesterday?
In fact, I even marked yesterday in my wallplanner with red as "Naughty Day!".
I need to add this as a tag

*fluffy hugs*

From discussion in the previous post  I came to thinking how the actual friending happens.

In my own case it's usually quite easy, as I don't mind to friend new people. Two main reasons for friending are:
1) I know you personally
2) I like what you posted

Does not need to be both of those, can be just one. I don't need to meet you very often offline, and I don't need to read a lot of your posts to decide I wanna friend you.

In fact, with people whom I don't know personally it's usually one comment somewhere - in my own journal or in someone else's - that makes me interested. Then I go to have a look at that person's LJ, including Profile;-))) Pay particular attention to Interests and Friends. And avatars;-))) Then in most of cases click on "Add to Friends" button.

The idea is that if that person once wrote something I liked - they may do it again, and I wanna see;-)))

I don't expect people whom I friended to friend me back - because they may have other opinion on friending. But when they do friend me - I get very happy *squee*, I feel loved.
If someone friended me I'll sooner or later notice it (from time to time I look through my profile) and will most possibly friend back. Still, same criteria as described above apply.

With offline friends it's easier: if I know you - I'll most probably friend you;-)))

Oh, and there is one more option, though I don't use it often: I search through friends' profiles and sometimes through Diatribe profiles to see if there is anyone whom I know and who has an LJ - but is not yet in my F-list

I wonder how others do it. If you don't wanna say - then don't *blush*, but maybe you wanna share *curious-curious*

P.S. Hm, I actually do it a lot - ask people on their opinions using the word "share" - but that's how English works, ne?;-)))

Found an interesting thing. I have some people in my Friends list who did not friend me back. If I friended them that means I wanna read them - and so I read, but the fact that they didn't friend me back holds me from commenting. It's like "They didn't friend me so they are not interested in me, how can I intrude into their space with my comments?"

The terrible thing about that ecard website I use is that they have most of card romantic-love-oriented. So when you go and choose a nice card for someone who is your good friend and family member, then get in to see the actual card - you can find intimate details there that will definitely indicate you've chosen wrong card;-))))))))))))

But nevertheless, they have lots of really nice cards. However, maybe you people know other good sites with cards? I like sending cards so would be interested to have a look if you can advise something you think is nice.

*thankful hugs*

Today I had a very nice evening. stephanie_pegg and me went to see "Die Hard 4", it's such a very cool movie! And after it we had nice hot chocolate with very berry cheesecake, and then walked around the Borders books, and then just around the streets.
It's so very nice, and I feel very-very happy! Thank you stephanie_pegg! *hugs*

I suddenly felt a wish to check the old Mordavia forum where I first time roleplayed online. That was quite funny, to see beginning of my roleplaying;-)))
adamww asked me if I wanna play online a bit as it was some time before my first larp, and starfirenz came to his inn as a spice merchant, so he thought it would be logical for an alchemist to talk to her. Naive young me thought it'll be just a nice conversation of two nice ladies.

Mua-ha-ha.

Well, the starfirenz part was nice indeed, and me was nice back. But I surprisingly found there was some action going on around too...
adamww himself was there as Boris, the human who hated elves, and he was staring at us making us nervous. Then kiwifruitbat came in as a completely drunk fairy Die Fledermaus, a very shocking character for a person like me;-))) He came up to Myri (starfirenz's character) and me and said "So... either o' you two hu'ans been wit a war hero?" I didn't understand a single word in this phrase and PMed to starfirenz "What did he say?" She explained;-))) I tried to play a cold angry elf, Die Fledermaus kept being naughty, I suggested he goes find a barrel of a cold water and ducks his head into it. He took it as a challenge and suggested we meet two months later after full moon for an insult competition. I suggested he doesn't walk around in full moon as he can be eaten by a werewolf, and then we'll have to deal with a drunk werewolf which would be very upsetting.

Then Megilindir (adamww's character and my character's lord) came in. It was kinda strange to read how I talked to him, when he asked if I'd seen his sword, and I gave it to him (kept it next to me all the time). In reality, I wouldn't let my lord to walk around without me, and if I knew he's walking around with no me and no sword I would have already been shaking up the city looking for him;-))) And then my phrase "a slight anxiety reflects on her face, but then she obviously decides that her main object is to obey her lord's wishes" when I watch my lord leaving the inn sounds just weird. Well, the "You will NOT go there!" thing when pulling him back away from the zombies happened much later, as well as him escaping from inn and me following him being not seen. His expression when he at last noticed me was priceless.

In her pm starfirenz also told me that Trainer_guy's character, Carlyn, the captain of the guard, was couple of tables away so he could do something interesting if Die Fledermaus does something we don't like. Well, Die Fledermaus quickly escaped when Megilindir appeared, "running away, bumping into everything on his way", and the next thing he did was bumping into Carlyn's table and knocking his hot coffee over him. And that was not the only thing he did;-) What he got for it was "two hours in the stocks... and make sure there is a big bucket of rotten fruit next to him". Since Die Fledermaus kept being naughty  "the sound of rotten fruit thrown grows more frequent".

That was fun. I hope I'll happen to do more online roleplaying, right now there is some going on 2014 forum, but I just can't find what I would wanna play there... I hope we'll get to do it in St Wolfgang maybe, after the first game, when it all settles a bit.

Oh dear, the game starts tomorrow! Aaaahhh!

Caring about others only makes sense if you take care of yourself too.
If you have no happiness - you can't share it.
If you can't enjoy life - you can't teach others to do it.
Doing something because you are told so and doing something because you want it are two very different things. Even if the thing itself is the same in both cases.
Take care of yourself. I want you to be in this world and be happy.
Take care of others if you want to.
*hugs and blessings*

Goodness knows what those memes are, I probably need to make a separate post asking questions about LJ etiquette which I'm so completely unfamiliar with.

I saw this thingy in starfirenz' LJ and liked it, so I grabbed it. Hopefully by doing that I didn't break anu rules;-(

LJ Titling Meme

1. My username is _____ because ____.
2. My journal is titled ____ because ____.
3. My subtitle is ____ because ____.
4. My friends page is called ____ because ____.
5. My default userpic is ____ because ____.


Hmm...

My username is "elven_alchemist" because my first larp character was an Elf and an Alchemist, and I'm generally very fond of Elves and larps;-)

My journal is titled "Duskbird" because this is how dariyan said she sees me, and I liked that;-)

My subtitle is "I live in Darkness" because this is how I currently feel.

My friend page is called "Dark Side around" because I'm a Sith Apprentice in training, so I'm learning to see the Dark Side everywhere.
(Note: Dark Side is not necessarily something bad, and to see it is not bad at all anyway, so don't think I'm weird to my friends;-)))))

My default userpic is Agatsuma Soubi from "Loveless" anime, because he's cute;-))) I think it might represent the moment when he says "I'm not a pervert". Maybe I should add this phrase to the pic?
All my current userpics are from anime because I am a big anime fan. "Loveless" is one of the cutests;-))

In fact, all those things are soon to be changed apart from the username. I change them from time to time, as well as LJ layout, all depending on how I currently feel.

P.S. Oh well, and now after filling this the wish to change suddenly increased...

Flist is growing. Lovely slothphil gave me push to one more LJ direction. And I'm actually planning to go other ways too.

But WoT is not much in LJ. Pity, ne?
Re-read "New Spring". Still like Suan. She's cool.

AUMG meeting yesterday:
Alchemist (to the_ginger_cat):Hug?
the_ginger_cat: Hug! (hugs) Ah, you are so cold (strongly presses Alchemist to her bosom) You are my ice bottle!
Alchemist (suffocating): You'll break my neck, eh... I'm a what?
the_ginger_cat (enthusiastic): You are a refrigerator!
Alchemist (shocked): I'M A WHAT?
the_ginger_cat: You are cool!
Alchemist: Hmm... ok.

(neck was hurting a bit after that;-))))

Will be growing the flist more, but the question is - how to find time to read fpage completely and reply to all? I always read other comments before making my own, plus English is still not my first language.
But I'm improving.

Maybe this is the reason why baka me decided to come back to learning French.
But no time for that one anyway, meh...

It was great. Really, really great.
I enjoyed it very much.

gryphon_nz has given me a ride, and we came to the camp when it was still light, so we set up the tent in convenient conditions. Our silent friend arrived right after that, very squashed (the Roman has managed to fit 4 people into his car), she was staying with me. On the way back Gryphon gave her a ride too so she didn't get squashed again.

The weather was fine, very warm, sunny, clear sky, very-very lovely.

That was my first fighting event, so I got my first inter-club battle experience. I found that I enjoy it much more than I could expect, and from the inside of the battle it doesn't look as scary as from outside. I wonder why.

It took me a bit of time to understand what to do, but then I was ok. And I found that fighting again spears can be managed even with short weapon like dagger, it just depends on how fast you move. (Note in diary: increase the speed of movements by the time of Labour weekend).

Now I have bruises all over my body, and they bloody hurt with every move. Plus I got a spear strike to the right hand, between the thumb and the next finger. Ravens said that was the worst injury of the weekend. Luckily it was just a strike with a bit of blood, and I got all possible treatment immediately. Now the bruise is getting blue and visible, it takes half of the hand on the outer side and continues to the inside part. I'm trying not to touch it at all, because when touched it hurts, and when touched uncarefully it hurts like hell. I'm gonna make chainmail gloves. And my helmet is very good.

My hand got tired after some time of fighting with sword, so I'm thinking more and more about case of daggers... (Note in diary: learn case daggers fighting).

The food was nice, the people were nice, everything was very fun.
Though there was a lot of bawdy stuff involved as well, of course;-))

I've met cat_i_th_adage whom I haven't seen for a long time, that was so nice to see her again! She sang a Volga Birthday Song for me, and we shared lots of hugs. Yay!

The Roman got knighted, I've been one of his attendants (the other was our silent friend). I'm very honoured by this.

I took some photos so I need to get them from the camera and upload. This time there are very few of them, maybe about a hundred for the whole week-end.

*hugs*

Grabbed from alphadsnz_fb

"If you woke up and I was in bed with you, what would be your first thought?"

Post your reply, then post this in your LJ and find out what my answer would be.

Things sometime look really terrible and depressing, especially if you have recently been depressed and upset.
However, one thing I just found recently is that socializing tends to make you feel better.

And I think it's stupid to try to stay away from it. Old habits must be destroyed if they are not of use any more.

So tell me a happy birthday now.

The actual thing will happen at 10.30.am Moscow time, which would make it 6.30.pm in Auckland. This time most of you will be not at work any more, so you can even have a drink for me;-)))

For those who's wondering - I'm turning 26.

Gosh, nine more hours to go...

The observations of the last several days/weeks/months/years have led me to two conclusions:

Conclusion 1: Kiwis are a very beautiful nation. You hear me, people? YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!!!
It's not a bias or something, it's just what I see around.

Conclusion 2: Kiwis like Russians. That's another thing I see around.

Now, for those of you who are particularly dodgy and dirty-minded (approximately 95% of those whom I know;-))):

Conclusion 1 and conclusion 2 have NO CONNECTION between them.
They just happened to appear together.

I've been to Takapuna Beach yesterday (which definitely improved my health condition) and watched the swimming competition that started 6.30. A whole crowd of people in those black suits ran into the water all together.
I've only once swum in NZ. Big thanks to my lord. He had so much fun when I fell into the water completely.
I think he's planning something similar this year too...