Nose Piercing

 Guess who finally got her nose pierced? I'm so ridiculously happy right now. You see, I've wanted my lip pierced for a long time, (Actually, I'd like spider bites) but my parents are vehemently opposed to that. We came to an agreement that while they wouldn't allow me to pierce my lip, they were fine with my nose. (I'll just wait till college for my lip I suppose)

We researched the piercing places around to find the best possible one. No icky mall places for me thank you. I'd rather avoid any huge, angry, infections. I don't know about other places, but here in Florida you can't get anything pierced if you're a minor without your parents permission. This place went even farther and said that you had to be 16, which I suppose shows some responsibility on their part. It was very clean and the piercer was super friendly. She went through all the steps with me and explained the entire process and you could tell she knew exactly what she was doing.

We did my ears first (I haven't had them pierced since about 3rd grade when we stupidly went to Claire's) which means I had three needles to look forward to, but in all honestly it wasn't that bad. The ears barely stung and while I can't say the nose was painless it was over very quickly.

  
I'm super happy with the result. The jewelry is a little big of course, to allow for the healing process and any swelling that might entail.  Which means that sometimes it has an unfortunate habit of twirling around and protruding out of my nostril. I can tell you it's pretty awkward sitting in public trying to adjust it while thinking "I'm not picking my nose guys. I swear." I have a screw in right now. It's not the least bit uncomfortable to me, so I think I'll stick with this type of jewelry for my studs. I've heard bad things about bones, and that L shaped ones tend to fall out, but if you have any advice please  go ahead drop me a line. However, what I really want is a ring and I have a feeling I'll be wearing that almost constantly. I'm going to go back once it's safe to change the piercing and get one.

On another note, I biked down to a little town close by with my friend yesterday. We've been there countless times, but we've never noticed the tea room. That's right, the tea room. Now, living in my area, finding an English style restaurant that serves a million kinds of tea is actually pretty hard. This is the discovery of a lifetime for me. We had tea, finger sandwiches, pastries and scones with clotted cream and jam. It was fantastic and I have a feeling I'm going to be going there very often. I mean, I can always make myself tea at home, but where's the fun in that?

And finally, here's the outfit of the day. I've got a new tie~
 

Tu Blog Me Inspira Award

I was nominated for an awrd by OddGhoulOut over at Bats in the Belfry, Cats in the Attic. Thanks so much!

 

 First, I've got to list five odd habits of mine, so here goes~

1) My books and my closet have to be organized a very certain way. The order I have them in has to be aesthetically pleasing and yet practical,  which means every time I get something new I have to do a bit of rearranging. My favorite things tend to be the easiest to reach. If anyone touches those two things and messes with the order I can get a bit snappy.

2) You know that thing Spike does with his tongue sometimes, where he puts it on the roof of his mouth when he's thinking or about to say something? Well I do that. It's not even a conscious decision and I'm not sure where I picked it up. (I don't think it's from watching all that Buffy as a child...)

3) I form severe attachments to characters from books, movies, TV shows, and comics. They become sort of real to me in my mind because of all the work their creators put into them. I love learning about their thoughts and ideas, their achievements and tragedies. There is a pattern though. I love self-destructive characters, which one way or another leads to some temporary heartache. Key examples: Dorian Gray, Loki, The Joker, The Doctor, Lestat, etc.

4) Puzzles. I love puzzles. However, if I start a puzzle I literally cannot tear myself away from it until it's finished or I feel like I'm at a good stopping point. That's why the 2000 piece puzzle of St. Basil's Cathedral has been sitting unopened in my room for a few weeks.

5) I have to draw in math class. I have to. If I don't, I can't focus on what's going on. I get so unbelievably bored staring at numbers for such a long period of time that if I'm not occupying my brain with a doodle I won't even take in all the information being spewed at me.

And now to tag some people! I'm really lazy, so I'm going to cap this at 10 bloggers instead of 15. I tried to find blogs that haven't already been tagged.

1) The Walrus Room
2) Nocturne Street
3) Graveyard Picnic
4) Dreams of Black Lace
5) The Dark Victorian
6) The Everyday Goth
7) Cobwebs and Nocturnes
8) Milking the Rolling Cow
9) Bethezda's Preoccupations
10) La Domna


And of course, now that I've done that, the obligatory outfit post for today.

30 Day Cothing Challenge~ Day 15: Your Newest Purchase

My newest purchase... with Christmas being recently it took me a few minutes to figure out if I've bought anything since then. It's a good thing I had this blog to consult because while scrolling down a few posts I saw that I'd mentioned my plan to buy a Sherlock shirt! You know, to reinforce my obsessive following of the show and actors ^^  Fandom shirts are great you guys. They're like band shirts. They help other people with the same interests spot each other and open up topics for conversation. The more obscure the band or fandom, the more to talk about. It's great!

The same day, we stopped by a thrift store that carries "vintage" clothing. I only came away with a belt (That isn't remotely vintage) because none of the really fabulous things fit me.

 And here's my outfit of the day. This is...actually sort of typical for me. A lot of people fall back on band shirts and jeans on their "lazy days" and I'm no different. Gathering the energy to put something impressive together for school every day is just too draining. Plus, again, band shirts open up topics to discuss and you get to show your support so they have some merit. To be fair, I did make the bat headband so we've got some little DIY in there.

Books with Bite: The Historian

Ok so by now we really know that I'm a sucker for a good vampire book/film. Especially if that vampire's name happens to be Lestat, the lovely Brat Prince. But I digress. Anything that references Dracula is obviously going to be snatched up by me (Bloodline for one, which I genuinely enjoyed. And reviewed! *cough*) so when I found The Historian in my school library I had to read it. It has quickly become a favorite.

Plot: The plot is beyond intricate that's for sure. A hunt for Dracula seems pretty straightforward, but all the traveling and delving into history that the respective characters do makes your head spin at times. The storyline is split into three main segments and it jumps around three characters' point-of-views. One is the daughter, who finds her father's letters and begins to learn about the tragedy that befell him as he sought Dracula. The second is of the father's history professor, who began the quest long before and gave up when he realized the danger. The third, (and the majority of the book) is the tale of the father's own long quest to find the now missing professor, uncovering deadly secrets and being hunted along the way. Unfortunately, the ending is a bit anticlimactic after all of the wonderful buildup, but everything else makes up for that.

Characters: The characters have very complex, developed personalities and I never dislike any of them (A huge bonus) The only complaint I have here is that perhaps the emotions of the characters tend to be a bit muted at times. There are exceptions, but sometimes their feelings seem sort of...detached? All the same, I liked all of the characters that you were meant to. I loved the portrayal of Dracula in particular.

Setting: Well she really nailed this one. The elaborate descriptions of every place they visited took my breath away. I felt like I was actually there experiencing things firsthand, and it definitely encouraged my interest in seeing more of Europe beyond Sweden.

Romance: Yes! A book that doesn't just focus on the romance between the characters. Don't get me wrong, I love a good romance, but I'm so sick of it being the focus of every book currently written. This was a nice change. A few small scenes, nothing huge that takes away from the wonderful vampire-tracking plot. And they're all meaningful relationships! Hurray!

Additional Details: Being a bit of a history enthusiast, all of the tidbits thrown in about various cultures and the focus on Constantinople made me squeal with delight. It's ridiculously accurate and detailed when it comes to the backgrounds of the people and cities they travel to. I learned so many things about Europe that I'd never even heard of before. Also, you hear bits of history from many different points of view. You recognize the bias some of the characters have, and can understand where it comes from. Then, there are moments where the history is told plainly, no sugar-coating, but not dehumanizing Dracula himself, as some adaptations have tended to do. Yes, he was a monster, but at some point he was very human. (We're speaking fictional vampire Dracula here) Everyone always talks about Dracula the Vampire. What about Dracula the soldier? Or Dracula the child and political hostage?

Also, this is either a bonus or a warning depending on the mood you're in, but this book is huge. Huge. I'm a really fast reader, but this took me a lot longer than normal. So if you're looking for something a bit more substantial to last you, this is the book for you.

So summary. Really good book. Completely recommended. Lots of vampires. Go read!

30 Day Clothing Challenge~ Day 14: An Outfit you Wish you Had

 An outfit I wish I had? Geez, I don't really know here to start with this one. There are so many! Not to mention, now I have to go hunt them down.

*5 minutes*

Well! Here's a decent list of a few of the outfits that have caught my fancy in the past, and were actually laying about my desktop. They've been there so long I'm not sure where I got most of them, so I'm afraid I can't credit the models on the ones I should. If you know who some of the people are, drop me a line and I'll add their name and link to something of theirs.

Obviously a clothing brand.
I covet so much of their things.

That Jacket...

Good ol' deathrock

I would kill for his jacket.
I will never have enough jackets.

This. All of it.

Jacket...

That hat is so lovely.

So as you can see there's a lot of romantic type things with a small dash of deathrock and a healthy amount of Japanese influenced fashion, specifically Gothic Aristocrat. I love all of it so much and if I had money...well, you should see my wishlist.

On a little note before I go, does anyone in the U.S. remember that Buzz Lightyear show that aired years and years ago? The other day it just popped into my head and I remembered watching it when I was little. The only reason I remembered it actually, was because someone mentioned Nosferatu and my brain made a little connection I had never gotten as a kid. My favorite character in the show was a robotic vampire. He was British and snarky and very dapper for a robot. (Really! He had a monocle!)

 And get this.

His name was NOS-4-A2.

As you can imagine, I had a bit of a giggle over that.

New Years Resolutions

Well it's that time of the year again! Normally, I don't make New Year's resolutions because I know I'll forget about them within the week and never follow through. This year though, it's going to be different. Instead of calling them resolution I'm going to think of them more as goals and I'm not going to set big, generic goals that I won't ever meet. I'm going to focus on smaller, more personal things. We'll see how many I'm able to get through by the end of the year.

• Write more. This is really important to me. A lot of times I sit down to write and get sidetracked by other things. Ignoring my writer's block instead of pushing through it is not how I should be doing things. I'm going to write more frequently, even if it's just blogging.
• Read more! It's hard to find anything that rivals my love of literature. I've been discouraged lately, not being able to find anything in my school library but your average teen paranormal romances. However, I'm going to start visiting the library more frequently to dig around for some new stuff. 
• Bring up my math grade. I'm not a math oriented person, but I'm still in the highest class for my grade. I don't know what possessed me to take it, (Well actually it was probably stubborn pride) but I'd like to have a B in the class...
• Learn to manage my stress. School this year is not having a positive effect on my health so I need to relax. My mental health is more important than my GPA.
• Save up for a pair of Doc Martens. In my last post I showed you guys what happened to my beloved combat boots so I'm in dire need of a new pair. 

• Buy more accessories.  Considering how much I love to accessorize it's almost blasphemous how little I own.
• Do something adventurous with my hair. I really want something like this and after I've reached this goal I'm considering a deathhawk.

• Get my record player set up.
• Purchase a bike from the 60s. Ever since I rode my grandma's up in Sweden I've really wannted to buy my own. They're just so cute.

• Go thrifting more often.
• Get really dressed up and super gothed out to go somewhere. I'm not clubbing age, but I'm sure I can find some occasion.
• Go to Megacon because I'm a huge nerd. Bonus if I can go as Harley Quinn or Lady Loki.

• See a favorite band in concert. I have really never been to a concert. It's horrifying. The problem is that so many of my favorites aren't together anymore or don't tour down in Florida. I'm hoping that maybe MCR will tour again soon because they're a modern band I have a chance of seeing ^^

• Make a bucket list. Why don't I have one of these?
• Improve my piano playing. I never had lessons, so it's pretty basic at the moment.
• Learn to use vibrato on my oboe.
• Start learning Guitar.
• DIY. Lots of DIY. I need to sew patches onto a bunch of jackets and I want to hand stud my leather one. Then there's a million other projects I have in mind.
• Come to terms with the possibility of moving and spend more time with my friends while I can. I've already got Harry Potter World at IOA, a few movie nights, and laser tagging set up ^^
• Improve my self confidence.
• Figure out a plan for the future. What exactly I want to do when I graduate. Where I want to live.

Obviously, that's a lot of things for me to accomplish, but I think it's manageable. They're all fairly easy for me to achieve, I've just got to stay focused. And now I've got them on this blog to remind me!

What are your New Year's resolutions?