Tuesday 30 April 2013

Grave Mercy Review

So. The other day I went to Kew Gardens to see the magnolia* blossom.


It was slightly too late in their season, and thus magnolia were not quite as beautiful as they had been in previous years. Although I saw many flowers, and explored parts of Kew I had never been to before, I did not have a great time. My morning had been horrible, and that had polluted my entire day. 

Friday 26 April 2013

Sorry (╯︵╰,)

Some apologetic eye candy!

Dear people,

As you probably know, I posted the first part of a short story of mine the other day. I've had the basic idea for ages, and I'm super pleased that I've gotten to share it with you people!!

Sadly, I think it will be awhile until the next instalment. Not like, I'm moving to a hut in Cambodia for six months awhile, but maybe a few weeks. I'm moving house soon, my studies are getting pretty intense, and I've had a really bad week, you know? By mid-May the first two things should be fine.

I mean, the five stages of grief are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Thus, part two of my story will have to be anger, but I'm not sure that I'm in the right headspace for that right now. I think that waiting is better than forcing a sub par product, right?

I mean, I'll probably try to do a few light posts about origami and stuff, but the story will have to wait for now, ok? Hopefully, I'll be settled soonish, and my study deadlines are all due in early May.

Take care, all of you wonderful human beings!

Tuesday 23 April 2013

The Five Stages of Grief, in Hell, With Mermaids, Part One: Denial



Two sisters are standing by the mouth of a cave. They are having an argument.
Dreamchild, the younger one, was born halfway through an unfortunate spiritual phase of her parents. She loathes her name and has christened herself Sadie. She dresses with care. Dream-Sadie wears the finest exercise clothing her allowance can buy; her face is covered with arguably too much foundation. Her bleached blond hair is scraped into a high ponytail; her arms are covered with bangles from Claire’s. Dreamchild, or rather, Sadie, is in her early teens. There is a four-year age difference her and her sister. 
Her older sister’s hair is loose and wavy; her eyes are lined with kohl. She wears skirts which are long and flowing, her nose is pierced like a pig's, and she has been vegan for eight whole entire days. Her name is Holly, and she is partaking in an unfortunate spiritual phase of her own. 

Friday 19 April 2013

How to Fold an Equilateral Triangle

Here is a protractor-less method for folding equilateral triangles that I came up with a few days ago. It's super easy!

Step 1. Take a square piece of paper,


and fold it into thirds along one of the corners.


Step 2. Fold a corner adjacent to the first into thirds.



Step 3 Cut along the highlighted lines (I usually just crease the creases back and forth until they're weak enough to tear easily).


Ta da! The finished triangle.



This technique was based on the fact that each corner of an equilateral triangle is 60º, and thus two thirds of the 90º corner of a square is equivalent to the corner of an equilateral triangle.

Disclaimer: Although I constructed this method myself, it is so simple that must have thought of it before I did. If so, no infringement upon ideas was intended!

Tuesday 16 April 2013

An Explanation of The Background Picture

The Chick

Although my childhood home was nowhere near the sea, seagulls were a common presence growing up.

The penguins in London Zoo live in an open enclosure (or, at least, they did. It's been a few years since I've visited). The seagulls would wait for the penguin's feeding time in my neighbourhood, which was relatively close to London Zoo, and then fly over and steal their fish. 

That was the reasoning for why there were so many seagulls in Belsize Park. I'm not sure if it's true.

When my father lost his banking job in 2008 (He's not evil finance type, I assure you, he sued the bank for wrongful termination and won), we had to sell our home. This was very distressing. Strange people viewed our house, my parents fought violently, and I thought of suicide.

Eventually, after my parents had taken our house off the market, put it back back on again, and bought a dog, some people bought our house. I never met the buyers, whom my parents referred to solely as The Russians.

A short time before we moved to a rented house in Highgate, I noticed what seemed to be a seagull chick sitting on the arial of a house that was opposite to ours. It was dusk, and I became obsessed with the chick (looking at the picture now, the bird looks a lot at like a jay. I assure you, at the time I was certain that it was a gull). It seemed as though it was stuck on the arial, as though it couldn't fly away. I photographed the seagull chick many times that evening, but the pictures never seemed to capture the exact spirit of the bird. It was too dark, and far away.

When I created this blog, which named Slightly Surreal in a fit of inspiration, I decided that I would have a custom background. I chose this image because I liked the colours, because it was so full of my emotions, and because it is Slightly Surreal*.

*Ha ha.

Greetings to All Sentient Beings of The Universe

Highgate Cemetery

Hi.

My name is not Sophie Rabbit, although it is similar in terms of implausibility. I live in London, where the diverse architecture makes my heart sing. I am a mixed-race, queer, teenaged girl, and there aren't very many people who I know who aren't paid to speak to me. I am really fucking full of angst.

Regent's Canal

Slightly Surreal will be a blog about all of my many and vast interests, which I have detailed quite extensively in my Blogger profile. I'll be posting various short works of fiction, origami and baking tutorials, and breathy analysis of manga, television, film, and novels. I will try to update about twice a week, but please bare with me if I fall behind.