Let's not panic that half a year is over

Hallo Hallo

PANIC! It's May!!!  Or almost June.

Almost half a year has passed.  Holy shit.

Things have been happening! And when I mean things, I mean, like, things, stuff, occurrences, things!!!!!! (enough to warrant multiple exclamation marks).

Things like – Oh lordy I have a new job!! 

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I am vintage dancing banana excited

I'm going to miss my old job and the wonderful people I have had the privilege to work with.  I have been really lucky to have the best boss ever and have also been influenced and inspired by some of the brightest and smartest.

In short, it's a bittersweet parting but I'm going to move out and onward into the breach.

The job is with a lovely NGO that advocates children's rights.  Its certainly a lot more fulfilling than corporate law and it’s the industry that I have always wanted to work in.

In other news, I grieved hard for Terry Pratchett and am not over it by a long shot.  I am planning a tattoo to commemorate him but more importantly – I went to a DISCWORLD CONVENTION.

proper blue Feegles... crazy, oh and a balloon version

It was adorable and sweet and small.  It was also local so it was easy to get to but the price certainly wasn't cheap.  That was my fault, I bought a three day pass when I barely even spent a whole day. 

The convention is organised by the Australian Fanclub known otherwise as Nullus Anxietas.  They organise the Discworld Convivium every year in different cities and it seems that its predominantly a club affair.  Everyone seemed to know each other and it was a bit hard for me to insert myself into a group that was already comfortable with its already existing members.

Nonetheless, I ended up helping a girl set up her Dibbler costume and assisted, by putting my fingers, there, and there, in hot glue gunning a fantastically made cardboard Moving Pictures Iconograph (complete with colour painting imp on the inside).  

I tried to get photos of her but she vanished off with her friends and then I couldn't find her after that, I didn't even get her name. Ah well.

There were genuine good cosplays though.  I wont lie, I was impressed.

Commander Samuel Vimes of the Night Watch

The Best and Tallest Death cosplay.  With a little Death of Rats on his shoulder

I sort of dressed up, I was a very pathetic looking Magrat, but I think, more than anything, I just looked really tired and really confused.

Best Cheery Littlebottom ever

I still managed to get away with some sweet, sweet loot.  Most of it rare to get in Australia and very, very official.  Discworld fanart isn't common, so there wasn't much by way of fan stuff to buy, even I have never considered doing Pratchett fanwork, although maybe this year, I might do a tribute… we shall see.

As we moved further into May and things got busy, I still managed to get myself into the ocean.  Thus feeding my mermaid impulses.  However, it isn't always the best idea in winter.  This time though, it was worth it.

I accidentally booked an Extreme (not that extreme) Shark Dive at the Manly Seal Life Sanctuary on Mother's Day.  Being a lady who not fussed, Mum considered it a great opportunity to go to the beach and enjoy a nice coastal Mother's Day, looking at fishies and laughing at me lolloping about in a shark tank.

The dive was incredible.  The Sanctuary has a relatively successful breeding program for penguins, sharks and in particular, Grey Nurse Sharks, who look pretty intimidating, but are more like barrels with decorative teeth.

Love meeeee

There were four of us including a couple who had never done diving before.  I did the beginners session because I cannot consider myself an accomplished diver yet by any stretch of the imagination, but it was great that I was not helped as much as some of the others. 

The couple, or at least the wife in that couple was pretty terrified but definitely enjoyed herself.  We walked to a wide part of the exhibit and leaned against the glass tunnel and just chilled there (literally) while our dive guides took photos of the sharks having a curious peek.  At one point a huge turtle swam by and made a quick hello.

It was also a great introduction to the massive variety of sharks that exist out there, some are so un-shark-like that I never would have guessed. 

Baby Bamboo Sharks the size of your palm

It certainly ratcheted up my interest for marine biology to a whopping 235%. (I am seriously considering making the mistake possibly appplying to study Marine Biology or Environmental Management.  No, I shouldn't do it because I don't want to be broke anymore. 

The water however, was freezing.  They sourced their seawater straight from the beach itself and I needed to jump around and jog a bit to keep warm.  As a result there is a video of me somewhere in the Sanctuary archives of me dancing and generally acting a fool and pissing off all the fish because I ain't got not grace nor style.

A Wobbegong Shark, lazy, squishy, adorable

It took all my discipline to try and not try and pet or cuddle a shark.  Seriously, they're really cute.  They look squishy, like they'd make a weird honking noise if I squeezed one.

Thankfully, I am not stupid enough to actually do that.

Mum really enjoyed the day since she shares my love of sealife as well and we managed to go in with the rest of the fam-bam later on in the day to share the experience with my nieces, cousins, uncles and aunties.

Heeeey Guys!!!! I frigging love the doofy faces of Rays

It was a wonderful day and I do not regret the terrible cold I caught as a result.

I have a another beach dive coming up in the next two weeks, hopefully I either find a good camera housing or a decent underwater camera to take some shots. 

So now, I'm slowly getting through my stuff for Supanova, and getting slightly excited for Joe Dimaggio who is going to be a guest at Supa and oh. god. Marcus Fenix (also Bender, also Jake the dog) is going to be there.  I wonder if it is appropriate to tell him all about the slash fiction I have had the dubious privilege of actually finding online.

See! Its real love!

Probably not. (beefy Fenix/Baird romance for the win? right? – no, I guess not).

I'm also supposed to re-vamp this blog, give it a new lick of paint and maybe turn it into something proper seriously bloggy.  

Which probably wont happen because this has recently come into my life.

I don't really care about anything at the moment other than this.

Oh and getting to G-rank on Monster Hunter.

But if I did get off my lazy ass and redesign this blog it would have this kind of theme or something.

shelf of personal curios by tariray featuring framed wall art

Anyhoo, its time to get back to making antlers and obsessing over Conchita Wurst (OMG HOW CAN SOMEONE BE SO LOVELY AND ELEGANT AND BEAUTIFUL HOLY CRAP THAT CONCHY HAS REDEFINED EVERYTHING FOR ME), and also getting onto some serious writing for an upcoming project that I'm excited to be participating in.

For a small taste, go visit Angry Hamster Publishing's new game site for Witch. 

successfully funded and on its way!

But for now, I'll be killing Nekkers in swamps and possibly flirting really, really badly with wenches and sorceresses because I love it when I play Geralt as if he's a piss poor Casanova who probably gets the girls because they feel a bit sorry for him.  Because seriously, those pick-up lines are awful.

No Geralt, they're not naughty girls, they'll kick your ass six ways from Sunday.  But Vesemir probably likes to cuddle.

In the meantime, please watch Bill Nye the Science Guy say 'Fuck', its amazing. (So is Amy Schumer).

Adios my bubblebutts! Till next month!