I’ve been meaning to read this book for about ten years. My older brother recommended it to me when I was a teenager. I’ve read The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, but Dorian Gray is very different. Journey back to Victorian England into the world of the Dandy aristocracy. Morbid self love seems to be possessed in some measure by many of the characters, including Lord Henry, Dorian’s friend and hedonistic supporter. Dorian, however, takes narcissism to a macabre level, giving up his soul in order to have eternal youth. It’s frightening to realise how dreadfully sociopathic he’s becoming. No evil deed seems to taint his visage, instead the ugliness of sin is transferred to his once beautiful portrait, now becoming ever more grotesque and deformed. This Penguin version also features contemporary reviews of the novel. Rather interesting to read as it seems that prejudice against Wilde was so strong at that time, that the brilliance of his prose was completely demonised, no matter what the subject.

This book is really a good read. I recommend it completely. It’s full of wonderful epigrams that are so very ‘Wilde’ in their expression.

This is the humorous prequel to to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. We see the Bennet girls three years younger and their first encounter with ‘The Dreadfuls’ in the form of their now un-dead neighbour. Mr Bennet, we discover, has been secretly trained in ancient martial arts and fought in an earlier war against ‘The Dreadfuls.’ He sets about trying to rid his daughters (under much protest), of feminine weakness and Regency manners and instil warrior fighting skills. The results are slapstick at best with Lydia hitting herself and Kitty more than the training dummy, and bursting into fits of tears about getting her frock dirty. Of course, this book is rather silly, but it’s not taking itself seriously. The humorous self-referential nature of the novel works well. It’s a light read and will be well liked by Austen fans who don’t take things too seriously and have a penchant for zombie slaying.

The new book I’ve just started was recommended to me by one of my fellow Sci Fi adoring friends. It’s called The Broken God by David Zindell. As I’m only 80 or so pages in to this 800+ page novel, I can’t tell you that much about it. It seems like it’s about the main character returning to his real home after everyone in his village is killed by a plague. It seems this ‘Unreal City’ has trans-human elements, which interests me greatly. I’ll let you know how it goes. It’ll take me a while to read it!

Where I’ve Been

On the Easter long weekend this year I went to Swancon which is Perth’s annual SF and Fantasy convention. I’ve been going every year since 2004 and it’s like entering another world. The supreme world of fandom. I was on two panels this year. One of my favourite television show Lost and a fun panel which was a game to vote for your favourite fine ladies of Sci Fi and Fantasy. There is also the gala event of the con – the Masquerade Ball. Me, in one of my Kitty forms was mixing with a particularly evil villain and the Dark Knight himself

I also went to a fantastic Japanese authentic teppanyaki BBQ restaurant called Midori for A’s cousin’s birthday dinner. It’s kind of novel to have the waiter cook the delicious food in front of you and sort of throw it at your plate!

I also went to the Mountain Goats concert where I saw TT and MStevo. Was a great little concert at the Rosemount.

I also went to my favourite Perth band, Boys Boys Boys video clip launch and concert at the Rosemont last month. It was SUPER fun! Those girls seem to eat a whole bag of sugar before coming on stage. Their energy is infectious! Anyway, here is the fabulously funny clip:

Where am I going?
Tomorrow I’m going to Sugar Blue Dance Studio to give one of their 1960s GoGo dance classes a try. Tomorrow they have a variety of taster classes on for only $5 each. Classes go for one hour.

I’m going to see Naboo the Enigma from The Mighty Boosh in his DJ Show. I can’t wait! I love Naboo. I’m totally going to get my photo taken with him.

Also, for all those Indie kids out there. The blessed Loft Sunday’s returns to the Geisha Bar on the 20th of June. I’m there with my alternative bells on!

Keep reading my blog – my upcoming posts will be:
What I wore
What I’ve been reading
and
What movies I’ve seen.

Love HK.

I’m going on holidays down south on the Australia day long weekend. I can’t wait! It’s going to be super fun!

This weekend I’ve got nothing planned, and I’m actually rather happy about this. I really need some sleep and downtime.

Finally, a picture to encapsulate my gym going experience:

Have a great holiday everyone! xxxx

Love,
Helen Kitty

Saturday was my friend Joh’s hens party. Wow, did we drink a lot of pink champagne! It was fun though. Especially the ‘Never Ever’ game and the awful male stripper! I then proceeded to my friend’s place in Nedlands for the end of exams party where I sampled the goon punch. Needless to say, I had a pretty bad hangover on Sunday.

Sunday I went to the beach and nearly drowned due to tiredness and general hungover-ness. I also had to go to my ex-bf’s parent’s house to get Christmas presents from them, as they are going to the UK on Tuesday. I like them very much, but i just makes me feel uncomfortable as Chris and I are no longer together, and they really would like us to be. *sighs* The life of a singleton continues.

Perhaps I really am like Bridgette Jones? Maybe my Mr Darcy is right around the corner. Thing is, I’m not an ordinary girl, so how can i expect to have an ordinary life.

Tiredness today is stifling me. I’ve had loads of crap to eat due to it too. I’m now on the vitamin taking binge to try and get back to normal. Anne just said I look like I’ve lost weight! I hope I can keep it off, but not if I continue eating chocolate, sugar and carbs.

I’m hugely keen to get BDO tickets – mainly for the Decemberists and Devendra Banhart. Lily Allen and Muse would be pretty cool too. I also want to go to Phoenix’s concert, but it’s $75! Need. More. Money.

I auditioned for GRADS Macbeth production on Saturday. Not sure I’ll get a part, but I’m hopeful.

Had my interview for Senior Library Officer job and I’m really hopeful to get that too. I guess only time will tell for all of these.

So here’s Phoenix – French Indie guys whom I love:

So, we’ve come to the end of our course. Even though I thought I knew most things, I have learned things, and had loads of fun doing so! I’m going to keep using my blog and keep up with my lifelong learning. This may involve bugging Bookbuster about new internet technologies!

I think everyone has come a long way since week one. It’s really amazing to see how confident some people are. All that’s left now is to have the delicious morning tea to celebrate us passing the 23 Things course!

Today has been a bit of a stressful work day, so I only was able to come into class for the last hour. But i’m so glad i did! Games! Whoo! I’ve had some stress relieving fun. I played a few games from the gaming addicts site: Impossible quiz, a boogle type word game and a cute game with this ladybird that I had to bop bees with. Then I decided to check if one of my favourite quiz games – the Scholastic Harry Potter Challenge was still up and running. It IS! So i logged on and have been playing. I’m doing excellently so far. I’m really good at remembering Harry Potter trivia. I do like the books, but haven’t read then for ages. I guess some random facts just stick!

Go here and see if you like it!

I joined the i heart the Science Library club on FB as well as the UWA Web 2.0 community. It’s a good way to keep it touch with people and also join groups of lilke minded individuals. I’m more into Twitter than Facebook. Bebo is okay, a bit clunky and I dont really like it that much.

It’s called ‘Are You Popular?’ and is an example of post-World War II social guidance films. It tell you, with examples of “good” and “bad” girls, proper and improper dating etiquette, courtesy to parents, and an analysis of what makes some people popular and others not. Rather funny, but also rather frightening considering the lelevel of conformity it advocates.