On Why I Like Zombies (& Other Apocalyptic Nonsense) December 28, 2010
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Life, Chatter & Politics, Rants, Wordy Business.Tags: Apocalypse, Books, Fear, Films, Horror, survivalism, zombies
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Although most people I know understand that I am a contradiction in terms, a dreadful and brilliant mix of many different things, there are some parts of my multifaceted personality that seem to throw people off-balance. perhaps the strongest area of this is my ever-growing obsession with all things zombie and apocalypse related. The strange survivalist side to my nature confuses people, making them pitying or scornful, but above all a little confused.
The reasons for this obsession, however, aren’t quite as silly as you would assume. In fact, an interest in apocalypse tales and reminders of the eventual fragility of the human race can be argued as a good thing, a dosing of preparedness and reality that a generally oblivious person should probably try to have. So, what is it makes the whole topic quite so fascinating to an otherwise well-rounded and intelligent young woman?
Well, firstly apocalyptic tales tell us a huge amount about our societies. Paranoia is rife among people – we are always worrying about the next terrorist attack, the dangers of those evil germs on the flush handle, the possibilities that all of our friends actually hate us and are just putting up with us out of pity. A story depicting the end of the world lets us know about our weaknesses, the issues and threats that are most effecting the populous at that given time. Once upon a time, as the cold war bit deep and alien attacks were the topic of seemingly ever film, we could read much from the silent infiltration of our communities, the stealing and destruction of families. Now our apocalypse films show people’s ever-increasing nervousness about the effect our living is having on the world, with ice ages and rising sea levels. Of course, we can see divine retribution in all its forms throughout all generations, just to show that religion still has its deadly iron grasp on our hopes and fears.
Above and beyond societal observation, I adore Zombies for another reason. They make me feel scared. In a world so cushioned by life and all its accompanying paraphernalia, the idea of our own species turning against us in a feral Id-driven way is terrifying. I watch these films and see the zombies, how they are created, and they make me feel a kind of fear that I never encounter in everyday life. Even more to the point, this is a fear that is always tinged with a vague potential for it to actually one day be realised, whether through genetic warfare, disease or brainwashing, and that makes experiencing it all the more exhilarating.
So, you see, there is a reason behind my coveting of Zombie films, behind my blind admiration for films that depict the end of days, environmental or otherwise. They make me feel more alive, through understanding the world I live in and through being reminded not to take it for granted. After all, you never know when the next vampire revolution will destroy your village, or when a tidal wave will wipe out civilisation as you know it.
Dressember Days 25, 26 and 27! A catch up! December 27, 2010
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Dressember, Family, What I Wore.Tags: Christmas, daily outfits, dressember, Fashion, outfit shot, outfits, What I wore
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Around Christmas all I want to do is avoid the internet. Despite my dependence on the net year round, Christmas is a time to be with family, and for me that means technologically isolating myself in a sea of wrapping paper, card games and grossly large meals. However, it seemed worth popping online to show you my three missing days of Dressembering!
Day 25
Christmas day I felt like dressing up, and so out came a dress that I was gifted by the ever lovely Roisin. It fits beautifully (and makes my boobs look humongous, a rare feat indeed!), and I kept the rest of the outfit simple with tights to keep my legs warm. As I didn’t leave the house, I didn’t need any shoes!!
Day 26
Day 26 was, it seems, a day for posing. Then again, I have seemed to have spent most of this Christmas relatively trollied (my parents poured me Sloe gin in wine glasses, for god’s sake!), and so the acting silly may have something to do with that! I love this dress though, although not as much when I put a jumper under it, which was what I did when I braved the OUTSIDE WORLD for an hour or so. In order to avoid more unsatisfactory outfits, I shall simply have to stay indoors for the rest of winter!
- Day 27
And finally, today, when we travelled up to the salubrious parish of Weston-Super-Mare to take the grandmother out for her mini-christmas. She insisted on staying up there rather than coming round for Christmas, so we had to make up for it somehow. After tottering around the icy pavements in my least sensible shoes (well, we were only walking about 10 metres!), I filled up on vast amounts fo food, and now am resigned to the sofa in disgrace over my greed. The perfect end to a Christmassy day! As for the outfit, I was cheery, sparkly, and downright seasonal!
Dressember Days 22 and 24 December 24, 2010
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Dressember, Fashion, Foodiness, Photos, What I Wore.Tags: Christmas, Clothes, dressember, Fashion, Gin, Open Fire, outfit, outfit shot, Sloe Gin, What I wore, winter
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Yes, you get a photo for the day I worked from home, but not from yesterday! The reason, or the excuse, is that I got straight in yesterday evening and proceeded to work my way manically through a gargantuan (isn’t that a nice word?! I should endeavour to use it more!) to do list the size of my right forearm. Not my left. Packed, tidied and generally exhausted, I fell into my fresh (clean!) sheets and slept like a baby until my 6AM alarm this morning.
Day 22
Day 24
Day 22 was boring (pretty much just lounging around under fleeces, if I am brutally honest), but today was a day of travelling. You will all be glad to know that I made it down to Devon not only in one piece, but I actually arrived early. Thank you oh wonderful railway companies (and it isn’t often you will hear me say that!), you really did me proud as part of me had become resigned to the option of spending Christmas cold and alone!
Now, however, I am sat in front of a hot blazing winter fire, sipping the most spectacular Sloe Gin I have ever made. Cheers to that!
Sloe gin in front of the fire
Dressember Days 20 & 21 December 22, 2010
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Dressember, Fashion, Makeup/Cosmetics.Tags: beauty, cosmetics, Day 20, Day 21, dressember, Fashion, makeup, outfit, outfit shot, What I wore
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I can’t work out what happened to my Dressember Day 19 outfit. I had a lovely day going to see Tron: Legacy and then enjoying my solstice dinner, so that seems a pretty good excuse for forgetting to take a photo of the dress I wore. I did wear one though, honest guv! And, just to prove how cold it is, my hair actually froze on the way home, and it was still -11 when I arrived at work on the Monday morning!
Frosty Hair!
Anyway, Day 20 of Dressember was a rather boring day, I was dressed for warmth and that was all that mattered for me. After all, we still have the snow, so wore a slip and a jumper under my jumper dress, and gave it a bit more structure with the waistcoat. I think it worked!
Day 20, Nice and Warm!
Day 21 of Dressember was much more fun. I wanted to be all Christmassy, so I painted my nails sparkly red, put on my Dorothy Shoes, and wore a lovely velvet dress. I pranced and preened around the office all day, so I must have been in a good mood. The evening was spent in the pub, but unfortunately I realised I had locked myself out of my house, and I had to spend the night at Lysy’s before the letting agents opened in the morning. Not my brightest moment! Consequently I am working from home today, but I am still wearing a dress, and will photograph it later!
Buying my "No Place Like Home" shoes!
Day 21 Feeling Festive
I also painted my nail a sparkly seasonal blue, I am loving having long nails finally!
Sparkly Blue Nail Polish
Christmas and loneliness December 21, 2010
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Depression, Family, Life, Chatter & Politics.Tags: Christmas, Depression, Life, Loneliness, Love, xmas
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I love Christmas. I love the snow, and the crisp coldness. I love sitting in front of the fire, watching the flames dance in the grate and the coal spark and crackle. I love the travel, watching a DVD on the train as I wind my way along the stunning Devon coastline. I especially love the smells of the spices, the fruity tang of mulled wine, the sweetness of Sloe Gin, and the delicious buttery goodness of Christmas lunch cooking in the oven.
However, despite all the wonder of the holiday season, it is also a time for people to be alone. I find that in the build up to the big day I start to feel lonely, start to realise just how much of my time is spent alone. What is silly is that I will see friends, I will even run out of time to be myself, and yet still I will somehow manage to feel slightly down in the dumps. I suppose it could be that the SAD kicks in around about now, the darkest time of the year, when the long nights stretch out well into the day so it is dark in the morning and dark at night. However, I think a certain part of it is to do with the fact that Christmas is a time for love, and if you don’t have anyone to love you then you become more aware of it than you ever have before.
Please don’t get me wrong. This isn’t actually a mopey grumpy post about isolation and misery. I have so many friends around me, I am wildly happy being single – but sometimes at this time of the year it would be lovely to snuggle up under a blanket with someone special. Hearing all the plans of the couples that surround me (I am the only single person I know around here at the moment, a particularly strange feeling!), I am bitterly aware that my plans worry about me and me alone. Freeing, most definitely, but not perhaps the most conducive to the Christmas spirit!
Still, a few weeks of feeling slightly lonely has actually shown me that I made the right decision ending my relationship. To be fair I have never doubted that for a second, but it is nice to know that in months of singledom I only really get lonely at extreme times like that, and also that this loneliness is nowhere near as bad as I felt when I actually was part of a couple. In comparison, this sort of mopeyness is easy to deal with, but when you look at someone and all you feel is regret and guilt, then that is a worse place to be.
Of course, I have to be careful not to forget all the good bits that were part of my relationship. Certain lies, events and bitterness post-breakup have given what was a loving relationship a sour tint, and sometimes I look back and wish that none of it had happened. I can see it brimming, this feeling that I have changed so much since it happened that I can’t understand it, that I have to battle to keep the fondness and good memories alive. Perhaps if there is anything I learn from Christmas alone it should be this – relationships past, present and future are all a major part of what makes me, me. The opposite of rose tinted glasses (muck tinted?!) is just as bad as over-optimism.
Hmm, did that post make any sense at all? It was a bit of a verbal splurge on the page, clearing out the cobwebs of my mind! Apologies!
White Icing December 20, 2010
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Photos.Tags: gardens, holly, jephson gardens, leamington Spa, scenery, snow, snow photos
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As promised, a snowy montage for you. I know bloggers everywhere are doing the same, but I don’t care – those stunning crystallised flakes of beautiful snowy have such a transformative effect on the world that I can’t help but share!
Holly
Cute pup I met!
Quite a contrast
The canal
Duck!
In the park
Mmm, mulled wine
A serious soldier
The gardens
Dressember Days 17 & 18 December 18, 2010
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Dressember, What I Wore.Tags: charity, Clothes, dressember, dresses, Fashion, What I wore
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Day 17
I wear pretty much no makeup nowadays, but hey. Anyway, my Warehouse black dress and tasteless gold embellished mohair jumper were the choice of the day, taking me from work through to the pub in the evening. I was saying goodbye to Row, who is moving back to Oz on Monday after over 3 years in the UK. She’s a wonderful girl, not to mention easily fitter than pretty much everyone else I know (She completely Iron Man, for chrissakes!). hopefully if I travel next year I will be able to stop in and see her.
I also had a great time, as the conversation in the pub neatly managed to cover politics, feminism, organised religious, paganism, culture, particle physics, nanotechnology and space. Pretty awesome, eh, not to mention testing for the ol’ brain matter!
Day 18
Today we were accosted by snow, and in fact it kept snowing all day until late afternoon! The priority was warmth, which meant that the boots were out again! I was toasty all day, and had a wonderful time treating myself to a delicious fish & chip meal and mulled wine in the pub. I also did my bit for the world, feeding the ducks on the canal. The greedy beggars ate an entire loaf of bread, and would have had more if I had the dough (see what I did there?!)!
Snow photos to follow tomorrow!
Dressember: Day 16 December 18, 2010
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Dressember, Fashion, Vintage, What I Wore.Tags: Fashion, grecian, Grecian Fashion, outfit shot, vintage, Vintage Dress, What I wore
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Day 16 was a boring dress day, but then in the evening was our Christmas Do at work. We we heading to Warwick Castle, and the obligatory survey of the office girlies revealed that I had the perfect opportunity to dress up – and so I went for it!
The outfit was a long Grecian vintage dress, with Cleopatra hair, and I felt pretty all evening. The evening too was awesome, everyone at work being on top form. For us, that means being exceptionally dirty minded, and at the same time being very witty – I am sure our cynicism and taunting must have been wildly annoying for the castle staff! Even better, of course, was watching everyone be utterly hungover in work the next day – hilarious! Our hangovers must have funded McDonald’s for months to come, I have never seen such a large order!
Day 16
See the leopard print slip..
I added a leopard print slip under the thin fabric, and was really pleased with how it worked. Flirty, yet subtle at the same time. Yay!
What We Will Wear When The Zombies Come… December 17, 2010
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Fashion.Tags: Apocalypse, Apocalyptic fashion, Fashion, Polyvore, zombies
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Competition Entry – 50 Years by LaurenEACooke featuring khaki jackets
I have some awesome ideas for a Zombie based piece of fiction currently, but I need to do some writing courses to decide on a writing style – currently I am far too easily influenced by who I am reading at the time, and I adopt their phrasing and terminology without evening intending to. For the meantime, therefore, I decided that my entry for Polyvore’s latest competition would be zombie theme.d You see, the comp asked us to design what we would be wearing in 50 years time. If the zombie apocalypse has happened by then, I predict a return to utility style, pockets, guns and belts – oh, and high heeled boots, hehe.
My inner geek December 17, 2010
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Fashion, Graphic Design, Inspiration, Life, Chatter & Politics, Media, TV & Film.Tags: accessories, Comics, DC Comics, Fashion, geekery, geeks, jewellery, ring
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Woe betide anyone who doesn’t own up to their inner geek. Or their outer geek, as it happens. What was once seen as a silly way to life your life, full of stupid facts and a certain lack of that indefinable “cool”, has suddenly become trendy. The geeks have, in a expertly calculated and complicated rebellion, taken over the earth. Probably whilst wearing capes. Where would we be without them? Without people continually demanding more from life, from the world? Without people appreciating everything from the tiny microbes under our skin right through to the things that are bigger than most human brains can even begin to contemplate?
I wholeheartedly and happily put my hands up to being a geek. I know a strange amount about birds, and meteorology. I am geeky about the idea of space, and hoping for the existence of aliens, and about watching episodes of Star Trek or The X Files back to back. I can have long conversations about the use of grammar and words, about how nice it feels to form the syllables of “Hyundai” with your tongue. I debate about human rights, and nuclear weapons, and about the validity of various scientific experiments. I dream of zombies, and I know which animals of the air, land and sea are the fastest (Swift, Cheetah and Swordfish, for those wondering – although the Peregrine Falcon is the fastest creature on earth in a downwards dive). Geekery makes up a massive portion of my life, and I love it. It makes me feel I am a tiny part of the brilliance of the world.
And so, for the geeks amongst us, a celebration. A celebration in fashion form, as it happens, although this really isn’t about my fashion geekery. A ring, featuring Gotham City in all its Gothic, dramatic and dangerous glory. Perfect. Now, if only I had $225…
Gotham City Ring
