The Musings of a Fool

Almost done with the semester. I'm so glad to be done with design and such.

Starting to look forward a bit more. I just sat down this weekend and took care of insurance issues - I need temporary health insurance in case of craziness between when Dad's insurance boots me Friday (they hate me, so I'm not even looking into getting a grace period with them) and when the insurance through the new job picks up in July or early August (went with one through mid-August, so I should be covered whenever needed). And I need car insurance because it's about time I got off Dad's policy for that, as well. And Jeremy and I are about to sit down in the next few days and figure out some of our schedule for the summer; at some point, I need to visit all my family, we're going to be in Utah for the University Rover Challenge (I'm doing engineering support, and they're going to let me bring him as my assistant) in late May, and at some point, we have to make it up to Norfolk to actually find a place for us to live.

The kitties are doing well. We've been bringing them over to Jeremy's to get them to panic less about being in new places and being in the car and such. Shadow's pretty entertaining on the hardwoods, since he's got fur growing all through the pads on his feet so he has no traction. And Tilly looks like she treats it as enemy territory. They're both losing a bit of weight since Jeremy's put a halt to the free feeding. Now they get a cup of dry food in the morning and, if it's gone in the evening, they get another half cup or so. The idea being that eventually, they'll just eat when it's given and we can have them eating out of separate bowls, so Tilly's not eating as much as Shadow (since there's a 5+ lb size difference there).

I've also started looking more into some of the ideas and such of Buddhism, especially the writings/teachings of the current Dalai Lama. I didn't know much about either, but I've been picking information up just by being around Jeremy, and it's really interesting. Definitely stuff that could be useful toward being a better, and less stressed person. And the current Dalai Lama is big on tying everything together with science. One of the most interesting quotes I saw was about how if science should happen to show any of their beliefs to be wrong, they would just have to change their belief. He draws a lot of parallels between how he thinks spiritual/philosophical learning should be approached with the scientific method (ie, ask lots of questions, accept nothing at face value, etc). Now I just need to learn to meditate...

Yes, I'm going completely crazy. I'm still alive. But more crazy than I was.

I am graduating May 1st, with my master's.

Moving up to Norfolk, VA with Jeremy sometime either late June or early July (probably the July) for work (which I'm going with the traditional not-posting-work-stuff-to-the-internet and saying that if you want more info, get ahold of me through a more private mode of communication).

OK, going to resume panicking over my design project.

Internet at home is flakey, so I'll be even less around online than I have been, until I can fix it. I got to yell at AT&T last night, and someone's supposed to come out on Sunday afternoon. In the mean time, Jeremy and I went to get chocolate at a coffee house on the square and use their wireless. :)

Stolen from mmejavert. In celebration of the 81st Academy Awards (Oscars), here's a list of the "Best Picture" nominees since 1967. Put an (X) next to the ones you've seen, and a (+) next to the ones you've seen more than once.

( The list! I've seen 47! )

I'm alive, just crazy-busy (and easily distracted, as the presence of a new boyfriend is wont to do). And instead of writing an actual post, you're getting this list of 239 movies where I mark the ones I've seen.

( The list (113) )

From the webcomic A Girl and Her Fed.

It has a talking, smart-ass koala. Lots of hilarity. And the ghost of Ben Franklin.

OK, now I need to go get in the shower and get to campus, since I haven't been to class in a week, courtesy of whatever plague I picked up. I'm feeling much better now, apart from the headaches (which I don't think are actually related to the plague), so I'm frantically trying to catch up on all the crap I missed. >.

I'm dying. I dunno if it's a cold, or strep throat, or what. But ugh. I thought I was starting to get over it yesterday. I was wrong. Woke up this morning contemplating removing my tonsils myself. Doctor this afternoon. Hopefully they can figure it out.

Is inauguration. Evidently my mom volunteered to host a party, so my house will be invaded tonight. At least I have my basement lair to escape to.

Uh oh. I'm having a band geek moment. The band at the inauguration? Is playing Holst. It's always mildly disturbing to be listening to something like that and think "I've played that".

001. Time Enough for Love by R.A.Heinlein, 589 pages
Finished 1/2/09
This book was very amazing and very long. Normally, I would have been able to read a book that size in a couple of days. Instead, it took me over a week. There's just so much he says that is so amazing and makes you actually think about it. This presents an entirely different way of life, but still very much within the boundaries of 'humanity'. I'm going to have to take a break, though, before I read another Heinlein book. I have several waiting for me in different stacks. But I've always found that Heinlein is worth reading. Not only is it a really amazing sci-fi story, it's got a lot of the exploration of what it is that makes us human, how we interact, and how things could be different. And the meaning of love. He's big on that one. And the social constraints placed on love.

Up next?
--Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
--Confessions of a Pagan Nun by Kate Horsley
--Dragon Bones by Patricia Briggs
--Against Depression by Peter D. Kramer
--The Cat Who Walks Through Walls by R.A.Heinlein
--The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by R.A.Heinlein
--Friday by R.A.Heinlein
--The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen; Volume One by Alan Moore, Kevin O'Neill, Ben Dimagmaliw, Bill Oakley

R.A. Heinlein is an infuriating man. My mom got me The Cat Who Walks Through Walls a year or two ago, since I wanted to read it since that's where Pixel (the cat who lived at MDRS for a while) got his name. But then I discovered that it wasn't the first book of the series, so I decided to hold off until I found the others, and then got distracted.

My dad got me a pile of books (and a couple of DVDs - Wall-e and From the Earth to the Moon - it was a very sci-fi birthday :D ) for my birthday and was running late, so I just got them a couple of weeks ago. And I was making it through to the Heinlein books he got, since he liked Heinlein when he read it (I got Time Enough for Love and The Number of the Beast). So I went to look at wikipedia to make sure I was reading in the right order, finally. And I realized that the guy from both Time Enough and The Cat was introduced in ANOTHER book before them, Methuselah's Children. And so I reserved that at the library and picked it up.

I checked one last time, just to get an overall feel for what order to read everything in. Turns out, all of his books jump all over the timeline, and have lots of characters in common. >.< So, really, it's not that important. I'm going to read the Lazarus Long books (Methuselah, Time, and Cat) in that order, the order they were published, and then just do whatever. I mean, hell, even characters from Stranger in a Strange Land (which I LOVED) and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (which I've been having a hard time getting through because of the weird dialect he made up for the narration) show up. Along with the 'historic' events portrayed in those books (the Martian religion mess and the lunar revolution).

So I've waited, and confused myself. And it turns out that none of them are actually chronological and there IS no real order. YARGH.

Haven't posted in a while...the semester's over. I don't think I did as well as I should have, but at least it's over with. And then I just have to get through spring, and I'm graduated! And then I have to find a real job. :P

In the health realm, I've been doing mostly ok, except for the damage to my face. I think there may be some real nerve damage, since I've been having pain radiating out from my cheek, and up that nerve. Stupid sidewalk. Gonna go see my neurologist, since it's starting to be a problem.

Shadow's been sick, so we've had the extra-fun adventure of trying to medicate him. The first dose was ok, with Jeremy giving it at the vet. The next evening, I ended up with a long scratch and Mom got bitten, but we think he got most of the meds with what ended up in his mouth, what he licked off his fur, and what we got him to lick off some chicken. Last night, I got Jeremy to help again, which meant no injuries, but it still took two tries, in which we ended up with lots of cat medicine everywhere. Stupid cat. I think he's getting wrapped in a towel tonight. It won't help with how he throws his head around, but at least the claws will be contained. He's been sulking on and off since he went to the vet. But he's always careful to make sure I know he's sulking. And Tilly looks at him like he's an idiot. :P

I've recently rediscovered the wonder of life that is the library. I've reread all but the newest of R. A. Salvatore's Dark Elf books (which is up to several series now, like 15+ books). They were good, but not great. They end up in different situations, but the characters never seem to change. It's a LOT of "woe is me, people judge me 'cause I'm a drow even though I'm a good guy". We could do with quite a bit less of that, but then we'd lose like half the books...

Finished the sequels to Libba Bray's A Great and Terrible Beauty - Rebel Angels and The Sweet Far Thing. I'm of mixed feelings about that series. The main characters are whiny and never take responsibility for stuff. And any time they don't like something, they use magic to fix it (including peoples' minds), with no real repercussions later. But the story's really engaging. So I read it, and just hate the main character. :P The principal villain's pretty cool, though. :P

And I'm midway through season six of Buffy, which is fun. I missed a bunch of stuff here and there when it was airing, and it's been a long time anyway. And I already borrowed season seven from Dan, so I don't have to wait for him to find it. :D

Evidently the kitties are cold. Shadow's curled up in his bed and Tilly's loafed right next to the space heater. It's not particularly cold down here, either. You'd think the fur would help keep them warmer...

Ready for the semester to be over. So much craziness. Except not quite busy enough to practice good time management. Evidently there's a threshold of busy-ness that I have to hit in order to actually get stuff done.

I can't WAIT for the Watchmen movie to come out. March 2009. I'm looking forward to it. I saw the preview when I went to see the latest Bond with Dad for his birthday (good action movie, but less suave than usual for Bond. Lots and lots of destruction and property theft...), and then I found the book at the bookstore. SO AMAZINGLY GOOD. Dark stuff, but really good. Yay for DC comics movies. And Marvel, actually. Both have been doing great things with the newer movie adaptations. Spiderman, Batman, V for Vendetta, Hulk, Iron Man...is very exciting. And they're making an effort to stay true to the comics, which is cool. Although the latest Batman movies have been more along the lines of the Frank Miller and Alan Moore than the early Batman. They went with the darker set of storylines. Which I like. :D

I made it to France! Kind of jetlagged, but that should clear up in a day or so. Expect to locate my sister sometime today, hopefully this morning. Although she just got in last night at 2am from London, so she ain't moving real fast...

And holy crap, the lobby smells like lemony-fresh cleaning stuff. Whoof. For some reason, the wireless doesn't work in the rooms, just the lobby. I guess that, even though it's the same network name, it's not actually the same network and you probably have to pay to use it in your room. Or something. But at least down here I can use my laptop instead of the public computer; I'm definitely out of practice at using a French keyboard.

Also, my French sucks. I feel retarded every time I open my mouth. I can be understood, and I can understand most things, but I KNOW it's some pretty broken French...

A hilarious guide to the conditions under which you should vote yes for Prop 8 in California (the one to ban gay marriage.

It made me giggle. A lot. For example, vote YES to prop 8 if you can answer yes to the following question:

4. Are you willing to deny a pretty basic human right to human adults for reasons that are based entirely on the teachings of complex, contradictory religious traditions? Please keep in mind that these same traditions have also been used to justify slavery, Mel Gibson movies, misogyny, Tammy Faye Baker and Anti-Semitism.

* Grab the nearest book.
* Open the book to page 56.*
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
* Don’t dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

I figure it to be the East Wing, the one destroyed by the fire.

From Libba Bray's A Great and Terrible Beauty, which Megan let me borrow. Although Gemma, the main character, annoys me, I really like the story. Thus, I wish to continue reading the books, in the hopes that she grows up and quits whining and just thinking about herself all the time. :D

Well, we leave for Paris tomorrow to visit Sarah. Haven't started packing at all. I'll get started tonight, once I don't have to hang out upstairs for munchkins. I'm on candy distribution, at least until Mom gets home. Although it's almost 6:30 and there's no sign of anyone. And it's cold up here, 'cause Mom has the heat off during the day and my space heater is only effective in the basement, where it's located...My nose is cold.

And a meme-like thing from msagara (who is my favoritest author EVER):
Copy this sentence into your livejournal if you're in a heterosexual marriage/relationship (or if you think you might be someday), and you don't want it "protected" by the bigots who think that gay marriage hurts it somehow.

The fact that she did that just made my day. Because this is so true. I don't see how someone else's ability to get married affects me. And the "slippery slope" thing, where it leads to marrying your dog? I really don't see how a consenting adult getting married is equivalent to a dog. Honestly. Although it's depressing that I fall under the "or if you think you might be someday" part of that, I strongly doubt that my inability to hook up with a guy that I click with (and who isn't crazy or the most commitment shy person EVER) is at all related to someone else's sexual orientation. Megan, I'm coming after you with a blunt object if your lesbianness is why I'm single. :P

So, I'm a huge Something Positive fan. And this strip amused me. Although Gabby had a good point - it makes her job (see this link) more difficult when people won't tell her. But I don't think people have any obligation to broadcast their political preferences. It's one of those things where there are two sides. But from a purely brainless perspective, I am entertained.

And I'm going to steal Megan's book meme when I'm downstairs in my lair again. None of my books (except my journal, which sure as hell isn't going to be used) are nearby.

OK. Crazy week. My sinuses have continued to be wacky. Monday, made an eye doctor appointment to get new contacts. The doc couldn't get my eyes to adjust to 20/20. So he got me to not wear my contacts for two days and come back again (today). Turns out my eyes are just dried out like whoa and need some expensive eye drops and a mostly lack of contacts for a few more days. Then I can go back to normal with drops in the morning and at night. For about 2 days, I was actually really concerned that there might be something wrong.

The sinus headache and my ongoing soon-to-be-declared war with the plant life of the state went for a turn for the worse. Switching from Claritin to Allegra has led to a renewed ability to breathe, which is very nice. There was also some scariness there, because the difficulty breathing didn't seem like the normal amount of "my chest is full of plant life". But the headaches aren't better. So I have strongly drugged myself early tonight, in hopes of both killing the headache and resetting the sleep schedule a bit. Very groggy. But have hopes of feeling better tomorrow.

Ironically enough, I'm currently watching the season 4 Buffy episode "Beer Bad". Beer turns people into cavemen. "Beer good. Beer foamy!"

Go to www.urbandictionary.com and type in your answer to each question in the search box, then write the FIRST most amusing definition it gives you. (Gabby changed it to entertain herself, and I went with it, too)

1. Your Name: Emily
The hottest girl alive. usually gives people boners and she is a nice and loyal friend.
person A: "i hope i can go out with an emily tonight"
person B: "i am going out with an emily tonight and we will party!"

2. Your Age: 24
In Canada, slang for a case of 24 bottles of beer, usually pronounced "two-four" (NOT twenty-four).
I went to the beer store and bought a two-four.

3. One Of Your Friends: Joseph
Joseph or "Joe" a bay area slang term for marijuana
"Hey ma I'm gonna chill with joe"
"Yea we were really with joe"
"I'm so josephed!"
"Hey lets chill with joseph"

4. What You Should Be Doing: Work
A worldwide slave labour organisation used to control modern man and prevent independant thought from occuring in any form. This is the reason it's much harder to make anything of yourself working in creative arts, such as acting and singing - the government sees anyone more popular than them as a threat to their power. It is also an ingenious creation to make placebos such as computers and photocopiers look important to our way of life. Some may argue that the workplace is desigend to build character and learn about teamwork...others prefer to think of it as the perfect place to practise your aiming skills as you throw ball after ball of scrunched up paper into the bin in the corner, then make a little competition out of it with fellow colleagues.
You are here to work, not to have fun!

5. Your Favourite Colour: Cobalt
The coolest ex-otter in the world who recently developed lutraphobia (fear of otters)
Cobalt is.... something.

6. Your Birthplace: Texas
Home to Dr. Pepper, several modern and well respected singers, activists, and the like, Sam Houston, and other great men and women before him, numerous plantlife and animals, and a few horrid idiots who give the rest of us a bad name-ie: George Bush.

7. Last Person You Talked To: Mom
the number 1 butt of moronic jokes
yo mamma

8. Last Thing You Had To Drink: Gatorade
A common beverage at sports events drank by the ballinest playas. Also a necessary part of Ghetto Juice.
Drink Gatorade, then maybe your sweat will turn colors!

9. Your Nickname: Em
1. A typically short girl, who makes up for her lack of height with her extreme beauty, hilarious sense of humour and outgoing nature.

2. Another word for a somewhat violent and openly bitchy girl who hates many people, but for good reasons, and is not afraid to voice her opinions.

3. Term used for a girl desired by many, but remains faithful to her one true love, even when he treats her like shit

4. Rare term used for someone holding a large grudge against a few certain others for obvious reasons, and would like to hurt them in various ways. See freya, hannah, sarah

1. Wow, I wish I could be like her, she's really em

2. She's got some guts, I would love to be as em as her, but I'm too scared.

3. Maria: I don't know how she puts up with it!
Hinvid: Well, she's an em I guess...

4. Oh my god, we need to avoid her, she's really em at us, we'll end up in hospital!

10. Someone you miss: Guy
ont, cdn - Used in the same sense as man, bloke, etc. Origins unclear, perhaps Quebecois.
Hey guy, you wanna go to the pub tonight and watch the hockey game.

I'm seriously contemplating burning every bit of plant life in the state. This is ridiculous. Or I might start attacking my sinuses with an ice pick. >.< Also annoying is that I still don't have the ability to tell the difference between a sinus headache and what my neurologist calls "trigeminal neuralgia" (aka, headache like a migraine that, of course, can't be really explained or treated by migraine meds). So I'm going to try to go up to the max dose of my anti-seizure med and painkiller (I usually take 2/3 of the max dosage).

Played around with my icons some. Meg, I totally stole your organizational technique. :) As I was realizing that I could have more icons, I needed to be able to differentiate.

Trying NaNo again. Not going to drive myself crazy over it, but it's too much fun not to try. Space exploration based this time. I don't know how much I'll post here, but I'm sure there will at least be snippets and word counts and such.

Getting ready to go to France in a week. I'm looking forward to it, although Mom is going to be stressed as hell getting ready. Hopefully I can keep her out of my packing enough that I don't have to bring every article of clothing I own. She's big on the "what if" method of packing.

Ugh. Feeling gross, again. My body sucks.

Almost have the new laptop up and running. Which is good, given that the display on the old one has turned into a twitchy squiggle. I can still read it, but it gives me a headache. So I stepped up the urgency on transferring everything important.

Reading Michelle West's "The Sun Sword" books again. I'd forgotten how amazingly awesome they are. She is one of the only authors who can bring me to tears, and she has in a couple of her books (there was a post a while ago about the "Sundered" books that she wrote under either Michelle Sagara or Michelle Sagara West, which are also amazing). The "Sun Sword" is more of epic fantasy - close to 1000 pages a book in paperback, they are so much easier to read than a lot of the other epic stuff. I've never made a lot of headway in Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time", although I want to try again, because I was having such a hard time keeping track of characters. "Sun Sword" doesn't have as many characters, and they stick around pretty well instead of appearing and disappearing and appearing again. Or maybe it's just how she reintroduces them. Not sure. But I never feel lost. But I /do/ find new things every time I read these books.

Yum, books.

Motherfuck.

Atlanta has very little gas. As in, none of the gas stations in our area have any gas. At all. At any price. Mom called around a bit, and they *think* they might get some in Monday. Or Tuesday.

I'm probably going to class tomorrow, since I've got enough left for that, but then I'll have to reassess after that. At least I have a nice, fuel-efficient Honda. I'll be driving at more efficient speeds than I normally do, though. See how long I can stretch what I have.