there she goes, she's airtight

This year I am going to attempt to keep track of the books I read. (Not the movies, because I do that too often to count.) Mostly because I'm curious. Although I'm kind of worried I'll look at the total in a year and be depressed, but OH WELL. At least if anyone says "what did you read this year?" I will be able to tell them.

( anyway, list )

GUESS WHO GOT TO DRIVE IN SNOW FOR THE FIRST TIME TODAY~~~

(... you get three guesses; first two don't count.)

Originally posted by write_light at BAD Internet Laws Heading Your Way

This is close enough to a my-week-in-brief entry that it's not awkward to mention how immortality was in Buffalo last week and we hung out and it was awesome. (We also had an amusing discussion about the differences between place names where she lives (CT) and where I live. Her: I saw this huge mall on the way here near ... some place ... *says something very vaguely intelligible with cheek in it (possibly)* Me: ... are you trying to say Cheektowaga?) Also she let me have a bit of her root beer float, so.


When I woke up Friday (actually woke up, which here means about three minutes after I got up) I realized I smelled baking chocolate, which meant BROWNIES. My mother makes the best brownies in the entire world, like, I cannot effectively convey how amazing these brownies are except to say that the recipe calls for, among other things, five eggs and three cups of sugar.

So it turned out that she'd timed it so the pans (one square pan of nuts for her, one square pan of not for me) would be just cool enough to cut by the time I was leaving for work, so she was like, hey, you want to take some to work? So we did some maneuvering and I wound up taking one pan with me (half nuts and half non). I didn't actually cut it until like half an hour after I got in because Tori was late, and obvs I wanted her and Eric to be sure to get brownies, but they were still warm enough the chocolate chunks were gooey.

Tori's reaction was basically "... omgdelicious". Eric's was "wait, who made these? your mom? ... can she be my mom?" which changed shortly to "does she want a new husband? like, seriously, how do you feel about a stepdad?" Jake, who went and got one quickly enough it was still warm, ended up taking his first bite as he was rounding the corner to join the three of us, and his response was "oh my god. is your mom married?"

& so on. They were completely gone before fourth shift got in (Melissa gets in at 5ish). And by that I mean Eric came around the corner with the last one in his hand, saying "fourth shift will never know".


When it gets to reasonable o'clock I have to call my dentist again (UGH). For two reasons, really -- a) the penicillin doesn't seem to be working (I only say this with authority because there were a few months in high school where one of my teeth would throb constantly for a few days, the result of which was always a penicillin prescription (... and eventually a dentist appointment which led to the most traumatic experience in a dentist's office I hope to ever experience), so I remember what it feels like for the shit to kick in), and b) I've figured out which tooth is the problem, and it's kind of ... not on the jaw I told her it was. And she gave me a referral to a root canal specialist based on the idea that the pain was in my bottom jaw, sooooo possibly we should get this straightened out. Uh.

(The upshot of which is mostly that I hate my teeth, but I have still managed not to get any of them pulled -- both of my parents have had teeth pulled, so it's basically my only concrete goal in life not to have that ever happen to me -- and I was still born without wisdom teeth, so I guess that's something.)

(When I called Wednesday morning to try to see my dentist sometime that week, the receptionist asked me if I'd had my wisdom teeth out when I described my problem. I always forget that's a Thing.)

Surprise emergency dentist's visit this morning turned out to be (unsurprisingly, now I think about it) inconclusive, so she gave me a referral to a root canal specialist; apparently one of the teeth they turned into Panama and was never subsequently crowned may be the cause of all of this. Although she also gave me antibiotics, which I was hoping for (usually when a tooth hurts this bad it's an inflamed nerve, and a combination of antibiotic + prescription-strength painkiller fixes everything until the actual dentist fixes everything). And Tylenol with codeine, which I've never taken before but which I am assured will make me sleepy.

I would be tempted to turn this into parcae's Adventures With Controlled Substances, but as it happens I need to get the fuck to bed anyway. (I am also assured the Controlled Substance will make my headache go away, which it has yet to do, but I'll give it time, I suppose.)

At some point I will have actual things to say, but for now: namechange! From "and that's where the elephant came from" to "the seal is for marksmanship".

It's probably a statement on my life at the moment that whenever I'm driving through downtown on my way home when the General Mills plant is manufacturing, my first thought is no longer "ooh, Cheerios" but is instead "huh, thiamine".

(For those curious: that smell Cheerios have isn't Cheerio-specific. It's the vitamin B1 in it.)


Something I genuinely do not understand (unlike my hatred of people who put their turn signals on while in exit-only lanes; THERE IS NOWHERE ELSE FOR YOU TO GO): I'm a big fan of not getting hit -- rear-ended, T-boned, in the throat, whatever. As far as I can tell, the sole purpose of turn signals is to help other people not hit you. Why do so many people refuse to acknowledge their existence?

No, seriously, I want to know.

Re: this post:

FUCK YES.

[Poll #1750237]

... can you tell I'm worried? (The 16th at 11. Ughhhh.)

It is way past my bedtime, but before I go I need to post this:

delight and her family are in some serious trouble; she and Brady are in an unsafe living situation and (in fucking ludicrous news) the insurance company denied coverage for her mother's cancer treatment. So they're in a bad spot. Even if you can't donate, please think about giving this post a signal boost; I've known them both for ages and they're both fantastic people, and I can't imagine being in their situation.

AND. helpfordelight is an auction comm on DW set up to help them. I (probably) will be putting something up when I get home from work tomorrow afternoon; until then, there are some awesome things up for offer, although if you're so inclined it could use some more of them. (And if/when I do put something(/s) up, I'll link back here, although I'll probs also make a new post.)

Also, because sotto_voice mentioned it and it's a good idea -- if you don't have a Dreamwidth account, you can use OpenID to leave comments; your username is just [your username].livejournal.com.

immortality: also.
immortality: guess what.
parcae: whattttt.
immortality: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQlIhraqL7o

My best friend, ladies and gents.


(It's not a rickroll, I promise.)

( this is not a spoiler if you have any idea what happened with criminal minds over the summer, but i am cutting anyway, mostly for font size )

twistomatic: i kind of just want to spit on a piece of paper
twistomatic: and then mail it to cbs

Also, semi-relatedly but not cut because the fact that he guested was well-publicized: it doesn't matter how good an actor Tim Curry is or how hard he tries to sound American; he will always, always sound exactly like Tim Curry.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GUESS WHO HAS A JOB

ME, THAT'S WHO

[Poll #1607321]

Favorite part of this week's Would I Lie to You?: at 13:56, David gets the Don't Even Get Started Again Finger pointed at him.

(QUITE JUSTLY.)

(Uh. My second is actually less about the show and more about the fact that I attempted, possibly due to Lost Presence of Mind, to make a connection between Stephen Mangan, the fact that he played a role called Guy Secretan, the fact that Stephen Mangan looks unnervingly like Ryland Blackinton, and Ryland Blackinton's alter ego Guy Ripley. And then I went looking for pictures of both of them and went, oh wait, I'm just going insane.

It was fun while it lasted.)


Unrelatedly, but still amusing: apparently I know more than half the lines to Men in Black, something I don't think I am ever going to hear the end of.

Namechange! From "this is WAR, peacock!" to "and that's where the elephant came from".

This is because bansidhe rocks like a really fantastic chair.

Today I swam and took a nap in the grass in the shade and saw fireworks I was so close to I could feel the explosions in my feet.

It was a good day. :D

(Granted, I also got a mosquito bite on my forehead, but I'm about 80% sure that means I'm going to get an interview this week, so.)

The city where I live had a summer festival sort of thing yesterday and the day before (technically it was Community Days, but that's not really descriptive at all). We didn't actually go, but last night we heard fireworks going off at ten-ish, so we decided we'd go outside and watch from in front of our apartment building.

We were outside for, at the absolute most, fifteen minutes.

As of right now I have four mosquito bites: two on my upper right arm, one about two inches below the back of my left knee, and one on the right side of my left foot. (I should probably note, here, that I was wearing pajama pants. And socks. That means that the skin was covered up for each of the second two bites.)

So, whatever, I do my best not to itch and ask my mom to put calamine lotion on me, because hello super-awkward locations. It's fine. (And I laughed and said "ah, the smell of my childhood" last night; my mother has a story she likes to tell about when I was a baby and we went to the beach, and she put bug spray everywhere on me but the bottoms of my feet, which apparently got bitten all to hell. This is part of the reason I don't go out much.)

Until tonight, when I realized that the stuff I'd gotten from my grandmother was wearing off, and everything was starting to itch, so I went to go grab another one, pulled my arm up so I could apply, and my mom happened to catch sight and freak out because apparently it had gotten bigger since last night.

And then we measured it.

It's, okay, it's vaguely circular, inasmuch as a gigantic insect bite can be circular. It's also fucking two inches by two inches. (And, note: I don't know how big it was yesterday, or even this afternoon, but I am absolutely positive that it was not that goddamn big.)

So, uh. I'm somewhat worried.

So this afternoon I remembered that I left Nightmares and Dreamscapes half-finished like three weeks ago, so this is slightly less urgent than it could have been.

However! I still require input.

[Poll #1583071]

Dear Criminal Minds execs:

FUCK YOU.

*seethes*

(If this makes you as angry as it makes me, there is a petition up. It makes me absurdly happy that it's been up for 2 days and has almost 15000 signatures.)

Here, have some YouTube videos that have been making me grin at the computer tonight. (These are the ones I liked, anyway; there are a fuckton of carbon cone ones, and a lot of them make me yell GLOOOOOOVES at my computer instead of grinning.)


Obvs from a class somewhere.


FUCK YEAH THERMITE.


This is the only one I've never actually done myself. It's super-cool, though, and I wish I had.

It's funny, the pieces of information a brain picks and chooses to remember. (Or, well, I suppose I should say "my brain", but whatever.) I finished rereading Skeleton Crew a couple nights ago, and some of the stories I remembered very well and some of them made me blink, because I couldn't remember ever reading them before.

There's one story, "The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet". It's a good story (like my mother and I were discussing a few days ago in the car, it's more about someone going insane than about, I don't know, an evil table-lamp or something) and longer than I was expecting, which is nice. But these are the two things I remembered about it:
a) if you try to kill yourself by shooting yourself in the head, there's a good chance it might not turn out how you want it to -- the bullet could ricochet off your skull and hit someone else, it might travel around your skull and then make its way out again, &c.
b) some people misspell certain words certain ways, and no matter how many people correct their spelling of this (these) word (words), that's never going to change.

I had completely forgotten everything else.

I don't know where this was going, if it was going anywhere; it's just sort of interesting, I think.

This weekend was unusually productive -- I wasn't actually expecting to do anything other than tidy, but who am I to ignore an urge to clean, even if it's at one in the morning? Especially when I have an empty suite in a mostly-empty building!

So, things I got done (some of these were this afternoon, to be fair):
-- cleaned up my room, since my yarn was all over everywhere
-- washed the counters in the kitchen
-- washed the stove
-- used the plastic thingy to scrape the stove, which means it is actually clean
-- vacuumed the bathroom
-- vacuumed the hallways & kitchen
-- mopped the hallways & kitchen, because vacuuming only does so much
-- re-vacuumed the hallways & kitchen, since mopping got up some dust etc.
-- ate lunch and dinner (this was today, obviously, and mostly an accomplishment because I forgot to yesterday, and also probably did Friday)
-- went through my online exit loan counseling, so they'll stop harassing me via email
-- did three weeks of laundry
-- folded it up (this is mostly noteworthy because I can count on one hand the number of times I have done laundry and folded that laundry on the same night this entire year)

Also I moved the shoes we're going to exchange out to the kitchen by the door so they don't stay here while we're out, but that takes a good deal less effort than all of that other stuff.


In between all of this madness today, I somehow managed to read most of A Wizard of Mars; the only reason I actually stopped was that it occurred to me I could pause, go put my laundry in, and then start reading again, and that this would be a much more efficient use of my time. After I post this and go get myself a snack, I plan on finishing it. :D

I feel like I start half of my entries nowadays with "and then I didn't post for (insert ridiculous amount of time here)". Probably this means I should post more, especially since I have a habit of composing posts while I'm showering; somehow I just never type any of them up.


BUT.

Today was my very first full day of I NEVER HAVE ANY MORE CLASSES EVER IN MY LIFE. It was awesome -- I woke up to an alarm, mostly because I had plans with twistomatic to go spend my meals in the campus center, so that was sort of lame, but the rest of the day consisted of finishing season 5 of Criminal Minds (well, up to what aired tonight, which I need to hunt down tomorrow at some point), watching a bunch of random stuff on TV (including ANTM, the elimination for which pleased me this week, much like last week's did), and then deciding to embark on a re-watch of Dead Like Me.

I feel these were all very good life choices. I also crocheted some.


One of the things I was considering posting was a poll so other people could help me decide what to read next, but then I remembered that I've had A Wizard of Mars sitting underneath my pile of hoodies where it couldn't distract me since it showed up in my campus mailbox. So actually I'll be reading that. The poll will probably be along shortly, though, since I could feasibly just read all day. MAYBE I WILL.

(That prospect is actually incredibly exciting.)

parcae: (watching television on computer) oh, baby, he's gonna kill you anyway.
parcae: you might as well mouth off.
twistomatic: you sound like me.
twistomatic: this bothers me ...

( survivor: heroes vs. villains )

In other news, I got two and a half solvents done today, hooray! That puts me well over the halfway point, even if I don't go in until three tomorrow, like I think is going to happen. (Going in at three gives me time to make up the fluorescein solution, another solvent -- probably 1-propanol, since I did ethanol and 1-butanol today -- and run those two as well as the 1-butanol I made but didn't completely finish today.) At some point next week Chris needs to show me how to use all the software I grabbed off of rivet, and hopefully I'll be done by Wednesday. (Those two statements aren't actually related. Um.)

When I got into lab today Chris was off TAing a genchem lab (as happens on Tuesday mornings), but there was a mask sitting on my desk. This was mostly awesome because I knew where they lived in the lab once but have since forgotten. So I went and turned the computer and the instrument on and let the program start to boot, put my gloves on, fumbled my way into the mask, and took a deep breath and went to go pour myself ~40ml of pyridine.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the mask made it worse. Hello, noxious fume that's trapped around my mouth and nose, how are you today?

Luckily, at some point during the day yesterday, I mentioned that I had 12 solvents, and then amended that to 13, and Chris said if I wanted I could just not do one of the polar aprotic ones and make it an even twelve.

So guess who doesn't have to work with pyridine for the rest of the year (or the rest of her life, if she can swing it)?

WHY YES THAT WOULD BE ME.

My day, in list form:

-- did things before lunch; ate lunch
-- went to lab and heard that Max had pinkeye (apparently nobody was healthy last week)
-- made up the first vial of solution in reagent-grade acetone
-- made up the second vial of solution and managed to nail the concentration without having to make it more or less dilute (AWESOME)
-- made up the vial of fluorescein (after approximately eight adjustments, because ugh)
-- forgot how to autozero the instrument, and realized that there was nobody to give me a suggestion
-- got a new mouse for the instrument's computer so that nobody will have homicidal urges after dealing with it
-- decided to make up another solvent, and found the pyridine
-- DIED

My god is pyridine the worst thing ever. (I opened the window! It didn't help! I poured it back in the bottle and opened the window wider! It still didn't help! So I went and ate my granola bar and read and tried not to vomit or pass out.)

:|

Okay, short version of my reaction to tonight's Survivor --

I LOVE MY FUCKING SHOW.


There was too much awesome to focus on anything else. I love my show. The end.

*floofs off to watch Project Runway be awesome also*

parcae: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnUMOrd_ANI
bookelfe: *headtilts*
bookelfe: qu'est-ce que ce'est?
parcae: :D?
bookelfe: WOW
parcae: I KNOW RIGHT
bookelfe: *staring at performance*
parcae: is that not totally awesome
bookelfe: it IS =-O
parcae: he makes me go *___*
bookelfe: he reminds me of someone looks-wise
bookelfe: and I can't think who -
parcae: oh?
parcae: huh.
bookelfe: - *chokes*
bookelfe: I KNOW
parcae: ...?
bookelfe: for some reason
bookelfe: his face
bookelfe: reminds me of Data
parcae: ...
parcae: WHAT
parcae: WHAT.
bookelfe: I DON'T KNOW
bookelfe: BUT NOW YOU CAN'T UNSEE IT
bookelfe: CAN YOU
parcae: AHHHHHHHH
bookelfe: SORRY
parcae: CANNOT UNSEE
bookelfe: CAN'T READ DATA'S POKER FACE
parcae: I DO NOT APPROVE OF THESE SHENANIGANS
parcae: ;___;
bookelfe: he has unexpected talents!
parcae: ... data or johnny weir?
parcae: *wary*
bookelfe: BOTH

Replies will not come until, like, late this evening (I have Serious Plans to work out tonight and, also, it's still COLUMN TIME), but they will come.

Reply to this post, and I'll tell you one reason why I like you. Then repost this and spread the love (if you want to, you know, whatever).

Telling your mother (jokingly) that the way she's coughing makes her sound consumptive suddenly becomes a lot less amusing when her doctor, after telling her that he has no idea why she's still coughing after a month and two different antibiotics, gives her a TB bubble-test and schedules her for a chest x-ray.

:| :| :|

(Protip: if needles make you sick to your stomach do not look up the TB bubble-test, even if you just want text about what indicates having it and what indicates not having it. It's a poor life choice.)

I think I need a break, guys.

(... in all honesty that probably won't mean I'm around any less than I have been, lately, but this is a much more conscious thing.)


See you on the flip side.

nepheliad: i would find you. I HAVE YOUR PHONE NUMBER.

At some point before I go back to school, I am getting a new phone (hurrah). I have it narrowed down to two: the LG Xenon or the Samsung Solstice. If anyone has any opinions about either of these, say something? I'd really appreciate it. (I am planning on using it for talking, texting, and taking pictures, and ... that's it. So.)

I HAVE A POWER CORD AGAIN. HURRAH.

( the SAGA, or: an account of my train ride, and the fail therein )

ANYWAY. I'm super-behind on the thirty-one in thirty-one thing, so I think I'm just going to post a whole bunch of songs on Friday. (Our plans for Friday are as follows: get up whenever we wake up, have Cinnabon muffin thingers from OUR OVEN, thank you freezer section at Wegmans, shower etc., go out and have Chinese at the buffet somewhere around here for lunch/dinner/thing, and go see Sherlock Holmes. I am excited, and also will obviously have time in the evening, so.)

Also, my mom drove me to the downtown library today and I walked out with I think five DWJ books, so I believe I am going to go make myself a bagel, take some Excedrin, and read for a while. And put band-aids on my thumbs. (Aaaaargh.)

Yes Meghan:

I am willing to offer you Virology as an ISP if you wish
to allow you more time to complete your MQP in C10.

To register for an ISP, you download an ISP form from
the registrar's homepage (Forms link on the left side), fill
out the student information at the top, and get the form
to me for my signature. There is no rush to do this, so
long as it is done by the start of C10.

Dave


AWESOME.

So I am totally remiss in not pimping this out yesterday, as I should have, BUT.

There's a Fifteen-Minute Festival going on at delight's, and it's got about 45 hours left on it, give or take. SO COME PLAY.

Oh but I have missed my show.

( survivor: samoa )

I had my first PQP meeting today! (Since I'm going abroad for my MQP, I have to prepare for it the term beforehand, and that's PQP -- my partner and I are pretty much writing the proposal for our project.) It was kind of funny, actually, because we were meeting in somebody's office, so the eight of us ended up at this table that had originally had four chairs around it.

HOWEVER. Reassuring things:
-- My CBC advisor told us he would have been too chicken to do something like this when he was an undergrad, so I feel a lot better.
-- One of the girls who went last year apparently wrote a Handbook -- how to use the subway, where to buy a secondhand bike that won't fall apart, where to buy groceries, that sort of day-to-day thing -- that one of the advisers will be putting up on myWPI at some point this weekend.
-- It was made clear to the five of us today that we are expected to finish the writing component of our projects, not in Shanghai, but when we get back. Which means, to put it a different way, that we do not have to finish the writing before we leave.

I honestly have no words for how awesome that is. Just. This is my face: :D. (This was my face before I found it out, when I thought we had to finish everything before we left: ;_;)


Monday is my cell bio test. It was supposed to be today, but it was postponed due to nuclear reactor emergency, so. That means I've got the whole weekend to study, though, which is nice.

A conversation I just had:

phone: (rings)
me: (answers)
K: Hello?
me: Yeah, what's up?
K: Are you a fan of Patrick Stewart or Star Trek at all?
me: (realizes what he's talking about) Yeah, but I don't have a shirt. :(
both phones simultaneously: (die)
time: (passes)
me: (calls K again)
K: (picks up) Yo.
me: So both our phones just went insane.
K: Yeah, pretty much. So I was gonna ask if -- you know about the Picard Hall photo op, and all, but it's sort of a disaster in terms of people showing up, so we're just going to reschedule it, I guess. Actually if you look out your window you can see my spiffy Starfleet uniform.
me: Oh god, of course you have a Starfleet uniform. What color are you? Please tell me you're not a redshirt. (crosses to bed and looks out at window)
people out there (not including K): (wave)
K: (in fact, wearing red uniform) Well, yeah, but it's Next Generation red! It's command, not engineering! I am not expendable when disaster strikes.
me: (trying not to laugh) Yeah, sure.
people out there (not including K): (still waving)
me: Okay, I'm going to close my blinds now, because this is sketching me out. Bye!

Sometimes I really do love my school.

(Also: WHAT IS MY LIFE.)

I am officially moved in and situated, et cetera. I also had my requisite breakdown, although unfortunately that was after my mom left, so I called her and cried at her for a while. And now I'm fine (or will be after I sleep for a while, anyway). For the moment, I am eating chocolate and considering either reading or watching some of Arsenic and Old Lace, which never fails to cheer me up but might, as it is 2:30 already, keep me up for way the fuck too long. Or maybe I will just play a game on my PS2 FROM MY BED because I have a wireless controller. Hell yes.


And then tomorrow I will take more pictures -- when the sun is out -- and then post, because my room is fucking awesome, and not just because I have a single. BUT I HAVE A SINGLE AND THAT'S AWESOME.


(Actually I'll probably just have some more water and go to bed. I caught up on my flist, but I don't think I commented anywhere. I did read everything though! ♥, just in general, to everyone.)

Namechange! From "one of those fiery mexican clives" to "nothing says "party" like a tracheotomy".


Meanwhile, Google has been helpful tonight, if only in convincing me I need to just suck it up and go to a dermatologist. (I have, of late, discovered some random flesh-colored bumps on my forehead. They're not acne, they don't hurt, and (yes I know this was a bad idea) when I squeezed one -- or attempted to -- all I got was a little bit of blood. Go me. Every search I shove in Google ends up telling me I need to go see someone!) So I shall be doing so in December. (I have, I believe, four days home in October, and I need those days to, you know. Freak out.)

To anyone I have ever offended or hurt, intentionally or unintentionally: I'm sorry, and I hope you'll forgive me.

Stolen from djcati:

- go to http://translationparty.com/tp/
- enter some song lyrics
- post the resulting garbled messes to your LJ
- have your hapless flist try to guess which songs they are from

1. My first words of prayer, "close to, and I" swear Start
2. We believe in people, the desire of God
3. In English, except in the rain in summer, may be changed at the end (Placebo, English Summer Rain; latentfunction)
4. In my life, to solve the wrong problem
5. When a tall, she had heard a 10-foot
6. In some cases, the undying popularity, is set to I
7. I am a chord of tension, it is a secret chord DEBIDDOPUREI (Rufus Wainwright, Hallelujah; latentfunction)
8. I love to introduce one's own property
9. I will not waste time to have a voice in the heart of it
10. I have my own name, and I am white male, born in the program.
11. 500 feet and 500 miles, 1,000 miles door, I often fall (The Proclaimers, I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles); latentfunction)
12. They are, ultimately, the news and I can detect the device
13. Thrust, the drive in the pelvis is very angry
14. I can dream of your fantasy
15. Boston, Sun is in between the sea and underwear

Namechange! From "postmortem erections are not your fault" to "one of those fiery mexican clives".

:D