That science don't love you!

I am in a nightmare. This is my nightmare.

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:40:14 GMT

You know what? If I knew HOW to say what I was trying to say in that fucking essay, I WOULD'VE FUCKING SAID IT instead of asking for your help so you could stand over me and repeatedly ask me things that I don't know the answer to and then talking about me over my fucking head when on of my classmates was kind enough to try to rescue me. Funny enough, embarassing someone doesn't make them produce full, complete, grammatically correct sentences. So now I'm hiding in the goddamn bathroom and pretending to be sick because while I'd like to make the point that thanks, I'm 27, how about you treat me like an adult, I realize the best way to accomplish this is NOT screaming at the teacher. I wish I hadn't dragged myself out of bed this morning.

死ぬほど疲れた。

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:03:01 GMT

2時にだけど、スピーチの最初のドラフトを書き終わった。12時は本当の書き終わった時が、私は原稿用紙で書かないわけにはいかなかった。1500字だ。死ぬほど疲れた。

It's 2 in the morning, but I finally finished writing the first draft of my speech. It's 1500 characters, which is almost twice as long as required, but the damn thing also has to be at least five minutes when spoken. Hopefully it's not total crap.

So tired.

I got an 87% on my Japanese test, which I studied my ass off for. I don't know. I'm getting B and not A grades this semester, and I'm working a lot harder than I've ever worked at any other Japanese class, even Advanced I. I'm worried about my grade. And yeah, I know, a B is a good grade. But this would be the first Japanese class I didn't get an A in, and... well, it's just kind of depressing. And makes me worry about the even more advanced classes I'm taking in the fall.

Anyway, I'm going to go to bed. I wonder if the bit I wrote in Japanese up there makes any sense? It's quite possible it doesn't, because my brain has melted.

OH MY GOD DARK KNIGHT

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 19:23:15 GMT

NOTE: THERE ARE SPOILERS IN THE COMMENTS.

DARK KNIGHT IS THE GREATEST BATMAN MOVIE EVER!!!!

GO SEE IT THEN GO SEE IT AGAIN AND HOLY CRAP

Holy shit that was even better than the first one, I can't believe it. But WOW. We saw the 10:00 show so it wasn't too crowded (and only cost $5!) and I can't wait to see it again!

Heath Ledger was absolutely TERRIFYING. There are just no words for it. I won't say that his Joker was superior to Jack Nicholson's; they were really two rather different things, in two very different movies. But my god, he was so, so scary. And the best bit of the movie was him dressed up as a nurse. I almost died. And when he walked away from the hospital and some of the bombs hadn't exploded in it and he was so puzzled and annoyed. OH MY GOODNESS.

The movie was just full of really crazy awesome scenes. Like on the ferry when the convict throws the detonator for the other boat out of the window. That was WOW. And the Joker setting fire to the pyramid of money. And... well... EVERYTHING.

The story was great, and tense. I actually even believed it when they faked killing Gordon, so I just about fell out of my chair when he ended up being the driver for the armored transport when they were trying to catch the Joker.

And then the ending just blew me away. The whole Batman is running so we can chase him thing. WOW.

I think the really big test will be how the third movie turns out. Because there has to be a third one, right? The third was where Spiderman just fell flat on its face. I don't want to see that happen to new Batman, because so far it has been just STUNNING and amazing.

And actually, you know who I hope is in the next movie? Catwoman. I want to see her done right. If they did Catwoman as well as they did the Joker and Two Face, HOLY CRAP. It would be just insane.

OH AND. There was a preview for Watchmen. I just about jumped out of my chair. And considering that the director is the guy that did 300, it will be exceedingly pretty, and I think we can have great hopes for accuracy too.

What a great way to start my day. Even if movie theater popcorn is perhaps not the wisest breakfast choice possible.

And now, time to head off for Angie's baby shower!

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:53:56 GMT

I think homework has melted my brain, and it's only the second week of class. I'm tired, I'm incredibly grouchy (yes, like more than normal) and I can't write worth a good goddamn even though I want to, which is so incredibly frustrating that I can't put it into words.

I would like to repeat my normal threat, to destroy the world with fire if I don't get a drink with an umbrella in it soon. Except I don't think I have the creative strength necessary to destroy the world, and alcohol will probably put me asleep in my chair.

I have this strange feeling, like I'm slowly transforming into a live action TV-series Batman villain. Badly dressed, badly scripted, and doomed to ultimate failure in the form of some brightly colored Pows and Zaps. I think my villain name will be 'The Wibbler.' And even if I do end up wearing something in an utterly tasteless shade of lime green, I'm certain I'll still at least have a nice hat.

I has a Wii Fit

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 06:32:34 GMT

So on Friday, Mike decided to go over to Best Buy to see if he could find a trackball. That search was unsuccessful, but they had just gotten in a shipment of Wii Fits. He bought one, and then I ran over to the shop as soon as he got home to buy a second one for Kat, since she hasn't been able to find one.

I finally took it out of the box today and played with it, and it's a lot of fun, and quite interesting. I like the balance system, and I love the aerobic games, especially hula hoop. I sucked at that and the step aerobics until I finally realized that I had the balance board turned around, so that right and left were reversed. Boy, I'm smart. But once I turned it the right way, I kicked some ass. And the hula hoop game is awesome on the abs. So yay, another toy that has physical fitness value. And takes up less space than the exercise bike. (Though don't get me wrong, I still like my exercise bike a lot. It's just nice to have some variation.)

I managed to get all of my homework done this weekend in plenty of time, despite the fact that I did absolutely nothing on Friday because I'm a loser. Saturday we played D&D and today was Werewolf, so lots of geeky things happened.

Before tai chi this morning, I talked to Terry (one of the Terrys from kung fu) and it just made me miss kung fu all over again. I really hope that in a year or two, my knees will be good enough that I can start doing a bit more high impact stuff again. I figure that I might get to start some light running again (because god, I miss running SO MUCH) and if that doesn't destroy me utterly, then I can probably go back to kung fu if I still miss it as much then as I do now. But we'll see. That's a ways away and I just have to keep working at it. But I can hope!

I don't feel like going to class tomorrow. Bleh. But I'd better go to bed now. Double bleh. I technically paid for the sunrise yoga class this summer term as well (though mercifully, it was quite cheap), but I'm having zero success motivating myself to get out of bed for something that I'm not getting graded on or paid for.

I must play with the Wii Fit more tomorrow. I want to unlock more aerobic games.

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 19:50:51 GMT

I just took my balls firmly in hand and submitted Fire in the Belly to Strange Horizons. We'll see how long it takes me to get my first rejection of the year. When I sent them Mr. Clutter's Obsession, the editor that wrote the rejection (Susan) was super nice and included a comment on the story. (She said it had a 'lovely lyrical feel' which made me go all squee inside.) I really like them...

A post of many things, excluding squid.

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 23:07:48 GMT

For sadly, I have had little to do with squid lately.

I had a moment of squee today at work. Tom (my Overlord Geologist) told me that one of the wells out of my project from last summer has doubled its production from the pre-recompletion five barrels per day to ten barrels. This is happy news, since the recompletion was my project, and initially it had killed the well's production. Then apparently, it slowly went back to where it had been, then doubled. Woot. I feel so much better about it now. And as a bonus, of the three wells I worked on, they only picked one as an initial test, and it was the worst prospect of the three. Now that it's doubled production, they're probably going to do the work on at least one more of the wells I recommended. So I feel like I accomplished something.

Now if only all that work I did on the second field wouldn't go to waste. But I guess if you're worried about killing everyone in the surrounding area, which includes a grade school, with sulfuric acid when you drill a well, that does put a crimp on things. (The field has a teeny sulfur issue.)

Today was the second day of the last summer term. I'm back in summer class hell for another five weeks. I really miss Fujimoto-sensei. I don't think new sensei is bad, she's just much stricter, and some things I don't seem to be learning as well from her. (Part of this may be because Fujimoto-sensei had been teaching most of us in Advanced I for at least two semesters, so she knew us really well and knew what sort of slack to give us.) Though she is making us speak Japanese so much more than even Fujimoto-sensei did, which is great. My spoken Japanese needs that work. And after only one day, she's already cowed Johnson-san, who I have not bitched about in LJ before I think, but he was pissing a lot of us off previously because he'd be fucking around with his laptop while Fujimoto-sensei was trying to teach or one of us was trying to present. I have a feeling that he sensed that would not fly with this teacher, in much the same way that mice sense they're being watched by something much larger than them that's hungry and has sharp claws.

The weekend was mighty in the amount of awesome it contained, though Jesus fucking Christ, Phoenix was like the sweaty armpit of the devil. Yes, yes, I know, it's Arizona, it's fucking hot. But it was fucking hot. The only time we ever left the safety of an air conditioned house was to get in a car, and after a bit of driving around I felt like someone had sucked all the life out of me, and by life I probably mean sweat.

But other than the partial melting that occurred, it was way fun. We got to meet our WoW homies, Swang and Cchan and Karra and Kristik and Ama and Lorale and Elfling. While I know it's probably a sign of pathetic geekiness that we went across state lines to meet people from WoW, I really don't fucking care, because they're all absolutely awesome people in real life and we had so much fun hanging out with them. And for posterity I will note that we did many things while there that had nothing to do with WoW, and they were all sorts of gloriously nerdy fun.

So, we played Paranoia (Ed! is now on its second six pack of clones, but I can't say I'm sorry because it also got promoted to Yellow clearance!) and skulked around in book stores and talked about anime. And I showed Swang, Cchan, Karra, and Kristik the Greatest Movie Ever Made, which is of course Hot Fuzz. Karra is taller than she sounds on Vent, Swang makes funny faces, Cchan is definitely my evil twin (and I'm her evil twin, so it works), Ama is adorable and bouncy, and Kristik... looks like a fucking musketeer. Like from the Walt Disney The Three Musketeers movie. Seriously. [If you know him] I DARE YOU TO TELL ME I'M WRONG.

OH AND. Flashback more than ten years (...oh hell) to when I was in high school and did winter percussion. The big championship that year was in Phoenix, and I believe it was when we made it to finals that we went to a really cool pizza place called the Organ Stop. It's a restaurant where one entire wall is a huge Wurlitzer organ and there are instruments of all sorts hanging from the walls that can be remotely played from the organ. It made a huge impression on me back then; the man that played the organ was really nice, and played stuff for us like the theme from Star Wars. So, fast forward to the vacation in Phoenix, and we went back to that very same restaurant, and it was just like I remembered it, and it was COOL.

And the pizza was pretty good too.

So yes. It was a great vacation, even if going to class the next day after it ended was a bit of a let-down. I'm really glad that I went. (And even more glad we flew instead of driving.) I can't wait to visit them all again, though in the winter, thankyouverymuch.

Isaac told me that while we were gone, it was cool and cloudy in Denver. Because he's a bastard.

And that is that. Back to the regularly scheduled having little to talk about except homework and how much I wish I didn't have any.

EXCEPT FIRST!

Jefferson Bible reveals Founding Father's view of God, faith - I hope we all knew about the "Jefferson Bible" already, but if you didn't, you ought to read this article. Just in case you'd forgotten that Thomas Jefferson could pwn you.

A quick 'just in case'

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:53:08 GMT

For those of us that believe in strict separation of church and state, there's a story circulating that would be a real deal-breaker for the Obama lovers out there - it's about him wanting to expand Bush's hideous fath-based initiatives. However, the story isn't entirely true.

Friendly Atheist has the round-up. While I know there are some people on my side of the church/state debate that won't be happy, I find I can certainly live with this. And I still love Obama lots.

In less interesting news, I survived my Japanese final this morning. I think I did pretty well. Once I was done I did the kanji ability assessment, which took about an hour. It spat on my shoes and called me a bitch, because I suck at writing kanji and couldn't remember an on-reading to save my life. However, I did get a 80-90% score in several areas, all of them to do with reading and understanding meaning. So apparently I need to keep up with the reading and also get off my lazy ass and study more of the writing stuff. Bleh.

Tomorrow is the oral exam, which I expect to suck. I love Fujimoto-sensei, but being stuck alone in a room with her for twenty minutes while she grills me in Japanese is not my idea of a good time. And then my presentation is on Thursday, and I expect that to suck like nothing has sucked before. I simply don't have the time to get it memorized, so I'll be lucky if I'm doing even slightly better than just reading woodenly off a piece of paper.

Then it's the weekend! Woo! I'll be in Phoenix, doing the ultimate dork thing and visiting people from my WoW guild. And melting in the heat like a candle that's been left too long in the sun, no doubt.

Like you didn't have enough RPs to be in!

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 17:49:53 GMT

No Appeal. No Parole. No Chance.
Welcome to Hell's Gate, a multi-fandom RPG set in the sinister correctional facility sharing the same name. In Hell's Gate, the guards are cruel, the food is slop, and the other prisoners are brutal. Then, at night, it gets worse. We are now accepting applications, so why not visit hells_gate_pen and apply for a character today!

If you think this game looks cool and would like to pass it on, here's the code for the ad:


<center><img src="http://vampiricgoat.com/lj/hg3.jpg">
<table cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" width="800">

<tbody>
<tr>
<th align="left" bgcolor="#100304" valign="top" width="800"><font color="#9b2d1e" size="+1">No Appeal. No Parole. No Chance.</font></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left" bgcolor="#8a8985" valign="top" width="800"><font size="+0" color="#100304">Welcome to Hell's Gate, a multi-fandom RPG set in the sinister correctional facility sharing the same name. In Hell's Gate, the guards are cruel, the food is slop, and the other prisoners are brutal. Then, at night, it gets worse.
We are now accepting applications, so why not visit <lj user=hells_gate_pen> and apply for a character today!</font></td>

Remember to wash your hands.

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:11:24 GMT

Remember the bacteria evolving in a lab article that I posted a while back.

Here's an utterly hilarious and snark-filled follow-up. Andrew Schlafly, the person who runs Conservapedia (note my restraint in simply referring to him as a person? Thank you.) wrote a nasty e-mail to Professor Lenski, who headed the study. Because, as you might imagine if you've ever tainted your eyes with Conservapedia, as I did when I was trying to find out what sort of lies creationists tell about geology, he was very offended by the whole evolution thing and was apparently under the sad delusion that he could cause Dr. Lenski public embarrassment by being a prick to him.

Professor Lenski had a few things to say about that. Lenski's second reply is quite long, but a thing beautiful to read.

Oh Professor Lenski. I less than three you long time.

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 04:19:19 GMT

It turns out to be a good thing I didn't go to tai chi this afternoon. It's 10:00 and I'm still not quite finished with my kanji worksheet. I wrote a 700+ character essay from scratch and did about 400+ characters of research summaries. Though the good news is there that I'm done with those and I've turned them in, incoherent as they might be. So I can start working on the research project tomorrow.

My brain, it has melted. It's dribbling out my ear. Did I mention that I'm never going to do summer school again? Because I'm not. Ever.

My brain meats. Oh, oh, my brain meats.

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:57:52 GMT

That loud popping sound? My irony gland just exploded.

Oh and? The LHC is NOT, in fact, going to destroy the Earth with a tiny black hole. I'm sure that all of you are greeting this revelation with a resounding "duh," considering that the universe at large contains an enormous number of collisions similar to what will be happening at the LHC every day and has failed to destroy itself with microscopic black holes. Here's the BBC's article on it. Sadly, I'm sure this won't shut the nuts up.

I am scared to even think about my homework today. I have a 600 character essay, and I need to work on my research summaries for tomorrow, and I have a kanji worksheet to do. I'm currently not sure if I ought to go to tai chi or not, because I want the exercise, but I think I may not have the time to spare.

In good news, though, I no longer feel like barfing and dying. So things are looking up.

Well fuck.

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 18:00:17 GMT

Rest in peace, Mr. Carlin.

I intend to write about the awesome of TAM a bit later, but right now I'm still not feeling at all well (lunch yesterday at the airport, a Quizno's turkey, bacon, and guacamole sub has caused much barfing, and I didn't go to school and will probably not make it to work today) and am feeling rather depressed with this news. I think I'll put his CDs on while I work on my Japanese translation project.

Shakespeare, anyone?

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:19:52 GMT

The Colorado Shakespeare Festival is doing Love's Labours Lost this year. I haven't seen that one yet. Anyone for it? They are also doing Henry VIII, which I haven't seen as well, so either sounds good to me.

Add one more to the list of things Tengu is terrified of.

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:40:13 GMT

Yesterday I started playing my koto again, after a long time of being a lazy shit and not practicing. This is mostly because I want to be able to play something and not embarrass myself for my Japanese research project presentation. But getting back to playing has reminded me how nice it is to be a bit musical, so I will try to keep it up after the project is done. And I'm hoping, once I'm done with school and have the whole money thing again, I'll be able to go back to lessons.

Man, I miss my calluses, though. I hope they build back up fairly fast. The fingers on my left hand hate me a lot right now. I've set my koto up in the spare room since that means I can leave the stand put together and not have to cover the koto nightly, since the cats normally can't get in to mess with it. That's really nice to be able to do.

Anyway, both yesterday and today, as soon as I started playing, Tengu evaporated. Mike managed to locate him, curled up under our bed in the exact center. So apparently, my playing is terrifying, right up there with Nick and Chelsea's dogs and the horrifying apparition that is known as the Vacuum Cleaner.

I hadn't thought I was that bad off, really. Everyone's a critic.

I've got the two decimated catnip containers up there too, in the windowsill on the off chance I can coax them in to growing back in. There was an absolutely huge jumping spider on one of them. I took it outside with the intention to release it, but it didn't seem to want to go. So I put it back in the spare bedroom with the catnip plants. I doubt there's anything to eat in that room, but considering how darn big that spider was, I guess it won't have trouble figuring out how to feed itself. (We'll see if one of the cats ends up vanishing.)

Late to the party, as always.

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 04:51:02 GMT

Congratulations to George Takei and his partner, Brad Altman! And to all of the other newly made married couples in California. Here's an adorable picture.

(...hopefully the majority of the state won't prove to be a bunch of selfish dicks come November. Because totally, the best way to protect marriage is to forcibly destroy a ton of them. In jerk logic, at least.)

My life is school, with massive, terrifying piles of homework every night. And being tired. I had a really weird, bad dream last night I could have done without. And woke up this morning to find Loki snuggled up next to me. And kneading my boobs while purring up a storm. It was fucking bizarre.

I leave for TAM on Friday. To be honest, I'm not excited about it at all, because I've just been so busy and tired. Hopefully that'll change once I get there. And hopefully I'll be able to find the people I'm bumming crash space off of.

Anyone who plays in a horror RP should watch "The Mist."

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 04:52:58 GMT

Wow, talk about mood. That movie was crazy good, and tense, and it scared the pants off of me. (Not that it's hard to do, but still.) It just felt so... claustrophobic. And even though there were CGI monsters, they didn't look nearly as silly as some of the other CGI I've seen recently. (coughcoughIndianaJonescoughcough) I spent a lot of time squirming in my seat and yelling helpful advice like, "Don't just stand there! RUN! RUN LIKE A BITCH!" at the TV. Which is just another reason why I don't normally watch scary movies in the theater, because that sort of behavior is generally frowned upon. (That, and I can easily hide in a very non-scary bathroom if things get too tense for a wuss like me.)

The ending was just... horrid. I mean, in a good way, but horrid and depressing. I should have expected something that mean from Stephen King.

So, excellent movie. I will never, ever watch it again. Even if it would be nice to see Scary Woman I Loathed get shot again.

Oh, and unrelated, BUT THIS IS SO FREAKING COOL.

Dude, where's my summer?

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:59:25 GMT

Well, the weather is getting quite summery, though it's still been cool enough that I haven't felt the need to turn the air conditioning on yet. (Yay, lower utility bill.) I'm more just feeling that it can't be summer, because I'm in class for three hours a day, and still have no social life because I've got several hours of homework to do each night once I'm done with work. The whining will no doubt be great when the fall semester starts and I finally accept that really, I'm not going to get a break this year.

TAM is next weekend. The thought that I'm going this year, thanks to charity paying for my admission fee, hasn't really sunk in either. I doubt I'll really grasp it until I'm actually in Las Vegas and wondering what the hell I've gotten myself in to.

I've been reading an absolutely ridiculous amount, lately. I guess to make up for how little reading outside of school work I've done over the last few semesters. I devoured Kushiel's Scion in about three days and am already halfway through Kushiel's Justice. It feels nice to read stuff just for the fun of it. And Naomi Novik's fourth book is out, so that's what I'll be jumping in to once I've gotten done with this one. Alternate history of the Napoleonic Wars with dragons, for the win!

Saturday I got to go for a little walk around at Marshall Mesa, which was a nice reminder that not all hikes end up being evil, tick-infested death marches that destroy my joints. Sunday was the werewolf game, but I got quite sick and had to go home, so that was less fun than it really should have been. (It's a weird thing, I've noticed. If I'm going to start violently barfing, before hand I get really, really sleepy, to the point that I'll actually do things like fall asleep while sitting at a really uncomfortable picnic table.)

Currently, I'm attempting to find women's polo shirts to buy since mine are looking seriously disreputable. I bought my last round at Lane Bryant (and they actually look good on tubby chicks, far better than the men's shirts I've been wearing that simply look too big) but the store in the mall has closed, and the website produced nothing I'd consider wearable. I'm most displeased. Also the hippy grocery store near my house has failed to produce henna for Sin to smear in my hair, and I'm pretty annoyed about that, too, since my roots are starting to look extremely scary. I'm hoping I can find some up in Boulder on Friday. Otherwise I ordered some from the manufacturer's site and will just have to wait, I guess.

Oh, and speaking of spending money, I will probably be getting a new laptop in the fall. I'm still mulling over my options. It would be nice to have a laptop, though I have no intention of taking it to school, because then I'd never pay attention in class again. My desktop's lack of portability has frustrated me quite a few times, though, which is why I'm thinking of switching over. I figure whatever brand of laptop I end up with, I'll see if I can get one of those docking things for it so I can use a real keyboard when I'm at home. I just have to settle on a brand and all that. As much as I keep saying I want to go with a Mac, they're more expensive than I'd like, and it'd probably be better to get to try one out somehow before I spend that much money on it. And I have to say that Dell has scored some serious points with me since you can still buy laptops with Windows XP (home or professional) from them. I really don't want Vista, and I don't want to deal with reinstalling a system I've only just bought. Bleh. I've still got several months to consider my options, since I'm not going to spend the money until the fall semester starts and I see how hideously expensive my books (and the tuition, which they're jacking up) are going to be.

Woo, exciting life!

From the Department of Oh No They Didn't: Michelle Obama = baby mama? What the hell. Seriously. Scalzi opines about this bit of tastelessness. I agree. What scares me is that there's still almost five months left and things are only going to get more cringe-inducing from here.

From the Department of Just In Case You Needed a Reminder That Fox Doesn't Like Atheists: Atheist billboard clip. (Embedded in the page.) This comic expresses my feelings on it well.

I get my national and international news from the BBC, by the way.

Revenge of the sheep!

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 01:36:51 GMT

Everyone else is doing it!

...basically, I'm a frank, impatient asshole. So... yeah. They got me.

Okay, and we also did Mike's because I found it incredibly amusing:

...back to the homework. For real this time.

Writing To-Do List, 2008

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 22:10:16 GMT

It's June, and I haven't done my 2008 list yet. Not that I ever accomplish any of my goals, but I guess it doesn't hurt to think big.

Wait, I know. I'll cheat and add a couple things that I've already done.

Edit Fire in the Belly
Write/edit story for the Center for the West short story contest [I did, I finished it, and I lost. Woo!]
Finish typing/editing the first half of Worth Saving Me
Type/edit Fire in the Bones
Type/edit Talk
Send Fire in the Belly to at least two magazines
Finish hand writing Scarabaeus Sacer, then type and edit
Edit at least a couple chapters of Save Yourself and/or Throne of Nightmares before Worldcon
2 new Hob stories
Get off your ass and write some new material, for goodness sake.
Collect some rejection slips [I will count my story losing in that contest as one.]

[Well, I got 2 things done on the 2007 list of epic fail. I guess that counts for something.]

The front page of today's newspaper made me go squee.

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 21:53:13 GMT

But today? A fantastic, unheard-of day. I actually looked at the front page of the newspaper that was displayed in the dispenser at the bus stop, and danced a little jig. Go Obama!

As often happens, Scalzi expresses my opinion far better than I could. And my feelings about Clinton as well, really. What just blows me out of the water is that there have apparently been women so hysterical about her loss that they're threatening to vote for McCain? Have I tripped and fallen into a parallel universe without realizing? (Or is this just another example of the utter, stupid hysteria that occasionally makes me cringe to call myself a feminist?) Supporting Obama over Clinton doesn't make the Democratic party a seething pit of misogyny, it just means that Obama's ideas are more in line with the party's, I'd say, and by not that great of a majority. I think this blogger at Daily Kos put it pretty well.

Since I mentioned the f-word, I might as well throw this link in as well. This guy has some really good ideas, I think. Jackson Katz: Violence Against Women is a Men's Issue. I adore male feminists, which is why I hang out with so many of them. (And here, I mean feminism in the sense of "the radical notion that women are people" as opposed to the crazy, crazy brand that would probably claim that no one with a penis could be feminist.) And since we're still on the f-word, here's a very disturbing but important article to look at. Repairing the Damage, Before Roe - this is an essay written by a man who was practicing medicine before Roe, about the things he saw. Which kind of leads us full circle back to the question as to whether or not women who threaten to vote for McCain if they can't have Clinton have been smoking crack.

Moving on to less political things.

Just finished my third day of Japanese. My brain, she is full. We had our first kanji quiz today, and our first grammar quiz is tomorrow. It's just insane. I think I did really well on the kanji quiz, though, probably because we're only doing five at a time. But I have to correct my essay tonight and then memorize it so I can present it orally tomorrow, so... yeah. I knew this was going to be rough, I just had no idea how rough. Remember how I thought I was going to get a social life this summer? Haha, I was wrong. Very wrong.

I'm just about done with Cold Comfort Farm which is the book most recently picked for biblio_life. And I have to say, I love it. I think I'm going to have to buy a copy. It's short, quick, and utterly hilarious. Even more hilarious if you've encountered the sort of florid writing that Stella Gibbons is making fun of. And while her subject of mockery is novels of the 1920s and 30s, I think it's all still very relevant for today because awful, melodramatic, florid writing still exists. (And probably always will.)

I mentioned a while back that I saw a movie, when I rescued the kitty. The movie was Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. For the most part, I liked it. It had all the same corny goodness of the other movies, the same atmosphere, the same fun. Though I think I could have done with less computer graphics and more rubber snakes, all told, because that's the stuff Indiana Jones is made of! (I don't know, lately I'm really starting to dislike the amount of CG in live action films. I'm sure it's cheaper than building models, and maybe allows for action shots or effects that would be impossible otherwise, but what's the point if it sticks out among the live action and looks obviously fake? You might as well go back to the classic fake looking stuff.) And I really liked the character of Mutt Williams, the "kid" for the movie. He was a lot of fun and not at all annoying. (Probably because he wasn't a little kid, which made a lot of the stuff he did much more believable, especially when you find out about his dad.)

I was so excited about it I went to the midnight showing, even, and I can't really say I'm sorry, since it was fun to see it with Isaac and David and Sin. (Plus, trailer for Hellboy 2 I'm so stoked!)

WHY THE FUCK ARE THERE ALIENS IN MY INDIANA JONES MOVIE? WHY? Fine, my suspension of disbelief after the two good movies (Temple of Doom does not exist in my world) includes a Christian God that likes smiting Nazis. And really, who wouldn't like to smite some Nazis? And I could totally go with updating the villains to Russians, because considering the new decade it was set in, it made sense, and I do love a cheesy Russian accent as much as the next geek. BUT FUCKING ALIENS? GIVE ME A FUCKING BREAK! It's like someone got Close Encounters of the Third Kind mixed in with my Indiana Jones, and I don't like it!

CURSE YOU, GEORGE LUCAS! FIRST STAR WARS AND NOW THIS? YOU'VE CROSSED ME FOR THE LAST TIME! [insert fist shaking here]

Okay, better now. So, anyway, I think it's still worth seeing the movie in theaters if you're a fan of Indiana Jones like me. And wear your fedora. Just don't say I didn't warn you about the end of it.

First day of the A term, and I'm an auntie!

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 21:08:24 GMT

So, I didn't post for pretty much the last week, because I had very little to say. And now, school has started back up. Advanced Japanese I, squished into five weeks. Sensei handed out the homework schedule today. I mean, I know it'll be fun, but I'm also very, very screwed. But at least I can be sure I'll get through this class without hurting myself or being infested with blood sucking insects, which is more than I could say for geology. (Well, on sober reflection, the classroom we're in is on the third floor with very weird stairs, and has no air conditioning, so it won't be as comfortable as I would like. But still.)

Speaking of Geology, I got the last of my homework back, and my ultimate grade will be an A-. And yes, I know, I know, that's a good grade and I shouldn't complain. But damnit, I would have liked an A as a reward for destroying my left ankle all over again. And it seems that even though I felt really good about my last assignment, my teacher hated it. That just figures. I lost a bunch of points for not figuring out which way the fold was plunging, and then a ton more because I did my cross section at 2x scale and forgot to do my bed thicknesses at 2x scale. Argh, what a stupid mistake.

I think the one thing the whole miserable experience taught me is that I'm really not cut out to be a field geologist, because I like modern plumbing and other comforts too much. And when I'm miserable and coated with a toxic combination of sunscreen and an inch-thick layer of bug spray, there goes my attention to detail. I think if at all possible, I'd better stick with a nice desk job and let some other poor schmuck - one with better knees than mine, presumably - crawl around on the side of the mountain and try to find a decent surface to get strike and dip on while they're either being hailed on, eaten alive by ticks, or both at the same time. I'm really not looking forward to the two more field sessions I've got to take if I want to graduate. (I am really looking forward to my other geology classes and my Japanese classes, though, as they're fun and won't contribute to my chances of getting skin cancer in the next couple of decades.)

I went to my first morning yoga class. It was actually a nice way to wake up, though I can't say I'm a big fan of that whole dragging out of bed before six thing. The instructor is a fifth degree Yogi, whatever that means, and like all yoga instructors I've ever encounters, is incredibly nice and way out there. I'd probably laugh about some of what he says, but it's hard to giggle while you're trying to balance on one leg with your hands over your head or something. Unfortunately, I think the yoga aggravated my stupid ankle, or maybe just finished the job that going to tai chi started, because it's been hating on me all day. I didn't end up going to the doctor last week because it was starting to feel better (since I hadn't done anything but ride my bike around) but if it's still feeling like this on Friday, I really will go to the doctor.

On Saturday, I drove down to Colorado Springs to see Kat and Aki and meet Minami, who is very scrunchy and serious in that way that all newborns are. She seems like a very sweet baby, though, and has a crazy amount of soft black hair on her head. And her butt is blue. That's normal for Asian babies apparently, so no worries. She is so much tinier than I imagined a person could be, but at the same time, rather terrifyingly huge considering the fact that she was living in Kat's abdomen until Friday night. I got to hold her in my lap for a little while, and Kat told her to get used to me, since she'd be seeing me often. Which is the plan. I'm an auntie!

Still alive, and slowly coming back to the internets.

Sun, 25 May 2008 21:01:14 GMT

Yay, the class ended on Friday, and didn't manage to kill me. I think I'll get an A in it. The last project was kind of fun, actually, since we were doing a cross-section of an area with folds, so it was geologically interesting.

I spent most of yesterday hiding under my desk and being tired. I didn't go to tai chi this morning, actually, because my left leg is still bothering me enough that I think I should baby it for another couple of days.

However, yesterday I did leave the house. David and Mike came with me, and we headed toward Golden to go to the Table Mountain Animal Center, where strays from Westminster are sent. I asked if they had a kitty come in on Thursday morning, and the lovely girl behind the desk let me come in the back where they keep the strays on hold. I found the kitty that I found in the parking lot. It's a female, and she's fourteen years old, which just blows me away. I don't know what such a sweet old lady was doing wandering around in a parking lot, but I'd just about bet she was abandoned, which means I'd love to destroy the person that did it. What the girl told me was that as long as she doesn't have any really bad health problems, she'll get sent out to a Petsmart in the area and will stay there until she's adopted. (Since the people that come to TMAC just want kittens.) So she will get a family that loves her eventually and I don't have to worry about her being euthanised, according to what she told me.

I don't know. I still wish I could have taken her home with me. She's such a sweet old lady cat. However, Mike won't let me get a third cat and it would be unfair of me to make him put his foot down. And I don't think it'd be all that fair to a poor elderly kitty to throw her into a house with my two little "teenaged" shitheads.

I hope she ends up with a nice little old cat lady.

Also in animal news, supposedly the squirrels have been evicted from my second floor attic. The animal control company came by and put a little one way thing on the attic vent, which is how they think the squirrels were getting in. So as long as I'm not hearing squirrel noises by the end of the weekend, it means they've been kicked out. Though it's apparently also possible that they're getting in through my neighbor's attic and crawling under the fire wall, but I'm hoping that's not the case.

Yesterday, three times a squirrel came up to the patio door and banged on it. I'm not even joking. I only wish the cats had been awake and downstairs to freak out about it. But I'm wondering if that's one of the squirrels that we evicted, and it was one of those, "Dude, I locked myself out, can I come in and borrow the phone?" things. The squirrel had no fear at all, and didn't even run off when we pulled the curtains back to stair at it. So if I disappear one day, never to be heard from again, it's probably because the squirrels broke in and murdered me, then stole the deed to the house.

Thu, 22 May 2008 09:50:36 GMT

I saw the movie. It was a lot of fun. I'll definitely buy the DVD. Maybe I'll talk about it some other time. I don't feel like it now.

After the movie I walked to my car and I saw a kitty run across the parking lot and hide under the pickup truck one space over from mine. I meowed at the kitty and she talked back. Then I got her to come out from under the car and she let me pet her a lot. I think she was lonely. And I also think she must have just been lost. Her coat was dirty and she was pretty thin.

I couldn't just leave the kitty in the parking lot, so I picked her up and put her into my car. And I couldn't think of what else to do, because I couldn't take her home... Tengu and Loki would lose their shit, and I don't have anywhere I can keep a kitty and no extra litter box. So I took her to the emergency 24 hour vet by my parents' house because it was the only one I knew of. The whole drive she just kept meowing at me, and spent most of it sitting in my lap, cuddled up against my stomach.

That emergency vet sent me to North View, a couple streets over, because they said North View took care of strays and would hold them until the next morning for Animal Control. They gave me a cat carrier to put her in, since it was kind of hard to drive with a kitty in my lap, and I think it really upset the kitty, and I felt awful. Then the lady at North View said they wouldn't take the kitty because she wasn't actually injured, and when I said I couldn't take her home and didn't have anyone else that could take her (at three in the fucking morning) she told me I should just take the poor kitty back to the parking lot and release her there. I just still... I can't fucking believe it. That parking lot is near busy streets and a highway. And how can anyone with half a heart want to let a homeless animal out in a parking lot?

I called the other hospital again, and they said to bring her back, and they'd take her until the morning. So I left her there.

I just... I don't know why I'm so upset, even now. I know the kitty is in a safe place, and they'll take good care of her and give her food and a blanket until she goes to the shelter. But I don't know. She was so sweet. And she trusted me, and I left her with even more strangers and to an uncertain future. I hope she gets adopted. She was so sweet, she deserves to have a good family that loves her and takes care of her. But there's no way of knowing if that'll happen. So I'm sitting at my desk when I should be in bed and I feel like crap about it and I'm crying.

I really just want to cuddle my boys, but right now they want nothing to do with me because I smell like another cat.

I just hope someone finds the kitty in the shelter. I want to believe that she gets a happy ending for trusting me.

Meltdown mostly over.

Wed, 21 May 2008 06:06:30 GMT

I made it through today. For the most part we were on the Dakota ridge trail or the valley trail, so it was either flat or a relatively gentle up hill. I was still gimping along, but lots and lots of ibuprofen saw me through. I didn't end up doing tai chi, though, because my left leg just hurt too much. And I had homework to work on.

One more project down, and only one to go. I'm not really happy with how this one went, though, but I can't do much about it since it's already midnight. I'll just have to hope it's good enough to pass muster. Maybe I'll get some pity points.

My partner was really great, though. He did the couple bits of the trail that were too hard for me. And kept apologizing for leaving me behind yesterday... apparently we ended up going down the mountain two different ways and he lost me and the TA.

Today was also attack of the ticks. Derek (my partner) had one on his leg that he had to pull out. It was pretty gross. I think I'm tick free, but I haven't taken my shower yet to check. At this point, I'm tired enough that I don't think I'll have hysterics if I have picked any up.

I'm just glad this class is almost over. I'm exhausted.