For our final random thread of the year, MuseBlog celebrates the current issue of Muse: November/December 2013. Its theme is light and color, with articles about animals that glow, colorful metaphorical idioms in assorted languages, and a robot that paints in watercolors.
The issue also features Robert’s farewell Q&A column. After 13 years on the job, he is turning it over to Lizzie Wade, a thoroughly Muserly young woman who works as the Mexico City correspondent for Robert’s magazine, Science. Although Lizzie never read Muse as a child (she was a New Moon girl), she is a fine journalist and the living embodiment of quirky geek-chic. Check out her Twitter feed @lizzie_wade !
While I will be a little sad to see you go, Robert, I’m grateful for all the work you’ve put in over the years. (It is probably a lot of work; I’m just nostalgic for the old mag, I guess. I still miss Ivars Peterson’s math columns.)
I’m excited to see what Lizzie will do with the Q&A column and will go check out her twitter! Have you invited her over here at all? It’d be neat to meet her!
So I just wrote up a comment about how I just finally got the chance to watch the second episode of Almost Human (about 2 weeks late) and how I really like the show so far and thing it has the potential to be a really great show, and some other stuff pertaining to my liking of the show that I don’t recall exactly (I’m sure Karl Urban was mentioned in there somewhere), but I made the mistake of typing it in my open MB tab comment box–which happened to be the now closed November Random thread, so it vanished into the cyberspace abyss with an error message that the thread was no longer open for comments. I forgot it was December now. Wow. It’s December now. Yikes.
Robert–thanks for all the time and research put into the Q&A columns over the years. It’s been awhile since I’ve really read the magazine, despite the fact I still have a subscription, but I always enjoyed the Q&A.
I think southwest’s overheads are about four inches higher than United. It’s really hard to put things in them. Yesterday when I was putting my violin in the overhead, my shoulder spasmed and locked. It still hurts this morning, don’t really know what to do since I’ve never had this particular thing happen before..
Huh, we’ll miss you there, Robert. Thanks for the good years that I haven’t even seen, because I’m just a young little naive 12-year old
I’m sure you’ll like Lizzie. When she started at Science as our intern, I could tell right away that she would be perfect for Muse.
Thank you for enlightening us for so many wonderful years, Robert! At least we’ll still be able to pick your brain on MB.
Speaking of which, I’ve been kicking around the idea of personified exploratory submersibles for a while, ever since I saw a thread on another site about ship personifications where it was declared that they were “too small” to have proper personifications, unlike larger submarines. After seeing “Ghosts of the Abyss” last night, I thought about what the MIR twins would be like, and tried to come up with names, but I don’t know if I’ve got the Russian naming scheme right.
Is this correct:
Marina Mstislavna Shirshova
Miron Mstislavitch Shirshov
(Reflecting that they are the “children” of their support vehicle, Akademik Mstislav Keldysh and part of the fleet/family of the Shirshov Institute of Oceanography.)
Yes, you’ve nailed the tricky Russian patronymic nomenclature. Nice work!
Spasibo.
Pozhaluysto!
You know… that is the one thing everyone has in common…
Everyone is unique…
It’s getting so you have to be exactly like someone else just to be unique!
Hi everybody! I’m your new Q&A columnist. I was thrilled when Robert asked me to take over the gig, and I’ve been enjoying it very much so far. (You’ll see my first column in the next issue, but I’ve already written three.) Like Robert said, I live in Mexico City and write for Science, Wired, Slate, and a bunch of other great places in addition to Muse. Any advice or suggestions for me or the column? And don’t forget to write in with questions!
Hi, Lizzie! Good to see you here. You’re looking more, hm, triangular than I’m used to.
Welcome *pies*
I’m excited to see your Q&A columns! How did you come to work in science journalism? How did you come to work in Mexico City? Your job sounds awesome!
I’m a longtime Muser and recent graduate of Beloit College with a BA in anthropology and a minor in museum studies. I’m very interested in methods of communicating knowledge (particularly math) to the public and getting them as excited about it as I am. I might be interested in going into museums or science communications myself so I’d love to hear about your experiences!
Hi oxlin! You’re right, my job is pretty awesome and I feel very lucky to be doing it
I started out with science writing during college, when I had a summer internship in the communications office of Fermilab, the particle physics lab. It was a great experience and it turned out I was pretty good at writing about science, so I kept doing it on and off for the next several years, usually not for money. (Although one of my paid jobs during college was as an Explainer at the New York Hall of Science, a museum in Queens — it was the best job title I’ll ever have, but it mostly taught me that teaching and interactive museum work probably isn’t for me.) I only really got serious about science journalism a few years after I graduated from college, when I came back to the U.S. after doing a Fulbright (in literature, not science) in Mexico City. Many people who want to be science writers go to excellent master’s degree programs at places like UC Santa Cruz or NYU, but I was impatient and terrified of going into crazy amounts of debt, so I didn’t. Instead, I freelanced a little to get clips and then started doing full-time paid internships, first at Wired and then at Science. When I got to Science in January, they were in the process of expanding their international news coverage but didn’t have anyone in Latin America. So I offered to move back to Mexico City to write for them when my internship ended, and they agreed!
Congratulations on graduating! It can be hard to figure out how to become someone who gets paid to write, so let me know if there’s anything I can do to help!
Cool! How do you find freelance gigs? (GAPAs feel free to answer too.) Do you write articles and then look for a market for them? I’ve gotten involved in writing speculative poetry and short fiction and in that area I’ve been doing just that. A couple of my poems (well, 12 actually) are published but I’m rather slow at finishing fiction. Are there markets that want pieces on something specific? I have just emailed the marketing guy at my job (a design firm) so I might be writing a couple posts for our blog here.
Debt is scary. I already have some from undergrad! I’m rather interested in working behind the scenes at museums, though, so I may yet end up in grad school. It does sound fun. I’d like to maybe design exhibits or work with the artifacts. I’ve taken some classes at my undergrad school in that and they were fascinating. I’ve had some internships/volunteer positions. Twice at museums and now I’m volunteering with the local university’s physics department’s outreach program. I’d really like to work to show people that math is cool in and of itself and focus on math writing/math exhibits. I’d like to highlight the connections between math and art in art museums too (create educational programming for art museums on math as well!).
How is Mexico City? My friend had a Fulbright there too! We’re both alums of a Spanish Immersion Elementary school, but I’ve never been to Mexico. I spent a month in Chile on an archaeological field school once, and have been to Spain and Costa Rica.
I wish I could offer sage advice, but in my case, the old Queen of Muses found my website, and decided that I was an entertaining lunatic with a working knowledge of British nerdy subjects, and should therefore be writing stuff for Muse. I got an email out of the blue
“Have a website that shows you have a working knowledge of nerdy subjects” seems like decent advice to me. Course making websites look pretty is work. And domain names cost money, as does webhosting.
Not LOTS of money, though. You can get a domain and server space for about £20 a year if you don’t have huge ambitions and your site is going to be relatively static.
And you can build up a killer Twitter feed for almost no money at all.
I would agree that Twitter and a personal blog are great (and free) ways to get started with science writing — especially if you are not quite ready to take the grad school plunge and want to, you know, figure out if you actually like doing this stuff before you spend tens of thousands learning it. I do think that blogging is overrated as a way to “break in,” though; it’s excellent practice and a good showcase for your voice but you will rarely, if ever, get assignments from editors who will pay you without actually getting out there and proactively pitching them.
Generally with freelance journalism you write a pitch for an article before the article itself, and this is what you send to an editor. The pitch is anywhere from a few sentences to a few paragraphs and explains what the story is, why it’s good for the publication you’re pitching, and why you should be the one to write it. I think the process is different for fiction and poetry, as you know — with those, I believe you have to write the whole thing first and then submit it, like you’re doing. Congratulations on being a published poet!
This is a really good site about all the behind-the-scenes details of science writing: http://www.theopennotebook.com/ I don’t know much about museums, except that these videos are really great: http://www.youtube.com/user/thebrainscoop
Mexico City is amazing! If you like big overwhelming cities, that is — which I definitely do! I have not been to any other places in Latin America but I hope I get to start doing some serious travel soon as part of my job for Science. Archaeology in Chile sounds awesome — what were you excavating?
Thanks! I will look into those!
Museums usually want you to have gone to Museum Studies grad programs, or to have gone to grad school in the field you’ll be working in at the museum (say, anthropology). So I’m now torn between that and Science Communication grad school. I might apply to programs in both and see what happens.
Who do you send pitches to? How do you find out where to send pitches? Is there a spot on most websites?
We didn’t get to do any actual digging but we mapped an Incan site by GPS.
When you’re starting out, being willing to go anywhere and do anything can be very helpful. (That was my approach, too.)
The second part of my strategy was to build a resume so bizarre that people would hire me just to see if I was real.
Now that is a sentence to instill intense curiosity.
So. Robert. What is on your resume?
The story thus far, to my knowledge:
Fantasy author, programmer at NASA, 3rd Undersecretary at the Embassy in Cairo, journalism teacher, science editor.
Fantasy author? I’m not sure I’ve done that yet. Are you thinking of Dean Koontz or Otto Coontz?
haha, I was referring to your adolescent tenure as a creator of Prussiania, of course!
^^THIS is my new goal in life.
I think I’m on my way to that.
Greetings from Kingswinford!
(You’ll find that many Musers know where Kingswinford is.)
Welcome!
I’m sorry I can’t really be of much help to you, but the rest of us are a lot smarter than I am!
The rest of us are older. The rest of us have had more time to acquire knowledge. The rest of us are not necesarily smarter.
Please stop putting yourself down like this. I know it can be hard to see yourself clearly, and I know it’s easy to get discouraged, but the first step is not giving up on yourself. Once you believe something could be true, it’s a lot easier to make it so.
+1 to this.
To Catwings: Some of us may have had more years of life experience than you, but that doesn’t mean that we’re smarter and intelligence isn’t the be-all end-all either. You’ve had twelve years of curiosity, of looking at the world around you and what you’ve found is also important! Keep thinking, keep growing, keep learning. You have the desire for knowledge and that is important, but enjoying what you learn is important too. Ask questions. Stretch your brain. You have many years yet to think and play.
I think Dad is hinting about getting me a hamster for Christmas.
Hold out for a chinchilla.
But if you do, make sure it has a very secure cage, chichillas are very good at escaping confinement. In my elementary school, the science teacher had two in a cage, and she had about six different locks/closures on the door. I swear, if Houdini was reincarnated as an animal, he’d come back as a chinchilla.
If you do get any small critter, be aware: most of the cages that are marketed for your critter are actually too small, many bordering on cruel. Do plenty of research on appropriate care for your critter! And remember, just because the box that the cage comes in or the bag of critter chow says it’s a great choice for your pet doesn’t mean that it’s true.
And, as with any pet, whenever possible, don’t shop, adopt!
I have been falling into paper after paper of the archives of the Bridges Conference. It discusses the intersections of math and all arts, culture, and architecture. Vi Hart has some papers in the recent years and so does one of my professors from school. One of Vi Hart’s papers is on balloon polyhedra and a paper in one of the next years (2012) talks about how a group of people taught this method to math teachers! The math teachers used it in their classroom and the students really enjoyed it!
Soon I’ll be able to cross “making music that gets put on the Internet for people to listen to and/or buy” off of my bucket list.
I’m making a stuffed mole, and I want it to be Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy-themed. Any suggestions?
It’s going to be a star-nosed mole, of course, but the entire class is doing star-nosed moles, so that doesn’t count. I do know I’m going to have to make it a miniature towel.
You could always attach a label to it talking about how when you power a spaceship with an Infinite Improbability Drive, you never know what you’ll end up with.
(Of course, if you wanted to make a crossover of it, you could have it say: “It’s an Infinite Improbability Drive, anything could happen! …For instance, a mole.”)
I’m confused, are you looking for a name or for accessories/embellishments to give it?
I salute your ambitions, but I don’t have a lot of suggestions.
Unless you want to put it in pyjamas.
Randomosity–That’s a good idea, but if I use it, it’ll probably be in the written portion where we discuss why we decorated our moles the way we did (we get extra points for creative backstories).
Kai–The latter. Sorry I wasn’t more specific.
If I’m happy with the final product, I might send in a photograph.
Bathrobe, teacup, bowl of petunias
I’d suggest a T-shirt with a slogan : “White mice are not the only valid projection”.
But that might be a trifle obscure.
Okay, so I saw “Ghosts of the Abyss” this weekend, we’re going to show “Aliens of the Deep” at a BU SEDS event sometime next term, and the Museum of Science is probably going to show “Deepsea Challenge” when it comes out (at least, I keep voting for them to every time they send the “members, help us pick our next IMAX films” e-mail around), and while there’s apparently no release date on that yet, their e-mails and a Voldynet post by the Henry Ford Museum both suggest that they expect it “in 2014-15”. Apparently IMAX theaters have some inside information here. (Hmmmm… IMDB gives 2014 and some other site gives April 2014…)
So, I have a very good chance of watching the entire James Cameron underwater IMAX trifecta before graduation. (“Expedition Bismark” is online, so I can see that at some point, too, even if it wasn’t for IMAX.)
If you like math, take a look at the St. Anne’s School Math Munch Blog. It highlights little bits of math around the internet and I’m enjoying the posts there so far.
Where did my post about making plans to see “Aliens of the Deep” and “Deepsea Challenge” go?
Eaten by the spam filter. It’s now retrieved.
Thank you kindly.
I really really want to get into some 2D animation, but so far nobody understands what I’m talking about!
I’m getting two software packs for 3D animation this Christmas
Does anyone here know how I can create 2D animations, similar to people like Icerift Fyera, and GinjaNinjaOwO, who I got inspirations from?
I’m not sure, but I’m in a video game dev club at my school, and from what it sounds like, there are tons of tutorials on the Internet. A simple Google search reveals lots of tutorial videos. And if you’re in the market for software packs, do some research before you buy anything: I’ve heard that Photoshop is some sort of universal standard for everything visual, although it is pricey. Research some things, download some free trials: see what works for you.
I might as well talk about stuff now. Since the quarter’s almost over. But I still have a ton of work to do that I’m totally shamelessly (more like -fully) procrastinating on. I keep getting into the mindset that the quarter’s over, that I have no more work to do, when that’s an utter lie. I have five days before my one final. I have to write a paper before I go home (it’s technically due after I go home, but if I procrastinate that long it’ll be awful). I have three concert reviews due tomorrow, at which point I’ll be totally done with one class. Maybe that’s what’s getting me into the procrastination mindset.
Maybe I’ll go ice skating tomorrow. That’ll be fun. And I have to go to the Christkindlmarket. I want to go see Frozen, but that will be able to wait until I go home.
Looking forward to going home, at any rate. I really don’t want to jinx it, but I’ll probably be getting two A’s this quarter (one’s the aforementioned music class which will be totally finished tomorrow). As for my one final… Ugh. I don’t know. I just want to escape that class with a B.
And now that I think about it the music class A will be my first A in over a year. It’s fun to see first-years’ dreams of A’s get crushed like mine were. Lowering your expectations is the key to success here, and the only way you grow as a person and discover what you actually like to do.
Well anyway here I am back at MuseBlog. I hope everyone is getting through the quarter/semester all right. And looking forward to the yule season.
I ought to be in bed, Tournament of Towns A Level tomorrow, good habits, blah blah, but this is the wrong crowd for sleeping isn’t it?
I was scared of checking my email from Awesome Residential College, but it turns out it was:
1. They received the supporting documents I sent.
2. Application accepted, interview offered. (everyone gets an interview, it’s their main deciding factor, but 1 and 2 mean it’s okay I didn’t have the reference by now as long as I do send it in, along with other stuff we aren’t expected to have yet)
3. Financial assistance application accepted.
/maturity>
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!
Happy pythagorean triple day! (5/12/13)
Are we going to have a holiday ball this year?
I woke up this morning, and I was very bored, dad was on the computer, there was nothing on TV, and It was way too cold to go outside, so I just lay there for a while, I imagined some things… but after a little while I felt tired, and I closed my eyes, I could hear a sound, it sounded like wind howling, I opened my eyes, and it went away. In a few moments I closed them again, and it came back. This time, I kept it on a little longer just to see what would happen, and I could hear… it was like a voice. It reminded me of an Indian chant. It was just like ‘Ay-y-o, ay-y-o.’
I think the “chanting Indian” was my heartbeat or something, and maybe the “wind” was ether the liquid in my ears, just louder, or the emptiness of my skull. Any ideas? It has happened before, just so you know.
It’s the pink bunnies. They only chant like that when they’re up to something. Be on your guard.
wearebunniesandwearecute,peopleloveuswithoursnoots
*shudders*
Bunnies? Hang on, I’ll get my blaster and depigmentizer darts and be right over.
I know that when it’s very quiet, you sometimes can hear your own heartbeat and the blood circulating in your ears, sounding much louder than you would expect. Our brains usually ignore those sounds. (But when you hold a seashell to your ear, you hear an amplification of the background noise around you, from both your own body and the surrounding environment.)
DANG DANG DANG DANG it! The Trieste’s in DC? And I never knew that the whole two summers I was there? And now getting into the Navy Museum at all is super-hard because of the shooting earlier this year, not that I have any idea at all when I’m going to be in DC next… mumble mumble grumble grumble.
I have been possessed with the urge to make ALL THE CHRISTMAS PRESENTS. Which is good, because it’s a reasonable time to be thinking about these sorts of things. The only thing though is that once the crafting mood hits everything else must take the backseat while I single-mindedly pursue making stuff until I physically give out. Which is why I was up until 3am this morning crocheting.
Also I went into town today to the co-op and various other places for errands, and realized at some point as I was readjusting my scarf as I dashed back to my VW while humming Mumford and Sons songs that I’d been listening to that sometimes I’m such a hipster it’s not even funny.
These have been updates on my life.
I was home for Thanksgiving and went to DC for a day and a half (my roommate came with me, and we visited a friend of hers who goes to school there). Robert, I thought of you when we saw the Burghers of Calais statue at the Hirshhorn.
Has anyone ever had trouble with friends with different personality types?
My friend and I were going to see Frozen today. We were both looking forward to it, but it was a pretty late showing. Around thirty minutes before we left, he texted me saying that he was too tired to go and could we see it another day? I had put seeing the movie on the top of my priority list and thus had stopped working after dinner to have around three hours of wasting time before seeing the movie, y’know, have a fun evening. I was pretty upset that those hours that I would have otherwise spent studying were wasted. So I talked him into going to the movie anyway, but he was playing a League game, so we missed the shuttle and couldn’t go. Plus I tripped on the way out of the dorm building as we were running to catch the bus and ripped a hole in my jeans.
It’s just, I wasted a bunch of time for nothing. And we had plans that he canceled within thirty minutes of leaving. But I know that something like that wouldn’t bother him at all.
I know I sound really pushy. And I feel mad at myself for being mad at him. And I probably wouldn’t have been studying in those three hours anyway. And I know I shouldn’t care about this at all, it’s just a movie, it’s just three hours. But I haven’t studied at all and my final’s in two days and I have a paper due next week that I can’t be seen working on at home because then my parents might go ballistic and drop me out of school.
I think (I guess I know) this is more of an issue that I have with myself than an issue I have with him. I hate that I blame stuff wrong with me on other people.
From the reverse perspective, I think you should talk to him about it. I’m more of a laid-back kind of person and a close friend of mine is always very punctual. He also gets pretty annoyed when someone’s fifteen minutes late, while I always figured that punctuality has a half-hour margin of error (for non-work/school/college related things).
Anyway, since he explained it, I’ve made an effort to show up on time to our various meetings and the problem is solved. From my pov, I don’t care about punctuality at all, but I get that it’s really important to my friend so I’ll do it. But I wouldn’t have bothered if he hadn’t told me.
I’m really glad I’m not the only one who gets cross when people don’t show up on time, or are overly casual about keeping appointments or commitments. You shouldn’t blame yourself, I think! As you say, it’s a matter of different personality types. Actually, a lot of people I know feel that the better they know someone, the less punctual they need to be. For me, it’s worked to tell my friends that it frustrates me and ask them to try to show up on time; as long as I know that they’re making an effort, it doesn’t bother me when they’re late.
I FINISHED MY FRANKENSTEIN ESSAY! Five pages of interpreting the book from a psychoanalytical perspective. Despite the lateness of the hour, I really did enjoy writing this essay. It was so much fun to go through the book and go, “ooh, that looks great” and “ah, so much evidence it’s everywhere!”
Now I really must abed before I fall asleep at my desk.
Has anyone else seen the news stories about Facebook considering adding a “Sympathize” button?
No mention of squids, yet.
Hmmm, does Dodecahedron have a job she hasn’t told us about yet?
haha, that’s sweet of you! No, I am still at IBM, for a couple more weeks at least. I’ve also decided to return to them next summer. (It’s basically the past of least resistance, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a good choice.)
It snowed!
You can take my snow too, if you want more.
If you’re giving free snow, I’ll take about two feet more. All we have is about an inch and a half.
Maybe later in the week when it’s study period. Tomorrow I have to go to the gym on the other side of campus for kung fu, so I’d like the sidewalks to be clear and safe.
It snowed here too! Not even a pointless little dusting–it’s a healthy three or four inches. I love watching all the international students here that are seeing snow for the first time.
Evidently, winter weather in my current location calls for infrequent snows that get from and inch to three inches in height that stick around for a day or two before melting.
The most recent one is on the downswing now. I guess I won’t have to worry about carnivorous snowmen, at least…
My dad thinks everyone on the internet is either a murderer, or a rapist.
…Does he know you’re on the internet?
Parents tend to be like that, the majority of people on the Internet are not dangerous, but it is prudent to be careful with one’s personal information just in case a bad egg sees it.
SFTDP: but, I’m finding link-ads nested among the posts, but mostly in the Recent Comments bar. Is this a problem with the site, or just my computer?
I don’t see anything like that. It may be your computer.
I don’t see any ads either.
Neither do I.
Finished with all my auditions! At today’s, in Manchester, they did it slightly differently and had two rounds, and they posted up a sign with the names of who has got through (about a third to half of candidates) and I was fully expecting to have not got through so I was utterly shocked that my name was on there! I had to read it so many times and it still hasn’t quite sunk in. I cried with happiness when I phoned my mum.., never mind that I still may not get a place at all, I think what got me was the fact that I had actually done well enough for them to not reject me outright and actually want to hear me again… I’ll hopefully have results from all this next week, definitely before Christmas.
Anyway I’ve just arrived in Oxford after a long journey (I’ve literally spent six hours on trains today…been up since 6 am) and the room in Trinity is pretty nice! Really excited for interviews to start tomorrow. Three days of interviews and then free!
Well done, Sel! I’m sure all the schools will be fighting for you.
Have, erm, fun. *has the one college interview in 12 hours*
Best of luck!
My two interviews, it turns out, aren’t until tomorrow. It’s been nice to have a day completely free to relax, with no obligations, recover from the all the recent hectic travelling and get myself out of a music and into a history mindset with some light reading. I wandered around the Ashmolean for a good part of this afternoon, which was nice. And the food at Trinity is pretty excellent. I’m just really enjoying this whole experience, which sounds odd, but I am!
The Ashmolean is awesome! So is the Pitt Rivers. Oxford was excellent.
Yes, I’ve been several times and I think it’s great here!
I wish I could go see those museums!
Paul took me to visit them!
Congratulations, and that’s really nice they tell you so early – in the US you send in prescreenings by Dec 1, audition Jan – March, and hear back by (which usually means on) April 1.
More snow– somebody put a scarf around the statue of Harry Agganis in front of the Fitness Center.
Offer from Royal Northern College of Music!! I literally can’t believe it I never thought this would actually happen!!
Wicked, Sel!
Congratulations!
MY GOSH congratulations, Sel, I’m so, so, so, so, so proud of you!!
Congratulations!
That’s awesome! Way to go, Sel!
Congratulations! You go, Sel!
YAY! Congratulations, Sel! *pies*
Watching “Stargate” for the first time at SEDS after people have bugged me to see it forever.
Lecture audience guy: “And who DO you think built the pyramids?”
Me: “Your mom.”
The beginning of this is really live-action “Atlantis: The Lost Empire”…
That’s a reference to the folklore about the men in black or I’m a frog.
But how did they know it was coordinates before they knew the symbols were constellations? And how did nobody realize they were constellations in 70 years when that one looked just like Orion?
How do you communicate with equipment like that beyond line-of-sight on a planet where you have no infrastructure?
Make the scientist who can’t fight always go last instead of in the middle of the group. Heaven help you if you get attacked from behind.
Three moons that all look like ours, with the same maria…
He played along until the last minute and then made a break for it to help them escape. Nice job.
And somehow he snuck in there, with no weapons… And they have only seven minutes!
Oh, is that what they’re going to do, clever, clever…
Okay, that was nice popcorn fun, an enjoyable two hours. Dr. Jackson is more or less my spirit animal. (Err, the one from this movie, not the one from St. Helens, although that guy was very admirable as well, although more assertive than me.)
Did another of my posts get caught by the spam filter?
No, apparently this GAPA wasn’t the only one who had to be offline a good part of this evening.
Writing an essay about historical figures seems to bring out the worst of my overly-formal writing tendencies. (My writing style has been affected more than I like to admit by the charming verbosity of certain historical fictions.) I’m worried my excessive fondness for alliterations makes my writing seem like I’m trying too hard to be wordy, thus cheapening the essay overall. In writing an introductory sentence to the most poignant section, I found myself typing this: “Despite everything previously mentioned, the worst of Edison’s mercantile machinations was yet to come. “
If you ever want free rein to go wild with alliteration, get into classics. Classicists love alliteration. Several times I’ve been given extra credit on tests because my translation of a passage included alliteration. In class my professors will sometimes pause for a moment to try and think of a way to translate a phrase alliteratively.
Thanks for the tip; I will definitely keep that in mind.
I feel you.
Man, the end of the semester is a busy time of year. I’m not sure how recent my last Life Update was, so here’s a few of the main points lately:
-The deposit for the trip went through a few days ago, so it looks like I am officially going to Rome in March.
) I haven’t played the cathedral’s wonderful organ in years. It should be fun. It sounds like we’ll all go over to her house after the recital for dinner.
-I’m finally going to get a performance evaluation at work, so hopefully I’ll be getting a raise (not much of one, though, I expect).
-I just got back from the printmaking studio finishing up the last couple of projects, so it looks like I may never get to do any more printmaking. I wasn’t big on intaglio, but I really enjoyed woodblock printing. Well, who knows, maybe I’ll get the chance again someday.
-It’s cold and it snowed and I’m really excited for Christmas.
-It still hasn’t quite registered that I’ll be graduating from college in about five months (assuming I don’t manage to pull off something spectacular).
-My old organ teacher emailed me a while ago and asked if I’d like to be a part of a studio/alumni recital later this month. I haven’t seen her for quite a while, and more importantly (
-Did I mention that it’s cold and it snowed? I love winter, and so far this winter has been unusually cold. I couldn’t be happier.
-My current reading list: The Brothers Karamazov, by Dostoevsky; In Search of Lost Time, by Proust; Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, by Murakami; The Everlasting Man, by Chesterton; and the collected poems of Robert Frost. The past few days have been heavy on Dostoevsky.
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World is such a very good book. I stole it from my mom a while ago and have read it unnumerable times since. People keep telling me I ought to read Dostoevsky, but I haven’t yet.
Have I mentioned how jealous I am of the fact that you can play the organ?? I’ve always wanted to play an organ.
SNOW.
It really is a great book. I think this is the third time I’ve read it–of all the Murakami I’ve read, this one is definitely my favorite. As for Dostoevsky…it’s a heavy book. I can only read so much before my brain just gets overloaded and I have to take a break. The first time I attempted reading this one, I had to give up after a while because I just couldn’t keep the characters straight, but this attempt is going much better for me.
The Brothers Karamazov is a big, sprawling novel with a huge cast. And, of course, all those Russian diminutives and patronymics don’t help. Dostoevsky’s shorter books, such as Crime and Punishment and The Devils (usually called in English The Possessed), are much easier to follow.
I found a typo in my textbook while studying, it threw me for a loop and caused me to look up the date of the Red River resistance– I don’t know much about Canadian history, but it seemed very strange to read that someone had been executed by hanging in *1985* for having started a war in 1869, that would make them one of the oldest people to have ever lived… It was 1885, as I suspected.
Got invited to go hiking this weekend by one of the vets at my current externship. He and one of the vets at the vet hospital I did an externship at just prior to this one (the last two weeks of November) and I think a couple other recent grads are hiking one of the (small) mountains in the area. Should be fun. And probably cold (it’s suppose to snow a few more inches this weekend and be single digits, low teens this weekend). Which will be a nice change from the blasted freezing rain and right at freezing temps we’ve had for nearly a week.
It’s almost like having friends. It’s a nice feeling. Although my terror of social situations is trying to kick in now that the nice feeling of almost having friends is wearing off. Because I will be going hiking with two people, one of whom I think I worked with all of maybe 3-4 days over 2 weeks? And the one who invited me whom I’ve only worked with 5 days over the last two weeks? And other people whom I don’t know at all. And I don’t do well with socialness with people I don’t know very well. I’m very awkwardly quiet and awkward. And yeah. I think I come across as weird and awkward and yeah. Although I guess I haven’t come across as weird and awkward and stupid as I thought, or I wouldn’t have been invited. Because it’s not like I even knew they were going hiking until I was invited, so it’s not like I was invited out of a feeling of needing to be polite.
I’m not making sense anymore. Long story short. Going hiking with two people I barely know and others I don’t know at all and am a mix of excited because it’s like having friends and terrified because I have a fear of being social with people I don’t know.
Also I’m horribly out of shape and will probably humiliate myself iwth my out of shapeness. The most exercise I’ve done since sometime in July or August is walk the blood donor greyhounds at school for two 30 minute walks, 2 days in a row (2 hours of walking. In over 4 months. Otherwise I just walk to and from my car). Oh well.
*reads post* *looks at avatar again* At least you haven’t been stuck in shape since 1963.
Unlike some of us.
Free! The holidays can well and truly start now. Left Oxford this afternoon. I ended up having two interviews at Trinity yesterday, and two at Hertford today. I’m not going to think about them as it’s impossible to know how they really went and whether I’ll be successful or not. But it’s a massive relief to be done with everything; it feels like I haven’t had a break all term!
Congrats. I’m expecting to hear about you getting more offers!
Went to see the Hobbit premiere last night. I hadn’t planned anything, and didn’t expect to be able to, but I actually managed it after all.
There was a lot of filler. Pretty sure they could’ve left out the added plot points and just made it a duology without problem.
More detailed comments to come.
I haven’t had a chance to see it yet. I decided against goin last night since u had to leave at 7:15 this morning to be at “work” at 8 for the last day of my externship. And would have only gotten about 3 hours sleep, and figured that would probably not make a great last impression.
And we had been thinking of going as a family this sudsy if I didn’t go last night, but I forgot about thosetentativbplans when I accepted te invite to go hiking, so…..probably next Sunday (a whole week) before I get a chance to see. Since my parents will only go to matinee showings because they’re cheaper, and Sundays are the only days that they, me, my sis, and her husband are all available. My sisters husband works Saturdays.
Anyway. They only had it 3d last night at the local theatre regardless
Got two early Christmas gifts from my dad this year
1) Little plastic hedgehogs. The mother is separate, and the babies are on on little grass platform.
2) Back to the Future, the third movie, which I just got done watching.
Hi MuseBlog!!
Thought I’d stop in and say hello– I can’t remember when the last time I posted was, but I’m fairly certain it was before I arrived at UNIVERSITY, so.
Hello! I’m in New York and, apparently, seasons are REAL. No one warned me. (This is a blatant lie. Everyone warned me. I did not listen. I am so cold.)
Almost done with my first semester! Only have one final, and that’s for Texts & Ideas: Antiquity & the 19th Century, which is sort of a Western Civilization class. The professor and T.A are both fairly terrible, but I got to read Sophocles and Plato and Marx and Darwin, so it’s always nice to feel cultured/pretentious, etc.
I should definitely post on the R&R thread about Events involving a Boy, if it’s still active, because Events happened that certainly involve a Boy and I freaked out a lot and was generally a non-functional human being but it all turned out well!! Very well!! Concerningly well!!
I’ve been writing a LOT, I discovered Raymond Chandler and it was a revelation, I also discovered Hunter S. Thompson and it was not as much of a revelation but it was certainly a revelation, and I discovered 1940s gangster films and also general film noir and also Westerns and basically it’s been a very good semester. (Also: Vienna Teng, somebody talk to me about Vienna Teng, I discovered Vienna Teng and I’ve been basically in a continual state of emotional pain since.)
New York is absolutely everything I hoped it would be and more. It’s snowing right now and everything’s carpeted in white, this is the most beautiful city in the world and I’m mad in love with it, summer boils and winter’s freezing and when I shuffle over to the library to print out homework at 2 in the morning there are rats scuttling along the sidewalk and there are parts of the nearby park that smell really worrying, it feels like one enormous breathing living thing and it’s all steel and light and ghosts and I want to be a part of it for the rest of my life.
Going to an off-Broadway show in five minutes, got to go, but I’ll make that R&R post and I hope all of you are well! (How ARE all of you, I miss youuuuuuu)
It’s so wonderful to see you post again, Cat’s Eye! I’m glad you’re loving your new city so much, and all your reading and revelations sound exciting.
P.S. In my experience, the R&R thread seems to always be open.
Glad to see you, Cat! I agree with Randomosity, R&R is always open. I’m glad you love New York. (I also appreciate seeing another new-ish college student post – “hey, real person like me doing this thing”.)
CAT’S EYE CAT’S EYE CAT’S EYE *glomps* I missed you! I’m so glad you’re enjoying New York!
Hello again! I actually haven’t been on the blog a lot either, so it’s like neither of us ever left. Which in a metaphysical sense is very true; I at least think about you guys a lot.
I AM TOTALLY WILLING TO TALK ABOUT VIENNA TENG WITH YOU. Do you have a favorite song? My favorite keeps changing, and then I listen to something else of hers and fall in love all over again. The lyrics! Her voice! So beautiful!
My fave at the moment is Goodnight New York, because, uh. But on a more rational and less fjkdfljsfdsljdsfkljfdskljsdklfjdfsjklCITY level, I am absolutely melting over Harbor, and of course Lullaby for a Stormy Night, and at the moment I’m just sort of what over The Hymn of Acxiom but I suspect once I get over my sheer stunned awe it will have a very special place in my heart.
She’s So Good how do you even DO this stuff GOOD LORD
Naturally she’s good. She went to Stanford. *also did*
I recently discovered Vienna Teng as well. “Hymn of Acxiom” is sort of deliciously chilling precisely because it’s so heartfelt, there’s no trace of irony in the way she performs it — it’s like a lullaby sung by Skynet.
Have any of you listened to Brandi Carlile?
Would you believe that I hadn’t listened to “Hymn of Acxiom” yet? I’m listening to it now. I do like. For creepy songs, I like “Watershed”. Maybe it’s because I’m an Environmental Studies major. XD
I also like “Drought”, “The Grandmother Song”–it’s got such a different tone, “Antebellum”, “Stray Italian Greyhound”, “Whatever You Want”, “St Stephens Cross”, “Augustine”, and “In Another Life”. I’ve amassed quite a few favorites, but still haven’t listened to anything off the album “Hymn of Acxiom” is on. Or, you know, was even aware of it’s existence. It’s on my to-listen list now.
Vienna Teng is so good. I got to see her at a concert in July and it was AMAZING.
I invited a friend to see her at the Birchmere here in Alexandria a few years ago. His word for her was “refined.”
I recently discovered Vienna Teng as well! From here, actually; I knew ZNZ had posted about her on the music thread a long time ago, and I just… finally got around to looking her up. So far, I’ve only heard Waking Hour and most of “Warm Strangers,” but they’re excellent! And I just looked up “The Hymn of Acxiom,” and it’s really chilling and great.
Hnnnnnnnghyes. Waking Hour is a classic of singer-songwriter music. And her new album is super super good. Love love love.
Dad taught me how to shoot my own rifle. Just now.
I feel… a sense of great accomplishment…
How I learned to shoot a rifle:
Me: How do I even hold this?
My mom: *shows me* Now shoot this clump of dirt over there.
Me: *somehow actually manages to shoot the clump of dirt* (It wasn’t very big or super-close, so I was pretty surprised.)
My first target was a cracked plate. Man that flew.
POSOC: hi! We are posting from a McDonalds because it has wi-fi.
Choklit Orange: hi! POSOC and I have consumed Thai food, and I can confirm that both he and this city are charming. I have, in fact, eaten the best- or at least best-appreciated- soup of my life. POSOC just frightened me with a tale of the horrors that could result from the coffee I bought in exchange for MacDonalds’s WiFi: horrible burns and skin grafts, apparently,
POSOC: I did not mean to! I had pad Thai but could not finish it. CO is equally charming and flatters me. I hope to meet more of you soon, as she has!
Wonderful to hear from you both!
It was tremendous fun. I was worried it would be awkward, but I felt as though I’d known her for ages. (I suppose I have, in a sense.)
That seems to be the way of Kokonventions.
Sounds like you’re having a great time!
Only one more day until Beethoven’s birthday!
My brother once played Schroeder in You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown. Ever since then, he has celebrated Beethoven’s birthday, once with a cake even!
Does anyone know a word to describe someone’s present-self?
I suppose this isn’t too clear, I’m writing a story about this person, who got killed, and was reincarnated. The reincarnated person, went and found his old grave and resurrected his… past-self I guess.
I’m stuck on [reincarnated person] looks down at his
That’s it
You could just write their names.
I’ve said their names a lot in the past few scentences…
Perhaps you could give them nicknames? They might’ve gone by different names in the past: for example, my friends used to call me Margo when I was little, then Meg, then Maggie/Meggie, sometimes Ma and now usually Margaret. If the name isn’t that easily shortened, they could always just go by some random nickname a friend gave them or something.
I already gave one of them a nickname, so I could avoid constantly saying their names and get people confused on which one I was talking about. The nickname came from what his mother used to call him, “Blade”. She called him that, because he was a good swordsman.
I just concluded to finish the sentence with;
‘Blade looked at his reincarnation and nodded.’
Don’t know if that sounds good enough, though… Ugh, the life of a writer…
I think “present/current self” and “past/former self” work well as descriptions of the relationship between the two, but I would use the individual’s name in the sentence you’ve posted.
Is having a Swiss character who likes chocolate stereotypical?
I wouldn’t say so.
Nah, it’s pretty much true ^^ I know quite a few Swiss and none of them don’t like chocolate. Then again, not many people of any nationality dislike chocolate.
Why would you write a character who didn’t like chocolate?
Seconded.
I’m reading about Sigmund Freud for my last week of Psychology class work. I’ll be reading about the concepts of his theories and thinking: “OK, I can understand why he would think that. Though I disagree with where he places his emphasis.” And then I’ll get to his specific interpretations of various symbols, and suddenly I’m ranting at the text book: “THAT DOES NOT MAKE ANY SENSE AT ALL! WHERE DID HE COME UP WITH THIS? WHAT COULD THOSE TWO THINGS POSSIBLY HAVE IN COMMON?!” I mean, I like randomness, but Freud clearly took the cake. And for once, that’s not a compliment.
I’m pretty sure a lot of his theories have been discredited (possibly even most? I’m not sure). Are you being taught which of the ideas you’re reading about are still accepted by most modern psychologists? If not, that would be really frustrating. Although I understand there’s a lot of disagreement in psychology.
Oh, my reaction has nothing to do with what people today currently do and believe. I just can’t believe he made such ridiculous connections in the first place. It’s kind of like learning about the fundamentally flawed ideas that led to the invention of something that is not used anymore. Its relevance to modern living isn’t the main focus.
Hopefully, all of that made sense.
I feel about Freudian dream interpretation (if that’s what you’re referring to, with the symbols) as Hermione feels about Divination.
I’m not really into Harry Potter…
Yes, that makes sense; I’ve experienced that, too, actually.
It’s really nice to watch/read something you haven’t since you were a lot younger and find out that it’s as good as you remembered and you even like the same things and relate to the same characters as before, despite having changed quite a bit.
…Except that there’s so much really cool stuff you either didn’t notice or forgot about the first time around. And in this case, I seem to remember just enough to make it nostalgic without stopping it from surprising me, which is lovely.
Agreed. This has been me with Jurassic Park recently.
For me, it was Teen Titans–the first animated series, not the comics or the new series, neither of which I’m familiar with.
So. Snowshoeing. Just me and the vet who invited me, and one of the vets i worked with on my first externship. We only went about 45 minutes up and 45 minutes down. Because THANK GOD one of the vets had a Christmas party he had to be to at 2ish, because less than 20 minutes in my calves were screaming, and I was flat out panting, couldn’t hardly even talk, and a muscle or the joint or something in the groin region of my right hip was screaming bloody murder (and if I try to flex or exten or move my right hip joint AT ALL it really really really hurts–I think it’s something to do with my right leg being shorter by about a centimeter, but I never use to have a problem when I was younger. Maybe because I was in better shape)
But yeah. There’s absolutely no way on earth I was ever going to make it to the top. As it was, I was dying for a rest break before we’d even gone 20 minutes and panting but no way was I gonna SAY hey can we rest for a minute? Because that would be embarrassing. I didn’t wanna be shown up by a couple of out of state dudes. Even though they’re both FAR more in shape them I am so…yeah. I dunno. I’m wiped. So if there’s any chance I’m gettin another invite I need to work on getting my butt on shape because otherwise I’m so many levels of screwed. And I don’t wanna wimp out and look weak because yeah
So starting tomorrow or Tuesday is “Operation: Get back in shape”
Because ow. I can’t lift my right leg up and cross it over my left, and trying to scoot my right foot forward while watching the hobbit this afternoon? (Which, btw, I was less than impressed with. It was pretty much ALL filler). Just ow
But I think I can take more ibuprofen now, so that’s a plus.
Hello blog! I returned from Costa Rica about five days ago, and I have had MB’s tab open in my browser for the past four days, meaning to post….something. It’s been a pretty amazing semester. I don’t know how to accurately encompass it in a post, or even several posts. I’ve learned a lot about scientific research, tropical biology, traveling on the cheap, hiking, how to pack lightly for long periods of time, and so much more. It’s good to be back home, though.
If anyone has questions about my study abroad experience I would be totally willing to answer them. I don’t know if that’s something you’d want to do or not, but, well, offer’s open.
I’m so glad to see you here, FantasyFan!
*conceals raging the raging envy of someone who has always wanted to study abroad, which is kind of irrational because I’m in my first semester of college ever*
Yeah, sounds like there will definitely be opportunities to study abroad in your future though! Why not start researching what programs you’re interested in now? Orrr next semester, since this one is practically over with. I whole-heartedly support you on any endeavor to study abroad. I used to get the same kind of envious too.
Luckily, since my chosen field is entomology, some sort of abroad program at some point is nearly inevitable.
Awesome! How was the food?
Very frequently repetitive. When I say repetitive, I mean that I had the same thing–gallo pinto– for breakfast for basically three months in a row, except during my three-week homestay and when I just got too sick of them. And very often rice and beans–what gallo pinto is made of– for lunch too. And dinner! A lot of the time I was on relatively isolated biological stations, so the food offered was limited. (Also, gallo pinto is traditional Costa Rican breakfast.) I was on the vegetarian option, which could be better or worse than the food offered to meat-eaters depending on the day. Also, some of the biological stations provided better food than others. I have come away from it with a taste for fried plantains (the other super common breakfast food). I do like gallo pinto, just…not every day in a row. There was also a lot of really fresh tropical fruit, like papayas and pineapples and passion fruit and lychee nuts, and they were so much better than what you can get in the States after it’s been shipped halfway across the continent.
How many different stations did you visit and what was it like there?
Ugh, it happened again! Why? How?
I was typing ‘reincarnation’ above, while ‘The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg’ – one of my favorite Iron Maiden songs – was playing. No, it has happened before.
The other day, I was playing a video game, while ‘The Greater Good Of God’ played. I died in my game, and I began saying “For the love of God” Just as the chorus began, where is says the title, and I spoke along with the band…
And just now, I was looking at this Youtuber’s channel, PauseunPause, an you know how – or rather you don’t, because I’ve noticed that some Musebloggers don’t usually watch Let’s Plays like I do – he’s famous for being, well, his heritage being Indian – having an Indian minecraft skin. Just while another IM song came on, ‘Run To The Hills’… which is all about the Indians getting invaded by white-men…
How? Is this a problem? Is it just a coincidence, because I think it’s starting to happen too many times to be just a coincidence.
Well, I don’t see how it would be a problem–it can be unnerving, but I prefer to look at these kinds of occurrences as amusing. I think that the human brain likes to see connections in things, and we’re more likely to notice the times when there are similarities than the times when they’re not. It does seem weird, but I think it seems a lot less weird than any of the alternatives, and when you’re trying to figure out how likely one thing is, you have to contrast it with the other possibilities to get full perspective.
We tend to vastly underestimate how commonplace coincidences are.
Apophenia, noun, the experience of seeing patterns or connections in random or meaningless data.
Didn’t Muse have something about that a while ago? Something about people being given a tape of white noise and being told it was a recording of a lecture that they were supposed to transcribe.
I sure wouldn’t be surprised.
Yeah, I think it was the Halloween issue three years ago… *checks* Oops, it was October 2007. My bad.
Time kinda flies, doesn’t it?
specifically pareidolia
Apparently it only works with Iron Maiden songs… Maybe Iron Maiden just has connections with my life, and I just happen to be listening to the right song at the right time.
It’s also possible that since you know the songs, your subconscious suggests words from them to your conscious mind.
The shuffle function on iPods can work in quite the same way.
Happy Beethoven Day! Today is Beethoven’s birthday, what Schroeder would like us to celebrate.
Also Jane Austen’s, Wassily Kandinsky’s, Margaret Mead’s, Philip K. Dick’s, and Arthur C. Clarke’s.
What a day!
Especially for Musebloggers.
(Other girl, taking online quiz on human origins): “Did Homo sapiens make it to the Americas?”
Me: “Well, what are you?”
Well, some textbooks do define two temporal subgroups: homo sapiens and homo sapien sapiens. Which seems redundant and pointless, but nevertheless does mean that modern humans wouldn’t technically be defined in that case as homo sapiens.
True, I guess it depends on if you read the question as “Did H. sapiens or any of its subspecies…” or “Did the subspecies H. sapiens sapiens…”
…I get that there was a time before the subspecies diverged, and Homo sapiens was all there was, but I was under the impression that all the descendants would still be considered Homo sapiens. It’s not the most specific way to describe them, so textbooks wouldn’t call them that if they also talked about the earlier Homo sapiens, but I don’t see why technically they wouldn’t also be Homo sapiens. Am I wrong about this? Because there was also a time when there were no subgroups of primate, just one species, but we’re still considered primates…
Although we wouldn’t be considered the same species as that primate because we couldn’t interbreed with it–but from my understanding, you also wouldn’t want make it its own species because that’s not monophyletic–so… there’s an error in my understanding somewhere.
But I do feel sure that subspecies are always a part of the species they’re from, so I don’t see how it could be inaccurate to modern humans as Homo sapiens, although it might in some cases be misleading.
…seriously? O.o
Just popping back on for a bit because I was making pathetic faces at my friend W trying to get him to do stuff for me and he was like “what are you even doing” and that was the moment I realized that I was wibbling, which consequently reminded me of Witchneko/AvalonGirl/etc who used the term “wibble” far too often, which made me start laughing hysterically for no apparent reason and now all of my friends think I’m a little bit insane. Good for them, because I am. Took them a while to catch on, eh?
They didn’t already know?
good to see you post again, fireh.
My coworker just rode past on a bike with a little contraption attached to the front wheel. Part of it was two halves of a coconut clacking together. I rather like my workplace.
Happy Wright Brothers Day!
…Nah, I don’t do Let’s Plays…
I just record myself playing a game while doing commentary. My videos suck.
I am sure that your videos do not suck! (or, even if they do, you have to start somewhere! Sucking at something being the first step along a road that continues past not-sucking-as-much to being-pretty-okay to greatness)
Also, recording yourself playing a game while doing commentary absolutely counts as a let’s play!*
*source: my boyfriend, who has recorded several episodes of a let’s play and who I swear watches other people’s at least once per day. in fact they are reading a screenshot LP right now! they seem kind of annoyed that I’ve interrupted to ask contemplative questions on the nature of let’s play, but that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.
“Dude, sucking at something is the first step to being kinda good at something.” — Jake the Dog
Good writers borrow, great ones steal outright.
I briefly misread “NSA” as “ESA”, it made a headline seem really weird…
Day one of “Operation: Get in shape.”
-20 fahrenheit outside. (Yes, that’s right, 20 degrees below zero.) Went for a 2 hour hike (maybe about 2 miles? Not sure) on snowshoes….Had ice crystals on my eyebrows and eyelashes and all the little hairs on my face. But especially my eyelashes and eyebrows. My skin on my thighs and upper arms is very slowly regaining feeling and warmth. And is bright lobster red. But not white, so not frostbit which is good. The skin is just numb and cold.
Probably going to be really sore (still) later today and tomorrow. Never really got un-sore from Sunday.
Brr.
Day 2: Surprisingly really not particularly sore. Least sore I have been since Sunday. I mean, not completely un sore, but pretty minimal.
But as it’s still 15 below zero…..and I was feeling lazy and didn’t get out of bed until noon, I’ve opted to just be a couch potato today and postpone further outdoor activity. Negative temps just really aren’t conducive. :/
So, despite the fact that of my six courses, 5 have a final paper AND a final, which therefore translates into having the worst finals season I have had in my three-semester college career (I fear it will get worse with time), I still managed to be in a Michael’s craft store with my friend last Saturday night basically looking around and working very hard not to buy anything (she actually had things to buy, I was just tagging along).
While we were meandering up and down the aisles, we passed a wall displaying packages of Crayola Model Magic clay (I love that stuff!) in various colors, each color sporting its own animal made with that color clay. And there, in front of my nose, was a package of “raspberry” hot pink clay, featuring a PINK RABBIT. Note: There was also a package of clay with a PIG on it, which you would think would have been the animal of choice for pink clay, yet the pig was the mascot for “bisque”, a tan-ish color. While “bisque” may be a more realistic color in terms of how pink (or not) real pigs are, the fact that the hot pink clay’s mascot was a BUNNY was rather unsettling.
Perhaps I am seeing too much in this incident. Perhaps my years of RPing as a fighter against the magenta menace has made me paranoid. Perhaps the strain of final exams and papers has persuaded my mind that the threat of a bunny apocalypse is actually real, that is has left the pages of Muse/MuseBlog from whence it spawned and entered the unsuspecting “real world” to wreak havoc and mayhem, and destroy humankind forever. Perhaps it was the excessive consumption of Coke Zero that has blurred the lines between fiction and reality. I know not what is truth or lie, but my every instinct compels me to warn you all.
We are in grave danger. Be on your guard.
Your vigilance is much appreciated, Agent Kittymine!
You managed to go to Michael’s and NOT buy anything? What amazing willpower…
Doctor tomorrow. Meningitis shot tomorrow. A whole second of pain in the arm tomorrow. A whole 26 hours of pointless dread over something that will last only a second, right now.
I started reading books when I got shots. I tended to get distracted by the book and not notice the shot. Good luck!
I read that as “…when I got shot.” I thought it sounded like a fascinating story.
Think of the fun things you’re going to do afterwards.
*SLAP*
Hardly hurt at all. I’m such a wimp.
*SLAP*
The only thing that didn’t really go as planned, one of the needles hit a blood vein, and it made a small bruise, but otherwise it went perfect.
*SLAP*
OH. MY. JESUS.
LIKE I’M LITERALLY PRAISING JESUS RIGHT NOW. I HAVE FOUR A GRADES. FOUR. ONE MORE AND MY AP WEIGHTING COULD POTENTIALLY GET ME A 4.0 AND ONLY ONE C AT THE MOMENT AND IT’S IN SPANISH AND I’M WORKING ON THAT AS I’M TYPING THIS.
I GOT A 68/70 ON MY SPEECH FINAL WHICH IS THE HIGHEST I’VE GOTTEN ON ANY OF MY SPEECHES AND MY ENGLISH GRADE IS 95% DESPITE THE FACT THAT I GOT A D ON A QUIZ ON A STORY I DIDN’T READ AND NOW THAT MY MATH TEACHER ADDED IN A GRADE FROM LIKE THREE WEEKS AGO I HAVE AN 81 IN THAT CLASS.
PHYSICS IS A PRECARIOUS B BUT I DON’T EVEN CARE BECAUSE I’M GETTING ON THE HONOR ROLL ALMOST CERTAINLY.
AHHHHHHHHHH
like I’m pretty sure that that’s way too many capital letters and that I might start a religious argument due to the fact that I’m praising Jesus for my good grades but I don’t even caking care
woooo
I’m so happy for you!
Great job, Muselover!
Hey, good job!
Lying on the floor with my face in my calculus textbook totally counts as studying.
CALIFORNIA IN TWO DAYS
Hey, me too!
Wait Selenium, what? Really? Will you be in the Bay Area by any chance??
*coughKOKONKOKONKOKONcough*
Well, I’m flying into San Francisco on Saturday before heading to Lake Tahoe for skiing!
Me three!
Will you be in the Bay Area as well, Cello?
it’s really nice here
Today, my friends and I made tyvek hexaflexagons!
That’s great!
I was obsessed with hexaflexagons in eighth grade. I’d make them every day in lunch by tearing strips out of my notebooks.
If you gave me a strip of paper I’m almost certain I could fold one without looking, from force of habit.
Today, I am getting
1 pig. Guinea type.
*Squeee*
Little Apollo is in my house ^_^ He’s white and brown, and a bit skittish right now. We have a chunk of wood in his cage, a small house, a food and water dish, and a few toys. And a chunk of apple for a treat.
How big is his cage? How old is he? You should consider getting a second pig to keep him happy, as guinea pigs are very social animals. Are you giving him timothy hay too?
About 2ft by 2ft. I am not really sure, the person who gave him to me said he was young. We are thinking of getting a friend for him. And we have not given him hay yet.
You need to find him a cage that’s at least 7 square feet, he’ll be much happier and healthier in the long run. There’s only one commericially available cage that I know of that’s big enough, made by Midwest Pet Homes. You could also make your own (Google “cubes and coroplast guinea pig cages”) Get a hay rack/hay holder and keep some timothy hay in it at all times. You can usually find it in the small animal section in pet stores in bags.
) Say hi to little Apollo for me & my piggies Gus and Floyd!
Sorry for sounding kinda bossy, I take piggie care pretty seriously (as you can tell
Awww, sounds cute! Can you send the GAPAs a picture of him?
She did!
This is almost on the same level as Stumpy Gerbil
D’aww, Abyssinians are just so poofy! ♥
His fur goes in all directions
Awww, so fluffy!
Right now, Athena is in her cage. Yup, a new friend for Apollo.
Uh-oh. Male piggies are more likely to be aggressive if there’s a female around, and DEFINITELY do not put them together. They can get pregnant from a very early age, complications during pregnancy and birth are fairly common, and they can make a *lot* of babies. (Unless Apollo had been neutered, in which case, carry on.)
They can have babies at any age? Athena, I heard, is only about a month or so old. Can fertility start that early in female guineas?
Looking at my notes from lab animal medicine, it appears that female guinea pigs reach puberty at a mere 2 months of age, and males at 3 months.
On a side note, guinea pigs are one of the few species, like humans, that can get scurvy–so make sure the diet you’re feeding them has adequate vitamin C to meet their needs. If y’all haven’t already done so/aren’t planning on doing so, I’d recommend finding a good vet who sees exotics/pocket pets (many vets don’t) and getting them general health exams and talking about good diets/housing/etc
We have a little scedule to give them an orange slice every day. And today we game them both a carrot, some parsley leaves, and some lettuce.
And, oh, don’t worry, we have seperate cages.
But they won’t be keeping each other company- in fact, it might stress them to see or hear the other pig and not be able to get to them and might cause cage-chewing, which can cause broken teeth.
We have a thick piece of cardboard between their cages, they can’t see each other.
But still, having a male and female and therefore having to keep them separated defeats the purpose of getting a second pig. The best thing to do, honestly, would either be to re-home one pig and get another the same gender as the remaining pig, or to get another male and another female. Either way, definitely get a cage of at least 7 square feet before you put two pigs together because putting to pigs who are strangers in the same cage won’t end well if they don’t have any personal space.
Sorry for giving so much unsolicited advice; I just can’t stand seeing guinea pigs kept in ways that are bad for their health and/or happiness. I mean no personal offense to you whatsoever.
SFTDP
Or you could get Apollo neutered, which can be risky, so I wouldn’t recommend it unless there’s a nearby vet who specializes in small animals and have done multiple neuters on guinea pigs with no or minimal complications.
Even so, we are kinda planning on having a litter this spring, because my grandma knows some Amish children who would love a pet like a Guinea Pig.
It’s always better to adopt pets that need a home than to breed your own! Especially when you don’t know the genetic background of your pigs- they could have hereditary problems that you don’t know about, which could result in losing Athena and/or the babies.
I’m pretty sure that the shop person who gave my uncle Apollo said that he’s never had children before. And Athena is only a month or so old. Does that help in any way with their genetic backgrounds looking brighter?
No, they can still carry genes that can cause birth defects, birthing complications, etc., whether or not they’ve been bred before. Also, depending on what color they are, there’s color-linked genes which can result in a “lethal” gene result, which causes pup that are often stillborn or die soon after birth.
UPDATE ON THE WONDERFUL LIFE OF MUSELOVER
SO I GOT STOPPED BY THE NHS REP/ENGLISH TEACHER OF OUR SCHOOL AND DISCOVERED THAT I GOT 99% ON THE PSAT SO I’M ELIGIBLE FOR A NATIONAL MERIT SCHOLARSHIP AND I WAS PUMPED ABOUT THAT AND THEN I SET THE CURVE FOR MY CALCULUS FINAL THEN MY ENGLISH FINAL WENT OKAY AND NOT QUITE GREAT BUT STILL PRETTY GOOD CONSIDERING THAT MY TEACHER’S GRADING SYSTEM MAKES IT VIRTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE FOR ME TO GET A B IN THE CLASS AT THE MOMENT
so I am super pumped about life
ALSO ALMOST MAINE CALLBACKS WENT DISTURBINGLY WELL TO THE POINT THAT I’M SCARED THAT I’LL BE CAST IN THAT AND NOT SOUND OF MUSIC BUT EITHER WAY I’M GONNA BE CAST IN A PLAY PROBABLY
That’s great on the National Merit thing! I ended up one percentile below qualifying. Pretty happy about that, but it was annoying to miss it by one question.
Make sure to check offers from your college before accepting the National Merit Scholarship, most college offers to National Merit Finalists are better than the actual scholarship (but they disqualify you from getting the NMS).
I love the LIFE “Remembering the 80s” commemorative book for a number of reasons, but I am slightly irked by the page showing gadgets with every caption winkingly including “I bet you won’t remember what this is” comments.
Um, it’s a laptop (an old laptop with monochromatic graphics, but still very obviously a laptop), a VCR, a camcorder (a slightly bulky one, but still very obviously a camcorder), a CD, a Walkman that’s also a radio, and a car phone. I’m a bit younger than the target audience for the book (Well, more than a bit if the target audience is people who were adults in the 80s) and I’ve personally used all but the last two (well, I used an evolved, CD-playing version of the Walkman that wasn’t also a radio for a while when I was ten, but I found it kind of boring and discarded it after a while), and I’ve seen those two in enough movies and TV shows to know what they are. Maybe if it was personal gadgets from the 60s, I’d have trouble (I admit I do not know how to dial a rotary phone, but I’d like to learn), but seriously, LIFE, the rest of the book is pretty respectful of the reader’s intelligence, so what’s up with these captions?
The only one of those I may not have seen is a Walkman w/ a radio. I mean, I’ve got my sister’s old Walkman somewhere, but it’s just a cassette player, no radio capability. But….having one with a radio neither surprises me nor seems that unfamiliar.
And car phones.
I remember, my aunt who lives in Oregon (or maybe it was my uncle’s car, but same diff) had a “fancy” [expensive] car that had a car phone when I was little (note: definitely not 80s. I’m not quite that old). I thought it was totally awesome and crazy, because a phone, in your car. I also remember when airplanes use to have phones in the backs of the seat in front of you that you could pay to use in-flight….
And rotary phones: I don’t think we ever had one, but my gramma has/use to have one in her back bedroom (not a super old school one, I mean, it looked like a normal corded landline type phone [which is in and of itself a rarity anymore, it seems, with most people owning cordless phones, or going sans landline altogether], just with a rotary dial instead of a number pad). It’s totally easy to use, if more time consuming. Say the phone number you’re dialling is 123-4567 (totally obviously bogus number here, peeps). Stick your finger in the “1”, pull it all the way clockwise far as it will go, release it, repeat wiht the “2” and so on and so forth.
I’m going to have a sleepover tomorrow for the first time since sixth grade, and I’m just ridiculously happy. We’re going to look at Christmas lights and watch Avengers and Doctor Who and Sherlock and she wants to borrow my copy of The Hobbit, and I’ve just been privately joyflailing because a) I’m actually getting to do this this is going to be so fun I know most people get to do this all the time but I don’t so this is special, b) she actually likes me and actively wants to spend time with me and it’s not like I don’t like myself or anything but I’m still getting over middle school and keep being surprised when other people outside family do and c) I don’t even remember what c was but I’m not even using commas okay I’m really happy. I don’t think I’ve had an RL friend I could do stuff outside school with who actually shares my interests and introduces me to cool stuff since… 3rd grade? So, yeah.
♥
Huzzah! I’m glad you have such a friend!
By the way, my brother and I “adopted” a raptor from a local outdoor learning center this morning (by donating, and we’ll get a certificate and such), as a Christmas gift for my grandpa. It reminded me of you and your volunteering at what seemed like a similar place. How’s that going?
Oh man okay I AM DONE WITH FINALS, THEY ARE OVER, I HAVE SURVIVED RELATIVELY INTACT ALTHOUGH I MAY NOT HAVE BRUSHED MY HAIR THIS WEEK.
I went to see The Hobbit, as well! I actually had a great time; also, before the screening, there was a quite homophobic ad by Focus on the Family, and the entire theater raised their middle fingers in unison. It was beautiful.
(I don’t have to deal with the journalism people for two weeks.)
(I only have one reading assignment over break.)
(I have a box of marzipan chocolates, the Harry Potter movies, and the house to myself tonight.)
Ahhh! There’s this *super cool* fine arts camp up in Michigan and I would *really* love to get into the jazz program and
get this
you can minor in things, like Learn A New Instrument or Music Composition or Music Theory or ART (like ceramics and drawing and stuff!!!) and it just sounds so cool and I’d really love to go!
BUT it would be around 27 hundred dollars once you factor in airfare and the uniforms and stuff so…
Anyway. Happy winter break, everyone. I guess you all are done with finals, but ours are… right after we get back from break. So study study study.
Interlochen, by any chance? My sister goes to school there!
Ah, no, it’s called Blue Lake (my grandmother’s cousin works there) but my parents said I *might* be able to go!
(Also, I just looked up Interlochen, and it looks super cool.)
I know a handful of people who have been counselors there. They seem to think it’s a good program. Many of these places will offer scholarships if you have financial need.
I googled Blue Lake, and it offers scholarships based on merit and on financial need. So if your parents are still worrying about money, that could swing them your way.
I did an expensive summer program (in politics, not fine arts) in high school, and they offered pretty good financial aid. I think you’ve got a shot!
Home with my family! Now to put up decorations!
We did, and the tree looks great, we chose to use only red and silver/clear/white ornaments and garlands, so it looks really professional and classy. And we decorated the house, too, and put up some old photos mom had put away when we had the walls painted, including our 2003 Christmas card photo that I can’t believe was ten years ago because I look exactly the same (but my brothers are much taller and have different haircuts).
Update; Miriam, the little Amish girl, she actually got to go home last week!
Today met up with Selenium! Everyone should meet up with Selenium. Selenium is the loveliest ever.
We went on a mini-rampage through San Francisco, got food, obtained free chocolate from Ghirardelli Square, and, among other things, saw a small nativity scene being staged in the middle of a street in the Italian District! It featured an alpaca (or possibly a llama), two sheep, a cow, an adorable kid playing an angel, a bagpiper, and an accordionist.
Anyway, I might have talked Selenium’s head off, but I had a fantastic time. (Then it took me ages to get from Chinatown to the Caltrain station and I missed my train and didn’t get home until nearly ten, but downtown San Francisco at night when there are Christmas lights up is actually lovely, even when it’s a bit scary, and I had the best burrito I’ve ever eaten.)
*kokon happydances into the distance* Sel gave me a chocolate orange, which I’m currently working my way through.
One of these days an MBer will visit Nebraska and I’ll finally get to kokon. One of these days. I’m sure of it.
One of these days an MBer will visit Wisconsin and I’ll finally get to Kokon. One of these days. I’m sure of it.
New life goal: giant road trip through Wisconsin and Nebraska.
You’ll probably need to throw in Iowa, too.
And while you’re at it, why not stop in Illinois and Minnesota?
Speaking of which, I’m posting this from Illinois, but I’ll be in Wisconsin soon. No plans to visit Nebraska this time, unfortunately.
Any particular city in Wisconsin?
Milwaukee, Port Washington, and then an area of small towns west of Green Bay.
Hey… Milwaukee is near us! My grandma lives there.
Save me a seat!
Be ready next time I have a month and a car at my disposal, and you can have shotgun.
Kokons always sound flammy, an I’m always a bit envious of the participants and wish I had an opportunity to join, but….then I remember how majorly socially awkward I am and how unpleasant social situations are and wonder if I’d really actually enjoy a kokon.
But nobody is ever either in my home state (not that im hardly ever here anymore, either) or in my school state, so whatevs. *shrug*
Also I’m not feeling coherent right now which I would blame on it being almost 2 am but I’m not really convinced that had much to do with it…..
“Socially awkward” doesn’t seem to be much of a hindrance at Kokons. They have a touch of the Oasis.
Walked up (and up, and up, and up) to the Lawrence Hall of Science and looked at the view out over the bay. It’s really gorgeous. And it’s so nice and warm and sunny…
Hey Museblog. been a while. For a while I was just way too busy to do much posting and then this past week I’ve just been a bit despondent and avoidin a buncha the internet in general.
Anyway. Semester is over. Somehow managed to write a final paper about dragons for the second year in a row, although this one was for an art history class not a science class, so it’s not as much of a win. My other classes went okay I think, although I’m not sure how I did on my finals yet. Really at this point I’m just aiming to pass. If I got through Cell & Molec and Plant Ecology then I’ll have my bio major and it’ll be hard to not graduate by spring if all goes well.
Otherwise. I’m no longer in a relationship, as of monday (the start of finals week). I’m still really sad about it but have moved past the unconsolable stage mostly. I’m back home in chicagoland now, and finally got enough sleep for once (yeah, you know things are rough when *I* want to sleep the day away). We’re having our family-friends pre-xmas party thing tonight so I’m mostly hiding in my room for now and making occasional trips downstairs to eat things that are supposed to be for the party.
…I invented a really sweet character for my story… but… I think I’m starting to get plans on killing her off later… My readers will be so mad at me.
Whoops… that might be a spoiler, just in case anyone wants to read my stories later…
Heh. Killing characters is… kind of emotionally draining, in my experience. If you’ve spent a lot of time developing the character, and fleshing out the way she thinks and talks, and written everything out just so that she’ll be more of a real person and less of just a name on paper… then even if you know she has to die and you know that that’s how the story always ended… it’s pretty upsetting to have to actually write out the words. But it’s an interesting experience: If that’s how you think the story needs to go, then don’t let anything tell you otherwise.
Good luck to Rick Mastracchio and Mike Hopkins on their Christmas Eve Day spacewalk and to robotic arm operator Koichi Wakata, who’s helping them out!
Hey, GAPAs, assuming your e-mail is the same as I remember it (thegapas @ gmail.com) I’ve sent you a festive picture of my guinea pigs for the ‘Blog.
Non-GAPAs: Prepare yourself for festive adorableness.
So true! Herewith, holiday greetings from Gus and Floyd:
Ha-piggy Holidays!
What? Who? Oh.
Aww! The perfect picture!
The Urban Dictionary has just added an amusing definition for “Coontz.”
Here’s what it says:
COONTZ: The most amazing stretch of pavement in the world. It is located in Washington State and is completely amazing. The street sign will always live in infamy. A place where anything can happen. The meaning of life is to see that sign and once you do you will never be the same again.
“[snip]Nichole do you realize where we are at?”
“Yeah Megan it’s COOOOOOONNNNTTTTZZZZ!!! omg coontz omg my life is completed”
The street was probably named after my great-grandfather the admiral, who was popular in the Northwest. It’s two blocks long and is near a naval base in Bremerton, Washington. There must be an Oasis portal there.
I like that!
Merry Christmas, fellow bloggians.
Most of you are probably much further along. Only 1:30, here. Present unwrapping only ended about maybe an hour ago? I got SO MUCH fantastic stuff. Not least of which are a life size cardboard Nimoy Spock, s “Lego” enterprise, and a Star Trek “delta” necklace. Among gazillions of other things. Because my family is awesome. And a hand me down wii from my sister and her husband. An a bunch of doctor who stuff. And some Star Trek books. And the first season of next gen on DVD. And WAY too mch stuff to list. But it was a very Star Trek/doctor who Christmas. With some practical stuff thrown in. Like clothes for school. An a Star Trek enterprise spatula.
And we got my mom a life size cardboard cut out of captain jack harkness because mom has become an über crazy captain jack/John barrowman fan since my introducing her to torchwood….it’s kinda scary. And explains so much about me…..
Looking forward to the doctor who Christmas special tonight. And getting to play with all my prezzies which I can’t right now because we have company over…..but oh well
Wait… they have Enterprise spatulas?
Yup. Thinkgeek sells them and a bunch of awesome Star Trek stuff on their website. There’s enterprise pizza cutters, too.
Also a Star Trek TOS style science blue women’s (aka dress) uniform. Which if I manage to go to a convention for the 50th I am *definitely* wearing there. And which I am definitely wearing when and if they make a new Star Trek movie, to a midnight release.
*drools*
Having a fun Christmas at home with my family, my gifts were a big hit! I got galaxy-print leggings, a compass, Chris Hadfield’s “An Astronaut’s Guide to Life On Earth”, James Cameron’s “Exploring The Deep: The Titanic Expeditions”, and a DVD of the National Geographic special “Volcano: Nature’s Inferno”. There’s also a book about volcanoes by the Kraffts and a Komodo Dragon adoption packaged from the World Wildlife Fund, including a plush toy like the ones the National Zoo had that are still coming in the mail!
For some reason, emotional scenes are the hardest for me to write down…
saw some girls spinning poi in the rose garden, thought of y’all
Merry Christmas! I received a pair of mobius strip earrings! And the most exciting thing was that the “what are you wearing?” instructional element worked! I got to show my brother a mobius strip. Though I think I’ll make a new one he can draw on tomorrow because he didn’t seem super impressed until I told him to cut it in half. Tomorrow: draw a line and cut in thirds.
Merry rather-late Christmas, everybody! I know I just only pop on here every once-in-a-while to talk about odd things that are going on with me that usually nobody cares about. But… I am hoping to change that. And it won’t start with this post;
Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of people – weither it be on TV, around the internet, or just around – that look very identical to this one famous person that I’ve just became a really huge fan of. (Semi-long blonde hair, glasses, tall, hazel eyes. That’s at least the only picture I’ve seen of him yet.) I don’t know if people who looked like that were around everywhere all the time and I just noticed it now because I’m a huge fan of this guy, or if I’m going nuts and seeing people like that everywhere from my subconscious mixing with my thoughts and projecting him everywhere…
James Spader?
Weird interjection related to the original topic of the post, shockingly: Oh no! Well, that’s a major shift. =salutes anyone who might watch HIMYM=
Merry Christmas, y’all. Not much in the way of updates, here. The beau’s coming up the twenty-seventh, staying until probably the thirtieth or so, then she’s driving us down to spend New Year’s with friends, possibly in Boston but probably not. I get to stay until January ninth- ‘psyched’ is an inappropriately low-key descriptor for how excited I am. =vibrates gently= We haven’t been together for a solid three weeks or so, and it’s gotten quite old, frankly.
Oh oh oh, by the way, I almost forgot! I’m running a poetry blog nowadays – and when I say ‘nowadays’, I mean ‘the entirety of 2013’ – and am nearing the goal I set for myself at the end of last year, to write one poem for each day of the year. That’s a big long sentence, but basically what it means is that I have metric boatloads of poetry to show anyone who would like to see it. Let me know!
One quick query- what is the Oasis? I keep seeing it mentioned. Particularly on this thread. …Okay, I only saw it twice, but still wanna know if there’s some reference I’m missing.
Cheers,
-A
The Oasis is a nexus where all worlds, real and fictional, overlap. POSOC started working out its characteristics in January 2007. It’s an ideal location for, among other things, tea rooms.
This is in contrast to the OASIS, the fictional virtual reality world that is key to the storyline of Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline.
(sorry, I just have a lot of book-related feelings)
A Johnny-come-lately.
I’m still kind of upset that I looked up which days were weekends in 2045 for my Ready Player One fanfiction only to find that the author apparently hadn’t, and the event that was supposed to occur on a Thursday night in-book was actually happening on a Saturday night.
That’s just the author’s mistake. There’s nothing wrong with you researching! It just means you’re smarter than the original creator
haha thanks!
Congrats on the poetry! I *would* like to see!
I realise this is a day late, but I’ve been eating too much and playing with kittens.
Merry Christmas to you, one and all!
Gratuitous photo of Christmas kittens :
There’s no such thing as a gratuitous photo of kittens.
Merry Christmas, all! I’m not going to apologize for lateness in this greeting since in Catholicism, Christmas is actually a 40-day season (depending on who you ask). If only we got 40 days of presents….
Anyhow. I got a bunch of neat books for Christmas, as well as some nice thermoses, a new bathrobe (which I desperately needed), socks (of course), various other tidbits. I bought my mom a nice coffee grinder, and to be honest I’ve been more excited about that than about my own gifts. My family, including my grandma and my sister’s [Jewish] boyfriend had Christmas dinner last night, for which my mom and I tried our hand at roasting a duck. It turned out pretty well! We saved the carcass and the innards and we’re going to try making some stock.
In addition to day 2 of Christmas, today is also my 7th blogiversary. Man, time flies. Here’s to another 7 years of fun with all of you wonderful people!
Yegads, I’m a day early. I’ll forget my own birthday next.
Aaaaaargh, why is planning my wedding so complicated?! Can I elope instead?
‘Twas ever thus, and I’m afraid you can’t.
*sends more huggles* *and an offer of assistance* *make that several offers of assistance*
For any other oblivious peoples like me, BBC’s Sherlock returns on January 1st. And 3 weeks later to PBS stateside. How did I not know this. How.
Also apparently a minisode yesterday…..Off to find that.
Yay Sherlock.
Guys….
Guys…..
I just Skype called someone. My very first Skype call ever!
Ahhh!
Wonder Woman reruns came on our TV station. The entire first episode, I was sitting there contemplating on how someone could actually sing that intro song and like it at the same time…
Okay, so last night I saw “Twister” (the disaster movie), and it was awesome and really funny and I already have fan-fic ideas… And see, there’s this scene where the protagonist’s fiancé asks him why he hates his rival, and he goes, “Son of a [bunny], (rival’s name)! He’s a nightcrawler, he’s in it for the money, not the science!”
And today, I went to Discovery Times Square to see The Art of the Brick, a show of famous artworks recreated in LEGO, and one of the other exhibits was presented by an underwater salvage company whose archaeological practices I disapprove of, and of course that line instantly came to mind.
There’s a new Tamora Pierce book out! I had no idea it existed. And now it is in my room, in my possession, at least until the due date or whenever my brother (who is the one who checked it out, demands it back). When I found out I started screaming and hugged the book for all I was worth. The book is set in the gap between The Circle Opens series and The Will of the Empress and it is about what exactly happened to Briar in that time to give him major PTSD which was one of the big unresolved questions and aggghhh. I am in love with Tamora Pierce’s writing. I cannot wait to finish.
Time for me to tackle the Gigantic Hersheys Kisses Chocolate Chunk!
Cost about ten bucks, weighs about a pond. Got it from dad for Christmas.
My dentist is going to hate me.
At Mass this morning, I learned that a friend of mine who was ordained a priest earlier this year and who’s been working at a mission in Colombia since June is back in town for Christmas! I haven’t had a chance to talk with him yet, but he promised to let me serve Mass for him and I plan to hold him to that. The guys from our parish that are currently in the seminary are also back in town for Christmas break. It’s good to see them again as well. One of them made time to come to an organ recital I had this afternoon–despite the fact that, as I’ve heard, the brutality of finals week so exhausted him that he’s prone to fall asleep if left sitting in a chair for more than two minutes. He’d better learn to powernap, because he’s got five and a half years left.
Twister/Marvel/National Geographic crossover fic, of course it’ll work, right?
Unquestionably.
Hi. I found myself getting really into a band from the ’90s, Moxy Früvous. To the point of reading most of their (rather old) site and other fan communications I could find and listening to all of their songs over and over and wondering if I should support the new project of two of the members and. Um. I’m not sure how I got this far into this band. Or why. My Dad played one of their albums a lot when I was small (Bargainville) and I guess I associate it with being a kid? Also recently I found out that there were so many other albums of theirs.
Not really sure if I’ve been this into a band before, but when I first start being involved with certain things or being interested in certain topics my interest takes the form of reading absolutely /everything/ I can find about it.
If you want to, check them out! They’ve got some fun songs and funny lyrics. However they’ve been on “hiatus” since 2001 so I’m saddened by the thoughts of the lack of a chance to see them live. I suppose it has been 20 years since some of their shows and 13 since others.
*plummets out of the nighttime sky and lands, catlike, on the snowy ground outside the window*
Museblog, hello! I wish you all a belatedly merry Christmas and an early happy new year!
News on the Choklit front:
– I got to see Cat!
– I have a new laptop and it is glorious (my old one finally succumbed to the duct tape that had been holding it together). I am revelling in the up-to-date operating system.
-I drove to the Sierras and back! It took nine hours each way. It shouldn’t have taken nine hours, but I am too stubborn and terrified to go over the speed limit; also, I accidentally drove into Nevada. Anyway, the Sierras are absolutely breathtaking and we went hiking in the snow and sledding and saw a hotspring on the way back and. Gosh. That John Muir fellow was really on to something.
-As a result of this driving adventure, I am almost qualified to get a driver’s license.
– I don’t have to deal with school stuff for another week, I have found a new busking spot where people are less likely to steal my money, and I get to see my cousins in a few days!
I hope you’re all doing well, and that 2014 brings you splendid and happy things, which you of course deserve. ♥
Anyone have any movie recommendations for things that AREN’T romance based/with romance as a major subplot? I am out of animated disney movies that fit this category
Looking for things I don’t have to pay a lot of attention to but can just kind of… have on in the background…
in a similar vein, anyone know a good source for finding audiobooks online? Everything is either very expensive or very old complicated books and I just kind of want things that are easy to listen to/fall asleep while listening to. I used to do this all the time in elementary/grade/middle school cause I had insomnia troubles (sheer exhaustion solved some of that in high school) so I have some YA lit and am gonna search our public library for more but I’m not sure if I can get there in the next couple days. For now I have Gossamer by Lois Lowry, which I listened to maybe once 10 years ago, but I’m weirdly good at remembering audiobooks so I remember most of the plot and even several of the voices.
welp. 5am. time to. attempt the sleeping again before I get up at 10.
Treasure Planet? I think it’s the only animated Disney movie where the protagonist doesn’t have a love interest. (His sidekick does, though.)
I don’t know about audio books, but have you tried podcasts? I highly recommend Kermode and Mayo’s Film Review, which is an hour-and-a-half-long BBC 5 show in podcast form. It features good (and frequently feminist) film reviews and rants by Mark Kermode, mild and cheerful bickering, and, as of recently, the inclusion of a Despicable Me fart gun. (I can’t quite explain that last bit, but seriously: it’s funny, interesting, and somehow easy to fall asleep to).
for audiobooks — My local library has an e-lending program that you don’t need to actually go to the library to use. It looks like it’s called “OverDrive”, so look on your library’s website for something like that.
movies: I asked the people in the room I am currently in. Mom suggested Toy Story. that’s Pixar so you might have already gone through it though. Live-action comedy might also be a thing you’d like: try Airplane, or some Monty Python, maybe? Then Mom started talking about whether Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter was romantic or had the right mood. The Speed Racer remake is supposedly a really fun action movie, but I have never seen it. A certain someone I know is fond of a small horse television cartoon — there’s a romantic subplot in the movie, but the series itself should be fine.
Things you can have on in the background — isn’t that what music is for?
Have you tried podcasts? There are lots of them out there. Anything in the sci/tech arena is unlikely to be heavy on romance unless they’re covering pheromones. and then it’ll be manily about moths.
And now I’ve read Choklit Orange’s post. Great minds. Since most Musebloggers seem to be Anglophiles, try this link.:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts
And for those of us unfortunate enough to have been born in a place where the array of British accents are nonnative, said accents do often have a wonderfully soporiferous quality, in my extensive experience.
Thanks for the recommendations, guys!
Kai–Treasure Planet is one of my all-time favorite Disney movies!! It’s so underrated. SPACE PIRATES. The Road to El Dorado, The Emperor’s New Groove, and… one other that I’m blanking on were all ones I appreciated because they didn’t center on romance.
Choklit/Paul/Piggy–Podcasts are another good idea, thanks guys! Do any of you know any that are story-based, like Welcome to Night Vale? I’m definitely gonna look into some sciency/humor ones but variety’s never a bad thing.
Annie–oh, our library does have an ebook thing, I didn’t even think to check it for audiobooks but it probably does have them. And Monty Python’s another great idea. I did promise someone I would watch the children’s horse cartoon but we’ll see if I ever get to that one.
Robert–Late at night the internet slows down and there’s not enough to distract me from my thoughts, so I like to have something else going that I can focus on more but still multitask during. So, movie on most of my screen, but I can still page through the internet on the side when plot slows down. I love music but I can think a lot while listening to it because I don’t have to pay attention the whole time to keep from getting confused (doesn’t matter if you zone out for a song). The audiobooks are for when I’m falling asleep and have the lights off/eyes closed and am even more likely to just cycle through bad thought patterns that keep me awake for ages.
The Road to El Dorado is actually Dreamworks, not Disney, but I agree that it is a fun one.
So it turns out I will be able to get into the camp, and with a four hundred dollar scholarship!
I’m pretty excited. I’m gonna play ALL the jazz. All of it.
Congratulations, AL!
You might all like to see this. It’s Lizzie’s string quartet playing a bit of Haydn. Impeccably. If you want more, the other three movements are on there as well.
http://youtu.be/tOaJCP5ZKYw
ooh!
Happy Early New Year, Musebloggers!