LOL
You represent the best of politicians and the kind of hypocrisy I've come to expect from my government representatives. Thank you sir, for showing us exactly what it means to be one of the lawmakers of this great nation.
Chances are you'll get off scott-free, but hey. I hope you choke on your own laws. Cause you totally deserve it.
I am sleepy as hell right now because I just spent the entire afternoon in front of the cryostat (boring as hell *snooze*) and because I stayed up until almost 4am last night fixing Chapter 5 of Miles. It's been betaed by my good friend Asphodel who I do think is actually beginning to sympathize with Legato despite her desperate attempts not to. I'll give it one last read tonight before posting it.
I've also been reading the previous Miles chapters and finding typos up the wazoo. Gah, how does that not drive you guys nuts? Drives me nuts. I will fix them. Possibly tonight.
Also, I'm considering making a separate fic page for "Miles" the same way that I have a separate page for Seven Thunders Spoke. We'll see, I may just get too lazy. Laziness often gets in the way of things.
Half of Chapter Five of 7TS is done. Will be finished sometime this weekend, I hope. Probably after Chapter 5 of Miles is final-drafted. :3
Okay, back to what I was doing before. Which was...reading papers. And thanking my lucky stars I'm done with the cryostat for the next indeterminate amount of time.
Your facebook newsfeed of the day!
- Whoever is Nico Robin, you rock. I am abundantly amused. Same goes to you, Millie Thompson.
- To Abarai Renji, I always thought that you and Hisagi Shuuhei would make a cute couple, but it turns out you're with Kurosaki Ichigo. Kudos to your complicated relationship.
- Hibiki Dan...never stop being Dan.
- To Captain Jean-Luc Picard: we must have tea sometime.
I have misplaced my Shuffle, Rocketbilly. :/
I remember having it on the plane with me, I remember it in my pants pocket. That's probably the last time I recall seeing it. I probably didn't leave it on the plane cause I never look it out of my pocket. So either it fell out, somebody took it out, or I took it out and put it down somewhere after I got home and promptly forgot about it. :(
I hope this misplacement is rather temporary, or I'm going to be REALLY REALLY bored these next couple of days sitting in front of the cryostat. >___< *grumbles*
Dear DeviantArt,
You give me the best desktop backgrounds ever.
Cheers!
~Skuld
PS. I suppose this should actually be addressed to one Lone-Momo and Calisto-Lynn as opposed to all of DA.
Either way, that image is orgasmically fantastic, and I just wanted to share its gayness with all of you. :3
I hate Stats. Twice I've tried to take it at MIT and twice I've gotten massively screwed over. *bangs head against wall* So I'm going to try to take it again this term and see what happens.
So hard to decide. There's basically two classes I'm trying to decide between:
Biostats 200A: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour; laboratory, one hour. Bitg time commitment. Covers topics in methodology of applied statistics, such as design, analysis of variance, regression. Also at a bad time. Lecture is 9-10am MWF mornings. I just can't get out of bed that early. *grumbles*
Stats 201A: Thee hours of lecture. Syllabus here.
Trying to decide which one to take. Not sure whether the Biostats or the Stats one is going to be kinder on my poor little brain. :/ I may try to go to both on Friday, but...
*sigh* What throws a wrench into thing is being gone a week for SfN in the middle of October and oh yeah.... >( Having jury duty on Monday. *grumbles*
Let's see if I can avoid being screwed over this time, but I have a feeling the answer is no. Statistics hates me. :/
I never thought the Daily Show would get a guest like President Pervez Musharraf. I hope this isn't a joke.
I have to watch that episode tomorrow night.
A lot of people are talking about Sony losing money on the PS3 release, cause they'll be selling the console for cheaper than it took them to build the console and ship it out to retailers. People are kicking up a fuss cause, "OMG, Sony's going to lose money! What if they go bankrupt?"
What most people don't know about the gaming industry is that game developers have to pay the console companies in order to develop a game on their platform. That is, if you're making a game for the Wii or the PS3, you actually have to pay Nintendo or Sony money to do it. That's why a lot of independent, startup game developers choose to release their wares via PC, because they don't have to pay the amounts of money that Nintendo and Sony ask for.
I'm sure a lot of you remember way back in the day when Sony first released the Playstation. We found a lot of our old favorite game developers suddenly abandoning Nintendo (you guys might remember Square and Capcom as prime examples) and deciding to develop for the Sony platform instead. The reason they did that wasn't only because CDs hold more data than cartridges do, Nintendo's prices for developing for the N64 were too high for even established game developers to handle. Sony's rates were much cheaper, which is why there was a mass exodus to the Playstation and you won't be finding as many hits on the N64 as there were for the PSOne.
So yes, Sony is going to take a hit on the price of the console. But also remember that people who own consoles also have to play games. Not only do the platform developers get some cash when a game is developed for their console, they also get a significant cut of the game's retail price. If the PS3 becomes just as popular as the PS2, Sony will still be raking it in despite taking a loss on the console, which I'm sure they deemed necessary in order to get the penetration rate they wanted.
If you guys remember, one of the things that killed the Sega Dreamcast at the beginning (besides the ease which it took to hack the console) was their complete lack of release titles. The PS3 has a whole shitload of games scheduled to be concurrent with console release, many of them sequels to big hits such as Devil May Cry 4 and Metal Gear Solid 4, while the others span across all genres of gaming. I have no doubts that Sony will do well with the release of the PS3.
That said, since I know Sony hardware traditionally sucks it up, I'm going to wait until at least some hardware revisions come out before I get one.
Jet Li is a motherfuckin' badass.
I cry inside because there may no longer be motherfuckin' badass movies coming from Jet Li's direction. :(
That said, LOL! translation! The title in Chinese is "Huo Yuan-Jia" (the name of the title character) but somehow the title in English is "Fearless." Except the point of the movie isn't so much that the main character is fearless, it's that he comes to understand what it means to be a martial artist.
:/
Oh well.
Go watch it just cause Jet Li is a motherfuckin' badass.
Destra, you kill me ded. I'm sure you gloat every time it pops up, cause I'm rolling around on the floor in absolute agony. :(
I was reading fic just fine...but that just ruined it. ._.
Two things I've really sorely missed about home:
Saturdays on Channel 7:
10:00pm - The Red Green Show
10:30pm - Red Dwarf
My trip home is complete. Seriously.
I've been feeling rather dead a lot lately. Probably due to the fact it's cold as hell here at home and having a cold doesn't help. *grumbles*
That said, I've spent the entire afternoon doing the layout for my fanfiction site.
It's almost, almost done! *cheers* I've got like...2 more pages to do, but it's ALMOST DONE! GAAAAHHHH!
rose.is.rain has been revamped and it's almost done!
EDIT: I'm amused by the roleplaying that is going on at Facebook, especially with respect to the One Piece characters. See, the problem with joining Facebook as a very anti-social, people-hating character is that isn't very conducive to human contact in general. :/ *kicks self in head* But in reality, I amuse myself too much with my new Facebook alter-ego.
Apparently Nico Robin and I dated. Errr...yay?
And now I shake fist at life.
But hey, I'm not shaking too hard cause I gots my friends who always seem to be around online.
Here's to y'all.
Shit.
I teared up while reading One Piece again.
;__________;
So after writing about 4,000 words of the next chapter of Miles...
I've run into a wall again. :( *bangs head against it but it doesn't give*
I think I'm going to have to sleep on it. Good thing I've got nothing lined up tomorrow cause I have the feeling I might be banging my head against several walls tomorrow. Especially since lack of AMV = more Cal/Nor fic and there's always chapter five of 7TS I've got kicking around my head if my fingers are ever bored.
X3 No rest for the wicked.
RWAR~! :D After half a day of shopping, I have new clothes!
And I've finally finished catching up to all of Trigun. *foams at mouth* >_> /r moar?
That said...I think I have inspiration to start writing Miles again. *cackles* Given that my attempts to figure out AMV shit have resulted in frustrated failing... -_____- Fanfic it is. :3
Tuesday September 19th:
International Talk Like a Pirate Day, mates!
YARR!
I'm home! I made it in one piece with my superpowers providing some awesome time jumping (read: I fell asleep while the plane was still at the gate in LAX, and when I woke up I was home already! :D) I hope the move went great with Andy today, and I am in need of rest (urgh, only slept 3 hours last night, and got 2 more hours in here and there). =___= Mmmrrrr.... *dies*
That said, Omi is a dear and came over today to kick my ass in Magic: The Gathering. He's got some interesting decks, which I think approach M:TG in a way that never really happened while I was playing back in high school. It's interesting to see how the game's evolved. Hrrrmm....That said, I'm not sure I really like the way it's going.
Spent a good chunk of the day on the couch finally getting my ass to watching the Chinese TV miniseries of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms." I'm very aware that it would actually go faster for me just to read the books, but I think there's something to be said about the epicness of the whole thing in a visual medium. I just like to put a face to each character...which in this case is actually a backwards step for me cause I have to unlearn the hotness that is Dynasty Warriors (so many hot ancestors ~<3) and remap characters to bearded-Chinese-actors-who-all-look-the-same-to-me. Now I know how all you white people feel. :p Cao Cao and Liu Bei look way too old to be themselves (they are unfortunately very unhot), and well...Xiahou Dun is not Nakai Kazuya (*cry*) and not smokingly hot either (*cries again*).
...wait a minute, why am I watching this again?
Oh yeah, that's cause I've got nothing better to do while I'm home. I think it's time to convince my parents of the merits of surfing the net while sitting on the toilet, and therefore they should put up the money to buy a wireless router. Then I can read awesome Dynasty Warriors slash while watching Three Kingdoms. And since my roof is made of metal, hopefully that will deflect any incoming lightning strikes that may be coming from my Kickass Ancestors in their Hallowed Halls of Pwn. :3 yess! I am so golden!
You know what the most lonely feeling in the world is? The feeling that you're superfluous. I get that sometimes, when I'm hanging out with friends here. The feeling that I'm tangential, the feeling that whether I'm here or not, it doesn't really matter, nobody's paying attention, nobody cares, and that things would go on fine in that group regardless of my presence. The feeling that if I weren't there, maybe my friend would be a little relieved and glad.
When I get that vibe, I try to hang out with those people as little as possible. It's a horrible, frustrating feeling, because there's nothing you can do about it. Given the fact that none of my friends are gonna be around at home when I go back, I think I'm going to be more hermitish than usual. I think I'm going to be packing a lot of books.
...Hmm....
to take the PS2 home for a week or to not take it home. I haven't beat the English version of KH2 yet and I want to hear the Sora/Riku reunion en anglais.
I also need, want, must play Guitar Hero for a certain number of hours a week or I splode.
That also brings up the issue of how to bring the Guitar Hero controller home. Cause I don't think it fits into my suitcase. >___>
I just wanted to blog more.
Fill up your friends list with gayness.
Those of you who know me well know that I'm pretty opinionated, and some of my opinions are hard to change. Especially when it comes to shipping.
So...uh...just to get things off my chest, cause occasionally I feel the need to bang my head against the proverbial internet wall:
5 pairings I can't stand and why
1. Zoro/Sanji (One Piece)
I don't know why, but Sanji just hits me as very, very straight. The type of straightness that accepts no substitutes. It doesn't matter that he's not getting any love from either Nami or Robin, he's still got that "pussy or bust" sign and won't settle for anything else. Besides, Zoro is already with Luffy. So totally with Luffy.
It might be noted right now that all of my "X pairings I can't stand" are there because there are these 5 pairings that are "Skuld's Holy OTPs." Yes, I also realize that OTP should really be XTP.
2. Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan (SW:TPM)
Obi-Wan/Maul was my first slash pairing evar, so they hold a special place in my heart. As much as I love Liam Neeson as an actor, grrrr! It's Obi-Wan/Maul, get it right, guys! Why exchange a sexy double-sabered, tattooed Sith for some old hippie guy with a beard and long hair? What are you thinking? :/ There be some unfair Jedi mind tricks going on. And...oh yeah. Not big about the age difference thing either. (Yes, yes, I know the irony of that.)
3. Aragorn/Legolas (LotR)
I never really liked Arwen, and I liked her less especially since she replaced Glorfindel in the movie. (sniffles, my awesome Balrog-slaying Glorfindel!) But I hate Aragorn/Legolas with a passion. Mostly because Legolas/Gimli is more canon. As much as I don't like short, hairy, stocky men, LegoGimu has a special place in my heart cause it's just so...cute. And besides, Aragorn and Arwen continuing the line handed down from Earendil the Mariner is super cool. Yay humans.
4. Subaru/Kamui (X/1999)
Subaru doesn't need Kamui. He doesn't want healing. Seishirou's a burden he'll carry around forever and willingly because OMGTHEIRLOVEISSONOTDEADYET. Besides, it's Fuuma/Kamui and Seishirou/Subaru. As is obvious from the eyes, the licking, the stabbing, the bets, and yeah. All that good and gay CLAMP stuff.
5. Legato/Midvalley (Trigun)
My love for Knives/Legato is kind of odd. Usually I'd foam at the mouth and go, "NO! Knives/Legato is the one true way to salvation!" but honestly...Knives/Legato cannot exist without there also being Knives/Vash. In a perfect world, it would be Knives/Legato and Wolfwood/Vash, but I digress. Come on people, there's preciously little Legato to be passed around already. Just put him with the man he's born to serve already! :E
So uh...no offense to people who like these pairings I hate and can't stand. I don't hate you for liking things I don't like. We can agree to disagree. I just may try to hypnotize you occasionally, but you don't have to take that as an unpleasantry. :D
Some of you are probably wondering where the hell I am. Well, I'm busy living it up cause goddammit, quals are over!! *cheers* Needless to say, I totally got shitfaced on Thursday. With the guy at the bar (incidentally also the manager) giving my group of friends free shots, some of which also had some Bacardi 151 in it, I'm amazed I'm still alive. After getting totally plastered on Thursday lunch, pretty much the rest of that day was gone. I tried going with my roommate to IKEA, but that failed mostly because his car won't start anymore. (We think it was the battery.) He doesn't trust me putting a new one in, so I guess it's off to the shop for him.
Friday was spent with me sleeping in, finally getting the rest of my M:TG cards in so the final touches of my graft and discard deck got put together (I still don't like that deck very much. It's very frustrating. It's not as fast as my saproling deck.), and then we managed to make it to IKEA to shop for everything that Andy's taking away when he moves. We ended the night by going to a small booster draft tournament. Pretty interesting. Most decks were "large creature" decks, and I figured I'd try to do something different by putting together a "creature/land destruction to buy time while I get some creatures out" deck. So, when the land destruction happened, I won. Which unfortunately, wasn't very often. Note to self: play creatures or direct damage in a draft next time.
The crew at the shop was pretty interesting. There were a couple of people who I pegged to be instant gaming-store stereotypes. And a couple others who looked like they walked out of an Old Navy/Hollister catalog, and those were surprisingly the best players. I guess they're the type of people who wouldn't even waste time with M:TG unless they were good. Really good.
Saturday was helping Andy move his stuff out, help Jeremy move his stuff into Andy's room, and have Ben move his stuff in. Lots of moving. Then poor Audrey had her going away party, and I'm going to miss her sorely. ;____; *sniffles* She's going back up to the Bay Area to happier pastures and being with the boyfriend, so I can understand how that may be worth escaping grad school for. Met her boyfriend's friends, and for the most part they seem pretty cool. I think I've probably found a new group to hang out with AX, judging by the awesomeness of their stories I think it'll be fun. :D Yay for making friends. Hopefully me and the "friend who doesn't live in the Bay Area anymore and actually lives down here" will keep in touch and maybe chill out once in a while. It's been a while since I've had an anime/video gaming buddy. Audrey's group is good for my nerdy socialness.
That said, I am going back home on Monday morning. Phew. Somehow, even after seemingly resting up for the past couple of days, I am still exhausted. See you all while I'm at home.
I AM DONE! DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE!
No more quals! (Unless I fail, which I hope I didn't.)
And now to veg around for the rest of the weekend not do anything. And Poor Jeremy. His car broke down and won't start. I should get him a new battery. At least he beat FFVII today.
The hell is over. I've done all my quals, and I think I passed every single one of them.
YEAH, bitches.
That said, I've run into the coolest manager ever at Brew Co. Free drinks and free food? Hells yeah.
I am the most trashest that I have ever been since my 21st birthday. Living up life as a grad student, baby.
Now I get to drive with my roommate to IKEA. don't worry, I"m not the one doing the driving.
Avenged Sevenfold is having a concert here in LA...
while I'm back home two states away. *cries*
Those of you who don't know who A7X is, if you like Ishiwatari Daisuke's music for Guilty Gear, you'll like their new, non-screamy, non-metal core stuff. :D My inner Sol Badguy muse is appropriately satisfied.
...and now, back to studying for my qual tomorrow!
I have 4 missions in my To-do box for the week when I am "resting up" and going back home.
I have a feeling I'm not going to accomplish them due to lack of time/laziness (those somehow go hand in hand), but at least I hope to get started.
1) Code the layout for my new fanfic page (if I end up doing what I envision, I'm going to have a fun time wrestling with DHTML and/or Java)
2) Make a music video.
Not to steal Tro's thunder, cause her Calgara/Norland AMV was gorgeous (the song choice was perfect too) but my muses are demanding an AMV, so until they shut up (which they might in the face of the mountain of work an AMV is) I will make a valiant attempt. Failing an AMV, at least another Calgara/Norland is called for.
3) Play an Emperor's Game. To assist in this, Andy's allowing me to borrow his decks. :D He has some interesting ones. I don't know if they'd work in a game as large as an Emperor's, but they'll hold their own in Two-Headed Giant.
4) Start Chapter Five of Seven Thunders Spoke. I am not going to leave this unfinished dammit! It may be my internet life's greatest opus.
...and now, back to studying.
Two down, one more to go. Ugggh...must not collapse from tiredness today, I must study! *steels self*
That said, this time's qual was pretty easy, mostly because it involved a lot of writing. Yay for tests where I get to sit in front of a computer and all I have to do is write an introduction and a discussion to a paper's figures that they give me.
You guys have no idea how hard it is to sit in front Microsoft Word and not write something absolutely pr0nful, especially since I spent a good chunk of my study break time last night watching my roommate Jeremy play Final Fantasy VII (he's a such a high level it's ridiculous) and reading Twig's "A Long Hard Road" Sephiroth/Cloud fanfic. I swear, even when I am full of science writing, I am also filled with pr0n.
... wait, that came out sounding wrong. ¬_¬
Anyways, I WILL CONQUER QUALS YET! *mwa ha ha ha ha ha*
The last exam will be on the molecular basis of axonal regeneration in spinal cord systems, which is awesome because that's right up my alley of expertise. BITCHES LOVE ME.
These next couple of days are going to be nasty and hellish.
Monday: studying for both the Cellular and Molecular quals.
Tuesday: taking quals in the morning, and then studying for the Molecular quals.
Wednesday: studying for the Molecular qual.
Thursday: Molecular qual in the morning, trip to Burbank to shop for stuff at IKEA and Target before Andy moves out
Friday: helping Andy pack his stuff and move, small MTG Booster Draft tourney I'm going to
Saturday: probably more of helping Andy pack his stuff and move, move in the new roommate, show new roommate around
That said, this week is actually worse for Andy, because not only does he have quals and moving, he needs to revise a paper that's due on Monday. So I guess I shouldn't be whining.
EDIT: Andy, Jeremy, and I spent a good chunk of last evening reliving our elementary school days, cause we just randomly started talking about books we used to read in nth grade. On that topic, it is now HARD AS HELL to find the Jody A. Lee late-80's editions of Lloyd Alexander's "The Prydain Chronicles." Those books had, in my opinion, the best cover art that ever there was in the series, and they are sadly out of print and the new covers are ugly and shitty. :( It took me forever on Google to figure out who the cover artist was, and after I looked her up...
Oh yeah. She did a lot of the cover art for Mercedes Lackey's stuff. And then it suddenly clicked that "Holy shit, Vanyel looks just like Taran." JUST LIKE HIM. When it never had really occured to me before that they were the same artist. That must be why I find Vanyel, like Taran, amazingly attractive. [/end fangirl squeeing]
And now...back to tracking down those books and studying for quals.
So is anybody actually subbing Chevalier? Cause the last I saw was episode one, and that was quite a few weeks ago. The show itself is already on chapter four of its broadcast episode.
Hello?
Anybody?
:/ I guess I'm on my own. Thank god I speak passable Japanese. Or well, at least I understand Japanese passably.
EDIT: I got bored and randomly looked it up today. Morikawa Toshiyuki did Enel? O_____O Mad points to the man. MAD POINTS. (Not that any additional points to already being Sephiroth's seiyuu makes that much of a difference anymore.)
And speaking of FFVII-ness, my roommate Jeremy is playing FFVII now, and wow. He's totally addicted to it. XD Now I can show him Advent Children again and this time he'll really be getting what's going on. That said, Cloud is an emo little shit. :( My memory of FFVII plot isn't very solid because I only went through that game once, but man. The fact that Cloud made up an existence that was based on a lie because he was a pathetic loser? ...makes him an even more pathetic loser.
I think I remember why I never really liked Cloud. :/ I think it's time for me to go and bounce off to read some of A Long Hard Road which I am oft prone to do during final exams. :p
Wow, yesterday's systems qual killed me dead. After the exam we went to lunch, Jeremy and I went home, and I was so tired and I just crashed and went to sleep. =____=;; I was gonna go to lab, but heh. Obviously it didn't happen. :( I spent most of the evening with Andy playing Kill A Lot (better known to other people as Dynasty Warriors 5), and it's always vaguely amusing playing with somebody who has zero sense of direction. ^^;; *sweatdrops*
Anyways, the systems qual was difficult. Mostly because I was really stumped on one part of one question, so I just sort of BSed it. There also wasn't enough time for me to finish, so I was rushing through the entire thing and I barely finished writing everything I wanted to write. And it was a freaking 3 hour exam.
One down, two to go. Cellular and Molecular are next. I have a feeling I'm going to like the Molecular qual. The Cellular qual...well...we'll see.
Tally Hall is being featured on MTVu's you heard it first.
HOW AWESOME IS THAT?
That new Facebook mini-feed is pretty creepy. :( I'm being stalked already, I don't need to be stalked more.
That said, AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH! QUALS TOMORROW! *noes*
(repeat on tuesday, repeat next thursday)
Also, the internet needs to have a sarcasm light. When someone's being sarcastic, it should light up. Text has far too little social cues for me and others to be able to pick them up.
I stayed up until 4:35am writing Calgara/Norland fic. =______=
*wails*
and as a result I got 4 hours of sleep.
*wails*
WHY? ;_____; I am such an idiot!
*wails*
SKYPIEA!!
I lost track of how many times I cried. When I read the Arabasta arc, I thought nothing could beat how awesome it was. And then I finished reading Skypiea.
Now off to find some Calgara/Norland fic.
If some of you are wondering why I'm so MIA right now, it's because I have a giant test on Thursday. And then I'll have one again the Tuesday after that. And again on Thursday.
In other words, it is the season for quals and I am dying from studying and knowing stuff I guess I ought to know but don't. Chances are, you guys aren't going to be seeing much of me until quals are over and I have escaped home for a week or so.
So yeah. Studying. Watching the Skypeia arc of One Piece (which is done really, really well. I think it's better than the manga. I look forward to crying again in this arc. ^_^). Studying more.
:D See you guys in a couple of weeks.
EDIT: It blows my mind when I think about the fact that Luffy's seiyuu is actually a middle-aged woman. (Who uh...thankfully doesn't sound like a middle-aged woman at all. o_o)
OW. MY MIND. >_<
I wish I were as awesome as she is. :D
If something ever happens to her and One Piece isn't done yet, I'm going to have to stop watching. :(
I need to find myself a middle name soon. Or at least, a middle initial. My last name is so damn common that if you do a search on my last name plus my first initial, you get like....3000 damn results on PubMed. That's just ridiculous. This may really hamper my efforts for my papers to get cited, because people just can't find what I've written.
I need a middle initial I think.
I'm thinking the letter 'D' for obvious, ridiculous reasons. Now I'm trying to find a way to convince my professor that I'm choosing 'D' for a sane reason (over every other letter in the alphabet), and not merely because I am the biggest ball of fan cheese on the planet. Thoughts? XD
