Explosive Squee Inside

Books! TV!

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 06:32:24 GMT

I say sometimes I don't read much these days (at least pro fic), but what that really means is that I go a long time without reading anything new and then read three novels in a week. All these novels are also by folks with LJs - I'm not sure if that's coincidence or simply a sign of the growing mainstreamness of LJ. Spoilers for all the listed works under the cuts, obviously.

Havemercy
Okay, first I should say that I really did like this book a lot. I liked the characters and the world and would gladly read lots more about them. And it had UST! pining! forbidden love! These are some of my favorite things.

But what struck me as weird were a couple of things, mostly plot things. So, the beginning of the book seems to signal that the book is going to be about emotional plot. Which is dandy! I like emotional plot. But then there's this action plot that happens, and it kind of feels pastede on? In particular, I felt that the impact of losing Havemercy wasn't explored enough, and couldn't be, because we never really knew Havemercy. And because the emotional plot seemed primary, I would have liked to see more resolution of the Hal/Royston plotline.

But I really did like it, I swear.

Shadows Return
Needs more cuddling, of the literal or metaphorical variety. Okay but not great. I'll still read the sequel.

Dust
An Elizabeth Bear book I didn't dislike! (I really want to like her stuff, but I often just sort of go 'meh' about them - I did about A Companion to Wolves, despite it being awesome, and about Blood and Iron). Dust I found interesting because it has all the structure of high fantasy - competing fiefdoms, morally questionable wizards, swords with names, you know, all that jazz - but in a sci fi setting - colony ship, sentient computer programs, stars, and such. Pretty awesome overall.

Doctor Who

Okay, first, all of it but the ending: I loved it. The Doctor being Donna! Donna being the Doctor! The companions all being awesome! I'm kind of meh about the Daleks, especially since I feel like there's retcon happening every time they show up, but there was enough other awesome that I loved it.

The ending: I think it is good the Rose thing got resolved. I never shipped Rose/Doctor that hard, but RTD clearly does, and I am okay that it ended like that. About Donna....well. I know there are people that really hate what happened to Donna, and I totally get it - it's a pretty terrible thing to have happen, and from a outside universe perspective, yeah, it's a little angry-making. From an in universe persepctive, though, I don't mind it as much - it's very Flowers for Algernon, which I find kind of ~beautifully tragic* or whatever. It's 2:30 am, I'm allowed to not make sense.

*The tilde always means sarcasm in my head.

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 01:29:00 GMT

You know what's weird? Orchestral arrangements of Dropkick Murphys songs.

This post brought to you by the Boston Pops and their performance of Shipping Up To Boston.

ETA: OMG helicopter, you have been circling over this area for like 6 hours now. Please please go away.

ETA2: Okay, I have now encountered that song three times in three different forms (orchestral, original, and original with drunken singalong) in just over three hours. (Other drunken singalong choices have been Dragonsta Din Tei and Smashmouth's Allstar.)

I laughed.

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 02:11:27 GMT

Okay, there are three possibilites for what I'm hearing:
1. I am hearing the music from two different parties.
2. Whoever's running the music at whatever party this is has chosen to play Sandstorm and Soulja Boy back to back.
3. There exists a mashup of the two.

At work today, I discovered that Harvard has lent us a copy of one of the Twilight books. I did not die laughing, but it was close. We had a couple more of those incidents that make me wonder why people keep lending us books, too - this past week has not been good for our competence scores. On the bright sides, a couple of those books in limbo got returned?

I was over by MGH during rush hour today. Now, I admit that the intersection by Longfellow Bridge and Cambridge Street and Storrow Drive is a tad complex, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't take 20 staties to direct traffic, even accounting for the holiday weekend and the road closures. I don't think of that area as touristy, but either I was wrong or we are reaching critical tourist saturation, because there were a fair number of them wandering about. On one occasion, I had to model how Boston residents cross streets - ie, by stepping out into moving traffic. (That was a perfectly clear signal! The driver made eye contact and slowed up a bit! But you hesitated, and so he shrugged and kept going!) Staying too long in Boston and then going places where drivers don't stop is hazardous to my health, I suspect.

I have a book and ice cream sandwiches, so I'm going to go deal with those and possibly attempt to get my Thoughts on ~~Yaoi~~ Gabe in some sort of order.

warning for navel gazing. not literally, unless i get really bored later.

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 04:28:19 GMT

Okay, so I work in a basement, so I don't see the weather. It occurs to me that this is supposed to be one of the classic complaints of office workers, how they have no windows and never see the sun, but I actually didn't notice until recently. I mean, if you asked me, I would have known that there are in fact no windows down there, but that was just a thing. But then I realized that in the past two weeks, Boston has had three epic thunderstorms, and I have missed two of them. I really like thunderstorms. I have a giant window and I just want to sit in it and watch the rain.

On the other hand, if I can't see the rain, I can't be worrying that I left the window open. (Actually, the window is open, so I'd be worrying that it's raining in. Note to self: move books away from window.)

I was reading up on what happens in Boston to celebrate the Fourth, and apparently people camp out all day to get good spots to see the fireworks. On my run today, I passed generators set up along Mem Drive (and, okay, I don't really know what they're for, but that's my guess) and I could see portapotties lined up by the dozen on the other side of the river. I don't know why I'm surprised to learn that Boston considers this holiday SRS BZNS, but I am.

So, I've had TBPID in my possession for almost 30 hours now and I still haven't watched it. It's not that I don't want to see it. Like, I'm sure that once I do watch it, my eyes will be full of hearts and I'll be wondering why I didn't watch it sooner, but. I'm feeling remarkably apathetic about it, which makes no sense. MCR is my favorite of the bandom bands, and I've never seen them live and the previews were amazing and I don't even know what's going on in my head. (Offers to slap some sense into me gratefully accepted.)

I'm wondering some if it's tied into the general fandom reaction so far. Which is not to say that fandom isn't excited, but I'm reminded of when Pretty.Odd. leaked and every post on my flist was full of squee. (I'm not at all trying to knock PatD - that was an awesome night.) It makes sense - between the delays in shipping TBPID (combined with the fact I haven't seen rips getting passed around) and the fact that it's much harder to fit into your schedule watching however many hours of video compared to reading or watching an interview or looking at hilarious pics or listening to a new album, the lack of fannish momentum behind TBPID at present is understandable.* What perplexes me is my reaction to all of this - why don't I care? Why do I reflect my flist so strongly?

On the other hand, I got myself an LJ and started participating in fannish things because I wanted to be part of the squee and none of my usual RL targets were receptive. So I guess that makes sense. It's not that I don't love these things all on their own, but I love them more because the collective joy they bring us.**

The flip side, as you've probably worked out, is that I can be convinced to join all sorts of new fandoms with enough glee for them on my flist.

*unlike that sentance, which got thoroughly out of hand.
**Gerard's earnest hadn't rubbed off on me yet, I suspect - typing that last clause makes me want to disclaim and back away and, look, I am uncomfortable with the sentimentality but it's still true.

Things I learned about the government today

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:28:50 GMT

1. Back in the day, the library I work at asked for social security numbers in order to issue library cards to people with no affiliation to the school. A few years ago, we stopped asking. Various governmental agencies that ask for cards on behalf of their employees send still us them.

2. The CIA has a library. Like several of the libraries we do business with, they prefer not to receive packages via US Mail. Instead of a simple "Send by UPS" on their request (as most do), they send an explanation of just why they don't want books via USPS, and what the better options are, and I don't even know what else because it got cut off the forms I was working with today.

3. The Library of Congress has suspended our borrowing privileges. My coworkers' response to this makes me think it happens on a semi-regular basis.

I has it!

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 23:56:01 GMT

Today after work I went to Walgreens, CVS, Star Market, Border's, and Best Buy. *collapses on LJ* I didn't even know the Border's near me had a CD section (it's L shaped, and I'd never made it to the far end of the L, since SF/F is near the front). They didn't have TBPID, so I headed over to Best Buy, which did, even if it took me three tries to find it. I grabbed Whisper War as long as I was there, since it was on display and I realized that I hadn't actually paid money for it until that point. (That's basically my normal pattern with music - I hear it, decide that I like it, decide I should buy it, let time pass, let more time pass, eventually buy it. I bought Fever probably 18 months after first hearing it. /o\)

I haven't watched TBPID! yet. I'm kind of interested in doing a viewing party thing - sadly, virtual, but it'd still be cool to do a viewing/squee-as-we-go sort of thing. (I am trying out this 'participating in fandom' thing.) I'm generally around from 8pm to 3am EST, but not Friday because I have to do the fireworks thing, and it would be better if someone else organized it, especially the technical bits.

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 04:02:08 GMT

You know, I really do like my job. And I like that they gave me more hours. I just wish someone had realized that the amount of things that need doing and that I know how to do is less than the time they've asked me to come in.

I went running today - before I went, I looked at the temperature and decided 85 is too hot to wear an extra layer, so I nixed the tshirt. I'm going to regret this if I end up with sunburn over half my torso, but the breeze on my back felt really nice. Speaking of which, I need a new running hairstyle. The current one is just a simple ponytail, but the lateral motion involved in running means the tail swings from side to side, creating giant snarls where the hair hangs against my back. Not cool.

Technically speaking, TBPID! is in stores tomorrow, right? So I should try to figure out what near me is likely to have so I can grab it after work. Most of my music buying happens in Minnesota, so I don't have a good sense of what's going to have what.

This is what happens when you live with nerds.

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 07:54:35 GMT

Lately, whenever I walk into some of the common areas on the floor where I live, I am struck by this overwhelming sense of 'no, seriously, what?' So I am sharing.

First, three facts that you should know to help you make sense of all this:
1. About half the people on the floor are studying computer science or electrical enginnering.
2. My school has, essentially, a freecycle list. Popular not only among students moving away but departments that have upgraded their equipment and find themselves with outdated but working electorics (we call it 'cruft').
3. I've been less active in the floor's social activities lately, meaning I haven't gotten a chance to ask someone what the hell is going on.

Okay, first slide.

The lounge. More notably, the lounge used for entertainment (note the currently-disarrayed furniture, the speakers and screen on the right, the computer that runs most of the entertainment in the back left corner and the BSG poster on the back wall.) Now, I know that the projector (upper left, in the nook) hasn't been working lately. What I don't know is why we now have three projectors, one of which is disassembled.

Second slide.

This picture and the previous were taken in more or less the same spot, with a 180 rotation, to give you a bit of an orientation. Between the location (the door on the right leads to the kitchen) and the furniture, I might call it an eating area. If, you know, anyone ever ate there. Part of the problem is the fact that the tables are covered in who-knows-what. That front table, for example, appears to be covered with the spoils from a raid on a bio lab. We don't have any bio majors. Also of note: the white cabinet on the left (full of paint cans), the red plastic sled lying in front of it, and the folded up ping pong table (only one game is ever played on it, and it ain't regulation ping pong.)

Third slide (a close up of the previous)

In this, we see that, whatever else they've been doing with the various electronics, they've also been painting them red. What I'm curious about, though, is that printer. And, okay, it's been around for a few months now, but the plastic wrap is new. I knew it only worked occasionally, and I'm guessing that it's now offline. My real question, though, is why? and how? Which is to say, we have at least one mostly functional printer on the hall, and we're two minutes away from a computer lab. Why did we need a printer that is about as big as your standard office copier? More importantly, how did they get up here? I live on the fourth floor. There are no elevators. When the printer ends up blocking the fridge and I need milk, and I have to hunker down and really push. And, sure, I'm not that big, and coefficients of friction and all that, but the point stands - that's really heavy. I mean, sure, I've seen video footage of people rappelling in the stairwells, but i refuse to believe that that's the answer.

Some people take in stray kittens. We take in stray electronics.

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 21:03:20 GMT

Went had pastries with the geek boy today - we got along fairly well, which was nice. Also, I didn't get lost at all in Harvard Square, which, if you've ever heard my horror stories about Harvard Square, is remarkable. On the way home, I grabbed a copy of Havemercy, continuing the trends of authors with LJs, and even remembered my membership card this time. (I had my whole purse, that probably helped.)

I got woken up at 6am today by the fire alarm. /o\ Worlds of fail. Actually, in two years of living here, this would probably count only as the fourth most annoying fire alarm. Maybe fifth. Being woken up that early on a Saturday sucks, but the thing is, almost everyone was asleep, so we stood around blearily together, and the ones that were awake had the sense to be quiet. (Going to bed early on a weekend night, being woken up by the fire alarm three hours later only to discover that there was a party that night and most of the people in the meeting spot are inebriated, loud, and still dancing - well, let's just say it's a good thing I can't kill people with my brain.) After it was over and I went back to sleep, I had a dream where the courtyard in front of my building was lit with red light and there was a pair of wolves prowling around. This is clearly Gerard's fault, Y/N?

Right. Off to watch Doctor Who and read Havemercy.

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 05:51:23 GMT

Right, so bandom seems to be in a really loving mood lately (not like that, you perverts), and so I've added my name to the love meme over at strobelighted, and you should too so I can flail all over you.

ETA: OH MY GOD RAY TORO WHAT

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 00:05:46 GMT

I achieved my mission of adulthood today! In case anyone really was waiting for the update. It took me a minute and a half of time on the phone, during which I spoke only to robots. For a sense of scale (or how lazy I am, or how much I hate the phone, take your pick), I have had this needing-to-be-activated card since Thanksgiving, and only bothered getting it activated because my current card expires at the end of the month. By which I mean on Tuesday. I'm actually impressed I didn't wait til Monday to call.

At work today, one of my coworkers was wearing manpris. And he kind of made it work. I am not okay with being okay with manpris.

Speaking of my coworkers, as I was leaving, I walked past the new girl's desk (she's newer than I am, but also an actual employee as opposed to a student worker. I am sometimes sad that she is learning tasks that I don't get to, until I remember that one of things she has to do is answer phones. Then I feel better.) and saw over her shoulder that she was on LJ. And it was a comment page with at least one icon I recognized. (Luckily, not from fandom, from the b0st0n community, because I don't think I could deal with that much crossing of the streams.)

Speaking of LJ and RL intersecting, the book I got yesterday? Its author not only thanks her LJ friends, but gives her username, so I shall have to add otterdance (Lynn Flewelling) to the list of authors on whose LJs I creepily lurk.

Tomorrow I'm meeting a geek boy for ice cream. We met online, and don't really know each other yet. It's either going to be awesome or a terrible terrible idea.

What I Did After Work Today

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 22:00:24 GMT

Saw via LJ that the latest book in a series I'd been reading was out. Had not previously realized that there was going to be a latest book. Discovered via Border's website that the location nearest me had a copy. Decided to go to bookstore. Decided to not take wallet, just cash/credit card/ID. Walked to bus stop to wait for bus to mall. While waiting, realized that the bus stop is directly in front of the university bookstore, which sells real books as well as textbooks. Had totally forgotten about the existence of this store. Found book, checked out, realized that membership/discount card was still in wallet in my room. Wondered what on earth made my parents think I could live on my own.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's adventures in adulthood, 'Trying to Activate a New Credit Card,' or next week's episode, 'Attempting to Schedule a Doctor's Appointment.'

Today I Am Full Of Questions

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:43:06 GMT

Also, a new icon. That makes two icons for me to choose from every time I post! From xkcd, as you may have guessed, and an excellent summation of not only my thoughts on the natural sciences but also my general obliviousness. Someone said that this comic (by which I don't mean xkcd as a whole, but this one in particular - what does one call the unit of a webcomic? A strip? An issue?) remind her of me, which is made all the more amusing (to me, at least) because I'm pretty sure she's never heard my Thoughts on Biology.

Disclaimer for all those who like biology: My Thoughts on Biology are the kind of thing one says when, at dinner with a group of friends studying several different subjects, the bio major hands you the check with instructions to figure out how much every one owes, remembering to include the tip. Such Thoughts might include liberal use of the word 'psuedoscience.'

Question the First! My brother has to be in Boston for a few days at some point this summer, to do orientation and registration. Is that standard procedure for colleges, to require a separate trip for that stuff? I didn't have to, but the strangeness with which my school approaches all facets of student life has made me wary of generalizing my experiences.

Question the Second! On a scale of 'whatever' to 'get to a doctor, now!', where does tingling in the extremities fall? (Bonus information: only one hand, only in a few fingers in that hand, only a couple of times in the last few months but lasting til the next morning, and on the side that houses the funkier of my shoulders. (Bonus bonus information: The shoulder thing is a remainder of my high school swimming days, never checked out or rehabbed (bad me, I know), probably an overuse injury, probably damage to the rotator cuff, currently doesn't impact my daily life unless I try to lie on my back with my arms stretched out over my head, in which case it serves as a reminder that man, I really should have gotten this looked at years ago. The conventional wisdom that swimming is easy on the joints? Does not apply to completive swimmers, even if I was never varsity.)

Question the Third! I was really sure there was a third question, but now there isn't. Lists should have three items, though.

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 21:36:21 GMT

...holy fucking shit. The weather just went from 'overcast, threatening rain, thunder in the distance' to 'gusts of wind, sheets of rain, and hail' in about 60 seconds. I'm so glad I looked at the radar map and decided to wait til later to go running.

In other news, work was full of incompetence today. Two or three separate packages arrived addressed to us but intended for some other school. (Our response is 'Well, let's just mail this on to Brown, I guess.') Also, someone in the main library opened mail intended for us, and rather than doing any number of logical things with it, put it in with the books that get mailed back to where they came from. This is not a good way to make sure patrons get the books they ordered through ILL. In fact, it's an excellent way to make sure that they get mailed back to wherever they just came from.

Here, have a meme

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:44:45 GMT

You know how sometimes people on your friends list post about stuff going on in their life, and all of a sudden you think "Wait a minute? Since when are they working THERE? Since when are they dating HIM/HER? since when???" And then you wonder how you could have missed all that seemingly pretty standard information, but somehow you feel too ashamed to ask for clarification because it seems like info you should already know? It happens to all of us sometimes.

1. First Name: Laura. I don't really go by it that much online, to the point where if you refer to a Laura in your entries I'll assume you mean some other Laura. (I have, on occasion, in other places online, flat-out refused to tell people my real name, but I think that weirds people out a bit.) But if you ever need to find me in line or something, Laura is the name you should yell.
2. Age: 20
3. Location: I go to school in Boston (not the city proper) and I'm from Minneapolis (the city proper). I think of Minneapolis as my hometown, and I love it, but I have a hard time imagining living there as an adult, because it's too tied up with my memories of childhood. Similarly, if I decide to live in Boston after school, I suspect I will have to move across town or something.
4. Occupation: College student. I study math, mostly, and linguistics some, and a few other things as the fancy takes me. Over the summer, I'm working in the campus library (today's improbable mail: Hong Kong) and maybe as a few other things, depending on how things work out.
5. Partner: Nope, not currently. I take a very relaxed approach to the whole dating thing - if it happens, it happens, and if it doesn't, it doesn't. (I actually had a conversation today with a friend I ran into about how I can't date guys who go to this school - if they're from this side of campus, they're too nerdy, and if not, they're too fratty. Being a member of Greek life, he took offense until I explained that his frat doesn't count as a real frat, and I now have an invitation to his frat's next party so I can meet frat guys who aren't too fratty. Or something.)
6. Kids: Nope.
7. Brothers/Sisters: Just one, my younger brother, who graduated from high school a few weeks ago. In the fall, he'll be joining me in Boston at one of the several hundred colleges in the area (not the same one as me, though.)
8. Pets:? No, but I am considering getting a small potted plant!
9. List the 3-5 biggest things going on in your life: School. More school. Fencing, although only during the collegiate season (Sept - March). During the summer, my job, my attempts at being fit enough to manage fencing again in the fall.
10. Parents: Still living, still married, living in Minnesota. I get along well with my parents, and we're fairly close, but it's not talking-on-the-phone-everyday kind of close.
11. Who are some of your closest friends? A handful of folks from high school, some of my hallmates, some people from the internet.

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 07:22:44 GMT

Whenever I stop posting on LJ for a while, I feel like I need to make a suitably dramatic re-entrance, or at least an explanation of where I've been, or a summary of all the cool things I've done, so I continue to not-post while I think of what such a thing should be, and the cycle continues. So I won't. I was away for a while, and then I was back but not posting, and now I am posting again.

I might at some point tell you about my brother's graduation, especially if my mom sends me the pictures, as well as the adventures my mother and I had shopping for things to wear to graduation. Other pictures that I should probably post sometime include my continuing adventures in night photography with a crappy point and shoot and no tripod, the lightening photo I managed to catch tonight, or the illustrated essay on why my hair reminds me that women's bodies are still sometimes considered public objects of discourse.

I don't really know what I'm doing with my summer. I now work 20 hours a week in the library. (The other student employee quit. Rather than hiring someone to replace him, my boss offered me the hours. So now I spend more time in an air-conditioned basement mailing books to France and the Netherlands and Lebanon and New Zealand, which makes me go 'Seriously? The closest place in the world we could find this book is New Zealand?') I go to meet with someone else about another part-time thing later this week, more because I think it's a cool project to work on than anything else - I figure it's a good sign that after finding out that I wasn't eligible for the kind of funding they have, they got back to me two weeks later to say that their funding has changed, and would I still like to interview?

But it's, I don't know. I like my job and I like my coworkers and my finances are doing okay, but. I feel like there's division between resume jobs and CV jobs, and I don't know if that's a real division or one that exists only in my head, but in my head at least, these are resume jobs and not CV jobs. And I feel like I should be doing something better, something that would mean something later.

I wish sometimes I were an engineer. (Not really - I make a pretty terrible engineer.) But I feel like employers look at engineers and say, 'oh, yes, you have learned useful skills X, Y, and Z in your classes. we have a place for you.' But I had to go and pick the English major of the STEM fields, the one were it's all letters of recommendations and people who can speak to your insights and I don't network well and I'm not friends with my professors. I don't
know if I'm good enough at what I do to go to grad school and I don't know what else there is, especially because I don't code at all.

Logically, I know that graduating from one of the most prestigious universities in the world means that I'm going to be okay, eventually, but I'm not sure what I'll be doing to be okay. The take away point, if you're still reading, is that uncertainty and I cope very badly together, and this is the biggest uncertainty I can see right now, so every now and again I freak out about, even though it's something I shouldn't have to worry about for a year or a year and a half yet.

I feel better saying all that. I don't even really care if anyone heard it. Saying things is sometimes good.

Change of topics! I got my Hush Sounds ticket in the mail today, which made me grin. Are there plans? (No, of course there are not plans yet, because this is bandom, but there will be plans, I'm sure.) I'm just throwing all this out there while I'm thinking about it. Anyways, my ticket claims doors are at 6. I work til 4 (unless I leave early, which is very doable), and it'll take me 20 minutes to get from work to the venue, 30 if I stop home to change. I suspect a number of you will be arriving from NYC and thus I don't know how well preshow meetups will work (I am recalling a number of phone calls at the Cobra show along the lines of 'we're not there yet, but we will be!', but that was for a 1pm show and this is for 6, so perhaps there will be plenty of time to hang out in advance. Then again, fangirls.) (Also, for those of you that might need to know such things, I am remarkably local to the venue, should you need local guidance on matters not involving restaurants (I can do grocery stores, but I don't eat out much) or driving and parking (I have no car). I suspect that those two things are most of what people might want to know and thus that my local knowledge is not at all helpful, but if there are other things you might need to know about in the locality of the venue, I would be glad to make gestures towards answers.)

I kind of want to go on an adventure this summer. Not something in particular, just celebrating living on my own with hardly any regular commitments. Problem is, I am bad at knowing what that should be. If you happen to be looking for a co-adventurer in Boston, lemme know.

And it's now past 3am, so I should post this so I can regret it in the morning. (I regret all posts written after 3am. Some people are chatty drunks, I apparently am I chatty night owl.) (Not the parentheses, though. I never regret the abuse of parentheses.)

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 04:08:16 GMT

Hi, I'm not really here and I'm still behind on reading my flist and answering comments and email and basically everything, and at some point I will have to tell you about the fiasco that was my flight to Minneapolis (teaser: I lost my boarding pass three times), but. I just watched Eastern Promises, and I was looking for a quick reality check. Kirill is kind of in love with Nikolai, and Nikolai knows that and uses that against Kirill, at that scene right at the end, right? Or do I need to accept that the slashgoggles are, at this point, permanent?

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:56:14 GMT

Can the weather stay like this always? It's 60 degrees out and it rained earlier, and when I went running it was overcast with mist on the river and fog over downtown. In short, perfect. (And, yes, I know this means I should move to San Francisco or the Pacific Northwest, but those places don't have real winter.)

Also, I'm going out of town on Thursday night and getting back on Monday evening (or perhaps I am going home on Thursday and leaving again on Monday - I'm not sure exactly where I call home at this point). My brother's graduating from high school, and besides my family gets twitchy if they don't see me in person every few months. While I certainly have internet access at home, the whole point of being there is to spend time with family, so I will probably won't be around much for the next while. Don't break the internet while I'm gone.

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 01:41:03 GMT

I'm sorry, CSS Zen Garden, but your div structure is wrong wrong wrong. Seriously, why did you think it would be a good idea to do that? The #preamble should be part of the #supportingText, not part of the #pageHeader And the #footer is also in the wrong place - it shouldn't be part of #supportingText at all. It makes no fucking sense, and half the designs in the garden ignore the implied structure and go with the one that makes sense. Also, replacing header text with images surely cannot be good practice. Isn't that an accessibility issue?

In conclusion: wrong wrong wrong.

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 22:06:47 GMT

1. The Empires songs that I have been listening to on repeat today: Modern Love and Midnight Land

2. Today at work I learned how to mail books to the entire US, not just New England. Still haven't mailed anything to Harvard, though. (Trufax: the shelves of materials that need to be returned are labeled 'BLC', 'non-BLC', 'Harvard', and 'Limbo'. This amuses me to no end.) They promise me that eventually I will do something besides mail books.

3. I did some digital housekeeping - both the email address and the IM name listed in my profile have changed. Of course, through the magic of email forwarding and Pidgin, respectively, this means precisely nothing from my end. Still, you might want to update things on your end.

Now with actual bandom content!

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 03:23:29 GMT

I have not arrived at Empires fanaticism (...yet), but, wow, Spit the Dark is rapidly becoming my go-to song when I need to calm down.

*puts on repeat* *mellows*

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 23:50:31 GMT

I am no longer unemployed - now I am merely under-employed. Which is to say, I have a part time job in the "other people's books, our users" department of the campus library (my name, not theirs). This is good. I like libraries, I like books, and it's an workplace where I can wear jeans and a tshirt if I want (and, oh, I do want.) (My boss wears jeans and a polo shirt, which means you can totally see his wrist tattoo. I suspect this is one of the benefits of working in a back room in a basement.) I spent today mailing books back to basically every university in the northeast. Except Harvard; I haven't learned to mail things to Harvard yet.

Then I went running. I don't know if I've talked about this before, but I hate hate hate running, so so much. If I were working out for the sake of working out, running would be my last choice. But no, I'm running so that when the fencing teams runs in the fall, I will not die (for values of death equivalent to shin splints lasting all spring, and that sucked so so much). At least I get to run somewhere pretty?

Right, now I'm just babbling, so I'm going to stop talking.

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 03:05:28 GMT

First, UNEXPECTED CLIFFHANGER! Still no good!

Second, Doctor Who! You are are supposed to be a light hearted children's show, full of wacky hijinks and running from crappy CGI monsters and good looking dudes! Not the kind of show that includes lines like "Every speciies has an irrational fear of the dark. But it's not irrational. There's something in there," or the voices of dead people in machines or unexpected skeletons pursuing you through dimly lit shelving. Not on, show, not on.

I was going to go to bed, but I think instead I'll look at pictures of, like, fluffy kittens for a while. Anybody who wants to distract me either in comments or over IM is most welcome.

My first thought was 'OMG, I have to tell LJ about this!' /o\

Fri, 30 May 2008 22:30:57 GMT

So I went to the mall today, in an attempt to find a dress to wear to my brother's graduation next weekend. I failed, but that's not the point. The point is, you know how stores have music playing? While I was in the dressing room of NY&Co, Metro Station's Shake It came on. I of course paused in my trying-on-of-dresses to break out some truly lolarious dance moves. (Shake shake, shake it)

If you know where I could find such a thing, you should tell me, because I fail at adulthood. My default clothing of choice is jeans and a tshirt with a math pun on it.

Wed, 28 May 2008 08:26:11 GMT

Hello, Internets! I am feeling surprisingly competent and on top of things today! Somehow this means I have to tell all of you about it.

And, okay, maybe I haven't been productive lately, but I have made PLANS to be productive. Say, for example, I have a list of things that need to be done to transform my room from 'slightly dismal totally boring dorm room double' to 'totally rocking single.' It has 28 items on it so far. Shut up, I like lists. And planning. (In 'more related to being productive' news, I don't have a summer job yet, but I'm currently on the thinking positively side of trying to find one. If I don't have something at least tentatively figured out by the beginning of next week or so, I may end up taking my resume to one of the temp companies in Boston and saying, "Look, I'm polite, helpful, and well-spoken; I type 50 wpms and can make Excel do just about anything - surely someone wants to pay me minimum wage for 10 weeks this summer?") Also, maybe this summer I will learn to sail.

This is totally related to being on top of things! Is there anyone on my flist who would be willing to talk to me about social anxiety or anxiety disorders? (Email or IM is fine if you don't want to do it in comments.) It doesn't need to be some long drawn out exploration of my (possible) problems, someone who's willing to listen to me babble and say 'get thee to a shrink' is fine.

I am very slightly manic right now, I suspect. It is 4am and I have been awake for three hours, so that's kind of like midday, right? I have a very troubled relationship with the normal 24 hour day. 'Yesterday' I got up at 8pm, 'today' I got up at 1am. Sooner or later I will circle around to actually seeing sunlight again.