Whoo! Slacké!
Mood :: 
chipper
Have you ever hit that point where you have so much to do that you feel okay not doing any of it for a bit?
Yeah.
The
rage over mammogram screening recommendations is
insane and really troubling to me. Mammograms use x-rays. X-rays are ionizing radiation. Ionizing radiation causes cell damage
which can lead to cancer. I don't see what's so crazy about cutting back on screening to lower risks. No one's saying you shouldn't get a mammogram after you find a lump. It's about weighing the risks and benefits of screening in younger women.
This article does a pretty good job of explaining some of the other nuances of the issue as well.
On a lighter note, since I've been meaning to do this for a while and can't stand the thought of looking at more Fortran right now, a meme!
Comment and I'll give you three fandoms, for which you must answer these:
01: What got you into this fandom in the first place?
02: Do you think you'll stay in this fandom or eventually move on?
03: Favorite episodes/books/movies/etc.?
04: Do you participate in this fandom (fanfiction, graphics, discussions)?
05: Do you think that more people should get into this fandom?![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
instrumentality (who has teh c00lest username ever) gave me
( Neon Genesis Evangelion, Death Note, and Persona ).
I shall close this post with a bit of a cliffhanger (Mom, you can't answer. You've already heard about this.). We have a new addition to our household. Here's your
very obvious hint:
The tags might spoil it, as well...
More on that to come!
What to take, what to take...
Mood :: 
thoughtful
Help me out, friends!
Poll #1487305 Decide my schedule!
Open to:
All, detailed results viewable to:
All, participants: 5
Here's the deal - I can take three courses next term, but there are four I'm interested in for various reasons. At some point, I need to take one of two math courses and three of five core electives, as well as a handful of whatever else I feel like. Which ones should I take - select three:
Any reason why?
C'est la vie, non?
Mood :: chipper
What a weird week this has been.
Last week started out alright. I can't remember much of it, but I do remember that I was pretty pleased with my midterms. Then there was group drama. Forcing school away for a bit, Jaime and I unwound by making slightly belated sugar skulls for El Dia de Los Muertos (which I may post pictures of, if I'm ever motivated and emotionally stable enough at the same time). But the day after I made a skull in Odie's honor, Stitch died. So I spent a lot of time crying, over her and over school and over everything in general. Add onto that some health issues (nothing serious, but annoyances - GI + girly + mental - add up, y'know?), and I was in a pretty sorry state.
Then a strange thing happened.
I slept. Okay, so that wasn't good as it sounds at first blush - one of the medications I got put on disagreed with me pretty strongly, and I spent the weekend nauseous and dizzy and so tired I could barely drag myself around the apartment. Needless to say, I stopped taking the drug (and haven't told my doctor yet - I will, I will! Jeez.). At this point, I think it's pretty much out of my system. Somehow, coming off of that, even with some lingering group drama (though there's a spark of hope there that appeared earlier today I'm absolutely giddy about) and health monitoring (again, nothing serious - this one was actually left up to me as to whether I wanted it or not, because the doctor doesn't think there's anything wrong, but anxiety makes me craaaaaaaazy, so I went for it. So far?
Nothing wrong.), I'm almost energized. Yeah, life can suck sometimes, and I really want more than anything to just be healthy and have everyone I love be healthy too, but nothing's ever perfect. You have to take what beauty you can from the quiet moments and hope that the chaos ends in your favor.
Well, and sometimes you have to not be a pretentious twat and just have light-hearted fun.
...
And on to the light-hearted fun!
( Persona 4 )( Mighty Boosh )( Reality TV: PR & SYTYCD )( Adult Swim: VB & Metalocalypse )( Final Fantasy VIII )( Everything Else )( Gifties! )Having a Jaime is also a wonderful thing, especially one who's replaying No More Heroes, as are dark lagers, hard salamis, and cheddar. I happen to have all of them to boogie with tonight. I feel blessed, no lie, no sarcasm.
Ugh. Being happy's kind of exhausting. But there's no time for rest! Gotta get as much in as I can before it's back to the lab tomorrow!
Oh! And if you haven't signed up to get a holiday card from me yet,
please do!
Sign up for a glittery greeting here!
My beloved rough-and-tumble girl Stitch, 11/11/2002 - 11/04/2009
Mood :: 
crushed
She passed away sometime during the night between yesterday and the day before. I found out yesterday afternoon. There is so much to say, and yet I have no words.
Sneak Preview
More on that later.
Responding to comments and such later as well. For now, it's lunch and then off to the dentist's. Ugh. Almost all fixed up. Almost.
NaNoWriMo - Day 2
Mood :: 
creative
636 / 10000 words. 6% done!
If you haven't filled out my holiday card poll yet,
please do! Really, it's like a gift to me to sign up - gives me an excuse to waste some time with pens, pencils, glitter, and glue. So, do me a favor, and get yourself a card out of the deal too! Pretty please?
Jaime's kind of obsessed with Sufjan Stevens right now. It's pretty good. Not bad, at least. I'm not as enamored as him. I miss when he was playing Hazards of Love non-stop. Give me Decemberists any day. Or Bright Eyes. Or Placebo.
... I gotta get him back on one of those. Scheming starts... now!
November Housekeeping
Mood :: cheerful
Let's do this.
282 / 10000 words. 3% done!
I'm not actually signed up for NaNoWriMo, and I don't think I can manage a full 50000, but I'll try to get 10000 words down this month. That's something, yeah?
Aaaaand, it's the second annual "Holiday Cards from Alex" poll!
Poll #1479576 Holiday Cards 2009!
Open to:
All, detailed results viewable to:
None, participants: 5
Do you want a card from me this holiday season?
What's your mailing address? Don't worry; only I can see the results. Your information is safe. :)
What holidays do you celebrate in December?
How much glitter would you like (From 1 - "I'm allergic, you ass!" to 10 - "As much as the postal weight limit will allow, plz.")?
Alright, sounds good. I can handle that. Anything else?
Because my days need more busyness of the fun artistic kind! Sign up, one and all!
We're all mad here.
Point of Lameness: As soon as I heard non-Latin characters are now being accepted in domain names, I knew I had to. So... uh... I'm now the proud owner of
リノア.com. Eh heh. I might be a tad predictable.
Oh, yeah, and...
HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Jaime and I didn't do anything for it.
( Not a thing. )Now, we're settled in, watching some Adult Swim, and teetering on the edge of slumber. Tomorrow, there will be housework and reading to catch up on, but for now... for now, it's blankets and glowsticks and streaming cartoons.
I can't think of a better way to end the evening.
Slacking with some PhD
Mood :: thoughtful
This is true and hilarious.And this is not so hilarious, but just as true.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.
Mood :: 
aggravated
It's just flaily time, I guess.
The school issue is still goin' strong, by cracky. Ugh. On the plus side, I'm finished with midterms, and
quantum dots are cool. *shrug* You take what you can get.
There's an awesome
contest going on at Lush right now, and I have a brilliant idea for it. Only problem is, it requires a bubble bar. I used my last bit of one
yesterday. Not. Fair.
Project Runway this week made me literally shout at the TV.
( Cut for spoilers. )Moving on, after a bit of pestering from a school friend of mine and some online research, I dragged Jaime out to the movies last night for a midnight showing of Paranormal Activity. Long story short, I thought it was good, though not the masterpiece of ultimate fright that everyone led me to believe, and Jaime
loathed it. It all boils down to your tolerance for slow pacing. What I found suspenseful, Jaime just found boring, and the moments that I pegged as being creepy (though not scary, despite the screaming in the theater suggesting otherwise), Jaime felt were too little, too late. One thing we did agree on, though, was the ending. It
sucked. I hear this one was suggested by Spielberg, and my god, should they have ignored him. When it comes to subtlety, the man's a hack. We watched the original theatrical ending for comparison. Jaime actually liked it and said it made the movie decent, but still forgettable. I loved it. For me, it pushes the film from a creepy little flick to something a tad artistic. If you do go see it, which I'd only recommend if, like me, you're a fan of being in a crowd of the noisy terrified (haunted houses are great fun, y/y?), do yourself a favor and look up the original ending afterwards. Otherwise, hold out for a DVD that includes that ending and just skip the Hollywood one entirely. The original's immeasurably better. Trust me.
Oh, and my mom should never see that movie. She'll be freaked out. Doesn't help that the house in the movie bears some resemblance to the home in Reno. Gives it juuuuust that extra bit of impact that I know would make her shriek.
In other news, I think I may put together a make-up tutorial/suggestion guide of sorts based on the little bits I've managed to collect cheaply that get the job done. Why not cut out the trial-and-error I went through and just spread the knowledge, yeah? Would anyone be interested in that sort of thing?
I'm going to make a revised Christmas list for the hell of it and go all out this time. Apple gadgets, Tokidoki swag, Pullip dolls, the works. Online window shopping is fuuuuun. Anyone else enjoy doing that?
... 13 to 10. Against Mississippi State. Jesus Hernando Christo. Step it up, Gators.
Advice time!
Mood :: 
curious
So say there's this girl who isn't feeling great. She was feeling kind of crummy last night, and it returned today. It's nothing too serious, she tells me, maybe just allergies. A cold or flu at the most. Unfortunately for her, she has an exam tomorrow as well as a long meeting, and then another meeting on Thursday. What she'd really like to do is sleep and hope this goes away soon, but she's torn due to her responsibilities. What do you think she should do? Should she attend the exam and then skip the meeting tomorrow, push through both, or e-mail her profs about taking the exam at a later date and just sleep the day away? The meeting on Thursday is really important, and making it to that is her biggest priority. What's the best course of action to balance her wants, her responsibilities, and her health?
I know where I stand on this, but I figured it couldn't hurt to get some other opinions in the mix.
I will get around to responding to everything later this week, I promise.
Mood :: 
blah
Jaime and I just tried to walk up to the Reitz Union, but we were stopped by a cop and told that the whole area is closed. Confused, we wandered away and ate/studied outside NEB. Afterwards, upon arriving back at my desk, I decided to check out the UF website just in case and found
this.
Huh. How about that.
Welp, back to studying, I guess! Cancer Bio midterm and dental appointment tomorrow, Physiology midterm and group meeting on Wednesday -
stressed tired slightly ill busy girl, busy girl.
Scene: 8am, yesterday.
Mood :: 
impressed
A: I've never seen fog like this before.
J: It's crazy.
A: Look, you can't even see the road down there!
J: Maybe it's gone.
A: Maybe it hasn't rendered yet.
J: This is either due to the inherent evilness of Gainesville or there's a giant eyeball hiding out there somewhere.
Bonus: I sent a contact form to Publix a few days back asking if there was any possibility they could stock Iberico cheese, which is the best cheese in the world, I swear, and only seems to exist in Trader Joe's stores. I didn't expect much to come of it. About thirty seconds ago, a guy from the Publix we go to called and said they're talking to their cheese vendors and trying to find a way to get it. Holy moly. I guess it really doesn't hurt to ask. Best store ever.
Today was a good day.
Mood :: 
accomplished
Today was
all things that are good. Well, today and yesterday, actually.
- Working towards making a fairly big change that will be
so much better for me. It's been progressing in little jolts for a while now, but today marked the first really big step in the process. Don't want to say too much about it, just in case, but... I'm really excited at the possibilities.
- Saw my psychologist, and we actually came to the conclusion that I don't need any more help right now. I didn't have to schedule another appointment with him. He's there for me if/when I need him, of course, but... I'm actually doing good. I'm healing. And I haven't taken a Xanax in over a month now. I was having issues going a day without one for a while, and now it's been a
month. I love my life.
- Apparently, courtesy of my mom and her friend,
this little book o' cute will be winging its way towards me shortly. That's just bitchin'.
- The cell bio midterm was, to borrow a phrase from Steve, super happy fun time!
* Really, I spent about three days straight studying and went to the early morning review, and while it was probably overkill, it did pay off pretty big. Absolute worst case scenario, if everything I wasn't 100% confident on I got wrong and I earn no partial credit, I'll get a 75. Not a bad score to build off of.
And finally, poll time!
Poll #1471839 Halloween 2009!
Open to:
All, detailed results viewable to:
All, participants: 4
What should I be for Halloween? It should be something I can put together easily and for cheap, and I'd prefer to take advantage of the fact that I have pale skin and short curly hair.
If you said the fourth option - okay, smartypants, what should I be then?
Bonus question: what should Jaime be?
Next year, I'm totally going as Princess Peach.
*I've come up with a technical definition for Super Happy Fun Time: when you are at least able to understand what every question on an exam is asking you, regardless of your ability to correctly answer it, and you have enough time to put down something for every question. Branola Hovse members, do you concur?
Writer's Block: The one that got away
Mood :: bored
Oh ho ho. Logically, I don't really believe in the idea of soulmates, but... yeah, okay, you got me. One can't always be logical, eh? Yes, I tend to believe that certain people are just made for each other, and yes, I think I've found mine. I usually call him the other half of my soul - it just feels that way.
Somehow, it seems unlikely that someone who "got away" from you was really your soulmate. I suppose there could be exceptions, but generally speaking...
Anyway, last Sunday was my birthday, and I spent it entirely at home. Not for lack of choice, though; it just worked out that way. I got most of my out-and-about fun earlier in the week, what with the Decemberists concert on Wednesday and on Saturday, Jaime and I went and played pool. I did pretty well for the first two racks before all of the ability got sucked out of the room during the third. I might be getting better. More consistent, at least. Just a smidge. Really, though, it's just a lot of fun, so I keep on trying. On Sunday itself, Jaime ran out and got me a few gifties - some bath sponge capsules (vehicles, sea animals, and farm animals, yay! This was apparently my fifth birthday) and Rhythm Heaven, which is
awesome. I've been playing it every spare moment I get, and I've almost beat it already. Two more levels to go. Of course, then there's the matter of gathering up the few medals I've missed along the way, not to mention all the Perfects I have yet to claim... Seriously, if you're a fan of rhythm games, you
must pick it up. It's too fun to adequately describe here. And the love lizards! So cute! <3
What else have I been doing? Um... reading papers? A lot of papers? Blood flow phantoms and CTCs and melanoma, oh my! Ah, who am I kidding? I love being a science geek.
Class in half an hour, then it's off to the health center for me to get blood drawn. On the plus side, the doctor said it's been long enough that I can knock my panels back to every year instead of every six months, and even though I've picked up a new medication recently, my grad health insurance is better (!!!) for prescriptions than what I had before, so the overall increase in expenses per month is only $10 or so. If only it applied to dental work, too. Sigh.
You bored too? Scour the archives of
The Anticraft. The more recent issues haven't been quite as good as the old ones (
and they have an error in this article that hasn't been fixed yet Whoo, fixed! :D), but much of the archive is great.
Or, if you still haven't seen Keith Olbermann's health care special comment,
watch some clips. As for me, I'm off to check
Craft and
NewScientist before Physiology starts. Aaaaand... go!
I was going to write a full post, but I'm just too tired.
Mood :: optimistic
If you missed Keith Olbermann's extended special comment on health care reform last night,
get it now before tonight's episode becomes the available podcast. Very much worth your time - I don't think he's ever made a better show.
Review Time!
Mood :: 
awake
So when I haven't been giving presentations, reading hours and hours of textbooks and research papers, and sitting in either a psychologist's or a dentist's office, this is what I've been doing:
( Muse - The Resistance )( UP )( Decemberists @ Hard Rock Live )Jaime's been listening to Hazards of Love pretty much non-stop today. Good stuff.
It's a popular time of the year for birthdays.
Mood :: chipper
Almost forgot - happy birthday,
dragonspeaker! Hope you had a wonderful day! :D
Salsa shark - I think I'm gonna need a bigger boat.
Mood :: accomplished
4-1 Guacamole
4 avocados, ripe, mashed
1 onion, chopped
1 jalapeno, finely chopped, seeds and all
1 handful of cilantro, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1 lime, juiced
Salt!
Mix everything except the tomato together. Just before serving, add the tomato and salt to taste. Serve with tortilla chips.
Easy, fairly authentic, and
damn tasty. Mmm. This was a good idea.
Decemberists tomorrow, eeeee! :D Dental work the day after, ehhhhh. D: But still - concert! Whoo!
Yoinked from instrumentality
Mood :: 
calm
1) Post a list of up to 20 books/movies/anime/TV shows/video games/bands etc. that you've had an obsessive fannish love or interest in at some time in your life.
2) Have your f-list guess your favorite character/member from each item.
3) When someone guesses correctly, strike through the item and put the name of your favorite character next to it.My addition - for bonus points, guess my OTP as well! Super bonus points for guessing who my favorite character and OTP are from Nocturne, as I'm not even sure of that yet myself.
In alphabetical order:
01) Castlevania: Aria/Dawn of Sorrow
02) Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
03)
Death Note Near
04)
Digital Devil Saga Gale | Serph & Argilla
05)
Disgaea Flonne | Laharl & Flonne
06) Dragon Quest VIII
07) Final Fantasy VI
08)
Final Fantasy VIII Rinoa | Squall & Rinoa
09) Final Fantasy IX
10) Final Fantasy XII
11)
Fullmetal Alchemist Al
12) Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
13)
Metalocalypse Toki
14)
Mighty Boosh Vince | Howard & Vince
15)
Neon Genesis Evangelion Kaworu
16)
Persona 3 Junpei | Junpei & Akihiko
17)
Persona 4 Yosuke
18) Phoenix Wright
19)
South Park Kyle | Stan & Kyle
20)
World Ends With You Joshua
P.S. I wrote my very first fic involving character death yesterday. I'm sad and proud at the same time. Huh. Welp, time to go read some more physiology. Guess away!
About Me
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