Imaginary Gardens

Oh my gods, how bored must I be that I saw a table with a load of dots and immediately thought it was a karyotype and was freakin' relieved? *head!desk* Business Perspectives On Regulation is dull. Dull dull dull.

Links of the Day:
Working for the EU


* ibid, by Kolk (2000)

'Ello world. Remember all that stuff I was definately going to do? Ha! I left 3 hours later than I'd been planning, so the Popcatepetl was full, meaning I wandered about and eventually just sucked it up and had a coke at Burger King. I didn't read more than half of one article for my seminar, understanding next to nothing of it (which sucks because I have to teach this). So after writing in my diary at frickin' Burger King on a Saturday night - could I be more lame? - I scurried off home before the waterworks really started.

Taking a page from 45eugenia, let me list the happy shiny things I have to look forward to for tonight:

1) Friday Night Project with David Tennant.

2) ...supper? (I swear there was more happy shiny.)

One other thing which isn't so much Happy Shiny as "Holy shit can this boy act and oh my god that's horrible oh no I'm going to cry" is that I just might - gods of the internet willing - get to watch Locksmith 1x04, wherein John Simm plays Paul. (See previous post for linky-link.) Just so's you can get an idea of the situation, ( this is sort of what we're going into )

I would've watched this earlier, except the download kept taking 2-3 hours and then up and dying at at most 30%. I did manage to watch some 20 minutes of the episode, which left me cringing and desperately needing more. Being of an obsessive nature (i.e. stubborn liek woah), I tried again and again to no avail. So I finally commented about it and snowgrouse was an absolute doll - have I mentioned she's wonderful? - and spliced the episode into three bits. I've got Part 1 down, and Part 2 in some 20 minutes, Part 3 in round about an hour, if all goes well.

So while David Tennant makes me love people again, and John Barrowman makes me be happy again, and Zachary Quinto makes me feel like I have a vocabulary of a two-year old (a better dressed 2 year-old, though), John Simm just makes me go 0.0 Again and again, just *jaw drop* (Yeah, okay, David can act wonderfully too.) And in Locksmith he's all tied up on the floor and still, the acting is just exploding all over the place. Oh, Simm.

ETA: Part 2 just died. Why, internet gods, why?!?
ETA2: Part 3 just died. Whyyyyyy?!? "Could not read source file" my arse!


Links of the Day:
David Tennant: The good doctor - The most powerful actor in television is also, by all accounts, the nicest bloke in showbiz - by Tim Walker on The Independent - See what I mean?
Empire Presents: The 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time, with Doctor Who at #16, with it's best episode listed as Blink. Oh yeah! (The Simpsons is #1, BtVS is #2, Lost is #5, Friends is #7, X Files is #9, Spaced is #10 (Whoot!), Seinfield is #11, The Family Guy is #12, BSG is #13, Firefly is #14 (Double-whoot!), Heroes is #15 (Ignore the "James Lee can't speak Japanese" bit - he's totally learning it.) and you're going to have to puruse the rest yourself.)
marsh_lancaster Children In Need: LoM/A2A cast screencaps.


* snowgrouse on Locksmith 1x04 which I'm not watching right now because the universe it eeeeeevil! *frustrated*

I don't ever want to shut my eyes again.*

Two incredibly shiny things have happened. The lesser shiny is that I watched The Colour of Magic "mucked about by" Terry Pratchett**, and it was everything I could have hoped for. (Except Death's mask, which *shrug*).

The second, and most shiniest thing EVAR is that Kit-kat called. !!!!!!!!! Talking to her like we'd just hung out the day before - although it's been *counts* three years since we last saw each other - was just so, so... Aw man, perfect and lovely and made me so frelling happy I near cried (but didn't, 'cause I was ZOMG TALKING TO KIT-KAT!). *insert more gushing which eliminates all ability for coherent thought* ♥!!! Muffin!

***
*points up* See quote? See quote run. That's sort of what's going on with me. It's not that I've got insomnia, or really wacked-out sleep patterns. I just hate the concept of tomorrow, or of starting a new day. So I stay up way late at night avoiding going to sleep because then I'll be propelled into the next day. And that's why I lounge around in bed in the morning, sinking back into sleep again and again, avoiding actually facing this brand new day I've been flung into. It is a very le suck feeling. Blargh.

Today I have to read an article and email in three "theses" (translation: statements for discussion) for the seminar. Then I have to writewritewrite my damn project. And this weekend I have two things, other than the ever-constant project, that I have to do: 1) find some articles as backup for Seminar presentation, 2) indulge in a Pina Colada at the Popocatepetl Mexican restaurant. Guess which I'm looking forward to?

And now I have to stop procrastinating and finish that stupid article.

(I would be so much more productive if I had a more structured pressure than just random "Oh dears, I havn't worked" guilt. Like, if I actually had to be somewhere working for a given amount of time. This, "work when and for as long as you can" system of mine sucks arse.)


Quote of the Day: villainny's metaquotesed post

What I want, still, more than anything in the world, is to find out that stories are real. ( Read more... )

Links of the Day:
galadriella1's Fanfic: On the Other Side, Chapter 1, Doctor Who: Martha finds herself in the parallel universe where Rose and co. ended up.
squills's fanfic: Again and Agin Until Finally, Heroes (Sylinder)
fiery_twilight's Picspam: Ten Reasons Why the Doctor and Rose Are the Most Adorkable Couple Ever
2cbetter2, on doctorwho, starts a discussion on the Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith's relationship


* "My Madonna", Dexter Freebish
** Unexpected Pratchett Cameo for the win!

I've done shite these past few days. I'm mean, seriously, abso-fucking-nothing. I ought to be doing stuff - really ought to - but there's just a hell of a lot of blah going on. I lay on the couch all day yesterday. Moped a bit, cried a bit, stared at pretty much nothing for a bit more.

The only good coming out of this is that, since I'm down to one honest meal a day I appear to have lost weight. From n.2 on Jan 6 to (n-3).8 today. Of course, that doesn't really mean there's any success because I've really just been oscillating around a given figure. Still, yays for grazing n-3.

Thing is... Hell, I can't even write an entry anymore.

And this time I know it's not due to the hormone rollercoaster. I'm just au-naturel blah. (More than blah, actually.)

Fuck the internship. Fuck the Masters.

(No, not really, but...)

ETA: A precursory search on torrentz.com offers nothing for SonoTORIous whatsoever. I feel cheated.


Links of the Day:
cleolinda has her own wiki site, full of wonderful goodies.
oficialgaiman's Web Elf brings us a sneak preview to the upcoming film Coraline. (YouTube version) And Neil says the Neverwhere film is back on the hot plate :) (Although the TV series was pretty nice, especially cast-wise.)
fox1013 shares Harold and Kumar Sequel Trailers and much squee. Also, the list of horror movies she likes.
How to Support Someone with an Eating Disorder on TheFWord.org
Chinese Fur Farms - Got it in an email-petition thingy. Five seconds into the clip and I was ready to retch and cry at the same time. Really, seriously, don't watch this. The description is enough; you don't need to see the twitching. (Oh gods, it's horrible.)


* Simon, re: River's coded message, Firefly

Wrote a little Hero's Manual interlude over at sickle_stories. This is what happens when you abandon your characters for an indefinate period of time, the poor things. It's much sadder than I expected; I thought Quasi would be able to inject a bit of funny, but he was just the most depressing butler you ever did see. And Uncle Mycroft isn't in it 'cause he's dead and happily sucking a village dry.

A light switch finally flicked on in my brain and I hunted down I Am Legend trailers on YouTube. I'm so dragging Brother to watch it. Will Smith, vampires, what's not to love? ( The love continues )

Also, why does spinach taste like dirt? I like spinach, really, I do, but often mushed-up cooked spinach tends to have a distinct dry dirt flavour. Ugh.

My right foot is freezing. Left foot's pretty happy, though. The rest of me is pretty cold too. *sigh* You would not believe how lacking in fun today's walk home was. All near-one-hour of it. Big Damn Wind-tunnel effect the whole way, and the dykes are finally frozen over. So, cold. And did I mention my tuques** are on the wrong continent? *clutches ears* Owie.

I have a meet' tomorrow with Lady of Some Department about the possibility of doing a literature research internship for that department. I'm going in pretty blind as to what I want, expect, or am interested in, which sucketh and reflecteth sorely. I'd like to catch Martina, though, and ask her if she's found anyone to do the literature research 4-month internship on earthworms and moles (no yays, btw). Although, 2 literature internships are a no-no, I'm sure.

*pout* ninth_wonders pimpage appears to have been ineffectual. Granted, "Fandom Analyses" wouldn't make me run for the clicky. "Mohinder gets beaten by the Science Stick for Greater Justice", however, would. *sigh* It takes two to share, apparently.

And so ends the uneventful post. (Except to say that I need a totally kick-ass icon of Sylar. And I mean Sex-on-Legs kick-ass. Ditto for Dr Who. Can't go about posting bunnies on these fandoms, now can I?)


Links of the Day:
cleolinda is interviewed by Cauldrons and Chocolate Frogs, a Harry Potter fandom ezine.
evadne_noel spreads the Christmas song hate. It's practically tradition for Evadne to wax witty about the topic, and now she's brought evidence!
Firefly meets Moulin Rouge: The Love Medley

* William Arthur Ward
** Not to be confused with or spelt as - and I don't care what you say - toque. I know English spelling is funny and wierd weird, but damnitall, it's a tuque***, not a plumed velvet cap.
*** And I'll have you know, dictionary.com, they're also worn in many other places other than Canada. It's like saying a "boot" is the curious empty spot at the back of a car in England, in no way at all to be confused with a "trunk". *sigh*

...has repeatedly attacked the key infrastructure targets, reducing outputs.

I really have nothing to say, peeps. I'm feeling slightly ill after my take-out stir-fry dinner which is basically the sum total of actual meals I had today (other edibles include a roll of bread, a plate of fries, and hot cocoa with a torta, c/o Elisa for our T3**).

Other than that, I am le tired*** after 7 straight hours of class + 2 more hours with nigh an hour's break in between. I hate the T-days of the week.

Thankfully, though, ye great panic of yesterday failed to raise its head. Yays. Likewise for the random crying, which had me typing I don’t know why I’m crying but it’s breaking my heart at the bottom of a document where I'm working on a "Year of 2007" Recap Meme. I still don't know, but it fucking hurt.

(There is intellectual panicking because the March seminar in Sustainability is bloody frickin' full. This - or its counterpart, Biodiversity, in 2009 - is a mandatory seminar for the Masters program. And what do they do? Allow only 12 people of all sorts of programs. The amusement, it is not there.)

The neighbours have progressed from drunken rock singing to loud hip hop. We are not amused.

ETA: The drunken singing has resumed. I would smack a bitch, but I'm too tired. (Sweet and fluffy lord, he's singing the same line over and over again. Damn it, I put up with your repetitive guitar practice, don't go on sining "Quiiiii- liiiight" or whatev'.)

ETA2: The repeat-line is "by my side". They will. Not. Stop. Singing it.


Links of the Day:
wtf_nature is most awesome. Freak out with the coconut crab, rage at the starving zoo tigers resorting to cannibalism and omgwtfbbq at the Jamnapari Goat.
Weird biology stuff over at Ripley's. Ram's head deformities brain!horn = *shudder*
A really nice summary of the representation of vampires throughout the media
A return to rex_dart (aka darthmaligna)'s posts shows us why she pwns at writing an email to a professor and creeps me out with her freaky ghost-ish experience


* Stuart Bowen
** Traditional Tuesday Tea Day, aka T^3
*** Like, "coherent sentences are impossible" tired. Further symptoms include "fuck fighting the duvet into the cover, just slugg it over the damn thing and snuggle in for sleep". Which is what I'm going to do now. Yays.

My interminable day, and why this week's professor is a ruttin' slave-driver. ( Crabs and parakeets, oh my! )

***
(   )So, rant over, let's talk about Suresh. Mohinder Suresh, slayer of mathematics, defeater of logic, inexhaustable fund of Unlikely Objects. (Well, I say Mohinder, but he's just the frontman for The Science-Failing Writers. They think they're being witty with the SF acronym in there.) ( Read more... )

ETA: projectdownload pimping, because I keep forgetting about it and that is a horrible thing to do. So go, clicky, save someone's life.

projectdownload - - What is this?

* xkcd shirt

Turns out I won't be able to learn how to drive just yet, on account of it bein a very long process and my being in Spain for a paltry 4 months more.

"Weeeee!!!" on the whole "paltry 4 months" thing. I need out, people.

I've picked up my notarized copy of my IB diploma and am just off to the post office to ship it to UvA. My letter-writing prof (who was in Kenya) has emailed saying he's sent everything. So that's it, university-wise: everything's taken care of. Until I accept May 1st. Then, oh deary deary me...

Other than babysitting on Thursday (ugh), I have no immediate plans whatsoever. (Oh, yeah, visiting doctor to check out my blood test results, but like that's exciting.)

Go me.


* Anon.

Daily Life:
Been in Cubelles since Friday, when I arrived chlorinated from the pool and munching on candy I shouldn't have bought. Saturday's dinner and today's lunch it's just Gran and I, though Gran's driving me up the wall with her muttering. Took some shells and pictures at the beach yesterday and froze my toes in the water.

Last night I watched a documentary, not about the Great White, but about scientists building a fake shark they could get into and submerge. There really was very little about the sharks and way too much interviewing clips. One thing I didn't understand, though: because so many things could and did go wrong, wouldn't it have been smart to put a GPS tracker on the fake-shark? Considering that at least twice the diver lost communications with the crew and could have died in the case of any mechanical error or shark attack while he was swimming to shore. Honestly, all that grant money, a year of preparation, and they didn't consider this option? They even had the trackers available, having stuck 7 onto different sharks. I'm just sayin'...

Somewhat bored and apathetic, doing absolutely nothing, really. Have been feeling ravenously hungry all week, and somewhat mopey and blue. Hormones... *shakes fist*

Family:
Brother in Spain today - but not Barcelona - and Ma landing Tuesday. Hopefully us three being together won't be a disaster.

I'm being a bit ridiculously hopeful that my brother will say something along the lines of the Cowboys Fringants' Toune d'Automne:

Comment ça va ma p'tite soeur?
Viens que j'te serre dans mes bras**

Postgrad:
Got accepted to the one-year Master's in Vrije. Yay!
Got rejected by U of Chicago and UCDavis. No yay, but also no duh.

Movies Watched This Week:
Click, Alatriste, The Calcium Kid - a mockumentary comedy and the only time Orlando Bloom has been attractive to my eyes, and Doom - neither gory nor scary, with terrible dialogue, predictable, with the only good things being the short-lived character "Goat" (played by Ben Daniels, winner of the Laurence Olivier Theatre award) and lovely Karl Urban. The only really good scene - as opposed to fun, which goes to the First Person Shooter shoot-out, because "Doom without that would be a miscarriage of justice!"***- was when John and his sister Samantha are considering a tricky tactic.

John: You don't know me. You don't know...
Sam: You're my brother. I know you.

There would have been tears if the rest of the film hadn't caused me to mock incessantly. (The nanowalls are a brilliant concept, though.)

Links of the Day:
YouTube: The Internet is for Porn
YouTube: PC vs. Mac
katarinagram sent me a link to Hugh Laurie's Golden Globe speech on HFPA: Video Gallery.
darthmaligna makes a George Takei poster reflecting his wonderful and hilarious rebuttal of Tim Hardaway's homophobic declaration. (Btw, Takei has a beautiful voice.) The vid has a gazillion honors on YouTUbe, including Most Viewed, Top Rated, Most Discussed, Top Favorites and Most Linked.
darthmaligna's A Capitol Night, described by her with the statement "Just keep in mind that of these 1419 words, not a single one was ever meant to be anything but absolutely horrible.", was read out on an adult podcast Distored View on the Tuesday (02/20) show. Mali say's: "You really should listen to it, actually; it's got some great commentary and equally wonderful voice acting."
Great White breaches attacking seal, and again breaches for another seal, Great White Shark song, Great White chasing seals.
Hyena eats giraffe whilst inside it.

* Jimmy, The Calcium Kid
** How's it going, little sister? Come here and let me give you a hug.
*** Wells, who is someone somehow attatched to the Doom film, though can't for the life of me figure out who.

I'm having trouble deciding between a 2yr MSc in Ecology and a 1 yr MSc. Environment and Resource Management program at Vrije. Now would be a great time for an advisor.

It's quite cold today - wel, alright, a whimpy 3 degrees, but last weekend we hit 20, so shut it - and I'm still sick. Which means that I'm freezing. I've got on 4 layers, including a wool turtleneck sweater and my down winter coat, and I'm sitting next to an electric radiator. Am very, very cold.

Sitting in the metro this morning on my way back from the Dutch embassy where I completely failed to ask them questions about applying to university there (through no fault of my own: they're only one 10am-1pm, the bastards), I got to thinking about the Goo Goo Dolls.

More specifically, the line Braodway is dark tonight, and how it was a great summary, particularly for Sand's predicament (and his love for Broadway). Alright, the inspiration was mainly due to this icon by volta1228:



I want to make the line an icon, or a fic, if the inspiration strikes.

Naturally, my train of thought immediately pulled up at the OUaTiM station where bare-foot boys (who may or may not have been selling Chiclet gum) promptly riffled through passengers' luggage.

( Er...think the image might be running away with me at bit... Aw hell, me, my luggage, and my straw hat... Gods help me, it's a story. )

Links of the day:

"Gay" bands, for those who feel like they need a little what-the-fijit look on their faces.
In case you need a dash more WTF in your life, why some Canadians may not be Canadians anymore.
A word-worthy post on why women have the right to choose in the case of abortion.
Wondering what to wear on Jan 31? Don't be daft! It's Gorilla Suit Day!


* Ajedrez, OUaTiM