bending_sickle: (Hermits United)
They come with the whole thing, like rats-"*


Today was pretty shitty in that the garage door seems to be locked from the inside or in some way that means that I cannot open the person-sized door and do not have the key for the lift-the-whole-thing-up-for-the-car door. Which meant that I couldn't get my bike. Cue a walk to two music stores (both of which were closed, the motherlovers) and then over 3 km in high heels (and almost instant blisters) to Biology building to see what papers I need to get together for my graduation (slated for Jan. 26, whoot!). Said papers basically include a transcript written out by me (because gods forbid the university can do such a thing). Then there was more walking to another building for an unofficial transcript because I have no idea what courses I've taken. With more blisters. Then there was the walking back. (While yes, I have walked around in tourist-mode with blisters on the soles of my feet the diameter of mandarins, I have not yet grown accustomed to the horrible burning sensation of layers of my skin rubbing off of each other and filling with interstitial fluid. I don't know, man, call me weak but, ow.)

Then home for lunch (fooooood!) and wrestling with a cardboard box bearing random papers where I could, with luck, find my examination cards because yes my backwater university sends out grades on bright green little cards and then there was the wrestling of the suitcase out from under my bed which while not as bad as this nightmare was flippin' hard because I can't lift a queen-or-whatever-size bed with one hand and pull out a person-sized suitcase with the other without straining something.

Then I wrote so many holiday cards I started writing stupid things in them or making gods-awful drawings and I am so, so sorry if you get one like that. And my supervisor replied that he wouldn't be in town for my graduation and therefore can't be at the ceremony and give a tiny little mini-speech (which I need someone to do, as per graduation requirements) so I'm going to ask my previous internship's supervisor which is okay but fills me with woe. Also spoke with Mom and a travel-tired brother, who's just arrived in Rome. Mom was all a-squee because she's got plates and a tablecloth and everything! (All of our furniture and stuff is in shipping-limbo until around next week. Yays.)

Tomorrow will involve photocopying and printing of important papers, purchasing of a present for my brother and head-wringing over what to get my dad, then some DVD-burning for other presents. I may work on the lion mane article but frankly I want to just let it die (at least until I get back in January) because I am so burnt out from article-writing. I might also struggle with Adobe and try to get it to convert a word document to a pdf one without fucking up the page size when I'm totally telling it what size to use.

Wow, I'm coming off way more aggravated than I am. I'm not. I'm just...gah.


Video of the Day: Pastor ranting against Pokemon - I don't know whether to laugh hysterically or flip him the biggest bird of all time. Embedded )


Links of the Day:
Supernatural: Read more... )
Random: Read more... )


Moving Pictures, TPratchett
bending_sickle: (Booyah - SPN)
Before I go on about stuff, I can has thesis grade! Academic squee and news )

I've been listening to the Good Omens audiobook (which works much better in audio than I'd expected) and But Then By Homework Was Never Quite Like This podfic. The podfic is over six hours of dom/sub slash porn which gets a bit boring after a while, but is well-written. If it weren't for audiobooks, I'd hardly read (and I use the verb loosely) anything at all, what with the lack of time and books. Hmm, I could start on the second Sookie Stackhouse book tomorrow, that'd pass the time while I bind.

Speaking of binding, I'm totally printing and binding my pdf. Which I will finish today. Or tomorrow. Gods, it's just a tiny little coda I want to write...

Also, for the second morning in a row I've been nauseaus over breakfast. While nausea is sort of my weak spot when it comes to deep-seated nervousness (I threw up before my flight to university-for-the-first-time and was chronically blargh before the-move-to-the-Netherlands), I don't know where the stress may be coming from this time. I mean, nothing's freaking me out twenty-four-seven. Huh. Future for the freak-out?

ETA: The 2600 word extra Dean&Icarus scene is written! There is schmoop! Hidden below many layers of angst and grief and hard-knock-lifery. Which is to say, there's is almost-hugging! And fingers in hair! And I just remembered I forgot to put in one detail about Icarus telling or saying he's going to tell Dean about Chip's angel-vision but it's okay, we don't need that bit anyway and it would break the flow and anyway they can talk about it anytime and oh my god it's over! PDF pimpage tomorrow!


Links of the Day: Read more... )


* Jonathan Coulton, "Still Alive"
bending_sickle: (Default)
Yesterday I talked to my dearest, darlingist muffin Kit-kat for like two solid hours and it was \o/ with an extra dash of squee. We talked mainly about life and the future and social things and it's kinda freakish how alike we are, sharing the same worries and fears and the like. Love ya, muffin ♥

The presentation didn't go terribly bad, I mean, I talked too fast and skipped a lot of things I'd meant to say and failed at explaining a few things, but in general it went alright. So \o/ on that then.

After the presentation, I hung out with Willy! Which is definitely \o/ We had lunch and talked about school and boys and life and The Future and squeefull things like her beau coming to visit all the way from Kenya and had a grand ol' time.

I'd meant to finish writing the Dean&Icarus coda tonight, but I had Glühwein and watched Dylan Moran's show instead. Ah, the joy! I adore Dylan and his unruly hair :D And now I'm off to read [livejournal.com profile] tracy_loo_who's And I Will Walk on Water (Dean/Castiel, Realistic Hurt/Comfort with Plot), because I am so addicted to it.

So life's pretty alright, even though point-blank questions of "Are you happy" get a negative response and my knees hurt for no flippin' reason (ow). I've got to get my final thesis PDF approved tomorrow, then it's all printing and binding and database fixing. I also think I might have a meeting with my supervisor (although we never set a time) and I want to snag some "this is where you may find gainful employment" advice (i.e. the "what the hell am I good for?" question).


Video of the Day: Dylan Moran's show What It Is, live (part 1) Embedded )


Links of the Day:
Supernatural: Read more... )
Doctor Who: Read more... )
Random: Read more... )


* Dylan Moran, What It Is
bending_sickle: (Default)
So I fail at life. I haven't done anything all weekend that's worth mentioning. Oh, sure, I wrote that Dean&Castiel scene (although there's a coda pending) and got the fanmix all finished, but apart from that, nothing. Well, and I cleaned the house.

And I've seen the CreateSpace regulations on the use of photographs and all that (which is basically "No permission, no photo!", which, duh) so I've streamlined the version they'll be getting, deleting pictures, the author's journal and fanmix thing. So it's just a bunch of text. I am much too deep in the pit of blah to squee about this.

All weekend I've been meaning to do the edits for my final thesis draft, and just thinking about it is a gigantic uphill struggle. I know, whine more, right? To say nothing of the Lion Observation Database, which is going to have to be completely reworked and holy everloving gods, that's just going to kill me. Too. Many. Datasheets.

Presentation tomorrow! Woe! And I haven't even practiced it because I suck! (No, really, I do. I cannot get my shit together anymore.)

I haven't even gone out today. Or, you know, seen anyone.

*slinks off to edit*


Links of the Day:
Supernatural: Read more... )
Random Fandom: Read more... )


* William D. Brown, Welcome Stress!
bending_sickle: (Default)
Studies: So cleaning up databases is utterly boring, no news there. Gah.

Post-Nano: I've written one line for the missing scene, and while I like it, it seems out-of-character for Future!Dean and I'm all stumped now. Like, that one line is this great big wall and I can't chisel my way around it, and I don't want to tear it down 'cause it's got such pretty wallpaper. *head!desk* Maybe it's hard to write because Dean's pissed off and Icarus isn't responding? *throws hands in the air* I don't know. I'm just going to soldier through it. Double-gah.

On the plus side, I think I've got the fanmix songlist all figured out.


* Anon. or uncredited
bending_sickle: (Facepalm)
Studies: I finished writing my thesis yesterday! \o/ It's all written down and neat and pretty. I've still got to do the databases (one of which, the lion observation sheets, will take aaaaages because now I know which lions they are) and a presentation next Monday (cue panic!), but that's pretty much it! The whole thing stands at 110 pages, although the actual article itself, without tables of contents (there are many) and appendices (of which there are too many), stands at 42 pages and 10,406 words.

Nano: Ha! You thought you'd never see this boldtext again, didn't you? You thought wroooong. ...ahem. I've got the outer graphics all done, and chapters broken and titled. I'm going to do some in-text graphics, and there's a missing scene I'm dying to write (the Dean and Icarus-now-Castiel conversation) and I also want make a compilation of my Nano-rants and I've got the tracklist for a fanmix and... That's about it. So. Point is, it'll be glorious - not now, but soon. Yay!

Life: A joyous celebration was had yesterday in honour of the thesis completion. (Translation: I walked about and had a Subway sandwhich).

This morning, I got woken up (post-snoozebutton!) by mom and we all know how that goes )


Links of the Day:
Supernatural: Read more... )
Fanmixes: Read more... )
Random: Read more... )
bending_sickle: (Talking To Myself)
Life: Let's see, achievements... Wrote up [livejournal.com profile] heroes_meta, did laundry, bought booze. Yes, booze. Specifically, Glühwein, which I was shocked to find in the sueprmarket but overcame said shock and purchased with glee.

Actually worked on thesis today (on a weekend, I know!). Just some photoshopping of graphs to not make them squishy. \o/

Watched a lot of Black Books episodes, which make me laugh hysterically and almost die from lack of oxygen. There seem to be 6 episodes per season, though. Ah, English television, you so strange. Still, you guys should totally check the show out.

Also, am bored because there's no one on the internet. *pout*

Nano: Have realized why I now think it sucks and I hate it. I'm burnt out, that's what it is. (Also, maybe staying up until 2 or 3 in the morning isn't very good for me.)


Links of the Day:
Supernatural: Read more... )
Random Fandom:
[livejournal.com profile] southoffebruary's Picspam True Blood's Alexander Skarsgård


* Black Books
bending_sickle: (Default)
Life: I has lion maps! Now I just need to calculate the distances the furballs covered, do some graphs, bang my head against Access some more for new maps and then mellow out in the glory of a job well done. For about two seconds, after which I edit, prepare the databases and work on the presentation.

I called Ma today (missed call from last night) and it was Not Good but then it was Okay. I'd say more but it's already 2 am and I'm a fucking moron for staying up this late. Maybe tomorrow, when I need to vent.

Also, it's very, very windy and the universe picks right the fuck now for something in the neighbour's balcony to start pouding away loudly. Argh. I want to sleep without random annoying noises! Woe.

Nano: Still 249 words shy of today's minimum. *sigh* Icarus is finally saying he's an angel, though, so that's a plus.

Excerpt )


39759 / 50000 words. 80% done!

Meme Of the Day: Quiz: Which Supernatural Angel Are You? Read more... )

Music of the Day "Shatner of the Mount", Fall on Your Sword - "Captain Kirk is climbing a mountain. Why is he climbing a mountain?" Remix of win. Embedded )

Quote of the Day: Douglas Coupland, Eleanor Rigby, here
The thing about meat with me, though, is how it speaks to me about the human body. All of us are stuck inside our meaty bodies. I've always imagined that regular people are happy to be inside their bodies, whereas lonely people yearn to ditch their carcasses. I suspect lonely people wish they could forget the whole meat-and-bone issue altogether. We're the people most likely to believe in reincarnation simply because we can't believe we were shackled into our meat in the first place. Lonely people want to be dead, yet we're still not quite ready to go - we don't want to miss the action; we want to see who wins next year's Academy Awards. More to the point, the lonely, like all humans, yearn to meet that somebody who'll make us feel better about being trapped inside our species' meat-and-bone soul containment system. Oh God, I sound like a prison warden.


Links of the Day:

[livejournal.com profile] thedailyshow's Not Funny: Reporter detained in Iran for ties to the Daily Show
Critics Fear 'Twilight' Books Send Disturbing Message To Girls - Wow, the crude summary for the series is rather shocking.

Supernatural: Read more... )
Random: Read more... )


* "The Icarus Wind", Thea Gilmore
bending_sickle: (Nanowrimo - masochism)
Life: Meeting with Supervisor was had. I was a ball of nerves. Things went well regardless. I now have a date for a colloquim presentation. We are not amused.

Fandom: Watched the Fall special of Doctor Who. Ow, my hearts. The Quote of the Day sums it all up nicely. I think the Doctor was a bit of a gigantic moron in his choice of date-and-location at the end, but maybe that was on purpose because he's the Doctor and he can do anything, damnit. The preview for the next specials filled me with joy \o/ Oh, familiar faces, how I've missed you!

Nano: Still missing 227 words, but it's 2 fucking am and I can't sit at this computer anymore. Fucking bastard of a novel with hard-to-write action scenes and an angel who keeps pushing back his appearance. Icarus, boy, get your ass in here right now!

Excertp )


26455 / 50000 words. 53% done!

Quote of the Day: [livejournal.com profile] tommx, on Doctor Who's "The Waters of Mars", here
For a while I was thinking "This isn't quite what I expected...I thought it'd be better." Then I started cheering...then I sat in horror.


Links of the Day:

Doctor Who "The Waters of Mars" Reviews and more Read more... )
Supernatural: Read more... )
Random Fandom Read more... )


* [livejournal.com profile] commodoresexual, The Five Year Plan, Part 3
bending_sickle: (Diversion)
Life: Productivity was reached! I'm half-way through making maps of all the lions showing their home ranges. Tomorrow, calculating areas and, hopefully, getting the maps presentable with all that fancy stuff like legends and titles and shit. I hope to get some writing on the discussion done this weekend, or at the very least stick on some error bars (stupid science). Oh, also? I was full of uncoordinated fail at Zumba class today, but eventually had fun regardless.

Nano: Pending. It's late, I've just had dinner and I want to mellow before getting down to it. Granted, I also want to continue the going-to-sleep-early thing, which is...not technically going to happen seeing as I'm past the "early" concept. But! Uh...Heroes, then sleep, and I may just say "Epic 'nah'" to Nano for today. There's the weekend, after all.

Video of the Day: Ask a Ninja - "What's the difference between ninjas and crazy people?" Embedded )

Links of the Day:
Random Fandom and General: Read more... )
Supernatural: Maaaasive and unending, like SamnDean's angst )


* Jon Stewart
bending_sickle: (Default)
Today's work on the thesis was very much like banging my head against a wall. Progress is measurable only in snail, slug, sloth or plant communities. Every few seconds I had to go bother the prof who's holding my hand through the whole Access and ArcGIS learning experience, and to make matters more aggravating, the program was fond of giving me the finger (which in program speak is "I can't find the tools you just installed!" or "Oop! Memory error! We gotta shut down the program!" or "Aha! I have tricked you with my multiple tabs!"). Woe.

In other news, I bought makeup. Not for any noraml reason, but rather for Halloween. You know, to get dressed up although I have nowhere to go dressed up, or anyone to go with. (Partly because I fail and haven't called anyone. Okay, that's probably a big reason.) Also I am not lame enough to go about my day dressed up, October 31st notwithstanding. Items include white water-based theatrical thingy (for that "Look! I'm dead!" look), shimmery eyeshadow (because I will both embrace and mock Twilight by fucking sparkling), a kohl stick (apparently necessary for "the goth look") and red lipstick (the kind of red I'd call "Harlot"), which is actually making me squee on general terms because I've never had red lipstick. Add plastic canines, and you've got my usual Halloween constume. (Except for last year, where I was a gypsy, because I couldn't whip up anything else.)

Brainage of the Day: Lara Logan, CBS News Chief Foreign Correspondent, on The Daily Show (June 17, 2008) Read more... )


Links of the Day: Read more... )


* "New Soul", Yaël Naïm (YouTube: Music Video)
bending_sickle: (Facepalm)
I'll get right into why today was, again, made of utter, utter fail and not in the awesome way of [livejournal.com profile] made_of_fail_pc at all but first I need to rant and rave about fucking conversions of goddamned geographic locations that suck ass. Cue grrargh-ism, with cussing, rage and things I will regret saying so harshly or, in fact, at all, but right now all I can think of is grrarrgh )

Other reasons today suck include:

1) waking up at embarrasingly late hours
2) starting work at so way past noon it's almost 1 pm
3) lunch made of little more than fail
4) hours spent trying to collage together photographs of a map to make a single unified map photo ending in fantastic fail
5) afore-ranted faaaaaaiiiiiiil
6) freezing to death in a wool sweater and fleece jacket, pining for gloves, in the office
7) progress non-existant apart from a single summary table
8) no Zumba tonight, so fuck that too

Links of the Day:
[livejournal.com profile] sunlitdays - Icons
[livejournal.com profile] cptnsubtext's Multifandom Icons
[livejournal.com profile] kohler's Many, Many Mood Themes
[livejournal.com profile] tw_31988's Supernatural Fanvid The End Recap
[livejournal.com profile] cybel's Supernatural Podbook The Ten Commandments Don't Apply to Angels read by [livejournal.com profile] sadcypress', written by [livejournal.com profile] sam_storyteller
Science Fiction's 10 Best Second-In-Commands - Zoe is number one!
Tarts talk about SPN 5.01, Sympathy for the Devil


* "A Very Supernatural Christmas", Supernatural
bending_sickle: (Facepalm)
Yesterday night was pretty fantastically awesome because Gabrielle had invited me to a little chill-out at her place before we all went to Einstein's. It was the usual gang - us two, the two italians and the french guy - plus a new girl called Jodi who's from Texas and is very sweet as well. So we had student-version pizzas (mini-pitas with pizza toppings) and Kir (or is it Kier?), which was wine with creme de cassis (blackcurrant liquor) and most excellent. I had a very good time :)

Of course, I went to sleep ages late and, considering my recent track record waking up, I totally missed out on a productive morning. I had a sandwich before going to work (on account of omgnofoodinnahouse), by which time it was past noon. I redid the t-test for some indices (but the "Look! Of course they're significant! They've got the maximum value!" points are still...not) and emailed my brother about it. We've been going back and forth about it a bit, and while no progress has been made, it's nice to have some help and insightful questions thrown my way.

And then I did nothing. Seriously, I've been craptastic today, horrendously unable to work or focus or anything. It also doesn't help that I have a frustrated hormononal rage on the low burn which, if left unchecked, will in fact morph into the wibbles. This means I'm currently easily distracted and unfocused and two steps away from a sputtering teary rage. *head-desk* I don't know what to do.

Imma go home now.


Meme: Which Tarot Card Are You? )


Links of the Day:

Supernatural: Read more... )

Random Fandom - Icons: Read more... )

Random Fandom: Read more... )

Random: Read more... )

Access and Statistics: Read more... )


* Anon. or uncredited.
bending_sickle: (Talking To Myself)
The Day of the Sickle, Cliff-Notes:

- Before the day started proper (which means self-loathing because once again I am latelatelate and dilly-dallying regardless), I had a wonderful dream. Back when I wrote my dreams down I could remember the bastards, but nowadays hardly ever. But this dream was one of those where it's not just images doing wacky shit, but also emotions rambling about. Read more... )

- Meeting with Supervisor went lousily (in the, "Maybe we'll go cry after this," sense) for the most part because I have too much data analyzed ("You're not working on a PhD, right?"), but ended on an upbeat note because holy shit do I have a lot of data analyzed. My Lion Database still causes squee. On the plus side, I only have the GPS shite to analyze, which is easy-peasy once I subdue the programs necessary, then it's discussion time.

- I hate the t-test. Hate it. I hate it even more when I'm trying to be tricky and flex it a little bit because my data's weird, yo. I also hate reading articles about said tricking-of-the-test. Argh.

- I've noticed that my left-hand index finger is deformed. Sure, my index fingers have never touched the middle finger when I put them all out straight, but that's not the omgdeformity. If you were a car going from that finger's knuckle to the nail, you'd go straight until the first joint, veer slightly to the left, then pray to fucking god your tires stick to the near-vertical road. Seriously, it curves counter-clockwise like a rollercoaster track.

- The kind folk at [livejournal.com profile] novice_knitters are kind and rife with aid for confused knitters such as I. Seriously, ♥ at them all.

- At one point today, my brain went, "Oh my fucking God! Wait, does my God fuck? No! He doesn't! The whole immaculate conception thing! ...oh my god, my God's a eunuch."

- I have no food in the house. This results in dinner equaling breakfast, but with cheese. Cheese is good, but godsdamnit, I want a decent meal now and then. Cafeteria food and randomly acquired fruit isn't cutting it.

- I have Heroes waiting for me. It's 12 am. I've had barely half an hour of dilly-dally time today. I may just watch the episode regardless of time. ETA: It's 1 am now. How? Dunno. But I probably shouldn't watch Heroes now after all. Fudge.

- I have no time for life.


The Squee of the Sickle, Links:

The Daily Show's Colin Firth Interview, April 24, 2008 - Penis anecdotes and penis jokes! (Yes, I am thirteen.)
YouTube's Jon Stewart Standup - Boston Colleg Fest, 1994 - Smoking isn't sexy, smoking isn't sexy, smokingisn'tsex- Uh...Jon's smoking and I am conflicted. (PS: Unf. Times a thousand.)
YOuTube's Know Your Meme: Fail - The whiteboard is made of epic win!


Links of the Day: Read more... )


* Soren Kierkegaard
bending_sickle: (Facepalm)
I didn't go running yesterday on account of the torrential rain and my being tired and hungry. I watched Heroes, was disappointed, had more for dinner that I ought've, and failed to do anything or even go to sleep at a reasonable time.

Today is coming along splendidly (if by "splendid" we mean "crap"). Woke up late, as always, and felt like I was a zombie just crawling out of its grave for the first time. Breakfast was lame because I failed to buy honey yesterday, so I had toast with...Nesquick. It didn't work.

At work I started going through the a professor's Access and ArcGIS handbook again from where I left off in June. It didn't go well. I managed to figure out what I'd done all those months ago and to write up a query, which is part one of the first exercise I tackled. But then it came time to saving the table and I had no idea how to. The handbook didn't help. The .ppt presentation didn't help. I was left staring at instructions which said, broadly speaking, "And then stuff happens!"

It's like someone giving you instructions on how to build a house, saying, "First you do the foundations. And remember to use only reinforced walls," and at first you think, "Oh, swell, I can do that, easy," but once you're staring at the half-dug hole they left you, wondering whether you should use the shovel or a bulldozer - oh my gods where the hell is the bulldozer?!? - and staring at the sofa you brought along which will now only get ruined because you have no idea when you'll be able to move in and you've already sent out all the house-warming invitations...

So instead I've been working on the prey species density data, which is horrible and just a mess of half-done excel sheets. I'm drowning in data! And none of the stuff I did months ago makes any sense and it may even be calculated wrong but ye gods I ain't doing it again oh please shoot me now...


Links of the Day:
[livejournal.com profile] makesmyheadspin's True Blood Series, WIP
[livejournal.com profile] ashdood's SPN Fanvid Where The Story Ends (Sam, Dean)
[livejournal.com profile] literaryquotes's Inherit the Stars by James P.Hogan
[livejournal.com profile] zqfans's Zachary Quointo Interview Re: Star Trek
Thirteen Real Animals Lifted Directly From Your Nightmares
Nanaimo Bars: Original Recipe ; Ultimate Recipe


* Sam Winchester, Supernatural
bending_sickle: (Default)
Today I finished the lion database I was working on (whoot!) and started setting up the next part of the results analysis. The Really Scary part, where I will throw myself at the mercy of Access and ArcGIS and all hell's programs.
"ALL YOU CAN HOPE FOR IS THE MERCY OF HELL."

"Yeah?"

"JUST OUR LITTLE JOKE."

Good Omens, NGaiman, TPratchtt

I've also finally emailed people I've been meaning to for ages.

I'm now too tired to think or read or work (and oh gods so hungry but I don't even have milk at home oh woes) so here's some sports accomplishments of mine of late. The important thing is that it's better than it used to be. )


Quote of the Day, [livejournal.com profile] marika_kailaya, here
It's not that [Kito Aya] did something amazing, in usual terms. It's that she didn't stop. Her idea of giving up wasn't the idea that's generally accepted. She got the wheelchair, the disability, the letterboard, the diapers, the caretakers--the constant need to have someone at your side to do basic tasks right down to feeding and bathing you, and she made careful decisions to let go of things she could no longer even remotely have. Nobody wants to believe that there are some things some people absolutely cannot do. They say that if you admit you can't do them anymore, then you're just giving up. Aya admitted that, and found other things she could do.

Links of the Day:

Supernatural: Read more... )

Heroes: Read more... )

True Blood: Read more... )

Dollhouse: Read more... )

Doctor Who: Read more... )

Lost: Read more... )

Multifandom: Read more... )

Books and Authors: Read more... )

Random: Read more... )


* Good Omens, TPratchett, NGaiman
bending_sickle: (Facepalm)
I've just lost four hours of work comprising of two identification sheets covering eleven observations, I'm working on a pathetically slow computer that took about half an hour to cough up the VLC program and my mouse finger is basically crying in a corner.

To add to that, I've been extremely late to work this week and, at Einstein's on Wednesday, bumped into Elisa who said she needs to talk to me and that she'll call me, or I can call her, which is upsetting in the "Doom! Dooom!" sense and also in the "If you want to talk to me, you call me (as well you could have before bumping into me by chance)."

Also I'm eating half a Kitkat (or maybe the whole thing), have been having mad cravings, can't seem to lose weight and my period just went peek-a-boo and then retracted in a way that is totally not normal.

Additionally, I finally wrote that email I was avoiding and have yet to get a response and I'm making a very conscious decision out of respect for the emailee to not discuss this on LIvejournal (yet) but by gods I could've used some talking.

Lastly, my Links of the Day backlog is long and horrible.

But mainly I'm pissed as all hell that I've just lost four hours of work that cost me a few years of life off my hands and eyes. Fuck.


* Common expression (and part of Kit-Kat catch-phrase).
bending_sickle: (Talking To Myself)
The Good:

- Work went spiffily today and nothing was lost! I has a system!
- I went running and managed to keep a good pace, do the circuit in 20 minutes rather than over-30, and didn't really feel like dying!
- I'm watching Kung Fu Dunk!
- I emailed Willy and we have a date!
- I've been listening to Angela's Ashes!
- I listened to [livejournal.com profile] made_of_fail_pc's Episode 20! \o/


The Bad:

- I worked mostly on a report for the International Office, which is why it went so well. (I'll share with y'all, 'cause I think it's a good sum-up of what I did in Kenya. Until, y'know, I get [livejournal.com profile] amboseli up again. But! I think my past few photo-posts of my stint in Toronto are a good sign of that happening.)
- My right knee hurt before and after running, as it did on Monday, and my left ankle's been funky for a few weeks too.
- The date I've made with Willy is for next, not this, weekend.
- Half-listening to Angela's Ashes whilst identifying lions left me with a sense of "He said she said! Starving children! Dead babies!" and the realization that I prefer the Scottish accent to the Irish one. Ah, me... Also, now seriously jonesing for a re-watch of the film and anything with RCarlyle. Damnit, I'd gotten over that celebrity fixation!


The Ugly:

- I haven't written that email I've been meaning to write and have in fact been editing in my head as I sleep or do the dishes or run or, well, you get the picture. It's gotten so's I get a sinking pit in my stomach when I think about it, which is not better than the self-righteous "Grr! Argh!" Now I've just avoiding the bastard.
- I'm a lazy ass and am overwhelmed by links, so I'm only giving out one because y'all have to see it.


Links of the Day:
Candied Bacon Ice Cream Recipe


* Dan Antopolski, London stand-up comedian, won award for funniest joke at Edinburgh this year.
bending_sickle: (Facepalm)
Yesterday was my meeting with my supervisor. For the first time since I've started writing this thesis, I didn't feel like I'd gone through the "Grr! You suck!" grinder and didn't feel like crying. In truth, it went pretty well. Sure, the only thing he had to say was thing's I ought to fix or add too (there's always something more to add), but at least he was thoroughly impressed with my list of identified lions for Ambogga's pride and understood that a) this took aaaages and b) was necessary for one third of my results.

I did, as in every meeting, have to tell him that two lionesses are no longer in the same pride. I know he's busy, but come on, we've discussed this every meeting and it was in my emails and field report when I was in Kenya. For the love of cuddly things! why is he always surprised when I tell him they're in two groups?!?

He also told me something which needs a bit of who's-who for y'all to understand without me doing horribly convoluted run-on sentences. *re-reads* Like that one. Anyway, so this project has a couple of counterparts in Kenya, both in the Kenya Wildlife Services. One's going to be the PhD student who's going to tangle with all this research we're doing to make some sense out of it. Supervisor and Future-PhD, along with others, were involved in re-collaring the lions this summer. They also collared a new lioness (which I hope to gods I can identify, 'cause that'd be awesome).

Future-PhD's decided to name the lioness "Willemijn" which is a) Supervisor's daughter's name (the same daughter I went to Kenya to do research with), b) demonstrably unpronounceable by all Kenyans we ever met (Willy-muh-jeen, or Willy-muh-jin were the closest tries, when it's Will-uh-mine), c) in bad taste (as in, giving a lion a Dutch name, nevermind that it's a researcher's). Supervisor was displeased with the choice name due to reason c, but understands Future-PhD's logic in the political sense by using reason a. I'm peeved over all three reasons, frankly, but mainly c. Although I must admit I felt a pang of disappointment and confusion because, as even my Supervisor says (not that I raised this issue at all), between the two of us, I deserve to have a lion named after me more than Willy (what with being the lion researcher and all). I'm not saying I'd like a lion named after me (gods no), just that, if you take out the "daughter of" part, (twisted) logic says it ought to have been my name there.

Anyway, the rest of the work that day went well. Except, of course, for the last part at 5:20 pm where I did a final save of a lion's ID sheet, ready to end for the day, and the computer threw up errors all over the place. Some error boxes and an unsolicited re-start later, I could not find a single mother-lovin' trace of my ID sheet. This ID sheet represented the main body of work for the entire day, so you'll understand why my hand was glued to my mouth and I made high-pitched whimpering sounds. Eventually, an hour later, I found a temporary file that had most of my work on it. But seriously! this computer's going to kill me (and delete my entire work). I wasn't even saving to the computer anyway, but to my USB. Argh.

This whole mess meant my nerves were screaming bloody murder and I only had half an hour between getting home and going swimming. Whilst biking to the pool, I moved from "strict right" to "slightly in the middle" to avoid a pothole, heard a motorbike beep behind me, moved back to the right and saw the motorbike pass me. The woman sitting behind the driver turned around and yelled at me (ah, how I loved at times not really understanding Dutch). She seemed quite infuriated and was probably yelling insults galore. All I know is that she gestured at my headphones, as if to say, "What the fuck, you dumb fuck with your headphones, you deaf?!?" It really upset me because I'm a good biker (signaling, keeping to my side and waiting at pedestrian crossings in a country where bikers feel they have the right of way on the sidewalk as much as anywhere else, for example) and had done nothing wrong or dangerous (unless, of course, they were being utter morons and trying to pass a bike at ridiculous speeds). Fuck, the number of times I've almost crashed because the person I was trying to pass just decided to do a little s-shaped wobble! Right, so that was upsetting, particularly because I was already upset. So the day ended nicely.

Oh, wait, it ended with a talk with mom. That went generally well except where we disagreed over what "urgently" meant. She said I had to start sending out CVs urgently and I disagreed, because I don't know when I might finish this thesis and have yet to research where I could send the CVs to. So for me, it's not urgent in the "drop everything right the fuck now and do this shit!" sense of the word. And for my mom, "It's not urgent" translated to "I'm never going to even try to get a job, lalala."

Today I've worked 6.5 hours straight and had lunch at 5:30 pm. My neck's killing me. I had one (1) oreo cookie as consolation. I have, however, basically finished identifying and analysing one whole pride. \o/ Still a few holes, but I'm ready to move on to another one. I also have to write a report about my internship to the International Office lady (the one who thought I was going to be raped and murdered in Kenya, remember her?). I'd meant to do that now, but instead wrote this. What the hell, I'm tired. Also, no running or swimming today (and definately no Einstein's), so I'm going to chill.


Links of the Day: Read more... )


* Shoggoth's Old Peculiar, NGaimain
bending_sickle: (Sad Panda)
I've just lost this afternoon's work. It was mind-numbing and difficult work involving screencapping, identifying individual lions from that observation and cross-referencing to other previously identified lions so that instead of 12 unidentified lions I had 4 identified lions over a period of days. This was fucking hard and time-consuming work which has just fucking gone because when I hit save the computer flipped out with errors and unreadable files and insufficient space and a whole shitload of what-the-fuckery.

I've notified the closest people responsible, but the computer wizard lady is gone (as she practically always is) and the computer reservation lady couldn't give me her email so I could freak out at her.

This all happened 20 minutes before I was supposed to stop working. I can't try and get it back today because I have that international dinner to go to.

I am very upset.


* Eddie Izzard, Dressed to Kill

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