inquiry and bloodlust

Hope everyone had a good day yesterday, celebrating Christmas or no. I, for one, am a huge fan of secular Christmas - forget the Jesus stuff, let's all give each other gifts and eat like pigs and make merry! In that spirit, here're some neat things I've stumbled across on the web recently.

- I'm not a big fanvid person; mostly I enjoy (warning: P4 spoilers in these three) weird Japanese AMVs and genre-altering trailers and I stay away from anything too shippy. Well, I had to make an exception - this Puck/Kurt fake trailer. It's so well done. Want.
- CROCHET FAIR ISLE. Seriously. I need to start doing this.
- Penny Arcade got into the seasonal spirit in the most logical of ways.
- Tom and Lorenzo reposted their fantastic White Christmas Musical Monday. Go rejoice in the ambiguously oriented glory of old musicals.
- If anyone's interested, here are some recipes we used. Granted, we changed pretty much all of them, but they're all good starting places nonetheless. Season's eatings!

Is anyone else getting an error message instead of the Voice Post Settings page? I want to do that pronunciation meme everyone's posting, but I can't remember my pin number and I can't seem to find a place I can reset it that will actually load.

Anyway, I had kind of an amazing Friday night. I'm usually the homebody type - I went to exactly one party through all of high school (where we watched the Final Fantasy anime, played Silent Hill, and had nothing stronger than Mountain Dew to drink) and two during my undergrad. I really wanted to see Black Swan, though, so I did the manly thing and asked Jaime out on a date. And then invited Kiri and Kaisa along. And then Jaime suggested Olive Garden, and Kiri suggested Kaisa and I split some wine, and somehow this ended up being a whole magnum of red house wine shared between Kaisa, Jaime, and me. I had 3.5 glasses - my second drunkest night ever! Go me? Also, for about a week I'd been meaning to insist that Jaime take me to Breadstix on our next date. Turns out I didn't have to ask after all. I may have pointed this out about halfway through dinner and giggled. Anyway, the wine was enough to make us all smiley and pleasantly warm, and after a long and leisurely dinner, we walked to the movie theater just in time for the 10:45 showing.

It was awesome. I definitely liked it better than Requiem for a Dream. On its own merits, it's a very evocative, beautifully staged movie with lots of inventive aesthetic touches. Jaime wasn't sure about the up-and-down pacing, but I thought it was a nice reflection of the main character Nina's mental state. I don't think it's much of a spoiler to say that the movie's about a ballerina with psychological problems. It felt very true to me; all the little details (the box of rosin she steps into before dancing, the mirrors everywhere, the practice outfits complete with shrugs over leotards) pinged me just right. It all made for a really engaging experience. Of course, being a past dancer with psychological problems, you might want to take my praise with a grain of salt - it's a movie that was probably a lot easier for me to connect to than most. Granted, my life's never had that level of physical distress or sexual intrigue, but still...

Oh, and by the way, from IMDB's trivia page: "Nina's name in the original screenplay was Alexandria." Shudder.

"I mixed vodka with my Blue Bronco. Anyone else want to ride the indigo pony?"
"Is there extra credit?"
"Oh, they're gonna eat you alive at Caltech, boy."

The fact that this PA strip merited this follow-up is pretty hysterical. As Gabe pointed out, what comic have you guys been reading?

... Okay, so that last one's not very offensive. I just love it.

In other news, VACATION! That's right, I have Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday off, and I will be spending them frolicking about various Disney parks. Sure, I'll be in the lab for a bit on Sunday to get some stuff finished up before we leave, but not for a full day. And I'll be dragging the Jaime with me, so it's guaranteed to be more fun than usual. I like that Jaime guy.

Anyone up for Disneying? We're meeting up with a few friends at Typhoon Lagoon on Wednesday and we'll be out and about in the main four parks before that. Carnotaurus? Ezra? Back, back, over the falls? Anyone?

The past week has been quite the amalgam of good and bad. I'll sum the bad up as such: I really want this shirt. Yeah.

Moving on!

Friday night turned into movie night at home, which was a ton of fun. Honestly, I've spent so much time being sick or unbalanced or both that when I am capable of walking I want to go OUT, so I was skeptical about the idea, but it turned out awesome beyond compare. We swung by Target on the way home from work so I could get proper attire and Publix for subs, sushi, and ice cream cake, then continued on home to our pup, our giant TV, our lovely PS3's upsampling abilities, and the following features: Moon, the newest Futurama episode, the newest P&T: Bullshit! episode, and Troll 2. All were satisfying.

Moon, in particular, is an amazingly good movie. I had no clue what it was going into it, and I'm glad I didn't. Watching the story unfold, picking through the nuances and guessing what each turn would uncover, was an experience on par with some of my favorite films. It has an eery 2001 vibe to it at times, which toys with you in fun ways - is this going down the same path? Will they really use the same tricks here, or is something else at play, and if so, what? Sam Rockwell deserves a key to the moon for his performances throughout the film. Plus, one of the glimpsed side characters was Matt Berry. I saw his name during the opening credits; I was jawing on about how I didn't recognize any of the actors' names when his popped up. I laughed and said, "Well, I know THAT one, but I really doubt it's the same guy." IT WAS. Too weird.

Futurama and Bullshit were both good, as was expected, and Troll 2 was even more unintentionally uproarious and deliciously cheesy than I remembered it being. Jaime actually enjoyed it this time around, too, which was a pleasant bonus. Good times were had.

The next day, we rounded up Kiri and went to see Inception. I liked it, but it wasn't at all the movie I was expecting. Everyone talks about how confusing it is, how mind-blowing. I didn't get that from it at all. It's thought-provoking, yes, and lead to some enjoyable philosophical theorizing while staring at the living room ceiling that evening, but it's not hard to follow at all. At its core, Inception has a simple plot rooted in a basic yet interesting idea that has deep implications. It's also an action movie, which I was not prepared for at all. I knew there would be some action and the first few sequences had me spellbound, but by the time we hit the (to keep this spoiler-free) "white" sequence, I was bored to the point of yawning. Actually, if I'm honest, I was bored to the point of my attention breaking, which leads to my awareness of being in a crowded theater in the dark, which leads to fight-or-flight energy, which... is actually not that bad, at this point, thanks to all the therapy, but still. If a movie lets me get to that point, it's not doing its job. Overall, it was a good film with a much better soul than most. Not the second coming of celluloid Christ, but good.

I'm kind of wearing out now (on top of everything else, I think I've caught the hint of a cold from my coworkers) and I gotta be up and in the lab early tomorrow, so I'll leave you with this.

Comic Con 2010 Announcement:
New movie about the Haunted Mansion... D:
... by Guillermo del Toro... :o
... about the Hatbox Ghost. :D
Hoping so hard this lives up to its potential.

Also, Jackass 3D. Yes. Please. NOW.

I lost one of my help_haiti auctions, but I won the other, and group meeting was today, but now it's done for another week! So!

Picked up from avaaricious: The first TEN people to comment on this post get to request that I write a drabble ficlet, because I like them more, of any pairing/character. Feel free to include a prompt as well so I'm not just running blind. Oh, and the first spot is reserved for terra, as she gave me a prompt many moons ago that I never filled, so... I'll do it now! See? I don't completely suck.

01) terra - FFVI: Locke/Terra, "sand"
02) anglepoiselamp - P4/DQ, "Inaba is infested by Dragon Quest slimes and it's up to Souji's gang to deal with it somehow"
03) anglepoiselamp - FFVI: Kefka, "in a non-villainous capacity"
04) instrumentality - NGE: Kaworu/Rei, "we're one, but we're not the same"
05) dresstokill - PW: Phoenix/Mia, "dating the boss"
06) vithrar - P4/SMB, "some unsuspecting characters from another game, say p4, chance upon a certain mushroom kingdom..."
07)
08)
09)
10)

There likely aren't ten people reading this that would actually like a ficlet from me, so go ahead and request a couple if you have more than one idea. I'll try to knock these out over the next few evenings. Go go go!

Fri 1/22 - I'm planning on getting these five written out tonight. :D
Tue 2/02 - Okay, so it took me far longer than anticipated to actually start on this. I finally did 'em, though! I figure if I can't sleep, I can at least be productive.

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?

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 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!

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.