inquiry and bloodlust

Has anyone else been following the Counterclockwise series? Never seen Supernatural, but I'm still pretty in love with it. I may have a weakness for supernatural (the adjective, not the series title) AU's.

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House of Leaves. Third person horror/adventure. Just imagine that for a second. Yes.

I now present to you two true, oddly similar tales of knives, ER visits, and blood. ( Warning: I'm not joking about the blood. You've been waaaaarned. )

And that is how Jaime came to have five stitches in his hand and a soon-to-be-scar that matches my mom's. Oh, life. So full of mystery and wonder. You saucy minx.

Since I'm here anyway, I'll throw out a couple things I've been meaning to link to but didn't feel like writing an entire post about:

I'm actually into an RPS ship. I know, I know! I'm not sure how it happened either. Anyway, it's... ahem... Kris/Adam, and I need, I say, need to throw a couple recs out there:

More Myself with You - the oddly plausible epic that made me upgrade from "toying with the idea" to "full-fledged shipper"
The Devilstone Registry - the steampunk-y AU that you really don't need to know the fandom to enjoy
If It Kills Me - the non-AU fic that unexpectedly leapt into one of my favorite genres (spoiler: survival, omg YES)

As a complete 180 from all that, I also need to rec Marble Hornets for being well-made and esoteric and creepy as fuck. Go to the wiki's list of the entries and scroll down immediately to the suggested viewing order. Don't read any summaries or anything - just watch the videos in that order. It will destroy you. Fair warning: I am not joking about the creepy as fuck part. It is NOT for the meek. Don't blame me for any resulting nightmares or paranoia.

On that note, I think I'll go read fluff and try to get some sleep before my (AUGH) meeting tomorrow morning. Wish me luck, folks.

Cancer bio - vanquished! Not a bad exam, either. I think I did quite well.

Credits earned: 3/9

... That doesn't look nearly as impressive as the Tech stuff used to. Ah well. Remaining finals are Physiology (which is tomorrow and I'm studying for while simultaneously running image reconstruction for my research right now) and Cell Bio (which is next Wednesday and... I don't even want to think about). Alright. Can do this.

Back to textbookin'. Blargh.

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!

Despite feeling crummy (and still not recovering even now), I had a pretty good day today. Sure, I never quite worked up the guts to dive back into textbook reading, but I did manage to do both my homework that's due tomorrow and the assignment I got today that's not due until next week. What an unusual feeling for the current me. It's been literally half a decade since I could sit down and do an assignment top to bottom with no real stress or struggle. I kind of love it.

I also read an equally interesting and tragic article that really struck me. It hit so many levels with me - scientifically, politically, morally - that I couldn't resist sending it to Jaime immediately and, now, sharing it with all of you. Be forewarned that it is kind of a lengthy read, but the pay-off is well worth it. It's important to know that this sort of stuff happens, I think. You can lose sight of it when it doesn't personally affect you all too easily. We should be aware.

The top of my laptop case is splintering at the edges again. I need to stop hauling it around on a daily basis. Planning on getting a netbook fairly soon to pick up that slack. Then, the lappy can sit cozy here and not go through so much trauma so regularly.

Cough syrup is revolting. I'd forgotten how utterly awful it tastes. I guess it's worth it to stop coughing for a while, but it doesn't exactly help the nausea. I take the syrup to avoid coughing, but it tastes disgusting and makes me so sick to my stomach that I end up gagging, which often leads to instinctive coughing. Catch-22, anyone?

Still, not a bad day. I gave Jaime his birthday present early - this. He seemed pretty pleased; even gave me a quick kiss despite the illness, followed by the proclamation, "Swine flu!" Silly boy.

Not a bad day.

I've been reading House of Leaves and loving it to bits, both the plot and the form. You can read it pretty much straight through if you'd like and I think it would still be excellent, but I'm really enjoying trying to decipher everything and find hidden messages. If you'd rather find out this stuff for yourself, ( skip this cut ).

I also love this: #adamincognito. The basic gist is that Adam Savage from Mythbusters attended ComicCon today in full costume and no one managed to figure out it was him. He's been giving hints as to what he's dressed as, and he'll be doing it again tomorrow to give everyone another chance. I'm betting he's a Rorschach. We'll find out tomorrow, I suppose.

One of the best things about becoming obsessed with Boosh (in my eyes, at least) is that I've gained a lot of confidence when it comes to fashion. I figure, if Noel can wear all those crazy clothes well and with pride, why can't I? Being a girl, I should have it even easier than him! So. Yeah. It's led to me looking at sites like this one a lot (which happens to have a companion cosplay site that includes this dress. Fuck. YES.). The blouses! They call to me! I figure I'll either save so I can buy custom fitted ones that'll last a long time or work on my sewing skills until I can fabricate such goodies with my own hands. Then maybe I could develop the necessary construction chops to make vests and jackets as well. The possibilities are endless, I say! Endless!

Speaking of Booooosh, I am SUCH a happy fangirl. While I'm at it, these two older interviews are also excellent, and whether you're a Boosh fan or not, Sweet is always worth a watch. Earlier today, I was musing on the presence of slashy hints in everything Julian and Noel do together. Jaime tried to present Nathan Barley as a counter-example, but I went into full-on slash goggles mode and cited evidence. He actually said, "Yeah, I guess you're right about that." For the record, there is one exception that has no shipping fodder I can find - AD/BC. (Un)natural Acts is a bit on the sparse side as well, but there are a couple fonts of love that keep it from being barren.

Can you tell how much joy those guys bring me? The funny and the love, it's all delicious. Mmm.

Jaime and I caught up on Bullshit! tonight. The Mayan calendar episode felt like it was spooled right out of our conjoined mind, so needless to say, we greatly enjoyed it. The lie detectors one was excellent as well. I now know a trick to beat a lie detector. Not sure when that'll come in handy, and I'm kind of hoping I never have the chance to test it, but I do know. So I got that goin' for me, which is nice. Aaaaanyway, after the episode ended, I proceeded to grill Jaime polygraph-style on his past "encounters". ( It got weird ).

I DID IT. I finally finished all the top 5 lists. And here, my friends, they all are. Warning: this post is huge, both word count and size wise. ( Cut for MASSIVE amounts of text and many, many, MANY pictures! )

Adam, Jaime and I saw Watchmen one and a third times yesterday. Y'see, the projector bulb blew out about 45 minutes into the afternoon showing we were at (this poor couple said they'd tried to see it on Sunday and the fire alarm went off, cutting that showing off as well), so the theater people gave us passes, and we decided to try again a few hours later. That time, we got to see the whole thing. And boy, was it quite the thing. The short version? I liked it. The longer, but spoiler-free version? It's a mostly faithful adaptation of the graphic novel, and besides that, a pretty good movie. It's lengthy, yes, but there's a lot that happens. The time really goes by quickly. I've encountered a few reviews that said it was mostly incomprehensible unless you know the story going in. That's bullshit. It stands on its own. Don't just take my word for it - I'd read the graphic novel beforehand, but Jaime had not, and he says he can understand being lost "if you're a complete idiot".

For those who know nothing about either the comic or the movie, it's not your standard superhero fare. Don't go in expecting non-stop fights and spandex costumes. Both of those aspects are present, but neither figure in as strongly as you might expect. Watchmen is as much as about sociology as it is superheroes. Feel free to turn off your brain during a few of the prettier battles and just marvel at the choreography. Just be ready to switch it back on real quick as soon as the talking starts back up.

If you've read the graphic novel but haven't seen the movie yet, you ought to. I think you'll enjoy it. There are a spattering of minor changes and a few big ones, but nothing that spoils the overall experience. In tone, it's still the same Watchmen. The casting and visuals are spot-on (with the possible exception of Adrian, who's different but still worked for me). Most of the alterations are simple things to cut down the movie's length, like combining two conversations into one or switching around which characters are present/prominent at some events to get across plot points in less time. The biggest cut is that of the pirate comic storyline, which is to say, it's gone. Entirely. Bernard and Bernie do appear briefly at... the moment... but that's it. That made me a bit sad. I liked both them and that whole parallel plot. It makes sense, though, that when you're trying to cram a giant graphic novel into the time constraints of one feature film, the first thing to go would be a large complementary, but not essential sidestory. This also means that pretty much all the scenes involving the newsstand are gone, as is the awful thing that happens on Halloween. I'm going to choose to believe it doesn't happen at all in the movie universe and those involved make it out of everything okay. The only other big difference is the ending. It is different. The culprit's the same, and the ultimate goal is the same, but the method was changed quite a bit. This might be sacrilege to say, but... I think I liked the movie's idea better. I'll talk more about that, complete with spoilery goodness, in a moment. Let me just say, really quick, that Dan and Laurie's romance was no more compelling to me in the movie than the comic, which is to say, barely. And the sex scene in Archie just made me uncomfortable. Bleugh.

Anyway, about the ending... ( Hardcore spoilers for both the graphic novel and the movie! )

Oh, and one more thing - what was UP with Nixon's nose? Could it have looked anymore absurd? Jeez.

Those who've known me for a while might think they have a handle on my cooking prowess. That is, I suck. Well, guess what I did in between the two showings? ( Cut for piktchas! )

Yeeeeeah.