inquiry and bloodlust

Today has been devoted to icon making.



I'm pretty pleased.

Because I'm in a funk of legendary scale, it's time for mindless fun. Memes!
( Icon Meme! )
( Lyrics Meme! )

* Reply to this post with ICON ME! and I will pick five of your icons.
* Make a post (including this info) and talk about the icons I chose.
* Other people can then comment to you and make their own posts.
* This will create a never ending cycle of icon glee...

instrumentality gave me ( these! )

Busy busy busy day tomorrow. Throat hurts. Can't sleep.

... Have an Adventure Time icon?

Stumbled across this amazing post earlier: 48 Ads That Would Never Be Allowed Today. In fact, it's so amazing that Jaime's now using one of the ads from it as his profile picture on that-social-site-that-shall-not-be-named.

For my part, I changed my picture to something Adventure Time related because Adventure Time is the greatest show in the history of ever. And has an EPIC opening. Now I just need to make about fifty billion icons. Oh, plus, I'm in the process of making an ear flap hat, as I've been meaning to do for a while, except now the design has been adapted to include a bump on either side of the head. And I have an unhealthy amount of love for this guy. Mathematical!

The schoolish life is depressing me at the moment, so I dragged Jaime into a bit of retail therapy, thrift-style. There's this place nearby whose proceeds go to a hospice that is seriously the store of my dreams. It's huge and cheap and has a good assortment of just about everything imaginable. I regularly buy bags of fabric scraps for 99¢ there, as well as various small remnants and other trinkets. I mean, I've gotten a bunch of square scarves, a rock tumbler, a parts box full of safety eyes, a polar bear figurine... Anyway, today's magic find? This black-and-rainbow Bob Mackie cardigan for $8 - BRAND NEW. It freakin' still has the tags and extra button attached and everything. I've been searching for the perfect cardigan for a while now, and this, my friends? This is it. It's bright; it's easily pairable; it's long; it's sleek; it's ugly. It's everything I wanted. We also ran by the Humane Society thrift store and found a couple great things there too - a Cybunny doll, a water bottle that says "Let's Talk Science" and has two human profiles with a stylized atom between them, two bottle dolls (that I am in love with; they're a settler-lookin' couple, complete with a basket on the woman's arm and a little plush Holy Bible in the man's hand), and - Jaime's greatest find ever - a Dexter-style wooden box for slides. Let the ritualized serial murders begin!

If only I could find this scarf and this ring for cheap in a random thrift store. I crave them so. Le sigh.

... I love thrift stores.

I figured it was worth compiling the icons I've made for contests lately (that I'm allowed to show off right now). Alright - let's go!

( Awards )
( All the icons! )

And that's it for now! I'll post more as the contests roll along.

The science-y part: My advisor changed his mind as to what project he wants me working on. Previously, he was leaning towards a seizure-imaging one using PAT, but now, he has an idea that no one's tested before that I'm going to be checking out. That's all the details I'll offer, just in case the idea actually works and some glory-stealing hobgoblin is lurking about here, waiting to devour my plans and claim them as his own. Anyway, a post-doc is working on the computational part, while I'll be on the experimental side, coming up with a phantom design and collecting the data. I'm really psyched about this. I mean, labwork is always pretty fun, but to be toying with something brand new? To play with a concept that you're not sure will work at all? Exciting.

By the way, no matter your field, if you're not currently reading New Scientist, you ought to start. It's jam-packed with a lot of really interesting research that you probably wouldn't hear about otherwise. Just look at this piece; if that's not breath-taking (and giddiness-inducing), then I don't know what is.

The arts-and-crafts-y part: Just as I was getting back into crochet, cross-stitch took control of my fingertips. I'm (slowly, but surely) working on this pattern at the moment. After watching me stitch some, Jaime's even gotten a little interested. He learned some crochet basics a while ago from me, and now it's looking like he may eventually pick up some cross-stitch from me as well.

It's funny - we go to Michaels on a regular basis, and during one visit to the Port Charlotte location, the cashier told me that since my coupon was a register-issued one and the one Jaime had was a newspaper one, I could use them both at once. Y'know, just for future reference, so Jaime could wait in the car of whatever. It had never before occurred to me that the two of us tooling around there might be perceived as me dragging him in to be a coupon-bearer. Really, Jaime's a craft person too. Sure, he's more on the beading side of things, but that's not any less Michaels-supported. And anyway, we like looking at stuff together. I'd rather not go to Michaels than haul an uninspired assistant around with me. There was another time where a cashier made some remark about Jaime purchasing stuff so I could use two coupons, and I smiled and said, "Oh no, he's good - he's even started learning to crochet." The guy in line behind him commended his guts. For his part, Jaime just laughed.

Engineering is supposedly a male playground, while crafting is for women, yet somehow, Jaime and I each enjoy both fields. Go figure.

My main creative endeavor lately has been icons. I've been following a few icontest communities and having fun; I've even won an award or two. It's a nice, not too time-consuming activity to distract from bigger work for a while without eating all my hours. Unlike...

The game-y part: So - Nocturne. Whee! Okay, I've died twice already, which is rare for me and probably doesn't bode well, but I'm liking it thus far. I was rocking the femme fatale party - High Pixie, Hua Po, and Lilim - for while. Now, I'm trying to level up an Inugami so he'll get Media and making happy squeaking noises at my Jack Frost. High Pixie's still hanging around, too. I think I'm going to have to switch out the Inugami, however, as he is sadly weak to Force and I'm in the Ginza Underpass, which is rife with Sudama. Tiny, force-wielding, disc bastards. I'll likely replace him with a Sudama of my very own for justice or some such nonsense.

Stepping away from the mechanics for a bit, I'm digging the style. It's so very... MegaTen. I don't know. This is definitely a spiritual sibling of Digital Devil Saga, which is quite a good thing indeed. If there's one thing DDS did flawlessly, it's style. I know Nocturne came first, so I'm really getting this backwards, but this is the order I ended up playing them in, so what can ya do? Anyway, DemiFiend (or Phillip J. Fry in my game, thanks to Jaime's input) is badass, Chiaki is worrying, and even though I've only seen Isamu for a few moments, I can't wait to run into him again. The hat! Is amazing! How can I resist?

Now, 'tis time for sleep. Iku.

Okay. Okay. I think I'm finally all caught up. I got my courses finalized, I know what books to order, I picked my desk, I scheduled both my dental work (so the pain will stop, yay!) and a regular exam, I found a psychologist and have a schedule with him (and even better, I have new methods to fight the anxiety and a new diagnosis that may very well set me on the route to being fixed and normal), I think I have my finances in order for the immediate future, I'm going to get more Lipitor tonight... I even got to have a minor breakdown and some family drama in between breaths. The only thing I haven't done much is sleep - by the way, thanks for that, anxiety. No, really, I'm pretty sure I don't have a heart condition. I just had an EKG four months ago, I don't have risk factors, and I even have valid explanations for most of the physical phenomena I feel. Not sure why you insist on telling me I'm dying every time I eat alone or try to sleep, brain, but we're done with that. I have new techniques. You, my friend, are going to be reasonable for me, and in return, we will finally get to relax. It'll be good; I promise.

Oh, and not only is there this, but also, I have Decemberists tickets. :3 Things are looking up.

I'm thinking of clearing up some userpic slots so I can make some new ones - better quality FFVIII ones, Disgaea stuff, maybe a bit more Boosh and Persona, definitely more Castlevania. The question is, which ones to delete? Maybe a better question would be, which ones shouldn't I delete?

You can see all my userpics here. Any suggestions, flist? Which ones should I hang onto without fail?

P.S. Yes, thoughtful Joshua, as seen on this post, isn't going anywhere. I think I use him the most. <3

I have the most obscure userpic ever. It pleases me so.

My mouth seems to be recovering from the wisdom teeth surgery pretty nicely. I did get puffy, and I've developed a little bruise by one cheekbone and some yellowing on one side's swelling. It's like I got tapped in the side of the jaw or my chin has jaundice or something. Ah well. At least it doesn't really hurt.

One of my favorite things to do recently is watch The Mighty Boosh on Adult Swim and try to spot all the cuts. For example, in last night's episode, according to [as], the Crack Fox eats "Head and Shoulders... toothpaste..." The original version, however, states that his diet consists of "Head and Shoulders... toothpaste... and shit. Big pieces of shit." [as] also has a tendency to cut out any rape jokes. They are sorely missed.

Besides Boosh, I've mostly spent the past week or so playing Disgaea. It's a hell of a lot of fun. Of course, I found myself feeling oddly familiar with some of the voices, so I did ( a bit of research ).

In other news, school this fall is looking to be go. I'm both a bit scared and majorly excited. Now, to start scouring for apartments.