World of No

One good thing though

2007-11-14T06:27:37Z

For the first time in their 24-year history, the Green Party is polling ahead of the NDP and the Bloc to become Canada's third most popular party!

WOOT!

Aaaaargh!!!

2007-11-14T06:09:19Z

So I have the first presentation for my thesis coming up on Thursday, and I've been making PowerPoint slides for it, because, well, that's what you do. And of course I send it to my advisor to take a look -- and he sends it back, of course. TOO MANY WORDS, apparently, which is a fair criticism. I do love my words. So I fix it and send it back again, and I get it back about an hour later, and it's been COMPLETELY torn apart and put back together such that it's unrecognizable! With an advisory in the covering email to not change it back, not matter what!

I'm all for constructive criticism, but I feel like it's not even mine anymore. And I'm pretty particular about the visual aspects of presentations that I do, and sorry, but he's made it ugly. All sorts of garish colours! I can't imagine that making it ugly is really going to improve my presentation. And he's added lots of boxes where I'm supposed to put gratuitous pictures that really aren't going to add anything, other than to provide the ADHD audience with lots of shiny colours and pictures to distract them from the serious.

And to top it all off, I am like 10,000 words behind on my NaNoNovel because school this week has been kicking my ass.

Man, I long for the days when you didn't have a professor scrutinizing and changing everything you do. I wish I could just do a half-assed job and hand it in and get a half-assed mark.

For chrissake, all I have to do is pass.

NaNo and the Writers' Strike

2007-11-05T17:11:51Z

Today I was listening to the radio (CBC Radio One) and they had a soundbite from some former producer who went on and on about how nobody cares about the writers, they just care about the actors. I thought that was the biggest load of crap ever. I care about the writers! With the exception of one or two actors from my favourite shows who HAVEN'T come away with huge swollen egos (James Marsters or Katee Sackhoff anyone?) I couldn't care less about the actors. But I'll follow the writers anywhere.

I had a weird dream last night about knowing Rainn Wilson in real life and having a big crush on him. It was strange, yet hot. Odd.

NaNo is going pretty well - I'm about 1000 words above the absolute minimum. I'm also not yet hating my story. Hurrah.

NaNoWriMo and other reasons why I'm crazy

2007-10-16T23:28:49Z

It's been ages since I posted. I've been really, really busy with school - this is my busiest term ever because I'm taking above the full course load (6 courses and a for-credit lab) as well as working on my fourth year thesis. So I must be absolutely insane for signing up for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), but I really want a kick start into writing more, and cranking out 50,000 words in one month seems like a good way to do that. I'd actually like to try submitting novels and short stories to publishers (like, romance publishers) so I guess I've gotta get started like this to get anywhere.

I also really, really want to start writing some fan fiction as Buffy and Angel are really starting to fire my imagination after reading some awesome fanfic this week. Oh, so much to do and not enough time to do it in...

bluegreyglass @ 2007-08-13T23:42:00

2007-08-14T04:14:34Z

Something really sad and horrible happened today.

One of my mousies died. My cream mousie with the white stripe around her belly. She was the Brain half of the Pinky and the Brain duo and I found her all stiff and belly-up under her little house. I was so sad. The Boy had to lift her out with rubber gloves and bury her in the backyard under one of our ratty trees. She was just a mouse but she died way too soon. Mice are supposed to live for a year and a half and she only lasted about four months. Now Pinky is all alone. I think I'm going to wait a week or so to make sure that she's not going to die as well, and it she survives I'll get her a little friend. I'm so glad I have my kitty, Athena. She cuddled me and made me feel better. We were actually afraid that Athena, the little brainiac, had figured out how to get into the mouse cage, but the mouse wasn't bitten at all, so she must have died of natural causes.

I'm so busy these days. My work term ends in three weeks, and I'm scrambling to finish my diffusion sampler experiment. I'm also in the thick of transcribing the peacekeeping interviews I'm working on, and I'm gearing up for the big move to the next, big apartment in the beginning of September. I'm really excited to move in there. We're going to have two bedrooms, so we can have an office and I can bring my big wraparound desk from my parents' house.

All of this Livejournal drama has been sort of off-putting, these past weeks, considering I recently paid up for a year at Livejournal specifically because I wanted to get involved in fandom here. I was upset when I heard about the two fan artists who were "permanently suspended" (what a stupid euphemism for 'kicked off forever') because of their art. Not because I really think they should be allowed to post whatever they want on LJ (it's a private company with private servers and they're allowed their rules), but as customers they don't deserve to be kicked off without warning, especially when the policy is so incredibly fuzzy. That's why I was really pleased to see the new "two strikes" rule that was detailed in the most recent lj_biz post. That's really a step in the right direction.

However, I ran into some seriously scary things while perusing the comments on that post. There are a bunch of pro-baby hitting comms on LJ. And they're really scary. They encourage whacking tiny babies because they're not cooperating with their parents. I mean babies as young as 5 months. Incredible. I'm terrified to think about what those parents might decide to do when their kids are older, or even teenagers. I bet those kids are hopelessly brainwashed, and miserable to boot. I also ran into a pro-anorexia community, full of girls asking if the 200 calories they had that day was too much and talking about how fat they feel because they had bacon and eggs a week ago! I thought I had a screwed-up relationship with food (mostly overeating when bored, though I'm not overweight,) but these girls' ideas are truly scary. They have icons like "perfection doesn't include food." It's painfully obvious that their need to be super thin comes almost completely from the media, and I feel so sad for them. I wish thin were out and healthy was in.

So far I've survived two rounds in lotr_lims and it's been a lot of fun. I am so new to Photoshop that I'm pleased I've even lasted this far, and I'm glad I'm getting this chance to test my fledgling skills.

Update

2007-08-04T19:11:47Z

I had this whole long post written a few days ago, and then Livejournal ate it! I have to get used to this interface and its quirks. Today's been really relaxed and chill - I slept in a bit and then did the big pile of dishes that has been accumulating for the past few days. I have to go in to work today to get started on a lab experiment that I'm doing. It's complex and frustrating, and I really hope that things go as planned.

I've signed up for lotr_lims and I submitted my first icon yesterday. I'm very new to Photoshop, but I think I came up with something pretty cool. We'll see how long I last! I'm really enjoying my Photoshop work though. It's making me want to start working on art again, too.

My car's been in the shop for almost a week! I have no idea what's going on, since I haven't had a phone call since I dropped it off last week. I'm afraid it's going to cost me a fortune! I need to sell it pronto so that I have enough cash for tuition.

I just got a job doing transcription for a local author who is writing about Canadian Peacekeepers. I'm not going to make too much, but it will be good experience, and maybe I can pick his brain about being a writer.

I've got to head to work. Hopefully I'll have time to post more later.

bluegreyglass @ 2007-07-17T15:04:00

2007-07-17T19:16:25Z

This weekend I went up north to The Boy's parents' house. We had a pretty nice time, mostly because I was able to stop stressing about things for a few days. We went on a massive shopping trip, ate a giant takeout box of poutine, and picked three baskets of wild blueberries.

I ordered the fourth issue of Buffy Season 8 over a month ago from tfaw.com and it still hasn't arrived yet. I have a sneaking suspicion that someone in the upper apartment in our house filched it, but I've asked repeatedly and no one's fessed up. I'll have to report it as lost in the mail to tfaw.com. I hope they send another one! At this rate, issue five will show up sooner.

I've made the decision to sell my car. I never drive it, and I could really use the money for tuition this coming semester. The only problem is it's dead in my sister's driveway. I have to put insurance on it, tow it to a shop, get it fixed, then get it ready to sell. It seems so daunting, but I really have to get on it.

Let's start this shit! (All about me)

2007-07-12T20:44:28Z

Occupation: University Student/Lab Slave

I'm starting my fourth year of hydrogeology in the fall. (Hydro = water, geo = earth; it's basically groundwater studies.) Why, yes, I do find it exceedingly boring. I plan to use it solely as a nice cushy pillow should I fail at a more creative or meaningful endeavour. Right now I'm on co-op, which means I get paid to do some seriously tedious work in a lab.

Status: In a relationship

I live with my boyfriend of 1.5 years, whom I will refer to as The Boy from here on out. We moved in together in May and so far it's been working out great.

Pets: One cat, two mice

I have two girl mice (named Pinky and the Brain, natch) whom I've had since May, and a grey girl kitten named Athena whom I just adopted from the local Humane Society about three weeks ago. All three are teh qte and amuse me no end.

Loves: Storytelling of any kind, cooking, a clean apartment, independence

My first love was books. When I was a kid I would read absolutely anything, from the newspaper to my dad's Tom Clancys to the backs of shampoo bottles. I've become quite a bit more selective about my reading material since then, mostly due to my lack of reading time these days. Some good recent reads include: JPod and Microserfs, both by Douglas Coupland; A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews; and A Woman's World: True Stories of Life on the Road, edited by Marybeth Bond. My all-time favourites are Lord of the Rings, the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, and the Earth's Children series by Jean Auel

I've always enjoyed movies as well. Some movies that capture my imagination or make me think are: the original Star Wars trilogy, Lord of the Rings, the Matrix trilogy, Office Space, High Fidelity, Shortbus, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and Kill Bill.

I was only recently turned on to watching television, particularly highly serialized dramas and cartoons. My first love was Star Trek: TNG (although strangely I've never watched any other iterations of that franchise). I've also enjoyed Sex and the City, Undergrads, Clone High, and the Simpsons. My current obsessions are Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica and Veronica Mars. I've also recently started watching Heroes and am working my way through the first season.

Thanks the the Buffy Season 8 comics, I've started becoming interested in that medium. I purchased the first volume of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman comics (Preludes and Nocturnes) and I absolutely loved it.

I used to be the worst cook in the world, but since moving out of the house and becoming a vegetarian I've had to expand my repertoire, and now I'm pretty darn good if I do say so myself. I love using fresh ingredients and experimenting with ethnic cuisines.

There is nothing nicer than coming home to a tidy apartment. Of course, that's definitely not always the case.

Although I had spent periods living away from my parents' home for co-op jobs and my first year of university, this winter I moved out for good. It's certainly been rough on the finances, but I don't mind having less disposable cash if it means I can go wherever and do whatever I want.

Fannish tendencies: Fanfic

I luurve me some fanfic. So far, I've only been reading it, but I have definite plans to write some in the very near future.

Fandoms: Buffyverse, Veronica Mars

These are really the only two fandoms I'm into as far as fan stuff is concerned. Somehow the idea of Battlestar or Heroes or Firefly fic is strange to me. I really don't know why.

OTPs: Buffy/Angel, Buffy/Spike, Spike/Angel, Buffy/Spike/Angel, Logan/Veronica

I'm hardcore B/A AND B/S AND S/A. I love all three of those 'ships so much; the dynamics are so different in all of them. No wonder I 'ship all three of them together as well.

Veronica and Logan have so much snarky sexy chemistry together that it's impossible for me not to 'ship them. Plus, I have major crushes on both Jason Dohring and Kristen Bell.

TBC...