THIS JOURNAL IS FRIENDS-KINDA, MOSTLY.

I'm in the process of slowly unlocking older entries, so this mostly applies to 2008 onwards. Here's the breakdown:

What stays unlocked:
* Artwork
* Most fangirly things
* Books, movies, music, and game reviews
* Stuff about writing
* Boring nonsense about my everyday life

What stays locked:
* The really emo crap
* Some job stuff
* Fanfiction (I have a separate journal for that)

And that's pretty much it. Simple, yes?

Awww, snowflake! Thank you so much, karabou! ♥ ♥ ♥

I finally finished going through the entire Paranormal Images thread at Something Awful where Slender Man was created (the thread kicks off with ghostly images and the like, but after Slender Man appears on page 5 or so, he kind of takes over the whole thing), along with the thread that was created to discuss the Marble Hornet videos. I'm going to have nightmares for the REST OF MY LIFE.

The Marble Hornets videos are really what turned the whole thing into High Octane Nightmare Fuel for me. Basic premise: a few years ago, a film student named Alex was shooting his movie, Marble Hornets, in the woods around his house. His behavior grew increasingly erratic, and he abruptly dropped the project before transferring to an out of state school. When his friend, Jay, asked him what he was going to do with the tapes, he told Jay he planned to burn them. Jay talked Alex into giving him the footage, but was so unnerved by his friend's weird behavior that he didn't watch any of it...until he read the Something Awful thread about Slender Man, at which point he decided to review the tapes to see if there was anything there. Creepiness ensues.

For a bunch of video clips put together by a group of people doing this for fun, they're incredibly well done, and have scared me more than things I've paid good money to see see in a movie theater. And the accompanying totheark videos? Jesus GOD. They're not scary, exactly, but they're incredibly unsettling. Overall, the entire project is just really cool and impressive, and I'm excited/terrified to see how they go about wrapping the whole story up.

I suspect part of the reason I'm digging this so much is because I absolutely love collage and/or epistolary fiction, and the entire Slender Man mythos (the Marble Hornets stuff included) is like one giant, collaborative collage story. Since there's no consensus as to what Slender Man actually is, he ends up being this eldritch, incomprehensible THING whose motives we can't ever hope to comprehend. He kinda reminds me of the Weaver in China Mieville's Perdido Street Station -- not so much the "freaky giant spider with teeny-tiny people hands" thing (*shudder*), but more in the "doing horrible horrible things to people because its motives cannot be quantified by the human mind" sense. I like it when there's a little bit of Lovecraftian flavor in my internet urban legends.

This needs to be a book, House of Leaves style. Make it happen, internet!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Nate and I will be going over to my parents' place in a wee bit (we are bringing homemade pie and biscuits, om nom nom), so in the meantime, I'm going to be boring and post a meme.

Stolen from karabou.

~*KATHLEEN*~
AIM RatedZforZombie (note: I'm never on AIM)
e-mail vengefulmime@yahoo.com
Twitter @janegodzilla (note: I never use Twitter)
Twitpic ...
Blip.fm ...
Last.fm ...
Skype ...

OKAY, SO BASICALLY I FAIL AT THE INTERNET. ( ON TO THE REST OF THE MEME! )

Man, if you read all of that, you are awesome.

You know the Dove dark chocolate candies, the "Promises" brand with the dopey little sayings on the inside of the wrapper? I keep a bowl of them in our living room, because I'm apparently turning into my parents and keeping a ready supply of dark chocolate around is just what we do. Anyway, earlier this afternoon Nate snags a chocolate from the bowl, opens it, reads the wrapper...and then stares blankly at it for a moment before wordlessly handing it over to me.

"Today," quoth the wrapper, "you will be the Superwoman you were always meant to be!"

LOLOLOL BECAUSE ONLY THE LADIES LOVE CHOCOLATE, AMIRITE?! WHAT WITH THEIR WACKY HORMONES MAKING THEM ALL SAD OR WHATEVER. BUCK UP, LADIES! YOU'VE GOT CHOCOLATE TO CHEER YOU UP!

The hell? Thanks, Dove, for gendering my goddamn candy. Blergh.

In other news, we're studying the cardiovascular system right now and it is so incredibly amazing that I can't quite stand it. Hearts, you guys! Hearts are so neat! We got to watch a video of a quadruple-bypass surgery, and I can't even explain how fucking cool it was. This section is making me want to go into cardiology. Heartsssssss.

In other, other news, I seem to have exhausted the internet's supply of Dresden Files Harry/Marcone fic, and that makes me sad. Very, very sad. Especially seeing as my brain has decided that the best way to fix the problem is by trying to force me into writing my OWN fic. During NaNoWriMo. While I'm finishing my yuletart picture. NOT TO MENTION MY UPCOMING FINALS. Thanks, brain. Way to be a team player. Why can't you be like the heart and just go with the flow, huh?

...ahahaha, oh god, I just realized that the previous sentence is doing double-duty as a truly horrible pun. I'm leaving it in! I own up to my dorkitude!

Yeah, I need to get back to the NaNo writings right about now. I'm about a day behind, and this weekend won't be a good one for playing catchup.

Oh, Discovery channel. I love you, but sometimes you are really fucking ridiculous. Like right now? They just finished up a special on 2012, in which earnest scientists talk the viewer through all the disaster scenarios that (coincidentally? I think not!) occur in the upcoming 2012 movie, and then, in the last five minutes, admit that no, actually, it's pretty unlikely that any of them are going to happen. At least, not on December 21, 2012. Or at all, in some cases. At most, there might be some funky solar flare action, but that happens every eleven years or so and the world didn't end the last time around, so...

The dramatic narrator, of course, undermines all of this with one last dramatic pronouncement as the credits roll: "But the experts might be wrong," quoth the dramatic announcer. "And the doomsday prophets? Might be right. And in 2013, when the living envy the dead, no one can deny that WE. WERE. WARNED."

*cue movie promo shot*

Uh, thanks, dramatic narrator guy. That didn't come off as a blatant pitch for the upcoming film at all. Um.

Anyway, next week Discovery Sunday is going to present incontrovertible proof that Jack the Ripper crossed the Atlantic to continue his reign of terror IN AMERICA OH MY GOD, and that was the point where I think I started laughing hysterically and clapping my hands like a seal. I don't think it can get any more awesome than that, unless they decided to look at the science behind Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus or something. Given their current standards of programming (2012 this week, their Very Serious examinations of the Catholic Church and/or the Freemasons every time some new Dan Brown thing comes out), I really wouldn't put it past them.

Anyway. This has been a fairly quiet weekend, which was sort of nice. I just passed 15K on my NaNo project and I'm feeling good about it, so -- barring any school or life-related hiccups -- I'm pretty sure I'll be able to hit 50K this time around. The book itself will probably clock in at 80K or 90K (after editing...God only knows what it will be before that), but I'm under no illusions that I'll be able to make those numbers by the 30th of the month. I only wish I could type and/or plot that quickly!

Nate and I saw Paranormal Activity on Friday, and holy fucking shit, that movie scared the crap out of me. I really wasn't expecting it to, because it's been out for a while now and it had been hyped to the point where there was no way it could've lived up to how scary everyone said it was. But...yeah, I thought it was scary and disturbing as hell, and I'm really in no hurry to see it again in the near future.

Argh, back to studying the cardiovascular system. Finals are just after Thanksgiving, and I'm determined to feel good about at least ONE test in this class.

It makes me sad that I don't have anything by Manowar or Dragonforce. I've had so much crap going on lately that I haven't played Brutal Legend in far too long, and I kind of miss the music. I need more metal in my life, I think. Metal-flavored prog rock just isn't cutting it right now.

I got off to a good start with NaNoWriMo on Sunday (3,000 words, whee!) and then promptly blew it by not writing a thing yesterday. It's certainly not for lack of ideas, I'll tell you that. I decided to go with the fucked-up vampire thing, and the story is currently bouncing around in my head like a hyperactive three-year-old all jacked up on Halloween candy, like, "Are you going to write now? What about now? What about now? Ooooh, computer! Does that mean you're writing? Does it? Does it? Does it does it does it does it?" until I finally get mad and yell at him that I'm trying to study and if he can't be quiet for thirty goddamn seconds then I'm throwing all of his candy away and I will never write again, ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?

And then he starts crying and I feel bad, but...man. Cool it the fuck down there, Novel! At least let me get through tonight's midterm.

I'm not feeling very good about said midterm, but at least I've got a work-in-progress and homemade biscuits to console me afterward. *grumble*


Edit: Now that I've returned from said midterm? I feel even WORSE about the stupid thing. Let the self-pity party commence!

So I signed up for NaNoWriMo this year? I add the question mark because I'm not entirely sure why I did, given that last year I was taking a class far less intense than the one I'm currently in and even then I judged myself "too busy" to participate. But I haven't been writing much lately (okay, I'll be honest...I haven't been writing at ALL), and I'm starting to get a little pissed-off at myself about it. I mean, I like to write. I'm not terrible at it, and I think I've got some pretty good ideas when it comes to the stories I want to tell.

Unfortunately, it seems like the busier my life gets, the harder it is for me to be disciplined about my creative endeavors. I've spent ages trying to figure out why, because when it comes to shit like school I've got the discipline thing down, and I'm beginning to think it's because there's this obnoxious little voice in my brain that keeps insisting the time spent writing would be better spent on more useful things, like, I don't know, studying. It's a horrible little voice, really -- it's also the voice that tells me I should stop if it sucks, or that it's not worth pushing forward if I've hit a snag and it's stopped being fun. Someday, I'll have to make peace with the obnoxious little voice in my brain, because it also tells me things like, "if you've earned less than a 95 on something, then you are MADE OF FAIL AND NO ONE WILL EVER LOVE YOU," which is pretty fucked-up when you think about it. So me and the obnoxious little voice in my brain have some issues to work through, is what I'm saying; when it comes to writing, maybe NaNo will help me muzzle it for a while.

As for what I'm going to write about, god only knows. Nate's mentioned more than once that he would like to see the zombie detective story I've been noodling on about, but I'm frustrated enough with that one that I don't know that it would work for NaNo. I've got a few crazy epic fantasy stories rattling around in my brain, along with a steampunk thing, some Lovecraftian stuff (one modern-day, one set in a boy's boarding school in the late 1800s), a zombie apocalypse thing, and something really fucked-up about vampires based on a nightmare I had a while back.

In all honesty, I kinda like the vampire thing, although I made the mistake of telling one of my coworkers I wanted to write a vampire novel based on this dream I had and her response was, "Aw, just like Twilight!" And I was all, um, sort of? Except replace Bella Swan with a heroin addict who looks like Tim Roth circa Reservoir Dogs, and replace the Meadow of Sparkling with a rundown, grimy warehouse full of vampires with teeth like tiger sharks. Also, replace the love story with lots of people dying in really gruesome ways. Beyond that, though, it's totally the same.

Except mine also has a prostitute in it? I don't remember vampire-fighting prostitutes in Twilight, but I could be wrong. It's been a while.

OMG OMG yuletart! I'm so excited to be participating this year -- I actually squee'd aloud and clapped my hands like a seal when I got my assignment on Sunday. I can't WAIT to work on arts for my person. I haven't decided yet which fandom I'm going with -- we matched up on a bunch of my favorites and now I'm in a tizzy trying to figure out which one my person would enjoy the most -- but...yeah. I'm psyched. *g*

(I'm also super-excited to see what art I get out of it. Part of me feels like I should give my artist a little more clarification on the stuff I'd enjoy seeing, because I know it can be a little overwhelming when someone's response to, "What would you like?" is "PRETTY MUCH ANYTHING!" Except in this case, it's truuuuuuuue -- I would like anything from the fandoms I listed! I don't even need shippiness! Just characters being awesome with their bad selves!)

So I'm sick right now, which pretty much blows. I haven't felt quite right since last week, and on Sunday night it hit me hard. I went to work yesterday, but declined throughout the day and even though I'd planned to come to work today, my body just wasn't having it. My boss, because she is awesome, told me to take tomorrow off too, and that way I'll hopefully be back on my feet by Thursday. I hate being sick, but damn do I have a great boss.

What's funny (in a horrible sort of way) is that Nate is just getting over a cold of his own, and now it turns out that our roommate, DW, came down with something while he was on vacation last week. So our house is a house of sick people right now, complete with cold medicines and boxes of tea scattered all over the kitchen counter. Hopefully we don't all cross-infect each other. That would suuuuuuck.

You know what also sucks? The fact that I have to go to my lab midterm tonight even though I feel like walking death. Blergh.

The Discovery channel was all about ghosts and demons haunting houses this morning:

Dramatic Narrator: Blah blah blah AND THE SPIRITS ARE ANGRY blah blah blah
Me: *annoyed* Okay, how in the fuck can they be angry? They don't have any glands.
Nate: ...I think that statement you just made is why Twitter was invented.
Me: *grumble*

And, to end this on an entirely random note, I really really REALLY feel like watching, Hocus Pocus. I haven't seen it in years, but I used to love it and the end always made me cry. BINX. :(

arboretum! I got your package with the BPAL imps!  And I looooooove them.  <3  Shub-Niggurath smells so much like gingersnaps that it's insane (also: awesome, because they're EVIL gingersnaps), and Skuld and Thaleia both are like delicious delicious candy.  Thank you so much for sending them my way!

So...Brutal Legend? It's totally fucking awesome. And I say this as someone who hates RTS games (because I suck at them) and games with RTS elements (because...I suck at them). But with Brutal Legend? I hate the RTS elements, and yet...I STILL LOVE THE GAME. I suspect only Double Fine could make a game where I actively loathe certain gameplay elements and yet still adore the entire thing anyway. I blame the writing. And the voice acting. And the beautiful, beautiful visuals. AND THE MUSIC. Holy fucking shit, the music! I will summon Eddie's car solely so I can drive around and kick ass to Manowar. I don't even need game objectives! Just Eddie, the Deuce, Manowar, and some enemy ass to kick. It's really goddamn awesome, and I love it to bits.

I'd write more, but I have some imps to test and some butt-rocker ass to kick. Perhaps tomorrow.

Haha, my mom is so cute. Six weeks ago she took an exam to become a certified nursing case manager, and she just found out today that she passed the test. She sent me a gleeful email about it, which is adorable in and of itself, and then came this: "Oh yeah, you already knew that. Sometimes I think I'm a little slow...BUT NOT WHEN IT COMES TO TEST TAKING!" *dies* Oh, Mom. Shine on, you crazy caps-locker you. SO CUTE.

Anyway. I've been making a game effort to memorize the twelve cranial nerves in time for class today, because I'm pretty sure we're going to be quizzed on them. Boo. On one hand, I like this whole "lab-and-lecture quiz every Tuesday" thing, because it's forcing me to study more and I can't help but think that's a good thing; on the other hand, I don't like studying according to someone else's schedule, because the way I studied before was working out perfectly well, dammit. I can see why the class is structured this way, given that a lot of people coming into it were already struggling a bit, but that doesn't mean I can't grumble about it. Grumble grumble grumble.

I started writing an entry last night while watching Discovery, but must've gotten distracted by schoolwork because this is all that was in my livejournal widget:

I'm beginning to think that Man vs. Wild exists largely because people like seeing Bear Grylls take his shirt off and/or beat wild animals to death. At which point he eats them raw, because fire is for pussies. :| I miss Les Stroud.

The me of seventeen hours ago was apparently a wee bit cranky. Also, TOTALLY RIGHT. I know a lot of people like Man vs. Wild, but..gah, I just can't. It's gotten to the point where every time an animal pops up on the screen I start screaming at it to run, RUN YOU STUPID BASTARD, BEAR GRYLLS IS GOING TO EAT YOUUUUUU!

And then Bear usually eats it. Because that is how he rolls. andjhneuwhuesjcndj

Zombieland is so good. SO GOOD. Holy fucking shit, it's good! It's not very scary, but -- given that it's a zombie comedy -- I wasn't really expecting scary. It is hilarious, though, and incredibly well-written and well-crafted to boot. There's a surprising amount of heart to it, which I adored. As corny as this sounds, it's largely a film about learning how to be human again in a world where humanity doesn't seem to matter much anymore, and the fact that it's kind of gross and terrifically funny all at the same time is marvelous. It's totally at the top of my "to buy when it comes out on dvd" list.

Other stuff!

- I've now been at OHSU for a whole year! I had my yearly evaluation yesterday, and it essentially boiled down to, "you're doing great and we love you and here are the projects we'd like you to tackle in the next twelve months and did we mention we love you?". So, that was kind of nice for my ego. I have the best boss ever and the best coworkers ever and the providers I work for are awesome, so I'm pretty happy with how the whole OHSU thing has worked out. Well...except for the part where the union tried to screw me over because I was a new hire during the lay-offs, but everything else has been great!

- After re-reading all of the Harry Potter books on the Kindle, I've moved on to downloading and reading all of the books in The Dresden Files. I'm in the middle of book 4 right now, and I have to say, I'm really enjoying them. Not quite the same way I enjoyed the Sookie Stackhouse books (I LOVE THOSE SO MUCH OMG), but they're still pretty fantastic. Karrin Murphy? I adore her. And I also adore Susan, even though the rest of the fandom apparently hates her for some reason. Whatever, haters. She's awesome. I don't normally like first-person narration all that much, but Harry is funny and sarcastic, and he's just genre-savvy and self-deprecating enough for me to like being in his head. I fully expect to start on book 5 before the weekend is out.

- We are learning about the brain and spinal cord in A&P right now -- which is awesome and fascinating -- and I got to dissect a sheep's brain. As a rule, I find dissections pretty goddamn nifty, but...they're also so smelly. So, so smelly. :(

- Speaking of smell...I kind of got into BPAL (Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab perfumes). THEY SMELL SO GOOD. YOU DON'T EVEN UNDERSTAND. What's funny is that I'm normally not a perfume person -- I'm very sensitive when it comes to smell, and most perfumes are far too strong for me, to the point where I get terrible headaches. Which is sad! Smell is so important when it comes to moods and emotions and memories and whatnot, and I've always wanted to explore that more when it come to the scents I surround myself with. Over the years, I've heard a lot of good stuff about BPAL, and I decided that I would finally give them a try. I'm so very glad I did! My first set of imps arrived today, and while I intended to test them out, I ended up loving the first one I tried on my skin so much that I ended up leaving it on. I've recorded my "in the bottle" impressions of the others, and I'll try them out on my skin tomorrow. I also ordered two of the Halloween limited-edition scents, so I'm looking forward to when those arrive. I can't wait to start seeing what works best with my moods and skin chemistry. <3

- Also, knitting again. Let's see if I can finish a scarf before spring rolls around.

I hate unpacking. In fact, I think I hate unpacking even more than packing, because with unpacking you have to figure out where the shit goes once you've gotten it out of the damn box. Packing is so much easier compared to that!

The problem right now is that the stuff left in boxes is either kitchen miscellany or miscellaneous miscellany, which means one of several things: a) I have no idea where said stuff should go; b) I know where said stuff should go, but I don't really have access to the space right now because a bunch of stupid boxes are still in the way; or c) said stuff needs to go into the kitchen, which is a huge, crazy project in and of itself. I'm currently at the stage of unpacking where I've resorted to just haphazardly plopping things down wherever there's floor space, and now there's, like, a set of mixing bowls on top of my tv and I can't get to any of my knitting stuff because I idiotically stuck it in my office closet and then blocked the route with a gajillion boxes and an oscillating fan. I wish I had some helpful little mice and bird companions -- you know, like Cinderella -- because those critters got shit DONE. Alas, all I have are Rufio and Ivan: one is a tiny, adorable, disapproving bunny, and the other is a cat who, while intelligent enough to open doors and recognize my car, still manages to get himself stuck in flypaper.

OH GOD, the flypaper.

You know how some cats FREAK THE FUCK OUT when a little piece of tape gets stuck to them? Multiply that by ten, and then replace the little piece of tape with a horrible gluey strip of flypaper that's, oh, about a foot and a half long. I wasn't home when the whole sad debacle went down, but the way Nate described it, it was one of those slapstick, faintly tragic affairs where both cat and flypaper are in the wrong place at the wroooong time: cat accidentally backs into flypaper, panics when it sticks to his tail, panics even more when his initial efforts at getting it off only make things worse, and then everything goes all crazytown when he tries to run away and the flypaper FOLLOWS HIM OH GOD OH GOD IT WON'T COME OFFFFFFFFF! Nate managed to cut off most of the paper itself before Ivan made a break for it and hid in the crawlspace (oh, Ivan), but it still took me an hour of careful clipping when I got home to get the remaining glue out of his fur.

Did I mention that Ivan is a long-haired cat? Because he is. He really, really is. I had to cut off so much fur that the poor bastard looks like I tried to groom him with a weed-whacker.

It's always a party when there's a feline in the house, I tell you what. I love that cat.

I have most of the base sketches done for the first round of comments, although the finished drawings are going to take a bit longer because I'm adding all sorts of color n' shit. Anyway, here are the first two. IT HAS BEEN SO LONG SINCE I'VE DRAWN ANYTHING. MY GOD.

First, for gypsyjr:

( Mythbusters + retro sci-fi! )

And then, for chaosraven:

( Severus Snape + ponies and gay jewelry )

Aaaand that's it for the moment. More will go up as I finish. *grin*

Got this one via karabou:

Leave me a comment and I'll draw you a picture using at least one two of your LJ interests as my prompt.

I make no promises as to quality, but it's been a long time since I've done some serious artsin' and I think it would be a fun excuse to break out ye olde sketchbook and tablet and whatnot.

EDIT: Because I am a crazy person, I'm doing TWO interests per person. It will take more time, but the hilarity! It is maximized!

I'm currently in the process of unpacking my many, many boxes of books onto the bookshelves in my brand-new office, and for some reason I thought it would be a good idea to watch Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog on Hulu.

Aaaaaaand...now I'm crying.

DAMMIT, JOSS WHEDON. THIS HAPPENS EVERY TIME I WATCH DR. HORRIBLE. For fuck's sake. You'd think I'd learn!

So Nate and I are now officially living in sin, which would likely horrify many of my relatives but is proving to be pretty much awesome in my book -- I moved in over the weekend and it's not much different than how things were before, except all of my stuff is here (in boxes at the moment, true, BUT STILL) and I get to sleep in later now that I don't have to drive back to my apartment every morning before I catch the bus. I think the fact that there wasn't much upheaval involved with the transition is a good sign. Either way, the word "home" now refers to "the place I share with Nate," so that's rather nifty.


Drat. I mean to bake brownies tonight, but instead I ended up unpacking a bunch and weeping over Dr. Horrible. And, er, playing the crap out of Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box, because it's EVEN MORE AWESOME AND ADDICTIVE than the previous game, to the point where I'm now dreaming about freakin' puzzles and coming up with tea recipes in my dreams. I don't even know.

Hitting Hawthorne in my work clothes is always a bit amusing. That's because Hawthorne is very...I don't know, counterculture-oriented, all hipster boys in skinny girl jeans and hippie ladies walking their dogs in their Teva sandals and goth girls with black and pink striped hair. And then there's me in my work duds, like "YEAH, CHECK OUT THIS BLACK CARDIGAN. YOU KNOW YOU LOVE THESE GRAY SLACKS WITH A CREASE IN THE FRONT!"

I suspect the image of overwhelming squareness is reduced somewhat by the fact that I slip on sneakers as soon as it's time to go home, but still. I rock that fucking cardigan hard.

Speaking of clothes...

So I keep noodling around steampunk forums and online shops, and now I desperately want sexy sexy boots and sexy sexy corsets and sexy sexy military jackets. I don't even know when I would wear such things!  But we WANTS them, precious, and there's pretty much no reasoning with the inner Smeagol when it comes to shiny, pretty, and oh-so-unnecessary things.

...actually, the boots and military jackets would probably get a lot of use.  I like having boots dressy enough for work, and it's too cold in my office to go without a jacket in the fall-winter-spring-(and sometimes summer).  My current military-style black jacket is looking a little worse for wear, so maybe once I'm a few paychecks out from the move, I'll splurge on something awesome, like, say this piece of prettiness. Or perhaps this one. Nnnnngggh.  Sexy coats! 

Seriously? I want to buy everything on that website, even the dresses that I would never ever wear.  I am slowly coming to terms with skirts and manage to wear one every couple weeks or so (next up: A SKIRT ONCE A WEEK!  OOooooh...), but I haven't quite worked my way up to dresses yet.  I like dresses in theory, but every time I wear them I feel weird and uncomfortable -- this is largely because (on me, at least) most dresses tend to accentuate ze bosoms whether they are supposed to or not, and I tend to feel a wee bit (read: INCREDIBLY) self-conscious when my clothes are rather more boobtastic than I'd like.

Uh. I honestly didn't intend to make this post All About My Boobs, but apparently it kinda went there. Sorry about that. I should probably get back to studying for my one remaining final. Blergh. Finals.

I was standing in line at the grocery store, idly glancing over the mandatory rack of magazines and recipe books and Archie comics in that bored way you do when the person in front of you is taking forever, when all of a sudden I saw a magazine called..."Church Strippers".

I blinked, astonished. Church strippers?! Weird enough that someone would publish something so scandalous and bizarre, but the fact that Fred Meyer carried it? Right out there in the open, even! They put a black plastic cover over "Cosmopolitan", for crying out loud, but "Church Strippers" gets to sit defiantly uncensored next to "OK Magazine" and "75 Best Chicken Recipes"? WHAT WAS THE WORLD COMING TO? WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN?!

And then I looked a little closer, and realized that the magazine was actually called "Church Suppers".

The casserole and plate of brownies on the cover made a lot more sense after that.

Is it just me, or is Shark Week...not as awesome anymore?

Gahhhh, don't get me wrong -- I still love Shark Week and giddily look forward to an entire week's worth of shark-related programming, but...I don't know. It seems that in recent years they've been focusing a lot more on shark attacks as opposed to the sharks themselves, and they're doing it in such a sensationalistic way that I feel as though it's less about teaching people about sharks and more about SCARING THE CRAP OUT OF THEM.

Discovery Channel! This is not the Shark Week way! Shark Week should be about how fucking awesome sharks are, not about showing increasingly graphic reenactments of every single shark attack within the last century or so. PETER BENCHLEY* WOULD NOT APPROVE. SHAME ON YOU.

That said, I will never get tired of programming about great whites, although I wish they'd focus more on how neat they are and how little we still know about them, and less on those times when they've gone after people. Yes, Discovery, great white attacks are really really terrifying. We get it. Now hows about you talk about the research being done to figure out what their mating habits are, or about how difficult it is to try to keep one in captivity? Srsly. More science, less gore.

In other (AWESOME!) news, Nate's landlady is totally okay with me having Ivan, so it looks like I'll be moving in at his place. HOORAY! MOVING IN WITH NATE!

...aw, except now I have to pack and move all my books again. Stupid books. :P


* For reals, he really wouldn't. He felt so bad about how he misrepresented sharks in Jaws that he because a shark advocate and environmentalist later on in life.

So...it looks like Nate and I are moving in together in about a month.

*deep breath*

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYAY!!!!!

Um. I'm really happy and excited about this. Really happy and excited about this, to the point where I just want to freak out and flail around a lot and generally make a giant dork of myself. I mean. I get to live with my boyfriend! A person I am crazy in love with! This is pretty much going to be TOTALLY AWESOME!

If his landlady is okay with Ivan, it looks like I'm probably just going to move into the place he's currently living, since one of his roommates is moving out and the other is okay with me a) living there, and b) having a cat. I spend about 1/2 - 3/4 of my time at his house anyway, so it probably won't change the dynamics of the place too much, which is good. And if his landlady isn't so much with the cat? Then Nate and I will strike out on our own, and find someplace else.

I really hope it works out that he can stay where he is, though. I love this house, his roommate is pretty easygoing, it would work out so much better financially, and we're close to pretty much everything we want here (which includes work and the Hawthorne branch of Powell's...WHICH IS IMPORTANT). So...yeah!

Good god, I'm excited. I've been looking forward to this for a long time. *doofy grin*