I had a truly wonderful Thanksgiving. Drove with my dad and sis and uncle up to see our beloved cousins who all live in a tiny town an hour away. Our Thanksgivings are marvelously low key AND delicious, a wonderful combination IMO. Almost everyone is a wonderful cook and the food is simple yet scrumptious, while the company is even better. We stayed for hours drinking and chatting (and debating about ISIS and gun laws, though that wasn't terrible - we all come from the same place of compassion on all those issues, we just have somewhat different perspectives.) My amazing cousin Meg and I spent a while talking about books and audiobooks which was delightful. I convinced her she MUUUUUST read The Martian, as she enjoys 1) books and 2) science, so you know, SHE SHOULD READ THE MARTIAN. I can't wait for her reaction. She also showed us her new location for her incredible small business dyeing gorgeous yarn (Twisted Fiber Arts, look it up fiber people!). Unfortunately it wasn't a good reason for a new location - her last place was destroyed due to a fire in the restaurant next door, so it's been a rough restart. The new place is basically a huge metal shed.... that used to be a porn studio. YUP. But it's actually an awesome open space and they've really made it their own. She's so fuckin awesome. I hope to be half as awesome when I'm 40 something.

I ALSO SAW THE CAP 3 TRAILER AND I'M FREAKING OUT OKAY!!! FREAKING OUT!!!!!!( Mild overall plot spoilers ahead, as well as general positive emotions. )

Ahem. So there's that. I hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving too! <3

I have been remiss my friends!! I am so sorry. It's hard to get back into a habit. But I'm here! Hi!

I was making a post on Tumblr and struggling with their hideous text editor when I realized I HAVE A BETTER PLACE TO PUT IT! YAY! So have a MEME!

I saw a meme where people were listing ten favorite characters from ten fandoms and I AM DOING IT because 1) I like lists, 2) I like characters, and 3) I like procrastinating. WHEE.

Buffy – Faith Lehane

Battlestar Galactica – Kara “Starbuck” Thrace

Harry Potter – Hermione Granger (or Remus Lupin?? One for present, one for Marauder days!)

Supernatural - Dean Winchester

Stargate Atlantis – Rodney McKay

Avengers – Steve Rogers

Band of Brothers – Lewis Nixon

The Vampire Diaries – Caroline Forbes

Firefly – Simon Tam

Friday Night Lights – Lyla Garrity. Or Tami Taylor. Or Tim Riggins. Or everyone???

I notice that I have always fallen for secondary characters, dating back to my days in high school reading Anne McCaffrey and falling head over heels for the backup dudes like Afra, F’nor, and Sascha. (Yell at me if you recognize any of them!) I suppose Steve and Dean are the exceptions, but that’s my thing I guess. Maybe I like filling in the gaps left by the fact that they’re not the main focus of the story.

Mostly I want all the ladies on this list to hang out and exchange high fives and mutual expressions of support and admiration. <33333

Good morning friends! It's 5:42 AM. I will never get used to waking up at 5 AM. Classes start at 7:20 for my students. Unacceptable!!

I haven't been posting because my computer has been acting up and it's a struggle just to get my work done. :( And LJ is BLOCKED at work! What a travesty!

Yesterday, I did a flame test demo for my chem kids. It was SO COOL. Here's a video of two of the flames - I actually did six. The kids loved it. I loved the little glass bowls I found to do it in because the flames looked so cool in them.


I haven't been watching SPN this season but my friend tipped me off that there was an episode about BABY!!!! Written by Robbie Thompson!!! So of course I watched and it was AMAZING. I don't have time to yell about it right now BUT COME YELL AT ME! WINCHESTERS! IN THEIR BABY! HAVING ALL THE HEART TO HEARTS! I AM DEAD AND GONE! Basically if Robbie Thompson ran SPN I would still love it. Fuck Bob Singer (I've heard it's his fault that that-beloved-character-last-season died).

Now I have to go get ready for work, woe. At least it is almost Friday!!

I won't complain about work today, because - it wasn't a good day. I mean, it was, in some parts. But whatever!

Instead let's talk fannish things!! Here is the list of shows I'm watching this season, or currently that aren't airing for some months. Tell me what you love! Let's flail!

• Vampire Diaries


• Walking Dead


• The 100


• Brooklyn 99


• Haven


• Nashville


• The Voice


• Castle (maybe, though I am very displeased with the season so far)


• Agents of SHIELD


• Agent Carter


• Sense8


• Orange is the New Black


• Orphan Black


• Uhhhh I think that's it? I'm probably forgetting something.


• Not Supernatural (until I get weak because Dean Winchester, argh)

So yes! I'd love to know particularly if anyone 1) is still watching Vampire Diaries and is in love with Caroline like me, 2) watches Walking Dead and loves Carol and Daryl <333, or 3) watches The 100 which is like BSG with teenagers, it's incredible.

I need me some new icons...

Wincon was a bit inconveniently timed for one reason - the card marking for my high school kids ended on Friday, and my grades need to be in tomorrow at 1! Whee. You may have seen me hunched over a pile of papers at Wincon panels - grading algebra 2 exams. Yeah my life is so exciting. I still listened and participated in the panels but got a whole lot of grading done, so yay! I just finished those up and now I get to enter the grades, as well as try to figure out if I've missed anything for any kids. Teaching is at least 50% preparing for the next day or doing paperwork, 50% actually teaching. Yet we only get paid (also lol, "paid") for the teaching hours. Go figure.

I think my kids did well though, much better than last year, so that's reward in itself. :)

To update my current life situation, I earned my masters in teaching in 2013, and now I'm in my second year of teaching in Michigan. I teach algebra 2 and chemistry, which is pretty challenging (I wish I was only teaching one!) but I enjoy both. I have amazing colleagues and a great administration and awesome kids, so I am very very lucky. I will be talking about it a lot I'm sure since my brain is teaching 24/7... sorry about that in advance.

Fandom-wise, I caught up with Nashville while I was grading. That show is like SOAP OPERA TO THE MAX these days. Seriously, what HAVEN'T these characters gone through?! All at once right now the storylines include a mother dying (after she gave part of her liver to her brother who was dying of cancer), daughters forgiving their imprisoned father, a spiraling drug addiction and estranged couple, a gay country star, and wow so much more I can't even summarize. It's a hot hot mess. But I keep watching. Everyone needs some trashy melodrama in their life right? Come yell at me if you happen to watch this mess too, haha.

HI LJ LOOK I POSTED TWO DAYS IN A ROW LOOK LOOK! :D

Not dead! I promise! Living quite a lot, really.

April 30, 2013 - Defended my doctoral dissertation successfully. I now have my PhD in Chemical Biology! :)

June 17, 2013 - Started a Masters of Arts in Educational Studies program at the University of Michigan, focusing on secondary education with certification in chemistry and math.

I spent most of the time between those two dates on vacation in California and roaming all over the west. It's been a wild and wacky year, no doubt about it. Now a week into my masters, I know the rest is certainly not going to be boring. I'm excited for the new challenges that await!

Anyone still out there? :)

Hi LJ!

A quick wander through my memories in search of McShep fic (hey, I was feeling nostalgic) brought me on one of my old posts where I mused about SGA fanon vs. canon, first discovered Tom McRae, and reported that my study abroad to Dublin would be cheaper for my family than staying in the US. It flashed me back real hard, to a much simpler time, when I was younger, more innocent, more introverted, but also connected to a beautiful web of people through this... place. Livejournal. And LJ, I miss you. I know you're fading, have been for ages, but I will not let you go until they pry you out of my cold dead hands.

I don't just miss the community. I miss the record of my life. I miss that every moment of my feelings was recorded here. I've tried keeping private journals but it just isn't the same. Pretty much impossible to keep up the same way, really, for me anyway.

In any case, have a kamikaze update!
( Career change, boyfriend and migraines, oh my! )

Ummm so yeah! Things! Happening! A mixed bag but overall I'm doing pretty well. I still don't feel anything approaching a real adult but I'm trying to make steps to get there so we shall see. To Be Continued, I guess, probably a long time in the future.

Talk to me! Who's still out there? Anybody? Bueller?

I would like to talk about The Hunger Games.

It took me a week and a half to read the trilogy. It would have been a week, but my copy of Mockingjay (the third book) was stolen when I was a quarter of the way through it. Seriously! I got my friend's copy Saturday and finished a couple hours ago.

I expected to hate the ending, or at least feel dissatisfied. People spent all week making warning noises, cringing whenever the ending was mentioned, suggesting I have hard liquor at hand, looking at me almost pityingly. I assumed that it was done poorly, the ending botched and unsatisfying.

What I didn't expect was to love it.

( Let me explain. MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE TRILOGY AHEAD. )

There's no mistaking it. This is about as brutal of a series as I've ever read. It ranks right up there with A Song of Ice and Fire. The fact that this is a "young adult" series that has twelve year old girls screaming both boggles and irritates me to an extent, but if some of them absorb anything outside of the romance, then perhaps that is a good thing. It asks difficult questions and doesn't really pose any answers. It's violent, unrelenting, and told through the eyes of an extraordinary young woman who doesn't think of herself as anything special.

I'm really glad I jumped on this particular bandwagon. It wasn't anything like I expected, but what a hell of a ride. I'll be thinking about it for a long time to come.

I can't wait to see the movie. But every time I say that, and hear about the hysteria surrounding it, I get rather uncomfortable. It feels too much like the citizens of the Capitol getting all buzzed about their yearly Games. Of course we're not cheering real deaths, but this movie is going to be largely about a group of children killing each other. That is profoundly disturbing. My excitement is about meeting Katniss and all the rest, about seeing this terrifying dystopian future brought to life. I don't know how the last movie will remain PG-13/aimed at young adults, but I look forward to seeing what they can accomplish on the big screen with a story so huge, daunting, and important. And with such a kickass girl at the heart of it all.

Firstly, thank you everso to the lovely xsnarkasaurus for the adorable dragon on my profile! ♥

I had a most wunderbar weekend on a ski trip with my friends! It was preceded by a nutso week. I shall talk about them! (With a couple visual aids!)

( My nutso and (sometimes) wunderbar life. )

This weekend was ALSO a fantastic weekend for my beloved football teams. Sadly I wasn't able to watch it live, but since I was off having so much fun that's okay. :) I got back from snowshoeing Saturday to find that Mainz had won 4-0!!! The noise I made when I saw that would have terrified dogs, haha. My beautiful Ádám scored for the first time since coming back from injury, AND it was against the same team he tore his ACL against more than a year ago! I'm so happy for him. Zidan scored his fourth goal in four games for us, bless his heart. My favorite teeny one, Nicolai, also nicked a goal, and EMCM finished poor Kaiserslautern off. It was our big derby too! Beyond pleased to see all my boys so happy. ♥♥

Also happy were my other boys in red and white, who won THEIR derby 5-2! That's right, Arsenal TROUNCED Sp*rs, and it was glorious. They went down 2-0, then came back to score 5 unanswered goals, including a truly glorious Robin van Perfect strike and FINALLY a Rosicky goal after which he looked so happy I got all teary. AND a Sagna header! AND a Walcott brace! Ahhhh! Take THAT, Gareth fucking Bale, with your stupid face and your stupid dives. The relief of the Arsenal boys was palpable, and the Emirates was just hopping (I managed to catch part of the second half on a skippy stream at the lodge). YAY!


Ádám and Mo are my darling derbysieger! <333

Lalala that's it for tonight!

Firstly: thank you to everyone for saying hi on my last post! Yay! hi! Glad to know there's still people around these here parts. :)

I had a most marvelous weekend! I went to Chicago for the first time in ages and there were Shenanigans.

I stayed with the lovely rhombal and musictoyourlips, who have the cutest little apartment now. I hadn't seen them in way too long! I arrived on Friday night and we lounged about chatting and looking at sexy footballers, as you do. Then we got (maybe) 3 hours sleep and woke up at some obscene hour of the morning prior to 6 AM in order to go to the pub and watch the Arsenal! The pub was much quieter than last time I went (which was the last day of the season and a massive, dramatic battle against relegation). We had coffee, coffee, and more coffee, watched a dash of West Ham vs Millwall (red card to West Ham's captain, shocker!), and then it was time for the Gunners! Arsenal were facing cellar dwellers but also bogey team Blackburn, so we were nervous, but in the end Arsenal romped to a thoroughly delightful 7-1 victory, including a ROBIN VAN PERFECT HAT TRICK and the Ox's first two league goals and a delicious Arteta goal and, as the cherry on the sundae, a Thierry Henry goal, served up on a platter by RVP. It was simply, utterly marvelous. And I didn't even miss any goals while I was in the bathroom or anything! Amazing! It's like they put on a show just for me. Thank you, boys. ♥ I was also keeping a close eye on Twitter because my other boys in red and white (Mainz) were playing co-league leaders Schalke, and I was very nervous. We SCORED and went into half-time 1 up, but Schalke came out much stronger and equalized. But we dug in our heels and held on for the draw, which gave us an important point and knocked Schalke off the top of the table! Woo! All in all, a delightful morning of football.

At this stage it was not even noon and I had already had more caffeine AND alcohol than is advisable (really just a large cider but pre-noon that is plenty). We went back to their apartment and crashed for much, much needed naps.

Then rhombal and I went to see EMPIRES and THE HUSH SOUND!!! Eeeee! This was the reason I chose this weekend to visit Chicago and oh it was so much fun! We drove to the Bottom Lounge (randomest venue ever) and had dinner with angel726 and two of her friends. We said hi to Sean van Vleet out in the bar, who remains the sweetest, and I (worryingly) identified Nick Scimeca from way across the room. Oh dear. We also spotted Ryan J (who has cut his hair - I must confess I miss the floppy) but he was hanging out with Scimeca, so I didn't get a Ryan J hug. :( We found THE WHOLE INTERNET, including candidlily and xsnarkasaurus, yay! Then we watched the first opening band, who were a bit cacophonous but had a couple nice songs, and were mostly entertaining because the singer reminded me of Gerard Way (sassiness, mostly) and, physically, Cesc Fabregas. What. We got a nice space up near the stage (dear fangirls who waited hours in the cold for this show: you are ridiculous) and then it was Empires time!!! I've seen them so many times but it's always a blast. SVV has become such a great and confident frontman. Spit the Dark and Damn Things Over remain my favorites live. The new music is sounding great too!

THEN IT WAS HUSHIES TIME! EEEE. I had only seen them twice before, way back in... I don't know, 2009? AGES. So this was an absolute treat! They seemed to be having a lot of FUN performing together again. Bob and Greta are kind of hilarious in how different they are - Bob's wicked and suggestive and irreverent, where Greta is wholesome and sweet and tries to crack dirty jokes but then takes them back immediately, and I want to give her a hug. Darren and Chris have both grown their hair long, to very different effect. Darren looks like Tomrad from behind, but I like it on him even better - I want to play with it. Chris..... looks like an effeminate Jesus. I don't even know. But they blew my face off! \o/ The setlist was lovely, voted on by the fans and balanced between the three albums. So much stuff off So Sudden! I was a bit sad they didn't play my two favorites (Dark Congregation and Hurricane) but a gorgeous rendition of The Artist more than made up for it. Molasses, Honey, Wine Red... so wonderful. I really do love them as a band, though I'd have to say Gold Motel edges them out a bit for me (which explains why Greta's songs are my favorite Hushies ones). It was a fun, breathless experience that brought me back to the heyday of my bandom love, when every show was an Occasion (now, every show is fun, but mostly seeing bands I've seen loads of times before). I have lovely pictures and videos but my memory card reader is not cooperating right now and I can't be arsed to go get the cable, so I'll have to share them later.

Sunday (today) was deliciously lazy - musictoyourlips made breakfast and we watched the first half of Chelsea-United (barf), then muted that in favor of Sherlock - Hound of Baskervilles and Reichenbach Fall, which rhombal hadn't seen yet! *rolls around* Love love love loooove.

Then I had to leave and it was sad. :( Tomorrow is Monday morning. I protest.

So this post doesn't end on a downer, I want to say that if you like Sherlock and have Tumblr, my Tumblr has become basically a shrine to Sherlock and all things Benedict Cumberbatch. \o/ I'm exsequar over there too. I will leave you with his perfection: