one more miracle

Tumblr is really obnoxiously addicting and I kiiind of wish I hadn't joined? BUT THERE'S SO MUCH PRETTY! I started following too many people though, and people reblog each other a lot so things get redundant, and AHHH TAKING OVER. So not okay. BUT. PRETTY. Also there's a lot of love out there for one Jacob Pitts which makes me everso happy. <3

It's also a really interesting venue in which to stretch my Photoshop muscles - I really, really love working on larger canvases, layering images and colors, so that's a whole lot of fun. I just made something I sort of love a whole lot, so I thought I'd pop over here and share it with Livejournal, my first and TRUE love. ♥


(Click for hi-res)

My first idea was just to layer two of the pretty parachute shots on one another, but then I came across the picture with the flames and went hmmmm... so I threw that on top and LOVED it. So I tweaked and textured and I'm really happy with the outcome. Paratroopers! ♥ Do let me know what you think! :)

Today I have been beyond unspeakably exhausted. It was really unpleasant actually. I barely made it alive through lab meeting. Note to self: GO TO BED instead of fucking around on the internet. This is an ongoing problem and my life would be MUCH BETTER if I actually managed to go to bed at a human hour instead of delaying it all the time. My average bedtime is 2 AM, and I wake up at 7 AM. Not really all that healthy! If you see me on Twitter at a stupid hour, yell at me? :)

Anyway, after lab we went out for drinks at happy hour to celebrate one dude getting a postdoc, one paper getting published, and the arrival of two new members of the lab (including me! :)). I hung around for a while and chatted, but did I mention I was tired? So I bowed out a little early and went to Borders, which was VERY fruitful. I bought Eugene Sledge's widely lauded book, With the Old Breed. From what newredshoes has said while reading it, I know this book is going to get me right in my heart. I'm both thrilled and a little nervous. (I still haven't watched last night's episode of The Pacific, so please don't spoil me!)

I also bought GUY GAVRIEL KAY'S NEW BOOK!!! :DDDD I've been following his blog a bit during the publishing process and EEE I am so excited. The summary looks intriguing and fascinating, as always. I CAN'T WAIT. I love him sfm. ♥

Day 01 → Your favorite song
Day 02 → Your favorite movie
>Day 03 → Your favorite television program
Day 04 → Your favorite book

( The future )

Oh dear. Another toughie. I was an ENORMOUS bookworm when I was a kid - through high school, really, I could pretty much be found with a book in my hand at any point in my day that didn't explicitly require being in a class or talking to people. I was also a massive re-reader so I've read some books 5 or 10 times. So I have some favorites from my childhood that probably wouldn't still have the same power. But I think I have an answer...

His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. Now these have never gotten old. I reread them pretty recently, and I can pick them up and reread them at any time really. They're the only old books that I made SURE came to grad school with me - I have an incredibly battered copy of the three books in paperback. There's something about the uniqueness of vision that propels these books above and beyond so many of their peers. Pullman constructs incredible characters to inhabit that world, so you feel grounded and emotionally invested. And the two primary characters, Will and Lyra, are CHILDREN, but he doesn't treat them as inferior - instead he takes their unique experiences and constructs them as full human beings. We watch them literally grow up in the course of the story. And they fall in love, and it is beautiful and fumbling and pure and exquisite. But back to the world-building - the beings that Mary Malone encounters in a parallel world, the mulefa, are some of the most exquisite "other" beings that I have ever encountered in fiction. The concept of a daemon is enrapturing and so deftly handled. I'm sure that a lot of the religious threads go right over my head, but despite that, these books are a thoroughly enveloping experience that I feel for a long time after every read. And the ending is one of those that makes me sob every goddamn time, even though I know exactly what's coming. I think I cry for a whole chapter. Ugh my heart.

I think we can pull out a theme here - if something makes me cry really hard, I love it. Idk! I'm a sucker for the well-done tragedy. When it feels earned, and I feel invested enough to lose myself to that grief, then I think a story has truly succeeded. It's an interesting metric but it's certainly held true for all of my preferences! (Exception: Boondock Saints, haha)

Runner up: Anything by Guy Gavriel Kay. ANYTHING. He transports me!

Theory: the lyric "you come around because I love your face" is a not-so-subtle response to all the fangirls (myself included) whose most frequent response to Brendon Urie is "omg Bden, your FACE"? It's just a fangirly exclamation that seems to be most often applied to Mr. Urie himself, and the lyric itself is super bizarre otherwise (not that the song makes much sense in general :P).

It's a super fucking catchy line though. I am very excited to hear this album! My favorite thing is the abundance of cheerful, melodic electric guitar. An easy way to my heart! (Do we know who's playing bass on this recording? Was it before they went their separate ways? I mean... we all know that Brendon could be a band ALL ON HIS OWN, even without Spencer, so I wouldn't be surprised if he was doing it all except the drums, but I am curious.)

I think I need a new Panic! icon, i.e. one of Brendon and Spencer.

My two cents on the Other Half: I think the Young Veins is a strange and vaguely disturbing name (veins are kind of squicky okay, despite my spending a whole summer taking them straight out of rats and studying them). I like the song fine, but it still sounds really retro in a pretty derivative way, and that was what displeased me about Pretty Odd. I do think that Ryan's getting better at singing, but I just... he'll never be a Brendon. So... it's a good song, but not my favorite. We'll see. (I do think, however, that these two songs highlight in neon orange with a few spotlights and wailing sirens the totally real musical rift between the two halves of Panic. I just can't imagine the people who made those two songs sitting in the studio and trying to make music together. So... it makes sense. I just hope they're on good terms.)

I AM excited about the new Cobra album. Two weeks eeeee!

The new The Used video for Blood on my Hands is disturbing in all the best ways. The cinematography is unsettling and fantastic, and Bert is just as insane as usual! I just wish the camera made a little more love to his bandmates, but what can you do. I also like the twist that he's a serial killer who kills serial killers! HELLO DEXTER. Hahaha. Made of awesome. I'm still faintly disappointed about the album as a whole, but I do like it, and a couple songs have really grown on me (particularly Empty With You).

Bandom is AWESOME right now, you guys. MCR SHOWS IN LA THIS WEEK WHICH MEANS PHOTOS AND VIDEOS AND REPORTS AND DEFINITELY NEW MUSIC AND EEEEEEEEEE. They're still my most MOST favorites. :> (Oh, and there's THIS. Gerard Way, you HYPNOTIZE ME.)

Today in the Life of Anne: my professor/PI called me SMART. *beams*

Completely unrelated piece of news that might be of interest to some: Jaida Jones and Dani Bennett's new book is out! It's called Shadow Magic and you can get it from Amazon. However, I looked up some reviews and... the book is about different characters! :( It's a sequel to Havemercy but entirely different people are the focus. I'm rather disappointed, I must admit - Hal! Royston! Thom! Rook! I loved them so much and needed more. But I trust them a whole lot as authors, so I'm obviously still going to pick it up. I'm just kind of surprised.

I got home from school around 5, collapsed on the couch to watch an episode of Pushing Daisies with Michelle (Soooooo cute omg. I WANT TO SMISH LEE PACE. I gather this is a common sentiment), then promptly fell asleep for two hours. Wtf wtf. My body is like ????? wtf did you just DO to me and now I'm just kind of zombieing around. I haven't eaten since noon and that was a PB&J sandwich so I hope I start feeling hungry soon. o.O Being sick is weird.

Let's do a fun meme, started by expastic.

What is your current ringtone for a) calls, b) texts, c) picture messages, and d) alarms? Right now, right this very second. No changing it, no cheating!

Calls: "Extraordinary" by Mandy Moore
Texts: "The Fear" by Lily Allen
Picture Messages: Nothing special, just a boop noise
Alarm: Varies, but often "Headlines Read Out" by We The Kings, "Break the Sky" by The Hush Sound, or "Dark Days" by The Used (or one of the two above)

It's SO FUN to be able to completely customize the sounds my phone makes, right down to exactly what part of the song I want to hear. None of those clips start at the beginning of the song, but instead at the best part (usually the chorus), like "I am not the kind that will lie" for WTK. &myphone; (I use myxer.com to customize my clips, for anyone that's curious!)

Ughhhh zombieing. I'm going to go back to reading A Storm of Swords. Which, to skyfalling, ( Spoilers! )

I finished.

( Spoilers of DOOM for You-Know-What. )