one more miracle

My first post of the new year was a flaily request for downloads of Big Fat Quiz of the Year. I feel this is appropriate.

Now for a semi-real post. I don't have energy to actually say a lot, but. I use this as a record of my life so here's the cliff notes.

Christmas Eve, I ran out of gas! Luckily it was only that, and I was 5 minutes away from my uncle's house where he had a can of gas for his lawnmower, so it was an easy fix (my dad actually rescued me), but that was a scary moment!

Christmas day: Morning present session with Dad and siblings and uncle and aunt and cousin. Whee. Day spent lounging about and playing with new pressies. Cousins came down from Lansing for Xmas dinner and moar presents. Lots of fun since I love my entire family whole whole bunches! \o/

Day after Christmas: drove down to Cleveland with siblings to meet up with mom and her side of the extended family. Hung out with my adorable little cousins and sister (girls ages 7-15 and a 15 year old boy) and generally had a blast. Stayed up late watching Band of Brothers every night, woke up late every morning, played out in the snow, etc etc. Basically just a lovely vacation.

Few days later: drove my sister and myself back up to Lansing to meet with Dad again and hang with those cousins for longer. Had girls' day with my cousin Meg and her daughter Hazel in which we watched loads of Big Bang Theory, yay. Went to see Sherlock Holmes - funny and entertaining but too revoltingly modern for my tastes. (They took a classic smart story/character and added Fighting! Sexual tension! Explosions! Hilarious mental instability! Shirtless RDJ! I was laughing, but I was also cringing a bit. Oh Hollywood.) Generally had a good time hanging out with my smart and funny family - I get pretty much all of my personality and tastes from them, so it's always delightful. :) I learned that my dad went through a major World War II kick, so as I learn more (and I will!) from my BoB obsession, I can totally talk to him about it. Pretty cool!

I also had a mini-revelation. I was talking with my dad and my cousin's husband Jeff about how I wasn't sure what career I wanted to pursue. I said I wasn't sure I wanted to be in academics, and Jeff said "Do you like to sell yourself? Because you have to to get grants." And I went "...actually, I HATE selling myself. I despise it more than anything, really." And that was just kind of an eye-opening reduction of the problem. If I'm not good at telling other people they should give me money, I just shouldn't be a PI of a big lab, period. This doesn't rule out a liberal arts college or something, but i definitely shouldn't work at a big university. Always nice to rule things out!

I love how as I get farther into an entry, I get more verbose. I may not like to sell myself, but I do like the sound of my own... typing. :P

As for my most exciting Christmas presents, I do believe my boyfriend wins the gold star. He got me Inglourious Basterds on DVD (YAY) and... wait for it... Richard Castle's novel Heat Wave. HEEE. I cracked up so hard when I saw it. ABC published a "novel", likely written by someone on the writing staff but credited to Castle himself, and I'm betting it's hilarious. There really is a sex scene on page 105! :D I also got a brand spanking new pair of Converse, which I neeeded - they're Sycamore green and sooo pretty. My mom got me a movie set in Ireland and a book set in Ireland, lolz. My dad got me the first season of Sarah Connor Chronicles so I should get on top of that soon!

Alright, lovers. I'm gonna sign off and continue to be anti-social. (I just kicked out the boyfriend and decided not to hang with the roomies and friends in the living room. Definitely a loner kind of night.) ♥

This will never not be completely hilarious:



I think everyone should do the VALENTINES DAY MEME! Basically, you send sweet comments about your friends to svmadelyn, and she compiles them into a big post where you can look and see what people said (anonymously) about you. It makes you feel warm and fuzzy! You make other people feel warm and fuzzy! A win win, if you ask me. Her description:

♥ All you have to do is pick 1-14 people on LJ in some fandom, any any fandom at all, and come up with a word or a phrase or short sentence to describe them (or hey, make icons like one person did one year, do whatever you want, I'll go with it), or just say something about why you like them/enjoy reading them/why you're happy they're around.

♥ Make sure you sign your LJ name, if you have one; it's easier for me to keep track. Then send them off to me at svmadelyn@yahoo.com, and I will compile a great, huge comprehensive list of what everyone's sent to me and post it on Valentine's Day. It's rather like a Secret Admirer/Valentine's Party theme. I will not be posting or telling anyone who sent me what at all. For example, if I were to get four separate e-mails describing Random LJ User, I'd just put all of the words/phrases in a list and post them for each LJ user that someone sent me phrases on.

So go spread some love!

I just wanted to say a quick few words about 2008. All the economic shitstorm and what have you at the end here is casting a pall over the year as a whole, but it was really something special for me... at least at the beginning. The year was quite cruelly split in half for me, so it's hard to remember that Dublin really WAS part of this year. At the same time, it seems a million years ago, or that it lasted just the blink of an eye. Being in Dublin felt like taking a vacation from my own life, or conversely actually living my life for the first time. The memories are so vivid and gorgeous and intense that just looking at a couple pictures can bring everything rushing back and cause tears to prick at my eyes. The first three months of 2008 were easily the best of my life. It was the middle term (Michaelmas) of Trinity's school year, and I didn't have any labs to do, so I was free as a bird. I went to lectures and that was it. So I had endless expanses of free time which I used quite fruitfully. I was going out with my friends and having a blast at least twice a week, and during that time I was becoming extremely close to Kate, Emily, Cary, and Megan. I wasn't dating anyone (I was between Colin and James) so I was just... free. I cannot remember another time when I felt that happy and vibrant and alive. Then my best friend Michelle came to visit me in Dublin, followed immediately by my dad and sister, which was so so much fun. Niall and Laura's birthdays, St. Paddy's Day, Father Ted Night, going to Germany, Belfast, Cardiff, Brighton, and Oxford, endless hours of Guitar Hero, nights at The Pav or Fibbers or The Porterhouse or Doyles, throwing fantastic house parties, the PERFECT last week full of friends and joy... my memories are legion. Niall, Paddy, Lou, Dara, Barry, Bren, Niall C, James, Paul, Sinead, Sarah. It hurts my stomach to not be there anymore, but I will always treasure the memory and the people that are in my life because of Dublin.

*deep breath* Then I came home, and immediately had to start my lab job at my college. I was depressed but determined to make the best of being here... it only kind of worked. The school year started and I was thrust into some of the most intense and constant work I have ever had to accomplish. I also met Jeremy Moss. Oh yeah, and we elected a man that I truly believe in to the presidency. It was a weird, reclusive semester that is such a polar opposite to all that I just described about Dublin. I think I'm still trying to recover my equilibrium. But now I'm heading into my last semester of college, gearing up for grad school, and I don't even know where my head's at. Sometimes I feel impossibly old and grown up, sometimes I feel like a stumbling, naive little child. I'm both excited and scared of what 2009 will bring. I know that nothing will ever be Dublin again (though I do hope I'll make it back this summer) but I do hope that the growing I did in Dublin will serve me in good stead as I try to find my footing.

And that's enough of that! Dublin has been on my mind a lot lately... I think I just needed to talk about it some.

On a completely different note, I have been thinking a lot about vidding lately! I've made three music videos (Harry Potter, Buffy, and Supernatural) and I love all of them so much. I just don't have the tools anymore - the last time I did it I used my PC laptop and actually went through all the complicated crap to get Premiere working. But now I've got a Mac and I don't really want to go through the ridiculous process of downloading and figuring out Final Cut Pro. So I'm playing around with iMovie just to see what happens.

The idea I'm working with? A Merlin vid set to "I Just Can't Wait to be King". YEAH. I think Rob suggested it as a joke while he was watching with me and Michelle, and Michelle and I were like "....YES!" and now it won't leave my head! I started converting and organizing and clipping stuff last night. Who knows if I'll actually follow through with it! But it's just such an awesome idea, and Merlin has the really nice benefit of very limited source material, that I can't not *try*. Heehee.

A side effect of getting back in the vidding mindset is that I keep thinking of songs I listen to as potential vidding songs. I was listening to Pink's (I refuse to call her P!nk) latest album, and the song "Please Don't Leave Me" hit me as hilariously appropriate for Merlin and Arthur. ( Just read these lyrics! )
Seriously, it's lolariously PERFECT. Semi-emo, just like preshface Arthur, but the music has this fun bouncy thing going on that I think would go well with the show. And, my perfect little punching bag. Ahahaha. I don't even know. I just know that it's PERFECT. <3

A couple fun things from today - I chatted with Jeremy on AIM tonight! Just for about 15 minutes, but it was really nice cause I've been missing him. Also, I got a voicemail today from my uncle's sister - she works for the National Institutes of Health and their Graduate Partnership Program. My uncle gave her my CV, and apparently she's really interested, or else she wouldn't be calling, especially since their application deadline was in December! She said she's going out of the country but she's passing me on to someone else in her office, so I'll probably be hearing from them soon. I have no idea if anything would come of it (the GPP is basically where you enroll at a university for your PhD and do courses there, but then do your dissertation research with a mentor at the NIH) but it's still really cool that my CV was apparently that impressive. Gives me good hope for my grad school apps! Which I still need to finish, rar.

I am so relaxed and unstressed right now - I'd forgotten what this feels like. *HAPPY SIGH*

Happy New Years, my loves! May 2009 treat us and the world with much more kindness than 2008 did.

I have not been online at all so I am completely and WOEFULLY behind on LJ. But I'm really okay with that. If anything big has happened in your lives, tell me? Or just come say hi! I miss you all <3

I'm at Michigan with the cousins that I lived with for a summer a couple years ago. They are my most favoritest cousins in the world and I'm having a great time. Last night a family they're friends with came over just to hang out and have a great dinner and some drinks, and they have three adorable kids, and it was just a lot of fun. We played board games and took shots of this drink that Meg (my cousin) made up, which is Kahlua, vodka, and coffee creamer. SO GOOD. This morning we just spent two hours sitting around in the kitchen talking about how deeply awesome Obama is, and sharing stories of our experiences during the campaign, etc etc. We're SO EXCITED for this dude. Whee!

We're planning on watching Merlin because they're always looking for shows that the whole family can watch. Their kids are 7 and 13, so it's a little hard to find something everyone will love! I have a feeling they'll adore Merlin though. They're big fantasy geeks just like me, right down to having a Renaissance themed wedding (he dressed as a knight, she in a beautiful maroon gown) so it should be super fun in that way. And the kids should love it too. I'm so excited! Arthur's beautiful face on their massive 50 inch TV! Woo!

On a hilarious side note, Hazel (7 year old) was having me read some books with her last night, and one was called DR. MERLIN'S MAGIC SHOP. I loled a lot, obviously, and Merlin turned out to be this evil scary old man, which, hilarious. But the best part is that he had A DOG NAMED ARTHUR. Ahahahaha. He was big and fluffy and white and I was so amused.

Now I'm gonna go back to hanging out and having ABSOLUTELY NO CONCERNS AT ALL. It is the most glorious feeling in the whoooole world.

I hope you are all well! xoxoxo

Man, why am I so tired? It's vacation, I'm supposed to be getting infinite amounts of sleep and feel rested and happy. Tragically, I sort of undermine that possibility by staying up WAY TOO LATE reading Merlin fic and playing the game they have on the BBC Merlin website, which is surprisingly hard. I can't beat the last level! :P My mind also apparently doesn't want to get out of stress mode. My first night home, I had vivid and extensive dreams about things like forgetting to write a paper, or breaking another car key. THANKS BRAIN. But I think I'm slowly unwinding. It's an amazing feeling.

With all my free time, I've made a new header for myself! It's Merlin and Arthur being intense and pretty and I loff them. Go see! ---> exsequar I also added an interest icon for those boys in my sidebar :D

Today we had a present session with my Mom because my brother isn't coming to Ohio with us and therefore she can't give him his presents then. So she gave him his presents, and a few more were exchanged, and SHE GOT ME A NEW CAMERA!!!!!! :D :D It's beautiful and BLUE and TINY and the features are just fantastic - 8 megapixels!! My old camera was 3.2! I just ran around the house taking pictures of random things. The zoom is just stunning (3.0x optical zoom, plus digital zoom up to 12x). I will have to share some photos with you soon - right now I'm too tired to set it up :P This is my baby (in the blue) and I loff her. WHEE!

I've also been watching a lot of Six Feet Under. It's soooo gooood. &Nate;! &Claire;! &Dave;!

Despite not being very rested, I am having a LOVELY time hanging out with my daddy. For the past two days it's been essentially just me and him, and it's wonderful. We went shopping together for presents, which was very successful, and we've just been hangin out, watching the Discovery channel and eating his nom nom home cooking, which is one of the things I miss most about not being at home. Yay for Daddy time!

I hope you all are having wonderful holidays with your families. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! to all who celebrate, and HAPPY HANNUKAH!!!! for those who celebrate that, and HAPPY THURSDAY!!!! to everyone else! ♥