I have officially graduated Summa Cum Laude from Franklin and Marshall College with a BA in Chemistry! \o/

It was a pretty great day, though I can't believe it's over. It was overcast and breezy with some distant thunder but never actually rained, I believe due to the sheer force of Colin Powell's will. He was quite a charismatic speaker, and I got to shake his hand! \o/ I'll probably post about the day in more detail for my own remembrance's sake, but suffice to say that Dr. Mehl almost made me cry with the lovely things he said about me to my parents.

Right now I'm going to go faceplant. But yay!! I am officially a college graduate! The culmination of a lot of blood sweat and tears. Hurrah. :)

Just got back from seeing Star Trek, and obviously it was AWESOME. Chris Pine could set my phaser to stun any day! Rawr! (No I don't know either.) I loved how the whole thing was a big game of "Who's that actor?" Hey, it's Cameron from House! That chick from Centerstage! That dude from Harold and Kumar! EOMER! Simon PEGG! And holyfuck it's Winona fucking Ryder! Lololol AMAZING. Evvvveryone was amazing. <3

I only have one question, one I had never consciously realized before - did the original, the ORIGINAL slash pairing really, ACTUALLY involve WILLIAM SHATNER? My mind is kind of reeling at this revelation. Was he even mildly attractive? Was he less douchey? Was he LESS SHATNERY? My mind is just struggling to wrap around it. I had kind of assumed it was Patrick Stewart! I can get behind that! Clearly I am a Star Trek infidel, shut up.

So okay start talking to me! Link me to your most adorable Chris Pine and Zach Quinto interviews because I just watched one and HELLO PRECIOUSES!

Baaasically, I love spaceships, I love epic enormous battles against the odds, I love adorable boys, and I love random humor, so basically this movie was awesomecakes. It had me from the get go - I totally teared up when you-know-who bought it. Sniff.

Yaaaay boys on spaceships. \o/

In less awesome news, one of my car's brake drums broke and with other related repairs it's gonna cost over $400. /o\ Awesome.

In other less awesome news, my future roommates spent the day in Ann Arbor looking for houses and had NO LUCK. They simply can't find a four bedroom that's right, all of them were problematic for one big reason or another. So tomorrow they're looking at a five bedroom and a house with two two-bedroom apartments. My fingers are crossed that they like one of them, because we need to find someplace! Almost everything is disappearing already! This is just crazycakes, sigh.

Happy Mother's Day!! I know there's a lot of strong, awesome moms on my flist, and I just want to say I respect you so hard, and you are all amazing. I hope you had a lovely day. ♥ I sent my mommy a card and a gift certificate for a 30 minute massage, so I hope she enjoys that :)

My day was pretty intense. My friend Dierdre has been single-handedly planning and running this charity drive called Dump N Run, where we put boxes in all the dorms and public buildings, and students put stuff they dont want anymore in them as they're moving out of college. We collect all the stuff, sort it, and sell it in a big community yard sale. So all last week I went around gathering boxes almost every day, lugging stuff to my car and dragging it into the sports center where we were storing it. Yesterday I worked for 6 hours gathering the last of the stuff (it took me and Matt 4 trips in his Jeep from ONE dorm building) and helping to sort it in the gym. We ended up with unbelievable piles of stuff - a couch, some armchairs, several desks, a couple bookcases and dressers, a kitchen table set, hundreds of pounds of clothes of all sorts, four entire tables full of food (like soup, oatmeal, granola bars, those kinds of things), four tables of shoes, and lots of miscellania. So today I woke up at 8 to help Dierdre make and put out signs, then the sale started at 12. By 11, people were already lining up, and at 12 there were at least 50 people in line, probably more. When we opened, it was a flood! Within 45 minutes, 90% of the stuff was gone, leaving mostly crap. We made - wait for it - at least $1800. Yay!!!! I was so proud of Dierdre, and glad that I'd taken part, but oh boy I'm exhausted. I have a bad back, so the six hours yesterday of standing and lifting completely did a number on it, and even ibuprofen and icing isn't really doing anything. Bah. Oh well, it was a good thing to do, and the money's going to the local Domestic Violence Services and a food kitchen. Yay!

Michelle and I came home and collapsed around 1:30. We watched two episodes of Leverage to relax, as you do! Elliot, I love your FACE, and OH HARDISON!!! How are they so amazing? Parker is absolutely growing on me too, especially after the episode with the orphans. "We're more than a team." AWWW team. *draws hearts* My main stumbling block with this show is that I just... don't like the two older leads, Timothy Hutton especially. He is frequently ridiculous in the bad way and almost never funny and I spend most of his screen time rolling my eyes. But whatever! Little team kids! A little crazy and dorky and badass and snarky! A millllllion hearts.

We then got a craving for Christian Kane so we watched two random Angel episodes, first Disharmony because it was on the disc (HARMONY *hearts*) and then... the one with the Evil Hand!!!1!!1, I forget what it's called. Now of course I'm listening to Kane because Christan could croon to me ALL DAY, unf. Where is his next album?! Sigh.

Michelle made tasty pasta with salmon and pesto sauce, and then she went to bed, so now I'm just chillin on my couch doing NOTHING. This would be even more awesome if my back wasn't killing me, but as it is it's pretty damn awesome. \o/ I am almost a million percent done with college! YAY!

La la la I'll stop rambling at you. Maybe I'll finish the SPN fic I've been reading - I know! Amazing! :D

I just submitted my last ever college essay!! \o/ \o/

Well, on the one hand, that's victory arms. On the other - last essay! :( :( :( Now I'm off to the land of ~science, where we always write in passive voice and never use pretty turns of phrase, and we definitely don't analyze the cultural and political nuances of the past two centuries that led to the wholesale slaughter of one people by another. That may not sound like fun, but it sure as hell is interesting. I just hope my sciencey stuff ends up being interesting too. Otherwise I might have to drop out and start a PhD in anthropology or something. /o\

I really do think I'm going to miss writing analytically about people and creative ideas. The problem is, I'm such a lazy bastard that I don't really just write on my own, I need to be guided by a class. Who knows, maybe I'll grow up and start giving myself topics, although what fun is that when no one's going to read it? Hrm. Conundrum.

Whatever, that's sent in (a full 17 hours before it's due! Now THAT'S worth \o/ \o/) and tomorrow I have a presentation and an exam and then I'm DONE. (Well, sort of, some loose ends to tie up for my independent, but TO ALL INTENTS AND PURPOSES.) My presentation is 95% done, I'm just wrangling with some technical difficulties, and my exam is... er, not studied for. It's Physics 2 and this class has been such a walk in the park (my average is at least a 97) that I'm having a hard time caring. However, I do hate going into any exam feeling unprepared at all, so I suppose I'll go study, whatever. Grump grump. :) Night loves!

ETA: So that maybe this post will have some point - does anyone have any live recordings of The Used? Have they released an album of live stuff, maybe with Berth? I am craving some, for obvious reasons!

&THEUSED;

Ughhhh it was AMAZING. We waited about 20 minutes in the rain, but then the venue decided to be really nice and let everyone they could into the lobby area so we didn't get soaked. We waited about an hour more in there and then got in! We had already decided that the pit was NOT happening (way too many people there before us, and lots of them large guys...) so we went straight up to the balcony and got awesome spots right on the railing. SO CLOSE! Hiiiii BertQuinnJephaDan HIIII! (It was a perfect choice - the pit got really nasty even before the Used came on. So yay for being sensible!)

The first opener was a bunch of hot dudes with not very memorable music. (The singer looked like surfer/hard rock Jon Walker. He wasn't wearing shoes!!) The second opener was crappy and generic and boring. But there were only two which was awesome!

AND THEN IT WAS THE USED TIME YAY!!! The setlist was fucking awesome. They played (not in this order): Take It Away, The Bird and the Worm, I Caught Fire (In Your Eyes), All That I Got, Hospital, Paralyzed, Liar Liar (Burn In Hell), PRETTY HANDSOME AWKWARD YAAAAAAAAAAAY, Box Of Sharp Objects, and I feel like I must be forgetting some... ETA: According to my videos they also played Taste of Ink and Buried Myself Alive! I just really wish they had played Wake the Dead, which is my favorite (non B-side) The Used song. Oh well!

Anyways, it was a MOST satisfactory set (though it went by way too fast!!). Bert is a crazyperson and an awesome entertainer. At one point he was trying to get everyone to dance and showed off his hotgirl dancing moves. Hell yes. Another time he was getting the crowd to yell things after him, like FUCK YOU BERT! and YOU'RE AN ASSHOLE! Then he did YOU'RE A FAGGOT! And when most of the crowd shouted it back he made a shocked face and and wagged his finger at us. *facepalm* Oh Bert. He then proceeded to ask us if he's pretty enough to be gay. Ha.

I am most enamored of Quinn, who is blonde and hot and can powerlunge like no one else. Jepha has these amazing dance moves that I can't even possibly describe - perhaps I'll upload a video. And Dan's just back there bashing away for all he's worth.

BASICALLY they're amazing and I love their music and I love the show they put on. My only complaint is that it was too short. :( That's probably just my perception - I think the show was about an hour. But I want moooooar! Hee. Regardless, it was SUPER AWESOME and entirely worth giving up a whole day of getting work done. Seeing wasoncedelight and tuesdaysgone was so so awesome too!! They are both lovely ladies and I'm really glad I got to meet them before I move away from PA. <333333

*flops* And now I'm going to try to get some work done! (Hahaha.)

ETA: OMG! I'm downloading my videos and they're AMAZING!!!! This was my first time with this camera at a concert and the sound is unbelievable. Everything is clear and there's no distortion, even on the really loud songs! FUCK YEAH!!!! I was only able to get parts of each song because my memory card isn't huge, but I got an amaaaazing full video of Paralyzed so I'll probably be uploading that! YAY! Oh it's so great to have a good concert camera!!! \o/

Good morning, lovely LJ.

Today is my last day of classes as an undergraduate! Wow. Pretty huge. I've got one last lecture for my Africa class and then I'm done! Never will I have to sit in a classroom again, listening to a lecturer go on and on and on...

Wait a second. I'm going to graduate school! /o\

Haha, regardless, this feels kind of intense. I'm finishing at F&M! But I'm also very ready to be done and move on, so I think the next couple weeks are going to be okay as I say goodbye to everyone and everything. Today I have pizza with the other chem seniors, then a reception for chemistry at a local restaurant (they're kind of unrelated things.... don't ask), and then ~~Senior Surprise~~ in which we all gather on campus and they bus us off to locations unknown! Wooooo! I think it's just going to be a fancy dinner someplace, but I'm not sure. Most of my friends are going anyway so it should be fun.

Yesterday I got an extremely, extremely depressing non-result for my research. Submitted a sample and got zero signal from the instrument, after running overnight scans. That is.... bizarre and inexplicable and scary since that's the method we hoped to use for the entirety of the rest of our project. I don't know what to do. :( So I'm trying not to think about that since it makes me nauseous, and also renders invalid all of the data we're publishing next, but WHATEVER. Not thinking about it not thinking about it.

I've been having some weird stomach pains for a couple days. For the last two days, I've had issues with perpetual hunger - I'll eat a good dinner, then I'm still bloody hungry. I'll resist for a while, but then I'll eat something more, an in an hour I'll still be kind of hungry but also nauseous and weird feeling. I haven't started my period so I don't think that's it. Then last night, I woke up at 6 AM in a whole lot of pain, my whole lower abdomen pretty crampy and gross. I assumed I had gotten my period, but apparently not, and I still haven't this morning, but my stomach still feels really gross. I don't feel like puking or anything - it's more of a muscular pain, low in my gut, just above my hips. Any ideas? :(

Last night I stayed up way too late reading tutorials on vidding for Macs, and I've got the whole setup now! I've got Mac the Ripper for ripping DVDs, MPEG Streamclip and a $20 codec from Apple for converting to an iMovie friendly file, and iMovie itself. I tried it out and iMovie deals with these files SO SO fast, whereas in the past I'd tried to use straight up mp4 files with iMovie. Apparently that was incorrect! So now I've got all the tools at my fingertips and the only question is - what do I vid??? I'd love to do that BSG idea, but I think I'd need all the DVDs and that's not happening any time soon. So I gotta think through what I own. But it's very exciting!! :D

Now I'm going to go get ready for my last day of college! :O Love ya flisties!

Dollhouse, Joss Whedon, and the Strange and Difficult Path of Feminist Dudes: Some Thoughts - This is a truly excellent blog post about Dollhouse and why it works. It's an excellent perspective on Dollhouse as a show entirely about consent, and discusses how in order to deal better with nasty issues, the metaphors necessarily have to be uglier. Also contains an interesting thought on how Topher may be a self-projection of Joss himself, in that it is his job to hire beautiful women and make them do what he wants, and how that's sometimes a little creepy. Well worth a read, particularly if you dismissed Dollhouse because it creeps you out or something.

I really hope this show gets another season! Same with Castle.

I saw Jeremy today for the first time in a couple weeks! I missed his faaaace. We have coffee plans for Friday, yays. \o/

I graduate from college in just over three weeks. o.O

I don't really have anything else to say! I just wanted to share the Dollhouse link. Hope you all had a good Hump Day!

Michelle and I watched Castle episodes 3 and 4 last night. It is SO SO precious!!! We squeal and clap frequently with delight. Nathan is, of course, an absolute vision of goofy adorableness and sass. Any other actor would be pretty obnoxious as that character, but Nathan makes him endearing and hilarious instead. His FACE! Our other favorite part is his daughter, who sasses right back at him. Their relationship (plus the grandma) gives the show a really fun unique twist on other cop shows. The plots are kind of hilariously twisty, but they're fun to watch. And the woman who plays Beckett is really growing on us - she gives as good as she gets from Nathan most of the time, and she has some truly awesome skeptical faces. She's also written quite well, I think - strong without being overly "butch," occasionally girly, snarky and smart. I also love the other cops - Esposito and Ryan, I think. They have such a bromance going on in the background, it's hilarious! Basically I love it and I really really hope it keeps going. NATHAN!

I also watched Chasing Liberty, that movie with Matthew Goode and Mandy Moore, this weekend. Um... it was terrible. I can't remember the last time I willingly subjected myself to such truly awful writing. And Matthew and Mandy were both overacting, probably a combination of trying to give a totally empty script substance and a bad director. So, uh, even their combined pretty absolutely could not save it. I mean, of course I appreciated shirtless Matthew and tight-tshirt Matthew and wet Matthew, of course I did. ;) But that doesn't change that that's 2 hours of my life that I'll never get back! Ha. Oh well.

In continuing my SPN nostalgia kick, I just watched Everybody Loves a Clown. Omg Winchesters! ;_____; Dean's woobie little lip! Sam's busted up face and truly awful hair! The minivan! "Apparently clowns kill!" ELLEN AND ASH AND JO!!!!!!! I can't even express how much I wish they had kept them around. Their story (even Jo's crush on Dean!) feels so so much more organic and true to the world of hunting than Ruby or Bela ever did. Ellen and the Roadhouse set up such a fascinating connection to the whole of the rest of the hunting world, not to mention another person who remembers John Winchester. She was such a warm, gritty, motherly figure in their lives, and I really wish they had kept her around to keep them grounded. I just wish the show had kept that tone in general - Sam and Dean as part of an underground community of outcasts who trawl the dusty roads of America laying waste to evil sonsabitches.

I hate that I've become sad/bitter about our show. It's not how I approach anything, ever, but my love affair with the early Winchesters was so passionate that I can't help but feel their loss acutely. But I am truly enjoying going back and reliving their story, both through the episodes and fic. Sigh, SamandDean. I love you so. ♥

Happy Monday, flist! It's cold and rainy here, which after the 70+ sunny weekend we had is quite a rude shock. Garfield would be entirely unsurprised - Mondays hate the world! I am exhausted, so I'm going to go into lab, hopefully finish early, and then come home for a NAP. This prospect excites me greatly. <33

There's this girl in the chemistry department that I don't like very much. It's one of those things you can't explain, she just rubs me the wrong way.

Today she's wearing a TEAM EDWARD t-shirt. Complete with sparkles.

Clearly my people radar is in tip-top shape. :P

PS. My Africa exam went pretty well! And with that - I am done with normal tests in college! :O So bizarre. And today it is sunny, warm, and beautiful, and I want nothing more than to be sitting outside reading. Instead I am in my lab writing our manuscript. My life is awesome.

PPS. butidigress has an upload of the VENGANZA! video included with the USB key, which is their performances of Three Cheers stuff in Mexico. YAY. Go download!

♥

Ack, this test is ENORMOUS. It's past midnight and I haven't even finished reading through (and summarizing) my notes for the FIRST time. *facepalm* We're covering a huge swath of time and places - going straight from precolonial through colonialism and all the way into decolonization in East and South Africa. Big focus on Kenya, Congo, and South Africa, but other places poke their heads in too - Tanganyika, Uganda, Ethiopia. So many places and names and themes and ack, I am so overwhelmed! It doesn't help that my teacher talks so bloody much and I am a very thorough note taker, so one day I had 9 single-sided pages of notes for 90 minutes of class. O__O You better believe my hand was killing me afterward! Meep.

I haven't even gotten to his list of short answer questions that we should be able to answer to be prepared for the essays. I'm not optimistic about this test being a 99 like last time! >.<

It also doesn't help that I'm bloody exhausted. I just fell asleep over my notes for the second time. Sigh.

Er, on the bright side, this is my last non-final-exam test in my entire college career? \o/?

Oh, on an actual bright side, I got another email about another award! This one's called the Rawnsley Science Prize, and "is presented to a senior(s) who, by her or his actions and attitude while a student, will use the scientific knowledge he or she has gained to best advantage." I think I'm most touched by this one, because that's something I really pride myself on, the desire to do something meaningful with my skills. So the fact that they're giving me an award for it is really wonderful and validating. Also, "prize" to me implies money, which is always yay. ;)

Back to the books....