exsequar: (GK Starkfaaace)
So as you may recall, I've had to keep the fact that I've gotten into Jason's lab a secret from the people who it affects, i.e. other people who want to get into his lab. But it's been driving me nuts, having to lie directly to my best friends. So today this happened:
SCENE: Sidewalk, University of Michigan. STEFFEN and ANNE have just left FRANCISCO after lunch.

ANNE: Can I tell you a secret?
STEFFEN: Okay.
ANNE (rushed): I got into Jason's lab.
STEFFEN: I didn't think that was much of a secret!
ANNE: Oh! Why?
STEFFEN: Well, you haven't slit your wrists yet.

Touché, sir. Touché.

We (meaning my whole program - 14 people) had a conversation with our program director yesterday. He's kind of a douche, and we haven't had much contact with him, but he asked us for our feedback on the first year of the program. The issue of how hard it's been to get into labs came up, and we had a pretty good discussion. He highlighted explicitly that we are the first class in this program to run headlong into a fucking recession, and that it's affecting us profoundly, via how its affecting the professors. Everyone's tightening their purse strings, and we're getting a lot of the fallout of that. I personally hadn't drawn that concrete of a connection between the two phenomena, but it was really helpful, I think, because we've been resentful of the older students who are like "Oh everyone always finds somewhere they're happy! Don't worry!" but no, it's a genuine worry this year. Fantastic students are caught in limbo and honestly have no home yet. It's very sad. I am incredibly, INCREDIBLY lucky to have gotten exactly what I wanted. I'm a quite humbled by it, to be honest. Jason had an array of great students to choose from, and he... chose me. I only hope I live up to that huge vote of confidence. (Can I share one amazing statistic? Jason published SEVENTEEN PAPERS during five years of graduate school. SEVENTEEN. Seven in 2002 alone! INCLUDING 4 first author papers! INCLUDING A FIRST AUTHOR NATURE PAPER. How is he real?!???)

Francisco's still up in the air. I'm so sad for him, and sad for me likely losing him. Sigh. :(

More cheerful things! THE AMERICAN IDIOT BROADWAY CAST RECORDING HAS BEEN RELEASED! Yay!!! I just bought it and I'm currently basking in my first full listen-through. It's amaaaazing. *___* I might be a little biased, but my favorite so far is Are We the Waiting - STARK. His voice has this beautiful, subtle rasp to it and unffff. I also really love the Last of the American Girls/She's a Rebel mashup, with the gorgeous cello weaving in and out. Favorite Son is beautiful - it's nice to have a song that I haven't heard before. And Whatshername is exquisite. AW HELL THE WHOLE THING IS AMAZING. I know what I'm listening to for the next month. :DD

[livejournal.com profile] valmontheights found a super awesome preview video of the musical, with clips from some of the greatest numbers. UGH IT LOOKS SO AMAZING I WANT TO SEE IT TWENTY ZILLION TIMES. STARK SANDS YER FACE AND YER VOICE OMG. AND YER BICEPS OM NOM. <333

OH AND: A FANGIRL HEARD FROM JON HUERTAS HIMSELF THAT THE GEN KILL BOYS ARE PLANNING A TRIP TO NYC TO SEE STARK IN AMERICAN IDIOT. MY HEART GROWING TEN SIZES, LET ME SHOW YOU IT. :DDDDDDDD
exsequar: (Dollhouse - Topher/Adelle inappropriate)
As you might have guessed from my delightful drunkpost, last night was pretty nutty! And super fun. So there's this guy, Noah, a second year PhD student that I met at the biochem retreat last September. I've hung out with him lots, and my roommate Emily has become friends with him too. We went out with him and his friends on Monday to celebrate him passing his candidacy exam \o/, and that was so much fun that he invited me and Emily to a weekly gathering he has with friends on Friday. We met up with them at a bar at 5:30 PM (SO EARLY) and started drinking immediately. I think we ended up with about 15 people there, it was a little crazy but great. I had two beers and some appetizers and was already feeling pretty tipsy. Then we all walked to Noah's house, picking up booze on the way. We all congregated in his basement, which has fully six awesome couches that he's accumulated for free from Craigslist! The next several hours were full of pizza and beer and wine and progressively more drunken shenanigans.

Several times I found myself on a couch between these two guys. Craig is tall, kind of cute in a football player kind of way, and a friend/ex-crush of my roommate Debbie's, so we sort of knew each other. He was being very flirtatious in that fun drunken way where you touch too much and make stupid jokes and whatever, basically the exact kind of flirting that I love but isn't serious at all. He was doing the same with another girl there, Anna, but I wasn't upset because 1) I totally was not going anywhere with him and 2) she was awesome and girl-on-girl hate/jealousy is stupid. I also had a great time getting to talk to Mark more, who's a good friend of Noah's. I sat across from Mark at the bar too so we had some good conversations. He's super adorable with floppy brown hair, round face, glasses, beard, and general sweetness. The catch: he's definitely got a girlfriend. I have no idea how serious they are - I may need to do some intel gathering - but she's in Boston so she obviously was not there last night. At one point I was between Craig and Mark, leaning back on Craig's chest and with my legs twined over and under Mark's legs. Haha, yeah, I was a DRUNK SHARK. But man, it was just COZY. I love when I find people who will let me be my touchy drunk self. I love physical contact! I am a cuddler! So yes, it was super lovely on that front.

One of the best parts of the evening is when the DUCT TAPE came out. First it was normal silver duct tape and I tied up a couple people... I forget exactly who. Mark and Craig, probably. :P BUT THEN, OH THEN, SOMEONE GOT OUT HOT PINK DUCT TAPE. Ahahaha WHAT. I used THAT to very thoroughly tie Craig's hands together. IT WAS GREAT. I have photos! The two of us were really very drunk at that point, but we went searching for scissors to get him free. Luckily the scissors we found were safety scissors or that could have been a VERY bad situation. I'm usually not stupid while drunk! But apparently there are exceptions. :P

Toward the end of the night, I was drunk enough to pick up a bottle of wine with about 3 inches left in it and just start drinking from it! *facepalm* That obviously did not help with the inebriation problem. :P

At only about midnight (because we'd already been out for >6 HOURS) some group decision was made to head home, so we all walked back. I used Mark's arm as an aid to NOT FALLING OVER. He really is super sweet. Even if it turns out he's like, engaged to this girl, I'm glad to have him as a friend. And everyone else who was there too! It's a really fun group and I hope we get to hang out with them more often. We have been invited back for dinner next Friday, so yay! :)

I obviously have to share some photographic evidence with you. Also, I DYED MY HAIR! Yes, again. And I'm really happy with it again, but I hope it doesn't fade away in a week like it did last time!

Hair colouring and hot pink duct tape ahead! )

And that's it - FOR NOW. Tonight is karaoke with Francisco and his lab, which promises to be DELIGHTFUL TIMES. So stoked. :D Hope you are all having a lovely weekend. ♥
exsequar: (SN Dean I swear to drunk)
i am so very very drunk right now, drunker than i have been ni a while. noah heeld a night out and party atr his place. he usually hs potluck suppers ubt this wee k wit was just pizza. went with roomie emily.

seriouly very very very drunk. i should just go to e=seleep. its omly midnight! thire was this dude who was hot and a total slutth fluirt. snuggling with me AMND other girls a lot. i tied him up with pink dut tape seriously, be needed scissors to get out,it was great. itwas nie to even have physical connection with anybohy, indication of despiration i spose.

there was also mark, who is cute adn smart and funny and i like him a LOT. too bad he has agirlfried. i dunno how serious they arew but in grad school the fieldis narrowing in a srious way, bah. oh well i will find someone i hop.e

i have lots of work to do this weekend but i mgoin to karaoke tomorrow with francico and his lab. i love francsioc. i wish he wasnt probably gong to florida.

im really to drunk to even edit this shit, sorry. i should stp now.

PS ILOVED SUPERNATURL OMGGGGGG>
exsequar: ([TP] Hoosier darling)
Today has gotten off on an awful foot. Forgot I had class until literally the minute it started, discovered I have a 2010 estimated tax payment due that needs to be postmarked TODAY (I was so proud of getting my 2009 taxes done!), and the coffee at work was COLD. *pouts* It is, however, a gorgeous day outside (78 degrees and super sunny!) and I endeavored to rescue myself from a miserable day sitting in lab with no experiments to do by asking for a library day to work on my research presentation. I'm not being dishonest in any bad way - I really had no experiments to do, and I really plan on working on that presentation. However, I am at home instead of the library (om nom lunch!) so I can prepare my taxes and walk them to the post office.

There's no real reason you needed to know all of that. It's just the state of me!

OH, one hilarious thing - me and my roommates signed up for graduate student SPEED DATING. Lolz! We have all been moping about our lack of boys lately (and I really, really need to distract myself from Dave), so we figured why not? Should be fun! Anyone have any stories to share from speed dating, any advice?

Let's talk about Justified! The first five episodes, to be precise.

Spoilery spoilers )

In short: thumbs up! Definitely enjoying and will be watching every week. Because I totally needed more TV.

Off to walk to the post-office in the exquisite sunshine! I think it's funny how some people either don't check the weather or haven't quite adjusted to the fact that it's SUMMER outside today, so they're in jeans and sweatshirts. Oops! I myself am in capris, tshirt and flip-flops. :D

Before I go, a music rec: Airplanes by B.o.B. featuring Hayley Williams. I'm not a rap fan by any means, but this is a really beautiful song with a catchy melodic riff, and the choruses by Hayley are exquisite. Her part has been stuck in my head for a whole day. I'm finally getting to see Paramore on the HCT in August with [livejournal.com profile] angel726 and I'm SO excited! :D
exsequar: (GK Brad Ray tragedies)
This post has a case of whiplash! But I think both of these things are worth sharing, so here we go.

A Very Modern Military Partnership - An adorable article about a Lance Corporal in the British Army who married his boyfriend with the full support and witness of his fellow soldiers. The reception was held in a regimental barracks. The whole thing put hearts in my eyes. Make sure to check out the pictures - they're so cute! Anytime anyone talks about how repealing DADT would cause chaos and tension, I want to whip out this article and be like IN YOUR FUCKING FACE, DUMBASS. ...ahem. They're so cute! >.>

On the flip side of the coin (i.e. America...), while not the same issue, still something deeply horrifying:

When the Army uses 'Enhanced Interrogation' on an American Soldier - A truly heartrending short piece about a very upsetting practice. Some soldiers, when they receive a serious injury in combat, are forced to agree to a discharge claiming they had "personality disorder" (wtf is that?), a pre-existing condition that is the cause of all their problems, and therefore the Army has no obligation to give them medical support or any other support for the rest of their lives.

WHAT. THE. FUCK.

The sheer gall of this bald-faced lie is simply shocking and appalling. No person with a brain in their skull would ever believe it for any of these poor soldiers, and yet it's happening, to thousands upon thousands of young men and women. They are discarded by the government they served for, that they gave their physical well-being for. I just - it makes me want to SCREAM. First we have this totally unjustified war, and then we have all these soldiers, many of whom just wanted to do what was right, who are falling victim and suffering for the rest of their lives. It's a travesty. Veterans should be treated with the utmost respect, not like so much garbage. It's a ringing condemnation of our society - even beyond this specific instance, veterans are given no social support. Right now, with all the negative opinions about the war itself, that anger is misplaced onto the soldiers themselves.

I obviously can't help but think about GenKill when I read about stuff like this. Think about this happening to sweet little Walt, or about Doc Bryan receiving the order to diagnose one of his men with "personality disorder" just so no one has to spend the money. It hurts my heart.

:(
exsequar: ([TP] Sid how fucked are you now)
A couple days ago, I finished the most incredible book. It's called Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson and it is truly a tour de force. It's also a beast, clocking in at 1130 pages in my paperback version, but honestly? Worth every page. I had my doubts at first, doubted whether I'd be able to stick with it, whether it could really be that good, but my dad had read it in three days (!) over Christmas and I was intrigued. Three months later, I have an incredibly battered and spine-creased copy that I can only gaze at in awe now that I know what it contains.

I'll give a spoiler-free pitch outside of the cut, then go into details behind the cut in case anyone wants to come flail with me/help me wrap my head around it. So! Cryptonomicon is an epic story about three different lives. There's an American code breaker in World War II who's personal friends with Alan Turing and whose mathematician perspective on life is both fascinating and frequently hilarious. He's my favorite. There's also an American Marine who starts in Guadalcanal and goes on a wacky ride around the world, getting caught up in all kinds of crazy missions that he doesn't really understand. Then there's a modern day (read: late 90s) computer scientist/entrepreneur who is working in the Philippines to develop the first major "data haven" in the world. He also happens to be the code breaker's grandson! All three of these lives are separate for the first, oh, half of the novel, but slowly they start to wind in towards each other, crossing and parting and crossing ways again, until at the end it really is all one story and you are astonished at the sheer skill it took to weave that many strands of narrative into a satisfying and startling conclusion. At first I was a little put off by how plot-driven it was, how the characters were almost sketches of people, but over time, the three main characters especially became quite vivid and sympathetic and I found that I definitely never wanted to leave the book without finding out what happened to them.

Now some specific, spoilery flailing that perhaps will only interest Elle! )

Elle Elle come talk to me about Cryptonomicon! Tell me your favorite parts and whatnot, because I will likely be all "OMG YES THAT!" and it will help flesh out my memories of the whole book, as well as perhaps my understanding of the story? Cause I'm not sure I got everything, haha! Anyway, COME FLAIL. ♥

Reading that book felt like an accomplishment, goddamn. Been a long time since a book felt that satisfying. Next up: Stephenson's Snow Crash! :D
exsequar: (Girlyrock - MCR - G/L sinking world)
Eeee, I can has a PUPPY! Thank you so much, [livejournal.com profile] oxoniensis!! It was my pleasure to be a ridiculous enabler, I'm only glad it worked. ;) ♥

It is Friday! This is Yay! I've had an... interesting week in lab. Science is going semi-okay, though it seems like I NEVER EVER get results that are consistent with each other. NEVER. IN THREE MONTHS. Ughhh what human cells I HATE you. I'm very very ready to be done with these stupid cells and moving on to working with JAAAASON YAY.

I got that group project turned in! THANK FUCK. We also have to give a presentation but it's not graded so what the fuck ever. That asshole did NONE WORK, and the final product had NONE of his work in it, but whatever, that's his problem! Me and the hot dude who did the other bulk of the work might talk to the prof about it, idk. WHATEVER IT'S DONE YAY.

I realized when I was buying my Dublin plane tickets that I had no idea where my passport is. /o\ I noticed when I moved into this apartment that I didn't appear to have it with me. Most likely it's buried in all the shit in my room at my dad's house. But he doesn't seem to be inclined to dig through it, so I just applied for another. Ah well, what's an extra $100 here and there? (Kind of true, for the first time in my life - YAY FOR HAVING A SALARY!) Especially because I'M GOING BACK TO DUBLIN YAY.

TELEVISION. I have thoughts!

Doctor Who - OH MY GOODNESS SO MUCH LOVE. Eleven is charming and delightful and zany and endearing and wide-eyed and sweet and lovely. I want to take him home and feed him fish and custard! And I watched the Confidential and Matt Smith is just a lovely, lovely guy. It's a shame he has such a profoundly bland name, but he is DARLING. He can stay. I enjoyed Amy as well, but for now I kind of preferred young Amy, haha. She has spunk though and the structure of her introduction gives them some really interesting character stuff to work with. I'm VERY excited for this season! :DD

Bones - >:( Big spoilers. )

Justified - I've only watched the first two episodes but I really like it! People (*cough[livejournal.com profile] rhombalcough*) have been flailing about this, largely because of Jacob Pitts, who's really mostly a minor character, but is also Hoosier in The Pacific, and obviously worth stalking, but what was I saying? Oh yes! Justified! I find it to be a really unique show so far, with its own flavor. I am not familiar with the Western genre at all, but apparently it is borrowing a lot of those tropes? Anyway, I love the mix of drama and wry humor it has, and how it feels just very grounded and human. I'll be very intrigued to see where it goes.

Southland - I've finally arrived! Geez, took me long enough, am I right? I've only made it through four episodes, but oh, Lydia. I love her. She's such a fierce voice in a world that only occasionally listens, but she never stops yelling. She's amazing. And so broken, personally. I just really love her and thought she carried the fourth episode amazingly, despite the lack of Cooper and Ben. :)

In other news, I'm PRETTY FOND of those Chemical Romantics! *chinhaaands* Today Mikey wished Gee happy birthday in the SWEETEST way on Twitter, ugh, he LOVES HIS BIG BRO SO MUUUCH. ♥____♥ HAPPY BIRTHDAY, YOU GINORMOUS JERSEY DORK. ILU. NOW GIMME AN ALBUM. ;) The Nylon interview was also great. I love that he and Lyn-Z got all nervous about seeing each other again! THEN THEY GOT MARRIED! They are so MFEO, ugh. And these are REAL PEOPLE! Gives me just a little bit of hope. :) And Mikey talking about JERSEY SHORE! Ahahaha. "You try to explain Jersey and they don't believe you, but now - see?" Ohhhh WAYS.

For some reason my wrist is killing me, so Imma stop typing. Night loves. ♥
exsequar: (Girlyrock - MCR - Gee faaairy princess)
I've been floating on a cloud of YAY I'M IN JASON'S LAB YAY YAY YAY! Unfortunately, my current reality isn't quite that awesome and consists of fucking up experiments and a really really shitty group project that I honestly don't know how well we're going to do on. Ugh. So thank god he said yes or else I would be an utter wreck right now. I'm just clinging to it - I'm IN JASON'S LAB! Officially! He even sent out an email today about new lab photos and I was on the email! :DDDDDD

Today has not been a decent Saturday of any kind. I woke up, ate breakfast, went to lab from 2 to 8 PM, ugh, came home, went to grocery store, and worked on aforementioned group project, in the process stressing myself out so badly that I chewed on my fingernails until they all ache and it actually hurts to type. WONDERFUL. Now it's 1:30 AM and I'm exhausted but trying to get through Doctor Who without falling asleep because OMG IT'S AMAAAZING!!!

Tomorrow should be nice though - brunch in Detroit with one branch of my family, then back to Ann Arbor for dinner with another branch! Good times and good food. :D

Although that means no time to work on STUPID PROJECT ARGH. The only good thing about this project is that the one other person in the group actually doing work is this insanely pretty guy. I mean, he would not be out of place on television for us to swoon over. The other day he came to class having not shaved and he had the most exquisite stubble, like Ron Liv's 5 o'clock shadow, and I was captivated. It was kind of a problem. He also has these super blue eyes with long black lashes and a smile to die for... unf. Unfortunately, he's kind of not really my type at all, being from Connecticut and you can TELL. Like, he should be a lawyer with the way he talks sometimes. Gah, I don't know. He sure is purty to look at. And we commiserate about how awful our group is, so that's fun. :P

Random question: how do we feel about the new Youtube layout? Overall I feel it's quite functional, but why did they get rid of the starred rating system? Also, there's no way to tell how many comments there are on a video. They're strange changes that I don't quite get! Overall it does look more streamlined though.

I've been reading a lot of my old entries about just before Dublin and then during. That encompasses my slide into bandom, which is hilarious to watch - did you know at one point I genuinely, honestly thought Gerard and Brendon were gay? LOL. Oh, naive little self. I also thought Frank was the lead guitarist of MCR, gasp! Sacrilege. And it's weird to read myself squealing about Ryan when I really don't like him anymore. Anyway, the beginning of Dublin stuff is even more interesting, to see how different I was. It's very pronounced, actually. Which I knew, but it's awesome to have LJ as a concrete record of that. I hope I keep my LJ archives for my whole life, it's such a potent piece of personal history.

And I need some advice - does anyone have any ideas on the best way to get from either NYC or Philly to Cleveland without a car? I've checked plane, bus, and train, and everything either has wacky layovers (ATLANTA?!) or detours or just takes bloody forever, and it just seems so STUPID. Fucking American public transportation. Or the lack thereof. So any thoughts as to ways I could work that out so it isn't soul-crushingly horrible?

Finally, in Twitter Continues To Be Awesome, Brian Schechter responded to my Twitter-stalking for once. And I just - ahahaha, what.



Love him! He's such a dork. I totally get why he and the MCR boys got along like gangbusters. ♥

Augh so tired. Happy Easter, to all who celebrate! I hope you have lovely days.
exsequar: (BBT - Leonard coffeetimenao)
So there's a guy in my PhD program who's a decade older than I am and served in the Navy. He's gruff and funny and really cool. Today I asked him if he and his fellow Navy dudes ever danced and made idiots out of themselves on Youtube, and he said Youtube didn't exist when he was in the service! Shocking. Then I mentioned I'd been watching some Marines be ridiculous and he said "Well it's Marines, there's your problem right there." Then he told me this: "You want to get a Marine mad? Tell him Marine means 'My ass riding in naval equipment.' You wanna get him real pissed off? The alternative definition is 'Muscles are required, intelligence not essential.'" Ahahahaha! I was so amused. What a genuine piece of boys being boys. ♥

My morning has been fine, including a quite nice lecture by a real smart woman. It would have been much better, however, if I hadn't forgotten my coffee on my desk at home, and therefore wasn't in an exhausted daze right now. It would have been much MUCH better if I hadn't ALSO forgotten my wallet, and therefore can't even buy myself a latte like I was planning. I can get free coffee when I get back to lab but I've got my priorities and I'm using my extra time from class ending early to chill in a common area and read my book.

My meeting with Jason was moved once again, to tomorrow, due to a sudden scheduling conflict. AHHHH! *headless chickens some more* One way or another this is gonna be resolved soon...
exsequar: ([Obama + baby])
I'm quite scared of the prevailing wind in our country at the moment. It can't lead anywhere good, and I honestly don't know what it will take to stop the trend towards catastrophic violence. Just this weekend, the FBI carried out raids practically in my own back yard on a Christian militia group that was selling pipe bombs and plotting to kill law enforcement officers. This is on the front page of NYTimes.com right now.

This NYT Op-Ed has some interesting historical context and commentary on the situation.
"The conjunction of a black president and a female speaker of the House — topped off by a wise Latina on the Supreme Court and a powerful gay Congressional committee chairman — would sow fears of disenfranchisement among a dwindling and threatened minority in the country no matter what policies were in play."

When you put it that way - well, yay for progress, but holy shit am I scared for the backlash.

August 2023

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