one more miracle

I'm so exhausted that I can't even contemplate a real post, but a few things:

• THE MARTIAN!!! No really, THE MARTIAN!!!!!! Today I did an activity with my Algebra 2 kids where their answers, once put in order, yielded "THE MARTIAN" and then I showed them the trailer and got nerdy at them. I LOVE IT SO MUCH!!!! I read the book in two days, saw the movie the day it came out, started the audio book, saw the movie again, and am now listening to the audiobook on my commute every day. I just. MARK WATNEY. YOU BRILLIANT SARCASTIC LITTLE SHIT. And can we talk about how much I ADORE the Hermes crew? A D O R E. I liked them on the first read, but after seeing the movie it's like - all their adorable faces! SEBSTAN'S ADORABLE FACE AND HIS ADORABLE COZY SWEATERS!!!! And I'm in LOVE with Martinez. I literally want an entire movie about them going back to earth and hugging Mark way too much and Sebstan and Johanssen trying so hard to be secretive and everyone teasing each other and smiling all the time because they did the most INSANE AND WONDERFUL THING IN THE HISTORY OF SPACE TRAVEL!!!! Ahem. I have feelings.


• Supergirl! You should watch it! I've only seen the beginning which was basically the same thing as the extended trailer but I love it! Melissa Benoist is so friggin cute! And for some reason I cry every time she goes to save her sister. SISTERS. YAY.


• JANE THE VIRGIN! I had heard great things but hadn't gotten around to it. Started it randomly on Netflix and I'm in LOVE. IT'S SO DELIGHTFUL. Jane is just SUCH a dear, Gina is so great. Her family is super cute. And Raf is stunnnning and super precious too. Also Petra for some reason I find riveting even though she's so terrible? Something about the enormous bambi eyes and pillow lips. She's gorgeous *__* Michael is sweet sometimes but I generally find him a bit off putting. Anyway. THIS SHOW. YOU SHOULD WATCH IT. YES.


• Fuck the Walking Dead. (I haven't watched the latest but I'm spoiled. Fuck everything.)

OK I'M DONE BYE.

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 fail so much at LJ, you guys. Fail ever so much. :( I really really miss it, but I also feel like my life has progressed past that phase. I don't have time to lose myself in fic or the details of so many lives, as much as I'd want to. Even though I feel like I'm kind of a shitty grad student, I'm still a grad student, and that means busy. :(

Life updates since June... well, lots! I did a three month internship this summer which was... okay. Not exactly revelatory. I spent half of it writing a grant for my grad school work and trying not to puke because I'm SO BAD AT PLANNING SCIENCE, and the other half trying to figure out what I want to do instead because research is clearly not my destiny. I landed on science publishing, which basically entails working as an editor at a scientific journal, coordinating with authors and reviewers and generally shaping the journal's content and interactions with the world. I obviously need to finish my PhD so I'll do that and then look for editorial positions. I'm really excited about this new direction and hope it turns into a rewarding career.

I also went to Germanyyyyyy :D And also Dublin but that was a short visit, sadly. Still got to see some of my favorite friends though. But the majority of the trip was two weeks backpacking through Germany with my friend Sarah (who I met through the German football fandom!). We went to (in order) München (Munich), Chiemsee, Nürnberg (Nuremberg), Mainz, Karlsruhe, Köln (Cologne), Oldenburg, Hamburg, Fehmarn, and Berlin! The trip was whirlwind paced but I was so glad we got to see all the things we did. We attended four football matches, I met MY BELOVED LEWIS HOLTBY *points at icon and makes high pitched noises* after he scored 2 goals for the German U21s, we watched Germany beat Brazil, Mainz beat Leverkusen, and Bayern beat Wolfsburg. IT WAS AMAZING. We stayed with lots of friends of mine, new and old, some I've known forever but hadn't gotten to meet yet or only met once (*waves at novafairy, nebulein, and maleyka). My favorite city was Berlin (we only had A DAY! I want to spend a week there!) but they were all beautiful and unique. It was truly an amazing trip and only whetted my appetite for travel (and Europe) even further. And I cannot recommend backpack travel enough!! Sure I didn't have many clothes, but we did laundry twice and I only had ONE bag to deal with that I could just sling on my back, easy peasy. Such a freeing experience!

Josh and I fizzled out in September, a little while after I got back from Germany. It was a long time coming, sadly. We burned bright but only for a short while. I learned things about myself from that experience AND I had a hell of a lot of fun, so what more can you ask for? I haven't met a new guy yet, though there's a couple I've been talking to on OK Cupid who are intriguing.

I also moved apartments so now I live with one person instead of four (my current roomie was also one of the four, so no big adjustment there). We love our new apartment and I LOOOOOOVE my room. We're staying here for at least two years.

Fannishly, I have two new major TV loves: HAVEN and THE VAMPIRE DIARIES. To sum up: sdlkfjlsdkfjlsjfOT3OT3OT3!!!!! The triangles on these two shows BLOW ME AWAY. They have some similar dynamics but are at the same time drastically different and I love them *so much*. Some people choose Duke/Audrey or Nathan/Audrey or of course Duke/Nathan... I say why choose? They're ALL amazing and deserve to have each other. Furthermore, Audrey clearly loves both of them, and the *waves hands* nonsense between Duke and Nathan is so clearly ANYTHING BUT platonic, so really it's the only logical solution. Yup. And if you haven't heard of Haven, do yourself a favor! It's a surprisingly incredible SyFy show set in Maine but filmed in gorgeous Nova Scotia on FILM (not digital!). It's a bit like X-Files, with weird goings-on and a great male-female buddy cop dynamic, though they're both believers. There have been two (short) seasons so far and it got renewed for a third so you should catch up before season three starts in April!

And DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON VAMPIRE DIARIES. Lots of people told me they loved it but I was like pffff it's either marginally better Twilight or going to disappoint compared to Buffy. In fact, any comparisons to either vanished after the first few episodes. It starts in a place where it could become either, but really becomes its own thing. I've tried to articulate to myself how it's different from Buffy, and in the end I think the two are fundamentally different types of stories. Buffy is about the girl with a burden who has to fight evil with only love to support her, and it's about doing the right thing even when it's the most difficult. Vampire Diaries, on the other hand, is about loving so fiercely and blindly that almost anything is on the table if it's necessary to save that love. Elena and co. don't so much fight evil as do everything they can to protect their own, at nearly any cost. And the romantic part of Elena's love, at least, is focused on two incredibly dangerous dudes, no matter how defanged Stefan may seem. Um, in conclusion, I HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS but TVD is really wonderful storytelling all on its own and I highly recommend it. If you've watched it, COME FLAIL WITH ME. CAROLINE. MATT. ALARIC. STEFANELENADAAAAAAMON. <3333 I tend to forget that shipping a OT3 with brothers in it might weird some people out, but uh, veteran of Supernatural fandom here, soooo... yeah that one wasn't such a leap for me. Whoops.

Speaking of Supernatural, I skipped season 6 but I'm really enjoying season 7! I'm afraid to say this because of the rotten tomatoes that will come my way, but it feels so much more like the show I know and love with Castiel gone (not just him but the whole angel nonsense). Dean and Sam are making me clutch my heart again! I have missed my boys everso. <3

SO! My dears! What on earth have you been up to? I'm gonna try to poke around my flist but clearly I have missed so much. (Again.) And if you really want to reconnect with me, I can now be found on Twitter pretty much all the time - I'm exsequar over there too! I'd love if you'd say hi! ♥

THIS PICTURE MADE MY HEART SKIP A BEAT. That is so exquisitely beautiful I don't know how my heart can handle it. (SPOILERS for Dollhouse 2x01, casting and plot, but nothing new.)

SEPTEMBER 25 GET HERE FASTER.

I suppose this is an appropriate time to list the TV I'll be watching this fall? I'm REALLY EXCITED because there's a whole passel of shows that I've just gotten caught up with this year, and thus didn't know when they premiered last time, so it's all very exciting! I'll be watching:

Supernatural
Dollhouse
Castle
Big Bang Theory
Bones
Merlin

I know that's not a LOT, but it's plenty with my insane schedule, and I'm REALLY SUPER EXCITED for all of them!! I'm also going to give Glee a shot, but the premiere annoyed me in a lot of ways, so we'll see if it improves on that score. I do love Don't Stop Believin a whole lot!

YAY TEEVEE! This is such an exciting time of the year. :D New everything! Schools, jobs, homes, and TEEVEE. Yay. :)

I haven't posted in exactly 24 hours, which is just far too long. I know, you were pining, but I hope you were strong. ;)

Today was a great day in Science! \o/ By which I mean, I got LOTS of pure protein (the aqueous solution is viscous and dark pink!) and finally a pure peptide. YAAAAAAY.

Leonard and Penny put a million trillion hearts in my eyes, you guys. I WANT A LEONARD OF MY VERY OWN. And a Penny too, please! I hope some of you are enjoying those uploads, it seemed like you were excited about it and that's awesome! My favorite episode so far is definitely 2x11 (the Christmas episode). BEST GUEST STAR EVER + BEST LAST FIVE MINUTES EVER = :DDDDDDDD

And for my other show of the moment, if Bones and Booth don't get together by the end of season 4, I'm going to THROW THINGS. I'm semi-spoiled? But not really? And I REALLY WANT to thoroughly spoil myself, but then I know I'd hate myself, and blah blah blah. GET ON WITH IT ALREADY. Every episode is just loaded with anvils now (their chemistry stops traffic? SERIOUSLY?!) so if that's not where they're headed I'll eat my hat. On an entirely different note, I think I actually like Sweets more than Zach. SACRELIGE, I know, but omg Sweets. ♥

On ANOTHER Bones note, the last episode I watched was the first one to truly piss me off from a scientific standpoint. They have a corpse whose BONES ARE DISSOLVING INTO GREEN FOAMY GOO, and they take it out of the sealed chamber and PLAY WITH IT? Without masks on?!???? ARE YOU KIDDING ME??????????????? They should be in FULL hazmat gear, and in fact the CDC should be all up in that shit! And what it turns out to be is HYDROFLUORIC ACID. That shit is so dangerous that part of my safety training in college was being told that it was IN THE BUILDING SOMEWHERE, kept in a clean room that I didn't even have access to. WHAT THE FLIPPING FUCK. Wikipedia has this to say: "The danger in handling hydrofluoric acid is extreme, as skin saturation with the acid in areas of only 25 in2 (160 cm2) may be relatively painless, yet ultimately fatal. High concentrations of hydrofluoric acid and hydrogen fluoride gas will also quickly destroy the corneas of the eyes."

Um. FAIL.

/rant. Sorry! :D And on that note, adieu!