A Nothing Trail of Silences

My bus is running again! This is most excellent, because the other day I was tricked on my way back from campus by a 'modified' route. In this case, 'modified' was code for 'has the same start and ending points, but travels to them via completely different roads.' I suppose 'modified' was much shorter to say.

The pool is running again! This is most excellent because the roof of the pool suffered spontaneous existence failure. It has taken them until now to remove the ceiling from the pool. Unfortunately, this overlapped with the one time of the year when the second pool on campus was down for a 1.5 month maintenance.

There seems to be some sort of improbability field around that pool, as my swimsuit also suffered spontaneous existence failure during my afternoon swim. I thought I could get a little more life out of that one. I was wrong. Other patrons were saved from potential flashing by the presence of a shelf bra. If not for that, I fear that I would have suffered spontaneous existence failure.

In entirely unrelated (and much more awesome) news:

Darwin's finches learned to swim! Or, two types of killer whales found in UK waters. Their diets have diverged, leading to altered morphology and genetically distinct/non-interbreeding populations.

New Agers rejoice! Rare glimpse of the cave of crystals. A video tour of a crystal cave in Mexico, with crystals more than 10 metres long. It's absolutely breath-taking.

Dinosaurs were gingers. And punks. Dinosaur had ginger feathers. Electron microscope studies of preserved feathers allow study of fossilized pigments.

Photosynthetic seaslug! No, really. Photosynthetic sea slug. Not only does it acquire and scavenge chloroplasts from algae, it has incorporated at least 14-15 algal genes into its own genome.

I entirely meant to post this when it was actually More Joy Day, but I was distracted by current events, as were many of you.

I wanted to bring back an oldy, though: I was doing 'tell people they rock' day back before the advent of LJ. When we had to walk up hill both ways to get hold of a dial up connection. Before Gmail and Yahoo!Groups, before tabbed browsing and FireFox.

If you comment upon this post, I will give you reasons why I, personally, believe you to be awesome.

Come on, you know you want to.

I'm offering a vid over at help_haiti. My thread is here. Bidding ends Wednesday, January 20th at noon.

Fandoms: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Battlestar: Galactica, Being Human, Bones, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Criminal Minds, Dead Like Me, Dexter, Doctor Who, Due South, Firefly, Glee, Harry Potter, House, Life on Mars (UK), Merlin, Middleman, Power Play, Pushing Daisies, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Torchwood, Wonderfalls. Movies are also doable, as long as you can provide source. If there are any other fandoms you're interested in, I'd be happy to discuss it. Email me or send me a LJ message.

Additional Info: We can set this up however you're most comfortable -- you can have as much or as little input as you'd like. If you have a song and specific clips in mind, we can do that. If you have a vague idea that there should be another vid in a given fandom, that also works. As a note, if you're requesting a vid in a new-to-me source greater than movie length (more than one season), we might have to postpone the delivery date.

Starting bid: $1

From CBC: Organizations to donate to, in Canada.

Edit: The Canadian Government is matching donations, dollar for dollar.

If you want to donate, but don't want to mess with credit cards or cheques, you can put in on your next phone bill by texting:
“Haiti” to 45678 to donate $5 to the Salvation Army in Canada
“Yele” to 501501 to donate $5 to Wyclef Jean’s Yéle Foundation
“Haiti” to 85944 to donate $5 to Rescue Union Mission and MedCorp International
“Haiti” to 25383 to donate $5 to the International Rescue Committee

In the States:
“Yele” to 501501 to donate $5 to Wyclef Jean’s Yéle Foundation
“Haiti” to 85944 to donate $5 to Rescue Union Mission and MedCorp International
“Haiti” to 25383 to donate $5 to the International Rescue Committee
“Haiti” to 90999 to donate $10 to the Red Cross in the U.S.

skywardprodigal has information about organizations you can donate to to help relief efforts in Haiti here.

There is also a fandom auction running at help_haiti -- it looks like you'll be able to choose the charity you want to donate to.

Title: I'll Follow You Tonight
Fandom: Shelter
Music: I'll Follow You Tonight - Anna Ternheim
Summary: I pass by you; I pass by me. Zach/Shaun.
Notes: For elynross, because she is awesome. Beta by laurashapiro, as she is also awesome. Rated 14A.

Links: Download (32 MB, DIVX, zipped) | Stream (Blip)

( Streaming Embedded )

( Lyrics )

This is a much belated Yuletide post! I thought I made one earlier, but apparently that was something that I imagined.

I received two most fabulous gift-fics: Mumbly, in which Olive Snook, at her very best, finds out. The narrative voice could have been ripped from an episode that should have been. I also received Steady as She Goes, which is 1) Power Play -- the only piece of Power Play fic to ever exist, and it is 2) an absolutely perfect Colleen piece.

As for myself, I wrote P.C. Hodgell's Chronicles of the Kencyrath for teaotter.

Read it at the archive, here, after the cut.

Warnings: Mention of canon abuse.
Thanks to: sprat, for awesome beta and talking me down from my stabby-place.

( Eyes Closed as to See )

I have never actually done one of these, for reasons that should quickly* become obvious. I did do some rambly-rambling at the end of last year, the main conclusions of which was that I should stop being afraid of Real Vidders. February will mark three years since I posted my first vid.

Vids made in 2009:

January
Unsteady Ground - Merlin

June
Convenient Parking - Dexter/Criminal Minds
Dark Room - Merlin

August
Attention: Gotham City - Batman: The Dark Knight

* I am a punny girl! Once again, my vidding output for the year can be watched in less than ten minutes. This is an improvement, as last year's total was three vids and less than eight minutes.

( 2009 Vidding Retrospecticus )

I have defeated my finals! Huzzah!

I am in no means done for the term (two reports, one presentation, two ethics courses, and a thesis proposal remaining) but exams have been defeated. In retrospect, four grad classes and two jobs was a bad idea. I assumed that because I could handle six classes in undergrad, I could handle four at the grad level. This was unfortunately not based on any empirical evidence.


Other things which have been conquered:
- Karaoke. I have always wanted to get up the courage to embarrass myself in front of drunken strangers, and I had the chance to do so at a birthday last night. It was character-building!

- Some of the Oz books, oh my goodness. I have a deep routed love for the Wizard of Oz series, and have been looking for volumes with the original illustrations since -- well, pretty much since forever -- without any luck. Today, I found some of them at a used book store. YAY.

Things which have defeated me:
- The interwebs. I am ridiculously behind.

- Vidding. I decided to do some vidding as a reward to myself, for not dying. For some reason, my clipping program (MPEG Streamclip) has decided it is unable to the video files on half of my Dexter episodes. I have audio, but this is not terribly useful to me. It is making vidding rather difficult.

- My dishes. And apartment.

- Swimsuit shopping. Mine is disintegrating, what with being decorative and made for the beach/hotel/toe dipping, and not being made to withstand regular recreational/workout swimming. I am avoiding finding a replacement for as long as possible however, as I find swimsuit shopping supremely traumatic. There is a 76.3% chance it will defeat me, however, so I am putting off my inevitable vanquishing.


The most important part of all of this, however, is that I have defeated(ish) my exams. And I finally have some Oz books! There is much, much joy.

The vidding love meme is pretty fantastic. I am generally fairly crap at feedback, what with being perpetually behind on the interwebs and just plain being crap at feedback*, so I am on a spree.

I am hoping that I am not getting a little (liiiiiittle) bit creepy, what with gushing over people for vids I may not actually have gotten around to feedbacking. Or people for whom it turns out I have never left feedback. Hopefully it will all be taken as love, as per the meme.


* Not even going to lie, I keep having to yank myself back from rambling on all about texture and shape of vids because: hey, that's not how normal most people look at things. I am getting better at avoiding convoluted metaphors, though. Hurray for practice!

There is a vidding love meme.

There is also a thread that belongs to me!


Hi guys! This is the kind of day/week/month it has been: this evening, I left campus and took the bus all the way home before realizing that I drove this morning.

I have not accumulated any amount of frazzledness, no. People keep trying to cheer me up by reminding me there are only two days left in the term. What they don't realize it that is the precise reason I am said frazzled mess who accidentally leaves her car on the other side of the city. I suppose there is some comfort in the idea that either way it will be over soon.

Guys, I'm not going to lie -- the only reason I remembered I have Twitter is because I wanted to follow CERN's progress with the Large Hadron Collider last year.

They're Twittering progress right now -- they are getting ready to capture the second beam. (ETA: They have it orbiting!) It's all quite exciting, even if you're not a particle physicist. (I'm not! Although I might not be the best marker for 'exciting and cool.')


For nostalgia: The Large Hadron Rap.

This was going to be a 'Dear Festividder' letter, but alas, that was not to be. This is because I did not know until after assignments started going out that my name was not on the participants list. yhlee is absolutely fantastic for organizing festivids, and can in no way be expected to rematch everyone because I wasn't online last night; I cannot help but feel a little sad, however.

Maybe I'll be able to pick up a pinch hit, though, and participate that way. Again, my tendency to not always be online might interfere with that, but I have hope. I fully intend to spread cheer!

Dear Yuletide Author:

( Without knowing you, I think I can already say one thing about you: you are awesome. )

Note to self: Do not read the comments on CBC news articles. The anti-vaccination crazies are out in full force, and I just end up wanting to punch people in the throat.

Aside from Plague Rat Girl the other night (suffering from serious flu symptoms and living with someone who has H1N1, decided to come into class), the Student Health Centre has reported that due to the number of "Influenza-Like Illnesses" it is seeing, it is banning anyone not suffering from ILI symptoms.

The state of vaccination in this province:

Partially Immunized:
- Health Care Workers

Non-immunized:
Everyone else.

Doses available next week:
Initially 140,000. Announced on Monday that it is 60,000. Announced this afternoon that it will actually be 14,000.

Risk groups being immunized next week:
Pregnant women, women who have ceased to be pregnant in the last four weeks, and children between the ages of six months and five years.

Dates for other risk groups (within the last 56 hours):
Initially November 2nd. Then November 9th. Then November 3rd. Now unknown.

I dislike feeling paranoid. However, as I am in the 'stupid %#$&ing lungs' risk group, the under 25 danger zone, and the university area appears to be a hotbed, I cannot help but be concerned.

I have committed video commentary! If you meander on over here, you will find my thoughts on Attention: Gotham City. It is maybe not so much of a proper commentary as a picspam with a bunch of questions stuck onto it, me trying to convince myself I was deeper than I meant to be, and a couple of moments of '... well, I sure did makes the most out of that 1:25.'

zephyrprince's thoughts are here with an interesting focus on media theory and a most excellent nonlinear, clustered, interpretation.

For reasons that don't need exploring at this juncture (and probably have nothing to do with vidding or Adrian Veidt), I am looking for cold war and/or nuclear - type footage. Due to my position on Things, this is not a movie/television genre I have explored myself. In addition, my earliest political-type memory involved one of my fourth grade classmates dressing up as OJ Simpson for Halloween because his parents told him to, and all of us being rather confused.

In other news, I have finally watched some Merlin (through 2x03), and all I have to say is: Guys, think back to this point when you're trying to figure out why Morgana has locked you all into trees and rocks and towers and whatnot.

I know I often go missing for extended periods of time, but guys: I have been incredibly missing.

My goodness, the last few weeks have been a gong show. I didn't know that starting grad school was going to be so tricky. I think this is probably a new admissions hurdle: can you actually figure out what you need to do? I'm hoping that's a hurdle I won't take down as I attempt to leap over it, as I still have no idea what is going on.

I've had imaginary classes, invisible seminars, people playing musical committee chairs, a supervisor previously in Germany but now a-continental (somewhere in the Pacific), governmental red tape with my funding (not helped by said a-continental supervisor), a surprise!undergraduate class, a mischievous monkey eating my email, and to top it all off: I think I might have a problem with plants.

I mean:


As a point of reference: the orchid at the front is just under two and a half feet tall. That's 20 plants, not counting the 12" peace lily in my bedroom, and the three or four plants on my balcony. I have a one bedroom, north-facing apartment, people. The orchid is new, and might be what twigged me into said problem, as there is no way in which I have enough light to sustain it.

I guess there are worse ways to bury your anxiety than in greenery?

In other news, I am signed up for vid_commentary for my Batman vid. It was not at all the winner of my magically inserted poll (surprisingly, that was my Criminal Minds/Dexter one), but someone wanted to do a partnered commentary.

Edit: And yes, those are balloons in the background.

The second round of vid_commentary is this month. As is fitting for a sophomore outing, it is a dual challenge: combined vidder and viewer commentary. Or, as with any freshman, it has the possibility to make it to the second year. Vidder commentary sign up is first, with a second round for viewers to pair up. If arranged ahead of time, it can also be done in pairs.

I've never done a commentary, on a vid or a fic. As such, witness my mad skillz of googling for 'poll'! If my said skillz are mad enough, the following should be an embedded poll indicating the vids I am up for commenting on. This poll is just, of course, to find out what people may have an interest in seeing.

Alas, my skillz are not mad. Am attempting to improve them.

Second attempt at improvement has generated a poll, however, it appears that people may only be able to cast one vote at a time. This is contrary to the purpose of ticky-boxes.



You may note that it is all three (+) years of my vids, save for "What We Had" [Doctor Who]. This omission is because hollywoodgrrl did an amazing commentary on it for the first round, and my stance is now "What she said."

Of course, if anyone has any interest in doing a partner commentary on any of these, they have but to speak.

Title: Convenient Parking
Fandom: Dexter/Criminal Minds
Music: Convenient Parking - Sun Kil Moon
Summary: The Behavioral Analysis Unit goes hunting for the Bay Harbor Butcher.

Links: Download (20 MB, DIVX, zipped) | Stream (Blip)

( Streaming Embedded )

( Lyrics. )

( Notes. )