A Nothing Trail of Silences

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. )

Title: Dark Room
Fandom: Merlin
Music: Dark Room - Sarah Slean
Summary: Things fall apart; the center cannot hold. VVC '09 Premiere.

Links: Download (25 MB, DIVX, zipped) | Stream (Blip)

( Streaming Embedded )

Notes: Many thanks to elynross for beta.

Title: Attention: Gotham City
Fandom: Batman: The Dark Knight
Music: There's A War Going On For Your Mind - Flobots

Attention: Gotham City
There is a war going on for your mind.

Many thanks to the ever fabulous elynross for beta.

Links: Download (41 MB, DIVX, zipped) | (BAM Coming) | Stream (Blip)

( Streaming Embedded )

( Lyrics )

I had a lovely birthday! Yes, okay, I had to work yesterday (which was actually my birthday) and I have to work today (on the tail end of some minor food poisoning), but despite these things it was quite a nice.

I had a potluck picnic in the park on Friday night. There were seven people who cancelled that afternoon, but this was for the best -- due to inclement weather, the potluck picnic in the park became a potluck picnic in my apartment. Now, my apartment is fairly spacious for a one-bedroom, but anyone else and we would have had to start putting people on the balcony. Aforementioned inclement weather would have likely resulted in some form of rumble to determine who got to commune with my patio set and geraniums. As is, it was a lovely evening. One of my friends even brought me sunflowers! The only reason my apartment is not a jungle is that it's north-facing with low light levels. As is, it is only a woodland glade.

There was also a farm-neighbourhood-type gathering out at the family farm last night (which is where I appear to have been given the gift of minor food poisoning). As it happened to fall on my birthday, I felt fully justified in pretending the fireworks were all for me, mwhahahah. Fireworks are right up there with plants on the list of Things I Love. They are bright, shiny-sparkly, and multicoloured, encompassing many of my favourite things into a single exploding package.

I am afraid I have been somewhat missing. Again. Here is a brief overview of what I have been up to:

• Convocation! Yay! I may now legally call myself B.Sc., B.Eng. I won't, because sticking undergrad letters behind your name has a tendency to look a little silly, but I could.


• Work. ~50-60 hours a week. Shhh, don't tell the labour board.


• Finished ~0:30 of a Batman: TDK vid.


• Dragon boat practice! Dragon boat festivals, for those whose cities do not have them, involve 22 people attempting to race in a 1500 lb boat to raise money for charity. It is always a most awesome time.


• Re-finished same ~0:30 of TDK vid.


• I have been officially accepted into my graduate studies program. With funding, yay!


• Took grad photos for family of a friend. Am considering putting together a portfolio of portraits.


• Re-re-finished ~0:30 of TDK vid. Contemplated casting project files into the fires of Isengard.


• Acquired a lung infection. Forced to take two days off of work, missing two experiments, and not allowed to compete in dragon boat races. Contemplated casting lungs into the fires of Isengard.


• Accepted that when it comes to keeping up with the internet, I am sometimes a horrible person.


• Did further research. Decided the fires of Isengard are not concrete enough to cast my lungs into, nor are they metatextual enough to engulf my project files.


• Realized that OH MY GOODNESS, I am going to Chicago in t=2.5 weeks. VVC, YAY.

A question to my sensitive-skinned sisters out there: what product(s) do you use? Every since Oil of Olay randomly discontinued their sensitive-skin soaps, I've been trying to find a good alternative.

"Use Dove," is generally the advice I receive. However, despite their Real Beauty campaign, they (Unilever) also sell skin bleaching creams overseas. That's just not something I'm willing to support, even by proxy, so Dove is out. Avene makes a non-soap cold cream bar that I really like, but it's a little pricey, and bar soap just isn't ideal for the showers at the gym.

Anyone have any suggestions, store bought, homemade, or otherwise?


In other news: I have a passport and a plane ticket! I now have the legal ability and practical means to leave the country. Also, perhaps more importantly, to reenter it.

I am finally caught up on my email! However, I have become aware that it is acting a tad glitchy. As such:

If you have sent me an email within the last month (or two, or three) that I have not responded to, I did not receive it. Please feel free to poke me with a stick.

In other news, there was that meme going around about how we don't know each other, and we should ask each other questions. I didn't participate, as one of my favourite past-times is disappearing for long periods of time for no externally penetrable reason.

For the record, it's always pretty much open season for questions for me. Life, vidding, writing, favourite tea, school, work, the last thing I took pictures of. After all -- when people interact with me, it makes me feel like I have friends!

I was still holding out some hope that my inability to view embedded streaming video from iMeem was a glitch.

However, via dreamrequiem

"This week, we’re making some changes to imeem’s video embed and video upload policies. Starting today, only videos from official artist profiles and the imeem jukebox can be embedded and played beyond imeem. This means you’re no longer able to take videos that you or other users have uploaded and embed them for playback on widgets outside imeem.com. We have also limited the length of video uploads to eight minutes each."

This is exceedingly unfortunate. Does anyone have a different service that they use? Preferably with a higher-quality image than YouTube, and one not prone to pulling vids/deleting accounts.

Bueller? Bueller?

So: Anyone still looking for a roommate for VividCon?

Oh my goodness, I was offered a scholarship to VVC. This is absolutely, fantastically amazing -- not to mention entirely unexpected and completely confounding. I'm so tickled that I think my purple prose is about to go ultraviolet.

This is a) exciting, b) exciting, because vidding and meeting people and c) frightening (because these are Real Vidders we are talking about here). It might be a situation where my natural extroversion has to battle it out with my neurotic insecurities. It'll be a caged death match, and hopefully my gregariousness will wipe my insecurities' smug little faces all over the floor. I could sell tickets.

In all seriousness though: thank you to whomever nominated me. You're amazing.

If anyone knows someone who might still be looking for a roommate, I'd greatly appreciate a heads-up. Right now, I'm looking at coming in on the Friday (EDIT: Thursday), and leaving on the Monday. The Monday bit is negotiable, though. If I leave on Sunday, I'd have to take off before the shows were over to make it through the international terminal. That, and this way I can go to a museum on Monday!

It would be such a shame to be in Chicago for the first time (and my second time in the states) and not spend a bit of time out and about. I mean -- the Shedd Aquarium! The Field Museum of Natural History! Tell me I'm not the only one interested? We don't have these things hereabouts.

Oh my goodness: VVC YAY.

Also: Anyone want to meet up with me at some point, if they're not all ready booked up? Or do people run on a more zen sort of philosophy?

I finally saw this new-fangled Star Trek movie everyone else already appears to have watched.

( Star Trek #? )

Does anyone know what's happening with iMeem? I was attempting to watch an embedded vid, and instead of playing it when I pressed said 'play' button, it popped up with a screen that says "This video is not available for viewing in an embedded player. Please click here to view it at www.imeem.com."

I checked my videos, and they're all showing the same message. I double checked a vid I had no problem watching the other day, and it showed with the same message. When I went back to iMeem to see if the code had changed, it no longer offered me the option to embed the video. I haven't been able to find any news on the main site, so I was wondering if anyone has an inkling of what's going on.

I see a couple of possibilities: 1) this is a glitch; 2) I've missed something glaringly obvious; 3) iMeem has disabled embedded streaming, possibly to decrease loads and save money.

I'm hoping it's 1) or 2), but I was wondering if anyone else was having similar problems.

Hi guys!

So: in case this is news to anyone, sometimes I fail at the internet. Or at least at updating the internet.

I am on DreamWidth as Cherry. I know how most people feel about people changing pseudonyms midstream (I share your pain, because keeping it all straight can be far more complex than one might expect of internet anonymity), but the opportunity to ditch the 'Ice' was just too tempting.

Seriously, if anyone you ever know decides it's a good idea to get into fandom at 15, please, for the love of all that's good, make sure they don't end up as a fruit-flavoured snow cone.*

There is nothing up there yet, at least not until I run over and cross post this entry, due to my aforementioned 'failing at the internet.' If however, you find my intermittent failures to fail amusing, you know where I am at over there. If you've been looking for a way to avoid me entirely -- at least you know where to avoid me twice?

In conclusion: I have five invite codes if anyone still needs them. I think my attempt to buy friends may be somewhat belated, but they are available to those who may still desire them.



* This was of course not the intent -- the point is that there was very, very little in the way of intent involved.</i>