Tumblr being delightful:
http://phantom-quantum.tumblr.com/post/88958704427/sad-disappointed-draw-offensive-bunnies
http://fuckyeahhardfemme.tumblr.com/post/97751139760/broken-gaydar-starrygraveyard-andr3wdost

Funnel webs on top of the yew hedge.

More nerdy taxonomy lookups. Too much computer-staring, but the reasons were still fun.

Walking a labyrinth at the Divinity School.

Relaxing dinner out.

Read a comic with the President of the United States in it, and was like, whoa, it's a white guy. (Strong Female Protagonist: it's the point of AU divergence, so the President is specifically GWB, but that wasn't clear in the first frame where he appeared.) Yay for whiteness as a marked condition.

1. One crow hopping high, down a steeply sloping, intensely green lawn. Another crow, who'd just found a fat worm, startled by the first one's clear intention to share.

2. Girls! Science! Old-timey style!

3. Snarky Twitter-interface meta with old friends/enemies.

4. Femslash Friday Kaylee/Inara is adorable. Not actually on board with the Artemis/Athena comparison (what?) but gay gay Simon! and the undeniable likelihood of awesome toy invention!

5. Today I learned that there are many differences of opinion regarding what's up in the skeleton of a mermaid's hip region. Pelvis or no is the most obvious, of course, and the consequences and interpretations thereof are intriguing. (Image searches inspired by this wonderful anglerfish and mermaid picture, which I also really want a print of now.)

6. The unholy alliance between panicked November yellowjackets and invasive poisonous English ivy has led to a low hedge that hums in an agitated fashion whenever I pass it in the morning. I should probably take another route if I don't want to get stung, but I'm fascinated. Pollen is pretty good food, and there's not much else out there right now. They'll be there until the bitter end.

7. Last night I got to tell Wim my vagina was poison. (No dairy allowed, yeast infection, yogurt, hilarity.)

8. I passed a short stone wall on my walk home tonight that was covered in Virginia creeper. For some reason, the plant always has a funny way of shedding its leaves, leaving the petioles sticking out for a while before dropping them separately later, so the wall had a combination of reddened leaves and pale, jaunty spines that made it look absurdly like a cheerful nudibranch.

9. Yesterday I got a burrito in the school cafeteria, because despite my nightshade problems I usually cannot resist Burrito Day. The cafeteria guy stared at my head transfixed for a moment. "It's like cotton candy," he breathed.

"That's what I was going for!" I said brightly.

He allowed as how it made him want to go to the fair, and I said that was all about elephant ears for me. He suggested funnel cake, I countered with deep-fried butter, which I noted was about as good as you'd think. He wants to try deep-fried Twinkies.

Then he was done making the first part of the burrito, and I said thanks, and he responded, "No, thank you."

OKAY THEN.

10. All recent movies have been good! Searching for Sugar Man, Wreck-It Ralph, and Captain America this week. (I am making an effort to consistently rent things from Scarecrow, because they're amazing and not doing that great financially.) In particular, Wreck-It Ralph was a lot funnier and more interesting than I expected, and I loved that the only romance was secondary and that the little girl character determines her own gender expression.

1. Three-headed cat beast on the couch when I got up this morning! They are so contentious all the time, but sometimes when I'm not around they forget to (pretend to) hate each other.

2. I like making 140-character tweets, especially when they're this one:

I am MIGHTY: sender of proposal draft, requester of recommendation letter, user of Google cache to dig up NSF web pages. Now it's lunchtime.

3. And then I took myself out for a delicious burger and milkshake, and I ate them while sitting on the grass in the sun and reading a novel.

4. Okay, Savage Lovecast, you win. Talking about clothes AND sex, with the clothes only available in the premium version, will in fact get me to spend a dollar on your podcast. Keep it up!

5. My submission to Mansplained is up! (One person already found it, I see.) This was by far the worst of our bad interviews. Very glad we have two good lab managers now.

Thursday:

1. I had a good idea for a nice, fundamental, exploratory experiment using a novel method, which is kind of my strength. Pretty good strength to have, I think.

2. Practical solution for feeling like LJ/DW is deserted: add more people. I've controlled my lists very strictly by the numbers for a very long time, but I am feeling lonely and did in fact manage to finish the Ph.D., so I will try something else now.

3. Breathing. It is better when I remember to do this!

4. Errand and dinner and movie with sweetie. Also smooching.

Friday:

1. I am a real reviewer of journal manuscripts who gets addressed as Dr., and my initial review was very thorough and helpful now that I look at it again.

2. Today's best text: I'm not sure what you think is lacking in your relationship if she's telling you about vagina songs.

3. Grad friend M invited me to the Q Center lunch, which I would not have gone to and where there were some really sweet talks, and, unexpectedly, the organization I helped start was named as a good thing that happened. (M-pig, the center head seemed to think it was especially good that the grad org was no longer called Bohgof; sorry, I know you will disagree!) Recognition for my activism is good, even if the context implied that they were taking credit for us a little; I think the head knows better than that.

4. I was pretty awesome at conquering software, even if it turned out my data weren't ready for it.

5. Crashed as soon as I got home and slept over 8 hours for the first time in months! If I'm really lucky, I can even sleep some more before it's time to get up. Completely fine with missing a party for this.

Because I am contrary and can overanalyze ANYTHING, I am doing anti-happiness posting today!

1. My lunch was not good so I wanted to eat everything in sight all afternoon. Because clearly I hadn't had any actual lunch, only that soggy wrap that said it was tofu teriyaki and was really sweet and sour rice or something. I am a big fan of vinegar, but acid and gloopy should never be the only traits of food.

2. PI doesn't understand that I'm hot, and this bothered me today. She was all skeptically asking for clarification that large breasts are considered decorative in American culture. Seriously? Have you been to America ever? Also I can personally attest that they are much appreciated by many!

3. I was WRONG about a THING in semi-public.

4. E-reader battery is dead and must be replaced.

5. Gotta get up at five for early-morning experiment and probably won't have time for a nap before family brunch.


Eh, who am I kidding, I am still like 90% happy.

1. staranise said what is so great about Silver Spoon and incidentally some things I hadn't detected were so great about Fullmetal Alchemist. Also extremely valuable career counseling stuff, mainly in comments. (Wim, I thought of you.)

2. Fixed an erroneous lack of serial comma in a previous entry! Consistency is restored to my writing universe!

3. I love how nonce-hashtags can be used on Twitter as equivalent to the little muttering text from outside the word balloons in manga.

4. PI's younger kid drew a picture of me on the dry-erase board, but erased it when she caught me looking. She's pretty good, as far as I could tell.

5. So I got a bra caught on my toe last night, and Wim decided to tell me that if I had one for each toe and both thumbs I could be in Shakespeare.

... what?

"Fourteen bras!"

"You are the worst AND you miscounted."

6. This tweet from Seattle Center ‏made me laugh and laugh:
@seattlecenter
They're still sick and they still want you to touch them! MT @kexp @_Mudhoney TONIGHT @SeattleCenter! FREE! #CATM! http://ow.ly/nZTlH

(because of this song, which possibly non-Seattle people don't know as well?)

I've been working on this post for quite a while. Lots of things that I wanted to put in don't fit. I'd like feedback if you have time.

Something that I learned today/ People don't think the way I do
The Fastbacks, "T.H.I.N.K."

I was both validated and upset to read Kathy Sierra's take on being AS.

"Asperger's -- in my one, personal, case (the only one I can speak to), was a beautiful rose-colored lens softly buffering me from just about everything."

(I am filing this under "why some nerds don't hate Big Bang Theory.")

( introspection )

My minuscule-induced skepticism is borne out:

"International Book Week is an awareness week mentioned in a socially generated internet meme where users of social networking sites share arbitrary lines from nearby books. Unlike globally publicised events such as World Book Day, International Book Week is not a formally established awareness week, and does not exist outside of the meme." -- the beloved Wikipedia

Nonetheless, the fifth sentence of page 52 is...

"Maude went in a bookstore that felt like home, and stood reading in various sections until a thin boy clerk came to within four feet of her and watched."

Just why Slow Funeral is in that bag with the Flip camera tripod and the tiny aquarium is not clear to me.

Maru still hasn't found what he's looking for. (Thanks to bookelfe, who posted vid recs that also include the Takarazuka Utena musical set to Lady Gaga. Dang.)