Ad hoc, ad loc, and quid pro quo! So little time! So much to know!

Since I can't figure out a way to make this post tie together topic-wise, I'm going to do this in list form:

1) I've seen at least three different dudebros riding child-sized bikes around campus today. Is this a thing now? For comedic purposes, I hope so -- the size difference between the dudebros and their bikes was pretty damn funny -- but, on the other hand, it just seems...pointless. I don't get it but, then again, I'm aware that I live under a pretty giant metaphorical rock. Thoughts from people who don't?


2) In the course of poking around the internet this morning (as you do), I stumbled across a quite fascinating article indeed examining how the wackier fundies misinterpret, misconstrue, or otherwise warp a few common biblical passages in order to condemn homosexuality (and all the reasons -- including historical context and talking about language -- why they're wrong). For a bonus point that ought to shut said wacky fundies up, the author has a doctoral degree from a biblical seminary and has been studying the Bible exhaustively for the last 50 years.

For an example of a fascinating point from the article, did y'all know that neither Hebrew nor Ancient Greek (aka significant biblical languages) have a specific word for 'homosexual'? I sure as hell didn't, and I'm a language geek. So really, it's an informative read (and pretty entertainingly written).

Side note: surprisingly enough, I found this article in the comments section of an ohnotheydidnt post. Go figure.


3) Internets, as some of you might have noticed, I occasionally hate my life (and frequently bitch about it). That isn't news though. This new reason why, however, is:

The sociology department of my university is sponsoring a study abroad trip to Poland. POLAND. I could pay an obscene amount of money to geek out about World War II (and Poland in general anyway, since I think it's interesting in its own right) and possibly visit the at least five Polish flisters that I can recall off the top of my head and maybe just possibly stalk Paweł a little.

Except I can't, for three reasons:

1) I can't afford it, and my family can't afford to spot me the money because one of my folks is having hip surgery in *glances at calendar* about a month and a half.
2) Because of said hip surgery, I have to spend all summer at the Ol' Homestead playing nursemaid/chaffeur and helping the physical therapist. I'm only slightly annoyed by this because it's relevant to my academic interests, but it's going to be...trying....nonetheless.
3) There are two summer classes I have to take in order to graduate on time.



Raptor Jesus (or whoever else happens to be listening up there), why can't I have nice things -- or, rather, why do nice things have to be so fucking expensive (and badly timed)? I realize that I have it pretty good for the most part, but some of these lost opportunities I keep getting faced with are just cruel.

Oh well, at least I found a way to sneak a Stark gif into this post (and to even make it relevant, wonder of wonders). Small blessings and all that.

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"I am a part of all that I have seen..." -- Alfred Lord Tennyson

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Cheers.

What has two thumbs, red hair, and an 81 on the Exercise Physiology test she was sure she failed?

THIS GIRL, THAT'S WHO!

I might actually manage to keep a C in this class -- which means my GPA won't tank like I thought it was going to -- and the New York trip is in 18 days (due to a very long story, we're leaving on the morning of the 18th instead of the evening of the 17th).

I just have to get through the next two and a half weeks of my own personal ninth circle of academic Hell first.

BUT WHO CARES? I'M NOT GONNA FAIL! fjdklajgkadjtklhjkglfjdauwietlkmd Please excuse me while I boogaloo.


Oh dancing soldier, you punctuate the gleeful moments of my life so well. Get down with your bad self!

Also, I just spent the last five and a half hours helping my severely dyslexic study buddy (from Sports Nutrition) set up/write two major papers. Two things:

a) Oh God my brain hurts (she's smart, but jfc she can't write worth a damn).
b) I really hope I get some insanely awesome karma points for this.

How nice she was to me about my help made everything better though :)

All in all, it's been a strange day. Since I was begged to do more tutoring of the same study buddy tomorrow and Thursday (and possibly Friday) and I have a paper of my own that I'm supposed to be working on, things might get a bit slack around here (except to post more Batfic and/or Starsgard fic to break the monotony).

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"True humility is contentment..." -- Henri Frederic Amiel

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Cheers.

P.S. - Dear Ex. Phys. professor,

What was with that funny look you gave me after you handed my test back? I refuse to believe that you've been teaching for thirty years and have never in all that time seen a student do a victory dance before.

Just sayin',
emerald_skies

1) The fact that my Applied Kinesiology professor from two semesters ago

a) Remembered me enough to wander over and chat with me
b) Has a Black Flag tattoo on the back of his neck (and enough other tattoos that even Tunny would be impressed)
c) Is actually surprisingly attractive (he teaches Brazilian jiujitsu on the side, picture the results of that for a moment)

2) Adding to the ever-expanding mental list of Things I Cannot Say to Stark When I Meet Him

3) Movies I want to see this weekend

4) Stuff to post on here (damn it...)

5) Scenes for my Starsgard fic

6) Scenes for the Batman!AU

7) All the horribly violent things I'd like to do to the asshole from the athletic training program who sauntered over to make insincere chitchat with me

8) The fact that I was mistaken for a grad student (again) earlier today


Attention span? What attention span?

I'm so going to fail *headscreen*

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"Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted..." -- John Lennon (how weirdly appropriate)

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Cheers.

P.S. - To clarify the random chats with people, I was studying in a common area in the gym


ETA:

Dear irritating douchecanoes throwing the loud party in the courtyard just under my window,

Y'all have no idea how tempting it was for me to stick my head out the window and ask two questions:

1) How many of you are in greek organizations? (my guess: 90% of you)
2) How many of you are science majors (as in the laboratory kind)? (my guess: none of you, I know this because of the ridiculously excessive free time you have)

SHUT THE FUCK UP.

No love,
emerald_skies (aka the incredibly pissed off ginger from the second floor)

Howdy do, internets. Just popping in to say that posts here are going to be a bit more sporadic than usual this week since I have to house-sit while Les Olds are on vacation. In other words, I'm still alive, just busy. In the mean time, for those who don't know:

1) pjvilar posted a link to this fiendishly addicting blog which, in turned, spawned...

2) combat_jack's 25 Things About My Sexuality: GK Edition. I am absolutely addicted to both (especially the Nate thread, my God *__*)

Unf.

Finally, I'd like to apologize for being such absolute crap at commenting lately. I do read y'all's posts regularly, I've just been failing HARD at commenting on them recently (not entirely sure why). You guys know I still love you, right?


Like the Lamest Zombie Virus Ever, my fail is eating Bud up inside

I promise I'll unfuck myself soon, I desperately miss you all <3

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"Character is destiny..." -- Heraclitus

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Cheers.

P.S. - Holy crap, how is it August already? Wasn't it May like...yesterday? O_o

Argh. Where oh where has my motivation gone? All I want to do is sit in bed and either sleep or read fic all day, massive self-imposed to-do list be damned.

Speaking of self-imposed things being the death of me, there's an absolutely adorable write-up of seeing American Idiot over in stark_sands, including a hilariously adorable "stupid" picture. I can't link to it because the post is locked, and I can't post the picture here because it violates my self-imposed rules about personal pictures. Damn internet scruples.

On the other hand, said write-up did give me hope for my New York birthday trip plan (provided it actually gets off the ground) -- if he lights up when people ask him to sign their GK stuff, I think being asked to sign a copy of Die Mommie Die might just make him plotz on the spot. Which, naturally, I'd be very curious to see.

Finally, just so this post isn't a complete waste of time, have another fic rec two fic recs:

1) so businesslike and I'm by addandsubtract - Ray/Nate - Ray hates going to Nate's swanky government parties, but somehow Nate always makes it worth it. Very sweet and easy to visualize mentally, I couldn't stop smiling while I was reading it.

2) New Rules by queeniegalore - Ray/Walt - Another Skippy's List prompt, in which Ray and Walt introduce the boys to Calvinball and, naturally, it's a hit. Extra-hilarious if you've ever read Calvin & Hobbes.

And that's all I've got for now. Feel free to join JGroff is wondering why this entry is here...


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"Its body brevity, and wit its soul..." -- Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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Cheers.

Internets, normally I don't like to talk about politics (as I feel it and religion make even logical people go completely batshit), but for once I feel compelled to do so because I'm facing a bit of a conundrum on a particular issue -- specifically, that legislation in Arizona that's been stirring up so much controversy recently.

Basically, I used to think I was solidly against the issue because I feel that 1) it presents a potentially worrisome slippery slope into racial profiling/more invasive government and 2) that the U.S. should focus on making it easier to become a citizen instead of just making it harder to get/be in the country. However, I saw recently that people who supported the legislation are in favor of a similar concept of immigration reform to the one I just described. So, where does that put me in relation to this legislation? I'm not so sure I understand the full picture anymore and, for some reason, that really bothers me...

Anyway, I started a new D&D campaign with Les Neighbors tonight (an Elven cleric of Corellon Larethian, for those who play 3.5) and actually whooped a surprising amount of ass for someone who's used to playing sorcerers (and thus has no clue about melee fighting). I also got to serve as the handler for Le Boyfriend's barbarian -- I'm the only one who can speak his language since Elves are all polyglottal and shit. Much geeky fun was had by all -- someone even attacked the darkness!*

* - Bonus points to whoever can explain the reference

Finally, since I have a fairly significant birthday coming up this December, I'm contemplating asking Les Olds for tickets to NYC over the holidays so I can finally, finally see American Idiot. All these posts about it and how awesome it is are seriously killing me, so I'm going to see what I can do about making my way out there just so I can finally get the full experience. It'll be totally worth it just for that, even if I wind up being too chickenshit to the stage door thing (and bring my copy of Die Mommie Die for Stark to sign just to watch his head explode). Abstractly, I wonder if he'd be flattered or creeped out if he found out how far I came just to see the show.

Ugh, back to dreading this week and the lovely, exhausting mix of clinic duty and studying for finals the it shall bring. Well, that and the conflicting urges to avoid my school email vs. checking it every ten minutes to find out if I got into the athletic training program (I wanna know but I'm scared to know as well).

Once again, thanks for reading a pretty darn pointless entry. Have some dancing!Mike Chang for y'all's time


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"Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge..." -- William Shakespeare

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Cheers.

Ugh. Let me tell you, internets, the last 36 hours or so have been pretty fucking bipolar for me. Allow me to adjectify:

During the last half of this semester, I've been working with a group in my Group Communications class on a community service project that consisted of us collecting and sending junk food, toiletries, letters, and so on to the troops. One of my duties was to format our long, nitpicky final paper with sections that we divided amongst ourselves to write (everyone was to send their parts to me when they were finished).

So, this one girl was supposed to send me two sections (including our bibliography), but she didn't do so until about an hour before class today (when our paper was due). I stayed up until 3:30 in the fucking morning waiting for this email, and it didn't come until about an hour before class -- and her "bibliography" (which was supposed to be in MLA format) consisted of a list of URLs. I was, to put it mildly, furious. So I cobbled together the best solution I could and went off to class, barely restraining the urge to murder the everloving shit out of this girl for putting our group in such a tight spot.

However, she made up for it by doing her parts during class and got the finished product to me just before we had to turn the papers in. That was (grudgingly) impressive and also a huge relief. So, after a lovely 36 hours in which my blood pressure went all rollercoaster on me, here I sit, completely emotionally drained.

( At least I have this lovely, lovely picture to console me )

Gorgeous Stark picture aside, internets, I really hate group projects for this exact reason; there's always at least one flake in the group, and I usually wind up being the one to pick up all the slack without a fucking lick of thanks from anyone (it turned out better in the end this time, but only just). Anyone else have any hilariously bad experiences with group projects?

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"Unseasonable kindness gets no thanks..." -- Thomas Fuller

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Cheers.

Internets, I actually had a good day today -- unbelievably long, but good!

1) It turns out I don't have as much work as I thought I did. I do still have a ton of reading to do for a quiz tomorrow, but I have plenty of time on my History paper ("Would you have dropped the bomb on Hiroshima/Nagasaki? Support your answer through a moral perspective, military perspective, or a mix of both") and my last Biomechanics lab

2) I wound up having to work way later than I originally thought I would (district championship baseball game that no one told me about), but in the course of doing so I had a great, companionable talk with one of my peers in a way that I think is going to produce a lot of good lasting effects. Said peer wants to work for a professional team like I do (and has been catching the same "But you're a girl!" crap for it that I have), and she wound up giving me a lot of useful advice on volunteer opportunities and how to sweet talk my superiors and stuff like that. It doesn't sound like much, but it was fairly significant and happy-making :)

3) MY AMERICAN IDIOT OBCR CAME IN THE MAIL TODAY fjkdlsjtghjrdskhgjkrhdjghjrishgjrljglijilj[/keyboard mashing of glee] I love it I love it I love it I love it (and will probably be listening to it on repeat for at least the next month or so)

4) I came home from my long-ass day at work to like fifty Stark posts on my flist (I was more than okay with this development, to put it mildly). No matter how much I bitch about how many posts I have to sift through, I will never, ever complain about sifting through a small horde of Stark posts. Especially when they turn out gems like these:

( Summer has come and passed/the innocent can never last... )

Arms....gloves...guitar...TATTOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOS....HIS FAAAAAAAAACE. There was another one of him in a suit(!) doing the autographs/schmoozing thing, but I'm uncertain about how on the up-and-up/stalker-free it is (stark_sands got it from someone's tumblr, if memory serves).

Anyway, unless anyone is still catching up on the stuff that's been goin' on here, that's all I've got for now. How goes life for y'all?

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"What we think, we become..." -- Buddha

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Cheers.

Internets, I have a terrible, horrible confession to make of which I am deeply ashamed.

I might kind of sort of maybe likeaHansonsong.



Seriously, though.

( WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?! (cut in case it autoplays) )

It's catchy and the video is cracktacular and totally references Blues Brothers and it has cowbell and WHY IS TAYLOR HANSON (the one channeling Ray Charles/Stevie Wonder) SO WEIRDLY ATTRACTIVE?!

Damn it, it took them more than a decade but the little bastards finally got me to like one of their songs. Well played, Hanson, well played.

In other less frightening news, my muse sort of came back (I've been brainstorming all day) so there's a distinct possibility that I'll have another part of my fic ready in the next day or so. It sort of makes up for the two softball games I have to work tomorrow night (*sob*)

I'll be off listening to the American Idiot soundtrack to cleanse my brain if anyone needs me.

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"Polite conversation is rarely either..." -- Fran Lebowitz

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Cheers.

Urgh. Internets, do you ever have moments where you sit back, re-examine your life, and think "My God, what am I smoking?" Yeah, those tend to happen to me during these particularly busy times in my college life. It could just be my brain berating me for making it suffer through the Biomechanics test I had today, though.

So, to spare us all from my bellyaching, I come bearing a particularly delectable piece of mancandy that's been popping up all over my flist lately:

( Cut for size and to spare those with heart conditions )

Man, it's been too long since I had an ASkars post.

Secondly, a meme I gacked from spirited_lizard

( Where do I keep finding these? )

In keeping with the theme of today's mancandy, sunny!ASkars thanks you for your time:


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"Always be a poet, even in prose..." -- Charles Baudelaire

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Cheers.

P.S. - My Shiver review post will go up after I finish covering a baseball game tomorrow night. I promise!