Dreams

Here's a synopsis of my last few nights of weird-ass dreams. Its strange that I remember them, but I feel like I have weird dreams all the time.

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Tornadoes, not an uncommon theme, but I'm not mad at my Mom, so what gives? Anyway, I'm in the dream version of the Emporia dorms we used to stay in. I saw a tornado rip through a building across the street and run through the halls to find Duane, who doesn't give a shit. First he doesn't believe me, then I tell him It. Was. Right. There! and he says well then it was across the street and we don't have to worry about it.

At some later point I'm here at ASU, walking across the parking lot at night, when I see a bright object in the sky. I realize its Saturn, but way too large and bright to be real. Then Saturn zooms across the night sky over my head.

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I'm in a cabin, during some training exercise. There are a couple of guys, me, and the woman whose in charge. All the sudden we are overrun by a team of people with nicer weapons than us, not part of the exercise. They shoot the guys, snap the other woman's neck and find me inside the cabin. The woman in charge of the newcomers pats me on the shoulder and says that I had better make it seem like an accident. I go all freaked out and throw a couple bodies off the balcony until I realize that's pretty shitty. An officer passes by in a vehicle and I flag her down and tell her the whole freaky story, and I'm all paranoid because I think the bad guys put a tracker or something on me when they patted by shoulder.

_________________________________________
(same night as previous one)
I'm there for the first meeting with aliens. At first everyone is happy. Then I'm with a group hiding underground somewhere but I'm contacted by the aliens and invited to go with them. I hug my mom and others and pack up my stuff to go, making sure to bring my homework (I'm a total loser, yes) and its about that time we realize they are out to take what they want and destroy the rest. Guiltily, I still go with the aliens. On the way out, though, I hear noise from below in our hideout. I pound on the floor a few times...and Chief Tyrol peeks out of a drain in the street. I tell him they better shut the hell up and maybe someone will live. (I'm officially a complete losergeek for that last, and I'm okay with that).

There was some stuff with dragons and fire, but I'm not sure how it fits.

As the aliens are packing up my stuff, I ask them how much of it I will ever see again. They say take a good look now, because never. I talk with them about how horrible it will be to be the only human left. One girl says its no big deal, asks another where she's from and says "Never heard of it." She says to me "See, you won't stick out, nobody notices" Of course they all look human and I realize they all are from planets that were destroyed by the evil aliens and took the same opportunity I did.

As we fly away, there's weirdness with liquor accidentally falling out of the cargo hold, so its in orbit. And then something vague that I'm sure is from last week's episode of Atlantis.

So they leave me in the cargo hold with all the Earth stuff they collected. There's a tv, and I begin flipping through channels that I guess they are piping through to me. I watch how shallow US television dealt with the situation as it unraveled. The signal gives out/is cut before I can see things get really bad. I demand to see the actual destruction, but it looks like a bad movie clip of exploding Earth. I insist that its fake. I hold out hope that the planet wasn't totally destroyed, that some may have survived.

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I'm repairing some light/vent thing, with someone supposed to be helping me. She insists that I have to hold this thing for an hour or else it will break. I'm stuck there holding it while she wanders off. This pisses me off much. Next part is vague.

Then I'm in some sort of meeting place with hunters and other people. I can't remember the purpose but there was one. I'm sitting on a wood floor across from my Mom when some newcomers arrive and pick up a deck of cards. Mom gets pissed, takes the cards, and says they have to earn the right to use them. She invites me to play a game of rummy, but its some weird version that I don't remember playing. She says I played the game as a team with her once and we kicked ass. For some reason she says this is how people used to decide who pays the rent this month. For some reason all the players have to kiss at the beginning of each round. Something about Mom likes kissing guys with nice teeth.

My dreams are very strange, yes?

Bird Therapy

Thanks to kiwilito over at birdboard.com for the laugh.

Mixed Signals

Midterms were last week. Bad time to rearrange your life, and then to regret it, etc.

So the BritLit test hasn't been graded/returned yet, which is annoying. I have a pretty good time in that class, talk way more than I normally do in class, and make what I think are pretty good points about the reading. I wrote a lot less then I should have on the essays, and I hope that didn't hurt my test grade. FYI, my professor is was in the movie Weird Science, which I didn't realize until someone in class mentioned that he has an IMDB page. I have to say, its not my favorite movie, but Michael was highly impressed because its one of his favorites.

I made a pretty big improvement in Cal2, going from a 51% on the first test to 87% on the second. Also, if we do well enough on the final, he will substitute that grade for our lowest test grade. I'm doing well on the homework thanks to the tutors, so I might come through this one.

I stayed up until 1am studying for Physics, and got up an hour early to finish studying. The test was tough, but seemed to me I did better on it than the previous (57%). Everyone else including the ones who did great on the first one said they didn't even manage to finish, and I did, so I felt pretty good. Next class meeting, we're told the grades are so horribly bad that she's regrading them. At that point I was worried. Today, she handed back our tests, and then a re-written version of the test for us to do as homework. She'll average that grade with the test grade, for a final test grade. That's cool, but the class average was like 50%, and I GOT A 71% Wooohooo! I'm kinda pissed that they get to make up the grade which I didn't get to do when I did that bad on the first test, but I'm trying not to be bitter.

Anyway... mixed signals... I don't know. I wish I knew how I was doing. Off to the movies then. We're seeing the Elizabeth movie, I'll let you know how it is.

Defective Yeti

I just ran across this one via Dooce's sidebar, and I can't bookmark on these damn lab computers. Anyway, here are a few snippits:

I always imagine the inventors of Trivial Pursuit sitting around one evening after a few beers, saying "You know what my favorite part of high school was? Taking exams that I didn't study for. If only we could package the thrill of a pop quiz into a board game, but do it in such a way that 80% of the time you're sitting around inertly watching other people struggle to answer the questions, we would have a sure-fire hit on our hands."

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Knock knock

Who's there?

George W. Bush

Oh, god. Still?

Yes, for 14 more months

Fuck.

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Of course I'll be the first to pull the lever for Clinton if it's Hillary v. Rudy in the general election. Standing on principle is noble, but Giuliani eats power for breakfast and shits crazy in the afternoon.

Thanks, More Hope

Thanks for the words, everyone. Its good to know I can talk to you guys.

The way things are right now:

We finally talked on Thursday, and there was much crying by me, and much real talking that we should have done before. I was making him unhappy in a lot of ways I didn't realize, which is why he accepted the idea of divorce so readily. It boiled down to me asking, "Don't we all get one big mistake? Don't I deserve a chance to make it up to you?" So we agreed to wait on filing for divorce for a month, and to spend time together but still live apart during that time. I asked him to find us a marriage counselor, but I'm not sure if he wants to do that.

So I'm not planning on moving anything more out of "our/his" apartment for the time being, and I put the curtains back up because "my" apartment is too dark to hang curtains anyway, and we watched SF Friday together. Maybe...such a big maybe, but like I said I'm holding onto hope. I didn't cry at all on Friday.

Anyway, I'd love to be able to chat with you guys, but I have no internet connection so I'm at the computer lab, and I need to get back to studying for my Physics midterm. On an up note(kinda), my Physics prof told me to not let this interfere too badly with my term, because she thinks I have a good grasp on the physics concepts. I don't know what TJ she's been seeing in class, but she does give a good pep talk. Man I was a wreck that day.

ALSO! I'm going to be an Aunt! Matt's girlfriend is preggers.

Geek Cakes

I sent this link out in an email awhile back, and I just went to some of the links left in the comments. OMGosh there are some real funny geek cakes:

http://scienceblogs.com/retrospectacle/2007/09/bake_me_a_geeky_cake.php#more

Here are just a few from the comments:
http://www.barrettnexus.com/gallery/d/7552-2/imag0001.jpg
Trilobites
http://lukawitz.com/wedding/fordaddy/cake.jpg
http://homepages.tesco.net/%7Ejanefisk/discworld/discworld.htm
http://katzor.blogspot.com/2007/09/power-ee-nerds-eat-your-heart-out.html
http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/circuitsnacks


I want to bake something.

Liveblogging: Bird Antics

I haven't paid much attention to Rigel today, except to give him a bath and sit in the window while he dried off. Busy deciding what to pack, leave, or sell, and working on my budget too. So he's been doing his own thing for a few hours.

This bird cracks me up. Just now, he took his jingly ball, climbed up the slanted wood perch, then up through the food bowl basket, and finally made it up to the rope perch with prize in beak. Then, of course, it fell. He was so pissed.

OH! He did it again!!!! I'm going to have to take down the tent-swing he doesn't use, its blocking my view. Dropped it again, poor baby bird!

Aahahah! Now he's laying on his back with the ball in his foot. Oh my goodness, he's a character. I guess this is what he does all day when I'm gone. I'm going to have to set up a camera.

He was on the cage bottom in a corner, playing with is ball, laying on his side. I couldn't stop laughing and he heard me, gave a big loud squack like "Oh Shit She's Watching me!"

What's in a Name?

Okay internet-people, I really need your help. I have to put my new legal name on our divorce paperwork, and we're filing it next week. I'm considering several options:

1. Quit being stupid, just go back to the birth name and be done with it.
--Or keep it, but shorten it to Niel or Niels....interesting....

2. An anagram of first/middle initials of my Mom, Grandma, and Great-Grandma.
Demla
Dale

3. Maybe I need to know my Great-Great Grandmother's name?

3. Ibbott
Usage: English
Ibbott is a matronymic derived from the old feminine name Ibota, which in turn was derived from Isabel, the oldest form of Elizabeth to be introduced into England. And my Mom's name, Lisa, is derived from Elizabeth.

Modern Divorce

Step1: Get the nerves to say it.
Step2: Stop shaking, because its not a fight. *whew*
Step3: Split key assets: savings, DVD collections, TV, digital camera. In that order.
Step4: Change your Myspace Top Friends.
Step5: Blog it.

Laugh together, tell the honest truths you've both been holding back. Move on with your lives. I can't believe it was so easy, and yet so hard.

To Do List
In no particular order:

- Establish TX Residency *shudders*
- Buy a bed
- Fill out application for new apartment
- Decide what last name to change to...I want to be creative but not kooky, any ideas?
~~Dear Mom: I'll change back to my birth name if you do.
- Separate bills
- Do my homework...this is not a good excuse for procrastinating! (and yet I am)
~~Its Monday, why am I worrying about my lab report? I should be doing Calculus or reading Twelfth Night.
- Find someone with a truck to help me move a desk and a bookshelf. Volunteers?
~~ Should probably find out if the desk will fit through the door without being completely disassembled. *No disassemble! Johnny 5 is alliiiiiivvvve!*

My Super Exciting Life

HI! How are you?!? Its been almost 2 weeks since I posted anything but links and stuff. I bet you're just dying to know how life is progressing.

I caught Rigel sleeping upside down from his Comfy Perch this week. I must get video somehow. *Dadadada dadadada Bat-BIRD!*

In Physics: I'm still struggling with setting up Conservation of Energy problems, but Conservation of Momentum makes so much more sense, so I'm having a better go of it. I'm getting good results in lab, even if it does take us a bit longer to setup. I'm nit-picky.

In Calculus: I've found that drawing graphs on printer paper with colored pencil is helping me understand volumes of revolution, plus going to tutoring every other day.

In British Liturature: We finished Beowulf last week, analyzed the new movie site, and and read some King Arthur stuff this week. On to Twelfth Night for next week.

If you haven't watched the new Bionic Woman, the 2nd episode is on Sci-Fi tonight. Watch it. You will love it. "How'm I doin now?" Michelle Ryan rocks, and so does Katee Sackhoff, but we knew that already. I'm in love with all the people putting strong, intelligent, non-anorexic women on television. I'm not in love with IMDB commenters, jerks.

Stargate Atlantis premiered their new season last Friday too. Not my favorite show, but worth watching. Jewel Staite is playing the new doctor (a tad young for it, but I can't not love her) and Amanda Tapping will be leading the city I think after next episode. I can't stand McKay, and I just can't wait for Col. Carter to knock him down a notch. Also, it means we might one day see the resolution of the Carter/O'Neill angst.

Doctor Who Series 3(?) is coming to a close this week, and I'm pretty excited. The finale story arc is 3 episodes, and I didn't know that at first. So at the end of the 1st one, I was thinking "Wow, that was a great cliffhanger for the season!" Then the commercial for the next week comes on and I'm thinking "Oh, sweet!" And then that happened again. So now, for sure, its the finale tonight, and I'm amped up.

Swiss Cheese Poop, has it really been 2 weeks since the bad haircut? Well, I'm a bit thankful for it because for the first time ever I can wear headbands. I look cute in headbands! My last memory of being forced to wear headbands involved a purple one digging into my skull for the sake of a family portrait. It was giving me a headache. My grandmother was, um, annoyed when I took it off. Did you know they make them with little silicone cushions now? I bought like 6 different ones, plus these ones that swoop back when they get to your ear, so they are so amazingly comfortable.

Fear

This is a personality test I just took, not a horoscope or a quizfarm thing. I don't know how "right" they are, but some of the questions turned in my gut a little, and I surprised myself with a few answers.

Enneagram Type 6 - Loyalist

Conflicted between trust and distrust

People of this personality type essentially feel insecure, as though there is nothing quite steady enough to hold onto. At the core of the type Six personality is a kind of fear or anxiety. [...]What all Sixes have in common however, is the fear rooted at the center of their personality, which manifests in worrying, and restless imaginings of everything that might go wrong. This tendency makes Sixes gifted at trouble shooting, but also robs the Six of much needed peace of mind and tends to deprive the personality of spontaneity. The essential anxiety at the core of the type Six fixation tends to permeate the personality with a sort of "defensive suspiciousness." Sixes don't trust easily; they are often ambivalent about others, until the person has absolutely proven herself, at which point they are likely to respond with steadfast loyalty. The loyalty of the Six is something of a two edged sword however, as Sixes are sometimes prone to stand by a friend, partner, job or cause even long after it is time to move on.

[...]

The truly confounding element when it comes to typing Sixes is that there are two fundamentally different strategies that Sixes adopt for dealing with fear. Some Sixes are basically phobic. Phobic Sixes are generally compliant, affiliative and cooperative. Other Sixes adopt the opposite strategy of dealing with fear, and become counterphobic, essentially taking a defiant stand against whatever they find threatening. [...] Counterphobic Sixes are often unaware of the fear that motivates their actions. In fact, Sixes in general, tend to be blind to the extent of their own anxiety. Because it is the constant back drop to all of their emotions, Sixes are frequently unaware of its existence, as they have nothing with which to contrast it.

Requests

Blogger has released something I love love love: Blogger Play which "is a real-time slideshow of photos Blogger users have recently uploaded to their blogs."

My Requests are two:
1) How can I put the stream from Blogger Play into the sidebar of my blog?
That would rock, and it would put the images to an audience outside writers.

2) How do I get Adsense to display something without the word "blog" in it.
Who displays ads for blogging? Dumb. I write about all kinds of things, parrots, Science Fiction, college... In fact, in all posts outside this one, I write the word "glob" or "bl*g" in a futile attempt to make Adsense display something relevant. I am annoyed.
**Update** Apparently posting this did the trick. Go figure.
**Update 2** I have once again removed ads from my page. Why? I clicked through one of them and it was a series of lists of links to lists of links to lists of links enter your email here bullshit. Yea, clicking on your own adspace is against the rules, and I bet that's why. Of course I've never clicked on anyone else's either, so I guess its all about balance.

Dr. Who loves birds!

This is absolutely marvelous! Here I am, sitting with my conure and waiting for tonight's Dr. Who episode, and what do I find on the internets? I and the Bird #58, a carnival of bird posts in the context of Dr. Who. The circle of geekdom is complete.

Bad Week, Bad Hair

This shitty week had better not follow me into the weekend. First, I failed my physics test. I don't mean failed as in I didn't get the grade I wanted, I mean I got 51/100 points possible. Shit.

Oh yeah, I also slid my tablet, face down, across the floor in my English class. The 3 inch long gash is quite lovely, really. *bangs head against wall*

Thursday I took a calculus test. I won't know how badly that stunk until Tuesday.

Then I got a Shitty McShitstain haircut.

Wet
Dry

"Styled" (by me, so not really)

Hairband

Another Bad Haircut

I think I'm going to hire Becky to come down here and cut my hair, because really nobody else has a clue.

Of course it was Mastercuts again. My hair had grown out quite a bit and it just doesn't behave in mid-lengths. I wanted it at mid-cheek in front, and higher in the back (to avoid the flare-out tail I get). Instead, I now look exactly like I did right after I got to Okinawa, which means it looks like I had a boy-cut that grew out for 4 months. Great. Anyway, with a comb-headband-thingey it doesn't look entirely bad. I guess I have a reason to wear those now.

Here's a brief review of past bad haircuts. Its now just a little shorter, especially in the back, than this first shot:



No, I can't wear that top, or the shorts I was in that day, anymore. I can't believe I ever could!

7 Minutes of Truth

Brutally Honest. Watch at your own risk, my friends.



Found via:
Effects Measure

Toys

Hi Stewie! Thanks for adding us to your roll, Rigel is happy to know he has a following.

He has two really favorite toys. One I call jingly balls, plastic whiffle-type balls with bells inside. They are even more fun with a plain tissue sticking out of a hole. The other is my husband’s ring. It’s titanium so it won’t get scratched at all. He likes to take it off our fingers in a wiggle motion and…well the rest needs to be recorded for full appreciation for how much he loves it.

He had no interest in the Bird Buddy (by Happy Hut) except for the strings. Anything with strings is just a toy with annoying things hanging off it.

So yeah, the nice $10 toys, he’s not so interested. Go figure.

I never got him a treat labyrinth because I got him the treats that go in it, and he is uninterested so far. My shirts function very well as shredding toys. *doh* He has a rope comfy perch, but I’m still not sure if he would like a swing. Maybe next month. Speaking of wood ladders, it appears he knocked his over in the last 10 minutes. Huh.

Parrot Photo Shoot

Here's a set of pictures I took after Rigel's bath today. We sat in the sunshine to dry off and he was very photogenic. I had a little trouble with the upload, but finally got it working on slide.com.

I love this, I caught him mid tail-shake!

He has a bunch of new feathers coming in around his beak, so he loves rubbing his face on things. He stopped and just looked at me from this weird position.

Enjoying the sunshine, and chewing on the perch.

Mister Attitude

What a difference flash makes. He didn't like it much.

I like the arrangement here, and in the second one his little prim proper feet. Don't be fooled. Later I caught him chewing on my shirt.

Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! No really, its a bird.

Accomplishment (Or Not)

Weekend Goals:
Physics HW___________Due: Monday____Completed Friday Afternoon :)
Physics Lab + Report_____Due: Wednesday__Not Started :(
Chemistry Pre-Lab_______Due: Tuesday____Not Started :(
Calculus HW___________Due: Tuesday____~ Completed Sunday Night
Literature Paper_________Due: Tuesday____Completed (3rd Time) Sunday Night

Clean up various notes________________kinda got around to some of that a little
Go back and do Chemistry HW I skipped___not so much
Go back and do Math HW I bombed______nope
Screw Around on internet_____________excessively
Minor housecleaning and laundry_______done (or not)

So why did I want to finish stuff that's not due until mid-week? First, I'm trying (or not) to get ahead instead of doing all homework the night before its due, because it has been stressing me out. Second, I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow afternoon which might (or not) leave me in some sort of agony, and I didn't want to skip important assignments because it hurts too much to focus. Oh well.

I'm really hoping the pain isn't too bad because I need to make it to the Math Lab tomorrow night for help on my Calculus homework. I worked all of the problems, but a few aren't coming up with correct answers. I know it has something to do with reversing the chain rule (like you wanted to know), but I can't figure out how.

Eh. So I've spent half an hour doing this instead of, well, anything else. Damn. Off to bed then.

Serenity: Characterization

Captain Mal Reynolds and angelic killing-machine River Tam are dynamic characters in the movie Serenity. I do not think it is possible to look at these two characters separately, because each exists to repair the damage of the other. He struggles to live outside the reach of the oppressive government he fought against in a failed rebellion. It is a difficult task because his crew makes a living smuggling between planets and harbors two fugitives. His disenchantment with rebellion cannot hide the anger seething beneath, or the good in his heart.

The girl, River, is a child genius on the run from government experiments that gave her physical strength and psychic abilities. She is unable to control many of her disturbing behaviors because of the torture and the government secret that is tearing apart her psyche. When she reveals it, Mal must choose between keeping his head low and risking his crew and his ship to broadcast the truth. He initially decides to take his crew into hiding, until the enemy systematically slaughters everyone they could depend on. Left without an alternative, Mal finally lets his sense of justice meet his rage, and he leads his crew on their bloody mission. The experience is cleansing for River’s mind, redemptive for Mal, and the movie ends on a tentatively positive note.