joy and shadows

My journal is called _____ because _____.
My subtitle is _____ because _____.
My friends page is called _____ because _____.
My username is ____ because _____.
My default userpic is _____ because _____.

My journal is called "joy and shadows" because my username (Arafel) is both a corruption of the Irish word for joy (aoibheal, aoibhneas) and the Hebrew word for fog or shadows (arafel). While this is something of a Humpty Dumpty reasoning (the word means what I say it means), the dichotomy is pleasing.

My subtitle is currently "w00tabiscuit" from w00t (expression of enthusiasm) and "biscuit" (one of husband's pet names.) And it makes me think of Weetabix.

My friends page is called "partners in crime" because... they are.

My username is "Arafel" because it's been my online handle since I ws 13, and I'm now 29. Also, Arafel is the heroine of C. J. Cherryh's duology "The Dreaming Tree," and I likes her.

My default userpic is Lady Amalthea from The Last Unicorn because I love the movie and have this thing about wanting white hair.

Answers appreciated, if you can think of something to say. ^_^;;

01. Who are you?
02. Are we friends?
03. When and how did we meet?
04. Do you have a crush on me?
05. Would you kiss me?
06. Give me a nickname and explain why you picked it.
07. Describe me in one word.
08. What was your first impression?
09. Do you still think that way about me now?
10. What reminds you of me?
11. If you could give me anything what would it be?
12. How well do you know me?
13. When's the last time you saw me?
14. Ever wanted to tell me something but couldn't?
15. Are you going to put this on your LiveJournal and see what I say about you?

Thanks to the ppl who did leave a comment after all. I felt better when I went home, feeling droopy, and husband and I had the following conversation:

Me: Hiiii...

Him: *sounding sad* Hiiii...

Me: *comes upstairs to hug* Are you sad too?

Him: Little bit.

Me: Bad day at work?

Him: No, I kind of squished my left nut.

Me: *breaks down laughing*

Note on The Incredibles: Jason Lee voices Syndrome, the main baddie in the movie. Those of you who have seen Mallrats also know that Jason Lee played Brodie, the ultra-fanboy. In Mr. Incredible's first meeting with Syndrome (who is calling himself Incrediboy at the time) he calls Incrediboy "Brodie."

Which of course you won't get if you haven't seen Mallrats. And Syndrome is Brodie to the nth power - I kept expecting him to make some kind of inquiry about Bob and Helen's sex life.

IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THIS MOVIE, GO OUT AND SEE IT ALREADY KTHXBYE.

Look, Right Stuf is selling Lavie's goat toy from Last Exile! Too cute.

Our new DVD player arrived yesterday.

It plays files encoded with DivX.

OH YES

But it doesn't play files encoded with XviD.

OH NOES.

So that means about half of my Samurai Champloo downloads are playable on the TV, which is going to add that Uber-L33t dimension to Anime Night. (Wheeee! Fansubs!) Ani-Kraze ought to catch up on the DivX sooner or later, right? (AFF is the one that codes with XviD currently, I think.)

And DUDE, the player was only about $63 from Amazon! With free shipping and all that.

Now to send my poor husband away for the weekend so I can catch up on all my anime.

Nice change of pace from 13 and 14 - definitely some funny antics from Jin and Mugen were in order after the Mugen!Angst. Which is far less pretty than Vash!Angst, but Mugen doesn't have much of a problem with killing people.

Highlight of the ep: Jin tries to catch a fish.

One of the things I'm really liking about this series is that it laughs at itself. Jin isn't Mr. Super-Serious Zen Samurai all the time (like when he catches a fish.) Mugen's a vicious stray dog, but not all the time. Sometimes he's just an idiot, and a womanizing idiot at that. Very, very distracted at the thought of nekkid ladies.

It's also highly amusing to see that Mugen and Jin have reached this gentleman's agreement of "ok, we're going to kill one another, but that means no one else gets to do it instead of me, so I'll save your ass for now. And while we're at it, let's ditch Fuu and go to the brothel."

In the brothel (what is it with this series and brothels anyway?):

Mugen wants teh sexx0r.

Jin wants a backrub.

BWAH.

Oh, and Mugen X Yatsuha OTP.

(Anyone else want in on the fansubs? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?)

Looky, I made something with Sculpey!

( Diao Chan's necklace )

I was dreading starting this, but when I was blabbering at my long-suffering husband about how to make different parts of Diao Chan's outfit, it occurred to me that it would be easy to make her necklace with cookie cutters. And BOY DO I HAVE A MILLION COOKIE CUTTERS. :D

Came out okay for a first pass!

I seem to have read a lot of articles like this one about how the number of foreign grad students is declining yet again. Numerous factors are cited, which I won't get into. In short, research programs in the US depend on students from China, India, and Russia.

I agree that this is a problem, yes! But how about this for a change: WHY AREN'T DOMESTIC STUDENTS MAKING UP THE GAP?

I'll tell you why.

Because my sister-in-law, who works in insurance and who has never graduated from college, makes 15K more than I do.

Because my cousin, who works for an investment firm and who double-majored in history and English, the latter of which (do pardon me here) I could have done in my sleep, is making THREE TIMES what I do.

Do I grudge them their salaries? No, but I do find it frustrating. I went to school for six years post-grad, got a PhD, and there's no monetary reward at the end of it. Sure, I have a pretty sheepskin on the wall, but the fact remains that there is no financial incentive to go into science. You're doing it for the love of the field and not because you're going to be compensated for it.

Meanwhile, all your friends who went into finance or computers are sitting pretty, because they didn't spend years in school and have experience and seniority and all that. You can't make up the years you spent in grad school while everyone else was working, so you have to live with being on the short end of the stick.

So who's the schmuck? Not my cousin or my sister-in-law. Me.

So there's your reason for the shortfall. The underlying problem isn't just that foreign student enrollment is dropping, it's that universities are dependent on them to get the research done. They're dependent on the foreign students because they're far more likely to put up with the lack of pay and long hours that grad school requires. To solve the root of the problem, it's time to bring some respect - and reward - back to the scientific profession.

Did my civic duty this morning and got the voting over with.

Husband and I went to the normal polling place only to find out that it had moved. There was another guy in a Jetta who did the same loop but headed off with purpose, so we spun stones and slalomed off entirely too fast to follow him down the hill. Turns out that the new polling place was the municipal building, so that was a short drive.

A woman toting a baby bucket didn't understand how to use the machine and hit "cast vote" after voting for prez was complaining when we walked in about how hard the machine was to use. She was unhappy that she didn't get to vote for anyone else and felt that you should vote individually instead of picking everyone and hitting the button once. However, the instructions were posted right next to the machine. My thought was "no, the machine is fine, how about YOU Read The Fucking Manual."

Then I considered that this kind of not RTFM'ing and then whining about it ("It's not my fault! It's the machine's fault!") is exactly the kind of shit that's going to mire the outcome of this election in judicial mud if the outcome is anything less than a landslide. Sigh.

Husband and I both voted for the write-in candidate for township committee, since the Republican candidate seems to be widely regarded as a turd. This charming fellow blocked a landing pad for a Medevac helicopter because it would be adjacent to his $8 million estate. I'd like to think that if I had an $8 million estate that I'd be happy to see the heli go up and down, because it would mean someone was getting help.

Anyway, get out and vote. Vote for the Communists if you don't like either candidate. Just vote.

When the going gets tough, the tough bake cookies.

Mom Q asked for chocolate biscotti for the wine pressing this weekend, so last night's project was to make those. I went a little crazy and put four kinds of chocolate in them (white, semisweet, dark, and bittersweet) and ended up having to cut them very carefully to avoid shattering.

Something nice happened yesterday, got an email back from the girl I mailed to ask how she made her Dian Chao wig. She gave a helpful description of how she made the wig, linked me to where she got hers, and expressed interest in seeing the finished product. One of the problems with email is that it's easy to ignore and I've become accustomed to people not bothering to email me back when I ask them questions, so it's pleasing to get the opposite result.

This weekend is going to be a welcome respite from this week. It has been very stressful and tiring, and I keep telling myself that getting disheartened is not going to help anyone. Being frustrated at work is a fact of life and everyone's going to go through it sooner or later. Throwing one's hands up in defeat or running away after the first battle shows a poor work ethic and a lack of dedication. It's all going to be over soon and I'm fixing the mistakes as best I can.

I started cutting my Rosette Christopher outfit tonight.

First, the fabric shrank from 45 in to 42 in, so the skirt back was too wide for the fabric.

Dealt with that.

Then, I compromised my shrinking length of fabric by cutting a piece I didn't need.

Dealt with that.

Then, I discovered that McCall's puts their measurement guide in a place I wasn't looking for it, and I should have been cutting for a medium all the while instead of cutting for a small.

Can't deal with that.

Furious.

My mom bought me that fabric as a present, too.

That's the worst part, that she will ask to see what I did with the fabric because she takes pride in my few-and-far-between creative accomplishments, and I'll have to tell her the project got trashed. Don't know if I can find another bolt of the same type of fabric in the same color.

This goddamn cosplay was arsed from the start and now I just feel sick about it. Fuck it, after today's outing at the bloodsucking VW dealer ($600) and the bill coming in from the cardiologist (another $600), there isn't enough money for plane tickets AND Christmas.

Fuck.