fishpatrol

1. My new year's resolution is to be less of an antisocial hermit (I kick-started this resolution by actually going to a new year's eve party rather than rolling myself up in a blanket burrito and reading fic. 10 points to me~) My other resolution is to be less of a failbot, but I'm not doing so well on that one. \o\

1.5 I've noticed that the traffic on LJ has been declining drastically over the past few months (probably due to a combination of the increasing popularity of Twitter/Tumblr/etc and LJ's own fuck-ups). Part of my resolution is to be more social online as well as offline, so tell me how I can interact and socialize with you! Yes, YOU, right there, reading this entry. I am always up for chatting about fannish things and capslocking about random things and, idk, discussions about human behaviour and whatnot.

I'm unalignable on Twitter, fishpatrol at DW (I haven't updated this account since last year \o\ if you post exclusively on DW, let me know! I haven't checked my...reading circle? --is that what they're called?-- in ages); I'm considering opening a Tumblr account, but it is like VORTEX OF UNENDING IMAGES -- you fall in and by the time you climb back out, five hours have already gone by. /o\

If you communicate primarily by email/gchat, I'm meemobunny[at]gmail (I am always so uncertain whether or not I should just chat at someone if I see them online \o\ WHAT IF THEY DON'T WANT TO TALK. /O\ So, here: if I'm online, you can always chat at me!) I also have Whatsapp, so if that's your preferred method of communication, we can exchange numbers through, idk, PMs or something.

[/TALK TO ME...?]

2. 2012 has been kind of a shit-show. 2013 hasn't been significantly better, but hey, it's only been two days. (more about this in a locked entry, later -- this is a it's-a-new-year-let's-be-optimistic post)

3. So, about a month ago, I accidentally fell into the hockey RPF fandom, oops. I thought it was just a ~passing ~phase, but I've now recorded a one-hour long podfic and I kind of want to record more, so, uh, IDEK. Poor applegeuse has had to endure my incessant vomming of hockey feels. Mostly, I say stuff like I am totally ~doing ~sports ~wrong, because I care very little about the actual skill of the players, or how good a team is -- I ONLY CARE ABOUT HOW AMUSING THE PLAYERS ARE AS ~PEOPLE (I love watching behind the scenes videos, etc akdslfjdsj). It just so happens that the better players get more interviews/behind the scenes/etc, so I end up liking the ones that play well because of COINCIDENCE. \o\ /o/ \o\ I'll bet I could totally get roped into American football RPF and/or European football (soccer :P) RPF as well, if they had a ton of fics and a ton of lolarious videos sdklafjlad;j THERE IS JUST SOMETHING DELICIOUS ABOUT A BUNCH OF DUDES WHO ARE RIDIC DEDICATED TO A RIDIC GAME AND, LIKE, ~FEEL INTENSE ABOUT THE GAME AND TO EACH OTHER AND ARE PROBABLY ALL FAILBOTS OUTSIDE OF THEIR RIDIC GAME. THEY ARE ALWAYS TOGETHER (LIVING TOGETHER, BEING ON THE ROAD TOGETHER, PLAYING TOGETHER) AND BOND OVER THEIR INTENSE FEELS ABOUT THEIR RIDIC GAME. IT IS LIKE BOARDING SCHOOL STORIES (which I have always enjoyed in real!books and fic :>) BUT MORE ~INTENSE. [/vomming feels] And she's like, OMG WHY ARE YOU EVEN IN THIS FANDOM, COME BACK TO SPN/J2. s;alkdfjsl;d \o\ /o/ \o\

(I usually blame lemniciate for getting me into random fandoms, but this time, it's totally scintilla10's fault. Well, okay, no, not really. It's mostly because I am weaksauce and just need one picture/fic/podfic to pique my interest. X3;; She mentioned the fandom in passing, I lol'ed at her, and the next thing I knew, I was guzzling down the fics on AO3/listened to all of the podfic at least twice/trawled tumblr looking at images and gifs. *MASSIVE FACEPALM* HOW DID I GO FROM THIS TO THIS? creying and slobbing forever /o\)

3.5 ANYWAY. I doodled applegeuse a little J2 (feat. the alliterative cats) for being a ~good ~sport (hur hur) about the whole thing.



4. On the one hand, there is no such thing as "too much cake". On the other hand, YES, YES THERE IS. TOO MUCH SUGAR, BLERGH BLERGH.

How applegeuse wins internet!arguments:

‪‪me‬: YOU PICK
YOU PICK YOU PICK
I TAG YOU
‪applegeuse:‬ I CAN'T PICK
YOU CAN'T TAG ME
‪me‬: I CAN
‪applegeuse‬: I DODGE THAT BULLET
‪me‬: I'M OLDER
‪applegeuse‬: I'M BIGGER
‪me‬: SIZE DOESN'T MATTER ON THE INTERNET
BECAUSE YOU LIVE IN MY MACBOOK
‪applegeuse‬: OH YEAH? AGE DOESN'T MATTER EITHER. EVEN 14 YR OLD HAVE MACBOOKS.
‪me‬: if i can't pull the age card and you can't pull the size card
then we will have to rock/paper/scissors/lizard/spock for it
I CHOOSE LIZARD
‪applegeuse‬: if you choose lizard, i choose to pull your lizard tail off.
‪me‬: what. that is not an option. D:

(this story ends with me being ~self-sacrificial)

Also, she gave me questions for the Seven Questions meme that I totally forgot to do \o\

[Everyone and their monkey's uncle have already done the meme, but what the heck ever:

Comment to this post (and say, "SAM IS A FANCY LADY"), and I will list seven things I want you to talk about. They might make sense or they might be totally random. Then post that list, with your commentary, to your journal. Other people can get lists from you, and the meme merrily perpetuates itself.]

1. If you could only eat one vegetable for the rest of your life, what would it be? Also, you can’t cook it. You have to eat it raw.

WHAT EVEN. I CHOOSE...CARROTS. (do tomatoes count as vegetables? because I'd choose tomatoes)

( Q2-Q7 )

In other news, I want to get sorted at Pottermore but I don't want to go through all of the chapters. \o\~~~

In other HP-related news, I've been listening to this podcast* -- it is ridiculous and probably kind of self-indulgent on the author's part, but it's ever so entertaining and addictive!
*-at first I thought to myself, "This is an audio recording of a fanfiction! It is a podfic!" But! as I listened to more and more of it, I realized that it was not, in fact, podfic. I get the impression that the reader performs more similarly to an audiobook reader than a podfic reader. And the fanfic is a "fanfic" insofar as it's a written transformative work based off of JK Rowling's books, but it's more of a re-write of HP:PS with Harry being a clever snothead and pointing out all the flaws of the wizarding world and magic (it is funnier and more entertaining than I make it out to be, I swear!) than a typical fanfiction (there is, however, a brief mention of H/D mpreg~).

1. I chipped the corner of my front tooth! On what, I have no idea! D: One second I'm licking at my front tooth (idk) and I'm thinking there's something stuck on it, and the next second I'm like, OMG PART OF MY TOOTH IS MISSING. I have nightmares about my teeth becoming loose and falling out. :(

2. My mom, trying to compliment me on my life choices or something, idk:

MOM: You're like a bomb that's still heading up in its trajectory while other people are heading down [makes hand gestures]
ME: ...did you just compare me to an Angry Bird?
MOM: XDDD

3. I thought my brain was completely fried because I just could not edit the damned paper (like, not a single thing; not even re-arrange the paragraphs), but it turns out I just reeeally don't want to work on that particular paper. I made a teeny bit head-way on a separate project and jotted down a few ideas and a few papers that I need to look up tomorrow (which, yay, every bit counts...or something). But...that still doesn't resolve the issue with the other paper. It ain't gonna edit itself and I have a meeting about it on Wednesday, ugh.

4. I refuse to leave this post on a depressing note, so, here, have a meme that's been making the rounds:

Leave me a comment with the corresponding number(s) and I'll tell you:

1 Five ways to my heart.
2 Something I feel strongly about.
3 A book I love.
4 Things I want to say to an ex.
5 Five pet peeves.
6 What I ate today.
( 7-26 under the cut )

Be forewarned that my answers for some of these might be on the ridiculous side, especially if I'm coming up with the answer on the spot. ;;;

1. 8 Dreamwidth codes, if anyone still wants one:
( here! )

2. I watched Bridesmaids the other day, at the suggestion of a friend who's not even into chick flicks. I suppose Bridesmaids deviated slightly from the usual type of chick flick, even though the overall storyline was still very much in line with typical chick flicks. The humour was certainly much cruder than I'd expected (and the ending was a bit OTT and unnecessary ;;;). It was entertaining enough -- and I think it even passes the Bechdel Test! ( cut for spoilery comment )

3. I started watching Happy Endings because my usual 20-minute sitcoms are on hiatus. I didn't go into it with very high expectations, but it's surprisingly entertaining! I went through about six or seven episodes today. ;;; (as an aside: I find it tiring to watch more than two 42-minute episodes back-to-back, but somehow, watching six 20-minute episodes back-to-back is no problem at all...) The characters are fairly likable (and Penny looks remarkably like Genevieve Cortese...) and it's not all about how members of the group have all dated each other and/or want to date each other, which is quite refreshing.

4. I love recording podfic, but editing is no fun at all. For some reason, I can't record/speak for more than a minute without stumbling! However, when I was reading the first chapter of George's Marvelous Medicine aloud to my housemate (don't ask why), I was able to read through it just fine, with minimal stumbles. :|:| I DON'T UNDERSTAND.

5. I went on a Dresden Files fic kick for a little while (I blame lemniciate -- Inception and The Social Network were her fault too!), even though I'd only read, like, five chapters of the first book. I found it difficult to get into the first book (which is why I stalled after chapter five), but I decided to give it another shot and try the audiobook this time. It's read by James Marsters, who does a fairly good job, but I'm finding that he breathes too deeply, too much. XD;;; I think I've been spoiled by the numerous awesome podficcers in fandom!

6. I need an online nickname! I'm 'fishpatrol' on LJ/DW and 'fishling' on a couple of other sites, but neither are very good names to call me. I used to go by 'Meemo' (back in my meemobunny days), but I feel like I've outgrown it (but those of you who knew me as Meemo back in the day can feel free to continue calling me that :)). postingwhore calls me 'JJ' and cantarina1 is trying get me to respond to "Patty" (WHICH MAKES NO SENSE AT ALL OKAY; but sure, I'll respond to "'trolling" XD).

7. A friend from Boston invited me to go visit her in August, and hopefully I'll be able to go at least somewhere in August since I'll be done my comprehensive exams by then and will be in dire need of a break. If I fly out to Boston, I'd like to visit some of the surrounding cities as well (I haven't been to NYC or Washington DC in over ten years). Do any of you guys live around the area and/or are planning to visit that area and want to meet up and hang out/be fangirly together/visit museums (BECAUSE MUSEUMS ARE COOL)? I promise I'm nice and won't bite (I won't bite even if you want me to because human flesh is kind of ucky D:)! :}

1. I keep writing up LJ entries in my head, but I guess they are of very little use if I don't post them. ;;; postingwhore kindly nudged me to remind me that I haven't posted in over three weeks. I want to post more regularly, but I keep getting distracted by other things! Also, school is still kicking my ass, big time. If I posted more regularly, I suspect my entries would be filled with things like: "And today, I tried reading fifty million articles and write up a paper in one go and I realized that it was a Very Bad Idea."

I did my Presentation of Doom back in April and I thought that was going to be the major hurdle. It was a pretty massive hurdle, but now I'm inundated with all the work I've neglected and I have supervisors and collaborators emailing me with stuff like, "Where is the data/write-up/analysis/study design" and I'm all, "D: D: D: *hides and procrastinates more*" My way of dealing with stress is to read fic and let me tell you, that is a terrible coping method.

2. MEME!

1) Comment to this and (if you want) I will give you 3 (fictional) people.
2) Post this meme to your LJ with your answers.
3) Provide pictures/text descriptions and the names of the 3 people.
4) Label whom you would shag, marry and (push off a) cliff.

postingwhore gave me: Dean Winchester (SPN), John Sheppard (SGA), Atobe Keigo (PoT)

These were tough choices! But it did give me an excuse to go through my SPN/SGA/PoT picture folders and ogle at all the pretty. I also realized that I have very few pictures of Dean (if Jensen were on this list instead of Dean, I suspect my answers to this meme may be very different...).

( ...and onwards! )

3. The keynote speaker at last week's conference talked about some really interesting research about the psychology of scarcity and how people can be "money poor" or "time poor". ( ... )

4. The topic of marriage comes up more frequently now that I'm often with people who are several years older than me. One of the fifth year students expressed her surprise when I told her than I'm not particularly invested in the idea of marriage for myself. ( ... )

5. So, despite my antisocial mannerisms, I had a lovely, brisk walk with cantarina1 around the neighbourhood. That was a particularly efficient and healthy way of "hanging out" (as opposed to huddling together in front of a computer screen, as we often do ;)). If we make this a regular thing, perhaps I'll be able to shed a layer of padding around my middle that I've picked up during my semester of thinking-about-going-to-the-gym-but-never-actually-going.

6. Now for something completely different: so, the other day, I came across a discussion about the importance of technical quality in stories posted online. Some of the people involved in this discussion were appalled that some readers would completely skip over stories that had grammatical mistakes and other errors. "The authors are writing these stories for fun!" they said. "They're even posting the stories for free, you entitled readers!"

As for myself, I have three general rules that I use to decide whether or not I will read any particular story (I would've sworn I'd written about this at some point in time, but maybe it's one of those in-my-mind!entries that I'd never gotten around to writing out and posting). I developed these three rules-of-thumb back in high school, during my Harry Potter days, when I realized that there was more fic being posted than I had time to read.

( cut for length. i haz ~opinions )

Tell me about what makes you click the "back" button!

7. I should post more often so that I don't end up spending 40 minutes trying to write up an LJ post.

8. Is Firefox 4 actually faster or does it just look Chrome-like, with no actual redeeming qualities?

eta: Adding more Lj-cuts because long entry is long. ;;;; [/spamming your flists]

1. I see that LJ still hasn't addressed the reposting to Facebook/Twitter issue. I won't repost if you won't.

2. There's this big apartment building across from our residence building, and back in August, when I looked out our living room window, I could see what looked like a neon open sign on an upper floor balcony. I said jokingly to my suitemate S., "I'll bet there's a hooker living there and that's the 'Open for Business' sign, so that customers know when to go up." (This is not a far-fetched theory! Rumours say that there are many prostitutes living in that building.) Today, S. looked out the window and noted that we haven't seen the lit-up sign for a while now. I immediately thought to myself, It's because hooker!Jensen has given up the trade since he's met student!Jared who is the love of his life and now they are living happily ever after and the neon open sign will never light up again! This may be an indication to cut back on the J2 AUs. ;;;;

3. SPN Season 6 Trailer, eee♥
( very brief reaction, cut for the super-spoiler-phobes )
I AM EXCITE.

3.5 Inception has finally loosened its claws on me, so now I can divert some attention back to SPN (but I've been in more of a J2 mood lately, idk). I'm not sure if the trailer was for the first two (three?) episodes, or just the first episode; either way, I do hope next week's episode won't disappoint. *crosses fingers*

4. I started yoga classes today. I have a feeling I'm going to be hurting in strange places tomorrow. X3

5. School officially started yesterday -- not that it ever really ended for me (eta: ahaha, this comic says it all. fml /o\), but two classes (and a half? and the weekly seminars), two TA sessions, and two research projects means a lot less slacking on my part. nrrrghhhh

6. Will play comment-catch-up tomorrow. Time to sneak in a teeny bit of fic reading (yes, I suck at being productive, shut up) and then go to bed. I almost fell asleep during the final relaxation period during yoga (I don't know why I was so sleepy! I even took a nap in my office earlier today. ;;;)

1. I went to a meditation class yesterday at a Sivananda yoga place. I have no problem sitting still for half-an-hour, but I couldn't keep my mind blank. Also, my back hurt after a while. I think that means I have very weak back muscles. D:

2. I watched Inception with lilie_charlotte today. I think watching it three times is sufficient. :> I've just about reached the saturation level for the movie and the soundtrack (iTunes says I've listened to the soundtrack 97 times, but I think it's lying).
[So, this time, I was paying attention to all the small details. Saw a lot more potential pairings this time around as well -- Arthur/Ariadne, Saito/Fischer, Ariadne/Fischer...pretty much all possible permutations? :D Also, half of the characters pronounce Saito as "SAY-toh" while the other half pronounces it as "SAI-toh". Inconsistency! \o\]

3. Me: *reaches over and randomly bumps fist with S*
S: 武功？ :D
Me: IT'S A FISTBUMP D: Omg, cultural differences, ahaha. *facepalms IRL*

4. All my housemates are early-risers. I wake up to doors slamming around 8am, and then I fall back asleep until around 9am. I lounge around in bed, skimming the flist on my iPod. And finally, I roll out of bed at around 10am and everyone else has been gone for at least an hour (I suspect some of them leave around 8am). Geez, morning people. X3

5. Hiatus is still sort of in effect. Sort of. Idk, I'm kind of failing at it. I hope I'll get a chance to take a bit of a break after I submit the proposal (oh shit, there's still the ethics protocol to write, I totally forgot *tears at hair* D:). I'll have to take more classes next semester than I'd anticipated, but perhaps I'll try to weasel myself out of one of them.

1. My friend gave me this really awesome strawberry dangly thing:


( 'But what is it?' you ask. )

2. Supernatural anime trailer
My shallow side thinks it's a shame that they went for such a harsh style for the art. I wasn't hoping for sparkly eyes and floating flowers or anything, but characters in shounen anime can still be pretty! *eyes Prince of Tennis* (or even Eyeshield21! or Whistle! the list goes on!) Yeah, yeah, I'm one of those people who think Dean should look like a bishounen. But even if you don't agree with me on that point, you have to agree that this is a terrible design for John Winchester (Mary looks pretty good, if a bit on the young side -- especially compared to John!). Complaints aside, though, I'm still looking forward to the anime. ;)

3. I'm going to go gorge myself on extra-butter popcorn now. I have a feeling my stomach won't thank me when it gets coated in a thick layer of buttery oil. Mmm, buttery oil. :>

1. I keep seeing the use of the word "awhile" and for a while (heh, see what I did there? ;)), I thought "awhile" was an imaginary creature like the alot. Turns out, "awhile" is not an imaginary creature, but "[insert preposition] awhile" (e.g. "for awhile") is. :>

2. I am experiencing random aches -- I suspect they were caused by the yoga class I went to yesterday. I am about as strong as a toothpick and as bendable as a brick wall. :< Also, my back really hurts. Earlier in the afternoon, I was lying on the ground, trying to stretch it out, but my attempts were not effective. Also, my shoulder blades kind of poke out (I don't know if it's because my back consists only of skin and bones or because I have oddly formed shoulder blades) so it's not comfortable lying flat on a hard surface. D:

3. Anonmemes tend to have a bad rep, but this (assuming it's true and all that) is kind of ridiculously sweet and awesome. :> And now someone needs to write this into a J2 AU! ;)

1. My nose hurts and my throat hurts and I'm sick of being (sort of) sick. I would've sworn I'd already gotten sick once this year already! (or maybe it was back in 2009 and I'm forgetting things again)

2. Every time I come across the term "sounding" and the term "teabagging" (in a kink context, obvs), I Google the definitions because I keep forgetting what they mean. Maybe it's my brain's defense mechanism kicking into gear. (and no, don't copy&paste me the urbandictionary.com definitions of these words -- I don't want to know anymore. X3)

3. It's 11pm, but I'm really, really hungry, so I think I'm going to go fry up some ~potstickers~.