I made homemade cream of mushroom soup last night for the first time! And totally winged it, Meres'-Dad style (he doesn't believe in recipes.) It turned out quite well, but like most of my sauces/soups ended up a little heavy on the salt. Very tasty with toasted ciabatta dipped in, though.

The election is soon, and I worry stupidity will reign, if only because of the split on the left. Though, if the Conservatives win a minority we might see something interesting.

( Angry rant aheadCollapse )

In other news, my cat has lost his damn mind. Were does he get the energy to gallop around for half an hour meowing at nothing? And why is he such a bitey jerk? Is he getting messages from the mother ship or something?

Hello! Is this thing still on?

It's been... almost 3 years since my last entry. Wow.

What's going on out in this corner of the internet? How's life? Where have we been?

Oh, hey what, I haven't posted in about a month again? *whistles nonchalantly*

So, it appears you Americans are undergoing the climactic night of all this endless suffrage. Um. Good luck?

I have nothing of substance to offer. Same news as last time: no news. Work is busy, first snow was yesterday, I am enjoying having actual money, and I hate house centipedes.

Also, on October 29th Max and I had our one year Cataversary! Seems like I've had him forever, really. He just insinuated himself right in. ♥

Anyhoo, I'll just leave this here. It's important election night advice.

And I do feel bad. And out of the loop. I have not posted since August? And haven't read my flist since the beginning of September! I suck!

(HI GUYS. ILU.)

In my defense, this new job I got keeps me stupid-busy all day and I cannot usually brain enough at the end of it all to read the eight bajillion posts I have missed. So I avoid. And then miss more stuff. Vicious circle.

I like my job so far! That is, I like (most of) the people I work with, and if the job itself isn't the most intellectually riveting, it is also non-stressful, unlike grad school which was only slightly more interesting and 23456% more stressful. So. I also like being paid a non-shitty wage, so yeah.

So I have been... working? Thanksgiviniginging? Antiquing. And also planning to go to many concerts, some sooner, some later. Basia Bulat! Japandroids! Mother Mother! Muse!

In other news, I don't come entirely empty-handed, for once. ( Hugh DillonCollapse )

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go eat some pie.

Got two job offers today. Pro/con lists to come for the perusal of the internets, but I think I know my choice.

Bring me the finest muffins and bagels in all the land.

High fives and butt-slaps for everyone at CERN today. Mmmm, five sigma.

In fannish science news, I had another thought this weekend: if Character A has suddenly increased muscular strength, they're going to have to have proportionally increased everything strength. I'm talking bones, connective tissue, skin like Kevlar; otherwise they'd tear themselves to bits. Which leads me to the question: the hell kind of needle do you have to use to draw blood from Captain America?

Also, as brought up in the comments of that last post, when a character gets shrunk by magic or ray gun or whatever, why does barely anyone acknowledge that they are going to have a teeny, tiny, squeaky voice? A human being the size of a thumb is not going to maintain a baritone, guys.

On Meres' Real Life news, I had a gloooooooorious Canada Day weekend filled with cider and margaritas and pulled pork poutine, but then I took a sunburn to the knee. Literally. I always miss a spot. Also, there is action on the job front: I had an interview at a VERY prestigious hospital in Toronto last week, and I should hear back soon. And even if I don't get an offer there, it looks like funding is going ahead for that environmental tox job, so yay, me. I'm trying to enjoy my time off while I've got it. The next thing you'll probably hear from me is whining about apartment hunting.

Happy fireworks day to my American flisties! And condolences on the storm and miserable power outage in the East. =/

1. Why doesn't (almost) any wingfic address the musculature changes required to operate several feet of wings? Seriously, the flight muscles that'd be required to make a human-sized thing flight-worthy would be substantial. And wings may just bust out of your back, but your entire thoracic everything is going to have to do something pretty crazy, too. (Ans: unsexy. No one wants Char A strutting around with a chest like a turkey's.)

2. Why is radioactivity so often portrayed as green? Some, hm, accessory reactions (Cherenkov radiation, criticality glow discharge) are blue, but there's no green. Or oozing. (ETA: Okay, green radioluminescent paint = point! But still, what's with the goop?)

3. Mpreg: forget the birth, or even the genetics, the hell is the physiology of conception? Ass-ovulation? Of spermatozoa? (Ans: Everything about this is unsexy. Everything.)

4. Has someone ever come up with a reason a plant would evolve the capability to make Homo sapiens want to hump something/one to death? Is sex pollen some sort of misfiring neurotoxin? Whatever it is, it's the new favourite lead candidate for psychoactive drugs. (Ans: Pharmaceutical chemistry. Unsexy?)

5. Shapeshifting: whither the mass?

6. Changing the cellular makeup of humans to make them heal faster or age slower or both is fun in theory, but how is it not cancer? (It's cancer irl.) I want some technobabble explanation for how we can bork everything we know about the cell cycle. Steve Rogers what are your telomeres doing?

7. Back with Marvel: what the actual fuck is the X-gene's supposed mechanism? It's like the immunoglobulin cassette of ridiculous. RECOMBINE INTO ALL THE THINGS. Maybe it's not even a gene, but rather a target for transposons. From aliens. Alien transposons. IDEK.

I AM CURSED TO THINK ABOUT THESE THINGS.

(In other news: ASFDGDHGSFZ you'd think graduate students would be smart enough not to hit reply-all on a list email but noooooooo. Everyone doing that is disqualified from the email system pilot on account of dumb and annoying. The people hitting reply-all to complain about it especially. I have thus decreed; make it so.)

1. Metric's new album Synthetica is out on Tuesday and aaaaah, I love it (maybe not as much as Fantasies, but still). It can be streamed at their website and I am all hearts-in-eyes about the opening to Artificial Nocturne. I tried to get tickets to the invite-only show Tuesday in Toronto with my trivia knowledge, but failed. ALAS.

2. Avengers. I don't even know. I blame the eye candy and fandom talent. I should just start bookmarking already and stop pretending I'm not reading ALL the fic.

Now, people keep likening the character of Thor to an enthusiastic Labrador or some such, which: valid! But I maintain that he is, in fact, my cat Max. Or Max is him. If I had an occasion to rename Max, I would have to name him Thor, and probably get him a friend in the form of a smaller, darker, bitchier cat.

Evidence:

Stature: Imposing.

Coloration: Fair.

Personality: Extremely gregarious with frequent bouts of excessive belligerence. Doesn't listen so well.

Appetite: Enormous. Will pillage your cupboards.

Habits: Attacking things. Looking upwards (at nothing) and yelling. Lounging around majestically like he's the king of wherever he's parked himself. Breaking stuff. Going on quests to places he probably shouldn't. Smiting evil (Max's villains include coasters and silverfish). Getting excited about storms.

Misc: Max is permanently declawed, but Thor was for a while, himself, so it stands. I don't know Max's thoughts on hammers.

I think it's a compelling case.

3. Still unemployed. Keep fingers crossed for funding to come through for the only likely prospect I have. It's been a few weeks since the paperwork was submitted. My optimism wanes.

4. I am still not bored of all this downtime. Truly, my second calling is hermit.

5. METRIC. Did I mention how much I love Emily Haines? I love her.

6. NIGHT DANGER deer/moose signs inspire me to start a metal band with that name. We can paint zombie deer on our jackets. Who's with me?

... Hi! Bye!

Hello, I am Older today! Like a lot of my birthdays it is a day like any other (I'm cleaning the apartment wheeee) but the pomp and circumstance is on tomorrow as I convocate and get my rental hood and my actual diploma and become a for reals Master of Science.

Which is the BEST TITLE, am I right? STAND BACK, I AM A MASTER OF SCIENCE. (*boom*)

Anyway, also momentous is the fact that I am getting my hair cut tomorrow. The last haircut I had was in JULY 2010. Hahahaha. On the upside, my hair is looong, so I can save 20 cm to donate and still have plenty left. Hopefully the stylist does not give me a bad haircut for graduation.

Also also, this is my ~*~1000th post~*~

How about that.

Anyhow. Tell me about you! Or about SPN or TSN or music or The Avengers or whatever blows your hair back these days.

Greetings, folks. My mother is hosting a baby shower for one of my cousins at the end of the month, and I have been put in charge of baking cookies. I have pretty much perfected the basic chocolate chip (*buffs nails on shirt*) and also make a mean ginger cookie, but the latter are not quite seasonally appropriate? My repertoire is effective, but narrow. So, I was wondering if any of the bakers out there on the flist have a favourite cookie recipe or two they'd like to pass along. Simple is best, and I don't have a lot of decorating skills, but lemme have it if you got it.

In other news, have some music from the top of my playlist. All-Canadian, as usual:

Joel Plaskett Emergency - Somewhere Else

Half Moon Run - Full Circle

Eight and a Half - Scissors (TOKiMONSTA Remix)

Yamantaka // Sonic Titan - Queens


Also, Metric put their first single from their new album (out June 12th) up on Soundcloud: Youth Without Youth. Aasdfghj, I am excited.


Max says meow hi.