Remember?"

GOD it really has been ages this time lol. 9 months? amazing. I could've had a baby in that time (if I wanted one, that is).

and now it's sort of like, what do I say? O_O a LOT happened. interspersed with lots of bumming around of course. I'm at the end of my degree, will be starting honours next year, and then who knows? anyway, nothing good will happen unless I start studying for exams, which I am very clearly NOT doing right now, haha.

mostly because I got sucked into the Merlin fandom around about July and am still in it. and loving it! I swear it is 99% of the reason why I never get any work done, the other 1% being my lovely piano, and other miscellaneous distractions, like playing GBA, and mooning over cute guys, and singing aloud to music, and eating, and... hmm, that is a fairly large 1%, isn't it.

anyway. will probably reserve this blog for family/home stuff if I do get back to it, or maybe for rants about honours. fandom, art, and general squeeing is done over at my LJ.

see y'around : D

He stared

oooo it's been a while! ish. feels like ages.

nothing has changed much - nothing too exciting happening either. friday was my unofficial valentine's day. on saturday I went to jenny's house to watch moooovies and to meet all of jenny's crazy friends and dance around in sleeping bags and laugh. on sunday I visited the new recital centre, very shiny. and to dfo to buy dresses and things.

helping sis with her homework. I thought I'd never have to touch this stuff again D: <

at her.

I've been in a bad cycle lately - happens when I can't adjust to waking up early in the mornings, and can't tell myself to get to bed earlier. so I come home from labs so tired that I crash for an hour or two on the bed/couch, get up feeling crap, wake up a little more, and by the time it's two in the morning I can't sleep at all.

sis and I have been salivating over all the things we could make with a proper working oven. above everything else, we haven't made a chocolate cake in ages. T_T no store-bought cakes for us! and steamed cakes just ain't the same! T_T



is it possible to get re-sensitised to things? because when they were killing the guinea pig this morning I actually flinched.

His gaze

... life on mars US isn't actually that bad. :O

all these news broadcasts on the fires are kind of scary. I really hope everyone's alright, not just the people living there but the CFA as well. we have some old family friends up in jindivick who might be threatened. and poor phgrenadier too.

finally watched billy elliot in its entirety and it was awesome. and gay. and awesome.

and lastly, since gastronomy seems to be a bit dead, I might as well post works in progress here.

frog man, na na na na na na na na FROG MAN

turned vacant,

eta.


- bathroom window is translucent, ie. enough to let light in and at the same time prevent people peeping in. thank god.

- I'm to do the same experiments for a while, probably up until I finish in the lab, but they will be time controls instead, with some caffeine experiments thrown in. time controls apparently being the dullest experiment one can do, because the only variable there is pressure and there are no exciting drugs to compare against. oh god. maybe I'm being punished. T_T


I have seen Rudd's speech three times on tv now and I'm getting a little sick of his face.

as if he were

this is how an untypical morning goes:


1. wake up ten minutes later than late.

2. drag self to bathroom only to find the sink has been replaced.

• replacement sink has no working tap.
• brush teeth in laundry sink.

3. actually make breakfast. [phgrenadier: two eggs ;D]

• have heart attack when sis squeaks and grabs my arm.
• find cockroach on kitchen bench.
• on dad's suggestion, pour boiling water on cockroach and cook it to death.
• lose appetite.

4. watch dad and sis leave.

• soon afterwards, rabbit appears.
• pat rabbit.
• chase rabbit.
• ignore vibes of resentment from cat.

5. attempt to pack lunch.

• pantry empty.
• change mind.

6. leave house.

----

I did end up arriving late to lab today, but only relatively. Plenty of time to make up stock solution and set up all the equipment. For anyone who doesn't know, my lab work consists mainly of a) cannulating intestines [ie. threading the tissue onto tubes so solution can flow through], b) topping up solution reservoirs, c) occasionally altering solution flow and d) recording for 20 or 30 minute periods. Drugs flushed through the tissue sometimes have the effects they're supposed to and sometimes - most of the time - they don't. I guess tissue varies from guinea pig to guinea pig but I'm pretty sure that a lot of it is human error too. Riveting stuff.

All the activity is recorded using a webcam and video imaged, compressed, converted into matlab summary files and finally analysed off graphs. So stuff like this is what I get to stare at at my bench all day:

top: jejenum; bottom: duodenum. each organ bath contains stock (control) solution or drug and is heated to around 33-35 degrees C.
my tissues are awesome and well-behaved today. mwa. except not actually mwa, the thought of actually kissing this is a bit sickening

which is converted into stuff like this, which I have to analyse.

segment of duodenum 45 minutes after flushing L-Phenylalanine solution through. each line across the graph is a contraction. this is what happens when the L-Phe actually works >3<

the lab kills a guinea pig pretty much every day at 9.30am, so we all have to be there by then or we'll miss out on getting tissue. They say this but I suspect since we're ickle undergrads they'd make allowances for us - I arrived two hours late one day thinking I was in for analysis and found they'd left me tissue on my bench anyway.

so now you know. :D it's not the most exciting stuff around but it is volunteer work and it is experience. Today is my 14th and hopefully final L-Phe experiment [fingers crossed for some nice, conclusive results]; after this, I'll be hoping to do something a bit more challenging. <3


and yes, I am blogging from the lab. xD shocking

taking time to process.

also, am I the only one who keeps getting stuck to the furniture?

Then,

It seems I wasn't listening when dad said he was going to put a floor-to-ceiling window in the bathroom.

BECAUSE THERE IS NO WAY I COULD HAVE CONSENTED TO THAT.


especially since the window hasn't been put in yet (and therefore not the blinds - I assume there will be blinds - there MUST BE BLINDS), and the only thing preventing people from seeing us on the toilet whenever the back gate is open is a rather haphazardly-placed, ill-fitting door.

Painting starts today. Then with the replacement of the bathroom sink, window installation and floor waterproofing, the bathroom will be pretty much done. :O


Reno's been pretty bad for me though, to be honest. Sawdust, normal dust, bits of plaster, dirt, cat fur. Brooms and air cons and fans only make this stuff fly around even more. Then there's the heat, which brings sweat, which causes rashes: unlike lucky phgrenadier, choosing to sweat out this week as a means of detoxification isn't really an option for me.

I mean, allergic to your own sweat. Imagine that. xD


Now that I've sufficiently grossed you out enough, I'm going to gross you out even more with


m: aw
m: it neither loves you nor unloves you
m: you can marry it and it won't even know
j: isn't that rape
m: I don't think tech rape is illegal, dw
m: .. if you could even manage tech rape
m: without getting electrocuted
j: ...phone sex.
m: you can't phone rape someone
j: i raped my phone.
m: don't talk to me ever again kthx
j: :(
m: hang on, you can't rape a phone
j: remember that one time you used my phone
m: what's there to rape
j: the speaker hole
j: you have NO idea how flexible i am


I think my mum should ban me from talking to my friends

after a pause, he

ROFL.

for anyone who was planning on catching Life on Mars US when it comes out on Feb 5 -- DON'T.

at least, not until you've seen the UK version, because as far as I can tell LOM US appears to be an exact replica of its British predecessor, down to the script, shots, scenes and frigging mood lighting. I'm wondering if they couldn't have achieved the same effect by dubbing American accents over the voices and then photoshopping O'Mara's head on whenever John Simm walks onto the set.

it's the freakiest shaa-a-uw

Got soundly thrashed in monopoly yesterday. I blame the heat.

In fact, this CAPSLOCK_LOM pic sums up my feelings about the whole of this week quite nicely.

dusted his knees,

's gotta be more to life than camping out on the couch in front of the tv all day, but in this heat I could not give a flying shit. 43 degrees tomorrow and sis has to go back to school on friday, I do not envy her at allllll. @_@

have discovered that Explosions is the best cooling-down music evar.

for every level up, BALLS increases in size!

-----------------------

ETA: oh, and the lovely phgrenadier has offered to share her newly-bought collection of toe socks with me, since mine are now all holey and, I assume, one last walk away from sock heaven.

YAY.

stood up slowly,

Empire Magazine has revealed its list of the 50 Greatest TV Shows ever.
- Bold the shows you watch
- Italic the shows you've seen at least one episode of.
- Underline the shows you've seen in their entirety.

50. Quantum Leap
49. Prison Break
48. Veronica Mars
47. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
46. Sex & The City
45. Farscape
44. Cracker
43. Star Trek
42. Only Fools and Horses
41. Band of Brothers
40. Life on Mars
39. Monty Python's Flying Circus
38. Curb Your Enthusiasm
37. Star Trek: The Next Generation
36. Father Ted
35. Alias
34. Frasier
33. CSI: Las Vegas
32. Babylon 5
31. Deadwood
30. Dexter
29. ER
28. Fawlty Towers
27. Six Feet Under
26. Red Dwarf
25. Futurama
24. Twin Peaks
23. The Office
22. The Shield
21. Angel
20. Blackadder
19. Scrubs
18. Arrested Development
17. South Park
16. Doctor Who
15. Heroes
14. Firefly
13. Battlestar Galactica
12. Family Guy
11. Seinfeld
10. Spaced
09. The X-Files
08. The Wire
07. Friends
06. 24
05. Lost
04. The West Wing
03. The Sopranos
02. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
01. The Simpsons


.. WHERE IS HOUSE??

also seriously
- Pushing Daisies
- Chuck
- Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
- Due South
- Fry & Laurie
- Supernatural
- NCIS
- Entourage D:<

and smiled.

RE: THE HUGENESS OF PHGRENADIER'S DECK

it's not the size, it's 'ow you use it :O

I'm so pretty, and witty, and, you know. so totally gay

I actually DID STUFF today. In FRIGGING CAPS MAN. unfortunately I think the productive stuff I did do (see: demolishment of bathroom) was canceled out by the amount of unproductive stuff (see: leveling up my little pokémon babies to L40 so I could thrash the next boss and prove that I do not actually suck that much at pokémon. and why didn't anyone tell me that that stupid little fish that flops around uselessly and does absolutely nothing morphs into a great big awesome fricking gyarados?)

*ahem*
yeah.

well, considering that said demolishment of bathroom involved the use of several potentially dangerous tools, including but not limited to hammers, screwdrivers, chisels, brooms and electric saws, and considering that the probability of me becoming potentially dead by said tools increases exponentially with number of said tools present in said room, I'm surprised that the only injury incurred during the whole of the operation was when I accidentally poked myself in the eye with my own finger while trying to adjust my SARS mask, whose elastic bits had an annoying habit of flipping up and occasionally thwacking me in the face.

And now our bathroom is a complete pigsty.

does anyone else think that that glove just looks like a creepy disembodied hand

You guys totally don't care about the progress of this renovation but I'm forcing picspam on you anyway. bitchesss.

hi dad!

AND. We had peking duck today for dinner. It was AWESOME. And delicious! And perfect! Because mum is obviously also a geeeenius!

and teh tarik!!

mm: that is AWESOME man!
dm: ...did you just say wawesome?
mm: yeah. that is TOTALLY WAWESOME MAN
dm: wtf? you just said it again!
mm: I was making fun of you!
dm: what? you suck!
mm: ... did you really think I said WAWESOME? WHY WOULD I DO THAT??


...so anyway
in short, today was pretty damn cool *_*

He said:

omg tee veeeee thiiinggsss

1. They're showing Serenity on Monday!

2. Sis' Lost season 1 DVD has a special feature on it called "The Art of Matthew Fox" ROFLMAO. THIS IS PRICELESS

3. Lost blooper reel is hilarious.

4. Sayid's real voice is a cockney accent?! LOL?!

5. I NEED TO STEAL SOMEONE'S INTERNET TO GET LIFE ON MARS US ;_____;

THAT IS ALL ;__________;

"Have you met Nina?"

Woke up this morning to find that two pillows, the majority of my blanket and -- mysteriously -- my phone had decided to migrate to the floor sometime during the night. I can only assume that I either a) had a nightmare or b) had a dream in which I was Disco Stu ripping up the dancefloor in a pair of rollerskates. My hair has refused to lie down since. I look like the crazy cat lady.

disco STU is too hot for YOU

We moved the cupboards from the north to the south wall yesterday, and moved the dead zombie couch that nobody uses to the north wall instead. Awesome how barely moving anything at all can give the illusion of having so much more space. At some point dad removed the grille door at the back, so now in the morning when the sun comes up the dining/kitchen area is flooded with light. Obviously dad is a geeeeenius.

Unfortunately new shower is really just new shower base and working spray with NO WALLS so if anyone plans on taking a shower they risk flooding the whole bathroom in the process. And soon we will have NO BATH. What will I do without a bath?? It's unthinkable???

Should get cracking on various bits of art I owe people, but sis is rewatching Lost in the other room and I honestly can't be bothered doing anything, except maybe lying down on the living room couch and occasionally drooling at the tv.

Mmm. my finger is in so very many online pies.


.. aaand I'm so gone. bye!

.

This is the home of Lunatoic, also known as Ptele, also known as Michelle, also formerly and variously known as Cat, Melon, Mitsubishi and/or Mushroom.

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This blog contains silliness, ranting, excessive under- and overuse of caps, exclamation marks and smileys, occasional gayness, and massive amounts of <3333.

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