asimplechord

~ Finally saw Skyfall. Things that did not impress: a) disjointed plot, b) utter waste of Javier Bardem's talent, c) sad restoration of no-point-plotwise sex w/ female antagonist, d) lack of story-telling on the Skyfall backstory.
Things that did: a) Judi Dench, b) Bond's "what makes you think it's my first time", c) Moneypenny.

~ Also saw The Hobbit. It was entertaining enough, but I thought parts of it, especially some of the fighting, could've been edited for drag. Also, I don't remember Armitage being such a bad actor in previous works.

+ Read The Disappearing Spoon. Some of the chemistry explanations are basic, but the history of the people being the discoveries and establishment of the period table were pretty cool. Best metaphor ever: comparison of Knowles' chiral catalyst and bulky substrate binding and reacting to obese animals trying to copulate. THERE'S ONLY ONE WAY THAT'LL FIT!

+ Finished James Duthie's The Day I (Almost) Killed Two Gretzkys. Some of the stories are funnier than others, but the ones that made me pause most were the ones he wrote from late 2004 to mid-2005, about the NHL lockout. Sadly relevant.

+ All the yagkyas stories are posted and the authors have been revealed. impala_chick wrote me the cutest fic, Computer Lab. It's an AU where Walt is a second grade teacher and Brad is the IT/AV person for his school. Go read it, it's adorable!

~ I wrote gen fic about Rudy Reyes. Talk About Your Revolution, at YAGKYAS or at AO3. It was a stretch for me, because I hardly ever write gen or about Rudy. Read the note/warning, because I used what Wright had to say about Rudy's childhood as the basis for this fic.

- On the subject of holiday exchanges, what's up with happyhockeydays? It's been pretty sad: six fics posted over 9 or 10 days? Did the mods fall into the holiday cracks? Did people not submit fics? I'd like to know, just so I can post the fic I wrote publically. (Or not. I might rewrite it. And by rewrite, I really just mean add the porn that I didn't have time to write and still meet the submission deadline. If I'd known that posting was going to be delayed and lackadaisical, I wouldn't have worked so hard to submit on time.)

Because I didn't have anything scheduled for early hours in lab today, I slept in until the decadent hour of 6:30, and when I dragged myself out of bed, it was only to put on athletic clothes and plug in the elliptical.

Generation Kill DVD1 was still in, so I turned it on for something to watch. As you do. (I listen to my iPod for pace-setting, but it's nice to have some pretty eye-candy as I sweat).

So, this morning's deep thought. Or, you know, not deep at all, just enough to keep my brain occupied...


Someone should tell me the story of Brad secretly writing notes to Walt before they deployed, and giving them to his sister, who sprayed them with a little bit of Brad's cologne before mailing them. Then, while Ray's giving his "war is the motherfucking answer" monologue, Walt is sniffing Brad's cologne and thinking about the last night they spent together before orders came through. And Brad's just stretched out, a few feet away, his laptop open. To anyone else, it looks like he's intently studying schematics, but Walt can see the way he's peeking under his eyelashes, watching Walt for any reaction to his letter.

Yes? Someone should tell me more about this.

----- LJ, your layout format changes fucking BLOW. Do not like. Ugh. Do you WANT us all to flee to DW? I like having the tags at the top of a post. And I do not want that ugly font or layout for comment pages.

+ yagkyas fics are posted! Om nom, all that fic to read once my break starts tonight! Just, you know, I'll have to read it in the ugly, unwieldy new format. On my phone. Yay?


ETA: I had an old Dreamwidth that I never really updated. Made a new one, as asimplechord.

+ There should be a countdown on my phone:

11Oct - PWTs, Houston HOB
18Oct - Panic/Patrick, San Antonio
19Oct - Panic/Patrick, Austin
20Oct - Panic/Patrick, NOLA
21Oct - Jack's Mannequin, Houston HOB
22Oct - Buzzfest, Houston (Bush, Evans Blue, Chevelle, Filter, etc.)
28-30Oct - Voodoo Experience, NOLA (28th - Soundgarden, My Chem, Fitz & the Tantrums, the Wombats, Mates of State, Ani DiFranco; 29th - Social D, blink-182, Snoop Dogg, Girl Talk, XX; 30th - The Raconteurs, TV on the Radio, Fatboy Slim, Cheap Trick)
31Oct - Panic/Patrick, DC
3Nov - Panic/Patrick, Philadelphia
4Nov- Panic/Patrick in Sayreville OR Frank Turner in Philadelphia

Theoretically, I should be completely done the last round of experiments for a paper by the Texas Disco dates, but I guess we'll see. Things never work out quite the way I hope, in terms of timing. I'm taking off for them and for Voodoo + a trip to the east coast for Discos and family-time whether or not the paper is submitted. Already requested leave.


- How does a president who has received the Nobel Peace Prize justify continued support of a government that sentences its health care workers to years of imprisonment for doing their jobs? Oh, yeah, the Fifth Fleet. That explains that. /cynicism

(On a related note, holy hell, the twitter sniping going on at Jeremy Scahill for his critique of the Awlaki assassination... O.O)


- A teeny, tiny fire ant bit me on the foot at BestFest last Saturday. (I squished it viciously in retaliation.) It itched for a few days, but that subsided. Now a purply-red welt the size of a penny surrounds the raised, darkened spot of the original bite. This cannot possibly be normal... Is it?


+ GameDay for ESPN is in Madison this week for the big red battle. It is entirely possible that we will be homebodies on Saturday night so we can watch Wisconsin play Nebraska at Camp Randall. I cannot even IMAGINE what the stadium will be like - it was crazy enough for the rare night game (I think we played Purdue and Oregon at night while I was there) but for it to be such a good match-up, ranking-wise, and for GameDay to be there (I think they only came to UW for the Michigan game back then)? State St will be soooo rowdy, OMG.


+ Sign-ups for yagkyas are open! Go on, you know you want some.


+ It's been that kind of week at work. I believe I am going to go drink some Stone 15th Anniversary Black IPA. Mmmmm.

~ Gah! I hate it when a fic I submitted for a fest is posted and I find a TON of things I want to change but I CAN'T.

But on the plus side, the we_pimpin exchange fics are live. Anonymous wrote me some awesome Ray/Walt fic! Then It Gets Good. Go give them some love if Generation Kill is your thing!

~ Spain vs. France Davis Cup action tomorrow! Rafa. Daveeed. I'm sad that there will be no Gael Monfils. (NGL, mostly I watch him to see if he melts down spectacularly. So much athletic possibility there, steered awry by his head.)

~ Contagion, Saturday.

~ Tattoo & Body Art Expo on Sunday, possibly?

~ Someday Bush (the band, not the former president, who is known hereabouts as the Shrub) will come to Houston and NOT play a festival at my least favorite venue in town. Sadly, the next time they're in town is not that day. *sigh*

~ Spencer Smith: big troll or biggest troll? Thanks for letting your fans know you need more than one cock in your household.

+ Chicago was awesome! Lolla was great, except for the deluge(s) on Sunday. If you check out the Lolla YouTube channel, the video of the Cage The Elephant set? You can't tell, not really, how it was POURING. But it was. We literally could not see Sears Tower through the rain, it came down so hard. And it was still a good time. We were the filthiest. And that was before wading into the poorly drained mud pit that is the north end of Grant Park for the Foo Fighters' set.

Possibly unpopular opinion: I was not that impressed with the Black Cards. Bebe's hot, and the songs are okay, but they didn't hold my attention for the length of the set. (I sort of feel the same about Crystal Castles and DeadMau5: house/dance music is fine, but DNW 30-60 minutes of it unleavened with other beats, especially if it's broad daylight, not a dark, smoky club.) And Pete... just seemed like a frat boy on a rampage. I mean, do your DJing, pimp Patrick, stage dive as much as you want. But throwing what seemed like an endless supply of toilet paper to the crowd to get them to TP everything? Meh.

Patrick Stump, on the other hand? Unf. Gimme all the 90's R&B/hiphop covers in the world, and I'll listen.

Other sets I enjoyed: Friendly Fires (wow, the lead singer looks crazily double-joined at the hip!), Smith Westerns (I thought this set was better than the one at Bonnaroo), My Morning Jacket (ditto), Muse (not quite as good as the ACL set last year), Damien Marley & Nas, Ellie Goulding, Lykke Li, Explosions In The Sky.

+ Work. Eh. Good stuff, bad stuff. Spent a lot of time doing imaging lately. I ranted in an email-chain entry about Student. IDK. At this point, I wonder if he's even going to meet the deadlines to defend his master's thesis before the end of the fall term. Also, the med students are back, which makes me >:/ with their need to take the elevator one fucking floor, to walk in packs the full width of the hallway at an extremely slow pace, and to generally get in my way.

+ I got my we_pimpin assignment! I'm sort of excited about it! And I am rewatching GK for some inspiration. :D :D :D

+ Took the laptop to the Apple Store. Explained that I thought the fan needed to be replaced. The guy reset the battery, and the fan didn't come on for the 10 or so minutes that he fiddled with things. I told him that I'd reset the SMC myself, and that I thought the fans still needed to be cleaned and or replaced. He said the battery reset should fix it. But I've had it booted for approximately 10 minutes with nothing but the text editor and firefox open, and the fan's going like mad. So we'll see. Everything's backed up, at least.

+ Attending a lingerie shower/bachelorette party tonight. I... don't really want to go? I'm not that close to the bride - the groom is better friends with A than I am with the bride - and I am tired of the continuous round of engagement party, bachelorette party, wedding gift shopping for people who have been working and living together long enough not to actually need a shower in order to furnish a new home. Plus, I have work to do tomorrow, and getting sloppy drunk is not on my agenda for the evening. Ugh, when did I start being a grown-up? But anyway, skimpy "goth" schoolgirl outfit assembled for the bride, since the groom has a fetish. (NGL, it sort of skeeves me to know that about him.)

+ Now to backread what I've missed over the last ten days or so. &youguys;


I tried to post at DW, and apparently since I changed my username here since I set up the crossposting info at DW, it's having issues? IDK. Whatever. Comment here, there, or not at all.

+ The grant is submitted, so at this point there is absolutely nothing that can be added to my work to-do list. This is a good thing.

+ We brewed (I say that, but really A brewed today, a wheat IPA, while I cleaned), and smoked a brisket (beef: not my thing, but it's his, so whatever), and instead of being social, we're going to hang out at our house tonight. Friends are having a party, but one of the people involved pissed me off: last week he told me that my ink "looks nice in comparison to most prison tatts". Uh. Yeah. My response: you are drunk, so I'm going to point you toward your wife (who was also annoyed, b/c he was the designated driver for the evening) instead of shoving my beer and my fist in your face. I just. Yeah. Lots of people comment on my ink, people I know and strangers alike, and mostly it doesn't bother me; I'm patient about explaining what it means if they ask. But for an acquaintance to deliver what he probably meant as a joke in his drunk mind but came off as insult? When he's been semi-insulting to me about them in the past? No. I'm done. He can fuck right off.

+ Mmm, banana bread with pecans.

+ Tropic of Chaos by Christian Parenti. Interesting topic, but a book published by someone who writes for The Nation? I expect to be copy-edited well enough that the South American nation's name is appropriately spelled. Colombia, not Columbia.

+ NCAA lacrosse finals on my TV. MD/VA. Totally making me want to write more about Brad/Nate in the college AU. Y/Y/MFY?

+ Rafa/Nole tomorrow. Breakfast at Wimbledon? We might even have some strawberries to mix with cream.

+ Fireworks Monday at Tinsley Park. We'll probably hang out at the Flying Saucer beforehand, if anyone wants to meet for beers and then walk over by the Allen Parkway.

Yesterday's free show for the Big Dance: perfect weather and good company, and other than the fact that a huge TV monitor blocked our view of Spencer Smith, Panic! At The Disco's set was ridiculously awesome. Seriously, they seem really delighted to be performing again. I can't wait for their summer tour. (For a more complete review, see shutyourface's entry. And eckerlilas posted pics, but under f-lock. ♥)

Two fandom-y things:

1. Why hasn't someone in GK fandom written fic centered around Brad Colbert's license loss, with him hitching a ride with someone (Mike?) to base every day, and then having someone (Ray, Nate, whoever rocks your world) pick him up each evening?

2. This pic deserves Ivy League grad student fic, y/n?



(via thesameband)




Ugh. Feeling sort of hungover and blah, and still cranky about the "GA" tickets that were the only choice for tickets in the Chris Cornell presale. It wouldn't've been a big deal if the venue set up the floor as they usually do. But the entire floor where the pit usually is was seated reserve, the upper level by the FOH was seated reserve, and the balcony was seated reserve as usual, leaving the area by the door, by the merch booth, and up underneath the overhang behind the seated reserve (where the sound is actually really shitty) as the only GA. Fuck you, Live Nation and House of Blues. Fuck you.

Really not feeling the drive to Austin for the PWTs.

That'll Do

Brad/Nate (but mostly about Nate) || ~1800 || pretty work safe

Summary: One day can be an eternity.

Notes: Written for preromantics for the yagkyas exchange. As such, it was submitted before the vote to repeal DADT. Thanks to why_me_why_not for beta duties; any remaining errors are my own. The image included below is modified slightly from Bryan Denton, combat photographer. This is a work of fiction based on portrayals of and by actors, and is meant to imply nothing about any real people. Can also be read at the original post here.

There's things to know
and so we're told
But the days
keep rolling on so painfully slow
-Jason Mraz

( * * * )

1. yagkyas fics are public! If you're into GK fandom, you probably know this, but I figure it never hurts to post a reminder.

The anonymous person who wrote for me did an amazing job. Amazing. ♥_♥

One foot in front of the other is a high school AU with Brad/Nate, mentions of Brad/OFC, and Ray Person. :D :D :D

2. jmc_bookrelated posted her Brad/Ray fic. The Proper Consumption of Pizza and Sushi.

More with the :D :D :D


OK. Coffee. Then work. When does my vacation time start, again? Oh, right. Friday. *sigh*

PS: Anyone else watch the lunar eclipse last night? It was pretty gorgeous from our backyard, even with the clouds scudding across it. How often does it happen that there's an eclipse on the solstice?