cleverly disguised as a responsible adult

Nebraska did their part by beating Colorado 30-3 yesterday. If ISU can beat Kansas (game starts at 11:30), we'll have won the Big 12 North!! Yay!!!



And then we get to play Texas for the conference championship. And by "play" I mean, show up to the stadium and get completely mown down.


EDIT: #@ %^#*&% @$^!! @#!@&%@#$!!!!!!!

Grrrr...Way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, boys. I'm sure our WHOLE STATE is proud of you. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaarrrrrgggghhh.

Is there someone in Madison who can loan me a springform pan for next weekend?

I've been offered a job!

Doing something that looks interesting!

For good money!

And I'd get to keep the same health insurance plan!

*happy dance*

*happy dance*

*happy dance*

The news usually depresses me: people doing bad things to other people, nature doing her evil goddess schtick, and general nastiness making me wish I'd taken CNN.com out of my Daily Sites to Check. There were two stories in the news today that gave me different emotions - anything different is good!

Story the First - This one made me insanely jealous. Why didn't I know about this in high school?! Instead of exploding bacteria to collect their DNA and proteins, I could be exploding bigger stuff like, oh say, buildings and mountains and metal oxides to make pretty colors in the sky!

Story the Second - Yes, the Atkins diet will help you lose weight, but do you really want to be dipping your kidneys in nail polish remover? I've hated the fad from the get-go, so this satisfies my deep love for justice or some such ethereal entity that might allow me to be smug about their current financial strain.

Today was the annual biotech product fair in the Union. There's a free lunch of extremely good food and vendors showing off the new shinies that their company is trying to sell. I came away with a bunch of pens, some lens cleaner [1], a handful of candy, a bunch of flyer thingies, and the promise of one of the company reps to personally hand my resume to one of the lead scientists in R&D! [2]

I was sitting back, getting ready to crack open some cold caffeine, when the phone rang. Super Scientist #1 walked over to my office and said, "Phone for you. I thought it was you on the phone, but you're here, so...phone for you." [3]

"Hello?"
"Hi, Sabine, this is ScienceRep. You won the raffle for the stereo, can you come over and pick it up in the next 20 minutes or so?"
"Um, sure, I'll be right over."[4]

So now I have a new stereo.[5] I just cleaned my apartment and reorganized everything, so I'm not entirely sure where I'm going to put this thing, but it's very spiffy. Yay! *happy dance*

This article made me laugh a lot. Apparently, the bookies are confident that Dumbledore is going to buy it in HBP, so they had a contest: write an account of the death of the great wizard Albus Dumbledore in the style of another author. It's very amusing.

( The standard purity test that's been going around. I'm not surprised by the outcome )

[1] - I'm a microscope junkie. I chatted with the nice folks and drooled over the new models. I've been worrying that the lens cleaner I've been using isn't good enough, so this was very exciting.
[2] - Munira is awesome. She gives us free product, buys us lunch, and is willing to help me get a job. Squee!
[3] - Super Scientist #1 doesn't keep in touch with reality very often.[6]
[4] - I work on the complete opposite end of campus from the union - just about as far as you can get and still be on campus. I can't walk there in 20 min, but I got lucky with the bus timing, yay.
[5] - I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the drawing for the iPod Shuffle.
[6] - I've been reading lots of Pratchett lately. Is it obvious?

I got all the embroidery done for one of the cuffs. I'm quite proud of it. I've also noticed that the pattern has the potential to hypnotize anyone who views it for too long. We can only hope that downwood will use this power for good.

I didn't say that it was terribly to likely to happen, mind you. But now you know, and knowing is half the battle. Just don't watch his wrists too closely. *grin*

My bodice is all grommeted and laced and such. I tried it on this evening and I'm less than enthusiastic about it. I don't think it looks very good at all. I've been told that that's probably how the style is supposed to work, the straps will help the lines, it'll be different with the chemise and skirt (as opposed to a t-shirt and scrubs), and it looks fine already.

Truthfully, I'm filled with paranoia. I have this irrational fear that if I wear this thing in public or at faire, I'm going to get laughed at. It might not be to my face, but I can't make the feeling go away.

Bah. At least I've got fifty bazillion other projects to keep me entertained. I really wanted this one to work though... *pout*

Tonight, our illustrious leader is planning to regale us with his "clear strategy" for Iraq. I'm guessing that the term "clear strategy" actually has nothing to do with either of those words.

I'm currently debating whether or not I should view this attempt at glib and convincing rhetoric. On the one hand, I've been getting my political immune system into gear by reading a biography of Cicero that is subtitled "The life and times of Rome's greatest politician". Right, like I believe that for three seconds. On the other hand, I have a lot of fabric that I'd like to get cut out, and I don't trust myself with scissors if there's been any booze in my general direction.

Therefore, I have a poll. Enjoy.


[Poll #522261]

Like the subject line says, I actually have words to say that contain honest-to-Darwin information. Hm, I hope I didn't give anyone a heart attack there. *grin*

I am supposedly writing a presentation for lab meeting on Monday. Yeah, sure. I need to take all of the pretty pictures I've been collecting for the last couple of weeks and throw them into PowerPoint with some description of how I generated them. After my lab rips them to shreds on Monday, I'll pour the remaining bits into a standard layout. Voila! My poster will be done.

Yes, I'm starting to get nervous about the presentation at the regional ASM meeting. It's not a formal talk - I'll just be standing by my poster waiting for people to ask me questions to which I really should know the answers. This doesn't reassure me.

As downwood posted in his journal today, last night went off perfectly. For once, the plan went without hitting any serious snags. Well, there was one snag, but I knew about it on Monday. The people at the craftshop didn't get the kiln fixed in time for the kings and queens to be glaze fired. I saw them get loaded two weeks ago, but no firing. Grr.

Yes, I threw a chess set. No, I didn't throw the knights - don't be an idiot. I threw cylinders, then carved the little horses. It was a lot of work, but it was oddly fun. I could probably be convinced to make another set, but it would take some major incentive. We're talking cash. Lots.

This morning's commute was both entertaining and boring. Walking out to my car I had Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn all pointed out to me. It was a beautiful morning. Then I hit traffic. Ugh. Once I was finally able to drive over the speed limit again, the fog hit. I estimated that I had somewhere around 40-50 meters of visibility. It eventually lifted a bit, but I don't think it ever got above half a mile the whole drive.

My darling cousin, walker710, called me while I was bored on the interstate. I wonder if he even reads this anymore, seeing as how he hasn't updated in just under a month. Dude, if you see this, let me know.

After I parked my car and was walking to the bus stop in the mist, I got assaulted. A crow decided that the tower gave it clearance for a high-speed flyby or aerial assault. I'm not sure if it would've missed me had I not ducked to the point of nearly hitting the ground. At least it wasn't a pigeon this time. Stupid @#%#$^ pigeons...

On the literary front I've finished both #2 and #3 in the Series of Unfortunate Events. I'm addicted. I also finished a collection of short stories titled, Bet You Can't Read Just One. Kinda cheesy, but really funny stories. I liked it. I just started on The DaVinci Code. It seems good, but I reserve judgment until later.

See? Wasn't that informative? I don't think it was on the order of TMI, but I could be wrong.

Happy Wednesday!

Though I'm a secretive person, I have a hard time keeping secrets. No, this is not the total contradiction that it seems. You see, tomorrow is downwood's birthday. I've had his present sitting in my apartment in kinda plain sight (the best place to hide something) for about 10 days now. The suspense is killing me. I so want to just blurt it out. Must...remain...sneaky...

*grin*

I got to watch a lot of football and play a lot of games this weekend. Yay! Two of my favorite activities made Sunday wonderful. Saturday was mildly stressful, though entertaining. I got to meet the parents. And now I know whence his sense of humor comes. It's always a good sign when I can instantly like my BF's family and know that I could very probably come to love them as much as him. *blush*

I get to see my sister every other weekend until New Year's! Yay! *happy dance* This weekend is footballing and going out. Then there's my birthday and hockey. Then there's our grandparents' 50th party. Then she graduates. Then it's Christmas. There's gonna be an awful lot of miles put on vehicles. I'm so excited! And, hey, this time I might not even have to say, "Fuck off! It's sister time."

Hm. My list of things to do today keeps getting longer. Too many errands, not enough caffeine. Maybe I should eat soon. Yes, food will help.