So, 7 months since my last post and I'm talking about fandom. Mostly because it's easier than talking about real life. A post about that's in the works. For now, know I'm alive, more or less OK, and relatively happy.

( Detailed review. Here there be spoilers galore )

Still alive! Working my butt off. Employment woes continue, but I am doing my damnedest to make sure at this point the opportunity to complete my PhD is not taken out of my hands ( Read more... )

In the last few months, I've been having rather a lot of nightmares. Most I don't remember, and I think I'm the better for it. The ones I do remember have a tendency to be rather gruesome or traumatic. I still vividly remember the 2 hours nearly 3 years ago in which I repeatedly tried to stop a fire and save my family only to burn to death, over ( Read more... )

Um. So. Back in August I had that car accident, an unpleasant run-in with an oppossum and two guard rails. My dad said, "Here, borrow this 6-speed sportscar, and I'll fix up this MINI I have lying around." I've been waiting patiently. And if I hadn't a MINI on the way, I'd have lobbied to keep the current car (an '05 Hyundai Tiburon ( Read more... )

Thanksgiving is my favorite family holiday. Christmas can bite me and die. Halloween might be more awesome in terms of sheer fun, but Thanksgiving has the camaraderie and goodwill without the materialistic want/gripe bullshit. It helps that my family is generally well-behaved at these gatherings, or at least the unruly ones are less likely to be ( Read more... )

I spent a lot of time this weekend listening to Marilyn Manson and Radiohead. That those two artists dominated my listening - all by itself - is amusing to me. Both directly grapple with themes of alienation and depression, but one is loud+angry and the other is stunningly beautiful. I think it points to the breadth of human expression. On a music ( Read more... )

PrefaceI have had the luxury of not paying attention to the new and enhanced security measures at airports. I travel infrequently by air and often do not read news because I am depressed enough about what I see without seeking out additional (valid) reasons to feel outraged and powerless ( Read more... )

PSA
Firesheep plugin now available for other users to hijack unsecured (http/non-ssl) info on no-password networks. Like your email or bank data after login. So make sure you see the S in https at the beginning of your url in the address bar.

Links
Eric Himan made one of the best It Gets Better videos I've seen. It's overwhelming in the number of ( Read more... )

First, happy National Coming Out Day! I'm queer, and I'm OK with you, whatever you are. I'm also a scientist, so it was particularly interesting to me that there are articles all over the internet today featuring the stories of LGBT scientists. So I made a list ( Read more... )

Tonight I was craving coconut chicken. So I made some. And I felt a little like a challenge, so I made it gluten-free. Verdict: YUM. This could of course be made with good old wheat four.

Ingredients

• 1 lb. chicken, sliced thin (< 1.4 in or 5 mm). Pound it out if you like; I didn't, but might next time
• 1/2 cup brown rice flour
• 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 ( Read more... )