The Rabbit Hole

bigscary and I have been going back and forth on Tumblr about Mass Effect and how much I love all the aliens. (I LOVE THEM SO MUCH, YOU GUYS.) And as much as he's obviously wrong about the vastly superior Garrus, it's kind of one of those stupid nerd fights that charge the batteries as much as anything. It also makes me miss Mass Effect like a sunovabitch. (Except for the humans. Except for most of the humans.) God, that is probably my favorite game series ever. I miss it, so, so much.

I know they're making another one. I kind of don't want it. Unless it's totally about the universe after Shepard did what SHE did (because it's not Fem!Shep, it's fucking Shep), in which case, sure, sign me up. I want to hear all about Joker and EDI's adorable cyborg grandbabies and how Liara is still alive and no one else is and how that makes the historian even more the bearer of memories of times gone by. I want to see an entire planet be OVER IT with Javik's 'tude.

But Shepard is gone. She should stay gone. I want a new hero. I want to play one of the reputedly awesome Krogan ladies. An Asari Justicar. I would play a goddamend Rachni. (It would probably be like playing a Xenomorph, like in my other favorite game ever, Aliens vs Predator.) I want to be an alien and have to learn to think like they do and not force them to be cool with how humans think because humans are boooooooooooooooooooooooring. I want my alien wrecking crew. Okay, so maybe I can take a sequel.

Just...not a movie, okay? Especially not a movie with dude!Shep. I cannot.

I am good at tests, but the more vet school has gone on, the more I feel like that's all I'm good at. I can't recall things I learned last quarter, much less over the course of years. And it's become increasingly clear to me that everyone around me is just way sharper at the recall. I'm hoping it passes--that I surprise myself with what I know--but the feeling has gotten more pervasive with time.

It doesn't help that right now people are rushing about filling up their time with externships, for which I have applied not a one because I really just have that many rotations I want to do that the school offers. But now I'm all worried that I won't be making good contacts outside of school that way and arRGH I SHOULD BE STUDYING.

I need to work out a solid plan to counter-act what I think I don't know. Flash card preps, relistening to old lectures, something to put me back on more solid footing so this doesn't just drive me crazy forever. But first, I really do need to study for my test tomorrow.

Since posting yesterday, my Facebook post about the same (heavily redacted for public consumption though it was), has generated no less than five people instant messaging me about the exam. Most of them wanted first to know how I knew what I'd messed up (privilege of having anticipated failure, I suppose) because they were in the dark. All they knew was they failed. To a one, they are all incredibly upset and frustrated and wanted to vent. I let them and sewed the seeds of discontent a bit by promising them they are not alone nor did they deserve to fail. It seems that I was a tad pessimistic yesterday about the class rolling over and taking this. Most of them still will, but I have about five people ready to go with me to fight this if I can get any traction.

I contacted the supervisor/director of the course to ask to speak with her before I re-take the exam. I'm probably shooting myself in the foot but it's the only time she was free. I need to tell her that her requirements are unacceptable. I plan to couch it as "if your goal is to educate your students and encourage them to learn and love the subject to which you have devoted yourself, I hate to tell you, but you are failing." And explain in unemotional language why failing someone the way she is doing doesn't help people get better. It just tells them that failing for minor things means that they are indistinguishable, in her eyes, from someone who fails through willful indifference, careless, or plain dangerous behavior. By all means, give them a C if they're barely passing, but do not give them an F when they're 90% but not 100%. That makes no sense.

I also contacted the woman in the student affairs office and am obtaining information about meeting with our academic liaison. I am worried because I'm pretty sure this is the woman who called us all cheaters last year, but not too worried because I'll go to the Dean around her if I have to. The student affairs lady said it would be more effective if the class were behind me. It would be. I don't cherish any hopes that that will happen. Today is the second and last day of these exams. We'll see how the responses are on the second day. Maybe there's hope for a revolution after all.

I had gotten more excited that I should have done about the G.I. Joe sequel. (It has the Rock in it, u guyz! I can't help it!) And it's apparently just been delayed NINE FUCKING MONTHS.

Is this a joke? It's supposed to come out next month. I've never, ever heard of a movie being pulled, literally last second (haven't theaters already done their buys for showing this?) for any reason, let alone a motherfucking post-shot conversion to 3D. Because that's been notoriously successful of late and something people who are excited to see this movie in literally weeks are going to enjoy months from now. Fuckers.

ETA: I found this out on a site called "Coming Soon," too. Fucking no it's not!

I spent much of last week and weekend running around, playing with Mrs. Beans' brother's dog, Odin (he's a Jackaranian, and a total ham) and getting my little sister all graduated from college. I also, bizarrely, went on some cleaning kicks of the apartment, tidying up my room (which is looking more and more bare, which is good) and the apartment as a whole.

So this week is the first that I've really had time to sit and enjoy the apartment all to myself (while the roommates are still on vacation), and I have spent it thus far catching up on shows I meant to watch this year and didn't get to. I'm current on Game of Thrones and Mad Men, despite not really loving either, which seems to be a theme as the one show I just started is also of the not-great, can't turn off variety: Once Upon a Time.

Look, judge me, but I'm having an okay time of it. Season finale was ass-stupid, and I want to murder both of the two female hero leads and the villainess at times, but I'm managing. I have even, after this many hours, forgiven the show for not being what I really wanted out of it, which is Fables: the TV show. There were rumors of a Fables show getting a pilot that never really materialized, and the world got Once Upon a Time (and, I suppose, Grimm) instead. When I saw the promos for Once Upon a Time, I didn't bother watching it right away for two reasons: 1) I was sure it was going to be canceled, and 2) glvalentine's review of the pilot. Now that it has, I basically mainlined it for three days while working furiously on one of two cross-stitch baby announcements I need done by fall. (By summer, really, since I'll be in school when my future nephew and future almost-positive-it's-a-niece are born.)

Once Upon a Time is still not nearly as good as Fables, alas. I miss super-secret agent Cinderella. I miss Bigby. I miss any recognition that in order for all these people to have issues with being pregnant/having babies/having children who don't love them PEOPLE HAVE TO HAVE HAD SEX. No, seriously. It's all "true love!" then "suddenly pregnant somehow!" all the time up in this show. And everyone has issues with both. Without ever mentioning fucking. Ever. Two characters have an affair and the closest they get to sex is hints at the number of place settings in the sink after they've hooked up. No one musses anyone's clothes, that's how far from sex these people are. (Which makes it hilarious to go from Game of Thrones to this.)

Up next on my cross-stitching marathon: the last season of Chuck or this current season of Supernatural. Or maybe I'll give it all amiss and just watch movies. I haven't decided.

Kidding! I'm just making sure to say a very Happy Birthday! to my roommate moonlightalice. Even though she's deep in the jungles of far-flung Asia (and/or on one of many, many plane rides she and wellgull will be taking back and forth), I thought it only right and proper to wish her all the bestest. I mean, right now, she's not at work or worrying over stupid law schools, so that's probably a pretty excellent birthday right there. It also highlights one of the things I admire most about her, and that's her determination to go places and have new experiences, which I, a desperate loner and a homebody, would know nothing about.

Happy Birthday to moonlightalice! Hope the mosquitos are leaving you alone! (Did you bring that bag of blood like I said?)

So, this is adorable. And hilarious. Venom and his ice cream cone might be my favorite thing about this.

Disassembled from Junaid Chundrigar on Vimeo.

I'm lucky no one was around in the lab when I took a break to watch this because I admit to cracking the fuck up a lot. The juxtaposition of the cartoon style and the shit going on in it are priceless.

In other news, I was watching Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, and I'm still loving it. Last night, I caught an episode that introduced Carol Danvers and she was voiced by Jennifer Hale (otherwise known as Commander Shepard also known as the one of two voice actresses whose work I can guarantee you've heard). I'm now suuuuuuper psyched for her to come back. It looks like A:EMH is doing what Justice League did in its second season and first season of Unlimited, which is bring in more heroes/villains from the fringes, and I am ALL about enjoying the shit out of that. Just so long as they bring Jennifer Hale back. I need more of her dulcet tones in my life.

So President Obama says he thinks gays should be able to get married. I'm going to choose not to be cynical and focus on how he then backed up to say "But, uh, states should do what they want," especially since North Carolina (state motto: "One day, we'll catch whatever venereal disease our power bottom state has and be twice as crazy!") just happened. I'm going to recognize the significance and urge people to continue putting the pressure on and the reinforcement coming. The POTUS said gays should marry. It's a big deal. We need to continue to work on tolerance issues (bullying, anti-gay hate crime, job discrimination) on the small scale to drive home the point that gay people ARE PEOPLE such that states will eventually catch up to the newly evolved Obama.

Speaking of the gays, you know what I saw five minutes of this weekend? Urban Legends: Final Cut. Which features a sexy lesbian (played by Eva Mendes, no less) who just happens to be a lesbian. ASTONISHING, RIGHT? I cannot believe I'm saying this about that shitty movie, but we could really do with more of those. Just, you know, to have around. And while I'm throwing out magical liberal wishlists for the motion picture industry, please employ more people of color and more women in roles other than "mother" or "girlfriend." K THNX BAI.

Okay, time for more fun Avengers stuffs. Check out the comments on this io9 post (careful, spoilers) for some truly awesome Hulk animated gifs. I could watch the top one alllllll day. And while we're on the subject of Hulks, why don't we let one tell us what makes an interesting one? (Again: SPOILERS) No spoilers here: a truly awesome Black Widow poster. It reminds me strongly of James Bond's credit sequences in the 1960s. Very mod, very chic, very sexy, still powerful. And there's a Hawkeye one, but it's got nowhere near the level of sophistication and class, I'm afraid.

First off, thanks to everyone who jumped on my frantic post yesterday about THE MAY MOVIE XII. I realize it was late, but that's when it popped up. I spent a little while chatting with moonlightalice last night about why I hadn't seen anything at that theater until just that minute--had I missed it? Not been paying enough attention?--and she said, no, it really just popped up like that. Out of sheer curiosity, I will keep an eye on other theaters this week and see if more showings don't pop up in all the usual places. But still, bad form NYC theaters.

I discovered a gray hair today. Not my first by far, but definitely the coolest. I plucked it out and marveled at it a little. It's a hair from a follicle that has obviously just started to lose its pigmentation, as the lower end was still brown. But the progression of gray is erratic and quite beautiful. There are sections that are mostly gray, transitioning to a blonder color before going brown again. It's almost like my hair has stripes instead of there being a point at which the color faltered and ever after was gray. (Although the top part is decidedly gray at this point.) It's pretty, and I almost missed it at first (I thought it was neat enough to see the change from brown to gray) because you can't see the variation unless you turn the hair a certain way. Oh my, 30 years old and going gray. I knew I was old!

Speaking of gray, it's amazing how much more my older sister has that I never noticed. She's got luxuriously dark brown hair that's almost as thick as jethrien's (though not as dark), so they stand out, but she's barely got any gray for someone approaching 40. I'm luckier in that my hair is a lighter brown and will hide the gray better. Not as well as my blond sister or formerly-blond brother, with their saffron and sandy-color, respectively, but some, and better than my older or youngest sister for sure. In fact, my youngest sister has some gray, too! The reason I know this is we all went to our favorite hairdresser and she tattled. I love it.

I have some hope that more theaters are going to announce non-3D versions of The Avengers before Friday, but it's fucking ridiculous that it's the Monday before and there are all of three theaters in Manhattan that have showings announced. Goddamn it 3D, I hate you, go away.

On the plus side, there aren't too many showings up for the 3D version either, so maybe they're just slow all the way around.