Miss Cellaneous

Copy-pasting from my iPAQ (the handheld computer, the pocket pc, the light of my life and fire of my loins):

Aw, London. Sprawling and crowded, overpriced everywhere but in fresh produce markets & Desi restaurants in Brick Lane, but also familiar, welcoming, and warm in the literal and metaphorical sense, with lovely friends old & new, and could this any more sound like a mix between a travel report and a Hallmark card?

So, the day, what I did, during:

( The BBC, Wallace, and some serious park-ing )

On my way home again, actually: kangeiko will be cookin´ a nice red Thai curry for us. I´m bringing the chicken. Already feeling all manly, rowr.

Booked a flight to London today and, thanks to the utter loveliness of my friends, have quite a few highlights planned already -- just a week, really, but it won't necessarily be vacation-only; I plan to pounce on all and any job opportunities.

Should you have any advice -- or links -- on how to best structure one's CV for the UK job market, I'm all ears (and ♥s)!

(If job search musings & inquiries bother you in any way, it's probably best to take me off the flist. I'll cut-tag rather liberally, as always, but from now on, expect little to no study whining and a lot Oh My God The Job Market, It Is A Fierce Beast Indeed! whining.)

( Bread & cheese )

I've been all over the fascinating business of cancelling my telecommunication contracts today, but mostly, I've been relaxing...and am still going strong in that area: Drinking the rest of this wine my parents let me open to celebrate my Oral Exam towards the end of last week, and watching the Munich Tatort (I ♥ Batic & Leitmayr).

In other tv news pertaining to my oldest OTP: I asked in a community for The X-Files episodes of Season 8 & 9 necessary to get the movie:

( The results, thanks to one kind comm member )

Which eps do you think I need to watch?

I love my sister so much that I just watched Germany's Next Topmodel with her.

Namely that I'm, well, not home.

( RL/EXM )

I'm inclined to agree with the Random Proverb Generator athena25 has last linked me to there.

In other news, had my last Oral Prep Session with Di in the morning and a long, lovely lunch with a new friend who's awesomecakes.

Speaking of, I baked shortbread.

( Photos & the recipe )

Also, I looked fab today, with my boot-cut faded jeans and my sleek little black turtleneck. But let's face it, I didn't look quite as tasty as these cookies. So, uh, photos of me reserved for when the competition isn't so steep.

Home from witchsis's birthday party, where I talked to music teachers and consultants, sociologists and fair-trade-goods-selling parents...and only belatedly realised the last train was leaving soon.

On the train, I met an old man ( ... )

Also, I wish to show around the icon I just created, stealing this straight from sheafrotherdon's post that displays the original image:

[...] photographer John Russo has launched his [About Face] project - head and shoulders shots of various celebrities in natural light. Including Joe Flanigan.

Who, without irony, puts "Latin" in the "Languages" section of an on-line dating agency? I'm all for pretentious entries, y'all be my witness, but unless the guy is a classicist who actually speaks or works with it on a regular basis, I reserve the right to LOL laugh. Out loud.

( An aside, if asides are allowed to be rambling )

***

Fannishly, I followed links on the flist and came across a fabulous interview with Mary McDonnell talking about Battlestar Galactica and girlslash goggles, among other things, and an essay outlining the ideology of Mormonism in BSG.

(I didn't read all the way through because I'm a wuss who hasn't seen all of BSG yet, finding it too hard to bear in my dark pre-Exam days, but what I saw was fascinating.)

In a similar vein, why not join majoritython, the Majority Rules! community?

"To celebrate the possibility that (at long, long last) either a woman or a person of color will be the next American president by producing fanworks about people of color and women in positions of political power. This could include:

1. Slash, het or gen fic about a woman and/or person of color in any fandom who holds elected or appointed civil office, or who governs or rules a country, planet or federation.
2. RPF about a historical or contemporary person of color and/or woman who holds elected or appointed civil office, or who governs or rules a country or sovereign territory.
3. Icons, graphics and vids about any of the above."

Because I have absolutely nothing better to do*, I signed up with that allegedly elite dating & partner search site. They were the ones demanding outrageous fees around 50€ per month, so I as a poor student only sign up when there are all-free test trials. Hey, I may be cheap, but I'm still pretty.

The cynic in me assumes their business practice is less about romance and more about commerce ( On business models & online dating )

Otherwise, going to bed now, after what was actually a good day--practising with my study group for three hours, lunch at the university cafeteria, then almost two hours of study time with Cutie alone, who developed a headache halfway through, though, so we stopped early (so I studied late to make up for it).



* sarcasm

If you've recently wondered about sex toys--types, suitability, stores and sites, functions/not so much?

seperis hosts some awesome discussions & recommendations in the comments here.

Off for a study afternoon with Cutie and "that friend, the short one, with the curly hair." (I have no idea who he's talking about. We'll see.)

If anyone has advice regarding persistent, nagging sinus headaches, now is the time to speak up and share with me: Third day now, and taking aspirin like candy has only alleviated the constant throbbing a bit. Couldn't study because I couldn't concentrate enough, which is Not Good.

Did fiddle, on-and-off, with PhotoShop, though. See my latest contribution to mcsmooch, the ultimate lj community to bring a smile to my grumpy little face.

Otherwise, yes, I'm home in my own apartment again; father dropped me off after having roused me from sleep early in the morning to complain that I'd eaten the cranberries designated for his müsli! Oh, family. Speaking of, I also got a little Easter gift from the parents that, however, needs a ( cut-tag telling Jenn & Cottontail *not* to click )

Time for bed now. I can only hope tomorrow's a slightly brighter day, and I don't mean weather-wise, although that wouldn't go amiss either.

My timing for introducing a spring lj layout is impeccable.

( See? )

( Or wait, maybe it really is, after all. )

Now I point you towards the icon and moodily open page 26 of the script again.

Still producing disquieting amounts of liquids, fortunately not garishly coloured. Also popping GeloMyrtol (therefore smelling like a big cough drop, much to the amusement of my parents), and working on my fifth pack of tissues.

*sneeze*

If I hadn't had such a headache due to blocked sinuses, I'd have written meme answers. This way, I only blearily watched crime mysteries with my mother, two of them, and played around with pretty designs:

New lj layout courtesy of cartonage

Study Day was not at all nasty, but it was certainly brutishly short: After barely four hours, Cutie & I made our way to the other end of town for some supposedly awesome!1!! commercial repetition class...but no one showed up. Stell Dir vor, es ist Gründonnerstag, und keiner geht hin. ( More about my day & conversation topics )

I'll prepare some Indian veggie stir-fry with venison over French red baby potatoes now, but if anyone by any chance is into a) Fanmixes, b) CD cover graphics, or c) America's Best Dance Crew, check out the CD covers I made for callherblondie's mix, Laconic: Tony Tran (Kaba Modern)

Had a low-grade headache all day; I think e. is right and yesterday's Languedoc Cuvée 2006 is to blame. ( w(h)ine )

That said, after a dinner of onion/tomato/lentil soup with herbs, I'll still be studying until midnight now. In the meantime, though? Last at technosage's:

The Mix-'em-up Meme

1) Make a list of 15 characters from various fandoms and assign each character a number.

2) Without telling anyone who's on the list or the character's assigned number, get questions from your flist about what they'd like to know about them, i.e. "If 3 and 4 were trapped in a cave together with only a blanket and a toothpick, what would they do?"

3) Post the list of characters and answers to the questions.

As Allie said: I've got the list; bring it on!

I chose one character per fandom...and realised I have way too many fandoms; when did that happen?

I am painting my toenails and have to say yet again that these are the best thing ever. How did humanity survive before? (I know, I know: used balled up tissues, tiny rags, or didn't care.)

An ljfriend's post on meeting a Physics Nobel Prize winner reminded me of how, in the display of a bookstore, I saw, "The Beginner's Guide to Winning the Nobel Prize" by P. C. Doherty, and immediately thought of the most fitting gift for one Dr. Rodney McKay.

Also--thus the above action--I'll be gone for a little 5-day vacation with a few pals till Friday. There will be frolicking in the waves of one of these holiday parks with waterslides, and also in Amsterdam (if the weather forecast is to be believed, that'll also involve lots of water; of course: welcome to the Netherlands & ;-).

1. Returned home (passive tense).

2. Realised yet again the freaky fact of ( fannish osmosis )

3. The good thing about not having last.fm turned on is that one can gleefully listen to Unforgiven II without fearing one song will forever destroy the at-least-not-atrocious opinion of thousands of other listeners. Here, it's only a coupla hundred.

4. I jotted my name down in that Testimonial meme. If you feel like it, testify.

5. A certain ljfriend of mine whom I gave a dating pep-talk grumpily accepted it, then added, "But I'm not going to wear any bows in my hair in an effort to attract him!"

I grinned. ( Here's why. )

1. ( How to Use Skills Aquired Via The Internet In Your Family's Daily Dealings )

***

2. TSCC

The future of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is in serious doubt.

In this post, there's stuff we can do...and a link to the most apt comic in this context. chele74, you'll want to click.

I'd upload a Sarah Connor icon--or maybe a Cameron one? Decisions, decisions--but don't wanna lose my inactive icons. Later.

***

3. Meme

And finally, although I fully well realise that any storyfinders summary worth its smelling salts would be longer than most of my fiction...if not all of it; a multi-novel epic makes up for dozens of drabbles, right?

Snagged from yahtzee63:

"The thing is, when people look for stories, they always make it sound like badfic. Now, often that's because it really is badfic, but sometimes it's good and they just suck at describing the story.

So, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to summarize badly any one (or more!) of my stories and I'll try to guess which it is. You could even pretend you don't remember the pairing or fandom to make it harder to guess."

Sure sign that you are indeed recovering from three days of feverish, bed-ridden food poisoning/norovirus*: You can look at the recipes, meal musings, and dinner photos on your flist again without retching.

Thanks to everybody who commented, gave desperately needed advice, and/or sent get-well-wishes. You rock. & :-)



* Oh, I double-dog dare you. You know who you are.

grundbuch: *cuts tomatoes with deft & decisive hands, and also a sharp knife*
monanotlisa: You could cut them much more effectively.
grundbuch: Oh?
monanotlisa: You're cutting them in half and then carve out the green bits twice--but see, if you leave one "half" a little larger, you only have to carve out the green bit once!
grundbuch: I know, I know--but then it's not two actual, precise halves!
monanotlisa: *mulls this over* Don't you love how both of us are OCD yet refreshingly different in our approach?

Had wine and ostrich steaks and beef with couscous (I kissed him on the cheek twice during that, but it's only funny to Germans, if that) and a sauce made from fresh tomatoes, plus wine, and a Bailey's for dessert. Time for bed, I think.

Crazy Neighbour has moved out! Numfar, do the dance of joy!

New neighbour seems both sane and nice; he introduced himself with a name and a warm handshake and borrowed a screwdriver from me. In retrospect, I should have expressed my regret at it not being sonic, thus testing whether he's a geek.

Kind of peckish right now, but grundbuch told me to come by his place and bring the two ostrich steaks in my freezer-box in a little while, so I guess I'll hold out and keep studying. *put-upon sigh*

Back from a dinner with the parents and vervealemania who'd flown in for the weekend. They all picked me up and whisked me away to this li'l vegetarian restaurant not far from my house (although we totally both used and mocked sis's car GPS, the voice of which I'm sure sounded even more miffed afterwards). ( Food details, because I like to make people's mouths water from across 1 - 2 oceans )

The thing is, as nice as this evening was, it made me realise--sharp pangs: not just a cliché phrase--how much I miss my sister, who lives at the other end of the Republic (yes, that's what some Germans call their country, sometimes). I hadn't seen her for Christmas, if you recall, because she'd gone to Australia with her boyfriend-slash-future-husband, who's awesome and also a half-Aussie: 1 German father + 1 Australian mother = bilingual son with 2 passports. ( Adventures with in-laws )