rusty_halo

Today is a wonderful day...

It's Lucifer's birthday!!!!

Eight years ago today, in the laundry room of my parents' house in New Jersey, Lucifer's mother Shadow (a beautiful, sweet black stray cat who I'd made friends with) gave birth to Lucifer and his three siblings. Lucifer was the second born (I have it on videotape) and his head got stuck coming out. We all thought he was going to die, but Shadow eventually pushed him out and started licking him, and finally he started making teeny little squeaking baby kitty noises that meant he was breathing.

And ever since then, he's been the greatest cat ever. Sweet, fun, adventurous, but most of all--cool. Being in Lucie's presence could calm anyone; he's just totally accepting and trusting and relaxed.

I gave him a pile of treats for breakfast. I'll have to find something fun at Petco to bring home to him tonight.

I took some photos of him the other day in the bathtub (trying to drink out of the faucet). I'll post those here later so you can all see how adorable he is. >:)

( Movie Meme )

Last night I was working until 8pm and talking to my former coworker Sarah about "relationships." Interesting conversation. Sarah's awesome.

Forgot to mention this: I watched two movies over the weekend, Velvet Goldmine and American Psycho.

( weird rant about Velvet Goldmine, American Psycho, Fight Club, and the emptiness of consumer culture )

PS: Excellent thread over at the Hydrogen Board imagining a Chemlab/Pig tour. *sigh* If only.

And I must say, I love it when the bands write their own slash fiction:

petegala (here): If you go into the men's room between sets, you might just find Raymond and Jared making out in a stall.

jared: and, in reference to Pete from the Cracknation board, Raymond and i would only be having sex in the bathroom if we could sandwich you. we've discussed it, and i call the south side of your street, honey.

And it goes from there.... ("The Brokeback Techrat tour anyone?" "BROKE-DICK METRONOME" "Rivetback Mountain" "Tesseract Fountain"....)

PPS: Did you guys watch the Daily Show last night? The Cheney thing actually didn't strike me as that funny when I first heard it, but when Jon got ahold of it, I thought I was going to die laughing.

PPPS: Celebrate International Quirkyalone Day. (Great link; check it out.)

I just handed in my last academic paper (ever?).

Assuming all goes well (which it should *knock on wood*), this is it. All classes are over, this was the last bit of academic work required to graduate.

This feels so weird. Like, my entire life has been leading up to this moment. I didn't exactly choose it, I didn't exactly want it (though I also couldn't think of any more preferable option), but here I am, I've achieved it. College graduation. What an incredible relief that this is over.

I'm a bit sad, which surprises me. I felt nothing but a sort of bitter joy at having escaped high school alive; I still feel no nostalgia for that nightmarish hell. But I actually started to appreciate college a bit near the end, maybe about 2/3 of the way through. I'll never like homework or papers or grades, but once I found the kinds of classes that suited my personality--cultural studies, gender studies--I saw the point. I appreciated the insights and the need for them and I felt like I grew as a person because of those classes.

I sort of wish I could've done it over again knowing what I know now; I spent at least the first half of college floating around totally lost, without a clue what I wanted to study or where I fit in. By the time I finally found it, it seems like I barely had time to skim the surface.

But anyway. It's over and done with now and man, am I relieved!

I spent the weekend in something of a daze: all my finals this year were papers, all were long, and all were due within the same period of time. So this weekend I wrote:

- 12 pages on the construction of masculinity in Sergio Leone's Dollars trilogy and its relationship to the cultural changes of the 1960s in America (due Monday 5/3)
- 6 pages on the theme of objectification in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and its relation to the academic study of history (due Monday 5/3)
- 12 pages on the relationships between dominant culture, subculture, and family in Joel Schumacher's The Lost Boys (due Wednesday 5/5)

I just returned from handing the last paper in. That's 30 pages in about four days. It was all done very last minute because I had other work to finish up the week before. That also means I've barely slept in the past four days: I was up 36 hours, from Sunday morning to Monday night, slept for about eight hours, then got up again Tuesday morning and have been awake until now (Wednesday afternoon). And now I'm at work trying to catch up because I missed Monday. Man, I can't wait to go home and sleep.

This is a babbling, nonsensical post; I offer exhaustion as an excuse.

I wish I had something related to the Spike-verse to say. Unfortunately it has utterly failed to hold my attention; the little time I've had to devote to fandom lately has been toward Methos. I really wish I could keep my attention on Spike; I love the community that surrounds this fandom. I want to continue to be a part of it. But, well, there's just nothing that Mutant Enemy could do that would make me want to watch--or even think about--their product. I'll spare you the anti-ME rant; if you read my journal you know how I feel about their ideology. I know now that there's nothing there for me and never will be. Thinking about it just makes me angry and sad.

I'd much prefer to think about Methos and Jaime Lannister, whose creators appreciated the value of an ambiguous character and the value of free will, the ability of the individual to change. drujan and I went to see Hellboy the other weekend and though I didn't particularly enjoy the film, we both loved the theme that it doesn't matter how you start out, you don't have some essential essence; you have choice, you decide who you are, no one else does. Methos and Jaime both embody that; anything that ME creates embodies the opposite: the triumph of fate, inability to escape destiny, essentialism, ultimate lack of choice. (Don't argue; if you feel differently, good, enjoy yourself, you're not going to convince me.)

I bought the DVDs for Highlander seasons four and five (graduation gift to self, shut up frugal conscience) and I love them. ( am I still talking about Highlander??? Okay, I think the thesis here is something like 'Kronos is an essentialist and Methos is a social constructionist'.... oh, shut up. Long Highlander mini-essay. )