Well, that's my Yuletide assignment in! Time to wallow in the canon again.

In light of that, seeing as I need to get my request-writing mojo going, drabbles are being offered. I will write pretty much anything you have ever seen me mention on this journal, in any combination, crossovers more than welcome. Come on, people, hit me.

Dear Yuletide Writer,

( Exactly one person will care about this, thus: a cut. )

So, NaNo is just not happening this year, thank you Criminal Minds. (About which I have very few Thoughts but a whole lot of Feelings.)

Actually, that's not really fair. It's not happening because I want to go back and write everything else I've ever written some more, which means the actual NaNo, whose characters I'm not all that attached to yet, just get shunted aside.

I've baked some banana bread. This is actually attempt number three. The first one didn't bake all the way through, the second didn't rise but was still edible. This one both baked through and rose. It's pretty delicious, and wonderfully moist. It's kind of burnt on the bottom, which is unfortunate, but hardly a disaster. I have no idea why I can apparently bake everything else ever, but banana bread just hates me.

My roommate seems to be missing. This is kind of making freak out, thank you again Criminal Minds. However, as everyone has been pointing out to me, she's probably just decided to stay with her parents a few extra days. Everything will be fine!

I spent my entire Genetics lab explaining DNA sequencing to my classmates. Dear god. At least now I would probably be able to do it myself if given access to a lab! That's got to be something, right? ... Also I will probably kick ass on the midterm tomorrow.

So, NaNo has started, and I'm muddling my way through. (One bit up at goodwillsecrets) Unfortunately, I'm also muddling my way through Criminal Minds, which means that my time for other things is a little bit limited. Oops.

Picture of me being Desire for Halloween:



Contrary to my fears, new roommate is delightful. And I made French onion soup yesterday, which is delightful too. And that's good, because I have nearly a gallon of it now.

--

And now, one of my favorite memes, questions care of viorica8957

Leave me a comment saying "Pick me!"
• I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can satisfy my curiosity
• Update your journal with the answers to the questions
• Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions

( Questions and answers below. )

You see that? You know what that is? That is a loaf of whole wheat bread -- still warm out of the oven! -- that I baked.



It's delicious. Which is a little surprising considering how intent on sticking to my counter it was at first, and how I almost went mad with impatience waiting for it to rise. But I did it (with a little help from Sudoku)! I baked bread! It's awesome! I will never starve!

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It's almost NaNoWriMo time! I am totally pumped. I just want Sunday to get here already. In the meantime, I'll have to do my Logic homework, and then agonize about next semesters classes a little. I thought I was certain about everything! But now I am certain of exactly nothing. That is kind of tragic.

Oh, god. It's less than a week before the start of NaNo, and I've gone and re-read what I had of Silicon Dreams. That would be last year's NaNo, for those of you who weren't with me. It is, to the exclusion of possibly one or two small and self-enclosed pieces of fanfiction, my absolute favorite thing that I have ever written. I do not even love Coordinate Your Realities as much as I love Silicon Dreams. Hell, I don't even love Grace that much, and I've spent the last seven years laboring over it.

So naturally, today, instead of continuing to plan this year's NaNo, I finally got around to unblocking myself on the place where I got blocked in Silicon Dreams. Go me. I mean, maybe all is not lost, since I did realize that something I'd thought I had totally made up my mind on later in the plot wasn't certain at all, so even if I did keep going I would be all blocked up again in a few thousand words.

Anyway. My point is that I'm silly. Also I am waiting for Yuletide signups to open. And waiting. And waiting and waiting. (I will get my Dalemark story this year, damn it! My very own Dalemark story!)

I went to Halloween Party #1 tonight! It was awesome. Lot of fun.

Got home, found a ton of stuff dumped all over the place. Turns out NYU housing, in its infinite wisdom, has decided to give me a roommate after all! Without telling me about it! And this roommate? Decided to move in on a Saturday night! Except not really, because all she did was dump a bunch of junk, write a note, and leave. The note? Its salient points are: "I'll be back next weekend. I'm kind of a neat freak, please clean this place up!"

So now I'm... upset all out of proportion with it (especially since, aside from my freshly-done laundry on the bed and half a sink of dishes, my room was totally clean until she messed it up). And I may or may not be staying up all night because I haven't done it in a while and it's a fun feeling, for about half an hour after sunrise, until it catches up with you. So -- entertain me!

Suggested topics:

(1) How last night's episode of Dollhouse was breathtaking and how I love Topher.
(2) What you're doing for your NaNo, and where I can read it.
(3) How White Collar is already totally awesome, and how it had better keep on getting even more awesome.
(4) How if [spoiler goes here] is dead, FlashForward and I are done professionally.

Today I finished assembling my Halloween costume. I'm going to be -- wait for it -- Desire of the Endless. There will almost certainly be pictures.

I also baked some lemon-blueberry bread. This was delicious. Is delicious, rather. I've only managed to eat half of it so far. It ended up unglazed, because I accidentally caramelized my glaze. Yeah, you heard me. I made extremely acidic, lemony caramel. By accident.

Next weekend: real bread. With yeast. Yeast makes me unaccountably nervous. It's like an especially bizarre phobia. Hurrah.

The important part of this post! I wrote a bit of backstory for my upcoming NaNo. It's right here! It was fun! I love backstory!

One whole midterm down! The Logic midterm is going to be a bitch, but at least it isn't 'til November. For now, I have to worry about my somewhat impossible Evolution of Intellectual Complexity midterm. (And boy, am I ever wishing I hadn't decided to take this class. Too late now, I suppose.)

It has been pretty horrendously cold and damp lately. I've been making up for it by baking stuff. Yesterday I made scones. As scones, they're not particular good, but as crumbly, execssively crusty triangular bread, they're entirely serviceable. Anyway.

--

NaNoWriMo is coming up. I have a journal for it and everything: goodwillsecrets

I've decided, therefore, to do one of my favorite memes. The character development one. Audience participation encouraged. Well, required. Well.

1. Pick one or more of my characters, which are oh so conveniently located below

2. Pick 5 numbers from 1 to 100.

3. The numbers will correspond to the 100 Most Important Things To Know About Your Character. I will answer the corresponding questions from the point of view of the character(s).

4. You can also totally ask me anything you want, even if it isn't on that list.

5. Feel free to return and pick 5 more numbers after I’ve replied to you.

My main and main-ish characters are as follows:

CAPTAIN BARKER, a Privateer Captain
MISS REED, her Second-in-Command
ALEC, a Youthful Hanger-On
LUCIA, a Professor
EDMOND, a Doctor
TAMSIN and ORLI, Twins, Combat Experts
MARIAN, an Engineer

YOU GUYS.

I CAN MAKE CREPES.

THEY WERE PERFECT AND ROUND AND AWESOME AND I FLIPPED THEM AND EVERYTHING.

...and then I ate them all without taking pictures because they were also fucking delicious.

In short? Culinary win.

Aside from that, I have been huddling in corners and around the stove, trying to get warm. NYU Housing still hasn't turned on our heaters. We're getting down to the mid-forties tonight... that should be exciting. At least the cold means the smell of the next door people smoking weed doesn't carry as strongly.

My puzzle is also going quite well.

...and then I read four books in as many days, and all was right with the world.

Actually, since the last two I read were Havemercy and (its sequel) Shadow Magic, let me just note for the record that the latter is a couple of order of magnitudes better, and I'm not just saying that because I'm a little infatuated with Caius Greylace. I swear. I have thought this through and everything.

(The other two were The Remains of the Day (♥) and Odd and the Frost Giants (♥ ♥).)

The fact of the matter is that since about a week ago I carried every last book I own up four flights of stairs, I'm officially not allowed to buy any more books. Since I made that resolution, predictably, I've bought ... three books. Oh, well.

--

Anyway, I've had some culinary adventures!

On Friday I made lemon poppy seed muffins. I discovered that you can find poppy seeds with the spices, not with the grains, or the nuts, as various helpful grocery store employees (in four different grocery stores!) attempted to convince me. I also discovered that things just work better if you melt the butter first (although they're more amusingly messy if you don't), that you can get four tablespoons of juice out of a good-sized lemon, that while measuring out vinegar with the same spoon you just used to measure out baking soda is a lot of fun you probably should just go ahead and buy baking powder already, and that whole wheat flour probably should not be used in the making of lemon poppy seed muffins.

And then I made an omelette:



It is a beautiful omelette, and it tasted wonderful. I even managed to flip it. All in one piece.

--

I also don't know what to be for Halloween, and it's kind of bugging me. Ideas, oh LJ-land?

So peridium tagged me for this handwriting meme, and seriously, I love showing off my handwriting, so here goes!

1. Write your username.
2. Write your 2 favourite bands/groups of the moment.
3. Write something you ♥, aka lemme see your heart.
4. Write the name of your favourite person of all time.
5. Write the name of your recent favoured person.
6. Tag 6 people to do this meme.

( And -- write! )

I've made a great deal of cookies over the past few days, and they have been amazing. I tell you people, those were some awesome cookies. Chocolate chip and hazelnut, totally from scratch.

I also got my books! There are so many of them! They're now absolutely everywhere. I'll have pictures of that as soon as I finish up decorating. By which I mean, when I finish my 2000-piece puzzle and hang it up.

I HAVE JUST ATTAINED A LIFE GOAL I NEVER KNEW I HAD:

CARE OF MY EVOLUTION OF INTELLECTUAL COMPLEXITY PROFESSOR, I AM OFFICIALLY THREE DEGREES OF SEPARATION AWAY FROM ALAN TURING.

(...and two from Noam Chomsky, but Chomsky can suck it.)

I also really miss being half a math major. Guys, remind me that I owe CitiBank an appalling amount of money and that I'm a senior and that I can't take another major now? I think I really need reminding.

And also, does anyone want anything written, because I'm in a writing sort of mood? Anyone? Anything?

My apartment -- it is far too well-appointed and wonderful to truly be called a dorm -- is the best apartment. Giant windows! Fire escape! Plenty of floor space! High ceilings! There's also that whole fifth floor walk-up aspect, but I'm okay with that now. So far. More or less.

Um, I've had all my classes now. They seem to be very thematic this semester, though that wasn't really by design. Genetics is so far proving to be just as much fun as anticipated, my utterly bizarre linguistics class is as utterly bizarre as anticipated (we watched bird mating dances in class today!), syntax is syntax, and Logic... well, we shall see.

Both of my linguistics classes are going to be in the beautiful! new! Linguistics Building! So that's something.

This being a senior thing still hasn't sunk in all the way, damn it.

It further appears that every last one of my finals is going to be on the same day. Happily, that day is all the way in December, so I don't actually have to start thinking about it just yet.

And now, mostly for my own benefit, ( some observations about the newish Honorverse book, Storm from the Shadows. )

It has been a while, hasn't it. I'm back from Miami exile now, though, so updates will probably increase apace.

I'm in Bobst Library at the moment. My mom's gone off to Boston and from there straight home. I'm kind of stuck out of my room until I think my roommate has woken up.

Well, actually, I'm stuck out of my room until they finish putting in a new carpet and fixing the ceiling leak. But I'm also, for the moment, stuck out of my temporary room. This is all going to be an exciting mess in a few weeks' time.

On the other hand, my proper room is a fifth-floor walk-up, and the roommate doesn't really seem to be morally up to that. Therefore, I may even end up living there alone. Since she's already requested a room change. I, on the other hand, am a Romantic, more or less, and therefore the thought of carrying all my books, bit by bit, up five flights of stairs, appeals to me on a very deep, starving-artist sort of level.

Not that I'm even starving, or even particularly poor. Between savings and checking, I appear to be worth nearly two-thousand (!) dollars.

Last night I went to see Phantom of the Opera. Seriously, you guys. You guys, seriously.

I've also been on a massive rereading campaign while in Miami: the Baroque Cycle, Nemesis, A Series of Unfortunate Events, and now Honorverse. Still on that last one. It's been taking a while, since I've been spending most of my time for the last few days running around.

Anyway. I need to buy still more things. In addition to the new bedding and new sneakers and new bag that I've already bought. K-Mart, here I come!

...and how has everyone else been?

Wow, hello. It's been a while, hasn't it? I haven't felt very much like posting lately. I've mostly been wallowing around, enjoying myself.

Let's recap the last, oh, month. Since I last posted, I have:

- Seen Patrick Wolf in concert, spent the next week wandering around in a starstruck daze.
- Written and turned in a syntax paper, got an A in syntax.
- Moved on to Ethics, which is not nearly as much fun.
- Re-read all the Tortall books.
- Read Deep Secret by Diana Wynne Jones, was thoroughly delighted by it.
- Walked a lot. I mean, a lot. A great amount of walking has been performed by my legs.
- Been to two parties, both Irene's.
- Packed most of my books into boxes to store for the month I'll be in Miami.

Various other things, too, no doubt, but I can't think of them at the moment. At the moment I'm embarking on the great three-day Harry Potter re-read. That is, seeing how much of it I can get re-read between now and when I see HBP. Conveniently, class has been canceled today. I have plenty of time in which to accomplish this feat, and eBooks of all seven. There is no way I can fail!

-- to at least get through Prisoner of Azkaban, anyway.

-- unless I get distracted re-reading Emma.

How have y'all been while I was away?

At last, I have a new default icon! Because I also have a new outfit care of H&M's sale.

( You can witness it here. )

--

I have only another week left of Syntax, and then I get to have six weeks of Ethics, for a change. I think the two hours of class four days a week will be a lot less enjoyable when it's Ethics, and when I don't have Irene there.

How is it that whenever I have a moment of completely swearing off RPS because I just can't deal with it, I end up within a week reading tons and tons of RPS? Oh, self. You really protest too much.

I keep trying to write that fic. It's going pretty slowly.

Hello, LJ-land!

I watched the Coraline musical today. It was quite fantastic. Also deeply, deeply strange. But then, it is, when you consider it, a deeply strange book. All the better! I also got a little turned around in Greenwich Village, but that's also all for the better, since I love walking around Greenwich Village.

Tomorrow I have to hang out with my mom's friend and their son. So I shall have a lot of free brain-time, and therefore... I am going to write you drabbles/short fics/whatever. I would like a prompt to be included in your request. Really! Go on.

The only exciting things that have been happening to me lately have involved syntax. (And therefore Semantics.) Sadly, these things don't make very good stories to non-linguists. Sometimes not even to other linguists, I'm sure.

Although I did get a haircut on Monday. I've waited till now to picspam because... because I don't really know. But I did.

( It's quite short. )

That's the other thing. It's been cold enough to wear sweater dresses and suchlike garments most of the week. Quite satisfying. Now my mom is here to visit, so it's decided to warm up a little.

Friday night I went to see Amanda Palmer. Some of you may remember that I also did this back in November. She was amazing then, and she had the Danger Ensemble with her being completely magical in every way. On Friday, though, she was -- I don't even know. Her voice sounded better than I think I've ever heard it. And there was just so much emotion in all the songs. It was really amazing.

Surprise Neil Gaiman in the audience didn't hurt either.

OH, LJ-land, they are my favorite people. I want them to be happy forever.

She also started off singing Lua, which was amazing. I want her to cover more Bright Eyes posthaste. And she finished off covering a Leonard Cohen song with her awesome dad.

And there was much joy. :D

--

Now I'm re-reading Pride and Prejudice to get inspired for the TOS fic set on a Regency-style planet I intend to write! This one might take significantly longer than the last one did. Oh, plots.

--

And now a meme appropriated from contrariangie:

Give me the names of two characters and I will tell you why character A loves character B. I might answer with a drabble, a quick bit of meta, or a list, just to make things that tiny bit more OMGSOEXCITING!