I'm so mad at myself. If I'd just remembered, like I kept reminding myself to do all last Friday, to fill my liquid nitrogen storage, I wouldn't have gone in to do it today. Which means I might have gotten liquid nitrogen out of the not broken, leaking, and possibly explosively pressurized tank.

To give you an idea of how badly off this tank was? It seemed to form a half-a-centimenter-thick layer of ice around the top (where the leak must be) inside of the five minutes I spent struggling to attach the hose to it. The strongest dude here could only barely twist open the spigot. And the storage tank that usually takes me three-five minutes to fill was spewing liquid nitrogen all over inside of ten seconds.

TEN SECONDS.

PANIC!

No, just mild alarm. And a lot of calling around to our Environmental Health and Safety folks and the company that makes the tank. (This would be the company that told another tech here that the hissing that sounded odd to him was fine.) Blargh.

Last night, I dreamed that my parents' house was under siege by zombies.

( You'd be surprised to learn that this isn't a frequent dream for me. )

...and woke up. I blame our trip to the Met's Samurai swords/armor exhibit for some of that dream.

It looks like I was right. I blogged about this before, but this really slam dunks the case I was trying to make in a much, much shorter format.

I'd also like to point out the disproportionate loss of women of color from that map. Every season, you lose at least one female character, usually the non-white female character. They tried to compensate, it seems, by putting in two new female characters in, but one of them always leaves and the others are now all white.

The issue of women on this show is a sore one for me. Every season has, in a list of 11-13 central characters, only 4 female characters AT MOST. Of those four, only two have been around since season one, if you fudge the matter and count Ali Larter as being continuous even though her characters have not been. That's a serious imbalance before you begin to consider how marginalized the women in this list are. The three remaining in the fourth season play the very definite roles of maiden, mother, crone, too. Which helps immensely, let me tell you.

Someone remind me why I watch this again?

IRON MAN 2 POSTER!!!!!!!!!!!

SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP I LOVE IT AND I'M ALREADY IN LINE. I'LL SEE YOUR FANNISH DEVOTION, TWI-HARDS, AND RAISE YOU FIFTY MILLION TIMES!

Okay, er, sorry, that got away from me. My friend H recently gave me my months-overdue birthday gift, which was the 2-disc Iron Man DVD set. Which is fucking awesome, in case that squealing above didn't tip you off to how I feel about it.

What helps me to be excited, beyond the fact that Iron Man was pretty much astonishingly perfect for an action/comic book movie, is that everything about it screams quality. Okay, maybe not the poster they went with for the theatrical release. That was crap. But there is so much love everywhere else. I mean, look at the teaser poster for the first movie. I first saw that one of the light boxes at a theater and could not stop staring. (Naturally, I acquired a copy ASAP.) Everything about the movie looked this good, too. It just did.

AND NOW THE SEQUEL POSTER IS OUT AND ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG. I love the contrast, too, between the shadowy-but-squeaky-clean teaser for the first movie and the brazen sturm-and-drang-with-dirty robots of the second one. Pathetic fallacy says what!?

Another thing that makes me want to die for laughing with maniacal glee: they're making a Pride and Prejudice and Zombies miniseries. I think this is the right venue for this degree of silliness. It's not film-quality material. It's SyFy Channel stuff. Although, I doubt anything could compete, silliness-wise, with that That Mitchell and Webb Look P&P parody. Still, eee!

Erm, that tag sounded dirtier than I intended for this post. I only meant that I got the H1N1 vaccination finally. I got the nasal vaccine. No big, just that after a few minutes, the liquid sort of works down the back of your nose and you can taste something that's just barely there enough to notice.

But ugh, I was up so early to get the clinic at 8 am sharp. I had to stop and meet my Dad and one of my younger sisters, who needed the vaccine, too. We got there, were the first people to get it, and still waited and hour and a half. Sheesh. And tonight is one of many marathon nights of testing for my experiment for class. It's going to be a loooooong day.

Let this be a lesson to me: whenever I can get up early, I am now going to do so.

I woke up at 8 am this morning. No reason, just did. I debated getting up, getting to work early to print out some things I needed for class. I had to be in early as was to be here when the guy coming to pack a piece of equipment was coming. I decided against this efficiency and went back to sleep, anticipating I'd be up in another hour when the alarm went off.

When next I raised my head from the pillow, I saw it was 10:30 am. I did one of those cartoon double-takes, where I let my head fall back and then shot right up out of bed. I think I got out of the apartment fast enough that I just pulled clothes and such into a vortex that somehow got me dressed. I threw my toothbrush into my bag (deodorant, too) and just flat out ran to work to print my assignment. Which was, naturally, due that morning. To add insult to my already injurious slap-dash, half-awake look, I had a sneezing fit so bad that when I ran into someone later, they actually asked if I wasn't sick. Great. Unbrushed hair and teeth, puffy eyes, and now a runny nose.

Whatever, there was no time. I flew to the subway. Where I promptly stepped in gum. That has never happened to me. But it was just so appropriate that it happened then. And it took my last tissue to get it off my shoe. And the train was late. And I was in such a hurry this morning, I didn't grab an umbrella, so I got plenty wet walking to and from class (which I ended up being 15 minutes late for).

About the only thing that worked out in all this is that the guy coming to pack stuff didn't show. Thank Bob. Now I just need to remember to set my damned alarm when I get home. I do NOT need a repeat of this, thank you!

How's everybody else's Monday after the break treating them?

I am thankful this kid's maturity especially in this time where adults are behaving like ninnies and schoolyard bullies.

If you can't be bothered to sit still for that whole video--it's painful when the CNN anchor interrupts, I do understand--watch The Daily Show's take at least:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Gaywatch - Peter Vadala & William Phillips
www.thedailyshow.com
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You can disagree with his stance, but you cannot disagree that this kid is preternaturally motivated and logical about his passions. Unlike the screamers in the media, demanding blood, pushing purity tests and other bullshit, Will simply, politely as possible, said he wasn't trucking with something. He exercised his First Amendment rights, and he went about his day. He sounds like the world's most well-adjusted preteen ever. If only adults would so carefully consider their actions and measure their responses to perceived injustices. Nerds 2^2 Ever, indeed. You rock on, Will.

(And, please, do not listen to the goddamned CNN fuckwit. He's not half as smart as you. You don't ever have to say the goddamned Pledge of Allegiance. There doesn't have to be a point where you drop your objection. That's something you'll learn as you transition into being an extremely sharp teenager and, eventually, voting adult: whether or not you agree with it or with the country touting is irrelevant, no one can make you say anything you don't want to. If you just plain don't FEEL like saying it, fuck it.)

Newsweek took a ton of flak for putting this picture on their cover the other week. The haters claim this move was sexist because it reduces Palin to a pretty face instead of a credible political force.

( You don't know from sexism, ya idjits. )

Anyway, regardless, Newsweek felt compelled to prove that they're equal opportunity. So after dutifully printing out the responses to their cover, they cheerfully proved one angry letter-writer wrong by throwing her quote over this picture of Barack Obama. There, now everyone's hot political leader has had his/her sexy action shot in Newsweek and the conservatives who didn't think sexism existed before Sarah Palin became John McCain's running mate can shut the F up.

(I read the comments on the Palin cover with gritted teeth because People. Do. Not. Get. It. When I turned the page to find the picture of Obama, I snorted out loud. On the street. Drawing more than a few looks. Which is even more awkward given that I was looking at a picture of the President wet and shirtless.)

Pink Raygun seems to have eaten an old post. So for the sake of completion, I'm posting it here. Nothing to see if you're not interested in Heroes.

( Strange Attractors )

You might recall our pilgrimage to the future birthplace of James T. Kirk. You might recall that my entire family consists of nerds and dorks and dorks and nerds. But just in case you doubted us, I present to you my fridge:


Hmm, doesn't look too unusual. Calendar, magnets, picture of family...

Wait a tic, what is...? ( NERD-HANCE! )

ETA: After posting, I went to look at what's coming in the mail to me today. It's Dragonball Evolution--the live-action movie with white people pretending (or not) to be Asian. No wonder I never have to wait for movies!

Someone has been unable to get a DVD through Netflix for almost three months.

How does that even happen? I have never had to wait longer than maybe a couple of days even for something that said "Very Long Wait." I bumped G.I. Joe to the top my queue a few days before going to San Francisco because I thought my brother-in-law would watch it with me. (Turns out he already owned it.) I was mad at myself at the time because I was sure it would never arrive in time--"very long wait" and all. It came like three days later, maybe one whole extra day from the usual two-day turnaround I get on my Netflix movies.

Granted, I live in NYC, and we've got a huge Netflix processing center in Queens on top of the fact that our giant population means that there are always fifteen billion copies of every movie imaginable ready to go at any time. But really? You can be kept waiting for movies? It's always the other way around for me--my movies are waiting on me--and have been to the point that the XBOX is threatening to mutiny if I try to make it load all fifty billion Watch It Now movies I have in my queue one more time.

Other Netflix news: Supposedly Netflix is negotiating with movie studios to arrange a no-rental window on new releases. This is entirely being done to prop up waning DVD sales. It's both a dumb and a smart move. It's dumb in that Netflix risks losing customers who really want new releases as they come out. (Because Netflix, like the old brick-and-mortar video stores of old, gets its new releases on the Friday prior to their general availability, they can mail a new movie such that it arrives on the day it actually comes out.)

It's smart, however, in that I cannot believe Netflix won't get something reeeeeally good out of this. I'm not entirely sure of the power dynamics at work here, but it's the studios who have something to lose. They're not going to pull out from Netflix--that would be suicide--so they don't have much to bargain with. They're going to be the ones coming to Netflix for the favor, and the favor-granter has the power to extract more in return. I wouldn't be surprised if this turned into a cost-cutting measure, where Netflix agreed to the freeze but paid less for the discs or the licensing of streaming movies. If they're smart enough to demand that, that is. The streaming is where so much business is going, but it's hard to get a start in it without a broad, shared base library like Netflix already has (and which Hulu has but weeds out with time). No studio-run start-up streaming sites have taken off. Once again, they need Netflix, and Netflix would be crazy not to milk that for all it was worth.

Perhaps you've heard of James Dobson? He's a moral crusader. You know the type--the pseudo-friendly evangelist type that just wants to protect people from their worst impulses, like women working, that sort of thing. He's the sort of curmudgeonly old dude you can't believe is able to survive the daily affront to his delicate sensibilities that is a non-theocratic America.

I happen to reading about a blog post about a horrid abuse of power, wherein a mother asked the police to taser her 10 year old and they did, all because the girl didn't want to shower (!?). The post's author linked this sort of abuse to the kind that is generally encouraged by people like James Dobson. Whether or not you agree with the writer's premise that people who listen to Dobson and enthusiastically spank (if not outright whip) their kids are abusing them, regardless of whether you think spanking is a slippery slope towards having your kids tasered, I think we can all agree that James Dobson is a monster.

Why? Because he wrote this book, with this excerpt in it about how he BEAT HIS TINY DACHSHUND:
( Cut for disturbing content--animal abuse )

This is a grown man who took a belt to a dog the size of a loaf of bread because he felt that was the best way to discipline his dog. I wonder: if he'd had a pit bull or some equally tempered dog, would have been so "brave" as to try and take a strap to it?

Long story short: if you want to pretend that you're qualified for telling other people what behaviors are right or wrong, it is generally not a good idea to write--proudly, no less--about beating up your dog. You. Fucker.

I just bought some stamps online from the US Post Office because I was running out and I'd sooner pull my own teeth with pliers and no novocaine than go wait at our local PO.

I only bought stamps. To get them, I have to pay a shipping charge of $1.

YOU ARE THE POST OFFICE. YOU SET THE PRICES OF SHIPPING. YOU DON'T HAVE TO CHARGE ANY, IS WHAT I'M SAYING.

I bought it anyway. $1 for enough stamps to keep me out of that local post office for, like, forever, is totally worth it. Plus, I got to choose what stamps I wanted, and I finally got some price-difference covering $0.01 and $0.02 stamps so I can use some formerly-first-class stamps to mail shit, too.

Yes, this was worth posting about on LJ. Happy Friday!

And now that that test is over! I can post about the trivial things that are much more interesting to me! Woo!

My weekend was lovely. ( Ah, family. )

While I was in San Francisco, I finally got to see G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. I can't say that it was better than, say, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Certainly, it was shorter, so it has that in its favor. ( There's also some tangential stuff that's fun. )

But still! Fanboys! Shipping wars! We can all get along. :D

Let's see, anything else? Nope. I just finished that stupid practice test, I have to get my lab in some sort of recognizable shape before tomorrow, and I've got work to do at actual work. Better get to it then.

Survived the test. We'll see how I did come next week. I'm not sure. Once again, I find myself going, "I think I knew everything, but I could see where I might have missed a point or two on not getting wording exactly right." Last time, that led to me doing well but still missing a shit-ton of easy points that I shouldn't have. Also, I think the curve will be higher on this one because it wasn't as out-and-out tricky as the last test. We'll see.

A mini-rant, if I may? Why the hell do teachers give take-home exams? This professor is a really nice guy and all, but I kind of want to throttle him when I have to do an additional half-hour (at least) of work on a take-home exam because his stated excuse is that he has more to test us on but doesn't want us to rush and write novels in the exam space. That reason is bullshit. If you can't write a test that can be reasonably answered in the space of time allotted, that's your problem, not mine.

I guess I don't understand the point of closed-book take-homes either. I don't cheat. I've already done it, and packed it away, not to look at it again until I hand it in. I didn't even touch the computer when I got in until it was done and put away. But I don't have the faith in humanity that some honor code means everybody behaves that way. Pssh.

I need to stop taking red-eyes. Or, alternatively, I need to remember to drink a liter of red wine and take a few Benedryl before getting on one so, whether my body likes it or not, it has to sleep on the ride home.

I had a great time in San Francisco, but the trip was rounded out by being a) 1.5 hours late because of weather in New York headed out; b) getting slightly motion sick on that plane ride; c) taking a red-eye back which I've not even barely recovered from despite approximately 15 hours of sleep taken since...

and d) coming home to my apartment last night (after spending some time with viridian for her birthday--Happy Belated Birthday!) to find poop on my doormat.

Poop. It looked to be the consistency and size of cat poop. This is all that is saving the many yappy dogs in our building from summarily being executed. I don't know why a cat is running around pooping on my doormat, but until I discover otherwise, I'll assume that the stupid yippy dogs are not guilty. THIS TIME.

And now I will disappear to study for the next twenty-four hours since between nausea, an adorable two-year-old, and extreme exhaustion, I haven't done half the studying I ought to have done for my test. Which is tomorrow. Joy.

(If anything happened that was interesting, let me know. I will try to go through LJ, but as soon as I'm done with the test, I have to get together my lab report and work on a lab design for the day after. Come Thursday night, I'll be a basketcase! Woo!)

On my way to work, this otherwise dreary, almost gothic sort of morning was brightened considerably by "Friday I'm in Love" coming up on my iPod. I had to bite my lips to keep from singing aloud.

I'm out for the weekend, going to visit my sister in San Francisco and to attend the baby shower. She was a tad bummed that no one leapt to go to the one she originally planned, but when she rescheduled, we were suddenly all available (not to mention more inclined to spend the money and time to visit since she was sooooo adorably happy that we could make it).

Also? She needs all the help she can get right now. It's T-minus one month until baby, and they still haven't come up with a name. You all might recall this little test of free association I did. I got the predictable response from fully half of you: I asked what you thought of when you thought of the word "Raiden," and most of you immediately jumped to Mortal Kombat.

The reason I made that poll? IS BECAUSE THAT IS SERIOUSLY WHAT MY BROTHER-IN-LAW WANTS TO NAME MY NEPHEW-TO-BE. My sister likes "Braden," but she jokingly said that if it's stormy when she delivers, it could be "Raiden." I leapt to conduct my scientific research so I could prove what an astonishingly bad idea that was. This weekend, I predict that we will spend much of our time continuing to dissuade them from that.

Seriously. Raiden? Even if his peers don't associate that name with Mortal Kombat (hey, the game isn't that popular now, to say nothing of five-ten-fifteen years from now), when he gets old enough to work, all the people who would hire him will be my age or older, and they will associate his name with Mortal Kombat. MUST STOP THIS FROM HAPPENING.

See you all Monday!

"You know Mrs. Morris? Not any more you don't because she's been eaten!"

"Jesus, that was violent!"

Off of negativeq's recommendation, I threw Boy Eats Girl on the Netflix Watch It Now. Very charming, in its way.

Best use of landscaping tools as a weapon since Dead Alive.

One of the things that bothers me most in reportage about political bloggers and commentators is the tendency to forget that just as there is a difference in extremism, there is also a difference in type when people have opinions and suggest courses of action. The extremism equilibrium issue is a bad one, but it is also one that is easy to point out and shut down. You can easily see the difference, with some thought, between people who aren't sure that the health care reform being debated right now is what's best and people who think that health care reform is the Holocaust by another name. That is a difference in extremes of the same opinion.

The differences in kind are quite different and no one will give acknowledgment the time of day because it takes more than hyperbole to see. However, when you compare moderate activists against a hyperbolic, probably insane television anchor, it becomes much, much easier to see what a difference in kind actually is.

A gay female blogger suggests that her fellow LGBT readers should not donate to the DNC because, on the whole, the DNC is doing nothing to advance their agenda. This is better than the RNC, who would do less than nothing, but not acceptable. You donate money, you expect your congressperson/senator/president to pay attention. That's how the system works. She is working within the system to send a message.

Glenn Beck goes on TV and literally threatens his watchers with death, death, loss of liberty, death, death, fascism, and death. His network sponsors a rally against the government, and it inflates coverage of said rally. People at this rally reflect the paranoid mindset of Beck himself, mirroring his suggestions that the government is being corrupted from within and might require the blood of patriots to free once more. A man showed up the to the 9/12 rally with a "We came unarmed. [This time.]" poster. The threat isn't even subliminal. Beck is encouraging a section of the populace, his popularity rides on that segment that wants to overthrow the system.

This, my friends, is what I mean when I say a difference in kind.

Tobin Harshaw thinks that Beck's meddling that undermined Scozzafava in the NY-23, that Beck himself celebrates as a purge of the insufficiently conservative, is the same as a blogger encouraging potential Democratic donors to vote with their dollars to encourage the rise of more progressive candidates. Beck used terror and undue pressure to force out Scozzafava--he and others declared her the enemy, and they moved to hound her out of the race to make room for a know-nothing loser candidate that will never be elected and cannot, therefore, do anything for their movement. Pam Spaulding says that people should direct their support within the party to candidates of a more progressive bent so that they win primaries and then, hopefully, the elections that will get them to a point where they can effect change.

There are similar problems with the struggle--both sides end up risking losing a seat to the opposition if they drum out more moderate candidates (Beck) or promote overly progressive candidates that the district as a whole cannot support (Spaulding). So, yes, in a sense, their issues are alike. But their methods are of such different timbre, I have difficulty believing that anyone could confuse the two.

Then again, this Opinator quoted Jonah "Liberals can be fascists if you rewrite the definition of fascism" Goldberg in his last column, where he was busily forwarding this lie that Obama was somehow materially damaged by supporting his party's non-starter candidates in two gubernatorial races. Clearly, we are not dealing with the sort of deep thinker who can appreciate the apples-to-oranges nature of an obvious difference in kind sort of comparison.

I assume most of the Supernatural fangirls I know have heard something about an upcoming episode where Sam and Dean go to( not really a spoiler, but just in case ) (I'm still behind on Supernatural, so I dunno if that's the next episode or later down the line or what. Hence, spoiler tag.)

How do we feel about that? ( I'm not convinced fans will come out the better for this. )