:)

I have been converted to the plastic reduction movement. Plastics are toxic, they are poisoning us and our environment. But above all, plastic never goes away. When we make something out of plastic, it remains in our environment forever. Recycling is not enough: most plastic bottles are not turned into new bottles. They are made into other products (insulation, for example). This new product is also permanent AND they make new bottles.

I have looked around my room and my house and in the fridge. Plastic is everywhere, and 90% of it, I'm just going to throw into the recycling bin and forget about, assuming that, because I recycle, it isn't my problem any more.

It IS my problem.

I'm not anti-plastic. Obviously plastic has some uses that are very important (medical supplies, for example). I am not advocating an all out rejection of plastics immediately. I am advocating a change in the way we see our own role in the environment. I have learned about the four principles of plastic reduction:

REFUSE. REDUCE. REUSE. RECYCLE.

So, today is the first day of a plastic-reduced lifestyle. From now on, I will buy paper and glass packaging over plastic. This is refusing and the number one first step. Ideally, we should make as little plastic as possible, so wherever I can, I will be refusing it.

This breaks my heart. My favourite brand of juice comes in plastic bottles. No more for me. Tasty chocolate mousses and puddings. No more. No yoghurt. Unless I get it fresh from a cafe or something, in either a bowl or a non-plastic container I bring myself. I'll be using green bags from now on. Obviously, I have to keep buying my medication, even though the packaging is plastic. My computer keys are plastic, but I'm not throwing it out. But I am going to avoid all plastic where it's possible to do so.

Part of refusing will also involve writing letters. I'll be letting the producers of all my favourite products know how much I enjoy their foodstuffs, but informing them that I can no longer, in good conscience buy these products. By being part of the "demand" for plastic, I feed the supply. I don't want to be responsible for a single plastic lid.

Reducing is the second choice. If I cannot REFUSE plastic, I will reduce my impact. I'll buy LESS plastic packaging. I'll buy in bulk, so that less packaging is needed.

REUSE. I will not buy a new plastic bottle of juice every day. I will take my own plastic bottle, filled each day with juice I get out of a carton. No buying new pens. I will keep the pen shafts I have now, and buy new ink for them.

RECYCLE. I'm already doing this, but I will be more vigilant. Recycling should be our very last option. We need to stop producing so much plastic and recycling contributes very little to a reduction in manufacturing.

I will be recording this journey through video and photos. Stay tuned for updates as I open you up to what I now see with disturbing clarity: the world is made of plastic. And it's deadly.

If you're interested, here is a great site about reducing plastic use:
http://plasticpollutioncoalition.org/

Where did I suddenly get this mad idea? From a TV show on the ABC called Hungry Beast.
http://hungrybeast.abc.net.au/stories/great-garbage-patch
Here is a video of Wednesday night's article on plastic pollution in the pacific. I nearly vomited. The intention of the piece was to make people think about the way we use our environment. I've thought about it and I can't do it any more.

But plastic pollution isn't just about the birds in the pacific. I'll have much more to say on the subject in coming weeks.

Behold, Episode 1 in my vlogging thing I said I'd do.



It's better with my annotations/captions, so turn them on if you can.

So, I have this theory. Maybe I'm just bitter and lonely, or maybe I have a point. You be the judge.

Whenever you meet a guy, he talks about how he doesn't like boring girls and how he's into girls who are funny and interesting and a bit different. Apparently, there isn't a guy in this world who likes boring, conformist girls. Not one.

So we (the girls who are genuinely creative and non-conformist) talk to guys all the time. And I don't know about others, but for me it's real easy, because I just be myself. And they laugh at us when we're funny and tell us how "real" we are and say how they admire our strength, or brains or originality. And they really do like us and appreciate our uniqueness.

But then they date some legal aide who wears a suit with a slightly too short skirt to work and goes all out slutbomb on the weekends. And she goes out with her friends and drinks champagne all night and they're SO "mad". They dye their hair green because wouldn't that be CRAZY!? And they LOVE Sex and the City and "omigod, you are SUCH a Samantha!". And this girl, this "mad" girl: she likes going to the beach and shopping. She went on that holiday to Bali and they had the WILDEST time. Her idea of a super fun date is going ice-skating. And Guy Sebastian ROCKS. And she plays piano and she's SO creative.

And she is the most goddamn fucking boring mainstream conformist the world has ever seen.

Oh yeah, they SAY they like girls who are different and maybe they believe it. But they meet a girl who dreams of raising a family in the Amazon while she spends two years studying the spider monkeys and who goes out with her friends and writes collaborative novels and who likes Robot Chicken and The Mighty Boosh and thinks of herself as more of a Vince Noir than a Samantha. And who, if she only had the money and good health, would go to fucking Nepal and help build a school or something, and whose hobbies include puppetry and writing and blogging. And who loves Indie or Country or Ska or maybe all three. And her idea of a super fun date is playing laser tag or going on a scavenger hunt or randomly road tripping to Woolongong for the sake of it...

They'll spend the night talking to her, because she's fun and they like girls who are fun.

But they're always always ALWAYS gonna date the boring-arse bitch with the FUN green hair. And then they're going to marry her.

And we, the few truly different girls in the world, are forced to buy a shitload of cats.

Omigod!!! BEST weekend EVER!

I haven't had so much fun or been so happy since I have no idea when. We met up so we could go to Armageddon Expo, but the best part was just seeing my wonderful girls! Or most of them, anyway.

The only times it wasn't 100% awesome were when I had to say goodbye to everyone as we separated in dribs and drabs. Forget my inflatable sword and the meeting R2-D2. The best parts were the parts where we just hung out together being random and stupid.

We played LorF celebrity head OVER AND OVER AND OVER. We played laser tag. There was a certain amount of alcohol, truth be told. But it was SO great.

I want to have a LorF meet every day.

Today I dissected a chicken. I was not looking forward to cutting open an ikkle chicky, but it was about four weeks, so it had feathers and was past the cutest stage. That shouldn't make a difference, but it does. It had also been used for an experiment but was finished with, so it would have died anyway. When I did the rat, it was killed just so we could dissect it, which is sadder. At least this chicken was helpful in more than one way.

The others say I'm disgusting. I say, if an animal has to die so I can learn, I should try and learn as much as I possibly can. Right? So, I took a look inside its gizzard (or stomach) and found the stone and shell grit that it uses to grind up food. And I compared food at various stages of digestion.

Everyone was like "eww". They'll wish they'd had a look when we come to do the digestive system in anatomy!

I guess it's like this. You've cut open a chicken and your gloved hands are poking around inside trying to identify organs. THAT'S where the mental leap is. Once you've got the thing open (and it doesn't really look like an animal any more), can it really get more disgusting? Surely the leap between petting a little chick and dissecting it is WAY WAY WAY bigger than the leap between looking at the internal organs and opening them up to see inside. Right?

Only one girl had a real problem with cutting open the chicken, but everyone was like "Oh my God! That's disgusting" because I went in a little deeper than them. I mean, really... what's the difference?

Also, everyone says I'm weird because I talked to my chicken. I talked to my rat too. Is that weird? I just kinda talk sort of to myself and sorta to the animal while I do it. "Sorry about this, little chicken" and "lets see what's behind here" and "ooh, look what you've got in there".

I can't help it. But it makes me feel better. Maybe that is weird. But EVERYONE does the same thing when they've finished a dissection. We pick it up in both hands, neatly tuck everything back where it should be and carry it to the box where it gets laid down gently. Why? It's way beyond dead at that point.

And really, is talking to my chicken any weirder?

Those are the doctor's orders.

Today I saw the rheumatologist and the junior doctor who appeared to be very much her bitch. The bad news is, I definitely have fibromyalgia. The worse news is that it is indeed incurable.

The worst news? To live a healthy life with fibromyalgia, achieving the sort of strength and stamina that any comparatively well person can expect to have, she recommends...

45 minutes of aerobic exercise four times a week. Not just any exercise. Aerobic. So I would have to include any muscle work, yoga or whatever ON TOP of the 45 minutes.

Given I can now do ten minutes without dropping dead, that doesn't sound like as much as all that. But it is. I reckon I know... one person who would be capable of that. Maybe. It's hard to say.

A positive attitude is also absolutely essential. If the depression is too strong an influence on my life, recovery isn't going to happen. That's that, apparently.

I'm to continue my ten minutes a day for the next month. After that, I am to graduate to 15. I have to stay at that level for at least 2 months before moving up to 20 minutes. She'll see me in 6 months, when I'm doing 20 minutes of aerobics a day.

Praise the Lord for the WiiFit!

She was a very brisk, authoritative sort of doctor. Her basic attitude was "You get heavily into aerobics and you show some enthusiasm, or don't even talk to me."

I'm up for it. I want this shit GONE.

How much aerobic exercise do you get a week? Have any of you achieved the 45 minutes four times a week? Any aerobic programs or exercises you can recommend? I like doing the step aerobics on the wii!

In other news, school is still awesome. But I'm becoming really interested in the science aspect of everything. I always hated science, but now I find it so cool. I'm thinking about zoology. But more on that some other time.

I've been very down lately. I've been intensely paranoid and getting the distinct impression everyone I know hates me. Which is ludicrous, but I can just imagine you all talking behind my back!!! Yes, you!!! *points dramatically*

:P

So any comments of non-hateage and support would be greatly appreciated. Hopefully the slight meds increase I've been given will help with the paranoia.

Peace out!

Okay, so there's this actress called Molly Hagan. She does a lot of TV. She might be vaguely familiar to you. Whatever...

www.imdb.com/name/nm0353243/

Anyway... I was at my brother's place today and his housemates were watching Bones. David Boreanaz and that equally hot chick whose name I can't remember were trying to convince a woman to give them the child she was holding. I recognised the woman from an episode of "Cold Case" that is one of my favourites.

I don't watch Bones, but I watched a little of the dialogue and I said to Mel and Terry: "Did she steal that baby". They replied that she did, and Bones and Angel (or whatever he's called) wanted to take him away for DNA testing.

This is weird shit, because of the Cold Case episode I remembered her from. So I just looked it up, and by God, it IS the same woman.

In a 2008 episode of Cold Case, entitled "Ghost of My Child", Molly plays Lois Rabinski. Long story short, she fakes the death of a baby and raises him as her own, until Our Heroes uncover the truth.

In a 2008 episode of Bones, entitled "The Bone That Blew" she plays Elsbeth King, a woman accused of taking a baby and raising him as her own. I didn't see the rest of the episode. Did she steal the baby?

If she did, I think the real-world police need to investigate Molly Hagan. Cos she's turning up all over TV-land kidnapping little boys and pretending they're her children. That is a typecast and a HALF.

So, we're in class, talking about what groups we're going to form for our final presentation. Our teacher, Jackie, is not entirely in agreement with our assessment of our skills. We're supposed to say if we think we'd be good at research or leadership or presentation. We can pick more than one. Whatever. But she doesn't like our choice of groups, because she thinks some have too many "strong" people (ie, the ones who do best academically).

So she says "You want me to tell you what I think you're skills are."

We all hesitantly say yes.

Now... I would have gone to each person and said "you're good at blah..."

She didn't do that.

She started with researcher and said "Well, I think so and so is a good researcher. And Blah and Blah and Her and Her and Him and Her. And Her."

Then she moves onto presenting/oral skills "I'd say Blah, Her and Blah"

All three of these names are repeats (including me, I might add).

Then comes the totally hilarious lapse of tact.

She starts on who would be good leaders. "I think Blah and Blah are good leaders. And Blah."

Then cue a pause of about fifteen seconds while she thinks. Two people have not yet been mentioned. But then she says this.

"I think Kate's a good leader..." PAUSE "Whether she'd be liked I don't know."

WTF???

The entire class (me included) has this "Oh no she DIDN'T" expression and then we all burst out laughing and she rushes to explain that she meant I'd be the sort of person who knows exactly what I want done and would make sure it was.

Which didn't really dig her out of the hole she was in.

She said I was bossy bitch and it's out there now! Ouch!!! SMACKDOWN RECEIVED!!! I was taken down a peg, without doing anything to deserve it!!!

But we all laughed about it and I DID end up becoming leader of my group, though I hate being the leader on assignments.

I'm not sure I'm offended or not. But either way, it was fucking hilarious!!!

Today was my first day of Work Placement. I went to the Research School of Biological Sciences, at the ANU.

It was AWESOME!

I had to get up at 6am, which my fibro-riddled body was not amused about, but I was real excited by the time I got there. Though it was COLD today. Shouldn't it be getting warmer about now? Anyway...

First thing I got to do was clean out the rabbit room. We (the staff, myself and my friend Asako) had to completely scrub the cage of each fat bunnykin, which included taking out each removeable piece and giving that a good wash. The floors had to be swept, vacuumed and hosed down. Food and water needed changing and the sawdust, of course. There were eight little baby bunnies just fluffy and with eyes open! So cute!

The rabbits are mostly being used in an oncology study. They've been injected with tumour cells. One was starting to grow a tumour and I recognised the feel of it right away from my old lumpy. The experiment is eventually going to involve testing different radioactive isotopes on liver cancer, but they have to wait for the rabbits to grow tumours first. It's a bit sad when I think that those cute baby bun-buns I saw are going to be given cancer on purpose and maybe die from it. But I know that it's important to try and detach myself from that. And I AM in favour of a cure for cancer and I guess right now the best we have is to test it out on animals.

I've learned a lot at school about Ethics Committees and getting animal-based research approved. There's a lot of rules and compromises researchers have to make. So, I choose to trust in the Ethics Committee system. Otherwise I'd be too sad.

After lunch (bunnies took 4 hours), I went to see some wallabies. The pouch young (smaller than my thumb) had been removed from the mamas to be looked at (because they're not fully developed, pouch young can tell us a lot about the developmental process). I got to see them reattach the young to the mother's teat. They won't latch on themselves, so they have to be helped. The mother is anaesthetised just enough to make her limp and sleepy. Then one holds open the pouch, one holds the baby's mouth open with tiny little tweezers and a third person uses a tiny wooden implement to guide the teeth into the mouth. If you can hear the baby sucking, it's latched on properly. It was AMAZING, especially seeing those tiny little pouch young.

Then the rest of the day was just cleaning mouse cages. Bang out the old bedding, scrape off the sticky poop. And so on for about fifty of them. Things had to go in the dishwasher and the rather little autoclave, since that building is a PC2 facility.

The area near the mice, where we cleaned up is called the Insectary. I like the name, it makes me feel like the place is "insectery". There are fruit flies there, being used for some study that I can't remember. I'll find out next time.

Maybe cleaning up a whole bunch of poo sounds boring, but I really loved it. I hope I feel well enough to go again tomorrow.

Which brings me to the sucky part. I had to explain about the fibro and how I get sore (though I always carry my painkillers) and tired easily. And they let me sit down and take a break when I needed to and everything. But I hate that I need too!

I just can't help worrying about what people think of me. Especially strangers, but even friends. Are they thinking I'm a lazy, slacking bitch? Probably. And I'm not.

Well, I am lazy, but not with stuff like this. I said I'd do work placement, so I'm committed to doing it. I follow through and I actually really like it. I don't hate scrubbing out rabbit cages and would be happy to do that all day if it wasn't painful for me. I like physical jobs. And I'm REALLY committed to this course, it's really important to me. So, it's not laziness.

I worry so much that people are judging me and forming opinions about who I am, based on what my body can do. I don't fall asleep at lunch because I'm rude. My brain just can't take being awake any more. I don't sit down because I'm too lazy to clean another cage. I'm in so much pain that I can't stand up any more. But does anyone believe that?

I am reminded of Elliot in Scrubs when Turk is complaining about his diabetes:
"If you want sympathy, get a disease people can SEE!"

So, of course, I push myself a little further than I probably should and I come home aching. Past experience tells me I could wake up paraplegic after a day like today.

But I hope not, cos I really want to know what work there is tomorrow.

Has anyone else noticed( cut for minor spoilerage )

Just sat two tests in a row. Feeling confident about the first and aced the second. That leaves me with just ONE test to go and two assignments.

The first assignment has to be 2 or 3 pages long. Consider that done. The other I've started but need to finish. It may have to wait until AFTER that scary biology test, though.

In other news, for my birthday I got the car radio-ipod cable I've been asking for. That was all I wanted for my birthday, but you know what? My parents bought me a wii as well!!! That was so unexpected! I'm hugely excited. I haven't played with it properly yet, because that would be naughty when I have so much work to do. But once it's over it'll be Lego Star Wars and Mario until I drop dead.

Also, I'm supposed to get my wii-fit on. That was the stipulation given, which is fair enough and I know the rheumotolagist is going to make me exercise anyway so I may as well start now.

SNOW LEOPARDS HERE I COME!

I THINK I passed the written for dogs and cats. THINK. At worst, I'll have to resit a section or 2, but I definitely didn't tank.

Then I had prac. I did just swimmingly on cats. But when I did my dog prac (with the patronising sexist arsehole teacher) I failed on muzzling and turning a dog onto its side. The lovely Julianna tested me on cats and the most important thing for her was that you made an effort and could correct a mistake once she'd pointed it out to you. But sexist patronising man was all "No, you got it wrong. Retest some other time." Luckily, he won't be back in, so I can do the TWO tiny things I failed (and now know how to do correctly) with Julianna tomorrow.

Have my Scientific Spreadsheets Test in about half an hour. Biosecurity tomorrow. Must get my assignments done. And I really ought to learn about the autoclave for tomorrow.

Just had a test. Prac passed just fine, though I choked on the bunnies. Not my fault a lady bunny has girl parts that look like a penis! Did just splendid on mice, rats and guinea piggles though.

Then my written test, which I also passed. I got two assignments back. Both passed, one with 28/30! GO ME!!!

Tomorrow I have my test for Companion Animal Husbandry, written and prac. Then I have my Scientific Spreadsheets test. Thursday I have my Biosecurity test.

The following Tuesday, Animal Ethics test. Then, on Thursday, the dreaded BIOLOGY!!!

Plus I have one more test, on reptiles, fish and amphibians (so... slimy things, mostly). I haven't scheduled that one yet. I'm hoping for Monday.

That's what you get for missing 3 weeks of school!

Oh, and I have an assignment about possums and another about kennel facilities. Plus biology revision questions. Everything has to be done by Thursday. I am remarkably calm.

I'm off to study for spreadsheets! I haven't actually finished the in-class exercises yet. :O

Later, ya'll!

While trying very hard to get some sleep, I came to a realisation. I don’t tend to write female villains. Now, I already knew that I’m not good at male protagonists, but I’d never noticed the lack of female antagonists before. So I thought about my stories one by one.

( Read more... )

Not as few women as I thought, but negative characters overwhelmingly men overall. But what about LorF, you ask?

All: We didn’t.

( Read more... )

But then I realised that female villains are, on the whole, missing from my influences as well. I thought about my favourite books, films and TV shows and looked for female villains or antagonists.

( Read more... )

But then, take a look at Fairy Tales! Here are some of the major ones we tell children.

( Read more... )

So, where am I going with this? Nowhere in particular. Draw your own conclusions. Who are some of your favourite female villains/antagonists? Looking at your own writing, do you randomly discover the same gender bias?

Thoughts!

I've been off school for two weeks with severe depression. But I won't talk about that, I'll only bore you.

Because I was sad, Sophie brought me the first six episodes of Heroes. Then I bought the rest of Season 1. I'm still halfway through.

OMIGOD!!! I am SO addicted! I love it! How much does it rock!!! I wish I could tell you who my favourite is, but I'm so torn. I love Hiro, Matt and Claire. I hated Nathan at first, but he's grown on me. I like Isaac too, and Mohindar. And how cool are Niki and Jessica? She gives such an amazing performance! The way she changes is awesome.

I am keen to find out how the son of a man who can walk through walls and a woman with superstrength (that's Jessica's power, I think) has the ability to manipulate electronics. Not quite sure how this mutation thing works. I think Peter's power is the most interesting, although Isaac's is pretty awesome too.

My only complaints/disappointments are that in a main cast that big there are only two women (or three, depending on how you look at it) and that some of the violence is more graphic than necessary. I'm not offended by the violence and it doesn't bother me or upset me. I just don't see why it's necessary for us to actually see the entire result of one of Jessica's nights out or one of Sylar's adventures. I will always believe that implied violence is more effective and I think it's a shame that other people might not get into this fabulous show because of the blood.

I still have two and a half seasons to watch and if anyone spoils me, I will cut open their head and steal their freakin' brain and any mutated DNA they may have within.

Imagine the world was entirely sitcoms and sitcom characters.

All: *canned laughter*

That's the spirit. So, my life as a sitcom, what would that be like? I've been considering this question in the shower. Naturally.

I'm not the star, nor am I the love interest or anywhere in the top three characters. I'm the best friend, the room mate, the wacky sister. I'll be played by an actress who is moderately well-known, perhaps more famous than the stars. A known character actor. Whatever. Depending on her calibre and coming timing, I could become the breakout character of the series. Dunno.

I might be involved in the primary or secondary storyline of an episode, but I often have a storyline of my own, completely unrelated to what everyone else is doing. I'm the sort of character who will walk into the coffee-shop/bar/apartment/business where we all hang out and suddenly make it all about me. I come into scenes at inopportune times wearing a bright green one piece disco suit with flares, ask if it makes me look fat and then leave.

I am never ever romantically or sexually involved with any of the other characters, although I may have comic relationships of my own as subplots. I am the maudlin-alarm. Whenever things get too serious in the show, I'm the one who says something inappropriate or completely random and gets the big laugh of relief from the studio audience.

The actual details of my character could be anything and of course, would depend on the setting and who the other characters were. I could be the star's sister, working in a pet shop in New York while I struggle to become a famous writer. We could go even further into real life and make me the boarder of the married couple who star. I work in a zoo and just like in real life casually talk about being covered with shit or how frustrating it is when a guinea pig won't protrude his penis. Perhaps I persist in working with animals despite being allergic to most of them and constantly getting bitten. If the sitcom is about a family, I could be the middle of three daughters. The youngest is a child prodigy, who makes sophisticated witty remarks. The oldest is dim and brings a stream of boyfriends through the house. I am plotting world domination and the whole family knows it but are too embarrassed to say anything.

See, the options are endless. But I'm not one of life's stars. This journal is proof. A star would update every day. I just update if my subplot is interesting.

So... what character are you? The star? The sidekick? The mum? The love interest? The one that doesn't appear until Season 3 and all the fans hate them?

I just killed my chocolate frogs!

Don't ask.

We had Industry Communication today. It was SO on!!!

Rumble in the classroom, bitchaz!

Our teacher, of whom none of my classmates are particularly fond, was talking to us about animal welfare issues in the community and what you can do as an individual. He asked a country girl what she would do about one of her neighbours branding a bull with a hot iron, rather than the more humane (and legal) freeze brand method. She raised the point that as one member of a small community, especially a conservative farming community like hers, she as one person, would not make much progress.

Some other country girls chimed in and their point was obvious. Our teacher, being from the country, surely understood them. Every time they started talking, he interrupted them. He threw another question at them before they had finished what they were saying. I know the class is meant to make us think, but it was rude. He wasn't allowing anyone to get a full thought out of their mouth.

I tried to summarise the girls' position (I'm a city girl, but I got what they meant right away). They were saying that in a conservative community, where everyone knows you, going in guns blazing on an issue won't get you far. The farmers have been hot branding for fifty years and they're not going to stop because some hippy animal-loving eighteen year old girl tells them it's cruel. They haven't stopped because it's illegal; one person's opinion is hardly going to change things. If you do go in too strong, you lose credibility. You develop a reputation for being a radical or even annoying or a bit weird. No one is going to listen to you on any issue. It's better to accept that things won't change tomorrow and take it slow. Get together with like minded people in the community. Educate the younger generation, the men and women who are going to inherit the farms.

You can't assume, I said, that because you have a value, someone else will share it. You have to persuade them using logic that works for them. If we want farmers to stop hot-branding, then we have to make it expensive for them. Lobby the government to subsidise the purchase of freeze-branding equipment. Get the abattoirs involved. If they won't buy hot branded cows, farmers will start freeze-branding.

Why, we asked him, does the RSPCA get to talk to the Government while PETA don't? Because the Government think PETA are a bunch of loonies. You won't get your agenda on the table if your local farming community sees you as the loony. So, as a class, we advocated slow social change rather than bossing around people who won't listen to you.

And he argued. And he argued. And he cut everyone off. And he argued.

And then, Classmate A got cut off in midsentence and she said "Shut up!" and kept talking.

She is our new hero!!!

While I understand his central tenet that we can't do nothing out of fear of being a pariah, he was accusing us all of woosing out of the issue when we weren't. We were saying that sometimes a slow, measured approach will achieve a result where being bossy will not.

Honestly, though. If you want to encourage your class to think about issues and to debate, you can't just cut them off in mid sentence. Just because you're teaching that doesn't give you the right to behave rudely. Every student has as much right to express an opinion, and voice that entire argument, as their teacher does.

I don't blog enough.

All: Well, you don't blog. "Enough" is subjective.

Shut up.

As you can see, I have a new default icon. In honour of the finale of Scrubs, I have obtained several Scrubs icons. My new icon is horrified Elliot because that's how I feel a lot of the time. Of course, turns out the series finale ISN'T because they've renewed for a ninth season, but a discussion of just how bad Season 9 is going to suck is for another time. I also have a KNIFE WRENCH (for kids!) icon. And a Honky Adonis!

I am watching Morecambe and Wise torturing Andre Previn with Greig's Piano Concerto, by Greig. ("I'm playing all the RIGHT notes, but not necessarily in the right order.") While I'm at it, I've decided to make an appearance and a probably fruitless promise to come here more often. I do look at the Flist everyday. *waves* Hello Flist!

(Now they're doing appalling things to Shirley Bassey!)

School is awesome, although the homework is not. First week of June I have five assignments and two tests. :O
I thought maybe I should post here about what I do at school and the extra stuff I have to do to get where I want to be. To be qualified as a zookeeper takes just two years, but to actually work in one of the 1500 available jobs in this country, it's a different story. In the last two years, two graduates of my course have gone on to work in zoos.
Of course, if I could do anything I'd like to be artificially inseminating pandas or recording breeding patterns of Galapagos tortoises or following snow leopards up and down the mountains in Pakistan or conservatating the Tasmanian devil or whatever. But we'll see. It likely means a degree in zoology, unless I'm very lucky. We'll see.

Did you know that only 25% of fibromyalgia sufferers get better over time. 25% get worse. The remaining half continue at about the same severity for life. I didn't know that. I've been doing a lot of reading and it's actually far worse a condition then I was aware. 50% are never able to work full time, EVER. Not looking good for the snow leopards. :(

But I'm planning to see a rheumatologist, in the hope that they might be able to help me. I can't quite get through a full day of classes and if I want to be a field zoologist, I'm going to have to be a little healthier, so now's the time to start. Also, it would be nice if a cold didn't put me in a wheelchair. I don't think the beaches of Galapagos have much wheelchair access in the Galapagos.

And next time you see my ask me to show you my impersonation of a mouse being restrained for blood collection. Mice are f'ing hilarious!

Peace out!!!