You know how sometimes people on your flist post about stuff going on in their life, and all of a sudden you think "Wait a minute? Since when were they working THERE? Since when were they dating HIM/HER? Since when???" And then you wonder how you could have missed all that seemingly pretty standard information, but somehow you feel too ashamed to ask for clarification because it seems like info you should already know? It happens to all of us sometimes.

*if you want to know anything else, or want me to elaborate further, please ask.

01. FIRST NAME
Nikki. Sometimes called Goose. Sometimes called Cielly, Ciel, Cielakitty, Cielamonster.

02. AGE
23.

03. LOCATION
Currently: the Sandhills region of North Carolina. Before that, I was in Asheville, North Carolina. I am currently living at home, with the cats and the parental units.

04. OCCUPATION
Penniless academic. (Undergraduate, majoring in biology.)

05. PARTNER?
None. I fired the last one several months ago. He couldn't seem to understand that you have to talk to someone once in a while for it to be a relationship.

06. KIDS?
None of my own. I get paid to hang with a bunch of them during the summers, though. I have not decided if I want any of my own yet. I'll figure that out later.


07. BROTHERS/SISTERS
One gorgeous, insane older sister, Jessica. She has a boyfriend that she's making noises about marrying. His name is Dave. Dave is as gorgeous as she is, but is not insane.


08. PETS
Inside kitties:Tess (4, tuxedo), Aysel (3, odd-eyed albino), Roo (2, gray tabby), Maggie (unknown, gray tabby-with-no-tail). Tessy usually sleeps with me at night, and is very aggressively affectionate toward me.
Outside kitties: Penny (13, ginger tabby), Fat Baby (8, tortie).

09. LIST THE 3/5 BIGGEST THINGS GOING ON IN YOUR LIFE
1. I am STILL IN COLLEGE. But I have a very good idea of what I want to do with my life.
2. I make jewelry and occasionally manage to sell it.
3. I'm living at home and haven't killed anyone yet.



10. PARENTS
Alive and well. Still married.
...I ain't saying anything else.


11. WHO ARE SOME OF YOUR CLOSEST FRIENDS?
zaianya will always be very special to me, even if we don't get to see each other as often as I'd like. loototherah and I have gotten pretty tight. wandereringray and nomadicdragon are as much sisters as they are my friends. Though I'm far from most of the people I love, the bonds are still pretty tight.

I am a bat!



Discuss.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=33470879
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=33451604
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=33568442

I worked ridiculously hard on this trio.

I need to not look at them anymore.

I had a lab report due today.

(As established in my previous entry.)

My first sign that the Universe Was Out To Get Me was when I opened the document and all my tables were gone. It wasn't a huge deal, I just had to transfer from the spreadsheets again.

I saved it, as a .docx, as an .rtf, and as an .odt. To make damn sure ONE of those would load properly.

After Spanish I got to work again to finish up the last bits and pieces. I opened it, yay, there were my tables! I finished it, and then emailed it to myself so I could print it.

I opened it on a computer in the computer lab.

Formatting borkage ahoy! Things were left-aligned and centered in the WEIRDEST places. Considering I justify everything except for the title page. And as I scrolled down...it was all I could do to keep from headdesking for realsies.

There were the places where my tables were supposed to be. Except instead of wee blank boxes, they were GIANT. RED. PIXELATED. Xs.

I shit you not. PIXELATED.

I attempted multiple document formats. NOTHING would load my tables properly. So I packed up my stuff and went to my instructor's office. I attempted to open it on her computer as well. The look of utter bemusement on her face when she saw that I was not lying about the giant red pixelated X-marks-the-spots was comical to say the least. So, I printed the document. Even more mystifying, the giant red Xs printed as well. It was like the text version of "SURVEY SAYS: NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEHHHHH!" from Family Feud.

I turned it in, and said, "I need a damn soda." So, I went to the vending machines. First, the machine tried to eat my dollar, but I bullied it into cooperation. Then, it finally spit out my Sprite. I leaned down to collect said soda. And somehow, as I was removing it from the little dispensing window, it cracked against the edge of the window and the can was PUNCTURED.

Which meant I got HOSED DOWN with Sprite.

I had soda DRIPPING OFF MY FACE. And down my shirt.

...

Yes, there were witnesses.
They laughed their asses off.

I was too busy trying to mop my face off to laugh at that particular moment.

Or: "Why I Love Microbiology So Much."

In the middle of a lecture on drug-resistant microbes: "Oh. Yeah. Um, I hurt my finger. So, uh, if you're seeing me bleeding here, I know I'm bleeding. The sink doesn't work and there aren't any paper towels, so, um, I'm just going to bleed for a while." She wanders over to the sink and pulls open a drawer. There are paper towels in there. She looks at us: "Well, the SINK doesn't work. It had a problem with linking and they cut it off sometime last year." She turns on the tap. Water comes out. "...Well, it didn't work LAST semester."

While discussing contamination of food: "I'm the weird annoying person in Wal-Mart who checks cans for dents. And to see if they're swollen. Swollen is bad. I had a friend who kept a swollen can of tuna in her cabinet for years while she was married to one of her husbands because she said she never knew when she might need it...I know, it's horrible."

While discussing upcoming labs: "When I taught part-time I sat in on the lab and did all of the experiments myself. Including sticking a swab up my nose. I cried a little."

While discussing...something we hadn't talked about before: "Are y'all wondering why I haven't mentioned this? No? I love it, y'all are like "Naaaah." I go home at night and think I've done such a good job teaching, and then I see the tests and know that y'all heard NOTHING I said."

While discussing bacterial structures: "The can attach by these long conjugation pili and when they do, you get one that's a recipient (closed fist held up) and one (holds up other hand, finger pointing, brings them together with a snerk)...remind you of anything? (Pause) Wow. Y'all have really clean minds."

During the same discussion of bacterial reproduction: "Well. I was going to ask a question but then thought better of it. (Pause) I was going to ask, "What's the good thing about sexual reproduction?" That's...that's not a very biological question, is it."

At the beginning of class, referring to our presentations on diseases: "If you haven't signed up for a disease yet, and would like one...(pause, giggle)"

Randomly: "Oh! I have to tell you a story! Can I tell you a story? This is like a commercial break, but in class."

In lab, preparing for the aforementioned swabbing of the noses: "When I sat in on the lab when Mr. B taught it, he said to stick it two inches up into the nose. And my reaction was (voice goes squeaky) "HOLY SHIT! MY NOSE ISN'T EVEN TWO INCHES LONG! I'LL BE SWABBING BRAIN MATTER!"
"I will help you swab your throats. But you're on your own for your nose. There are some things I just won't do."

Discussing people interviewing for a job: "Lemme ask y'all something. (Huff) If you're interviewing at a SOUTHERN SCHOOL, would you say anything to insinuate that southern schools are inferior to northern schools? I mean, if you're interviewing with me, surely it'd only take you a few minutes to figure out from LISTENING TO ME TALK where I come from." (Strong but lovely Tennessee accent on this woman.)

While I was in her office, asking her questions about how immunity works: (Sigh) "All right, let me get out one of the complicated textbooks."

What's the best thing about living with cats?

Having warm purring furry lumps stationed somewhere in your bed at night. I swear, I sleep better with cats around.

When I first moved home again, I could not get a single wretched beast in this house to sleep with me. Aysel and Roo predominantly slept with my parents, Maggie is deeply attached to her couch and her little pink bed (we bought this RIDICULOUS pink cat bed for Aysel because he likes pink things, but he got bored with it after like, two weeks), and Tessy...well, Tess is Tess. She lurks in various and sundry places all over the house, usually glowering at anyone who walks by. This applies to humans as well as other cats...Tessy is often rather moody.

But the last several nights, for perhaps a week and a half now, she has nudged open my door and crept in, tail twitching, green eyes bright in the dense blackness that is her fur. She'll spring up lightly onto the bed, and depending on her mood, she'll either look at me casually as if to say, "Oh, fancy seeing you here" before curling up somewhere on the bed--the first few nights, she chose the far corner of the foot of the bed, furthest from me. Or else she'll jump up and say, "Oh, hai", and look at me, the end of her tail flicking slightly, till I make kissy noises at her, at which point she'll creep up the bed toward me as if it were her idea all along that I should pet her. She will, after she has had her fill of affection, curl up somewhere, where I can watch her settling into sleep. Black cats are particularly adorable when they sleep; with her eyes closed and chin tucked, all you see is dense soft darkness.

Aysel, on the other hand...he has also joined us at night on occasion, though in different ways. He creeps in just as casually as Tessy does, though he's not always looking to nest. Sometimes he has to explore. He'll jump up onto the dresser and carefully pick his way through the heaps of things there, sending things crashing in that inexplicable manner of his. I inevitably have to shout at him, which gets me a blank, somewhat perplexed look. Why would I want to yell at him? his look asks. When at last he sleeps, it is inevitably on the heap of discarded mattress pad in the corner--camouflage for him, because it is white and so is he. When he sleeps, if you can't see the pinks of his ears, he is very well hidden.

In other news, I have a story for NaNoWriMo and it is not any of the options I presented to you fine folk. It hit me this past week. A girl who is battling insomnia is taken away each night by undefined entities because the lack of sleep--combined with some sort of sleeping draught that is clearly not working to make her sleep--is opening her mind to such things. Might as well capitalize on the insomnia I've been battling, ja?

I have been busy in Photoshop.
(Speaking of which, does anyone, uh, happen to have a key for it? My googlefu and torrentfu have both failed me thus far. And...and...I just want to be able to keep it and love it forever. I will make you whatever pretty thing you want if you give me the hookup. For serious.

BEHOLD!


This one was inspired by Kate Miller-Heidke's song "The Last Day On Earth". (Yes, THANK YOU, kitten_wrangler, I have enjoyed her stuff SO much!) It's a beautiful song and it makes me think of all things really bittersweet and romantic.

This one is fairly self-explanatory. Being smart IS being sexy.

Well, it IS. And I loved this picture.

straysparrow's collection of science userpics made me want some of my own. I still really want to steal that "science is like witchcraft for geeks" one, though. This is just the beginning of the science userpics, y'all. And now I have test tube brushes to use basically everywhere.

Anyone ever read the poem for this one? "Dream Within A Dream" by Poe?
( Well, if you haven't, now's your chance! )

Yes, I made this one because of the Lab Douchebag. I am inappropriately pleased with myself because of it.

I really just wanted a hot-chick-in-a-lab-coat userpic, NGL. Lab coats are awesome. And I sincerely hope I have many, many excuses to wear them in the future. Though the micro coat is a bit awkward. It's very big on me, except through the chest, which is why I had to go to that size to begin with. And the snaps are really flimsy, so you move or twist and they open, even if there wasn't much strain on the fabric. The fabric at least is pretty neat, it's Teflon, so if one happens to splatter oneself with crystal violet, one's clothing isn't ruined. (Hands, though? They'll be purple three days later, not even joking.) So the sleeves are all billowy and stuff...luckily, they're cuffed, so I don't catch myself on fire on our Olympic torches burners. With any luck, I'll have better lab coats in the future.

So, it's October. Which means it's the month before NaNoWriMo begins. I've done NaNoWriMo in varying levels since 2005; some years I've done very well, and other years, nothing's really happened. So, therefore, I poll you:

( I cut because I CARE. )

So, I've been thinking about my environmental biology class. In concept it's pretty cool. You know, sustainable living, environment, stuff like that. The problem is, I'm not learning anything I didn't already know. And the class is annoying, to be perfectly honest. I'm just not feeling it. It's not giving me what I wanted. So!
Poll #1467536
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 18

Should Nikki stay in this class?

Edited to add: I love my flist. There are as many people who are mad about not getting tickies as there are people answering yes or no.

So. Once upon a time you could do all kinds of whacky custom shit to your LJ. Like, I don't know, change your background and header and stuff. Where is the link for those options? http://www.livejournal.com/customize/options.bml is failing to give me what I want. And I just reacquired Photoshop, y'all, plus about a thousand brushes. That...may not actually be much of an exaggeration. I randomly googled PS brushes and there was a website with a list of 100 totally badass brushes, and ohmigod, I died. I am so frequently a PS snob; I like making my own brushes, but there are just some things I can't do, like those really cute little swirls you see everywhere. (If I could just figure OUT how they do it...and if I had a working camera and a Wacom, I'd be SO HAPPY, you guys. Seriously.)

Oh, fall break. I spent most of my day in bed. I'm trying to get rid of a pinched nerve in my lower back, so I used that as an excuse to do fuck-all today. Literally. I got up for food and to shower mostly. As a result, yay, my back isn't hurting like a little bitch anymore. It was a good day for it. The air was cool and a little damp, and everything outside was dripping and cold with periodic rain. Never a heavy rain, just the quiet whispery kind that renders everything a little softer, a little gentler. I adore weather like this. It has this quieting effect on my mind, making me snuggle into whatever's available and enabling me to mentally roost somewhere and be still. It was just so unbelievably nice to have the house to myself, to be alone, to be able to play my music and to not worry about anyone or anything except for the cats. And I have another day of pure solitude tomorrow. I've needed this.