Dani's cacklings

hermionemalfoy@livejournal.com — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 03:36:02 GMT

So I composed this summary of things that went wrong with some hardware installation this morning to a higher-up researcher...and his reply began with, "Wow. Okay." *dies* You know it's bad when... Mmhm. Also of note was someone encountering me just after I'd failed epically and them pausing to say, "you look tired." Accurate.

I keep having to replace these units over and over again out of nowhere. Grr. Argh. At least I am getting better at it?

I am more than a little obsessed with David Cook right now. Also still on a Naruto binge--after realizing that the manga had taken an INSANE turn, I have been unable to look away. OMFG YES. plsbealive? no? woe. There are many holes, and I want there to be AU fixes or canon explanations to FIX things and waaah.

...But at least I still respect it all, which is more than I can say for the last three books of HP. Those books? NOT REAL. Everything in my HP canon ends with some of the glossed over backstory in OotP. People who take HBP and whatever the last one was called seriously are dead to me. dead!

hermionemalfoy@livejournal.com — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 01:23:08 GMT

Woah:
After he scored 14 songs on the digital albums chart today, [American Idol winner] Cook will debut with 11 songs on the U.S. singles chart, according to Billboard biz. That's the largest number of debuts on Billboard's Hot 100 since one Miss Miley Cyrus placed six cuts on the tally in November 2006.

Cook's 11 debuts are the most by any artist since Nielsen SoundScan began charting sales in 1991. Before the Nielsen SoundScan era, the Beatles once placed 14 songs on the chart in 1964.

Ph34r the power of legitimate stage presence.
American Idol producers and judges: PWND (Except for Paula, who was too loopy to follow the script.) I wonder how many pre-written stories crowning David Archuleta the winner had to be deleted last week.

hermionemalfoy@livejournal.com — Sat, 24 May 2008 02:05:24 GMT

Naruto canon has now turned into a fic I wanted to read once. I need to read like 100 chapters back to see what all is being referenced, but whatever. This stuff is of the "SAY WHAT?" variety.

Anime fandoms are so goodfic deprived, people. Woe. Even my usual savior, del.icio.us, makes the angry face at me. Bleach continues to have the most awesome flashback sequence ever, whee.

In the past month two different people have expressed disbelief and confusion about my age. I need some anti-aging cream stat. Plz send hlp. (Although, I guess, my "actions and manner of speech" might influence this--but I still have to be able to "pass" as like ten years older than I am! That's no good!)

hermionemalfoy@livejournal.com — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 18:55:21 GMT

The look of utter disgust on Brian Joubert's face when the modest, quiet Jeffrey Buttle stole his glory at the World Championships this weekend will go down as one of my all-time favorite skating memories.

Ahhh. It feels good. <333 Jeffrey Buttle.

And WTF? What rational person would have bothered doing a quad after Joubert left so much space? Even Jeffrey's much weaker performance at the 4CC would have won him the title! Don't act so surprised, people. Buttle has survived at this level based on the strength of everything *except* his jumps, so when he landed his triple jumps, everyone should have known it was over by a long shot.

Also, the whole Johnny Weir situation is utterly hysterical! The US team haaaates him, and yet they were left with pinning all their hopes on him when everyone else failed. ROFL. Johnny Weir as the US' last hope at any competition is comedy gold. Even he was saying that as long as he reserved a spot for himself, he didn't care how many spots the US team had at the next worlds. Ahaha.

hermionemalfoy@livejournal.com — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 21:52:45 GMT

So, 600 years later I finally caved and bought an iPod classic. I have begun my nine days of conversions for the 2,900 files it found (and counting). Skimming the list now I see videos that I am so not going to put on the iPod, like, uh, of the pet turtles eating and hunting fish... *facedesk*

hermionemalfoy@livejournal.com — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 06:06:32 GMT

Life is a bit surreal. I am mentoring a straight male RL friend in the ways of fandom by betaing his Harry/Luna fic. No joke, guys. I am all over it with the red pen. Friends do not let friends write badfic.

Job is killing me (somewhat literally, actually), but I've been told that there's a new division opening in August that I'd be qualified for, and then I'd get to do more paraveterinary work instead of the slave labor I've gotten myself into right now. Uuuugh, guys. I cried on the phone with Mom. For serious.

Oooh, and I bought a new phone for $17 (it says $10, but the tax is on the full price). My old phone was from...mid-freshman year of college? So I guess it had a good run of more than three years. Maybe almost four? It's just kind of sad for me.

Also, I had a dumb blond moment (not my first of the day, I should add) and couldn't find the default ring tones, so instead I bought one. Because in my world, buying a ringtone is easier than finding the basic default settings. I went on a ten minute hunt for Paralyzer and eventually bought it for $2.50. That's going to be annoying for everyone to listen to. :>

My roommates and I are kind of like a comedy routine these days, so that's good at least. I'm kind of surprised that the whole craigslist hunt turned out someone sane. There were like fifty responses in three days, combining phone/email, so I guess someone had to be non-crazy...

I laughed so hard at one of the, uh, applicants, that I *cried*. Seriously, this was in the middle of her email: "my last room mates used to take stuff from me sometimes which made me sad because i dont have much just necesitieis". Laughed. So. Hard. And yet--it's kind of sad, right? Her roommates stole from her! And she doesn't have much! Just necessities! (I'm cracking up again, okay? Keep in mind this was a college student at a good university.) Just--what were they taking? Toothpaste?

hermionemalfoy@livejournal.com — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 19:18:18 GMT

cindelius (roommate): I looked through our porn magnets to see if one said "clean" on it, but there wasn't one.

True story. There was a totally logical, sane reason for that conversation. Hee.

hermionemalfoy@livejournal.com — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 04:36:39 GMT

My mailbox was crammed when I checked it, and after sorting, I've determined that none of it belongs to any of the three people who actually live here. NONE. At least I got a free issue of GQ? I'm going to have to put a note in the box, soon. I mean, what if *my* mail gets sacrificed for someone who doesn't even live here? Ugh.

My mother had a new puppy when I visited. My only qualm is the name. In order, these are the names she's given the golden retrievers we've had: Shonnie (pronouncied Shawnie), Callie, Shannon, Terra, and now Shanti (pronounced Shawntie). Anyone notice a PATTERN? I was like, "Mom, don't you remember Shonnie and Shannon?" And she did not get the connection. At all. After a while of this conversation, she started getting confused about the new dog's name. ROFL. I figured my point had been made, but she's sticking with the name. What-evar.

Ugh, nothing new on the job front--I'm waiting on two different places, a 'real' job (which I'm so not getting: if they wanted me, they'd have contacted me already), and a temp place. I hate all this waiting. It's extremely boring. Also, the UCSD employment stuff seems to move slower than anything imaginable: apply for a job, hear back in *two months* from potential employers about an interview. That is, if you're extremely lucky and they bother calling you at all. No joke, they're that slow; I'm blaming the bureaucratic nature of the university. Grr argh.

hermionemalfoy@livejournal.com — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 00:55:48 GMT

!! I just got my first set of ToTs. Already! It's not even six! I hope this doesn't mean I have to get another bag... Luckily this place is set up so there's a metal gate (rather than a screen) behind the solid door, so I can leave it open to hear people without just having to leave everything open since there's no door bell.

No one else is home for this. Boo to them!

hermionemalfoy@livejournal.com — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 20:07:28 GMT

I'm in a pocket of clean air here, which seems rare. Over half a million people in San Diego are under mandatory evacuation (out of a total pop of 3 million, so you do the math on that--holy crap). The Public Broadcasting Service was lost for several hours last night as the fires crossed a mountain with transmitters, and now it's being broadcast on what used to be a major alternative rock station (as well as a backup frequency, I believe...).

Uhhh. Still in denial-land over here. There's a circle of smoke coming from all directions, but it hasn't really penetrated yet. I mean, except for how it smells like someone lit their car on fire and ran away.

I hope everyone in Irvine is okay, I've been a little caught up stalking the progress of the fires here...

hermionemalfoy@livejournal.com — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 03:12:09 GMT

Um. I am living in a state of denial. The fires are far, but the biggest is reported as zero percent contained. ZERO. 145,000 acres, and counting. I am monitoring the situation, but I feel guilty overloading the emergency pages.

So. I am going to have French toast (...the grocery store was decimated, btw, whether by lack of deliveries or people stocking up is undetermined) and watch Ugly Betty.

hermionemalfoy@livejournal.com — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 10:13:46 GMT

Ahahaha. NPR interviewed Stephen Colbert, and it is posted here ("listen" should open a player for streaming). I don't watch the show regularly, but I do find his character to be very entertaining. I am dead from the giggles. It is a long and thorough interview--with Colbert himself, not in character.

In other news, I finally finally FINALLY finished leaving my former apartment. You guys, it was so bad. So, so bad.

cindelius and I had to (1) acquire a vacuum; (2) rent a steam-cleaner; (3) spot-clean two apartments' carpeting (arms numb); (4) regular-vacuum the entirety of those two apartments (arms dead); (5) steam-clean the apartments (arms rotting off...) on Saturday-Monday (only (1) and part of (2) was Saturday). And that was just one task--I also had to move everything, scrub the floors, showers, cabinets...refrigerators...

I woke up today at ten with my alarm, but then I was so exhausted I just slept with it blaring in my ear for an entire hour. *facedesk* I wanted to crawl this morning because walking was too much work. Also, typing with both hands was challenging.

At least now all my stuff is over at the new place; we still have to retrieve ALL of K's stuff from storage. Umm, best not think of that. We still have to buy stuff to organize the shelves and the closet space, but at least we have liners for the kitchen (scary shelving), a bathmat (shower was so bad that after an hour of cleaning, we realized there were drops of paint in it, which easily came off with a putty knife), a freezer rack, and other necessary fixer-stuff. Dead, dead.

I've been watching Ugly Betty and really, really liking it. I'm only through ep 5 of S1 or so, but I'm spoiled on some big stuff. It's a fun show, it was just a little weird recognizing the actor who played Caleb on the OC ("Didn't you drown in a pool or something?").

hermionemalfoy@livejournal.com — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 22:05:38 GMT

Eee, checked out new apartment, liked it, have to do all the formal app stuff--but OMG so cheap! I guess anything is cheap compared with my 2bd/$1900 Deal of Evil right now. (d00d, seriously uncool.) And it's going to be partially furnished--the virtues of "replacing" people are many, although the lack of New Totally Clean place is kind of a downer. This is good because one of my mom's friends asked how I was, and her reply was: Oh, she's homeless and unemployed. Greeeat. (I had my last day at work on Thursday--it was a student job, and the next year starts on Monday, so that's that. They didn't want to hire me as staff, which I am pretty insulted about, but whatever. Time to move on.)

Buffy spoilers (? it's been years, but I know someone on my flist has been watching) below.

I've been mainlining Buffy like a crazy person. Really seriously crazy. S5 now. Kind of sad to think it's all downhill from here, even though I do <3 Spike. Him going crazy and burning up (and Xander losing his eye! HIS EYE! WTF, people) is not something I'm particularly looking forward to. I've already watched a lot of S6 and early S7 on tv-link.co.uk, so maybe I won't bother with it at all. Xander will be perpetually biocular in my books. I really, really wish Dawn had been mojo'd away like all good freakish spell things. I just can't handle everything being AU and not being 'fixed'. I'm a universe purist, I suppose.

In other news, Kathy Griffin dating Steve McApple Co-founder is hilarious. He's so beyond A-list it's a joke--literally, for her routine's sake.

hermionemalfoy@livejournal.com — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 02:56:46 GMT

EPIC FAIL on behalf of an LJ employee. Pro-ana: they're helping each other heal!

I think the problem here is using inside terminology. The person genuinely thought pro-ana were recovery groups. Comments have been insanely kind, which is reassuring.

Still. O______O

hermionemalfoy@livejournal.com — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 02:14:38 GMT

People seem misinformed about Brad's leaving of LJ. It's not news, even though it seems no one knew about it. (WTF?) He publicly said so as of May 31:

actually, little-known fact: I don't work on LJ, and haven't in a while

This was after Strikethrough 07, I believe.

Even the part about leaving SixApart, which seems to be new news, should NOT come as a surprise. He discussed his stock options June 25. I mean, clue by four much?

So, yeah, people have just been looking at dirt to, stir and this became much more official at an opportune moment.

This kid's
freakout over a cockroach on his pillow is comedy gold. The melodrama!

spoiler free post here, hence no cut

hermionemalfoy@livejournal.com — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 00:18:37 GMT

Everyone said that you would be an idiot to hang out online and read your flist if you wanted to remain spoiler-free. I ignored everyone's advice. I changed absolutely nothing about my online reading habits, trusting that my flist would be good. Actually, I even went on ONTD and various other bandslash-y communities.

Post after post about the book appeared, with vagueness and cut-tags galore. Dudes, I was spoiled on one (ONE) small thing. Well, I'm sure to certain people it would have been big, but whatever. And that was from ONTD, in the comments section where only the suicidal would tread.

In conclusion: Cut-tags FTW.

CRAB, WHERE ARE YOU?

hermionemalfoy@livejournal.com — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 07:43:17 GMT

Now I've done it. I lost the crab. In an aquarium.

Tell me, how do you lose a BABY crab in an aquarium? I thought, "Maybe it buried itself in the rocks?" But preliminary digging resulted in nothing. I moved the one (1) fake log thing around (over, sideways, I covered ALL ANGLES) and there was no crab. It lives under that log.

Allison suggested it ascended (SG-1/A reference). I mean, the goldfish certainly couldn't eat it. They run away. So. So, the crab is poof. And I still suck as a pet sitter.

Conclusion: WTF

Update: The crab was in the water filter. The leading theory on this is that it crawled up the filter to get to air (...) and then toppled over into the filter instead of back into the tank.

hermionemalfoy@livejournal.com — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 02:56:16 GMT

Another day, another free $3.75 latte at Starbucks for being a "nice" regular.

In other news, some fun things have happened in the world:

UK military spokesman reports: We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area. I love that the denial implies it was a plausible action for the forces to take.

Additionally, you thought the sockpuppetry wank in HP was big, imagine how big it's going to be now that the Whole Foods' CEO shows that he has too much free time as well. (And if NY Times doesn't work for you, try here, or use google-fu.)

Oh, and Avril better hope this person doesn't sue, even though the artist has more ground to stand on than the other artists who sued her in the past week. *facedesk*

Time to finish season three of House, now that I've acquired it. :> :>

hermionemalfoy@livejournal.com — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 03:55:54 GMT

Things have been strange, but fun. I've been reading epic amounts of hookerfic, often in fandoms that I don't even know.

The crab ate one of the shrimp. There was a baby shrimp, but then it got sucked into the filter and disappeared. There were three baby guppies, but now there are two. I killed my roommate's crab, and then it was alive, running past its own corpse (=exoskeleton). I lost one of the turtles while watching Russell Brand, but then I found it. The turtles drained the water in their bathtub and were disgruntled.

Keep in mind these are all TRUE stories. My pet-sitting life is seriously f-d up, guys.

Um. Happy 4th.

hermionemalfoy@livejournal.com — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 03:02:15 GMT

There is nothing stopping me from finishing college right now--just writing my stupid papers due on Friday and being done for good. ... But someone posted really good hookerfic.

I am conflicted. Finish college or read hookerfic? ...hookerfic is winning by a landslide right now.

hermionemalfoy@livejournal.com — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 07:14:01 GMT

Someone in Belgium searched "harry potter buttplug" and was directed to my LJ userinfo. I could not make up something this golden, guys.

...Are we surprised?

(FYI: "buttplug!" is on there as a first-season QAF reference.)

hermionemalfoy@livejournal.com — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 04:41:43 GMT

To make this a post with actual value, FreeIndie owns my soul a little right now. I worry that with an influx of visitors it'll die, but for now it's very cool. It's a music recs blog with mp3s, and I am especially fond of the drop-down menu filtered by music genre. Mmm. I've heard it skips if you try to preview the songs, but I'm a fan of download-now delete-later (something I'm sure hosts just love me for).

On to the true purpose--

I just died laughing at A Very Dorky Cat Macro, which I am not at all shamed to get.

View Poll: Am curious...

In other news, the roommate bought two little crabs to spruce up the tank, and then Cooper (!!the nice turtle) ATE one right in front of us. The crab had only been in the tank for five minutes, but the person at the pet store said they'd last a month or two if they hid well. Cooper= FTW; Crab= FAIL. It was so cute, right up until Cooper had the whole thing in his mouth and just chomped.

hermionemalfoy@livejournal.com — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 07:35:20 GMT

FYI: I am such a brat. A Ranty McRant follows! Feel free to skip. Or, alternatively, watch me unleash the Crazy.

Oh, Firefox 2.0. I am embittered by the loss of TabMixPlus functioning. You guys have no idea. Like, I could choose which side of each tab the close-tab x went, how big it was, and tons more nitpicky details of browsing: it was a control freak's wet dream. Basically, for people who had been using TabMixPlus, Firefox 2.0 is a massive downgrade, at least in terms of advanced features.

The only reason I am not currently reverting to the old version is that SessionManager appears to work, so I can at least go back to saving series of tabs (sessions) to access later. The session restore function is a complete joke compared with session manager.

In conclusion: I am impatiently awaiting the return of my precious TabMixPlus. I really hope the other updated extentions work like they're supposed to. :F :F :F

hermione MALFOY: so now I am going through all the extentions
hermione MALFOY: and all across the land people are bemoaning
hermione MALFOY: there was apparently also a "SessionSaver" extention that no longer works
hermione MALFOY: as well as the "TabMixPlus" angry people
hermione MALFOY: it was like the 20th most common extention downloaded
such mysteries: lol i never knew this world existed :o
hermione MALFOY: But now I am investigating SessionManager, which claims: This extension replaces SessionSaver and Tab Mix Plus' session manager.
hermione MALFOY: https://addons.mozilla.org
hermione MALFOY: life.
such mysteries: oh man.
hermione MALFOY: I SEE THE WORDS 'SAVE SESSION'
hermione MALFOY: plstowork
such mysteries: omg
hermione MALFOY: It's been years that we've all been using firefox. I cannot believe you never investigated the addons
hermione MALFOY: they are like GOODIES
such mysteries: lol ive never had issue with how its laid out :o
hermione MALFOY: With tab mix plus you could not only have the x on each tab, but you could pick the SIZE of the x, which SIDE of the tab it went on, etc
hermione MALFOY: It was a control freak's wet dream
such mysteries: o_O
hermione MALFOY: And now it is taken from me
hermione MALFOY: So I am mad
hermione MALFOY: You think I'm kidding: I'm not
such mysteries: ohmy.
such mysteries: /scared
hermione MALFOY: I moved that close-tab x fucker from the right side to the left
hermione MALFOY: It was actually ridiculously user friendly
hermione MALFOY: just had lots and lots of options to click and then automatically did what you asked
hermione MALFOY: just like options of options of options
hermione MALFOY: and then advanced and options in there
such mysteries: you spent hours playing with it.
such mysteries: didnt you.
such mysteries: didnt you.
hermione MALFOY: I did
hermione MALFOY: it was brilliant
hermione MALFOY: I have actually spent the past hour trying to restore firefox 2.0 to the glory of 1.5
hermione MALFOY: growing increasingly irate...
hermione MALFOY: however, IF this session manager saver thing works, I will be much calmer
such mysteries: too bad it's not like winamp where you can just use the old version :F
hermione MALFOY: hahah
hermione MALFOY: man, but some of the extentions are soverycool
hermione MALFOY: Oooh, I wonder if PDF Download works with 2.0

...Erin ran away at this point.

I have a My Chem song stuck in my head. I deserve it.

hermionemalfoy@livejournal.com — Thu, 31 May 2007 08:58:19 GMT

pwned (mostly)

I love that his mood is "mortified".

I'm undecided about how I feel regarding the implications of the censorship for the future, however.

hermionemalfoy@livejournal.com — Fri, 18 May 2007 03:03:51 GMT

Everyone likes pet posts, right? I swear the turtles are cute.

Their tank and home (and, yes, one of the turtles is breathing at the surface):

This is Shark. He is in Cooper's spot because Cooper's hobbies include sunbathing and sleeping. Sometimes he does both at once.

This is Shark in his normal state of being (ie, when not impersonating Cooper). His name kind of says it all. His hobbies involve eating small goldfish and chasing them in circles. He also bites Cooper! But it is okay because, once, Cooper bit his tail, completely unprovoked. It was EXCITING, people.

Shark knows how to float.

...It's kind of creepy.

Cooper is my friend. (Look at Shark being EVIL in the background!!!)

<333

Yeah, I think this post officially counts as fluff now.

ETA: So, they are Kinosternon leucostomum, or White-Lipped Mud Turtles. Answers.com says "small numbers" are exported (from their native South/Central America) for the pet trade. Apparently they are also EATEN. Yum yum.