A license to kill. Firefox says that’s spelled license, but that just looks like a cross between “lice” and “leper” to me. Huh. Anyway! Liscence to keeeeeel. Well okay not yet, it’s just a certification so I can get the liscence, but ANYWAY I passed hunter safety. I passed it hard. I got 100% on the bowhunter test and 102% on the hunter safety. :D So basically I am just totally awesome in every way. And I’mma get some cheap food next autumn, yessireebob. And by cheap I mean I HAD BETTER GET A DEER BECAUSE THAT LISCENCE COSTS $29. Or a whole lotta rabbit. Anybody got some recipes that don’t involve mushrooms, onions, or cooked vegetables of any kind? Or a crockpot? Or counterspace? I can move preparations to the floor by the bed, and I have in fact made dough on my computer desk, but I like to keep the cooking in the kitchen. D: I didn’t realize Shan’s dad had so many guns! We borrowed two shotguns to practice with, and he’s got this ancient thing - I think it’s black powder? And it opens so funny! And there’s one where the ammo isn’t even made any more. We’re thinking of seeing if we can get him more ammo or a reloader kit for Christmas. I’ve already made him so happy by getting interested in hunting - neither of his kids are into it, although Shan’s only objection is that it’s effing cold. But I really want to go out and hunt. I need to work on shooting in general, though. Three inch target at 15 yards, and I didn’t make it anywhere near. Well okay I nicked it once out of three rounds. D: With a scope. OH LAWD I SUCK. But at least I can do it safely. :D I liked the compound bow, which was like teensy tiny because yeah, everyone was knee-high. But it didn’t make me flinch, and I think I could learn it a lot easier than a rifle, and it has cool gadgets. :D Sights and triggers and stuff. There’s a sight in the string it’s so cool~!

I’m also nearly done my Sociology final, which is nice. I gotta make a presentation, but the stuff to hand in is all set. I had to highlight sections of 11 photocopies. D: It kinda sucked. But making the presentation will suck more. I hate presentations. And I still gotta do my take-home final for algebra, hee! So easy~!

Having a weekend is weird again. At least I’m feeling upbeat about work again - I’ve been in Drills for a month, and I’m spending less and less time in Scales. Boss is on vacation, so Shan’s boss is in charge, and he’d be my boss in Drills anyway, and he seems to really like having me there. I don’t think I’d mind learning Press, either, except that it would be weird to be doing similar work to Shan. D: He can run all the presses, you know. Shan is awesome like that.

I found a new author I like - well, an old one. I liked his/her (her? I think her) work in FMA fandom, and now I’m into Supernatural and s/he is into Supernatural under a different name. My only issue is I can’t remember if this was the Big Name Fan¹ that attacked me during that whole fiasco with that asshole. Yeah. That one. So I will just lurk. Good stories are good stories, and I am not obliged to even let the author know I’m reading.

Just heard about NASA. Fuck. I am so, so goddamn sick of all this killing. I hate to be callous, but - at least it’ll distract from VTech. I want that fucker glorified not at all.

Fortunately, I am good at escapism and thus have found joy in high-res photos of Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki. I can spell their names without looking~! Jared plays Sam, and Jensen plays Dean. They are so, so hot. I know I say this a lot. I should save it for LJ, where all the other preteens cooing over them are. Hee~! Seriously, they make my brain melt. Especially when I realized why all the promo shots of Dean look so off - Dean never looks at anything head-on. He’s always a 3/4 turn. Sam, now, is always facing the camera - a sideshot of him is just peculiar. I dunno how I got this idea in my head, but there you go. XD

¹ Big Name Fan, commonly abbreviated BNF: A well-known fan notorious for contributions to fandom, including fanfic, zines, art, and essays. BNFs, by their nature, have a fan following of their own; this following is a mob in every sense of the word, and will fiercely defend the BNF against any slight, real or imagined. If the BNF themself takes offense to someone, that person is utterly destroyed. To acknowledge that one is a BNF is considered rude and arrogant, which is a common trait of BNFs. Some, however, are truly deserving of respect and handle their fame carefully, understanding the fervor their fellow fans may abuse.

So. Shooting at Virginia Tech. 22 confirmed dead last I saw, with a whole bunch more in the hospital. Two shootings, actually - the first shooting left one dead, and the gunman walked off and shot up an engineering building two or three hours later. I will now segue into controversial opinion; the following is my personal opinion and views, and I’m putting it under an entry-cut because it’s going to offend pretty much everyone.

Let it be said that death is a terrible thing, and tragedy being manipulated is even worse. The talking heads are laying blame indiscriminately - blame has been placed on the shooter’s ethnicity, his hypothetical girlfriend, not on his parents or a society indifferent to a cry for help, will be blamed on videogames in three, two, one… What I’m saying here is just as bad. I am taking advantage of a tragedy to use it as a springboard for my own views. The difference is that I admit it, and nothing will come of my shit. My three readers will shake their heads and wonder if I need professional help, and that will be the end of it (and any elected positions I might have been eyeing).
(more…)

So I’m taking a hunter safety class so I can get a hunting liscence and pretend to hunt (I really think there are no more deer in Vermont, everyone goes down to NY and pretends they shot them up here, seriously, this state is so crowded with hunters), I’m almost done my Sociology final, I have to do a lot of math homework, and oh the hunter safety class was three hours yesterday, six today (OH GOD IT IS SO BORING. The other students are knee-high. I am not kidding.) six tomorrow and who knows how many next Saturday, which is the test and practical. On the other hand, it’s most about conservation and not pointing the gun at people, so I’m not gonna complain. I’m also intrigued by bolt rifles, and thinking about dragging myself out to the woods to practice, you know, being in the woods. I’d bring a camera, not a gun, of course. Unless it was squirrel season or something. Wouldn’t mind some fresh meat on the table. :D Yes, I am willing to eat squirrel. It’s basically free food, guys. Food is expensive. D: This is why I keep eyeing plants. Like tomatoes. And strawberries. Things to give us nutrition and tasty. I should grow beans, too. But we will see if I can keep herbs alive first. D: I almost killed them all, but now they are large and recovering and Freddy ate something! I can’t tell if it’s dirt or a bug, and if it’s a bug I dunno where it came from, but he ate something! I’m so proud of him. :D Freddy gets lots of water yeay~!

Supernatural is killing me. I keep thinking about it. I have such a crush on the stars, hee~ Jensen Ackles is so hot~ And Jared Padalecki OR WHATEVER THAT LAST NAME IS he is so adorable omg~ I feel like such a teen about them. It’s a fun feeling, for once.

Okay, um, snow? What the hell? School might get cancelled. IT IS SPRING NOW GUYS KTHX. I was gonna post pictures, but I can’t seem to log into Photobucket, and Greatestjournal stopped hosting, and I’m kinda grumpy about that. But! I got to have a minor snowball fight at work. It was great.  I’m also relearning how to joke around with guys. It’s an entirely different dynamic than working with women - I really love not having to watch my back every single second of every single day. With guys, the worst they do is prank you and hit on you. Women get ugly and bitchy and backstabbing. There’s one girl at work I like, and I think we’re almost friends - we have an unspoken agreement to keep an ear out for each other, to share when one of us is getting slammed behind her back. Particularly if it involves people whining at supervisors. Speaking of which, Boss is on vacation, so Shan’s boss is ostensibly my boss, which is nice. It means I get to suck up even more than usual, and also I probably get to stay in Drills a while longer. It’s been the better part of three weeks, and it’s still so great. The guy in Drills drives me nuts sometimes, and he smells rancid, but he’s got a good heart and he’s not usually actually in Drills. The good heart is what matters anyway. I yelled at him the other day for not listening when I was trying to explain something, though. He kept talking over me, and he never did listen, and he was wrong in the end anyway, and when I realized how mad I was getting I walked away. I’m very proud of myself. I went and cooled off and eventually apologized for yelling and explained that I was frustrated because he didn’t let me explain the problem. Basically, I was a pussy and did all that emo anger management crap. Someone want to tell me why I’m not allowed to be mad for good reason again? Oh right, because I’m a horrible violent person. I eat babies. Riiiight.

Shan didn’t believe me that my blood type is AB neg. <3 I had to dig out my Red Cross card, and he still thinks it’s not right. XD Hilarity! I like having the rare blood type, yus.

Apparently it is Poetry Month. I have great scorn for poetry in general, since as far as I can tell it’s either a rehashed rhyme scheme or prose with funny line breaks. But I do have a special place in my heart for science poems.

A mosquito cried out in pain,
“A chemist has poisoned my brain!”
The cause of her sorrow
Was para-dichloro-
Diphenyl-trichloroethane.

<> !*'’#
^”`$$-
!*=@$_
%*<> ~#4
&[]../
|{,,SYSTEM HALTED

Which is read as:

Waka waka bang splat tick tick hash,
Caret quote back-tick dollar dollar dash,
Bang splat equal at dollar under-score,
Percent splat waka waka tilde number four,
Ampersand bracket bracket dot dot slash,
Vertical-bar curly-bracket comma comma CRASH.

Personally, I’d change the last bit to KERNEL PANIC. Hee. I’m considering getting rid of the Windows partition on my computer. I never use it. But someday I’ll play Myst again, or resubscribe to FFXI…

I got plants yesterday! Three herbs and a Venus Flytrap. I named it Freddy Mercury. He’s teensy tiny and needs more sunlight so he can get big and red and grow guard hairs and eat things. Oh wait he has guard hairs~! In that case he just needs to get red and eat things. XD And big! Big is good. He’s so cute~ The herbs are mint, parsley, and basil. They live on top of the fridge, but Freddy will get moved around a lot until it gets warmer. He needs to stay over 70 degrees, see, and in a lot of sunlight. I also got some Holst, in the hope that astronomy-related classical music will get that one story going again. You know, the one that demands I listen to classical music to write it. It got bored with my current selection, it seems. I know, personifying a story is weird, but it’s true! Besides, I think I like Holst.
Uncle George, I didn’t know it got that cold in Texas! I thought it was A/C all year long. But yeah, the snow up here is making me a little grumpy. It was Spring! And then it got dreary and chill again. Bleh. I want it to be warm so I can sit on the porch and drink sweet tea! And, you know, watch the hot frat boys. ^_~

A double shot of hot cocoa, spring rain with traffic hissing by, a brain full of stories and numbers slotting together just right… This is a very fine evening.

Not gonna worry about my final or my homework or my job security. Just enjoy my cocoa and rainy breeze and Atlantis DVDs.