Henri

[Львица] just discovered these videos and, as we were just discussing existentialism in one of my classes today, I felt the need to share them. Brilliant... they are brilliant.

I'm not the Walrus, but...

[Львица] was talking about a friend of her's from the Berlin trip who's a really good judge of guessing people's spirit animal. Out of curiosity what her's might be, she took an online quiz and got jaguar. I thought that was rather accurate, so I took the quiz myself and got...

The Rabbit Spirit
You scored 72% Creativity, 59% Compassion, 50% Strength, and 56% Intelligence!

You are a Rabbit Spirit. You are very sweet and kind, and can be creative. You are sometimes nervous and shy, and are very alert as to what's going around you. You have a couple good friends, and love frolicking in the meadows.

OMG, look how cute I am! If I had to guess, I would have probably deemed myself a rabbit. Mainly because of the frolicking in the field bit. But also because they're kind of shy, but fun and out during the early morning and twilight, my favorite times. I'm not athletic. I'm not a hunter. I'm not wise, or super clever, or sly, or totally badass. BUT I'M GODDAMN ADORABLE.

I think I live with that. It also explains why I eat so many carrots.

Princess Mo

This is Mo, the [Львица]'s cat. She is actually a princess, waiting to inherit her throne and enslave us all with her cuteness. All hail her - for her power over butter and tuna can be felt far and wide.

Okay, this is really just an excuse to use an excellent picture [Львица] took. And because it took me like an hour to figure out how to combine the crown image and the Mo photo as one single pic. Be impressed, dammit - it took some skill.

Bisexuals and eternity, or: yes, this is what I spend my spare time pondering

As I stated previously, the BBC show Torchwood has begun to take over my life. So much so that this strange unidentifiable bugs that inhabit our apartment building have earned the name "weevil bugs" even though they don't look like the actually weevil or the weevils from the TV show. But calling them weevil bugs at least incorporates how alien they look.

An actual weevil. I could make a Master and Commander reference, but I'll spare you.

A weevil from Torchwood. I think this one is named Janet.

What we're dealing with.... gross gross gross gross gross gross.

Upon looking for images of our little "weevil bug" I have since discovered that our strange creature is in fact centipedes. WHICH I LOATHE.  Seriously, they are one of my least favorite insects ever. FUCK. Well, I'm still going to call them "weevil bugs." Because for some reason naming them after aliens from a TV show somehow makes them less terrifying than calling them by their real names. Unless they start actually looking like weevils... *ugh*

Anyway, I digress. Point is, I'm obsessed with this show. It's killing me that we know that the main character Jack Harkness can live forever but we don't really know who he is, what's happened to him, how he joined the organization Torchwood. Thus the reason the show is so damn addicting. But over the course of watching the first season (we're into the second season now, yay!) I've noticed something - though the show focuses on relationships with Jack  that usually involve men, the writers have also hinted at heterosexual relationships (note season 1, episode 5 - "Small Worlds," for those who are as nerdy as me :p). Which reminded me, strangely enough of another sci-fi/fantasy series I'm interested in - namely, Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instruments series.

Thanks to linguistics, I learned about a new bug

[Львица] and I were doing classwork tonight when she stumbled across a mention of this little bugger in her linguistics book:

This guy's called a death watch beetle. He's less than an inch long. And he communicates by beating his head against things.  They apparently make quite a racket doing this and, according to Wikipedia, they have become associated with quiet, sleepless nights and with vigil kept over the dead or dying. And thus have become superstitiously known as an omen of impending death.

Did I mention that they're the size of my finger nail? Pretty awesome, right?

Foxy

Back on Firefox. I apologize for my rant, Google. I like Blogger. I like Gmail. Your browser should look like everyone else's on my computer, and not hateful just because I'm using a product from a company you see as a competitor. Just so you know.

Though I still can't embed videos in cool ways, I can add sweet pictures. Like this random one:
I kind of want that shirt, actually. Narwhals for the win!

Liberate your dreams!

So like five minutes ago, I was talking about how, though [no-Mr-Darcy] was (redundantly) no Darcy, I did realize some things while falling for him. While he didn't stick around for my future, the positive things I realized did and I've decided that they should really have more of a part of my life because I really love these things about my self (cue Adam Lambert, happy peppy theme music and an interview with Oprah). I know this sounds tacky - because it is - but fuck it, I'm going to start keeping a list of things that I feel good about, because: 1) Life is short, 2) Culture is everywhere - even in my hobbies and weird traits, and 3) Don't I deserve the best? (For some reason, that line came out as Gaston saying it in Beauty and the Beast. Don't know why, but as I don't actually a have a 3), I'm keeping it). This is an incomplete list - in fact, this probably won't even be a list, just one thing that I'll blabber on about for a long time, and I'll have to talk about the rest some other time. So bear with me - it's a work in progress ;)

1) Birds: I rock at ornithology. If there's a bird in my backyard, and my parents don't know what it is, I can come up with an answer fast. Probably because I spent most of my youth looking at books about animals and flipping through a book on birds from Minnesota. But hey, biology and stuff about animals was my strongest part of science - let me gloat! (really, science not so much my strong point, no thanks to some of my teachers, so let me brag a little) I'm particulary happy because we've encountered this strange genetic mutation of a duck that's the size of a goose and has the loudest "quack" I've ever heard. Also, he really likes eating peanuts. I decided to name him the Admiral, and as my mom says, "His loud quack sounds like he is always barking orders," the name stuck.

the Admiral, in all his quackish glory

2) Pirate spy: so for reasons that I can discuss later, I have this urge to be a pirate. Except that I know that [Львица] is interested in spying. So I was talking to my mom and created the occupation of pirate spy - people who look like they're just running amok, causing pirating chaos (I mean pirating like Jack Sparrow pirates, not stealing music, by the way) but are actually secretly spying on people. Expect it to be an action movie - right after I star in "Nazi Vampire Hunter."

Yep, going to cut myself off there. I didn't actually think this title would have anything to do with the blog, but it does. It was actually me misremember a lyric from The Gaslight Anthem's "She loves you" - they say something like "if I could navigate your seas" but I was singing something in my head about liberating dreams. And I like that idea, of digging up all the zany dreamy things I like about myself and setting them free. So what do you know - I'm being deeper than I thought. Win :D

Pensive Pooping Teddy Bear Takes On World

Okay, so after the insanity that was yesterday's posts, I'm going to write something very short and sweet about a book I just reread - Winkie, by Clifford Chase. Here's the gist: it's about a teddy bear that comes to life, experiences life (as in walking, talking, eating and pooping) and gives birth to a baby bear ("Baby Winkie"), only to suffer tragedy and despair and to be accused of terrorism by the FBI. Yes, you read that right - a teddy bear is accused of terrorism. As ridiculous as it sounds, it's a really interesting book, and well-written considering the strange plot. So look it up if you're interested in inanimate objects acquiring life and someone poking fun at the US justice system. And pensive pooping teddy bears, of course.