sit down son

SO ON MY LAST UPDATE I had just gotten my very first super awesome LINE as a flight attendant. (Yeah, the magical schedule was in fact true!) So that was cool. And my life has been INSANE AND AWESOME ever since! Well, not always awesome, sometimes it's just insane, like when I packed for a one day trip on Thursday and didn't get to come home until yesterday while actually managing to LOSE hours, don't ask, it was ridiculous. Here are some of my highlights!

-I had a flight delayed for a swarm of bees. No, really, there was a swarm of bees just hanging out on our right wing, like, HUGE SWARM OF BEES, GUYS. They couldn't get to the plane with the fuel truck or the baggage because of it and had to call out a beekeeper, it was insane.
-I flew a flight with three passengers from Albany to LaGuardia because we'd gotten diverted there and stuck but weren't the only ones and the other crew managed to snag all the people. It was pretty entertaining talking on a PA to...three people.
-I've slept in so many hotels, so many.
-I've found that my favorite game to play while on a trip is to wait a few days and then ask the other FA (provided I haven't worked with them before) how old they think I am. Which usually just comes up because I'll say something like "masters program" or "lived in Ireland for a year" and "spent two years as a wedding consultant..." And slowly they have the moment of realization that maybe I'm not like, 20. It's really freaking funny.
-I WENT TO SDCC AND GOT TO HANG OUT WITH THIS REALLY AWESOME PERSON NAMED another_myself AND MET MATT & KAREN & ARTHUR & MOFF AND IT WAS BASICALLY THE BEST THING EVER AND WE'RE GOING BAAAAAACK.
-DCON is in a frightfully short period of time away from now. I AM NOT READY. Well, I kinda am, but I KINDA REALLY AM NOT. We'll get there.
-ALSO planning to go to NYCC this year. Which will be 3 cons in like, 3 months. Holy. I swear I could not pull this off if I didn't have flight benefits, I mean, the airfare to SDCC alone would have BROKEN ME DEAD.
-I have this whole new mentality about things I want to go to on account of this. Like, there's an event somewhere or someplace I want to see or something I want to do....it's less "I will never be able to afford it" and more "damnit I need the days off, when is the next bid cycle??" Which is sort of awesome.
-LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT BIDDING, BECAUSE IT IS ALL THE CRAZY. I totally failed at it last month and had to bribe someone to take a trip so I could have my days for DCon. This month, I think I did way better. We'll know soon. But bidding, man, it takes a lot more effort than I thought it would. I had to look through all the possible pairings, I picked out the ones I wanted, I bid for those, then I submitted preferences for like, overnights, report times, and again, days off cause, well, DCon is pesky in spanning TWO DIFFERENT MONTHS.
-I got hopelessly addicted to all things Marvel and Avengers. I made a Peggy Carter costume because I love Cap more than should be considered healthy. I HAVE READ COMIC BOOKS. It's shocking.
-...I bought an iPad because I got tired of having to take my laptop out of my bag at TSA and you can leave a tablet in and now expect my typos to get fixed for me when I go all dyslexic with the letter order. Damn. (I'm on my trusty laptop right now)
-I made the very bad life decision to watch Teen Wolf on a whim. Guys, guys, it's like, awesome. I can't say THE BEST because, well, Firefly, Doctor Who...Kinda hard to beat, BUT IT IS UP THERE, EVEN THOUGH IT'S ON MTV, GUYS. GO WATCH IT. Yes, S1 is a little campy, but S2, just. ALL MY FEELS. STIIIILES. To watch the show is to love Stiles. And you have no idea what you're missing until you too, love Stiles.
-I use my tumblr a lot these days. Go follow me. But, yanno, tell me who you are. I'm themegaloo there too, because I like to keep shit simple.
-Ohhhh I finally broke down and rewatched/caught up on Castle, because Nathan Fillion. Who I saw at SDCC too. Who is awesome and we made cry. On the same day I met Matt & Karen & Arthur & Moff.
-I really like having an apartment. Not living with the parents is very nice.
-There is a Boy and it is Good. But it is long distance but I bid for alllll the overnights near him so it might be Better soon.
-Life is really fun. And I get to work again on Thursday. HOW WEIRD IS THAT, I GET EXCITED ABOUT WORKING. I love being a flight attendant. I would love it even more if our uniforms were like Virgin America's. But I still love it a lot.

IN SHORT: Hi! I'm still alive! I'm just really, really busy!!!

I've been relatively quiet on the SOPA/PIPA issues thus far, and I think in light of my current RAGE that needs to change. I am a constant user of the internet. The idea of not being plugged into the internet for at least (LEAST) a few hours every day is, frankly, horrifying to me. I spend a lot of time on LJ, facebook, twitter, and now tumblr. I read articles. I watch videos. I participate in fandom (from a largely lurker standpoint). I research costumes and work towards building them from store-bought pieces or the methods/materials needed to make them myself. I have google skills to make you weep. I shop online, I watch Netflix streaming both on my computer and on the TV. I purchase MP3's and ebooks. I have an iphone, I have had some sort of smartphone with internet access for the past few YEARS. I am online even when not on a computer. This...is really a pointless list. Let's just take it as read that I AM LOST WITHOUT THE INTERNET.

Now let's talk about what SOPA/PIPA are proposing. If you have absolutely no idea, take about fifteen minutes and watch this video. Seriously, it's a good break-down. You will come away from it with a lot more knowledge. I object to pretty much everything within these proposed bills, but I'm going to break down the why's for a minute here. Here are some of the things they're planning to do in the effort to stop internet piracy:

-Remove the offending website domain from coming up on search engines.
-Make it so typing in the URL won't bring you to the website.
-Block offending websites from receiving money from sites like PayPal.
-Make it impossible for the offending websites to sell advertisements.
-Allow ISPs to block a domain, and then have no culpability for it afterwards.

But here's the thing- what domains are they going to block? Yes, they've already taken down megaupload, but have you ever tried to just search MU to find a specific file? It's basically not possible. Or if it is, I never figured out how and I've had an account with them since 2008. If you're trying to find a particular download on a site like MU and don't already have the link, where do you turn to to find it? I have seen download links on LJ, facebook, tumblr, twitter, blogspot, wordpress, youtube...You name a user-generated content site and you can probably find where someone has put up a download link. It's not all torrents and pirate bay, these are websites we use every day for things completely not related to piracy. Now look over that list again- even if the government itself doesn't block the domain, your ISP could. I'd say just imagine it for a moment, but no, that might give you nightmares. User-generated content is what the internet is ABOUT. We make gifs and other images, we create derivative works, we share opinions, we write blog posts. If these bills pass, what, exactly, are we going to be left with?

So yes, we are up in arms. We're angry and nervous. Wikipedia and several other sites made a wonderful statement yesterday by blacking out. Awareness spread as people tried to look something up and couldn't, or saw a huge censor tag over the google homepage (etc). It was good, it was the internet standing up and making it known since the news channels haven't. (Don't understand why it hasn't been on the news? Think about who controls the channels- the same people who make movies. Yep, they're not about to tell you about all this!) And then today they take down megaupload. WITHOUT the aid of SOPA/PIPA. What does that tell you? That they can fight piracy all they like while still following due process.

And how did the internet respond? Well, an enormous DDoS attack, of course. If you haven't seen the list of what they took down today, go look. It's a bit impressive. Websites like the Department of Justice, the FBI, the MPAA, the Copyright Office- they were hit with so many pings that the servers couldn't keep up and the websites went down. I don't know if they're still down or not, but it wouldn't surprise me if at least a few of them are. I've seen several instances where Anonymous was called "the internet wrecking ball" and it's a fair title. But at the same time, it does rather feel like the first shots fired in a war without physical guns. How is the government going to respond? I haven't seen anything yet, but I feel like they're going to be forced to do SOMETHING. Will they back down or will they fight back? Has the internet just become a battleground? It's a bit scary, but at the same time-it's a bit exhilarating too. The world is changing.

AND THEN, there's a feeling of not knowing what our government is up to. ninepointfivemm pointed this one out: Supreme Court rules Congress can re-copyright public domain works. JUST READ THAT TITLE. And then go read the article. The thing with this one is that getting the USA's copyright laws in line with international copyright isn't actually a bad idea, however by making this ruling they're setting a horrible precedent for RE-COPYRIGHTING THINGS. So now are we not only faced with a huge internet crackdown on copyrighted materials without due process, but congress can move things from public domain to copyright status?

What the ever-loving flying fuck, guys. No seriously, what the fuck. The US government has three branches, this is two out of three doing stupid shit and if the bills do pass and end up on the president's desk and he DOESN'T veto them? That'll be all three, folks. And if all three branches of a government that were designed to balance each-other go nuts like this? Well, it might be time to find a way out.

Ok, so for the past four out of five days, I have had headaches. (Yesterday was the one where I didn't.) They have started sometime between 3 and 5pm, and lasted most of each evening. The circumstances of the days were all different (hair appointment, work, trip out to Little Washington to visit a tiny british imports store, slept in and did nothing at home.)

Painkillers have had little to NO effect. So long as I am still and things are quiet, it's tolerable. If I move, tilt my head wrong, etc, throbbing pain.

I can see NO REASON for this, but it's ridiculously annoying. Any ideas out there? All I can think of is the weather has been shifting back and forth a bit, or maybe there is some sort of allergen in the air (though that wouldn't explain why this didn't happen last year when I worked in the same place, slept in the same bed, lived in the same room, ate the same basic things, etc) I thought perhaps it was my glasses, but it started today before I ever even put them on or did anything to require them. I got in the shower, that's all. Maybe sinuses? I HAVE NO IDEA. I just want them to stop :(

I am REASONABLY sure that I've talked about Starship on here before, and if not I'm sorry because I really should have. (It's a musical by Starkid- those crazy people who made musical parodies of Harry Potter, all of the above can be found on youtube. Starship is a musical that is basically Starship Troopers meets Ants meets Avenue Q and Darren Criss wrote the songs.) BUT that's not the point.

I had a strange moment on my way to work this afternoon (which was insanely busy and I sold a dress, just the dress, that totaled at over $1000, AWESOME.) where I actually grabbed my ipod and decided to listen to it. It was on the Starship album so I figured WHY NOT, and just backed it up to the beginning of whatever song had been last played (it was last played at DCon when ninepointfivemm were forcibly introducing it to people).

Which has resulted in this song being stuck in my head for ABOUT 11 hours now. Minus when I was running around too fast to have anything in my head but where to find the next dress, of course.



Yes, I had to share it with you all. A FEW THINGS ABOUT THIS SONG:
  1. It is strangely inspiring considering the actual context of the scene. Seriously, the line I have on repeat is "what you see right there is a prisoner who's sitting on top of the key- you've got to kick it up a notch if you ever want to be free." But the actual goal of the scene is for Pincer (giant scorpion) to convince Bug (little bug) to become a human and lure the other humans back so he can eat their brains. I'm not kidding. (SEE, GO WATCH THE SHOW PEOPLE, IT'S REALLY FUNNY AND I'M NOT EVEN TELLING YOU THE BEST BITS.) SO with that on repeat in my head I'm getting a CONSTANT REMINDER TO DO SOMETHING WITH MY LIFE and giggling a lot. At the same time. It's sort of ridiculous.
  2. Dude has a seriously hot voice. No really, go listen to him. It's all jazzy and really hot. Further proof of my Thing for musicians. Also, WATCH THE SHOW and see how utterly derpy his other character is.
  3. I can't stop thinking about how hilariously epic it would be to make a four-person costume of Pincer (yep, still the giant scorpion) and bring it to DragonCon. There are obviously some flaws in this plan- making the thing, transporting the thing, having people to WEAR the thing, not dying while wearing the thing, etc. But I just have this IMAGE of Pincer on the escalators. And in the parade, because it would be epic in the parade. And as Jessi pointed out, I want to be a claw.

And now I'm amused that I just managed to post a fair bit about my life all surrounded by one song. Sung by a giant scorpion puppet. Oh, life.

So it's like, two weeks away. I've gotta finish everything! HOW DID IT GET SO LATE IN THE GAME. It feels like I've been waiting for this forever (kinda have) but all of a sudden it's CRUNCH TIME.

And I have nine costumes in various states of readiness. NINE. For one weekend. I don't know if this is at all sane (actually, I know it's probably not, but what's a girl to do?), so I'm thinking about...not bringing all of them. Well, not all the Amy Pond ones at least.

Here's what I've got-
Amy Pond
-ToA/FaS
-VatD
-TDW
-Night Terrors
-God Complex
The last two haven't aired yet, Night Terrors airs the week of con so on top of the fact that I'm wearing it for a specific shoot, I'm definitely bringing that one. I really like the God Complex costume, but it's not going to air by then so won't be very recognizable and involves ANOTHER jacket. So I'm thinking I might leave that one at home. The other one I might not take is Vincent and the Doctor because the teal coat is bulky and I'm still not done with the scarf. Blah! The others are fairly easy- I caved and bought A SHIRT, ANY SHIRT for The Doctor's Wife, and I already need the boots for that for Night Terrors, so. Also, people will know what that IS. Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone is just too comfy not to bring.

Other
-Dalek Tea Service (Victory of the Daleks Dalek dress! With tea tray! I'm still making this)
-MegaGirl (From Starship. I have all the base parts and the components, it just needs to all be put together)
-Lily Evans (Basically done, leaving robes for another year)
-Kaylee Frye (Also basically done, I need to run the jumpsuit over with my car or something though to distress it some)

Yuppp. That's where I'm standing there. Sorry I never update, guys. I'm working some things out in my own head right now and am making decent progress, but it's not easy. It's probably the opposite of easy, actually, but I have DragonCon to look forward to right now, so that's always going to cheer me up. There are so many people who will be there that I can't wait to see! ninepointfivemm for one, another_myself for another, then all the people who don't do LJ (or very rarely) like Joe & JD & various con friends...

We just got a new girl at the store who used to do the anime con circuits, so maybe when I eventually leave, they at least won't be left without a geek.

Over ten years ago I stumbled across a book called The Grey King in my school library, not realizing it was the fourth book of a five book sequence (The Dark is Rising for you infidels who have no idea what I'm on about). Lately, as a result of copperbadge mentioning a compeltely different series from that era of my life, I've been re-reading the books I've not read in ten years. For one thing, it's amazing how many plot details you can lose over that period of time. For another, some of the things I read were not entirely age-appropriate and it's amused me a lot in retrospect.

But the main thing just at the moment is that The Grey King was the first book to introduce me to Wales and the Welsh language. There's a section of the book where Bran tries to teach Will how to pronounce the place names and I just BOGGLED at how those letters somehow were meant to make those sounds. By the end of the book, however, I was completely enamored of the language, the country, and had decided that at my first chance I was ABSOLUTELY going to go to Wales.

This is a bit funny because I went to Scotland in 04, England in 07 and lived in Ireland from 08 to 09, plus a whirlwind visit in 2010. I've spent probably 12 hours cumulative in Wales, much to my dismay. So my next trip abroad is clearly going to have to be Wales. Because it's LONG OVERDUE. Though that's not really the point at all.

From the first time I read the book, I had the desire to learn Welsh, as impractical as it may be. I was constantly foiled- my high school only had Spanish, my college didn't have it either, I ended up learning Spanish, German, Latin and Old English, but not Welsh. It's always stayed in the back of my mind that someday, I'm going to learn this impossible-looking language, but there was never really time between everything else I had to do. Every time I'd run across a book, movie or TV show that dealt with Wales, I'd think on it a bit more, but the time was never right. (Yes, Jessi, Torchwood was definitely one of these moments, but far from the only one.)

So I just finished The Grey King earlier today. Within 6 hours I have found saysomethinginwelsh.com and have finished the first lesson. It's hard, and still looks nothing like it sounds (and I agree with the program that looking at the words before learning to say them is Probably Bad, but looking at them after is sort of hilarious), but it's REALLY FUN too.

So, finally, I am going to learn Welsh. Because... Dw i eisiau siarad Cymraeg.

So here's the thing.

I cannot stay in this little college town for the rest of my life and actually MAKE something of my life. I've known this for a while, like, since I moved here, but I've been trying to avoid the fact because there are people here (outside of my parents) who I have come to care for (in a non-sexual way) and don't want to leave.

But at the same time, I have to leave, I was always going to leave, and I've stayed far longer than I should have or ever planned to. The school here is all well and good but it literally has nothing for me, and I hate that. This is not where I'm meant to be, and I feel horribly about that, but I have to get out of here, as much as I love the people.

Oh my god, it's actually not my usual need to run. It really isn't. I just can't stay.



Within the next six months I am hoping to move to NEW YORK. When i applied to TCD, I had two back-up plans. One, to apply for a job & work on a cruise ship. That was always a temporary plan and something I could still return to, but I've gotten to where I like having roots & a stable residence, even if it is with my parents. The other option was to go to culinary school and become a pastry chef. Within the next six months, I plan to pursue that second option. NYC is my first choice of places to be for that, though I'm going to put myself further into debt with the government in order to pull it off.

I've gone through several idea of "what I want to do with my life" in the past year and a half, but most of them have been fleeting (one lasted a little longer until I was rejected and in the end determined that it had been for the best). However, the more I think about making this move, the more I want to pursue it. I have dreams to live, and I want to live them for once instead of just dreaming them.

I can't live the rest of my life waiting for the rest of my life to start. So I'm going to stop, and I'm going to make it happen. People need two major thing in life: food for the soul and food for the stomach. I'm going to stop living in a fantasy land where food for the soul can feed my stomach and make delicious things. There's little in life I find as fulfilling as watching someone eat something I've made and be FORCED to smile outside of my own reading. So that, in the end, is what I'm going to do.

I'm going to make people smile. Not a bad life plan, don't you think?

Since I haven't done one of these since just post-DCon, here's what's going on!

Actually, I just realized that I never mentioned on here properly that the boy I was with I have not been with since pre-DCon. Oops. If you had no idea, then the rest of this is probably going to make you go "whoa" a bit. If you did you've probably heard half of this already.

The job is still going well, even though I know that it's not what I'm going to do FOREVER, I'm still holding off on looking for anything else until at least after Bridal Christmas. Because I'd be an idiot to pass up on that. The time period from Jan to about April is absolutely insane in the bridal world and since I'm now one of the most experienced consultants going into it, I stand to make a fair amount of money.

Which is good because I'm about to blow a lot of it in the next month as ninepointfivemm and I are headed down to Orlando in December. Because I was starting to feel like a really bad HP fan for not having gone to the Wizarding World yet. I've already taken care of hotel and airfare, so the next expenses are going to be the actual TICKETS TO THE PARKS (can't be in Orlando and not see Disney!) and then I still have to not be completely broke so I can live my life in the meantime. It's a pretty fun balancing act. Really. BUT! WIZARDING WORLD! I'm stoked. :D

Which brings me to the amusing Dating Life of Meg. Let's see, we have had...
• An Engineer. Who is terrible about staying in touch & as such I basically gave up on a long time ago.
• A Punk. Who I knew through the ex, so this was always a bad idea.
• A Nigerian Doctor. Who was very fun to talk to, but I also had just about zero chemistry with. Met this one on OKC, but he's also very busy doctoring, so that's just sort of...fizzled out pretty easily.
• A Fireman, who is currently my neighbor and changed my tire once before asking me out. He's a nice guy, decent enough chemistry, but just does not hold my interest and seems to think calling me to wake me up and do things on my day off is completely ok. Warning: Waking me up and expecting me to say "yes, of course I want to hang out with you right this minute" is idiotic. I am asleep. It's not happening.
• A Student. Who's kinda sneak-attacked me with awesomeness in the past few days. I like this one.

I'd say that's a pretty good list for uh, two months. Considering the fact that I've outright ignored a lot of messages on OKC, the list could be much longer. I was going to tell a fun OKC story, but I think I'll save it for later.

This has been your Random Update On My Life, which is likely not that interesting to anyone who is Not Me, but I put forward just in case it is. ♥ to you all!

Now back to my regularly scheduled bout of ST fanfic and random lollygagging about on the internet as I think of the best way to fulfill the next LJ Idol prompt. Fun times!

So as I think we all know, my phone went for a little swim in the Marriott fountain and thus I had to get a new one (RIP, Palm Pre. I will use that insurance on you eventually.)

Prior to it going swimming, my text message alert noise was from Torchwood 201 (BEEP BEEP BEEP, BEEP BEEP BEEP [....] That...never beeps.) I decided, however, to let that be a thing of the palm. Plus, it was quiet and kinda long for how many messages one can get back to back. Hearing it layer was sorta trippy.

I'm currently using a Blackberry Curve and mostly liking it. The lack of a touch screen still freaks me out, but the keyboard is a bit easier (loathe as I am to admit it). However, EVERYONE AND THEIR BROTHER SEEMS TO HAVE A BLACKBERRY.

I mean, seriously. Have you ever been in a room with multiple people, all with the same message alert tones? ONE PERSON GETS A MESSAGE, EVERYONE GETS EXCITED. IS IT MINE, IS IT MINE?

(This might only be a problem because the two people I am around most in life--my mother and my best friend here in Greenville--both have blackberries.)


POINT IS, it had to change. So I went on the BBC website and download a ton of little noises from them. And then went and found the Doctor Who theme song. These are the noises my phone now makes:

• Ringer: Theme song
• Text: TARDIS
• Email: that gong from the end of every episode of New Who
• BBM: Sonic Screwdriver
• AIM: EXTERMINATE!

There are two results of this. One: When it goes off for the first time around someone, they are ALL COMPLETELY CONFUSED. Two: When it goes off, especially for a text, I am filled with unholy glee.

Seriously. It's like I have a TARDIS in my pocket. How is that NOT awesome?

So I really need to update my ICONS more than anything else right now, it feels, but then I might actually feel compelled to post/comment more, and that would be strange.

I've not written a lot lately because...Not a lot has been happening. I'm stagnating just a little bit, going about from day to day and not doing terribly much in the way of Exciting Adventures. I'm still working hard at David's Bridal, and enjoying it for the most part. Going to attempt to hang out with a coworker again tomorrow evening, provided she doesn't FORGET ME AGAIN. (Bad form, D. Very bad form!!)

Things with the boy have been going pretty well, we're actually taking a ROAD TRIP early next week. We're both working on the 4th, so we're driving down to my old stomping grounds in GA the next day, so he can finally meet MY friends. Should be fun! Also, I miss ye olde Borro. Haven't been down in 7 months, which is an absolute travesty.

I recently got hooked on Criminal Minds. My mom had been watching it on TV regularly for months and my dad and I had been making fun of her for it regularly for months. Until I somehow got sucked in and went and decided that this was something I REALLY needed to watch from the beginning. I've now seen all but the very most recent episode because I don't like the idea of not having more waiting for me. This is made possible by the fact that it's on TV all the time so I can get sucked into an ep (or 4) I've already seen.

Let me tell you about CM and why I love it: ( In great detail, I'm afraid... )

Yeah, so that went on for a while. For my birthday I did get a sony ereader which I love to absolute pieces and while I've mostly just been using it on my lunch breaks (getting through 5 seasons of CM takes some time, okay), I've gotten through almost the first two of the Dresden Files novels, which I've thoroughly been enjoying. I plan to deviate from that next and hit up some classic SciFi (I've got some Asimov on the list). It's great to be able to read for fun again, and also fun to be able to carry a ton of books in a tiny little package.

I think one of the things my intellectual pursuits have made me realize lately, however, is that I really do live more inside my own head than I think most of the rest of the world does. I thrive on stories, on imagination. I think my life would be far the poorer without it, but it might be easier for me to live up to my own expectations.

In my mind, I'm capable of being the main character, but in reality, I feel more like an extra. And I'm not sure what I need to do to break free (other than not work in SALES of all things.......) Nothing feels good or important enough, and I feel like I'm never going to escape the feeling of in-between-ness that I've been fighting for the past 6 years or so. Someday, I hope, my life will actually start. But until then, everything still feels so temporary. But I refuse to stay an extra forever, I just may need a few more degrees to get there.

PS: THIS SONG IS AWESOME.