Tane (my green cheek conure) came home today!

He's adorable, and I'm fussing over him like wow (is he eating enough? Drinking enough? Here, have another pellet/sunflower seed/carrot piece/lettuce/grape!), but I'm absolutely thrilled. He's way more ok with the move than I thought he'd be... I was expecting him to explore surroundings first, sit around and be sad, and then maybe come hang out with me (I sat on my floor for most of today), but he clambered right out of his cage, ignored his playgym, and came to cuddle. Le cute! At one point he fell asleep under my chin while I was watching The Office... I laughed a couple times and so disturbed him, and he made these adorable disgrunted "How dare you wake me up?" noises before cuddling back to sleep. ♥!

But his cage is all covered and it's definitely past his bedtime... but he's not sleeping. What's up with that? >.<

This is also taking my mind off of the empty room across from me, and Ange's move downstairs that happened today. Which I'm trying not to think about.

Just watched the Doctor Who premiere.
( *FLAIL* )

Ok. Breathing. The next episode needs to download FASTER. (Why is this show so ADDICTIVE?)

In other news?

CHRISSY! I GOT YOUR LETTERS! ♥!!!! I'm working on mine now, hopefully I'll get it sent soon! :D

In birdie news, I went to visit Tane on Thursday, and am going again on Wednesday.

( Tane news! )

( Random BSG note )

And, last, but not least, I have a car. My own car! Gah! Barring my LAST exam of my undergrad that's on Friday, life is GOOD right now.

Clearly I should be studying for my Natural Resource Policy final that's tomorrow. Tomorrow!

But talking about my critters is way more fun. Besides, I'm not done my coffee yet, so it's not as if I can study anyway!

On Wednesday I drove the hour out to the breeder's house to visit my little Tane. And wow, I am absolutely in love with the little guy.

( Photos! )

So that was my wonderful Wednesday with the birdie... I'm planning on going back this week, after I've written 3/4 of my exams (I have more than a week's gap between the third exam and the fourth. Agh.). Jools invited me to help with feeding, which I would love to do!

Oh, and I now have Boomer photos, too! Look at me go!

( The monster! )

( And because the rest of the critters are now feeling neglected... )
And there's a whirlwind tour through my zoo of a household!

So I fail at keeping up with LJ. This semester has been rather stressful. >.<

But, the biggest things of the moment:

- Tomorrow is my third-to-last day of undergrad classes, ever. We had a "grad launch" lunch today, and yet it still hasn't settled in my brain that I'm two and a half weeks from being done with undergrad.
- I'm working for DuPont this summer, on a project that will be a leadup to my masters project. Woohoo! Future!
- Ange adopted a chocolate lab named Boomer. He is very very cute, but he has abandonment issues like whoah. He can't be left alone for any period of time, because he'll rip apart anything in jaws reach. But he's adorable and bouncy and very fun to play with, and he (and we) are learning. He's already much better than he used to be! (And a giant cookie for whoever knows why we've nicknamed him "Toaster", hee!)
- I'm getting a Green Cheek Conure!! His name is Tane (pronounced "Tah-nay"), and he hatched somewhere around March 17th.

And today, he looked like this:
( What a cute little dinosaur he is!!! )

I'm driving out to meet him (and to pick him out of his nestmates) tomorrow, and so I'm terribly excited.

Who needs to work on a poster presentation and an essay, anyway? Nope, not meeee!

Ok, so haven't been able to be on LJ for ages, I'm sorry my flist!! I'll probably get a chance to catch up and comment tomorrow or Sunday (fingers crossed)!

But, Battlestar Galactica just broke my heart. Into itty bitty pieces of DOOM. (I just watched Maelstrom, as Ange and I decided to finish off the last few episodes of the third season in preparation for BSG Razor this weekend.) *flail*
PLUS, Ange is addicted to spoilers, and so we just found out who the four of the final five cylons are. And I am very distressed.

And I realized that I have no idea if any of my new(ish) friends are BSG fans. Anyone? Anyone?

Happy birthday aelysian!!!
Hope it's awesome!! :D



In other news, my week was insane and I will explain later. For now? Too tired. *yawn*

Ummm... So I have a midterm at 7:00pm tomorrow.

Have I started studying yet?

(of course not.)

I watched SGA 4x02 and 4x03 yesterday...

( And here I thought I didn't care anymore... )

And... I think that's all. I should probably study toxicology now.

So... in celebration of finishing my essay and giving up after 7 hours on the aquatic insects (IDed 14 in that time), I just watched all of Pushing Daisies.

And, wow, I ♥ it.

SO. CUTE.

And dancing in bee suits? Clearly I am made for this show. Because bees are LOVE and so was that scene.

(and I won't admit how flaily I was at the saran wrap kiss, or how many times I've watched these two scenes...)

And I think my very favourite quote (which is currently in my MSN name because I adore it so much):
Ned: I don't like secrets.
Chuck: WHAT?! You love secrets! You want to marry secrets and have little half-human half-secret babies!!

*glee*

So, I have a 10 page paper to write on Cholera and Climate, PLUS 50 aquatic insects to identify down to genus or species (it takes me about 45 mins an insect), due Friday. And I was on campus from 9am until 11:15pm on Monday, and 7:45pm yesterday, and why don't I just LIVE here, dammit?

And I'm at the library, all ready to get going and write this stupid paper... and the internet is SO SLOW it's PAINFUL. I can't get anything done because it takes 5 minutes to load a single webpage, and 10 to download a journal article!

And it's Halloween, which is pretty much my favourite holiday, and I haven't done anything for it and probably won't get a chance to. Which makes me really sad. I don't have a costume, I don't have a pumpkin, I don't have any candy to hand out, I haven't decorated the house, I haven't made any plans for scaring the crap out of trick-or-treaters (my very favourite activity), and I have SO MUCH WORK TO DO that I don't know how I'm possibly going to get it all done.

So... I'm going to go back to staring at the webpages while they load. Maybe I'll even get something written on this term paper.

a) Poster is DONE. Printed, laminated, etc. HAH. Take THAT, honey bees (and your susceptibility to european corn borer insecticides)!

b) Bones tonight made me twitchy and irritated. Because, seriously? "Organic, pesticide free, sustainable produce!" is an oxymoron. People need to learn these things, not be fed more crap by the media (yeah, Bones, I'm talking to YOU).
(and, believe it or not, I'm very environmentally conscious. I'm an Environmental Biology student!)
But organic food does NOT automatically equal "good" food.
"Certified organic" means that they CAN and WILL have used pesticides... they are just pesticides that got their idea (ie, main ingredient) from something in nature (ie- a toxin that a bacteria produces). Arsenic comes from nature. Cholera toxin is a bacterially produced toxin. These are "organic" by definition, but are NOT "good" things!
Agricultural areas are NOT natural habitats, and that's why they are so plagued by pests... if there was a giant FIELD of chocolate, wouldn't you just flock to it? Because organic food has less defense, it has a much larger tendency to be "ugly" - insects eat it/lay eggs on it/etc, and so nobody will buy it in a supermarket - to make a profit, those fruits/veggies are sent to be canned/bottled (mmm... tasty maggots!). If you don't use pesticides at ALL, the number of damaged items increases like crazy (Especially onions. I think the figure was something like 80% of onions grown without pesticides are tossed). Those fruits/vegetables that are totally destroyed by insect pests/fungi/weeds/etc are then thrown out. That's a HUGE amount of waste, and very little ends up being actually eaten.
We cannot sustain the planet's population on organic produce alone. I'm sorry, but it's true.

Just... don't worship the word "organic". It doesn't mean much.

...Can you tell? Misinterpretation of the word "organic" has become a HUGE pet peeve of mine.

I'll stop lecturing now. >.<

I'm not getting notifications emailed to me! Why!?
*hits*

We have a new housemate (well, new as of May), who was a total stranger moving in. And I really truly almost ended her last night. She and her boyfriend come in at 2:50am, drunk, and start YELLING, COOKING, slamming doors, doing LAUNDRY, etc, until 3:30. I was going to END them. And then they get up at 10 and start talking totally normal volume, slamming doors, smashing plates/pots/pans together. They do NOT understand the basic concept of when EVERYONE ELSE in the house is SLEEPING, you BE FUCKING QUIET. ARGH! *pulls out hair*

My week from pure hell is over, which is nice, although this week is going to give me another heart attack. Especially this coming weekend. DOOM! It's the Entomological Society of Ontario (ESO) meeting starting Friday, and I'm absolutley terrified. I'm competing with my poster for my honey bee project, and it's going to be the scariest thing, ever. I'm competing against 3 people from my own lab (all three of them grad students) and then 3 people from the University of Toronto, I believe. And I'm going to have to talk to and explain my project to a LOT of REALLY smart people. People thousands of times smarter than I. *cowers in a corner*
When I'm not going to be presenting my poster, though, I think it's going to be wicked fun. It's 9-10 hours drive away (ugh), and we're cutting through Michigan, which will be different. We're staying at paid-for-us hotels, having a big party on Saturday night, and there are big bug-socials friday and saturday nights. All of the presentations are going to be pretty cool, and there is of course the opportunity for getting uber-geeky (but clearly uber-awesome) bug merchandise. Ok, so I'm mostly excited. Mostly. So long as I just don't think about my poster & competition.

And, lastly? CSI has hooked me in again. I've been way too emotionally attached to the GSR for way too many years to NOT see the cute on screen. Heh. >.

Have had the most ridiculously busy/hideous week.

So... fun things!

A meme!

Comment and I'll pick seven of your icons, and then you will explain why you love/are using the icon (who doesn't love talking about their icons, seriously) and then post your explanation/this meme in your journal for other people to squee about their icons.

xfirefly9x picked for me! ♥ :D

( Icony! )

And then! TV tonight! CSI + Supernatural = LOVE.

( BEES! LOVE! POUTY ADORABLE SAMMY! )

Well, seeing as it's now 1:10am, and I have class at 9:30, I'm going to go to bed.

And even though I've had such a shitty week, and I almost had several nervous breakdowns today, and I'm getting sick, and ALL computers hate me... I'm pretty darn giggly at the moment.

Also, as I'm heading to bed now, and it's only 17 minutes early according to my clock...

Happy Birthday, x_starbuck!!!! ♥!

Thanksgiving weekend was fun, although very very rainy. Thanksgiving turkey dinner can make up for anything, though. Mmmm, so tasty!

The best part of everything right now?

Brandi Carlile concert last night!!!!! *flail*

( HIIIIIII! )

I'm still on this high... I want to go again. Right now.

♥

Hey! I just realized!

Happy birthday orphan_project!

First of all... Hi new friends!!! *waves* XD

So I watched WIANSB (for only the second time) and AHBL Parts I and II last night (for the millionth time) with chocolava and Ange. And I had never really noticed how perfectly the first segues into the second two episodes. Dean's "Haven't I sacrificed enough?" speeches are nearly identical. So much foreshadowing! So much ♥!

Ange and I watched "Adrift" or whatever the hell the SGA season premiere was called.
( Spoilery )

And I'm still making my merry way through The Office. I'm on season three, and I ♥ Jim/Pam like whoah. Pam crying after fixing Jim & Karen hurt my heart... and Dwight was cute about comforting her! Jim's speech about rebounds, etc, and the look on his face? (although there was flailing and anger when he rejected Pam's Christmas present) And I actually really like Karen.

So, I should be doing the mountains of reading and research that I have piling up. Should be.

Instead, I am getting addicted to The Office.

As IF I need another show to obsess about! The only good thing about this situation is that they are only 20 minute episodes when they're on my computer, so I don't waste nearly so much time as I would with 42 minutes. Right? Right.

Also, Ange and I have finally started our scrapbooks for last year's Australia/New Zealand/Fiji trip. Only took us a whole YEAR, haha! But I have 6-ish pages back+front done (it takes a loooong time), and it looks pretty cool. So, it's a start, right?

And! Yay for season premiere week this week, too!

But if they kill Sara off on CSI, I'm not watching it anymore. Seriously.

So, back in school, so I'll probably around more often. Procrastination is a wonderful way to get me on LJ more often. Apologies to my flist, and hopefully I'll be online more! Weee! I miss you guys!

So, in the biggest news of the month... Woah, I got a mac. A MacBook Pro, to be precise. And I'm so confused and hardly know how to use it at all (it was a rather huge production to just get myself on the internet), but wow, I ♥ it. So pretty! And speedy! And confusing! (How do I make the things on the desktop go away?)

So I'm now loading all my junk on it (yay bookmarks!) and testing all my programs and websites (yay LJ! Boo weirdo Mac-MSN!), and just generally trying to figure out what the heck is going on, and what does this button do?

Weeee!

EDIT: *gasp* IT DOESN'T SHOW THE ♥! What am I going to DO?!