Obey Zolac!

Quick drive-by update, since it's been a while. Since I wrapped up my USGS Avian Disease Project job my life has been brief flurries of adventuring all over the island in between bouts of being too sick to move. For serious, I have had this horrible cold off and on for weeks. Finally got my energy back (for the second time) in time to hike down to the bottom of Pololū Valley (FINALLY) and go dancing to The Olliephonics at the Blue Dragon in Kawaihae and eat piles and piles of delicious food (omg the lambchops with the fig-pomegranate sauce and the fern shoots and the goat cheese mashed potatoes and the jaboticaba sorbet a;lhsdlgha;ksjgkahsldfk). Had great fun dancing with a guy who just moved to the island from Eugene; he's in Kona but he swears he'll come to Hilo often so he can dance with us. All I can say is, HE'D BETTER, god, young, awesome dancers really need to move here more often.

So that was Sunday, and we got back late Sunday night, and I had just enough time to get my shit together Monday morning before taking off again into the field for the first couple of days of my new job. Up to Hakalau with grad student Josh and an intern who will be leaving shortly, taking a side trip to the summit of Mauna Kea just for fun, spending an enjoyable evening eating teriyaki and char siu axis deer and talking about Science, and waking up early to spend the day in the forest looking for birds. So many excellent sightings of ‘akepa and Hawai‘i creeper, among other things.

In theory I am now full-time employed, although I haven't actually seen my boss' face since February, and I haven't heard from him where or when I'm needed tomorrow or what I'll be doing. *SIGH* Pat is an excellent scientist and a super nice guy and I owe him a lot and I will owe him even more over the next few years, but... he is not terribly well organized. OH WELL.

The big big news is that in ten days I'm taking off on a massive trip with my mother that will involve a day of poking around in Baltimore/Washington D.C., a day of poking around London, many days hiking, biking, kayaking, etc. through Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina, and a few days exploring Bulgaria during which time I will FINALLY meet my dear friend sirona_gs and maybe I will meet up with my friend Toni as well? GUYS THIS IS GOING TO BE SO AWESOME OMG I AM SO EXCITED.

Which brings me to the question, WHO WANTS A POSTCARD??? If I don't already have your contact info you can give me your address (send me a PM if you're leery of leaving it in a comment, or email me if you have my email, or whatever); if you have a preference for where you'd like your postcard from (Baltimore, Washington D.C., London, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, or Bulgaria) let me know, and I shall do my best to comply. I'll be spending the most time in Croatia and Bulgaria, so I can pretty much guarantee satisfaction for those two locations, at least.

So, I didn't get on the helicopter. When Dennis came to check on me I'd not had enough energy to do anything other than lie on the couch and watch television, and the only thing I'd eaten was one and a half soda crackers, so I decided I probably wouldn't be in any shape to get up at 4 a.m. and go camping in the cold and wet.

So, yeah, got caught up on Grey's Anatomy (*sob!*) and Supernatural and one episode of Grimm (that's 5+ hours of TV), and I ate a pocket sandwich and another half cracker and passed out for fourteen hours.

Feel a bit better today... I'm pretty weak but my appetite's coming back. Watched True Grit and ate half a pot of melon Jello and two more crackers, took a shower, watched Blood Creek (Fassbender, Cavill, and Nazi vampires lolol) and have been nibbling at ramen and chocolate pudding.

Then Dennis came in to give me the news on the expedition and I just. Oh my god you guys. It took them eleven hours to hike the four miles down to the site, which is RIDICULOUS except that it really is that hard to hack through hundreds of yards of uluhe. The bog is surrounded by a wall of uluhe, forcing them to pitch camp on the bog itself. The weather has turned and the bog is getting soggy; the pit toilet is already filling with water. Jackie's not sure there will be anywhere to put poles up with the uluhe so thick. The helicopter flew in okay, but Shawn, being Shawn, was like, "I'm gonna go for a walk" and then DISAPPEARED. When he'd been gone for three hours they called Dennis and told him they couldn't find him, they were going to go looking and if they didn't find him in three more hours they'd call back. Dennis is getting ready to tell his boss and Nick is preparing to send in County Search & Rescue (for all the good that would do); two hours later they call back and they've found him, he wasn't lost, he was just sitting by 'Awehi Stream. So he got thoroughly chewed out by everyone.

The original plan was for Carter to hike out Sunday, then back in Tuesday, and maybe I would go with him. It's not looking like anyone's going to be hiking anywhere with the uluhe that bad. Jackie's already asking about when the helicopter pilot might be available to fly them the hell out.

Basically EVERYONE IS MISERABLE and I have the stomach flu. THIS EXPEDITION IS CURSED.

I just... I just can't even. IS THIS REAL LIFE?

...I'mma eat more ramen and watch Inglourious Basterds now, yep, this sounds like a good plan.

Walp, it's a good thing I'd actually made solid plans to absolutely nothing but lie around and stare at the television all weekend, because I have come down with The Plague and that's really all I feel like doing. :P

regonym came up with a really good idea, I think. If you're really really bored and think that joining me and my eternal bro Eric for part of an Avatar: The Last Airbender marathon sounds like fun, poke at me via LJ, text, email, smoke signals, or however it is you usually contact me, and I'll sign onto AIM, iChat, Gchat, or Skype, and you can join us long distance! Marathon starts tonight and goes until ??? o'clock Sunday, so assuming you manage to avoid our sleep breaks you should have plenty of opportunity. COME JOIN US YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO IT'LL BE FUN. :DD

So far 2010 has been really lame. This week has not helped. This week is, apparently, "Please Kick Me Again, Universe" week.

First, good things... watching Classic Who and depressing sci-fi movies with Lauren on my sick days was fun. Watching David Tennant play Hamlet on public television was amazing. This week's episode of Supernatural made me really happy (omg Crowley/Mark Sheppard I love you forever); today's episode of Doctor Who did as well (omg Eleven/Matt Smith I love you forever with a side of Moffat be my bff).

Bad things... got sick, lost my job, bla bla, I mentioned that already. I'm still sick, btw. Anytime my throat would like to stop hurting would be fine with me, thanks. And it would be nice if I could breathe well enough to get some exercise.

Yesterday... yesterday my computer, which has been fiddly all week, decided to go completely insane. When I attempted to restart and was unable for quite some time to get the damn thing to start up again at all, I took it in to the Apple store over in Bridgeport. I had to drop it off rather than hang out while a tech worked on it, as everyone else in the country was very excitedly trying to buy the new iPad. They called me back within a couple of hours to let me know that my hard drive had failed. So I shelled out $154 to have it replaced.

So whatever, it's all good, right? That's what my external hard drive is for. And the Time Machine software I've been using to back up my entire computer so I can, in theory, wave a magic wand and have everything returned to my computer exactly how it was before.

...Yeah no my fucking external picked the same week to stop working. It was working on Tuesday! As of yesterday, however, the fucking thing won't even appear on my or anyone else's computer. Which I confirmed too late to do anything about it until Monday, since LaCie tech support is only available business hours on business days.

So FML. I had better be able to get my data back and the cost had better be covered by my god-damn warranty or I will punch every last... everything in the face. I'm sick and fucking tired of crying this week. My eyes hurt and I've got enough snot coming out of me without that, thanks.

THEY CANCELLED MY ASSIGNMENT. BECAUSE I'M SICK. WAY TO KICK ME WHEN I'M DOWN, FUCKERS.

The punchline is, I'm not even surprised. I fucking hate temp work. Can someone please hire me who will treat me like I'm a real person? Please? Starbucks? Anyone? Please?

Eurgh. The Plague has worsened. I slept fitfully, and very little. My dreams were mostly confused and unpleasant, and annoyingly, most of them followed a call center theme. ...Except for the one where David Tennant and I were on a foam raft zooming down a river, trying to catch up with and rescue this drowning damsel, but it was all a trick; David was knocked from the raft and swept downstream, and when he was out of sight the girl swam back to me easy as a salmon, leaving David to turn into an evil shark man.

But that's neither here nor there.

I can't breathe, and my head is so stuffed up it hurts. About an hour ago I gave up trying to be unconscious. I stumbled into the kitchen to eat a few spoonfuls of Salsa El Pain... the salsa, they do nothing! T_T My secret weapon is no longer effective. Blargh.

So because I have nothing better to do at the moment, I'm going to post another meme. Whoo. It's very similar to the one I posted last night, so, uh, pick which one you like best? Or do both, if you really want to. Or neither, it's a free country.

Comment on this entry, and I will:

1. Tell you why I friended you.
2. Associate you with something - fandom, a song, a color, a photo, a word etc.
3. Tell you something I like about you.
4. Tell you a memory I have of you.
5. Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.
6. Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.
7. In return, you must post this in your LJ.