X-Men post :)

I like the X-Men. Specifically I'm most fond of the 1980s Chris Claremont era X-Men, but I don't particularly hate anything that's been written. Yay X-Men. My favorite character is Magneto, because I have this thing for tragic anti-hero types. He's one of those characters that makes you question the morality of certain actions. Sometimes he seems crazy, and sometimes you sit there thinking that he's damn right.
So speaking of Magneto, this excellent little five-book series called Magneto:Testament came out a couple years ago. I finally got the last two issues that I was missing (missing due to an ex with no Christmas gift planning capabilities, but whatever). Anyway, it is awesome. Go read this series. Get it. It's fantastic. The art is lovely-haunting, really. The writers did a good job with historical accuracy too-it's obvious they were trying to approach Magneto's youth in the Holocaust without sacrificing the reality of what happened. If you know anything about the X-Men, you know Magneto loses his family in the Holocaust; it's no surprise when that happens in Testament, but damn the writers still made it hurt. It's fabulous.
Besides Testament, I'm plowing through House of M at the moment. More Magneto ftw.

Iowa

Last week I drove to Iowa with my family. We went to Ames for my great-aunt's memorial thing. It was a thing because there was no service and wine and cheese were served. Anyway, it was cool to be back in Ames, even if it was only for six hours. I got Hickory Park for dinner, so that's a win no matter what.
Anyhow, when we got to the thing (my great-aunt is Barbara Forker, by the way. The thing was held in the building with her name on it.) there are several people who apparently know who I am and apparently know that I'm coming back to school next fall. This is a big surprise to me, because even though I'd like to go back to ISU, I haven't even started my application yet. But they were all nice and maybe that bodes well for my chances of getting back in.
So a bunch of people spoke, including me, which everyone said I did well even though I made it all up on the spot. My dad went last, and told the entire assembly of mostly old people that my great-aunt was totally badass (it's true!). Afterwards we went to the cemetery for badass people from Iowa State to make sure that the marker was the right colour. My grandma had been obsessing about that.
So that's the story of my really fast trip to Ames and my badass great-aunt's memorial. Short and sweet. And apparently I need to get going on my grad school application, since everyone expects me to be back next August.

Baby apple trees at the apple orchard

They're cute, okay?

National Novel Writing Month

It's October, which means I'm seriously thinking about my upcoming plunge into insanity, also known as National Novel Writing Month. That would be in November. This year will be my third year participating. Last year I "won" for the first time by writing a 50,000 word novel in one month. I actually have a proof copy sitting on my bookshelf, in case I ever decide to self-publish it. I probably won't, but having it in physical form is beyond cool.
I like to write. I have since I was very young. I vaguely recall writing some kind of story in first grade that involved my two best friends and a horse. I only remember the horse because I recall drawing a horse a lot. In middle school and high school, I struggled with prose and wrote poetry. I'm pretty sure that's because I can only write poetry while severely depressed, which is the state I spent middle and most of high school in. Now, I can barely write a poem, but I've got one story at 23,000 words and one complete novel, and hopefully this November I will add a second novel to that tally. (For the record, these are completely original works and not fanfiction. I can only write vignette-length fanfiction. It's weird, I know.)
Anyway, that's how I'm planning to spend my November. It will be fueled by a lot of caffeine, probably some unhealthy snacking, and the obnoxious feeling in the back of my head that there's a story that has to come out. It's crazy, it's hard (especially with a real job and grad school apps), and it's totally awesome.

Night Blooming Cereus

I meant to post this ages ago, but it's a bloom from a plant my grandmother has. She says it's a night-blooming Cereus. Anyway, I guess it only blooms once a year, in the evening, and the bloom dies after that. So she brought one over to show us.

More work drama

As far as I know, for now my job is safe. My supervisor had a chat with the deputy director, who sounded enthusiastic regarding our research and the shRNA core. At the moment, we appear to be safe, although there's still the question of whether we're going to stay in my previous boss' lab space forever. Of course, if the CEO has some weird vendetta against everyone, he could fire us all, but that sounds less likely at the moment. Unfortunately, we haven't had any meetings to discuss future research yet, so my job is pretty boring, but at least I still have one and don't have to navigate Michigan's ridiculous unemployment website yet.
But, my ex-boss appears to be cooking up some potential drama. Hopefully my supervisor and I can stay out of it and just be amused from the sidelines without getting dragged into anything weird. It's a bit tiring to have to continually deal with all of this, and it isn't helped by the fact that I'm sure this kind of crap goes on everywhere. At least I'm preparing to go back to school and don't need to stay at this job forever.
Other than the drama, I have just a couple of array experiments to finish, and one knockdown+chemical treatment experiment, and that's about it. So I haven't got a whole lot to do at the moment. I am going to Iowa next weekend for my great-aunt's memorial, after taking the biology GRE, so I'm taking a couple of days off work.