JediBix783's New Writeups

August 27, 2009 (log)

2009-08-27T12:47:42Z

Today was the first day I have ever been on e2 and been at the top of the list of Your Fellow Noders. There were fourteen people here. I find this terrifying, elating, and depressing at the same time.

I think it's safe to say that e2 shaped me as human being. Yeah, that's a pretty big statement to just flop down onto the table, and yeah, I'm home sick and it's swine flu season but... I'm going to leave it there. On the table. Looking mildly embarrassed but also overly dramatic.

So yeah, it's kind of weird to be here at the top of the list. I'm only here now because one of my noder heroes, sam512, apparently just signed out, and that's pretty awesome too*.

Where I was when I started out at e2: 17, never been kissed, nerdiest girl in the eleventh grade, pretty naive and unaware that furries even existed.

Where I am now: 25, PhD student, living in another country, maybe got this sexuality thing figured out, totally up on what furries are.

Good work, team.

*PS don't tell him.

Gullfoss (place)

2009-08-27T12:34:31Z

Gullfoss is an immense waterfall in west-central Iceland that forms the third part of the Golden Circle, alongside Thingvellir and Geysir. It is in a canyon of the river Hvítá, which means "White River". "Gull" means "gold", while "foss" means "waterfall". Interestingly (to me) many of the waterfalls in northern England also have names that include the word "foss" due to Norse placenames.

Incidentally, the tourist centre at Gullfoss has a very nice shop where you can find every tourist item you would have bought in Reykjavik, but didn't, because you knew from reading this node that they were half price.

Nobody fly with me; I'm cursed (idea)

2007-12-28T03:50:54Z

There might be some bigger lessons to be learned here about the declining state of the airline industry, the complete absurdity of airport security measures, and some other "issues" that affect everyone who flies, but, as per usual, I am here to stand still and let the rest of the earth revolve around me.

6 of 8 of my last flying experiences have involved the sort of delays that people have nightmares about. Let's review:

1. Amsterdam – London (City) (Nov 2006), KLM Airlines: This one can be blamed upon either myself or Edward (the boyfriend, who was studying in Nijmegen at the time) for not checking train times on a Sunday, and not on the good people of that fair country, who had trains that were so accurately timed that I arrived exactly (EXACTLY) when the man in the Nijmegen train station said I would: 5 minutes after my flight took off (…

How my desire for a puppy made me personally responsible for the War on Terror (idea)

2007-11-15T15:34:49Z

This is a story that I have avoided telling for over four years. Finally, the guilt (and the approval ratings) have tortured me enough find the courage to speak up... and to exonerate the innocent parties -- George Bush, Tony Blair, Dick Cheney, etc...

When I was just a wee lass, about seven or eight, I used to attend catechism classes at our local church. It was a great hulking white building up on top of a hill that looked out over the mountains and I spent most of the classes staring out of the west-facing windows towards Red Rocks. Already within me was the seed of apathy that would make one of my high school religion teachers burst into tears at conferences and tell my parents that she prayed every night for my damned, atheist soul.

That year, something very special was happening on the TV. People in tanks were riding around a vast desert. There were green…

January 31, 2007 (idea)

2007-01-31T17:18:13Z

Ok, I'm about to name-drop in a big way. Today has been an e2 odyssey.

Step 1: Riding my bicycle up to the Sackler Library from Folly Bridge, I put episode 10 of The Everything2 Podcast on the old ipod in an attempt to block out the ominous sound of double-decker London-bound buses roaring past me. Episode 10 is the best I have heard thus far (they seem to get better with every episode!). So get out there and listen, e2! One of the nodes read out on it is the first of sam512's wonderful Ed stories, which can be found in visual form at March 9, 2003.

Step 2: I left the Sackler and came over to the MCR after many hours of studying/falling asleep atop books. Our college's MCR has a computer lab in the basement of what used to be an octagonal 14th century chapel. When I look out the window in front of me, I can see the Bodleian Library, and, to my left the Radcliffe Camera. They're doing some sort of construction work on the…

March 24, 2006 (idea)

2006-03-24T06:33:23Z

Ever since the 10th grade, maybe even before that, I have fostered this dream to go to Oxford University. I don't know what started it, really. I think I read some book where people went there. Maybe it was by Connie Willis. At any rate, I did some research and decided that, wow, it was a really cool university, especially for someone as obsessed with British history as I am, and I should maybe apply there.

Long story short, they rejected me for my undergraduate studies. In retrospect, I think this was good for me; I'm American, and I think that the British system, which is a lot more rigid and doesn't allow you to really "change majors", would have not worked out very well for me.

At any rate, I'm graduating from American University this semester, and at the end of last semester, I started applying to graduate schools. I realized that I wanted to be an archaeologist at the end of my freshman year, and so when I chose graduate schools to apply to, I decided to apply to…