busy day

Yes indeedy! I have sent off my academic transcript, which is the final requirement for my official application for 2008 graduate medicine (nothing to do but wait, now!), sent stars_like_dust her wallet (FINALLY. SORRY, O CLAIRZA MY CLAIRZA. I FAIL AT TIMELY RETURNS.), deposited a cheque, met izumihydra for coffee-and-gossip, and handed in my behavioural neuroscience essay.

Yet to come: revision lecture for cellular neuroscience, going to the government shopfront to get my driver's license renewed, a tutoring job, and then hurrying back in to uni for my first ever capoeira class. (Looks fun, right? I am trying it out on a whim.)

And somewhere in there I need to bash out a 15-minute presentation and write a research essay.

So what's your day looking like?

& a songmeme

I'll do this when I get home this afternoon:

Comment below with a song request that you think I'd be able to provide, something like 'a song that reminds you of someplace you went on holiday when you were little' or 'a song that never fails to give you the shivers when you listen to it' or 'a song in a language you don't speak but would like to learn'.

it seems to be a day for memes

1. My username is fahye because a long, long time ago in a high school not very far away, I was just starting to befriend a group of people who watched Buffy and anime, and read manga, and all had something called a livejournal. When I persuaded them to give me an invite code (yeah, remember the days of invite codes?) I had to come up with a name on short notice. I'd been watching some Cowboy Bebop and liked the name Faye (and it started with the same letter as my real name, handily) but needed something to set it apart as a pseudonym. So I added a silent 'h'. SILENT. PLEASE NOTE. YOU PRONOUNCE IT EXACTLY LIKE 'FAYE'. JUST CLEARING THAT UP.

2. My journal is titled kicking at the darkness 'til it bleeds daylight because it's in keeping with the PILOTS!!! theme of my LJ - it's a mutated line of lyrics from the Barenaked Ladies song 'Lovers In A Dangerous Time', which is a very piloty song indeed.

3. My subtitle is ancient and naïve astronomies because I came across this phrase in a book, years ago, and really, really loved it. The book was Ratner's Star by Don DeLillo, which is one of the most challenging and breathtaking books I've ever made my way through. It's....um...here, have a review:

In an attempt to save the world by communicating with aliens, an adolescent mathematical prodigy from the Bronx is enlisted by a group of mad scientists to decode a message from outer space--a planet known as Ratner's star. DeLillo's comic novel, influenced by Lewis Carroll's ALICE books, is infused with concepts from science, mathematics, and technology. DeLillo commented in an interview, "It seems to me that RATNER'S STAR is a book which is almost all structure. The structure of the book is the book. The characters are intentionally flattened and cartoonlike. I was trying to build a novel which was not only about mathematics to some extent but which itself would become a piece of mathematics."

DeLillo is such a freak. But as a scientist and a writer myself, this was...awe-inspiring.

4. My friends page is called Beautiful enemies because once again, I found it in a book! This time it was (I think; I'm not absolutely certain, though) from an essay/review called 'Kith' written by Robert Dessaix, my secret hero, and tucked away in a collection of stories, essays and reviews called (and so forth), which you should all buy immediately. It's a review of a Graham Little book, but also an essay about the power and joy of 'communicating friendships', friendships which are based on "adventurous, playful, dangerous talk over many hours or weeks or years between two people". He quotes the phrase 'beautiful enemies', originally from Ralph Waldo Emerson, as a flippant way of describing friends. I like it.

5. My default userpic is this one because it matches my layout. And come on, it's kinda clever :)