#boundless enthusiasm

[fiftyshadesoftheday]

/Holy cow./ I can't help but smile at her boundless enthusiasm.

Page 337

[peachyindeed]

Make the fan content you want to see on the internet.

[newsdock]

British planetary scientist Colin Pillinger, the driving force behind the ill-fated Beagle 2 mission to Mars, died on Thursday at the age of 70, his family said. The professor, hailed by his colleagues as an inspirational figure with boundless enthusiasm for his subject, suffered a brain haemorrhage on Wednesday. \"It is with profound sadness that we are telling friends and colleagues that Colin, whilst sitting in the garden yesterday afternoon, suffered a severe brain haemorrhage resulting in a deep coma,\" his family said. But he won fame for his lead role in developing Beagle 2, a British lander that rode piggy-back to Mars aboard the European Space Agency's Mars Express in 2003. Source: AFP

[elysiumrising]

*SCREAMS FOREVER*

THE NEW NECKLACES OH MY GOD. THE NEW SKINS OH MY GOD.

OH MY GOD. 

[fitfridays-blog]

Lady Legs

I'm thinking my legs are looking really sweet today. Makes me want to totter around in high heels and a mini skirt. No photo, since I'm only actually 6ish pounds down from my last set of progress pics... but by the end of 4n4, lovelies, I'll be busting out a new set of progress pics (I do 'em every ten pounds), and my legs... yeah, they best be looking as fierce as I think they are in those pics ;P

[splitsecondlove]

Constructive Summer

I’m calling it now: This is going to be my summer of Repeatedly Falling In Love.  As a normal self-involved young person with a narratively-inclined mind, most of my Septembers end with several moments of navel-gazing hindsight which end with a label being pressed on the previous three months.  2010 was the summer of Escape Velocity, culminating in a four day drive across the country to a new home, accompanied only by all my worldly belongings in the back of a truck, my boyfriend, and our two cats.  2009 was the summer of Angst But Also Incredible Adventure, with good and bad decisions and drama within various social circles and road trips and experiences in the desert that I’ll remember for the rest of my life.  2008 was the summer of Good Times and Solid Friendships, in which I turned 21 (and consequentially threw up a lot) and saw a lot of good music and hugged a lot of really good people who were really good friends to me.  And so on.  

This year, I live in a town that still feels somewhat like a stranger to me.  I don’t know many of the people around me, and my summer social calendar isn’t filled with patio parties or community bonfires.   I’m also not working or taking classes, so I have plenty of time on my hands on a day-to-day basis, and because I’m not working I have no money, so with the exception of a Big Huge Thing in August I don’t have nearly as many little trips planned as I have in past summers.

Yesterday I was sitting around my apartment feeling really afraid that I was just going to end up bored and slothful for three months.  I don’t want Summer 2011 to be the Summer of Long Naps.  But last night I finished a really good book that I got all excited about, and today I’m reading another good book that I’m all excited about, and listening to a podcast that I’m pretty excited about too and oh yeah there are all these great albums coming out and new bands that I’m discovering.  

And it occurred to me that being a full-time college student robs me of more than just the mental energy to work on my own writing nine months out of the year; being a student means that I don’t even have the brainpower to follow my own interests—or at least, not to the extent which I’d like.  It tends to happen anyway, and I neglect my schoolwork to jump down the latest rabbit hole I’ve found, spending hours learning about weight lifting or  DIY fashion instead of studying for exams.  

But now it’s summer and I have more time on my hands than I’ve had in a long, long time, and I can let my inner hobbyist run wild.  I have an obsessive and ADD nature, with the tendency to jump into a new topic and get really enthusiastic about it and partly convince myself that this Shiny New Thing should be my new hobby or even my new career path.  I fall in love with Shiny New Things so easily that I have to laugh at myself about it.  I’m the (slightly) grown-up version of that little girl who proclaims she wants to be an archaeologist one day, and a marine biologist the next, and an astronaut the day after that.

It’s a personality trait that I have always sort of fought in myself, because it tends to go hand-in-hand with not finishing things (because finishing something generally requires that you stay enthusiastic about it for more than two weeks at a time).  But why fight it, why not embrace it?  This summer I’m going to just explore all the many things that excite me, and I’m going to try to write down my thoughts about those things that excite me.  Hopefully I’ll even be able to sustain this blog after the summer ends.  That would be nice. 

This is my umpteenth attempt at starting a blog to house some non-fiction writing, and this time I’m not going to try to define it to any one set of subjects.  I’m going to write here about all of the many things that get my brain juices flowing on any given day: songs or albums, books, fashion designers, pieces of history, movies, what have you. All of the many different little things that I’m going to fall in love with this summer.  

[fitfridays-blog]

I wanna run

I wanna run I wanna run I wanna run I wanna run I wanna run I wanna run I wanna run I wanna run I wanna run I wanna run I wanna run I wanna run I wanna run I wanna run I wanna run I wanna run I wanna run I wanna run.

I WANNA RUN!! Stupid ankle *grumbles*

This always seems to happen. I always seem to bork my ankle by just being a clumsy ass right before my running crave kicks in again. Do. Not. Like.

[fitfridays-blog]

Stupid Girlyness

Do you know what I like about losing weight? I like that when the cute tattooed boy at school strikes up a conversation, I don't feel like a disgusting blob who's immediately disqualified from his attraction. I don't assume anymore that I'm being filed directly to the "foul-mouthed funny fat friend" folder in his mind. I can flirt without making a joke of it, because dammit, I'm funny and sexy as hell, thank you very much.

Don't get me wrong. I never really felt too fat to date, or so unattractive that no one could possibly like me. I've always known that wasn't true. But. When I was in the 180s, I didn't feel comfortable in my own body, which really sapped my confidence, as a result of which, I ducked further and further behind the goofy and profane persona. I had an active sex life at that weight, but my confidence and assertiveness in that arena were impacted by my weight. I didn't mind the guy seeing my body, because hey, he got naked with me in the first place, if he didn't like what he saw, he wouldn't be there, but I didn't like seeing myself, I didn't feel good in my own body, which, y'know, kinda made it hard to be a sexual dynamo.

And now that I'm losing weight, I'm transitioning out of that. Yes, that cute boy at school could reasonably be attracted to me. It is in the realm of possibility. And if he isn't, at least I know that it isn't because I'm unsure of myself and lack confidence anymore. Its just that I'm not his cuppa. And that's fine. There are plenty of other men who's cuppa I am. And I'm happy to wait to find those guys. (But if a one of them could hurry up and ask my ass out on a date, that'd be nice ;P)