Beguine

( Let me congratulate you on the breadth and ambition of your plan )
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Quotable Quotes
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Justice (on the potential for contracts with non-animal gods): “I do not, however, know how you would take the form of hope.”
Lyric (OOC): “See, there’s this guy named Barack Obama…”

Ted: “Just to get the ball rolling, introduce [Ma’at] to apple sauce.”
Someone: “What?”
Ted: ”Mott’s Apple sauce…”

Someone (OOC): “I thought we killed Thoth not Set.”
Marc (OOC): “You apparently Thoth wrong.”

Ted: “I’d rather take down a slaver or a hockey mom.” – Ted

Current Location:	Ancient Legendary Egypt
Current Mood:	nervous
Current Music:	Bruce Springsteen-Dancing in the Dark

Let me know next year if you want to coordinate, either using this continuity (if zombies is even the theme next year) or a new one. 

Just to make sure everyone's on the same page, I was not really kidnapped by vampires, and despite the coincidence of an outbreak of African rabies and killer salmonella on tomatoes on the same day as this blog event, there really wasn't a zombie attack.   Sure, you can imagine in a cynical fictional universe the one thing that could get the government and a bunch of vampires together is a good cove-rup to keep people from panicking or asking too many questions, but fortunately we live in the real world, and our government has to confine itself to conspiring with things that actually exist.  So to reiterate, I am not being held prisoner in an underground bunker in case of another outbreak that actually wipes out the species, I have not been replaced by a robot or anything silly like that, and everything is back to normal.  Have a great weekend!

Current Mood:

accomplished

yerbrainondrugs

elengul

There's a lull.  We're between waves of refugees.  Well, I say waves, but maybe I should say ripples. Survivors are few and far between.  I was going to write about the feeding thing.  It was, I don't know it was creepy but fine I guess.  I just don't care about that right now.  I can't afford to think right now, but at least I'm helping someone.  So that's doors are opening there's some burn victims back to work.

Current Mood:

crushed

Ate breakfast and met the other 'new arrivals.'  This is getting really weird.  They've got a bunch of 20-30 something doctors, teachers, farmers,engineers... I think they kidnapped a couple of army people too.  These guys are almost definitely not part of the regular army or government agencies, though apparently they have control of Aberdeen?  These people are from all over, and I do mean ALL over.  As in, they've grabbed people from India and Korea and Gana and literally everywhere.  An embarrassing number speak English..  They also have a bunch of teenagers that have been here for longer; some of them almost a year.  The kids looked somewhere in the 18ish range; they look like babies to me.  Apparently a lot of them are runaways and street kids, people that won't be missed. I think they were thinking in terms of ...maximum reproductive capacity.  Ergh.  People were pretty angry, but the Mulder got most people down to the level of  grumbling.  Apparently,  the part of the crisis he's managing is us.  I have to say he's pretty good at it. The Mulder is pretty charming for a guy that looks like he hasn't slept in two days or seen the sun in two years, and he took his nickname with reasonably good grace but...I'm getting the impression that....well, if this were a movie I don't think he'd be one of the good guys. 

So the fact that they're letting me post this much information worries me.  I mean, the internet only has so much credibility, but still....Locations?  The fact that they've been kidnapping kids? 

They don't expect life to go back to normal after this.  That's why it doesn't matter what we find out.  So I think they figure the more they're (relatively) honest, the more cooperative those of us inside and anyone who's making it so far outside will be longterm.

Besides, in terms of crazy zombie rabies virus-proof compounds with large short-term food supplies and farming equipment for later, they're sort of the only game in town.  Particularly judging by the news.  The government is collapsing. I guess they'd call out the army, except for the fact that yanno, they're almost all in Iraq for some reason. They finally turned off the TV after some blond fox anchor chick got grabbed on live TV.  I think they figure they've scared us enough now.

I'm not going to say people should avoid them.  I think their tips for dealing with these things is legit, and like I said, we don't have a ton of options.  However, if you're out there somewhere, you need to know what you're getting yourself into dealing with this people.

Current Mood:

cynical

wushi

Alright, so I just talked to some FBI agent-type guy, and he  showed us the news reports.  Jesus.  Apparently there's this...rapidly moving rabies-like thing.  I don't know, it seems to spread like a fluid-borne virus, but some of this stuff just doesn't make sense, and I don't think the Mulder clone (he introduced himself as Jon, but I already know too many of those) was telling us everything he knew.   Anyway, this is straight from the Mulder's mouth, and the media seems to either be ignoring the problem or adding to the panic without actually being helpful.  Typical.

1)The virus (or bacteria, or... insanity bug? I don't know)  is spread by bodily fluids,commonly bites.
2)Incubation period varies between 45 minutes to a few hours (Which is awfully short).
3)  Symptoms include severe neurological disfunction, including loss of speech and seemingly long term planning abilities or even rational thoughts  There seems to be adrenaline misregulation, as well, considering the speed and feats of strength, as well as the aggression in some cases.  That explains the biting thing, I guess.
4)The people I'm seeing on TV infected, don't look good.  Mulder-clone wouldn't give me a straight answer on whether it was ultimately fatal, but...
5)  You should stay home, if you can.  You want to be in a building with few entrances, and at least enough food and water for a day or so. 
6) Like I said, a lot of the victims have some sort of adrenaline misregulation.  They're like someone on PCP, only without the rationality.  So...you want to barricade yourself in, because a lock might not stop them.
7) Again, since they're like someone on PCP, they're hard to stop even with significant physical damage.  You either need to destroy the nervous system or the heart.  Also...alright, this is where it gets weird.  According to Mulder wapple you have to either decapitate them or keep something driven all the way through their heart.  He claims that if, for example, you just shoot them in the heart the damage will heal over or something, whereas something like an arrow, that stays in the wound will keep them from repairing.  I told him that diseases don't do that, and he wouldn't explain further.  But according to the footage from the news shows it seems to be true.  Maybe some sort of nanotech/bio weapon?  I get the feeling Mulder and his people might be more involved in what's going on then they care to admit.  The point is, try to stay away from them if you possibly can.  If you can't....unfortunately you're probably going to have to kill them
8)  Mulder says they're "taking steps" to deal with the problem.  They're hoping to quarantine the infected, or halt the spread, but it's already moving so rapidly....  I asked Mulder if they were working on any sort of cure, and if they needed someone to pipette things into test tubes to help), and he said they'd see what happened in the next 24 hours, but at the moment a new person in a lab would be more trouble than they're worth, which I understand.
9)  This part is hard to even type.  Apparently, we're in some sort of...doomsday insurance policy underground compound.  This thing is already spreading all over the world and, Mulder kept assuring us that grabbing us was just a precaution, and he hinted there might have been a smaller outbreak before, but...I think they expect this to wipe out almost everyone, and we got kidnapped to make sure that there are people to start over with.  I-jesus.  I got grabbed because they want as many doctors and nurses and stuff as possible, and I haven't even done my clinical rotations but there was room in the van we happen to live on a major road, so...we were convenient.   Plus I have promising test scores or something, and wushi has experience teaching kids from kung fu, I don't know....   apparently I got kidnapped because some quasi-military organization kept track of my FREAKING USMLE SCORES AND OUR HOBBIES. 
10)  They said they're going to go out to round up more survivors tonight.  I don't know why they're waiting so long, but Mulder said something about them not having the manpower to mount another rescue mission until then, which DOESN'T MAKE SENSE.  Anyway, hopefully help will be on the way then.  Spooky government conspiracy help, but help nonetheless. 
11)  They're going to be transmitting safety information and updates through phone calls and the internets, and also on radio station 98.4, 98.2, 98, 97.8,97.6 and 97.4.  (I don't know why they aren't using the TV and the regular radio stations to do safety transmissions.  Maybe they aren't government after all?  This whole thing is nuts, and I'm not entirely convinced that I'm not...hallucinating or something).
12) I asked if survivors should mark where they're hiding somehow, particularly since the victims seem to have suffered too much cognitive damage to figure out that a red x on the door or something means people.  Mulder said they have "technology that will allow them to detect uninfected people."  Sure?  I mean, we have some sort of heart-repairing zombie virus thing, why not a vital sign scanner or whatever too?
13)  PLEASE STAY SAFE.

Some goonish-looking guy just brought us breakfast (Fruit and a salmon and cream cheese bagel for me, liver and onions with a spinach salad thing for wushi, it looks like), and then we're going to get a chance to talk to the other people that got grabbed I think.  I'll let you know what's going on.  Please check in an let us know you're alright.  Be careful.  Hopefully they'll find a vaccine or something, or at the very least I'll see you after the rescue mission tonight.  I love all of you

Current Mood:

scared

 I'm up late now baking a cake for a co-worker who's starting a faculty job at the end of the summer.  Alcohol cake lives again!    Still, I'm up past midnight and I have to be up at  tomorrow so I can get a Bradford done and not miss the going away mini-party.  I am going to fall asleep face first in the standards tomorrow.

I've been really tired lately, in general, actually.   While for me personally its actually been a pretty good year, it's also been exhausting. The two talks in one week (I also did a 10 minute talk at the program retreat two days after my proposal on some results that didn't fit into my proposal neatly. That went really, well, but still), + other stuff going on, + the heat have really taken it out of me.  I have to say, it seems like the whole world has been getting a lot of ups and downs this year too.  On the one hand, you're finally starting to see things like due process for the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, there's Obama and hope that the rest of the world might despise and fear us a little less in a year, there's the Supreme Court Decision in California.  And on the other you have the horrible weird weather all over the place (flooding in the midwest, snow still in Seattle...comparatively the mini-heat wave in Baltimore doesn't seem to be that big a deal), and now there's this virulent flu that seems to be showing up today.  I guess a lot of people are really really sick, and they're going down FAST, and it's having all kinds of weird neurological sequalae.  A lot of admissions to the local hospitals.  I feel guilty for not being over there helping, I mean I'm just across the street from them .  Well, hopefully by this time in a year in a half I'll be helping people directly instead of doing horrible things to rodents for a while.  I think I need a break from research anyway, though I'm not sure

::::EDIT:::::
Alright, I don't know what's going on.  I got grabbed by some guy in military fatigues somewhere around 2 AM.  I think I was drugged; not sure I'm thinking straight, though maybe I'm just freaked out.  wushi's here, too.  I don't know where we are, but I have my wallet and my bookbag and computer and everything.  What the hell?  I askedwushi if this is, I don't know something involving his work, but he has no idea what's going on either.  What is going on, and why the hell did these nutbars kidnap me an then leave me a laptop with wireless access and-my cellphone!  My cell is still in my bag.  I thought it was missing but wushi found it.  So.. maybe we've been kidnapped by terrorists for ransom or something?  I hear someone coming, posting beforfer its too late

Current Mood:

thoughtful

black_op

black_op

Chocolate Alcohol Cake:

Current Mood:	drunk
Current Music:	Happy Birthday song

.  The flight to Coppenhagen, only an hour was on time and left without difficulties.  Unfortunately, my layover was only an hour and we landed a bit late, and my next flight was all the way on the other side of the airport.  I hightailed it through the airport, cut a bit in line to get through passport control (hey everyone else was doing it and my flight was already boarding), and ran to my gate.  I got to my gate to find that their was anther line before you could enter the gate proper (forms listing a contact in the US for US citizens, other forms listing where people were staying in the US for noncitizens).  I had to go through the line twice because I didn't see the sign about the forms the first time through, and finally got to my gate to find notices of us boarding had been greatly exaggerated.  I had time to go to the restroom before they finally started boarding first class. 

The flight to Chicago was...long, particularly because I decided not to sleep on the plane since I was getting in to Baltimore around midnight local time (7am for me) and wanted to be able to sleep then.  I started reading The Last Dragon, an interesting debut novel of the fantasy complex political/martial machinations variety, though there were some rough edges and some parts that bothered me (the story is fairly character driven and there's at least one person from each culture as a main protagonist that breaks up or at least makes three dimensional their culture's stereotypes.  Nevertheless, the backdrop of the story is still the crude and harsh but reasonably noble Teutonic barbarians versus the machinations of the overly byzantine Asian people and their exceedingly warlike African mercenaries.) Still, I'd probably give another J. M. McDermott novel a try.  I watched three movies on the plane as well.  I found Juno to be good overall, though I thought sometimes the dialogue got a little overly snappy which didn't always blend well with the emotional complexity of the story (deciding to not terminate a teenaged pregnancy, class issues, step parent relations, marriage problems).    Dangerous Liasons was good, and I think I preferred it to the modern retelling, Cruel Intentions.  I found all the characters to be slightly more sympathetic in this version, and I thought the portrayal of genuine connection between the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont that soured because of their mutual inability to trust or be trustworthy much more interesting than the equivalent between Sebastian and the much less complex Kathryn in Cruel Intentions.  O Brother, Where Art Thou was able to make me laugh out loud.  I'm not generally a big George Clooney fan, but I liked that one. 

I finally arrived in Chicago.  My layover their was three hours, so I took a pretty leisurely pace making my way through security and customs.   I'll say this for O'Hare, they were very efficient at keeping people moving though the international terminal, rechecking bags after customs and generally getting people to their connecting domestic flights.  On the other hand, our proceedure for visitors has become ridiculous.  I just had to show my passport and a customs form to get back into the country, similar to what I had to do to enter Stockholm.  Non-US citizens get ALL 10 FINGERS fingerprinted AND photos!  I mean, come on.  That's just silly, and I frankly doubt it actually makes anyone any safer (unless the idea is to make it easier for the visitors to get new identification issued once they're mugged in Chicago or New York and their money and ID gets stolen.  Somehow I doubt this).  I really don't think this is going to prevent another terrorist attack an better than limiting the amount of shampoo I can carry on does.  I made my way from terminal five to terminal one via train.  Despite the easy time though security, by that time I was shaky and exhausted, with no patience left for a complex novel.  I bought a snickers bar and called wushi, but game was still running.  I decided I NEEDED to give my brain something easy to occupy it, so I payed the six bucks for internet access and surfed the web while I waited for wushito call me back.  I had expected the flight to be nearly empty, but it was in fact overbooked with no more flights out until 9 pm the next night (or noon if you were willing to fly to Dulles).  I was VERY grateful I already had a guaranteed assigned seat.  wushicalled me shortly after game ended, and we talked until I was ready to board.  He talked me into sleeping on the plane, since it was by that point near my normal bedtime on EST as well.  I'm glad he did, and I spent the flight home in blissful oblivion.  I got in on time, and wushi arrived only a few minutes late (driving error and warning from a traffic cop).  We collected my luggage, drove home, and I finally fell into my own bed. 

Current Location:	Baltimore, MD
Current Mood:	exhausted
Current Music:	VNV Nation-Homeward

I woke up at 6, a half hour before my alarm.  I (finally!) showered, and put on my lucky presentation button down shirt.  I was presenting that day, and also the talks I wanted to go to the most were primarily then, so I knew there was going to be no sight seeing.  I got dressed, put on a small amount of makeup, and headed down to meet D and F, the girls I had talked to the night before, for breakfast at 7:30.  They were late and the line for the free hostel breakfast was surprisingly long (I was expecting non-conference people to not be up and eating until at least 8 something), so I got in line.  The “breakfast buffet” was pretty meager.  I got some bread and butter (the other option was cold cuts), orange juice, and some (probably frozen) strawberries and raspberries.  I was worried the girls were just skipping breakfast, but they came down when I was about halfway done, and I held the table for them while they grabbed a quick something.  We chatted over breakfast and decided to talk to the organizers about the seating thing.  They hurriedly finished breakfast and we jumped up to catch the bus to the Karolinska Institut. 

Current Location:	Stockholm, Sweden
Current Mood:	satisfied
Current Music:	FF victory music