This is a cat that does college apps

AKA: Flailing Quail's brother approves of her college essay and she sent in her app.

HOORAY :D



...does anyone else find the above picture hilarious? Because I certainly do. Bison2 sure is hilarious.

BEER

I was watching Iron Chef America.
And I hella cracked up.

Sadly, I can't find the exact clip (tomat0), but I did find these other gems.





Edit: Dude, just check out that face. ^

Vay-K

Vacation passes wayyyy too quickly.

I've been programming (to see my attempts, click here)and staying up late, waking up at 12, and pianoing my butt out.

Like, sure, it's the holiday season, but I gotta admit that I don't feel much of the spirit. There's finals after break, a piano test coming up that I need to memorize about 30 pages of music for, and Chinese New Year is coming, too. I did finally finish college apps, though (I was planning to finish on xmas to give myself a present, but I ended up submitting at around 12:15 AM on 12/26. As Quail would say, fail).

But I got this awesome t-shirt that says "Mr. Shark." The problem is that it's a kid-size medium so0o0o I'm gonna try various methods of stretching it out so it fits better. Maybe I'll post a tutorial later to companion with my toilet unclogging one.

I did have tons of fun at Christmas in the Park and staying at the movie theater until 1 am with my cousins. I saw Slumdog Millionaire (I guess not a bad movie, but not my type. I like action/comedies, and this was a chick flick.) and Seven Pounds. I wanted to see Seven Pounds just because of Will Smith, but it dragged ON and ON until I wanted to cry. Maybe it was just the extremely early morning temperament of "I wanna sleep, goshdarnit." But it was another sappy movie. Sigh.

I wanna finish Bolt.

Writing with a prompt

Prompt: Two-minute blog entry

Prompter: Bison2 (aka Quail's brother)

Since two minutes is not enough time to upload photos with, some Christmas in the Park photos will have to wait for the next entry.

So first off, Merry Christmas to all those who celebrate it, and happy "all-the-stores-are-closed" day to everyone who doesn't .

Oh wow, its two minutes already.

Tata!

Evil Scientists

I hope to join their ranks someday.

So I first got interested in genetic engineering when I learned that tomatoes can be engineered for frost resistance with genes from cold-weather fish.

Now I look forward to a future where I can play with Mother Nature's bounty, but twist it in strange ways--to suit either my needs, or those of humanity. Buaha.

~Goes back to writing college essays about why she picked the major she did.~ Goodness, I hate these.

The Final Countdown

Wracked with indecision about what significant issue write about, Quail has been quite remiss in posting and has since decided that inane posts are possibly better than no posts at all.

But of course, significant posts on a regular basis are even better. 

As of right now, there are 3 hours and 19 minutes until winter break starts. Quail and Hawk are both finished with the finals they have to finish (and are not worrying about the ones that are yet to come (I know Hawk is, but she shouldn't be.)). At any rate, the time until break ends feels asymptotic. Like a logarithmic function, as x (time) increases, f'(x) (perception) gets smaller and smaller, and f(x) increases achingly slowly. 

Quail

Is ecstatic

Corn--the other white meat

My econ teacher made us read Michael Pollan's 10-page article on the beef industry. It was a great read, and now I think I'll become vegetarian.

Not just for the whole "it's not humanitarian to eat animals!" or whatever. The sad part is that I probably won't be able to give up meat, since I still do sports and I need protein somehow so my muscles don't degenerate into wiggly masses of gelatin.

But anyway, did you know that humans are becoming increasingly made out of corn?!

The majority of the carbon in our bodies comes from our diet. Think about what you eat. Everything other than bona fide vegetables contains corn. Corn syrup in drinks, meat from corn-fed animals, bread with corn flour..the list goes on.

The saddest part is cornfed beef. Cows are not made to eat corn. It acidifies their digestive system, forcing beef farmers to pump their cattle full of antibiotics so the cows live long enough to make it to the meatpacking plant.

But even worse is bacteria now adapted to cow digestive systems have an easier time surviving in ours. Cows are made to eat grass, and their stomachs have an almost neutral pH. Humans, of course, slosh with hydrochloric acid, around a pH of 2. It used to be that bacteria from cows would die in human stomachs--now, it's not the case.

I won't go into detail about the fecal matter present on cows in the slaughterhouse, but...ew.

I refuse to be made out of corn. ~munches an apple~

Conversion

I've decided to shake things up a little.

Rather than continue posting day after day of interesting little side jokes and epiphanies, I think I'll try to blog about things more relevant to the world we live in. I'm aware that if you have enough time to check this blog on a daily basis, you're pretty much either a netmonger or a hardcore fan. Fans are appreciated, but I gotta be honest. The Eyrie is low-key. There are probably like...two of you. Meanwhile, someone like Perez Hilton, who blogs about the lives of a few people who just happen to be in the eye of society because they're attractive, gets a backlog of traffic every day.

Sometimes, a person reaches a point in his life where he suddenly realizes that everything he's been doing up to that point is pretty much useless. I'm sick of clicking through my manga bookmarks in hopes of an update, and I no longer wish to lurk on forums while being influenced by the opinions of others.

As a high school senior, I wonder how I could have so much time on my hands and so much work at the same time. I get my work done, but my mental state is just all over the place in the periods I assign for mental relaxation. I've found that I spent that leisure time sitting in front of my computer thinking "what happened today?" and wondering what I could have done differently to make things turn out better. There's nothing wrong with self-reflection, but it's pretty depressing when all you can concentrate on are failures.

Psychologically, I think it'd be healthier if I took my net-surfing time and dedicated it to making one productive post a day. It might take a reader two minutes to scan this, but you all have to know that journalists and other authors of media agonize over word choice for hours to provide you the entertainment of a few seconds. I'm sure you're all aware of this, being enrolled in English classes that (of course) comport to the standard of No Child Left Behind.

In the spirit of Obama '09, it's time for a change.

*flap flap*

Whoops, it looks like I went net-dead for a while there. And after I said I wouldn't and all!

Well, Quail also sent in her UC app, but it was much less rigorously checked (read: not at all) and was basically forced out at the last minute so that the parents could drag her out to Black Friday shopping.


Speaking of which, Black Friday is not all that exciting. I didn't buy anything :D

Well then, what have I been doing?

I'd like to say art, but that wouldn't be true.

Nay, Quail has been playing video games. And not just any video games!

Mariokart Wii and an MMO.

For shame!




...I have no regrets.

Happy belated Thanksgiving to y'all!

I am thankful for:
existing, the internet, and endorphins, in addition to my friends and family :D

What Hawk is Doing For the Rest of Vacation

Forcing down fluids like a dehydrated walrus.

You never appreciate health until you get sick :(.

Happy Turkeys

You know it's Thanksgiving when Christmas commercials start airing.

Happy Turkey Day, my chickadees :).

I wish I had something incredible for you guys to read, but my few days of break have not been too exciting.

I stayed up until 1 AM last night trying to tweak a few words on my UC essay...and I've finally sent it in. Happy Happy.

To celebrate, I spent today fatting in front of the TV, eating thinly sliced apples and flipping between trashy television and "Jonas Brothers: Living the Dream."

I look forward to dinner's hot pot, though. Here's a tip for you hot pot eaters out there: mix some Asian barbecue sauce with a raw egg yolk and dip your veggies in it. It tastes better than it sounds.

You have _1_ unheard message. First unheard message:

Pwn indeed, Hawky dear.

After writing a beautifully figurative personal statement about answering machines, I realized that:
A) I am not an answering machine
B) I don't have split personalities, as my essay would suggest
and C) Prompts are meant to be answered, but when have I ever done what was requested of me on things like this?

Back to the drawing board.


Or rather, the typing board (keyboard?) because I need to draw some other things on the drawing board.

PONE

A lovely little anecdote for you readers.

My class is currently reading Steinbeck's masterpiece, The Grapes of Wrath. It is by far my favorite book this year. Definitely trumps The Great Gatsby. Ooh, I've got a story about that, too. *digression alert*

So the first book my class had to read this year was Gatsby. Sweet chirruping canaries, I am either a complete barbarian or an erudite literary scholar whose aesthetics far transcend those of standard state-mandated schooling (which doesn't say much, I realize). But I really thought the book was too simply written with too much to read into. I wrote my essay and believed I was done with it forever.

Sadly, it was not meant to be.

While I was watching another Quiz Kids match on TV, Brad asked, "Though Gatsby pursues Daisy, he does not marry her. What is the name of the man who does?" (or something along those lines. In no way is that quote reliable enough to be used in lawsuits or the like). As if that were not enough. During the Stanford Junior Cardinal Classic tournament, our team got a bonus on--you got it, Gatsby. And we only got 20/30 points. Bah humbug.

Oh ho, but that is not it. Even Gaston Caperton snuck up on me with this one. When I took the SAT, one of the questions in the writing section was a sentence about The Great Gatsby. I just about barfed.

Oh yes, back to literature I like.

My friend was puzzling over the definition of the word "pone" and asked me to enlighten her. That word is a tricky tricky one--easy to mispronounce. A classmate overheard the tail end of our conversation and asked to be in on it.

"She just wanted me to tell her what porn is."

Curse my clumsy tongue. I can't even prononce a Spanish r after three years of taking the language. Though I enjoy assignments for which I have to make a board game using 15 vocabulary words about the environment.

I suppose the story after which this is titled is actually the least entertaining bit of the whole post.

PWN.

If we were a movie....

I have the worst channel-surfing luck D:.

So it's the end of an incredibly hard and ...for lack of a better word, I shall plagiarize Quail...failing week. And I just want to sit in front of the TV and vegetate like a tomato.

BAM HANNAH MONTANA.
Just another reminder that in order to succeed in this world, one can just look pretty and have a nice voice. Meanwhile, the rest of us need to struggle through college apps.

On to happier things.

Gunn did win the second Quiz Kids match (against Archbishop Riordan), and the episode will air in the beginning of January. We're going to play round 3 the week after the airing.
And yes, I really did give a shoutout to the blog :).

I wish I had something of substance to post here.

...Nah, I think I'll spare you guys and save the emo rantings for another day.

In which a quail goes insane

This past week, I've been failing pretty bad at sleep and schoolwork and non-schoolwork and pretty much life. I'm not sure why.


Let's just say too many things caught up at once at a really bad time.


At any rate, it only gets better from here. Thanksgiving, here we come. I'm looking forward to the pumpkin pie :D



(turkeyturkeyturkeyturkeyturkey)

Keep Holding On

My newest song obsession is Avril Lavigne's Keep Holding On.



Just two more months until we're second semester seniors.

In other news, taping of round two for Gunn's Quiz Kids will be tomorrow.
The Eyrie will receive some publicity, as I've chosen to talk about the blog for my interview. I'll monitor the traffic we get before and after the show airs and post results :).

Expect updates on the competition. =]

I felt like this was extremely relevant and awesome after we watched Star Wars Episode IV on Thursday.

I also worked on two paintings yesterday that I'm rather proud of. It seems I got better at painting after a hiatus.

Don't try to find a meaning in them, I certainly can't.
(unfinished works)

Chinigamis only eat apples.

I haven't had a peeled apple in so long.

Today, on an impulse, I grabbed the trash can, an apple, and a peeler. As I tried to keep from slicing my fingernails off in the process, I realized how long it's been since I've had the time to chop up an apple and eat it with a fork. It's not that I haven't had time. I always find it strange when people "don't have time" to do something that takes only a minute or so. That's just exhaustion speaking.

And I know that's what everyone else my age is feeling. College apps, cranky econ teachers, and helicopter parents--what more can go wrong, really?

When I was in middle school, my grandma used to live a block away. She'd come over before I got back from school and she'd have made noodles or brought fruit or strange Asian snacks. I remember not liking her cooking--the noodles were usually soggy and the vegetables a sad brown color. When she chopped apples, she dipped them in salt water to keep them from turning brown. I hated the watered-down taste and usually left them for my brother to eat.

It makes me sad knowing I didn't appreciate having a warm, home-cooked meal in front of me. Or that I didn't eat those apples--my grandma knows I love apples. Now I come home and stare at the empty fridge. Maybe grab some Nature Valley bars or crunch one of those brown pear-apple doohickies. Packaged, simple food.

It's an incredibly lonely feeling, and even honey oat bars get old after a while.

Side notes:
My grandma is still alive and healthy ~knock on wood~
Yes, I know it should be "Shinigami." It is a pun. If you don't understand it, you don't know me.

I don't think my mom's too happy about Obama's win.

As I commuted with my mother in our pollution-emitting vehicle, I heard the opening chords of the Dixie Chicks' "Landslide." Like any normal person, I reached for the dial to change the radio station.

It is almost unnecessary to explain that I always change the radio station away from hideous early 90's soft rock.

Then my mom snapped,"This is my car! You don't change the station without asking me! If you were sitting in Obama's car, would you change the radio station?! You're the kind of people who support Obama!"

...Yeah. I don't get it, either.

You're never too old.

I have resolved to stop talking in third person because it's getting old.

Since the last monster post was Quail's, I guess it's my turn.
Most exciting things this week were Wondercup and, of course, Halloween.

Wondercup was ok.

Now, on to Halloween.
So some might say that high schoolers shouldn't trick-or-treat because we're getting the candy young children deserve. Well, answer me this. How many young children have to write college applications? We teens are the ones who ought to have a night of pure sugar-crashing just to restore our sanity.

As senior citizens, we tried to do something memorable.

I think we succeeded.

I came out of the crossdressing experience realizing how comfortable guys' clothing is. The shorts don't adhere to one's thighs and one does not need to spend 50% of her life pulling her shirt down because--guess what?!--it already hangs past her knees. But at the same time, the headband was making my hair poof up and restricting blood flow to my brain. I hope that didn't adversely affect the econ test I took that day.

On another note, is this cat not the freakiest thing you have ever seen?

It flails again

Sorry about the recent silence on my part, I will make no excuses for my behavior.

BUT

That's not to say that nothing blog related has permeated my life!


For one.....

SHIRTS HAVE BEEN MADE
Mmmyes, they have. Beautiful, beautiful shirts.


And also, a report on the past week, which has been chock full of ADVENTURES.


So to chronicle the adventures, we must start a week and a half ago, on a rather average SUNDAY MORNING which was not quite so average...

...because dresses were shopped for, which was mentioned by Hawk.


On second thought, maybe they weren't.
--------------
Next came stencilling, a night on the town, and a Night Rally on Thursday

Of course, in a one street downtown like ours, there's not much you can do....

But there were some noodles and a delicious cupcake split three ways.

As well as exacto knives.

And some rather angry seniors. (Take that as you will)

The football field is a comfortable place. When you roll around on it, you don't get rashes like you do on normal grass. Just lots of astroturf.
---------

Friday was a football game (wonder of wonders), in which there was a potluck with Tuna Helper and Asian bread and smoothies, and rather more raucous laughter than there was football watching.

---------

Saturday was the culmination of the past weeks' festivities, an event known as RETURNAMATION.

Colloquially known as Homecoming.

Quail miraculously found a dress in the morning, then lazed about. Hawk arrived in the afternoon, and many wacky hijinks were had involving duct tape and facial powdery-type stuff.

There was some dinner and there was some dancing (read: awkward flailing) and there were some cheesy group pictures:


--------------
That's about it for that week

THIS WEEK:
Shirts made! Pictures enclosed!
Wondercup competition tomorrow! WE WILL BE THERE, AND WE WILL BE SQUARE (read: awesome)
HALLOWEEN.

The shirts turned out fabulously.


Quail's shirt was made first, and there was some miscalculation about the concentration of bleach being used, which resulted in some more bleach than was intended. There was also a dearth of black spray paint, so acrylic paint was used.
Hawk's shirt turned out much better, after some lessons were learned.

The concentration of bleach was higher, so that the shirt wouldn't get wet and start bleeding. Also, vinegar was sprayed on the shirt soon after the bleach so the bleach wouldn't spread too far.

All in all, success!

The backs have yet to be done, and are in the process of being designed.

For now, we must STUDY FOR WONDERCUP. Time to dredge up long-lost information from within the deepesst recesses of our minds!

Quail out.

Fun Fun

Right now Hawk is immersed in an SNL marathon.
She is incredibly amused by the Palin rap, the invisible "Joe the Plumber," and has learned the meaning of the word "flurge."

Hawk encourages everyone to watch online clips of Saturday Night Live in order to learn more about how politics really works.

Ow.

Painful shoes, pretty dresses, and a fortune down the drain.

Yay for homecoming.

Hawk would first like to thank Quail and the brananaman for accompanying her to Valley Fair to find the various costly necessities for the dance. As a result, she will now be clothed appropriately, and she is looking forward to spending five hours on rickety stilts.

Apparently, wearing a skirt with and a(n awesome amoeba) t-shirt and bowling-shoe-ish Skechers is a faux pas.

Who knew?

Festivities and such

So, at the behest of Hawk, Quail shall now enlighten the beloved readers as to upcoming attractions.

First in a line of many is a birthday party for a good friend. Quail is sad she cannot attend because of a concert that she must participate in. Hopefully the festivities will last long enough into the night for her to drop in secretly and silently like an owl.
Quail is sure that Hawk will have a large amount of fun.

Ze second is, wonders of wonders, a shopping trip to buy dresses!
An unusual occurrence, to say the least. At any rate, much hilarity will be had.
Also, Quail is going grocery shopping, which is bound to yield some interesting results. Mmmmyessss.

Ornery Eyrie shirts are also being MADE on THURSDAY

And then is the Homecoming dance and dinner. Quail feels that the dinner will be more fun than the dance, but that is probably just pessimism at work. Hawk gets to live up to her moniker, at the very least!
Oh, and a week of homecoming festivities, but that's a trivial point.

AND THEN


AND THENNNNNNN


THE EVENT WE'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR

HALLOWEEN

Rave time :D

A Bit of Bragging.

School is finally getting busy. The competitions and the parties are rolling in.

Hawk and Quail partook in Round One of the Wondercup Challenge as members of Team Dysprosium.


Their score qualifies them for Round TWO, which takes place in two weeks! Excitement.

Meanwhile, next week is homecoming week. Fraught with night rallies, football games (Hawk is rather excited about this one, having won a free ticket from a raffle for biking to school), and dinners before dances.

After THAT..is Halloween.
Hawk feels that Quail will perhaps gift followers with a description of the expected festivities. Hawk does not want to hog ALL the good news :).

Hawk worries whether she will have time to do her work, though. But a little fun never killed anyone.

EEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE





eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee




eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee



app sent in :D

So, a Quail and a Bison walk into a bar...

Quail and her brother, the majestic Bison

Don't ask about what happened to hiatus-time. It failed.

FAILING QUAIL.

Double Post!

Since Quail is not around for the moment, I feel as though I should double my output. Hence, today you lucky readers are getting twice the amount of Hawkward!

Today my mother opened an envelope of typical junk mail. Some "global marketing information firm" sent us a massive questionaire numbering no fewer than 100 questions. The envelope was nearly bursting at the seams holding in that fat packet.

Even if the postage for its return is supplied in the form of a nice Business Reply Envelope, who in their right mind would take the time to fill out such a monster?

Well..they included in the envelope a perfectly ironed one dollar bill.

If you think about it, this is actually a very good marketing strategy for companies that rely solely on consumer opinion. The one commodity no one can ever have enough of is time, especially in this busy busy world. And no one wants to waste a precious twenty minutes bubbling in little circles that remind him of the SATs.

If one does not wish to take the survey, there is the one dollar bill staring him right back in the face. Oh, the guilt! You will take the money, but not answer the survey! Shame on you! Shame!

Well, I proposed a solution.

Using the business reply envelope...We're sending the dollar back.

A Deluge of Visitors

Hi guys!

So, as you may know, we have been tracking the Eyrie with Google Analytics. Yesterday there was a huge spike in the number of visits from all over the world!


We have had at least one visit from each of those green-shaded countries!
Clicking on the US, which as the darkest region has given us the most visitors:



Clicking on the darkest region once again, we discover that our visits from California are scattered throughout the state like pepperoni on a particularly yellow piece of pizza.



Quail and I are inordinately amused at Colorado's closeup.

Marimo Massages II

Update: I now have pictures of my Marimo!

The goldfish bowl makes them look bigger

But they're actually pretty dinky. This one I'm holding is Zoro, the bigger one.

Aerial view, for those birds out there.

Close-up


And a random note for those physicists out there.
Due to the shape of the bowl and the marimo, and the extremely small size of the marimo, they actually float around in the bowl when I touch it. I think it's akin to how, if you put a goldfish in a narrrow glass, the fish will sink to the bottom.

Massaging my Marimo

I would like to state that Quail's absence from the blog is greatly regretted, but I hope that those of you out there will understand that there are times when work must be put over pleasure. We should all admire Quail for her amazing willpower to keep her wings off the "new-post" section of this site in order to secure her future. My hat goes off to my flailing friend.

Courtesies aside, it is time for some content.

Thanks to the Drawing Duck (yes, lame), Hawk is the proud owner of two Marimo balls.

They are SOOO CUUUTE.

For those who don't know, Marimo balls are a type of Japanese moss. They're..well..balls of moss that live at the bottom of lakes. They grow larger and large over time, maintaining their cute roundness. Happily, they grow slowly, so the fishbowl that Hawk has hers in will serve well as a habitat for quite a while.

Hawk will have to swirl the water once in a while to simulate an environment of moving water. Additionally, she will massage the Marimos weekly to remove any contaminants. Water change is, of course, a necessity.

Currently, one has been named Zoro after the green-haired swordsman from One Piece.
Readers, this is your chance to interact! Suggest names for the second marimo, who is sad and nameless at the moment.

Hyacinths?

No, hiatus.


I will be away for a week as I deconstruct myself into my component molecules and thoughts, smear them on paper, then reconstruct myself in time to submit my application.

Farewell, good bye, see you in the next life.

But hopefully that last part won't be for a while yet....

The physics of eating a burrito: Work edition (image-heavy post)

So, in physics today.....

There were some educational demonstrations about the nature of work (W=∫F•dx), using a massive burrito.
Thus inspired by the demonstration, Hawk and Quail (accompanied once again by brananaman) set off to find an authentic taqueria so as to obtain a "real" burrito.
The taqueria was found, and this esteemed establishment found itself the site of many a physics experiment on this evening.

And so, armed with 2 massive burritos and twine, Hawk and Quail set off to demonstrate the physics of eating burritos like real men. Except for the minor fact that they were not, in fact, men.

(massive burrito 1)


Hawk provides an explanation and basic demonstration of the "lifter" method of burrito consumption.


Quail demonstrating basic (or lifter) method of burrito eating. In this scenario, the work done on the burrito is equal to the distance between Quail's mouth and the table (approximately .3 meters) multiplied by the force exerted on the burrito, which ideally is equal to the weight of the burrito, (mg) which was approximately 40 N, so the work is approximately 12 Joules


Quail + Burrito


Hawk + Burrito


Hawk + Quail + 2(burrito)


Hawk and Quail demonstrating the "pendulum" method of eating a burrito. Similar to the "Batman" problem encountered in the homework. The burrito is suspended from a string and then is brought up along the circular path until it intersects with the mouth of the consumer. This method of burrito consumption was deemed inefficient for daily use, even though the burrito was easier to consume, because of difficulty in constructing the burrito harness.

Unfortunately, the ramp method was not able to be used due to technical difficulties (namely a lack of ramp).

The rest of the evening was spent cavorting around the streets in the dead of night around gas stations and trailer parks and Jamba Juice.

Announcement!

Watch the Gunn Quiz Kids team this Saturday at 2 pm on Channel 4 (KRON) as they defeat Hillsdale.

Yes, that's us.

Go watch.

The Subprime Primer

My economics teacher showed this cartoon to our class today, and I thought it was hilarious. With house prices crashing around our ears and the financial market needing a bailout, Americans have a right to know the cause.

Caution: Explicit language. Please don't be offended.

The Subprime Primer

If you are so inclined, there is a version on Youtube with spiffily annoying voices.

Some art, I guess

Why is it that the precise times I shouldn't be doodling, I can't stop?


Well, whatever. I can't really complain; it's better than the past few months that have been bereft of art.

This is a re-working of a painting that I did two weeks ago. I took it to my art teacher, and now I'm not happy with it at all.

Decided to do a digital version of what it was supposed to look like :D

Well, besides the angry parrot.

*insert sounds of raving and pain here*

No matter how good an idea it sounds like, raving in the shower is detrimental to your health.

Quail has suffered some superficial wounds from doing said activity, as well as a nasty crack on the chin.




....She doesn't regret a thing, though, and maintains that it was still extraordinarily fun.



Which brings up the next topic.

WHY CAN'T HALLOWEEN COME FASTER SO WE CAN RAVE HARDER?

Falling blocks!

Hawk is watching her tetris rating drop slowly but surely.

I suppose this means that I got my rating by beating up newbs..which is nothing to be proud of.

Additionally, she finally received her keyboard and is now typing without an annoying auxiliary keyboard half-covering the touchpad.

..Maybe the next upgrade should be a mouse.

A Breath of Fresh Air

Sitting on top of a rickety, lichen-infested wooden structure. Underneath, traffic whooshes by, middle-schoolers wearing Heelys stomp past, and a Russian accent commands a child to stop climbing poles and go home so his sibling can "go poo-poo."

This is the top of the world. Rising above our troubles with parents and school and college apps, we are seated on the pinnacle of our high school lives.

But we had to stand on a recycle bin to get up there. Oh, the ignominy.

After these two weeks of hard work and disappointing results, we birds on our lofty perch ranted and laughed and chirped and squawked to our heart's content. Who needs Starbucks or movie theater tickets when public parks provide the best release from daily concerns?

Swinging on squeaky swings slung 2 feet above the ground. Feeling the wind in my hair. Experiencing the thrill and immediate fear of flying straight into darkness as I close my eyes and whoosh higher and higher...

Then calculate velocity at the lowest point if "a 40.0 kg child swings in a swing supported by two chains, each 3.00 m long and the tension in each chain at the lowest point is 350 N" (Physics for Scientists and Engineers, 173).

Release is great, but it's time to get back to work.

Lolling around

Not to be mistaken with LOL-ing around.



Sleep.



I craves it. Quail has gotten 12 hours of sleep in 3 days. Not enough, says she. AN OWL I AM NOT.

Fanfiction is the bane of my existence. I love it, I hate it, love to hate it, hate to love it.

But I can't stop reading. I suppose there's something wrong when I get most of my emotional fulfillment from reading other peoples' writings about other peoples' fictional characters. Maybe I'm just an escapist. Whatever the reason, it's still ridiculously fun in a guilty way.


Paycheck = happy!

You've been Sack'd

I want a cat sack.

*crinklecrinkle*

In the Airways

Feeling mellow and panicked.


Mellow because it's Saturday and everything is so bright and sunny and I love the swings in the morning.


Panicked because it's almost October and the days aren't getting any slower and college apps are freaking me out.

Here's to hoping it's a productive day, hmm?


Oh, and my carrot plants are all keeling over. They're healthy enough and they get water and sunshine, but for some reason, the stems are way too thin and can't support the weight of the leaves. They're still pretty small spruts, though, so I hope they'll strengthen.

Perhaps it's caused by excess gibberelins? Or maybe auxin. At any rate, it's causing spindly growth.


By the way, the link to the gender ID test is located here

Light at the end of the tunnel

So if I must reiterate once again.

I am having a HORRIBLE week. Hence all the sappy Hakuna Matata-ing in an attempt to distract myself. However, that failed. Today was easily the WORST day of the WHOLE week. And Thursdays are usually my favorite days...

So, when pixels fail to cheer me up, what other recourse do I have?

My friends.

Hawk, Quail, and the brananaman headed to Walgreen's. They threw a mini-party with a pint of sherbert and a pack of 99-cent plastic spoons. Sitting on the sidewalk feeling rather delinquentish (for taking up the handicapped parking lot space with her feet), Hawk began to feel a bit better. Maybe it was all the sugar.

In the midst of a long stream of cathartic ranting, a kind-looking old man stepped out of his car and began conversing said to the brananaman, "You have two beautiful young ladies sitting next to you. You must be enjoying yourself."

How perceptive. The brananaman was, after all, blessed with the company of two internet celebrities. Though at that exact moment, I suspect he must have been feeling more awkward than enjoying himself. Who expects a random stranger to come up and immediately delve into your deepest emotions?

But that was not all.

The kind old man then proceeded to advise the brananaman to make a lot of money. Now in America, this is not such a rare piece of advice. Yet the old man was convinced that the brananaman needed money so he could propose to Hawk or Quail, or at least be worthy of their company.

At this point, Hawk and Quail were cracking up, but the kindly old man seemed not to notice. He continued on to talk about how America is the worst country in the world to live in. When he finally went inside the store, the three of us were practically rolling on the sidewalk and occupying TWO parking spaces.

I feel better now.
But not so much better that I want to do my homework.

Aye, therein lies the rub

Hakuna matata....


What a wonderful phrase!


Hakuna matata...


Ain't no passin' craaaaaaaze!

It means no worries, for the rest of your daaaaaaaaaays,

It's a problem freeeeeeee

Philosophyyyyyyyyy

Hakuna matata!


Love it. Sums up the way to live life. What's better than enjoying yourself some while you're still here?

Except this leads into the discussion about whether it's better to "be happy" or to have a goal in life to work for, even if it means suffering. A little suffering builds character and appreciation, like the way a burningly hot summer makes autumn all the more welcome (on that note, happy belated equinox. Let's have some pagan festivals, yes?)

I'd say it's better to have a goal, but remember to pull yourself back enough that you don't miss out on cloud watching or rolling down hills on the way. Once again, the journey versus the destination.


Peace out!

吃起来象鸡肉

There is only one way to get out of a bad funk.

Watch a horribly translated Chinese Disney song.

Hakoona Ma ta ta?

Life sucks.

...But, regrettably, it goes on.

On a whole new sin(theta)/cos(theta).
My weekend was...interesting, to say the least. There wasn't much that I felt like doing, and a lot of things I should have done.

I don't even have any newfound revelations to share with you guys.

Is this senioritis?

Did you see that cat?

What cat?




...Oh. This cat.

My brother likes doing this.

I'm....androgynous?

Took the same thing as Hawk mentioned below.

Got a 0 (aka both/neither)



....excellent.

I'm..manly

I took the Sex ID test.

Btw, I am female.

And a word of complaint. For the face-judging part, all the men were ugly. Extremely ugly. Muy feo indeed.

No offense intended, of course.

FACEPALM

(not mine)

I've got a lovely bunch.....

Of coconuts.

I keep missing you....

But my aim's getting better!

Stalling

^ It's the cool thing to do.

Ahah!

Okay, I kind of remember what I was going to talk about now.

Or maybe I came up with an entirely new topic.


At any rate....

I have discovered that I love planning. Especially trips. To exciting places!

Traveling is a joy, and I'd love to be able to travel alone sometimes. Not having to go anywhere, being able to make my own way, and exploring the out-of-the-way places are the best parts, to me. You can really get the essence of a place that way. Sight-seeing is all well and good, but sometimes you just need to chill and enjoy the culture (as cliché and faux-smart-tourist that sounds)

I am of the opinion that a trip somewhere includes 3 (equally important and equally enjoyable) parts:

• Planning
• Journey
• Destination

Planning: This works better for large trips. I love taking care of details and looking up information like plane tickets, hotel reservations, tickets in general, destinations, food to eat, all that wonderful stuff. There's something soothing about getting things done, to know you have at least a little insurance.
Prepping for something can be fun in and of itself!

Journey: More suited to small trips on foot (or longer trips by car). Doesn't work as well for long plane trips....
At any rate, getting there is half the fun! Some people focus too much on the destination and miss everything on the way there. There's scenery, interesting views, cool signs, and all sorts of fascinating things you could miss.
Heck, sometimes the journey is more interesting than the destination, so you might not even end up where you were going (but at least you had fun getting there).

Destination: This is kind of a hit-or-miss. Sometimes it's anti-climactic (especially if planning and journey were really awesome), but sometimes the place is just so enchanting or it's more than you thought it would be.
Go into it with a low expectation! That way you'll find things that surprise you and delight you, and you'll enjoy yourself more.

That being said,


I really want to go back to Japan. Planning the Senior trip makes me so excited (even if it's just vague suggestions and ideas at the moment)

Also, I may be attending Sakuracon in Seattle (April 10-12) if my parents let me, in addition to Fanimecon.

Ooh, I hope I can crank out a cosplay by then!

Hawk: 2 Toilet:0

Forget college.
I think I'll be a plumber instead.

(And Quail, I hope your inspiration comes back to you.)

I......nevermind.

I....was going to post something here.


I really was



But then I didn't. Do you wonder what I was going to post about?


Well, I wonder about it too.


I really don't know what I was going to say here. How frightening.

Don't trust Ebay

So, like I blogged about...6 months ago, my laptop "a" key is broken.

Still.

So I've been carting around this spiffy ultralight USB keyboard which I need to plug in pretty much whenever I use my computer, even if I'm not going to type, JUST BECAUSE my password has an "a" in it.

"...Change your password?"
No. It's a matter of principle. Because my name has an "a" in it, there must be an "a" in my password. It makes just as much sense as my mom's revelation that my children's names must start with "b"s because they are second generation American Chins (goodness, what a strange phrase). Apparently she planned this out, which is why my brother and I have names that start with "a."

"Dude" "it's" "annoying" "how" "many" "quoted" "letters" "I've" "typed."

So my original point was, I learned that apparently you can replace the keyboard on a laptop with little risk to the motherboard and I ordered a replacement keyboard off of Ebay, after kicking myself for not finding out earlier and saving myself endless accumulated minutes of poking the "a" key because I needed to access my computer and forgot my keyboard somwhere else.

Where was I? I ordered the keyboard three weeks ago. And it's still not here.
Don't trust Ebay.

Ooh la la!

Today is better than yesterday (so far, at least)

Now I just have to make the rest of the day better myself.


And hmm, planning senior trips sounds absolutely exhilarating. Ahhh, the possibilities! The world awaits (and even if it doesn't, we'll see it anyway)


Hmm, a jig sounds nice right now. And then maybe a run in the moonlight on Thursday! How exciting! Perhaps I will bring my camera to record some shenanigans.

And lastly, snippits of songs stuck in my head.

Hakuna Matata.....
What a wonderful phrase!
Hakuna Matata,
Ain't no passin' craze!
It means no worries,
For the rest of your days!
-------------
Raisins come from grapes,
People come from apes
I come from Canada

[skip most of song]

I can't speak Chinese,
Not even words like please,
Thank you, and 'How are you?'

But I can parle Francais,
I parled a bit today
It seemed like the thing to do...
------------------
Five-hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes...
------------------
Hello Seattle, I am a mountaineer
in your hills and highlands
I fall asleep in hospital parking lots
and awake in your house

Hello Seattle, I am a manta-ray
Deep beneath the blue waves
I'll crawl the sandy bottom of Puget Sound
And construct a summer home

I like Owl City. Their songs are so mellow. Kind of like Postal Service, I suppose.

And they have a song about Seattle. How's that for awesome?

Hmm

Today was mostly a god-awful bad day. Partly because I was overthinking things in general, but partly because of some other people (person) whom I will not name here. (Not because they read this blog, but because I should probably clear the air, and going on a giant rant here is just kind of unprofessional.)


I don't even have solitaire luck today, that's seriously bad.

On the upside, thinking about working on t-shirts gives me a good vibe. Maybe I'll do that, hmm?

Mix it all together!

So Hawk went to a Bellarmine mixer.

Now she wonders what she was smoking when she did.

The chaperones with their flashlights were remarkably unsuccessful at cutting down the amount of freakers. The songs all had the same beat and no lyrics, so it was an endless surge of the same triple-beat rhythm. Additionally, it was incredibly hot in there with the sweaty bodies packed close together.

Before I get started ranting too much, I did have fun. But I like whining.

There was a perk--they offered free water!

Hawk marvels at how the girls who went coordinated outfits. Almost everyone was wearing short shorts and a tshirt. And some even took the extra effort to go glow-in-the-dark.

There were like..2 cute guys.

Sigh.

No no no no no.

It's Q-pon, not COO-pon.


A) We aren't pigeons.

B) Coopon reminds me of Grey poupon mustard. I loathe mustard. Qpons are good things. Mustard is not. Therefore I refuse to call it a coopon.

End of story.

I do, however, admit that segue is pronounced "Segway" and not "se-gew" as I previously had thought. In my defense, I don't remember hearing it pronounced before.

An image-heavy post.

In addition to the UK, we have someone visiting from Omaha, Nebraska!

Tracking page-views is inordinately amusing.

So, since life is generally looking up (except for some missing stuff D: ), I'm going to talk about....


Hmm...


Carrots.

Carrots are delicious. Yum yum. Carrots. Excellent.

I'm growing carrots in my room.

I eat carrots every day for lunch.




And now I shall post some pictures and videos of Ikea that didn't get posted in the last installment.