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.

Disclaimer to "42"

So Google Analyt reveals that we have had visitors from China, the UK, and the US!
I know who the awesome Chinese kid is, but who stalks us from the UK? Any idea, Quail?

I'm actually in Compsci right now, and I don't feel like working. You can blame it on post-Spanish class depression. Nothing is worse than being forced to make up and perform a skit in front of your bored, unamused peers.

Faithful readers may note that at this point I appear a bit of a hypocrite. So many times I have touted the benefits of "fight for what you believe in!" and "don't follow the grain!" And here I am, taking a class that I clearly do not enjoy. (Moreover, I have the audacity to whine about it. On the Internet, where no one cares.)

That's great and idealistic, but we're talking about getting into college.

Try to live by what you want to to the best of your ability, but please refrain from ruining your life simply for something as silly as personal philosophy. I supposed I haven't hammered that point in well enough.

Goodness, not only does Spanish make me grumpy(er) and whiny (er), it makes me extremely prone to sarcasm.

IT FINALLY HAPPENED

"Ikea: just some oak and some pine and a handful of Norsemen
Ikea: selling furniture for college kids and divorced men
Everyone has a home
But if you don't have a home you can buy one there

So rent a car or take the bus
Lay your cash down and put your trust
In the land where the furniture folds to a much smaller size
Billy the bookcase says hello
And so does a table whose name is Ingo
And the chair is a ladder-back birch but his friends call him Karl"

Jonathan Coulton, lyrics to Ikea

I'm so proud. So proud!
This blog has reached a milestone! Let's declare today a national holiday!


...what's that you say? It already is one?

WELL THEN. There we go. The government foresaw this wondrous day and decided to declare this day a holiday in honor of the momentous event that has occurred today.

WE FINALLY WENT TO IKEA

Hawk and Quail and a random passerby (we shall call him the "brananaman"), whom we kidnapped, set off on our journey and came out as changed people.

Happy belated birthday to Hawk! We hope you enjoyed your present :D

And now for some scenes and pictures!

Labor

I did it. They said it couldn't be done, but I proved them wrong.
All it takes is some plain, unadulterated perseverance.

Makes me feel pretty good. Disgusted, but proud.

I unclogged a toilet.

Ewwwww grosss!!!!, right? Well I'll tell you what. It's a pretty damn hard job. Especially since this sucker has been grumping and gurgling for a week of ineffectual treatments. And here I am, your faithful blogger, ready to share my secrets.

I know that you little chickadees out there want entertainment, not walkthroughs. But I can speak from experience and state that there are very few entertaining webpages on this topic. Maybe the desperate homeowner doesn't want to read a lot of clever banter surrounding this topic, but I feel at the same time I must satisfy our faithful readers. And who knows? Perhaps this post will bring a few amateur plumbers into our audience.

There are many methods and materials involved. Rather than bore you with a long spiel on the correct scientific method of unblocking your own porcelain throne, I'll present it to you in classic Ornery Eyrie style.

Disclaimer: The following steps were my course of action. If your toilet or you is strange, they may not work that well for you. Or you may have to take bits and pieces of the advice.

First, assemble your weapons.







Okay! We're finally ready to begin!

First, let out all that frustration. Scream. Shout. Strangle a plant or two. But afterwards, calm down in the knowledge that your problem will soon be solved.

Next, a bit of foresight never hurt anyone. Move everything on the ground out of the bathroom. You may want to clean up your sink area (toothbrushes would be an especially smart thing to remove), since if you end up bailing water, that's where it's going to go.

Check the water level in your toilet. Is it unusually high or unusually low? If it's too high, you may want to grab your basin and bail out some of that water before starting.

Feed the plumbing snake in. I had a lot of trouble figuring out how to use mine, but eventually I settled for holding the pole horizontally, resting it against my hip, and crankin' dat. Your toilet may get scratched, but you can pretend to admire its battle scars in order to make it feel better. Or if you are the maternal kind, you can kiss its wounds later.

The idea behind this step can be seen in this handy diagram:


If after a good snaking (go as long as possible not only for the potential unclogging, but also for the bicep workout), the water level seems to have gone down a bit, you may try flushing. Praying is a good idea, because floods are hard to clean up. Not to mention disgusting. But a better use for your hands might be that plastic basin, since bailing is easier than cleaning.

If you are too slow at bailing, and it floods...Now what?
Clean it up, dope. That's what the rags are for.

Afterwards, the water level should go down quite a bit. At this point, I loaded my plastic basin with hot water, held it about 2-3 feet above the toilet, and replicated Niagara Falls. After a few times, I noticed some gurgling. At this point, I flushed--be ready to bail out water if you don't want to clean up another flood.

Shockingly, it was clear.

After a few more flushes, I determined that the toilet was fine. However, the bathroom looked like a war zone. First wipe everything down until it's dry, then go over it all with the Clorox wipes. If you got the nice citrusy ones, your bathroom will smell nice.

Finally, it's time to use that rubber duckie.
Take a bath. Please. Especially before you go frolic in IKEA.

So how does the title fit? Sure, unplugging a toilet is a pretty grungy job. And whoo, it's Labor Day! But that's not all. I do hope that by now, you all expect more clever statements out of the inhabitants of the Ornery Eyrie.

Remember the 12 labors of Hercules? Specifically, the one where he had to clean the stables?
I feel pretty Herculean now.