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.
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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.
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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.

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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:


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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





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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!