Home Sweet Home

I have an ear infection. I can't hear anything out of my right ear except for the noises that originate from inside my head, such as breathing, chewing, occasionally the pulsing of blood. Whenever I talk, it sounds like I'm shouting in a shower. I can also feel a very disturbing amount of fluid sloshing around inside my ear. I'm halfway convinced it's gonna start oozing puss any second now. Though deafness and oozing are still preferable to the really acute pain that actually made me cry earlier today.

This comes after last week when I got a sore throat, lost the book I was halfway through, and got my computer pwned by a super evil virus that disabled my anti-virus, blocked all anti-virus websites, and turned all the major search engines into pop-up machines. This probably isn't Arkansas' fault but it does kind of feel that way.

Contrary to how it may seem, I'm actually in pretty good spirits so people should call me and we should do stuff.


Merry Christmas from my weirdo family to yours!

寒假快乐！

It's really bizarre and reprehensible that I haven't taken and posted more photos of the cats so look at this random one.

I bought the kitties a bunch of cat toys to ease the guilt of being away for two weeks while I'm in Arkansas. Their instant favorite is a little straw cone with a bunch of feathers coming out the top. Lozhka's been carrying it around in her mouth like a dead bird all day and with the feathers all over the floor, it kinda looks like I shot a pigeon or something in here. I also decided that instead of throwing away all those boxes that have been piling up, I would just turn the apartment into a kitty box playground. There are some of them you have to jump into, some you can crawl in, some to stand on, some to play in, some to sleep in. Cats love boxes. A lot. I'm hoping that if I distract them with enough junk, they won't even notice I'm gone. I'm gonna miss my kitties so much when I'm back home. However, I will not miss the cold, the snow, or my car sliding around on the road even though I was only going 15 miles per hour. On a somewhat related note, I saw the Trifecta of Emergency Vehicles on my trip to go get cat food: ambulance, fire truck, and police car all with their lights on. Plus, bonus tow truck.

I got the best freaking Christmas present from Mirri and Travis today. I drink a lot of white grape juice. Like a bottle every 1.5 days. Well Mirri and Travis bring this big box over, I open it, and there are 11 bottles of Welch's white grape juice inside. I was so happy. That's gonna last me like 3 weeks! That gift was thoughtful, practical, unexpected, and hilarious. Mirri and Travis got an owl pitcher and a koala mug, respectively.

In academia-related news, school's over! Finally.

This semester in review:

• English professors love the way I write, what a shame that I am squandering my apparently ample writing talent in physics.
• Astrophysics is hard. I still don't know how to integrate over the Stefan-Boltzmann equation. It has something to do with the error function but I don't like the error function what with it being all...erroneous?
• While I love, love, love Chinese class, it was sadly less awkward and hilarious than last year. It was almost completely without incident except for this one gem: During our lesson about shopping, Li Laoshi shows us a picture of a store with a bunch of sale banners in the windows. Also in the window, a sign reading "SLUTSPURT." We all laughed and laughed and laughed and poor Li Laoshi who, I'm pretty certain, had no idea what happened but could tell from our reaction that it was highly inappropriate, changed the slide and never spoke of it again. However, someone did bring it up with Zhao Laoshi the night we all went to Szechwan Village but none of us were brave enough to tell her what actually happened. I think we were just frightened at the prospect of having to explain the potential meanings of "slutspurt." I wonder if that would be more or less horrific than explaining to Xiong Laoshi why you can't say "China looks like a cock."

I should probably get around to packing and cleaning and those other sorts of unfun activities that precede going on vacation. If you're in Arkansas, see you tomorrow. If you are in Iowa, see you in the new year.

I has a(nother) kitty!

Her name is Chashka.







There is a good chance that when she gets bigger, she's going to be gloriously fluffy. Right now she's just very, very soft. She looks vaguely sad and/or worried all the time but I'm fairly certain she is neither. She's very sweet and cuddly and likes to be all over your face, especially if you're Justin. Also, if you're Justin, she likes to lick and bite your face stubble which is kind of weird. Once Lozhka gets over this whole "Who are you and why are you in my house?" thing, they'll be great friends since they have many common interests, such as a love of balls made of straw, ribbons, naps, showers, purring, and generally being crazy. I am predicting assimilation within a couple of days.

LULZ + NOOZ = BLAHG

see Sarah Palin pictures

In other news, I'll be volunteering this weekend, Monday, and Tuesday for the Obama campaign. I'm a little nervous but I expect it to be a fun and worthwhile experience.

HOLY CRAAAAPPP!

moar funny pictures

From Yes We Can (Hold Babies)

LOLOBAMA

I think I've finally figured out how to show my support.


From lolobama.

Taking the plunge

I signed up to call some people on behalf of Barack Obama. Unfortunately, I really, really hate talking to people I don't know so I'm having some reservations. Someone say they'll do it with me so I don't feel so weird. Please?

Chicken Post

Last weekend, me and Justin went to the Quad Cities for Zach's fourth birthday (photos pending). While we were there, I wandered about his mom's and took photos of the chickens. Justin's mom also gave me a little crash course in chicken breeds which I will likely spend the remainder of this post butchering. I also got pecked a lot by chickens (not that they're not nice chickens because they totally are, they just like to peck at stuff).


An Ameraucana. I believe it's name is Lauren after Justin's cousin because "it's very pretty but always looks angry."


Ameraucana. Maybe even the same one.


Blue Orpingtons.


Also, Blue Orpington. Note: I think this one pooped on me once when it was a chick.


Out of the four Blue Orpington chicks Justin's mom got, this is the only hen.


Speckled Sussex. The Speckled Sussex were really especially friendly.


Barnevelder.


Australorp.


Barred Rock. Another one of the really friendly breeds.


Salmon Faverolle. These were, aesthetically-speaking, my favorites of the bunch yet I failed to really capture their awesomeness in any of my photos. They're super poofy. Also they have feathery legs. I like to think that if they could talk, they'd sound like blustery, old, portly Englishmen (hens included).


They're kind of stately (in a mildly amusing way).


Rhode Island Red. These were the friendliest chickens of the bunch. We named the friendlier of the two Robert Goulet (RIP). Due to later confusion over which of them was in fact the friendliest, they are now both named Robert Goulet.


Justin communing with Robert Goulet.

Not pictured: Paul Newman (aka Cracker), the white Ameraucana. Also, other stuff.

The Observable Universe From Top to Bottom

Holy frak, they're selling it as a poster!

XKCD is so much more than your usual webcomics. It can be funny, educational, exceptionally romantic, and absolutely awe-inspiring.

More photos of Sihaya

Sihaya




I like this photo because she looks more like a lizard statue than a lizard. I have no idea why she was posing with her tail like that.

Quotes

"We have all the qualities necessary for being old; we just have to wait."

"The thing about nine ball is that you use balls one through nine."

- Timothy "T-Bone" Flannigan

Praying Mantis

Where is your god now? Bwa ha ha ha!









I'd hate to be on the wrong side of those.

I found this guy in the stairwell of my apartment complex. He's the biggest praying mantis I've ever seen face to face. He had to be at least 4 inches long, maybe 5. I was really taken aback by the amount of structure his body had. The little ones I used to catch outside my bedroom window when I was a kid always had green, fairly soft looking bodies but this guy looked like he had a shell like a crab. Anyway, in exchange for letting me shove a lens in his face, I took him back outside.

FIZZIKS STOODUNT CAT WUNTZ NEW MAJER PLZ

Lozhka helped me with my astrophysics homework. What a good kitty. This photo courtesy of Late Night Homework Scramble #1.

I have completely and utterly forgotten how to be a student. Hopefully I'll remember again before this gets to be a habit.

Lizards, kitties, the usual

My collared lizard got here today. She is adorable and incredibly tiny. Her name is Sihaya which means "desert spring" in Arrakeen, the language they speak on Arrakis in the book Dune. I should win some sort of nerd award.








This was a blurry accident but it's pretty cool.

Leigh got one of Sihaya's brothers. I believe she is naming him Zeke.


At this age, they still look pretty similar.



Cats sleep a lot.








Hahaha.


(Also featured: Our brand new bed.)


Justins also sleep a lot.


Vilka doing her best impression of Simon.



At some point, I'll post photos of the apartment (like I keep telling my mom I'm gonna). For now, you just get lizards and cats.

Also, school started. So far, I'm at "manageable" on the stress-o-meter but I have homework due on Monday so that could change.

Lozhka Totally Has Bat Ears

Post-Caturday Post

It's sleepy time for kitties.

Lozhka is pretty much the perfect kitty. She's energetic and playful but in a "I'm gonna chase this twisty tie around the floor" way, not a "I'm gonna tear up your stuff" way. When she gets tired, she gets very sweet and will sit in your lap and purr herself to sleep. The only problems (and when I say problems I mean annoyances) are that she tries to steal food off my plate and loves to walk all over my laptop keyboard. Usually when cats walk on your keyboard, they just type "ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff" into your address bar or something like that, but not Lozhka. She is a master computer messer-upper.

An incomplete list of things Lozhka has done while walking on my keyboard/track pad:

1. Change my input language to Chinese


2. Change my Thunderbird settings


3. Change the layout of PhotoShop


4. Bookmark websites


5. Turn the screen display upside down (not the actual physical screen, but the stuff displayed on it)

I think she might be magic.


Andrea lol'ed my cat.

Pictures of Cats Doing Cat Things

Lozhka




Vilka's turn.




This picture is so awesome I don't even care that it's out of focus.


Poor Lozhka would really like to play with Vilka but Vilka's not quite there yet.


Vilka has decided that her new favorite hang out will be way in the back of my wardrobe.


Lozhka covets your quarters. You've been warned.