Bloggy McBloggerton

Part Two

2011-04-06T18:33:00.000-05:00

It actually doesn't sound that bad.

One Iowa

2011-04-04T19:23:00.002-05:00

Heya. So as many of you know, I've been volunteering/working with a gay rights group called One Iowa since last summer fighting to keep marriage equality here in Iowa. I was apparently a really good volunteer/intern as they awarded me the John Karn award for volunteer service at the 2nd Anniversary Gala on Saturday. Here are pictures. They're mostly for my mom.

Caitlin, me, and Jason arrive at the gala with our super hip name tags from the reception earlier. I brought friends so I wouldn't have to talk to anyone. I'm not a good mingler.

Sarah saying nice things about me.

Me getting my award.

Me panicking and trying to figure out what I'm supposed to do. (Also, for the record, it's a shame this photo only goes to the knees as I am wearing some spectacular spats that you cannot see.)

Someone eventually pointed me towards the podium and I am told I said some nice, vaguely inspirational things. Go me. There might be a video of this. I will post it if/when it becomes available. Providing I don't look/sound too stupid in it.

Me and some of the other award recipients: Dean Genth, Courageous Six Award recipient; State Rep. Beth Wessel-Kroeschell, Sharon K. Malheiro Award recipient; State Rep. Kevin McCarthy, Sharon K. Malheiro Award recipient.

Mostly the same but with the addition of Carolyn Jenison, Oustanding Service Award recipient and former executive director of One Iowa.

There are more photos (of not me) here if anyone is interested. Also, while you're at it, congratulate Iowa on two years of marriage equality with the gift of cold, hard cash. Donate at OneIowa.org.

*All photos taken by the esteemed Matty Smith

Snowing

2011-02-02T15:52:00.002-06:00

I fucking love snow, you guys. This is literally the most snow I have ever seen in my entire life and, officially, THE AWESOMEST THING EVER!!!

Here are some pictures.

Jason trudges to work while I laugh hysterically and frolic in the snow.

Well good thing I won't be needing that anytime soon.

There are strange snow structures hanging off the edges of the roof.

Now I'm off to sip cappuccino and eat tim tams while snuggled comfortably in blankets!

A Return to Blog

2011-01-16T22:18:00.002-06:00

Hello, blog. Long time, no see. I'd catch you up but that seems weird. Instead, I will share with you my latest obsession: plants.

Jason (new boyfriend for those of you in blogland) got this book on growing plants in terrariums and it's all I've wanted to do since. We did a run to all the local thrift stores and picked up all sorts of glass things to plant stuff in. We're yet to use most of it though. There's a lot of planning to do. Figuring out what plants you want, finding those plants, finding those plants in terrarium-friendly sizes. It all turned out to be a bit harder than we thought it would be. So we're working on that. But we have gathered a few things. I've been orchid crazy for the past while and picked up some really cheap ones from Lowe's and a slipper orchid with a crazy bloom from the orchid lady at Sycamore Mall. Also, bought a bag full of moss spores which will be our first attempt at actual terrarium-ing. Between those, the handful of houseplants I've picked up over the years, and the few that Jason has, it's starting to get very green in here. Anyway, until we get the moss underway, here are some orchids.

White Phal

Purple Phal

Slipper Orchid

Slipper Orchid Close-Up

Just so you know

2010-07-08T09:22:00.001-05:00

Home

2009-07-12T01:12:00.000-05:00

I'm home for the week. Anyone want to do anything?

D00dz, I made a video!

2009-06-08T22:58:00.001-05:00

It's sort of extra quiet so you might need to crank up your speakers. Sorry.

Photos I meant to post like a week ago

2009-05-27T01:56:00.001-05:00

You guys like random photos, right? I seem to remember you liking random photos.

A little while ago there was a No Shame Theatre thing. Mirri was there!

In order from least blurry to most blurry, Travis, Jake, and Katy. Me and Jake like to get together and talk mostly about how awesome my cats are. That's pretty weird, right?

Luke and Eric.

Luke also did a thing where he was a clown.

Alas! His cupcake has landed frosting side down.

Mirri also played a song.

Interesting sidenote: I fixed that dress for Mirri so that her boobs do not fall out of it.

If you, for some unknown reason, want to look at more pictures of absolute strangers, the rest from this set are here.

The rest of these are from a morning or two ago.

Chashka

Lozhka

Random Friday photos

2009-04-27T15:37:00.001-05:00

From Me and Luke's wander around the river in an unsuccessful hunt for ducks to feed:

My hair for Luke's movie premiere:

The last time I was this dressed up, someone got married. If I'd have been smarter, I'd have gotten a picture of the whole outfit but my brain has been nothing but faily as of late. Oops. Anyhow, I've forgotten how fun it is to be unnecessarily dressed up sometimes. Mirri's right about that.

Stop! Kitty Time!

2009-04-21T14:49:00.001-05:00

I really don't know how she stands being so fucking cute.

Morning bath.

I need to work on getting more photos of Lozhka. She's just difficult sometimes. Camera shy, I suppose.

Random Eastertime-ish photos

2009-04-14T01:32:00.002-05:00

Me and Travis dyed some belated Easter eggs. The one on the left says "Luke." Me and him were going to dye eggs this weekend but it never quite worked out. (Note the lurking Chashka.)

Kitties in a box! Adorable, right?

I made a scarf from some great material Luke pilfered from the Theater Building. If he can find me more, I am gonna make the best winter skirt ever.

Tassel detail.

It's kind of short but in a good way I think. Also, hey, Mom, look! A picture of me.

Hello, blog

2009-03-25T20:31:00.001-05:00

It has occurred to me that I haven't posted in kind of forever so here are some pictures pretty much all of Mirri.

At the Red Poppy.

Mirri has hands.

They do stuff.

They also have jewelry.

We had a photoshoot in bathrooms around campus.

It was kind of awkward to do because people kept coming in and we're all "Don't mind us with a camera in the women's restroom."

At Kent Park. I love this photo. Mirri looks extra gorgeous.

Wait for it....

Leigh.

Shiny

2009-01-28T09:15:00.001-06:00

For the first time since the semester started, I woke up bright and shiny before my alarm went off ready to start the day (as opposed to most days where I drag myself out of bed looking like the girl from The Ring). While I took way too long in the shower and screwed my chance to have a real breakfast, I can at least eat my little tub o' yogurt in the privacy of my own home instead of in the back of E&M. I remain hopeful.

However, I will probably not be using "frigorific" or "ambisextrous."

2009-01-06T13:45:00.001-06:00

Dear T-Rex,

God bless you for the word "mathemagician." As a physics major who is only mediocre at math, I am sure this word will be of endless use to me. ("I had to drop Quantum Mechanics because I couldn't understand all the mathemagics that was going on in that class," and "Professor Rodgers is a mathemagician.")

Love,
Kristin

Home Sweet Home

2008-12-28T18:43:00.001-06:00

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！

2008-12-20T01:36:00.001-06:00

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!

2008-11-09T23:56:00.001-06:00

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

2008-10-30T12:49:00.001-05:00

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!

2008-10-28T12:00:00.001-05:00

moar funny pictures

From Yes We Can (Hold Babies)

LOLOBAMA

2008-10-27T17:58:00.001-05:00

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

From lolobama.

Taking the plunge

2008-10-26T21:06:00.001-05:00

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

2008-10-14T00:18:00.000-05:00

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

2008-09-30T23:32:00.000-05:00

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

2008-09-11T20:27:00.001-05:00

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

2008-09-06T02:02:00.001-05:00

"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

2008-09-06T00:58:00.002-05:00

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

2008-09-04T03:07:00.001-05:00

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

2008-08-28T01:38:00.001-05:00

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

2008-08-19T01:26:00.001-05:00

Post-Caturday Post

2008-08-11T01:03:00.001-05:00

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:

Change my input language to Chinese

Change my Thunderbird settings

Change the layout of PhotoShop

Bookmark websites

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

2008-08-07T11:25:00.001-05:00

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.

Cats and Unicycles (Unfortunately Not Cats on Unicycles)

2008-08-06T02:30:00.002-05:00

Lozhka is settling in well. As of tonight, her and Vilka seem to have completely stopped having their little hissing/clawing spats and are even playing together a little bit.

Only a cat would decide that in between the bass speaker and the power strip is a good place to sleep.

Vilka is helping us decorate the bathroom. She's a good helper.

Vilka's been quite playful lately, must be the combination of being around the new kitty and being around us all the time. Vilka is always happiest when Justin is around. (She thinks I'm okay, too.)

This is Vilka's very favorite toy, the "dirty pillow." It's full of catnip and has soaked up a really disgusting amount of kitty saliva.

Justin, unicycling into your hearts.

Sometimes unicycling makes Justin angry.

Justin has enlisted Cole to help him fall down less and do cool things more.

Cole says, "Screw pedals!"

Screw pedals, indeed.

Dudezors!

2008-08-03T13:04:00.002-05:00

Me and Justin got a new kitty. Her name is Lozhka (spoon in Russian) to match Vilka (fork). Lozhka is adorable and really playful and energetic. She also purrs like a motorboat when you pick her up. Vilka looks like she might just learn to tolerate Lozhka. For the time being, Vilka seems content to just watch the weird new kitty spaz out about twisty ties for two hours so long as Lozhka stays an appropriate distance away which is really the best we could hope for so soon.

Also, Justin and I moved into our new apartment on Friday (this part should probably have come first but Justin's mom was demanding pictures of her "grandcat"). It should be said that our new apartment is swanky even still half filled with boxes.

Dr. Horrible

2008-07-17T23:21:00.001-05:00

Go there and watch. Now!

So Many Peteys

2008-07-16T13:13:00.002-05:00

I am known to have bizarrely detailed yet bizarrely unrealistic dreams. This one is absolutely begging to be blogged about.

I go to clean Petey's cage, but Petey looks smaller than usual. Then I notice he has a different pattern on his back than before. I'm super confused. Then upon closer inspection, I realize that's not Petey at all, it's a younger crested gecko and oh my god, his cage is full of little crested geckos from the size of pinhead crickets to almost as big as Petey (no part of that makes sense but we're gonna roll with it). Eventually I find Petey too, who jumps into my hand when I call his name (HA!). I surmise that the following has taken place: Petey (now Petrie) has actually been a female the whole time and was gravid when we got her (this much was inspired by true but non-Petey related events). She has been laying eggs under the substrate in her cage this whole time but now they have begun to hatch, judging by the size difference in the little Peteys, five clutches at least (also, either the incubation time on those eggs was really short or I haven't cleaned that cage ever). Anyhow, having solved the mystery, I go to work feverishly cleaning and setting up spare cages so that I can sort out Petrie's brood before the big ones start eating the little ones. I even think to myself, "I'm gonna have to e-mail Valerie and tell her I can't take any of her collared lizards since I will have my hands full." (Aside: In real life there's a lady named Valerie who's going to be shipping me a baby collared lizard sometime very soon.) I've just started setting up the first new cage when I wake up.

In case it wasn't clear, this dream was not a nightmare at all. It was kick ass. It is possibly the best dream I've ever had.

Also, a couple weeks ago, Petey grew up. As in, I Iooked in one day and he was an adult. It was pretty abrupt.

Tiny Cat

2008-07-16T01:39:00.001-05:00

Justin's sister, Nicole, got a new cat a few days ago. He's going to keep Simon company after Vilka moves out (we'll be getting a kitty for Vilka too once we move into our new apartment). As is expected, Simon and Vilka spent the first day hissing and spitting at Tiny Cat (formally named Lionel) but by the second day, Simon was more curious than territorial and by today he's letting Tiny Cat chase him all over the apartment. Vilka, however, has not been as quick to warm up to Tiny Cat and Tiny Cat seems to be returning some of her ill will. Today, Vilka was sitting on the floor giving Tiny Cat the eye but being more tolerant of him that she usually is. He walked over a little closer and sat, staring right back at her. Then, without any provocation, Tiny Cat starts hissing at Vilka. Justin and I were bewildered and slightly amused. Vilka considered this for a few minutes and then casually walked up to Tiny Cat, raised one of her paws, and bitch slapped Tiny Cat in his little kitty face about five times before I could get out a startled, "Vilka!" It was really pretty hysterical. When we told Nicole about this later, she said Tiny Cat "shouldn't write any checks his body can't cash."

Circus/Sideshow Miscellania

2008-07-16T01:22:00.002-05:00

Audrey fire eating

Ian fire breathing

Audrey doing poi

Justin let his sister pull the sword out of his mouth at Cirque Stupendo. By the way, the show raised over $800 for flood relief so I'd say we did pretty good. Justin's even decided to get everyone together and form a permanent performance troupe.

Petey

2008-07-09T00:59:00.002-05:00

Also, I wanted to post this.

Petey is the very cutest Petey ever. I highly recommend the large size. His eyes are amazing.

More Circus Stuff

2008-07-09T00:41:00.003-05:00

Justin can sword swallow. It used to freak me out a lot but he's really good at it so I don't worry too much anymore.

Luther is a really, really good juggler. He has a bunch of neat three-ball tricks and he can do them all with an amazing amount of fluidity.

He can even juggle whilst riding a unicycle. For a little while anyway. (Ignore the crappy photo. It's a hard thing to photograph. Also, he only did it for a few minutes.)

Matt's idea of juggling tricks are doing things like feeding Luther a cookie while he and Justin pass. Matt is all sorts of goofy. He will be doing some sort of ventriloquist act for the circus. He will also be performing in the ABBA cover band, BABBA (formerly Swedish Delight).

One of Mirri's friends, Leigh, has taken quite a liking to poi and stuff like that so she's been showing up at practice trying to learn what she can. Last time, Justin showed her a video of Todd Robbins, the guy who inspired Justin's sideshow freak career, eating a light bulb. This was her reaction.

Justin added another act to his routine. He will now be juggling, sword swallowing, performing a human blockhead routine, and doing this hilariously, gross balloon thingy. (The video starts off with the blockhead act which will be helpful for those of you who had no idea what I was talking about.)

Tonight, some people from the Daily Iowan (the Univ. of Iowa's newspaper) came to take pictures and video of Luther and Justin juggling torches and Audrey eating, breathing, and spinning fire. It was kind of neat. The video should be up on their website on Thursday.

Belated photos from my last trip to the Quad Cities

2008-07-03T22:47:00.004-05:00

Emma, one of Justin's parents' dogs.

This is all Emma ever wants to do, play fetch.

This just cracks me up.

Bailey and Cinnamon look on as Emma fetches.

Cinnamon and Junior, another one of the farm kitties. Not pictured: Brown Kitty, the farm cat whom I've only ever seen once and only because I surprised her.

Junior was really squinty that morning. Perhaps it was all that damn sun.

Mama Llama and Ande

The rest of these are from Leech Park in Davenport where they are possibly undergoing some sort of biblical plague.

Ducky in Flight. Larger.

Larger. That mallard got really angry that the other duck caught the bread, even after it was all eaten.

I've sort of completely stopped writing more than photo descriptions in here. How about that?

FYI

2008-07-02T11:36:00.001-05:00

Last night, Justin slipped on a banana peel.

More practice photos from Cirque Stupendo

2008-06-30T22:50:00.002-05:00

Justin. Larger. I think I'm gonna print this and put it up on my wall.

This is a fella named Kyle who does poi.

Justin juggling torches.

This is a friend of Mirri's named Leigh swinging torches.

Dear lord am I excited for Cirque Stupendo. Also, I feel very lucky that I have friends who do such awesome things.

As always, more and large versions at my flickr.

Usher, "Love in This Club" performed by the Showbiz Pizza Band

2008-06-26T20:34:00.001-05:00

OMG!!!

Cirque Stupendo

2008-06-26T18:42:00.003-05:00

Larger.

I'm so excited for this. Justin's gonna be juggling clubs and torches, breathing fire, hammering nails into his nose, and possibly doing a sword swallowing routine. I'm going to be taking pictures and making balloon animals for any kiddies that happen to show up. Also I designed the poster.

So everyone else is excited, here are some photos from practice last weekend.

Fire Poi

Hula

Juggling

Fire Eating

If you are in Iowa City, there is absolutely no reason that you should not come to this. It's only $5 and all proceeds go to flood relief.

Balloonenstein

2008-06-20T02:26:00.002-05:00

So I'm not entirely sure how this started but I've spent the past two days making balloon animals. Justin wants me to do it for the crazy circus thing him and his juggling buddies are putting on at the Picador so I've been practicing. Me and Justin decided to take a bunch of crazy pictures with my newly created menagerie.

Swans.

This is an early version of a helicopter I designed myself. It's now slightly better.

This lion was hard as hell to make. I'm super proud of it.

Oliphants.

Rabbits.

Wiener. Hehehe.

Snail.

<3

Sssss!

Turtle. Poor turtle is slowly deflating as we speak. Balloon animals lead short but rich lives.

Poodle.

Friday totally popped this in the middle of the night. I found its corpse in the hallway.

Those are all from last night. Things I've learned to make since then include a cat, mouse, monkey, brontosaurus, a better helicopter, and a really kick-ass scorpion. I can also make a squirrel, bird, and two types of frogs but they're all kind of questionable.

I have the weirdest hobbies ever.

Indian Baby Dropping Ritual

2008-06-16T12:40:00.001-05:00

Random Photo Update

2008-06-13T09:34:00.001-05:00

So I've been toying around with my macro some more. Here are the results. Mind you, there's nothing spectacular, but interesting enough to post.

Friday's crazy golden cat eye

Slugs found in the backyard around midnight, lit by flashlight.

That was three different slugs. My sister (flashlight-pointer extraordinaire) and I actually found about five.

Also, we found this thing. I don't know what it is.

Lastly, I dyed my hair a night or two before I left for Arkansas. The results:

So yeah, predictably, the difference is pretty nonexistent except in very strong light. Then it has a reddish tinge to it. Anti-climactic much?

I-80 Detour

2008-06-13T08:39:00.001-05:00

So I've been kept informed about the flooding vicariously through Justin and a few other IC people. The best thing I've heard is the closure of I-80 in various places. Justin was driving (on I-80) to his parents' house when he heard on the radio that the stretch of road he was on was being closed. He was literally one of the last people to cross I-80 before the detour was instated. If you haven't heard, due to all the flooding around I-80, the detour is insanely massive.

This is now how you get from Iowa City to the Quad Cities:

It went from a 1 hr trip to 6 hr 20 min. Oh my god.

This Post Brought To You By: INSOMNIA! Get it now!

2008-06-10T16:06:00.003-05:00

So since I can't sleep I figured I might as well post cute pictures of little kids and babble inanely.

Here's a small preface about my family. When I say m family, I am generally referring to all the people on my mom's side of the family. We have all lived within 30 minutes of each other (umm...except me since I've moved to college and my great-grandmother who only recently moved away from San Francisco a few years ago) for almost as far as my memory goes back. I've made a diagram to explain the rest. Length from the top roughly approximates age as in the lower on the diagram, the later they were born.

Also, since we've got quite a few generations here, I'll clarify that when I refer to the grandkids, I am referring collectively to my generation.

This is the only photo I took at my great-grandmother's party. It's of my eldest cousin, Alina. She was really into her cashew chicken.

This is Levi. He is my cousin Tesha's son and lacking more precise terminology, I usually refer to him as my cousin nephew thingy.

Levi cooking what appears to be another pan for me. I'm sure it was delicious.

Levi with his guitar. He has more toys than than all of us grandkids combined. Seriously.

Levi is taking my picture. This time he even has the part with the lens facing outwards.

Levi likes to throw things though I think that's pretty common amongst kids his age.

Tesha hates it when I take pictures of her acting goofy for Levi. She says it makes her look like an idiot. I think it makes her look like a good mother.

Levi has a train.

LEVI SMASH!

Tickles!

So for a totally non sequitur, I'm going to end this by talking about my sister's cat, Friday. She's so weird. She is as close to a completely black cat as you can probably get. She has a couple white hairs in her ears and on her belly but it's not even enough to be considered spots. She doesn't bury her poo, she just leaves it sitting right there on top of the litter. She hardly ever meows. If you try to pet her, she grabs your hand and will lick you for five minutes. She's friendly but she doesn't seek people out (as opposed to Justin's cats who are total attention whores). She loves to hide under the sofa bed and attack your feet when you walk by. She's always careful to keep her claws in though. On the other hand, sometimes when you try to pet her, she will grab your hand with her claws and bite you so hard she breaks skin. But I get the distinct feeling it's still playful. Last time I was here, she hadn't been spayed yet and was in serious heat. She actually tried to hump my arm. It was pretty gross. So anyway, she's a weird cat.

Fire Breathers

2008-06-09T17:01:00.003-05:00

Larger.

From left to right: Ian, Will, Justin, Luther. They, the Univ. of Iowa Juggalos as their club is called, were invited to perform at the
Exodus Music Festival (which unfortunately coincided with my trip home). They're pretty much a circus. There was juggling of balls, clubs, and torches. Luther balanced stuff on his chin, and they ended with a pretty impressive fire breathing routine (while Matt emceed and played Aerosmith covers). These photos are from one of many rehearsals.

Luther

Justin

Luther and Will

Fireballs!

So, I know it looks like they're drinking beer out of those party cups but they're not. It's actually lamp oil. I told that to my mom and she asked, "Doesn't that taste bad?" Answer:

Anyway, though I didn't get to see the actual performance, I heard it went really well and that they had more people watching them than the band that was playing. They've got another performance at the Picador scheduled for some time later this summer that I will get to attend so I'm looking forward to that.

In other news, I'm in Arkansas for the next two weeks visiting family and whatnot. Last night was my great-grandmother's 105th birthday party. It was insane. I'm pretty sure that every Chinese person in Arkansas was in attendance. It was held at Chi's, a Chinese restaurant. The staff was so overwhelmed. It took us at least a half hour just to get everyone seated, no exaggeration required. On the other hand, it actually went a lot better than I had expected. All my third cousins and people I haven't seen since I was in elementary school were largely too busy talking to each other to come over, pinch my cheeks, and exclaim, "Do you remember me? The last time I saw you, you were only this tall!" I feel like a dodged a bullet. Also, as I heard from Tabitha whom I don't recall meeting previously but suspect I am vaguely related to, I am at the University of Colorado studying journalism.

That's it for now. Prepare yourselves for dumb family pictures next post.

I would feel more legitimate calling these nature shots if I hadn't shot them in various yards

2008-06-01T03:50:00.001-05:00

My backyard is positively crawling with "city wildlife" (i.e. chipmunks, squirrels, sparrows, and sometimes even ducks). There's a lady who sets out water bowls, popcorn, and bird seed for them every day so you can imagine why they'd be drawn here. In my backyard, there are anywhere between three and a half dozen chipmunks who hang out regularly (though I think only one of them beds down here). There's one that lives in the crack between the porch and the wall right in front of the front door. I refer to him as Merriwether (though unless their identities can be proven otherwise, I refer to all chipmunks on my property as "Merriwether"). Yesterday, I spent way too much time getting too know these little critters.

This is Merriwether proper. He seems to be one of the smaller and more timid of the local chipmunks. He also appears to have some sort of battle scar on his nose.

This one I'm calling Bernice. She's eating a helicopter. Bernice is pretty big by chipmunk standards and not really afraid of people. For those reasons, I assume that she lives at the house of Bird Seed Lady who lives two houses down.

These are the only ones I got good pictures of (as Justin said, "it's hard to take pictures of little things with high metabolisms"). The other chipmunks that I see have a tendency to get chased off too, usually by Merriwether. Though small, I imagine he's scrappy. My goal for the summer is to get Merriwether to eat out of my hand.

I bet that after all that chipmunk talk, you guys probably think I'm crazy.

Today me and Justin went to Davenport and hung out with his grandparents. Here are a couple of photos from their front yard.

It's hard to tell, but there are actually two of those waspy things on that flower. I bet they're doing it.

Speaking of bugs, Iowa swarms with gnats in the summer. With all the rain we've had, it's been especially horrible. It's almost unbearable to go outside when there's no wind. I come from Arkansas which is really only less buggy than the Amazon but even there we don't have swarms of gnats roving the sidewalks. Gross.

When we were at Justin's parents' house, his mom told me that the gnats are actually killing chickens, especially chicks. They bite at the chicks' faces so they all crowd up together and chicks not being terribly bright, they sometimes suffocate each other. Also, the gnats can block up their nasal passages and they'll suffocate that way. Or, as if you really need to hear another reason how gnats are bad, they can also drain enough blood from the chickens to make them anemic. One of Justin's mom's friends lost 18 chicks overnight. Even grosser.

Since I'm on this bug kick, I appear to have gotten stung by some sort of buggin getting into the car to come home from Justin's. When I got home, I had broken out into a slight rash. It's red, bumpy, itchy, and just downright unpleasant. I think I might spend the next couple of days enjoying the good ol' indoors.

Also, blog.

2008-05-29T03:13:00.001-05:00

I wish I had more photomos but the weather has been a little poopy and I don't ever seem to make my way outside until the light is just about gone. Instead, I will attempt to entertain you with words, a daunting task indeed.

It looks like Saturday I'm going to be heading out to Davenport to visit with Justin's grandfather. I'm trading him photoshop lessons for photography lessons and embarrassing photos from Justin's youth. Score, right? In the mean time, I'm trying to organize some sort of portfolio-ish thing that I could show him (or, you know, other people). Right now, it looks like this. Feel free to peruse my flickr account and leave me suggestions. I think it's still sort of a toss up between photos that are good and photos I just like.

I've gotten to the point that I really want to do something with photography but I don't know what or how to get started. So far, my only real idea has been to put together some of themed series over the summer and see if I can get it hung up in one of the local coffee shops that do that kind of thing. It's a fairly half-assed idea and I'll probably never go through with it because it would require me to talk to people. Argh!

I've come to realize that if there's anyone subscribed to my RSS feed, they probably get an update every time I change a photo which happens super often and must be excruciatingly annoying. If you exist, I apologize. I'm just really finicky about post-processing. I am constantly uploading new version and deleting the old ones and the idea of having missing photos in my blog I ind bizarrely upsetting.

PS. Photos vs. pictures: does anybody care but me?

Toads and Farmy Things

2008-05-26T23:44:00.004-05:00

We went to Justin's parents' house again yesterday for Memorial Day. It was fun. Food was eaten. Pictures were taken. At least one person (me) got a very mild sunburn. Anyway, I brought all my camera stuff so I could run around and take pictures only to find that my battery was dead. Both batteries. Also, the only camera related thing I didn't bring was my charger. So, yeah, way to go me. Luckily, Justin's mom has a Nikon D40 (I've got a D50) and was nice enough to let me use her camera body (I still had all my own lenses). For really not being that different from mine, it was really sort of awkward to use her camera. I kept pushing the same buttons but different things happened. I got it mostly figured out though.

Toad's are pretty inanimate for being living things.

I did actually see this one eat an ant which was cute. Also, I need to get used to depth of field being a thing I can manipulate. Note to self: pay attention to the things which are not in focus as well as those that are.

Toads have really reflective eyes. In the large version, you can very clearly see Justin's parents' house. Kind of bizarre.

You can see me laying down in the dirt, holding the camera in his eye. Once again, check the large version.

He was under the bushes, hanging out in the shade. This toad is both practical and whimsical-looking.

This photo is really not that great. I'm not entirely sure why I'm posting it except that I really want a nice picture of dandelion fluff (which I've obviously yet to achieve).

The obligatory picture of sheep. Also, Justin's aunt.

So a funny thing happened. Zach, the son of Justin's cousin, decided he really wanted to shovel some llama poo. He would not let anyone else help. Also, he was making sure to warn Ande, the llama and creator of said poo, not to step in it. These are definitely ones for the photo album. The really embarrassing photo album your parents pull out when you start dating.

He is clearly a determined little fella.

In other news, I'll be going back to Arkansas June 7th through the 21st. Also, I'll be going back to work for Prof. Kletzing tomorrow.

More Macros

2008-05-25T03:18:00.004-05:00

There is no earthly reason why you should not look at the large size. Me and Justin came across this little dude on the edge of the pond next to the art building. He was an extremely patient frog especially considering I was using flash (by the way, here's the before on that). I got my socks all muddy but it was totally worth it.

More irises. Different garden than the ones from before.

Mickey Mouse-shaped flower whose actual name is unknown to me.

This is the exact same iris from the entry before last's photo. I like how frilly it is.

My macro lens all so serves as a decent telephoto. These ducks, unlike the frog, were not at all patient. I actually had to get Justin to run downstream and chase them up towards me. Shame the ducklings are all hiding though.

I bet you can't guess what came in the mail yesterday

2008-05-24T16:19:00.001-05:00

Stargazer Lily

Octopetal

So I didn't quite hit the focus on this one (my horrible eyesight makes manual focusing kind of difficult) but I think you can see what I was getting at. I just need more practice (and possibly a new set of peepers).

This is pretty much what I'm going to be up to for the next week or so.

This doesn't make sense

2008-05-23T01:42:00.001-05:00

So I woke up with a really sore back today. However, I did not go to sleep with a sore back nor did I do anything yesterday that would warrant a sore back. I think I threw my back out sleeping funny. This is dumb, really, severely dumb.

Also, I've come to find that my monitor recalibrated itself in a bad way last week and I didn't notice so the last two batches of pictures I posted were all very poorly color balanced. I spent most of today fixing them which was really annoying. But now if you look at them, they're fixed and not weird looking. So enjoy.

FYI

2008-05-21T16:28:00.001-05:00

My boyfriend used to be a Mythbuster.

More pictures

2008-05-21T13:57:00.002-05:00

Mirri

A few not terribly awesome attempts at taking pictures of flowers. However, I just ordered a macro lens. It should get here by next week and then I can reshoot these. With more awesome (and by awesome, I mean attention to details).

It's Summer!

2008-05-19T00:44:00.007-05:00

I'm finished with school. Thank god. It was a long and arduous semester. I'm glad to be rid of it.

In celebration, me and Justin went down to his mom's again (we were supposed to go for Mother's Day but we both had finals the next Monday). I love Justin's mom's farm. It's full of interesting critters.

Cinnamon, world's friendliest farm cat. He purrs if you so much as talk to him. When I was taking his picture, he rolled over on his back and reached up at my hands with his paws. Then he took my hand and pulled it to his face. It was kind of hilarious.

Cute.

Zach, Justin's cousin's son, playing with Emma. Zach's adorable. I love the way kids his age pick up random things and don't ever let them go. Right now, he's super fascinated with poop. Justin stepped in some and then that was all Zach talked about for the next day and a half. We were gonna go over and visit the horses but Zach wouldn't let us. Too much poop.

Remember these guys? Well now they look like this. They're also super friendly.

It's Ande again. He's less a couple parts since the last time we saw him but he seems generally unfazed.

Jasmine. She really likes to be petted. Hopefully I can do some horseback riding this summer. I haven't done it since high school. I really miss it.

The lambies are funny.

Pretty.

This one is named Fiona. They're going to be keeping her.

Bailey. This is probably my favorite picture of the bunch.

They're also keeping this one. They named him Broderick but I'm calling him Sparticus because he has a helmet.

Hahahahaha!

We only stayed Friday night and Saturday morning then back to Iowa City for Nate's graduation party. There was karaoke. It was ridiculous.

More fun times to come. Exciting!

Petey and Fire Dragons

2008-05-13T01:51:00.006-05:00

Petey is really cute. This is his "feed me" face. Petey eats more than any other lizard I've ever known.

Fire dragons summoned by Justin's and Luther's juggling.

This is what it looks like when they're actually juggling.

Lastly, dumb artsy picture of water reflecting light onto the ceiling.

1 final down, 2 to go.

Cats on a Treadmill

2008-05-11T18:40:00.001-05:00

WIN

Nebulae and clouds (they're pretty much the same thing)

2008-05-08T22:46:00.001-05:00

I finally finished that mosaic of the Rosette Nebula for my astronomy class. It isn't the whole nebula but it's all the images I could take before the project was due. (Click for bigger.)

(Click for bigger.)

I talked my professors into giving me ( read asked them for) some time on the telescope over the summer. I think I'm going to try a really huge mosaic of the nebulae in the Orion constellation. It'll be awesome if it happens.

Extra sweet, there was a contest for the best image, prize being that they print your image out all poster-sized. I won. "Easily." I get it tomorrow.

So last weekend, me and Justin went to his parents' house (like we're doing this weekend for Mother's Day). On the way there, I tried to take some pictures of the clouds since they were super awesome and fluffy but apparently shooting through car windows craps out image quality. Who would've guessed? *eyeroll* So I decided to try out some neat photoshop filters. What do you think?

Neat? Stupid? Your call.

现在我应该去复习中文要不然我明天考试考得很不好。再见。

Science: It's for Real!

2008-05-05T13:39:00.002-05:00

Observe the science!

A little physics will tell you that the energy of one of those balls is equal to the sum of the kinetic and potential energies (before anyone nitpicks me, this is a simplification).

At the ball's maximum height, velocity is zero so the equation looks like this:

And since energy is (more or less) conserved (meaning the total energy is always the same),

Add a little algebra magic and you get:

If you set g (the acceleration due to gravity) to be 9.8 m/s and ymax to be 1 m and graph it, you get this:

What this says simply is that the higher the ball on its trajectory, the slower it moves and the less blurry it will appear in the photograph.

Science! (Also, Justin can sort of juggle 5 balls now. That's a lot.)

Now with that out of the way, stupid pictures!

Vilka Kitty

Here, blurriness doesn't indicate position along a projectile trajectory but desperation to escape.

Remember that time we dorked out and drank margaritas whilst watching Battlestar Galactica? (Also, I'm squishing your head).

It wasn't really a sleepover as Mirri's shirt might suggest.

This was right before Travis zombied Mirri's brains away.

Fridgeside doodles.

An Introduction of Sorts

2008-05-01T17:08:00.004-05:00

This is a new blog. It'll be much like the old one but in a new place with a sillier name. However, it is unlikely content will improve and will still mostly be composed of pictures of cats and boyfriends or boyfriends with cats.

I leave you with this photo as an official approval of this blog (and wizards who turn people into whales).