Catspaw — The Wanderings of a Rat

I chose to do this ds106 assignment. See, the moment I saw it, I knew exactly what I wanted to do for it.

This is my beanie-baby rat, Tip-Toe. Well, actually, he’s my dad’s. Mom bought the family beanie-babies in the form of our zodiac signs. However, as we have a cat, we had to hide the poor stuffed animals from him. Somehow, this evolved into a rather odd version of hide-and-go-seek — and the next thing we knew, we had a collection of rats.

In any case. Tip-Toe came along with my on my White Day date. The three of us had a lot of fun together. First, we got some food.

Both meals were delightful, in case you were wondering. Somehow the two of us ended up at Yoshinoya — odd mostly because we’d never been before. However, they happened to have a particularly pretty picture out, and we were lured inside. Figures, huh?

And then, we looked out the window.

Across the street there was this karaoke place. I don’t really like it all that much, but she wanted to go, and so, well. Suddenly I found myself perching on a couch, flicking through songs.

Tip-Toe, of course, joined us.

After that we ended up going home and eating cheese. Sadly, Tip-Toe didn’t get to eat any, but never fear — the cheese was definitely enjoyed.

~Ekhlami

Tabletop Games

I chose to do this assignment: Common Everyday Object. The point was to manipulate the colors in the picture.

As far as the process goes: I had to figure out what I was going to use. While I tossed a few ideas around (kettle, pan, laptop, books), in the end I opted for a table. It’s a small little thing, a coffee table or an end table (goodness knows I still don’t really know the difference).

The table I chose. You can find it here.

In any case, I liked it. So, I figured, why not.

I wandered over to Picnik, which is good for photoshopping needs. I played around for a bit, and ended up altering the top of the table.

I hope you enjoy!

You can find the revised pic here.

Have a wonderful day.

~Ekhlami

Future Trip

Today’s Daily Create is actually something I’ve been thinking a lot about recently. I’m two and a half terms away from graduating with my Bachelors, and I’m starting to grow concerned about what happens next.

No lie, I was talking to my mother about this just the other day. She told me to stop “future tripping” and set goals for myself instead. I’m pretty sure she meant “instead of deciding what you’ll do next, think about who you want to be” or something like that. (It seems mom-ish, right?) Sometimes, though, it’s hard to tell, so I might be wrong.

So, please understand, this was actually incredibly difficult for me. What do I aspire to be? How do I aspire to be? What the heck do I want to do with my life?

Mom says no one has the answers at twenty-two. My cousins did, for awhile — but they’ve all changed their minds. I’m starting to believe her, now. I didn’t when they were all so sure that they knew what their futures held, when we were eighteen and I was the only one without a plan. Moms are like that, though — always right when you least expect it.

Here I am, twenty-two years old. I don’t know who I aspire to be — at least I can’t think of a way to put it into images. I aspire to be intelligent, a good person — and most importantly, capable. But what does that translate to? What do I associate with these things? Do other people make the same associations? Will I get my point across?

I guess it’s pretty hard to miss by now, but I’m adopted. Still, I love my parents, and I do try to be part of my extended family, for what good it does me. I found out when I was sixteen, when my cousin joined the Navy (somehow I missed it when his brother joined the Army), that we were a bit of a military family.

I had know, of course, that Dad was in the Army when he was younger, and I knew my cousin was in the Army as well, with his brother joining the Navy. I then found out that Dad’s dad was also in the Navy, my uncle in the Army, and extended family who I don’t know well had been in either one or the other.

None of them were girls, to the best of my knowledge, but hell. It feels a bit like tradition.

When I was sixteen, I wanted to join the Army like my dad. When I was eighteen, I wanted to join the Air Force. When I was seventeen, my mother told me I was going to go to college in Missouri, and like I have since I was fourteen, I did what I was told.

When I was twelve, I looked myself in the mirror and decided I wanted to be a psychiatrist.

At twenty, I began to consider going to law school.

I’m afraid that if I join the military, I’ll break my mother’s heart, and my family has enough to deal with right now. Maybe things will change before December, when I do have to officially make my choice, but maybe not. My dad’s family would approve, I think — but I don’t owe them anything, and I’ve long since given up caring about their opinions of me. With one exception: the cousin who joined the Navy. I hope he’d be proud of me, but due to the reduction in forces, his contract isn’t being resigned, so who knows. He might hate me for it.

I have family on my mom’s side who are lawyers, and they’d be thrilled if I went down that road, I’m sure. I think it would be fun. I’m tempted to take the LSATs, even if I don’t apply for law school.

As for psychiatry… I’m not sure I want to go through medical school. I’m awful at Chemistry, and, well… Yes.

For now, I’m going to graduate, go home, and see my family. I’m going to get a part-time job and study for whatever test I’m taking (LSATs for law school, GRE for medical school, or the AFOQT for the Air Force). I’ll likely take the AFOQT and go from there. I’m sure Mom’ll forgive me someday, if I make it. I might not. And that would be okay too, I think, though right now I’m rather set on it.

But back to the Daily Create. I’ve been considering as I’ve been writing this post, and I think only one thing will fit the bill.

There may be many things that I want to do, or that I want to be. But at the end, there’s really only one thing I hope for, above all else.

I want to be happy. And for me, right now at least, happiness is a good book.

~Ekhlami

By Any Other Name

I chose to do this ds106 assignment. It seemed like fun, and everyone else seemed to be having a blast with it. I admit, I didn’t want to be left out of all the fun. So, I followed the steps.

First, I input the random wiki link in, and ended up here. This gave me the title of my band. Congratulations, I was now a part of the STS-5. It was a rather exciting moment for me.

Then, I clicked this link and found my album title. The quote was The things we know best are the things we haven’t been taught, said by Marquis de Vauvenargues. This, of course, meant that my album was Things We Haven’t Been Taught. Alright, I was down with that. To the next step!

I needed my album cover. It was very important, you see. So I went to this link, and got this image, by Silver Velvet.

Now, to put it all together! I went here, and found out that the site was closing. But not yet, so I wasn’t to be stopped! I fiddled with colors, and sharpness, and had a great amount of fun. I added my band name, and the album title, and saved the image. I proceeded to upload it to Imgur (because I like it there), and then I wandered right back here to post it to show to you all.

This can be found here.

To clarify: none of this is mine. I played with the picture, but it does not belong to me. I just want to make sure credit is given where credit it due. After all, if I didn’t, not only would I feel like a horrible, horrible person, but Nana might rawr at me. And I have to live with her.

Have a wonderful day.

~Ekhlami

Valentine’s Day

Oh, Valentine’s Day. It isn’t my favorite holiday — but at least back in the States, there are all of the half-off candy sales on February 15th.

Here, though, in Japan, it is entirely different. Or at least it feels that way.

Back home, I can ignore the custom completely. Unfortunately, I feel almost obligated to go along with it, and make chocolates for my friends. (Which is more difficult that it looks — I somehow successfully just burned mine. And melted the spatula. So I’ll have to buy a new one.) It would be fine, except I ended up making more friends than I expected, and now I have way too many people to make chocolates for.

Well, at least it’s fun, right?

So here’s to hoping that it all goes well, and that I don’t burn any more.

Chocolates, by J. Paxon Reyes

Have a good night!

~Ekhlami

Pakik (Lost)

Today’s Daily Create was to take a picture of a place in your home where you lose things. As it happens, I was tempted to just take a picture of the apartment door, being as the entire place manages to take my things. I was also tempted to take a picture of my bedroom door, for the same reason. (Not, however, the room itself — it’s a bit too much of a mess. This could, perhaps, be why I lose things there, but let’s nevermind that, alright? Thank you.)

In the end, after much serious contemplation, I opted to take this image.

Here is a link back to the site I uploaded on.

Yes, this is my washing machine. Yes, it does eat my socks — how did you guess? I felt it was only right. After all, it seems that no matter what washer I find myself using, inevitably, something goes missing — usually a sock, however, this is not always the case. I am still seriously miffed about the time I washed my Jack Skellington sweatshirt and it didn’t reappear from the dryer. That… was not a good day.

Still, not much I can do about it now, I suppose — this was back in high school.

…Suddenly, I feel very old. How odd. >.<

…It occurs to me, all of a sudden, that yesterday’s Daily Create was about laundry as well. I’d better change it up tomorrow — I would hate to feel predictable.

All the best,

~Ekhlami

Stars and Garters

Alright, I give. This title has nothing to do with anything. Also, it has nothing to do with Star Trek (except by the very, very tenuous of ties). We’ve wandered into X-Men territory over here. Can anyone tell me who says that? Hint: that’s not the full sentence. It’s also not said by Patrick Stewart, so sorry, but that’s not the easy answer here.

Anyway, let’s talk about the Daily Create.

The Daily Create is an interesting site. I’m not actually sure how I feel about it. I mean, it’s kinda cool, in the whole Ooh, let’s see what we can all come up with! kind of way, but honestly — I’m so bad at this stuff. It’s amusing and terrible all at once, I assure.

Yesterday’s Creation was a ten second, voice only, wordless recording. I had a song stuck in my head, so I hummed a partial tune. It was an interesting assignment, but alas — I learned (or rather, it was reinforced) that I’m not terribly creative in that sense. No matter, I told myself — there shall be another one tomorrow! And with any luck, it will go better.

Then I realized I was talking to myself and quickly ceased. At least I didn’t respond, right? There may be hope for me yet.

Today’s Daily Create, however,  involved a camera. It asked the users to take a picture of something that is never seen upside down. This, of course, was a huge problem. I don’t own a camera that works. Oh, I own a camera — who doesn’t, these days? — but the charger got jacked, and I can’t find another in this country. There are some I can buy online, but they don’t ship overseas. It’s terribly frustrating, let me assure you. Terribly frustrating.

So I had to take my picture with the phone I got from Softbank — and, no, I don’t have an iPhone or anything, just the cheapest phone there was. So the quality is terrible. Still, I should probably show you. My sincerest apologies.

My awful, awful picture of my hanging clothing can be found here.

And so.

I kind of want to expand a bit, but I don’t have much more to say. I’m plotting a few blog posts — three, currently, but I shan’t ruin it for you — that should all be up by Friday night. We’ll also see if I end up doing any more Daily Create blogs.

It’s kind of cool, but I sort of hope there aren’t anymore photography ones — I don’t want to subject you all to anymore totally horrifying images.

Have a great day!

~Ekhlami

This Side of Paradise, Take Two!

So, about a week ago, I made an attempt on the Flickr assignment about finding a Creative Commons image and properly documenting it.

I successfully did it wrong. Pretty picture, though, but I’ve opted to take it down for now.

In any case! This is my second attempt. I do hope you enjoy it.

Like I said, we were assigned a quick, easy find, gather, post, and link blog.

Red Skies at Night by slworking2 — CC Licensed via Flickr

This is the picture I found through Creative Commons. Cheers, yes? I think it’s lovely. By this time, you’re probably aware, I think that the sky is pretty. So, just for you, another picture of a rainbow sky. What can I say? It’s delightful.

It is, of course, another California picture. How could I help myself? It was pretty, and from home — just about perfect, I’d say.

Have a fantastic day!

~Ekhlami

Redshirts

Yeah, okay. So at this point, it’s a running theme, which may later become somewhat annoying (to all involved, really), but at this time suits me just fine. And hey, themes can change, right? So… eventually, I may just go and change up on you all, and you shall all be surprised.

It’ll be great.

So here’s the thing. In TOS, there were three colors of uniforms: gold, blue, and red. The represented the different sections of Starfleet personnel: Command Gold, Science Blue (which included medical personnel), and red was sub sectioned into Security and Engineering.

Who do you think, if you had to guess, was most likely to die?

Yup, you guessed it — the guys in red. Not only because they represent half the population, but because both engineering and security jobs are fairly dangerous — one gets sparked at, or things fall down, and the other gets shot pretty often. This isn’t to say that they are the only ones to die, it’s just, job-wise, it’s more likely.

Plus, most of the episodes took place in the form of going to a planet (which necessitates some security personnel), and the team that went down was generally composed of Main Characters (Kirk, Spock, McCoy, etc.), so they kind of had to kill off security.

In any case, “redshirts” are most likely to die. That’s all  you really needed to know to find this image amusing, pretty sure.

The image! It is not mine. I have no idea who uploaded it (I can’t figure it out, and it bothers me greatly, so if anyone knows how to use imgur, I would seriously appreciate some help), but I saw it and now I can’t stop laughing.

Again, this isn’t mine. Here’s the link back to where I found it.

For those of you who have never seen an episode of TOS, the guy at the bottom is Captain Kirk. Well, the original one, not the one played by Chris Pine. This is, instead, William Shatner.

You understand, I’m sure, why this is so entertaining. They are saying “redshirt treatment” like it’s a good thing, but it’s possibly the worst thing they could do.

Well, at least they have an apple. An apple a day keeps the doctor away — and in this case, that’s not only good, it’s vital to survival.

Have a great day!

~Ekhlami