Sisakat's Blog

Tree Updates (That No One Cares About)

2011-07-24T07:10:00.000-04:00

Been way longer than I intended since I last posted. I was going to try to update with pictures as things grew and what not, but I (obviously) have not done that.

Shortly after I planted them one of the forsythias died, I didn't water the second one enough awhile after that and it died too.
My Japanese maple just barely tried to sprout leaves, but they went brown, and it's as dead as a door nail too.
My elm has re-grown it's leaves, they're rather small, but it seems to be doing well enough. I think they might be small because of this effect I read about at a bonsai website (forget which) that a 'false fall' or something would cause smaller leaves and would look better.
My red maple tree had been doing pretty well, it had some brown spots, but was otherwise okay. Now, after I was gone for a week it's nearly completely brown, I'm guessing my parents let it get too dry or something.
My wisteria plant is doing amazingly well. It's got really nice leaves and grows even if I try to pinch it back.
My white pine is has sprouts and the beginning of new pine needles, the tips of the old needles are still a little brown, but I guess it's doing alright if it's growing new branches.
My grape plant and my mom's lilac are doing alright, not growing a lot, nor dying, which is good.

Oh, and I saw a little tiny toad in the garden this morning. It hopped away before I could get a picture though.

Nifty Music Thing Is Nifty.

2011-06-29T04:24:00.001-04:00

Otomata. Click it.

Messing with CSS and Javascript

2011-06-26T08:08:00.000-04:00

I worked on my cable scarf earlier, and decided to get on ravelry. I was looking through my groups and noticed We <3 Progress Bars, and I thought "hey, I could stick one of those on my blog..." Reading about how all these people made their progress bars all fancy with their photos, and links to the patterns and everything made me think it wouldn't be that difficult. Unfortunately, I somehow don't understand JavaScript, despite the fact that I took a class on Visual Basic and Java. One would think I could get JavaScript after that, but I still feel lost when looking at it. I'm going to try to poke around with it more later. I did manage to get it to show photos and both finished and in progress projects at the same time. But now it wont work when I follow the instructions and do minimal messing with the code. It either shows the default or nothing at all.
I gave up on the JavaScript bar and decided to take a look at the flash progress bar before going to bed. I followed the instructions and it magically works in under five minutes. I just have to fiddle with the colors.

Sleepy tiem nao nyan.

Readin' teh 漢字～

2011-06-17T18:32:00.000-04:00

Read the Kanji is pretty nifty for learning kanji readings even if you don't pay for a subscription. I'm to the point that all the kanji available to me are yellow or green. (Yay~!) I actually like it so much I'm going to try to get my mom to pay for a one year subscription, assuming I don't get the $20 myself first. It has example sentences and you can turn on/off whether it shows the big kanji, translation of the kanji, the example Japanese sentence, or the translation of the sentence. Note that it isn't anything like Reviewing the Kanji, which is based on a book that preaches learning the stroke order and a basic one word meaning of kanji in order from simple to more complex kanji, but it doesn't really consider readings or learning more useful kanji first.

WAAAHHH! MY CACTUS!

2011-06-09T22:53:00.000-04:00

NOOOooo!!! I KILLED MY CACTUS. WHY? WAAAHHHH

Trees~

2011-06-09T14:12:00.000-04:00

I found somewhere to plant my forsythia right before I went off to ACen. They're under my bedroom window. I'm hoping my boyfriend isn't allergic to them when they bloom. One of them had exactly one flower bud when I planted it, and now that one has leaves. I don't think the other one has any leaves yet. I might've killed it, but I'm going to keep watering it, it might just be trying to make buds. My Japanese maple and my elm took forever to get leaves, but they have little green buds on them now. I'm really happy they survived. My mom's lilac, my white pine, and my yoshino are looking okay. It looks like the yoshino really is deer resistant, they haven't eaten at it at all like they did our apple trees last year. The red maple is doing really well, it's huge and has lots of leaves and everything. I also dug a little oak tree up from the yard, and I'm trying to grow it in my bathroom until I can put it outside without squirrels eating or digging it up, which happened to the last three or so oaks I tried to plant in little pots... Way before I got my trees from arborday.org, I got a green grape and a wisteria from meijer. I planted them a little too early though, so they had a little bit of frost damage, but now they're both healthy and growing too.

New Pinkies~

2011-06-06T08:22:00.000-04:00

I'm thinking it might be better if I put more short posts more often, rather than putting one big post that I try to put too many things into. I'm hoping it'll help with my random nonexistant subject transitions.

Before going to Acen, I made sure to know how much pinkies usually go for online at least, so I know if I'm getting a decent deal. Last year I wasn't sure what good prices were, so I ended up not getting any.
Rather than trying to look through each and every stall's figures, which I sorta did anyway, I decided to just try to ask them all if they had any. There was a guy at a pretty small booth that said he didn't, but he saw only one at a different booth, so I went there and discovered PK002/Suu for $12, and I'm totally glad I did. I like her head, I really like her clothes, and I almost wish I had a second one, but not until I have all the other ones I want, I guess. I also came across PC2023/Suito Kusanagi from 'The Sky Crawlers', for $10, and she came with a cute little uniform, and glasses. I didn't originally want her, but at plajapan.com she's $30 on her own, so I figured it was worth it.
I looked it up after the con and at plajapan.com to get both of them together, but not bundled would be $48 including shipping. If I got them bundled together, they would be $38 with shipping. I got them at the con for $22. Unfortunately, the booth that had the most pinkies for sale, had them priced at ~$20 or more, and I can order them individually for $16 wish shipping, less if I get more or do plajapan's bundle thing. Or if I shop around.
By the way, I don't mean to be advertising plajapan, it's just that I find their bundle prices awesome, and they can tell me exactly how much shipping will be. I'm considering maybe buying some pinkies from HLJ.com someday, but they don't tell how much shipping is upfront, so not for awhile.

ACen, Pinky:St, Another Scarf, Anki, Bonsai...

2011-05-18T21:34:00.020-04:00

I'm going to be going to Acen this year, I'm rather excited. x3 I was thinking about wearing my Maka Albarn (Soul Eater) cosplay, but I grew out my bangs, so I feel like I'd look silly. Would I? There probably wont be enough room to safely bring it anyway...

A few days ago I accidentally elbowed my Kobato. pinky off of my computer monitor, at first I looked her over and said, 'oh, yay, I didn't break anything,' until I noticed her bottle had broken off in her hand. D: I've read about using warm water and a pin to get the broken part out, but I'm kinda scared to try it (I'm probably just being paranoid).

For the longest time I hadn't messed with my pinkies, so I finally decided to just take them apart and put them back together again last night. Before, someone else had put one together and it turned out particularly cute, so I didn't want to mess it up, but it also was using my favorite head, so I got over it, and switched them up.

I'm thinking I want to take one or two with me to ACen, but I'm not sure which ones, or if it's a terrible idea. I'm kinda thinking I'll bring Maki, or Ako, or maybe Mikimiki, but I'm not sure, we'll see.

(Wondering what the heck a pinky is? They're called Pinky:st (read as pinky street) and you can find out more from pinky-street.com)

I apparently started making a scarf back in January, but I kept not working on it, or forgetting where I was and frogging it. I finally got past the initial seed stitch rows and now I'm into the patterned part. It's already about 5" long, and I'm planning to work on it on the way to and from Chicago. I'm hoping I can make it a lot longer than my last one. I only had one skein of the type of yarn I was using, so it just barely fits around one's neck. My mom (the one I gave it to) said it was fine, because then she could zip her coat up to it, but I didn't really see her wearing it much... Oh well.

I'm terrible at transitioning from one topic to another, it's like I write one paragraph on one thing and suddenly the next one is something completely different. So I'm gonna just keep doing that, even though it looks stupid, because I'm not sure how to do it differently.

Anki is nifty. I'm surprised how long I've kept up with doing the flash cards. I'm not sure how much it's actually helping with learning Japanese though. I'm also trying to keep the little bit of Spanish I learned from my class. It's so much easier. I'm kinda annoyed by how much easier it is, when I've been trying to learn Japanese for so much longer. Besides Japanese and Spanish, I downloaded a deck of countries/flags/capitols/locations, but it's only showing me the flags so far, and I mostly wanted to learn the capitols/locations.

I think my last, and latest, silly hobby no one cares to read about is bonsai. I went to arborday.org and bought a lilac(for my mom), a yoshino cherry tree (which my dad let me plant in the back yard), a lacebark/chinese elm, a white pine, a japanese maple, and I got a red maple and two forsythia free with everything else. I put the maples, the pine, and the elm in pots. I still need to find somewhere I can plant the forsythia, I'm a bit worried, since I'll be away over the weekend. I think I might have shocked my elm tree, it had had little green leaves when I got it, but the day after I planted it they went brown. I bought that one specifically because people on the internet said that you could use it as an indoor bonsai tree, but I'm going to start it out outside. Hopefully I can get them well established without killing them, then I'm going to start trying to do the 'training' stuff.

Youmacon is This Weekend, Yay~

2010-10-29T03:25:00.004-04:00

I'm finally starting to actually get (more) excited about Youmacon 2010. I've been slowly packing and started to try to get my camera together, and somehow ended up on YouTube, looking for cosplay shogi videos. I ended up finding one from 2005 that I'm actually in, but it's super blurry. One of my friends wanted to see the Simon-giga-drill-breaker from the 2009 shougi game, so I ended up uploading it here.

I don't think I'm going to wear my cosplay this year. I only did for a little bit last year and only one person recognized me. I'm going to try to convince my mom to let me try to modify it to be more accurate.

Spellcheckers don't like shogi or shougi. Anyone know which is correct?

Dropsy Tank Top

2010-10-25T23:24:00.005-04:00

I haven't restarted any of my frogged projects, but I did start making Dropsy. I'm using the "Deborah Norville collection Everyday Soft Worsted" acrylic yarn I got from JoAnne's. It keeps having weird blobs and stuff in it, which is apparently great if you're hand spinning novelty yarn, but I didn't really want it in my tank top... ><

I survived the part with dropping stitches and casting on alright, but I mis-read the repeats and did three normal rows and then started to do four rows with an increase every row. On the third row when I realized, I tinked back the row I was on and just dropped the increases and knited a few stitches around them to even out the extra yarn. Hopefully it isn't noticeable in the FO.

Stuff and Knitting

2010-10-14T03:48:00.014-04:00

Stuff

I haven't actually posted anything to this or twitter for a year or so... I think I tend to post more when something is happening, like a vacation, or when something bad happens, but I haven't had any bad stuff for the most part.

I started hanging out with a guy, and he ended up asking me out, and we've been happily dating for nearly a year. That's all I feel like saying. Oh, and he's awesome. <3

What was I gonna say...? I got lost in lala land. Oh. Right. School sucks, still. I was originally gonna take Spanish I, a math class, yoga, and a computer class. My mom was planning on taking all but the computer one with me, but there wasn't enough money for all of them, so no math class. Then, my mom got a knee injury going up the stairs to our Spanish class, and tried to go to yoga once. The teacher had originally said just do what you can, and don't worry about it. My mom talks to her about her knee, and suddenly the teacher is telling her that she has to do certain things, or else it'll count against her. We dropped it. I felt like it was hurting my joints more than it was helping, and not worth my time anyway. My computer teacher isn't very good at being a teacher. His syllabus just lists the dates with 'lecture/classwork' all the way down, and doesn't say much beyond the required things, and he pretty much just reads from his slides and tells us to do activities from what we have of the book. The publisher just got the hard copies out for sale within the last week. We got the first four chapters in paper form, and the first eight chapters in pdf form, but it still seems stupid to spend a hundred dollars on a book we'll only be using for half the semester.

I play Vindictus now. Yay. :D It is awesome. You should play it too. And the game it's a prequel to, Mabinogi. (Dungeon Fighter Online is pretty nifty too.) </video game plugs>

I think my aversion to putting personal things on my personal blog makes it boring, sorry. :|

What should I talk about...?

Knitting

I finally finished my scarf at 24.5", just long enough to get around the neck and overlap a bit. I apparently have been purling the wrong way, so all of my purl stitches are twisted. At least I was consistent throughout the entire thing. I wasn't sure what to do with it when I was done, because I don't like the colors, and they don't match anything my boyfriend wears (black, white, and red, that's it), but my mom looked at it yesterday and adores it.

I got the yarn for my Chiyo-chichi that I'm going to make for mike eventually from the shop near me. I kinda feel like the lady purposely steered me towards the stuff with acrylic, and she told me 'that's wool, you can't wash it' when I went over to look at the cascade 220, like I couldn't possibly want to felt it on purpose or figure out how to wash wool. I decided to get the superwash version anyway though, it was a better color and I don't plan on felting him. Besides the steering and useless advice, she and the other ladies there seemed friendly. Maybe I just came off like I didn't know anything because I was nervous and asked her opinion on which kind to get.

Afterwards I went to Joannes and got four balls of acrylic (does this make me sound weird after saying I didn't want acrylic the last time...?) for some unknown project and duplicating my purse.

I started to make a triforce wristband, also for Mike, but I think I might frog it because of my twisted purls. It might be part of why it was curling so much, but it could just be the stockinette, and I'm just not used to it.

Also frogged my sisakat doll. She's based off of my character from Mabinogi. I was crocheting it in such a way that I ended up finding it really ugly and went from mostly done, to not done at all. I think I'll work on this next, it seemed to go quickly before. Then I can start making her itty-bitty bolero & jumper suit. And broad-brimmed feather hat. I still have to find the right yarn...

I had to get rid of tags on my post. :| Meanies.

Scarf-ness 7

2010-10-10T02:43:00.003-04:00

~15" Two more inches in one day! :D I figure from the pattern of the yarn I can get another 6.5" before I do the ending part. Is 22" too short for a scarf?

Scarf-ness 6

2010-10-09T04:22:00.001-04:00

~13” Been working on my scarf fairly often. (…but I only gained 3 inches…?) I memorized the pattern, so I’m not always looking at the paper now. :D I don’t think I’m gonna buy another ball for it, unless it ends up way too short when I get towards the end.

Scarf-ness 5

2010-10-04T04:59:00.000-04:00

~10” I noticed last night/morning that my yarn ball is looking kinda small. Apparently the pattern’s yardage is 300~600 yards. There’s 137 yards in my one skein… I’m a genius.

Scarf-ness 4

2010-10-03T04:58:00.000-04:00

~7.5” long and 4.5” wide. I keep guessing right for which row I’m on and haven’t messed it up yet. I’m think I’m getting the hang of doing the cables, but I got sick of using crochet hooks and stupid things (…darning needle actually kinda worked, but the stitches got too tight), so I bought a set of cable needles at mah lys. I only have the one skein. I’m not really sure how long it’s gonna be. Is there some way to figure it out? Hmm…

Scarf-ness 3

2010-09-04T00:00:00.000-04:00

So I did a little bit more and did some cable crosses and stuff, but I let it sit around for a few days and now I have no idea what row I was on. :|

Scarf-ness 2

2010-08-28T00:00:00.002-04:00

Got to the eighth row, which is where I was when I undid it all before. :D Only on the eighth row though…

Scarf-ness 1

2010-08-27T00:00:00.001-04:00

Started knitting a scarf and got to the 8th row, but then I realized I was miss reading the end of a bunch of the rows as (K1P1) 3 times instead of (P1K1) 3 times. And I kept getting extra stitches. I decided to undo what I did, and I think I’m on row 2 again at least. Dx

(post links to ravelry page.)

2009-10-03T17:11:00.001-04:00

2009-09-18T16:10:00.001-04:00

Oops, we're on the state line between Indiana and Michigan.

2009-09-06T13:52:00.001-04:00

we're in Hartland, at mobile/Hartland express pizza & grill. They have a Lot of alcohol here. The pizza was good. <3

Of Various Stuffs I Need to Improve (Or Me Whining a Lot)

2009-08-18T02:37:00.014-04:00

I've been feeling kinda stupid over something that shouldn't be that big of a deal and I think it's because of flaws I have that I could improve.

The one that's biggest and probably the most impossible for me to fix would be my ego. Outside of the realms of Settlers of Catan, Mabinogi, reading, and Japanese it's pretty tiny. In some cases positively minuscule. Like in talking to other people, writing in any form beyond simple text messages and IMs, driving, and how I look. I think my tiny ego causes me to have absolutely no backbone and to say 'sorry' a lot. I'll say it regardless of if it's even my fault or if I could have even influenced whatever it was. At the same time, I blow off other people's 'sorry's with not your fault, or its fine, or whatever. Maybe this is why it feels like people skim over them as if they're not sincere. It's like crying wolf and expecting people to pay attention to it, but ignoring them when they say it. I'll try to work on the sorry part, but the ego'll will have to follow after all this stuff. Maybe being more positive when things I attempt don't work out or something.

Some of the things I need to work on are kinda part of what I just said. I need to consider how to actually communicate, I'm great when blathering on about whatever random subject I happen to be talking about, but when it's something I actually care about or that needs specific information to be successfully conveyed to whomever I'm talking to I become rather inarticulate and I just sorta stop being able to think sometimes. Same thing goes for the writing. Only for that it's even worse because I usually don't care about what paper or whatnot I'm writing. Which is the point of this blog. To work on the whole 'I can't write to save my life' view I have. I don't think that's been successful so far, but I'll keep at it.

Lets see... Next up would probably be the driving bit. I can't drive, so I need to practice. I can't control when I can too much, but a friend of mine had a point. On Saturdays when my mom is out and driving anyway, why don't I practice then? So I'll have to bug my mom about that one. Once I quit feeling shakey after driving maybe I'll be able to practice even more.

Hmm... I had oodles to say before, but it's kinda washing away. You know how when you try to remember a dream it gets harder to remember? Thats what it's like when I try to remember where I was originally going with what I was writing.

You know what? I'm gonna talk about mundane stuff now.

Theres some meteor shower that was supposed to be best August 11 & 12, but I procrastinated and managed to go outside on the thrirteenth. I saw one meteor, which is pretty awesome considering so many of my neighbors had lights on, and I didn't spend much time outside.

I went to this convention called Northern Michigan Anime Convention, or NMACon for short, that was really small. Thats where the picture of the Pinky:cos figure came from. They were showing Baccano! in one of the screening rooms, but it was in the smaller one, so I didn't stick around to watch. My mom and I decided not to go for the second day and ended up driving around the area west of Traverse City for quite awhile. We went to Luddington, walked on the beach for ten minutes, then headed for home. I kept trying to stay awake on the way home, but it didn't work. Though my mom woke me up for this weird happening in the clouds. It looked like they were falling off a ledge and swirling back up or something. I was trying to frantically call my dad and freaking out about the idea of tornadoes too much to get a picture. Now that I know it'd would've been okay I wish I had.

Oh, and the car's steering wheel was shaking. We kinda knew the tires were bad, but we really had no idea that day how bad they were. The next day my mom went all over shopping for food and the like. At her last stop, after she spent a fair amount of our money, she noticed you could see the wire mesh of the tires. She had them replaced the next day, but the thought that we were driving around for nine hours on really worn tires is kinda scary.

I almost don't want to post this anymore, but I went to the trouble of typing it all, so I guess I may as well. I started it August 18th, 2009 at 2:37 AM. I'm posting it on August 25th, 2009 at 4:13 PM.

2009-08-13T14:24:00.003-04:00

A few of my friends decided to walk to Qdoba, so I went with. We had to walk over Orchard Lake Rd. It was kinda unnerving seeing all those cars coming towards me, but the entire walkway was well above the street and encased in that metal caging, so it wasn't all that horrible.

After we got back we played Settlers of Catan, but I was falling asleep for a lot of it. =.= They walked too fast and it was too hot out for me to not be exhausted afterward.

2009-08-09T17:42:00.001-04:00

2009-08-09T13:45:00.001-04:00

A huge windmill west of Traverse City. Not sure what we're doing next, so we're wandering.