General Discussion Thread

[eyjafjallajoke]

It's really hard to take a good quality picture of anything in the sky. I think you need special camera lenses to get anything high quality. But kudos to you for trying!

Yeaah, I do believe so.

It was perfectly clear and beautiful and perfect for watching an eclipse except for all the freaking people driving around with their brights on. WHY.

However, I can now comprehend why there are so many mythological moon-eating monsters. That was awesome!

There were quite a few people outside here, but surprisingly, no cars.

Funny story about while we were watching. There was a group of students sitting in benches across the street from us and all of a sudden a large skunk walked out of the bushes. People started pointing and then all at once people sitting nearby noticed it and started running and screaming and it was kind of really funny. The poor skunk then kind of shambled off to hide and people started taking pictures of it.

Pfft, we have a bunch of skunks around here. One time one went onto my grandfather's porch and ate his and his girlfriend's cat's food..yeah.

[OrigamiOwl]

I forgot my wallet today. I skipped breakfast, went to class, got hungry and checked my bank account: $3 wow so rich. I then reached into my bag to check if I had any cash in my wallet, or I'd just call dad and ask him to wire me some money. I rummaged. There was nothing. I texted my sister and turns out it had fallen out of my "[synonym for poopy] abused" (a quote) bag in the car boot last week and she'd put it on the kitchen bench. Where it remains. *insert sad laughter here* And I'm trying to write an artist statement for the examiners to read next month and its all just "ejhheh eggy euyg edgy full b rf af euyrg  ugybfv hf fv y gaff" because I have no energy or brain power from no food and also a headache. aaaaaaaaaaa amazinggggg

Also, my "cool" aunty is visiting! She hasn't been to the island in nearly 20 years. She currently works as a midwife u__u and has done lots of medical job things like the royal flying doctors and ER/A&E and other stuff. She's seen some things o__o
She reminds me of Signe a bit...except she doesn't get fired, she just leaves <_< But she's also a lot like my youngest sister in that she's a bit of a family rebel and stuff. On the day she arrived mum kept sending her text after text reminding her to catch the plane and asking her what she was doing, also call after call (because mum could compete with Onni for familial worrying) with no response and finally I get a text saying "tell your mum I am a 40 year old woman and can catch a plane by myself" ironically she missed the plane and had to catch the next one 9__9 and mum interpreted this as "Oh god she's mad at me she's going to go home and not even come here it's all my fault" but, this was an overreaction.

But anyway she's sharing my room (mum has moved out temporarily to dad's room) and she's kinda an insomniac. From her night shifts and such. But her usual bed time is 3am. So she's been staying up till 3/4am (because of time zone differences) with her laptop and I can't sleep unless there's total darkness like a bat cave PLUS SHE WEARS A POOFY JACKET TO BED AND ITS SO NOISY LIKE WHY WOULDN'T YOU USE THE MILLIONS OF BLANKETS WE GAVE YOU IF YOU'RE COLD?? She's used to really hot outback weather like 40 degrees and stuff, so I guess she's dying in the toasty 11 we've set the heaters onto at night (and I was too HOT Last NIGht) and she's only been here 2 days and I'm already a zombieeeeeeeeee. She's my favourite aunty and she's so cool but I need to do a lot of work at the moment ;__; like, I'm lagging behind from motivation issues anyway, but now i'm too tired to even be unmotivated. I tend to stay up lateish because I have trouble sleeping anyway and paired with a 6am morning all week just means aaaaaa.

Happy news though: hopefully we will get to go to the beach because she wants to see the sea cave where the rocks look like a mangled dead body from the right angle. "The Body Cave". It's great. I hope the rocks are still there and the tide/locals haven't moved them or anything :/

[misea]

It was perfectly clear and beautiful and perfect for watching an eclipse except for all the freaking people driving around with their brights on. WHY.

However, I can now comprehend why there are so many mythological moon-eating monsters. That was awesome!

Our campus lights and buildings were blocking the sight for a while T_T But I still got to see it! \o/ AND IT'S UNECLIPSING RIGHT NOW GONNA WATCH FROM MY DORM WINDOW BYEEEE

[Sunflower]

I saw it while driving to the drugstore this evening.  Where I'm staying right now (my parents' house) has hills blocking off the eastern horizon, so I didn't see it till I rounded the corner and WHOO, big smoky brown moon! 

The local Aging Person's Rock Station (KFOG) had a thematically suited playlist as I drove around on the warm night:
Harvest Moon by Neil Young

/>
My Moon My Man
Moondance
Kiko and the Lavender Moon
Walking on the Moon
Honey and the Moon https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=10&v=L125rNM_NXY

(You can probably fill in the blanks...)

Now I'm seeing the first thin sliver of silver coming back as the moon rises over Mt. Diablo and the valley oaks.

[Auleliel]

I was at the grocery store just now, and as I was checking out, the old man behind me pointed at my Bartlett pears and asked what they were. The cashier explained that they were pears. The old man asked what they tasted like, and I assured him that they are delicious. In surprise he asked me if I had ever eaten them before. The cashier and I explained that while such pears are rare in Japan, they are actually quite common in countries such as the USA.
It's interesting when something you think of as commonplace is entirely unheard of to someone else.

[Sunflower]

I was at the grocery store just now, and as I was checking out, the old man behind me pointed at my Bartlett pears and asked what they were. The cashier explained that they were pears. The old man asked what they tasted like, and I assured him that they are delicious. In surprise he asked me if I had ever eaten them before. The cashier and I explained that while such pears are rare in Japan, they are actually quite common in countries such as the USA.
It's interesting when something you think of as commonplace is entirely unheard of to someone else.

But Japan grows pears too, doesn't it?  Or only those apple pears? 

That anecdote's even more interesting to me because I live on the outskirts of Bartlett pear country.  Even the suburb I grew up in is scattered with abandoned old pear orchards in vacant lots that used to be farms and are probably about to become luxury condos.  Bartletts really are delicious!  (When I unpack my cookbooks, I should share my recipe for pear crisp; pears are so much easier to cut up and bake with than apples...)

As a Westerner in Japan, do you find yourself being singled out for questions by curious Japanese?  My cousin and his wife, both tall and blond, taught English in Japan for a year or so when they were newlyweds and eventually got tired of being pointed at.  (Though they remember Japan very fondly otherwise.)

[Auleliel]

But Japan grows pears too, doesn't it?  Or only those apple pears? 

That anecdote's even more interesting to me because I live on the outskirts of Bartlett pear country.  Even the suburb I grew up in is scattered with abandoned old pear orchards in vacant lots that used to be farms and are probably about to become luxury condos.  Bartletts really are delicious!  (When I unpack my cookbooks, I should share my recipe for pear crisp; pears are so much easier to cut up and bake with than apples...)

As a Westerner in Japan, do you find yourself being singled out for questions by curious Japanese?  My cousin and his wife, both tall and blond, taught English in Japan for a year or so when they were newlyweds and eventually got tired of being pointed at.  (Though they remember Japan very fondly otherwise.)

Interestingly enough, the prefecture I'm in, and especially the city I was shopping in, is famous for pears, to the point of having city mascots shaped like pears.
But what they think of as pears are these:


And, yeah, people stare at me a lot. They don't usually ask me questions though. They just stare. So I try to give them something worth staring at. (This has led me to use public transportation as my crafting workshop... I get an awful lot of crocheting done while commuting.)

[DB (f.k.a. DaveBro)]

Spoiler: show

I forgot my wallet today. I skipped breakfast, went to class, got hungry and checked my bank account: $3 wow so rich. I then reached into my bag to check if I had any cash in my wallet, or I'd just call dad and ask him to wire me some money. I rummaged. There was nothing. I texted my sister and turns out it had fallen out of my "[synonym for poopy] abused" (a quote) bag in the car boot last week and she'd put it on the kitchen bench. Where it remains. *insert sad laughter here* And I'm trying to write an artist statement for the examiners to read next month and its all just "ejhheh eggy euyg edgy full b rf af euyrg  ugybfv hf fv y gaff" because I have no energy or brain power from no food and also a headache. aaaaaaaaaaa amazinggggg

Also, my "cool" aunty is visiting! She hasn't been to the island in nearly 20 years. She currently works as a midwife u__u and has done lots of medical job things like the royal flying doctors and ER/A&E and other stuff. She's seen some things o__o
She reminds me of Signe a bit...except she doesn't get fired, she just leaves <_< But she's also a lot like my youngest sister in that she's a bit of a family rebel and stuff. On the day she arrived mum kept sending her text after text reminding her to catch the plane and asking her what she was doing, also call after call (because mum could compete with Onni for familial worrying) with no response and finally I get a text saying "tell your mum I am a 40 year old woman and can catch a plane by myself" ironically she missed the plane and had to catch the next one 9__9 and mum interpreted this as "Oh god she's mad at me she's going to go home and not even come here it's all my fault" but, this was an overreaction.

But anyway she's sharing my room (mum has moved out temporarily to dad's room) and she's kinda an insomniac. From her night shifts and such. But her usual bed time is 3am. So she's been staying up till 3/4am (because of time zone differences) with her laptop and I can't sleep unless there's total darkness like a bat cave PLUS SHE WEARS A POOFY JACKET TO BED AND ITS SO NOISY LIKE WHY WOULDN'T YOU USE THE MILLIONS OF BLANKETS WE GAVE YOU IF YOU'RE COLD?? She's used to really hot outback weather like 40 degrees and stuff, so I guess she's dying in the toasty 11 we've set the heaters onto at night (and I was too HOT Last NIGht) and she's only been here 2 days and I'm already a zombieeeeeeeeee. She's my favourite aunty and she's so cool but I need to do a lot of work at the moment ;__; like, I'm lagging behind from motivation issues anyway, but now i'm too tired to even be unmotivated. I tend to stay up lateish because I have trouble sleeping anyway and paired with a 6am morning all week just means aaaaaa.

Happy news though: hopefully we will get to go to the beach because she wants to see the sea cave where the rocks look like a mangled dead body from the right angle. "The Body Cave". It's great. I hope the rocks are still there and the tide/locals haven't moved them or anything :/

Sleepless AND hungry?  Uff, da!  Rough, all right.  Earplugs and sleep masks are your friends; maybe Auntie has some freebies from the airline? ???

But yay for cool relatives and seeing cool sights! 

[OrigamiOwl]

Interestingly enough, the prefecture I'm in, and especially the city I was shopping in, is famous for pears, to the point of having city mascots shaped like pears.
But what they think of as pears are these:

NASHI PEARSSSSSS (nashi??) they're so cute I love them X)
And the mascots are so cool...if my area had mascots they would probably be apples <_<

Sleepless AND hungry?  Uff, da!  Rough, all right.  Earplugs and sleep masks are your friends; maybe Auntie has some freebies from the airline? ???

But yay for cool relatives and seeing cool sights! 

She wants to go on a trip to Port Arthur and go on a ghost tour! My little sister is on school holidays and says she's going too... I really want to go too but....I don't think we really get on anymore? Like...not as well as we used to? I'm just not good at talking and discussing these days. I'm starting to think I'm turning into my dad, and if that happens I would rather die. Plus, I have so much work to do -__-

ALSO I found out that 1) I only have one exam this semester?!?!?! and 2) it's the day after my graduation exhibition is due at the end of next month HAHAHAHAHHAHAHHA oh god whyyy and then this saturday is my best friends birthday and she wants me to come over for a movie night but that's during Aunty's trip and we haven't properly hung out since before MY birthday (the non proper hangouts consist of coincidently meeting while i was walking into the city and she was getting fish and chips with her mum and parrot, and I steal some food and leave) so we're going to exchange birthday gifts and then I have a presentation about horror films on wednesday but I don't know what my topic will be because I bluffed and told the teacher that I was maybe presenting on the Excorsit because that was on the top of the set list and I panicked but I watched it and don't really want to present on it and write my essay about it? So now I'm trying to find a way to relate Nosferatu to some other film, maybe the Shining because I liked that one? And aaaaaa.

Oh! Oh! Also! For my classes graduation show, we're making a bunch of posters where the text is in different languages or gibberish (because the theme is miscommunication) and I was wondering whether it would be better to have accurately translated text or badly translated text?

[Fimbulvarg]

They just stare. So I try to give them something worth staring at.

Something worth staring at *spaces out* .... witnesssssssss

... Oh! Crocheting you say.

[Laufey]

Something worth staring at *spaces out* .... witnesssssssss

... Oh! Crocheting you say.

Have you any idea how fast I just hit the "Fimby no" -button...

[Fimbulvarg]

Have you any idea how fast I just hit the "Fimby no" -button...

I actually do! 04:48:20 PM (technology is a wonderful thing). Pretty fast for a blartipus~

[viola]

I actually do! 04:48:20 PM (technology is a wonderful thing). Pretty fast for a blartipus~

Actually she hit it at 4:46.... I may have been guilty of hitting it afterwards....

[Yuuago]

Actually she hit it at 4:46.... I may have been guilty of hitting it afterwards....

I might or might not have slammed down on it as well...

[viola]

I might or might not have slammed down on it as well...

mumbles something about how there is a user ID tag in development that may or may not be added later