Vinyl

   The world is crazy right now. Was it like this in 1918 during the Spanish influenza pandemic? It's somewhat comforting that this isn't a mysterious, one-time, never-heard-of thing. Otherwise I think we'd be even more ripe with hysteria. Back then, 50 million lives were lost, a third of the worlds population. It lasted just over 2 years. 

Are we reliving that?

Like, strife with covid-19 is unavoidable. Everywhere you look, it's there. And so, drastically separating myself from social media has been tremendously cathartic.

Personally, lockdown has done wonders. While I realize it's been awful for many others, I also don't want to feel guilty about making the best out of a bad situation. If anything, I hope this can encourage some to acknowledge the good things they've done for themselves during this time. Especially since it's not easy to do (for most).

My whole life, it's been nagging to go out and do stuff, be social, attend events or parties. Staying home indulging in my passtimes wasn't ideal or deemed healthy. I had to get out and get some sun or whatever. And now, finally, it's like lockdown has been 6 months of bliss.

Even with the shittiest news delivered to me yesterday... I know I'll be fine. Sucks, but I'll be fine.

Initially, it was just a lot of gaming. Animal Crossing at first, then the descent went further. But then, lockdown has allowed me to explore other things

upgraded my computer (finally)

became a plant mawm

modded an xbone controller and switch lite. and I wanna do more

am teaching myself how to tint car lights

am starting classes on Monday
bought wood to have a go at building a cute coffin shelf

All of these things have been an awesome learning process. And I'm happy! And if it wasn't for lock down, I probably wouldn't have taken much time to look into this stuff because all I did after work was game when I wasn't studying.

Taking initiative to embrace the solitude I have and refocus that into new hobbies is peeeaaaak. Plus Chickens' support through and through~ life is good. Everything's gonna be okay. The only thing I have to complain about is the curriculum I have to swallow for my diversity in american theatre class.

I'm generally a pessimist. Because somehow, pessimism is funny to me. I'm not sure why. But being positive is hard lol. Draining even. But I'm trying! So.. here's to like, not-as-funny positivity. Ugh, ew

HOKAY THEN. WELL.

I CAN'T STOP BUYING PLANTS?

Like, I want a garden of cool plants. Because stupid vanity. It's so stupid, you'll see why. But I learned about these particular succulents that turn a dark brown/purple in the sun, almost black. Um. They're something. Right now. But on the ride home, there was a spider in one, and it was the cutest little baby in the world.

It was one of those teeny jumping spiders with the huge eyes. We became friends on the drive home. But once I put the plants down in their little house, little buddy jumped away somewhere :(

It's coo. I hope little buddy is doin a happy dance somewhere and like, not a dead dance..

Ahhhh, they're so little and cute.
Um, I repotted them and I think they're dying.

BBQ TIEM

Lifa's family recipe for 74768426 thousand ribs.

  

Like. There aren't words.
My taste buds were goodened.
 

The jiggle graphics work out machine is no joke

Why does DBZ do this to them why

Ladies.
Lifa is single and can set drinks on fire

 Gremlins, tipsy and full, waiting for Homdre's Pehfect Burger.
 

It's like halloween all over again. Except just us.

Brother Lifa VS. Lifa
 Featuring Homdre as teh Background


the Pehfect Burger.
Perfect excellent fantastic delicious.

 He filmed a commercial

They're pretty amazing tho, 10/10
"I'm gonna sew my butthole shut so that it never leaves me" - Brother Lifa

Last weekend, I also learned how to change oil in my car. Which means I now know how to change a tire, and change oil. This makes me feel 2% less useless.

Noodle was so happy. I like my mechanic, but this was important to learn I think. Just-in-casies.
Noodle is my car.
My car is a Nissan Sentra.
Nissan
Nissin

Noodle

And she got a lot of attention this week.

Car tinting? Lights? 

fuck em.

The most god awful meticulous thing I've ever done in my entire life. This was attempt #1.

TnT

 Butchered. Wrekt. Fucking.. .just.. awful. I'd bought 2 rolls of dry-apply vinyl, because the guy on youtube... he made it look so easy. Right? That's how it all begins. You're like, wow that looks cool I want that, I could do it. Lemme do it. So you do it. And it's HORRIBLE. Not just aesthetically but in practice. AWFUL. Hardest thing EVER.

For the first attempt, I had Chicken help me. It was bad. He was clueless, which rendered him useless, which he hates being. And I ... I had done some research, but what I was doing and what he was doing weren't meshing. The end result ... two disgruntled earth signs. He stepped away and left me to it.

Attempt #2: 

 I was starting to grasp how to manipulate the vinyl. Still many imperfections, and a lot less frustrated but... got a new understanding of this fucked up customization. Sadly though, it wasn't how I wanted, so it got trashed.

Um. Someone once told me that they tinted their tail lights, and I liked how it looked. Little did I know... that there are several ways to tint the lights on your car.

There's wet apply vinyl... where you use a spray bottle for the vinyl to lay, squeegee the bubbled out and seal with a heat gun. Then there's spray paint. Like... you just spray paint it. And then there's the fucking way that I did it. YEUGH. It's dry-apply. Which means it's a vinyl with a sticky side and you need to manipulate the sheet with a heat gun and squeegee smash as you go. This is fine if you have like, not insanely shaped tail lights. However... nOODLE has the worst fucking shaped tail lights ever, with 57 edges, curves, bevels and slants. So... like, fuck me. Why did I decide to take it this on myself? Because. I don't know. 

After big angy, I repotted my soon to die succulents. Peaceful death.

 Just kidding. I refuse to let them die.

And later that evening, we got spicy beef noodle soup and watched the sequel to The Shining; Dr. Sleep.
All was well
 It was cool. I like what they did with spirits that won't leave ^_^

How fares Baby Sarlacc? Well, he's really really sad. BUT, his little roots are growing. They're tiny, and nubby, but they're growing.

And I bought more plants.

LOOK AT MY BABIES, THEY'RE BEAUTIFUL

BLACK PETUNIAS? THAT MATCH MY VELVET PANTS? 

WHY, NATURE! YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE ◉‿◉

 

I actually went to the garden center to get lavender, because the mosquitos here love eating Chicken's legs. He looked them up, and they... according to the site.. have yellow fever. So. That must explain it. In my trek, I came across a few different species of lavender. But the one that caught my attention the most was the one with white stems.

tURNS OUT she's a Ghostly Princess Spanish Lavender
looooooooooooooools
It's me
 
jk.
am no princess, am Ghostly ISTJ Spanish Smol Bean

Apparently mosquitos think lavender are dank, so... cheers to dank flowers and pissed mosquitos. And the petunias.. they're called Black Magic Petunias. I shit you not. I didn't even see them until I was on my way out and shat an entire brick. I wanted to buy more, but that'd be greedy. And... who knows if I can even keep this one alive. So... WE'LL SEE. But AREN'T THEY SO PRETTY?!

When I got home, I saw that some neighbors moved in on Ms. Glow.

But the sun roasted them.

I thought my cilantro was just two stems, but more are surfacing. I feel invincible.

fffffffffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

I repotted the petunias into a grey pot because it'd look better with the blaaack
I'm a vain piece of shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii


ATTEMPT #3

This project sucks ass. But I have this sick.. twisted ... thing... about me where.. I delight in meticulousness. It's disgusting. I don't even think I have OCD. Even if I did, whatever. I enjoy detailing. So HERE WE GO

That garage was 89 degrees. I was in there 6 hours.

 But I was on a mission. I was going to tint my tail lights. AND my headlights. I have to take Diversity in American Theatre this semester in order to graduate. So if I have to take a bullshit cultural studies class, then this is fine. It's fine. I can do this.

Also fuck this. I hate it.

From far away... it's fine. I like it. But then

HHHHHHHHHNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGG IT'S SO BAD
i hate it so much lolol

The headlights and the smaller portion of the tail lights were significantly less of a pain in the ass

So, while the shape on the headlight is still ridiculous, the surface didn't have 8 hundred edges and bevels to work around. It was annoying still, but a relief compared to the tail lights. Those took me like 20-ish minutes each. The tail lights took me like... 5 hours. I had to start over on one. So it was really 4 attempts on one side.

Before and after. 

The headlights turned out fine. One is slightly yuck on the edges, but nothing like the back. It's fine lol

This all seriously though was because Chicken was super supportive of me, and bought two more rolls of vinyl. He saw how determined I was to get this right, and gave me cushion to make mistakes and learn how to work with this product. He's so amazing. He even offered to get more vinyl, since I was so unhappy with the tail light wrap, so that I could try again uwu. I declined. This was my learning experience. I gotta own it :D It looks bad but... I tried and failed several times, but I did it. And if there's anything that Breakin' 2: Electric Boogalo taught me, it's to not give up.

I wanted to do this tint earlier in the week so that we could work on his Golf GTI this weekend. He wants to try tinting his tail lights as well. They're nowhere near as obnoxious as Noodles', lucky for him! I'm really enjoying all this car stuff. They're like giant computers on wheels. And for my birthday, I'm gonna get my windows blacked out entirely. At least as black out as possible while also adhering to legalities.

Um what else. I have to change the battery in my Switch Lite. That's gonna be a bitch. It's fat. The battery. No bueno. 

 And class starts Monday. HO BOY.
 

 dIvErSiTy In ThEaTrE

jk I like theatre. In fact. I've been listening to the Magic Flute all night. Mostly the aria. Coworker once told me I look like the queen because of my eyebrows. That's fine. I'll take it. Thank you, even.

 

But I doubt the class will have anything as cool as the magic flute.

ugh.

er, I mean. 

yeah. it'll be so great. positive. woo. yaay

I wish it was just... theatre. And like, not... that.

It's fine :)

HAPPY FRIDAY

Do a thing! Small or medium or big. 

A thing is a thing, that you can did

And doing a thing will make you feel big

Cynthia Seussisms brought to you by exhaustion and the fact that 3 negatives make a positive

hnnng

Wear a mask :D

Neglect

 Show me show me show meeee how you do that trick

The one that makes me REEEE she said

The one that makes me HNNNG she said, 

Threw her claws into my neck

Show me how you do it

and I promise you, I promise you

were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, that they didn't stop to think if they should.

Jurassic Park movies are literally people being greedy and not listening.

HAPPY FRIDAY

This... isn't incriminating, right?

My bff got me that weiner for xmas one year as a gag with another gift. This is its decent into acclimation on new soil.

I want more beef noodle soup T_T

One of the cool things about living here is that it's a house full of gamer fucks who indulge in food and drink. Like, I'll only drink at home, but Lifa brings his A-game every time. He used to bartend in Hawaii, but has this crazy appreciation for mastery of flavor, aesthetic and strength of RIP. We're spoiled rotten. When we had our Halloween party, I can't tell you how crazy his stuff was, on top of being delicious.

He looks like a boss that Shang Tsun can't even handle

Later that day, we had to go see Jeff Goldblum

Watching him drive a manual car is attractive for some reason. I still haven't figured out exactly why that is.... But have this theory where I think it's because it exudes a dominance in taking command of a car, as opposed to idly steering it? It wasn't something that stood out to me before, because the only person I knew to drive a manual car was my friend Haley from high school. We had the same car, hers was manual. She tried teaching me how to drive stick; semi-successful. If it was life or death, I'd recall everything she taught me and eventually make it. But idk how I'd fare in a relaxed, controlled environment where my nerves could easily get the better of me. That said, I wanna fully learn to drive manually.

It's hilarious how Chicken will look at nice cars and can tell if they're manual or automatic. It brings out the snob in him, which I find adorable considering he's generally an all around warm, sweet and empathic person. He took this test thing that matches your personality to a fictional character, by percentages. His top match was Carlisle Cullen lmao. To which I say... yes. Very much so. Warm, caring, empath, watchful, paternal.

Except when a nice car is an automatic LOL
Or when he spots a manual boot on an automatic shifter. LAWD I cri

But I mean... if I can get boob implants, wear fake nails, lashes, make up, weave... ALL OF THE ABOVE, I mean... this is kinda like the same thing. It's like car make up, in a way. Like a push up bra, but for the gear shift. It's an automatic, but it wants to look like a manual. Smol lashes wanna look more flashy. There you go lol. Right? Sort of? No? It's not. Not at all, but the ego is there lol.


On our way out, Lifa wasn't far behind.

looolls

DRIVE-IN!

Chicken took us to a drive-in viewing of Jurassic Park ^_^
It was perfect and cute because we were still in our bubble, but out. No one would talk to us or come  near us!


THEY HAD THE TRUCKS OUT

The ones that always hang out at conventions, but it felt really good to see them again after so long lol. And just awesome in general that the Spectrum went that little extra mile, for immersion. S'cyoo.

🖤

He's getting black, leather driving gloves, and I'm going to faint

We got there at sunset and it looked so beautiful omg

squish ^-^

And then I started crying because a REAL LIVE DINOSAUR SHOWED UP.

MY IMMERSION

Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo sick

It looks small, but we could see fine. Everything just looked amazing at night.
On top of that, we got a $20 voucher to use at the spectrum, but lol we weren't leaving the car. No m'am.

Ah, so cool. 

I need to get rid of this purple shit in my hair. I'm over it.

This month is my birthday. HOY BOY. 

DEATH DRAWS EVER CLOSER

MY COMPUTER STUFF ARRIVED. Nothing crazy, like I said. But just bumped up enough to be like, okay. Frankly anything else was better than I was had tho.

The most important were the cpu, motherboard, and ram. I could upgrade other stuff, but I don't need to.
One thing that I don't like about parts right now is that they're littered with logos. STAHP.

It's so cringe, I was ready to sharpie it out, but my gpu is covering it. Like, why? Why are you loud? No. Shut up.
I don't like logos in general. On anything. It was an important detail when searching for parts. Will they stick out a lot through my case? If they do, I don't want them. Fuck off. It's not about their obnoxious marketing, it's about my machine and how cute she is- that's it.

I overthink a lot.

My bads.
Um, Chicken jumped in and did all the cable management, because if it were up to me, I .... wouldn't have cared that much. And he probably would've had an asthma attack.

He doesn't have asthma, tho

Result;
Pretty!

Matches my controller, and keyboard, and room lights, and and and

Nioh plays better now lol

Ah, yes. The candle.

HEY. Do you ever feel like weird energies are around you? Or maybe you, like myself, had 3 separate awful as fuck nightmares in one night where 3 separate spirits attached themselves to you in the dreams? Well, have I got the solution for you!
My mom says that when you feel like something is lingering, you can help their navigation by lighting a white candle and placing it in a dish of water. You then, in-fucking-directly, say that whatever is hanging out may pass through as they need. DO NOT ADDRESS IT DIRECTLY. Just be like, "i light this so that those who cannot pass, may." And that's it. Leave that shit alone. Light it the next morning, all day, and put it out at night. Light it as much as you feel appropriate. Everytime you light it, say why.
This doesn't force anything, or cleanse, or banish or whatever. This is meant as a guiding, positive energy for any negative or idle energies that can't diffuse. You put your intention into it, your own positive energy, as if to aid. But the thing my mom says also is that addressing directly is a no no. Attachment isn't cool. Even if it's not a bad energy. Just help that shit through and leave it. No snuggles. No banishment. Just ... yeah.


SO YEAH. :D


MOVING ALONG :)
Halloween is almost tomorrow in like 2 months, kind of. So I had to go to Michael's.

These are really, really, really cute. I wanted them all. But also overpriced. Eventually. For now, I shall keep them for my records. To reference. For reasons. Maybe.

While there, I spotted the Halloween Town section. There wasn't much out yet, but there were some miniatures I hadn't gotten before. And... while my Halloween Town stuff is in storage, that only meant that I had to get more. For reasons.

Very important.

MY BABIES. Now they're even cuter.

SO. What happened with Baby Sarlacc? Lols... we'll get to that

Chicken made us yummy dinner, so I rewarded him by polishing his toenails.

It's not great, but y'know. It's there now.

So here's the little house area that Chicken set up for the babies. The only one that was growing out of the herbs was the basil. I thought I had killed everything else. But then one morning, Chicken was like... did you look at the cilantro? And I was like, nani?

CILANTRO FETUS

That was earlier this week. Now, it hauled ass out of the dirt. And another basil baby came out, too!!

The mint and chili peppers have yet to sprout... but... I mean this took 4 years, so maybe?

My succulents are... not totally dead.
Miss Glow (echeveria afterglow), left, is ... confusing. She's growing for sure, but some of her leaves got all kinds of messed up. Not just dry, but like... they had stuff under them. So those had to be removed. But I'm learning, slowly. Less watering. Waiting for the soil to dry out completely before watering again. And the little area with the shade has been awesome for all of them. Especially my Purple Heart (tradescantia pallida) baby, LOOK AT HER. She's getting biiiiiig. She's definitely the healthiest, happiest one. I figured that one out much faster, but I think it was because she'd been dried out for like... over a year lol. So all the watering has actually been helpful for her, instead of like... fatal. Which brings us to Baby Sarlacc (haworthia venosa) who is currently in his very own ICU.

My baby boy is still alive!! I took a vow to not give up and let these babies die lol. So. Yah. 

Um... he's recovering from root rot. In the last post, I showed his roots... they were all destroyed basically, and I had to remove everything that looked unhealthy. Which... was... everything. Sadly. The good news was that it hadn't spread into the stem and leaves. 

After ripping his legs off, I had to let the stem callous over. He looked sad and stressed, so I sprayed a little bit of water into his soil. That was a huge mistake, as the next day, the stem that was callousing over had begun to get root rot again. Fucking... fuck. So, I had to snip that off, and literally neglect him. This was days ago, like Tuesday, Wednesday I think. So... basically, after more research, I have to leave him alone forever, until his roots grow in. Which I thought was weird because I thought I killed him, but this morning.... His little nubs on the stem are growing back in!!!! The stem calloused over, and there are a bunch of little white nubs growing out of the stem and and and... He's recovering. 

Big lesson learned here.... for haworthia venosas at least...

Do not use rocks at the bottom of your pot, it can clog the holes

Water ONCE a week in a well draining soil

No direct sunlight, but put in bright indirect light

Fucking leave it alone, it loves neglect

If you notice the leaves browning, check the roots. They don't like a lot of water, so it's unlikely that it's thirsty. Repot it in dry soil if the roots are sad. If root rot, but it hasn't reached the stem or leaves yet, remove all the rotten bits, and leave the plant out to dry for a few days. Leave it alone. Fucking just... don't even look at it. It'll be sad, but leave it alone. Wait for it to sprout roots.

\Neglect, neglect, neglect. That's the word of the week. IF YOU LOVE THEM, NEGLECT YOUR HAWORTHIAS.

Alright. Point across.

 

Green onions boutta get soiled

My lil babies.
I'm worried about my venus fly trap. It's not growing. But it's not dying either. Idk. I get anxious-ish when results aren't showing. But I guess, if it's not dying, that's a result too?

I'm totally understanding the addiction to plants and gardening now. I just want them to be happy and to grow up big and strong lol. I want MORE. Been researching more to get. And.. I will get them. And they'll all be in their cyoo little house that Chicken made them. And and and be all cyoo and stuff  ^_^

And eventually I wanna get an aquarium, with lots of plants and decor to match my plants. I'm gonna get more stuff to decorate my plants with. Mostly the stuff out of storage. My little halloween stuff. PUT IT EVERYWHERE. And when we get kitties and a puppy, I'll make them cyoo gravestone and coffin beds uwu. Last night, we were deliberating on materials for another shelf. Because 1 coffin shelf isn't enough. And this time, we can make one :D

HAPPY IT'S ALMOST HALLOWEEN TOMORROW IN 2 MONTHS KIND OF!

Positive reinforcement training is more effective than punishment training on dogs

Don't litter

Wear a mask 

^_^