DIY, wishlist, quotation

[tarigwaemir]

Haste Street on the Feast of St. Albert the Great

After weeks of fiddling around with my wireless channel and getting annoyed at my Internet connection winking out at the most inopportune moments, I finally found a reliable way of amplifying my signal: placing a mirror behind the antenna. >_>

Have been trying to fix clogged sink because I'm too embarrassed to call my landlady again (she's had multiple calls from me over the past few weeks because of the perpetually clogged sink, not to mention all the lock-out incidents I've had while leaving the apartment without my keys to do laundry). Clearly, I'm not cut out to be a plumber. I turned to Google for help and tried pouring boiling water down the sink, running the garbage disposal (to the point where its overload switch got triggered), and fiddling with the pipes, the latter of which caused a huge mess as the garbage disposal fell out while I was loosening pipe joints. -_- I've cleaned up the mess somewhat, but mopping up the floor only reminded me just how filthy the floor was (I mop it every other week but that's never enough if even one person wears shoes inside the apartment). Also, my room is disorganized, which grates exceedingly on my nerves.

Well, since I'm wallowing in self-pity today, I might as well indulge in some wishful thinking.

STEP ONE:
Make a post (public, friends-locked, filtered...whatever you're comfortable with) to your LJ. The post should contain your list of 10 holiday wishes. The wishes can be anything at all, from simple and fandom-related ("I'd love a Snape/Hermione icon that's just for me") to medium ("I wish for _____ on DVD") to really big ("All I want for Christmas is a new car/computer/house/TV.")

The important thing is, make sure these wishes are things you really, truly want. If you wish for real life things (not fics or icons), make sure you include some sort of contact info in your post, whether it's your address or just your email address where Santa (or one of his elves) could get in touch with you. Also, make sure you post some version of these guidelines in your LJ, or link to this post (it'll be public) so that the holiday joy will spread.

STEP TWO:
Surf around your friends' list (or friends'-friends, or just random journals) to see who has posted their list. And now here's the important part: If you see a wish you can grant, and it's in your heart to do so, make someone's wish come true. Sometimes someone's trash is another's treasure, and if you have a leather jacket you don't want or a gift certificate you won't use--or even know where you could get someone's dream purebred Basset Hound for free--do it.

You needn't spend money on these wishes unless you want to. The point isn't to put people out, it's to provide everyone a chance to be someone else's holiday elf--to spread the joy. Gifts can be made anonymously or not--it's your call. There are no rules with this project, no guarantees, and no strings attached. Just...wish, and it might come true. Give, and you might receive. And you'll have the joy of knowing you made someone's holiday special.

Wishlist, version feasible:

• Music: Julia Kent's first album, more Kent albums, My Aunt Mary albums, more Spitz albums, recommendations for funky electronica, chanson, post-punk
  
• Fanfiction: Mushishi, Shion no Ou/Hikaru no Go crossover, Glass Mask, Monster
  
• Wallpaper: 1440x900 resolution
  
• Snail mail: postcards, photographs, cards, letters

Wishlist, version greedy:

• Time
  
• Time and airfare to New York, Boston, Korea, Europe
  
• Asus Eee PC 8G in Galaxy Black
  
• iPod Touch and iPod Shuffle
  
• Comfortable pair of ankle boots
  
• Hardcover edition of the new Pevear and Volokhonsky translation of War and Peace
  
• An annotated edition of the complete Sherlock Holmes

Wishlist, version necessary:

• Black trouser pants that fit me - the pair I own came out of the dryer with a huge tear
  
• New laundry hamper - mine is falling apart
  
• More shirts - not likely to happen until I go home because I hate going shopping

I've been trying to keep track of wishlists in my memories but let me know if I missed yours.

Have another quote from Flaubert's Parrot, while I find excuses not to go to sleep early.

My reading might be pointless in terms of the history of literary criticism; but it's not pointless in terms of pleasure. I can't prove that lay readers enjoy books more than professional critics; but I can tell you one advantage we have over them. We can forget. Dr Starkie and her kind are cursed with memory: the books they teach and write about can never fade from their brains. They become family. Perhaps this is why some critics develop a faintly patronising tone towards their subjects. They act as if Flaubert, or Milton, or Wordsworth were some tedious old aunt in a rocking chair, who smelt of stale powder, was only interested in the past, and hadn't said anything new for years. Of course, it's her house, and everybody's living in it rent free; but even so, surely it is, well, you know...time?

Whereas the common but passionate reader is allowed to forget; he can go away, be unfaithful with other writers, come back and be entranced again.

A very happy birthday to canis_m! (Uh, by my clock, I'm late, so make that a belated happy birthday.)

Yours &c.

Post-script: A week ago, jaebi_lit proposed a postcard exchange where people write down five things that make them happy and send them out to another person participating in the exchange. Isn't that a great idea? I kept meaning to link it but forgot to do so until now. More information here.

Comments

[ramble-corner.livejournal.com]

^_______^
Your wishlist
Fanfiction: Mushishi, Shion no Ou/Hikaru no Go crossover , Glass Mask, Monster
I went XDXD at the second category XD.

ouch sorry to hear about your recent troubles with the net and the sink

[troisroyaumes]

XDDDDDD Someone really needs to write one!

Heh, thanks, it's not unmanageable, just annoying. I'll either get it sorted out this weekend or call the landlady on Monday.

[owari.livejournal.com]

Aww, don't be embarrassed to call your landlady. I assume you pay her rent for a reason. She's obligated to help you out in regard to repairs and the like. Do you not have a list of plumbers you can call who are associated with your landlady? That way you can pay them to come out, keep a proof of purchase, and then knock the amount off your next month's rent. That's what I used to do when I was renting apartments.

As for clearing blocked sinks, well, have you tried undiluted bleach? That usually works for me, and when it doesn't, I just kind of unscrew the pipes, pick the gunk out and stick everything back together again. Behold my l33t plumber skillz. ::strikes a pose::

Shion no Ou/Hikaru no Go crossover

I would try writing that if only I could bring myself to be more interested in Shion no Ou. I enjoy it and everything, but I find it to be a little bit soulless. Then again, it does deal with the darker aspects regarding the pro player world Hikaru no Go never really touched on (crazy stalkers, death threats, etc).

But hey, Ayumi is ♥.

[troisroyaumes]

Well, I generally hate asking other people for help. ^_^;; But yes, if I can't fix it this weekend, I should probably call her on Monday. I kind of wish my roommate would make the call for once, but I guess she doesn't feel responsible for it since she doesn't use the kitchen as often as I do. I mean, it's been manageable: we can usually do dishes before the sink fills up with too much water but then we have to wait forever for the water to go back down again.

I haven't tried bleach...although is that necessarily safe? I don't want to corrode the pipes. Then again, I suppose the stuff in Liquid Plumber is even more corrosive and we already tried that the first time the sink clogged. -_- I also already tried unscrewing the pipes--which is when the garbage disposal fell out--and I could clear out the water backed up in the disposal, but unfortunately the pipes for the sink trap are a lot older and can't be unscrewed with bare hands. >_<;;

Yes, I think Shion no Ou is a fundamentally different sort of series than Hikaru no Go. Still, everyone keeps mentioning the potential for crossover, but no one has written one. ;_;

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

The wishlist meme already? NO, I'm not ready!!

[troisroyaumes]

It's been starting to circulate around my friends list, and I think it started around this time last year too. Post a list! It's never too early to start thinking about holidays! ^_^

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

No, I refuse! No holiday posts until after Thanksgiving! *stamps foot & throws tantrum*

[tryogeru.livejournal.com]

Have you tried that Liquid Plumber stuff? Honestly, I don't think it's worked very well with us, but it of course depends on what it is that is stuck. If it's a kitchen sink (as it sounds like, since I hardly think one'd have a bathroom garbage disposal) then I think you should really pay attention to what it is that is stuck. Boiling water would only help if it is congealed fat that is stuck. If it is solids, then I think your best bet would be something they sell in hardware stores like Home Depot. It kind of looks like this long metal tube that has a wire inside. I've only seen my father use it, but from what I remember, he runs the tube into the drain until it hits the blockage, then the inside wire thing spears (hooks? clamps?) the mass and pulls it out or he uses it to whack at the mass until it breaks apart. Kind of like...an angioplasty, really.

Loosening pipes I think are quite dangerous because you could end up with a perpetually leaky pipe if you mess up the threading of the pipe.

If your pipes keep getting clogged, I think you should re-think how you do dishes. It seems even though you have a garbage disposal, it's not working out very well.

Ok, name me a CD for Christmas!

[troisroyaumes]

Yeah, we tried Liquid Plumber the very first time it happened, although I've read later that it's not good for kitchen pipes. Besides, it's completely ineffective.

Not sure if I want to spend $20 on a plumber's snake, which is what those are called, since it's probably easier to just buckle down and call the landlady. -_-

I already tried loosening pipes: hence the mention of the garbage disposal unit falling out. Managed to put it back intact (hey, I'm pretty good with mechanical things, you know) and nothing is leaking. If I could loosen the pipe with the sink trap, I'd try that, since I'm pretty sure that's where the clog is, but unfortunately I can't loosen the joints at all. -_- So never fear, no more pipe-fiddling for me.

Previously, the sink got clogged whenever I put too much solids down the garbage disposal, even though I did run water through the system. I think the main issue is that I didn't run the water down enough. But this time, the clog happened before I had a chance to use the disposal at all. I use a lot of running water and soap when I wash dishes, so I'm fairly sure it has nothing do with that. I think the garbage disposal is causing more problems than anything else because it allows water to back up in the pipes instead of rushing straight down through the trap. My roommate does have the distressing tendency to take out the sink strainers, but I never wash dishes without strainers covering the drain. I think mostly it's a cumulative problem; the clog probably wasn't fixed perfectly the first time around. Anyway, once I get it fixed, I'm never using the garbage disposal again; we never have problems like this at home, even though the plumbing system there is decades older, and I think it's because nothing solid ever goes down into the sink system.

CD: Julia Kent, Dorval. ^_^ Should be findable on Amazon. What do you want?

[tryogeru.livejournal.com]

Yeah, garbage disposals are the devil, and contribute to the increasing sickness of our ocean's ecosystems.

Bad disposal, no biscuit.

Is it this (http://www.amazon.com/Delay-Julia-Kent/dp/B000ULQUX0/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1195255988&sr=8-1)?

I'd like the movie "My Best Friend is a Vampire" (Robert Sean Leonard was like 18 or 19 in this movie XD). You can find it on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Best-Friend-Vampire-Robert-Leonard/dp/6301928040/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=video&qid=1195256901&sr=8-1) or maybe on ebay. But be careful, sometimes on ebay they sell it as a "DVD" but it's a different movie. I doubt this movie ever went into DVD.

[troisroyaumes]

Yeah, that's the one.

Cool, I'll get you the movie then. ^_^

[jaebi-lit.livejournal.com]

Garbage disposals are evil. What kind of laundry hamper are you looking for? The mesh ones that collapse into a small bundle are durable, mine is going on nine years old.

Thanks for linking!

[troisroyaumes]

I have a mesh hamper that folds up too, but there's a tear on the bottom. I guess I was less careful with mine than you. ^_^;; I like it actually and can probably still use it for another year, but the tear is getting wider and wider, so I feel like I shouldn't wait until it grows large enough for everything to start falling out.

Oh, thanks for the heads up on the La Rondine standing room tickets. By the time I saw your text, it was too late to tell my friend, but she's not exactly an opera fan so I don't think she'd be too disappointed. Tonight's performance was supposed to be her introduction to opera. But her boyfriend also got her tickets to Macbeth for her birthday, so she'll still get the chance to see a production, even if it's not La Rondine. ^_^

[jaebi-lit.livejournal.com]

This production of Macbeth is wonderful. The staging is a fantastic abstract/surreal and Thomas Hampson has a rich baritone that's a delight to listen to.

P.S. I went for a standing room ticket today and it turns out that yes, the balcony acoustics are better, but the tradeoff is that the actors are little stick figures. Bring binoculars if you have them.

[troisroyaumes]

Oh, there were no screen projections to get a close-up look? Sadly, I think my opera glasses are at home. ;_; Still, I think the balcony at the Met is even higher than the SF Opera House, and since I've only ever watched from balcony seats, I won't know what I'm missing out on. ^_^

Aw, now I kind of want to go see Macbeth too. Maybe I should get one of the "mini" subscriptions...the "Scandal in Scotland" series (Macbeth, Ariodante, Lucia di Lammermoor) is still open. I was also looking at the Out-of-Town series (Lucia di Lammermoor, Ariodante, Das Rheingold), but those would all be summer performances.

Speaking of opera, I started listening to a recording of the Rake's Progress. I didn't realize the libretto was in English! I was also surprised that it didn't sound as avant-garde as I expected. Am really looking forward to Monday! ^_^

[imbrii.livejournal.com]

I've been terribly busy lately, but if I get some time I wouldn't mind making/finding you a wallpaper of the specified resolution. Thing is, I don't know what you go for in a wallpaper...

[troisroyaumes]

I like "tech" or "space" themed walls or really anything with eye-popping CG, which, uh, is probably not the best thing to ask for. ^_^;; But as long as it's pretty, I'll like it. I have very few icons on my desktop, and they're all on the right (with my dock on the left), if that helps.

[imbrii.livejournal.com]

What immediately comes to mind is some stuff I have by Greg Martin, who does some shiny cg/space stuff.

http://gallery.artofgregmartin.com/wallpapers/index.html

I'll gladly crop any of those for you, and if that's along the lines of what you like I can upload a few more that don't seem to be hosted any more.

If you're looking for something a little different, just say so and I'll hunt around some more.

[troisroyaumes]

Ooh thanks, that's perfect. I can do the cropping on my own. This link is amazing! ^_^

[imbrii.livejournal.com]

His site is really neat...I'm just sad he took down the tutorial of how to make images like those.

Here's all the ones I have.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v600/imbrii/aogm18.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v600/imbrii/aogm17.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v600/imbrii/aogm16.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v600/imbrii/aogm15.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v600/imbrii/aogm14.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v600/imbrii/aogm13.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v600/imbrii/aogm12.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v600/imbrii/aogm11.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v600/imbrii/aogm10.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v600/imbrii/aogm9.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v600/imbrii/aogm8.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v600/imbrii/aogm7.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v600/imbrii/aogm6.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v600/imbrii/aogm5.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v600/imbrii/aogm4.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v600/imbrii/aogm3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v600/imbrii/aogm2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v600/imbrii/aogm1.jpg

Enjoy!