Minasan konnichiwa! ^o^

If your Japanese is a little on the rusty side, no worries. I simply greeted you all with a 'Hello, everyone! ^o^' But if you feel like derusting your Japanese a little, ((Or if you're a creeper and just want to hear my voice,)) Click here to find out how to properly pronounce the phase. ^_~ Don't feel afraid to repeat it aloud yourself a few times --- That's said to be one of the best ways to remember a phrase in another language!

Now after that mentally enlightening yet mentally exhausting experience, I'm sure you're ready to just relax and check out today's update, aren't you? Don't bother answering that, 'cause I've already decided you are! ^_^

And yes, you read the word 'update' correctly. Unfortunately there's only one today, as I've been pretty busy with Halloween preparation* since the last entry ... Although this update is pretty decent! What I did was update all of the photographs and most of the accompanying descriptions on the Room page --- Only after I spent the entirety of 19 October cleaning said room from top to bottom in preparation for the new photos I was planning to take! ((Nothing to do with the fact I hadn't properly cleaned it since 2008 ... >_>))

But if I can't provide you guys with an assload of entertaining updates, I can still provide you with an assload of entertainment via the blog segment of this entry, right ...? Right!

The first entertaining story is about a mishap that took place late yesterday afternoon, while I was getting ready to go out for a bit. I was in the bathroom, having just brushed my teeth and washed my face, and I was in the process of reapplying my eyeliner, eyeshadow, mascara, lip colour, and so on.

Halfway through, I decided I would curl my lashes before slapping on the mascara, as I usually do, so I grabbed my ancient eyelash curler, ((I believe it used to be my Mum's long before I even knew what an eyelash curler was ... But that's another story, one which I'll get to after this one's finished,)) And leaned close to the mirror as I clamped down on my eyelashes.

After waiting approximately fifteen seconds, I opened the eyelash curler and moved it away from my eyelid. That is, I tried to move it away from my eyelid.

Apparently Mr Ancient Eyelash Curler had different plans. Plans that involved him clamping himself to my eyelashes and then not letting go. Call me insane, but I'm pretty sure this isn't normal eyelash curler behaviour.

'Oh, for fuck's sake. Oh, fuck.' I swore under my breath at Mr Ancient Eyelash Curler. After a few more seconds of this, I decided that boxing his ears wasn't going to make him let go and hop obediently away, so I gave the curler a little tug. Nothing seemed to happen, so I tugged more firmly. This time, the only thing that happened was my eyelid stretched outward and a single eyelash was pulled out of my lash line. I winced a little at this, then took a closer look in the mirror.

'Oh, fuck.' I whispered again to the little metal bastard, seeing that at least five of my lashes on the outer corner of my eye were firmly stuck in the beauty tool/torture device. Switching hands, I began to pry out the little rubber piece that clamps down on your lashes, ((Which occasionally falls out on its own,)) And hoping that they were perhaps wedged under that.

They weren't.

They were instead firmly jammed into a minuscule metal joint on the curler, and they were absolutely not tugging loose, no matter how hard I pulled. Beginning to panic, eye half closed, I stumbled from the bathroom and felt my way blindly downstairs, 'Um, you guys?' I called out to my brothers, who were the only ones downstairs at that moment. 'I'm, uh, in a bit of a conundrum here.'

My eleven year old brother, Craig, took one look at ol' Mr Ancient Eyelash curler attached to my eyelid and immediately got a rather sick look on his face, so I knew he was going to be of no help. I turned to my other brother, seventeen year old Cameron, and explained my little situation to him.

'I've got it,' he said, nodding in a sage manner.

'Yeah?' I asked hopefully, looking similar, I imagined, to a character caught in a Saw trap.

'Yeah.' He responded. 'It's simple. We just cut your eyelashes free.'

'What?!' I yelped. 'But ... But I like my eyelashes! I can't just cut half of them off! They're one of my best features!'

'Yeah, eyelashes are cool and everything, but you can't walk around forever with that attached to them.' He replied, in an annoyingly sensible manner.

I sighed in semi despair and turned away from him, moving to the mirror next to the front door to examine the eyelash curler once again. 'Never mind, I'll just --- Hey!' I cut off myself in surprise.

'What?' Cameron asked curiously.

'I got it off!' I turned around to face him, holding Mr Asshole Eyelash Curler far away from my face --- He had miraculously come free from my lashes of his own accord!

I still have no clue how this managed to happen, but to be honest, I didn't care. I was just glad to toss the little fucker directly into the nearest garbage container so I could get back to slathering on a fuckload of black eyeliner.

... So I guess the moral of this story is not to use your mother's eyelash curlers from 1457 or whenever. o_O;

And now for the second eyelash curler story I mentioned earlier! When I was about fifteen years old, I happened to notice something on the TV. An episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show was on, and I noticed Ellen was doing something to her eyelashes with some sort of handheld metal contraption.

Frowning, I turned up the volume and watched. Ellen was saying something about how she liked to 'hold hers for one one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand, four one thousand, five one thousand ...' and she continued on for an inappropriate amount of time while the audience laughed in appreciation.

Having not heard anything Ellen had said before this, I came up with the only possible explanation --- The metal contraption she was holding was clearly some new fangled beauty tool that clipped away those unsightly and undesirable long eyelashes! That's obviously why she was counting for an over extended period of time, I thought. She's playing up the fact that everyone must feel nervous clipping their eyelashes the first few times.

Why anyone would want to clip off their eyelashes, I wasn't quite sure, but the world's always been obsessed with strange beauty methods, especially if said beauty method is currently 'in', so I figured it had to be something like that.

It wasn't until several years later, seeing my mother use Mr Ancient Eyelash Curler himself, that I figured it out. And even then, I had to ask what she was doing, and what the metal contraption was called. Thinking back, I can only shake my head in pity over the ignorance of my younger self.

But then again, I never truly started 'getting into' the finer details of makeup and beauty tools until just this year, really --- So I suppose I can't pity my fifteen year old beauty knowledge too much, haha. Besides, I was too busy watching Pokémon and climbing trees and doing crafts and reading Animorphs books to even care about makeup related things!

Thankfully, though, I'm much more mature than I used to be. I mean, I still watch Pokémon and climb trees and do crafts and read Animorphs books ... But now I manage the time I spend on each of these activities so I have a few minutes to spare for beauty erudition, as well. ^_^

I am, quite clearly, the epitome of maturity.

*Don't miss the next Updates/Blog entry, as it's going to feature some more new photos of said Halloween prep! ^_~