It'd be more accurate to say cats, since there's many of them. Two of them I've never seen in person; I only know them from the "Lost Cat" signs that have been going up in my neighborhood.

I've seen other cats too recently, and one of the sightings was during PE class. I know that there's a cat who lives near my high school and the middle school that I went to, and I saw it from a distance when I was jogging alongside the fence. (Unfortunately, a few students were dashing towards the cat and scared it off.) The others were ones I saw while walking, in a car, or just standing outside my house - though of course all of them were scared off by cars or by my presence.

I've always wondered if I smell like dogs or something, because cats are almost always hostile toward me. The only time a cat ever kind of liked me was when I was petting one on my lap at Humane Society, and even then, in the beginning, it was trying to stick its claws into me until it finally relaxed and started to purr faintly. Actually, I can't remember whether I'd had an allergic reaction that time. Maybe I wasn't allergic to cats just yet. Or maybe there are certain kinds I'm not allergic to. I did read in an issue of Cat Fancy magazine that Siberian cats are hypoallergenic; let me know if you know other species of cats that people aren't allergic to.

The most recent cat sighting, anyhow, was at a place near where I live. I'm a member of the Photo Club at my school, and when they offered a short "field trip" to a local park (well, it's just a big amount of open land, has hiking trails and a farm and tennis courts, and people like to fly their remote-controlled helicopters), I figured I'd come along. I thought it was quite a nice outing, as I got to explore a part of the neighborhood that I haven't seen for many years (last time I saw the farm was back when I had a field trip in elementary school). Most interestingly, I saw wild birds, like California quails...and even turkeys.

The farm itself had various animals, like ducks, chickens, pigs (they were huge!), and allegedly horses (I didn't see them, but I heard something about horses being there). And there's a cat. I think she/he (still can't tell apart animal genders, haha) was a more popular attraction than the other animals, seeing as kids kept coming over to try and pet her/him. (The cat wasn't overly fond of socializing, though, and sometimes she/he got intimidated and ran into the barn, if that's what you call it) One of my friends, who was with me, wondered why the cat seemed relatively clean despite living on the farm with no apparent owner. I guess cats in the wild learn to take care of themselves pretty well. I do wonder what would happen if we did the same with children. Us humans are funny since we raise children for almost two decades; I've never heard of other animals sticking with their children for so long. Maybe we'd actually fare better if we had to grow up and learn to survive at an earlier age.

Labels: allergies, animals, birds, cat, cat fancy, cats, farm, neighborhood, people, survival, turkey

I've had a few previous run-ins with cats. Most of the meetings were with cats in the neighborhood, except for two occasions, one at my mom's friend's house and another at a Humane Society. Cats have never seemed to like me much. They either stare at me suspiciously and run off if I try to approach, or they keep turning away from me to show their disinterest. In fact, my parents' friend's cat even bared its teeth (though I'd heard that he - or was it she? - didn't like people much to begin with) when I attempted to get friendly with it.

So I wasn't quite sure if I really ought to be volunteering to help out with a Town Cats event at PetCo. It was an adoption fair for cats, and I was supposed to be helping with the cleanup - dismantling the cages and that sort of thing. I figured I might as well go. Despite all of my cajoling for the past couple of years, I have still been unable to convince my mother that we ought to get a cat or dog. It's probably because of one of these reasons...

1. My mom never liked cats or dogs much. It seems that her side of our family isn't fond of animals in general, since they didn't have pets when my mom was young.

2. No one has time to take care of it. There's no one to feed lunch to a cat or dog, and if we got a dog we'd have to walk it every day. (I think that'd be good exercise, but it is time-consuming.) Cats are lower maintenance, but as my mother considers them to be rather disloyal and not as useful (for instance, dogs could guard the house while we're away), that's out of the question. I don't think my mom has ever really spent time with a cat, though, so how would she know?

3. My mom is afraid of dogs. She thinks that the big ones are scary and that they will bite her. It's ridiculous considering that she's never even been bitten. And I don't think it's good to be judging animals' temperaments by their sizes. I've told her to pet dogs, that they won't hurt her, but she always refuses.

4. I'm allergic to cats, so I can't have one. Three times I have gotten rashes after coming in contact with cats. Of course, it's not life-threatening, I could still have a cat, but it sure would be annoying suffering from allergies all the time. (And since cats don't like me, I think I'd get along better with a dog.)

5. My dad is allergic to dogs, according to the doctor. I might've mentioned this in an old post. The doctor told him that he's allergic to dogs (guess he found out by giving my dad an injection of something doggish - yeah, I know, that's not a real word - and deduced that he's allergic) but I have never seen him react to dogs. So it's probably a lie. But I don't know for sure.

Anyways, I've wanted to have a dog since about second grade, though I didn't start to nag often until middle school. But even after years and years, I have not managed to convince my mom. She half-jokingly made an offer to me many years ago, saying that if I quit going on the Internet, I could have a dog. I suspect that she only offered that to me because she didn't think I would be able to do it. I have considered quitting the computer (except for homework purposes, I suppose) so that I can have a dog, but I'm not completely sure she would hold up her end of the bargain. Besides, there are lots of things on the Internet that I still want to do - post on my blog, for one. And so I am still stuck in this dogless, catless state. I'll probably be like this until I move out (my mother is always saying I can have a dog...when I'm an adult. It's rather frustrating. She says I'm not responsible enough to take care of one anyways, since I've broken my DS and a camera, as well as lost a jacket, homework assignments, and various other things).

Labels: adoption, allergies, animals, cat, deal, dog, fair, family, internet, mother, pet, petco, reasons, town cats

Goldfish crackers. The wonderful, smiling cheesy snacks. One time I saw a package of Goldfish and the part with the ingredients even said "Made with Smiles". As crackers go, I think Goldfish are really cute.

It seems like they don't always have smiles, though, despite their claim. If I can't get enough to eat from the rest of the salad bar, which is one of the lunch lines at my school, then I add in some Goldfish. I was studying them and I realized some of them seem to be faceless! What a shame. Those Goldfish must have a rough time in life, having nothing but a blank expression.

But then again, smiles aren't always heartfelt, are they? I remember having read in books how characters would smile, but the smile wouldn't "reach their eyes". It was only a smile of the mouth. Not a true smile. It kind of reminds me of smiling for photographs. If I don't really feel like smiling, but I still have to, my face looks awkward in the picture. It would look right if a person was caught while really laughing or smiling, though. I don't really like to take pictures on purpose because of it. I think it's better to take photos of life in the moment.

Sometimes it can be hard, going through each day. I still have to be strong. Most of the time I feel like I need to keep my troubles to myself and pretend everything is okay, when really inside of me it's all turmoil. And there are times when I feel like I have to let someone know, or I'm going to explode, and I try to let it show through my emotions, body language, and such visual signs, but I don't know if anyone is able to pick up on it. Most of the time it's okay. I can still make it through each day, one after another. And I can even enjoy myself. But I wonder how long it will be before my vase, filling up with all my worries and doubts, will start to spill the water in it.

Then again, this could be just another challenge of life. Perhaps it's something I'll grow out of. Just as some people who are allergic to peanuts lose the allergy when they age, I suppose there are some problems that will cease to be problems when you experience more things, different things, significant things. I wonder if how someone acts is influenced by nature or nurture. Are you born a certain way? Can you change it? Or are things just not meant to be changed? Is it a mix of both? It's still a mystery.

Since I just mentioned allergies, I thought of something strange. I just went to my mom's friend's house yesterday. The last time I visited them was a few years ago. Back then my mom's friend's daughter hadn't gone to college yet, and their cat was in the house. Now they have a different house, and the cat is in the garage. Apparently, my mother's friend's wife and her daughter became allergic to cats. Did they change cats? Or did they develop new allergies? I think that's really strange. I thought that once you got used to something, you would be less likely to be allergic to it, not more likely.

I'm going on to some other news now. On Friday, the musical electives at my school - choir, orchestra, and band - performed. The schedule was very wacky in order to make room for the three assemblies (since there are a lot of students, it's better to have three different performances, and one third of the non-performers attend each one). I attended the first assembly, where the choir, beginning strings (orchestra), beginning band, advanced orchestra, and advanced band performed.

The advanced orchestra performed the music to the film Spirited Away, which made me really happy because I really like that music. I think two years ago I heard it performed by the advanced orchestra at that time. And I'm a fan of the Studio Ghibli films. The other music played by the advanced orchestra was Palladio, which is apparently the music to a De Beers diamond commercial. Even when I heard it, I wasn't able to think of the commercial...Was the commercial really old? Like from 1993 or something? Or do I just not watch much television? D:

Labels: allergies, cat, change, crackers, de beers, diamond, emotions, expression, goldfish, mask, music, orchestra, palladio, photography, problem, school, smile, snacks, spirited way, strength

Recently, my father was telling me about a lady. He has never met her, but she is famous. The lady was pretty much an unknown person, up until she got plastic surgery. (She said she only got a nose job, but people seemed to think she'd had more surgery than that done to her face, when comparing before and after pictures) Then she started getting noticed and she was even able to become the host of the show Big Brother. So, it seems to me that if you have enough money, then you can go places. (Of course, there are things that can't always be obtained with money, but that's a different story.)

There's always the flip side, though. Do you recall the post ◆ from riches to rags? (It's in the August 2009 archive, if you don't remember it) About how Peter Pan was rich but then because of business problems he quickly lost his money? As the saying goes, "Money comes and goes."

Even in history class, we talked about money. England had colonies because land = power, and also you can tax the people in the colonies. So the king of England, back during the times when the USA was still colonies and not a country, let the colonies do what they liked (to an extent) as long as he got his taxes. My teacher says the king had dollar signs in his eyes. Click for a "visual representation"

Anyhow, as I am writing this, I am not feeling too comfortable. Once my language arts teacher said that us kids were germ factories! I was kind of offended since I wasn't sick at that time. But then apparently one of the people who really is a "germ factory" tried to expand its business, because I somehow or other caught a cold. I have been suffering from a sore throat and either a runny nose or sneezing (depends on where I am and what time of day). I hope it will be over soon (today is the second day of symptoms). Luckily I don't think it is swine flu since if it was, I would have trouble breathing and also have a fever.

The weather nowadays is annoying. In the morning it's foggy and cold, and it's kind like San Francisco (since the fog moves in and out of San Francisco all the time). But then the fog goes away and it gets really hot outside. I wish the weather would either decide to be hot or cold. Seems to me the weather is "wishy-washy".

I remember that one year (I think it was in seventh grade, in the first trimester?) the weather suddenly changed. It became cold when previously it had been warm. I felt kind of woozy in second period, and had trouble concentrating on my math test. The discomfort grew in third and fourth period and eventually I felt so terrible I went to the nurse's office during lunchtime, so I could call a parent to pick me up and take me home. I hope it doesn't happen again this year. I guess I am too sensitive to my surroundings. (Like all those allergies I have)

Labels: allergies, america, big brother, cold, colonies, dizzy, dollar signs, england, eyes, germ factory, headache, king, land, money, plastic surgery, quote, sickness, swine flu, taxes, weather

While I was in Australia, in one of the earliest days of the trip, we visited a place called the Twelve Apostles. I checked the dictionary for the meaning of apostle and it has a lot to do with Christianity...You wouldn't expect the Twelve Apostles to actually be huge rocks in the ocean, but they are. There were 12 of them in the beginning but now there are only seven. In fact, one of them collapsed only four years ago because the erosion had become too much. I wonder what they will do once there are only one or two of them left. I mean, it's already nowhere near being twelve of them anymore.

Here is a photo of six of them (this was taken before the one on the very left, closest to you, disintegrated. There are two more on the other side of the viewing walkway). Click here.

Anyhow, if any of you ever decide you want to take a trip Down Under, whether you visit the Twelve Apostles should depend on how far from them you're staying. The Twelve Apostles can be found in the state of Victoria. You will have to drive for quite some time to get there from Melbourne (which is where Andrew's - my dad's friend - house is). Besides the nice photos of it you can take there's not much else to do over there. So it's up to you whether you want to go see it. (But if you're nearby it, you really ought to.)

All of that aside, just the other day I had a very close encounter with one of my allergies, peanuts. One of my friends was over at my house along with her sister and mother. Her mother bought us sandwiches for lunch and I had a choice between two. I picked one, but I picked the wrong one, because that was the one that had peanuts in it! So we ended up dumping out the rest of the sandwich and I ate some of the bread instead. This time I didn't react strongly but I did feel a little funny in places, which is to be expected since my body thinks of peanuts as not food but invaders. I can never understand why people like peanut butter but I suppose they have their reasons. (And apparently there's two different kinds of peanut butter, chunky and smooth. Have you tried it? Which do you prefer?)

My mom is trying to feed me seeds these days because she believes I don't have enough zinc. She read somewhere or other - probably one of her Chinese books or the Chinese newspaper - that the reason why my skin is so easily affected is because I don't have enough zinc or something. It's not my fault I'm allergic to peanuts, which I think have zinc or at least other vitamins in them... Anyhow, since I can eat seeds, my mom wants me to eat pumpkin seeds and pistachios and things like that. I am dubious of my mother's sources of information about health but I guess there's no harm in eating seeds. (Right? Because seeds won't grow in your stomach, right? XD)

It seems like the small gift bags we have at our house have disappeared. Sometimes we use them to give, say, a birthday present or something, by wrapping an item in tissue paper (not always) and putting it in the bag, then giving someone the bag. But it seems like our bags have mostly disappeared by this point. I figure we probably used them up last year when I gave my teachers Christmas/New Year's gifts. That reminds me, it seems like unless we have a Teachers' Appreciation Week or something, the teachers don't really get that many gifts. I kind of feel bad for them since teachers have to deal with people - not an easy task - and don't get paid much besides that. (Though not all teachers are very nice about it, and I do want that summer vacation...Hehe...)

Labels: allergies, appreciation, australia, collapse, gift bags, health, number, nutrition, peanut butter, peanuts, rocks, sandwich, seeds, teacher, twelve apostles, zinc

If you have the game Wii Fit on your Wii, you can choose the male or female fitness trainer. (Both are pretty weird. I think the girl is better, since that's the one I picked.) While you do yoga and strength training, she constantly lectures you. She might say "This exercise is popular because it tones your arms" or "You're a little shaky. Focus on stretching your spine" or "Good job! You're pretty strong." It gets annoying after a while, hearing her blab on. They even have subtitles on the screen that you can't get rid of, for people who are deaf. (If you're blind AND deaf, like Helen Keller, then you can't play video games anyhow, seeing as touching the TV screen does no good)

Sometimes, to make the game seem more real...If you have a female trainer like me, once in a while, she'll be replaced by the other trainer, the male one, for whatever your first yoga/strength training activity is. I would assume it is vice versa if you are trained by the guy. The first time this happened to me, I was shocked and laughing at the same time, and then I couldn't concentrate for a while.

If you play a long time, you might unlock the three challenges - Pushups, jackknives, and plank. (In case you don't know, a jackknife is where you lie down on the ground, bend your knees, and then come up in a V shape, then go back down to the ground. Feels like a sit-up.) At first it's really amusing when you beat the trainer. She'll go "I'm not giving up yet!" or "It looks like that's all you can do" or "Still with me? Do 10 more" or "You win this time!" One day I tried to challenge her and she refused, saying she wasn't feeling up to it. I was pretty steamed, since this is the first time any video game snubbed me like that. XD

Anyhow, I ended up doing 100 jackknives and 180 seconds of plank. The plank was especially hard and after I was done, I felt my arm. The muscle in it (is it the bicep? or the brachialis? or maybe the tricep?) was really stiff and hard, since it had been strained. Probably I'll wake up with pains tomorrow, if experience tells me correctly.

I forgot to talk about Friday, so this is a good opportunity. It was a pretty miserable day for me. I didn't have a good test score, due to a lot of silly mistakes in math. Then Mr. Robinson the PE teacher was supposed to do weight and height measuring, but our class, 4th period, didn't get to because he had to leave and buy pizza for his champions (whoever does the most jumpropes and pushups or something. I've always been intimidated by those people). So instead we went over to Ms. Rawson's class and played a weird game. Two people face each other in pushup position. A blue ball is placed between them. When someone gives the signal, both people try to grab the ball with one hand while not falling down. It all relies on whether you have a fast reaction time. This must mean I'm not an old lady yet, so that's a relief.

Afterwards we ran for a bit and then went up to the giant green field. We had to do an odd kind of relay. You roll on the grass from the first cone to the second cone, then run from there to the small backstop cage thing, and then you have to "crab-walk" to the third cone (it's like you go on the ground with your knees bent and hands supporting you, and move in the direction of your back) and finally "bear-crawl" (walking on all fours) to your teammates. I didn't think it was too bad besides being exhausting until it was lunchtime and I was feeling strangely itchy. I couldn't stop scratching and soon the places where my arms and legs bent were pink and funny-looking. On my arm, a tiny circle of skin had risen up like it was swollen. I didn't want to poke it since it looked dangerous. Maybe I'm allergic to grass. (Next time I have to tell the teacher. I'm only afraid they'll think I'm making an excuse, like those boys who go to the bathroom a lot in class to avoid it)

Labels: allergies, challenge, exercise, lecture, missing, pep talk, pizza, reaction, refusal, relay, trainer, wii fit

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