I've never actually watched the movie by the same name, but I still wanted to use this as the title of this post. XD

I am sure I have had a lot more than one missed call in my time, whether it be on my cell phone or on my home phone. For one thing, I don't really have my cell phone turned on most of the time, so it's highly likely that if you call me there, I won't pick up. D: And then I'll see your call four days later or something ridiculous like that. (Unless I'm staying home by myself, in which case it's better to keep my cell phone on to make it easy to stay in contact with my parents, so they know I haven't been kidnapped or that someone has broken into the house)

And as for the landline phone, I don't always pick up the phone. Oftentimes I just let it ring until the answering machine goes on and then listen so I know who's calling. It gets annoying when people call asking for my parents because they want to sell something to them or something like that. And it's also annoying when we get automated messages from the library or people running for political positions. (Well, I don't mind getting messages from the library so much. XD)

It was pretty funny because one time we were listening to the answering machine and then the superintendent's voice came on. He was encouraging people to vote for Measure B or something like that. My dad picked up the phone and said, "We've already voted for it," but the superintendent kept talking. That's when he realized it was just an automated message. (Well, I guess the superintendent is busy, so he can't really be giving personal phone calls.)

But hey, just because someone's got a lot to do or is a well-known public figure doesn't mean they can't take a little time out of their schedules. My math teacher sent an email to Steve Jobs to inform him about a problem. iPhones don't work around the area where my school is (actually, probably all cell phones using AT&T don't work in that area. How annoying).

So my teacher asked if any of us had parents that worked at Apple because he wanted us to get our parents to bug their superiors and somehow or other get Steve Jobs to reply to his email. He said, "If Steve Jobs sent me an email, I would reply to it!" And we were thinking to ourselves, "Yeah, but it's Steve Jobs".

But it turned out that Steve Jobs had read the email and had forwarded it to someone in a major position at AT&T (unfortunately I cannot recall who it is). This person then wrote back to my teacher saying that there was a tower planned to be put up later in the year, but it might be postponed. If necessary, a smaller mobile tower might be set up to give coverage to the schools. It's the kind that gets used when there are natural disasters or something like that. Apparently it's actually pretty big even if it's not quite a permanent tower. It would be pretty amazing if that happened. Kind of makes me think of the butterfly effect that was being talked about in language arts class, which is where something small can cause events to happen and eventually leads to something big happening. (I actually had a layout for the blog up before that was called the Butterfly Effect, haha.)

Labels: answering machine, apple, automated, busy, butterfly effect, cell phone, coverage, email, famous, hole, layout, mobile, movie, one missed call, parents, phone, steve jobs, superintendent, tower

For a while I've been looking for my old paintings from last year's summer class - in particular a small oil painting of the coastline. So I was bored and went upstairs (there's only one room which we basically stuff things into, everything is downstairs...) and walked around. I thought I saw some papers in a box and looked inside it. I discovered some of my old artwork...And especially that one that I really liked. I wonder if it's okay to scan paintings. (If so, I'll try and get my dad to scan the smallest one)

Also, I found the Ippon Demo Ninjin video! I talked about it in an earlier post. So here's the link to the video.
Ippon demo ninjin (いっぽんでもにんじん) The whales are especially funny. Once they finish counting the first time, watch the whale. He seems to be dancing on his tail and he turns from side to side, though the other objects/creatures always face towards you.

My playlist had been getting way too full, so I started clearing out songs a little bit and now I just have 194. Oftentimes we listen to music and talk about it in my painting class. (I suppose it's more relaxing than having to work in utter silence...) One of my classmates made a CD or two for the teacher and we listen to her CDs as well (I think she buys songs from iTunes? Using her brother's money XD). Anyhow, some of the artists include Jack Johnson, Cold Play, Led Zeppelin, Michael Jackson, The Cars, John Lennon, and various others whose names I have forgotten.

Which reminds me, there's a guy in the Beetles called Ringo Starr. I always wonder why he took the name Ringo as his first name for his stage name (Richard Starkey is his real name, and he is still alive...). I mean, I thought "ringo" mean apple in Japanese...(But I don't blame him, because apples are very cute fruits.)

The weather around here has turned hot again and it's really bothering me. I end up sweating a lot but I don't want to turn on the air conditioning or the fan because I am wary of the environment...But I suppose eventually I'm going to be so frustrated I will turn on the fan. D: It used to be nice weather only a few days ago, too...But now it's really, really hot outside and I bet I'm going to start losing sleep again. :( And right when I was starting to feel "healthy"...What a shame.

Recently I went to Jamba Juice. I rode there on my bike with my dad and we used a coupon so we could get two smoothies for the price of one. There were some suspicious young people near the store. One of the guys seemed to be trying to show off muscles (if he actually had any XD) and also there was a girl who sometimes ran into the parking lot and was chased by a guy in glasses. Anyhow, I thought they were creepy (even if people near the 7-11 probably act like that) and I was pretty relieved when they left.

Labels: apple, discovery, ippon demo ninjin, jamba juice, japanese, lost and found, music, oddity, painting, people, playlist, ringo starr, sleep, smoothie, song, stage name, suspicious, weather, whale

It seems uncanny that they play the music my dad knows and sometimes even likes. In PE class, I have heard Cold Play's music and Abba's music being played through the speakers that can be moved around. (I like them both, I suppose, but Abba was popular before I was even born, so they're not even together anymore) And my science teacher, as he has his own stereo and a guitar, was once imitating Johnny Cash, who was a singer/actor/musician who died in 2003. My dad put on Johnny Cash's music at my house once. I hope this doesn't mean we will be hearing John Denver songs like "Sunshine on my Shoulders", "Take Me Home, Country Roads", and "You Fill Up My Senses", or strange Chinese songs which my dad likes. But maybe some mysterious forces are at work here, and it can't be helped.

In PE, we have tried a variety of odd activities - for instance, scrugby, which is a soccer, rugby, football, basketball, combination or something like that. We've also played bocceball (not sure about the spelling, Mr. Robinson wrote something different on his whiteboard), which is basically bowling but not in a bowling alley. There is a small ball called the pallino which someone throws out. Then several players take turns throwing bigger balls, I think it's called bocce balls (hence the name of the sport/game/whatever you call it). They can only throw underhand so the ball will roll instead of bouncing or something. You try to get your ball as close as possible to the pallino. Other people can knock your ball out of the way or hit the pallino with their bocce ball(s) if they so desire.

Another thing we have done in PE is Quidditch. I just looked up more information on Google and it seems there is really an activity meant for PE teachers to use. If you have read the Harry Potter books you may have an idea of what I mean. Quidditch is basically a nonexistent sport in which two teams of wizards riding brooms face off. There are several balls like the bludgers (you don't want to get hit by them), quaffles (just regular balls you try to score with) and a Golden Snitch (if you can grab it, you get points). The players are Seekers (only one per team, these people concentrate on getting the Golden Snitch), Chasers (just run about trying to score with the Quaffle. I didn't do much), and Beaters (they have bats to hit people and they can throw Bludgers at people. Luckily Mr. Robinson didn't give anyone bats x_x). Anyhow, that's about it. We don't get any brooms, which is a big disappointment to me. I guess such a thing as "flying brooms" will not be invented for some time yet, though.

I had to take two tests in school today (a math test about quadratic equations and stuff like that, and a history test about vocab words). They were both in the beginning of the day, two in a row. My brain almost turned to mush from it, but I think I did well (at least on the history test, because Mr. Blair read out the scores to the people who said they wanted to hear. I got a 50 out of 50, so that's a relief). I'm not so sure on the math test. I tend to make silly mistakes on them, so all I can do is hope for the best. I wonder if I should check my scores online or just wait until the end of this year to see how my final grades are. (Long as they are A's, I am in good shape, I think.)

Lesson of the day! It's a random fact I found. "Apples are more effective at keeping people awake in the morning than caffeine." That's funny. But then again, maybe that's why my mom likes apples. (I think she likes them because they are cute, though, and not because they taste good...)

Labels: apple, bocceball, coincidence, fact, games, grades, harry potter, music, mysterious, PE class, quidditch, random, school, sports, test

It seems like I can never find the "perfect temperature" today. If I put on a coat, I start sweating, but if I take it off, my allergies/cold seem to get worse. I wonder what to do. (I don't want to use the medical nasal spray my mom keeps in the office since it hurts. It's made of seawater or some other weird substance. o_O)

Right now it's my Staff Learning Day, but it seems like some colleges are having their week of spring break now. I guess they don't have February Break (otherwise known as Midyear Recess) like my school dose. I guess that makes sense, seeing as the purpose of our week off in February is so that kids won't miss a week of school just because they want to be skiing in Lake Tahoe or something.

Earlier today, a man (presumably one of my mom's coworkers) tapped the side of the cubicle (since there is no door to cubicles). I thought he had something serious about work to discuss but it turns out he was bringing my mom an advertisement for a good deal on a vacation to Hawaii! First there was pizza the last time I came here, and now a vacation ad from a newspaper?! Does anyone work at my parents' offices?! (My mom sometimes goes shopping during her lunch break, and my dad checks his email and writes on his own blog...Apparently he has some friends who "look forward" to reading his blog)

Anyhow, I've noticed that my mom keeps two of the apples that I brought her from school on top of her computer. One has wrinkly skin because it's probably rotting inside and the other one looks okay but doesn't feel very hard when you touch it. I compared this to my grandma and my mom. My grandma is old, and has wrinkles and a hunched back, so you can tell, kind of like the first apple. My mom looks younger but she's aging, if you look at the grey hairs beneath her dyed head. My mom was miffed when I made such a comment to her. D:

Now, I'm not sure if y'all are familiar with KK Slider or not, but he's a well-known in the Animal Crossing games (now available for Game Cube, DS, and even Wii). He started out as a poor street musician named Totakeke, but now he's famous. In the Game Cube he sits on a crate next to the train station (pretty miserable when it rains, if you ask me) and in the DS he gets to use the stage in the museum cafe. As for the Wii (the game for that is called Animal Crossing: City Folk) I haven't tried that yet, so who knows. (I want it, and one of my friends who lives in Taiwan said she would get it if I got it and liked it, but I don't know...I mean, I might not have time to pick weeds and go fishing every single day.)

Back to my mom's office. Looks like her plant isn't dead yet. I was surprised seeing as my dad has the "greenest thumb" in the family (which reminds me of an inside joke I had with my friend in Taiwan. She used to live in CA. One day she was bored and decided to water the plants herself instead of turning on the sprinklers. Then the plants died. So I say she has a "dead thumb"). I was reading my planner a few years back, and it said in one of the corners, "Never go to a doctor's office that has dead office plants." I wonder if that advice is sound.

Labels: animal crossing, apple, blog, break, decay, free time, health, kk slider, memories, nasal spray, pizza, sick, simile, ski, staff learning day, vacation, video games

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