This morning I made a most horrifying discovery. My mother was working from home and decided we ought to do a bit of spring cleaning in my bedroom, so we took the pillows and covers off of my bed so that they could be washed or aired. When I looked at the black sheet that is under my mattress...I saw little white things covering it. At first I was just disgusted, thinking it was just dust, pillow fluff, or perhaps my own dead skin. But then I took a closer look and noticed that a few of the little tiny white things were moving.
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Labels: bed, bed bugs, bugs, cleaning, dandruff, dead, decay, dust, dust mites, food, house, insects, larvae, problems, rotten, signs, skin, termites, white

Ah, chocolate. So delicious. I do like a lot of sweets, but out of the "candy" variety, chocolate is probably my favorite. (I say probably because there may still be more delicious foods out there, just waiting for me to try them.) Milk chocolate in particular. Dark chocolate's a bit too bitter (a lame attempt at wordplay there) and white chocolate's artificial... But milk chocolate is simply splendid. Right after winter vacation, I noticed that my parents had purchased a box of chocolate cookies, and I ate so many of them that I gained several pounds. (I still haven't been able to shed them. In fact, I gained weight again. I wouldn't care so much if it didn't mean that it makes my pants not fit so well.)

Too bad chocolate isn't really the best thing for your health. Recently we had to bring in food that we cooked to French class, as the product of a cooking project. Many of the foods were desserts, and most of those had chocolate in them. What's funny is that the very day that many of us brought in the chocolate foods, the teacher said that she'd just been to the dentist. He had not been happy with her teeth...because, apparently, she'd eaten too much chocolate.

I'm pretty sure my dentist won't be too happy either. He always tells me that I need to floss, and I realize that I really ought to...But I'm not good at it; sometimes it hurts, and it's a hassle besides. I wonder if I have cavities again? I never seem to feel any pain from them, so it always surprises me to find out that I have them when I see the dentist. Maybe it does hurt but the signals for pain haven't been reaching my brain.

I wouldn't be too surprised, because lately, I think I am somewhat of a masochist. Just the other day, in PE, I was playing soccer, and it got kind of wild. I probably could've stopped myself from falling, but instead I let myself fall to the ground. I hit the ground pretty hard, and I was asked the customary "Are you okay?" by several girls. But I actually felt better after getting bashed up, just as I enjoy feeling hungry and even having pulled muscles (if I pulled the muscle from a good run the previous day, that is, and not from being in a weird position).

Ah, but it is getting to be around time for Valentine's Day, and Singing Valentines and rose grams are going up for sale at my school. I wonder if anyone here gives chocolates for Valentine's Day? When I was in elementary school we'd give each other little Scooby Doo/Clifford/Spongebob/etc. valentine cards, with a lollipop or some other candy. But I don't recall ever seeing anyone give just chocolates for Valentine's Day, and certainly not hand-made ones in a heart-shaped container or anything like that. I guess it's either something kind of personal that you wouldn't do within sight of other people, or I've been reading too much manga and keep expecting people to behave like they're in Japan. (No White Day here, after all.)

I was reading one of the two Kaichou wa Maid-sama! side stories that comes after chapter 28, the one about Yukimura and his sister. I thought it was really a lot like a certain episode in Ouran High School Host Club, when Nekozawa isn't the princely big brother that the little sister wants. Well, Maid-sama and Ouran were both in the LaLa magazine, so I guess they would have stylistic similarities. By the way, I'm looking for good manga to read - either really funny or just something that would touch your heart, or both - preferably already finished (but not that old, at least in terms of art style, if you know what I mean). Let me know if you have any suggestions.

Labels: chocolate, cooking, day, dentist, food, gift, health, injury, kaichou wa maid-sama, maid sama, manga, masochist, ouran high school host club, pain, sweets, teeth, valentines, weight

The most recent edition of Reader's Digest, February 2011's issue, has made me depressed about what I eat. People who eat 5 or more cups of white rice per week are 17% more likely to develop diabetes, compared to those who eat less than 1 serving per month. Also, most people have to stay under 20 grams of net carbs per day (meaning the grams of carbs minus the grams of fiber in a food). Two slices of bread contain about 24 grams of net carbs, and pasta has 40 grams per cup. I eat bread, rice, and/or pasta pretty much all week. So I can either choose to pursue my goal of weight loss and suffer, or I can become a glutton and enjoy myself but have pangs of guilt all the time...

...And stomachaches, too. These days I tend to eat when I see something tasty, instead of because I'm hungry, so I have to stay away from the kitchen, bakeries, grocery stores, even my own school during lunchtime. I guess it's like this quote I saw on the Internet; it said that you never really stop being addicted to things, you just get addicted to something else. If only I could stay addicted to something that wouldn't sap my energy and time, the way various websites and video games have done to me. I figure I ought to do something more useful at least, since those things that I think I'm doing for fun don't really make me happy anymore. What I'd really like to do is just live a slacker lifestyle - get up late, eat when I feel like it, work on my character designs, read a lot of books, go on walks to take photographs, practice drawing, go to bed when I'm tired. But considering how many years of school and a career that I have ahead of me, I wonder when, if ever, it'll become a reality.

Oh, but today, January 23 (the publishing time shown for this post is actually the time I first saved this post, not always the real time that I posted it!), I did get to eat some delicious food, so I am pleased. I had spaghetti with beef as dinner (my dad makes some nice spaghetti, I haven't tasted one like it in restaurants, though I like almost all pasta in general), and then I had a little taste of chocolate crumble. It's a cakish, soft brownie kind of thing. One of my classmates from French class and I made it for our cooking project. Too bad I have to bring it to school and give away the pieces. I'd rather just eat the whole thing myself, it's so sweet and chocolatey. (It was kind of a hassle to make, though, I suppose it'll be a long time before I eat it again.) Ahh, it makes me miss being on a cruise ship. I love how there's a buffet and you've already paid for it so you can eat what you like, when you like. It was so nice getting to eat cheesecake and chocolate cake. But gosh, I should stop talking about it, it's just going to make me hungry again.

I really haven't had much to write about lately, so I guess I'll just end with saying that I am currently watching Durarara! and I'm reading Kaichou wa Maid-Sama. Both were fairly popular series, so I thought I ought to check them out. At first I was dubious, since sometimes popular things turn out pretty disappointing (like the Twilight series, Edward bores me) but so far both Durarara! and Kaichou wa Maid-Sama are fair enough. I watched Toradora! not long ago and I suggest that you watch it if you haven't. I don't know if I had abnormal levels of hormones or something, but I actually cried a little when I watched it. I figure if something can actually make me show some emotion, it must be pretty good.

Labels: addiction, buffet, carbohydrates, carbs, chocolate, control, cruise ship, crumble, desire, durarara, eating, food, gluttony, health, magazine, maid sama, readers digest, spaghetti, toradora

In elementary school, it had been a tradition for the 1st graders to put on a play each year called "Once Upon a Lily Pad". It was about a frog who had trouble jumping, or something like that, and he bumped into various other pond animals, like crocodiles and snakes. I had a very short role as the Mama Frog. Even after 1st grade, we upper graders would still watch the performance, and the one thing I remember clearly about it was a certain song that goes "Listen to your parents, listen and obey" (it was a catchy song, though I'm sure my parents would be much happier if I actually followed the song's advice XD).

There was, of course, a happy ending with the frog joining our elementary school's jumping team (which is nonexistent, so don't try to find it). It's too bad real frogs can't have such a lovely life as is depicted in children's books. I was at the supermarket today with my mother, and we went to the seafood section...It was there that I saw a glass tank.

And inside of it were frogs.

The frogs were still alive - not moving much, just kind of sitting there and breathing, but they were certainly alive. On the tank, it was written that the frogs had to be killed before they left the store if you bought them.

I guess frogs can be eaten, and people do eat them. I mean, I have no qualms about eating fish. But even my appetite for fish was ruined when I saw a lady buying fish. She gave the store worker the A-OK, and he took two flopping fish and started whacking at them with a mallet. Even then, they kept on moving, kept trying to live, but the hammer thudded down, over and over, and finally, the fish were still. Dead.

It's funny to me, how I'll be repulsed by something for a while, but I always go back to normal life. I guess it's necessary for me to keep going. To keep pace with such a speedy world. But I do wish that I could take it all at a snail's pace. Just ooze along like I have forever and a day to do what I like. Even if I get squished in the process.

Labels: death, elementary, fish, food, frog, kill, once upon a lily pad, play, school, seafood, snail, song, speed, supermarket, time, world

I actually don't remember whether I've eaten that brand of bread. But pretty much any kind of bread is wonderful to me, because I simply love bread.

There's something in the French language that I find hilarious. Part of the final exam for French included reading a pamphlet about Harry Potter, and in it were the words "baguette magique". I didn't think much of it at first, but then I read over it again and wondered if there had been any magical bread in Harry Potter, because I certainly couldn't recall any.

Turns out that a "baguette magique" is a magic wand. A drumstick is a "baguette de tambour", a "baguette d'encens" is an incense stick, a "baguette de chef d'orchestre" is a conductor's baton... And baguette can even refer to a chopstick, if you're eating. I suppose baguette doesn't just refer to food. It's just a stick or rod-shaped object in general.

But really, though, words aside, I've been living off of bread for the last two weeks or so. The #1 thing about my trip to China was bread, no doubt about it. I stopped at every bakery I saw. Would be heaven if I could spend all day visiting bakeries. Bread's cheap and tasty. Everything looked like a great deal compared to USA - got "pineapple buns" (they don't have pineapples in them, I think it's just named that because it looks like pineapples? I have no idea. They're also called polo buns). One itime I found them, fresh out of the oven, for ¥3.5 per bun. One US dollar is about ¥7, so it's like $0.50 for a bun. Better deal than any pineapple bun I've found yet in the USA. ...Then again, the average pay of people in China is far less, so it only looks like a great deal to a foreigner such as myself. But I also found melon bread at a 7-11 in Shanghai! It was only ¥5! And it's just so hard to find melon bread where I live, even if there are many Asian food stores. When I do find it, although it's delicious, it's kind of pricey.

Still, I guess it's not so bad to be back home, because I discovered a place to get pineapple buns. There's a bakery in a nearby grocery store which sells them 3 for $1.95! I can almost die happy.

Labels: baguette, bakery, bread, china, deal, delicious, eating, food, french, harry potter, magic wand, meaning, money, pineapple bun, polo bun, price

In the past, I've always found that having to go the airport, check in your bags, go through security, have your passport checked multiple times, wait for the boarding to start, wait for the plane to take off, get a headache or become uncomfortable from sitting too long on the flight, and be unable to sleep...It was such a hassle. I still wanted to travel, that's for sure. But besides getting to see picturesque bird's-eye views (good photo opportunities!), I thought flying was rather troublesome.

It was especially difficult this time, when I was trying to get home from Barcelona after I had finished cruising. We were supposed to fly to London, and then from London to San Francisco, because there is no direct flight from Barcelona to San Francisco. Apparently air control people in France were on strike, so our flight to London was delayed. (I mean, if there aren't enough people working to make sure the planes don't crash into each other up above, then everything gets backed up) This meant that we would miss the flight from London to SFO. We were told to go to Iberia's ticket sales (Iberia is another airline) so that we could find a way back home. (I believe that Iberia and British Airways are part of some alliance of airlines or something like that.) However, we didn't see Iberia's place right away, so we lined up at the wrong place. Then eventually we left that line to go join the line for Iberia. When we got up there, we were told to go to American Airlines and try to check in our bags and get onto one of their flights instead. However, we were told it was too late and they couldn't accept more passengers. I was very annoyed at the time because I believed that if my parents had listened to me and spent more time searching for Iberia's ticket sales, we might've made it in time to catch a flight home that very day. But after a while my anger dissipated. (I still have to work on anger management.)

The lady who was searching for a flight home for us came up with a solution, although it was a complicated one.

Bsrcelona to Madrid, Spain
Madrid to Miami, Florida
Stay overnight at Miami in a hotel
Miami to San Francisco

I thought we might as well take it since I wanted to see Madrid's airport and Miami's airport. But my mom thought it was too much hassle, and plus we would have to stay in Miami, so my parents asked the lady to find another way to get us back to California. Eventually she discovered something that everyone in my family could accept.

Barcelona to Zurich, Switzerland
Zurich to San Francisco

The only catch is that we would be flying the next day. But we took the opportunity nevertheless and looked for a hotel not far from the airport where we could stay that night.

When the time came to fly home, I was filled with trepidation, thinking that some other catastrophe would befall us and force us to be stranded in Barcelona for a longer time, but we did manage to get on the planes without mishaps. I have decided that I like Swiss International Airlines a lot. They gave us some lovely food, like croissants and milk chocolate, and even ice cream on the long flight from Zurich to SFO. I would have been content to stay on the plane forever. I didn't feel particularly airsick, and it was very enjoyable photographing what we saw (like the snowy mountains in Switzerland - I think those were the Alps). Since we were flying west, it was like going back in time. It was as if night would never fall and the daylight would last forever. I haven't felt so peaceable and content when traveling in a very long time. For the first time, I didn't want to go home.

Labels: airport, anger management, barcelona, daytime, flight, food, happiness, hassle, home, iberia, london, missed, options, photography, san francisco, strike, swiss air, travel, trouble, zurich

I've heard the saying, "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach." I'm not sure if the man here refers to humans in general or just men, but I have certainly been quite fond of food lately.

Ever since we got home from the cruise ship, I seem to be hungry at the oddest times of day. I would wake up, at, say, 1 or 2 in the morning, and would feel the urge to eat something. Last night it took me a while to get to sleep (in fact, I'm not quite certain that I slept), and woke up at around 5 in the morning. I was rather drowsy at first, but I actually don't feel that tired from waking up early. Perhaps I should make this a habit. (It's funny how after taking a nap you often feel more tired than you did before napping, for instance.)

Once it was around 11, I paid a visit to the library I usually visit before going to another town to visit the San Jose Library, West Valley branch. I've only been here once before (at least in my memory) but I liked it a lot, although I have trouble navigating it. It seems to be quite the bustling place. There were a bunch of kids, and I noticed that they had Nintendo DS. (What's the plural form for DS? Is it just DS or is it DSes, or is it DSs?) I discovered that there's this room called the Teen Space, and on the wall there's a poster of Haruhi Suzumiya, as well as some drawings from people who are apparently part of a manga and anime club. I thought to myself, "Hey, it might be interesting to join, and I can get my drawings put up on the wall..."

But anyways, since there were apparently ramen shops nearby, we went searching for one which an acquaintance of my dad had mentioned. We found that it was inside a Japanese supermarket. That ramen shop is part of a chain of stores, so we've actually eaten there before (in Japan). But instead of being a restaurant, here you place your order and wait for your number to be called so you can pick up trays with your food on them and find a seat amongst the various tables.

It was the supermarket which interested me in particular. There was an Andersen Bakery inside the supermarket. My mom used to buy me this bread that has custard on it. It's quite delicious. When I was looking around, I saw that there was melon-pan (melon bread) being sold! (It's a bit different from usual, it doesn't look like the usual melon bread. Instead it apparently has cookie dough on the top. But it's quite delicious nevertheless.

I was very excited getting to hear people speaking Japanese. (I should get used to it already, but I can't seem to help it.) I could hear people saying "Irrashaimase!", which means "Welcome", and "Okage desu ka?" (I think that's what I heard, but I don't remember clearly. I forget what it means.) And there was a girl sitting at a table eating her lunch, and she kept saying, "Okashi daiyo" which I believe means something like, "It's strange." But I have no idea what exactly was strange.

I sampled some dango and looked at the sushi and rice balls. It's really quite thrilling to see the foods that you've seen in anime or manga in real life. It's like confirmation that fiction really is based off actual things and happenings. I was on the cruise ship watching a comedy juggler perform and he pulled the tablecloth off a table in one swift motion. The plates and utensils on the table didn't fall off of it. I saw this same thing executed in the anime Kuroshitsuji. I'd like to try it too (although I don't want to risk breaking my plates).

Labels: andersen bakery, anime, bread, cruise ship, food, japanese, kuroshitsuji, library, manga, melon, pan, ramen, show, sleep, supermarket, trick

I often come across two very similar things in succession. I was reading the Skip Beat! manga and Ren Tsuruga, one of the main characters, ate breakfast twice. And then when I was watching a Korean drama, Dal Ja's Spring, the main character ate dinner three times.

Although nothing terrible happened to Ren, Dal Ja got constipation and had to be taken to the hospital. I was disgusted but I also thought Dal Ja was stupid to have done so. She could've just said, "Oh, I'm sorry, I've already eaten" but of course she had to eat since she had been invited (and to a nice restaurant, too). Or at least she could have said no when she was going to eat dinner the third time. (But I guess us humans are still feeble-minded and often make the wrong decisions. Then again, maybe something bad would happen whatever choice we made.)

Today was a friend's birthday, so I walked over to her house. Avatar was playing on the TV. I was excited to finally get a chance to watch it (and without have to get my own copy of the DVD) because there was a lot of uproar over it when it came out. (Too bad watching it on the TV means that it isn't in 3D, but oh well. 3D would probably make me dizzy or it would be too realistic and give me a heart attack. It still looks nice even if it isn't in 3D). I was surprised about how tall the Na'vi were and also that they had tails. From what I had seen, they had seemed very humanoid, so I hadn't expected that.

I had another encounter with James Cameron (the director) because soon afterwards I saw an imitation of Titanic (which happens to be one of his films too). I can't remember whether I've watched Titanic or not, but I think I probably haven't. And now that I think of it, I still want to watch Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea. I still haven't gotten around to it...I wonder if the DVD is out. In that case, I can get it from the library.

Lately I haven't had much appetite. It's probably because I stay inside most of the time (since it's hot and sunny without any clouds, most of the time, outside) and because I'm not really able to go far from the house. I had been hoping that I would be able to go on walks by myself for the purpose of taking photos, but that hasn't happened, seeing as my mom says, "Wait until we get home, then you can go with your dad." But it's kind of weird. Sometimes I can feel so lonely, but there are many times now that I just want some peace and quiet. I wonder if it's a good thing or a bad thing that I'm becoming so solitary.

Labels: 3D, alone, appetite, avatar, birthday, choice, constipation, dal ja's spring, drama, eating, food, indoor, korean, movie, multiple, photography, ponyo, skip beat, solitude, walk

I once wrote about seeing snails at the library courtyard - click here to read the post. But that's certainly not the only place in my town where you can see some snails.

When I was in elementary school, there were some snails among the bushes. I can't remember too clearly what I had done to them in the past, but I am sure it was not something particularly nice. (Even now I still don't treat bugs and such critters very well...Someday they're all going to take revenge on me.)

One day, when I was walking home, not that long ago, I heard this cracking noise. I looked back and saw something crushed on the sidewalk. I fear it may have been some unlucky snail slowly making its way across the block, only to be squashed under my mighty foot.

To avoid another occurrence, I kept my eyes on the ground in front of me. Unfortunately, that didn't work either. I was late to realize that the light had changed and that it was time to cross the street since I was being looking around for snails.

On the weekend, my mom told me that there was a snail in front of our house, so I went over to investigate. I took a few pictures of the snail. Then I attempted to prod it with a stick so it would shrink back into its shell and I would be able to move it somewhere else. (I had hoped to be able to keep the snail as a pet, but I didn't know how I would take care of it...I don't even know what snails eat.) But the snail kept trying to stick its head back out not long after each time that I poked it. I guess it realized that I wasn't planning to kill it after a while. I managed to get the snail to crawl onto a fallen leaf (well, it was really more a clump of needles, like what you would find on a pine, fir, or something of that sort) and moved it to a pot that was not currently being used to grow a plant. But when I went back outside later on, the snail had left. Besides some trails on the ground (from when it was wandering on its own, undisturbed by me), there was no trace of it.

It really goes to show that "slow and steady wins the race". Despite their slow, slimy, oozing way of moving, they can still sneak off if given the chance. They're pretty stealthy after all. But in the end, it isn't enough to save them. Snails are cooked and eaten by people. It is a sad fate (and also one that I cannot comprehend).

Labels: accident, death, destiny, distraction, elementary school, fine dining, food, house, library, moral, moving, pet, post, revenge, skills, snail, sneaky

CORRECTION: Whoops, this is actually the 299th post. My bad.
This post marks 300 posts in this blog. It's amazing how much I've been able to write over time, and I'm glad that I got this far. I hope you've enjoyed the ride too.

I thought I had better back up some of my posts on my computer, in case Blogger ever blinks out of Internet existence or my blog accidentally gets deleted or something like that. I was looking through my posts and I realized I had used the title "Walking on the Moon" twice. Oopsy. I try not to ever repeat post names, but I unintentionally do so... I guess this is what happens when your quantity gets too big. As for the quality, I hope it has not gone down over time. When I look back at some of my posts, I think, "Oh, that was a fun time, but it feels like so long ago." There are some times when I don't have much to write about, like the post "Ansel Adams", when I was lacking for inspiration, and it was a drag to write the post. (I felt like I should write something, to prevent me getting rusty from less practice writing) And there are also times when I have so many things to write about, I'm churning out posts everyday and I feel like I'm on top of the world. I wonder if I can grasp that feeling again.

There's something I'm always wondering about, and that is my appetite. It seems that even if I eat too much at one time and get full, later on I'll feel hungry again. (I might not really be hungry, only as soon as I see something yummy, I feel the urge to eat it.) I guess I have to ration what I eat since it seems I will always get hungry at certain times regardless of how much I ate earlier. This is rather dangerous and makes me feel like a fish or something. I bet my fish would keep eating beyond their capacities if I gave them a ton of food. (That's why I tend to "starve" them by only giving them the bare minimum at feeding time. I don't even feed them daily.)

While I was walking home today, I overheard a girl talking about how her dog had vomited. (Sorry to give you that mental picture if you were eating) I kind of thought about how people really still behave a lot like animals. I've heard dogs can sneeze and cough too (not sure about cats), like us. Both animals and humans scratch themselves when they're itchy. And we certainly do vomit as well. In the end, no matter how humans try to control and dominate and become "civilized", they're still animals.

I remembered something today that I hadn't thought about in a long time. When I was in elementary school, I used to go the YMCA daycare on the campus after school, where I stayed until my parents came back from work and could pick me up. There were sometimes questions we could answer, for instance, since I mentioned itches earlier, there was once a question, "Do you scratch an itch or itch a scratch?" We would write our answer on a slip of paper, as well as our name, and put it in a plastic box. Then, one day, one of the people working at the YMCA (we called them "leaders"), would randomly pick out a piece of paper where the question was answered correctly (I believe it was sorted for correct answers first), and then the person or people chosen would get a prize of some sort. It feels like a long time ago now.

Even sixth grade seems far away. I still have plenty of memories, but they gradually become fuzzier over time, more surreal, more distant. After a while I end up thinking, "Those were great times. And I'll probably never have them again." I still enjoy things in my daily life. But it's rather clouded by all the knowledge of the world you get, because when you're young everything's fresh and simple, everything is clearly defined. The lines get blurred when you're older, unless you can still keep that innocence, and I long for those days when things were not complicated. I don't know if I can have that kind of life again. I think that you don't realize how nice it is to be young until you get older.

I feel worn out of having to deal with stresses and concerns, and that's why I want to retire. I'd thought that if I didn't have to work any longer, and be able to focus my attentions on the little things, things that I want to do but don't get around to doing, things would be easier. Maybe they would be, and maybe they wouldn't. I'd still like to see for myself. And I don't want to wait more than fifty years for it.

Labels: 300, appetite, blog, complicated, fish, food, innocence, inspiration, life, memories, old, retirement, scratch an itch, simplicity, stress, time, walking on the moon, winner, YMCA, youth

The title is inspired by a song by the Carpenters. Ever heard of that band? It's made up of two people, two siblings. The brother is still alive, but sadly, the sister died.

Rain doesn't normally upset me, and though I dislike Mondays, usually that won't depress me too much either. But last Monday wasn't an easy day, and it was a rainy day, so I thought it would make sense to use this title.

This past week, I've been gone on a school trip to Yosemite National Park, so I haven't been able to write anything. On Sunday morning, I boarded a bus headed to Yosemite. It's a pretty long drive there, probably four hours or more. I took a carsick pill called Dramamine to help me out with the carsickness.

I wonder if medicine really does work or not. Sometimes it's just people believe something will help them, and because of the positive feeling, their health seems to improve. I'm not sure whether medicine does any good or if it's only the "placebo effect". Perhaps the world may never know (like that thing about "How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie pop?).

Once I was at Yosemite, I had to adjust to a lot of things that I wasn't used to. For instance, dinner for me was at 5:05 pm, and breakfast at 7:05 am. I usually have breakfast not long from 8 am and I have dinner at around 7 pm. And I had to sleep with a sleeping bag, which I wasn't accustomed to, because I have never been camping. (Which is good - I don't think I could put up with going to the bathroom in the Great Outdoors for long XD) But the sleeping bag wasn't too bad, it was actually kind of cozy. It got too hot, though, when the heater was on in my cabin.

I kind of expected it to be like science camp. At science camp, you didn't need an alarm clock because someone would wake you up if you didn't get up on your own. There was a bathroom that was fairly clean and it was conveniently located, so you wouldn't have to get up in the night, wake someone up, and walk through the snow or melting puddles. You wouldn't hike so much that you'd be really tired and you'd always have your time managed well for you. And you didn't need to get a lot of gear, not even hiking boots were required.

Yosemite is sort of similar, but sort of not. The food is in buffet form (that's nice, since I can just a get a little to try something and see if I like it first). You're expected to meet up with people at a certain time (though there's almost always someone missing or late). You have to manage your own time to be able to complete a journal, take showers, and get enough sleep. And there is a lot of hiking and climbing and other physical activity.

Monday was a hard day for me. I am a special case since my cabin mates are in a different rotation than I am (meaning that they had different meal times and different evening programs). I was really stressed waiting for them in my cabin, and I kept thinking that something horrible must've happened to them (I didn't realize back then that their evening program was later than mine). I was also annoyed about the cold showers and stinky bathroom. And it was really noisy at nighttime, making it hard to sleep. I got really homesick, thinking of my parents and comfort and having a dependable routine. And this homesickness didn't really go away. During science camp I was having such a blast that I didn't think of my home much.

On Monday, there were many kinds of weather. We had rain, then hail, and then even snow. The snow is beautiful, that's for sure. But it was hard to appreciate when I was so worried and stressed. I wasn't able to relax until maybe about Wednesday or Thursday. By then I realized that I would be going home soon, and so I was in a much better mood. (Kind of funny how sometimes you have to be waiting for something to enjoy yourself.)

There were a lot of things I didn't like about the trip, but there were things that made it better, too. Things that made me dry my tears and smile and put my best foot forward. Being outdoors was great. I didn't really hike much or even go outside that much before. I thought I'd be tired easily from hiking. It's true that I was usually pretty worn out from lugging around a heavy backpack (too used to the roller backpack by now) but I wasn't lagging too horribly behind, either. And seeing the mountains and waterfalls and getting the occasionally opportunity to sit by myself and think was calming for me. I also got to try so many new things, like eating hummus (never tried it before, but it wasn't bad), eating celery (also wasn't as bad as I thought), eating sunbutter (yes, I'm eating lots of new things. Sunbutter is like peanut butter but made from sunflower seeds), and going cross-country skiing... I'm really starting to realize that I don't need to have limits, boundaries, things holding me back. I can do my best and achieve so much more. I just have to be openminded and live life to the fullest. After all, even if you have more than one life, you'll never remember the past ones, so of course you have to do everything that you can.

Oh, and going on the trip makes you appreciate home. Many of us longed for warm showers. I also heard some students saying they missed eating rice (they had rice at the buffet, but it was like fried rice and things like that. No sushi, dumplings, or miso soup, that's for sure). I believe that going to Yosemite was a good experience for me, even if I still feel there would've have been a lot of room for improvement. (I heard there was a bathroom with ants in it.) It's something you'll remember forever, after all.

Labels: backpack, effort, food, hiking, home, homesick, life, monday, new experience, placebo, problem, rain, rainy days and mondays, sleeping bag, song, the carpenters, tootsie, trip, weather, yosemite

Today, my parents and I went to the library. Instead of checking out books, I decided to go on a photography spree. There's a courtyard in the library which I've only visited a couple of times.

I noticed something on the ground - a snail. It was moving along slowly, leaving a wet trail behind it. I decided to take a photo of it. Slow-moving animals are a lot easier to photograph, if you ask me. Then I wandered off and started taking pictures of the flowers. I realized there was something funny on a flower...It was a tiny slug. I took some pictures of that one too.

Then I walked around some more and stumbled upon a few more snails. I was getting a bit disturbed by this point. There seem to be a lot of snails and slugs around. I saw some things that looked a lot like dead worms or slugs, which was even freakier. I was both fascinated by the snails and creeped out by them. Some of the snails were pretty big, almost as big as my thumb (imagine a small person's thumb with a snail shell on it). I took lots of pictures before I got tired of staying outside (the sun had come out and it was getting too warm).

I have a theory for why the snails are there. (True, it rained the day before, but that is too boring and logical.) The library needs money to buy books and keep their system up and running. They have decided to profit through exporting goods. Seeing as they already have plants in their courtyard, the people at the library thought it'd be a good idea to make use of this courtyard by raising something there. They decided to get the business of French restaurants by selling them snails to use for escargots. And thus the library worked on a plan to mass-produce snails. The money from the snails would be used to buy new books (hence the Measure A funds or whatever it was).

After going to the library, my family and I went to a local Chinese supermarket. It's always quite the popular place. My mom likes to buy things there because if you buy a certain amount of stuff, I think you can get a coupon for food. (I'm not talking about groceries. You can buy food and it will be cooked for you. The line for it was really long) It was a good day to go because there were quite a few samples. There was some carrot/apple juice (interesting, it wasn't that bad, actually), noodles, and even a bunch of snacks. Apparently the snacks part is pretty uncommon.

I saw all sorts of foods, some of which reminded me of my childhood. There were those Yan Yan snacks, which are like sticks which you dip in chocolate (or strawberry?). I also saw Pocky and a Pocky imitation (there are a lot of Pocky ripoffs, so I've seen...) and there was Hello Panda.

Hello Panda is little cookie type things which contain chocolate in their centers. My dad says they used to be much harder, but apparently kids were choking on it, so the Hello Panda snacks are now quite a bit softer.

I went around eating lots of things, and got to try Meltyblend, from the company Meiji. Even my mother thought Meltyblend was good. (But then, she seems to like chocolate. She really likes Kit Kat especially.)

I just love free samples. I don't get much chance to have them anymore. Whole Foods doesn't seem to have many cheese samples any longer, which saddens me. I hear Costco has samples, but I haven't been to Costco for a long time either. I remember we had to have our receipts signed or something before we left the building, and I always wanted the people to draw smiley faces...Those days seem so far off now. When I was younger, I had more free time, less worries...The world used to seem so fresh and fun. I'm still making good memories, but now I'm not seeing things through "rose-colored glasses", which is really a shame.

Labels: animals, costco, courtyard, escargots, flowers, food, free, hello panda, library, meltyblend, money, photography, plan, pocky, receipt, rose colored glasses, sample, snacks, snail, whole foods

I mentioned briefly that I visited Petsmart in my post on January 17, 2010. When I was younger, I always wondering how you should pronounce Petsmart. Is it Pets Mart, or Pet Smart? I still am not sure. (I should probably wait for a TV commercial, if there is one, so I can hear how it should be said.)

While I was there, I noticed that there was one koi in a tank full of a different kind of fish. The koi looked very stressed and was trying to swim away, but it couldn't because it was only in a small tank, and it's impossible for it to break through tank walls to get to other tanks and back to safety among its own kind.

Since I'm on the subject of fish, I recently bought two fish from Petsmart - a greyish koi with a weird yellowish splotch on him, and an algae eater (my dad wants one, probably because he hopes it'll clean the tank for him, and anyways, since we have a "Petperks" card - it's like a store membership - we get a discount). The algae eater, as is their nature, found a place to stick on the tank, and didn't move until later, while I wasn't looking. He moved to the underside of this fake rock decoration we have and I didn't see him until I took a closer look. And the grey koi seems to be doing fine. It's my original fish that were troubling.

I have two fish tanks. In the bigger tank, I have a big white koi (used to have orangey-red parts, but it faded with time...Really weird) and a red and black koi. Yesterday, I noticed the big white koi (I did name him/her - I actually still have trouble telling the genders apart - Pumpkinflash, but we don't really use the name) was acting funny. It kept swimming around frantically and it would sometimes go up to the water's surface and seemed to be making nibbling motions. The red and black fish eventually did that too, but I think it's more likely that it was just imitating its friend. I suspected that the white koi must have choked on a pebble, because koi try to glean food from pebbles. I tried to scare it by flicking my finger against the tank, thinking it would spit out the rock if it got frightened (I used this technique for a fish I used to have, to save its life, since it was really and truly seeming like it would die, except I used a net to chase it) but it didn't work. At least the fish seem better today, maybe the white one digested the rock...Wait...Then that would be really weird. o_O;;

My mother read in her Chinese newspaper that an old lady, apparently a doctor of some sort, recommended eating meat for breakfast, fish for lunch, and something light for dinner (like rice soup). Not eating much for dinner makes sense, I suppose, seeing as you shouldn't eat much before you go to bed. But I tend to eat something light or sugary for breakfast, meat for lunch, and fish for dinner. Guess I have everything reversed. I wonder whether the lady in the newspaper's suggestions would really work, though, or if it only benefits the health of some people. My mother always reads that newspaper, and probably has for a long time. She also reads books about fitness and cooking and such things. My dad says that she keeps reading cookbooks and never really cooks the foods in them. XD

I'd like to make something based on a recipe. I really haven't cooked in a long time; barely at all ever since I moved on from Cooking class in 7th grade. I wonder if I should use one of my recipes that I obtained from that very same class. We made a coffee cake once and it was pretty good (it doesn't taste like coffee at all, it's just called coffee cake). I don't know if we have the cake pans and ingredients, though. I guess I'll have to find out sometime.

Today in debate club, the topic kind of changed until it was about how unhealthy America is, what with so many obese people, while in other countries peoples are reduced to making mud pies. There were more people than usual in debate club since it's been raining hard nowadays and students just want shelter from the rain. One boy said that people keep looking for a perfect, easy way to lose weight. But he said that if you're not rich, it won't happen. (Because then you could afford to have that surgery to remove some of your fat and skin) If you run out of your Nutrisystem food your eating habits aren't going to change. He said that you must simply eat less and exercise. And other students suggested vegetarianism but then there were people who protested saying they couldn't live without their meat. (And I can't, either, sadly) Besides, meat does have its benefits, like protein. Even eating other protein foods or supplements isn't quite the same as the real thing.

That reminds me, my mom said that one of the possible reasons why my skin is sensitive and tends to get itchy or infected easily is because I don't get enough zinc. She said that peanuts might have zinc, but since I'm allergic to peanuts, I can't get much zinc. There's only a limited variety of nuts I can eat - almonds and pistachios are the only ones I've confirmed to be "safe". I wonder if I'm destined to have skin problems forever.

Labels: choke, coffee cake, cooking, debate club, eating, fish, food, koi, meal, meat, newspaper, nuts, peanuts, petsmart, protein, recipe, rocks, skin, weight, zinc

I'm not actually going around hollering outside, nor have I read the book by the same title. But I thought it was pretty fitting.

The weather is just crazy these days. It rains on and off and huge gusts of wind blow. I keep worrying that it'll knock over something. Quite a few years ago, there was a windy day and a vase we left outside hit the ground and broke. I am also concerned that it might get my wind chimes tangled up. This is always happening because one of my wind chimes (I have two different ones) has a lot of thin strings which tend to get caught together.

It seemed like the weather was clearing up, because the blue sky was showing again and the rain had pretty much stopped, but then I was driven home by my dad and it started to rain again. In fact, when I stepped out of the car, I heard a rumbling noise, and looked around for the source. I realized that it was thunder when I saw that grey clouds had returned again.

The weather was so bad that my street was out of electricity. The post office lost power too (I saw that it was dark and there was a vehicle outside, probably someone who was trying to fix the power or whatever). And I heard from a friend of mine who lives in the street "across" from mine that she suffered from the blackout as well. But not that far from our streets, the traffic lights were working just fine. It is really annoying, and ironic as well. My dad says the houses in my area cost more because they are closer to the mountains (and houses on the mountain are considered to be very expensive and nice) but the houses closer to the mountains tend to lose power first...And it's hard to get it fixed. It's not like everyone has power generators or backup power at their homes (though businesses, like my parents' offices, do) and no one is going to trek up the mountain just to fix a few mansions' power. (Well, we don't live on the mountain, so at least we get it fixed within a reasonable time. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to shower or do homework tonight, but it turned out that it got fixed while I was at school.)

This morning, I went to school early, because I heard the school had power and I figured it'd be better to at least have lights. Also, I hope that my teacher would have gotten there early and perhaps opened the classroom, but alas, that was not to be. My teacher was sick and couldn't come, so we had a substitute. I was disappointed since I was ready to take the Chemical Symbol Quiz (we were memorized the letters for thirty common elements, like O for Oxygen) and now that it's been moved back I have to take both a history and a science test on Thursday. I was hoping I could just concentrate on the history test.

Anyways, I saw a bunch of seagulls this morning. It was really scary. There must've been all of the seagulls in the neighboring towns and our town put together in the grass field. There were more gulls than I've ever seen together in one place in my lifetime.

It's not a good sign that all these seagulls are here. It means that there must be food and so the seagulls are getting lazy. Why live by the ocean and have to actually fish when you can stay here and eat leftover trash? But it's really unhealthy for them. It's kind of like how raccoons eat people's trash instead of eating forest food.

My household used to be visited by raccoons. A couple of times, in the nighttime, the lights would go on. (We have lights outside which will suddenly shine on if they sense movement. But if we "turn off" the lights they'll stay off.) I looked outside and there seemed to be some moving shapes. They were awfully big, and animal-like by the looks of it. It turned out to be raccoons. They were so huge! I always expected them to be small and kind of cuddly. But I guess you can't really assume things about animals you've never seen. (Really, I haven't seen raccoons much. Only pictures, and it's hard to tell from that.)

Labels: blackout, electricity, elements, food, hear my cry, power outage, raccoon, roll of thunder, school, seagull, size, storm, test, thunder, trash, vase, weather, wild animals, wind chimes, windy

On Monday, I returned to school after having been away for several weeks. Winter break isn't all that long, but it seemed long to me because I didn't go anywhere this time. I usually travel somewhere during the breaks. Nowadays, I am concerned about saving money for retirement, and besides, I didn't want to have to adjust time zones, so I decided not to go on vacation over the winter break. Over the break, my father and I went exploring the neighborhood.

For quite a while, perhaps several years, a local place, which is called a farm (but has other things, for recreation, like a swimming pool and a golf course), had been under renovation. Sometime in 2009, the changes were done and it was reopened to the public. It was the first time I had seen the place since before it had closed for the renovating. In fact, I hadn't been there for many years, so it was like going there for the first time, practically.

It turned out that two bocce ball courts and a volleyball court had been built. There was also a trail, leading to a place that actually was like a farm (there were farm animals, like goats, cows, and I believe I saw a pony). There was a swimming pool, but it was closed because it was wintertime. It was nice to see the creek with water in it...It's depressing in the summer since the creek tends to be dried out. One of the parks near my house doesn't have water in the ponds either. My dad says that the people of my town dried it out on purpose to try and drive the birds away.

Speaking of birds, the place where I live is really infested with them. My house has birds, which is nice (though some of them look just like the finches I saw at the petshop...). But the park has many Canadian geese, which should not be; the geese already ought to have migrated by now. There's also seagulls and a few crows. My school also has this problem, especially after it rains. I like the birds, except for one time when a seagull pooped on my math homework.

When my mom's friend's family came over to our house, on New Year's Day, the TV was turned on and I started flipping channels. (There seemed to be several Educational Programming channels...Hmm.) Eventually I reached a channel where exceptional moments in music were being played, and so my mom's friend's daughter said we might as well stop there. Some singer (I forgot her name, unfortunately) was singing when a bird flew by and pooped diagonally onto her mouth! It was disgusting. But that bird had good aim.

I was pretty freaked out because I saw a dead bird today. It was pretty well squashed, something disgusting on it as well as blood... It seems like another bad sign. But it could just be my imagination. There is a lot of roadkill nowadays.

Birds aren't the only animals all over the place, though. There are also plenty of squirrels. I have some in my backyard. My mom pointed one out to me, so I ran over to the window to see. It began digging up the grass and apparently found something to eat - perhaps a nut? Then it started eating, before holding it in its mouth and climbing up the tree. The squirrel looked pretty fat. It was a greyish one (maybe that's because of the winter, it could have actually been a squirrel with brown fur). I had seen a black squirrel earlier which was quite a bit skinnier than that one. It didn't find anything to eat in my backyard. I guess the early bird - or squirrel - doesn't always get the worm (nut).

That nut looked kind of like an acorn. Was that from my yard? Or a neighbor's place? Or somewhere far away, like near my school? There are plenty of acorns there. I've always thought acorns were cool nuts. I would like to make some acorn mush, or acorn pancakes, but I'm not sure how. And what would it taste like, anyways? D:

Labels: 2010, acorn, birds, blackberry farm, bocceball, break, creek, death, explore, food, neighborhood, nuts, poop, roadkill, seagull, singer, squirrels, television, water, winter

Well, kind of in the literal sense, and kind of not. On Christmas Day, I was spacing out and I noticed something unusual on the ceiling. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a crack...In fact, a pretty long one. I am not sure how long the crack has been there. It could be new, it might've been forming over the course of several years. But what I do know is that it's a bad sign.

Our house is not new, that is for sure. My mother says it was built in 1945. It was remodeled once, but that wasn't recent, and it wasn't us who remodeled it anyway. My dad says the insides of the house are getting ruined and sometime we're going to have to either move out or redo our house from scratch. I hope that won't happen, but you can't prevent the inevitable; fate works in strange ways. When I mentioned the crack to my parents, my dad said it would probably be okay (at least for now) while my mother said, "Okay, let's remodel the house now." I don't want to move away (unless it would be to some far, exotic place like Australia, or France, or Italy, or the Hawaiian islands) and I don't want to tear down my house...But now that I think of it, that would give me a good opportunity to try apartment living. I've been wanting to live in apartment because I figure it would be interesting, and it would be good to have neighbors close by and a swimming pool that can easily be accessed. I really don't understand why people always want to buy a house so badly. Is it wanting to call something your own? Or do you just want some privacy?

Recently, my dad told me about the difference between the way houses are built. There are slab houses and houses with crawl space. If your house is a slab house, then it is built directly on top of a concrete foundation. The pipes and other things are in the concrete. If your house has crawl space, then there is some space between a foundation and the house. The space is called "crawl space" because if your pipes break or something, you can crawl under the house to fix them. If you have a slab house, then there is no crawl space, so you're in big trouble if your pipes break - you'll have to blow up the concrete. But if you do have crawl space, then you run the risk of termites. My house, in fact, probably has termites.

My mom and dad both watched a Chinese drama. In the drama, a couple wanted to buy a house. They don't have much money, so the wife asked her husband to borrow money from his parents. But the husband didn't want to do that since his parents are poor and he would feel guilty. His wife grew angry, saying she was tired of him making excuses about his family. They already had to take out a loan for a large amount of money that had a high interest rate, and the down payments took the help of neighbors and friends. My mom complained, "Why do they want to buy a house when they really can't afford it?" Why indeed.

On Christmas Day, I visited my parents' friends' house. My parents' friends' son is visiting (he lives in Seattle) and he brought his dog along with him. His dog is a Shetland sheepdog, I believe (at least partially, maybe he is mixed with some other breeds). The dog looks quite different from the last time I saw him. He seems to be bigger and has a lot of hair, even though my parents' friends insist he was already like that. This time the dog was a lot friendlier to me than last time. (Or maybe I'm better at dealing with dogs now. When I was in Australia, I got to interact with my mom's friend's dog...) He watched me whenever I tried to eat something (of course, animals find human food to be MUCH tastier) and let me pet him and even tried to lick me. (I really don't understand why a dog would want to lick you, not that I really mind or anything, but it's not like I taste good....DO I?!)

My mom was reading the newspaper (in Chinese) and there were some pictures of some objects. I guess it was some recommendations of things to buy. There was lipstick that has seven colors you can use...Isn't that like one of those pens with many colors? Wow. The most interesting thing, though, was the key hider. It was supposed to look like a sprinkler on your lawn or one of those outdoor lights. Actually, you can put your keys in them, so if you forgot your keys, you could have a spare key outside. But I think that's dangerous. Any ill-minded person who reads that newspaper article will know where to look for someone's keys and would be able to break into your house...

Labels: apartment, chinese, crack, crawl space, disguise, dog, drama, food, house, key hider, lick, lipstick, money, moving, newspaper, old, risk, shetland sheepdog, slab house, termites

Does it make sense to you? It didn't to me at first. I was doing my French homework today, and it said, "Moi, j'adore le saucisson. Avec du pain et du beurre, miam, miam!!" (It really did have two exclamation points. Talk about excited over food. Though of course, cuisine is one of the finer points of life, as I was watching the Food Network recently, The Next Iron Chef and stuff like that)

English translation: Me, I adore sausage. With bread and butter, yum, yum!

I tried it out in Google Translate just to be sure, and "miam, miam" means "yum, yum". Very interesting. Next time I go to France I'll see what kinds of things my cousins say when they're eating. (Funny, but the word for cousin - the female cousin, mind you, not the male - is pronounced like cuisine)

Oh, but I have been meaning to talk about Google Translate, and Wikipedia. I often use Google Translate if I can't figure out what a word is in French (luckily, they are often similar to English words, so you can guess at some of what you don't know). The teacher said not to use translators, because she says it's a machine and can't always figure out what you're trying to say. For instance, a student once tried to say he had turkey in his sandwich but he said the word for Turkey the country instead of the word for turkey the bird.

Still, despite that, it does work pretty well, as long as you compare it to another translator, or online dictionaries, and I've been able to figure out a lot that way. I guess some things work for some people. "One man's trash is another's treasure", shall I say.

Wikipedia is often scorned as well. Teachers don't want students to use it for their reports most of the time because, basically, anyone could edit the pages in Wikipedia. In fact, one time my history teacher had a student who was apparently dumb enough to want to try causing trouble, so the student went and changed a Wikipedia page. The teacher figured out what was going on because he remembered some of the information on the page and could tell that it wasn't what he had seen in the morning. However, I do hear that there are more serious people who are dedicated to Wikipedia who would probably fix something if it was messed up. So, I don't think you need to worry about Wikipedia pages being opinionated, unless it's a delicate topic. (I mean, something like politics.)

But you know, Wikipedia is actually the most accurate encyclopedia in the world. I heard that people have done studies and it is quite accurate and up to date. I can vouch for this. There is a Japanese singer named Ceui and she didn't have a Wikipedia page before, but one day, a few months ago, I was clicking about in Wikipedia, and discovered she did have a page! Wikipedia is updated much more quickly than an old, classic, book encyclopedia, because those get remastered maybe every few years. -_-;;

My language arts teacher displayed a scary, but still funny, side of herself today. We were talking about the eighth grade standards for the writing test we will take on behalf of the district (and maybe the whole state of California too?) later on this year. She said that there is a person who advises the language arts teacher, and so my teacher heard that there was an elementary school teacher who said to her students, "You can just write the way you speak." This is not encouraged, and my teacher said, "If I ever meet that teacher, I will challenge her to a cage match, and I will take her down!" with quite a bit of vigor. It was pretty amusing, but it was a bit intimidating too.

Speaking of which, it isn't always bad to have your writing seem like you're talking to someone. I know you shouldn't be using speaking slang like "gonna" and stuff like that, but I have seen books where the main character and/or narrator of the book actually acknowledges that there is a reader, as if the character of the book is aware that they're in a book. And if you've seen books that are written to be like diaries, then certainly they aren't written so formally. It really could depend on the situation, I suppose.

Labels: books, ceui, cousins, encyclopedia, food, french, google translate, language, miam, teacher, the next iron chef, translation, turkey, wikipedia, writing style, yum

That's a phrase which basically means "sleeping". Lately I've been able to sleep more since the weather is mild - not too hot and not too cold. Though I fall asleep around 11 pm, I wake up around 9 am (I have to get up then anyhow because of my summer classes) so I'm getting more sleep than during the regular school year (when I have to wake up before 8 am). It's made me feel a little more energetic, even if not too big a difference, and I'm glad of it. Maybe I could actually grow taller, something that has not been happening to me for a while...

...though one of my friends seems to have no problem growing. She's now increased her lead over me (Wow, when I talk like this, it sounds like swimming in the Olympics or something) and besides that my parents say they think she has lost some weight to boot. Her sister just looks kind of the same as always. It's probably because she has taller parents whereas my parents are kind of on the short side. My dad insists it's my mom's fault and my mom retorts that he's not exactly very tall himself...

I think my mom has way too many co-workers, classmates, and other assortments of acquaintances. She often goes a-visiting with them, and apparently she knows someone in Sydney, Australia who offered to take us around the city for a day. Even my dad seems to know a few people in Australia. (I guess it's because he used to live there and he was the only one who moved away? And that was because my mom "dragged "him) I wonder how my parents keep track of them all, but then again, it's not like they know my classmates, just like I don't really know their fellow people at work (unless I hear about them enough times).

I heard that my grandfather used to learn Japanese in school, which came as a surprise to me. I think it was because of something to do with Japanese were taking over China... He still knows a little bit, but it's kind of like my dad - my dad claims he knows German, but he really can only count from 1-10 by now.

We've had another death at my house recently. My blue balloon, which had the Earth drawn on it with Sharpie marker and which was hanging from a cord of the ceiling fan, popped all of a sudden, though it seemed like nothing was wrong with it. My mom says the over time the balloon's "skin" grew thinner until at last it couldn't handle it anymore. Something like that. I don't know very much of these matters, so if you understand it, let me know. Anyhow, it's a shame not to see that balloon hanging in my room anymore...It lived for a month.

When I went to the supermarket with my parents just the other day, I saw some chocolate milk buns - the kind that come six to a package which you can steam at home - and I was enraptured. It had such a beautiful brown swirly pattern. So my parents said we should buy them - though I tried to say "I'll use my allowance" (I barely keep track of it anymore. Ha, ha) - and when we were checking out, the cashier said "$1.99!" emphatically. My parents say that the cashier must've thought that was expensive. I thought, "Oh no! Maybe it is a bad deal to get only six buns for that price!" But still, there is nothing as cute as that among the buns at the supermarket.

Labels: acquaintance, balloon, bun, change, connection, death, food, german, growing, height, japanese, language, popped, relatives, rest, sleep, spending money, supermarket, temperature

I'd known this phrase from reading books, but I'd wondered what it meant. Well, finally I got around to looking it up. If you say butter WOULDN'T melt in someone's mouth, it means the person keeps a cool demeanor, and is not "warm" enough to melt butter. Usually this phrase applies to women. Sometimes it means that the person is quiet, meek, and has a sweet temper instead of emotional coldness. Whew, this phrase kind of confuses me. It's not like "barking up the wrong tree", which I believe means that someone has got ahold of the wrong person (ex. Someone stole a watch, and the person who was stolen from bothers a person who they think stole it, but it was someone else who stole the watch).

I was playing Animal Crossing (as I do every weekend, to make money to pay off my house mortgage) when I was talking to one of my neighbors. He said to me, "This may sound surprising coming from me, but letters make me nostalgic," after he showed me a letter (which was actually written by me, using a different name XD). Another neighbor said he'd heard about something called "e-mail" on TV (remember, this game was created 2001 or 2002) where people could send messages to people in other countries.

This reminded me of how I used to keep in touch with one of my friends from first grade. She moved because her parents lost their jobs and couldn't find a good one in California. So now she lives in North Carolina. We used to exchange letters and postcards, and it was nice to communicate that way. There's something charming about writing letters. But now almost everyone uses email instead, so I communicate with long distance friends through that instead. It doesn't have the same feel, though, and oftentimes people don't respond to my emails for a very long time. Or never at all. So I almost wish that my language arts teacher would make us have pen pals far away, like in another state or country, except we could write whatever we wanted. I mean, the skill of letter writing is started to be lost. One of my friends asked me what you need. (Well, the Dear -soandso-, and the ending which could be Sincerely, Best Regards, Yours Truly, XOXO, etc. is obvious. But I mean the address, the first and last name of the receiver, and things like that. It seems like people don't even know that anymore. I'm extremely disappointed)

I've eaten a lot of sweet foods these days. My dad brought back cookies and egg custard tarts. (Apparently someone was trying to kiss up to him with the egg custard tarts) My mom brought back a chocolate chip cookie as well, and then last night my dad's friend's family (they come over a lot ever since they moved to my town) and my mom's old Shanghai classmate came over. So we served cheesecake. I got first dibs even though I'm not a guest. Ha! I picked a chocolate chip cheesecake. They're all pretty good - the flavors were plain, chocolate chip, tuxedo, and triple chocolate. However, I will need to do some serious work in PE to burn it off. By the way, if you aren't sure what an egg custard tart is, here is a picture.

Labels: animal crossing, butter, cheesecake, chocolate chip, cookie, delicious, dessert, egg custard tart, email, food, letter, mail, melt, plain, sayings, scrumptious, tasty, triple chocolate, tuxedo, weight

My school's principal is going to become the principal of some elementary school I've never heard of next year. I feel very strange since back in elementary school, our principal also moved to another job in the school district, so then we had to have a new principal. The new principal was not well-liked since she made us wait at the lunch tables to be dismissed. It was pretty annoying, and also, she didn't really solve the problem with trash we have at our elementary school. (Trash isn't everywhere, but there is quite a lot of plastic wrappers and bent forks and stuff like that. Same thing at my current school) Anyhow, I was sort of relieved when I moved to middle school but pretty intimidated too. I had the misconception that several hundred kids where in one big room, with the teacher at the front talking, and she/he had to have a microphone otherwise we couldn't hear. So boy was I surprised to see we had regular classrooms. ^-^;;

Anyhow, back to the principal. In my first class my teacher said there was going to be an important announcement. I thought he meant my other teacher getting married, but nope, turned out the principal was saying that after 7 years of being at Kennedy, he would be moving out. So he played rock paper scissors with everyone and he picked scissors, so I beat him with rock (so did many other kids). Then the principal said how all the Kennedy students rock. How corny. (Note that I usually say cheesy or cliched but I wanted to say something different for once.) Still, I do feel kind of sad. He wasn't a mean principal or anything. Even though where I sit at lunch, we usually block the aisle and when he comes by he tells us to move to the sides, I've never seen him throw a fit.

Right now I am eating a bagel. I used to eat them a lot when I was young, either with regular cream cheese or strawberry cream cheese (I don't know for sure but probably the flavor was artificial). This bagel is oddly sour but still tasty. My school sells them too; however, I usually don't trust the school food. Nowadays at the place I get lunch, they have small pretzels (no, not the crunchy kind that is like chips). I tried them but they taste disgusting unless you dip it in sauce or eat it with seaweed. (Someday I will patent my new invention, seaweed pretzels!)

I feel like playing Dance Dance Revolution nowadays. I only have the Mario Mix kind at my house, which is not that good since all the songs are, well, Mario game songs. Still, playing DDR is fun. I just have trouble stepping back. (You know, the arrow that points downward.) If you don't know what DDR are is, here's a quick rundown. It's a game that is basically stepping on parts of a mat to the beat of music. When a moving arrow is overlapping exactly with the nonmoving arrows near the top of the screen, you step on the mat. (There are arrows on the mat, too, to help you out.) Hard to explain so you should just try it yourself in an arcade or at someone's house.

My parents' companies are major cheapskates now that the economy is tough and less people are buying their products (Broadcom, my mom's workplace, had a major customer before, but that company has shut down, so people at Broadcom are worried). But I don't think the situation is really bad since at Broadcom, when they finish a project, sometimes they go play lawn bowling. I've only played a simulation on the Internet so someday I might want to move to San Francisco and go to the Golden Gate Park to try it. (There's a wikipedia article about lawn bowling, so go ahead and search it up.) Also, I heard one of Apple's products will use Broadcom chips, and you know how popular all that iTouch, iPod, blah blah blah stuff is. And I even heard that the Wii Remote uses a Broadcom chip.

Anyhow, though, the reason why I say they are cheapos is because they no longer provide water bottles. They used to always have those but now they only have soda! So you have to get water from a fountain or something. This is annoying since I like being able to carry around water bottles, not one of those weird plastic cups. They should encourage people to drink water, not sugar and caffeine (my definition of soda). Otherwise the workers will get all hyper and not be able to concentrate. I heard if someone gets distracted at work it could take them maybe 15 minutes to get back on task completely.

Still, though, my dad thinks my mom's company is the best company in the world (I bet he's the only one who thinks so! Broadcom is so unknown most people have never heard of it, whereas a lot of people in my area know what Cisco is). I mean, right now, my mom came in with a slice of cheesecake. Apparently someone had some leftovers. I guess that's why she works here and not some other job.

Labels: bagel, broadcom, cafeteria, career, cisco systems, DDR, disposition, food, lawn bowling, principal, rock paper scissors, school, seaweed pretzels, surprise, video games, water bottles

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