Today, a very strange thing happened. My mother put out the trash, recycling, and yard waste containers so the trash could be taken away. When she came back, the trash and recycling containers were still there, but the yard waste one was gone! I think that probably when the truck coming around to get the trash, maybe it lifted up the yard waste can to dump it out (since it's done using the truck, people don't get out of the truck to dump the trash in) and it accidentally dropped the whole container in! My mom suggested that someone could have stolen the yard waste bin, but that is pretty unlikely seeing as it's not really a valuable object. I mean, unless you want tree branches, or you collect trash cans, there's no point.

Well, anyways, this is an entirely different subject, but my history teacher told my class a story about gambling. It started out with him explaining how there is gambling in his bloodline. One time I think his parents and grandmother went somewhere, and after gambling his parents went to sleep in their hotel room. Then they woke up and realized that the grandmother wasn't in her bed. So my teacher's father went searching for the grandma. They found her in the casino, still playing blackjack.

Afterwards, my teacher proceeded to the actual story. During his college years, when he was still back in San Diego (I don't know where in California he is actually from. It could be the town I live in because I saw some 1993, 1994 panoramic pictures from his 7th and 8th grade year, picturing his whole grade, and it said my school's name underneath), one time he took a trip to Las Vegas with his father, brother, and two friends of his. I think they didn't all travel together, so my teacher needed to get to the hotel.

His father said, "California Hotel. Old Vegas," and hung up. (Old Vegas refers to the area not on the Strip - the Strip is the current main street of Las Vegas where all the nice hotels/casinos are, like Bellagio and The Venetian and the Mirage and Monte Carlo and Mandalay Bay... and so on) My teacher tried to tell that to a taxi driver, but the taxi driver didn't know where that was. In fact, several taxi drivers didn't know where that was. He called his father again but was told "California Hotel. Old Vegas," which didn't help. So at last he found a taxi driver who knew what he was talking about.

Later on, his father wanted to make a deal with him. My teacher had brought $250 or so with him for gambling. He took my teacher's money and gave him $400, and later on all of them would split the profits they made.

They all went gambling. I mean, what else do you do in Las Vegas? Besides watching the shows and checking out the free tourist attractions... (Once you've seen them all, then you'll be bored, like I was because I've been to Las Vegas quite a few times) I recommend Bellagio's fountains. You should also see the garden inside Bellagio...Oh, and the shop that sells sweets, too. They have a chocolate waterfall if I remember correctly.

After a while, my teacher and his father were getting into the groove and had won lots of money. I think my teacher gained $900 or something. He found out that two other friends were in Las Vegas, at Mandalay Bay, so he went to meet them. My teacher talked about how he was on a roll, so one of his friends said, "Take my $20 and get me a $100." But my teacher wanted to do $25 rounds so he said he couldn't with just $20. But his friend insisted, so eventually he took $5 of his own so he would have enough. He earned $100 using the $25, and his friend said, "Do it again." My teacher reminded her that his luck/karma/skill/whatever you want to call it might run out, but she said it was okay. So he won $100 again, and again, and eventually she had $400. I wish it was always that easy to gamble; then I could retire like I want to.

My teacher's friend said she would definitely buy him McDonald's next time. My teacher had said earlier that in college he had a job in YMCA, which didn't pay so well, so he was "surviving off the McDonald's Dollar Menu". Imagine this scenario. (J means my teacher, since his first name starts with a J, and C means cashier)

J: I'd like 3 fries, please.
C: That'll be $11. (Dunno if it's really that price, but oh well)
J: No, no, I mean 3 fries. Oh, I think I'll have those over there on the ground.
C: Then that'll be $.25.

I hope he really didn't live like that. I'm sure he's kidding. I mean, it's not sanitary to eat off the floor anyways.

Labels: bellagio, blackjack, california hotel, french fries, gambling, garbage can, genetics, las vegas, mcdonald's, middle school, money, teacher, trash, yard waste

There's no need to be concerned, because I don't gamble. I once tried to in the Venetian hotel quite a few years ago, when my mom and I were eating dinner at a restaurant inside the casino, and I wanted to press one of the buttons on a nearby slot machine, but then a worker came by and said I couldn't. How disappointing. Slot machines make cool noises, kind of like the newer checkout machines at the local library.

The inspiration for my blog post and title today was cars. Yup, cars. I often see doubles of the same car. Today when going to school, in front of my car were two Lexus (dunno what the plural form is...Lexuses? o_O;; ). They were the same exact kind except for the color.

And there are a lot of Subaru Foresters, I have discovered. I have seen a couple of them in my area, same color and everything. And one time I came with my mom to work at her office since there was no one to watch me at home (and I have no siblings, so I am not trusted to stay by myself, except for this summer when I was doing just that). Well, my mom had parked her car next to another Subaru. It was also a Forester except it was a black one. I know they have to sell a lot of a kind of car or they would discontinue making them but I still get amazed if I see the same kind of car. I see the Mercedes we have hidden in our garage sometimes too.

There are a lot of twins, too. A pair of twins who are both geography whizzes are in my village this year, along with a girl who apparently has a twin (but I haven't quite figured out who her twin is. I assume she has to be in the school somewhere). Maybe there's more twins in my village that I didn't notice yet.

Anyhow, on to other news. The blog layout has been changed since unfortunately the one I had in mind isn't working as well as would be nice. So maybe I'll just try and format it for Nutrinopets or something, because I often use blog layouts for my profile there. This time I got it from createblog.com, which has Blogger layouts, though I still prefer to go to blogskins.com most of the time. I thought the toast was very charming. And I really like bread. XD

I've moved my playlist and it is now underneath the posts, at the bottom of the page. It will autostart so pause it or turn off your sound or turn off the playlist's sound if you don't want to hear it. There's also a Youtube video so you can have images and sound together if you would like. I picked out Colorless Wind sung by Yuuki Aira, which is the Sola anime opening. It's one of my favorite songs. (There was another song I wanted to put up but I couldn't find it...Sigh...)

Labels: automobile, blog, car, casino, change, colorless wind, forester, gambling, las vegas, layout, lexus, mercedes, playlist, slot machines, subaru, toast, venetian, video, youtube, yuuki aira

There was a similar quote to this, said by Ronald Reagan to Mikhail Gorbachev. But I have adjusted it to suit my purposes. Recently, I heard the shocking news that the Calabazas branch of the San Jose Library is coming down. I don't even know if they plan to set up a "temporary library" in the meantime, since it was said on their website that we ought to go visit other branches. I guess my mom could just to go Alviso (a San Jose Library not far from her office) but I still find this to be terrible. I still remember a long time ago the old Cupertino library was going to be replaced by our current one, and they set up a temporary library. Maybe San Jose doesn't have as much money. When I was young, I would ride my bike with training wheels around the rectangular path...

But anyways, before I get caught up in the past (which happens often if I have free time), at least the Cupertino library is still here. I will probably have to rely on it for all my books from now on. I am pleased to see that they have their fountains up and running again. When it was newer, the fountains had been up a lot, but then for a long time I didn't see them anymore. But now it's back, and they took down that ugly fence they temporarily set up around it. Even if it does seem like a "waste of water", I like fountains. It'd be really cool if they had ones like the Bellagio fountains.

Speaking of fountains, I saw some indoors at the Crowne Casino in Melbourne, Australia. Inside were structures which water ran down and also jumped to and fro (bad grammar sentence, sorry). It sort of reminded me of Bellagio's fountains, even those these ones were quite different. (Well, maybe these are more like the ones you find in the indoor "garden" in Bellagio) Too bad we didn't stay at the Crowne's hotel... I bet my dad and his pals would have gambled away the money, and besides, unlike Las Vegas, you have to prove you're old enough to go into the casinos (in Las Vegas, it's just that people will catch you trying to use the machines if you look too young).

The STAR test results have arrived! At least, I received mine in the mail recently. I was pleased with my results this year. My math and language arts scores were pretty even. I won't say the specifics, but language arts has gone up a huge amount, so I'm glad! My math score went down, but then again, that probably is because I'm taking the advanced math STAR tests now, not the regular ones like last year and the years before. I hope I can do as well next year when it comes to the science and history sections... If I can, I think I'm set for life (nah, I know I shouldn't have that lazy attitude or I won't be going anywhere).

We bought a timer recently. Usually we use the digital sorts of cameras, so it was a little awkward having to use one of the mechanical white ones. But I think it is much cuter than getting one of those ones with the numbers on it.

Labels: bad news, bellagio, crowne, fountain, gambling, good news, las vegas, library, mechanical, mikhail gorbachev, repair, result, ronald reagan, score, STAR testing, tear down this wall, timer

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