Recently, the clouds have been moving back and forth, covering the sun in the morning and letting it shine through in the afternoon...And sometimes the sun is covered by fog, so the light from it is weak. Because of the lack of light, it sometimes appears that people and objects have no shadow, or a very faint one.

I remember once that I heard about someone who had no shadow...Was it a book? Or perhaps an anime? I cannot clearly remember. But that person stood out because they had no shadow.

Shadows are always there, yet people don't really pay much attention to them. One's shadow always follows you around, and imitates what you do, for it is a part of yourself and yet at the same time not a part of yourself. The shadow diminishes and grows depending on light, and although people are taller in the morning than the evening, living things do not wane and wax the way the shadows do.

I am not really sure why I felt like talking about shadows, but I suppose it was just to help me get the writing flow going, if you know what I mean.

For homework, I was supposed to look up George Washington's Farewell Address. (That was the speech he gave when he resigned from the presidency after two terms) It was really long...Well, maybe it just felt like that because I was reading it and not hearing it. Still, it was pretty lengthy, and pretty hard to understand, since it was around the late 1700s... In fact, there was quite a bit of stuff in the speech that didn't have much to do with the President resigned (besides that maybe he was giving the country and next President his advice about the evil of political parties, and staying out of Europe's messy relationships, and such?). I feel a bit of kinship to George Washington, though, because he wanted to stay retired, but had to stop being retired to become President. Also, I heard that the President liked interior design and collected art. (I've been to his house, Mount Vernon. I wasn't overly impressed but maybe I'm judging by the wrong standards. It was old-fashioned, after all, with beds that are really high and all)

I've been to quite a few old homes, like Hearst Castle and Versailles and Winchester House. Winchester House is the most interesting one, I think. It's not too far from where I live and I've been there twice (once on a field trip with a summer camp, and another time for a friend's birthday party) It's got all sorts of weird things like the staircase that goes into the ceiling and a place where Sarah Winchester could look down and spy on her servants (to see if they were gossiping about her or something along those lines? Then she could fire them if they were). Some parts of the house would make you uncomfortable if you're claustrophobic, though. The guides tell people not to wander off and open doors because you could get lost, and never be found...

Another cool place would be Mystery Spot, which I also visited as part of summer camp one year. (The same summer camp that allowed me to see Winchester House, in fact.) It's a place that is really...weird. I forget what caused it, I'm afraid. But sometimes things are sideways and gravity is really strange. That's why it's called the Mystery Spot, I suppose. It's very mysterious.

I had a question, and if you happen to have the answer right on the tip of your tongue (figuratively, of course; if you talked to me I wouldn't be able to hear you unless you're next to me), please enlighten me. I've been looking for a jacket for my coming trip to Yosemite, and I've been wondering what the difference is between "water resistant" and "waterproof". Personally, I think it's the same thing, but my mom thinks that water resistant isn't as good as waterproof. I have no idea. (Unless you don't know either, don't bother looking it up, this is just if you already know it...)

This is something kind of random, but my history teacher has all sorts of odd songs. There was one that seemed to talk about elements (the sort that you find on the Periodic Table), and there was one that was like the 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall song, and just today I heard some lyrics in a song that went like, "God is great, beer is good" or something. D:

Labels: beer, claustrophobia, elements, george washington, god, house, light, mount vernon, mystery spot, president, retirement, sarah, shadow, songs, speech, water resistant, waterproof, winchester, writing

It's good to brush your teeth at least twice a day, and even better to brush after every meal. (That's something I don't do, hehehe. I really don't floss enough either.) But what people don't necessarily remind you to do is to brush your tongue. Your tongue gets dirty too, so keep it clean! I remember when I was younger one time my tongue felt uncomfortable or something. It was because it wasn't clean. I forget what was stuck to it... Perhaps toothpaste? But nowadays I just give it a quick swipe so it won't get dirty. Be careful when you're brushing your tongue unless you want to throw up. It's pretty nauseous if you brush towards the back of your mouth.

I watched the movie 2012 over the weekend. It's not really a new movie anymore, but I had wanted to watch it. I actually didn't know much about it - I know it was about the world ending (Apocalypse, is that the word for it?) - but I expected it to be kind of like a documentary. It was actually more of a science fiction movie, I guess. It was very saddening, seeing people die and cities fall and all that, but then the movie ended on a hopeful note. For some reason it seemed very wrong for it to be like that, because the survivors all smiled and (seemingly) had forgotten their loved ones who had perished, the homes that they had lost. It was like the movie made me all panicky and then eventually said, "Oh, it'll all be okay in the end, even if we have to go live on Africa because the rest of the Earth is underwater." It would have made more sense to me for all the people to die, but of course there has to be some sort of a happy ending.

Well, anyways, I was starting to panic because of how horrible it was seeing the cities falling down and the ocean swallowing up the land. The destabilizing of the Earth's crust began in California, because we have fault lines here, thus making earthquakes more likely. So I thought, "Well, we should hurry and move elsewhere, so we can live just a little bit longer than we would here." Because that way, we'd have a little time to say goodbye.

Of course, a lot of people say the world's not going to end in 2012. I'm really not sure. I have a tendency to be paranoid, and besides, I find the thought of the world ending kind of exciting, so I tend to believe it will happen. Who knows, though? We won't be able to find out until it happens.

Oh yes, and before I forget, there was one part in the movie I found really meaningful. It was a scene in the movie showing people in Italy praying to be saved. Then they noticed that the ceiling was cracking. A crack ran along the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel...and separated Man and God! (That famous painting, you know?) You can imagine the shock it caused. It was like God had given up on the humans.

That's why the ships that people boarded so they might be able to live were called Arks. It's a reference to Noah's Ark...The ship Noah boarded along with two of each kind of animal to ride out the storm while God gave the Earth a "fresh start". (No wonder in the movie I saw elephants and giraffes being airlifted to the Arks...)

Speaking of other movies, I was thinking about going to the movie theater sometime. I still have Silver movie tickets left and I haven't used them up. I was planning to see the movie Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (It's a Hayao Miyazaki film, from Studio Ghibli, and I am a great fan of their work, so I have to see it!) but it's already gone from the theaters. I was really saddened. The other day my mom and I were looking at movies that are in theaters currently, like the Princess and the Frog (which I heard my history teacher took his son to see. Is it good? I might want to see it even if it is intended for a younger audience), and New Moon (which I won't be watching; usually books are better than their movie counterparts, so since I didn't like the Twilight books much, I probably won't like the movies much either).

There's a movie called Avatar that came out recently. I had no idea what it was about so I jumped to the conclusion that it was Avatar: The Last Airbender (the cartoon about the bald guy with an arrow on his head! Wahoo!) Actually, it was about aliens, I think. I really have to stop jumping to conclusions. XD

Labels: 2012, apocalypse, avatar, california, dental hygiene, god, happy ending, hayao miyazaki, movie, new moon, noah's ark, ponyo, sistine chapel, studio ghibli, survival, the princess and the frog, tongue

Today's post was inspired by a movie I saw my father watching on the weekend. Naturally, as I am distracted by the things around me, I end up watching some of the movies he watches as well. The movie he was watching was a Japanese movie called Premonition. It's a freaky sort of story about a man and his family. The man was outside of his car and saw a newspaper that said his daughter would die in a car accident because of a jammed seat belt. His wife got out of the car to ask him for help freeing the seat belt. Then a truck came and hit the car, killing their daughter. Some time passed after the event, and the man had more premonitions. Eventually he has the opportunity to change the fate of his daughter. Someone MUST die in the accident. He could let his daughter die, or his wife die, or everyone could die, or he himself could die.

I'm not a fan of horror and things like that, but this movie was quite interesting. It really does show you that there are things in life you do have control over. There are many crossroads that you will reach over the course of your life and you must make the decision which path to take. Sometimes no path is perfect, but you can always try to do what's right, even if you don't necessarily succeed. And sometimes the path is a sad one. For instance, you might fall into a swamp of alligators and be killed, but then other people could step on your body and use it as a human bridge to get safely away from the alligators. (I know that's a gruesome example, but I had to think of something) Sometimes the right choice could be something that harms you, sometimes the right choice harms other people, and sometimes there is really no right choice.

Sometimes, other people and beings are in control instead of you. After watching the movie, I heard a story being read on the radio. It was about Adam and Eve, and the time when they were still in the Garden of Eden. Adam was shown to be a very stupid individual. One time he showed Eve some giraffe feces he found, and he was quite excited over it. Eve was pretty disgusted by it. On the radio, the reader said, "Adam had the IQ of a coconut husk." Eve complained to God, but he stayed silent, so she had to put up with him.

There was a snake who lived in the Garden, and he was watching Eve. He thought if they met, there would instantly be sparks flying between them and they would get along quite well. Actually, Eve saw the Snake and thought he was one of the most repulsive animals she had ever seen. But, as she didn't run away, then the Snake started to talk to her. Eve was very interested in the Tree of Knowledge, which was the only tree that she and Adam were not allowed to eat from. So the Snake gradually persuaded her to eat some, saying things like, "It's not a paradise at all if there's a way you can get kicked out" and "Just a little nibble wouldn't hurt" and "God wants you to have knowledge because then he won't be lonely anymore". Finally, Eve did eat some fruit, and then all the problems started...She realized that she was naked, which she had never really minded before (that was when my dad and I stopped listening, because we thought it would be pretty inappropriate to hear about).

Well, what I meant to show with talking about that was that someone else could be directing what you do, even if you don't realize it.

Speaking of not knowing what is happening to you, we were talking about that in French class. The conversation started because one of the students had his birthday presents stolen from his party. That is really rotten, because it must've been a so-called "friend" who stole his gifts. The teacher says that he ought to lock up his presents right away from now on. You can never be too careful.

Anyhow, the teacher was almost robbed once. She was on an escalator or something, and there were two people standing on either side of her, talking over her head. She was pretty annoyed but couldn't move. Then one of them started trying to steal her bag or the stuff in it. She didn't feel a thing...Luckily, her husband was behind and noticed, and shouted at the pickpocket, who then made his getaway. And there was also a tourist who had his credit cards stolen from his pockets and didn't feel anything either. (It was the front pockets, so that's something) Looks like thieves have some crazy skills nowadays.

Labels: adam, birthday, control, death, decision, escalator, eve, garden of eden, god, life, movie, premonition, presents, radio, robbery, skills, snake, tree of knowledge

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