Executive toys are basically things that people who work in corporations might keep on their desk. These items are nice to look at, or can be used for amusement, or something along those lines. (Note: This is my own definition of it, so I'm sorry if it is rather awkward) The typical executive toy would be Newton's cradle. A basic one is pictured below.

Though I don't have one myself, I think that basically, you pull back a ball at the end (either side should work) and it will hit the other balls, causing the one at the other end to move. I'm not sure how this works but I'm going to guess it's transfer of force. (You should look it up for an explanation, I'm afraid I only have the vaguest ideas)

The executive toy I have in mind, though, is a Galileo thermometer. I had one delivered to my house just recently. It comes with not only a thermometer but also a barometric ball. (Barometers are used to measure pressure in the atmosphere) Basically, it looks like the picture below.

I really like the Galileo thermometer because it is shiny and has nice colors. I am fond of glass and such things in general, since they are shiny objects. Of course, it's more accurate to use a regular thermometer than a Galileo thermometer, but a Galileo thermometer is fun... I guess.

Yesterday, my parents' friends came over to our house. It seems like practically anytime there is a holiday, we'll go to someone else's house or someone else will come to our house. I guess it's because only holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the New Year actually mean the adults get a day off. It's more convenient that way (especially since my mom's friend lives in Pleasanton, California, which is not that close to where I live). My mom's friend would like to go to Yellowstone National Park, and she wanted my mom to come along, but it would be a problem because I get motion sickness from driving so easily. There is no way to fly directly to Yellowstone, so it would definitely mean a road trip. Hearing my mom's friend say it would be hard to manage because of my carsickness made me feel kind of guilty (and also a little exasperated, because it's not like I can help getting carsick!) so I said to my parents, "Well, you can just go without me," after all the guests had left. But my parents said they didn't need to, because they had already been there.

I always get annoyed because my parents have been to places that I haven't. I want to travel all four corners of the globe (not that there are corners on a sphere), but there's still many places I have yet to go. Well, my parents have been to many states in the USA that I have NOT been to, like Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, South Dakota (and they got their Master's Degrees in North Dakota), Minnesota, Indiana, Utah, Arizona, and Texas. They traveled to those states when I was not yet alive. I feel like I've missed out on a lot.

There is something that has always troubled me, and that is my childhood memories. I am talking about the ones that go pretty far back, as in my toddler years. I don't seem to have any memories of my parents. This is surprising, considered that I was not an adopted child (I'm too similar to my dad for that to be true D: ), and so I must've spent at least some hours of every day with my parents (even if they were both working so I had to spend time being babysat or at preschool). I mean, family is important, so shouldn't I remember them? The only relative I remembered, oddly enough, was my grandma. For some reason I have this memory of her holding me, on a beach in Hawaii, with the sun setting. But although I have photos of my parents and I, I can't remember it at all... The human mind is a mysterious thing.

Labels: adoption, barometer, brain, carsick, executive toy, family, friends, galileo thermometer, grandmother, hawaii, memories, newton's cradle, parents, travel, united states of america, yellowstone

Step aside, Blue Man Group, and the old four Teletubbies (Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa, and Po. I couldn't remember Laa-Laa's name so I had to look it up). Because all the tourists going to the Great Barrier Reef with Quicksilver (no, not the clothes brand) have replaced you. You can rent a blue suit for a cheap price which will help keep you warm when you're diving. It makes you look a little like a teletubby.

I traveled on a Quicksilver ship to get to the Great Barrier Reef. The ride was a traumatic one for me. I couldn't enjoy the free cookies (they are popular! There was a guy who only took a certain kind of cookie and he took a lot of them. They are supposed to be chocolate-flavored I think) or the complimentary coffee or anything since I was seasick. When I was on a cruise to Hawaii one time several years ago I also got seasick (threw up, fell asleep, and after that day and night, I was all well). My dad insists he has a "strong mind" because he didn't seasick. But my mom and Meggie (my dad's friend's wife) didn't get seasick. However, my dad's friend, David, and his son, Michael, did get sick. They had to go vomit a few times. I did not vomit since I am practicing my self control and ability to resist pain, but I was really dizzy and I was almost dead by the time we got to the floating dock.

It's weird that they have a floating dock in the Great Barrier Reef. It's kind of spoiling nature to have such a strange thing, if you ask me. I suppose they built it especially for tourism purposes. There was lunch included but I only ate some bread since I was not feeling too good yet. My mom ate with an appetite seeing as she is not seasick. She's so lucky not to be. Even my dad says he can get carsick unless he's the driver (I don't know why, but drivers don't get carsick, apparently)

Everyone once in a while a little submarine will be there and you can board it to see the Great Barrier Reef closer up. (If you simply just go snorkeling you can see some but not much in comparison) I didn't expect much because in Hawaii we rode a submarine, and paid for it (instead of it being an optional feature of something we already purchased, like in Australia) but that time, it had been disappointing. But the Great Barrier Reef is much better. Sure it's not really as colorful as the photos, but I think that's just because light has to penetrate the depths of the ocean. There were some cool fish down there. We saw schools of them and occasionally a really huge fish.

I have heard rumors that global warming is killing the reef. When the temperature rises, the organisms that live inside the coral (because coral is actually more animal than plant) die off, so the coral dies, fish lose their homes, and basically the whole habitat will suffer. Already I have heard the reefs along with the glaciers (though those are on the other side of the Earth) are vanishing. I hope people will try to protect the reef.

Oh! You can do your part if you come to the Great Barrier Reef someday. Here's some tips that I got from the brochure you can get on the boat.

- Don't throw anything overboard. There's trash cans to be found. Or, shall I say, RUBBISH BINS.
- Don't stand on the coral. It can break off easily. (There are two groups of coral, the more common hard coral, which is like rocks because it has limestone in it, and the soft coral, which actually sways because of the water current. And there are many more varieties within the groups, like staghorn coral, a hard type like antlers. That breaks off easily)
- Don't urinate in the water. I find this to be the most amusing. Anyhow, they have toilets on the ship, but not on the floating dock. They are kind of cramped and you have to use the air dryer to dry your hands, which is a little too warm but you can't help that unless you would rather use the toilet paper. o_O;; This rule is disturbing since somebody must have tried to urinate in the water or else they wouldn't need such a rule.

Labels: australia, bathroom, blue, boat, carsick, coral, danger, dizzy, driving, fish, great barrier reef, hawaii, quicksilver, reef, rubbish, seasick, submarine, teletubbies, tips, vomit

I've heard this phrase in several places. I mean, even in Pokemon if you talk to a certain trainer after you defeat her she'll say that. And it is true, you will meet her again, because in Pokemon games you tend to travel around a lot, and besides she always stays in the same relative place.

But anyhow. The reason why I named the post this is that I have "met my playlist again". Previously when I tried to put the code for it into my blog, it wouldn't work. It'd end up in the wrong place, or it would ruin the rest of the coding so the layout wouldn't look right. Finally I've gotten it to stay. Only 30 seconds of Imeem songs really is just terrible. You can't even choose which 30 seconds of the song you want, though I have to say Imeem has more different songs than Playlist. I am so glad to get my playlist back up. True, I have maxed out my song total but I can just delete broken links to put in new songs. Or just make a second playlist. (It would be really funny if I put two playlists on my blog and they played at the same time) My Playlist doesn't exactly match the blog layout (because I am too lazy to find a background or something that would really match), and it's too big to really fit in the div, but whatever. I've gotten it to automatically play on shuffle, so you will hear a random song everytime you come onto this blog. (Just leave your speakers off if you don't want "speaker shock". I have a post somewhere in the past about "speaker shock".)

We saw two open houses today. It seems like this is unofficial Open House Weekend or something. When we were driving around doing things like going to lunch, the library, and so on, we saw a street corner with quite a few Open House signs. More than the usual amount, anyways. We decided to see two of them on Phar Lap Drive which is a steep residential rode connected to my own street, Mann Drive. Phar Lap is loads of fun to bike down because it is so steep, but it is a real pain getting back up again. By the way, I heard there is a long, sloped road in Hawaii somewhere. You can rent a bike or something and ride down the road. It is steep enough that you don't need to peddle, you just enjoy the wind rushing by, but it's not so steep you'd fall and die or something. So I would like to go there sometime. But back to the point. I don't want to get distracted.

There are two houses that I am quite fond of on the street known as Phar Lap. They are across the street from each other. I have written about one of the houses in the post known as ◆ fight, love, live. It's April 18th if you want to check the end of that post. So, the house I have seen before is Spanish-style, with cool things like being able to spy on your neighbors, a view of a creek, and a place next to the shower stall in which you can grow flowers. It even has a home movie theatre which I had not noticed last time. (Anyhow, the house price was like 2.5 million before, I think it was reduced since no one has bought it yet.) The other house, which I just saw the inside of today, is also European style. It appears to be long and thin. It has a small swimming pool and there are many, many balconies. There's a lot of stairs in the house. We had to go in through the back entrance since the realtor was temporarily out, probably doing something. It had many bedrooms (the bedrooms are small, but still, we could always convert some of them to another use), and an inlaw unit downstairs with a bathroom, hidden bed (it's a cabinet which you can use as a bed), kitchen, and TV with nice movie-like chairs. And upstairs was all the rest like dining rooms and the four other bedrooms and several nice bathrooms. This house costed 1.98 million and the price is negotiable so it is a good deal! (That is, if you can get a loan and are able to pay it off)

My parents seem to like the house we saw today better. They are both nice, really, but with different things. My dad says the architectural style of the second house is more unique and stuff. Well, I'm just annoyed by all the stairs. How are you supposed to get up and down them every day? I suppose it would make me more fit, at least. And my mom says if I really want a house that looks like the first one we should just remodel ours. My dad's friend's wife is an architect and she may be able to figure it out. (Still I would feel bad to have an exact copy of another house, you know?)

That reminds me, sometimes I wonder about getting my dad's friend's family to adopt me. They live in an apartment and already have an older son who doesn't talk much (all he really does is talk to his dad, or watch basketball) but maybe I could sleep on the couch. Dad's friend is an engineer at Cisco, my dad helped him get hired, except my dad says "The -namegoeshere- at work is nowhere near as great as the -namegoeshere- I know." Very cheesy, but I guess my father knows best, since they are good friends. And then my dad's friend's wife is a friendly person who likes to cook. Plus, their family wanted to get a cat if they can find the right cat for them. So this is my best chance to get a cat (since you usually can't have a dog in an apartment, and my mom doesn't like dogs). Perhaps I should consider being adopted.

Labels: adoption, again, architect, bike, blog, comparison, family, goodbye, hawaii, house, imeem, meet, music, open house, phar lap drive, playlist, pokemon, short, slope, speakers

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