Recently I've been seeing a lot more dead animals than usual - about 6 of them in this past week alone. Most of them were probably killed by vehicles, though it's hard to say, seeing as some of them have ended up on sidewalks and between poles and other objects. But I'm pretty certain that, at the very least, it was not a mailman who ran over the animals.

Why? Well, just the other day I received a letter from Thefalse-tto in the mail. That in itself was a pleasant surprise, since I have not been exchanging mail with anyone for a long time (though I was supposed to have a email pen pal from France but she has not replied to my last email, so I assume that she has lost interest...Or maybe it ended up in spam for some reason and I didn't see it. Hopefully nothing bad has happened to her). But I noticed the date at the bottom of her letter said June 26, and I had received the letter on July 6. In the past I usually received letters within 3 or 4 days, so I thought that did not bode well for the post office...Maybe all the mailmen were taking time off because of the Independence Day holiday...Still, I live pretty much next to the post office, so it wouldn't be that hard to deliver my mail, would it?

Oh, and speaking of Independence Day, I had a rather odd one. On the weekend right before it (July 2 and 3), I could hear fireworks from my bedroom. According to my mother, the amusement park Great America was having their fireworks over the weekend, since if they had the fireworks on Monday, July 4, all the adults would have to go to work the day after, and be all tired and grumpy from staying up late for fireworks. Or something like that. (This is based on her allegations, so I don't know if it's true...) So I kind of assumed that my town's fireworks would follow the same schedule.

Evidently not. The evening of July 4 rolled around, and while I was attempting to sing Black Rock Shooter at home (which did not work out, since I cannot hit the higher notes of the song), I realized that there were some sounds from outside. The sound of fireworks, to be precise. It was very frustrating for me; I've been planning since last year to go to the location of the fireworks so I can take better pictures of them. Wonder if I'll even get to see the local fireworks before I move out of this town. (But then again, maybe I'll live in a big city, perhaps even Sydney, Australia, and see better fireworks.)

Though I guess in China people might not even know about the 4th of July, so if I ever went there on Independence Day, nothing would happen. My grandfather talked to me on Sunday, and I tried to tell him that Monday was a holiday and my parents weren't going to work. He didn't understand. He said that since it was the first day of the week, of course they were going to work. At that point I attempted to send him the Chinese Wikipedia link for Independence Day, but he didn't notice it.

I know that the flow of this post is rather random, but I guess I'll end by talking about the odd dream I had last night. I was at some sort of concert or musical (probably a musical, since there was a vague storyline, I think), and some of the performers were members of a nonexistent Korean band. Thefalse-tto was in the audience too, and she was explaining to me something about how the audience wanted the female member of the Korean band to sing a song about little unicorns that had inappropriate lyrics. Then I remember seeing a guy from that band going on stage and singing a song. Part of the lyrics to that was "Eugene! Eugene!" I'm not sure whether it was the guy's name or if it was supposed to mean something. Maybe, though, it was because I watched Tangled twice recently and Flynn Rider's real name is Eugene...

Labels: animals, china, concert, dream, eugene, family, fireworks, friends, grandpa, great america, independence day, july 4, letter, mail, pen pal, roadkill, songs

On the 4th of July, my dad and I left our house and walked over to a nearby building, where we had watched fireworks in the past many years ago. My dad said we would be able to see the fireworks from there, although I was dubious (the fireworks were being shot from a high school off in the distance. I don't even know what that high school looks like, even though it was named after the town I live in). It turned out that we could see them, although the fireworks were partially blocked by such obstacles as trees...But it was still nice to see fireworks. (The benefit of being far from them was that the sound of them wasn't so loud. My childhood fear was the sound of fireworks. They were too loud for me to stand. Even now I still dislike them.)

I later realized that there were fireworks coming from three different places. One was, of course, my town's fireworks. Then there were the fireworks from an amusement park, Great America. And lastly were ones in some other park in the county. All of them were not very close by, but they were still visible. One of the people at the building watching fireworks said, "This must be the best spot in the valley."

There's a lot of different sorts of lights you can see at nighttime.
- City lights
- Stars
- Airplanes
- The Moon (although its light is really from the Sun)
- Fireflies

The last one, fireflies, is something I can't remember whether I've seen. Maybe I haven't gone out at night enough, or I need to go somewhere with water, like the creek near my town.

And as for meteors and comets, I can't remember whether I've seen those either. I probably haven't. August is a season with quite a few meteors, so I'll have to keep my eyes open then to see them. I wonder if there have always been meteors in the sky and I've simply never noticed them. I've always been indoors, distracted by the artificial (but still dazzling) light of a computer screen.

It's good that I'm leaving for my vacation today, then. It'll keep me away from the Internet for a while so I can spend time actually living instead of wasting away slowly. I'll be gone for the next two weeks or so before returning home again.

Labels: 3, artificial, away, comet, computer, fireworks, independence day, lights, meteor, missed, neighborhood, night, spot, vacation

Unfortunately, not my deceased tree, but actually a friend of mine who moved to Taiwan back in fifth grade. Well, recently, I got a call from her and apparently she is coming to the USA for the summer. I thought she was here because she was born in the USA and is therefore a USA citizen (there was a situation like that for my other friend, who lives in China. She has to come back to the USA occasionally because she is supposed to be just "visiting" and so can't stay in China all the time) but apparently Taiwan is very hot in the summer. Also, she's supposed to move back to the USA eventually - at the very least, before college. It's a good thing for her to live in another country since apparently colleges favor so-called foreign students. And anyways it seems most people think that colleges in the USA are better than those in Taiwan or China...Hmm.

Happy two days after the 4th of July! I was surprised that some people in other countries don't seem to know what the importance of the day is, but then again, I guess it's of no relevance to them anyways. Even in my family, though we live in the USA, we don't care too much about this holiday, except for the fact that my parents get a day off from work.

Recently I was very cheered since I got the Ouran manga's first volume from the library, and also Part 2 of the anime, so now I have been spending my time reading and watching. But unfortunately I have already read the volume of the manga and I am impatiently waiting for more to arrive from the library (I've requested it online, it's very useful!). Ah, well. The world doesn't end until 2012, or so I've heard.

I've tried my hand at knitting lately. My mom knows how, because she says when she was young, half the girls knew how to knit. But nowadays the percentage of people who can knit is really small. It's a dying art...Anyhow, I bought a bundle of light blue yarn. My mom already has needles which she brought from Shanghai. They're made out of wood and they kind of remind me of chopsticks that are round, and pointy at both ends. It's kind of hard to get to hang of knitting at first but if you go slow and patient it'll work out, and it'll feel like a miracle when you understand it. I was really pleased once I was able to do it. I'm going to make a scarf since that's supposed to be easier than a sweater, hat, etc.

It seems like there is a lot of bad drivers out there. My parents often complain about less-than-perfect behavior among drivers. We saw drivers tossing their cigarettes out onto the road. How horrible! If you're going to smoke, don't litter while you're at it, that makes it kind of like the phrase "adding insult to injury". And there's those people who run the red lights, meaning that they drive even when the traffic light is showing yellow or red...And also people who just drive without even looking to see if anyone is crossing the street. People are really dreadful when they're driving...

Labels: 2012, apocalypse, behavior, cigarette, citizenship, college, drivers, friends, independence day, knitting, litter, needles, pedestrians, return, scarf, taiwan, traffic lights, yarn

...For my poor Christmas tree, which perished on Thursday, July 2, 2009. The tree had probably already been dead a long time ago, since it isn't one of those "live Christmas trees" (you know, a small one in a pot which you have to take care of during the year and hopefully it'll grow big enough to be ready for Christmas next time since it's too small to really hang decorations on) but I still feel like it was a funeral. Even though I didn't look at the tree much besides when I'm practicing piano and my eyes are wandering, it still became something familiar in my house. Now that it is gone, there is a lame, regular plant in its place.

The reason why my father dragged the tree outside, rid it of its branches and leaves, and cut it to pieces to put in the Yard Waste bin, was apparently because it was a fire hazard. The tree has been there ever since Christmas, more than half a year ago. It is now very dry and so my parents worried that if we leave the home it could catch on fire and burn the house down. (Our insurance doesn't cover the whole house's cost, so it wouldn't be worth it) And yet even though I never gave the tree a name it was in a strange way dear to me.

I have turned to a bundle of yarn for consolation. Yes, yarn. After reading a book I developed a minor interest in sewing and figured someday I might try it. Maybe in the summer, seeing as there isn't much for me to do during this hot, boring season. I have purchased a bundle of light blue yarn. (We have some other yarn at home but I think all we have is some pink yarn) It is quite soft and I am almost reluctant to use it, but then, it would be nice to learn how to sew. My mom knows how, or at least so she says.

Other things I did today were visit the San Jose library, and also buy a bike at Target. We normally go to the library on Saturday, but seeing as tomorrow is the 4th of July, the library will be closed. As for going to Target, I already have a bicycle, but since I have taken my mom's one, we had to get another one. I used to have a smaller bicycle but I find that the one I usually use now is easier (at first it was hard to use because I was too short but now it's about right). Luckily we have a coupon and besides it's on sale this week. My mom wanted the purple color but they were sold out already (apparently it's a new color and very popular) so we had to get a pink bicycle instead. My mom thought it would be okay to use a male bike but I figured it would be a little weird. Have you noticed the difference between male and female bikes? (Besides how they usually have different colors. Take a look at two bikes or find pictures and you'll see what I mean. That bar thing that runs from under your handlebars to under your bike seat has a different shape.)

Recently I have taken a renewed interest in Ouran High School Host Club. Apparently it has come on DVD to North America and so my mom was lucky enough to find Part 1 in the library (part 1 contains episodes 1-13) so I've been watching it while I exercise, read books, or just when I'm bored. I've been wondering if I should just try harder to find a good Ouran theme for my blog, and then always have Ouran icons. It would be pretty cool and once I did find a nice Ouran theme. The only problem is, with that layout, you can't see the name of the blog title. It's really a shame.

Labels: anime, bike, blog, christmas, danger, death, fire, holidays, independence day, july 3, layout, library, ouran high school host club, sewing, tree, yarn

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