Today was my first taste of mangoes in a long time. Some people say they like the fruit, and my mom bought them on sale, so my dad gave me some to eat. They were orange on the inside and if you take a closer look they seem slightly fuzzy or something. It even tastes like that. The taste isn't something I'm fond of so I've decided I still prefer green pears, blueberries, fresh bananas, plums, and peaches better. (Strawberries are good too but if they're big and taste funny that's not so nice.)

Has anyone heard all the abuzz about the swine flu? (I'm sure at least most of you have, but just in case someone lives under a rock, or something like that...) The symptoms seem pretty similar to an ordinary sickness, if you ask me, and some people are wondering "What's the big deal?" because the ordinary flu kills way more people than the swine flu, at least so far, but still, it is a new disease, so it merits interest. Also, my dad says there are some rumors that the swine flu actually started in California and not Mexico. I hope it's not true since I don't want it to be near me. I just hope this disease can be stopped, before, as President Obama says, it grows into "something worse".

I must have some kind of problem with using bandages or something. In the past whenever I put on a bandage it would stay there until it started to peel off after a few days. But nowadays whenever I sleep the bandage somehow gets detached. When I wake up the bandage (which I put on that place where your upper and lower leg connect) has somehow disappeared. The reason why I put on a bandage was since having constant rashes made my skin start to come apart. It looks kind of creepy. Most of the time I can ignore if but sometimes it feels itchy or starts aching. So I put on a bandage to try and let it heal, yet I can't get it to stay. I think I'm going to give up, I don't want to use up a whole box of them. D:

My mother has undergone a gradual transformation, kind of like a silkworm turning into a chubby moth. When I was younger, she was quite frugal and rarely bought clothes, unless they were very cheap. She always kept tons of coupons around. Sometimes I would help her by cutting out coupons with scissors. Even now she still has so many coupons, flyers, and all that so she needs to keep them in a cloth bag which keeps spilling, but she has bought many clothes. (Of course, it was on sale and stuff, but still) Some rather ugly looking things from Old Navy (no offense to the store, but one of the jackets she bought looked kind of like a bloated, ripply trash bag) and a rather bright green shirt from Banana Republic, and also something from Talbots (which is a women's clothing place, I've seen it, the changing rooms were cool since they had fans and nice mirrors and picture frames on the wall (the pictures were those fashion design sketches which they make to brainstorm a good idea).

Even worse, she started talking to me about a store that sold glass and crystal items. Actually, that's not too bad since it looks very shiny, but the problem is, my mom wanted us to pick out three different pieces of jewelry for $99. (It's a deal since I think one piece is like $45 or something) Before she barely bought jewelry, except for this one time she got a blue topaz necklace (it is my favorite of her jewelry) and also a ruby necklace from a website (I don't like it since it was cheap and the gems are small and not shiny). Then we ended up picking three. I would've liked to buy a bottle ship, though, or flowers made of crystal. They were more colorful and detailed than just plain jewelry which you can get almost anywhere. By the way, the store is not Swarovski but it does sell some of Swarovski's stuff. (Swarovski is a cool place you might find in malls around the world. It sells lots of shiny things.)

And last of all, my mom dropped a not-so-subtle hint that Mother's Day was coming up. I asked my dad to be sure and it's actually next Sunday. AAAAAHHH! For the first time, she really expects me to give her something! The only gift we ever got for her before was some cards I made at school when I was younger, and a green Care Bear plushie, and also a fake flowerpot thing, and a car (but that's useful to everyone, so...) I can't decide what to get her. Help? Maybe I could get her a new portable DVD player, or drama CDs, or more jewelry, or a giftcard? (She gets books and dramas from the library most of the time anyways.)

Labels: bandage, change, crystal, fruits, gift, jewelry, magno, mother's day, spending money, swine flu

I can't speak French. But I saw this on some of the De Young Museum's souvenir merchandise. (Like t-shirts and bags) Apparently it was the old motto of Yves Saint Laurent. It means "Fashion passes, style remains". I don't really get it, so good luck to you figuring it out.

...Maybe I'd better clarify, before everyone gets confused. My family has membership to museums in San Francisco, and we heard there were some new exhibits, so we went to see the De Young and Legion of Honor (both art museums). At De Young, the special exhibits right now are 1) Yves Saint Laurent, and 2) Andy Warhol...While at Legion of Honor, the special exhibit is Artistic Luxury - Fabergé - Tiffany - Lalique.

Yves Saint Laurent is a French, high-end clothing brand. Apparently the guy who started it and owned it (until he died of brain cancer o_O ) was called Saint Laurent. The clothing in the museum wasn't all that old, I mean, my parents were alive then (1960's was around the oldest of the clothes displayed) but still, flash photography seems to damage clothing and art for some reason, so this guy in a black suit leaped out to stop a woman who was taking pictures with her camera. (That must be what those security guards do...I always thought it was weird since they usually just stand there, or walk around looking at you)

Anyhow, the YSL clothing is kind of odd. Some of it is really freaky, like this black, tall hat, and a "wedding dress" which covers you and makes you look like a little dressed-up doll. Here's some pictures of various types. (The third one is really disturbing, but apparently it is also a wedding dress)







And about Andy Warhol...He was an artist, who painted portraits of people, designed record album covers, acted as producer for some band called Velvet Underground (no idea what that is, even my dad doesn't know), and made short movies. My dad wanted to see a picture of Chairman Mao which Andy Warhol created, but apparently that picture isn't featured, so he was quite disappointed. I was pretty freaked out since when I walked in there was a little sign to the side that said there was nudity in the exhibit. Still, people bring their kids in!!

Finally, about the exhibit at the Legion of Honor...Carl Fabergé, Louis Comfort Tiffany, and René Lalique were all male jewelry/decorative art designers. Just so you know, the Tiffany's products we see today are from the same Tiffany's company in the exhibit. I thought Louis's name was weird, since Comfort is an actual word, and Tiffany usually seems like a girl's first name, not a last name.

If you like shiny things, you should look at that exhibit. It had a lot of things, like Easter eggs (made of rare stones, and they were bigger than usual eggs; sometimes there were other decorative items put inside the eggs) and combs (like a comb made from the shape of two swallows, carved out of wood; looks pretty, but would you want to use it?) and even dog collars (whoa, they look so expensive, people would probably steal your dog just to get the collar).

My feet got really tired from tromping around all day. My mother thinks that I need to exercise more, but...that's a different story. If you want to go to San Francisco's museums, and need a bite to eat, go to the cafe on top of De Young Museum. It has tasty food. :D

Labels: andy warhol, clothes, de young, dog collar, exhibit, france, jewelry, legion of honor, lunch, motto, museum, oddity

This morning, I found that my mom wanted me to eat some Halloween cookies from her office for breakfast. They tasted kind of weird. I practiced piano for a while afterward, and then went on the computer, but I was booted off because we had to go to the library and return the books that were due. I took a bunch of books, although I wasn't really that interested in some of them. When you're running out of books to read, you gotta take what's at least fairly decent.

Then I came home, ate a sandwich, and soon afterward was whisked off to Stanford University by my dad. The campus is big and rather confusing. I probably would have gotten lost without the map and a bit of common sense. My classes were Sleep and Athletic Performance Improvement from 1-2 pm, and Jewelry Making from 2-4 pm.

The first class was mainly focused on sleep - sleep debt, sleep disorders, dreams, the like. At first, we had some technical problems because the instructor was trying to find some way to make the screen for the projector come down.

On the other hand, the second class was rather hassling for me because I arrived a little bit late and there wasn't much room in the classroom. There was not much glue and scissors to go around so we had to share and wait for people to pass them around. Anyhow, I did manage to string together some beads but it doesn't look that great...

Labels: books, classes, college, cookie, halloween, jewelry, jewelry making, library, projector, sleep, sleep and athletic performance improvement, splash, stanford

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