You might've heard of the book. I'm just using the title as a post title, though. Here I am talking about a balloon.

Yes, a balloon. It is a blue color, I guess you could call it sky blue even if it is not quite that shade. On it are various crooked lines which are supposed to represent the International Date Light, Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn, Prime Meridian, and Equator. All lines and drawings were drawn on the balloon with a black Sharpie marker. The continents can be seen on the balloon, and they are labeled, along with some deserts and countries and islands, and of course the oceans.

Right now, the balloon in question hangs from a ceiling fan. This ceiling fan has two chains hanging from it. One you pull to turn on the lights, the other you pull to turn on the fan. The balloon has a white cord tied around its end, and the other end of the cord is tied to one of the chains of the ceiling fan.

The balloon has been residing in my house since quite a while ago, when I first brought it home. In my history class, we were doing an activity where we blew up balloons and drew the world on them. Neither of my "teammates" wished to bring it home, so I just held on to it all day. It was a problem walking home with it, so I attached it to one of my keychains. Ha! Having so many of them came in handy. I kept looking back as I walked to make sure the balloon was still there. It kept bobbing and swaying, but at least it stayed, until I came home, and found the white cord, which is its leash.

In a way, this is kind of sad. As I can't have a cat or dog, because of my mom's lack of love for animals, I end up leading a balloon of all things on a leash. Probably I should name it, if it's already my pal. I can't tell what gender it is. They call the earth Mother Earth, but the balloon just seems rather male to me. Maybe I should give it a unisex name, like my name...

Now for a switch of topics. Sometimes I read a magazine called Reader's Digest. Mostly I read the jokes, Ask Laskas (it's an advice column, I guess you would call it), and perhaps an article or two. This time an article about baby naming caught my eye. Apparently it is a very exciting thing. Some people just name their kids trendy names and others name them all sorts of things, like Lexus (a car!), Nevaeh (heaven spelled backwards), and so on. I found out that my name was the 41st most popular girl name in 1996. I didn't know I was that common. D: And oddly enough, one of my friends, her name was 40st. So close together it's scary.

Labels: baby naming, balloon, ceiling fan, earth, gender, keychain, label, leash, magazine, map, name, readers digest, sydney

I was thinking about this since I often see people walking dogs. You may notice some dogs walk in sync with their owners, and both seem to be in a good mood. On the other hand, sometimes a dog is not compliant and is not walking fast enough; they keep stopping to sniff something, or "take care of business". And some dogs go too quickly, so they end up basically dragging their owners along. I think from now on I will observe every person(s) I see taking a walk with their dog, and decide whether the person is leading, the dog is leading, or they are equals (like friends should be. There is a poem, "Walk behind me and I may not lead. Walk in front of me and I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.").

I have come up with a theory that men in their forties are interested in kiddie games. My evidence comes from my history teacher (Mr. Blair) and my father (just call him Tiger). Mr. Blair sometimes becomes interested in online games. He has played a game called Totem Destroyer (where you click on blocks beneath a "totem" to blow them up...You are trying not to let the "totem" get to the ground/bottom of game window). Also, I saw him looking at something called Yummy Drinks Factory. I am guessing it is one of those cheesy games for girls where you go around clicking things and playing lame minigames. I found it hilarious that he would play that. And last but not least, he started playing Rocky Path. Apparently it's like making a path to the other side or something. (I don't know the details about Rocky Path because I have not watched it enough to know) What I do know is that there are bird chirping sounds playing, to make it feel like a rainforest in South America. It gets annoying to hear after a while.

My father also plays such games, just not quite the same as Mr. Blair's. For instance, he spends time playing games for me on Neopets. I have told him that he doesn't need to but he insists that I want money. (Which is true, but he doesn't have to do it if he doesn't want to) This must mean he himself may have become fond of the games. For instance, Destruct-O-Match (where you click on blocks...There must be at least 2 blocks of the same color next to each other to destroy them), Mop n' Bop (where you play an angry janitor who swings his mop at dirty animals), and Imperial Exam (you are an ancient Asian scholar-ish dude who shakes or nods his head to let people in depending on how well they spell. You can play in various languages. I wonder if the scholar you play as gets dizzy from all that head movement), to name a few. He also enjoys this strange thing which I think is like a Chinese Facebook (as it is one of those Internet community places). Sometimes he does virtual gardening, or arranges his virtual house which has dogs in it. Or he can click options to make this virtual lady dance or eat. I find it highly amusing.

Labels: childish, computer, dog, friends, funny, games, leash, men, virtual, walk

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