I saw a picture with these very words on it when I was in a store. I believe it was probably Michael's. We go there whenever we need art supplies, like the time I needed black paint (I had green, red, yellow, red, blue, and white paint already because when I took a painting class before, we were given the leftover paints). They sell art there too, and there was a cute picture of some rubber ducks. And there was a little rubber duck on the back of a big one. I thought it was a very nice picture but I hadn't the heart to ask to buy it since it's not exactly practical (except for maybe decorating a bathroom wall or something).

Anyways, I was thinking that, really, life is simply life. There are ups and downs...Which is definitely true when it comes to my grades (recently I'd been on the down, but maybe soon I'll be on the "road to recovery", if we use the terms to describe our current economy). And sometimes things happen. Like getting injured, which seems to happen to me quite often.

Lacrosse is one of my favorite sports, besides bocce ball and basketball. Unfortunately, that doesn't save me from getting injured. I wonder if I am not only a magnet for miracles (see post by the same name) but also a magnet for balls. One time a lacrosse ball whacked me in the face. Luckily, I didn't bruise, but it was sore for a little while. Then, in the same day, a ball hit me on the leg. I wonder if we don't need lacrosse protective gear.

Soccer is also dangerous. A soccer ball would've hit me in the stomach, but I whirled to the side, so it hit me in the side instead. (I wonder if it's better to be hit in the stomach or the side?) And when I was young, I was trying to get a ball out from under some bushes, but then someone threw a football at my head. (Wait...Did they do that on purpose? If so, I must have some enemies that I'm not aware of.)

Ducks don't always have the greatest life either. There are people out there who hunt, so you could get shot down by a rifle and then get picked up by a dog. Not too pleasant for the duck, but fun for the human. Then again, ducks have the chance to be fed bread crumbs if they go to the park. (You're not supposed to feed them, but I did it a few times when I was a wee child.) But if we poisoned the bread, they'd be in big trouble, because I don't know if they can distinguish between safe and unsafe...

Speaking of ducking, I remember that last year there was a kid in my village (each village has a few teachers that teach the four core subjects. For your elective or PE teacher, you can have any of the teachers, but for the four core subjects, you can only have the teachers in your village, so you have the same core teachers all year) nicknamed Squeakers. He didn't live up to his name, though. When someone (I think the teacher! o_O;; ) threw an object (I think it was maybe the fake brain he keeps in his class) at Squeakers, instead of squeaking, he just ducked. So now he's Duckers instead.

Labels: art, balls, black, bread, danger, duckers, ducks, flying objects, hunting, injury, just ducky, life, michael's, nickname, paint, picture, squeakers, store, supplies, ups and downs

It's a relief to be back home again, actually. Being far away from home can be nice, since it's a way to drag myself away from the computer (ha, ha), but there's really no place like home, is there? Home is where the heart is. Which means home is the rib cage. (Okay, so that was a lame joke from Animal Crossing: Wild World. I spend too much time reading the bulletin board anonymous messages.)

Once, while I was on vacation, I had a dream where I was on the computer and found out Blogger had changed. It looked kind of like Freewebs (they apparently just call it Webs now?) or Photobucket for some reason. And when I tried to find my blog, I couldn't get to it. I'd get an error and it would be like everything had disappeared, all those posts... I was really frustrated and panicky in the dream, but then I accepted the truth and decided I would start fresh with a new blog. So I was going to make a new blog with Wordpress (another site you can use to make blogs, I believe). Then I woke up and realized it was only a dream.

Occasionally, I wonder if I should change the name of my blog. I've had this name, ◆ kaisoumizu, practically ever since I started the blog. I was thinking of something like True Blue or Beyond the Sea (thus explaining that thing at the top of your Internet which says ◆ K A I S O U M I Z U - somewhere beyond the sea, when you visit my blog) but it could already be taken. And anyhow, I'm really used to having this name, and you readers out there probably are too. D: So I suppose this is just another wishy washy time for me, where I will think about doing something but not do it ever, or at least not for a long time.

Seeing as I have a lot to say about my vacation to Australia, anyhow, I'm going to spread it out by talking about some in the future posts this summer. It's not like I really do anything exciting during the summer much anyhow, what with my summer classes being over and me lazing around at home. I figure if I dedicated a whole posts to Australia it would be a very long post. And y'know, my posts are already pretty lengthy on average. XD

I should give you some background information while I'm at it. Here's the places we went to.

San Francisco → Sydney
Immediately after, Sydney → Melbourne
Several days later, Melbourne → Gold Coast
Two days after, Gold Coast → Cairns
Another two days, Cairns → Sydney
And eventually, Sydney → back to San Francisco.

For the entire trip there was my family, my dad's friend and his wife and son, and another of my dad's friends. While we were in Melbourne we caroused around with more people, though... And in Sydney we met some people as well.
Here is kind of a key since I will be mentioning various people in the future posts. It's a bit confusing, so bear with me.

Dad's friend "David" (not his actual Chinese name), his son "Michael", and his wife "Meggie" (not her actual Chinese name)

Dad's other friend "Andrew", his daughter "Whitney" (he has two, but one of them was not with us the whole time), and his wife "Casey" (not sure if I spelled that right, I think so, though)

Dad's third friend "James" (and we briefly saw his wife, "Cindy")

Dad's fourth friend "Harry", his wife "Louis Vuitton bag" (because silly me has forgotten her name, or maybe I never heard it?!), his daughter "Vanessa" (I dunno if it's spelled like that, because there's a story behind it. Will tell later), and his son "Lukey" (we call him that, dunno if it's really Luke)

Dad's fifth friend "Gary"

Mom's friends "Lily" and "Dog Owner" (yet again I dunno his name in English), and their two sons, whose names I forgot, so I call 'em "College Bookworm" and "PSP Final Fantasy Dude", plus the sons' grandparents (because I forget whether it's Lily's or Dog Owner's parents) who I just call, "Old Lady Who Won't Let Dog into House" and "Quiet Old Guy Who Walks the Dog".

Besides that there was my aunt's classmate and her husband, and I don't know their names so they will be called "Guy Whose Face Appears Stressed When He's Not" and "Lady Who Had a Son but Doesn't Really Like Children" (my nicknames get longer and longer!) and their son is who I call "Friendly Megane with Tasty Chewing Gum" (megane being a person wearing glasses).

Phew, there were more people than I expected to write about.

Labels: australia, blog, disappearance, dream, home, ideas, name, nickname, people, post, return, vacation

Besides occasionally accepting a chip if someone offers them to me, I don't really eat chips unless it's a last resort. But recently my parents bought a box full of Sun Chips. I was curious and tried eating some of the Cheddar Cheese flavor. It reminds me of Cheetos since it leaves orange dust on your hands and it tastes...well...Cheeto-ish. Chips taste so-so but by now I prefer to have a cup of yogurt or a granola bar (I eat the Quaker brand Chewy bars, and my favorite flavor is Chocolate Chip). Even eating salad or grapes or carrots is acceptable since eating it for more than a year got me used to it.

My dad is watching a weird movie. It's kind of scary. A weird guy with glasses is slapping an unhappy-looking lady and yelling at her to "talk" (probably meaning he wants her to reveal a secret) while another guy is swimming in the ocean, trying to escape from Russia, but a ship with guns and a searchlight is looking for him. I don't really like this kind of movie since it's so serious and filled with negative emotions. Also, the people in the movie speak Russian and sometimes French (and seeing as I can understand neither, it just sounds like a jumble of random noises to me, no offense if you are from either country).

It seems like I'm on a crazy streak when it comes to tests. The last two tests, science and history, have both gotten me 100% scores. This is weird behavior for me, so what if the teachers get suspicious of me and accuse me of cheating? Or I might become overconfident, and then get bad test scores again, and be depressed. (That's the natural "valleys and mountains" pattern of my life, I guess) It seems like I have to pay the price of my physical ability for my academic ability, though. At my fastest (back in the 1st trimester of this year) I could run up to 7:50. Now it's all the way back to 8:50. This is just pitiful. I feel like I wasted all that time. Maybe I should go back to my "weekend training" where I run a mile on the track. I don't feel like it, though, since I'm already so tired from PE classes. However, I have the free time...Guess it's a choice I'll have to make.

Right now I'm writing up my WEB application, since my mom wants me to try and get in. Probably she wants me to learn responsibility and leadership, and maybe help me get into a so-called "good college". I would like to be a WEB leader but I'm not sure if I would be good at dealing with so many kids. I mean, I myself didn't absorb everything at my own orientation (you visit the school in August and are given a tour, and play some games with your WEB leaders, which are 8th graders selected to give you a hand in the school year) so I wonder if I would be able to handle it. Well, I'll just hope for the best.

My essay for the application was just plain weird. I hope it doesn't confuse the Beanstalk (Jack and the Beanstalk? You know? My new nickname for my language arts teacher, who is my favorite and I don't want to insult her, but I also want to protect people's privacy from now on), the Camper (My math teacher), the Good One (A 6th grade teacher, whose last name is a Chinese word that roughly stands for things that are "good" such as the sun, men, etc.), or the Ray (A PE teacher who is considered to be tough). Those four are the WEB advisers this year and will be reviewing the applications. I had no idea the Ray was on the WEB team, actually, so that was news to me.

Labels: cheddar cheese, cheetos, chips, consequences, exams, fitness, freaky, grades, language, movie, nickname, privacy, sun chips, WEB

Don't worry, the sky isn't falling, there isn't an earthquake or King Kong or anything. No, it's my dad, because he brought back an old friend of his.

The friend is just coming here to visit. He will only be here about two days or so. But my parents say I have never met this person (even my mom doesn't know him). And he will be sleeping in one of the bedrooms in our house (we actually have three, but one is normally used as my mom's home office, so most of the time no one sleeps in there). I guess he doesn't want to pay for a hotel since he's only staying here a short time anyways. He's Chinese and wears glasses. He lived in Australia (in Sydney! What a shock). And he says his daughter has a friend with the same name as me. (Bigger shock!)

Anyhow, though, I will have to make the best of it, and play the good child/good host. After all, my mom will shoot me warning glances the whole time if I misbehave. (Well, my mom's not home yet; still on the way from her office building, but still.) My mom tends to be the stricter person in the family. Not to say my dad doesn't also have a short fuse.

Today was a pretty lazy day. We had a quiz on Africa's geography, a quiz on our Animal of the Week in Science (We don't do it every week. Just every once in a while), and review work in math. It was weird in math since the student teacher took over the lesson. He seemed a bit uncomfortable since he always says "Umm" and "Uh" when he talks. (But I guess he's always like that.) Some of our table groups had to volunteer to talk about math problems. We also had a Tips section at the bottom with some important reminders. I wrote "Please give me $50" in that section. My tablemate/friend saw it and laughed, but she crossed it out anyhow. Oh well.

Oh yeah, in the morning, I was with my friends, and one of my friends complained about her parents thinking about what kind of husband she would want, despite her only being in middle school. Then another friend remarked that her parents already had a person in mind. Apparently it was a rich family they knew and the son was smart and tall and didn't wear glasses. Her parents thought that guy was handsome but she just says he's weird. I laughed, and then asked them if they knew a guy called "Anton". They did, and I told them my dad had suggested I marry him (seeing as he is fairly wealthy and is actually in advanced math). My friends were at first in shock, then laughed like crazy. (By the way, does anyone know how he got into advanced math? The only time I ever saw him, I thought he didn't look that...intelligent. Maybe looks are deceiving.)

And then one of my friends starting giving some other friends and me nicknames. She called me Syd (no surprise there, though), and called another friend Lily, and a third one she dubbed Nicky. Nicky says that some people call her Nicky and others call her Nickel. Nickel is very similar to her actual name, but I would feel strange if someone called me a kind of money.

When I was walking home, there was a young boy ahead of me. He was walking home along with his sister, father, and some younger sibling (he/she had to be lifted up as they were quite young and could be too weak to walk for a while). The boy was talking to his sister and didn't notice a mailbox sticking out almost over the sidewalk. He hit his head on the mailbox and it fell open, revealing some brochures and other papers inside it. It reminds me of a time I was feeling naughty when I was young, and opened a mailbox. I took one thing out of it, closed the mailbox, and walked for a while, then placed it in a random person's mailbox. (I felt bad afterward but it's too late now.)

Labels: attention, australia, family, friends, future, mailbox, marriage, math, nickname, personality, school, teacher, temporary

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