My dad recently decided to remind me of what he wanted on his gravestone when he died. He said, "A gardener, a wife, and a father."
"Huh? A wife?" I asked, bemused.
"No! I meant a husband!" (Forgetting his gender, perhaps? Or just not paying enough attention to what he's saying?)

I think he is becoming old and forgetful. He nearly lost his wallet today, but luckily was able to retrieve it. I thought it had probably gotten stolen, but luckily that wasn't the case. Imagine how dangerous it would've been if credit cards, driver's license, and money had all been stolen. -_-;;

Recently I got a new camera, except this was a Canon one. I couldn't understand why the image looked fuzzy in the image window and I was pretty confused about how to use it. Then my dad told me to read an instruction manual which he had opened up on the computer. He was all pleased with himself, saying, "I never read the instructions, but I read them this time. If you had read the manual in the first place, you would've had known how to use the camera."

I'd like to remind you all how important it is to read instructions. Sometimes I slip up on test questions or homework just because I didn't pay careful attention to the instructions. (I'm usually too impatient to bother reading thoroughly, so if I'm reading the instructions for something, like a game, I often just skim through it)

I was looking at the TV screen and there was some commercial for Etrade. There were some babies talking, except with voices that were like adult voices, not baby voices (a dub, I suppose). I didn't really understand the commercial. Nowadays I really don't understand most television commercials. A lot of money is spent on advertising, so...Doesn't it go to waste if the people watching television don't even understand what the commercials are trying to say?

But I feel like money is often squandered nowadays in general. A lot of teachers at my school have document cameras. my science teacher's document camera didn't seem to be working properly last time she tried to use it. Isn't it a waste of money, then?

And earlier today, my parents and I walked to the campus a local high school, which I will probably be attending when I move up to high school. Some gates were locked, but we did find a way into the school. (Isn't it pointless to lock some parts of the school and not the others? I know they wanted to leave doors open so the people who play sports on the weekend can get in, but if they're going to do that, why not leave all the gates open? It is considered to be an "open campus", after all (so students can even leave the school to have lunch elsewhere).

My mom wanted to get a feel for the campus, so we walked around peering in the windows. The main office looked pretty nice. It seemed spacious, the chairs looked cool, and there were fancy nameplates... And yet the brick walls of the school look like they aren't in such good condition. (But the school is forty years old, so I suppose I should expect it) And the desks seemed kind of small. I wonder how the money is being spent.

The campus was pretty big, though, bigger than expected. I think my mom thought there were too many classrooms. I was looking at the names of the teachers. I thought they were pretty interesting names. I saw "Birdsong" on one classroom and "Goldenkranz" on another.

I was considering becoming a teacher. I think elementary school might be good, but not kindergarten or first grade (a little too young). Perhaps third grade or fifth grade? By then people are pretty aware of things, and still pretty innocent, untouched by the worries of the world. But if I were to teach high school or college, a lot of students would be taller than I was, which would be pretty intimidating. (I know I shouldn't let size put me off, but it is inconvenient being short. You have to be careful to make sure drivers see you or they'll run you over.)

Labels: camera, canon, commercial, condition, document camera, forgetful, gravestone, instructions, locked, money, name, office, open campus, school, short, teacher, television, wallet

Well, not really. I mean, I'm not really doing much, just lazing around doing whatever I feel like doing. But the point is that in a busy office, the phone rings a lot. And it sure does around here...I've been called by a dentist's office, my dad, and my piano teacher this afternoon. I wouldn't be surprised if a telemarketer or the library or even my friend who is visiting here calls next...

Recently, Rainbow Ranger (you may have seen her on the Cbox...) came over to my house, and showed me a site called Tetris Friends. It's been so long since I played Tetris that I was enthralled by it. I even tried to introduce my mom to it, because she likes Tetris. The problem is, 1) She doesn't have an account and doesn't want to make one, so her scores won't be saved, and 2) She claims that she is too busy to spend her precious time playing Tetris. I was a little disappointed since she used to want to by the Tetris video game from the Nintendo DS (buying it on your cell phone means you have to pay every month) except that game hasn't been for sale for a long time. In fact, the Tetris video game for the DS is no longer even being made, so it costs more now to get a copy than it did when it was new. Lame.

Oftentimes various things can irk me, and even if I was in a pretty good mood before it can quickly turn my mood sour. For instance, yesterday I was playing Wii Fit, doing an activity called Free Run, which means you can run for 10, 20, or 30 minutes (put the Wii remote in your pocket or hold it so it can sense you "moving) and if you want you can change the channel and watch TV. Normally I watch anime while jogging since it makes the time go by faster and I actually run better with entertainment. However, one time I ran inside to get something and forgot to check Video 3 (I keep my Wii on Video 3, my Gamecube on Video 4, and my DVD player on Video 5...) so I didn't realize it had lost connection. So I ran for 18 minutes without realizing and then I thought I was done with the activity. But upon checking Wii Fit I realized I'd just wasted all that time. I was really mad, but luckily I am working on calming myself down.

From time to time I think about making another website which will work in partnership with my blog, but I'm not really sure. I have no idea what I would put on a personal website. Should I put up graphics? Or stories and art by me? Or should I be writing about news on a site (ex Neopets, just because there's always news there...)? But that all doesn't seem right. Because a lot of sites probably have their own news/announcements section and there are other websites like Deviantart, Photobucket, Image Shack, Tiny Pic, and so on to upload images...And then I end up not doing anything since I'm so indecisive.

At my piano class, my piano teacher now has two pianos in her home, a baby grand and a stand-up piano. The stand-up piano is her own piano, and it's pretty nice...I think it's some European brand and it's pretty shiny, since she only got it a year or two ago. And the baby grand is wooden and old-looking, but it's not hers. One of her students was moving or something and they couldn't move their piano or something like that (not sure, maybe I have the story completely wrong) so now she's moved away some of her furniture to put the piano in. It actually makes really nice sound. I really like opening the top of grand/baby grand pianos, so the sound can really move about. By the way, do baby grand pianos come in different sizes? (Not meaning stand-up, grand, and baby grand, I mean just lengths and things like that) I thought I saw a baby grand piano on an interior design show but I thought it looked smaller than ours. (Maybe it's just my imagination)

Labels: anime, baby grand, busy, connection, decision, free run, games, ideas, multitasking, music, office, phone, piano, size, sound effect, stand-up, tetris, website, wii fit

I know, that may sound like an imitation of Dr. Seuss. But it was catchy, so I thought I'd use it for my post title today. I've been going to my mom's office during the spring break. When we were driving to a restaurant for lunch (Romano's Macaroni Grill), we passed by a rather ugly-looking field of grass. In the field were many sheep! They didn't have so much hair so that they looked fluffy but you could still tell they were sheep. I was pretty surprised, but my mom says that companies use sheep to eat up the grass so the ground will be more even and easier to traverse.

So, I was walking to the staircase with my mom at her office, since we leaving, and there some of my mom's fellow workers were chatting. (I don't know whether they were talking about work or just having fun.) They thought I looked like my mom's sister! This is odd because I don't have that much resemblance to my mom and also because I don't want to look like I'm someone old enough to be working. (Though we have a similar height and all, we aren't that much alike besides that.) So I was a bit offended by that. -_-;;

I look more like my dad anyhow, so a lot of people say that. I wonder what I would like if I were a boy instead? I think I would look like basically a younger version of my father. But my mom thinks if I were male, I would look like a male version of her. So who knows? I can't just change my gender, or I'd be like Michael Jackson. *shudder*

Right now my dad has become my art slave. (No, I don't mean the kind of art slave on the Internet where you pay someone to do any graphics/drawing/coding requests you have) Since I am very busy with my children's story, I draw the pictures and color small things, and he colors the big things. That way he doesn't get lazy and I have time to relax once in a while. (I am very tired from stress, lack of sleep, and carsickness. I still get carsick on long rides. Too bad we can't move to those nice apartments next to the orange grove which is close to my parents' offices. They want me to go to a good school, so I can't move there.)

Recently I finished reading Chicks with Sticks: KnitWit. It's the third book in a trilogy about some girls who become friends because of their knitting. It's too high-school centered, what with all that gushy stuff, so it doesn't count as one of my favorite books, but it wasn't too bad either. It does teach you about different colleges (at least the third book does). I hadn't known that they have a fair for you to see what kind of community service you can do, or that there was even a college called Bryn Mawr.

I was reading a manga called Dream Saga just recently. I used to go to Borders and just read the manga while I was there, but I don't visit Borders that often, so it was hard. I saw it in the library and so snatched it up quickly. Right now I am starting on the fifth and final volume. I hardly remember the characters anymore since I haven't read it for so long, but I'm starting to get it again.

Apparently the author likes to talk about what music she's listening to. In a lot of manga books, there are side columns or bottom sections here and there with things such as character profiles, splash page info (splash pages are those pages at the beginning of a "chapter" which are big and detailed), and answers to readers' questions. So I started investigating the music the author was listening to, just to buff up my huge playlist even more.

Labels: apartment, art slave, books, college, comparison, dream saga, family, macaroni grill, manga, music, office, picture book, playlist, questions, sheep

Yesterday morning, I managed to drag my mother away from her laptop. It's actually not hers, but it's one that my dad got from his office, intended for work, except my mom uses it to watch Asian movies. Normally she gets glued to the screen, so that she doesn't pay much attention to me (which can be good or bad, depending) but I managed to force her into trying some Wii Fit. She doesn't get enough exercise despite insisting that she takes walks with her engineer friends after lunch.

We started off with a bit of jogging. I ran as fast as I could (or more just shuffled my feet very quickly) which made my mom accuse me of cheating. I just shrugged it off and finished in record time. For a few minutes I watched my mom. She jogs really, really slow so it took a while. Then we tried some strength training, since both my mom and I need some toning on our triceps (upper arm). She wants to use the 2 lb weights instead of the 3 lb weights but the 2 lb's are somewhere else. Probably lost, like the majority of my possessions. Then we did some yoga. Kind of like my dad, she can't do the Spinal Twist. Whenever I mention this to my parents they insist it's because of my much younger age.

I spent this morning and afternoon at my mom's office. I was planning to make my blog post there but I got distracted by playing my DS (The game? Harvest Moon DS). I am trying to rescue 60 sprites (little elfish dudes who were sent to another world by magic) so that my game can go on but it's slow work, especially since it's winter. (Funny, since it's winter over here, too.) I can't grow any vegetables or fruits in this lame weather.

Road signs nowadays look very pitiful. One of them was a green rectangular kind sticking over the highway. But the sign was twisted sideways so that it was leaning against tree branches, and a large amount of the hard green part was missing, so that it seemed like someone had mangled it. And then there was this blue sign (kind of like a triangle shape, but not quite) and it said Highway 280 on it. The sign was upside down, though, so it looked like 08Z (a warped z, because it was a 2).

I recently heard from my mom that my grandparents have been reading my blog. I thought this was hard to believe since they don't know that much English, but my mother reminded me that they have a Chinese-English dictionary, and retired people have too much free time (most of them, anyhow). Then my grandparents send me emails, but they're written in Chinese so I just stick them in a folder and forget about them. (Sorry, Gran & Gramps. But I can't read Chinese.)

Labels: blah, blog, computer, exercise, family, harvest moon, nintendo ds, office, road, sign, wii fit

Today we went to the library and then to Great Mall. We had to return a lot of library books and DVDs because they'll be due during the time we're gone on vacation. D: I feel sad returning them, but at least that means I got to use the electronic machine outside the Cupertino Library. That is always lots of fun. It's more enjoyable to use the check-out machines, though. On the second floor, the check-out on the left side makes noises, like a slot machine. XD

After that we headed to my dad's office, which was a surprise since it's the weekend. Apparently my dad was supposed to bring home some headphones or something but he forgot to do it yesterday. While we were there I got some pencils from the break room. My dad said it's a good life to work at Cisco Systems because you can check stocks, look at PGA Tour's website, drink coffee, have free pencils, and eat ramen. (Which leads me to the next paragraph.)

For lunch, we ate at a ramen shop, called Maru Ichi. (According to dad, it's the favorite ramen shop in the Bay Area) I had some shoyu ramen and so did my mom. My dad had kuro ramen. (I think kuro/kuroi means black, so that's why the soup looked black.) It was really good, and I even got a bit of ice cream. What was really funny was the ice cream came in a plastic cup. On the cup it said "Warning: Contents hot". I hope ice cream will always be a cold treat.

After that we headed to Great Mall, which is apparently close to my dad and mom's workplaces. (My mom says years back, she used to go there, until she realized she wasn't going to buy any clothes anyways.) At first I didn't remember it but after I went inside I recognized it, even though I haven't been there for a few years. I mostly just go to Valley Fair or Vallco/Cupertino Square. (If you live near me, you may know what I'm talking about. These are malls, by the way.) The stores have changed, though. And it was really crowded in there. Lots of people are doing holiday shopping since they think they can get good deals at this time of year.

Even a year later, Hollister and Abercrombie still creep me out, but since my mom's friend thinks I should get a heavy jacket there, my parents dragged me in. The dim lights, pants that have holes in them, and giant black-and-white pictures are disturbing. Worse, the Hollister fitting rooms have no benches and are really small, so they look like jail cells...

I got really thirsty and my feet hurt from walking around too long. My mom wanted to use the bathroom, so we went to my dad's office a second time so she could use the restroom. XD In the meantime my dad and I went to get drinks in the break room, but the refrigerator broke on the first floor so we had to go upstairs. It's a good thing that they have elevators because I am bad at using stairs.

Labels: clothes, library, office, parents, restaurant, shopping, work

I was feeling fine in the morning, but during the second class of the day, I started to run into trouble. I had this strange pounding headache in the left side of my head. It was extremely painful and I found it hard to concentrate on my homework or focus my eyes. I thought it would get better, but it only got worse during the day. I couldn't take it anymore and when 4th Period was over, I asked my friend to walk with me to the nurse's office. I called my mom and then I tried to sleep on one of the weird beds they have in there. After a long time my mom finally came and I got taken home, so I took some medicine and a nap.

Anyhow, now I'm really nervous because I don't have the homework from my language arts class, and I missed a quiz in PE class. My PE teacher threatened to make us come before Zero Period in the morning and run a mile if we missed class. I really hope she isn't serious, and I hope she'll believe me if I say I'm sick...

Labels: dizzy, headache, homework, missing, morning, nurse, office, sick

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