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 Monday, I returned to school after having been away for several weeks. Winter break isn't all that long, but it seemed long to me because I didn't go anywhere this time. I usually travel somewhere during the breaks. Nowadays, I am concerned about saving money for retirement, and besides, I didn't want to have to adjust time zones, so I decided not to go on vacation over the winter break. Over the break, my father and I went exploring the neighborhood.

For quite a while, perhaps several years, a local place, which is called a farm (but has other things, for recreation, like a swimming pool and a golf course), had been under renovation. Sometime in 2009, the changes were done and it was reopened to the public. It was the first time I had seen the place since before it had closed for the renovating. In fact, I hadn't been there for many years, so it was like going there for the first time, practically.

It turned out that two bocce ball courts and a volleyball court had been built. There was also a trail, leading to a place that actually was like a farm (there were farm animals, like goats, cows, and I believe I saw a pony). There was a swimming pool, but it was closed because it was wintertime. It was nice to see the creek with water in it...It's depressing in the summer since the creek tends to be dried out. One of the parks near my house doesn't have water in the ponds either. My dad says that the people of my town dried it out on purpose to try and drive the birds away.

Speaking of birds, the place where I live is really infested with them. My house has birds, which is nice (though some of them look just like the finches I saw at the petshop...). But the park has many Canadian geese, which should not be; the geese already ought to have migrated by now. There's also seagulls and a few crows. My school also has this problem, especially after it rains. I like the birds, except for one time when a seagull pooped on my math homework.

When my mom's friend's family came over to our house, on New Year's Day, the TV was turned on and I started flipping channels. (There seemed to be several Educational Programming channels...Hmm.) Eventually I reached a channel where exceptional moments in music were being played, and so my mom's friend's daughter said we might as well stop there. Some singer (I forgot her name, unfortunately) was singing when a bird flew by and pooped diagonally onto her mouth! It was disgusting. But that bird had good aim.

I was pretty freaked out because I saw a dead bird today. It was pretty well squashed, something disgusting on it as well as blood... It seems like another bad sign. But it could just be my imagination. There is a lot of roadkill nowadays.

Birds aren't the only animals all over the place, though. There are also plenty of squirrels. I have some in my backyard. My mom pointed one out to me, so I ran over to the window to see. It began digging up the grass and apparently found something to eat - perhaps a nut? Then it started eating, before holding it in its mouth and climbing up the tree. The squirrel looked pretty fat. It was a greyish one (maybe that's because of the winter, it could have actually been a squirrel with brown fur). I had seen a black squirrel earlier which was quite a bit skinnier than that one. It didn't find anything to eat in my backyard. I guess the early bird - or squirrel - doesn't always get the worm (nut).

That nut looked kind of like an acorn. Was that from my yard? Or a neighbor's place? Or somewhere far away, like near my school? There are plenty of acorns there. I've always thought acorns were cool nuts. I would like to make some acorn mush, or acorn pancakes, but I'm not sure how. And what would it taste like, anyways? D:

Labels: 2010, acorn, birds, blackberry farm, bocceball, break, creek, death, explore, food, neighborhood, nuts, poop, roadkill, seagull, singer, squirrels, television, water, winter

I've seen so many animal deaths by roadkill lately. Just today I saw something strange on the road. It looked like squirrel guts...Scary. So that makes three squirrels and one deer run over on the road recently. Do you know what my mom had to say about seeing a dead deer? First she said, "Why aren't people more careful? Probably the deer was killed at night when people have to rely on the headlights, but there's even a yellow sign that shows a picture of a deer crossing." Then she added, "It's worse to kill a deer than a squirrel. It could damage the car." This really surprised me, because I thought she was going to say something like how there are more squirrels than deer in the area anyways, but she talked about cars getting damaged. Never mind the car! Cars aren't even alive! Think about the animal that died. That animal was someone's sister or brother, someone's mother or father, someone's child. And now that life is gone. That's why in the anime/manga XXXHolic, Yuuko says there is no way you can ever pay for taking a life. It is a very heavy burden. (Pssh, though, some people hunt ducks for fun. Seriously.)

I have realized recently that I don't know much about celebrities, because my dad was watching a movie called Wanted. He watches tons of movies, I probably couldn't name them all. He's watched some James Bond movies, and Ocean 11/12/13 movies, and mostly foreign movies particularly from France. Wanted is a movie that features Angelina Jolie and some other dude who I don't know about.

Me: Hey, isn't that Lara Croft?
Dad: No, it's not. This movie is called Wanted.
Me: Oh. I thought it was Lara Croft.
Dad: It's Angelina Jolie. She plays Lara Croft.
Me: *has a D: face* I didn't know that.

Speaking of celebrities, there's been two deaths recently. The less noted one was Farrah Fawcett, who is an actress. Her kind of hairstyle is named after her. I heard that she'd been fighting cancer for years and finally succumbed. So people who were close to her had realized it was only a matter of time...Sad to die from such a sickness, caused by your own body, no less! And the other death is much more well-known: MICHAEL JACKSON.

He was 50 years old when he died. He's a male African American singer who had multiple brothers and a sister, but he's the most famous of them. (He's had plastic surgery, so that's why some say he looks...well...odd.) But you know, even my dad had listened to his music a long time ago, back when he was young and lived in China. He would listen to a radio station called The Voice of America and that's how he heard Michael Jackson's music. I guess it's true when my painting teacher said Michael's music had reached farther than just the USA. It had touched the world. (I know, that sounds cheesy) Apparently, Michael died of cardiac arrest. My father says that he was not healthy, but it's possible there was some foul play (meaning someone caused or contributed to Michael's death. Suspicious! So police are trying to talk to Michael's personal doctor, the only one present when Michael had collapsed). Anyhow, rest in peace for both of them. What an unlucky day yesterday was.

I don't want to be depressing you all too much. Instead, I'd like to share with you a really awesome game! It's called "Who Wants to Live a Million Years" and it's fairly simple. You pick three animals to start with and you hope they live as long as possible in a changing environment. (You can use life preservers if you think you're doomed) Here's the link to it. Who Wants to Live a Million Years?

Labels: angelina jolie, animals, car accident, celebrities, death, farrah fawcett, games, health, lara croft, michael jackson, movie, music, roadkill, who wants to live a million years, xxxholic

Top ↑