Perhaps you'd think that to be true if you're into astronomy, or something similar, yet different: astrology. Perhaps some or even many of you scoff at it, dismissing it as wishful thinking, a bunch of superstitious mumbo-jumbo that inaccurately describes your personality.

My zodiac sign, Leo, didn't suit me so well. When I was a lot younger, maybe it was true; I used to be a lot more outgoing, so much more fearless than I am now. When I was in 6th grade, one of the people running the YMCA afterschool care that I attended said that he thought I was more of a Virgo than a Leo. Always eager to find explanations for things (and usually unimportant ones), I thought, "Well, that's why I was born late, I must've intuitively known that I was not supposed to be born in the time range of a Leo."

I do like these sorts of things; back when I was somewhere from 5-8 years old, I was quite meticulous about filling out a Barbie birthday planner with the birthdays of my friends and stuffed animals (stuffed animals especially, as I had an astonishing amount of them, which have since disappeared somewhere in a room upstairs). The planner also had a small page about what the people born in a certain month are generally like, as well as examples of famous people born in that month. I remember that when you were putting an entry for someone's birthday, you could circle one of two Zodiac signs, since each month will have two different ones in it (July has Cancer and Leo, August has Leo and Virgo, etc.). I never really understood why it mattered at the time, having not paid attention to the traits affiliated with each Zodiac sign.

Then there came a time where I pretty much forgot about the Western Zodiac. I very rarely read horoscopes; the only time when I hear mine is if I'm bored and I see them in my mom's newspaper. But late last year, my mom brought home a book which claims to have descriptions of people born on every day of the year.

I have since become immersed in reading this book when I have free time, and although I suppose I could use it to try and understand my friends better...It could be horribly far from the truth (I know some people who fit their birthday descriptions so well that it frightens me, but I don't think my birthday description was quite on the mark) and I would not want to rely on it to judge people. Rather, I look at the personalities of each day and I use them to help me shape my own OCs - original characters. It comes in handy because all of the birthday personalities have both strengths and weaknesses, and of course, it'd be boring to have characters that have no negative qualities.

Even more recently, I read somewhere (probably Time magazine) that the dates of the Western Zodiac signs are inaccurate, and now there is a "new" Western Zodiac with different dates and a 13th sign. I can't describe it very well, so search the Internet for it; click here for one place that has a little info about it. What it means for me is that I'm now actually a Cancer, not a Leo, which I think is more accurate, so I figure I'll go by that from now on.

Cancer: Sensitive, sometimes indecisive, moody
Leo: Ambitious, self-confident, basically a natural leader

Labels: birthday, book, cancer, change, characters, horoscope, leo, new, OC, original character, people, personality, planner, signs, star sign, stars, virgo, western, zodiac

That kind of rhymes, considering the way that Yosemite is pronounced.

I've been wondering for a while now why Yosemite is pronounced the way it is. It's pronounced like "Yo-seh-mi-tee". I think that's rather misleading. On the lost and found sign for the Yosemite trip, Yosemite was misspelled "Yosemity". So wouldn't it make more sense to pronounce the name "Yo-seh-mee-teh"? But I suppose what makes sense isn't necessary how things work out.

While I was at Yosemite, I led a very different lifestyle from what I live at home. I spent much more time outside moving around. I almost always wore multiple layers to keep myself warm (except for the times that I became hot from hiking and skiing). I had to get used to having a heavy backpack on my back (I know you're not supposed to pack a lot, but I brought anything I thought I might need, like extra socks, a rain poncho, and gaiters - I never even used the gaiters), since usually I use a roller backpack. I had to adjust to having little sleep and to constantly having dry skin. (But some of my skin problems weren't as bad at Yosemite. My mom says it was because I took short, cold showers, which is better for your health, not like the warm, long ones I take at home)

And all this exercise was a good thing. It helped me build more strength, and I was surprised at how long I lasted, even if I wasn't a fast hiker. It's weird, but I had a different sort of appetite at Yosemite than I have back home. At home I get hungry quite often and I end up eating too much (better keep me away from the almond crunch!), but at Yosemite I sometimes lose my appetite, while at other times I am just moderately hungry, and don't eat very much, but it's enough. And I had to eat celery, which I never ate back home (it's not too bad, I guess, I always thought it must be terrible since people eat it with PEANUT BUTTER and I'm allergic to that). All this exercise made me lose some weight and made me feel better about myself since I could eat more and know I would burn it off, so I wouldn't have to worry about rationing myself (which I've been doing unsuccessfully, I always end up with too much food in one way or another. Eating is something of comfort, after all).

When I got back home, I realized how little exercise I do in comparison. In Yosemite, we might stop once in a while, but other than that we spend a lot of time standing or walking or climbing up something. At home, I am indoors a lot, sitting down, doing some work that requires me to stare closely at something, rather than getting natural light, which is better for my retina or something like that (I can't say I know the specifics about eyes, so don't ask me). And I actually eat more at home, or at least it feels like that. I wish I could always live the kind of lifestyle I had in Yosemite, being active, and being in the outdoors. That's where we are all supposed to be, but us humans have built walls around ourselves, put roofs over our heads, surrounded ourselves with technology to make our lives easier. In some ways this is good and in others it is quite saddening.

I hope that I never forget the experiences I had at Yosemite. I think it may have been one of the only times I ever really got close to nature. One day, when we were hiking at nighttime, a chaperone told us all to turn off our flashlights, be quiet, and stand still. We looked up at the sky, and it was amazing. The sky was really dark, and it was speckled with beautiful white stars. I have never seen so many stars at one time in my life, because in the town where I live, you can't see so many of them (unless you go out late at night, which I don't; in Yosemite it was only maybe 9 pm when you could see all those stars). Humans have affected the world so much that it becomes harder to see stars, but at least now I know there are still havens, still precious places where you can see night the way it is supposed to be seen.

I'd like to get a telescope. With one, I could take a much closer look at the night skies. I have heard that there are times when you can see other planets, such as Venus, and I want to try that. And there's eclipses, too; I didn't pay all much attention to them in the past. But now I think I'd like to see one sometime.

There are so many marvelous spectacles I have yet to witness in the world. I wonder if I will ever get the chance to see them all. I once heard that there were two people who were hospitalized because of problems with their noses. One had his/her problem fixed, and left the hospital. The other had some sort of terminal illness, so he/she traveled and did things that the other person didn't do (and probably never would). Sometimes you have to realize how little time you really have left on the Earth to make full use of it.

Labels: appetite, backpack, change, eating, health, humans, indoor, life, lifestyle, nature, night, outdoor, pronunciation, shower, skin, sky, stars, time, weight, yosemite

Recently, part of my science homework was to find where the real direction of North was and to mark it on a map of the sky. The North I had originally labeled was not "true North" because I had kind of guessed where North was. (I didn't really know, since I lost my magnetic compass, and my parents only gave me a vague idea of where North was.) So I searched for the constellation of the Big Dipper, or Ursa Major, whatever you like to call it, because you can use it to find the North Star, which is always North or at least very close to it. To find it, look for the shorter side of the Big Dipper and go up (and diagonally?) five times the length of the shorter side, and you should find the North Star. (To confirm it is the North Star, look for the constellation the Little Dipper, or Ursa Minor. The North Star is part of the Little Dipper)

I was unable to find the Big Dipper, since I haven't really gone stargazing for a long time and I've never actually located a constellation before. (Sad, but true. According to the Everybody Votes channel on my Wii, the majority of voters could locate more than one constellation) I had my dad give me a hand finding the constellation. He saw something which he thought might be Big Dipper and showed me. I couldn't figure it out at first, but eventually I realized it was indeed the Big Dipper. And there, shining quite brightly, was the North Star, Polaris.

I think I have underestimated my dad for a long time. He has his uses, even if they're not exactly...the most useful or obvious things. For instance, he sometimes says the phrase, "It's not over until the fat lady sings." (This is not meant to be an insult to overweight people. It's a reference to opera, since there is a woman singing at the end, and supposedly bigger people have stronger voices?) I heard this quote at school, on the announcements. One of the girls' sports teams was not faring too well. I think they lost 7-0 in a game or something. The announcer was saying that they shouldn't give up, and then said the very quote I had heard from my dad not long ago.

Recently I obtained a video game from the library. My library has Nintendo Wii games. I came up with a scheme...I can check out all the games I want and play them on the Wii, and so I won't ever have to buy them, I can just keep requesting them from the library, over and over again. It'll save a lot of money and that will benefit me, as well as the environment (though it means less profit for the game makers, sorry!). The video game was Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility. Actually, it was my mom's idea to get that, so kudos to her. Or brownie points. Or whatever you want.

If you haven't played the Harvest Moon games, I'll explain a little bit... Here you can play a boy (or a girl, depends on what game; some let you be both and others only have one). You're a farmer, but you can do other things like fish and mine. And there are other characters you can interact with...You can get married and have a child eventually, too. o_o;; Some of the games sort of have a story, which usually has something or other to do with the Harvest Goddess.

I noticed that there were a lot of similarities when I compared Harvest Moon to Animal Crossing games, such as...
- Being able to befriend villagers and give them gifts
- Fishing
- Receiving mail (you can get mail in Tree of Tranquility, not sure about other games)
- Putting furniture in your house, and remodeling your house
- Using an axe
- The triangle thing (when you're talking to someone, there's a little triangle sometime which shows they have more to say)
- Saving at your house (but in Animal Crossing: Wild World and Harvest Moon handheld games you can save anywhere, not just the house)
- Having a phone (you can't call anyone in Animal Crossing, though. It's just for changing your settings. And it's Wild World only, I'm not sure about City Folk)
- Seasonal changes (the difference is that Animal Crossing follows "real world time", so it's based on what the time of your console is set to)

Unfortunately, I kind of spent too much time playing Harvest Moon and wasted a lot of my weekend. This is one of my problems. You see, I'm afraid to make accounts on websites or buy new video games because I know what will happen...I will probably be addicted at first because I want to explore the whole thing, and then I'll reach a difficult part or I'll lose interest, and then it'll go to waste. D:

Labels: animal crossing, big dipper, constellation, fat lady, father, harvest moon, library, north star, opera, polaris, quote, sky map, stars, tree of tranquility, true north, ursa major, video games, wii

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