This Halloween we still had a lot of leftover candy from last year - both from my trick-or-treating and also from just candy we bought but never ate. I thought we should've given it to the trick-or-treaters, but my mom said it wasn't healthy to give people stale candy, so she dumped the candy! D: What a waste. I mean, my mom even left the lights off in the house so no one would ring the doorbell.

It was fun going trick-or-treating, though. I went over to my friend's place around 6:10 or 6:15. Her other friend was there since she'd slept over at her house (I didn't attend the sleepover because I really, really can't fall asleep at other people's houses). We tried to get pictures of the three of us, but we would blink, or someone would get cut off, even if we had her sister take the photo. Anyways, I saw my friend's dog there. Her dog's name is Lucky, and he's really cute! I think he's a mixture of a German Shepherd and some other species of dog which I'm not sure of.

Later my friend's sister's friend, plus her brother and older cousin, came over. We trick-or-treated with them for most of the time, but then they had to go home. The cousin was just there to watch them, I believe. It's great going trick-or-treating in a group. The young people sure are energetic, though. My friend's sister and her friend often ran ahead, and I had to try and keep up since I didn't want to get separated from them. It must be nice to be young... *looks off into the distance*

I didn't get that much candy this year because I didn't go to as many houses, as we kept skipping houses here and there. We couldn't go in some directions because my friend's sister's friend and her brother only knew how to find their way home from certain locations. Something to do with their father's jogging course or something. o_O;; But anyways, the three of them (since their cousin is included) left a bit earlier than us since their parents said they had to be home at a certain time or something.

There weren't that many people out there, actually. It was disappointing. We did see a few people. One of them had a costume that looked sort of familiar to me. The others I was trick-or-treating with didn't know what it was, even when he pulled out an orange mask...Then I realized it was a character from Naruto. (Didn't know the name because I've only watched the show once D: ) Anyhow, the reason why there were less people was apparently because of the swine flu scare, people think they'll get sick from meeting someone who has the swine flu. Ugh! Just get a vaccination and don't worry! (Even if no one knows for sure whether the vaccine works, I'm sure it must, because they test it beforehand, and it's not like swine flu is AIDS or cancer or something)

Looks like the holiday is over for this year. But Thanksgiving and Christmas are yet to come, and then the New Year after that. (Oh, did you know, Halloween used to mark the New Year for the people who built Stonehenge in England? They considered the new year to be the end of the harvest or something) I don't really do much for holidays, but if you do, then it's good for you to be able to look forward to something. (: Brightens up your life, and all that. It'd be boring if the only difference in the days was the seasons.

Labels: candy, costume, dog, energy, group, halloween, holidays, leftovers, lucky, naruto, new year, photography, stale, swine flu, trick-or-treating, waste

I know, probably there are a lot of blog posts of mine by now which are somehow or other related to death. Sorry, but it seems like it's following me. Or maybe I'm following it. I am probably superstitious now since I spend my time counting crows.

I had better get to the point. I always keep a flashing keychain on my backpack. The keychain has my name on it, and so I don't need to bother introducing myself, or if people forget my name, they can just glance down there (theoretically...). It is solar powered and one side says Hearst Castle since that's where I got it from. Hearst Castle is a mansion on a mountainside in California. Pretty nice place, wish I had swimming pools and a view of the ocean like Hearst had when he was alive.

Well, the keychain has served me faithfully for more than a year, not far from two years. But age has taken its toll on the keychain. The little part that keeps the keychain attached to its ring has been eroding. I jerked on my keychain too hard (I am too lazy to properly zip my backpack, so I just pull the keychain, since it is attached to the zipper) and a tiny part broke off. It was basically the last straw that broke the camel's back since the keychain fell off. I managed to get ahold of it so I wouldn't lose it but it seems that it is the end for the keychain unless my mom comes up with a way to fix it. (She is the person in my family who is best with little things like sewing and origami and whatnot so we leave it to her. I mean, I have trouble buttoning my shirts and tying my shoelaces...Ironic considering I am a fast typer. You would think my hands would be nimbler.)

I had convinced myself that I was going to make changes in my life this year, so I have been trying to become a more open and charismatic person, but that is not going too well. I won't give up, though! Just like I don't give up on trying to convince my mom that I should have a cat or dog. I think it makes me an admirable person if I keep trying. :p Or maybe it just means I'm too stubborn like my grandma. Well, as a result of these changes, at lunchtime I went into my old teacher's classroom so I could see what happens during Debate Club. I had never really joined clubs much (I tried MathCounts because my mom wanted me to, back in sixth grade, but it was too hard for me to understand. It was funny when someone tried to show the area of a grape, though. And then there was the time I tried to join the Go Green Club last year but I got intimidated since there weren't enough chairs and I didn't know anyone) but now I was curious and I got up the nerve to go in. It was very loud, that's for sure. Two of the students, who were supposedly in charge today, kept banging the weird hammer the teacher has to keep order. We were supposed to be debating whether swine flu is overblown. It wasn't really a formal debate like what I did in the summer once, but oh well. I suppose it was interesting in its own way, even if all I did was listen and not talk. I guess I might go again unless French Week committee meetings get in the way.

When I was walking home not long ago, I saw a blimp in the sky. It said "23andme.com", "Personal Genetics", and "Join the research revolution" or something like that. I guess advertising things on blimps works on people like me, since today I actually went on the website out of curiosity. The Human Prehistory: Prologue video in the Genetics 101 section is not bad. It would have been nice if I learned about humans by watching videos like that back in sixth grade...

Labels: 23andme, broken, club, death, debate, debate club, discord, genetics, hands, hearst castle, history, humans, keychain, stubborn, swine flu, video

Recently, my father was telling me about a lady. He has never met her, but she is famous. The lady was pretty much an unknown person, up until she got plastic surgery. (She said she only got a nose job, but people seemed to think she'd had more surgery than that done to her face, when comparing before and after pictures) Then she started getting noticed and she was even able to become the host of the show Big Brother. So, it seems to me that if you have enough money, then you can go places. (Of course, there are things that can't always be obtained with money, but that's a different story.)

There's always the flip side, though. Do you recall the post ◆ from riches to rags? (It's in the August 2009 archive, if you don't remember it) About how Peter Pan was rich but then because of business problems he quickly lost his money? As the saying goes, "Money comes and goes."

Even in history class, we talked about money. England had colonies because land = power, and also you can tax the people in the colonies. So the king of England, back during the times when the USA was still colonies and not a country, let the colonies do what they liked (to an extent) as long as he got his taxes. My teacher says the king had dollar signs in his eyes. Click for a "visual representation"

Anyhow, as I am writing this, I am not feeling too comfortable. Once my language arts teacher said that us kids were germ factories! I was kind of offended since I wasn't sick at that time. But then apparently one of the people who really is a "germ factory" tried to expand its business, because I somehow or other caught a cold. I have been suffering from a sore throat and either a runny nose or sneezing (depends on where I am and what time of day). I hope it will be over soon (today is the second day of symptoms). Luckily I don't think it is swine flu since if it was, I would have trouble breathing and also have a fever.

The weather nowadays is annoying. In the morning it's foggy and cold, and it's kind like San Francisco (since the fog moves in and out of San Francisco all the time). But then the fog goes away and it gets really hot outside. I wish the weather would either decide to be hot or cold. Seems to me the weather is "wishy-washy".

I remember that one year (I think it was in seventh grade, in the first trimester?) the weather suddenly changed. It became cold when previously it had been warm. I felt kind of woozy in second period, and had trouble concentrating on my math test. The discomfort grew in third and fourth period and eventually I felt so terrible I went to the nurse's office during lunchtime, so I could call a parent to pick me up and take me home. I hope it doesn't happen again this year. I guess I am too sensitive to my surroundings. (Like all those allergies I have)

Labels: allergies, america, big brother, cold, colonies, dizzy, dollar signs, england, eyes, germ factory, headache, king, land, money, plastic surgery, quote, sickness, swine flu, taxes, weather

Do you have any guess what it is? (Yes, I know, the last time I used a French blog title was pretty recent, but eh, I heard about "faire la bise" recently and I wanted to talk about it before I forgot) Well, it's a gesture in French. Have you ever seen French people kiss each other on the cheeks as a greeting? (Maybe in a movie, or you've actually seen people do it?) That's basically what faire la bise is. My French teacher explained about it and also told us something mildly amusing.

I'm sure a lot of you have heard of the swine flu scare not that long ago. As a measure to try and prevent the further spread of H1N1 virus, the French people were told to try and do less faire la bise, what with it being easy to spread disease with your mouth. Some people were pretty huffy about this. They consider faire la bise a part of being French, and I guess it's offensive being told not to do it (even if it's not outright forbidding faire la bise). Yeah, I know writing it down doesn't make it sound very funny. Oh well.

In history class, we were watching Youtube videos. I guess some things don't change. I mean, my history teacher last year showed us quite a few Youtube videos. Today, we watched some of the speeches of Taylor Mali, a poet/teacher. They were kind of funny, but they were also meaningful. I liked the one called "What Teachers Make" the best. I did think it was a little odd that the speeches are called poems, because I'm used to reading poems which are all mysterious and sometimes don't make sense. But I suppose there always a lot of different versions of the so-called same thing.

My mother has been staying home because of something to do with her health. I'm not really supposed to talk about it (and it's not like her life is threatened! So no worries) but my dad stayed home as well. And they both seemed to be lazing around. I used to think it was good for people to relax once in a while but now I'm not so sure since my parents seemed more lazy than usual. I suppose I'm probably kind of like that too when I have a day off, but it still seemed weird.

Since my mom has been staying home the last two days, she was watching a movie called Though None Go With Me. I watched some of it as well, enough to get the story, anyways. It's about a old lady who tells about her life to her granddaughter. The old woman, Elizabeth, had promised to follow God, but much happened to her, and she suffered from the deaths of people close to her. The movie was often rather cheesy and cliched but at other times it was touching. Apparently it was based off of a book, though I have not read the book.

Labels: break, caution, disease, faire la bise, french, gesture, lazy, meaningful, movie, poetry, staying home, swine flu, taylor mali, though none go with me, tradition, youtube

Today was my first taste of mangoes in a long time. Some people say they like the fruit, and my mom bought them on sale, so my dad gave me some to eat. They were orange on the inside and if you take a closer look they seem slightly fuzzy or something. It even tastes like that. The taste isn't something I'm fond of so I've decided I still prefer green pears, blueberries, fresh bananas, plums, and peaches better. (Strawberries are good too but if they're big and taste funny that's not so nice.)

Has anyone heard all the abuzz about the swine flu? (I'm sure at least most of you have, but just in case someone lives under a rock, or something like that...) The symptoms seem pretty similar to an ordinary sickness, if you ask me, and some people are wondering "What's the big deal?" because the ordinary flu kills way more people than the swine flu, at least so far, but still, it is a new disease, so it merits interest. Also, my dad says there are some rumors that the swine flu actually started in California and not Mexico. I hope it's not true since I don't want it to be near me. I just hope this disease can be stopped, before, as President Obama says, it grows into "something worse".

I must have some kind of problem with using bandages or something. In the past whenever I put on a bandage it would stay there until it started to peel off after a few days. But nowadays whenever I sleep the bandage somehow gets detached. When I wake up the bandage (which I put on that place where your upper and lower leg connect) has somehow disappeared. The reason why I put on a bandage was since having constant rashes made my skin start to come apart. It looks kind of creepy. Most of the time I can ignore if but sometimes it feels itchy or starts aching. So I put on a bandage to try and let it heal, yet I can't get it to stay. I think I'm going to give up, I don't want to use up a whole box of them. D:

My mother has undergone a gradual transformation, kind of like a silkworm turning into a chubby moth. When I was younger, she was quite frugal and rarely bought clothes, unless they were very cheap. She always kept tons of coupons around. Sometimes I would help her by cutting out coupons with scissors. Even now she still has so many coupons, flyers, and all that so she needs to keep them in a cloth bag which keeps spilling, but she has bought many clothes. (Of course, it was on sale and stuff, but still) Some rather ugly looking things from Old Navy (no offense to the store, but one of the jackets she bought looked kind of like a bloated, ripply trash bag) and a rather bright green shirt from Banana Republic, and also something from Talbots (which is a women's clothing place, I've seen it, the changing rooms were cool since they had fans and nice mirrors and picture frames on the wall (the pictures were those fashion design sketches which they make to brainstorm a good idea).

Even worse, she started talking to me about a store that sold glass and crystal items. Actually, that's not too bad since it looks very shiny, but the problem is, my mom wanted us to pick out three different pieces of jewelry for $99. (It's a deal since I think one piece is like $45 or something) Before she barely bought jewelry, except for this one time she got a blue topaz necklace (it is my favorite of her jewelry) and also a ruby necklace from a website (I don't like it since it was cheap and the gems are small and not shiny). Then we ended up picking three. I would've liked to buy a bottle ship, though, or flowers made of crystal. They were more colorful and detailed than just plain jewelry which you can get almost anywhere. By the way, the store is not Swarovski but it does sell some of Swarovski's stuff. (Swarovski is a cool place you might find in malls around the world. It sells lots of shiny things.)

And last of all, my mom dropped a not-so-subtle hint that Mother's Day was coming up. I asked my dad to be sure and it's actually next Sunday. AAAAAHHH! For the first time, she really expects me to give her something! The only gift we ever got for her before was some cards I made at school when I was younger, and a green Care Bear plushie, and also a fake flowerpot thing, and a car (but that's useful to everyone, so...) I can't decide what to get her. Help? Maybe I could get her a new portable DVD player, or drama CDs, or more jewelry, or a giftcard? (She gets books and dramas from the library most of the time anyways.)

Labels: bandage, change, crystal, fruits, gift, jewelry, magno, mother's day, spending money, swine flu

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