Ah, chocolate. So delicious. I do like a lot of sweets, but out of the "candy" variety, chocolate is probably my favorite. (I say probably because there may still be more delicious foods out there, just waiting for me to try them.) Milk chocolate in particular. Dark chocolate's a bit too bitter (a lame attempt at wordplay there) and white chocolate's artificial... But milk chocolate is simply splendid. Right after winter vacation, I noticed that my parents had purchased a box of chocolate cookies, and I ate so many of them that I gained several pounds. (I still haven't been able to shed them. In fact, I gained weight again. I wouldn't care so much if it didn't mean that it makes my pants not fit so well.)

Too bad chocolate isn't really the best thing for your health. Recently we had to bring in food that we cooked to French class, as the product of a cooking project. Many of the foods were desserts, and most of those had chocolate in them. What's funny is that the very day that many of us brought in the chocolate foods, the teacher said that she'd just been to the dentist. He had not been happy with her teeth...because, apparently, she'd eaten too much chocolate.

I'm pretty sure my dentist won't be too happy either. He always tells me that I need to floss, and I realize that I really ought to...But I'm not good at it; sometimes it hurts, and it's a hassle besides. I wonder if I have cavities again? I never seem to feel any pain from them, so it always surprises me to find out that I have them when I see the dentist. Maybe it does hurt but the signals for pain haven't been reaching my brain.

I wouldn't be too surprised, because lately, I think I am somewhat of a masochist. Just the other day, in PE, I was playing soccer, and it got kind of wild. I probably could've stopped myself from falling, but instead I let myself fall to the ground. I hit the ground pretty hard, and I was asked the customary "Are you okay?" by several girls. But I actually felt better after getting bashed up, just as I enjoy feeling hungry and even having pulled muscles (if I pulled the muscle from a good run the previous day, that is, and not from being in a weird position).

Ah, but it is getting to be around time for Valentine's Day, and Singing Valentines and rose grams are going up for sale at my school. I wonder if anyone here gives chocolates for Valentine's Day? When I was in elementary school we'd give each other little Scooby Doo/Clifford/Spongebob/etc. valentine cards, with a lollipop or some other candy. But I don't recall ever seeing anyone give just chocolates for Valentine's Day, and certainly not hand-made ones in a heart-shaped container or anything like that. I guess it's either something kind of personal that you wouldn't do within sight of other people, or I've been reading too much manga and keep expecting people to behave like they're in Japan. (No White Day here, after all.)

I was reading one of the two Kaichou wa Maid-sama! side stories that comes after chapter 28, the one about Yukimura and his sister. I thought it was really a lot like a certain episode in Ouran High School Host Club, when Nekozawa isn't the princely big brother that the little sister wants. Well, Maid-sama and Ouran were both in the LaLa magazine, so I guess they would have stylistic similarities. By the way, I'm looking for good manga to read - either really funny or just something that would touch your heart, or both - preferably already finished (but not that old, at least in terms of art style, if you know what I mean). Let me know if you have any suggestions.

Labels: chocolate, cooking, day, dentist, food, gift, health, injury, kaichou wa maid-sama, maid sama, manga, masochist, ouran high school host club, pain, sweets, teeth, valentines, weight

I was just reading the February 2010 edition of Reader's Digest magazine. (Apparently we only received this issue recently, which is odd. I mean, it's long past February now. I guess they forgot to send it to us before.) This time the magazine had a focus on ways to lose weight and the attitudes of people in various countries about being fat.

Regarding France, many families eat together every night, much more than the percentage in the USA out of people surveyed. And the meals in France are quite long. My French teacher told us that the lunchtime at French schools is about two hours long, so school ends late, like 5:00 pm or so. It's such a long lunch that you might even be able to go home and take a nap (just as long as you got up in time to return to school).

Actually, the longer the meal, the less you eat, given that you talk to someone while eating. If you're holding a conversation while eating, then you don't eat as quickly, compared to when you're focused on eating (as I tend to be). That pretty much explains why eating lunch or dinner seems to take so much longer when my parents are eating with their friends.

In this way, you end up not eating as much even though you supposedly would be spending more time talking. By talking, you have to slow down your eating (unless you eat and talk at the same time, which is disgusting and can also result in choking or food coming out). It's a good strategy, but it does take up time, which is a valuable resource that is impossible to replace.

But the opposite - that less is more - is also true, when it comes to swimming pools. Blackberry Farm, a place of recreation in my town, has its pool open during the warmer months. There's a discount on Sunday evenings (after 5:00 pm), I believe, so my mother and I went to the pool.

My mom had thought it wouldn't be crowded because she figured not many people would know about the pool, but she turned out to be wrong. It was quite crowded. Still, we figured that since we bothered to come we should go and swim. I suppose that less money needed to go swimming means more people flock to the pool.

The deepest section, 6 feet deep, was the one with the least amount of people. (This is an instance of "more is less" - the deeper the water, the smaller the amount of people in it.) The shallower sections were mostly occupied by parents teaching their children to swim.

It brought back my memories of the time when I was still struggling with swimming. My mom and I would go to the YMCA pool because we used to have a membership there. My mom would tell me to do four paces of Freestyle or something like that. It had been difficult for me then. Sometimes I choked on water and became very upset. I used to resent swimming. I feared water. Even showering was something I disliked because I might get water in my eyes. Now I don't fear the pool anymore. I guess the toils and trouble turned out to be worth it.

Labels: conversation, deep, fear, fight, france, lunch, magazine, meal, pool, readers digest, shower, struggle, swimming, time, trick, water, weight, YMCA

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

It's supposed to be a play on the title of a movie, No Country for Old Men. Not sure if you caught the reference, though. (I haven't seen the movie either.)

The old man in particular is my father. (No offense intended to him, but he is getting on in his age.) My math teacher sends newsletters to the parents of his students about what he's been teaching, and lets them know about upcoming tests. My dad had stopped receiving the newsletters, so I brought a piece of paper to the teacher with the information needed for him to resume sending emails.

My father's memory and concentration seems to be off, because he didn't write his email address properly (missed three letters of it) and the teacher told me, "This email doesn't work." It's kind of sad that my dad doesn't even know his own email. (It's true that I sometimes forget my passwords, but that's because I keep so many of them.)

I wonder if anyone really writes letters anymore. I mean, my parents said they used to send Christmas cards, years back, but they don't any longer. (In fact, they don't really send Christmas e-cards either, which could mean they are losing their holiday spirit or are just getting lazy.) I remember when I was younger sometimes we would have a pen pal activity - each person would write a short letter to a person in another school that they were paired up with. I remember that it was a lot of fun...But we usually only exchanged one or two letters, and that's about it. It'd be much better if we could send them actively all year long. It might help improve our letter writing skills and it would be fun.

Today, my history teacher started talking about how us students aren't taking the opportunities that are given to us to sharpen our skills. He said that many kids are members of social networking sites and use instant messengers, but often they use chatspeak and don't bother to capitalize or punctuate properly. When they do add punctuation, it's probably a bunch of exclamation points. My teacher said that he had practiced typing and gotten really fast at it. But here we have plenty of chances to practice what with the time we spend on the computer, and yet we don't take it. (Reminds of this quote: "Opportunity comes knocking more than once. You just have to ready for it." I think it was in an old school planner)

I spent time in two different history teachers' classrooms recently - my regular history teacher, and another one who I've never had before. The reason is the rain...My PE teacher decided he would teach us about the cons of smoking, alcohol, and drugs while the weather was bad. We would go to that teacher's room (let's call him Mr. T) since it was his prep period (each teacher has one period where they don't teach, but are supposed to be making preparations for class or grading tests). Mr. T seemed to eat a lot of the kind of food called Cup Noodles.

Today my PE teacher left two minutes early, leaving us in the "care" of Mr. T, because he needed to go to the classroom for the next PE class (he uses a different classroom each period since the teachers have different prep periods). Mr. T decided to ask us what we had learned during our time of having PE inside.

Student: I learned that D talks a lot. (D stands for a different student's name)
Mr. T: You didn't know that before?
You know what's really amazing? D talks so much, but none of what comes out of his mouth has any meaning. The ratio of how much he speaks to how much of it is important is staggering.

Mr. T had brought in some food today, as well, in Whole Foods bags. Someone said they had seen cake and pizza. "What happened to your diet, Mr. T?" piped up D. (I did hear that Mr. T wanted to lose weight...) Mr. T said, "Hey, I'm fairly skinny, right?" (Well, I suppose beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But he ought not to have that attitude. Otherwise, the pounds will pile up again.)

Labels: christmas card, cup noodles, diet, email, father, letter, memory, newsletter, no country for old men, opportunity, password, PE class, pen pal, practice, skills, talkative, teacher, typing, weight

I mentioned briefly that I visited Petsmart in my post on January 17, 2010. When I was younger, I always wondering how you should pronounce Petsmart. Is it Pets Mart, or Pet Smart? I still am not sure. (I should probably wait for a TV commercial, if there is one, so I can hear how it should be said.)

While I was there, I noticed that there was one koi in a tank full of a different kind of fish. The koi looked very stressed and was trying to swim away, but it couldn't because it was only in a small tank, and it's impossible for it to break through tank walls to get to other tanks and back to safety among its own kind.

Since I'm on the subject of fish, I recently bought two fish from Petsmart - a greyish koi with a weird yellowish splotch on him, and an algae eater (my dad wants one, probably because he hopes it'll clean the tank for him, and anyways, since we have a "Petperks" card - it's like a store membership - we get a discount). The algae eater, as is their nature, found a place to stick on the tank, and didn't move until later, while I wasn't looking. He moved to the underside of this fake rock decoration we have and I didn't see him until I took a closer look. And the grey koi seems to be doing fine. It's my original fish that were troubling.

I have two fish tanks. In the bigger tank, I have a big white koi (used to have orangey-red parts, but it faded with time...Really weird) and a red and black koi. Yesterday, I noticed the big white koi (I did name him/her - I actually still have trouble telling the genders apart - Pumpkinflash, but we don't really use the name) was acting funny. It kept swimming around frantically and it would sometimes go up to the water's surface and seemed to be making nibbling motions. The red and black fish eventually did that too, but I think it's more likely that it was just imitating its friend. I suspected that the white koi must have choked on a pebble, because koi try to glean food from pebbles. I tried to scare it by flicking my finger against the tank, thinking it would spit out the rock if it got frightened (I used this technique for a fish I used to have, to save its life, since it was really and truly seeming like it would die, except I used a net to chase it) but it didn't work. At least the fish seem better today, maybe the white one digested the rock...Wait...Then that would be really weird. o_O;;

My mother read in her Chinese newspaper that an old lady, apparently a doctor of some sort, recommended eating meat for breakfast, fish for lunch, and something light for dinner (like rice soup). Not eating much for dinner makes sense, I suppose, seeing as you shouldn't eat much before you go to bed. But I tend to eat something light or sugary for breakfast, meat for lunch, and fish for dinner. Guess I have everything reversed. I wonder whether the lady in the newspaper's suggestions would really work, though, or if it only benefits the health of some people. My mother always reads that newspaper, and probably has for a long time. She also reads books about fitness and cooking and such things. My dad says that she keeps reading cookbooks and never really cooks the foods in them. XD

I'd like to make something based on a recipe. I really haven't cooked in a long time; barely at all ever since I moved on from Cooking class in 7th grade. I wonder if I should use one of my recipes that I obtained from that very same class. We made a coffee cake once and it was pretty good (it doesn't taste like coffee at all, it's just called coffee cake). I don't know if we have the cake pans and ingredients, though. I guess I'll have to find out sometime.

Today in debate club, the topic kind of changed until it was about how unhealthy America is, what with so many obese people, while in other countries peoples are reduced to making mud pies. There were more people than usual in debate club since it's been raining hard nowadays and students just want shelter from the rain. One boy said that people keep looking for a perfect, easy way to lose weight. But he said that if you're not rich, it won't happen. (Because then you could afford to have that surgery to remove some of your fat and skin) If you run out of your Nutrisystem food your eating habits aren't going to change. He said that you must simply eat less and exercise. And other students suggested vegetarianism but then there were people who protested saying they couldn't live without their meat. (And I can't, either, sadly) Besides, meat does have its benefits, like protein. Even eating other protein foods or supplements isn't quite the same as the real thing.

That reminds me, my mom said that one of the possible reasons why my skin is sensitive and tends to get itchy or infected easily is because I don't get enough zinc. She said that peanuts might have zinc, but since I'm allergic to peanuts, I can't get much zinc. There's only a limited variety of nuts I can eat - almonds and pistachios are the only ones I've confirmed to be "safe". I wonder if I'm destined to have skin problems forever.

Labels: choke, coffee cake, cooking, debate club, eating, fish, food, koi, meal, meat, newspaper, nuts, peanuts, petsmart, protein, recipe, rocks, skin, weight, zinc

Just today, I was doing my vocabulary homework for language arts. We all have workbooks which we purchase at the beginning of the year. Each week, sometimes every other week or every third week, etc. (depending on what the teacher has in mind, sometimes we do vocabulary from stories we read instead) we'll complete some homework about the words and then take a simple test to prove we know them. I sort of did this in sixth grade. If I recall correctly, the cover was an interesting picture (artist's name I've forgotten, unfortunately) of birds and fish in black and white. Slowly the birds turn into fish. It's fascinating.

Yikes, I'm getting sidetracked (but that's just me, I suppose). Well, I was reading some paragraphs for the Reading Comprehension section of the workbook, and it said in the last paragraph this: "Of course, there are plenty of people who spend their lives focused on infantile, selfish concerns. Fortunately, for all of us, there are also remarkable people who find their pleasure in helping others." I am going to take this is a a personal insult. What if the author of the vocab book is referring to me? Eh?! I thought textbooks were supposed to be objective, not subjective, but I guess since vocabulary books aren't like history textbooks (history books really, really shouldn't be biased, as one side could have a totally different opinion from the other).

Well, I'm having second thoughts about the braces again, and stuff like that. My mom said I can decide not to if I want, but... For one thing, the orthodontists all seem eager for money or something. I sympathize with them - I'd like to be able to spend more time with my family and retire, too. But you know, being a doctor is more than fixing people's teeth (which, by the way, doesn't always work; I saw pictures of Before and After of a boy who had braces, and the thing that I found funny was that his previously normal-looking cheeks had become puffed out, like he had gained some weight, so maybe having braces can have some...unforseen side effects. No offense to that guy intended), I think it's also tending to people's minds, making them feel at ease and happy to be at the office, instead of being afraid (ever seen a children's story about a child who was scared of the dentist? But I did hear there are a few, rare people who actually enjoy having braces). Hehe, that was something deep. Write it down so you won't forget.

One of my friends has also become one of the Scissorhands bunch lately. I was eating lunch and she made scissor motions with her hands. First my math teacher, now her...Looks like something's catching on.

I have noticed that I behave a bit unusually at times. For instance, I eat the foods I don't like first and the foods I like last. (Some other people do that too nowadays) My parents find that annoying, just like they find it annoying that I can't use things I haven't learned yet in my proofs. (In my math class, once you learn a proof or something, then you can use it in problems, but my dad thinks you should be able to use anything as long as you know that it is CORRECT, regardless if you learned it from the teacher or somewhere else)

Also, I get really annoyed by water bottles that are steamed up. Sometimes, on hot days, my plastic water bottles get steamed up. (Sorry, plastic water bottles are really bad for the environment, I know, but they're more convenient...) Whenever I see it, I have to dump the water bottle upside down - cap on so the water won't get out - so that way the steam gets cleared up.

By the way, this is really random, but I think I might've lost one of my erasers. I've been carrying around this eraser for a while now, since sometime last school year, actually. I found it on the ground in the computer lab and there was a name written on it. It said "Ria". I met someone called Ria before so I've been looking for her so I can ask if it's hers, but I haven't seen her since maybe sixth grade, which is a loooooong time ago. I thought she would still be in the school, but seriously, I have not seen her. Maybe she's moved and it's too late now to return the eraser...

Labels: biase, braces, dentist, eraser, favorite, fear, homework, illusion, money, objective, opinion, order, ria, scissorhands, selfish, steam, subjective, vocabulary, water bottles, weight

I'd known this phrase from reading books, but I'd wondered what it meant. Well, finally I got around to looking it up. If you say butter WOULDN'T melt in someone's mouth, it means the person keeps a cool demeanor, and is not "warm" enough to melt butter. Usually this phrase applies to women. Sometimes it means that the person is quiet, meek, and has a sweet temper instead of emotional coldness. Whew, this phrase kind of confuses me. It's not like "barking up the wrong tree", which I believe means that someone has got ahold of the wrong person (ex. Someone stole a watch, and the person who was stolen from bothers a person who they think stole it, but it was someone else who stole the watch).

I was playing Animal Crossing (as I do every weekend, to make money to pay off my house mortgage) when I was talking to one of my neighbors. He said to me, "This may sound surprising coming from me, but letters make me nostalgic," after he showed me a letter (which was actually written by me, using a different name XD). Another neighbor said he'd heard about something called "e-mail" on TV (remember, this game was created 2001 or 2002) where people could send messages to people in other countries.

This reminded me of how I used to keep in touch with one of my friends from first grade. She moved because her parents lost their jobs and couldn't find a good one in California. So now she lives in North Carolina. We used to exchange letters and postcards, and it was nice to communicate that way. There's something charming about writing letters. But now almost everyone uses email instead, so I communicate with long distance friends through that instead. It doesn't have the same feel, though, and oftentimes people don't respond to my emails for a very long time. Or never at all. So I almost wish that my language arts teacher would make us have pen pals far away, like in another state or country, except we could write whatever we wanted. I mean, the skill of letter writing is started to be lost. One of my friends asked me what you need. (Well, the Dear -soandso-, and the ending which could be Sincerely, Best Regards, Yours Truly, XOXO, etc. is obvious. But I mean the address, the first and last name of the receiver, and things like that. It seems like people don't even know that anymore. I'm extremely disappointed)

I've eaten a lot of sweet foods these days. My dad brought back cookies and egg custard tarts. (Apparently someone was trying to kiss up to him with the egg custard tarts) My mom brought back a chocolate chip cookie as well, and then last night my dad's friend's family (they come over a lot ever since they moved to my town) and my mom's old Shanghai classmate came over. So we served cheesecake. I got first dibs even though I'm not a guest. Ha! I picked a chocolate chip cheesecake. They're all pretty good - the flavors were plain, chocolate chip, tuxedo, and triple chocolate. However, I will need to do some serious work in PE to burn it off. By the way, if you aren't sure what an egg custard tart is, here is a picture.

Labels: animal crossing, butter, cheesecake, chocolate chip, cookie, delicious, dessert, egg custard tart, email, food, letter, mail, melt, plain, sayings, scrumptious, tasty, triple chocolate, tuxedo, weight

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