Category Archives: general life

Yesterday my mom and I got new phones. Happy birthday to me! (It’s in a week.) What had started out as a quick trip to Costco turned into a two hour trip after seeing the phone kiosk and deciding to finally upgrade. Our previous phones were both 5+ years old, we hadn’t upgraded in years and although Mom’s phone still worked fine, I badly needed a new phone. This is our first time owning a smartphone. We’ve spent the past 24 hours totally confused and absolutely loving it.

We both got the Samsung Galaxy S III (click here to read the CNET review), which is really handy because we can teach each other as we learn how to do more.

I can’t help but feel a little ridiculous, I’ve never bothered putting a protective case over any of my past phones so I feel like I’ve put this thing in a little dress. I understand the importance, it’s just a new experience. There’s also the hilarity of searching for good/interesting apps on my desktop and then downloading them on my phone. I’m loving it though.

Finally owning a smartphone means I was finally able to join Instagram, so feel free to follow me (or bookmark it if you don’t have a smartphone).

This might be triggering for some, and I apologize for that.

When I was a child, I dreamt that my father was murdered. It was night, and I seem to recall I was searching through the house trying to find my dad so I could tell him dinner was ready. I couldn’t find him, so I figured maybe he was in the backyard. I opened the backdoor and immediately got the feeling that I shouldn’t call out for him, I could feel that something was wrong. I looked to my left toward the edge of the yard, and although that area was pitch black, I could see a pair of eyes and gloves straight out of a cartoon. The eyes were white with black pupils, and looked angry. The gloves were oversized and bright white, almost like Mickey Mouse’s gloves but not quite that big. Despite not being able to see anything else, I knew this person was evil and had killed my father. I didn’t actually see my father’s body, but something just gave me that feeling. I ran back inside trying to find my mother, for some reason the layout of the house was different so I had to loop around to find the kitchen. I found her and tried to tell her what happened, but my mouth wouldn’t open, almost as if I didn’t even have a mouth. She asked if something happened to my father and I nodded furiously, pointing to the backyard. At that point, I woke up. Luckily, my father is very much alive. I really have no idea what might’ve caused this nightmare, and luckily it didn’t scare me too badly, but to this day I can’t help but avoid that part of my backyard at night, even with the outdoor light on.

Five years ago today, I bought my first betta fish. I named him Sammy, short for Salmon Roll. Sammy was my first fish who was actually mine, I’d had some rather boring goldfish and guppies as a child but I didn’t take care of those at all, I was just too young to care about doing anything other than watching them swim so my dad did all the work. Sammy and I went through a lot together but he was a tough fish, he pulled through everything, including the time I’d overfed him with bloodworms (bettas don’t stop eating when they’re full because in nature they don’t know when their next meal is, so they just keep eating, so they can literally eat themself to death if you don’t stop feeding them) and the time I dropped him on my desk while trying to get him back in his tank after cleaning it. He died September 1st 2010 and I buried him in an empty breathmint tin in my front yard. Yes, I buried a fish.

These pictures were all taken the first five months I had him, I loved watching him change from a shy stumpy-tailed fish to a flowy-tailed sparkly drag queen.

This song was written in 1978, and ended up becoming famous in 2006 thanks to the internet. I figure that’s when I first heard it myself, and every so often I end up getting the song stuck in my head somehow. I think the best part is how the dancers accidentally steal the show.

This has become my free time lately. I’ve started playing Animal Crossing: Wild World again after a very long hiatus. I decided to start over because I wanted to rename my town, which you can’t actually do without restarting the entire game. So I’ve gone back to yelling things like “Damnit, Nook!” and “Who the hell is Nibbles? Did I get a new neighbor?”

I bought an Action Replay, so I no longer have to worry about things like Resetti bothering me if I decide to reset without saving for whatever reason, that was always annoying because it’s like five minutes of him ripping you a new asshole, how dare you reset!

And by the way, these are pretty much the most hilarious drawings I’ve ever seen. If you’re a fan of Animal Crossing and Homestar Runner, you need to check these out:

• Strong Mad as Resetti
• Bubs as Nook
• Coach Z as Redd
• KK Limozeen, probably the funniest one

But anyway, if you play AC:WW and want to trade Friend Codes, let me know! Especially right now, I need someone to shop at Nook’s so I can get the final upgrade.

This is from an episode of the tv show You Bet Your Life, this version aired from 1992-1993. The first four minutes of this video had me laughing so hard. I don’t know whose expression is funnier, Bill Cosby’s or Marcia Brody’s.

Toward the end of last year, I started a private journal using a word processing program on my computer. It was some free program I’d never even heard of called Microsoft Word Starter, I’m just assuming it’s the free version of Microsoft Word, it’s basically Notepad with banner ads and the ability to change the font. I would’ve just used Notepad for this project, but I’d wanted to see what this Word Starter thing was and I just stuck with it. Honestly, I’d completely forgotten about it until just now, and I was amused to see my last entry in it had been the first of the year. New year starts, and I’d immediately forgotten about a new project? Yeah, that’s typical of me.

I just found the file and decided to take a look at it, and I’ve decided it’s not actually worth keeping. Any memories worth remembering were either journalled/blogged about elsewhere or I wrote about it in my daily planner. Though there’s one entry that cracked me up, so before I delete them all, I wanted to share it here because I can’t remember if I’d mentioned this situation anywhere else. I guess you won’t find this as funny if you get regular thunderstorms where you are, but Los Angeles doesn’t experience rain very often.

October 11th 2012
The plan was to eat lunch at the Autry and then go to the zoo. It was an absolutely gorgeous day today, blue sky full of bright fluffy white clouds, and best of all, the weather was cool and crisp. As we were finishing lunch, it started raining and turned out to be a thunderstorm. We considered staying at the Autry since obviously it wasn’t a good idea to go to the zoo, it was raining pretty hard and the drops were fat and cold. I needed my lip balm from the car so we were walking through the entrance tunnel when a HUGE clap of thunder hit directly above us, echoing in the tunnel. Mom shrunk into herself like a turtle and even I jumped, which is rare, I don’t scare easily. I told Mom to stay put while I got my lip balm, then called her from the car and said we might as well go since storms usually bring early darkness and we shouldn’t drive through that area in the dark. We got a few miles away and the storm stopped dead, it had been directly over the museum. So the weather kind of ruined our plans to see the animals, but at least lunch tasted great!

Today my mom and I were talking about a few late relatives who’d been so against using walkers because they were afraid of looking like invalids, as if it’s only the walker that makes people look feeble and not the fact that they can barely walk or keep falling down.

The conversation came up after we drove by a handful of people learning how to drive a Segway, it reminded us of how my grandmother (Mom’s mom) had once started to research Segways because she thought maybe riding one of those instead of her Rascal scooter wouldn’t make her look as old. The Rascal was much more sturdy and easier to get into, I don’t think my grandmother realized how high off the ground a Segway is and I seem to recall she even tried researching if it was possible to install a seat on it. By the time Mom and I found out you can go to a store and try out a Segway, my grandmother had lost interest and unfortunately her health went further downhill, so she wouldn’t have been able to safely ride a Segway anyway.

I had an aunt who’d actually fallen down on the sidewalk in front of her home and would lay there for hours until someone came by to help her up, instead of using a walker or even a cane to keep her from tripping. She had a lot of health problems and just couldn’t lift her feet very high when she walked, so she practically shuffled and would trip over the tiniest cracks or her own feet. But she absolutely refused to use a walker because she felt it’d make her look old. Nevermind the fact that she was old, I guess she thought she was fooling people by not having a cane or walker. She also didn’t carry a cell phone which was why she’d be on the sidewalk for so long after falling down, she had to wait till her mother called for help or a neighbor walked by and noticed her lying there like a turtle.

Today I told Mom that she and my dad are in for a shock if they ever try that with me, refusing to use a walker even though they badly need one. They don’t yet, but if the time ever comes that they need assistance to walk, I will make sure they use it. I refuse to have to constantly worry about if they’ve hurt themselves. I told her that if I have to, I’ll have no trouble putting both my parents inside a Zorb ball to keep them from getting hurt.

“I’ll just plop you in that ball and push you around the city like a dung beetle.”

I’m serious, I’ll do it. I wouldn’t have to worry about them at all in one of those things.