Thank goodness Panda had me completely peel all the corn before taking them home! Poor guy got squished when the checkout lady "took care" of him. 🙁
Of course the one time I go to the grocery store without my camera is the one time there’s something interesting to document. Thank goodness for cell phones doubling as cameras these days!
Well gosh, if all brain farts are so pretty, maybe I wouldn't mind so much. photo credit: jbartand.blogspot.com
I’m sure we’ve all had them. One moment you’re in the kitchen looking for something and then you stop suddenly. What were you looking for? It has escaped you and you stand there, bewildered and confused, trying to remember why you went there in the first place. Or perhaps you sit down at your computer and all of a sudden forget how to type. You start moving your fingers over the keyboard only to find a jumble of nonsensical letters coming out in streams. Then there are the times when your mouth tries to move too fast for its own good, causing you to slur your words together and start babbling.
What went wrong?
It's not easy to get to Grand Master with 5 stars! Now I've got to fight to make up for my brain fart.
I guess part of human imperfection is these mistakes that we make, where a short-circuit in our neural synapses makes us lose our train of thought or forget an age-old habit. Seems like some of our “mail” gets lost during delivery, or re-routed to the wrong address occasionally. Such was an experience I had when I took a break from being glued to my computer too long, then returned only to find I’d forgotten how to use the controls associated with playing Tetris online. I’ve been working on two-player levels, competing against other Tetris kings and queens around the world, so it certainly was not a good time to slow down my pace to try to regain the motor skill speed that I had managed to achieve. It cost me a few losses, but after a few games I started to pick up on it again. It was the most awkward sensation though, and reminded me of when you get all tongue-tied and sometimes your tongue just feels too big for your mouth. You trip all over it attempting to pronounce some simple words and have to stop yourself, take a pause, and restart again.
Another time when your brain seems to shut down momentarily is when you into autopilot mode. You’re doing something so familiar that you let your guard down, stop focusing, and suddenly you realize that’s not what you meant to do. This can be quite common when navigating familiar streets around your home, where you park yourself in the lot of the local grocery store and start to get out only to realize that you meant to go to the bank instead. Or maybe you’re typing and as your train of thought wanders, your typing starts to include terms similar to but not quite the ones you meant to. It could have been a word spelled nearly the same, one that is typed out with similar fingers, or even one that you heard in a conversation near you that you picked up on. Oh the silly mistakes we make when our brains get overloaded with information and stop processing at capacity.
It’s a humbling reminder that the world is full of its quirks that will never be completely fixed. And neither should they be. Many a happy accident has occurred and surely many more will continue to! It’s not always a bad thing to be less than “perfect.”
I’ve finally gotten a chance to join the green movement by helping out at Opportunity Green! It’s something that’s been on my mind lately as I tried to figure out what way I wanted to make a difference in this climate crisis of ours. There’s been a lot of talk about the bad shape our environment is in, from the oceans to the air to the land, yet amazingly, the reaction still seems minuscule compared to the problem. I’ve read and listened to countless speeches on how the polar ice caps melting and coral reefs dying off can have dire consequences for us all. I’ve always wanted to do something about it, but there are so many options out there that I don’t really know where to start and I’m tempted to try everything, but I think we all know that’s unrealistic. So, I’ve decided on the divide and conquer strategy by starting somewhere – anywhere.
A company with a motto of use less.
I think the easiest way to reduce my carbon footprint is to use less. Use less energy, use less water, and buy less in general. I’ve never really cared to eat much meat, so I’ve definitely minimized my footprint by not encouraging the unsustainable ways that Americans produce and consume meat products, particularly beef. Another type of conservation is to turn off all lights that aren’t necessary and turn off and unplug appliances not in use. I’ve been making it a point to unplug my laptop as soon as I notice the battery is fully charged, then re-plugging it only when it hits the 6% mark and starts to shut down on me. I try to use less water for showering and reuse as much from dishwashing as I can (usually to water the plants). Oh, and I never use the dishwasher to wash dishes. I try not to run the AC at all, and minimally if needed.
A harder thing for me to do right now is buy all-natural, organic, local, or fair trade products. With no income, I’ve got to go for cheapest over other benefits. However, my mom and I have been living an essentially waste-free life for a few months now. We compost all the perishable items that we don’t completely consume. We recycle the plastics, cardboard, aluminum, and glass that we may come across. The other items are the little bit of trash left over that we do have, which doesn’t amount to that much at the end of the day. In fact, my mom has even canceled our trash-collecting service. I’m working on buying less bottles and opted for a powder to mix my own drinks. I reuse plastic bags like crazy and have stopped leaving a grocery stores with a handful of bags in tow. Instead I try to remember my reusable bags, otherwise I “punish” myself by carrying the items separately. I’ve even dragged Panda into that lifestyle and don’t let him be wasteful when we shop for food.
photo credit: spacetoday.org
I feel guilty every time I have to drive my car, so I’ll feel better when I get a hybrid (which won’t happen until I land a job). It won’t be the best solution, but it’ll be a great improvement, and certainly better than how things are now. I wish electric cars were a more viable option, but they’re not quite practical for me right now. I’m working to make small improvements here and there. I may not be able to suddenly outfit my house with solar panels, drive a pollutant-free car, or buy organic or local, but I can use natural ventilation as much as possible, drive a hybrid, and eat less useless food. I can also use reuse more so I end up using less. I really need to start bringing my own mug/bottle with me when I get drinks outside. With enough time, behavior like this can become second nature and I no longer have to think about it and remind myself to do it.
We all must do something about the climate, but it can be on your own terms. So go ahead, choose one way to change your lifestyle for the better of the environment and start acting now!
A whimsical journey through the (fake) history of time, as told by donated items of jewelry in the Griffith Observatory.
13 billion years ago: the Big Bang, an explosion of astronomical effects!
11 billion years ago: why how curious, a sudden onslaught of sheriffs emerge to police the universe.
9 billion years ago: furry felines floated in space, guided by the moonlight.
7 billion years ago: Hey diddle diddle, the cat had a fiddle, the cow's jumping over the moon. There is no dog to laugh at the sport, nor no dish to run with the spoon (yet).
5 billion years ago: well how could we have been counting time until now, for time has only just appeared!
3 billion years ago: an explosion of colors, planets, and stars overtakes the expanding universe.
Present day: Earth was so beautiful a mere hundreds of thousands of years ago and now? The future's to be seen! (To the right and up, of course.)
Had some fun interpreting a few of the gems I found in the timeline compiled of so many shiny little astronomical depictions.
photo credit: collegepublisher.com
Rage and desperation can be startling motivators. It’s a theme that seems to come up occasionally, especially when it comes to military personnel in combat. I guess when people stop caring about consequences, they can accomplish amazing things. It can be good or bad, depending on if they get a personal vendetta against enemy forces or people who made the mistake of crossing their path. I wonder how many times soldiers have gone off on a killing rage, earning them a Purple Heart or Medal of Honor. I think they’re most vulnerable to this happening if they lost a loved one who was very close to them, like family members or lifelong friends. The trauma of losing someone so near and dear to their hearts can make them snap and get tunnel vision, focusing purely on one mission: revenge. Slashing out at enemy soldiers during combat can be admirable; slashing out at individuals or groups who have offended you can be tragic. It’s a fine line sometimes between what is considered heroic and what is considered criminal.
photo credit: bbc.co.uk
Of course, this idea also works in other areas of life. People have been known to accomplish great things because of their sheer anger towards something. One such case is someone I know, who people say work so hard out of bitterness and resentment. Whether she’s trying hard to prove something or just using work as a way to escape that which bothers her is unclear, but the dedication is hard to miss. Those who feel they need to do something to prove they’re better or that they can accomplish something they were told they couldn’t are especially driven to show that they can. Anger can make you run faster, climb higher, jump further. So it seems that it’s not so much having negative feelings and motivations that are a bad thing, but rather what you choose to do with them. Choose to punch a bag rather than a person; choose to prove them wrong rather than give up; choose to do the better thing.
The selection can be daunting, what with thousands to choose from...
I got a call from my cousin today, who is settling in to start college in Boston. She’s a bit concerned about choosing classes, since she has yet to settle on a major. The pressure is high for her to choose a major that she will excel in, which is no easy task, given her unfamiliarity with the language she will be taught in. Additionally, because of the huge cost to study in the states, she’s under a time limit to complete a degree in the standard four years. It may not be a huge problem if she didn’t want to double major. But of course, college always presents itself as a major changing force in a person’s life, whether they have trouble choosing what to study or they need to adjust to life away from home. It’s never easy, is it?
In my faltering Chinese, I advised her to try to find classes that she needs to take anyway to satisfy requirements. I didn’t know how to say “general education” classes, but I described classes that overlap with needs and she mentioned she does have certain types of classes like science and math that she needs to fulfill no matter what. I also explained to her how my dad and I don’t believe the major really does that much. What it comes down to is the skill sets you learn from each type of degree – in the sciences, the scientific method and critical thinking; in the arts, writing and critical analysis. From there, there are many directions you can go. I recommended that she go talk to the professors in the areas she’s interested in to ask them about possible career paths and insight into their respective fields and she mentioned a dean, which is also a great idea. Too bad she doesn’t remember his/her name and isn’t sure where to track down said dean…
From personal experience, I also encouraged her to take advantage of that which I never really did – office hours and tutoring. Those resources are readily available to her and that extra effort and commitment can really go a long way. Sometimes I wonder how I would have fared if I had gone to use those resources, but I don’t exactly regret not. I got through my double degree just fine without, with a few minor stumbles along the way when classes got tough. I’m still working on not always being oh so independent in certain areas, like studying. It’s one of those things that you really have to train yourself to get used to though. I hope she does better in that arena that I ever managed.
It’s funny how people get so worked up over what to major in in college. Haven’t we all gotten the memo? Except for highly technical jobs, a major is no sure indicator of employability or knowledge and skill set. So why is that people still feel it is so important to choose the right one when you’re only 18-20 or so? It’s one of those unfortunate myths that people are well aware of, but still choose to believe. There’s so much more than taking an exact set of classes to learn the skills truly needed to be a good worker. I think employers are understanding this more and more, but parents don’t always get news, I guess. I hope that my cousin can choose a major she really enjoys or at least is interested in and that my uncle will understand that it’s not that decision that matters most, but what she does with her time while studying for her degree.
There has been a huge wildfire raging in La Canada the past couple of days and I believe the smoke I’ve been seeing is from that fire. It’s hard to tell though, what with a handful of fires burning throughout the area. I generally get the best views while on the road, so this is a chronicle of the images I saw driving around town, as well as a random strange encounter on the highway.
Experience a drive in Southern California…
Wildfire smoke battles fluffy cloud.
Creeping upon the neighborhood.
Darkening the horizon.
A shocker in the mirror: fleet of cop cars. Rather intimidating.
Ok, so I guess I would suck at the one photo a day deal. I tend to get carried away with picture-taking. First I’ll start with storytelling through photos, then perhaps I will venture into the challenge of one picture (and only one picture) per day, every day.
Pictures tell a story. Pictures capture things that the mind may never think to include in writing a novel. A picture’s worth a thousand words, as I’m sure you’ve heard.
It only looks like a toy. photo credit: kidstechreview.com
To me, pictures are a way of life. I am ever grateful for the advent of digital cameras and the ever-growing memory capacity their chips can hold. I still remember my very first camera, which I got on my birthday when my parents and I were in Florida visiting Sea World and Disneyworld. It was a pink rectangular wind-up thing that looked more like a toy meant for Barbie than a functioning camera, but it certainly did work. Rolls of film were precious to me at that time, over a decade ago, so I took pictures sparingly and carefully. After that came a more professional-looking black camera complete with neckstrap and nice fancy buttons with a digital display screen to indicate photos left. No more of those little numbers rolling by a magnifying glass (except on disposable cameras).
My current camera model. photo credit: dphotonews.com
At some point in high school, I began to use digital cameras and never looked back. From that point on, I felt the freedom of taking pictures as I wanted, pretty much whenever I wanted and as much as I wanted. It was liberating. I don’t think my picture-taking obsession hit full swing until college though, when so much was going on that I wanted to document. I generally go for action shots that tell a story, but I’m a sucker for some good food or just posing with friends for posterity as well. Mostly I try to get a candid shot, probably a little goofy if there are people in it, and definitely one that explains why it was taken. My observation skills got put to good use as I documented all the little things I would find, from the insects around us to the odd sign or cool building.
Perhaps the influx in college was also due to the birth of Facebook, which became a great way for me to share the photos I took for myself that most people never even saw. Now I had a way of showing them as well, which just encouraged me to continue capturing all the action around me. Soon enough, my friends knew they could always rely on me to have a camera at hand for any occasion that may spring up. In fact, it is well known that I have well over 3000 pictures tagged of me now and certainly thousands I’ve put up in the dozens of albums I have. I used to go through and delete it all every few months, but at a certain point about three years ago, I decided I may as well leave them up – after all, there are no limitations on storage! It’s a pity I didn’t keep everything up though; it would be a fantastic chronology of my life starting in the fall of 2004, as I embarked upon my years at UCLA.
Because of the significance pictures have had on me, I am drawn to photo blogs (phlogs?), where a picture is posted each day to depict a certain moment during that day. Marylin kept something like that, meant to chronicle her life in a year picture by picture. I don’t know if she ever got to 365 before stopping though. I am tempted to do that here and let the images of my life do the talking. I have been considering whether I should finish up an entire year of writing an entry per day and then do another year of photo blogging, or just start integrating it now. I’ve been trying to use images as much as I can to help illustrate my entries for many months now, which I find is a nice break amongst all that type. I suppose I could try doing one of each for awhile, or switch off every other day, or just do whichever whenever I feel like it. It might be a slight challenge to have an interesting picture every day, what with my policy of not including people I know in the shots. Guess we’ll just have to see!
photo credit: made-in-china.com
I have some pretty terrible posture, especially when it comes to sitting. I tend to hunch my back and lean in a lot, usually over bent knees drawn in to my chest. If I’ve actually got my feet on the ground, they’re probably not flat and at nice 90 degree angles as ergonomically recommended, but more likely to be crossed in strange twists or off to the side. Recently people have been noticing how I cross my legs, then wrap the ankle of the top leg around back behind the calf of the bottom leg. I guess not everyone is able to intertwine their legs quite so much, but it has been a pretty standard sitting position for me for years. Then there are couches, which absolutely were not designed for people to sit well in. There’s nothing that encourages a slouch quite like a sagging cushion. All of this doesn’t do much for my poor weak and sore backside. As of late, even short amounts of standing or walking leave me in slight pain and rather sore back there.
photo credit: rei.com
One of the solutions I came up with for this dilemma is a yoga ball. A few years back, my roommate had a yoga ball in our room that we started off using as a guest “chair” but quickly began to use ourselves. We discovered the benefits of just sitting on a yoga ball, which requires a certain level of balance. Plus, it was low enough that we had to sit straight to be able to type on our computers while sitting on one. The perfect way to “work out” and work at the same time, isn’t it? Well, after that experience, I decided that I needed a ball of my own. For quite cheap I got an entire set at Costco, including the ball and some other equipment to use with it. I haven’t stuck that well to using the ball, but when I do it really helps. It’s no wonder they’ve come up with this new chair that takes that very idea and makes it into a so-called product so they can mark up the price like crazy. I guess it’s fair enough to say that their model really does look a little more professional, though I still don’t know if it’s acceptable office furniture. Personally, I still prefer a good old normal yoga ball.
Maybe I should look into a back brace to keep me from slouching the way I do.
Last time it needed fixing.
I seem to mistreat my electronics quite often, cycling through cameras and cell phones every 1-2 years. My first laptop lasted me three and a half years and this one is already in pretty bad shape after a year and a half. I must admit, my klutziness plays a huge factor, causing me to drop the smaller items regularly and occasionally mishandle the laptops too. Right now I’m dealing with a problem that apparently Katana’s having too (an unhinged hinge), which pushes up against my speaker panel and bends it. The screw seemed to have made its way out again (the first time this happened I also needed to replace my keyboard because of spillage, so the problem was solved when Doc fixed the more visible issue). I have the screw, but absolutely no recollection of how to remove the appropriate parts to get it back in place. I don’t want to call up a friend just to ask for help with it, so I’ve been dealing with it for quite awhile now. It gets annoying when the screen gets beyond a certain threshold and just falls over backwards because of the lack of support coming from that hinge.
I recently got a new phone that has been faring pretty well, but then again it has only been three weeks. The last one I had to use only on speakerphone because I couldn’t hear the other party if it was the normal speakers. Don’t know how I had to drop it to do that, but I guess it’s not an uncommon problem. Unfortunately, it was out of warranty and not worth it to pay for the repairs, so I just had to deal with it. Thankfully I don’t really have personal calls that need more privacy. I don’t remember if my phone before that was having functionality issues, but you could obviously see the wear and tear from the chipped paint and scratches it had accumulated. Similar issues arise with my cameras. Plenty of nicks to show they’ve been places and they usually go out of commission when they won’t turn on anymore. At that point, I get a new one and the old one is sent to China to be fixed up for others to use. I believe each and every one has gotten splashed and encountered its fair share of sand (though they always survived that part of the abuse). What can I say? My devices are well-loved and very well-used.
