Posts Tagged ‘opinion’

Soreness and aches

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , ,
04 September 2010
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I’ve been driving a lot more lately and my legs have been really sore from it all. My right butt cheek has gotten quite the workout from pushing the gas and brake pedals all day long, since much of the time I’m stuck in traffic. I try to use cruise control where I can, but it’s hard to find patches of freed-up traffic appropriate for it. I’ve even begun to stretch more so my muscles can feel better, but it’s hard to stretch just the right spot. I wish there was a left-footed driving option, so I could give the right leg a break and use my left leg more. I hate being uneven!

Also, something about the way I sit in my seat makes my back sore as well. I guess sitting for so long just isn’t a good feeling and I often need to stretch, but don’t want to stop to get out of the car. Instead I tough it out and by the time I reach my destination, I am so relieved to be done that I forget to give my back a good stretch until I’m back in the car, aching again. I really need to find the optimal position to sit at! With much more driving on the horizon, I just hope my right leg won’t get much larger than my left. 😛

Ratio of bins

laelene Posted in photo blog，Tags: , , , , ,
01 September 2010
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two recycle bins, one compost, and one trash

I love that there are two recycle bins, but I think the ratio should be more like 2 compost, 1 recycle, and a half-size one for trash.

Emoticons :) <3

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: ,
25 August 2010
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Oh emoticons, where would I be without you?  You are an easy way for me to let the people I’m emailing and IMing that I’m just joking/teasing.  I use you to lighten up the mood with smiles, tongue-sticking-outs, and winks.  I even entertain and amuse people when I use my disgruntled face: -____-

Yup, you’re a great way for me to express myself when typing and probably crucial to setting the right tone.  I love to “say” things without words, like how much I <3 you.  Although, I must admit, sometimes it is difficult to interpret you.  What do you mean when you 8), exactly?  Or are you happy or sad when you ^__^;?

Well, whatever the case, I wouldn’t be as expressive typing if it weren’t for you.  Though you sometimes leave room for interpretation and allow for misunderstandings, I still feel I’m better off with you than without.  🙂

Nape

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , ,
20 August 2010
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One of my greatest pet peeves is having dry hair on the back of my neck.  I dislike dry, static-y hair as it, but when that’s sticking to the nape of my neck, I can’t stand it.  There’s something about that area that is very sensitive and I wish it was easier to reach.  I like to give it a nice cleaning in the shower and try to keep my hair off it as much as possible.  Unfortunately, I don’t like to tie my hair up, so I end up pushing my hair over my shoulders to keep it off my back.  I also love to run my fingers through my hair so that it will get my hair off my neck (and my ears, which is another area I like to keep clear).

When I first moved to California, I hated the feeling of my hair because it got so dried out from the arid climate.  I began to put my hair up and take showers in the morning to keep my hair as wet as possible for as long as possible into each day.  After two years, my body finally adjusted and my hair was no longer as dry.  I also began school at UCLA, which has a more humid climate than the Santa Clarita Valley.  I got used to having my hair down again, but I still like the feeling of getting the hair off the back of my neck.  It’s like lifting all these things weighing down on me and getting a little more freedom, a little more breathing room.

I’ve dreamt of shaving my head, but I haven’t dared do it since I don’t have a feminine enough face to pull off that kind of look.  I’d love to know how it feels to have nothing lying on your neck or shoulders though.  Perhaps someday I can get a wig and give it a try.  It’d be an interesting experience, I’m sure.  For now I’ll just have to keep pulling my hair back.

The dirty underwear analogy

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , ,
17 August 2010
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I have a bad habit of wearing my contacts all the time.  I rarely take them out at night and when it’s time to use a fresh pair, I just take out the old ones and put in the new ones.  My poor eyes hardly ever get a break from having a foreign object in them.  I also am not very good at keeping track of how long I’ve used a pair, so they end up getting way more mileage than they ever were meant to.  It’s a testament to the hardiness of a pair of contacts, this way that I abuse them.  You’d think I would have had some sort of problem by now, but my eyes are perfectly healthy (except for the nearsightedness and astigmatism, of course).

Last time I went to the optometrist, I remember her saying that leaving my contacts in like that is like wearing a dirty pair of underwear for a couple of days.  It was one of those things that created a terrible image and got me to start taking out my contacts at night for awhile.  But alas, as time goes by, old habits creep back and I am doing the same old thing again.  Tonight I took my contacts out for the first time in a looong time and it feels good.  After all, my eyes need to breathe and having a plastic cover prevents that from happening as effectively as it could.  It’s nice to feel air on my pupils again and not have a strange piece of plastic between my eyeball and eyelid.  Though I’ve long since gotten used to the feel of contacts, my eyes still appreciate when they’re bare again.

I really need to try to stop “wearing dirty underwear” on my eyes, lest it damage my eyes later on.

Fascinating bottles

laelene Posted in photo blog，Tags: , ,
15 August 2010
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Alcohol bottles and perfume bottles have quite a few things in common. They both come in a huge variety of shapes and sizes. And their branding has a lot to do with how their bottles look! I am always fascinated by the shapes and colors each brand chooses and how that affects my reaction to the product. Though I don’t use perfume and don’t drink alcohol, I certainly do love to check out their chose of packaging.

giant martini glass in a bar

There's a bar in Manhattan Beach that has a huuuge martini glass.

extra large vodka bottles

They've also got over-sized bottles of Grey Goose and Belvedere.

The good life

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , , ,
11 August 2010
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I really enjoy the way my life is going right now.  At this moment, I’m saving the most money I ever will – I don’t need to pay rent (staying at Panda’s for free), don’t need to pay for my brand new car or this year’s insurance for it (present from parents), don’t need to pay for parking (Westwood streets aren’t crazy crowded over the summer so street parking gets me by), don’t need to pay for my phone bill (covered with the company plan), and now I don’t even need to pay for health insurance anymore (payment was lowered to be completely covered by the company)!  Now how great is that?  All I need to worry about is food and gas.

Plus, Panda is still here and hasn’t left to work far away so I get to see him.  I am independent and don’t have any kids or pets to think about and take care of.  It’s pretty great, this sort of freedom that allows me to save up money in my 401k and still have plenty to spend each month.  Now if I could just get an intern to help me alleviate some of my workload, I could be pretty stress-free too!

I’m not looking forward to next month, when things will change as Panda moves back home and so do I.  We’ll get to see each other less and my commute time will double and can nearly triple.  So while it’s still August, I will enjoy it as best I can.  Work has been making me tired though!  However, I do at least quite enjoy what I do and want to go in each day.  In fact, I haven’t taken a vacation day (and I’m the only one in this time period not to take time off).  Next month I’d like to attend the Opportunity Green conference, so maybe I’ll my first days off for that.  Until then, I’ll be making the best of the good life I’m living.  🙂

The trap of logins

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , , ,
08 August 2010
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There are so many sites that require signing up for an account and creating a login that I have a spreadsheet just to keep track of them all.  It kind of sucks to get stuck in this trap of login after login, especially when you’re not on your personal computer and can’t always remember the usernames and passwords you use.  It’s hard to create a standard set to use too, since each site has different requirements on length and complexity of the username and/or password.  Plus, if you always use the same one, if someone hacks into one, that could compromise all your accounts.  It’s a bit of a lose-lose situation.

I’ve also found that people are very averse to creating accounts, which is why it often comes with an enticing prize, like a chance to win a cool gadget.  I suppose the nice thing is that many tap into Facebook, so you can sign in using that account, but then comes the issue of compromised privacy.  Now the company knows your Facebook account and can find out more information about you, since you have to agree to share some of your personal information with them to connect using Facebook.  It’s a battle of convenience vs. privacy.

It can get overwhelming because SO MANY sites want you to sign up with them and unfortunately, it’s often unavoidable if you want their service.  Can’t they just use that fingerprint scanner some computers have and send the scan to the site so I can be let in without typing out all possible passwords I use?  In the future, I expect someone to invent a faster way for our identity to be confirmed and access to be granted to these sites (in a quick, painless, electronic way).  For now, I guess we’ll all just have to put up with creating a slew of usernames and passwords.

Outdated: receipts

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , ,
05 August 2010
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I hate receipts.  They take up space in my purse, clutter up my wallet, and rarely get looked at afterward.  I have more than I’d ever like of ones I’ll never use and never can find the one I need when I want it.  Why bother?  I mean, initially they were a good idea, but now that technology has developed so far, it’s time for an electronic receipt to automatically send to your credit card and/or email account.  No waste of paper, still keeps a record, and it’s so quick and easy to keep them on file electronically!

Plus, the benefit of being able to organize them better and make them searchable will make retrieving that receipt you wanted so much more convenient.  You can file by company name, by price, by date, by category… the possibilities are aplenty!  I can’t believe we’re still relying on paper sheets that get lost, turn black with heat, and generally are never put to the good use they were designed for.  It’s time to update this habit and digitize the entire process.  So one of these days I am going to start a company to take care of just that.  Until then, don’t steal my idea!  😛

Writing obsession

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , ,
30 July 2010
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Have I ever mentioned my office supply fetish?  Well, I call it that, but it’s really more of a deep desire to own all the cool stuff I see in the office/school supply section.  Usually it’s pens, but sometimes erasers and notebooks and even colored staples catch my attention.  So because of this obsession (mainly with writing instruments), I love to write.   I don’t love to write for the words.  I do enjoy to write/type for expression, but to physically write I am driven by a completely different need: I love to write for the feeling of ink on paper.

I write for the feeling of how smoothly the ink glides onto the paper to make a mark.  I write with colored pens to brighten up my day.  I write with scented pens to amuse me with their smells.  I write with thin .05mm pens because they are the perfect thinness.  I write with .07 or .09mm to be bolder and make an impact.  I write with metallic and/or glittery pens to shine.  I write with milky pens because that was the fad.  I write with Sharpies to mark my territory!  I scribble and color in and draw random lines, just to fill the paper with ink.

I know it’s wasteful, but I get a certain pleasure from using up all the ink in a pen, so sometimes I will waste it just to make it happen faster.  I also love to completely scratch out things I’ve written that are outdated because they’re an action item or reminder that I’ve taken care of.  That adds another level of satisfaction to the satisfaction of ticking something off my list.  And because of all this, I can’t help it – I’m a doodler.  After all, that’s a great way to use pens when you don’t really have anything to write.

So there.  I admit it.  I am absolutely obsessed with writing.  Just not for the reasons most people might be…

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