Archive for the ‘Thoughts’ Category

Volcano National Park: Hawaii

Monday, December 28th, 2009

When in Hawaii, my family and I visited Hawaii’s Volcanoes National Park. I must say it was pretty disappointing to most of us. It took us three hours to drive there, then it started pouring rain. And I mean POURING. So I had to quickly put pants on because of course I was wearing a dress since it is Hawaii and I am horrible at predicting the weather. So we had  to make a mad dash from the car into the Visitor Center, which kept routinely losing it’s power which made things very hard to buy when tha cash register keeps shutting down. I forgot my passport book as well (you get stamps from national parks all over the country.. I have had mine since eighth grade) so that wasn’t as fun. I had to safeguard my little tiny piece of paper which I had stamped and would later put into my book, which was nearly impossible since I didn’t have a jacket, was wearing a dress with pants, and had no were to hide it from the downpour.

I think you see where I am going

The most disappointing part was the fact that the lava wasn’t flowing. The whole thing we drove three hours to see, wasn’t happening today. Can I explain my disappointment.

But you have to push through, so instead we went to go see this really interesting crater. There were also some nice steam vents along the way. Can I also say how hard it is to take pictures when it is pouring? I was running around getting soaked with my camera shoved in a plastic bag whipping it out to take pictures then stuff it back in.

The crater was very cool, but it still didn’t quite fill the void of the unseen lava. But I did get quite a few good creeper photos there. I also learned quite and interesting bit about Hawaiian Mythology which is one of the only types of Mythology I haven’t looked into. Pele is an interesting woman… goddess.

Next was a stop at the Lava Tubes which is basically a giant tunnel underground. It was very impressive. We also had a lot of fun with the mad dash back to car out of the pouring rain. The area around the park was amazing. It was just like a rainforest with giant ferns, and so much green all around you. It really was a beautiful place.

After the disappointment I had a lot of fun at the park. As we left the park the rain got even worse. I love rain but this was scary, we couldn’t even see the road it was coming down so hard. On our ride home a huge storm followed us. Thunder storms chased us along the mountain road back to the hotel. The storm lasted until noon the next day. But that is a different story.

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Merry Christmas

Friday, December 25th, 2009

I wish everyone a happy holiday season and Merry Christmas. I wish you an abstract Christmas in which you look at tradition and don’t fear going outside of the norm. Look at a christmas light and don’t see a tree behind it see the light shining within each individual light itself. Switch things up and remember the significance of the traditions, don’t do them because that is the way it has always been but because you truly understand.

Merry Abstract Christmas

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Posted in Photos, Thoughts |

When Do You Step In: Abuse

Monday, December 21st, 2009

Let’s have a talk about something serious right now. Today I had a wonderful day in Hawaii, snorkeling, walking around, sunbathing, all that jazz. My whole day came to a very quick stop though.

While I was on the beach I heard a mother yelling. At first I paid it no heed thinking it was just a bunch of rowdy people in the water, until it continued for another good ten minutes. So I sat up and looked out at the water. There is a mother and her little eight year old boy standing in the water.

She was yelling at him, chastising him and dragging him into the water. For a moment I thought they where just playing but after she started cursing at him and he started crying, it became very clear it wasn’t just playing.

She was trying to get him to go snorkeling but the kid really didn’t want to. He was bawling and trying to run back to the beach but his mom kept grabbing him and trying to force him to go under even though he was so clearly terrified. She kept yelling at him to “put your f*@#ing mask on” and “put your f&%@ing head under he water”.

I was appalled.

The dad was sitting on the beach laughing as he kept yelling “the sharks are coming, the sharks are coming”. The kid was screaming and crying. The mother even went as far as to grab the kid as he ran away, drag him into the deep part of the water, and force him to stay there.

I didn’t know what to do. I was alone watching this poor kid being verbally and emotional abused by his parents. I noticed a few other people watching as well and I got up to go talk to them. I talked with two old women and a family of three also watching.

I asked them if we should stop them, step in, ask them to stop. We decided we had to do something so we went down on the beach edge to go talk to them. The mother noticed all of us standing there and got out of the water and walked away. I guess she gave up.

This means nothing to me. The fact that she walked away isn’t what matters. That poor kid was probably so traumatized because we let that go on for so long. So I ask you:

When do you step in?

It is really none of my business how a parent raises their child, but when is it appropriate to step in and do something. Do I have any right at all in doing this? It isn’t my child, it isn’t my business. But if a child is being abused emotionally, verbally, or physically, when is it up to me to do something?

It shocked me so much that someone could do this to their child. I am glad we did something but I feel like it wasn’t enough. So I ask you the reader, when do you step in, share that with me.And don’t let this happen.

Next time I don’t want to be unprepared.

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Mosquito Hunter

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

I have been telling my friends all day so now I am going to tell you:

I hate mosquitos with a fiery passion that is unparalleled.

I have a little creek in my backyard so lucky me, every time it rains my family gets a wonderous gift of a thousand biting monsters in our home which used to be so safe and secure. It is like a battlefield in my house. Whenever mosquitos are spotted, the war is on, no holding back now. There are rolled magazines and books handy for quick squashing access because we don’t tolerate these nasty buggers. Seriously I always find them in the bathroom and I spot it and suddenly the house is alive,

DAD! MOSQUITO!

Lock the doors, barricade the windows and get ready for the hunt because this bug isn’t getting out alive. It almost makes me sad to think about it from the bugs point of view. I mean really

So you are minding your own business when suddenly there is all this loud noise and then just like that your are trapped with no way out. There is something repeatedly being swung at you which you narrowly escape. Each time it gets closer and closer. They find you no matter where you hide. And you know that soon you won’t be able to get away and that will be it. SQWASH

But then I remember, that bugger bit me five times last night and I am going to itch like the dickens for the next week. Then I don’t feel so bad.

The two main things that bug me about mosquitos are this:

  1. They only seem to bite you when you are sleeping. You can be lost in the deepest and most pleasant dreams when suddenly that buzzing sounds invades your mind and takes what security in your sleep you had. There is no mistaking that noise either, you can’t say oh well maybe it was the wind. No, you know it is a mosquito. You can’t ignore it either because it will just keep coming back and buzzing you. The worst part about that is when you hear the buzzing stop. We all know that means it has landed on you somewhere and is about  to take a nibble out of you. Then of course you thrash around for a while and get so frustrated that you smack yourself in the head trying to squash it. Then you throw back your covers, stomp over to the light, and crawl into your bed with a book (good squashing qualities) and wait. So you sit there like a twitched out heroin addict knowing it is near and the second you give up it will come back. Sometimes you are lucky enough to get it but most nights not so much. So there will be no sleep tonight.
  2. Mosquitos have no purpose. I might tolerate it (probably not) if I knew that this bug was annoying the hell out of me for some greater purpose. But really we all know there isn’t. The mosquito just happens to be one of very few animals that has no higher purpose in life except to bug the crap out of you like coyotes or ticks.

They drive me insane. So if I come to school looking like I haven’t slept in three days it is because I haven’t. I have stayed up trying to suceed ( but failing) at being the champion mosquito hunter.

A side note, I don’t know if this is just me, but has anyone else noticed that mosquitos in different places are different? Like in some places they are faster, or fatter, or slower, or some other trait. Yes I have witnessed this, it is not just the product of a deranged mind.

A side side note; South Dakota in June… don’t do it. There are clouds and clouds of mosquitos. We drove through and kept hitting these clouds and couldn’t figure out what it was until their dead carcasses started to block our windshield. The wipers couldn’t even get them off, we had to stop and seek shelter it was so bad. Don’t even get me started on the hotel we were forced to stay in. Just a warning if you want to keep your soul don’t ask me about Motel 6.

Anyway I digress as usual. So the point if there is one is this. I wish to hunt down every mosquito in the world and kill it. And I want to kill that guy from Lilo and Stitch who is trying to preserve them because they are an endangered species. No, they are not. And if they were.. they wouldn’t be missed.

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Knock Knock, it’s your Neighbor!

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

I think a lovely neighbor of mine needs a little mentioning currently. This neighbor is a terror in my life and last night was horrible! You may be asking who this neighbor is and can we go egg his house. The answer is no… because egging is bad, and because this neighbor is in fact a coyote. Or several coyotes I suppose. Let me lay out my night in detail for you:

  • I didnt want to do my homework (what self-respecting kid does?) so I had found everything in life to do besides sit down and concentrate on math. (Which is what I am doing right now… don’t tell anyone) So I had done everything in existence by, oh lets say, ten o’clock about. So I finally am faced with the inevitable fact that I must do my homework. I realize now is that one golden moment a day when I actually feel like doing my homework finally. I sit down and begin. The moment I am ready to start the second point of my night begins.
  • The coyotes. Our outdoor neighbors come a knock knock knocking on our door step. None to quietly either. I look up, my mom looks up, my dog freaks out, and the whole homework zen mood dissipates in a flash with my moms words, “What the heck is that?” So we scramble up leaving behind everything we had been doing to go outside and stand on our porch for a moment. We are standing there when we hear it. The most god awful noise in existence. I swear it was like a mix of the noise of a cat being strangled, a goat with a chicken bone stuck in its throat, and a horror films clique scream. YES IT WAS THAT BAD. It seriously gave me chills, that was a noise no living creature should make.  And the worst part, it didn’t stop. Routinely every two or so minutes it would do it again.
  • We head back inside knowing that the hideous sound outside is not Satan rising up from our canyon and wait for it to stop. IT DIDN”T. I was just trying to do my math and it won’t shut up! Seriously it was creepy and annoying, a perfect combination typically reserved for little brothers. I couldn’t concentrate so I give up after a half hour and resign to my room.
  • Lying in bed, trying to sleep, our wonderfully courteous neighbors, still won’t shut up. Even a pillow, three comforters, two fleece blankets, my dog, and a mini buffalo couldn’t block out that noise. So I am lying awake for easily an hour listening to the embodiment of Satan in our backyard, and hating every ounce of its being.

That pretty much was my whole night. A little recap, 1. no homework done because of coyotes, 2. totally disrupted life because of coyotes, 3. totally irritated because of coyotes 4. no sleep because of coyotes and finally 5. wishing to kill every coyote in existence because OF COYOTES.

As I lay awake all night I had time to think about this damned creature and asked myself finally, What on earth is making that coyote so pissed off it is making that noise?

I mean really, what would prompt suck a ruckus out of these mangy creatures that I have grown to despise. It really makes me wonder, and I know some people instantly went to this option

Mating

If that was your thought, and it is true… i fear for the coyote’s race. If that is the mating call of a coyote, I am baffled. How could anything find that attractive. That is like saying I can get a boyfriend by screaming bloody murder at them for five hours straight. Which believe me, doesn’t work.  And if that isn’t the reason, only god knows what is.

Just a side note…. coyotes are just ugly dogs, trying to act like wolves but can’t because dogs and wolves hate them. There I said it, but I digress.

Coyotes are like, ticks, wasps, and mosquitos. Why you ask? Because they have absolutely no purpose. Their sole purpose in life is to make other creatures lives miserable. They do nothing but bite, scream, and put you in a generally irritated mood. So yes I would do just fine without those things, that doesn’t make me cruel or heartless, just honest.


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Double Spaced

Sunday, October 4th, 2009

I was just thinking about something, in school teachers always want students to have everything double spaced because it is MLA format. I don’t understand that. I mean maybe it makes it easier to look at and mark up but all it does is make it easier for students to have their work look twice as long as it actually is.

I think it is bad to do things double spaced because when will you ever really do that in life? I mean you don’t see books double spaced unless they are for two year olds. Your boss isn’t going to ask for a double spaced paper or resume.

So why? It really just feels like a shortcut for people who can’t write large quantities of work. For people like me it is actually a gigantic pain because I do write an appropriate amount, but when converted into double spaced format it makes it way too long.

Yes I understand that it is used as a universal format so everything is done the same way, but really can’t we make it reasonable. No double spaced, it is just a space filler. Give me real content, that is what people should really be looking for in papers, not length.

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One (IB English Essay)

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

I just have to put this out here,

I NEVER WANT TO LISTEN TO U2 EVER AGAIN!

Sorry U2, but it isn’t your fault, blame IB. We had to write an essay on the song “One” by U2 that was a little absurd. By now I have watched tha buffalo video (which by the way still makes no sense to me even though I have dragged bits of meaning out of it)

I love buffalo, but I can’t stand them anymore because I break out into song. Which isn’t so pretty a thing in itself. I am still wondering.. why did the buffalo jump off a cliff? WHY?

I basically threw my alarm clock against my wall because it turned on at an ungodly hour playing that song. The first thought of my day shouldn’t have to be what the meaning of slow motion buffalos mean. That is just wrong.

I will catch myself singing it as I walk around, and the funniest part is, I will notice all around me people are doing the same thing and hating themselves for it. You can just see people walk around and they start to hum or sing and then they start pounding on their head and screaming the question “WHY!?”

No, they are not trying to punch out voices in their head, they are trying to get rid of that song. I swear that song will haunt me for the rest of my life.

Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t because the essay was so hard, it is because I had to listen to that song so many times and analyze the death out of it while knowing we are pulling out so much more meaning then there was ever meant to be.

So I ask, no more. I don’t ever want to hear it again.

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Shrunken Door Frame (Alice and Wonderland Effect)

Friday, September 25th, 2009

This is my first year of school without P.E. (I am super jazzed!!) This means many things to me. But the biggest thing is this, and it may sound weird but as always an explanation will ensue

I don’t have to walk through the locker room doors anymore.

Alright, so for the explanation. It really is simple but it makes me frustrated and annoyed every time I walk through those doors. It is the same for many doors, not just high school locker rooms.

I hate it when you and some other people walk up to a door and it looks big enough to fit to people at a time but it isn’t.

It is so misleading. You walk up knowing in every fiber of your being that you and the person walking next to you, whether it is the worlds skinniest or fattest, that both of you will fit. As you get closer you start to question that notion. When you reach it you aren’t sure at all, it looks maybe just big enough, MAYBE.

Then as you walk through you realize, No it isn’t big enough. At that point the awkward moment comes, (only if you make it awkward ;)) This always happens as you and the person next to walk in, both noticing the shrunken door frame, one or even both of you still try to act as if the door is big enough. You think that if you have enough will power that door frame will grow.

It Never Does.

Then you get stuck with an awkward stream of sorry and excuse me as you try to squirm your way through. It is just annoying and deceiving. It is bearable when it is just friends because you can just laugh it off but when it is someone you don’t know, it can get really bad.

Let’s say it is a business owner, or even worse, a person you are applying to get a job from. You try to go in through the door and it catches you, and then you just feel lost and start bumbling about in a sea of excuses for rubbing you boob up against their arm.

Yeah, no further explanation needed, I think you get my point. I just try to avoid that situation entirely and go through doors in a single file fashion.

P.S. I am one of those people who walking down the street you always run into because neither one of you know which way to walk. That drives me insane but I always run into them with that awkward shuffle and then the final dive out of the way to escape the situation. I guess I am just an awkward person in general. My friends can tell you that much.

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The Incompetence of Doctors and the Joy of Shopping

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

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Alright so let me explain. I had an interesting day today, it consisted of several parts:

  1. School ( well duh, I go to school everyday) In school I did nothing but worry about the next step of the day.
  2. Doctor. Yes I went up to Stanford to go see a Hematologist to check out my blood. This was horrible, I thought I wasn’t getting blood drawn but instead I get there and they saw, Oh, go down to the lab and get blood drawn. I hate doing this, I had four drawn but I have to give credit where credit is due, the woman did a fantastic job. Then we go back up to the office where I meet the doctor. He basically tells me I am not anemic at all, and that isn’t the problem. Which I promptly ask, Then what is? His answer? I don’t know I am just a hematologist. My basic point, my other doctor has been B.S.ing me about being really anemic, I don’t even have to take the pills any more. Little to say, I am pissed out of my mind about wasting my own time, this new doctors time, and my parents money on an untrue diagnosis. Biggest part, I have no idea what is wrong with me and no leads to what happens next. Yeah, story of my life. Next step gets better though, this is why I love my mom
  3. Shopping. Do I need to say more? Apparently yes. For those of you that know me, you know I am not a huge fan of shopping. But this trip to Anthropology in Palo Alto cheered me right up. No, I was not dress shopping or buying ridiculously priced clothes. I was trying on extremely strange clothes and having my mom take pictures of me. Yes that is where the pictures came from. It was a lot of fun and cheered me up. Then I went around the store taking pictures for inspiration. I feel better now thanks to my mom.

What next? Not sure, but I have some funny pictures now that I will be posting over the next few days. Weird clothes are pretty great. The blue coat thing, I don’t even know what that was, it had no arm holes except on the very bottom. And who doesn’t love odd felt and crocheted hats? I put like four different ridiculously decorated headbands on my head at once and it looked really funny!

Anyway, I am frustrated to hell with doctors currently and have pretty much lost faith in them. Oh well, at least I have some good pictures out of this.

P.S. I now know I don’t have a brain tumor…

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Tired of Being Tired

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

Here we are, yet again without a purpose for writing this. I am feeling rather morbid and ill contented so bear with me. I just had kind of a crappy day. Why? I am not really sure.

I hate it when you feel like you had a good day but in the end you look back and say,

What the Hell, that sucked.

That is where I am right now. Individual divided up, my day was alright. I had some fun with Nooshers in Math, and fun but time consuming day in Art. But here I am now thinking to myself,

Why am I in such a bad mood?

I really don’t know, maybe it has to do with being tired. When I am really tired I can either be a really funny person to be around or a miserable one. Sometimes I get really hyper and pumped up because I am just so tired I act the exact opposite, or I am just such a downer and a whiner nobody wants to be around me. Yeah, that pretty much explains my life.

Being Tired Sucks

That is all I am going to say about that. I am tired of being tired all the time…

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