These days

Well, well, well. Seems my days are action packed lately. Actually, not so much action packed as dull errand packed. I’m busy these days trying to rack up some hours at work and running errands after work to buy things for my mission. I need tons of things seeing as how I’m going to be gone for two years without much opportunities to go to the mall.

Socks, suits, dress shirts are on the list along with an international driving record, which apparently you can only get at AAA. And speaking of driving, yesterday morning, I went to the DMV to get my driving record and to renew my driver’s license because it will expire during my mission. I paid a total of $33 for those two, $28 of which were for the renewal (ridiculous!). To top it off, they made me take a written test because I was renewing it too early.

I have to admit that I sweated a bit as I walked into to the room and saw I didn’t know the answer to the first question. Fortunately, the rest of the test was easy as delicious pineapple upside down cake. Another plus: my new picture isn’t so bad. In my current license picture, I do not look happy. No, sir, not at all.

I’m not sure because you can’t really see anything in the very pixelated black and white picture they give you for a temporary license, but I think you can kind of see a smile in the new one.

Life is for living

People who have no vision frustrate me. By vision, I mean people who limit their opportunities just by refusing to consider the possibility of things.

“Quitting smoking is too difficult for me.”
“I’m not smart enough to get the grades to get into an Ivy league university.”
“He/She wouldn’t want to go out with me.”
“They wouldn’t hire me.”
“I’m not even going think about it because nothing will come out of it.”

STOP IT. NOW.

If we were to be negative about everything, we’d have to stick with only what we are perfectly comfortable with, and exactly how many things are we that comfortable with? Maybe if all we wanted was to go to work, sleep, and eat, it would be fine to confine ourselves within our comfort zones, but that is a pathetic existence. Life is for living and I don’t categorize existing with living. Tables exist. So do rocks and plants, but people live.

Let’s not settle for surviving either. Surviving is what animals do. They are born, they eat and sleep, they have babies, and then they die. It’s not much of a step up from simple existence. So how about we try to improve ourselves in everything we do so that we’re are not simply existing or surviving? Why don’t we “shoot for the stars,” as they say and make our lives so much more meaningful?

Let’s not think we’re only capable of this much and not that much. With sky high goals and firey passion, we could reach infinitely further – even in failure – than with self-deprecated attempts.

Fourth of July madness

I’ve been in San Diego for the last couple days, and I’ve come to a conclusion. I am never going on a family trip again and I’m sure as hell never going on a trip on the fourth of July ever again. I don’t know why I never noticed before. Someone had to tell me before I figured it out: family trips are not fun for me. I was basically frustrated about 80% of the entire time we were there, and I know I should have some more patience but I don’t.

Yesterday, we were supposed to go to Sea World. Unfortunately, my dad forgot the one tiny detail that it was the fourth of July and so when we go there, the entire parking lot was full (before the park even opened!) and the overflow lot was filling up as we got there.

We decided we’re just going to go hang out in San Diego. Except everyone in the world was apparently at San Diego and decided to bring their cars with them. So after driving around trying to find parking for about an hour, we gave up and head back towards the hotel.

Same thing happened last year when we went to San Francisco. There wasn’t any parking anywhere and at one point, I was stuck in the middle of an intersection and blocking traffic for a full five minutes before I had a chance to move up when a horse pulling a carriage cut me. I ended up stuck in that intersection for another 3 minutes before I got another chance to get out of it. Unfortunate.

OK Go roxxors my soxxors

While I was driving today, I was switching through radio stations and stopped when I heard a catchy beat on Indie 103.1. I bopped my head up and down to the beat and was thinking, “Hey, this song is pretty good.” Then, the most amazing thing happened. COWBELLS. They were harmonizing with COWBELLS.

Seriously? The first thing my mind went to was the band sitting around writing this song and one of the members saying, “Dude, we gotta have more cowbell.” Then, they all crack up for a good ten minutes and give the cowbells a bigger part. The next thing my mind went to was this band performing the song live. Who gets to play the cowbells?

Anyways, that was all good and fun, but something even more amazing happened. After the song ended, the DJ was saying something and I wasn’t really paying attention partly because I was driving and partly because I was still thinking about cowbells, but then I heard “have OK Go here tonight” and you shoulda seen it. Shoot. My mind focused onto the radio program so fast, the sound of my mental power sharpening made the drivers around me lose control of their cars.

The DJ and the band talked for a bit and then! AND THEN! They performed “Oh Lately It’s So Quiet” right there! Live! And it was way better than the version that was in their album and I shouted at the top of my lungs, “OH MY GAWD OK GO ROXXORS MY SOXXORS!”

 

Disclaimer: The sharpening of mental power does not actually make noise. Thus, no one really lost control of their cars. Also, I did not actually yell that. I’m not crazy. I’m not!

Felix the Freakin’ Fish

My, my. Look at this. Four days since I last wrote? This is terrible! I promise I’ll do better.

Anyways, I recently acquired a cool fishbowl. It is made of two parts. The lower piece is basically a glass vase and is moderately large. The upper piece is designed to hold a plant in such a way that the roots are exposed, and when the two pieces are put together, the roots are suspended in the upper part of the lower vase. The fish swims around in the vase and maybe picks at the roots for extra food.

I did my research and it seems that the best fish for a fishbowl - where I can’t oxygenate the water without making my bowl and aerator contraption looking makeshift - is a betta fish because apparently, they have a special organ that allows them to breathe air directly from the surface of the water. So, I went and got a betta fish.

I got it all settled into the new fishbowl and I decided it needs a name. I’m not sure at all, but I think my fish is a male. So, for the last couple days, I’ve been trying to think of a name for a dude fish, but I couldn’t think of anything except Felix. I think it’s because everyday, I drive by the Chrysler dealership next to USC that has that ginormous Felix the Cat sign on top of it.

Everytime I start to try to think of a name, stupid Felix pops up into my head, and then the only thing I can think about for the next 10 minutes is Felix the Cat and that one video of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog where he’s making fun of the people waiting in line for the opening of a Star Wars movie and says, “Do all Storm Troopers talk like 60s robots? ‘I am a Storm Trooper. I was built by… Felix the Cat.’”

Yeah. So, I decided I’m not going to try to think of a clever name and just name the damn fish Felix. Felix the Freakin’ Fish. Oh, yes. I will use alliteration for my fish’s name and don’t you forget it!