Category: general news

Stuff having to do with the news in general.

My Excellent New Years

rangerthecatLeave a comment

This year, I had no plans for New Years Eve until the day of.
I drove home with my friend from Tahoe the day before, and then on the 31st, I decided I would take a nice 7 hour drive to the Los Angeles area to visit some friends.

The drive, as always, was beautiful, despite being all lonely in the car for 7 hours. But the 101 never fails to be an amazing, comforting drive.

When I arrived in the area, I went and had an amazing sushi dinner with my friend Emma and her family, who I love dearly. It was a great start to a great night.

To end the night, I attended my good friends party, where I met so many cool new people and had an amazing time.

The next day, my friend and I decided spontaneously to take a trip to Venice Beach. He lives in the area, but I had only been there once before, and it was really great to return again. It’s such a beautiful place; there are so many different kinds of people, different shops, great beaches, and beautiful artwork.

We spent the whole day exploring the endless strip, sat in on a massive drum circle, and watched some graffiti artists at work; it was so interesting to watch them transform the art-covered walls.

And when the day was over, we ended the night with my favorite movie, Finding Nemo! Overall, I’d say it was one of the best New Years I have ever had. I only hope the next one will be as good 🙂

Strange family

thehungryrunnergirlLeave a comment

So during this winter break, I went home back in Japan. It was so great to see my family and friends and I enjoyed hanging around with them.

Some of the days, I chilled at home getting yelled by my mom for sleeping in. My mom would come into my room and wake me up at 8 in the morning, and I yelled, “Mom, it’s only 8. Let me sleep.” And she would always say, “Everyone is up and done eating breakfast and I don’t want to wait for you to do your dishes. You know what? If you don’t get up now, then you’re going to clean your dishes, wipe the table and do garbage disposal.”

Gosh, chill out. It’s only 8.

Well, my dad wakes up at 3:30 AM and gets ready to golf every single morning. My mom wakes up at 5AM to cook breakfast and get ready for the day. So basically we’re all morning people.

More surprisingly, my dad goes to bed at 7PM so the curfew he sets is 6PM for me. I want to say, Dad I’m 17. Are you kidding me? But I would never say that because he is so strict and frightening when he gets angry. I could never disobey him. Yes, a typical Asian dad.

My mom and my little brother Hosei (it is a Spanish name but we pronounce it “Housei”, which is also a Japanese name) go to bed at 8:30.

At 9PM, my house is dark except for my room. And I get so scared by myself going downstairs because we all sleep upstairs.

Well, this is my family and I know they are little strange.

The Road

thehungryrunnergirlLeave a comment

Last night, I watched the movie “The Road” in my English class. It shows the human nature in a cruel way.

The movie is about the survival of one father and his son in a destroyed world. The reason why the world is demolished is not mentioned in the book or in the movie, but all the people are dead, the world is full of gray ashes, and buildings and trees are all non-existent.

The father and his son walk on the road for many days starving, sleeping outside.

During their journey, they face cannibals. People start to eat other people in order to survive, which show the human nature (“eat or be eaten”) and the desperate lifestyle. The father and his son see a lot of dead bodies chopped up from being eaten, which was very gruesome and dehumanizing.

The fascination of the movie is the relationship between the father and his son. His son was only the purpose for the father to live.

This movie makes me realize how happy we are to eat and have a warm place to sleep, and living in a normal world.

Comfort Zones.

Yourcupatea1 Comment

Comfort zone

People create their own rules and boundaries, to which they comply. They create their own padded comfy cells, which they are reluctant to break out of. Often they are happy to remain in this space, in this comfort zone.

There comes a time when it’s time to break out get a taste of those flavors you have never experienced before. It’s a time to sample the things that you may either hate or love and see the wonders that lie beyond the self-created safe place.  It’s a time to fly.

Since moving to America I have realized that everyone has their own comfort zones whether it be their home, their country or even just their daily routine. Taking my friend to my first American  concert this Thursday  I saw how these boundaries exist.

As I pushed to the front surging with the crowd he stood unsure, moving with the people against his will. If he had another option he would surely have been at home playing video games, but he didn’t have that choice. The only choice he had was to become part of the crowd and embrace the music. So that’s what he did.

Speaking afterwards he was full of joy and “buzzing” with excitement. He had stepped out of his comfort zone and experienced something magnificent.

This week my 43-year-old mother is trying out an adult ballet class. Something she has loved from a young age but never had the opportunity or guts to do. Since moving to the U.S she has realized stepping out of ones comfort zone often brings you liberation and that is why she has decided to try something different.

So I encourage you all, take that extra step to do something different and you may find everything you have ever wanted.

My Best Friend and My Worst Enemy

rangerthecat3 Comments

FACEBOOK.

I love it too much.

It keeps me busy when I’m bored or want to know something, yet it distracts me whenever I have more crucial and important things to be doing.

As much as I hate to admit it, it’s true: Facebook does more harm than good sometimes, ESPECIALLY during final exam week.

That is why my friend and I have decided to change each other’s passwords, allowing only a small amount of time to each other each day to check their Newsfeed and respond to messages.

I already miss it, and it’s only been 2 hours since I have been logged on. But, it’s definitely for the best. It will help me study A LOT, and I mean a lot. Being on Facebook means Tetris Battle will always be a lurking temptation, and once I start that I wouldn’t be able to stop.

Also, not having a Facebook for a while will help me focus on other things in my free time and slowly break my addiction (hopefully).

So bye bye for now, Facebook! You’ve got nothing on me for a while.

We have no life.

thehungryrunnergirl1 Comment

The thing my friends and I do on Friday nights?

…Tetris battle.

Why is it so addicting?

I even play in my head all day. I imagine the blocks coming down and trying to fit them perfectly and that’s how I improve my tetris skills.

So basically, every time you win in a battle, you get a star, and if you collect 5 of them, then you rank up. My roommate (yrreskrap) and I are always battling and making fun of each other whenever we lose.

Ranking up system makes people more addicted to it.

But the good thing is, your energy (the time you can play) is limited. If your energy gets empty, you have to wait for a while until it gets full automatically. But, since I’m very addicted to it, I always begging my friends for energy.

Environmental Policies

therightliberalLeave a comment

I often question others sanity. Chances are it is me who is insane, but on occasion it seems that others are far off their rocker.

It was proposed, years ago, to build an oil pipeline from the oil sands in Canada, all the way down to the refineries in Texas. Luckily Obama delayed the building of it, but it is still being pushed for.

The reason for the proposed pipeline is far from surprising: money. And money in all sense. It increases the price that the oil sands companies get paid, it increases the refinery work in Texas and on top of it all, with all the transport, the overall price goes up.

But it is not the bogus price hike that will come from the ludicrous transportation; it is the environmental cost.

The whole process is full of pollution and dirty business. Tons of tar and other unhealthy things are pumped into the atmosphere as well as polluting water.

Oil is great, don’t get me wrong. I wish we could just keep using oil and not worry about it. But two things make that not possible. The first is that we are quickly running out and the second is that we are destroying the planet we live on.

And yet, we have no clear cut solution. Ethanol and biodiesel have to potential to replace gasoline usage for the most part. But that requires a lot of investing in switchgrass and distilleries.

There are other potential ways around oil but they all require us to change how we live everyday. With ethanol and biodiesel, we can keep our cars the same and we would not need to come up with a whole lot of new technology.

By doing these simple things, we can work to cut our dependence on oil as well as working to make the world cleaner.

But the key thing is that we need to wake up. It is not fun to admit but we are almost out of oil. We can choose to deny the facts and face a very harsh future or we can prepare and make the transition easier.

TETRIS BATTLE!

rangerthecatLeave a comment

Tetris Battle is one of the most addicting games I have ever played in my life.

I used to make fun of people at this school who played it, including almost all of my friends. But one night I succumbed to the temptation and got sucked into the never-ending addiction.

Tetris is one of the oldest games for computers. I remember playing it when I was younger on my parents big old desktop computer.

Now, it is even more fun than ever to play a competitive version through an application on Facebook. You are allowed 2 minutes of time where in you and your opponent battle it out to see who can get the most points. At the end, depending on who wins or loses, you earn or lose stars, which help you earn a higher rank and win money so you can buy new cool features for the game.

The winner is determined by the number of “Lines Sent” – Higher number means you’re the winner!

You can play against one or more person at once, and also request to play your friends.

I know it’s terrible how much I love this game now. I really should be studying for final exams, but tetris battle is always lurking in the background, calling my name and waiting to distract me!

Cheers to the weekend!

rangerthecatLeave a comment

This weekend was one of the best that I’ve had in such a long time.

On Friday, I went to a really cool art show in Ventura with a few people.
There was so much beautiful pottery. I love pottery, and I haven’t had time to go to the studio recently, but this trip gave me some new inspiration and I can’t wait until I have time again. There were so many different artists with a variety of work that all took my breath away.

The next day, I got to sleep in until 10:30. BEST FEELING EVER. I have not spent enough time with my bed recently, and seriously, it put me in such a better mood for the whole rest of the day, which consisted of going to a gingerbread house making party and a birthday party!

I spend about one who hour making a masterpiece gingerbread house with my best friend. We made sure it was very colorful and cute, and let me just say, it was some high quality work!

It was so much fun to decorate a gingerbread house; I hadn’t done it for years, and it made me feel like a little kid again, which I love.

Then came the big “dance party,” I guess you could call it. When really, it was just a bunch of loud music, and people jumping around making fools of themselves (including me). And I’d have to say, that was definitely my favorite part. Having fun without anyone to judge me or anything else to worry about. I spent time with close friends, and others that I’m not as close with, but still had an amazing time with both.

I did, however, underestimate the amount of work I had to finish, and overestimated the ability I have to do so. But a little bit of a time crunch is just the price to pay for a pretty amazing weekend 🙂

Coming of Age.

YourcupateaLeave a comment

Old person

Eighteen. An age of adulthood and an age of maturity, yet I still can’t embrace the fact that in a few days I am going to be old. Yes I said it old.

Many people will say that turning 18 is the beginning of your  life. It is when you can start college, go and have fun and  be independent, but to me it’s just another year closer to the end. I know that seems pretty sad, but for me it’s the truth.

To be honest I am expecting wrinkles to appear on my face and to find my first grey hair any second. I constantly think about how scary getting older is. As I find myself staying at home in the evenings and drinking hot tea before I go to bed I can’t help but to think old age is approaching fast.

Ok there are many benefits to getting older. For example: you may lose those teenage pimples, you can buy lottery tickets, you can see different films and even buy a house, but still many of these will never get rid of the fact that I am slowly dying.

So as I celebrate a year closer to my retirement, I can’t help to feel a little bit of sadness. I know I have many years to go but the thought that the end is approaching actually does me a favor. It makes me want to make everyday even better, embrace life and have fun. In the end I guess that is what life is all about.