Monday Night Randomness

We're still plagued by those pesky little 6-legged vultures. I would say "ants" but then Allan would make his "no uncles?" joke. Although the last time he did it, he was rebuffed by Todd correcting him, rather indignantly: "No, not A-U-N-T. Ants! A-N-T!" as if his Daddy was the biggest doofball in the world. Which can be rather accurate, but that's for another day of musing :-) The strange thing about these ants is that I can never detect a trail. Most of the time, with ant infestations, you can usually trace them back to where they came from. Just follow the trail. If you leave out an especially choice tidbit of food, the trail is thick and nicely visible. Find the nest, apply ant spray, and voila! Not these ants. They seem to appear out of nowhere, and leave no apparent trail. Even when we've left food out and dozens of ants are swarmed around, eating contentedly, that's all there is-- bunch of ants surrounding the food, and nowhere else. No incoming or outgoing trail to be detected. Stranger still is their behavior ON the food-- they just SIT there, motionless! Most swarming ants I've seen are, well, swarming. Moving. Wiggling. Picking up food and carrying it back. Showing signs of LIFE. They've also taken to appearing in the bathroom sink, no matter how much I've scrubbed it. It's bizarre.

In other animal news, today I caught my first glimpse of live snails here in the apartment complex. Usually all I run into around here are empty, crushed shells. Apparently last night rain brought them out in droves, and I spotted two of them crawling slowly across the pavement. One had almost reached its destination, but the other still had a long way to go. So I picked him up and gently moved him to the other side of the walkway, in the direction he was headed. Poor, hapless creature must've freaked out, as he retracted when I picked him up. Chalk up one less snail that got crunched underfoot today. I'm sure that when I have my own garden someday, I probably won't find snails as cute, but I still can't help feel sorry for them :-)

Tonight Allan tried out the voice recognition feature on his phone. Or, more accurately, I did. He set up an email to me, switched on the mic, and handed the phone to me. This is what I said:

I like turtles. Turtles say "ribbit"
I like dogs, too. Dogs say "arf, arf"
And seals say <insert barking seal noise here. I can't think of the appropriate letters to express the sound>


This is what was transcribed out of it:
I like turtles turtles favorite i like dogs too dont hate and he thinks

Yeah... needs a little tweaking, methinks ;-)

A Story Without the Letter "L"

A recent Plinky prompt: A short story without the letter "L"

It's definitely harder than it looks, and I couldn't think of a decent storyline (watching out for those pesky Ls is distracting!), so I just rewrote a classic fairy tale, with a twist I got from a picture somewhere (if only I could find it!)

Here goes:

Once upon a time there was a frog, who made a nearby pond his habitat. The pond was in the midst of the forest, and the frog enjoyed basking in the sun atop his green pad, and zapping bugs for food. One day, a pretty person of the XX-chromosome persuasion sat at the edge of the pond, tossing an amber sphere into the air. She wore a saddened expression on her face and threw the toy up and down in an absentminded fashion. In a sudden moment, the sphere escaped her grasp and dropped into the pond. She gasped in dismay and watched her favorite toy sink to the bottom of the pond. The frog heard her cries and hopped over to see what was wrong. Once she imparted what had happened, the frog dove to the bottom of the pond and retrieved the amber orb. She was so overjoyed she picked up the frog and kissed him. That's when she noticed the bright hues on the frog-- red, azure and saffron. She started to experience some strange sensations-- dizziness, then nausea, then her vision started to go dark. As she dropped to the ground her ending thoughts were of her kin and of the gorgeous but dangerous frog who had rescued her toy... at the expense of her very being. The poisonous frog gazed at her in a serene manner, took up the honey-hued orb and dove down into the water, adding it to his amassment of toys gathered from imprudent princesses who acted before thinking. The End.

Whew! Let's just say I'm grateful the prompt didn't call for a story lacking the letter "E"! Eep! ;-)

Four Days On, Four Days Off...

I could get used to that sort of work schedule ;-)

Last week I took Friday off because the little man didn't have school that day, and we thought it would be better for him to spend the day doing fun things with a parent rather than sit in the office all day, glued to the computer. Which meant I had a 4-day work week last week, followed by a 4-day weekend, and now am starting another 4-day work week. Like I said, I could get used to this ;-)

Friday morning started with some Open House trips, where we traipsed around Goleta peeking at some of the newest listings. We came across a really nice condo in San Antonio Village, which really got me re-thinking my preference for a single-family home over a condo. I still do prefer the former, but finding out about some nice selections out there has made me rethink ruling condos out altogether. After a leisurely lunch back home, we headed off to the zoo. But first, we broke down one of Todd's diaper boxes and applied some surfboard wax to it, so he could use it as an ultra-slick sled on the little Astroturf hill in the play area of the zoo. I got the idea from Amal's husband, who told us about a friend of theirs who waxed boxes for his kids to zoom around in on similar hills near their house. I'm not sure if the wax made a difference, or if the flattened box just zipped fast because it was new and still had the glossy outer surface, but Todd sure did fly down those hills! So fast that once the sled stopped at the bottom, the momentum kept carrying him and he pitched forward, off the sled, every time. It was great fun!

Saturday was cleaning day, and after getting home from karate lessons and shopping, we rested up a bit before heading out to Joe and Tabitha's for dinner and a board game (Ticket to Ride), while Todd amused himself on their Wii.

Sunday brought Valentine's Day. I'm not a very big romantic. Flowers are a waste to me-- they just wilt and die in a week or two. I rarely wear jewelry (I stopped wearing my wedding ring about 6 months after we got married). Chocolate is okay, but ever since being spoiled in Europe, I don't much like American chocolate anymore. I'm the type who much prefers sensible, practical gifts to frivolous ones (except for stuffed animals). So we trooped out to our favorite restaurant-- Brummi's, where we were joined by two other couples from our small group. We had a lot of fun, and since all of us had been married for at least a few years, we mused that quiet, romantic dinners by ourselves on Valentine's Day were unnecessary, since we do that everyday, anyway! Let's do something different and actually celebrate with good company instead! :-) The food, as always, was to die for, and we enjoyed a fun evening out.

Monday we all slept in and enjoyed the warm weather-- the three of us made a picnic lunch and ate on the patio of the clubhouse in our apartment complex. It was warm enough to go swimming afterward, and I finally enjoyed some much-needed exercise!

Apparently the Olympics started in Vancouver this weekend as well, though I was blissfully unaware of it until I read Tabitha's tweet. Never mind that Canadian Jenna had already tweeted a whole bunch of opening-ceremony-related ones before that! Don't ask me why I didn't make that connection. Oh, and Chinese New Year, too. What is it now? Tiger? Rawr! I guess you could say we sort of celebrated, albeit unknowingly-- by buying Chinese food at Pick Up Stix for Sunday's lunch :-D

All in all, the long weekend was a pleasant mix of rest & relaxation and going out and doing fun things. And coming back in to a short work week? Icing on the cake ;-)That's what I call an enjoyable weekend!

And how was your weekend?

The Mommy Survey

Haven't done one of these quizzes/surveys in a while (I don't count the hearing test ;-)) and now that all 4 of the babies within our small group are out of the womb (talk about mini baby boom between November and now!) the air seems full of talk of babies and first-time motherhood. Spied this on someone else's blog somewhere and thought it would be fun to do, too:

1. WAS YOUR FIRST PREGNANCY PLANNED? Nope

2. WERE YOU MARRIED AT THE TIME? Yes

3. WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION? Initially, a bit stunned, then we gladly looked forward to it.

4. HOW OLD WERE YOU? 26, a lot younger than the 30s I expected to be in when I started having kids (if I even decided to have any!)

5. HOW DID YOU FIND OUT YOU WERE PREGNANT? Went to the doctor after I was feeling weak and tired. Took blood and urine tests, and it turned out I was already anemic, and this thing called pregnancy was exacerbating it.

6. WHO DID YOU TELL FIRST? Allan, of course

7.. DID YOU WANT TO FIND OUT THE SEX? Yes, and we did

8. DUE DATE? June 4, 2004

9.. DID YOU HAVE MORNING SICKNESS? Not at all, fortunately. I had a bit of tiredness the first couple months (see #5), but that was it.

10. WHAT DID YOU CRAVE? Ramen with Spam. To this day it remains one of my favorite dishes. I don't indulge too often because it's not healthful, but it sure is tasty! :-9

11. WHO/WHAT IRRITATED YOU THE MOST? Nothing, actually. Pregnancy and hormones didn't really affect me much except for the expanding tummy.

12. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CHILD'S SEX? Boy

13. DID YOU WISH YOU HAD THE OPPOSITE SEX OF WHAT YOU WERE GETTING? Nope. I was hoping for a boy (teenage girls are difficult-- I know, I was one!)

14. HOW MANY POUNDS DID YOU GAIN THROUGHOUT THE PREGNANCY? around 25 pounds

16. DID YOU HAVE A BABY SHOWER? Yup, thrown by my friend Sara and all our CS grad student colleagues at UCSB. It was even hosted at the Geekhouse!

17. WAS IT A SURPRISE OR DID YOU KNOW? How is this different from #1? It was a surprise, no doubt.

18. DID YOU HAVE ANY COMPLICATIONS DURING YOUR PREGNANCY? None at all, it was the most routine, uneventful thing ever.

19. WHERE DID YOU GIVE BIRTH? Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital

20. HOW MANY HOURS WERE YOU IN LABOR? I always have trouble answering this question. I don't know when labor starts. If you're talking when contractions started (though they were mild and far apart), then 30 hours. If you're talking from the time the contractions shortened enough to the point that we went to the hospital, then it's more like 14 hours. And even then it was more or less bearable (meds helped, though!), so if you're talking about the really "bad" stuff where I'm cussing my husband out, then only a few hours.

21. WHO DROVE YOU TO THE HOSPITAL? Allan

22. WHO WATCHED YOU GIVE BIRTH? Allan

23. WAS IT NATURAL OR C-SECTION? Natural

24. DID YOU TAKE MEDICINE TO EASE THE PAIN? Yup. I had 2 doses of Fentanyl so I could rest a little throughout the night (arrived at the hospital at 11pm) and got a spinal during my final push.

27. HOW MUCH DID YOUR CHILD WEIGH? 7lbs 3oz

28. WHEN WAS YOUR CHILD ACTUALLY BORN? May 20, 2004 -- exactly 2 weeks before his due date.

30. WHAT DID YOU NAME HIM/HER? Todd Allan

31. HOW OLD IS YOUR FIRST BORN TODAY? 5 years and some change, hard to believe!

The Ups and Downs of Dyslexia

Boys are special... especially husbands!

This evening, Allan was working on a lesson plan for tomorrow, when he'll visit the middle schoolers at Todd's school and teach them some basics of algorithms-- namely, sorting. The perfect prop for sorting? Playing cards, of course!

He was sitting on the sofa, sorting out some cards and making notes on the process. He left a nice, neat row of cards, in sorted order, on the coffee table when he left to go do his workout. Me? I never even had time to go near the sofa/coffee table, I was busy putting Todd to bed and then sacking out in front of the computer for a few minutes before he returned...

...the computer that sits on the desk on the opposite side of the coffee table as the sofa (this is important).

When Allan returned from his workout, he and I chatted at the computer desk for a few minutes, whereupon his gaze soon fell on the coffee table. He mused: "you were sorting the cards, weren't you?" Puzzled, I glanced at the neat row and shook my head. They were already sorted before he left, I explained. I never touched them. I couldn't understand why he didn't remember doing that before he left.

"But... then why are they facing this way!?" sputtered Allan, a split second too late before he realized his error.

For as you see, ladies and gentlemen, playing cards can be read both right side up and upside down. So while he sat on the sofa and laid out the cards on the coffee table, they appeared to be "facing" him because he could read right-side-up numbers. And when he stood on the other side of the coffee table by the computer desk, he was again viewing right-side-up numerals. He thought I'd rearranged the cards so they were facing the "other way"!

Yup. I married me a special man, didn't I. Doesn't speak much for my own sanity or intelligence, having married the guy, but hey-- he's good for a few laughs. And who knew that dyslexia ran not only right/left but up/down, too!

For Love of Animals (aka People Suck!)

This blog post has been well over a year in the making. It's never been far from my mind, but I've never taken the time to actually sit down and sort out the thoughts in my head. Oh, I've posted bits and pieces here and there. So let's take an older blog post of mine as the starting point:

(and yes, I know I'm prone to linking to older blog posts for some context, and I know people are loathe to click on them, but this time-- please do read them. There are thoughts there complement my thoughts here, and I didn't want to make this too long by repeating myself)

First off, my thoughts after visiting an Asian supermarket in Southern California-- markets which typically house lots of live animals meant for consumption. These poor creatures are treated accordingly, and it breaks my heart: http://heckledtrio.blogspot.com/2007/11/asian-delicacies.html

Secondly, my thoughts on my visit to Indonesia in October 2008. This blog post focused on the plight of that country's poor, which was bad enough: http://heckledtrio.blogspot.com/2008/11/rich-vs-poor-in-third-world-country.html

Equally depressing (if not more so) was a combination of the two: wanton disregard for the well-being of live animals meant for consumption in an Asian country.

During our 12-hour layover in Taiwan on the way from the US to Indonesia, we wandered around one of those open-air markets. It's about as you woud imagine-- very crowded, full of vendors hawking their wares and loudly trying to drum up business. A bit depressing and yet interesting at the same time. The "stalls" were full of all sorts of fruits and vegetables you wouldn't ordinarily find in the States. But then something really caught my attention. I was wandering along the street, taking in the sights and sounds and mentally converting posted prices back into dollars, when I was splashed with water.

I looked down and saw a man sorting out shallow wooden boxes full of fish. What I had thought were gleaming, freshly-caught, *dead* fish were actually still alive, and flopped about desperately. My initial disgust at getting the filthy water splashed in my face paled in comparison to the feeling of revulsion that grew as I watched the hapless animals flop about, suffocating. It only got worse. As I made my way along this part of the street, I saw other marine animals for sale: turtles, crabs, frogs. All still alive. All very much unhappy in their crowded nets. Stacked thoughtlessly atop each other, squished so close they had little room to move, let alone breathe freely. The sight broke my heart, and I turned away, having completely lost any interest in seeing the rest of the market.

If you've read my blog post that I linked to above, you'll know that this sort of thing isn't restricted to Asian (or other) countries-- they bring it here to the United States, and it is equally deplorable here-- maybe even more so, since we live in a culture that more or less values animal life.

And as I stated in that blog post, I have no problem with consumption of animals-- I'm no vegetarian, myself, after all, and if the animal can be raised and killed humanely and without suffering, that's fine. What I *do* have a problem with is the terrible conditions under which these animals are made to suffer as they await purchase and consumption. And often times, the slaughtering process is just as vile and pain-inducing.

All this brings me to the declaration I've often made: that I like animals much more than I like people. Animals may kill each other too, but they only kill for food or in self-defense. They don't subject each other to wanton cruelty just because they can. They don't exact suffering on other creatures. They don't torture smaller creatures for fun. They do what they have to in order to survive, and nothing more. This is why I am saddened when a sea turtle dies at the jaws of a hungry shark, but shrug my shoulders because that's the cycle of nature-- yet I am enraged beyond comprehension when a sea turtle dies at the cruel hands of man. There's a video out there of humans slaughtering turtles that have come ashore to lay eggs or just get some sun. I cannot bear to press the play button-- the preview shot in the video player shows a seashore stained dark red with blood. It is enough to turn my stomach. The last time I hit the play button on such a video, it showed dogs being skinned alive for their fur.

Whether it's deplorable farm conditions, heartless slaughter for fur, food or shell, outright torture and abuse, or neglect of house pets, all kinds of animal suffering at human hands makes me so angry I cannot help but loathe humanity as a whole. Humans heap such suffering on fellow human beings, as well, but somehow it seems worse when it's helpless animals.

Because of this, I often feel as if I am at odds with the whole Christian notion of "love thy neighbor" and commands to do good for your fellow man. I don't dispute the importance of it, and I don't mean to downplay the nobility of that command, nor the harsh reality of human suffering and abuse the world over, but I often feel like the plight of animals gets brushed aside or even forgotten in the process. No matter what country. Even this one. And it really gets my goat when animal lovers try to do good things and raise money for good causes (such as helping stranded animals in Haiti or rescuing the cold-stunned sea turtles off the Eastern coast of the US) only to be sneered at by so-called humanitarians that think this is a waste of money, that insist this money is better spent on rescuing humans. Hey-- you have your cause, I have mine. Just because I choose a particular one to donate my time and money to doesn't mean I don't care about the other plights of the world.

Still, whether its animal abuse, human abuse, environmental abuse, or what have you, one factor still remains common: Human beings suck. Period. Now you see why I'm so anti-social ;-P

A Letter to My Blog

Dear Blog,

Ah, how I miss you so. You sit there, looking so shiny and pretty and tempting. Thoughts float around in my mind, sometimes taking root and taking shape, sometimes only for a fleeting moment. Each time, the desire to come here and post them arises. And each time, something more pressing takes my time away, and by the time I find a few minutes to visit you in peace, the moment has often passed. I don't want to come to you without my heart fully in it, you know? I know I vowed to try to spend more time with you, but isn't quality more important than quantity? Rest assured that I miss you just as much as you miss me.

I want to write about the books I've been reading lately. I want to write about how much fun it is to file taxes... and yet how depressing it can be once I've tallied up the final total. I want to write about how much more my loathing of humanity has been reinforced, and how my love for animals deepens. I want to write about aggravating things at work and school. I want to write about silly things, funny things, sad things, thoughtful things.

And yet Father Time hasn't been kind enough to allow me the chance. Especially when microblogging sites makes it easy to share bite-sized updates without too much thought. Still, I wanted to let you know that I haven't forgotten you. Much as I love Tumblr and Twitter, you and your kind have always been my first love. You're always in the back of my mind somewhere. And when I hear about something funny or read something that gets my dander up or experience something interesting, you're always the first thing I think of.

If it makes you feel better, Todd's diary hasn't been getting much love lately, either, and I don't even NEED to be in the right mood to write there! :-)

I know you'll always be there. And you know that I'm here. Here's to seeing you around, blog :-)

Love,
Me

Friday Night Procrastination

I suppose, technically, it's Saturday already. I should be getting ready for bed, but I'm having fun updating my blog layout yet again. Usually I go months before giving the site an overhaul, but since, unlike Blogger, you have to pay to edit the CSS on Wordpress, I figured I'd get my money's worth :-) Although I'm curious now-- what will happen if I don't renew my subscription? Will my edits be reverted to the original theme? Or will they stay, and I simply can't make any more edits till I pay again? I guess I shall find out in November! Anyway, this round of editing went much more smoothly than my last one, partly because I started from an existing theme instead of the bare-bones minimum Sandbox, and partly because at work this week I've been tweaking the look and feel of some of our webpages, using-- you guessed it-- CSS. So I'm a little more familiar with it now.

So I figured, while I was here, that I would write a little something. Or a lot something. I have a tendency towards verbosity. As Lisa puts it: "Why use 10 words when you can use 100?" :-P

Our insurance claim and the business of Allan's car is behind us. The auto shop did a great job fixing the back, his car looks good as new! While it was in the shop, the sheriff who took my report called me to give an update on the case. They found the guy who did it, and although they couldn't place him at the scene of the accident without eyewitnesses (and thus arrest him for drunken or reckless driving), they could at least prove his vehicle was the one that hit ours, and so the insurance carrier on that car would take care of the reimbursement. Well, this week I got a call from USAA-- turns out that the car was not actually insured at the time of the accident! So now they're going after the guy personally to get their money back. I hope they're able to nail him. We're extremely fortunate that we suffered no monetary loss and only slight inconvenience by his actions-- he could've gotten someone killed!

In other news, I conducted my first phone interview at work the other day, and I spent quite a bit of time preparing for it. It was a good learning experience, and I get to do it again next week. I'm definitely feeling more confident about it!

I'm glad things are starting to dry up and warm up after last week's endless rain (though the snow on the mountains made for a pretty sight!). Our apartment, though it gets direct sunlight in the afternoon, stays cold all day. The bathroom gets so cold that one day I noticed the big lotion bottle kept dispensing thinner and thinner lotion. It was almost watery. Thinking it was going bad, I opened it up to investigate-- only to discover that, much like curds and whey, it had separated! I now keep the lotion bottle on the dining room table, where it's warmer. At least the place will stay nice and cool during the summer! Not that it gets very hot here in the summer, anyway.

I've been experimenting with conditioners lately, trying to find the right one. It's amazing how a particular conditioner can yield such beautiful, soft, shiny hair on my husband and son, and yet actually DRY my hair out worse than if I'd used no conditioner at all (Tresemme, in case you're curious). And some conditioners are so weak that despite lathering it on my hair, it does absolutely nothing. What I've found is that 1) I need a really thick, heavy conditioner-- the kind that's almost solid and 2) I always end up going back to Pantene. The cabinet under our sink is now littered with various sample sizes of various conditioners-- not only different brands (Garnier, Dove, Tresemme, Pantene) but also different sub-types of Pantene (Moisturizing, Smoothing, Ice Shine and Breakage Defense). It's easy to experiment with inexpensive, $1 sample size bottles, and I continue my quest for the perfect conditioner! :-D At least I know now what brand to stick to. That narrows it down some ;-)

And now that I've rambled on enough and procrastinated even longer, I shall wrap this up and go to bed. Good night!

When Blogging Changed My Life

Today's post comes courtesy of Tabitha. As part of her Blogoversary giveaway, I'm submitting my entry for the Starbucks gift card (my favorite prize of the bunch! ;-) ) with this blog post.

Her prompt reads:

Tell me about a time when blogging changed your life.
Now, rather than talk about *a* single instance, this blog shall be a twofold post:

Chapter 1 -- Making Friends

Let's see... I started blogging in 2004, writing a few posts on Tripod.com but mainly focusing on using Tripod's blog features to keep a baby diary for Todd, who was born that year. Serious blogging didn't really come onto the scene until 2005, when community/gaming site Grab.com, of which I was an active member at the time, came out with blog features. By then, I'd started making friends on Grab. The majority of my current blog subscribers, in fact, are people I met from Grab. They are folks of all ages, from all walks of life, and from all over the globe. When I started blogging, the community spilled over from the forums onto my blog. It wasn't unusual to see the comments section take on a life of their own, sometimes veering completely away from the original subject matter.

Anyway, it was here that I started to bloom socially. I'd always been an introvert, and still am. Online, I found myself interacting with people and socializing in ways that I never would offline. Blogging gave me a creative outlet and a sort of "personal" forum on which to hang out with my friends. I enjoyed writing, and I enjoyed the ensuing camaraderie. I even wound up meeting some of these online friends, from night out in Hollywood in a limo to a 4th of July BBQ in Salem, OR to Chicago O'Hare Airport to cloudy and rainy Wales to visiting the Grab HQ in Washington.

Before that, even, we all got together one New Year's Eve, plugged in our computer mics, and had some raucous fun with a Yahoo voice chat NYE party! Now THAT took some planning, considering everyone was in different timezones-- from Eastern Time in Michigan to early morning in the UK to... well, already well into the next DAY in Australia.

So yes, my social life was improving, even if it was in front of a computer. I met people I would never have otherwise met, and enjoyed learning new things about them.
In fact, I've never been a big fan of the terms "IRL" or "real life friends". Makes it sound like my online friends aren't my "real" friends. Nothing could be further from the truth. These folks aren't any less real than the people I can physically hear and see. That's why I prefer the term "offline" friends, to distinguish the medium through which we interact, rather than assign any labels to the supposed level of reality this friendships are. You could say blogging changed my life in that respect.

But probably my most amazing life-changing story comes not directly from blogging itself, but from one of the friendships forged through the social networking/blog site I started on.

Chapter 2 -- One such friend becomes a lifesaver

A while back, my marriage fell on rocky times. My husband and I seemed to be at an impasse, and then the turning point came unexpectedly: one of my online friends, “Callie”, suddenly wrote to me out of the blue describing her own marriage problems. Suddenly I found myself “counseling” her, writing words of comfort and advice that I know could not have come from my own head. I had no idea where these words and ideas were coming from-- I have absolutely no background in this sort of thing! And throughout the course of this “counseling”, I realized I was being a hypocrite, and that I should be applying the things I was telling her to my own marriage. Once I did, things began to improve. Our marriage is better than it ever was.

Another effect of my conversations with Callie is of a more spiritual nature. I was born and raised agnostic, and when it came to matters of God, I was still on the fence. My interaction with Callie (among other things that I'll save for some other post) left no doubt in my mind that God exists and that his hand was at work with us. First there was the matter of being able to give her advice. Where was it coming from? I am convinced it was inspired by God and I feel as if I caught a brief glimpse into what it must've been like for the divinely-guided Bible writers in their day. I just put my fingers to the keyboard and they practically went on autopilot. Second, there was Callie's point of view-- she later told me she had no idea why she picked me, a distant friend, to confide in-- she just felt guided to write to me. Apparently God had things to tell her AND me simultaneously. Since then, not only have our marriages greatly improved, but our spiritual lives have been recharged, as well.

If it weren't for Grab/blogging, I would never have met Callie (even though I have not, to this day, met her face to face). I am glad I did, for, as they say, the rest is history!

Writer's Block

The "add new post" screen on Wordpress has been up for several hours. I have this burning desire to write something, but my mind is blank. I cannot think of a thing to write about. I consult my usual sources of aid for writer's block-- sources that usually provide a spark that gets me going: Plinky, LiveJournal, even Grab. Not tonight. Tonight I'm simply left feeling restless and frustrated. You know when you are trying to think of a word or a name, and it's right there in the periphery of your memory, right there on the tip of your tongue, and yet you just can't quite grasp it? That's how I'm feeling right now. Like I know there's stuff I want to write-- more importantly, stuff I *feel* like writing, and yet I can't seem to quite put my finger on the exact topic.

And so here I am. My fingers poised over the keyboard. Ready to type. Itching to type. Restless leg syndrome? How about restless finger syndrome?

There was a time when I challenged my readers to a "truth or dare" game, which elicited some interesting responses, leading to even more interesting antics/blog entries. Nowadays I fear my readership is too few and far between to successfully attempt such a thing. But for those few who are still around, I throw it out there: what should I write about? Or... what should I do, what should I undertake, and then report back on? What are you interested in seeing/hearing about?

Oh, and just for posterity, since I doubt this will ever happen again:



Woo-hoo! Finally beat some of the hardcore champs in my friends list! Considering the insane scores many of them repeatedly get, considering the same names always dominate the top of the scoreboard, and considering that I have a hard enough time placing in the top 5 of my friends as is, this was an exciting sight to see. And such a rarity!

How's Your Hearing?

You are about 20 years old

The teen repellent will no longer foil you, but you can still hear some pretty high tones. The highest pitched ultrasonic mosquito ringtone that I can hear is 16.7kHz

Find out which ultrasonic ringtones you can hear!

A couple weeks ago, as was told secondhand, our pastor played a series of different ringtones over the speakers to illustrate how hearing declines with age-- only the younger folks were able to hear the higher-pitched tones. I wasn't at the service that day, but heard all about it at lunch afterward. I was curious to know how much I would've been able to hear, considering I have pretty sharp hearing. Would my hearing fall into the normal range of other thirty-somethings? Would I have been able to join the ranks of the teenagers hearing the highest frequency tones?

As it turns out, these tones are available at this website: http://www.ultrasonic-ringtones.com/

I tried playing the tones in order, and stopped at 16.7 kHz. Apparently, according to the "quiz" result, that puts my hearing on par with that of an average 20-year-old. Not bad, considering I'm a dozen years older than that ;-) And despite his poor hearing and despite the fact that he's pushing 40, Allan could still hear tones "reserved" for thirty-somethings ;-) That ought to make him feel young.

What's interesting to note is that although I couldn't actually hear any tones beyond 16.7 kHz, at the higher frequencies (except for the very last one) I could still detect a change in the air indicating that something was vibrating, I just couldn't hear the actual sound itself. That was fascinating to me.

I've always maintained that I have extra-sensitive hearing to make up for my very poor eyesight. I don't know what my eyesight is in terms of the 20/20 scale (those numbers have always been meaningless to me) but I can tell you my eyeglass prescription: exactly -5 in one eye, and -4.75 in the other, plus a touch of astigmatism. Allan is the opposite-- I can discern almost no difference in blurriness when I try on his near-paper-thin glasses. By the time farsightedness hits him sometime this decade, he probably won't even NEED glasses anymore.

So, my hope is that Todd will get a good mix-- hearing like his Mommy, and eyesight like his Daddy. Or at the very least-- an even mix of both, yielding average nearsightedness and average hearing. I'd be happy with that :-)

How about you? How's your hearing?

The Wonderful World of Learning

(gee, my title sounds like one of those PBS specials, doesn't it? Or a kid's program)

I got a copy of the Winter quarter schedule of classes for the SBCC Adult Ed division this week, and started thumbing through it tonight. All sorts of interesting things jumped out at me. That, coupled with Tabitha's recent post, still fresh on my mind, got me thinking about all the things I'd love to do if I had more free time. Don't get me wrong, I love my family to bits (despite my constant ragging on Allan-- hey, it's a survival mechanism!) but having such responsibilities make it kind of hard to freely pursue all sorts of personal interests.

So I thought I'd jot down a few of the things I'd like to pursue (mostly classes) sometime in the not-too-distant future. But hey, even if I have to wait until Todd's in college, I'll only be in my mid-40s, that's still young enough! So here's my list, in no particular order:

1. Take an art class. I took them when I was younger-- too young to appreciate the nuances of drawing and painting techniques, I suppose. Would love to try my hand at it again.

2. Take singing lessons. I can carry a tune, but I've never had any sort of formal lessons, and I'd like to learn proper technique. I took the bilingual singing class through Adult Ed with my friend Leah this past summer, but it wasn't so much a class to teach you anything as it was preparation for our Fiesta performance.

3. Brush up on my French. All I know of it is what I learned throughout 3 years of high school, so it isn't much. But I love the language and love the sound of it, and would love to be able to understand more.

4. Learn the basics of some sort of ballroom dancing.

5. Take a writing course. Two kinds: creative writing for fun, and business/technical writing-- also for fun, I suppose-- for career purposes.

6. Take a "how to study the Bible" course. I had a brief taste of this at the beginning of last year (yeesh, seems strange to call 2009 "last" year!), during one of my small group studies. Our leader shared a few techniques (culled from her own Bible education and experience) for how to read/study the Bible and they were pretty useful! I'd love to delve into it more than I currently am.

7a. Do a summer internship at a turtle rehab center/research university. Today I donated $100 to the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, to help their efforts in saving cold-stunned sea turtles. Basically, a sudden cold snap recently caused thousands of sea turtles along the south/eastern coasts of the US to basically go into a coma and float to the surface, endangering their lives. If you know me, you know that I have a soft spot for all kinds of animals-- but especially sea turtles. I can't wait to get the receipt so I can submit a company match that will essentially double my donation. Anyway... I've always wanted to work in close proximity with and learn more about these beautiful, majestic creatures.

(okay, okay, I qualified that with a subgrouping because that's not very realistic, since I can't well take 3 months off for something like this, those organizations would prefer giving internships to people pursuing a career in this area, and the locations would be places where you'd find turtles-- Florida, South Carolina, Costa Rica, Indonesia... so let's float down from the clouds a bit and pick something a little closer to home...)

7b. Volunteer at a local animal shelter or other organization dedicated to animals. This is actually something I could see trying to pursue in a few years, when Todd's a little older and can tag along and help. What a wonderful way to introduce him to volunteering and instill a love of animals in him.

8. Get back into playing the piano. Much like my art lessons, I think my piano lessons (which I took from age 8-16) were largely wasted, aesthetically speaking, on an unappreciative student. Oh, I practiced and I played but I never really got into it, and did so wholly out of obligation, because my parents were paying for a piano teacher to come every week. I know that if I'd actually put my heart into my piano lessons, I could've done so much better and learned so much more-- not to mention outright enjoyed myself rather than feeling like it was a burdensome chore.

9. Related to #2: Sing as part of a choir. In 8th grade I took choir, but I was the piano accompaniment. I didn't sing. I remember being dazzled by way all those voices combined harmoniously together, especially when we performed the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's "Messiah". I tried joining this informal a cappella singing group at UCSB, but found it a little too advanced for me, since I can hardly sight read. Besides, my class projects quickly encroached upon my time. Then I joined the Hope Community Church choir, and even though it was really small and most of us were amateurs, I had a great time! For the first time in my life I started to understand the application of all that music theory I learned during piano lessons. I started developing an ear for harmony. My sight reading began to improve. And I was really enjoying myself! I'd love to get back into that sort of thing.

Hmm... as I read back on this list, I can't help but think that this sounds like a bucket list. Maybe it is, in a way. But if so, it only encompasses a subset of what my true bucket list would be (not that I've given any thought to said list :-P) I prefer to think of this as "Helly's List of Personal Interest Pursuits". Or better yet, "Helly's Highlights from the SBCC Adult Ed Catalog".... hey-- perhaps that should've been the title of my post ;-)

Hump Day Hodgepodge

Ah, Hump Day. That middle of the week we've all got to get through. Allan always looks forward to Wednesdays because that's when we get bagels at work. I quickly got tired of them, though, and stopped eating them a few months ago.

These days, I look forward to Wednesdays not only because its end signals the arrival of the weekend, but because now it's the one day in the middle of the week that we get a break from after-school activities. It's only one kid, and it's only two things-- swimming and karate-- but when you get home with just enough time to shower, eat dinner, and get ready for bed, it gets tiring after a while. Last quarter was especially tiring, with swimming MW, small group Tuesday, and karate Thursday. Never has the term TGIF been so appropriate... and so welcomed! So this quarter we decided, for the first time, to forego small group, especially since Todd's schedule has shifted so that he now has karate twice a week instead of just once.

So... no posts for a while, as you can see. But I didn't want to let *too* many days go by without trying to post. But what to write about? These days my head is filled with work and Todd. Not the most exciting of writing material, and Todd has his own separate blog anyway. So here's a hodgepodge instead:

Came back with the little man on Saturday night. Went to church as a whole family on Sunday, for the first time in... I don't know how long! Between Todd's absence, lack of car, and Allan's commitment to help with sound/equipment, I honestly cannot remember the last time the 3 of us all went to and left church together... in ONE car!

Speaking of cars... we got Allan's car back yesterday, yay! Nice new bumper and trunk, and shiny coat of paint on the back. They cleaned and vacuumed the interior as well! What service :-) I also spoke with the officer who took my report on the hit-and-run, who gave me an update on what they'd found. Although they found the guy, who had injuries consistent with the crash, and on whom the cops have had their eye on for a while, they couldn't outright arrest him for the hit-and-run, since there were no eyewitnesses to confirm that he was the one behind the wheel when it happened. Still, they at least have the car and its insurance information, which means that our insurance will have someone concrete to pursue for reimbursement. As for the guy, well, there's the civil suit option available to us... although I have no idea what we could actually sue FOR.

Ever partake of the phenomenon that is Craigslist? We found our living/dining room furniture there, as well as our current rental deal. Well, our company has its own internal Craigslist, the Bulletin. It's typically used to sell all sorts of things, or get recommendations for services such as doctors, hairstylists and auto mechanics, or request things. I've used the Bulletin for recommendations. I've used it to sell stuff. I've used it to buy our current VCR/DVD player when our VCR conked out. And yesterday, it came to the rescue once more. I realized too late that I'd left Todd's swim trunks at my parents' house. His first swim lesson of the season was that evening, and they wouldn't allow him in the pool without appropriate swim wear. So I scoured the various stores in the area-- K-Mart, Sears, sporting good stores both big and small. None had any in stock, as it was off-season. So I decided to try the Bulletin, figuring that there HAD to be some parents out there with boys older than Todd, who would be willing to sell the now-outgrown trunks! Sure enough, I got several responses and came away with a nice pair that Todd really liked! :-) All hail the mighty Bulletin! :-D

Time for more meetings and then, I hope, an uninterrupted afternoon of working... without having to worry about rushing off by 4:30 to pick up Todd for something. And nothing to rush about doing tonight... just laundry. Ahhhh.... Hump Day isn't so bad after all!

Friday Five: Dreams

Haven't done a Friday Five in a long time, and thought this one was rather interesting.

1. What did you dream about last night?
2. Do you record your dreams in your blog or a journal?
3. Do you think dreams are messages our bodies are trying to tell us? If so, are you real big on trying to interpret all the details?
4. Do you remember your first nightmare?
5. Have you ever had a recurring dream? If you did, what was it and what do you think it meant?

1. Not last night, but the night before: This dream was so vivid that I thought it was really taking place. I dreamt that Joe and Tabitha were still at our place, and we were talking (just as we had actually been doing a few hours earlier) and next thing I know, we're having an animated conversation about... code reviews. (Don't say a word, Joe :-P) Ever had one of those days where your mind was so absorbed with work that it carried on into dreams later? *shudder*

2. I used to. I thought maybe I could find a pattern or some meaning or something. And most of the time, I really only jotted them down because they made for some "interesting" memories. But it turns out that it's really only interesting for the first few hours after waking up (especially those dreams that evoke emotional reactions), maybe a few days if you write it down. After that, when I went back and re-read them, I found them little more than a hodgepodge of weird scenes. So I stopped doing that.

3. I think sometimes they are. Sometimes they're obviously side effects of having your mind concentrate on something in particular for a long stretch of time (like the code review dream :-P). Sometimes they just embody wishful thinking. And yeah, once in a while maybe you might uncover hidden meaning in your dreams, but I don't think that happens often enough to warrant spending much time trying to interpret them.

4. I don't really have nightmares. I've had dreams where I felt very sad or very angry or very happy, but never ones where I was anything beyond mildly frightened. The worst have been dreams where I'm being chased or attacked, and I turn around to attack the attacker back with something powerful, like a big knife or gun or baseball bat, but fail: either I miss, or can't stab/hit hard enough. Or else the attacker is just super-resilient and still crawls along the floor despite my having pumped a dozen bullets into him ;-P Still, those are probably the "worst" dreams I've ever had, and even they seemed so surreal they evoked more frustration ("How come I can't beat him down!?") than fear.

5. Quite a few, in fact: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=28049135&blogID=419651721

How about you?

Word Leprosy

I suffer from a bad case of it. And the condition only seems to worsen with time. AND it's apparently contagious! I don't know what causes it-- maybe when I speak my mouth goes just a hair faster than my mind, and trips over the words.

Last night I was reminded of the term "Spoonerism", in which the first letters/parts of a couple words in your sentence are inverted. Happens to the best of us. I had noticed that it was starting to happen to me more frequently. Such gems as "tark shank" (shark tank) and "cue toot turtles" (two cute turtles) and "turgers and bacos" (burgers and tacos) are among my favorite Spoonerisms that have slipped from my lips.

Oh, but Helly takes it a step further. How about switching whole WORDS around?
"Your son made a book out of houses"
"The stuffed turtles have leads of paw"
"Our cash got checked"
"Rub a tummy's alligator"
"Your head's son is hard"

My absolute favorite? Is also one of my favorite TV shows: "Animal's Funniest Planet". You know what's especially sad about that one? The fact that I've termed it that so often, the real title (Planet's Funniest Animals) no longer sounds correct to me. It sounds strange and mixed up.

Still not funny enough for you? How about something akin to mixing metaphors: mixing words to create new meanings.
Classic example is one I presented to my brother-in-law a year ago: "I have a beef to pick with you!" (combination of "bone to pick with you" and "beef with you")
Another time, I accused Allan of being the "sauce" of my frustration (combo of "source" and "cause")
And when I made an age dig at Allan, it didn't quite come out right: "You have to forget, I'm not that old!" (combo of "you have to remember" and "you can't forget")

I have to say, that the most amusing of all my word mixups is the title of the post itself. For a long time, we joked about my having "word dyslexia", which is a rather appropriate description of all of the above word mishaps. Then one day my mouth was *really* getting ahead of my mind, and I totally blanked on the word "dyslexia". Next thing I knew, my mouth blurted out the first thing that came to mind, and from that day forward, we laughed about my "word leprosy" instead.

Funnier still? (or sadder, depending on how you look at it) This stuff is contagious! Allan never had trouble mixing up words before he met me. Now he commits word leprosy almost as often as I do. Even young Todd is starting to show signs of it. Fortunately he's able to laugh just as hard about it as his parents laugh at their own foibles with the English language.

Ah, word leprosy. One might be persuaded to seek a cure, but then where would all these ridiculous gems come from? Nah, I think I'll keep it.

How about you? Care to share any memorable doozies that came flying out of your mouth? :-)