...

My life feels like it's become one long stream of moving stuff.

Moving and Hypochondria

The trouble with being a hypochondriac moving lots of boxes is that I can never tell the difference between a pulled muscle and a serious heart condition.

Chivalry

I've been pondering the nature of chivalry recently. Not really the traditional chivalry that was just a code to keep in check a bunch of murderous rapists otherwise known as knights. I mean the modern idea of chivalry. I've come to the conclusion that the grand, flowery gestures are not nearly as good as a simple considerate act. Chivalry seems an excuse to playact as a noble person so others can point to you and say "Aren't they nice?" But real chivalry should be something that only benefits the other person.

This isn't to say I think people should start slamming doors in other people's faces. But the person should be just as courteous in private.

Moving Day 3

Had too much fun yesterday and forgot to blog. Now I'm back to moving stuff. But I at least my storytime craft was popular today. Paper snakes. Who would have guessed.

Moving Day 2

More moving to do today so I want to blog before that starts. yesterday it took a lot longer than I anticipated and I almost didn't make a blog on-time. Problem with blogging in the morning is I haven't really done anything yet.

Moving...

Spent the day moving into our new apartment (only 15 miles from our current one). I have also decided on a new rule for the blog. No pictures unless I feel it's relevant. I could do a picture of moving boxes, but it doesn't really add anything. I don't have any pictures of the new apartment.

Who Wants a Dragon?

Best dragon book for preschooler's I've seen. Cute but not sickeningly so with a good rhyming verse.

Melusina

"The tragedy of Melusina, whatever language tells it, whatever tune it sings, is that a man will always promise more than he can do to a woman he cannot understand." - The White Queen by Philippa Gregory.

I'm loving this quote.

Book Club: The Big Over Easy

Today I have a book club for this book. I'm only partway through. It's cute, and better than I imagined considering it's humor. But it's no Pratchett and doesn't grab me. I could have finished, but I read quite slowly when I'm not particularly interested and this book didn't exactly grab me.

Un arc-en-ciel

Today I saw a rainbow and couldn't take a picture, but here's a picture of one I saw in February while I was taking the train home from Santa Barbara.

One of Those Days

Where it's not like I didn't do anything, but what I did do isn't particularly blog-worthy. Sometimes I consider sharing personal thoughts, but my thoughts of late are a bit too private for the Internet at large. Instead, I'll just share this picture I took in my family's backyard in Oceanside. I took it when I was visiting the week before last. It's some sort of unidentified fruit. I always see a new plant in that yard whenever I look.

Shopapocalypse!

Found this awesome t-shirt today but I was also disturbed by two different brand names I saw while shopping (neither which make this lovely shirt). One brand was called "Self-Esteem" and the other "Personal Identity." The end is near if those have become things we need to buy.

Clash of the Titans Review

Okay, so there actually isn't much more to the review other than monster, monster, monster. But that's what I paid to see, so it was good enough. The 3D wasn't the best I've seen. I felt like to was 2D with some depth when people were just standing around but my sister ducked some harpies and it was still better than 2D, so I was happy. I also liked the guy with blue eyes. He amused me.

And Io rocks.

Monster, monster, monster!

And that's all the review you'll get out of me tonight.

Cupid Review 2

So, I loved this originally series when it first came out, particularly the acting of Jeremy Piven. But after seeing the new one, I see how dark this one is by contrast and I have to say I prefer the lighter, happier one. Which, of course, got canceled even sooner than the first one. But every episode of the newest Cupid made me happy, gooey, and believe in love.

I also prefer the Claire in the new series to the one in the old. The old Claire seemed to act unprofessional every episode whereas the new one I actually bought as a real but repressed psychologist.

Still, I wish either of the series had been longer.

Cupid Review

I'm back home and back to being sloppy with my blog. I'm pretty busy today, so I don't currently have time for a full review, but I just wanted to say that I watched all the episodes of this show revival on Hulu and loved them all. I also loved the original show, but after watching some episodes on YouTube, realize I loved this one even more and am even more heartbroken it was canceled.

Hopefully, more to come on that.

Celebrate

Too tired to say much else so do as I say. Go forth. Hug a library.

Gender Roles

Bah, normally I don't take a strong stance on this sort of thing but this Esquire article really got under my skin so I've provided corrections in red.

11 Secrets Men Don't Know About Women

The truth about "girls' night out," wedding obsessions, and more revealing insights into the minds of women.

By Stacey Grenrock Woods

More from Esquire

• The Best Bars in America
• Are You the Best Dressed Man in America? Enter and Win
• Women We Love: Photos of Highly Attractive Women
• The Best Dressed Men of All Time
• Quick Health Secrets from Dr. Oz

1. Women don't like explosions, in art or in life. WRONG! I totally just saw How to Train Your Dragon in 3D with my little brothers and while I enjoyed the story, the 3D fireballs here and there did not go unappreciated.

2. Women aren't as funny as men. We're often cleverer, frequently wittier, but to be really funny demands a certain clownishness that our grace just does not allow. It's fine, really it is. Bah! Maybe YOU'RE not as funny, but I certainly have my moments. Anyone doubting if a woman can be funny needs to look up CommunityChannel on YouTube.

3. We grow pathetic goatees and look awful in cargo shorts anyway. ??? Okay, not gonna touch this one.

4. Women are aware of about 10 percent of the things men actually think and say about us. Best to keep it under five. Meh...mine tends to hover around 0%.

5. Women love to be taken out to eat. It makes our day. Free food is good. Making a guy feel like it's his social obligation to buy it and my social obligation to be dependent, not so good.

6. A clean apartment will get you more bedroom antics than you'd think. Okay...this is probably true. Should probably clean my place...

7. Given the chance, women will smell and re-smell the scented-candle display at the store. We really can do this for ages. Um...depends on the candle.

8. Our clothes are complicated, our shoes unforgiving, and our constitutions delicate, so please, valet park. Pfft, it's your own fault for dressing that way.

9. Every living woman likes wedding stuff. Even lesbians. Er...okay, I used to look at wedding magazines, but I know plenty of girls who didn't.

10. "Girls' night out" is usually some other woman's idea. Logically, doesn't someone have to be the other woman in this situation?

11. Women would rather be with you. We like you. Honestly, we talk about you all the time. True, guys can be good company because they don't come up with stupid lists like this. But neither does my sister.

Coincidentally, this goes very well with this YouTube video I just watched. Whereas I don't think that men and women are exactly the same. Women, for one, pop out babies. I do agree with the video below that a lot of gender roles are cultural.

Earthquakes and Helicopters and Why I Would Be a Terrible News Reporter

I think it was yesterday...definitely after the earthquake. Which already means I have to back up.

I drive my sister nuts with how I talk because I do this all the time. I start a story and then back up and talk about what happened before.

But, yes, I looked it up and the earthquake was on Easter. It is the first earthquake I've ever felt in California. Despite this state's fame for them. I was too far away for it to be more than a noticeable rumble. When I described this to my mother, she asked if I'd actually heard a rumble. To be honest, I can't recall, but it definitely felt like what a rumble sounds like. Very unlike an earthquake I recall in Taiwan where the room physically shifted to the right and then back again. My mother actually called right afterward because it didn't even occur to me it would be on the news and that I would have to assure people I was all right. At the time I was playing a computer game with my brothers. I didn't even properly process what was going on until my step-mother said it was an earthquake. At which point I went and stood under a door-frame because I was always told that's what you should do. No one followed my example. I probably should have been more insistent but the earthquake stopped soon afterward.

Then, I think it was yesterday but this is probably why I should blog every day even on vacation--a helicopter flew over the house several times announcing something I couldn't quite understand. It occurs to me now that they could have been screaming evacuation orders and I probably would have still ignored them unless someone else said something to me. I really need to work on paying more attention. In my defense, my family's house is near a military base, so my brain assumed it was some kind of military drill. My brother finally noted that they were announcing the name of a missing boy that lived on this street.

Seriously? And they employed a helicopter. At first I was convinced my brother was pulling my leg. But listening closer, I discerned bits and pieces of a repeated name and physical description of a missing person. I still couldn't hear some bits properly, but my step-mother soon confirmed the story.

Hours later they said the boy was found. My brother said he was at a friend's house. I'm still amazed they called out a helicopter to search for a boy who wasn't thought to be in a silver weather balloon.

But all this adds up to why I should never be a news reporter because even when stuff like this happens, I don't think to write about it until after I've already forgotten when exactly it did happen.

Flying Observations

Wouldn't that be great? If observations could fly? Then perhaps they could buzz from head to head. Of course, then they might assualt innocent people with their observationess, and then where would we be?

So, since this is a totally unrequired blog, it doesn't need to follow any rules. One rule I've always had before is to have a picture. But I'm beginning to wonder how good that is. Seems like most the time I just pull pictures from the web, so I didn't even make them myself. But I started adding pictures under the assumption that it's always nice to have something to look at. So do you guys like it? Do you guys care? Are there any guys out there even reading this? I know my sister and a few friends read my blog fairly regularly, but I never know who's reading when. Anyway, any feedback on whether you still want me to put up pictures with each required post would be appreciated.

Since this is unrequired it may also be better. I feel I've fallen into the funny links trap of blogging and not saying much about myself. Some days it's too personal. Some days I'm just too embarrassed to admit how little happened. I feel, as a writer, I should be able to make even the most banal experiences interesting. Or, in the very least, lead a more interesting life. Perhaps if I pushed myself to write more about myself, I'd feel a higher lever of accountability as far as that's concerned.

But traveling is always an experience. Good or bad, I always notice something. For instance, my flight was cancelled, so I had to take an earlier flight which was already delayed. It was a little nerve wracking receiving a boarding pass for a flight that should have already left, but they made absolutely no remark about it at security--which was dead. I was seriously the only one there. Was no one flying today? Isn't it close to Easter? You'd think some people would be heading home.

Anyway, I noticed on the flight information screen that it said something along the lines of Reason for Delay: Aircraft Delayed. The type of sad not-quite-thought-out thing that always makes me laugh a little inside.

The first plane I rode out to San Francisco was also the smallest I've ever been on. The size of a private jet and only a handful of people were on it. About this time the drowsiness side-effect of the Zyrtec I took kicked in, and I spent the majority of my airtime in a semicoma. So, unfortunately, while I think the Zyrtec worked a little better than the Claritin, it didn't work well enough for me to want to deal with being tired and confused every day I take it.

On the second larger plane, as we were waiting to deplane, I overheard a little boy chatting up a woman in the seat behind him. "Are you wearing lipstick?" You know, boys can wear lipstick too. They make it blue and green." A lady standing in the aisle shared a look with me, and I expressed my belief that this boy was a future ladies man.

While riding in the shuttle to my family's house, I saw a single firework explode in the sky and watched it fade into nothing. It was all by itself, not followed by anything. There also wasn't any reason I could think why there would be a show tonight. It made me smile because of something someone said to me recently about fireworks. But part of me now wonders if it might have been just a mirage bought on by my slightly addled brain.

Upon arriving, I found my two little brothers have both grown significanly since I last saw them. This makes me sad because I want to be their big sister for as long as I can. If they outgrow me, I'll just be their older sister. But seeing as the oldest, nearly 12, still thinks he's a small woodland animal, I guess I'm still both for now.

I feel a bit of a bad sister too because I remembered to hug Curtis, the eldest, but not Dennis. In my defense, this is not due to lack of affection but mostly because he's so quiet and reserved. Curtis walked right up to me, whereas Dennis gave me a sidelong look and slunk off to play on the computer. But I shall have to hug attack the boy tomorrow to make up for it.

Anyway, I should probably go to bed soon as I'm sure they boys will want to play tomorrow.

San Diego / Oceanside

I'll be visiting my family from April 2nd - April 12th, so no blogs will be required during that time. I might blog if I feel like it, but oftentimes I don't. We'll see.