A Whaleful of Petunias

Blast from the past!

2009-07-07T19:18:00.000-07:00

Today, the internet brought me back two of my all-time favorite childhood time wasters which I thought I'd lost forever. First, on Facebook, I saw a link to Tetris. No big deal, right? There's eight million tetris games on the internet. No. This is the 1989 Tetris which I have literally played to the point of my Game Boy's batteries exploding. Complete with Russian dancers, rocket ships, and no mercy.

That made me think of this incredibly awesome, yet obscure game I used to play on my Game Boy that I foolishly traded in to get a Game Boy Color, thinking I would never want to play it again. Lies. I wanted to play it the second I traded it in and ever since. It's been years of me wanting to find this game again, but I always forgot the title, and would eventually find it again. Luckily, I have a very dedicated nerd husband who went through every obscure Game Boy Game, going only off of "It has a space ship and you have to shoot sh*t but it's like a puzzle." And amazingly, he found an online port of the NES version. May I present: Quarth.

Want to play? Yes you do. You can find Tetris here, and Quarth here. Enjoy.

Sometimes a person just needs to vent.

2009-06-03T04:38:00.000-07:00

I know I've posted everything that's been going on in my life on Facebook, but it's almost two in the morning and for some reason I'm still awake, so I thought that I would put down everything in a blog post and go to bed. Because people have a lot of friends on Facebook, and sometime my updates get lost. In no particular order:

Health- right now, I'm in the middle of week 2 healing up from my surgery. I had an ovary removed because it got taken over by a benign fibroma. It made me very ill, and as much as I am sore, I am feeling much better and am looking forward to when I'm completely healed so that I can start exercising again. My muscles are killing me from a lack of activity followed by a burst of activity. I can't even take a shower for too long before my back starts hurting. Stupid fibromyalgia.

School- I got accept to UH Manoa (yay!) and just got the "well, we got more money from you, so I guess you're serious about coming, have a course catalog" package, and now I have to get the health form filled out, which shouldn't be that bad. But it's a new thing, and of course I'm nervous. Namely about having to drive to Honolulu every morning. It's not fun. That and I have no idea what courses to take. Jay assures me that someone will tell me, but I don't even know if I want to stick with prelaw. I haven't even started college yet and I'm thinking about changing my major.

Etsy- I've started leaning towards beading more on Etsy, but have ended up getting more business in person, maybe it's because I'm cute, but I just bought some more supplies thanks to my mom, and hope to sell some stuff, because I feel bad about Jay buying frivolous things for me, as much as he can afford them, because I'm used to being able to afford my own stuff. As much as this will change when I start going to school and will be getting a government paycheck again, I want to do my bit. I'm trying to do some graphic design work done too, but there are so many graphic design artists on Etsy, I am definitely doing more for people I know.

That's about all the ranting I'm going to do for now because anyone who reads this knows all this already, and I should probably try again to sleep. I'm not having a bout of insomnia or stressed out or anything, it's actually quite stupid in that my husband's erratic breathing patterns jar me awake. It could be because I'm a little tense.

Happy Birthday Jay!

2009-03-26T22:54:00.000-07:00

May you have many more! <3

Introducing...

2009-03-24T17:17:00.001-07:00

Seamus "Flopsy" McGee!

For all the Fencers Out There

2009-03-10T16:56:00.000-07:00

As with all sports, it's a good idea to do some training on your own to keep your body in good condition and improve your skill. Here is a good workout laid out by Colin, the leader of our local salle, Salle Honolulu. Anybody in the Oahu/Hawaii area or avid fencers who will be visiting long enough to get the itch to practice, feel free to contact me for more info. Without further ado;

follow the classic pro boxing championship model: 15 3-minute rounds
with one-minute rests between each
start out simple and add one move per round
end simple: the last round is just lunging and recovering

example:
round one: advancing & retreating (varying speed and size of steps;
also include stutter-steps and body feints)
round two: add lunging (varying size of lunge and type of recover -
backward, forward, scissors)
round three: add another footwork move
and so on.

when you run out of footwork moves, add bladework moves
when you run out of moves, change from one round to the next by
visualizing (imagine an opponent), or change what you're visualizing
(imagine a different opponent)

when you fence bouts in your head, imagine winning close bouts and
come-from-behind bouts

This is also a good workout for non-fencers to build stamina and agility!

Lisez et Repetez

2009-03-06T17:24:00.000-08:00

I'm really addicted to StumbleUpon, and came upon this page, which interested me in a dorky, linguistic way. And it made a point. Most students, including myself in middle school, when given a passage to read and questions to answer, will translate the passage first and then answer questions. This is fantastic if you're training to translate passages, but does not mark true fluency in the language (in my opinion.)

So what is true fluency? I believe it's when you can converse in a different language with no hesitations. This means there is no time to translate into English and back; imagine how awkward that conversation would be with all those pauses! If this becomes easy, as it does in most advanced classroom/immersion settings; why doesn't this extend into reading passages? I believe it's the structure of the assignments. Sure, the source material is in the target language, but the questions? The discussion afterwards?

In my opinion, if the questions of the assignment are in English, I am forced to translate. If the questions are in the target language, there needs to be no change in mindset. This still leaves room for completing the assignment without real understanding of the text- with a few simple vocab. words, you can copy and paste the answers. The burden, therefore, lies on the teacher. To make sure you understand the fine nuances of the language that disappears during translation and to increace fluency, what better way than to discuss it in the same language?

As much as I hated the language school for doing *everything* in the language we were trying to learn, it taught us more quickly (albeit in a 'sink or swim' method) and made sure that we understood written texts and not just mastered the use of a dictionary.

There. I just regurgitated an article for you all. Discuss.

Friday the 13th- Fun for the Whole Family! Mmm-hmm!

2009-03-02T17:16:00.000-08:00

I like going to movies at the right time. For example, seeing Friday the 13th on Friday the 13th. It's just cool. Anyways, I do this, and am totally enjoying the experience. Sure, there are people talking, but it's a cheesy slasher flick. There were two people, however, that both annoyed me so much I couldn't decided who was more annoying. So, I will leave it up to you, dear readers.

Person #1: Sat directly behind us and started to make grunty noises. You know the ones. "Mm. Mmm mmm. Unh unh. Uh. " This doesn't seem annoying, but I trust you, it was. If you have experienced a Grunter, you know.

Person #2: Sat to the left of us. Decided a movie about marijuana, boobs, and violent, bloody, deaths was the perfect one to bring their *clearly* under five year old daughter to. This is clearly more morally reprehensible than Person #1, but is it more annoying? No. Unless you factor in the fact that said daughter kept crying that she was scared and asking what was going on, only to be told by her mother and father to be quiet. The cherry on the top was every time there was nudity or sex (which happened quite often) the kid's mother would very loudly shout "don't look! don't look!" Maybe I want to look, which is why I bought tickets to this movie. Maybe you should have hired a babysitter instead of taking your still potty-training toddler to a rated-R movie about someone who kills people.

Question: which is more annoying to sit next to, and why?

Catch-up Photos

2009-03-02T16:55:00.000-08:00

Someone said to me that I haven't updated my blog in awhile, which is true. I have about eight bajillion photos of my husband fencing, which he has been doing very well at, he's now rated with the USFA. I picked the one that to me represented all of that. Here is my husband looking awesome and judging one of the matches at a recent tournament.

For Valentine's Day my husband took me out to a dinner cruise off of Waikiki, which turned out to be a tourist trap but was a very romantic gesture, and at least we got this nice sunset shot out of it:

Next post is a rant with a feature from my favorite vlog (sxephil)- a question of the day. Which is more like a question of the post, since until I get a Mac I will rarely be on this computer, which I will only say nice things about in hopes it will publish this post.

Mele Kalikimaka!

2008-12-24T20:50:00.000-08:00

As we were driving to a nice little Italian restaurant for some nice Christmas Eve dinner, and Christmas carols were playing on the radio, just as I was pining over a definately snow-free Christmas; a little Christmas miracle happened. Now the pictures don't really show how beautiful it was since I was in a moving car, but without furthur ado, behold: the Christmas Eve rainbow. (oooooh)

Christmastime is here!

2008-12-16T15:30:00.000-08:00

Well, it's not going to be a white Christmas here, but we're doing out best to make it as home-y as possible. I hope everyone's having a great holiday season!

Christmas is coming...

2008-11-17T23:43:00.000-08:00

...need gift ideas? Then check out my new Etsy shop featuring my handmade jewelry and accessories! Click on the link below or check out the previews on the sidebar!

Check it out!

May I introduce you...

2008-11-07T19:14:00.000-08:00

...to the best dessert/snack/beverage known to man. It is neither smoothie, not ice cream, nay not even snocone. And you can't have any. Unless you live in Hawaii, that is. I am talking about none other than the magnificent Shave Ice. (oooooh.)

But this is a mere sno-cone you may say. Nay. This is pure awesomeness poured onto snow. Not blue syrup squirted onto chunks of ice similar to gravel. This is pineapple, mango, and exotic flavors that I can't pronounce combined to form a slushy treat that explodes into little mini dessert-gasms in your mouth. (Flower cup only 25cents extra).

It's really good.

and now...

2008-11-03T18:10:00.000-08:00

And the lady on the right we call "Miss Tinsel"

Aloha!

2008-11-03T17:37:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday to me!

2008-11-03T16:47:00.000-08:00

For my 21st birthday, my husband took me and a couple of friends to a real Hawaiian (touristy) luau, and it was amazing! Here's just a few of the photos and videos I took with my new Sony Cybershot camera (another of the many awesome presents I got), including the obligatory "coconut shot" (coming soon).

The whole evening was a series of events signaled by some dude blowing on a conch shell, which was really cool.

There was a demonstration of the ancient Hawaiian tradition of dudes in sarongs climbing trees for coconuts. I really wished that my camera zoomed in a little bit more!

Then they showed us how to fish the old-fashioned way, which made really good use of the "paparazzi mode" on my camera, but the series would make this post really long. I totally felt like a press photographer or something.

And of couse, there were hula dancers!

Videos and some more photos next post!

Hell Yes.

2008-07-28T13:37:00.000-07:00

So I went to an absolutely amazing 311 concert in Atlanta on Saturday and feel obligated to post a video of its awesomeness. This was taken a whole heck of a lot closer than I was though, due to me showing up at 1900 and asking if there were any tickets left.

I thought this was funny

2008-07-23T17:14:00.000-07:00

Not meant to offend, but you have to admit it's kind of funny. Maybe a little?

http://www.illuminati-news.com/articles2/00210.html

And in other news...

2008-07-17T16:35:00.001-07:00

I'd like to welcome my new niece to the world, Meagan Elise. For new pictures, please check out my brother- and sister-in-law's family blog. As a bonus, you get furthur evidence my nephew is going to be a Calvin Klein model.

enjoy!

thought.

2008-07-17T16:26:00.000-07:00

Have you ever heard a song or seen a movie that struck you in such a way you can feel your heart breaking or you start crying? I know I have, and most of the time I can think and figure out why; figure out what event or what person that scene/lyric reminds me of. But sometimes I can't and in these moments the emotion is no less powerful.

This made me think about Jung's theory of the collective unconscious. A possible reason for this phenomenon is that a particular scene strikes a chord to the memories or thoughts that are common throughout humanity and although I haven't personally experienced a similar situation it is still powerful.

Although there could be many other reasons. I could have a repressed memory or simply not remember; or who knows, I could have experienced it in a past life! Although I find compelling evidence for a collective unconscious in many little things such as similarities in religions that developed independently of each other, like the prevailing existence of a trinity, or the beauty many cultures find in tattooing.

Just a thought.

2008-06-03T13:18:00.000-07:00

this post in haiku
freedom is found through control
stress is your savior

No doubt...

2008-05-08T14:59:00.001-07:00

I'm not inviting any debate on this post, sorry. I would just like to say that my nephew is going to be either in the media or modeling industry, and here is some photographic evidence:

Good day sunshine!

2008-05-06T14:44:00.000-07:00

I took a language class a couple years ago, and at the beginning of it we had to pick names in that language. I chose mine at random and got stuck being called "sunrise" or Dawn I guess would be the English equivalent, for a year and a half. I hated it, one reason being i still can't pronounce it properly and the other reason being that I really don't consider myself a sunshiney person.

So I got to thinking, which I do sometimes. This train of thought came when I was complaining how much it sucked to be awake in the daytime. See, I naturally wake up sometime around sunset and fall asleep around dawn. Vampire jokes aside, I realized that for some people/mythological beings, dawn is the time to stop and rest. Or, turn to ash. So I now take pride in having a name that represents the concept of subjectivity.

Warning: a little more controversial than usual

2008-04-14T17:47:00.000-07:00

Being a huge fan of tattoos and piercings, I've been reading the BMEZine blog (modblog.bmezine.com) and I read an article that was really interesting to me.

There's been a new(-ish) trend of scarification tattoos-cutting out skin and letting it heal to make a nice pattern/image. This practice is controversial in itself, as some people can't seem to differentiate it from cutting oneself. Anyways, the article. It's about a scarification tattoo to cover up self-injury scars. I think this is a beautiful way to reclaim your body in a positive way, although I'd prefer people to get tattoos over them because that doesn't involve more cutting. I'm going to post the link, but another thing I've learned from reading up on this is that some people are "triggered" by images of self-injury, so be warned: clicking on this link/looking at this blog will result in images of self-injury. For serious.

http://modblog.bmezine.com/2008/03/14/self-injury-cover-up/. There's a link to another similar article, but I thought this one was prettier, so I posted this one.

And here's where I differ from this blog: cutting yourself, while it is a way to let out emotions, it is not a healthy way to release emotions. If there's nobody else you think you can talk to, call 1-800-784-233. Love to you all.

Edit: I just wanted to add/clarify something: scarification is in no way "new" or a "trend". People have been ritually scaring themselves as part of traditional rites of passage for a very long time. What I meant to say is that the practice had caught on in mainstream society to form new art and images in addition to traditional designs and patterns.

May I introduce His Royal Highness...

2008-04-14T17:38:00.000-07:00

The Duke of York!

This is one awesome cat, because he saved my mom's life. My mom was rudely awakened after much persistence by Duke. As soon as she woke up, she discovered that her blood sugar (she's diabetic) was dangerously low and would have dropped to coma-inducing levels were it not for the meeps of this adorably cute cat. Now, I don't care what you say about biological this-lady-gives-me-food reactions, this was one heroic kitty who cares for his momma a lot, and deserves quite a bit of tuna, or turkey, his favorite dish. I've heard stories like this about pets for awhile, and I honestly thought they were B.S., but I have never been so credulous or appreciative. Thanks Duke!

World Autism Awareness Day

2008-04-03T05:41:00.000-07:00

Was yesterday, but the post still works, right? To commerorate the first ever World Autism Day, major news networks were broadcasting specials all day about Autism, including one called
"Finding Amanda", a "low-functioning" Autistic woman who lives by herself and seems to communicate rather well via a computer. (check out her YouTube page at http://www.youtube.com/user/silentmiaow).

Also mentioned was the startingly increasing rate of children with Autism, although it's worth mentioning that the definition of Autism was expanded recently which can account for some of the increase in numbers. Symptoms can include repetitive and "purposeless" behavior, interests limited in focus, impaired social interaction, etc. (Pulled shamelessly off of Wikipedia.)

Autism is a disease that covers such a broad range of people from low- to high-functioning. Another similar disease is Asperger sydrome, in which a person can usually function very well in society save some autistic-like behaviors. This leads to another theory of mine: what we call Autism is simply a more extreme manifestation of behaviors inherent in all human beings. Indeed, the interaction with one's environment as described by people such as Amanda seems to be a description of the oneness with the universe many people are looking for.

So here's what I want you all to do:

For people reading this on my blog, please respond by commenting. Then, if you like, copy and paste into the social networking site/blog of your choice (linking to my blog definately welcome). Sound cool? Ok, here we go:
----------------------------------------------------------------
The first ever World Autism Awareness Day was on April 2nd, 2008. People all over the world have been trying to raise awareness of this condition, and those with autism are trying to close the gap between them and "normal" people.

The question is, how abnormal are these behaviors: lack of social interaction, extreme focus on one subject or sensation, repetative or "purposeless behaviors"? I'm certain that everyone has something that would be classified as "autistic", and to help close the gap, I'm going to say one of mine:

Over my life, I have spent countless hours letting my hand rest lightly on water, marvelling at how it feels right before the tension breaks.

Please, help close the gap and help people realize that Autistic people are not freaks or retards, but people just like any of us. Repost this with one of your "little quirks".

For more information, please visit www.autism-society.org

The deadliest sin of them all: sloth

2008-03-20T04:25:00.001-07:00

I'm working on an actual post about body modification, but I just had to post this picture in light of my "thou shall not...pollute?" post:

Thanks to my husband for finding the photo!

A little PSA

2008-03-14T04:20:00.000-07:00

This is Chris Hansen, from Dateline NBC.

If for some reason you find yourself doing something insanely illegal and wrong, such as trying to have sex with 12 year olds or steal people's credit cards, and you see this man, DO NOT tell him how much you like that show on NBC or how you've seen Chris Hansen on TV doing something amazingly like what he's doing. Not only will your life be ruined by your public humiliation and/or jailtime, you will look like an absolute idiot on national television.

On a more serious note, over the past few weeks I've had nothing better to do at two in the morning than watch this man's shows. I've also read a few news artilces, and what I'm wondering is this: how legal is this show, exactly? Who are these people that they can set up stings? I've seen these shows, and it's not like they're monitoring chatrooms for stuff that's already happening, they bait these people, when the targets say maybe they shouldn't come over because it's a bad idea, the decoy begs them to come over anyways.

They also do an identity theft show, which I'm amazed they got away with. They uncover this ring of people who steal credit cards, dupe single people into shipping the goods to Africa, then sell said stolen goods. Do they go to the police? Hell no. They set up their own electronics site, ship goods (without charging the stolen cards) to places, and travel to Africa and then to Switzerland to meet with someone involved in the ring, saying they wanted to invest in the operation. At no point were the American authorities contacted. This can't be legal. How far are we willing to go for good tv?

Lawsuit against the show
Official site of the group behind the show
Clip of "To Catch an ID thief"

Thou shalt not pollute?

2008-03-11T04:25:00.000-07:00

Somehow a movie called "14urteen" doesn't have the same ring to it. As of this week, there are seven new ways to put you soul in a state of mortal sin, because 12-13 commandments and the original seven deadly sins apparently just doesn't cover it any more. Here are the old deadly sins:

Pride
Envy
Gluttony
Lust
Anger
Greed
Sloth

And here are the new ones, which look suspiciously like re-hashed old ones:

Environmental pollution (poss. sloth)
Genetic manipulation
Accumulating excessive wealth (greed)
Inflicting poverty (greed)
Drug trafficking and consumption (greed/gluttony)
Morally debatable experiments
Violation of fundamental rights of human nature (love thy neighbor, thou shalt not kill, etc.)

Maybe it's just me, but has the human race come this far that we need our sins spelled out that specifically? Did anybody really think mass genocide was okay until just now? More importantly, are things like pollution mortal sins or just a really bad idea? As human beings, we can not help but pollute the environment in at least a little way. Am I now going to hell because I don't drive a hybrid? Maybe it's not that extreme, but I think I kind of have a point.

I think as a society, we have become too used to trying to find loopholes. "Well, Jesus didn't specifically say I shouldn't shoot heroin or destroy the planet, so I don't need to go to confession". What we need to do is use a little common sense and have a little bit bigger conscience and maybe in fifty years we won't have a book of things that will send us to hell.

< / soapbox>

Your 15 minutes

2008-03-10T19:09:00.000-07:00

A lot of the controversy surrounding different topics is based on what people view as scientific evidence. For example, the age of the earth. Most scientists come up with an estimate of billions upon billions of years, due to carbon dating, fossil records, etc. But others place it at 6000(?) years old due to the bible's statements.

I have some problems with this. I'm all for using the bible as the basis for spiritual beliefs. Being against killing because the bible says it's wrong, I can see that; morality is subjective, whether people see that or not. But using the bible as scientific proof? That's kind of like using the word you're defining in a definition. The Bible is not inherently true just because the bible says it's inherently true. That's like me writing the Gospel of Dave the Bartender on a cocktail napkin and using it to disprove quantum theory just because the napkin says the napkin's true.

But enough blasphemy. Who's to say carbon dating's more true? Here's an idea. Everything as you know it, all the material things, all our memories, everything, was created 15 minutes ago. 30 minutes ago? That was another memory put in our heads 15 minutes ago just as 1865 and marmosets were. You can't prove that idea's not true.

And I must apologize, I seem to have lost my point. Just things to think about. I think what I'm trying to say is you can't be too critical of other people's ideas because your ideas are probably just as fallible as anyone else's. Maybe.

<3

Attack of the fish babies!

2008-03-10T06:35:00.000-07:00

Recently I read a book called Spook by Mary Roach. It covers a wide range of topics about the afterlife from reincarnation to old-school seances and the author's personal journey to see if any of these things are true. Here's a couple of points I thought were interesting:

When does the soul enter the body? This is a really important question in the abortion debate; if a fetus has a soul, it's a lot more difficult to come to terms with killing it. But if it's just little more than a tumor, no biggie. The authour cites a Catholic priest named Norman Ford who says that a fetus doesn't have a soul until about 2 weeks after conception, after the formation of twins is impossible. Kind of makes sense, but does that mean the dude's okay with abortion before 2 weeks? If you accept that theory, do you?

Point two: in ancient times, the soul was seen as a flowing bathouse model, the soul and consciousness flowing like water in the form of spiritus. Later on, Descartes had a similar model but based on then-modern anatomical advances of the day. In the sixties, the mind was seen like a tape recorder, and now, the mind is seen as a computer, that can multi-task and "run out of disk space." In each of these eras, these theories were as true as each theory after it. As the author says, "I've often wondered whether the inventors of these machines created them in their own image of how their minds worked or if they related the machine to the mind after the machines were created".

Thoughts?

P.S.-If anyone's seen an ultrasound of an early fetus, they really look like alien fish babies, and not baby humans. They might have a soul then and might not, but they still look really weird.

I christen thee...new blog!

2008-03-10T05:36:00.000-07:00

Welcome to a Whaleful of Petunias! I figured I'd start off the festivities with an explanation of the title. Here's a quote from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:

"Another thing that got forgotten was the fact that against all probability a sperm whale had suddenly been called into existence several miles above the surface of an alien planet. And since this is not a naturally tenable position for a whale, this poor innocent creature had very little time to come to terms with its identity as a whale before it then had to come to terms with not being a whale any more. This is a complete record of its thoughts from the moment it began its life till the moment it ended it. Ah ... ! What's happening? it thought. Er, excuse me, who am I? Hello? Why am I here? What's my purpose in life? What do I mean by who am I? Calm down, get a grip now ... oh! this is an interesting sensation, what is it? It's a sort of ... yawning, tingling sensation in my ... my ... well I suppose I'd better start finding names for things if I want to make any headway in what for the sake of what I shall call an argument I shall call the world, so let's call it my stomach. Good. Ooooh, it's getting quite strong. And hey, what's about this whistling roaring sound going past what I'm suddenly going to call my head? Perhaps I can call that ... wind! Is that a good name? It'll do ... perhaps I can find a better name for it later when I've found out what it's for. It must be something very important because there certainly seems to be a hell of a lot of it. Hey! What's this thing? This ... let's call it a tail - yeah, tail. Hey! I can can really thrash it about pretty good can't I? Wow! Wow! That feels great! Doesn't seem to achieve very much but I'll probably find out what it's for later on. Now - have I built up any coherent picture of things yet? No. Never mind, hey, this is really exciting, so much to find out about, so much to look forward to, I'm quite dizzy with anticipation ... Or is it the wind? There really is a lot of that now isn't it? And wow! Hey! What's this thing suddenly coming towards me very fast? Very very fast. So big and flat and round, it needs a big wide sounding name like ... ow ... ound ... round ... ground! That's it! That's a good name - ground! I wonder if it will be friends with me? And the rest, after a sudden wet thud, was silence. Curiously enough, the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias as it fell was Oh no, not again. Many people have speculated that if we knew exactly why the bowl of petunias had thought that we would know a lot more about the nature of the universe than we do now. " -Douglas Adams/The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Long quote I know, but it sums up this blog. The universe is random and all of us try to put our own spin it, trying to make sense of it all. So I'm going to put down some ideas, some I agree with, some maybe not, and I'd like to see what everyone else thinks. Just try to be nice and open-minded, and I'll try to do the same.

<3