Filed under: WHOA
For some odd reason, Twitter has recently spread like wildfire and everyone has been talking about it. I suppose it’s the newest internet craze. The funny thing is that my sister has had it for quite some time and she was trying to get me on it. When I asked her what was so special about it, she told me this story about how Twitter saved this guy’s life who was wrongfully imprisoned in a country where authorities just look the other way. My interest was slightly piqued. One day out of boredom I signed up for an account but then I left it alone because I got lazy. My co-workers and I had a conversation over lunch about it and it appears that some feel they are not quite witty enough for Twitter. I’m not sure I am either. But…I have it, so if anyone wants to follow me and read my not witty updates, my username is jenni0s (that’s a zero). I’m not totally fond of trends, but I thought I’d check it out. I’ve always kind of liked status updates, so why not? And it’s kind of nice that you can do this from your phone anywhere you are. I realize you can do that on Facebook too, but I feel like this is even better because it’s not just exclusive to Facebook users. By the way, Twitter seems to have invoked much confusion in terms of how to conjugate its verb form. So much so that Stephen Colbert was able to get Meredith Vieira to say that she has “twatted” on the Today Show, but I guess it was edited out of the online version.
Digression: All you Asian glowers out there beware…!!! Your glow could be an indicator for a throat cancer!
Filed under: Adventureses, BURST!days, Freundinnen, WHOA, roomies, teevee
Things are quite crazy right now. I am awkwardly trying to balance school, work, and something along the lines of a social life. This is hard! And my stomach is still so full of Tex-Mex appetizers. BLECH. Bad idear.
So much has happened since I last wrote. My dear friend Allison finally turned 21 and got drunk as a skunk, the lovely Bryan made an appearance in our lives again briefly (I’m certain he will have a recurring role), I saw my first feature length silent movie, strange as it was, I have crossed paths with quite a few celebrities at random moments, I have experienced some kind of weird delayed hangover-type deal that lasted three days (concurrent with Allison getting drunk as a skunk), went to some lame bar downtown but its money portal made up for it, had our first roommate outing in Hollyhood to watch Robot Chicken, experienced crickets in our livingroom (I am looking at one right now and it freaks me out because I pass out here all the time), watched Batman a third time…….yeah, it’s been crazy daisy.
BUT I am quite chipper. Aside from the overwhelmingness of balancing life, things are going good. I’m happy 
By the way, I forgot how awesome Pushing Daisies was until I saw the first episode of this season and all my gushy feelings came rushing back. Oh how I love that show.
Since we are on the subject of TV now, Henry vs. Gio!! Although I was rooting for Henry, I always thought she would choose Gio because she can still be young and spontaneous, whereas choosing Henry would tie her down, so I was almost sure she would choose Gio, only to find the season beginning with her choosing neither. That was a little disappointing because it was such a big deal and caused me much inner turmoil, yet it took but seconds for her to resolve that issue. But the decision seemed to make sense. If you’re choosing between two and you’re having that much trouble, maybe it is best to choose neither because apparently you do not love one more than the other if it’s that hard. I was looking to Betty for a little guidance, but she took too long to get here.
One more thing, I love Pam and Jim! And I saw Dwight at LACMA on Saturday. AH!
Almost anywhere you go in the United States suffers from some sort of natural disaster periodically. The midwest has their tornadoes, Hawaii’s got volcanoes, Florida has hurricanes, the east coast has blizzards, and some places suffer from boredom. California’s got earthquakes. And yesterday morning at about 11:45, we were hit with a 5.4 in Chino Hills, which was slowly downgraded throughout the day, starting at a whopping 5.8 when it first hit. It didn’t feel like a huge quake to me, but it wasn’t a small one either. I was lying down in my tub when it happened, so being close to the ground, it sounded very much like a stampede was going through my hallway. All I could hear was the rumbling–and by the way, it is amazing how much like an earthquake an earthquake sounds with all the rumbling and such–and when it first started, I thought it was my dog running down the hallway, but then it multiplied into like 100 of my dogs running down the hallway. While it was going on, I could hear my dad laughing and then he was yelling, “Jenny! Earthquake!” He eventually headed straight for the front door, with my dog trailing behind him and then barking at the voice that came over the PA system at the high school across the street that was telling everyone to evacuate their classes. Some pets bark before disasters hit, but Patches just gets angry when people are talking too loud. Unsure of what to do, I grabbed a towel and stood in the bathroom doorway, but feeling rather uncomfortable, I just yelled to my dad and asked if he thought there would be any aftershocks as if he were an earthquake predictor. Rather than going outside like my other family members, I just retreated and finished my shower. If this earthquake were any bigger, I would probably be the first to be smushed by falling debris.
After that, the news (and by “the news” I mean ABC 7 because that’s all I saw) decided to talk about this earthquake the rest of the day, occasionally calling people and asking them how they felt during the earthquake and exactly what they were doing and how everyone around them reacted. They also sent out street correspondents to ask people the same questions, every once in a while changing to a clip of the ABC 7 seismograph to show that, yes, indeed, an earthquake had occurred as indicated by the needle making wider squiggles than usual. They also paid a visit to an office where cracks appeared on a wall and some of their ceiling tiles collapsed. I haven’t heard anything about anyone being injured, so I am glad. I hope everyone is okay. The quake made my knees buckle a little because it has been quite a while since an earthquake of that size has hit us, in all honesty, I didn’t feel like it was as big a deal as people were making it.
Little side note, I watched the Dark Knight on IMAX on this epic day. It was awesome and so clear! And did anyone else see Edison in it?
My AC adapter for my laptop caught on fire sometime around 3am this morning. This is not an exaggeration. It started out smoking and then when I tried to use it again, there were sparks. And then a scene from Backdraft took place. That last sentence might be an exaggeration. On top of all my Ubuntu problems, everything I plugged into my laptop seemed to malfunction as well. Something was a little off with my laptop charger to begin with, but it got much worse within the last couple weeks. It wasn’t anything a little twisty maneuvering couldn’t fix, but last night it just refused to work. I twisted and tweaked the little nubbin that attaches to my laptop and it just wouldn’t charge. My laptop was on the brink of eternal hibernation (until I could get a new charger, that is) and the little orange light wouldn’t turn on. I started to hear this strange beeping noise and wondered where it came from. As I leaned in to the boxy adapter thing, I realized it was coming from there. I’m pretty sure adapters aren’t meant to beep, but it was doing it. I tried to move the wire a little again and the beeping shifted as the wire did. It started to get reaaally hot and the rubber got a little bloated. The beeping heightened and all of a sudden, smoke spat out of the wire. I unplugged it right away to prevent it from blowing up my computer and let it cool off. I stupidly thought if I tried it again maybe my laptop would charge, but this time was worse. MUCH worse. The beeping went all crazors and I did a little twisty action on the wire again, but all of a sudden I heard sparking noises. A bunch of smoke came out again as the sparking noises ensued. Then, i saw the sparks and they went craaazy! Even after I pulled it out, the sparks kept going. It was so traumatizing… I was extremely sad my adapter was now useless, but I found out my dad’s charger is the same size, which bumps me up to only really sad. Even so, it’s not like I can take it with me, because it just so happens that he’s returning from China this week. He wasn’t supposed to be back until later this month. So my sister is lending me her laptop for school, which I am very grateful for. She was going to pass it down to me eventually anyway, she says. I was thinking of buying a new adapter for Drew Jr, but she doesn’t think it’s worth it since he’s pretty old, but he works fine for my needs, so I kind of want to save him. I don’t know what to do. The adapters are like 20 bucks on eBay, which isn’t that horrendous, but she doesn’t even think it’s worth it to spend that much on little ol’ Drew Jr, emphasis on the “ol’.” Well, anyway, if anyone wants to be generous, my computer is a Compaq Presario 2100 series laptop who enjoys long walks in my backpack and being fully charged and turned on. 
And before I forget again, Duck Confit (con-fee) is kind of fun to say.
Three posts within two hours? Your lucky day! I just wanted to come back before I forget. Last week’s freak weather made me really want to go snowboarding, but all the resorts are closed. By all, I mean all the ones I checked, and by that, I mean Mountain High. I heard it snowed in Baldwin Park, which is pretty close to where I live, and apparently there were tornadoes going nutso over in Riverside. It was weird enough that there were tornadoes in Colorado but for them to move over and attack us in California? Nah-uh girlfriend. We’re only supposed to get earthquakes and be plagued with only two seasons (I wouldn’t call it a plague to its face because I love our weather).
…being alive, being a girl, being a guy, being in love, just celebrate life. On Thursday, same-sex marriages were legalized in California, which is reason for celebration. It’s been time for a change for quite a while now, but there will always be people who will be against it. Just like there are people who can’t see past race or socioeconomic status or hair color or being an emo kid. In light of the celebration, I will disclose this little known fact that shows just how sheltered I am. When I first started college, I didn’t know what was meant by “marriage equality” and I thought it sounded so stupid, like married people wanted equal treatment or something. It didn’t make any sense to me. Yeah, I totally live in a bubble. Anyway, I don’t think same-sex marriages violate “the sanctity of marriage.” Any couple who is lucky enough to be in love should be able to express their commitment to one another. True, physically, same-sex couples are incapable of having children, which nay-sayers feel is a sign that it’s not “right,” but who’s to say that hetero couples are better or more responsible when raising children? I don’t think gay marriages are right or wrong, but I think they deserve the same rights as everyone else.
By the way, my tongue hurts. I think I burned it or bit it but now it’s got one of those little bumps. Grosss. Just thought I’d share that with you.
By the other way, I forgot to add this because my tongue was bugging me so much when I wrote this post: I think it’s really cool that people can effect change when they really believe in something!
Goodbye my loverrr. I chopped off all my hair on Sunday. The hairstylist guy was pretty amazing because he totally cut my hair in about ten minutes. He did it with such artfulness, too. I bet he could cut the hair of ten people in one hour. Craziness! It hasn’t totally kicked in yet, but I’m liking it. It’s so easy to maintain! The last time my hair was this short was eightish years ago! Haven’t decided where that ponytail’s going to go yet. Thinking about making it into a wig for my friend for Christmas. I’m sure he’ll love it.
Conversation about haircut with cousin went something like this:
L: Donating your hair? That probably wouldn’t sit well with Chinese people. You know, they’re really superstitious.
Me: Huh
L: Like, you know, there’s those people…Like, they can do magic with anything that belonged to you. They can use your hair and cast spells on you and stuff.
Me: Like voodoo?
L: Yeah, exactly! All they need is one thread of your hair. Those people can put curses on you and make you always feel like you’re surrounded with this evil presence.
Me: OMG why are you telling me this? I don’t want to hear about voodoo.
L: That’s not all. They might also make dolls of you and poke needles in it and stuff and you won’t be able to control it!
Me: That’s really freaky. I just wanted to do something nice. I would think kids in need would be a little more appreciative than that and not perform voodoo on me.
PS Random thought, but why does the polar bear in The Golden Compass sound just like Aslan from Narnia? Coincidence?
Filed under: WHOA
It is so weird when a fire actually hits close to home. I hear about forest fires all the time in SoCal, but it’s never really that close to me. I also hear stories about people who are affected by Fire Season, with my friends from San Diego actually having to evacuate the area and come home when the SD Fires hit, but it’s still not the same as actually seeing the flames spread right before your own eyes. A little more than half a day ago, a fire started around the Chantry Flats area in the San Gabriel Mountains. It was crazy because not that long after it started, I saw the smoke coming from that area and wondered what it was. As Allison, Wendy and I headed towards Pasadena, we saw a huge cloud of smoke and figured there was a fire and hoped it was contained. As it got closer to nighttime, it was more apparent just how big this fire was, but it still looked sort of contained. We decided to go to the mall parking structure’s roof to get a better view and I was pretty shocked, because I could actually see it moving and growing, heading northwest ever so quickly. I heard from someone and read that there were boy scouts stuck up there for a little bit because of the fire, as well as a few hikers. It is still pretty hard to believe, but each time I see that orange glow north of where I live, I remember that it’s really there and people are being evacuated from their homes and firefighters are risking there lives to put the fires out. It’s pretty mindblowing. From what I know so far, no one was hurt and I hope it stays that way. What is weird for me is that there was no news about it on television at all, but it is right in front of me. I’m thinking it’s because it isn’t a huge fire or anything, but it’s something that I can actually see for once, so it is breaking news to me. There is practically no news about it online, not even in the San Gabriel Weekly, but I found three articles upon Googling “fire santa anita” (and yes, I have tried several other searches but this one came up with the most), which are this one, this one, and this one. The funny thing is, the earliest one to come out was from a San Franciscan news site AND the one from the LA Times has like a bunch of incorrect info. Way to keep an eye out for your county, newspaper.
Sorry the pics are a little fuzzy:
