I just lost my rain of thought

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?

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: