Mood » Emotional
Music » “In My Arms (Kaskade Extended Mix)” by Plumb
Novel » Dracula by Bram Stoker

Days before my younger brother’s 18th birthday I had asked him what he wanted to which he replied, “nothing”. Finally after pestering him for 3 days in a row, he said, “ugh, friends”. Bewildered, I thought, “whoa hold the phone, did my brother just say he wants friends for his birthday?” I mean he’s quite popular; he’s hilarious & easy going so his reply puzzled me.

Since I’m his older sister & a girl–come on, let’s face it, girls are nosy–I asked him what was going on with his social life. Just last week a bunch of his friends came over to hang out with him! After listening to his story I tried to console him by asking him, for the 10th time, what he wanted for his birthday. I had to make light of the situation somehow! Despite feeling a little down he managed to crack me up as he replied, “friends. Not on DVD”. Just for kicks, I’m going to buy the Complete Seasons of Friends. Afterall, it is a funny show & it’ll make him laugh.

Moments after talking to my brother, I wanted to smack the person who had frustrated him & got me to reflect on our family dynamic. There have been times when we’ve had screaming matches; not to mention the physical fights we got into. Let’s just say he sits &/or jumps on me & I lose as his body nearly collapses my lungs. Despite our fights, at the end of the day, he’s still my brother–my family & best friend. He’s insensitive 95% of the time but when I really need him, he’s there for me. He’d have to murder someone before I’d stop caring about him. No matter how horrible our fights, give or take a few days, we’ll be okay without even apologizing to one another. We just know that when communication commences, the fight is over.

There are those whom continue to torture their siblings for reasons they’ve long forgotten because it’s all they know. In my honest opinion, I find it unfortunate when you treat your friends better than your own family. Of course, there are situations when it’s obvious why you feel like you’re adopted & your family is out to get you but a lot of us take our family for granted. I couldn’t bare the thought of not being able to bug my brother for the rest of his life. Even when he yells, “WHAT DO YOU WANTTT?!” when I visit him in his computer room; there are days when I don’t bug him & he comes running into my room, jumps on my bed, & pesters me. It’s just his bothersome way of saying, “hello, I miss you running into my room when I’m trying to kick some butt by shanking this guy in my game”. My life wouldn’t be the same without that little bugger. Yet, I have a feeling that right after I write this we’re going to get into an argument about nothing. So go give your sibling/family member a hug & let them know that you care! Don’t take your family for granted.

Updates

Since I lost my e-mails, I don’t know who made some of the icons so I’m waiting for them to e-mail me back so I can announce the winners. Your patience is greatly appreciated!

As you all can see, I have a new layout! It took me forever to code but I’m happy with it.

Vote Away!

Vote for me for Best CSS.

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Mood » Happy but tired
Music » “Skeletons” by Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Novel » Dracula by Bram Stoker

In the morning, I awoke to a very dismal sky & anticipated rain as the day approached. Not knowing how badly the weather would change, I headed out to pick up Pearl to go eat brunch with a few friends. Pearl told me that her mom demanded her to come home immediately as a storm was going to hit very soon. We rushed to get into my car & low & behold, the right lane of the street was flooded! I probably had visibility of 10 feet because it was just pouring.

Her mom called again & warned us to stay indoors as a tornado warning was issued. I don’t live in the mid-west; I live in Southern California & tornadoes are just uncommon as bright pink Mercedes. Naturally, both of us were freaked out especially because the tornado was supposed to hit my city & other neighboring cities. We stopped by an El Polo Loco for shelter but the ceiling was dripping! We would probably die if the tornado hit that El Polo Loco so we drove to the hospital across the street. Oddly enough, it stopped raining so we thought we would be okay if we just drove home. Although they do say that it clears up before a tornado hits…but luckily for us, it just stopped raining.

When I got home, I turned on the news to get updated & some cities were just flooded beyond belief. There were people in kayaks paddling (click for pictures!) their way around the streets. Strangely enough, the tornado completely missed Huntington Beach (the city where I reside, please don’t stalk me) & news teams had announced that the tornado warning for my area had been cancelled as it would hit south of me & more inland. Phew! My house didn’t get swept up into the sky & land in the land of Oz.

Although my fortune is another man’s misfortune as the tornado did a lot of damage elsewhere. It just made me feel extremely thankful & lucky. No one I know got hurt & my house didn’t suffer any damage. As happy as I was, I felt terrible for those whom have lost their homes. There were boats & cars flipped over in my area but I’m pretty sure the inland empire just got a beating. Despite the devastation inland, everyone high above sea level (aka the mountains) is rejoicing for the plentiful amount of snow they’ll receive.

I was told that the storm would be worse today. Eek! I may have dodged a bullet yesterday, so let’s hope I’m twice as lucky! Here’s a picture my friend showed me of the pier that’s like 2.5 miles away from my house. Click to view.

Speaking of natural disasters, Haiti’s earthquake was so catastrophic! It’s so heartbreaking to hear about so many deaths. The pictures I saw of the mass graves, violence, & the ruthless looting were just incredibly appalling. Make sure that if any of you donate–you send your money to a trusted organization that won’t just pocket the donations.

Vote Away!

Vote for me for Best CSS. (Pretty sure Gillian won most interesting blog…unless I ask 80 friends to vote for me..)
Vote for the best icon!

21 Comments »

Mood » Recovering
Music » “Fine Without You feat. Jennifer Rene” by Armin Van Buuren
Novel » Dracula by Bram Stoker

It turns out that Wendy has renewed the server that I was on so I was able to grab my old database back. Ivy reminded me to log into the server using the IP & it worked! BUT… I do not have my old e-mails so I can’t match the photographs with the photographers from the last Photography Contest so please let me know which one was yours!

Some of you know about Tiffany Bee & let me tell you, it’s a huge pain in the butt to get back online. This is where my friend, Kevin Le, saves the day. I was talking to him last night about whether or not I should totally re-organize my picture folders on my computer despite the hours of renumbering I’d have to do; he told me I should. I knew he was right; I wasn’t going to regret it later despite all the labor I’d have to go through. I’d have to renumber all of the pictures, re-upload them to the server, & then correct the links on my site. Whine, whine, whine. But, being well organized will save you so much time later. I told Kevin that if he found a program that would renumber all of my pictures I’d make him a delicious meal. So he did & thus my love for Irfan View came to life.

Seriously download this program. It’s free & you no longer have to manually renumber your files ever again! It does it for you that I probably saved myself 3 hours renumbering ALL of my pictures from 2005 to 2009. Kevin Le is my life saver! Now I get to make him this. Except I’ll be making the tuna raw because raw tuna tastes better than cooked tuna.

Updates

25 Icons for The Office (I really need to re-organize this page)
Vote for the Best Icon!

OHH! Do me a favor & vote for me here: click click! I think I’m nominated for “Best CSS” & “Most Interesting Blog”. I probably won’t win, but we’ll see.

P.S. I need to make a new layout A.S.A.P.! This layout is boring me.

Plugs

19 Comments »