Moratorium: Wish List

If all our days are numbered...

I am trying to minimize EVERYTHING at the moment, and I request that you think of this when you decide to gift something to me. 

Most likely, it will come down to me keeping whatever you give me FOREVER (because I am a hoarder of sentimentalism). So, I ask that you'd choose your gift wisely. 

Words sure do mean a lot. And I'm not talking about a cutesy Hallmark pre-written and typed paragraph with your signature below. I'm talking about a heart-felt notebook or scratch paper letter of humor, wit, wisdom, haiku, personal requests, a bible verse (not just the reference), personal remarks and criticisms of the past three-hundred and sixty four/five (depends how you count it) that I have just lived. 

I always see a birthday as the one day in the year when everyone is obliged to make sure that they are nice to you. You can't get in trouble on your birthday - it's like you get off scott-free. You can eat breakfast in bed. The spotlight is awkwardly on you when they sing (we've all been serenaded by a chorus of beloved), and you feel like you've accomplished something, but you can't quite figure out what it actually is. You feel appreciated because everyone gives you a hug on that day, EVERYONE.

But I also always see a birthday as a guest book for a rude awakening. I know that you are so glad that I'm born (maybe you aren't or could care less), but tell me why. How, specifically, have I impacted you, and how can I impact you more? How I can be a better person. Tell me how I can reflect the actions of my savior better. Tell me the areas of my life that you see fit for a revival. Tell me what I could have done better. Tell me how I should give the glory to whom it is so rightly due. Tell me how you grow within 365 days. Remember, rude awakenings welcomed.

why do I keep counting?...

Screw New Year's. A birthday is the real marker. 

The thought, time, and detail that goes into a gift will not go unnoticed by me. The simplest of gifts can go a long way, even if it is a piece of tree bark with my name etched onto it and you took the time to etch. 

But, if you aren't too keen on any of the above, I would suggest the fleeting following:

laptop

non-Vera Bradley backpack for school

textbooks

earplugs by the bucket load (purple and 33 level)
figs and passion fruit

Moratorium: Dog Days Are Over, for now

Contrary to my previous disdain towards dog ownership, I would have to say that I quite miss those hounds. Although their hair floated in the air like smoke plumes dusting my food quite nicely, their need for attention kept me awake 22/7, and their unhygienic propensities and practices absolutely appalled me, a part of a vivacious personality possessed by these dogs is missing and has taken a toll of absence on my previous anti-dog life. I may not necessarily condone the mixing of animals and humans under one roof just because we don't even wear shoes in our own house, but that doesn't mean that I'm not willing to pursue the possibility of welcoming a dog into my life. It most likely won't be a dog that sheds in the least, but other than that, who doesn't want to share their day to day happenings with some goofy little creature of consistent loyalty... Calling all dogs...

Moratorium: Blue Screen of Death

My laptop has been giving me the Blue Screen of Death every day for the past two months. I have backed everything up, but I was still quite worried when the newest BSofDeath said "Wiping Hardrive" and "Dumping disk information." 

Bottom line is, I will not be having internet for the next few days, like it matters. But I would really like to have a working laptop when I return. 

I keep waiting for my computer to explode at my fingertips any day now. 

The line below the bottom line is: I need an affordable and appropriate for college use laptop. Help. Ideas. Reviews. And NOT a Mac. I can't spend my life savings here people. And it must be lightweight - my other one weighed roughly 8 lbs. Not fun hauling the first-world problem I seem to be having back and forth from the library ten times a day. 

Request:

laptop

affordable

college use

Good memory GB

Not a Mac

lightweight

has skype camera

CD/DVD drive

SD card memory slot

USB things

at least a 10" screen

preferably not the extra number keypad on the right side

now go, find me the best laptop. I've done all of the consumer reports and sales research. Now I want to hear from the general public.

Moratorium: Dog Days Aren't Over, yet

Insomnia....
What to do if you find that you have a terrible case of this: I found that I felt a lot better after walking around the dark creepy house holding my head in my hands and howling at the moon.

After about an hour of comforting these precious dogs because of neighbors setting off fireworks far off in the distance THE DAY AFTER JULY 4th, I decided that if I could suck it up, they could too, right? I mean, they're only little doggies; I'm only a stranger in their house, and I'm not going anywhere for the next couple of days.... Days, people....

But I'm employed, so I will gladly accept this house arrest. Going to bed at 1am was the earliest I've gone to bed, but once I got there, nothing. There I was, stretched out looking at the ceiling fan spin in seemingly lulling circles. It wasn't until I reluctantly glanced at the clock in a daze that I exclaimed "are you kidding me!" I decided to pull out one of the books from the bookshelf that I put in my car. Thought I'd try to find this wifi, just to let the world know that I am alive. I might be going crazy talking to the dogs and watching the sun trade places with the moon, but at least, well, I might be going crazy.

This blog post is really just a glorified Facebook status. Most of these posts are; Facebook only lets you use a certain amount of characters, and I happen to be extremely verbose with my woes, pet peeves, reality checks, and human nature criticisms.

 Necessity is the mother of invention. Insomnia and boredom will spawn my inner prodigy. I will go memorize more pi - useless inventions of Alzheimer prevention . Perhaps it's my necessity that needs to change so that the invention is actually productive and useful.

Let's just say that memorizing the alphabet backwards takes two minutes, tops. What a great lonely cereal eating activity at five in the morning. I only wish that the alphabet was longer. But there are more languages...

 Don't worry, I brought plenty to do, I'm just whining / getting settled in / coping with the fact that almost every American household lives with animals. Talk about refined barbarism.

Ecuador:7: nickel-clad horse, Quito style

My first dose of Ecuadorian "culture" was that of the nickel-clad horse. What be this phenomenon?

Two balanced cobwebs of steel.
Perpendicular feature in rotating motion.
Human mechanics of direction versus gravity.
If you guessed a bicycle, then good on you!

The road was blocked for several miles making way for a Sunday of leisure. Hundreds of families, businessmen, teenagers, and serious cyclists alike participated in the phenomenon of the human-propelled machine. The graceful flow of bicycle traffic versus the rushed and chaotic automobile traffic was quite a sight to see! Participating in the automobile traffic was almost painful because I wanted to become one with the traffic, directing as I pleased rather than being carted around in a touring bus. I wanted the bicycle to conduct a jolting sense of oneness with the rickety pavement.

Every Sunday Quito encourages this communal participation, and I was intrigued.

Mark Twain's Taming the Bicycle comes to mind, and if you won't make time to read the incredibly simple essay that is very much worth the read, I've included excerpts that will draw you click on the link and read it in full anyways.

"There are those who imagine
that the unlucky accidents of life--life's "experiences"--are in
some way useful to us. I wish I could find out how. I never
knew one of them to happen twice. They always change off and
swap around and catch you on your inexperienced side. If
personal experience can be worth anything as an education, it
wouldn't seem likely that you could trip Methuselah; and yet if
that old person could come back here it is more that likely that
one of the first things he would do would be to take hold of one
of these electric wires and tie himself all up in a knot. Now
the surer thing and the wiser thing would be for him to ask
somebody whether it was a good thing to take hold of. But that
would not suit him; he would be one of the self-taught kind that
go by experience; he would want to examine for himself. And he
would find, for his instruction, that the coiled patriarch shuns
the electric wire; and it would be useful to him, too, and would
leave his education in quite a complete and rounded-out
condition, till he should come again, some day, and go to
bouncing a dynamite-can around to find out what was in it."

"But we wander from the point. However, get a teacher; it
saves much time and Pond's Extract."

"...and I started out alone to seek adventures.
You don't really have to seek them--that is nothing but a phrase
--they come to you."

"Get a bicycle. You will not regret it, if you live."