The Scattered Thoughts of Me

Here is a collection of lists, presented in top / bottom format. For those of you who are not familiar with this format (that'd be everyone, since I just made this format up a little while ago), I'll explain it to you. Suppose there are three items in a list. They will be appear in order as shown below:

1. The absolute best / the absolute worst
2. The second best / the second worst
3. The third best / the third worst

I'll give you an example.

Car brands I might be able to afford sometime in my life:

1. Honda / Pontiac
2. Nissan / Chevrolet

Honda is the absolute best, and Pontiac is the absolute worst. Nissan isn't as good as Honda, but second place is still pretty good! Chevrolet is not quite as bad as Pontiac, but it's not in an enviable position, to be sure.

Got it? Good. Here come a few:

Cars:

1. Ferrari 456M GT / Hummer H2
2. Porsche 911 Turbo / Hummer H3

Movies:

1. Braveheart / Return to Me
2. The Godfather / A Walk to Remember
3. Napoleon Dynamite / How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

Soft drinks:

1. Mountain Dew / Pepsi
2. Manzana Lift / Root Beer
3. Coca-Cola / Dr. Pepper

Star Wars Movies:

1. Return of the Jedi / The Phantom Menace
2. The Empire Strikes Back / Attack of the Clones
3. The original Star Wars (A New Hope) / Revenge of the Sith

Languages I Actually Know:

1. English / Spanish

Languages I wish I knew:

1. Japanese / French French
2. Korean / Canadian French

TV Sitcoms:

1. The Simpsons / Seinfeld
2. Futurama / Everything else

Mexican Foods:

1. Bistec tacos / Cold wet pork rind soup

Sports:

1. Baseball / Basketball
2. Pro Football / Men's Figure Skating

Sports Teams:

1. Atlanta Braves / New York Yankees
2. Tennessee Titans / All other American League baseball teams
3. Nashville Predators / New York Mets

States:

1. Tennessee / Texas

Big Airports:

1. Atlanta / Houston

And finally........

Foods:

1. Big juicy perfectly cooked New York strip / Cold wet pork rind soup
2. Bistec tacos / Bad kimchi
3. Chicken wings from Toot's / Broccoli

A crazy thing happened the week before last. I was driving down the road, minding my business, staying in my lane, getting ready to veer to the right at a fork in the road, when another driver decided that he wanted to veer left at the fork, across two lanes of traffic. I slammed on my brakes and heard a pop, but didn't slow down like I should have. I lost about 95% of the car's braking power. Luckily, the guy who wanted to veer left decided not to, and after I veered left, I had a lot of clear, open road in front of me, so nothing bad happened. It did startle me just a bit though. Sort of like when I saw the hill in front of my house on fire.

I ate homemade pizza last night. Sarah taught me how to make it, because she felt sorry for me, because I was getting frustrated with the people at Domino's and Pizza Hut. Some of the most frustrating times I've had in the last few months have been trying to get pizza. So we made pizza last night. (Actually, last night was the second time; she taught me how to do it a few weeks ago). It wasn't very fancy, just mushrooms, red onion, and green pepper; but it was really tasty. Actually, Sarah did most of the work; I just cut up the veggies. Before you get excited, thinking that I'm starting to grow up and enjoy veggies, I should remind you that technically green peppers are fruits, and mushrooms are fungi, so only the onion is a vegetable.

So yeah, those are some of the things that have been going on lately.

Side note: If you have that nice high-speed internet access we love so much, I suggest going to Dennis' vlog. He has some nice videos of Mexico stuff and random stuff. I like the muzak in the ones from Cafe Tacuba and Xochimilco. You can also watch videos of his cute little boy Nathan. But only if you have fast internet! The videos are 10-20 megabytes long. You'll also need a somewhat recent version of Quicktime.

I had a really fun time at Xochimilco on Saturday. It was like a big party... it was a big party. On boats. There were about 27 people or so there, so we had to get two boats and put them together on the canal. Someone rented mariachis to play a couple of songs, and I got my ears blown off by the loud horns as I sat directly in front of them. I don't have a digital camera, so I can't put up any pictures here. But Dennis and Amy both are good with posting pictures on their blogs. Write me if you need a link, and I'll send you one.

Quote for the day:

VisionLine which was motivated from natural-friendly beauty offers you to be simple and new beauty.

[taken from the package of a set of Korean silverware - stainless steel chopsticks with large soup spoon]

I'm still alive. I'm still here. I'm just tired.

Maybe it's because I haven't done any real exercise since before Christmas. Maybe that's why I'm so tired all the time. Why haven't I done any real exercise? Because I'm too tired in the mornings. It's a vicious circle, I know.

It's burning season here in Mexico City. They like to burn the dead brush on the hills all around the city. I've known this for a while, so it shouldn't have surprised me when I looked out a few minutes ago and saw the hill in front of my house on fire. It did startle me, however. But only for a few seconds. I'm better now.

I didn't write a Thanksgiving blog entry last year. Nor a Christmas entry. I didn't even write an entry celebrating the birth of my new nephew Elijah. Neither did I write a New Year's blog entry. It's already February now. Will I write a birthday entry? How about a Valentine's Day entry? Some friends have planned a big party in Xochimilco on Saturday for my birthday. I'm excited. I don't know about Valentine's Day, but I imagine there won't be anything to write about this year.

I finished the "space trilogy" by CS Lewis a couple of weeks ago. It was really good. I had been reading those books since sometime in November (or perhaps October). The first two flew by, but the third took a while to get going. I really liked all three. CS Lewis is my favorite writer. I've read more of his books than any other.... probably more CS Lewis in the last year than all the others combined.

If you read this all the way through, I thank you. I'm writing this for you, Faithful Reader. That's the name I'm going to give you. I could've titled tonight's drivel "Scattered Thoughts," but I didn't want to overuse that phrase.

I wish I knew what to do. My term here will end at the close of the school year in early June. I have some ideas in my head, but I'm not so sure about any of them. I know what my "best" plan would be, but it would involve some serious quick developments. Something really big coming from the nothing that exists right now. And I don't really know that it's best. Hence the quotation marks. I'm writing in vague language here, I know.

I am going to stop writing now. Faithful Reader, you are the greatest.