detroit/detroy.

Sore feet, an empty wallet, and a full car.
I think my work is done here.

So, i'm nearing the end of my detroit shopping trip. I'm just about to head off to bed, after a long day of mall-wallking. Tommorow, after grabbing our complimentary breakfast (YES.YES.YES. freecoffee.) we're going to one last department store, and then we're gonna call it quits.

Over the past two days, i've been to Lakeside, Somerset, Great Lakes, Partridge Creek, 12 Rivers (well, 12 something. ikindaforget) and a collection of other department stores, book stores, whole sale stores... It's pretty amazing how many places you can get to when you plan out your day.

We planned out each day before even getting started, which i found a little bit too military-esque, but it proved effective in the end. If we hadn't set about a 4 or 5 hour limit per mall, i'd probably still be in the first one right now. I'm not an obsessive shopper, but once i get started, and the momentum kicks in, i can go for quite a while.

Of the two days, Friday was much better, and also much worse. The sales on Friday, American Thanksgiving, were much more drastic, and so the crowds were much more dense, animated, and not to mention obnoxious. As my Dad described it, it seemed like people had the mentality that simply saying "excuse me" gives one the right to trample any amount of human bodies that would please them. What i saw on friday would only support that idea.

Even so, the picture i had in my mind of how it would be was nothing like it actually was. Just from all the talk i've heard about "Black Friday", i kind of had the picture of multitudes of people performing death strikes on each other's Xephoid Processes in a frenzy to obtain the last 99% off A&F scarf. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the crowd were not in posession of a 9th degree blackbelt in ninjutsu, people were not extremely violent, and A&F having any sort of sale whatsoever would have meant the end of the world.

Somehow, through the crowds, i was able to make my rounds through the shops, and make it to the rendezvous point unharmed and on-time. And i did it solo. Oh what a shopper i have become.

Anyways, it was great fun, and i think that any of you guys would have enjoyed it just as much as i did. I discovered some new shops and brands that i'll have to remember about for next time. andnowi'mtired.

BTW.

spentlessthanahundredbucks.

song: none, my dad is snoring away behind me, wouldn't want to interrupt that.

paychecks.

Crippled paycheck plus Justin plus shopping trip...
is equal to disaster.

So i might have already blogged about a badly written paycheck that i received last month from my job... i'm not sure, and i'm too lazy to check. So bear with me kay?

Well, quite unfortunately, i recieved another check last week which was off by quite a large sum of hard earned dollars. In short, it really ticked me off. All modestly aside for a moment, i work my ass off at that place, i have to leave home 2 mins after i get home from school just to be at work on time, and then when everyone else has two guarding shifts, i have none. Not to mention the 5-7 year olds are almost all handed to me. They're pretty much the worst age group to teach. Finally, after i've finished my teaching, i'm expected to do chores around the pool, which take up about 40 mins and we're only paid 20 mins of. Nevertheless, i still make the place shine. By the time i get home, it's 9 pm.

I love my job. It's pretty fun most of the time, even with a lot of the shortcomings, but i do believe that i've earned my money, and i should really get every penny that i've earned. I think i deserve it. Therefore, i'll fight for it, however many dollars i'm missing. The thing is, i really hate begging for money.

Whether a friend owes me some money, or in a case like this, i am almost incapable of asking for money, even though i do deserve it. Something about begging for money just rubs me the wrong way. It makes me seem like a desperate hobo to my boss, and i would prefer to not be laballed as "the pool's hoBo."

Anyhow, i just cashed my check because i figured i would need the cash very soon . ie. in the states, where i'm going for this weekend. somewhere that you can obtain some moneys.

The bad part of going to detroit is that we're doing it soley for the shopping.

Shopping is quite difficult activity to take part in when one does not have any cash. I'm gonna try hard not to spend extensive amounts of money but i'm not sure if i can contain myself.
(yumturkey.).

Listened to : Lucky - Jason Mraz

reliable.

It came as a surprise.
And that kind of surprise isn't the kind that i welcome.

Last weekend, as i was all prepared to head off to go out for the night, all dressed up, with my pristinely white shoes, my car let me down. My trusty old '96 mazda just wouldn't start up for me. No matter how much i enticed her, she just wouldn't respond to my key turning. Too bad that car was parked in the front of the driveway, and in order for me to get at the van which is nearly as old as me (no exaggerations there, we got it a month after my birth. prettymuchmytwin.), i had to push the broken-down car down the driveway, and then back up. All of this performed in the pouring rain, in my no longer pristinely white shoes. Anyhow, after wrestling the car back up the driveway, and freeing my twin from its confines, i was finally able to set off into the night, albeit 20 minutes late and seven times more irritable.

We sent the car in to be fixed. I found this out on tuesday night as i returned home from work. The parents were nowhere to be found when i walked in that door and niether was the car. I knew something was going down.

I found out later that it was the alternator that was giving trouble, but everything had been sorted out, save for an annoying squealing sound that the car produces every time you step on the gas (The sound was at the perfect frequency to make my spine melt every time i heard it. twasmorethanabitirritating.).

So that was last night, which was perfect, because this morning, i needed my car in order to get myself from school to my piano lesson along with my little brother. Seeing as the car had been fixed, all was well. or was it?

The trip to school was not problematic in the least, except maybe for some mental damage due to the constant "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek". But i learned how to control my urges to gouge out my ears.

After school, i dropped Kevin off at piano, and was on my way to quickly dropping sean off at his house so he wouldn't have to take the bus. Mission was accomplished, we arrived safely at his house, and after being invited in for a while, I went back and stuck my key in the ignition again. Spun it forward. Listened intently. Hoped something would happen. Hoped again. And nothing. So yeah, my battery had pretty much completely copped out on me and next thing i knew, i was asking Mr. Goma for a jump start.

All the dashboard displays were really weak, and so was the backlight for the clock, and the letters on the transmission... the power was quickly running out, and so i swiftly grabbed Kevin and headed home. Of course i got home safely, even through the rapidly falling snow, and the flash-frozen pavement. It was a pretty perilous drive, and with a half functional car. That was more excitement than i wanted.

Up until recently, i could rely more on that car than i could on myself on chocolate. Yeah, that much. And now, i probably won't be taking it out for a drive for a while. Even if i do, i'm gonna be paranoid the whole time. The worst part wsa that i wasn't expecting the breakdown at all. The repair had been done just the night before, and so i had assumed that everything was in order. Evidently i was wrong.

Reliability is huge for me. I'd say that every one of my friends is reliable in their own way. Which is perfect, because i rely on each and every one of them. Whether it's

• Jason saying the randomest stuff and making the randomest faces that make me laugh for no reason.
• Glenn cracking a joke that only the two of us would laugh at, and everyone else thinks is the dumbest thing in the world.
  
• Arthur playing along with any of my unusual, pointless, and commonly nonsensical charades.
  
• Nikko poking me, punching me, kicking me, death striking me, or my favourite, tossing me into the path of a quickly approaching wall.
  
• Sean supervising my creation of the most dense aluminum puck in the world, or guiding me through each and every pokemon song in existence.
• Nathan threatening me or my genitals in some creative way.

I depend on so many people every day for so many different things. And what i've listed is not even a fraction of it. There's many more people with many more "things".

If i couldn't rely on these people for these things, the consequences would have quite an impact on my day. I'm pretty sure i'd be stuck at the bottom of some kind of mental black hole with none of the daily rituals that pull me out of it.

And so i say, reliability is a characteristic that i look for in anyone close to me. Without you people, i'd fall apart. A day without all those little things, is just that, a day, and not a memory. CHEERSBOYSANDGIRLS.

(i was too lazy to go any farther than just those six guys, but there's tons more.)

don'tyoupeoplebreakyouralternators.

Song: If I Were a Boy - Beyonce

leaveacomment.doit.

beebeetee.

BBT times two.
i love em both.

There's something weird about the acronym "BBT". I only know of two things it refers to, but each of them is addictive beyond your wildest imaginations. Furthermore, the acronym itself is just ridiculously fun to say (try it, beebeetee.).

#1 Bubble Tea - bbt (beebeetee)
No matter how much i get, it'll never be enough. Bubble tea is such a satisfying drink, but it always just leaves you wanting more. The worst thing about bubble tea... is that if you ever look at any bubble tea menu, there's always about three hundred and fifty seven different flavours to pick and choose from. That's a lot of flavours. Then, for each of those flavours you could order it in green tea, black tea, milk tea, chiller, and so on. It's a system that's pretty much set up to inhale your money.

Unfortunately, my mind regularly falls victim to the allure of these masses of flavours. It's too bad that they're all incredible. It makes me keep trying and trying and TRYING new flavours. So, bubble tea is pretty much the height of temptation. Well for me anyways.

It's really not fair though, bubble tea shops always use the cheap shot. The drinks always come in those really really purrrty colours, and... well i just can't resist those. All this talk of bubble tea right now is making me thirsty (it's gonna put a dent in my savings. byebyepaycheck).

#2 Big Bang Theory - bbt (beebeetee)
ahahaha. Just thinking of the name makes me chuckle to myself. If you don't know, Big Bang Theory is a tv series sit com. The show is about two extremely nerdy roommates living in an apartment and their adventures along with the attractive Penny across the hallway.

This show... it really hits the nail on the head with every joke. Honestly, the writers are geniouses. I'd say it's not an easy feat to make the doppler effect, derivitives, integrals and the quadratic formula into kneeslapping hoots. The BBT more than pulls off this amazing feat.

I'd say that 90% of the reason i find this show just oh so haha, is that i can relate with a lot of the moments that occur. From the blank stares of people after saying something I thought was common knowledge, to the blank stares of people as a result of me being socially inadequate, I admit it, i'm a nerd at heart.

Recently, i've taken on a dependence for this show. The word "awesome" doesn't do it justice. So take my word for it and give it a shot, you'll be amazed at how incredible it is, just watch.

BBT x 2
Now that i've talked about both of them, i just had a random thought: "How unbearably cool would it be to experience bbt and bbt at the same time. I can see it now, my feet up on the coffee table, with my really, really cozy blue blanket, a mixed tapioca taro black milk bubble tea in my left hand, the converter in my right, and Sheldon creating yet another awkward situation for me to laugh at... and learn from. And then i'd dramatically hold up my plastic cup to the air, as if performing a toast, but all alone. Finally, i'd dramatically call out to the heavens: "I LOVE BBT."

As seemingly random as this post may be, it actually does have a cause and a point. This weekend, i realized that i actually had a minimal amount of homework, a very scarce phenomenon as of late. So i decided that i would pick out the things that I really wanted to spend my time doing, so that i could really enjoy my time this weekend.

Now, the two bbts were actually on the list, but they came into consideration, and i decided to spew out a quick blog about them.

More importantly, i realized that it's really useful to know what the things you really enjoy are, because those are the things that make your days memorable for you. As time passes by, the only thing we have of our already spent days are memories, and i want to make sure i make the best ones possible.

I think, in my life, there's some things that i spend my time doing that aren't actually things that i enjoy, but are more just, part of a routine, or a pattern. I guess my goal now is to weed those out, and replace them with the things i've come to realize really make me glow.

Sadly, I haven't really gotten this mastered yet, but i'm on my way. heregoesnothin.

beebeetee=funfunyay.

PS: if you rearrange the letters in bbt, you get "BtB" - Bob the builder, beeteebee =D

Song of the post: "Untouched" - The Veronicas (you have to listen to this song)

notatreehugger.

Scary stuff. Probably won't ever happen.
But what if it did?

Friday night. I just got back from buying presents for Kelly and Bianca. The drive home was really something else. The rain was coming down, not incredibly hard, but it wasn't just a dribble either. So of course, me being a new driver, i slowed down a little, braked earlier, signaled accordingly, and in general, drove safer. The same was not true for most of the other drivers on the road. Honestly, it's like whenever the bad weather comes out, so do the simultaneously agressive and unskilled drivers. People were cutting me off left-right-and-center, to the point where it wasn't just annoying, but unsafe. Some people really deserve to lose their licenses.

A couple minutes and curses later, I arrived safely and soundly in my driveway. Before i even reached the door, my mom thrusted it open, and threw a quick "Hey Justin!" at me before sprinting back to the comfy family room couch. After having known my mother for approximately seventeen years, and 5 or 6 months, i swiftly caught on to this undeniable sign language for "We just started a movie, get your shoes off and your butt on the couch". I obeyed.

"The Happening". I still can't decide whether or not i like it. No wait, that's a lie, i didn't actually like it. I ended up watching it just because I wanted to know how they could end such a movie. Needless to say, it was a great disappointment.

The basis of the movie is this: Plants are taking revenge on humans. They've spontaneously evolved to a state in which they can release deadly toxins that cause humans to commit suicide when they feel threatened. That's definitely some scary stuff. And, it would probably never happen, but that's one hell of an idea to think up.

Theoretically, it does make sense though. Throughout history, according to our modern scientists with their modern studies and knowledge, pretty much every species of life has adapted, evolved, digivolved when they were threatened. Turtles have shells for protection, snakes have deadly venom, even skunks have their own creative way of warding off enemies. Why not plants?

And plants are the species of life who arguably are in most need of such a defense. With the state of things, the human mentality to build, build, build, which pollutes, spoils, infects, plant life is diminishing like wildfire (literally and figuratively. ohmani'mfunny.).

Humans tend to dole out destruction without a second thought. Probably hundreds of thousands of trees are taken down in a day. But as soon as someone comes up with a story of the trees fighting back for one day, there's a hit movie made.

Of course, in reality our plants will likely never gain such a defensive mechanism. But is that really the measure necessary for people to stop polluting? Death? It's hard to get someone's attention. That's certainly one way of doing it. I'm pretty sure that if the plants did start to try and fight back, humans would be next to helpless. There's little to nothing we could do. (so keep this in mind. don'tkillthegreenies.).

i'mnotatreehugger.

Ranted while listening to: Dai Wo Zou - Rainie Yang

he'sthesymbol.

Here we go. A new hope, a new chance at turning things around.
Or at least slowing down the recline.

November fourth. A day to go down in history as the day that the first black president of America was elected into power. The guy's got a pretty bittersweet deal. To go along with being such a symbol, there's got to be unbearable burdens, but also priceless pride and dignity.

Whether he likes it or not, he will never be seen simply as "the next president". No, his victory has condemned him to be forever seen as "that black president". And that's not necessarily a bad thing. Such a title comes in many varieties. The question is what Obama will do now that he will be remembered by.

The tough thing is, since Obama is a black man, and there has never been a black president before, whatever he does from this day onwards will not only stain or glorify his name, but also the black identity, the whole black community. All of this just because he was the one to break the pattern. Because he was the first. Can you imagine what kinds of pressure he must be under? I am pretty sure that i am not a strong enough person to step forward, and take that representative position.

Obama really stands out from the rest. If he does well in his position, he will be remembered for a very long time. He could be the one to have pulled America through the recession unscathed. He could be the one to have cleaned up the war on terror. The list goes on. But whatever he does, it will stay with him forever. (that'salongtime)

hopinghemakesusproud.

Written while listening to: Live Your Life - TI ft. Rihanna