The Sense of Entitlement

Let's use our imagination for a bit...see if you can picture this situation.

Near a NYC tourist site, there's a chain stretched out across a paved NYC street.  The chain connects to two fences that block a person from walking onto the sidewalk. The only way you can get on the sidewalk is from a main entrance one block away. There's a gate access for handicapped visitors near the chain which is watched by an attendant.

The street sort of leads to a dead end. On the other side of the chain, there's a real fence (with a large gate) that keeps you out of a construction zone. Essentially the sidewalk is a path the safely takes you around the construction zone.  The chain is only a "chain" because vehicles use that street to get into the construction zone. A chain can easily be removed when a vehicle needs to get through.

In addition to the chain, there are three large orange cones in front of the chain. So we have a chain, a fence and a gate with an attendant. Let's say you walk into this street and you see this chain and fence...what is your first instinct?

If I see a fence and a chain and someone watching the gate, I'm going to know that I'm not allowed to pass into that area. The fence is there for a reason; the chain is there for a reason...it's obvious. Heck, if I wasn't 100% sure as to if I could pass into the area, there's a person standing right by the gate that I could ask. Isn't that what any intelligent person would do?

But this is New York City...and we don't always have intelligent people visiting our fair city. How do I know this? Because I AM the person who watches the fence and you wouldn't believe the crazy stuff I see people try to get away with.

I see tourists walk up to the chain every day, duck underneath it, and proceed to walk past the construction zone. When I stop them and ask them what they are doing, they usually say "I can not go this way?". To which I reply, "No, the entrance is one block up and you will need a ticket." In reality, I want to tell them that they can not go this way...that's why there's a fence there...what kind of "entrance" would need people to duck under a chain in order to enter. I will occasionally get someone after I tell them they can't go this way that then asks REALLY nicely if they could go this way. I just smile and say that I'm sorry and that I can't let them do that. I had an older couple who didn't speak English try to duck under the chain the other day.  I had to use my limited Spanish-speaking ability to explain to them that they have to go up one more block and and get a ticket to come inside (the tickets are free). When the couple came back to my area after getting a ticket, the man gestured to me that I was crazy because I made them go up one block in order to get right back where they started. You can't really say anything at that point; I just shrugged my shoulders.

Why are people going under the chain? My first thought is that these folks are confused and just don't know what they are doing. But I don't think all of those people were confused. I've come to believe that most of the tourists knew exactly what they were doing. They are deliberately doing something they know is wrong. Why? My theory is that they think they can get away with it.

I believe there's a growing sense of entitlement in the world today.  People believe they are so special and so "above it all" they don't need to obey the rules of normal society. I'm sure we've all heard the stories of families who hired handicapped people to go with their families to Disney World just so they didn't have to wait in lines. These people even had the gall to brag about what they've done in chat rooms. Is it really that hard to wait in a line? Is it really that hard to follow the rules? Well, it must be...especially if people feel they are better than others. They feel that waiting in a line is something for the poor lowly people of the world.  They feel "entitled" to break the rules because the rules do not really apply to them. The rules only apply to regular people.

I can tell you this. This "regular" person really gets a kick out of reminding these chain jumpers that they are also "regular" people and still have to follow the rules. Maybe if they don't get away with feeling "entitled", they'll be less likely to try it in the future.  That's probably not doing to happen, but I could hope for it.

In the meantime, respect the chain!

I'm attempting to sew a patch...run for your lives

     Now that I'm an adult, I find myself with a growing desire to mend things.  Oh, it's not out of any desire to help others or to save money. I just like solving problems and when I see something broken, I want to try to fix it. Of course, if I saw a broken refrigerator, I'm not going to attempt to fix that...I have no idea on how I would even start. I'm referring to simple things...like gluing the broken ceramic pieces of a vase back together. For today's challenge, I'm attempting to fix a hole in my boyfriend's flannel shirt.

     As you can see by the size of my hand, that's one pretty big hole (there's a joke in that somewhere). I had to trim off all of the frayed edges of the hole so I can mend the hole with clean edges.  Luckily, I had an old shirt that was destined for the scrap heap so I used it to create the patch.  Given the size of the hole, there wasn't anyway I could figure out how to create a patch the exact shape of the hole...so I made my patch square shaped and covered the entire darn thing.

 

     My stitching ability is not the strongest of all my talents (hard to believe isn't it?), but I did manage to connect the edges of the flannel hole to the patch.  The main difficulty that I encountered was that the flannel material was so thin in one area that I couldn't knot the end of the thread so that the stitches would stay put. And that's when inspiration hit...I'd use an ole friend of mine: liquid cement. Sorry, I won't mention the brand name here...that would be crazy ;)

     In the end, I decided to glue all of the stitches so they wouldn't EVER slip out of the material.  Then I trimmed the edges of the patch to make it look pretty. Luckily, the finished product is not something that will be seen in public. It's a comfort shirt and is only worn once the day is done so it only needs to be functional, not glamorous. And thus the journey ends...the hole has been sealed. Hey, I just killed 3 hours with a needle!



     What did we learn today old friends? You should always have a sewing kit, glue and scraps of fabric lying around. You never know when you need to fix a shirt...that really just needs to be thrown away, but someone that you love loves it so much that they would wear it until it becomes a bunch of rags...and THAT drives you to a level of OCD insanity so strong that you MUST find a sewing kit you haven't used in years just so you can do a crappy patch job and fix the shirt.

***On the plus side, I just had some delicious coconut gelato. All is well.

Hello Kitty Chia pets are temperamental...

For my true blog peeps out there, I'm very sorry I haven't kept you updated on the fate of my Hello Kitty Chia Pet. It turns out that growing a Chia Pet is very entertaining, but writing about it wasn't. But you know what the funny part about this whole experiment was? It seems that I had a bunch of new readers from the Internet just because my blog was about Hello Kitty. How crazy was that? Perhaps next time I'll write about Batman.

Let's look at some photos shall we?

Day 4 finally yielded some chia growth...but the stupid seeds had a tendency not to stay in place. You can see the groves where the seeds lie in, but the seeds on the bottom would not stay in place. I had days and days of issues with the seeds just sliding off. Chia Hello Kitty wound up having bald spots.

Meanwhile, the excessive amount of chia seeds in threw into my Chia cat grass planter grew a lot faster than I expected. After seeing how well they were doing with simple dirt (and considering how many seeds I put in that container), I knew I was going to have a crazy amount of chia action about to happen....crazy chia action!!!!

 

Day 6...now things really started to grow. But they never grew like the picture on the box. I think next time I'm going to need a squirt bottle, which will keep the seeds moist but not give them so much water that they slide off.

The extra chia seeds were growing like crazy...with crazy chia action. In fact, they grew so fast (and because I put too many seeds inside), that the seeds killed each other. Or maybe I over watered it...I guess we'll never know the truth.

 

Now I wish I would have taken additional pictures after these first few days. The funny thing is that I thought I did. But I can't find those pictures....maybe I dreamt them up. But here's what I learned: chia seeds grows faster in dirt than on top of a ceramic Hello Kitty.  It grows so fast that I could swear I could see it growing.

 

And as fascinating as watching Hello Kitty grow chia on her head (that really doesn't sound right), it is not the most exciting thing to write about. I'll try again with Hello Kitty 2.0; maybe I'll use more humorous commentary.

 

In my future blogs, I'm going to stop trying to writing meaningful words. I'm so concerned about making my blog full of meaningful thoughts that it take me forever just to write an entry. From this point on, they maybe short and sweet, just a picture I took, a poem, a short video...whatever strikes my fancy. Regardless of what I write, it will be entertaining so I hope you'll all keep reading...

 

***If you really wanna show your love, subscribe to my blog.  

Chia pet - day two: Germination and contemplations

As promised, here's another blog entry as I dive into the world of chia.

After 24 hours, the chia seeds on Hello Kitty have stared to germinate. One thing that the Chia Pet commercials don't tell you is that it is very difficult to get the stupid seeds to stay in place. Even though Hello Kitty has grooves in her head, the seeds have a tendency to slide off. If you have a touch of OCD like me, this may drive you a little nuts. I wanted Hello Kitty to have perfectly spaced seeds, but that's not going to happen. Silly chia seeds...how dare you defy me!

If you look closely at the photos, you can see that one or two of the seeds are starting to germinate (or sprout?).  It really didn't take long. Chia seeds are mostly gray, but can be white, black or speckled. Quite fascinating.

You can see here that the seeds have slid off their original groove placement. When I try to fix the gaps, the seeds end up sliding off the grooves. I just gave up after a while. The problem is that Hello Kitty is very porous and is constantly leaking water. She needs to be porous in order to keep the seeds moist, but the surface of her skin is basically a "slip and slide". Oh well.

If you know me, you know that I followed the directions on how to make a Chia Pet to the letter. Somehow, I have a TON of left over chia seeds. The directions say this will happen, but I have too many left over in my opinion. I tried putting them on Hello Kitty, but they just slide right off. So what to do with all those extra seeds? I could eat them, but I decided to see if I could try to plant them...in my Chia Grass planter. My brother got me the Chia Grass planter last Christmas (I guess the Chia Pets were all sold out; I guess it's the thought that counts).

If something interesting with the these seeds, I'll let you know.

Finally, after giving Hello Kitty a fresh batch of water, I've placed her in a place of honor in my apartment.  Okay, not really. I only have one spot that I can place all of my plants (close to the window for sunlight, but not too close cause it's cold there).  I had to place a plastic bag over her head to keep the seeds damp; I should be able to remove it in another 2-3 days. Hopefully, something interesting will be happening then.

In closing, it's been a very interesting birthday. I got lots more love from folks on facebook than last  year, saw a movie in an actual theatre (Lincoln (directed by Steven Spielberg)...go see it) and I was contacted by an old friend I haven't heard from in years.  It was one of those days that makes you think that anything is possible.

Note: If you happen to share a birthday with someone and that other person says "Happy Birthday" to you on Facebook and you don't say it back, that is not cool and you are a jerk.

Another year older....and a Hello Kitty Chia Pet

 

Oh, how the mighty have fallen...

 

 

Hey folks, Friday is my birthday. Now, if you are a follower of my blog (all 4 of you), then you should know of my desire to be some kind of professional writer.  I haven't felt the desire to write for the last few months again until now; crazy inspiration just hit me after a few pre-birthday tequila shots.

My kind and considerate boyfriend happen to buy me a Chia Pet for one of my many birthday presents.  Ever since the '80's, I've always wanted a Chia Pet. Chi-Chi-Chi-CHIA!!!

Chia Ram, Chia Bull, Chia Kitty, Chia Dog, Chia Head, Chia Tree, Chia Obama....

Don't laugh...you wanted one too (in addition to a Pet Rock), but I never had the cojones to buy one for myself. Thankfully, that's what having a boyfriend is for.  He went out on his own to buy one for me.  Luckily, Chia Hello Kitty was at the store ready for purchasing (there was also a Chia Clown available, but there was no WAY in hell that was happening).

 

As I started to assemble the magical chia ingredients, I decided I should use this as a motivating reason (or excuse) to do some kind of daily blog. Who doesn't want to read my daily ramblings about slow growing chis seeds? I know you're all excited...I can feel it.

 

Look, throw a dog a bone. I need to jump back into the writing thing. Hell, I might even apply to a MFA program about writing if I managed to write 30 pages of original fiction in 2 months. Wish me luck with that.

 

Anyway, enough with the pity party. Now let's talk chia. When you water the seeds, you are rehydrating a gelatinous membrane that surrounds them. This membrane is what sticks to the groves on Hello Kitty's head. The goal was to get the seeds into the grooves without having them clump together (evidently, crowding the chia seeds is a bad thing).

 

 

 

This also solves a personal mystery of mine from when I lived in Japan. For all those who ate at the Thai food restaurant back in Yokosuka, the dessert at the end was flavored chia seeds. Take a look!

 

 

Dudes, chia seeds taste awesome and are rich in Omega-3 fatty acids. Want to know more? Get your lazy ass to the library or go on wikipedia and look it up (yeah, I guess I could put a hyper link in this blog so you could directly go to another web page and get more information; I will do so when I learn how).

 

My goal is to post a new pic everyday to show how the chia is growing. I have to cover Hello Kitty's head in a bag for the next 3 to 4 days in order to keep the seeds moist until they sprout. I'm assuming the next few blog entries will be kinda boring. WE SHALL SEE.

 

In closing, I want to leave you with a bit a wisdom that I've learned over the years: Don't be afraid to make fun of yourself.  Self-humiliation can be a source of happiness for others and will open your mind to an infinite amount of possibilities. Perhaps one possibility will be that you will NEVER do that humiliating event every again.  Or maybe you'll be hit with inspiration and write the great novel you've been twirling around in your head for the last 20 years. Or maybe whatever will happen and whoopty fricken doo will occur. Just be brave and go out there and let the cards fall where they may. If you need to have a few shots of tequila first, don't worry...I won't judge you.





How much is that doggie in the window?

When I was a child, I would do the following...

- Watch cartoons
- Read books
- Draw pictures
- Color with crayons
- Give random hugs
- Play with puppies and kittens. I wanted to buy them all.
- Sit on a patch of grass and watch the clouds

Now that I'm an adult, this is what I do...
- Watch cartoons
- Read books
- Draw pictures
- Color with crayons
- Play with puppies and kittens. Now I can buy them all, but I know I don't have the proper environment to have a pet at the moment.
- Go to work

So I no longer give random hugs and watch the clouds. That sucks, but I'm still mostly me. Actually, I still get to watch the clouds a bit...so it's only the random hug thing that's missing.

A-c-t-u-a-l-l-y, I still randomly hug people, but only if I know them (really know them, not just Facebook know them). In New York City, it's safe to only hug people you know who bathe. I assume all the folks I know do bathe (I hope).

And I don't go to work at the moment because I got laid off....so I can't count that.

I guess I still do the same things I've done as a child. Have I grown up? Not really, except that I'm responsible. Buying cute puppies and kittens just because you can is not a good thing. Growing up means becoming responsible...yeah, that sounds good right?

I forgot the point of this blog...I'm going to go color now.

*Note: This is meant to be a funny and introspective self-commentary. If you haven't figured that out yet....well, not sure if there's much help for you.

Fifty Shades of Grey vs Twilight....what is going on here?

As a very young child, I quickly learned how to read. I can honestly say I only have one memory of not being able to read a book.  To quote Yoda, "Do or do not (read)...there is no try". I love Yoda.

The point I'm trying to make is I've read a lot of books...I can't even begin to guess how many.  If I don't have a book I'm currently reading, I get anxious.  I wouldn't know what to do with myself. Books are my crack; there's never been a reason for me to try drugs because I can read and get a natural high. Reading is fundamental (old 80's reference). Who remembers the RIF program?

As an avid reader, I can tell when I'm reading crap or something spectacular.  In the last few years, a lot of questionable "literature" has been released that people are going crazy over.  One is Twilight by Stephanie Myer and the other is Fifty Shades of Grey by E L James. War and Peace these books ain't. Hell, The Little Engine That Could these books ain't. 

To be honest, I've read better. Don't get me wrong...I like both of the stories. But if I didn't have such a vivid imagination, I don't think these books would be that good.  A well written book vividly describes the plot and makes it easy for the reader to "see" what's going on. Note: Fifty Shades of Grey is extremely descriptive in one specific aspect. I will give it props for that.

But I'm not here to bash the books. They are what they are and they entertain people.  *Who the hell cares if these books are not the 2nd coming of Romeo and Juliet?

I certainly don't.

In fact, I'm very grateful books like these do well. You want to know why? It's because it gives me hope that the drivel that I write will sell.  All I need is an interesting topic that will hook the tween element and then market the thing like crazy. That's the new American Dream folks - write crap, self-publish and make millions.

So stay tuned for more crap from me!

*Well, you might care if you weep over the destruction of the English language.