A titmouse flitting around the back patio, eyeing the peanut on the string tied to the gazebo with interest. It flew at the peanut, hung upside down from it, and pecked furiously. After several sessions of this, the peanut was released from its hanging position and fell to the ground. Seeing this, the titmouse retreated quickly to a spot a couple feet away, then after deciding it was all clear, it picked up the peanut and, with a little bit of difficulty maneuvering, sped off with it.

Considering the titmouse is only about two or three times the size of the peanut, it was quite fun to watch, lemme tell ya.

For those previously unaware, this is a titmouse:


---

A person in a wheelchair, ambling along ahead of me... in the right lane of the road. And not a small, winding-through-the-neighborhood road, but a moderately busy street with traffic lights and cars on it. The person started rolling faster, picking up speed, and then merged into the turn lane... I watched, dumbfounded, alternating between staring at the wheelchair person and giving concerned glances to the oncoming cars. The cars were getting closer, and I wasn't sure the wheelchair person was going to get across safely, but he/she sprinted--- well, sprinted isn't really the right word here, but the wheelchair equivalent of sprinted--- across the two left lanes of the road and onto a cross street.

The thing is, there's a crosswalk with signals not too far behind where we were on the road, so I couldn't understand why he/she decided to uh... act like a vehicle and roll around in the middle of the street. I know wheelchairs have wheels, but I think they still count as pedestrian traffic...

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The title is not related to this entry. I just had that song stuck in my head.


The main part of the song is in pidgin, so it might be kinda hard to understand. -Shrug-

WHAT, LUCILLE, YOU GON' LEAVE ME NOW?
The kids nevah eat yet, mango season not pau
I know my car stay smokin', and the stereo stay broken,
But wow, lau lau! What, Lucille, you gon' leave me now?

---

I volunteered with Angie today at an orchard. We actually didn't do too much... laid down cardboard over the weeds and covered them with mulch, then picked fruit.

Here are some pictures of the harvesting...


We harvested apples and asian pears. I didn't actually do any of the shaking/catching, but we were told to shake the apple trees, and that the ripe ones would fall into the tarps that people were holding.


What I DID do was "quality control." Basically, I picked through the ones that had been harvested and threw out ones with holes or bad spots, etc.


Here's a barrowful of bad ones.


Some of the "bad ones" were just injured when they fell on the ground after the tree was shaken, so the volunteers just ate those ones. I didn't personally eat any of the apples, but I did snag a few asian pears to bring home. The fruit is going to be donated to food banks, so hopefully whoever it ends up enjoys it. Fresh fruit is MUCH better than whatever canned throwaways people might end up donating on their own...

There's also a rose garden next to the orchard, which Angie and I wandered through while we waited for my dad to pick us up.







After being picked up, we went to lunch at either Sweet Tomatoes or Souplantation... I'm not entirely sure which. I think the sign outside said Sweet Tomatoes, but our receipts said Souplantation. :S The food was pretty decent, but me and Angie had some laughs about the name. "Souplantation" makes it sound like they've got slaves in the back making the soup, while some head chef holds a whip and yells at them.

"THIS CLAM CHOWDER AIN'T CLAMMY ENOUGH, BOY!" -Whips-

They also had these hilariously tiny ice cream cones:

They were probably slightly wider than a quarter at the top. I think it's actually not a bad idea, since it's a form of portion control. The other food also came in very small servings, but since it's a buffet you can get as much as you want.

I guess this was the first decent day I've had in awhile. I also got a letter from Cornell today saying "blah blah, you're in Phi Theta Kappa, cool beans man, mail us back so we can know more about you."

I probably have a 1% chance of actually getting in there, but hey, I might as well try.

---

This is really creepy.

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Be it extremely emotional, controversial, messed up, or whatever, this entry has been password protected.

If you know it, enter it; or, ask me for it.

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But at least I can't be disappointed if I don't have plans.

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Yesterday I went to Stanford to get an MRI for the study I signed up for. After filling out some paperwork, they showed me to the little patient/volunteer locker room and told me I could use one of the lockers in there. They had me change into scrubs and hospital socks and wait around while they got the machine ready.

Well, after standing awkwardly around for a few minutes, they were like "oh uh... the machine is broken... so... we can't do the MRI... but we'd still like a saliva sample, so if you could spit into this tube that would be cool."

I took the saliva-collecting kit and blinked self consciously. The girl who'd taken me to the room sensed my discomfort and told me I could go to the bathroom to do it if I wanted. I was pretty glad for that option, lemme tell ya.

Anyway, after several minutes of staring at my face in the mirror as I made strange expressions to try to get enough saliva to fill the tube to the line, I walked back out and handed her the tube, and she gave me the key to my locker, so I got dressed. Walked back out, and they said that even though the MRI wasn't going to happen, I could still do some sort of emotion identifying exercise.

Yeah, that didn't work either. They had some trouble with the laptop, then desktop, that they tried to use, so they just told me I could go and that they'd still pay me. X|

Seems like it would've been kind of cool to actually do something besides feel awkward in scrubs and spit into a tube, but oh well.

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I had a dream that the cast of Family Guy was going on some sort of expedition next to a river that was mostly flowing down a series of hills.

At some point, Meg wandered into a dark building, away from the rest of the group. It was made of old wood, but without any cracks to let in light, so when she walked in, the only light came from the doorway behind her.

Anyway, she stood in the darkness, and I saw a massive spider in front of her. It was horrifyingly big, and covered the entire barn-sized wall. As she stood there, it shot out a leg at her face.

Instinctively, I knew that it had just plucked something off her face to eat. It repeated this action several times, and I knew it was picking off her lips and nose, bits of skin, her eyes. Strangely, she just stood there, although her cries of "aah!" and "ow!" became somewhat muffled after it took her lips. I couldn't see her face because it was in shadow, but the knowledge of what was happening made me sick, so I crept out, stopping behind her for a moment to look back and wonder why she wouldn't move as the spider kept disassembling her face.

Somehow this dream felt more creepy than the one I had a few nights ago where the men pulled the limbs off that guy. I don't know what I'm doing that's giving me these dreams... X|

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So, I've now been FORMALLY diagnosed with major depression.

Wooooo.

Granted, it was over the phone, but I mean, I figure the doctors at Stanford know their stuff.

I don't know why this is so funny. I guess it's like living your life for six years and then one day a doctor calls you and tells you "you probably already know this, but you have a nose."

Anyway, I think I'm scheduled for a brain scan on Friday, and they'll pay me $50. Or something like that. Fun times.

---

Oh yeah, and also, I started reading Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde. Unlike Party Monster, which I had been reading for the past few weeks at a very slow pace, I uh, sort of stayed up until 5 AM reading it, and then only stopped because my brain had shut down to the point where I could barely process any of it.



It's about a world where people live in a hierarchical class system based on the colors they can perceive. The main character is a Red, or a person who can naturally only see reds. I think the Reds are the lowest Chromatics (people who can see color) on the scale, with Violets being the highest. I'm not exactly sure how the rankings work, but I think it's just based on the visible light spectrum order. Oh, and they have synthetic colors that everyone can see (but the synthetics are in short supply).

Anyway, the Greys are like the serfs of the society. They have to do all the hard labor and the undesirable tasks that the Chromatics don't want to do. In the village that the main Red relocates to, the Yellows (who are the rule enforcers) have the Greys working sixteen hour days because of overemployment (I don't quite understand that part). The Greys aren't treated as subhuman, but they're definitely looked down upon by the upper classes.

Everybody in the society lives according to the Rules, which were set down by Munsell (prophet or god figure of some sort). Some of them are reasonable, but other don't make any sense at all. For instance, one meal a day is required (they usually have lunch at the town hall), and after fifty years of work a person is free to do whatever they wish during their retirement, but it's illegal to make new spoons (they just have to pass the existing ones from centuries ago along or scavenge for them) and not conforming to the dress code is a serious offense.

I think it's a pretty good book, although it took me a little while to get into the writing style of the author. I also think it would make a fantastic movie, even if we're seeing everything through the eyes of the main character, which would make for a strange color scheme.

---Edit---

So I just finished the book, and was crestfallen when I found out that the story wasn't concluded. There were fewer and fewer pages to go, and it didn't seem like anything was wrapping itself up. Then, to my delight, I see on the last page a notice about Shades of Grey 2 and 3. Excitedly, I turned my computer on to see if they were available and possibly purchase them impulsively.

Turns out that Shades of Grey 2 isn't actually due out for another two years.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

---

Lastly, that Spontaneous Combustion hot sauce is AWESOME. It's hot enough that it makes my eyes water and my nose run, and leaves a fairly strong burn in my mouth. I've been dousing my food with it, which helps me pace myself when I eat. I also tried putting a drop into hot cocoa, which was quite nice, actually. You'd think the garlic and whatever flavoring would make it unpleasant, but all that was noticeable was the heat.

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Some of that stuff is pictures!

Here's the tater twister thing I got at the Boardwalk.

I am aware that this is a very late picture. Oh well. By the way, it wasn't that great, so I don't think I'd get it again...

For all your tasty salted pig parts needs, of course.


A chair at the jewelry store I went to with my mom yesterday in Monterey...



In case you were unaware, rock stars are capable of telling the future.

Or maybe it's just Elvis.

HOT SAUCE! I look forward to trying this...


I got a new dress... amazingly enough it's not black.


Kinda dark, but if you look closely you can see that it says "PEACE" on the back.


It looks less shapeless when you actually put it on, thankfully.


So, I went to Monterey yesterday with my mom and brother. We visited the aquarium, which was... uneventful, I guess. They've put in a puffin exhibit since we were last there though, which was nice. Also, they got a new sunfish (the old one died). The new sunfish is really creepy looking.

(Ripped that picture from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Tumblr, which I just now found out exists)

I mean, sunfish are kinda creepy looking anyway, I guess, but this one is REALLY creepy.

What else... hm... well, my mom and I did a little shopping and got some clothes from this Himalayan gift(?) store. That's where I got the dress... The dude minding the store kept telling us that everything was handmade, and that articles of clothing we were trying on looked like a good fit for us, etc. He also told me that the mole under my eye was a sign of good luck and that I had a lucky future.

...Riiiiiiiiiiight.

When we were buying our stuff, he let me pick out a bead ring (price: $1) for free. While I was poking through the pile, he explained something about how in Nepal, temples are made of gold(?) and women wear bead rings to them. He also told me that if I wore the ring and wished on it, the wish would come true.

He seemed kind of full of crap, but I guess I can't fault him for trying to play it up for tourists.

Also, I don't think I mentioned it here, but I contacted some psych lab at Stanford to inquire about participating in a study, and they've called me twice since then. Well, thrice I guess, but it was two phone appointments and then a followup after the second appointment today.

They think I'd be better suited for a lower paying (but less time consuming) study instead of the one I wanted to be in... I mean, that's alright I guess. I'm kind of bummed, because it's a $450 one month+ study vs. a $50 one time scan (I think?), and the higher paying one involves playing a computer game for a month, but it's free, so there's not really anything I can reasonably complain about...

I wonder what kind of people they wanted for the other study, the one they didn't think I was right for... Kind of also wonder if I could've gotten into the other one if I'd responded differently. Meh...

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