Bird Head

I was brushing my teeth, and something flew in through the open window. It circled around a few times, and still brushing my teeth, I decided it was one of those giant moths. It flew down and landed on my head. I looked in the mirror, still brushing my teeth, and saw that it was a bird. I continued to brush my teeth, and it stayed on my head for about five seconds. After it was satisfied with its visit to the top of my head, it flew back out the window. I checked in the mirror, and it didn’t poo on my head. I thought that was really great. It was a fun experience for me, and I imagine the bird thought it was pretty cool too. 

My Top Three

When I watch something with Keira Knightley, I say to myself, "she's my favourite celebrity crush". Every time I see Kerry Washington though, I decide that she is my absolute fave. Then, the fact that I think the exact same thing when I see Tina Fey, I realize that I am terribly fickle. A couple years back, Natalie Portman was a contender, but she has been outranked and removed from the competition. 

The Strays

My wife and I were walking along the sidewalk outside of our apartment when my wife's kitten sensor went off. She heard the crying of a small kitten, and she followed her ear to the 3' deep, concrete drainage, that borders the interior of the sidewalk. She looked down into it and saw a small kitten, probably about a month old. She reached down in and pulled it out. It was immediately gracious for the rescue, and became affectionate with both of us right away. We took the kitten home, bathed it, and fed it very well; which means no cat food, only real fish and chicken. "Cat food" is junk food for them, like McDonald's is for humans. No nutrition, just filler.

After having the kitten for a night, it learned that the kitty litter was the proper place to relieve himself and didn't even have a single accident. It was the next morning that I had heard a similar cry coming from outside while I was in our kitchen. I went to our balcony and looked down to the pool area, where I saw a heavy set woman kicking at a small kitten. I yelled down to the woman, "YO", in a very "fuck you" tone, several times. She did not look up, and continued kicking at the kitten who kept trying to approach her. I went down and the kitten was still there. I went and picked it up, and it did not try to evade, whatsoever.

We introduced our two new kittens and saw that this new one was a twin sister to the first one we found. Something must have come up that separated the kittens from their family. We were very pleased to have reunited them together, and the new sister did exactly as the first kitten, and used the kitty litter without a single accident in the house.

I had never thought I was a fan of cats before I had met my wife, but I now realize I love every friendly animal I encounter. That even includes Barry the goat, that I met in Kuantan.

Thirty & Over

I was in Langkawi, and a friend of a friend was having her birthday lunch at The Bayview Hotel. It is a high end hotel, and she was intending for it to be a classy event. To ensure she kept it classy, she placed an age requirement on all guests of thirty and over. She extended the invitation to me as well, and confirmed with me, "you're thirty, right"? I felt as if this age limit was conjured up specifically for me and my youthful appearance. If I told her the truth of how I was only twenty nine, I didn't really know if she would revoke my invitation. I had to claim that I was indeed thirty years old, and although this wasn't yet true, I felt that I was mentally mature enough for this event.

We got to the event, and it was a very nice place. We were brought to our table, and asked what we'll have to drink. We all said we would have green tea, except for the one fella', who was actually twenty nine as well, claiming he will get an iced lemon tea. I would never have made such a juvenile order because I was in deep secrecy of my age. He, however, was the owner of the coffee shop we all knew each other from, so he was allowed to be twenty nine.

Our green tea arrived, and I was quite looking forward to it. The lazy susan spun around to me and I poured my tea. I was feeling like I was sophisticated enough for this event, and didn't feel out of place at all. I grabbed my cup of tea, and for some reason forgot how hot freshly boiled water is. Without sipping at all, I took a large mouthful of tea. I realized right away that this tea was one hundred degrees Celsius, and without even thinking about, I just opened my mouth.

After I opened my mouth, the tea poured out onto my lap. I looked around at everyone else at the table, and no one was looking at me. My shorts absorbed the tea, and my mouth felt fine. I would love to have witnessed what had happened. Seeing myself, or anyone, just open their mouth after taking a drink is something I have never seen.

I was the only one at the table who got to laugh about what had happened, and it was a good thing that I was, because it would have really justified the age limit given. It showed that maybe in fact I was too young for this classy hotel luncheon, and that maybe something changes after thirty. Maybe people stop making silly mistakes such as that one, like drinking freshly boiled water. The truth is, though, now being thirty two years old, I make equivalent, if not exceedingly foolish mistakes.

180

On the other side of the world in Malaysia, a lot of things are different than where I am from in Canada. The most noticeable, is that you have to drive on the left hand side of the road; and because of that, your steering wheel has to be on the right side of the car. With the steering wheel on the right hand side, the gear shift stick is on your left hand side. Oh, and for the light switches, down is on, up is off. Those all took me a bit longer to get used to than I expected.

Another thing that really stood out to me when I saw it, was regularly seeing a family of four or five on a moped. Cops will look the other way if they see this too, because the family has no other option to get around. Sure, none of them have helmets on either, but what is the cop going to do, give a ticket to this family who obviously does not have a lot of money?

It is something to get used to when I am immersed into a world so different than my homeland, but it is reassuring to discover that I am adaptable to change, which I hear is a very valuable survival quality.

My Little Pony

When my nephew was six years old, we would sometimes play video games together. I tried to make sure he only played age appropriate games, like driving games. I hated that the best driving game ever was certainly not "age appropriate", because of the other things you could do in the game. That game, of course, was Grand Theft Auto. I realized that I could circumvent all of the inappropriate actions in the game, and just introduce him to the unmatched driving physics of the game. Physics so realistic, that you can actually perfect your real life sport driving from this game.

After some time of playing it, he asked what the game was called. I didn't want him to let it slip to the adults that I've been allowing him to play Grand Theft Auto, so I quickly replied "My Little Pony", thinking that would be a very acceptable game title for him to be playing, if he were to mention it to any adult. Also, My Little Pony was before his time, and he had never heard of it. For months after that, he would constantly talk about "My Little Pony", as it was the most fun driving game he had ever encountered. Every time my nephew would talk about My Little Pony, I would have a little chuckle.

The Last Racism

Racism is not accepted by society, at all, unless it is against white people. White people are the most privileged people on the planet, and that is undeniable. If a white person referred to a different ethnicity by their most common offensive racial title, then that white person will possibly get attacked, or face legal consequences, or at least disgust every other person who witnesses this. I am glad that this is the case, and hope it continues to gain such reaction. There is one case of racism that is socially acceptable, however, and is commonly used by the media. It seems that anyone, of any race, is permitted to degrade people with red hair; or as they're commonly referred to, gingers.

People seem to feel that people with red hair are so white, that they cannot be offended. I really feel that they are indeed as offended as much as any other race of humans though. If it is a matter of the claim that only "minorities" can be victimized by racism, then we should definitely look at the world population statistics of how many people have red hair. I am going to say that only 1% of the world have red hair, and I am going to now google this to find out for sure. It was actually 2%, according to this reputable seeming source: http://english.pravda.ru/science/tech/17-12-2007/102910-red_haired-0/ - that was totally close enough though.

Now, using this statistic, would it still seem socially acceptable to ridicule this minority? After asking this question, I am going to answer it myself, by saying no. There is no reason we should choose who it is acceptable to be racist against. Racism is unacceptable in all circumstances. Maybe an applicable example would be of a family I met in Langkawi, Malaysia, who were living on a boat. They were a white family, of British decent, who were from South Africa. They were an attractive bunch of people, with very friendly personalities. They were violently discriminated in South Africa by the natives though. The "natives", were very unkind to this family because of the history with South Africa. Because the British people occupied most of the country, the natives felt violated by all white settlers in their land. That is no different than white hillbillies in Alabama hating Mexicans for stealing their jobs. Or, when Italians came to Canada and offered to do labour jobs for less money than the original immigrants, the British.

This subject is so cluttered with examples, that it is very easy to digress into other things. The point I want to make with this post though, is that society should not view racism any differently, just because it is being applied to a race that has not previously had such hard times. We can so easily be blinded to subjects that matter, just because numerous other people make us feel that it's alright. Our media is the worst for that, because people rank it as an authority of the rules. Try not to think of media as that. It is not.