In one of my older blog posts, I was talking about two squirrels that like to frequent my backyard. In that blogpost, I mentioned that one was very . . . big. But then I discovered some young squirrels living in my front lawn. And I realized that there were two squirrels that were always together . . . like a couple . . . and that one of them was a bit heavy . . . . I finally put two and two together, and that's when I realized that the bigger squirrel could have been pregnant. My mom counted six young ones in the litter, so that could definitely explain the weight gain.
But, my mom's friend across the street grows a garden with a large variety of vegetables, so the squirrels could have just been gorging themselves. Since I can't go close to them without them running away, I don't have any way to check. But if that squirrel really was pregnant, then I would like to apologize. I know that pregnancy can lead to a weight gain, and that it's natural. I didn't know that you were pregnant, you keep running away whenever I breathe in your general direction, so there was really no way to guess. :'c
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In my 19th blog post, I stated that I had found a bird nest in my orange tree and that I believed it to be a hummingbird's. But it turns out that I somehow did not notice that the nest was twice as large as I had previously seen. I had also ignored the fact that every morning, I could usually see a bluejay in the yard, usually foraging for food. This morning, I confirmed that the nest (which is the size of two human heads) does in fact belong to the bluejay. I also saw it flying into the orange tree's foliage.
I think that the bluejay likes to hang out on the ground because squirrels like to bury food there. And the bluejay likes to steal it. Yesterday, my mom was looking through a window that overlooks our front lawn. Then, she noticed four small squirrels. They were not too small, but maybe medium-small. I went into the front lawn to shoot some videos. Unlike most squirrels, they weren't living in a nest (it's called a drey), but in a shrub. There's one brave one that is always out for food. Unlike its siblings, it doesn't run when I make a move. It keeps eating. I don't know if it's hungry all the time or if it's just really brave. I usually see it hanging out by dead leaves. This Saturday, I am getting my vaccination. And later that day, I have to go to the doctor's for a blood withdrawal. I know that it's necessary, but needles are still kind of scary. Blood withdrawals take forever, and you go pale for the rest of the day. And although the vaccine is safe for kids, I would prefer to wait a bit more to see if any negative side affects occur.
I was in the car, and grabbed my backpack. My phone and headphones were inside, and I wanted to listen to some music. So I opened the compartment, and grabbed my phone first. Then, I reached down to grab my headphones. They didn't budge. I looked down (while the car was moving, which made me really sick) and saw that the cord was somehow caught between the zipper loop thing.
You know the loop part of the zipper that the pull is attached to? Well the backpack that was with me that day had a big loop part, big enough that the cord was able to go through it. I tried to pull it out, which caused me look down and make me carsick. But I didn't know how it got in that position in the first place. The headphone jack was at the bottom, and the thing that separates each ear's cord was to the top. Both of these things can't fit through the loop, so there was no way that it could have gotten there, right? I ended up setting my backpack on my lap and listening to music with the headphones stuck between the zipper. :') Later, when we went back home, my parents fixed it for me. You know how the loop part of the zipper has a bit of space on one side? Well, the cord somehow pushed through and made it to the other side. My parents were able to get it loose by pushing the loop part with a small screwdriver. Now my headphones are free! One evening, I was in the living room, when my brother, who had just taken a shower, walked in. As soon as I was near him, I could smell the unmistakable scent of Head & Shoulders 2-in-1 Complete Scalp Care Shampoo. While it was perfectly fine for him to use the product, there was no point as he has a buzz cut.
"Did you use the shampoo?" I asked. "Um . . . yea," he replied. In the past, my brother had used shampoo on his body for some reason, so I thought that he had done it again. I asked if he had used the shampoo for body wash. "No, I used the body wash, and the shampoo." "Then why do you smell so strongly of shampoo?" I asked. "I used Head and Shoulders on my shoulders too," he said, looking at the floor and suppressing a timid smile. In Chinese culture, we celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival by eating mooncakes. During the weeks or months leading up to the celebration, mooncake companies put up ads on TV. There was this one ad that me and my brother found funny. It was from the Wing Wah company in Hong Kong. I think that the song that they were singing was just really funny, combined with the exaggerated "是不同!" (it means "It's unique!") was really funny too. Me and my brother made many jokes about the commercial. But the next year, the commercial was gone.
Another one is from the 80's or 90's. It has the video quality of videos from that era too. But it still appears. It's for a summer drink, and I'm pretty sure that it's a grass jelly drink. I have seen that ad since I was a toddler. I do not remember what the product is. One time, I told my dad about this once, and he told me that the ad had been running long before I was born. I'm surprised that the company still pays for the ad to be put up. My third favorite ad is for Gold-Rejuv. In China, there are a lot of medicine ads. But the medicines are more traditional than ones advertised in Western media. In the commercial, it starts with a man dressed as a Chinese emperor looking up at the ball of medicine he is holding with two fingers. Then, he drops it and chases it down the stairs leading up to his throne. Then, it transfers into the modern day, and the same man picks up a modern version of medicine. He puts it into his mouth, and says that it was really beneficial. His acting was terrible. Then, he picks up a box with the container of medicine inside, and leaves. Oh, and he also leaves a Macbook at the table he was just sitting at. There are so many more ads that me and my brother found funny. It was mostly because the people would ask questions and I would reply with "No" and insult them. I found a playlist of all the ads that have appeared here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpQ3DqKhQvliaQQ0puZom4qw3CTL9dBz2 The Wing Wah ad: https://youtu.be/kQZruvjp_GI Craneflies are harmless, but they are so gross and big. They're enlarged mosquitoes that don't bite. But seeing one is gross.
Earlier today, my mom was mowing the front lawn, and when she opened the door, a cranefly flew in and started hanging around the area where my family refills our water bottles. My brother is very afraid of them, so he ran back to the living room after attempting to refill his water bottle. I saw it too. It was gross. There's a plum tree in my yard, one that the neighborhood squirrels like to eat from. The squirrels are maybe 50% larger than a normal one. Normal squirrels are the length and maybe 3/4 of the width of your head. But these fatties are two heads long, and when they wrap their arms and legs around a tree to climb, up, their bodies flatten out like a pancake.
I tried to feed them by dumping some cereal near the tree that they like to eat from. But ever since I did that, the squirrels haven't come back. I think that it's because the cereal tastes like peanut oil. To me, it's a flavorless puff that has been soaked and fried in peanut oil since the dawn of time. It has a strong taste. The squirrels probably hate the cereal too. In my orange tree, I found a bird nest. It was high up so I could only see the bottom, though. My mom says that it's probably a hummingbird's, as she once saw one flying out of the tree. In my neighborhood, there are a lot of trees. Everyone has an orange tree in their yard. There are two tall sequoia-like ones at the end of the street which I can see from my yard. I don't know why so many are there, but I like it. Whenever the wind is strong (like today), all of the leaves on the plants and bushes brush against each other, and it ends up sounding like waves crashing against each other. It's a really ambient and calming sound.
In English, there aren't too many words that I don't like to speak or write. But I don't really like to speak in Mandarin or write in Chinese.
I speak Cantonese more as it is my tongue language, (and I don't practice my Mandarin) so Mandarin is harder for me. It also has more complex sounds. I don't really know how to explain, but the only example I can think of is music notes. Think of Cantonese as a piece that is played with basic notes, and Mandarin as one with a lot of accidentals (sharps, flats, and naturals) and slurs. Maybe I'm wrong, because I don't practice my Mandarin enough. Writing in Chinese is also hard because it uses a non-alphabetic script, meaning that there are probably hundreds of thousands of characters. On its own, each character has its own meaning. For example, 加 means add, and 油 means oil or gas. But when you put the two together, you get 加油, which people shout during races or competitions. (The translation is "Come on!" which is not very accurate in my opinion). What this means is that meanings of characters can change when they are put together, so it's even harder to memorize and learn. While someone who speaks and writes the language often would not find this a problem, I do because I'm still learning. |
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