Family, whether black, white, yellow, peach, purple or green

I'm Asian as I've stated a time or two on this post.  I love being Asian as there are so many jokes that go along so well with my interests and hobbies and such.  Here's a kicker--my husband is of European mixed ancestry; in other words, he's a white boy and I love him dearly.  We have a daughter, together.  To some, I'm just pointing out the obvious.  To others, I may have just shocked them into controversy.

The really interesting part is that I never even stopped and thought about how we're a interracial couple or how my kid is a mixture of races.  To me, my husband is my husband.  My child is my child.  We're a family.  We love each other and we spend time together and that's that, so no need to call the news media.

And yet, this commercial from the Cheerios company and its sequel is enough to stir hateful remarks.  I saw it and my first thought was simply that she's a cute kid cause she wants to make sure her daddy is eating healthy.  It didn't even register in my mind that the father is black and the mother is white.  To be honest, I don't see why such a thought should have ever been pointed out to me.

In a world, where people open gun fire in public areas, where people are still fighting for the right to marry who they want to marry, where people are still struggling to put food on the table, where people are trying their hardest to be able to take care of themselves, we should be happy that this commercial shows a family that cares about each other, but apparently, that thinking is just too forward.

Gaming means having lived many different lives

I'm a gamer.  I don't mean I sit on Facebook for hours playing FarmVille, Candy Crush or whatever crash culture game is popular at the moment.  I mean I shot my first Nazi in Wolfenstein.  A few of my favorite games on the Nintendo are River City Ransom, Dragon Warrior and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  I killed my fellow competitor with a blood splattered fatality in Mortal Kombat.  I played the original Sims and destroyed my Sim City.  My first RPG on the original Playstation was Parasite Eve and one of the top games on my list of all time favorites is Star Ocean the Second Story.  Many hours were sucked into Guild Wars and a few other MMOs.  I played against my husband and his army friends in home Halo 2 tournaments and won a few times.

I'm a fairly hardcore gamer, especially for being a bird (female) but I didn't go around telling anyone who will listen cause it used to be that I was too busy actually playing the game.  Nowadays, life keeps me busy with matters of the family and such.  The rare and few nights that I push all things aside for my own relaxation and entertainment I can't enjoy my first lifelong obsession.  

RPGs are the forefront of my love for video games.  I live through the plots.  I fall in love with characters.  I dwell in adventures of far-off lands.  I also adore simulation games.  I have no idea why I find planting turnips in any of the Harvest Moons so enjoyable for the many hours I have played any of the game series.  I obsess over the newest Sims games because I likely have a god complex and revel in it.  My first genre love though was in FPSs (First Person Shooters).  My favorite one on the PC while growing up was this crazy, gory and sadistic game called Blood.  I have mastered shotgun physics and call it my Equalizer as I can level any areas with it.  

I still play sim games any day of the week and wish I had more hours to devote to RPGs but I can't seem to play FPSs anymore.  I get motion sickness.  I can't play for more than 45 mins before I start feeling the acids in my stomach start to boil.  I am able to build on the time to add about 10-15 mins each day.  If I can up the total to about 3 hours, I can play for as long or as little as I want and it won't bother me but I can't go more than 3 days without playing or I lose any tolerance and go back to feeling ill at the 45 min mark.  It's near heart wrenching for me when that happens cause it takes me a week or so to build up that tolerance, get into the story, just to feel ill and not be able to enjoy the game like before.  

I have actually resorted to trying motion sickness remedies.  The first try is an all natural remedy that I have to rub behind my ears.  It's supposed to give instant relief if I am already feeling nauseous but that had no bearing on me whatsoever.  I'm going to try it again by putting it on beforehand as a preventive measure to see if that works.  If it gives me no results, there are a few other cures out there that I can try.  I'm not giving up quite yet.  I hope to game again!

Erin go bragh!

I'm Asian and I'm darn proud of it.  I get a lot of awesome jokes out of being Asian.  I do admit that I adore anything from Ireland though.  I also have a soft spot for Italy too but in this post that is simply a side note.

It's St. Patrick's Day today!  I love wearing something green. I'm dying for some Irish Whiskey cake.  I need to get some Irish potatoes.  I have tried a Stout so I won't be drinking one today as it's just too bitter for me but please pour me some Bailey's any time.  As for Irish luck, I'll take some anyday.

fashion or style

I'm fairly sure I've stated the fact that I'm not in any way a girly type of girl.  I'm a jeans, t-shirt with sneakers and functional jacket type person and those items must be comfortable but not slob-like.  In fact, these items are a pretty accurate basis of what my everyday wear looks.



Every few months or so I give myself a challenge, I may not always accomplish it but I do my best to make headway towards doing so and the current challenge is that I dress more girly, specifically that I wear a dress or skirt at least once a month.  I don't enjoy clothes shopping though.  I find a lot of clothing to be tasteless--too revealing, too gaudy and sometimes just not enough common sense.  So far, I have only found one item to be feasible.



I have yet to officially buy it but it's a start.  I'll continue my search.  Wish me luck and perhaps I'll paste up what I end up wearing on here once I figure out what the name or ribbons and lace that I'm doing.

VD; no, not that one

Valentine's Day is tomorrow.  My husband has already admitted that he has nothing for me.  He's still alive, so no, I haven't killed him.  To be honest, I don't have anything for him for Valentine's Day either so we're pretty even.  Obviously, he hasn't killed me as I'm able to post.  To be fair, I do indeed have a small gift for my child's Valentine's Day gift, so we're not totally heartless jerks like that.

Actually, as you can tell, neither the hubby or I have big expectations for Valentine's Day.  We've been together for 11 years and some years we at least try to have a nice dinner together while other years we exchange small gifts or we just have hot sex together cause that is how we roll.  It works for us and obviously, we're happy together as hence the 11 years together.

I'm actually not one of those people who only considers Valentine's Day as just a made up holiday by the greedy card company corporations but I'm most definitely not one of those people who makes a huge production of the day either.  I might put on a red sweater, I might put a cut out of a heart on the door or fridge, I may pass out Valentine's Day cards or I might not even notice what day it is.  As a teenager, when I'd see couples who would give each other these expensive gifts to swear their forever love just to break up the next week, I ignored the insanity of it and would sometimes buy a brand new coloring book with a brand new pack of crayons and just color.  It was extremely relaxing and a past time that I still enjoy with my daughter though not just on Valentine's Day.  I kind of figure if it's your thing, enjoy Valentine's Day.  It's sometimes to look forward to after the cold weather of the winter but spring isn't quite ready to bloom and helps boosts the economy with all the random gift buying because who doesn't enjoy a small present every so often?  Honestly, a holiday that reminds us to show some affection to the ones we care about is okay in my book.  Granted, that's something that should happen every so often but I see nothing wrong with an innocent holiday like Valentine's Day.

On the other hand, Valentine's Day has broken up couples though.  Some people have these notions that it's supposed to be this super romantic night and when it doesn't happen, there's blame and break up.  Honestly, if a couple breaks up over something like a simple holiday gone wrong, they weren't meant to be anyway, whether there were already underlying issues between the two or because they find out they have different opinions of lifestyles and such.

My advice for Valentine's Day is take it for what it is--do something small to show the people around you that you care for them.  If you want to do something big for that special person, talk to them about it to make sure you're on the same page as each other and come up with something that both parties are happy to do or not do together.  If you don't have a special someone, do something in general to help your fellow people such help a neighbor, volunteer your time at an animal shelter or something small to pamper yourself.  So, enjoy Valentine's Day, cause there's no reason to be a heartless jerk.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming for this post

I'm a little early on this update but with so much happening in such a short time my mind is feeling overloaded so I figured I might as well unload it ahead of my usual posting schedule. I actually have enough on my mind that I may do at least one other post besides this one in the next week or so and it'll actually be on a specific topic that has some time relevance, but that may change.

The main topic for this post is snow or I should say the troubles of snow but to be even more precise--the troubles of more snow, as I've already posted a complaint about the current cold season. Like they say in those infomercials, "But wait! There's more!" Because with at least 7 inches of snow on the ground, Mother Nature decides to keep making up for all the light precipitation during the past decades' worth of winter seasons and dumps an ice storm on top of us. 

Of course, we lost power with all that weight on tree branches and old tree trunks hanging over power lines. No electricity for 3 days in 10-15 degrees below freezing temperatures is not fun. Lucky for my family, we only suffered for 1 night and spent the other 2 nights at my in-laws home. It's a good thing I get along with my second set of parents so well. My own parents refused to leave their house though. My father being from the old country refused to keep the portable generator on to run something like a space heater even though he admitted the cold was horrendous.  He also refused to go to a relative's house because he needed to make sure the basement didn't flood. My family survived though. The only good thing about them sticking it through was that they were able to watch my dog as I couldn't bring him where we were at because of the solitary life of the cat occupant. My daughter's beta fish wasn't as fortunate to survive the frigid air though and we had to give a burial to the sea. My daughter was very sad for a few days but Henry had a good life and we already have his successor, who she named Ponyo.

The worst of all about this is the fact that we're not done yet. There's another snow/ice storm to come that predicted to not only drop another 6-8 inches of snow but also another 0.10 of an inch of ice.

Honestly, I'm not sure how much more I can take!  My child has already missed about a week of school because of all the snow days and she's likely to miss another few more days at least. I'm already in the process of scrambling to get caught up in my work and projects. I don't really need another drop of winter precipitation to continue slowing down my progress.  

Winter blues

Yes, for the first time in my remembered life, I have the winter blues.  When winter is ready to make way for spring, I'm usually ready at the same time.  It's Feb. The groundhog has predicted another 6 weeks of winter.  The cold season is in fact still hitting us with ice, snow, temperature drops and more of it.  I'm sooo ready now for it to be done.  It's like the cold weather is trying to make up for the last 10 years of really light winter fall.

On the plus side, the last snowfall was at least wet snow and not the powdery snow.  Traffic-wise not the best but for snowman making, it's a blast!  My daughter has been begging to make a snowman since we've been back in PA.  We finally got the right kind and we made the best of it by making her snowman just over 6 ft tall!

(Yes, this is a picture taken by me!)

It was nice to be able to enjoy it while we could cause tomorrow it's just ice.  Another day of school off for her likely.  My husband might be forced to call off work.  I'm going to have to scramble to make up for another day of idle time.  I might just have to give up and drink a hot chocolate.   I suggest anyone reading this, make sure your chocolate supply is still good cause I made sure mine is stocked up!