Snips And Snails, And Puppy Dog Fails

Today’s failures are all of the cute variety.  They constitute either poorly chosen phrasing or intentionally misheard words.

Today’s failures….are all the result of dogs.

My dog, Bandit, is afraid of thunder.  His terror of thunder is so great that we have to give him medicine to sedate him so that he doesn’t tremble for hours on end while a storm passes by.  Yesterday, we had a storm and had to give him this medicine.

He was as high as a kite for the rest of the day.

He’s actually quite cute when high, although he gets sleepy and acts a bit odd.  Yesterday, instead of finding him on the couch, a bed, or blanket, I found him in the corner pocket of the hallway.  I had been searching for him for ten minutes in order to check up on him and make sure he was doing alright.  He, on the other hand, had calmly watched me pace by him four or five times in my gradually-more-frantic search for him (context: he sometimes hides under beds and then gets stuck).  I had decided to check the garage, but then I heard a small shuffling movement right behind me.  I turned around, and there was Bandit.  He had titled his fuzzy head, pricked his ears, and had an inquiring expression was on his face.  I started to let out an exasperated groan, but quickly melted into an, “AwwwwwwwwwwwwWWWWWWWWW! You’re so adorable! Come here, you!”

Which meant, naturally, that I walked over to him and cuddled with him for a bit.

My dog, Daisy, has selective hearing.  There are three failures to be associated with her today.

The first occurred yesterday.  Daisy was laying right beside my sister, but looking at me.  My sister spent several minutes saying her name in an attempt to get Daisy to look her way. Daisy completely ignored her and continued to stare at me. Every time my sister would turn Daisy’s face towards her and let go, Daisy would promptly look back at me.  Of course, my giggling probably contributed to my sister’s failure, but I couldn’t help it.  I was being stared at by Daisy, and I did not even have any food with me, which is her typical reason for staring at me.

Today, Daisy was giving my sister kisses.  One priceless quote is all that needs to be said about this failure.  After pushing Daisy away several times, my sister finally said, “Daisy, we are not french kissing today.”

….I was banned from quoting her on facebook.  I think I might be able to get away with quoting her here.

The other failure from today was when I was snuggling with Daisy.  I was talking to her, and asking her questions comprehensible to doggies.  However, I did not think carefully enough about the wording of one question and asked, “Daisy, how is life treating you today?”

Daisy’s eyes brightened.  She had heard her favorite word. TREAT.

……it was a matter of minutes before I gave in.

I hope everyone enjoyed this list of failing cuteness.  Until tomorrow, happy failing!

Freshly Failed Friday!

Today has been an awful awful day.

Today has gone beyond failing and into the realm of, “How could that have possibly happened? How could a zombie figure out how to push the self-destruct button for the end of the world? Who plans these double apocalypses, anyway?”

It has been that bad of a 24 hour period that I will let you contemplate button-pushing zombies and links to two of my most favorite youtube videos ever instead of writing a normal blog post.  Then, we can all return to playing video games and forget that this post existed.

Tomorrow, I am sure will have a nice scene of happy failing.

For now, though, here are teensy videos of amusement!

The first is a video about a hedgehog and his kitten friend. I love hedgehogs, and hope to own three of them in the future. Their names will be Mortimer, Maurice, and Mambo.  Mortimer, because that is a perfect hedgehog name.  Maurice, because that is the first name of my favorite composer, Ravel.  Mambo, because that seems to complement the other two nicely and I like it.  Anyway, hedgehog+kitten=twice the cuteness, so enjoy!

Hedgehog+kitten cuteness:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D36JUfE1oYk

This second video is my most favorite clip from Whose Line is it Anyway? (U.S. version), in which Colin Mochrie is the only one to keep it together.  For those of you who are not aware, Whose Line is a show where four improvisers take to a stage and create comedic scenes.  Most of the time they succeed, but sometimes someone falls apart, which only makes things funnier.  It sort of relates to the above link, in that the word “Meow” becomes significant.

MEOW!= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ki02SYxoow

I hope you enjoy these two videos.  Until tomorrow, happy failing!

Edit/Note:  I said this is an awful day not in relation to current events in the news, but because I unintentionally hurt someone I care deeply about today.  It will get better, but feelings take time to heal. If you want my opinion on current events…yay equality!

Gratitude

While on Wednesdays, there will be mid-week celebrations, Thursdays will be the time for expressing gratitude. We will return to failing on Fridays.

Today’s gratitude is extended to the invention of air conditioning.

Where I live, we are breaking 90 degrees and while I know that is not the hottest temperature in the world, it is an intensity of heat that is uncomfortable to me.  By July, we will probably be breaking 100 degrees around here, or it will feel that way with the heat index.  So, air conditioning is a pretty cool thing to have around.

90 degrees, it turns out, is hot enough to require canceling horse therapy sessions.  This meant that I did not sidewalk today. Currently, the organization is in the process of getting enough fan units to keep the arena where the sessions occur cool enough for both clients and horses.  Having been at the arena yesterday, when it was a mere 89 degrees, I can say that my gratitude towards being able to stay in my nice air-conditioned home today has been amplified by that experience.

In order to express my gratitude in a semi-accurate way, I even casually googled to find out who invented air conditioning. The inventor was Willis Carrier, according to the search results.  He established the Carrier Air Conditioning Company in 1902, according to http://www.popularmechanics.com.  Also according to the site, 2015 marks the 110th anniversary of air conditioning.  Neat!  They even published an article that has a timeline of the history of air conditioning in order to celebrate Willis Carrier and his invention.

Anyway, I am grateful to be living in a house and conducting daily life business in buildings that have air cooling units within them.  Air conditioning makes the summer much more bearable.  It is also an encouraging reminder to know that autumn, my favorite season, is just around the corner.  Thanks to the AC, I will not melt before it gets here!

Thanks Willis Carrier! Thanks air conditioning units! Thanks mom and dad for paying the electricity bill!

Until tomorrow, happy failing!

For anyone interested in the timeline, it is here:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/how-to/a7951/a-brief-history-of-air-conditioning-10720229/

Mid-Week Celebrations!

It’s Wednesday once more, and that means it is time for mid-week celebrations!

Here we go!

1.  I bought two video games yesterday, Final Fantasy Tactics A2 and Final Fantasy Theaterhythm (which some of you may have read about already).  Not realizing how short the plot was for FF Theaterhythm, I have already finished it!  Now, on to getting perfect scores on every single song! For those of you who do not know, FF Theaterhythm is basically Guitar Hero using Final Fantasy music and made for the Nintendo 3DS console.  I already have four characters that will be at level 100 before midnight tonight!

2.  I get to have lunch with my mentor on Friday! (that is, unless I end up working-BUT FOOD AND SEEING MY MENTOR IS HAPPENING IN THE NEAR FUTURE) This will have happened TWICE in one month, which never happens!

3.  My dog Daisy has begun to do a new incredibly cute thing!  When potty training her years ago, we would always get really excited when she peed outside and tell her how she was such a good girl.  My sister told her earlier today, “I peed!” and Daisy began celebrating and congratulating my sister on her fine accomplishment.  She was waggling her tail furiously as well as giving my sister kisses of celebration after pouncing on her.  So, of course, you know what everyone has been saying throughout the day after leaving the bathroom…

4.  Since it is summer, all the gas stations/convenience stores in this area sell any size fountain drinks for $1.05 (tax included).   I obtained a Mountain Dew today! This isn’t a particularly special or isolated event, but I was really excited about it today!

5.  I have new non-work shoes! They have soles made of MEMORY FOAM!  This is especially great, as my old pair of non-work shoes have fallen apart and contain much sand from sidewalking.  They are also pretty-with a pink and black pattern!

4.  I included a bonus number 4 on this list because I really like the number 4!

6.   This blog now has 17 followers!  Thank you to everyone who finds these posts entertaining enough to want to read them all the time! All of you are amazing!

Those are my middle-of-the-week celebrations.  Leave a comment with your own middle-of-the-week celebrations so that we can all revel in our accomplishments together! (Seriously, the week someone actually does this, I will probably re-edit the post to include that on the list….or make a separate post….or give a shout-out to them on Thursday)

It’s the Final Fantasy

Today I almost failed, but not quite.

Yesterday, I almost purchased a video game.  I delayed that decision until today, because yesterday I was unsure whether or not I really wanted to spend money on a video game.  I woke up today and I knew that I NEEDED A NEW GAME TO PLAY THAT WOULD NOT REQUIRE MY COMPUTER OR MY PHONE AS A CONSOLE.

So, I went to Gamestop.  I purchased Final Fantasy Tactics A2 for Nintendo DS and Final Fantasy Theaterhythm: Curtain Call. I know that FF Tactics is an especially old release, but nostalgia from brief encounters with my cousin’s FF Tactics Advance made me want to play a full FF Tactics game. As for Theaterhythm, it simply looked interesting.

My almost-but-not-quite failure can be attributed to the FF Tactics game. I chose Normal mode, which it turns out I was grateful for, seeing as how I almost lost the very first battle to a giant chicken.

Yes, a giant chicken killed 3 out of 4 of my party members.  It was not only the chicken who did damage to my party, either. Before I realized how far the range of some magic attacks extended, I had nicely electrocuted one of my allies and knocked out a third of his remaining HP.  I also managed to move my white magic mage out of the range of all the other players, but not before I had restored a little HP to one of my party members as well as the two murderous baby chickens.

I would have completely failed at this first battle, too, except the giant chicken flew off when it reached 2/3rds HP or so. Even reaching that point was a lucky break for me, as the giant chicken missed an attack that would have knocked out my last party member the round before I dealt the lethal strike.

Or maybe the game does not let you lose the first battle and I was fine anyway. Regardless, it felt like I barely emerged victorious.  I gave myself a break after the second battle, which I easily won, because Tactics is a bit overwhelming for a FF newbie like myself.

Going onto Theaterhythm….what can I say? I have been using it to take a break from Tactics for almost 2 hours now, and my sister is beginning to grump at me for ignoring her attempts at conversation.

I have appeased her by giving her the other save file slot on FF Tactics.  She will probably have an easier time of it than I will, since she is better at creating advanced strategies in games than I am.

For now, I have to contribute to the creation of a video game environment where my sister and I mutually ignore each other, except for the occasional grunt, while gaming.

Until tomorrow, happy failing!

A Most Excellent Monday

Today is not about my failure. Today is about the failure of Monday.

Traditionally, Mondays are supposed to be horrible, glum, and distressing events.  Or at least, not stellar and awesome. My Monday decided to fail miserably at being awful, or at the very least, boring, and instead turned into a marvelous day!

First, an update about composing.  I have obviously failed in uploading an awful MIDI file of what I am currently working on. This is largely due to the fact that I do not have enough written to warrant making a MIDI file as of right now.  I am also in the preliminary stages of writing, where I improvise things on my violin and come up with melodic lines and harmonic structures.  I either add the harmonic structure to the melody, or create a harmonic structure that I mash the melody into.  Fun times.

In short, I unintentionally overestimated my composing speed, which is sad, since I know that I am a slow writer.

Here is the exciting update: I have an official reason to compose, other than I want to!  (It is always easier for me to create music for a specific purpose other than “because it is good for me to write and I enjoy it”) One of my friends on facebook messaged me last night, telling me of a book club she has heard about in our area.  It is comprised of local musicians who get together every month, read a book, and then compose music inspired by what they have read!

And guess what, my readers, I AM GOING TO JOIN IT!

I do not know if this opportunity will create circumstances I enjoy composing in, but I know that it will be an excellent experience to participate in that will enable me to grow as a composer over the coming year!  I will also get to connect with local musicians over writing music.  Really, could I ask for a better and more exciting opportunity? I think not!

The second thing that makes this a most exciting Monday is…..I purchased the movie Cloud Atlas for $5!  It is one of my favorite books and movies!  To me, it is one of the rare exceptions where the movie form of a story is as equally wonderful as its book form.

In fact, I have convinced my sister to watch it with me and we are at the point in the movie where all the stories start to converge into their high points.  Meaning, I am getting more and more distracted while typing this as well as typing faster and faster.  However, I have committed to a post a day on this blog and a post a day I shall write!

It is good that I have finished describing the two exciting failures of this Monday already.

Until tomorrow, happy failing!

Like a Tea Tray in the Sky

Yesterday, I failed at my job.

However, I failed with such energetic enthusiasm and willingness to try that I gained some respect from my coworkers. Or maybe they were laughing at my wimpy toothpick arms.  Regardless, I didn’t get in the way or break anything, so if I provided some extra humor with my humble work contribution, then I am okay with that.

Where I work, I do banquet serving.  For the most part, I clean, polish, and organize things as well as *gasp* serve food.

In order to serve food, the food must be transported to within serving distance of tables.  Here is where my wimpy toothpick arms become a liability.  To transport and serve said food, one must carry a tray and move the food from the tray to the table.

The problem is, the trays are incredibly heavy.  I can balance them on my hand without a problem, but when I try to let go with the other hand in order to move a plate of food from the tray to the table, my arm begins to protest.  A wimpy toothpick arm does not have the capacity to hold a heavy tray all by itself, and instantly starts to wobble.

My first day at work, I was taught how to hold the trays.  When the lady who had taught me proper tray transporting technique saw my shaky and slow progress of dessert distribution yesterday, she adopted a look of amused pity and said, “Here, why don’t I help you with that?” I then followed her around the table (carrying the tray with both of my hands!) while SHE removed desserts from the tray and placed them on the table.  Earlier, she had sensed trouble and came to my rescue to distribute a smaller tray of vessels filled with cream.

My supervisor offered to transport the tray with dinner plates for me, which was great, seeing as how that eventually meant he dropped them instead of me.

My serving partner acknowledged that he was going to be the one to carry out the tray of dirty dishes, which was also great, as it meant that I was then shown how to efficiently use tray space to maximize the number of dirty dishes that could fit on a tray.

All I can say is, I am fortunate that my career goal is in music and not something relying on tray transporting.  While I know my arms will get stronger over time, it will be a while before I’ll be able to manage the heavier trays.

It also does not hurt that I enjoy polishing silverware!

Until tomorrow, happy failing!

Searching For Words

Today’s failure happened in the early hours of the morning, like all the most interesting failures do.

At about 1:00 a.m., I hand my sister my phone.  On it, a word search app game was activated.  For this app, you are timed on how quickly you can complete the word search.  When I handed my sister my phone, I said, “Here, see if you can beat this.”

That was a mistake.

My sister then proceeded to work for at least an hour trying to beat my record. She succeeded, and shaved about 4 seconds off of my number one time.  I was passed the phone.

Now, while I was good and tried my very best to make minimal noise while my sister was trying to beat my record, she was a brat when I was trying to regain my title.

My attempt at beating the record went something like this:

Sister: I beat it!

Me: You are a butt of the biggest degree. *takes phone, begins word search*

Sister: *maniacally laughs the entire time I am trying to regain my record*

Me: *finishes word search* HERE. BEAT IT!

Sister: *stops laughing abruptly, takes phone back*

Me: This is fun-

Sister: Shh!

Me: *quietly grinning in a mocking manner*

I beat her score by about 7 seconds.

The abrupt change from my sister laughing to scolding me into silence was well worth the next hour and a half or so.  That period of time also reminded me why it is a stupid stupid thing to challenge her at something she feels competent about.  At 3:30 a.m., she tossed my phone back at me, grinning.  She had beaten my record by about 3 seconds.

In response, I kicked her out of my room.

Alright, I did not do that because she beat me at a word search and I still haven’t regained the title yet.  I needed to sleep, and she kept talking! So, she needed to go.  This late night word search competition is also why I did not wake up before noon today.

Next time, I will remember to challenge her to a late night word search competition during the day, and not right before I need to go to sleep. Or, you know, not challenge her at all so I can have some sort of time record on my game.

Until tomorrow, happy failing!

Freshly Failed Friday!

I am incredibly frustrated right now.  In fact, you could say I am mad.  Or full of rage.

Today’s failure has racked up 5 rage quits so far from me.

(I am unsure if I have defined rage quit already in this blog, but in case I haven’t and in case there are readers who do not understand the term here it is; Rage quit-when you get so mad at something you have to take a break before dealing with it some more)

The failure of the day has to do with Pokemon.

My sister and I have played the Pokemon video games since we were in elementary school.  We love the franchise, and every time a new game comes out our response is, “Why yes, we will continue to contribute to one of Nintendo’s most profitable cash cows. Now shut up and take our money!”

This past year, though, our love for Pokemon has deepened.  We were (and still are, mostly) casual players.  In the past 12 months, though, we discovered things like EVs and how to strategically build them, the Lumiose Station on youtube, and video series of people playing through the Pokemon games using various rule sets.  The Lumiose Station was a particularly significant downfall, as they regularly host and stream Pokemon tournaments.  After watching one, we realized that we enjoyed watching Pokemon tournaments as much as football fans (not what Americans call “soccer”) love football.

However, nothing prepared us for the wonder of the Pokemon fan-made games.  These are games that fans have created that have clever features not present in the franchise games and plots with more depth that are targeted towards adults.

It is one of these fan-made games that has me in a state of frustration.  The source of the frustration is the fighting dojo.  In the franchise games, you have to battle gym leaders and you receive a gym badge upon defeating them. The fighting dojo is not an official gym because you cannot earn a gym badge by defeating the Dojo. Instead, the player receives a pokemon upon defeating the leader.

In the franchise Pokemon games, the fighting dojo is a pushover bonus gym equivalent.  It’s easy to prepare for and easy to defeat.

In all the fan-made games I have played so far, the fighting dojo is no longer a pushover and I have underestimated him every. single. time.

That’s right.  Those 5 rage quits are technically not rage quits, but 5 instances where the fighting dojo has defeated me. Being a veteran Pokemon player, this means I have closed out of the game five times and rebooted it 4 times to avoid the loss costing my character money and reattempt the dojo as quickly as possible.  Petty, but it’s not like money is thrown at you in these games.

I have been pouting for an hour or so since my last failure to win.  Okay, not really pouting, I had real-life stuff to do.  I am getting ready to train my Pokemon to high enough levels that they will crush every single opposing Pokemon mercilessly.

Uh, crush with friendship.  Because Pokemon is all about the friendship.  Anyway, we are at 5 current failures to win, and I will update you on the final count.  It should be only five failures total, but one poor move choice can lose a battle, so we’ll see.

I hope other Pokemon fans are having more success in their playing adventures than I am currently having as mine. If not, try to fail more spectacularly than me!

Until tomorrow, happy failing!

Gratitude

While on Wednesdays, there will be mid-week celebrations, Thursdays will be the time for expressing gratitude. We will return to failing on Fridays.

This week’s gratitude is extended to acquaintances, both acquaintances in general and a specific one.

At the equine therapy center where I volunteer, I have only been present a day or two each week for five weeks.  For this reason, I am still a newbie to the organization.

My sister, however, is not.  Last spring semester, she was the volunteer coordinator for the organization.  Meaning, she was in charge of making sure that the people who did the things I am doing at the center now were in the right places at the right times.  So, she directed multiple newbies and old hand-type volunteers.  Now, she is well known and respected by the administrative-types in the organization as well as the old volunteers she helped coordinate during the spring volunteer opportunities.

As a newbie volunteer, this puts me in an awkward place of not-just-another-volunteer-but-actually-only-a-volunteer.

Today my gratitude is extended to someone who my sister has developed a strong friendship with at the organization, but who hardly knows me.  She is one of the riding instructors, and while I am in an awkward volunteer space, she has always gracefully managed to treat me without any awkwardness.  I am acknowledge as someone who is not a background volunteer person, which I technically am, but as someone who does know quite a bit about the organization through my sister, although I do not expect or want to be engaged beyond volunteer responsibilities all the time.

Instead of ignoring me or not including me in conversations, she always makes sure I know that I am appreciated as a volunteer.  Since I usually arrive with my sister, who arrives early, and only volunteer for 2 or 3 hours when I am there for 8-10, that alone means a lot.  She takes her kindness one step further by including me in snack runs and/or as part of the group that she will share snacks with after the volunteer hours are over.

She is the reason I feel included in and appreciated by the organization, without feeling awkward when I am there and in either the not-yet or have-just-finished volunteering mode.

Acquaintances can make your life miserable for no apparent reason or wonderful for the same lack of reason.  I am fortunate enough that in this experience, I have an acquaintance that has chosen to invest some time in me to make sure I feel appreciated and enjoy volunteering.

Here’s to acquaintances that make life wonderful.  Thank you!