US Census Bureau 2010

Last year [2009] I filled out a really long form for the US Census. We were called by "people" who kept telling us we have to fill out the census for the government. The form looked very legit, except it was tediously long. I filled it out anyway.

That was last year, and now I realized I have fallen into some scam artists' trap. The US Census is THIS YEAR. Since we filled one out last year, we decided not to do it again this year. A US Census representative knocked on my door today. According to them, they don't have our information in the system. The guy showed me the questions and I had to answer him. Who was legit? I have to say this is more legit. Last year was definitely a scam. How the ___ did they get my phone number? The form seemed legit, the address seemed legit, the phone call seemed legit, but why was it in 2009? I should've been more cautious and look up the form online. Because now... knowing all my information is in the hands of scam artists...

Good grief.

The Cove

During speech class, this girl gave the most heart touching speech about dolphins. Her topic was on the 2009 award winning documentary called "The Cove," and her speech not only informed but moved the audience (and if not, at least I was moved, and that's something).


According to her, dolphins are lured into this cove somewhere in Japan to be either captured or made into fish meat. Those "fortunate enough" are hand picked to live a life in captivity and forced to perform in water shows. Those who aren't, are simply slaughtered. The documentary gives a lot of bloody disgusting imagery, no pun intended. One of the most famous dolphin trainers, Ric O'Barry, described how one of his Flippers committed suicide on him. Dolphins are incredibly intelligent creatures, whom some scientists say have brains more developed than humans. Dolphins must constantly breathe in survive and one of Barry's most stressed out dolphins decided to end her life in front of him.

Dolphins in captivity are stressed out by their trainers for performance. They developed such high levels of stress that they develop stomach ulcers that need to be treated with drugs. It's no wonder that one of Barry's dolphins pulled the plug on herself. After that, Barry decided to dedicate his life to freeing dolphins instead of training them. Yearly, dolphins are slaughtered in a bloodbath, literally a bloodbath, in this cove. No this is not photoshopped. Predators lure hundreds of dolphins to this area and butcher them. The irony of this is that dolphins are not safe to eat. They have high levels of mercury which can lead to mercury poisoning in humans. I haven't watched it yet but I feel if I do, I'll be very depressed.

Youtube trailer of the movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KRD8e20fBo

argh

A dear friend of mine was in tears today and I was heart-broken. What can you for a friend when she's in that type of situation? I tried my very best to comfort her but it didn't work. She was devastated and I simply could not come up with the right words. In the end I simply used the power of silence to express my sympathy, after all, why bring it up again when one simply wants to forget about the whole thing? I felt so useless and I could feel her emotions as we walked home. My heart sunk rock bottom.

I have a lot to learn about human relationships because frankly I say the darnest things and rarely think about how it might affect people.

lack of fat

Okay we've all heard of stories where people try everything they can in order to lose weight. This story is about the opposite. You see, I've been 120 pounds for my entire high school career. I've always wanted to get to the "normal" weight for my height. During my stay in Stony Brook, I ate fast food and junk food almost everyday. The bottled water was more expensive than the soda. Hence I lived off of Pepsi and Wendy's for half the semester. What was the end result? I gained five pounds. At the end of the semester, I was finally at 125 pounds. My weight fluctuated and I'm currently 130 now (FYI it has been 1.5 years since Stony Brook). A week ago when I met a couple of my friends from Stony Brook, they told me I look skinnier. I don't know. I keep trying to gain weight but I look skinnier than I am. Weird huh?