hello! yoshi

I was talking to Jules the other day and we were talking about RSS Feeds and Feedburner and all that crazy stuff that bloggers talk about. Then she says to me, “i hate this reader thing.  people should just comment and link like the old days.” I totally agree! I remember the old days when you would comment. Hell, I remember the days when there was no way of commenting on a post yet, and you just had a guestbook. Remember those days? Guestbooks were the bomb diggity back in the day.

But I digress.

But in the old days, you would just link to your favourite sites, and that’s how you expressed that you liked a site or you would just comment and that’s how people found your site and whatever. These are the days before SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and money making blogs and well when not just everyone had a blog. Nowadays, everyone has a blog. And there are different kind of bloggers too. I won’t list them all, since I don’t even know all of them that exist. But there are so many it’s not even funny. There are even Spamming bloggers, a.k.a. sploggers. Crazy isn’t it?

When I first started way back in whenever, it wasn’t even called blogging. It was just having a website, updating every now and then (sometimes weekly, sometimes daily) and just saying whatever. There were no such things as Blogger (which I started using way back in 2001 because everyone I talked to said I should use it), and wordpress or any other program that most people use nowadays. It was a website originally called “Psychodaisy’s Garden” where I put down my thoughts and links and had my guestbook (of course). Those were the old school days. Psychodaisy.com was finally created in 2001, but before that I was at the validus.com domain, which was sold for a pretty good amount of money. That domain was my first domain name, which I paid $100 for 2 years to register. That was when InterNIC was the only registrar. How times have changed!

Anyways, how long have you been blogging?

Also, today’s Mother’s day. Have you called your mom today? You better!

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Who knew that the Hard Rock Cafe Orlando is the largest (or at least was at the time) Hard Rock Cafe in the world? We also found out that Orlando is the lightning capitol of the world too. Ooh, that was fun. Can you feel the enthusiasm? Anyways, I thought I’d share this pic since I love it so much!

Are you participating in the PhotoHunt? Let me know by leaving a comment!

Well, traditionally, TGIF around here has become a way for me to recap the week and put out some linky love, kinda like girlrobot’s Friday Links. But mine are a bit more closer and personal. So what’s happened this week?

If you missed it, yours truly has become an American Citizen. That’s right folks, I get to stand jury duty now. And Neptunebaby even says it’s not that bad! I might get to experience it some day! Oh also, Avitable made a point to say I can now say this, “If John McCain gets elected President, I’m renouncing my citizenship!” LOL so true!

Katie just painted her room after she just moved into her new place. You might want to check it out and wish her a warm homecoming to her new place.

Jules has opened up her new Mets blog, so if you’re into baseball or the Mets in particular, then you really should go check it out. seriously! I also talked to her and she might open up her personal blog this weekend! I totally can’t wait. I miss the blogging Jules days.

Oh yeah, Colin got laid. That’s some seriously good news, you think? Oh and something about visiting the US or something. Yeah I’m pretty sure if he gets to the west coast it’d be great, but starting out in Washington DC, that’s pretty damn far. He’d have to fly. Unless he’s planning a really big road trip, which would be cool. But yeah, if he made it out here, he could see Katie and I. Would be cool times.

If you missed TequilaCon 2008 like myself, then you’ll probably benefit from the video NYCWD posted: TequliaCon 2008: The Final Shot. It’s a great video summarizing TequilaCon 2008 in 120 seconds. It’s awesome! He’s totally gonna get burned! Watch to the end!

If you didn’t know, Meesh was a bit under the weather, and I’m thinking I poisoned her last weekend. It was not pretty, I feel really bad. But she’s feeling a lot better now. We’ll just have to remember, no more Dinty Moore Beef Stew for her!

Last but not least, yesterday was Breigh’s birthday, go wish her some birthday wishes! She also just got home from a vacation in France. I’m totally jealous.

Ok, so the other night I had the scariest nightmare. I was somehow in some type of race, going somewhere, probably something like Cannonball Run or whatever, and we were all stopped in this one city. There was a top secret military base there, who knows what branch, but it looked like Air Force. I’m starting to forget this nightmare, so the details are kinda hazy at this point.

I remember having to navigate a series of rooms, kinda like a video game. (I obviously play too many videogames) I then realized, I had discovered a deep secret of which I cannot remember, and I had to get out as soon as possible. As soon as I tried to rush out of the building, I was being chased by a tall bald man, very calm and very collected insisting that I come with him. He sprayed something into my eyes, and while it seemed like I was blinded, I wasn’t, and I kept running. I started to feel weak, probably an effect of whatever was sprayed into my eyes. I swung a long stick at the man, but he laughed and easily avoided me. I was obviously drugged and weak. My vision became blurrier and blurrier, until finally I blacked out.

Then I woke up.

Pretty crazy eh? I should use this in a story. I’ve probably been reading too much Dean Koontz.

Got any scary or crazy dreams you wanna share?

Last Friends is a Japanese dorama about life in today’s society. It’s about a young girl named Michiru who finds herself in love with a great young man and moves in with him, only to find that he’s a very possessive and jealous type. He is also very prone to violence. She soon becomes a victim of domestic violence, and finds herself a bit lost. Of course, on the outside, he acts very nice and can be very charming. He’s also very kind and very caring towards her. However, if she angers him, or does something that makes him angry, he is very quick to hit her.

At the same time, one of Michiru’s old schoolmates, Ruka, finds her after so many years of not talking to each other. You can tell that Ruka might be in love with Michiru, but there’s something that Ruka is hiding from everyone. No one really knows what’s going on with her. Of course, Michiru’s boyfriend finds out about Ruka and gets unnecessarily jealous. What follows is a dorama about friends and the things that happen in their lives.

I still have a hard time watching this dorama. I’m very against domestic violence, and I for one have a hard time tolerating it. I get really upset watching this show, but it does have some favourite actors/actresses like Ueno Juri, Mizukawa Asumi, and Eita of Nodame Cantabile fame. And you should know I watch a lot of dorama because of the people in it, as well as what it’s about. But honestly, even the favourite actors/actresses are making it tough. I think it’s just because when I see what’s happening in the show, it just really pisses me off. I know it’s not real, I mean seriously, it’s a TV show, right? But it’s the fact that I know there are so many issues of domestic violence out there. seriously. Too many. Things like this should never happen. No one should be trapped within a relationship and have to take any amount of abuse. Ever. seriously. If I ever hit Meesh, I would never be able to forgive myself. Ever.

But I digress. The dorama is about friendship, and the power of friendship. There are plenty of lessons to be learned here. The bond of friendship is strong. But the bond of love is strong too. Which wins in the end?

So now that I’m an American Citizen, what changes? People might be wondering or asking what changes now that I’m officially an American. To be honest with you, there isn’t really much that changes. I still pay taxes, that might be the biggest one. For those of you who think that Permanent Residents (what I used to be) don’t have to pay taxes, you’ve got it totally wrong. The illegal aliens don’t pay taxes. That’s why they’re illegal.

I get to vote. That’s a major change too. I couldn’t vote before and honestly, I didn’t really care, but lately, it just seems like perhaps I really should vote. I realize of course that I’m only one vote, but really, it could make a difference if everyone who didn’t vote actually did vote.

I can now work in a federal job. While this might not really appeal to everyone, I had applied for a federal job in the past and was rejected for the sole reason that I was not a citizen. I’m pretty sure it was because I would be working with computers and some areas required at least “Secret” (as opposed to Top Secret) clearance. Well, you can’t get any clearance if you’re not a citizen. So there you have it.

Other than that, there’s nothing else changing in my life. Perhaps now I will get the job of my dreams working for the FBI or something. That might be exciting. Most likely not though. Oh, I do have to go to the Social Security office to let them know I’m a citizen now. I’m not sure if it has to do with Social Security payouts. Who knows, I just have to let them know about it.

Also, I’d like to say for the record, for those of you who say that the test is very hard: Yes, it’s pretty tough, only because some of those questions are crazy, but I personally think they try to make it as easy as possible on you. Not to say it’s easy for a terrorist to become a citizen, because it’s not. But I’m pretty sure when you apply they do a very thorough background check on you. That’s the real hard part. Don’t lie about any legal things going on with your life. Especially if you were out of country or arrested for whatever reason. But the test is pretty easy if you study. This all changes in October 2008 though. The citizenship test is a real test! I looked at the questions and they’re pretty damn hard! I’m glad I got my citizenship now!

Are there any changes that I missed by becoming an American Citizen?

Happy Cinco de Mayo! I’ve been reading up on this holiday, and lo behold it’s not just about a hoilday for drinking tequila and say “Ole!” all day. It’s mainly a day about celebrating the Mexican heritage, and from what I understand, it’s not entirely celebrated everywhere in Mexico. It just about sounds to me like it’s a holiday that most Mexican-American’s made up in the 1800’s. Which is still cool. Any holiday that celebrates an ethnicity should be welcome in America! That’s what the USA is all about, right?

What are your plans for Cinco de Mayo?

You may or may not have noticed that I’ve stopped publishing my Twitter feed at the bottom of the page. This is due for a few reasons, mostly because I want to start reducing the amount of “stuff” I am displaying on this site. I’m trying to get a redesign going for the upcoming Blogathon, and I want to streamline what’s going to be shown on the new design. It’s a lot of work you know. Yes, I am doing the Blogathon this year, and yes, I have some ideas. Apparently the organizers are changing. But that’s another post.

Regardless, I haven’t really been tweeting much either. It’s not because of Twitter, or because I am too bored of it. Honestly, it’s mainly been because I’ve just been forgetting to go to the website. Normally I use twhirl, and well, it’s been acting really strange as of late, and it’s not running well. It keeps acting all wonky, and I’m not sure if I should blame it on the app or blame it on Adobe AIR. Who knows, regardless, it’s not working well, and I just plain have not been using it at all, which makes me ignore Twitter. Perhaps I’ll start using it again and get back onto Twitter. Especially since Jules is back to using it.

What program (if any) do you use to keep track of your Twitter updates?