Archive for January, 2008

Yesterday, a horrific, unspeakable crime occurred here in Hawaii. You have probably heard of it— it was such big news that it was even on MSN. A toddler was thrown from a pedestrian overpass, 30 feet to the highway below. The child was almost 2 years old. It is not yet known how the man got the baby to begin with (the mother suspects that the child, who was very friendly, opened the door for him while the grandfather slept), or what his motivations were. The man was a neighbor, and the child knew him and apparently liked him a lot. What could have possibly gone through this man’s mind? Why on earth would anybody do something so hideous to someone so innocent?

What makes this even more disturbing (if that’s even possible) is that Toby actually knew who this person was. Small island, I guess. But it’s hard enough to deal with such a tragedy performed by a stranger. I can’t even imagine what it’s like actually knowing the person. 

I have an uncomfortable feeling in the pit of my stomach that says this guy is going to try an insanity defense. I can only hope that he gets the punishment he deserves.

I haven’t written in such a long time that I’m not even sure what to say. Many things have happened, but they’re kind of hazy now. So, I’ll do a quick run-through! (These are not listed in chronological order.)

*We took Tommy to the zoo, which was a lot of fun. Toby had to carry him on his shoulders most of the day because he wouldn’t stay in the stroller and he kept wanting to run off on his own. Poor Toby. During lunch, I happened to spill some of the food on the ground. Within a couple of seconds, a flock of (aggressive) birds have landed and are fighting for the food. Since we don’t want them near us, we keep trying to kick in their general direction to scare them off. Some of them went away, but others stayed or kept coming back.

*I have all of a sudden decided I want to raise chickens. I don’t know why. Chickens just seem cool.

*While shopping for Christmas, I happened to get stopped by one of the handsome, charming foreign guys that staff those kiosks in the middle of the mall (because those things are ALWAYS staffed by handsome, charming foreign guys). After being given a massage and aroma therapy and being called a number of endearments, he expected me to drop about $100 for his product, a collection of aromatic heating pad things. (During this time, Toby went into a panic because he had not noticed I got distracted and he didn’t know where I was.) I felt bad, but I told him I had to discuss such a purchase with my spouse and ran off and hid. I’m not going to pay $100 for scented heating pads!

*I bought a brand-new laptop with my scholarship money. I had been debating for several weeks over whether to get a Macbook or a PC laptop. In the end, I got a better deal for my money by getting a PC, so I got myself a nice, pretty new PC laptop. I got it on sale, too! WOOOO! I don’t understand why people don’t like Vista, though… It seems to me that they paid more attention to human-computer interaction design than they did in any of their previous releases. It’s different, of course, which can be annoying when you can’t find what you’re looking for because you’re used to it being in a different location, but it’s just a matter of getting used to the new locations. (I haven’t gotten used to them yet, myself. That will come in time, I hope.)

*Today’s the first day of classes for me! I haven’t yet attended a class, but I’m hoping they don’t suck as much as the classes last semester did. This should be my last semester, assuming all goes well. I’m very happy to be done with it all. Even though I enjoy school, I’m kind of tired of classes.

This was a pretty boring post… I’m mostly just writing to get back in the habit of it. Alas.