- Kat -

Oh, I may have misspoke. I totally agree, nobody wants to take responsibility when they make a mistake. It's almost become a kind of game to some people, to see how they can 'apologize' but still make it clear that it wasn't their fault. "I'm sorry your feelings were hurt by what I said," is a very popular one. No acknowledgement that they may have said something rude or ignorant, just a throw-away apology to get people off their back while still resting the blame on the person they hurt with their actions.

They are slowly but surely getting more comfortable in their new home. Still a bit antsy when I approach, but when I come by I'll see them hanging around outside instead of always being in their hides. Pictures soon! They have such lovely colors. I'm glad you said something to the teacher. If there was a miscommunication, intentional or not, it is important that it is resolved fairly. This is important for your and your school career and someone else's mistake should not hinder you. I agree totally. People have not been taught how to deal with differing opinions or different points of view, and have taught themselves to take them as direct personal attacks. Sometimes, I can understand their position, in the case of things like racism or gender discrimination. Those are antagonistic. But I frequently see young people take personal offense if someone dislikes a piece of media they enjoy, or even just interpret it in a different way than they do. They see it as someone saying that something they like or believe is wrong and bad, and thus so are they. The thing that confuses me, is that people frequently complain about millennials and how sensitive they are. A lot of baby boomers like to throw around the idea of participation trophies and how nobody was ever told they aren't amazingly special at everything. And while that is true, and the people raised like that are hard to deal with, I feel like some baby boomers forget who it was that raised them that way. Kids didn't give themselves participation trophies, the adults that raised them did. Kids didn't actively hide from any opinion that clashed with theirs, adults hid them from it to spare their feelings. Now that those kids are adults and are missing those skills, the prior generation pretends like these tendencies sprang out of the void and they had no hand in it. The whole idea of people not wanting to accept any responsibility for things and pushing the blame on someone else is present in every generation.

Mine would do that too! sometimes it was like they couldn't wait for ball time, and sometimes it was a strange and scary monster that was obviously there to eat them. The leopard geckos are here! I tried to take some pictures but they are both still staying in their hides so you can't really see anything. Once they are feeling more adventurous, I'll definitely share pics! Their names are Leo and Lagg. I can see how that would be frustrating. On one hand, people don't want to step on any toes, and especially in a school setting it can be easier to just smile and nod and pass the class. But that won't really open up real discussion or change minds for the better. Not to sound like an old person but I think the internet has created a strong mindset where the second someone says something you disagree with, you should write that person off as evil and stupid forever. There's a lot to unpack about the whole idea but I see it a lot because it's especially prevalent in my generation. What a lovely scene you describe! I want to draw it, I hope I do it justice.

Sasha and Penny would do that too, only they'd gather up what I stashed for them and then I'd find that they moved it to another stash while I was cleaning. Those all sound like fun classes to me I took a class in high school called Cross-Cultural Connections that would talk about a culture and cover its basic info and then talk about how it's represented in America and how the two cultures combine. And then of course photography and horseback riding sound great! I've only been horseback riding once but I loved it. The idea of a little blonde hamster wearing a cowboy hat standing on a saddle with his little paw on the shudder button of a camera while his horse paws the ground patiently....it is perfect.

In theory, it should be over now. I'm hoping by October it stops climbing into the upper 80s x.x I remember when I had Sasha and then Penny, any time I cleaned their tank, I liked to change things around and give them something new to do for a while. The only thing I'd leave the same was their bathroom. For both of them, the first thing they'd do when I put them back in is run into their potty and wonder who had stolen all their poop. I hate weird deadlines like that, too! I always forget the time it's due when they do that. Why does it matter that the assignment is turned in by 6PM that day? As long as it's ON that day, shouldn't that be enough? If you don't mind my asking, what is the class you're taking?

As pets, male leopard geckos usually live about 10 years but some get as old as 20. These guys are just under a year so I'll have plenty of time with them. And to answer your earlier question, my brother loves lizards so he will likely help out while I'm on my trip, though mom and dad both say they'll help out as well. I always love your hamster set-ups. It's so cool how you make these hammy palaces for your friends! I want to be able to do something like that some day. Storms coming this weekend. Hopefully it breaks this humidity, I hate it x__x

I will! Two boys, and they're still pretty young so I should have them for a good long time. I'll take lots of pictures once I get them! I will be picking them up next Sunday. I'll definitely need to pack some, then. And lots of sunscreen. I'm glad you guys are safe, and I hope nothing else comes for you this year. Or any other year, for that matter.

I remember hearing that about Skin So Soft, now that you mention it. I wonder if mom still has some... A coworker is moving and unfortunately his new apartment does not allow pets, and he has two leopard geckos. He and I have talked in the past about how I loved keeping leopard geckos for my school and recently babysitting one for a friend while they were out of town, so he said he would give me the geckos and all of his supplies for them for free since he knows I have experience and will take good care of them. I'm very excited! I'm gonna take so many pictures in NZ. Millions.

The house AC is fixed! Still no AC in the car, though. I managed to get bitten a bunch by mosquitoes while the AC was down so I feel your pain x.x We've also had a huuuuge number of crickets this year for some reason. I usually don't really care either way about crickets, but there are so many in the house and in the building at work, and they die all over the place and spend all night screaming, so I'm ready for winter to take them out too. I was just talking with a coworker about that today! 4 years seems like such a short time and a long time at the same time. We are FINALLY getting the last office position filled next week, so hopefully we'll be ready when peak hits. To be honest, I know my coworkers can handle it. It's management I don't have a lot of faith in. I am getting more and more excited for my New Zealand trip as it approaches! I still have so much to do to get ready but I also want to leave tomorrow

NZ friends are safe, they are on the other side of the country so they didn't really feel it. The AC in my car and my house are both broken x.x Fall needs to hurry up and cool down.

One of my coworkers has family in the Bahamas and told us about how bad it was there. It's terrible, my heart goes out to everyone there. I'm glad it wasn't able to reach Florida and cause more destruction. For the record, we have always liked to watch storm clouds and the rain come in, but if there is any chance of a tornado, we wait the storm out in shelter. I may be very midwestern but not even I am the kind of person who can stand outside and watch the funnel touch down. I hadn't heard about the NZ earthquakes, I have friends down there but they didn't say anything. I'll have to check in and make sure everyone is okay! I remember a while ago, a friend of mine in Australia had some earthquakes and really bad flooding in her town, it was really scary.

I'm sending good vibes your way! I hope you come out on the other side of Dorian safely I can never understand people who do stuff like that. I think I would start to panic as soon as I couldn't see the shore to begin with, much less knowing I didn't have any kind of safety equipment. Any time there is a storm bad enough for us to get warning, my family and everyone we know definitely head to shelter. We might watch the storm come in and go out but when it's actually on top of us we stay safe, and we keep the weather radio/channel on the whole time.

This is the difference between the coasts and the midwest. All of my friends in areas like Florida never really care that a hurricane is coming unless it's one of the major ones. I was talking to some friends tonight and they said their biggest concern is if they lose wifi XD But hurricanes seem like a big deal to us! Meanwhile, coast people are afraid of tornadoes while those of us that live in Tornado Alley will stand outside and watch them roll into town. You now all know about my mistrust of open ocean. Do with that what you will. This week is doing its best to drive us all crazy, but at least tomorrow should calm down, and then it's a long weekend! I think these past few days have been extra bad because everyone is trying to get stuff done before the holiday.

MacKenzie is more and more lovely with each photo you post~ I remember my friend had a little tent thing that we LOVED when we were kids, I'm sure she's having a great time with hers as well! Thank you both for your kind words. Seeing the improvement with each lesson is a great motivator in making me want to go further and further with photography, and it's definitely something I can see myself doing long into the future. I'm excited to see where else my lessons and ideas take me! I hope things stay calm for you in Florida. Hurricanes always sounded terrifying to me. Probably because I'm used to tornadoes, where there's much less water XD Being landlocked for all my life has given me somewhat of a phobia of large bodies of water. One of my coworkers is on vacation for 3 weeks, and it's already gotten pretty hectic in the office. My coworkers a great but we could use fewer customers! XD

I have had the most fun photographing organic things so far, and things in closer shots. Animals, flowers, or just general things in nature. I did also have fun doing the skyline photography and night photography, but I think when I have a specific focus of the image that I can understand I'm better at knowing how exactly to photograph it. If you have any suggestions for exercises to do around home, please let me know! I feel like I've kind of exhausted all the photo opportunities I have around here.

I will definitely let you know know how things progress! Right now she's pretty stable in terms of her eyes (and everything else) but if anything changes I'll let you know. Thank you for your kind words! It's exciting to see improvement after each lesson. Now that I'm understanding more how to use the camera and what exactly CAN be done with it, I'm getting more ideas about what I WANT to do with it.

That sounds like a pretty sound way to test it out! See if you can 'train' him to identify which little sack has the most nuts in it by color. you could even eventually do something like offer him only the green one and see if he reacts at all, to see if he has realized that the green one never has nuts in it.

I also realized too late that I picked the wrong one of those snake pictures. For the smaller red one, imagine that the snake isn't blurry, and that's what the right one looks like.

...I did not realize it would post those so huge. My apologies :x Horatio, if this is too big, you can delete that post and I'll make a new one with smaller images or see if I can get them to post as clickable samples or something.

Mom's follow-up appointment went well, they confirmed that everything is pretty much sealed off and shouldn't really get any worse. She hasn't mentioned it since then, though she's always been good at suffering in silence. I hope it's because it hasn't been hard for her to work around it though. My last photography lesson was at the zoo! Here are some of the pictures I think came out best. They are unedited so far, because I'm still kind of insecure about my editing abilities ^^; I think they can be polished up really nicely, though! I'm excited because I think a few of these are not only technically competent, but actually have some artistry to them as well. Which is what I'm most excited about in photography!

It's definitely something I want to talk to my teacher about. I've also noticed that it's hard to gauge my exposure compensation because what it shows on the back screen may look fine but when I upload the pictures they're waaaay over exposed. I'm sure some of it is just getting more used to the camera and what the view looks like versus what the actual upload will look like, but I'm still going to ask for tips! Mom's appointment was today. She was partially right in that some of the goop that keeps her retina attached had come apart, but it looks like the rest of it has already started to seal up so nothing more should be coming apart. The bad news is that the big hardened glop that detached is pretty much permanently in her eye now and she'll always have a floater spot there. They could laser it into smaller chunks but they'd still be there, and it's possible it might break up naturally itself over time but again it would just be smaller spots instead of the larger one she has. She also gets light flashes if she moves her eyes too sharply because of it. I feel awful for her because I know that would drive me insane and she's already been struggling with it while we were waiting for an appointment. Now that she knows it's permanent she's just accepting it but I'm sure it's still bothering her. I excitedly await the hippo pictures!

I understand that! It seems like the advice I see online never works for me, I just have to mess with settings myself. Shutter speed is one I still kind of struggle with, it seems like even if I set the others to what I think should work my shutter speed is always really slow. I will keep you updated on the work situation. I really think that with all of us coming to them about it, they can't ignore it and things will change. She has an appointment tomorrow morning, which was the earliest she could get in. It seems strange that nobody could get her in earlier when this seems serious, but at least she has an appointment now. I will definitely share zoo photos once I get them! I'm excited~

I wonder if there would be a way to use the same kind of pepper but change the color with a food dye or something? Though I'm not sure if food dye is safe for hamsters...

Those are gorgeous! I can't wait to see your airplane photos! I am still taking photos as well, though lately I've been suffering from a lack of time to go places to take any good new ones. My teacher and I have been trying to schedule a day to go to the zoo, but between inclimate weather and my weird work schedule, it's been hard to find a day we're both free. We're not giving up, though! Work has honestly been pretty stressful this last week. There's been some changes in staffing and scheduling that seem to be playing into some pretty blatant favoritism and are leaving four people (including me) with the short end of the stick in favor of catering to one person. I'm going to talk to our HR rep about it next week and see what can be done. If nothing else, I feel a bit better that all of my coworkers are in my corner and all of us who are being suspiciously jerked around are sticking together. Our other concern right now is my mom, who has been having issues with her eye and is fairly sure she's got a detaching retina. Of course, she found this out on Wednesday night, so between Thursday being a holiday and most doctors offices being closed Friday as well, she hasn't really been able to make an appointment anywhere. Hopefully, she can get in somewhere on Monday. As long as it's taken care of in a timely manner it shouldn't be too big of an issue, but it can get serious if we don't take care of it. I've been babysitting a leopard gecko this week for some family friends while they're out of town and it reminds me of how much I love having a gecko! She's very cute and it's fun to watch her prowl around her tank hunting for crickets. But I already have almost all the supplies for a beta fish, which I also really want, so that will be my next pet investment. More geckos and hammies in the future, though! My dream is to live somewhere that has enough room for me to house all sorts of fun little pets that I can comfortably afford to care for and spend time with. With a couple cats and a dog as well, of course. I do love checking in here and seeing how everyone is doing. I will make a point to do it more often!

It's vacation season at work, and between that and general shift changes, it's been hectic x.x I'm tired but things outside of work are cool, at least! 4th of July was cut a little short this year. Firstly, we started pretty late because our dog Moose goes nuts when he hears fireworks so we can't bring him with us, but we also don't want to leave him and Pippin alone for too long, so we just go over for the evening now. Also, it kept raining off and on. Not just little showers, either, it was coming down pretty hard! We still managed to get stuff exploded, though! The game is out and it is a ton of fun! It's an online game so I play with a bunch of my friends, we're having a blast.