A Hero in my own right

There I was, a relieved student walking out of my first midterm of the quarter. When I see a person that is sort of knelt down on the ground. To my surprise it was a previous French classmate of mine. After some small talk, I find out that she is protecting a mother duck and her ducklings. It turns out that these ducklings just hatch a day or so before and have fallen out of there nest. To make matters worse, to help these ducklings we must do it without touching them because if human scent rubs off on them they won’t be recognized by the mother duck.

The situation is turning more and more grave. The mother duck decides to take that 5 baby ducks that fell across the street, leaving a few in the nest and two on the ground that were not fast enough to keep up with their mom. This task was looking more difficult. This was when more helped arrived. Another friend, who might I mentioned did not noticed me at first, stopped to admire the cute ducklings. This friend was an “Intro to Acting” partner of mines. Together, along with some strangers, we all started blocking traffic, redirecting UPS trucks, and halting bicyclists. Together we reunited the family of ducks and I started to think about the networks we form. I had only known these people for a few months at a time. Even though it may be brief, the people we’ve known can always appear in our lives again. And who knows? You too may be able to save a family of animals, preferably tigers or dragons, someday.

Old School Jams

“I like the way you work it. No diggity. I got to bag it up, bag it up.” (Blackstreet) Was that not a good example? Then how about this? “You’ll always be a part of me. I’m a part of you indefinitely. Boy don’t you know you can’t escape me. Ooh darling, ‘cause you’ll always be my baby.” (Carey) Whether it be Blackstreet, Mariah Carey, the Backstreet Boys, Boys to Men, or Louis Armstrong, there are just some songs that stay with you for a life time. To add to that, those songs invoke memories of a different time in your life.

In my French course that I am currently taking, the current chapter is about love and expressions of love in the French language. A fellow classmate began to sing The Lovin’ Spoonful’s great song “Do You Believe in Magic?”. I was captivated and knew I had to join in. So there we are two guys in the back of class singing the lyrics when I remember my high school days. I was singing this song along with my buddies at lunch without a care in the world. It was a great time in my life. Those songs that can bring you back for that brief moment in time are the greatest breaks that we can take. It makes you think about nothing and refreshes you to continue whatever you were doing with a better attitude. For example, after singing in French class, I walked into my next class singing the Lovin’ Spoonfuls with a smile on my face.

Works Cited

Blackstreet. "No Diggity". Dr. Dre, Teddy Riley, and Queen Pen. Interscope, 1996.

Carey, Mariah. "Always be my Baby". Jermaine Dupri, and Manuel Seal. Sony, 1996.

 The lovin spoonful - Do you believe in magic?

Is “convenience” all that convenient?

So here I am after a let-loose weekend trying to write a blog. Totally blank on ideas, I decided to pay my bills, Comcast and PG&E. I pay online because it is “convenient”. Now for the drama. I pay the PG&E bill with no errors and so I move onto the Comcast bill. Comcast online bill pay has four tabs and I deduced that I must click “pay my bill” to pay my bill. Without any hesitation, I work through the series of payment verification windows like a professional bred to operate the bill pay website. However, with every dramatic tragedy, there must be a downfall. On the last page of the process, the website showed me the confirmed statement that I have paid $174.09. This would be okay except the bill was only $64.54.

So let me clarify. First, I paid last month’s bill a little late, about two and a half weeks late. Second, the $174.09 amount was the combination of the bill last month and this month. Finally, the Comcast site is slowly updated. Usually, if you keep up with the payments, the site will have at least three weeks to update the progress information. In the site’s defense, I was late on payments. The site didn’t have the update ready and the amount due was incorrect. So now I’ve overpaid over a hundred dollars. I’m left wondering how is this convenient? The world may see that the internet as convenient but can it be convenient if it costs me an extra hundred dollars? I may just be an upset child now but the upside is that the amount will be prorated to the next month’s bill. Do not feel sad for me for I will be happier next month. Always look on the bright side.