People who don't help
I have this pet peeve that I just found out about. A few months ago, I was involved in an incident where a van rammed through a shop that I had been in 5 minutes prior to the accident.

The driver - an elderly gentleman - thought that he stepped on the brakes, but he had stepped on the gas pedal instead, accelerating his vehicle as opposed to slowing it down to park. It was bad because he ran into the spot where I was browsing through for candy. I was really shaken that day, because I was even thinking of staying inside the store longer to look for more treats to send to my parents and perhaps, my cousins. People were taking pictures and some (including myself) were offering the images to the owners in the event that the insurance company wanted proof or something. There were 4 independent sources.

But that didn't piss me off. No, it was the 2 university students who were just standing around. I know for a fact that I'm a little bit on the off-beat path: I don't really like using cellphones. I saw them with theirs and yet neither girl used it to call for help. I have a problem with people who pass off such petty responsibilities to other people and I don't care for the "Well, someone's going to eventually call for help. I don't want to be involved" reasoning. I think that there's a time to not become involved and there's a time when we should be involved - in that case, calling for 911 wasn't too much involvement. I don't care that there were probably other people who called, but I have a bad habit of just assuming things that I'm trying to rid myself of, so I called 911 anyway.

Besides, my hard-earned money goes to the government and part of it pays for 911. I'm glad that I don't use the service often, but why not use it to help when I can? Nope, bitches just watched and stared and gossiped about it.

In fact, one of them ended up shadowing my T.A. in lab and she was just as unhelpful: my friend had her hand up, wanting to ask the main T.A. a question, and aforementioned student just stared at her instead of signaling the main T.A. I shared my sentiments about those girls and how the shadow was one of those girls. My friend said "I see what you mean. She's going to be a T.A. but she's useless."

I don't care for nice people. Everyone can be nice, I know this, and it makes for a good impression. But if this kind of courtesy is extended merely to friends as opposed to being inclusive of others who need it, to me that says a lot more about the person.

Or perhaps, I just operate on a different thinking. The reason why I'm compelled to help out when I can is not just because it makes me feel good: I help out when I can help because when the time comes that I will need help from strangers, I hope someone will come through for me too. I hope I'm not the only one in thinking this, either. It's not entirely about the bleeding heart complex. I don't care much for a lot of things nowadays, but I have a really hard time turning away from something I know I can help make better, however slight.

One last bit. I came home really late one weekend because of a detour I took. In that detour, I witnessed an accident that probably happened 5 minutes or so before I drove past it. I had my phone in my hand and remembered the accident at the store and how those girls just stood there, their phones in their pockets. I dialed 911 and reported the TC. When I came home, I told my parents and my mom was surprised that I dialed 911, which made me sad.

"Mom," I told her, "if I got in a car accident, I know you'd hope that there would be people who would do for me what I did for those people tonight."

Go to Antarctica
take a picture with a domesticated penguin
visit Argentina then Chile along the way
how about just BEING IN ANTARCTICA, how often do people get to say that... not many. Because it's too cold, but I want to go there because it's atypical.

Go bungee jumping
Niagara Falls preferred
...or some other high bridge, too.

Go sky diving
I'd probably be too scared to do this.
... I'll come back to this when I'm 35.

Eat
Pasta in Italy
Croissant et escargot en France
Fish & Chips in England
Food in China/Hong Kong/Taiwan/Japan (beef in Kobe)
Cheese in Switzerland (FLIXER, you must google this!)
Try as many local specialties in the country particular foods originated from


I already crossed off one from here: eat maple syrup in Canada.

Go to Jerusalem
Because it's like what Mecca is to Muslims. I want to go here at least once before I pass on, turmoils be damned.

Talk about Awkward... Here's my answer to this Plinky prompt!

I KNEW it was a bad idea in advance: I read the synopsis on one of those movie sites, like Yahoo!Movies or somewhere. But I had just turned 18 and I wanted to watch a grown-up movie with my parents. So we went to the theater and when the nudity/rape scene and the bondage scene came on, my face just fell.