Happy Birthday traditions

One tradition that is relatively familiar to me is getting a cake and singing “Happy Birthday”. However, I wonder what people used to do before the song was created. After looking it up, the song was created in 1893, so it has been around for a while. After some more searching on the internet, seems like cake and candles were still popular for birthdays, while the songs were from greetings, poems, or local songs. Some people I talked to mentioned that they eat foods that represent longevity and wish for health and wealth. I think it’s pretty cool that there is a universally recognized birthday song. Are there any birthday traditions that you like in particular? Are there any universally recognized traditions that you participate in? Are there any traditions that should be universally recognized?

Haircutting styles

I went to the barber today, yes the same barber with the innovative technology, and she mentioned a story about a new customer and their journey in finding a barber that they like. The new customer ended up liking this barber, but during the story, she mentioned that Caucasian barbers tend to cut hair to maintain or extend the head shape, whereas Asian barbers cut hair to create the head shape. I am not sure if it is true or not, since I rarely go to Caucasian barbers, but I thought it was interesting – I didn’t realize there were different metas or different hair cutting philosophies.

Dominion Energy Peak Time Rebates Review

I pay for electricity for the apartment unit that I rent and the electric company I use is Dominion Energy. I don’t pay a crazy amount per month, but when I learned that there was a program that can help reduce the amount I pay per month, I signed up for it. The program I am talking about is the Peak Time Rebates program. This program gives you back some money if you reduce the amount of electricity you use during designated peak times. The sign up process didn’t work for me the first time I tried, but the customer support was able to figure it out and get me signed up. They send notifications before a peak time event will happen and it is relatively easy to check online how much energy you used and how much rebates you get back. My main issue with this program is that it is tough to receive rebates. There have been times where literally no one is home during the peak time and we are using the minimum electricity that we usually use (refrigerator on, other stuff plugged in but not actively running, air conditioning on auto mode), and we still don’t save a significant amount of electricity. Looking online, it seems like the rebate is $1.25 for every kilowatt hour saved and in the dashboard it looks like I have a rebate of $0.54. Not really sure what’s going on, but there’s no penalty in the program for not saving energy – so I guess $0.54 off a future energy bill is better than nothing 🤷‍♀️

An insult concept while walking to the office

When I was walking to my office, there was a sliding door that took a while to open. Then, I thought it might make for a good insult or diss. Like someone is so forgettable/low presence/invisible/insignificant that even an automatic sliding door does not open for you. But then, I feel like you could say that the door’s sensor is just faulty, so 🤷‍♀️

Dirty dishes

How do you signal that dishes are dirty? Is there a spectrum?

For me, the thought process goes like this:

1. This dish is relatively clean but not clean enough to go into the cupboard. So, I’ll leave it on the counter.

2. This dish is dirty, but I could use it again if I’ve got nothing else handy. So, I’ll leave it next to the sink.

3. This dish is dirty and I’m not going to use it until it’s washed. So, I’ll put it in the sink.

However, there have been times where I put the dish in the sink but then realized that I could have used it again. But now that it has entered the sink’s domain, I am not able to reuse it until it’s cleaned.

Barbershop experience

I went to a new barbershop after not getting my haircut in a while and it was interesting. My coworker recommended this place and mentioned that it was pretty clean. When I went on the weekend, it was pretty clean and I was one of two customers. I asked for a low fade with a trim on top, which I have not asked for before – my coworker said that’s what he usually asks for. Then they showed me some pictures to choose from and I just pointed at several since I wasn’t really sure what I was asking for. Anyways, the cut went well, the barber had great attention to detail and used some technology I’ve not seen before. First, she had a vacuum hooked up to the clippers to suck up the cut hair. Second, she put a face shield on my face to protect my eyes from my own hair. Third, she used some sort of foam block to wipe my face instead of the straw brush thing. Fourth, she had a ton of different clippers and they all seemed to have different uses. There were so many devices that every outlet was in use. I paid in cash and it was less expensive than I thought. I was expecting to pay a certain price so I pulled out money to cover. I didn’t really know what to do when she mentioned the lower price, so I just gave her what I meant to pay before, then got the change, and then gave a tip. Pretty good experience, but I still had a bunch of hair clippings in my hair, so maybe the vacuum isn’t as powerful as I thought.

What are my best packing hacks?

What are your best packing hacks?

I don’t go on many trips, but when I do, I like to pack early. In that way, I have more time to remember if I forgot to pack something. Another thing I like to do is to separate different sections for different items. Like one section for pants, one for shirts, one for clean clothes, etc. So, if I can’t see items in a particular section, then I may have forgotten to pack them. Finally, for items that I need to pack day of, such as toiletries, I put my toiletries bag on top of my suitcase to remind myself that I need to pack it.

Hoppers Movie Review

Note: this review may contain spoilers

I recently went to the movie theater to watch Hoppers. I enjoyed the movie a lot. The premise was interesting and the animation was good too. In the beginning, I wasn’t a big fan of the drawing style, but as the movie went on, it grew on me. I wasn’t a big fan of the main character’s personality – the main character is a young impulsive Asian girl in who has trouble regulating her emotions and lashes out against people who don’t agree with her views. However, I think this personality seemed realistic.

Anyways, the main character loves animals and spent most of her childhood with her grandmother sitting in front of a glade (pond) and enjoying nature. However, after her grandmother died, she has a hard time coping. When she realizes that the city is planning on building a road through the glade, she is determined to do whatever she can to stop it.

I would recommend this movie to animated movie enjoyers of all ages. I don’t think there will be a sequel, but who knows, they are making sequels out of everything nowadays 🤷‍♀️

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