Christmas as a kid VS Christmas as an adult

How to deal with annoying phone calls

So lately I've been getting these weird phone calls at home and at my mobile, and nobody  is on the other side.

This is how I dealt with the situation:

 

They haven't called back.
Try it!

Grammar Nazi - Part 1

So, I've been reading a couple of emails, facebook comments and student homeworks, and I decided to start a series of posts of how to SPELL!

Family Reunions

Don't you gremlins love family reunions? Getting together, catching up, exchanging life experiences... It is just lovely.

Except when you're a kid.

When you're a kid and you know that you're going to a family reunion, you get excited because you think that you'll be able to play with your other cousins that live far away. Truth is, you don't; Auntie Prudence wants to say hi to you, and Grandma Jenna wants to hug you and play with your hair.

Family reunions are worse for teenagers. Turns out that the grown-ups are still all over you, but now, NOW they criticize "that weird phase you're in".

Aunt Fionna: Sis, what is up with your daughter? Is she on drugs?

Your Mom: No... She's just going through a phase.

Aunt Bertha: Well, I think you should be careful. Some day she'll end up getting drunk and pregnant, like Martha's daughter.

Your Mom: What? No! She doesn't even have a boyfriend.

Aunt Fionna: What about that weird boy that came over to your house last week?

Your Mom: Oh, he's just her friend.

Aunt Bertha: "He's just her friend"? That's what Martha used to say...

If you thought family reunions were bad, they are even worse for young adults, because not only are they on top of you and criticize you, but now they compare you.

Uncle Joe: So, what are you studying Sofie?

Sofie (your cousin): I'm in med-school.

Uncle Joe: Wow, that is great!

Sofie (your cousin): Yes. I love being able to help people.

Aunt Prudence: I am so proud of you!

Sofie (your cousin): Thanks!

Uncle Joe: And what are you studying [Your Name]?

[Your Name]: Communications.

(LONG PAUSE)

Aunt Prudence: Oh... ... ... ...

Uncle Joe: ... ... ... And, uhm... ... ... what is that?

Aunt Prudence: It's for being on TV, right?

[Your Name]: Actually, Communication has to do with almost everything these days: TV, radio, film, press, Internet, private organizations, public relations, government campains....

And you can carry on with your explanation, but all they hear is:

Aunt Prudence: Sounds... ... ... interesting.

Uncle Joe: And why didn't you become a doctor like Sofie? You were very smart.

Apparently you became stupid for picking another career.

Sofie (your cousin): Well, that's what [Your Name] likes. We have to respect her decision.

Aunt Prudence: Well, yeah, but for a person to be on TV, one would expect someone more attractive, like you Sofie.

Sofie (your cousin): ... Uhm, thank you, but I don't like the showbiz.

Aunt Prudence: You are so right. Besides, why would you wanna waste your life with that, right?

(LONG PAUSE)

Aunt Prudence: Not that you (that's YOU) are wasting your time. I mean, you have to follow your heart, right? Not economic success, like Sofie, because she's a doctor.

Yes... They always compare you. This is a graphic of "awesomeness" according to your family members:

But that's not the worst part. The worst part is when a cousin or sibling shows up with their fiance(e) or newly wife/husband, and you just broke up.

Grandma Jenna: Oh, that is the most beautiful ring I have ever seen!

Diana (your cousin): Thanks grandma!

[Your Name]: Congratulations Diana! I'm so happy for you!

Diana (your cousin): Aw, thank you!

Aunt Claire: [Your Name], what happened to your boyfriend? I thought you were going to be married by now.

[Your Name]: Yes, well, we broke up.

Aunt Rose: But why did you break up? He was so handsome!

[Your Name]: Well, we wanted different things.

In other words, you wanted to only be with him, and he wanted to be with three other women at the same time.

Grandma Jenna: Oh, honey, nobody's perfect; you have to learn to accept your boyfriend's flaws.

[Your Name]: I know grandma.

Aunt Claire: Besides, he was rich! You never break up with a rich man!

Yeah, just because he's rich and handsome I am going to forget that he cheated on me... twice.

Diana (your cousin): Oh, let her be. True love always comes around, sooner or later.

Aunt Rose: Sooner we hope, because she is not getting any younger...

Yes. Family reunions can be very overwhelming.

Have you guys ever had that kind of experience? I have... LOTS of times...


On another subject, I am going to be giving away an "Assassin's Creed: Revelations" game on my Youtube channel. If you want to participate, be sure to check the video with the rules this week :)

Addictions... Barbie meets Final Fantasy

Hi, my name is Mariel Garcia, and I admit I am an addict. Wait, what's that? NO NO NO NO! Not to drugs or alcohol or smoking! (I hate all of those.... EW!). I am an addict to getting obsessed pretty easily.

Seriously, there is something really wrong with me. I get obsessed about stuff pretty easily: World of Warcraft, Terraria, Glee... But it doesn't come all at the same time. I get obsessed little by little, one thing at a time, and I make my life revolve around that "thing" until I finally get bored and start another obsession.

I guess it all began when I first started playing online video games. The first one was Neopets.

http://www.neopets.com/

I lived 24/7 just to feed my neopet cow, to play with my neopet cow, to build a home for my neopet cow. Every thing revolved around my pixelated friend "MiKau" (like "The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask" character... again, I get obsessed pretty easily). And not only that -oh no- I had all of my cousins play it with me, 'cause that's what I do: I get obsessed about something and make everybody else get obsessed about it too.
I am not kidding, Apple owes me HUGE! Thanks to me, seven other people bought an iPhone. SERIOUSLY.

After Neopets, I began to play Gaia Online.

http://www.gaiaonline.com/

This time, I got all my high school friends and my brothers AND my cousins to play it with me. I had so many stuff, so many "rare items" that are now probably worth about 200,000,000,000,000,000 gold (seriously). Gaia was even better than Neopets, because you could actually dress your character with lots of clothes, but it had anime and video game clothes too! It was like Barbie meets Final Fantasy......... EPIC!
While I was obsessed with Gaia, my little brother discovered GunZ.

http://gunz.ijji.com/

GunZ opened my eyes to a whole different online video game experience: I could slash-jump, walk on walls, butterfly move, and still be able to use swords AND guns. It was one of the coolest games ever. GunZ made me forget about Gaia, and I began to play it 24/7. I made lots of friends (and one of those actually felt so close to me that decided that I was going to be the first person to hear that he was "coming out of the closet"... Back then, I felt honored that he trusted in me......... Now...... Now I feel weird about it. LOL), and I had two guilds and everything. It was one of the coolest games ever, until they hacked my account and deleted my character. That was it. I was so mad and annoyed, that I decided never to play again (yeah, it was a rage quit. So what? I was 16!).

But I wouldn't worry about that for much longer. Soon after my account got hacked, we discovered MapleStory.

http://maplestory.nexon.net/

Let me just say that MapleStory is the first and only MMO in which I have "donated" to get extra stuff. MapleStory was one of those games that you couldn't stop playing: awesome music, cool graphics, my friends were playing it, lots of "jobs" (healer, warrior, rogue, magician...), it was really easy to play and, most importantly, it didn't have hackers (back then at least). I LOVED MapleStory. I LIVED to play MapleStory: I would play between 2 to 12 hours (depending on school and vacation time). I had an awesome guild with lots of friendly people, awesome leveling skills, awesome armor and weapons... I even made videos about it on Youtube (yes, my very first videos ever made. Here it is, so you can laugh at how noob I was:)

Every thing was perfect, until hackers began to play and it got really hard to level up.
So I quit and moved on to Tibia.

I know, Tibia should've been the first, but I discovered it until later. I didn't get to play it much, because I then discovered iRose Online. iRose was pretty awesome and cool, and I was beginning to love it and play it every single day, until they decided to delete the accounts because they were going to make it a "pay to play" game. GOODBYE iRose! And welcome FlyFF!

Nevermind FlyFF. It was boring. Moving on to the best MMORPG's ever made: World of Warcraft. Yes baby, WoW!

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/

WoW must be the MMO I love the most. Really. I get obsessed about it, start playing it 24/7 until I eventually get to level 80, and then get bored of it, delete the account and give a farewell, only to miss it again, and create a new account and start playing it again, over and over again. (I only play in private servers, NOT 'CAUSE I'M CHEAP, but because all of my friends play it and it's easier to level up... I'm sorry, I'm lazy!).
I have fallen into the WoW obsession over 4 times. The first time, I made a Priest Female Night Elf. The second time, I made a Druid Female Night Elf. Third time, another Druid Female Night Elf and a Paladin Female Blood Elf. Fourth time, yet another Druid Female Night Elf. MOONKIN! RAWR!
Let me just make something clear: I am not ally or horde, I am both. Honestly, I prefer the Blood Elves, but all of my friends are alliance so I play them both. Big deal.

World of Warcraft has given me so many good and fun times with my friends and my brothers; it has given me awesome ideas for the book I am writing (details about it in the future); it has given me amazing music that allows me to relax while I work... It's just awesome. But it's also very VERY addicting. I had to buy special glasses so my eyes wouldn't turn red after being in front of my laptop for more than 10 hours. It is addicting. Honestly.

WoW is not the only thing I have become obsessed about. Terraria is now in that list as well.

http://www.terraria.org/

I am not kidding. I make videos about it on Youtube:

Yes, very weird and silly videos about Terraria, but I looooooove playing it... Again, it's addicting.

A side from video games, I get obsessed about TV shows as well. Right now, it's "Glee" and "Drop Dead Diva". A few years ago, it was "Grey's Anatomy", "Desperate Housewives" and "CSI", and more years ago, "Friends", "Seinfeld" and "The Nanny".

Food is something that I get obsessed about as well: I used to eat french toast every single night for two months. And don't get me started about cereal. Cereal is a whole different subject: "Special K" was for three whole years; and then it was "Lucky Charms" for five months; "Cheerios" was for eight months; and now it's "Nestlé Fitness".

Yes. I become obsessed really easily. Nothing I can do about it. That's just me. *sigh*


Do you guys have any obsession? I know I can't be the only one out there, hahaha. Lemme know! Leave a comment!

Anyways, here's the vloggity from last week in case you missed it:

Becoming an adult: the foreign student way.

One of the things that will help ANY kid turn into an adult is living as a foreign student. Really.

I will bet a whole dollar on this subject.

Take any snobby, rich, pompous teenager and throw him/her into the hands of the real world, without any help from mommy or daddy, and I do mean any sort of help: no clean laundry, no warm bed, no good food, no clean house, no NOTHING.

Let's start a sort of description of what could occur to our test subject: Timmy.

Timmy is a teenager that thinks his life is perfect because he has his own room, with a LED TV, a king sized bed, an Xbox 360, PS3 and Nintendo Wii, and every cool stuff and gadget you can imagine.
But there is a catch to this perfect life: test subject Timmy has never worked in his entire life, never helped mom with the house chores, never asked dad about car issues or money administration, never helped out his sister with cooking, never done any good thing or had to work to get all those things, making him take things for granted.

But what is THAT on the table test subject? Is that a letter from the community college accepting you? GREAT! Let's begin your new journey into adulthood!

Part 1: Moving.
Test subject Timmy will have to move to another city, 4 hours away from home. He thinks "Perfect, now my parents won't be able to check on me every single second of my life! I will finally be free and will be able to do ANYTHING I WANT!"

Test subject Timmy packs his three consoles, his fancy leather jacket, 20 bazillion jeans and t-shirts, and his awesome LED TV. But, what's that Timmy? You can't afford rent by yourself and you'll have to live with another three dudes? And share a room with one of them? FANTASTIC! The closet is not big enough? You'll have to keep most of your stuff inside the luggage bag? Awwwww, that's too bad!
What's that now? Your new roomies never heard of deodorant? Awww, TOO BAD!

Part 2: Sharing a bathroom.
So, you finally settled in and managed to fit all your stuff in the tiny 4x4 room you share with your gorilla roomate that smells funny and sleeps naked.
Now it's time to take a bath and get ready for your first day at college! FUN!
But, what's that? There is somebody in the bathroom and someone else is in line! And your class starts in 20 minutes!?! BUMMER!!

You finally get inside the bathroom, with only 5 minutes left, and SURPRISE SURPRISE! Facial hair EVERY WHERE! Now you're missing your clean bathroom that your dear mommy used to take care of, right?

Part 3: Food.
Living as a foreign student can be either thrilling and fascinating, or scaring and overwhelming. Room and bathroom times are not the only thing you have to share. Food is a whole different matter.
Test subject has bought his favorite cereal and places it near the refrigerator. Test subject Timmy leaves to school and later comes back to see his EMPTY cereal box.... WHAT ON EARTH HAS HAPPENED TO IT?!?

Apparently, test subject Timmy does not know the basic rules of sharing a house with three other dudes: NEVER LEAVE YOUR SPECIAL FOOD IN PLAIN SITE. Period.
Not only will other people eat it and blame the others, but they will also either burn or throw away food at any sort of whim.
Lesson learned.

Part 4: Paying bills and rent.
Test subject Timmy gets 500 dls per month to pay rent, bills, buy food, school materials, etc etc. But test subject Timmy forgets that mommy and daddy also have to pay for other stuff, and decides to waste his money on parties and alcohol and cool clothes (which don't fit in his tiny closet) to look good for college girls.
What's that? You and your roommates forgot to turn off the lights and the electric bill exploded? And you don't have enough money?
What ever will you do, Timmy? You called your parents and they said that you are on your own because they are still paying for that LED TV you have in your room (that just broke because your gorilla roommate accidentally pushed it over with this schoolbag) and now you're stuck? TOO BAD! I guess you'll have to sell your Xbox. BOO-HOO!
Lesson learned!

Part 5: Laundry.
Test subject Timmy never helped his mom or even took the time to ask about laundry issues. So now, he is stuck with his two-week-old clothes. What's that Timmy? You don't have enough money to pay for two washing machines? What's the worst thing that could happen you ask, if you put all your clothes in one single machine? Let's see!

Oh noes! All of your white clothes have been replaced by some weird pink, blueish clothes? And your socks and underwear seem smaller? Awwww, TOO BAD! You are wishing you helped out your mom more often? Yes, YOU SHOULD HAVE!

Part 6: Sickness.
You were out all night while it was raining because you forgot your keys and your roommates were out? And now you are sick? Aw, poor test subject Timmy. You are wishing for your parents or sister to be here to take care of you and make you a warm soup?

But they can't be here, they live FOUR HOURS AWAY! What's that? You never knew how much they did for you? Good for you to notice. Maybe you should give them a call and tell them that, after you pay your telephone bill.

Part 7: House cleaning.
So, you have managed to live a whole month with your obnoxious roommates that have their music very loud until 3am, not letting you sleep and making you remember about all those times your dad told you to turn your music off............. Good old dad, you sure miss him now, don't you?
But you don't live with him anymore... nope. Now you have come to realize that you have new roommates: cockroaches.

Yes, apparently they will come to visit your house every time it's dirty and, let's face it, living with three dudes, that's almost every day.
You've never seen a broom or any sort of cleaning supplies. What do you do? Look it up on Google! GOOD FOR YOU! (kinda sad, but at least you are using the technology for another purpose other than copying essays and looking up at certain type of pictures or videos).

Part 8: The discovery.
Congratulations! You have finally realized all the things that your parents did for you without getting anything in exchange, other than your love as a son. You give your parents a call and thank them for everything, as well as asking them for tips, tips that a couple of weeks ago you would have hated, but now adore and listen to with care and wonder.
Test subject Timmy is now capable of handling a house, paying bills, doing his own laundry, and taking care of his own life.
YOU HAVE WON! CONGRATULATIONS TEST SUBJECT TIMMY! You are now, A MAN.

Seriously, becoming a foreign student is the only (or fastest) way to become an adult. Been there, done that. Try it out, you won't regret it.

And if it doesn't work, well, you win a whole imaginary dollar! :D

Butter

So, I was talking to my mom about the blog, and she decided to tell me a story; a story, that happened 23 years ago...

I was a weird child, always getting into trouble, jumping around, trying to get attention, fighting with my older brother, acting in front of groups of people (because, apparently, I liked to pretend I was a spokeswoman), always coming up with stuff to "express" myself.
Back then, I wasn't afraid of anything: I loved scary movies, especially the ones with lots of blood; I would go out and play with mud and dirt (just like any other regular kid); I even put a cricket in my mouth once (which makes me feel bad for my mom... SHE had to take it out).

It all started when I was 2 years-old; not only did I learn to walk, but I also learned to "move around on my own".
In simple words: I was trouble.

It was summer and, back in the days, the city would get really REALLY hot.
My mom was quietly doing her motherly chores, while my father was at work and my older brother with my cousins.
I, on the other hand, was "asleep", and had a baby monitor (the very first ones, I think). But I-as we all know by now-am ninja. So, sensing the excessive heat in my room, I quietly got up and decided to do something about it.

It wasn't until a few 10 or 20 minutes later that my mother heard a very soft, weird noise coming from the kitchen.

She approached the kitchen, and..............

Dun

DUN

DUUUUUN!!!!

I was sitting on the floor, with the refrigerator door open (how I managed to open the door, it's still a mystery), covering myself with butter. A BUCKET OF BUTTER. I was completely covered: body, diaper, hair........ everything was buttery!

My mom quickly sprinted towards me, taking the bucket of sweet, COLD, butter away from me. She then proceeded to try to carry me to the bathroom to clean me up BUT I was covered in butter, ergo, I was slippery!

She couldn't get a hold of me! So, she decided to get a towel and wrap me around with it, taking me to the shower to bathe me.

It took her nearly 40 minutes to get all the butter off of me... God bless my mom. I love her!

Funny fact: I still love butter! You would think that something like that would gross me out, but no. Not at all. I loooove toast bread with butter!

Anyways, what are you guys up to these days?

I wanted to thank you for all of your support and for making the blog international: it's now being read in over 30 countries! So thank you so much, my dear dear gremlins! I couldn't have done this without you :)

Thanks again, and I hope you enjoyed this week's post!


EDIT: I forgot to tell you guys about the video of this week! Check it out:

My brother, "the coyote trainer", and a cockroach bit me!

Remember how I said that I lived with three other people? Well, one of those is my kid brother, Luis. Living with my kid brother is... well, interesting.

Don't get me wrong, I love him and he is the sweetest kid I know, BUT, we are too different: I sing out loud, he hates loud noises; I want to clean the house during the day, he wants to do it during the night; I like to hug him, he doesn't like being hugged; I want Chatis to live inside the house, he wants her outside of the house; I want to play Mario Party, he hates playing Mario Party (because he always wins... I am sure he cheats, I just know it!).

We disagree on a daily basis on a lot of things. Then again, we can be the best team if we set our minds to it: he cooks, I do the dishes; he calls the landlord to fix the house problems and other repairs, I take care of paying the rent; he plans the list of stuff we need to buy, I drive us to the grocery store; there's a creepy guy outside of our house? Luis takes care of it!

My brother is awesome, I know: he never parties, he's neat and clean, he's super smart and he has really good friends and a caring girlfriend. I really can't complain. But lately... lately we've been having some really strange calls. People keep calling for "Luis, the coyote trainer". WHAT THE F!?!?

Neither one of us has an idea of what that is about. We asked Luis and he doesn't know either, he says it's probably the wrong number.
But, seriously, SERIOUSLY, a "coyote trainer"? REALLY?!?! WHY ON EARTH would someone call a coyote trainer? I don't think there's even a coyote trainer listed in the yellow pages! And even if there were, what are the chances that his name is Luis and his house number would be similar to ours? HUH!?!?

...
...
...


(Okay, I just looked it up and, no, there is no coyote trainer whatsoever. BOOYA!):

My little brother is no coyote trainer (as far as I know). But the calls won't stop! I really can't imagine my little brother trying to train a coyote.

(Hmm... Okay... He just might probably be able to do it.)

Seriously, WHAT is the DEAL with THAT!? A COYOTE TRAINER? REALLY?!?! Augh!!!! I guess we'll never truly now for sure. But, mark my words: if they call again and I pick up the phone, I'm asking! I DON'T CARE!

Anyways, sorry for the lateness of the blog, but I've been working a lot lately! I'm also uploading videos on Youtube, if you guys want to check those out.

And, yes, you are probably wondering about the rest of the title of this blog, "a cockroach bit me"... well, it did! It really happened! HONEST!
I woke up yesterday, and I was just about to leave for work when I spotted a "dead" cockroach upside down. I grabbed some napkins and put them on top of the roach, then proceeded to step on it (yes, I use the napkins so my shoes won't get stained) and then picked it up with another napkin, and STING! The little bastard bit me! IT WASN'T DEAD YET! As if the poison (our house has this awesome poison effect that lasts for the whole year and it kills roaches and ants) and the stepping on wasn't enough! So, I threw it to the floor and stepped on it, again, and again, and again, until I was sure it was completely dead.

I think that if the world really ends in 2012, the only living thing that's gonna make it through are roaches; I have no idea how they manage to survive so easily! But, they always do. Always.

My first car

I had a really good childhood. I can't complain. We didn't have a lot of money, but my parents always managed to get us cool toys to play with.

The one I can remember the most was "Lalo", my first doll. He was a baby, like "Big Baby" from Toy Story 3:

Picture taken from http://geektyrant.com/news/2010/4/6/final-toy-story-3-characters-unveiled-big-baby-and-bookworm.html

Well, "Lalo" was my companion in all of my playdates and adventures. I say "adventures" because, as you may know, I wasn't an ordinary kid.
The thing is, having an ADHD 4 year old can be hard work. So my mom always had to find me something to do because I wouldn't stop jumping around, breaking stuff or wanting attention.
My parents' solution was simple: get little Mariel a Play School car.

Let me describe it with one word: EPICNESS!

That red and yellow car was the coolest, most awesome thing someone had given me. My reaction towards the car cannot be described in words.

I kept opening the door, getting inside, then getting outside, and closing the door, over and over again. I must have entered and left the car nearly about 40 times until my mom finally told me that I could use my legs to move from one place to the other.

So, next thing I did was open the door, sit inside the car, close the door, and start walking. It was AMAZING! I WAS DRIVING MY OWN CAR! Now I looked like me dad! I felt so stylish and "big", I wasn't going to be called "a baby" anymore. That car and me driving it (well, walking it) was even cooler than not looking at explosions.

My parents soon realized the huge mistake they had made: giving a CAR (toy, but still a car... it had wheels!) to an ADHD 4 year old.

In short: I NEVER LEFT THE CAR.

I would drive around with it to the kitchen, to the living room, to my room, to the garden (and taking dirt and mud into the house), to the bathroom, to my parents' room, to my brother's room... But it was just too awesome to not play with it.

Years passed and the car would still be my companion. Lalo would sometimes come along with us, making playtime even better.

I eventually grew taller than the car, but that wouldn't stop me from using it.

I loved my car with all my heart.

And then... that dreadful day...................

I came home from swimming class, all excited to play with my car and "drive it to the beach" (because of course you imagine that you're driving somewhere) and then I saw it.

My older brother's friends decided to climb on its roof all at once and broke it.

I mourned my car so bad; Lalo and I prepared a burial for it, we even dug a hole on the garden, but my parents caught us and made me go back to my room---without Lalo ('cause he was all muddy).

So, that's the story about my first car. I really don't know how my parent's got rid of the broken thing, but I sure know they didn't bury it.