I come to you today with a new obsession...and it's so Asian! I've come to realize in the past few years that there are things in my genetic makeup that cause me to love things that other fellow Asians also love. I can't escape it.

For example, I first started using phone charms ironically. I thought it was funny and silly that in Japan, and to a smaller extent, pretty much everywhere in Asia, people hang tons of phone charms on their phone. So, I decided to start using them on my cell phones here in the U.S. where nobody does that. But I got addicted. And now, I am limited on which cell phones I can buy because most American phones do not have charm holes (as Aaron and I call the place on a phone where you can hang a charm off). I am currently using a Nokia N8 (Aaron is too! Matching cellphones :)), which is so rare in the U.S. it's not recognized by AT&T as a smartphone, thus avoiding their forced data plan bullshit. Yes, this was all planned out with an attention to detail usually reserved for coups on small countries.

In any case, my new obsession are these cat headphone jack charms designed by Otako Nekomura. Prepare to be amazed!

That's a group picture of the first version. I think they removed the headphone jack insert to be able to show them better. The pictures below give a better idea of how they would look on a phone.

The anatomical correctness (third pic, esp.) creeped me out a bit at first, but I think the artist was trying to be as realistic as possible. Which is cool, because it would be like having a real miniature kitten keeping you company on your phone at all times!

The bottom of the charms are even perfect. Check out the kitten loaf with the paws underneath with the voluminous cat body surrounding them...

And, I thought this one was especially poignant:

The description at Strapya World (an online store for Japanese cell phone charms and stuff) describes it perfectly.

Why this cat is so long? It's totally meaningless... It might inhibit you from using your smartphone. If you have an experience living with cats, you might have been annoyed with them. They often disturb you when you read books, write something, or watch TV. My cats like to lay down on the notebook while I am writing down something on it. This earphone jack accessory reminds me of the bad behavior of my cats...

BP totally does that...his favorite place to nap is on the mousepad of my computer, wreaking havoc on my internet-ing.

Now apparently, the story behind these charms is that Otako Nekomura, a Japanese manga artist who's obsessed with cats, put some sketches of the charms on Twitter, and a manufacturing company found it and decided to make them. Here's some examples of her sketches:

Pretty cool, right?
Apparently they've been selling so well they've even had to make a second version. I ended up getting three with a free shipping coupon code (TREAT) on Strapya World.

I know this sounds like a paid advertisement, but it's not. I literally paid $26 for three phone charms and am giving them free publicity. Sad, but true. Because the kittens are so freaking cute!

The synchronicity of life is strange. One of the worst people I have ever known was a guy who I dated briefly in high school. After he dropped out of school, I lost track of him, and pretty much assumed he was dead of a drug overdose or std. I guess that sounds pretty dramatic, but keep in mind, I was a teenager when I came up with this theory, and to be fair, he was a really skeezy guy. When I taught high school, I would hear my students talk about the boys they met at the mall or around town, or the guys they were 'talking to' and just pray they would not end up encountering anyone like him.

But thanks to the advent of social media, a couple of years ago, I found out that he was not, indeed, dead, but married, and writing for a oil magazine in Houston. Also, his wife had given birth to a baby a couple of months before I happened to look him up.

And this brings us to the synchronicity.
Sadly, there are more awful people in the world than one would hope, and I now have the sickening misfortune of knowing yet another disgusting example of humankind. I've known for a while that this more recent douchebag had a child on the way, and now I've just found out that he has found a new job writing for an oil magazine. What is the likelihood that a coincidence of this magnitude exists? And what does it all mean?

One of the saddest, most debilitating feelings in the world is to witness a series of occurrences and decisions that will inevitably lead to disaster, and not being able to do anything prevent it. It's like watching a train wreck happen over a period of years--if you look away and distract yourself, you can almost forget it's happening. But the instant you get a free minute, the feeling of dread returns, and you remember that there's people dying, lives being ruined just a few feet away.

No matter how many times life tries to teach me that people are a mix of good and bad, and that I should accept the bad with the good, I can never bring myself to fully do it. I don't know if it's a lesson I can ever learn.

And in any case, there are some misdeeds that should not be forgiven.

After 28 years of existence, I finally have my first retail job, and I'm finding it every bit as satisfying as I always imagined. I show up, coffee in hand, start the tasks that present themselves, don't stop moving until the end of my shift, and then go home and forget entirely about work until the next shift. I've lost six pounds since I started a month and a week ago, because I don't like taking lunch breaks. The only complaint I have is that I've been working nights a lot.

One night last week, I went to Target with Aaron and he let me test nail polishes on his hands since my nails were already painted. I was trying to choose between about three different shades of matte gray, and when he noticed that one of the shades, Chinchilly by Essie, had "award winner!" posted next to its spot on the shelf, his exclamation of "It's an award winner!" and total conviction that this meant Chinchilly was the obvious choice both cracked me up and convinced me. He also bought "Mermaid for Each Other" for me, citing its perfect representation of reflective insect thoraxes as un-pass-up-able.

Some links to the colors, in case you are interested:

Chinchilly by Essie

Mermaid for Each Other by Nicole (OPI)

Also, I subbed a day last week at a high school, and had Experiences. Most notably, a girl sitting in the middle of the room who asked for a tissue, then picked her nose and said, "Ew, look at this!" and showed what was on the tissue to everyone around her. Also, the janitor's closet had a plastic plaque by it labeling it as the "Janitior's Closet." Proof that the students are not the only stupid thing about schools... I wish I'd been in the mood to take a picture of this...

Also, I keep meaning to tell you about the Scary Lady of Mockingbird Station, but that is a very involved story for another day.