Pets

Me -When I was  born,  my  family already  had a cat. She  wanted  me to get the hell out  of  her  house. For  two  whole  months,  she  would  not  go  near  my  mom. As  I  grew  older, and  started   feeding  her and  giving  her  attention, she  thought 'Hey might as well give this person a try.'

A  while  back, I had a bird. She was named Frances. She  was  selfish. All  she  ever did  was eat. In  fact, I  don't  think  she  even  slept. Every time  I  went  to  feed  her,  I  was  afraid she'd  bite  me. After  only two weeks,  we got  rid of  her because I was  afraid  of  her,  and  she  was  messy.  I was sad  but moved on quickly.

Around that same time we  got  a  guinea  pig. We called her Daisy May. Her  cage was by the  window. A  few weeks  afterwards,  she died  from the cold.

We got a new guinea pig named  Olivia   She is now three years old and  will  hopefully live a long  happy  life. For a while,  I was going  to get a  fish because  I couldn't  get  a cat.   One day my dad  was talking to someone who  happened  to be  giving  away cats so my  dad  got  me one.  He  always chased our first cat.  Also, even  though  he ate the same kind of food as her he only wanted  her food.

I  have always wanted a chimpanzee. My  sister and I both  want  one. Probably, she just wants one just because she always copies me. I  have always  wanted a dog too. Everyone I  know has one. I  want a dog more then anything  in the world! Aurella  (my sister) and  I always like to pretend that one of  us is a dog and the other one is the owner.

Mom - Over the years, I have had many different kinds of pets. When I was a  child, we had fish, both tropical fish and goldfish at different times. The fish were boring. We had turtles. We got rid of the turtles when we found out you can get diseases from them.

We also had dogs. The first dog chewed up the furniture. He didn't last too long in our house. The second dog we had for about 6 years. He was more my dog than anyone else in the family's. However, the problem with dogs is that it is a pain in the neck having to walk them all the time. Dogs always seem to get into things too, and they are more interested in people food than their own. Our dog was always running away too even though he always came back.

When I was older, I had a couple of rabbits. My first rabbit was the most amazing animal I have ever known. He was friendly like a dog, but not over the top friendly. He was also self sufficient like a cat. I mean we still had to feed him and all, but he bathed himself and didn't need attention all the time. He also didn't eat our food (except the occasional carrots and other vegetables that we gave him). My other rabbit was afraid of her own shadow. She spend most of her time hiding.

As an adult, I have had guinea pigs. Despite, what people say about guinea pigs being gentle and being good pets for little kids, we have not ever had a guinea pig that you can be sure would never bite anybody (and we have had six of them at different times over the years). Also, they have been known to try to eat our clothing and other things, and they are messy.

We have also had a couple of cats. My first cat is going to be 15 in April. I have had her since she was a baby. She is not over over the top friendly, but she loves her family. Unlike a dog though, she wants to be friendly and have attention only when she wants to. We used to have another cat that was over the top friendly, but he was actually a bit overly friendly and wouldn't leave us alone for a minute. Also, he was always attacking our other cat, and when he got mad at us he would dig his claws right into us on purpose, which was one of the more painful experiences I have had in my life.

When I was a kid, I always wanted a chimpanzee, but of course, I never had one. After I heard about that chimpanzee that ripped off that lady's face, I think maybe it is good that I never had a chimpanzee.

Overall, it might seems like I am focusing a lot on the downside of having pets and maybe I am, but I don't mean it that way. I have loved every single one of the pets I have had over the years (except maybe the fish), I wouldn't have traded the experience of having any of them. I can't even remember back to a time in my life when I didn't have any pets, and I can't conceive of a time in the future when I won't have any.

And that's our view. Tune in again for another topic.

Video Games Then and Now

Me- I  have  a DS.  There  are  lots  of  games  for  it. It  is  portable. I  want  a wii.  They  are   not   portable.

Mom - When I was young there were no video games. They had arcades but nobody had video games at home. When I was older, video games were just starting to get popular. Of course, then people only had games that connected to a TV. There were no portable games. The games were very primitive. Nothing really resembled what it was supposed to be. Most of the games available were sports games or games like Space Invaders or Pong. None of them really interested me that much.

I can't get over how much games have changed. These days the graphics on some of these games are amazing, and they get better all the time. Even more so, the variety of games has changed, there are so many more different types of games available now. Some of them are a lot worse than the games they had when I was young. I mean they should not have games where the object is to kill people. Even if these games are rated M, and children should not be able to get and play them; that doesn't not mean they don't. Besides, frankly, nobody should be playing games where the object is to hurt and kill other people even if they are not real people.

There are also many games that are lot better than the games they had when I was a kid. Both my daughters, for instance, love games where the object is to take care of baby or a pet or whatever or to be a doctor or a stylist or whatever. I feel like they are learning something about life and/or the future choices available to them by playing these games. Even though I still try to limit their video time as well as TV and computer time because I do not want them staring at a screen all day,  I do not have a problem with them playing video games in general. In fact, if those type of games were available when I was a kid, maybe I would have had more interest in video games myself.

And that's our view. Tune in again for another Talking Topic.

Photo credit:
photo credit 1: Great Beyond Day 218/366 - My Nintendo DS via photopin (license)
photo credit 2: Renato Gizzi Nintendo Wii via photopin (license)
photo credit 3: footycomimages Gamer Playing Fifa Ultimate Team on Playstation 4 via photopin (license)

Girl Scout Cookie Selling

Me-When selling  girl scout cookies, you have to be careful. Some people are beyond nice. But, some, people slam the door in your face. This year, I sold 240 boxes including 101 boxes to be donated to the food bank. I  am proud to be a Girl Scout.

Mom- I have always hated participating in fundraising efforts because I hate having to ask people to buy things. I usually only ask my mom and my best friend (the one other than my husband) to contribute. The only fundraiser we really make a serious effort with every year is Girl Scout cookie selling.

Every year it gets harder and harder though. Every year when my daughter is finished with cookie selling, I feel happy at what she has accomplished, at what we have helped her to accomplish, but also a sense of relieve that it is all over. The next year when it is time to start selling again, my first thought is 'Oh no! Not again! I just can't go through this again!', but somehow we always do.

A lot of the girls in my daughter's troop only sell cookies to their families (although some of them have very large families). My daughter sells to our family including the extended family, but we also go around our whole neighborhood too. It was particularly difficult this year with the freezing cold and ice and snow. A lot of people in our neighborhood don't even shovel their walks. Still, my daughter was able to sell 240 boxes of cookies.

Over the past several years, my daughter has been interested in not only selling as many boxes of cookies as she can, but selling as many boxes to be donated to our local food bank as she can as well. Last year, she set a goal of selling 100 boxes of cookies for the food bank. She was able to sell 70 boxes but did not quite meet her goal. This year she again set a goal of selling 100 boxes of cookies for the food bank. Not only was she was able to meet her goal, she actually sold 101 boxes. I think she was more excited about that than she was about selling the 240 total boxes of cookies. I am really proud of her for that.

And that's our view. Tune in again for another Talking Topic.

Photo credits:
photo credit: 1 amanky sales. via photopin (license)
photo credit 2:photo credit: Amy Loves Yah 294/365 via photopin (license)
photo credit 3: acousticgirl 59/365 - Samoas! via photopin (license)