A nice, pleasant day.

That's it. If you don't feel like reading, that's basically it. Today was a nice, pleasant day. You can continue on with your life now.

I actually loaded up HKO today. To no one's surprise, there was like a billion girl avatars. But there was also significantly more boys than I had thought. Not overwhelmingly, mind you, but it was like 2 or 3 more than I was expecting. Someone came up to me like four seconds after I entered the world and gave me a pet card. It allows me to summon a pet (a box pig, if you're wondering). I usually don't associate with people like that, who come up and randomly trade with you, but I figured "hey, why not?" I thanked him, and asked him about what it did. After that I friended him, as did him me. We talked the whole time I played, and it was nice not to have to play by myself. And I never have to worry about explaining myself to guys who play this game willingly. It's nice.

The game itself is kind of like Animal Crossing. There aren't any stats to worry about other than the different things you can do, like gathering or cooking. And there's mini-games I've heard. MINI-GAMES. Yes, this game is interesting; a kind of like Neopets targetted for MMORPG kids. I don't have to stress over what class I am, or what stat build to go for. The only thing I have to worry about is what clothes to get so I can look my BEST. And that is a really big selling point to me. I'm tired of games where your character looks like CRAP, especially when you have to WEAR CRAP just to have good stats. It's nice not to look like a piece of shit walking around! And this game actually cares about it.

Such a girly game, right?

In any case, after I came home today I had dinner with my parents. They were too lazy to cook so we went out to eat pho. It was a really bright, full moon at night today. Though not a lot of people I know share my appreciation of outer space, a full moon is still a beautiful thing to behold. The sky being lit up and all. My parents told me that it was the either beginning or end of the 7th lunar month yesterday (I don't remember), and that it was a special holiday in Vietnamese. It sounds like Halloween, but a little different.

On that day, people pray for their ancestors, but also for wandering ghosts who have died before their time. Instead of going to Heaven or Hell, they wander the Earth. People would throw candy or money outside for these ghosts as a gesture of good will, so that their ancestors may benefit from the good deed and pay off their karmic debt. The wandering ghosts would eat it or take the money to spend it. But really, that's just the custom. There's a story behind it in which I will not go into, but that's what the holiday is about. Nowadays, it's more of a Halloween; kids go pick up the candy or money. And every house does this. The story behind the holiday is probably less often told now. It's just another holiday to be enjoyed (though now I hear kids are getting bolder and bolder, since they have less to eat). My parents joked that people would bow with their hands just once (they do this several times), and by the time they come up their offerings would already be gone (they pray to their ancestors first and THEN throw food out to the "hobo ghosts" as my parents put it).

I like learning little tidbits of my culture like this. They don't happen often and I worry, often in fact, that my children will have none of that. I fear nothing more than my kids growing up to be American. Why? Because no matter how well they learn English, no matter how well they dress, or follow fashion trends. No matter what they buy or know or think... they will be Asian. That's what my father told me, and I take it to heart. Maybe people mistaken me for Chinese, or Korean, or some other ethnicity, but in America's eyes, I am Asian. It is important that I know my heritage, my culture. That I don't lose that. My own country might think I am American, or white-washed, but I have never met a single person who has laughed at me for knowing Vietnamese. Or that hasn't been proud that I retain some bit of my culture, even though I was born and raised in America. I thank my parents, especially at moments like this, for putting me through Viet school. For refusing to speak to me in anything other than Vietnamese. For forcing me to eat Viet food every day. I may not have pride in my own people, here or otherwise, but I do have pride in my culture.

It was a nice, pleasant meal with my parents. They were laughing and joking with each other, and it was a nice atmosphere. A good way to spend a Friday night, I think. I'm not much for parties. Just hanging out and chilling... that's all I really want. I always want to hang out with people, but I never have anything to do other than eat or go to the mall. I don't think a lot of people just want to come over and relax. Like they need something to do. But I've never felt that way. I remember last summer, I would drop by Jenn's house all the time. We'd end up watching the discovery channel or something. We'd always find something to do. Or do nothing! It didn't matter.

Anna came over yesterday, too. But she had told me to watch a drama before so we could watch it together. I felt bad when I told her I only watched the first episode because Youtube messed me up so much. But it was nice to have her over. Nice to just have her there. That and I haven't seen her for a while. We had fun watching Zettai Kareshi (Perfect Boyfriend). Or at least, I did. Anna was probably bored since she had already seen it. She pulled up some Korean music videos on Youtube afterwards. I urged her to sing the ones she did know. I have some kind of fascination about singing. I always want to hear people sing~ And Anna, especially, has a good voice. She's definitely on key almost all the time, and she has a good voice for pop music. I'm a little jealous, really. But I'm happy for her, and I hope she keeps on singing.

I'm going to go hiking for the first time tomorrow morning. My parents keep telling me about how difficult it is, but I don't think it could be worse than conditioning for badminton.

That's all for now.