Bucket Tadpole

I found something quite weird on June 17th, but not out of the ordinary considering what has been happening in the last few days.

See, I went outside to look at our pool for any tadpoles that became frogs (with no luck might I add), and as I was heading back into my house, I spotted a white bucket near the door. The moment I peered into it out of sheer curiousity, I got excited and got out my camera. What did I see? This:

Don't know what I saw? Well, it's that little black speck at the one o' clock position position of the bucket. Can you guess what it is? Well, look at the (blurry) picture below to get a clue. 

Still can't tell? Well, it's a tadpole. In a bucket. Not sure how it got there, but I suppose my father might have put it there for one reason or another. In any case, this is closest I've been to seeing a tadpole so close. I saw its little eyes on the sides of its rounded head and the long tail it used to propel itself in that shallow water. I have to say that I kind of felt sorry for it and wondered if it had eaten anything since being put in there, so I fished out some algae from my pool. However, there was something quite strange in the water when it dropped in there.

See that little red line in there? I think it's a worm. At least, it moved as if it were a worm and it dislodged itself from the algae. I am not so sure of what it is, but from what I observed, the tadpoles don't eat them. In any case, I observed and took (very bad) pictures of the tadpole and its little red buddy until I got some good shots to upload onto my computer.  

After that, though, I went back to the pool and observed the tadpoles a little more. I managed to find out that if you flipped them over, you would see their white, translucent underbellies. Of course, I only found that out after one laid upside down in the water and caught my attention, but it wasn't dead, don't worry. The algae in my pool is really thick, though, and I guess these tadpoles will be surviving in there for quite a while. At least, I hope so.

Tadpole Pool

June 15, 2011
Here is a little fact about our family: we never use our pool. Ergo, we never clean it, and so it becomes a breeding ground for all kinds of things. Bugs, algae, you name it---it's all in that green, slimy soup that is called my pool.

However, my dad randomly decided to clean out the pool this year (and I'm guessing it's because I made suggestions to change several things in the interior design of the house). So he finally took off the cover of the pool today...and underneath it were tadpoles. Lots of tadpoles.

The black object in the middle of the picture above(and if you examine more it closely, you can see the younger ones, too) is one of the many tadpoles we found in the pool. Some of them were in later stages of their life, because I saw little bitty legs on a couple of them. Other tadpoles were tinier that those with legs, so I guess they were just born.

When I observed them up close, I saw that they were surviving off the massive amounts of algae (that dark yellowish stuff) that had grown in the pool since spring started. I find their will to live in such an enclosed space and with so many other tadpoles as amazing. I didn't see any dead ones in there either (but I guess I couldn't tell either what constitutes as a dead tadpole).

 After taking up-close pictures of them on my stomach over the edge of the pool, I texted my boyfriend excitedly about them. I told him that they looked like s***m...and then we laughed on both sides of our phones.
However, he brought up a point that I had been pondering upon seeing them. It's obvious that sooner or later, those tadpoles would grow up to be frogs...therefore, I would have an army of frogs in my pool.
Also, it occurred to me that because the water in our pool was reduced by three-quarters, they would have a hard time trying to get out of the pool they were born into. The only solution I could think to help them was for me to get the bug fishing net and fling them out day by day onto the grass so they can hop away.
...which sounds both awesome (to say you did and watch) and yet dangerous (for the frogs). In any case, I hope dad decides to wait out draining the pool completely so that they can grow up properly.  

Today, I Experienced Driving A Car

June 14, 2011
First of all, let me just address the fact that I have been afraid of the idea of driving for the longest time. Truthfully, I wasn't very much interested in the idea when I was a 10th grader because of the fact that I wouldn't have my own car to drive anyways (and also I, being under five feet and over four foot five inches, had an intense fear of not being able to see over the steering wheel). But as the years passed, it had to be a necessity for me to know how to drive if I wanted a job. Yet even though I found jobs that earned me good money, I still refused to drive and had to be chauffeured by my parents to work.
However, after some critical thinking about reality, I have learned how to drive today. The exact reasons for my change of heart are within two realizations I had about two weeks ago.

The first one is that I cannot do any worse than the drivers in Thailand, or for that matter, any Asian driver not in America. If being in Thailand has taught me one thing, it is that drivers over there have no driving restrictions. In a tuk-tuk vehicle, we weaved in and out of traffic like race cars in Mario Kart game. Though it was awesome in one aspect, it made me gain confidence in my own nonexistent driving skills.

The second reason lies in the fact that I need money. I need money so desperately that it's conquering any fear that I have that hinders it (except perhaps being lewd in public--- I'm not budging on that just yet). In any case, I have a lot of things I want to do and it is going to take cash to remedy it. So in a nutshell, driving allows me to get a job to rectify that situation.

So today, my parents finally acted on giving me lessons. We drove from school to school around 10 AM, but apparently, all driving schools in my county and surrounding areas are closed on Tuesdays. After a lot of debating in the car, my parents thought it would be better to just teach me themselves.

It was about 1 PM and they decided the best place to drive was on the empty roads of the housing development across from our neighborhood. The roads were straight, leveled, and barely curved, making it perfect practice for me. They parked the car on the road and taught me the controls and basics I needed to know before they turned on the engines and commanded me to go.

Because I am a short person, they made sure to put a pillow under my butt and move up the chair some so I could reach the dang pedals. Even though I felt comfortable with the chair and pedal position, however, my body still tensed up and I learned that the tip of my foot was enough to power the car to go 20 MPH. Since pressure control became the problem for me at first, I kept my foot near the brake most of the time as a precaution. Therefore, driving became a very, very slow experience for me.

As we went along, though, I felt better about the pedal and my driving speed, enough to then notice that I was never within the lines of the designated road. I realize now that I'm not good at calculating distances and spaces automatically in my mind, so that is definitely something I need to work on. Otherwise, I'm going to be making fender-benders left and right.

We kept driving back and forth from area of the housing development to another using a single road. Turning and stopping at signs became the items I had to be concerned about at that point. It wasn't so hard, though, and I'm kind of proud of myself for holding out on not driving into a ditch. On a side note, my arms were hurting like crazy because I put so much grip on the steering wheel.

A little later on in the evening, my dad drove us out to my high school so I could practice turning. Once again, I was freaked out about the spacing in the road and how much I needed to turn without crashing into a sidewalk. After driving through the narrow parking lanes and learning how to use the turn signal, I got the hang of it and cruised pretty smoothly through my turns. Of course, my tendency to end up a little in the left lane was very eminent (but I'll correct that). But due to my dad's constant nagging about bumps and how I should brake a little as I approach them, well...yeah, it's now drilled into my system that I should brake at bumps.

As of now, I am kind of excited to drive tomorrow. A bit scared that maybe I'll screw up a little, but otherwise excited...as it should be.