So, I have a favour to ask you guys. My new pal, Kaden, is taking part in a pretty wicked competition for The Trevor Project called Be The Change. The Trevor Project is an organization that helps in preventing suicide of LGBTQ youth. This is a cause that is very important to me, and I think that Kaden is doing an excellent job of getting his voice out in favour of LGBTQ youth, not only in the US, but all over. This is just one of the reasons why I’m asking you to vote for him!

Kaden is currently in 5th place, and there are still 4 days left to vote for him! You can vote once per day, every day until the 14th!

Also, if you could share this on Twitter, that would be super! Write your own message, or you can use mine!

(P.S. My crush, Daniel Radcliffe, a.k.a. Harry Potter, supports The Trevor Foundation as well! How sweet of him!)

So, yes, my hits are down these days because I’ve been a boring blogger, and this design sucks (and you guys are shallow and only love me for my looks ), but I know there are at least 100 people clicking onto the site per day, usually a bit more when I post an entry. If you could even vote once, that would be so super. If you could stick a bookmark into your toolbar and vote every day, that would be even better. Show Kaden some love, because this dude is going places.

… you muthaf***ers watch how I attack…

Sorry.

OKAY, so, on Saturday’s edition of Adventures with Ling, I tagged along with my parents as they did what they usually do on Saturdays– shop! See, I’ve recently freed myself from the eternal Hellish bonds of Stupidstore, and I’m having some issues adjusting to the freedom. Namely, I am having issues with the idea that I am available for social interaction. So, I tagged along with my parents. This usually involves me getting presents (I got new Converse shoes, yay). This weekend was one of the more lame shopping weekends, however.

My mother decided that she wanted a bike. She has a bike. It is a mountain bike. I’m sure it is quite nice, I don’t know, I haven’t seen it recently since, you know, winter happened. But, she decided she wanted a new bike. Something called a road bike. I, personally, thought bikes sort of worked wherever you pedaled them.

Obviously, I was misinformed, and I was absolutely shocked and flabbergasted beyond all everything when I wandered around the first bike shop we visited and checked out the prices of those bad boys. One cost nearly $10K. My entire post secondary education costs around $8K. If the bike wanted to, it could sell itself, go to school AND buy itself a Macbook.

I know my parents, and I always believed them to be practical people, so, understandably, I nearly had a heart attack when I found them looking at bikes that were $1300! Who needs that? My bike cost less than $200. Granted, it is a one-speed, but what more do I really need? I’m not entering the tour de France, I’m just cycling to the store and back, like normal people!

It made me think about the people on bikes that I see when I am on my way home from school. There are tonnes. And they all look like they’re off to meet up with Lance Armstrong.

Whatever happened to the good old days when you just jumped on your bike, while still in your pyjamas and rode up to the store to get emergency 6:30am chocolate? Or when you saw a guy on a bike with the 5ft Yogi Bear he stole from your front porch, so you ran home and your roommates all jumped on their bikes that they got from some thrift store, and rode off to find the thieving bastard?

I’m bringing it back! We haven’t seen the end of casual biking! I can bring it back into the limelight, but only with your help! This summer, grab your bike, don’t pay attention to the fact that you’re not wearing tight pants or a reflective jacket, and just casually cycle places. And then casually cycle back. It’s not a race. There’s no reason to have a faster bike (especially if it costs more than a semester worth of education). Take it easy, be casual, and show everyone you know what bikes are REALLY about. After all, if I wanted to race, I’d have a car.

Every morning, I am woken up by the soft subtle tones of my cat… squealing and screaming as if someone was trying to murder her. But, this is not the case, it’s just that she’s hungry. So, I head to the food cupboard as she rubs against my legs, and grab half of a cup of food from the bag.

I remember, once upon a time, doing this very thing and looking into the cup to find:

At first, I’m sure I said something like “Awwww, look! Fishies! Look Charley (my cat), FISHIESSSS!!! You wanna eat the fishies yes? Om nom nom fishies.”

Then, my mother and I actually discussed it. What it came down to was this: Charley doesn’t care if her food looks like fishies. She’s never seen an actual fish! The only way she knows fish is from when she gets to eat small amounts from the bottom of the tuna can. In reality, the reason her food is fish-shaped is so people will squeal and coo over it, and think that their cat is having something much more extraordinary than dry cereal for breakfast. Well, I am not one of those people. I refuse to lose my mind over cat food shaped like fish…

“Awwww, look! Fishies! Look Charley, FISHIESSSS!!! You wanna eat the fishies yes? Om nom nom fishies.”

Oh. Right.

Well, you can’t really blame me. I mean, the general demographic of readers of this blog are between the ages of 16 and 30, and how many of you still become completely ecstatic when you see:

Exactly.