I can not, for the life of me, figure out when to use ese/este/le or eso/esto/lo. The "a"s I understand, but how do I tell whether I should use "e" or "o". I can't figure out the reason and without knowing the reason, I'm never going to get it right. I've been trying to understand for months and I still can't find the connection. Please help!

Anyone here keep goldfish? And I don't just mean you have a bowl with a goldfish in it, I mean someone who KNOWS goldfish, goldfish are his/her passion. I need help.

I want to get a goldfish tank. I want 2 telescope eyes or the like. Is the recommendation still 30 gal for the first and 10 gal for each additional? I remember that being the size for goldfish, but goldfish are all different sizes! So do these guys fall into that range? I know they tend to be smaller goldies, but still. I'm thinking I'll likely want to go for a 40 to 50 gal at least, is this accurate?

I'm very curious about other places. So if you could, where do you live and what is life like there? I'll tell you about where I am to show you what I mean.

Place: Alabama in the USA

I live in a college town so I think it might be a bit different from other places in my state. Cultures and ideas tend to mix a lot here. It's an odd place that, while it's actually rather big, doesn't feel too much different from the teeny little town I grew up in in south Florida. The only difference is EVERYONE doesn't know EVERYTHING about me whether I want them to or not. That's kinda nice. Sometimes we encounter people with a heavy southern accent but mostly accents aren't so heavy because of the constantly changing population. That's good for me because, while I know a lot of people find it charming, that accent annoys me. In fact, the accents and even languages seem to really vary a lot. It makes it kinda fun to hear people talk! 

There's a really interesting mix of people here. Because of the college there are people from all over the world. There's a lot of Asian and Middle Eastern people here as well as the mix of the races I'm more familiar with (Black, White, Hispanic, and Native American). It's fun to see all the different types of people. In spite of that, people seem to get along ok. We also have a lot of people of varying gender identities and sexual orientations and no one seems terribly bothered. (I know that those aren't entirely accurate impressions because I remember what happened with the Chick-Fil-A fiasco and I've seen the hate filled bumper stickers, but I haven't seen anyone hurt or over heard evil comments when I'm around the usually targeted types of people. They don't even seem to get noticed really. I get the feeling people just don't care enough to bother to be evil in that way most of the time here. They are too busy arguing over football teams or something.) We also have a wide example of wealth from really really wealthy to homeless. They don't seem to run the homeless off here. I'm glad for that. I like the homeless people. And the giant houses are so pretty! Over all the feeling of the place here seems like the people range from either accepting or just disinterested. There is this odd politeness and fake smile kindness here though. Southern hospitality or something I guess. I like that people are polite but, sadly, I think it tends to take the place of actually bothering to care about others sometimes.

We have a beach nearby, which is awesome. We have a mall, but it sucks. I'm from south Florida so there are far too many hills here for my taste but I think it's still rather flat to most people really. It rarely snows (as in once in a blue moon) and it's over warm and humid most of the time. Hubby says we are in the "Bible belt" and we are an Archdiocese or something.  Which means we have an archbishop here, I think... It's important if you are Catholic, I think, but I'm not. But anyway, there are churches everywhere! And a lot of them are huge and seem to own huge chunks of the town in their area and most of those have private schools attached. There are other religions here, too. Buddhist temples and things. It's really neat to see all the temples and churches. A lot of them are old and big elaborate buildings. There are a lot of hospitals here too, because of the colleges. Apparently we have one of the top medical colleges in the country or something. We also have a large number of Starbucks, McDonalds, and Walmarts, but I think that's probably just how it is everywhere in this country. Oh! And trees! There are SO MANY trees! I love trees but I also love the sky and there is hardly anywhere here to see the sky. Sometimes it seems like they just shoved all the houses into a forest and didn't bother to clear any space except where the house was planted. There are these weird trucks that drive down the street carving tunnels out of the branches so the trees don't start taking out the cars driving down the road.

The people here seem obsessed with 2 things; football and pets. There are all sorts of pet events and rescues everywhere all the time. It's pretty cool.  And football...... Yeah it's insane. The colleges have "Vs" stores all over (stores that sell merchandise for 2 rival teams) and every car seems to have at least one team bumper sticker or team flag on it. Most of the clothing options people choose are team themed and every store carries some sort of merchandise related to the teams.

There are bad things about living here too. For one it's boring. There's really not a lot to do. We have a lot of stores, but most of the stores are just repeated a lot and there's really just a handful of them if you took away the repeats. The population changes a lot, so when you find a favorite barista or cashier at a store, they are only there until the graduate and then they go back to where they come from. A lot of our doctors work the same way since most of the offices are connected to the colleges and your doctor is often a graduate student. I hate having to change doctors every few years. Things change a lot here really. Shops and restaurants and things shift out quickly too. We have the beach and a lot of parks but it's so hot here most of the time it's not much fun to go. The mosquitoes are insane. There aren't a lot of sidewalks so walking anywhere means walking in the street or people's yards. Sales tax is ridiculous.

That's all I can think of. Now, tell me about your home! What is it like to live where you do?

Edit: Somehow I forgot all about Mardi Gras. It's HUGE here. One of the places it started in this country or something. Not really my thing and it makes getting downtown impossible, but everyone else seems to love it. And the stores filled with masks and beads is neat.

Very specific music. You see, I'm trying to learn Spanish and music is supposed to help. Well, I've found a band that I LOVE but.......I'm sorta making hubby nuts because they have only one album......So I need some help finding some new Spanish pop. I need something fun to listen to and upbeat but not terribly bass heavy or jarring because I like to listen to it while I sleep, too. Right now I pretty much have DVICIO (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvjS9kDgtTs) on an endless loop. I like Abraham Mateo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P--o4v4wABs), too, but his music will make it too difficult for hubby to sleep.  One of the best things about most of his, though, is they are an odd mix of Spanish and English. So........help? Do you know of any similar sounding bands/artists? I tend to like higher male voices and lower female voices. Females in general I don't tend to like. Their voices tend to be too high and they hurt my ears, but I will give them a try if you think they sound nice. I like happy music, so I tend to prefer pop, but I actually like many different sorts of music, so I'll give most things a listen. I do not, however want them full of cursing or violence. Those aren't my thing. So nothing I'm going to need an ID to buy, please.

And you thought you were having a bad hair day.....

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This was the pony Aflame sent me for the Halloween Swap this year. I adore her! I'll let Aflame provide her details!

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HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!  I hope it's the awesomest!!!!

 
 

[Birthday Sticky - kkat 5-28-2015]