Anime and Cool in the Same Post?

As a single person, I always tried to avoid guys who were super into anime and stuff. This was because those were usually the type of guys who had a weird Asian fetish, and as an Asian-American person, I think that is pretty creepy. I was never a fan of the idea that someone would want to date me just because I was Asian. Who would? I wanted people to date me because I was me. I tried to stay away from all males who would start a conversation with, "so, I really love sushi" or "I knew this Korean person once" or "I served a mission in Taiwan."

I realize I am being extremely stereotypical and unfair here. Who knows, some of these guys could have ended up being really cool. (Ha!) Umm... seriously. But as time went by, I began to realize the unfortunate truth.

ALL guys think anime is cool, at least to some degree. I blame it on video games. But even in a circle of the most normal-looking guys, if Dragon Ball Z is brought up, everyone has something to say about it. I mean, they know the names of the characters, the different plots, powers, and whatever other details that go along with the show.

Now get this. My husband likes anime. He loved Dragon Ball Z as a kid and has also seen pretty much all of Avatar. I had never even heard of Avatar until I met him. In the DVD aisle at Wal-Mart once, I asked, "if we were to buy any of these DVD's right now, which one would it be?" and he went straight to the boxed sets of Avatar. I thought he had to be kidding. He kept trying to explain to me why it is such a cool show and I just would not have any of it.

Anyway, one time when I was really sick we had the boxed season 4 of Avatar which he borrowed from his brother, and I gave in and said I would watch it with him. One episode followed another, and another, and another, and before we knew it we had watched the entire thing! And guess what? Avatar is a really cool show. It actually has a decent story and some of the jokes really made me laugh. I even had water-bending dreams that night.

SO... the point is, we went and saw Transformers 2 in the theaters the other day, (more like the other month,) and saw this preview:




(If that didn't work, just go here.) And we almost peed our pants with excitement. Yes, both of us.

Draining

What kind of shower drain do you have at your home? I've been noticing that the type pictured above (I call it the "pluggy kind") is becoming increasingly popular, especially at newly-built establishments. My last three places of residence have had these installed. I'd like to state here, once and for all, that I HATE this type of shower drain. I don't know what is causing this boom of popularity -- perhaps they ("they" being... um... those shower drain choosers, of course! They're everywhere!) have never bothered to ask women their opinion. Because any woman with a thick head of hair will tell you that unless they keep an eye on where every single strand of hair happens to end up and catch them all before they go down this drain of doom, they will end up with a clogged shower in 4 to 7 days. And who should have to keep track of where every little strand of hair goes? Showers are supposed to be leisurely!

I, for one, probably shed about a pound of hair every day. It's amazing that I don't ever go bald. It seems my hair replenishes itself like some kind of supernatural weed. Since having to deal with this "pluggy kind" of drain, I've had to learn to throw my handfuls of hair outside the shower curtain onto the tiled bathroom floor periodically throughout my shower for later cleaning. (Yes, I come up with a handful after every shampoo/conditioning/rinse.) Then, at the end, I have to fish around for each loose strands I missed and toss those outside as well. Even using this method, our shower clogs about once a month. And the other bad thing about this "pluggy" type? It DOES NOT come out. You'd think it would be easy to just yank the thing out, pull out a wad of hair, and call it good and unclogged. But these things are designed to stay put. We tried everything, and my husband is a mechanic. They don't come out. So the only thing you can do is use Drano.

Which works just fine and everything, but each bottle only lasts for one or two uses. Which is pretty lame.

Now, at my old house that my parents still live at (it was probably built in the 70's or something) they have a better system going. The shower there has what I call the "netty kind" of drain.
Sure this drain may not look quite as attractive as the "pluggy kind," but it's all worth it for the functionality. When you shower with this kind of drain, you don't have to think about your loose hairs at all. You just shower leisurely, thinking about whatever else you want, maybe even humming a little, and at the end all you do is pick up the wad of hair that is nestled neatly on top of the drain and throw it in the trash. I grew up being one of six full-headed women using the same shower for close to 20 years and we probably had to unclog the drain every 10 years or so. WAY more effective.

So, for all of you shower drain choosers, I highly recommend that you start bringing back the netty kind of shower drain. It will make the world a slightly happier place.