it seems like a million different distractions always get in the way of my job search. suffice to say i made no headway today. if there's somebody/something to blame, i vote for the hot weather. i rather spent all day undignified in my underwear than to suffer under this heat. it wasn't really that oppressive though, it was actually kind of nice when i stepped outside for the very first time in the early afternoon. i walked to the dollar store to get some cheap solar garden lights. a box of 6 sold for $15, but there must've been a sale on seasonal items because it rung up as $9. $1.50 per light! don't you just love a bargain?

when i returned home, my mother called to ask if i could pick up some bean sprouts and cucumbers. i ran this errand via bicycle. back at home again, this time i opted for the faster motorcycle, making a quick stop at the cafe, before going to belmont to install the new solar garden lights.

why we as a society don't use more solar-powered lights is something i'll never understand. for instance, the hundred thousands of street lights, can't we convert them all to solar? or if we covered the roofs of cars with solar panels, they could power the headlights at nights.

the solar garden lights took a few minutes to assemble. i was surprised to find a rechargeable AA battery compartment. it makes sense, that eventually the battery would need to be replaced. however, will the solar panel last forever?

these new solar lights aren't as stylish as the 2 preexisting solar lights already in the garden. the old lights also seem to have a better build (2-tiers), although having sat outside for all these years, their batteries can barely hold enough charge for just a single hour of illumination before going dark. these new lights supposedly can hold 10 hours of charge depending on their daytime light exposure.

i caught the end of the portugal-spain world cup game. i only know 3 international football celebrities: pele, david "bend it like" beckham, and cristiano ronaldo. that portugal could lose when they had ronaldo was shocking. but i shouldn't been too surprised. if watching the world cup has taught me anything, it's that soccer is a team game. even if you had the god of soccer on a team, without other players to pass the ball to get into scoring position, there's no way a team can win. earlier, i also caught the japan-paraguay game. i didn't even know the japanese were that good to be in the round of 16. they lost in the most terrible way though, through a missed penalty kick at the end of 120 minutes of scoreless play.

it was 4:00 by the time i was finished. with the sky looking like it might rain (it never did), i returned to cambridge, hoping to beat the storm and the rush hour traffic.

in the evening when my father returned to belmont, i asked him how the lights looked. the old lights were already dark, but the new lights were bright enough to cast a 3 feet diameter of illumination each. i stuck the 6 in the garden, but my father suggested we put them around the perimeter of the backyard. i'll return to the dollar store tomorrow to pick up 2 more boxes.