Under Construction

I’m in the process of getting this blog back in business. The unreliability of the wireless in my apartment restricts my time dawdling around with this site to spare moments at work or other random wifi access points. In the meantime, keep updated with Vox

& perhaps for further amusement/indifference/whatevers an article about Tom Cruise’s Scientology rant on Youtube. I watched it last night under the insistence of a friend of mine. The video keeps popping up on different internet sites as other clips get shut down. I have my doubts about Scientology like many other people do, but I wonder if the video was edited to make it seem even more crazy. Anyhow, just click here

Hello, Blog?

Hello blog, even though I’ve made a home with Vox, I still think about you.  Things are well, I’m hoping to close out this mediocre year of 2007 and exchange it with a nice shiny brand-new 2008 model.  Things seem to be moving in a forward direction and I marvel that there’s so many things to learn and a million steps to take in order to get there.  I hope to keep my grounded wits about me in order to make smart informed choices.  I better go, it’s getting late.  I’ll visit you again soon…I promise.

What were they thinking?

So, I’m in the middle of planning a children’s class centered around truthfulness. I thought I would look around on some websites to see if I can find any ideas. I stumbled across humanityquest.com which at first glance seemed like a detailed website (although I wondered why ‘humanity’ was written out in awkward fonts). Awesome, 500 human traits for me to explore! How ’bout I start out with…bigotry? Ok. I click on the link and get a supiciously long list on how to creatively express that wonderful character trait. For example: “If bigotry were a pet, and you were writing a manual for the Care and Feeding of Your bigotry, what advice would you give? bigotry: it is very easy to care for. Be sure to give it daily attention and it will grow big and strong.”

Let’s…not. I had to laugh though, and share that. I’m sure this website is just an automatically generated list of generic activities you could techinically do with a lot of emotions and character traits. Come on humanityquest, try a little harder!

split personalities

It’s my birthday.

I’ve spent most of today teaching myself and brainstorming with a friend of mine how to make lesson plans. Lookit me, I’ve become a teacher of little kiddies. I’m going to delay celebrating for another day.

I also have another blog. I’m such a compulsive blog hopper…give me a site where I have more template choices and I’m sold. The only problem is that I hate that you have to be a vox member in order to comment. Anyway, check it out. We’ll see if I keep updating this or if i keep both or whatever. I haven’t figured it out. Its like leading a double life!

http://becauseican.vox.com

Someday

It’s funny that just as I go to update my trusty WordPress journal, the so-called “hawt” post right now is about Coffee Prince, this Korean drama I hastily read the plot for earlier this afternoon. In my temporary reclusive state, I’ve distracted myself with finding television channels or other forms of media worthy of my attention. I’ve mildly attached myself to the Korean drama ‘Someday‘ which currently plays on the AZN network.  I don’t fully understand what’s going on, but I like that one of the characters is a comic book artist and they draw out the mundane but personally important events in life.  I often imagine being able to do the same.  In between trying to find the series online, I’ve also became fascinated with random subjects like eye color, animal extinctions, interracial relations and the four basic chemicals in DNA.  When I was younger I used to write these things down so I could remember the facts for later.  I don’t anymore so maybe all of what I gleaned will be fleeting.  I do enjoy the process of learning, and I’ll happily look it up all over again.

’nuff said

   Bears eat man at beer festival

BELGRADE, Serbia (Reuters) — A 23-year old Serb was found dead and half-eaten in the bear cage of Belgrade Zoo at the weekend during the annual beer festival.

The man was found naked, with his clothes lying intact inside the cage. Two adult bears, Masha and Misha, had dragged the body to their feeding corner and reacted angrily when keepers tried to recover it.

“There’s a good chance he was drunk or drugged. Only an idiot would jump into the bear cage,” zoo director Vuk Bojovic told Reuters.

Local media reported that police found several mobile phones inside the cage, as well as bricks, stones and beer cans.

Copyright 2007 Reuters

[it ain't my story, you can read it off of CNN here

rain checks

There’s a temporary rainy season in Minnesota. It’s been raining continually the past couple of days. And despite any lethargy I feel from the weather, at least I get satisfaction from wearing long-sleeved shirts and stalking the streets of the Twin Cities. It’s dreary here, but miles down south in the Caribbean it’s even more dreary. Don’t know when the hurricane is going to hit, but hopefully there isn’t too much damage. It makes it seem like nothing to get drenched up here. Yesterday, my friend and I escorted an exchange student from Germany to the Mall of America. She’d never been to one and it seemed like an exciting activity for a teenager on a Saturday. No luck finding her red shoes or a swimsuit, but we had fun. I also got to hang at Seward Co-op and spot another friend of mine who I get great joy out of seeing. Otherwise, I’ve exiled myself to my home. It’s just my sister and I. My other roommate flew away to NYC to romp around with a friend.

I never really caught onto watching DVDs to alleviate boredom or to fill up the time unless I’m with someone else. However, I’ve been indulging in my sense of storytelling and escapism this weekend while everyone’s been gone. I just finished watching Heat, an intense movie with Deniro, Pacino, among other name brand actors. I’ve seen this film many times, but still find myself pulling for Deniro’s character at the end when he’s so close to escaping his criminal life and living in New Zealand with the recent love of his life. Still by the end I was riddled with a sense of isolation and unfulfilled comforts. I was a sucker for these types of dramatic battles when I was a kid and it still carries over now. The distinction is it’s one thing to watch it off a screen, it’s another to live it personally. I’d rather embrace the former.

Red Letter Days

“I’m not gonna lose/I’m not goin’ down/I’m not gonna lose/not today, not tomorrow/”

This transitional period has been either feast or famine. And surprisingly, I’ve had a fulfilling past few days. I thought I would be missing out because I’m not going to Baha’i Summer School at Camp Onamia, but it seems like I’m utilizing the decrease in social activity by being productive. I will say that last night I was pleasantly surprised by Pasta Night. So many regulars were out of town, but it left room to add a lil something extra like new faces mixed with the familiar. There’s been some doubts about how things have been going the past I don’t know however many months, but it’s about the people. You have to create the atmosphere that you want. Those of us who were left at 10 o’clock ended the night with a long walk through campus. Thankfully we got to experience the outdoors when it wasn’t so dang hot.

After successful socialization, I wanted to dedicate most of my waking hours toward tying up loose ends. I finally, FINALLY, finished those reports I’ve been inching through and in the middle of all of that served ice cream to families at an ice cream social.  I may have landed a job out of a simple act, but I really don’t know.  There’s a few other things that are beginning to sort themselves out which is why I’m convinced this is the feasting time.  I heavily contemplated looking for jobs outside of Minneapolis, but I think that this year I may be able to do something cohesive in this town.  There’s more to come, I’m sure of it.

Haste Makes Waste

I never did care for that phrase, but I thought it appropriate this time around.  I often ride the bus or the lightrail to wherever I’m going and I know it’s part of the culture to occasionally leave or give away transfers that are still good, but aren’t being used.  I might be crazy, but there seems to be an increase in transfers left on lightrail stations. When you’re broke, these acts are lifesavers.  But…both times I was so in a rush to shove my credit card in for payment I never really bothered to check.

Moral of the story is, if you’re looking for help sometimes you have to slow down and take a moment in order to see where it’s coming from.

There’s a time for everything

I spent last night writing the newest blog entry and thought that it saved. Whoops. I guess I took too long and when I hit ‘publish’ everything that i did slipped away into the vast space of the internet. Great. I’ll try to recreate it briefly and at least with slightly more patience than if I would have discovered it last night. The latest recipient(s) of gratitude in my life has to be to all of my friends in Minneapolis. They make being broke and nursing an uncertain immediate future less stressful. Thank the Lord. My moods have been more sober and less peppered with fits of hysterical laughter since I got back from Morocco. The calmer side has started to accept the fact that maybe I won’t be meeting my personal goals by the end of the month. That may mean sleeping on someone’s couch for a couple of weeks while I wait for enough income. The thing is that it’s coming. The timing unfortunately, isn’t cooperating.

When I was in Morocco I tried to introduce the idea to my kids that you don’t necessarily need “things” to be fulfilled (although technological gadgets can be so fun!). I figure that I could take the same idea and apply it toward my own situation. It’s a little harder when it comes to money, especially if you rely on consistent resources to support your lifestyle. Most of us do, or would like to have that kind of stability. It’s not exciting to have to talk with your bill collectors, but you figure out what to do in the meantime. Hopefully I find myself more serious when I say I want to get rid of more of my possessions. Many of these things are really just junk or useful to someone else. Junk mail. Papers. Old clothes. Books you don’t read. Give your crappy free cellphone away to a battered women’s shelter. Less stuff makes my life easier, especially when it comes to moving. You acquire more and purge it again later on.

I’ve also felt a little more work oriented. I don’t remember the last time I’ve really wanted to be so purpose-driven. It does seem necessary though to go through the periods of aimless wandering before you actually see the need to focus.  It’s time to switch things up. By the middle of September I’m hoping to see an overall improvement.  More long term plans have me living in another part of the world by fall 2008.  Teach English in China anyone?  Just a thought.

O Son of my handmaid!

Be not troubled in poverty nor confident in riches, for poverty is followed by riches, and riches are followed by poverty.  Yet to be poor in all save God is a wondrous gift, belittle not the value thereof, for in the end it will make thee rich in God, and thus thou shalt know the meaning of the utterance, “In truth ye are the poor,” and the holy words, “God is the all-possessing,” shall even as the true more break forth gloriously resplendent upon the horizon of the lover’s heart, and abide secure on the throne of wealth. -Baha’u'allahThe Hidden Words No. 51