One of the many things I want to do before I die is go to a festival in the desert of Nevada called “Burning Man.” This tripped out party that celebrates the summer solstice begins the Monday before Labor day and ends on Labor day every year. The ritual has only one rule, and that is that everyone there must “express themselves.” “Burning Man” is basically one of the largest annual art shows in America, with attendance topping 50,000 this year. Some of the art and expression is amazing. The festival ends with the burning of a 104ft. wooden statue of a man. So basically, this is one of the coolest things in America.
Category: potpourri
$uperficial
Money is the bane of mankind.
It lowers people.
It threatens people.
It transforms people.
There’s never enough.
There’s too much.
Money kicks people off onto the cold, concrete sidewalks
and opens their eyes to a hardship that hardens their hearts.
It is a temporary fix,
an illusion of superiority.
It blurs the line between necessity and desire.
So, if money brings only such superficial safety,
and if money
is such an enigma in our society,
why do i hold such ambitious dreams?
New Face, New Life
Two years ago, Dallas C. Wiens lost his face in a tragic electrical accident involving a power line and a cherry picker. Now, he only has a thin line for his mouth and a few facial hairs remain. He has had 12 surgeries, including one for graphing skin and taking muscle from his back to form a bulbous face that appear sheen and flat. He has no eye sight or smell and moves around with a walking cane. Although he is missing lips, teeth, eyebrows, and even facial definition, he can still be heard with a very clear voice though his mouth.
Although to most people, his facial deformity may be intimidating, Dallas’ three year old daughter loves him the same. She nicknamed him “boo boo” and doesn’t see any difference between everyone else and her father.
Today he can be found waiting till May to be able to get a facial transplant surgery. After turning 26, he can qualify for medical care and the United States Department of Defense agreed to pay for his surgery in hopes of helping soldiers with the same issue in the future. Dallas will also be the thirteenth person to ever receive a full facial transplant. Hopefully the thirteenth will be a lucky number.
Too Late for a Happy Ending
“Don’t look,” said my aunt. Then, I knew instinctively to not stare at a black car passing Via del Corso near the Spanish Steps.
Every nerve in my system focused on the passing of the ominous car. As the distance between the car and me furthered, my tension finally relieved.
She as well as many other people who are either directly or indirectly related to embassies seems to recognize most of the cars belonging to different national representatives according to the number plates. Thus, she had known the car had been a possession of North Korea.
The stories that I heard of these North Korean families in Rome are fascinating but still foreign.
They bring tape recordings to places and have to be alert at all times. Despite, their national brotherhood, they constantly examine one another’s behavior. Even though they came for an international experience, they ironically cannot associate with the foreigners. Indeed, the book “1984” by George Orwell has accurately delineated the horrors of communism.
Should unification of the two Koreas happen?
This question engages much more complexity than a mere happy family reunion.
The Korean War is paused, not ended. Therefore, unification means an initiation of terror.
We, both South and North Koreans, have diverted too greatly from each other, sensing the word unification as a distant term.
Pandora Jar
Driving through the beautiful city of Ojai, I saw four people, who appeared to be in their late 50s, standing with two colorful signs. “No More War” and “Please Come Back” were the words painted on the squared posters. The bright colors might have grabbed others’ attention. However, for me, the two fingers held up by the third man from the right captured my mind.
Peace is a distant term for the victims of war. When I tried to finish my reading about the recent American field reports of the Iraq War, I could not.
Attempting to suppress my outrage, I sought to look for a bigger picture of the unfortunate misery. Then, I became increasingly curious about the existence of peace. As I looked through newspapers and other events around the world, turmoil unfortunately appeared much more frequently than peace.
According to the Princeton Dictionary, the word peace means “the state prevailing during the absence of war,” but it also represents mental state freed from anxiety.
The Tide is High but We’re Voting On
It is an exciting year for registered voters around California. Mostly because this year is the deciding year in the legalization of marijuana. It all comes down to the pot smokers of America and after November 2nd, 2010, those pot heads just might get the chance to “pineapple express” themselves more freely than ever before.
But, those free-living, foggy headed stoners may have to fight extra hard for the legalization of their favorite happy drug. Of course – as there has always been – there is controversy between pot smokers and well…everyone else.
There is clear opposition to this lightheaded lifestyle. Some people will fight just as hard if not harder (mostly because their opponents will be a bit more coherent and won’t be laughing as much at the opposing argument) to keep the oh-so-popular ‘wacky tobacky‘ out of the hands of America’s loyal citizens, and especially the hands of America’s youth.
Horosopes
Horoscopes are a guilty pleasure of mine, along with several million people out in the world, but why?
Everyone wants to know what’s going to happen in the future, what our love life will be like, what our job prospects are like. It’s the same reason that people go to psychics, the same reason they see fortune tellers. Do these stars determine what will happen to us in the future? Maybe, maybe not.
They are simply self-fullfilled prophesies. If we’re told that something is going to happen, unconsciously our mind will try to alter our reactions, our words, and our thinking to fulfill whatever story that was told. Anything can happen, really.
Only Here
I, unlike many of my peers, have never been to public school.
I have never walked large halls, I have never seen a fellow classmate and not recognize him or her.
I went to a Montessori pre-school, and then went to Calmont School my kindergarten year.
The Mole People
Whenever I get on the subway in New York, I immediately and nervously position myself in front of a window with a hope of observing Mole People.
These people are quite different from other homeless ones: they live in abandoned subway stations under major cities. Surprisingly, this population includes a mixture of lawyers, doctors, and other people of highly respected professions.
But just why would such affluent people join this society? This question lingered in my head for years. My current best answer relates to the madness of the big cities.
Mutants
The other day I was having a conversation with a friend or two while walking down the big hill to sports and it was pointed out how odd I am. As a ginger, I have blue eyes, and apparently that makes me rare.
As a child I’d always look as my parents as the people that created me, thus only having their traits. My dad had strawberry blonde hair and my mom had very dark, vibrant red hair, but I have an orangish tint in between. My mom had green eyes and my dad had grey eyes, but I have blue eyes. My my dad was 6’ft and my mom was 5’10, but I am 5’6. It never occured to me how odd my combination of traits were.
That makes me prefectly average when it comes to most everything but very strange when it comes to my eyes, hair, and skin. Here’s a statstic for it. 78.3% of red heads have green eyes. Hurray for be a mutant!
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