February 2012
2 posts
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“Juventud, divino tesoro, ¡ya te vas para no volver! Cuando quiero llorar, no...”
– Canción de Otoño en Primavera / Rubén Darío
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Conforming to conformity
The very existence of society represents the existence of conformity. Conformity is more than simply following rules or laws, perhaps even more than being in accordance to socially acceptable standards or customs. Conformity is, in a sense, synonymous with society, construction, development, evolution, and even the presence or absence of change. Conformity is the written word, the spoken tongue,...
January 2012
10 posts
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Like water
From my 25 page masters thesis for my senior English class, section ten (slight edits):
I once wrote the following:
“I can still feel the tears running down my face the day my parents told me the news and the day of my grandma’s funeral. It burns, and it leaves me so thirsty. Not necessarily for water, but to fill that gaping hole which I felt had formed in my heart.”
In Like Water by...
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Bucket List
-Try authentic Spanish Paella -Try different meats, such as rabbit or frog -Eat deep-dish pizza in Chicago and thin crust pizza in New York -Attempt to try the foul-smelling durian fruit -Have a cup of civet coffee -Learn to make beef wellington, and eat it -Try an authentic dish from as many cultures around the world -Learn to bake, make ice cream, and cook creatively -Learn how to dance -Master...
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On words and language
Words typically represent much more than we first face them to be. They don’t have one set meaning, but they represent a feeling, an emotion. Every person has a different feeling or emotion for different words. Words with similar dictionary definitions take on different meanings. Justice and fairness—now there’s a pair that we seem to constantly pair up. Justice is to be fair and to have fairness...
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“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a...”
– Robert Heinlein
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I don't believe in closure.
Only that we learn to deal with the pain and troubles, and we are able to integrate them into our daily lives. I think it gets to a point where even though it’s still there, you come to terms with yourself in the sense that if you continue to over-dwell on it, it won’t do you any good. So you accept whatever the situation is as it is, and even though it still bothers the heck out of...
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New year, new playlist.
English
The Winner Takes It All - Meryl Streep (Mamma Mia version) / I Won’t Give Up - Jason Mraz / Miss Me - Andy Grammer / Heartbreak Warfare - John Mayer / Not Over You - Gavin DeGraw / The Broken Ones - Dia Frampton / Up - James Morrison & Jessie J / Gravity - John Mayer / Fire - Augustana / You’re the Reason (Acoustic Ver.) - Victoria Justice / Love - Matt White / Slice -...
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Go read these. →
My favorite,
31. Today, my 12-year-old son, Sean, and I stopped by the nursing home together for the first time in several months. Usually I come alone see my mother who’s suffering from Alzheimer’s. When we walked into the lobby, the nurse said, “Hi, Sean!” and then buzzed us in. “How does she know your name?” I asked. “Oh, I swing by here on my walk home from school all the time to say hi to...
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< /close > < grow >
When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.
This is my favorite quote, by Ralph Waldo Emerson. It’s short and to the point, and quite beautiful even when taken literally, but if one puts thought into it, it can go pretty deep. When I found this quote earlier this year, I already felt connected to it. But as the year progressed, parts of quote began to take on a, shall we say, different...
December 2011
10 posts
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< /twentyeleven > < twentytwelve >
2011 has probably been both the best year of my life and the worst.
I spent the most incredible summer I could have ever imagined with some great people, new people that I can now proudly call my friends. These guys really showed me that the world is much greater than what I’ve experienced here in Arcadia, and that there are better people out there in the world. Thanks to them, I guess...
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ninety
I wrote this for a English (SFHP) project. Thought it would be worth sharing. It’s called “ninety.” Hopefully, it’s worth reading.
zero
Literature always seems to be analyzed to death. Perhaps, Professor, Fitzgerald simply felt like white would be a good color for Daisy to wear. However, my friends, it’s not just literature that is overanalyzed. It seems as if we humans are...
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Blink.
It’s quick isn’t it? Death, I mean. Just a blink of an eye, and you’re gone.
Well, it’s not really your fault. No one would have suspected your husband to come home drunk wielding a knife. But your angel is alive, currently sleeping in her crib with your parents, and unharmed thanks to you. The blood flowing from your neck was enough, I believe, to stop him. One blink, and you see me.
I’m not sure...
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December first
It’s been a crazy year.
But today, I’m simply thankful for my life and for my parents who gave it to me. I’m thankful for the friends who have stuck around and put up with all my crap—especially in this past year. And I’m thankful for those who have shaped who I am, who have influenced me, for better or for worse. I made three wishes this year. One is the same every...
November 2011
5 posts
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This is what's bothering me.
So my parents didn’t watch the final Harry Potter movie, so they rented it and I watched it with them. Being that I’ve watched it quite a few number of times already, I was barely paying attention to the movie’s plot and noticing a bunch of random things. Oddly enough, what’s bothering me the most are the paintings in Harry Potter. Think about it. These paintings we see in...
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I'm halfway there.
It feels great to be done. Done. Now I just have to wait and see if I even get in to any of these schools which I’ve applied for. For some reason, it feels like all the pressures of senior year suddenly has been lifted off my shoulders, because I’ve already done all that I can (except for keeping those grades up) and the control over any of this is no longer in my hands. I...
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When should you sleep? →
People tend to sleep in 90 minute cycles (yay Psychology B!) so if you wake up at the end of a said cycle, you will feel much more awake and less groggy. If you wake up in the middle of the cycle, especially in delta sleep, you’ll feel much more tired. And if you wake up during REM sleep, which is near the end of the cycle, you’ll tend to remember dreams because that is the stage in...
October 2011
16 posts
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Only the future awaits
Since middle school, I’ve been waiting for this year, senior year, to come. I distinctly remember at the start of middle school, counting to myself how many years have passed and how many years I have left in public education. In sixth grade, seven years until the end of high school seemed like eternity.
But now that I pause to think yet again, I realize that these years have really flown...
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I'm listening to American music!
Bad Day - Daniel Powter / 100 Years - Five For Fighting / Best Days - Graham Colton / Come on Get Higher - Matt Nathanson / Faster - Matt Nathanson / I’ll Follow You - Jon McLaughlin / Beating My Heart - Jon McLaughlin / 5:19 - Matt Wertz / Closer to Love - Mat Kearney / Standing in Front of You - Kelly Clarkson / I See the Light - Mandy Moore & Zachary Levi / Bear - The Antlers /...
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“You will not soon be pardoned by the hours; hours that erode the fabric of our...”
– “De la brevedad engañosa de la vida” / Luis de Góngora
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Up in the Air
How much does your life weigh? Imagine for a second that you’re carrying a backpack. I want you to pack it with all the stuff that you have in your life… you start with the little things. The shelves, the drawers, the knickknacks, then you start adding larger stuff. Clothes, tabletop appliances, lamps, your TV… the backpack should be getting pretty heavy now. You go bigger....
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Non Est Ad Astra Mollis e Terris Via
It seems like the people around me have already jumped into the river of life and are flowing towards change, while I’m still standing here on the riverbanks wondering where they have gone. A part of me doesn’t really want to jump inside—I don’t know what lies downstream. The other part of me feels lost and confused, and I want to catch up to those I’ve lost. But I might just be too late. As time...
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When it is dark, you can see the stars.
If you haven’t read Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse, you should go read it now. It may derive its plot from certain aspects of Buddhist thought, but it’s much more than that. It digs extremely deep into the human psyche and tries to reason the most basic of human natures such as desire or love.
To me, the book speaks volumes. It has reminded me that all of our suffering is self-inflicted...
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“And all the voices, all the goals, all the yearnings, all the sorrows, all the...”
– Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse
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America is getting soft →
“Every level of government now spends less of its money investing for the future and more and more on consumption for the present.”
Zakaria never fails to prove a point. America isn’t as great as it used to be, face it. Then work to change it, don’t just deny it.
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“We’re born, we live for a brief instant, and we die. It’s been...”
– Steve Jobs, 1955-2011.
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Make your own marshmallows →
I want to try this asap, mostly cause it’s so freaking easy, why waste the money at a market? All you need is a simple sugar syrup (1 part water + 2 parts sugar ratio), gelatin, and egg whites. Gah now I crave some marshmallows in a hot chocolate…
September 2011
7 posts
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For One More Day
Mitch Albom’s For One More Day is officially one of my favorite books of all time, perhaps my absolute favorite for now. It’s a story about a mother and son, and how the son wants to commit suicide but at that lowest point in his life, his already deceased mother is alive and waiting for him—or so he thinks. Despite being a figment of his imagination while he was passed out after...
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StoryCorps 9/11 Series →
This is worth taking a look at and watching. StoryCorps aims to get the stories of many different people, but in light of ten years since the 9/11 attacks, three of the stories were created into animated shorts. They’re moving, touching, and bound to bring tears to your eyes.
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“When it is dark enough,
you can see the stars.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Political moderate, please.
I’m pretty disappointed that I will not be old enough to vote in the upcoming elections, but I still know what I’m looking for in my next president. The next president of the United States cannot be too far to the left or too far to the right on the political spectrum, especially when the political cleavages only seem to be widening as time goes by. He (or she, which I doubt) has to be...
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The Death of Death
Imagine, a world where humanity as we know it ceases to exist, a world where every science fiction movie about computers taking over the human race is a possibility, a world where we can live forever.
Does that mean that humanity is now God? We can create life and take life away, we can fulfill dreams and destroy dreams. Creationism would become a joke, and Darwinism will be laughed at. We...