.- -. --- - .... . .-. / ..-. .-. .- -- . / --- ..-. / -- .. -. -..

All of us question everything, whether we want to or not. And at some point and time, we, as people come up with these things called "opinions." And when you have enough of these "ideas," people think that you've grown up.

Want to hear what I think?

Everything that happens is just a giant manifestation of the subconscious. Our bodies are just the vessels in which we perform what must be done from day to day. We confuse our bodies with images of self - we think of ourselves as a separate, but really we are just part of one whole. And seeing as such, we are therefore each separated although really are just part of the same mind, the "higher power," so to speak. All the objects which we touch, see and smell everyday - they're just byproducts of this higher manifestation. We each want to express the feelings that we have in a productive, outward force. So we dream. We create. A strange twist on our already strange existence.

It's all in our head, but who's to say that it isn't real?

The Great Redwood Trees.

Redwood trees, a living masterpiece. These trees are incredible. From the moment I first saw them I was completely amazed, and in love. I have been wanting to write about them for a long time. Today, while walking along in the grocery store...enjoying some Andrew Bird music, and contemplating how to write my blog about Redwoods - I came across my favorite magazine, National Geographic. Guess what the October edition focuses on?! Redwood trees!!! I stood for a moment, looking through the pages...in awe at the beautiful pictures - thinking about the purchase. I caved in. I walked out of the store with less money, but filled with excitement. Time to write.

Redwood trees- the tallest trees in the world, some nearly 400 feet tall. Spanning across the Pacific coast- all the way from southern Oregon to Big Sur, California.

"Redwoods the size of Saturn rockets sprouted from the ground like giant bean-stalks, their butts blackened by fire." - National Geographic 2009

Their existence has caused controversy for decades. Logging vs. preserving. It is not only their height that makes these trees amazing... Some of these trees date back 2000 years! Imagine the things they have seen! Living for 2000 years, longer than anything else on earth- how could we possibly cut them down? Firstly, these trees are resistant to decay which makes them an extremely good building material. The longer they live the better and more resistant their wood becomes. It is a loggers gold mine. They provide a main source of income for hundreds of families. Clear-cutting. We all know this term. It is the fastest, easiest way to cut down trees. But it nearly put the Redwoods into extinction. It was done this way mainly because of their size... moving them is an extremely difficult task. The most intensive burst of logging happened right after WWII during the rebuild. Thousands of trees were clear-cut, and what is left of them is table scraps in comparison to what there was. So, what can be done? Lots. Plans have already been set into action. But...before I continue on with that, I have another interesting fact about Redwoods. They are so tall, that they support separate forests in the air. Incredible.

"Hundreds of feet above ground, the crowns of ancient redwoods shelter another forest. Thickets of berry bushes, ferns, and other conifers-some large enough to bear cones-rise from dense mats of soil on broad limbs or in trunk forks. The soil, as think as three feet, forms from decayed leatherleaf ferns and redwood leaves and bark, nourishing an aerial ecosystem unknown until the 1990's, when scientists first climbed into the canopy." - National Geographic 2009

So... to save the Redwoods. There needs to be an equal balance between logging and preserving. No longer will the trees be clear-cut. No longer will the trees be dragged out of the forests, which causes extreme erosion and kills forest life. Each tree cut down will be carefully chosen, and lifted from its home. Many times, forest conservation plans involve cutting down the oldest trees, and leaving the new growth. That is not how we are saving the Redwoods. We are leaving the ancient giants, and taking younger less developed trees. The older trees produce more offspring, and support much more life than younger trees. Carefully planned logging can actually do the trees a lot of good. They are so thick, that most of the time the Redwoods are stuck in the shade. Letting sunlight through the canopy from time to time can do wonders. These trees still have much life to give. Many of them have been through multiple forest fires, and still stand strong. We must do the same.


Do I hear a road trip?

Is Being Rich all it's Cracked up to Be?

"When I see you, I'm rich."

This was the very touching end to a winning-the-lottery conversation I had with my grandparents today. My grandpa (Yes, the same one that I talked about in my earlier post) told me this, and it immediately sparked a blog seed in my mind. Is there more to being rich than just having piles of money? The answer: is different for everyone. To some closed minded person, yes it's all about the doe. This is their idea of happy, and there is nothing wrong with that. Money can spell happiness, but eventually the excitement wears off, as do most things. I, on the other hand, have a different point of view that I'm sure you share. Being rich means many things. It's whatever makes you happy. Music, dance, art, athletics, etcetera, etcetera. So you may ask " If all these things spell h.a.p.p.y, why are there people who think that money, drugs or alcohol spell this same word?" Truth be told, these are immature people. People who have not experienced the pleasurable 'high' you can receive from doing something you love. People who would rather sacrifice their own health and well-being for a quick-fix of pleasure. Pleasure that comes at a price, literally. These people can be helped, only if they want to receive this help and jump back into reality. The high you get from playing an instrument, singing, drawing and so on is much greater than one from drugs. And hey, it doesn't kill you. What could be better?

SUIT UP!

Because everyone should have a Barney Stinson appreciation day as well.

LiveLavaLive

Because everyone should have a Mitchell Davis appreciation day.

Banking On a Myth

Today my brother and I had spent a good four hours in front of the television.Why? To what purpose do we watch these shows besides the fact that they're an attractive way to kill time and effort and to help you take an escape from the day? And why do we as humans strive so much to re-create this suspense, wit, and humour in our own lives? Don't we get enough of this drama on that screen daily? Each and every single day, we humans become so absorbed in our own tiny little soap operas; that we tend to forget about what we are really obssessing about. Ourselves. Now you might take a step back here and say, "Hold it. One second ago we were talking about television, the ultimate advertiser, master of attractive. Television was made for our entertainment, for our brains to fry as we watch funny little quirks for an hour."Hold out with me here for one second. Have you ever really thought about how they manage to keep you in? Because eventually, every joke gets old. Our parents are living proof of that fact and always will be. Maybe you have an uncle who always says the same joke at Christmastime. We've all been there, we know it's awful. So what is it about these sitcoms, which are really just the same material over and over again, that makes us want to go back to them?The answer is simple really - television is human. Television is created by humans, watched by humans, and paid for by humans. We see our own insecurities in that television screen, we sympathize with the character flaws and the slip-ups. We all like to see people fail to feel better about ourselves. Haven't you ever realized that more often than not, the best villians are too perfect to be true? And that that's what really makes them that scary, doesn't it? The fact that the other side is too quick and too beautiful and too heartless for our minds to grasp. The possibility that we just may die, because we're not good enough. And the opposite can be said about the hero. They are always the ones with the signature flaw, which is why we identify ourselves with them the most. But why is this all such a bad thing? Isn't this just merely a very clever way of keeping an audience interested, by making television and media "human?" And the answer is no, it's not. Because in order for them to be able to make you hooked on these shows in the first place, they need to convince you to assume that you ARE insecure, that you are imperfect. And this is where television and media goes wrong. We spend almost every waking moment swarmed by the media, all of it telling us that there's something missing, that there's farther to go, more hours to work, more sex to have had, more weight to have lost. And what is this then, but all a cheap sell on everybody's pursuit of happiness? This is where each and every one of us is being told in almost everything that we do, that we have a problem. And if something is repeated enough, you sure as hell will begin to believe that it's true. This is where the money makers "up there" want you to think about yourself, since it's so easy to fall into that self-centered loop; and to start thinking, "where did I go wrong?" Well let me tell you honey, you're asking yourself the wrong question. It's "where did WE go wrong?," and if I was able to answer that question, then we wouldn't have television.

You're what happens when two substances collide.

The other day, I was confronted with an interesting question: is God perfect? I mean, if he had created an army of angels to do his bidding, why did Lucifer become so drunk with the idea of power that he turned against God? And if God knew our potential to sin, why did He create us? Why on earth, are we on earth? If He knows how things are going to turn out, why haven't already been judged, based on what would happen inevitabely? As you can see, questioning God's perfection poses a number of other questions. But I can assure you that the answer is far simpler. The answer is something that each and every one of us believes in.

The answer - well, it's love.

God had so much love inside of Him, that He needed to share it with another. And here we are. He knew that we were less than perfect, in fact, He knew perfectely well that we would be much like Him - cold, lonely, and insecure. However, God also believed that no matter how we felt most of the time, that love would make it all worthwhile.
But if God knew that we were going to turn out flawed, why didn't he change that beforehand? And here is where I ask you: don't you ever remember falling in love with someone that you knew was an awful influence on you, but you did it anyways? Exactly. Simliarily, a mother loves her child, no matter what happens. She loves him - bruises, scrapes, and all. She loves him, no matter how imperfect he is. Because in her eyes, he's perfect just the way he is.


So I ask you once more, is God perfect? And in turn, are we perfect?

I don't know, and probably never will. But really, what is perfect? What is perfection but an illogical distorted ideal that all of us strive towards? If we stopped being so farsighted and instead focused on the present moment, we'd realize that the world is perfect just the way it is. Bruises, scrapes, and all. Because no matter what happens, there will always be love. And love, well, that's perfection.

Silence.

They lay on the couch together,
unmistakeably entwined
in such a way that
only time and truth perfect.

Their blanket is their bodies,
they find comfort in closeness.

She is sleeping.
Chocolate curls covering
sleeping eyes,
ivory skin glowing in the half-moon light.
Her chest rises and falls
slowly, breath shallow.

He lies awake,
restless loving eyes take in the
innocent frame clinging to his -
his hand traces the soft features of her face.

Outside,
the world races,
rushes,
shudders.

But here,
in an old basement
on an old couch;
the world is
silent.

"I'm fine, really."

People are fascinating. On the outside, they're all the same: pretty words, pretty faces. But take a step back, and suddenly it's a whole different story. People are mountains of energy, thoughts, and force condensed into one tiny little body. We all try to find a way somehow to cope with these things called emotions. Most of us express our emotions in tiny bits and pieces - a bit while talking to our friends, some more while driving to work. Yet, there are also those of us who completely and utterly submerse ourselves into life , exude passion and love in everything that we do. No matter how you express yourself, one thing is clear: we humans are so unbelievably capable of emotion. It is something that nothing else on the entire planet possesses quite like we do.


One emotion that stands out quite peculiarly from all the others is passion - it is what we use to create, and at the same time, it has incredible power to destroy. When we use this passion - this thirst - for life and everything that is entails, we are capable of amazing things. Think about any big-time artist, musician, writer or star that has made it big. They all are talented to some degree, but no matter what they do, they share one thing in common: passion. You don't love the musicians that you do because they are talented; rather, it's the passion that they exude out of every pore that pulls you to them. When you're at a concert, screaming along with everyone else, it's watching them become so immersed in what they do that leaves you breathless by the end of the night; not the fact that they played every single note correctly. Quite the opposite can happen as well. Sometimes, we may feel so infatuated by something, that there seems like there's no reprise. We can't eat, we can't sleep. Suddenly, this passion becomes ugly and horrible. It transforms into lust, into hatred, into greed. We walk a fine line between passion and obsession, and once you've been swallowed by obsession, it takes a lot of effort to go back. Passion can make or break us. We all seek to understand why we feel what we do, yet many of us are unsure to go about escaping this uncertainty. We seek passion to create, to love. But when have we gone too far? When a love of acting suddenly does makes you mentally unstable? When does falling in love lead you to become obsessive and needy?

We walk a tightrope in everything we do in life. Passion can either give you wings to get there faster, or it can be a set of weights chained to your ankles. It's your choice. Make it a good one.

A Naked American Man Stole My Balloons.

I've decided to make my splendid debut. And what better way to do it than talk about werewolves? Wait a second... Twilight has werewolves.
What better way to do it than talk about awesome werewolves?

An American Werewolf in London starts off with two friends, David Kessler (played by David Naugton) and Jack Goodman (played by Griffin Dunne) backpacking across Northern England. After a visit to a strange pub, they are attacked by a werewolf on the moors. Jack is killed, but David survives. Three weeks later, David wakes up in a London hospital, and recieves a supernatural visit from Jack, who is in limbo until the werewolf's bloodline ends. Jack urges David to kill himself.


David is discharged, and moves in with Alex Price (played by Jenny Agutter), a nurse whom he had grown infatuated with. That night, he is visited by Jack again, with another warning. When Alex goes to work the next evening, the full moon arrives, and David transforms into a werewolf, unleashing terror upon London.


This movie is one of the best monster movies of all time. The makeup effects in this film are amazing. It used no CGI, yet it has an entire transformation of a man into a wolf plainly visible on film. The story is good, and the script utilized enough comedy to keep the mood light. This is an overall fantastic film, and is very enjoyable to anyone who isn't too squeamish.

Beware the moon.

Fruit Loops

Hello to everyone.

I sit here, with a writing block. I am easily lost in the complexity and the simplicity of everyday life. Hundreds, if not thousands of ideas flow through me each day...but still I sit here blanked by attempted perfection. So what to write about? I am still unsure. I could write about Fruit Loops and children eating glue...but where would that lead? =)

Fruit Loops were introduced by Kellogg's in 1963. A brightly coloured cereal, formed into circular shapes, and mostly artificially flavored. Not only was the cereal inside the box bright and cheerful, the box itself was exciting. From the very start, Toucan Sam has been spreading joy to breakfast tables around the world. Also, a bonus with Fruit Loops is they smell a lot better soggy than Cheerios do. Now, the real question is...are all the colours the same flavor? I had to find out. So I researched this intriguing question- the question that has kept people wondering for decades. *Drum roll...* According to Kellogg's, the flavor is singular. All those wonderful sugary loops are the same flavor. So all of you people that were convinced they were different - Well, you are whack. Enjoy your cereal.

Eating glue is strange.

Happy Wednesday.

Size doesn't matter.

What does it mean to be humble? Humble people should be the role models of society. I used to think I was humble. Turns out I was not wrong, I was only mistaken.

Things were going swimmingly until Monday morning. Before this, I was building confidence up by speaking my mind. I had it down pat. I was talking to everyone without so much as a stutter. Unfortunately this translated into too much of a good thing. Something that would soon have my wallet lighter by $136 dollars, and my soul out a bit of dignity. Yes, I am talking about speeding. This may seem like a minor issue to some people. People who actually try to NOT break the law. But, I did. Haha, come to think about it, I saw the cop car nudge forward a bit, and I actually came to a complete halt in my lane to “prevent” this officer of the law from stealing from me, but thats beside the point. Anywhoo... Driving turns me into a whole other person. It’s like, when I'm behind the wheel, a fire ignites and fuels my ego into something in the realm of an asshole. But when I saw the flashing blue and red lights, I knew I had been caught. It was inevitable. Someone like me had to be stopped. Who better to do it then the cops? I didn’t even bother to beg for mercy. I knew I needed this. This was good. My ego was officially popped. I couldn’t even bear to keep it in whilst I said good morning to my grandfather. I just bawled. Realizing my foolishness, I could not stand to look at him, while he was thinking I was still the boy he thought I was. Because I wasn’t. I was just a stupid egotistical coward who could only attack people from inside a barrier of 3000 pounds of metal. After the tears came an epiphany. I finally realized that hey, maybe I should actually start putting a little bit more effort into life, and maybe, just maybe, I may start to reap what I sow.

If this is wrong, I don't wanna be right.

Ok so, while I was doing the last unit of Religion 25 I came across this saying that I believe to be one of the most sensible sayings I have ever heard.

"When we love, We are most human"

This is one of - if not the most useful - thing I've ever gotten out of a school course. It sums up what I have felt for the past two years or so. As soon as I read it, I got a warm feeling inside. I have realized that this feeling I have had in my stomach for the past two years is indeed love, and nothing less. I have felt lust before, and this is much, much different. So how does one distinguish between lust and love? One cannot make this decision for another. You'll just know.

Personalities.

I go walking around in my galoshes, hoping to get soaking wet.

Everywhere I go, I'm stepping into these massive puddles: shallow, with not much depth to them no matter how far I go in.  I move on.

Next,  I encounter a few lakes. They're deeper, but narrower. I find the lack of space constricting, and I quickly escape.

Then I remove my galoshes. And that's when I fall into the iris of an eye, and suddenly I'm drenched.

Snow on the Heart (an afterthought).

Who are you?
You are my greatest temptation
A paradox I
don't where I stand
Or if I'm standing at all
All I know is
I don't know you
But I know you better than anyone else.
You are nobody
Yet everybody at once.
You are the light which
I cannot see but can feel in my darkness.

You
are love.

The True Meaning of Truth

What is the the biggest life-changing experience that you have ever had in your life?
Whenever I ask this question, most people jump to matters of the heart. The death of a mother, breaking up with your first boyfriend. Some people choose another - a particularly touching movie, a call of faith. But as we look at these in a wider view, what are they but our own personal quest for truth in the world?

Each and every one of us is blindly navigating inside of a void. A void in which millions of possible explanations are provided; meandering aimlessly, weightlessly. What do we search for in life?
If we really and truly take a look at this, we will find that all of us search for the same thing quintessentially. Ever since our childhood, we have been swarmed upon by ideas and fantasies that adults wished for us to see in the world. Cinderella taught us to believe that true love conquers everything; Wall-E taught us that despite serious flaws in mankind, we each have the capacity for good in the world. When we piece the puzzles together, we come up with a picture of the "ideal" world that each and every one of us hopes for. Peace. Harmony. Love that never dies. Chivalry. The list goes on. But if all we want is to show our children the way the world really is; why don't we show them the five o' clock news every day instead of their t.v. shows? Why don't we show them, from the start, that life isn't really what it seems to be? Haven't we all wished at some point and time that our parents had told us the truth about some things, instead of hiding it from us?

So why don't we? This is why: love. We love our children so much, that we would want anything for them to remain as blissfully ignorant as possible in their young lives. We don't want them to watch with horror as bombs are dropped upon families while they sleep, we don't want them to walk with boredom and routine to the Christmas tree as they pretend to be excited about their gifts. We want their innocence preserved for as long as possible; to prolong the time until they too are condemned with bags under their eyes and a cold sweat flushed down their body as they count the seconds until this nightmare is finally over.

And in the end - what is truth? Is an optimistic view less realistic then a cynical one? Does love blind us about the capacity to do things? Does imagination mean that we cannot participate in honest politics? No. For although some of us may view the glass as half full or half empty, the question that we need to ask ourselves is - what is the glass? Where did it come from? And what is our water, the thing we cannot live without? Not one person knows what our purpose here on earth is. Some turn to religion, some to work, some to love. Each and every human being, out there, groping in the darkness. Hoping to find a handhold. Something. Anything. We all see these visions, created in our childhood, of an ideal way that life should happen. But then life happens, and suddenly the half full jug of lemonade becomes a quarter full shot of whiskey at a bar.

So before you question anything next time, take a step back. For although all of us are full of answers, not one of them is true. For what is truth, but what we make of a situation? Every person can be a face until you let them into your heart. We as humans over-complicate what is complicated already. So stop over-complicating things. Stop questioning things.
We. Don't. Know. The. Answer.

And do you know what?
I wouldn't have it any other way.

- Bird Bird in a Small Cage.