Feist - 1234... tell me that you love me more

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3vIv1EwO5A

how can anyone not like this song? it makes me smile :)

A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini

Just finished reading the novel on the plight of two women in Afghanistan; really, I am shocked, profoundly moved by the material. Really puts into perspective the meaning of equality. How twisted it may get when placed infront of different looking glasses; how interpretations of ancient doctrines dictate every inch of a woman's freedom and force it deep into the soul, unexpressed and deeply repressed. The inherit right of a male to beat his woman as if another animal in his herd. Any machismo thoughts in my head quickly dissipated when I saw how soon the ideas of reputation and honor are pushed into a girl's life (and how they are not in a boy's). She gets married at 15? to an oaf who basically pays for her? pays to beat her? because her real father does not want to see his bastard child, harami, wow. mother hangs herself b/c she has been outkast to the woods. finally, she is executed because she killed the man that beat her everyday and was in the act of murdering his other wife? wowee.

Hosseini's writing style, the way the plot leaves you at a loss for words, and the notion that this is reality in many locales around the globe leave me speechless, confused as to what i can do... if anything.

I really do hate this feeling, but see the brick wall that we all see; this is a culture, a religion, a LARGE part of the world. can you change all of that simply for the sake of some Afghani women?

i really hope so.

Significant videos...

The Journey Home to Texas

Culture shock in the greatest... back in big D in front of a television watching/listening to some Police and U2 dvds that I bought in Arequipa, Peru. On my VIAO uploading pictures from the trip on to Picasa, checking my Gmail, and updating my profile on Facebook...ha. The life of connection has begun again. My cellphone is to the left side of the computer along with a glass of red wine, Malbec from Argentina. Such is the life we lead in the US of A eh?

Just a thought on why the world's other inhabitants tend to abhor Americans and America. Passing through the airports of this country is a nightmare. I was basically strip-searched twice this trip at the same airport, for the same flight! It was an embarrassing experience, especially since I had to hurry up and catch a flight that was leaving in 15 min. The hassles one has to endure to enjoy the American experience are starting to outweigh our messages of freedom and personal choice. The American dream/product is becoming tainted and appropriate reactions and emotions can be seen in anyone that encounters it.

Safety is one thing, but our core message should not suffer. We are the beacon of light and direction this world has come to look up to; let's not lose that position, as I see we are on the road to that end currently.

Also, why are we so loud, ignorant, and cocky as a population?? Learn languages (and accents) my friends, treat other cultures with respect, and take the time to interact with other world citizens...we are the ambassadors for our country, our message. Take the time to learn the world; it can only benefit us all.

I've got more to say, but I'm going to leave those messages for a different post.

Lastly, borrowing a quote from my friend, Gil which I just happen to like...

DREAM -> CREATE -> ACHIEVE

Night / White Water Rafting

Note: writing after 2.5 hrs of sleep, realistically I´ve done that this entire trip...

Last nite, a group of four backpackers, Prem, Danielle, Gemma, and Trace, all staying at The Point embarked on a nighttime adventure on the Chili River about 20 min from Arequipa; a simple rafting trip turned complex. The great thing about the trip was saying to your friends that you hit the rapids at night...something quite unique.. especially during a full moon. Clear sky, big bright moon, snow capped mountains in the background, and the roar of the rapids through the serene nighttime setting...very good combination for a very good story; that indeed was the case.

Two of the girls, funny Irish, on the expedition, as I will call it, had actually been on the river during the day...they had so much fun that they signed up again for the night assuming the only difference would be the lack of light and telling their friends, as I said before, that they hit the rapids at night. I initially assumed the same thing, as did the rest of the crew.

Well, one look at the river and opinions changed quickly. The river had swelled considerably more than during the day due to the gravitational pull of the full moon and the effects of the hot sun on the snow-cappers mountains all day. This baby was intense.

Frigid waters, freezing nighttime temperature... luckily we had wetsuits, helmets, and a small ¨waterproof¨coat, joy. The expedition began with class two rapids, then class three, and finally class four. We fell over two times in total... the first time being the worst. The raft slammed into a large rock going down a class three and tossed both Gemma and I off into the water. She lost her shoes and was getting sucked under the water and away from the raft. I instantaneously felt the frigid waters put immense pressure on my lungs and the pull of the water dragging me down the river. Thank God for quick reactions, I pulled my breathing together and caught a rope attached to the side of the boat. Even with that good luck, the water was so cold, the situation seemingly dire, I was terrified in a lot of senses.

It´s experiences like that which pull people together and make men out of mice. Our group of four clung together, screaming ¨Full Moon baby!¨and ¨Special!¨every chance we could (mimmicking our guide, Marco). We ended up finishing quite a bit faster than anticipated, roughly 1.5 hrs instead of 1.75 hrs. All of us shaking uncontrollably, hands and feet numb, mentally jaded...still working out what just happened and what could have happened. Hot chocolate served...trying to button my pants for 5 minutes with no luck, put on my tights for more than that.

Looking back at the awesome sight of 6000 plus meter snow-capped mountains staring down at the river through the bright moonlight...glad I pushed myself even further that night, leaving more fears behind and gathering more confidence in the human spirit... It was a great trip...definitely unique and most importantly, ¨Special!¨

Observations Abroad

Still in the same internet cafe in La Paz...I´ve decided to note some of the observations I´ve made along my journey through these impoverished lands, Peru y Bolivia.

The sights, smells while traveling... people in the countryside are used to harsh weather, sun up to sun down work, and terrible odors stemming from feces in the streets and around homes. I´ve found it is much more natural for an individual to pull their pants down and relieve himself-herself in the streets, whether for urination or hard feces, without toilet paper or any cleanup process, than to wait it out and find a public baño. This leads to long bus rides sitting next to women and men that smell like poop, literally. The most noziating (sp?) smell on the plant!

The cocaine... the nightlife around both of these countries gets very tangled up in hard drugs, mainly cocaine. The upper classes that go out to discotecas (only they can afford them) will find bathrooms, backrooms, or the bar to sniff up a line or more of coke, halla as it is referred to here. It is very out in the open. Conversations at lunch might be centered around where to find the best halla. In Bolivia, halla is thought to be the most pure in the world besides in Colombia. Regardless, it just needed to be noted considering this would definitely not fly in the states or in most western countries. Maybe we have a jaded view of halla or maybe they do, who is to say.

The food... I´ve found that the national food of both Peru and Bolivia has to be rotissarie (sp?) chicken with fries; ok, it might not be the national food, but the stuff is eaten everywhere!

In La Paz

Currently, I´m sitting in an internet cafe, Dungeons, on the main avenida here in La Paz, the capital city of Bolivia. It has been a wild few days here already. Marches and protests were all over the streets yesterday pushing for education reform in favor of the maestros or teachers. Thousands of students along with the teachers participated in the marches, culminating in a large showing around the congressional / presidential square in full view from Pres. Evo Morales window.

Funny enough, I decided to participate myself after doing some alpaca shopping in the witches markets. Met two boys that were protesting and asked them loads of questions regarding their positions on certain topics brewing in the countries newspapers. As we were marching, a news reporter for Canal 4 news stopped us and asked each of us individually why we were marching. When the mic arrived, I paused and noticed that the group of students / teachers around me had stopped marching and wanted to hear what the gringo had to say. Here it is:

¨Soy de Estados Unidos. Marcho con mis amigos y creo en sus resons para marchando¨

The reporter just smiled, shook my hand, and said, ¨mirar canal cuatro para las noticias¨. I never got to turn on the tv, but as the story goes, I was definitely all over the news!

Quite an interesting start to La Paz indeed. Oh and this morning I woke up and there was snow all over the ground! Like 3 or 4 inches worth! Coming from Dallas, the summer to be specific, seeing loads of snow on the ground invigorated me...prepared me for another day of craziness.

It Pays to be Slim

Who pays the added costs associated with high rates of obesity? Most health insurance in America is purchased by employers, who negotiate a single rate to cover all of their employees. That might imply the employers (along with their slimmer workers) subsidize health expenditures on the obese. But Bundorf found otherwise. In the working paper “Incidence of the Healthcare Costs of Obesity,” published last year by the National Bureau of Economic Research, Bundorf and co-author Jay Bhattacharya, also a health economist at Stanford, compared the wages of obese and non-obese workers, taking into account whether or not the subjects had employer-sponsored health insurance.



They found that non-obese workers earn higher cash wages than their obese colleagues—but only in workplaces that offer health coverage. They concluded that employers are likely to be offering lower cash wages to obese workers to compensate for the higher cost of insuring them. In other words, the cost of being overweight is borne by the employee rather than the employer.



American.com

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Interesting Quote

"Studying life through a camera’s lens turns us into detached observers
reluctant to tear ourselves away from the role of clinical voyeur to
take action against the very inhumanity we witness and record."  New York Times



I take this to mean that because we surround ourselves with mere copies of life, the real thing, we are reluctant to act on the emotions drawn from those copies and lack the strength to change what we wish to see changed in life.



The quote comes from an interesting article on the film "Passio" which is debuting at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York.

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Green Tea - Slate Mag

Can green tea save your soul?

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Tax Revenues could Decrease Substantially...

But there's a more alarming explanation for the surge in tax revenues.

It could be that the orgy of speculation in recent years—in housing,

stocks, investment instruments—has generated an unexpected gusher of the types of tax revenues derived from flipping assets and trading

securities. And that suggests that with the housing boom over and the

stock market moving sideways, tax-revenue growth could be slowing down, and soon. Slate Mag

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Perusing the net...

"You never really get the smell of burning flesh out of your nose entirely. No matter how long you live." - Slate Mag

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quote from the enquirer (cincinnati)

"life... is not about winning and losing. It is not, edifying as it sounds, even about how you play the game. It is simply that you play - that you live until you die, wake until you sleep, move until you're stilled, try until you can't." for dada -- because he did try until he couldn't

A sobering quote, but one that caught my eye this morning. pnp

Interesting Article...

http://www.slate.com/id/2161901/

Producing coinage for collectors is lucrative. Since the Treasury spends about 12 cents to make a dollar coin, it makes 88 cents' profit whenever one is pulled from a pocket and stashed away...The Mint has raked in $4.6 billion thus far on its similar state-quarters program. Making money, it seems, is a decent way to make money.

Life and the Pursuit of Happiness

What is life, happiness? it means not one thing to everyone, but everything to each one of us.

whether it be an emotion, a social status, an abstract idea that no one attains, or something that each of us has at all times, it is all of these ends and more, or not.

one cannot fathom the extent of joy, suffering, discovery, and failure that occurs each second of everyday... but to try to in one life, that is something.

let us all dedicate ourselves to the pursuit of ourselves in the hope that this brings us all up from the bottom

let us understand ourselves and, in turn, understand each other.

buon?

Create, Discover, Live
pnp--travel = good

Movies to Watch...

Beerfest -- Really funny! Good if you like to drink quality beers, especially from Germany.
Frida -- Very touching story of the famous Mexican artist.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon -- Good story, great action, intertwined w/ a love story.
Pan's Labyrinth -- Incredible fairy tale of a girl during the Spanish Revolution; great picture.
23 -- It's an interesting movie; worth your money, but nothing more...I really expected more tho.

Innovation

http://pipes.yahoo.com -- I am looking into this...a novel way for aggregating feeds to make them more useful.

World Press Fotos

Foto 1 -- Darfur Region, Sudan
Foto 2 -- West Bank
Foto 3 -- Beirut, Lebanon after Israeli bombing

Courtesy: www.worldpressphoto.com

What I am Listening to...

The Crane Wife, The Decemberists www.decemberists.com
The Warning, Hot Chip www.hotchip.co.uk

Life's ...

a joy when you have a little. a little of everything goes a long way. reading my journal from asia. the emotion rushing back, the simple thrills of a boy with his backpack in the middle of another continent pushing to find the edge of everything. the smells, tastes, contrasts, cultures... that is living at its finest.

why can't we live like that everyday? that is a question I truly pose as a solution to the world's ills. live with the simple joys, understand them, cherish them, and come together as a people. religion shouldn't have to serve as a barrier; faith as well. they should both push us closer together instead of farther apart. just a thought that hit the noodle.

as my good friend anthony de mello would say, Get into Today.

What I am Reading...

Awareness by Anthony de Mello (late) -- Recommended

The book sounds a wake-up call to the reader and discusses of what spirituality really consists. Contrasts "I" vs. "me". Labels, being human, not being a puppet, dependence and self-observation are some of the topics explored. I am about 2/5's the way thru, so I'll have a quick post with some afterthoughts when I'm finished.