August of 2010 is nearly over. For some of you people on the east side of things, it's long over. But as the clock ticks on my computer and my eyes tell me to sleep, I can't help but think of how long a month August has felt like. I previously talked about May being the shortest of months. Well, August might just be the longest.
This is the shortest of short posts. It may not even break 100 words. But that's alright. I'm tired and ready to let August slip away, and start again with my four post quota for September.
Thanks to everyone for reading. I appreciate you guys taking your time out and checking my words.
Best wishes to you all.
-Sam
THIS HAS BEEN A TWO-12 POST.
August 31, 2010
Timid with Wit
Here is the second of three posts in one day. Just a little context here for this reading, it is approximately 15 minutes and 18 seconds in to the movie "Kite Runner", which is based off the novel by Khaled Hosseini. This part that is written is the dialogue from one of my favorite scenes in the movie.
Hassan: "What's the story about?"
Amir: "It's about a man who finds a magic cup and he learns that if he weeps into the cup his tears turn to pearls. He's very poor... you know? And at the end of the story, he's sitting on a mountain of pearls with a bloody knife in his hand and his dead wife in his arms."
Hassan: "So he killed her?"
Amir: "Yes, Hassan."
Hassan: "So that he'd cry and get rich?"
Amir: "Yes, you're very quick."
*Pause*
Amir: "What?"
Hassan: "Nothing, Amir agha. Are you done with breakfast?"
Amir: "What?"
Hassan: "Will you permit me to ask a question about the story?"
Amir: "Of course."
Hassan: "Why did the man kill his wife?"
Amir: "Because each of his tears became a pearl."
Hassan: "Yes, but why couldn't he just smell an onion?"
Hassan is a servant for Amir's father. Both Hassan and Amir are very young I would guess somewhere around ten years old by their appearance in the movie.
Hassan: "What's the story about?"
Amir: "It's about a man who finds a magic cup and he learns that if he weeps into the cup his tears turn to pearls. He's very poor... you know? And at the end of the story, he's sitting on a mountain of pearls with a bloody knife in his hand and his dead wife in his arms."
Hassan: "So he killed her?"
Amir: "Yes, Hassan."
Hassan: "So that he'd cry and get rich?"
Amir: "Yes, you're very quick."
*Pause*
Amir: "What?"
Hassan: "Nothing, Amir agha. Are you done with breakfast?"
Amir: "What?"
Hassan: "Will you permit me to ask a question about the story?"
Amir: "Of course."
Hassan: "Why did the man kill his wife?"
Amir: "Because each of his tears became a pearl."
Hassan: "Yes, but why couldn't he just smell an onion?"
Hassan is a servant for Amir's father. Both Hassan and Amir are very young I would guess somewhere around ten years old by their appearance in the movie.
Yo. Yak.
It's August 31st and this should be August 11th. But that's OK. The past while has been a busy while and the future holds a busy and grim expression. This is a little piece I wrote up called "Those Molecule People" and is the first of three posts for today. It's the first of three because, like July, I am behind my 4 posts a month deadline and I need to PRODUCE. So, I am producing with vivid imagination and wonderful courage.
As usual.
Those Molecule People
It's small down there, but big. Hundreds of hundreds of men of women running walking turning thinking. I can see them, and they do almost appear as ants. Ants in a colony going in and out of their anthills. But they're not ants. Not wasps nor butterflies. They're small, but big. They're not molecules hitting each other but they are molecules hitting each other by walking running thinking turning.
The roads and grass and fields look like square boxes painted in a grid. Some green, brown, yellow. Then there are the buildings, the anthills, the mega-masses of molecules, grey-blue structures jumping out from the crust. The mountains are there too- but further off. Bent and crooked like a scar beveled up on skin.
Is the dirt skin? Can we just see it up really close like we're the molecules on our skin bumping into each other walking running turning thinking? Maybe the grass on the fields is hair on the arms, and it gets shaved by lawn mowers and big tractors. And outer space is really space and air the air big people breathe and us small people just breathe in the air closest to the skin because it doesn't hurt our tiny people lungs. Did the first man to land on the moon reach a giant molecule of oxygen? The moon must be one of those, one of those oxygens.
There are many of them. Running walking thinking turning. Going in and out of their metal anthills and bouncing like molecules. One of them may have a special appointment and is running through a line of stopped traffic on a freeway. He can't miss that appointment, and would rather run than sit in a taxi. But maybe he stayed in the taxi, because after all the nitrogen molecule of sun may be burning the skin right now and making the asphalt hot. But I'm not so sure, it's hard to tell from up here.
They say the next step is to go and live in the clouds. To build floating cities and dance on the formation of rain drops and lightning bolts. I think they want to be godlike, like those guys on Mt. Olympus who never see their shadows and if they do it's because they're not on Mt. Olympus but rather visiting the land below. They say they want to be formidable and build these sky-forts that can intercept their enemies attacks. And I asked them why they had enemies, because surely if one tried they wouldn't have an enemy unless their enemy was someone who hated really nice people. Maybe that someone who hates really nice people is running walking thinking turning down below, he could be interviewing the man that is probably running from his taxi to get to a special appointment because traffic is all locked up.
I'm glad I'm not all locked up in a queue that wouldn't be productive and instead they sent me up in this high place to see if it is a good place to build a structure like the structures underneath it. Except this new structure would be in the air and it would stay in the air, hopefully, otherwise it would fall down to the molecule ant people that are running thinking turning walking.
I was told by them to try and understand the basics of the dimensions. What goes up and down and around in circles, I think. But is six times six really thirty-six, or is it thirty-six people, iron bars, or air planes. I would like to think it is thirty-six airplanes with strings attached below holding up a man's brand new modern sky house. But I think thirty-six airplanes could hold more than one house. Maybe it is a small cul-de-sac that they are holding. But I bet they wouldn't do it that way, they would be much smarter. The molecules down there have good processors, they are programmed well. They may sleep by nitrogen sun and breath in mini moons, but that's ok. I wonder what the name of the human they live on is, maybe it is Moe. Moe seems like a good human name it is short and three letters and starts with an M. Good words start with M, like magic or multiply. Moe the man with the molecules. That's pretty fitting.
I wonder if worlds like Moe ever find other human-people like Sallys or Georges. They must be nice humans, and what if the humans touched would that mean that the molecule citizens of Moe would meet the new peoples of George or Sally? That could be neat it would be like two worlds coming together. I wonder what the people of George look like or maybe I will never know. What if it's like the molecule people believe that they just keep rotating around oxygen moon and nitrogen sun and they never ever touch them but keep spinning around very fast. I bet George and Moe and Sally never meet because they have to spin so fast like the molecule people say and everyone knows that if you spin really fast you get dizzy, and if you were always dizzy you would never meet new people. Poor Moe, he must be lonely. I wonder if the molecules could send Moe a message, like if they figured out where his nose-piece would be they could make him sneeze-action. Or a better action probably, those molecule peoples could think of one.
But they have enemies and I wonder why they have enemies on such a small human. Are molecule-people just bound to dislike each other? I don't dislike anyone and I don't have enemies. I think. Maybe the molecule people aren't going to build a sky-fort and they sent me hear to tease me. No, they were pretty excited about their sky-city. But they have enemies, so it may have been a tactic of theirs to get me away because I could be special. I wonder.
Bad people. I bet they're not really bad but they just have different views than normal people. I also bet that they think normal people are bad people and they think they are normal people, or even good people. Molecule peoples should all be proud to be peoples though, and live like happy things. They are always happy peoples when they a birthed. I saw one once, from far away and it had the biggest smile-cry ever seen on Moe. It was so excited to live on Moe that it just screamed and yelled and if anybody knows baby-molecule language that means it was excited. Were all the peoples as excited as this baby? It has been a long time I think since I was birthed, but I bet I was that excited. I still am that excited and I am happy to be on Moe-world. It is a comfy place and I don't have any enemies. But I could have enemies on Alice-world or George-world or Sally-world.
Since I'm here I might as well look for the Olympus peoples. They should be up in the clouds here like Zeus-man and Hera-woman. I bet they know lots about Moe. I would ask them if I met them and ask them many more questions. But I hear they are of the sneaky sort, and by that I mean that they are hard to find. They could be invisible. Or they could only appear to some.
The big ball of nitrogen sun is falling now. I see it like a big ball of yellow. It's there. And then there. And then a little bit lower and I see it there big and yellow and round. The outer space is getting dark again and I think Moe is finally grabbing the light switch with his man-fingers and pulling down so that it turns off. Or maybe Moe has a better light switch and is pressing a remote control button that gradually dims the artificial light in the room he sits in. That would probably work better anyways because Moe is spinning and spinning very fast and it would be a very difficult task to press a tiny switch in the downward direction while spinning fast. It makes much more sense for Moe to continue spinning and press a button on the remote control in his hand. But what if Moe runs out of batteries? Will George bring him more? No, George would probably completely miss the battery-assist to Moe if he attempted to throw them, and I bet George doesn't even know where Moe is because they are both spinning so fast. I'm not sure. This is a difficult question to think about. I just hope that Moe doesn't run out of batteries because I like the artificial nitrogen yellow ball sun and I like watching it slowly dim as Moe presses on his remote control.
Living in darkness might just make me sad. And I bet the world of Moe would have much more enemies if it was dark. They do say that light is a good thing. That's why they want buildings in the clouds. Much more light there, they say. Maybe that's why... because if they build a new city in the clouds, they won't have any enemies there. Or they could just be wanting the sky-fort. I think it's probably the sky-fort. It's like when I was a kid I just played with blocks and I would build forts and defend them from attackers. I think the molecule-people are like that on Moe's skin. They just want to build forts and defend them from their enemies. Yeah. That's probably it.
I don't like when the nitrogen yellow ball sun goes away. The oxygen moon just isn't the same because our lungs like that stuff. We don't run off nitrogen but we run off oxygen so it makes the oxygen moon less exciting. And it's dull. It just sits there and doesn't do much and shows only a tiny bit of silver light. I should leave this place now. The sky here is cold and I don't like to be cold.
I think I'll dance on the raindrops before I depart back to the lower level and give them the news.
As usual.
Those Molecule People
It's small down there, but big. Hundreds of hundreds of men of women running walking turning thinking. I can see them, and they do almost appear as ants. Ants in a colony going in and out of their anthills. But they're not ants. Not wasps nor butterflies. They're small, but big. They're not molecules hitting each other but they are molecules hitting each other by walking running thinking turning.
The roads and grass and fields look like square boxes painted in a grid. Some green, brown, yellow. Then there are the buildings, the anthills, the mega-masses of molecules, grey-blue structures jumping out from the crust. The mountains are there too- but further off. Bent and crooked like a scar beveled up on skin.
Is the dirt skin? Can we just see it up really close like we're the molecules on our skin bumping into each other walking running turning thinking? Maybe the grass on the fields is hair on the arms, and it gets shaved by lawn mowers and big tractors. And outer space is really space and air the air big people breathe and us small people just breathe in the air closest to the skin because it doesn't hurt our tiny people lungs. Did the first man to land on the moon reach a giant molecule of oxygen? The moon must be one of those, one of those oxygens.
There are many of them. Running walking thinking turning. Going in and out of their metal anthills and bouncing like molecules. One of them may have a special appointment and is running through a line of stopped traffic on a freeway. He can't miss that appointment, and would rather run than sit in a taxi. But maybe he stayed in the taxi, because after all the nitrogen molecule of sun may be burning the skin right now and making the asphalt hot. But I'm not so sure, it's hard to tell from up here.
They say the next step is to go and live in the clouds. To build floating cities and dance on the formation of rain drops and lightning bolts. I think they want to be godlike, like those guys on Mt. Olympus who never see their shadows and if they do it's because they're not on Mt. Olympus but rather visiting the land below. They say they want to be formidable and build these sky-forts that can intercept their enemies attacks. And I asked them why they had enemies, because surely if one tried they wouldn't have an enemy unless their enemy was someone who hated really nice people. Maybe that someone who hates really nice people is running walking thinking turning down below, he could be interviewing the man that is probably running from his taxi to get to a special appointment because traffic is all locked up.
I'm glad I'm not all locked up in a queue that wouldn't be productive and instead they sent me up in this high place to see if it is a good place to build a structure like the structures underneath it. Except this new structure would be in the air and it would stay in the air, hopefully, otherwise it would fall down to the molecule ant people that are running thinking turning walking.
I was told by them to try and understand the basics of the dimensions. What goes up and down and around in circles, I think. But is six times six really thirty-six, or is it thirty-six people, iron bars, or air planes. I would like to think it is thirty-six airplanes with strings attached below holding up a man's brand new modern sky house. But I think thirty-six airplanes could hold more than one house. Maybe it is a small cul-de-sac that they are holding. But I bet they wouldn't do it that way, they would be much smarter. The molecules down there have good processors, they are programmed well. They may sleep by nitrogen sun and breath in mini moons, but that's ok. I wonder what the name of the human they live on is, maybe it is Moe. Moe seems like a good human name it is short and three letters and starts with an M. Good words start with M, like magic or multiply. Moe the man with the molecules. That's pretty fitting.
I wonder if worlds like Moe ever find other human-people like Sallys or Georges. They must be nice humans, and what if the humans touched would that mean that the molecule citizens of Moe would meet the new peoples of George or Sally? That could be neat it would be like two worlds coming together. I wonder what the people of George look like or maybe I will never know. What if it's like the molecule people believe that they just keep rotating around oxygen moon and nitrogen sun and they never ever touch them but keep spinning around very fast. I bet George and Moe and Sally never meet because they have to spin so fast like the molecule people say and everyone knows that if you spin really fast you get dizzy, and if you were always dizzy you would never meet new people. Poor Moe, he must be lonely. I wonder if the molecules could send Moe a message, like if they figured out where his nose-piece would be they could make him sneeze-action. Or a better action probably, those molecule peoples could think of one.
But they have enemies and I wonder why they have enemies on such a small human. Are molecule-people just bound to dislike each other? I don't dislike anyone and I don't have enemies. I think. Maybe the molecule people aren't going to build a sky-fort and they sent me hear to tease me. No, they were pretty excited about their sky-city. But they have enemies, so it may have been a tactic of theirs to get me away because I could be special. I wonder.
Bad people. I bet they're not really bad but they just have different views than normal people. I also bet that they think normal people are bad people and they think they are normal people, or even good people. Molecule peoples should all be proud to be peoples though, and live like happy things. They are always happy peoples when they a birthed. I saw one once, from far away and it had the biggest smile-cry ever seen on Moe. It was so excited to live on Moe that it just screamed and yelled and if anybody knows baby-molecule language that means it was excited. Were all the peoples as excited as this baby? It has been a long time I think since I was birthed, but I bet I was that excited. I still am that excited and I am happy to be on Moe-world. It is a comfy place and I don't have any enemies. But I could have enemies on Alice-world or George-world or Sally-world.
Since I'm here I might as well look for the Olympus peoples. They should be up in the clouds here like Zeus-man and Hera-woman. I bet they know lots about Moe. I would ask them if I met them and ask them many more questions. But I hear they are of the sneaky sort, and by that I mean that they are hard to find. They could be invisible. Or they could only appear to some.
The big ball of nitrogen sun is falling now. I see it like a big ball of yellow. It's there. And then there. And then a little bit lower and I see it there big and yellow and round. The outer space is getting dark again and I think Moe is finally grabbing the light switch with his man-fingers and pulling down so that it turns off. Or maybe Moe has a better light switch and is pressing a remote control button that gradually dims the artificial light in the room he sits in. That would probably work better anyways because Moe is spinning and spinning very fast and it would be a very difficult task to press a tiny switch in the downward direction while spinning fast. It makes much more sense for Moe to continue spinning and press a button on the remote control in his hand. But what if Moe runs out of batteries? Will George bring him more? No, George would probably completely miss the battery-assist to Moe if he attempted to throw them, and I bet George doesn't even know where Moe is because they are both spinning so fast. I'm not sure. This is a difficult question to think about. I just hope that Moe doesn't run out of batteries because I like the artificial nitrogen yellow ball sun and I like watching it slowly dim as Moe presses on his remote control.
Living in darkness might just make me sad. And I bet the world of Moe would have much more enemies if it was dark. They do say that light is a good thing. That's why they want buildings in the clouds. Much more light there, they say. Maybe that's why... because if they build a new city in the clouds, they won't have any enemies there. Or they could just be wanting the sky-fort. I think it's probably the sky-fort. It's like when I was a kid I just played with blocks and I would build forts and defend them from attackers. I think the molecule-people are like that on Moe's skin. They just want to build forts and defend them from their enemies. Yeah. That's probably it.
I don't like when the nitrogen yellow ball sun goes away. The oxygen moon just isn't the same because our lungs like that stuff. We don't run off nitrogen but we run off oxygen so it makes the oxygen moon less exciting. And it's dull. It just sits there and doesn't do much and shows only a tiny bit of silver light. I should leave this place now. The sky here is cold and I don't like to be cold.
I think I'll dance on the raindrops before I depart back to the lower level and give them the news.
August 17, 2010
Uni-Ver-Sit-Ee
What I'm Doing: Gazing into the vivid infinity of my Samsung SyncMaster 710N monitor.
212:
212:
Yes, I do listen to classical music.
Researchers believe that by subduing children to classical music at an early age, they will have enhanced spatial reasoning skills. This, they say, is due to the complex structure of classical music (music such as Bach, Beethoven). By now, this isn’t really a new concept. Experiments are conducted daily by ambitious parents hoping to give their two-month-olds a Beethoven boost to the brain.
Classical music, you’d have to admit, is very soothing. It’s smooth and soft at times, but also loud and rambunctious. The flurries of quick piano-key flourishes or rough strokes on bass strings seem to bathe the mind in a fixated curiosity. That curiosity then extends towards a heightened state of awareness, as the veins of violins meet the nerves of the human body.
I find at times I act like a conductor, waving my hands around loosely like I am directing a full orchestra. I have no idea what I am doing, but my hands and arms seem to know… so I allow them to do their thing.
Besides classical music, it is said that bird song is a great and unique method to improve brain function. Something about the vocals of Mother Nature’s planes supposedly string a chord in the body. Maybe it’s like classical music. Instead of waving your arms around, you whistle softly to the call of a lark.
In other news, Google Chrome is faster than lightning. That’s fast.
Haruki Murakami is quoted for stating, “Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.”
In swim team, we took on this similar phrase as our motto, “Pain is weakness leaving the body.”
What do these two statements say? What do they tell us about pain?
Pain is going to happen no matter what. By allowing pain to leave your body, you are removing weakness and therefore becoming stronger. Because pain is regarded as weakness, this also means that weakness is inevitable. No man or woman is inhumanly built without weakness. It is there and consistently present just as pain is. But it is up to each individual to regard that pain or that weakness as suffering. If one believes a specific pain to be too treacherous, they may say that they are suffering. However, it is always possible that a man or woman may tread through life and live without suffering- as they believe that pain and weakness are merely setbacks to their ultimate goal.
This is my final free week of summer. I start at the University of Arizona next Monday, and I am excited to see what lies in store for me. Because of this, though, there is a good deal of work I have to complete and a large amount of subjects I would like to review before jumping into new classes. On the bright side of things, I am completely moved into my apartment in Tucson. Things are falling in place- albeit awkwardly at times. But they are still coming together, and I don’t mind if it appears as if I wasn’t that great at Tetris.
-TWO-12
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)