23 Flavors

As I enjoyed a refreshing Dr. Pepper yesterday, I really started to wonder... What are the 23 flavors that Dr. Pepper flouts?  Is this a good thing to have 23 unidentifiable flavors that simply make up the flavor under the ambiguous "Dr. Pepper?"  

Cous cous?

praprika?

nutmeg?

old spice ocean breeze?

How can there be 23 flavors!?

Easy buttonation

I was listening to the radio the other day and I heard a commercial that said, “does your child suffer from lack of concentration, short attention span, or is unable to sit still?”  It was a commercial advertising for a clinical trial of some sort for ADHD, or what I like to call just being a childitus.  Other tragic symptoms not mentioned are: excessive energy, nose picking, and giggling. 

 Now I’m not saying that ADD/ADHD (whatever the differences is besides the “H”) doesn’t necessarily exist (although I admit I might just be saying this because I work for a branch of UCLA that provides services for students with ADD/ADHD and I need to cover my bases) but I think there is a severe over-diagnosis of the condition or syndrome or whatever you want to call it.  Not only is it being over diagnosed but doctors too readily "fix" the problem with prescription drugs like Adderall.  The drug apparently helps such inflicted students to focus yet at what cost?  I have friends who have and haven't been diagnosed with ADHD, some who are getting the pill from friends and some from doctors in order to get through their college classes.  Sure, I've heard it helps with focusing, yet some of these friends admit to having a serious dependency on it.  They can't function like they USED TO off of it without being ON it.  Some of my friends have gone through withdrawal symptoms like dizziness and shaking.  Another friend, who I actually believe has ADHD, takes medication for it but it renders him a zombie.  He has borderline depression.  Is this really the best solution doctors can come up with?  I think trouble focusing and hyper activity is best relinquished with exercise.  Could there be a correlation between ADHD diagnoses and hours of video or television played per week in a child?  Possibly... I think this is worth looking into.  Let us also not forgot how much money media/television and pharmaceutical companies make per year and how this plays a role in the big picture.  I'm not suggesting conspiracies, I'm only putting forth my own observations on the subject.  I honestly feel like a healthy dose of blood flow in today's youth would do the ADHD epidemic a lot of good.  I'm a little tired of society's trigger happy fingers that press away at the EASY button.  Driving north on the 405 you know your are approaching LA by the number of lap band billboards you see per 5 miles.  By the time you reach LA, you see one seriously every two minutes.  One like the following:

I don't think I really have to say much more on the subject.  EASY button bad.  Exercise and hard work good.

On another and possibly self aggrandizing note I just registered for the Long Beach Half Marathon in October.  Any takers?  I wanted to go for the marathon but I thought I better get a halfy under my belt so I don't die at mile 18.

"writing" Update

I began reading Mary Shelley's Frankenstein for class and thought that her introduction correlated with my previous thoughts about writing.  I am normally one not to read author's introduction because they tend to be pretty dry, but we have been focusing on them a lot in this class because they are an important part of the formation of the novel as a genre.  For example, Robinson Crusoe's first edition author's note is not at all by Daniel Defoe but by Robinson Crusoe himself.  He used the character as the author in order to gain higher readership by passing off his fiction as a first-hand non-fiction account.  In Mary Shelley's introduction, she writes the following:

"As a child I scribbled; and my favourite pastime during the hours given me for recreation was to 'write stories'.  Still, I had a dearer pleasure than this, which was the formation of castles in the air - the indulging in waking dreams - the following up trains of thought, which had for their subject the formation of a succession of imaginary incidents.  My dreams were at once more fantastic and agreeable than my writings.  I the latter I was a lose imitator - rather doing as others had done than putting down the suggestions of my own mind.  What I wrote was intended at least for one other eye - my childhood's companion and friend; but my dreams were all my own; I accounted for them to nobody; they were my refuge when annoyed - my dearest pleasure when free..."

mmm... mustache

This blog is hereby dedicated to my mustache - plucked in the prime of his life.  

Some great men have had mustaches:

Mario

Tom Selek

A John Munns used to sport a mean stache back in his day as well

I only wish I could be one of the proud men above but extraneous circumstances have left me stachless.

This is where I was planning on creating a list of the reason's why men should cultivate and care for a lip warmer... but I must now bypass that endeavor and send you loyal readers to the crown jewel... the mecca of the mustache community:  the AMI

YES! You guessed it, the American Mustache Institute, you MUST go to this website!

Book Covers

I was wandering through the UCLA bookstore the other day and came across a book I've been really wanting to read, but I found myself slightly turned.  This wasn't because I had a sudden twinge of repulsion to physical presence of the book or the price, but I didn't like the cover of the book.  

Now I know how the saying goes... "Don't judge a book by its cover..." but how can you not sometimes.  Aren't we all taught the importance of a good first impression?  Is that not what a book is giving us when we look at the cover and read the description on the back.  I'm going to have to clarify; I'm not saying a book has to have an amazing, artfully done cover in order for me to read it.  I actually really like the feel of an old hardcover with no cover - just the gilded lettering of the title and author along the spine.  This is a different kind of beast.  These older books weren't trying to sell anything other than the fiction or non-fiction that is inside.  But its different now.  Pretty much any recent publication of a book will have a thought out cover intended to grab the potential buyers attention.  As a reader and consumer I admit that I fall into this pit.  However, I really enjoy looking to see how an artist has interpreted the contents of the book.  It is extremely difficult to some up an entire book with one image.

The book I saw in the store was Blindness by Jose Saramago.  The cover turned me off.   It wasn't an original piece of artwork, but a movie flyer version of the book that had been re-printed after the release of the movie.  The cover features a giant gold sticker now proclaiming "Now a major motion picture" (implying the notion of well if they made it into a movie... it must be a good book) and the faces of famous people - Mark Ruffalo and Julianne Moore.  My biggest qualm with this is not the fact that the cover art has sold out in a sense (in order to gain the publisher more money through its new stars) but the fact that the reader's experience is slightly compromised.  Some may be able to overcome this obstacle but I have a difficult time doing so.  When I read this book now, I am not going to think of the main characters as my own creative projections of what Saramago is showing me, but as the character as played by Julianne Moore, or as played by Mark Ruffalo.  They no longer become independent characters for the reader to tease out, but like the movie, the reader has a sense that the character is being played in an odd complex way.  Its not the Doctor's Wife anymore.  In my mind it is Julianne Moore as the doctor's wife.  

The original cover of Blindness is below.  If you look at it and analyze it, it is very fitting for the novel.  It depicts the repetition of the word blindness, but with its repetition and pattern it represents the power of words to overcome the effect of the actual blindness, thus in the thick of the "unseeing" you can see through the density of words, one clear word - "blindness" - the title of the book.  Its interesting and deep and symbolic.  I think its what cover art should be.  It is a concept depicting the idea of the book.  It should be art, not just a poster of celebrities.

This blog is making me think about my conversations with CR about The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - the comparison of the story by Fitzgerald and the big screen adaptation... more to come soon...

Summer goals

Summer goals:

take piano lessons

write a song (a little ambitious I know)

make another painting (a portrait of someone.  I'm usually afraid to tackle portraits because I'm not the best with proportions and I tend to be overly critical of my art.  I refuse to do another seascape though)

read~ East of Eden, Anna Karenena, Why We Hate Us, For Whom The Bell Tolls (the first two are extremely long but you gotta aim high right?  I'm going to try and get in the habit of reading a little bit after work and a little bit before bed each day.)  And there really are a lot of other books I want to read but I'm trying to prioritize a little

go to a drive in movie theater again

run/swim at least 5 days a week (I kind of want to run a marathon, and I might as well start)

watch more classic movies.  I really need to watch The Hustle just out of the top of my head

write more

hang out with my friends who I've spent the last two years missing... a lot.

CAMPING (I would love to go on a trip with my dad.  We haven't camped together since my brother and I were 11 years old.  I think it would be great for our relationship to rough it together again.)

cook more often (yes, with like... what's it called?.... oh yes, a recipe)

play pick up basketball and ultimate

become a wine afficionado

take lots of pictures, with my soon to be new camera

go to lots of Padres games

surf

perhaps an ambitious one... not role my ankle this summer.

go to Outside Lands Music Festival

find a real job if I haven't found one yet

spend as much time with the brother as possible

clean up my language (Ryan doesn't read this blog so I can blame him without him getting mad)

hang out with KB....

To be continued...

Writing...

I tried to practice some free writing the other day.  This is what I came up with.  I was trying to do a creative piece but I ended with some sort of meta-narrative on writing

*****

The fountain pen scribbled and sprinted its loops and dots across the blue lined canvas.  Ah, there it is, an example of over-statement!  Lined paper is a blue lined canvas!  How poetic!  How trite!  Is this what I find the most effective way conveying what I want?  No.  Its written how I think I’m supposed to write in order to sound like a writer.  

The act of writing is curiously about finding synonyms and allusions to our everyday.  It is a giant repetition of a world already known.  Cheers to those authors who can envision worlds that we have never dreamt or seen.  Dreams seem like a great space to wander about for mental photographs.  Maybe I should start there, yet I feel dreams are always fuzzy and underexposed.  They are hard to focus and I think we find ourselves trying to bring our everyday comforts into our dreams.  We rarely let a dream stand-alone.  It must mean something!  We say a dream is part of our sub-conscious, our understanding of the world that is there but hides in our blind spots of perception.  So a dream exists only from our own imperceptible recognitions in the everyday, and then what?  We convince ourselves that these leaks of hazy perception that come to us in dreams must have realistic relevance.  Why can’t we just transform a dream into another dream?  Let it cross over into another dream world, one that demands us to step outside of ourselves and give way to the waking dream of a world undiscovered by ANY part of our own reality.  Is this even possible?  To not be influenced in anything at all when it comes to creating.  Is it possible to let the twelve point times new roman escape the focus of our eye and set our fingers free to focus the lens of our mind’s eye?  It seems like a novel idea.  I must admit, it feels impossible.  

I do not appreciate novelty for novelty’s sake.  Creation and creativity aren’t such just because nobody has done it before.  I feel like a skill is required, some sort of mastery over the creative process.  But isn’t mastery relative anyway?  You are better at it then anyone else – mastery—only a term acceptable in its ability to place everyone else in mediocrity.  Isn’t that what’s happening?  Who can judge whether mastery means you are moving above everyone else, or whether everyone else is simply being placed below you.  It is about a movement of extremes.  You are down or up, on top or on the bottom.  Modern fiction today seems to do the same.  Modern novels are popular either in their ability to portray those things in life that are familiar with which we connect, or they are about a world utterly unknown and unattainable to the reader.  It is one or the other, so the option as the writer is to choose.  Writing realistically demands a keen sense of observation.  You must be able to replicate.  You must be able to take your own experiences and twist them just enough.  You must make a synonym of the world you’ve experienced and get it on paper.  The other option is to let your dreams run away from you.  Give them space.  Let them sneak out at night past the neat parameters of your understanding and keep them near enough to make out a shadowy form in the orange lights on the street corners of your imagination.  

Death Cab and The-Odyssey

I have a "sleepy time" mix on my computer which includes some quality songs for catchin' some Zs.  The Nest - Jose Gonzalez, Tenuousness - Andrew Bird, and Train Song - Feist and Ben Gibbard are just a few of the sleepy serenades.  One of the songs I happened to stay coherent enough to listen to the other night was "I Will Follow You Into The Dark" by Death Cab For Cutie.

Its a really pretty song to listen to and is a sweet song of a man's love for a girl, however, the song only works (at least in terms of lyrics) through its agnostic tone.  I mean the song is a love song, but it isn't exactly a song you dedicate to your girlfriend.  It revolves around death and the nothingness that ensues.  The whole point is that while life after death is dismal and unknown, the love of the narrator will remain constant and will "follow her into the dark"

I can just picture the horrified face of my girlfriend if I were to dedicate the song to her as it opens with "someday you will die"... how sweet?  The song is no doubt complicated.  Which I admit I like.  However, I can't help notice the narrator's (assumedly Ben Gibbard, but being an English major I can't assume this is the case) dissatisfaction with his formal ties to the "light" of the afterlife-that being Catholicism.

This is a really common occurrence, but I can sort of see why.  Today's society is progressive and tends to throw away the traditional.  Catholicism is archaic in many ways.  It takes a long time to shift with the common culture, yet isn't this the way it should be?  Modern culture is full of fads and trends.  It isn't culture that should shape religion, but religion that should shape culture.  Religion is counter-culture by nature so its no wonder that the modern culture tends to reject a religion that is trying to remain true to the 2000+ years of theology and tradition while staying pertinent and relevant to today.  It is no doubt a tricky balance.  

While I am Catholic and passionate about the Catholic church, I will not use this blog to proclaim the truth of the Catholic church.  I have my reasons for converting to the church.  Instead, I just want to reflect on the problem that is happening within faith systems everywhere-that is, society's ease in turning from their beliefs.  I bump in the road isn't turning into an obstacle to get over but a place to U turn.  I suppose I see this happening a lot in Catholicism because of all the "rules" that people are unreceptive to AND a mistake to place their opinion of Catholicism solely on one poor example or experience.  Just as in the song, the nun tells the narrator that "fear is the heart of love... so I never went back."  People are hyper-sensitive to the hypocrite factor and the "fire and brimstone" side of religion.  Belief and respect aren't garnered by scarring people or by poor examples.  One of my room mates was raised Catholic and turned his back on it when he discovered some kids doing drugs on the back of a bus en route to a retreat.  Undoubtedly, these instances are discouraging, but such cases really shouldn't dictate our own beliefs.  I feel like people's beliefs have lost its backbone to individualism.  Society tells us to do what is good for us.  It is a selfish attitude.  Religion (most every one that I can think of) teaches self sacrifice.  It is about community, love, connectedness.  If our spiritual beliefs are challenged, shouldn't we say "no, that is wrong... or I don't agree with that"?  When someone says Catholicism is all about gross repetition and hypocritical machines, should I run away to hide from the allegations?  Its easy to run from what seems to be if you aren't sure of what really is.  Yes, I absolutely agree that Catholicism has many guidelines, and cradle Catholics who don't have a faith outside their rehearsed prayers on Sundays, but this isn't the substance of the faith.  A faith is the people, both good examples and bad examples of it.  A faith will naturally have guidelines by which our lives should seek accordance.  Is this all there is though?  Of course not.  The heart of the matter is in the heart of the believer.  The wheat must be taken with the chaff.  You must step back and look at not just the bad examples, but also the good examples and ask yourself, what are all these people getting at?  Everybody is coming from a different place.  Belief and faith aren't always constant, but will flux throughout a person's life.  But everybody is gathered in that place for a reason.  That is when you look into the fundamentals of the church, not just the make up of the outside.  You can't just say I don't like this particular teaching and say I've had enough.  What value is there in dismissing something because it isn't in your immediate understanding or liking?  Since when was God easily understood or his ways the most favorable?  It is a harder route.  I think the key question one must ask themselves when struggling with a spiritual or church teaching is why?  Don't make a hasty or uninformed decision.  Ask why?  Active doubt and disbelief are the two driving forces to a more fruitful spiritual understanding.  The problem isn't doubt, the problem is laziness-complacency.  I think that faith really comes down to taking a microscope to one's own heart and then turning it around to get a view of the church in its larger scope and mission.  The procedure today is rather opposite it seems: scrutinize the church for faults without ever reflecting inward.  Logic and passion must have equal footings.

"Progress should mean that we are always changing the world to fit the vision, instead we are always changing the vision." - GK Chesterton

"The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried." - GK Chesterton

 

Rolling Stone Mag

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group pictures

Something I always find funny is our ability to judge a group picture's "cuteness" without looking at anyone or anything else in the picture besides ourself.  (I believe the phenomenon is most prevalent among females but I won't discriminate.  We all have some narcissism tucked away in ourselves somewhere don't we?)

Steve Nash

If I was reincarnated into another life I would want to come back as Steve Nash.  There are too many videos on youtube to link to this post but do yourself a favor and search Steve Nash on youtube.  I mean that man is just nasty at basketball, and highlights are fun to watch, but watch interviews and his two ad campaigns for nike and vitamin water.  The guy is hilarious and he pretty much does everything with style.  I think I'm developing a man-crush... try not to judge.