To Seeing the Invisible

Whoa Rachel, check out what's happening in the SFBay . What a great article. Rachel, it's nice to see journalists do actual investigative work, even if it is for something like this. Today's "journalism" seems to be all link-bait opinion pieces mixed in with copy-pastes from twitter.

Thailand -> Cambodia -> Laos -> Vietnam -> China -> Japan -> Taiwan. One backpack, 5 shirts and two pants. No turning back now. I couldn't sleep at all last night in excitement, yet I am absolutely terrified. #thisisit

I'm healthy. I won't trade my friends for anything. I have a job that I get paid to do. And I have goals in life that extend beyond being better than other people. Rachel, I am so happy right now!

It's nice to finally have the time to read again: They danced down the streets like dingledodies, and I shambled after as I've been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones that never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!" - Jack Kerouac, On the Road

Our greatest weapon against the North Korea is information. The people of North Korea are the most thoroughly brainwashed people on the planet. We really need to find a way reach them; we need to stop with the sanctions. Honestly, how can we use starvation as a weapon against a person who doesn't have any food? We need a permanent wifi satellite over North Korea, and we need to bombard them with Samsung phones. Make it possible for thousands of the North Koreans to get information from the outside world for free. No maniacal dictator can stop that. Look at Ai Wei Wei . Look at Arvind Kejriwal . Look at Franco Iacomella . It's about time the rest of the world starts taking this seriously. #RadioFreeKorea

Okay, why does the gay marriage discussion always seems to be about whether or not this country should give gays the right to marry, when it should always, ALWAYS be about the fact that this country has been depriving gays of something that is theirs by birthright? I think it's important that none of us forget - especially many on the left - that this isn't about giving gays anything. Gay Americans already have the right to marry. I think once people really grasp that, they'll start to understand just how sickening it is that we've allowed our government to deny them the rights that our constitution says that they are ENTITLED to. #end-rant

"Allah must have truly graced you today." These were the words spoken from a Saudi Arabian family who were so kind to give us a ride down the mountain. They had come all the way from Riyadh to visit the ancient Mount Olympus of Bursa. I simply sat there, awkwardly silent, not knowing how to respond, until Abe was able to cover for the silence. -- This Turkey trip has helped me solidify my views on religion. I had the opportunity to glimpse into a nation still finding its identity after a swift conversion from a theocratic monarchy to a secular republic. However characterized as "secular", 99% of Turks are registered as Muslim, and a large aspect of Turkey is the plethora of magnificent mosques, structured and maintained beautifully. Rachel, it made me realize that here was a place where--just like Riyadh--it was safe to assume that everyone practices Islam, and that everyday conversations, everyday interactions are influenced by this highly ingrained ...

I went on a trip in Berkeley with my friends today. Oh man, there are so many things I want to tell you. That's for another post though. I want to talk about this song: An absolutely beautiful sound, and the way the synths gently brace in with the piano. Excited that I found an artist to explore, I looked up his bio and this is what it said: Playing at friends weekend parties started to get a little old after the first few noise complaints and drunken arrests, so I made the effort to try and appear at my school at a dance or two. Unfortunately I never had got to follow through on that prospect as I moved to my current location here in Washington. So far I love living here; however it has put a damper on my notoriety since I am not "in the know" so to speak in this area, so I'm always looking for chances to get my name out there to establish some sort of reputation. But as I have found so far, the scene I'm looking for doesn't seem to thrive quite as mu...

Rachel, can you ever imagine a world without cars ? To me, what would be interesting about a world without cars is that it would partly reverse a sad isolationist trend that's come along with the power and control given to us by modern technology. Back when I didn't bike, I used take the AC Transit to work every day, and there were a lot of strange people on those trips. Gangs of nine year old gangster kids drunk up in the back. Little old ladies muttering racist slurs at asian students. A guy who hadn't showered in so long his clothes had gone partially transparent from the grease. I don't think I was ever in any danger, but it sure made me uneasy sometimes when I was caught in the middle of things. I now either bike or drive, so it's not really an issue anymore. But strangely, I find myself missing that chance to interact with people who I didn't choose to interact with. It seems like every time we get more power--such as inventing an engine that can move u...

After my own comparatively minor brush with death a few years ago, when I was 19, I pledged to live my life as fully as possible, as though I had nothing to lose. For a few months afterward, I consciously tried to fight against the status quo. It’s so easy to get stuck in the waiting place, putting things off until later, even when those things are vitally important to making your dreams come true. But the truth is Rachel, in order to make progress, you need to physically and mentally fight against the momentum of ordinary events. The default state of any new idea is failure. It’s the execution–the fight against inertia–that matters. You have to remember to go against your instinct, to confront the ordinary, and to put up a fight. This is, obviously, mentally and physically taxing. My own conscious focus on the fight very slowly faded until, after just a couple of months, it was gone. I had once again become a cog in the insidious machine called quo. I was always confused and fascin...

2012. A year of self discovery and open minds. No other year has allowed for so much introspection. I'm not gonna lie to you Rachel, I've also made some big mistakes, but realizing that most of my biggest personal victories occur on some of my darkest days? To know that you're better than what you think you are? There's nothing more motivating.

This just might be one of my first posts that isn't for Rachel. I know you've told me to keep it on the DL about the smoking thing, but since you're one of the very few readers I know who occasionally visit this site, I just have to share: I am so proud of you . I can't even begin to express this; it took my father six years to be where you are right now. Goddamn it must have been hard--remember that finals night where you called me crying apologizing that you were about to let me down? Cigarette in hand, month five, ready to light it...watching you go through that I felt useless. My struggles were minuscule compared to yours fighting such an insidious chemical constantly nagging you under every sign of fatigue, every moment of weakness, and every omen of stress. I now better understand the cruelty an addiction can be. I'm glad my hair was something you can tease to keep your spirits up. But most truthfully, I'm honored to be apart of your achievement. Than...

It's been full month of non-stop debate about armed guards in schools, gun control, and how to keep our children safe. The Connecticut shooting is an atrocity, and gun control is a long overdue conversation. People are pissed, and rightfully so. But why does our society need a Sandy Hook to start discussing these issues? We lack outrage about the inner city children who die in this country every single day. We lack outrage about the children who are killed by US drone strikes overseas every year. We ignore the injustices that statistically kill far more children than events like Sandy Hook, and instead reserve our outrage for the things that seem like they could happen to us, to our children. And we perpetuate our conditional humanity by being unable to talk about it.