I am.

You are the greatest, Stephanie.

You are the best and the coolest.

You surprise us every single day.

This is not a test.

Do not adjust your settings.

You have nothing to prove.

There's no one to thank but yourself.

The rest of the day, and your life, are on me.
Gratefully,
The Universe

"I Love You For All Time"

On Saturday, I went to see the off-Broadway show "Rooms: A Rock Romance."
Not since I first saw Passing Strange in March '08 have I left a theatre almost speechless. Both after "Passing Strange" and "Rooms," the only thing I could think to say was, "Brilliant.

The story kind of reminded me of "Once," with two people falling in love while making music together. Although unlike "Once" in which the two characters never could be together, a full love story develops between these two. You see them in love and see them have falling outs, all the while continuing to maintain realism within the relationship and the story. Most shows nowadays that feature love stories aren't completely believable, which is okay since theatre, especially musicals, requires us to suspend our beliefs and fall into the musical world in which things are sped up for the sake of telling a story. However, "Rooms" manages to keep you with the story and believing in the story from start to finish though. Much of that has to do with the writing, and so much with the two actors, Leslie Kritzer and Doug Kreeger. Other than Leslie's inability to hold onto the Irish accent, the performances of these two were so strong. They don't demand your attention, but rather you willing give it to them every single second.
Please go see this and fill the theatre because a show like this is deserving of a full audience. I know it will capture your heart like it did mine.

Wow... I never thought I'd quote a Conservative....

"....to discard friends because they do not behave as we expected and refuse to be educated to our requirements is the conduct of a man who has altogether mistaken the character of friendship. Friends are not concerned with what might be made of one another, but only with the enjoyment of one another; and the condition of this enjoyment is a ready acceptance of what is and the absence of any desire to change or to improve. A friend is not somebody one trusts to behave in a certain manner, who supplies certain wants, who has certain useful abilities, who possesses certain merely agreeable qualities, or who holds certain acceptable opinions; he is somebody who engages the imagination, who excites contemplation, who provokes interest, sympathy, delight and loyalty simply on account of the relationship entered into. One friend cannot replace another..."
~Michael Oakeshott, On Being Conservative, 1962

I just got out of class and am so disgusted that I came right to the library to write this. In class today, we watched a documentary called, "Radio Bikini." It was about the testing of atom bombs on the island of Bikini Atoll. First of all, the creation of anything that is capable of taking so many lives doesn't make me all to happy (and shouldn't make anyone happy), but there was something in the film that made me even more disgusted and made me stop paying attention.



Before the bombs were dropped for testing, these innocent animals were placed on the island just like that. It absolutely sickened me to have these sweet creatures, whose value in this world is of no greater or lesser importance than ours, were placed there as part of some sick experiment by our government. The footage of the animals after the bomb was dropped was heartbreaking. Their bodies were covered in blisters and burns. I wanted to cry imagining the pain they must have felt when the bomb hit the ground and the radioactive blasts hit them. The worst part is they had to live and suffer. Not all of them were killed.

Why do we live in a world that finds it necessary to create something that can cause so much pain and destruction? Why were those animals chosen to test on? The ignorant humans who believed in creating a weapon that could take so many human lives should have let themselves be tested on. If you value life so little, than lay your own on the line for the sake of creating destruction.



"Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them.”
~Dalai Lama

Dreams come true bitches!!!!

I have always thought the cast of In The Heights was made up of the most talented and kindest people ever, and now there is proof:




They constantly amaze me with how incredible they are. The fact that they are all so busy, yet they took the time to do that for a young fan on a two show day is just too amazing for words. I have watched that video quite a few times today and every time I have been moved to tears. I wish there could be more people like them in the world who show how much they truly care about people. That young boy got to live out a dream right there and it is such a beautiful thing to get to watch.

The Dalai Lama knows best

I must emphasize again that merely thinking that compassion and reason and patience are good will not be enough to develop them. We must wait for difficulties to arise and then attempt to practice them.

And who creates such opportunities? Not our friends, of course, but our enemies. They are the ones who give us the most trouble. So if we truly wish to learn, we should consider enemies to be our best teacher!

For a person who cherishes compassion and love, the practice of tolerance is essential, and for that, an enemy is indispensable. So we should feel grateful to our enemies, for it is they who can best help us develop a tranquil mind! Also, it is often the case in both personal and public life, that with a change in circumstances, enemies become friends.

So anger and hatred are always harmful, and unless we train our minds and work to reduce their negative force, they will continue to disturb us and disrupt our attempts to develop a calm mind. Anger and hatred are our real enemies. These are the forces we most need to confront and defeat, not the temporary "enemies" who appear intermittently throughout life.

Of course, it is natural and right that we all want friends. I often joke that if you really want to be selfish, you should be very altruistic! You should take good care of others, be concerned for their welfare, help them, serve them, make more friends, make more smiles. The result? When you yourself need help, you find plenty of helpers! If, on the other hand, you neglect the happiness of others, in the long term you will be the loser. And is friendship produced through quarrels and anger, jealousy and intense competitiveness? I do not think so. Only affection brings us genuine close friends.

In today's materialistic society, if you have money and power, you seem to have many friends. But they are not friends of yours; they are the friends of your money and power. When you lose your wealth and influence, you I will find it very difficult to track these people down.

The trouble is that when things in the world go well for us, we become confident that we can manage by ourselves and feel we do not need friends, but as our status and health decline, we quickly realize how wrong we were. That is the moment when we learn who is really helpful and who is completely useless. So to prepare for that moment, to make genuine friends who will help us when the need arises, we ourselves must cultivate altruism!

Though sometimes people laugh when I say it, I myself always want more friends. I love smiles. Because of this I have the problem of knowing how to make more friends and how to get more smiles, in particular, genuine smiles. For there are many kinds of smile, such as sarcastic, artificial or diplomatic smiles. Many smiles produce no feeling of satisfaction, and sometimes they can even create suspicion or fear, can't they? But a genuine smile really gives us a feeling of freshness and is, I believe, unique to human beings. If these are the smiles we want, then we ourselves must create the reasons for them to appear.

just thinking

I always wanted to learn how to play the guitar. It's number 21 on my THINGS TO DO WHILE I LIVE list. I think I am going to get a box and put a little bit of money in it each week. I will eventually get a guitar and take lessons from that money.
Yes. That sounds good to me.

SI SE PUDO!!!

He told us, "Yes we can."







So, "Yes we did."


I will never forget last night. Last night was historic, and we all got to be a part of it. People celebrated together. We became united as a country in the hope of bringing about change.





He is our future. He is our hope. The world became a more beautiful place because of last night.


SI SE PUEDE!


*Note: I stole the television screencap from Melissa.

VOTE

Sí se puede.

My favorite

I once saw Lin wearing a shirt that said, "The king of wishful thinking." It made my day.

This video always makes me smile, even when my smile is broken.