this goes nicely with my post from the other week
the importance of knowing what to punch (also what not to punch)
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i spent several days in chengdu, china in the summer of 2002. i actually celebrated my 20th birthday there (if celebrating means spending 9 hours with food poisoning in a bathroom consisting of a concrete hole at a panda reserve while all of your friends go off and have fun).
early this morning, an earthquake struck this region of china. hearing that brought back many pictures and memories. the face of a young man on the street. the face of the lady that worked at the front desk at our hotel. the side street next to our hotel that seemed like a great place to get robbed. walking in the rain up and down the streets of downtown chengdu, looking for a phone to call home with. the guy’s face that finally sold me a phone card and let me use his phone.
i wonder if they are ok. i wonder what they are doing right now.
this is from an AP story
“MANITOWOC, Wis. — A 14-year-old boy suffered burns to more than a quarter of his body after playing what authorities describe as a blowtorch game.
Manitowoc Fire Captain Mark Rusboldt says the boy and another teen were using spray cans as blowtorches. The 14-year-old was burned on his back, head, face, arms and hands. The other teen was not injured.”
if you are having trouble picturing what this particular boy was doing, look at this:
when i was young, i’m not sure how old (i think i was around 10), i spent a lot of time with my older brother. my brother who was about 14 at the time, was just getting to the age where he was learning about all kinds of cool stuff you could do (jumping off the roof into the pool, blowing things up, setting things on fire, etc). fortunately for him, he had a younger brother who thought those were great ideas. i can remember one afternoon, my brother introduced a concept to me involving a lighter, and a can of aerosol deodorant. now, when you are 10 and your older brother unlocks what to you seems like a key into another dimension of fun, fun that you have only dreamed of or seen in the movies you only have one answer to give: “yes”.
i held the can of “right guard” deodorant, he held the lighter. it was glorious. the flame must have shot 3 feet. until the top of the can exploded while i was holding it. i’m still not sure how i didn’t die/get burned. the can is now miraculously not in my hand anymore, but on the ground in the front yard of our house in florida, in the middle of summer, burning the dry grass. i turned on the hose and started spraying the can… but no good. it kept shooting flame like an oil well on fire. my brother (who i mentioned earlier was smarter than me) finally turned the can upside down in the newly crated mud patch in our yard. we both looked at each other, then looked up to find our neighbor across the street staring at us.
“we should probably go in the backyard and try this again”
9 songs from 3 bands that you should listen to this weekend = 12 times the fun of a regular weekend
postal service: brand new colony, recycled air, the district sleeps alone tonight
m83: dont save us from the flames, teen angst, unrecorded
copeland: pin your wings, you love to sing, you have my attention (for those feeling especially emo)
and watch this:
“The average temperature in April 2008 was 51.0 F. This was -1.0 F cooler than the 1901-2000 (20th century) average, the 29th coolest April in 114 years. The temperature trend for the period of record (1895 to present) is 0.1 degrees Fahrenheit per decade. ” from http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov
well, it seems that april wasn’t a good month for global warming. maybe this month will be better. or maybe all those speeches that the former vice president has given (including nifty videos and power point presentations) have scared the living daylights out of climate and climate has decided to stop being such a jerk and just be cool.
get it? ha.
check out the adventures of kristian stanfill at….
be sure to watch the videos. be impressed.
check it out.
Passion World Tour
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict will text message thousands of young Catholics on their mobile phones during World Youth Day in Sydney in July, hoping going digital will help him connect better with a younger audience.
The Pope will text daily messages of inspiration and hope during the six-day Sydney event while digital prayer walls will be erected at event sites and the church will set up a Catholic social networking Web site akin to a Catholic Facebook.
i’m confused. Big Pope B has been pushing the papal envelope, if you will, but this is a little much. i can’t help feeling like perhaps the catholic church is missing the point? seriously, how much is this going to help them:
“yo my dawgs, PBXVI here fo real. git down w/some rozer-e and a konfession 2nite. j3:16 2 all u future saints. PBXVI, out. btw, ur fone is now totally b-l-e-s-s-e-d. fo real.”
i’m all for being relatable to your audience. but this might be a stretch.
“hey kidz, did u know dat hail mary iz also a football play? git in touch with yo priest n find out mor. also, b sur 2 toss up yo prayerz to st. isidore , he b patron saint of the internet. word. PBXVI out dawg.”
i went to the dentist this morning. i hate going to the dentist, but i always like how nice and squeaky clean my teeth are afterward. i, unfortunately, had a filling come out that needs to be replaced, and a couple of cavities. the dentist told me that what probably happened was damage was done to my teeth 10-12 years ago and that the cavities are now a result of what happened.
that made me pause for a moment.
sometimes damage that is done to us doesn’t have immediate evidence. sometimes it comes out much later, or in ways that we don’t expect. sometimes we do damage to ourselves (i happen to grind my teeth in my sleep, which contributes to tooth decay).
and isn’t repair something that is sometimes unpleasant? sometimes it hurts? sometimes its ugly? sometimes it is a little scary. the dentist told me that the problems were still relatively minor, so if i take care of them soon it will cost less and be less painful. but what do i want to do? pretend like i don’t have them. delay. procrastinate. avoid.
i think that can be true in other areas of our lives. it’s easier to ignore our damage, our defects, our problems in the short term, but it always catches up to us eventually.
so, in a few weeks i’m taking care of my dental issues. maybe i should work on some of the other problems too.
i really like starbucks. what’s that? oh, you mean everyone does?? i realize that. i think what i love about it is this:
i like coffee (starbucks provides coffee that i like drinking)
i like sitting (starbucks provides places to sit and enjoy your beverage, muffin, whip out the old laptop)
i like convenience (i live in atlanta, there is a starbucks every 500 yards here)
so, there. that’s why i like starbucks. that and because i think that people like me more if i like it.
i’m off to starbucks now.
