"Youth Is Wasted On The Young."

Not sure who said that phrase, but I think I agree. You don't know what you have until it's gone, and before you know it, your youth will disappear.

When I was younger, I wanted to grow up. I'm guessing most people were like that. And, I'm guessing that by the time I turn 90, I'll have wished that I knew the importance and magic of my youth when I was young. I'm guessing most old people think that.

In a way, life goes in an arc. When you start young, you're not sure of anything, you're small, insignificant to some because you don't hold much power in the society [unless you're a celebrity baby, then huzzah!], and you're frail. But as you get older, you climb the arc of life and you reach the highest point in your life, when you're at the top of your capabilities, and you can do anything. Or, that's what it seems like anyway when you're the person thinking. Then, as the arc slowly reaches the ground again, you realize that you're just as frail as you started out. The wrinkles on your skin show like battle marks, scars to prize because you made it. You made it through the curious times of being a toddler, rebelling times of the teenage, growing times of the middle age, and just now making your way through the last stages of wonder. Which, in fact if you look at it from a different perspective, is only the beginning. The arc, or cycle of life if you're talking about Lion King [Disney movie], is only an incomplete, crude graph for something which we can only try to depict in pictures. Youth is something that we can only try to keep.

"Youth is wasted on the young."
Well... I guess that... if when you're old, and you appreciate what you had back then-- the beautiful skin, the sharp mind-- it's okay. It wasn't wasted.

Imagine.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=aIT87On4ktU

This Youtube clip really makes you wonder if this boy remembers his past. He speaks as if he really knows. And you imagine... How can a boy as young as he, think of something so deep? I believe he remembers.

Miles.

I would walk a mile for _________ .

[Topic!: What would you walk a mile for?]

Forgive.

[Topic!: Forgiving and apologizing are two key ingredients in being happy.]

In this song, One Republic sings about how it's "too late to apologize." I don't think that's right. I don't think it's ever too late to apologize, and even more so, I think when someone apologizes, you should accept it. It's just... it makes life so much easier to move on don't you think? It's not only common courtesy, but when you hear about people forgiving the ones that killed their family members, or someone they loved, how can you not forgive the small things in your own life?

As the saying goes, "Forgive and forget."

[P.S.: I love this song though-- the beats and the melody are wonderful, and I'm sure a lot of people could relate to what One Republic is singing/feeling.]

Url source for Youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePyRrb2-fzs

Territories.

I think all of us are territorial at a certain degree. For some it's a place such as their room, where they start to freak out if people go through their stuff. For others it's a gang, where the actual lines and borders of their home consist of wars over rights.

About less than a month ago, my neighbor decided to bring her dog over to see if her dog got along with ours. They were going to go out on vacation, and they wanted us to look after it.
I think I really felt like a mother then. I was wondering how my dog, my baby, would act around this new dog. I wonder if it's how mothers feel when their child meets new kids. I was so angry when our neighbor just put down her dog in our backyard and let it run all over my dog's territory. For some reason, I felt like if my dog couldn't really do anything about it, I should help him out. It's his backyard, and this other dog was starting to pee everywhere! In a way, I think I was freaking out more than my dog was. But I could tell he didn't like the new dog. My dog would raise his fur and try and keep the back porch to himself. So that day, I stood there, almost trying to make sure that my dog would reign superior on whatever he wanted. I guess that was unfair, but at the moment, I felt my dog being endangered, and being a territorial person that I am, I wanted to keep him safe and comfortable, no matter how extreme I must have seemed that day.

Topic!: Territorial? I wouldn't blame someone for being that. They're probably protecting something they care about.

Butterflies.

Butterflies are amazing. In a way, they live two lives.

In the first, they live as caterpillars. In this stage of life, anything could happen. They're at the base of the food chain, they could get eaten by birds on the outside, and get eaten by caterpillar wasps from the inside. Caterpillar wasps lay eggs on or inside the caterpillar, and when the eggs hatch, they begin eating their host [the caterpillar], most of the times from the inside out. It's so cruel, yet nature determined it so.
During this time, the caterpillar sheds its skin multiple times in order to get to the body mass needed to undergo the adult phase.

Then comes metamorphosis. At this stage of life, the caterpillar enters the pupal stage, where it doesn't eat, doesn't move in its pupa [AKA chrysalis, AKA cocoon]. The process may take from two weeks to several months as the caterpillar tissues completely break down and rearrange before we see the final stage.

The end result is the butterfly we see, the adult. Just when life seemed to end in darkness, the caterpillar seemed to get a second chance at life. For the few hours after breaking out, its wings will be shriveled and soft. But after hardening, the butterfly will begin mating, because in a few weeks, it'll die.

Sushi For The Mind.

[This is a second post for the day, so be sure to check the post under this one! Thanks-]

Topic!: Not all sushi contains raw fish.

For most people I've spoken to, they've all had this idea that all sushi contained raw fish.

Well, let's break it down.

• Nori is the black stuff on the outside, the edible seaweed. [picture]
  
• The white stuff on the inside is usually steamed white rice with a little vinegar and sugar. [picture]
  
• Nigiri is sushi that has raw fish or seafood. Usually the raw fish is placed on top of some rice and wrapped with a piece of seaweed, the nori. This type of sushi usually only contains the piece of raw fish and the rice. [picture]
  
• Maki is sushi that is usually wrapped in seaweed and then again in rice, or just wrapped in seaweed. This type of sushi is probably most common, and can be found almost anywhere. It can contain cucumbers, eels, carrots, avocado, etc. You can have whatever you want in it. (There are sub-categories with this type of sushi; including futomaki, hosomaki, kappamaki, temaki, and uramaki.) This maki type of sushi is cylindrical. [picture]
  
• Sashimi is where people only eat slices of raw fish. It's very expensive because the quality of the fish has to be extremely high. Usually the slices are dipped in soy sauce for taste, and maybe a bit of wasabi for spice. [picture]
  
• Wasabi is usually in a paste form made from Japanese horseradish. When eating it, only a little bit with soy sauce can cause a sudden flare through the nasal passages. Also, the taste is very peculiar, and if you're going to try it for the first time, only dab a tiny bit! Most pastes you find are imitations, since the real thing is highly expensive [sushi is expensive anyway unless you make it yourself]. But that's okay, because who knows the difference unless you're a connoisseur right? [picture]
  
• Last but not least, try to never get store bought sushi. No matter how convenient it sounds, or how good it might look, the rice is never fresh and still textured [the rice gets all mushy and it turns into one big piece of white stuff if left compacted too long], and the ingredients inside are not the greatest nor the freshest. If you can't afford to get the real stuff, then indulge at least once in your life, but I don't advise wasting your money on the ones you find in your local supermarket [unless you live in Japan, then maybe you can find some decent ones].

I hoped this little guide helped you a bit in figuring out what there was to sushi, but this was only the tip of the iceberg. If you're interested, just Google sushi and you can find more information on this foreign delicacy.

All the pictures in this post retain the rights from the website/url that they are from. I didn't take the pictures in this post.

Fools.

Incompetant fools who think everything they do is right and everything different is "backwards."

Refer to: [click] [look at the first comment by stuart]

July 5th.

My dog was barking outside last night during the fireworks, and it was around midnight. I went out to stand with him on our back porch and I suddenly felt alone. It was so weird, but it was like I was in a battlefield. I guess it's because of our current position as the US in the war with Iraq.

What did we have to celebrate for yesterday? Are we really independent? Doesn't everyone depend on something else? Aren't we depending on other countries for resources and allies?

The smoke filled the air and the darkness was almost serene. But far away there would be explosions of red light and angry sounds...

Cruelty Of Ignorance.

This video I'm about to link you to is hard to watch. It's graphic in the sense that you see live animals slaughtered without anything blocking your view of their pained eyes or the evil sneers and smiles of the people who work their jobs with joy. Even if you think you don't want to watch, you must, because ignorance is part of our weakness as a human being. I hope you will spread the word of this video, because it's something we all need to watch.

"EARTHLINGS is a feature length documentary about humanity's absolute dependence on animals (for pets, food, clothing, entertainment, and scientific research) but also illustrates our complete disrespect for these so-called "non-human providers." The film is narrated by Academy Award nominee Joaquin Phoenix (GLADIATOR) and features music by the critically acclaimed platinum artist Moby," by rkaufmann.

These parts are on Youtube.
Part 1: Here
Part 2: Here
Part 3: Here

Whole Video on Google Video: Here

Nude Community.

Did you know there were nude communities? Well, if you didn't, now you do, because I'm not just trying to josh you [whatever that means-- a guy used to always say it in my class].

I don't know... these communities, they promote "letting yourself free" yet I don't think I'd be too comfortable doing that. It might be an interesting experience, but, what's to keep child molesters and people like that going there? And did you also know that there's an international event where people ride bikes naked? [click here for article]

Those people seem so happy, I wonder if it's worth baring your body to everyone. In the article, it says something about how some people are scared to do it because they might get their picture taken. Others don't do it because they fear of getting arrested, but most have out-smarted police officers by wearing skin-colored, skin-tight clothing, or body painting, which seems to prevent their anger a little.

The whole event of the naked bike riding is actually to promote too-much-oil-dependency awareness. They also do it for all the people who die in cycling accidents every year due to careless drivers, and to promote the beauty of the naked body. But, most do it just for fun.

Food Nostalgia.

There's something about food that's so special to me. It's... home?

Some people eat for comfort, others eat just to sustain their own energy to survive. I think I eat, because it just tastes really good. I get so many food cravings; Indian food, Mediterranean food, Chipotle, Italian food, etc.

Well, one day my family ate this Chinese dish for a tradition that's almost lost, and it was pretty amazing. It really made me want to go back to Taiwan to see how much it had changed. There's this one mall there, and when I was little, I used to always go to this one food stand to get a cream filled pastry shaped as a fish. The outside was like a waffle type of pastry, and the inside was this creamy, sweet custard. They would make it right in front of you, so it was always hot. Many times there were lines, but I always waited. I wonder if the person who ran the stand remembered my face. One day when I travel back, I'm definitely going to go there in hopes of finding that little stand.

C'est Français!

Oui, j'ai décidée d'écrire en français. Si tu ne me comprends pas, utiliser s'il vous plaît un traducteur.

Je veux pratiquer ma français, parce que je l'ai étudié l'année dernière et je ne veux pas l'oublier. Même maintenant je parfois dois utiliser le traducteur moi-même. C'est super difficile de se rappeler!

Ah, I give up.

Classics

I guess there could be a reason why some books are "classics" and are widely acclaimed to be fantastic. In other words, most of them are dull [trust me, I know].

I remember picking up books like To Kill A Mockingbird [TKAM by Harper Lee] and Sense and Sensibility [SS by Jane Austen] when I was in middle school, and finding them so boring that after reading a few sentences, I would put them down for the dust to collect and go in search of something with a bit more adventure. Sometimes I would even force myself to get past the first page, yet, as soon as I got to the second, I gave up.

This year in school, I had to read TKAM. Again, at first, I thought it was so pointless. I mean, they give so many names in the beginning it's hard to follow. Who's Jem? Who's Scout? [Those are two of the main characters involved in the book.] I just, kept reading because I wanted to do the assigned work and get an A.

But... by the last pages of TKAM, I'd grown to understand the characters more, and the ending persuaded me to like the book to my surprise. I wouldn't say it's... very moving. I think the only reason it's a classic is because it deals with a black man on trial, but... other than that, I didn't think it was as... I don't think it should be a book everyone should read. Granted that it does portray what life was like back then for African Americans, I still think that I wasn't that important of a book.

Another book this year that I had to read was Charles Dickens's, Great Expectations [GE]. I didn't finish the book, even though it was assigned. I even got about half-way through, pushing my way past pages that made me fall asleep. I think it's one of the harder books I've had to read, just because it didn't catch my interest at all. Maybe at times it was interesting, but the language and the plot was just... Oi, how do people get done reading that? And why is it so critically acclaimed?

Alright, this is turning out to be like a book report, but there's one more book I want to talk about.

The Plague, by Albert Camus. I read it recently, again, as an assigned book [since a book with that cover and content about history would never have appealed to me] and found myself astonished when it turned out to be a great book. At times it was hard to follow, and indeed, I fell asleep to some parts. But... I guess this whole post was for me to say that, some books need the maturity and understanding that develops from age. I think if I had read that book even a year or two years ago, I wouldn't appreciate it as much. The story... it was slow at the beginning, and I felt so detached from all the characters. Most of the book just talked about how they were trapped in a town because of the plague [mostly bubonic] and some of the writing was hard to follow and hard to understand, never mind that it lacked in my interest. But by the end, I cried when a main character died. It was as if, the attachment to the story had crept up on me. And... I think I wouldn't have understood the pain the people went through [in the story] if I had been any younger or any less understanding. I hope to become even more of a person, so that maybe I can find what's so special about GE.

Are All Guys Perverted?

That is the question, otherwise known as the "Topic!:".

Okay, so there are hormones, yes. There are beautiful women, yes. There are un-perverted guys... where?

I mean, you've got the jocks, who are [at least in my experience- do correct me if I'm wrong] perverts. You've got the geeks who are [again, from my experience] perverts. Outcasts [from experience] are perverts. And perverts who are, well, perverts!

What has this world come to? I mean, okay, let's talk a little bit scientific. I guess they need that attraction to women for obvious purposes such as reproduction. That's where the hormone comes in and takes over yes? Well... is that all? I mean, is it just to entertain the guys? Flirtation or something?

Confusing "Topic!:" I know.

Humanity And Our Downfall For Some

Well, [Topic!:] human closeness is what we all try and achieve no? Or... maybe some aspire to become more. I don't know.

Since the beginning of time, life started with closeness right? I mean, if you want to get religious [which I don't like to get unless I'm studying different cultures], I guess we could talk about Adam & Eve, but I don't know much about that, except that they had sex and blahblahblah. But anyway, do people really need closeness to live? I think about it, and it's like this: Maybe on some level we do need to feel the physical "closeness" of people, but... it's not something that's... required in order to live happily.

For example.
Nuns? They are close with [oh no, another religious aspect of my post- please forgive me] God [or Buddha, or Ganesh, or Allah, etc.], but they don't have [or maybe they do feel the presence of god... I don't know] the actual person there to hug them or care for them. But, when I picture them in my head, the picture shows them happy. They're content with life, yet they don't have an actual partner besides God. I think simple things can make us happy, and we don't necessarily need human "closeness", granted it may make life seem better.

Children Are An Aquired Taste.

Well... that's from my own experience anyway. To be blunt, I used to steer away from all those grimy, sticky, little monsters. But I've come to know three little ones, who, although scared me at first, have earned a little more of my liking.

I guess at first, they were just little things I just didn't know how to interact with. They said things over and over, smiled and laughed sometimes at things I didn't understand, did stuff I told them not to do, ugh, they were monsters. But... after meeting them a few more times while babysitting (I had to be forced to go after the first time I babysat them, since the pay was low and the kids [3] were ... not good), I have to say that I sort of got the hang of it. Not completely, but just a little more. I could understand them a little better [since one of them talked a bit funky and had half a lisp] and I knew how to soothe them when they were upset. It was... a weird experience. I don't think I love kids, but... I don't think I hate them that much anymore.

I think it's just... about understanding. A fundamental element of humanity.

Everyone Should Read This.

url: http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/national_language.jpg

My Wise Teacher Once Said.

My English teacher decided to divulge a bit of information to me the other day. Something I would only expect Yoda the great and my English teacher to know.

"One of my own life philosophies is that all people are inherently lazy when given the option."

Said by Ms. English Teacher.

Wow, I agree. I mean... it's so true. When someone has the choice of doing something, they can choose the easy way, the "lazy" way, cause I mean, I don't think anyone wants to do it the hard way...

What do you think of this quote?

Frustration/Stress And How It Bogs Us Down.

Topic!: When stress brings you down, there's nothing like a good pick-up vacation.

Reality: We don't have the time or money.

Solution: Make the time and money.

Reality: Life Obstacles such as low-paying, minimum wage job and family to support.

Solution: Uh... Erm... Let's be friends?

So that's my question I guess. When something stresses you out and you can't find a solution, what do you do that helps relieve stress? Sitting down and doing nothing doesn't really provide me relief because I know that the problems aren't going away.

How do you solve the chronic disease that everyone experiences? And no, don't mention crack [the drug].