This Morning

Little Brother scared me with this:

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/video/bananaman

Part of my new tatoo. . .

My new tatoo that I will eventually get is the pheonix and the martyr sysmbol. . .
The Phoenix Bird

A translation of Hans Christian Andersen's "Fugl Phønix"

by Jean Hersholt.

Beneath the tree of knowledge in the garden of paradise stood a rosebush. And here, in the first rose, a bird was born. His plumage was beautiful, his song glorious, and his flight was like the flashing of light. But when Eve plucked the fruit of the tree of knowledge, and she and Adam were driven from paradise, a spark fell from the flaming sword of the angel into the nest of the bird and set it afire. The bird perished in the flames, but from the red egg in the nest there flew a new bird, the only one of its kind, the one solitary phoenix bird. The legend tells us how he lives in Arabia and how every century he burns himself to death in his nest, but each time a new phoenix, the only one in the world, flies out from the red egg.
The bird darts about as swift as light, beautiful in color, glorious in song. When a mother sits beside her infant's cradle, he settles on the pillow and forms a glory with his wings about the head of the child. He flies through the room of contentment and brings sunshine into it, and he makes the violets on the humble cupboard smell sweet.
But the phoenix is not a bird of Arabia alone. In the glimmer of the northern lights he flies over the plains of Lapland and hops amid the yellow flowers in the short Greenland summer. Deep beneath the copper mountains of Falun, and in England's coal mines, he flies in the form of a powdered moth over the hymnbook resting in the hands of the pious miner. He floats down the sacred waters of the Ganges on a lotus leaf, and the eye of the Hindu maid brightens when she beholds him.

Phoenix bird! Don't you know him? The bird of paradise, the holy swan of song? He sat on the car of Thespis, like a chattering raven, flapping his black gutter-stained wings; the swan's red, sounding beak swept over the singing harp of Iceland; he sat on Shakespeare's shoulder, disguised as Odin's raven, and whispered, "Immortality!" into his ear; and at the minstrels' feast he fluttered through the halls of the Wartburg.
Phoenix bird! Don't you know him? He sang the Marseillaise to you, and you kissed the feather that fell from his wing; he came in the glory of paradise, and perhaps you turned away from him toward the sparrow that sat with gold tinsel on its wings.
The bird of paradise-renewed each century-born in flame, dying in flame! Your portrait in a frame of gold hangs in the halls of the rich, but you yourself often fly around lonely and misunderstood-a myth only: "The phoenix bird of Arabia."
When you were born in the garden of paradise, in its first rose, beneath the tree of knowledge, our Lord kissed you and gave you your true name-poetry!

Tell me which phoenix symbol you like best!

TRAVEL

Crobarger packing must haves:
*a mother who wakes up her children at 8am when they just went to bed 4 hours ago to start packing when the plane doesn't leave until 8pm that night...12 hours of packing?!?!?
*a father who gets upset evertime there is one dish in the sink and spends 1/2 the day washing dishes...yea right, we do still have to eat...
*last minute laundry
*running around not being able to find the things you want to pack and know they were just there yesterday...

Events of the previous hour before leaving for the airport:
~mom gets angry because I took 1/2 the cat litter she bought that day for Gatsby and now there is not enough for her two cats
~dad runs to the vons to buy more cat litter
~aunt penny arrives to drive us to the airport
~dad calls mom to inform her that someone has just hit her car
~brent and i help load the luggage
~we all get into the car
~dad realizes he no longer has his wallet
~we all search everwhere for dad's wallet
~we drive back to the vons shopping center to look for said wallet
~dad finds it in the gutter on the street
~on the drive to the airport dad calls the insurance company

Events at the airport:
~mom, brent and i get onto the terminal for the wrong flight
~we wait outside the terminal for the correct flight
~i choke myself on the peppers from my piza
~brent trades seats with a guy on the plane to sit next to me
~a first class guest pays for everyone on the plane to have tv access
~brent and i watch Aquaman

~brent and i watch Johnny Quest

~brent and i watch Duck Dodgers


LATER, FINALLY, I CRAWL INTO BED WITH MY 7 YEAR OLD COUSIN, KAELAH-MARIE, AND ATTEMPT TO FALL ASLEEP. . .

Merry Christmas

Tonight I'm off to Denver with the family to go see more family. I will attempt to post while I'm gone but there will be 4-5 computor hogs living together for nine days and I'm not sure how many computors we will have. Anyway, pray for a safe trip and beyond that just pray, 'cause my life is getting a little too full of drama, some of my own making and some that just is. Maybe these nine days away will help me get some more focus and clarity. How much can you see of the world from the viewpoint of the mile high city?!?!?!?!?!

LOSE/LOSE SITUATION

IT'S OFFICIAL, I HATE BOYS.

I've never even seen the movie...yet.

Take the quiz:
Which famous movie kiss are you?

Breakfast At Tiffany's
You are the Breakfast At Tiffany's kiss!

Quizzes by myYearbook.com -- the World's Biggest Yearbook!

"I hope that this brief message will provoke thoughts of change among you."

Stanley Tookie Williams

December 29th 1953 ~ December 13th 2005

Executed by lethal injection by the State of California in San Quentin Prison.

The Apology

Twenty-five years ago when I created the Crips youth gang with Raymond Lee Washington in South Central Los Angeles, I never imagined Crips membership would one day spread throughout California, would spread to much of the rest of the nation and to cities in South Africa, where Crips copycat gangs have formed. I also didn't expect the Crips to end up ruining the lives of so many young people, especially young black men who have hurt other young black men.

Raymond was murdered in 1979. But if he were here, I believe he would be as troubled as I am by the Crips legacy.

So today I apologize to you all -- the children of America and South Africa -- who must cope every day with dangerous street gangs. I no longer participate in the so-called gangster lifestyle, and I deeply regret that I ever did.

As a contribution to the struggle to end child-on-child brutality and black-on-black brutality, I have written the Tookie Speaks Out Against Gang Violence children's book series. My goal is to reach as many young minds as possible to warn you about the perils of a gang lifestyle.
I am no longer "dys-educated" (disease educated). I am no longer part of the problem. Thanks to the Almighty, I am no longer sleepwalking through life.

I pray that one day my apology will be accepted. I also pray that your suffering, caused by gang violence, will soon come to an end as more gang members wake up and stop hurting themselves and others.

I vow to spend the rest of my life working toward solutions.

Amani (Peace),

Stanley "Tookie" Williams, Surviving Crips Co-Founder, April 13, 1997

Dessert at Large

I joined Jessyca and Yvoniia for lunch at Claim Jumper on Sunday. I was craving chocolate and so offered to buy dessert and share with my sisters. Little did I know that the "I'Declair" was so huge! Our server tried to warn me, but apparently I wasn't heeding his words. Notice that the pastry is about as tall as the glass. . . I think we may have eaten 1/4 of the dessert and then took it home to show Ma'J 'cause otherwise who would believe us!!!

The Girl in the Mirror

I am totally annoyed right now. Why do I feel like I have to fight everyone for feeling the way I do? I'm tired of having to defend my choices from the criticism of others opinions. Maybe I sound selfish, in fact I know that I do. But I have spent a major portion of my life not pursuing the things that I wanted because it might unsettle someone else. The motivation for alot of my decisions has been the good of the many over the good of the one, namely me. No one really knows the ammount of self-sacrifice I have felt for the sake of other people. I am at a point in my life now that I am tired of making all my decisions that way. Sometimes I need to do what is best for me and if it rocks the boat a little bit, so be it. I need to be able to look in the mirror and be happy and proud of who I am. And I don't want to have to fight the people that I love to attain it.

Lightsaber

In a bookstore far far away. . .

Two sisters traversed through the tri-universe of written word, visual art, and vivid sound. Not sure what it was they were searching for they continued their advance high and low. It wasn't until they continued to the ends of the verse to pay tribute for their journey that they found what they were looking for. . .

Of the many things that Jessyca and I did yesterday, one of them was browse around Borders. There is nothing like spending time with your your little sister checking out books, movies, and music, total nerdfest. But part of what really made our day was when we purchased our items. The guy behind the counter was flirting with Jess and all of a sudden I spotted this totally awesome display behind the guy. There, on a long thin shelf, lay Anikan's Lightsaber! Jess and I got all excited. The other two boys behind the counter decided to join in at this point and they let us play with the weapon. He turned it on for us and handed it across the counter to Jess. It actually makes the "hooming" sound. I ended up with it in my hands at this point and the guy tells me to hit Jessyca with it. So I did. And the infamous electronic clashing sound erupted from the weapon when I made contact with her shoulder. The rest of the customers were just staring at us while we played with this very expensive nerdy "toy". Let me just tell you, the three nerdy guys that worked at the bookstore were enjoying our pleasure just as much as we were. Anyway, I want one! But I want Luke Skywalker's green lightsaber from the first three original movies. Jess and I are such nerds, and she doesn't even like StarWars. . .

S/D Tournament #4

I PLACED!

Let me tell you the story:

Debate was interesting.

Still haven't broken into finals yet. Hopefully next semester. I don't think my partner and I are communicating well and that doesn't help you win rounds. But Sherris just told me she heard good things about my performance from some of the teams that we hit this weekend. That's encouraging.

Friday was 4 debate rounds. I know we won the first round because the judge disclosed to us. We debated both sides of the resolution "The USFG should repeal the No Child Left Behind Act", one side in each of the first two rounds. I tried to run a go Veg plan on the resolution "Go Green", but didn't do too well since I've never run that possition before. And the last resolution of the day was "This house should clean house".

Saturday was debate and pattern A (there are two patterns, A and B, basically just a grouping of events) which meant for me impromptu speaking (you are given 3 quotes and 7 minutes to write and give a speech affirming or negating 1 of the quotes). I went jogging with Frank at 5:30am. Then onto the tournament. We debated "Globalization does more harm than good" and "The Freedom of the Press does more harm than good". Both were interesting rounds.

Apparently I did well in Impromtu. I broke to finals. My quotes?

~"I interpret but do not create" Confucius

~"Action is the only true test of ability" Anonymous

~"A cage bird longs for the clouds" Japanese proverb

~"Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theatre" Gail Godwin

Sunday I woke up with no voice. Dewy had to drop me from events. It was pattern B which meant I didn't get to do my prose or extemporaneaous speaking (which I had made into finals the previous tournament). So I spent that day watching everyone else compete.

And then...the awards ceremony...

The first award was Novice Impromtu, that was me. All the finalists gathered on stage. By this time I was really not feeling well. (You try being sick on the third 12 hour day of competition!) I was exspecting a finalist award, but they kept calling out other schools and other names. Before I knew it I was one of three competitors left. At this point I got nervious thinking this wasn't my event and I would be left standing on the stage after everyone else's name had been called. I even confirmed the event they were awarding with one of my opponents just to be sure. Suddenly I was one of two left on stage. All I heard was "Second place for Impromptu speaking from Palomar. . .", literally, I didn't even hear him say my name. But I had won second place! It took me until this morning to no longer be in shock about it. I didn't think I had done that well. But apparently the judges did!! Go team me, and all my teaching training, and Ben debating with me, and years on stage, and whatever else in my life that prepared me for this activity!

Gone Again!

I'm off again to another speech/debate tournament. This is Fall "Chumps". I'll be seeing you sometime next week. My life will be pretty much what you see above for the next three days. Pray for me, leave me a message on my voice mail, let me know that the outside world is worth arguing about!