normally, i reserve political-type posts for my other blog, but i have decided to make an exception in this case. recently, a friend commented on my favorite quote from albert einstein:
you cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.
i began writing an email response to him, but part way through decided it is appropriate to share that response with everyone. below is his comments, followed by my response. its an important issue and maybe this post can spark a conversation with others, so here it is…. More…
i am not a conversationalist. or at least i’ve never thought of myself as one. when speaking on certain topics, or to people with whom i’m comfortable, i admittedly do well. i’ve even recently been praised for my conversational abilities by family whom i don’t really know and haven’t seen or spoken to in more than a decade.
still, i’ve never thought of myself as a ‘talker.’ i’m more inclined to listen to conversation than participate in it, usually because i don’t think i have anything compelling to contribute. put another way, i’ll speak when i have something to say, but not really otherwise. in this way, i think i take after my father, which on some level fills me with a sense of pride. on another level, however, my aversion to make ’small talk,’ or rather my unwillingness to speak if i don’t think its important can be seen, in a certain light, as a hinderance.
…i tried several iterations of language here in an attempt to avoid sharing certain details, but omitting said details leaves the post incomplete and maybe a bit muddled. sigh…. More…
this has always been one of my least favorite holidays, though the reason has evolved over the years.
for the vast majority of my adult and adolescent life, i’ve been single and always such on valentine’s day. it used to be i was jealous of all the lovey-dovey couples wandering around in some sort of annoying delirium. nothing short of sitting in my room, alone, with no television or internet would keep from me the constant reminders of my seeming perpetual bachelorhood.
valentine’s day used to make me so angry. while i was generally a mood person in college anyway, valentine’s day just magnified my anger and depression. i wasn’t really any fun to be around. i used to think i wouldn’t be happy unless i found someone to be with and this holiday served as an irritating reminder that not only was i still single, but that there were no prospects of a remedy.
don’t ask me why or from where i got such a seemingly odd notion of happiness, but there it is…. More…
on january 4th, i started a new job as a legislative aid to representative morita for the 2010 hawaii state legislative session. it’s been a grueling couple of weeks and with opening day officially kicking off the legislative season yesterday, i expect things to get even tougher.
if you’re a regular visitor here, you’ll know i’m not one for over confidence, or really any confidence at all, but this job is the first i’ve had in a long time that often has me feeling overwhelmed. as someone who thought he had a pretty good bead on how things work at the legislature, feel like i’m learning to walk all over again. unless you’ve spent countless hours and years at the capitol, or have worked a session job before, there’s really no way for me to describe how it is. More…
as i’m sure others have said, the year has flown by. at the same time, though, it seems like so much has happened in the world, in america, and in my life. i’m in such a different place in my life now than i was at the beginning of the year; january 2009 seems so long ago….
here’s a month-by-month breakdown. maybe not the sexiest way to do it, but maybe the easiest? More…
i’ve been a bit obsessed with this group lately. and since my brain can’t seem to muster a proper post, this is what i’m settling for at the moment….
i’d never heard of them before until a few weeks ago. i was in mokuleia, celebrating thanksgiving with good friends, which has become a tradition for me (if i’m in hawaii for the holiday). one of the people who came to spend a day at the beach house brought her ipod full of good music stuffs. sigur rós was one of the bands.
shortly after my return to honolulu, i bought two of their albums, which is unusual for me. when i find a new band, i just buy one album at a time. but in this instance, something about the one song i had heard was so great that i was confident neither album (takk….and ( ) ) would disappoint. i was right.
this is pretty much all i’ve been listening to for the last few weeks, at home, in the car, while walking, etc. and i can’t get enough. normally, i prefer my ‘car music’ to be something to which i can sing along, but Sigur Rós is so ethereal and melodic, that it doesn’t matter the lyrics are icelandic.
i highly recommend checking them out, if you’re not already a fan. as for me, my music guru said she’ll be getting me more soon…! in the meantime, check out this video:
for reasons unclear to me, i’ve been thinking a lot about death. not in terms of a self-inflicted death, but rather the nature of death, what it means and what comes next. and in thinking about what comes next, thoughts inevitably turn to notions of faith.
when i was a young child, i may have had faith, but if i did, that faith has long since left me. as far back as i can remember, i’ve never really had a belief in g-d, in the spiritual, in the afterlife. with that lack of faith came a desire to find other means by which to define, to borrow the title of one of my favorite books, life, the universe and everything.
looking back now, i think the drive to understand existence, not to mention my lack of faith, stemmed from deep-seeded self-doubt and the chronic depression from which i suffered. More…
