Shock Wave: Part 19- I Listened
Catch up before you continue on with the story.
Cindy and I woke up the next morning and left the small motel in the town of Tracy behind after fueling up the gas tank and our bodies at what seemed like the town’s only gas station. We had roughly six hours left, of driving through the Northern part of California that everyone forgets about, before we could even cross the state boarder into Oregon and I wasn’t really sure where we were going after we got up there. The hitchhiking passenger in my car’s front seat was still being incredibly mysterious, and I still didn’t know anything about how she was related to this strange story. As we made our way back to the five-freeway I decided to make it my mission to find out more about the stranger sitting beside me. (more…)
Writing Through Writer’s Block
Via David McQueen
“Bad writers are bad because they stop too soon. In fact, let’s take a step back. The only quality, I think, that marks the writer as different from everyone else is simply an unwillingness to quit. Others give up when they learn writing is hard; the writer struggles on. When I sit down in front of the blank page, it’s no easier for me to fill it than anyone else. The non-writer looks at the blank page and — quite sensibly — says, ‘forget it, I’m outta here.’ But if they had to, they could put a few words down there — just like I do. Only the words wouldn’t be any good. So the non-writer gets frustrated, gives up and leaves. Me, too, I get frustrated… but I sit there, and work to make it better. Anybody who’s willing to struggle, I think, can write. The real work is to stick at it until you find the gold. To get to that funny line. To do the hard work no one else wants to do, but everyone wants to have done. To discover the great character bit, the clever story turn. Until you have it, you don’t have it. Until it’s there, it’s not there — and you need to stick at it until it is there.”
— Terry Rossario
It seems as though the only way to pull a writer out from the depths of absolute nothingness is to force a gun up to their head and tell them to write. It’s as if the stern actions from their jacked-up ridiculously terrifying action hero of a muse has the power to lift the verbal blockage that releases the most wonderful stories known to man. Why is it though that I have to force myself to write in order to overcome the mind boggling pause in my creative stream of consciousness? (more…)
Let’s Talk About Dieting
As posted by Miss Millennia Magazine.
“I stopped dieting when I figured out that you just have to eat regularly and properly within moderation,” wrote Now magazine quoting Jennifer Aniston. “The fads are too much.”
Seeing ads and articles promoting popular “fad” diets in the attempt to try and find facts and figures about the diet industry only proves the point that there are a lot of people out there spending money on quick fixes instead of changing their lifestyle. And the $40 million a year going into the pockets of the diet industry doesn’t help the argument in favor of crash diets. (more…)
April Is National Autism Awareness Month
As published on Miss Millennia Magazine.
In recent times it seems as though more children are being diagnosed with autism and, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), this observation seems to be true. 1 in 88 American children are diagnosed as being on the spectrum, and out of those figures, boys are commonly associated four out of five times than their female counterparts. In the U.S. two million individuals are diagnosed and tens of millions fall within the spectrum worldwide. The 10 to 17 percent increase in rates however is suspected to be a result of research conducted and by improved diagnosis and awareness. (more…)
Beyond the Shock Wave
My heart was pounding so hard that I could feel the echoing vibrations far beyond my chest. My breathing was heavy, my mind was racing, and I couldn’t help but wonder what I had just done. I realized, as I was driving away from the house, that I had no clue as to where I was going or how I would get back on the 5. (more…)
Why I Choose To Write
I was recently asked to discuss why I choose to write. This was my answer.
I was admitted into the architecture program at Cal Poly Pomona, one of the best architecture schools around, and switched my major to English with a minor in Journalism after the first year. My family, friends, and classmates thought that I was insane for switching out into such a “doomed” life path, but I wasn’t worried—that much.
I knew that if I chose a path that I was passionate about, and that I could look back on when I’m lying in my death bed, and think that with this choice, I’ve contributed to a life that I am happy with, then it wasn’t insane.
I have a passion for story telling in every medium of writing. I enjoy the conversations and information that comes out of something that I have helped to create, and I believe I can do all of this and much more through writing. (more…)
Are You Ready?
The power of the threaded four wheels propelled her rapidly down the city streets, and left the light flooding from the street lamps blurring behind them into the darkness.
She let her bare foot slowly fall down on to the gas pedal, which made the car gradually speed up on the cool autumn pavement—and as the wheels spun, the car flew forward, and her heart pounded at a heightened pace.
Her hand rose to clutch her chest as if it were trying to catch the throbbing muscle before it leapt out of her body. She began to take a few deep breaths to slow the rhythm’s pace and, as she exhaled to release the carbon dioxide from her lungs into the frigid air, a breathy-whisper followed with a question. (more…)
Women and Politics
“I didn’t run to make history, I ran to make a difference,” said Wisconsin’s newly elected female and first openly gay person elected to the U.S. Senate, Rep. Tammy Baldwin, but it’s probably safe to say that she is on her way to make history while accomplishing her goal to make a difference.
Senator Baldwin has not only carved her place in history by being first openly gay person elected to the U.S. Senate, but she was also a part of a group of powerful women senators-elect who won seats held by men.
Democrat, and U.S. Rep., Tammy Baldwin took an open Senate seat over Republican Tommy Thompson who had served 14 years as the state’s governor and was former U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services under President George W. Bush. Republican Deb Fischer defeated Democrat Bob Kerrey, a former two-term senator from the state, for an open seat in Nebraska during 2012 election. Democrat Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard University professor whose attacks on Wall Street fueled her campaign, won her race against the Republican incumbent, Sen. Scott Brown in Massachusetts and was the first woman to represent her state in the U.S. Senate. (more…)
A Little Mulch of Letters: Part 4- Love And Other Stuff
My best friend told me that she had felt safe in the sturdy arms of this Ethan’s embrace. She couldn’t help but let out a warm smile when all of their shared childhood memories came flooding back into her mind. It was incredibly obvious that they possessed mutual feelings of deep attraction between them.
But that was then.
Over the course of a year Ethan had come to California, went back to Oregon and helped Jessica see that the other boy, who drank heavily, wasn’t the best thing for her. Between the Danielle Steel-esque relationship drama, class, work and multiple jobs, Jessica had a little piece of her heart taken away to Oregon after that. She knew, however, that in the end that all of the drama was worth it and that it wasn’t a bust. (more…)
Thoughts About A Box
I walked into my classroom the other day, for the first scheduled class, and my teacher introduced herself and then began talking about the course.
“Have you guys ever heard of the phrase ‘thinking outside of the box’?”
Everyone in the class casually nodded and some students slowly started raising their hands to answer the rhetorical question.
“Well that phrase is completely outdated,” the teacher explained. “I want you to throw it out.”
Throw what out?” an eager freshman shouted.
“The box—I want you to throw the box out,” she continued. “The phrase implies that there is a box to begin with. Your thinking should be uninhibited and not based off of any set box or form. You should have your own opinions and think about things without the thought of a box.”
I was reminded of this “thinking without a box” when I ran into a story on Bloomberg about mixed-race Americans. I thought to myself, what box do multi-raced individuals check on the Census? Why do we even have to check a box on tests and other things? And how do we get around this thinking with a box? (more…)
A Little Mulch Of Letters: Part 3- That Small Town Feel
Jessica and I spent our first evening at the ranch and then at her place catching up on over a year of events away from each other. We chatted about our day, planned for the upcoming week, and had a talk about the fallout that happened when we were last together.
We woke up the next day and ventured through my old town going to old restaurants, eating at the town’s historic ice cream parlor, and drinking in the “charming” small town bars. It wasn’t until the day after that when we found ourselves wandering through the older part of the town in and out of the places that I had fond memories of and back into time where the past was preserved.
We walked into an old antique shop filled with knickknacks and items, which in my mind didn’t really seem that old, but were covered in dust and the tinged yellow edging that develops over time. (more…)
Women Banned From Universities In Iran
Republished from PhillyD(dot)TV
Not being able to play football with the boys just sucks, but not being able to grow up and go off to a university is just plain sex-discrimination. That’s exactly what Iran has been up when it decided to officially approve of female students being barred from more than 70 university degree courses according to the Telegraph.
This obviously goes beyond not fair which is why Iran’s most celebrated human rights campaigner, Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, demanding a UN investigation of Iran’s plan to have 36 universities make 77 BA and BSc courses in the coming academic year “single gender” and exclusive to men. (more…)
The Hollywood Intern: Part 12- The Hike
Click here to start from the beginning.
I slid out of the office like a bat out of a cave and left my first internship that day dragging all of my work materials behind me. I jumped into my car, slammed my seatbelt buckle into the car’s appropriate orifice and quickly sped out of the parking lot and onto the street like the building was on fire. It was definitely my time to leave since I had been cramped in a corner inside the frigid confines of the workplace and basically just felt blah all day.
I thought back to my previous weekend with one of my good friends from college, and the conditions that I endured in the office felt even more like an urban jail cell. By that time, I was not even half way home and stuck in the usual Los Angeles traffic. Always busy and never lets up, to get anywhere in this crazy city you have to double your usual traveling time due to wall-to-wall madness. I figured that then was good as a time as ever to think back to my hike. (more…)
Go Ahead and Exaggerate A Little
Teen Brain
After watching this video the other day I’ve realized something about the readers of this blog and me. For some reason we all love it when I exaggerate (for the most part). I literally do nothing during the day except for going to work, or school and then I go home and hang out with friends. Most of the rest of my time is spent writing all about the mundane things that I do and then posting it on the internet.
I’ve written a post about watching cat videos for Pete’s sake, and people still enjoy coming back to visit my blog. It’s entertaining at times to read all of my posts about nothing, but I worry now that it affects my relationships IRL (in real life) as well. Everything with me is “life or death,” “do this now or the world will end,” and “my situation is the worst situation in the world and I’m going to die right now.” Nothing is ever just moderately normal or just boring with me, and I’m not sure if that’s because I’m within that twenty to twenty-five-year-old last bit of brain developing stage or because that’s just me.
I take stories about picking up someone’s lunch at Wendy’s and I turn it into some disastrous catastrophe that ruined my life, or I talk about my experiences with watching training videos at my department store job and I turn it into something that sounds completely ridiculous. A planned trip to Oregon with friends has gotten stretched into an epic tale about life and love, and when I do get around to writing a completely made up story no one seems to respond to it. I suppose it’s something about my exaggerated life that draws people in and keeps them coming back for more. (more…)
The Hollywood Intern: Part 4- Life Decisions
Click here to start from the beginning.
I had no lunch, I was dehydrated and I had time in my second trip to the store to think about my confusing life. It was on my third run to the same store that day that all my problems that had been piling up made me snap.
“Can you go out one more time to get those again,” said one of the people in charge of the interns.
“ARE YOU SERIOUS?! ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?!” I’m going to kill everyone. I said under my breath.
“Never mind! Never mind!” I saw her face shift into shock. (more…)
The Hollywood Intern: Part 3- The Gas Bill
Click here to start from the beginning.
One the second day of my second internship I left the office early to go to my job at the department store that I had way across town. I had to leave about an hour and half or so before my shift began to get there on time and so I raced out of the office, paid for my insanely expensive parking spot and drove like a bat out of hell to work.
It was hot, and I was sweaty because I couldn’t really afford to tack on air conditioning prices on to my already crazy high weekly gas bill, and all I had was the toasty shift of wind that whipped my face with the stench of highway pollution.
When I got to work, I rushed through the back doors and clocked into my scheduled shift. I threw my badge on and walked to the section of the store where I was assigned to. We did our start of the shift meeting and I started grabbing go-backs to squeeze on the clothing racks.
“Hey you guys, what’s up?” I said to the girls when our shift manager walked away.
“I’m going to need you to start working on all of these go-backs over here while I get these,” said one of my coworkers who believes she’s in charge of everything I do.
“Okay.”
“And I don’t want you to do anything else okay? I’m working on these. Ask me if you need any help.”
“Alright.” She kept rambling on and telling me what to do, and so I decided to just walk away while she was expelling her diarrhea-of-the-mouth all over my already stressed out mood. I hid in the clothes racks and goofed off for a while thinking to myself how I really never liked this job. (more…)
The Hollywood Intern: Part 2- The Interesting Conversation
Click here to start from the beginning.
It was on the first day of my second internship where I was reminded of the other reason of why I took on both of these internships. The second internship was located in the heart of LA where all of the famous fashion stores and Hollywood stars would set up shop. I probably only had to drive about twenty or thirty miles or so to get to the office, but because I had to join the massive migration of cars traveling at the speed of a garden snail, it took me about an hour to end up in my overpriced parking structure.
Subtly nods, polite handshakes, and names were exchanged as I tried to settle into the new environment. The work that they had me do wasn’t as nearly stressful, and the fact that I didn’t have to stay there as long as the first internship made it feel a lot more relaxing. I went through the day quietly minding my own business until one of the girls who worked their invited me out for drinks with the rest of the people at the office. I accepted the offer in hopes of getting to know everyone there a little better, and decided to stay a few extra hours until we all made our way over to the popular Mexican restaurant.
Rounds of margaritas and quesadillas were served, and as I snacked happily on my free chips and salsa that sat in front of me at my table, I listened to the work conversations turn into after-hour rants. (more…)
For The Love of Reading
He stared blankly from across the table, which sat right in the middle of the white tiled floor, and off into some distant corner where one of the several armed guards happened to be standing. The white walls that housed the other men, who wore the same blue pants and a long-sleeved pull-over shirt in a light shade of blue that he did, also sat with friends and family members who came to visit them. The inmates, and those willing to step foot inside the prison, filled the spaces of the cafeteria-like arrangement of tables. They spoke about life on the outside and brought stories and pictures of lives that the men in the prison were missing out on, and if you actually looked into the eyes of the men that were on the inside of the metal fences woven together at the top with barbed wire and the occasional security camera lens, you could see the aching feeling of regret and sadness of how their lives have all ended up behind bars in prison. (more…)
“I Can’t Stay Present” A Poem About A Wandering Dream
I can’t stay present in one reality.
Zoning out and tuning in;
Shifting thoughts and gazing off
Into distant memories that populate my day dreams
And take up huge amounts of space in my mind.
The drifting moments take me off
Into other worlds and different realities
Where the warping of stars and beautiful
Swirling planetary systems change
And are not the familiar parts
Of the universe that I usually see.
At times I fall deep into a nightmare
And worrying thoughts from conscious life
Plague the spaces usually reserved for better things.
Images, words, sounds, saying, and phrases
Float in and come out of my mind, and sometimes,
They make their way onto paper.
A Labyrinth of Weathered Book Pages
I find the way humans use language so incredibly amazing and wonderful. The fact that words and symbols take the place of sounds and emotions is daunting if you really think about it. Having a name for something so abstract, or even being able to describe an unnamed entity with a combination of expressive phrases, is just so amazing.
We communicate all of our thoughts and feelings to one another with a range of building blocks that we arrange into larger systems of words and terms and then again into complex sentences and expressions. I fall in love with the English language all over again when I pick up a book and dive deep into my imagination filled with new worlds, interesting people, and strange universes populated with wonder and awe, and thinking back on it, this is probably the reason why I got lost in a labyrinth of weathered book pages at the mall. (more…)
Writing Autobiography: Word Vomit
I had been sitting in a dermatologist’s office, a bright and vibrantly colorful room, with nothing but a few sheets of paper and a dull pencil waiting for my mother to get some expensive and unneeded procedure done when my life drastically changed. The dermatologist’s office was out of town and nowhere near anything close enough to walk to and hang out at, and because I had just turned fourteen, I didn’t have a driver’s license or a car to escape the most boring situation that I’ve ever been in. There was no one in the room, except for the receptionist at the front desk quietly typing away on her keyboard, and there was nothing else in the room that could possibly entertain me for the few hours it was going to take my mom to finish her cosmetic procedure. I stared at the clock waiting for what seemed like several lifetimes, for the ever-so-slowly minute hand to take its sweet time to move just a tad bit over and because I didn’t feel like doodling on my paper and was left with nothing else to do, I began to write. (more…)
What Ever Happened to the Occupy Movement?
“…think of what ninety nine percent of the human race want – food, shelter, a secure family life and to be left alone by bosses and busybodies. Unfortunately the one percent who are interested in power and ideals and ideologies are the ones who call the tune.” -Aldous Huxley
Huxley’s statement still rings true sixty-five years later all over the world today. This awareness that only a measly one percent of the population holds all the power and most of the wealth tucked safe away in overseas banks and on thick gold, platinum, and black cards in their thousand-dollar wallets still rises to the surface, every now and then, when we get off from work or see an anxiety raising bill. Their is still economic inequality, just like there is social inequality, as I have mentioned before, right here and now.
After the Occupy movement activists’ camps started getting uprooted, the Occupy movement came back online proposing a new Declaration of Independence (from Corporations), along with a new Continental Congress in Philadelphia, and as of April 2012, the Movement continues to seek to bring attention to economic inequality processes. The thing is, even if you don’t see as many protesters outside with the “99 percent themed posters,” and people hanging out around tents, the movement still exists because the problem fueling the movement still exists.
“We used to be good at creating jobs, but now we’re not so good at creating jobs, we used to be good at creating bridges, or highways or infrastructure (we’re clearly not doing that, we haven’t done so for fifty years),”said David Rothkopf President and CEO of Garten Rothkopf and chief executive and editor at large of the Foreign Policy Group. ”We used to lead the world in innovation, but the innovation is now coming from other places. So in the past ten years, what have we led the world in? The one thing that we have really led the world in is creating inequality.”
David Rothkopf on Wealth Distribution
How I Write: My Evolution of Writing
I honestly thought that I was a terrible writer when I was growing up. I would pick up a few college-rule-lined binder-paper and scribble down whatever popped into my head with a dulled number two pencil, and then hand it in several minutes before class began. The problem with that was that the short five paragraph essay was riddled with so many grammar and spelling mistakes that it was genuinely difficult to even understand what I was trying to say, and I knew this—I just didn’t care. “Why reread and correct my mistakes? Isn’t that what the teacher is getting paid for?” I figured if the assignment was completed, and I had words on a page, that it didn’t matter if it made since or if it was interesting or not. I didn’t see the importance of looking over your work before submitting it, until after a mandatory essay contest gave me a wake-up call, and it didn’t occur to me that my mother’s suggestions, for me to actually read my essays and make sure they made sense, wasn’t her just nagging about my half-hearted attempt at doing my homework. (more…)
Left With Everything
A note to the reader: I have met many wonderful people in Bakersfield, and although the town is not for me, the entire population of people aren’t all really to blame.
I was lost. I had almost got ran over for the millionth time by a speeding vehicle, and nothing but confusion flashed before my eyes. I couldn’t see the future even if I was a psychic who was asked to make a prediction with a gun held up to my head, and it genuinely bothered me. I always had a plan or something to build off of. I was always so sure of myself and where I would eventually end up, and then somewhere along the way, I lost myself.
Ever since that van narrowly missed my fragile human body I have been trying to figure out my future plans and focus in life. “What the f#ck do I do next?” And then it hit me. Not the van. The way my life was going on right now, was the guiding force that would lead me to the “next step on my journey.”
Having two or three quarters left at Cal Poly Pomona made me re-assess my schedule. I obviously had limited choices with what I had left to take before graduation. I also knew that living here, in the University apartments while doing so, with incredibly loud and horny young college goers would eventually drive me bankrupt and insane, and so I had some direction there. (more…)
