Monday, June 30, 2008

Fascination with the number 3

Recently I've become aware of the number three in American culture. I must admit I am fascinated with 3 or things that come in three. Upon further inspection I came up with an ever-growing list of this so-called Trichotomic pattern in American culture:

1,2,3
A,B,C
Beginning, Middle, End
First, Middle, Last
Body, Mind, Spirit
Left, Center, Right
Heaven, Hell, Purgatory
Guitar, Bass, Drum
Introduction, Body, Conclusion
Good, Better, Best
3 Stooges
3 Amigos
3 Musketeers
Tall, Grande, Venti
Small, Medium, Large
Trifecta
Triple Crown
Trinity
Hat Trick
Third Time's a charm
Tripod
Tic-Tac-Toe
triple threat (Sing,Dance,Act)
Rock,Paper,Scissors
Three-Ring Circus
Three-ring binder
Men, Women, Children
Blood, Sweat, Tears
Snap, Crackle, Pop
Ready, Set, Go
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Reading, 'Riting, 'Rithmetic
Past, Present, Future
Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow
Earth, Wind, Fire
Solid, Liquid, Gas
Lights, Camera, Action
Win, Lose, Draw
Acronyms: CBS, NFL, AAA, NBA, UPS, CNN, ATM...
Land, Sea, Air
3 strikes
Three Little Kittens
Three little pigs
Three little bears
Red, White, Blue
First, Second, Third
Beg, Borrow, Steal
Cool, Calm, Collected
Me, Myself, I
Ready, Willing, Able
Love, Honor, Obey
Gay, Straight, Bi
Menage-a-trois
Signed, Sealed, Delivered
Three of a kind
Three's Company
Three's a crowd
Upper, Middle, Lower classes
3 branches of government

Hero or Zero

"I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to become president." Gen. Wesley Clark.

Right on, Wes! One hunded percent absolutely TRUE !!!
McCain is a zero in my book. Less than Zero. This is America and I can say what I think. Here's a foolish coward, incompetent pilot, delusional, brain-damaged Johnny McInsane, he was a POW which to me means ex-con. If having military experience and service is a qualification for the presidency than how come Kerry was not elected? Gee Dubya Bush was MIA and didn't serve one day in combat either. Actually after being on the job for 8 years, Bush is still not qualified for the presidency.

Why is it that we never declared a war on Iraq? So, technically we are not at war so let's call it a tie and get the hell out of dodge. Who's gonna argue with us? We're Uncle Sam. We do what we want. Screw y'all!!!

John McCain has no more experience in being president than my dentist. Although this Obama fella is getting to be more of a WIMP, he's really more of a woman than Hillary ever was. He seems to forget that people supported him for real change, not caving into the center like he was doing the last few days. Man up and grow a pair, dude. We don't want another Republican Lite.

Friday, June 27, 2008

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

99 Facts about Me



1) I was born in Viet Nam.
2) I'm a pacifist.
3) I'm ambidextrous.
4) I am doubled-jointed and no, I don't know Kung Fu or Karate or Tai Kwan Do or Judo.
5) My favorite number is 9.
6) I have never missed a day of school from K to 12th grade. Perfect attendance.
7) I love to travel. I have been to 4 continents and over 20 different countries.
8) I have lived in 8 different states and I still have driver licenses/ IDs from those states- my wife says it's illegal, yeah I know, but I like to keep them as souvenirs. Shh, don't tell anyone.
9) I have driven across the country three times. The first time was with the whole family, when we moved back from Puerto Rico, we drove to Iowa and then headed out West to San Diego. The other times I was driving solo from California to Maine and Maryland. I loved it. I think I was born to ride.
10) I am proud to be a Jock, a geek, and an artist.
11) In the late 80's, I was a DJ at KZSC-FM, in Santa Cruz, California.
12) I was a DJ at KCR-Radio, San Diego State Unviversity
13) I was a DJ at WMPG- Portland, Maine in the early 90's.
14) I was a DJ at WORT- in Madison, Wisconsin for one summer.
15) The show's name was The Temple of Boom.
16) I love the 80's.
17) I am a born-again Agnostic
18) I have worked as a courier, a library tech, a sound engineer, a stage manager, lighting designer, assembly line worker, census taker, a cashier, and newspaper delivery person.
19) I have not broken any bones in my body. I might have broken someone else's during my high school soccer days.
20) I am a Feminist.
21) I am psychic, sometimes. I might know what you're thinking.
22) My favorite subjects in school were Math and P.E.
23) I have been keeping a journal since I was 8.
24) I've lived through 5 decades, 2 centuries, and 2 millenium ?
25) I love to eat all kinds of food.
26) Coffee, Java, Cafe, joe, mocha...3 cups a day.
27) Desserts, oh sweetness, anything sweet.
28) I can memorize 500 students' names in 3 weeks. I have to see these elementary school kids at least once a week to teach them.
29) I am an ISFP on the Myers-Briggs type.
30) I am obsessed with making lists.
31) I am a cat person. We have 3 adult cats and 2 orphaned kittens. I like their independence and aloofness.
32) I am a music lover. Eclectic: blues, funk, punk, country, rock, reggae, jazz, electronica, folk, hip hop, soul, worldbeat, bring 'em on. Right now I'm listening to Channel 76 on XM Satellite Radio.
33) I think Silence is underrated and technology is overrated.
34) I know I am just as smart as a fifth grader.
35) This statement is untrue.
36) I drink 9 glasses of water a day.
37) I do 9 reps of a set when I work out.
38) I have 9 pairs of shoes.
39) I was the co-captain of my high school soccer team. I was number 18 (1+8=9)
40) I was the captain of my college intramural basketball team.
41) I like to march to the beats of my own drummer.
42) I don't like alcohol or beer.
43) OK, once in a while, when I drink beer, I like Land Shark
44) I listen to NPR, mostly for news and Car Talk on the weekend.
45) I watch ESPN, TLC, Bravo, F/X, Comedy Central, VH-1 and HGTV.
46) I know how to breathe properly, using my diaphram.
47) I am rediscovering the importance of PLAY in life. I am playing right now.
48) I'm a tree hugger.
49) I love cold weather. My ideal temperature is 45 degree F.
50) I miss the seasons, the changing of the colors of the leaves, the snow, rain.
51) I have broken the law in three different states.
52) I rode my bike to work at the Dallas Theater Center in 100 degrees heat. Dry. Texas. Heat. July.
53) I like walking around bare foot.
54) I like walking around wearing flip-flops.
55) I used to walk to school in elementary school wearing sandals.
56) Never had socks or shoes until I came to the US when I was 13.
57) Speak Spanish when I can. The new elementary school where I'll be teaching next year has a 70% Hispanic student body.
58) I won a shorthand and typing contest in high school.
59) My brother is a member of the SWAT team with the San Diego Police Dept.
60) Perhaps that's why I like to make fun of the men in blue. My favorite TV show is Reno 911.
61) I'm an Air American.
62) That's right, I am a Liberal Progressive Leftist Democrat. And I can vote. Deal with it.
63) I'm an introvert. I believe "action speaks louder."
64) I am an equal-opportunity offender.
65) I do enjoy getting these thoughts off my chest in my own unique way.
66) I have subscriptions to The Sun, Utne Reader, Good, Funny Times and School Arts magazines. My favorite place to go is the public library. I read a lot of non-fiction.
67) Easily-amused, easily-offended, and easily-distracted.
68) Am Allergic to religion.
69) I'm a decent speller. "Numbnut" anyone?
70) I can clap with one hand.
71) I play the piano, guitar and harmonica.
72) I can read music but I prefer to read books.
73) I like to answer questions with other questions or say Why not?
74) I might be dyslexic. I was ticketed for driving 52 in a 25 MPH zone and for driving 53 in 35 zone. Seriously.
75) I know what I did last summer.
76) Ah, the Food Network. For some reason I always watch it even though I don't cook or have any desire to learn or try to cook.
77) Yeah, I'm so vain, and I think this song is about me.
78) I named our 2 new kittens: Pablo and Georgia after famous artist Picasso & O'Keefe. Our other cats' names are Jasmine, Frankie and Mo.
79) I believe in Karma.
80) Teachers are my role models.
81) I think life is about finding balance and serenity in the midst of all the changes and challenges.
82) Attitude is everything. I frequently have to adjust mine.
83) My motto: Control your passion.
84) Always working on my alias, nickname, pseudonym, noms de plume, pen name, AKA
85) Lead, Follow, or get out of the way. Neither, I make up my own new rules.
86) Patience is a burden.
87) Ignore these four words.
88) Money can't buy happiness, but it sure can rent it. I am a renter by the way.
89) Homeownership is a scam, y'all. We were homeowners for 5 years. Never again.
90) I refuse to surrender my freedom! Freedom is absolutely free. No cost. Nada.
91) I believe there is a time and place for everything.
92) I make the hard stuff easy.
93) I make the easy stuff hard.
94) I do my best and hope for the best. That's my teaching philosophy.
95) Everything I know I learned in the ART room.
96) I like to use my imagination.
97) I always do what's next.
98) I know when to stop.
99) I remember the lyrics to the song 99 LuftBalloons by Nena.

Monday, June 23, 2008

Bummer! The Great One is gone.



Around 1987, I was a Junior in college at UC Santa Cruz, while looking for some records to play on my late late night radio show "Temple of Boom", I came across a comedy album by George Carlin. I put on the track known as "Seven Words" at around 3:30 AM after a song by the local band Camper Van Beethoven. I have been a fan of his work since then.

Yesterday, the MAN died at the age of 71. He was just a couple of years younger than my mom. George Carlin was a genius. He was a modern philosopher, a fearless social critic, a keen observer of human behavior, a witty wordsmith, an amazingly silly and sick comedian, and one of the greatest thinkers of this millenium. He was a thinking person's comic. In the midst of one of his vulgar rants, you suddenly realize that he was making a very serious point about society, religion, war and human failings. I like his work because I identify myself with a lot of his views and attitudes about the world. He was anti-war, anti-establishment, anti-religion, anti-capitalism, and in-your-face about it all. He made you think and appreciate the beauty of the English language. We need more people like George Carlin in this world and he will be greatly missed.

I went to my local library here in Smyrna and checked out all three of his books: When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?, Brain Droppings, and Napalm & Silly Putty. Incredibly, they have shelved them in 3 different locations. I think I might the only person who has ever checked these books out. I am reading his last book When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? and it is hilarious.

"The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person, who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be alive while you are alive." George Carlin (1937-2008)

Friday, June 20, 2008

HotLanta in Da Summer


"You need to get a hobby!" said my wife today. This is one of my hobbies. I collect water bottles. I only keep the ones I think are unique, beautiful and useful to me.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

God Bless Everyone. No exceptions!

"Most people do not pray; they only BEG." George Bernard Shaw

"I find it very difficult to ask G*d for things in the way that I was taught as a child. Do I believe G*d is going to take away my illness when he turned an entirely deaf ear to the 6 million Jews who went into the gas chambers?" Karen Armstrong

"I once asked a Jesuit priest what was the best short prayer he knew. He said, "F*ck it," as in "F*ck it; it's in G*d's hands." Anthony Hopkins

"When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realized that the Lord doesn't work that way, so I stole one and asked for forgiveness." Emo Philips

"Faith is believing what you know ain't so." Mark Twain

"If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him." Voltaire

As far as I know, these well-known folks were (are) agnostics too: Mark Twain, Carrie Fisher, Bill Maher, Andy Rooney, Carl Sagan, W.C. Fields,Steve Wozniak, Marie Curie, and Albert Einstein.

Quotes on Faith, Spirituality and suffering

"We are here and now. Further than that, all knowledge is moonshine." H.L. Mencken

"I am so absorbed in the wonder of the earth and the life upon it that I cannot think of heaven and the angels. I have enough for this life." Pearl S. Buck

"Don't put your faith in anyone. You have it all inside you. You're always asking the masters. Why don't you ask yourselves? Forget the masters." J. Krishnamurti

"If you're in a bad situation, don't worry; it'll change. If you're in a good situation, don't worry; it'll change." John A. Simone Sr.

"Don't look forward to the day you stop suffering, because when it comes, you'll know you're dead." Tennessee Williams

"And this, too, shall pass away."

Monday, June 16, 2008

Random Rambling from a Slacker

"I have nothing to say and I'm going to say it just once." Frank Smith.

Here are the 8 quotes I live by:

1) "Simplicity is the essence of true beauty." fortune cookie #9

2) "Life is what you make it. Always has been, always will be." Grandma Moses

3) "I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it." Vincent Van Gogh

4) "Get the Balance Right" song by Depeche Mode

5) "We learn to do something by doing it, there is no other way." John Holt

6) "That is mine which none can steal from me." Henry David Thoreau

7) "Without PLAY-without that child still alive in all of us-we will always be incomplete. And not only physically, but creatively, intellectually, and spiritually as well." George Sheehan

8) "First, learn the rules, then break them. Rules were made to be broken." Me

Friday, June 13, 2008

Fear and Loathing in Georgia

Q:  What's funny in the South?
A:  Everythin' Y'all.

Dennis Kucinich is still my #1 choice for POTUS.  The man is a true patriot, too bad America is all about style over substance. 
Obama is fine but he is for the war in Afghanistan, unlike Kucinich, who is a pacifist.  I'm all for a Department of Peace.

Is there a God?  I don't know and I'm not convinced either way.  I was raised Catholic, actually my Mom's side was Buddhist, my Dad was one of those born-again Christian after recovering from a severe illness.  I haven't gone to a church in over 20 years. 
Anyway, if there is a God/Goddess, then WHO created him/her in the first place?  Oh yeah, right, one of life's little mysteries.  Or is it the Big Bang theory?

"... But I think that God's 
Got a sick sense of humor         
And when I die         
I expect to find him laughing."    
Depeche Mode (Blasphemous Rumors)

And now for something completely different.

Eight Famoust people I've met:

1)  Carl Lewis- 1986, Houston, Texas.
I pulled up into a parking space right next to his Jaguar sports car. We got out about the same time and as we were heading to the drugstore, I suddenly recognized his saunter from watching the LA '84 Olympics.  The man was tall and bouncy and fast as heck.

2)  Cindi Lauper- 1991, Portland, Maine. 
Her then boyfriend, now husband was in a play I was working on.  Met her right at the entrance of the Portland Stage theater.

3)  Randall Duk Kim- 1992, Spring Green, Wisconsin. 
Worked with him for 2 summers. Big time classical stage actor, finally sold out to mainstream movies like Matrix 2, King & I and Kung Fu Panda.

4)  Cheri Jones- 1993, Baltimore, Maryland. 
Legendary stage actress. Tony award winner.  Really nice and sweet woman.  Worked with her on Eugene O'Neil's play A Moon for the Misbegotten.

5)  Diana DeGarmo- 1996, Atlanta, Georgia. 
Before becoming runner-up on American Idol a few years back, she was just a 9 year old working at the Atlanta '96 Olympics where I was a sound engineer. Ordinary singer, perky personality.

6)  Elton John- 1998, Atlanta, Georgia. 
He met the cast and crew on stage of the Alliance Theatre for the Disney pre-Broadway production of Aida. I was not impressed. I quit show business two years after this.

7)  Michael Moore- 2000, Marietta, Georgia (Central Library)
I recognized his Detroit baseball cap, and having been a fan of his TV Nation show at the time.  He was in town taping something about Newt Gingrich and Cobb County. He was looking at me like: "Dude, there's an Asian guy in the South ?"

8)  Toad the Wet Sprocket- 1989, Santa Cruz, California. 
I interviewed them live on a radio show at my college radio station, KZSC. I remember that the drummer was really short.  They played an underwhelmed acoustic, unplugged set.  Then at the end, the band manager took my cassette airshow tape which I had rolling during the show.  Holy Moly, it's been 19 years.  Where did the time go?

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Topics for upcoming blog

1)  Remember Michael Moore.  He was right all along about the Iraq fiasco in his Fahrenheit 9/11 film.  This man is one of most patriotic Americans ever.  No one is talking about that lately.  People need to give the man props.  Apologize.  Please.
2)  Male teachers in elementary school. It's a dangerous world out there for us.
3)  Too much technology can be a bad thing.
4)  Gimme a terrorist fist jab, bruh!  Bump!    Pound !!!!
5)  What are people listening to: XM Satellite Radio, Sirius Radio, or other interesting internet stations ?  Why is regular broadcast radio
in Atlanta suck / blow ?
6)  What is art anyway?  Really, what do you consider art?
7)  What's the difference between Paradox, Conundrum, and Dichotomy?
8)  Some people ask why.  I ask why not.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Be Water, My Friend

"Be formless...shapeless like water. If you put water into a cup,it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle; it becomes the bottle. You put it into a teapot; it becomes the teapot. Water can flow, and it can crash. Be water, my friend." Bruce Lee (date unknown).

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Meme Schmeme

Eight things for which I have a passion:

1) Art-the fine arts, not the entertainment crapola
2) Music-all kinds of eclectic groovy sounds
3) Humor-because life is too important to take seriously.
4) Education-I'm a lifelong learner
5) Sports-soccer,basketball,football,track, no golf please
6) Nature- trees,ocean,rocks,flowers,animals
7) Food-especially coffee & desserts
8) Cats-they're fascinating and amazing creatures. I have 5

Eight things I say a lot:
1) Awesome!
2) Listen up!
3) Good morning,______!
4) Have a great day!
5) Stop! Look this way!
6) Groovy, baby
7) Here we go.
8) It is what it is...

Eight books I've read recently:
1) Don't Sweat the Small Stuff - Richard Carlson
2) Choke by Chuck Palahniuk
3) Life after God - Douglas Coupland
4) Buildings for Tomorrow -Paul Cattermole
5) Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin
6) The New Creative Artist by Nita Leland
7) A short guide to a happy life - Anna Quindlen
8) Buddha: A story of Enlightenment - Deepak Chopra

Be back for more, including 8 things I'd like to do before I die, 8 movies I have seen 8 times (nah, probably not), 8 famous people I've met, 8 albums (or CDs) I can't live without...