Tuesday, March 13, 2012

The Wheels on the Bus

How can you live carefree if you have to limit yourself?
Where carefree is just as much as an obligation and limiting
how can you live by the rules and yet walk outside the line?
to be the outlier - it's not an easy thing to do though talking about it is easy

All through your life, you are told to do what you want, to do the things that most people don't do - to take risks.
but every time you take a big step forward, you stop yourself and take a reality check and take a step back again. there's no one else. there's no physical opposition. just you, the line....and you.
you vs. yourself
But that's the dilema isn't it? Just when you tell yourself what a wonderful feeling it would be to not feel restricted by rules and guidelines, and just after you take a lung-full of air, close your eyes, and clear your head and take that step, time seems to slow down to the point in which your brain recalculates.

"Keep going forward - RECALCULATING" 


then you're eyes snap open, the image of reality floods in and you jump back again.
then the "angel" you scolds you for being so reckless saying stuff like "THINK before you speak...have you THOUGHT it through? what were you THINKING?"
and then you apologize to yourself like you're your own mom or something weird like that

What's the problem? what's stopping you - or us? Why does the angel have to scold us.
Now that i think about, maybe the way we label everything is wrong. What if there was no "angel" and "devil" and what if taking risks didn't have a bad connotation? Wouldn't it be wonderful if everything is like Switzerland? All neutral and full of chocolate (they are great comfort food :)).

perhaps it would be easier if we didn't see everything in black and white, labels and whatnot. Maybe everything would be clearer like a pair of reading glasses (cuz i think we all have glaucoma now). The labels that have laid on top of each other in layers and layers is only get into a bigger pile with each coming year. Seeing things in black and white and even gray is complicating everything and though we may think that that's just how the modern world works: compartmentalized, innovative, advanced, and of course, complicated. But that may not be a good thing - like 3-D glasses.

when have we ever just stopped - and i mean really stopped - and just sat down and thought, about these things. Just take a moment to put your head down and contemplate in the universe of endless darkness. if we didn't think so much about "good", "bad", "idealism", "realism" blah blah, maybe  we can see the bigger picture in which decisions, big and small can be made with a clearer and more confident mind?

now i know that this might be just all kid talk. Yea sure, lets just ditch humanity and go back to being monkeys and not care about anything but bananas and peeing on trees to mark territories. There it goes with the labeling.

Sigh.
You know, sometimes i think that humans are too smart for their own good
there's just too much to think about.
Especially when you realize that knowledge is not encased in a list. It's not some shopping list that once you learn something, you check off on the list and there are gradually less things to deal with. No, knowledge is definitely not a list. It it more like pop stars. Just when you thought Britney Spears ended, then comes Miley Cyrus. And just when she stopped, then came Justin Bieber. And before he even went anywhere, came Rebecca Black. Well she's gone.....who's next? You begin to realize that no matter how many come and go, there will always be another popstar, and another, and another, and another....Finally you feel like somebody is pranking you and you are standing in a dark room, now wondering if it is a room at all. You start to think that this might actually be a dark tunnel in which the end....is there an end? The more you learn, the more you realize that there are even more things to know....or rather more things that you don't know. and therefore, you realize just how little you really know...about anything. That's knowledge.

ok off topic once again - this is why i can't get good grades on essays lol.

as for the bigger picture i'm was talking about.....do you wanna know what it is?
it is the Earth..
in other words, whatever decisions you make, don't look back.
take responsibility of your actions and don't blame others
don't say "If only i had....." because you can always steer yourself in the right direction again.
don't look back. there's no point. move on. the sun rises and sets everyday.
and the wheels on the bus goes round and round and round again....

Saturday, March 10, 2012

I lost my mojo (i had mojo?)

....he said......sadly....@!#$!$#@!$#@!

Well the truth comes out: I have officially lost my writing mojo. As you might've noticed, I haven't written much lately - or wrote well lately. Ever since a year ago, i have not written a proper editorial, or articles that gave my signature sage wisdom to my readers in troubled times. Nope, i've just written some rants about school and how much i hate course selections and teachers i hate. 

but hey, that's still "things" isn't it? although when i chose "things" as the name of my blog (i wasn't really creative) i kinda implied "(good) things."

Needless to say, all my dreams of being head of TIME magazine are dashed. 

The ability to write, words actually, just flowed out of my brain like....uh...water. But now i write like i'm constipated. Maybe it's writer's block or maybe i'm just out of practice. Or maybe it's the amount of stress and pressure i get from school that makes me all nervous. And of course, every time i'm nervous, i screw up. I've never thought about it this way (probably cuz i still had my mojo back then), but now whenever i see that blinking cursor, i imagine my chem teacher looking at me in an expectant/arrogant way. No idea why my chemistry teacher....maybe because i don't like chemistry.

You know, the saddest part is that i saw this coming but i couldn't stop it. I saw it from a mile away. Like in a desert, and the heat rises in barely visible waves, and you can see a vague figure in the distance.....ok here's a better analogy. Like when you watch a scary movie and you know that something is going to jump out, so you mentally prepare yourself for the moment until - 
"HOLY SHIT!!!!"

 Unlike the buildup or the climax, the aftermath is a slow and drawn out torture....

"jeez wow, didn't know you were such a sissy...is this your first time watching a horror movie?"

"...NO, of course not...."
Answer: yes

now i'm trying to slowly crawl back to the golden days. i have to, otherwise how i'm i suppose to be worthy enough to even apply for journalism? 

but it's okay, cuz i've got a plan. I just have to read a lot more books. And not those boring books you get in you literature class. But i've tried to keep an open mind, so i've tried to thoroughly analyze the writing in the book i got from one of my classes, "Lone Patriot" by Jane Kramer. Well here's the data results and analysis from the experiment: 
  • Paperback: 272 pages (pretty short)
  • Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.6 x 8 inches (pretty small)
  • Time took to read: 5 weeks
  • Symptoms: drowsiness, headaches, and may cause vomiting 
Here's the other side notes:
"Lone Patriot" was about the backwoods militia americans who live in the forgotten corners of Washington whose goal was to bring the country back to it's days of the founding fathers. But before you think of Robin Hood and his Merry Men, consider this: this ragtag group consisted of child molesters, anti-semitics  (that's a given) that resides in their mobile home sweet mobile homes, and basically platinum card members of (weapons and ammunition) general stores. That's all great and exciting but....i think i significantly loosened my tooth when my elbow, which was propping my head while i was reading/sleeping, slipped and my face hit the edge of the table. Literature books (and their movies) can be really disappointing. i mean, they build you up with their summary that always ends in a "....read the book to find out what happened!" (or the teacher says it) and you end up with long droning lectures about...stuff that you and i obviously can't remember now.

So, moral of the story is, only read school unrelated books. it's ok, there's always Sparknotes or cliff notes or something like that.

Now that i think about it, i think that books should have warning signs on the back....headaches, drowsiness, vomiting, may cause diarrhea...

Another way i can improve is...write more. 
Yup that's right. It's gonna be a long road back home. There's gonna be some sweat, tears, grueling workouts like....finger push ups or something, pencil breaking, paper cuts, and all that jazz going on.
And my readers, or reader, will have to be there every step of the way (unless you get tired of me writing crap and leave - i won't judge (secretly i will)). It's gonna be a hell of a slow process. But i'm foolishly optimistic write (pun intended...ha...ha...)? Slowly but maturely, it's a journey i have to go through alone. no one can help me. not even trusty thesaurus.com. 

But before i go on this painful and upper-lip-sweating journey.....i've just got two more questions to ask:

ARE YOU READY?????!!!

and

what's another word for "sadly" ?



Thursday, March 8, 2012

Course Selections

it has arrived
one of the most stressful things in high school....signing up for junior year's classes
i wished i was never born...

if i never reach average height...i'm going to blame the stress
ok enough self pitying.....here's the problem: what should i take next year?
geez, i can't even write properly
i dunno if is should take AP US History, everyone is telling me that i should take it but i really don't know if i should. the stress for just choosing classes is incredible - i can literally feel an anvil is weighing on my mind
anyways,  i'm already taking 3 AP classes and 2 Honors classes but people are making me feel like i should take more AP classes...like 5 or something
i like history but i don't think that i'll have enough time for other stuff that i wan't to accomplish in junior year...
when in doubt...make a list:
this is all the things i want to do next year:

  • WRITE A BOOK
  • GET INTO JOURNALISM (IF I CAN)
  • STUDY FOR SATs
  • REALIZE THAT SCHOOL ISN'T ALL THERE IS TO LIFE(which i feel like it is right now
of course i want to successful in life
i mean who doesn't
but i feel like people are saying that if i don't take APUSH then i'm not gonna get into a good college blah blah blah...
it's hard making your own decisions and sticking up for yourself when everyone around you is pressuring you to do something
i can be successful in the future without taking APUSH right? right....?
i hate making decisions.....usually the idea of freedom to choose whatever you want is a good idea
but it isn't when what you want isn't one of the options
what do i want? i wish i wouldn't have to make decisions.....

it's times like these when i wish that humans lived in jungles and ate bananas all day and hanged out with chimpanzees...

i'm planning to take regular US history....and i dunno if i'm the right the decision
i kind of wanna take APUSH but....i'm worried if i might not do well in it
then what? not get into a good college like everyone says?
i've written editorials and other stuff about making your own decisions...and so far i'm not a hypocrite
sticking to your own beliefs and making your own decisions isn't easy.....that's one thing i learned
also, writers can be full of crap

makes me wanna find a grass field in some unknown european country and lie down and look at the clouds....one of the luxuries of life...

right now, all i see is my course selection papers