New Age lexicon

Energy, vibrations, kundalini, fire, field, source, connection, spirit, qi (chi), chill, cool, flow, feel, guide, guru, individual, centered, healing, micro-molecular, waves, universe, dude.

Can y'all think of anything I missed?

rythms and rhymes

I am collecting new experiences in a slow, methodical way. Not the mainline approach that the New Yorker in me is prone to do, but rather a San Diego approach. Dude.

Woke up and meditated. Drank coffee. Scraped and painted. Wrote. Took a walk. Sat in a coffee shop. Read a chapter of a dense, academic book. Ate a muffin. Set up for classes. Got water urns filled for tea. Ate a delicious meal made by Hip Fu. Drank two glasses of wine. Now, might wander for a walk, or read Pilgrimage of 88 temples (which I plan to do this spring) or watch a few episodes of the avatar.

goodnight.

eye patch

I believe
In shiny things
a practical application
that finds me pennies
on quiet streets
glimmers on the concrete
that remind me of mines and ships
and sails and concepts like plunder

I wonder if I would make a good pirate
a corsair of the new millennium
my boat; my body, a vessel
sea worthy by all counts
except one

a deep distaste for the deep
you see, I believe
in shiny things
that scatter the surface
lie on the edges
are found in the creases of a smile

let me not find myself in oceans
I can't traverse
seas that leave me sunken
searching and not finding
things I do not need

The Ideal

Another look into my life at The Ideal Hotel. This picture is of the tea house, from the back of the space looking towards the entrance.

I sense my time here coming to a close as Thanksgiving approaches, with Christmas not far behind. The space has been good to me, and I hope I can give back some physical and mental energy in the days to come.

standardized tests

What do they actually serve to measure? After thirty+ hours of preparation, I took the GRE exam yesterday afternoon. As two of the three sections are instantly graded, I had immediate feedback as to how I "measured" up. The thing that struck me the most about the whole process of preparation and examination is how much of a rite of passage it is to the privileged classes in this country, and to those in the world who are taking it as a ticket to the opportunity for post-graduate studies in the United States. A doorway of entry into the upper echelons, guarded by alegebraic madness, and vocabulary like excoriate, or opprobrium.

Of course, the knowledge of that information is not truly the key to this examination, and those that make the mistake to simply study the information covered will be sorely dissapointed with their scores. The test seems to actually be designed to test ones mental fitness under pressure, as time is a key factor in the exam. It is also not so subtely a test in comfortablity in the culture of western academia .

In the end, I did well. I was actually pleasantly suprised at how well considering the sweat on my brow during the examination when I barely was able to finish a math section in the time alotted. How much the result influences my ability to get into Phd programs remains to be seen.

obama!

Its Thursday and I'm still basking in the after-glow of Tuesdays election results. This election signals a clear break from the past, an opportunity for us to be able to once again participate as proud Americans in a globalized world, and the possibility of some real policy shifts in Washington. Most importantly for me, I now have a leader I can look at and feel represents my personal experience as an American.

Yet, I still have some concerns. the expectations that are heaping on this brothers shoulders, as if in four or eight years we can radically change this countries trajectory, is alarming to say the least. We all got to do our part to lighten his load, and make the changes we want to see.