if i ride

if i ride, i'll know the way the trees smell after the rain.
i will grow a heart so strong that hospitals will take tuesdays off.
if i ride uphill i will eventually get to ride downhill,
that's how it works.
if i ride my breath would fill the air,
instead of smoking car exhaust.
if i ride, road rage would turn into laughter.
and i won't be a boy, or a girl, i will just be a rider.
if i ride, i can wear spandex, like spiderman.
and the planet would cool down and survive,
and thank me for riding with flowers and glaciers
and fireflies and snow days off from school.
if i ride, i will be strong.
i will change tires myself.
if i ride, i will only use oil on my chain,
and oil tankers would haul chocolate milk.
this is my poem to biking.


+listening to: nothing

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barack

when you want the car to go forward you put it in "D", when you wanna go backwards you put it in "R" - Barack Obama.

smoothly done. one of the great orators of our time.

+listening to: rally with president obama at uw madison

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awesome weekend

this weekend has been one of those really genuinely happy ones, because i felt at home, in my own skin. and being able to catch up with the important people in my life has reinvigorated me in some unimaginable ways.

it's glad knowing that people whom i can call family are not too far away, all the more why chicago is still one of my favorite cities of anywhere.

but as it always is, whatever goes up must come down. it's time to get down to business again and come back to the endless mill that school is. james taylor would tell you, "millwork ain't easy, millwork ain't hard, millwork ain't nothing but an awfully boring job. i'm waiting on a daydream, to take me through the morning, and put me in my coffee break, where i can have a sandwich..."

i should really get back to work before the morning sobers...

+listening to: before morning sobers by dean fields

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the things we do

for the second night in a row, perhaps two of my most favorite people in the world will take the stage together at wrigley field, such a proud venue with such rich history, singing some of my most beloved songs while i'm still here, mere 3 hours away, doing my thing. the thing i'd rather not do on this particular weekend, at this very hour.

but we all have to do the things we do sometimes. especially when we wish we could stay a little longer but can't, or when when we hope we could be somewhere else but were unable to.

so i sit here at the edge of my seat, staring into the tea cup at the anamorphic reflection of my face, imagining what it must have been like, listening to the songs i would have danced my heart out to. and just when i was getting up, the sudden realization that i'm still holding that cup of tea hits me as drops of scalding hot liquid make contact with my thigh.

what am i doing? i can't even dance.

so i sit back down, resigned to my own fate. i continue listening, and i will always continue listening till the day the music dies. but somehow this past week it felt as if that event is imminent, maybe it's because of the departure of mike portnoy from the band he founded, the band that i have come to be obsessed with for the past 10 years.

or maybe it's because i'm still here for the second day in a row, on a perfect afternoon, wishing i was somewhere else.

+listening to: you can bring me flowers by ray lamontagne

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the summer man

watching mad men makes me feel so peaceful inside. the chaos in "their" world becomes strangely comforting. maybe it's a reflection of what life might hold.

the characters and the style, it's almost too perfect. everything looks impeccable. there's something about the sensibilities of the 50's and 60's that has been sorely missing in contemporary american culture. some people might classify it as being "old fashioned", i'd rather think of it as a masterclass in style with substance. something you don't see very often nowadays.

i can't wait for every monday. it makes the whole week that much more bearable.

+listening to: nothing

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the subversion of soul

anima. âme. alma. soul. - the realization of human consciousness, only because we know it is there. it's the self awareness that defines it.

do inanimate objects have soul? i sincerely believe in the positive. but only when they have painstakingly passed through the hands of someone, or a collective of individuals who has put genuine effort into his/her handiwork out of pure and unadulterated passion for the craft. not because they've been enslaved into doing a mundane set of procedures and tasks that are easily replicable by machines. i'd like to think that's why machines were invented, in the name of "efficiency", because many people have inherently lost their passion for doing what they do. or maybe there was no passion to speak of from the start.

i'm not saying that mass production is a foul concept. it is on the contrary quite a marvelous idea. only mass production could meet our insatiable wants and demands. mass production makes certain that we still live in relative peace because we can now turn once geographically-bound and limited resources into tradable commodities worldwide for practically nothing. people no longer have to go to war. they just sit in a big empty room and talk dollars.

what we are seeing is a trend that is likely to remain irreversible. because a generation has had its ties severed with traditional forms of crafts that are rapidly becoming a part of a distant memory. most of us are destined to remain oblivious to their existence and would never learn to appreciate their ingenuity. this is largely due to the competitive pressures of big corporations that have pushed family run businesses to the brink of extinction. there are resurgences in recent times of efforts to preserve those old world traditions, but those are likely to remain lonely fortifications, manned by aficionados and purists holding on by the skin of their teeth.

believe it or not, in the real world soul can be seen, heard, felt and smelt. you just have to know where to look. and you also have got to look closely enough. like that song once said, "the detail's in the fabric..."

you'll just have to go with me on that.



Anima D'Acciaio Trailer from Cinecycle on Vimeo.


+listening to: details int he fabric feat. james morrison by jason mraz

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unlikely combination

who thought that a nice bit of scotch and work goes hand in hand so well. it's as if they were made for each other. i'm actually enjoying this.

+listening to: #41 by dave matthews band

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hello

you weep while i sleep and put on a strong face when i wake.

hello sunshine. i feel so much better already believe it or not.


+listening to: tall buildings by the jones street boys

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