the rain stopped

It stopped raining in the early afternoon.  I had a feeling the day would be gorgeous.  That is one of the great after-effects of rain.  When I saw the eastern sky, I had to take a picture.  I try to have a camera in case of such moments.  Someone asked me what I was shooting.  I told him the Stop Sign.  Well... the picture needed a subject.  I am not good at taking pictures using the sky as my sole subject.  The point of the picture was to get the red of the sign, the blue of the sky and the fleeing clouds.  The shadow that runs down the sign bothers me.  But that is the way it was.  I can't erase shadows. 

I hope that you were able to enjoy the day after today's rain.

Maria's tattoo

Maria finally let me have a picture of her tattoo.  She did not let me take the picture though. It is a butterfly.  As with all things the tattoo has me pondering, what does this mean to me?  Should I go out and buy wife beater shirts, grease up my hair and stick a cigarrette behind my ear?  All guys who have girlfriends with tattoos follow that prototype.  I don't look good in wife-beaters (is wifebeaters one word, two words or hyphenated?).  Wifebeaters look good on thin guys with a little bit of muscle.  I am too stocky.  Maybe if I smoked, I could trim down and look good in tank tops.  Then the cigarette behind my ear would make sense.  Why am I so conscious of what other people are doing?  Why do I feel a need to match or counter their actions?  Is that just human nature?  I like Maria's tattoo.  It adds a quality to her she didn't have before and it is not just limitted to a physical nature.  It made her happy and that is what matters.  There are those of you who might remember me when I got an earing on the left ear, then the right ear.  A couple of you might remember the time we were on a parking shuttle in Westwood and someone called me Boy George cause my accessorizing had gotten out of control.  It is embarassing to think about it now.  In a way though, it warms my heart to think of myself when I was young and trying to define myself.  For a while that earing worked.  One thing I have come to terms with is that we should all explore our options.  In the words of a great man, "Shyness is nice, but Shyness can stop you from doing all those things in life you'd like to."  Don't expect to see myself in a wife-beater anytime soon.

in conclusion

This is a tree I see on my way to the Hollywood gym I frequent.  In contrast to the tree below it makes me think of a very unhealthy mind.  Don't get me wrong it is beautiful in its own right.  It just doesn't work as an analogy of the mind.  The branches seem to be running away from the main body of the tree, all those right angles.  One can't imagine how one part of this tree even knows there are other parts to it.  On the other hand were someone to be contemplating a tree house, this would be the perfect tree for that purpose.  I have an assignment for you: look at the trees you encounter every day.  Imagine what kind of personalities they would have.  Which ones would be your friends?  Which ones would you try to avoid?  Which ones would you challenge?  Which ones would challenge you?

the brain

Epiphany is one of those words that I have a hard time recalling.  When I want to use it I always seem to gravitate towards the word 'euphemism' and this pull keeps me from epiphany.  An epiphany is a moment of clarity.  A euphism is something else. 

After a good bike ride, I like to cap off the experience with a libation in mom's back yard.  It is very relaxing.  It was even more pleasing when Puma was around and I would slowly sink into doggie consciousness as the bottle grew less fuller.  Now days I sit back there and watch the wind.  The tree in this picture captures the wind in a beautifully choreographed dance that only the randomness of nature could put on.  One day enjoying this dance I had an (here it comes) epiphany:  Nothing in this world is a better analogy for the human mind than a healthy tree.  The branches reaching out in all directions are analogous to our own branches of knowledge.  If the branches are well spread out and the leaves many, it is possible for one to see a direct line of contact between all the leaves on the tree.  Hence one leaf is never too far away from another.  Our mind is the same.  If our reasoning is healthy enough one thought is never too far away from another.  We realize the interconnectivity of the universe. 

 

just some thoughts

My thoughts are disconnected today.

I have been thinking about grammar lately.  I am always second guessing my writing, especially when it comes to commas.  I need a refresher in this area.  Commas allow for clauses in a sentence which are not vital to the meaning of the sentence but allow for some extra information.  So when we write, "I, Erick Villagran, will work on my grammar", the commas in that sentence help set up the subject.  But what about the comma I put in after the closing quotation, is that one necessary?  I like to think of grammar as the rules of writing which allow it to be precise.  Like the rules of math, grammar clears up ambiguities.  Consider the following math problem  2 + 5 X 3 =   .  If a student was to answer that problem as 21 (the product of the sum of 2+5 and 3) he/she would be wrong.  In math there is a rule called the order of operations which says that multiplication is performed before addition and subtraction.  The correct way to approach the equation is to multiply 5 and 3 then add 2; the answer is 17.  My point is this knowing grammar can help one communicate more effectively.  Does effective need a quantifier?

Another thought:  You see so many things being invented nowadays.  I would love to see someone invent this:  Eye glasses that would allow one to see where flatulence has been emmited.  Maybe more people would think twice about relieving themselves in public.  The idea comes from a warning from a childhood's friend mother.  When we would swim in their pool his mom would tell us that if we urinated while swimming a chemical in the pool would cause the ammonia in our urine to turn red.  So anyone who peed in the pool would be identified by the red water around them.  I could really use the Flatulence Glasses.  So many times at the gym someone lets one rip and I can't blame anyone.  I WANT TO BLAME SOMEONE FOR THIS.

One last thought:  The other day they were doing a story on the Channel 9 news about the first set of triplets turning 50.  I thought, "Really? Triplets have only been around for 50 years?"  Anyway I let that go.  But then the reporter when on to say that it was a natural childbirth cause cesarians weren't available in 1956.  Wasn't the Cesearian Birth named after Julius Ceasar?  Why would it be named after him if it wasn't around at the time he was born?  Was it just called a Breach Birth then? 

I won't take up anymore of your time.

 

I am back!!

I am back!!

Our DSL modem went out last week so I was grounded.  Weird, though, I thought I would miss internet access more than I did.  But I got a lot of things done that I might not even have started had the modem not gone down.  I guess it just goes to prove this artificial sense of busy we are under the spell off in this 21st. Century. 

I chose to put this picture in my journal because it is one I will always treasure.  In fact it is not a picture at all; it is a digital still frame from my camcorder.  I went to pick up Justin (my nephew) from school last year.  He was looking for his grandfather and started to look anxious when he didn't see him.  Then he saw me and man-o-man did he brighten up.  I know that part of his elation was due to the fact that he had not been abandoned.  But I want to believe that he was real glad to see his uncle.  The way he ran at me that day made me nostalgic for my own childhood.  Do you remember how you felt when the school day was over?    I wish there were moments in life you could put in a jar and save them forever.  Maybe you could take a nip here and there from that jar and you could savor those past moments again whenever you needed to.  I would definitely can that moment.  Thank you Justin for giving me this memory.

tax day

Mark, Chapter 12 (King James Bible) ChristianAnswers.Net WebBible

 

I was thinking about the Easter and Tax Day being in such proximity.  The site at the end of the link above helped me deal with the issue.  In a nutshell, keep your relationship with the Lord and your civic duties seperate. 

 

I just returned from the dentist.  I rode a bicycle there to save gas and money.  Unfortuneately, I got a flat and had to buy an inner tube.  So much for saving money.  Anyway, I am tired cause fixing the flat was more drama than I was looking for today.  I planned to engage this journal with enthusiasm and verve.  I no longer feel the motivated.