tonight i'm in the library, watching online lectures, catching up on the reading that was not read this weekend. i went home for the weekend and spent saturday and sunday as much time as i could at the beach. it was a lovely and relaxing escape. there's nothing better than laying down and listening to the waves crash on the shore. i was imagining doing yoga on the beach. that would be pretty amazing, one day i shall do that. well, i hope your monday wasn't too bad. i've been really inspired lately with coldplay's viva la vida cd and i can't get enough of santana's "samba pa ti" as per usual. how cool is the strawberry swing vid? i don't know, maybe it's just me, but i think it's genius and entertaining. coldplay is perfect to listen to when i'm walking around campus and daydreaming, staring at the trees. i really need to see santana before i die or well, he does. he's perfect to listen to when i'm hanging out or studying. speaking of which, i should go back to the lecture tab on this window lol. oh and the pic above i found on flickr, it just made me smile, so i wanted to share it.
tonight i went to go see screening of the film "Darius Goes West: The Roll of His Life" and i don't really have words to explain what i felt. it made a big impact on me though. it's a documentary about the story of Darius Weems who has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) and wants to get MTV to pimp out his wheelchair on "Pimp My Ride" and travel around the U.S. he and his 11 friends take a road trip from his hometown Athens, Georgia to go west to California. this film makes you laugh and cry and really see disabilities in a new light. his story is not the only inspiring part of the story, it's him and his attitude. i can't even begin to describe how amazing of a person he is. you'll just have to see it for yourself. through dariusgoeswest.org, you can see the entire film for free. i encourage you not only to see it because it is an amazing film, but also to learn about DMD and the efforts that are being done to find a cure. 
i don't like to make any partial posts on religion per se but i felt like writing about this thought. i'm taking a native american religions course and one of the main discussions is animism. i find it a very captivating subject. the idea that every person, animal, plant, even manmade objects could have souls or spirits. whatever religion or belief or way of life that you practice, i think there should still be an underlining importance to respect the world around us. i believe that by being one of many species/things/objects, our actions have consequences. even if you're atheist, there is an earth around us, there is a universe that we belong to and even if we are one little spec in a vast space, we do have an impact on a piece of that space. it's sad to me to think that as humans we make ourselves the most important beings. yes, we are important, but we aren't the only ones. look around you. there are living creatures that's lives and existence is affected by us. many probably think that going outside and communicating to a tree is a bit strange, but in a sense, by any interaction you have with it (i.e. planting, watering, cutting, climbing) you are communicating with it. at least, an animist would claim so. what or whom decided that because plants don't speak our language we can't speak to them? we talk to our pets. we talk to animals in the zoo or park. we even talk to the fly that keeps flying in our face. sometimes we end up talking to furniture or appliances. although maybe the latter is because of some complaint. still, why not plants?
we watched the Seasonal Seas episode of the film The Blue Planet by BBC in my wildlife issues course. it had beautiful shots and it was incredible how they captured all the underwater creatures. when i was little, i hated jellyfish, well maybe not jellyfish themselves but the jellyfish bites or attacks. they stung pretty bad and one time i had one get me all over my legs. in spanish jellyfish are "aguamalas", a compound word of "water" and "bad". so, throughout my life i haven't really been a big fan. but after watching the film, all i wanted to do was sketch a jellyfish or paint a watercolor. that's on my mini creative to-do list. sometimes we associate something with an emotion, and it's incredible to look at it in a new light. we sometimes take things for granted from experiences we've had or how we've been brought up. but it's really intriguing to have that concept challenged. jellyfish are beautiful creatures, and although i still don't want to have a physical encounter, i have a new found appreciation for them. they float so peacefully and almost seem angelic in their tranquility. i put together the above jellyfish mosaic with pics from flickr and the youtube vid below is jellyfish in Hong Kong Ocean Park that i just found kinda cool. they apparently have lights in the tanks that change colors and makes the jellyfish look amazing.
ok, so i just want to say that if you are even remotely interested in the 60's hippie revolution or Woodstock itself, 'Taking Woodstock' is something you should go check out. it was incredible. the focus is placed more on the main character's journey to bring the festival to his town and his struggles and successes, but it shows so much cultural and historical insight that it really captured the time and place that Woodstock was. they didn't show music, just played it in the background, but they showed the long backed-up line of people and the hills full of all the spectators. there's so many little details that made me smile and laugh about the time period and what was groovy back then. demetri martin was impressive and i loved emile hirsch, as well. so basically, good reviews all around, if you like time pieces and especially if you like the hippie era. go check it out, it's far out man.
before coming back to school, i read Tweak by Nic Sheff. it's an autobiographical book about Nic's addiction to meth and then his recoveries and relapses. i was walking around border's one day during my break from work and i picked it up because the cover looked interesting. (yes, i did judge the book by its cover) i opened it, read the first page and was instantly hooked. his account, in somewhat a journal layout, is addicting (no pun intended). the way he writes is realistic, he writes as if he's speaking to you. he doesn't try to make it politically correct or try to make himself sound like someone else. it's real. and rarely do you feel like you're reading something someone wrote in first person in such an honest account. he's inspirational. he opened up completely, and it was like a therapy for him. he has many problems, but i admire his strength and his constant struggle to stay clean. maybe it's just me that likes books in a journal/letter format that simultaneously have drugs in the storyline, like Go Ask Alice or Perks of Being a Wallflower. nonetheless, if it sounds interesting to you, i definitely recommend it.
