Guest Post: Late Lament

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I’m on vacation!!! So, while I’m away, I’m going to be posting some things that I wrote in the past, I’m also going to be posting some things from friends. Today, my friend Ben, guest posts. You can read more from Ben on his blog. (And you can remind him to post more). 

I was given the privilege of guest blogging by my friend Shanella. I had previously written a long blog post about my love/hate relationship music and how that relates to the artistic impulse, so I decided to write something that builds on that, bringing together music, words, information and technology. I am writing as a musician and dedicated music listener.

It might seem strange to many youngsters living in this Internet age that people used to buy music in the format of compact discs, vinyl phonograph records (LPs) and cassette tapes. I am dating myself by mentioning that I used to have a fairly large collection of vinyl and still have a large collection of CDs. Similar to how the popularity of the compact disc caused the death of vinyl and cassette tapes back in the late 80s, the mp3, the Ipod, digital downloads and online retailers have caused the near death of CDs in our time, and with that, the death of brick and mortar music retail stores.

I really grieve over the death of brick and mortar stores like the Tower Records that used to be on West 4th Street in the Village. During my high school and college years it was a place of comfort and refuge, my ‘go to’ place when I had some free time. It was where I could see thousands of music albums in one place, with selections ranging from the most obscure albums to the most popular hits for sale and displayed beautifully. I could touch the actual physical items, not just see them as images on a website. The employees there were usually knowledgeable music fans that were helpful with recommendations and suggestions. The albums there were generally a little more expensive than those at competing stores, but the excellent selection and great service more than made up for it. Continue reading →

Why I Am A Christian

Posted in Religious Musings, Thoughts by

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. … Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God. – C.S. Lewis; Mere Christianity

I grew up in a Christian environment, my parents were active in church, my dad a preacher, my aunts and uncles all leaders and teachers in the church. We went to church many times a week, I’ve been involved one way or the other, a part of the Sunday School, youth groups, singing, I was involved in the Christian culture. However, that phrase, “in not of” didn’t apply to me, I didn’t really live IN the world, I lived in a Christian bubble.

As a child, when I decided to give my life to Christ it was an easy decision because that was all I knew. I was young, I thought about it, it felt like the right thing to do and I did it. Then, I moved to New York.

Moving to NY was a culture shock. For the first time I was exposed to a different culture. Life in NY is faster and harder than life where I grew up. The lifestyle we had there could not fit into the lifestyle of a NYer and in the process of adapting I met people who had no religion, many because they never grew up in any religion, and many more because they grew up in a church and decided it wasn’t for them.

With the latter group, I have asked questions, why did you leave the church? There were many answers, too strict, burnt out, but a big one was never really believing what was going on because their parents send them or took them to church. Some believed that Jesus was real, but they don’t believe that he is the Son of God, be it historical reasons – many leaders were called Sons of god during that time – scientific beliefs or personal reasons. One other thing that I found amazing was that they thought he was a good guy, or just another prophet. However, I can’t really think of anyone who told me flat out that Jesus was a madman or a liar and I wonder about that. Was it that they were being polite? Or did they just not think it through?

Continue reading →

Dear Sister, Happy Birthday!

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Whenever I talk about my family, I always say that my sister is “the sweet one” because, compared to my brother and myself, my sister is the sweet one. She’s the baby of the family, the one who always hangs out with my parents (and thinks that it’s cool hehe); and now she’s 18 years old!

When I turned 18 I had been living in the US for almost a year and I was on my way to being a freshman in college. It was the first time where being a “grown up” felt like a reality. The thing is, that feeling kept overwhelming me (and sometimes it still does) until I decided that, adults are really just like children, we just have different toys and less time in the day to be carefree, due to more responsibility. However, the biggest thing was, being an adult doesn’t mean I have to suddenly change the way I think and view life. For that matter, sometimes the way we think and view life as a child is more beneficial to us than any “adult” view.

There is a certain maturity now that you’re older, there were mistakes that you learn from, life lessons that you experienced and that is what maturity is, learning from the past – not changing how you think. So, happy birthday, keep being your sweet self and have a great year. Being “grown-up” is overrated, but maturity is valuable. 😉

Guest Post: Flying, Scrambling and a Trip Around the World

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I’m on vacation!!! So, while I’m away, I’m going to be posting some things that I wrote in the past, I’m also going to be posting some things from friends. Today, my friend Cate, guest posts. You can read more from Cate on her blog.

This week I learned a lot of new things about myself.

I learned that I am awful at strategy. I’m also bad at scrambling letters. If I ever switched careers, I should never get into the airline industry. I need structured goals to push forward. I also need someone to tell me that I can do it.

How did I learn all this? By playing Pocket Planes and Scramble with Friends on my iPhone. (No, I’m not getting paid to reference these games.)

I will not disclose how many hours I played these games this week. I’m not much of a gamer and I had a whopping total of ZERO games on my phone just a couple of weeks ago. So what exactly drove me to go on a gaming spree? (I realize I’m using the word “gaming” loosely here.) A combination of feeling under the weather, the games being somewhat addictive, and being in a general rut made for a very, very unproductive and standstill week.

I’ve encountered a wall of sorts these days. A big wall. I’ve done my fair share of kicking and screaming here. Or should I say… kicking the wall as hard as I can and screaming at the wall as loud as I can. I haven’t been able to “break through” or find a way around or even just get a glimpse of the other side… but something inside keeps telling me that I gotta get there. I heard Glen Hansard (singer/songwriter) recently say that he was at the wall for many years and finally had to go around the entire world to arrive at the other side. That was poignant but also frustrated me. I don’t know that I have enough patience or endurance to go around the entire world. But my only other option is to stay at the wall and that doesn’t seem like a viable option at all. When I say viable, I mean me – my viability. I don’t think I can muster up the will to live on this side of the wall. I either make the trek or bust.

Not to be too serious about games but a part of why I like Pocket Planes is that there are lots of goals to work towards in order to achieve the next milestone. It gives me a sense of purpose to keep flying those planes and to keep expanding my airline. (Let’s not talk about the fact that it’s a false sense of purpose for now.) And though I was pretty awful at Scramble, I’ve noticed a steady improvement the more I try at it. (Again, let’s not talk about how many times I’ve played this week.) Goals and improvement, I can hang my hat on those. I need them in order to feel like there is some purpose. But this trek around the world… I’m unclear what my goals are. I’m not sure about what I’m supposed to improve on. Perhaps that’s why I feel so lost at times.

It’ll take me some time to figure things out and begin the journey. I’ll be the first to admit that I can’t do it alone. I imagine I will need a lot of hand holding. I’m thankful to have companions along the way. I’ll need those people to gently nudge me along (sometimes push, sometimes drag), telling me that it’s worth the pursuit.

Adventures in Asia: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

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The adventure continues! From the parking lot, to Honolulu, to Guam, to Manila, now onwards to Malaysia.

Day 1; The Arrival

Eve and I touched down at the Malaysian Airport, whizzed through the customs and found the bus that would take us into the Kuala Lumpur where we were to meet with my friend, Addy.

Addy was thoughtful and super helpful to us! She did some research and found us a lovely hotel in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, just outside the city center. She also met us at the bus terminal and bought us a SIM card, some rolls to eat and a single pass card for their metro. We took the train to KLCC to get to our hotel.

We went to the city center to get some Malaysian food. One of the things I noticed was that people were still staring at us – even though there were a lot of ethnicities in KL. I guess we just had the foreign look.  We ate at Little Penang Kafe, the food was absolutely delicious (a theme for this leg of the trip) and they had coconut water in a real coconut! I was in love.

We walked around the mall and visited an internet cafe, then we went to see the Petronas Towers with their lights off in honour of Earth Hour. It was a fun first night. Continue reading →