First Weekly Thoreau Quote:

How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.

--HDT




So, this is me standing up and living. And not sitting in front of this computer.

Let's go get into some trouble.

Wanna have a party?

Scary, huh? As an added bonus, if you look on the comments page on YouTube of this video, there is a very interesting theological debate going on. I learned a lot.

Good news though: I'm going to San Francisco this weekend!! Let's have party, a communist party! Hahaha hohoho hehehe.


I found that on SFweekly.com. I highly recommend checking it out :)



p.s. I have more to say, but I don't have time right now. BBL

I'm in one of those list moods

where I don't feel like writing complete sentences. Like now. It's challenging.

What do I do? list
on a semi-regular basis

write in either journal or blog
wash face
read varying amounts of books simultaneously (usually upwards of 5)
paint
ride The Bus
hide
download music
download films
go to the library
sing Beatles songs with Sam at the top of my voice
stalk people that interest me
go to the Movie Museum
go to Hell Caminos shows
go to any shows
read my horoscope in the honolulu weekly
First Fridays
avoid doing homework
light incense
Ka Wai Ola meetings
write articles for the Ka Punahou
think about getting a job
meditate
sleep in
go out too much
stay in too much
be anti-social
push myself too hard
criticize myself
yoga
drink ah-sigh-ee
eat Indian food
wear either converse or docs
play with Sydders
wear peace sign shirt
wear Hell Caminos shirt
wear favorite pair of organic cotton jeans
play guitar
sing
write [bad] poetry
work on zine
have no habits what-so-ever
seek pleasure
be completely like the wind but also sort of like the sea

I am a Top Amateur

This article is pretty interesting.

I was searching potential band names that I like, and I found it.

My newest activity is to become the lead singer in a nouveau vague French indie rock band when I go to France in the summer.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Grateful list (short version):

aliveness
living in Hawaii
mom and dad and step-dad are cool
extended family are insane and therefore provide good entertainment
found library book
school
books in general
four day weekend
friends that are insane and therefore provide good entertainment
my own pending insanity
lovely films
ludwig van
lovely soundwaves
certain people breaking up with certain girlfriends
cousins who are like siblings
pleasure seekers
chance
certain people who live upstairs
dead people
marilyn monroe
the world



On another note, I remembered the name of the book that I've been thinking of for about two months. Z for Zachariah! I read it in sixth grade and it's been scratching at my brain for a while now.

How I found it:

"I'm trying to compile a list of dystopian books. I hardly ever read sci-fi; it seems like there must be quite a few in that genre. Anybody got something to add, along with a little sentence about the main idea? This is all I can think of:
1984: obviously.
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley: It's the future and everybody's segregated according to their foreordained intelligence level.
Anthem by Ayn Rand: It's the future and there's no first-person singular case because there's no individual identity (I actually laughed out loud when I finally got to the punch line of this book, when the hilarious "one word" is revealed. I guess it would be a SpOiLeR if I wrote it here. But god, it's ridiculous!)
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood: It's the future and bitches ain't shit.

Also, these two for kids:
The Giver by Lois Lowry: It's the future and nobody realizes how grim it is because they're not allowed to remember the past.
Z for Zachariah by Robert C O'Brien: It's the future and everyone's dead and everything's poisonous except for one little valley. I used to check this one out from the Georgia O'Keeffe Elementary School Library so frequently that I can still remember exactly where it was shelved."

Thank you Elyse Sewell, past ANTM contestant and girlfriend of the keyboardist from the Shins. This is her Live Journal

Things that I am now in love with

1) The entire Schwartzman/Coppola clan. Specifically Jason and his brother Robert. Also Francis and Sofia. They're pretty cool. The only one I don't like is Nick Cage.



I LOVVVVE JASON AND ROBERT! I'm having one of my teenage obsessions, because they are just the cutest things ever. I just want to kidnap them and lock them in a deep pit in my basement. For safekeeping. [Robert is the one in the band Rooney--they're nothing special, but in the band pic he's the one on the far left]



2) The score to Into the Wild. Plus the movie. Eddie Vedder is fantasic. I must also kidnap him...


3) SOUTHLAND TALES!!!!!!!!! (and it's score, by Moby, my other love). Richard Kelly is a great director, well, at least as far as Donnie Darko is concerned. I'm so excited for Southland Tales to come out in Hawaii. My friends Sarah and I are going to dress up in our Donnie Darko shirts, flannel pants, and black Adidas with white stripes (watch the D.D. if you don't understand).



4) Audrey Tautou. Not only is she absolutely gorgeous, she is an amazing actress. While I was sick I rented all the movies she was in, and they are so sweet. Most of them are French indie romantic comedies. Very original though, not like the American junk. Some rec's: God is Great, And I'm Not; and Happenstance. Marveilleux!

Kali Ma

I really am on a role tonight! Probably because I keep getting woken up by the horrid feeling of my body attempting to hack out my lungs. My sore throat has now evolved into a cough. YUCK YUCK YUCK!!

Anyways, just found this quote on an interesting blog I found called Hazel8500 (link is on the sidebar), and I wanted to share it:

Zen in the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. p. 329

“Kali represents the entire physical plane. She is the drama, tragedy, humor, and sorrow of life. She is the brother, father, sister, mother, lover, and friend. She is the fiend, monster, beast, and brute. She is the sun and the ocean. She is the grass and the dew. She is our sense of accomplishment and our sense of doing worthwhile. Our thrill of discovery is a pendant on her bracelet. Our gratification is a spot of color on her cheek. Our sense of importance is the bell on her ankle.
The full and seductive, terrible and wonderful earth mother always has something to offer.”

Robert Persig is talking about Kali Ma...

An Interesting Edu-Blogersation (Blogging Conversation)

[original post found here] Mr. Watson: Every other week, the English department meets a large group (largest dept. in the school) to discuss courses, initiatives, school business, and overarching questions. Yesterday, we revisited a conversation about homework that's been going on school-wide for a few years. How do we use it? Why do students gain from it? Could we get by without it? And so on. And we ended up discussing what some of us perceived as a move towards a school culture that doesn't foster serious students, specifically in English. Physics and Math maybe a different story?

Many great questions came out of the discussion:
*Is there a difference between being good at something and being a student of something? Waterpolo was the analogy.
*How do we balance encouraging the skills of a good student with the necessary pace of the curriculum?
*Should we expect all student to have passion for English? For example, do we expect all student in orchestra to be serious musicians?
*Is being a serious student, a mastery of skills or an investment in content?

So I left the meeting thinking about these questions, and thinking about how I might present some ideas in a post here at WatsonCommon. Considering myself a serious student of several things, English, leadership, educational technology, surfing, mountaineering, racquetball, marathoning, I thought I'd take inventory of all the things I do as a serious student (maybe learner is a better term).

1. I keep a small notebook with me at all times to quickly jot down ideas, reflections, and observations. This is also where raw ideas are born. Often, what's written here is in the form of lists, pictures, webs.[Photo]

2. I write in a personal journal, at least 10 minutes a day, for nobody but me.

3. I keep a professional blog and read blogs of people who do similar work, creating a network of creative collaborators. Before blogging, I documented all my work and organized it in binders and folders, ready to reference and share.


4. I try to build a professional library of thought-provoking reading. I think this too is encompassed by the read/write web.

I'm probably missing things. But these are the habits (I wouldn't call them skills) that I believe make me serious. Is this what we expect of students? Or is it something else? Something more?

[comment on post]Mr. Schauble: Well, I was gonna write about this too, and here you went and beat me to it (not for the first time either.) But yeah, all of the things you mention. Writing figures in three of four items in your inventory, reading in the fourth. It seems to me that reading and writing are critical: reading allows us to broaden our understanding, writing allows us to shape it, extend it, deepen it. I'd three things to the list:

5)Reflection - staying with an idea inside the mind, turning it over, rotating it, looking at it from different points of view, and conversation

6)Conversation - talking about something is a way of honoring its importance, and there's something generative about talk as well, putting something words is clarifying and often surprising when it leads you to say things you didn't know you knew or believed

7) Action - putting ideas into motion provides the real test of their validity. A lot of things sound good but don't work in the real world.

I took the position in our meeting that many of our students, including many students who are earning grades good grades, are not what I would consider to be serious students. How many of our students do even half of the things that are on our emerging list? They do what they are told to do, yes. But how many of them write for their own enrichment? How many of them read beyond what is strictly required? (Many of them do not even do that much.) How many of them do we see making any kind of active effort to put the ideas they do care about into practice? How much of their complacency is a result of the climate of expectation we set for them? And if we wanted to change that climate, where might we begin?

So yeah, it was an interesting discussion. Those are serious questions, and deserve serious answers.


[another comment on post]Lindsea: I agree with what Mr. Schauble was saying, but I don't think anyone can force the kids to "put the ideas they do care about into practice". Of course you can't expect all the students to have a passion for English (or Math, or Science, or Social Studies, or Art), it's something that only a percentage have. And a smaller percentage of that percentage will go on to study it in college, and most likely even less of that will use it in a job environment.

Many teachers that I've had in the past have a tendency to assume that their class is the most important class that the student will ever take. Another typical problem is that the teachers will forget that the student is taking five other equally (if not more) challenging course that require equal (if not more) homework to be completed. Plus tests to study for. And sports to do. And volunteer hours to rack up. And clubs to participate in.

I know for a fact that most students take all of their classes very seriously. They do their homework, and try to survive this huge challenge called growing up.

Regarding the "climate of expectation", I personally believe that the teacher should not put too much expectation on the students. I mean, obviously due dates and such would be nice. But the only way the students will truly grow is if the expectation comes from within. Intrinsic motivation is very important, especially in high school, because this is where the teachers are supposed to be training the kids for Life Outside the Stoney Punahounian Walls, and if we are ever going to survive out there, we need to be given the chance to sink or swim in a safe environment. And to be honest, the question of our complacency is a good one, because where does it take its root from? Is it because of our teachers? Is it because of the system? Whose responsibility is our complacency anyway? Whose shoulder's does our inspiration fall on?

To finish this off, I'd just like to say that because you're a teacher, it's natural for you to want us to learn all we can from your stores of wisdom and knowledge so painstakingly accumulated throughout your lifetime. But it's also important to realize that most of us are trying our hardest to be serious students, as well as trying to shoulder all the stress that we're dealing with (concerning the whole going to college, becoming adults thing) the best we can. So cut us some slack :)

While I was on my mandated bedrest...

I found one of the most satisfyingly juicy websites ever. Strangely fascinating are the snapshots into other people's inner minds through lists. That's right. LISTS.

This is one of my all time favorites:



I'm partial to Lord of the Hobbits, but I definitely like the ring of Soul Snatcher.

This blogger just published a book actually! And in solidarity of fellow bloggers, I would like to recommend buying her book (or at least perusing her website--it's fail safe entertainment). The URL is todolistblog.com

Buying the book is at the top of my own to do list.

And speaking of, here is one of my own:

Really Quick...

I LOVE my new blog layout! It has been something I've been meaning to do for about three months.


and listen to KTUH! because they rock

www.ktuh.org

Community Service is Addicting.

Reviewing my blog a couple minutes ago, I happened across an old post about that slightly tweaked guy who was addicted to philanthropy (I don't include the actual article, but I'll go on a hunt this weekend and find it in the depths of either cyberspace or my closet). I digress. At the time, when I was reading the article I was pretty into environmental sustainability, still am of course, but I was participating in some proactive change. It was a good feeling, and this good feeling, much like other good feelings, became slightly addictive.

Once I touched down on the service of the world's problems, I realized how much I could do. Yes, that's right, a good for nothing teenager on one of the most isolated island chains in the world. It's a rush of power to realize that you can help, you can "make a difference" or whatever those do-gooders like to say.

I've been getting involved in some wonderful organizations, namely the Hawaii International Film Festival, and the Girl Fest. The HIFF was a fun, informational experience, and I met some talented, creative up and comer film makers. But to tell you the truth, I got the most satisfaction from the Girl Fest (which is NOT a lesbian club, as so many of my mature classmates have asked). Girl Fest is a festival that combines art, music, spoken word, and film to prevent violence against women and girls. It has been the most fun I've had in my life. I met Derrick Brown, Mindy Nettifee, Amber Tamblyn, and Andrea Gibson, all such moving poets whose books I HIGHLY recommend. I also heard and talked to Emily Wells, who is a multi-instrumentalist with a mellifluous, soulful voice.

And I actually just came back from introducing a film for a Hawaii premier, put on by Girl Fest. The movie is called Cargo: Innocence Lost, about sex-trafficing. Afterwards I got invited by the film maker, Michael Cory Davis, to start a Hawaii chapter of this non-profit organization he's starting. So I've finally found a cause to support with the Celebration of Life!!! This is a relief. You don't know how many people I've told who have laughed at me for not having an organization to give the money to yet (of course, I don't have any money, let alone THE money until we start/finish the Celebration).

But I must return to my bed of sickness. I have this weird flu that's going around. No worries though, for I have stocked up on my holistic cold medicine and vitamin C. The lady at the health food store said that if I take one mg of vitamin C every hour then I will be cured.

Only time will tell...


Girl Fest website: girlfesthawaii.org
Cargo: Innocence Lost website: www.cargoinnocencelost.com


Check them out!

Sweet Nostalgia

About four or five months ago I went through this period where I would rent a whole bunch of movies, watch them, and then review them on my blog. I was very into the world of discovering and watching movies of all different genres.

About ten minutes ago, while trying desperately to not do my homework, I found this cache of FILM REVIEW BLOGS! Oh, what a wave of nostalgia that passed over me. It brought me back to those simple days of not worrying too much about my potential future in film, or all the connections that I have to make. I was reminded of the purer times, when it was ok to watch a movie, and just enjoy it for what it was.

From my movie quest I really found myself. I discovered my deep love of twisted and apocalyptic horror. The complete filmography of John Hughes was seen. I went through a massive sci-fi phase, fell in love with Stanley Kubrick, and weirded myself out with A Boy and His Dog. Amelie, Delicatessen, Curse of the Golden Flower, House of Flying Daggers, and my first Flemish film, Everybody's Famous were all adored. So many classic films were seen, it really amazes me.

Now I am older and not wiser at all, haunting the local film festivals, and still harboring an innate devotion to the fourth dimension of art, film.

Check out these blogs:

A Girl and Her Netflix
http://andreawatches.blogspot.com/

Film School Drop Out
http://thefilmschooldropout.blogspot.com/

It's been too long!

I feel like I haven't written in this blog for years, decades, milliniums; but in actuality it has only been a week or two. Many things have happen, as they tend to do, and I think I'll make a list for you ( a rhyme? ):

1. Hawaii International Film Festival

2. Halloween

3. First Friday

4. The beginning of Girl Fest

5. The planning of the Celebration of Life (Unofficial Ka Wai Ola Festival)


So I'll write a blog about each in the coming week, and for now I'll say goodbye. It was nice writing in my blog again.

They said

"Is it so bad to be misunderstood?" 544

"We lie in the lap of immense intelligence, which makes us organs of its activity and receivers of its truth." 546

"These roses under my window make no reference to former roses or to better ones; they are for what they are."547

"Insist on yourself; never imitate." 553

"Society is a wave. The wave moves onward, but the water of which it is composed, does not." 555

"I should be endeavored to be satisfied with things as they are, and say it is the will of God." 850

"They who behold where it comes trickling into this lake or that pool, gird up their loins once more, and continue theyir pilgrimage toward its fountain-head." 852

"He has no time to be anything but a machine." 855

"As if you could kill time without injuring eternity." 856

"Who shall say what prospect life offers to another?" 857

"To know that we know what we know, and that we don't know what we do not know, that is true knowledge." 858

Quotes from Self Reliance, Resistance to Civil Gov't, and Walden

"FILL IN THE BLANK" --Lindsea